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Home , Andrew Wyeth, James Carville, Jim DeMint, John Derbyshire, National Review, Ramesh Ponnuru

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August 29, 2011 49145 $4.99

The “tolerant” assault on free speech

$4.99 M A R K S T E Y N 35

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AUGUST 29, 2011 | VOLUME LXIII, NO. 16 | www.nationalreview.com

COVER STORY Page 23 on the Tea Party p. 16 Gagging Us Softly When it comes to free expression, Britain, BOOKS, ARTS Canada, Australia, and Europe are ever & MANNERS

less lands of laws and instead lands of 39 ISN’T IT ROMANTIC? men—and women, straights and gays, Allen C. Guelzo reviews The Romantic Revolution: Muslims and infidels—whose rights A History, by Tim Blanning.

before the law vary 40 WAS BURKE A BURKEAN according to which CONSERVATIVE? Daniel Foster reviews Edmund combination of these Burke for Our Time: Moral various identity groups Imagination, Meaning, and Politics, by William F. Byrne. they belong to. 43 SOMETHING TO FEAR reviews The Fear COVER: SWIM INK 2, LLC/CORBIS Within: Spies, Commies, and American Democracy on Trial, ARTICLES by Scott Martelle. 16 A TEA-INFUSED PARTY by Ramesh Ponnuru 44 FAILURE OF DESIGN Of conservative , past and future. Arthur Herman reviews Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The 18 THE ROADMAP BACK TO AAA by Kevin D. Williamson Battle for the Soul of American Medicare and Medicaid cuts are not optional. Business, by Bob Lutz.

19 MAKING BELIEVE by 46 FILM: ROADS NOT TAKEN Our terrorism non-policy. reviews Another Earth. 21 AFLAME by Jonathan Foreman 47 THE STRAGGLER: What happens when you let teenagers run your country. A GLIMPSE OF HELL is surrounded by outlets. FEATURES 23 GAGGING US SOFTLY by Mark Steyn SECTIONS Have we no sensitivity for those who would be free? 2 Letters to the Editor 29 NOT A RACE CARD by Hans A. von Spakovsky 4 The Week Photo IDs are necessary to the integrity of our elections. 36 The Bent Pin ...... Florence King 37 Athwart ...... 33 BUILD, HOLD, AND CLEAR by Michael Auslin 38 The Long View ...... Rob Long An American strategy for Asia. 40 Poetry ...... Richard E. Trennert 48 Happy Warrior ...... Mark Steyn

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Lochner in Rehab

AUGUST 29 ISSUE; PRINTED AUGUST 11 Reading Joseph Tartakovsky’s review of David Bernstein’s Rehabilitating Lochner (“Rights EDITOR Richard Lowry Revisited,” July 4), I got the sense that both gen- tlemen embrace the proposition that the 1905 Senior Editors / Lochner decision was “a defensible application Ramesh Ponnuru / David Pryce-Jones of a long-standing natural-rights tradition of Managing Editor Jason Lee Steorts Literary Editor Michael Potemra individual liberty” and “that the logic of ‘liberty Executive Editor Christopher McEvoy National Correspondent John J. Miller of contract’ is really the logic of unenumerated Political Reporter Robert Costa rights . . . whose existence we deduce from prop- Art Director Luba Kolomytseva Deputy Managing Editors er understandings of liberty.” Fred Schwarz / Kevin D. Williamson First of all, the Lochner decision—in which Associate Editors Helen Rittelmeyer / Robert VerBruggen the Supreme Court struck down a state law lim- Research Director Katherine Connell iting how many hours bakery employees might Executive Secretary Frances Bronson Assistant to the Editor Christeleny Frangos work, and held “liberty of contract” to be a Contributing Editors Fourteenth Amendment right—has been justly Robert H. Bork / John Derbyshire Ross Douthat / / criticized because the justices “deduced” an erroneous understanding of the / Jim Geraghty / word “liberty” as used in the due-process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Florence King / Lawrence Kudlow / Mark R. Levin / Rob Long / Jim Manzi Liberty in the due-process clause had a defined meaning for the amendment’s Andrew C. McCarthy / Kate O’Beirne framers. It was passed down from Locke, Blackstone, and the founders, and was David B. Rivkin Jr. correctly cited by Justice John Harlan in Plessy v. Ferguson: NATIONALREVIEWONLINE Editor-at-Large Managing Editor Edward John Craig “Personal liberty,” it has been well said, “consists in the power of locomotion, of News Editor Daniel Foster Editorial Associates changing situation, or removing one’s person to whatsoever places one’s own Brian Stewart / Katrina Trinko inclination may direct without imprisonment or restraint unless by due course of Web Developer Gareth du Plooy Technical Services Russell Jenkins law.”

EDITORS- AT- LARGE Linda Bridges / John O’Sullivan As to the matter of “natural rights,” it is disheartening to read a favorable Contributors review in your magazine of a book that promotes that concept as an acceptable Hadley Arkes / Baloo / James Bowman / Priscilla L. Buckley consideration for the Supreme Court. I would think that conservatives would be Eliot A. Cohen / more likely to align themselves with an observation by Justice John McLean: “It Dinesh D’Souza / M. Stanton Evans Chester E. Finn Jr. / Neal B. Freeman is for the people . . . in making constitutions and in the enactment of laws, to James Gardner / David Gelernter consider the laws of nature. . . . This is a which judges cannot explore. . . . George Gilder / Kevin A. Hassett / Charles R. Kesler They look to the law and to the law only.” David Klinghoffer / Anthony Lejeune D. Keith Mano / Alan Reynolds / Tracy Lee Simmons James W. Cotter / Vin Weber Via e-mail Chief Financial Officer James X. Kilbridge Accounting Manager Galina Veygman JoSePH TARTAkovSky RePLIeS: I thank Mr. Cotter for his letter, but I would Accountant Zofia Baraniak Business Services observe, first, that Justice Harlan, cited by Mr. Cotter for his “correct” under- Alex Batey / Elena Reut / Amy Tyler standing of the word “liberty,” wrote a dissent in Lochner in which he agreed Circulation Manager Jason Ng WORLD WIDE WEB www.nationalreview.com that “liberty of contract” existed—he just felt it hadn’t been violated in this par- MAIN NUMBER 212-679-7330 SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES 386-246-0118 ticular case. Second, the sentence quoted from Harlan’s Plessy opinion is really WASHINGTON OFFICE 202-543-9226 a quote from William Blackstone, who, in his next sentence, told us that “per- ADVERTISING SALES 212-679-7330 Executive Publisher Scott F. Budd sonal liberty” was a “right strictly natural.” , contrary to Mr. Cotter’s Advertising Director Jim Fowler suggestion, does not merely shift control from the legislature to the courts— Advertising Manager Kevin Longstreet ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Paul Olivett that’s a positivism of a different kind. Rather, it requires that judges enforce the will of the people, as expressed in the Constitution, always. But when difficult PUBLISHER Jack Fowler questions arise—what, concretely, does that immortal document say about

CHAIRMANEMERITUS police searches through walls using heat-imaging technology?—natural law is Thomas L. Rhodes a wise and often unavoidable way to discern their intent. FOUNDER William F. Buckley Jr.

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

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Start Your Engines American Entrepreneur Sells off Silver Fortune

have a friend in the Midwest who lives life in the fast lane. Every time I talk to Ihim he tells me of some new adven- ture. He’s got great taste to boot. He has a particular passion for fast cars… really fast cars. More often than not he’ll call me while he rockets toward his ranch in his newest supercar. When he’s not driving himself, he’s checking in on the drivers from the Indy race team he used to own. I knew about his need for speed, but when he told me about his spectacular vintage Morgan Dollar collection, I Actual size was dumbfounded. is 38.1 mm A ‘few bags’ become thirty! To call my friend a coin collector is an amazing story. And now you can understatement. When he said he had a share in that history. We all want the few 1000-coin bags of silver coins I was finest things in life. It’s time to start your interested. When those silver coins turned of the sheer scale of collection today. out to be New Orleans Mint Morgan Silver this massive hoard, we have been able to Dollars from the 1880s I was intrigued. keep the price at a pre-frenzy level. Order Today Risk Free While they last, reserve your McClaren And when those few bags turned out to be 120-year-old Silver Dollars thirty, I was astounded. My buddy wasn’t Hoard New Orleans Morgan Silver Dollar sitting on a collection, he had a hoard! for as little as $85! MS62 for only $99.00 + S&H. Each coin Each of these silver dollars from the will bear the New Orleans mintmark and For a man who loves only the best McClaren Collection Hoard (named be dated 1883-1888 (dates our choice.) things in life, I guess I shouldn’t have for my friend’s beloved Mercedes SLR been so surprised. McLaren Supercar) are Brilliant You must be 100% satisfied with your Uncirculated Morgan dollars that look as order, or simply return it within 30 days by One of the largest Silver Dollar fresh as they did when they were struck by insured mail for a prompt refund of the hoards in decades the U.S. Mint in New Orleans over 120 purchase price. For serious numismatists, hoards can come years ago. The coins were submitted to the McClaren Hoard New Orleans Morgan around once in a lifetime. Silver hoards are Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) Silver Dollar MS62 $99.00 plus s/h enormous collections of coins that have for certification, grading and encapsula- been stored away, often secretly, for safe- tion. Once inspected, they were awarded Order more and SAVE! keeping. With silver prices steadily rising the Uncirculated grade of Mint State 62 Half Banker Roll (10 coins) $95.00 ea. over the past few years, many silver hoards (MS62) for their amazing quality. plus s/h SAVE $50 have been sold off. Full Banker Roll (20 coins) $85.00 ea. My fast-lane friend worked for 25 years to plus s/h SAVE $280! Most assumed that hoards of Morgan amass this huge collection. He scoured the Silver Dollars were a thing of the past… country looking for the finest Morgan Toll-Free 24 hours a day until now. Silver Dollars. He did that work for you— and this hidden silver treasure is now with- 1-888-201-7087 Morgan Dollars are some of the most cov- Offer Code MCM126 in your reach. These coins are over 100 Please mention this code when you call. eted coins on the market today. And with years old—but they can now be yours for the hot silver market, most dealers cannot a little as $85! keep Morgan Dollars around for long. Due to this heavy demand, especially for the These Morgan Dollars have been extraordi- 14101 Southcross Drive W. finest quality pieces, the price of many nary pieces of American history for over Dept. MCM126 Morgan dollars has gone up dramatically 120 years. The remarkable McClaren Burnsville, 55337 in the last six months alone. But because Hoard has added another chapter to their www.GovMint.com

Prices and availability subject to change without notice. Past performance is not a predictor of future performance. Note: GovMint.com is a private distributor of worldwide government coin issues and is not affiliated with the government. Facts and figures were deemed accurate as of July 2011. ©GovMint.com, 2011 ® week_QXP-1127940387.qxp 8/10/2011 2:08 PM Page 4 The Week

n Who would have guessed that Moammar Qaddafi would outlive America’s AAA rating?

n Democrats have gone to extraordinary lengths ever since Republicans introduced legislation to scale back the collective-bargaining privileges of the state’s public-sector unions. Each time their unprecedented efforts have been thwarted. First Democratic state senators left the state to deny a quorum, until Republicans found a procedural remedy for the problem. Then Democrats mounted a campaign to deny reelection to a justice on the state supreme court in the hope of getting a liberal majority that would strike down the new law—only to see the justice narrowly win. Now six recall elections against Republican state senators have concluded. The Democrats needed to gain three seats to take control of the body, but won only two. The Democrats’ next move is likely to be to try to recall the governor, but they would be unwise to extrapolate too far from their two victories: One of the defeated Republicans had left his wife for a younger woman, and Democrats made the most of it. It has been a long and bitter fight, but so far Republicans have successfully vin- dicated an important principle: that the government’s work- force should not also be its primary constituency.

