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October 5, 2015 $4.99

KEVIN D.WILLIAMSON: IS THERE A WAR ON COPS? PRYCE-JONES on Primo Levi OTTO PENZLER RAMESH PONNURU: A Better Budget Strategy on Dashiell Hammett

FAMILY LIVES MATTER An agenda for opportunity

OREN CASS N REIHAN SALAM

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OCTOBER 5, 2015 | VOLUME LXVII, NO. 18 | www.nationalreview.com

ON THE COVER Page 32 Arthur Herman on Russia in Syria The Inequality Cycle p. 22 America’s “lower class,” for lack of a better term, is under- BOOKS, ARTS going an unprecedented social collapse that threatens to & MANNERS destabilize core American principles. Dismay over this 38 LIVING BY LIES widening gap between classes seems at first like yet another Daniel J. Mahoney reviews Children complaint about income inequality. It is not. These statistics of Monsters: An Inquiry into the Sons and Daughters of measure not income or wealth but rather the markers of Dictators, by Jay Nordlinger. social health. Oren Cass 40 THE WITNESS David Pryce-Jones reviews The Complete Works of Primo Levi, edited by Ann Goldstein.

42 STRAIGHT OUTTA FRANKFURT ARTICLES Rachel Lu reviews The Devil’s Pleasure Palace: The Cult NO WAR ON COPS, NO WAR ON BLACKS by Kevin D. Williamson 18 of Critical Theory and the We face instead a set of conventional, intractable systemic failures. Subversion of the West, by Michael Walsh. 20 THE COP IN THE STOP by Jack Dunphy Enforcing traffic laws is dangerous work. 44 NOT INEVITABLE PAX PUTINICA by Arthur Herman David French reviews 22 Truth Overruled: The Future Russia aims to become the Middle East’s power broker. of Marriage and Religious 24 BREAK UP THE BUDGET by Ramesh Ponnuru Freedom, by Ryan T. Anderson. Learning from Republican mistakes. 45 THE REAL DETECTIVE SOCIAL JUSTICE AT WAR by David French Otto Penzler reviews The Lost 25 Detective: Becoming Dashiell Ignoring differences between the sexes will cost lives. Hammett, by Nathan Ward. GOODBYE, MCKINLEY by Jay Nordlinger 27 47 FILM: IN THE ARENA The rise and fall of names. Ross Douthat reviews The Runner.

FEATURES SECTIONS 29 BLACK AND WHITE IN SHADES OF GRAY by Reihan Salam Toward a more nuanced understanding of ‘white supremacy.’ 4 Letters to the Editor THE INEQUALITY CYCLE by Oren Cass 6 The Week 32 The Long View ...... Rob Long Why social and economic opportunity rise or fall together. 36 37 Athwart ...... James Lileks 46 Poetry ...... Sally Cook 48 Happy Warrior ...... Jonah Goldberg

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EDITOR Richard Lowry Senior Editors We Can Handle the Truth Richard Brookhiser / Jonah Goldberg / Jay Nordlinger Ramesh Ponnuru / David Pryce-Jones Managing Editor Jason Lee Steorts Literary Editor Michael Potemra Thanks to David Pryce-Jones for his article “The Truth-Teller” (September 7) Vice President, Editorial Operations Christopher McEvoy Washington Editor Eliana Johnson about Robert Conquest, who exposed the atrocities of the Soviet Communists Executive Editor Reihan Salam Roving Correspondent Kevin D. Williamson in the 20th century. National Correspondent John J. Miller While studying for an advanced degree at the Naval Postgraduate School in Senior Political Correspondent Jim Geraghty Art Director Luba Kolomytseva Monterey, Calif., I was required to take a course that focused on the ideologies Deputy Managing Editors Nicholas Frankovich / Fred Schwarz of America’s adversaries. Production Editor Katie Hosmer Assistant to the Editor Rachel Ogden We were assigned to read several books by Robert Conquest. The list of Research Associate Alessandra Trouwborst atrocities by Lenin, Stalin, and other Soviet leaders, which included the inten- Contributing Editors Shannen Coffin / Ross Douthat / Roman Genn tional starving of large groups of their own citizens, was at first hard to be - Arthur Herman / Florence King / Lawrence Kudlow lieve. I thought that Conquest had made up the numbers he reported, or at least Mark R. Levin / Yuval Levin / Rob Long Mario Loyola / Jim Manzi / Andrew C. McCarthy exaggerated them. After cross-checking, I discovered that Conquest’s reports Kate O’Beirne / Andrew Stuttaford / Robert VerBruggen were accurate. NATIONALREVIEWONLINE Managing Editors Katherine Connell / Edward John Craig This experience made me realize that many Americans live in a Pollyanna- National-Affairs Columnist John Fund Staff Writers Charles C. W. Cooke / David French like world and do not realize the violent extremes to which totalitarian regimes Senior Political Reporter Alexis Levinson Political Reporters Brendan Bordelon / Joel Gehrke will go to maintain their existence. Reporter Katherine Timpf Associate Editors Bill Hestir Nat Brown / Molly Powell / Nick Tell Lieutenant Colonel (Retired), United States Marine Corps Digital Director Ericka Anderson Editorial Associate Christine Sisto Via e-mail Technical Services Russell Jenkins Web Editorial Assistant Grant DeArmitt Web Developer Wendy Weihs Web Producer Scott McKim EDITORS- AT- LARGE Linda Bridges / John O’Sullivan / Kathryn Lopez Nostalgie de la Boob NATIONALREVIEWINSTITUTE BUCKLEYFELLOWSINPOLITICALJOURNALISM Ian Tuttle / Elaina Plott Reihan Salam (“The Naked City,” September 21) says that New Yorkers dislike Contributors Hadley Arkes / James Bowman / Eliot A. Cohen seeing painted, bare-breasted women in Times Square because their “deeply Dinesh D’Souza / Chester E. Finn Jr. / Neal B. Freeman James Gardner / David Gelernter / George Gilder held beliefs . . . have been badly undermined by a market-driven sexual culture, Jeffrey Hart / Kevin A. Hassett / Charles R. Kesler David Klinghoffer / Anthony Lejeune / D. Keith Mano in which the symbols of intimate solidarity have been commodified and de - Michael Novak / Alan Reynolds / Tracy Lee Simmons valued.” Funny, I heard a guy say the exact same thing at the Pit Stop Bar in Terry Teachout / Vin Weber Chief Financial Officer James X. Kilbridge Greenpoint the other night. Accounting Manager Galina Veygman Accountant Lyudmila Bolotinskaya More likely, though, what the desnudas undermine is New Yorkers’ belief in Business Services their own sophistication. Most of us are quite happy to direct tourists, with an A lex Batey / Alan Chiu Circulation Manager Jason Ng air of easy familiarity, to cultural landmarks we’ve never visited ourselves, so Executive Publisher Scott F. Budd it’s quite a comedown to be stopped every couple of blocks and asked, “Where Advertising Director Jim Fowler Advertising Manager Kevin Longstreet are the naked women?” Assistant to the Publisher Brooke Rogers We’ll miss them when they’re gone, though. As night follows day, the same Director of Revenue Erik Netcher Vice President, Communications Amy K. Mitchell New Yorkers who decry the “Disneyfication” of Times Square and long for the

PUBLISHERCHAIRMAN good old days when you could get mugged there, and who now say the Jack Fowler John Hillen desnudas are tacky and embarrassing, will call for their return when the entire FOUNDER William F. Buckley Jr. area is turned into the world’s largest Chuck E. Cheese. Mike Whitaker PATRONSANDBENEFACTORS Robert Agostinelli Queens, N.Y. Peter J. Travers Mr. and Mrs. Michael Conway Christopher M. Lantrip Virginia James Mark and Mary Davis Brian and Deborah Murdock

Letters may be sub mitted by e-mail to [email protected].

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n The British Parliament voted against assisted suicide—except in the case of the Labour party.

n Joe Biden mulls his presidential options; on the same swing through New York in which he told a Late Show audience that he was not ready to decide, he met with Robert Wolf, a heavyweight Obama bundler. Unlike Hillary Clinton, Biden likes campaign- ing; there seems to be a human being inside him; and Americans sympathized with him after the death of his son Beau. Against this must be set his deficiencies as a candidate and a man. He has a motor mouth (the vice of his virtue—he is open, and openly in- dis creet). He is a bitter partisan: His conduct in debate with Paul Ryan in 2012 was unpleasant, his behavior during Judge Robert Bork’s 1987 confirmation hearings was savage. And his first presidential race ended in a storm of blunders. In a speech de- scrib ing his life story, he plagiarized details of the life of Brit ish Labourite Neil Kinnock. After that revelation came the discovery of plagiarized bits in other speeches, plus the fact that he had flunked a course in law school for plagiarizing five pages of a paper. Reckless, rude, dishonest, dumb: It is a measure of the Demo crats’ disarray that this is the profile of their savior.

n Donald Trump took personal shots at two of his Republican rivals. While watching a clip of Carly Fiorina on television, he said, “Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you n Jeb Bush proposed a large tax cut. He would take the top rate imagine that, the face of our next president?” Of Ben Carson, from 39.6 to 28 percent—the lowest it has been since the middle he simply said that he was “an okay doctor, I guess,” who has of his father’s administration. The corporate-tax rate would drop “hired one nurse.” Carson had gotten Trump’s attention by to 20 percent, and the cost of business investment could be writ- wondering whether he showed “humility and the fear of the ten off the year it was incurred. Some tax breaks—for business Lord,” as per Proverbs 22:4. Of course Trump has not shown debt, for state and local taxes—would be eliminated; others those things; if he had, he would not be Trump. If Republican would be scaled back. The effect should be to make economic voters want to nominate a blue-rumped baboon whose notion of growth a bit faster. The drawbacks to the plan are three. It would a presidential campaign is flinging baboon poo, they should pick raise the deficit when federal debt is likely to begin mounting Trump. If not, not. rapidly. Its tax cuts are focused too much on high earners: It takes the top rate down quite far while doing almost nothing about pay- n Playing off Richard Wagner, Nietzsche entitled one of his last roll taxes. And it seeks to encourage one-earner couples to books “Götzen-Dämmerung”—or “Twilight of the Idols.” So become two-earner couples by taxing the latter more lightly, an how goes the Clinton campaign? Top aides told the New York offensive piece of social engineering. The plan should be modi- Times that henceforth the candidate would show “her humor” and fied, but it has real strengths on which to build. “her heart.” Immediately thereafter, she showed regret about hav- ing mingled work and personal e-mails. “That was a mistake. I’m n Scott Walker aims to take his union-busting success in Wis - sorry about that.” She has reason to feel sorry, for a special intel- con sin to the national stage. In a recent speech in Las Vegas, ligence review of her e-mails found two that were “top se cret” home to powerful unions, Walker called for eliminating federal- (one was about North Korea’s nuclear program). “Top se cret” is employee unions and the National Labor Relations Board, and defined as that which could “reasonably” be expected to cause for enacting a national right-to-work law that would allow em - “exceptionally grave damage to the national security” if it were ploy ees to choose whether to join a union. The plan also requires leaked or hacked. More revelations may come: The Denver unions to disclose political donations and compensation paid to company that managed her easily hackable home-brew server union officials. Walker would allow the government to contract said that the e-mails she deleted may be retrievable. Clinton’s non-union labor for federal construction projects and would per- persona at this point in her life is unchangeable, and the story of mit bonuses to employees who perform well. We suspect that if her rogue server only changes for the worse. Bad campaigner, this agenda were ever implemented, we would marvel that we ROMAN GENN bad news: Twi light may be starting to fall. once did anything different.

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THE WEEK

n Rick Perry’s best shot at the Republican presidential nomi- n More than 50 intelligence analysts at the U.S. military’s nation came in 2012, but he started the race late, and did it Central Command have formally complained to the inspector while taking pain medication to recover from back surgery. He general that their reports on the Islamic State and al-Qaeda became a punch line after losing his train of thought during a have been systematically altered by senior officials. The debate. This year, he ran a more serious campaign—measured in intelligence has been contorted, they allege, to conform to the terms of impressive speeches and well-designed policy propos- public claims of President Obama and other officials that the als, and not in terms of money. Perry was a highly successful administration’s strategy in Syria and Iraq—occasional air governor of Texas from 2000 through 2015, but he was unable strikes in coordination with a reluctant “coalition” of Muslim to overcome the memory of his previous campaign and the governments and no competent ground forces—is making media’s obsession with Donald Trump. His concession speech steady progress toward the goal of “degrading and ultimately invoked the consolations of faith, family, and an im pressive defeating” the jihadists. In fact, the terrorists remain on the record. Another consolation should be that those who paid offensive, as the analysts say their pessimistic reports reflected attention to his campaign over the last few months had a until changed to toe the party line. The complaint charges that chance to see the qualities that made him such a force in his CENTCOM chiefs impose “Stalinist” discipline that readily home state. produces propaganda rather than intelligence. Something is being degraded, all right.

n n In his stump speech, Bernie Sanders, senator from California’s legislature passed a bill legalizing assisted left field, notes that while the official unemployment suicide for the terminally ill. In other countries where assisted rate is 5.1 percent, if one counts those who have stopped suicide has been allowed, the scope of the license has been look ing for work or who are scraping by on part-time, it widened to include those not quite so ill or not quite so com- is actually over 10 percent. The youth-unemployment mitted to dying. And it makes no sense to confine it to the ter- rate, calculated the same way, is even worse: 33 percent minally ill: Once we accept that suicide is an acceptable for whites, 51 percent for blacks. “We are turning our answer to suffering, why not offer the same opportunity to backs,” Sanders says, “on an entire generation of young those with chronic but non-fatal ailments? Why not to those people!” Who would “we” be? Sanders doesn’t say, but whose mental turmoil persistently bedevils them? We have Barack Obama, who has been president since January never been great admirers of Governor Jerry Brown, but he 2009, and Harry Reid, who was Senate majority leader would deserve great praise if he vetoed this bill. for most of that time, come to mind. (Nancy Pelosi n helped them as House speaker for two years.) Sanders is It appears that the White House—with much fanfare—trad- running against the economic ed five high-ranking Taliban prisoners for a soldier who was record of the party whose worse than a deserter. After months of additional investigation, nomination he seeks. As the Army has charged Bowe Bergdahl with “misbehavior well he should—it’s a before the enemy,” an offense far more serious than mere de- terrible record. ser tion and one that carries the theoretical ultimate punishment of death. To prove misbehavior, the Army has to show not just that B ergdahl abandoned his post (that much seems clear), but also that he did so in a manner that was “shameful” or “cow- ardly” and endangered the safety of his unit. Given what we know of the facts of the case, this is an appropriate charge. When Bergdahl left his base, he knew that the military would launch a massive search operation, one that would place his fellow soldiers in harm’s way. That President Obama not only made but celebrated this prisoner swap will surely rank high on the list of his administration’s perversities. n The nation’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, receives much of its funding from the federal government. Pro- n The Center for Immigration Studies released a new report lifers have always wanted to cut it off, and they want to all the showing that a majority (51 percent) of households headed by more after a series of videos exposed its involvement in selling immigrants use at least one welfare program, such as Medicaid, the organs of aborted fetuses for a profit—among other grisly food aid, housing programs, and cash assistance—much higher revelations. They want a continuing resolution that keeps the than the rate for the native-born (30 percent). More worrisome, government funded when the fiscal year ends on September 30 three-fourths of the immigrant households using welfare were to include a provision denying federal funds to the organiza- headed by legal immigrants to the United States. Why are tion. Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy are afraid that America’s immigration policies importing so many people who adding that provision will cause a government shutdown. Their require government assistance to survive? Enthusiasts have long fear is understandable but excessive. Republicans should take touted the net benefits of mass immigration: More new young BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES / some time to make the case for an end to Pla nned Parenthood workers will stabilize social-welfare programs and slow the funding and let the Democrats block it. There is nothing to be aging of the American work force. But if that’s the rationale, why gained from preemptively capitulating to objections the Demo- not admit only those men and women who can unambiguously ANDREW HARRER crats have not yet had any occasion to make. stand on their own feet rather than collect benefits?

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n Some years after the fact, there is a movement afoot to pun- son effect” is responsible for rising murder rates is unclear: ish bankers as criminals in retribution for the financial crisis. Murder rates were rising in St. Louis before the death of Mi - Barack Obama’s Justice Department has circulated a memo, chael Brown in August of last year, and shootings were on the largely symbolic, instructing lawyers to target individuals for increase in Baltimore before the arrest and death of Freddie prosecution, as opposed to its current practice of targeting cor- Gray in April. What is clear is that anti-cop agitators wanted porations as a whole, which normally ends in a settlement. The the police to be less aggressive; it looks like they’re getting New York Times says that Jus tice is “stung by years of criticism their wish. that it has coddled Wall Street criminals.” There is a great deal of question-begging in that characterization: Who, exactly, n The Marines have rediscovered a truth that everyone except are the criminals going unpunished? The SEC has brought radical feminists has known for the entirety of human history: actions against, among others, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Men are physically stronger than women. A nine-month study Sachs, Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Wachovia, Wells Fargo, and of mixed-sex infantry units has revealed that, under simulated UBS for actions related to the financial crisis—most of them combat conditions, they underperform all-male units in every weak cases involving nebulous disclosure standards—and key category. They’re slower, less accurate, less able to evacuate reached settlements in the tens or low hundreds of millions. casualties, and less able to engage the enemy with accurate What the DOJ is doing—and what the Elizabeth Warren ele- fire. In the real world, this would mean more dead Americans ment has been successful in pressuring it to do—is politiciz- and a greater enemy advantage on the battlefield. So, does this ing prosecutions. The financial crisis was caused in the main by end the Obama administration’s experiment with mixed-sex bad investments and bad public policy, not by criminal maneu- infantry? Hardly. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus has vowed vering. In cases where there were actual crimes committed, to continue integrating combat units. Social justice cares not such as Ebrahim Shabudin’s falsification of records at United for facts, or combat-effectiveness. Commercial Bank, DOJ has shown itself to be an able enough prosecutor. But in those cases it has been looking for criminals, n Representative Jared Polis not scapegoats. (D., Colo.) suggested during a House hearing that all college n Frustrated by its inability to gain traction in the legislative students accused of sexual arena, the anti–Second Amendment Coalition to Stop Gun Vi o - assault should be expelled— lence (CSGV) has elected to move into vigilantism. “If you see even if they probably are not someone carrying a firearm in public—openly or concealed— guilty. “Even if there’s a 20 to and have ANY doubts about their intent,” a recent press release 30 percent chance that it hap- from the group suggested, you should “call 911 immediately pened, I would want to re move and ask police to come to the scene.” In so doing, the group has this individual,” Polis said. increased the possibility that innocent Americans will be killed. Reversing William Black stone’s In theory, the aim is to annoy both the police and the carriers famous formulation, he contin- into submission, and thus to demonstrate to the po li ti cal class ued: “If there’s ten people who that protecting the right to bear arms is not worth their time. In have been accused, and under a practice, the tactic is likely to provoke a lethal confrontation. reasonable-likelihood standard Last year, a 22-year old black man named John Crawford III was may be one or two did it, it seems gunned down by police in an Ohio Walmart after a shopper saw better to get rid of all ten peo- him holding a toy gun and exaggerated during his call to 911. At ple.” There is no campus-rape the time, critics observed that there were few things more likely epidemic: Women on college to lead to a fatal error than to send a police officer into danger campuses are less likely to suf- under false pretenses. If CSGV wants to see less gun violence, it fer that crime than are women in other environments, and rape has picked a curious way to bring it about. as a whole is in statistical decline, and has been for years. This is how campus hysteria makes its way to Congress, where it n More than 30 major American cities are witnessing a spike animates policy thinking, in this case with an idea that would in murder rates, the New York Times reports. Compared with turn the entirety of the Anglo-American criminal-law tradition the first eight months of 2014, murders are up 22 percent this on its head. We’ll stick with “innocent until proven guilty year in New Orleans, 44 percent in Washi ngton, D.C., 56 per- beyond a reasonable doubt”—in a court of law, which is where cent in Baltimore, and 60 percent in St. Louis. The spike comes rape cases belong. after two decades of virtually uninterrupted decline, largely thanks to data-driven crime prevention that made it possible n “Crisis” is an apt word for what is presently unfolding in for police departments to target resources and personnel Europe. Hundreds of thousands of migrants are pouring into toward known crime hotspots. But amid a national debate central Europe by land and by sea, marking the largest move- about police tactics in the wake of events in Ferguson, Bal ti- ment of peoples into the Continent since the end of World War more, and elsewhere, there is strong anecdotal evidence that II. Some are refugees from war-torn Syria. Many more are

BLOOMBERG VIA GETTYantagonistic IMAGES attitudes toward law enforcement have caused po- migrants leaving poverty-stricken countries in the Middle / lice officers or entire departments to reduce their presence in East and sub-Saharan Africa in pursuit of better prospects high-crime areas, for fear of anti-cop violence, or for fear of abroad. Migrants crossing into Hungary or washing up on the DAVID BANKS becoming the next headline. The extent to which this “Fer gu - shores of Greece are pushing westward toward Germany,

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THE WEEK

France, and the United Kingdom. Hungary, which has become initially calling for openness to the flood of migrants, has a staging ground for migrants, has declared a state of emer- closed its borders as well. Still, Germany expects 1 million gency and closed its border with Serbia, and Germany, after people to settle there by the end of the year, suggesting that An Epidemic of Loneliness

