The Truth About Trade Scott Lincicome

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STEVEN F. HAYWARD: THE EDITORS: JAMES KIRCHICK: Trump Is No Goldwater Cruz for President Among the Identitarians

THETHEENEMY?ENEMY? THE TRUTH ABOUT TRADE SCOTT LINCICOME

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APRIL 11, 2016 | VOLUME LXVIII, NO. 6 | www.nationalreview.com

Jay Nordlinger on Ted Cruz ON THE COVER Page 27 p. 22 The Truth about Trade The economic anxiety propelling Donald Trump reflects very BOOKS, ARTS real problems in America’s labor market—problems caused & MANNERS not by Chinese imports or any other type of creative 36 WE AMERICANS AND destruction, but by multiple government-policy failures and a OUR SPIES John Hillen reviews Playing to resulting collapse of labor dynamism. Protectionism not only the Edge: American Intelligence would ensure that these problems aren’t fixed but would in the Age of Terror, by Michael V. Hayden. actually make things far worse. Scott Lincicome 38 BENEFACTORS WITH GREAT WEALTH COVER: GETTY IMAGES/ OXFORD SCIENTIFIC/ DAVID FORMAN Martin Morse Wooster reviews Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires behind the Rise of the ARTICLES Radical Right, by Jane Mayer. REFORM CONSERVATISM’S FUTURE by Ramesh Ponnuru 16 43 FACING WAR The GOP must not disregard policy innovation. Arthur L. Herman reviews THE ANTI-GOLDWATER by Steven F. Hayward Hubris: The Tragedy of 17 War in the Twentieth Century, Donald Trump is fracturing conservatism, not consolidating it. by Alistair Horne. A DECENTRALIZED POLITICS by Michael Needham & Jacob Reses 20 44 THERE AND BACK AGAIN Power has become too concentrated in national parties. Elizabeth Altham reviews 22 A FRIEND IN THE ARENA by Jay Nordlinger The Chestry Oak, by Kate Seredy. What’s it like when a friend of yours runs for president? 46 FILM: BLACK BOX BREAKING THE STAINED-GLASS CEILING by Gerard V. Bradley Ross Douthat reviews 23 10 Cloverfield Lane. A strategy to defend religious liberty. THE ABOLITION OF CASH by Andrew Stuttaford 47 FORWARD WITH SPRING 25 Richard Brookhiser sees signs Governments prefer e-money; citizens should not. of life.

FEATURES SECTIONS 27 THE TRUTH ABOUT TRADE by Scott Lincicome It has revealed, not created, problems in the American economy. 4 Letters to the Editor 6 The Week AMONG THE THUGS by James Kirchick 30 34 The Long View ...... Rob Long Donald Trump, white nationalists, and the politics of the crowd. 35 Athwart ...... James Lileks 39 Poetry ...... James M. Wilson 48 Happy Warrior ...... Daniel Foster

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APRIL 11 ISSUE; PRINTED MARCH 24

EDITOR Richard Lowry Senior Editors Bush Appreciated Richard Brookhiser / Jonah Goldberg / Jay Nordlinger Ramesh Ponnuru / David Pryce-Jones Managing Editor Jason Lee Steorts Thanks to Jay Nordlinger for his “43 and His Theme: A Visit with George W. Literary Editor Michael Potemra Vice President, Editorial Operations Christopher McEvoy Bush” (March 14). It’s a shame that Bush didn’t do more, rhetorically, to defend Washington Editor Eliana Johnson Executive Editor Reihan Salam himself against political assault during his presidency. Nordlinger’s interview Roving Correspondent Kevin D. Williamson National Correspondent John J. Miller affirms W.’s intelligence, his serious approach to life-and-death issues, and his Senior Political Correspondent Jim Geraghty Chief Political Correspondent Tim Alberta human decency. Shame on my lefty (and otherwise intelligent) friends for their Art Director Luba Kolomytseva simplistic and simple-minded attacks. Deputy Managing Editors Nicholas Frankovich / Fred Schwarz Production Editor Katie Hosmer Roger Baumgarten Assistant to the Editor Rachel Ogden Research Associate Alessandra Trouwborst Mechanicsburg, Pa.

Contributing Editors Shannen Coffin / Ross Douthat / Daniel Foster Roman Genn / Arthur L. Herman / Lawrence Kudlow Mark R. Levin / Yuval Levin / Rob Long Cheap Oil Foiled Mario Loyola / Jim Manzi / Andrew C. McCarthy Kate O’Beirne / Andrew Stuttaford / Robert VerBruggen While Mr. Hassett’s discussion was measured and succinct (“Don’t Stop NATIONALREVIEWONLINE Managing Editors Katherine Connell / Edward John Craig Worrying about Oil,” February 29), I do believe he may have missed the mark. Deputy Managing Editor Nat Brown Even though the production of oil in this country has not changed appreciably as National-Affairs Columnist John Fund Staff Writers Charles C. W. Cooke / David French a percentage of total world output, the use of oil here has declined, and the rate Senior Political Reporter Alexis Levinson Political Reporter Brendan Bordelon of production and the existence of proven reserves now make us able to supply Reporter Katherine Timpf Associate Editors Molly Powell / Nick Tell all of our needs should the price of crude rise to the level at which it would be Digital Director Ericka Anderson profitable to frack and mine tar sands. Even if OPEC were to cease to produce Assistant Editor Mark Antonio Wright Technical Services Russell Jenkins oil, we could supply our own needs, with only a short period of time required to Web Editorial Assistant Grant DeArmitt Web Developer Wendy Weihs restart our domestic industry, which would already be retooling as the price of Web Producer Scott McKim crude rose. With Canada as a partner (unless our president has queered that deal EDITORS- AT- LARGE as well), we could be exporting to the rest of the world over and above our Linda Bridges / Kathryn Jean Lopez / John O’Sullivan domestic needs. As the flow and the supply worldwide fell, the price would rise NATIONALREVIEWINSTITUTE again, returning to the level at which extracting oil in this country would again BUCKLEYFELLOWSINPOLITICALJOURNALISM Elaina Plott / Ian Tuttle be profitable. Consumers would be forced to return to the days of $2.50 gasoline Contributors (I live in an oil state and our price is always low), a lot of people would complain, Hadley Arkes / James Bowman / Eliot A. Cohen Dinesh D’Souza / Chester E. Finn Jr. / Neal B. Freeman and the needs of the oil users in this country would be uninterrupted, while, once James Gardner / David Gelernter / George Gilder Jeffrey Hart / Kevin A. Hassett / Charles R. Kesler again, the rest of the world descended into chaos. David Klinghoffer / Anthony Lejeune / D. Keith Mano Michael Novak / Alan Reynolds / Tracy Lee Simmons Jonathan C. Jobe Terry Teachout / Vin Weber Chief Financial Officer James X. Kilbridge Via e-mail Accounting Manager Galina Veygman Accountant Lyudmila Bolotinskaya Business Services Alex Batey Circulation Manager Jason Ng KEVIN A. HASSETT RESPONDS: Mr. Jobe raises a clever point that, sadly, collapses Advertising Director Jim Fowler Advertising Manager Kevin Longstreet on inspection. Even if the U.S. is self-sufficient in oil production, this does not Assistant to the Publisher Brooke Rogers insulate us from the impact of fluctuations in world prices. If the world price Director of Revenue Erik Netcher is higher than the U.S. price, domestic producers will sell to foreigners instead

PUBLISHERCHAIRMAN of to us. Perhaps we could keep the domestic price higher by introducing trade Jack Fowler John Hillen barriers, but the economic case against such barriers would, like our borders FOUNDER William F. Buckley Jr. in Mr. Jobe’s example, be open and shut. It is true that my piece did not envision a world without trade. Perhaps, if PATRONSANDBENEFACTORS Robert Agostinelli Donald Trump is serious about starting a trade war, that is a bigger omission Mr. and Mrs. Michael Conway Mark and Mary Davis than anyone could have foreseen. Virginia James Christopher M. Lantrip Brian and Deborah Murdock Peter J. Travers

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

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n Bernie Sanders’s campaign is fading, leaving his supporters red, white, and blue.

n It is neither a surprise nor an accident that the latest major Islamist terrorist attack to befall Europe targeted Brussels, the heart of European multiculturalism. Decades of willful blindness See page 10. to the problem of ideological fanaticism left the capital of the European Union neglectful of serious threats to its security. In March, the Islamic State exploited that vulnerability, detonating explosives at Brussels’s Zaventem Airport and a major subway station during the morning rush hour, killing more than 30 people and wounding at least another 230. It would be dangerously naïve to doubt that the Islamic State is planning to export its brand of terror to the United States as well. For this reason, America cannot repeat the mistakes of Europe, foremost among them lax borders and irresponsible immigration and refugee- resettlement policies. Inside our borders, we should direct limited law-enforcement resources toward monitoring likely sources of radicalization—certain mosques and community centers, for example—allying, wherever possible, with the many Muslims who have no interest in seeing their communities co-opted for jihadist recruitment. Until recently, New York City had a successful, muscular surveillance program of this sort. It should be restarted immediately, and other cities should follow suit. Of course, defeating the Islamic State once and for all will require eradicating it in Iraq and Syria. A decisive air campaign, ultimately backed up by American forces on the ground, the calculated statements of its leader”—note calculated: is the only way to rip up the Islamic State by its roots. The Trump knows what he is doing—“Trumpism has become associ- attack in Brussels is a grim reminder that we are at war, and we ated with racism, misogyny, bigotry, xenophobia, vulgarity and, require a serious strategy, carried out by leaders serious about most recently, threats and violence.” We would add, ignorance, keeping America safe. We fervently hope that they formulate protectionism, and Putin-passivity, but this will do for starters. and execute that strategy before the Islamic State crops up at “I am repulsed by each and every one of these,” Romney con- JFK and Grand Central Terminal. tinued, and urged Republican voters in Utah and all further contests to support Ted Cruz. His hope is for an open convention; n Get in line behind Donald Trump, or you’re responsible for ours is for an outright Cruz victory. Both are aimed at saving the making Hillary C linton president: That’s the message coming GOP from falling into the hands of (to borrow a term of Theodore from Trump supporters these days. But it’s nearly the opposite Roosevelt’s) a blue-rumped ape. of the truth. Almost all polls find her leading him, often by large margins. Those margins, now at an average of ten points, n Military hero and a man after God’s own heart, King David have been heading upward. More than 60 percent of Ameri - marches winsomely through the pages of the Bible and straight cans say they have an unfavorable impression of Trump. They into the scripturally informed imagination of Western culture, view him as just as dishonest as Clinton. Keep in mind that where he looms as a sort of Renaissance man—eloquent, musi- Trump has achieved these dismal numbers before the Democrats cal, resourceful (nice idea, that slingshot), physically graceful, have spent any money pummeling him. If they persist, a lot of and a statesman as well as the slayer of “his ten thousands,” Republicans will vote third-party, or just not vote. Guilt-tripping including Goliath. Jerry Falwell Jr., the president of Liberty them won’t work, and wouldn’t get Trump close to victory if it University, notes cynically that David was also “an adulterer” did. Based on all the available evidence, a vote for Trump right and suggests that here the characters of Donald Trump and now is a vote for at least four years of Clinton. David intersect. Let’s compare them. David after he did wrong fasted and, see Psalm 51, begged God fervently for forgiveness. n Mitt Romney stood tall again, blasting Trump ahead of the Trump: “I don’t bring God into that picture. I don’t.” As a boy, Utah caucuses. “Today, there is a contest between Trumpism David fought his way to the front line so he could avenge a fear- ROMAN GENN and Republicanism,” Romney wrote on Facebook. “Through some giant and blasphemer against the God of Israel. Trump?

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THE WEEK

America waged a war when he was young, and he stayed voice vote; the candidates themselves were often on hand to home. Avoiding sexually transmitted disease was his “personal thank supporters, while hecklers jeered all who voted the wrong Vietnam,” he snarked. “I feel like a great and very brave sol- way. The secret ballot was a bulwark against both flattery and dier.” David (loosely translated): “Why do you boast about your intimidation. But a recent innovation, in the name of conve- cowardice, you effete blowhard?” (Psalms 52:1). nience, risks undermining the process. Early voting, sometimes weeks in advance, insulates voters from last-minute develop- n John Kasich has no chance of winning a majority of delegates ments and in primaries risks “orphaned” votes for candidates in the first round of balloting at the Republican convention. His who subsequently drop out. Make Election Days as convenient only chance of winning the nomination, a slim one, is an open as possible (e.g., with long hours to accommodate 9-to-5 work- convention that begins with no candidate enjoying a majority. Yet ers). But keep voting an act that is both individual (private) and he is doing what he can to make it easier for Trump to get that communal (roughly simultaneous). The laws that the winners majority—contesting states where he has no chance but his effort will enact affect each of us, and all of us. likely ensures that some delegates go to Trump instead of Cruz. Meanwhile, his campaign has failed to field a full slate of dele- n Obama nominated Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. gates in Maryland. Is he running to be Trump’s running mate, or Garland is a well-respected appeals-court judge, but we have no does he just have no idea what he is doing?

n Senator Marco Rubio quit the presidential race after losing the primary in his home state of Florida. We were early fans of the senator, supporting him when he beat the wayward incumbent Republican governor of his state, Charlie Crist. He was full of energy, good ideas, and an unusual talent for communicating them. We parted ways on his deeply misguided immigration legislation in 2013. That failed effort hobbled his presidential campaign, especially since his record on other issues was too conservative to win him heavy support from moderates. And he never did the organizational spadework that presidential runs usually require. Toward the end of his campaign, he began speaking out with more and more alarm about the threat posed by Donald Trump to Republican, and what’s left of republican, government: an honorable stand that will ultimately be vindicated. reason to think that he dissents in any significant way from the left-wing judicial consensus. (No Democratic nominee since the n After dropping out of the presidential race, Dr. Ben Carson early 1960s has.) That means yes to unrestricted abortion, and no endorsed Trump. His endorsement wasn’t the warmest. Even if to gun rights and religious liberty, regardless of what’s actually Trump turned out to be a bad president, Carson said, “we’re only spelled out in the Consti tution and the statute books. Senate Re - looking at four years.” It was pointed out to Carson that Trump publicans have vowed that there will be no confirmation this year, had likened him to a child molester. Twice. With his famous in the hope that someone without Obama’s anti-constitutional serenity, Carson said that Trump “was concerned about the fact politics will be in a position to fill the vacancy next year. That that he couldn’t shake me. I understand politics, and particularly hope may be waning, but the cause remains just. the politics of personal destruction, and you have to admit, to some degree, it did work. A lot of people believed him.” Well, n On immigration, as on so much else, the Democrats have be - then. Actually, Trump didn’t discredit Carson nearly as much as come the party of Obama—only more so. In a debate co-hosted Carson is discrediting himself now. by the Spanish-language network Univision, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders effectively promised an end to American immi- n President Obama has said that Bernie Sanders is nearing the gration law. Clinton, who had previously affirmed her support end of his campaign and that the party must unite behind Hillary for President Obama’s DACA and DAPA, both flagrantly Clinton. Obama spoke off the record to a meeting of Democratic unconstitutional amnesties covering together some 5 million donors in Austin, Texas, but three of them confirmed his re - people, promised not only that she would not deport children— marks to the New York Times, as did an unnamed White House an assurance that every “unaccompanied minor” who has crossed official. So Obama has decided that, much as he dislikes the the southern border in recent years would be permitted to stay— Clintons, they are his best shot at a third term. It probably fol- but also that she would not deport anyone without a criminal lows that the odds of Hillary’s being indicted for her grotesque record, period. This would guarantee a permanent home to mis management of government secrets have dropped from slight almost every illegal immigrant residing in the country and effec- to zero. Hillary will have to be beaten by an opponent who will tively reduce crossing the border illegally to a minor and ignor- subject her policies and her behavior to tough, knowledgeable able infraction. Clinton also reiterated an earlier commitment to criticism. How fortunate for her that the GOP front-runner is a somehow reunite families separated by deportation. Sanders con- GETTY IMAGES / trash-talking ignoramus and Clinton donor. curred with all this. Donald Trump’s bluster has made it easier for AFP / Democrats to portray Republicans as wild-eyed radicals on the n Norms of voting have changed over the last 200-plus years. subject of immigration. But either Democratic candidate would SAUL LOEB Eighteenth-century elections were conducted at county seats by be a truly radical president, effectively abrogating by fiat a whole

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swathe of American law. The alternative is simple and entirely of thought.” That’s for sure. Obama drew a red line in Syria and reasonable: enforcing laws already on the books, implementing then shrank from it. “I’m very proud of this moment,” he says. E-Verify nationwide, increasing penalties for visa overstays, For years, Washington made a fetish of credibility. Obama is erecting physical barriers along the border, and cracking down on proud to be free of it. Also, Goldberg quotes the king of Jordan, sanctuary cities. This is the middle way between the ill-informed who said, “I think I believe in American power more than Obama theatrics of Trump and the lawlessness of the Democrats, and it does.” Our president has come to a number of conclusions, says is imperative that the GOP take it. Goldberg. “The first is that the Middle East is no longer terribly important to American interests.” Unfortunately, the Middle East n Barack Obama campaigned for the presidency promising to has something to say about that. There is one thing that Obama is put the coal industry out of business: to “bankrupt” it, he pro - absolutely staunch on: “climate change,” and the threat it poses mised. He didn’t quite get there, but Hillary Rodham Clinton to mankind. He is a perfect progressive mind. promises to finish the job, gleefully boasting of her plan to “put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.” Ohio, n Some interesting things happened on the eve of President Pennsylvania, Virginia, Kentucky, Colorado: You have been Obama’s trip to Cuba. The dictatorship arrested more than 300 put on notice. Mrs. Clinton said this in the context of fantasizing people. At sea, the Coast Guard picked up 18 rafters, desperate in public about building a “clean energy” economy—Senator to leave the island. Nine had died. The survivors were half Obama made the same promise—that will need no coal and will dead. Starwood, an American hotel company, announced a employ all those coal miners she plans to put out of work, as deal with the Cuban military, which runs tourism in Cuba. though human beings were simply chessmen to be moved from Once he got to the island, Obama posed for pictures in front of one square to the next by god-emperors in Washington. Demo - the secret-police headquarters, replete with a giant mural of cratic primary voters were shocked to hear a Clinton speaking Che Guevara. Obama agreed with Raúl Castro that human the truth, and so the candidate immediately tried to explain rights include economic rights such as health care—which away all that unemployment she dreams of, sending a letter to ordinary Cubans lack in any case. Our president invited FARC, Senator Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) largely disavowing her own the Colombian terror group, to a U.S.–Cuba baseball game. words. She still wants to kill coal, she wrote, but not on a time- And so on. Obama’s national-security aide Ben Rhodes said line that would inconvenience any Democratic officeholders or that the purpose of the presidential trip was to make Obama’s their financial patrons. Ted Cruz, who knows a little something policies toward the Castros “irreversible.” We hope that a bet- about the energy industry, should remind voters which party it ter president has something to say about that. was that scoffed at drilling our way to $2 gas last time around and ask the voters whether they’d prefer to pay more or less in n Finally, after years of atrocities committed by ISIS against electric bills for the next eight years. Christians, Yazidis, and other religious minorities in the Middle East, Secretary of State John Kerry has officially designated the n Gawker, an Internet publication, has lost a huge judgment to persecution “genocide.” The word carries weight. In international former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan ($140 million and law, genocide is the “crime of crimes,” the most abhorrent vio- counting; at issue is publication of a sex tape) and now posi- lation of human rights. That the United States no longer fears tions itself as a martyr to the First Amendment. It isn’t: In 2014, to call it by its true name is a step toward moral clarity, but the it called for the arrest and imprisonment of “climate deniers,” official designation also supports practical measures that the meaning those with unpopular opinions on global warming. State Department should now take on behalf of the persecuted. When NATIONAL REVIEW raised the alarm about that, the These include the issuance of U.S. refugee-resettlement visas, response was predictable: “Oh, it’s just Gawker. Don’t make from which displaced Christians and Yazidis have been almost a big deal about it.” The deal got bigger: Robert Kennedy Jr. entirely excluded. Kerry hinted at military action to liberate came out in support of global-warming prosecutions, the State ISIS-occupied territory. Many thanks are due to the Hudson of New York began proceedings against Exxon for its political Institute’s Nina Shea. For years, at NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE activism, and now Loretta Lynch—who, incredibly enough, is and elsewhere, she has persistently sounded the alarm in behalf attorney general of the United States—has embraced the perse- of the genocide victims and martyrs to their faith. cution of global-warming dissidents and critics. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D., R.I.) has been pressing for the prosecution of n Russia has a president in Vladimir Putin who is a master of those holding nonconforming views on global warming under old-style power politics. The opportunity to show what he can RICO, the organized-crime-racketeering statute, and the attor- achieve came some months ago when Bashar al-Assad appeared ney general not only has endorsed doing so but has referred to be losing the civil war in Syria. President Obama had always the matter to the FBI “to consider whether or not it meets the insisted on the downfall of Assad but had done nothing to further criteria for which we could take action.” This is straight-up it. Putin’s dispatch of troops and aircraft to Syria was unexpected police-state stuff, and Americans should be worried: Exxon but decisive: Assad may have lost territory, but his presidency may not be the most sympathetic plaintiff, but they are not and indeed his life were saved. Bewildered American officials going to stop with Exxon. and jubilant Russians met in Munich and Geneva for what are euphemistically described as “closed bilateral talks,” i.e., n In a series of interviews with The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Gold berg, horse-trading. In another unexpected tactical move, Putin sud- President Obama has unburdened himself of his Big Foreign- denly announced that the military had completed its mission “at Policy Thoughts. Goldberg writes that Obama has rejected least in part.” Some troops have begun to return home but seem- “Churchillian rhetoric and, more to the point, Churchillian habits ingly several thousand continue to occupy reinforced bases in