n The Tea Party has become, in the rhetoric of its critics, an agent of terrorism. “Never negotiate with terrorists,” wrote New York Times columnist after the budget deal, in a piece titled “Tea Party’s on America.” “We have his great strength as a not-quite-candidate, newness, is also a negotiated with terrorists,” said Rep. Mike Doyle (D., Pa.) in potential weakness. He is a blank slate both for Republican a meeting of the . “They have acted dreams and for the scribbles of opponents, right and left, as like terrorists,” Vice President Biden agreed. Nocera, to his the details of his life and personality become nationally credit, recognized that he had overstepped and apologized in known. Perry’s acquaintance curve will be short, steep—and a subsequent column. Biden, recognizing that he could be crit- not entirely under his control. icized for overstepping, denied using “the terrorism word,” com pounding shoddiness with cowardice. Politics is not, and n Unhappy days are here again as Democrats see the second never has been, for the faint of heart. But ten years ago, almost coming of FDR become the reincarnation of Jimmy Carter. 3,000 Americans experienced actual terrorism at the World The budget deal pushed left-wing unhappiness with Barack Trade Towers and the Pentagon and on Flight 93. Could the vice Obama up a notch. Sen. , the Vermont social- president and Representative Doyle honor the commemoration, ist, prescribed a structural remedy. “One of the reasons the in a few weeks, by keeping their mouths shut? president has been able to move so far [sic] to the right,” said Sanders on a radio talk show, “is that there is no primary n governor Rick Perry, a Republican, led a prayer rally opposition to him.” Sanders called for a candidate who could in Houston, formally ecumenical, in fact saturated with evan- show “what is a progressive agenda, as opposed to what gelical piety. He prayed for President Obama (“Impart Your Obama is doing.” The deeper fear, however, is not that Obama wisdom upon him . . . guard his family”); for the “loved ones” is trapped in a bad political dynamic, but that he is a bad and “warrior brothers” of special forces killed in Afghanistan; leader: weak, befuddled, unforceful. Maybe it was a bad idea for all who have lost “jobs,” “homes,” or “hope.” Pundits and to tap a tyro U.S. senator, a “present”-voting state senator, and political scientists can debate whether presidents should be a community organizer for the toughest executive job in the more like Thomas Jefferson writing the Danbury Baptists, or world. Franklin Roosevelt singing “O God, Our Help in Ages Past” on the deck of HMS Prince of Wales alongside Winston n A Chinook helicopter was shot down in Wardak Province

ROMAN GENN Churchill. Perry’s conspicuous convocation reminds us that in eastern Afghanistan, killing 30 special-forces members,

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THE WEEK including 22 Navy SEALs belonging to the same unit n The No Child Left Behind education reform enacted under (though not the same team) that killed Osama bin Laden. President Bush requires that all students be judged proficient Irony is the inevitable accompaniment to any long war. Eight in reading and math by 2014, but leaves it to each state to hundred eighty sailors died when the USS Indianapolis was define proficiency. The perversities of the law are many. States torpedoed in July 1945 between Guam and the Philippines. are encouraged to set the bar for proficiency low. They are dis- The ship had just delivered materials for “Little Boy,” the couraged from devoting time and money to making proficient atom bomb destined for Hiroshima. Ironists only comment students exceptional, or bringing subpar students closer to on , they do not win them. Our blows then were harder proficiency. The Obama administration has sought to make than the enemy’s, just as our blows are now. “It’s a combat changes that address some of these concerns, but Congress has incident,” said a Pentagon spokesman of the Chinook crash. not acted (including when Democrats had full control of it). So “We take casualties. . . . We still have the on the Education Secretary Arne Duncan is handing out waivers: If run.” states adopt education reforms to the administration’s liking they can of the act’s requirements. Perhaps this is the n For months now, journalists and legislators have been try- correct solution, although it gives the executive branch of the ing to pry information from the government about Operation federal government rather a lot of power over schools. But it Fast and Furious, the misguided sting operation in which does not appear to be a solution that the law permits: The act agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and does not confer such broad discretion on the secretary. If they Explosives deliberately allowed gun traffickers to purchase still teach civics, perhaps Secretary Duncan should be required weapons at gun shops and sell them to Mexican car- to prove his proficiency? tels. One important question: Was this bizarre plan hatched among a few ATF officials, or was knowledge of it wide- n London is burning, has imposed a curfew to spread? Recent congressional testimony by William Newell, contain racially charged “flash mob” rampages, and the a former ATF special agent who was in charge of the Phoe - Wisconsin State Fair, of all places, was the scene of a full-scale nix area, revealed that a raft of other federal agencies—the race riot. Transcripts of 9-1-1 calls from Wisconsin contain Department of Homeland Security, the Internal Revenue these observations: “There’s a white guy getting beaten up by Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and Im - about 100 black people”; “It’s like a fricking riot out there, migration and Customs Enforcement—were also involved. they’re jumping on our cars and everything”; “My mom just Add the to that list: Newell informed Obama’s got attacked by a black mob. . . . She’s bleeding a lot.” The national-security director for North America, Kevin O’Reilly, Milwaukee police chief conceded that “some people were sin- about the operation in an e-mail that began, “You didn’t get gled out for violence because of their race.” The Milwaukee this from me.” Instead of letting details leak out one at a time, NAACP put out a perfunctory statement calling for the redress the executive branch should let them out fast. We’ll supply the of the riot’s “root causes,” in the words of Reuters, but the fury. organization’s main concern at present is undermining a new law designed to prevent voter fraud. Some early media re - n About a year from now, insurance plans will be required to ports dutifully obscured the racial angle of the story, and lib- provide birth control—including the morning-after pill “ella,” eral commentators strayed predictably far from reality: A which seems to work as an abortifacient in some cases—free Mil waukee columnist called for more funding for programs of charge. This is thanks to new rules from the Department of that “offer an alternative for those who need outlets for their Health and Human Services, which is acting under the blank- rage and frustration.” The president of the local Urban League check authorization of Obamacare. Of course, insurance com- fretted that “we cannot allow this to divide our community panies don’t provide anything for free; any time they cover a along racial lines.” Attitudes like these do not cause criminali- new service or eliminate co-pays, they charge higher premi- ty, but they are the root cause of the authorities’ helplessness in ums to make up the lost revenue. So the department is forcing response to it. people who do not use birth control to subsidize it, through higher premiums, for people who do. The complications do n “Ignorance is behind the cri - not end there: It is unclear whether the mandate will override ticism of Sohail Mohammed,” state laws that require parental consent for minors who want says governor Chris birth control, and while the policy does allow for some reli- Christie, defending one of his judi- gious exemptions, many religious health-care providers will cial picks. “I’m tired of dealing not qualify for them. Meanwhile, it is hard to see what this with the crazies.” But Mohammed measure is supposed to accomplish; there is no evidence that has served on the board of the making birth control even less expensive than it is now will American Muslim Union, which decrease unwanted pregnancies or abortion rates. This is yet has, as NR’s Andrew McCarthy more evidence that Obamacare represents a takeover of points out on our website, “a NBC NEWS Americans’ health-care decisions, and deserves to be re - checkered past of rationalizing / pealed. jihadist attacks and supporting PLOWMAN jihadists.” Mohammed has been a . vocal defender of the Holy Land EDITOR’S NOTE: The next issue of NATIONAL REVIEW WILLIAM B / will appear in three weeks. Foundation and Sami Al-Arian,

both of which were found in court REUTERS

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THE WEEK to be involved in terrorism. The truly dangerous ignorance, in other Although there appeared to be some genuine dismay at the words, is behind this appointment, and it belongs to Governor shooting, the scale of the disruption suggests that the event Christie. was seized upon by anarchists and employed as a neat excuse for a general revolt. Home Secretary Theresa May did little to n London’s Tottenham neighborhood erupted into riots in inspire confidence when she refused to countenance using early August when locals responded with outrage after the water cannons to disperse the mob, instead assuring reporters police shot dead local man Mark Duggan. The disorder soon that she had a “different attitude to the culture of policing,” spread to other parts of the city, with shops being looted, and in Britain “the way we police . . . is through consent of buildings being set alight, and one man being murdered. communities.” When the will of portions of those communi- Competing for Last Place

S Paris Burning?” No, not yet. That smell (at least endowed with an abiding hatred of the Clinton admin - ‘I as of this writing) is London aflame (you can tell istration. Krugman notes that the appeal of competi - from the peatier notes to the smoke). Greece has tiveness lies in its power as a buzzword, not in its been a barely contained conflagration for about a year seriousness as an economic concept. Business audi- now. Italy appears to be a tinderbox. Japan is still reeling ences love to hear that running a country is like running a from the tsunami earlier this year. Oh, and China? Well, big corporation fighting for market share (it’s not). And China’s looking a bit iffy too. A recent high-speed-rail Americans like the idea of “beating” other countries at crash so vexed the leadership that it ordered the media this or that. to find only “uplifting” stories in the wreckage. Mean - But, most of all, liberal politicians love the concept of while, their economy is starting to competitiveness because it allows slow, inflation is starting to rise. them not only to avoid tough-and- This should all be awesome news dreary economic decisions, but to for America, right? I mean, if the plan pick exciting new “investments” that is to “win the future” by being more sound bold and visionary, making competitive than China and Europe, themselves seem cool and govern- then we should cheer every time one ment vital. We will beat the Chinese of our trading partners takes it in the by having faster trains that waste neck, right? money at three times the rate of Wrong. conventional trains! We will crush The idea that “competitiveness” is the Europeans with our windmills. vital to our economic health is bunk. Sure, they may be expensive, but If China spiraled out of control to - they’re really inefficient too! morrow with riots and civil war, that would be very bad for Competiveness empowers supposed internationalists China’s economy, hence good for our “competitiveness,” with the language of nationalism so they can get away but it would also be very bad for our economy (it could be with industrial policy. But being more competitive doesn’t in our long-term strategic interest, of course, but in the necessarily make an economy richer. Being more pro- short term it would be awful). ductive does. Other than doing such relatively boring If competitiveness with our trading partners is so zero- things as improving education (which is so not the same sum, why isn’t Obama citing the Japanese earthquake as thing as spending more on education), government’s role a boon to our economy? Because it wasn’t one. That’s in boosting productivity is modest at best. It can get out why he always mentions the disruption to the supply of the way, of course. If we opened up our domestic ener- chain as one of the causes of the downturn. Of course, gy resources, we might become less competitive in terms the downturn has more to do with other things, including of solar-panel production, but we would get richer. his craptacular economic policies. But he is not wrong I’m not sure whether President Obama believes the about Japan. Tom Friedmanesque competitiveness claptrap he spouts One hates to admit it, but one of the best things ever at every stump speech or simply sees it as useful spin for written on this point was an essay called “Competi - selling statism. I suspect it’s a little of both. Regardless, as tiveness: A Dangerous Obsession,” by New York Times the world burns around us, one thing is clear: Nobody’s columnist . He produced it for Foreign winning the future right now. Affairs in 1994, back when he was an interesting writer —JONAH GOLDBERG