OR more than a hundred years, economists and began, by 2024 more Americans will die from suicide than sociologists have studied an empirical regularity: from flu and pneumonia combined. F When the population share of Protestants relative to The human cost of this tragic increase is unfathomable, Catholics rises, suicides increase markedly. Two major yet the surge in suicide has barely received mention in theories emerged to explain the pattern. The first rests public-policy circles. And even its narrow economic costs on theological differences, and holds that Catholics but are far larger than we generally realize. The chart below not Protestants are dissuaded from suicide by the fear shows how the economic burden of fatalities from suicide that it will lead to eternal damnation. The second is that has evolved between 1975 and 2013 and how it compares Protestants are more likely to have weaker ties to the com- with that of automobile accidents. To convert statistics on munity, and it is this separation from the support of a fatalities into statistics on their economic burden, we use a community that leads to despair and suicide. rule of thumb, developed based on automotive data, that While the early literature focused on these two compet- estimates the value of a life at $2.23 million in 2013 dollars. ing forms of Christianity, researchers have begun to explore Public policies that save a life are commonly discussed religion and the role of community more generally. As time when policymakers discuss automobile safety—and for has gone on, the community-based rather than theological good reason. At the start of our sample, automobile fatali- explanation seems to have become more widely accepted ties cost Americans more than $100 billion per year (in in the literature. For instance, research has found that while 2013 dollars). In the case of automobiles, these high costs Protestants commit suicide more than Catholics, atheists set in motion decades of aggressive research and regula- are even more likely to take their own lives than Protestants, tion. The chart indicates that the economic burden of sui- an observation that would favor the community-based cide fatalities now approaches the economic burden of rather than theological channel. automobile fatalities in the days when the latter’s steep toll The idea that community may be an important factor is catalyzed, for instance, the widespread adoption of the certainly not a new one. Emile Durkheim’s seminal 1897 passenger airbag. monograph Suicide documented that individualism and As Protestantism spread and Catholicism declined in low levels of community involvement could explain why Europe, individuals found themselves increasingly sepa- adherents of certain religious denominations were more rated from the community support mechanisms that could likely to commit suicide than others. Studies that use help sustain them in difficult times. Suicides surged. To - modern data sources and statistics have largely con- day’s coarsening world is having a similar effect on far too firmed this notion. One study of 24 EU countries finds many. Suicide has become an urgent public-health crisis that high levels of social capital decrease suicides asso- with astronomical economic costs. ciated with job loss by 19 percent. Another study exam- ines the possibility of a role for a “sociological channel” in —KEVIN A. HASSETT suicide and finds strong evidence that high levels of social cohesion diminish suicide risk even after one controls for a variety of factors, in cluding the frequency of mental and Suicide and Traffic Fatalities: physical illness. A Tale of Two Burdens Which brings us to today’s America. With religion on the decline and community engagement waning, the century- 120 old literature might suggest that a surge in suicide could Cost of Traffic Fatalities Cost of Suicides be in store for us. Sadly, the data provide chilling confir- 110 mation that the trend is already visible. Americans are bowling alone, and dying alone. 100 The increase in the incidence of suicide observed in recent years is truly astonishing. Suicide data from the 90 Centers for Disease Control and automotive-fatality data

fro m the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 80 show that, in each year since 2009, suicides have killed

more Americans than car accidents. In 2013, fatalities Billions of 2013 Dollars 70 from suicides outnumbered those from car accidents by

25 percent, 41,149 to 32,719. It wasn’t always so: In 1975, 60 fatalities from car accidents outnumbered fatalities from suicides by 64 percent, 44,525 to 27,063. If each of the top 501975 1977 1979 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 ten causes of death in the U.S. continues to grow at the rate it has averaged since 1999, when this surge in suicides

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multiple millions could be in Europe by Christmas. And many n Australia’s conservative prime minister, Tony Abbott, has more are likely to arrive in the years to come. Classicists might been replaced by his multimillionaire communications minis- recall that “crisis” traditionally referred to a turning point, a ter, Malcolm Turnbull, in an internal Liberal-party coup. decisive moment; surely that is what this is for Europe. Turnbull thus becomes the fifth prime minister of Oz since Without decisive action to turn back migrants, Europe will 2009 and the third to get the job as the result of such a coup undergo a demographic transformation that will radically alter (or “spill”). Australia was named coup capital of the world by the social and cultural landscape of the Continent, not to men- the BBC, and commentators started worrying whether Down tion worsen its already bleak finances. Yet European leaders, Under isn’t becoming less stable than Egypt or Iraq. It isn’t, heavily invested in their transnational experiment, seem will- but the coup will have some bad effects all the same. Abbott ing to accept that. There is no reason that the United States had his faults. He disappointed supporters by abandoning should. Difficult as it may be, calls for America to accept large plans to repeal an anti-free-speech provision in Aussie law. He numbers of migrants, especially Syrian refugees, should be lost the surefooted leadership touch he had shown as opposi- rebuffed. The United States can offer aid to refugee camps, tion leader, and he committed a series of trivial gaffes that but it should not follow Europe’s self-destructive course. weakened him in the public mind. But he got the big things right: He “stopped the boats” bringing migrants to Australia, n The British national anthem has a line hoping that the mon - and in doing so he saved thousands of lives. He negotiated arch is “long to reign over us.” It has come to pass. Queen free-trade agreements with Japan, South Korea, and China. Eliza beth II came to the throne in 1952. Sixty-three years later And he managed to keep employment growing when Aus tral - (to be very specific about it, 23,226 days, 16 hours, and ap - ia’s terms of trade were heading south with the fall in com- proxi mately 30 minutes modity prices. Turnbull has his virtues: He has conservative later) she overtook her instincts on economic policy and a sterling record in business. great-great-grandmother But he’s pretty much a limousine liberal on most other issues. Queen Victoria as Britain’s The campaign of sniping and leaks his allies conducted longest-reigning monarch. against Abbott succeeded by 55 to 45 votes in the parliamen- Her marriage to Prince tary caucus, but it left a bitter aftertaste. Liberal rank-and-file Philip has lasted 67 years, members have been bombarding party headquarters with mes- even longer. They have em - sages of anger, shame, and rejection, by margins of 95 to 5 bodied the claim made long percent. Turnbull will now try to mend fences with Abbott ago by Walter Bagehot that loyalists by promising to stick with most of his policies. He’s monarchy has to be digni- helped by Abbott’s discouraging any talk of revenge. Even so, fied and efficient. From Australian Liberals might be divided by these events for Win ston Churchill onward, almost as long as the British Tories were by the defenestration the queen has known twelve of Thatcher. prime ministers, all of whom speak of her wisdom and n The leader of the political opposition in Venezuela is Leo - the example she sets of ser- pol do López. He has been a prisoner of his country’s chavista vice to the public. She government since February 2014. He has now been sen- gives no in ter views, so her tenced to 13 years and 9 months, after the kind of trial they solemn expression at grand used to have in the Soviet Union, and still do in Cuba and ceremonial oc ca sions and China. Ex tend ing his arms to the bailiff who would shackle her smile when a horse of him, López said, “These handcuffs will be removed by the hers wins a race are the only available evidence of an inner self Venezuelan people.” López is one of the most inspiring people that seems as constant as it is admirable. in the democratic world. Even as a political prisoner, he is ener- getic and unbowed. His motto is, “El que se cansa, pierde,” or n The British Labour party lost the last election to the Con ser - “He who tires, loses.” If only the thugs who run his country va tives because its policies were too socialist for the electorate. would tire. About 5 million Labour voters have defected. So the party had the bright idea of letting anyone join it and vote for its leader for n A Chilean legislator and former government minister a fee of just three pounds. This loose arrangement may help named Felipe Kast went to Havana, to spend some time with explain how the half-million members chose Jeremy Corbyn. A relatives who live there. While in Havana, he walked with the 66-year-old backbencher in Parliament, he stands for yester- Ladies in White, the human-rights group. He explained, “The day’s vision of revolutionary socialism. His program involves Ladies in White have spent a long time suffering violent ar - nationalization of banks and services, avoiding austerity by rests simply for demonstrating peacefully in favor of human printing money, raising taxes, abandoning the British nuclear rights in Cuba. On my visit to Cuba, the least I could do was deterrent and NATO, and, in time, scrapping the monarchy and accompany them on their Sunday walk.” Along with the rest GETTY IMAGES

/ private education. An experienced agitator, he is chairman of of them, Kast was beaten and arrested by the Castros’ security the Stop the War Coalition, a Campaign for Nuclear Dis - forces. (They didn’t know who he was.) A democrat who lives INDIGO / armament stalwart, and a friend of Hamas and Hezbollah. Ten in a free country, Kast demonstrated his solidarity with demo - shadow-cabinet ministers immediately resigned. Let’s hope crats who live in an unfree country. This is a marked contrast MAX MUMBY that Labour voters show the same sense. with U.S. lawmakers, such as Jeff Flake and Pat Leahy, who

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go to Cuba to schmooze with the regime, ignoring the people dismissed for saying it to voters. Now a Texas professor has who need our attention and support. included use of the “GBY”-phrase after a sneeze in a list of forbidden “disruptive behaviors.” Defenders protest that he is n Stephen Jay Gould described science and religion as “non- not a proselytizing atheist but merely a fusspot, and the ban overlapping magisteria,” advising the biologists and the phys - is part of a wider rule against talking in class. In any case, stu- i cists to stay in their lane and the priests and the rabbis to stay dents will increasingly be protected from the scourge of hav- in theirs. Lawrence Krauss, physicist, director of the Origins ing God’s blessings sought for them. Project at Arizona State University, and fanatical atheist, ought to have considered that advice; instead, he published a n One of Yale’s residential colleges is named for John C. Cal - boneheaded and error-ridden essay in The New Yorker head- houn, class of 1804. The South Carolinian, who was elected to lined “All Scientists Should Be Militant Atheists.” (Canon Ni - Congress six years after graduating, began his long political co laus Copernicus and Augustinian friar Gregor Mendel may career as a nationalist. Very soon, however, he became a par- have felt differently, to say nothing of Father Georges Le maî tre, tisan of slavery, the South, and disunion (he equated the et al.) In abominating Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis, he three). James Madison, who opposed Calhoun’s efforts to nul- claims that Christians seek license “to break the law,” as lify a tariff in 1832, wrote that he aimed “to create a disgust though the practice of religious accommodation weren’t an with the union, and then to open a way out of it.” Although ancient feature of American law, and argues that the scientific Calhoun died in 1850, his arguments and the considerable spirit of open inquiry is incompatible with religion—as mental energy he poured into them helped assure Con fed er - though there weren’t a library’s worth of evidence to the con- ates that what they were doing was legal and right. The Yale trary. He mischaracterizes Senator Rand Paul as a vessel of administration has urged a campus-wide debate over whether apostolic fervor (Senator Paul is in fact a Presbyterian of mod- to rename the college. That raises the deep question of how erate views who frankly confesses doubts about his faith) and much history should be sanitized. If Yale keeps the name, it suggests that these religious views (which Senator Paul does must keep in mind its son’s legacy: four years of war, three not hold)—rather than the libertarian tendency for which the quarters of a million dead. surname “Paul” serves as a shorthand in American politics— explain the senator’s endorsement of accommodations for n Marching briskly past the point of self-parody, school ad - people in Davis’s situation. As with the hilarious errors of Neil ministrators sent a little girl home with a stern note to her par- deGrasse Tyson and the tiresome politicking of Bill Nye, Pro- ents. They said Laura had brought a dangerous and disturbing fes sor Krauss provides a reminder that expertise is generally object to school in violation of policy: her Wonder Woman non-transferable. lunchbox. “The dress code we have established requests that children not bring violent images into the building in any n Jill Stuart, a British expert on space politics, objects that a fashion,” administrators wrote Laura’s parents. “We have plaque on the Pioneer 10 spacecraft, launched in 1972, sends defined ‘violent characters’ as those that solve problems using the wrong message to prospective space aliens. It features a violence. Superheroes certainly fall into that category.” The line drawing of “a man raising his hand in a ver y manly fash- front of the offending lunchbox contained a close-up image of ion while a woman stands behind him, appearing all meek and the heroine; the reverse side was a classic drawing of Wonder submissive,” Stuart says, according to the Guardian. Her Woman holding her Lasso of Truth. Feminists have spent description is wrong: The woman is standing beside the man, three generations preaching the virtues of strong female role not behind him. As for “weak and submissive,” Stuart is read- models (Wonder Woman graced the cover of the first issue of ing a great deal into the posture of someone who’s just stand- Gloria Steinem’s Ms. magazine), but in 2015 liberal fainting- ing there. In any case, “we really need to rethink . . . any couch sensibilities on violence take precedence. Wonder messages we are sending out now,” she insists. “Attitudes Woman was said to be “as lovely as Aphrodite” and “as wise have changed so much in just 40 years.” If history is any as Athena.” Too bad she didn’t have a Lasso of Good Sense guide, they will have changed 40 years from now, too, and and Proportion. nothing will appear more dated than the present political fash- ion that Stuart exemplifies. n Michael Derrick Hudson, of Fort Wayne, Ind., wrote a poem called “The Bees, the Flowers, Jesus, Ancient Tigers, n In 2011, a California schoolteacher began penalizing stu- Poseidon, Adam and Eve” and sent it to no fewer than 40 pub- dents who used the phrase “God bless you” after someone lications. All of them turned it down. So Hudson changed the sneezed. That teacher was a trendsetter. The next year, Can a - byline from his actual name to “Yi-Fen Chou,” and that did da, ever eager to suppress free speech, banned “Bless you,” the trick. What had sounded like a rambling stream of con- “OMG,” “Thank heavens,” and (for some reason) “Cheers” sciousness became pearls of Oriental wisdom, and Hudson’s from government offices. In true Canadian fashion, a spokes- opus not only was accepted by the prestigious poetry journal man explained: “Though no one has been offended by these Prairie Schooner but was chosen for the 2015 edition of Best phrases yet, the notion that someone could be offended is American Poetry by the highly respected author Sherman something we’re trying to prevent.” Last year, a Tennessee Alexie—at which point Hudson revealed his true identity. high-school senior was suspended for saying “God bless you” Alexie, an American Indian, admitted sheepishly that “I was after her teacher had banned “godly speaking”; a Georgia pro- more amenable to the poem because I thought the author was fessor threatened students who used the phrase with “discipli- Chinese American. . . . I am a brown-skinned poet who gave nary action”; and a New Hampshire election volunteer was a better chance to another supposed brown-skinned poet

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because of our brownness.” And they say modern poetry has rightly pressed this argument with their leaders, and a vote on no rules. the deal under Corker-Cardin was replaced with votes on three resolutions: one—authored by Representative Peter Roskam n Precocious pop warbler Taylor Swift’s video for her new (R., Ill.), who has been stalwart on this question—declaring that song “Wildest Dreams” unfolds on a movie set located on the President Obama violated Corker-Cardin; a second barring African veldt. She and her handsome co-star act, flirt, canoo- President Obama from suspending sanctions against Iran; and a dle, and fight, with a menagerie of charismatic megafauna— third “approving” the Iran deal. The first two resolutions passed giraffes, lions, hippos, etc.—appearing as extras. The whole along party lines; the vote to “approve” was defeated, with 25 production has a 1950s vibe, and this, combined with its lack House Democrats coming out against the deal. of visible black cast members, has inspired predictable com- The Senate, unfortunately, didn’t follow the House’s lead. It plaints that Swift has “romanticized colonialism” (NPR com- tried to hold a vote of disapproval on the deal under Corker- mentator Clutch). Including a few Africans wouldn’t have Cardin, but Democrats blocked it with a filibuster. As we went helped, though; her previous video had black male and female to press, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was pushing to dancers, which got her in trouble for, respectively, “perpetuat- make the Iran deal conditional on Iran’s recognition of Israel ing black stereotypes” (rapper Earl Sweatshirt) and “play[ing] and release of American hostages, a measure that Democrats on the historic, racist mythology about black women’s sexual- would inevitably block, too. None of this has any practical ity” (music critic Jessica Hopper). Shortly before that, when effect in the short term. The president can continue to pursue the black rapper Nicki Minaj whined about not having been his executive agreement, and, barring decisive congressional nominated for a Video Music Award, Swift posted a concilia- action, he has broad statutory discretion to waive sanctions. tory tweet and was furiously slapped down for not condemning But the votes will set the table for continued opposition to the “the hypocrisy of an industry that profits from the commercial- deal. The public is strongly against the deal, and continued isation of parts of African American culture without rewarding congressional opposition will sustain this sentiment. A con- the creators of those trends” (the Guardian’s Tshepo Mo ko e - certed public effort to deny the deal legitimacy will create na). None of this publicity will harm Swift’s sales, but it’s clear uncertainty abroad, and perhaps discourage foreign nations that everything she creates can now be called racist, by either from doing business with Iran. It will also suggest to Israel omission or commission. and the Gulf Arab states that, while the Obama administration has embraced a policy of surrender, that policy could change IRAN when it ends. Diminished legitimacy in the eyes of foreign Defusing the Deal nations will make it easier for a Republican president to dis- mantle the agreement. HE president has failed to comply with the terms of the Republicans cannot stop President Obama from making a Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015, co- non-binding executive agreement with Iran, and they cannot T authored by Senators Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) and Ben stop other nations from taking harmful steps in reliance on it. Cardin (D., Md.), and Congress should express the strongest But they can make it clear that the current administration owns possible disapproval—of the president’s deal, and of the law- it, and that, should a Republican win the White House, it will lessness that has accompanied it. not survive past January 19, 2017. Under the Corker-Cardin legislation, the administration was responsible for submitting to Congress the entire Iran deal, “including annexes, appendices, codicils, side agreements . . . and any related agreements,” within five days of the finalized agreement. That July 19 deadline is long past, and news of secret side deals be tween Iran and the Inter - national Atomic Energy Agency continues to emerge. The administration has tried to argue that these agreements are immateri- al. This claim is irrelevant—the statute still requires disclosure—and false. Reports make clear that these deals pertain directly to the enforcement-and-inspection regime

AP IMAGES that is the heart of the deal. The administra- / DPA

/ tion refuses to release the full text of the agreement simply because its terms would ALLIANCE - prove embarrassing. The president has disregarded the terms PICTURE / of the law he signed, and Congress should not abide by those terms of Corker-Cardin RON SACHS as if he had. Republicans in the House Senators Bob Corker and Ben Cardin

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against police officers is attributable to the rhetoric associated with Black Lives Matter and the broader protest movement that grew up after the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., is unclear. Those who are less inclined to sympathize with law-enforcement complaints in these matters note that overall police shoot- ings are in fact lower this year, by about 15 percent, than they were last year. The leading cause of on-the-job death for police officers in 2015 is the same as it has been for all of recent history: automobile accidents. Most officers who die in shoot- ings are not killed in ambushes by out-of- nowhere assassins; generally, they are killed in the sort of situation where police deaths, while horrific, are not unexpected. So ambush murders of the kind that claimed the life of Deputy Goforth are not, strictly speaking, a statistically large No War on Cops, problem. But if frequency is to be our sorting metric, then we will have to have a very different conversation about fire - We face Noinstead a Warset of conventional, on intractableBlacks systemic failures arms and violent crimes: Mass shootings on the Newtown model constitute a van- BY KEVIN D. WILLIAMSON ishingly small share of U.S. homicides; all deaths involving rifles (never mind .S. police officers complain States—more than 90 percent in one sur- those super-scary “assault rifles” we hear that they are under siege: In vey, undertaken by the New York Times, about in the news) account for about 3 U Las Vegas, four officers were of New York City crime—have prior percent of homicides, according to FBI shot in less than two months; criminal records. The link between vio- data. In fact, the shooting of Las Vegas Darren H. Goforth, a sheriff’s deputy, was lent crime and mental illness is well docu - Metro police officer Jeremy Robertson— gunned down at a gas station in Harris mented; a 2014 report commissioned by also an ambush, but, thankfully, non- County, Texas, while pumping gas; Lieu - Representative Tim Murphy (R., Pa.), fatal—is remarkable because the news tenant Joe Gliniewicz—the Army veteran who is a psychologist by training, esti- reports trumpeting the use of “an AK-47 was “G. I. Joe” to his friends—was mur- mates that 40 percent of Americans with assault rifle” in the crime were, for a dered in Fox Lake, Ill., after radioing in a serious mental illness receive no treat- change, almost correct: The bullet that report of three suspicious-looking men. ment, and that those who do not receive struck Officer Robertson in the thigh At a press conference following the treatment are 15 times more likely to came from an SKS semiautomatic car- murder of Deputy Goforth, Harris commit violent crimes. Often these are bine, a civilian variant of the notorious County sheriff Ron Hickman linked the the ordinary crimes that do not make the fully automatic Avtomat Kalashnikova, shoot ing to “dangerous national rhetoric.” front pages, but sometimes they are which was standard issue to Warsaw Pact “We’ve heard ‘black lives matter,’” he criminal spectaculars: Mental illness was militaries. (It is a convention of American said. “Well, cops’ lives matter, too.” He a factor in the carnage in Newtown, Conn., journalism that any scary-looking rifle is called the killing “senseless” and an act of Aurora, Colo., Tucson, Ariz. (where Repre - either an AK-47 or an AR-15 until re- “absolute madness.” sentative Gabby Giffords was shot), the porters are informed otherwise, and they About the madness, he very well may Washington Navy Yard, and the 2014 often require informing more than once.) be correct: It will come as no surprise to shootings at Fort Hood, Texas (not to be Two men have been arrested and charged those familiar with the facts of American confused with the 2009 act of “workplace in that crime; Clark County sheriff Joe murder that the suspect in the killing, violence” at the same facility by jihadist Lombardo is skeptical that anti-police Shannon J. Miles, had a history of violent Nidal Malik Hasan, whose military port- rhetoric is a factor here, saying: “Is this a crime, including violent crimes involving folio was mental health). We have danger- ‘war on cops’? I don’t believe so.” firearms, or that he had been declared ous criminals walking the streets for the Twenty-eight American police officers mentally incompetent to stand trial on same reason that we have people with seri- have died by shooting so far this year, charges of aggravated assault with a ous mental illnesses walking the streets: though two of those deaths were training GETTY IMAGES