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Latakia and Tartus. Having shattered the credibility of the n As of March 20, any migrants crossing from Turkey to United States and even caused some American-backed groups Greece will be returned to Turkey, according to a recent agree- to fight one another, Putin has levered Russia to be a regional ment struck by Ankara and the European Union. In exchange power. It is possible that he withdrew some troops only to indi- for helping stem the flood of migrants that continues to wash cate that Assad is now on his own and dispensable, and he, ashore—often literally—in Europe, Brussels has promised that Putin, will decide the future of Syria. In view of Russian eco- it will give Turkey financial aid, that it will take in one refugee nomic weaknesses and Western-imposed sanctions on Moscow, for every refugee who returns to Turkey, and that it will let the feat is extraordinary; perhaps less so in view of the identity Turkish citizens travel visa-free in the Schengen common- of the U.S. president. visa area. Given the recent attacks in Istanbul and Ankara, this last concession seems ill advised. The EU needs to estab- n A curious number of prominent Russian personalities come to lish a tough border, to enforce stricter immigration and asy- untimely ends, and Mikhail Lesin is one of them. In November lum controls, and to end the Schengen Agreement—not to of last year, the body of this 57-year-old was found in his room expand it. But the EU has always expressed a preference for at the Dupont Circle Hotel in Washington, D.C. His family said short-term palliatives over long-term cures. If it is to endure, that h e had died of a heart attack, but they might have said that that approach to its problems can’t. because some people would have wanted to kill them if they had said otherwise. When Vladimir Putin became president, n Brazil is in crisis: Leftist president Dilma Rousseff faces the one of his first steps was to muzzle free speech. The dirty work possibility of impeachment, former president (and Rousseff of ruining owners of independent television stations and news- mentor) Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva faces corruption charges, papers fell to Lesin. His nickname was “the Bull dozer,” and his millions of anti-government protesters have taken to the reward was to become head of Gazprom -Media Holdings, in streets, and the political class teeters on the brink as an effect the propaganda outfit of Putin’s state. It so happens that economy built on a decade of big spending on social ser- Lesin owned property in Los Angeles worth $28 million. The vices fueled by high commodity prices sinks into reces- D.C. medical examiner reports that Lesin died of “blunt force sion. Corruption and graft are the name of the game in trauma to the head.” A precedent is Walter Krivitsky, once a Brazil—billions of dollars are thought to have lined the senior Soviet secret policeman who defected and denounced pockets of the well-connected through a massive bid-rigging Stalin. He too was found dead in a Washington hotel. The date and bribery scandal at the state-owned oil company, was February 1941, and the crime that even one as notorious Petrobras. Lula—the erstwhile leader of the Workers’ as this has yet to be solved. party—has been controversially appointed to Rousseff’s cabinet in a bid to shield him from prosecution (only the supreme court can hear a case against a government minister), but the move has been blocked for now. Brazil needs n German voters have begun to revolt against Chancellor free-market reforms, good government, and strict adherence Angela Merkel’s open-borders policy. In state elections in to the rule of law from the powerful and the not so powerful. March, the Alternative for Germany party, a new populist- Come to think of it, that’s good advice for our own country right party that favors reduced immigration and an exit from as well. the euro zone, made surprising gains at the expense of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and its governing n Between 2012 and 2015, the pass rate for Oklahoma’s bar coalition partner. Since Merkel issued an unqualified invita- exam dropped from 83 percent to 68 percent. Since the exam tion to asylum seekers last year, some 1 million, many of has not changed much over that period, students at the state’s them economic migrants rather than true refugees, have set- three law schools seem to be getting less capable, in line with tled in Germany. While other European governments have national trends. What to do? Step up recruitment? Cut class responded to the migration crisis by instituting border size to maintain standards? Close one of the schools? Of controls, Merkel has thus far clung course not. Instead, the state’s supreme court has ordered the stubbornly to what she insists is board of bar examiners to make the exam easier, so more people the hu manitarian high ground. will pass. Since Oklahoma’s exam was already rated tenth- “The federal government will easiest in the nation, the decision’s main effect will be to continue the refugee policy with increase the Sooner State’s supply of mediocre lawyers— all our strength, at which, the law schools should teach, is apparently now a home and abroad,” “compelling governmental interest.” her spokesman vowed in the n One might expect that a black transgender woman speak- wake of the elec- ing on campus about “trans liberation, racial justice, and tions. She should intersectional feminism” would be treated like a movie star expect continued who had also won the Nobel prize. Yet when Janet Mock, a GETTY IMAGES triple threat of the type just described, was invited to speak at /

re sistance from AFP / those who stand ultra-progressive Brown University, student outrage was so to bear its costs. vociferous that she had to cancel the appearance. Why? Because her talk was scheduled to take place at the campus chapter of Hillel, a pro-Israel Jewish group. “We do not con- TOBIAS SCHWARZ

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done the use of queer people of color as props to hide occu- 2016 pation,” a petition thundered. Race, feminism, and gender iden- Ted Cruz for President tity are reliable subjects for academic fury, but anti-Zionism can beat them all combined. ONSERVATIVES have had difficulty choosing a champion in the presidential race in part because it has fea- n In March, the Yale Bulldogs won their first NCAA- C tured so many candidates with very good claims on tournament basketball game in 50 years—but team captain our support. As their number has dwindled, the right choice has Jack Montague was forced to watch from the stands. In become clear: Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. Febru ary, Montague, a senior, was expelled after a discipli- We supported Cruz’s campaign in 2012 because we saw in him nary panel determined that he had sexually assaulted a what conservatives nationwide have come to see as well. Cruz is female student in October 2014. Yale refuses to comment on a brilliant and articulate exponent of our views on the full spec- Montague’s case, citing privacy concerns, but the available trum of issues. Other Republicans say we should protect the evidence is far from conclusive. The alleged victim, now a Constitution. Cruz has actually done it; indeed, it has been the junior, says that Montague forced her into non-consensual sex animating passion of his career. He is a strong believer in the when the two were alone; Montague says the encounter was liberating power of free markets, including free trade (notwith- consensual. According to the independent investigator hired standing the usual rhetorical hedges). His skepticism about by the university, the pair had had multiple previous consen- “comprehensive immigration reform” is leading him to a realism sual sexual encounters, and the woman contacted Montague about the impact of immigration that has been missing from our a few hours after the alleged assault and spent the night with policymaking and debate. He favors a foreign policy based on a him. Furthermore, the woman never filed charges with the hard-headed assessment of American interests, one that seeks to New Haven Police Department or Yale University Public strengthen our power but is mindful of its limits. He forthrightly Safety, and reported the alleged incident to Yale’s Title IX defends religious liberty, the right to life of unborn children, and coordinator only a year after its alleged occurrence. In fact, the role of marriage in connecting children to their parents— the complaint that spurred the investigation was filed by a uni- causes that reduce too many other Republicans to mumbling. versity official. Perhaps the Yale panel had access to additional, That forthrightness is worth emphasizing. Conservatism more definitive evidence. But dubious verdicts, following should not be merely combative; but especially in our political dubious, Star Chamber–style proceedings, are increasingly culture, it must be willing to be controversial. Too many Re - the campus norm, thanks to the Obama Department of publicans shrink from this implication of our creed. Not Cruz. Education. Montague plans to sue Yale, beginning what is And this virtue is connected to others that primary voters should sure to be a drawn-out, unpleasant process for everyone keep in mind. Conservatives need not worry that Cruz will be involved. These sorts of suits, ruined reputations, and much more would be avoided if colleges left criminal investiga- tions to police and prosecutors.

n With the sale of the Orange County Register to Denver- based Digital First, part of the Alden Global Capital investment fund, a peculiar American story comes to a close. Southern California was for generations home to a tough, libertarian-leaning Republicanism—the western conservatism of Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan—and the Orange County Register was the voice of that movement. The publishing group that became Freedom Newspapers was founded in the 1930s after the Register’s acquisition by R. C. Hoiles, a newspaperman for whom the adjective “irascible” may as well have been invented. Hoiles was a tireless cru- sader for the moral principles underpinning a free society, both in print and in fact: Among his other exploits, he directly challenged Franklin Roosevelt’s Depression-era wage and price controls, defying the president by giving his staff an illegal pay raise. (This might have been the last time an American newspaper staff received a raise.) In the shadow of Los Angeles’s unthinking progressivism, the Register campaigned against taxes, government-run schools—and the internment of Japanese Americans during the war, a position few others had the courage to take. Poor management and GETTY IMAGES / infighting among the heirs eventually laid Free dom low, and at the ignominious end it was trying to satisfy simultaneously a bankruptcy court and antitrust regulators micromanaging the sale of its assets. The newspaper survives for now, but its MATTHEW CAVANAUGH unique voice is lost. Senator Ted Cruz

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tripped up by an interview question or answer it with mindless them. The discovery process might be entertaining: How much conventional wisdom when a better answer is available. We rent-a-mob funding comes from George Soros? need rarely worry, either, that his stumbling words will have So far Donald Trump has taken none of his tormentors to to be recast by aides and supporters later. Neither of those things court. If anything, he seems excited by the scuffling, encourag- could be said about a lot of Republican nominees over the years. ing his outraged fans to react in kind. At a rally in Cedar Rapids We are well aware that a lot of Republicans, including some in February, he told supporters, “If you see somebody getting conservatives, dislike the senator and even find him unlikable. So ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap ou t of them, would far, conservative voters seem to like him just fine. We do not wish you, seriously. . . . I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees.” to adjudicate all the conflicts between Cruz’s Senate colleagues More recently, Trump has turned his zest for combat on the and him. He has sometimes made tactical errors, in our judgment; GOP, opining that if he were to lose the nomination at the but conflicts have also arisen because his colleagues have lacked Cleveland convention despite having won a plurality of dele- direction, clarity, and urgency. In any case, these conflicts pale gates, “I think you’d have riots. . . . I wouldn’t lead it, but I into insignificance in light of Republicans’ shared interest in win- think bad things would happen.” ning in November and governing successfully thereafter. Taking their cue from their prompter, a few hot-headed No politician is perfect, and Senator Cruz will find that our Trump supporters have manhandled hecklers. Trump’s cam- endorsement comes with friendly and ongoing criticism. His tax paign manager, Corey Lewandowski, has gotten into the fun, plan is admirably growth-oriented but contains too much indi- sucker-grabbing Michelle Fields, a reporter from Breitbart.com, rect taxation of employees. He has done little to lay out a plau- as she was about to ask his boss a question. sible replacement for Obamacare, and espec ially to counter the The aftermath of the Fields encounter was illuminating. idea that replacing it would involve stripping insurance from mil- Lewandowski and the Trump campaign denied that any such lions of Americans. His occasional remarks to the effect that the thing had happened, even though video showed Fields being general election can be won by mobilizing conservatives who pul led back and Ben Terris, a Washington Post reporter, con- have heretofore been politically quiescent seems fanciful. As firmed her account. Breitbart cravenly refused to stand by the nominee he will have to adopt a more empirically grounded Fields, whereupon she, her editor Ben Shapiro, and two other strategy, just as he has done in the primaries. Breitbart staffers resigned. Trump asks, Who will rid me of What matters now is that Cruz is a talented and committed these troublesome hecklers and journalists? When his minions conservative. He is also Republicans’ best chance for keep- do so, he and the Trumpkin media shut their eyes. ing their presidential nomination from going to someone Cartoonists, headline writers, and comedians reach for with low character and worse principles. We support Ted Cruz hyperbole, and Trump is often compared—casually, or mali- for president. ciously—to the darkest forces of 20th-century Europe. It would dishonor the victims of totalitarianism to equate their 2016 exterminators with a political grifter. But bad things do not Trump: The Prospect of Violence become good simply because they are not as bad as Hitler. Trump enjoys bullying and brawling, and blesses it in those ARLY in March, demonstrators inside and outside the who admire him. Anti-Trump protesters are often wors e, but venue of a Trump rally at the University of Illinois in Trump is shameful. E Chicago were so numerous that the Trump campaign called the rally off. The protesters became aggressive, waving vulgar signs (WESHUTSH** DOWN), shouting obscenities at Trump supporters, and throwing bottles (a policeman was hit in the head). Trump supporters and opponents at the event shoved one another and exchanged blows. Days later, other demonstrators blocked a highway leading to a Trump rally in Fountain Hills, Ariz., near Phoenix. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press are designed primarily to protect political discourse. Free and open campaigning is more important than nude selfies, avant- garde theater, commercial ad vertising, or even the New York Times (or NATIONAL RE- VIEW). If a citizen running for office and addressing fellow citizens is silenced or shut down, it is an attack on republican govern- BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES

/ ment. The perpetrators should be arrested if they have comm itted crimes in the course of their mob actions; their intended victims DANIEL ACKER may also have legitimate legal cases against Protesters and supporters of Donald Trump clash in Chicago, March 11, 2016.

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ction The Bent Pin Colle withering by florence king The new, complete, and unabridged collection of the popular slightsmonthly NR magazine column by America’s most revered misanthropic writer he hallmark of National Review is that it has been home to some of America’s very best writers, and few will argue that there are any of greater style, wit, and caustic wisdom than Florence King, whoseT beloved “second” column, “The Bent Pin,” graced the magazine in every other issue from 2007 to 2012 (her previous column, “The Misanthrope’s Corner,” held NR’s back page for a glorious decade). King fans (who isn’t?!) have so craved her timeless works that over the years NR has published two collections, STET, Damnit! and Deja Reviews. And now we’re delighted to announce a third treasure trove of unrivaled prose à la Florence—Withering Slights: The Bent Pin Collection, 2007 to 2012. On every page of this brand-new, handsome hardcover book is proof positive that in Miss King’s deft hand, the pen is mightier than any sword, and the pin of prose finds and pricks the many inanities bal- looning across the fruited plains and foggy moors—which is why you must get your first-edition copy of Withering Slights right now, hot off the press. The cost is just $24.95, direct from (and only from) NR, hap- pily shipped and handled at no cost to you. Admit again what you’ve admitted every time you’ve read a King column or r eview: that through the laughter you’ve chortled, “I wish I’d said that.” Which is what you indeed will say, without end, when you climb the lofty heights of Withering Slights. Conservatives, curmudgeons, and anyone who thrills to superior writing will delight at this complete “Bent Pin” collection, a 200-proof, rip-roaring, bombs-away exposition of La Firenze at her very best. Brandishing sharp, crafted, tight prose that dazzles and endures, Miss King’s dead-on, no-punch-pulled take on the American scene and its many cultural peccadillos will elicit gasps and guffaws, head-shakes and table-slams, Heck-Yeahs and Damn-Straights (and maybe even a Darn-Tootin’). From her first “Bent Pin” column in 2007 (“Grosser and Grosser”) to her 2012 adios (“Something Ere the End”), and some five dozen more beauts bet ween them (including clas- sics such as “A Broad at Home,” “Facial Politics,” “Softboiled Speech,” “The Defenestration of the Shmoo,” and “With Liberty and Pug Noses for All”), King holds nothing back, letting loose her pen on anyone and anything from atrocious trends (Neo- Cleavage!) to irksome types (Weeping Wardens, LibProgs, TempCons, Pixies, New Changers, and many more)—all of it refreshing and g uffaw-inducing. And as ever, you’ll relish the THWACK! when Florence gets National Review w 215 Lexington Avenue w New York, NY w 10016 her grump on to land a two-by-four of contempt upside many a deserving noggin. Send me ______copies of Withering Slights: The Bent Pin Collection. My cost is $24.95 It’s beautiful, brand new, only $24.95, and each (shipping and handling included!). I enclose total payment of $______. Send to:

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the argument I made in NATIONAL RE - VIEW’s post-election issue in 2012. There was some overlap among these theories. Someone who favored greater ideological purity could also want Re- publicans to make more use of advanced technologies for identifying persuadable voters: Senator Cruz’s campaign has followed both prescriptions. Some Re - publicans thought it important both to offer legal status to illegal immigrants and to modernize the party’s economic agenda. That ended up being Senator Rubio’s combination of views. Most of the reform conservatives, though, rejected the autopsy’s counsel on immigration—which proved to be a dead end even before the primaries began. The kind of immigration bill that both parties’ leaders favored drew too much opposition from Republican voters for Republican politicians to cooperate in passing it. The effort badly divided the party. And it further alienated the working-class white voters who already saw Republicans as champions of the boardroom rather than the shop floor. Donald Trump’s success in the primaries, meanwhile, has undercut the purist argument. Trump is anything but a ReformThe GOPConservatism’s must not disregard policy innovation Future consistent conservative, and he talks much more about running the govern- BY RAMESH PONNURU ment more efficiently than about down- sizing it. He has often talked about increasing government power—for ex - FTER Republicans lost the 2012 tives had stayed home. The party needed ample, to set prices in health care and to election, three theories arose to present voters with a purer conserv- discourage criticism of him in the press. A among them about what had ative vision. He’s not interested in limited govern- gone wrong and what needed to The third theory, advanced by a small ment, and a lot of Republicans—a plu- change. The course of the Republican group of writers who came to be rality in most contests so far—have not presidential primaries has already invali- described as “reform conservatives,” held it against him. The purist argument, dated two of them, while probably mak- argued that voters see Republicans as remember, was that nominating a true ing the third one impossible to follow in narrowly focused on promoting the eco- conservative would motivate conserva- the short term. nomic interests of big business and rich tives who had been skipping elections to The first theory was outlined in an people. That impression had hardened come out and vote. This theory never had “autopsy” report about the election from because the Republican economic agen- much evidence behind it. But the pri- the Republican National Committee. It da—free trade, deregulation, tax cuts maries have delivered a fatal blow. It is urged the party to embrace “comprehen- focused on corporations and high earn- not very credible that non-voters are sive immigration reform,” create an ers, and reductions in future entitlement more ideologically conservative than active presence in minority communities, spending—had grown stale, and no Republican primary voters are. talk less about same-sex marriage, and longer spoke to most people’s concerns. The reform-conservative theory invest in data analysis. The answer was to modify and add to about the weakness of the party’s agen- The second theory, voiced by con- that agenda by applying conservative da, on the other hand, has held up pretty servative activists and talk-show hosts, insights to today’s circumstances. The well. The theory may even have under- held that Republicans had erred by point of the resulting new agenda would estimated that weakness. Reformers nominating moderates such as John be not just to promise to shrink the gov- emphasized that Republican economics McCain and Mitt Romney and by ernment but also to show how shrinking left swing voters cold, but it turns out increasing federal spending in the the government would help people that a lot of Republican voters are not ROMAN GENN Bush years: Demoralized conserva- solve their concrete problems. This was greatly attached to it either.

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We argued that if Republicans did Which is not to say that it’s obvious not supply conservative answers to that Rubio would have done much bet- voters’ economic anxieties, the polit- ter if he had run harder on reformist ical market would supply attractive policies. He may have been doomed The Anti- but non-conservative answers. We anyway by his lack of an organization, feared that vacuum would be filled or by his apparent strategy of being Goldwater with mostly bad ideas by the Demo- most Re publicans’ second choice. The Donald Trump is fracturing cratic nominee in a general election; it primaries have not shown great de- conservatism, not consolidating it has instead also been filled with mand by Republican voters for policy mostly bad ideas by Trump in the Re - talk of any type—although there is a BY STEVEN F. HAYWARD publican primaries. chicken-or-egg question here: Maybe But if some reform-conservative they do not care about policy in large premises have been vindicated, reform- part because nobody has tried to show ONSERVATIVES looking for conservative policies have played its relevance to their lives. Be that as it some bit of consolation in the almost no role in those primaries. may, the primaries have certainly shown C pros pect of a Donald Trump Senator Rubio did the most to embrace that Republican politicians have more nomination have begun to those ideas. In mid 2014, he started freedom to innovate than they have gen- suggest that Trump’s probable general- echoing reformist themes: the need to erally thought. election defeat to Hillary Clinton, though a disappointment, might portend a new, invigorated conservatism—much like Barry Goldwater’s landslide defeat to The primaries have certainly shown Lyndon Johnson in 1964. If history that Republican politicians have more doesn’t repeat itself, as the saying goes, perhaps it rhymes. freedom to innovate than they have And, indeed, Goldwater’s crushing defeat is surely the most fruitful loss in generally thought. American political history. His campaign galvanized the conservative movement apply conservative thinking in fresh That fact could influence the shape of and wrested the Republican party from ways, the potential of conservative re - conservatism in years to come. It could the grip of its eastern moderate faction, forms to reduce the cost of living and even be relevant to conservative action setting the stage for the ascendance of, thereby make a difference in people’s this year. Some conservatives are talking among others, Ronald Reagan. The lives. He came out for an Obama care about running a third-party campaign if chain of causation is straightforward: replacement that made it possible for Trump wins the nomination. If the point no Goldwater, no Reagan “Time for nearly everyone to purchase at least cat- of that campaign is merely to give con- Choosing” speech; no “Time for Choos - astrophic coverage while deregulating servatives a candidate for whom they ing” speech, no Governor or President the system. He sponsored legislation can vote in good conscience, then it may Reagan. As George Will said at NA- allowing people to finance higher edu- as well content itself with copying past TIONAL REVIEW’s 25th-anniversary cele- cation in new ways. And he advocated Republican platforms. bration, which took place just after tax relief for middle-class parents, not An independent conservative bid Reagan’s 1980 landslide: “Goldwater just high earners (although his plan also could, however, adopt a more ambitious won the election of 1964; it just took 16 gave high earners very large tax cuts). goal. If no presidential candidate gets years to count all the votes.” He did not talk about these initiatives 270 electoral votes, the House of Repre - As historical analogies go, this one very much, however, perhaps viewing sentatives determines the winner. The appears promising on the surface. The them as helpful in a general election vast bulk of the polling we have seen so excitement surrounding Trump, the new rather than in a Republican primary. far suggests that Trump has very little or previously disengaged voters he is Rubio talked about his tax plan twice in capacity to keep Hillary Clinton below drawing out, and the disruption he is vis- the debates, both times in response to that number. If that holds true, then an iting upon the previous boundaries of criticism. He was more associated with independent conservative candidate “acceptable” political discourse might his 2013 immigration bill and a very would have to win some states that Presi - suggest that he offers a Goldwater-like hawkish-sounding foreign policy than dent Obama won last time in order to opportunity to change the direction of he was with any domestic agenda. He send the election to the House. American politics, even if he loses. came across less as an innovator than as Which means that this conservative Trump hasn’t just moved the Overton a younger, more articulate, and His - candidate would have to find a way to window on immigration, Islamism, panic version of George W. Bush. He appeal to ideologically conservative vot- and several other issues; he’s shattered ended up doing well among affluent, ers (as the purists say) while also appeal- the glass and torn out the frame. What college-educated Republican voters ing to less ideological voters who backed but not connecting with the more eco- Obama (as the autopsy suggested). That Mr. Hayward is the Ronald Reagan Visiting Professor nomically stressed and disaffected voters sounds like a job for reform conser- at Pepperdine University and the author of he needed. vatism, or something like it. The Age of Reagan.