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ERDOGAN: PLINIO LEPRI/AP THE WEEK THE forces he can draft it to suit armedhimselfthe brokenand having give constitution,and thethe changeweight to hetion wants thesecond republic begins.” Erdogan hasannounced hisinten- to . that this is the moment when “the first Turkish sayinghesitationrepublic no endshas columnist, andprominentAydintasbas, a reality.a Asli into coup a of fantasy the turn to intended they likelihood, they expected to be arrested themselves. Perhaps themselves. arrested be to expected they likelihood, many colleagues, they said, made their task impossible. In all impossible.In task their made said, colleagues,they many of the army, navy, and air force, resigned. The purging of so of purging The resigned. force, air andnavy,army, the of of the Turkish armed forces, and three other generals in charge arrests. Late at night and all of a sudden, Gen. Isik Kosaner,it trial headof strength has come to a head. Warrants are out for more arrest. So far, not one has been convicted in a court. The implic- Some 250 senior officers, including 40 generals, are under are generals, 40 including officers, senior 250 Some masdr o yi ad od sa t “tp h killing to run. the “stop to Assad told machine.” The Syrian tragedy and has a long and dangerous course Syria to ambassador his withdrawnleast atcountry, Sunnihas premier the Arabia, Assad is on “the wrong side of history.” King Abdullah of that remarkinappositeSaudi the inimpotence conceded has Obama President and do, Washingtoncan little is there say Officials up only with the customary weasel words “gravely concerned.” Pillay, supposedly commissioner for human rights, could come Navi egregious the and everything,”againstcategorically not Assad. condemn to Marvelously true to resolution stereotype, a United Russian a official said, The “We pass are even pitiful. cannot is Nations response world’s the spreads, folly sible to have an equally brutal sectarian revenge. As murderous the and Alawis are makingAssad sure that thesons. Sunnis will do everythinghis pos- and al-Bunni Walid like reformers arrestsAssadpromisespotentialotherhethereform, with and mouth his of side one Withpower. and water off cut to and artillery to shell the two Sunni cities of Hama andheavy Deir andal-Zour, tanks in brought have units population.Alawi the arethe majority Sunnis, who constitute about three-quarters of regime his of victims the and sect), Shiiteminority (a Alawis nothing in order to save his despotic rule. He is a memberat stoppingevidentlyof theis BasharAssad . to even some and Turkeyand Lebanonneighboring into fled have thousands of of Syria, and another 12,000 or so have disappeared. Some tens needed. is strategy another perhaps is ties to buildings, to set fire their n 0 1 Some2,000people havebeenshotthestreets deadfarin so | .nationalre .com o c w. e i ev r l a n o i t a n w. w w to overthrowgovernment.tothe everyone, and anyoneKurds, Christians, Greeks, volving in conspiracies - complicated of accused are forces armed wayaround a that obstacle. The devised has Erdogan and values, democratic and ular secdefending with army the - Theconstitution ister. charged Recep Tayyip of Erdogan, work its prime the min - is state sion of Turkey into an Islam ist n h so-oin conver- slow-motion The bureaucratic corruption. of mess tangled a is It imagines. Friedman triumph nocratic bullet-train line. China’s high-speed-rail network isn’t the tech- Beijing–Shanghaithe from embezzled been had yuan million 187 thatdiscovered OfficeNational Audit the and bribes, ing Earlier this year, rail minister Liu Zhijun was removed after tak- Friedman’s,forproject. er,China’sscandallatestpet the only people.malfunction,40killinga Yet causedstrikening is this light- a when Shuangyu in collided trainshigh-speed two 23, major cities.”connecting Today, trains it looks like China has missed high-speed its target. On of July “web country’s that tries. And they are right. are tries. they And in coun- any of their justice to reach trial this like any attempt half- seen and never have they saying are Half-thrilled everywhere Arabs shocked, Americans. the to thanks was that but executed, was Hussein Saddam possible. theoretically is to penalty The his death downfall. leading the uprising during demonstrators of killing the in complicity and corruption of accusation the refuted he anger Withsame. some the all bolic metal smallish a within may cage—which be placed standard but procedure, is mightily sym- and gurney, was, hospital a on certainly courtroom most Cairo a to he brought uniform, prisoner’s in humbled dressed But humbled. publicly be should president respected once and former the that of honor sense national the hurts it besides, and ill, mortally be to now, reported is he Eighty-three state. of head as years 30 his during misdeeds supposed for trial to brought be ever would he expected people fewer even and Egypt, of presidency the to resign Mubarak Hosni force would demonstrations popular gushed in the in gushed hr cud ady e better a be hardly could There tyranny).” the (that’s innocent the anarchy) so we control the control real criminals (that’s to refuse “we it, put he as that state of society in which, describe to “anarcho-tyranny” expression the coined Francis nlss rm h mda n h mtvs f hs Zambian these deep of a birthers. motives the await on We media the colonies. from analysis Malawi British and both Rhodesia Nyasaland, Northern was was Zambia born: were principals the when exist not did nations these since demic, aca- bit a seem disputes The president. as get years five likely another and run, will Banda court case. the highest dismissed now nation’s has The Malawian. was Kaunda’s, father, his like because him disqualifies it president claim Banda current of Rupiah opponents and though, play, in still is clause The Malawi. from came parents whose but president, then-ascendant the by first nation’s the been had who 1996 Kaunda, Kenneth of in enemies inserted was a the of of constitution clause both This Zambian-born. requires be to parents constitution candidate’s nation’s the and Zambia, n n n n The late paleoconservative Sam Back at the beginning of the that year, at Back the beginning expected few people “China is doing moon shots,” columnist Tom Friedman Tom columnist shots,” moon doing is “China n lcin s poig n h Arcn ain of nation African the in upcoming is election An New YorkNew Times last year. 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THE WEEK illustration of the phenomenon than the current rash of po - n The holy grail of automotive technology is the self- lice action against kids’ lemonade stands. Authorities in driving car. Big automakers are known to be experimenting Bethesda, Md., did not stop at merely closing down a stand, with computer-controlled vehicles. Software firms too: The but also hit the offenders’ parents with a $500 fine (which ubiquitous Google Inc. has been test-driving robotic cars on was later waived after public protest). There is life in the roads of for some time. The company recent- American democracy yet, though: In reaction against these ly boasted that its vehicles had logged 160,000 miles with- outrages, the website www.LemonadeFreedom.com has been out incident. Naturally everyone who follows these matters established. It offers an action guide for the harassed, is dili- has been waiting for an incident. One duly took place near gently logging lemonade-stand shutdowns nationwide, and Google’s Mountain View, Calif., headquarters on August 6 has declared August 20 Lemonade Freedom Day. That’s when a computerized Google Prius struck another, non- Americans for you: When life hands us anarcho-tyranny, we Google Prius, triggering a chain collision that damaged four make lemonade. cars. Fortunately no one was hurt. Before representatives of the anti-robot underground could begin to crow, however, n The Unemployed Phil - Google released a statement saying that the offending vehi- osophers Guild, a firm cle had been under manual control at the time. Human error, based in Brooklyn, has then. At least that resolves the cop’s dilemma of what to for some time been write on the accident report in the box for “driver.” sell ing novelty breath- mint candies with pun- n After ascending to the mayoralty of Sunland Park, N.M., ning names: Retire in 2008, Martin Resendiz pledged to “create a better tomor- Mints for oldsters, row” that would be “respectful and compassionate as well as Atone Mints for guilty fiscally well managed.” The border town of 14,000 is cur- sinners, Anti-Establish rently being sued by a California architecture firm that claims Mints for radicals, and it is owed $1 million for work on a series of projects com- so on. A co-owner of missioned by the mayor. But Resendiz has a defense: “The the firm, contacted by the day I signed [the contracts], I had way too much to drink. It , says they was after 5 P.M. . . . and I didn’t know what I was signing,” he “lean[] liberal”; and indeed, their website also features stated in a 2010 deposition. He further clarified: “Again, this Sarah’s (guess who) Embarrass Mints. They went too far, was after two or three hours of us drinking . . . not exactly the however, with a line of Disappoint Mints. The box carries best time to read over legal documents.” The deposition tran- a picture of President Obama and the question: “This is script was released last month after city attorney Frank change?” Seeing the Disappoint Mints on sale at a Uni - Coppler publicly accused the mayor of negotiating the deal versity of Tennessee bookstore, state representative Joe while inebriated. Resendiz has since issued a statement Armstrong (D.) took exception and forced the university to expressing his regret over Coppler’s “lack of professional- withdraw them. The story, when it came out, proved irre- ism.” sistible to punsters. They called for a new line of First Amend Mints with Representative Armstrong’s picture on the can, and for comments from U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint of n Hugh Carey had the makings of a fungible politician: a nearby . We decline to join in the low pun- last-century Irish Catholic Democrat, devoted to his 13 ning, noting only that if Armstrong’s actions are indicative, children, and to mainstream liberal politics. From 1975 to perhaps the Democratic party is in the market for some Sour 1982, however, he was a unique thing—a governor of New Patch Kids. York who cut spending and taxes and left the budget small- er, in real terms, than he found it. Over the last 65 years, no n Many of the leftist fulminations over the Budget Control predecessor or successor has matched his record. His Act of 2011, a.k.a. the debt deal, were colorfully vitupera - opportunity was a crisis: the looming bankruptcy of New tive. Some others were just strange. Emanuel Cleaver, a Dem - York City as he entered office. “The days of wine and roses ocratic congressman from Missouri, called the deal “a AP

/ are over,” he said in his first state-of-the- sugar-coated Satan sandwich.” What did he mean? How do state address, and managed to bail out you get the Prince of Darkness into a sandwich? One of those the city while keeping its finances, “urban dictionary” websites suggested merely “a sandwich and the state’s, in order. His personal DIANE BONDAREFF : made by Satan,” though it offered as an alternative something style was agreeably frumpy, between

CAREY involving deviled eggs and Hellmann’s mayonnaise. A the billionaire pretensions of Nelson . Southern friend advises us, however, that in expressions like Rockefeller and the rhetorical preten- this, “Satan” is the common regional euphemism for a dif - sions of Mario Cuomo. Mario’s son, ferent filling whose name also begins with “s.” We make no Andrew, the current governor, could judgment, but note with interest that a Thai restaurateur in look a lot further for inspiration, Palm Beach has developed a Satan Sandwich recipe. “He and do a lot worse. Dead at stuffed it with B.S.—beef short ribs, that is,” reports the Palm

UNEMPLOYED PHILOSOPHERS INC 92. R.I.P. : Beach Post. The chef elaborates: “You got a lot of B.S. in that

MINTS compromise.”

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THE U.S. ECONOMY A Downgraded President

ARACk OBAMA promised to make history, and he has: The United States has lost its AAA credit rating, which it B had enjoyed for as long as there have been national credit ratings. The Obama administration, dismayed but not surprised by the development, has made rhetorical war on Standard & Poor’s, the first of the major rating agencies to downgrade the U.S., and it has extended its campaign of ritual denunciation to the con servative populists who have been demanding reductions in the budget deficit, with Democrats calling this the “tea-party downgrade.” Democrats’ rhetorical assault on S&P and the Tea Party also puts them at war with the facts, which are these: The credit- rating agencies suggested that the United States needed to lop about $4 trillion off of future deficits in order to maintain the AAA rating, but the original debt-ceiling deal put forward by the Obama administration contained not one penny in debt reduc- “key to long-term fiscal sustainability.” Tea-party leaders, far tion, leaving us far short of the savings that the credit-rating agen- from being a barrier to entitlement reform, have demanded it. cies suggested would constitute a “credible” step toward Democrats have obstructed it. And that is why we have been avoiding a downgrade. This nothing-down program was the so- downgraded. called clean debt-ceiling bill—the one that contained not a far- thing of debt reduction. even congressional Democrats could not endorse irresponsibility on that scale, and 82 of them THE BUDGET joined every Republican in the house in voting against it, and for Dealing with Debt good reason: Doing nothing at all is hardly a “credible” program. To the extent that there was one dollar in debt reduction in the he deal to raise the debt ceiling had some merit: It includ- final deal, it is because Republicans, including the Tea Party ed some cuts to domestic spending, it did not raise taxes, Caucus, insisted that it be so. T and it avoided the risk of disruption to the operations of The Democrats have suggested that Republicans’ refusal to the federal government and the credit markets. While it did not accede to tax hikes is the main reason Standard & Poor’s felt it incorporate the major reforms to the we will need to necessary to issue a downgrade. In their assessment of Standard make to safeguard ’s fiscal and economic future, & Poor’s reasoning, the Democrats are acutely at odds with nobody could reasonably have expected President Obama and a Standard & Poor’s: “Standard & Poor’s takes no position on the Democratic Senate to accede to those reforms. mix of spending and revenue measures that Congress and the The worst feature of the deal is its establishment of a “super- Administration might conclude is appropriate for putting the committee” that is to identify further measures to reduce the U.S.’s finances on a sustainable footing,” the agency wrote in its deficit; if it does not identify sufficient savings, or Congress fails report. But S&P, along with the other credit-rating agencies, has to enact them, planned spending on defense and domestic discre- long taken a position on one aspect of our fiscal troubles: enti- tionary programs will have to be reduced starting in 2013. These tlement reform. From S&P again: “The plan envisions only automatic cuts have been structured so that both parties have an minor policy changes on Medicare and little change in other incentive to see the supercommittee succeed. They have not been entitlements, the of which we and most other inde- structured with any particular national-security strategy in mind. pendent observers regard as key to long-term fiscal sustaina - The defense cuts would total at least $500 billion over the next bility.” ten years. It may be possible in theory to extract those savings As anybody who has looked at our long-term deficit pro - without harming our military readiness. But the politically easi- jections knows, entitlement spending is the major driver of our est course will be to take the money out of procurement and train- future deficits. With unfunded liabilities for Social Security and ing. The deal is, in short, irresponsible. New defense secretary Medicare already running into trillions of dollars—many multi- Leon Panetta has said as much. ples of our GDP—it is implausible that taxes will be raised suf- Liberals want to force conservatives to choose between a ficiently to meet those obligations. Sustaining present spending strong defense and low taxes. But there is no mathematical need levels over coming decades while maintaining current levels of to do so: Restrain entitlement spending, and we can have both. debt would mean nearly doubling every federal tax: income, Nor is there any political need for defense hawks and anti-tax payroll, inheritance, excises, etc. To repeat: That’s to maintain activists to turn on each other, a fight liberals dearly hope this AP

current debt levels, not to reduce them. even if the political will deal will occasion. Conservatives on the committee can foil this / existed to inflict such tax increases on the American people, plot by holding the line on taxes while proposing entitlement doing so would prove economically ruinous. entitlement reforms that save money over the next ten years. As we have pre- reform, then—not taxes, not President Obama’s fictitious “bal- viously editorialized, the Coburn-Lieberman legislation to trim SCOTT APPLEWHITE . anced approach”—is rightly understood, as S&P argues, as the Medicare—by raising eligibility ages, increasing premiums, and J