/ deadly weapon in 2012 after a fight over because we, through our policymakers, accidents. According to the National Law the television remote control at an Austin choose for this to be so. Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, homeless shelter. The great majority of Whether there is anything to Sheriff 117 police officers were killed in the line DAVID MCNEW the identified murderers in the United Hickman’s supposition that violence of duty in 2014, the largest portion in car

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wrecks. By way of comparison, in 1974, Much of the rhetoric associated with They were more interested in the loot- there were 280 police officers killed on Black Lives Matter is deeply stupid, ing and burning that followed. What the job; in 1930, when the U.S. population infantile, and distasteful. Only hours happened in Ferguson was more like a was less than half of what it is today, more after the murder of Deputy Goforth, shopping spree.” than 300 policemen died on duty. For anti-police protesters at the Minnesota The evidence suggests that he has the most of the 1980s, the annual figure State Fair (where else?) were chanting better part of the argument. The genesis hovered around 200 deaths per year, and “Pigs in a blanket, fry ’em like bacon!” of Black Lives Matter, the Michael the decline since then is of a piece with That will not soon be forgotten. Not by Brown case, was poorly handled by the the general decline in U.S. crime since the police, to be sure, but not by the gen- local officials in Ferguson: There isn’t Charles Bronson was dispensing rough eral public, either. much that Ferguson’s officials do not Reagan-era cinematic justice in Death “It’s coming out like it did back in the handle poorly, and the prior abuses of the Wish 4: The Crackdown. 1960s [and ’70s], with the Black Libera- Ferguson police department—the profit- For the Left, there is a prominent move- tion Army, Patty Hearst, and all that, oriented policing that led to such actions ment afoot to criminalize politics: Robert when the police were daily targets across as issuing a half dozen failure-to-appear F. Kennedy Jr. and Adam Weinstein, late the country,” says Keith Bettinger, who warrants, with associated fines, to a of Gawker, have argued that Americans served a full career as a patrol officer, homeless woman—probably made it eas- who have the wrong opinions on global crime-prevention specialist, and state ier to believe the worst. But every serious warming should be prosecuted; Rick trooper in Suffolk County, N.Y., on the investigation into the Brown matter, Perry remains under indictment in Texas eastern end of Long Island, and is now including the one conducted by Barack for the purported crime of having vetoed retired in Las Vegas. He points to the Obama’s Justice Department, failed to a spending bill; the sorry saga of Tom police-death rates of the 1960s and find any wrongdoing by Officer Darren DeLay, persecuted for years by the same 1970s, and he fears that we could be Wilson, much less the cold-blooded exe-

Just as ambush attacks on unsuspecting law-enforcement officers loom much larger in the imagination than in reality, so, too, do episodes of unjustified force perpetrated by police.

office that is going after Perry until the headed back toward those numbers. cution of the innocent young black man case was scoffed out of court, is illustra- “‘Pigs in a blanket, make them fry’— (who had just assaulted a convenience- tive. But there also is a tendency to that’s worse than in the Sixties,” he says. store clerk in the course of robbing the pseudocriminalize political disputes, and Perhaps, but those old wounds linger. place) of “hands up, don’t shoot” lore. the Right is not entirely immune to this: He mentions the 1971 case of Joseph There are, of course, bad police officers, While progressives gleefully deployed Piagentini and Waverly Jones, two and bad police shootings. But just as the Charleston church shooter’s fond- NYPD patrolmen who were lured into a ambush attacks on unsuspecting law- ness for Confederate iconography in an Harlem housing project and murdered by enforcement officers loom much larger attempt to wrong-foot southern conserva- members of the Black Liberation Army. in the imagination than in reality, so, too, tives, some conservatives matched them One of the killers, Herman Bell, came up do episodes of unjustified force perpe- in dishonor by gloating over the fact for parole in 2014, and the hearings were trated by police. that the disgruntled and depraved former very emotional affairs, with the victims’ In Harris County, Texas, some 11,000 reporter who killed two Virginia televi- families divided about releasing him people attended Deputy Goforth’s funeral, sion journalists during a live broad cast after 35 years; Bell, who was convicted including police officers from across the was a progressive who had been disci- in 1979 but refused to confess to the country. The outpouring of grief was re - plined for wearing an Obama badge on crime until 2010, was denied parole. The markable. Elsewhere, shootings have pro- camera. Daily Kos founder Markos Fraternal Order of Police blames the duced practical measures: In Las Vegas, Moulitsas made an (even bigger) ass of Black Liberation Army for at least 13 police have been assigned to two-man himself when he claimed that a man police murders. cruiser teams rather than sent out alone. recently indicted in a terrorism case had We are not in the Sixties anymore, but Similarly, episodes of excessive police been a Breitbart contributor; he hadn’t, the epithet “pigs” lives on, as does the force (documented or suspected) have though he had been a diarist at the Daily hatred it expresses. While there may not resulted in a new push for police body Kos. Elected Democrats tried very hard to be persuasive evidence linking anti- cameras and other surveillance measures blame Sarah Palin for the shooting of police rhetoric to any particular act of intended to reduce reliance upon guess- Representative Giffords, and we were violence, Bettinger believes that the work and unsupported testimony in eval- treated to another one of those insuffer- current protest movement is at the very uating police shootings. able “national conversations,” this one on least irresponsible. “They’re protest- All of this speaks to a serious chal- civility in political discourse, which lasted ing things they don’t know anything lenge in American self-government: until it was time to call Republicans Nazis about. In Ferguson, people were not the inability of civic culture in decline and slave masters again. interested in the truth of the matter. to engage in the task, necessary in a

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democratic republic, of sober evalua- stop is only slightly less mundane, but it tion. That requires many old-fashioned presents some of the greatest dangers a civic virtues on the brink of extinction, police officer can encounter. prudence and public honesty leading the The Cop in Bear in mind that the officer who pulls list. Police departments, like any other you over for a minor traffic violation has government agency, certainly should be The Stop no idea that you are ordinarily a law- subject to the maximum feasible Enforcing traffic laws is abiding citizen who happens to be in a amount of monitoring and oversight. dangerous work hurry to get somewhere. Prior to pulling Does anybody think that the Black you over, he may have had a chance to Lives Matter crowd is equipped to pro- check your license number for registra- vide that? Does anybody believe that BY JACK DUNPHY tion information and to see whether your the authorities in Ferguson—or in New car has been reported stolen, but even if York City—are honest? In the Fergu - OU’RE driving along and a bit such a check revealed no cause for con- son case, witnesses were caught lying late for work, or to get the cern, he still knows nothing about you. As left and right: “Wit ness 35,” from whom Y kids to school, or to some he steps from his car and approaches you, investigators heard that Officer Wilson other pressing engagement. he must at least briefly entertain the remote shot Brown in the head at point-blank The speed limit is 35, but you know that, possibility that you will pull a gun and try range while Brown was on his knees, on this stretch of road, everyone drives 40 to shoot him. You may therefore note that admitted to making up his testimony; or even 45 without fear of consequence. his demeanor at first seems brusque, or “Witness 40,” who told a story more Such is your haste that you press the that he seems unduly alarmed if you fail to amenable to the police, turned out not accelerator, and with it your luck, until the follow his instructions as quickly and as to have been there, to have gathered her speedometer hits 50. You check the clock precisely as he would wish. To put it in knowledge of the scene from news on the dash and are gladdened to know terms currently fashionable, his life mat- reports, and to have opined on Face- that, if the traffic signals break your way, ters, and he must behave accordingly. book on the day of Brown’s murder that you’ll make it to your destination on time. Yes, most traffic stops are for minor “they need to kill f***ing n*****s. It is And then there it is behind you: the violations, but violent felons can and often like an ape fest.” We have seen deeply police car, its red and blue lights ablaze. do also violate traffic laws. When I was a entrenched criminality in the NYPD The hope you felt only a moment ago has young and very green member of the Los and the LAPD over the years, and in been dashed, instantly supplanted by what Angeles Police Department, I saw a car dozens of smaller jurisdictions, too; an appellate court in California once run a stop sign. The driver pulled to the and on the other side, we have despica- described as “the sinking feeling a driver curb immediately, and I assumed he had ble, lying opportunists such as the experiences upon seeing police lights in seen me behind him and realized he was Reverend Al Sharpton. the rear-view mirror.” Yes, you are sunk. about to be stopped. Both the driver and a The reality is that there is no open sea- You pull to the curb to await your fate. male passenger got out of the car unbid- son on young black men (relative to Most drivers have had such an experi- den, and soon I realized they were trying their rate of involvement in violent ence, and we are grateful when it’s some- to encircle me as if preparing to attack. I crime, they are shot by police less fre- one else stopped on the side of the road, for unholstered my handgun and ordered quently than white men are), and there is we know the unease felt by that unfortu- them both to lie on the ground. They com- no Ferguson-inspired war on police—at nate motorist as he sits forlornly in his car, plied, and when backup officers arrived I least, there is no convincing evidence perhaps calculating the costs soon to be discovered that the car had been stolen. I that either thing exists. What we have is paid, and waits for the officer to complete was lucky. Only a year earlier, an LAPD a much less politically sexy and much the traffic citation. “There but for the grace motorcycle officer named Paul Verna had more intractable problem: massive na - of God,” we think as we drive past, “go I.” stopped a car for what he must have tion wide institutional failures. In the It’s easy to empathize with a driver thought would be an uneventful traffic sphere of government, it’s the failure to who has been caught speeding or running citation. The people in the car turned out sufficiently monitor violent criminals al- a stop sign. It is much harder for most to be armed robbery suspects. They shot ready known to authorities and to orga- people to imagine what goes through a and killed Officer Verna. nize treatment for those with dangerous police officer’s head as he walks up to Traffic stops can be categorized into mental illnesses. In the political sphere, that driver’s window. Recent events have three basic types. The first and most com- it’s the failure to develop a responsible served to underscore the dangers police mon is the “routine” stop, in which an critique and understanding of excessive officers face in America: Nine have been officer witnesses a traffic violation, pulls police force, along with related issues shot to death just since August 1, includ- the car over, and, after satisfying himself such as police militarization and police ing one, Deputy Darren Goforth of the that the occupants are not a threat, issues corruption. Instead, we’re having a Harris County, Texas, sheriff’s depart- a citation, with all involved parting ways national pageant of finger-pointing over ment, who was killed execution-style civilly if not always amicably. But it is unusual and unrepresentative cases. while engaged in the mundane task of only in retrospect, when the stop has con- In the case of Black Lives Matter vs. putting gas in his patrol car. The traffic cluded without incident, that it can be the police, there has been a great deal of labeled “routine.” guilt-by-association. But there is plenty “Jack Dunphy” is the pseudonym of a police officer in The second type is sometimes de - of ordinary guilt to go around. southern California. scribed as a “redirected” traffic stop.

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LUBA MYTS fes, vdne f hc te officer the which of evidence offense, the occupants can expect to be ordered out hopes to discover. In this scenario as well, rant, perhaps searched. stop, in which a traffic violation serves as of the car and, if the circumstancestheand,ifcar the of war- whose car a stopping for justification occupants are suspected of some other some of suspected are occupants exit a carexitwithouta someminimal levelof does not require an explanation or justifi- justification? Yes,he may, just as he may Such a stop begins when an officer wit- an officer when begins a stop Such cation.YouTube aboundsvideoswithof the pulls and violation traffic a nesses be searched. be nized the hazards attendant to traffic stops, order a car’s occupants to stay inside if he people arguing with police officerspolicewhoarguingwithpeople with contact making upon but over, car havestopped them.have Iyet seeto one in and series of other cases, it has ruled that anruledthathasothercases, itseries of that something he detects the occupants chooses. The Supreme Court has recog-hasSupremeCourtchooses. The officerstopping carmaydirecta thedri- exam- For afoot. is more there suggests in which the officer says, “Gee, I guess I “Gee,officersays, the which in insid remain to or exit to passengers and ver may see a weapon or detect the telltale the detect or weapon a see may a or driver the recognize may he ple, asne a a atd uiie o he or fugitive, wanted a as passenger from t from the occupants will most often be ordered odor of mari juana. In this scenario, all of But may a may But The third type is the “pretext” traffic“pretext” the is type third The e atehis discretion. Such commanda he car, and they and the car will car the and they and car, he Marylandv.Wilson n officer order someone to someoneorderofficer n (1997) and a (1997)and been arrestedbeenthreeearlierdays during a his authority with some discretionsomeauthoritywith his and sense of proportion, of course, and course, proportion,of of sense and his argument to the courtroom, where even a in dead found was 28, Bland, Sandra for failing to signal a lane change. When trafficstopthatescalated physical intoa after cell, jail Texas, County, Waller bad drivers sometimes get a break. whatmay be technically legal in agiven struggle with police officers. Police dash- had apparentlycommittingShesuicide. Bland refused, the officer ordered her to situation is not necessarily advisable. But exit the car.thedo,exit refusedtoalso she This you’re right,” and goes on his way. a motorist who objects to being orderedbeingmotoristobjectstowhoa camera footage showed that the stop had stops have come under public scrutiny of at which point she was forcefully re re - forcefully was she point which at fromcar,hissomeotherto perceived or been routine up until the officer asked officer the until up routine been moved from the car and arrested.Thereand car the frommoved ae wt oe niet n particular in incident one with late, rwn mc att much drawing is much to debate in the way the officertheway the debatein tomuch is shouldresisttemptationthe argue tothe stop,traffic a duringmisconductpolice ade te iuto, u tee s no is there but situation, the handled case at the side of the road, where he has no chance of winning. He should instead t question that he acted legally in ordering signing the warning he was he before warning the signing cigarette her out put to Bland Bland to get out of the car. The tactics police use during traffic during use police tactics The A police officer is obligated to exercis nin O Jl 13, July On ention. issuing her issuing ake e a Jay andhisoutstandingbook: Here’s praisefromoutstandinghistoriansfor ful, andmakeforahellofgoodread. other questionsareengaging,witty, insight- hole? JayNordlinger’s answerstotheseand Or atin-horndictatorfroman African hell- I o n A J r and elegance and accuracyofknowledgewithclarity offers auniquecombinationofdepth BERNARD LEWIS: than JayNordlinger.” the world’s cultures,andnone moreso writers arewellqualifiedtowriteabout The lateROBERT CONQUEST: gent writers.” one of America’s mostversatileandpun- PAUL JOHNSON: e investigation intothechildrenof20mod- tyrant? .JayNordlinger’s exceptional beloved fatherwasalsoablood-stained What wouldwedoifrealizedthatour nary bookmakesusallaskofourselves: ANDREW ROBERTS: “Thisextraordi- love, loyalty, history, andhumannature.” important anddisturbingquestionsabout Nordlinger unearthsflowtogethertopose d turner thatnonethelessiscomplexand MARK HELPRIN: A ead sophisticationwithoutaffectation.” A d rn dictatorsgripsandconvinces.” f eep. The fascinatingandhorrific details n C The offspring ofa.Stalin? OrMao? to bethesonordaughterofadictator? t’s afascinatingquestion: What’s itlike L D M Y M I O O A H n N R a C q Z u D A u g O O O I E L i h ofstyle.Itisapleasureto N r R B R L t y e O N T i D O r D n s R O O “Jay Nordlingeris L “A magneticpage- o S t “Nordlinger A D o K I R f t N T A S D T T h Y Y G E e E O i A c O E S R t N T R U a R o “Few E

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the Crimea—have arrived in Syria and his country’s most important foreign reportedly entered combat operations military presence in 40 years. against Syrian rebels. Russia has taken full advantage of Pax This dramatic escalation of Russian American weakness from the start. involvement has been overshadowed by When President Obama failed to en- Putinica the Syrian-refugee crisis now engulfing force his declaration that Assad’s use of Russia aims to become the Europe. But these two developments chemical weapons would cross a “red Middle East’s power broker stem from the same source: President line,” Putin proposed a deal in which Obama’s feckless and disastrous policy Assad would dispose of his chemical- toward Syria. Obama’s willingness to weapon stockpile under Russian super- BY ARTHUR HERMAN let Vladimir Putin deal with Assad’s vision. With almost indecent relief, arsenal of chemical weapons has trig- Obama seized on the proposal, despite S a staging ground for great- gered a major shift in the balance of the virtual certainty that its terms would power rivalries, the Syrian power in the Middle East, away from never be implemented—as indeed they A civil war bears a startling the United States and toward Russia— were not. similarity to the Spanish civil and Assad’s other active ally, Iran. Then, in September 2014, Putin threat- war that broke out nearly 80 years ago, Iranian volunteers have been fight- ened direct military intervention in in 1936—the three-year conflict that ing alongside Assad’s forces since con- Syria if the U.S. and NATO aided anti- set the stage for World War II. flict broke out in 2011. Tehran has Assad rebels, particularly the Free Syr - Now as then, ruthless authoritarian armed and trained an estimated 50,000 ian Army, by conducting air strikes against powers (Nazi Germany and Fascist militiamen in Syria, including Iranian the Islamic State. Obama immediately Italy in Spain; Russia and Iran in Syria) are flexing regional muscle by helping a fellow dictator wage war on a help- America’s passive response to Russian less civilian population, even aiding in the destruction of entire cities—Aleppo involvement in Syria has been and Homs are new Guernicas. Now as then, Western powers, in - astonishing but typical. cluding the United States, are doing nothing, preferring a policy of non- “volunteers,” and is reportedly prepar- backed away—and now Putin has inter- intervention—or, in America’s case, ing to send an additional 50,000 troops vened anyway. deliberate retreat—that borders on out- to bolster Assad’s force (about the Putin surely suspects that, despite right cowardice. number of Italian troops Mussolini Kerry’s protest, news of the Russian And now as then, the Western democ- maintained in Spain during its civil facilities at Latakia will be secretly racies are reaping the whirlwind for war). In addition, Tehran has shipped greeted at the White House with relief their weakness. For the nations of Assad missiles and other weapons, while rather than dismay. As if to confirm Europe, it’s the refugee crisis now pour- using Syria as a conduit by which to arm those suspicions, White House press ing across their borders. For the United its terrorist allies, Hezbollah and Hamas, secretary Josh Earnest commented on States, it is the demise of the Pax in Leba non and Gaza. In fact, Iran’s Russia’s increased involvement in Americana in the Middle East, which will military support of Assad has been its Syria this way: “We would welcome be steadily replaced by a Pax Putinica, springboard for expanding its influence constructive Russian contributions to starting in Syria. in the region. Now Russia is pursuing a our anti-ISIL campaign”—reflecting Satellite images released in early similar policy. once again the triumph of hope over September confirm that Russia has been America’s passive response to Rus - experience in this administration’s conducting military-transport flights sian involvement has been astonishing dealings with Putin. Meanwhile, apolo- into Syria, as well as constructing a for- but typical. Secretary of State John Kerry gists for Obama’s Middle East policies ward air base with an air-traffic-control has called the Russian foreign minister will no doubt hail direct Russian mili- station, an asphalt runway, and mobile and asked him to “stop arming and tary intervention not as a failure of housing units for Russian troops near assisting and supporting Bashar al- Obama policy, but as a masterly sleight the coastal city of Latakia. All these add Assad.” It’s a request the Russians will of hand by which the White House up to a permanent Russian facility for no doubt ignore. They took stock of the cleverly manipulated Moscow into sustained air operations in support of Obama administration long ago; they using Russian troops to end the civil Bashar Assad’s embattled government, have presumably read in American news - war and stem the flow of refugees to operations that could complicate Ameri - papers that unnamed White House offi- the West. can efforts to use the same airspace to cials largely concede that the Syrian The Russians will happily concur carry out strikes against the Islamic rebels will lose and that Assad is there with this rosy analysis. They are already State. Meanwhile, Russian troops— to stay. presenting Putin’s intervention as a dec- from the elite 810th Marine Brigade, So Putin will continue to use the cri- laration of war against the Islamic which supplied many of the “little green sis, and Russia’s growing naval facility State—Putin is calling for a new “inter- men” for Vladimir Putin’s takeover of at Tartus on Syria’s coast, to establish national coalition against terrorism and

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extremism,” led from Moscow rather the bulwark against Bolshevism—may stop. They will soon realize that Russia, than Washington or Brussels—and as a appeal to Europeans, but it is largely a not the U.S., is now the great power humanitarian campaign to end the refu - fraud. What Putin is actually pulling off with which to cultivate good relations. gee crisis. This latter is a selling point is the biggest shift in the balance of Some know it already: Israel has been bound to attract the support of European power in the Middle East since the careful not to denounce Russia’s take - leaders. It is probably one reason that 1973 Yom Kippur War. As Obama pulls over of the Crimea or its ongoing Greece has agreed to allow Russian- up U.S. stakes in the region, Putin is covert war against Ukraine. The Gulf military overflights, despite U.S. pro - positioning himself to make sure we states will also look to Russia for arms tests, and that British foreign secretary don’t return. with which to confront the growing Philip Hammond has admitted that any Consider, for example, how a perma- Iranian menace (Egypt has already solution of the Syrian conflict “is going nent Russian military presence in Syria begun those negotiations). Putin has set to have to be a decision made by the will affect Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and himself up to be the region’s power bro- sponsors of the key players in Syria, and Saudi Arabia—allies Obama has ignored ker, able to manage both Iran’s ambi- in particular Iran and Russia.” or abandoned over the last six years— tions to expand its Shia empire and the Putin’s presentation of Russia as the not to mention Turkey, on whose door - desire of Israel and the Sunni states to new bulwark against the Islamic State— step the civil war and the struggle against maintain the status quo. like Hitler’s presentation of Germany as the Islamic State have been raging non- Nor will Russia’s new strategic pres- ence in the eastern Mediterranean, both at sea and on the ground, hurt Putin’s standing in Europe. Putin enjoys signif- icant leverage over both Western and Eastern Europe through his control of the spigot of Russian natural gas; he will now control, as well, the spigot of west- bound refugees leaving Syria. Some will argue that these predic- tions are implausibly gloomy. Wishful thinkers will insist that Russian interven- tion in Syria in 2015 looks less like Nazi Germany in Spain than like the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in 1979—in other words, the start of another Middle East quagmire for Russia. In Afghani stan, however, the Russians were trying to im pose a puppet regime; in Syria, their puppet is already in power. More impor- tant, Afghanistan be came a quagmire for Russia because the U.S. steadily sup- plied arms and aid to the Afghan rebels. There is no sign that anyone, much less any presidential candidate, has the stom- ach for a similar proxy war today. The link between Osama bin Laden and the Soviets’ Afghan adventure makes such a proposal politically fraught. In the Middle East at present, Vladimir Putin appears to have a free hand—and he will use it. He knows that securing Bashar Assad in power would consti- tute a formidable show of strength to the Middle East and to Europe, and would help tip the balance of power in his favor. Because of President Obama’s disas- trous foreign policy, the Pax Americana is yielding to the Pax Putinica, and Putin’s intervention in the Syrian civil war is likely to prove even more harm- ful to peace and freedom than Hitler’s

ROMAN GENN in Spain.

