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February 8, 2010 49145 $3.95 THE MASSACHUSETTS MIRACLE —The Editors

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Contents

FEBRUARY 8, 2010 | VOLUME LXII, NO. 2 | www.nationalreview.com

COVER STORY Page 30 Keeping Blacks Poor Some subjects are too hot for Democrats to touch: The effect of their minimum- wage enthusiasm on black unemployment John J. Miller on Vampires . . . p. 27 is one, and racial discrimination by their organized labor constituents is another. Kevin D. Williamson BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS COVER: LYLE OWERKO/REPORTAGE/GETTY 43 TEN GREAT ARTICLES CONSERVATIVE NOVELS John J. Miller and others present ten 18 CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATIONS by great conservative novels, all written by A plan to win—and to govern. Americans since the founding of the conservative movement in the 1950s. 20 INSTITUTIONAL EARTHQUAKE by Iain Murray One is needed, for the good of those who suffer the geologic kind. 47 FUTURE IMPERFECT George Gilder reviews Sonic Boom: 22 ASSIMILATING DOWN by Duncan Currie Globalization at Mach Speed, The trends concerning Hispanic mobility should have us alarmed. by Gregg Easterbrook.

24 BALANCING ACT by Stephen Spruiell 48 DEPTH OF VISION Conservatives weigh means against ends as liberal opinion-makers embrace Kelly Jane Torrance celebrates the career teacher accountability and school choice. of French director Eric Rohmer.

27 DEFANGED by John J. Miller 50 FILM: GENERATION GAP Once upon a time, the living dead were scary. reviews The Young Victoria and Youth in Revolt.

51 COUNTRY LIFE: FEATURES UPSTATE BLUES observes signs of 30 KEEPING BLACKS POOR by Kevin D. Williamson depression in rural New York. How the Democratic party stands between its most loyal constituents and the jobs they need.

33 A REPUBLIC, IF YOU WANT IT by Matthew Spalding SECTIONS The Left’s overreach invites the Founders’ return. 2 Letters to the Editor 36 TWO INCONVENIENT CANADIANS by 4 The Week The unlikely men who shook up global-warming science. 41 The Long View ...... Rob Long 42 The Bent Pin ...... Florence King 39 THOUGHTS OF REVOLUTION by Anthony Daniels 49 Poetry ...... William Baer The strange cachet of a usually miserable phenomenon. 56 Happy Warrior ......

NATIONAL REVIEW (ISSN: 0028-0038) is published bi-weekly, except for the first issue in January, by , Inc., at 215 Lexington Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y., and additional mailing offices. © National Review, Inc., 2010. Address all editorial mail, manuscripts, letters to the editor, etc., to Editorial Dept., NATIONAL REVIEW, 215 Lexington Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016. Address all subscription mail orders, changes of address, undeliverable copies, etc., to NATIONAL REVIEW, Circulation Dept., P. O. Box 433015, Palm Coast, Fla. 32143-3015; phone, 386-246-0118, Monday–Friday, 8:00 A.M. to 10:30 P.M. Eastern time. Adjustment requests should be accompanied by a current mailing label or facsimile. Direct classified advertising inquiries to: Classifieds Dept., NATIONAL REVIEW, 215 Lexington Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016 or call 212-679- 7330. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to NATIONAL REVIEW, Circulation Dept., P. O. Box 433015, Palm Coast, Fla. 32143-3015. Printed in the U.S.A. RATES: $59.00 a year (24 issues). Add $21.50 for Canada and other foreign subscriptions, per year. (All payments in U.S. currency.) The editors cannot be responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or artwork unless return postage or, better, a stamped self-addressed envelope is enclosed. Opinions expressed in signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of the editors. letters--ready.qxp 1/20/2010 1:58 PM Page 2

Letters

FEBRUARY 8 ISSUE; PRINTED JANUARY 21 Incumbent Slayers

EDITOR Richard Lowry In his review of Craig Shirley’s Rendezvous with Destiny (“Bliss Was It in That Dawn,” January 25), Jay Cost writes that Senior Editors Richard Brookhiser / Jay Nordlinger “was the only candidate in the 20th century to defeat an incumbent of Ramesh Ponnuru / David Pryce-Jones the opposing party who had served just one term in office.” I would Managing Editor Jason Lee Steorts Literary Editor Michael Potemra be the last person to downplay the significance of Reagan’s 1980 Executive Editor Christopher McEvoy victory, but Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, and National Correspondent John J. Miller Art Director Luba Kolomytseva also defeated first-term incumbents in 1912, 1932, and 1992, Deputy Managing Editors Fred Schwarz / Kevin D. Williamson respectively. In addition, Jimmy Carter defeated incumbent Associate Editor Robert VerBruggen after less than one term in office. Associate Editor Helen Rittelmeyer Research Director Katherine Connell Nevertheless, Carter was the only incumbent in the last century to regain the Research Manager Dorothy McCartney White House for his party only to lose it in just four years (a feat that usually requires Executive Secretary Frances Bronson Assistant to the Editor Natasha Simons eight or more years of incumbent-party fatigue, stalemated , or a depression). It Contributing Editors is our country’s great fortune that Reagan presented an inspiring alternative and was Robert H. Bork / Ross Douthat / / there to take over the job. / Geraghty / Florence King / Lawrence Kudlow / Mark R. Levin / Rob Long / Jim Manzi John O’Donnell Andrew C. McCarthy / Kate O’Beirne Vienna, Va. David B. Rivkin Jr.

NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE Editor-at-Large JAY COST REPLIES: That results from an unfortunate choice of words on my part. My Managing Editor Edward John Craig original was ambiguous, and what in the editing process became “who had served” Deputy Managing Editor Duncan Currie Associate Editor Emily Karrs should in fact have been “that had served”—referring to “opposing party,” not Staff Reporter Stephen Spruiell “incumbent.” I did not notice this, however, until after the review had been printed. News Editor Daniel Foster Web Developer Nathan Goulding Political scientists tend to think that first-term parties have an advantage going Technical Services Russell Jenkins into reelection campaigns, and I was attempting to point out how extraordinary it CHAIRMAN & CEO was that Reagan could enjoy such a decisive victory. Mr. O’Donnell is quite right Thomas L. Rhodes EDITORS- AT- LARGE to say that, in the 20th century, only once did a party gain the White House in one Linda Bridges / John O’Sullivan election and lose it in the next: the Democrats, in 1976 and 1980, with Jimmy Carter. Contributors Hadley Arkes / Baloo / James Bowman / Priscilla L. Buckley Eliot A. Cohen / Dinesh D’Souza / M. Stanton Evans Literary Sleuthing Chester E. Finn Jr. / Neal B. Freeman James Gardner / David Gelernter George Gilder / Time spent in the company of ’s prose is always a distinct Kevin A. Hassett / Charles R. Kesler pleasure, and it was delightful to listen to his language as he discoursed on the James Jackson Kilpatrick / David Klinghoffer Anthony Lejeune / D. Keith Mano literary genius of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and of Conan Doyle’s archetypal hero, / Alan Reynolds Sherlock Holmes (“The Eternal Detective,” December 31). The doctor examined William A. Rusher / Tracy Lee Simmons / with an eye (and ear) equal to the task, and turned a look at a favorite passage into Vin Weber an exemplary literary lecture, in which one depth after another is discovered. The Chief Financial Officer James X. Kilbridge Accounting Manager Galina Veygman passage he quotes has Holmes saying, “You are an enthusiast in your line of thought, Accountant Zofia Baraniak I perceive, sir, as I am in mine.” How very conversational, how polite, how like Treasurer Rose Flynn DeMaio Business Services Holmes; and how clunky and dull the sentence could have been if written otherwise. Alex Batey / Amy Tyler Dalrymple is right: Holmes is withal a perfect English gentleman. To finish by Circulation Director Erik Zenhausern Circulation Manager Jason Ng noting that “no film, however . . . bad,” can diminish Conan Doyle’s creation, in the WORLD WIDE WEB www.nationalreview.com week a film of that creation’s name appeared, without so much as mentioning the MAIN NUMBER 212-679-7330 SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES 386-246-0118 film by name, is a model of another English gift to civilization—the (cutting) under- WASHINGTON OFFICE 202-543-9226 ADVERTISING SALES 212-679-7330 statement, here executed, again, with the skill of a medical man. Executive Publisher Scott F. Budd Advertising Director Jim Fowler Advertising Manager Kevin Longstreet Greg Butler ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Paul Olivett Pawtucket, R.I.

PUBLISHER Jack Fowler

FOUNDER William F. Buckley Jr. Letters may be submitted by e-mail to [email protected].

2 | www.nationalreview.com FEBRUARY 8 , 2010 base.qxp 1/15/2010 2:19 PM Page 1 week.qxp 1/20/2010 1:59 PM Page 4 The Week

„ Just wait to see what we have planned for Vermont.

„ The earthquake spared nothing, from ordinary homes to the palace and the cathedral, and cost tens of thousands of lives. This was the Lisbon earthquake of 1755; Voltaire used the sudden and overwhelming destruction in Candide to undermine the theodicy of Leibniz. Two hundred and fifty-five years later we are still using dis- asters to score theological and political points. After the Haitian earthquake Pat Robertson mused on CBN that the country’s troubles stemmed from a pact with the devil made by rebellious slaves in 1791. David Brooks gave a secularist interpretation for New York Times readers: “This is not a natural disaster story. This is a poverty story . . . about poorly constructed buildings, bad infrastructure and terrible public services.” Yes, Haiti’s woes, before and after the earth- quake, are exacerbated by cultural, social, and political cor- ruption. But let no one make too much of that. No human order is shock-proof, no human life is completely secure in this vale of tears. We do not know the day nor the hour. May God, and the U.S. Navy, help the sufferers.

„ , according to Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, authors of a new book (Game Change) on the 2008 election, was an early supporter of . And one reason was that he spotted a racial winner: Obama was “light-skinned . . . with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.” Blacks have been saying such things about one another for ages (hence the mordant rhyme, If you’re brown, come on down; if you’re black, stay back). For a white man to make such judg- taped and broadcast—creating the possibility that YouTube ments casually is, to say the least, tin-eared. Reid promptly clips would expose amendment backers to more of the harass- apologized, and that should be the end of it—with the hope that ment in which supporters of same-sex marriage have shame- Reid will show a little mercy to the next public figure who puts fully engaged since the vote. The Supreme Court had to step in his foot in it. He won’t, though, because accusations of racism to block this scenario. If this lawsuit is not an attempt to exploit are political tools, to be wielded by Democrats against Repub- the law to achieve political goals that are properly sought licans (note that Reid apologized not only to Barack Obama, elsewhere, the judge is certainly doing his best to give that whom he offended, but to racial bully Al Sharpton). If you’re impression. on the right, good night. „ Maureen Dowd devoted a column to lauding Olson and „ Ted Olson and David Boies, a bipartisan team of top-flight Boies. Dowd did not waste a paragraph on anything resem- lawyers, are challenging California’s Proposition 8 in federal bling legal analysis, which was perhaps a blessing. Olson told court. The argument is that the ballot initiative, by which her that maintaining marriage as the union of a man and a California voters defined marriage as the union of a man and a woman “has no point at all except some people don’t want to woman in the state constitution, violates the rights of same-sex recognize gays and lesbians as normal, as human beings.” So couples under the U.S. Constitution. If Olson and Boies are now we know what Olson thinks of a majority of Americans and correct, then the marriage laws of most states are also likely the vast majority of conservatives. Olson also cited the cases of unconstitutional. The high stakes make it all the more dismay- notorious heterosexual adulterers such as Tiger Woods to prove ing that Judge Vaughn Walker has been turning the case into a . . . what, exactly? If same-sex marriages turn out to have high circus. First he prompted Olson and Boies to bring to court evi- rates of infidelity, will Olson switch sides? And Olson told dence about the motivations of the amendment’s backers, Dowd that “he finds himself getting weepy a lot” as he works including their moral views about . Then he on the case. Conservatives contemplating his performance may

ROMAN GENN took irregular procedural steps to allow the trial to be video- find themselves similarly moved.

4 | www.nationalreview.com FEBRUARY 8 , 2010 base.qxp 1/15/2010 2:22 PM Page 1

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THE WEEK „ Bret Schundler was once just about every conservative’s „ In an effort to save the imperiled health-care bill, Democrats favorite mayor, or at least one in whom they placed many cut a tentative deal with organized labor that would exempt hopes. “Look for him in 2008,” wrote William F. Buckley Jr. unionized employees from an excise tax on high-cost health- This was during the 1990s, when Schundler was the Republican care plans. Of the many unsavory bargains and rotten deals that mayor of heavily Democratic Jersey City, N.J., just across the have characterized the rush to get this thing passed (the Hudson River from Manhattan. He gained national attention for “Louisiana Purchase,” the “Cornhusker Kickback,” etc.), the his tireless promotion of school choice. This advocacy never “Labor Loophole” surely takes the prize. The deal, for which enjoyed a payoff in actual policy, but it wasn’t for a lack of there is no conceivable public-policy justification, would mean effort: Trenton always blocked Schundler’s initiatives. His two that two people with the same plans and incomes would pay forays into state politics flopped. In 2001, he won the Repub- different taxes based on union membership. A few Democrats lican gubernatorial nomination but lost the general election. In in the Senate tried to insert this provision at the committee level 2005, he didn’t even of the GOP primary. Yet Schundler and were laughed out of the smoke-filled room, so nakedly soon may find himself in New Jersey’s capital: Gov. Chris obvious was the special-interest favoritism at work. That the Christie has nominated him to serve as state education com- Democratic party embraced this deal at the last minute is a sign missioner. This is a bold selection that says much about of how desperate it became to pass a bill—any bill—that Christie’s commitment to education reform. Schundler still shoved the federal foot through the waiting-room door. must be confirmed, but his presumptive return to the public arena is a welcome development. „ Nevada officials said the state may drop out of Medicaid if the health-care bill passes. Instead it would help its low- income legal residents participate in the federally subsidized „ Harold Ford Jr. for Senate? The former congressman (D., exchanges that the bill would establish. The resulting insur- Tenn.) narrowly lost a tough race in 2006, and he is only 39 ance policies would doubtless be more attractive to beneficia- years old, so it makes sense to try again. Thing is, he wants to ries than Medicaid is. The result: Nevada would spend less on try in New York, where he now works for Bank of America. their health insurance, the federal government more. Other Ford is a stranger (he still has a Tennessee driver’s license) states would inevitably make the same calculation. So we have with a number of right-of-center positions (he opposes partial- more reason to think that the official projections of this bill’s birth abortion and supports parental-consent laws), some of impact on the federal budget are off the mark. And that the which he has expeditiously dumped (he now supports gay perversities of this legislation have no end. marriage). The only solid thing he has going for him is unease with the bland incumbent, Kirsten „ President Obama wants to slap a cumbrous new tax on Gillibrand, appointed to Hillary Clin- American banks. “We want our money back,” he says. The gov- ton’s old seat—and with Gillibrand’s ernment is expected to lose money on the bailouts—but not the dragonish patron, senior senator money used to backstop the banks, which are paying it back, Charles Schumer, who bullied two with interest. The real losses are expected to come from insur- local congressmen out of challeng- er AIG and from such untouchable Democratic holies as Fannie ing his protégé. Voters are restless Mae, the heavily unionized automakers, and the foreclosure- these days—and maybe even someone prevention program. Obama’s tax hike would harrow the pru- as transparent as Harold Ford Jr. can dent and imprudent alike, extracting billions of dollars from turn that bucking and stamping to his banks that never took bailout money in the first place. A new tax advantage. on banks is a new tax on Americans’ savings and checking accounts. How big? It would have cost JPMorgan’s customers and shareholders $1.5 billion had it been in effect last year, „ Office of Management and Budget director Peter Orszag another $1.5 billion for Bank of America, another $1 billion for became a father again last November, six weeks before Morgan Stanley, and would have punished many smaller banks announcing his engagement. Putting the baby before the ring to the tune of billions more. The Democrats are having trouble is increasingly common. But it’s still unusual for the baby to running against Republicans at the moment, so Obama seeks be borne by one woman while the ring goes on the finger of to run instead against Wall Street—and against the bailouts he another. The mother is venture capitalist Claire Milonas, who voted for as a senator and expanded as president. was Orszag’s girlfriend. The fiancée is ABC News financial correspondent Bianna Golodryga, whom Orszag met at last „ The Pentagon released its review of the Fort Hood mas- spring’s White House Correspondents Dinner. Did Orszag and sacre—the one in which Maj. Nidal Hasan, a jihadist in an Milonas split up before Orszag and Golodryga started dating? American uniform, opened fire on defenseless people, killing 13 That is the point of decorum that the Jane Austens of 21st- of them and wounding 43. It concludes that Hasan’s supervisors century Washington are reduced to discussing. Everybody in made some mistakes, failing to intervene when his special char- the circus might ponder this: “Too many fathers . . . have acteristics became clear. And it says that the Army should con- abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of sider disciplining those supervisors. As Bill Bennett has pointed men. And the foundations of our families are weaker because out, the 86-page report does not mention the word “” or COM

of it” (Barack Obama, Father’s Day 2008). But that was a “Muslim” once. It is soaked in the that is a .

speech aimed at poor black fathers, not rich and famous white longstanding hallmark of our military: indeed, that in all likeli- WENN /

ones. hood prevented Hasan’s superiors from intervening. Who would PNP

6 | www.nationalreview.com FEBRUARY 8 , 2010 base.qxp 1/4/2010 12:32 PM Page 1

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THE WEEK have faced repercussions, the Islamist major or his “insensitive,” obliged to consider the constitutionality of their actions— possibly “Islamophobic” superiors? Even so mild and moderate instead of feeling entitled to see what they could get away a politician as Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine) was disappointed with and let the courts sort it out later. Moreover, a govern- by the report. Shortly after the massacre, the Army chief of staff, ment that is too big enacts laws that contain thousands of pro- Gen. George Casey, made a chilling statement. He said, “As hor- visions; it would be impractical to veto every bill that includes rific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I some dubious component. Presidents are not required to think that’s worse.” A mentality of political correctness does no enforce unconstitutional laws, so better they tell us which pro- one any favors: not American Muslims, not Muslims serving visions they believe to be invalid. Plus, signing statements are honorably in the armed forces, not anybody. no more binding on courts than legislative history is: Only the actual words of a statute become law. But congressional „ Democrats caterwauled about President Bush’s “signing Democrats want to own the prerogative of extra-legal spin, statements.” Traditionally issued by presidents to explain which litigants use to persuade judges about how laws should their views about bills being signed into law, they are a ves- be construed. Thus Democrats speciously complained that tige of a time when all three branches of government felt Bush’s signing statements were a usurpation of legislative

A Farewell to Reality

EMEMBER that whole thing about the “reality-based “love-hate” relationship with the Democratic party and community”? A little bit? Not really? Okay, well, just to vote for Republicans all the time. Jonathan Chait over at R bring you up to speed, in 2004 Ron Suskind, author agrees: “It’s not actually that uncom- of some Bush-bashing books that seemed really important mon for a Senator to win an election in a state that tends to Rich at the time, quoted an unnamed Bush aide to heavily favor the opposite party.” That it hasn’t hap- who said something that perfectly symbolized everything pened in Massachusetts in over 30 years, and that it’s Ted Bush-bashers liked to believe about themselves. The long Kennedy’s seat? Mere details! and short of it was that this anonymous guy conveniently Other leading liberal pundits don’t deny that Obama is told Suskind that the empire builders of the Bush adminis- having problems; they just attribute the problems to tration weren’t members of the “reality- things that have nothing in common based community,” like Suskind. with the universe we actually occupy. Wikipedia, a perfect source for this Take . On January 18, sort of thing, if for nothing else, says that Krugman penned a column in which he “Reality-based community is a popular insisted that all of Obama’s problems term among liberal political commenta- can be traced to the fact that he has tors in the United States. . . . The term been too centrist and bipartisan. If only has been defined as people who ‘believe the stimulus hadn’t been so small, the that solutions emerge from judicious economy would be humming right study of discernible reality.’ Some com- now. Obama the Triangulator stumbled mentators have gone as far as to suggest because he is too deeply committed that there is an overarching conflict in to moderation. society between the reality-based com- Obama’s bigger sin, according to munity and the ‘faith-based community’ as a whole.” Krugman? He has steadfastly refused to blame his prob- So why rehash all this stuff? lems on his predecessor, George W. Bush. No, really, he Because, if you haven’t noticed, that same RBC is going said that, and without dissolving in giggles. Krugman nuts. By my rough calculation, E. J. Dionne Jr. has written seems to have missed Obama’s reflexive blame-passing 10,000 columns (okay, maybe it just feels that way) on how to Bush in nearly every major address and interview, for- liberalism has no real problems of any kind. The only chal- eign and domestic, for the last year. lenges it faces derive from a fictional “narrative” made up But back to Dionne. He insists that what conservatives by nasty Republicans. That narrative says that Senate call “liberalism” isn’t really liberalism. “Big government, big AP / majority leader Harry Reid is a comic oaf, when he is in fact deficits, an overly ambitious health-care plan, a stimulus a master of the Senate. The same conservative ignorami that spent too much and other supposedly left-leaning call House speaker Nancy Pelosi a left-wing ideologue, sins of the Obama regime” don’t amount to liberalism, he NBC NEWSWIRE / when in fact she is “a highly practical local politician more explains, just to what addle-pated conservatives think concerned with delivering the goods than with passing liberalism is. PLOWMAN . ideological litmus tests.” Now, where could conservatives have gotten that idea? And the fact that Massachusetts was poised to elect a I’ll give you hint: It rhymes with shmeality. WILLIAM B .: Republican who had turned his race into a referendum on Obamacare? No problem; Bay State voters actually have a —JONAH GOLDBERG DIONNE JR . J . E

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THE WEEK authority. When Obama nevertheless continued the practice, growth. That may suggest that the European model cannot Bush-deranged Dems complained, so Obama has stopped accommodate large families and immigration, and that it is issuing signing statements. Oh, he’s still picking out provi- better suited to countries that are resigned to declining on the sions he intends to disregard. He just doesn’t tell us what they world stage: Geopolitical influence depends more on the total are. Nothing like transparency. size of the economy than on individual living standards. The third is that Europe has had the advantage of not having to devote the resources to the military that the U.S. does, in part because the U.S. does. All in all, for the U.S. to go the social- democratic route seems like a bad idea—for the world as well as for us.

