Early in my career, my boss interrupted me with a question I will never forget. “How can you be so smart and so stupid at the same time?” Similarly, NYC Mayor Mamdani provides a startling example of the possession of brilliance and profound ignorance at the same time.

“Presidents come and go; Exxon doesn’t come and go.”

That was Lee Raymond, the longtime CEO of ExxonMobil. Many years ago, he told me that the company didn’t concern itself much with the Washington cycle, which ran two to four years. The wells they were drilling that day would still be pumping 50 years from now. They thought in half-centuries, not election cycles.

As the Republican and Democratic parties grow even further apart, the independent middle has continued to grow larger. And yet, we are still being ignored.