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Fragmenting the budget would run would probably not have survived this counter to a theory that many congres- long: At some point there would have sional conservatives have implicitly been a House or Senate majority unwill- Break Up accepted in recent year s. They assumed ing to pass legislation funding it or a that tying together as many items in the president unwilling to sign that legisla- The Budget budget as possible would give them lever- tion. But Congress doesn’t make an Learning from age over a liberal president. Congress affirmative decision specifically on the Republican mistakes could pass a bill to fund the government NEA: It includes the money in bills but attach a provision denying all money funding the Interior Department. There to Obamacare, and President Obama has never been a majority in either house BY RAMESH PONNURU would have to relent to keep the govern- of Congress willing to shut down the ment running. Or Congress could pass a department over the program—and it is EPUBLICANS are once again bill to fund the Department of Homeland impossible to kill the program through contemplating a defeat on the Security but deny funds for Obama’s that bill unless the House, the Senate, R budget followed by recrimina- immigration order, and he would have and the presidency are all controlled by tions. This season the defeat to relent to keep the department running. opponents of it or people willing to give will concern Planned Parenthood: Some One lesson of these fights is that this in to them. Republicans think that they should take a theory is wrong: Tying all of this spending There is, however, a practical force stand against federal funding for the orga- together doesn’t increase congressional working toward agglomerating many nization in the bill to keep the government conservatives’ control over any of it. It spending decisions into one bill. In recent funded at the start of the new fiscal year; the top-ranking Republicans in Congress think they are sure to lose that fight and so We should expect conservatives to fare don’t want to start it. But before Planned Parenthood, there better, on average, with many small was the standoff in the spring over funding budget bills than with a few big ones. the Department of Homeland Security. Republicans wanted to deny funding for reduces that control. During the immigra- years, especially, Congress has often the implementation of President Obama’s tion fight, the Obama administration’s failed to pass the appropriations bills on unilateral amnesty for millions of illegal most frequently made argument, which time and has had to pass “continuing res- immigrants. And before that, in late 2013, suggests it was also its most effective olutions,” or CRs, to keep funding many was the struggle to defund Obamacare, argu ment, was that holding up the De - of the operations of the government after which resulted in a partial shutdown of partment of Homeland Security’s budget the old appropriations or CRs expired. the federal government. In both episodes, endangered the war on terrorism. But that practice too ought to change. Republicans were divided and defeated. Republicans would have been better off Congress should enact an “automatic One group of Republicans blames if they had been able to advance two bills: CR,” as Heritage Foundation president the party’s leaders for being too timo- one funding the department except for the Jim DeMint proposed when he was a rous to fight these battles through to the immigration services, and the other fund- senator, along with Representative Jeb end; another blames conservative back- ing the immigration services but prohibit- Hensarling of Texas. They called it the benchers for starting unwinnable fights. ing them from implementing the disputed “Government Shutdown Prevention Act.” Both groups should turn their minds to Obama orders. The administration would It stipulated that when Congress failed to the possibility that the way Congress have been hard pressed to object to the enact spending bills in time for the new considers spending legislation stacks first bill, and could not have scared the fiscal year, the affected agencies would be the deck against conservative victories. public quite as easily about the second. able to keep spending either at the previ- While reform of that process might not Indeed, Republicans’ conduct during ous year’s level, at the level the House had be as exciting as factional infighting, and these showdowns has shown that they provided for if it had passed a spending cannot substitute for either intelligence or occasionally grasp the utility of splitting bill, or at the level the Senate had provid- courage among politicians, it might help. up the budget. During the shutdown in ed for if it had, whichever was the lowest. Congressional Republicans could, for October 2013, Republicans at one point With such a law in place, there would example, break up the budget—or at moved bills to fund portions of the gov- be very little pressure to rush through least the portion of the budget that is ernment unrelated to health care. They massive budget bills. Liberal congress- subject to yearly congressional funding understood that they were not giving up men and presidents, it is true, would be decisions—into many smaller pieces. leverage but taking some away from able to resist bills with spending cuts or Con gress currently divides the budget the Democrats. conservative reforms, secure in the know - into twelve large bills, with each subcom- We should expect conservatives to ledge that programs would still be funded. mittee of the House and Senate appropri- fare better, on average, with many small But liberals would have to give up on ations committees responsible for one. It budget bills than with a few big ones. If funding increases if they took that course. could, however, fund the different depart - the National Endowment for the Arts re - Conservative congressmen and presi- ments of the federal government in quired congressional action and a presi- dents, meanwhile, would also have secu- dozens of smaller bills, and it should. dential signature to fund it every year, it rity against liberal policy changes, and the

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history of shutdowns suggests that con- the day, the platoon did not reach its servatives have more to gain from taking objective and had to be pulled from the shutdowns off the table. line for rest, recuperation, and replace- A small-is-beautiful approach to Social Justice ments. Its morale is reportedly shattered, budget bills and an end to shutdowns with a number of soldiers feeling that not would not, however, be a panacea. The At War everyone in the platoon “pulled their De part ment of Homeland Security and Ignoring differences between weight” and others traumatized by their the immigration service within it are the sexes will cost lives perceived failure. The media, however, largely “self-funded,” that is, funded are using this engagement to celebrate the through fees that they charge rather BY DAVID FRENCH bravery of the female soldiers—bravery than from congressional appropria- no one doubts—while ignoring the actual tions. Even if Con gress fails to pass the battlefield results. annual bill funding them, they can ALLUJAH, May 17, 2018—The keep going. Obama care is largely out- results of the classified investi- That fictional report, imagined from a side the appropriations process, too. F gation into the first extended future fight in the Middle East against Planned Parent hood gets some of its ground-combat engagement by skilled and ruthless jihadist enemies, federal money from Title X, which is a mixed-gender infantry platoon were could well be the future of American subject to appropriations; but it also grim indeed. The six-hour firefight on a ground combat—if, that is, the Pen ta gon gets federal money from Medicaid, blistering-hot July afternoon began with ignores the results of a comprehensive which isn’t. an ambush. Sergeant Gregory Up shaw nine-month Marine Corps study that com- That suggests another long-term re - was hit with two bullets, one in the thigh pared the performance of mixed-gender form that ought to be on conservatives’ and one in the kneecap. The closest soldier infantry units with that of conventional agenda: moving more of the budget back to him, Specialist Jes si ca Sanchez, was all-male units. The results were entirely under congressional control. If Republi- unable to support his weight as her squad predictable, in light of the clear physical cans have the presidency and Congress dashed for cover and called for assis- differences between men and women and in 2017, they should pass a law denying tance. As two male soldiers responded the emotional realities of relation ships the immigration service the ability to to the call, one was hit and killed, the other between the sexes. The mixed-gender spend any money, including money that hit and wounded. Un able to render effec- units performed worse than the all-male comes to them via fees, without congres- tive aid, San chez had to run for cover her- units in 93 of the 134 measured cate- sional authorization. They should do the self. The two wounded soldiers re mained gories; in 39 tasks, there was no differ- same for other self-funded agencies. exposed, taking further fire (which ulti- ence; and in two tasks, the mixed-gender These reforms, once in place, would mately killed Ser geant Up shaw) before the teams performed better. Women had be particularly helpful for congressional platoon was able to muster sufficient cov- less aerobic capacity and less anaerobic conservatives the next time they faced ering fire to retrieve their fallen comrades. capacity, got injured at significantly off against a liberal president. But they The fight was marked by multiple greater rates, and were less accurate with are not shortsightedly focused on that additional moments when lack of physi- every single infantry-weapons system. scenario. Breaking up the budget would cal strength caused casualties. While Physically, a score in the 25th percentile tend to make limiting government easier the soldiers all suffered the effects of of the women would be around the 75th regardless of who runs which chamber. extreme heat, Specialists Kara Lund - percentile of the men. An automatic CR that keeps spending gren and Felicia Jackson were combat- These profound physical differences growth under tight control would work ineffective within one hour, and Private are also evident in both the Army’s and in favor of conservatives even if liberals First Class Jessica Wheeler collapsed the Marines’ experience with officer and controlled Congress. And while greater during the third hour of combat. Ad di - enlisted infantry training. In the Marines, congressional control of the budget would tion al ly, male soldiers reported that their 29 women have attempted the Officer sometimes work in favor of liberals in female counterparts were less able to Infantry Course. None have graduated Con gress, it too would tend to work to respond to the ambush with accurate (the male-graduation rate is 71 percent). the advantage of conservatives, both counter-fire, and four male members of More than 400 women have attempted because they have been less likely to use the platoon blame that failure for the the enlisted course, and 144 have gradu- executive discretion to shape domestic enemy’s seemingly ex tra or di nary ability ated, a graduation rate of 36 percent. The policy and because the bureaucracy is to get close enough to the embattled pla- male-graduation rate is 99 percent. On not their friend. toon to make several grenade attacks, the Army side, two women (out of 19) No set of reforms is going to make it killing Sergeant Ryan Ni chols and Ser - completed the Ranger course. Again and easy for conservatives to limit the size geant Andrea Johnson. again, the real-world results confirm that and scope of government or to reassert By the end of the fight, the platoon had all-male units will display greater physi- congressional control over it. The cur- suffered four men and one woman killed cal strength than mixed-gender units. rent budget process, though, seems to in action; five men and one wo man But it’s a mistake to think of military work systematically to frustrate conserva- wounded; four heat casualties, three male service as simply a matter of physical tive ambitions. When conservatives in and one female; and one male soldier ren- prowess. As retired lieutenant general Wash ngton get tired enough of the results, dered combat-ineffective after watching Gregory Newbold recently said, it’s “arti- perhaps they will try to change it. his girlfriend die beside him. At the end of ficial to constrain the debate about wo -

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men in the infantry to physical capabili- under fire—potentially wounded or killed so is not to insult wo men who are willing ties.” As he notes, men who have served right in front of their eyes? These very to lay down their lives for their country, in combat are often reluctant to speak of real—very human—concerns are too but rather to acknowledge biological and their experiences, not just because the often brushed aside as irrelevant, but they psychological reality. horror is difficult for civilians to compre- would inevitably impair the al che my of Militaries that put women in combat, hend but also because the bond between the unit. like the Red Army in the desperate days of fighting men is beyond conventional For the military’s current civilian World War II and the earliest iterations of description. That bond is the difference maste rs, however, social justice trumps the Israel Defense Forces, later moved between life and death, between victory all. Confronted with the results of the them back out of direct combat based on and defeat. As New bold said: Ma rines’ nine months of work, with its hard-learned battlefield lessons. Mixed- comprehensive study of fighting effective- gender Israeli u nits experienced higher In this direct-ground-combat environ- ness, the Obama administration’s secre- casualty rates, and even before Is ra el ment, you do not fight for an ideal, a just tary of the Navy, Ray Mabus, responded transitioned to all-male units, it removed cause, America, or Mom and apple pie. by insulting the women who participated, women from its more elite assault forces You endure the inhumanity and sacri- saying that the Marines—according to because they simply weren’t fast enough fices of direct ground combat because Marine Corps Times—“could have to keep up with the men. Women in the “greater love hath no man than this, that selected female volunteers who were bet- Red Army in World War II were largely a man lay down his life for his friends.” ter suited to the task of marching under kept out of the fighting, and those who did This selflessness is derived from bond- ing, and bonding from shared events and heavy loads.” Even though the study fight reported often having to abandon the un questioning subordination of self included women who had received in - equipment or ask men to carry their gear for the good of the team. But what de - fantry training, he said that, “for the simply to keep up. While Is ra el and stroys this alchemy—and, therefore, women that volunteered, probably there Russia have turned to female infantry combat effectiveness—are pettiness, should have been a higher bar to cross to soldiers in times of national desperation, rumor-mongering, suspicion, and jeal- get into the experiment.” the United States is not des perate. We ousy. And when fighting spirit is less- A female Marine accurately described have the luxury of being able to build ened, death is the outcome. Mabus’s comments as throwing her and the optimal fighting machine, and we the other women involved in the study— should build it. It is a dangerous thing to tamper with despite their work and attention to de - Since World War II, America’s political the time-tested effectiveness of all-male tail—“under the bus.” His mind is made leaders have developed a disturbing habit units by injecting not just differing physi- up, facts be dammed, and he’ll likely be of failing our soldiers, of asking them to cal capabilities but also sexual tension long gone before the butcher’s bill is paid. spill their blood while making victory into the units. Soldiers in mixed-gender While there are undoubtedly individual harder to achieve. Now they’re about to units often confront the drama of romance women who are capable of achieving fail our military again. Mis guid ed notions and romantic rivalries, and those issues astounding physical feats, the strongest of fairness will be cold comfort to the would be magnified by the proximity and women are not as capable as the strongest families of the fallen. They’ll simply GETTY IMAGES

/ intensity of infantry service, where sepa- men, and there is simply no way to inte- wonder why the price of social justice is rate quarters are often a physical impossi- grate women into infantry units without the blood of their sons, the blood of their bility. How will young soldiers confront impairing not just the overall strength of daughters, and potential defeat on the SCOTT OLSON combat when their girlfriends are also the unit but also its fighting spirit. To say field of battle.

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(after the golf course that the airport dis- Robert Byrd, the West Virginia Demo - placed). But since the assassination, it crat, had no shame, and his fellow West has been JFK. Virginians may not have had much Goodbye, Kennedy’s brother Robert was mur- either. More than 50 buildings in that dered, too. A full 40 years after the fact, state are named for Byrd, or for his wife, McKinley the Triborough Bridge in New York was Erma Ora. If you seek Byrd’s monu - The rise and fall of names renamed for him: Officially, it is the ment, go to West Virginia and look Robert F. Kennedy Bridge (though about you. BY JAY NORDLINGER pretty much everybody still calls it “the Lest I seem an incorrigible partisan Triborough”). I hope it’s not unseemly Republican—which I am—I’d like to or unsporting to ask, “For how many record this: When the GOP Congress of ITH a stroke, President decades will we feel the need to rename the 1990s moved to rename Washington Obama changed the name things after JFK and RFK?” In 2011, two National Airport for Reagan, I opposed W of Mount McKinley to years before he died, the Queensboro this move. I loved Reagan to an almost “Denali.” “Denali” is an Bridge was renamed for Ed Koch, the embarrassing extent. But I thought re - Indian name, or indigenous name. “Mc - former mayor—but not entirely re - naming the national airport for him Kinley,” obviously, is not. No doubt, named: It is, officially, the Ed Koch was a finger in the eye to Democrats, Obama thought he was “bending the arc Queensboro Bridge. roughly half the country. Besides which, of the moral universe toward justice.” For years, I’ve teased a federal-judge what if they did something like that to (He likes to use this phrase, borrowing friend of mine for working in the Daniel us? How would I feel about Bill Clinton from Martin Luther King, who bor- Patrick Moynihan United States Court - National Airport? (Bad.) rowed it from Theodore Parker, an abo- house. (He and I are both Republi cans; People tend to think that no one will litionist pastor.) Moynihan was not.) “How’s work going ever get used to a new n ame. And then White people have taken from the down at the Moynihan?” I’ll say. One day, the world forgets the old name. When, in Indians a lot. It’s true. I can understand my friend said sternly, “You know what 2009, the Sears Tower became the Willis how Obama was unable to resist a sym- the best name for a U.S. courthouse is? Tower, Chicagoans said, “We’ll never bolic gesture. I can’t help thinking, how- ‘U.S. Courthouse.’” That statement ought say ‘Willis.’ It will always be ‘Sears.’” ever, that these gestures are much, much to be in Bartlett’s. Alter natively, they borrowed a famous easier than combating alcoholism, obesity, wel- fare dependence, a culture of perpetual grievance, and suicide. Against “Denali,” poor Wil liam McKinley had no chance. He is a dead white male, and a Republican, to boot. And yet, to my sense, there was something un - seemly—something un - sport ing—about re moving the name of a president who was murdered. Lincoln was murdered, too, of course, and many things are named after him—but he was great, as w ell as murdered. Gar - field was murdered, and there is next to nothing named after him. School - kids prob ably don’t know about him. Every - one knows about John F. Kennedy, who, when mur- dered, was young and glamorous and fash ion - able. People used to call the international airport LUBA MYTS in New York “Idle wild”

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line from a sitcom: “What you talkin’ who had some trouble after the Franco– cause those men were slaveholders ’bout, Willis?” The truth is, “Sears” will Prussian War and found it convenient (and Jackson was also a brute to the sound as quaint as “Idlewild.” I have a to flee his country.) Indians). The Republicans will obvi- friend in Chicago who will always say Last week, I was writing about ously keep their Lincoln Day dinners. “Sears.” (In fact, he once worked in the wounded servicemen who are cared for “Washington, D.C.” presents a dou- tower.) His children, however, are bilin- at the Walter Reed center, outside Wash - ble whammy, for those who keep his- gual: They say both “Sears” and “Willis,” ington, D.C. I had forgotten, or never torical score, in the current fashion. depending on the audience. Their chil- knew, who Walter Reed was. I looked George Washington was another slave- dren will definitely not say “Sears.” him up: U.S. Army physician (1851– holder. And the “C” in “D.C.” relates to It was jarring to me in 1984 when the 1902). Instru mental in combating yel- Christopher Columbus, the original West African nation of Upper Volta low fever. His name has lasted on that sinner, according to the darkest view of became Burkina Faso. The new name institution for a long time (since 1909). America. What to do about President sounded so . . . odd. Thirty years later, Will it be re moved one day, in favor of Obama’s alma mater, Columbia? “Upper Volta” sou nds not just dated but someone newer or in some respect I felt a pang for McKinley, when his faintly racist or colonialist. There has more desirable? name came off the mountain. But I also been no “Siam” since about 1950; the Sometimes money is involved, of recognize that nearly everything crum- country is Thailand. The old name lives course. In the early 1970s, a man named bles. Not long ago, I visited the Temple only in the Rodgers & Hammerstein Avery Fisher endowed the concert hall of Artemis, or Diana, in Turkey. This was musical (though I very much like an at New York’s Lincoln Center. So for all one of the Seven Wonders of the World. American place-name: Siam, Ohio). this time it has been “Avery Fisher People traveled from far and wide to see “Formosa” may seem a condescending Hall.” But the Lincoln Center people it. The sight of it may have crowned a I felt a pang for McKinley, when his name came off the mountain. But I also recognize that nearly everything crumbles.

or insulting name for Taiwan—but, in wanted to upgrade the place. To do that, life. When I got there, it was a garbagey Portuguese, the name means beautiful, they needed lots of money, and that nothing, with a stork nesting on a lone which is no insult. meant an offer of “naming rights.” The column. Rarely has the ephemerality of We are supposed to say “Mumbai,” Fisher family pitched a fit, and threat- things been so im pressed on me. not “Bombay.” Say “Bombay” to some - ened legal action: They figured Avery’s There will be some, no doubt, who will one, and he may recoil, as though you name should be on the hall forever. continue to call the mountain in Alaska had uttered a slur. In reality, there is a Ultimately, they were paid off ($15 “Mount McKinley.” (Politics, history, fierce debate among Indians about million), and Lincoln Center found a or culture aside, the alliteration is what to call that major city. A political new donor: David Geffen, of Holly- nice.) They will be a bit like Dart mouth and cultural debate. There are Indians, wood. He pledged $100 million, and, alumni who continue to call their teams patriotic and proud, who would rather starting this season, the hall will be “the Indians” instead of the sanctioned spit than say “Mumbai.” I don’t have a David Geffen Hall. “Big Green.” dog in this fight. But I have no pa - Across the plaza is the David H. Koch Speaking of mountains, Everest was tience for other palefaces who think Theater, formerly the New York State named after a Welshman, Colonel Sir they do. Theater. In 2008, this Koch brother George Everest, who was Surveyor Gen - Like you, maybe, I enjoy finding out pledged—as Geffen would—$100 mil- e ral of India from 1830 to 1843. He object- about people whose names are on lion. And he said that, after 50 years, his ed to the naming of the mountain after build ings, streets, or what have you. name could go. A half a century was himself, in part because those who lived in Those names are a link to the past. With enough. “A naming opportunity should the region could not pronounce “Everest.” his wife Liddie, the late historian be a defined length of time to allow the (Neither can we, in a sense: The colonel Robert Conquest lived on Peter Coutts institution to regenerate itself with another pronounced his name “Eve-rest,” rather Circle near Stanford University. The round of major fundraising,” Koch said. than as the world later would.) first time I visited, I asked, “Who is or Geffen has a different view—and has Who knows what this tallest and was Peter Coutts?” His face lighting up, said that his name must be on the concert mightiest of peaks will be called in Bob said, “You know, we’ve lived here hall forever. generations to come? Nothing lasts, for many years, and you’re only the His fellow Democrats have long held everything crumbles. Although our Su - second person to ask that.” I was flat- Jefferson-Jackson Day dinners. Those preme Court may still permit me to tered, I have to say. (The first to ask two men are the founders of the Demo - quote the Bible—Isaiah: “For the moun- was an English-poet friend of the cratic party. Recently, however, some tains shall depart, and the hills be re - Conquests’. And “Peter Coutts” was Democratic groups have effaced the moved; but my kindness shall not depart the adopted name of a French financier names of Jefferson and Jackson—be - from thee.”