„ Reporters largely ignored it, but the Department of Health and Human Services released a study showing that Head Start’s positive effects peter out by the end of first grade. The study included 44 tests, of which 42 found no statistically significant and lasting improvement. Some positive results are to be expected when you run that many tests, and a footnote points out that the two apparently lasting results disappear after correcting for that tendency. Andrew Coulson and Adam Schaeffer of the Cato Institute point out that school choice, on the other hand, appears to have lasting positive results. „ Jon Stewart, the comedian masquerading as a political com- Naturally, the Democrats have expanded funding for Head mentator (or is it the other way around?), delights in making Start while ending school choice in D.C. conservative guests on his Daily Show squirm. It was delight- ful, then, to see the tables turned on him by John Yoo, the Bush „ The stimulus bill included $4.35 billion to encourage the Justice Department official who authored what the Left ten- states to reform their schools, and President Obama has just dentiously calls the “torture memos.” These offered an argu- suggested another $1.35 billion. The program is called “Race ment that it would not constitute torture for the administration to the Top.” As Stephen Spruiell explains on page 24 of this to waterboard top al-Qaeda detainees and use other “en- issue, Rick Perry, the Republican governor of Texas, has hanced” interrogation techniques against them. As Stewart turned down his state’s share of the money. Perry says that tried to interrogate Yoo, it became clear the former did not Texas has already improved its schools and can continue to do grasp the distinction between advocating torture and arguing so without jumping through federal hoops, and warns that the that something is not torture. It also became clear he did not federal funding is a step toward national standards—standards understand the constitutional role of the executive in wartime. that he thinks would inevitably be mediocre. He is probably It also became clear he generally had no clue. He at one point right. But the Democrats should be commended for acknowl- had to save himself by going to a commercial, and he ended the edging, if only in a small way, that competition might deliver interview sputtering for words. Yoo was devastating in part better schools. because he was polite; there was no trace of a scowl or a sneer in his demeanor, only a smile. Let future right-leaning Daily „ Texas is in a battle over its public-school history curricu- Show guests take note: You needn’t outjoke Stewart, or get lum, in which the founder of the Mary Kay cosmetics com- angry with him. It is enough to explain what you know—and pany currently receives more prominent notice than does he doesn’t. Christopher Columbus—and which had, until recently, excluded Christmas from its list of prominent cultural obser- „ The standard argument for the superiority of the American vations. The role of Christianity in the American Founding is to the more statist European economic model holds that the the subject of particularly hot debate. Identity politics is a pre- former does more to promote economic growth. NATIONAL dictable and lamentable aspect of the debate, with liberals on REVIEW contributor Jim Manzi, writing in , the curriculum board attempting to legislate specific mention argues that the American model, to be sustained, must incor- of such vitals of American history as the Mexican American porate reforms to enable the least fortunate to improve their Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the League of United lot. Liberals, notably Paul Krugman, have reacted to the essay Latin American Citizens, and Raza Unida. Conservatives on by claiming that Manzi never proves that the American model the board have made mirroring demands for mention of is in fact better at promoting growth—which is true, since , , and the National proving that view was not Manzi’s aim. In the ensuing debate, Rifle Association. Such are the abundant glories of government- liberals pointed out that Europe’s per capita growth has been run education. Texas’s students would be better served if these

CONGRESSIONAL QUARTERLY / roughly equal to America’s. Conservatives made three points decisions were made by local school boards rather than by

FERRELL in response. The first was that one might have expected Austin-based political animals of either party—as would the . Europe to grow faster than America over the last few decades nation’s: Texas and California are the country’s two largest SCOTT J

: since America had a head start after World II. The second buyers of textbooks (and penniless California is not buying is that total economic growth has been higher in the U.S. these days), so Texas’s mandates affect what is taught from

JOHN YOO than in European social democracies because of population coast to coast.

10 | www.nationalreview.com FEBRUARY 8 , 2010 base.qxp 1/15/2010 2:29 PM Page 1

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THE WEEK „ The Himalayan glaciers will disappear by 2035! That fac- ing its testing of police applicants; meanwhile, a federal judge toid, which appeared in the IPCC’s 2007 climate-change has accused New York City’s fire department of “intentional report, turns out to have zero evidence behind it. The claim, discrimination” for using a test on which blacks did poorly. from a 1999 news story in the British magazine New Scientist, The “disparate impact” doctrine is bad for white applicants, was based on a brief telephone interview with an Indian who must meet unfairly high standards; bad for states and researcher who now says it was mere speculation, and in any municipalities, which, between DOJ’s zealots and the Supreme case applied to only a portion of the glaciers. New Scientist Court’s recent Ricci decision, are damned if they do and presented it as a preliminary finding that had not been damned if they don’t; and bad for the public of all races, whose reviewed or published, but in the IPCC report, this non-result civil servants cannot be winnowed as thoroughly as they became the following: “Glaciers in the Himalaya are receding should be. But it’s great for the diversity industry, which is why faster than in any other part of the world and, if the present rate Barack Obama’s Justice Department is sure to continue the continues, the likelihood of them disappearing by the year crusade no matter what. 2035 and perhaps sooner is very high if the Earth keeps warm- ing at the current rate.” What appears to be melting now is the „ IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman recently confessed IPCC’s credibility. that our tax system is so complicated that even he has to pay somebody else to do his taxes: “I find the tax code complex, so „ Some of President Obama’s appointments have been at least I use a preparer,” he said on C-SPAN. Maybe he could ask his mildly encouraging (Robert Gates, Arne Duncan), while others boss, Tim Geithner, for some tips. have been disappointing in all-too-predictable ways (Eric Holder, , Kevin Jennings). But the now-withdrawn nomination of Erroll Southers to head the Transportation Safety Administration was a puzzler. For a job that requires great judg- ment and discretion, Obama chose a man who misused a secret government database for personal reasons (and was less than forthcoming in his testimony about it); who would have given workers on the front lines against terror the same union protec- tions as Agriculture Department file clerks; and who, based on a 2008 interview, seemed to view pro-life and “” groups as a bigger threat than al-Qaeda and its allies (who are, of course, provoked by America’s foreign policy). We’re sure Mr. Southers would have done fine work keeping fundamental- ist Episcopalians from blowing up aircraft, but for the job of Before After stopping Islamic terrorists he was singularly ill-suited. Let us give thanks that the job will not be his. „ When the FBI made an online “wanted” poster of Osama bin Laden, it needed an image showing what he would look like „ The president has done it again: called Guantanamo Bay today. The artist created it, in part, using features from an image a “recruiting tool,” something that causes Muslims to join up of Gaspar Llamazares, a Spanish politician who could pass for with the jihad. He said, “Make no mistake: We will close the middle-aged Osama in a dim light. When Llamazares found Guantanamo Prison, which has damaged our national-security out, he was understandably furious, expecting to be strip- interests and become a tremendous recruiting tool for al- searched every time he tried to board a plane. The U.S. govern- Qaeda. In fact, that was an explicit rationale for the formation ment has offered an apology, which Llamazares has angrily of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.” Jihadism has no short- spurned, but we have a better idea. Llamazares led the leftist age of excuses—it never has. It had plenty of excuses before coalition in Spain’s parliament for eight years; he is a member of any jihadist was sent to Guantanamo Bay. And an American the Communist party who earned a public-health degree in president should be careful not to give any credence to jihadist Havana. What better way for Obama to make amends than by excuses. He should also be careful about mentioning the appointing him federal health czar? “explicit rationales” of jihadists. The American-Israeli alliance is an explicit rationale of terrorist groups; so is the American- „ In a region traditionally known for producing loud, blustery Saudi alliance; so is an striving toward democracy. autocrats who champion failed economic policies (Castro, Terrorists do not dictate our policies, and they should be free Ortega, Chávez), Chile is a quietly remarkable success story. of any illusion that they do. On January 11, it signed an accession agreement to become the first South American member of the OECD. Less than a „ If someone tries to rob you, do you care whether the police- week later, Chilean voters elected a conservative government man who stops him is black or white? The Department of for the first time since General Pinochet stepped down 20 Justice does. Using the standard of “disparate impact”—under years ago. The victory of presidential candidate Sebastián which almost any test, no matter how carefully vetted, can be Piñera, a billionaire airline mogul, ends two decades of rule ruled illegally discriminatory if some group does not score by the center-left Concertación coalition, whose multiple gov- high enough on it—DOJ has filed suit against New Jersey ernments largely maintained the free-market economic because of its exam for police sergeants. The mere threat of reforms that were adopted under Pinochet. In recent years,

AP such litigation has made Chicago consider completely abolish- Chilean officials moved away from pro-growth policies and

12 | www.nationalreview.com FEBRUARY 8 , 2010 base.qxp 1/15/2010 2:25 PM Page 1

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THE WEEK toward greater social spending, but they also saved much of message is clear: A Briton’s home is his castle only in the most their copper windfall during the commodity boom, ensuring theoretical sense. that they were in a strong fiscal position when the global finan- cial crisis erupted. Piñera will inherit a well-run economy— „ The pyramids of Egypt have excited wonder and speculation one that has the potential to grow much faster. His election, for millennia. Some other responses, too: Dr. Johnson called like that of Ricardo Martinelli in Panama last May, affirms that the Great Pyramid “a monument of the insufficiency of human not all Latin American countries are moving left. enjoyments.” These astonishing structures continue to deliver surprises—a hitherto-unknown one, much reduced and buried „ In 2005, Google, the Internet giant, went into China. It made in sand, was discovered only in November 2008. How were a grave compromise when it did so. Bowing to the demands of they built? Herodotus was told that the Pharaoh Cheops “com- the Chinese authorities, Google censored its search engine. It manded all Egyptians to do forced labor for him,” including created a special engine just for China. This means that Web the cutting and transporting of stones for his pyramids. In later users in China who Google “human rights,” say, or “Tibet,” centuries, perhaps influenced by the Book of Exodus (which, will get sanitized results, or none at all. The company justified however, deals with events a millennium later), people came to its decision to cooperate with Beijing by saying that it was think that foreign slaves built the pyramids. Egyptologists, better for Chinese people to have some Google rather than working from traces left by the ancient work force, were skep- none. In any case, Google is in a much different posture now. tical, and their skepticism has now been vindicated. Tombs of Sometime in December, the Chinese government attacked workmen have been discovered that are better appointed, and As you continue to give ground to extremists, you may find yourself with too little ground left to stand on.

Google’s “corporate infrastructure,” as the company says. The closer to the pyramids themselves, than would have been the government’s main purpose was to pry into the e-mail accounts case for slaves. Indirect evidence suggests the workers may of human-rights activists and their supporters. Google expressed even have been from upper-class families. Perhaps the well- public displeasure with China, something rarely expressed informed parents of ancient Egypt, like those of today’s United toward that government, by anyone. And the company is threat- States, were urging their kids to get a government job. ening to pull out of the country altogether. It is also saying that, after these five years, it is no longer willing to censor its search „ One Saudi Arabian braved flash floods in Jeddah to rescue engine. This is a surprising and welcome development. At two family members and dozens of strangers from drowning. Google’s offices in Beijing, ordinary Chinese came to present This act of heroism was made more remarkable by the fact that flowers, in appreciation. the driver, who threw a rope to stranded cars and then dragged them out, was a woman—which makes it a violation of Saudi „ The Obama administration may be putting the brakes on Arabia’s ban on woman drivers. Malak al-Mutairy’s rescued America’s development of missile defenses, but China hasn’t father isn’t complaining, though: “My daughter has a strong halted any of its plans to develop a missile shield. On January personality. Nothing, even floods, deters her when she is deter- 11, Beijing announced a successful missile-intercept test mined to do something.” Isn’t that exactly the spirit the law is above the Earth’s atmosphere. Xinhua, the government news trying to combat? agency, said the test was “defensive in nature.” If that’s true, China may want to propose a reduction in the number of „ There is such a thing as preemptive surrender to the jihad. missiles it aims at Taiwan and elsewhere. We have seen this in case after case—and the latest involves the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. This is one of „ You will remember that, on December 30, a Jordanian doc- the most important cultural institutions in America, indeed the tor killed seven CIA employees in a suicide attack in Afghan- world. The reports that the museum “quietly istan. His wife—widow, we should probably say—is quite pulled images of the Prophet Mohammed from its Islamic col- proud of him. She is a Turk named Defne Bayrak, and she has lection and may not include them in a renovated exhibition written a book: Osama bin Laden, the Che Guevara of the area slated to open in 2011.” Why? “The museum said the con- East. The comparison is not a bad one, actually. troversial images—objected to by conservative Muslims who say their forbids images of their holy founder—were „ Here’s a happy story: Two thugs broke into the garden of a ‘under review.’” ’s had a British television personality and new mother, but she scared pointed comment about “controversial images”: “You know them off by brandishing a kitchen knife and shouting from her what, I’ll bet there are some prudish types who object to the window. Unfortunately, the Hertfordshire coppers who re- exhibition of naked women. What is the Met going to do about sponded to Myleene Klass’s call were not impressed by her that?” We all understand that an institution should not take self-described display of “mummy powers”—they advised unnecessary risks. We also understand that, as you continue her to let the police handle all intrusions in the future. No offi- to give ground to extremists, you may find yourself with too cial reprimand was handed down, but the police department’s little ground left to stand on.

14 | www.nationalreview.com FEBRUARY 8 , 2010 base.qxp 1/15/2010 2:33 PM Page 1

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THE WEEK „ After years of denials and evasions, Mark McGwire, the home-run king, admitted to steroid use. As he did so, he sobbed. He said, “The toughest thing is my wife, my parents, close friends have had no idea that I hid it from them all this time. . . . I knew this day was going to come. I didn’t know when.” He said it was especially hard to break the news to his son, now 22, who was 10 when McGwire hoisted him at home plate: That was when McGwire broke Roger Maris’s record for home runs in a single season. Before he made his public admission, McGwire called Maris’s widow, to tell her and apol- ogize. Some people greeted McGwire’s admission cynically: For one thing, everyone knew he was guilty; for another, he was to reenter baseball as the hitting coach for one of his old teams, the Cardinals—and he had to come clean before that. Still, a coming clean is a wonderful thing. A great slugger, Hank Aaron, responded this way: “He has my forgiveness.” He added that, if steroids are the only thing keeping McGwire out of the Hall of Fame, “we should all forgive him.” That seems right.

„ Miep Gies used to say she was just an ordinary housewife. Austrian by birth, and Catholic, she married a Dutchman named Jan Gies and lived in Amsterdam. In the war, Miep and Jan helped hide Otto Frank and his family in a secret room, daily risking their own lives to do so. For Miep, Otto Frank’s young daughter Anne was a girl “full of the joy of just being alive,” and she remembered seeing Anne writing her diary with a look of utter intensity in her face. When the Gestapo rounded up the Franks, Miep kept Anne’s diary safe. She also respected Anne’s privacy. If she’d read those pages, she would have found references to herself and Jan, and might well have her flaws or thought that in Massachusetts it wouldn’t matter. destroyed the lot for fear that the Gestapo in another search What made a weak candidate a losing candidate was the would incriminate them. After the war Otto Frank returned, national environment. and he was with Miep when he heard that his wife and daugh- Liberals—some of the same people who chalked up Obama’s ters were dead. Miep took out the diary, saying, “Here is your win to the public’s new zeal for —blame the daughter Anne’s legacy to you.” More than that, it is a legacy economy for the public mood. But is it really high unemploy- to us all. The Diary of Anne Frank has been published in mil- ment that has moved the public against the health-care legis- lions of copies in dozens of languages. Miep had her part in lation, abortion, and gun control? Remember that just a few rescuing a human document that touches the heart like no months ago the conventional wisdom was that a weak economy other. This admirable lady lived to be 100. The world could do would build public support for Obamacare. The Massachusetts with a lot more ordinariness like hers. R.I.P. race was as close to a referendum on that legislation as can reasonably be imagined, and it lost. So another Democratic excuse is making the rounds: Massa- THE SENATE chusetts is a special case, since it already has near-universal Brown In coverage and thus has more to lose than gain from the legis- lation. But a lot of states, and indeed the whole country, will COTT BROWN didn’t defeat just Martha Coakley in the lose more than gain, and know it. Some Democrats have Massachusetts Senate race. He also defeated a hardy talked about putting Obamacare into law by having Demo- S band of political clichés. That Republicans can’t win cratic appointee Paul Kirk vote for it before Brown can be Senate races in deep-blue Massachusetts. That the state is seated. We suspect that move would be too disgraceful to devoted to “the Kennedy legacy.” That the Republican party work. But to push the Senate bill through the House and make has become hostage to extremists who would rather lose than it law that way would also be to ignore the clear will of even support a pro-choice candidate. That the GOP has become a blue-state voters. Democrats will deserve the thrashing they southern regional party. That what Democrats call “health- will get if they follow this course. care reform” is a fait accompli. That President Obama has We have no doubt that NATIONAL REVIEW will have friendly magical powers of persuasion. disagreements with Senator Brown on many issues. But UPI / Democrats are blaming Coakley for running a bad cam- Brown ran on tax cuts, tough interrogations of terrorists, and paign. Actually, it was a terrible one. But she had won opposition to a federal takeover of health care and a bank tax. statewide before, and the local party establishment expressed If that is a winning platform in Massachusetts, it will surely

MATTHEW HEALEY no alarm when she won the nomination. They either didn’t see be one elsewhere.

16 | www.nationalreview.com FEBRUARY 8 , 2010 base.qxp 1/15/2010 2:37 PM Page 1

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the public, in electing Bill Clinton two years earlier, had not thought of itself as repudiating Reagan or his policies. The Contract did not pledge that Republicans would actually enact the legislation they ran on or even pass all of it through the House. The premise of the Contract was that the entrenched Dem- ocratic majority of the House, which had run it for 40 years, had refused even to hold votes on popular conservative ideas. (While Republican claims that each of the items in the Contract had the support of more than 60 percent of the public were misleading, those items clearly had wide- spread appeal.) The decades of Democratic control meant that “there was a lot of low-hanging fruit,” says , a Republican strategist who was working for his party’s House leadership at the time. “It’s a more Contractual Obligations challenging environment now,” he adds. A plan to win—and to govern Republicans had control of the House, Senate, and presidency only four years ago. The party does not have four decades’ BY RAMESH PONNURU worth of untried legislative ideas on the shelf. HE smart money is on the That September, almost all Republican Another difference from 16 years ago Republicans’ making big gains candidates for the House gathered on is that back then no organizations were in the House, the Senate, and the steps of the Capitol to pledge that if looking backward at the success of a pre- T governorships this fall, but not they took control of that body they would vious Contract. This time many activist taking control of either chamber of Con- quickly force floor votes on ten items, groups and individual candidates will gress. That’s where the smart money which they collectively called the “Con- have their own ten-point plans. “There are was at the start of 1994, too, and Repub- tract with America.” Party chairman Haley going to be multiple contracts,” says an licans took control of both a few months Barbour paid to put an ad about the con- aide to House Republican whip Eric Can- later. In the spring of 2006 few people tract in TV Guide. tor. Social conservatives, tea partiers, and thought the Democrats would take the Political professionals have not reached congressmen with their own national Senate as well as the House that year. They a consensus about the importance of the followings will all want to see the par- did. Contract to the Republican wins in 1994. ty’s contract reflect at least some of their Republicans are doing sufficiently well The elections that November were first ideas, which will make devising it tricky. that their objective this fall has to be at and foremost a referendum on the first That will be the job of Rep. Kevin Mc- least to retake the House. There is no point two years of Bill Clinton’s presidency. Carthy of California. He ran the platform in their setting their sights any lower, and Polls showed that most voters were not committee in 2008, and is widely credited announcing that objective will motivate aware of the Contract. Republicans large- with preventing the differences between conservative voters and activists in a way ly omitted social issues from the Contract conservative activists and presidential that a lesser goal, such as gaining 25 seats, in the interest of party unity, but they nominee John McCain from causing an will not. A simple majority in the Senate is appeared to play a strong role in the elec- explosion. less valuable: There the key numbers are tions. (Some observers said Republicans For all the changes since 1994, there are 41, the number below which even a uni- had won on “God, gays, and guns.”) enough similarities between Republicans’ fied minority lacks the power to block leg- But the Contract served several useful conditions now and then to justify trying islation on its own, and 60, the number functions even if it was not uppermost to adapt the model of the Contract. This below which even a unified majority can in the of voters. First, it gave Re- year’s election will primarily be a refer- be blocked. In the Senate the Republicans’ publican candidates policy issues they endum on President Obama and the Dem- goal should be to get enough above 40 that could all talk about. Second, it helped ocrats, just as 1994 was a referendum on they can block legislation even if the Dem- imbue the party with an image of being the Democrats of the early Clinton years. ocrats manage to persuade a small number forward-looking problem-solvers rather This is as it should be: The Democrats of Republicans to vote for it. than merely anti-Clintonites. Third, it made huge gains in 2006 and 2008, had GETTY A lot of Republicans believe that to lured the Democrats into a mistake. They enough power in Washington to set an / maximize the party’s potential gains they attacked the Contract as a reprise of Ronald ambitious agenda without serious Repub-

should repeat one thing they did in 1994. Reagan’s failed policies, not realizing that lican input, and did so. Republicans have BRAD MARKEL

