Fall 2020 CRB

VO LUME XX, NUM BER 4, FALL 2020
A Journal of Political Thought and Statesmanship
CHOOSE, AMERICA!
.
William Voegeli: Joe Biden Angelo M. Codevilla: Michael Anton’s The Stakes
Victor Davis Hanson & Douglas A. Jeffrey: The Never Trumpers
.
Michael Barone: Trump’s Democrats Mark Helprin: Say No to the 2020 Revolution
Matthew B. Crawford: Thomas Sowell: Christopher Caldwell:

Manliness Today The Unheavenly City Revisited The Pilgrims at 400
Steven F. Hayward: John O’Sullivan: Harvey C. Mansfield:

Charles Moore’s Thatcher Anne Applebaum’s Ex-Friends The Extraordinary Machiavelli
Sally C. Pipes: Robert Royal: Oren Cass:

Health Care Is Not a Right Discovering Columbus When Market Economists Fail
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FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK Vincent J. Cannato: Contract Killers: page 47

Charles R. Kesler: A Mostly Peaceful Debate: page 5 Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich, the Fall of a Speaker,
and the Rise of the New Republican Party, by Julian E. Zelizer.
CORRESPONDENCE: page 6 Tevi Troy: Presidential Library: page 50
Author in Chief: The Untold Story of Our Presidents and the Books
ESSAYS They Wrote, by Craig Fehrman.
William Voegeli: The Weak Leading the Woke: page 8
What we ask about when we ask about Joe. Michael S. Greve: Redemption Without Repentance: page 55
Law & Leviathan: Redeeming the Administrative State,
Matthew B. Crawford: Fixing Men: page 35 by Cass R. Sunstein and Adrian Vermeule.
Male sexuality should be directed, not erased.
Jeremy Carl: The End of the World Has Been Postponed: page 61
Sally C. Pipes: Health Care Is Not a Right: page 51 Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All,
The single-payer con. by Michael Shellenberger; and False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic
Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet,
Oren Cass: When Market Economists Fail: page 57 by Bjorn Lomborg.
Saying goodbye to self-defeating libertarianism.
KC Johnson: Minnesota Nice: page 65
Robert Royal: Discovering Columbus: page 66 American Ingrate: Ilhan Omar and the Progressive-Islamist
Heroes and history in an ideological age. Takeover of the Democratic Party, by Benjamin Weingarten.
Christopher Caldwell: Plymouth Rock Landed on Them: page 71 Gary V. Wood: The Comprehensive Human Right: page 81
The immigration crisis of 1620. Property and the Pursuit of Happiness: Locke, the Declaration of
Independence, Madison, and the Challenge of the Administrative State,
John M. Ellis: College After COVID: page 95 by Edward J. Erler.
Higher education’s online future.
Allen C. Guelzo: Founders’ Son: page 84
Thomas Sowell: The Unheavenly City at Fifty: page 108 Lincoln and the American Founding, by Lucas E. Morel.
Edward Banfield’s book was ahead of its time—and ours.
Jeremy A. Rabkin: Aliens and Citizens: page 87
Threat of Dissent: A History of Ideological Exclusion and Deportation in
REVIEWS OF BOOKS the United States, by Julia Rose Kraut; and Learning One’s Native Tongue:
Angelo M. Codevilla: The Election to End All Elections: page 18 Citizenship, Contestation, and Conflict in America,
The Stakes: America at the Point of No Return, by Michael Anton. by Tracy B. Strong.
Victor Davis Hanson: Always Never Trump: page 22 Myron Magnet: Poverty Won: page 89
Never Trump: The Revolt of the Conservative Elites, by Robert P. Saldin Great Society: A New History, by Amity Shlaes.
and Steven M. Teles; and Disloyal Opposition: How the #NeverTrump Right
Tried—and Failed—to Take Down the President, by Julie Kelly. John Fonte: Identity Theft: page 93
The Plot to Change America: How Identity Politics is Dividing the Land of
Douglas A. Jeffrey: Are We Going to Fist City?: page 26 the Free, by Mike Gonzalez.
Trumpocalypse: Restoring American Democracy, by David Frum; and
Un-American: The Fake Patriotism of Donald J. Trump, by John J. Pitney, Jr. Mark Blitz: Happiness and Honor: page 98
Reason and Character: The Moral Foundations of Aristotelian Political
Michael Barone: Flyover Country Blues: page 30 Philosophy, by Lorraine Smith Pangle.
Trump’s Democrats, by Stephanie Muravchik and Jon A. Shields.
Harvey C. Mansfield: Everyday Niccolò: page 100
John O’Sullivan: Ex-Friends: page 31 Machiavelli: His Life and Times, by Alexander Lee.
Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism,
by Anne Applebaum. Mark Bauerlein: From Crusoe to Comics: page 104
The Decline of the Novel, by Joseph Bottum.
Andrew Roberts: Conference Confidential: page 38
The Daughters of Yalta: The Churchills, Roosevelts, and Harrimans: A Christopher Flannery: Self-Driving, Not Self-Governing: page 105
Story of Love and War, by Catherine Grace Katz. Why We Drive: Toward a Philosophy of the Open Road,
by Matthew B. Crawford.
David P. Goldman: Indecent Interval: page 39
Henry Kissinger and American Power: A Political Biography,
by Thomas A. Schwartz. SHADOW PLAY
Martha Bayles: Tragedy with a Side of Redemption: page 111
Steven F. Hayward: A Towering Achievement: page 43 Rewatching HBO’s masterpiece, The Wire.
Margaret Thatcher: From Grantham to the Falklands; Margaret Thatcher:
At Her Zenith: In London, Washington, and Moscow; and Margaret PARTHIAN SHOT
Thatcher: Herself Alone, by Charles Moore. Mark Helprin: The Revolution of 2020: page 114
Claremont Review of Books w Fall 2020

Page 3
from the editor’s desk

A Mostly Peaceful Debate
by Charles R. Kesler
I
t was a mostly peaceful debate, at least by the standards democratic institutions, including education, tend to degrade over
that our progressive media apply to protests these days. They time. But as postmodernism has tightened its death grip on the
don’t, of course, apply the same standards to events they like as schools and the culture, as reason’s supposed inability to grasp or
to those they dislike. My favorite media condemnation came from demonstrate truth has become dogma, the situation has gotten
CNN’s Jake Tapper, who called the presidential debate “a hot mess, worse. And the media have helped to lead the way. For a generation
inside a dumpster fire, inside a train wreck.” He could have said, “It or so, they have preferred political talk shows in which the guests talk
was like Portland in that hall!” but that would have seemed like a over, and past, one another ever more loudly. Surprise—they finally
plea for law and order, a principle and a phrase that Democrats es- got a presidential debate they should have liked.
chew this year.
E
Besides, the hall itself was eerily quiet. The socially distanced xcept that trump, never shy about putting the bully
“crowd,” or audience, rather, obeyed moderator Chris Wallace’s in the bully pulpit, dominated this one. Not that Biden didn’t
injunction to remain silent, even if no one on stage did. “Silence try to rise, or sink, to the occasion, calling the president a liar,
is violence,” shout the Black Lives Matter protestors to cowering racist, clown, and fool. Those were fighting words in 1858. They
restaurant patrons in Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; but si- might have been legally actionable words, before the Supreme Court
lence is golden when the media (and science) say so. If a raucous defined slander and libel down. Now, they’re just value judgments, as
and numerous crowd of partisans had been present to interrupt entertaining as they are subjective—unless uttered against a victim
the interrupting speakers and applaud their faction’s favorite, the of the “systemic injustice” which, after a half century inside that very
evening would have seemed more normal, more a reflection of the system, Biden denounced on cue.
actual divisions in American politics. Against the background of The 2020 election is shaping up as a battle over what is or should
icy silence, however, the candidates’ political brawl came across as, be normal in American politics. At the Democratic National Con-
in the words of the Los Angeles Times, a “cringe-worthy 90 minutes vention, the party ratified its primary voters’ decision to shun the
of yelling and finger-pointing.” Left’s candidate (Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren) in favor of
The “media” like to put themselves in the middle (medium, for the stolid Joe Biden, who is also, he emphasizes, a Man of Sorrows.
you Latinists out there) of everything. It makes them seem impor- He offers a “return to normalcy” as surely as Warren Harding did
tant. Wallace was there, on the stage, between the nominees of our in 1920. The Democrats are betting that Trump’s bluster, non-stop
two major parties, the third vertex of the most important triangle in tweeting, and hyperactive “norm-breaking,” as they like to call it,
American politics. When Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas have so exhausted voters that a majority will embrace a reassuringly
debated, the reporters sat not on the platform but in the audience, normal politician.
taking shorthand notes. Their job was not to moderate but to report. The Republican National Convention, by contrast, stressed that
Chris Wallace was unable either to moderate or report. Caught in Trump represents a normal—i.e., patriotic—political party, which
the whirlpool (vertex, in Latin) of political conflict, he barely man- loves America and celebrates grateful, hard-working Americans of
aged to avoid drowning. all colors, religions, and occupations, from Minnesota policemen
No one would mistake these debaters for Lincoln and Douglas. to Maine lobstermen. No identity politics, political correctness, or
But then no one would have mistaken John F. Kennedy and Rich- anarcho-socialism here. And no cancel culture or statue-toppling, ei-
ard M. Nixon, or any of the presidential debaters since, for Lincoln ther. Republicans are betting that voters long for a return to a normal,
and Douglas, either. To begin with, the circumstances of 1858 were non-self-loathing country and to the party and candidate who prom-
uniquely challenging. Plus, modern education has not been kind to ise to put America, and Americans, first.
our politicians—or our citizens—in the past, oh, 60 years. Most A normal candidate or a normal country? Choose wisely, America.
nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
Editor: Charles R. Kesler The Claremont Review of Books

Senior Editor: William Voegeli Publication Committee
Managing Editor: John B. Kienker
Production Editor: Patrick Collins Robert Curry
Assistant Editor: Spencer A. Klavan Michael W. Gleba
Editorial Assistant: Alex Sanchez-Olvera Kurt A. Keilhacker
Contributing Editors: Christopher Caldwell, Thomas D. Klingenstein
Christopher Flannery Larry G. Mattson
Art Director: Elliott Banfield Robert W. Nelson
Publisher: Ryan P. Williams

Page 5
CORRESPONDENCE
Love and Death love. Consideration of these is along, into the pit of the plague. Love between man and wom-
instructive in itself and peculiarly They learn that keeping hold of an—sexual love, to be sure—is
useful in our circumstances. common sense about the most im- the ever-present touchstone of
Algis Valiunas follows the Pepys, it seems—wrapped up portant things is the most one can the most fundamental of human
grossest accounts of great authors as he was in his career and focused do against it. realities. Christian thought elab-
about human reactions to plagues, on his collection of fine wines— In that regard, in one of the nov- orated on this insight, and mod-
giving the impression that these reacted to the Great Plague by el’s most amusing scenes, the holy ern observation of dehumanizing
reactions are limited to degra- withdrawing a bit from society monk and Renzo bring the powers ideologies confirmed it.
dation and heroism (“In Plague and focusing even more on what of Christianity and common sense Here I can only state the
Time,” Summer 2020). We have was most important to him. Va- to bear on his beloved Lucia to Christian understanding of God
no reason to doubt Thucydides’ liunas gives the impression that renounce the vow of virginity she as Love. Suffice it to note that
account that the prospect of im- this was narcissism. But what is had made to the Virgin Mary in a the popular saying “love makes
minent death led the Athenian a non-hero supposed to do in the troubled time. The monk tells her the world go ’round” is very much
people to abandon law and de- face of a plague? Even heroic self- about vows made under duress. bedrock Christian theology, never
cency, nor Boccaccio’s beguiling sacrifice, such as serving the sick, Renzo pipes in: “we’ll just name better imagined than by Dante’s
description of the psychological costs much and avails little. Plung- our first daughter, Mary!” Divine Comedy, the final verse of
mechanisms by which people ing into the panic accentuates the Now about the importance of which, describing the Beatific Vi-
sought to divert attention from harm, and fantasy is a kind of love—sexual love—especially in sion, reads “And I saw the Love
the awful (what Montaigne called drunkenness. Pepys took some el- times of trial. Recall Plato’s Sym- that moves the sun and the other
“the vulgars’ remedy”), nor Daniel ementary precautions, but contin- posium, an account of a dinner stars.” That Love, which pervades
Defoe’s gross painting of casual ued to do the things he really cared party at which a bunch of Athe- and moves the universe, had
deaths. Alas, the prospect of death about, be those ever so mundane. nian yuppies discussed the mean- drawn Dante to itself through his
seldom improves humans. But He may only have done a little ing of love. The dialogue among love for his beloved Beatrice. Nei-
that is a lesson too easily learned good for himself, but harmed no them reads as a catalogue of to- ther Dante nor anyone else pre-
and of little usefulness. So is the one. Common sense. Think how day’s elite opinions: love is desire tends that any ordinary person’s
fact—all too evident among us much better today’s Americans in general, or for this or that; it is love for their beloved can lead
today—that fear, even unfounded, would all be if, high and low, we some kind of need; or some kind through the detailed recognition
is a powerful motivator that only had minded our own business as of devotion; it is about someone; of evil, redemption, and good that
heroic effort can overcome. this plague too passed over us? it may be homoerotic; at any rate, Dante imagined. But it is difficult
Had Valiunas focused a bit Mistakenly, Valiunas describes it is some kind of passion. None if not impossible to deny that
more on Samuel Pepys and Ales- Manzoni’s Betrothed as “among of that having satisfied, the guests any man or woman who under-
sandro Manzoni, he might well the classics of orthodox Roman press Socrates who, after his usu- stands sexual relations with lov-
have pointed to natural habits of Catholicism.” Not quite. The nov- al profession of ignorance, says ing seriousness is drawn thereby
the heart that, Hobbes notwith- el is a long illustration of northern that the best thing he had ever to the realities by which Socrates
standing, even fear of imminent Italy’s deepest religion: common heard on the subject had come shocked Athenian sophisticates.
death often is powerless to can- sense. The plot’s background con- from Diotima, a woman prophet, Love between a man and a
cel—namely common sense and sists of a struggle between the in- who said that love between a man woman being the most gripping
stitutional Church, whose corrup- and a woman is the most won- of realities, it is the one that all
tion and prostration to power the drous of things. Plato lets us hear earthly attachments of lesser
Please send all author spares no effort to scorn, the guests’ collective groan from worth—including to wealth and
correspondence to: and a holy, unordained monk. But two and a half millennia away: power, never mind ideology—
the novel’s protagonist is Renzo, a Oh, that? It’s so ordinary! find it most difficult to occlude.
Claremont Review of Books young man who “works well,” has a Socrates, as usual, explained In Manzoni’s most horrid scene, a
Attn.: Letters to the Editor little vineyard on the side, ends up the ordinary’s essentiality. Think mother—herself dying from the
1317 W. Foothill Blvd, Suite 120, starting a business, and just wants about what happens when man plague—carries her daughter’s
Upland, CA 91786. to marry his childhood sweet- and woman get together. Babies meticulously dressed corpse to
heart. Focused on these basics happen, that’s what. Wonder of the cart of stinking cadavers on its
Or via e-mail: and occasionally sustained by the wonders. Whether the man and way to the pit, and begs to lay her
crbeditor@claremont.org monk’s true Christianity, Renzo woman whose bodies unite know on it lovingly. Shaken by this em-
navigates the storms of Church, or care, what they do transcends bodiment of the Pieta, the nearly
We reserve the right to edit State, and ignorance. He and the them and points to eternity. It dehumanized driver respectfully
for length and clarity. reader learn, for example, that the also means that mom and dad get makes room. George Orwell, C.S.
governmental control of prices busy setting up house. Together Lewis, and ordinary experience
Please include your causes shortages. They experience with others like them they make remind us that nature’s call to
name, address, and the dynamics of fear. Throughout the city that worships the gods. loving unity between man and
telephone number. the trials, Renzo’s determination And that does everything else woman is the rock against which
to marry his beloved draws them that cities do. all B.S. is likeliest to crash.

Page 6
Which brings us back to our “a slightly better-than-average sen- rettos and in the city itself, population, what response does
plague, the worst effect of which— sual man,” and his self-love and their succor never failed. common sense offer? If one asks
by far—has been to abet the rul- self-absorption showed no signs They were to be found how God could let such horrors
ing class’s substitution of its own of mental or emotional pathology. wherever there was suffer- happen, common sense answers
claims for ordinary people’s pri- At worst he was capable of joking ing. They were always in the that He might well be incapable,
orities. The COVID-19 virus’s about the deaths of his physician midst of the sick and the or insensible, or curious, or ma-
infection fatality ratio of 0.01% and surgeon, in whose absence dying, even when they were levolent, or non-existent. The last
is inconsiderable. The claims on he considered himself free to en- sick or dying themselves. thing it would endorse is the be-
Americans have been enormous. joy some of the “good drink” that lief of “God as Love.” Faith alone
The more baseless the claim—e.g., they had forbidden him. He en- When Manzoni shows spiri- does that, and often only with se-
the necessity of masks—the more joyed a good laugh as well as a tual mediocrity he does so in rious difficulty.
forcefully it is insisted upon. That good drink, and sometimes a cer- contrast with real excellence of For Manzoni, sexual love is not
bending you to power is the point. tain insensibility can be amusing, soul. The country priest Don Ab- necessarily the highest love that
Keeping your priorities straight is as his was in this case, even if it bondio refuses to marry Renzo men and women demonstrate. For
the challenge. displayed a touch of callousness and Lucia because he fears the many it even yields under pressure
or cruelty. evil Don Rodrigo would kill him to self-love and self-preservation.
Angelo M. Codevilla Despite Codevilla’s sneering, if he did; but he feels ashamed Manzoni writes (as I mentioned)
Plymouth, CA The Betrothed is as devoutly Ro- when Cardinal Federico Borro- that in plague time “the very links
man Catholic as a modern novel meo, who not only talks a good of human affection…became
Algis Valiunas replies: is likely to get. Codevilla evident- game but lives his belief, chas- words of terror”; when simply be-
ly believes that the failure of “the tises him for his lack of courage, ing near the people one loves most
One is always gratified when a institutional Church” to live up which is really a lack of faith. It can kill you, it is common sense to
fellow contributor, and especially to the demands of the faith it pro- is by the most exacting standards abandon husband or wife or child
so distinguished a contributor as fesses annuls that faith. One need that a true believer must measure if any of them becomes infected.
Mr. Codevilla, takes the trouble only consider the current scan- himself, the cardinal teaches, and As I also mentioned, Manzoni re-
to respond publicly to a piece one dals bedeviling the priesthood to so does Manzoni. “Since in this veres the disinterested selfless love
has written. Unfortunately, that see that is not the case. The truth ministry, however you came to of the Capuchin priests who staff
gratification fades as Codevilla, of the teaching remains inviola- enter it, courage is necessary for the vast public hospital for plague
in hot pursuit of his argument, ble, however the bad behavior of the fulfillment of your duties, victims. “There was beauty in
misrepresents what I say about certain religious personnel may how have you failed to reflect that their acceptance of the task, for no
Samuel Pepys and breezes past tarnish its reputation. And in there is one who will infallibly other reason than because there
without mentioning key points I any case Manzoni hardly scorns give you courage when you ask was no one else who would take it
make about Alessandro Manzoni. the clergy at large as Codevilla him for it? Do you believe that all on, with no other object but that
I do not accuse Pepys of narcis- alleges. There is no shortage of the millions of martyrs who died of serving their fellow-men, and
sism. I do say that he tried to keep heroic priests as the plague does for our faith had natural courage, without any hope in this world
his daily life agreeable as possible its worst: or that they had no natural con- but that of a death which few men
while tens of thousands of his fel- cern for their lives?” Something would envy, though it could truly
low Londoners were dying, and The most general, prompt much more potent and sublime be called enviable.” Perhaps their
that here “Healthy egotism and a and constant response to than common sense is called for courageous service offers even
certain insensibility to the suffer- the harsh requirements of in the world of this novel. more telling proof that God is
ing of others helped.” Narcissism the situation came from In the face of a rampaging dis- Love than Renzo’s heroic passion
is unhealthy egotism. Pepys was the clergy. Both in the laza- ease that kills more than half the for Lucia does.
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Page 7
C laremont review of books

Volu me XX, Nu mber 4 , Fall 2 0 2 0
Essay by William Voegeli
The Weak Leading the Woke

What we ask about when we ask about Joe.
Let’s start with an easy one. seven most recent presidential elections: Hill- Presley was performing on stage, mostly in Las
ary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Kerry, Al Vegas, and The Godfather was the year’s most
How old is Joe Biden? Gore, and Bill Clinton. One must go back to popular movie. The median family income was
86-year-old Michael Dukakis, who lost the $11,120. Cutting-edge personal technology
As this issue goes to press, 77. America’s 1988 election to George H.W. Bush, to find a was the pocket calculator. Sharp’s model, intro-
median age is 38, which means that more than Democratic presidential nominee born before duced in 1971, weighed 1.59 pounds and sold
half the country is less than half Biden’s age. If Biden was. for $395, the equivalent of $2,500 today.
inaugurated on January 20, 2021, exactly two Of the Senate’s 99 other members when
months after he turns 78, Joseph Robinette How long has Joe Biden been in government? Biden first took the oath of office, 87 have
Biden, Jr., will be older on his first day in of- passed away. Those now departed include the
fice than Ronald Reagan was on his last day After serving two years on the New Castle men who had lost what were, at the time, the
as president. Reagan was the oldest president County Council, Biden was elected one of three most recent presidential elections: Barry
prior to Donald Trump, who is three and a Delaware’s U.S. senators in 1972, weeks be- Goldwater, Hubert Humphrey, and George
half years younger than Biden and became fore he turned 30 and became constitutionally McGovern. (Two younger senators still alive
president almost four years ago. As a result, eligible to take office. (He defeated 63-year- in 2020, Walter Mondale and Bob Dole,
Trump will reach the age of 78 years and sev- old Republican incumbent Cale Boggs who, would become opposing vice-presidential can-
en months in January 2025, at the conclusion the Biden campaign insinuated, was a nice didates in 1976 before going on, in 1984 and
of what would be his second term. Biden will man but no longer really up to the job.) Af- 1996 respectively, to join the ranks of defeated
be that old in June 2021. ter 36 years in the Senate, during which he presidential nominees.) Other now deceased
Last year, when Biden was a candidate for attempted unsuccessfully to win his party’s senators include J. William Fulbright, Jacob
the Democratic nomination, he (or at least his presidential nomination in 1988 and 2008, Javits, Mike Mansfield, and John Tower, men
advisors) suggested he would serve only one Biden served two terms as Barack Obama’s of consequence and renown in 1973 but fa-
term if elected. Having become the nominee, vice president. He became a private citizen in miliar today only to political historians. Sic
he said more recently that he would “absolute- 2017 for the first time since 1973. transit gloria. Of the 13 senators still drawing
ly” consider seeking a second term in 2024. If breath who were in office at the beginning of
that quest overcomes all obstacles, political How long ago was 1972? the 93rd Congress, Biden is the youngest, fol-
and medical, Biden would leave office in Janu- lowed by 82-year-old Sam Nunn, while James
ary 2029 at 86, an age surpassed by only seven Forty-eight years ago, of course, which works Buckley, now 97, is the oldest.
ex-presidents. out to 19.7% of the 244 years since the Declara- When Biden joined the Senate, its most se-
To think of Biden’s age another way, he is tion of Independence. At the beginning of this nior member was George Aiken, a Vermont
older than his party’s nominee in each of the most recent fifth of our nation’s history, Elvis Republican who had been serving since 1941.

Page 8
When Aiken became a senator that year, his The problem did not begin in 1987, how- Yes. Unless it’s his hands.
longest-tenured colleague was South Caroli- ever. It was there all along. Although ev- In 2019, seven women complained that
na’s Ellison “Cotton Ed” Smith, whose senior- ery politician says things quickly regretted, Biden’s behavior toward them in public, in-
ity meter began running in 1909. Smith, in Biden’s unforced errors are sui generis. The cluding protracted hugs and unwanted kissing,
turn, sat as a freshman senator with three col- New Yorker’s Eric Lach wrote that they don’t made them feel uncomfortable and demeaned.
leagues first elected in 1880. When they were really qualify as “gaffes”—political opinions In response, Biden said that his belief that life
sworn in, they joined a legislative chamber blurted out that are more prudently con- “is about connecting to people” has made him
whose most senior member had assumed his cealed, such as Hillary Clinton’s reflections a “tactile politician,” one who thinks “I can
senatorial duties before the Civil War. Biden, on the deplorables. feel and taste what is going on.” Without apol-
in other words, is four degrees of separation Rather, a Biden talk on the wild side en- ogizing, he promised to be “more mindful” of
from a Senate that included Stephen Douglas tails not self-wounding candor but acute the fact that the “boundaries of protecting
and Jefferson Davis, and five degrees from one cerebral-larynx disengagement. As a child, personal space have been reset.”
that heard historic speeches from John Cal- Biden overcame a bad stutter. It frequently In the past, Biden’s excessive familiarity
houn, Henry Clay, and Daniel Webster. The seems that he did so through a Faustian bar- came under the dispensation of the soft bigot-
timeline compresses when a career politician gain that afflicted him with Tourette’s Syn- ry of Joe expectations: he was of an older gen-
becomes an old man in what is still a young drome: he speaks fluently and at great length, eration; he meant no harm. Above all, morally
republic. even by Washington standards, but utters flexible feminists made allowances for him,
things that are baffling, bizarrely inappropri- similar to the ones they granted Bill Clinton,
How smart is Joe Biden? ate, or both. another pro-choice Democrat.
In a notorious 1974 interview in the Wash- Even before Tara Reade, a former Sen-
Smart enough to have graduated in the ingtonian, for example, Biden praised his first ate staffer, accused Biden this year of having
top 90% of his law school class (76th out of wife, Neilia, killed in an auto accident the sexually assaulted her in 1993, there were
85) at Syracuse University in 1968. And also month after his 1972 election victory. He indications of growing discomfort with the
smart enough that journalist Timothy Noah called her “my very best friend, my greatest way Biden heightened feminism’s contradic-
could write in 2012, “Biden is not a stupid ally, my sensuous lover,” with whom he had tions. (Biden denied Reade’s allegation, the
man. He’s a smart man who often says stu- a “sensational” marriage, “from sex to sports.” fragmentary evidence was inconclusive, and
pid things.” Neilia had “the best body of any woman I ever media outlets that were not explicitly con-
Noah was trying to make a case for Biden, saw,” Biden said, and reminisced about his servative hastened to treat the accusation as
whom he called a “surprising non-embarrass- ability to “satisfy her in bed.” He was eager to moot and therefore irrelevant.) Harvard law
ment.” His profile in the New Republic was remarry, Biden explained, because “I want to professor Jeannie Suk Gersen, for example,
one of a contrarian genre that emerged dur- find a woman to adore me again.” counted the former vice president’s enthu-
ing Biden’s vice presidency. The Beltway con- Nor did 1987’s humiliation connect siastic support for Obama-era rules on sex-
sensus that dismissed him as a windbag and Biden to his inner editor. In 2007, during his ual misconduct in higher education against
“buffoon” was mistaken, the articles contend- second attempt to win the Democratic presi- rather than for him. “If Biden were a male
ed. Instead, they took the position that Biden dential nomination, Biden characterized his student or professor who had touched and
possessed negotiating and interpersonal abili- then-rival Barack Obama as “the first main- sniffed women on a college campus in the
ties that served him well during 36 years in stream African American who is articulate ways he has been repeatedly captured doing
the Senate, and then served President Obama and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.” on camera,” she wrote, “he would likely be in
well when it came time to assemble compro- Earlier this year, Biden said that as a sena- deep trouble as a disciplinary matter, in large
mises and coalitions. Obama himself had lit- tor in a U.S. delegation to South Africa, it part because of reforms that Biden himself
tle aptitude or enthusiasm for that part of the had been his “great honor” to be arrested by led.” Since most Democrats continue to
job, so Biden’s skills filled a critical need for authorities determined to prevent him from praise those reforms, she wondered wheth-
the administration. visiting Nelson Mandela, who years later er the party was really comfortable with a
Be that as it may, the worst parts of Biden’s“threw his arms around me” and thanked presidential nominee whose public behavior
reputation were not concocted by his enemies. Biden for that effort. Both claims were false, would get a professor fired or a sophomore
His unforced errors really did provide the and a campaign aide was required to do what expelled.
raw material, time and again. The belief that she could to walk them back in a way that
Biden is “dumb or a lightweight,” Politico has Is Biden still, you know, all there?
didn’t make her boss look like a fool and a
recounted, “took hold” during his first presi- fraud.
dential campaign. Under a torrent of derision, After so many years of saying so many It is especially hard to gauge the cogni-
Biden was forced to withdraw in 1987 after weird things, Biden has come to receive a ben-
tive decline of a public figure whose cogni-
giving speeches that appropriated, without at- efit denied other politicians: being graded on
tive peak was neither recent nor lofty. In his
tribution, a British politician’s autobiographi- a curve, a phenomenon journalist James Li-
memoir, former FBI director James Comey
cal particulars as though they were his own. leks has termed the “soft bigotry of Joe expec-
recalled White House meetings where Presi-
(Biden dropped out of the race, David Let- tations.” Even so, Lach predicted last year that
dent Obama would point a discussion in Di-
terman explained, “to spend more time with Biden’s nomination would mean Democratsrection A, then wait patiently to resume that
[his] imaginary coalminer relatives.”) Along “will be in for months of apologizing and ex-
journey until a five- or ten-minute digression
the way, he exaggerated his academic achieve- plaining things away.” from Vice President Biden in Direction Z
ments and berated a voter who asked about had run its course. Discursiveness has always
them: “I have a much higher I.Q. than you do, So, is Biden’s mouth his biggest political been Biden’s modus operandi. In 1993, the
I suspect.” liability? New Republic devoted an entire page to a ver-

Page 9
batim reproduction of a single question Biden it shut down”—then won a landslide victory a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, who
posed during a Supreme Court confirmation in South Carolina. That triumph propelled had spoken glowingly of his experiences
hearing. It contained nearly five times as many him to ten primary victories on “Super Tues- travelling in the Soviet Union, would repli-
words as the Gettysburg Address. day,” three days later. Over the ensuing week, cate George McGovern’s 1972 catastrophe:
That said, and despite campaign efforts every Democratic opponent withdrew from a nominee who electrified Democratic ac-
to limit and script his public appearances, it the race and endorsed Biden, except for Ber- tivists, but could never be accepted by a ma-
certainly appears that Biden merits the as- nie Sanders, who did so the following month. jority of the electorate, would go on to lose
sessment made of many people in their late The contest was over. There’s never been any- to a detested, seemingly vulnerable Repub-
seventies: he has good days and bad days. thing like it. lican incumbent. By the time of this year’s
The detours that Comey noted are increas- Three weeks after Super Tuesday, Alex South Carolina primary, when it was clear
ingly frequent, often occurring within a Wagner of CBS News and the Atlantic dis- that none of the remaining second-tier can-
single sentence—or, rather, freeway pileup tilled the argument that Biden’s un-Trump- didates would ever climb to a higher plateau,
of sentence fragments. Worse, rather than ness was sufficient justification for mak- Joe Biden had become the only alternative
heading in a new, unexpected direction, they ing him president. “Stay Alive, Joe Biden,” to the huge gamble of nominating Sanders.
don’t really go anywhere at all. In September her article’s title implored. Despite Biden’s Accordingly, the party’s voters, donors, and
Biden answered, after a fashion, a question “fairly awful campaign events and confusing leaders set aside their differences with, and
about the coronavirus: “COVID has taken statements and garbled debate performanc- misgivings about, the former vice president.
this year, just since the outbreak…has taken es,” Wagner wrote, “Democrats have chosen Biden won the nomination, Michael To-
more than 100 years. Look. Here’s. The lives. Biden as their vessel for Trump’s defeat.” Be- masky wrote in the New York Review of Books,
I mean, just…you think about it. More lives cause they were “terrified and furious at the “because he seemed to the greatest number of
this year than any other year for the past prospect of another four years of Donald J. Democratic voters to be the safest bet.”
hundred years.” Trump” in office, Democrats turned to Biden
In a CNN interview earlier this year, Biden in the belief that he was their most “electable” So what is the basis for these claims about
repeatedly looked down from the camera to his candidate. Biden’s electability against Trump?
desk while saying, “You know, there’s a…dur-
ing World War Two, when Roosevelt came up Two things: the former vice president’s per-
with a thing, that was, you know, totally differ- There’s a belief, sonal decency and political moderation.
ent, than a…than the…it’s called, he called it, gathering adherents and “Character is on the ballot,” Biden said in his
you know, he had the war, the War Production acceptance speech to the party’s virtual conven-
Board.” The moment was excruciating in ways force, that democracy, tion, as are “[c]ompassion…[d]ecency, science,
transcription doesn’t capture. Journalist Glenn pluralism, and civility are and democracy.” Democrats and journalists—
Greenwald subsequently tweeted, “I’ve literally not readily distinguishable groups—have
never seen one person—until Joe Biden—who luxuries that have outlived joined in treating Biden’s decency as his defin-
had to read from notes to answer questions their usefulness. ing quality. His acceptance speech “captured
from a cable TV host. And even with that, he the romance of decency,” wrote the Washing-
often gets lost.” ton Post’s Michael Gerson. After Biden’s Super
But “Does Anyone Actually Want Joe Tuesday triumphs, historian Matthew Dallek
Given all that, how on earth can Joe Biden Biden to Be President?” New York Times con- gushed that the former vice president “exudes
be one election victory away from the Oval tributor Jill Filipovic asked in 2019. Even af- decency.”
Office? ter nominating him, it’s not clear how many Concerning moderation, Biden’s career
Democrats really believe that no other Amer- “has been distinguished mostly by careful cen-
Well, let me ask you a question. Is Joe Biden ican is better qualified. Sometimes, though, trism,” in Osnos’s words. That career encom-
the same person as Donald Trump? it’s enough to win a nomination by being the passed decades when Democrats suffered po-
candidate who’s most acceptable, or even least litically for the Great Society’s failures. Long
No, of course not. objectionable, to the largest portion of one’s before President Clinton was triangulating,
party. It also helps to be judged the one least Senator Biden was actively trying to accom-
There’s your answer. objectionable to persuadable voters who are modate skepticism about big government
independent or identify with the other par- and social justice, skepticism which elevated
How is that an answer? Millions of people ty. This is what Wagner means by “electable.” Reagan and then Newt Gingrich. As a fresh-
are not Donald Trump. And dozens of them (But such calculations carry their own risks, man senator worried about reelection, Biden
were Democratic presidential candidates. ones demonstrated by the Democrats’ 2004 became “the Democratic Party’s leading anti-
nomination of John Kerry, who turned out to busing crusader” in the 1970s, the New York
Yes, in the space of five weeks Biden went be not quite electable enough.) Times reported last year. His commitment to
from being in danger of dropping out of yet In Osnos’s summary, “Biden benefitted this cause included collaborating with North
another presidential campaign to decisive from fear of both Donald Trump and Ber- Carolina Republican senator Jesse Helms
victory. He finished a distant, humiliating nie Sanders.” For a few days in late February, on an amendment that reduced the federal
fourth place in the 2020 Iowa caucuses and after Sanders followed his victory in New government’s ability to withhold funds from
fifth place in the New Hampshire primary— Hampshire by winning the Nevada caucuses school districts that failed to meet desegrega-
after which, the New Yorker’s Evan Osnos re- decisively, the Vermont senator seemed the tion benchmarks. “Biden’s advocacy made it
ports, his campaign “was assessing how much party’s likely or even inevitable nominee. safe for other [Senate] Democrats to oppose
money it would need in order to pay staffers if Many Democrats believed that nominating busing,” wrote the Times.

Page 10
During his first Senate term, Biden was the Biden persona similar to Bill Clinton’s Okay, so how moderate is Biden?
capable of sounding more conservative than empathy shtick. His memory may be slipping
many of his Republican colleagues on the but, as in the Nelson Mandela fantasy, Biden’s Well, that’s situational too. Every Demo-
broader question of government’s capacity heart-warming embellishments and fabrica- cratic presidential nominee since Bill Clin-
to effect social reforms. He rejected a full- tions are not random. Instead, they reliably ton in 1992 has carried Delaware, but during
employment bill co-sponsored by liberalism’s serve the purpose of making him appear im- Biden’s first two decades in politics, Richard
grand old man, saying that Hubert Hum- pressive, noble, and sympathetic. Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W.
phrey “isn’t cognizant of the limited, finite It is a pattern established back when all Bush each won a lopsided victory there.
ability government has to deal with people’s Biden’s marbles were answering roll call. Just Biden’s careful centrism was a matter of neces-
problems.” The socialist magazine Jacobin re- telling audiences the terrible story of the auto sity when he was a young senator, but became
cently scorned Biden as “the Forrest Gump of accident that killed his wife and daughter habitual as he became more senior, and more
the Democratic Party’s Rightward Turn.” wasn’t enough. For years, Biden also added that politically secure. (After initially winning his
the driver of the truck that hit their car had Senate seat with 50.5% of the vote, Biden ran
How well do these claims hold up? How de- been drunk. In fact, the driver wasn’t charged six more times and won at least 58% in each
cent is Joe Biden? with intoxication or any moving violation, and election.)
there’s no evidence that he was even at fault. Biden’s defenders now use his long voting
The character question, too, needs to be The memory of the crash tormented the man record and cautious reputation to dismiss
graded on a curve. Biden has spent half a cen- to his grave, and a powerful politician’s ca- fears that his administration will closely re-
tury in politics, a field of endeavor that favors sual denigration of their father tormented his semble the one Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth
a man skilled at getting others to believe what children. When his daughter wrote Biden to Warren would have fashioned. “Biden isn’t
they need to believe in order for them to do ask him to stop telling this lie, he wrote back seen as a radical, a socialist, or even a par-
what he wants them to do. Those too fastidi- to apologize…then a few years later resumed ticularly progressive politician,” Ezra Klein
ous for such exertions seldom last long or go moving audiences to tears with the story about of Vox contends. The former vice president
far. “In Washington,” George Packer, then the drunk driver who had killed his family “is a conventional Democrat, representing
with the New Yorker, wrote in 2012, “elected members. After a CBS report about the acci- the center of the Democratic Party,” Atlantic
officials considered themselves a higher breed.” dent, Biden apologized again and, for the time contributor Shadi Hamid writes. “If Biden,
Biden was no exception—loyal to “a small being, has dropped from the playlist the story of all people, is beyond the pale, then so is
circle of long-serving aides,” in Packer’s words, of the driver who “drank his lunch.” half the country.”
but “if you just worked your ass off for him for
a few years he wouldn’t notice.” One of the un-
noticed was Jeff Connaughton, whose mixed
feelings about Biden included some admira-
tion but also the belief that the senator was
an “egomaniacal autocrat.” In fairness, to be
a senator at 30—one of the higher breed, but
also younger than many of the staff members
who toil as mere courtiers—puts you at great
risk for self-adoration.
Biden has not always succeeded in keep-
ing his contempt for such minions hidden
from view. In 1998, he publicly berated
weapons inspectors for presuming to testify
to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
that they needed more access and resources
to determine the extent of Saddam Husse-
in’s weapons programs in Iraq. “I respectfully
suggest that I have a responsibility ‘slightly’
above your paygrade,” Biden sneered. The
inspectors had had the effrontery to discuss
matters that only grown-ups like himself,
the president, and the secretary of state were
authorized to decide. “That’s why they make
the big bucks; that’s why they get the limos,
and you don’t.”
To resist egomania would take a degree
of humility and perspective that most preco-
ciously successful politicians, Biden included,
do not possess. More typically, character
manages to adapt to lofty, consuming ambi-
tions. The result, in Biden’s case, is a decency
that is situational and performative, part of

Page 11
Prior to securing the nomination, Biden for November, Biden convened task forces to to a Sanders or Warren presidency, Waldman
himself described why he wanted to be presi- develop positions on the biggest questions, advises, by making sure that they constitute
dent, and what he would do if elected, in nota- ones that would be acceptable to all wings the prevailing winds that determine Biden’s
bly modest terms. At one 2019 campaign event, of the party. Each group was co-chaired by direction.
Osnos records, Biden “promised not to ‘demon- a Biden and a Sanders supporter—e.g., John In the meantime, the best way to get him
ize’ the rich and said that ‘nothing would fun- Kerry and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on cli- elected president is to give contradictory
damentally change’” under his administration. mate policy. At the same time, according to reassurances to different groups of voters.
The overriding goal was to supplant Donald another report, the Biden campaign was also “Biden’s long profile in American politics has
Trump in favor of a much less…interesting… working closely with Elizabeth Warren on given his campaign cover” Klein explains,
president. Among the reasons Biden leaned policy proposals. to “build bridges to the more socialist wing
so heavily on his connection to Barack Obama of the party, and to normalize a more pro-
during the campaign (even though Obama So, will a Biden presidency be leftist or gressive agenda, without fearing some of the
didn’t endorse Biden, or anyone else, until the centrist? backlash that other candidates might receive.”
contest was decided) was to offer Democrats a Biden’s centrist reputation, Osnos agrees,
restoration of the tone and direction of Ameri- Well, one or the other—but not both. This “could make it easier for him to achieve
can political life before November 2016. presents a problem for those who think that changes that might seem more threatening
By the time Biden accepted the 2020 even a presidential campaign should dem- coming from a doctrinaire progressive.” Af-
nomination, however, the country had expe- onstrate a modicum of logical consistency. ter Biden’s half-century of being malleable,
rienced the coronavirus pandemic and then Biden’s champions, journalistic and political, there are grounds to assure centrist voters
the Black Lives Matter moral panic. Even as are barely concealing their hostility to the law that he won’t be a dangerous progressive in
Biden’s ambitions grew to include a possible of non-contradiction. the White House, and other grounds to as-
second term, they now also point to a far The best thing about Biden, according to sure progressive voters (and donors) that he
more consequential presidency. According Paul Waldman of the liberal American Pros- won’t be a disappointing centrist.
to Osnos, he shared with Sanders his ambi- pect, is his “malleability.” Over a long career The cracks in the rickety structure that the
tion to be the “most progressive” president emphasizing accommodation rather than Biden campaign must build are already show-
since Franklin Roosevelt. “We have an op- principle, Biden has shown that he has “no pu- ing. “In trying to have things both ways” re-
portunity,” Biden told CNN in April, “to do rity tests, and no problem with compromise.” garding the police and race relations, “Biden
so many things now to change some of the Or, as a “senior Obama Administration offi- risks alienating both ends of his coalition,” in
structural things that are wrong, some of the cial” told Osnos, Biden “is very much a weath- the New York Times’s assessment. “Suburban
structural things we couldn’t get anybody’s ervane for what the center of the left is.” Pro- voters—particularly older white voters—are
attention on.” In an effort to unite the party gressive Democrats can get the next best thing less enthralled with the idea of defunding
Coming Soon from

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The Catholic University

of America Press
$34.95 • Paper $24.95 • Paper $19.95 • Paper

September 2020 August 2020 August 2020

Page 12
The Secrets of Christian History
and Becoming a Saint
◆ SCANDAL OF THE SCANDALS: The Secret History of Christianity
Manfred Lütz — After holy wars and witch-hunts, persecutions and political machinations,
there is a broad sense today that the Church is on the wrong side of history. But do we really know our
history? Best-selling German author Lütz dares to show us what contemporary historians ac-
tually say about Christianity's track record. Separating myth from fact, he gives us a candid portrait of
Christendom. You’ll be amazed at how little you really knew about Christianity.
"In taking on 'the distorted image of the history of Christianity', Dr. Lütz challenges a remarkable range
of errors and falsehoods, combining robust historical research with a clear and accessible style."
— Carl Olson, Editor, Catholic World Report
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◆ EIGHT POPES AND THE CRISIS OF MODERNITY

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the human person, and the various approaches to it by eight Popes who led the Church in the 20th
century. A very fascinating story that presents an illuminating interpretation of recent world events,
viewed through the lens of an ancient institution, the papacy, a key champion of human rights under
attack in modern times.
“A powerful reminder of the importance of the papacy, and the
achievements of the extraordinary men who held it during
a turbulent century, from Pius X through John Paul II.”
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Archbishop Emeritus of Philadelphia
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“The saints are called the ‘living Gospel’. This work provides a great service in bringing together
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◆ Dying to Live: From Agnostic to Baptist to Catholic

Ian Murphy — When a teacher told high school valedictorian Murphy he could not mention Jesus
in his speech, his defiance made national news, and his zeal to spread the Gospel became the defining
passion of his life. The unexpected twists and turns in Murphy's extraordinary spiritual journey show
that when a man gives his life to Christ, the Lord never lets him go.
"Murphy’s incredible conversion story begins with a helicopter chase — and the plot
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the police. And activists say a pledge to pros- Minister Biden, the beleaguered supervi-
New Books ecute bad cops doesn’t go nearly far enough.” sor of “ jostling Democratic special interests,”
Along the same lines, the Biden campaign de- where it’s “every man, woman and child for
from TEXAS A&M PRESS nounced anti-Israel activist Linda Sarsour as him-, her-, or zirself.” In a party well to the
an anti-Semite, but then put its national co- left of the one that nominated Barack Obama
alition director on the phone with prominent in 2008, Biden’s promise to be a “transition”
Muslim and Arab-American leaders to apolo- president can only mean accommodating the
gize for the “pain” caused by the “disrespect- most progressive Democrats, steadily more
ful” and “hurtful” statement. numerous, determined, and—since Trump’s
election—enraged. New York magazine’s
And what’s the point spread on which way Sarah Jones speaks for them when she says
a Biden presidency is likely to tilt? Left or that Democrats’ “leftward shift” is reflected
center? in two convictions: climate change and social
inequalities “require massive spending and
Left has to be the betting favorite, given an activist government,” and sincere commit-
Biden’s unblemished 50-year record of choos- ment to such policy goals renders “bipartisan-
ing the path of least resistance. Margaret ship and compromise” with Republicans “use-
Thatcher called herself a “conviction politi- less and grotesque.”
cian,” a term no one has ever applied to Joe
PHYSICIAN SOLDIER Biden. Doing so would require specifying So, the risk-averse argument against a Biden
The South Pacific Letters of Captain Fred Gabriel
from the 39th Station Hospital even one conviction that has guided his long presidency is that he’ll make good on his
MICHAEL P. GABRIEL journey, which is a fixed point that political promise to Bernie Sanders to be more pro-
Frederick R. Gabriel graduated from medical
school in 1940 and entered the US Army. His science has yet to locate. gressive than Harry Truman, Lyndon John-
letters from the Pacific theater capture the Consider his selection of Kamala Harris, son, and Barack Obama?
everyday life of a soldier physician. Gabriel’s California’s first-term senator, as his running
letters home capture his experience and more,
providing a revealing look into day-to-day life of mate. (If elected, Harris will be more likely, Ordinarily, the prospect of a Greenish New
a soldier physician in the Pacific theater. His son, in actuarial terms, to inherit the presidency Deal or Medicare for Nearly All would justify
Michael P. Gabriel, a professional historian, has
faithfully preserved, edited, and annotated that than any vice president in history.) Her Sen- answering that question in the affirmative.
correspondence to add a new dimension to our ate voting record in 2018 and 2019 compared But these are not ordinary times. The
understanding of the social history of World War II.
442 pp. 50 b&w photos. Appendix. Bib. Index. $50.00 hardcover
favorably, in the scorecards of the liberal Democrats’ leftward shift encompasses not
Americans for Democratic Action, to those of just transformational policy changes, but axi-
Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Dur- oms and attitudes portending a regime change.
ing her own presidential campaign, launched Abraham Lincoln summarized the code and
in January 2019 and scuttled last December, spirit of self-governance in his First Inaugu-
Harris endorsed a “mandatory buyback pro- ral Address: “A majority held in restraint by
gram,” i.e., confiscation, for privately owned constitutional checks and limitations, and al-
firearms deemed “assault weapons.” Her ways changing easily with deliberate changes
“Medicare for All” proposal promised to abol- of popular opinions and sentiments, is the
ish private health insurance, shortly before only true sovereign of a free people.” Above
it promised not to abolish private health in- all, republics are possible only among people
surance. Her climate proposals required that who “are not enemies, but friends,” fellow citi-
by 2035 nothing but zero-emission vehicles zens who understand that they “must not be
would use the country’s thoroughfares, and enemies.”
she was for banning all “fracking” before she The assertion that compromise with con-
was against it. Harris vowed to repeal the gressional Republicans is grotesque forms
Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal part of a larger belief, gathering adherents
funding of abortions, and criticized Biden, and force, that democracy, pluralism, and
STORMS OVER THE MEKONG
Major Battles of the Vietnam War when they were opponents, for his history of civility are luxuries that have outlived their
William Pace Head supporting it. After being attacked for this usefulness. “Debate-club democracy,” argues
From the defeat of the Army of the Republic of
Vietnam at Ap Bac to the battles of the Ia Drang
stance by Harris and others, Biden promptly New York University journalism professor
Valley, Khe Sanh, and more, Storms over the repudiated a position he had held for 40 years. Jay Rosen, “where people of good will share
Mekong offers a reassessment of key turning points The choice of Harris is a strong indica- a common world of fact but disagree on what
in the Vietnam War. Award-winning historian William
P. Head not only reexamines these pivotal battles tion about other choices Biden will make if should be done,” has been rendered “an ex-
but also provides a new interpretation on the elected. Personnel is policy, according to the pensive illusion” in the Age of Trump.
course of the war in Southeast Asia.
464 pp. 57 b&w photos. 5 maps. Bib. Index. $40.00 cloth folk wisdom of Washington. What is true of Indeed, leftists have concluded that the
every administration would be doubly true idea of decent, reasonable people disagreeing
of Biden’s, given his age, signs of decline, and respectfully was “useful” mostly for perpetuat-
adulthood devoted to the calculated embrace ing such grave injustices as environmental deg-
of stronger people’s convictions. As the Wall radation and racial inequality. To correct and
www.tamupress.com Street Journal’s Joseph C. Sternberg argues, atone for these transgressions is so urgent that
or order by phone: 800.826.8911 President Biden is likely to end up as Prime it is no longer imperative or even defensible to

Page 14
Lorem Ipsum
COMING IN JANUARY
respect constitutional checks and limitations, cago’s Michigan Avenue shopping district one Vigilantism is bad. Police officers
honor deliberate changes in public opinion, Sunday night in August, a Black Lives Matter shooting black people in the back is
or promote civic friendship. The result, as the organizer said, “I don’t care if somebody de- bad. Looting and property damage
American Conservative’s Helen Andrews writes, cides to loot a Gucci, or a Macy’s, or a Nike, is bad. You don’t have to choose. You
is that the most pressing question we can ask because that makes sure that that person eats, can be against it all. You can just be for
about those on the Left in 2020 has become that makes sure that that person has clothes, peace.
whether they “are capable of sharing a country that makes sure that that person can make
with people they disagree with.” some kind of money because this city obvi- But, apparently, it is hard and you do have
The evidence of this incapacity or refusal ously doesn’t care about them.” At a protest to choose—at least if you’re a Democratic
to share grows relentlessly. In June the New the next day, one sign read: “Our futures have politician fearful of getting on the wrong side
York Times reported, with evident approval, been looted from us. Loot back.” of your party’s shifting convictions. Mur-
on high school students’ use of social media In Portland, Oregon, protest marchers phy subsequently deleted the tweet on the
to denounce peers for “racist behavior,” which are targeting residential neighborhoods as grounds that it “mistakenly gave the impres-
can include preferring the phrases All Lives an expression of their belief, summarized by sion that I thought there was an equivalency
Matter, or Blue (i.e., police officers’) Lives the New York Times, that “sitting idly and between property crime and murder.” In fact,
Matter, to Black Lives Matter. For some en- watching a protest without participating…is his statement did not, mistakenly or other-
forcers, the trophy on the wall is to have an to show tacit support for racism.” In one in- wise, give any grounds to accuse Murphy of
offender’s college admission rescinded. People stance, several hundred marchers threatened such equivalency. But Murphy is not the first
“who are about to go to college need to be held a home’s occupants: either take down their senator who tried and failed to look princi-
accountable for what they say,” explained one American flag or the protestors would return pled while being craven.
16-year-old commissar. She views them as the and burn down the house. “You’ll never sleep Because America has a proud history of
kind of proto-oppressors who “end up becom- tight, we do this every night,” is one of the surviving its politicians’ stupid and cowardly
ing racist lawyers and doctors. I don’t want group’s chants. The marchers’ counterparts in utterances, the more menacing danger posed
people like that to keep getting jobs.” Rochester, New York, have begun posting on- by Democrats’ response to this year’s convul-
Though ostensibly run by adults, the sions is that inactions speak louder than words.
Washington Post showed a similar generosity In May, the Democratic mayor of Minneapo-
of spirit when it chose to ruin a woman’s life Perhaps nothing less than lis and Democratic governor of Minnesota
because she had attended a Halloween par- either could not or would not prevent a mob
ty in blackface…two years previously. The
two defeats by a despised from burning down a police station along
malefactor was not a Cabinet secretary or opponent can disabuse with many other structures. For three weeks
television news anchor, but a graphic design- in June, the Democratic mayor of Seattle and
er, fired from her job the day the 2,800-word the Democratic Party of Democratic governor of Washington either
story ran, some three weeks after George its growing contempt for could not or would not regain control of the
Floyd’s death in Minneapolis triggered na- “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone.” In fact, ac-
tionwide protests. “Democracy Dies In democratic proccesses and cording to the New York Times, the city gov-
Darkness” became the Post’s motto after No- prerequisites. ernment “not only permitted the establish-
vember 2016, but the paper has yet to shed ment of a police-free zone, but provided infra-
any light that would explain its decision that structure like concrete barriers and portable
a private citizen’s moment of dubious judg- line police officers’ home addresses and family toilets to sustain it.”
ment, neither recent nor consequential, was members’ identifying information. When police departments cannot prevent
newsworthy. In a saner time, Democratic lawmakers the destruction of their own stations, when
would not consider such lawlessness a formi- citizens who call 911 are told that the police
Obviously, these are all bad developments. dable moral dilemma or intellectual quandary. are not responding to emergencies in that par-
But what do they have to do with Joe Biden Nuance is neither needed nor wanted. And ticular neighborhood, these flagrant derelic-
or the 2020 election? yet, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s oracu- tions are—to borrow Joe Biden’s phrase about
lar pronouncement in response to a question Obamacare—a big f--king deal. Governments
There are two problems. First, the “cancel about a mob destroying a statue of Christo- are instituted to secure inalienable rights. To
culture” is growing more assertive, augment- pher Columbus in her native Baltimore was, fail in their most basic duty leaves people
ing its lists of targets, transgressions, and “People will do what they do.” As protests add- rightly terrified and livid about being forced
tactics. Secondly, the Democratic Party is ed names to the list of historical figures unfit to fend for themselves.
responding to this phenomenon by growing to be honored with statues, Tammy Duck- By the time these traumatic events oc-
more passive, equivocal, and even supportive. worth, a Democratic senator from Illinois curred, Biden was the presumptive presiden-
No sentient creature with a television or who was under consideration to be Joe Biden’s tial nominee and clear leader of the Demo-
internet connection is unaware of the harass- running mate, said that we should “listen to cratic Party. And yet, decent Joe Biden either
ment, intimidation, assaults, destruction of the argument for removing George Washing- could not or would not prevail on Demo-
public monuments, looting, arson, and riots, ton statues.” cratic officials in the states of Minnesota and
undertaken this year by people claiming to For a few encouraging hours, it appeared Washington to protect their constituents’
further social, and especially racial, justice. that Connecticut’s Democratic senator Chris lives, safety, homes, and businesses. To bor-
It’s particularly striking that justifications for Murphy would demonstrate moral clarity to row one more phrase, written on signs that
these acts are increasingly explicit, even bra- his party and country. “This isn’t hard,” he were carried in this year’s protests, Silence is
zen. After carloads of looters came to Chi- tweeted. Violence.