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Black and White in Shades of Gray Toward a more nuanced understanding of ‘white supremacy’

BY REIHAN SALAM

INCE the shooting death of Michael Brown in the pretation of the black experience in American life, and this St. Louis suburb of Ferguson just over a year ago, interpretation has gained a great deal of purchase in the news S Americans have been engaged in a spirited dia- media. Following the death of Brown, social-media activists, logue, to put it mildly, about the status of black most of them young and black, have been rallying under the people in our country. The main result of this dialogue so banner of #BlackLivesMatter, a Twitter hashtag devised by far appears to have been an alarming rise in what we might the activists Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi call racial pessimism. In August, Gallup released a survey to draw attention to the (alleged) epidemic of police vio- that found that the share of whites satisfied with how Afri - lence against African Americans. Because Black Lives can Americans are treated in the United States has fallen Matter is a diverse, decentralized movement, one hesitates from 67 percent in 2013 to 53 percent in 2015, a quite striking to say that it speaks with a single voice. But I’d say that if there GETTY IMAGES / decline. The share of blacks who feel the same way, mean- is a preoccupation shared by the leaders of the movement, while, fell from 47 percent to 33 percent over the same period, it’s the idea of white supremacy as the chief obstacle to which is to say from low to dismally low. black progress. ANADOLU AGENCY

/ There has been no similarly dramatic change in the mate- What is white supremacy, exactly? That is hard to say. rial condition or the legal status of African Americans over The basic idea, as I understand it, is that our public institu- this short interval, so what has been the source of this grow- tions have been created to serve the interests of Americans ing dissatisfaction? It is very simple: A rising generation of who are seen by themselves and others as white. This “seen MUSTAFA CAGLAYAN intellectuals has been offering an unremittingly bleak inter- by themselves and others” part might seem silly, but the

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boundaries of whiteness have long been contested. There opportunities would not have presented themselves had the was a time when the Irish didn’t count as white, though racism of earlier eras not attenuated to at least some degree. they certainly do today. What about the son of a Korean- The threat of anti-black racism has historically played a immigrant father and a Czech-immigrant mother? Or the unifying role among African Americans, and its decline has fair-skinned second-generation Iranian American who caused the lives of lower-class blacks and their better-off grew up among Mayflower descendants? To the extent that counterparts to sharply diverge. these individuals identify as white and enjoy the benefits One of the more striking illustrations of the class divide of being seen as such, they are white, according to this line among African Americans is that while in 1978 poor blacks of thinking. To be sure, whiteness is not infinitely malleable. over the age of twelve were only slightly more likely to be The critique of white supremacy maintains that black people the victims of violent crime (45 per 1,000) than better-off are permanently excluded from whiteness, with the rare blacks (38 per 1,000), poor blacks in 2008 were vastly more exception of those who can “pass” as white and choose to likely to be crime victims (75 per 1,000) than better-off do so. blacks (23 per 1,000). Why is it that poor blacks are far The persistence of anti-black racism has indeed disad- more vulnerable today than they were in the late 1970s, vantaged African Americans in many ways. The abolition while better-off blacks are far less so? In her book Ghetto - of slavery and the dismantling of Jim Crow laws did not side, the Los Angeles Times reporter Jill Leovy argues that mean the end of exclusionary policies that made it difficult while police officers aggressively combat petty offenses in if not impossible for blacks to accumulate wealth. In When poor black neighborhoods—practicing the “broken-windows Affirmative Action Was White, the leftist Columbia Uni - policing” that has proven so controversial in recent years— versity historian and political scientist Ira Katznelson doc- they do an extremely poor job of solving murders and other uments the ways in which liberals of the New Deal and Fair serious crimes. The disastrous result is that the minority of Deal eras accommodated the demands of segregationist blacks who reside in hyper-segregated ghetto neighbor- Democrats, who were quite happy to back generous new hoods are more isolated than ever, and many have come to social programs as long as blacks weren’t allowed to make distrust the conventional criminal-justice system, which use of them. Indeed, Katznelson’s provocative argument is has proven so ineffective. Instead, residents of these neigh- that the advent of these programs widened the existing gap borhoods either live in fear or they settle their own scores. in economic and educational outcomes be tween whites and In the worst cases, such as the South Los Angeles commu- blacks, a development that in his view justifies racial pref- nities vividly described by Leovy, violent gangs impose erences for blacks. Of course, this conclusion doesn’t fol- their own “shadow law,” which competes with the formal low if one believes that preferences can actually harm the law of the police and the courts. Meanwhile, better-off interests of blacks, but that is a separate matter. blacks who have been able to exit these neighborhoods are Other critics of white supremacy, such as Ta-Nehisi physically much safer, and in a far better position to access Coates in his much-lauded essay in The Atlantic on “the economic opportunities, than their counterparts of a gener- case for reparations,” place heavy emphasis on the role of ation ago. race in shaping American cities. First, these critics argue that The failure of our criminal-justice system to liberate racially motivated local land-use regulations, in equitable ghetto communities from the tyranny of violence is pro- federal housing subsidies, and selective intimidation helped found. I would argue that this failure amounts to a national create hyper-segregated urban neighborhoods. Second, crisis. Yet the divergence between poor blacks and better-off they maintain that a combination of overzealous policing blacks suggests that reducing this failure to the racism of the and a racist criminal-justice system have traumatized these criminal-justice system is a mistake. James Forman Jr. of heavily black neighborhoods and contributed to family Yale Law School has documented the role of black activists breakdown. There is definitely some truth to the notion that in the late 1960s in pushing for more aggressive law racism played a significant role in the concentration of enforcement in neighborhoods plagued by violent crime. poverty in black neighborhoods. He details the rise of more-punitive crime policies in black- majority jurisdictions with black-majority police forces, focusing in particular on the District of Columbia. While T is also true, however, that, as Edward Glaeser and Forman’s work doesn’t definitively prove that racism Jacob Vigdor found in a 2012 analysis of census data, played no role in the incarceration boom, it does remind us the share of black Americans living in hyper-segregated that many African Americans embraced tough-on-crime Ighetto neighborhoods has fallen from 80 percent in 1960 to policies as violent-crime rates spiraled out of control, and 20 percent in 2010. Middle-class blacks today lead far more that white supremacy is at best an incomplete explanation integrated lives than their parents and grandparents did. of why incarceration rates soared from the 1960s through But this mass exodus of middle-class blacks from urban the 1990s. ghettos has been a double-edged sword. In The Truly Dis - The late legal academic William Stuntz insisted that the ad vantaged, the renowned African-American sociologist 14th Amendment guarantee of “equal protection of the laws” William Julius Wilson argued that the economic and social ought to be taken literally. To Stuntz, this phrase meant that opportunities created by desegregation led upwardly mobile all citizens, regardless of race or economic status, had the black families rich in cultural and social capital to depart same right to the law’s protection. In his view, the systematic majority-black communities, leaving these communities in under-policing of violent neighborhoods ought to be under- a much-diminished state. What can’t be denied is that these stood not just as a regrettable policy failure but also as a con-

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stitutional violation that governments at all levels should be mation among whites, and if white supremacy is here to forced to address. If Leovy and Stuntz are right, one could stay, black people are doomed to lives of poverty, misery, argue that the real problem with crime-control efforts in vio- and marginality. If I believed any of that, I’d be a racial lent urban neighborhoods is not that they’re overzealous but pessimist too. that they are not zealous enough, or rather that they’re not Fortunately, there are other ways forward. The diver- zealous enough about ensuring that violent criminals are gence in outcomes between poor and better-off blacks brought to justice. demonstrates that black upward mobility is possible, even in a society in which racism persists. It could be that the most effective way to advance black interests is to build up HAT if white supremacy really is as pervasive the collective wealth and power of the black community and powerful a force as many left-of-center rather than rely on white benevolence. A number of scholars, intellectuals believe? What would be the impli- including Nancy DiTomaso and Daria Roithmayr, have cationsW for those who want African-American communi- documented how people pass on valuable knowledge, ties to flourish? including valuable knowledge about employment and One of the central intellectual tenets of the Black Lives housing opportunities, through their social networks. And Matter movement has been an emphatic rejection of the these social networks tend to be very racially segregated. “politics of respectability,” the notion that black Americans While it is a disadvantage not to belong to the most-privileged will command respect from the wider society if they social networks, less-privileged social networks can make embrace bourgeois norms such as persistence, thrift, sobriety, up for this disadvantage to at least some extent by becoming and the value of hard work. Aurin Squire, writing at Talking even more tight-knit than the networks of the privileged. Points Memo in February, elegantly summarized the case This is a strategy that many black migrants from the Deep

It could be that the most effective way to advance black interests is to build up the collective wealth and power of the black community rather than rely on white benevolence.

against respectability politics, describing it as the view South pursued in the last century, and it is often employed “that systemic oppression can be overcome if we’re clean, by immigrants in our own time. mild, moderate, and economically successful enough.” Last Building up wealth and power is of course easier said than October, Coates offered an equally bracing critique: “Re - done, particularly for people living in neighborhoods and spectability politics is, at its root, the inability to look into regions plagued by high levels of unemployment and underem- the cold dark void of history,” he wrote. “For if black peo- ployment. Over the past several decades, there has been a large- ple are—as I maintain—no part of the problem, if the prob- scale migration of middle-class blacks from cities in the lem truly is 100 percent explained by white supremacy, northern and western United States to dynamic cities in the Old then we are presented with a set of unfortunate facts about Confederacy, which the Brook ings Institution demographer our home.” William Frey has dubbed “the New Great Migration.” Why What the critique of respectability politics obscures is would African-American families leave progressive bastions that preaching bourgeois virtues needn’t have anything to such as New York, San Francisco, and Portland, Ore., for do with catering to a white audience, or with contempt for Atlanta, Dallas, and Houston if the former are largely free of the black poor. One could believe that the cultivation of anti-black animus while the latter are arguably somewhat less bourgeois norms can be advantageous and, as an entirely free of it? Are blacks flocking there because those cities have a separate matter, that dehumanizing treatment at the hands reputation for providing high-quality social services to African of the police is an outrage regardless of whether one be - Americans in need, or because their commitment to racial haves “respectably.” Nor must preaching the centrality of preferences surpasses that of northern metropolises? Hardly. self-help entail ignoring or forgiving white supremacy. While whites in northern and western cities are generally Rather, accepting the centrality of self-help means reject- more “progressive” than those in southern cities, southern ing what Amy L. Wax, a law professor at the University of cities are more affordable and, as a rule, they offer more job Pennsyl vania, has called “remedial idealism.” Remedial opportunities. This combination means that those who are idealism is the view that “because outsiders, and not able to secure full-time employment are also in a better posi- blacks themselves, are responsible for present racial tion to save, and therefore to build wealth. Moreover, rising inequalities, those outsiders must eliminate them.” The trou- black populations in these fast-growing southern metropol- ble is that even if we accept that outsiders ought to elimi- itan areas hold out the promise of rising black political nate present racial inequalities, it is by no means clear that power, which can be wielded to advance communal goals. they will make the sacrifices that this would entail. Most The New Great Migration might seem unremarkable and people are self-interested, after all. Demanding that bourgeois. But it is in its own way an extraordinary example whites forswear their privilege won’t suddenly make them of communal uplift, and those who want to see racial do so. If the only route to black progress is a moral refor- progress in America ought to celebrate it.

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ideologically inclined to address the inequality that matters. Defining the challenge properly and then tackling it should be The Inequality our top domestic-policy priority.

HE cycle of social decay begins before the next genera- Cycle tion is born, as parents-to-be fail to form stable mar- riages. In Coming Apart, American Enterprise Institute Why social and economic opportunity Tscholar Charles Murray shows the relatively sudden emergence rise or fall together of this failure by comparing marriage rates for prime-age Americans, whom he groups into an upper class, defined as the 20 percent of Americans with college degrees working in “high- BY OREN CASS prestige” professions, and a lower class, defined as the 30 per- cent with a high-school degree or less working in a “blue-collar job, mid- or low-level service job, or a low-level white-collar Y one measure, opportunity and mobility are thriving job.” To control for any race-related factors, he focuses specif- in America. Children born into the lowest income ically on whites. B quintile have almost exactly equal chances of arriv- Marriage rates were 94 percent in the upper class and 84 per- ing in any of the five income quintiles as adults. cent in the lower class in 1960 and remained at those levels into There is only one catch: Their parents must be and stay married. the 1970s. By 2010, the upper-class rate had declined to 84 per- Children whose parents never marry face poor prospects: More cent but was holding steady, while the lower-class rate had than half remain in the bottom quintile, ten times the share that plunged to 48 percent and was continuing its decline. Three- reaches the top. quarters of upper-class married couples reported that their mar- Tragically, this latter scenario is becoming the norm. riage was “very happy,” and that ratio has been rising; among America’s “lower class,” for lack of a better term, is undergoing lower-class married couples, one-half described their marriage as an unprecedented social collapse that threatens to destabilize core “very happy,” and that ratio has been falling. American principles. The data on marriage, parenting, employ- These trends have obvious implications for the family environ- ment, civic engagement, and basic values show a widening and ment into which children are born. According to Murray, more sometimes accelerating gap between classes. This form of in - than 95 percent of upper- and lower-class white children were equality is far more consequential than income inequality living with both biological parents when the mother turned 40 in because strong families and communities, unlike high incomes, the 1960s. But by the 2000s, while the figure remained at 90 per- are the cornerstones of a free and fair society. cent for the upper class, it was plunging toward 30 percent for Being raised very poor does not cut off opportunity, but what the lower. When he widens the lens to look at all races, the pic- about being very poorly raised? ture is nearly identical. Today’s correlation between poverty and a host of social ills Murray provides many other measures of the gaping cultural has led policymakers to treat them almost interchangeably and inequality into which children are born today: Between the emphasize economic relief. But the correlation is historically 1970s and 2000s, the percentage of upper-class people ages 30 anomalous: Fifty years ago, though poverty was no less preva- to 49 not involved in any organization (secular or religious) lent, class-based gaps on social indicators from marriage to stayed below 10 percent, while for the lower class it tripled, to child-rearing to labor-force participation were small to nonexis- more than 30 percent. During the same period, the rate of impris- tent. This suggests that today’s emphasis on economic resources onment among the lower class more than quadrupled. By 2010, is a mistake. Rather, the focus should be on disrupting the cycle only 20 percent of the lower class said that, generally, “people of poverty in which social decay in one generation inhibits the can be trusted,” versus 60 percent of the upper class. Less than development of the next, individuals ill-prepared for life and half of the lower class believed that others “try to be fair,” versus work face limited opportunity, and their ensuing struggles cause 80 percent of the upper class. On both measures of trust, the trend further social decay. lines by class are headed in opposite directions. Unfortunately, almost the entirety of the American social safety In Our Kids, Harvard University political scientist Robert net now focuses on relieving economic hardship, though we Putnam shows how these disparities perpetuate the cycle for know that this relief reduces the incentive to work and fosters generations. Whereas in the 1970s parents of all education levels government dependence. It explicitly channels resources to spent equal time with young children on developmental activi- single parents and the elderly and away from young people ties, college graduates now spend 50 percent more time on such transitioning to adulthood. Education reform emphasizes college- activities with their children than do parents with a high-school readiness at the expense of job-readiness. The immigration degree or less. Even family-dinner time is declining for the latter debate revolves around who will affect whose wages rather than group but not the former. Better-educated parents place far more which social strata can effectively absorb newcomers. emphasis on encouragement and on the value of self-reliance, Neither the Left, obsessed with income inequality and un - while less educated ones more frequently deliver discourage- mindful of cultural decline, nor the Right, accustomed to coun- ment and emphasize obedience. tering concerns about inequality with promises of opportunity, is Putnam explains that children in the lower class face stresses and traumas foreign to the upper class. They are up to five times Mr. Cass is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. more likely to face abuse and violence, addiction, and the death

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or imprisonment of a parent. Those experiences, along with by acknowledging his parents, both in the audience that night. ineffective and unstable caregiving, impair learning and the “You taught me that there’s dignity and honor in a hard day’s development of “executive functions” such as concentration, work,” he said. “You taught me that you look out for your neigh- self-discipline, and problem-solving. All these consequences bors, you never look down on anybody, and you treat everyone occur independently of public schooling and, largely, before with respect.” He told the story of his upbringing in a small town public schooling has even begun. By the time they reach school, where his mother and father both worked, of his mother’s even- 72 percent of middle-class children know the alphabet, Putnam tually running a small business to help pay his college tuition, reports, compared with 19 percent of poor children. and of all the other men and women in town who “worked hard These problems in turn perpetuate the cycle by diminishing and tried to put a little something away every week so their kids opportunity and career prospects. Between 1960 and 2010, and their grandkids could have a better life.” Murray reports, the percentage of upper-class households with a Edwards intended this account to outrage his fellow Ameri - full-time worker declined from 90 percent to 87 percent, while cans. His town was in the unfortunate half of the two Americas. the lower-class decline was from 81 percent to 53 percent. And In his telling, he grew up on the wrong side of a divide separat- so, as the next generation starts its own families in its own com- ing those “who have lived the American dream” and “are set for munities, one can only hope the lower class will manage to hold life” from those “who work hard and still struggle to make ends the eroding ground on which their parents stood. The trends, meet” and “live paycheck to paycheck.” “It doesn’t have to be unfortunately, suggest they have little chance even of that; as the that way,” he insisted, over and over again. cycle spirals downward and decay engenders yet more decay. The argument made little sense. Wasn’t he, in fact, living the American dream? The material hardship he assailed looked surmountable, his opportunity substantial, his achieve- ISMAY over this widening gap between classes seems ments impressive. at first like yet another complaint about income in - A study by Richard Reeves and his colleagues at the Brook- equality. It is not. These statistics measure not income ings Institution confirms the intuition: Edwards’s circum- Dor wealth but rather the markers of social health. These may be stances offered abundant opportunity. Their data show that of closely correlated today, but income inequality has been a per- people growing up in the lowest income quintile with two par- manent fixture in American life. The data here, by contrast, show ents, as Edwards presumably did, only 17 percent land in the that major gaps are emerging in areas of life that have not histor- bottom quintile as adults and 23 percent land in the second ically been significant sources of inequality at all. quintile, while 20 percent, 20 p ercent, and 19 percent land in The difference is crucial, because inequality matters first and the top three quintiles respectively. The distribution is almost foremost for its effect on opportunity. A type of inequality that perfectly even, with the odds of remaining at the bottom actu- stifles opportunity will replicate itself by leaving those born into hardship with no viable exit. Under such conditions, if factors beyond an individual’s control too often dictate his situation in life, free markets and limited gov- ernment become harder to defend. Conservatives rightly argue that low in - comes in one generation need not dictate outcomes in the next, and thus in - come inequality need not undermine opportunity. But this argument is sound only if critical non- economic endowments are available to all—precisely the ones undermined by social decay. Consider the quintes- sential depiction of in - come inequality in John Edwards’s “Two Ameri - cas” speech at the 2004 Democratic National Con - ROMAN GENN vention. Edwards began