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Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan, 1979

conventional GOP candidate is capable liberalism as an alternative to Democrats’ principles, articulated in his 1960 best- of doing that? still regnant New Dealism. (In the 1960s, seller Conscience of a Conservative, in But the proposition that Donald Trump the “constructive Republican alternative which he laid out a conservatism that is the second coming of Barry Goldwater program” was known on Capitol Hill by sought to contest, rather than compro- overlooks crucial distinctions between the obvious acronym “CRAP.”) Gold - mise with, the order that had prevailed 1964 and today. First, unlike 1964, this water understood this. He would later say: since the New Deal. Trump, by contrast, year’s election is winnable, and it’s per- “We knew that the only thing we could shows little acquaintance with the con- verse to suggest throwing away a win - accomplish would be moving the Re - servative movement or serious conserv- nable election. In the mid 1960s, with the publican headquarters from New York to ative thought. Whatever the virtues of exception of the fledgling American the West Coast, and we did that. We got it The Art of the Deal, it is no Conscience Enterprise Institute, there was almost away from the money.” of a Conservative. none of the infrastructure that exists Again, on the surface this sounds much It seems clear that, instead of besting now—no Heritage Foundation, no Cato like what Trump is doing. It is no doubt a liberal establishment, the Trump Institute, no Americans for Tax Reform, correct to interpret Trump’s support as a campaign is fracturing the conserva- and few grassroots groups—and conser- massive rejection of the Republican tive movement. vatives had almost no influence in Con - party’s current leadership. But does today’s Goldwater’s campaign prefigured the gress. A conservative candidate faced Republican “establishment” have the coalescence and ascendance of that move - structural disadvantages that are unthink- same ideological character as the estab- ment. Goldwater was Moses to Reagan’s able today. lishment of 1964? It is one thing to be out Joshua; Goldwater didn’t get us to the And 1964 was particularly difficult. In of touch or to have ineffectively opposed Promised Land, but he showed the way. fact, 1964 was an unwinnable election for Barack Obama or to have badly mis- Who would be Trump’s successors? any Republican presidential candidate. judged a key issue (immigration). But it Who might give a pro-Trump “Time for Barry Goldwater knew that his candidacy takes a whopping lack of perspective to Choosing” speech in October? A Trump was doomed from the moment of John F. conclude that today’s Republican “estab- defeat would more likely mean an exile Kennedy’s assassination. As William F. lishment” is liberal. (The many people into the political wilderness for a now- Buckley wrote in NATIONAL REVIEW at the who think Mitch McConnell and Paul fractured conservative movement, and it time, three presidents in 14 months is the Ryan are “RINO” collaborators with would be the Republican “establish- kind of thing people go for in banana President Obama presumably will recon- ment,” not the Tea Party, that would pick GETTY IMAGES

/ republics, not in the United States. sider after a term under President Hillary up the pieces of a shattered party. It is In those circumstances, it made sense Clinton, House speaker Nancy Pelosi, and tempting to see a historical precedent in to conduct a campaign to advance conser- Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer.) the election of 1912, when the GOP split CONTRIBUTOR / vatism within the Republican party, Furthermore, in his resistance to the in two and handed the White House to which before Goldwater was still in the Republican establishment of 1964, Gold - Woodrow Wilson, who won fewer popu- BETTMANN “me, too” mode of offering low-budget water ran a campaign of true conservative lar votes than William Jennings Bryan

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had in 1908. But Republicans may do Trump rallies, his reflexive authoritari- showcases clarity and depth, than with better to reflect on the election of 1860, anism, and the nativist sympathies of his Trump, who is inconsistent, unprinci- when the Democratic party split in half most ardent fans, this charge would be pled, and opportunistic. over the unacceptability of Stephen far more compelling than it was when It is astonishing that after eight years of Douglas to southerners. The Democratic directed at Goldwater. Obama, when the normal cycles of poli- party, on the presidential level, didn’t In 1964, Goldwater was the only con- tics favor the out-party, the Republican recover for 70 years. servative candidate in a field of liberal party—which, as NATIONAL REVIEW’s late That is likelier with Trump than with Republicans. This election cycle featured publisher William Rusher liked to point any other nominee Republicans could many worthy conservative candidates, out, is merely a vessel for conservatism, choose this cycle. And here one parallel several of them with significant accom- as a bottle is for wine—is threatening to with 1964 is appropriate. Prominent lib- plishments (Governors Jindal, Perry, and break apart. Goldwater didn’t break the erals—from Martin Luther King Jr. to Walker come to mind). It is a peculiarity conservative movement; he consolidated California governor Pat Brown to re - of this cycle that Trump has won chiefly it. If the conservative movement is recon- porters at CBS News—eagerly pro- because the conservative vote has been stituting itself, it would be better to do so claimed Goldwater a “fascist” and said divided; it is doubtful he’d have won with an authentic conservative candida- that the 1964 convention prefigured head-to-head votes against most of the cy. Harry Jaffa, the man who wrote Barry “Hitlerism.” About the vitriolic media top tier of this field. Goldwater’s famous line “Extremism in coverage, Goldwater later remarked: “If I For those looking for a conservative defense of liberty is no vice,” also coun- had had to go by the media reports alternative, Ted Cruz is still standing. The seled, “To prefer noble failure to vulgar alone, I’d have voted against the son- knock on Cruz is that he’s unelectable, success is of the essence of moral free- ofabitch, too.” It is not a stretch to though most polls show him running dom and human dignity.” If you want a expect this sort of rhetoric from the Left more strongly against Hillary Clinton noble conservative beacon who might over the course of the general elec- than would Trump. But even if you con- herald, in 2016, what Gold water did in tion—to the detriment not just of Trump clude that Cruz would face an uphill 1964, the junior senator from Texas fills but of conservatives down the ballot. general-election fight, it is better to lose the order better than the vulgar populist And given the violence erupting at with Cruz, whose approach to the issues from Manhattan. YOU KNOW GROUCHO But isn’t it time you finally learned about KARL?!

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think that parties are defined by their agenda of their own is that this model of leadership’s ability to craft a clear, co - politics is inextricably linked to the pro- A Decentralized herent agenda, present that agenda to gressive vision of governance. Conser - voters, receive a mandate from the peo- vative scholar James Piereson, reviewing ple, and carry it out once in power. the work of the political scientist E. E. Power hasPolitics become too concentrated This is a top-down way of thinking Schattschneider, one proponent of re - about policymaking, and it assumes a sponsible parties, observes: in national parties role for the parties that is not obvious, let alone required by our constitutional A strong president, administrative cen- BY MICHAEL NEEDHAM & structure. There is merit to this approach, tralization, national parties, loose construction of the Constitution, class JACOB RESES of course. Agendas can unite us, lift politics—this is Schattschneider’s pro- our sights beyond self-interest, and gram of party government, but it HE rise of Donald Trump and rally us to action in moments when sounds suspiciously like the institu- the visible chaos within the action is sorely needed. When the tional program of the Democratic party T GOP presidential primaries stakes of politics are as high as they are as it was reconstituted by Franklin have forced Republicans to today, such unity of action and purpose Delano Roosevelt. engage in some deep soul-searching. can be quite important. Many limited-government conserva- Still, it’s helpful to contemplate the The Founders had an alternative tives, whatever their past frustrations origins of and alternatives to this model approach to parties and government, with the GOP, feel their party slipping of party action, as they may tell us someone grounded in their fear that national away from them. A world in which thing about how to approach a potential class politics might devolve into tyranny Donald Trump is the Republican presi- Trump p residency, as well as about how of the majority. It was reinforced by the dential nominee seems to them to be a to grapple with tensions within the decentralized governing institutions world in which there is no limited- Republican party that long predate the that would be dismantled by the pro- government party in American politics. 2016 presidential campaign. gressive revolution. As author Kenneth Without conservative leadership from The vision of party politics that Kolson, summarizing the Madisonian the top, they fear, conservative gover- we’ve adopted in America can be perspective, writes: nance seems impossible. traced to what political scientists in the One response to the prospect of such 20th century called the “responsible- In America the only real check against a transformation of the party has been party model.” Its proponents were tyranny lies in the domestication of the for Republicans in Congress to preempt frustrated by the apparent dysfunction legislature. The best way to do this is to the presidential nominee’s ability to set of American politics inherent in the implant in the legislature many distinct motors, each tending to carry the body the agenda, by offering a concrete policy tension between what Willmoore in a different direction, and thus only platform of their own. This has been a Kendall called the “two majorities,” for a short distance. The legislature principal aim of House speaker Paul one in Congress protecting minority must be broken up into many small Ryan’s important effort to develop poli- interests and one in the executive branch parts; that is to say, it must be sown with cy task forces, to address the issues of striving for swift action on behalf of the seeds of party. national security, tax reform, overregu- popular majorities. As an antidote to lation, health care, and poverty. But the such dysfunction, “responsible party” And so it was. The Framers built a work on this project has been slow, and proponents such as Wood row Wilson large republic of diverse interests across it is unclear that it will produce any- pined for parties unified enough at the wide regions. They wrote a Consti - thing capable of meaningfully influenc- national level to present a clear, coher- tution that would grant those competing the campaign. ent agenda to the Ameri can people and ing sectional interests their due say in That the nomination of a presidential achieve an electoral mandate across all national questions and channel their candidate who has not run on a conser- branches to carry out that agenda once will through a constitutional system of vative agenda seems so likely to trans- in office. Led from the top by the presi- separated powers capable of only lim- form the character of the Republican dent and promising unified national ited action absent consensus on major party highlights the degree to which action made possible through the cen- questions. Such a system would natu- we have come to think of the president tralization of administrative authority, rally foster parties that would forge as the agenda-setter-in-chief in our such parties would sideline local party consensus, particularly in Congress, constitutional system. But that the bosses, who had previously held sway across diverse interests, and the con- House leadership’s response would be through their mobilization of regional straints imposed by the Constitution to organize an effort to craft a preemp- votes. National parties would instead limiting federal authority and protect- tive, unified agenda of its own high- mobilize national coalitions along ing the people’s rights would foster a lights an equally important and related class lines, prizing a unity of action presumption against federal interven- phenomenon: that we have come to made possible only through the neu- tion on any one interest’s behalf to the tralization of competing internal detriment of another. Mr. Needham is the chief executive officer of Heritage power centers. All of this depended on a degree of Action for America. Mr. Reses is its director of The problem for conservatives eager decentralization that our politics has strategic initiatives. to implement a party-driven national lacked for a long time, a testament to

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progressives’ success in imposing and remember that “a Congress of sources of authority and against the their alternative view of political solo practitioners has become a pow- agenda-setters when their work looks to order. Under the politics of the admin- erful engine of executive-led govern- lead us astray. That means that members istrative state, compromise between ment growth.” who exercise their vetoes on Congress’s interests connected to political power This outlook is far too pessimistic agenda would do so in unison, toward means that everyone with a seat at the about the possibilities presented by a collective purpose, rather than individu- table gets a little of what he wants, at politics with fewer gatekeepers and ally, for personal gain. It means an the expense of those with no voice in fewer norms of deference to party. It approach to policy development re - the process. assumes that the centralizing trends in stricted neither to committees of juris- But signs of a return to the sort of politics are here to stay, and that the best diction nor to individual policy decentralized politics the Founders we can hope for is to contain the decen- entrepreneurs with no prospect of see- envisioned have emerged in recent tralizing elements that create perverse ing their vision carried into law. De - years. Party establishments can no incentives for self-interested actors to centralization, in short, can allow longer rig the game of their nominating expand the administrative state for their elected officials to build new things contests and no longer hold monopoly own benefit. together in new ways rather than foster control on fundraising networks. Mass But perhaps it’s the decentralizing chaos or gridlock as individuals. media are no longer in the hands of a forces that are here to stay—and perhaps This is the story of the Tea Party and few brokers of access to the people; they can be harnessed to break down the of institutions such as the House social media, online video channels, centralized politics on which the status Freedom Caucus. It’s a story that will and other new media have displaced the quo in government depends. Decen - continue regardless of what happens in network news. These trends toward a tralization offers the possibility of a pol- 2016, or 2018, or 2020. It’s a story of politics with fewer barriers to entry for itics that is dominated neither by narrow political change that mirrors the sorts Perhaps it’s the decentralizing forces that are here to stay—and perhaps they can be harnessed to break down the centralized politics on which the status quo in government depends.

those eager to challenge the dominance parochialism nor by the corruption of of economic and social changes that of party leaders have enabled the rise of the national special interests that too the liberal tradition of Adam Smith has such politicians as Ted Cruz, Marco often co-opt our national parties’ agen- taught conservatives to embrace: cre- Rubio, Ben Sasse, Mike Lee, and Jim das. It might well open voters’ eyes to ative destruction, from the bottom up, Jordan. And, yes, they have enabled matters of concentrated benefit and of failing top-heavy orders, not for Donald Trump, too. diffuse cost and foster bottom-up destruction’s sake but to build some- The trouble for conservatives and for organization of those voters left out of thing better. Even if the result of a the country is that, under an adminis- gov erning coalitions and squeezed by decentralized politics is sometimes trative state never contemplated by the those in power, thereby providing a inaction, inaction is often the right Founders, individual political actors voice to those who have lacked one in a answer when the alternative is perpet- can easily use their independence not to system designed to shut them out. uation or expansion of failing pro- veto federal interventions threatening Decen tralization offers the possibility grams. But, given the work needed to local interests but to hold party leaders that public-spirited politicians might fol- restore federalism and constitutional- hostage to their own corrupt demands, low the better angels of their nature with- ism in our government, conservatism from pork spending to regulatory out fear of retribution by the ruling class. must be about more than opposing carve-outs. Recognizing the perverse It makes a politics of principle possible in things. How best to channel the current incentives that the combination of de- a system designed to run on the most cyn- forces of disruption—to find new ways centralized congressional politics and ical harnessing of self-interest. to work, together, toward noble pur- big government has created, some con- A decentralized politics need not be poses—is the great question we face in servatives are pessimistic that Republi - one of gridlock and dysfunction; it need politics today. cans will rise above the politics of pork not amount to what political scientist These forces will frustrate all, no unless strong party leadership can James Q. Wilson called the “atomiza- matter how noble or ill their intent, who bring them to heel. In the wake of the tion” of politics; it need not encourage seek to shape politics to conform to coup against House speaker John and reward self-interested individualism their ideal designs. In a season when the Boehner, former American Enterprise among officeholders. It might instead be question of who will lead our parties Institute president Christopher DeMuth a politics in which new associations and seems so important, the disruptions of advised Boehner’s eventual successor, collaborations become possible—in recent years should remind us that our Paul Ryan, to encourage very conserv- which new, smaller centers of power politics can and should be about more ative party members to line up behind emerge in Washington, exerting a than any one man elected to any one the next man to take the speakership healthy pressure on the centralized position. That’s a good thing.

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political campaign. When I’ve noted for office, surely. I wanted to, but couldn’t this in the past, people have said, “Yeah, see a path. At least I had the satisfaction because he wanted a leg up on his own of watching him. A Friend in political future!” Okay. But so? If you In 2009, he prepared to run for attorney want to do political good, it helps to get general of Texas. I wrote about him for The Arena elected. Besides which, Ted was ad - the first time. In that piece, I spent a cou- What’s it like when a friend of yours vancing, even then, ideas in which he ple of paragraphs noting similarities, and runs for president? believes. I have seldom met a person so dissimilarities, between Ted and the new devoted to ideas. president. I concluded those paragraphs BY JAY NORDLINGER Ted knew a lot about the law, of course. with this: “Obama certainly rose quickly And about domestic policy (again, of in American politics, very quickly (alas). course)—Medicare Part B and all that. He Can Ted Cruz do the same? I don’t know, T’S strange enough to have a friend in knew a lot about economics, and was a big but it would be good for the country.” the U.S. Senate. There are only 100 free-marketeer. He knew a lot about for- For reasons too tedious to explain, I of them, in a nation of 300 million– eign policy, and was a hawk. Also, he was the attorney-general race did not come plus. To have a friend running for a social conservative. He opposed abor- off—because the attorney-general posi- president is even stranger. tion, for example, and knew why. tion did not come open. But not long after, When Ted Cruz was elected to the Another thing: He was amazingly free a position came open for sure: a U.S. Senate, I called up another friend, David of cynicism. What I mean is, he really be - Senate seat. Pryce-Jones, in London. He is my NA- lieved in America and free enterprise and Ted announced in January 2011. “I TIONAL REVIEW colleague as well. I said, all that rah-rah stuff. Other people feel the hope he goes to the Senate,” I wrote, “and “Did there come a time when your class- need to roll their eyes a bit. Not Ted. I hope he goes further than that.” Marco mates at Eton and Oxford began to be You may have heard that he is not well Rubio had just been sworn in as a senator. elected to Parliament, and serve in minis- liked by the people around him. Well, I I wrote, “A nightmare scenario for people terial positions?” “Yes,” he said. “Was it liked him—loved him. But it’s true: Some like us—I’m talking about Reaganites— strange?” I said. “Yes,” he said. people found him too cocky, too brash, is that Senator Cruz and Senator Rubio But look: When you go to Eton and and too ambitious for their taste. compete in a presidential primary.” I was Oxford, you expect your classmates to The older I get, the more patient I am thinking 2020, maybe 2024. rise to the heights. They always have. with ambition, certainly if that ambition is Important people told Ted not to bother And Britain is a small country, relative directed to positive ends. I think of Wil - to run for Senate. He had no money, no to ours. To have a friend become a liam Herndon on his onetime law partner, name recognition, no network. There U.S. senator and presidential candidate Lincoln: “His ambition was a little engine were people in line ahead of him—senior is . . . something. that knew no rest.” politicians—and he should wait his turn. I met Ted Cruz on the presidential cam- I also think of a kid I grew up with, Jim He’d make a fool of himself if he didn’t. paign of George W. Bush in 2000. I had Harbaugh. He was cocky, brash, ambi- Ted was confident he would win. He taken a leave of absence from NR to tious—and hugely talented. Ted would told me he would, over and over. And assist that campaign; Ted was a domestic- remind me of him. I loved Jim, though damned if he didn’t. policy adviser on it. In no time, he and I he was not universally appreciated. Cer - On Election Night, I began a blog post “bonded,” as they say. We had many a tainly he was envied. He went on to be a by quoting a Gershwin song: “They all late-night discussion at Earl Campbell’s quarterback in the NFL, and, after that, laughed at Christopher Columbus, when barbecue joint and other choice spots. one of the most successful football he said the world was round. They all Did I mention this was Texas? Austin? coaches in America—at both the college laughed when Edison recorded sound.” It was. and pro levels. The song ends, “Who’s got the last One of the things Cruz and I bonded But back to the Bush campaign. You laugh now?” over was Reagan: our admiration of. He know who else liked Ted? Loved him? A left-wing journalist wrote me a nasty and I were both deeply influenced by that Heidi Nelson, a whiz of an economic- e-mail, saying, “Columbus didn’t say that! presidency. He was in his teens; I was in policy staffer. And a wonderful California Your friend is an idiot!” He thought I was my teens and twenties. blonde. Like Ted, she had a can-do spirit. quoting the candidate, Ted. I was insulted Ted’s father had been a refugee from The two were married the next year. on Ira Gershwin’s behalf. And wistful Cuba. His son had an unusual apprecia- Ted took his wedding party to the about a lost popular culture. tion of freedom, and an unusual detesta- Reagan ranch. There, we gazed on the Ted announced for president a year ago. tion of tyranny. great man’s GE appliances, horse saddles, In due course, I made a disclosure: I was He had been fancily educated, Ted had: and so on. It was a totally Ted-like outing. his friend, I supported him (while admir- Princeton University and Harvard Law We were in Reaganite heaven. ing Rubio, Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina, and School. He went on to clerk for the chief In the following years, he had highs, I others), and I would help him, if asked. justice, William Rehnquist. At the same had highs; he had lows, I had lows. Ted Transparency City, as Bush 41 might say. time, he had a scrappy, outsider’s heart. was as good a friend in foul weather as in The first contest was Iowa, as usual. I saw Given his education and ability, he fair. We talked and talked, usually late at Ted in Des Moines a few days before. could have been making millions at a night (though not at Earl Campbell’s). But on the night of the caucuses itself, law firm. Instead, he was toiling on a We dreamed and schemed. He would run I was back home in New York, work-

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Breaking the Stained-Glass

A strategyC toeiling defend religious liberty

BY GERARD V. BRADLEY

ANY people say that our society is facing a crisis of reli- M gious liberty. I do not quite agree. I think rather that, given the Supreme Court’s redefinition of marriage and the Health and Human Services mandate that employers provide insurance coverage for sterilization, abortifacients, and contraceptives, we are fac- Ted Cruz speaks in Barrington, N.H., February 8, 2016. ing the greatest crisis of religious liberty in American history. Our response must be commensurate. Sound tactics in politi- ing—covering a performance at the Metro- “Don’t vote for him then.” Whatever the cal and legal contests must be part of a politan Opera (Maria Stuarda). At inter- day, I need to remind myself that, to the bold strategic vision. Otherwise our reli- mission, I checked my phone. A friend world, Ted Cruz is a presidential candi- gious liberty will evaporate, and the place had texted to say that Ted was looking date. The fairest of game. of religion in our public life will shrink. good in Iowa. I could not quite bring my - Obviously, the Cruz style is not for The government’s steely resolve to self to believe it. everyone. But I can say this, to conser - give believers no quarter has precedent. In After the opera, I repaired to a restau- vatives (and to anyone else, for that the 19th-century campaign against polyg - rant across the street. My friend texted me matter): If he is president, he will do amy, Uncle Sam was willing to drive a photo of her television screen: “Cruz everything humanly possible to repeal the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- Wins.” Honestly, I gulped. I was numb Obamacare. And to prevent Iran from day Saints underground. Also, for a for a moment. going nuclear. And to do other hard, vital century before passage of the American It seemed only yesterday that Ted was things. I don’t know if these things can Indian Religious Freedom Act in 1978, crashing on my couch, with his cowboy be done. But I feel sure that, if they can, the federal government sought to sup- boots to the side. Now he had won the Ted will do them. He will go the last press American Indian religions, which it Iowa caucuses? It was surreal, sobering, mile, and beyond. regarded as bundles of superstitions that thrilling, and believable, all at once, if Like everyone else, he likes popularity kept Indians in poverty and ignorance. you will excuse that jumble. more than unpopularity. But if popularity Present assaults on religious liberty are At times in this race, I have been Joe clashes with the right course of action, different, and worse. In the government Detached Journalist. But I have done a lot popularity will have to go. Ted would do campaigns against Mormons and Ameri - of living and dying with Ted. When he is anything—walk through fire, chew on can Indians, relatively few were affected. maligned—as he has been—I feel it glass—to keep this country free. Catholics, too, have always been a mi - keenly. Personally. I don’t claim that he Pardon the campaign rhetoric, but nority in America. But denominations walks on water, or that the other candi- it’s true. and churches that until a generation ago dates are villains. Far from it. I can be At the moment, it looks like Ted has a taught against homosexual acts and the Ted’s worst critic. But I’m in deep: I am steep road to beat Donald Trump for the use of abortifacients constituted a vast with him every step. Republican nomination. I would not bet majority of America’s churchgoers. Most

VIA GETTY IMAGES “You’re in the arena,” I remarked to the ranch on Ted. But I would not bet a Americans today still hold that abortion is him at one point. He is absorbing blows, cent against him. He has defied odds wrong and that same-sex marriage is a and he is striking blows. He is the target before. And no one works harder, and contradiction in terms: Given the nature of jeers and the object of cheers. I’m a few work as cannily. of marriage, a marital union of two men WASHINGTON POST mere spectator, though with a good seat. Say he wins the nomination and goes (or two women) is no more possible in Some of my friends and colleagues on to beat Hillary Clinton, taking the truth than would be a marriage between FOR THE / can’t stand Ted. And they are not shy presidential oath of office on January 20, three-year-olds. And they hold these about telling me. Some days, I am serene. 2017. I will be amazed. But you’ll I try to explain, defend, and persuade. know what I mean when I say I won’t Mr. Bradley is a professor of law at the University of CASSI ALEXANDRA Other days, I bristle, and want to growl, be surprised. Notre Dame.