18 | www.nationalreview.com FEBRUARY 8 , 2010 base.qxp 1/15/2010 2:40 PM Page 1

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largely opposed the way Democrats have If the Democrats’ health-care legisla- seen fit to use their vast power, and it is tion is enacted, replacing it ought to be entirely reasonable for the upcoming elec- at the top of the Republicans’ domestic- Institutional tion to turn on their performance. policy to-do list. The public knows that In 2009 Republicans had to establish Republicans are prepared to exploit anti- Earthquake their identity as a party of principled op- Obamacare sentiment. It does not know position to Obama’s agenda, and that task that Republicans are prepared to fight for One is needed, for the good of those will take up much of 2010 as well. Dem- something better. Making a pledge to ocrats may delight in calling Republicans replace Obamacare with more reasonable who suffer the geologic kind “the party of no.” But the GOP will be policies would help. much better off so defined than defined Republicans will be tempted to run on a BY IAIN MURRAY as “the party of us too” or “the party of promise of “no new bailouts.” To be cred- we’re not sure.” Eventually, however, Re- ible, however, that promise will have to be HE tragic images we have all publicans also have to become identified coupled with two other things: a plan to seen coming out of Haiti re- with their own popular policies. If they unwind the federal government’s existing mind us that earthquakes give do, they can portray the Democrats’ pro- holdings (in, for example, the auto indus- T no respect to political power or posals as part and parcel of a status quo try) and a plan to keep financial institu- reputation. The presidential palace and with which Americans are dissatisfied but tions from using government policy to the U.N. mission tumbled just as surely whose worst bureaucratic features the become too important to fail. as one-room shacks; being rich was no Democrats wish to build on. If they don’t, In 1980, 1994, and 2000, Republicans protection against nature’s whim. But it will be much easier for the Democrats to won elections in part by promising to cut if there is one thing we do know about portray themselves as the reformers. And middle-class taxes. They made no such natural disasters, it is that a generally the Democrats will continue to set the pledge in 2006 or 2008. It may not be a wealthier society is more resilient. Un- policy agenda. coincidence that they got pummeled. fortunately, the United Nations contin- Some of the elements of a new Repub- “One element [of a new contract] should ues to ignore basic facts about resiliency lican Contract (whatever it ends up being be tax policies that are pro-growth and in favor of politically correct shibbo- called) can easily be outlined. The public pro-family,” says former congressman leths. of 1994 was disgusted with a political class and Republican strategist Vin Weber. The Haitian earthquake is certainly that had run up the deficit while generating Americans are more concerned about among the ten deadliest earthquakes on a series of scandals—sound familiar?— the national debt than they have been in record. If the death toll tops 255,000, it so much of the Contract with America years—but not yet on board for any spe- will overtake the Tangshan, China, earth- involved political reform. It forced votes cific step to reduce it. On this issue, too, quake of 1976 as the second-deadliest on bills to make Congress live under the Republicans badly need something plau- ever. (It is unlikely to rate higher than rules it legislated for the private sector, to sible to say. AContract that omits mention the 1556 quake in Shaanxi, China, which provide funding for any tasks it ordered of the debt or fights it with platitudes will killed close to a million people.) Com- state and local governments to undertake, enrage the tea-party movement. pare those death tolls with that of the and to limit its members’ time in office. And while people do not worry enough great San Francisco quake of 1906, Few of these procedural reforms really about global warming to be willing to sac- which killed just 3,000, and you will addressed the fundamental flaws of liberal rifice their standard of living to fight it, begin to realize that even when quakes of governance, but all of them put Repub- they do worry. Republicans ought to pro- similar magnitude strike similarly large licans on record as opposed to self-serving mote new energy technologies in order to population centers, there is some factor business as usual. reduce the risks of global warming with- besides earthquake strength and popula- In 2010, Republicans will want to get on out doing the sort of economic damage tion size affecting the fatality level. That the right side of voter anger again—and that cap-and-trade legislation would en- factor is resiliency, and it protects against also point out that Democrats’ pledges to tail. This issue too belongs in any new all natural disasters. run Congress openly and ethically have Republican agenda. Resiliency is tied closely to wealth. been broken. Useful, or at least harmless, The original Contract with America A good example of resiliency in action reforms can again be undertaken. Putting was even more important after the 1994 can be seen in the tale of two hurricanes the full text of all bills online for 72 hours elections than it was beforehand. It gave that struck the Yucatán Peninsula in before a vote has become a popular cause; House Republicans a template for their Mexico. Fifty years ago, Hurricane Janet look for it in a new Contract. Pay for gov- first hundred days in power; they didn’t slammed into the Yucatán and killed 500 ernment employees has been booming wake up the election and people. In 2007, Hurricane Dean hit the at a time of private-sector layoffs. There’s have to scramble to devise an agenda. It Yucatán and killed no one. The hurri- another issue for the Contract. Con- also created the potent illusion politicians canes were identical in speed and inten- gressional perks ought to be examined, call a “mandate.” Here, too, today’s situa- sity. What was different was that in 2007 too. Members of Congress, even those tion offers a parallel. If Republicans do Mexico had grown richer and invested in who are not veterans, get to be treated at not come up with a common policy agen- institutions to protect its population. military facilities such as Walter Reed. da, they might still be able to gain power Why? And congressional pensions could in the elections—only to find that they Mr. Murray is vice president for strategy at the stand to be reined in. have no idea what to do with it. Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.

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One insurance firm found that when The guarantees transactions pose of that information. In fact, at the Hurricane Katrina hit, the places that and keeps contracts free from political end it leaves even the government in a had implemented simple hurricane-loss- interference. Open trade encourages com- blind. It is no coincidence that even 48 prevention methods such as special petition, fosters innovation, and enables hours after the sea surges, no informa- building codes, improved forecasting, people to convert the wealth represented tion was available from many parts of and wetlands protection suffered one- by their property into capital. Good gov- the affected areas, and consequently, speedy relief did not reach these areas. eighth the losses of those that had not ernance, enabled by transparency and done so. By spending $2.5 million, these accountability among officials, is also Simply put, governments that do not communities avoided $500 million in crucial. foster the institutions of resiliency, and damage. Corruption can undermine or even that tolerate or encourage corruption, The last hundred years saw a signifi- eliminate all of these institutions. In fact, will not be able to facilitate the free flow cant investment by humanity worldwide there is a very strong correlation between of important information. It takes a truly in the institutions of resiliency. That is countries’ vulnerability to natural disas- open society to do that. But the U.N. re- why, contra the claims of alarmist envi- ter and their ratings on Transparency fuses to acknowledge these facts because ronmentalists, the death toll from natural International’s annual Corruption Per- doing so would elevate Anglosphere val- disasters fell significantly over that cen- ception Index. Its 2009 survey found ues over others, and that is something tury. One can see this pattern in the only seven countries out of 180 with a that the U.N. cannot do. United States: The 1906 San Francisco worse corruption score than Haiti’s. Bearing this in mind, it should come as earthquake killed 3,000, but a similar As the SDN report concluded, “the no surprise that while the United Nations quake there in 1989 killed just 63. ‘solution’ proposed by some politicians has supposedly been overseeing the So what are the institutions of resil- in rich and poor countries—more foreign reconstruction of Haiti since 1993, pre- iency? A 2005 report from the Sus- aid—is unlikely to actually improve the cious little has been achieved in the tainable Development Network (SDN), situation.” The 2005 conference men- reduction of corruption or the building of prepared for the U.N.’s World Con- tioned above produced something called an open society. Much has been made of ference on Disaster Reduction, does a good job of listing them. “Disasters and Development,” available at www.policy- In general, wealth correlates with network.net, emphasizes the follow- ing. greater resiliency. In general, wealth correlates with greater resiliency. This claim is backed the “Hyogo Framework for Action the lack of enforced building codes in up by data from the Tyndall Centre for 2005–2015,” a 21-page document that Haiti (as earthquake researchers put it, Research, of all places, includes all the buzzwords about help- quakes don’t kill people, buildings kill which finds a strong correlation between ing to build resiliency but avoids dis- people). In the absence of good gover- overall poverty and vulnerability to nat- cussing the institutions required for this nance and the rule of law, however, a ural disasters (Haiti placed 17th in terms or even mentioning corruption. Instead, building code means nothing, because of risk). As people grow richer, they it emphasizes such important factors as an inspector sees permits as a source of demand more security over uncertainty. that “a gender perspective should be inte- income and a builder sees them as a tax They therefore demand insurance, and grated into all disaster risk management to be avoided. companies respond by competing for policies, plans and decision-making pro- If the poorest nations are to be saved business and making insurance cheaper, cesses.” from their vicious cycle of corruption, meaning a virtuous circle of insurance This is perhaps to be expected. A less poverty, and disaster, someone has to develops (although this can be broken obvious but more pertinent example of take the lead from the U.N. and actually by government subsidies’ encouraging how the U.N. approach misses the mark promote the institutions of resiliency. In risky behavior such as building in flood is the prominence given in the SDN the absence of anyone else willing to do zones). Wealthier people are also more report to information management and it (the British Commonwealth would able to help their neighbors via charita- exchange. Information exchange is in- have been well placed, had British politi- ble networks (although, again, these can deed critical in the avoidance of damage, cians not decided to let it wither on the be disrupted by government’s taking but the U.N. report simply ignores the vine), that someone should be America. over charitable roles). reality of information in poor and corrupt Congress can instruct USAID and the Further, the institutions that encourage countries, failing to analyze the underly- administration to make resiliency the wealth and the development of insur- ing reasons that information exchange is focus of its overseas aid and disaster- ance markets and charitable networks such a problem in them. As Barun Mitra prevention efforts. It could do this by are similar across the globe. Property of the Liberty Institute in India noted tying aid to the building of the institu- rights resolve competing claims over when discussing the role of information tions of resiliency and providing frank resources; poor countries almost univer- in the 2004 tsunami: advice where they are lacking. This may sally lack well-defined, readily enforce- not be a politically correct approach, but able property rights. Contracts underpin Centralizing information flow, as most it will result in a wealthier, healthier the functioning of markets and are an governments in India have tended to do, world, and that will be a geopolitical essential part of freedom of association. more often than not defeats the very pur- earthquake of a beneficial kind.

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These income gaps are fueled by immigrants who came to the U.S. between parental and educational disparities. In 1965 (when LBJ dramatically liberalized Assimilating 2007, the birth rate among Hispanic the immigration system) and 2008; Mex- women aged 15 to 19 was 82 per 1,000, ico alone provided 29 percent. While Down which was nearly twice the birth rate stronger border enforcement and the eco- among all women in that demographic. nomic downturn have contributed to a The trends concerning Hispanic Hispanics lag well behind the general pop- steep drop in Mexican immigration since ulation when it comes to finishing high the mid-2000s, a July 2009 Pew study mobility should have us alarmed school: The dropout rate among Hispanics concluded that there had not been an aged 16 to 24 is 17.2 percent, compared uptick in migration back to Mexico. BY DUNCAN CURRIE with 9.3 percent among non-Hispanic The Census Bureau calculates that blacks and 5.7 percent among non- Hispanics made up almost one-sixth of the F Rep. Luis Gutierrez gets his way, Hispanic whites. That is a result of the U.S. population in 2008. As Pew observes, Americans will soon be engaged in staggeringly high dropout rate (32.9 per- they had a much bigger population share another bare-knuckled brawl over the cent) among first-generation Hispanic in certain states, such as New Mexico I future of U.S. immigration policy. immigrants. (45.1 percent), California (36.6 percent), On December 15, the Illinois Democrat Close to a third of Hispanics aged 16 to Texas (36.2 percent), and Arizona (30.2 unveiled a “comprehensive” reform bill 25 can identify a past or present gang percent). Twenty-five percent of all Amer- that would create a path to citizenship for member among their family and friends. ican children under age five were His- millions of immigrants who are residing Once again, there is a divide between the panic, as were 22 percent of all children in the United States illegally. Dozens of foreign-born and native-born—but it’s under 18. The median age of Hispanics House members have signed on as co- not the divide you might expect. Native- (27.7) was more than nine years lower sponsors. Should President Obama and born Hispanic youths (especially those of than the median age of the entire popula- Democratic leaders launch an aggressive Mexican descent) are actually much more tion (36.8). Hispanic females have a sub- push for the legislation, we can expect a likely to know a gang member than are stantially higher fertility rate than black, replay of the high-octane immigration bat- young Hispanic immigrants. They’re also white, and Asian women. The Census tles that erupted in 2006 and 2007. Indeed, more likely to get in fights, carry weapons, Bureau has projected that approximately the bickering this time around could be and be questioned by the police. one out of every four U.S. residents will be even more raucous because of the weak These data raise serious concerns about Hispanic by mid-century. economy. (Last time, the national unem- Hispanic mobility and assimilation. So That’s why Hispanic social mobility is ployment rate was below 5 percent.) do recent health-care statistics. Columnist so critically important to America’s future. A few days before Gutierrez introduced Robert Samuelson points out that His- Unfortunately, says Duke University his bill, Pew Hispanic Center released an panics accounted for roughly 60 percent economist Jacob Vigdor, the children of extensive study of young Hispanics— of the growth of America’s uninsured Mexican immigrants appear to be “assim- those aged 16 to 25—and their uneven between 1999 and 2008. By the end of ilating down” into an underclass culture. assimilation into mainstream American that period, Hispanics represented less So much about contemporary Mexican society. Roughly two-thirds were born in than 16 percent of the overall U.S. popu- immigration is unprecedented, he adds: the U.S., and about the same proportion lation but 31.4 percent of those who America has never absorbed such a mas- have Mexican ancestry. An estimated 22 lacked health insurance at any given time, sive and continuous flow of migrants from percent are illegal immigrants. The Pew according to the Census Bureau. The one country for such an extended period; study found that Hispanic youths appreci- 2008 National Health Interview Survey and no U.S. immigrant group has ever ate the value of a college degree, believe found that 34 percent of non-elderly been so heavily undocumented. Vigdor that hard work pays off, and aspire to have (under age 65) Hispanics reported being thinks the current lull in Mexican immi- successful careers; but it also highlighted uninsured, compared with just 14 percent gration will be temporary. social and educational trends that are of non-elderly non-Hispanics. About 43 In his new book, From Immigrants hindering Hispanics’ upward mobility— percent of those uninsured Hispanics said to Americans, Vigdor shows that, while an issue that should be central to any they had never been insured, compared Mexican immigrants gradually improve debate over immigration reform. with only 15 percent of the non-Hispanic their economic standing over time, they Pew reckons that in 2008, more than uninsured. (Bear in mind that some peo- have lower rates of naturalization, weaker half of young Hispanics had family in- ple who reported being uninsured might English capabilities, and much smaller comes under 200 percent of the federal have been eligible for or enrolled in Medi- incomes than other immigrant groups. poverty level, compared with 38 percent caid or the Children’s Health Insurance Indeed, says Vigdor, unlike their predeces- of all youths and 29 percent of non- Program.) sors in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Hispanic white youths. While foreign- As Samuelson indicates, the uncertainty today’s U.S. immigrants arrive with wild- born Hispanics had significantly higher of immigration flows makes it difficult to ly varying skills. In an era when the col- poverty rates than their native-born coun- predict how much the Democrats’ health- lege wage premium has skyrocketed and terparts, 21 percent of young Hispanics care legislation would reduce the number the number of well-paying low-skilled from the third generation and later be- of uninsured. Over the past few decades, jobs has rapidly declined, those immi- longed to poor families, compared with 13 the Hispanic population has exploded. grants at the upper end of the skill distri- percent of young non-Hispanic whites. Latin America provided half of all the bution (such as Chinese and Indians)

22 | www.nationalreview.com FEBRUARY 8 , 2010 base.qxp 1/15/2010 2:42 PM Page 1

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enjoy a huge structural advantage over has been hampered by a variety of social those at the bottom (such as Mexicans and and cultural factors. For example, an Central Americans). increasingly large proportion of Hispanic Balancing Act Vigdor argues that Mexicans’ sluggish children are being born out of wedlock. economic performance can be explained According to the National Center for Conservatives weigh means against largely by their education deficit. In the Health Statistics, the nonmarital-birth ends as liberal opinion-makers embrace Census Bureau’s 2007 American Com- ratio among Hispanics grew from 23.6 teacher accountability and school choice munity Survey, he notes, fewer than 5 percent in 1980 to 51.3 percent in 2007. percent of Mexicans reported having a A May 2009 Pew paper estimated that BY STEPHEN SPRUIELL college degree. According to an October the share of Hispanic children living in 2009 Pew study, nearly one-third of married-couple families is 69 percent Hispanics aged 25 to 29 do not have a among children of the first generation but HE Obama administration’s sig- high-school diploma, compared with just only 52 percent among those of the third nature education initiative, Race 11 percent of all 25- to 29-year-olds. Only generation and beyond. to the Top, has produced genuine 12 percent of Hispanics in that same In terms of cognitive development, T headline news: The Democrats, demographic have a bachelor’s degree or many Hispanics are falling behind middle- usually seen kowtowing to organized higher, compared with 31 percent of the class whites at a very early age, according labor’s demands, for once are standing up general population. to a new study from the University of to a powerful union constituency. The In their 2009 book, The Latino Edu- California, Berkeley. Sociologist Bruce Race to the Top grant competition would cation Crisis, professors Patricia Gándara Fuller and several other researchers deter- remunerate states for using students’ test of UCLA and Frances Contreras of the mined that, while Hispanic newborns are scores in teacher evaluations, a practice University of Washington observe that the known for their “robust birth weight and the teachers unions have fought for years. percentage of Hispanics with college low mortality rates,” their cognitive growth A number of conservative reformers are backing the measure, but Texas governor Rick Perry, a Republican, recently an- Hispanic toddlers are, on balance, nounced that his state would not partici- pate in Race to the Top. What’s the catch? receiving less cultural capital from The situation is reminiscent of another their parents than are middle-class time Democrats stood up to organized labor: in the early 1990s, when Bill Clin- white toddlers. ton backed passage of the North Ameri- can Agreement (NAFTA) over degrees has been stagnant since the 1980s. between 9 months and 24 months trails the objections of the unions. In both cases, Certain Hispanic immigrant groups seem that of middle-class white children. The the fight between the Democratic party to hit a “ceiling” of educational attainment researchers attributed this to the low levels and its union backers dominated the “after the third generation,” if not sooner. of education among Hispanic mothers, media’s coverage. But then as now, a dif- “Never before have we been faced with a their insufficient pre-literacy activities, ferent and more interesting question pre- population group on the verge of becom- and the higher child-to-adult ratios in His- occupied conservatives: Does the policy ing the majority in significant portions of panic households. Simply put: Hispanic in question cede too much local power to the country that is also the lowest per- toddlers are, on balance, growing up in a national or transnational authority? forming academically,” write Gándara and family environments that are less con- At the heart of the question is a debate Contreras. “And never before has the eco- ducive to learning the skills needed to suc- over means and ends. Not many conserva- nomic structure been less forgiving to the ceed in school. tives in the 1990s argued, as the unions undereducated.” Much of the political oxygen in recent did, that NAFTA would result in the loss Hispanics are plagued by an attainment immigration squabbles has been con- of tens of thousands of American jobs. gap, and also by an achievement gap. sumed by border security and amnesty. Nor do many conservatives today side The latter can be seen in the National Those are hardly trivial issues, but a with the teachers unions in support of Assessment of Educational Progress math comprehensive discussion would focus rules that make it nearly impossible to and reading test results. In 2005, accord- intensely on Hispanic social mobility. fire incompetent educators. In each case, ing to a National Education Association Vigdor says there is ample reason to be mountains of empirical evidence slowly report, just 68 percent of Hispanic fourth- worried about “the breakdown of the persuaded liberal elites and Democratic graders and 52 percent of Hispanic eighth- Great American Assimilation Machine.” reformers to agree at least partially with graders demonstrated “basic” proficiency As Gándara and Contreras put it, “If the conservatives that a certain end—free in math; only 46 percent of Hispanic high dropout rates and low educational trade and teacher accountability, respec- fourth-graders and 56 percent of Hispanic achievement of Latino youth are not tively—was worth pursuing. eighth-graders reached that performance turned around, we will have created a per- By 1993, it was no longer plausible to level in reading. (For non-Hispanic whites, manent underclass without hope of inte- argue that free trade was on balance dele- the percentages were 90, 80, 76, and 82, grating into the mainstream or realizing terious to a nation’s prosperity. Econo- respectively.) their potential to contribute to American mists across the political spectrum agreed Educational progress among Hispanics society.” then, and still do, that removing trade

24 | www.nationalreview.com FEBRUARY 8 , 2010 base.qxp 1/19/2010 11:38 AM Page 1

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barriers between two countries allows , president of the Amer- and not surrender control to the federal each to increase its total output and ican Federation of Teachers, for her bureaucracy.” thereby grow richer. The only intellectu- grudging acceptance of the notion that Few remember now, but similar sover- ally defensible way to argue against free standardized test scores should be part of eignty concerns bedeviled some conserva- trade is to make the debate about some- the evaluation process. (The National tives when Bill Clinton, in an effort to thing other than wealth, such as equality, Education Association, AFT’s much larg- make NAFTA more palatable to union labor rules, or environmental standards. er cousin, remains opposed.) interests and environmentalists, negotiat- In the NAFTA debate, accordingly, op- In large part, these journalists are fol- ed side agreements on labor and the envi- ponents argued that U.S. companies lowing the administration’s lead. Obama’s ronment to placate them. Conservatives would move jobs requiring fewer skills appointment of former Chicago public- worried that these deals would create to Mexico, weakening the power of schools CEO Arne Duncan to lead the panels with authority to recommend sanc- unions to bid up the price of unskilled Department of Education was viewed by tions and other measures to compel com- labor and causing the gap between rich many conservatives as a decent pick, pliance. and poor to widen. based on Duncan’s advocacy of teacher Though the sovereignty concerns were But liberal opinion-makers were not accountability and charter schools. Race not without merit, those powers of pun- persuaded that the country should sacrifice to the Top reflects Duncan’s support for ishment have proven to be a net benefit in its overall prosperity to preserve union these concepts: States with laws prohibit- the enforcement of U.S. trade agreements. clout. NAFTA supporter Michael Kinsley, ing the use of test scores in teacher evalu- Consider the World Trade Organization then of The New Republic, zeroed in on the ations are not eligible to compete for the (WTO). One of the best things about the opposition’s advantage in the debate when $4.3 billion in grant money available WTO is that it presents a solution to the he wrote that “the person who will get a under the program, and other eligibility problem of concentrated benefits and dis- job because of NAFTA isn’t even aware requirements encourage states to lift caps persed costs. The Bush administration’s of it yet; the person who may lose a job on charter schools. In general, states make decision to levy tariffs on imported steel because of NAFTAis all too aware.” News- themselves more attractive applicants the imposed a tax on steel consumers for the week admonished Americans to “beware farther they move in the directions of benefit of a few domestic steel compa- the new protectionist preachings. Trade is accountability and choice. nies. The WTO ruled against the U.S. and good for you.” And the most influential This is not to say that Obama has been authorized the EU to levy retaliatory liberal in the country, Bill Clinton, sup- great, or even good, on education. To sanctions, thus concentrating the cost ported NAFTA. the dismay of conservatives and inner- of the tariffs on other industries, which It is equally difficult to argue now that city Washington parents, he signed a bill were better organized than steel consu- teacher quality and student test scores are that stripped the District of Columbia’s mers and better able to fight back. Under not correlated. Empirical studies from school-voucher program of its funding. pressure, Bush relented and repealed the groups such as the New Teacher Project, He supports a bill that would effectively tariffs. Teach for America, and the Brookings nationalize the provision of student Race to the Top seeks to address the Institution have demonstrated that teach- loans. And one of his appointments to same problem, using a carrot instead of ers matter, and that test scores are a reli- the Department of Education, Kevin a stick. Tenure rules and caps on char- ably accurate tool for measuring how Jennings, founded a group that advocated ter schools benefit a powerful and well- much they matter. A Brookings study the inclusion of gay-and-lesbian-themed organized special-interest group at the of Los Angeles public schools published literature on school reading lists, includ- expense of unorganized taxpayers and in 2006 concluded that “having a top- ing books that contain graphic descrip- parents. But state governments, going quartile teacher rather than a bottom- tions of sex acts between minors and broke and desperate for federal funds, quartile teacher four years in a row would adults. have already responded to Race to the be enough to close the black-white test For these reasons alone, conservatives Top’s incentive structure. So far, eleven score gap.” would be right to approach any of this states have amended or repealed bad laws As in the debate over free trade, liberal administration’s education initiatives with to make themselves more competitive journalists and policymakers are in- a profound skepticism. But conservative candidates for the money, despite union creasingly embracing the evidence. I first objections to Race to the Top go beyond opposition. learned of the Brookings study from a Obama himself. Many on the right (in- Conservatives have legitimate con- Steven Brill article in that cluding NATIONAL REVIEW’s editors) cerns about delegating power over educa- absolutely eviscerated New York’s United opposed President Bush’s No Child Left tion to the federal government. But state Federation of Teachers for blocking re- Behind Act on the grounds that conserva- governments have their own flaws, which forms that would make it easier for tives should fight any bill that entrenches a little delegated power can mitigate. It’s schools to use tests in teacher evaluations. the federal role in education—even if, in a delicate balance, and it’s hard to say Amanda Ripley of The Atlantic recently theory, it would put the government to right now whether Race to the Top tilts wrote about Teach for America’s ground- work toward laudable ends. Governor too far in the direction of centralized breaking efforts to track test-score data, Perry reflected this point of view in decision-making. But at least conserva- link it to each of the organization’s teach- announcing that Texas would not apply tives can take heart that the tide of elite ers, and use it to assess their effectiveness. for Race to the Top funds: “Our state and opinion is turning against the teachers Bob Herbert, colum- our communities must reserve the right unions—and in favor of accountability nist, wrote a column in January praising to decide how we educate our children, and choice.