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ally lowest. The community of strong families that Edwards nity and traditional values as social bedrocks that a government described would have played a critical role as well. Raj Chetty program or check can never replace. Conservatives are uniquely and his colleagues from Harvard’s Equality of Opportunity capable of understanding the problem and should lead the way Project have found that the fraction of children with single par- toward solutions. ents is the best predictor of upward economic mobility in a For better and worse, you can’t legislate social change. region, whereas the region’s level of income inequality is not a Social programs—especially if delivered through local organi- significant predictor. zations—can provide real help to individuals. But programs But elements in Edwards’s upbringing that might have miti- alone cannot counter the momentum of a free society barreling gated his economic hardship—a two-parent family instilling in the opposite direction. Instead, broader public policy must strong values, a community filled with hard-working role models seek to alter the basic incentives and conditions fueling the committed to the betterment of their children—are exactly what negative trends. have now gone missing in lower-class America. Opportunities for effective policy interventions exist at What if, in addition to having few financial resources, Ed- each transmission point in the cycle of social decay. An edu- wards had had no consistent caregivers and those adults who cation system can either cement or mitigate the effect of the were in his life had regularly exposed him to stresses and trau- conditions in which a child is born and raised. Unemploy - mas that impaired his development? What if his extended family ment law and the safety net can push those with few skills and community had lacked role models, and the broader culture either toward the labor force or away from it. Policies from had reinforced destructive norms and values? What if, in other immigration to zoning shape communities and their values. words, his upbringing had borne no resemblance to the story he In these areas and others, we should reorient policy to stave told, but had fallen squarely within the experience of the lower off social inequality. class today? Education reform is an obvious starting point; ongoing Beyond a certain point, social inequality prevents children in efforts in urban charter schools have already achieved remark- the lower class from having what they need to get ahead. Whether able success. But most reforms focus on the K–12 years, even America has already passed that point or is merely hurtling though the large gap in performance between lower- and upper- toward it matters little. Recent data show little change in the rate class children already exists at age six and does not grow of upward mobility—that is, the share of those born in the bottom significantly from then through age 18. In other words, the oft- income quintile who reach higher quintiles as adults. But this criticized K–12 system is not solving the problem, but it’s also view is backward-looking; it focuses on what happened to chil- not causing it. Asking K–12 schools to close the achievement dren of the 1970s and ’80s who are now in their thirties and for- gap would require them to defy the odds and produce better ties. If one projects the future by linking Murray’s and Putnam’s results in lower-class communities than in upper-class commu- social trends to Reeves’s and Chetty’s analysis of social mobility, nities that benefit from much stronger parental support. the forecast is dismal. The most productive approach to education reform would Even if the full effects come only after the cycle of social de - instead focus more resources on either end of the K–12 system: cay completes another turn, the crisis is here already. Social in - at one end, on the preschool years, when the gaps first emerge; equality is insidious because it transmits itself across generations and, at the other end, on vocational training that prepares those by interfering with opportunity. Its self-reinforcing nature pro- with few skills to successfully enter the labor force. While evi- duces a downward spiral that is difficult to escape. dence for the current effectiveness of pre-K programs is not Worse still, the social collapse is occurring in absolute rather good, it is certainly no worse than evidence for the effective- than relative terms and represents a true worsening of well- ness of the K–12 public-education system in which reformers being in America. One common rejoinder to concerns about invest so much time and energy. Expanding a broken K–12 income inequality is that the bottom’s success relative t o the model into earlier years makes little sense, but that need not be top’s is unimportant so long as the bottom’s condition is itself the model. improving. (For instance, as the Heritage Foundation’s Robert Why not preschool vouchers? What if the debate were not Rector has observed, the percentage of poor households with over the value of pre-K education but over whether a pre-K air conditioning increased from 41 percent in 1980 to 78 per- school system should be unionized? That pre-K schools lack cent in 2005.) But social inequality is developing today an entrenched status quo defended by interest groups of teachers through the opposite dynamic: As the upper class holds steady, and administrators might make reform more attainable than in the lower class is falling away. The language of economics the K–12 system. And reaching kids at the earlier stage, where does not apply: There is no “social business cycle” expected to performance gaps emerge, should have a greater impact. The turn from social “bust” to social “boom”; no rising social tide lack of funds for such programs is an argument for reallocating will lift all boats; no growing social pie will offer everyone a budgets, not ignoring the opportunity. larger slice. As students approach high-school graduation, a program to reduce social inequality would actively support transitions to employment at least as strongly as transitions to college. AN we conclude that social conditions in the lower class Universal higher education might be a noble aspiration, but it unfairly impair opportunity? If we do, it should affect serves poorly those least likely to succeed at this level of what outcomes we consider just and what level of gov- schooling—often the same group suffering from social decay. Cernment intervention we demand. But the situation is not only a To enhance students’ potential and strengthen overall social fundamental challenge to some conservative assumptions; it stability, we should ensure that every high-school graduate is also reinforces conservatives’ emphasis on family and commu- prepared to find and hold a full-time job. Education reforms

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aimed at high school should consistently incorporate vocational models for unionization that differ entirely from ours. training, internships, and apprenticeships. A high school’s suc- Constructive labor-law reforms could help employees orga- cess should be measured by how many of its graduates enroll nize when they want to while reshaping the scope of union in college—or find full-time work. We should spend more activities to emphasize worker well-being, restrict damaging money getting people into jobs that develop skills than we collective-bargaining agreements, and clearly separate the spend subsidizing college tuition. core task of workplace representation from any tangential In the labor market, policy should treat low-wage employers political efforts. as an asset rather than as the enemy. Those employers offer the Finally, government policy can strongly influence communi- best hope that many unskilled workers have of climbing onto ty formation even—and especially—for those with few skills the first rung of the economic ladder, learning new skills, and and little money. Housing and zoning policies that dictate the earning a living. Policy should encourage such employers’ hir- physical formation of communities can have enormous posi- ing and training of otherwise unqualified workers. Policy tive or negative effects. Local governments should adopt more should also reward workers for taking low-wage jobs. The best liberal, market-oriented planning regimes that allow multi - option would be to aggressively subsidize l ow-wage work, for family housing development in prosperous urban areas. Such both the employer and the employee, using dollars we now policies would pay a double dividend of reducing housing costs spend on other safety-net programs. Crucially, the subsidy and allowing more lower-class households to join already should treat all workers equally, without regard to family size or strong communities. A broad coalition including the hardest- marital status: The goal is to encourage work and move people core libertarians and the most passionate social activists often

The goal is to encourage work and move people from school or unemployment into the work force, not to channel resources on the basis of need.

from school or unemployment into the work force, not to chan- loses out to intense NIMBYism on this issue. But properly de - nel resources on the basis of need. fining the stakes might at least prompt second thoughts from Relatedly, we should revitalize the employer-employee those opposing development. relationship. Enthusiasm for the “sharing economy” and the Immigration matters, too. Through the lens of income in - trend toward independent-contractor relationships often equality, the immigration debate often focuses on measure- overlooks the drawbacks of abandoning traditional employ- ments of GDP and wage growth. But if the issue is social ment. The option of working for oneself has benefits and equality, the question is different: Are the communities that might be the best choice for some, but it can leave workers immigrants will join robust, resilient, and prepared to assimilate disconnected from a business and from fellow employees, newcom ers and foster their upward mobility? If the answer in reducing stability and community. Further, as economist lower-class communities is no, then an influx of low-skilled Tyler Cowen has observed, the independent-contractor struc- immigrants is likely to accelerate rather than slow the cycle of ture places a premium on time management, self-motivation, social collapse. and self-instruction, which disadvantages workers who lack This same reorientation toward social rather than income such skills. inequality has implications for any number of policy areas, If market forces alone were dictating the shift toward including the tax treatment of marriage, the participation of independent-contractor relationships, policy intervention religious organizations in th e delivery of public social services, might be unwise. But many employers are discarding tradi- even the role of public broadcasting. (One recent study showed tional work arrangements because they wish to avoid regula- that access to Sesame Street had effects comparable to those of tion, not because they prefer less control over their work force. preschool programs.) And no discussion would be complete A compromise that reduces regulatory burdens while expand- without looking beyond policy and mentioning the crucial role ing the arrangements that qualify as employment could benefit that political, cultural, and community leaders can play employers and employees, improve economic efficiency, and through the themes and values they emphasize. Social activism still support the evolution of new business models. by leaders is not a policy prescription, but here it may be every We could also enlist unions in the effort to reverse social col- bit as powerful. lapse. Many unions are rightly criticized for benefiting their Conservatives must tackle this challenge. Reverence for the leadership and political patrons at the expense of both employ- gradual evolution of society and skepticism about govern- ers’ and employees’ long-term interests. The unionization of ment’s ability to exert a constructive influence go a long way public employees has also proven an ongoing, unmitigated toward explaining why the Right often defends the social status national disaster. quo so aggressively, and why it is called “conservative” in the But a union can serve as a beneficial civil-society institution first place. But now the status quo leads toward collapse. For for low-wage workers in difficult jobs, helping them acclimate those in the lower class, the family and community pillars to the working world, develop good habits and skills, gain around which the conservative worldview is centered are near access to benefits, and form communities. Some unions in to toppling. If they fall, they will take opportunity for millions America work better than others, and some countries have with them, and they may never be rebuilt.

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The Long View BY ROB LONG

sure you show up wearing as much level—and a trip to the water’s edge black as possible—so, basically, is a must, to see the complicated come dressed as one of your wives— earthworks and levees that keep the and try not to appear to be enjoying entire country from flooding. De - yourself. In other words, you’ll feel stroying those works, of course, is right at home! what some of you “refugees” will be tasked with, as the Dutch are also Europe on PARIS: famous for their tolerance. Ten Euros a Day! Ah, Paris! The City of Light! Your The ISIS Guide! time here will probably be spent in DON’T BE AN UGLY JIDAHIST! the dreary banlieus, the out-of-town Here are some simple ways to The COMPLETE guide to Europe’s suburbs where most “refugees” will make your time as a “refugee” more capitals of food, fashion, and fun! be housed, but that doesn’t mean you enjoyable and make sure you get the Now that you’re in Europe for a can’t grab your RER card and head most out it: while, I’m sure you’re thinking: into Paris Center for a café crème at 1. Learn to say danke and merci Hey, what the heck do I do now? the world-famous Café de Flore, like a local. A little politeness goes a Well, ISIS Guides is here to help. where noted Jewish homosexual long way. Sure, you’re there to Grab this guide, get out of your tent intellectuals gathered to speak blas- destroy the degenerate and immoral city, and see the sights of Old phemies against You Know Whom trappings of a Satanic civilization Europe—before it becomes the and where the fashionable set still and impose the merciless rule of the New Europe! gather for (some say overpriced) cof- Divine Caliphate, but that doesn’t While you’re waiting to be acti- fee and pastries and upscale talk. mean you can’t do it with a smile! vated, why not take advantage of Stroll the septieme arrondissment When snatching the girl children your proximity to some of Europe’s and marvel at the sheer number of away from their families to marry off most interesting and historic sites? museums, academies, and places of to elderly Afghans or rounding up See them all before your mission to learning that will have to be de - the boy children for religious indoc- reduce them all to rubble is set into stroyed! And don’t forget to engage trination, remember that you’re a motion! in that most Parisian of all activi- guest in this country. Ready? Set? Let’s Go! ties: sitting with an afternoon coffee 2. When pacing around the monu- and watching the people walk by, ments to their false and grotesquely almost all of whom will have to be perverted religion in order to get the BERLIN: beheaded or hanged publicly when proportions right for the eventual Berlin truly is one of Europe’s the Caliphate is declared. demolition needs, remember that for most refined and stately capitals. A many people in the area, this is a world center for art, music, archi- AMSTERDAM: livelihood. The snack vendors and tecture, and the avant-garde, you can Amsterdam! The city of canals! the ice-cream salesmen and the post- get lost in Berlin’s elegant gardens, Wooden shoes! Windmills! The Dutch card guys are going to be out of work its galleries, and even its (shhhhh!) are famous for their cheese and their soon—who’s going to want to visit a biergartens—you might as well Old Master paintings—many of pile of rubble where the Notre Dame take a look at what all the fuss is which are displayed in the newly Cathedral once was, right?—so be about! Before you make the locals remodeled Rijksmuseum. Don’t nice. A smile and a wave really can say auf weidersehen to their heads, miss a canal boat ride or a visit to the be the best ambassador. a sip of the local hefeweizen won’t Anne Frank House, where the Myth 3. Try not to set anyone on fire kill you, and it just may disarm the of the Holocaust is perpetuated in a before you’re officially activated and locals enough that they won’t notice series of truly over-the-top and your mission is given the “go code” you setting their wives on fire! utterly preposterous lies told in dio- from ISIS HQ. It’s just a courtesy to Berliners love their techno music rama and video presentation. The your host country. and their underground club scene, Dutch are brilliant engineers— 4. Enjoy the local food! (Halal but getting in is not easy—make much of the country is below sea only!)

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Athwart BY JAMES LILEKS When to Pooh-Pooh a Military Coup

HOCKER headline on the website Political Wire: likelihood of the situation has no impact on your ability to “Many Republicans Would Support Military conjure it up. Coup.” Presumably these are people who watch Next poll question: “If elected leaders of the federal S Seven Days in May and turn it off before the last government began to violate the Constitution, would you reel because the end’s so disappointing. The story links to support or oppose the military stepping in to take control YouGov, which says that “43% of Republicans could imag- of the federal government?” (To which you might say: ine supporting a military coup in the United States.” Began to violate?) No details necessary, right? It fits the narrative. Democracy Democrats: 36 percent yes, 37 percent no, 27 percent empowers people, the Right hates people, the military kills unsure. Republicans: 55 percent yes, 21 percent no, 24 per- people, and you get parades. Win-win all around. But where cent unsure. The last answer is probably the best, because did the percentage come from? An online survey about atti- you don’t know what that violation might be. Obviously, it tudes toward the military and politicians. Most Americans wouldn’t be some niggling little tweak like rewriting immi- trust the former and would strap the latter to rockets and fire gration or tax policy through executive order, or pretending them into the sun. Nice consensus on that one. Then the poll that a treaty is just an agreement, which is like saying that posed some real stumpers, like “Do you believe that the marriage is just like a very long evening of dinner and drinks. military has a duty to protect the Constitution against foreign The little things we can let slide. enemies?” Many weren’t sure, perhaps because they had a No, it would have to be big, and that’s where it gets hard time imagining soldiers bursting into the National interesting. If the president decided to ban guns by exec- Archives as ISIS agents brushed Wite-Out onto the found- utive action, requiring door-to-door confiscation, there ing documents. would be no shortage of progressives insisting that we had But Question 14 got all the press. It asked: “Is there finally matured into the sort of society Piers Morgan any situation in which you could imagine yourself sup- would be proud to call home. For many on the left, the porting the U.S. military taking over the powers of the Constitution is a hoary holdover, a ghoul-white hand of federal government?” the past clamped over the brave mouth of enlightenment, Oh, sure. For example: During a press conference in 2023, and if the right person said that the First Amendment the president sneezes so hard his face mask falls off, and the shouldn’t protect hate speech about the effect of climate hideous visage of a humanoid lizard is revealed. If he were a change on rape culture, well, put it in a Prius and drive it Democrat, the press would laugh it off as a “Halloween to the trash dump. prank,” even though he was talking about lighting the White If, however, a president tampered with basic, foundational House Christmas tree and his tongue flicked out 17 inches planks in the Constitution, like the right to abortion or to and snared a fly. But ordinary folk would start looking for expressing personal identity, you might need to call out the proof that our elites were, in fact, bipedal lizards of profound National Guard. Bravo Team will secure the penumbras; malevolence. It would seem obvious, eventually. How could Alpha Team will protect the emanations. All the house-to- we not have seen it? I mean, Bill Maher on the TV all the house combat expertise gained in the Iraq War would be time, and no one suspected? handy when you were working through a pizza parlor or If the military stepped forward to drive out the lizard peo- cake bakery run by fundamentalists who decline to honor ple, I would support it. I would not trust Congress. Stands the Bill of Rights’ guarantee of equal access to catering. to reason that the Senate would be full of lizards eager to Besides: It might take a military coup for people to realize go on Face the Nation and argue that their underground how underrepresented women are in the armed forces. slave factories keep a lot of people off the unemployment You’d be watching the press conference about the presi- rolls. Sure, the mohair subsidy turns out to be a cover for dent’s arrest, and it’d be all people in uniform, and you’d implanting thought-control chips in the brains of new- think: They can’t find one trans person? borns, but it’s not worth shutting down the government So it depends. You can imagine a situation in which a law- over a fight to defund it. less government could suspend the Constitution, and you can In this instance, I would like the military to intervene endorse the purely theoretical intervention of people who before Hollywood makes a sitcom about a gay couple have sworn to uphold and protect it. In related news: Fantasy who discover that one of them’s a lizard. It’s a metaphor Football is quite popular. for intolerance! I bring all of this up only because of that headline. It Barring that set of circumstances, I am loath to agree that confirms the progressive suspicion that the Right wants the military should stage a coup. But I can imagine it. I can an all-powerful government that can control the quotid- also imagine being rescued from drowning by six super- ian details of people’s lives because it has a monopoly models trained in mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. The un - on force. As you might expect, that makes the progres- sives nervous. Mr. Lileks blogs at www.lileks.com. That’s their racket.

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NR senior editor Jay Nordlinger has lated souls and specialized in brutal- Living by written a gem of a book that is at once izing, killing, and raping with impuni- an authoritative guide to 20th-century ty. Some—Jean-Claude Du valier, Kim despotism and, even more compelling- Jong-il, Bashar Assad, and Kim Lies ly, an astute moral and psychological Jong-un—became successor despots, study of the children of 20 of the worst with uneven applications of cruelty DANIEL J. MAHONEY dictators of the 20th century. (Not all and fanaticism. were outright monsters: Nordlinger Bashar Assad wanted to opt out of convincingly argues that the Spanish politics and practice the ophthalmology strongman Francisco Franco—a mod- for which he was trained in London. erate authoritarian for much of his But the early death of a brother—the rule—was a “relative lamb” com- chosen heir—brought him unexpect- pared with the others.) The book had edly to the forefront. With the coming its distant origin in a trip to Albania. of the Arab Spring and the resultant While there, Nordlinger inquired Syrian civil war, this reluctant tyrant whether the cruel and fanatical Al - has become a national butcher, killing banian tyrant Enver Hoxha had had far more people than his tyrannical children, and, if so, what they and their father Hafez Assad ever did. He has lives were like. As it turned out, all continued the family business with were unapologetic defenders of their impressive ruthlessness. Children of Monsters: An Inquiry into the Sons and tyrant father. Colonel Moammar Qaddafi’s son This motif would come to run Saif al-Islam Qaddafi knew that despo- Daughters of Dictators, by Jay Nordlinger deeply through Nordlinger’s book. tism was “dark and wrong” and tried (Encounter, 336 pp., $25.99) Almost all the sons and daughters, to take on the airs of a Western liberal and grandchildren, of the tyrants of the and modernizer. (The words quoted, ESPOTISM is as old as the 20th century remained unequivocally like all subsequent quotes unless political condition of man loyal to the tyrant-father or tyrant- other wise attributed, are from Nord - and is the antithesis of free grandfather. This is true even of the linger.) Saif al-Islam “tried to go and decent human life. In relatively normal ones who themselves straight,” but when his father’s dicta- Dthe 20th century it took an impressive did not become monsters. Family loy- torship came under assault in 2011, he, variety of forms. There were those alty, a natural and generally admirable too, murdered and persecuted oppo- who killed, immiserated, and impris- human phenomenon, in the case of nents of that dictatorship with aban- oned in the name of building truly these souls fatally undermined the don. He made the choice to defend the “revolutionary” societies. These were ability to see clearly and from a per- family business. He “grew a beard in the the ideological tyrants—Lenin, Hitler, spective that does justice to truth and style of fundamentalist Muslims . . . and Stalin, Mao—who killed in the name conscience. Even Edda Mussolini gave wild-eyed rants on television.” of perverted ideas—Communism, Ciano, whose famous diplomat hus- He now rots in a Libyan prison, his lib- Fascism, National Socialism, revolu- band, Count Ciano, was murdered by eralism (and Western connections) a tion, progress. There were the old- her father, eventually reconciled with thing of distant memory. fashioned despots—Bokassa, Amin, her father’s name and legacy. Saddam Some monster sons stand out in a very Duvalier, Mobutu—who read like a Hussein’s daughters saw their hus- competitive pack. Uday Hussein was a page ripped out of the historians of bands brutally murdered after return- psychopath of the first order and clearly antiquity: They needed no ideology to ing from exile in Jordan in 1995; they earned his self-designation as “Abu justify their depredations. Some, such remain to this day among his most Sarhan,” the Wolf. He had no empathy, as the Kims in North Korea, combine impassioned, militant partisans. The no concern for other human beings. sincerely held ideological fanaticism grandson of Mao basks in the reflected Vasily Stalin was a drunkard and a with the pure capriciousness of the non- glory of one of the great mass mur- satyr and revealed the “moral sterility ideological tyrant. All despots show derers—and ideological tyrants—of of Stalinism” (as the Russian historian contempt for the moral law and elemen- the 20th century. The vast majority of Dmitri Volkogonov once phrased it). tary human decency. the “children of monsters” have cho- Nicu Ceausescu was appalling in every sen to “live by lies,” to diminish their way, drunk and crazy. Mr. Mahoney, the author of The Other humanity by defending and perpetu- As we have mentioned, there are Solzhenitsyn: Telling the Truth about a ating evil and mendacity. Some chil- those who defend the indefensible with- Misunderstood Writer and Thinker, holds the dren—Vasily Stalin, Nicu Ceausescu, out being monsters themselves. This is Augustine Chair in Distinguished Scholarship at Uday Hussein—became despicable true of several of the Musso linis, the Assumption College. brutes. These monster sons had muti- Tojo children as a group (who appear