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positions not as rules, standards, or ideals some subjective truth about one’s self. religious social services, the fight to pre- but as moral truths, knowable by reason Religious liberty in the new dispensation serve religious liberty is doomed. Its de - but also divinely confirmed and sanctioned. is really a subcategory of the one Great fenders soon meet a stained-glass ceiling. The cutting edges of 19th-century con- Liberty given authoritative expression 24 Legal and political arguments cast in the flict were small and precise: If you steered years ago in Planned Parenthood v. adversaries’ terms of engagement may clear of polygamy and the Ghost Dance, Casey: “At the heart of liberty is the right produce some victories for some believ- you would be okay. Now the butcher, the to define one’s own concept of existence, ers, but not many, and none for long. baker, and the candlestick-maker can all of meaning, of the universe, and of the One reason is that fear of violating run from Caesar’s writ of complicity in mystery of human life.” another person’s attempt at self-definition abortion and same-sex marriage, but they Justice Anthony Kennedy in Burwell haunts every orthodox believer. The fear cannot hide. I teach at the nation’s leading v. Hobby Lobby wrote that the free exer- is propelled by the great political imper- Catholic university. In my wallet I carry cise of religion is “essential” to preserv- ative of the day: equality of “dignity,” the benefits card that the Obama admin- ing the “dignity” of those who choose to which amounts to a right to be respected istration obliges Notre Dame to secure strive “for a self-definition shaped by for all of one's choices, commitments, for me so that my wife and daughters can their religious precepts.” This same liber- and beliefs defining one's life. get free abortifacients. And the civilly ty anchors his opinion for the majority in Another reason that religious liberty married gay employee and his spouse Obergefell: “The right to marry . . . digni- grounded in the present terms of engage- count just the same in the university’s fies couples who ‘wish to define them- ment is gravely endangered is that the benefits package as do my wife and I. selves by their commitment to each Christian moral life is marked by what I Our social world is being remapped. other.’” In Casey, Kennedy declared call its asymmetry, which is a function Human activity is being divided into two that a woman’s abortion decision “may of the Christian’s adherence to some basic realms. The first is “public” life, originate within the zone of conscience exceptionless negative moral norms, defined expansively to include law, polit- and belief” and must be settled by “her such as “adultery is never morally per- ical affairs, and commercial and social own conception of her spiritual impera- missible.” (And so on down the line of intercourse. This space is to be governed tives.” Senator Obama described reli- the Decalogue and of the moral tradition by a secular orthodoxy from which only gion as a person’s “narrative arc,” which that it anchors: no slavery or intentional private reservation is permitted. “Those “relieve[s] a chronic loneliness, . . . an killing of innocents or false witness who cling to the old beliefs will be able to assurance that somebody out there cares under oath, ever.) Christians do not rea- whisper their thoughts in the recesses of about them, is listening to them—that son that performing a few abortions or their own homes,” as Justice Alito wrote they are not just destined to travel down one same-sex wedding is okay because in his dissent from the majority opinion that long highway toward nothingness.” that will keep them in the game to assist in Obergefell v. Hodges. Believers might fare pretty well in this at many live births or to perform a hun- In the public realm, religion may sup- brave new world when their claims dred traditional, opposite-sex weddings. ply a common stock of phrases, images, affect diffuse governmental interests in No one may do evil so that good may and cultural references but not the rea- security or administrative efficiency, come of it, Saint Paul teaches in Romans. sons or arguments for public policy. In especially when they represent beliefs Christians are called to suffer privation— 2006, Barack Obama, then a senator, that are marginal and unlikely to elicit and, in the limit case, martyrdom—rather explained that “democracy demands that social change. But when a believer goes than do evil. This means that the consci- the religiously motivated translate their up against other persons exercising their entious among them will abandon their concerns into universal . . . values.” own right of self-definition but in sexu- trade or profession, or be purged from Religion, he argued, does not allow for al, not religious, terms, the believer fares it, when it becomes clear that the price compromise and is not subject to argu- poorly, especially when he represents of staying in is to facilitate abortion or ment or amenable to reason. In other orthodox Christian beliefs, because same-sex marriage. words, religion is irrational, or at least accommodating them would mean that “Conscience” refers to the good that a non-rational. “To base one’s life on such they could be used to deny to sexual person enjoys when he acts in confor- uncompromising commitments may be minorities what the new secular ortho- mity with his judgments and feelings. sublime,” Obama said, “but to base our doxy holds to be the requirements of basic For adherents of theistic religions, “con- policymaking on such commitments justice. In other words, meeting the moral science” includes a distinctive addi - would be a dangerous thing.” requirements of orthodox Christians tional dimension: harmony with God, The only harbor in which religion is would redraw the social map. Meeting through conforming their actions to his safe is the “private” sphere, an ever those of prisoners who keep kosher, for will. It is appropriate in many cases to shrinking enclave of heart and home. example, would not. And so the govern- argue for special treatment for those There it is subsumed under the project of ment exempts only houses of worship acting on religious or moral convic- individual self-definition; it is assimilated from the HHS mandate; from the legal tions. Remember that the case for to a person’s “conscience,” “dignity,” or implications of Obergefell, the govern- believers is always richer, and stronger, “identity.” This sphere is suffused with ment exempts only clergy unwilling to precisely because it includes “con- will and imagination. Here the value of perform same-sex weddings. science” in both its most basic meaning religion is measured according not to its As long as religion is defined and val- (conformity to personal judgments and objective truth but to its authenticity, its ued mainly as a source of personal identity feelings) and its special meaning as ability to empower, console, and express and as a personal motivation for those in conformity to the will of God.

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The Abolition

GovernmentsOf Cash prefer e-money; citizens should not

BY ANDREW STUTTAFORD

OveRnmenT gathers power sometimes in great swoops, G sometimes by stealth, and sometimes in slow, sly incre- ments, foreshadowed by position papers, op-eds, and regulatory tweaks designed to address an “issue” that a careless citi- zenry has overlooked. It’s this slower, slyer approach that is now in motion as Big Brother’s smaller brethren take aim at cash. An advance guard of regulation has paved the way. Deposit more than $10,000 in cash into a bank and the feds have to be told. Bring that amount into the U.S. and Customs has to be told. Get stopped by the police with “too much” cash (a conveniently elastic concept) and you risk watching it disap- The Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, Denver, Colo. pear into the swamp known as civil forfei- ture. meanwhile, the country’s Croesus bills have long since vanished—$10,000, Religious liberty, as its advocates must sition about the order of the cosmos and $5,000, $1,000, even the $500 that bore never tire of explaining, rests in part on an the proper human response to it. “Under the face of poor murdered mcKinley. understanding not only that religion is God” in the Pledge of Allegiance is Under the circumstances, they might have compatible with reason but that much of treated as a “sectarian” invocation, in- let him keep his mountain. religion is knowable through reason. The distinguishable from a truth (such as the The cull has further to go. Writing in American political tradition through doctrine of the Trinity) known only the Washington Post earlier this year, for- roughly the last quarter of the 20th century through the revealed Word. mer treasury secretary Lawrence Sum - included the affirmation of foundational Where the overriding constitutional mers called for a “global agreement to divine truths, such as those that appear on and legal understanding of religion, con- stop issuing notes worth more than say the back of the dollar bill, in the Pledge science, and therefore religious liberty $50 or $100.” He praised a Harvard paper of Allegiance, and in countless other tes- collapses into an undifferentiated liberty by Peter Sands, the former CeO of the timonies to the existence of a good God of self-definition, an action that is in - Standard Chartered bank, in which Sands who created all and who remains in - formed or motivated by religion but vio- claimed that the arguments for eliminat- volved in human affairs, weaving them lates another person’s self-esteem and ing notes with a denomination above the providentially into an eternal plan. therefore “dignity” will be judged harm- equivalent of $50 “could well be com- From time out of mind, Americans have ful and undeserving of any protection pelling at an even lower threshold.” An affirmed also that, as Saint Paul wrote to under the “objective” law of a pluralistic even lower threshold: The ratchet turns in the Christians in Rome, the revealed law is democracy. The only way to break the only one direction. written on the hearts even of unbelievers. stained-glass ceiling is to sharply distin- naturally, there are good reasons for In our public life today, however, the guish religion from issues of personal this latest government grab. There always concept of natural religion as truths con- identity and emphasize its public value. are. The anonymity of cash makes it the cerning God and knowable through rea- To that end, proponents of religious liberty criminal’s friend, and there are (just to son—the concept such as we find it in the should maintain, in season and out of sea- start with) the wars on drugs and terror to GETTY IMAGES / Declaration of Independence and in Linc - son, that religion concerns the truth about think of and, of course, tax evasion. oln’s Second Inaugural—is shattered. “In reality and that some religions provide a In europe, authoritarian creep creeps God We Trust” has been reduced to a civic more plausible account of all that there more quickly. Italy introduced a maxi- FRANCESCO DAZZI totem. It is no longer accepted as a propo- is than does any secular story. mum limit of €1,000 for cash transactions

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in 2010 (the current prime minister has setting negative interest rates. After con- ister, Harald Mahrer, has vowed to fight proposed raising it to €3,000). By taking sidering various ways of dealing with this rules curtailing the use of cash: “We don’t aim at widespread tax-dodging, this was nuisance, he concluded that an “interest- want someone to be able to track digitally intended to bolster Italy’s finances during ing solution” would be to “maintain the what we buy, eat, and drink, what books one of the euro zone’s uglier spasms. It principle of a government-backed cur- we read and what movies we watch.” was also designed to discourage Italians rency, but have it issued in an electronic And this is more than a matter of books, from withdrawing euros from banks in a rather than paper form.” This “would movies, and meals. It’s worth noting that period when there were legitimate con- allow negative interest rates to be levied the German proposals to restrict cash cerns about banks’ stability and the possi- on currency easily and speedily.” Trans - transactions ran into opposition across the bility that money deposited with them lation: Make people hold their cash in political spectrum, from the leftist Greens would be converted overnight from euros electronic form (and thus in banks); they to the populist-right party Alternative for into rapidly depreciating “new lire.” will then have no means of escaping the Germany on through to the classical liber- “Forcing” Italians away from cash would levy on savings that negative interest als of the Free Democratic party. After make it more difficult for them to reduce rates effectively represent. Hitler and Honecker, Germans understand their exposure to those dangers. This was Before dismissing this as a form of how totalitarianism works, and they know about more than tax evasion: It was about madness that only Europeans could too that the slippery slope is all too real. keeping Italians locked within a crum- embrace, check out what Harvard’s The abolition of cash is a notion that bling system. Kenneth Rogoff has been saying. Writing we should reject out of hand. It puts too The ratchet keeps turning. Germany in the Financial Times in May 2014, he much faith in technology, and it puts too has proposed a €5,000 limit on cash trans- argued that replacing paper money with much trust in the state. It eliminates pri- actions. Mario Draghi, the president of an electronic alternative “would kill two vacy to a degree that ought to be unac- the European Central Bank, has called for birds with one stone.” It would strike a ceptable to any free society, and it leaves the scrapping of the €500 bill. blow against crime, and it would free people dangerously exposed to having Meanwhile, in Scandinavia, a part of central banks from a bind that has “hand- their savings confiscated by negative the world where governments are trusted cuffed” them since the financial crisis. interest rates or, more traditionally, con- and technology is advanced, digital pay- “At present, if central banks try setting fiscated by government, by way of a sav- ments are squeezing out cash. In Sweden, rates too far below zero, people will start age wealth tax perhaps. It leaves them cash is now used in only about 5 percent bailing out into cash.” Indeed, they will: with nowhere to hide. of retail sales. Progress is progress: If peo- To its credit, the central bank of Switzer - To those making the case against cash ple prefer to make payments electronical- land, one of the countries now burdened or high-denomination bills, that, of ly, that’s up to them, and if that entails a with negative interest rates, has made it course, is the whole point, but it is a point loss of privacy, that’s their choice. clear that it has no plans to junk its they are pushing too far. Their tightly con- But choice may well be followed by thousand-franc bills. It accepts that these trolled, fully tax-compliant society could compulsion. Forget about doing away are used as a store of value, something easily, given a sufficiently malign govern- with the Benjamins; the technology now that Rogoff, no friend of the saver, might ment, be as dysfunctional as one where exists to kill off cash altogether. The will regard as reprehensible but the sensible the “shadow economy” (not to be con- has been there for a while. Now there’s a Swiss do not. There has been a 17 percent fused with the “criminal economy”) is way. The Danish government would like increase in the number of these bills in flourishing. The ability to dodge the sys- to abandon paper money altogether by circulation in the last year. tem acts as a brake on overreach by the 2030. Norway’s largest bank, the partly “Hoarding cash may be inconvenient system. For example, there’s no sense in state-owned DNB, has called for cash to and risky,” wrote Rogoff in a related pushing taxes so high that people decide be phased out, moaning that 60 percent of paper, “but if rates become too negative, it’s worth the risk of not paying them. Tax the kroner in circulation are “outside of it becomes worth it.” He would clearly evasion should not be endorsed (I write, any [official] control.” The horror! prefer to see that emergency exit locked nervously aware of the IRS), but the Excuse me while I adjust the tinfoil, but and the key thrown away, leaving savers potential, if somewhat paradoxical, bene- this is not (and will not be) just a helpless in the face of whatever central fit to society from the threat of tax evasion Scandinavian thing: We live in an era bankers (and not only central bankers) can be. Make tax impossible (or close to when central banks have driven interest might dream up. impossible) to dodge and there’s far less to rates down to levels that bear little con- An open-minded sort, Rogoff did con- hold back the demands of a greedy state. nection to economic reality. Certain key cede that there might be a problem or And yes, there is cash’s role as crime’s rates are now below zero in the euro zone, two with such a set-up, including the fact dis creet accomplice. Well, as I alluded Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, and that “society may want to preserve the to before, government already has a Japan. This is a terrible idea, and its time right for individuals to make anonymous wide range of powers to combat that. To has come. The question is not only how payments in certain activities,” a telling ask for much more seems excessive. To far negative interest rates will spread, but choice of words. It’s not the rights of the borrow a famous comment a wise man how low they will go. individual that count, but what “society” once made: “Those who would give up In a speech last September, Andrew (defined by whom?) “may want.” essential Liberty, to purchase a little tem- Haldane, the Bank of England’s chief Another Alpine nation, Austria, is aware porary Safety, deserve neither Liberty economist, grumbled about the “con- of the menace to privacy that a cashless nor Safety.” straint physical currency imposes” on society could be. Its deputy economy min- That wise man? He is on the $100 bill.

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The Truth about Trade It has revealed, not created, problems in the American economy

BY SCOTT LINCICOME

T is virtually impossible to tune in to political TV or radio Trump’s tariffs or export subsidies, could produce a manufac- without hearing presidential hopeful Donald Trump promise turing renaissance in America. I to restore American manufacturing glory by imposing puni- Reality, however, begs to differ. tive tariffs on imports from China, Mexico, and any other First, even assuming Autor et al. are entirely correct about the country that pops into his golden dome. Trump’s shtick, repeated harms of Chinese imports—a conclusion about which George ad nauseam since he first started toying with a presidential run in Mason University economist Scott Sumner has raised legitimate the 1990s, is replete with errors and myths. But buried therein is questions—there remains no evidence that imports are the primary an important kernel of truth about America’s labor market and its driver of U.S. manufacturing-job losses, or that the U.S. manufac- distressing lack of dynamism—a problem exposed, though cer- turing sector is actually in decline. In fact, American manufacturers tainly not caused, by free trade. began slowly and steadily shedding workers as a share of the U.S. Imports have inarguably affected U.S. manufacturing com- work force in the late 1940s and in sheer numerical terms in 1979— panies and workers—no serious free-trader argues otherwise. long before the North American Free Trade Agreement existed or But criticism of trade and its impact on American workers has Chinese imports were more than a rounding error in U.S. GDP. acquired a sharper edge in the Age of Trump, bolstered in part By contrast, the United States has gained about 54 million jobs by a recent study from labor economists David Autor, David since 1980, 30-plus million of which came after the creation of Dorn, and Gordon Hanson that found that the recent surge in NAFTA and the World Trade Organization in the mid 1990s. Chinese imports to the United States has inflicted pronounced Meanwhile, it is a myth that the United States “doesn’t make any- harms on the wages and labor-force participation of U.S. thing anymore” or that trade agreements have caused a “giant suck- workers in local markets (e.g., mill towns) that face direct ing sound” as investment and jobs go elsewhere. Our manufacturers competition with those imports. Trump fans and longtime continue to set production and export records, and the United States trade skeptics on both the left and the right have seized on this is the world’s second-largest manufacturer (17.2 percent of total study as the final “proof” that free trade—in particular, trade global output) and third-largest exporter. America also remains the with China—has been a disaster for the United States and its world’s top destination for foreign direct investment ($384 billion workers, and that a heavy dose of protectionism, through in 2015 alone)—more than double second-place Hong Kong and almost triple third-place China. Much of this investment went to Mr. Lincicome is an international-trade attorney, an adjunct scholar at the Cato U.S. manufacturing assets, as shiny new BMW, Toyota, and other Institute, and a visiting lecturer at Duke University. foreign-owned plants across the American South attest. ROMAN GENN

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For these and other reasons, it is widely accepted that U.S. man- federal government to insulate them from foreign competition, at a ufacturing “decline” has been limited to employment, and that huge cost to American consumers. When the Steelworkers con- these losses were primarily caused by productivity gains, not trade. vinced President Obama to impose 35 percent tariffs on Chinese Indeed, even the most pessimistic academic studies on imports and tires in 2009, the result was, even under the best assumptions, a manufacturing jobs have found only a limited connection between few unionized jobs saved at a cost to U.S. consumers of $900,000 the two. Autor, Dorn, and Hanson found in 2013, for example, that per job—precisely the type of crony-capitalist boondoggle that, in “import competition explains [only] one-quarter of the contempo- any form other than that of a hidden tax targeting a foreign “adver- raneous aggregate decline in US manufacturing employment” sary,” would engender hostile political opposition from the right. between 1990 and 2007. Other studies have been even more san- Finally, even if it were morally and economically advantageous guine. For example, a recent Ball State study attributed almost 90 for the United States to embrace protectionism, it’s almost certainly percent of all U.S. manufacturing-job losses since 2000 to produc- impossible for it do so. U.S. manufacturers have evolved over tivity gains. “Had we kept 2000-levels of productivity and applied decades to become integral links in a breathtakingly complex glob- them to 2010-levels of production,” the authors write, “we would al value chain—whereby producers across continents cooperate to have required 20.9 million manufacturing workers. Instead, we produce a single product based on their respective comparative em ployed only 12.1 million.” Thus, it is simply wrong to blame im- advantages—that could not be severed without crippling both port competition for the disappearance of American manufactur- them and the global economy. According to the WTO, for exam- ing jobs or the supposed destruction of U.S. industrial capacity. ple, almost 40 percent of all U.S. exports are involved in global Second, despite its harms to some manufacturing interests, free value chains; almost 31 percent of exports from China, Canada, or trade also has generated broad-based benefits for U.S. consumers, Mexico contain U.S. inputs; and almost 34 percent of U.S. exports businesses, and workers. In The Payoff to America from Global contain inputs from these same three countries. Perhaps the auto- Integration, economists with the Peterson Institute found that past mobile industry, more than any other, makes this point clear: The global-trade liberalization through the WTO and other efforts National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that the generated between $2,800 and $5,000 in additional income for American “Big Three” automakers produce only five of the top 20 the average American and between $7,100 and $12,900 for the most “domestic” cars (defined by their total share of U.S. and average household. The consumer gains from trade dispropor- Canadian auto parts) sold in the United States in 2016. Killing the tionally accrue to America’s poor and middle class. A 2015 study “virus” of global trade integration would surely kill the host, too. by Pablo Fajgelbaum and Amit Khandelwal finds that these groups, because they concentrate spending in more-traded sectors such as food and clothing, enjoy almost 90 percent of the consumer benefits IVEN these realities, even the authors of the protectionists’ of trade. These benefits are even more concentrated for Chinese favorite new study reject protectionism and instead point imports, since poor and middle-class American consumers are to problems in the U.S. labor market that keep it from more likely than their richer counterparts to shop at “big box” stores Gadjusting adequately to the effects of trade or other disruptions. In such as Target and Walmart that carry a lot of made-in-China goods. releasing a previous study of trade with China, David Autor in 2012 American businesses, of course, also benefit. More than half stated, “I’m not anti-trade, but it is important to realize that there of all imports (including those from China) are inputs and capi- are reasons why people worry about this issue.” He elaborated: tal goods consumed by other American manufacturers to make “We do not have a good set of policies at present for helping work- globally competitive products. Raising these firms’ costs via tar- ers adjust to trade or, for that matter, to any kind of technological iffs would mean fewer employees, if not outright bankruptcy—a change.” His co-author Gordon Hanson told the New York Times particularly bad outcome given that downstream industries (e.g., earlier this year: “The problem is not trade liberalization. . . . The steelmakers) typically employ far more workers than their problem is that labor-market adjustment is too slow.” Indeed, the upstream counterparts (e.g., steel users). Non-manufacturers ben- very study on which nouveau protectionists rest their hats states efit, too—whether they be retailers such as the Gap, transporta- plainly that the problem is not simply (if at all) the impact of tion and logistics companies such as FedEx, or multinational Chinese imports but rather that “adjustment in local labor markets firms such as Apple, which assembles iPhones in China but gen- is remarkably slow, with wages and labor-force participation rates erates most of their final sale price through marketing, design, remaining depressed and unemployment rates remaining elevated engineering, and even manufacturing done in the United States. for at least a full decade after the China trade shock commences.” (Chinese manufacturers themselves earn only a few dollars from They find “ultimate and sizable net gains” from trade, but these are an iPhone’s assembly.) U.S. exporters such as Caterpillar and “realized only once workers are able to reallocate across regions in Boeing also gain from trade, and many foreign markets wouldn’t order to move from declining to expanding industries.” Thus, the be open without reciprocal trade agreements such as NAFTA. paper recommends that trade and labor economists focus on raising According to the Business Roundtable, in 2014, U.S. free-trade- “the speed of regional labor-market adjustment to trade shocks.” agreement (FTA) partners purchased 13 times more goods per U.S. labor-market data attest to this problem—one that exacer- capita from the United States than non-FTA countries did. bates job dislocations arising from trade, technological innovation, Third, free trade and protectionism raise serious moral issues. or any other disruptive but ultimately beneficial phenomenon. Protective tariffs force American families and businesses to subsi- Total non-farm job openings, for example, are at their highest dize—through hidden, regressive taxes—the small share of U.S. point on record (including well over a million unfilled jobs in manufacturers and workers (and the tiny portion of the total econ- “blue collar” fields such as manufacturing, construction, and omy and work force) that compete directly with the imports at transportation) and continue to outpace hirings. Workers have issue. For this reason, labor unions such as the United Steelworkers recently appeared more willing to quit their jobs and seek others, expend considerable financial and in-kind resources lobbying the but the civilian labor-force-participation rate has hovered near its