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Academy by Richelle Mead) and movies very least, they should crawl back into (Cirque du Freak, Jennifer’s Body) also their coffins and give the rest of us a Defanged have featured the bloodsucking undead. break. On TV, The Vampire Diaries is the H. P. Lovecraft, the great 20th-century Once upon a time, most-watched show on the CW net- horror writer, explained the aesthetics of the living dead were scary work. True Blood has aired on HBO for terror: “The oldest and strongest emo- two seasons and has commitments for tion of mankind is fear, and the oldest BY JOHN J. MILLER two more. It recently launched a jewel- and strongest kind of fear is fear of the ry line. A clasp necklace with rubies unknown.” The problem with vampires TRAILER for the new movie shaped like drops of blood retails for is that there’s nothing left to fear be- Daybreakers invites us to “ima- $1,295. One of the hottest rock bands of cause there’s nothing left to know. At gine a world where almost the moment is Vampire Weekend. Its one point in their progression through A everyone is a vampire.” latest release, put out on January 11, pop culture, it took a purveyor of arcane That shouldn’t be too hard. It seems quickly became the most downloaded wisdom like Abraham Van Helsing to like we’re already living in one. album on iTunes. defeat them. Nowadays, every fifth Vampires are everywhere. At the start I dig vampires as much as the next grader has memorized the fundamentals of 2010, the four novels in Stephenie guy who has read Bram Stoker’s Drac- of vampire slaying: crucifixes, garlic, Meyer’s Twilight series ranked Nos. 2, ula three or four times, goes out of his sunlight, and so on. They’ve become 4, 5, and 9 on USA Today’s list of best- way to watch monster movies, and Halloween clichés. sellers. They’ve held spots in this range thinks “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” by Bau- But that’s not the worst part. Vampires for a couple of years—it might be said haus is one of the coolest songs ever probably can survive a certain level of that they’ve refused to die—and recent- recorded. Yet the present ubiquity of vam- familiarity as long as they also remain ly they’ve spawned a pair of films that pires is too much, even for me. Once menaces who want to puncture our have grossed more than half a billion upon a time, vampires were creepy and necks and steal our souls. Lately, how- dollars combined. More are on the way. haunting. Now they’re yawn-inducing ever, too many vampires have taken a Plenty of other recent books (Dead bores. Perhaps they’ve finally reached kinder, gentler turn. They’ve gone from and Gone by Charlaine Harris, Vampire their cultural expiration date. At the sinister villains who deserve to have

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wooden stakes pounded into their chests all vampire stories, on page and screen, to a confrontation between good and to tender-hearted friends and lovers are compared and contrasted. A gener- evil. Human beings are on the side of who yearn for our compassion. The ation later, movies breathed additional truth and light while vampires prefer main character in Daybreakers is a guilt- life into horror’s best franchise: Nos- deception and darkness. ridden vampire hematologist who wants feratu in 1922, Dracula in 1931, and a About the same time, however, other to find a cure for vampirism and save never-ending stream of sons, brides, and writers took a different approach. They humanity. In Twilight, the pouting male reboots. began to write stories from the perspec- protagonist slurps the blood of animals The quality of all this has ranged tive of vampires. Anne Rice wasn’t the so he doesn’t have to stalk human prey. from the slapdash to the iconic—and first to do it, but her Interview with the Both of these guys also have great the genre’s resilience has demonstrated Vampire, released in 1976, became the hair—and not on the palms of their the enduring power of vampire mythol- most popular and influential of the type. hands, like the original Dracula, who ogy. When done well, these books and It twisted the entire genre around. Sud- also smelled really bad. The fashion- films can be first-rate pieces of enter- denly, vampires lobbied for our sympa- plate vampires of today are undead tainment. An Edith Wharton character thy. Good? Evil? It’s complicated. With metrosexuals: sharp-dressed men with once said ghost stories appeal because Twilight, the transformation is complete. sharp teeth. they offer “the fun of the shudder.” Vampires aren’t fiends who threaten us These vapid vampires have traveled a Vampire tales provide the same thrill. with eternal damnation; they’re hand- long way from their sources. As with so They also present rich opportunities for some hipsters whom our daughters want many legends that arise from old folk allegory and metaphor. On one level, to date. traditions, the precise origins of vampire they can be about Transylvanians who The trend isn’t isolated to vampires. tales are pleasingly obscure. They have shape-shift into bats. On another level, In How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, the their genesis in Eastern Europe, espe- they can deliver messages about mor- 1957 book by Dr. Seuss, the Grinch is cially Hungary, as well as rough corol- tality, addiction, parasitic relationships, cursed with a heart that is “two sizes too laries in many other cultures. In the 18th sexual taboos, and blood-borne epi- small.” This is the only motive he needs century, Goethe wrote a poem about a demics. to wreak holiday havoc. In the more vampire. In the 19th century, British Just about every accomplished writer recent film version starring Jim Carrey, writers began to appropriate the con- of horror has dabbled with vampires. however, the screenwriters invent a cept. The first popular story in the genre, Stephen King’s second novel, ’Salem’s background story for the Grinch. It “The Vampyre,” by John William Poli- Lot, published in 1975, is about a small turns out that his rage at the denizens dori, was published in 1819. The first town in Maine and its harrowing en- of Who-ville is entirely justified. A simi- really good vampire story—i.e., one still counter with the living dead. In many lar inversion fuels Wicked, the novel- worth reading today—is Carmilla, an ways, it’s a tradition-bound book: King turned-musical inspired by The Wizard 1872 novella by Joseph Sheridan Le always has paid homage to his genre of Oz. It lets the Wicked Witch of the Fanu. Then came Bram Stoker. His 1897 predecessors. More important, the story West tell her side of the story. When we novel Dracula is the work against which itself is traditional. The plot boils down see things from her point of view, we learn that she’s not malevolent but mis- understood. The evolution of vampires, Grinches, and witches is a variation on the theme of defining deviancy down. There was a time when we knew a monster when we saw one—and understood that some nasties need to have their heads chopped off and their mouths stuffed with garlic. Nowadays, however, vampirism and its related maladies are just alternative lifestyles. Condemning them is an un- forgivable rendering of judgment and a crime against the imperatives of moral relativism. A society that has trouble recognizing monsters in its art probably will have difficulty identifying terrorists at its airports. And its horror stories will become bloodless. When everybody’s perspec- tive is equally valid, vampires lose their bite. We may have gained friends, but we’ve lost enemies—and a world with- out enemies is the stuff of a dull utopian

fairytale. ROMAN GENN

28 | www.nationalreview.com FEBRUARY 8 , 2010 base.qxp 1/19/2010 12:12 PM Page 1

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Keeping Blacks Poor How the Democratic party stands between its most loyal constituents and the jobs they need

BY KEVIN D. WILLIAMSON

AY I HAVE YOUR UNDIVIDED ATTENTION PLEASE!” place 575,000-square-foot brick castle. It’s been a lot of different Small guy, big mouth: He’s maybe 15, black, things over the years—barracks, homeless shelter, boat-show skinny kid, but his voice fills up the noisy New venue, a pre-creepified set for Will Smith’s I Am Legend—but it ‘M York City subway car and then some. “I am currently is vacant, as are a lot of buildings in . Passing selling candy! I got Snickers! I got Peanut M&Ms! I am trying to by, late on a weekday morning, is a local who calls himself “C,” make some money! This isn’t for school, this isn’t for a basket- a black man as sturdily built as the armory itself. C very much ball team, this is for ME! So I can get more candy and MAKE MORE wants a cigarette. This is a problem, because he is not currently MONEY!” The straphangers appreciate his no-malarkey sales pitch in funds, in no small part because he does not have a job. In fact, and his entrepreneurial spirit. He does a bit of business, and a few at 35 years old, C has never held a job. His friends, acquain- people just give him a buck and skip the candy. His name is Will, tances, known associates (C is a little foggy on whether he’s on and he is not turning down a dollar. But it’s a tough hustle: probation or parole, but he’s got some known associates): no Accounting for the cost of his product and his subway pass, it jobs, never really had them. His father? Do not ask C about his takes him about three hours to earn $20 free and clear, an implied father. In fact, the only people C can think of who have jobs are wage of $6.67 an hour—well under minimum wage. On the other women: His mother worked, the mother of his children works. hand, it’s tax-free, and he sets his own hours. Will wants to go to He did know a woman who was dating a taxi driver once. C says college—and then what? “Be an independent businessman.” he would like to work but is more of an independent business- He’s already that, and, if persistence really does pay, he’s going man. He describes the informal work he has done as “this and to do fine for himself. that,” and says he would like to “have his own place,” a bar or a There’s a whole weird little economy on the subway, from nightclub. But don’t expect to see him selling candy on the No. 4 candy hustlers like Will to the Chinese ladies who sell pirated train anytime soon. DVDs of movies that have just opened in the cinemas. There are Asked about the recently defeated plan to convert the gigantic acrobats and mariachi bands, good old-fashioned panhandlers, fortress that looms over his neighborhood into a shopping mall, poets, preachers, and percussionists. It’s all part of the famous C says he hasn’t heard about it. If the plan had gone through, entrepreneurial bustle of New York. But stay on that No. 4 train Manhattan-based developer Related Companies would have a few more stops, north of Harlem and into the Bronx, and that received about $50 million in tax subsidies for a project that entrepreneurial energy evaporates. Not far from the Kingsbridge would have created as many as a thousand retail jobs and, during

Road stop is the Eighth Regiment Armory, a fantastically out-of- its construction, employed a thousand or more highly paid union DARREN GYGI

30 | www.nationalreview.com FEBRUARY 8 , 2010 2col.qxp 1/19/2010 7:34 PM Page 31

hardhats. But the city council killed the project. The Bronx dele- Never mind the jobless recovery: For a great many black gation demanded that Related enforce upon its leaseholders a Americans, it’s been a jobless eternity, in good times and in bad. requirement that all of the jobs in the mall pay at least $10 an Why? hour, plus benefits, much more than the prevailing wage in the Forever21-and-food-court racket, to say nothing of the $7.25 minimum wage. So a $300 million project, and a couple of thou- HE first answer many economists will give to that question sand new jobs in a neighborhood that needs them, never hap- is: the minimum wage. , a Nobel laure- pened. Bronx borough president Ruben Diaz Jr. infamously T ate who spent much of his career showing how govern- declared: “The notion that any job is better than no job no longer ment programs reliably end up hurting those they are intended to applies.” The New York Post pithily pointed out that when it help, was scathing on the subject, calling the minimum wage comes to real jobs, Diaz has never had one—not in the private “one of the most, if not the most, anti-black laws on the statute sector, anyway—and neither has any other member of the Bronx’s books.” And he’s not alone: A congressional survey of economic city-council delegation: All are lifelong politicians, many of them research on the subject, “50 Years of Research on the Minimum having held elected offices or political appointments since their Wage,” has a string of conclusion lines that read like an indict- early 20s. Diaz himself has been an officeholder since he was 23 ment, the first three counts being: “The minimum wage reduces years old. It’s good work, if you can get it. employment. The minimum wage reduces employment more But there’s not much other work to be had in the Bronx, where among teenagers than adults. The minimum wage reduces em- unemployment is currently at about 13.1 percent. Much of the ployment most among black teenage males.” Other items on the Bronx is young and black or young and Hispanic. Nationally, the bill: “The minimum wage hurts small businesses generally. The unemployment rate among blacks rose to 16.2 percent in the minimum wage causes employers to cut back on training. The year-end numbers, while the rate for whites fell to 9.0 percent. minimum wage has long-term effects on skills and lifetime earn- For black youths, the numbers are startling: 50 percent for 16–19- ings. The minimum wage hurts the poor generally. The minimum year-olds, 26 percent for 20–24-year-olds. A study from the wage helps upper-income families. The minimum wage helps Community Service Society of New York puts actual work-force unions.” Helping the affluent and high-wage union workers at the participation among black men 16–65 years of age in New York expense of the young, the poor, the unskilled, and small busi- City at about 50 percent, and the number for young black men nesses: That amounts to a lot of different kinds of injustice, and nationwide is just 40 percent. it also amounts to a wealth transfer from blacks to whites.

$GI    

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This is a disparity with its roots in history, but the roots don’t HE damage done by the minimum wage is real, but it’s go back to Reconstruction or the heyday of the Ku Klux Klan. not the only impediment to black employment, and They go back only to the 1960s. In 1954, young black men were T maybe not even the most serious one when it comes to in fact more likely to be employed than were their white coun- the big cities. Black workers in Philadelphia, for example, have terparts, according to the economists Nabeel al-Salam, Aline long complained about being excluded from the overwhelming- Quester, and Finis Welch. The Fair Labor Standards Act, which ly white building-trades unions, the carpenters’ and electrical- established the minimum wage, had been passed in 1938, but workers’ guilds that are run by a largely Irish-American coterie wartime economic regimentation had postponed its full impact. headed by Pat Gillespie at the Building Trades Council and John “Marginal but employed blacks were the first ones to be laid J. Dougherty Jr. (“Johnny Doc”) at the IBEW Local 98. Their off,” says Prof. Paul D. Moreno of Hillsdale College, a labor unions are 80 percent white and 99 percent male, and the num- historian. Originally modest in its scope, the act was repeated- bers are similar in other cities. Irritatingly for the Philadelphia ly revised, both raising the minimum wage and expanding the politicians who are beholden to them, 70 percent of the building- range of businesses required to pay it. The act originally was trades unions’ members live out in the suburbs rather than in the restricted to interstate enterprises, but by 1961 the meaning of city. Wilson Goode Jr., a member of the Philadelphia city coun- “interstate commerce” had been so greatly stretched that order- cil, has made black workers’ exclusion from the unions a key- ing a box of paper clips from an out-of-state supplier was note issue. He’s a deep-dipped liberal, an affirmative-action enough to get a business covered by the minimum wage. As the supporter and a conventional urban Democrat in almost every application of the act grew, so did the disparity in black and respect, but he has noticed the strange fact that progressive pro- white employment rates. Blacks, who had been employed grams sold as tools to help the city’s largely black working class mostly in smaller enterprises, often family-owned, found them- mostly end up putting money in the pockets of well-off white selves competing on a straight dollar-per-hour basis with white people in the suburbs. Philadelphia is a city with real black polit- entry-level workers who were on the whole better educated, ical power, but in a contest between a black city councilman better connected—and white. The racial realities of the time working to secure good jobs for his constituents and the white meant that the sorts of jobs affected by minimum-wage laws union chieftains who have been running Philadelphia as a per- were the ones that were most open to blacks. sonal fiefdom since time immemorial, Wilson Goode Jr. found And it’s not just that the minimum wage prices some low- out who the boss is, and it’s not him. productivity workers out of the labor market: It’s that it pre- When the unions were salivating over the prospect of an vents entry into the labor market in the first place for the most expansive new project at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, marginal would-be workers. If Will the candy hustler’s real Councilman Goode asked them for information about the racial economic output is worth $6.67 an hour, his implied wage on composition of their work forces, and for a commitment to meet the subway, he’s unemployable with a $7.25 minimum wage. certain diversity goals. They more or less laughed at him—and He can sell candy on the subway, but he can’t sell candy for got the work, anyway. “The issue of lack of diversity within the Big Candy Corp., make connections, learn what it’s like to go building trades came up during the convention-center project. to an office every day and have a boss, get references, get pro- There was no plan for opportunity in terms of diversity,” Goode moted, and sign up for the tuition-reimbursement program. says. “We made a request from the building trades that they sub- And that, not the paltry lost income of a minimum-wage job, is mit their demographics to city council, and actually set goals for the price he pays. Very few American workers actually earn the expanding diversity within their unions. Interesting enough, the minimum wage—about 1 percent, in fact—but the minimum- carpenters’ union and electrical-workers’ union, which did not wage job is a gateway into the labor force for many young comply, went on to work on the project, anyway. The goals that workers. The value of your first job isn’t the money you earn were set within those building-trade unions were not taken seri- from it: It’s your second job, and your third. With the right ously.” In fact, Goode says, the only times when black workers experience and network, a candyman like Will can do well for have gotten a fair shake on big projects have been those few himself. But without that first job, he has a much higher chance occasions when the work is not held hostage by the labor of becoming a statistical blip on the long-term unemployment mafia—for instance, a couple of open-shop weatherization charts than a middle manager at Hershey or a salesman at projects conducted under the authority of the Philadelphia Cadbury. Housing Development Corporation. Goode pressed to make the That’s why economists call barriers like the minimum wage convention-center project open-shop, a proposal that was imme- “cutting the bottom rung off the ladder.” What’s less often appre- diately crushed. “Going open-shop did not seem politically fea- ciated, though, is the network effect: A guy who’s never gotten sible,” Goode says, with understatement. “The other option is on the ladder himself cannot give you a hand up. Job-hunting is the creation of new unions that have more people of color, more almost always an exercise in social networking: A friend of your women, and more Philadelphia residents. And that’s probably dad helps you get a summer job, an old colleague recommends even less politically feasible.” you for a position with his new firm. C up in the Bronx does not The problem in the labor unions isn’t really old-fashioned have a network like that: His friends and family are not in a posi- racism of the white-sheets and Jim Crow variety: Philadelphia is tion to tip him off about a job because they do not have jobs a city with plenty of poisonous racial politics, but it’s not themselves, and, in some cases, never have. He doesn’t have any remarkable for them—worse than Atlanta, probably, but not as former coworkers to recommend him for a new and better job. bad as Boston. What’s really happening in the unions is a kind All he has is economically insulated politicians telling him that of expansive ethnic nepotism. Unions tend to find good posi- no job is better than a job that doesn’t meet their political tions and lots of work for people who are friends and family of requirements. current union members. Indeed, many in the building trades start

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on the path to union membership early in life. If those unions are dominated by , it’s no surprise that a lot of the plums are going to the Kellys and Murphys, and not the Jack- sons and Washingtons or the Garcias and Colóns. As The A REPUBLIC, Economist puts it, “Blacks are also at a disadvantage when it comes to relying on friends and family connections to find jobs; If You Want It there is not the same network of family businesses that whites and Latinos have. Some studies have found that this factor may explain as much as 70% of the difference in black and white The Left’s overreach invites unemployment rates, and may also explain the difference be- the Founders’ return tween black and Latino jobless rates. Among young men, for instance, the near-20% Hispanic unemployment rate is much BY MATTHEW SPALDING closer to that for whites (17%) than blacks (30%).” The problem, of course, is self-perpetuating: The more blacks are out of work, and the longer they’re out of work, the less of a network black UR federal government, once limited to certain core job-seekers are going to have. And they can’t count on the functions, now dominates virtually every area of unions to help them out. American life. Its authority is all but unquestioned, “The building trades were the most notorious for their dis- O seemingly restricted only by expediency and the crimination,” says Professor Moreno of Hillsdale, “along with occasional budget constraint. the railroad brotherhoods, which were in a class by themselves Congress passes massive pieces of legislation with little seri- in terms of how exclusive they were. If you look at the data, ous deliberation, bills that are written in secret and generally especially in the building trades, and compare them to the steel- unread before the vote. The national legislature is increasingly a workers or the autoworkers, the worst discrimination is in the supervisory body overseeing a vast array of administrative poli- building trades. In unions that have a lot of black membership, cymakers and rulemaking agencies. Although the Constitution black workers got into those industries before the unions did. vests legislative powers in Congress, the majority of “laws” are Henry Ford was hiring blacks before the UAW organized them. promulgated in the guise of “regulations” by bureaucrats who Steelmakers, same thing. Even in the UAW and the steel- are mostly unaccountable and invisible to the public. workers, they have the problem of discrimination within the Americans are wrapped in an intricate web of government unions when it comes to training for skilled work, promotions, policies and procedures. States, localities, and private institu- and issues of seniority.” And it’s been that way for generations: tions are submerged by national programs. The states, which In fact, Moreno estimates that if the National Labor Relations increasingly administer policies emanating from Washington, Board had properly enforced anti-discrimination rules against act like supplicants seeking relief from the federal government. the unions starting back in the 1930s—when they were first Growing streams of money flow from Washington to every con- required to do so—then there would have been no demand for gressional district and municipality, as well as to businesses, later. Instead, the NLRB became a classic organizations, and individuals that are subject to escalating fed- captured bureaucracy, seeing its role only as empowering the eral regulations. labor unions while turning a blind eye to the ugly racial discrim- This bureaucracy has become so overwhelming that it’s not ination in their ranks. clear how modern presidents can fulfill their constitutional Democrats will defend everything from partial-birth abortion obligation to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” to distributing gay porn in the classroom, but some subjects are President Obama, like his recent predecessors, has appointed a too hot for them to touch: The effect of their minimum-wage swarm of policy “czars”—über-bureaucrats operating outside enthusiasm on black unemployment is one, and racial discrim- the cabinet structure and perhaps the Constitution—to promote ination by their organized-labor constituents is another. You’d political objectives in an administration supposedly under think that the Democrats would put jobs for blacks at the top of executive control. their list—after all, black voters pull the “D” lever about 90 per- Is this the outcome of the greatest experiment in self- cent of the time. But political calculations are perverse things: government mankind ever has attempted? Black voters are a cheap date for Democrats, who know that We can trace the concept of the modern state back to the they can sell out the interests of their most loyal constituency theories of Thomas Hobbes, who wanted to replace the old order with impunity. One of Barack Obama’s first actions in office with an all-powerful “Leviathan” that would impose a new order, was to gut a hugely popular school-choice program in and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who, to achieve absolute equality, Washington, D.C., that benefited black students almost exclu- favored an absolute state that would rule over the people through sively, and he did so at the behest of the one of the most destruc- a vaguely defined concept called the “general will.” It was tive unions in the country, one that has done more to undermine Alexis de Tocqueville who first pointed out the potential for a the future of black Americans than any other and whose mem- new form of despotism in such a centralized, egalitarian state: It bers have inflicted more damage on black Americans than might not tyrannize, but it would enervate and extinguish liberty Bull Connor and ever dreamed of. But the by reducing self-governing people “to being nothing more than teachers’ unions represent one in ten delegates to the Dem- ocratic National Convention, so they have job security—some- Mr. Spalding is director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies at thing many, if not most, of the young black men in their classes the Heritage Foundation and the author of We Still Hold These Truths: will never have. Rediscovering Our Principles, Reclaiming Our Future (ISI Books).