Page 16
The Biden campaign was not, however, dom, and then do all the wrong things to House. One need not share these sentiments
completely disengaged from the mayhem. At protect it. to understand them. Similarly, the opinion
least 13 Biden campaign staffers donated to These presidents are not themselves radi- that Donald Trump should be denied a sec-
the Minnesota Freedom Fund in the days af- cals. They sincerely hope to facilitate enlight- ond term and his Republican “enablers” voted
ter the George Floyd protests began. Kamala enment and concord in their small fiefdoms. out of Congress, as George F. Will has urged,
Harris asked her Twitter followers to contrib- They interact skillfully with donors and is contestable but comprehensible.
ute as well. Among those released from jail trustees, crafting sympathetic though non- It’s not clear, however, why America should
due to the Fund’s provision of bail was a man committal reassurances that placate even the be punished—with reckless policy initiatives
charged with attempted murder for shoot- registered Republicans. Ultimately, though, and the rolling repudiation of constitutional-
ing at police officers during the riots. Little the correlation of forces always argues for ac- ism—for what are held to be the Republicans’
wonder that George Packer, though desper- ceding, often preemptively, to the demands of Trumpist sins. Complacency about this out-
ately hoping that Biden defeats Trump, wor- left-wing students, faculty members, and ad- come requires substituting spite for thought.
ries that voters will correctly discern that a ministrators. These are the people who, more Nor does it make sense that losing an election
Democratic presidential candidate “means it than any others, will determine whether a col- is supposed to be a cleansing, edifying expe-
when he denounces police brutality, but less lege president’s life is miserable or tolerable. rience for one political party…but not both.
so when he denounces riots.” “Ask yourself,” Joe Biden said during an Perhaps nothing less than two defeats by a de-
appearance in August. “Do I look like a radi- spised opponent can disabuse the Democratic
For those of our readers with lives apart from cal socialist with a soft spot for rioters? Re- Party of its growing contempt for democratic
their CRB subscriptions, can you summarize ally?” No, Mr. Vice President, you look like a processes and prerequisites. But are there
the import of these unconscionably thorough grandpa and elder statesman. But as any be- Democrats who grasp that their party’s left-
elucidations? leaguered conservative professor will confirm, ward shift fortifies the woke intolerance now
by virtue of being both more numerous and jeopardizing the republic? And, if so, are any
I conclude by endorsing the opinion of far more compliant than the communists, the of them willing and able to explain the crisis
National Review’s Stanley Kurtz: the likeliest careerists are always more dangerous. in terms that even Joe Biden can understand?
preview of a Biden presidency can be found Among inveterate critics of progressiv-
in higher education, where college presidents ism are some who find it exhausting and dis- William Voegeli is senior editor of the Clare-
say all the right things about academic free- tasteful to have Donald Trump in the White mont Review of Books.

Page 17
Book Review by Angelo M. Codevilla
The Election to End All Elections

The Stakes: America at the Point of No Return, by Michael Anton.
Regnery Publishing, 500 pages, $32.99
O
n september 11, 2001, united us in our private and public lives for having really radically new about the 2020 election:
Airlines Flight 93’s passengers de- dared to reject their mastery. Trump, imper- should the Democrats win, the ruling Left—
fied armed hijackers and fought to fect as he is, is like a finger in a dike that, if re-
which includes just about everyone who con-
take over the cockpit regardless of danger moved, would loose a deluge. Anton describes trols American government and society’s
or odds because they realized that certain how the Democratic Party-led complex of commanding heights—is ready, willing, and
death was the alternative. Michael Anton’s public-private power has been transforming eager to implement plans that would make
2016 essay “The Flight 93 Election,” written our free, decent, and prosperous country into it virtually impossible for conservatives ever
for the Claremont Review of Books and later its opposite—and how it’s going to do to the to win national elections again. These plans
expanded into a book, argued that although rest of America what it has already largely ac- include the importation and counting of
Americans did not know what kind of presi- complished in California. In the book’s final non-citizen voters. Elections by mail would
dent Donald Trump would be, they should chapters, he lays out several paths that the shift power from voters to those who count
risk all to elect him because they could be current struggle for America’s future might the votes, just like in Venezuela. Though re-
very sure that the alternative would be our take. electing Trump makes the republic’s survival
republic’s death. possible, and preserves all manner of good
A
In his new book, The Stakes: America at the nton’s commentary on the 2020 options, it guarantees nothing. Trump’s de-
Point of No Return, Anton, now a lecturer and election does not belabor the obvi- feat guarantees disaster—like in 2016, only
research fellow at Hillsdale College, again ous: it is a binary choice. The unprec- much more so.
urges Americans to vote for Trump, disap- edented level of opposition President Trump The bulk of this well-written book juxta-
pointed though they may be with his perfor- has faced explains, but does not excuse, some poses accounts of life under what had been
mance, because they know even better than of his shortcomings. As Anton puts it: “[t]here’s the American constitutional regime with the
before how much this country’s ruling class little wrong with President Trump that more ruling-class politics that have gone a long way
would use control of the presidency to hurt Trump couldn’t solve.” Then he adds what is to destroy it. It opens with a bittersweet de-

Page 18
scription of California, then and now. Anton, disagreement into deliberations and com- with my 2010 book of that title, but is richer
a young man, is old enough to remember it promises that allowed us to live the mostly and livelier in its detail. It leaves no doubt
a near-paradise. Those of a certain age have decent lives our culture prescribed. Adher- about the fraud at the heart of this class’s
even more idyllic memories of the Golden ence to its restraints preserved our capacity claim of authority:
State’s unrivaled beauty and plenty, crowned to continue dealing with problems in more
by freedom, ease, and safety. Millions flocked or less predictable freedom. Their own fancy degrees are proof of
to work and raise families here. their superior intelligence, which in
B
ut, beginning in the 1930s, ameri- turn is the foundation of their title to
Y
et in 2020 productive middle-class ca’s ruling class pushed aside the Con- rule. Intelligence is not simply a mat-
families are fleeing California—so stitution, reducing to a bad joke the ter of ability but also of opinions and
much so that the state will probably civics class description of the regime: “Con- tastes: smart people all think the same
lose a seat in the House of Representatives gress makes the laws, the president enforces way about the most important things
after this year’s census. And all because its them, and the courts resolve individual dis- because to be smart is to understand,
government—controlled by oligarchs in the putes about them.” In today’s America, Anton and to understand is to agree. There-
entertainment and high-tech industries, as writes, fore those who disagree are either dumb
well as the state bureaucracy and public sector or—if obviously intelligent in a raw-
labor unions—raised taxes, imposed regula- The real power…resides not with elect- horsepower way—crazy….
tions, let public services decay, stopped deed (or appointed) officials and “world [T]he ruling class makes a desultory
fending against criminals, and empowered leaders”; they—or most of them—are effort to find outsider talent—especially
left-wing social activists. Today’s California a servant class. The real power resides from “protected classes”—to welcome
is for government-favored oligarchs and those with their donors, the bankers, CEOs, into the ranks. That way they can deny
who service them. You want a career? If you financiers, and tech oligarchs—some the otherwise obvious, and grave, charge
don’t conform every word and action to the of whom occasionally run for and win that they are a self-perpetuating closed
ruling orthodoxies, your work and talents will office, but most of whom, most of the caste…. But mostly the ruling class re-
be wasted. You want your children to grow time, are content to buy off those who plenishes itself from within….
up intelligent and decent? The schools will do. The end result is the same either Harvard today has a legacy admis-
teach them little reasoning and much deprav- way: economic globalism and financial- sions rate of nearly 30 percent…. This
ity. Like you, they will also learn to compete ization, consolidation of power in an is the ruling class taking care of its own.
by favor-seeking rather than by performance. ostensibly “meritocratic” but actually For all the paeans to “diversity,” this is
You see crime rising, sense that you have to semi-hereditary class, livened up by so- what it’s really all about. As the dean
protect yourself, but know that, in most of cial libertinism. of Harvard College…explained when
the state, the police will arrest you for it. And challenged on why upper-income stu-
you are sick of paying for it all. That is why This ruling class now explicitly denies that dents outnumber poorer kids six-to-one,
you want to emigrate from California into the “all men are created equal.” It asserts for itself “We’re not trying to mirror the socio-
United States of America. the right to rule by decree by virtue of exper- economic or income distribution of the
Having held up California as the example tise, and the power to assign different rights United States.…”
of what full-throttle liberalism looks like, and obligations to classes of people, “protect- [N]ext in line are promising mem-
Anton offers a defense of the American reed” and less so. Despising any divine or natu- bers of certain demographic groups…
gime in the face of criticisms from what one ral authority and contemptuous of America’s by far the most underserved demo-
might call the nativist Right as well as from history, those in the ruling class make war on graphic on elite campuses are rural
the Left. Impressive in its logic and concise the American people’s culture and national and red-state whites—a fact confirmed
in its comprehensiveness, it shows the partial identity. Ironically, this ruling class, led al- by simply comparing National Merit
truths on which these critiques are based in most exclusively by white men, has cast white Scholarship data (a record of the high-
the full light of history. All that the United men in general as the proper targets of uni- est-achieving high school seniors every
States is really does follow from the found- versal vengeance—an inversion of reality sus- year) with elite college admission rates
ing generation’s understanding of human tained by a near-monopoly of power over cor- by race and region.
beings’ inalienable equality before God. The rupt institutions and mass communications.
T
principle of majority rule has no other foun- Anton’s section on “Propaganda and Censor- his ruling class wants, above all,
dation. Already by the time of the founding, ship: Narrative, Megaphone, and Muzzle” is to insulate itself from competition.
however, America, like every other nation, particularly worth reading. Hence, not only does it allow access to
had acquired a distinct character—language, He then proceeds to a C.T. scan of the its ranks only to non-threatening, somewhat
religion, and customs—that it meant to pre- ruling class and its entourage. Detailed un- inferior successors, it does its best to dena-
serve and defend. A nation of immigrants, to derstanding of its components’ relations to ture, defang, and dishearten the ruled. Anton
be sure. But the country was never open to one another is essential to understanding the observes:
just anybody for any reason. Anton cites the book’s main argument about how this class
1795 Naturalization Act that specifies agree- might weather the challenges that its own The current porn-drug tsunami is an
ment with the Constitution and disposition increasing power creates. Anton’s description evil much too great and deliberate to be
to help the country as conditions for admis- of the ruling class—of its intellectual/social called a failure. Its purpose is to deaden
sion. For almost 200 years the Constitu- origins, its organic and patronage connection you—to drain you of any sense of dignity,
tion, the American people’s basic “deal” with with government, its clientelistic relationship self-worth, fighting spirit, or inner belief
one another, channeled our strivings and with its various components—is consistent that you are worthy of respect. Above all,

Page 19
it’s to render you unwilling to stand up America as we knew it—that for most of us appointing judges who pledge not to rule. As
and demand—to fight for—what you’re the result is likely to be worse than California leftist governors establish their brand of ef-
owed as a human being and citizen. with lousy weather. With these two chapters fective sovereignty by decree, conservative
he turns his attention to how the odds might ones obey court orders. So long as, and to
Holding together its own subordinates, play out in the face of problems with the rul- the degree that, the illusion of legitimacy
controlling its instruments—its hands and ers’ own constituencies or with resistance by stands—so long as the Right obeys while the
feet—is an even bigger concern for the ruling conservatives. Left disobeys and commands—there is no
class. Anton examines this problem from a Had he conceived these chapters once the end to what the Left can do because there
novel angle. Instead of asking what the heads ruling class’s mid-2020 offensive had flourished, is so little that conservatives do to fight back.
of the class can do to control their several the turbo-charging effect that this offensive
B
presumed demographic components—blacks, has had on ruling class constituencies might ut, as michael anton reminds us,
unmarried women, bureaucrats, etc.—he asks well have convinced him to collapse them into things that can’t go on indefinitely al-
what motivates all their members. In each and one because it is now beyond anyone’s capac- most surely won’t. The combination of
in all of these demographics, some just “want ity more or less gently to ride the past decades’ the ruling class constituents’ fired-up insatia-
stuff,” others are committed to “woke” ideo- trends to total power. Even if increased ruling bility, the rulers’ inability to control them, and
logical agendas, and yet others simply want to class power were to augment rather than di- the limits of conservative Americans’ patience
avenge their hate. The heads of the class have minish the U.S. economy’s capacity to deliver is sure to cause a crisis that ends up in some
bet that they can satisfy all these motivations more “stuff” to the rulers’ “freeloaders”; even if kind of “Caesarism” of the Left or the Right.
by giving just enough to each in order to keep the rulers could fulfill every woke fantasy yet Speculating on what such a crisis might
them in line while they enjoy the perquisites uttered, or hurt every known conservative, the be is not terribly useful because revolutionary
of power. But then Anton asks: freeloaders now so accustomed to taking could scenarios are really all alike, and have been de-
not stay sated, and new awokenings would con- scribed countless times in similar terms: All
Even if the ruling class can, Brazil-like, jure new fantasies. The destruction of enemies sides are readier than they know to pursue
retreat behind walls, gates, helicopter has never failed to whet the insatiable appe- their desires by dispensing with order. Some-
pads, and armed guards to spare them- tite for more. At this point, policing their own thing happens that inflames one side and
selves actual violence, what happens would require our rulers to be copies of Stalin. challenges the other. Somebody gets killed.
to the surrounding economy on which They don’t have the grit for that. All bets are off.
their wealth and status depend? What Consider the 2020 election. In July, the
T
happens when and if the Freeloaders hey do not believe they have to Democratic National Committee engaged
are fully fed? Wokerati enthusiasm ful- worry about controlling their own some 600 lawyers to litigate the outcome,
ly indulged? Avenger animosities taken violent troops because they are sure possibly in every state. No particular out-
to their logical extremes? that they have nothing to fear from conser- come of such litigations is needed to set off a
vatives. That is because conservatives have systemic crisis. The existence of the litigations
This is the subject of Chapters 6 and 7. continued to believe that the United States’s themselves is enough for one or more blue
institutions and those who run them retain state governors to refuse to certify that state’s
B
ut before we get there, anton legitimacy. Conservative complaisance made electors to the Electoral College, so as to pre-
gives us a remarkable chapter on how possible a half-century of Progressive rule’s vent the college from recording a majority of
thoroughly latter-day immigration has abuse. The War on Poverty ended up enrich- votes for the winner. In case no winner could
scrambled all things American. His point is ing its managers while expanding the under- be confirmed by January’s Inauguration Day,
that the past half-century’s immigration— class that voted for them. The civil rights the 20th Amendment provides that Congress
very differently from our prior policy—seems movement ended up entitling a class of di- would elect the next president. Who doubts
to have been intended to do just that. This, he versity managers to promote their friends that, were Donald Trump the apparent win-
argues, not only degrades ordinary Ameri- and ruin their opponents. The environmen- ner, and were Congress in Democratic hands,
cans’ lives, it also throws a wild card into the tal movement ended up empowering the very that this would be likelier than not to happen?
ruling class’s own plans for control—of which same wealthy, powerful folks while squeez- Before or afterward, were conservatives
their approach to immigration is arguably the ing the rest of America into cookie-cutter not unanimously to roll over, and were a few
key element. In short, the ruling class has un- living and paying inflated energy prices. The incidents to result in loss of life and conflict
leashed a bunch of tigers on America, which feminist movement delivered divorce and between police forces on opposite sides of the
for now it is riding. Whether and for how long abortion—far from benefiting women, it affairs, America might well experience an ex-
it can stay on their backs and not end up in has made millions dependent on ruling class plosion of pent-up rage less like the American
their bellies is an open question. This is true, favor. The COVID-19 pandemic has had al- Civil War of the 19th century and more like
Anton ably shows, whether present trends most nothing to do with public health and the horror that bled Spain in the 20th.
continue (the subject of Chapter 6) or even almost everything to do with separating,
if they don’t (Chapter 7). He has already left impoverishing, and disconnecting people Angelo M. Codevilla is a senior fellow of the
no doubt that the odds are stacked in favor of inclined to vote against the ruling class. As Claremont Institute and professor emeritus of
the ruling class continuing its dismantling of leftist judges rule, conservatives respond by international relations at Boston University.

Page 20
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Book Review by Victor Davis Hanson
Always Never Trump

Never Trump: The Revolt of the Conservative Elites, by Robert P. Saldin and Steven M. Teles.
Oxford University Press, 304 pages, $27.95
Disloyal Opposition: How the #NeverTrump Right Tried—and Failed—to Take Down the President, by Julie Kelly.
Encounter Books, 240 pages, $25.99
T
he phrase “never trump” collec- This last-ditch effort proved especially pa- nationalist-populist insurrection went de-
tively designates many successive waves thetic given that it entailed a de facto prefer- servedly down in flames, the elite Republican
of elite opposition to President Donald ence for a thoroughly corrupt and now un- grandees would arise, phoenix-like, from the
Trump on the part of supposed conservatives. abashedly leftist Clinton. Efforts by various ashes and restore the party to its doctrinaire
The resistance began with Trump’s renegade Never Trumpers to inveigle some erstwhile Bush-Romney custodians.
candidacy in 2016. It has continued in various luminary to run as a third-party candidate— All this had to happen, Bret Stephens told
forms throughout his first term in office. The two-time presidential disappointment Mitt CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, so that “Republican
most prominent exponents include former Romney, for example, or popular former Sec- voters [would] forever learn their lesson.” Or,
Republicans and members of the mostly ves- retary of State Condoleezza Rice—failed. A as the equally self-righteous David Frum put
tigial neoconservative establishment in New straggling few, led by Bill Kristol, were finally it from on high in an interview with CBC (the
York and Washington, D.C. reduced to near-caricature when they ap- Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) News,
The original Never Trumpers were led by pealed to the obscure National Review writer the pesky public would finally see that “Don-
pundits like Max Boot, George Will, and David French before settling upon the com- ald Trump is God’s judgment on the United
Jennifer Rubin, each at the Washington Post, pletely unknown (but soon polarizing) former States for not being good enough citizens.”
David Brooks and Bret Stephens at the New bureaucrat Evan McMullin. The more the Hillary Clinton may have called Trump sup-
York Times, and David Frum at the Atlantic. effort continued to draft a third-party candi- porters “deplorables” and “irredeemables,”
Assorted failed presidential candidates such date, the fewer and more unattractive became and Joe Biden may have dubbed them “dregs,”
as Jeb Bush, Mitt Romney, and John Kasich the willing candidates. but Bill Kristol outdid them both by musing
also joined in the fun and often brought their that a supposedly played-out white working
A
political operatives along with them. Beltway ccording to the rejectionist ra- class might profitably be traded altogether for
foreign policy wonks, economists, lawyers, tionale, Trump’s purported low char- new, more-pliable immigrants.
and military retirees signed on, too. acter and boorishness nullified his After Trump’s stunning upset, the Never
At first, in the winter of 2016, the nascent Republican agenda. Or else, it was argued, Trump movement went on life support, oc-
coalition assumed that it could draw and he would soon prove to be a liberal wolf in casionally opening its eyes when Trump’s
unite opposition from failing Republican conservative sheep’s clothing. As a result, the polls dip into the low 40s. Never Trumpers’
presidential candidates to derail the unex- logic went, one of two outlandish consumma- ability and inclination to make a nuisance of
pected Trump ascendance during the pri- tions was devoutly to be wished. Some hoped themselves follows the news cycle. They have
maries. Between April and July 2016, on the that Clinton’s putatively inevitable landslide recently been buoyed by a succession of me-
way to the convention where Trump would victory would chastise wayward Republicans dia scandal stories, from Robert Mueller’s
become the Republican nominee, the aston- and prove that the Never Trump camp had special counsel investigation (during which
ished but rapidly diminishing cadre tried been right all along. Others, more insanely, Max Boot listed “18 reasons Trump could be
again and again to arrest the process. Then, imagined that the nobody McMullin could a Russian asset”); to the Ukraine melodrama;
in yet a third iteration, a small and stubborn get close enough that the race would have to to the impeachment plot; to the COVID-19
rump of Never Trumpers reorganized in an be decided in the Republican House of Rep- contagion; to the demonstrations, looting,
even more vain attempt to stop Trump from resentatives. There, Never Trump influencers and arson that followed the tragic death of
winning the general election against Hillary might cobble together a Marco Rubio or Ted George Floyd. But they have tended to grow
Clinton. Cruz presidency. Either way, once Trump’s despondent, and occasionally even silent,

Page 22
upon hearing news of successes such as near- party elites.” In their view, the respectable pa- possible thing from trailblazing independents.
record unemployment, a legion of conserva- tricians of the Republican Party know better, They were mainstream establishmentarians
tive judicial appointments, or restoration of and are worthy of more careful examination, who did what practically everyone else in their
American support for Israel. Like the obses- than the unwashed electorate. highbrow set was doing in 2015: they blithely
sive Captain Ahab, Never Trumpers believe wrote off the supposedly wacky loser Trump.
T
that with just one more comparison to the hough they are unapologetically It was rich, to say the least, to see these con-
Nazis, one more televised meltdown, or one condescending and unremittingly par- formists reinvented in 2016 as brave contrar-
more edgy new blog, they will finally spear tisan, Saldin and Teles nonetheless ians bucking the common consensus of a sure-
the great white whale. offer a scholarly and well-researched analy- thing Trump candidacy.
sis of what still drives the Never Trumpers The authors cite with approval the ortho-
T
hroughout these fiascos, never despite their irrelevance and poor judgment. dox Never Trump conviction that Trump’s
Trump has been kept alive not by re- The book collates dozens of long, angry, and campaign teams were oh so pathetic: “In
surgent popular support, but by mon- sometimes embarrassingly clueless interviews contrast to the professional organizations
ey from leftwing billionaires (such as eBay with failed Never Trumpers, supplemented supporting [the other] candidates, Donald
founder Pierre Omidyar) who appreciate by plentiful quotations from the voluminous Trump’s campaign hired a decidedly less ac-
Never Trump pundits as ephemerally use- archives of written anti-Trump invective. Tak- complished team of misfits and oddballs.”
ful idiots. Never Trumpers insist to these en together, these sources display a staggering This is an odd claim given the campaign’s
new patrons that they are moving hearts and degree of oblivious self-righteousness: in 2016, manifest success. It is strange to find the
changing minds, despite the fact that Trump for example, one foreign policy expert said, Trump team denigrated as “a ridiculous band
support among Republicans has tended to “After enjoying Trump’s crushing defeat this of degenerates and professional failures” when
poll at record levels, hovering around or often November, I plan to keep working inside the in fact they proved themselves far more astute
over 90%. Republican Party for a sane version of conser- than either Hillary Clinton’s overpaid appa-
For such a supposedly thoughtful bunch, vatism on issues foreign and domestic.” rat or the Never Trumpers’ own perennially
the Never Trumpers rarely engage in intro- failed consultant class.
spection. They have never once explained
Never Trumpers believe
T
how, after two decades of Republican resur- he book’s subtitle, the revolt of
gence at the state and local level, the party still that with just one more the Conservative Elites, reflects well
managed to lose five out of the six national its authors’ focus on once-influential
popular votes prior to Trump. The last time comparison to the Nazis, Washington and New York grandees. But
a Republican candidate had won at least 51%
of the popular vote was George H.W. Bush’s
one more televised given that the authors themselves are pro-
gressives, interviewed few Trump supporters
1988 victory over Governor Michael Du- meltdown, or one more (if any), read very little pro-Trump literature,
kakis. (Even that feat was carried off by the and never really tried to understand the con-
proto-Trumpian Lee Atwater, who was as
edgy new blog, they will ditions that created Trump, perhaps a more
praised during that bitter campaign for his finally spear the great apt subtitle might reflect their own schaden-
populist insight even as he was damned af- freude—something like How the Republican
terward for winning cruelly and gracelessly.) white whale. Nobility Got What They Deserved. After all,
Few Never Trumpers can fathom why mil- Saldin and Teles conclude, with a hint of sat-
lions of culturally conservative working vot- Saldin and Teles identify four broad cat- isfaction: “It is hard not to look at these efforts,
ers in swing states such as Wisconsin, Michi- egories of Never Trumpers: national secu- at least as of the spring of 2020, as having
gan, and Pennsylvania either stayed home or rity experts, political operatives and lobbyists, comprehensively failed. Donald Trump is as
voted Democrat until Trump brought them public intellectuals, and coastal-corridor law- popular with Republican voters as any presi-
back into the fold. On this score, even warn- yers and economists. It is the authors’ conten- dent in the modern era.”
ings from such mainstream conservative ana- tion that these conscientious objectors com- Like the sore losers whom they interview,
lysts as Reihan Salam and soon-to-be-Never mand far more indirect influence than their Saldin and Teles monotonously insist that
Trumper Ross Douthat went ignored. Both relatively small numbers suggest. Thus, much Republicans should have known their flawed
Salam and Douthat cautioned long before of Never Trump focuses on arcane and now- ideology had spawned an infectious Trump
2016 that ignoring the so-called “Sam’s Club” forgotten declarations of conscience signed by “poison” out in the heartland. Nonetheless,
populist voter would mean a near-permanent scores of foreign policy establishment types the authors trust that erudite, sober, and judi-
Democratic White House. who were outraged at the very thought of a cious sages can offer their party redemption
In Never Trump: The Revolt of the Con- Trump presidency. Readers are invited to rein the form of a new, more principled (but
servative Elites, two liberal political scien- visit reams of protestation against Trump’s likely perennially losing) opposition to pro-
tists—Robert P. Saldin of the University unorthodox promises concerning everything gressivism. Smart and well-meaning Never
of Montana and Steven M. Teles of Johns from Chinese mercantilism to the Iran Deal Trumpers are the ideal patsies to provide the
Hopkins University—reveal that they too are and relations with Israel. “system maintenance activity that a healthy
less interested in the conditions that created There are also plenty of quotes from “wise liberal democracy requires”—i.e., a domesti-
Trumpism than in the opposition it engen- men” to demonstrate just how loathed Trump cated opposition with absolutely no chance of
dered among elites such as themselves. “If the was and what brave free-thinkers his crit- ever governing. A cynic might conclude that
mass of voters cannot be counted on to pro- ics were. Saldin and Teles too often miss the Saldin and Teles are urging Republicans to
tect democratic norms,” they write, “then it is grand irony of this portrayal. The original stop crudely winning and return to their ac-
hard to see who else could do so other than Never Trumpers were in fact the furthest customed dignified losing.

Page 23
Q uite different in tone, style,

and theme is Julie Kelly’s Disloyal
Opposition: How the #NeverTrump
Right Tried—and Failed—to Take Down the
ington echo chamber blinded them to their
irrelevance in opposing Trump. “Consumed
with their self-importance and alarmed at
their potential demotion within the GOP,”
almost any means necessary to remove an
elected president. Like Saldin and Teles, Kel-
ly suspects that Never Trumpers actually can
do Trump some harm by using progressive
President. Whereas Saldin and Teles paint a she writes, “they pledged to crush the brash resources to attack him with suburban swing
stately portrait of the noble Never Trumpers, interloper who had never edited a very impor- voters. At the very least, she notes, their long-
Kelly, a senior contributor to American tant magazine or toiled at a very important standing media and government contacts
Greatness, shows another, darker side to conservative foundation.” within the Washington establishment have
them. She unsparingly reveals that Never And perhaps, as Kelly also argues, many of caused plenty of trouble for Trump in the
Trump intellectuals can be every bit as crude these newly christened freedom fighters were swamp. Thousands of high-ranking bureau-
as their detested nemesis—and that, for all never conservatives at all and saw Trump as crats, military officers, and revolving-door
their erudition, they are far less capable stu- a useful opportunity to renounce their in- think tank intellectuals have either worked to
dents of American popular opinion than he. creasingly bothersome creed and party. Even thwart the administration from the outside or,
I agree with Kelly’s assessment, given that before Trump, these careerists did not care once within, to leak, subvert, and destroy it.
I have personally been smeared in the online about electing conservative presidents so As Kelly notes, Kristol bragged, “[I]f it comes
Never Trump journal the Bulwark as, among much as about advising and profiting from to it, [I] prefer the deep state to the Trump
other things, akin to Nazi apologists such as Conservatism, Inc.—“the weak, eager-to- state”—essentially green-lighting an unelect-
Carl Schmitt and Martin Heidegger. For all please, and largely incompetent conservative ed resistance to an elected president.
the accusations that Trump has cheapened ruling class.” Kelly points out that Bill Kris- But could the Never Trumpers ever have
political discourse, it is actually the Never tol cheerfully boasted, “We are all Democrats succeeded in actually stopping the Trump
Trumpers who have reached new lows of cru- now.” Max Boot echoed that sentiment when candidacy or presidency? One gathers from
dity. Former John McCain politico Rick Wil- he described Republicans as the “party of the Kelly’s book that they would have had to
son called Trump supporters “childless single child-snatchers.” Soon Bret Stephens was in- make two key arguments in order to do
men who masturbate to anime” and indulged forming his New York Times readers that he so. First, they would have had to show that
on live television in an ignorant rant about wanted to repeal the Second Amendment, Trump’s boorishness exceeded any prior
white-trash “Boomer rubes,” complete with a while George Will urged the defeat of the Re- president’s and would cancel out any posi-
mock Southern drawl. publican Congress in 2018. tive agenda. That would require considerable
Kelly’s focus is on the irrational hatred that historical ignorance, given the White House
K
motivates Never Trumpers to reject almost elly pulls no punches. the never promiscuity of John Kennedy, the crass
anything the president says or does. At some Trump movement is, in her estima- bathroom antics of Lyndon Johnson, and the
point it became clear that Trump would adopt tion, “a small assortment of embit- crude Oval Office lechery of Bill Clinton—
the traditional Republican attitude on a range tered, parochial conservatives.” Their flip- not to mention a prior presidential plethora
of issues—gas and oil development, deregula- flopping quotations, class pretensions, and of in-office sin in the age before the internet
tion, judicial appointments, education reform, hyperbole are all predictably sour grapes and 24-hour digital news. Second, Never
tax cuts, and restoration of the military. Never from “failed campaign consultants, B-list Trumpers would have had to claim that a
Trumpers were thus forced either to concede conservative commentators, fading political traditional Bush-McCain-Romney approach
that the president had successfully implement- columnists, and Bush-family loyalists.” In could really have succeeded in targeting ille-
ed policies they had been championing for a the end, she asserts that the real subject of gal immigration, forcing China to abide by
lifetime, or suddenly to disown those policies. Never Trump furor is the diminished status international trade agreements, restoring
Most chose the latter and thereby demonstrat- of Never Trump itself. She quotes Max Boot’s economic vitality in the nation’s heartland,
ed, in Kelly’s view, that they are not so much lamentation: “I am left to ask if all my work and returning American foreign policy to a
conservatives as opportunists, more loyal to has made any difference.” Never Trumpers, Jacksonian realism. Or at least, they would
their class than to their supposed principles. she concludes, have become so gorged with have had to explain persuasively why all
She is especially scathing toward Jennifer Ru- hatred that they now just come across as kind these policies were or should have been irrel-
bin and Bret Stephens because she suspects of nutty. Mitt Romney was finally reduced to evant to conservative voters in the states that
their supposed changes of heart were calcu- aggregating attacks on Trump (and broad- decide national elections.
lated bids for plum new jobs at the Washington cast media praise of himself) under the weird The wonder is not so much that Never
Post and New York Times, respectively. Twitter pseudonym “Pierre Delecto.” Trumpers never successfully made either ar-
Before the Trump wrecking ball went Kelly’s description of Never Trumpers as gument, but that they never even felt the need
crashing through Washington, Never “disloyal” is harsh. But what she has in mind to try.
Trumpers had grown accustomed to being is not their general opposition to Trump but
courted by Republican presidents, sought out that they did not wait for the election of 2020 Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow at Stan-
as administration consiglieres, and lauded for to unseat him. They chose instead to promote ford University’s Hoover Institution, and the au-
the winsome insight of their syndicated col- the fraudulent Steele dossier, hype up the in- thor, most recently, of The Second World Wars:
umns. Kelly, like Saldin and Teles, suggests consequential Ukraine caper, and generally How the First Global Conflict Was Fought
that the high self-regard of those in the Wash- assume that Trump’s purported evil justified and Won (Basic Books).

Page 24
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Book Review by Douglas A. Jeffrey
Are We Going to Fist City?

Trumpocalypse: Restoring American Democracy, by David Frum.
HarperCollins, 272 pages, $28.99
Un-American: The Fake Patriotism of Donald J. Trump, by John J. Pitney, Jr.

Rowman & Littlefield, 248 pages, $21.95
T
oo much of journalist david frum’s Pitney is if anything less circumspect than 1,200. He also debunks Trump’s claim to have
Trumpocalypse and most of political sci- Frum. While Frum at least qualifies, with the “world’s greatest memory,” citing a 2013
entist John Pitney’s Un-American could the word “reportedly,” the claim that Trump legal deposition in which Trump repeatedly
be reassembled into a day-by-day catalog, span- ordered fleeing border crossers shot in the says he can’t recall things. The only time Pit-
ning five years, of anti-Trump talking points legs—the claim, after all, was reported in the ney takes Trump at his word is when Trump
aired on CNN. To this extent the books are New York Times, citing anonymous sources— opines, while touring Mount Vernon, that
dull as ditchwater. Pitney presents it as a simple fact. It is safe “[i]f [Washington] was smart” he would have
It is easy to make light of the lengths to say there is no fake news about Trump put his name on the house, because “[y]ou’ve
to which the authors go to press their case. where Pitney is concerned. Indeed, he argues got to put your name on stuff or no one ever
Frum’s analysis of Trump’s base, for instance, that Trump got the idea of decrying fake remembers you.” Deaf to the humor—unlike
includes the category of “people who would news from 1970s mob boss Joe Colombo, Trump, both these books are relentlessly hu-
not conventionally be thought of as white.” who denied the existence of the mafia. Pit- morless—this is offered as proof that Trump
(To support Trump, Frum explains, “you ney’s proof? As a reader of tabloids, “Trump lacks a “moral sense.”
just have to agree that white is best.”) His surely took note of Colombo’s public rela- Russia looms large in these books, as one
examples include Dinesh D’Souza, Candace tions strategy.” QED. might expect. Frum laments that Robert
Owens, and—perhaps Frum is simply an un- Sure to profit from Pitney’s book are any Mueller didn’t “allow himself ” to “get to the
derperformer on cognitive tests where you readers yet to notice the president’s tendency bottom” of Trump-Russian collusion, which
identify which item in a list doesn’t belong— to exaggerate. Pitney reveals, for example, that would have meant turning over every stone
Santino Legan, the shooter who killed three the website of Trump’s Virginia winery says in Trump’s past until he found what Vladi-
and wounded 17 at last year’s Gilroy Garlic it sits on 1,300 acres, whereas a Washington mir Putin is using for blackmail. Asserting
Festival. Post fact-check shows the actual acreage to be that small-town America is no longer patri-

Page 26
A
otic, he cites a Yahoo! poll (who does that?) ing how the “germs that produced secession, s added protection for this form
suggesting that small-town Americans aren’t lynching, and Indian massacres,” after a pe- of democracy, Frum endorses cancel
as obsessed with Russia as he is. Pitney, riod of dormancy, have erupted again “in the culture. He recounts how Stephen
meanwhile, refers to the first meeting be- presence of Trump…like plague buboes—bit- Ross, an investor in Equinox and SoulCycle,
tween Trump and Putin, at a 2017 summit ter, potent, and vile.” hosted a Trump fundraiser, after which both
in Germany, as their “first-ever acknowledged he and the two companies were forced by
I
meeting”—withholding the payoff, I guess, n no country not on the verge of the usual threats to issue the usual confes-
till his next book. civil war do “leading” people like Frum sions and denunciations. Connected to this,
and Pitney write like this of their fellow Frum introduces the idea of two cultures, one
F
rum and pitney are incredulous citizens. Trump was elected, after all. And “alienated and resentful” and the other “dy-
that Trump would doubt anything while the two authors have lots of ideas for namic.” He writes: “I looked up the distance
the U.S. intelligence community disenfranchising Trump voters—Frum’s list between the nearest Trump rally in 2019 and
says—e.g., the January 2017 assessment by includes eliminating the Electoral College, the nearest Equinox gym. The closest I could
then-Director of National Intelligence (and granting D.C. statehood, doing away with find was 148 miles: the distance from Grand
current member of the Resistance) James presidential primaries, and prohibiting voter Rapids, Michigan, to the posh Detroit suburb
Clapper that Putin and the Russians clearly I.D. requirements—there are still those pesky of Bloomfield Hills.” This physical distance
preferred Trump over Hillary Clinton. Yet people. “The forces that brought [Trump] to pales, though, in comparison to the cultural
at the same time they credulously believe Pu- power,” Frum writes, “will not magically van- or class separation.
tin’s intelligence community: Pitney quotes ish.” The country “will have to find a way ei- Dynamic America, as Frum describes it,
as gospel a Russian agent saying that when ther to reconcile them to democracy—or to is “where new products are designed, patents
Trump won, “[W]e uncorked a tiny bottle protect democracy from them.” filed, songs composed, science advanced”—in
of champagne…. We uttered almost in uni- What Frum means by democracy be- other words, places like New York City, Hol-
son: ‘We made America great.’” Although comes clear in a section of his book on the lywood, Silicon Valley, and the universities.
one often suspects Trump’s enemies in the “deep state”—a phrase he traces from Ke- These are the “high output” areas—at least if
academy and the media of dissembling in the malist Turkey to Steve Bannon, although it you identify big tech, big finance, and academ-
name of a higher cause, here we clearly seem was popularized prior to Trump’s election ics who live off tax dollars with output. And if
to be in useful idiot territory. by liberal journalist Mike Lofgren. In The you dismiss small business owners, construc-
Simply making light of these books, how- Deep State: The Fall of the Constitution and tion workers, farmers, truckers, electricians—
ever, doesn’t do them justice. When Pit- the Rise of a Shadow Government (2016), Lof- in short, the people who make the country
ney quotes Achilles, of all people, against gren defines the deep state as “a hybrid as- work—as schlubs. Trump voters, Frum writes,
Trump—“I hate that man like the very Gates sociation of key elements of government and are “repulsive to dynamic America.” And he
of Death who says one thing but hides an- parts of top-level finance and industry that is is confident that non-Trump America—“the
other in his heart”—the word “hate” does not effectively able to govern the United States stronger part of the country economically and
seem out of place. The spirit of these books with only limited reference to the consent of culturally”—“can impose its will on Trump
is exceedingly ugly. Here is Frum: “Most of the governed as normally expressed through America” if push comes to shove. He hopes
[Trump’s] predecessors were comforted in the elections.” Frum turns this definition on its it doesn’t come to that, he says—well, except
president’s lonely office by the love of a wife head, depicting the elected president him- for the “criminal” Trump, who “deserves the
and family…enjoyed the cheerful company of self as illegitimate—Trump, he writes, is penalties of law,” and Trump’s political and
old and trusted friends…were supported by a “his own deep state”—and those thwarting media supporters, who will forever “deserve
faith in God” and him from carrying out the policies he cam- the scorn of honest patriots”—but his tone
paigned on as the “regular government” act- suggests otherwise.
by a deep emotional connection to the ing lawfully. Racism gives Russia a run for its money as
American nation. Some, at the very “Trump’s national security team,” Frum a recurring theme in these books. “In 2005,”
least, enjoyed the wordless companion- notes approvingly, “persistently treated him Pitney writes, in the first of a series of con-
ship of a cat, a dog, or a horse. Trump as a national security threat…. They mar- trasts he draws between Trump and America’s
relied on none of those things. He loved ginalized him, ignored him, or willfully founders, “Trump told The New York Times:
nobody, and nobody loved him. misinterpreted his instructions.” Posing ‘When they came up with the wonderful state-
to himself the question of why Trump was ment, all men are created equal, never has
And again: not “entitled to conduct foreign policy,” he there been a more false statement.’” Sounds
responds by quoting Gouverneur Morris on damning, but if you follow the footnote to the
Trump loves nobody and has no sense of the danger of a president being “bribed by source, it is a short entertainment article in
tomorrow. Like an animal, he lives only a greater interest to betray his trust.” And which Trump is promoting the fourth season
in the present. Yet even an animal will how does one “tell when a president is act- of The Apprentice. Specifically, he is discuss-
avoid fouling the place in which it lives ing selfishly, rather than for the public pur- ing a contestant whose beauty might give her
and sleeps. Trump cannot even meet pose?” “One sure sign,” Frum writes, “is an unfair advantage, which is where “created
that test. when the president tries to bypass the execu- equal” comes in. “It sounds brilliant,” Trump
tive branch that exists to serve him.” This is says, “But some people are geniuses. Some are
Pitney never quite reaches this level of rhe- a Catch-22 worthy of the British sitcom Yes beautiful.” The founders, of course, acknowl-
torical overkill in his own voice, but he quotes Minister: an elected leader trying to bypass edged that brains and beauty are unevenly
fellow political scientist and former State the bureaucrats thwarting him is proof he distributed—just not God-given rights. And
Department counselor Eliot Cohen describ- needs thwarting. there are countless Trump speeches, perhaps

Page 27
most memorably at Mount Rushmore, in Frum condemns this as an appeal not to But more important, he confuses the idea
which he echoes the founders on equal rights. “human rights and liberty,” but to “white eth- of Western civilization (symphonies not ex-
nic identity.” Trump uses the word “we” in cluded) with the idea of “whiteness”—the
P
itney himself, ironically, is at sea an exclusively white way, Frum argues, citing very same confusion (though Frum express-
when it comes to equality: it “means Trump’s reference to “the most particularly es it in the politically correct way) that be-
that nobody can judge better than you European of all cultural forms: symphony fuddled Iowa Congressman Steve King early
whether you are happy,” he writes—a relativist writing.” The speech thus “defines freedom last year and got him unanimously censured
idea as foreign to the founders’ way of think- not as an ideal sought by all, but as the pat- by the U.S. House of Representatives. The
ing as the idea that each person is the best rimony available to descendants of certain same confusion, one might add, that ren-
judge of whether he is male or female. Noth- ancestors.” dered America’s educated class unable to
ing Pitney quotes Trump as saying would be But here is the part Frum omits using condemn lawless violence during the riots
nearly as abhorrent to the founders. ellipses: this summer.
Frum bases his most serious charge of rac- Writing the introduction to his book as
ism against Trump on one of the president’s We empower women as pillars of our this year’s pandemic was breaking, Frum
best speeches—his 2017 address in Warsaw. society and of our success. We put faith was a pioneer in the art of politicizing a virus.
Here is the part Frum quotes: and family, not government and bureau- Predicting that “many in [non-Trump Amer-
cracy, at the center of our lives. And we ica] would blame those in [Trump America]
We write symphonies. We pursue inno- debate everything. We challenge every- for the miseries ahead,” he asked: “How do
vation. We celebrate our ancient heroes, thing. We seek to know everything so you listen to people if you blame their votes
embrace our timeless traditions and that we can better know ourselves. And for killing your mother before her time?”
customs, and always seek to explore and above all, we value the dignity of every That question, of course, answers itself: you
discover brand-new frontiers. We re- human life, protect the rights of every don’t. And when talk, the medium of politics,
ward brilliance. We strive for excellence, person, and share the hope of every soul no longer works, where does that leave us?
and cherish inspiring works of art that to live in freedom. That is who we are. Intentionally or not, these ugly books put to
honor God. We treasure the rule of law Those are the priceless ties that bind us the test any hope that the divide in our coun-
and protect the right to free speech and together as nations, as allies, and as a try can be resolved peacefully.
free expression…. What we’ve inherited civilization.
from our ancestors has never existed to Douglas A. Jeffrey is vice president for external
this extent before. And if we fail to pre- So Frum dissembles: the speech explic- affairs at Hillsdale College and a senior fellow of
serve it, it will never, ever exist again. itly appeals to human rights and liberty. the Claremont Institute.

Page 28
From
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The University of Chicago Press www.press.uchicago.edu

Book Review by Michael Barone
Flyover Country Blues

Trump’s Democrats, by Stephanie Muravchik and Jon A. Shields.
Brookings Institution Press, 224 pages, $27.99
S M
tephanie muravchik and jon uravchik and shields began scarcer, in the university and college towns
Shields, by their own admission, were each visit by interviewing local whose values the authors find more congenial.
“aghast” at the election of President county officials. These small-town
W
Donald Trump. So, like good political scien- politicos are well-informed and well-regarded: ith its conversational, free-
tists, they set out to understand the causes of Jerry Parker, a Wapello County supervisor, is flowing interviews, Trump’s Demo-
the catastrophe: they interviewed residents of still knowledgeable about his county though crats aspires to be a worthy successor
three out of 206 “pivot” counties that voted he hasn’t wielded political power for some time. to the illuminating work of political scientists
twice for Barack Obama and then for Trump. Judge David Blair is revered and well-connect- like Sam Lubell. But it’s also the next in a long
The result is Trump’s Democrats. ed in Elliott County, despite a scandal involv- line of tomes by liberal Democrats urging their
One of the three counties in question had ing the misappropriation of county-owned fissiparous party to hold its various constitu-
fairly predictable reasons for voting Trump: gravel. And Johnston Mayor Joe Polisena ency groups together. As I argued in my 2019
the traditionally Democratic Ottumwa in comes across as firmly in power and attentive book, How America’s Political Parties Change
Wapello County, one of Iowa’s 31 pivot coun- to his community. In the authors’ view, voters (And How They Don’t), the Republican Party
ties, is the site of a now-closed John Deere in these counties believed Trump would care is built around a core of demographically “typi-
factory. Another, Elliott County in the hills for them as Parker, Blair, and Polisena have. cal” Americans who are never a majority. The
of eastern Kentucky, was more unusual: un- Trump offered a “paternalistic social contract” Democrats, meanwhile, are a coalition of “atyp-
like dozens of Appalachian counties, Elliott (including no reductions in entitlements) in re- ical” demographic groups who together can be
did not abandon its ancestral Democratic turn for “loyalty and respect.” a majority. Since the urban riots and violent
allegiance in 2008 or 2012. (Obama carried That is fair, if condescending. What’s un- leftist agitation of the late 1960s, the Demo-
eight and two Kentucky counties respectively fair is the leap the authors make from observ- cratic Party has been losing support among
in those years, not two and one as the authors ing that these three communities “have a high blue-collar whites. In the pivot counties, Mu-
say.) For their third choice, Muravchik and degree of racial and ethnic homogeneity” to ravchik and Shields are documenting the latest
Shields cheated just a little: the Providence concluding that “Trump promised to protect iteration of what should be a familiar problem
suburb of Johnston is actually just outside and provide for his people, a category bound- for Democrats by now.
Kent, the one pivot county in Rhode Island. ed by race.” Trump is notoriously a product The authors’ solutions are also familiar,
Thankfully, Trump’s Democrats does not of multiethnic and multiracial New York. and unwelcome to most Democratic primary
contain the identically structured interviews When he speaks of caring for Americans first, voters: the party must show more respect for
and dubious quantitative analysis which are he takes some pains to indicate he means all people like the Trump Democrats. It must be-
fashionable in social science. Instead, Murav- Americans. It’s also worth noting that a fair come less of a pantsuit, more of a baseball cap,
chik and Shields seem simply to have driven number of the 206 pivot counties have signifi- party. But, ensconced in academe and familiar
into each locale and schmoozed with dozens cant percentages of black or Hispanic voters. with current primaries as they are, Muravchik
of people. Their conclusions, though often Ottumwa’s population is 15% Hispanic, John- and Shields know that advice is likely to be met
reasonable, are not always charitable. Trump ston’s 9%. Besides which, though our ruling with distaste. “Many will be alienated from the
Democrats, in their view, cherish an honor classes are keen to lump us into groups by honor culture, casual nepotism, and racial in-
culture the president embodies: never admit skin color, there has always been a huge de- sensitivity that endure in many white working-
you’re wrong, fight anyone who challenges you, gree of cultural diversity among white Ameri- class communities.” In the 1990s, a Democrat-
and defy political correctness. The husband cans. Muravchik and Shields do note that ic Party suffused with such snobbery but led by
and wife authors assure readers that as aca- their three counties alone have residents of a moderate Southerner aware of that liability
demics (Muravchik at California State Uni- English, German, Irish, Scottish, and Italian and shrewd enough to overcome it, managed
versity, San Bernardino; Shields at Claremont descent. Yet the authors still consider their to win the presidency. Since then, the party
McKenna College), they don’t endorse this subjects provincial: Trump Democrats, in has won popular vote pluralities in four of five
honor culture: “political correctness, after all, their telling, have “a moral map...composed of elections, mostly by ballooning its majorities in
functions as the cutting edge of a bourgeoi- ever-expanding circles of intimacy and com- coastal California and the far Northeast, but at
sie culture that prizes civility and gentleness munity, bounded by culture, ethnic and mu- the cost of losing votes in the Ottumwas, John-
in manners.” But politically correct elites are nicipal borders.” As a result they “regard their stons, and Elliott Counties of America that it
known for “cancelling” dissidents by driving obligations to newcomers...as relatively weak.” needed to win majorities of the Electoral Col-
them from their jobs or forcing them to apol- But anyone who travels through pivot coun- lege. Not necessarily a good tradeoff.
ogize for wrongthink. That’s hardly “civil” or ties will be struck by an abundance of proudly
“gentle.” In fact, as the authors’ own accounts displayed American flags. This in itself is evi- Michael Barone is senior political analyst at the
make clear, you get more respectful discourse dence of allegiance to a larger national com- Washington Examiner and was a founding and
in these three Obama/Trump communities munity—one known for being culturally longtime co-author of The Almanac of Ameri-
than you do on just about any “cutting-edge” and ethnically diverse. That allegiance seems can Politics (Columbia Books & Information
university or college campus. weaker, and unburned American flags much Services).