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lowest point (62.5 percent) since the late 1970s—a problem because of certain actions or immutable characteristics) that “sup- caused in part by the fact that workers have become less likely to press labor market flows, sometimes to a powerful extent”; laws move to areas with better employment opportunities, choosing that erode the employment-at-will doctrine (which permits instead to remain in places hit hard by the Great Recession and employers to fire employees without cause); occupational- to drop out of the labor force entirely. licensing laws and other labor-supply restrictions; minimum- More-complex measures of labor dynamism corroborate the wage laws; and the tax code’s preference for employer-provided aforementioned numbers: The Goldman Sachs Labor Market health insurance. At the same time, the U nited States has wit- Dynamism Tracker, which synthesizes various labor reports, shows nessed a distressing collapse in business dynamism—the creation that, after remaining positive through the 1980s and ’90s, U.S. labor and destruction of firms—which has had the consequence of dynamism—the natural, beneficial replacement of old jobs with entrenching workers in large, existing firms while reducing job new ones, owing in part to the willingness of workers to seek new openings in new and innovative ones. According to one recent jobs and their ability to obtain them—dove into negative territory study, a big cause of the recent collapse of business dynamism is in 2001 and has remained there ever since. A recent study by the federal government’s response to the Great Recession, which Steven Davis and John Haltiwanger found that the “U.S. economy involved “defensive policies to protect large firms and existing experienced large, broad-based declines in labor market fluidity in employment, rather than proactive policies to encourage entrepre- recent decades,” and that this reduction in fluidity had “harmful neurship and new venture/job creation.” None of this is good for consequences for productivity, real wages and employment.” people looking for a job or considering a career change. Finally, current government policy has failed to help displaced workers when disaster strikes, and has very likely made things OME of the troubling decline in U.S. labor dynamism is a worse. Most notably, the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) matter of an aging work force disproportionately com- program, intended to subsidize U.S. workers affected by import posed of Baby Boomers—older workers are far less likely competition, is a notorious failure: Not only are TAA’s costs too thanS their younger counterparts to change jobs. However, three high and its eligibility criteria too loose, but multiple studies types of distinct government policy failures have amplified the commissioned by the Labor Department have found that TAA problem. First, state and federal policies prevent Americans from participants are worse off, as measured by future wages and ben- saving enough wealth to cope with unexpected financial calami- efits, than similarly situated jobless individuals outside the pro- ties or to enable them to take professional risks. Over 60 percent gram. (TAA also breeds the misconception that trade is somehow of Americans have less than $1,000 in their savings accounts, and different from, and worse than, other forms of beneficial eco- economists on the right and the left agree that our current tax and nomic disruption, such as automation.) entitlement policies discourage private savings—unlike, say, Other federal job-training programs are similarly inefficacious. those of Canada, which has a highly successful and popular sys- A 2011 Government Accountability Office study, for example, tem of tax-free savings accounts. found that the federal government had 47 different, often over- Meanwhile, the costs of health care, child care, and education— lapping job-training programs spanning nine federal agencies at all highly subsidized, protected, and regulated—have risen far a cost of $18 billion per year. Only five had been subject to any faster than the rate of inflation, and there is little doubt that govern- sort of impact analysis since 2004; thus, “little is known about ment intervention has played a role in this trend. The New York Fed the effectiveness of [the] employment and training programs” in 2015, for example, found a strong link between federal student identified. A 2014 reform of this system, the Workforce aid and the skyrocketing cost of tuition. Such cost increases dispro- Innovation and Opportunity Act, eliminated 15 programs (while portionately harm poor and middle-class Americans and force maintaining the rest, despite their long history of subpar results) them to spend more of their stagnating wages on these essential ser- but failed to impose any sort of rigorous multi-site evaluation vices—money that could have gone into a savings account. Indeed, and accountability system. Without these simple reforms, or the rampant inflation in these sectors stands in stark contrast to the other, more radical ones, there is no way to ensure that the declining prices of other goods, such as clothing, toys, and elec- “reformed” federal job programs won’t continue their long record tronics, that are less subsidized, more open to competition (foreign of failing American workers and taxpayers. and domestic), and less subject to onerous government regulation. Unfortunately, the private sector has not succeeded where our Second, government policy actively discourages Americans problematic government job-training system has failed, and gov- from finding work in burgeoning fields. Perhaps the most brazen ernment policy may actually deter it from attempting to do so. example of such policies is the federal tax code’s business deduc- Private-sector job-training programs, for example, seem to be dis- tion for work-related education, which permits a worker to deduct appearing: The Labor Department estimates that “formal pro- education and training expenses from his taxable income, but grams that combine on-the-job learning with mentorships and only if they relate to his current job. Thus, a textile-factory worker classroom education fell 40% in the U.S. between 2003 and can get a tax benefit for new training on the latest garment 2013,” and the 2015 Economic Report of the President found machine, but he cannot get the same benefit for night classes to substantial declines in the percentages of American workers become a certified IT specialist. Such a system discourages work- receiving employer-paid training (19.4 percent to 11.2 percent) ers in dying fields from preparing themselves for a new career. or on-the-job training (13.1 percent to 8.4 percent) between 1996 An assortment of other government policies also undermines and 2008. There are legitimate concerns that such programs have a worker’s ability or willingness to change jobs. In their afore- simply been sloughed off in favor of ineffective government pro- mentioned study on collapsing U.S. labor dynamism, Davis and grams. Tax and regulatory costs might also play a discouraging Haltiwanger identified five specific contributors: employment- role: According to one analysis, a $14-per-hour worker has a true protection laws (which protect employees from being fired cost to his employer of almost $20 per hour because of federal and

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state taxes plus an array of mandated and voluntary benefits and job training. As labor costs continue to rise, companies are more often looking for skilled workers whom they don’t have to train. Among Federal unemployment benefits also have the potential to discourage workers from searching for and obtaining a job. Most troubling is the current Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) system, which, because of its generous benefits, lax eligi- The Thugs bility criteria, and lack of rigorous enforcement, has become, according to the Manhattan Institute’s Scott Winship, “a perma- Donald Trump, white nationalists, and nent dole for a rising number of adults with limited earning poten- the politics of the crowd tial who clearly are physically able to work.” The numbers bear this out: Between 1990 and 2014, the percentage of working-age individuals who receive SSDI benefits more than doubled, from BY JAMES KIRCHICK 2.3 percent to 5.1 percent. Basic unemployment insurance also raises concerns: Four economists examined the effects of North Carolina’s 2013 cuts to unemployment benefits and found that pre- DENTITARIANISM” is a newfangled euphemism for vious benefit extensions had had a significant negative effect on white supremacy. Coined around the start of the 21st the state’s employment level, number of job openings, and labor- ‘I century by the intellectual wing—such as it is—of the force-participation rate—harms that “dominate any potential stim- French far right, it has since been adopted by white ulative effect that some ascribe to such policies.” The same nationalists the world over. Last October, I attended a confer- economists found similar discouraging results at the national level. ence in Washington convened by the identitarian movement’s Amer i can division, the National Policy Institute (NPI). It was fitting that the gathering would occur on Halloween, as about REE trade—with China or any other country—has demon- 150 ghouls filled the ballroom of the National Press Club. The strable benefits for American families and businesses. To crowd was almost entirely male, many of them (apparently the extent he denies this, Donald Trump is entirely wrong. taking advantage of the under-30 registration discount) young. FHowever, the economic anxiety propelling Trump reflects very A conspicuous number sported the Hitler Youth–inspired hair- real problems in America’s labor market—problems caused not do known as an “undercut,” short on the sides with a long part by Chinese imports or any other type of creative destruction but on top. In between encomia to the recently deceased anti- by multiple government-policy failures and a resulting collapse Semitic newspaper publisher Willis Carto and a recitation of of labor dynamism. The solutions to these problems are com- pagan reveries by a white-separatist folk musician, attendees plex and deserving of substantial debate. But the analysis I have perused bookstalls featuring the conspiracy-mongering presented should provide some clues. Most simply, U.S. workers American Free Press newspaper and the Holocaust-denying should receive the same tax benefit for job training unrelated to Barnes Review. their current job as they do now for training related to it. SSDI and What drew me to spend an otherwise pleasant Saturday after- unemployment-insurance eligibility requirements should be noon among a group of white supremacists was the buzz that tightened and redesigned to ensure that able-bodied adults are Donald Trump’s then-nascent presidential campaign had stirred looking for, and accepting, available work. Occupational-licensing within the movement. Trump’s politics of resentment thrives on reform should be a priority, particularly at the state level. Federal a sort of coded groupthink—namely, white groupthink. job-training programs should be consolidated, if not eliminated Whether Trump himself, in his heart of hearts, is racist is outright—perhaps through a simple voucher for dislocated work- almost beside the point. Like demagogues throughout history, ers to use at accredited community colleges or vocational schools, he is taking advantage of an adverse economic and political sit- or a single block grant to states for local experimentation with uation and playing to the populace’s most sordid fears in fur- programs that support, instead of crowd out, private-sector train- therance of a lust for power. Conservative intellectual s, who ing initiatives such as apprenticeships. like to think of themselves as immune to groupthink, have More broadly, tax-free savings accounts, similar to those in been flabbergasted at his rise. That has been all to the amuse- Canada, also should be explored, as should ways to increase the ment of NPI director Richard Spencer, a former editor of The portability of health care and other benefits currently tied to peo- American Conservative whose drift into the fever swamps of ple’s jobs. (Eliminating the tax preference for employer-provided racial politics apparently became too much even for Pat health insurance would be the most obvious solution.) Finally, Buchanan and Taki Theodoracopulos to stomach. Al though it the federal government should more seriously consider, and was months before Trump would cynically dodge questions attempt to rectify, the inflationary harms caused by its subsidiza- about former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke’s en - tion and overregulation of basic essential services such as health dorsement of his campaign, the well-coiffed racists at the Press care and higher education—opening them to global competition Club were giddy about Trump’s nativist rhetoric and policy would be a great place to start. proposals; Spencer described him as an “icebreaker” in the dis- None of these ideas is a silver bullet, but the problems they would cussion of identitarian issues. seek to address, and the palpable economic anxiety of Ameri - cans, clearly show that reform is needed. Protectionism not Mr. Kirchick is a fellow of the Foreign Policy Initiative, a correspondent for the only would ensure that these problems aren’t fixed but would Daily Beast, and a columnist for Tablet magazine. His first book, The End actually make things far worse. of Europe, will be published by Yale University Press this fall.

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Duke, Spencer, and others in the identitarian fold may be is the fabricated reality of the Matrix-generated world, or a red moral cretins, but they are not (at least not all) political idiots. pill, allowing him a painful but gutsy escape from its imper- Identitarians are right to detect something significant in ceptible yet omnipresent cage—is a pet analogy among the ris- Trump’s rise: namely, that he has mainstreamed white racial ing generation of pop-culture-savvy white su prem a cists. They grievance to a point unprecedented in post–Civil Rights Era are some of the most vocal figures in the larger “alt right” America. That it has taken this most improbable of figures—a (“alternative right”) movement, which loathes mainstream thrice-married, multimillionaire New Yo rk real-estate magnate conservatism for its alleged selling out to the “establishment.” and celebrity television star with an Orthodox Jewish daugh- It was in the darker recesses of the alt right’s online message ter—to achieve what no hooded Klansman or backwoods neo- boards and social-media accounts that the now-ubiquitous epi- Nazi could ever have hoped of doing makes his feat all the thet “cuckservative”—an amalgamation of “cuckold” and more astonishing. “conservative,” hurled at any male right-of-center writer or True to their name, identitarians premise their reductive activist who doesn’t prostrate himself before the altar of worldview on the exhausted nostrums of identity politics. For Trump—was devised. all their complaints about “cultural Marxists” and their self- According to Spencer, the past several years have witnessed satisfi ed glee in traducing the prudish dictates of “political cor- a steady deterioration in American race relations, visible in rectness,” identitarians neatly mimic the language of their everything from the growing assertiveness of organizations censorious adversaries on the left. Crude expressions of big- such as Black Lives Matter to increasing ethnic diversity in otry are generally frowned upon; today’s white supremacists television-show casts to a newly emboldened and hypersensi- sound much like the campus social-justice warriors they claim tive campus Left. This accumulated set of trends, Spencer to despise, the major difference being their disagreement as to says, constitutes the “red pill” of reality that more and more which racial group is most deserving of top-victim status. You whites are beginning to swallow. Whereas mainstream culture need simply substitute “white men” for “African Americans,” and politics have dismissed the cultural concerns of racially “women,” “transgender,” ad infinitum in leftist jeremiads conscious whites, Donald Trump sympathetically addresses about the plight of “marginalized” peoples and you pretty their anxieties. much have the entirety of identitarian talking points. The language of “oppression” is much the same, regardless of who is complaining about it. DIDN’T think much about NPI at the time, viewing its For instance, Spencer compares identitarians to visionaries of followers—and their preferred presidential candidate— other, once-downtrodden social movements that claimed their as little more than oddities in the great theater of stake upon a distinct identity. The gay rioters at Stonewall, the IAmerican politics. By the time the organization reconvened determined Zionist pioneers who made the desert bloom— four months later, in early March, however, a great upheaval these are the models for his burgeoning white- nationalist under- was under way. This time I found myself in a far tonier setting, taking. It is a mark of their fine-honed appreciation for the in a room atop the Ronald Reagan building in Washington, zeitgeist that identitarians reference Jews and homosexuals— D.C. The better digs were emblematic of the group’s upbeat groups not typically looked favorably upon by white suprema- fortunes. Just a week before, Trump had offered his KKK cists—as their inspiration. feint, and the candidate’s newfound popularity among identi- Sometime Klan lawyer Sam Dickson pressed me on the tarians had become the subject of mainstream-media interest. necessity of a “separate state” for whites: “The blacks could be While last time it was only colleagues from the Huffington Post given Manhattan and we would take Iowa,” he elaborated. and Daily Beast who shared my curiosity about this seemingly Though today’s propagators of racial apartheid might be marginal group, this time there was an NBC re porter with a expected, like their forebears, to frame arguments in terms of camera. Like the title of its Halloween conference, “Become their own group’s inherent superiority, Dickson makes his Who We Are” (an explicit appeal for whites to take the red pill appeal using the traditionally left-wing language of the perpet- and embrace, in Spencer’s words, “racial realness”), the name ually put-upon victim: In the America of the not-so-distant of NPI’s latest confab, “Identity Politics,” brazenly aped leftist future, whites will be an endangered species and a vulnerable language. Trump, the program boasted, is someone who has class deserving of protection. “White people, as we become a “taken celebrity culture and turned it into nationalism.” (As minority, will not be able to live except in a state of severe proof that God has a sense of humor, the conclave took place repression and discrimination,” he complained. Speaking as if across the street from a hotel hosting the Black Entertainment he were the chieftain of a vanishin g Native American tribe or Television Awards.) an earnest nature preservationist, Spencer elaborated: “You Holding a drink and standing by himself was Bill Regnery, can’t get away from the great erasure—that is, this general ten- a co-founder of NPI and the black sheep of the Regnery pub- dency to delegitimize the white man.” lishing clan. A mildly enthusiastic Trump voter, he bemoaned Spencer very much likes play-acting the role of a rogue the conservative movement for having “too much involvement intellectual, bumptiously describing himself on Twitter as an with the mechanics of the old America, the Con sti tu tion, bro- “international thought criminal.” When asked why the identi- mides . . .” Asked to elaborate, Regnery replied that “the Brits tarian movement is gaining new followers, he replied that have done pretty well without a constitution and maybe this “people are being red-pilled by life, they’re being red-pilled country would do well without a Constitution.” by reality.” This reference to the 1999 blockbuster science- I was rather surprised by this open disrespect for America’s fiction film The Matrix—wherein our hero can choose to take founding document, especially from someone to the right of either a blue pill, representing the “ignorance of illusion” that Genghis Khan. But it turns out that the Constitution is largely

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unloved, if not outright disdained, among identitarians, who economic agenda seems to be socialism for a select group of despise it primarily for extolling the virtues of egalitarianism. people—in other words, National Socialism. Identitarians Writing on the website of Spencer’s Radix journal, a contrib- some times sound like hard leftists who have exchanged multi- utor denigrates the Constitution as a “primitive article of culturalism for white supremacy. Spencer’s entire political antiquity” that “will not solve the problems we face in the 21st program is based upon a flimsy sense of “white identity”—the century.” Proposing that “cuckservatives” who speak rever- sort of imagined community that cannot exist except in the ently of the Constitution be denigrated as “paper worship- minds of racists—which he speaks of in reverential, almost pers,” “vellum supremacists,” and “parchment fetishists,” he mystical tones. “White identity is part of an historical experi- argues that the object of their admiration “has ceased to be a ence. . . . It’s genetic, a spirit.” vehicle for progress and has instead devolved into a major obstacle to our future.” It’s ironic that self-identified right-wingers would pro- OR all their talk about the accomplishments of Eu rope an claim the obsolescence of the Constitution as a “vehicle for civilization, however, identitarians do not concern prog ress,” since that’s precisely the way many liberals see its themselves much with the great figures of the West, role in American society. Spencer, “fresh from a Russian- whetherF Plato or Shakespeare, Goethe or Locke (never mind television” interview, let it rip when I asked what distinguishes Freud, Einstein, Spinoza, or the countless other Jews who him and his movement from the conservatives with whom he played a vital part in the advent of Western civilization). Nor used to associate. “I’m more interested in identity . . . than they are they particularly interested in propagating classical West - are in protecting capitalism or adhering to the Con sti tu tion or ern ideas such as individualism, liberty, or rationalism. The whatever gobbledygook conservatives believe,” he explained. intellectual achievements of the Western Enlightenment tradi- “Conservatives have been damaging to the world” and “are tion go practically unmentioned among identitarians, whose Richard Spencer is ‘tired of a bunch of boring fatsos talking about how much they love the Constitution,’ the word ‘boring’ dripping from his lips with especial scorn.

fundamentally boring. I really want something that is more tenuous identification with “the West” boils down to some- dynamic, about our identity.” Spencer relishes the rise of a new thing as nebulous and immaterial as skin color. In a moody pro- conservative movement because—and it was at this point in motional video that’s part Scientology recruitment film, part his disquisition that he became most visibly excited—he’s Mein Kampf, and part motivational poster from a shrink’s “tired of a bunch of boring fatsos talking about how much they office, Spencer inveighs against “abstractions and buzzwords” love the Constitution,” the word “boring” dripping from his such as “democracy and freedom.” “A nation based on free- lips with especial scorn. dom is just another place to go shopping,” he says dismissively. Given the grand political projects mankind has wreaked “It’s a country for everyone, and thus a country for no one. A upon humanity in the last century, perhaps one of the best country in which we ourselves have become strangers.” things that could be said for conservatives is that they’re “bor- Conservatives, and, more broadly, all those who define ing,” preferring steady, gradual compromise to rapid, sweep- themselves as liberals in the classical sense of the term, vener- ing change. It is telling that Spencer considers this word a ate the Western European tradition for its value s and ideals, not slur. In his short treatise “The Doctrine of Fascism,” Benito for the race of the people who propagated them. Indeed, the Mussolini used the word “action” nearly 20 times; Fascism, great thing about the Western canon, what makes it truly he wrote, is a spiritual force that “dwells in the heart of the unique and worth passing on, is that anyone can embrace it. For man of action.” Surveying this ideology’s destructive legacy, me, the loftiest expression of this sentiment remains a speech Umberto Eco once listed “the cult of action for action’s sake” delivered in 1990 by V. S. Naipaul, fittingly entitled “Our as one of 14 key elements constituting what he called “Ur- Universal Civilization.” A Trinidadian-born citizen of Great Fascism” or “Eternal Fascism,” the reactionary philosophy Britain who is of Indian and Nepalese extraction, Nai paul is broadly encompassing Mussolini’s National Fascist party one of the greatest writers in the English-speaking world, and and German National Socialism. “Action being beautiful in the sort of cosmopolitan figure unique to that world. The West, itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous he said, “is an elastic idea; it fits all men. . . . So much is con- reflection,” Eco observed. If there’s one thing fascists are not, tained in it: the idea of the individual, responsibility, choice, it’s “boring.” the life of the intellect, the idea of vocation and perfectibility This penchant for action—for not being “boring”—and for and achievement. It is an immense human idea. It cannot be radically refashioning society is but one of the many areas reduced to a fixed system. It cannot generate fanaticism. But it where the hard Left and the hard Right converge. Listening to is known to exist, and because of that, other more rigid systems Spencer and his acolytes bemoan the docility of the mainstream in the end blow away.” American Right, one realizes why they hold conservatives in Read their manifestos, listen to their speeches, attend their such contempt. Identitarians are reactionary revolutionaries: conferences, and you won’t hear much, if anything, from the fascists. To the extent that they have one, their protectionist identitarians about these ideals. That’s because they whole-