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so on—is, though imperfect, the place to start seeking near-term Greece and Portugal have produced mayhem in the bond and entitlement savings. If Democrats balk at these reforms, they will currency markets. This market reaction is now undermining have to accept much lower domestic discretionary spending than the Italian and Spanish economies and threatening the breakup they otherwise would have. of the euro itself. That in turn promises financial turmoil and Speaker John Boehner and Senate minority leader Mitch economic stagnation to nations in and out of the single curren- McConnell should make appointments to the committee that cy. can be expected to follow this strategy. If it does not work, These malign consequences may be less surprising once we Republicans—and defense-minded Democrats—will simply realize that the euro is less an economic project than a political have to restore funding for the military, which will require getting one. It was designed as one further and vital step towards the legislation through both chambers of Congress and the White creation of a single European political entity. If it created an House. Which in turn suggests that the defense budget should be economic crisis on the way, that was simply collateral damage. an issue in the 2012 elections, with Republicans running as the Some euro-enthusiasts, realizing that a single currency needed party that can be trusted to ensure that any defense cuts will be a single fiscal policy to work, even welcomed such a crisis as carefully considered so as to leave our security undiminished. a way of getting reluctant Europeans to accept the kind of cen- Where defense savings can responsibly be made, they should tralized economic government in Brussels (i.e., political inte- be. But we should not set arbitrary targets to spare the welfare gration) they would otherwise resist. The crisis engulfing us state, let alone to initiate a game of chicken. National defense is has surely been more dangerous than they calculated. Yet they the first responsibility of the federal government, which means it still hope that a euro-government, issuing its own euro-bonds is the first responsibility of those who hold national office, and and harmonizing common European tax and spending levels, those who seek it. will emerge from it before the voters realize what has hap- pened. If that were to happen—which, fortunately, is unlikely—it THE GLOBAL ECONOMY would be a direct denial of democracy rather than merely a The Euro in Retrospect “democratic deficit.” It would amount to a rejection of the principle of “no taxation without representation.” And it still BOuT twelve years ago, at an American Enterprise wouldn’t work. What would Brussels do when the Greeks Institute conference in Boulder, Colo., a brilliant fore- refused to respect the spending levels decided by “Europe”? Or A cast about the future of the euro (then merely the the Germans the taxation levels? What common memories embryo of a European single currency) was made in the form of could Eurocrats call upon to justify joint sacrifices? What a joke. Helmut Schmidt was urging the conference to move on police or tax inspectors could they order to enforce their edicts? from the tedious annual clash between economists who argued Eventually the euro—and perhaps the entire project of that a single European currency could not succeed and Euro- European integration—would collapse in the messiest possible pean leaders who insisted that it was certain to be introduced. way. Someone interjected (Antonio Martino, the Italian economist Ordinary Europeans have already suffered needlessly from a and politician, if memory serves): “And what happens if they currency policy that subordinates their economic welfare and are both right?” democratic rights to the great-power fantasies of their political They were both right. The euro was introduced in January elites. The time has come to dismantle the euro before it col- 2002, and it is manifestly not working almost a decade later. lapses—and crushes more than a dream of Europe in its ruin. The essential problem is that—as economists from Martino to British finance minister Norman Lamont saw and argued— the 17 countries that constitute the eurozone are too diverse to be a workable currency area, let alone an optimal one. A single currency means a single interest rate, whereas the 17 national economies constituting the eurozone require several different rates. That simple discontinuity has many damaging effects. In the real economy it means that a monetary policy set to restrain inflationary economies will impose unemployment on stagnant ones, and vice versa—and lower the general economic perfor- mance of the entire zone in both cases. In the financial markets it means that governments with poor credit histories can borrow as readily as governments with strong ones—for quite a long time. Even if investors are skeptical of their promises, they will calculate that other Eu governments are likely to bail them out. (Not wrongly.) And that expectation provides a further incen- tive for overspending and general financial recklessness. All this, of course, is exactly what has happened. Economies in the eurozone have had a lower average rate of economic growth than European economies outside it in the last decade. The overspending and excess borrowing of countries such as

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limit. When he found that he did not have enough votes, he added to the mea- sure a provision stating that Congress would have to approve a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution for the debt limit to increase. A few days later, he supported a bipartisan agreement to raise the debt limit, make spending cuts, and establish a “supercommittee” to identify further cuts. Most House Republicans backed him all three times. That includes most fresh- man Republicans, who are usually lumped into the tea-party caricature. It includes most members of the “” in the House, and such well-known tea partiers as of and of North Carolina. Several prominent organizations associated with the Tea Party said that they would hold votes for the first and third bills against congressmen, and some of them opposed all three. These threats did not sway many votes. One question this split raises is: Who is more likely to have his finger on the pulse of tea-party opinion? The activist groups who claim to speak for tea partiers? Or the A Tea-Infused Party congressmen who got elected by winning tea partiers’ votes? We will have a test Of conservative populism, past and future soon enough: Some of the tea-party groups are saying they will mount pri - BY RAMESH PONNURU mary campaigns against such alleged turncoats as Representative West. The record of the 2010 primary season WO years ago, the Tea Party was confusing self-presentation of their sub- suggests that Representative West and a collection of racists in the lib- jects. like-minded colleagues do not have much eral mind. Nowadays the epithet Whatever the reasons, misleading to fear. That record, too, has been shroud- T of choice, blessed by the vice tropes have dominated coverage of the ed in myth. Tea-party victories over estab- president, seems to be “terrorist.” This is tea parties. Among them: They are unso- lishment candidates in the primaries have not progress: While we shun racists, we phisticated newcomers to politics. They led to speculation that Republican incum- kill terrorists. But this evolution in per- detest compromise. They hate the recent bents who stray from the tea-party line— ception is probably a testament to the tea debt-limit deal, and feel betrayed by with the “tea-party line” again being parties’ political progress. Nobody these Republicans who supported it. They do defined in terms of the activist groups and days is afraid of a bunch of racists. not care about social issues. They are the caricature—will lose their seats. It is not just political invective that ready to defeat any incumbent Repub - But the pattern of tea partiers’ beat - clouds our understanding of the tea par- lican politician who refuses to toe their ing the Republican establishment held ties. They have been misunderstood not line. This is not just the impression of the true mostly in open seats. , only by their foes, but by their friends and tea parties one would get from the press. Jane Norton, Sue Lowden: None of these even their members. Liberals have some- It is also the impression one would get establishment-backed Senate candidates times portrayed them as the creation of from reading the press releases of the who lost primaries was an incumbent. Koch Industries, and conservatives have organizations most identified with them. (Nor was Charlie Crist, who backed out of responded by noting that they are a decen- But it requires only a look at the recent the Republican primary rather than lose.) tralized, grassroots movement. Yet some congressional action on the debt limit to Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska did nar- of these same conservatives have not hes- reveal the falsity of the impression. In the rowly lose her primary to a tea partier, but itated to announce what “the Tea Party” final days of the standoff, Speaker John she may not have had all the benefits of believes. The mainstream media are Boehner tried to get House Republicans incumbency, since she had been appoint- generally not nuanced observers of right- to vote for legislation to increase the debt ed rather than elected to her seat; and she of-center political phenomena, but can limit three times. First, he advanced a managed to keep her seat in the end by

ROMAN GENN perhaps be excused in this instance by the measure to cut spending while raising the running as an independent. Sen. Arlen

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Specter was an incumbent who left the nance in recent decades has seen an parties are if anything more amorphous. Republican party rather than lose a pri- upsurge of conservative activism. This O’Beirne and I did not mention another mary, but he did that just as the tea parties was true of the Johnson, Carter, and early- parallel that has grown in importance. A were beginning to take shape rather than Clinton eras, as it is now of the Obama recurrent temptation of Christian conserv- as a response to them. Sen. Bob Bennett years. In some of these periods the con- atives has been to think of themselves as of lost his party’s nomination, and servative reaction to liberalism was ac- a silent majority of the country just wait- his seat, in a convention. Most observers tually stronger, in some ways, than the ing to be given voice. On some issues, doubt he would have lost in a primary current one. The conservative tide of the they did speak for the majority—but the election. The tea parties, in short, did not mid-1990s defeated Clinton’s health-care majority never accorded even those issues knock off a single Republican incumbent plan while Obama’s went through. And it the same importance that the Christian in a primary. carried Republicans to victory in both conservatives did. They were a sizable In the House, only two Republican chambers of Congress in the midterms minority that could have a large impact on incumbents, both southerners, lost to while the 2010 Republicans won only the American politics if they formed coali- challengers supported by tea partiers. House. tions with other types of conservatives, Rep. Parker Griffith of Alabama was a Each of these periods saw an increase and with some voters who were not con- Democratic congressman who switched in both the number and the zeal of conser- servatives. parties and then lost his first Republican vatives. People who had not voted Repub - That’s what the tea partiers did in 2010 primary a few months later. Rep. Bob lican, or sometimes voted at all, joined the where they succeeded. ’s Inglis of South Carolina supported TARP, ranks. People who had merely voted Re - primary victory in Florida drew on tradi- like a lot of tea-party targets last year, but publican became activists. The Tea Party tional free-market Republicans and social also supported a carbon tax and opposed is simply the form the reaction took this conservatives as well as tea partiers. Bob the Iraq surge. This isn’t a list that should time. In a January 2010 look at survey Inglis lost his primary because of tea strike fear into the hearts of Republican data on the tea parties, Kate O’Beirne partiers and defense hawks—and, again, congressmen planning to run for reelec- and I argued that they were made up of some of these were the same people. In tion in 2012. Republicans who were more ideological, the general elections, Republicans had Every period of liberal governance in recent decades has seen an upsurge of conservative activism. This was true of the Johnson, Carter, and early-Clinton eras, as it is now of the Obama years.

A closer look at the 2010 primaries but less committed to the party, than the support of all kinds of conservatives complicates the narrative of tea-party others in the GOP. as well as independent voters who had victories in another way. The pattern of As we also noted, the the sense that the Obamacare-and- results seems inexplicable without refer- followed a parallel track in the late stimulus-passing Democrats had gone ence to abortion, an issue that “the Tea 1970s. Its themes were not new to the too far. Party” supposedly doesn’t care about. Republican party: had Without new participants and passion, Why did John McCain, Dan Coats, Carly campaigned in 1964 on a platform that conservatives would never have won Fiorina, and Kelly Ayotte all win their inveighed against “moral decline and back the House or made big gains in the Senate primaries against candidates who drift,” for example. But the emphasis Senate and the states in November 2010. associated themselves with the tea parties was new, and so was the political style. Nor would they have been able to re- and accused their opponents of a fond - Similarly, the tea parties did not bring to center the political debate on federal ness for big government? And why did the Republican party the ideas that the spending and indebtedness. The tea par- Specter, Crist, Murkowski, and Castle Constitution places limits on the welfare ties have been remarkably effective in a lose? Doubtless each race featured its functions of the federal government and short period of time, in part because so own idiosyncrasies. But it is impossible to that legislators should abide by them. many of their members have been more deny that pro-lifers associated with the But the tea parties gave those ideas practical than they are often portrayed. To party establishment fared much better renewed political vitality. And just as the extent tea partiers indulge in factional- than pro-choicers. (And when pro-life Christian was the path ism—for example, threatening to defeat establishment figures lost Senate pri- through which former Democrats, and Representative West in a primary—they maries, as in and Nevada, it was formerly apolitical voters, joined the will limit their future effectiveness. They to pro-life tea partiers.) Republican party, so too have the tea par- will fail to unite all the people who con- Here is another way of looking at the ties been a source of both growth and sider themselves tea partiers, let alone tea parties that might make sense of these controversy. reach beyond that group. And they will patterns. It begins by dismissing the idea The boundaries between Christian con- quickly find that political actors who do of them as something wholly new under servatives and other types of conser - not deliver on their threats are neither the sun. Every period of liberal gover- vatives were always blurry, and the tea feared nor loved.