Page 30
Book Review by John O’Sullivan
Ex-Friends
Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism, by Anne Applebaum.
Doubleday, 224 pages, $25
I
n 1960 jacques soustelle, a long- an oblique way by examining how some of those at the second had been present at the
standing Gaullist disillusioned by his Applebaum’s friends have contributed to this first. She has switched milieux.
hero’s crabwise moves toward granting process of democratic change and decay, and Telling the story of democracy in the post-
independence to Algeria, told the general how this process has in turn affected them Cold War world through the making and
that all of Soustelle’s friends were opposed to and their friendships with her. breaking of friendships has advantages. It
this policy. “Changez vos amis,” responded de makes for a lively narrative and it allows for
“B
Gaulle briskly. “Change your friends.” adly” is the simplest answer. amusing anecdotes and clever pen-portraits.
Soustelle didn’t follow this advice (and Her account opens with a party on There are both here. Its serious disadvantage
spent years in exile as a result), but Anne Ap- the last day of the 20th century at is that unless your close friends are people
plebaum does in this readable and passionate the provincial Polish home she shares with like Angela Merkel, Donald Trump, or Boris
curiosity of a book. A Pulitzer Prize-winning her husband, Radek Sikorski, then a junior Johnson (Applebaum scores 33% on that test),
historian and staff writer for the Atlantic minister in the first Law and Justice coalition there is likely to be a large disproportion be-
who has written extensively on Soviet Com- government, and ends with a summer party tween the historical facts being told and your
munism, Applebaum invokes the grand ab- almost exactly 20 years later in the same method of telling them. The reductio ad absur-
stractions of democracy and authoritarianism house. Much else has changed, however. Hav- dum of this approach is the title of comedian
with her title, which suggests an exploration ing switched parties in 2007, Sikorski was the Spike Milligan’s autobiography—Adolf Hit-
of how Europe and America have gradually senior foreign affairs minister for seven years ler: My Part in his Downfall (1971).
moved from the triumph of democracy after in a Civic Platform government. And that’s Contrast this approach with the vastness
1989 to its allegedly weakened and (in some only one reason why, as Applebaum herself of the topic—namely, the evolution of democ-
cases) even suicidal state today. That is indeed observes, few of her friends at the first party racy, or the large number of parties that have
the theme of the book. But it is explored in are guests at the second, and almost none of risen, fallen, disappeared, and sometimes re-

Page 31
appeared in Western democracies since 1989. shrank to 7% in 2017 but will probably recov- ranean Europe and caused a still-recurring
To over-simplify, Europe’s mainstream social er by 2022 as others fail. series of banking and financial crises; barely
democratic parties have declined precipitous- controlled mass migration, dramatized by
O
ly; its mainstream center-Right parties have ne might reasonably argue that the refugee crisis of 2015, resulting from the
been weakened; “populist” and Green parties these trends signify the high noon of failure to control Europe’s borders; and the
have risen on Right and Left; and in order to democracy insofar as older parties alienation of voters from an opaque governing
keep power and resist them, center-Left and that neglected their constituencies lost ground, system that transfers powers from national
center-Right have increasingly been forming new parties arose to champion their griev- governments to Brussels and thereafter pur-
centrist “grand coalitions.” Italy, Spain, Ger- ances, and the “Overton window” of issues sues policies European Union elites favor but
many, France, Denmark, Holland, the Irish it was legitimate to debate expanded. Aren’t electorates detest, and deep-sixes the opposite
Republic, Sweden, and the European Parlia- such things usually seen as the marks of a vi- policies as quietly as it can.
ment (where last year the centrist grand co- brant democracy? But Applebaum sees these
A
alition fell to 43% of memberships, and re- trends as the “twilight of democracy” in part pplebaum considers the possibil-
cruited the liberal bloc in order to retain its because she concentrates mainly on countries ity that these crises had caused the
governing majority) all represent variations where right-wing populists have won elec- upheavals of European politics above,
on this theme. tions—on Poland, Hungary, and the United but rejects it:
Look at France’s Fifth Republic more Kingdom, which all have stable majorities of
closely: an original Left-Right division has the Right—on populism generally, on Brexit, The recession of 2008–2009 was deep,
splintered into a multi-party system that in- and on Donald Trump. Whatever name we but—at least until the coronavirus
cludes Gaullist conservatives, Emmanuel Ma- give these changes, however, they are certainly pandemic—growth had returned. The
cron’s new centrist liberals, the neo-Jacobins big and significant. What caused them? refugee crisis of 2015–2016 was a shock,
of the Right in Marine Le Pen’s Rassemble- Causes and effects are not always easy to but it has abated. By 2018, refugees
ment National, and the radical Left’s La France identify in politics because some very dra- from North Africa and the Middle East
Insoumise under Jean-Luc Mélenchon. In the matic effects, including some revolutions, had mostly stopped coming to Europe,
first round of the 2017 presidential elections, have long-germinating causes. But here some thanks to deals done with Turkey by
these four parties split the vote so evenly that causes push themselves on our attention: the the E.U. and its mainstream politicians.
it was almost accidental that Macron and Le 2008 financial crash and its long recessionary
Pen went into the final round. Nor should we aftermath; the long-running Euro crisis that But why were the changes in electoral
forget the once-mighty Socialist Party that has devastated the economies of Mediter- politics unrelated to the major crises that had
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Page 32
occurred in the previous decade? Is Apple- many of whom were also active supporters of part of unscrupulous demagogues. Lies there
baum arguing that they couldn’t have done Brexit. They are an exceptionally distinguished undoubtedly were, but they were told by both
so because the voters are too short-termist to bunch, as it happens, including Boris John- sides. Those told by official sources in the form
connect dots separated by a year or two? If so, son, Simon Heffer, Roger Scruton, and, ahem, of economic predictions (a.k.a., Project Fear)
she’s unwisely condescending to them. Or is me. I can’t really complain about the portrait have proved astoundingly wide of the mark;
she reproving the voters for not being short- of me which suggests a combination of boule- those told (allegedly) by Leave campaigners
termist enough and moving on contentedly vardier (jovial, witty, fond of champagne) and were standard election exaggerations. (I have
when their betters have solved the crises? In James Bond villain who emerges from behind to write “allegedly” because recent court cases
which case she underrates the good sense and the scenes occasionally to cast Scotland aside have ruled both that Leave campaigners were
seriousness of ordinary people about public unsentimentally or to move Viktor Orbán falsely accused by the official U.K. elections
matters that touch their lives deeply. around on the international chessboard. But agency of misusing campaign funds, and that
Whichever it is, the more important point the glaring difficulty about my assistants, John- Leave’s most famous “lie”—the cost to Britain
is that the voters have proved wiser than the son, Heffer, and Scruton, is that there doesn’t of E.U. funding—would have been completely
E.U. leaders and Ms. Applebaum. For the seem to be an iota of evidence that they are in inoffensive if it had made explicit that a weekly
refugees have not stopped coming; there’s an any way “authoritarian.” Or that Brexit was an U.K. loss of £350 million gross translated into
Italian political crisis over the latest surge of essentially authoritarian idea or development one of £250 million net. Case dismissed!) Al-
migrants as I write; European courts are still in British politics. Quite the reverse. It was together, the “Remain” side had the weight of
trying to weaken Hungary’s border restric- plainly a campaign to restore Britain’s status as money, international opinion, and establish-
tions; and Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan a self-governing democracy. ment authority on its side. If Viktor Orbán
has not only threatened to allow refugees to were to win an election on the back of such
A
cross the border into Europe if his wishes pplebaum finds it hard to see this, support, Applebaum would declare it rigged.
are thwarted but has also demonstrated his perhaps because she lived in Britain But Remain lost; Leave unexpectedly won.
power to do so by ordering Turkish police to on a small island of Brexiteer opinion
I
knock down fences at the Greek border. As set in a silver sea of establishment Europhilia. n dealing with the more intractable
long as people continue to see these things as She points out that she never heard anyone problem presented by Scruton, Heffer,
threats, they’ll vote to prevent them. in this wider London who thought that leav- and Johnson, Applebaum makes the argu-
ing the E.U. was a political possibility. I don’t ment that their desire to leave the E.U. was
I
f applebaum can’t quite identify the doubt her. This general Europhilia meant really about something else entirely. In John-
causes of upheaval, she’s still more puz- even strong Brexiteers rarely bothered to son’s case it was personal ambition and the de-
zled over why some friends ended up on make the case for Brexit. It seemed futile. We sire to get into 10 Downing Street. Suppose
the wrong side of the barricades. “What, then, assumed that the best we could hope for was that to be so—which I don’t. Such an ambi-
has caused this transformation?” she asks. a decentralized “E.U. à la carte.” But opinion tion is the incentive democracy employs to get
“Were some of our friends always closet au- polls since the 1975 referendum show that in politicians to offer what voters want. It prob-
thoritarians? Or have the people with whom Britain, uniquely among E.U. member-states, ably played a part in the calculations of all the
we clinked glasses in the first minutes of the there was always a substantial percentage of leading politicians in the Brexit debate. We
new millennium somehow changed over the public opinion—sometimes a majority—that can’t know what Johnson would do if he were
subsequent two decades?” wanted to leave the E.U. That percentage to follow his secret heart. But we can know
The rest of her book is an attempt to dis- grew gradually in the decade running up to what politicians write for the public record in
cover the explanation mainly by interrogating the referendum as the E.U. adopted greater the light of all factors in any case. My guess
the careers and opinions of those of her friends political integration under E.U. rules of quali- is that when he wrote two Telegraph articles—
who have transformed so mysteriously. These fied majority voting, and as the Euro, refugee, for and against Brexit—on the eve of his per-
interrogations are interrupted from time to and Greek crises dominated the headlines. So sonal decision, Johnson realized that since the
time with her own reflections on politics and when the referendum campaign kicked off in curse of political impossibility had been lifted,
political theory that may throw some light on February 2016 with its strict rules of media Leave actually had the better of the argument.
the problematic biographies. For example, she impartiality, these revealed many intelligent He has certainly made good on that decision
sees parallels to some of the new “authoritar- people making reasonable arguments in fa- in the last five years, if not yet on other hopes
ians” in the French intellectuals of the interwar vor of “Leave.” That percentage soon became for his premiership.
years whom Julien Benda criticized in his clas- a modest majority—and also a self-conscious Scruton and Heffer are explained in the
sic study, The Treason of the Intellectuals (1928), and more confident one. That helps to explain book as people who supported Brexit from
for subordinating the love of truth and beauty why it remained stable and determined in the an odd distorted nostalgia. They heartily dis-
to partisan ideologies. These reflections are face of powerful media, legal, and parliamen- liked what Britain had become during their
interesting, and I generally agree with them tary campaigns to reverse Brexit or at a mini- lifetimes, and though they did not believe
(though I have always thought Benda could mum to dilute it in the three years following that the U.K.’s membership in the E.U. had
have made a good living using a steamroller to the actual referendum. brought this decline about, they nonetheless
crack Brazil nuts), but they don’t seem to fit, let Because Applebaum doesn’t accept this re- voted for Brexit in the hope that Brexit would
alone explain, the very different personalities ality (as I see it), she has to find other reasons somehow reverse it. Now, Heffer and Scruton
who are the mainstays of the narrative. why Brexit won and—an even more difficult undoubtedly have nostalgia among the other
That is especially true of the chapter de- task—why her friends supported it. Her an- strings on their bows and employed it very
scribing the writers, columnists, and politi- swers on the first topic are that it was a mo- effectively in some of their writings. Scru-
cians around the London Spectator, where ment of madness achieved by lies, manipula- ton’s England: An Elegy (2000) is a moving
Applebaum was their colleague for some years, tion, and misuse of campaign funds on the lament for the lost England of his childhood,

Page 33
as Applebaum happily concedes in what for a choice against the European treaties.” And mocracy. Together, they produced the
moment becomes a tribute. As Roger’s friend when countries have exercised choice against restorative nostalgic campaign rhetoric
and exact contemporary, what he wrote spoke European integration in referendums that of Donald Trump.
powerfully to me. But both men knew that it were allowed under treaty rules, the E.U. has
was we ourselves who allowed this decline to insisted that second referendums be held to Now, even if the president’s campaign rhet-
happen, and it is only we who can reverse it— reverse an unwelcome vote, or simply ignored oric is overheated or Buchanan’s pessimism
or, more accurately, chart a course to a better supposedly binding results, or in a few cases extreme, shouldn’t we ask other questions of
country that we can’t fully imagine but that allowed opt-outs from the treaties in return them first? When Trump says that American
will reflect in part the spirit of what we have for their being passed. institutions such as the FBI leadership are
lost or, with luck, merely mislaid. That approach to building Europe has de- corrupt, shouldn’t we ask: “Is that true?” And
pended on the support of national political if the FBI leadership has conspired to spy on
R
oger and simon were both fully parties placing the cause of European inte- his campaign to portray him falsely as a Rus-
aware that Brexit itself can’t do that gration above the interests and sympathies sian “asset,” wouldn’t that excuse some over-
or anything like that, but that the op- of their traditional constituencies. Thus, as heated rhetoric from him? And if Buchanan
posite of Brexit—continued E.U. member- Pierre Manent has argued in a French con- laments the loss of the “popular culture that
ship—would mean that we can’t even attempt text: the Right put “Europe” ahead of na- undergirded the values of faith, family, and
such an enterprise because we would then be tion, and the Left put it ahead of class. That country, the idea that we Americans are a
a subordinate part of another country with its explains the disaffection of their electorates, people who sacrifice and suffer together, and
own destiny. That’s why Roger, Simon, and the rise of new parties, and the gradual re- go forward together, the mutual respect, the
many other, less-talented advocates of Brexit treat of the mainstream parties into grand sense of limits, the good manners; all are gone”
stressed the vital importance of democratic coalitions marked by a pro-European “fanati- (emphasis added), shouldn’t we ask not only
sovereignty. Without sovereignty and the cism” (Manent’s term) that hopes the elector- “Is it true?” (it seems to be so) but also “Why
democracy it protects, ordinary people can- ate will eventually consent to what is imposed is he saying that?” For there is a difference
not shape the future of the country in which on it in the form of “More Europe.” Not only between criticism, however nostalgic, that is
they live. If you doubt that, try amending a did the political upheavals above emerge in meant to shame, improve, and reform, and
bad E.U. law. response to this “authoritarian” form of poli- criticism intended to defeat or overturn. A
Throughout the Brexit campaign, Remain- tics, but the “populist” form they took was an little exaggeration in the former might not be
ers simply refused to listen to this argument expression of liberal democracy rather than a bad thing.
or to give any weight to democratic sovereign- an attack on it.
T
ty in their cost-benefit analysis of E.U. mem- hat’s an obvious distinction, of
I
bership. That’s why they lost both the refer- n a penultimate chapter applebaum course, but suddenly it’s also a relevant
endum and the long three-year constitutional returns to America to find this same con- one for Applebaum as least as much as
struggle about it afterward. My feeling is that flict between those with an abiding faith in for Buchanan. For there is now a third team
Applebaum makes this mistake on the larger “American Exceptionalism”—America as both in American politics. Certainly, the current
canvas of European democracy. She interprets a shining city on a hill and a militant demo- upsurge of woke antinomianism and anarchy,
the ideological battle being waged across the cratic missionary to the world—and those fueled by a racist anti-racism, is a sorrowful
continent as one of “liberal democracy” versus who cling to darker images of the United challenge for Buchanan. But is it any less of
“populism” or, better, “authoritarianism.” That States as a corrupt, decadent, brutal, greedy, one for Applebaum? Reverence for the Con-
is certainly how Europe’s political establish- and hypocritical power—erected on class, race, stitution of the United States is integral both
ments in Brussels, Paris, Berlin, Rome, etc., creed, or some other domination; a fallen na- to his cultural loyalty and to her proposi-
wish to frame the debate. tion as unworthy as any other behind a veil of tional patriotism. That cannot be said of the
But the E.U. itself has conceded the ex- high ideals. The first camp contains Thomas Black Lives Matter movement, or of Antifa,
istence of a “democratic deficit” since the Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther or of the woke Ivy League graduates who now
mid-1970s, and it makes periodic attempts King, Jr., Ronald Reagan, and Michael Ger- staff the newsrooms, NGOs, law firms, cor-
to get around it. The deficit persists because son, Bill Kristol, and Mitt Romney; the sec- porate boardrooms, courts, and bureaucratic
it’s the result of institutional arrangements ond, and more heterogeneous, camp includes agencies of the United States. Their vision of
and philosophical beliefs thought essential Emma Goldman, the Weathermen, Howard America is of one of systemic racism whose
to “building Europe” out of a multilingual Zinn, Franklin Graham, Eric Metaxas, Pat institutions of white supremacy must be over-
association of 27 countries with their own Buchanan, Laura Ingraham, Roger Kimball, thrown and replaced, like the statues of Abra-
histories and identities. For instance, the and of course Donald Trump. Does this seem ham Lincoln and William Wilberforce who
European Commission, an unelected body, an unfair summary of her case? Here is her until recently were heroes to all races. And
has a near-monopoly on proposing legisla- account of how this camp gave succor to Pat many of them are her friends and professional
tion which amounts to an advance veto. Leg- Buchanan and birth to Trump: colleagues.
islation that doesn’t get proposed can’t get It’s early days but another vista of broken
passed. The spirit of such E.U. law- and reg- By 2016, some of the arguments of the and renewed friendships may be opening up.
ulation-making, moreover, is that movement old Marxist left—their hatred of ordi- Will Anne Applebaum be making new ex-
toward ever-closer union is inevitable and ir- nary, bourgeois politics and their long- friends? Or making up with old ones?
reversible. Or as Jean-Claude Juncker, then- ing for revolutionary change—met and
president of the Commission, said during mingled with the Christian right’s de- John O’Sullivan is president of the Danube
the Greek crisis: “there can be no democratic spair about the future of American de- Institute.

Page 34
Essay by Matthew B. Crawford
Fixing Men
Male sexuality should be directed, not erased.
T
he male, we are told, is funda- What kinds of male predilections should roof of a shopping mall in Louisiana in July
mentally flawed. Not in an “original no longer be permitted? Should we jettison would no longer abuse their high position to
sin” sense, which might counsel resig- such stereotypically male behavior as coal glance down the blouses of shoppers walking
nation or charity. No, he is more like a Su- mining and sanitation work? How about across the parking lot on their way into the
perfund site: something that urgently needs the lineman who scales a pole during an ice cool air of Nordstrom. The roofers would be
remediation, lest the whole community be storm to restore power? Perhaps we need to made to understand: that’s violence.
poisoned. For that, you will need a sexual be rid of those who man the Bering Sea fish-
equivalent of the Environmental Protection ing fleets (and, in doing so, die at a higher rate Sex Narcs
Agency. than in some combat posts) to bring sushi-
I
The good news—from this perspective— grade tuna to university-town foodies. No, n 2020, to be male is to live under a
is that “male,” like “female,” is entirely a so- presumably these jobs would remain staffed moral stain. It has been decided that male
cial construct. When gender is understood as as they currently are (with an appalling lack sexuality is illegitimate. Of course, it has al-
an arbitrary product of human will, it invites of gender equity), even after the ideological ways posed a problem for society, as something
the willfulness of people irritated by the way reform has been accomplished. But, cru- that needs to be domesticated—made genera-
men and women actually live and feel. Sexual cially, these ruffians would no longer make tive rather than destructive—because it pres-
difference is seen not as a given, and certainly dick jokes among themselves as they warm ents hazards as well as indispensable energies.
not as a gift to delight in, but as a problem to their frost-stiffened fingers over a barrel fire. It provides both obstacles to the civilizing proj-
fix. There is no reason we cannot realize this The professors of gender studies find this ect of moral formation, and the basic material
vision of fixing, if only we are willing to free kind of “homosociality” worrying, for it is in for that project, with all its humanizing nuanc-
ourselves of outmoded ideas—for example, just such scenes of male solidarity and hu- es. Currently we view it through the simplify-
that old canard that the coercive powers of mor, outside institutional surveillance, that ing lens of the criminal code—concepts such as
the state, and of its deputized franchisees in “male privilege” is said to incubate. The sun- sexual assault and sexual harassment are made
corporate H.R., should be in any way limited. scorched roofers laying molten tar on the flat to stand for male sexuality altogether.

Page 35
In an eye-opening law review article titled sexual interactions (of the kind that people moral disapprobation is replaced with a term
“The Sex Bureaucracy,” two Harvard law pro- actually have) “nonconsensual.” Incidents of borrowed from the felony criminal code, but
fessors with impeccable feminist credentials misbehavior need to be multiplied for the applied in the extra-legal setting of campus
report in great detail what they call “the bu- continued health of the institution; they be- tribunals—which are generally secret and
reaucratic leveraging of sexual violence and come the occasion for fresh initiatives, man- have none of the procedural protections of a
harassment policy to regulate ordinary sex.” datory workshops, and further bloating of law court.
The story told by Jacob Gersen and Jeannie the administration. This is done not only by
Suk is focused mainly on universities. defining sexual assault downward, but by ex- Supply and Demand
Title IX of the 1972 Education Act was panding the dragnet of surveillance. Under an
T
straightforward and answered perfectly well Obama White House initiative called “It’s On he supreme court’s lawrence v.
to a democratic consensus of the time: edu- Us,” incoming students are taught to keep an Texas decision in 2003 cleared away
cational institutions should not discriminate eye out for the precursors of sexual misconduct, the last impediments to sexual li-
based on sex. As in “you’re a woman, you can’t and to intervene if they see something amiss. cense between consenting adults. In his dis-
attend this school.” The object of its control (Did he fetch her a second beer, without her sent, Justice Antonin Scalia lamented that
was institutions. But the powers said to ema- asking him to?) this decision spelled the end of morals leg-
nate from Title IX not only expanded, they Presumably most students have little inter- islation altogether. Can his dissent be safely
became different in kind. Its object of control est in becoming freelance sex narcs. But a few dismissed as prudery? Any sexual libertine
is now students: universities, as franchisees will take to it with zeal. Increasingly, to get into today would have to join Scalia, for the end
of the federal government, must manage stu- a good university requires that middle-class of morals legislation coincided with a ramp-
dent sexual relations with one another. This students craft their teenaged selves with a sin- ing up of morals administration, which has
transformation has taken place outside the gle-minded focus on being appealing to college turned out to be far more ambitious in its
legislative process, where it would be subject admissions officers, with a demonstrable port- reach, immune as it is to constitutional lim-
to democratic pressures (and hence common folio of achievements and dispositions. It may its and democratic pressures.
opinion), and has instead been internal to the come quite naturally to internalize the demand What is all of this doing to people’s sexual
federal rule-making apparatus. for sexual vigilance coming from the staff of consciousness? Contrary to overheated re-
Universities tend to interpret rules accord- ports about hookup culture, it appears to be
ing to the timeless institutional principle of making young men and women wary of one
maximum ass-covering, which lines up nicely There is now a simmering another. Writing in the Atlantic, Kate Julian
with the prime directive of any bureaucracy: it gathers data on a “sex recession” that has set
must expand, like a shark that must keep mov-
discontent that some in among younger Americans. One statis-
ing or die. Thus the legal obligation universi- women feel with the type tic: “People now in their early 20s are two
ties have to promptly alert their communities and a half times as likely to be abstinent as
of a serious and ongoing threat (for example, of mate they have been Gen Xers were at that age.” The reasons for
when there is an active shooter on campus) taught to prefer. this are hard to know, and doubtless complex.
has been interpreted to require an e-mail blast But a conflictual view of sex is surely part of
to all students and faculty when there has the picture. We get a glimpse of the changes
been a reported incident of “unwanted touch- the Office of the Dean for Student Life and afoot from a November 2017 Economist/You-
ing and grinding.” As Gersen and Suk say, its sprawling apparatus (Harvard, for example, Gov poll which found that 17% of Americans
has over 50 Title IX administrators on staff). ages 18 to 29 now believe that a man inviting
this sort of live incident-by-incident A schematic description of inherently a woman out for a drink “always” or “usually”
e-mail blast is not just reporting. It is messy experience saves us the difficult, hu- constitutes sexual harassment.
constructing the environment in which manizing effort of interpretation. Taking up “No one approaches anyone in public any-
students and employees live and work. the flattened understanding offered by the bu- more,” said one of Julian’s informants. It’s
Such messages communicate that the reaucrats can be a relief. On campus, we see a safer to find a mate online, where the ambi-
university is a sexually dangerous place. reduction of the entire miasma of teenage sex- guities have been dispelled by the mere fact
They remind us that the educational en- ual incompetence—with its misplaced hopes of finding one another on the dating app. No
vironment contains a constant exposure and callow cruelties—to the legal concept of boldness is required, no crossing that line, as
to underlying sexual risk, and that the consent. Sufficiently catechized in consent- one must do when romantic initiative is exer-
bureaucracy is monitoring. talk, a young woman may be left with no cised within the routines of daily life. Instead
other vocabulary for articulating her unhap- it is hived off into a separate realm of screens
To spend formative years in such an institu- piness and confusion over a sexual encoun- where one simply follows a script that is tacit
tion is to learn that relations between men ter. Accepting the simplified schema, it then in the dating app itself—another kind of bu-
and women are at bottom conflictual. Who becomes possible to speak sincerely of a cam- reaucratic supervision.
is served by this? The bureaucracy itself, for it pus “rape culture.” This adds some righteous Some of the young women interviewed
feeds on conflict. heat to her unhappiness and redeems the bad by Julian feel bereft of male attention, and
Under the Clery Act that governs universi- sexual experience as a political awakening. can only fantasize what it might be like to
ties, lack of consent triggers the reporting re- Thus does “youthful idealism” get harnessed have a serendipitous encounter in which
quirements for an act of sexual misconduct. to the expansion of police powers. Behavior a man chats you up in a bookstore, for ex-
But what consent consists of is not defined. that once would have gotten a young man ample, after noticing your good taste in
As Gersen and Suk detail, some schools de- condemned as a cad—he “took advantage” books. But they also dismiss this fantasy as
fine consent in such a way as to render most of a girl—is called sexual assault. A term of anachronistic, or somehow wrong. It doesn’t

Page 36
make sense to want to be flirted with, given one’s thought, an endless self-questioning grass and stops. She has made her own damn
the paranoia they have been schooled in. A to flush out any secret fornication lurking in parking spot. “Somebody in this family’s got
young woman’s desire for intimacy may have the inmost recesses of the mind.” to wear the pants,” she says to herself.
to become fairly acute before it can puncture This passage could serve well to describe In another Kia ad, a family is leaving a
the protective layer of hostile political inter- the burden of self-suspicion borne by the football game in which their young son has
pretation laid upon her by institutions. One male feminist, stewing over his privilege. It is played. The husband, beaming with support-
way to soften that membrane is with alcohol, vigilance not merely against acts but against iveness, says to the son, “You played a great
which perhaps helps to account for the role it impure thoughts and gazes. The antique term game today, buddy!” Once again, we hear the
plays in college. “fornication” is apt in this setting, if we take it woman’s silent thoughts from the driver’s seat:
Why do so many college women flock to to mean illegitimate male desire. If a man’s de- “Not really. He’s just…not good.”
frat parties, even now? For reasons that vary, sire is directed toward a woman, its legitimacy In these ads, it falls to the woman to bring
presumably. It may be that some simply don’t is ipso facto a matter for scrutiny. certain energies that we still associate with
believe the institutional rape talk. Or perhaps The class of young men who go to elite col- men in our backsliding moments: the power
they find it just plausible enough to be a little leges feel this long before they arrive, and it of decisive action and risk-taking, an instinc-
bit exciting. (A data scientist examining the surely plays a role in the project of adolescent tive contempt for weakness, and clear-sighted
vast trove of searches on the porn site Porn- self-fashioning. Who hasn’t noticed that ste- disregard for feel-good fluff, in the name of re-
Hub found that, among viewers, women are reotypically gay-sounding speech and other ality. Good for her. As she rightly says, some-
more than twice as likely as men to search affectations have gone mainstream, adopted body’s got to wear the pants.
for violent and nonconsensual sex acts.) It by young males who aren’t in fact homosex- Plutarch relates that when the army of a
seems more likely the excitement comes from ual? This would seem to be a case of “perfor- certain city was routed, retreating to safety
escaping the heavy administrative hand that mative disaffiliations with heterosexuality,” in within the city walls, the mothers of the city
lays upon them. Presumably these are the re- the words of writer Indiana Seresin. I take it closed the gate against them, climbed up on
bellious ones, less inclined to adhere to the to be the waving of a cultural white flag with the wall, lifted their skirts, and said, “what are
scripts repeated by the grownups. respect to one’s own masculinity, by which you doing—trying to climb back in here?” The
Most people are not rebellious, and one one declares oneself a non-threat and seeks army went back out to fight, and prevailed.
can speculate further whether the invest- approval for this gesture. Once, in the staging area where contes-
ment of our institutions in exaggerating sex- tants were preparing for a dangerous mo-
ual conflict might help to account for the ris- Wearing the Pants torcycle race, I heard a woman who looked
J
ing cultural prestige of homosexuality. For a remarkably like Roseanne Barr bark at a
man, to be gay is the only way to be beyond ean-jacques rousseau said that if you lanky young man with a hesitant look on his
reproach. For a woman, to be gay is the only want men to be virtuous, teach women face whom I took to be her son: “Quit being
way to be safe. Conversely, to be a straight what virtue is. He meant that in exercis- a f--king vagina!” It was perhaps a saltier ver-
male, especially one who identifies as femi- ing their prerogative to be sexually choosy, sion of the sentiment that Plutarch records
nist, requires constant vigilance against the women exert a formative influence on men, among the Spartan women, who would tell
corrupting influence of his own most basic who will adapt themselves to be pleasing to their sons going off to battle, “return with
inclinations. women. There is now a simmering discontent your shield, or on it.” The lower middle class
Michel Foucault, in his essay “The Battle that some women feel with the type of mate is where patriarchy is said to remain the
for Chastity,” wrote of sexual renunciation in they have been taught to prefer, and through most unreconstructed. Yet such patriarchy,
early Christianity, documenting a shift that that preferring brought into existence. if that is what it is, appears quite compatible
occurred from simple prohibitions to com- Advertising offers a useful window onto with cock-sure women who seem to have no
plex techniques of self-analysis. “With Ter- the state of culture. A woman is behind the problem controlling their men—if necessary,
tullian [circa A.D. 200] the state of virginity wheel of a Kia SUV, her husband in the pas- by berating them to “man up.”
implied the external and internal posture of senger seat, the kids in back. They have ar- The bourgeois wife depicted in the Kia ad
one who has…adopted the rules governing rived at a crowded event and are looking for probably went to college and feels she doesn’t
appearance, behavior and general conduct parking. The husband, looking backward, have permission to express such backward,
that this renunciation involves.” A couple of says, “We should take that spot.” The woman “gendered” demands. Instead she festers in si-
centuries later, a new arena of asceticism had says nothing and keeps driving. A strong and lent contempt—such is the price of having a
opened up. “This has nothing to do with a silent type, she is used to keeping her own respectable family that embraces ideological
code of permitted or forbidden actions, but counsel in the face of such capitulation. But reform.
is a whole technique for analyzing and diag- we see the play of contempt on her face and
nosing thought, its origins, its qualities, its hear a voiceover that is her sarcastic internal Matthew B. Crawford is a senior fellow of the
dangers, its potential for temptation and all monologue: “Yeah, or we could drive back University of Virginia’s Institute for Advanced
the dark forces that can lurk behind the mask home, park, and walk here.” To the alarm of Studies in Culture and the author, most recently,
it may assume.” What is required is “a sus- her husband she proceeds forward and off the of Why We Drive: Toward a Philosophy of
piciousness directed every moment against pavement. The SUV climbs a steep berm of the Open Road (William Morrow).

Page 37
Book Review by Andrew Roberts
Conference Confidential
The Daughters of Yalta: The Churchills, Roosevelts, and Harrimans: A Story of Love and War, by Catherine Grace Katz.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 416 pages, $28
“T
he only hope for the world is Abbey-style soap opera, Sarah Churchill was None of these connections deterred the
the agreement of the Great Pow- married to the comedian Vic Oliver but in American diplomat Alger Hiss from work-
ers,” Winston Churchill wrote to love with the U.S. Ambassador to the United ing for Soviet Intelligence throughout the
Anthony Eden as they were about to leave for Kingdom, Gil Winant; Winant’s successor as conference. FDR’s confidant Harry Hopkins
the Yalta Conference in the Crimea in Feb- ambassador in London, Averell Harriman, was intended to make Hiss secretary of state if
ruary 1945. “If they quarrel, our children are married to Marie Whitney but in love with Roosevelt died before the 1944 elections and
undone.” In retrospect, the world might have Churchill’s daughter-in-law, Pamela Harriman, if Hopkins had been elected president.
been a better place if there had been a quar- who also had love letters written to her by two Although Anna Boettiger hadn’t been told
rel at Yalta, a chance to establish positions other delegates at Yalta, including Marshal of precisely what was wrong with her father’s
properly before Stalin imposed the Cold War the Royal Air Force Sir Charles Portal; Eden health—he was only two months away from
on the West and used the conference to lie to was married to Beatrice Eden but later fell in dying of acute congestive heart failure—nei-
Churchill and President Franklin Roosevelt love and married Churchill’s niece, Clarissa ther had anyone else. “But Anna was no fool,”
about his plans for Eastern Europe. With over Avon. Katz is adept at placing these and many the author points out. “There had to be a
a million Red Army troops occupying Poland, other relationships in those highly politically reason why her father was taking new medi-
Churchill and Roosevelt couldn’t have done and sexually charged wartime days in their cations, why his diet now closely resembled
much, but they could have laid down some proper social and chronological contexts. that of her toddler, and why the new doctor
markers for the future. insisted FDR work no more than four hours a
“S
Although Stalin did not bring any of his talin was a merciless and wily day.” When she was eventually told the truth
children along to Yalta, a surprising num- autocrat,” Katz writes, “but Churchill by the young Bethesda Naval Hospital cardi-
ber of the other participants did, including was willing to believe he would be a ologist Howard Bruenn, she in turn told no
Churchill, whose aide-de-camp was his beau- man of his word.” It was true. “If only I could one, not even her mother, Eleanor Roosevelt.
tiful 30-year-old actress daughter, Sarah dine with Stalin once a week,” Churchill said For all its horrible imperial connections,
Oliver. There was also the 27-year-old Kathy with unusual naïveté, “then there would be the 116-room palace was still smaller than
Harriman, daughter of the U.S. ambassador no trouble at all.” There was always some- the 10,000-square-foot Arden House in the
to the USSR Averell Harriman, and Anna thing profoundly sinister in Stalin choosing Hudson River Valley in which Kathy Har-
Roosevelt Boettiger, FDR’s 38-year-old el- the Livadia Palace in Yalta as the venue for riman grew up, the daughter of America’s
dest child and only daughter. Even Lavrentiy the last Big Three conference of the European fourth-richest man. “Puff” Harriman, as she
Beria, chief of the Soviet secret service, the war, and in where he chose to house President was nicknamed, turns out to be the toughest
NKVD, brought along his son, Sergo. This Roosevelt. It had been the summer residence of the three women, all of whom worshipped
well-researched, well-written, and evocative of the Romanovs where Tsar Nicholas II’s their fathers. Katz rightly does not argue
book tells the story of the conference through young children had enjoyed holidays. When that Yalta was a defining moment in any of
the eyes of Sarah, Kathy, and Anna, with ex- you go there today, you can see the bedrooms the three daughters’ lives, nor that they influ-
tensive use of their contemporary correspon- of the young Tsarevich Alexei and his four enced the conference in any way, but she has
dence, and then briefly tracks their stories sisters; indeed, Grand Duchess Olga celebrat- produced a new, absorbing prism through
through to their deaths. ed her 16th birthday in the white ballroom which to view the tragedy that was Yalta.
The interrelationships of the three British downstairs. The whole place is redolent of
and American families are well-explored by the happy young family whom the Bolsheviks Andrew Roberts is the author of many books, in-
historian Catherine Katz, who has worked then murdered in cold blood with bullets and cluding, most recently, Leadership in War: Es-
hard in all the relevant archives. At the risk of finished off with bayonets on the orders of sential Lessons from Those Who Made His-
sounding like recapping the plot of a Downton Stalin’s Politburo comrades in 1918. tory (Viking).

Page 38
Book Review by David P. Goldman
Indecent Interval
Henry Kissinger and American Power: A Political Biography, by Thomas A. Schwartz.
Hill and Wang, 560 pages, $35
H
“Here’s my strategy on the Cold War. We win, Initiative convinced Moscow it could not enry kissinger was the primary
they lose.” defeat NATO. The Communist empire col- architect of the establishment strat-
—Ronald Reagan, 1977 lapsed before the decade was through. egy. Equal parts Doctor Strangelove
Reagan defeated the Soviets despite the and Professor Harold Hill, Kissinger sold his
T
o win the cold war america first open hostility of America’s foreign policy es- buncombe to eager buyers from the media, ac-
had to show it could win a hot war. The tablishment and the reluctance of a fair part of ademia, and political elite. His reputation rose
Israeli air force’s decimation in 1973 his own cabinet. The reigning academic wis- inversely with his accomplishments. Vander-
by a Russian-armed Arab coalition led Mos- dom, informed by game theory, thought win- bilt historian Thomas Schwartz’s new book,
cow to conclude it could win a conventional ning impossible. Players with roughly equal Henry Kissinger and American Power: A Po-
war in Europe. Subsequent Soviet aggression forces could only annihilate each other or litical Biography, reports in painstaking detail
reflected this confidence. But by the 1980s reach a détente. The establishment embraced the shambles Kissinger made of his most im-
American technological advances and Presi- this pseudo-scientific mathematicised nuclear portant initiatives. The sole exception—1972’s
dent Ronald Reagan’s determination to defeat strategy and its concomitant shibboleths: flex- opening to China—was Richard Nixon’s idea,
the Soviets steadily turned the tables. In 1982 ible response, limited nuclear war, counter- and succeeded in spite of Kissinger’s opposi-
U.S.-backed Israelis destroyed the Russian- value versus counterforce targeting, strategic tion. Everything Kissinger undertook—with-
built Syrian air force. A year later America’s arms limitation, and so forth. The Soviets drawal from Vietnam, Strategic Arms Limi-
deployment of Pershing II missiles and Rea- humored their American counterparts—and tation Talks, 1971’s South Asia crisis, Arab-
gan’s announcement of the Strategic Defense prepared to win an actual war. Israeli peace talks—turned out a dog’s break-

Page 39
fast. Never in the course of diplomacy was so time, particularly to the situation obtaining
New From
much botched for so many by so few. North on D+15, D+30, D+45, etc.” That’s gibberish,
Vietnam humiliated the United States, Rus- but Kissinger delivered it with such style his
sia cheated on nuclear arms, and the Israelis bewildered listeners were convinced he must
SUNY Press and Arabs returned to war. But the establish-
ment wanted reassurance about peace in our
know something.
K
time, and Dr. Kissinger told them what they issinger hoped to land a job in
wanted to hear. John F. Kennedy’s administration,
but the president disagreed with him
S
chwartz’s biography is focused, on limited nuclear war. Schwartz observes
readable, and tightly constructed. In that critics “accused Kissinger of delusion in
contrast to Niall Ferguson’s authorized thinking that the United States and the So-
presentation of Kissinger as an idealist thrust viet Union would ever be able to limit a nu-
into the harsh world of Realpolitik (Kissinger: clear exchange, and said that he was propos-
1923–1968: The Idealist [2015]), Schwartz ing ridiculous ‘Marquis of Queensbury rules
depicts him as Klemens von Metternich—as in the midst of a nuclear war.’” Obligingly,
played by Groucho Marx: “Those are my prin- “Kissinger now advocated a conventional arms
ciples. And if you don’t like them, well, I’ve buildup,” and since “the dividing line between
got others.” It’s a testament to his authorial conventional and nuclear weapons is more fa-
Develops a theory of spiritual freedom
integrity that this impression emerges despite miliar and therefore easier to maintain…he
and explores its relationship to problems Schwartz’s establishment bias and admiration moved his own position to where he thought
of liberal political regimes. for Kissinger. The author doggedly follows Kennedy’s was.”
the facts where they lead and paints warts What was Kissinger’s actual position?
where they appear. It depended on whom he was talking to. In
Kissinger, a German émigré who taught 1968, reports Schwartz, he “sought to posi-
government and international relations at tion himself for a high foreign policy position
Harvard University throughout the 1950s no matter who won the election,” leaking to
and ’60s before serving in the Nixon and the Republicans information gleaned by his
Ford administrations, was long an estab- Vietnam trips as a consultant for the Johnson
lishment—and media—darling. In 1955, Administration. As one of his friends put it,
Schwartz writes, he began a “lasting odd- “Whether they were conservatives or liberals,
couple relationship” with establishment each one felt that Kissinger understood their
doyen Nelson Rockefeller, whose patronage point of view and may have been sympathetic
gave the young Harvard professor “access to with it.”
Rockefeller’s enormous resources and con- When Richard Nixon named Kissinger
Presents a new way of thinking about tacts.” Kissinger’s 1957 attack on President his National Security Advisor in 1969, “New
fundamental political concepts such as Dwight Eisenhower’s doctrine of massive re- York Times columnist Tom Wicker noted
freedom, justice, and the common good. taliation, Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy, ‘the collective sigh of relief that went up from
made him the best-known advocate for the the liberal Eastern establishment, and the
then-novel idea of tactical nuclear strikes in Ivy League.’” Kissinger was chosen to mol-
a limited nuclear war. lify the establishment and curry favor in the
Kissinger excelled at telling his audience press. His first magic trick was “linkage with
what it wanted to hear. At one point in his the Soviet Union” and “a deadline for military
biography Ferguson characterizes Kissinger escalation against North Vietnam to end the
as the very model of a modern game-theorist, Vietnam War.” Kissinger failed; the United
who “for many years…exchanged ideas on States abandoned the South Vietnamese and
European affairs and nuclear strategy” with resumed Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
game-theory guru Thomas Schelling. Else- (SALT) without linkage. Despite the failure
where Ferguson asserts the opposite, writ- of his advice, Kissinger emerged as the most
ing that Kissinger avoided “[t]he greatest de- celebrated figure in the Nixon Administration.
fect of the academic strategists of the 1960s,” Kissinger’s response to Pakistan’s 1971
This archive-based study of the
namely their “love of abstraction, taken to massacres in East Bengal was no more suc-
philosophy of Leo Strauss provides
in-depth interpretations of key texts and
its logical extreme in game theory. Kissinger, cessful. According to Schwartz,
their larger theoretical contexts. by contrast, thirsted to make the dilemmas
of the nuclear age more concrete.” Whatever Nixon’s and Kissinger’s belief that sup-
does that mean? Ferguson quotes Kissinger: porting Pakistan was essential to Chi-
“Much of our planning has concerned itself na was only an assumption, resting on
mostly with the forces required for D-day and the hubris of the two men who thought
for a single crisis. If the above analysis is cor- they understood Chinese national in-
Available online at www.sunypress.edu rect, more consideration should be given to terests better than the Chinese them-
or call toll-free 877-204-6073 the process by which local crises develop over selves…. Kissinger traveled to New

Page 40
York to tell the new Chinese ambas- fore the end of the second term,” Kiss-
sador to the United Nations, Huang inger replied, “Fat chance.”
Hua, that the United States would
support China if the country decided Some historians—notably John Lewis
to move against India. Kissinger used Gaddis—consider Nixon’s opening to China
the conversation to offer satellite in- the definitive move in America’s eventual
telligence on the disposition of Soviet Cold War victory. This is overstated—the
forces…. He told Nixon, “If the So- revolution in U.S. military technology and
viets move against them and then we the Reagan military buildup were more im-
don’t do anything, we’ll be finished.” portant—but Nixon’s maneuver did contain
Nixon responded, “So what do we do the damage to U.S. interests from the fall
if the Soviets move against them? Start of Vietnam and helped America remain the
lobbing nuclear weapons in, is that dominant military power in Asia for the next Europe and the Decline
what you mean?” 40 years. With China’s ascent to strategic ri- of Social Democracy
valry with the United States, it has become
Fortunately China did not want to intervene fashionable to regard Nixon’s China policy as in Britain
and a broader war did not break out. an error. Hindsight is cheap: Nixon couldn’t
have foreseen the later gullibility of a foreign From Attlee to Brexit
D
espite his failures, kissinger’s policy establishment that believed a prosper- ADRIAN WILLIAMSON
popularity remained politically ous China would also become democratic.
useful to Nixon. Unlike Kissinger,
D
Nixon had contempt for arms control as an espite kissinger’s bungling of
expression of the “pathetic idealism” of the the May 1972 SALT negotiations—
establishment. Nonetheless, writes Schwartz, he deliberately excluded American
experts from his entourage in order to main-
by 1971 he recognized that it was a tain control over negotiations—Kissinger
political and economic imperative…. “was now a global superstar.” In 1973 he polled
[He] knew “the SALT thing would be as “the most admired man in America, sur-
enormously important” to his political passing Richard Nixon and Billy Graham,”
prospects…. In Nixon’s view, the estab- with an 85% approval rating. He won the No-
lishment media—the TV networks and bel Peace Prize in 1973 for the de facto sur-
the Eastern liberal newspapers—had render of South Vietnam. One may argue the
anointed Kissinger, and for political merits of the Paris accords, but diplomatic
reasons it was important for the ad- genius is not required to cut losses and leave.
ministration to use that popularity. The U.S. policy suffered a setback with Egypt’s
announcement of the breakthrough in October 1973 surprise attack on Israel, a
the SALT talks…was the featured news proxy war in which Soviet personnel manning
item on all three networks, with the Egyptian air defenses and Russian anti-tank
CBS commentator Eric Sevareid noting weapons proved Soviet arms held a key ad-
directly how it would improve Nixon’s vantage over American tanks and airframes. “Essential reading for anyone
chances for reelection. As former Deputy Secretary of Defense Bob who wants to go beyond
Work explained in 2016, the Westminster games and
From the beginning of his presidency,
Nixon planned an opening toward China as the Yom Kippur War provided dramat-
understand the deep causes
a flank against the Soviet Union. “We should ic evidence of advances in surface-to-air of the current crisis.”
give every encouragement to the attitude that missiles…. Israeli armored forces were —Fintan O’Toole,
this Administration is ‘exploring possibilities savaged by…antitank guided munitions.
of raprochement [sic] with the Chinese,’” Nix- U.S. analysts cranked their little mod- columnist at the Irish Times
on instructed Kissinger. Kissinger thought els and extrapolated that the balloon
Nixon crazy: went up in Europe’s central front and Offering a much-needed historical
we had suffered attrition rates compa- perspective to the current political crisis
in Britain, this book explores the country’s
“Our Leader has taken leave of real- rable to the Israelis. U.S. tactical air
gradual disenchantment with both social
ity,” Kissinger remarked to [Alexander] power would be destroyed within sev-
democracy and the EEC/EU, culminating
Haig, but he ordered an NSC study of enteen days, and NATO would literally
in the 2016 vote for Brexit.
relations with the Communist giant. run out of tanks.
When [Chief of Staff H.R.] Haldeman September 2019, $34.95/£25
told Kissinger in July 1969—during a While the foreign policy establishment ISBN: 9781783274437, 384 pp., HB
worldwide trip in which Nixon was ask- lay entranced with visions of arms control,
ing the Pakistanis and Romanians to Russia built the capability to win a rapid
signal China of his interest—that Nix- conventional war against NATO—and www.boydellandbrewer.com
on “seriously intends to visit China be- demonstrated it in Egypt and the Sinai. The

Page 41
N
Yom Kippur War “caught American intel- litical elite cowered before the Russian threat. early a centenarian, dr. kissing-
ligence agencies flat-footed,” Schwartz re- Russia had introduced the SS-20 intermedi- er has become the next best thing to
ports. Kissinger’s response was “to preserve ate range ballistic missile in 1976. If they at- our Delphic Oracle, offering opaque
détente with the Soviet Union.” He failed tacked Western Europe with nuclear weapons, pronouncements on the state of the world. Last
to grasp that surface-to-air missiles coordi- no American president would risk a second year he declared at a Beijing conference:
nating with anti-aircraft cannon had shifted strike on American soil by launching nuclear
the power balance. Even after he “recognized missiles against Russia. As Nixon had fore- It is no longer possible for one side to
that the situation had changed, Kissinger seen, “[f]lexible response” was “baloney” and dominate the other. We are in the foot-
still clung to the hope that the United States the American nuclear umbrella “a lot of crap.” hills of a new Cold War…. We do not at
could escape from the crisis with détente and German Defense Minister Helmut Schmidt present have a mechanism for political
relations with the Arabs intact.” quipped that “the definition of a tactical discussions with China. It is all being
Contrary to his expectations, Israel lost nuclear weapon was a nuclear weapon that done through trade talks…. China is a
over a hundred American-built military air- explodes in Germany.” The culmination of continental power, the U.S. a naval pow-
craft and more than a thousand tanks. The Kissinger’s long dance with détente was a deer. If the two superpowers are forced to
price of oil quadrupled as Arab oil produc- moralized NATO, a weakened United States, take opposite positions, conflict is like-
ers declared an embargo against the United and a wave of Soviet subversion throughout ly…. So a discussion of our mutual pur-
States. Russia enjoyed a windfall from its the Third World. poses and an attempt to limit the impact
own oil sales, and the United States econo- of conflict seems to me essential. If con-
C
my sank into recession. With the fall of Sai- ontrary to kissinger and his flict is permitted to run unconstrained,
gon in April 1975, the United States added zero-sum strategic game, Reagan the outcome could be even worse than it
strategic humiliation to the misery of the followed Carl von Clausewitz: to was in Europe. World War I broke out
oil-induced recession combined with high prevail, a power must be willing to fight because a relatively minor crisis could
inflation. and win a real war. Another proxy war in not be mastered.
the Middle East—the engagement of Israeli
K
issinger’s halo was tarnished and Syrian air forces in June 1982—showed That Kissinger’s proposed “mechanism” for
by 1975. Too many things had gone that superior American avionics, with help a “discussion of our mutual purposes” will solve
wrong, above all détente. He kept from Israeli drone technology, could anni- our problems with China seems fanciful. There
his job at the State Department under Presi- hilate Russia’s surface-to-air missiles. The is no lack of clarity about China’s ambition.
dent Ford, but even Kissinger’s core constitu- combination of look-down radar, AWACS Unlike Soviet Russia, which impoverished its
ency, the media, had begun to turn on him. (Airborne Warning And Control System), people to build its military power, China pro-
Schwartz recounts: and drones enabled Israel to destroy 29 out duces butter as well as guns, and has boosted
of the Syrians’ 30 surface-to-air missile bat- personal consumption eight-fold in the past 30
Barrie Dunsmore, ABC’s diplomatic teries in the Beqaa Valley and shoot down years. Its designs are not territorial but tech-
correspondent, started a report that con- nearly 90 Russian-built planes with mini- nological: it wants to dominate what Chinese
trasted Kissinger’s position…when he mal Israeli losses. The Russian General Staff planners call the Fourth Industrial Revolution
was “Super K,” at the “height of his ca- was stunned. When Reagan announced the and control the Eurasian continent through a
reer” and “everybody’s favorite,” with his Strategic Defense Initiative the following combination of technology and infrastructure.
current situation, when he had become year, the Russians knew that they could not China’s leaders are connoisseurs of power,
“everybody’s favorite target.” Dunsmore keep pace with American technology. That’s and little else. And power today is technology.
assembled an impressive list of attacks on why great powers have allies: to do the dirty The lesson we should learn from Kissinger’s
Kissinger: the Senate Intelligence Com- work they can’t or won’t do themselves. failure and Reagan’s success is simple: Amer-
mittee’s report criticizing Kissinger’s role Reagan came closer to real war than he ex- ica’s position in the world rests on techno-
in the overthrow of the Chilean govern- pected during Operation Able Archer in No- logical superiority. Under Reagan the United
ment; the congressional testimony of the vember 1983. By then the United States had States devoted 1.4% of GDP, or $300 billion a
former chief of naval operations Admiral deployed Pershing II intermediate range mis- year in today’s dollars, to basic R&D, with an
Elmo Zumwalt, who accused Kissinger siles in Germany and Italy, and the Russians agenda directed by the Defense Department.
of lying about Soviet violations of the weighed the possibility that NATO planned We remade the world. Today the proportion
SALT treaty; and James Schlesinger’s a preemptive strike under the cover of a mili- is 0.6% of GDP, and even the most ambitious
characterization of détente as weakness tary exercise. The Kremlin Old Guard pon- proposals circulating in Congress would re-
toward the Soviet Union. dered war then in the belief that NATO’s store only a small fraction of the difference.
growing advantage would make it impossible We have a choice: return to Reagan’s win-
Emboldened by the triumph of its anti- to fight in the future. The Kremlin was cowed, ning approach or defer to China. With his
aircraft weaponry and convinced it could win though, by Reagan’s determination to achieve remarkable longevity, Henry Kissinger might
a war in Europe, the Soviet Union began a victory rather than a game-theoretical stale- still be available to negotiate another Ameri-
campaign of bullying and subversion. Jimmy mate. By now Moscow knew that it could not can surrender.
Carter withdrew the SALT II Treaty from win a conventional war, and it balked at fight-
Senate consideration in response to the So- ing a nuclear war. Unlike in Hungary in 1956 David P. Goldman is a columnist for the Asia
viet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979; presi- or Czechoslovakia in 1968, Russia didn’t send Times, a principal of Asia Times Holdings, and
dential candidate Reagan denounced the troops to crush the Polish and East German the author, most recently, of You Will Be As-
treaty as “fatally flawed.” Détente was dead demonstrations of 1989 because it knew it similated: China’s Plan to Sino-Form the
in Washington. In Europe, though, the po- was losing strategically. World (Bombardier Books).

Page 42
Book Review by Steven F. Hayward
A Towering Achievement
Margaret Thatcher: From Grantham to the Falklands, by Charles Moore.
Vintage, 928 pages, $20 (paper)
Margaret Thatcher: At Her Zenith: In London, Washington, and Moscow, by Charles Moore.
Vintage, 912 pages, $24 (paper)
Margaret Thatcher: Herself Alone, by Charles Moore.