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heartedly reject the Enlightenment, as did fascists and Com - and the left-wing agitators that his aggressive rhetoric deliber- mu nists before them. ately incites, the great tradition of the American town-hall Perhaps it was inevitable that, in a society that validates political meeting has begun to resemble rowdier sessions of minority identity politics and the aggressive tactics of its the Ukrainian parliament. practitioners, a political movement based upon white resent- For those who previously dismissed the threat Trump poses ment would arise. Like all reactionary movements, the one to basic American values and our peaceful way of life, the Trump has mobilized (in general) and identitarianism (in par- extent to which he is playing with fire became indubitably ticular) are by definition reactions to something—in this clear on March 16. That was the day Trump announced that case, multiculturalism and political correctness gone awry. his thuggish backers might direct their ire not at Sanders- Trump “is standing up for the people who are tired of being supporting hippies or Black Lives Matter activists, but fellow told the divisions in American society are all their fault,” Republicans. Asked what might happen at this summer’s Re - Molly Ball, an Atlantic staff writer who has covered Trump pub li can National Convention in Cleveland if he does not win across the country, observes. This is hardly a phenomenon the number of delegates necessary to secure nomination on the exclusive to America; ethno-nationalism is ascendant once first ballot, Trump implicitly threatened carnage. again across Europe. “I think you’d have riots,” said the man who, in discussion Needless to say, black people in America have faced tre - of his foreign-policy views, has described himself as “the most mendous legal, societal, and institutional racism in a way that militaristic person” in the GOP field. “I’m representing a white people never have, which makes not only the solutions tremendous many, many millions of people. . . . I think you’d offered by identitarians misguided and dangerous, but their have problems like you’ve never seen before. I think bad grievances fundamentally phony. Attributing the entire West - things would happen.” This is the bravado of the racketeering ern tradition to the skin color of its progenitors and substituting Mafioso kingpin: Nice political convention you’ve got there; racial consciousness for universal values also goes a way in shame if something bad were to happen to it. explaining why identitarians are so giddy about Trump’s dictator- The Trump movement’s tactics of violent intimidation are friendly foreign policy. The “Trump–Putin understanding,” the logical extension of Trump’s personality, even if, as with Spencer told me, forwards “a vision of a white world that is not all cowards, it’s others who execute his pugnacious fantasies. at war,” the sort of entente that, retroactively, would amount to And it should hardly surprise us that people who view the “a cancellation of the 20th century.” According to Spencer, that Constitution as a bothersome hindrance in their quest to tens of millions of white people killed one another on the divide America into racial bantustans, and who denigrate European continent in the two greatest bloodbaths of human those who revere our nation’s founding document as “boring,” history was all a giant misunderstanding. If only the Soviets would find so much to like in the campaign of Donald Trump. and the Germans and the French and the Poles and the Jews They, like Trump, seem to prefer a society un gov erned by (well, maybe not the Jews) had recognized their common skin laws, tradition, or the accumulated wisdom of the human expe- color, neither of the two world wars would have happened. rience. Feigned erudition and wonkishness aside, identitarians are, at the end of the day, thugs. And thugs are easily suscepti- ble to the lure of the crowd. HICH brings us to Trump and his reintroduction of In researching his searing 1990 sociological study-cum- a baleful phenomenon long absent in Ameri can memoir of British soccer hooliganism, Among the Thugs, Bill politics: violence. The United States has hardly Buford immersed himself in this riotous and debauched Wbeen immune to the ravages of men who prefer to settle dis- milieu. After spending time with partisans of a particular club, putes not in representative chambers but by brawling in the he compiled a list of their “likes,” which ranged from “langer i streets. From the Founding Fathers (who fought a war against pint glasses” and “lager in two-liter bottles” to “the Queen” the world’s mightiest empire) through the era of political and “goals.” At its essence, however, the determinant value of dueling to the anti–Vietnam War protests at the 1968 Dem o - the hooligan is tribe. “That was the most important item: they crat ic National Convention in Chicago, violence has been a liked themselves, them and their mates,” Buford writes. recurring feature of American political life. But for the better Understandably, this atavistic and clannish attitude lent its part of the past half century, we have thankfully been spared bearers to recruitment by the National Front, a fascist party its depredations. that enjoyed its heyday in the late 1970s. “They understood Like our basic notions of decorum, civility, common sense, something about the workings of the crowd: they respected and much else that makes America great, the laudable facility it,” Buford wrote of the Front’s leaders. “They knew that its for restraining one’s pugnacious impulses in the clash of polit- potential—its rare, raw, uncontrollable power—was in all of ical differences has been thrown out the window in this cam- us, even if it was so persistently elusive.” Trump is certainly paign season by the utt erly debased personage of Trump. For not the first figure in American politics to summon the awe- months, the Republican front-runner has directly encouraged some powers of the crowd (Barack Obama did a fine job of individual acts of violence at his rallies and refused to con- that in 2008). But he is the first demagogue to do so in at demn supporters who act upon his urgings. “I’d like to punch least a generation. Watching Trump’s rallies and listening to him in the face” was a typical Trump remark about a protester, the rhetoric of his supporters with increasing unease, I recall groups of which now inevitably appear at his public events. Buford’s ruminations on the 1989 Hillsborough soccer tra - After a number of Bernie Sanders supporters crashed a Trump ge dy, when 96 people were crushed to death in a stadium stam- ral ly in Chicago, Trump threatened via Twitter: “Be careful, pede. The carnage, Buford wrote, was “relentlessly logical, Bernie, or my supporters will go to yours!” Thanks to Trump even overdue.”

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The Long View BY ROB LONG

***Saturday Panel, 4 P.M., as we head ward.” (Please note: We expect to sea. Join us for an opening session: Governor Kasich to struggle. Please “Former NATIONAL REVIEW editor-in- dress in loose, comfortable clothing, chief Rich Lowry and new NA TIONAL the way you might for a day hike or REVIEW publisher Donald J. Trump in Saturday yard work.) conversation: Whither Conservatism?” FINAL BULLETIN ***Wednesday, 4 P.M., amidships, ***Sunday, 10 A.M., Culinary Cen - Lifeboat Station 10, Deck 3: The keel- ter: Ecumenical Sunday worship ser- hauling of New Jersey governor Chris The 2016 NATIONAL REVIEW vice of reconciliation. Editors of and Christie. (Dress: waterproof) Post-Election Cruise, contributors to NATIONAL REVIEW Official Program gather with past candidates and the ***Thursday, additional session new publisher to “turn the page” on the at the end of the day, approximately divisive and difficult past year, agree- 5 P.M.: Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas) Thanks for signing up for the 2016 ing to face the future with a more uni- is untied and allowed to speak. NATIONAL REVIEW Post-Election fied and “big tent” attitude. Service PLEASE DO NOT COME LATE! Cruise aboard Holland America’s will be non-denominational and inter- The senator is scheduled to be re-tied luxurious cruise ship MS Nieuw faith and will feature the severed head and re-suspended above the stage at Amsterdam. We will be traveling of Jerry Falwell Jr. on a pike, held aloft. 5:45 P.M. PROMPTLY! through the crystal blue waters of the (Dress: pagan) Caribbean Sea, stopping along the ***Friday Night, B. B. King’s way at secluded beaches and color- ***Monday, 12 P.M., Culinary Blues Club: An additional “Night ful tropical ports of call. During the Center: “Wellness at Sea: Making the Owl” presentation. Florida senator day, you’ll be treated to panel dis- Right Heart-Healthy Choices at the Marco Rubio presents “Side by Side cussions, presentations, and conver- Buffet and in the Dining Room,” by by Marco: A Celebration of the sations about Election 2016, its Ben Carson, M.D. Join the newest Work and Vision of Stephen implications for the future, and its crew member of the Nieuw Amster dam Sondheim.” Cruisers will be treated fallout for conservatives. as Dr. Carson helps us make heart- to the lighter side of one of conserv- smart decisions when faced with the ative America’s favorite young tal- The following is the most up-to- tempting choices of Holland Ameri - ents. (Dress: sexy elegance) the-minute program of events, as of ca’s culinary team. Dr. Carson is also Thursday, November 10, 2016. available throughout the week in his PLEASE REMEMBER! Place the office on Deck 2. appropriate tags on your luggage Please note: All events are scheduled Saturday night for fast and trouble- to take place in the ship’s theater, the ***Tuesday night, at sea. Cognac free luggage transfers to the Ft. Showroom of the Sea, unless other- and cigars under the stars. Lido deck. Lauderdale and Miami airports. If wise stated. Cigars courtesy of H. Upmann. you have any questions, please ask Cognac provided by Martell. Enjoy Customer Service Representative ***DENOTES CHANGE FROM the companionship of your fellow Chris Christie for help. PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED SCHED- NR Cruisers as we enjoy fine cigars ULE OF EVENTS and cognac amid the gentle breezes Last-minute itinerary change: of the ship at sea. As the moon sets Since the official announcement on ***Saturday, 2 P.M., as we embark: across the Caribbean and the cognac Wednesday, November 9, that Meet Your Low-Income, Low- takes effect, those in despair who President Barack Obama, immedi- Information, Unemployed White wish to feel the peaceful and watery ately following the swearing in of Working-Class Roommate! NR embrace of King Neptune will be President Hillary Clinton, will assume Cruisers will be matched with a room- helped overboard. Those who wish to the office of El Presidente de la mate from one of the forgotten and stay and fight will be treated to the República de Cuba, the MS Nieuw neglected socioeconomic cohorts who ritual slaying and dismemberment of Amsterdam will make a stop in the will live with them throughout the Ohio governor John Kasich, who will Port of Old Habana in order to enjoy cruise in an effort to avoid a repeat of join the cruise that day in St. Thomas, the Old World charm of this storied 2016. Please note: Do NOT give your for what he thinks will be a keynote city before it comes under the yoke of roommate charge privileges to your address entitled “Conservatism after a Communist dictator. (Please wear ship’s account. President Hillary: The Way For - sturdy shoes.)

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Athwart BY JAMES LILEKS The Buena Vista Socialism Club

ERNIE SANDERS will be a footnote in the long activity because I had sighed loudly on National Glory Day sweep of electoral history—a black-socked three years ago. They tore apart my room and found the footnote in Birkenstock sandals, if you wish— seditious novel I have been writing for 30 years, using ink B but he did clarify the views of many progres- made of old shoe polish. They beat me with stout trun- sives when it comes to the free market. You might recall this cheons, but my bones were set for free, and thanks to a pro- piercing revelation: gram of universal literacy, the arresting officer could read “You don’t necessarily need a choice of 23 underarm spray my novel on the spot and offer a critique of some of my lit- deodorants or of 18 different pairs of sneakers when children erary devices. Long live the revolution.” are hungry in this country.” We are told that closer ties will moderate the junta’s If we lived in a society where the Department of Armpits behavior, but unless they’re saving that for a big ten- regularly wrested away government grants from the Na - year-anniversary surprise (“Ten percent of the political tional Urchin Association, Sanders might have a point, prisoners will now get ice cream once a week!”), there’s but it’s not as if spray-deodorant money—R&D, market- no sign they’re changing their behavior. Why should ing, production—could be diverted to hungry children they? They will have defenders in the West forever. Just unless the government nationalized the company that as their repression was once excused because of the makes AXE body spray and handed it out to the bedrag- embargo, it will now be excused because of the lingering gled children at the factory gates. effects of the embargo. In 20 years, the Cuban govern- On the other hand, you know what he’s saying, and ment might sue for reparations. First-world slum-tripping it’s this: “I have no idea how things work. Let me run to Cuba will be a sport for a while—Oh, haven’t you everything.” gone? You simply must, the ruins are like something out of Here’s how things work in the Latin American paradises a fashion shoot—but as more people on the left see evi- Mr. Sanders so admires. dence that Cuba was a prosperous nation forcibly impov- 1. Wasteful, duplicitous deodorant factories are nation- erished, perhaps they will realize they were defending a alized by the state and converted into one brand, which prison just because they found the warden so charming. is quickly known for shoddy nozzles and insufficient Let’s review: The Worker’s Paradise, the USSR, went aerosol propulsion. out of business, because it didn’t have any. Venezuela is no 2. This brand becomes hard to find; other brands from longer admired by the Left because the people, previously neighboring states appear on the black market. respected for voting in a confiscatory caudillo, had the gall 3. The Leader makes a speech on TV in which he praises to vote in people who promised to repair the disasters of “the earthy, honest aroma of our people striving for jus- socialism. Post-embargo, Cuba’s no longer a cause célèbre, tice” and announces that police dogs are being trained to and the repression of the state—heretofore justified sniff out non-state brands. because the United States declined to sell them things, like 4. Sean Penn denounces the body-spray–industrial complex. 23 varieties of deodorant—will be an embarrassment, Or something like that. Use any commodity you like. which means it’ll be forgotten. Venezuela, we’ve been told, regularly runs out of toilet paper. These people need a new ideal state to worship. Nordic The whole country. People who traveled in the United States countries might fill the bill, but they’re so . . . white, and in the 1970s may recall the quality of bathroom tissue in gas- lately they seem mulish about importing lots of people station lavs—it was a strange, lacquered, bi-folded sheet that who have contempt for their culture. Which is so had the same efficacy as Saran Wrap. It’s gone now, by pop- strange! Denmark is awesome! They pay for sex changes ular demand, but if you showed up in Caracas with a container and everything. cart of that stuff you’d walk away a millionaire. Perhaps President Trump will make Cuba great again Why bring up old Bernie’s cranky mutterings? Because and reassure the Left that it still has potential. No doubt the there’s another collectivist paradise in the news thanks to Donald believes our Cuba deal was (ALL TOGETHER NOW) a the president’s visit there: Cuba. Obama had his photo- disastah, and he will renegotiate it so we win. The regime graph taken in a plaza with a big picture of murdering psycho gets a new casino, we get a cut of their North Korea bribes. Che in the background, and that knocking you heard was It would be worth it just to see the New York Times run a Kennedy’s skull banging against the inside of his coffin. story about a Batista-era-themed casino opening in Havana, The Left always gets misty over Cuber because they have with the headline “Amid the Glitter, a Nation Find s a Way free health care and 99.8 percent literacy. Surely even the to Heal.” dissidents are happy about that, no? But it’s more likely Trump would give it a Castro theme. “Yes, the secret police burst into my hovel on a tip from the Hey, Castro was a strong leader. Tremendous leader. Sure, neighborhood block captain, who suspected me of anti-state he did things, but you know, sometimes you got to do things, okay? Say what you want about Che, but the man Mr. Lileks blogs at www.lileks.com. knew the power of a good brand.

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NSA’s metadata programs designed to Hayden’s memoir gives one the same We capture overseas-terrorist links to Ameri - impression. Written by a career intelli- cans’ digital communications, but now gence professional and wonky, in some says Snowden is guilty of treason, re - places, as a result, the book comes across Americans ferred to those programs as “the United nonetheless as down-to-earth, simple, States government engaging in massive and direct. Some of the post-9/11 intelli- And Our surveillance on American citizens.” This gence-world issues are virtual halls of was a factually debatable statement, but it mirrors in their legal and institutional was said with the charged sort of language complexity. Hayden explains them in a Spies used in paranoid circles. This kind of clear and direct way. His upbringing as emotive and imprecise language is meant a lower-middle-class Catholic kid in JOHN HILLEN to imply to the uninformed that the con- Pitts burgh grounded him, and he has tent of Americans’ domestic communica- kept that perspective. tions is being swept up and analyzed by In 1999, Hayden inherited a techno- the NSA. In actuality, the various pro- logically backward NSA. After 9/11, he grams (some of which were ended by transformed it very quickly into an Congress last year) tracked anonymous action-oriented agency. He pivoted the phone numbers and digital addresses, mission to active signals intelligence and kept databases to query phone numbers away from reliance on passive intercepts connecting to phone numbers, captured in which the NSA “hop[ed] for a trans- almost no content (except in a very few mission” that would “serendipitously hit cases in which a court order was issued our antennas.” separately, in the process of an investiga- He ended up spending much of his tion), and collected patterns of data that time and energy—and not just after Playing to the Edge: American Intelligence in could show direct communication from queries from Congress or leaks to the the Age of Terror, by Michael V. Hayden Americans to overseas terrorists. press—thinking through the balance (Penguin, 464 pp., $30) General Hayden was a central player in between intelligence-gathering and civil the decisions leading to the programs that liberties. In many ways, this theme domi- VEN though General Michael underlay the debate questions. He took nates his book. In a speech to the NSA just Hayden is seven years re - seriously, and even personally, the gaps in two days after 9/11, he emphasized pro- moved from being director of U.S. intelligence strategy that had pas- tecting Americans’ liberties. As new pro- the CIA, and almost eleven sively abetted the 9/11 attacks, and he grams were put into place to plug the Eremoved from being director of the moved in a time of war to close those gaps holes that had led to 9/11 and take advan- National Security Agency, his ghost against the terrorist threat. tage of new technology, he challenged his hung heavily over a recent Republican The general criticism of the intelligence lawyers at the NSA to think constantly primary debate in Detroit. community about the surprise of 9/11 was about, and indeed to lose sleep over, ques- The previous week, Hayden had made that it had failed to “connect the dots.” tions about the Constitution and the news by pointing out that candidate Hayden undertook a frantic effort, last- Fourth Amendment. Donald Trump was suggesting a range ing more than seven years, to put into While the Dr. Strangelovean caricature of illegal orders (concerning torture place programs, laws, and technology many Americans have of our spy agencies and the targeting of non-combatants) that would connect the dots. is that the intelligence community cares that the military and the intelligence If you have watched the recent Show - nothing for civil liberties, Hayden has community would be duty-bound to time documentary The Spymasters: CIA thought about these issues more seriously disobey. When confronted with this in the Crosshairs, you’ll remember the than most so-called privacy experts. Alan during the debate, Trump doggedly on-camera scenes with General Hayden. Dershowitz has even been his debate- and condescendingly twice insisted The documentary features interviews team partner in some of these discus- that the military would do whatever he with all twelve living CIA directors. I sions of civil liberties. told them to do. Faced with a post- have met with or gotten to know eight of On these issues and others, Congress debate uproar (not, it should be noted, these dozen men over the years, including comes off poorly in this book—as dedi- among his supporters), Trump walked Hayden, but I was still surprised at how cated largely to unintelligent Monday- back his embrace of issuing illegal Hayden stands out from the rest—in his morning quarterbacking of risky orders and expecting blind obedience directness, his ability to clarify very com- intelli gence programs and bailing out to them. plex issues without losing any important when the going gets tough. Hayden At the same debate, Ted Cruz, who ini- nuance, his folksy-yet-eggheaded com- writes that “most American intelligence tially, in 2013, took a very libertarian munication style, his fair-mindedness, professionals are well acquainted with view of Edward Snowden’s leak of the and his toughness. the broad cultural rhythm connecting

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American espionage practitioners and political consensus we were seeking. I the U.S. has been conducting what American political elites: The latter wanted Congress to be part of that con- should be largely an intelligence war with group gets to criticize the former for not sensus. That required a serious discus- no viable detainee policy. The Obama doing enough when it feels in danger, sion with them. That discussion never administration has defaulted to simply while reserving the right to criticize it for happened. The members were too busy killing most low-level terrorist operatives yelling at us and at one another. . . . In doing too much as soon as it has been with drones. the end, the Congress of the United made to feel safe again.” States had no impact on the shape of the Even that, the president hoped to stop: Hayden writes that the NSA terrorist- CIA interrogation program going for- He wanted to end what his top advisers surveillance program Stellarwind “cov- ward. Con gress lacked the courage or called “the Forever War.” He gave a ered a quadrant where we had no other the consensus to stop it, endorse it, or speech in May 2013 basically announc- tools.” And yet, after it was leaked and amend it. ing a victory over al-Qaeda and the end became controversial, congressional of the War on Terror. In the meantime, leaders who had been briefed earlier on His stories of the inane questions of the horror of ISIS was on the horizon; a the necessity of the program as part of some (kindly unnamed) members, and the few months after this speech, the presi- a mosaic of intelligence-gathering duplicity of, in particular, Nancy Pelosi, dent dismissed ISIS as “the JV team.” efforts wanted it only if it produced an Dianne Feinstein, and Jay Rockefeller, are Hayden writes: intercept that led to “our tackling a depressing, if unsurprising. sniper on a roof just as he was cham- There was a similar problem with the A president who at that point had con- bering a round. Anything short of that press. For a long while, Hayden and his ducted 85 percent of all secret drone was unconvincing.” Most members colleagues had succeeded in keeping strikes in human history called for limits, simply did not understand the nature of some programs known by the press transparency, oversight, and the near elimination of collateral damage from intelligence work—the building of a from being revealed, by engaging in a such strikes. A president who had been composite from thousands of pieces of constant dialogue with editors and pub- conducting global war for more than data from many sources, the risks in- lishers of the major newspapers about four years then called on Congress to herent in acquiring intelligence from the age-old tension between the watch- refine and eventually eliminate his shadowy enemies. dog role of a free press and legitimate authority to conduct that war by with- In the face of this widespread incom- government secrets whose revelation drawing and then reissuing a much more prehension on the Hill, Hayden was at would endanger sources and methods. confining Authorization for the Use of pains to explain “the near-absolute There too, the story ends ignobly, Military Force. inappropriateness of applying law- with the New York Times, for instance, enforcement models” to intelligence leaking word of the SWIFT terrorist- Bemoaning the pendulum swing of the work: “What might be admirable for a finance-tracking program in 2006. The past 15 years and yet recognizing the court system is unconscionable for an editor, Bill Keller, actually said outright constantly changing dynamics of public intelligence agency.” that the president was now politically opinion, political support, and strategic Hayden, more than any other NSA or weaker than he used to be and that it circumstances, Hayden writes: “What we CIA director, sought out Congress and was therefore now more feasible to leak need here is a dial, not a switch.” the public to try to build a political word about SWIFT. The paper of record Hayden is not entirely optimistic that consensus around the more controver- subsequently ran an editorial bemoan- an open, democratic society with a sial intelligence programs. The short- ing a “seemingly limitless stream of cash yearning for transparency and instant lived and seldom-used (a total of three flowing to terrorist groups.” Hayden gratification can sustain difficult, risky, detainees were waterboarded) CIA writes: “Thanks for the suggestion. Talk and controversial intelligence programs enhanced-interrogation program was about hypocrisy.” that “play to the edge”: shut down before Hayden even became Hayden attests throughout the book CIA director, and yet he still sought to to the operational utility of all these American intelligence routinely assumes build political and public consensus Bush-administration programs and that it is operating with at least the for it—persuading President Bush to dis cusses the attacks that they most implied sanction of the American peo- speak about it in a televised address in certainly prevented. Even so, the Demo - ple. Its practitioners believe that if the American people knew everything it was September 2006. He believed that since cratic Congress elected in 2006 chipped doing, it would broadly have their sup- the intelligence community “was serv- away at them until, by the end of the port. We have always believed that we ing an executive with a bolder view on administration, “we had finally suc- worked with some manner of consent of how to conduct the conflict than many ceeded in making it so legally difficult the governed. Now the governed are in the legislature,” such a consensus and so politically dangerous to grab and reconsidering how they want to grant was necessary. hold someone that we would simply that consent. That did not work, even when Hayden default to the kill switch to take terror- was prepared to pare down some oper- ists off the battlefield.” Hayden believes that the intelligence ational capabilities to gain some politi- It got worse, of course, with the tran- community needs to welcome a more cal support: sition of administrations and Candidate “cogent” and “complete” description of Obama’s campaign pledges to end the the terrorist threat and the countermea- I could afford to give up some things, wars and close the detention center at sures to it. His book is an important step especially if that led to the kind of Guantanamo. For the ensuing seven years, in that direction.