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ous, and its growth shows no sign of abat- more or less stabilize on its own as tax ing. The United States has a metastatic rates rose to the levels that obtained before The Roadmap debt for many reasons, the fundamental Pres. George W. Bush’s tax cuts and recent one being a lamentably juvenile refusal by years’ unusually high levels of military Back to AAA the American people and their elected rep- and domestic spending reverted to their resentatives to bring spending and taxes historical levels. Nobody would much like Medicare and Medicaid cuts into some kind of arithmetic balance, a it, but it would flatten out—except for are not optional task that has not proved too great in recent those health-care entitlements. Practically history for such non-superpowers as all of the growth of our national debt in the BY KEVIN D. WILLIAMSON Canada, Bolivia, and Paraguay. The same long term is accounted for by health-care Americans who left their guts in the grass spending. even Social Security, the other he blame for Standard & Poor’s at Gettysburg and ran face first into hot unsustainable Ponzi scheme, could be downgrade of U.S. sovereign hell on the beaches at Normandy will pay kept going for a good long while with a credit belongs almost exclusive- any price and bear any burden except couple of little tweaks here and there. Not T ly to the president, the most a balanced federal checkbook. That is so Medicare and Medicaid. socialistic American chief executive in liv- be cause the main expense unbalancing And it’s really Medicare. Medicaid is a ing memory, but also to key congressional the checkbook is medical entitlements, clear and present fiscal danger, but it will Republicans, who got carried away by Medicare and Medicaid chief among be relatively easy to fix, because it is easi- their emotions. The president is Lyndon them, and Americans would rather face er to take benefits away from poor people Baines Johnson, and the congressional Old Cloots himself than pay a doctor’s bill than to take them away from well-off peo- Republicans are the 70 members of the out of pocket. We are kind of stupid that ple, and the oldsters who collect Medicare house and 13 senators who, led by Rep. way. are one of the most affluent and therefore John W. Byrnes (R., Wis.), voted to create Medicare, thanks to Representative politically powerful demographic groups Medicare, a welfare handout disguised as Byrnes, is Dr. Frankenstein’s version of in the country, age and wealth going an insurance program and structured as a the Aetna benefits provided to federal together in our society more or less as God Ponzi scheme. The handiwork of these employees circa 1965, with a key differ- intended. It is worth keeping in mind that, illustrious gentlemen has taken some time ence: Unlike Aetna, Medicare cannot go as a National Bureau of economic Re - to catch up with us, but catch up it has. out of business, no matter how bonehead- search report found, “Medicare has led to Take a moment to pity the fellows at ed its financial decisions. Because enroll- net transfers from the poor to the wealthy, Standard & Poor’s, the feckless Mister ment in Medicare is automatic rather than as a result of relatively regressive financ- Magoo of Wall Street. Beavering away at voluntary, because it is funded mainly out ing mechanisms and the higher expen - a credit-rating agency is no way for a man of payroll taxes, and because its premiums ditures and longer survival times of to make a living in finance; an S&P drone are mostly symbolic, Medicare encour- wealthier beneficiaries. even with recent may earn in a year what a serious money ages beneficiaries to make maximum use financing reforms, net transfers to the runner earns on a single trade, and his of it, which drives up both overall health- wealthy are likely to continue for at least work is held in rollicking contempt by the care expenses and the deficit. We have several more decades.” Thus does Grand - guys with the big swinging dividends. The managed to cut ourselves with both sides mother pillage the poor. credit-rating agencies are basically the of that double-edged sword. Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Se - nerds who check Wall Street’s math after If American fiscal matters unrelated to curity are untouchables so far as Dem - the fact, putting their official, federally health care were left to run the course set ocrats are concerned, to an even greater recognized seal of approval on proposi- by present law, the national debt would extent than military spending is untouch- tions of conventional wisdom that are by definition stale by the time the likes of S&P or Moody’s or Fitch gets around to them. But somebody had to be the first to say it: Uncle Sam is looking subprime. Ask Cassandra how that sort of thing turns out. S&P wasn’t actually the first, but it was the first firm with a name that insurance salesmen and grocerymen up in Pough - keepsie and down in Albuquerque had heard of, and they have a very fancy office building within view of Wall Street, and that is enough to catch the attention of Pres. , who seems set on being LBJ’s heir at home and abroad. The United States was downgraded not because it has a heavy public debt, but

AP because its public debt has turned cancer- Where the downgrade really started

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able for most Republicans. But the un - capita GDP. For the nation’s fiscal situa- touchables, together with interest on the tion to be sustainable in future decades, debt, will exceed 2011 revenues. If we cut growth in such spending will have to be Making 10 percent in each of the untouchables—a reduced relative to its historical trend and prospect that surely would be denounced to CBO’s projected path. Today, outlays Believe as radical—we could balance the 2012 for Medicaid and Medicare combined budget with additional cuts elsewhere, but (excluding offsetting receipts) equal about Our terrorism non-policy they would be cuts of such a scale as to 5.5 percent of GDP. Under current law, ensure their denunciation as even more spending for those two programs is ex - BY DANIEL PIPES radical. They would in fact be unprece- pected to keep growing faster than the dented: eliminating 100 percent of federal economy, reaching 6.6 percent of GDP by ITh trumpets and drum rolls, education spending, for instance, and 2020 and potentially reaching 10 percent the White house has re - shuttering entire cabinet departments, and by 2035.” Which is to say, the Medicare leased a new policy paper on more or less liquidating food stamps, that already is bankrupting us will be W methods to prevent terror- housing subsidies, and the rest of the wel- double-bankrupting us in a few short years. ism, a study said to have been two years in fare state in its entirety, etc. Many conser- The downgrade was a judgment of the making. Signed personally by Pres. vatives would no doubt be happy to order American public finances in general. Less Barack Obama and vaunting “the strength a round of that and make it a double. It is, discussed is the fact that it is a severe judg- of communities” and the need to “enhance unfortunately, an implausible outcome. ment of President Obama’s signature our understanding of the threat posed by But it is also implausible that we can health-care bill, and particularly of its plan violent extremism,” the document looks raise taxes sufficiently to offset the entitle- to control medical-entitlement spending anodyne. ment burden, which grows onerous each through (what else?) a panel of bureau- But beneath the calm lies a counter - year as our population grays. The econo- crats endowed with regulatory superpow- productive—and dangerous—approach my is growing at something less than 2 ers, to be called the Independent Payment to terrorism. The import of this document percent a year, if indeed it is growing at all Advisory Board. Democrats have been consists in its firm stand on the wrong side under the destimulating ministrations of known to scoff at proposals for entitle- of three distinct counterterrorism ques- President Obama. Entitlement spending, ment reform, arguing that they’ve already tions currently being debated, with the on the other hand, is growing at 7 to 9 per- hung that trophy on the lodge wall. No - responsible Right (and a few sensible lib- cent annually. If the entitlements continue body believes them. CBO has doubts erals) on one side, and Islamists, leftists, to grow at 9 percent and the economy con- about those alleged Medicare savings. and multiculturalists on the other. tinues to grow at 1.8 percent, Medicare S&P sure wasn’t buying it. Notably, the The first question concerns the nature and Medicaid spending will, by them- gentleman who runs the numbers over of the problem. The Right points to one selves, exceed the entire output of the U.S. at Medicare hQ doesn’t buy it, either. immense threat, Islamism, a global ideo- economy in less than 40 years. Which Richard S. Foster, the chief actuary for logical movement that has motivated means that entitlements will swallow us the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid some 23,000 terror attacks worldwide whole, left unchecked. Those figures are Services, told a congressional committee since 9/11. Islamism’s apologists deny that admittedly pessimistic (which is not to say that he was not confident that President their ideology spawns violence, and they unimaginable). If you want a brighter sce- Obama’s health-care legislation would in categorize those 23,000 attacks as the nario, entitlement growth at a more mod- fact deliver the promised savings. he work of criminals, crazies, or misguided est 7.5 percent and economic growth prefers the approach outlined in Rep. Paul Muslims. Western leftists and multicultur- closer to our recent historic average at 3.5 Ryan’s Roadmap: “If there’s a way to turn alists concur, bringing their formidable percent yields a situation in 40 years in around the mindset for the people who do cadres, creativity, funds, and institutions to which Medicare and Medicaid together the research and development . . . to get support the Islamists’ denial of responsi- account for about 30 percent of GDP, them to focus more on cost-reducing tech bility. meaning that the two programs would and less on cost-increasing technology— hearings held this year by the house of represent more spending than does the if you can do that, then one of biggest Representatives illustrate this difference. entire federal budget today—much more, components turns to your side. . . . The Rep. Peter King (R., N.Y.), chairman of indeed, than has any federal budget since Roadmap has that potential.” the homeland Security Committee, in - 1945, when we had bigger things on our Which is to say, if Americans want that sisted that the hearings deal exclusively national mind than prescription-drug co- AAA rating back, they should consult Paul with Muslim radicalization. The ranking pays. Ryan, who has done more than anybody Dem ocrat, Rep. Bennie Thompson of Our friends at the Congressional else in our national discourse—except, , took exception, noting that Budget Office put it this way in 2010: perhaps, now, for S&P—to bring to our “there are a variety of domestic extremist “The single greatest threat to budget sta- sluggish attention the scope and the depth groups more prevalent in the United States bility is the growth of federal spending on of the medical-entitlement spending prob- than Islamic extremists, including neo- health care—pushed up both by increases lem. That problem, and not five minutes’ Nazis, environmental extremists, anti-tax in the number of beneficiaries of Medicare worth of political drama on in and Medicaid (because of the aging of the August, is why the United States has been Mr. Pipes is president of the Middle East Forum and population) and by growth in spending per downgraded—and why we deserve the Taube Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover beneficiary that outstrips growth in per downgrade. Institution of Stanford University.