Alfred A. Knopf, 1,056 pages, $40 (cloth)
L
eo strauss described winston A former editor of the Spectator, the neous recollections to provide an undoubt-
Churchill’s four-volume biography of Sunday Telegraph, and the Daily Telegraph, edly accurate narrative.
his great ancestor, the duke of Marl- Moore masters details of the policy contro-
D
borough, as “an inexhaustible mine of political versies that defined Thatcher’s long political espite moore’s sympathies for
wisdom and understanding, which should be career while ably depicting the people and Thatcher’s politics and regard
required reading for every student of political events that surrounded her. Some readers for her as a person, he criticizes
science.” With the recent publication of Herself will get more information than they would her mistakes. As in Churchill’s narratives,
Alone, the third, concluding volume of Charles prefer—such as Thatcher’s purchases at the Moore pauses from time to time to observe
Moore’s biography of Margaret Thatcher, it duty-free shop after a summit in Bermuda, the wider scene, offering wisdom and in-
is no exaggeration to place this epic work on or her apparel choices at various key mo- sight. Yet he conveys his judgments with a
the same plane as Martin Gilbert’s Winston S. ments—but the pace never drags. Moreover, light touch, never lapsing into the mawkish
Churchill, Robert Caro’s The Years of Lyndon this level of detail permits Moore to sort out sentimentality that frequently mars Caro’s
Johnson, or indeed Marlborough itself. discrepancies, mistaken accounts, and erro- otherwise compelling LBJ biography. Along

Page 43
“
One of the right’s most gifted and astute journalists.
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the way, Moore debunks many myths and conservative. Even Roger Scruton criticized gling the economy and robbing taxpayers
misconceptions. For example, Thatcher did her on this ground in the 1980s, though he were, Thatcher argued, a better example of
not say, “Don’t go wobbly on us, George,” to later retracted it. A core axiom of the Left’s selfishness.
President Bush after Saddam Hussein’s Iraq current obsession with “neoliberalism” is that
T
invaded Kuwait in 1990. Thatcher, along with Reagan, “gutted” the oday we ascribe her outlook to a
Moore presents the necessary analysis welfare state and unleashed the “cowboy capi- rebalancing between state and civil so-
of Thatcher’s character, the central factor talism” that led directly to the housing crisis ciety, but Moore explains that Thatch-
in her (or any politician’s) greatness, and and financial crisis of 2008. It is an exceeding- er’s view arose more from her religious sensi-
explains why her political opinions were of ly weak case for many reasons, but as Moore bilities, a consideration most accounts over-
secondary importance. From an early age we explains, Thatcher made few serious efforts to look. Moore calls Thatcher a Methodist who
see Thatcher reaching heterodox views from rein in social spending (“Public spending, as a “was not one of those who thought Christian-
her own reading and reflection as much as whole, was never cut”), and “in truth she was ity should be merely private, with nothing to
through formal education. Key elements of more open to the very different charge that say about the life of society.” Indeed, one of
her outlook, formed at a young age, included: she shied away from serious reform” of the Thatcher’s pious private secretaries regarded
a core attachment to the rule of law; a ha- welfare system. In fact, Thatcher felt as early her as “the most religious Prime Minister
tred of totalitarianism and a corresponding as the end of her first term that she should since Gladstone.”
opposition to leftist utopianism; an appre- have been bolder in challenging the British She took theology—and her interactions
ciation for a free-market economy (formed welfare state. with senior Anglican clergy who were most-
at a time when the enthusiasm for collec- ly critical or opposed to her—seriously. The
T
tivism and central planning was running at hatcher’s critics treat her com- religious component of her thinking owed
flood tide); and, surely not coincidentally, a ment that “There is no such thing as much to Edward Norman, the Cambridge
deep admiration for Churchill. Some of this society” as proof of unfeeling individu- theologian who dissented from the prevail-
orientation she acquired from her middle- alism, an unfair distortion that Moore cor- ing leftward drift of the Anglican Church.
class shopkeeper father, who was also a bor- rects. Contrary to the common perception, he Although appointing bishops to the Church
ough finance official in her hometown of argues that Thatcher “instinctively disliked of England was a mere formality by her time,
Grantham. But much of her thinking was mere individualism: what she was searching she once chided Robert Runcie, the archbish-
formed by reading the works of Friedrich op of Canterbury: “Why can’t we have any
Hayek, among others. Christian bishops?” “She had a preference for
Thatcher’s raw theologically orthodox bishops,” Moore says,
T courage explains
hatcher was an apprentice law- “whom she considered an endangered species.”
yer. Her appreciation for the rule of law When school curriculum reform came up
was deepened though her independent virtually all of her in her second term, she urged her education
study of Roman law, and she was much tak- actions. ministry to include explicit content about the
en with A.V. Dicey’s neglected 19th-century religious (and specifically Christian) heritage
classic, The Law of the Constitution. Through- of England. Predictably, Church leaders were
out her entire adult life she supplemented for was liberty in a strong moral and social opposed.
her reading by interacting with authors and order.” (He points to her strong opposition As a young woman Thatcher singled out
thinkers. After reading Allan Bloom’s Closing to proposals to institute a small charge for the Acts of the Apostles as her favorite book
of the American Mind (1987), for example, she library books: “People must always have ac- in the Bible, which may explain her energetic
hosted Bloom for lunch at Chequers. Robert cess to pull themselves up—that is why I will practice of spreading a message. One sur-
Conquest influenced her latent anti-Commu- never have charges for libraries.”) Individual prising fact that emerges from Moore’s ac-
nism, but she met, read, and kept in regular persons, she explained in an early lecture, only count of her many policy battles is how she
contact with Henry Kissinger, which didn’t exist in a rich social context of “family, clan, was much more flexible and compromising
prevent her from becoming a vocal critic of community and nation, brought up in mutual than ideologically dogmatic. The Thatcher
détente. (In fact it was the Soviets, reacting dependence…. ‘[L]ove thy neighbour as thy- who emerges is more cautious and deliber-
strongly to an anti-détente speech she deliv- self ’ express[es] this.” ate than widely believed. “‘Thatcherism’ was
ered in 1975 just after becoming Tory lead- To Thatcher, the welfare state’s ideological never a philosophy, but a disposition of mind
er, who first called Thatcher the “Iron Lady,” defect was transferring responsibility from and character embodied in a highly unusual
comparing her to Otto von Bismarck, Germa- the individual and civil society networks to woman.”
ny’s “Iron Chancellor.”) A 1975 meeting with the state, expecting government to solve life’s Key to that disposition of mind was her
Ronald Reagan, at that time a former gover- problems. She understood that “individual” understanding that whatever compromises
nor and future presidential candidate, lasted is an adjective rather than a noun: “And you may be necessary as a practical matter, it
twice the scheduled time and looms large in know, there’s no such thing as society. There was essential to keep the central principles
retrospect. are individual men and women, and there are and core ideas front and center before the
One of Moore’s many invaluable services families. And no government can do things public at all times. Like Reagan, she under-
is explaining Thatcher’s political philosophy, except through people…. It’s our duty to stood that persistent argument would shape
mischaracterized by her enemies and even look after ourselves and then, also, to look compromises in your direction. Thatcher de-
many of her sympathizers and supporters. It after our neighbours.” “Far from advocating lighted in drawing the sharpest distinctions
has been commonly supposed, partly because selfishness,” Moore concludes, “she was ar- between the Conservative and Labour par-
of her stated affinity for Hayek, that she was guing against it, on the grounds of duty to ties, and welcomed conflict and confronta-
purely a libertarian individualist or “economic” neighbour.” Predatory labor unions stran- tion. She hated appeals to “consensus” and

Page 45
“national unity,” rightly regarding such watery were almost entirely the work of her treasury was hugely unpopular with the public and her
terms as evasions of clarity and the necessity department. own party, setting in motion the long train of
for decision. “No great party,” Thatcher said The Falklands War was crucial. Thatcher’s party intrigue to oust her in 1990. This “polit-
early in her political career, “can survive ex- first-hand memory of Britain’s capitulation in ical assassination,” says Moore, amounted to
cept on the basis of firm beliefs about what it the Suez crisis of 1956 left her determined “an unforgettable, tragic spectacle of a wom-
wants to do.” not to repeat that humiliation and retreat, but an’s greatness overborne by the littleness of
she had to overcome the deep equivocations of men.” His narrative of her downfall proceeds
N
igel lawson, one of her chancel- her own foreign office, the U.S. State Depart- day-by-day and even hour-by-hour, a feat of
lors of the exchequer with whom she ment, and her military service chiefs. “It is not forensic journalism producing a drama wor-
clashed sharply, said, “A key to under- mere flattery to say that only she could have thy of Hollywood.
standing Mrs. Thatcher was that she actually done it,” Moore writes. “The Falklands War
E
said what she believed.” Moore’s own gloss is brought out Mrs. Thatcher’s best qualities— ven with a restive party it was
that “[s]he had the radical’s total lack of embar- not only the well-known ones of courage, con- only by the narrowest margin that
rassment about arguing from first principles.” viction and resolution, but also her less adver- Thatcher was voted out, but she had
In a speech she delivered in Canada in 1975, tised ones of caution and careful study.” lived and governed on narrow margins
shortly after becoming Tory leader, Thatcher throughout her career. Moore thinks poorly
M
averred: “It is often said that politics is the art oore’s account makes a com- of the cabal that ousted her—“The tribe
of the possible. The danger of such a phrase pelling case that Thatcher deserves acted largely by instinct against the leader
is that we may deem impossible things which more credit than she gets for un- whom it had never fully accepted”—but also
would be possible, indeed desirable, if only we winding the Cold War, ending apartheid in assigns blame to Thatcher. She did not take
had more courage, more insight.” South Africa, making progress on Northern the leadership challenge seriously and was ab-
Thus, what emerges in Moore’s treatment Ireland, and for attempting, with less success, sent from London while the intrigue gathered
is that single most important virtue: courage. to make serious progress toward a settlement speed. Her rough personal relations with her
Beyond her natural political ability, evident in the Middle East. One other foreign policy male colleagues caught up with her. “Her vic-
very early when few women were recognized controversy remains highly salient—resis- tims could not have been expected to put up
in British politics, Thatcher’s raw courage ex- tance to the metastasizing European Union. with it for ever,” in Moore’s judgment. “After
plains virtually all of her success. Europeans—and much of her cabinet—were more than eleven years, most colleagues were
One startling aspect of her career that horrified by her hostility to the “European understandably sick to death of her…. As is
emerges from Moore’s narrative is precarious- project,” most memorably expressed in her often the case with great leaders—it makes
ness. Despite contrary perceptions, Thatch- statement that “We have not successfully them the subject of tragedy—her vices were
er’s economic policy over her 11 years in office rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, inseparable from her virtues.”
was often uncertain and halting. More im- only to see them re-imposed at a European Beyond the Brexit legacy, Moore’s three
portantly, she was never fully accepted by her level, with a European super-state exercising volumes have material relevant to 2020, such
own party establishment, and was effectively a new dominance from Brussels.” The proxi- as Thatcher’s remark that urban riots are
“on probation” for most of her first term. For mate controversy that caused a serious breach “crime masquerading as social protest” and
long periods in all three of her terms she and with her foreign minister and chancellor was that most British people “regard the police as
her Tory Party were down in the polls and Britain’s entry into the nascent European ex- friends.” The discussion of a proposed Tory
staring at electoral disaster. She turned things change rate mechanism, the first step to the campaign theme for the mid-1970s—“Who
around twice to achieve landslide re-elections, single currency that eventually appeared as governs Britain?”—seems ideal for our pres-
even though internal conflict and uncertainty the Euro. Thatcher was vehemently opposed, ent moment in the U.S. (The Tory leader-
pervaded the Conservatives. while her cabinet was in favor. She lost this ship rejected the theme in favor of a bland
The ineptitude and hard-left lurch of the battle in the short term, with cabinet resig- campaign, which disgusted Thatcher and
Labour Party helped, but her own stead- nations damaging her political standing and prompted her successful challenge to Ted
fastness was decisive. Her three greatest tri- contributing to her eventual ouster. After Heath as party leader.) Thatcher’s death cer-
umphs—winning the Falkland Islands war, 2016, however, it is clear that Thatcher’s re- tificate, Moore tells us at the end of the third
breaking the radical coalminers’ union, and sistance to European integration helped make volume, recorded her occupation as “States-
reviving the dynamism of the British econo- Brexit not only possible but necessary. woman (retired).” One of her favorite apho-
my through denationalization, deregulation, By her third term, as Moore’s title Herself risms was, “Time spent on reconnaissance is
and tax reform—were all close-run affairs. Alone attests, Thatcher was increasingly iso- seldom wasted.” Studying Thatcher through
But for her determination, each could have lated from many leading cabinet officials and Charles Moore’s eyes provides lessons about
ended disastrously. Other major policy at- much of her party. Ultimately, her position as statecraft that will never stale.
tainments resulted from traditional cabinet prime minister became untenable due to an
government at work. Moore explains that attempt to reform local government finance. Steven F. Hayward is a senior resident scholar
the famous industry privatizations—a term The so-called “poll tax”—which means a per at the Institute of Governmental Studies at U.C.
Thatcher disliked as “a dreadful bit of jargon capita tax in the British context, rather than Berkeley, a lecturer at Berkeley Law, and author
to inflict on the language of Shakespeare”— one on voting as it does in the American— of the two-volume Age of Reagan (Crown Forum).

Page 46
Book Review by Vincent J. Cannato
Contract Killers
Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich, the Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the New Republican Party,
by Julian E. Zelizer. Penguin Press, 368 pages, $30
I
n november 1994, republicans took grew restless as they watched Democrats might think the Democrats lost their leg-
control of the House of Representatives stymie President Ronald Reagan’s agenda. islative control at least partly because their
for the first time in 40 years. They won Gingrich rallied the beleaguered GOP be- leadership had become increasingly corrupt.
54 seats and defeated 34 Democratic incum- hind his “Contract with America” legislative Instead, Zelizer believes Gingrich and his al-
bents, including House Speaker Tom Foley agenda, promising stronger law enforcement, lies are wholly to blame for poisoning Ameri-
of Washington. It was a staggering and his- a balanced budget, and tax relief for the mid- can politics and ushering in a new era of divi-
toric victory. dle class. sive partisanship.
Much of it was thanks to Georgia Repre- Zelizer’s disdain for Gingrich oozes
G
sentative Newt Gingrich, who would become ingrich’s 1994 revolution is the through the pages of the book. Gingrich was
the new House Speaker. Since his 1978 elec- subject of Julian Zelizer’s breezy, a “reckless bomb-thrower” who acted like
tion to Congress, Gingrich had been leading fast-paced new book, Burning Down a “petulant child,” walked with a “doughboy
a guerrilla war against Democratic House the House: Newt Gingrich, the Fall of a Speak- gait,” engaged in “smug, know-it-all postur-
leadership. Being in the House minority is er, and the Rise of the New Republican Party. ing,” embraced a “bare-knuckle approach” to
never fun, but Democrats had grown in- Zelizer, a Princeton historian and CNN politics, and represented a “merciless version
creasingly dismissive of their Republican col- political analyst, sees the 1994 election as of the Republican Party.” In Zelizer’s nar-
leagues. Throughout the ’80s, Republicans an epochal moment. An objective observer rative, Gingrich’s no-holds-barred electoral

Page 47
tactics set a precedent for what was to come: Nixon during Watergate.” True enough, but
“Now nothing was out of bounds as to what somewhat irrelevant and hardly exculpatory.
Essential New Reads either party could do to the other in its drive
from NYU Press
N
to obtain a majority. Everything and everyone or was wright an isolated case.
was fair game.” Zelizer sees Gingrich as the Democratic Whip Tony Coelho,
successor to Senator Joseph McCarthy, whose who made a name for himself with
notoriously ferocious attacks against alleged his aggressive fundraising, resigned days af-
Hyper Communist influence in government pre- ter Wright amid accusations of financial im-
Education saged Gingrich’s “rabid political style.” That propriety involving the sale of junk bonds. A
Why Good Schools, style “became the echo chamber of the Re- couple of years later came the House post of-
Good Grades, and publican Party,” which of course set the stage fice and congressional bank scandals, which
Good Behavior Are for President Donald Trump. The 2016 elec- revealed that legislators were leveraging their
Not Enough tion played out the way it did because “Trump power and connections on the Hill for finan-
by Pawan Dhingra was thriving in the political world that Gin- cial gain. Although these scandals hardly rose
grich had created.” And so, in Zelizer’s eyes, to the level of Boss Tweed-style thievery, they
today’s Republican Party is the party of Mc- contributed to a general feeling that Demo-
“A well-researched work of interest
to parents and educators.”
Carthy, Gingrich, and Trump—the party of crats had long been abusing their House
—Library Journal the personal smear, the political low blow, and majority. Three House Democrats were con-
the racialized innuendo. victed on charges related to the bank scandal,
and one Democrat, the powerful Ways and
G
ranted, gingrich could be abra- Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski, was
Shortlisted sive and self-absorbed. By 1999, his convicted on mail fraud charges related to the
Women in the bumpy leadership as Speaker, his eth- post office.
Shadows of the ics problems, and an extramarital affair with Moreover, it is simply not true that po-
Supreme Court a congressional staffer led to his resignation. litical polarization originated with the GOP.
by Hannah Brenner But his opponents were no angels either. The Take the case of the 1984 Indiana congressio-
Johnson and Renee Democratic majority had long been indulging nal race between Democrat Frank McClos-
Knake Jefferson in the kind of petty corruption that blossoms key and Republican Rick McIntyre, who was
when arrogance is combined with unchecked certified the winner by 34 votes. Democrats
power. A major target of Gingrich’s attacks refused to seat McIntyre and decided to con-
“With fresh research, the authors was Democrat Jim Wright of Texas, Speaker duct their own recount which, miraculously,
effectively humanize the women who of the House from 1987 to 1989. A career found that McCloskey had won by four votes.
never received the nominations they politician with bushy eyebrows and a hair- Zelizer finds nothing amiss with Democrat-
deserved.” trigger temper, Wright was accused of influ- ic behavior in this story. But at least he tells
—Kirkus Reviews
ence peddling for various savings-and-loan it. He omits another crucial episode in the
companies. He had also published a book of history of inter-party relations: the smear
speeches and essays for which he received 55% campaign against Robert Bork when he was
A Pledge with royalties in a clear effort to get around House nominated to the Supreme Court in 1987,
Purpose regulations limiting honoraria and gifts. In epitomized in Ted Kennedy’s infamous Sen-
Black Sororities his effort to unseat Wright, Gingrich actually ate speech, “Robert Bork’s America.” If Zel-
reached out to collaborate with liberal good- izer wants McCarthyite rhetoric, he should
and Fraternities
government groups such as Common Cause, read Kennedy’s speech.
and the Fight for eventually prompting a damning Ethics Com- While downplaying the problems of the
Equality mittee investigation. Democrat-led House, Zelizer overstates the
by Gregory S. Parks
and Matthew W.
The final nail in Wright’s political coffin harm done by the Gingrich Republicans. In
Hughey was a scandal surrounding his top aide, John the decade after Wright’s resignation, Zel-
Mack, who years earlier had nearly murdered izer claims, “the scandal wars escalated to
“A must read for anyone interested in a young woman in Virginia. For reasons un- create one of the most contentious periods
how Black Greek Letter Organizations
impact the lives of Black people
known, Mack (whose brother had been mar- in the government’s history as the needs of
specifically, and America writ large.” ried to Wright’s daughter) received a light sen- governance and of legislating steadily took a
—Lawrence C. Ross, Jr., author of The tence and then went to work for Wright on back seat to the imperatives of intense par-
Divine Nine: The History of African Capitol Hill. When this story became public tisan warfare.” But did “the needs of gover-
American Fraternities and Sororities in the middle of Wright’s ethics investigation, nance and of legislation” really lose out to
his days as Speaker were numbered and he partisanship in the 1990s? In the ten years
resigned shortly thereafter. Zelizer consis- following Speaker Wright’s ouster, under
These titles are available in print and
tently downplays these charges and even por- both Democratic and Republican leadership,
digital formats. Order your digital copy trays Wright as a tragic hero, “a politician who Congress passed NAFTA and a number of
directly from your preferred eBook retailer. loved his party and loved Congress,” in con- other trade deals, welfare reform, the Family
trast to the cynical Gingrich. The allegations and Medical Leave Act, the Religious Free-
• nyupress.org against Wright, says Zelizer, “were not nearly dom Restoration Act, the Defense of Mar-
as significant as the allegations surrounding riage Act, the Brady Bill, the 1994 Crime

Page 48
Bill, the Taxpayer Relief Act (creating Roth to occur to Zelizer that the 1980 landslide of those scholars was Zelizer himself. That
IRAs), and the 1997 Balanced Budget Act. might have been the result of widespread time has passed, in part because of Obama-
Some of those bills have lost political support unhappiness with years of economic malaise, era messaging that there is a “right side of his-
since they became law, but they still make for as well as a desire to see U.S. foreign policy tory,” which permits the righteous to dismiss
an impressive legislative record. and military supremacy rehabilitated after and abuse those on the other side. The Trump
Vietnam. presidency has only exacerbated this trend.
T
here is no doubt that partisan Zelizer’s one-sided cluelessness can some- But make no mistake: this all predates Don-
rancor increased during the ’90s in the times elicit an indulgent chuckle, as when he ald Trump. If progressive liberalism is norma-
lead-up to Bill Clinton’s impeachment, describes David Brock as “a onetime Repub- tive, then opposition to it must be categorized
and that legislative gridlock began to take lican attack dog who had reformed his ways.” as transgressive. Republicans are “reaction-
hold after 2000. But that gridlock was more Apparently Zelizer is unfamiliar with Brock’s ary” and practice “backlash” politics, terms
a reflection of an evenly divided American long second life as a liberal “attack dog” at the that assume history inevitably moves in one
electorate than of an aggressive GOP. The George Soros-funded “fact-checking” web- direction toward a “progressive” future. Sadly,
Republican caucus split between “establish- site Media Matters. Other times, Zelizer’s Burning Down the House fits this pattern of re-
ment” Republicans incapable of leadership judgments are just plain nasty. He calls for- cent scholarship. Zelizer approvingly quotes
and an obstreperous Freedom Caucus that mer Pennsylvania congressman and Gingrich political scientists Thomas Mann and Nor-
prized ideological purity over legislative really Robert Walker “one of the most disliked man Ornstein, who wrote in their book It’s
sults. The Republican turn to Trump might members of the House, clad in unflattering Even Worse Than It Looks (2012) that “The
have been less a continuation of Gingrich’s and cheap three-piece suits.” I can’t find any- GOP has become an insurgent outlier—ideo-
politics than a symptom of frustration with one with experience on Capitol Hill during logically extreme...unpersuaded by conven-
Republicans’ performance in Congress since this time who believes this statement is any- tional understanding of facts, evidence, and
2000. where near true. science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its
Burning Down the House goes to extremes political opposition.”
O
of partisan bitterness. Zelizer exhibits the n a deeper level, zelizer’s bias It is fair to ask whether it isn’t Zelizer,
annoying tic of describing nearly every Re- exemplifies a worrisome trend in Ornstein, and Mann who are being “dismis-
publican with disparaging adjectives—this American political writing. Here we sive of the legitimacy” of their political op-
is nothing new, but it is a surprise to find have a book written by a well-respected aca- ponents. The current Republican Party has
even the Nobel-Prize-winning economist demic who bemoans our bitter partisan poli- many problems, but the attempt to pathol-
Friedrich Hayek described as a “conserva- tics. Yet he lacks the self-awareness to realize ogize the GOP is itself deeply anti-demo-
tive ideologue.” Worse yet, Zelizer argues that he has produced what can only be char- cratic. Unfortunately, I think we can expect
that Reagan’s 1980 election was “only...pos- acterized as a deeply partisan book. Reading more histories like this that seek to consign
sible after fifteen years of a brewing political Burning Down the House, one gets the feeling Republicans and conservatism, going back to
backlash toward the Democratic embrace of its author is upset not with Republican tactics Gingrich and even Barry Goldwater, to the
civil rights.” A strange statement consider- themselves, but with the fact that those tac- dustbin of history. But that isn’t history at
ing that Reagan won 489 electoral votes that tics are aimed at Democrats. all: it’s political calumny.
year. Had he lost every state of the Confed- This makes one nostalgic for the time, be-
eracy to Jimmy Carter, he would still have ginning in the 1990s, when scholars took Vincent J. Cannato teaches history at the Univer-
won with 371 electoral votes. It doesn’t seem conservative ideas and politics seriously. One sity of Massachusetts Boston.

Page 49
Book Review by Tevi Troy
Presidential Library
Author in Chief: The Untold Story of Our Presidents and the Books They Wrote, by Craig Fehrman.
Avid Reader Press, 448 pages, $30
B
y now we know what to expect $1.8 million in legal fees.) Fourteen presidents, ever read.” Clinton eventually cut 500 pages,
from a presidential memoir: a doorstop including the nine who served after John F. eschewing a two-volume approach, and told
of a book, with just enough tidbits to Kennedy, have written some kind of memoir Gottlieb, “You know, I finally get it about cut-
justify the multi-million-dollar advance, but upon leaving office, and one president—Jimmy ting!” Even with all of the edits, the book was
not quite enough to anger anyone who might Carter—has turned out nearly a dozen in the so large—close to 1,000 pages—that Jay Leno
be important to the ex-president’s lucrative years following his presidency. joked, “Even Clinton’s books are fat.” On the
post-White House existence. Fehrman observes that “[w]riting a book plus side, the book sold very well.
Yet post-White House memoirs weren’t before a presidential run, or writing a book
T
always like this. In fact, there is a long and after a presidency has ended, is now manda- hen there is the president as
storied history of presidents who have been tory in American politics.” Too often, how- reader. Fehrman tells this amusing tale
authors of books that display admirable liter- ever, these books are uninteresting, as well of Theodore Roosevelt’s wide-ranging
ary skill. Author in Chief, a labor of love that as too long. As Fehrman says of Harry Tru- reading:
took journalist and historian Craig Fehrman man’s memoir, “A book that was supposed to
ten years to write, is far more than just a jaun- capture the presidency and its cost too often Roosevelt complained that no one in his
ty tour through presidents, their books, and captured the presidency and its paper trail.” administration knew Alice’s Adventures
their American readership, although it is that. It “was an imperfect book,” he concludes, “a in Wonderland, to say nothing of Lewis
It is also a smart exploration of how the roles book with a better, slimmer volume working Carroll’s lesser works. He tried to joke
of both books and the presidency in Ameri- within.” with his secretary of the Navy, telling
can life have evolved throughout our history. him, “Mr. Secretary, what I say three
L
The most famous memoir by a former pres- yndon johnson made the mistake times is true.” All he got in response
ident was probably that of Ulysses S. Grant, of rejecting aides’ attempts to make his was groveling. “Mr. President,” the sec-
who, when swindled out of all his money in book, The Vantage Point (1971), sound retary replied, “it would never for a mo-
1884, had to write a book in order to provide more natural. Robert Hardesty, a Johnson ment have occurred to me to impugn
for his family. A big reader, especially in his speechwriter who was part of the book-writ- your veracity.”
youth, he was well-suited to the task. Feh- ing team (another bad sign), complained that
rman tells us that at West Point Grant “be- “[w]e’re going to make this guy sound like In the case of Woodrow Wilson, his love of
came so engrossed by reading that he once a prime minister.” Hardesty was right and detective novels was “widely reprinted and
received demerits for lingering in the library.” Johnson’s publisher lost money on the deal. helped change the genre’s perception, from
Complicating matters was the fact that the Ronald Reagan left office as a popular something puerile and pulpy to something a
Civil War hero was diagnosed with throat president beloved by his supporters. Yet he president might read.”
cancer. He moved to the Jersey Shore— phoned in the writing of Ronald Reagan: An Fehrman includes a picture of a 1904 ad that
cheaper than Manhattan—and raced to fin- American Life (1990), and readers could tell: compiled what Teddy Roosevelt as a younger
ish his book before the disease took his life. the ghost-written volume lacked his authen- man had written about previous presidents.
Mark Twain stepped in as publisher, which tic voice. Reagan himself even joked about the The ad suggested that someone with such
was a good partnership, as Grant and Twain book’s authorship, saying at a book launch judgments as “Monroe was a man of no special
were the two most famous men in America. press conference, “I hear it’s terrific. Maybe ability” and “Jackson was ignorant” lacked the
The nation followed Grant’s struggle with someday I’ll read it.” Funny perhaps, but not temperament to be reelected president.
great interest. Grant made it, just barely, fin- exactly what publishers want to hear from a Craig Fehrman’s examination of these dif-
ishing two days before he died. Thanks in part multi-million-dollar author. ferent facets of how a president can relate to
to Twain, the book was a huge financial suc- Bill Clinton was a recent, albeit qualified, books makes his own book a delightful con-
cess, earning his widow, Julia, the equivalent success on the memoir front. He wrote out tribution to the literature. The presidency re-
of more than $12 million in today’s dollars. My Life (2004) in longhand and collaborated mains one of the few shared touchstones in our
Perhaps still hoping for Grant-like success- closely with his editor, publishing execu- increasingly atomized social media culture. In
es, modern publishers pay enormous sums for tive Robert Gottlieb. Clinton had to, as the modern America, large masses of people no
books from former presidents. The Obamas Monica Lewinsky scandal had tarnished his longer watch the same TV shows or follow
reportedly received $65 million from Penguin reputation, and, as Hillary Clinton famously the same news sources anymore. Everyone,
Random House for their two memoirs. (Mi- said, “We came out of the White House not however, knows who the president is, which
chelle’s book, Becoming, came out in 2018; A only dead broke, but in debt.” is apparently what publishers are counting on.
Promised Land, the first volume of the former The process was far from easy. Gottlieb
president’s memoir, is due to appear on Novem- told Clinton “he would have to be completely Tevi Troy served as deputy secretary of Health and
ber 17, two weeks after Election Day.) George aboveboard about his womanizing, and in Human Services and deputy assistant to the presi-
W. Bush got a $7 million advance, Bill Clinton particular about the Lewinsky scandal.” Got- dent for domestic policy in the George W. Bush
$15 million, Ronald Reagan $6 million, and tlieb was also direct about scaling back, at one Administration, and is the author, most recently,
even scandal-plagued Richard Nixon got $2.5 point writing a marginal note to Clinton say- of Fight House: Rivalries in the White House
million. (He needed it, too, as he had accrued ing, “This is the single most boring page I’ve from Truman to Trump (Regnery Publishing).

Page 50
Essay by Sally C. Pipes
Health Care Is Not a Right

The single-payer con.
C
onventional wisdom holds that lieve that everyone should have a right to 50-year-long career, Senator Edward Ken-
the progressive dream of Medicare for health care regardless of their ability to pay. nedy pushed for a future in which, as he said
All died—or at least was deferred— But declaring something a right does not at the 2008 Democratic National Conven-
when Joe Biden secured the Democratic make it so. In fact, a government-guaranteed tion, “every American...will have decent qual-
presidential nomination. Many supposed the “right to health care” would undermine many ity health care as a fundamental right and not
former vice president would be more moder- of the other more fundamental rights that a privilege.” President Bill Clinton attempted
ate on health care than the president under Americans hold dear. much the same thing in the 1990s with his
whom he served. But recently Biden has start- unsuccessful push for universal health care,
ed sounding a lot more like Barack Obama or A False Choice dubbed “Hillarycare” after the First Lady was
even Senator Bernie Sanders. In early July, six put in charge of the project. In 2013, Presi-
A
unity task forces convened jointly by Biden t its core, the case for single- dent Obama defended the 2010 Affordable
and Sanders released their policy recommen- payer health care rests on the assump- Care Act he had signed into law—commonly
dations for a putative Biden Administration. tion that wealthy nations can afford to known as “Obamacare”—by declaring, “In
If implemented, they’d represent the most guarantee a right to health care. That seems the United States, health care is not a privi-
left-wing governing program in U.S. history. simple enough. Who could oppose a societal lege for the fortunate few, it is a right.” Demo-
The healthcare task force stopped short effort to make sure everyone has access to crats today are carrying on that quest to guar-
of endorsing Medicare for All. But Biden’s health care? It’s not a new idea. In 1948, the antee a right to health care.
“public option” alternative amounts to single- United Nations unveiled the Universal Dec- But their rhetoric presents a false choice.
payer in slow motion. Perhaps most alarm- laration of Human Rights. Article 25 of the Health care is neither a right for the many
ingly, the Democratic presidential hopeful declaration states, “Everyone has the right to nor a privilege for the few. It’s a good and a
has embraced the idea that Americans have a standard of living adequate for the health service, just like everything else in our mar-
a right to health care. That idea is certainly and well-being of himself and of his family, in- ket economy. Scarcity is one of the funda-
popular—nearly four in five Americans be- cluding...medical care.” Throughout his nearly mental concepts in economics: Societies

Page 51
New and Noteworthy Books from AEI Scholars
Getting the Most The Virginia
Bang for the Dynasty
Education Buck Four Presidents and the
Frederick M. Hess and Creation of the American
Brandon L. Wright Nation
September 18, 2020 Lynne Cheney
Publisher: Teachers College Press September 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-8077-6441-1 Publisher: Penguin Random House
How might school funds be ISBN: 978-1-1-0198-004-0
spent more effectively in today’s From a small expanse of
uncertain environment? This land on the North American
up-to-date volume explores a continent came four of the
range of ideas to help schools and districts better manage their nation’s first five presidents—a
resources, including how to rethink staffing and management, geographic dynasty whose members led a revolution, created a
how policymakers might revisit pension arrangements, how nation, and ultimately changed the world. George Washington,
educators and policymakers can leverage technology as a Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe were
performance-enhancer and not just a cost-cutting opportunity, born, grew to manhood, and made their homes within a 60-mile
and how districts might more properly assess the needs and pref- circle east of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Taking full measure of
erences of students and families. As American education enters strengths and failures in the personal and political lives of these
the next decade of challenges, including shortfalls due to the men, Lynne Cheney offers a concise and original exploration of
COVID-19 pandemic, Getting the Most Bang for the Education Buck how the United States came to be.
will be a valuable guide for how to spend dollars wisely and well.
After the
The China People Vote
Nightmare A Guide to the
The Grand Ambitions Electoral College
of a Decaying State
Edited by John F. Fortier
Dan Blumenthal Fall 2020
November 17, 2020 Publisher: AEI Press
Publisher: AEI Press ISBN: 978-0-8447-5033-0
ISBN: 978-0-8447-5030-9
The mechanisms that lead
Once viewed by states- to the final selection of
men and corporations as a president are complex.
a great hope, the People’s Some procedures are
Republic of China has sketched out in the orig-
evolved into America’s inal Constitution and its
most challenging strate- amendments, and others in
gic competitor. Even as it federal law, congressional rules and procedures, state laws, and
pursues great national ambitions, its future appears increasingly political party rules. This new, expanded edition of After the People
dystopian. The China Nightmare tells the story of how China got Vote—featuring new sections on public opinion on the Elec-
to this place and analyzes where it will go next and what that will toral College and proposals for amending the Electoral College
mean for the future of US strategy. Dan Blumenthal makes an system—explains how our system of electing a president works,
extraordinarily compelling case that China’s future could be dark, especially the processes that kick in after the November general
and the free world must prepare accordingly. election date.
AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE aei.org

have limited resources. They have to be ap- “Congress shall make no law respecting an
portioned somehow. Tradeoffs are inevitable. establishment of religion...or abridging the
Establishing a right to health care creates freedom of speech.” Our rights to freedom Kissing Fidel
the prospect of infinite demand for care. But of religion and speech don’t come from gov- A Memoir of Cuban American Terrorism
health care goods and services are necessarily ernment—government is simply prohibited in the United States
scarce. There’s no way to create an unlimited from infringing upon them. by Magda Montiel Davis
supply to meet that potential demand. As By contrast, positive rights give us some-
Northwestern University professor Craig thing and require someone else to give it to the iowa
prize for
Literary
Nonfiction
Garthwaite frequently points out, health us. The right to health care would be a posi-
$18.00
care is not a public good whose consumption tive right. If the government is to enforce paperback
the government can regulate, like parks or that right, then it will have to be the one to original
clean air. “If I consume health care services, directly provide or otherwise finance the pro-
someone else can’t,” said Garthwaite in an in- vision of health care. Negative rights can be KISSING 264 pages
FIDEL
8 b&w figures
terview with Vox. And so by dressing health defined and secured—that’s what our govern-
care up in the language of rights, single-payer ment does best. Defining the criteria for posi-
advocates are really calling for health care to tive rights, on the other hand, is tricky. What A Memoir of Cuban American
Terrorism in the United States
be free at the point of access—an impossible does a right to health care guarantee? Is it just MAGDA MONTIEL DAVIS
demand. Willing health care to be free is not a right to free medical care? Perhaps it’s a right
a financing plan. to quality medical care, or efficient medical
Clearly, though, economics is not a con- care. If so, which tradeoffs are we willing to
cern for those who maintain that there’s an make? The government can provide shoddy
Call My Name, Clemson
individual right to health care. Dr. Adam medical care to a lot of people quickly and Documenting the Black Experience in
Gaffney, the president of Physicians for a Na- an American University Community
by Rhondda Robinson Thomas
tional Health Program, said on the website
Common Dreams that making people pay Once the government
for health care “is just a way of punishing the is responsible for
sick and the poor.” The National Economic
and Social Rights Initiative (NESRI) gave guaranteeing a right to $19.95
paperback
Medicare for All “full marks for...providing health care, it has a claim original
equal care to all residents regardless of immi- Documenting the Black Experience
284 pages
to micromanage what we
in an American University Community
gration status, income, or past health record.” 8 b&w photos

Conspicuously absent from this analysis was
any discussion of how to pay for the plan. But
eat, how much we exercise, 12 color photos
even setting aside the practicalities of supply and how we comport

and demand: what would it actually mean to
have a right to health care?
ourselves. RHONDDA ROBINSON THOMAS
By What Right? cheaply. But that’s probably not what single- Wildland Sentinel
payer advocates have in mind. Field Notes from an Iowa
A
right is something to which a These and many other questions arise Conservation Officer
person is morally and legally enti- as we try to establish a baseline for what we by Erika Billerbeck
tled. Broadly speaking, there are two mean by a right to health care. Such difficul-
types of rights: negative and positive. Nega- ties are in part why we don’t claim to have a WILDLAND
tive rights require others to step aside and al- “right” to other basic necessities. Imagine the SENTINEL
$19.95
low people to act independently. Most of the debate that would ensue over a “right to food.” paperback
rights we hold dear as Americans are nega- Does that mean a right not to go hungry? original
tive rights. The Declaration of Independence Maybe it’s a right to consume the necessary 230 pages
states that everyone is “endowed by their number of calories each day. If so, does it mat- 20 b&w prints
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, ter where those calories come from? It’s easier
that among these are Life, Liberty, and the and cheaper to consume 2,000 calories at Mc-
pursuit of Happiness, [and] that to secure Donald’s than at a farmer’s market. But that
m
Field Notes from an Iowa
Conservation Officer
these rights, Governments are instituted isn’t the healthiest option. The complications
Erika Billerbeck
among Men.” Note what this means: Life, are overwhelming, and they don’t come with
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are not easy solutions.
things a person can get from the government. Similarly, rights presuppose a level of
They’re things we’re born with. Government equality that cannot be achieved in health
exists to secure these rights by establishing care. Does a right to health care entitle every-
conditions that allow us to live freely. That is one to seek treatment from the best doctors
how negative rights and liberties work: they or at the best hospitals? And to ensure equal order toll-free 800.621.2736
can be protected, but not given or taken away. protection of that right to health care, would uipress.uiowa.edu
Hence the language of the First Amendment: the government have to ban people from

Page 53
paying extra for better treatment? Perhaps how much we exercise, and how we generally caloric intake. The British government has also
top-notch facilities would be prevented from comport ourselves. imposed a tax on companies that make sugary
offering innovative procedures and instead beverages in hopes of forcing manufacturers to
compelled to offer a suite of government- Medical Paternalism reduce the amount of sugar in their products.
sanctioned services. This puts the govern- In the United States, too, several local govern-
U
ment in a bind as well. If there’s a $100,000 niversal health care is part of ments have taken to nannying their residents
pill that can cure a group of patients, but the Canada’s national identity. In 2012, for public health reasons. In 2012, the New
government can only afford to give it to half a national poll found that 94% of York City Board of Health banned the sale of
of them, what do we do? In countries with Canadians felt their single-payer system was large sodas and other sugary drinks at the be-
single-payer programs, equality often takes a “source of collective pride.” Health care was hest of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, although
precedence over health. Nobody would get more popular than hockey, the maple leaf flag, the courts prevented the ban from ever going
that pill. and the queen. In 2004, Canada’s government- into effect. In 2014, Berkeley, California im-
The right to health care may also be in run broadcast service, the Canadian Broadcast- posed its own soda tax. Chicago followed suit
tension with other rights, especially those ing Corporation, held a vote to determine the in August 2017; it repealed the tax just two
of health care professionals. Negative rights greatest Canadian. Canadians chose Tommy months later after widespread protest from
basically require people to “live and let live.” Douglas—the father of Canada’s single-payer city residents. In 2019, researchers at Stanford
Positive rights are more invasive. Can the system. University found that Philadelphia’s soda tax
government compel hospitals to take on Americans would never take this much hadn’t done much to decrease calorie or sugar
more patients than they have beds for? Can pride in a federal entitlement. There’s a reason intake. But our public caretakers have, if any-
it force doctors to log longer hours, work in for this. According to a 2011 survey from the thing, grown more zealous—it’s likely that gov-
subpar hospitals, or perform operations that Pew Research Center, close to six in ten Ameri- ernment overreach during the COVID-19 cri-
go against their better judgment? The right to cans think “allowing everyone to pursue their sis has been motivated, at least in part, by this
health care would also impose duties on every life’s goals without interference from the state” trend of state-enforced medical mollycoddling.
citizen. The U.S. Supreme Court famously is more important than the state guaranteeing Alas, single-payer advocates rarely engage in
found in Schenck v. United States (1919) that that “nobody is in need.” This attitude is built these debates. Without a clear conception of
the right to free speech “would not protect a into our national mythology and identity. Pres- what they mean by a right to health care, they
man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and ident Herbert Hoover called it “rugged individ- forge ahead with plans that promise to pay
causing a panic.” Similarly, just because every- ualism.” It informed the American Revolution for everything under the sun. Those promises
one has a right to travel does not mean they and the settlement of the American frontier. are only revealed as empty when it’s too late—
can careen down the interstate after consum- Rugged individualists bristle at the idea of the when the financial realities of a single-payer
ing an entire bottle of scotch. If I have a right government telling us what to do. We know system prevent the government from keeping
to health care, do I also have a duty to keep that smoking is bad and eating vegetables is its promises. If we’re not careful, Americans
myself healthy? Do I waive my right to health good, but we balk at the idea of public officials will be conned into trading away our basic free-
care if I’m a smoker or if I’m obese? Would ordering us to do one and not the other. Single- doms and receiving false promises in return.
we be comfortable with the measures that payer systems necessitate the kind of paternal-
officials in the United Kingdom have imple- ism Americans have always rejected. Sally C. Pipes is Thomas W. Smith Fellow in
mented to prohibit certain patients from hav- The more a government’s health bill in- Health Care Policy at the Pacific Research In-
ing surgery unless they lose weight or quit creases, the more it tries to intervene in the stitute where she serves as president and CEO.
smoking? Once the government is responsible daily lives of its citizens. The United Kingdom This essay is adapted from her new book, False
for guaranteeing a right to health care, it has recently imposed “calorie caps” on fast-food Premise, False Promise: The Disastrous Re-
a plausible claim to micromanage what we eat, restaurants in an attempt to reduce national ality of Medicare for All (Encounter Books).

Page 54
Book Review by Michael S. Greve
Redemption Without Repentance

Law & Leviathan: Redeeming the Administrative State, by Cass R. Sunstein and Adrian Vermeule.
Belknap Press, 208 pages, $25.95
L
aw & leviathan is an accessible, opponent of Stuart despotism: the common- Administrative Procedure Act (APA) as a result
nicely executed defense of a curiously law judge, symbolized by Edward Coke.” of “long-continued and hard-fought conten-
ill-defined beast—the “administrative tions” and as a compromise on which “oppos-
B
state.” Cass Sunstein and Adrian Vermeule, oth authors have supplied firm ing social and political forces have come to rest.”
both prolific writers and renowned teachers (though somewhat varying) defenses of Sunstein and Vermeule readily acknowledge
at Harvard Law School, refrain from cheap an administrative state with broad dis- that the compromise formula of the APA has
polemics, for the most part; indeed, they seek cretion to promote the common good. To their long been superseded by fundamental changes
common ground with conservative and liber- minds, assaults on that edifice on supposedly in agency organization and procedures and by
tarian critics of administrative government. originalist grounds project modern-day fears a substantial body of administrative common
Although much can be said for their analysis, and values on constitutional materials that law. Still, the authors “aim to recover and re-
their core argument remains unconvincing. simply will not support totemic “New Coke” new the force of the principles emphasized in
Many of the book’s chapters are previously positions—say, a robust, judicially enforced Wong Yang Sung.” Modern administrative law,
published law review essays, and the title sug- doctrine that would bar Congress from del- they argue, has an inherent morality—pre-
gests greater ambition than the content would egating legislative powers to the executive; or cepts or principles that protect the rule-of-law
warrant. “Law” turns out to mean chunks of full-scale judicial review of agency decisions. In values championed by, well, “the New Coke.”
administrative law. “Leviathan” appears only this book, however, the authors bracket those In elaborating those principles, the au-
sporadically, as a scarecrow conjured up by contentions and instead propose to provide “a thors rely on Lon L. Fuller’s famous account
overwrought conservative and libertarian structure that can transcend the current de- of The Morality of Law (1964)—in relevant
critics of administrative government. The au- bates and provide a unifying framework for part, an explication of the minimum condi-
thors’ cringe-inducing term for the “cluster of accommodating a variety of first-order views, tions a legal system must satisfy to be called
impulses stemming from a belief in the ille- with an eye to promoting the common good “legal” in a moral or rule-of-law sense. Such
gitimacy of the modern administrative state” and helping to identify a path forward amid a system, Fuller argued, must rest on rules,
is, alas, “the New Coke.” Rock-ribbed critics intense disagreements on fundamental issues.” instead of ad hoc decisions. The rules must
of the administrative state, they write, “fre- The authors’ lodestar is Justice Robert Jack- be publicized, prospective (not retroactive),
quently refer to the specter of tyranny or abso- son’s opinion in Wong Yang Sung v. McGrath understandable, consistent, observable, and
lutism…and they valorize a (putatively) heroic (1950), which famously characterized the 1946 reasonably stable over time. And there must

Page 55
be a rough congruence between the rules and from bias—“nudge” deplorable citizens into regulated freedom previously flourished.
actual administration. welfare-enhancing choices. Vermeule has They substituted one regulatory system
powerfully argued that administrative law is for another.
S
unstein and vermeule argue that really no law at all but a collection of black
modern administrative law satisfies and gray holes and, as such, wholly incapable With all respect, there ought to be a safeguard
those demands most of the time, largely of constraining an “unbound executive”—and against academic childishness.
as a result of judge-made doctrines. For exam- a good thing, too. “Surrogate safeguards” en-
E
ple, courts generally require agencies to follow dorsed by authors with those views may not qually trenchant and apropos is
their own rules. As the authors convincingly be worth very much. Epstein’s indictment of the administra-
explain, that doctrine is not easily traced to the tive law profession’s “single systematic
O
APA, let alone the due process clause. It is best n a more substantive note, law error—the high level of abstraction.” Once
understood as reflecting the judges’ Fullerian & Leviathan is usefully read side-by- one examines administrative law in action,
intuitions. For another example, there “appears side with Richard A. Epstein’s recent he argues, it turns out to violate rule-of-law
to be broad consensus on the [Supreme] Court exploration of The Dubious Morality of Mod- constraints at every corner. There is no way
for the proposition that [judicial] arbitrariness ern Administrative Law. A law professor at to decide between that assessment and the
review should impose a heightened burden of New York University and senior fellow at the rosier picture of Law & Leviathan without go-
justification on agencies when ‘serious reliance Hoover Institution, Epstein argues that for- ing into the weeds. Professor Epstein’s former
interests’ are at stake.” mal rule of law constraints work best in the colleagues at the University of Chicago Law
That, mind you, was written before the Su- context of a classical-liberal regime that rests School, however, are indeed enamored with ab-
preme Court held in Department of Homeland on property rights, freedom of contract, and stractions, to the point of evasion. “We might
Security v. Regents of the University of California protection against uncompensated takings. favor quite significant reforms” of the admin-
earlier this year that the Trump Administra- Once those substantive commitments go by istrative state, Sunstein and Vermeule write—
tion could not unilaterally revoke the Obama the boards, procedural rule-of-law require- with no explanation of what those might look
Administration’s equally unilateral Deferred ments are bound to prove ineffectual. like. “The Constitution and the administrative
Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) pro- Law & Leviathan illustrates the force of state attempt to channel and constrain, rather
gram without taking serious consideration of that criticism. “A central goal of the rule of than eliminate or minimize, executive discre-
the reliance that “dreamers” and other con- law,” the authors write, tion.” Very fine, then: how well has that worked
stituencies had placed in the program. That for us, in the age of Obama and Trump?
decision, alongside others, lends support to the is to allow people to have room to ma- Sunstein and Vermeule are curiously mum
authors’ contention that “administrative law neuver—to create a sphere of action about that pressing question. “Some agency
has developed surrogate safeguards for the val- in which citizens do not have to worry practices,” they acknowledge,
ues underlying the rule of law.” And that, in a about what their government will do….
nutshell, is the “redemption” of administrative Many people have been concerned that do raise serious constitutional ques-
law. Just as New Deal opponents accepted the the administrative state can turn into a tions…. Sometimes agencies violate the
APA settlement, Sunstein and Vermeule posit, form of absolutism, in which citizens law. Sometimes they act arbitrarily. They
so the modern Court’s surrogate safeguards must constantly be fearful of what pub- can be unfair. They can be influenced by
“might be acceptable or at least tolerable as a lic officials might do. The internal mo- powerful private interests; they might
non-ideal second best” for contemporary crit- rality of law offers a response. even do their bidding. They might not
ics of the administrative state. use their expertise. They can threaten
Sunstein and Vermeule have several impor- Does it, really? The passage conflates per- liberty. They can reduce welfare and act
tant things right. First, regardless of one’s views sonal autonomy with government predict- in ways contrary to the common good.
of the constitutional order, we will not abolish ability and, correspondingly, reliance. But
the Environmental Protection Agency or over- those are different things, and the difference Indeed. And because these kinds of things
rule the New Deal. In that sense, constitution- matters. Legally deportable “dreamers,” the tend to happen a lot, federal courts—and
alists must commit to some set of second-best Supreme Court opined in the aforementioned much of the country—are anxiously search-
rules; the only question is what they will look DACA decision, may rely on a government ing for means of disciplining a feckless but
like. Second, some (not all) of the federal courts’ “non-enforcement” policy that was probably unbound executive.
common law-ish doctrines, developed in the unlawful from the get-go; and they may do so Professors Sunstein and Vermeule, it is
shadow of, but at some remove from, both the despite the government’s explicit declaration fair to say, do not share that sense of urgency.
Constitution and the APA, have in fact made that it might change its position any day of the They fail to provide a single unequivocal ex-
administrative law more regular and law-like. week, for any reason. All the while, none of us ample of agency overreach; and, irresponsibly
And third, the Supreme Court’s and the D.C. may rely on a legally protected, private “sphere to my mind, they dismiss concerns on that
Circuit’s recent decisions lend plausibility to of action” beyond government interference: score as a “cluster of impulses.” I commend
the authors’ analysis. Even so, count me among ain’t no such thing under the APA, under ad- their search for common ground in a heated
the skeptics. ministrative common law, or in the Sunstein- debate. But before I sign on to their redemp-
For one thing, anyone familiar with the Vermeule framework. “A homeless person,” tive enterprise, I’d like to get some sense of
authors’ imposing oeuvre will wonder whether the authors write in a dreadful passage, where the boundaries are.
they are actually wedded to the supposed con-
sensus espoused in this book. Sunstein has is deprived of access to shelter by virtue Michael S. Greve is a professor at George Mason
propounded a “behavioral economics” that of the law of property, which is emphat- University’s Antonin Scalia School of Law, and
would have impartial bureaucrats—them- ically coercive…. [Modern agencies] did the author of The Upside-Down Constitution
selves free, or so they would have us believe, not impose law or coercion where un- (Harvard University Press).

