Good morning and welcome to the first Broad + Liberty's Weekly Reads of 2025. The candidates who won in November’s red wave are now taking office. New issues are developing and old ones remain. There are local elections coming up across the commonwealth. And the Eagles are in the playoffs!

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1. Republicans will learn that governing is harder than winning

By Guy Ciarrocchi
 

Governing is harder than winning an election. Governing effectively is even harder. We’re watching this in real time for Trump and congressional Republicans.

Governing is even more difficult for Republicans who have to contend with opposition from Democrats — and their multiple deep-pocketed and confrontational allies. This includes governors, mayors, and school boards pledging to block presidential policies. Plus, they must overcome the legacy media, many already criticizing GOP policies, politicians and priorities—and, highlighting and supporting criticisms leveled by the Left. But Team Trump knows how to overcome all of that.

However, governing effectively gets even harder for Republicans when they beat each other up, questioning the policies or motives of their “friends,” or when they put egos or personalities above success. Various segments of the Trump coalition have gone so far as to call others traitors — suggesting that they want to kick out some members of the coalition, or that things would be better without some members. If this continues, governing could become almost impossible.

Why It Matters.  Trump’s decisive victory was due in part to building a broad and diverse coalition, and even receiving the votes of people who decided that the Biden/Harris administration had failed them. Some Trump voters and even supporters voted for Biden in 2020. The coalition’s breadth was its electoral strength — now it could be its governing challenge.

They all agreed that Biden’s America was going in the wrong direction, that America and Americans were not better off than four years ago. But, they have varied priorities, and while many goals or values overlap, some do not.

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2. 2024 in review

By Richard Koenig
 

You think we don’t know there was an election? Actually, we do. Each side saw darkness and ruin if the other prevailed. Yet here we venture only to make a few observations with one eyebrow cocked. There will be time enough in the New Year to decry or applaud the course of the nation, a job we cede to the heavy lifters in the opinion business.

Besides, we must leave room for other news. The national debt, to say nothing of the number of genders, grew still further beyond comprehension. Ever more imaginative ways were contrived to salvage the planet. And smart-alecky AI made bloopers of its own—what a consolation to Homo sapiens!

Some highlights. 

The debt of the federal government passed $36 trillion; interest on the debt exceeded spending on national defense.
 

The college-loan forgiveness program relieved a 49-year-old musician of debt amounting to $249,255. The beneficiary said he could now consider studying with a meditation teacher in India.

After threatening Canada with tariffs, then meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Trump wise-cracked: “It was a pleasure to have dinner the other night with Governor Justin Trudeau of the Great State of Canada.”

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3. Lightning Round

• Thom Nickels: Theosophists in Philadelphia

• Stephen F. Gambescia: The changing place of the thoughtful op-ed

• Christine Flowers: Biden’s December surprise

4. What we're reading

We, like many of you, were consuming less news than usual over the holiday break, but we did enjoy this piece from our friend Salena Zito on how Republican Dave McCormick did what many thought was impossible: defeating three-term incumbent Senator Bob Casey, Jr. He did it, through a combination of effective communication, good fundraising, and an opponent whom no one hated but few truly loved. That, along with Trump’s coattails, were just enough to get it done.