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groups, and others.” He argued that the never mentions Islamism. Its title, “Em - common with those of the terrorists than hearings “should be a broad-based exami- powering Local Partners to Prevent those of the counterterrorists. nation of domestic extremist groups, Violent Extremism in the United States,” Representative King expressed concern regardless of their respective ideological delicately avoids even mentioning ter - that the report discourages “legitimate underpinnings.” rorism. criticism of certain radical organizations King rejected this approach, countering Response: “Violent extremism, while or elements of the Muslim-American that “while there have been extremist of paramount importance given the po - community,” but such criticism is neces- groups and random acts of political vio- tential for harm, is only one among a sary to distinguish friend from foe. lence throughout our history, the al-Qaeda number of threats our Nation is facing. Indeed, the authors of the report seem attacks of 9/11 and the ongoing threat Communities face an array of challenges quite content to partner with Muslims who to our nation from Islamic jihad were to their safety, including gang violence, reject our values, which surely accounts uniquely diabolical and threatening to school shootings, drugs, hate crimes, and for the Islamist organizations’ delight at America’s security, both overseas and in many others. Just as we respond to com- the document. The Council on American- our homeland.” munity safety issues through partner- Is lamic Relations, a group with well- The second question concerns how to ships and networks of government established radical ties, praised it as identify the enemy. The Right talks about officials, Mayor’s offices, law enforce- “ob jective and holistic,” while the like- Islamism, jihad, and terrorism, as do re - ment, community organizations, and pri- minded Mus lim Public Affairs Council sponsible parties generally; for example, a vate sector actors, so must we address called it “very useful.” New York Police Department report radicalization to violence and terrorist In contrast, Melvin Bledsoe, who testi- from 2007, titled “Radicalization in the recruitment through similar relationships fied before the King hearings about his West: The Homegrown Threat,” refers in and by leveraging some of the same tools son, Carlos Bledsoe, a Muslim convert its first line to the “threat from Islamic- and solutions.” The mention of gang vio- who in 2009 shot and killed a soldier at a based terrorism.” Islamists and their lence and related problems reveals a con- military-recruiting center in Little Rock, allies talk about everything else—violent ceptual failure. The White House praises Ark., said of the report: “It’s never going extremism, al-Qaeda and Associated the Justice Department’s Comprehensive to fix the problem, when they’re trying to Networks, overseas-contingency opera- Gang Model, deeming it a flexible frame- dance around the issues.” Ed Husain of tions, man-caused disasters, and (my work that “has reduced serious gang- the Council on Foreign Relations dis- favorite) a “global struggle for security related crimes.” That is good news in the missed it for saying “worryingly little” and progress,” as the Department of battle against gangs. But gangs are crim- and being primarily designed “not to Homeland Security puts it. The forces of inal enterprises, and Islamist violence is offend Muslims.” An organization con- have made deep inroads: ideological warfare. Gang members are nected to terrorists swoons over the ad - A U.S. Department of Defense inquiry hoodlums, Islamists are zealots. To liken ministration’s pretend counterterrorism into the 2009 Fort Hood rampage by them distorts more than it helps. Yes, policy, while the father of a terrorist Maj. Nidal Hasan, killing 14, generated they both resort to violence, but applying dismisses it. What does that tell us? a report, “Protecting the Force,” that never techniques appropriate to one to the other The intellectual roots of this report go mentioned the terrorist’s name or ac- is akin to asking cooks to advise fire - back to a –funded 2004 study, knowledged his obvious Islamist motiva- fighters. “A Promising Practices Guide: De veloping tion. The lone sentence in the report that rec- Partnerships Between Law En forcement The third question concerns the ap- ognizes the danger of Islamism fixates on and American Muslim, Arab, and Sikh propriate response. The Islamist-Left-PC one small group, stating that “al-Qa’ida Communities,” by Deborah A. Ramirez, crowd finds the solution in partnership and its affiliates and adherents represent Sasha Cohen O’Connell, and Rabia Zafar. with Muslims, together with an emphasis the preeminent terrorist threat to our coun- They made their outlook clear: “The most on civil rights, due process, nondiscrimi- try.” This ignores the 99 percent of the dangerous threats in this war are rooted in nation, goodwill, and avoiding a backlash. Islamist movement unconnected to al- the successful propa gation of anger and The responsible Right accepts all this Qaeda, such as the Wahhabi movement, fear directed at unfamiliar cultures and peo- but sees it as ancillary to the main law- the Muslim Brotherhood, Hizb ut-Tahrir, ple.” The most dangerous threat, in other en forcement and military methods, such the Iranian government, Hamas, Hez - words, is not Islamist terror, which claims as intelligence gathering, arrests, long bollah, and Jamaat ul-Fuqra. Rep. Sue thousands of lives, but an alleged bias held detentions, deportation, aerial bombard- Myrick (R., N.C.) found that the report by Americans against minorities. As I wrote ments, raids, renditions, prosecution, and “raises more questions to me than it an - upon the document’s appearance, “The incarceration. swers.” guide might present itself as an aide to Into these three debates waddles a long, While the document unobjectionably counterterrorism but its real purpose is poorly written, ill-organized White House emphasizes American constitutional val- to deflect attention from national security report vehemently advocating the leftist ues and the need to partner with Muslims, to the privileging of select communities.” position. it says not a word about the need to What now, with the enshrining of a Nature of the problem: “neo-Nazis and distinguish between Islamist and anti- fringe study as national policy? There are other anti-Semitic hate groups, racial su - Islamist Muslims, between foe and friend. no shortcuts: Those who want a genuine premacists, and international and domes- It ignores the dismal fact that Islamists counterterrorism policy must work to tic terrorist groups.” dominate the organized American Muslim remove the Left and the multiculturalists Naming of the enemy: The paper itself leadership, whose objectives have more in from government.

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urban life a misery for the old and the trol—as if burning department stores did weak. not. It was telling that there were injuries London But in any case, it has since become among the police but none among the riot- clear that London’s Metropolitan Police ers. “The way we police in Britain is not Aflame was doing its feeble best considering its through use of water cannon,” claimed inadequate equipment, training, and pub- Home Secretary Theresa May. “The way What happens when you let teenagers lic-order doctrine, not to mention its poor we police in Britain is through consent of run your country leadership by politically correct appa- communities.” ratchiks. It was unprepared to counter the You can make of her peculiar logic what BY JONATHAN FOREMAN planned looting, which had been orga- you will, but the sentiment is shared by the nized using mobile phones and social net- entire law-enforcement establishment in London works—though this has happened before Britain, if not the ordinary constable in the ESTERdAY, August 8, I was in London, as well as in foreign cities street. Watching the footage of rampaging watching live looting footage— hosting G12 and G20 summits. Worse, it youths taunting the London police, I some of it from districts near foolishly assumed that sending small remembered how, when I was living in Y mine or where friends were numbers of riot police—or rather police New York’s East Village during the L.A. hun kered down behind locked doors— in riot gear—would intimidate looters into riots, there were the beginnings of a copy- with appalled fascination, when the 1992 giving up and going home. cat riot in the neighborhood. A couple of L.A. riots came to mind. It was not be - Instead, in some places, gangs of 30 or hundred kids, many of them the anarchist cause here in London we have had any- more hooded teens sent the cops scurrying youths who had taken over Tompkins thing like the savage assault on Reginald denny or the gun battles between cops and street gangs. It was the reports from shop- ping districts where stores were in flames and the police nowhere to be found. It reminded me of that first day or so of the L.A. riots, when LAPd chief daryl Gates allegedly held his officers back and allowed South Central to burn, just to show propertied Angelenos how much they needed him and his men. Given the cuts in police budgets planned by the Cameron government (which has “ring-fenced” or increased money for for- eign aid, climate-change prevention, and Britain’s grossly inefficient health ser- vice), anyone could be forgiven for won- London, August 8, 2011 dering whether the Metropolitan Police’s in retreat. In other areas, the police stood Square Park that summer, marched up St. leadership was allowing neighborhoods their ground and bravely took the bricks Mark’s Place to Second Avenue and start- to burn to make an economic point. and rocks hurled in their direction, but ed breaking windows. A line of police If that was the plan, it was a foolish did not—perhaps could not—stop or dis- appeared on the avenue—ordinary street idea. The Cameron administration is perse the youths setting fire to stores and cops, but many wearing helmets—and dominated by liberal young men from sometimes the homes above them. They walked calmly but determinedly in the privileged backgrounds or the media- seemed to be waiting for the rioters to direction of the bottle throwers. It was marketing elite. They would never live exhaust themselves and go home—which over in less than two minutes. in the kind of neighborhoods that bore took many hours and much destruction. It The cops knew what the British bobbies the brunt of the violence, and who are was only where there were police horses have forgotten—that if you nip a riot in the unlikely to empathize with the white- and dogs—and there were too few equine bud, fewer people get hurt, and it’s better working-class and immigrant shop - and canine units to be in every riot area at for everyone. It is why in Paris, where I keepers whose stores were trashed and once—that looters were driven off or ar - also once lived, the police break out the burned. Law and order has not been a rested in significant numbers. tear gas the minute they see a crowd get- Coalition priority, as should have been As usual, the Met did not equip its ting out of hand—it demonstrates that the obvious from Cameron’s notorious “hug officers with baton rounds or tear gas or forces of law own the street, and it saves a hoodie” campaign before the election, water cannon or any of the non-lethal lives. I would not necessarily want a ver- in which he called for more understand- riot-control technologies in standard use sion of France’s extremely aggressive and ing of the alienated youths who make around the world. This was because, as its tough CRS in London—though arguably leaders subsequently said, with the sup- it is what Britain needs—but I cannot help Mr. Foreman, a former columnist for the New York port of the home secretary, the use of such thinking that if the patrolmen of Gotham’s NEWSCOM Post, is a research fellow at the Civitas think tank in weapons would represent an unacceptable 9th precinct, with a few reinforcements, /

London. escalation. It would signal a loss of con- had been flown here on Sunday morning, ZUMA

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they would have brought the whole thing the U.K. seem to have heard of the sports- to an end within hours. inspired riots in Vancouver and at Ohio On this the third day since the violence State. They reflexively assume that anyone began, any racial and ethnic dimensions of who sets cars on fire or smashes up a the looting have yet to be parsed, at least in Starbucks must be motivated by anger or the mainstream media. From the footage it oppression. Perhaps because its mem - is clear that the rioters are mostly young bers generally come from sheltered back- and male—and that the mobs include plen- grounds, the British commentariat has little ty of white youths, though in some areas sense of the potential for violence, or the they seem to be disproportionately black. joy in disorder and aggression, to be found On the other hand, members of Britain’s in most young men of military age. It is an South Asian and Muslim minorities seem odd thing, because I remember how, as to have played little or no part in the vio- Cambridge undergraduates, some of my lence. On the contrary, large numbers of friends and I did some dumb and destruc- Mus lim youths in the Bangladeshi-domi- tive and illegal things—when we were nated sections of London’s East End first confident that we would not be caught or guarded their mosques and then went to that the price to be paid would be minimal. defend stores and banks from marauders. Of course, there is a much more savage, In North London on the second day of bullying edge to this looting and vandal- the violence, Turkish and Kurdish store- ism than there was in my generation’s keepers banded together, took up bats and drunken undergraduate pranks. And it is broomsticks, and chased away would-be perhaps not altogether surprising that nei- looters, despite being threatened with ther the police nor the public generally— arrest by the police. (That is not a typo. with the exception of the tough Turks and The police were doing little or nothing to Kurds—felt like taking on what were rela- stop the looting, yet felt an urgent need to tively small numbers of tough kids (sel- preserve their monopoly on the lawful use dom more than a couple of hundred). It is of force.) Though the victims were more not just that many “hoodies” carry knives diverse than the perpetrators, who tended (this fact was cited as a reason for police to attack shopping areas in edgy, trendy caution by one of the ineffective cops the mixed neighborhoods, it was striking that London Times quoted) and have no com- only immigrants seemed to show any seri- punction in using them. They are accus- ous inclination to defend their property tomed to extreme, close-up, Clockwork and their livelihood. They were like L.A. Orange–style violence. Koreans, only without guns, a fact that They are also accustomed to being made their courage even more remark- given the free run of the streets. This is able. largely because Britain’s police have over As well as helping themselves to liquor the last two decades adopted the hands- and jewelry, the looters seemed to have a off, low-key, reactive model that Amer i - Itonly typically teenaged predilection for sports- can police departments disastrously wear, mobile phones, and flat-screen TVs. moved to in the 1970s but then abandoned However, they were also happy to smash in the 1990s, most spectacularly in New takes a up hairdressers, fast-food restaurants, and York City. But in any case, the hoodies grocery stores. who this weekend demonstrated and rev- moment. Despite talk in the media and in left- elled in their violent power like the gang- wing circles about the riots’ being the sters in Walter Hill’s classic 1979 movie Make a difference result of public-sector cuts and unem - The Warriors tend to be utterly unafraid of in the lives of the men and women ployment (which is indeed high among adults or any of the feeble sanctions who protect our freedom. Britain’s undereducated youth), the rioters offered by the adult world. VOLUNTEER. DONATE. REMEMBER. showed little compunction about destroy- Britain’s schools, laws, media, youth- USO.ORG ing the workplaces of others. Moreover, worship, and policing have created what the footage, much of it taken by the looters an angry Harlem preacher once called a and their pals and then posted on the Web, “pediocracy”—literally a polity ruled by showed little evidence of anger. Their children, but here meaning one ruled mood seemed exuberant and excited—not by teenagers. As the world saw and the unlike that of the students and sports fans British public is having to acknowledge, who have recently rioted in North Amer - it is not pretty. We can only be grateful ican cities after the local team wins or that they don’t have Kalashnikovs like loses a major game. their counterparts in such places as None of the major commentators here in Somalia—yet.

    2 2 | www.nationalreview.com AUGUST 2 9 , 2 0 1 1 2col_QXP-1127940309.qxp 8/9/2011 10:15 PM Page 23

Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.

Gagging Us Softly Have we no sensitivity for those who would be free?