Page 56
Essay by Oren Cass
When Market Economists Fail

Saying goodbye to self-defeating libertarianism.
“The Schoolmaster,” woodcut by Albrecht Dürer, 1510
T
he professor paces with purpose that corporate CEOs and professional The basic insight of public choice theory,
before his pupils. “Ask yourself,” he in- investors should have all their funds first developed in the mid-20th century, is a
tones, “who should decide things: Pri- taken away at gunpoint, and then all valuable one: government is not an abstract
vate investors who can go bankrupt and are re- investment decisions, for the whole U.S. and beneficent “it,” but is composed of indi-
sponsible for the risks they take, or the State?” population, should be made by Donald viduals pursuing their own interests and it
A student offers, perhaps tentatively, perhaps Trump. He wants what is best for all of is they who wield the instruments of public
with confidence, “Well, the State, because it us, and he has a longer-term perspective.” power. Thus, while the natural tendency may
wants what is good for us in the long run. The be to identify some market failure or other so-
market is just about selfishness.” The profes- This tale is neither satire, nor a liberal fe- cial problem and then conclude that “govern-
sor’s steel trap of logic slams shut. “Where ver-dream, nor a surreptitiously recorded ex- ment should solve it,” in fact one has to go fur-
is this state you speak of?” he retorts. When change. It is the proudly self-reported pedago- ther and contemplate what the actors within
they say, “The state should have the power to gy of Michael Munger, professor of econom- government, given their own incentives, are
direct resources, and the market should be ics and political science at Duke University, likely to do. What failures will they have, and
suppressed,” they should remember to take former president of the Public Choice Soci- is the eventual outcome likely to improve the
out “The state” and replace it with “People ety, and a former editor of the journal Public situation? George Mason economics profes-
chosen by parties and elected by voting domi- Choice. His binary choice between “private in- sor Donald Boudreaux put the point well in
nated by large corporate interests.” vestment” and “the whims of Donald Trump” a 2016 conversation sponsored by the Mer-
“In fact,” he continues: to “decide things” is a perversion of so-called catus Center’s F.A. Hayek Program: “When
“public choice theory”—one all too familiar to we want to understand the proper respective
you should replace “The state” with anyone who engages in policy debates with roles of the state versus the market, we have to
“Donald Trump.” Say it with me: “I think market fundamentalists. compare the two in a way that uses the same

Page 57
assumptions about human motivations in one ed to them voluntarily. When their in private equity,” Oxford finance professor
as…in another.” merged firms succeed, these investors Ludovic Phalippou told the Financial Times
The excesses and abuses of public choice profit; when these firms fail, they lose. in June, that “might be one of the largest in
theory stem from abandoning this useful Likewise, owners who sell their assets the history of modern finance.”
apples-to-apples framing for a dangerously gain when their decisions are wise and Here is another example: in the Liberty
skewed apples-to-oranges analysis of its own. lose when they aren’t. This prospect of Fund’s Concise Encyclopedia of Econom-
Yes, matters may become messy with gov- gain and threat of loss “internalizes” ics (2007), the entry on “public choice” by
ernment action, but a failure to act can leave on those who make financial-market William Shughart, editor-in-chief of Public
quite a mess as well. Public choice devolves decisions the benefits and costs of Choice, uses a “prospective home buyer” to
into self-parody when it replaces the “apple” these decisions. illustrate how incentives and constraints
of actions taken by self-interested individu- in private markets “channel the pursuit of
als in the face of government inaction with the Policymakers shouldn’t regulate the finan- self-interest.” The buyer “chooses among the
“orange” of a self-regulating market overseen cial sector, he believes, because in fact it is tax- available alternatives in light of his personal
by incorruptible libertarians. The problem es and regulations that create whatever exter- circumstances and fully captures the benefits
is threefold: First, public choice enthusiasts nalities we might observe. “It certainly makes and bears the costs of his own choice.” Just
steadfastly refuse to apply the same scrutiny no sense to ask the very people who impose another day in the smooth, well-functioning,
to the private sector that they eagerly heap these harmful interventions—politicians—to externality-free housing market. Nothing to
upon government. Second, they forget that address the problem with additional interven- see here—neither infrastructure nor pub-
the existing system is subject to all the same tions rather than simply to remove the offend- lic schools nor mortgage market affects his
drawbacks that they detect in any proposed ing ones.” choice; nor in turn will his family’s presence
reform. Third, they exempt themselves from No part of this argument is correct. Fi- affect the neighbors, the schools, or the tax
their claim that public actors are merely eco- nancial markets are, quite obviously, subject base. The public choice enthusiast, in his
nomic agents. to a variety of market failures. Investors can zeal to identify every possible way in which
The result is an approach that presump- make a great deal of money even when firms state action may not yield the desired result,
tively vetoes almost any proposal for govern- they have acquired go bankrupt. And who— rarely leaves time for considering how the
ment action, precludes the development of private sector actually works.
useful policy agendas, and leaves conserva- The enthusiast will also tend to err in over-
tives scared and ill-equipped to exercise pub- The starting point stating his case against the public sector by
lic power. President Ronald Reagan famously disregarding the nation’s political structures.
captured the sentiment with his wry remark
for any policy debate Professor Munger’s self-inflicted reductio ad
that “I’ve always felt the nine most terrify- is not the blank slate absurdum of “all investment decisions, for the
ing words in the English language are: I’m whole U.S. population, should be made by
from the government, and I’m here to help.” of a libertarian Donald Trump” is particularly pronounced.
Few of the pundits who gleefully recycle the paradise. More generally, the leap from the assertion
comment seem aware that it was delivered as that public servants pursue their own inter-
preamble to announcing a “decision on grain ests to one that they will not act in the public
exports” and “record amounts of assistance” to use the framework of public choice—are interest forgets that a central premise of de-
for the agriculture sector. The Right needs these “investors”? A private-equity fund, for mocracy is to ensure at least some alignment
to appreciate public policy’s limitations while instance, consists of individuals, all pursuing of these interests, and that the U.S. Constitu-
still recognizing the many cases in which it is their own self-interest, which may not align tion, in particular, was designed precisely to
necessary and productive. with maximizing either the fund’s profit or channel when possible the individual interest
the acquired firm’s profit. Nor would maxi- toward the common good. “The Federalist Pa-
Compared to What? mizing the firm’s profit—say, by offshoring pers,” Judge Frank Easterbrook once noted in
production and throwing workers onto the the Harvard Law Review, “can be thought of
P
ublic choice enthusiasts describ- unemployment rolls and government ben- as the first chapter in the modern theory of
ing the theory in the abstract will gen- efit programs—necessarily be of net value to public choice.”
erally be careful to acknowledge that society. The resources invested, meanwhile, In fact, both the democratic process and
markets, too, are “imperfect.” But when ac- often come from pension funds owed to mil- the scrutiny of an independent media are
tual policy proposals reach the table, that cau- lions of American workers and endowments powerful forces that push public actors to
tion vanishes. that back large non-profit institutions, con- do well by doing good, and that establish a
A good example comes from Professor trolled by investment managers (often public correlation between the actor’s effectiveness
Boudreaux, who argues against the regula- or non-profit employees) with the assistance and his attainment of status and power. The
tion of financial markets on the ground that of high-priced consultants, all of whom have internal motivation that led many to pub-
they give rise to no negative “externalities” or incentives of their own. Over the past de- lic service in the first place is at work, too.
unforeseen side effects; any such suspicion, he cade, the entire private-equity industry has As Adam Smith observed in The Theory of
says, is “psychosomatic.” On his blog, Café collected roughly $230 billion in fees while Moral Sentiments, man “desires, not only
Hayek, he continues: delivering returns no better than a passive praise, but praiseworthiness; or to be that
market-index fund—a “wealth transfer from thing which, though it should be praised by
Investors who buy other firms spend several hundred million pension scheme nobody, is, however, the natural and proper
their own money and money entrust- members to a few thousand people working object of praise.”

Page 58
These forces are imperfect, and counter- public choice analyst, it represents an ideal On the one hand, Ponnuru and Strain are
vailing ones push in other directions, but the from which any departure is presumptively correct that proposals to limit imports or pro-
question must again be: compared to what. destructive. mote domestic production should raise public
Profit only partially guides private actors and, Writing recently in National Review, Ra- choice concerns, and also that many of the
even to the extent they do lead their organiza- mesh Ponnuru and Michael Strain, both at Trump Administration’s actions have been in-
tions toward profit maximization, the prob- the American Enterprise Institute, acknowl- ept. On the other hand, it doesn’t follow that
lem remains that this pursuit may not ad- edge that “[s]pecific proposals to limit imports greater openness to such proposals would
vance the public interest. The electorate only or promote domestic production have to be be on balance negative. The playing field on
partially guides public actors and, even to the considered on their own merits. Their useful- which imports face few restrictions and do-
extent they do curry its favor, the problem ness and cost-effectiveness cannot be ruled mestic producers receive little support is not
remains that what is popular may not be in out in principle.” Nevertheless, they maintain, one that predates government action, but
the public interest. Most challenges and goals “we have ample reason to be skeptical of such rather is a direct result of decades of intensive
will thus call for some combination of public proposals, and to think that a political system lobbying, negotiation, and compromise by the
and private action, neither of which will ac- that reduces its skepticism will be opening very same kind of interests that Ponnuru and
complish everything we might wish, but the the door to many more destructive than con- Strain distrust. Why should policymaking
combination of which can accomplish more structive policies.” As an example, they offer deserve greater skepticism when pursuing one
than either on its own. a textbook public choice critique of steel and trade strategy than another? They never say.
Empirically, this has proven true. Many aluminum tariffs that “dovetailed with a pow- Tellingly, they do say they would prefer to see
public programs, though imperfect, are sub- erful lobby’s desires.” policymakers proceed along the lines of the
stantial improvements over not having adopted
them in the first place. From public safety and
public schools, to infrastructure and research,
to Social Security and Medicare, to even the The Visiting Scholar in Conservative
rat’s nests of regulatory complexity and ineffi-
ciency in areas like employment and environ-
mental law, self-interested public actors have Thought and Policy
repeatedly advanced the common good. Each
of these fields is rife with flaws and failures, and The College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder invites
yet no meaningful constituency takes the view applications for the position of Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy
that America would be better had policymak- for academic year 2021-22.
ers taken public choice theorists’ warning to
steer clear entirely. The public choice enthusi- We seek a highly visible individual who is deeply engaged in either the analytical
asts are themselves remarkably quiet on whichW scholarship or practice of conservative thinking and policymaking, or both.
of government’s tentacles they would lop off. Thus, applications are welcome from the academic, policy, military, and
Shall we “Defund the Police”? Public choice isar media communities, among others. The Visitng Scholar will continue a
always a reason to reject the new, but rarely is it tradition of fostering intellectual diversity on the Boulder Campus through
wielded against the old. the Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization.
.
Apply here: colorado.edu/center/benson/CTPsearch
Globalization and the Common Good
T
he strange respect accorded to
status-quo policy is the second of pub-
lic choice’s apples-to-oranges mistakes.
The starting point for any policy debate is not
the blank slate of a libertarian paradise, but
rather the accumulation of actions—and de-
cisions not to act—taken over decades by pol-
iticians subject to all the same incentives that
public choice worries about in any new pro-
posal. The concern that some proposal will
introduce “government failures” into a field is
invariably misplaced—they are already there.
Debates over globalization and the free
flow of goods, people, and capital across bor-
ders provides an especially pronounced ex-
ample of this phenomenon. Globalization
has been a process undertaken from a starting
point of high tariffs, immigration restrictions,
and capital controls. The new global order
had never before existed and would not arise
on its own; policymakers built it. Yet to the

Page 59
Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement pected eight years of President Obama to lead the libertarian option is granted a presump-
that grew to more than 5,000 pages through into a Clinton Administration, he published a tion of clean hands and wise implementation,
19 rounds of negotiations and lobbying from blog post entitled, “How much of US corpo- while public choice’s unflattering lens focuses
200 companies and associations. With respect rate profits comes from cronyism? Maybe a lot squarely on the alternative.
to the quality of that document, the incentives and growing.” A corollary of this phenomenon manifests
of negotiators and the role of lobbyists go un- Whatever any policy is in the abstract, the itself in consistent befuddlement on the part
raised. This seems like public choice for thee, real-world American version would seem likely of libertarians at the idea that their market
but not for me. to feature cronyism and political payoff. This fundamentalism has dominated establishment
One might make the case that trade barriers applies to the policies we already have, and to conservatism in recent decades. How could
inherently raise greater public choice concerns any proposed. That is, of course, the central this be the case, if government continued to
than the trade agreements that have benefited insight of public choice! The interesting ques- grow throughout the period regardless of who
large multinational corporations at the ex- tion for policymakers seeking “net gains,” as held power? Had politicians of such noble
pense of less-skilled American workers; or that Pethokoukis’s formula highlights, will usually bearing led the way, surely we would by now
straightforward immigration quotas are more be how much “good stuff” is mixed in. And have reached the Promised Land! They have
worrisome than programs like the H-1B visa then in determining how to pursue a particular forgotten public choice, or at least forgotten its
(of which the primary users are large Indian strategy, insights from public choice can point application to their own ideological brethren.
outsourcing firms). But this is hardly obvious. helpfully toward better designs. What a Republican Party in thrall to mar-
The more plausible view, as Samuel Ham- ket fundamentalism delivered is precisely what
mond wrote recently for an American Com- The Limits of Libertarianism public choice theory would predict, suggested
pass symposium on supply-chain reshoring, is by President Reagan’s joking that government
T
that phenomena like “industry capture” are in- he cynic may conclude that public help is to be feared while at the same time an-
evitable—indeed, that useful analysis of politi- choice enthusiasts deploy their concerns nouncing massive new farm programs—crony-
cal economy should begin from an acceptance selectively against any policy whose sub- ism, political payoffs, and some good stuff. Ex-
that categories like “politics” and “economics” stance they dislike. But a more generous, and cept, under market fundamentalism, the “good
cannot be neatly separated and policymak- likely, explanation is also available: they ex- stuff” meant cutting taxes, releasing capital
ing should accept and leverage their inevitable empt themselves from their framework. They from constraint, and otherwise doing nothing,
interaction. “[I]n a second-best world,” Ham- tend to be libertarian; the same distaste for which has proved not so good.
mond continues: coordinated public action that draws them to This last of public choice’s foibles is par-
a minimal-government ideology also attracts ticularly regrettable because correcting it so
our choice may not be between whether them to an analytical frame that casts govern- thoroughly undermines the entire enterprise.
our government is captured but by whom. ment’s processes and participants in the worst Taken seriously, the claim that “we should re-
Indeed, today’s America has a robust in- possible light. And they retain a conviction that gard actors in the public sphere as always ra-
dustrial policy for Wall Street, soybean if they had the opportunity to implement their tionally self-interested” ought to apply to pub-
farmers, Hollywood, drug companies, agenda, acting as they could with a sophisti- lic choice scholars themselves, who after all
and trial lawyers. Is it any coincidence cated grasp of public choice’s constraints, they are public actors. If they develop and advance
that the systems governing these sectors might achieve their worthy objectives. their insights simply in order to maximize
are also some of the most captured? “Advocates of the free market know that it their own advantage, we cannot credit them
Reorienting American industrial pol- will take a long time to get to our Promised with actually believing what they say. Nor, for
icy toward productivity growth, upward Land,” writes Robert Tracinski, a columnist that matter, does it much matter what they
mobility, and breakthrough innovation for the webzine the Bulwark and author of a say, for they cannot disinterestedly persuade
will require strengthening our coordi- reader’s guide to Atlas Shrugged, “and we’ve giv- anyone of anything, seeing as we will all pur-
nating institutions to resist certain forms en up expecting the laissez-faire utopia in our sue our self-interest regardless.
of capture. But in many cases, it will also lifetimes.” Clearly, though, they have not given Of course, that is nonsense. Ideas do matter,
require identifying superior captors, for up altogether. precisely because public actors may, and often
whom the “special interest” and “general Consider the seemingly inexhaustible do, have a substantial interest in advancing the
interest” roughly align. supply of energy expended on tax reform. A common good—alongside, no doubt, a desire
formal public choice analysis would surely to be successful themselves. We should not
James Pethokoukis, an AEI colleague of identify tax policy as among the most fraught want our public choice friends to vanish in a
Ponnuru and Strain’s, inadvertently under- areas in which government might act. Con- puff of illogical smoke. Their legitimate insights
scores this framing on Twitter when he asks, centrated special interests have enormous fi- counsel humility, check grandiose ambitions,
“Whatever ‘industrial policy’ is in the abstract, nancial stakes in every complex, arcane clause. and offer guidance for effective policy design.
the real-word American version would seem Opportunities abound for manipulation, mis- But their days at the table’s head, striking items
likely to look like cronyism + political payoff takes, and unintended consequences. And yet from the agenda and overruling conservatives
with some good stuff mixed in. A net gain?” the same public choice enthusiasts who see in who would exercise public power, must come
The question implies that the “real-world any other vote the prospect of mischief and to an end.
American version” of some alternative eco- a likelihood of only making matters worse,
nomic policy does not suffer from “cronyism see endless opportunity in tax reform. When Oren Cass is the executive director of American
+ political payoff.” That’s not right, as Peth- tax cutters advance a bill, some reason exists Compass and author of The Once and Future
okoukis himself would attest. Shortly before to believe it will in fact be a constructive one. Worker: A Vision for the Renewal of Work in
President Trump’s election, when most ex- More broadly, when comparing policy visions, America (Encounter Books).

Page 60
Book Review by Jeremy Carl
The End of the World Has Been Postponed

Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All, by Michael Shellenberger.
HarperCollins, 432 pages, $29.99
False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet, by Bjorn Lomborg.
Basic Books, 320 pages, $30
“M
uch of what we are being told False Alarm builds on themes from Lom- less, The Skeptical Environmentalist provoked
about the environment, including borg’s earlier work, The Skeptical Environ- a storm of intellectually dishonest attacks
the climate, is wrong. And we des- mentalist (1998), which was arguably the within the scientific establishment, including
perately need to get it right,” writes Michael most controversial and influential book on in such formerly respectable outlets as Scien-
Shellenberger in Apocalypse Never: Why En- the environment written for a popular au- tific American. It was an early sign of just how
vironmental Alarmism Hurts Us All. A related dience in the last quarter-century. It served corrupted environmental science, policy, and
argument can be found in Bjorn Lomborg’s as the intellectual wellspring of much con- advocacy had become. But Lomborg’s conclu-
new book, False Alarm: How Climate Change temporary free-market environmentalism. sions have largely held up well over the inter-
Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Marshaling a wealth of data, he showed that vening decades. He used the book’s notoriety
Fails to Fix the Planet. Although Lomborg and issues such as global warming, overpopula- to launch the Copenhagen Consensus Center,
Shellenberger have similar concerns, their tion, and energy shortages were not the dire a think tank which for the past 18 years has
approaches are quite different. Lomborg is crises environmentalists made them out to worked to develop innovative approaches to
coldly analytical and focuses squarely on cli- be. These were problems that could be solved the world’s biggest environmental and eco-
mate policy. Shellenberger writes passionately by human ingenuity. nomic challenges.
about a broader range of environmental issues. Shellenberger is something else altogether:
L
Both books present important arguments for omborg is a gay vegetarian and Named a “Hero of the Environment” by Time
lay readers and policymakers alike, but Shel- was fleetingly a member of Greenpeace, magazine in 2008, he started out on the left
lenberger’s ultimately proves the more satisfy- so it was difficult for the media to tar wing of the environmental activist movement
ing and informative. him as a right-wing extremist. Neverthe- in the 1990s before moving to a more mod-

Page 61
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erate perspective. In 2003 he co-founded an begins with a critique of Extinction Rebel- and the destruction of rainforests. Shellen-
“ecomodernist” think tank, the Breakthrough lion, a British group founded in 2018 that has berger usefully distinguishes the generally
Institute, with fellow dissident environmen- tried to raise awareness about environmental responsible science of the Intergovernmental
talist Ted Nordhaus. Breakthrough was gov- issues by disrupting life in urban areas in the Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) from the
erned by the principle that “ecological vibran- most irritating ways possible. The radicalism politicized alarm with which its findings are
cy results from human prosperity, not the of such groups serves as a reminder of Shel- summarized for policymakers and breath-
other way around.” lenberger’s own youthful follies and a foil for lessly quoted by the media.
In the early 2000s, Breakthrough was per- his more mature approach. He illustrates his
H
haps the only intellectually serious bipartisan intellectual arguments against radical, and at is critique of environmental
environmental group in America. I participat- many times establishment, environmentalism, alarmism can sometimes be quite
ed in various programs there over the course with personal experiences as he travels from damning, as when he notes that rich
of more than a decade. It was a place where Brazil to Indonesia to the Congo to observe nations are “seeking to make poverty sustain-
right-wingers who cared about the environ- the failures of contemporary environmental able rather than to make poverty history.” He
ment could engage in serious and good-faith policymaking. Theoretically, Shellenberger is accuses many opponents of mercenary cor-
intellectual dialogues with the environmental not mining new ground here, but as a synthe- ruption, a charge which he sometimes takes
Left. Eventually, personal and political dif- sizer, he is superb. too far. His indictments of natural gas mag-
ferences with Nordhaus led Shellenberger to Shellenberger asserts that Apocalypse Never nate Aubrey McClendon for his donations
leave Breakthrough and found the pro-nucle- “makes the moral case for humanism...against to the Sierra Club, or of California Governor
ar group Environmental Progress in 2016. In the anti-humanism of apocalyptic environ- Jerry Brown for his receipt of Indonesian oil
2018 he made a quixotic run for governor of mentalism.” He refutes a litany of hoary envi- money may be on solid ground. But he is off
California. ronmentalist myths that have gained popular base when he attempts to tie the anti-nuclear
notoriety: deaths from natural disasters are activism of my former Stanford colleague
I
n many ways, apocalypse never is a down, not up; the dangers of plastic waste have Mark Jacobson to his affiliation with a Stan-
better, worthier successor to The Skepti- been blown out of proportion; vegetarianism ford energy institute funded by a wealthy
cal Environmentalist than Lomborg’s own won’t save the planet; and rumors of impend- natural gas investor. (Jacobson is a victim of
False Alarm. Like Lomborg, Shellenberger ing human extinction have been greatly exag- his own ideological mania, but it’s not because
delivers sound and careful analysis. But he gerated. In fact, our capacity to increase food he’s being paid to do it.)
also weds that analysis to the story of his own production has skyrocketed, and (contrary to By and large, however, Shellenberger is
compelling journey from radical environmen- the alarmist narrative) climate change is only entirely fair. He’s interested in far more than
talism to environmental humanism. The book a minor contributor to international conflict simple point-scoring; he’s offering a genuine
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Page 63
pro-environment alternative to the current neurs can find workable ways of adapting to benefit analysis, which involves weighing the
environmentalist movement. According to our changing climate. In the meantime, he positives and negatives of a given policy by
his ecomodernist philosophy, technology be- wants the government to put a price on car- weighing economic harms versus economic
comes more eco-friendly as it evolves to make bon emissions and rebate the money to tax- benefits. But naïve cost-benefit analysis does
more energy out of less raw material: nuclear payers through other means. not account sufficiently for the “long tails” of
energy is better than fossil fuels, which are Though in theory a way of lowering emis- extremely high risk—taking into account the
better than wood; farmed salmon is better sions with the greatest economic efficiency, fact that a cost could be one or more orders
than wild salmon; and the petroleum indus- in practice carbon pricing rarely delivers the of magnitude higher than even a sincerely
try saved whales from having their blubber environmental benefits it promises. In doz- made point estimate. These factors could le-
harvested for oil. Apocalypse Never is thus ens of jurisdictions where it has been applied gitimately justify policies that would not pass
firmly anti-Malthusian. “There is a pattern,” throughout the world, it has been captured muster under a naïve cost-benefit analysis.
he writes. “Malthusians raise the alarm about by special interests, such as California’s “cap Further, Lomborg casually refers to long-
resource or environmental problems and then and trade” program, which created an annual term climate models without indicting the
attack the obvious technical solutions.” slush fund in excess of $1 billion to address modelers’ general approach. Imagine some-
Shellenberger is at his best when criticizing everything from legitimate environmental is- one in 1940 attempting to model complex in-
the religious fervor of modern environmental- sues to “affordable housing” to boondoggles teractions between the economy and society
ism. He skewers prominent environmental- funding inefficient public transit systems. in 2020, and you can get a sense of the hubris
ists from Naomi Oreskes to Bill McKibben as Repeating this approach globally, as Lombo- with which climate scientists project their
lifelong apocalyptics whose frantic doomsay- rg suggests, is an order of magnitude harder findings into the future. He at times misses
ing obscures scientific truth. “Environmental- and more foolish than doing it nationally or this central flaw in climate policymaking be-
ism,” writes Shellenberger, sub-nationally. cause he too implicitly shares the presumption
On some of the broader political issues that the far future can somehow be modeled
is the dominant secular religion of the surrounding climate science, he is more real- accurately.
educated, upper-middle-class elite.... It istic. He is exactly right to say that handling For Bjorn Lomborg, man is the measure of
provides a new story about our collective climate change is more like treating diabetes all things. The survival and welfare of animals
and individual purpose. It designates... than dealing with an asteroid. He correctly or even nature itself, absent our appreciation
heroes and villains.... And it does so in diagnoses the purely political roots of much of it, doesn’t figure into his calculations. This
the language of science, which provides climate policy, leading leftists to such laugh-is fine as far as it goes, yet something is lack-
it with legitimacy. able forms of resistance as calling China, the ing in his utilitarianism: he never takes into
uber-villain of modern pollution, a climate account the majesties of creation that go be-
This argument, which strongly echoes those leader. Like Apocalypse Never, False Alarm de- yond what can be captured in data. Michael
of University of Maryland economist Robert lights in debunking environmentalist canards Shellenberger, in the end, understands better
Nelson, will surely find many supporters on that have gained currency in the public debate.why environmental concerns are compelling
the Right. Lomborg’s data-rich demonstration that cold to the heart as well as the mind. “The stories
weather presents a greater risk to overall hu- we tell matter,” he writes. His own story will
L
omborg agrees that modern envi- man health than hot weather is excellent, and be recognizable to anyone who cares about
ronmentalism has become a religion he does an outstanding job revealing the high the environment but has grown weary of irra-
of hysteria. “We live in an age of fear,” price of Europe’s environmental “successes.” tional panic. He optimistically concludes that
he proclaims at the opening of False Alarm. In order to reduce fossil fuels from 79 to 71% such people will prove to be in the majority:
The rest of the book shows why such fear is of primary energy since 2000, Europe has had “Environmental humanism will eventually
unwarranted. His basic approach to climate to shed 2% of GDP (more than it spends on triumph over apocalyptic environmentalism,
policy is sound, and he incisively analyzes the national defense). I believe, because the vast majority of people
failures of the current global environmental- in the world want both prosperity and nature,
Y
ist movement. But his proposed solutions are et there are some things rotten not nature without prosperity.”
far too simplistic to be considered serious in the state of Denmark. Years after
policy prescriptions. His central suggestion The Skeptical Environmentalist, Lom- Jeremy Carl is a senior fellow of the Claremont
is to encourage innovation so that entrepre- borg continues to put too much faith in cost- Institute.

Page 64
Book Review by KC Johnson
Minnesota Nice
American Ingrate: Ilhan Omar and the Progressive-Islamist Takeover of the Democratic Party, by Benjamin Weingarten.
Bombardier Books, 372 pages, $17
F T
ew first-term legislators have he section which outlines omar’s Omar mostly communicates through tweets
had a more toxic effect on U.S. po- shocking anti-Semitism—and the fail- or in vague, jargon-laden statements.
litical culture than Democratic House ure of House leadership to condemn it—
“W
Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. is well done. Weingarten correctly observes that e need,” omar tweeted in
Her career deserves critical study, especially Omar’s partnership with fellow first-term ex- December 2017, “to have con-
as the Democratic Party becomes increas- tremist Representative Rashida Tlaib of Mich- versations about race and class,
ingly governed by identity politics, which igan has allowed more mainstream Democratic and we need to understand the linkage be-
Omar exploits, and indifferent to left-wing legislators to oppose Israel strongly while still tween those things to dismantle ideas of patri-
anti-Semitism, for which she is notorious. seeming moderate by comparison. Omar once archy, misogyny, racism, and capitalism, and
Benjamin Weingarten’s American Ingrate: responded to criticism from pro-Israel groups what autonomy and self-determination needs
Ilhan Omar and the Progressive-Islamist Take- by tweeting, “It’s all about the Benjamins baby” to look like for women.” Or, outlining her eco-
over of the Democratic Party positions itself (implying that Jewish lobbyists were using their nomic agenda in July 2019: “Medicare for All.
as a study of both Omar’s rise and the Left’s wealth to corrupt American politics). But when Homes for All. Universal School Meals. A
recent degeneration. Speaker Nancy Pelosi proposed a resolution Green New Deal. We are fighting for policies
Weingarten, a senior fellow at the London condemning anti-Jewish hate in response to that lift up all Americans. We are fighting for
Center for Policy Research, dutifully narrates the tweet, Omar outmaneuvered her. In what the many, not the few!” Or these meaningless
Omar’s personal and professional history to Weingarten calls a “craven cave,” Pelosi general- platitudes, in the Washington Post: “I believe
date. He notes that her family worked as civil ized her resolution and shifted the focus onto in an inclusive foreign policy—one that cen-
servants for the Somali dictator Siad Barre. Donald Trump’s own explosive Twitter rheto- ters on human rights, justice and peace [and]...
When Barre was violently deposed, the fam- ric. That episode alone speaks volumes about that is sincere about our values.”
ily fled. Weingarten speculates—plausibly— the contemporary development of left-wing Whatever else she is, Omar is not a deep
that Omar’s experience with Barre’s Islamic American thought. thinker.
socialist regime (she was 13 when she arrived Weingarten also highlights Omar’s hypo- Weingarten tries to lend her cogency by
in the U.S.) inspired both her hard-Left views critical tendency to invoke universal values positioning her as a protégée of other fig-
and her affinity for Islamist governments. such as human rights and non-intervention- ures (President Barack Obama, former Black
Specifics about the family’s activities in So- ism, while excusing the humanitarian atroci- Panther Angela Davis, revisionist historian
malia are sparse. But American Ingrate should ties of governments she favors. She was one of Howard Zinn) or within more detailed intel-
have explored Omar’s political rise in the only two House Democrats to vote “present” lectual traditions—intersectionality, political
United States in greater detail. In 2016, Omar on a resolution condemning the Armenian Islamism, contemporary progressivism. Yet
ousted a longtime Democratic state represen- genocide, objecting that the measure did not Omar displays such little intellectual curiosity
tative in a three-way primary that also includ- also criticize “earlier mass slaughters like the that it seems hard to imagine her as shaped by
ed her fellow Somali immigrant Mohamud transatlantic slave trade and Native American any coherent set of ideas. As a result, much of
Noor, whose bid for office she had previously genocide.” She has been similarly forgiving to- this material, which consumes a good chunk
supported. Two years later she defeated Mar- ward Somalia and Iran. On the other hand, of the book, seems a stretch.
garet Anderson Kelliher, the former Speaker she has consistently criticized Saudi Arabia Omar, in the end, most resembles former
of the Minnesota House of Representatives, and the United Arab Emirates, even though British Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn. Like
in an open-seat congressional primary with a their human rights abuses seem comparable Corbyn, Omar is (at best) indifferent to leftist
margin of almost 20 points. to those of the Islamist states for which she anti-Semitism. Both traffic in hardline anti-
Weingarten leaves the impression that roots. As Weingarten notes, these shifting capitalist rhetoric without explaining how
Omar’s triumphs revealed the power of identi- positions “simultaneously undermine her pur- they would translate their economic ram-
ty politics among Democratic activists. That’s ported devotion to justice and upholding hu- blings into policy. And both have an almost
likely so, but surely there were other Somali man rights, while illustrating her support for entirely reflexive vision of foreign policy: allies
refugees—even female Somali refugees—in- an authoritarian Islamist regime.” of the United States deserve condemnation;
terested in politics in Minneapolis. Why did Engaging with Omar’s ideas, however, is critics deserve praise.
Omar emerge? Does she represent the beliefs difficult. She rarely articulates detailed posi- That a figure such as this has become a ma-
of the Somali community in Minnesota, or tions in legislative debates, interviews, or give- jor player in our national politics is perhaps
did she exploit Somali voters to advance her and-take discussions with centrist or center- the most depressing aspect of Weingarten’s
preconceived beliefs? Why were local Jews, Right commentators. There has been no prob- valuable book.
some of whom recognized Omar’s bigotry ing interview of Omar as there was of Alexan-
from the start of her career, unable to make dria Ocasio-Cortez by Margaret Hoover on KC Johnson is professor of history at Brooklyn
themselves heard among primary voters? PBS, and doubtless there will not be. Instead, College and the CUNY Graduate Center.

Page 65
Essay by Robert Royal
Discovering Columbus
Heroes and history in an ideological age.
B
artolomé de las casas, a domini- ing the first Spanish contacts with indigenous is nothing but a tale of exploitation, imperial-
can friar active in the early years of peoples. The great explorer’s missteps, las Ca- ism, and “white” supremacy. Any attempt to
the European missionary efforts in the sas said, were the result of ignorance of divine sort out the good and bad present in the dis-
Americas, earned the name “Defender of the law and misjudgments about how to proceed: covery of the Americas, as in all things human,
Indians” because of his passionate diatribes “Truly. I would not dare blame the admiral’s amounts to making excuses for genocide and
against exploiters of native peoples in the intentions for I knew him well and I knew his racism.
New World. Along with other philosophers intentions were good.”
and theologians in Spain, Rome, and else- During the riots that took place in the Weaponizing History
where in the Old World, he drew on classi- United States following the death of George
I
cal and Christian traditions to argue that the Floyd this spring, several statues of Columbus t used to be possible to assume that
newly encountered peoples were rational be- were toppled. After the statue in Milwaukee any person who had graduated from high
ings—human persons—who had rights and fell, video circulated of people—mostly young school (even grade school) would be famil-
warranted respect on both secular and reli- white women—taking turns stomping on it. iar with at least a few real facts about what
gious grounds. Naturally, his stance drew the This was presumably because they saw him as happened in 1492. That this is no longer the
ire of vested political and economic interests, a killer of native peoples who introduced slav- case reflects failing educational institutions,
which he stoutly resisted and rebutted. He ery and racism into the Americas. Whatever to be sure, but also, it needs to be said, an
also knew Christopher Columbus person- the reason, however, it’s quite certain that, un- anti-American—even an anti-Western and
ally and, despite being highly critical of some like las Casas, the mobs knew little or nothing often anti-Christian—impulse within the
of the things he did, spoke of his “sweetness about the person against whom they raged. West itself. You don’t need to believe that, say,
and benignity.” Las Casas defended Colum- And probably didn’t much care to, because the French or Communist revolutions, for ex-
bus against people who blamed him for the it is now taken as self-evident that the whole ample, benefitted the human race to take the
disorders and violence that occurred follow- history of Western exploration and expansion trouble to know dates like 1789 or 1917 and

Page 66
something about what they mean. Yet the others can expect no mercy for them- rabi (1750 B.C.) and ancient Egypt. Slavery’s
year in which a far greater change came into selves, either from their posterity or elimination, on the other hand, was almost
the world—beginning the colossal process by from the rebukes of their own inflamed entirely the work of “white” Christians like
which the various nations and continents tru- consciences. las Casas, beginning close to the time of the
ly became one global, interconnected world— discovery of the Americas, and later British
is now, for many, something to be ashamed of, Shakespeare’s Hamlet had the old Chris- Quakers and Methodists drawing on Biblical
even to denounce. tian wisdom as well as mere human decency sources. It still exists, of course, but in places
When the first edition of my book 1492 exactly right when he observed: “Use every lacking a Christian sensibility.
and All That appeared in 1992, the contrar- man after his desert and who shall ’scape It disturbs some people to learn that slav-
ian view was already starting to take hold. whipping?” ery, genocide, imperialism, even ritual hu-
During the 1992 quincentenary of Colum- These truths have even greater signifi- man sacrifice and cannibalism were present
bus’s first voyage, many of us who had tried cance if we consider that what is at stake is in the Americas long before any European
to think through what it meant—both good not merely the historical evaluation of Co- or other outsider ever set foot there. But they
and bad—found it difficult to say anything lumbus or Europe or “white privilege,” but were. Slavery was a part of Native American
positive about it in print, on television and the meaning of civilization itself. Given the traditions, both before and after the arrival
radio, or even in academic settings without universal evidence of human sinfulness and of Europeans. It was, of course, common in
being scolded. More than three decades later, imperfection, we put ourselves in the position the large empires, as in empires on other con-
scholars have done what they are meant to of preferring to have no cultural roots at all tinents. But it also existed in what is today
do: uncover even more of the rich, inspiring, if we demand only to allow into public spaces Canada, particularly the Pacific Northwest,
frightening, appalling, glorious, and inglo- and permissible discourse what we believe— and almost everywhere. As late as the noto-
rious features of the Age of Discovery. But on unclear grounds—is now the perfection rious Trail of Tears—the mid-19th-century
there exists something approaching a taboo of moral vision. One of the central things series of forced relocations of several tribes
about saying anything positive about Colum- from the American Southeast to west of the
bus or any of the other European explorers. Mississippi—there were black slaves, owned
People ready to condemn him for every ill It disturbs some people to by Native Americans, among those making
that has occurred on these shores, strangely, learn that slavery, genocide, the trek. A 2018 Smithsonian magazine article,
would never think of crediting him with the “How Native American Slaveholders Com-
many goods that have been achieved as well. imperialism, even ritual plicate the Trail of Tears Narrative,” recalls
And it would not be stretching things to say human sacrifice and how awful that episode was, in which at least
that the blanket rejection of Columbus has 4,000 died. The article also explains:
become something of a poorly informed met- cannibalism were present
aphor for the repudiation of virtually all of in the Americas long What you probably don’t picture are
Western history. Cherokee slaveholders, foremost among
And it doesn’t stop there. As historian before any outsider ever them Cherokee chief John Ross. What
Wilfred McClay has observed: you probably don’t picture are the
set foot there. numerous African-American slaves,
The pulling down of statues, as a form Cherokee-owned, who made the brutal
of symbolic murder, is congruent with I sought to demonstrate in 1993 is that the march themselves, or else were shipped
the silencing of dissenting opinion, so radical critique of the West could not have en masse to what is now Oklahoma
prevalent a feature of campus life today. happened without the very values—equality, aboard cramped boats by their wealthy
In my own academic field of history, it is human dignity, liberty—that spring from the Indian masters. And what you may not
entirely of a piece with the weaponizing Western tradition itself, and more specifically know is that the federal policy of Indian
of history, in which the past is regarded the Christian understanding that sees every removal, which ranged far beyond the
as nothing more than a malleable back- human person as a child of God, a vision that Trail of Tears and the Cherokee, was
ground for the concerns of the present, has existed in no other civilization. not simply the vindictive scheme of An-
and not as an independent source of drew Jackson, but rather a popularly
wisdom or insight or perspective. Slavery and Conquest endorsed, congressionally sanctioned
campaign spanning the administrations
S
He adds: lavery, for example, has been a of nine separate presidents.
universal in human history from an-
Those caught up in the moral frenzy of cient Egypt and Mesopotamia to Chi- And there was genocide by Native Ameri-
the moment ought to think twice, and na, classical Greece and Rome, as well as Rus- cans as well, even among groups for whom any
more than twice, about jettisoning fig- sia, the scattered kingdoms of Central Africa, decent person will feel a great deal of sympa-
ures of the past who do not measure up the First Nations of Canada, various other thy. Amid this year’s July 4th celebrations,
perfectly to the standards of the pres- North American tribes, the great empires of controversy erupted over the American presi-
ent—a present, moreover, for which the Mayans and Aztecs, the Ottoman Empire, dents represented on Mount Rushmore and
those past figures cannot reasonably and the antebellum American South. Chattel even the U.S. government’s ownership of the
be held responsible. For one thing, as slavery—outright “ownership” of other hu- site. But the history of the place tells a mel-
the Scriptures warn us, the measure man beings—which is often said to have been ancholy tale. In 1776, the very year that the
you use is the measure you will receive. invented in the American South, actually can American colonies declared their indepen-
Those who expect moral perfection of be dated back at least to the Code of Hammu- dence, the Lakota Sioux conquered the Black

Page 67
Hills, where Mount Rushmore is located. To recall such things is not to excuse Euro- Muslims had repeatedly made incursions
They wiped out the local Cheyenne who held peans or Christians who should have behaved into the Holy Land, Spain (for 800 years),
it previously, and the Cheyenne had taken it better then and still should now. But it is to Rome, Sicily (where they ruled for almost
themselves from the Kiowa. As one informed get a clearer picture of what we as a species a century), and elsewhere. It’s no surprise,
historian pointed out: have been, rather than the fictional represen- then, that Louis IX fought Muslims, even
tations of purely good and purely bad actors as he was beyond all dispute one of the most
The Lakota Sioux arrived in the West that have displaced the truth. saintly and charitable of kings. In the context
after being on the losing end of a war It’s common today to charge Christians of his time, preventing Muslim advances pre-
with other tribes in Minnesota in the with violence or religious bigotry not only served Christian civilization.
late 1700s. Known as the Lakota, or toward Native Americans, but even against The downfall of Constantinople in 1453
simply the Sioux, they waged genocidal Muslims. During the 2020 riots one Islamic sent shockwaves throughout Europe. In Spain,
war on other tribes before they took group called for renaming St. Louis, Missouri, one reason why Columbus’s sponsors, King
over the Black Hills from the Chey- because the French king for whom the city is Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, converted or
enne…. [T]hey did the exact same thing named—Louis IX of France (1214–1270)— expelled Muslims by fits and starts was fear
that the United States did to drive the had fought against both Jews and Muslims. of Ottoman support for rebels. And it didn’t
Lakota out. In modern pluralistic societies, where large stop there. Muslim invaders pressed on to the
numbers of people with very different beliefs Balkans and other Western territories, even
It’s very difficult to escape the network of must try to live together in some sort of civic reaching Vienna in 1683, where they were
human evils that have existed throughout his- orderliness, such religious tensions obvious- only turned back by the last-minute arrival of
tory. The American author Ta-Nehisi Coates ly need to be avoided. But it’s not so easy to Polish cavalry.
wrote a highly influential book in 2015 on transpose postmodern American concerns
the history of racism and white supremacy, into the Middle Ages, let alone the Age of Noble and Ignoble Savages
Between the World and Me, in the form of a Discovery.
I
kind of message to his son, Samori. The son Few Westerners know of it, but in 1453— f revisionist views of european na-
was named after a late 19th-century African less than 40 years before Columbus arrived tions in the Middle Ages and early Re-
leader, Samori Ture, a devout Muslim who in the Caribbean—the Ottoman Turks fi- naissance tend to make them look like
fought French colonialism in West Africa— nally overthrew Constantinople, capital of nothing so much as Game of Thrones, recent
but who also captured and sold black slaves, the Eastern Roman Empire for over a thou- scholarship about pre-Columbian America
in time-honored African tradition, to finance sand years, and continued with further ag- makes much of the New World appear not so
his empire-building. gressions. This process had a long history. very different. Our picture of native peoples in
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Page 68
the English-speaking world has been strongly plorers, some of whom had sailed to the most But it’s also beyond dispute that these cit-
shaped by images of the relatively thinly set- opulent Mediterranean cities, as far richer in ies were not situated in an unsullied earthly
tled Indian lands that the English colonists buildings, population, foodstuffs, and various paradise. They cultivated, but also depleted,
encountered (especially after diseases from cultural achievements than any city in Europe, natural resources; fought typical wars of
Europe felled large percentages of native com- the Middle East, or North Africa. It was also conquest with one another; rose, flourished,
munities). It was from them that we derived the center of an empire—perhaps contain- declined, and disappeared, just like human
the notion of the “noble savage”: physically fit, ing as many as 5 million people—built by habitations in other parts of the world. Most
independent, living lightly on the land. That conquest over neighboring peoples and main- practiced slavery. They changed whole parts
picture is not entirely wrong—for a rather tained by human sacrifice to bloodthirsty of the natural landscape—from the high plain
small segment of indigenous populations. It gods who required human blood to maintain of Mexico City to the riverbanks of the Ama-
depends, however, on focusing on small tribes the equilibrium of the world. zon. That a much more idealized version of
(about 100,000 natives lived in all of what is The other great civilizations of the Ameri- native peoples has survived all these discov-
now New England in the early 1600s, about cas—Olmecs, Toltecs, Maya, Incas—also eries reflects a hunger in postmodern West-
one sixth the current population of Boston) produced impressive urban centers and politi- ern culture for something “other” and purer.
and ignoring continual tribal warfare with its cal, economic, and social networks. So much But projecting your needs onto other peoples,
scalpings, kidnappings, and torture of cap- so that as archaeologists and others have and ignoring their actual lives, dehumanizes
tives. Most of the native settlements along the uncovered the remains of those civilizations them in a sense. No people will long be held
New England shores, for example, were pro- estimates of the population of the Americas in esteem—once real history enters into the
tected by ramparts from attacks by warriors have soared wildly. Some of the increase is picture—if they are held up as an unreal ide-
of other tribes. doubtless owing to the desire of some schol- alization that has never existed since the Gar-
When it comes to the large city-states and ars to compensate—overcompensate, say oth- den of Eden, owing to the sinfulness, limited
even empires that have been uncovered in er scholars—for the relatively small numbers vision, and weakness of our universal human
Meso- and South America in recent decades, once thought accurate. Estimates now range nature.
the argument for a universal human nature from 8 to almost 120 million inhabitants. Ob-
(and not an entirely happy one) across dif- viously discrepancies of more than an order More Than a Blank Slate
ferences of culture, place, and age gains sig- of magnitude call into question the methods
T
nificant support. People who have actually used to produce them. But it is now beyond hat applies to current critics of
looked into, say, Aztec civilization know that dispute that large urban centers existed with the past as well. If you’re going to pull
Tenochtitlán—the core of today’s Mexico extensive networks and surrounding areas to down statues of Columbus because he
City—appeared to the earliest Spanish ex- feed and supply them. and the culture out of which he came were

Page 69
imperfect, what ideals will you offer in their “the world” can make even the soberest minds A modern reader need not be a believer to
place? In a review of 1492 and All That, the slightly intoxicated. understand that the mentality of someone—
great Oxford historian J.H. Elliott suggested But there’s worse. The Enlightenment be- and such an unusual someone, in a different
that it was regrettable that a book like it even lief in ever-advancing progress—unreliable, age, half a millennium ago—should not be re-
needed to be written. But it did. And still incomplete, and deluding a vision though it duced to categories that come easily to mind
does—now partly re-written and amplified was—has been replaced by a crushing mate- for us. Indeed, anyone who would want to
to reflect some of the historical work that has rialism, joined incoherently with visions of a understand both the man and the things he
been done in intervening years and to freshen technologized human future. There’s no bet- achieved—and didn’t achieve—should expect
arguments that may prevent us from making ter example of the process than the world- to have to step outside at least some habitual
rash, destructive judgments about some cru- wide success of Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens: assumptions. If that doesn’t happen, we will
cial moments in our historical development. A Brief History of Humankind (2011), which be proceeding under a schizophrenia that af-
A remarkable shift in how we view human dismisses virtually all of history as a mere flicts much of the Western world today: we
history has become dominant since my book prelude to a post-human future that seems take the principles of human dignity and
first appeared. For the past two centuries, to leave him and his millions of readers un- liberty as self-evident—which they are not,
there had been a widespread belief in human troubled, though untethered to anything rec- anywhere outside the Christian civilization
progress, driven by science, technology, and ognizably congenial to Homo sapiens. of the West—and at the same time repudiate
pragmatic uses of reason. There remained Part of the difficulty in properly assessing the very source of the things we hold as most
some sense that great men—Columbus, Isaac Christopher Columbus the man is that it took morally certain.
Newton, and Thomas Jefferson among them— a complex, driven figure to carry out what he I am quite aware that there are many peo-
could alter the course of history. eventually did. So it’s possible to say he was ple who don’t care about such efforts, who only
Much of that understanding simply melt- ambitious—because he was. And sought hon- want to feel the thrill of sweeping condemna-
ed away in the anti-Western ideological tri- ors—which he did. And wealth, too. And that tions of imperfect historical figures, who like
umphs of the past 50 or so years. Columbus there were religious motives mixed in with ourselves were deeply shaped by their own
has become, for many today, a blank slate these others. Columbus, like many in his time, times, with their own contemporary insights
on which to project the loves and hatreds of was a strong believer whose faith deepened as and myopia, as well as occasional steps toward
our time: Euro-centrist, racist, imperialist, he grew older—not exactly an unknown phe- something greater than they could articulate.
“genocidal maniac,” and so on. An otherwise nomenon even today. But his religious side Yet it’s always worth the effort to pursue truth
sober historian has even tried to portray him has looked, at least to many recent historians, over uninformed emotion. And besides, the
as a kind of Don Quixote figure who read like either a hypocritical cover for worldly mo- history of both the Native American peoples
too many chivalric romances in his youth, tives or a benighted medieval superstitious- and the Europeans who came to these shores
and then as a poor, unlettered, and ambi- ness that he’d clung to well into what was then is much more interesting and instructive than
tious adult sought, now as a kind of Sancho the Renaissance. Yet the notion of preaching simple morality tales.
Panza, to make his fortune carrying out fan- the Gospel to all nations and using the riches
tastic feats of derring-do on the high seas. of the East to recover Jerusalem from the Robert Royal is president of the Faith & Reason
That Columbus could lead a respectable his- Muslims—however strange an aspiration to Institute. This essay is adapted from the Intro-
torian into such elaborate nonsense reflects modern eyes and ears—made perfect, even duction to his new book, Columbus and the
the ways that the voyages that inaugurated sublime sense in his day. Crisis of the West (Sophia Institute Press).

Page 70
Essay by Christopher Caldwell
Plymouth Rock Landed on Them

The immigration crisis of 1620.
P
ossibly someone will surprise us question. Here is a better one: what hope is sive. The director of the Provincetown Mu-
at the last minute. Possibly the coro- there for a nation that doesn’t care about its seum boasted to the Boston Globe about the
navirus is to blame. But with 2020 beginnings? “tough conversations” he had had as he trained
nearly over, it looks like the 400th anniversa- At work is more than a failure to summon his staff to think about the Mayflower land-
ry of the Pilgrims’ arrival at Plymouth, Mas- the Pilgrims to mind. There is an active proj- ing in a different way. The Pilgrims survived,
sachusetts, is going to pass uncommemorat- ect to exorcise them, in order that the coun- he said, because the Wampanoag Indians
ed. There have been no TV features relating try might find itself a past more congruent “helped them in true social-justice fashion.” A
what happened 400 years ago. No magazine with its present-day political commitments. founder of the Bernie Sanders-linked group
essays unstitching the religious conflicts that A year ago, the New York Times launched a Indivisible Plymouth complained over the
drove the Puritans into exile or the repub- “1619 Project” dedicated to the proposition summer about such local commemorations
lican philosophy of the Mayflower Compact that the original, the more consequential, as were planned: “[S]houldn’t the struggle for
and its relevance to us. Absent is the passion and therefore the real founding of the coun- the right for women to vote,” she asked, “be
society’s leaders bring to commemorations try came with the arrival of a Portuguese as well-known as the story of the Mayflower
they actually care about—the sesquicen- slave ship in Jamestown the year before the and 1620?”
tennial of the Civil War, the centennial of Pilgrims arrived. To which one can only reply: Isn’t it al-
World War I, and all those local triumphs of Those locals to whom the Pilgrims’ memo- ready? Even in Plymouth?
the Civil Rights movement that have come ry has been entrusted have rushed to cooper- As in every matter that involves ethnic,
to fill our civic calendar like so many saints’ ate in their demotion. In July, citing the “reck- cultural, or racial interactions, the “tradi-
days. Half a generation ago, journalist and oning with racial injustice” underway in street tional” or “establishment” narrative has been
historian Éric Zemmour expressed aston- protests across the country, the trustees of censored in schools, city halls, and all the
ishment that the French government was ig- Plimoth Plantation, the living-history muse- traditional places it was once told. No estab-
noring the 200th anniversary of the Battle um that has explained the Pilgrim settlement lishment lifts a finger to defend it. The “sub-
of Austerlitz (1805). What hope is there, he to schoolchildren and tourists since 1947, an- versive” or “alternative” narrative, meanwhile,
asked, for a nation that doesn’t care about nounced they were changing the institution’s has become doctrine: it is championed by
the greatest military victory of its greatest name to Plimoth Patuxet (the Wampanoag corporations and foundations and backed by
leader, in this case Napoleon? It was a good name for the spot) in order to be more inclu- the government’s full power to punish.