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a herd of timid and industrious animals of which the government political opinions. The ruling class would reside in the recesses is the shepherd.” of a host of alphabet agencies such as the FTC (the Federal Trade The Americanized version of the modern state was born in the Commission, created in 1914) and the SEC (the Securities and early 20th century. American “progressives,” under the spell of Exchange Commission, created in 1934). As “objective” and German thinkers, decided that advances in science and history “neutral” experts, the theory went, these administrators would had opened the possibility of a new, more efficient form of demo- act above petty partisanship and faction. cratic government, which they called the “administrative state.” The progressives emphasized not a separation of powers, Thus began the most revolutionary change of the last hundred which divided and checked the government, but rather a combi- years: the massive shift of power from institutions of constitu- nation of powers, which would concentrate its authority and tional government to a labyrinthine network of unelected, unac- direct its actions. While seeming to advocate more democracy, countable experts who would rule in the name of the people. the progressives of a century ago, like their descendants today, The great challenge of democracy, as the Founders understood actually wanted the opposite: more centralized government it, was to restrict and structure the government to secure the rights control. articulated in the Declaration of Independence—preventing So it is that today, many policy decisions that were previous- tyranny while preserving liberty. The solution was to create a ly the constitutional responsibility of elected legislators are dele- strong, energetic government of limited authority. Its powers gated to faceless bureaucrats whose “rules” have the full force were enumerated in a written constitution, separated into func- and effect of laws passed by Congress. In writing legislation, tions and responsibilities and further divided between national Congress uses broad language that essentially hands legislative and state governments in a system of federalism. The result was power over to agencies, along with the authority to execute rules a framework of and a vast sphere of free- and adjudicate violations. dom, leaving ample room for republican self-government. The objective of progressive thinking, which remains a major force in modern-day liberalism, was to transform America from a decentralized, self-governing society into a centralized, pro- ROGRESSIVES viewed the Constitution as a dusty 18th- gressive society focused on national ideals and the achievement century plan unsuited for the modern day. Its basic of “social justice.” Sociological conditions would be changed P mechanisms were obsolete and inefficient; it was a reac- through government regulation of society and the economy; tionary document, designed to stifle change. They believed that socioeconomic problems would be solved by redistributing just as science and reason had brought technological changes wealth and benefits. and new methods of study to the physical world, they would Liberty no longer would be a condition based on human also bring great improvements to politics and society. For this nature and the exercise of God-given natural rights, but a chang- to be possible, however, government could not be restricted ing concept whose evolution was guided by government. And to securing a few natural rights or exercising certain limited since the progressives could not get rid of the “old” Con- powers. Instead, government must become dynamic, constant- stitution—this was seen as neither desirable nor possible, given ly changing and growing to pursue the ceaseless objective of its elevated status and historic significance in American political progress. life—they invented the idea of a “living” Constitution that The progressive movement—under a Republican president, would be flexible and pliable, capable of “growth” and adapta- Theodore Roosevelt, and then a Democratic one, Woodrow tion in changing times. Wilson—set forth a platform for modern liberalism to refound In this view, government must be ever more actively involved America according to ideas that were alien to the original in day-to-day American life. Given the goal of boundless social Founders. “Some citizens of this country have never got beyond progress, government by definition must itself be boundless. “It is the Declaration of Independence,” Wilson wrote in 1912. “All denied that any limit can be set to governmental activity,” promi- that progressives ask or desire is permission—in an era when nent scholar (and later FDR adviser) Charles Merriam wrote, ‘development,’ ‘evolution,’ is the scientific word—to interpret summarizing the views of his fellow progressive theorists. “The the Constitution according to the Darwinian principle; all they modern idea as to what is the purpose of the state has radically ask is recognition of the fact that a nation is a living thing and changed since the days of the ‘Fathers,’” he continued, because not a machine.” While the Founders went to great lengths to moderate demo- the exigencies of modern industrial and urban life have forced the cracy and limit government, the progressives believed that state to intervene at so many points where an immediate individual barriers to change had to be removed or circumvented, and gov- interest is difficult to show, that the old doctrine has been given up for the theory that the state acts for the general welfare. It is not ernment expanded. To encourage democratic change while admitted that there are no limits to the action of the state, but on directing and controlling it, the progressives posited a sharp dis- the other hand it is fully conceded that there are no ‘natural rights’ tinction between politics and what they called “administration.” which bar the way. The question is now one of expediency rather Politics would remain the realm of expressing opinions, but than of principle. the real decisions and details of governing would be handled by administrators, separate and immune from the influence of This intellectual construct began to attain political expression politics. with targeted legislation, such as the Pure Food and Drug Act This permanent class of bureaucrats would address the partic- under TR and the Clayton Anti-Trust Act under President ulars of accomplishing the broad objectives of reform, making Wilson. These efforts were augmented by constitutional amend- decisions, most of them unseen and beyond public scrutiny, ments that allowed the collection of a federal income tax to fund on the basis of scientific facts and statistical data rather than the national government and required the direct election of

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senators (thus undermining the federal character of the national modeled on German social insurance. It was in the Progressive legislature). party’s platform of 1912. It came back under FDR and Truman, The trend continued under the . “The day of the then Johnson, then Clinton, and now Obama. And the goal all great promoter or the financial Titan, to whom we granted every- along has had little to do with the quality of health care. The thing if only he would build, or develop, is over,” Franklin D. objective is rather to remove about a sixth of the economy from Roosevelt pronounced in 1932. “The day of enlightened admin- private control and bring it under the thumb of the state, whose istration has come.” Although most of FDR’s programs were “experts” will choose and ration its goods and services. temporary and experimental, they represented an expansion of President Obama and the Democratic leadership prescribe a government unprecedented in American society—as did the government-run health plan, burdensome mandates on employ- Supreme Court’s late-1930s endorsement of the new “living” ers, and massive new regulatory authority over health-care mar- Constitution. kets. Their requirement for individuals to buy insurance is It was FDR who called for a “Second Bill of Rights” that unprecedented and unconstitutional: If the Commerce Clause would “assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.” Roose- can be used to regulate inactivity, then the government is truly velt held that the primary task of modern government is to alle- without limit. They would transfer most decision-making to a viate citizens’ want by guaranteeing their economic security. collection of federal agencies, bureaus, and commissions such The implications of this redefinition are incalculable, since the as the ominous-sounding “Health Choices Administration.” And list of economic “rights” is unlimited. It requires more and more their legislation is packed with enough pork projects and corrupt government programs and regulation of the economy—hence deals to make even the hardest Tammany Hall operative blush. the —to achieve higher and higher levels of happi- It would be easier, of course, just to skip the legislative process, ness and well-being. and when it comes to climate change that’s exactly what the pro- The administrative state took off in the mid-1960s with gressives are doing. In declaring carbon dioxide to be a danger- Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. By creating a truly national ous pollutant, the Environmental Protection Agency essentially As the national government becomes more centralized and bureaucratic, it will also become less democratic, and more despotic, than ever.

bureaucracy of open-ended social programs in housing, educa- granted itself authority to regulate every aspect of American tion, the environment, and urban renewal (most of which, such life—without any accountability to those pesky voters. as the “War on Poverty,” failed to achieve their goals), the Great The Left has long maintained that the administrative state is Society and its progeny effected the greatest expansion of the inevitable, permanent, and ever-expanding—the final form of administrative state in American history. “democratic” governance. The rise of progressive liberalism, The Great Society also took the progressive argument one they say, has finally gotten us over our love affair with the step farther, by asserting that the purpose of government no Founding and its archaic canons of natural rights and limited longer was “to secure these rights,” as the Declaration of Inde- constitutionalism. The New Deal and the fruits of centralized pendence says, but “to fulfill these rights.” That was the title of authority brought most Democrats around to this view, and over Johnson’s 1965 commencement address at Howard University, time, many Republicans came to accept the progressive argu- in which he laid out the shift from securing equality of opportu- ment as well. Seeing responsible stewardship of the modern nity to guaranteeing equality of outcome. state and incremental reforms around its edges as the only viable “It is not enough just to open the gates of opportunity. All our option, these Republicans tried to make government more citizens must have the ability to walk through those gates,” efficient, more frugal, and more compassionate—but never Johnson proclaimed. “We seek not just freedom but opportuni- questioned its direction. ty. We seek not just legal equity but human ability, not just equal- As a result, politics came to be seen as the ebb and flow ity as a right and a theory but equality as a fact and equality as a between periods of “progress” and “change,” on one hand, and result.” brief interregnums to defend and consolidate the status quo, on the other. Other than the aberration of Ronald Reagan and a few unruly conservatives, there seemed to be no real challenge to the ND now progressive reformism is back. We’re witness- liberal project itself, so all the Democrats thought they had to do ing huge increases in government spending, regula- was wait for the bursting forth of the next great era of reformism. A tions, and programs. And as the national government Was it to be launched by Jimmy Carter? Bill Clinton? At long becomes more centralized and bureaucratic, it will also become last came the watershed election of Barack Obama. less democratic, and more despotic, than ever. But a funny thing happened on the way to the next revolution. The tangled legislation supposedly intended to “reform” health The Left’s over-reading of the 2008 election gave rise to a vast- care is a perfect example. It would regulate a significant segment ly overreaching agenda that is deeply unpopular. Large numbers of society that has been in progressives’crosshairs for over a hun- of citizens, many never before engaged in politics, are protesting dred years. Nationalized health care was first proposed in 1904, in the streets and challenging their elected officials in town-hall

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meetings and on talk-radio shows. Forty percent of Americans now self-identify as conservatives—double the amount of liber- als—largely because independents are beginning to take sides. Two Inconvenient Almost 60 percent believe is on the wrong track. Voters are deeply impassioned about a new cluster of issues—spending, debt, the role of government, the loss of lib- Canadians erty—that heretofore lacked a focal point to concentrate the public’s anger. reports that “by 58 percent to 38 percent, Americans prefer smaller government and fewer The unlikely men who shook up services to larger government with more services. In the last global-warming science year and a half, the margin between those favoring smaller over larger government has moved from five points to 20 points.” Is BY JAY NORDLINGER it possible that Americans are waking up to the modern state’s long train of abuses and usurpations? There is something about a nation founded on principles, N 2006, a major American climate scientist referred to something unique in its politics that often gets shoved to the them as “two Canadians.” He did not mean that very background but never disappears. Most of the time, American nicely. They are also known as “M&M,” “M/M,” and politics is about local issues and the small handful of policy I “the two M’s.” In the recently publicized e-mails of the questions that top the national agenda. But once in a while, it is Climatic Research Unit in Britain, one of those M’s is referred instead about voters’ stepping back and taking a longer view as to as “a certain Canadian.” Across the CRU e-mails, both M’s they evaluate the present in the light of our founding principles. are treated as objects of fear and loathing. You may wonder, That is why all the great turning-point elections in U.S. history Who are these monsters from Canada? They are Stephen ultimately came down to a debate about the meaning and trajec- McIntyre and Ross McKitrick, and they are inconvenient to the tory of America. men of the CRU: They have challenged the work of global- In our era of big government and the administrative state, the warming red-hots. And “Climategate,” as the scandal of the conventional wisdom has been that serious political realign- CRU e-mails has been called, has embarrassed the red-hots. ment—bringing politics and government back into harmony They are on the defensive, for the first time since global warm- with the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the ing became a going concern. And M&M are looking pretty Constitution—is no longer possible. Yet we are seeing early good. McKitrick says that Climategate has brought “a loss of indications that we may be entering a period of just such realign- innocence”: about how the major climate scientists operate, ment. Perhaps the progressive transformation is incomplete, and about their devotion to scientific truth. the form of the modern state not yet settled—at least not by the The Climatic Research Unit, ensconced at the University of American people. East Anglia, feeds the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate This creates a historic opening for conservatives. Change, an arm of the United Nations. The IPCC is considered Growing opposition to runaway spending and debt, and to a the ultimate authority on global warming (for better or worse). looming government takeover of health care, doesn’t necessari- In 2001, the IPCC’s report featured a killer graphic: It was a ly mean that voters want to scrap Social Security or close down graph, in fact, claiming to show the global temperature for the the Department of Education. But it may mean that they are past millennium. From the year 1000 to about 1900, the line ready to reembrace clear, enforceable limits on the state. The was relatively flat; then, from 1900 to 2000, there was a very opportunity and the challenge for those who seek to conserve sharp upswing. The graph looked like a hockey stick, and came America’s liberating principles is to turn the healthy public sen- to be known as just that: the “hockey-stick graph.” It was the timent of the moment, which stands against a partisan agenda to work of a team headed by Michael Mann, then of the Uni- revive an activist state, into a settled and enduring political opin- versity of , now of Pennsylvania State University. ion about the nature and purpose of constitutional government. These men are allied with the CRU. Such scientists are known, To do that, conservatives must make a compelling argument collectively and cozily, as “the climate community.” that shifts the narrative of American politics and defines a new The graph in question was not only a hockey stick, but a direction for the country. We must present a clear choice: stay smoking gun, as people saw it: proof positive of man-made the course of progressive liberalism, which moves away from global warming. The stick went around the world, impressing popular consent, the rule of law, and constitutional government, and alarming people in all corners. It was featured in endless and toward a failed, undemocratic, and illiberal form of statism; government reports, on newscasts, on posters. Al Gore used it or correct course in an effort to restore the conditions of liberty in his Oscar-winning film, An Inconvenient Truth. The hockey and renew the bedrock principles and constitutional wisdom that stick became an icon, a symbol of global warming, along with are the roots of America’s continuing greatness. the polar bear stranded on an ice floe. And the symbol was The American people are poised to make the right decision. accompanied by a “soundbite,” as Stephen McIntyre says—a The strength and clarity of the Founders’argument, if given con- bite taken from the IPCC report: “It is . . . likely that, in the temporary expression and brought to a decision, might well Northern Hemisphere, the 1990s was the warmest decade and establish a governing conservative consensus and undermine the 1998 the warmest year” during the past thousand years. very foundation of the unlimited administrative state. It would Nineteen ninety-eight as the warmest year: That, along with be a monumental step on the long path back to republican self- the hockey blade—the graph’s sharp upswing—concentrated government. the mind.

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In due course, Al Gore and the IPCC won the Nobel Peace unimpressed by [this team’s] style of ‘shouting louder and Prize, “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater longer so they must be right.’” In one of those publicized knowledge about man-made climate change,” said the com- e-mails, a CRU scientist had this to say about a member of the mittee, “and to lay the foundations for the measures that are team: “His air of papal infallibility is really quite nauseating at needed to counteract such change.” Man-made global warm- times.” Many others, over the decade, have suffered the same ing became accepted by almost all right-thinkers. To dispute it nausea. was to dispute the roundness of the earth, or its perpetual trek Along the way, M&M attracted some support. When they around the sun. The science was settled; there was to be no submitted a paper to Geophysical Research Letters, a referee more discussion. told the journal, “I urge you not to shy away from this paper because of its potential controversy. The whole of global warming is currently suffering from the fact that it has become N truth, the science was not quite settled. The hockey stick politicized. Science really depends for its success on an open had been called into grave question by those two inconve- dialogue.” GRL published the paper (“Hockey Sticks, Prin- I nient Canadians. When McIntyre first saw the graph, his cipal Components, and Spurious Significance”). A Dutch jour- curiosity was piqued. He had spent his career in mineral explo- nal, Natuurwetenschap & Techniek, was originally skeptical of ration, and had witnessed his share of spectacular claims. Dot- M&M, thinking they needed a dismissal. On investigation, com rackets would forecast big profits, using hockey sticks. however, N&T wound up respectful and supportive. In 2005, Most of the time, the forecasts proved bogus. It was necessary Congress asked the National Academy of Sciences to look into to examine the raw data behind a hockey stick. McIntyre had the controversy. Once the report was issued, both sides claimed never even heard of the IPCC—how many of us had?—but he victory. M&M said that the NAS had confirmed them, in all was determined to look into its stick. And he was astonished to substantive points—but that they had lost the “spin war,” discover something: No one had challenged that stick, had put which is to say, the war for media (and therefore public) it to the test. Was the world to accept the IPCC’s claims about support. Another panel, headed by the statistician Edward global warming, and alter its economies accordingly, without Wegman, had a look: and came down very hard on the hockey- due diligence? stickers, or “hockey team,” as they are sometimes called. McIntyre would perform this due diligence himself—and Michael Mann, the team leader, issued a statement saying that the mineral-exploration man had some skills: He had math in the Wegman panel “simply uncritically parrots claims by two his background, having studied the subject at the University of Canadians (an economist and an oil industry consultant).” Toronto. He was offered Ph.D. scholarships in mathematical (Actually, McIntyre is in minerals, but “oil” sounds worse.) economics by Harvard and MIT. One of those offers came per- The economist and the consultant have persevered, despite sonally from Paul Samuelson, the late MIT economist. But slights and snubs. At one point, in response to a data request, a McIntyre went a different route, accepting a Commonwealth member of the hockey team said to McIntyre, “The climate Scholarship to Oxford, where he studied philosophy, politics, community has moved on—so should you.” This is quite typi- and economics. He overlapped with Bill Clinton, possibly cal, says the other M, McKitrick. “When you point to a study even played rugby against him, he says. And he has long liked of theirs that is flawed, they say, ‘We’ve moved on,’ or appeal to explore intellectual byways. When he was interested in to some nebulous big picture. They say, ‘Okay, this one study archeology, he taught himself “a bit of Assyrian cuneiform,” as may be flawed, but that really doesn’t matter, because we he puts it, and also taught himself “a bit of German,” for the have all this other evidence.’” And on it goes. Some of the purpose of reading relevant articles in that language. This kind battling is waged on two prominent websites. Mann launched of activity may not be commonplace—but “there are no rules RealClimate.org—“Climate science from climate scientists”— against it,” as he notes. which dumped heavily on M&M. In response, McIntyre In 2003, he linked up with Ross McKitrick, an economist at launched ClimateAudit.org. the University of Guelph, west of Toronto. McKitrick had In mid-November 2009 came that explosion in the “climate co-authored a book called “Taken by Storm: The Troubled community,” and in the world at large: the CRU e-mails, Science, Policy and Politics of Global Warming.” Together, the Climategate. Someone—either a computer hacker or a dis- two M’s formed a kind of Team B, doing a rigorous check or gruntled, whistleblowing insider—made available more than audit of the “A” team’s work. McKitrick points out that this a thousand e-mails, from the chieftains of climatology. And is perfectly normal, even mandatory, in business—in the engi- those e-mails reveal a tawdry world of stonewalling, dissem- neering fields, for example. You don’t attempt to put a new bling, covering up, scheming, defaming, and unprofessional- plane in the air, or a new space shuttle, without a serious Team ism at large. They show a determination to present one claim, B—or C or D—effort. Shouldn’t the U.N.’s climate panel have no matter what: and that claim is man-made global warming, the soundest information possible, before spooking the world requiring dramatic global action. Honest global-warming with a hockey stick? Shouldn’t the world’s governments be on believers and activists are shaken by what the e-mails reveal; the soundest footing possible before spending billions and others manage to glide on. upsetting their arrangements? In an article for , Steven F. Hayward Team A was not especially grateful for M&M’s work, to put pointed out the following: “After 2003 the CRU crew became it mildly. They resented the Canadians as amateurs and inter- obsessed with McIntyre above all others”—above all other lopers and spoilers. They were not inclined to share data, or critics. “He appears in 105 of the emails by name (in some discuss theories, or debate. They circled the wagons tightly and others, he’s referred to as ‘a certain Canadian’), usually with a hotly. A referee for Nature magazine said, “I am particularly tone of resentment and contempt.” The head of the CRU, Phil