BY MARK STEYN

o be honest, I didn’t really think much about “free- welfare, multiculturalism, and various related subjects. And dom of speech” until I found myself the subject of that this prohibition would last forever, and was deemed to three “hate speech” complaints in Canada in 2007. I have the force of a supreme-court decision. I would in effect be T mean I was philosophically in favor of it, and I’d been rendered unpublishable in the land of my birth. In theory, if a consistently opposed to the Dominion’s ghastly “human job opened up for dance critic or gardening correspondent, I rights” commissions and their equivalents elsewhere my entire could apply for it, although if the Royal Winnipeg Ballet adult life, and from time to time when an especially choice decided to offer Jihad: The Ballet for its Christmas season I’d example of politically correct enforcement came up I’d whack probably have to recuse myself. it around for a column or two. And what I found odd about this was that very few other But I don’t think I really understood how advanced the people found it odd at all. Indeed, the Canadian establishment Left’s assault on this core Western liberty actually was. In seems to think it entirely natural that the Canadian state 2008, shortly before my writing was put on trial for “flagrant should be in the business of lifetime publication bans, just as Islamophobia” in British Columbia, several NAtIoNAL RevIeW the Dutch establishment thinks it entirely natural that the readers e-mailed from the U.S. to query what the big deal was. Dutch state should put elected leaders of parliamentary oppo- LONDON , C’mon, lighten up, what could some “human rights” pseudo- sition parties on trial for their political platforms, and the court do? And I replied that the statutory penalty under the French establishment thinks it appropriate for the French state British Columbia “Human Rights” Code was that Maclean’s, to put novelists on trial for sentiments expressed by fictional Canada’s biggest-selling news weekly, and by extension any characters. Across almost all the Western world apart from other publication, would be forbidden henceforth to publish America, the state grows ever more comfortable with micro-

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY anything by me about Islam, europe, terrorism, demography, regulating public discourse—and, in fact, not-so-public dis-

2 3 2011 caribbean 2-page spread ROVE_carribian 2p+application.qxd 8/10/2011 12:25 PM Page 2

Sailing November 12–19 on THE NATIONAL REVIEW Holland America’s luxurious MS Eurodam 2011 Post-Election Cruise Join , MARK STEYN, FRED THOMPSON, , , James Q. Wilson, Bernard Lewis, S. E. Cupp, Andrew Klavan, John Sununu, Jonah Goldberg, John Yoo, , Andrew McCarthy, Cal Thomas, James Lileks, , , , Rob Long, , Jim Geraghty, Ramesh Ponnuru, Michael Walsh, Tracie Sharp, Sally Pipes, , Charles Kesler, Jay Nordlinger, Kathryn Jean Lopez, John O’Sullivan, , Bob Costa, , Kevin D. Williamson, John Derbyshire, John Miller, & Roman Genn

as we visit Grand Turk, San Juan, St. Thomas, Half Moon Cay, and Ft. Lauderdale

oin us on one of the most exciting seafaring adventures you ical guru Ralph Reed, social critic and humorist James Lileks, will ever experience: the National Review 2011 Caribbean domestic-policy expert Sally Pipes, bestselling conservative J Cruise. Featuring a cast of all-star conservative authors Andrew Klavan and Michael Walsh, ace economist speakers, this affordable trip—prices start at only $1,899 a per- Kevin Hassett, executive Tracie Sharp, son—will take place November 12–19, 2011, aboard Holland Americans United for Life president Charmaine Yoest, and, from America Line’s MS Eurodam, the acclaimed ship of one of NR, editor Rich Lowry, Liberal Fascism author Jonah the world’s most respected cruise lines. Goldberg, NRO editor-at-large Kathryn Jean Lopez, From politics, the presidency, and policy to eco- senior editors Jay Nordlinger and Ramesh Ponnuru, nomics, national security, and foreign affairs, there’s so NRO “Campaign Spot” blogger Jim Geraghty, NRO much to discuss. That’s precisely what our array of over “Exchequer” blogger Kevin D. Williamson, “Long View” three dozen leading conservative analysts, writers, and columnist Rob Long, “The Straggler” columnist John experts will do on the Eurodam, your floating luxury getaway for Derbyshire, national correspondent John J. Miller, former NR scintillating discussion of major current events and trends and editor John O’Sullivan, political reporter Bob Costa, and artist the upcoming 2012 elections. Roman Genn. We’ve assembled a crew of exemplary speakers to make sense The “typical” NR cruise alumnus (there are thousands) has of politics and the day’s top issues. We’re happy to announce that gone on four of our voyages and knows NR trips are marked by ace political analyst Karl Rove has agreed to come! He’ll be join- riveting political shoptalk, wonderful socializing, intimate dining ing revered columnist and author Mark Steyn, former Senator with our editors and speakers, making new friends, rekindling old Fred Thompson, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, Islam friendships, and grand cruising. That and so much more are in scholar Bernard Lewis, historian Victor Davis Hanson, esteemed store for you on the National Review 2011 Caribbean Cruise. academics James Q. Wilson and Charles Kesler, foreign-policy The best reason to come is the luminaries who will be aboard. expert Elliott Abrams, columnists Tony Blankley, Cal Thomas, This extraordinary gathering is one of the best-ever ensembles. Mona Charen, and Deroy Murdock, commentator We guarantee fascinating and informative seminar sessions. S. E. Cupp, terrorism and legal experts Andrew McCarthy and a Revel in Mark Steyn’s ruminations on everything from gag John Yoo, former New Hampshire governor John Sununu, polit- rules to demogrphics, and his tag-teaming with Jonah Goldberg and Rob Long for a fun-filled “Night JOIN U S FOR SEVEN BALMY DAYS AND COOL C ON SERVAT IVE N IGHT S Owl” humorfest. a Listen as Karl Rove and Fred DAY/DATE PORT ARRIVE DEPART SPECIAL EVENT Thompson provides their informed SAT/Nov. 12 Ft. Lauderdale, FL 5:00PM evening cocktail reception takes on presidential politics and SUN/Nov. 13 AT SEA morning/afternoon seminars Capitol Hill, and as John Bolton reflects on the standing of the USA MON/Nov. 14 Grand Turk 7:00AM 3:00PM morning/afternoon seminars as a world power. “Night Owl” session aSome of our primo past cruise TUE/Nov. 15 San Juan 1:00PM 11:00PM morning seminar experiences have been the informed late-night smoker interchanges between Bernard Lewis WED/Nov. 16 St. Thomas 8:00AM 5:00PM morning/afternoon seminars and Victor Davis Hanson on the evening cocktail reception struggle between Islam and the “Night Owl” session West. These academic giants, and THU/Nov. 17 AT SEA morning/afternoon seminars terrorism experts Andy McCarthy FRI/Nov. 18 Half Moon Cay 8:00AM 4:00PM afternoon seminar and John Yoo, will provide their evening cocktail reception razor-sharp insights on America’s SAT/Nov. 19 Ft. Lauderdale, FL 7:00AM Debark dealings in the Middle East and the Muslim world. 2011 caribbean 2-page spread ROVE_carribian 2p+application.qxd 8/10/2011 12:26 PM Page 3

KARL ROVE SIGNS ON! PRICES START AT JUST $1899! WE’RE HOLDING LAST YEAR’S RATES!

Superior service, gourmet cuisine, elegant accommodations, and great entertainment await you on the beautiful mS Eurodam. Prices are per-person, based on double occupancy, and include port fees, taxes, gratuities, transfers (for those booking airfare through Holland America), all meals, enter- tainment, and admittance to and participation in all NR func- tions. Per-person rates for third/fourth person (in same cabin with two full-fare guests) are: Ages 6 months to 17: $658 Ages 18 and over: $1,108 aWatch Tony Blankley, Ralph Reed, S. E. Cupp, Cal Thomas, DELUXE SUITE Magnificent luxury quarters (528 Mona Charen, Deroy Murdock, John Sununu, and Charmaine sq. ft.) features use of exclusive Neptune Lounge Yoest provide expert analyses of the the conservative movement, and personal concierge, complimentary laun- the GOP, and the day’s top issues. dry, pressing and dry-cleaning service. Large private verandah, king-size bed aEnjoy insightful social commentary on American culture (convertible to 2 twins), whirlpool from Andrew Klavan, James Lileks, and Michael Walsh, and an bath/shower, dressing room, large sit- honest look at the academy from James Q. Wilson and Charles ting area, DVD, mini-bar, and refrigerator. Kesler. Category SA aPicture Elliott Abrams and John O’Sullivan discussing for- DOUBLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 4,499 P/P eign relations, and Kevin Hassett and NRO “Exchequer” Kevin SINGLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 6,999 D. Williamson tackling the economy. That’s in store. So is Sally SUPERIOR SUITE Grand stateroom (392 sq. Pipes explaining the Obama administration’s latest domestic-pol- ft.) features private verandah, queen-size bed icy machinations, while Tracie Sharp gives an informed rundown (convertible to 2 twin beds), whirlpool of what ideas are percolating at conservative state think tanks. bath/shower, large sitting area, DVD, mini- aThey’ll be joined in all the elucidating and analyzing by bar, refrigerator, floor-to-ceiling windows, and much more. NR’s editorial heavyweights, including Rich Lowry, Jay Nordlinger, Ramesh Ponnuru, Kathryn Lopez, Jim Geraghty, John Category SS J. Miller, John Derbyshire, Bob Costa, and Roman Genn. DOUBLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 3,499 P/P As for the ship: The Eurodam offers well-appointed spacious SINGLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 5,799 staterooms and countless amenities. And it’s affordable—prices start as low as $1,899 a person. No matter what cabin meets your DELUXE OUTSIDE Spacious cabin (241 sq. ft.) features private verandah, queen-size bed (convert- individual tastes and circumstances, you can be assured the ible to 2 twin beds), bath with shower, sitting Eurodam and its stellar staff will offer you unsurpassed service, area, mini-bar, tv, refrigerator, and floor-to- sumptuous cuisine, roomy accommodations, and luxury. ceiling windows. And don’t forget the fantastic itinerary: St. Thomas, Grand Categories VA / VB / VC Turk, San Juan, and Holland America’s private island, Half Moon DOUBLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 2,999 P/P Cay (with a must-see-it-to-believe-it blue lagoon!). SINGLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 4,399 Our 2011 Caribbean Cruise will be remarkable—but then every NR sojourn is. With a winning program of seminars (we’ll LARGE OCEAN VIEW Comfortable quarters (190 sq. have ten), cocktail parties (three are scheduled—they’re great ft.) features queen-size bed (convertible to 2 twin opportunities to chat and have photos taken with your favorite beds), bathtub with shower, sitting area, tv, large conservatives), late-night poolside smokers (featuring world-class ocean-view windows. H. Upmann cigars), and dining with our editors and speakers (on Category D two nights)—it’s all something you really must experience. DOUBLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 2,399 P/P Take the trip of a lifetime with some of America’s preeminent SINGLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 2,899 intellectuals, policy analysts, and political experts. You can sign up now by visiting our dedicated website, www.nrcruise.com (which LARGE INSIDE Cozy but ample cabin quarters (185 sq. ft.) provides complete information about the trip), or by calling features queen-size bed (convertible to 2 twin beds), The Cruise Authority (M-F, 9AM to 5PM EST) bathtub with shower, sitting area, tv. at 1-800-707-1634. We’ll see you on the Eurodam this November! Category J DOUBLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 1,899 P/P SINGLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 2,399 REGISTER NOW: USE THE FORM ON THE NEXT PAGE, VISIT US AT WWW.NRCRUISE.COM OR CALL 800-707-1634 FOR MORE INFORMATION. 2011 caribbean application for magazine_carribian 2p+application_jack.qxd 8/9/2011 2:47 PM Page 1