Page 71
Over time, the intended result is reached: That they were grateful is not surprising. live to the west of Plymouth, bear an invet-
authorities cannot teach the story of the Against the backdrop of the early 17th centu- erate malice to the English, and are of more
Pilgrims even if they would, because most ry, the Pilgrims’ bond with the Wampanoags strength than all the savages from thence to
of them no longer know it. The story of the was atypical to the point of being mystifying. Penobscot.” That letter came from an Eng-
settlement of North America has become a People had wanted to settle New England for lish explorer “Mr. Dermer.” By the time the
scandal. It is worth looking more closely at a long time. The Virginia explorer John Smith, Pilgrims sailed he had already been mortally
who the Pilgrims were, and what they did, to who first mapped the region for the British wounded by Wampanoag warriors on a trade
understand why so many people have grown crown, thought Massachusetts a paradise. visit he had made to Martha’s Vineyard, ac-
so uncomfortable telling their story. Hundreds of cod-fishing boats were working companied by Squanto as translator. Those
the Maine coast yearly by the time the Pil- warriors had been led by the shrewd Epenow,
The Pilgrim Settlement grims arrived. But encounters between Indi- another kidnapped Wampanoag who had
ans and Europeans, as when fishermen landed learned English in captivity and escaped on a
I
t is still told in straightforward to trade, most often ended in violence. Two return voyage for which he was supposed to
histories, of which a representative recent years after the Pilgrims landed, Powhatan In- work enlisted as a guide.
example is Nathaniel Philbrick’s May- dians slaughtered 347 colonists in Jamestown. But just before the Pilgrims’ arrival the
flower (2006). The Pilgrims were “Separat- All over the new world there had been stories Wampanoags, although warlike, suddenly
ists” from the Church of England. Like the like this, at least since 1528, when Giovanni found themselves weakened to the point of
Massachusetts Bay Puritans who later in da Verrazzano (the first great explorer of mortal danger. The central fact of 17th-cen-
the decade would settle just north of them what is now the northeastern United States), tury American history is biological, not politi-
in Boston, the Pilgrims believed the Church having rowed ashore from his moored boat to cal or military. It is the lack of any resistance
of England had been corrupted by venal- explore a Caribbean island he assumed unin- among Indians, first, to European diseases
ity and anti-scriptural superstitions inher- habited, was captured and eaten on the beach (such as smallpox and typhus) and, later, to
ited from Catholicism. Unlike the Puritans, in front of his horrified crew. African ones (such as malaria and yellow fe-
though, the Pilgrims broke communion with The Englishmen who explored Massachu- ver). Some Indian settlements were complete-
the English church, and faced persecution setts Bay did nothing to make themselves ly depopulated.
for it. They lived in exile in Leiden for a de- especially welcome. In the decade before the One of these was Patuxet, Squanto’s
cade, in the same neighborhood where the home, on the spot that settlers would call
young Rembrandt was then attending school, Plymouth. The French adventurer Samuel
and then made a (bad) bargain with a band Locals have de Champlain, having anchored there in
of investors called the Merchant Adventur- rushed to cooperate 1605, left a woodcut of teeming populations
ers. In exchange for the authorization to set tending abundant fields. But when Squanto
up a colony in North America, the Pilgrims in the Pilgrims’ made what he surely thought would be a tri-
would send furs, salt fish, and other profitable demotion. umphal return in 1619, he found the place
commodities to the Adventurers sitting back abandoned. So did the Pilgrims when they
in London. (Like today’s “venture” capitalists, landed a year later.
the Adventurers arrogated to themselves a Pilgrims arrived, there had been various in- The desolation would have had a profound
dashing job-description that more properly cidents in which natives, dozens in total, had psychological effect. The Pilgrims would
belonged to those they were financing.) Just been invited on board French, English, Dutch, have believed themselves favored by Provi-
over a hundred people landed at Plymouth on or Spanish ships and kidnapped, either to dence. The Indians, seeing their neighbors
December 22, 1620, most of them Pilgrims, be trained as guides or sold as slaves. One of drop like flies and the colonists escape un-
though some were godless sailors, craftsmen, these was Squanto, captured near Plymouth harmed, would have assumed the God the
and other “strangers.” To minimize strife, the in 1614, who escaped from the Spanish slave settlers proclaimed was a mighty one. But
men had signed a Mayflower Compact before port of Málaga to London and made his way psychology was not the whole of it. As the
stepping on shore, pledging to honor individu- back to his native Plymouth. The Pilgrims, historian Herbert Milton Sylvester wrote
ally the laws they made collectively. About 35 naïve about this history, blundered into a in his thrilling three-volume Indian Wars of
million Americans are descended from them. war zone. They themselves stole buried corn New England (1910): “Had the plague not oc-
Alone, freezing, poorly provisioned, half the in their first hungry days in the New World, curred as it did, the English would have been
Pilgrims died of starvation and disease that and were greeted with a shower of arrows on driven into the sea.”
first winter. One day, Samoset, a chief of the their first encounter with Indians. They did The Wampanoags never recovered their
Abenaki Indians in what is now Maine, walked plenty of fighting, led by a secular mercenary demographic position, and the rapid influx
into Plymouth and addressed the settlers in named Myles Standish—brave, erudite, un- of colonial settlers began to confine the Indi-
English. He introduced the Pilgrims to Mas- derhanded, and so diminutive that he was ans to their towns. After Massasoit’s death in
sasoit, chief of the region’s Wampanoag Indi- known (though not to his face) as “Captain 1660, the peace between Pilgrims and Wam-
ans, and to Squanto, a second English-speaker. Shrimp.” But even decades later, as tension panoags would break down.
Massasoit, who lived just west of the Pilgrims rose between nearby colonies and nearby In-
in the settlement of Pokanoket, offered food. dians, the Pilgrim-Wampanoag peace held. Revering Our Forebears
Squanto offered planting and fishing advice. What made the Wampanoag different?
M
Most important, the two sides agreed to a It is not that they were a particularly affable any peoples settled the united
common defense pact. In the autumn of 1621, bunch of Indians. Pilgrim governor William States. Why, among them, should
the Pilgrims and the Pokanoket Wampanoags Bradford cited a letter sent him just before the Pilgrims have so long occupied
shared a giant feast, the first “Thanksgiving.” the Pilgrims sailed: “The Pocanockets, which the central place? What about this story was

Page 72
A MERICA on T RIAL
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America was formed." — Robert Royal, Ph.D.,
— Larry P. Arnn, Ph.D., President, Faith & Reason Institute
President, Hillsdale College
"Reminiscent of Russell Kirk, Reilly
"A defense of the principles of natural makes clear that the intellectually
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the foundation of American policy the Founders cannot be reduced to
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val, and modern origins." — Benjamin Wiker, Ph.D.,
— Peter Kreeft, Ph.D., Professor of Professor of Political Science,
Philosophy, Boston College Franciscan University
"It's become fashionable in Christian "Reilly demonstrates that the roots

intellectual circles to condemn the of our country are grounded deeply not
American Founding as just so much in Modernist heresies but in Jerusalem,
bad Enlightenment philosophy. Reilly Athens, and Rome. Our current decay
shows convincingly that these charges can be reversed by embracing where
are misguided." we really came from."
— Jay Richards, Ph.D., — Austin Ruse, President,
Senior Fellow, Discovery Institute Center for Family & Human Rights
T he Founding of the American Republic is on trial. Critics say it was a poison pill with a
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ALGORA PUBLISHING rise of the United States—transformed in complicated. The Pilgrims were seeking one
less than two centuries from a wilderness into thing: the freedom to establish a theocracy.
Nonplussed by World Events? a vast independent republic, on a par, both This “single inspiration,” as Adams called it,
commercially and culturally, with many Eu- turned out to be double. They got their free-
sTalin, a Biography in facTs ropean countries—made this an important dom, because they were willing to struggle for
Gerhard Schnehen
question, not just for America’s pride but for it. But they did not get their theocracy, be-
426 pages $23.95
Stalin is usually presented as
the world’s edification. cause it was incompatible with their freedom.
the quintessential "vicious dicta- John Quincy Adams, a young Massachu- In making the case for the Pilgrim Fathers,
tor," an iconic figure of tyranny. setts state senator and son of the recently Adams ignores their theology and asks us to
But almost none of his biogra-
phers has drawn on primary ousted president, spoke at a commemoration notice instead three things that involve their
sources, eyewitness accounts in Plymouth in 1802. The simplest reason political behavior. First, they wrote the May-
and Stalin's own writings and
speeches. The author cites well- we remembered the Pilgrims, he made clear, flower Compact, which showed that “the na-
known "court historians" such as Strobe Talbott, but is that they were founders. It is legitimate to ture of civil government, abstracted from the
also German author Feuchtwanger, who witnessed ask, as the authors of the 1619 Project do in political institutions of their native country,
the Second Moscow Trial and studied all the case
files, and Voroshilov who shows that Trotsky lied in our own time, whether there were other par- had been an object of their serious medita-
taking credit for creating the First Mounted Army ticipants in that founding worthy of poster- tion.” Second, they proved capable of reform-
that was instrumental in winning the civil war. An
objective look at the record paints a different story. ity’s notice. Unlike these later critics, however, ing those institutions at the very outset, hav-
our gooD earTh: a
Adams made no invidious or exclusive claim ing abandoned a utopian experiment in com-
naTural hisTory of soil to the preeminence of his own subculture. mon holdings to revert to private property.
Berman Hudson “Our affections as citizens embrace the whole And third, they had treated the natives with
200 pages $21.95 extent of the Union,” he said, “and the names decency and respect.
The author explains the sci- of Raleigh, Smith, Winthrop, Calvert, Penn, Adams clearly understands that this last
ence and the importance of soil, and Oglethorpe excite in our minds recollec- argument is an awkward one, because the
with a description of how soils
have evolved over the past 3.5 tions equally pleasing and gratitude equally natives had been wiped out since they en-
billion years and how they affect fervent with those of Carver and Bradford.” countered the English. He rightly does not
human civilization.
Adams nonetheless observed a few ways in blame Europeans or Africans for carrying
The MagnificenT eMperor Wu which the story of Plymouth highlighted ex- the diseases that enervated the Indians (nor
china's han DynasTy ceptional aspects of America’s national life. In would he have fully understood the science
Hing Ming Hung 324 pages $21.95 tracing their origins, “other nations have gen- of what happened), but takes as his starting
Major episodes of the Han Dynasty are presented, erally been compelled to plunge into the chaos point the desolation the Pilgrims found on
from its founding by Liu Bang to the Lu Clan of impenetrable antiquity, or to trace a lawless their arrival: “Is New England supposed to
Disturbance and beyond. Battles, betrayals, rebel-
lions, diplomatic overtures and long-term strategies ancestry into the caverns of ravishers and rob- be held by a few tens of thousands in perpe-
played out over the centuries as the Han Court bers.” Not so the Pilgrims. The only thing un- tuity? Shall the fields and the valleys, which
dealt with smaller Chinese kingdoms, the Mongols,
and Gojoseon (ancient Korea). The rule of Liu Che, cultivated about them was the landscape. The a beneficent God has formed to teem with
Emperor Wu, brought a new era of stability, growth settlers of Plymouth were already embedded the life of innumerable multitudes, be con-
and prosperity, improved living standards, and the
opening of the first of the Great Silk Road trade in a high European civilization. demned to everlasting barrenness?” It is a
routes - the brainchild of an astute diplomat who And a specific one. The Pilgrims were sensible argument, but it will sound to 21st-
was held hostage for many years and put his situa- Englishmen—even English patriots, Adams century ears like an economic answer to a
tion to good use.
asserted. Paradoxically, their 3,000-mile jour- moral question.
The neW coMMonWealTh ney out of Dutch exile was intended to bring Eighteen years later, in 1820, Federalist
From Bureaucratic corporatism them closer to England. “That country which lawyer and future senator Daniel Webster
to socialist capitalism
Claudiu A. Secara
had ejected you so cruelly from her bosom,” also spoke at Plymouth. No friend of John
296 pages $24.95 Adams said, “you still delighted to contem- Quincy Adams, he nonetheless laid a simi-
Brexit, NATO expansion and plate in the character of an affectionate and lar stress on, first, the Pilgrims’ introduction
the SCO reflect major shifts in beloved mother.” of “civilization and an English race into New
alliances in the global power
game, but an even greater tec- What was unique about the Pilgrims, even England” and, second, the “peculiar original
tonic force is at work as well. among other English settlers of their time, is character of the New England Colonies” in
That's dialectics: the Soviet Union evolved from
socialism to capitalism and back to socialist capi- that they came for love of God, not love of worship rather than avarice. New England
talism. This book provides a unique interpretation money. From Columbus’s voyages until the was not like those “Asiatic establishments”
of events unfolding in Europe and around the world settlement of Virginia, explorers and exploit- and West Indian plantations where “the
within broad historical, economic, military and
political contexts. ers had taken great risks—but always for owners of the soil and of the capital seldom
The author shows how the US, bastion of "free their own enrichment (and at one remove, a consider themselves at home in the colony,”
markets," finds itself constrained to move toward
socialistic policies just as the Communist nations monarch's glory). “It was reserved for the first traffic in luxuries rather than necessities, and
inevitably integrated more elements of capitalism. settlers of new England,” said Adams, “to per- exploit slave labor. (Webster was not more
form achievements equally arduous, to tram- anti-slavery than Adams—no one was—but
ple down obstructions equally formidable, to one can hear a note of abolitionist sectional
Nonfiction for the Nonplussed ! dispel dangers equally terrific, under the sin- hostility creeping in that was absent from
Available from www.ALGORA.com gle inspiration of conscience.” Adams’s address.)
and Amazon.com You need not share their religion to honor This is the old, “patriotic” understand-
the humble Pilgrims. But there is no getting ing of what the Pilgrims were about. It is

Page 74
not necessarily a reactionary understand- the southern Connecticut River Valley. Al-
ing. Over time, particularly after Plymouth though Plymouth and its Wampanoag allies
was absorbed into the larger, more dynam- both took the side of the Massachusetts Bay
ic Massachusetts Bay Colony at the end of settlers, Governor Bradford was troubled
the 17th century, Puritanism would change, even then by rumblings he heard of a new,
evolving into Unitarianism and generating pan-Indian alliance. The Pequots were call-
various seemingly distant political enthusi- ing for the long-divided tribes to forget their
asms, from abolitionism to Prohibitionism ancient differences and focus their enmity on
to women’s suffrage. Herbert Milton Sylves- the usurping English. Bradford writes that
ter wrote that “[t]he liberalism of the present the Pequots
century is a regenerated Puritanism,” and so
are many ideologies that would understand sought to make peace with the Narra-
themselves as dissents from Puritanism, right gansetts, and used very pernicious argu-
down to the superstitions of political cor- ments to move them thereunto: as that
rectness today. the English were strangers and began to
As Webster spoke in Plymouth about the overspread their country, and would de-
English settlers, Washington Irving was liv- prive them thereof in time, if they were
ing in England and studying the Pilgrims’ suffered to grow and increase. And if
sons—particularly their bloody suppression the Narragansetts did assist the English
of the great Wampanoag uprising of the 1670s. to subdue them [the Pequots], they did
Where Webster dismissed the subject of the but make way for their own overthrow,
Indian wars in half a sentence, Irving was ap- for if they were rooted out, the English
palled. “Posterity,” he wrote, “will either turn would soon take occasion to subjugate
with horror and incredulity from the tale, or them [the Narragansetts].
blush with indignation at the inhumanity of
their forefathers.” This judgment would prove correct in all its
particulars.
Deadliest War There was something in the Indians’ cul-
ture of warfare that struck the European sen-
I
f plymouth’s reputation is on the sibility as especially sadistic. They were fond
wane in our time, it is at least partly be- of ruses and ambushes, scalped their adver-
cause historians now treat King Philip’s saries, tortured and enslaved their captives,
War (1675–76) not as a separate episode but and taunted the survivors. Sylvester writes:
as part of the story of the Pilgrim founding—
the sanguinary final stage of it. Roughly a They had roasted Butterfield at the
tenth of the European adult males of the stake, as well as Tilly. They had slain
southern New England colonies were killed men and women at Wethersfield; they
or captured in the conflict, and half their vil- had carried their children away into
lages burnt. Indians had it worse: “The set- captivity; and much of this had been
tlers first despoiled the savages of their fish- a matter of visual experience…. It is
ing-grounds, their hunting- and corn-lands,” no wonder that the cup of vengeance,
writes the unmatchable Sylvester, “and then once at the white man’s lips, should be
they annihilated them with fire and sword drained to the very dregs.
because they resented these aggressions.” It
was, per capita, the deadliest war in Ameri- A low point came with the battle of Fort Mys-
can history. tic. English troops surrounded the fort, then
The story had the shape of a Shakespear- occupied by perhaps 500 women and children,
ean tragedy. The gentle Massasoit’s son breached its walls, and lit the wigwams on fire.
Metacom (known as Philip) led part of the They killed the men as they emerged from the
Wampanoags and a confederation of central inferno, and captured the women and chil-
New England tribes against the Plymouth dren to sell into slavery.
settlers he had grown up among. Those set- Such episodes left an impression even on
tlers, fortified by other New England colo- the Indian allies of the English, and a few
nies and several Indian tribes, were led, at years later, a beloved Narragansett chieftain
least at first, by William Bradford, the son of named Miantonomo began traveling around
the late governor. with a message for leaders of the southern
The end to half-a-century of Wampanoag- New England tribes: “Brothers, we must be
English peace was less sudden than it looked. one as the English are, or we shall soon all be
The logic of King Philip’s War was already ev- destroyed.”
ident in a war the Massachusetts Bay Colony Though Miantonomo was betrayed and
had launched in 1636 against the Pequots of executed, distrust of the English and senti-

Page 75
“The Claremont Review of Books is one of the very few existing publications
actually worth hand distributing via mimeograph in the politically correct police state
its enemies would like to see.”
—Peter Thiel
ments of pan-Indian solidarity had reached each day seemed to bring word of a new con-
the Wampanoags, and eventually would reach
King Philip.
flagration or massacre.
Plymouth authorities suspected that many Find a new
Descending into Violence
Indians silently sympathized with Philip. Al-
most 200 noncombatant Indians who surren-
favorite read
dered on a promise of amnesty were shipped
A
generation later, in the 1670s, to the Spanish Caribbean as slaves. The
Margarita Carretero-González
Massasoit’s son and successor Meta- Christian Wampanoags of Cape Cod, Mar-
com (also called Philip) began to be- tha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket had long been
have erratically, selling off large and vitallylost to Philip. They were able to sit out the
Edited by
important parcels of tribal land. Indians war as neutrals. But Christian Indians closer
were already hemmed in by the encroach- to the conflict fell under suspicion and were
ment of settlers, who had come to outnum- confined, at least in the early months of the
ber the Indians two to one. That the sold war, to Deer Island in Boston Harbor.
lands often passed to neighboring Rhode A popular hero of the war’s early days was
Island infuriated the Plymouth colonists. Samuel Moseley, a rampaging, let-God-sort-
Probably Philip was using the proceeds of ’em-out pirate given to burning wigwams SPANISH THINKING ABOUT ANIMALS
the land sales to buy guns. His elder brother and terrorizing civilians. The effect of this “The essays collected in Spanish Thinking
Alexander had died while under suspicion of kind of warfare was to drive many unaffili- about Animals challenge us to move beyond the
stereotypical idea of a bullfighting nation.”
hatching a similar plot. The war would be ated and uncommitted Indians in the region
fought not with bows and arrows but with rel- into at least passive support for Philip and —Alexa Weik von Mossner, University of Klagenfurt
atively advanced flintlock muskets. The Wam- to spread the violence into the territory of 978-1-61186-362-8 ■ 236 pgs. ■ cloth ■ $49.95
panoags had grown dependent on firearms for all six of today’s New England states. At
hunting and as marksmen were at least the the very end of the war, Plymouth authori-
equals of the settlers. ties captured King Philip’s nine-year-old
Karen L. Marrero
A genuine conflict over sovereignty set son. They anguished publicly and consulted
the war in motion. In January 1675 John Deuteronomy and 1 Kings over whether to
Sassamon was pushed into a hole in an icy release him or to execute him on the grounds
pond. He was an Indian convert to Christi- that “the children of notorious traitors, reb-
anity, a scribe, a translator, a Harvard man, els, and murderers…may be involved in the
and possibly the most literary of the Wam- guilt of their parents and may, salva republica,
panoags. He may have been killed for mis- be adjudged to death.” In the end they sold
transcribing a last will and testament dic- him into slavery. DETROIT’S HIDDEN CHANNELS
tated by Philip in such a way as to transfer In considering the Pilgrims’ conduct in “Detroit’s Hidden Channels is an insightful social
certain of the chief ’s properties to himself. King Philip’s war, one must bear in mind the analysis of the French-Indigenous community that
evolved with Cadillac’s founding of this frontier
More likely his mistake was to have betrayed 17th-century context in which it was fought. trading center. ”
Philip’s military plans to colonial authorities.
In Europe, the early and mid-17th century, for
—Susan Sleeper-Smith, Michigan State University
Rather than request that suspects be handed all its economic dynamism and cultural fecun-
978-1-61186-359-8 ■ 302 pgs. ■ cloth ■ $44.95
over, those authorities seized three of Phil- dity, was spectacularly violent—more violent
ip’s Indian confidants and sentenced them to than any period until the early 20th century.
be hanged. With this, Plymouth made it evi- The conflicts of the late 17th century in North
Jeannine deNobel Love
dent they considered the Wampanoags their America (including the Salem witch trials of
subjects, no longer a sovereign nation. They 1692-93) may have arisen as the passions of Eu-
had already forced Philip to sign documents rope’s religious wars arrived late to a provincial
to that effect. place. What Europeans did to American Indi-
According to Nathaniel Philbrick, Philip ans at Fort Mystic in 1637, for instance, was not
started the war with only 250 soldiers. That worse than what Germans had done to Ger-
was not enough to fight regular battles with, mans at the Sack of Magdeburg earlier in the
and Philip worked instead by torching towns. decade. In recent decades, though, Americans
Escaping his peninsular redoubt of Mount have been trained to read every such incident as CLEVELAND ARCHITECTURE,
Hope (now Bristol, Rhode Island) in the sum- “racial,” in a way that makes it harder for them 1890–1930
mer of 1675, he made for the center of the to understand their country’s origins, to say “This work is a very useful and informative
contribution to scholarship about the history
state. There he linked up with his Nipmuck nothing of celebrating them. of Cleveland and the Beaux-Arts movement in
and other allies, who provided him with fresh America.”
fighters, perhaps thousands of them. They In a Different Light —Jon Ritter, New York University
killed civilians or enslaved them, including
T
978-1-61186-349-9 ■ 336 pgs. ■ cloth ■ $59.95
Mary Rowlandson, a Massachusetts min- he george washington university
ister’s wife whose account of her captivity historian David J. Silverman, disin-
MICHIGAN STATE
became the first American bestseller. Sud- clined to view the Pilgrim colony as an
bury, Deerfield, Hatfield, Andover, Hingham, improvement on what preceded it, asks in This UNIVERSITY PRESS
msupress.org
Weymouth, Haverhill, Bradford, Woburn— Land Is Their Land (2019): “Why should a

Page 77
school-age child with the last name of, say, Sil- The Wampanoag perspective to which Sil- demic paradigm in early American history.
verman, identify more with the Pilgrims than verman hopes to do justice has never been Revisionist historians began writing inspired
the Indians?” His book is really two books ignored. It may have been harder to establish briefs on behalf of the “Indian side,” culmi-
in one. As an attack on what Silverman calls because the Wampanoags had no written lan- nating in Francis Jennings’s The Invasion of
the “Thanksgiving Myth”—the traditions guage until the Europeans arrived, but it is not America: Indians, Colonialism, and the Cant
through which Americans have celebrated clear whether their illiteracy has done more of Conquest (1975), a bravura attack on histo-
the encounter between Pilgrims and Wampa- to hide their virtues or their vices. Yes, the rians of the northeastern Indian wars from
noags as a friendly one—it is tendentious and knowledge that the Pilgrims opened Indian Francis Parkman to Samuel Eliot Morison.
poorly documented. As an attempt to retell graves in the days after their landing does put Today anti-colonial historians have colo-
the story of Plymouth from the Wampanoag the Indians’ early hostility in a different light. nized American history departments to a
perspective it is profound, undogmatic, and, But we know that fact only because William greater extent than Europeans managed
in places, dazzling. Bradford, with his Puritan conscience, scru- to colonize the Americas. If there is still a
The book is marked from start to finish pulously recorded it. It is through a memoir “Thanksgiving myth,” then Silverman is re-
by the cant of the academy (“Englishmen… left by Rhode Island’s deputy governor John counting it, not debunking it.
defined difference as inferiority”), by brow- Easton that we know of Philip’s beautiful The history of Plymouth Colony was part
beating (“the fundamentally racist notion indictment of English ingratitude. (“We en- of the ferment of the 1960s and ’70s. Silver-
that indigenous Americans had experienced deavored,” Easton writes, “that they should man opens his book with an account of the
little historical change before the colonial lay down their arms, for the English were too 350th anniversary of the Mayflower landing in
era”), and by the gushing over commonplace strong for them. They said then that the Eng- 1970, at which the Wampanoag Frank James
civilizational achievements (“[t]he expansion lish should do to them as they did when they saw his speech canceled when he tried to turn
of maize was a stunning feat of human engi- were too strong for the English.”) In 1878 at it into a protest. “This action by Massasoit,”
neering”) that one expects from an academic the urging of Zerviah Gould Mitchell, a de- James had planned to say, “was perhaps our
historian who got tenure in this century. We scendant of Massasoit, the Civil War colonel biggest mistake.” By this James presumably
have lately reached the point at which political Ebenezer Weaver Peirce composed a highly meant the decision to welcome the Pilgrims
correctness is no longer a set of tics or partisan competent volume recounting colonial events in the first place, rather than to fight them on
clichés that identifies certain historians but from Massasoit’s point of view. the beaches.
the lingua franca of the entire academy. There Starting in the 1960s, a few developments Massasoit appears in most of our histories
is little point in tormenting a reader with a transformed this perspective from a peren- up to the 20th century as a kindly and noble
long list of offenses committed in its name. nial dissenting view into the dominant aca- man who laid the basis for a lasting peace
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Page 78
with European settlers, a peace frittered away Whether the Pilgrims were as special a group They seemed to be living better than they ever
after his death by his hothead son Philip. As of settlers as Adams and Webster thought, the had. Suddenly, for instance, many Indians
noted above, there have always been dissent- Wampanoags would certainly have seen that possessed horses. But Silverman notes that
ers from this view. For Washington Irving, they were a different kind of colonist. Armed “within a generation they would have little
Massasoit was to be praised as “a firm and only modestly, bringing their women and chil- land left on which to use the horses to ride
magnanimous friend,” but Philip belonged dren with them, they didn’t look like the trad- or plow.” The horses had been bought with
to the highest order of heroes: ers and buccaneers the Indians were used to. wampum, a real currency limited in supply
But the English were not to be taken by the skill needed to make it, and backed by
[W]herever, in the prejudiced and pas- lightly. One of the winning things about valuable fur trade, especially in beaver. But
sionate narrations that have been given Francis Jennings’s work was his sense of how soon their hunting grounds were sold away,
of it, we can arrive at simple facts, we non-military institutions could serve as more and eventually overhunting killed off the bea-
find him displaying a vigorous mind; efficient tools of conquest—especially the le- ver. The Indians had not been living better, it
a fertility in expedients; a contempt gal system, which trapped Indians in a for- turns out. They had been living off the sale of
of suffering and hardship; and an un- est of casuistic mumbo-jumbo. Much of the their capital, and had not noticed, because the
conquerable resolution; that command English conquest was carried out through most valuable parts of a people’s capital are of-
our sympathy and applause…. He was the drawing up of title deeds. Thus can an ten hard to quantify.
a patriot attached to his native soil—a invasion take the form of a friendly mass Perhaps Squanto knew better. A sociable
prince true to his subjects and indig- migration without many of its participants brave to modern-day schoolchildren, a dou-
nant of their wrongs—a soldier, dar- even realizing that an invasion is what they ble-dealer and con artist to historians, he be-
ing in battle, firm in adversity, patient are carrying out. came an enemy of Massasoit, who suspected
of fatigue, of hunger, of every variety of In 1640, Norwalk Indians sold the whole him, probably rightly, of designs on his pow-
bodily suffering, and ready to perish in of coastal Connecticut between Norwalk and er. Silverman speculates that long residence
the cause he had espoused. Westport for “ten jew’s-harps and ten fathoms in England gave him a sense of
of tobacco.” It has been common to consider
Herbert Milton Sylvester takes Massasoit the long-term danger posed to the
as well-meaning and naïve. “[H]is simplicity Wampanoags by Europeans, not just
was not shared by any member of his fam- Every prejudice that those in the tiny colony of Plymouth,
ily,” Sylvester wrote. “Alexander, Weetamoo, but the multitudes who were bound to
and Philip were wiser in their generation
has been schooled into follow…. Only he and Epenow among
than Massasoit.” (Weetamoo, Alexander’s Americans over the past the Wampanoags had witnessed first-
widow, became a powerful leader in Philip’s hand the vast populations from which
uprising.) half-century the English hailed and which allowed
Silverman has much more to offer than would prompt them them to keep pouring warm bodies
this. He asks us to understand Massasoit— into colonial death traps overseas.
whom he calls by his tribal name, Ousame- to root against the
quin—not as a good guy or a bad guy but as “a Pilgrims. Hence, perhaps, the ruthlessness of Epenow in
great leader every bit as ruthless as those who dealing with Europeans, once he had tricked
sought to undermine him.” This requires un- them into returning him to his homeland.
derstanding the way the balance of power had the Indians idiots for assenting to such deals. Real expert opinion on migration always
been shifted by the epidemic that hit New But the idea that Indians knew what they contains a large dose of civilizational pessi-
England on the eve of the Mayflower’s arrival. were signing is preposterous. As an illiterate mism. When an African boat with eight mi-
Massasoit’s Wampanoags were nearly extin- people, they could have no conception of the grants in it pulls up to an Italian fishing ves-
guished as a people. The Pilgrim newcomers irrevocability of a few marks scratched on a sel in the Mediterranean, a progressive poli-
found most of the Wampanoag cornfields piece of parchment. They cannot possibly tician sees a heartbreaking story on national
going back to forest. To complicate matters, have thought that they were surrendering all television and calls for more lenient refugee
the Wampanoags’ neighbors and bitter rivals rights to their property because, where they laws. A populist politician understands that
the Narragansetts, for reasons unknown, had could, they spelled out explicitly that they any invitation offered to those eight will also
emerged from the epidemic largely unscathed. weren’t, Silverman shows. “[S]ome deeds re- be heard by the billion young people the con-
So by 1620 Massasoit, until recently a great quired the English to pay tribute to the local tinent will add in the next generation. A ver-
warlord, had come under constant attack, and sachem [or chief],” he writes, “as if they were sion of that story was what happened when
was paying the Narragansetts tribute. joining Wampanoag society rather than buy- the Pilgrims landed. Massasoit was like a
The immigrants proved to be Massasoit’s ing the land from out of it.” In the end, King progressive. His foes were like populists,
deus ex machina. His outreach to them, Silver- Philip didn’t trust the English enough to ne- who viewed his friendliness to the Pilgrims
man tells us, was “a strategic response.” As al- gotiate a peace accord. as playing with fire.
lies, the Pilgrims were not numerous, but they Silverman’s Wampanoag-centered view
were growing and, rightly managed, they could Ultimate Consequences of the 17th century is more pessimistic than
give him access to firearms. Massasoit, natu- most about what the possibilities for cultural
L
rally, could have wiped them out at almost any ike most peoples throughout his- harmony were. Perhaps this has to do with
time in the early days. When the second Pil- tory who have been fast-talked out of our changing times. Nathaniel Philbrick’s
grim ship, the Fortuna, sailed into Wampanoag their birthright, the Indians felt for Mayflower came out 14 years ago. It has a
waters in 1621, he was probably glad he hadn’t. a long time that they had got a terrific deal. Clinton/Bush-era focus on diversity as a so-

Page 79
cial good, even as a “strength,” and assumes it But the victories were Pyrrhic. Plymouth once we lose interest in the way their demo-
can be maintained so long as the right leaders, and its allies in Massachusetts Bay, Rhode cratic intuitions, from the Mayflower Com-
men of peace, are in charge: Island, and Connecticut were connected to pact onward, anticipate our own democratic
global trade networks and could import food, institutions, then we are left with a tale of
When Philip’s warriors attacked in June while the Indians were an agricultural people increasing tensions between two ethnic com-
of 1675, it was not because relentless a long way from their fields and stores. King munities that eventually exploded into war.
and faceless forces had given the Indi- Philip’s troops may have been winning. But Every prejudice that has been schooled into
ans no other choice. Those forces had they were also starving. Americans over the past half-century would
existed from the very beginning. War The English controlled the technological prompt them to root against the Pilgrims.
came to New England because two platform of the war. However formidable Indi- But that is no longer the only reason we
leaders—Philip and his English coun- ans were at firing guns, they could not manufac- don’t look at Plymouth from a Pilgrim per-
terpart, Josiah Winslow—allowed it to ture them. The best hope of the Wampanoags spective. Of the two communities that con-
happen. For Indians and English alike, and their Nipmuck, Narragansett, and Aben- fronted each other in New England 400 years
there was nothing inevitable about King aki allies was to enlist the ferocious Mohawks ago, it may now be the Indians, not the Pil-
Philip’s War. of the upper Hudson, with their thousands of grims, who most resemble today’s Americans.
fighting men. But the Mohawks’ ferocity (and The Wampanoags were divided between, on
Where Philbrick is a liberal, Silverman has independence) rested on arms obtained from one hand, cosmopolitans like Massasoit, who
a more “woke” or “populist” view of intercom- Albany merchants whom they could not afford believed that there was room for a mosaic of
munal relations. Generally one side or the to alienate. They entered the war against King peoples in southeastern Massachusetts, and,
other controls the peace, and if that stronger Philip, suddenly and to devastating effect. on the other, skeptical provincials like Philip
side is not inclined to behave responsibly it Finally, the English had cohesion, how- who lost faith in that ideal. They lacked the
will raise the price of peace to the point where ever you choose to name it: solidarity, like- cohesion to stand up against a resolute rival.
peace is not worth having. By 1675, the Euro- mindedness, uniformity. The Indians had A remark often bandied about today is
peans controlled the peace. diversity. That meant some fought with Adam Smith’s to the effect that “[t]here is
In this more sensible-seeming reading, Philip and others fought against him. The a great deal of ruin in a nation,” by which he
King Philip’s decision for war does not con- Christians among them were an important meant that it takes a much greater set of mis-
tradict or discredit Massasoit’s decision for source of intelligence to the English. War fortunes to destroy a nation, and over a much
peace. Each was recruiting an outsider to split up not just families but, among the trib- longer period of time, than we commonly real-
help restore balance to a rivalry in which he al leaders, marriages. King Philip was driven ize. It is not actually true. The Wampanoags
was losing ground. Massasoit needed the Pil- eastward, back across Massachusetts, to his went from dominance and confidence to a point
grims to defend him against stronger tribes in homeland and his fate. of no return in about 55 or 60 years. Suddenly
his neighborhood. Philip needed his Indian “If the Wampanoags are as much our fel- they were losing population, and abandoning
neighbors to defend him against overbearing low Americans as the descendants of the Pil- old values, too. Each problem fed on the other
Europeans. grims,” Silverman asks, “and if their history in a dangerous process. Once a people begins
King Philip had one extraordinary ad- can be as instructional and inspirational as debating how much ruin there is in a nation,
vantage as war raged in the autumn of 1675: that of the English, then why continue to tell that process is already well underway.
The settlers did not know how to fight an a Thanksgiving myth that focuses exclusively
Indian war. They couldn’t cross a swamp, on the colonists’ struggles rather than theirs?” Christopher Caldwell is a contributing editor of
they couldn’t travel silently in woods, they The answer, as noted, is that we no longer do the Claremont Review of Books and the au-
couldn’t keep warm outdoors. Indians won tell that myth, and haven’t for years. Once we thor, most recently, of The Age of Entitlement:
battle after battle. have dismissed the Puritans’ religious claims, America Since the Sixties (Simon & Schuster).

Page 80
Book Review by Gary V. Wood
The Comprehensive Human Right

Property and the Pursuit of Happiness: Locke, the Declaration of Independence, Madison, and the Challenge of the Administrative State,
by Edward J. Erler. Rowman & Littlefield, 248 pages, $40
I
n his outstanding new book, property Thus understood, the right to property is the to a quintessentially modern thinker, John
and the Pursuit of Happiness, Edward J. Er- comprehensive human right encompassing Locke. Locke is not much in favor today:
ler faithfully defends the most important all others. It is the key to preserving limited many on both the Left and the Right agree
teachings of his mentor, the late Harry V. Jaffa, republican government, and defending it is a with the 19th-century philosopher Friedrich
while also offering new insights concerning Ar- moral duty. Schelling, who proclaimed contemptuously,
istotle, John Locke, James Madison, Thomas “I despise Locke.” Locke is often disdain-
A
Jefferson, and Leo Strauss. lthough the american revolu- fully dismissed as a depthless, second-rate
Now professor emeritus of political sci- tion established a radical break with philosopher, or else he is vilified as the ne-
ence at California State University, San the past, its principles were not wholly farious mastermind of radical modernity. As
Bernardino, Erler shows that the American modern. Erler contends that the Declaration a result, even some who defend the Ameri-
Founders regarded the Declaration of Inde- clearly displays the influence of Aristotle. In can Founding have attempted to downplay
pendence as “the authoritative source of the true Aristotelian fashion, the rights secured Locke’s influence on it.
principles of the Constitution,” and focuses by the Declaration are not ends in themselves Erler takes the opposite approach. He of-
on how the founders understood the right but means to a still higher purpose: the “safety fers an unabashed defense of America’s Lock-
to property, expressed in the Declaration as and happiness” of the American people. The ean first principles, arguing that Locke is
“the pursuit of happiness.” Today this right is right to property is thus the bedrock of the justly designated “America’s philosopher” and
poorly understood and often singled out as American regime because it enables the pur- was not a proto-radical who rejected antiqui-
the source of modern man’s decline into shal- suit of that happiness. ty out of hand. That, in any case, is certainly
low egoism. Erler argues, however, that the Given this connection between ancient not how the founders viewed him. As practi-
founders’ right to property included not only Greek thought and the American Found- cal statesmen, they sought instruction from
material goods but spiritual possessions— ing, it may at first seem counterintuitive that what Jefferson called the “elementary books
among them life, liberty, and conscience. Erler traces the principles of the Declaration of public right,” including “Aristotle, Cicero,

Page 81
Locke, Sidney, &c.” From this common-sense mons from before and during the founding
perspective, Locke was an important link in era shows that the social compact was both
RELIGION, POLITICS an unbroken chain that began with classical an “established political principle” and an
& CHICAGO political philosophy and culminated in the “accepted theological precept” for Americans
American Founding. In fact, Erler shows that of the time. Public virtue and private happi-
many of the Aristotelian arguments embraced ness thus remained as inextricably linked for
by the founders probably came to them “at a the first Americans as they had been for the
distance” through Locke. ancients.
This understanding of Locke only makes The idea that social compact theory might
sense if one appreciates the unique theologi- have preserved any connection to traditional
cal and political predicament he faced in his moral philosophy and theology is controver-
day. To the reformers who helped shape An- sial. It is often argued that the Declaration
glo-American thought in the 16th and 17th strictly limits the purpose of government to
centuries, a citizen’s political obligations securing rights. If so, then America made a
were to be distinguished from his religious clean break from the classical tradition by re-
duties. Salvation depended on developing a moving questions of virtue and morality from
personal relationship with God, which pre- the purview of government. The Declaration,
ceded all other obligations in importance. however, asserts that facilitating the “safety
The edicts of heaven, as privately understood and happiness” of the American people is gov-
by an individual’s conscience, were to take ernment’s principal purpose.
precedence over human law. This was a basis
T
for civil disobedience, meaning that theo- he exact origin of the phrase
logical disputes inevitably became a source “pursuit of happiness” has given rise to
of political conflict. Locke was born into a much scholarly speculation, and Erler
world plagued by religious war and strife. It explores the obvious but overlooked possibil-
was a radically new environment which re- ity that the words originated with Locke. Al-
quired Aristotelian natural right to take a though Locke never refers to the “pursuit of
different form. happiness” as a natural right and the phrase
is never mentioned in his Two Treatises of
P
erhaps no one understood this Government, Locke did often use the phrase,
problem better than Harry Jaffa, who and in An Essay Concerning Human Under-
argued—somewhat against his own standing he called the pursuit of happiness a
teacher, Leo Strauss—that Locke’s solution moral duty. The founders were intimately fa-
was consistent with an Aristotelian under- miliar with Locke’s Essay, and it is certainly
standing of natural right. Nevertheless, I plausible that “the decision to present ‘the
daresay no one before Erler has so thoroughly pursuit of happiness’ in the Declaration as
and comprehensively shown how Locke’s a natural right may indicate that there was
theological, epistemological, moral, and po- a conscious effort on their part to consider
litical teachings came together to solve the this third of the trilogy of specifically named
theological-political predicament. Locke, Er- natural rights as both a right and a duty.”
ler argues, found a ground for political obli- Erler presents a powerful case that Jeffer-
gation independent of Christian theology in son “transformed Locke’s understanding of
a universally valid law of nature. According the ‘pursuit of happiness’ into both a natural
to this law, the social compact allows for the right and a moral obligation.” The founders
creation of particular political communities. modified Locke while staying within a Lock-
Lockean natural law theory thus restored the ean framework.
Aristotelian concept of man as a political ani- But were these Lockean foundations
mal, which had been obscured by the Chris- doomed to crumble? Did Locke’s covert
tian teaching that all men are citizens of an agenda ultimately undermine the intentions
apolitical heavenly kingdom. of the founders and preordain America’s
Lockean social compact theory enjoined moral and cultural decline? It is often
citizens to carry out their duties to the state argued that Locke considered the pursuit of
and to subordinate themselves to natural law, happiness purely subjective or idiosyncratic,
while simultaneously removing sectarian re- as did his older contemporary, Thomas
ligious questions from the political process. Hobbes. But Erler presents strong evidence
Discover great books at niupress.niu.edu It was common for New England clergy to that Locke was not a “rank hedonist” and that
N IU PRE SS
preach that though politics and religion his references to “the pursuit of happiness”
were separate spheres, reason and revelation implied a genuine summum bonum. Erler
AN IMPRINT OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS remained in complete agreement about mo- skillfully criticizes the arguments of scholars
rality and civic duty. Erler’s analysis of ser- such as Harvey Mansfield, Michael Zuckert,

Page 82
Thomas Pangle, and Steven B. Smith, who rights of conscience. “Conscience,” he con- Throughout, Erler reminds readers that
see the American Founding as a radically tended, “is the most sacred of all property.” the American Founding was incomplete so
modern enterprise informed by a Hobbesian Madison also went beyond Locke in his long as slavery continued to exist anywhere
Locke. views on the origins of property. Locke be- in the country. The completion of the found-
lieved that labor gives one a claim to prop- ing was thus only achieved with adoption of
T
o be sure, the declaration is not erty, so that the purpose of government is to the Reconstruction amendments. Erler shows
simply a restatement of Locke’s Sec- protect the product of one’s labor. But in his that Republican members of the 39th Con-
ond Treatise of Government. It goes famous argument from The Federalist, Madi- gress who drafted and ratified these amend-
beyond the ideas of any single thinker in or- son argued that it is “[t]he diversity in the ments were inspired by the idea of complet-
der to offer, as Jefferson said, “an expression faculties of men, from which the rights of ing the American Founding and extending
of the American mind.” Erler provides an property originate.” Individuals with differ- its benefits to all Americans. This towering
enlightening analysis of important ways in ent mental and physical abilities will produce accomplishment has been undermined by the
which the founders, Madison in particular, both different kinds and different amounts progressive revolution in America and the
modified and improved Locke’s theories. For of property. Thus the end of government emergence of the administrative state.
Locke, property included “life, Liberty and is not simply to protect property itself, but Despite these challenges, Property and the
Estate.” But it was Madison who articulated rather to protect each man’s God-given abil- Pursuit of Happiness does not end in despair.
the quintessentially American notion that ity to produce such property as his talents The right to property expressed in the Decla-
property includes what Erler describes as allow. As Erler explains: ration as “the pursuit of happiness” is, after all,
“a range of attributes that we might call the a natural right and a moral obligation. Truth
goods of the soul.” In his 1792 essay on the For [the framers], the right to property can be forgotten, rejected, or buried but, if it
subject, Madison noted that property should was the comprehensive human right. is truth, it can also be recovered. Edward Er-
not be understood narrowly as “that domin- Rights of conscience, free exercise of ler’s remarkable new book should be required
ion which one man claims and exercises over religion, freedom of speech, the right to reading for all who hope to recover that truth.
the external things of the world, in exclu- employ one’s faculties freely, were all in-
sion of every other individual.” This was the tegral parts of the right to property. The Gary V. Wood is associate professor of political
definition of property proposed by the Brit- right to property was a seamless whole; science at Andrews University and the author
ish jurist William Blackstone. But Madison it was the sum total of human rights—it of Heir to the Fathers: John Quincy Adams
broadened his definition to include “internal expressed the metaphysical freedom of and the Spirit of Constitutional Government
things”—including, most importantly, the the human mind. (Lexington Books).
TOPPLING STATUES. RE-WRITING HISTORY.

Three Books Expose How the Left Is Destroying America from Within:
THE WAR ON HISTORY ERASING AMERICA DEBUNKING HOWARD ZINN

by Jarrett Stepman by James S. Robbins by Mary Grabar
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Page 83
Book Review by Allen C. Guelzo
Founders’ Son
Lincoln and the American Founding, by Lucas E. Morel.
Southern Illinois University Press, 176 pages, $24.95
A
braham lincoln never let himself it,” Lincoln retorted. “Washington said it.” upon Washington,” and on his cross-coun-
forget that he stood on the shoulders And there was nothing but “bushwhackery” try journey to that inauguration, the guid-
of the American Founders. In the 12 in criticizing Seward for saying it. “We sticking lights of the Revolution lined his path.
months between his emergence as a presiden- to the policy of our fathers,” Lincoln insisted,
Speaking in Trenton, Lincoln conjured up
tial contender after delivering a well-received and that policy was what George Washington, memories of his boyhood reading of Ma-
speech at New York’s Cooper Union in Febru- “as President of the United States, approved” son Weems’s celebrated life of Washington,
ary 1860 and his inauguration as the 16th pres- when he “signed an act of Congress, enforcing with its vivid account of the general’s victory
ident of the United States in March 1861, ap- the prohibition of Slavery in the northwesternthere. A deep impression had been made on
peals and comparisons to the founders appear Territory.” Do not throw Washington’s stric- the young Lincoln by “the contest with the
over and over again in what he wrote and said. tures against sectionalism at Northerners, Hessians” and “the great hardships endured
In the speeches he gave on tour after the Lincoln warned. “Could Washington himself at that time,” and he marked that as the first
Cooper Union address, he rebuked pro-slavery speak, would he cast the blame of that sec- awakening of his sense “that there must have
enthusiasts who worked themselves into a fren- tionalism upon us, who sustain his policy, or been something more than common that
zy over his rival for the Republican nomination upon you who repudiate it?” those men struggled for...something even
(and later his secretary of state) William Henry more than National Independence;...some-
A
Seward’s 1858 “Irrepressible Conflict” speech s he set out for washington, d.c., thing that held out a great promise to all the
(“irrepressible” being Seward’s warning, like from his home in Springfield, Illinois, people of the world to all time to come.” And
Lincoln’s House Divided speech, that the an- Lincoln compared his inauguration when, a day later, he spoke at Independence
tagonism between slavery and freedom could during the secession crisis to the beginning Hall in Philadelphia, Lincoln announced
not be talked or bluffed away). “Jefferson said of “a task...greater than that which rested that he had “never had a feeling politically

Page 84
that did not spring from the sentiments em- of moral consistency. His law partner, Wil-
bodied in the Declaration of Independence.”
He did not propose any threatening gestures
liam Herndon, thought that Lincoln “never
liked Jefferson’s moral character.” Publicly,
B O O K S T O W AT C H
to Southerners, but he did promise to deal he lauded Jefferson’s “principles” in the Dec- F O R T H I S FA L L
with them “as near as we possibly can, as laration of Independence as “the definitions
Washington, Jefferson, and Madison treated and axioms of free society.” It is through Jef-
you.” ferson and Jefferson’s announcement that “all
men are created equal” that Lincoln is con-
L
incoln’s invocation of this revo- nected to John Locke, and it is Jefferson’s no-
lutionary triumvirate stands coldly at tion of equality—that all are born with equal
odds with the Progressives’ later dis- rights—which governments are designed and
dain for the founders’ government as merely organized to protect. Possessing those rights,
“a variety of mechanics,” as Woodrow Wilson people first consent to be governed, and then
put it, and even more at odds with our modern are governed; otherwise, they must receive
therapeutic iconoclasts who imagine that re- rights out of the charity of the governors.
moving statues of the founders will ease their
I
own trauma. But Lincoln has just as often f the declaration captured for lin- “Delineates [Solzhenitsyn’s] idyllic time in rural
been the target of enraged conservatives, fre- coln the end the founders saw for gov- Vermont, where he had the freedom to work,
quently of a libertarian or Southern agrarian ernment, then the Constitution was the spend time with his family, and wage a war of
bent, who indict him as the Great Betrayer of means for realizing that end. He caught this ideas against the Soviet Union.” —Kirkus Reviews
the Founders for supposedly constructing the relationship in 1861 in a Biblical simile drawn
civil-liberties-killing government behemoth. from Psalm 25—“a word fitly spoken is like
For the latter at least, Lucas Morel’s Lincoln an apple of gold in a picture of silver”—by
and the American Founding should bring a construing the Constitution as “the picture
cooling cloth to their fevered brows, since the of silver” and the Declaration as the “apple of
Lincoln whom Morel, the head of the Politics gold.” He found it impossible to regard the
Department at Washington and Lee Univer- Constitution as a mere “compact,” to be set
sity, lays out in five lapidary chapters—on aside whenever parties to a controversy de-
the Constitution, original intent, slavery and cided to secede. But, to the despair of aboli-
its compromises, the founders’ goals, and tionists, he also refused to treat it as a mere
Lincoln’s conservatism—is very much in the paper barricade when they demanded the im-
founders’ image, if not in fact (to borrow the mediate elimination of slavery. “I am naturally
title of Richard Brookhiser’s 2014 book on antislavery,” Lincoln said in 1864. “And yet I "Lasch-Quinn spies the finest remnants of our
the same theme) the founders’ son. have never understood that the Presidency classical past lurking within the motley mess of
Lincoln’s connection to the American conferred upon me an unrestricted right to contemporary life.” —David Bosworth, author
Founders began with the elementary read- act officially upon this judgment and feel- of Conscientious Thinking
ers—the “preceptors”—he encountered in his ing.” His original plan for emancipation in
boyhood, and from the founders he learned 1861 was a gradual federal buy-out. But even
the abiding political question: how to per- when he turned to an outright emancipation
petuate self-government from one genera- proclamation in 1863, it was still done on the
tion to another. Because self-government was terms of his constitutional “war powers” as
founded on rights fixed in nature, Lincoln had commander-in-chief. Still, he was never en-
no notion that government was a wax nose, to tirely satisfied until a constitutional amend-
be reshaped as each generation felt necessary, ment had been secured as “a King’s cure for
and so he made no appeal to a living constitu- all the evils.”
tion or evolving government. But, Morel adds, He was—and this forms an entire chapter
he “did not take for granted that the freedom for Morel—a master and respecter of com-
achieved at the founding of the United States promise. To demand outright abolition satis-
would be secure for all generations,” and his fied a certain perfectionist passion, but at the “Watson has crafted, not so much a historical
primary anxiety for the future of the repub- price of forfeiting not only the Constitution, genealogy of Progressivism, as its histori-
lic lay in his fear that “freedom could be lost but the entire principle of government by con- ography.” —Claremont Review of Books
through its misuse by the citizens themselves.” sent of the governed. But Lincoln was just as
The guardrail against this loss would be leery of Senator Stephen Douglas’s principle Available wherever books are sold
in studying and emulating the founders. Lin- of “popular sovereignty,” which emerged in
coln’s reading taught him to look to Washing- the 1850s as a kind of bastardized version of
ton as the greatest of the founders for “estab- consent, in which the “consent” of any major-
lishing a regime devoted to freedom but that ity was sufficient to override the inalienable
entailed a self-imposed restraint as necessary rights of a minority. Each strategy, even when
to ensure that freedom.” But Jefferson came done in the name of freedom and equality,
a close second in Lincoln’s esteem. Privately, would end up destroying rights, liberty, and UNDPRESS.ND.EDU
Lincoln had reservations about Jefferson’s lack equality together.

Page 85
I
t would be easy to discount lincoln’s was, it was not original. He had borrowed it cranny of his Peoria speech that announced
reverence for the founders and their docu- from Washington (in David Humphreys’s his return to politics in October 1854. The
ments as an unthinking appropriation of Life of General Washington): “It is said that Cooper Union address is a painstaking ex-
habits and patterns which were simply close every man has his portion of ambition…. My egesis of the founders’ ideas and intentions
to his own times, and which could have no only ambition is to do my duty in this world for the western territories. The founders form
possibility of application in the multicul- as I am capable of performing it and to merit the “mystic chords of memory” he appeals to
tural, globalized, internet society which lay the good opinion of all men.” When, in 1861, in his First Inaugural, and his repudiation of
ahead. Easy, but wrong. Morel is at pains to Lincoln told Congress that “[o]ur popular the “compact” theory of the Union in that In-
present Lincoln as an originalist, facing (in government has often been called an experi- augural is of a piece with Alexander Hamil-
Douglas’s popular sovereignty) a major chal- ment,” it was because Washington had been ton’s repudiation of it in Federalist No. 22, just
lenge in constitutional interpretation which the first to do so, in his final presidential ad- as Lincoln’s appeal to those “mystic chords”
anticipated precisely the appeal to “diversity” dress to Congress: “I cannot omit the occa- echoes James Madison’s eloquent appeal in
which is supposed to be a hallmark of later sion to congratulate you and my country, on Federalist No. 14 to the “chords of affection”
times. States’ rights was, after all, the earli- the success of the experiment.” When the that “knit together…the people of America.”
est assertion of political diversity, and popu- editor of a proposed biographical diction- And in the Gettysburg Address, their “propo-
lar sovereignty was nothing if not an appeal ary of Congress sent Lincoln a form to fill sition” is the rock against which the rebellion
to a multiculturalism in which each territory out, the president described his education in dashes itself in vain. As Richard Brookhiser
and state decided what freedom was. Lin- only one word—“defective.” This sounds hu- so tellingly noticed, Lincoln did not call for “a
coln had, in fact, already pushed back in the morously self-deprecating—until we realize birth of new freedom,” as though Lincoln was
name of originalism against an earlier claim that this was the word Washington used to attempting to substitute some imaginary new
to constitutional authority in Chief Justice describe his own education. Only someone regime for the old constitutional one, but “a
Roger Taney’s Dred Scott v. Sandford decision who saw himself thoroughly cloaked in the new birth of freedom.” In Lincoln’s eye, Get-
in 1857. And Lincoln was likewise guided by ideas of the founders could have responded tysburg and the Civil War would sponsor a
originalism during his presidency in his sus- to a suggestion that he unilaterally expand revival of the old freedom.
pension of habeas corpus, in his authority to the terms of the Emancipation Proclama- It is no accident that, in the current agony
call up federal forces to suppress the Southern tion with the question, “Would I not thus of our politics, the mobs who seek to refash-
rebellion, and, ultimately, in his submission give up all footing upon constitution or law? ion the American “experiment” in the image
to the constitutional demand for re-election Would I not thus be in the boundless field of of the Jacobins and the Bolsheviks have taken
in 1864. “Lincoln,” Morel concludes, “taught absolutism?”—words which almost perfectly a statue of Lincoln and an emancipated slave
the American people that how they governed copy those of Thomas Jefferson, who warned as one of their prime targets, along with oth-
themselves is as important as the ends to in 1791 against the temptation “to take pos- ers of Washington and Jefferson. In their rage
which they govern.” session of a boundless field of power.” against the Declaration and the Constitution,
He did not litter his speeches and writ- they will find in Lucas Morel’s Lincoln and the
I
ings with footnotes, and so it comes as a f anything, the longer lincoln lived, American Founding a bar in their path to the
surprise to discover how frequently even the more the founders became living pres- drunken fleshpots of power, a Lincoln who
ordinary phrases and vocabulary from the ences for him. In his first great speech, in offers instead an apple of gold in a picture of
founders bubbled up from his extraordi- 1838 at age 28, “The Perpetuation of Our silver.
narily retentive memory. In his first bid for Political Institutions,” he spoke of the found-
a seat in the Illinois state legislature, Lincoln ers as a generation whose living example was Allen C. Guelzo is the senior research scholar in
declared that “[e]very man is said to have his passing away as ranks of the founders them- the Council of the Humanities and director of the
peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or selves yielded to “the silent artillery of time.” James Madison Program’s Initiative on Politics
not, I can say for one that I have no other But in the 1850s, as he advanced to the front and Statesmanship at Princeton University, a
so great as that of being truly esteemed of ranks of the anti-slavery cause, the founders senior fellow of the Claremont Institute, and a
my fellow men.” Becomingly humble as that came dramatically alive. They inhabit every visiting fellow of The Heritage Foundation.

Page 86
Book Review by Jeremy A. Rabkin
Aliens and Citizens

Threat of Dissent: A History of Ideological Exclusion and Deportation in the United States, by Julia Rose Kraut.
Harvard University Press, 352 pages, $35
Learning One’s Native Tongue: Citizenship, Contestation, and Conflict in America, by Tracy B. Strong.
The University of Chicago Press, 312 pages, $90 (cloth), $30 (paper)
“Put Them Out and Keep Them Out!”