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Jones, wrote to Michael Mann, “Don’t leave stuff lying around on themselves. “Government scientists are often in that posi- on ftp sites [File Transfer Protocol sites]—you never know tion,” says McKitrick. “They have to keep their mouth shut.” who is trawling them. The two MMs [sic] have been after the McIntyre recalls attending a conference of the American CRU station data for years. If they ever hear there is a Freedom Geophysical Union. He says that “two of the more eminent of Information Act now in the UK, I think I’ll delete the file young scientists” told him of their admiration for his work. rather than send to anyone.” That is just a flavor of these e-mail They said that, as far as they were concerned, he and communications. McKitrick had smashed the hockey stick. But they were not prepared to go public. Politics is never far from climate science, and we may ask about CINTYRE says that his first reaction to the e-mails the Canadians’ politics. Are they right-wingers? McKitrick, in was “one of exhaustion, not one of satisfaction.” He addition to being an econ prof at Guelph, is a senior fellow M did not feel any sort of vindication or triumph. He (unpaid) of the Fraser Institute, which is a free-market think had been through a lot, to challenge the hockey stick, to get a tank. Some of his opponents like to make something of this. fair hearing. And, “at some level, you should be able to dis- McKitrick says that, when they argue on any grounds other cuss statistical issues without being attacked personally. Even than substantive ones, they are conceding defeat. It is “their the simplest point seems to have occasioned tremendous way of crying uncle.” As for McIntyre, he says that the only ground warfare, with people being reluctant to concede any- political donations he has made in the past 20 years have been thing.” McIntyre adds that he is old enough—has had “enough to “an extremely left-wing municipal councilor in Toronto, ups and downs” in life—not to be too affected, one way or the who’s a friend of my wife’s.” He does not allow any political other. And “I didn’t take any particular satisfaction in seeing discussion at his . And he points out that “I live in down- these guys run into trouble.” The second M, McKitrick, says town Toronto, which is a liberal city. I am not a red-meat- that his first reaction was, “Nothing here surprises me”— eating Midwestern Republican.” (Not that there’s anything because he had been working in this field for so long. But the wrong with that, surely.) “I’m the same age and generation as e-mails were eye-opening to journalists, he says, some of Bill Clinton. I admire him.” whom were “shocked.” “They’ve been reporting the standard Have the M’s had any fun in this debate, as Davids taking on global-warming line for years, and I’ve learned in conver- Goliaths? McKitrick says no, not really. “I wouldn’t ever sations with them that they had no idea that this group of choose this as a hobby or pastime. There has been a lot of scientists acted this way.” Hence, the “loss of innocence.” stress.” He doesn’t take any pleasure in causing an intellectual McKitrick says that Climategate “pried the lid off the process opponent embarrassment. There is, in fact, a hint of weariness behind the IPCC reports and what goes on in journals, and about him, of someone who just wishes that science could be forced people to realize that this is not a pure, rarefied search discussed dispassionately, and conclusions arrived at civilly. for truth” but “a very partisan and distorted process.” McIntyre has the same wish, as we have seen. But he has a Reporters, he says, are more respectful to him now. Before, it greater liking for combat. “I wouldn’t do what I’m doing if I was basically, “Why don’t you believe what all the world’s didn’t like it,” he says. He has sacrificed a good deal of time scientists are saying?” Now they are humbler, asking more and money to pursue the global-warming question: “I used to intelligent questions. make money.” In recent years, not so much. But he forges McKitrick is not particularly worried about being on the ahead “because I’m interested” and because he considers his minority side in the global-warming debate. For one thing, he work a kind of public service. says, he has “the privilege of being a tenured professor at a uni- McIntyre is loath to make any big claims about global versity.” And, as an economist, he has other fish to fry than warming. “I’m saying that they can’t know what they claim global warming. But also, is his side really the minority one? to know,” about a thousand years of temperature history. And McKitrick says that there are plenty of scientists and other the “they” refers to the IPCC/CRU crowd. Someone may well-informed people who are skeptical of the big IPCC come along with fresh data that make a hockey stick, says claims. “I’m convinced that the numbers on our side, and the McIntyre—a right and defensible hockey stick. But, according credentials on our side, are just as impressive as on the other to him, that has not happened. His partner, McKitrick, says that side.” The problem is that the global-warming red-hots have “you’ve got a range of data sets of varying levels of quality.” the funding, the influence, and the media. They also tend to be And the best data sets indicate the least amount of warming. in control of the professional societies and journals. They can He is for keeping an eye on the global temperature, and mak- claim to represent thousands and thousands of scientists. But ing adjustments in policy when needed—adjustments based are their pronouncements ever put to a vote of those multitudes on solid information and not merely model predictions. of scientists? McKitrick makes a further point: Many scien- The M’s are in a great tradition of scientific inquiry and tists, in many disciplines or subdisciplines, have a finger in the enterprise. They saw a major claim, which was to shake up the climate-change pie. They tend to say, “In my own particular world. And they were skeptical of this claim, or, at a minimum, field”—be it sea ice or solar physics or what have you—“I curious. They went ahead and did some testing. And they have don’t really see evidence for global warming. But I of course shaken up the world a bit themselves. Science is no respecter accept the consensus view.” This calls to mind one of (Robert) of persons. Whether you are a High Priest in the Church of Conquest’s Laws: “Everyone is a conservative in his own field Climatology or a head-scratching Canuck, the question is, Can of expertise.” you make it add up? And while science may be no respecter of Some are with M&M, where the hockey stick and other persons, the two Canadians, in the wake of Climategate, are points are concerned, but keep mum, so as not to bring trouble getting some new respect.

38 | www.nationalreview.com FEBRUARY 8 , 2010 2col.qxp 1/19/2010 7:36 PM Page 39

tradition of liberty, and the despotism that it opposed was, by the standard of world despotisms, a mild one. Even so, it was not Thoughts of immaculate: The question that Doctor Johnson asked at the time, how is it that the loudest yelps for liberty are to be heard from the drivers of Negroes, did not emerge from the mouth of a tenured radical, but was rather a question that plagued the country for REVOLUTION many years to come. All the same, few great events in history have resulted so unequivocally in benefit for large numbers of people, The strange cachet of a usually certainly not most revolutions. In my time, I have traveled through quite a few lands with a miserable phenomenon revolutionary history, or where a recent revolution, real or imag- ined, has been extolled, and the list is not altogether encouraging: BY ANTHONY DANIELS Haiti, Congo, Albania, North Korea, Cuba, Ethiopia, Russia, , and Somalia, to name but a few. Between them, they clock up many millions dead, and hundreds of years of ferocious ILL the second revolution in Iran, if there is one, dictatorship or worse, and every conceivable assault on liberty. be any better than the first? How often, in fact, do As an example, let us take Haiti, where the terrible earthquake revolutions increase the sum of human happi- is like the apotheosis of the country’s history, its effects so much W ness? worse because for nearly 200 years Haiti has accumulated pover- Thirty years after the French Revolution, Coleridge, recorded in ty as other countries have accumulated wealth. No decent person, his Table Talk, said: “We are not yet aware of the consequences of I think, can be unmoved by the story of the only successful slave that event. We are too near it.” A hundred and fifty years later, revolt in history, or by the reasons for it. The leaders of the revo- Chou En-lai, when asked what he thought the effects of the French lution were most remarkable men, and many of them were truly Revolution had been, famously replied that it was too soon to tell. admirable. If ever a revolution was justified, the Haitian one was. The effects of every great event or process are constantly But that, alas, is not quite the same thing as saying that its results reevaluated, and there is no final or definitive interpretation of were beneficial. If only it were the same thing, how much easier them; it is always too soon to tell, for the chain of consequences the art and science of politics would be! For the history of Haiti never comes to an end, and our perspective tends to alter accord- ever since its revolution, at least insofar as history is composed ing to our current preoccupations. Recently I bought a book in of politics and economics, has been one of almost continuous France, Le livre noir de la révolution française, that attempts to man-made disaster, or man-assisted natural disaster. do for the foundation of the French Republic what Le livre noir Of course, to say that a revolution has been disastrous in its du communisme did for Communism: that is to say, to leave it effects is implicitly to indulge in counterfactual thinking: It without a shred of legitimacy because of its sheer murderousness. implies some kind of estimate of what might have happened with- It need hardly be said that this interpretation has not gone entire- out it. ly unchallenged, but it has at least thrown a stone into the calm In the case of Haiti, continuing as a French colony, the slaves pond of official self-congratulation. would have been emancipated in 1848, as everywhere else in If the interpretation of a revolution as long ago as the French French possessions. Haiti by now would be a département is still contentious, how are we to interpret the phenomenon of d’outre-mer of France, that is to say the polite fiction would be revolution as a whole? Is it, indeed, a useful category at all, or has entertained that it was just the same as, say, la Drôme or Haute- it been too much diluted? People are now inclined to apply the Savoie, and it would have received massive subsidies from the word to changes, themselves not necessarily all that radical, in French state to encourage at least the majority of the population to every aspect of life, from philosophy to fashion. stay put. The buildings would be far more solid than they are, less But that is precisely the interest of the word: its cachet, its gen- liable to total collapse in an earthquake. One of the remote conse- erally positive connotation. To say of a scientist that he brought quences of the Haitian revolution might therefore have been many about a revolution in our understanding of something is to praise more deaths after the recent earthquake than would otherwise him more highly than merely to say that he added greatly to our have happened. knowledge of that same thing. Vive la révolution! If only the heroes of the Haitian revolution could have hung on If I were to say that this is indeed strange, because revolution for another 40 or 50 years, how different would have been the has mainly brought about disaster, or at any rate more disaster than standard of living of their descendants, and how much better benefit to humanity, I might be asked from whose point of view placed the country to withstand natural disaster! But, of course, I speak. I can reply only: From my own, speaking on behalf of one cannot blame them: History is lived forwards, not backwards, humanity as I see it, according to my own scale of values; others and no one can see the long-term unintended consequences of his might not share my values, and in any case my knowledge might acts. be highly deficient. Strangely enough, however, the word “revolution” retained its By far the most successful revolution in history—indeed, one prestige in Haiti so successfully that Dr. Duvalier availed himself of the very few successful revolutions as measured by the subse- of it. His tenebrous regime was revolutionary, at least in its own quent progress and contentment of the population—was the estimate; and in the sense that it brought about profound changes, American, possibly for two reasons: It grew out of a political perhaps this was just. The man one of whose early publications was a study of the use of tetracycline in the elimination of yaws, Mr. Daniels is the author of Utopias Elsewhere and other books. conducted under the auspices of the Rockefeller Institute, and one

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of whose books was extolled in a postface by a courtier as liberation movements, so called, fight for the freedom to boss his Mein Kampf (intended as a compliment), always claimed other people about because they know what is right for them. They legitimacy by means of the word “revolution.” Even stranger, are about the replacement of one elite by another, not infrequent- the word retained its positive connotations long after the good ly worse because even more self-righteous. doctor’s death. This is nothing like an iron law of politics, however: not like the iron law of oligarchy expounded by Robert Michels, say. The vio- lent downfall or overthrow of regimes can sometimes lead to an VERYWHERE I went, any prominence of the word “revolu- increase in liberty, even where such was not the real intention of tion” did not seem to augur very well for the population. I the leaders. The prime example of this is Romania. Having visit- E remember a time when it was fashionable among intellec- ed that country in the last days of Ceausescu, when it seemed that tuals in the West to argue that anti-colonial revolutions in Africa, he and his Lady Macbeth would preside over it forever, I rejoiced such as those in Algeria and the Lusophone countries, would lead when he was overthrown (and, I am ashamed to say, I briefly to “real” independence as against the phony independence of the rejoiced also that he had been shot after the briefest of trials by a other African states, revolution being necessary to shake up the kangaroo court on charges some of which were manifestly apolitical torpor of the population and liberate it from its mind- untrue). What seemed like a revolution came then to appear like a forg’d manacles. It would be interesting one day to write a history putsch, an attempt by one faction of the ancien régime to preserve of this madness. that regime. But though the putsch was intended as such, it really If you had to have a revolution at all, it was obviously best to was a revolution in its effects; for a regime such as Ceausescu’s is have a bogus one, such as that in Zaire under the rule of the late like an egg, it is either whole or it is broken, and once broken it Mobutu Sese Seko. At the time, I did not appreciate him at his true cannot be made into a whole egg again. Although the new gov- worth. His “revolution” consisted of forbidding neckties and mak- ernments in the first years after the downfall of Ceausescu man- ing everyone abandon his European first name in the cause of aged the difficult feat of making the economy yet worse for many, African authenticity. It otherwise largely left people untouched: It perhaps most, people, from the point of view of freedom they rep- had no choice in the matter, for it was so inefficient that the trans- resented an improvement. And, as Tocqueville said, woe betide port network virtually ceased to exist. Where it did exist, the rev- him who seeks in freedom anything other than freedom itself. olution set up military checkpoints, but these were not much to be All in all, I am skeptical of the prospects before Iran. The feared. I remember going through one in a truck without stopping, Iranian revolution of 1979 enjoyed support not because it sending the soldiers flying in all directions. I asked the driver promised freedom, at least in any form that we know it. And even whether this was not dangerous; would the soldiers not fire at us? if the current government committed electoral fraud, it was not on “Oh no, monsieur, they’ve sold all their bullets long ago.” such a massive scale as to imply a population near-unanimously That’s the kind of African revolution I learned to like (relatively in favor of the government’s overthrow, let alone its violent over- speaking), the bogus one that sells its bullets. It turned out, in the throw, or a regime that commands absolutely no popular support. CORBIS / event, that the driver was absolutely right. When it came to fight- It is far from certain that a regime of the kind that the opposition ing opponents with real weapons, the revolution was utterly would like to install would enjoy majority support, being based as defenseless. Needless to say, the real thing has been incomparably it would be on an unrepresentative educated elite, in which case GIANNI DAGLI ORTI

: worse: millions dead, and millions of refugees. the possibilities for extremely violent conflict would be strong. It My experiences of Latin American revolutionary movements is very rare in history that freedom has emerged from such vio- also led me to conclude that people rarely take to violence for the lence, and rarer still in countries like Iran; those who claim to fight sake of freedom. Power is much more attractive to them than free- for freedom have often been all too ready to resort to extreme

PRISE DE LAdom, BASTILLE which necessitates the difficult discipline of toleration; force to defend their own power. I hope that I am wrong.

40 | www.nationalreview.com FEBRUARY 8 , 2010 longview--ready.qxp 1/19/2010 8:51 PM Page 41

The Long View BY ROB LONG

partnership agreement between the parties, etc. That’s phase one. After a summer in which it’s clearly stated and agreed vacation at Squam Lake, in New Hamp- to that each party has the right to ask for a shire (have the summer house picked out discussion/conversation with reasonable already, you can see it online at new- time-frame notice. hampshirelakehousesummerrental.com), From the Wednesday Inbox And honestly, this is a complex deal— she announces she’s in on Labor Day. My involving positioning for the midterms and client expresses surprise, etc. etc. Off to TO: [email protected] a whole lot of other moving parts. Sooner the races. FROM: [email protected] the better. Thoughts? SUBJ: our clients Paul Paul

Dear Joe: NOTICE TO RECIPIENT: THIS E-MAIL IS MEANT NOTICE TO RECIPIENT: THIS E-MAIL IS MEANT FOR ONLY THE INTENDED RECIPIENT OF THE FOR ONLY THE INTENDED RECIPIENT OF THE I just got an e-mail from my client. He TRANSMISSION, AND IS A COMMUNICATION TRANSMISSION, AND IS A COMMUNICATION has been watching the Massachusetts Sen- PRIVILEGED BY LAW. PRIVILEGED BY LAW. ate returns closely—he says it reminds him a lot of what happened to him in 1994, TO: [email protected] TO: [email protected] when he was president. As you know he FROM: [email protected] FROM: [email protected] remains one of the smartest political minds SUBJ: RE: RE: RE: our clients SUBJ: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: our clients around. He had a thought he’d like to run by your client, whenever she gets the Paul: Paul: time—know she’s busy with all of this For the record, my client states that she’s How do we handle the race angle? Run- Haiti stuff and other DepState business. perfectly happy with her current position ning against the first black president? Let me top-line you: My client believes as Secretary of State. And of course as such Disloyalty, etc.???? that with what’s happened in Mass and she owes the highest allegiance to the cur- Joe what’s on the horizon in the midterms, rent president of the United States. 2012 offers an opportunity for your client. That said, she’s intrigued by your cli- NOTICE TO RECIPIENT: THIS E-MAIL IS MEANT ent’s notion, and would be open to a dis- FOR ONLY THE INTENDED RECIPIENT OF THE Enough said. Let’s talk. TRANSMISSION, AND IS A COMMUNICATION Could you please circle back with me cussion with him about the details. The PRIVILEGED BY LAW. and maybe we can set a time? hard part, according to her, is the timing. Paul What does your client suggest? TO: [email protected] Can we schedule a pre-call between the FROM: [email protected] NOTICE TO RECIPIENT: THIS E-MAIL IS MEANT two of us, to discuss the parameters of the SUBJ: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: our clients FOR ONLY THE INTENDED RECIPIENT OF THE subsequent call between our clients? As TRANSMISSION, AND IS A COMMUNICATION PRIVILEGED BY LAW. you know, despite their long and happy Joe: marriage, our clients prefer to communi- It’s not racist if you vote for a woman. TO: [email protected] cate entirely via legal counsel, and so any It’s pro-woman. That’s how Sid thinks we FROM: [email protected] direct conversations between them need can spin it. SUBJ: RE: our clients careful planning. Paul Joe Paul: NOTICE TO RECIPIENT: THIS E-MAIL IS MEANT FOR ONLY THE INTENDED RECIPIENT OF THE As you know, my client is very busy NOTICE TO RECIPIENT: THIS E-MAIL IS MEANT FOR ONLY THE INTENDED RECIPIENT OF THE TRANSMISSION, AND IS A COMMUNICATION with her duties as Secretary of State. And TRANSMISSION, AND IS A COMMUNICATION PRIVILEGED BY LAW. she pointed out, when I called her, that PRIVILEGED BY LAW. your client is also supposed to be pretty TO: [email protected] busy with the Haiti rescue effort. Can’t this TO: [email protected] FROM: [email protected] wait? FROM: [email protected] SUBJ: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: our Joe SUBJ: RE: RE: RE: RE: our clients clients

NOTICE TO RECIPIENT: THIS E-MAIL IS MEANT Joe: Paul: FOR ONLY THE INTENDED RECIPIENT OF THE Let’s talk Thursday morning. I agree Love it. It’s Conan/Leno, but with TRANSMISSION, AND IS A COMMUNICATION PRIVILEGED BY LAW. that this one-on-one conversation needs POTUS. Took a chance on a young excit- planning on our part. No one wants a repeat ing face, didn’t work out, now we’re un- TO: [email protected] of Christmas Dinner ’08. winding the position and going back to FROM: [email protected] Basically, as he envisions it, the se- tried and true. I think it’s magic, seriously. SUBJ: RE: RE: our clients quence might go something like this: Near And off the record, my client likes it a lot the end of ’10—after the midterms—your too. In fact, she’d love to call her husband Joe: client resigns from State—we’ll come up directly to talk this over. Please send me Look, I think that when a client with the with something, “record of accomplish- his phone number, and I’ll get it to her stature and the political savvy of mine has ment” etc. etc. and “looking forward to ASAP. an idea to run by your client, his legally new horizons and new challenges”—and Joe enfranchised life partner, it’s not too much by April of ’11 we start the drumbeat of a to ask for a conference call among the par- primary challenge. She demurs. My client NOTICE TO RECIPIENT: THIS E-MAIL IS MEANT FOR ONLY THE INTENDED RECIPIENT OF THE ties to discuss it. I also think that this kind will be the lightning rod here, giving TRANSMISSION, AND IS A COMMUNICATION of interaction is covered by our most recent vaguely worded denials to the press, PRIVILEGED BY LAW.

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The Bent Pin BY FLORENCE KING Apocalypse, Please

HAVE made no New Year’s Resolutions because I spent Someone certain to scratch his hand is the star of the the first week of January watching specials about the History Channel’s new show, Apocalypse Man. He’s trapped end of the world due to take place on Dec. 21, 2012. in a big city after a disaster has killed off most , I Since my 74th birthday also fell during this week, I and he can figure out a good use for every piece of rusty junk would ask those of you who regularly tell me that you pray he finds. An old bicycle pump? He uses it to siphon off gaso- for me to keep up the good work. Ask not for me to be spared, line. Grappling hooks? He can swing from roof to roof instead just that I will still be around to see it happen, because for a of walking on streets where other survivors can attack him misanthrope it’s a consummation not to be missed. and take his bicycle pump. A flashlight? He advises us not to It’s too soon to tell whether the next human race that carry it down at the hip in the old civilized way, but up at the replaces us in some 60 million years will call us the Gedds or shoulder so you can slam it into the face of someone trying the Lypses. Their archeologists will find shards of videotape to take it from you. cans so marked and eventually put together “Armageddon” What he really needs is a map of the city grids so he can and “Apocalypse,” but they will have to be really high-tech travel by sewer and come up under the manhole of the street to restore what I saw with a mere flick of the remote. It was he wants. He knows just where to find it, too—and why. Nostradamus Meets the Mayans all the way, one channel “You probably didn’t have a library card before,” he says, after another, each with a solemn voiceover saying, “Not if, “but the public library has just what you need.” Then, in a but when.” delicious throwaway line, adds: “In Hurricane Katrina, the The History Channel did another in their Life After library was the only place that wasn’t looted.” He finds his People series but they’ve been airing these for some time, grid map and navigates the sewers without saying a word and they’re tame compared to the new line-up. They care- about Jean Valjean. fully point out that they don’t claim to know why people Where is all this heading? Try New Year’s Remunerations. disappeared, only that they are all gone, and then show a lot If you remember the backyard bomb shelters of the ’50s, you of grass and weeds growing on skyscrapers, bridges, and know “enterpernoors” are going to make a lot of money from other engineering miracles until, untended, they eventually it, just as they have from identity-theft panic. Somebody will collapse. The underlying message is that we need people, market a flashlight with flip-up brass knuckles, or for the which is why the only thing I liked about the series was its kids, grappling hooks. This will be a boon for parents fed up title. with permissiveness; if Junior gets scratched they can pee on Then came the New Year’s Revelations. We got a two- him. hour “factualized” fictional account of a family—mom, dad, Or try New Year’s Reservations. The Titanic centennial and teenage son—who survive a pandemic disease that kills will be ruined. By April 1912 our definition of disaster will most but not all Americans. We follow their experiences be so engorged that a mere collision with a mere iceberg will from the initial stages of coping, on through rage, hysteria, be nothing more than a Lypse that went blip in the night, a emotional numbness, paranoia, hunger, thirst, and so on, quaint Retro-Gedd that missed the boat. supplemented by explanatory commentaries from doctors, As for the election of 2012—why bother? If real panic sociologists, and assorted experts. Two of their experiences ensues a dictator could take power, but who? Obama seems are real sucker punches. One is New Year’s Revulsions, consumed with what your average inner-city manchild calls when they find the toilet won’t flush and the shower goes dry, “acting white,” but while Harry Reid might take comfort guaranteed to trigger our special American terror of smelling from this, a panicked populace chanting “Do something!” bad built up by decades of deodorant and air-freshener com- will yearn for the powerful specter of the Angry Black Man, mercials. The other is New Year’s Restitutions, in which the if only to find some there there. menacing talk we have heard of late about “taking back” our Who else? The mainstream Right is full of soothe-sayers communities is presented as natural, legal, and inevitable who will try to shrug off the doomsday prediction and tamp when an armed gang, the remnants of a town, shoot anybody down the panic with sideways grins and constant reassurances they feel like shooting to keep out looters. that “I’m a glass-is-half-full kinda guy.” The most likely candi- The factual fiction ends anticlimactically when the dad date for president-dictator is one of the oleaginous power- scratches his hand while repairing something and, lacking preachers on the radical Right who would rather count antibiotics, dies of an infection. There’s a way to cure that. Remnants than votes. If he could convince enough people that Just switch to the Discovery Channel, where professional they will be among the Saved, he would win by the biggest survivor Bear Grylls is building a raft to escape the Ever- landslide, as well as the lowest voter turn-out, in our history. glades. He, too, scratches his hand, and he, too, lacks antibi- So here we are with 35 months to go, waiting for the other otics, so he pees on his hand because the ammonia—or shoe to drop. If it does, it won’t really matter because we something—in urine has antiseptic properties. have fulfilled our New Year’s Reparations and elected our first black president. Our work is done. Now we can belong Florence King can be reached at P.O. Box 7113, Fredericksburg, VA 22404. to the ages.