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eminently decent), Valentin Ceausescu, Svetlana “did her best” given “the cir- with courage and humanity, and has Nzanga Mobutu, and Pol Pot’s daugh- cumstances of her almost unimagin- done genuinely good work for peace ter from late in life, Sar Patchata (who able life.” She had a conscience and and reconciliation in Uganda. One of seems to have no awareness that her refused to follow that path of the lie. the Ayatollah Khomeini’s grand children, father was one of the great killers of As confused and troubled as she a liberal religious cleric named Hussein, modern times). The rest either defend sometimes was, for the most part “she publicly compared his grandfather’s “necessary murder,” in Auden’s mem- followed the Solzhenitsyn maxim of rule unfavorably with the shah’s and orable words, or claim that their fathers ‘live not by lies.’” In her “lay a great- the depredations of the Mongols, were merely defending the laws that ness,” a greatness obscured by those boldly rejecting what he did not hesi- were in place at the time (the risible who adopt a reductively “therapeutic” tate to call a new “religious totalitari- claim of the wholly unapologetic approach to her life. anism.” He even called on the United Hoxha family). Fidel Castro’s daughter Alina Fer - States to help liberate Iran as it liber- Two children of tyrants stand out nández defected to the United States ated Iraq in 2003–04. for a moral seriousness that led them in 1993, joining his sister, who had Children of Monsters is fascinating to “live not by lies,” in the celebrated fled the island prison in 1964. Alina on many levels. One learns a great phrase of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. could not close her eyes to the reality deal about the human costs of despo- This phrase, this imperative, serves as of life in a Communist despotism. tism, the lives lost and souls damaged the moral center and thematic core of She did not like the “surveillance that beyond repair. The book is filled with Nordlinger’s book. He could not have was sometimes inflicted on her” and marvelous tidbits: We learn that the chosen a better one. The lie is at heart did not want her daughter to grow up maternal uncle of Saddam Hussein Some of the children and grandchildren came short of living in the truth but at the same time refused to simply succumb to the lie.

a denial of an order of truth that makes in a police state. In 1997, she pub- who raised him and later became humanizing demands on our hearts lished a “fascinating and highly valu- mayor of Baghdad was an admirer of and souls. The lie covers over the able book” that exposed Castroite Hitler and penned a little book in clear evidence of conscience and despotism for what it was. She, too, 1940 called “Three Whom God makes us complicit with evil. Vio - chose to live not by lies, and raised her Should Not Have Created: Persians, lence and lies are the twin pillars of voice fearlessly. Jews, and Flies.” The apple did not ideological despotism, and mendacity The children Nordlinger admires fall far from the tree. For his part, is inherent in despotism of any sort. In most are the defectors, who had “up - Saddam profoundly admired Stalin, one of her autobiographical works risings of conscience and saw reality while Ceausescu admired Mao and from the 1960s, Stalin’s daughter, for what it was.” This was far more Kim Il-sung (even having the latter’s Svetlana Alliluyeva, explained that difficult for Svetlana than for Alina, book on juche, the ideology of North her turn to Christianity represented who never lived with her father and Korean Communism, translated into the rejection of “evil, the lie.” She was less close to the source of the evil. Ro manian). And the cruel and canni- knew that systematic mendacity is This book shows in myriad ways that balistic Emperor Bokassa of the never far from radical evil. Defecting family loyalty has its limits, that our Central African Empire had 50 chil- to the West in 1967, she failed to find ultimate loyalty must be to truth and dren from 17 or 18 wives. One of the sustained happiness in the free world. decency, even if most of us, most of sons was named Charlemagne and Svetlana led a troubled life, one that the time, can conjugate the require- died penniless in the streets of Paris had no small amount of paranoia, ments of conscience and family life at the age of 31. confusion, and moral failure. She with relative ease and grace. Jay Nordlinger has written a book even redefected to the Soviet Union in Some of the children and grand - that expertly delves into human evil 1984, only to regret her decision al - children came short of living in the while richly illuminating the re - most immediately; after 18 months, truth but at the same time refused to sources of the human spirit. Child ren she was allowed to return to the simply succumb to the lie. Idi Amin’s of Monsters is a profound contribution United States. But she saw the full son Jaffar has been, at times, “a rank to the study of 20th-century despo- truth about her father and totalitarian- apolo gist for his father: a white-washer, tism, and to the moral psychology of ism and had the courage to write a denier.” He claims, in a book on his family life under the worst regimes. It about it in two books that “ought to father, that the Ugandan dictator is a singular contribution to the litera- endure.” Nordlinger is right that those killed only 10,800 people and not the ture of anti-totalitarianism. In it, high books, Twenty Letters to a Friend and 300,000 of which he is plausibly journalism meets moral and political Only One Year, “are true, brave, and accused. But Jaffar has also reached reflection of a serious and very acces- beautiful.” He is also surely right that out to some of his father’s victims sible sort.

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to enjoy a quiet, well-ordered life. True, the German army immediately occupied The Benito Mussolini had seized power, but the country of its former ally. Jews had there was no compelling reason to pay to decide how to meet the Nazi threat. attention to his high-decibel speechify- For about six weeks, Levi was with par- Witness ing away in Rome. Numbering about tisans in the Val d’Aosta. There were 4,000, the Jews of Turin were a close- some 15 in the group. Fighting, he was DAVID PRYCE-JONES knit community in which everyone to say, was something he had not been knew everyone else, but they were loyal taught. Carole Angier, author of an and assimilated Italians, and proud of it. exhaustive biography, writes that the Levi’s father was a cheerful extrovert, a necessity of killing went against Levi’s successful businessman quite prepared nature: “He would spend his brief career to wear the black shirt of the Fascists if as a partisan tormented by it.” After - that was what all the others were doing. ward, he dismissed that short period as To be Jewish was a matter of little or no “stupid.” A local Fascist crudely infil- importance to any of them. Young Primo trated and trapped them. Levi was held never went to synagogue and came to at Fossoli, a clearing station for onward think that a Jew was just someone who deportation to Auschwitz. didn’t have a Christmas tree. The family In the Lager, violence had the pur- had an apartment on the fifth floor of a pose of reducing human beings to the The Complete Works of Primo Levi, edited by solid old building in a largely Jewish level of beasts or things. Pure chance Ann Goldstein (Liveright, 3 vols., 3,008 residential district. Fitting into the saved Levi from the gas chamber. A pp., $100) Italian family-minded mold, Levi’s subsection of the Lager had the task of mother never moved out, not even when manufacturing synthetic rubber for the RIMO LEVI was a prophet who his wife moved in with him. Levi him- Wehrmacht, and chemists were re - resisted the moral nihilism self was away just once, for the year he quired. Passing an exam and mastering that is the particular mark of spent in the Lager. sufficient German, Levi was able to the 20th century. Deported in Slight, even frail, Levi has a haunted, stay indoors in a laboratory, spared the P1944 to Auschwitz, to which he always bespectacled look in most of the photo- weather and physical work that other- referred as the Lager, its German name, graphs included in these volumes. wise would have killed him. The Lager he survived and then spent the rest of Plenty of people are still around who developed what he calls “the grey his life trying to make sense of what he remember him at every stage, and they zone,” in which it was each man for had been through. “Someone who has have talked themselves out in inter- himself. Guards, of course, were able experienced the Lager,” he summed up, views to biographers and journalists, to do as they pleased. Possession of a “feels that he is the repository of a fun- often at cross-purposes. His youthful spoon, a mess tin, or a button might be damental experience, inserted into the timidity, his reserve, his self-doubt, an issue of life or death for prisoners. In history of the world, a witness by right and his fear of women are treated as the conduct enforced in the grey zone, and by duty.” articles of faith. Following the exam- Levi, like every other inmate, had to Other survivors have written in anger, ple of Giacomo Leopardi, the great become accustomed on the one hand to recrimination, and self-pity. At times Italian poet of permanent melancholy, collaboration with the guards, and on the Levi gives way to these natural reac- Levi was supposedly unhappier than other to stealing anything that could be tions, but a unique spirit of inquiry any of his contemporaries—except stolen. In spite of their orders, chemists informs his books, especially If This Is that he happened to make close friends and slave laborers alike produced no a Man (1947) and The Drowned and the easily and go mountain-climbing with synthetic rubber. The grey zone’s total Saved (1986). How had it come about them. Some say that reading Thomas absence of morality was a troubling that mass murder was now a modern Mann (his favorite), Joseph Conrad, form of verification of the SS view of industrial process? On one memorable Aldous Huxley, Rabelais, and Kafka Jews as beasts and things rather than occasion in the Lager, the extreme bru- had made him determined to become a human beings. tality of one of the SS guards prompted writer—except that in 1937 he enrolled Levi fell ill with scarlet fever at the Levi to dare to ask him, “Warum?”—that as a chemistry student at the University very moment when the SS were evacu- is to say, Why? “Hier ist kein Warum,” of Turin. Some of Levi’s fans assert that ating the Lager and organizing an atro- this SS guard answered: Here there is his primary talent is literary; others say cious death march to the west in the no Why. that he has the approach of a chemist, depth of winter. Abandoned in the The whole range of Italian academic analyzing, defining, weighing, distill- Lager, he was therefore one of a handful specialists have been taken on board as ing according to a set formula. alive when soldiers of the Red Army editors and translators of these hefty Mussolini’s racial laws deprived Jews overran it. The Truce (1963) is Levi’s thousand-page volumes of Levi’s col- of basic rights. Primo Levi and his account of his tragicomic roundabout lected work, with the obvious intention friends began to resist, though they had journey home on a Russian train that of raising a lasting literary monument. no idea “how to make bombs or shoot a seemed to have no destination and might Fame looked unlikely for Levi. Born in rifle,” as he put it. Then, in September well have a bandoned him somewhere in Turin in 1919, he might have expected 1943, Italy declared an armistice, and the Soviet Union.

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ollection Tbyh eflorence Bent Pi nking C The new, complete, and unabridged collection of the popular witheringmonthly NR magazine column by America’s most revered misanthropic writer

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BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS

Of the 650 men and women who had Wilhelm Reich) are given at least a cur- been with Levi on the train to Auschwitz, Straight sory treatment, but Milton, Goethe, and 23 survived. For reasons that go deep Wagner are all discussed in considerably into the shame and guilt of Europeans more detail, and Walsh draws freely over their collusion with mass murder, Outta throughout on a cornucopia of cultural Levi’s testimony was pushed aside at figures, from Boethius to Francis Ford first. Publishers rejected him, and Frankfurt Coppola. It’s a bit disorienting. One Natalia Ginzburg, the best-known keeps wondering when the central argu- Jewish writer from Turin, thought they ment will begin. were right to do so. “I was a chemist,” R A C H E L L U To find your sea legs on this voyage, Levi said of himself, as though in a lit- you must accept that The Devil’s Pleasure erary dead end, “an expert in insulat- Palace is not really meant as intellec- ing varnishes who happened to have tual history; it is more of a Chesterton- written two books by working over- style romp through the verdant fields time evenings and Sundays.” To settle of Western (and especially German) in his own mind whether to forgive or civilization. Walsh spent his college forget, he made contact with German years inundated with the sophistries of chemists under whom he had been a the Frankfurt School and clearly has slave laborer in the Lager. Twice he revis- little appetite for rehashing their theo- ited the Lager. ries in detail. Instead, he is challenging Levi lived long enough to see his old nemeses to mortal combat, changes in attitude. Adolf Eichmann The Devil’s Pleasure Palace: The Cult of Critical along with their legions of spiritual been responsible for the logistics progeny. Assuring us from the start had Theory and the Subversion of the West, by Michael of mass murder, and his trial, which that the stakes are as high as they can Walsh (Encounter, 280 pp., $23.99) started in 1961, helped to inform public possibly be (life! death! sin! salva- opinion. Levi did not attend but pro - tion!), Walsh jumps into the fray in the vided evidence, and considered that ICHAEL WALSH’s latest Chester tonian spirit of a man fighting justice had been done when Eichmann book is nothing if not for his life. Replete with martial was executed. He also testified at the ambitious. According to imagery, the book reads as a call to trial of an SS colonel accused of de - the jacket summary, it arms for anyone who yet has strength porting several thousand Italian Jews. M“exposes the overlooked movement to defend the true, the beautiful, and What had happened to Levi, and what that is Critical Theory” and “explains the good. conclusions were to be drawn, became a how it . . . has affected nearly every Why do these things need defending? test of conscience. aspect of American life and society.” If As Walsh sees it, the men of the Frank - Famous at last, Levi published fiction, that thesis sounds broad enough, Walsh furt School (most of them Jewish acade- stories, poems, and occasional pieces on himself articulates a still broader one, mics who fled Germany and came to all sorts of subjects for the newspaper La declaring at the outset of Chapter Nine New York shortly before World War II) Stampa. Collecting this material for the that he aims to prove that “the heroic were effectively nihilists looking to first time, the editors make great claims narrative is not simply our way of detach American culture from anything for its importance, perhaps for fear that telling ourselves comforting fairy tales meaningful or real. From the gloom of a it might be taken as the kind of writing about the ultimate triumph of Good turbulent Europe, they stepped out into a chemist does in his spare time. But over Evil, but an implanted moral com- the sunshine of an idyllic American land- Levi’s memories of the Lager convey a pass that guides even the least religious scape and resolved to put a stop to such passion and involvement of quite a dif- among us.” unseemly cheerfulness. In the Fifties, ferent order. This is heady stuff. Readers might be flush with post-war confidence, Ameri - Toward the end of his life, Levi forgiven for wondering what the heroic cans were too complacent to be properly apparently suffered from depression. narrative has to do with the Frankfurt guarded against the spiritual sickness of His friends, biographers, and interview- School; they might, indeed, be forgiven Marxism. Happily en sconced among the ing journalists say so, and some offer for making it to Chapter Nine still won- American intelligentsia, the Frankfurt quite good evidence for it. Perhaps that dering how the Frankfurt School fits School pro ceeded to hollow out our cul- is why, in 1987, with his aged mother into the book at all. For the most part, ture by convincing us that up is down and his wife nearby, he threw himself Walsh assumes the dastardly character and black is white. Now we find our off the landing outside his front door, of critical theory as a premise. Only a society being sucked into a vortex of and fell five floors to his death. The few pages of the book are devoted to ressentiment, so culturally desiccated suicide of an Auschwitz survivor par- real textual analysis. Three particular that we cannot even answer the chal- ticularly raises the tormenting question members of the Frankfurt School lenge of Islamist barbarians who are of Why. Perhaps moral nihilism had (Herbert Marcuse, Theodor Adorno, and openly bent on our destruction. turned the whole world into a grey Walsh details the symptoms of this zone, and he didn’t want to struggle in it Rachel Lu teaches philosophy at the University of St. cultural disease, deftly picking apart any longer. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn. the contradictions that expose progres-

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sivism for the charade it is. He explains he sketches goes well beyond any par- how the promotion of diversity and tol- ticular school of thought. It is the story erance was a ruse for turning healthy of our age: the battle of modernity dissent into a thoughtcrime. He shows against the bulwark of Western tradi- how a coordinated assault on beauty was tion. That tale is well worth telling, and dr essed up as a form of artistic novelty. people who are used to narrating it He tells how the siren song of sexual from one perspective (say, that of a I M P O desire has lured us into a world that is Catholic moral philosopher) may profit R T A N T hostile to sexual pleasure. from hearing a different version (as N O Throughout these intellectual ex - told by, say, an esteemed music critic). T I C E posés, Walsh draws the battle lines But if we are engaged in cultural and with painful clarity, playing constantly spiritual warfare, it might be useful to to all National Review with Biblical and literary themes of know: What precise role does the Frank - temptation, seduction, and the heroic furt School play in modernity’s Army subscribers! struggle for victory over empty, demonic of Darkness? forces. It is essential to view ourselves This never becomes clear. Neither the and our society in such terms, Walsh Frankfurt School nor American society believes, so that we can respond appro- as such seems to hold Walsh’s attention priately to the existential threat that for long. Thus, the question lingers: Did #1><>?=<>?0<=5/57>6:We are moving our confronts us. Progressives are masters Marcuse and Adorno really have such =+>649>8?8;7949:96+? of deceit, and they thrive on compro- enormous influence on American cul- subscription-fulfillment mise. We should give them no quarter, ture, or are they scapegoated for the sake 3;56>,=7?,9:1;5:to Palm Coast, Fla. Western civilization? neutralize the greatest remaining strong- Please continue This book will be especially delight- hold of Western civilization. What a ;5=8>?<>273?;673?There are fraudulent theory, and who enjoy the spectacle of still curious. :;?agencies
'$)#"'! soliciting (%)(& seeing its tenets colorfully belittled. In short, readers looking to place the By drawing out the cultural and moral Frankfurt School on an intellectual- your<>6>,=7?6;:94>8?National Review implications of critical theory’s errors, historical landscape should choose a subscription renewal Walsh has done a service to those who different book, such as Martin Jay’s The ;? lack the larger context that he can pro- Dialectical Imagination. Readers think - without85<>?:1>?<>:5<6? our authorization. vide. Though initially bewildering, the ing on a moral or spiritual plane will be Please=//<>88?98? reply only to cacophony of cultural associations serves more satisfied, however, and on that National Review a real purpose . Readers come to appreci- level Walsh’s book is astute, passionate, (=7.?!;=8:
?"7=-? ate that Walsh isn’t just settling scores and sometimes profoundly moving. renewal notices or with unfondly remembered personali- His diagnosis of American culture is '+6;<>?=77?<>&5>8:8?bills—make sure the ties from his undergraduate days. His grim, but the book is not a requiem. It battle with critical theory is part of a is charged with Walsh’s fierce confi- 0;6>,=7?:1=:?return address is larger war. dence that the disease that ails us need =<>?6;:?/9<>4:73?Palm Coast, Fla. The least satisfied readers of The not be terminal. Our innate moral com- Devil’s Pleasure Palace may be those passes are still functional, and heroic Ignore2=3=*7>?:;? all requests for who are seeking a more nuanced appre- narrative is in our blood. Our enemies’
'$)#"'!renewal that (%)(&are not-? ciation of the Frankfurt School and its arsenal is little more than a box of cos- directly payable impact on American society. Though this tumes, while our side has more fearsome '0?3;5?<>4>9 >?=63? is ostensibly the main subject of the weapons at our disposal: the piercing to National Review. book, it gets somewhat lost in the explo- intellect of Aristotle and Augustine, the If you.=97?;7>21;6>? receive any mail or ration of larger, eschatological themes. clarifying beauty of Mozart and Michel - It’s not as serious a flaw as one might angelo, and, most important, the Cross. telephone;00>8? offer that makes think, given the real scope of Walsh’s Be not afraid. 3;5?8582949;58?4;6:=4:you suspicious contact project. Still, it’s regrettable. Altogether, The Devil’s Pleasure Palace As Walsh obviously understands, the is a very enjoyable book that will leave [email protected]@nationalreview.com.. errors of the Frankfurt School were in no the reader feeling emboldened and $;5<=:9;6?98Your cooperation way unique to them. Their worst fea- spiritually rejuvenated. If you need a is greatly appreciated. tures were most immediately inherited refreshing draught in the midst of a rag- +<>=:73?=22<>49=:>/- from other Continental thinkers (Hegel, ing culture war, come right up to the bar. Marx, Fre ud), but, in fact, the dialectic This round is on Michael Walsh.