Cartoon by Fred Morgan in the Philadelphia Inquirer, 1919
T
houghtful books can be instruc- suspect, that learned academies, not under munist members—which Kraut reports as if
tive even when wrong. These recent immediate inspection and control of govern- it were proof of the latter’s greater integrity. It
books tell us something about our ment, have disorganized the world, and are doesn’t seem to occur to her to question the
current challenges, though they’re not even incompatible with social order.” sincerity of people who claimed to be con-
thoughtful. cerned about mistreatment of foreigners in
K
Threat of Dissent is the more scholarly and raut invites readers to be indig- America, while embracing the Soviet dictator-
the more readable of the two. Julia Rose Kraut, nant about such intolerance. Succes- ship as it pursued ethnic cleansing of millions
a lawyer and historian, has gathered up a lot of sive chapters tell about anxieties over of non-Russians in Soviet-controlled territory.
stories about how U.S. immigration law has anarchists, after the anarchist-inspired assas- The book acknowledges, in its last few pages,
been used to deport unwelcome aliens or stop sinations of Presidents James Garfield and that the number of people deported from (or
them from ever entering the United States in William McKinley; then Bolsheviks, who ini- barred entry to) the U.S. for ideological reasons
the first place. Her particular political focus tially appeared to Americans as better-orga- was relatively small, across all eras. Between
is “ideological exclusion” in different eras, so nized anarchists; then the menace of Stalinist 1900 and 1961, for example, fewer than 1,500
the book is a sort of scrapbook of ideological Communism, engorged by the conquests of foreigners were barred or deported as “subver-
anxieties over the course of American history. the Red Army; ending with concerns about sive or anarchistic” (compared with about half
She begins in the 1790s with fears of agi- Islamist terrorism, starting (as she reminds a million excluded and about that number ex-
tators from Revolutionary France. A certain us) in the 1990s and then greatly amplified pelled for all other reasons). We might infer
kind of conservative will be grateful for the in- after the 9/11 attacks in 2001. from these numbers that American authorities
clusion of this observation by President John Among other interesting facts we learn: applied the relevant laws with suitable caution.
Adams, when telling his secretary of state to while the ACLU had a public purge of Com- That is not how Kraut sees it, however, protest-
deny passports to a delegation of French “phi- munist Party members on its Board in 1940, ing not only the “embarrassment and humilia-
losophers”: “We have had too many French the American Committee for the Protection tion caused by the enforcement of ideological
philosophers already and I really begin to… of Foreign Born continued to embrace Com- restrictions” but the “chilling effect on expres-

Page 87
sions of dissent” by foreigners not directly tar- archives of the Socialist Worker. I was exas- the vision of citizenship as a quality of partici-
geted, as well as the damage done “to the iden- perated by a purported Theodore Roosevelt pation and involvement of ordinary men and
tity of the United States as a liberal democracy quote, with accompanying footnote to a web- women, not as experts, not as professionals.”
and to its image and reputation abroad.” site called “A-Z Quotes” which does not itself Perhaps this was all “appealing and familiar”
She never once pauses to ask whether “ide- provide a source for the supposed T.R. state- to campus radicals of the 1960s. (Strong at one
ological exclusion” is unique to the United ment. Eventually, we hear about “the Japanese point reminisces about his experiences “can-
States (it is not), let alone why other countries attack on Pearl Harbor,” which this book vassing during the ‘Vietnam Summer’ of 1967,”
sometimes think it is a good idea. Nor does she dates to “December 6, 1941”—the real date when he realized that the political isolation of
wonder whether some ideologies or organiza- not having lived so long in infamy, after all. dissenters “makes impossible a shared vision
tions might be so foul, we’d be better off with- But it is the substantive argument that is of the place of the citizen.”) Okay. But if you
out them. That nice Mr. Trotsky? Why did he most slipshod. Strong praises the Puritan set- want the good things promised by Lenin—all
have to go all the way to Mexico? Should we tlers of Massachusetts for seeking “some qual- that economic equality and “shared improve-
have allowed the German-American Bund to ity of responsibility and seriousness” in citizen- ment”—won’t you need a lot of “professionals”
import Hitler enthusiasts from the Reich be- ship and then hustles along to praise James and “experts” to plan and direct the economy?
fore the war? Should we have exerted no con- Madison for endorsing property ownership Was there really any political “participation” by
trol on those seeking to host Islamist preachers as a qualification for voting: “as with church “ordinary men and women” in the Soviet Union
from the al-Qaeda terror networks? membership [in earlier times], the primary or any other Communist state?
Yes, the First Amendment protects advoca- concern [of property requirements] is that citi-
I
cy for a wide range of opinions—for American zens behave as (good) citizens should and not t does not seem to cross strong’s
citizens acting inside our country. Do we have give in to the temptations of corruption…to act mind that there is some tension between
the same obligation to foreigners who want to in the common good and not in [the citizen’s] committing to certain outcomes and en-
come here and spread dangerous or demoral- narrow individual interest.” All that discussion couraging everyone to participate in deter-
izing doctrines? Perhaps it would be safer not in The Federalist about the prevalence of self- mining how to achieve them. He longs for the
to trust the government to make such fine disinterested “faction” in republics? Apparently, communal feeling and public spirit of Puritan
tinctions, perhaps wiser to project more self- Strong could not find a web link. settlements, while never acknowledging that
confidence to the outside world. Kraut does not you can’t get a reliable supply of that spirit
H
seem to recognize that it is necessary to spell e is so entranced with com- without excluding or suppressing the tempta-
out and defend such arguments. munal identification that he com- tions raised by dissidents. He never bothers
Threat of Dissent ends with a scolding of plains that abolitionists before the to consider how much coercion should be ac-
President Trump for returning to previous eras Civil War were “fundamentally nonpolitical” cepted for the sake of community.
of exclusion (after a majority of the Supreme because they associated freedom with per- The book ends with a sneer at “chants of
Court in Trump v. Hawaii [2018] agreed that sonal self-ownership. So after the Civil War, ‘make America great again,’ of ‘America First.’”
existing law leaves broad discretion to the ex- the abolition of slavery tended “to legitimate Strong protests that “those who rehearse the
ecutive when it comes to excluding dangerous a vision of citizenship completely compat- old words cannot—do not—actually mean
aliens). The author takes it for granted this ible with the wage-labor-based economy that what they say.” An attentive reader will leave
episode is a stain on America—all the more so, was becoming increasingly dominant in the this book without much sense of whether the
in her telling, because it revives a tradition that North.” From there, we hear a lot about the author’s own rhapsodies about Communism
goes back to the founding. attractions of socialist alternatives. Over half “mean what they say,” or even what they “actu-
the book is devoted to reveries on this subject. ally mean.”
I
f julia kraut seems to deny the con- He quotes Lenin’s assurance that under so- Learning One’s Native Tongue does not
stitutional difference between citizens and cialism, “there must be neither rich nor poor” aim to expound and defend coherent claims
aliens, Tracy Strong’s Learning One’s Na- and “improvements must serve to ease the work but to conjure a mood, supplying emotional
tive Tongue insists we need to give more mean- of all.” Such “thoughts…would be appealing resonance to its parting admonition: “Any
ing to “citizenship” and civic “participation.” A and familiar,” Strong insists, “[i]f one was not recovery of public space under conditions as
professor of political theory at U.C. San Diego of the elite in America.” So he proceeds to de- they stand…will of a necessity require of each
for many decades, Strong might be expected vote many pages to claims that the Communist person some public gesture” (breathless italics in
to offer a different perspective from a legal his- Party had much more influence than its small the original). The answer to the age-old chal-
torian’s. Yet, he ends up with the same conclu- membership might suggest. Then he quotes lenges of reconciling freedom and order with
sion: finger-wagging at the president and his the Communist Political Association charter decent life: make some gesture!
supporters. Of course, disdain for rival views of 1944, heralding the advent of this “non-party As one city after another this spring was
is not disqualifying (as a claim to scholarship), organization of Americans, which, basing itself overtaken by menacing slogans and broken
but here again the author doesn’t even notice upon the working class, carries forward the tra- glass from BLM mobs, troubled observers
that his own views might need some defend- ditions of Washington, Jefferson, Paine, Jack- wondered: How was it that liberal mayors and
ing—or even cogent exposition. son and Lincoln” in a program that “upholds liberal editorialists were so intimidated? Why
The book starts by quoting a dozen lines the Declaration of Independence, the United were they so lacking in intellectual or moral
from Plato’s Apology and Crito in the original States Constitution and its Bill of Rights.” resources to draw lines and maintain limits?
Greek, though the references get less and less Strong takes this at face value: “Commu- Books like these help answer that question.
imposing as it proceeds. Soon enough, court nism offered a promise of engaged citizenship
cases and other texts are referenced to on- in the pursuit of social justice” (his words). Jeremy A. Rabkin is a professor at George Mason
line sites where the author (or some hapless He laments that Cold War repression put an University’s Antonin Scalia School of Law. His
research assistant) happened to find them, as end to this promise—but unfairly: “What most recent book (with John Yoo) is Striking Pow-
when a quote from Eugene Debs is credited disappeared is potentially misleadingly [sic] er: How Cyber, Robots, and Space Weapons
to a Howard Zinn article found online in the captured by calling it the ‘Left.’ It was rather Change the Rules for War (Encounter Books).

Page 88
Book Review by Myron Magnet
Poverty Won
Great Society: A New History, by Amity Shlaes.
Harper, 528 pages, $32.50
R
eparations for slavery, you say? selling book, The Forgotten Man (2007), it the lot of the downtrodden in foreign climes.
Well, we tried that experiment, in only prolonged it. Now he would do the same for America’s own
the $20-plus trillion spent on welfare, poor, teaching them how to organize their
W
Medicaid, housing, and food stamps for the hen vice president johnson as- communities for political activism, bringing
mostly minority poor since Lyndon Johnson sumed the presidency upon John intensive pre-kindergarten education to their
declared his War on Poverty in 1964. As F. Kennedy’s assassination in No- children, providing them job training, and
Amity Shlaes shows in her cautionary Great vember 1963, his sunny faith in the boundless showering them with social and legal services.
Society: A New History, those trillions only power of government to do good shone un- Into the mix from the start, Shlaes ar-
made matters worse. As the clamor swells dimmed. In his State of the Union Address gues, went a stiff shot of socialism. Michael
to compound LBJ’s mistake, Shlaes provides at the start of the new year, he declared his Harrington, an early Shriver advisor famous
a sobering postmortem, dissecting how and aim to unleash that power in an “uncondi- for his bestselling The Other America (1962),
why, when government presumes to reshape tional war on poverty” that would “cure” that which had highlighted the persistence of pov-
society, the result is likely to be gory. scourge once and for all. In the spring, his erty in the world’s richest country, especially
It took LBJ a lifetime to learn that lesson, vision expanded further still. With unem- in Appalachia, professed an unabashed so-
and he learned it the hard way. He began his ployment low and national prosperity high, cialism that sought wholesale income redis-
government career as an ardent New Dealer, he said, America could now afford to create tribution by government to remedy inequality.
first as a tireless functionary charged with a “Great Society,” abolishing the country’s re- And one of the anti-poverty project’s earliest
pressing Texas farmers to limit their crops, maining pockets of poverty and also stamping and most powerful supporters, United Auto
on Franklin Roosevelt’s cockeyed theory that out racial injustice across the land. Those who Workers chief Walter Reuther, saw his life-
overproduction caused the Great Depres- mistakenly feared big government would see long effort to improve the wages, pensions,
sion, and then as one of FDR’s most energetic that “far from crushing the individual, gov- and health benefits of his union workers as a
congressional lieutenants, ramming through ernment at its best liberates him from the en- gradual realization of the mid-century Scan-
New Deal programs—many of doubtful slaving forces of his environment.” dinavian-style socialist equality he dreamed
constitutionality. He firmly believed that the Overseeing this grandiose project would of. In 1962, New Deal acolyte Reuther had
New Deal had heroically wielded the power be the slain president’s brother-in-law, Sar- hosted and sponsored the first convention
of the federal government to defeat the slump, gent Shriver, who, as head of Kennedy’s Peace of Students for a Democratic Society at the
though as Shlaes showed in her earlier best- Corps, had sent young Americans to improve union-owned FDR Four Freedoms Camp in

Page 89
Port Huron, Michigan, which Harrington And who knew whether the federal govern- teach them how to “combat police violence.”
attended and which adopted a Tom Hayden- ment’s conscience would always be better?” Farcically, the federal government was paying
framed statement condemning American ra- But LBJ had no such misgivings as he sped radicals to protest against local government,
cial and income inequality, and calling for an ahead. After all, observed Labor Depart- to the disgust of urban mayors. “The War on
anti-poverty program and a sort of commu- ment bureaucrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Poverty,” chortled one activist, “became a gov-
nity activism the statement termed “participa- modern central planners, unlike the ideologi- ernment for those of us in opposition.”
tory democracy.” It is a coincidence linking so- cal reformers of the past, were professionals,
I
cialism, the War on Poverty, and ’60s student social scientists armed with statistics, using t was hardly surprising that the
radicalism that understandably tickles Shlaes. “quantitative analysis to point the way” as they nation’s mayors bristled over federal inter-
shaped social and economic policy. The presi- ference in their cities, the more so as OEO
R ecalling the unstoppable momen-

tum of FDR’s First Hundred Days,
Johnson moved fast. In July 1964, he
signed the Civil Rights Act, aiming finally
dent trusted them implicitly. He had assem-
bled a team of advisers who were the best and
the brightest—his “Harvards,” as he called
them. How could they fail?
money was going to wild-eyed outsiders rather
than to their own social-service and job-train-
ing agencies. City officials also looked askance
at Head Start, the Great Society’s pre-kinder-
to realize the promise of the 14th and 15th In August, Johnson officially launched garten education program. Wasn’t education
Amendments, as the 1870s civil rights acts Shriver’s anti-poverty agency, the Office of a local responsibility?, they fretted. Yet OEO
had failed to do. But the section of the law Economic Opportunity (OEO). Its Job Corps was hiring outside civil-rights activists as teach-
that outlawed racial discrimination in public enrolled thousands in training programs, ers. Southerners didn’t like their Afro-centric
accommodation—restaurants and hotels, for though OEO’s chief function turned out to focus or their treatment of the Civil War, and
example—came with a cost that government be funneling vast amounts of money to local they feared Head Start augured the national-
efforts to remake society often entail. The groups to organize the poor for community ization of the entire public school curriculum.
Constitution, objected one Florida senator at action—in effect, Port Huron’s “participatory Moreover, because Head Start kept the kids all
the time, guarantees “the right for every free democracy.” If this sounds like gobbledy-gook, day instead of two or three hours, and provided
American to do that which he wishes with it was. What happened in practice is that tax- them with medical care and social workers, lo-
his own property”—a single small restau- payer money went to such radical activist out- cal citizens feared it was a vast indoctrination
rant, say, as opposed to a railroad in interstate fits as Chicago’s Woodlawn Organization, in- machine, the start of Antonio Gramsci’s long
commerce. As Shlaes observes, “A law that spired by far-left puppet master Saul Alinsky, march through the institutions.
defined new rights at the national level was and the Blackstone Rangers, a criminal gang, Job training, early childhood enrichment,
taking away from individuals the authority to carry out voter registration drives and cre- organizing communities to protest systemic
of their own conscience, and substituting a ate “opportunities for the poor to participate racism—was any of this helping? Was it even
federal, national conscience to overrule them. in protest actions” (such as rent strikes) or to addressing the real problem? Observers like
At long last.
Winston Churchill’s The River War.
Arriving November 30.
“This book sets a new standard for Churchill scholarship
and in doing so tells us much about how Churchill used his
words and actions to launch his career.”
—Allen Packwood, Director, Churchill Archives Centre
“A hundred and twenty years after its last printing, James W.

Muller revives Winston Churchill’s most important early
book, freshly annotated with impeccable scholarship.”
—Richard M. Langworth CBE, Senior Fellow, Hillsdale College
Churchill Project
www.staugustine.net

Page 91
Harrington and Moynihan had misgivings. tunity. Now, he said, it would provide “equality in treasure as well as in blood. The nation’s
Formerly, black and white unemployment as a fact and equality as a result.” The author economy strained at the seams, as taxes and
rose and fell in tandem. Now, however, blacks of Federalist No. 10, who saw redistributionism borrowing rose, the dollar fell, and inflation
stayed unemployed while white employment as the ultimate tyranny of the majority, would began to erode living standards.
rose. Could it be that many young blacks had spin in his grave. It became clear, moreover, that LBJ was los-
so few basic life skills that they had given up ing both wars. Early in February 1968, as the
H
and were unemployable? Were they a “new aving sown the wind, however, Tet Offensive raged in Vietnam, Robert Ken-
lost generation?” Harrington wondered. the Great Society now began to nedy declared that “a total military victory is
Yes, Moynihan replied in his famous 1965 reap the whirlwind. Fanning protest, not within sight or around the corner.” Later
report to the president, which argued that the empowering gang bangers and radicals, be- that month, the Kerner Commission Report
black family was fracturing, increasingly un- littling local authorities: all this was playing on the riots, as Shlaes sums it up, “effectively
able to provide children with the nurture re- with fire. And fire broke out. Over six days in damned Johnson’s civil rights laws and War
quired to develop the focus needed to get an mid-August, some 34,000 rioters destroyed on Poverty as failures.”
education or hold a job. That, he suggested, Los Angeles’s Watts ghetto, leaving 34 dead, On March 31, Johnson’s daughter, Lynda,
was the core problem government had to solve. over 1,000 injured, and 1,000 destroyed and dropped by the White House, having just
looted buildings worth $40 million. “When seen her husband off to fight in Vietnam. Her
O
ther observers saw the same you keep telling people they are unfairly treat- parents were shocked at how worn and thin
problem, but offered a more direct ed and teach them disrespect for the law,” said she looked. “Why do we have to go to Viet-
solution. Thomas Sowell, then a L.A.’s police chief, “you must expect this kind nam?” she asked her father. Johnson only
Howard University professor, acknowledged of thing sooner or later.” Nor was it just the stared at her with a look his wife hadn’t seen
the “social and economic problems” of his fel- community organizers who were telling this on his face since his beloved mother’s death.
low blacks but called for “our own self-devel- to the minority poor. So was all of elite culture That evening he went on television and an-
opment as a people.” Some black preachers at the time, while the elites also celebrated nounced he would not seek another term.
sounded the same theme. “It’s far more im- sexual promiscuity, recreational drugs, drop-
T
portant that things be done by Negroes rath- ping out, and questioning all authority. It was here’s one short coda to this sad
er than that they be done for them—even if, this cultural shift, more than anything else, tale. Richard Nixon won the 1968 presi-
for a while, they’re not done as well,” said one. that accounts for the skyrocketing rates of dential contest—elected, says Shlaes, to
Another declared that education was “the underclass social pathology—out-of-wedlock “kill the Great Society.” But he didn’t. Instead,
Negro’s debt to himself.” The growing black pregnancy, drug abuse, crime, school dropout, Moynihan, enticed back to Washington from a
middle class shared that optimistic self-help non-work—that began in 1964. comfortable berth at Harvard, convinced him
view. The 900,000 monthly buyers of Ebony LBJ doubled down on redistributionism, to replace welfare with a whole new system, the
magazine, celebrating its 20th anniversary in the War on Poverty’s new elixir. Just before Family Assistance Plan, that would incentivize
1965, agreed with publisher John Johnson, a the riots, he had signed Medicaid, medical in- work with income supplements. But as a wise
proudly self-made millionaire, that what de- surance for the poor, into law. The next year, ex-senator once explained to me when I sug-
fined success was raising a family, sending he decided to supersize the urban renewal gested an improved replacement for an exist-
kids to college, and “earning an MBA or mak- program begun in 1949. From its brutalist, ing federal program that would cost no more
ing an outstanding professional contribution.” Marcel Breuer-designed concrete bunker in than the old, I would in fact end up doubling
In other words, it’s not just a matter of having Washington, the new Department of Hous- the cost, since Washington never kills old pro-
Dad married to Mom but of having families ing and Urban Development would spend grams but leaves them to run alongside new
capable of transmitting the virtues that enable $7.5 billion on slum clearance, Johnson vowed, ones. So Moynihan and Nixon found. No one
success. That cultural reality—the shared be- razing functioning communities and replacing was willing to abolish Medicaid, housing subsi-
liefs, values, and obligations that make a fam- them with anti-human Le Corbusier-inspired dies, and the like. The new program would just
ily—is something social scientists, with their subsidized-housing towers. Like giant filing be a hugely costly add-on. In 1970, Moynihan
measures and statistics, seem unable to see. cabinets for anonymous, interchangeable items fled back to Cambridge, his plan dead.
Certainly Lyndon Johnson couldn’t see it. of mortality, these soon turned into graffitied, Now that we are again “telling people they
The more meager the result of the War on Pov- garbage-strewn, urine-reeking, gang-terror- are unfairly treated and teach[ing] them dis-
erty, the firmer grew his conviction that gov- ized dystopias, though the real failure was respect for the law,” while socialism and anti-
ernment was the answer. In June 1965, he gave more social than architectural. Americanism grow louder every day, Amity
one of the most wrong-headed presidential The cost of all this ran out of control. Med- Shlaes’s powerful warning is more crucial
speeches in history. “You do not take a person icaid, for example, budgeted at $400 million than ever.
who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and for 1967, instead cost $1.1 billion. OEO’s legal
liberate him, bring him up to the starting line services component blossomed into the new Myron Magnet, a National Humanities Medal-
of a race and then say, ‘You are free to compete field of public-service law, whose class-action ist, is the author of The Dream and the Night-
with all the others’”—as if the history of black suits, argued before an all-too-willing Warren mare: The Sixties’ Legacy to the Underclass
Americans had permanently crippled them and Court, remade whole swaths of society, with (Encounter Books) and, most recently, Clarence
made them inferior. No longer did Johnson see no need to consider the cost. At the same time, Thomas and the Lost Constitution (Encounter
the government’s job as providing equal oppor- Johnson was fighting a war in Vietnam, costly Books).

Page 92
Book Review by John Fonte
Identity Theft
The Plot to Change America: How Identity Politics is Dividing the Land of the Free, by Mike Gonzalez.
Encounter Books, 272 pages, $28.99
F
or years, the heritage foundation’s McGeorge Bundy and the Ford Foundation in preferential group category, Middle Eastern
Mike Gonzalez has been an astute critic creating the National Council of La Raza (now and North African. (Full disclosure: I assist-
and active opponent of “identity politics.” UnidosUS) in 1968, which claims to speak ed him in this effort.)
He completed The Plot to Change America just for all “Hispanics.” He discusses the seminal
R
before the “1619 riots,” which saw rampaging election in 1949 of leftist Mexican-American ecently, the claremont insti-
mobs—indulged by Democratic office-holders, politician Edward Roybal to the Los Angeles tute’s Jeremy Carl has argued that
sympathetic journalists, woke corporations, City Council with the help of the Communist groups like Black Lives Matter (BLM)
and leading universities—tear down statues Party, former Vice President Henry Wallace, are motivated by anti-white racism rather than
of Christopher Columbus, George Washing- and activists like Saul Alinsky. (After 13 years class, Marxism’s defining obsession. Race, eth-
ton, Thomas Jefferson, Ulysses S. Grant…even on the city council, Roybal went on to serve 30 nicity, and gender have indeed replaced class in
Frederick Douglass. This lawlessness and its years in the U.S. House of Representatives.) woke ideology. The conceptual framework of a
rationalization constitute a direct assault on Inspired by the Black Panthers, Berkeley grad- Manichean “narrative of oppression” is, how-
the American Founding’s symbols and princi- uate student Yuji Ichioka co-founded the Asian ever, utterly Marxist. In this binary, all politics
ples, and a thorough repudiation of the Ameri- American Political Alliance (also in 1968) and is a struggle between groups that oppress and
can way of life. coined the term “Asian-American.” The radical ones that are oppressed. Racial, ethnic, and
Where did all this contempt for America’s feminist Kate Millet drew heavily on the work gender conflict has absorbed and displaced
people, principles, and culture come from? of Frederick Engels in her influential book, class conflict in 21st-century Marxism. As The
Gonzalez’s book digs deeply into the origins, Sexual Politics (1970). Plot to Change America shows, the theoretical
ideology, funding, and major organizations Gonzalez focuses on the role the U.S. bridge between old and new Marxism was built
and actors of the forces promoting this revolu- Census has played in promoting artificial by Antonio Gramsci, Michel Foucault, Jacques
tion. Examining how the artificial racial cat- group consciousness and group preferences. Derrida, and particularly Herbert Marcuse.
egories of “Hispanics” and “Asians” developed, He personally led the successful opposition to Gonzalez’s analysis of immigration policy
Gonzalez highlights the critical role played by the Census Bureau’s official creation of a new is less persuasive. He criticizes conservative

Page 93
immigration restrictionists, asserting that anti-American curricula of Howard Zinn and universities are suppressing free speech. The
newcomers will “naturally gravitate toward the New York Times’s 1619 Project? Koch-ALEC model has no provision to dis-
the mainstream” (i.e., vote like native-born Gonzalez describes New York city educa- cipline students who “de-platform” speakers,
Americans) and distinctive ethnic groups tion chancellor Richard Carranza, the man nor any serious oversight mechanism.
will gradually disappear through intermar- in charge of the largest school system in the To date, the overly solicitous Koch-support-
riage. But continuous mass immigration of world (1.1 million students), as the “face of ed approach to higher education reform ap-
low-skilled workers has hampered assimila- the damage.” Carranza ordered all principals pears ascendant among Republican state legis-
tion and undermined conservatism. One can and superintendents to undergo training lators. This way, legislators can tell constituents
only observe what has happened to Ronald “to root out ‘white-supremacy culture,’” he that they stood up for free speech, while also
Reagan’s California. Historically, the immi- writes. Recently, the New York city schools assuring university lobbyists that they will face
gration restriction legislation of the 1920s have announced they will introduce BLM no serious consequences for failing to adhere
fostered the patriotic assimilation of Ellis “themed lesson plans” in the fall focusing on to the symbolic, essentially toothless measures
Island immigrants justifiably celebrated in “systemic racism, police brutality, and white the legislators have enacted. In K-12 education,
World War II movies. privilege.” few state and city elected officials have chal-
lenged curricula that denigrate America’s heri-
F G
irst among the solutions to iden- onzalez remarks, “we need new tage and promote racial-ethnic-gender group
tity politics put forward in The Plot to schools,” suggesting more school rights over our common citizenship.
Change America is to “follow the money” choice, private schooling, and char-
I
and “cut it off.” Gonzalez notes that a 2011 ter schools. Perhaps, but many private, pa- n the conclusion of the plot to
Congressional Research Service report “cata- rochial, and charter schools are as woke as Change America, Mike Gonzalez declares,
logued nearly three hundred federal statutes New York’s public ones. Gonzalez’s stronger “What you do with this information is
that specifically” list “race, gender, or ethnicity recommendation is for state legislatures and now up to you.” Implicit in his analysis is the
as factors to be considered in the administra- governors “to start weighing in.” They “control notion that “identity politics” represents a
tion of federal programs.” the purse strings for [public] universities and revolutionary assault on the American regime
Gonzalez does not discuss Christopher have ultimate control over K-12 curriculum.” in the Aristotelian sense. We must make this
Caldwell’s argument in The Age of Entitlement He argues that “[s]tates can pass laws that en- point explicitly: a woke America will consti-
that a “rival constitution” (and supporting force First Amendment rights on campuses; tute a regime change, just as its affiliated ri-
culture) based on racial-ethnic-gender group they’re not, like embassies, foreign territory.” oters and theorists intend. The new regime,
rights has emerged in America since the mid- Gonzalez is right—indeed the story is based on rejecting equal justice before the law
1960s. This rival constitution, writes Caldwell, larger. For the past few years, Republican in favor of group rights for the “oppressed,”
is incompatible with, and meant to replace, state legislatures have introduced, and some- has established a rival adversary culture.
the Constitution that governed the nation times passed, laws to defend free speech and In this sense, the woke regime poses a
from 1789 until the ’60s. Implicitly, Gonzalez promote intellectual diversity in taxpayer- threat analogous to the antebellum chal-
calls for defeating this rival constitution and funded public universities. Unfortunately, lenge to American republicanism from an
the culture that promotes it. Republican and conservative state legislators entrenched Southern oligarchy. Do we really
The author points to scholarly papers by are split between two blocs. believe that Aristotelian “civic friendship” is
Roger Clegg, Gail Heriot, Hans von Spak- Many establishment Republican and liber- even possible with elected officials who are ei-
ovsky, and Elizabeth Slattery detailing the tarian state representatives, influenced by the ther contemptuous of, or, at best, indifferent
executive orders and congressional legisla- Koch brothers network, hope that the public to, the irredeemable debt that we, as Ameri-
tion necessary to disable this balkanizing universities will reform themselves. Koch and can citizens, owe to George Washington and
rival constitution. Gonzalez argues that “ra- their allies, including the American Legisla- our Founding Fathers?
cial preferences and racial categorization are tive Exchange Council (ALEC), eschew “in- The election of 2020 is not primarily about
joined at the hip.” Therefore, the Census Bu- trusive” measures and support non-binding taxes, big government, COVID-19, candidates’
reau should stop using the artificial racial cat- policies that urge universities to adopt the personalities, or even the Supreme Court, im-
egories it created in the 1970s, such as “His- voluntary “Chicago Principles” endorsing free portant as that is. The election of 2020, like
panics,” and “Asians.” Instead, it could list citi- speech (named for the university which devel- the election of 1860, is a regime election. As
zens and residents by nation of family origin: oped and recommended them), while also im- such, patriots must frame it as a choice be-
Cuba, Mexico, China, Italy, etc. The president ploring state universities to consider greater tween those who wish to preserve the Ameri-
has the power to abolish these artificial cat- intellectual diversity. can way of life and those who, for political,
egories by rescinding Office of Management Another “civic republican” group of state cultural, ideological, financial, psychological,
and Budget’s policy directives. legislators, backed by the Goldwater Insti- and virtue-signaling reasons, are eager to de-
The administrative-judicial structure of tute and the National Association of Schol- molish our priceless inheritance.
what Gonzalez labels the “Grievance Indus- ars, proposes remedies not dependent on the
try” is sustained by “woke” cultural forces good will of academic mandarins. This more John Fonte is a senior fellow of the Hudson Insti-
whose fons et origio is our debased educational vigorous approach will have real consequences tute and author of Sovereignty or Submission:
system at both the university and K-12 levels. for students who shout down speakers, and Will Americans Rule Themselves or be Ruled
What do we do about education? About the establishes an oversight system to reveal if by Others? (Encounter Books).

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Essay by John M. Ellis
College After COVID

Higher education’s online future.
I
t’s now something of a cliché that a sharp decline in enrollments during the last
great institutions, its impressive buildings and
the novel coronavirus has shaken up our diplomas, and a long-standing habit of seeing decade.
normal patterns of behavior, and that college as the pathway to a better life for one’sIn 2011, the National Student Clearing-
we’ll not return to them unchanged. Given children. Pulling in the other direction are house Research Center recorded a total en-
widespread unhappiness with the state of persistent stories of higher education heavilyrollment in all sectors of higher education
higher education, could some change for the corrupted by radical indoctrination, together of slightly over 20.5 million students. Eight
better result? with sharply increased costs and crippling years later, in 2019, total enrollment was
What most needs to change won’t: the student indebtedness. slightly over 17.5 million students. But in
one-party politicized professoriate will still those eight years the U.S. population had
be there, egged on instead of restrained by di- Dropping Enrollment grown from 311.6 million to 328.2 million.
versity-obsessed administrative bureaucracies. Had the percentage of total population in
T
But useful change may still come if students his is an unstable situation. dis- higher education remained constant, that
and parents begin to see higher education in a tinct movement in one direction was 5.3% population increase would have grown
different way. How will the disruption affect already visible. In 2018, Gallup found the 2011 figure to 21.65 million students by
them? To answer that, we need first to under- that “no other institution has shown a larger 2019. Which means that there are roughly
stand how uncertain public attitudes already drop in confidence over the past three years four million students missing in the 2019
were before the virus arrived. Pulling in one than higher education.” But even more im- figures, a decline of about 19%. The decline
direction are the famous names of academia’s portant than the drop in public confidence is has been steady over those eight years but

Page 95
the 2019 shortfall is on the high end of the anyway. But what will happen if the decline of online learning. For example, in the world
annual declines. reaches 25% or 30%? of college campus learning, students must
This serious decline has attracted remark- compete to get into high-prestige institu-
ably little commentary in the national press, Online Advantages tions. Very few will get into Harvard, Yale,
and what little there has been avoids the issue or Princeton. Most will have to settle for less.
S
of public reaction against politicized class- tudents’ attitudes have an even But in the world of online courses, it’s as if
rooms. The explanation of choice is demo- greater potential for eventual change, if everyone can get to a distinguished campus
graphic change, particularly an aging popu- a significant number of those students (and as they used to be, not as they now are!),
lation, though we are not aging nearly fast begin to grasp the new opportunities online and nobody has to settle for Podunk U. Ev-
enough to drop the college-age population by learning makes available to them. It now ap- eryone can get access to the very best profes-
a fifth in eight years. And other demographic pears likely that for many students online sors in the country. Online course companies
factors mitigate that one: some ethnic groups learning will continue for some time. The diligently scout for the very best academic
are attending college in greater numbers than California State University system (23 cam- teachers. The firm that recruits the most out-
before. puses with about half a million students) has standing professors will prosper.
The general picture that emerges from the decided to continue online learning for the This would mean that a smaller number of
overall enrollment numbers is that public entire 2020-21 academic year. With so many outstanding professors will teach many more
opinion is uncertain, with most families con- learning this way for so long, at least some of students. But that will solve another prob-
tinuing to come down on the side of their old them are going to look at how the courses fed lem: the proportion of the population that
habit of sending their children to college, but to them by their campuses compare to related wants a college education has grown since
with a sizable minority refusing to continue courses that are at their fingertips—that is, World War II, but college teaching is intel-
to pay up and hope for the best. If we look easily available online. (For the sake of con- lectually highly demanding. It’s not clear
at the two major factors that are pulling the venience, I’ll use “online” as a shorthand both that there ever were enough people of the
public in opposite directions, however, it’s for streamed lectures and for courses found right caliber to fill all those additional class-
clear that one is older and steadily weaken- online, though possibly delivered on discs.) rooms. Online learning will direct students
ing, while the other is newer and strengthen- away from sub-standard teachers and toward
ing. With the great days of elite institutions first-rate ones.
receding into the past, radical left-wing rant- Parents won’t respond Yet another problem of the one-party cam-
ing is becoming more visible as older profes- pus is remedied by online learning: a return
sors retire and are replaced by younger, more
at all well to American to core courses offering what every well-edu-
politicized ones. history lectures based on cated American ought to know. Online you
How then could the coronavirus affect this can easily find Hillsdale College’s excellent
precarious balance of opposing forces? There Howard Zinn or the course on the U.S. Constitution, and you can
are two ways in which parents’ attitudes 1619 Project. choose from a number of good Western Civi-
might well change. First, online learning at lization courses. Those courses have largely
home means that parents will be much closer disappeared on most campuses because they
to what is happening in their children’s educa- Academia is astonishingly uniform be- interfere with the politicized professoriate’s
tion. Up to now, they’ve had only second-hand cause academics are so prone to intellectual agenda.
accounts. Many have probably thought that fads and fashions: whatever the latest politi- In the traditional classroom, an academic
what they’ve heard must be exaggerated or cally correct folly, we can expect it to spread teacher faces a problem to which there is no
atypical. After all, even well-documented ac- quickly from one campus to another. That is real answer: does he teach at the pace of the
counts of what happens now in college class- part of how radical activism achieved control better students, or the weaker ones, or the av-
rooms can be hard to believe. But now parents on almost every campus. What we need is erage student? The first brings out the best in
will be able to look over their children’s shoul- competition between campuses dominated the brightest students but loses the rest, the
ders and see for themselves. They won’t re- by political activism and others devoted to second has the brightest bored stiff, the third
spond at all well to American history lectures free inquiry, but we don’t have that to any has a bit of both. There’s no solution to this
based on Howard Zinn or the 1619 Project. meaningful extent. Campus radicals have in the traditional classroom, but online learn-
The second factor is money: like anything else created the one-party campus for a reason: ing solves it completely: every student sets the
in short supply, its uses will be given greater they know that their ideas don’t do well in pace for himself.
scrutiny. Higher education is not well-placed open debate. Online learning could recre- Then there is the more general problem of
currently to withstand that kind of scrutiny. ate the missing competition. Zinn-inspired the inefficiency of the traditional classroom:
Who knows what a nudge from these two American history can win by default on a sickness means missing classes, but that’s not
factors will do to an unstable situation? A 19% campus, but when juxtaposed to U.S. history a problem with online learning. Wandering
higher education total enrollment drop hasn’t by a genuine historian of great distinction it attention happens to everyone: who can con-
caused panic yet because it hasn’t been widely will lose, at the very least some of the time centrate for a whole hour without his mind
reported. That’s partly because the drop is less and probably most of the time. The same straying to extraneous matters and shutting
visible in the most well-known institutions, would be true of most courses in the human- the lecture out for ten minutes—perhaps a
which simply dig deeper into their applicant ities and social sciences. crucial ten minutes on which the whole class
pool. Freshman applications to the Univer- If students do indeed start to notice the builds? Even if his attention hasn’t wandered,
sity of California declined by 5.4% from 2018 breadth and quality of what is available on- a student might not have completely under-
to 2020, but undergraduate enrollment grew line, they will discover other huge advantages stood an early discussion that is basic to the

Page 96
entire lecture and so badly needs to go over The social dimension of attending college
those crucial minutes again. A serious prob- is a powerful attraction for young adults:
lem for the lecture hall, but no problem at all there they find romantic partners, eventual
for online learning: just rewind. Reviewing spouses, and important life-long friendships.
material for end of class exams? Easy with Even on purely educational grounds, discus-
online learning but not with the traditional sion groups are necessary. Sociologist Frank
classroom. Furedi puts the point well: “[i]t is through
Students left too long with online learn- articulating an opinion and being prepared
ing might discover all of these extraordinary to engage in a discussion around it that stu-
advantages: a complete solution to the tedium dents develop their ideas and acquire a mea-
and foolishness of heavily politicized teach- sure of intellectual independence.” Once
ers, access to the most brilliant instructors more, it would be much in the interest of
regardless of whether you can gain entry to online learning companies to organize dis-
the institutions where they teach, instruction cussion groups at regional centers. Those
at the pace set by the student himself, and an centers would surely be equipped with coffee
easy way to deal with the inefficiencies of the shops and lounges where students can meet
traditional classroom. But added to all of this and socialize. Discussion groups in these
is another huge advantage: cost. A student conditions would be far more lively than they
can get a better learning experience and yet are on the one-party campus, where students
pay a tiny fraction of what he’d pay on cam- are often afraid to say something that might
pus—and without the added costs of a dorm be politically incorrect.
room and meal plan. Massive student debts All of this could happen if any appreciable
would be a thing of the past. number of students were to notice the enor-
mous advantages that online learning offers
Making Some Adjustments them. They’ll see that they can escape both
from political zealots and from crushing
A fresh and
T sharp-eyed history
here are two important factors debt, though perhaps at this stage most of
that for the moment will stand in the
way of any substantial movement in
them won’t understand that a superior educa-
tion is more important for their careers than of political
this direction. First, though the student gets a diploma. Some shrewd thinking by online conservatism from
its nineteenth-
a much better education he doesn’t get a cre- learning companies will be needed to fix both
dential. College attendance provides employ- the problem of credentialing and of the social
ers with proof that work has been completed, dimension of campus learning. century origins to
and that a certain overall educational level
today’s hard Right
The wider world should have been think-
has been achieved. At present, online learning along these lines years ago, but en-
ing doesn’t. It’s very much in our interest to trenched habits and the magic of prestigious
make sure that this problem is taken care of, names and magnificent old buildings stood
and it can be. Creating proof of work done on- in the way. The foolishness and political “A companion to his well-
line course by course could be simple enough: malevolence of the one-party campus now received Liberalism (2014),
regional centers could provide written exami- compels us to do some fresh thinking. The Fawcett’s latest is as readable
nations. Online learning companies would stranglehold that radical activists now have and comprehensive as its
find it in their interest to collaborate with on higher education is a cancer at the na- predecessor. . . . An immensely
each other to make available written tests of tion’s heart, one that is corrupting all of its stimulating canter though a
mastery of basic subject areas. The greater the professions and souring its political life. Al- major segment of Western
number of students doing online learning, the though online learning can’t be anything like political tradition.”
easier this will be to implement. the whole solution (state legislatures still —Kirkus, Starred Review
With proof of coursework established, a need to withdraw funding appropriated for
form of credentialing based on accumulated higher education but diverted to political
coursework could follow, perhaps one based activism), it can certainly begin the process “This book is a must-read
on the extent of coursework typically re- of rooting out the cancer and building a perfor both friends and foes
quired for a traditional bachelor’s degree. On manent bulwark against future attempts to of conservatism.”
the other hand, freedom from campus-based regain that stranglehold. —Kwasi Kwarteng,
learning might also mean freedom from its UK Minister for Business,
arbitrary measures of accomplishment. In John M. Ellis is professor emeritus of German Energy and Clean Growth
that case employers could simply read a re- literature at the University of California, Santa
cord of completed courses and make their Cruz, chairman of the California Association of
own judgment as to what it implies. Scholars, and the author of The Breakdown of
The second serious obstacle to students Higher Education: How It Happened, the
adapting to the benefits of online learn- Damage It Does, and What Can Be Done
ing is isolation from their fellow students. (Encounter Books).

Page 97
Book Review by Mark Blitz
Happiness and Honor

Reason and Character: The Moral Foundations of Aristotelian Political Philosophy, by Lorraine Smith Pangle.
The University of Chicago Press, 336 pages, $40
A
ristotle’s nicomachean ethics one might think that discussions of pleasure, ses especially that her inclination or inten-
offers a compelling view of human friendship, and intellectual virtue would also tion to narrow the ostensible gap between
excellence. Decent people everywhere help serve this purpose. Socrates and Aristotle—Socrates’ apparent
recognize, and are inspired by, its description Her theme is “the relation between reason reduction or inflation of lack of self-control to
of good character, friendship, and happiness, and moral virtue” in the Ethics, or “the stan- ignorance and Aristotle’s seeming rejection of
and by Aristotle’s own display of intellectual dard true reason looks to in guiding human this view—is most telling. Pangle’s Aristotle
acumen. The Ethics, nonetheless—or conse- life.” Aristotle attempts to give full weight displays in rich detail the sober guise of the
quently—presents significant obscurities. In- “to the most inclusive understanding of hap- serious gentleman while step by step reveal-
telligent commentaries are therefore always piness as consisting of goods of every kind” ing the underlying substance of the manic
welcome. while also “educating” his reader’s hopes and philosopher. Aristotle and Plato are not very
Lorraine Pangle’s Reason and Character is guiding him “to place his happiness almost far apart.
a thoughtful guide through the Ethics’s first entirely in moral virtue.” At the same time, Pangle’s extensive exploration of Book 6,
six books and most of its seventh, with a Aristotle is “preparing for his claims in Book which discusses science, intellect, wisdom,
brief epilogue that touches on the discussion 10 that the life of philosophy satisfies better prudence, and art is also notable. Here as
of philosophy in its final (tenth) book. This the standard of serious and intrinsically ful- elsewhere sections of her analysis depart from
unconventional truncating of what Aristotle filling activity that has guided the examina- usual or rival interpretations. She is especially
presents is not meant to be arbitrary, or a tes- tion of moral virtue.” concerned with what appears to be a miss-
tament to scholarly exhaustion in the face of ing account of the element of the intellect we
O
his complexity. “The final three books leave ne need not agree with pangle’s would associate with knowing natural or liv-
the moral life behind,” Pangle explains, to emphases to benefit from her coming beings such as man and other animals. I
discuss pleasure, friendship, and “in serious- mentary. It is elaborate and complex, should point out, however, that her transla-
ly incomplete form…the life of philosophic and makes significant points about each topic tion of phronesis as “active wisdom” rather
contemplation.” These discussions “venture she discusses. Her analysis is especially use- than the familiar “prudence” or “practical wis-
beyond the scope of political philosophy.” By ful in exploring Aristotle’s discussion of cour- dom” is jarring. “Active” suggests a contrast
political philosophy Pangle, who teaches at age in Book 3, and his account of voluntary with “passive.” Contemplation (or philosophy),
the University of Texas at Austin, apparently choice in Book 3 and of self-control in Book however, which involves wisdom, is not pas-
means here the prudent or rhetorical defense 7. Pangle follows Aristotle’s fine distinctions sive. Indeed, Aristotle does not tire of inform-
to gentlemen of the philosophic life, although scrupulously. And it is in these last two analy- ing us that contemplation is an activity.

Page 98
Although Pangle’s discussion is surely one with which they deal, although they are not have it on human needs and wants, would add
of the few to which serious students of the simply measured by these goods. In general, to practical choice.
Ethics should turn, I do have several ques- in fact, it is unclear that Pangle’s understand- I also believe that in her wish to suggest that
tions about it. For one, prudence is not mere- ing of the relation of universal and particular the philosophic life satisfies the needs we see
ly a discovery of means to the end of virtue, or her notion of activity (energeia) is the same at play in ethical virtue she downplays Aristo-
as is sometimes said. It is also or primarily as Aristotle’s. tle’s understanding of the attraction of honor.
a discovery of instances of virtuous actions. Related to this is her excessive concentra- She doubts the good of honor, and thinks of
Prudence looks from inside the activity in tion on passions or on human needs, as if justice too much from the standpoint of service.
which one is engaged and the choice one is exercising our powers is best understood in At times her interpretation borders on an ac-
about to make. Pangle indicates, but does terms of need and want. But we cannot reduce count that steps too far from Aristotle’s view
not sufficiently examine, this element of what is good or noble to what meets our needs. of the gentleman. Aristotle “adopted precisely
practical wisdom. One sees this even in the arresting immediacy the spirit of the spoudaios, which is to say: what
Her exploration of what Aristotle means of our pleasure in encountering something your job is almost does not matter—there are
by the noble as virtue’s end displays a related beautiful or admirable. More generally, I do thousands of jobs that need doing, thousands
issue, or limitation. A problem exists with “de- not believe Pangle has made evident what Ar- of ways you can contribute that are worthwhile.
fining ‘well’ or ‘nobly’ at all except as measured istotle means by the natural or the simple. The point is to do it well or nobly.” But Aristot-
by some specific goal or goals,” she writes. But le’s spoudaios—his serious, mature, or virtuous
P
the noble is not measured by an external goal. angle is concerned that aristo- man—does not in fact believe that there are
Nor does it stand apart from other goods. tle does not show us to be deliberat- thousands of jobs that one can do nobly. The
Aristotle does not see the noble as an entity ing about ends (as opposed to about great bulk of them are too ordinary to be noble
that is separate from virtuous choice. Rather, means), or using reason to select (or deduce) and insufficiently leisured to be free.
to choose a noble action is to choose a proper, ends. This concern is common among those My questions are meant to spur discussion,
measured, outstanding experience or enjoy- who study Aristotle. Yet, one might ask what not to end it. Neither they nor my summary
ment of wealth, honor, or other goods. more Aristotle should be saying about ends in do justice to Lorraine Pangle’s many subtle
Indeed, I wondered at times whether Pan- the Ethics, given his remarks about the com- discussions or to her overall theme. Reason
gle separates ethical virtue too much from prehensiveness of the virtues of greatness of and Character is a challenging, searching, and
happiness, understood as enjoying goods soul and justice; his careful examination of meticulous examination of a classic text. It
beautifully. “A great deal depends on the ex- the varieties of pleasure; his elaboration of should be read by everyone who wishes to un-
tent to which acting morally is experienced the scope of friendship and of habituation; his derstand the Nicomachean Ethics.
as intrinsically satisfying,” she notes. “The study of intellectual virtue; his discussions of
more important honor and other rewards self-sufficiency, completeness, work, activity, Mark Blitz is the Fletcher Jones Professor of Po-
are to the virtuous, the more this becomes and happiness; and his connecting of choice to litical Philosophy at Claremont McKenna Col-
doubtful.” But we cannot separate virtue one’s own circumstances and not to abstrac- lege, a fellow of the Claremont Institute, and the
from enjoying goods nobly. Virtuous actions tions. Given all this, one wonders what theo- author of Plato’s Political Philosophy (Johns
do not float apart from the goods or “rewards” retical deliberation, based as Pangle would Hopkins University Press).