42 | www.nationalreview.com FEBRUARY 8 , 2010 books2-8.qxp 1/19/2010 7:25 PM Page 43

Books, Arts & Manners

the conservative’s preference for study- resentful? There’s more to life; the kids ing people, with their vices and virtues, knew it. Their fathers won a war but Ten Great before their stated ideologies. His novel weren’t men enough to keep the peace, exhibits a firm appreciation for the they let the politicians and pundits Conservative checks and balances at the heart of the wheedle them into defeat; they let the American constitutional order as well goons pilfer their paychecks, too busy Novels as a sophisticated view of human na- watching TV to resent oppression.”) ture. Even now, Advise and Consent Midcentury is even more remarkable remains a page-turning thriller that both because Dos Passos made his literary FEW months ago, a professor describes and celebrates the obfus- reputation as a socialist and is perhaps e-mailed with a simple ques- cations, oratorical mannerisms, and the only first-rate novelist to make a tion: What are the great con- etiquette that are designed quite de- conscious journey from Left to Right A servative novels? He was liberately as speed bumps in the paths of over the course of his career. Never preparing a course on the history of the statist behemoth. That is just one shrill, Midcentury bristles with insight American and wanted to reason it remains a book that every and the hard-won wisdom of an ex- include some fiction on his syllabus. I student of the U.S. Senate should read— leftist who knows his history. proposed a few titles, but his question as well as any student of American lingered in my mind. So I asked readers literature. —Larry Kaufmann, an economic consultant in of NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE for their Madison, Wis., contributes to YeahRightBlog.com. suggestions. I also canvassed several ex- —Roger Kaplan is a writer perts on American literature. Hundreds in Washington, D.C. of ideas poured in. Here is the result: a 3. Mr. Sammler’s Planet, by Saul list of ten great conservative novels, all Bellow (1970): If Saul Bellow’s 1970 written by Americans since the founding 2. Midcentury, by novel, Mr. Sammler’s Planet, was not of the conservative movement in the (1961): Midcentury is more than just a written for the sake of conservatism, it 1950s. Lists such as this are always (and great conservative novel. It’s one of the was widely read as a conservative man- ideally) debatable. Yet these choices rep- undiscovered classics in 20th- ifesto. Set at the end of the dispiriting resent something of a rough consensus. century literature. Dos Passos 1960s in a New York City that has Feel free to add them to your own read- returns to the unique style he descended into moral anar- ing syllabus. developed in his acclaimed chy, it chronicles America’s U.S.A. trilogy, where multiple cultural decadence. Young —JOHN J. MILLER stories intersect with real-life people thrill to the humiliation headlines and portraits of of the elderly, criminals cele- the rich and powerful. His brate their own righteousness, 1. Advise and Consent, by Allen themes are the great issues and the sexual revolution has Drury (1959): “It may be a long time of the 1950s: the given birth to a base . Via before a better [novel about Washington] and the aftereffects of the such depictions, Mr. Sammler’s comes along,” noted Saturday Review New Deal. Midcentury uses Planet is a novel of decay and on the publication of Advise and Con- both fiction and history to show rot. Moreover, Bellow seems sent. The first work of fiction by veteran how Communists and organized to say, the is reporter Allen Drury won a Pulitzer, crime corrupted labor unions, no passive bystander but an stayed on the bestseller lists for nearly when they were at the peak of active vehicle of decline. two years, and became a well-regarded their power. The book also dis- Artur Sammler, the titular movie starring Henry Fonda and Charles plays cultural foresight, es- character, is a Polish Jewish Laughton. The book was loosely based pecially in its portrait of a Holocaust survivor and an on the case of Alger Hiss, and it sizzles sneering James Dean titled erstwhile liberal optimist. The with issues of loyalty and security. Half a “The Sinister Adolescents.” novel pivots on a shocking century since its first publication, Advise Dos Passos anticipates the translation: Sammler applies a and Consent still provides a penetrating emerging counterculture, pessimism he has learned on look at Washington’s never-ending clash which he interprets (con- Europe’s killing fields to the between ambition and integrity. The troversially, but plausibly) in spectacle of late-20th-century strength of the book is that even though light of the subversion and loss of tradi- America. His weary wisdom it’s a political novel about a confirmation tional institutions, as the “Greatest lends the novel its taut intellectual battle between the executive branch and Generation” failed to match its bravery drama. With Elya Gruner, the book’s powerful senators, it doesn’t wear poli- overseas with the efforts necessary to other hero, Bellow repudiates the littéra- tics on its sleeve. Instead, Drury shares take on domestic adversaries. (“Why not teur’s formulaic pity for respectable

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members of the bourgeoisie. Gruner’s 5. The Thanatos Syndrome, by 6. The Bonfire of the Vanities, by plodding commitment to family annoys Walker Percy (1987): Walker Percy (1987): In many ways, the his ungrateful children, lacks the sanc- was a doctor who contracted tuberculo- New York City of the 1980s—sprawling, tion of cultural fashion, and forms an sis. Following his recuperation, he aban- crime-ridden, out of control—has passed ideal to which Gruner himself does not doned medicine for literature. He said he into history. Yet Tom Wolfe’s grand entirely live up. Yet, in the novel, it also wanted to diagnose spiritual, not physi- novel of this place and time holds up enables a small island of decency and cal, malaise. His recurrent theme in because human nature—greedy, lazy, goodness. Bellow’s was a sui generis books such as The Moviegoer and Love concupiscent, and beset by status anxi- conservatism planted at the center of lit- in the Ruins was that particular malady ety—hasn’t changed a whit, nor has erary Manhattan circa 1970, a calculated of the modern dystopia, the triumph of the tumultuous energy of the city that provocation from a writer destined to science over charity and humanity. A never sleeps. Wolfe created a huge and win the Nobel Prize in 1976. Catholic convert, Percy examined what vivid gallery of New York types, high happens to a society when it and low, who were fully human. (His —Michael Kimmage, an assistant professor stops believing in the tran- aim was that of Dickens, to write about of history at Catholic University, is the author of scendent and relies instead every level of society.) At the The Conservative Turn. on a medicalized view of the center is Sherman McCoy: human person, whose ills preening, eaten by insecurity, and can be cured through ther- terrified of his wife, his mistress, 4. The Time It Never Rained, by apy and drugs. On this his boss, and the nemesis that Elmer Kelton (1973): To say that Elmer point, his most compel- awaits him as punishment for an act Kelton wrote “Westerns” is to confine lingly readable book of cowardice. And there are so many him to a literary ghetto. He certainly may be The Thanatos other characters who persist as rec- participated in the genre and wasn’t Syndrome. It features ognizable types, including slothful ashamed to do so. Yet his greatest book, Thomas More, a doctor who journalists, trophy wives, career- about a terrible drought in West Texas returns home to Louisiana pushing prosecutors, snobbish during the 1950s, is an unheralded clas- after a stint in prison. It nannies who lord it over their less sic—and a profoundly conservative seems the good folk of the well-heeled clients—all ground story about the importance of self- town are lacing the munici- through the gears of a tight reliance in the face of overwhelming pal waters with a chemical and perfectly turning plot. odds. Charlie Flagg is a cantankerous designed to eliminate bad Wolfe despised arty, introspec- rancher who suffers during the dry spell conduct, such as aggression, tive fiction and sought to write but refuses all offers of government addiction, and other danger- a panoramic, large-scale, 19th- assistance, to the puzzlement and even ous behaviors. More resists century-style novel that would consternation of his neighbors. Lib- this effort because the exer- realistically portray 20th-century ertarians like to say that there’s no such cise of choice and free will urban life in all its rollicking thing as a free lunch. Kelton has Charlie makes us human. Trying glory and sordidness. He suc- proclaim it in his own regional idiom: to erase our flaws—even ceeded so well that some of the “There was nothin’ new about that idea. through the use of scientific turns of phrase he coined—“Mas- It’s as old as mankind . . . the hope of methods made possible ters of the Universe,” “social X- gettin’ somethin’ for nothin’ or of get- by our human intelligence— rays”—are fixtures of American ting more out of the pot than you put reduces us to beasts, a de- English more than 20 years in it. Nobody’s ever made it work yet. volution vividly recounted later. Sherman McCoy will live Nobody ever will.” The Time It Never through characters who revert forever as one of 20th-century Rained overflows with this kind of to being rutting, language-lost America’s most distinctive fictional homespun wisdom, but the book’s real animals. The elimination of characters, and researchers will be con- pleasure lies in its vivid characters and undesirable characteristics leads, inex- sulting Wolfe’s book for centuries to find their inevitable conflicts. Charlie and orably in Percy’s view, to the destruction out what New York was—and is—really his wife can’t agree on what to have for of “unwanted” persons. Scientific judg- like. dinner, in an ongoing battle that masks ment, without an infusion of charity, deeper fissures. Their son rejects ranch results in decisions that are literally non- —Charlotte Allen is the author of life, even though he could inherit human. It was a compelling story in the The Human Christ. the small operation they’ve built. 1980s, and—in an age of destructive Meanwhile, a Mexican-American boy embryonic-stem-cell research, trait- looks to Charlie as a father figure. “I specific abortion, and euthanasia— 7. Shelley’s Heart, by Charles can’t write about heroes seven feet tall remains one today. McCarry (1995): Charles McCarry is and invincible,” Kelton once said. “I sometimes called a “conservative John le write about people five feet eight and —Gerald Russello is a fellow of the Carré” for his highly intelligent espi- nervous.” Chesterton Institute at Seton Hall University onage thrillers. The difference is that le and author of The Postmodern Carré presents British spymaster George —John J. Miller Imagination of . Smiley and his Soviet foe Karla as moral

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BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS equivalents, while McCarry believes in blessing. Throughout the novel, Ames they find their true selves. Helprin writes the superiority of Western ideals. His spy seeks to untangle a series of knotty a hymn to America, his home country—a novels depict the unpleasant, even tragic, moral questions: What is the relation hymn with no triteness at all. But he also actions that are sometimes necessary to of divine justice to earthly justice? How sings of England as few Englishmen preserve those ideals. Shelley’s Heart is a is that justice consistent with grace? have. They should knight him for it. In political thriller and the finest fictional Gilead grapples with these “mysteries” writing about love and life—and how account of how modern Washington of human existence, even as Ames cau- could the two be separated?—Helprin works—or doesn’t, as the case may be. tions that “we human beings,” frail and lifts you up. He is a rare combination The novel eviscerates politicians, aides, sinful, have “so little conception of jus- of big, big literary talent and big, big journalists, and judges as they vie for tice, and so slight a capacity for grace.” humanity. power. McCarry’s depictions can be The result is a book of both humility and deeply cynical: A radical nominee for the hope, aware of our limitations, but also —Jay Nordlinger is an NR senior editor. Supreme Court will likely be confirmed of the goodness of creation. “Augustine because he has spent his professional life says the Lord loves each of us as an only making sure that none of his controver- child, and that has to be true,” Ames 10. No Country for Old Men, by sial views is ever on the record. As for writes. “‘He will wipe the tears from all Cormac McCarthy (2005): Some the supposedly free press, “All the front faces.’ It takes nothing from the loveli- novels are not ostensibly political but pages carried the same stories in the ness of the verse to say that is exactly nevertheless have a special appeal for same positions under headlines that said what will be required.” There is, indeed, conservatives, especially those in the the same thing.” Thanks to environmen- balm in Gilead. Augustinian tradition. Such people are tal policies that have run amok, the skeptical about plans for improvement streets are dark at night and the capital is —Cheryl Miller is editor of and cynical about the morally preten- infested with deer. Here is how McCarry Doublethink magazine. tious. They think that we live in a fallen describes a president who has made a world and that is a lie told momentous decision that he knows runs by an atheist. Their favorite authors counter to the best interests of the coun- 9. Freddy and Fredericka, by Mark are Pascal, , Graham try but may save his career and advance Helprin (2005): As the Allies closed Greene, and, in our day, Cormac Mc- his political agenda: “Like most political in on the Nazis, U.S. soldiers arrived at Carthy, America’s greatest living novel- figures of his generation who embrace the door of Richard Strauss. ist. McCarthy’s The Road recently has progressive convictions,” McCarry Drawing himself up (one ima- been turned into a film. A better intro- writes, “Lockwood had never in his adult gines), Strauss greeted them duction to his work may be life been anything but a politician.” He with, “I am Doktor Richard No Country for Old Men, itself “was a politician to the depths of his Strauss, composer of Salome the subject of a superb movie. being, and his office was all he had.” and Der Rosenkavalier.” In- McCarthy’s message is that evil Sound familiar? teresting that he should have walks the land, that fate rules the chosen those two works, for world, that God owes us nothing, —Melanie Kirkpatrick, a former deputy editor self-identification. Under and that His silence is unbroken. of the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page, ’s name, on Those who accept this have a cer- is a writer in Connecticut. the cover of his latest book, tain nobility, but redemption comes Digital Barbarism, we find, only through His grace. No Coun- “Author of Winter’s Tale and try is the story of a chase, of a 8. Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson A Soldier of the Great War.” hunter and the hunted, of a hit (2004): This –winning Those are extraordinary, even man and his victim, told through novel is about virtue, and virtue reward- great, novels. One or the other the prism of a sheriff, the ed. It takes the form of a letter from is many people’s favorite book. novel’s moral center. The father to son, the last testament of the But there are other Helprin hunter, Anton Chigurh, is an ailing John Ames, a fourth-generation creations to absorb. All of his avenging angel, the agent of minister in the small Iowa town of novels are “conservative,” in amoral fate in a dark world, the Gilead during the 1950s. He has lived that they deal with enduring most frightening character you’ll according to what he calls the “obvious truths and how to live. They ever encounter. “If the rule you question”: “What is the Lord asking of are also shot through with followed led you to this of what use me in this moment, in this situation?” religion, having the quality was the rule?” asks Chigurh, before The answer is not always apparent, of prayer. But at least one he pulls the trigger. The sheriff fol- Ames finds. His is a divided heritage: of those novels is conservative in even lows moral rules, but like Chigurh between his fiery abolitionist grandfa- a political way. That is Freddy and does not expect they’ll help him in any ther, who fought in the Civil War, and Fredericka, a comedy. And though it is way, which is why Chigurh permits him his pacifist father. Ames faces his own a comedy—a dazzling one—it becomes to live. stumbling block in the form of Jack perfectly profound. Freddy and Freder- Boughton, his godson and a Prodigal icka are a prince and princess of Wales —F. H. Buckley is a law professor at Son who returns seeking his godfather’s who are banished to America, where George Mason University.

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almost no predictions right at all, beyond pous punditry left and right. Yet Eas- microeconomic minutiae, such as Paul terbrook is no doctrinaire skeptic. In Future Krugman’s prize-winning mathematical apparent contrast to all the other purveyors gobbledygook showing that countries of defective expertise he mentions, one Imperfect geographically close to one another are group commands his complete faith: the more likely to trade. Collectively the ex- mostly government-paid authors of the GEORGE GILDER perts utterly failed to predict any of the consensus on climate change. So reliable major turning points in the U.S. and glob- are these folk that Easterbrook would have al economies over the last five decades. the world measure and mete out, cap and In a stirring conclusion, Easterbrook trade, every emission of carbon dioxide. asserts: “If it hadn’t been shown a hundred Over the next 40 years, Easterbrook be- times before, the financial-world events of lieves, we must invest an additional $45 the last two years proved that even the trillion in response to the claim that the most powerful officials have little clue very carbon dioxide emissions that we what the economy is about to do, and only breathe out (and plants turn into carbohy- a mild, limited ability to influence eco- drates and oxygen that sustain our carbon- nomic events once they commence. . . . Yet based bodies) are a threat to the planet. the international economy . . . was not It didn’t have to end in this biochemical brought down by the Cold War, or the two bathos. In A Moment on the Earth, his 1970s oil shocks, or the savings and loan excellent 1995 book on environmental debacle, or currency gyrations in Asia, or progress in free economies, Easterbrook Sonic Boom: Globalization at Mach Speed, September 11. Most likely [today] it will himself boldly debunked the alarmist argu- by Gregg Easterbrook (Random House, rebound with a glittering Sonic Boom,” ment for human-caused global warming. 272 pp., $26) his metaphor for creative destruction that At the time I began to believe that he might wreaks both splendid progress and wide- become a real critic of the green religion. N this intriguingly contrarian re- spread anxiety. But by 2006 Easterbrook gave in. Re- work of the Thomas Friedman “hot “Many companies, institutions, or nouncing every glint of his previous skep- and flat” motif, Gregg Easterbrook sports teams,” he writes, “have a single ticism, he produced a fatuous paper called I asserts that venture capitalists are person in charge, and that person is in a “Case Closed: The Debate about Global no better than lottery players when it position to make a catastrophic error that Warming Is Over,” in which he meekly comes to choosing new technology com- brings [them] down. . . . We know from the succumbed to the political experts’ “near- panies. He reports that leading stock ana- sad chronicles of history that placing one unanimous acceptance of the evidence of lysts outperform broad market-index single person in unchecked charge of a an artificial greenhouse effect.” funds only one-third of the time. He adds nation nearly guarantees a catastrophic Although otherwise-sensible people left that the preeminent financial pundits result.” Market economics provides “a and right allow themselves to be bowled break into two groups—pessimists like new model of social interactions, in which over on this issue by devious zealots with Robert Shiller and Nouriel Roubini, who no one is in charge, yet things go well”— doctorates, the fact is that there was a con- are right during downturns, and optimists because, as he explains, capitalism is not sensus only among leftist scientists in the like Abby Joseph Cohen of Goldman the dog-eat-dog Darwinian struggle of government. In my circles of Ph.D.s in Sachs, who are right during upturns. leftist mythology but essentially a cooper- technology companies and in tenured aca- (There are no up-and-down visionaries ative system in which all players want demic positions, global-warming theory like Steve or Ken Fisher visible others to succeed and provide markets for was already evoking rage and indignation anywhere on his horizon.) their own output. As a result, the system from leading experts around the world, Easterbrook, a writer for The Atlan- works without expert guidance from who pointed out that the so-called tic and The New Republic, winningly above. “Experts won’t like [the triumph of medieval climate optimum featured cen- acknowledges that “wonderful econo- this system],” says Easterbrook, “because turies of temperatures several degrees mists” such as leftist luminaries Lester their predictions will fare even more poor- higher than today’s. What would become Thurow of MIT and the late John Kenneth ly than now. [But] overall, the world might a throng of some 31,000 scientists—in- Galbraith (surely “wonderful writers” be better off.” cluding Fred Seitz, former president of would be more accurate) were wrong This down-with-the-experts riff is Rockefeller University, and Fred Singer, about almost everything: Japanese indus- bracing stuff, raffishly dismissing pom- the designer of the very satellite systems trial policy, the Soviet economy, the U.S. that collect the data—were already rush- economy, the role of large corporations in ing to sign Caltech chemist Arthur innovation, the future of markets, pollu- Robinson’s petition against the global tion, socialism, you name it. Even Nobel- warmers. Nothing of significance has hap- laureate economists, says Easterbrook, get pened since the 1980s and 1990s except that—entirely contrary to the warmers’ Mr. Gilder is a founder of the , a sundry computer models—the increases

venture capitalist, and the author of 15 books, in CO2 have produced no further warming including The Israel Test. “Is the fire included?” at all for more than a decade.