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BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS

of their foundations. Some, most notably force”), as if the organization were an Benefactors John M. Olin, created foundations with occupying army instead of a medium- term limits, ensuring that their founda- sized charitable foundation. She does this tions would not be captured and used by as an attempt at misdirection: She is With Great the Left after their deaths. As conserva- unable to provide any examples in which tive donors changed their tactics, liberals program officers of any conservative Wealth responded by attacking the legitimacy of foundation forced grantees to take posi- their donations. The latest to do so is New tions they would not have taken if they MARTIN MORSE Yorker staff writer Jane Mayer, who has hadn’t gotten foundation money. WOOSTER been writing pieces for most of this Since she can’t show that the Koch, decade critical of such conservative Bradley, and Scaife foundations control donors as Charles and David Koch and the conservative movement, she quotes North Carolina’s Art Pope. Dark Money several sources (such as conservative- expands on her previously published work turned-liberal David Brock) about how with additional material about wealthy terrible these foundations are. These conservatives’ donations to philanthropic sources provide no evidence of oppressive causes and to political campaigns. foundation control. Her highest-ranking The subtitle of her book contains two source is Ed Crane, who served as presi- errors in 13 words. The history she de - dent of the Cato Institute between 1977 scribes is not hidden and the people she and 2012, when he lost a vicious power writes about are not radicals. struggle and was forced to retire. Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Mayer believes that the entire conserv- Accord ing to Mayer, Crane said that Billionaires behind the Rise of the Radical Right, by ative movement is politically illegitimate. Charles Koch, Cato’s most generous Jane Mayer (Doubleday, 464 pp., $29.95) She refers to conservatives as “ultracon- donor, “thinks he’s a genius. He thinks servatives” and libertarians as “extreme he’s the emperor, and he thinks he’s wear- libertarians.” Her definition of “extrem- ing clothes.” But Crane offered no evi- HEN John D. Rockefeller ist” includes all writers for and editors of dence that Koch forced Cato fellows or gave $100,000 to the this magazine. Here is how she describes authors to come up with conclusions dic- American Board of For - the Bradley Foundation in the 1990s: “a tated by the donor. eign Missions in 1905 to righteous combatant in an ideological Mayer also loves quoting anonymous Wsupport Congregational ministries over- war.” The foundation was “an activist sources for rumors that are too good to seas, his critics seized on a piece the force on the secondary-school level, too,” check. She claims, based on the account Congregational Church’s moderator, the she says. “The Bradley Foundation vir- of an unnamed “family acquaintance” of Reverend Washington Gladden, had writ- tually drove the early national ‘school- the Kochs, that Fred Koch, Charles and ten a decade before, in which he had choice’ movement, waging an all-out David Koch’s father, was so in love with denounced giving by the rich as “tainted assault on teachers’ unions and tradi- Germany that he brought back a German money.” These fortunes, Gladden had tional public schools. In an effort to governess to watch over his two oldest charged, were acquired “by methods as ‘wean’ Americans from government, the children, Frederick and Charles. The terri- heartless, as cynically iniquitous as any foundation militated for parents to be fying Teuton, she says, enforced “a rigid that were employed by the Roman plun- able to use public funds to send their chil- toilet-training campaign” and delighted derers or robber barons of the Dark Ages.” dren to private and parochial schools.” in reading the Koch children scary Ger - “Is this clean money?” he asked. “Can any But what did the Bradley Foundation man fairy tales. Mayer claims that this man, can any institution, knowing its ori- actually do? It funded early research on woman stayed with the Koch family until gins, touch it without being defiled?” school choice, including John Chubb 1940, when she returned to Ger many in Liberals waged war against Rocke - and Terry Moe’s influential 1990 book ecstasy over the Nazi occupation of feller, Andrew Carnegie, and other great Politics, Markets, and America’s Schools. France. Her legacy, according to Mayer, philanthropists. The critics’ greatest tri- It awarded substantial grants in Mil - was inspiring in Charles Koch (born in umphs came when they persuaded these waukee to pay part of the tuition of stu- 1935) a “lifetime occupation” of “crusad- donors to create perpetual foundations dents in private schools, and other ing against authoritarianism.” It should with no restrictions on how the fortunes grants that allowed these schools to be noted that Mayer does not know the could be used; when the founders died, expand and to admit even more students purported governess’s name. the liberals seized outright control of with vouchers. The result, according to Mayer’s prejudices cause her to focus these foundations. the Philanthropy Roundtable, was that, as on shallow questions rather than deep In the 1970s, conservative donors began of 2015, 30,000 students in Milwaukee ones. For example, she is opposed to all to be smarter and exercised tighter control used vouchers to attend private schools conservative foundations’ funding of col- (there were smaller voucher programs in leges and universities. But she completely Mr. Wooster is the senior fellow at the Capital Racine and statewide). ignores the funding of professorships of Research Center. The Bradley Foundation funded his Note how Mayer salts her description of free enterprise, because these chairs are book Great Philanthropic Mistakes, and he has Bradley’s activities with military meta - funded by legions of smaller donors, and written for the Pope Center. phors (“all-out assault,” “an activist the existence of these donors disproves the

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idea that it is only a few mandarins who includes one minor and one major source. rate—charge based on that material is fund the Right. And yet: Free-enterprise Late in his life, Richard Mellon Scaife that in 1933 Winkler-Koch, the company professorships raise legitimate concerns wrote an autobiography, which was pri- that became Koch Industries, built an oil about whether their existence abridges vately printed and never made publicly refinery that became Nazi Germany’s academic freedom, since donors want available. Mayer obtained a copy, but third-largest. Koch Industries’ response them to go to supporters of the free- judging from the quotations she pro- is to note that many American compa- enterprise system. It is because donors vides, the book offers limited insights nies were doing business in Germany at dictate what free-enterprise professors into Scaife’s intentions. the time. Mayer also notes that, during may teach that Milton Friedman was able Her major discovery comes as a result World War II, Winkler-Koch developed to say (in a conversation with me for a of lawsuits between members of the Koch improved forms of aviation fuel that Wall Street Journal piece I wrote in 1990), family. Fred Koch, who founded the com- helped B-17 bombers smash German “I am opposed to chairs of free enterprise, pany that became Koch Industries, had industry. Mayer does show that Koch as I am to chairs of Marxism or socialism.” four children, who inherited the pri- Industries was fined several times for As for her book’s being a “hidden his- vately held company when their father pollution violations. tory” of foundations, Mayer relies for the died in 1967. In 1983, Charles and In short, Dark Money does little to most part on four readily accessible sec- David Koch bought out their brothers, prove its case about the nefarious influ- ondary sources, supplemented by articles Frederick and Bill Koch, for $800 mil- ence of charitable giving. It is a failure in periodicals. Her history of the Bradley lion. Bill Koch, thinking he had been because it has too much prejudice against Foundation is based primarily on John cheated, launched lawsuit after lawsuit conservatives and the conservative move- Gurda’s authorized history, published in alleging that Koch Industries had comment, and provides very little evidence of 1992. Her chapters on the Olin Founda - mitted environmental crimes. He also wrongdoing. That does not mean conserv- tion are based on John J. Miller’s autho- hired opposition re sear chers to investi- ative foundations should escape scrutiny. rized history A Gift of Freedom (2005). gate his brothers. In 2001, the Koch Foundations get far too little attention Her major source on Richard Mellon brothers agreed not to disparage one from the press. But journalists should look Scaife is a multi-part series published by another, and Bill Koch had to settle for at what charities are doing, and whether the Washington Post in 1999. Much of being a billionaire instead of a mega- their policies help or hurt our country, and her knowledge of libertarianism and billionaire. But all of the material Bill not just search for hidden manipulators. some of her material on Charles and Koch obtained prior to 2001 ended up in Above all, journalists should realize David Koch comes from Brian Doherty’s Mayer’s hands, and she eagerly uses it to that conservative foundations and their Radicals for Capitalism (2007). disparage Charles and David Koch. liberal counterparts are quite similar, ex - Her original material, besides inter- But the Bill Koch material includes cept that liberal foundations are far larg- views that provide much in the way of little that concerns the Koch brothers’ er than conservative ones. The Bradley indignant rhetoric but little evidence, chari table giving. The major—and accu- Foundation has assets of almost $902 million. According to the Foundation Center, a nonprofit that compiles authoritative WOMAN AT A MOTEL WINDOW statistics on foundations, that makes it the 96th-largest foundation in the U.S. Frost from her breath on glass, By contrast, the ten largest foundations, Thin arteries made dark including such liberal stalwarts as the By a slow finger’s pass, Ford, Robert Wood Johnson, Hewlett, Are the hand’s speech, and mark Kellogg, Packard, and MacArthur founda- As something to be said tions, each have assets of over $6 billion. Her waiting emptiness. In some regards, liberals would do bet- She writes; behind her, a bed, ter to emulate the Right than to try to anni- On which her form’s impressed. hilate it. Mayer quotes Yale University Press director Steve Wasserman, who There’s no one to watch her letters explained that he tried to get left-wing Take form a moment only. donors to fund serious books but couldn’t What secrets she has set there Are legible to her only. do it because they were too busy trying to get noticed in Hollywood. “On the right, Is it the fear of dawn they understand that books matter,” Or something from the past Wasserman said—but the Democrats he Still present that she’s ndraw talked to weren’t interested in funding There, where it will not last? scholarship because they were “hostage to Each night’s a rented room, star personalities and electoral politics.” Each thought a humid blur, Ideas have consequences, and that And dawn lies in a tomb conservatives are willing to invest in the Scratching to be disinterred. development of ideas is a credit to them and something for which public-spirited —JAMES M. WILSON citizens should be grateful.

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THE NATIONAL REVIEW Sailing November 13–20 on Holland America’s Nieuw Amsterdam 2016 Post-Election Cruise Join Victor Davis Hanson, Allen West, Bing West, Heather Higgins, Steven Hayward, Dinesh D’Souza, Jonah Goldberg, Andrew McCarthy, John Podhoretz, Neal Freeman, James Lileks, Kathryn Lopez, Eliana Johnson, Charles Cooke, Kevin Williamson, Jay Nordlinger, Ramesh Ponnuru, Jim Geraghty, John Yoo, Kat Timpf, Rob Long, John J. Miller, John Hillen, David French, Ed Whelan, Reihan Salam, and Charmaine Yoest as we visit Ft. Lauderdale, Half Moon Cay, Cozumel, Grand Cayman, & Key West

t’s time for you to sign up for the National Review 2016 Editor Eliana Johnson, NR columnists Rob Long and James Post-Election Caribbean Cruise, certain to be the conser- Lileks, ace political writers Jim Geraghty, John Miller, and I vative event of the year. Featuring an all-star cast, this culture-scene reporter Kat Timpf. affordable trip—prices start at $1,999 a person (based on double No wonder we’re expecting over 500 people to attend (so occupancy), and just $2,699 for a single—will take place far over 150 cabins have been booked!). They’ll enjoy our November 13–20, 2016, aboard Holland America Line’s beau- exclusive event program, which will include tiful MS Nieuw Amsterdam. From politics, the elections, the presidency, and domestic • eight scintillating seminars featuring NR’s editors and policy to economics, national security, and foreign affairs, guest speakers; there’s so much to debate and review, and that’s precisely what • two fun-filled “Night Owl” sessions; our conservative analysts, writers, and experts will do on the • three revelrous pool-side cocktail receptions; Nieuw Amsterdam, your floating luxury getaway for fascinating • late-night “smoker” featuring superior H. Upmann cigars discussion of major events, trends, and the 2016 elections. (and complimentary cognac); and Our wonderful speakers, on hand to make sense of politics, • intimate dining on at least two evenings with a guest elections, and world affairs, include historian Victor Davis speaker or editor. Hanson, former Congressman Allen West, terrorism and defense experts Bing West, Andrew McCarthy, and John Surely, the best reason to come on the National Review Hillen, Independent Women’s Forum chairman Heather 2016 Post-Election Caribbean Cruise is the luminary line- Higgins, conservative author and moviemaker Dinesh up. But talk about accentuating the positive: As we did in D’Souza, best-selling author and policy expert Steven 2014, we’re planning to expand the cruise experience by Hayward, pro-life champion Charmaine Yoest, conservative adding even more conservative superstars to our overall event legal experts John Yoo and Ed Whelan , NRO editors-at-large package. On the night before the cruise—November 12th to Kathryn Lopez, Commentary editor John Podhoretz, former be specific—we will be hosting a special gala at the Ft. NR Washington Editor and WFB expert Neal Freeman, NR Lauderdale Marina Hotel featuring a number of conservative senior editors Jonah Goldberg, Jay Nordlinger and Ramesh titans who will be joining our editors for an exclusive (NR Ponnuru, NR essayists David French, Charles C. W. Cooke, cruise attendees only, and at that, limited to 300 happy people Kevin D. Williamson, and Reihan Salam, NR Washington on a first-come, first-served basis), intimate, and sure-to-be memorable discussion of the JOIN U S FOR SEVEN BALMY DAYS AN D C OOL CONSERVATIVE NIGH TS election results and their impact DAY/DATE PORT ARRIVE DEPART SPECIAL EVENT on America; all of that followed by a wonderful reception. SUN/Nov. 13 Ft. Lauderdale, FL 4:00PM evening cocktail reception Stay tuned for more informa- MON/Nov. 14 Half Moon Cay, Bahamas 8:00AM 4:00PM afternoon seminar tion. But be assured it will be a “Night Owl” session spectacular night. TUE/Nov. 15 AT SEA morning/afternoon seminars To be followed by a spectacu-

WED/Nov. 16 Georgetown, Grand Cayman 8:00AM 4:00PM afternoon seminar lar week of world-class cruising evening cocktail reception on the beautiful and luxurious THU/Nov. 17 Cozumel, Mexico 11:00AM 11:00PM morning seminar Nieuw Amsterdam, as it sails a late-night Smoker Western Caribbean itinerary that will include Ft. Lauderdale, FRI/Nov. 18 AT SEA morning/afternoon seminars “Night Owl” session Grand Cayman (always an ideal place to snorkel—you must visit SAT/Nov. 19 Key West, FL 8:00AM 5:00PM afternoon seminar evening cocktail reception Sting Ray City, or catch the other rays on Seven Mile Beach), SUN/Nov. 20 Ft. Lauderdale, FL 7:00AM Debark Half Moon Cay (Holland

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NEW SPEAKER—JOHN YOO! RATES START AT JUST $1,999 P/P! Superior service, gourmet cuisine, elegant accommodations, and OVER 150 CABINS BOOKED! great entertainment await you on the Nieuw Amsterdam. Prices are per-person, based on double occupancy, and include port fees, taxes, gratuities, all meals, entertainment, and admittance to America’s private island, home to a most pristine blue lagoon and and participation in all National Review functions. Per-person tons of fun), Cozumel (your gateway to the Mayan ruins at rates for third/fourth person in cabin (by age and category): Categories C to N 17-younger: $ 567 18-up: $ 748 Tulum), and Key West (with its beaches, beaches and Category VC 17-younger: $ 617 18-up: $ 798 beaches—and of course lime pie). Categories SS & SA 17-younger: $ 670 18-up: $ 851 And for those times when we are “at sea,” or you feel like staying on board, the Nieuw Amsterdam (need I say it offers well- DELUXE SUITE Magnificent quarters (from 506 sq. ft.) features use of exclusive Neptune Lounge, per- appointed, spacious staterooms and countless amenities, and sonal concierge, complimentary laundry/dry- hosts a stellar staff that provides unsurpassed service and sump- cleaning service, large private verandah, con- tuous cuisine?) has a classy, terrific spa, a must-attend Culinary vertible king-size bed, whirlpool bath/show- Arts Center, pools, luxury boutiques, plenty of nooks and cran- er, dressing room, large sitting area, DVD, mini-bar, refrigerator, safe, much more. nies to hide in with a good book, and, oh yeah, a casino! NR’s 2016 Post-Election Cruise will be remarkable, and Category SA affordable. Prices start as low as $1,999 a person, with “Single” DOUBLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 4,899 P/P cabins starting at only $2,699 (in many cases our rates are lower SINGLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 7,599 than we charged in 2012!). And they can go even lower: Get a SUPERIOR SUITE Grand stateroom (from 273 friend or family member to reserve a cabin (a single or a couple sq. ft.) features private verandah, queen-size bed who are first-time NR cruisers), and you’ll receive an additional (convertible to 2 twins), whirlpool bath/shower, large sitting area, TV/DVD, mini-bar, refriger- $100 discount (and so will they). ator, floor-to-ceiling windows, safe, and If you’ve always wanted to go on an NR cruise but could never much more. pull the trigger, couldn’t send in the application, chickened out, for whatever reason, you’ve just got to give in. Make the Category SS DOUBLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 3,799 P/P National Review 2016 Post-Election Caribbean Cruise, the SINGLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 5,999 one where you finally yes. You will not regret that decision: Take the trip of a lifetime with America’s preeminent intellectuals, DELUXE OUTSIDE Spacious cabin (from 213 sq. ft.) policy analysts, and political experts. Reserve your cabin online features private verandah, queen-size bed at www.nrcruise.com. Or call The Cruise Authority (M-F, 9AM (convertible to 2 twins), bath/shower, sitting to 5PM EST) at 800-707-1634. Or fill out and mail/fax the appli- area, mini-bar, TV/DVD, refrigerator, and floor-to-ceiling windows. cation form on the following page. (Single and worried you’ll be a fifth wheel? Don’t: About a Category VA third of our contingent, a most happy and welcoming crowd, are DOUBLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 2,899 P/P single travelers.) SINGLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 4,299 We’ll see you—in the company of Victor Davis Hanson, Allen West, Bing West, Heather Higgins, Steven Hayward, LARGE OCEAN VIEW Comfortable quarters (from 174 sq. ft.) features queen-size bed (convertible to John Yoo, Dinesh D’Souza, Jonah Goldberg, Andrew 2 twins), bathtub/shower, sitting area, TV/DVD, McCarthy, John Podhoretz, Neal Freeman, James Lileks, large ocean-view windows. Kathryn Jean Lopez, Eliana Johnson, Charles C. W. Cooke, Kevin Williamson, Jay Nordlinger, Ramesh Ponnuru, Jim Category C DOUBLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 2,399 P/P Geraghty, Jillian Melchior, Rob Long, John J. Miller, SINGLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 3,299 Charmaine Yoest, David French, Ed Whelan, and Reihan Salam—this November 13-20 aboard the Nieuw Amsterdam on LARGE INSIDE Cozy but ample cabin quarters the National Review 2016 Post-Election Caribbean Cruise. (from 151 sq. ft.) features queen-size bed (convertible to 2 twins), shower, For more information or to apply online go to sitting area, TV/DVD.

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Japanese fleet in the Tsushima Straits If this seems a somewhat strained Facing between Korea and Japan, only to lose example of hubris in action, Horne one of the most lopsided sea battles in looks to be on firmer ground in his dis- history. On the contrary, Russia’s situa- cussion of Hitler’s invasion of the War tion was desperate: Its Pacific fleet at Soviet Union in June 1941. As Horne Port Arthur had already been destroyed points out, Hitler assumed that the ARTHUR L. HERMAN by the Japanese under the gifted admiral blitzkrieg tactics that had led to such Heihachiro Togo, Russian land forces stunning, swift success in France the had suffered a crushing defeat at the previous year would crush the Soviet battle of Mukden, and Port Arthur it - Union in a few short months. Instead, self, Russia’s most important Asian the German war machine got bogged outpost, was being strangled by a seem- down in the vast distances of Russia ingly un breakable siege. and with the onset of winter ground to a Sending the quickly assembled Rus - halt at the gates of Moscow, in time for sian fleet, with its untrained crews and Stalin’s armies to recover and adminis- un tested ships, was a last roll of the ter the first decisive defeat of German dice. As Horne tells the story, it seems forces—more decisive in the long run, obvious that the fleet’s real problem Horne argues, than the later defeat at was a prolonged run of bad luck almost Stalingrad. As 1942 started, he writes, from the moment it left St. Petersburg “the myth of the invincible blitzkrieg Hubris: The Tragedy of War in the Twentieth Century, by Alistair Horne (Harper, 400 pp., $28.99) Unfortunately, the book’s thesis INCE Thucydides, historians simply doesn’t bear up to close have looked for a moral pat- tern in the dynamics of war in examination. One man’s hubris, after their own time, with decidedly all, is another’s self-confidence. Suneven results (see, for example, Barbara Tuchman’s March of Folly). For Thucydides the war in question harbor, plus the fact that Togo was a had been shattered,” while Hitler’s de - was the Peloponnesian War. Although true admiral of genius, a Japanese cision to take personal command of the Iraq and Afghanistan barely get a Nelson who managed to sink all eight conduct of the war, down to deciding mention in distinguished historian of Rozhestvensky’s battleships and de - the disposition of individual divisions, Alistair Horne’s new book, they evi- stroy or capture 20 other Russian ves- only set the hubristic stage for further dently cast an enormous shadow over sels, with only three torpedo boats lost, disastrous decisions that finally doomed his approach to understanding the rela- 117 sailors killed, and 583 wounded— Ger many in the war. tionship between success and failure all but wiping out Russia as a major Still, it’s worth noting that if the inva- in military conflict. Unfortunately, the maritime power. sion of the Soviet Union had started in book’s thesis—“Wars have generally Horne’s description of the battle is April or May, as originally planned, in - been won or lost through excessive gripping: “As twilight set in and light stead of late June, Hitler’s armies could hubris on one side or the other”—simply began to fail, Togo decided . . . to pur- have surrounded Moscow well before doesn’t bear up to close examination. sue Rozhestvensky’s crippled fleet with the snows fell and before the offensive One man’s hubris, after all, is another’s his plentiful torpedo boats. They cir- lost its initial momentum. But Hitler’s self-confidence. cled like prairie wolves bringing down attention that spring was diverted in - And the examples Horne cites, from a great buffalo, scurrying about at high stead to Yugoslavia and Greece, where the Russo–Japanese War of 1904–05 to speed and with all the precision of he had to send his Panzers to salvage the Korean War, don’t always seem to months of hard training for this one Benito Mussolini’s deteriorating posi- fit even his secondary theme, that “the engagement.” And he does argue force - tion there, forcing the fateful delay. The exuberance that follows victory all too fully, if not entirely convincingly, that real failure of Operation Barbarossa easily leads to the wrong decision.” Togo’s overwhelming victory went on might have had less to do with Hitler’s Exuber ance doesn’t seem actually to to inspire Japan to launch a 35-year hubris than with misplaced loyalty to a have played much part in the decision career of empire-building that led ulti- fellow dictator. by Russia to send a fleet of 50 warships mately to a long, costly land war in But it’s when Horne takes up on an 18,000-mile voyage from the China, and to an even more disastrous Douglas MacArthur’s conduct in the Baltic to the Pacific to defeat the sea war with the United States. (Horne Korean War that his case seems weak- reminds us that one of the young lieu- est. Unfortu nately, Horne falls for the Mr. Herman is a senior fellow at the Hudson tenants at Tsushima was Isokoru standard view about MacArthur in Institute and the author of the forthcoming book Yamamoto, the future architect of the Korea—purveyed by, among other Douglas MacArthur: American Warrior. attack on Pearl Harbor.) sources, William Manchester’s uneven