Page 99
Book Review by Harvey C. Mansfield
Everyday Niccolò
Machiavelli: His Life and Times, by Alexander Lee.
Picador, 768 pages, £30
A
new biography of niccolò machia- able, so that one can see where his thoughts the paradox it expresses is never discussed. He
velli by British historian and Univer- “might have” come from and been directed to. does mention the advances in Niccolò scholar-
sity of Warwick research fellow Alex- The result is a Machiavelli saturated with ev- ship of the past 70 years, and gives a few names,
ander Lee is distinguished by its length and erydayness, the sort of person we can get to all in the contextual school of which his book
fullness, and particularly by the manner and know without having to strain to understand. is a culmination.
extent of the context the author provides for To that end, he is referred to by his first
W
his subject. On the basis of letters (which are name throughout the biography (except for its ith his biography he clarifies
few), ambassadorial reports (which are imper- title), giving readers closer, even intimate access the full meaning of contextualism in
sonal), and many various writings in which to the man at the bearable cost of a certain con- a way that the scholars he names do
Machiavelli discloses (and hides) himself, a descension from his biographer (whom I won’t not. Lee shows that full membership in a con-
biography of his everyday life is constructed, call Alex). To fit into the context our Niccolò text requires that the candidate—in this case,
with probable suppositions of what he “would obeys the conventions of his day, so much so Niccolò—doesn’t stand out or isn’t unconven-
have” said, thought, and felt. We see Machia- that he might almost be considered a conventional in any way, important or not, so that he
velli declared to be despondent, cheerful, wea- tional guy except that for some reason we still can be understood entirely by what isn’t distinc-
ry, disgusted, dissatisfied, happy, etc., with remember him after 500 years. We honor him tive about him. He is not allowed to be eccen-
virtual contextualization, as if but not actu- with the designation “Machiavellian,” which tric, as when he insists in a letter on “the food
ally from a computer working with Renais- means “dishonorable,” and for which he is bet- that is mine alone.” That interesting remark,
sance algorithms. At the same time, a very ter known than any other philosopher for his or referring to the books he reads, is cited by Lee
useful account of the political (more than the her distinctive quality. This name is never pro- but, again, not discussed. Anyone can read an-
intellectual) events of his times is made avail- nounced by Lee, not even as “Niccolism,” and cient books. Why does Machiavelli call them

Page 100
his food, and why does he make such a contrast What does Machiavelli say about his great- own country was part of that improvement—
between that food and the vulgar folk with ness? One would not expect someone to say “I but which, Florence or Italy?
whom he consorts most of the day? Here is an am a great man”; it’s hardly tactful. But he does Here I insert a suggestion for the contextu-
opening not taken by the author to a region be- make a claim on his own behalf, a statement alists. One reason for Machiavelli’s preoccu-
yond the everyday context. But then, perhaps of his ambition hidden in plain view. The first pation with the Medici—rightly called “cur-
it can be explained contextually as evidence of word of his Discourses on Livy is “I” and the rying favor” by Lee and many others—may
Machiavelli’s humanist education, common in last word is “greatest.” In between is not the have been his interest in getting his two mas-
Florence at the time. Or did Machiavelli, with word “am” but all the many other words of that terworks published. Their publication was
an admittedly “superb mind,” lift himself above book demonstrating with unconventional tact necessary to his grand ambition, but their
the common in humanist education? his claimed greatness. I should add that this content required that this be done only after
In this biography Machiavelli is not con- particular observation is not made by Strauss his death, when he was no longer in jeopardy
sidered “great,” nor is he ever called that. His and that “greatest” occurs in the phrase “Fa- but also not in control. Hence the value to him
writings are hardly praised by Lee, with the ex- bius Maximus” as Massimo, Italian for greatest. of the commission he received from Cardinal
ception of his Istorie Fiorentine (strangely never One might overlook the coupling it offers to Giulio Medici to write the Florentine Histories
given its proper English translation, Florentine the first word. But then Fabius Maximus may and the favorable reception from him on its
Histories). The Prince, the most famous writing stand for someone other than Fabius Maximus publication after he had become Pope Clem-
ever composed on politics by itself, is treated as well, a not infrequent practice of Machia- ent VII. These advantages gave him legitima-
almost with contempt. The common scholarly velli’s. He used characters from ancient Rome cy, if not an imprimatur, that—“might have”—
notion (not without evidence), that it was writ- and appropriated the text of a historian of an- greatly assisted publication for the two major
ten to curry favor with the Medici family, is cient Rome, Titus Livy, to his own purpose in a works under another Medici pope after his
carried to the logical extreme of saying, when it context of his own creation and contrary to the death. My suggestion is speculation, as little
failed to get him a job, that Machiavelli was dis- conventions of a modern historian. Fabius was is known of how this vital matter of publica-
gusted with having “wasted his time” writing it. called “the Delayer,” a man with patience who tion, not mentioned by Lee, was accomplished.
He did not say this, but those words can rea- could see far ahead.
I
sonably be put in the everyday Niccolò’s mouth. t would ease the case for machia-
O
Normally, when a biographer writes on some- ne could write an alternative velli’s greatness if it were generally ac-
one considered great, the reader wants to know biography to this one, bringing out cepted that philosophers had a tradition
when that greatness first became manifest and Machiavelli’s mostly hidden ambi- of being able to address a future philosophic
how it appeared in the subject’s distinctive ways. tion, for which one would need a philoso- audience and a contemporaneous political or
In this case, and in accord with the logic of con- pher’s imagination rather than a contextual non-philosophic audience at the same time
textualism, all such admiring interest in the historian’s. This would begin by identifying and in the same words. The first audience
reader is suppressed and redirected to what- Machiavelli as a philosopher, and philosophy would pick up on “I…the greatest” and the
ever can be identified, after due scholarship, as as essentially subversive, and thus philosophy second would not. Unfortunately, but under-
commonplace. The scholar’s work is done only as typically in good part hidden, particularly standably, that is not our situation, and those
when he has most conscientiously found noth- one as revolutionary as Machiavelli’s. It would who learn from Strauss cannot assume that a
ing of interest. be mainly based on his two masterworks, The general audience, however characterized, will
Prince and the Discourses on Livy, the only concede this vital point. So it becomes neces-
W
hat, then, does machiavelli writings of his in which he declares at the sary to introduce Machiavelli’s hidden ambi-
amount to? Is there anything to be beginning that they contain everything he tion from features of his thought that all can
learned from him? Lee concludes knows. All his other works, including many see if not immediately appreciate.
his book: “this most political of men had rea- minor, occasional writings that Lee’s biogra- It is first obvious that Machiavelli is an
son to rue the day he had entered politics.” He phy commendably considers but then contex- open critic of Christianity, like no one else in
also says that Niccolò was “catastrophically tualizes, would be seen in the light of these the humanist tradition or in the Renaissance.
short-sighted.” But to present him in a context two major works, the lesser in the light of the In three passages of the Discourses he asserts
is necessarily to treat him as short-sighted. greater (which is the principle of anti-contex- not only that the Church is corrupt because
Perhaps one can instead enter politics as an tualism). It is true that Machiavelli was, for of the dishonesty of its prelates, who “do not
author, a prince of the highest kind that Ma- a philosopher, much more vitally concerned fear the punishment that they do not see and
chiavelli describes. Leo Strauss is not among with the politics of Florence and Italy, hence do not believe”—i.e., they are atheists. This
the scholars Lee names as influential for him, necessarily short-sighted. His philosophy Lee sees but palliates. But also the Christian
although Strauss’s Thoughts on Machiavelli wanted philosophy to be more political than it religion makes men “esteem less the honor
(1958) is within Lee’s 70-year horizon. Strauss had been, more “effectual.” Whatever he may of the world” to the advantage of the other
agreed that every great thinker had a context, have borrowed from Lucretius, his principle world. Machiavelli also speaks of Christianity
but it was a context he made for himself, one was not the Epicurean “live unnoticed.” Lee’s as “having shown the truth and the true way,”
that did not submit him to the fate of being biography is not wrong to take Machiavelli’s a phrase that might have led Lee to say that
commonplace like everyone else. Machiavelli politics as its theme, but those politics were he was a “sincere believer.” But an opinion can
had such a context, a plan of his own that was not only or mainly short-sighted. They had in show the truth and the true way without being
far from short-sighted. It allowed him to join view an ambition to change the way all people those things, which was precisely the case of
in the politics of his day, but in a more hidden thought and consequently how they lived, a Christianity according to Machiavelli. Chris-
way to look forward to a new politics with a truly fundamental improvement, part remedy tianity showed how to run the world—by pre-
new—that is, Machiavellian—foundation not for the ills of mankind and part progress for tending not to—and this was the truth Ma-
possible to establish in his own time. its betterment. Love of one’s own city or one’s chiavelli appropriated from it. Here again he

Page 101
Virtue Politics
hup.harvard.edu
Soulcraft and Statecraft
in Renaissance Italy
James Hankins
Belknap Press
“Magisterial.”
—Wall Street Journal
Legitimacy
The Right to Rule in a
Wanton World
Arthur Isak Applbaum
“An exemplary display of philosophical

clarity, passion, and insight.”
—Michael Ignatieff,
President, Central European University
Democracy in China
The Coming Crisis
Jiwei Ci
“A passionate argument in favor

of a more democratic China.”
—Rana Mitter,
author of Forgotten Ally
is hiding the truth in plain sight. The words of others,” claiming novelty for himself. Could
“sincere believer” entail the possibility that he a philosopher, indeed he himself, be considered
was an insincere believer, which I affirm is the a new prince? To be new, in fact “altogether
case. Insincere belief in Christianity was true new,” appears to be a declaration of freedom
for many humanist philosophers, because from a context. If he had mentioned this pos-
they lacked the wish or the boldness to attack sibility, Lee might have been tempted to take it
Christianity as Machiavelli did. seriously as a claim to greatness.
L A
ee does not point out this most ob- third feature of his thought
vious unconventionality of his thought, a leading to a judgment of his greatness
leap out of his context. He is not alone is the phrase from the same paragraph
in this. It is strange but true that the contex- in The Prince as the one discussed above, stat-
tualist view of Machiavelli makes little of the ing his intention to go to the “effectual truth
main feature of his context according to him: of the thing” rather than to the imagination
the oppressive domination of Christianity and of it. The “effectual truth” (verità effettuale) oc-
the Church in his time. This was his enemy, the curs just this once in all of Machiavelli’s writ-
“larger bird” above the lesser birds of prey that ings and nowhere else in the Renaissance. The
he spoke of in the Discourses. Machiavelli initi- word effettuale is apparently his invention, tak-
ated the broad movement of thought that after en from Latin according to Gabriele Pedullà,
much combat and travail has ended in the over- and the combination “effectual truth” has no
confident secularism of our time, causing us to precedent. The phrase is very little discussed
forget its authors and the dangers they faced. by Machiavelli scholars. Why? Because it has
The contextualists are settled in our context, no “source” they can discuss. A new kind of
whose successful power they illustrate better truth! How can that be interesting? Saying
than understand. Their careful studies—and this once, Machiavelli calls attention to it. A
Lee’s book is both careful itself and uses the word to the wise is sufficient, but to contextu-
care of others—mostly avoid the religious issue alist scholars the lack of repetition deprives it
that should be their main care. of context and renders it a slip of the tongue.
Lee also underestimates Machiavelli’s ap- In so much company Lee can be forgiven this
preciation of Girolamo Savonarola, whom oversight of his, but it remains nonetheless
Machiavelli takes for his example of an unsuc- as an opportunity to glimpse the depth and
cessful unarmed prophet (overlooking a very reach of Machiavelli’s greatness.
much more obvious case of a successful one). If all the arguments I have given here for
He admires Savonarola’s learning and borrows that greatness fail, yet let there be a little re-
some of his rhetorical devices and methods of spect, please, for the man who said he wrote
Biblical interpretation. He was certainly not sanza alcuno respetto—to show modern men
fazed by the “lies” he readily discerned in the what they were going to believe. As it stands,
Dominican friar’s sermons. He himself, he said Alexander Lee’s Machiavelli: His Life and Times
in a moment of candor, was a “doctor of the art” is impressively well-suited to a reader who can
of lying: “For some time now I have never said be satisfied with a view of the man quite dimin-
what I believe or never believed what I said, and ished. It is true that Machiavelli spent much of
if indeed I do sometimes tell the truth, I hide his life in the cockpit of politics, thus occupied
it behind so many lies that it is hard to find.” with the short term. It is a permanent feature
This revealing remark calls peremptorily for of every political context that it must be in
attention. What is the art of lying and why is great part short-sighted, even when fundamen-
it needed? It deserves to be chewed on by the tal, founding change is in store. In acquainting
contextualist school, but it did not find a place himself with this fact, Machiavelli learned how
in Lee’s compendious biography. to advise and how much or how little advice
Another startling feature in Machiavelli’s can accomplish. He saw how he must begin
thought, very noticeable but not noticed, is the the necessary change of opinion and wrote his
emphasis on novelty, the “new prince” in The books accordingly. His books spoke to his own
Prince and “new modes and orders” in the Dis- time, but one must say with emphasis were
courses. In the very letter in which he announc- meant for the long term. His life was lived not
es that he has “composed” (i.e., completed) a for the sake of his own time or for his next life
“little work” (uno opusculo) on princes, he says but for his progeny in later times, “the common
it should be especially welcome to a new prince. good of each”—a new audience he was creating
No other political thinker in the humanist or for his new politics.
Renaissance period lays such emphasis on the
new prince or new modes of government. None Harvey C. Mansfield is the William R. Kenan,
other declares as does Machiavelli prominently Jr., Professor of Government at Harvard Univer-
in The Prince that he “departs from the orders sity, and a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution.

Page 103
Book Review by Mark Bauerlein
From Crusoe to Comics

The Decline of the Novel, by Joseph Bottum.
St. Augustine’s Press, 150 pages, $25
S
eventy years ago it was entirely the ear of the general culture.” The last time anymore. Reality has grown too material for
normal for our most engaged political a novel counted as a cultural event, one that the novelist to infuse it with meaning. Even
intellectuals to interrupt their discus- a member of the educated class had to regis- as modernity spread and deepened, as long as
sions of the Cold War situation in order to ter in order to prove his currency, was in 1987 there was a background of spiritual fate—a
write books and essays on, of all things, novels. with Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities. lingering ground of Protestant formation—
Three years after co-founding Dissent maga- No novel published since then has posed a the novelist and his readers could believe in
zine in 1954, Irving Howe wrote Politics and “Cocktail Party Test,” whereby one would be some kind of sanctification of the self in spite
the Novel, a still insightful study of Stendhal, embarrassed to join a gathering of sophisti- of one’s all-too-secular surroundings. But the
Hawthorne, Dostoevsky, Conrad, and James. cates without having read it. If anything now Protestant churches are now half-empty on
And the chapters in Lionel Trilling’s The Lib- plays that role, Bottum says, it is prestige tele- Sundays. The cultural mood is disillusion-
eral Imagination (1950), which include read- vision series such as The Sopranos, Mad Men, ment; reality is “brute facticity.” The novel
ings of Dreiser, Twain, and Fitzgerald, bore or Breaking Bad. flourished in a time in which an individual
the subtitle Essays on Literature and Society could pass through life in all its quotidian
B
because, he explained many years later, the ut that doesn’t mean the novel hopes and despairs and still undergo a mean-
novel was “an especially useful agent of the no longer identifies something singu- ingful progress (or regress). Purpose might be
moral imagination, as the literary form which larly important in contemporary soci- found within a loveless marriage, a dead-end
most directly reveals to us the complexity, the ety. According to Bottum, the very decline of job, or the horrors of war. If the novel doesn’t
difficulty, and the interest of life in society.” the novel illuminates deep truths about the flourish, we realize, then our era is a purpose-
The novel, to them, was a tradition standing world. His thesis is this: “The modern novel… less one, and life a random course of ups and
alongside liberalism and Marxism. A political came into being to present the Protestant sto- downs.
thinker who hadn’t read Moby-Dick was no ry of the individual soul as it strove to under-
T
such thing. Marx himself took a novel, Robin- stand its salvation,” that salvation occurring in his is a sweeping theory that re-
son Crusoe, as a prime specimen of capitalism. a world that had lost its divine reverberations. calls older ambitious works such as
The mid-20th century was a high point for Protestantism highlighted the solitary pil- Watt’s and Georg Lukacs’s The Theory
the novel in American society, when novel- grim, the lone man facing God without inter- of the Novel (1916), standard references when
reading was “a necessary part of participation mediaries. It didn’t animate the world; it left I was in graduate school in the ’80s. They
in public life…akin to (or, at least, providing the world to mundane matters (here, Bottum helped make literary study exciting and mo-
the raw material for) serious intellectual anal- refers to Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic mentous before the scolds of political correct-
ysis of ethics, political theory, and psychology.” and the Spirit of Capitalism). It deepened the ness took over. Bottum’s readings of Clarissa,
Those words come near the beginning of Jo- private self, but didn’t stop modernity’s de- Waverley, David Copperfield, and I Am Char-
seph Bottum’s The Decline of the Novel, which spiritualization of external affairs. The novel lotte Simmons bear out his theory in masterly
recalls former times when the novel was, in- was the form best equipped to answer this cri- judgments and lively prose. One is inclined to
deed, the primary reflection of man and soci- sis of “the thick inner world of the self ” rub- take seriously even his whimsical claim that
ety, the stuff you needed to know if you were bing against an “impoverished outer world.” It the novel expired in 1988 when a man of su-
to be an informed citizen. The title of his book could detail social reality in, say, 19th-century perb novelistic talents, Neil Gaiman, wrote
echoes a classic work of literary criticism, The mercantile London while probing the evolving a comic book instead, The Sandman. It’s an
Rise of the Novel by Ian Watt, which, written “I” of David Copperfield. Technology, bureau- idea—though we’ll see if Sin City, V for Ven-
in 1957 while the novel was still riding high, cracy, and commerce make up modern life, but detta, and other graphic novels Bottum men-
could focus on Defoe, Richardson, and Field- they can’t feed hungry souls such as Thomas tions last as long as Dickens. How refresh-
ing as originators of a genre that looked like Mann’s composer Leverkühn in Doctor Faus- ing, though, to read criticism once again that
it would dominate the Republic of Letters for tus and Tom Wolfe’s Charlotte Simmons, the speaks of metaphysical hunger, a meaningless
another 250 years. subjects of Chapters 7 and 8 in this book. “In world, wayward souls, and a literary form that
We are in a different time. Bottum, former some of its most serious purposes,” Bottum tries to make it all better.
literary editor of the Weekly Standard and po- asserts, “the novel as an art form aimed at re-
etry editor for First Things, who now directs enchantment.” Mark Bauerlein is professor emeritus of English
the Dakota State University Classics Insti- The decline of the novel, then, demon- at Emory University and a senior editor of First
tute, laments that novelists “no longer have strates that such re-enchantment doesn’t work Things.

Page 104
Book Review by Christopher Flannery
Self-Driving, Not Self-Governing

Why We Drive: Toward a Philosophy of the Open Road, by Matthew B. Crawford.
William Morrow, 368 pages, $28.99
A A
vision of the future spreads to consider what part of our humanity is lost s his subtitle indicates, crawford
across the land—a vision of benevo- when we think of our world and our place in it is not offering a static finished product;
lence, progress, and inevitability, en- as governed by “progress.” And he wants us to he is moving “toward a philosophy of
dorsed by the highest authorities in science, think about this “vision”: How does it come to the open road.” He has a direction, so he’s not
technology, culture, and politics. Barack be so powerful? What is behind it? Is it pos- just roaming, but on a good road trip there will
Obama and Donald Trump sing its praises; sible to resist it? Is there an alternative? be some roaming, some unexpected discoveries
government bureaucracies join the wealthi- Matthew Crawford was born in California and side roads to explore. For his thought to
est corporations and the dominant media to in the mid-1960s, was a physics major as an make its way toward its destination, he “found
swell the chorus. It is a vision of the goodness, undergraduate at the University of California it necessary to offer arguments, stories, inter-
efficiency, and inevitability of the driverless at Santa Barbara, and went on to get a Ph.D. pretations, and observations that are wildly
car. In Why We Drive: Toward a Philosophy in political philosophy from the University of different in kind, according to their place in
of the Open Road, Matthew Crawford invites Chicago. He is a senior fellow of the Institute the whole. Some of these are highly personal.”
us to think about the realities of this vision, for Advanced Studies in Culture at the Uni- Crawford follows hunches and flies by the seat
while we sleepwalk toward its fulfillment as versity of Virginia. As the world learned in of his pants, on principle, and his sources of in-
if it really were inevitable, which it isn’t, and Crawford’s bestselling first book, Shop Class as sight and inspiration are wide-ranging.
good, which it might not be. Soulcraft (2009), he is an experienced and even He begins his book by describing the
The vision of the driverless car is just one devoted automobile and motorcycle mechanic, thrill—and the existential significance—of
current example of a larger vision that has who once owned and operated a motorcycle losing control of his dirt bike when trying to
spread across the world in recent centuries, repair shop. At the time of writing Why We navigate a mountain trail. He recommends be-
the vision of “progress” toward the supposedly Drive, he had spent eight years and considering “scared shitless” as an essential learning ex-
inevitable “new” that is waiting around every able money rebuilding and re-engineering a perience, and he has the broken bones to prove
corner. Whatever benefits the driverless car rusted 1975 Volkswagen Beetle, when, by his he has the courage of his conviction. Back on
may have to offer, Crawford wants us to con- own admission, “a person of more cultivated pavement, on a different bike, he finds in a line
sider what we will lose when driving comes tastes could have learned Chinese, or made from Snoop Dogg an “attitude to emulate” and
to be outlawed. More generally, he wants us good progress toward mastering the violin.” sings the line into his helmet while steering his

Page 105
motorcycle kneescrapingly through switch- egon. Though they may appear a bit If one cares about safety (and who
backs on California mountain roads. He has exotic, the heightened enthusiasms of doesn’t?), one does well to take a skepti-
a liking for Friedrich Nietzsche’s vitalism and these groups are not simply alien. They cal look at the safety-industrial complex,
his contempt for “the last man.” He writes of will bring into relief different aspects of and its reliance on moral intimidation
several speeding tickets he has been issued and the appeal that driving has for all of us. to pursue ends other than safety. To
quotes Hunter S. Thompson on how (not) to And because they are subcultures, they do this thoroughly, one must venture
interact with the Highway Patrol when pulled help to clarify what is precarious in the beyond the mental universe of risk re-
over for speeding. He draws on Jane Jacobs’s freedom to drive against the backdrop duction altogether. That universe takes
classic, The Death and Life of Great American of a certain vision of progress. What is its bearings from the least competent
Cities (1961), for insights into the nature of at stake is not simply a legal right, but among us. This is an egalitarian prin-
cities; and on Johan Huizinga’s Homo Ludens a disposition to find one’s way through ciple that is entirely fitting in many set-
(1938) to understand the nature and impor- the world by the exercise of one’s own tings, a touchstone of humane society
tance of “play” (“Huizinga writes that ‘the hu- powers. that we rightly take pride in…. But if
man need to fight’ is intimately connected to left unchallenged, the pursuit of risk re-
A
‘the imperishable need of man to live in beauty. s it did in crawford’s first book duction tends to create a society based
There is no satisfying this need save in play.’”); and his second, The World Beyond on an unrealistically low view of hu-
Shoshana Zuboff’s The Age of Surveillance Cap- Your Head (2015), the theme of self- man capacities. Infantilization slips in,
italism (2019) guides much of his understand- government runs through this book like under cover of democratic ideals. I will
ing of the workings of Silicon Valley. a well-traveled road—the self-government insist, on the contrary, that democracy
of just controlling one’s own car (and body, remains viable only if we are willing to
H
e has a good word for adoles- and life) with skill and responsibility, and extend to one another a presumption of
cent hooliganism and occasionally the self-government on the larger scale of individual competence. This is what so-
employs the language of an adoles- who decides “what sort of regime of mobility cial trust is built on. Together, they are
cent hooligan. In certain moments as a driver we will inhabit.” The two levels or scales of the minimal endowments for a free, re-
and thinker, he sympathizes with the prob- self-government are related: “if we are so dis- sponsible, fully awake people.
lematic character Callicles in Plato’s dialogue tracted behind the wheel that we are already
A
Gorgias, who says, “I believe that the people ll of us are now familiar with
who institute our laws are the weak and “cruise control,” by which we program
the many. So they institute laws and assign Automation our vehicle to proceed at a certain
praise and blame with themselves and their requires deference speed. When cruise control is on—when we
own advantage in mind.” But he admires have ceded control of the vehicle’s speed to the
Michael Oakeshott’s thinking about the rea- from the driver computer—we no longer have to adjust the
sonableness of attachment to old things and
affection for the present, and he thinks of
(or citizen). throttle to maintain the desired speed. This
means that we no longer have to pay attention
himself as writing in “the liberal-republican to controlling the speed of the car. We can
tradition of political reflection.” He takes driving as if our cars were self-driving, this spend more of our attention on our cell phone
guidance, in particular and in his own pecu- suggests we need some benevolent entity to or anything else, and we do. Circumstances
liar way, from Alexis de Tocqueville on the step in and save us from ourselves, by auto- change on the road, of course, and sometimes
importance of associations and the habits of mating a task we are no longer capable of do- require us to take back control of the speed
self-government: ing for ourselves.” In the liberal-republican at which we are traveling; so we intervene
tradition Crawford favors, “a people worthy momentarily with the cruise control. Simple
[W]hen people come together around of democracy must be made up of individu- enough. But research confirms common sense
some particular interest that they share, als capable of governing their own behavior and shows that drivers who are relieved of
such associations become a rival to the in the first place, and [who] have therefore control of their vehicle’s speed tend more than
central power. They provide a check on earned their fellow citizens’ trust.” otherwise to “become sleepy and less vigilant,
its tendency to gather ever more pow- Crawford wrote his book before America and it takes them longer to respond to sud-
er to itself. That central power needn’t experienced the Great Lockdown and the den events.” If a situation arises requiring a re-
be the state; it may be an apparatus of Great Masking, during which a once-great sponse in a fraction of a second, which is not
techno-capitalism devoted to our com- nation of supposedly self-governing citizens unusual on the road, bad things can happen.
fort and convenience, and to keeping gave up their businesses and jobs, sequestered This problem can be solved by adding more
us entertained. The rival sites of asso- themselves in their homes, and covered their computer control. Adaptive Cruise Control
ciation I want to consider in this Toc- faces in deference to the authority of opaque (ACC) automatically adjusts a vehicle’s speed
quevillian light are the cells of car en- and demonstrably fallible science. But he in response to the distance of the vehicle
thusiasts that we will encounter in this anticipates this experience completely in his ahead. With ACC operating, even less atten-
book. The book proceeds in part by analysis of how the “safety-industrial com- tion is required from the driver, with the pre-
an examination of various automotive plex” advances the vision of the driverless car. dictable result that he will find it even more
subcultures—a demolition derby in the Like all rational creatures, he recognizes the difficult to respond in a fraction of a second
American South, a desert race in south- appeal of safety. But “safetyism”—the “never- if needed. This problem can be partly solved
ern Nevada, the professional drifting satisfied quest for greater safety”—“admits no by Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB), a
circuit, a hare scramble in Virginia, an limit to its expanding dominion. It tends to system that automatically applies the vehicle’s
adult soap box derby in Portland, Or- swallow everything before it.” brakes if the vehicle’s sensors determine there

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is danger from the nearness and speed of the could devise; and there is something human them will begin to fade. Not just cars and cit-
vehicle ahead. AEB will be standard in most about it. It only works if every driver is pay- ies but human beings can be automated. Hav-
cars within a few years. ing sharp attention, exercising considerable ing relieved them of the burden of driving, it
While one is drifting along or drifting off skills, and interacting with and anticipating is a small step to relieve them of the burden of
safely on cruise control with ACC and AEB, other drivers. self-government. If the locals get momentarily
one might drift momentarily into the next In any case, there is something “totalizing” disoriented, Google has a safe and convenient
lane, and the computer has a solution for this about the logic of automation. At each stage “reality platform” for them. It is comprehen-
problem, too, called automatic lane keeping of increased automation, “remaining pockets sive and entertaining. With its help, they will
or Lane Keeping Assist System (LKAS). Be- of human judgment and discretion appear understand in no time that the changes are for
ginning in 2022, as Crawford reports, “all as bugs that need to be solved.” So there is a their own good and are, anyway, somehow in-
new vehicles sold for use on European roads strong tendency for partially autonomous cars evitable. They will begin to feel glad to be re-
must include lane keeping and automated to become fully autonomous cars; and if there lieved of their racist, cisgendered nightmares.
braking systems.” These mandatory systems are going to be autonomous cars everywhere, “Let us go then,” they will say to one another,
“will also use GPS and road sign cameras to there will have to be digital maps everywhere as like sheep they shuffle toward their future,
determine if you are exceeding the speed and cars communicating with one another ready for the “breakthrough ideas,” the “new,”
limit. If you are, the system will reduce pow- in ways that necessarily leave the driver out the “progress” that awaits them.
er to [your] engine.” of the loop. As one of Crawford’s sources re- A few spirited individualists will pull their
As automation exerts more complete con- ports: back in 2014, “the U.S. Department of “dumb” old dirt bikes out of hiding in the ga-
trol, our attention “tends to go elsewhere Transportation announced its plan to require rage and head for the hills to join like-minded
for longer stretches of time” and the way we in the not-too-distant future the installation friends. Maybe they will be humming Snoop
reengage with the task of driving is compli- of vehicle-to-vehicle communication technol- Dogg, or maybe a line or two from James
cated. Automation, for example, requires ogy in all cars and trucks new and old.” Madison, about the only form of govern-
deference from the driver (or citizen) if it is ment that is “reconcilable with the genius of
I
to function; but the opposite of deference—a f we are going to have smart cars the people of America; with the fundamental
kind of spirited confidence or what used to and smart roads, we will need smart cities. principles of the Revolution; [and] with that
be thought of as manliness—is what is re- That, too, is in the “vision.” Again, Craw- honorable determination which animates ev-
quired from a driver (or citizen) when the ford wrote before the Great Urban Renewal ery votary of freedom, to rest all our political
automation fails. More generally, “Human Project of 2020, but Portland, Seattle, Minne- experiments on the capacity of mankind for
intelligence and machine intelligence have a apolis, Chicago, St. Louis—with many other self-government.” They will want Matthew
hard time sharing control.” Machines reason cities following their lead—seem to be prepar- Crawford in their company to help them find
according to rules; human rationality is not ing themselves to get with the “vision”: to start their way through this brave new world.
so simple. Crawford invites us to consider the from scratch, from a blank slate, removing any
human rationality and “social intelligence” at impediments to the “first principles” approach Christopher Flannery is a senior fellow of the
work in a Roman intersection during rush preferred by Big Tech. Just remove a few stat- Claremont Institute, contributing editor of the
hour. It looks like chaos, but may be safer ues, old businesses, and buildings, and the re- Claremont Review of Books, and host of The
and more efficient than anything a computer gressive “historical awareness” that goes with American Story podcast.

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Essay by Thomas Sowell
The Unheavenly City at Fifty

Edward Banfield’s book was ahead of its time—and ours.
S
omewhere winston churchill said cial—not only to the other students, but to It was a time-wasting farce. I informed the
that all wisdom is not new wisdom. the non-learners themselves, and to society. teacher that the law could force me to be there,
That is certainly true of Edward C. Ban- According to Banfield, “children who cannot but it could not force me to participate, and
field’s landmark book, The Unheavenly City, or will not learn are injured by too-long con- I had no intention of participating. I was in-
published 50 years ago. Many, if not most, of finement in school.” “The boy who knows that deed angry “at the stupidity and hypocrisy of
the people discussing urban problems today he has learned nothing since the eighth grade a system” that used me like this. Fortunate-
have not yet caught up to what Banfield said but that he must nevertheless sit in bore- ly, Western Union had its own continuation
half a century ago. dom, frustration, and embarrassment” until school for its messengers, and I transferred
Education is a classic example. People on he reaches the legal school-leaving age “must there, where I learned to type, a skill that
both sides of many education issues today be profoundly disaffected by the experience.” would be of some value to me in later years—
would be appalled at Banfield’s plain-spoken Banfield cited an empirical study which sug- instead of being used to justify some teacher’s
truths. While people on one side of educa- gested that “much juvenile delinquency origi- job in a public school.
tion issues speak of “inclusion” and “diversity,” nates in the adolescent’s anger at the stupidity Today, one can read reams of writings on
people on the other side say such things as “no and hypocrisy of a system that uses him in education, by people with a variety of view-
child left behind.” Banfield, however, presents this way.” points, and never encounter the problem of
the brutal truth that there are some students the non-learning student who needs to be
W
who have no real interest in education, and hile many people today may either removed from class, allowed to leave
whose disruptive behavior in the classroom simply dismiss what Banfield said, school, or otherwise sidelined—both for the
can deprive many other students of a decent it is impossible for me to dismiss it. sake of the other students and for his own
education and a decent future. As a personal note, I happen to have dropped sake. Other possibilities may be well worth
While others urge programs to keep ado- out of high school at age 16, and took a full- exploring. But allowing such students to de-
lescents from becoming “dropouts,” The Un- time job as a messenger delivering telegrams stroy the education—and the futures—of
heavenly City asserts that there are “compel- for the Western Union telegraph company. many other students is a very high price to
ling reasons for getting non-learners out of But the law required me to also spend some pay for the pretense that there are no such
school” earlier than the current school-leaving time in what was called a “continuation students. Or the greater pretense that there
age. This, Banfield urged, would be benefi- school.” are feel-good “solutions” available.

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E
ven those who disagree with ban- zero. Who should be surprised when there is were the views of blacks in general, Banfield
field’s prescriptions—on this or other more racial discrimination when it costs the cited opinion polls in the 1960s that showed
issues—can nevertheless understand discriminator nothing? most blacks having very different views. Most
the importance of his highlighting inconve- “were neither sunk in hopelessness nor con-
A
nient facts that so many others avoid. Another nother way in which banfield sumed with anger,” he said. Among these
issue on which many of today’s intelligentsia was more advanced 50 years ago than 1960s-era polls, 81% of blacks in non-South-
have not yet caught up to what Banfield said many intellectuals are today is that ern metropolitan areas thought things were
half a century ago is the effect of minimum he did not regard differences between races getting better for them, and 87% said that
wage laws on the employment of young peo- as necessarily racial differences. That is, such America was “worth fighting for.”
ple—and especially non-white young people. differences need not reflect either differences
W
Over the years, vast amounts of ingenu- peculiar to a particular racial group or biases hether such beliefs would
ity have been deployed by some economists against a particular racial group. He pointed still be prevalent today—after
to avoid the obvious fact that minimum wage out that “there are groups—rural Southern whole generations have been in-
laws can make unskilled labor too expensive whites, for example—whose handicaps are doctrinated in the schools and in the media
for most employers to hire many inexperienced much like the Negro’s.” When cultural fac- with a steady drumbeat of victimhood and re-
workers. The result has been disastrously high tors that overlap different groups to different sentments—is something we may never know.
levels of unemployment for black teenagers, as degrees are taken into account, many inter- Few in the media seem interested in testing
politicians pass “living wage” laws that make it group differences shrink substantially, accord- what is said on their broadcasts against what
difficult for young blacks to get any wage at all. ing to Banfield—and according to much later the black population as a whole say.
The Unheavenly City produces both data data. If his insights were taken more seriously Long before Harvard Professor Steven
and a devastating graph, showing that, when today, the current vogue of simply seizing on Pinker’s massive study, The Better Angels of
the federal minimum wage law—the Fair La- a statistical difference and crying out against Our Nature (2011), showing that long-run
bor Standards Act of 1938—was rendered injustice might be much less common, or at trends in declining homicide rates suddenly
ineffective by runaway inflation during the least much less persuasive. “did a U-turn” and shot up in the 1960s, Ban-
1940s, teenage unemployment in 1948 was a Perhaps the chapters in The Unheavenly field’s The Unheavenly City suggested that “vio-
fraction of what it later became, after a series City that are most relevant to our current so- lent crime in the metropolitan area as a whole
of minimum wage increases began in 1950, in cial problems are the chapters on crime and declined steadily over the last century” before
order to catch up with the effects of inflation. riots. Banfield rejected the common claim being “interrupted and even reversed in the
Perhaps most telling, there was virtually no that high crime rates and riots are results of central cities and in its larger, older suburbs.”
difference in the unemployment rate between deprivations and discrimination. He even de- Banfield drew a sharp distinction between
white and non-white teenagers in 1948. But clared: “The reason why crime rates tend to be pre-1960s ghetto riots and the numbers and
a huge racial gap in teenage unemployment higher in large cities than in small ones may kinds of ghetto riots that became common
rates opened up as the minimum wage rate have something to do with the fact that in the during that decade and later. These latter-day
increased. For some people, racial gaps are au- larger city the individual has more schooling, ghetto riots tended to be riots “involving sev-
tomatically taken as proof of racism. But was more income, and more opportunity.” eral hundred rioters and lasting more than a
there no racism in 1948? That would come as Jolting as that conclusion may be to some, day.” But no such riots on that scale occurred
quite a surprise to those of us who actually Banfield proceeded to test it against empiri- prior to July 1964, according to Banfield.
lived through that era. cal evidence—showing that some of the most Banfield also pointed out that riots in
Just as there is no free lunch, there is no devastating riots of the 1960s occurred in general were not peculiar to blacks, but were
free racism in a market where supply and de- cities where blacks were better off than else- common among young males from a variety
mand set prices, including the price of labor. where. The Detroit riots and the Watts riots of backgrounds. His suggestions for reducing
By definition, racists prefer one race to anoth- in Los Angeles were classic examples. these youth-led riots included “repealing the
er. But, like other people, racists tend to prefer In addition to cultural reasons cited to ex- minimum wage and relaxing the child-labor
themselves most of all. There is a limit to how plain his claims, Banfield also cited changes and school-attendance laws.” Whether any-
much money most racists are prepared to lose in the surrounding society that made crimes one can actually repeal these political sacred
by discrimination. and riots more prevalent. Among these was a cows is another question.
Even in South Africa during the era of sense that the less fortunate “have a kind of The Unheavenly City presents a very dif-
apartheid, there were some occupations in quasi right to have their offenses against the ferent vision of the causes and cures of urban
competitive industries where black workers law extenuated or even to have them regarded problems. Considering how many massively
outnumbered white workers—in occupations as political acts reflecting a morality ‘higher’ expensive policies and programs for dealing
where it was illegal to hire any black workers. than obedience to law.” These new kinds with urban problems have failed disastrously,
White employers responsible for this situa- of attitudes toward crime and riots that be- taking a look at a different paradigm may at
tion might well have voted for the white su- came widespread during the 1960s led to such the very least provoke some much-needed new
premacy laws they were violating. But it cost scenes as: “Sometimes the police had to stand thinking. Banfield’s book is virtually a demo-
nothing to vote for white supremacy, while it by and allow looting to go on before their eyes.” lition derby of fallacies that continue to domi-
could cost plenty to pass up opportunities to In our own time, this has now become almost nate thoughts and actions in our own time.
make profits by hiring black workers. standard procedure.
When minimum wage laws create a chron- Although the media, then as now, tended Thomas Sowell is the Rose and Milton Fried-
ic surplus of unemployed teenage labor, the to feature the loudest and most extreme state- man Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the
cost of racial discrimination falls to virtually ments of racial activists or “leaders,” as if these Hoover Institution.

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Tragedy with a Side of Redemption
W
hen the wire first aired on Not a Hollywood masterpiece, mind you. police department, or the drug economy,
HBO in June 2002, I took a quick The Wire was created by David Simon, who or the political structures, or the school
look and decided not to bother grew up in Bethesda, Maryland, and spent administration, or the macroeconomic
with a foul-mouthed TV series about cyni- 13 years as a crime reporter for the Baltimore forces that are throwing the lightning
cal cops chasing violent drug dealers in the Sun; and Edward P. Burns, a Baltimore native bolts and hitting people in the ass for no
depressed black neighborhoods of West Bal- and Vietnam veteran who spent 20 years as decent reason.
timore. For one thing, I knew enough about a homicide detective for the Baltimore Police
commercialized rap music that I did not wish Department, followed by seven years teach- Simon is wrong about Zeus hurling ran-
to join the vast pale-faced audience for a new ing in one of the city’s dysfunctional public dom lightning bolts at people; that was not
brand of minstrelsy more exploitative than schools. As Simon told the British writer the god’s style. And Simon confuses the
the old. And I was doubtless influenced by the Nick Hornby in 2007, “Our impulses are all Olympian gods with the Fates, or Moirai, an-
fact that the terrorist attacks of September 11, the natural reactions of writers who live in cient female deities who spin the thread of
2001, had pushed inner-city poverty, social each human life, measure it out, and (when
dysfunction, and misdirected policing off the the time comes) cut it. But Simon is right
national agenda. Discussed in this essay: about the general tendency of the Greek gods
The blight affecting the ghetto poor stayed to kick back with some nectar and ambrosia
off the agenda for a decade, as Americans The Wire, and watch the strife and misery of human ex-
fought two agonizing wars in the Middle East, created by David Simon. istence with a certain blithe indifference.
got whacked by the financial crisis, and became HBO
enraged by political paralysis in Washington. It Fair-Minded Storytelling
might still be off the agenda if the invention of
T
the smartphone camera had not forced it back close proximity to a specific American experi- o be honest, there is an element
on. Unfortunately, being on the national agen- ence—independent of Hollywood.” of blithe indifference in the way mil-
da is now a liability, as cable “news” and “social” Simon has given hundreds of interviews on lions of Americans watch The Wire’s
media whip every disagreement into a scream- an ever-lengthening list of topics. As far as I depiction of entrenched poverty, family dys-
ing match, if not an armed confrontation. The can tell, Burns gave one short one with HBO function, drug addiction, and social isolation
Russian operatives stoking the disinformation in 2007, about his teaching experience. To be among “the truly disadvantaged,” to use the
flames must be proud. But the fact is, we don’t tactful about it: some people let success and term coined 33 years ago by sociologist Wil-
need their help burning down our own house fame go to their heads; others do not. Still, liam Julius Wilson. But contrary to my suspi-
while accusing one another of arson. when Simon is not making sweeping pro- cion back in 2002, The Wire doesn’t cater to
The Wire was not a hit back in 2002, but it nouncements about world-historical issues, the audience’s voyeuristic tendencies. It is far
attracted a loyal audience and enough critical he speaks insightfully about his own work. In too demanding—and far too grounded in the
praise to get renewed for a second season, fol- that same 2007 interview with Hornby, he lived experience, not just of Simon and Burns
lowed by three more. By the time Season Five made this canny observation: but of several cast and crew members, as well
ended in March 2008, it was routinely ranked as the city residents and officials who greased
as one of the best TV series of all time, and We’re…lifting our thematic stance the wheels of this five-year production. (Ad-
millions of fans were discovering the joys of wholesale from Aeschylus, Sophocles, vice to non-native speakers of either white
watching a long, intricate series on DVD, as Euripides to create doomed and fated working-class or black inner-city Bawlmerese:
opposed to in weekly installments on cable. protagonists who confront a rigged game turn on the English subtitles!)
Today we can stream The Wire, and urged by and their own mortality…. But instead Thanks to the critical race theorists of
certain wise heads of my acquaintance, I have of the old gods, The Wire is a Greek the 1980s, lived experience (“experiential
now binged my way through all five seasons. tragedy in which the postmodern insti- knowledge”) is now a weapon in the culture
The wise heads were right: it is a masterpiece. tutions are the Olympian forces. It’s the war against reasoned analysis (“epistemic op-

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pression”). This is unfortunate, because lived while pushing a political message at every
experience is essential, not as a replacement turn. This is called propaganda, and authori-
for reasoned analysis but as a rudder to steer tarian regimes are not the only ones grinding
in the it away from easy ideological answers and to-
ward hard real-world questions.
it out like sausage. Perhaps the most crucial
difference between propaganda and genuine
We see this in the career of the afore- storytelling is the role of moral agency. When
next issue mentioned Professor Wilson, one of the few Simon says that his “doomed and fated pro-
social scientists to include economic, social, tagonists…confront a rigged game,” the word
political, and cultural factors in his lifelong “confront” suggests a modicum of free will.
study of the ghetto poor. As he remarked on Wilson puts it more strongly, writing that
a panel at the Brookings Institution in 2017, certain “circumstances…govern our lives—
“[T]oo many liberal social scientists focus on despite our best efforts to demonstrate our indi-
CRB Winter 2020/21 social structure and ignore cultural condi- vidual autonomy, distinctiveness, and moral and
tions [and]…[t]oo many conservatives focus material worth” (emphasis added).
on cultural forces and ignore structural fac-
CRB Editors tors.” This fair-mindedness may stem in part A Tragic Downfall
from Wilson’s lived experience as the son of
T
After the Election a coal miner in western Pennsylvania who rue determinism is hard to de-
died of lung disease at 39, leaving his wid- fend philosophically, and even harder
Christopher DeMuth ow to support their six children by cleaning to work into art. As noted by Aristo-
For the Electoral College houses. “What I distinctly remember,” he tle in the Poetics, the most important element
told the panel, “is hunger.” in tragedy is not character but plot—because
In a similar way, the word “narrative” has plot is action, and character is revealed only
Andrew E. Busch been weaponized to mean politically tenden- through action. By action, Aristotle did not
Our Tribal Politics tious retellings of history. This, too, is unfor- mean car chases and explosions (he would
tunate, because without fair-minded storytell- have classified these as spectacle, the least im-
Eric Kaufmann ing, it is very difficult to teach complex sub- portant of the six dramatic elements). What
American Immigration jects to the young. This is why Wilson includ- he meant was moral agency. Today, we use the
ed The Wire in a course he and Jeremy Levine word “tragedy” whenever people are brought
co-taught at Harvard on “urban inequality.” low by circumstances beyond their control.
James Hankins The course was denounced in the Boston Globe In that sense, The Wire is chock-full of tragic
China’s Ambitions by satirist Ishmael Reed, who accused Wil- figures. But if we go by Aristotle’s definition
son and Levine (not by name) of teaching “hot of a tragic hero as an “intermediate kind of
Lee Smith courses built around sensational popular cul- personage, a man not pre-eminently virtu-
The Arab Spring ture like hip-hop and crime shows as a way of ous and just, whose misfortune, however, is
filling seats in their classrooms.” brought upon him not by vice and deprav-
A glance at Wilson’s syllabus reveals how ity but by some error of judgment,” then the
Charles Moore badly that barb missed its mark. All five sea- series has only a few. Of these, the most poi-
Adolph Hitler sons of The Wire are assigned in sequence, gnant is Preston “Bodie” Broadus, played with
alongside a demanding and ideologically di- eloquent understatement by J.D. Williams.
Helen Andrews verse reading list. The idea, argued Wilson in Like most of the characters in The Wire,
a 2010 op-ed for the Washington Post, was to Bodie is not prepossessing at first. We initially
Eleanor Roosevelt put flesh on the bones of social science by dra- encounter him as a hunched figure in a navy
matizing how economic, social, political, and blue hoodie, seated on a discarded orange sofa
Daniel DiSalvo cultural forces constrain the choices of an ar- in the courtyard of a low-rise public housing
Public & Private Schools ray of vivid and memorable characters: addicts project known as “the Pit,” with a permanent
shooting up in abandoned row houses, “cor- scowl on his face. At age 16 Bodie is a mid-
Michael Kochin ner boys” getting roughed up by police, hard- level manager in the drug organization head-
eyed “soldiers” in the drug game killing rivals ed by Avon Barksdale (Wood Harris). Bodie
The Book of Exodus and snitches, jaded cops “ juking the stats” to does not respect his new boss, Avon’s nephew
game the system, resolute detectives trying with the curious first name of D’Angelo (Larry
Christopher Flannery to solve multiple murders, desperate dock- Gilliard, Jr.). He is impatient with the young
Reading Westerns workers watching their jobs disappear, drug “hoppers” who perform the transactions. And
kingpins dreaming of respect and legitimacy, he is contemptuous of the junkies shuffling
embattled teachers struggling to educate stu- up for their next fix. It slowly emerges that
Subscribe today. dents while “teaching to the test,” and honest Bodie has reason to find fault with others: he
newspaper editors trying to uphold standards is braver and smarter than most of the people
claremontreviewofbooks.com/ while hemorrhaging readers. around him, including the police.
subscribe It’s easy to imagine a different TV series Bodie never knew his father, and his mother
showing the same forces determining the overdosed when he was four, leaving him in the
fates of un-vivid, un-memorable characters care of his grandmother (Caroline G. Pleasant).

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One criticism I would make of The Wire is its think if I got jammed up in some shit ment succeeds in restoring a blessed sense of
neglect of the older people, especially the wom- they’d be like, “All right. Yeah. Bodie normalcy to the rest of the district. But when
en, who strive 24/7 to protect the young against been there. Bodie hang tough. We got Bubbles crosses into one of these special “free
the ravages of the ghetto environment. Bodie’s his pay lawyer, we got a bail.” They want zones,” dubbed “Hamsterdam” by a corner
grandmother is on the screen for less than five me to stand with them, right? But where boy who has never heard of Amsterdam, he
minutes. If you blink you will miss her. But she the f--k they at when they supposed to enters the Inferno.
has clearly given her grandson a steadiness and be standing by us? I mean, when the shit It is beyond me how Simon could have
strength to match his intelligence. goes bad and there’s hell to pay, where created these horrific scenes while at the
In episode three of Season One, Bodie and they at? same time confidently asserting that the drug
a boyhood friend and fellow dealer named plague would disappear with legalization. Un-
Wallace (played by Michael B. Jordan) are Bodie has no intention of informing on his like Simon, I do not have the solution up my
playing checkers with a chess set, when corner boys or the remnants of the Barksdale sleeve. But to its credit, neither does The Wire.
D’Angelo stops by and insists on teaching gang. “But Marlo, this n--ga and his kind? On the night Bubbles pushes his shopping
them the “much better game” of chess. The They gotta fall. They gotta.” To McNulty’s cart full of T-shirts through the firelit streets
scene is bittersweet, because Bodie and Wal- warning, “For that to happen, somebody’s of Hamsterdam, his hawker’s call is drowned
lace are quick to see the connection between gotta step up,” Bodie replies, “I do what I out by the calls of the dealers, and the cries
the “little bald-headed bitches,” or pawns, and gotta. I don’t give a f--k! Just don’t ask me to of a mob of ragged, contorted shadows beat-
their own place in the drug trade, a.k.a. “the live on my f--king knees.” McNulty remarks ing, robbing, and prostituting one another for
Game.” Learning that pawns can only move quietly, “You’re a soldier, Bodie.” And Bodie the price of their next dose. The expression on
one square forward except when capturing says, “Hell, yeah.” Bubbles’s face suggests that, like Dante, he is
another piece or “the other dude’s king,” Bod- By informing on Marlo, Bodie signs his being harrowed in his soul.
ie muses: “So if I make it to the end, then I’m own death warrant. He also makes it possible The Wire is not apolitical. While it has
top dog?” D’Angelo corrects him: “Yo, it ain’t for McNulty and his fellow detectives to solve precious few kind words for the Democratic
like that. The pawns, man, in the game, they a score of cold-case murders—although by establishment in Baltimore, it has none for
get capped quick. They be out the game early.” pointing this out, I realize I am going against the Republicans in state government. A good
With one of his rare smiles, Bodie says, “Un- the consensus of a large portion of the pale- friend refuses to watch The Wire because, as
less they some smart-ass pawns.” faced commentariat, for whom The Wire is a she says, “I don’t like being preached at.” Giv-
But here we see the error that sets Bodie’s masterpiece precisely because it offers no hope. en the noxious virtue-signaling now pervad-
misfortune in motion. Strong, smart-ass Bod- As one celebrity thinker, British philosopher ing the culture, I don’t blame her for expect-
ie catches the eye of Avon Barksdale’s second- John Gray, expressed it in 2012, “[O]ne of the ing The Wire to be about as enlightening as a
in-command, Stringer Bell (Idris Elba) and, show’s greatest achievements” is that it “pres- CNN debate over how many woke activists
gratified by the older man’s attention, reluc- ents a damning portrait of inner-city life in can dance on the head of a pin. But here’s the
tantly agrees to execute Wallace for having America without the prospect of redemption.” thing: this series could probably not be made
informed on the gang. When the moment My response to this is simple: what about today. Or if it were, it would be denounced by
comes, Bodie falters, and it is only through Bubbles? those same woke activists for failing to toe the
the intervention of another boyhood friend “progressive” party line.
and dealer, Poot (Tray Chaney), that the ten- A Lost Soul Redeemed For example, only once in the entire 60
der-hearted Wallace is cut down. hours does a police officer use deadly force. In
O
To trace Bodie’s fate is to deplore the waste f all the misery on display in episode nine of Season Three, a rookie cop
of a life. But it is also to detect a tragic hero. In The Wire, the most affecting is that of called Prez (for Pryzbylewski), panics in a dark
episode 13 of Season Four, Bodie meets with the heroin addict Reginald “Bubbles” alley and shoots a black man who turns out to
Detective McNulty (Dominic West), the only Cousins. In an extraordinary performance by be an undercover cop. Totally inept with guns,
police officer he has ever come close to trust- Andre Royo, Bubbles makes his entrance as Prez (Jim True-Frost) has proved himself as a
ing, in Cylburn Arboretum, a beautiful leafy one of the pathetic homeless figures one sees talented breaker of codes used by the Barks-
park that Bodie is surprised to learn is part sleeping in doorways and pushing jam-packed dale gang. But now he must quit the force, and
of Baltimore. Bodie feels betrayed by Marlo shopping carts. Then gradually, with many the next time we see him, he is struggling to
Stanfield (Jamie Hector), a newly established stops and starts, we watch this seemingly lost teach math in a chaotic middle school.
gang leader who ruthlessly orders the deaths soul morph into a scrappy entrepreneur, a po- I have never been a cop, drug dealer, dock-
of everyone who looks at him sideways. So lice spy too clever to get caught, a guardian an- worker, or district attorney. But I have been
McNulty, who typically uses up all the oxygen gel to two young addicts, and in Season Three, an inner-city schoolteacher, and of all the
in the room, keeps his mouth admirably shut a poor man’s Dante in Hell. films and TV shows I have seen about that
while Bodie makes what may be the longest This last reference is to a social experiment challenging occupation, The Wire rings the
speech of his life: undertaken—without permission—by Major truest. I have also seen a close family mem-
Howard “Bunny” Colvin (Robert Wisdom), ber recover from addiction, and I feel the
I ain’t no snitch. I been doing this a long an independent-minded police officer nearing same way about Bubbles’s recovery. Those
time…. I ain’t never talked to no cop…. I retirement. Having lived and worked in West who declare The Wire to be without hope
feel old. I been out there since I was thir- Baltimore his whole life, Colvin attempts to must have watched the part about Bubbles
teen. I ain’t never f--ked up on a count, curb the ravages of the drug trade, and the with their eyes closed, because while the tale
ain’t never stole off a package, never did war on drugs, by corralling all the dealers and of this downtrodden but valiant spirit does
some shit that I wasn’t told to do. I been users into a few abandoned blocks and tell- not illustrate anyone’s ideology, it does speak,
straight up. But what come back? You’d ing the police to let them alone. The experi- poetically, of redemption.

Page 113
The Revolution of 2020
I
n contradiction of lincoln’s second inaugural, the watch- appear unassailable. The Portland police could put an end to Antifa
words of the revolution of 2020—and it is a revolution—might well in an evening, but the city government (i.e., the dull mind of the bull)
be, “With malice toward all, and charity for miscreants.” Stealing dictates otherwise.
a march on the forced self-denunciations of China’s Cultural Revolu- As in the real-estate analogy, the areas between the strongpoints are
tion, Americans now willingly, sincerely self-denounce with weird pas- beginning to thicken. What is added to them, like grass in its tender
sion. Take for example a white officer writing in the Navy’s chief profes- multitudes, is people, because people naturally gravitate to structure and
sional journal: “Most white naval officers are not consciously racist,” but, lines of strength. If allowed to proceed, this filling-out of the empty spac-
he says, quoting James Baldwin, “‘It is the innocence which constitutes the es, the penultimate stage of revolutionary development, becomes irre-
crime.’” Stalin, Beria, and Lewis Carroll take note. versible other than by sclerotic death after decades of Jacobin repression.
In the same issue, another writer proposes that:
T
he strongpoints are occupied and immediately out of
The Navy should partner with a racial justice organization that reach. Given the past half-century of indoctrination, reinforce-
can provide an independent review of Navy policies…. Create ment, and now the purification phase, they are almost impos-
and fund the role of a (non-white) Race Advisor to assist all up- sible to assail. And long before they collapse of their own weight they
per echelon commands…. [And] partner with a Black/Indig- will have had ample opportunity to knit themselves together.
enous/POC-led racial justice organization to conduct training. That they have not yet completed their linkages and consolidation
should direct the eye to the delicate but immense fabric that lies between
And you thought that only in the USSR, China, and Tom Clancy nov- them. As with a tarpaulin, the Left’s vulnerability lies not in the grom-
els did political officers go to sea. mets but in a break in the weave, its weak point, because the suffocat-
Madness such as this is the muck through which ideological piles ing enclosure of revolutionary control depends upon the acquiescence of
are driven as the foundation for oppression. To continue with meta- vast numbers of individuals, families, communities, and organizations.
phors, consider the following: We understand time analogously as And we have yet to enter a state in which Americans can be successfully
movement through space. Whereas an analog clock expresses this monitored, punished, or oppressed should they reject individually but en
physically, it does so with numbers as well, and a digital clock solely masse the Marxist-utopian reconstruction of America.
with numbers, which in turn have no meaning unless reconverted to Quite apart from matters of policy and traditional politics, the only
the analog conception of movement through space. In that sense—just means to defeat the revolution of 2020 is to bypass opposition strong-
as, in battle, strategy depends upon spatial understanding—the work- points and go rather to the general public, the fabric of the nation, in a
ings of the current revolutionary/counter-revolutionary dynamic may simple, direct, mass appeal to refuse indoctrination, the miserly defini-
be illuminated by spatial and metaphorical analogies. tion of its history, its villainization, and the characterizations, hector-
For example, a standard concept in real-estate investment is that fu- ing, threats, and commands of its self-appointed betters.
ture development will occur on the shortest line between two prosperous At this stage it is still possible to block the strongpoints from con-
centers of population—strongpoints, if you will—within easy reach of necting, if they can be made to drown in a sea of individual refusals
one another. The increasingly hard Left has taken over the strongpoints that are fully capable of ripping apart the fabric of revolution until it
of American life—educational systems, the press, entertainment, sports, snaps wildly in the wind.
a large slice of religion, institutions of high culture, foundations, most “No” is one of the most difficult yet liberating words in any lan-
professional organizations, and pusillanimous businesses, from sneaker guage. Though it often comes at a steep price—of peace, tranquility,
manufacturers to banking behemoths. Now, even one of the two major livelihood, and even life—it is the master key to independence and
political parties is a hostage deep in the throes of Stockholm Syndrome. freedom. Were every American made aware of this inherent power, we
Though paradoxically composed mainly of idiots, Antifa itself is would then see how much courage and character we have left. For the
a brilliant strongpoint. Its flying squads concentrate and dominate simplest declaration is the most potent, and sometimes it moves like
where required. Baby terrorists and guerillas (for the moment), its wildfire.
Brownshirts have outsized effect, much as in the longstanding Com- How difficult would it be to say, when the demand comes, when the
munist tactic of salting a large meeting with a few supporters evenly threat comes, when the command comes: No, I do not agree with your
spread throughout a room, who to swing things their way pipe up si- redefinitions. No, I will not do as you tell me. No, I will not say what
multaneously as if in far greater number and representation. Just as a you order me to say. No, I will not surrender my freedom of speech and
board fence is no match for a 2,500-pound bull (but he doesn’t know expression. No, I will not accept your revolution. And I will not stand
that), illusory or collapsible strongpoints can yet succeed if they merely against my country.

Page 114
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VO LUME XX, NUM BER 4, FALL 2020

A Journal of Political Thought and Statesmanship

Matthew B. Crawford: Thomas Sowell: Christopher Caldwell:

Steven F. Hayward: John O’Sullivan: Harvey C. Mansfield:

Sally C. Pipes: Robert Royal: Oren Cass:

A First Principles Approach

BASED ON THE CORE TEXTS OF THE

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