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BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS Apparently unbeknownst to Easter- (usually a man) is faced with temptation brook, though, a multibillion-dollar surge and must make a moral decision. That of politically impelled government money Depth of decision, though pondered with the right reoriented opportunistic scientists around amount of angst, might seem to be a the globe toward the pursuit of a new ratio- Vision momentary one, but it turns out to be nale for global government and socialism. momentous. A yes or a no can damn a I have come to believe that nearly all gov- KELLY JANE TORRANCE man for eternity. ernment science is politically twisted and Rohmer was almost forced to become unreliable. After filling out all the forms SAW a Rohmer film once,” a success. From 1957 to 1963, he was edi- and toadying to all the bureaucratic toads Gene Hackman’s character in tor of Cahiers du Cinéma, the stunningly necessary to obtain a grant, there is all too Night Moves famously de- influential film journal whose writers often little energy left to perform the ‘I clared. “It was kind of like included François Truffaut, Jean-Luc research—and no inclination, if it affronts watching paint dry.” Godard, Claude Chabrol, and Rivette. the source of the funds. Those two lines, in a movie directed These men would put down their pens and It would be gratifying if I could con- by the acclaimed Arthur Penn, might have pick up cameras, ushering in a new era of clude this review by describing Easter- dissuaded an entire generation of film fans formalism in film with the French New brook’s climate blunder as an aberration from investigating the work of Eric Roh- Wave. Rohmer would become one of its with little effect on the good sense of his mer. It’s too bad. When Rohmer died on leading lights, but, though a decade older overall argument. But I cannot. In prin- January 11 in Paris, at age 89, the world than most of his colleagues, he was the last ciple, Easterbrook is pungent and right lost the man who might have been its great- to find fame. It was only when he was oust- about free markets; but in practice he est living director. ed from his editorship that he threw him- comes out as reliably leftist as any In many ways, he was a stereotypically self into the sort of artistry he’d been Democratic senator. For all our author’s French filmmaker: His elegant films are championing. vaunted skepticism toward financial filled with wine drinking and cigarette He was overthrown because the tide punditry, he is in fact as much a smoking in moody cafés and cramped had turned. Cahiers had been founded in pushover for any fashionable enthusi- apartments. As Hackman’s character no- protest of a French film criticism that asm of the Left as the even glibber and ticed, Rohmer’s characters don’t seem to blindly celebrated the mediocre work com- more Panglossian Friedman in the simi- do much; no Protestant work ethic keeps ing out of France, while criticizing the rev- larly free-market but environmentally them from philosophizing late into the olutionary work coming out of America. totalitarian Hot, Flat, and Crowded. night. Sometimes they don’t even do so “We should love America,” Rohmer wrote, Without its market-crippling contradic- much as talk—a longish scene in Full because Hollywood was turning an enter- tions, Sonic Boom would be a cogent and Moon in Paris (1984) simply shows mod- tainment into an art form. They extolled even sometimes original contribution to ish men and women dancing to mediocre Alfred Hitchcock and Howard Hawks, free-market literature. But the contra- French pop in a 1980s nightclub. much to the consternation of the establish- dictions finally overwhelm the very real But, despite the familiar European-art- ment. That adoration of America would insights. “You can’t stop global change,” film elements, Rohmer was a filmmaker eventually lead to the labeling of the he boldly asserts, except “climate change.” unlike any other. In the 1950s, before the group—and particularly Rohmer—as too Experts are always wrong except about French New Wave Rohmer helped launch conservative. (Years later, his 2001 film the long-term weather. Venture capitalists had even been conceived, he told fellow would be contro- cannot select companies any better than critic and would-be director Jacques versial in France for showing the terror of a lottery, yet companies that have been Rivette that there were two novelists every the French Revolution.) But they weren’t backed by venture capitalists account for filmmaker must read: Honoré de Balzac particularly political. The Cahiers crowd 10 percent of jobs and 20 percent of GDP. and Fyodor Dostoevsky. You won’t find resolutely stood for art for art’s sake over Private markets are always more efficient many other French directors—let alone any ideological agendas. than public mandates, except for health directors, period—closely studying these They upset the elite because they were care, women’s rights, education, pollution, two giants. But a fondness for one of liter- no elitists. As Emilie Bickerton notes in and banking. ature’s founding realists, and for its great- the recently released A Short History of Easterbrook finally epitomizes what est psychologist and moralist, sums up Cahiers du Cinéma, the original French depicts as “the uncon- Rohmer’s approach to his art. avant-garde wanted their work to be seen strained vision,” which is pervasive on the Don’t let these influences—or the fact by as many people as possible. “In similar American Left. We can have it all—stable that Rohmer was also a schoolteacher, a spirit,” she writes, “Cahiers first champi- families plus sexual freedom; vast new novelist, and a critic—lead you to think oned the films it believed were the best of mandated spending and regulation of he’s simply a highbrow writer who set his the art, with the aim to bring a deeper health care and energy plus less debt and words to celluloid. In fact, a lot goes on in understanding of their value to the wider freer markets and more entrepreneurship. Rohmer’s films, though much of the drama public, whom it believed perfectly capable Like most liberals, Easterbrook has no is internal. Every one of his movies con- of grasping them.” sense of the facts of life and its limits. In tains action of the highest type: A character And film, Rohmer soon realized, could the end the recommendations of Sonic reach far more people than any other art Boom would harvest all the anxiety that he Kelly Jane Torrance is a writer living in form. It was also the one best suited to his predicts, but few of the benefits. Washington, D.C. high-minded mission. “Perhaps of all the

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arts, film is the only one today that knows and themselves. There are no melodra- how to walk without faltering on those matic soundtracks that tell the audience high summits and with all the magnifi- what to feel. Rohmer’s films are obsessed cence required, the only one that still with morals but don’t offer an easy moral. leaves room for the aesthetic category of It was the third film in the series that saw the sublime, elsewhere discarded because the most success in America. My Night at of an excusable sense of modesty,” he Maud’s (1969) was nominated for the wrote in a Cahiers essay collected in his Academy Awards for best screenplay and book The Taste for Beauty. Filmmakers best foreign film. It was a major accom- were the only artists who needed not fear plishment for a foreign, talky film in which mockery for exploring the divine. “Since the main characters, in between flirtations, Victor Hugo’s voice was silenced, what debate Pascal’s Wager. Jean-Louis Trintig- writer would dare not banish the words nant, the protagonist, has decided to marry magnificent, terrifying, or grandiose from the beautiful and devout Françoise, but his his pen?” commitment to both her and his Catholic Nowhere was his mastery of the moral religion is tested when he spends a night more evident than in the early films that with the charming divorcée of the title. established his reputation: the “Six Moral Rohmer’s characters never seem ready Tales.” This linked series of films, two to settle into domestic bliss—even if they shorts and four features, that he made recognize it as such. Jean-Louis isn’t the between 1963 and 1972 all have the same only one in love not so much with a wo- bly beautiful, their sweet smiles sometimes plot: A man in love with one woman is man, as with a sense of possibility. “The innocent, sometimes enticing. That might tempted by another. It’s a seemingly small prospect of happiness opening indefinitely be why Rohmer’s men often fall in love idea, but one that Rohmer’s genius turned before me sobers me. I find myself missing simply by sight—and then spend the rest of in elegant variations. that time, not too long ago, when I could the movie trying to decide what to do about From the first two black-and-white experience the pangs of anticipation,” says it. Rohmer’s films aren’t action flicks, no. shorts of 1963—The Bakery Girl of Frédéric in Chloe in the Afternoon (1972). But they’re not about people who just sit Monceau and Suzanne’s Career—Roh- The feeling isn’t limited to men. Haydée, around and talk. “People who are always mer’s distinctive tone was set. Style the title character in La collectionneuse thinking don’t exist. Look at Dalí’s Melted doesn’t make way for substance; it com- (1967), declares, “Unmitigated happiness Watch, for example,” Daniel wryly says in plements it. That’s why his movies aren’t bores me.” La collectionneuse. Rohmer’s films are full of things. The focus, instead, is on his Rohmer’s self-centered men are thus intellectual dramas whose action takes characters. His visual style bears the influ- infuriatingly—but somewhat understand- place inside the men whose morals are ence of Balzac, with a determined, even ably—indecisive. Jean-Louis stays up all conflicted, but must be resolved in a single heightened, realism. He emphasizes the night wondering whether he’ll betray decision. enclosed spaces of Paris apartments and Françoise with Maud, while Frédéric is Rohmer left his mark not just on the cafés, and even his outdoor shots feel unsure whether he’ll cheat on his wife with people who watched his films, but on the somehow claustrophobic—these men and the compelling Chloe until the last possible people who were driven by their beauty to women are forced to confront one another, moment. The women are always impossi- make films of their own. His influence can be seen in everything from ’s talky pictures that stress exploring psy- chology over developing plot, to Quentin FOOTNOTE Tarantino’s violent movies whose charac- ters often have Rohmer-like philosophical *He lied. [When he left and said he didn’t love conversations. Rohmer was our greatest you anymore, that he needed to find filmmaker-moralist, but his banner is kept some space to grow as a person, above flying by serious filmmakers such as all, as an artist, a writer of some kind, Woody Allen and Neil LaBute, who show living his thirty-two more years, thinking, the same concern for our moral lives. every single day (every one), Rohmer once wrote, “The cinema is a about your face, your touch, and the foul, stinking privileged art form because it most faith- unredeemably stupid thing he’d done, fully transcribes the beauty of the real dying alone, aware that he’d become world. Art can never improve on reality.” a writer of no consequence, who’d been That might be true. But in showing us a hack, and even worse, who’d never come how deadly important a seemingly small within a country mile of love again, decision can be—a decision a character whose life was less than a silly anecdote: can take two hours of stylish film time to an empty cipher and a two-word note.] make—Rohmer might have improved our conception of the reality of moral —WILLIAM BAER choice.

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BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS desperate hero. His milieu is West Coast sive supporting cast—Jean Smart, Steve Film suburbia; his mother is a divorcée who Buscemi, Justin Long, Ray Liotta, Fred takes up with truck drivers and police offi- Willard, and Zach Galifianakis all put in cers; and his lady love is Sheeni Saunders appearances—but no similar generosity of Generation (Portia Doubleday), the precocious daugh- spirit. That’s a shame, because generosity ter of trailer-park evangelicals, who shares is arguably more important in a sex come- Gap his interest in old movies, world travel, dy than in a historical drama. If you’re and grand romantic gestures. going to mock your characters and expose ROSS DOUTHAT Victoria, meanwhile, is Alexandrina them to sundry humiliations, then it’s Victoria Hanover, best remembered as a important to extend them some compas- HE dilemmas of youth are formidable widow presiding over the sion along the way. universal. Consider Nicholas British Empire’s peak, but portrayed by Instead, Youth in Revolt offers a long and Victoria, a pair of late- Emily Blunt in The Young Victoria as a sneer at grown-up cluelessness. The T blossoming youngsters cur- glowing girl-queen with a lot to learn. Her movie pretends to satirize Nick’s teenage rently making their way toward adulthood milieu is the palaces of 1830s Europe; her pretensions—his taste for Sinatra and the at a multiplex near you. Respectively menacing stepfather-figure is Sir John French New Wave, his claim to be a male and female, American and English, Conroy (Mark Strong), who hoped to “voracious reader of classic prose”—but middle-class and filthy rich, they nonethe- become Britain’s de facto regent by domi- in reality it shares them. After their first less face a nearly identical set of difficul- nating Victoria through her mother; and summertime encounter, Nick and Sheeni ties as they navigate the choppy seas of her would-be lover is her cousin, His are constantly being separated: because adolescence. Both have foolish mothers Serene Highness Prince Albert of Saxe- their families live two states apart; because Coburg and Gotha, who shares Victoria’s Sheeni has been bundled off to the French- interest in opera, horseback riding, and speaking boarding school; because Nick, programs of social reform. who goes in for some juvenile delinquen- If this description makes The Young cy in an effort to impress his paramour, is Victoria sound like the more snobbish of being hunted by Berkeley law enforce- the two movies, do not be deceived. No ment. But they’re united, throughout, by double feature is more likely to instill a their shared contempt for their suburban fondness for the aristocratic pomposities prison, and for the jerks, fanatics, harpies, of the 19th century, and a weariness with and fools—which is to say, every grown- the smug pretensions of the 21st. up character—trying to keep them locked As costume dramas go, The Young away in it. Victoria is somewhat plotless. It plays as a This means that the movie’s adult cast is series of vivid vignettes from the Queen’s largely wasted, since there are only so early years, strung like Christmas lights many ways to play a creep, a , or a along the thread of her long-distance ro- slattern. Worse, Youth in Revolt wastes mance with Prince Albert (Rupert Friend). what should be its most inspired conceit. The domineering Conroy is introduced as In his quest to “go bad” and shed his the villain, but he recedes after a few early, Twispiness, Nick conjures up a darker hammy scenes, leaving the stage to other alter ego: the chain-smoking François would-be influencers: King William IV, Dillinger (Cera, again, in tight-fitting Leopold of Belgium, and Lords Mel- slacks and a pencil-thin mustache), who Youth in Revolt’s Nick (Michael Cera) bourne, Wellington, and Peel. breaks rules, talks dirty, and sets in motion and Sheeni (Portia Doubleday) The dramatic tension, such as it is, a series of unfortunate events. and malign, controlling stepfather-figures. resides in the competition between the I’m not sure that Cera is up to playing Both are variously ignored, manipulated, smooth Melbourne (Paul Bettany) and the a character who isn’t fundamentally and bullied by many of the other adults devoted Albert to become Victoria’s most sweet-natured, but the movie barely lets around them. Both are virgins with a trusted confidant. Mainly, though, the him try. After an initial burst of activity, strong romantic streak. And both are sepa- movie is a generous portrait of a great era’s Dillinger is relegated to cameo appear- rated from the girl/guy of their dreams birth, and an appreciation of the elite that ances, marooning us once more with by distance, legal obligations, and even would preside over it—their culture and Nick, Sheeni, and the creeps. language barriers. their class, their mix of dignity and ideal- Still, I suppose that’s a happier fate than Well, fine, maybe their situations aren’t ism, and the way their charming stuffiness being essentially imprisoned in a gloomy quite identical. Nicholas is Nick Twisp, could melt, when appropriate, into great palace by the sinister Lord Conroy, as the the lovesick hero of Youth in Revolt, which passion. And the cast, unsurprisingly, is future Queen Victoria was throughout her fancies itself the thinking teenager’s sex flawless: Blunt is a star in the making, and childhood. And Victoria was stuck there comedy. It’s American Pie rewritten for she’s surrounded by the finest flower of for 18 years, whereas Youth in Revolt’s Juno fans and Arrested Development British acting, from Bettany and Friend to suffocating smugness lasts only 90 min- obsessives—complete with Michael Cera, Miranda Richardson and Jim Broadbent. utes—and you can always flee the theater

DIMENSION FILMS star of both, as the deadpan, quietly Youth in Revolt has a similarly impres- early, if you like.

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noticeably so by New Year’s. Besides, always been, John Barleycorn. An Indian Country Life winter can’t explain why so many people storeowner—all the gas stations and con- upstate seem depressed all year long. venience stores upstate are owned by What are the signs of depression? How Indians—took the pulse of his neighbors Upstate about piles of stuff in the yard? This is a and opened a warehouse behind his gro- tricky point. One of the benefits of own- cery store, entirely devoted to alcohol. It Blues ing an acre of land is that you have room reflects market segmentation: One half is to put stuff. Rural residential zoning for beer, the other half is for wine and allows you to put down anything, short of spirits. He is not going broke. As destruc- a junkyard, and rural gun ownership guar- tive as the booze are the lottery tickets, antees that it will stay put, though who colored spools of them dangling at every would want a pile of field stone anyway? cash register. A mathematician I know But sometimes the stack of two-by-fours, calls lotteries the stupidity tax. They strike or the rusted-out burn barrel, or the boat me as the hope of the hopeless. I can see under a tarp, or the truck with a mis- the rough justice in allowing American matched hood and fender and a notional Indians to plunder us via casinos. But why RICHARD BROOKHISER price chalked on its windshield (the price do the state governments, which we elect, and the truck haven’t changed in years), turn on the credulous who haven’t man- HRISTMAS has come and gone, or all of these things together cross the aged to get to Foxwoods? even for the Eastern Orthodox, line from husbandry to clutter. “If a man Work might be the cure, but where are and the stores are looking have not order within him, he cannot people supposed to work upstate? The job C ahead to Valentine’s Day. But spread order about him,” said , market is grim. There are the irreducibles: many upstate lawns still have their who should have known about inner dis- government, including schools; stores; Christmas decorations: Santa, Frosty, order. Some lawns have all the cheer of services; professions; restaurants and inflated penguins (penguins were big this old cemeteries. bars. Then there are the local businesses: year, even though they don’t live at the Another sign of depression is the un- resorts; a handful of farms; prisons. Then North Pole). They stand like unbudgeable painted outbuilding. Here again it is a there are the alternative businesses, which guests who have stayed at a party after the host has unplugged the coffee urn and gone to bed. They are better-humored, for Routine is supposed to be the great they are still waving merrily, but the feel- ings they induce are unsettling. They have deadener of souls; how much worse is lingered past their time, like ghosts. They the half-completed task, the broken round, represent the black backside of upstate: depression. the unfulfilled routine? Depression manifests itself in lack of will. That is what the belated Santas show. matter of degree. The weathered barn slat barely make it: You can’t throw a brick People, in a burst of holiday cheer or a can look like a wise face in an old photo- where I am without hitting a masseuse. bout of family obligation, put them out. graph: Lincoln, Whitman. But when the This is the infrastructure of a ghost econ- But those same people are unable or slats begin to show gaps, trouble has omy. Resorts and prisons are for out- unwilling to take them down. Routine is begun. Once the horizontals and the verti- siders. Schools educate the young (to do supposed to be the great deadener of cals start to slip and sag, the end is near: what?). Aside from the farms, what is the souls; how much worse is the half- Only an effort on the order of Robert rest but taking in each other’s washing? completed task, the broken round, the Moses can save the outbuilding now. I Xton, in one direction, used to have an unfulfilled routine? remember a two-storey house on the IBM plant (we know what happened to As usual there is a diagnosis for it— grounds of a small, broken-down summer that), and Yville, in the other direction, seasonal affective disorder—and as usual resort (but not dead—cars and laundry had a factory that made television anten- it tells only part of the story. The cold always decorate a handful of the cottages nas. Thanks to a broken oven safety valve, keeps people inside and makes them stir- come July). Its collapse took about two I am now using one of those old antennas crazy, while the short days put them spir- weeks; my friend Doug, who has put up as a lever to turn the propane line on and itually to sleep. Cold is no friend: It slips many buildings in his time, said, with off. I borrowed it from Doug; it has not in, through door cracks and floorboards, grim relish, “It’s moving!” A good wet pulled in a show since Ed Sullivan went and slaps your face as soon as you step snow brings the untended outbuilding off the air, and the factory was sold and outside. Bundling up to keep it off makes down, like a bomb. The degrees of serious moved about then too. Given the tax struc- you heavy and stiff. Dusk at five o’clock depression are measured by how long the ture of New York, a businessman who had is no pick-me-up either. Maybe bears pieces stay, uncleared. any choice would be insane to set up here. have the right idea: grow a girdle of fat A more brutal sign of depression is Few do. and go to sleep. But, although the cold drink. Our drug habits fatten Mexican So, in one of earth’s garden spots, stays until February, the light starts grow- gang lords and al-Qaeda, but the most Adam and Eve sit. The Santas will come ing longer after the solstice, and becomes destructive drug in America is what it has down about March.

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Happy Warrior BY MARK STEYN Carried Away

T’S ’Elf ’n’ Safety, mate, innit?” You only have to Mart cart. “Screw this,” said my brother-in-law gallantly. spend, oh, 20 minutes in almost any corner of the “We’ll carry it in.” He motioned to me and a couple of other British Isles to have that distinctive local formula- male relatives. ‘I tion proffered as the explanation for almost any fea- “You can’t do that,” protested the head pallbearer. “You’re ture of life. The signs at the White Cliffs of Dover warning not licensed pallbearers.” you not to lean over the cliff? It’s Health & Safety, mate. “So what?” I said. “As you’ve just explained, a licensed Primary schools that forbid their children to make daisy pallbearer is explicitly licensed not to bear palls.” chains because they might pick up germs from the flowers? “You can’t just pick up the coffin and take it in!” he Health & Safety, mate. The decorative garden gnomes huffed. It was now the undertakers’ turn to confer. Inside Sandwell Borough Council ordered the homeowner to the church, the organist was vamping the old Toccata & remove from outside her front door on the grounds that she Fugue and wondering where everyone was. I had a vague could trip over them when fleeing the house in event of its feeling we were on the brink of the more raucous moments catching fire? Health & Safety. The fire extinguishers of the Ayatollah Khomeini’s funeral, with rival mobs tug- removed from a block of flats by Dorset risk assessors ging his corpse back and forth. because they’re a fire risk? Health & Safety. Apparently the The pallbearer returned. “We’ll carry it,” he informed us, presence of a fire extinguisher could encourage you to “but you blokes have to help us. That way, if ’Elf ’n’ Safety attempt to extinguish the fire instead of complain, we can say you made us do it, fleeing for your life. and they can take it up with you.” In December a death in the family “I don’t believe New Hampshire would brought me face to face with Health & extradite for that,” I said confidently. And Safety. I don’t mean the deceased expired we made a rather moving and solemn because he tripped over a garden gnome sight as we proceeded stiffly down the or succumbed to a toxic daisy chain: He dangerously uneven path that villagers died of non–Health & Safety–related had trod for over a millennium until we causes. A funeral just before Christmas is reached the even more dangerously un- always a logistical nightmare, and I didn’t even ancient, worn flagstones of the really start grieving until the car pulled church itself. into the churchyard. It was a picture- As they say over there, it’s Health & perfect English country setting: The old Danger! Safety gone mad, innit? Or as a lady put it part of the church dates from the 9th cen- after the funeral, as we were discussing the tury, and the new part from the 10th century. I felt a mild pang fracas, “There’s only one thing that annoys me more than of envy at such a bucolic resting place: mossy gravestones, Health & Safety gone mad, and that’s when people say, ‘Ooh, the shade of a yew tree, cattle grazing across the church wall. it’s Health & Safety gone mad.’” I know what she means. In Ahead of us, the pallbearers emerged from the hearse, Britain, the distillation of any daily grievance into a handy very sober and reserved. And at that point they produced catchphrase seems to absolve one of the need to do anything a contraption halfway between a supermarket cart and a about it. As long as they can grumble the agreed slogan, gurney. “What’s that?” asked someone. Funeral directors are they’ll put up with ever more absurd incursions on individual immensely finicky, and, in the course of a thousand and one liberty. No state can insure its citizenry against all risks, questions about the size of this, the color of that, nobody had although in Nanny Bloomberg’s New York City and hyper- said anything about a shopping cart. regulated California they’re having a jolly good go. And that’s “Oh, that’s to roll the coffin in on,” replied one of the pall- the point: The goal may be unachievable, but huge amounts bearers. of freedom will be lost in the attempt. The right to evaluate “Hang on,” I said. “You’re pallbearers. Aren’t you going to risk for oneself is part of what it means to be a functioning carry the coffin?” human being. “Not allowed, mate. ’Elf ’n’Safety. The path’s uneven.” He Meanwhile, back at the headquarters of the Health & motioned to the dirt track leading from the church gate to the Safety Executive itself, it was reported in 2007 that staff are door. forbidden to move chairs lest they do themselves an injury. “The path’s been uneven for a thousand years,” I pointed Instead, a porter has to be booked 48 hours in advance, which out, “but it doesn’t seem to have prevented them holding makes last-minute seating adjustments at staff meetings funerals.” somewhat problematic. “Pull up a chair”? Don’t even think “It’s not me, it’s ’Elf ’n’ Safety,” he said, sullenly. “They’d about it. rather we wheeled it in in case one of us slipped. On the It’s good to know that at their own HQ the ever more uneven path.” coercive tinpot bureaucrats don’t just talk the talk, they walk We conferred. The ladies were unhappy about the Wal- the walk. Even if they won’t push the push.

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