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BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS

and outdated biography—as a vain, out blow to the Americans, with no pompous “American Caesar” who, fewer than four Chinese armies pour- There and after his stunning success with the sur- ing into Korea. prise amphibious landing at Inchon in MacArthur’s retreat back down the September 1950, which led to the col- Korean peninsula, which Horne de - Back Again lapse of North Korean forces, rashly scribes mistakenly, as many historians decided to pursue the enemy across the do, as “the Bug-Out,” actually gave ELIZABETH ALTHAM 38th parallel and up to the border with his forces time to regroup and later Red China, despite warnings that this resume the offensive—which they did might precipitate Chinese intervention. under Ridgway, whom MacArthur had That intervention swiftly came in appointed to head the Eighth Army and November and December, forcing a who, like MacArthur, saw final victory disastrous headlong collapse of U.N. over both China and North Korea as a forces—so the conventional story realizable goal until the Truman admin- goes—until finally the new comman- istration yielded to Euro pean demands der of MacArthur’s Eighth Army, for a negotiated settlement and a divid- Gene ral Matthew Ridgway, managed ed Korea. It was MacArthur’s outspo- to stem the tide and MacArthur himself ken criticism of a policy that traded was removed from command. victory for stalemate that finally cost In point of fact, virtually every part him his job, not incompetence—let The Chestry Oak, by Kate Seredy of the conventional story is untrue. alone hubris. (Purple House Press, 254 pp., $12.95) Horne writes, “How different world Indeed, if anything displayed full- history might have been if MacArthur fledged hubris on MacArthur’s part, it S I think back on all the years had had the good sense to stop at the was his highly successful landing at during which, as a child, I Thirty-Eighth Parallel.” In truth, there Inchon in September. Operation loved good stories, and all the was almost no one in the Truman Chromite, as it was called, was done in years during which, as a administration at the time who didn’t defiance of the best judgment of all the Amother, I sought the best stories for my want MacArthur to cross the parallel experts, including the Joint Chiefs and children, and all the years during which, into North Korea, to finally destroy the even the generals and admirals in as a teacher, I have done the same for remaining Communist forces and to charge of the operation—even, one other people’s children, I do not find a bet- complete the unification of the penin- could argue, in defiance of nature her- ter story than Kate Seredy’s The Chestry sula under South Korean president self. (Inchon harbor had ex tremely vari- Oak, first published in 1948. Yes, it is Syngman Rhee. It was Secretary of able tides, which, if the timing of the quite as good as, though different from, Defense George Marshall himself who landing had been delayed by a couple of the Narnia books of C. S. Lewis, the best gave MacArthur permission to con- hours, could have left Ameri can forces of Hilda van Stockum, and good old duct the rest of the campaign as he saw stranded in the mud.) Yet Inchon was a Charlotte’s Web. fit, including moving his forces as great triumph, as Horne concedes. It In recent years, Puffin had the sense to close to the Chinese border as he triggered the collapse of the North reprint some of Seredy’s other excellent thought practicable—although he was Korean army and temporarily shattered books, but somehow Chestry remained supposed to use only South Korean Kim Il-sung’s regime, as U.N. forces out of print for decades, and the price of troops for the advance toward the Yalu. occupied Pyongyang. If Mac Arthur’s old hardcover editions rose above $300— (MacArthur did, but they were the first strategy of carrying the fight across the perhaps in some cases on account of the to collapse when the Chinese flooded border into Manchuria had been pur- book’s investment value, but for other across the border.) sued, the war might have spelled the end reasons, as well. At last, Purple House Nor was it MacArthur’s move to - of Mao’s Communist regime as well. Press (its website is worth a visit) has ward the Yalu that precipitated Mao The British historian F. W. Maitland reprinted this splendid book. Intelligent, Tse-tung to enter the war. As we now once remarked that “it is very hard to critical-minded, well-read adults are cry- know from Chinese sources, Mao was remember that events now long in the ing and laughing over it, all over again. As preparing for a full-out war with the past were once in the future.” This is I write, the boys in my junior-high United States from the moment the equally true of actions in the recent English class are doing that, too; and first American troops arrived in South past, including the decisions to invade many of the students in our high school Korea to halt the North Korean inva- Iraq and Afghanistan. Retrospectively are wishing they could read it again. (Of sion, in late June 1950. Mao wanted his assigning the quality of hubris in order course they can, once they get through generals to attack as early as August, to explain them seems to ignore Mait - their AP exams, this spring.) when American forces were still well land’s salutary warning. Alistair Horne south of the 38th parallel, but they, is a great and gifted writer, and fans of Elizabeth Altham is a writer and an instructor at rightly mindful of American military his work (including this reviewer) Sacred Heart Academy in Rockford, Ill. She is a power, stalled. Mao was forced to wait would want this book, his 24th, to be former editor of Sursum Corda and the author of until November before delivering what the best of all. Sadly for all of us, The Misplaced Spy, a young-adult spy story of he assumed would be the fatal knock- Hubris is not. the Cold War.

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The story begins in Hungary just In a fearful chapter, Michael is lost, before World War II, when Michael, a escaping from an air raid that kills the JAY NORDLINGER’S hereditary prince, in line to rule a Nazis in Chestry Castle and destroys the small valley, is very young indeed. His castle. He goes from camp to camp of dis- CH I LDR E N nurse, Mari Vitez, a splendid and placed persons, and is adopted at last by important character, tells him again, a farm family in northern Vermont. (Here of M ON S T E R S for it is one of Michael’s favorite sto- the new edition’s jacket detail is wrong: ries, of the night he was born. “God’s Country” means the Northeast An Inquiry into the Sons Michael’s father, the Prince, chose her Kingdom of Vermont, not the Hudson and Daughters of Dictators to be Michael’s nurse, that night, Valley of New York.) because she put into words the strength As the son of a prince first beloved of the people of the valley: “Look upon and then hated, and then as an orphan, us and listen. We are the furrow and the and then as an adopted son on an harvest; we are the spring. . . . We are American farm, Michael confronts the roots and the mighty tree. We are the perennial literary theme of pater- the bedrock and the stones that made nity, identity, and destiny. Also, since the castle. . . . We are the sword, the Sugarloaf Mountain in Vermont resem- plough, the cross upon the spire of bles Chestry Hill, and the beautiful the church.” farmland of the Northeast Kingdom Very early in the book, Nazi officials resembles Chestry Valley, Michael make Chestry Castle their headquarters finds the old theme of there-and-back- The prose is perfect: vivid and often poetic. t’s a fascinating question: What’s it like to be the son or daughter of a dictator? for the occupation of Hungary and even again, in a chapter titled “My Valley The offspring of a . . . Stalin? Or Mao? for the direction of the invasion of Found Me.” Michael finds again the IOr a tin-horn dictator from an African hell- Russia; Michael’s father is universally English language that he loved as a hole? Jay Nordlinger’s answers to these and other questions are engaging, witty, insight- considered a collaborator. Michael’s child, as well as the GI who met him in ful, and make for a hell of a good read. beloved French and English tutors are a displaced-persons camp and sent Here’s praise from outstanding historians for replaced by a German officer, who par- him to a new home; the theme of lost- Jay and his outstanding book: ticipates in the rule of the castle. An and-found is very strong. I refuse to MARK HELPRIN: “A magnetic page- elderly servant, Antal, grieves that spoil the story by mentioning how turner that nonetheless is complex and deep. The fascinating and horrific details Michael’s mind is being poisoned; Mari beautifully Seredy brings in the theme Nordlinger unearths flow together to pose Vitez assures him: “There is nothing of redemption. important and disturbing questions about they can do during the day that I cannot All of this makes for an excellent book love, loyalty, history, and human nature.” undo at night.” to teach to children, as I have done with ANDREW ROBERTS: “This extraordi- Among the matters the Nazis cannot this volume many times. But the book is nary book makes us all ask of ourselves: What would we do if we realized that our undo is the old, old story of the first actually much better than that would beloved father was also a blood-stained Prince of Chestry, who was given his suggest: Even the minor characters are tyrant? . . . Jay Nordlinger’s exceptional title and his land by Saint Stephen of beautifully drawn, and the major ones investigation into the children of 20 mod- ern dictators grips and convinces.” Hungary, in the shade of the now ven- are inspiring, both heroic and believable. erable tree, the Chestry Oak, in A.D. Seredy gives them humor, too—often PAUL JOHNSON: “Jay Nordlinger is 1000. Seredy has Michael tell that the humor that freedom-loving people one of America’s most versatile and pun- gent writers.” story to another old retainer, just as a use to assert their humanity, and their young boy would tell it, and of course sense of reality, in the face of tyranny. The late ROBERT CONQUEST: “Few writers are well qualified to write about English teachers rejoice at the chance When Michael’s Nazi tutor pins to the the world’s cultures, and none more so to identify the theme of the past alive castle bulletin board the 40th report that than Jay Nordlinger.” in the present. heroic German forces have again taken BERNARD LEWIS: “Nordlinger Each Prince of Chestry is bound to far more of Stalingrad in street-to-street offers a unique combination of depth plant an acorn of that tree on his seventh fighting, Mari Vitez observes that Stalin - and accuracy of knowledge with clarity birthday, but Michael’s acorn will not grad must be a very large place, larger and elegance of style. It is a pleasure to read sophistication without affectation.” be safe, if planted during the war; more- even than Russia. over, it flies from the old oak onto The prose is perfect: vivid and often Michael’s saddle with “wings,” oak poetic. Seredy is making the boys in my ORDER TODAY AT leaves, and Mari says this may mean junior-high classroom believe in the AMAZON OR AT YOUR Michael will have to plant his acorn far Chestry motto: “Fear none but the Lord; LOCAL BOOKSTORE from the valley. harm none but evil.”

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BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS Film Black Box

ROSS DOUTHAT

OU’VE seen this movie be - fore. An attractive young woman, one of those ingénue actresses you kind of recog- Ynize but can’t quite place, decides to run out on her fiancé. Maybe he’s abusive, we’re not sure, but we watch her clearing her things out of their apartment in a rush, leaving her engagement ring on the counter, grabbing a bottle of Scotch (remember that bottle) on the way out the door, and then driving, driving, out Mary Elizabeth Winstead and John Goodman in 10 Cloverfield Lane of a city and into the deep country: woods, fields, nobody to call, nobody to help—the dark territory of Norman Bates all suggest that the answer might be a movie was conceived (or reconceived, and Leatherface and the other monsters strong H-E-double-hockey-sticks no. actually, since it derived from a preexist- of our national gothic. Which is why our heroine (Mary Eliza - ing script) as a spiritual successor to that She stops at a gas station, a truck looms beth Winstead, a name you’ll probably hit, not a sequel but a kind of anthology- up beside her, she shrinks from its head- recognize next time) spends her first few series sibling, with the same kind of lights. She drives on, her phone buzzes, hours underground plotting her escape, teasing marketing campaign, the same her boyfriend begs and pleads—and then assuming that she’s been taken by a mad- promise of a big reveal. wham, something hits her, her car spins man for whom the apocalypse is just a Without spoiling that reveal, I’ll just off the road, and she blacks out. cover story. say that (as so often with Abrams’s sci-fi When she wakes up she’s in a bare, But wait: She’s not actually alone twists and narrative black boxes) the end- windowless, concrete room, stripped to with him, there’s another bunker-dweller, ing isn’t the best part of the movie, and her white un dershirt, hooked up to an IV, the drawling, friendly Emmett (John if you’re expecting something mind- and chained to the wall. Her cell phone Gallagher Jr.), a local boy who helped blowing that basically rewrites every- is there, but there’s no signal. All she can Howard build the thing, who concedes thing you’ve seen—well, don’t. do is wait, helpless and alone, for her that their host is a little crazy, but who also The twist is fun enough, it’s worth captor to appear. saw something crazy happening—lights waiting for, but the wait itself is actually Except that when he does appear, the in the sky, etc.—which is why he ran what makes 10 Cloverfield such a strange movie that you expect 10 Cloverfield Lane for shelter and begged Howard to take and interesting trip. Whatever lurks to be from its opening sequence—a con- him in. Is Emmett on the level? If not, beyond the bunker door, the movie’s ventional horror movie, pitting a fetching the men are running a pretty complicated strength lies in the slow unpeeling of the young woman against some kind of rural plot. And what about those reports on the layers of crazy underground, the devel- malevolence—collapses into something radio as she was driving, about blackouts opment of Goodman’s character from an considerably more interesting. The cap- along the Gulf Coast? And when she apparent psycho to a semi-sympathetic tor, it turns out, doesn’t think he’s a cap- finally makes it to the bunker door, what prepper to, well, just watch the movie and tor at all: He’s our heroine’s rescuer, he she sees outside . . . you’ll find out. tells her (along with his name: it’s Best to stop there, because of course The cast is very good: Winstead’s cool Howard), because they’re in his survival- the suspense about What’s Out There is watchfulness once her character’s panic ist bunker and the entire world outside crucial to the movie, and 10 Cloverfield subsides, Gallagher’s weirdly off-kilter has been nuked or carpet-bombed or poi- Lane is good enough that its mysteries charm, and the lumbering, ugly charis- soned or otherwise rendered unfit for deserve respect. The title suggests some ma that Goodman always brings to bear. human habitation. connection to 2008’s Cloverfield, the Imagine being trapped underground with Is he telling the truth? The facts that found-footage Godzilla movie about a Walter Sobchak from The Big Lebowski, he’s clearly paranoid, that he controls all collection of whiny Millennials scam- with only his word to go on about the fate the means of communication into and pering through the destruction of New of all of human civilization. That’s 10 out of the bunker, and that he’s played York, and there is a connection: They Cloverfield in a sentence, and if it doesn’t PARAMOUNT PICTURES by a scowling, bearded John Goodman share a producer, J. J. Abrams, and this tempt you to see it, nothing will.

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the ditch, poking through the snow crust, re-root it on ours. It survived the move, Country Life were these short, stout points, like the but so far seems content not to propa- domes of tiny Eastern Rite churches. gate. For the springtime floor show we Skunk cabbages generate their own heat, will have to take the mill road. Forward 30 degrees above the surrounding temper- Winter kept us warm, wrote Eliot, in ature. They rise through the freeze, if there one of the sadder lines of a deeply sad With Spring is any. Their warmth attracts flies and spi- poem. So it does, if you work at it, as we ders, the first bugs to stir. So does their all do. We bundle up, set the thermostat, smell, and their color—a dark streaky red, buy cars with programmable fanny warm- as of something recently alive. ers in the seats. When I was a little boy, To pollinate, they play dead: Liebestod. still in pajamas with feet, I would crouch The helpful bugs enter the hood through a by the vent in the bathroom when the fur- convenient crack and find the flowers, a nace came on, like some puppy in a box cluster of nubs shaped like a small mic. We with a clock. You tamp down, you bur- turn away so as not to see them become row in. You are thrown back on yourself, NSFW. Then snow becomes a stream (it is and on your family and friends. Horace easy to see how the ditch became a skunk- and Milton both wrote about having a cabbage community: spring after spring drink by the fire when it’s lousy outside. RICHARD BROOKHISER the seeds flowed downhill). The leaves “Broach the cask which was born with sprout and flourish in May. By August, myself in the year / Of the Consul NOWDROPS and crocuses flower they shred, turn black and slimy, and rot Torquatus.” “Now that the fields are dank, so briefly we forget them, until away; the plant is lost from sight. and ways are mire, / Where shall we next year they return, sprouting A question that naturally occurs up - sometimes meet . . . ?” Tolkien and friends through the dead-leaf paper state—land of off-grid refugees—is, Is Sthat is earth’s end-of-winter floor cover- any part of the skunk cabbage edible? ing: dozens of bright beings, each saying Would boiling or drying forestall the Me again. burning sensation? When the Koch broth- But these early bloomers are garden- ers wither, can we feed ourselves? I took ers’ exotics, which first grew in Europe, a course once in eating the woods. It turns Turkey, or central Asia. They are immi- out that quite a number of wild plants can grants, doing jobs American wild flow- be eaten, though the number that can be ers won’t do. In this part of the world, enjoyed is smaller. Dandelion leaves, if the homegrown herald of spring is the you get them young, are worth the trouble; skunk cabbage. morels, if you are lucky enough to find In the country there are three kinds of them in an old apple orchard, are definitely roads—state roads, county roads, and worth it. Beyond that, you come pretty roads. One of the last, named for a long- quickly to menu placeholders. We are gone mill, dives down off the state road, stuck with meat and the market, it seems. crosses a sluggish brook, then rises again Many wild plants were also reputed to called themselves Coalbiters, meaning to run between two fields before arriving have medicinal uses. Some undoubtedly they sat with their feet by the fire to recite at the surprising waterfall—30 feet if it is do, though I also doubt many of the claims the sagas. If you have to go outside to get an inch—where the mill must have stood. that were made in old-time herb books firewood, you glance at Orion and hurry. Halfway along this course there is a road- and pharmacopeias: The lists of the ail- Then earth turns over. Nothing is said, side ditch, thick with skunk cabbages. ments that plants cured strike me as lists but everything knows. It doesn’t snow, it The name of the plant describes its of the ailments that settlers had (cough- rains; when it rains, it doesn’t sting. The mature splendor. The leaves are quite ing, stomach ache, toothache). Hope wind rushes, but it does not slap. Your gaudy for something that is not tropi- sprang from need, and the most common hat sits in your coat pocket, unused. The cal—two or even three feet long, over a cure, not listed, was probably whiskey. pine boughs in the window boxes look foot wide. They spread and flare a bit Many a wild meal or medicine also old; you take them out and burn them. more than true cabbage leaves, as if offer- required a lot of preparation (see boiling The birds that wintered over are louder, ing to fan some woodland Cleopatra. and drying, above), which was fine, if you brighter. The moon’s sharp edges are She better not put them in her salad, were a pioneer wife with ten children. For fuzzed with mist. Commerce and law though: Crush them and they smell, chew the record: Leave skunk cabbage alone. follow creatures and weather. In super- them and her mouth and throat would A question that naturally occurs to market displays, leprechauns give way to burn—whence “skunk.” upstate second-homers is, Can we have chocolate rabbits; clocks spring ahead, The big leaves come later. Skunk cab- one of our own? We have a stream; could your devices and your TVs automatically, bages first appear as small hoods, only a we have our own skunk-cabbage proces- everything else by hand (your hand). few inches tall. My wife and I noticed sional? Easier said. The roots are deep We are alive again together. There

DURIVAGE them last winter, which was not severe but and tenacious. A gardener friend man- was a spring peeper on my front door: . M exceptionally long and stubborn. There in aged to extract one from his property and Jehovah’s witness.

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Happy Warrior BY DANIEL FOSTER The Trump Trainwreck

IVEN that there appear to be about 17 Buckleyite kept in thrall of economic policies they don’t support by the conservatives left in the smoldering ruin of elites’ half-hearted and insincere prosecution of the culture the Republican party presided over by Herr war. And that as soon as the curtain is pulled on the latter, G Trump, let’s pause and take a moment to reflect the jig is up for the former. on how impressive it was that we happy few managed to get So as we movement conservatives shout from the rafters so many of them to vote with us for so long. that Trump’s policies (such as they are) are statist and anti- Forty-odd years of marshaling these millions of Trump market, as we warn that his most ardent supporters are moti- voters to the causes of lower taxes, freer markets, and vated, to put it charitably, by white identity politics, these strong global leadership? That’s nothing to sneeze at, peo- commentators reply: “Precisely.” ple. Let us recall our modest policy victories fondly as the Is that us? Is the market for conservative ideas really so Trump goon squads level their T-shirt cannons at us—the small, and the pull of racial grievance really so strong? I Trump-goon-squad weapon of choice is the T-shirt can- don’t think so. I don’t think most elites are so insincere about non, you see—and the rhythmic chants of “You’re fired!” culture, or that most Republican voters are so indifferent to fill the air. limited government. I’ve written before that Trump’s coali- If I sound like I’m condescending to Trump voters it’s tion is too stochastic, too ideologically helter-skelter, for because I surely am. I have never pretended to be free of there to be some neat ideological explanation of the facts elitism, and in some matters I am a proud snob. But the we’re seeing unfold on the ground. (According to most exit relentless fervor of the Trump plurality in the GOP has left polls, they favor amnesty, for goodness’ sake!) me feeling dangerously like Pauline Kael, the New Yorker Maybe it’s just that people are easy marks. That just like critic who, lore has it, was shocked by Richard Nixon’s the femme fatale and the gigolo, the mooch and the Yes victory because she didn’t know anybody who had voted Man and the quisling, con men such as Donald Trump for him. exist for strictly Darwinian reasons, because there is a There are a lot of us chatterers who are only too late niche that they expertly fill, a flaw in our B.S. detectors coming to realize, like Stephen Stills, that there’s some- that they expertly exploit. thing happening here and what it is ain’t exactly clear. I Indeed, a big part of what pisses me off about Trump is just read David Brooks, for instance, lament at column how easy it is for him. How little he’s had to sweat. How length that maybe he doesn’t understand the American little he’s even bothered to try to make it look good. His people as well as he thought he did. And while I hold to campaign manager is caught on tape manhandling reporters the only slightly self-deluding conviction that my origins and protesters, and Trump responds, “Nope, didn’t hap- are surely earthier and more picaresque than Brooks’s, I pen,” and everyone just sort of nods and says, “Okay, good know exactly what he means. enough for us.” Nor is my bewilderment limited to my conception of the But I don’t think my Auntie Marge is a mark. I think she’s abstracted “ordinary American.” Even more confusing is the a deeply generous, deeply Christian woman of intelligence susceptibility of people I know, admire, trust—even love— and industriousness, a great mother and a patriot. And so too to the Trumpian phage. must most Trump supporters be decent. Jonah Goldberg has described this abiding, confusing But if Trump isn’t the result of a coherent ideological alienation of watching one’s friends and peers succumb to revolt or a confidence game executed at spectacular scale, Trump as akin to living through Invasion of the Body that leaves us with the possibility that Trump’s popularity is Snatchers. It’s apt. rooted—as the Free Beacon’s Andrew Stiles has put it—in I only really use Facebook, unlike Twitter, to keep up with the fact that he’s Donald Trump. That Trump is sui generis, friends and family. And so I usually keep it free of politics. and people either dig his style or don’t. That it isn’t really But I recently posted a perfunctory announcement—one I political at all. was sure was redundant—that I counted myself among the Of course, supposing that Trump is the product of forces Never Trumpers. Several members of my immediate family outside the usual dominion of politics makes him no less quickly responded with comments of this sort: “Really?” frightening or portentous a political force. Anton Chigurh, “That’s surprising, why not?” “Curious to hear your reasons.” the dread-inspiring force at the center of Cormac McCarthy’s Et tu, Auntie Marge? No Country for Old Men, shows us that there is as much Truth is, in my darkest moments, I wonder whether they evil in the cold inertia of the universe as there is in any were right about us all along. mustache-twirling mastermind. There’s a certain class of left-of-center commentators When Chigurh asks a young woman to call a coin toss for who relish Trump not because he will midwife the third her life, the victim protests. “The coin don’t have no say. Clinton presidency—though I’m sure they don’t mind that It’s just you.” Chigurh replies with a pitiless logic: “I got bit either—but rather because he seems to prove a central here the same way the coin did.” plank of their theory of the GOP: that the rank and file are Maybe Donald Trump did, too.

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