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BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS

marily a way in which two adults longstanding legal and cultural protec- Not affirm their emotional commitment to tions for religious freedom. This rejec- one another.” tion is inherently destabilizing. Since The first cultural iteration of this religion deals with the deepest impera- Inevitable belief was of course no-fault divorce, tives of the faithful—not merely what the transformation of marriage from a they ought to do, but what they must DAVID FRENCH covenant generally breakable only in the do—a failure to respect religious free- event of one of the three “A”s—abuse, dom leads inevitably to conflicts be - adultery, or abandonment—into a single- tween church and state, further political party consent arrangement less binding divisiveness, and perhaps large-scale than a consumer-product warranty. civil disobedience. The consequences of this first change The stories are already legion, with were devastating, mainly to children Christian small-business owners brought but also to spouses who dealt with the to the brink of financial ruin if they pain and heartbreak of ever more com- refuse to help celebrate gay weddings, mon divorce. threats to tax exemptions and accredi- With the social consequences of no- tation of Christian schools, Christian fault divorce all around us, Anderson adoption agencies forced to close, and takes on the notion that gay marriage will even pastors under scrutiny for preach- simply exist alongside traditional mar- ing Biblical orthodoxy on marriage, Truth Overruled: The Future of Marriage and riage, operating essentially as a same-sex gender, and sexuality. So far, the same- Religious Freedom, by Ryan T. Anderson mirror of its opposite-sex counterpart, sex-marriage movement is intent not (Regnery, 256 pp., $16.99) with minimal cultural impact on hetero- just on redefining marriage but on sexual marriage. Anderson makes clear reforming society and marginalizing T’S entirely possible that the legal that, just as no-fault divorce had serious dissenting voices. battle over same-sex marriage was consequences for American life and But Truth Overruled is no mere lost for lack of Ryan Andersons. culture, so will same-sex marriage. recitation of social woes. It equips There simply weren’t enough Indeed, for many gay-marriage advo- readers to deal with common but non- Ipeople like him—people capable of cates, that is a key motivation for the sensical assertions, such as the insis- making a compelling, plain-English, entire enterprise. tence that opposing same-sex marriage cultural, political, and legal case for Most critically, gay marriage seems is the equivalent of opposing interracial marriage as the union of one man and set to challenge one of the indispens- marriage, or that same-sex marriage one woman—to turn the tide against a able aspects of both comprehensive was “banned” before the Obergefell de - same-sex-marriage on slaught that com- and consent-based mores of hetero - cision. As Anderson notes, bans on bined one part argument with three sexual marriage: sexual exclusivity. interracial marriage were aberrational parts insult to cajole and bully America Even in the era of no-fault divorce, even at the time, a departure from thou- into redefining its most ancient cul- adultery—while common—is still seen sands of years of race-blind marital tural institution. as a moral failure. Marital monogamy practice. Proponents of interracial- Coming so soon after the Supreme is still the ideal. Yet, as Anderson ex - marriage bans were changing the tradi- Court’s embarrassing opinion in plains, sexual exclusivity not only isn’t tional definition of marriage. And Obergefell v. Hodges—in which it creat- necessarily practiced in gay marriages, regarding the alleged “ban” on same- ed a constitutional right to same-sex mar- it’s often not even seen as an ideal. sex marriage, couples in all 50 states riage—Truth Overruled is a tonic. It Prominent gay-marriage advocates had the right to live together, conduct provides a much-needed reminder that the speak of “monogamish” relationships, marriage ceremonies (even in willing battle over marriage isn’t over. Indeed, in in which sexual adventurism is accept- churches), and “choose from a multi- many ways, it’s hardly begun. able so long as there is transparency tude of employers that offered them First, some context. Obergefell, writes and—there’s that word again—consent. the same benefits available to married Anderson, was simply the latest itera- The result is likely to be yet another couples”; they just didn’t have the right tion of a decades-long redefinition of evolution in the concept of marriage, to state recognition and support. So marriage, from a “comprehensive, with “open relationships” ever more Obergefell wasn’t so much about a exclusive, permanent union that is common—and with the focus once right to marry as it was about a right to intrinsically ordered to producing new again on adult desire rather than the state recognition. life” to the “emotional union” of con- well-being of children. Most critically, however, Truth senting adults. In the consent-based And of course no discussion of same- Overruled is indispensable because it framework, “what sets marriage apart sex marriage would be complete with- makes the case that the traditional, from other relationships is the priority out cataloguing its impact on religious comprehensive concept of marriage of the relationship. It’s your most liberty. The way legal doctrine is rapidly continues to be worth defending and important relationship.” In other words, evolving, it’s increasingly clear that an preserving because it is right, because to quote gay writer and thinker American society that embraces gay it is essential to human flourishing. As Andrew Sullivan, marriage is “pri- marriage is a society that will reject Anderson says, “Marriage is based on

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the anthropological truth that men and some of the earliest, written by such dis- women are complementary, the biolog- The Real tinguished authors as Charles Dickens, ical fact that reproduction depends on Wilkie Collins, Sheridan Le Fanu, and a a man and a woman, and the social handful of others, brought full literary reality that children deserve a mother Detective skills to the work). The emphasis, there- and father.” Indeed, “there is no such fore, was on plot, skillfully built to chal- thing as ‘parenting.’ There is mother- OTTO PENZLER lenge the reader’s powers of observation ing, and there is fathering, and children and deduction, which were, of course, do best with both.” almost always just a step or two behind Anderson calls for a marriage move- the detective’s. ment, a comprehensive cultural response Characterization carried little impor- to a comprehensive cultural challenge. tance, as the characters were merely cogs The decision to redefine marriage as a required to make the engine of the story “genderless partnership” was “possible move forward. Murderers, and detec- only in a society that [had] done serious tives as well, might be elderly spinsters damage to the institution.” Anderson is in a charming village, vicars, librarians, correct. “What took decades to decon- scholars, and aristocrats—all sorts of struct will take a long time to rebuild.” people who either feel compelled to kill There is still room for a “marriage cul- an adversary or find it jolly fun to catch ture” in the United States. Indeed, it is The Lost Detective: Becoming Dashiell Hammett, someone who did. a necessity. by Nathan Ward (Bloomsbury, Into this world of the mystery came the Any marriage movement has to start 240 pp., $26) hard-boiled writer Dashiell Hammett, of with our own families. Adopting a whom Raymond Chandler, the stylish religious analogy, Anderson says, SIDE from Edgar Allan Poe American crime novelist, wrote in his “The lives of the saints are more in - (who, after all, pretty much classic essay “The Simple Art of Mur - spiring than the arguments of philoso- invented the detective story), der”: “Hammett gave murder back to the phers and social scientists.” But it’s the most significant figure in kind of people that commit it for rea- not enough to simply “live the truth Athe history of American mystery fiction is sons, not just to provide a corpse. . . . He about marriage.” Just as the Left Dashiell Hammett, who brought realism put these people down on paper as they fought for its view of marriage in every to an artificial literary genre. were, and he made them talk and think meaningful Ameri can social struc- Contrivance is an essential element in in the language they customarily used ture—from corporate America, to the all fiction, but never to a greater degree for these purposes.” media, to political institutions, to the than in the detective story. This is not a The murderers who populate Ham - church—so should defenders of mar- derogatory observation: The ordinary day mett’s stories don’t belong to garden riage fight for theirs. of even the most colorful people on the clubs, and they are unlikely to serve tea to There is still hope. Anderson draws planet is filled with the repetitive tedium guests. They are often career criminals— inspiration from the pro-life move- of just living. Showering, brushing teeth, violent thugs who are just as happy to beat ment, as well he should. A generation going to the bathroom, making a pot of someone to death as to shoot him. Neither ago, the Left assumed that the pro-life coffee, getting dressed, taking out the college professors nor Grandma Moses movement would wither and die. The trash, shopping for groceries, getting a were likely to provide appropriate coun- abortion-rights movement had captured haircut—hardly the stuff of a thrilling or terweights to this level of criminal, so the hearts of the young, it had captured captivating reading experience. Naturally, Hammett created private detectives who the heights of culture, and it was bully- authors generally devote little attention to were even tougher than their adversaries. ing dissenters into silence. Yet now the these daily events, for which readers are The language in which he described pro-life movement is stronger than it quietly thankful. them and told their stories was as blunt has been since Roe, with the Millennial Still, there are levels of contrivance, and sharp-edged as the weapons he gave generation more pro-life than their par- and its preponderance may be a good way them. He was as influential as his con- ents and record numbers of pro-life bills to separate the outstanding writers from temporary Ernest Hemingway in creat- passing state legislatures. the pedestrian ones. The pure detective ing a uniquely American literary style, as Defenders of marriage should be story is constructed with the elements far removed from the leisurely prose of sobered by the challenges, of course; required of the genre: a detective (pro- Henry James and Agatha Christie as a vial but there is no such thing as historical fessional or amateur), crime (usually of poison slipped into a glass of sherry is inevitability. Rather, writes Anderson, murder), suspects, clues, deception, and distant from the butt of a revolver to the our nation is shaped by “millions of motives (real or imagined). base of the skull. human choices.” Thus, “the question is Early detective novels and short stories Hammett knew what he was writing not what will happen, but what we tended to be designed as puzzles (though about, having worked for the Pinkerton should do.” One thing you should do is National Detective Agency for many read Truth Overruled. Read it and be Mr. Penzler is the owner of The Mysterious Bookshop years, and it is this seldom-explored educated and inspired. There’s a long in New York City, the founder of The Mysterious part of his life that is a key feature of struggle ahead. Press, and the editor of more than 70 anthologies. The Lost Detective, Nathan Ward’s

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BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS

splendid biography of this keystone fig- heighten the chaos. The strike was an The violence and corruption that flour- ure of American letters. exceptionally hostile one, and it inspired ished during the battle between Anaconda Fittingly, there have been numerous an ever-growing level of violence from and the union, as well as in the town of biographies of Hammett, most notably both sides. Little soon became the Butte, all served to inspire Hammett’s Richard Layman’s Shadow Man: The sharpest thorn in the side of the mining first novel, Red Harvest (1929). Butte Life of Dashiell Hammett (1981), but company, which decided to use extreme is called “Personville,” though it is none have explored as deeply his life measures to extract it. commonly referred to by the locals as before he became a writer. There can be Lillian Hellman, in what might be the “Poison ville,” and the Pinkerton agency little doubt that Hammett’s work with the only true story she narrated in her fiction- morphs into the Continental Detective Pinkertons was the greatest influence on alized and discredited memoir, Scoundrel Agency. The “operative” (a term coined who he became, both as a person and as Time (1976), wrote of the incident: by Allan Pinkerton) hired to clean up the an author. town remains nameless, known only as In order to understand what it meant to I remember sitting on a bed next to him the Continental Op; he is also the protag- be “a Pinkerton,” it is necessary to know in the first months after we met, listen- onist in Hammett’s second novel, The what America’s first private-detective ing to him tell me about his Pinkerton Dain Curse (1929), and in the best of his agency was, and Ward presents this days when an officer of Anaconda short stories and novellas. Copper Company [sic] had offered knowledge wonderfully, providing a nar- Ward has done his research. Hammett’s him five thousand dollars to kill Frank rative of Allan Pinkerton, the Scot who Little, the labor union organizer. I involvement with the notorious Fatty created the agency, and of its rise to didn’t know Hammett well enough to Arbuckle case has been frequently dis- national prominence through a series of hear the anger under the calm voice, cussed, as has his instrumental role in the major triumphs, not the least of which the bitterness under the laughter, so I recovery of a Ferris wheel; but Ward’s was saving Abraham Lincoln from an said, “He couldn’t have made such an relentless digging has thrown more than a assassination attempt in 1861. By the offer unless you had been strike-breaking little doubt onto those cases, which turn early 20th century, it had become so suc- for Pinkerton.” out to have only Hammett as a source for cessful and prosperous that it had a virtual “That’s about right,” he said. the degree of his involvement. army attached to its various bureaus The Lost Detective inevitably discusses around the country, and it rented out its Ward recognizes the significance of Hammett’s books and his Hollywood operatives on a wide range of assign- the bribe, just as Hellman did, though she work, as well as his relationships with ments, including as a fearsome strike- was more offended by the fact that his wives and Hellman, but that informa- breaking force. First hired to protect Hammett was a strike-breaker than by the tion has been provided elsewhere and in buildings, equipment, and non-union bribe offer. He further quotes Hellman: greater depth. That’s not a knock on the personnel, the agency quickly took on “Through the years, he was to repeat that book: Ward wisely chose to focus on more active anti-union roles, including bribe offer so many times that I came to Hammett’s formative years, and his sem- sending armed strongmen to break up believe, knowing him now, that it was a inal connection to the Pinkertons fills the picket lines and demonstrations. kind of key to his life. He had given a first half of the book admirably. In 1917, workers went on strike at the man the right to think he would murder. I There is, too, a comprehensive explo- Anaconda Copper Mining Company in think I can date Hammett’s belief that he ration of Hammett’s struggles with health, Butte, Mont. A professional agitator, was living in a corrupt society from the effects of which may have been under- Frank Little, came to town in order to Little’s murder.” appreciated before Ward’s chronicle of the devastating impact of those illnesses. In 1918, Hammett, 24, joined the Army HOW WORDS USE US and contracted influenza and tuberculo- sis, which nearly killed him. For the rest Words are the only way we have to tell of his life, he suffered from numerous ail- Of far horizons hurtling into space, ments, nearly dying more than once; Or how a swaying limb invokes a spell most of the diseases were connected to On stars, to jostle them back into place. that initial attack, though Hammett’s alcoholism contributed. The effects of his Syllables follow hollows in a rock, poor health kept him chronically under- And mourn the heavy fallen heads of flowers weight, and he sank to a nadir when, at That, spent, drop seeds as surly skies that mock six feet tall, he weighed 120 pounds. In Withhold the comfort of warm sudden showers. the early days of the 1920s, too weak to We are the ill-tuned instruments they choose do much of anything else, he thought he To work their magic on the scenery— might have a try at writing. A clumsy apparatus that they use I recommend you read Red Harvest, To bring a poem in focus, as each tree The Maltese Falcon, and The Glass Key, Reaches toward heaven in this earthly night but read The Lost Detective first for a With shadowed petals, twigs traced dark on light. deeper understanding of how this extraor- dinary author was able to produce such —SALLY COOK enduring masterpieces.

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Film In the Arena

ROSS DOUTHAT

HE first movie I ever reviewed in these pages, almost ten years ago, was a mediocre adaptation of All the King’s TMen, in which Sean Penn was miscast as the Kingfish and a lot of very talented actors wasted their time supporting him. Nicolas Cage in The Runner The film was much worse than its source material, but it shared with Robert Penn deliberately restrained, modest in scope tious son effectively evokes the compli- Warren’s novel a kind of moral fastidi- and ambition, and has little that’s overripe cated filial dynamics between the two Al ousness, a distaste for actually existing or deliberately melodramatic. It aspires, Gores, between Birch and Evan Bayh, democratic politics and politicians, that’s rather admirably, to political and psycho- and between George and Mitt Romney. characteristic of many fictional treat- logical realism: It wants to get inside the When Price resigns and then pours his ments of American political life. skin of politics and figure out what makes money into legal aid for fishermen, it As Christopher Lehmann wrote around the people who practice it tick . . . or run. summons up the ghost of John Profumo, that time in an essay for the Washington I really wanted it to succeed, not least the British politician who did East End Monthly, American novelists and film- because one of its producers is Noah charity work for decades after a spies- makers are often too in love with primal Millman, a writer for The American Con - and-sex scandal ended his career. It also New World ideas about frontier virtue servative and a serious observer of our raises an interesting question: If a politi- and Edenic innocence to see the political politics. Because of his involvement, cian followed Profumo’s example today, process with clear eyes. So the various every political journalist who ever watched would the press assume that it was just a attempts to tell a Great American Political a lousy Hollywood treatment of his indus- temporary PR move, setting up a come- Story mostly portray politics “as a great try and thought They should have hired back? (And would they be correct?) ethical contaminant and task their pro- me to consult! would be vindicated if The But despite its smarts, The Runner is tagonists with escaping its many perils Runner were a quiet masterpiece. hobbled by its determined restraint. Cage with both their lives and their moral Alas, it isn’t; even in a film without a actually underplays his part too much: compasses intact.” Kingfish complex, the pull of that very The absence of Huey Long imitations is Lately, prestige television has supplied American moral fastidiousness turns out welcome, but his character needs a little a qualifier to this generalization: In such to be too strong to quite escape. more gonzo charisma, if only to show shows as House of Cards and Veep, we The story’s inspiration seems to be the why everyone would assume that he still have a portrayal of politics as a great Mark Sanford saga: Cage’s protagonist, could get back into politics so fast. By ethical contaminant—but one that invites Colin Price, is a rising-star Democratic having him spend much of the film look- us simply to relish the anti-heroism, and congressman representing a majority- ing stricken, The Runner misses the to giggle at the folly of all the ethically black district who gets one wave of sheer addictive fun of campaigning and compromised buffoonery. Note, though, media attention defending Gulf Coast strands itself in a self-seriousness that that both shows are in one way or another fishermen after the BP oil spill—and isn’t as realistic as it thinks. British imports—a remake (of a much then another, devastating wave when And then it also can’t help stacking better show) in the first case, a Brit’s take video leaks online showing him having the moral deck when Price contemplates on America in the second. And note, too, sex with a (black) fisherman’s wife in a his comeback, by providing a kind of that while both escape the trap of ideal- hotel elevator. The movie follows Price guardian devil (Bryan Batt) who offers ism betrayed, neither attempts anything and his inner circle—his political advis- oil-industry money to grease the skids for like realism. (Though Veep does some- ers (played by Wendell Pierce and Sarah his return. If Batt’s character were just a times get depressingly close.) Paulson), his ambitious wife (Connie touch more sympathetic, his arguments Which is why it’s interesting to watch Nielsen), his ex-politician, alcoholic father just slightly more principled, the offer he The Runner, a small movie with an impres- (Peter Fonda)—through the fallout, the makes to Price just slightly less corrupt- sive cast that slipped in and out of theaters resignation, the shadow of divorce, and ing, the movie’s quest for realism would last month and now can be found mostly then, inevitably, the intimations of a come a lot closer to success. But the “will on-demand. Like All the King’s Men, it’s political comeback. he sell his soul” final act is unworthy of about a populist Louisiana politician who There are a number of interesting ele- that aspiration; it’s too tidy, too stark, too makes moral compromises on the path to ments here. The difficult relationship unreal. Only in books and movies are power, and since it stars Nicholas Cage, between the elder Price (a civil-rights things so clear-cut, and once it reminds you expect some serious, scenery-chewing hero as a mayor, then a failed statewide you that it, too, is just a movie, The Runner PAPER STREET FILMS demagoguery. But the film, instead, is candidate, then a drunk) and his ambi- loses its claim on our attention.

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Happy Warrior BY JONAH GOLDBERG Democratic Socialism

NLIKE Donald Trump, I am a fan of George government to own the commanding heights of the econ- Will. Not only am I a fan, I just might owe omy. Mr. Sanders is called a socialist because he believes my career to him. Almost 25 years ago, he in what everybody votes for every year when they vote for U gave a speech at the American Enterprise a budget, the entitlement structure of the United States.” Institute—where I was a junior policy gnome—in which Well. he made his case for congressional term limits. During the I believe that the last time I graced this fine page, it was Q&A I asked whether a better solution might not be to to make the case that the terrain between socialism and return to the will of the Founding Fathers. Instead of even progressivism is not nearly so rough or wide as is some- more restrictions on voter choices, why not go the other times claimed (see “Socialism for Dummies,” August 24). way? Why not expand Congress? The Founders would be Allow me to quote myself: “By refusing to commit to any appalled by how large congressional districts are today. limiting principle on what the government can accom- Mr. Will looked at me with sovereign contempt and, in plish—or try to accomplish—while simultaneously ad - effect, said that only a fool would want more congressmen vancing the socialist cause piecemeal, liberals get to pretend in Washing ton. The audience laughed—at that they subscribe to a different dogma.” In my expense. Rage coursed through my my view, if you can’t de scribe—and de - veins. If I’d had the gift of telekinesis like fend—a true and permanent boundary for that old Gypsy had promised (that’s a If Bernie the role of government in the peacetime story for another day), the AEI confer- economy, you’re a socialist in your heart. ence room would have looked like the Sanders A doctrinaire or, in Hayek’s phrase, a prom scene in Carrie. But, being the wet- wants to call “hot” socialist is someone who not only behind-the-ears mailroom striver of the admits that he wants governm ent to control Establishment (the one Donald Trump himself a everything but wants that to happen right will finally tear down) that I was, I for- away. Hayek conceded—in 1956!—that the went my right to blood vengeance and socialist, who hot socialists were on the way out in the instead went home to furiously peck out a West, but he warned that socialist “concep- response to Mr. Will gleaned from the are we to tions have penetrated far too deeply into fine print of the Federalist Papers and argue? the whole structure of current thought to the minutes of the Constitutional Con - justify complacency.” vention. Eventually my Unabomber-like Personally, I think James Burnham, magnum opus became a short op-ed that ran in the Wall Joseph Schumpeter, Irving Kristol, and, in other con- Street Journal, the day after the 1992 election. It was my texts, Hayek himself had the better formulation: The first professionally published piece of writing. I caught problem isn’t necessarily socialists but planners and man- the bug. And Will was my muse. agers, who place their faith in government, to be sure, but It’s an ironic story in a way. According to lore, when even more in themselves. But that, too, is a topic for Will became a columnist, he asked Bill Buckley how on another day. earth he could jam out three columns a week. WFB re - What’s relevant to this conversation is George Will’s de- sponded that the world irritated him at least three times a termination to save Bernie Sanders from himself. If Bernie week. Write about what irritates you. Will took the advice Sanders wants to call himself a socialist, who are we to to heart. And so did I. argue? If he wants to stand in the well of the Senate and say Which brings me to a little diatribe of George Will’s on “I have in my hand a list of socialists . . .” as he pulls out his Special Report with Bret Baier. Will took grave offense at own driver’s license, why object? Bernie Sanders’s habit of describing himself as a socialist Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the head of the Democratic and an independent outsider. About the latter, I think Will National Committee, has declined the invitation to explain has the better part of the argument: Sanders has been in the difference between socialists and Democrats at least politics since before I knew how to buy pants. (Lest peo- three times. Apparently, she feels that it is not in the inter- ple have fun with that, let me rephrase: He’s been in poli- ests of the Democratic party to inf orm the public that there tics since 1971.) He’s been in Congress since 1991, and, are meaningful differences between socialists and Demo- in all that time, Will says, Sanders “caucuses with the crats. I think she’s wrong about that. But even if I’m not, Democrats. He gets his committee assignments from the I’m still in favor of Democrats’ embracing the “socialist” Democrats, he votes with the Democrats, and he’s seeking label. It’s certainly more accurate than “liberal” (a moniker the nomination of, guess what, the Democratic party.” the libertarians understandably would like to have back). Sounds like a Democrat to me. Point: Will. It’s clarifying. And, even if I’m wrong, the widespread But Will continues: “Then he says he’s a socialist. No, adoption of the S-word will surely inspire another thou- no, Mr. Corbyn in London, that’s a socialist. He wants the sand great columns.

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DALLAS

DALLAS, TEXAS 10.21.2015

Celebrating THE SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF NATIONAL REVIEW

Honoring Victor Davis Hanson William F. Buckley Jr. Prize for Leadership in Political Thoughtthe

late Harold Simmons (accepted by wife Annette Caldwell Simmons) William F. Buckley Jr. Prize for Leadership in Supporting Liberty

Since 1955, National Review has defined the modern conservative movement. In 1991, William F. Buckley Jr. founded the National Review Institute as its sister nonprofit educational organization to complement themission of the magazine. For his entire life, Bill Buckley sought to preserve and buttress the foundations of our free society. To honor his achievement and inspire others, NRI’s Board of Trustees has created the William F. Buckley Prizes for Leadership in Political Thought and Leadership in Supporting Liberty.

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