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course: Lars Hedegaard, head of the Danish Free Press DNA samples, removed her jewelry and shoelaces, put her in a Society, has been tried, been acquitted, had his acquittal over- cell for three and a half hours, and questioned her on suspicion ruled, and been convicted of “racism” for some remarks about of committing a Section Five “racial public-order offence.” Islam’s treatment of women made (so he thought) in private “An allegation of a serious nature was made concerning a but taped and released to the world. The Rev. Stephen racially motivated remark,” declared the headmaster, Antony Boissoin was convicted of the heinous crime of writing a Edkins. The school would “not stand for racism in any form.” homophobic letter to his local newspaper and was sentenced In a statement, Greater Manchester Police said they took “hate by Lori Andreachuk, the aggressive social engineer who crime” very seriously, and their treatment of Miss Stott was in serves as Alberta’s “human rights” commissar, to a lifetime line with “normal procedure.” prohibition on uttering anything “disparaging” about homo- Indeed it was. And that’s the problem. When I ran into my sexuality ever again in sermons, in newspapers, on radio—or troubles up north, a very few principled members of Canada’s in private e-mails. Note that legal concept: not “illegal” or bien-pensants stood up to argue that the thought police were “hateful,” but merely “disparaging.” Dale McAlpine, a prac- out of control and the law needed to be reined in. Among them ticing (wait for it) Christian, was handing out leaflets in the was Keith Martin, a Liberal MP and himself a member of a English town of Workington and chit-chatting with shoppers visible minority—or, as he put it, a “brown guy.” For his pains, when he was arrested on a “public order” charge by Constable he and a few other principled liberals were mocked by Warren Adams, a gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community- Kinsella, a third-rate spin-doctor for the Liberal party and a outreach officer. Mr. McAlpine had been overheard by the chap who fancies himself Canada’s . As Kin - officer to observe that is a sin. “I’m gay,” said sella taunted these lonely defenders of freedom of speech, how Constable Adams. Well, it’s still a sin, said Mr. McAlpine. So did it feel to be on the same side as Steyn . . . and anti-Semites Constable Adams arrested him for causing distress to Con - . . . and white supremacists? Eh, eh, how’d ya feel about that, stable Adams. eh? In fairness, I should add that Mr. McAlpine was also arrest- Mr. Kinsella was subsequently forced to make a groveling ed for causing distress to members of the public more general- apology to “the Chinese community” after making a joke ly, and not just to the aggrieved gay copper. No member of the about ordering the cat at his favorite Chinese restaurant in public actually complained, but, as Constable Adams pointed Ottawa: Even the most censorious of politically correct ‘Free speech’ doesn’t mean ‘the brown guy’ is on the same side as the ‘white supremacists.’ It means he recognizes that the other fellow is entitled to have a side.

out, Mr. McAlpine was talking “in a loud voice” that might enforcers occasionally forget themselves and accidentally theoretically have been “overheard by others.” And we can’t behave like normal human beings. But, before the Chinese cat have that, can we? So he was fingerprinted, DNA-sampled, got his tongue, the Liberal hack was, like so many of his ilk, and tossed in the cells for seven hours. When I was a lad, the missing the point: “Free speech” doesn’t mean “the brown old joke about the public toilets at Piccadilly Circus was that guy” is on the same side as the “white supremacists.” It means one should never make eye contact with anyone in there he recognizes that the other fellow is entitled to have a side. because the place was crawling with laughably unconvincing By contrast, Canada’s “human rights” commissions and undercover policemen in white polonecks itching to arrest you Britain’s gay-outreach officer and Europe’s various public for soliciting gay sex. Now they’re itching to arrest you for not prosecutors seem to think there should be only one side of the soliciting it. debate, and they’re ever more comfortable in arguing for that In such a climate, time-honored national characteristics are quite openly. easily extinguished. A generation ago, even Britain’s polytech- Thus, after Anders Breivik gunned down dozens of his fel- nic Trots and Marxists were sufficiently residually English to low Norwegians, just about the only angle on the story that got feel the industrial-scale snitching by family and friends that the Western Left’s juices going was the opportunity it afforded went on in Communist Eastern Europe was not quite cricket, to narrow the parameters of public discourse even more. They old boy. Now England is Little Stasi-on-Avon, a land where, gleefully fell on his 1,500-page “manifesto,” wherein he cites even if you’re well out of earshot of the gay-outreach officer, me, John Derbyshire, Bernard Lewis, , an infelicitous remark in the presence of a co-worker or even and various other names familiar round these parts. He also co-playmate is more than sufficient. Fourteen-year-old Codie cites Winston Churchill, Thomas Jefferson, , Stott asked her teacher at Harrop Fold High School whether Mark Twain, Hans Christian Andersen, and my leftie com - she could sit with another group to do her science project as in patriot Naomi Klein, the “No Logo” gal and a columnist for hers the other five pupils spoke Urdu and she didn’t understand The Nation in the U.S. and in Britain. Just for the what they were saying. The teacher called the police, who took record, my name appears four times, Miss Klein’s appears four her to the station, photographed her, fingerprinted her, took times.

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Yet the British, Canadian, Australian, European, and American As is now clear, it isn’t. Restrictions on freedom of speech Left—and more than a few likeminded Americans—rose as one undermine the foundations of justice, including the bedrock to demand restraints on a very narrow sliver of Anders Breivik’s principle: equality before the law. When it comes to free remarkably—what’s the word?—diverse reading material. expression, Britain, Canada, Australia, and Europe are ever “I cannot understand that you think that it is fine for people less lands of laws and instead lands of men—and women, to go out and say we should kill all Muslims,” sighed Tanya straights and gays, Muslims and infidels—whose rights Plibersek, the Australian minister for human services, on a before the law vary according to which combination of these panel discussion, “and that that has no real effect in the world.” various identity groups they belong to. Appearing at a Van - Because, after all, calling for the killing of all Muslims is what couver comedy club, Guy Earle found himself obliged to put I and Bernard Lewis and Theodore Dalrymple and Naomi down a couple of drunken hecklers. Had he said what he said Klein and Hans Christian Andersen do all day long. to me or to Jonah Goldberg, we would have had no legal She was addressing Brendan O’Neill, a beleaguered defend- redress. Alas for him, he said it to two drunken hecklers of the er of free speech on a show where the host, the guests, the stu- lesbian persuasion, so they accused him of putting them down dio audience, and the post-broadcast tweeters were all lustily homophobically and he was fined $15,000. Had John in favor of state regulation, and not of human acts but of opin- O’Sullivan and Kathryn Lopez chanced to be strolling by the ions. And not just for inciters of Norwegian nutters, but for Driftwood Beach Bar on the Isle of Wight when, in the course Rupert Murdoch, too. To one degree or another, they were also of oldies night, Simon Ledger performed “Kung Fu Fighting,” in favor of the government’s taking action to whip the media they would have had no grounds for complaint, even if he’d into line. Into line with what? Well, with the government, pre- done the extended dance remix. However, the passersby in sumably. Whether or not they’ll get their way Down Under, in question were Chinese, and so Mr. Ledger was arrested for London the British state is being actively urged to regulate the racism. content of the press for the first time in four centuries. In such a world, words have no agreed meaning. “There were funky Chinamen from funky Chinatown” is legal or ille- gal according to whosoever happens to hear it. Indeed, in my OW did we get to this state of affairs? When my travails very favorite example of this kind of thinking, the very same in Canada began, somebody reminded me of an ob - words can be proof of two entirely different hate crimes. Iqbal H servation by the American writer Heywood Broun: Sacranie is a Muslim of such exemplary “moderation” he’s “Everybody favors free speech in the slack moments when no been knighted by the Queen. The head of the Muslim Council axes are being ground.” I think that gets it exactly backwards. of Britain, Sir Iqbal was interviewed on the BBC and It was precisely at the moment when no axes were being expressed the view that homosexuality was “immoral,” was ground that the West decided it could afford to forgo free “not acceptable,” “spreads disease,” and “damaged the very speech. There was a moment 40 or so years ago when it foundations of society.” A gay group complained and Sir Iqbal appeared as if all the great questions had been settled: There was investigated by Scotland Yard’s “community safety unit” would be no more Third Reichs, no more fascist regimes, no for “hate crimes” and “homophobia.” more anti-Semitism; advanced social democracies were head- Independently but simultaneously, the magazine of ing inevitably down a one-way sunlit avenue into the peace- GALHA (the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association) called able kingdom of multiculturalism; and so it seemed to a certain Islam a “barmy doctrine” growing “like a canker” and deeply mindset entirely reasonable to introduce speech codes and “homophobic.” In return, the London Race Hate Crime thought crimes essentially as a kind of mopping-up operation. Forum asked Scotland Yard to investigate GALHA for Canada’s “human rights” tribunals were originally created to “Islamophobia.” deal with employment and housing discrimination, but Cana - Got that? If a Muslim says that Islam is opposed to homo- dians aren’t terribly hateful and there wasn’t a lot of that, so sexuality, Scotland Yard will investigate him for homophobia; they advanced to prosecuting “hate speech.” It was an illiberal but if a gay says that Islam is opposed to homosexuality, notion harnessed supposedly in the cause of liberalism: A Scotland Yard will investigate him for Islamophobia. handful of neo-Nazi losers in rented rooms in basements are Two men say exactly the same thing and they’re investigat- leaving Xeroxed white-supremacist flyers in payphones? Hey, ed for different hate crimes. On the other hand, they could have relax, we’ll hunt down the extremist fringe losers and ensure sung “Kung Fu Fighting” back and forth to each other all day they’ll trouble you no further. Just a few recalcitrant knuckle- long and it wouldn’t have been a crime unless a couple of draggers who decline to get with the beat. Don’t give ’em a Chinese passersby walked in the room. thought. Nothing to see here, folks. When you accept that the state has the right to criminalize , you are conceding an awful lot. I don’t just F you’re not gay or Muslim or Chinese, you’re maybe mean on the specific point: The Weimar Republic was a veri- wondering to yourself: How can I get a piece of the table proto-Trudeaupia of “hate speech” laws. In the 15 years I action? After all, if the state creates a human right to be before the Nazis came to power, there were over 200 prosecu- offended and extends it only to members of certain interest tions for “anti-Semitic speech” in —and a fat lot of groups, it is quite naturally incentivizing membership in those good it did. But more important than the practical uselessness interest groups. Andrew Bolt, Australia’s leading columnist, of such laws is the assumption you’re making: You’re accept- was struck by the very noticeable non-blackness of so many ing that the state, in ruling one opinion out of bounds, will be prominent Aussie “blacks” and wrote a couple of columns on content to stop there. the theme of identity-group opportunism. He’s now been

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dragged into court and denounced as a “racist”—“racism” having degenerated into a term for anyone who so much as broaches the subject. but, if the law confers particular privi- Not a leges on members of approved identity groups, how we define the criteria for membership of those groups is surely a legiti- mate subject for public debate. One of the great strengths of common law has been its RACE CARD general antipathy toward group rights—because the ultimate minority is the individual. The minute you have collective Photo IDs are necessary to the integrity rights, you require dramatically enhanced state power to me - of our elections diate the hierarchy of different victim groups. In a world of Islamophobic gays, homophobic muslims, and white blacks, it is tempting to assume the whole racket will collapse under the BY HANS A. VON SPAKOVSKY weight of its own absurdity. Instead, the law increasingly bends to those who mean it the most. In some of the oldest free number of states have recently passed voter-ID legis- societies in the world, the state is not mediating speech in order lation—among them, Texas, Alabama, , South to assure social tranquility, but rather torturing logic and law Carolina, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and rhode Island. and liberty in ever more inane ways in order to accommodate A Two others, and Indiana, implemented such those who might be tempted to express their grievances in non- laws years ago. This trend has the Left hyperventilating. From speechy ways. Consider the case of elisabeth Sabaditsch- former president to nAACP head benjamin Jealous, Wolff, a Viennese housewife who has lived in several muslim irresponsible cries of “Jim Crow” have been uttered in a losing countries. She was hauled into an Austrian court for calling attempt to sell Americans a great lie: that requiring someone to mohammed a pedophile on the grounds that he consummated authenticate his or her identity at the polling place by showing a his marriage when his bride, Aisha, was nine years old. mrs. government-issued photo identification is anything like the Sabbaditsch-Wolff was found guilty and fined 480 euros. The despicable discrimination that once existed in the South. judge’s reasoning was fascinating: “Pedophilia is factually Jealous blamed “the worst and most racist elements” in con- incorrect, since paedophilia is a sexual preference which sole- servative tea-party groups for the voter-ID push. In truth, the vast ly or mainly is directed towards children. nevertheless, it does majority of Americans of all racial and ethnic backgrounds (more not apply to mohammad. He was still married to Aisha when than 75 percent in the latest rasmussen poll) support voter-ID she was 18.” laws. Perhaps that’s because Americans have to use a photo ID to Ah, gotcha. So, under Austrian law, you’re not a pedophile obtain a library card, drink a beer, cash a check, board an airplane, if you deflower the kid in fourth grade but keep her around till buy a train ticket, or check in to a hotel. They understand that high school. There’s a useful tip if you’re planning a hiking requiring voter ID is a commonsense reform that helps protect holiday in the Alps this fall. Or is this another of those dispen- the security and integrity of our election process. Happily, it’s a sations that is not of universal application? requirement voters can easily meet. Western governments have gone far too far down this path Once you get past the race-baiting, you will find that opponents already. “The lofty idea of ‘the war on racism’ is gradually of voter ID generally rely on two arguments, equally specious: 1) turning into a hideously false ideology,” the French philoso- There is no need for photo ID, because there is no voter fraud in the pher Alain Finkielkraut said in 2005. “And this anti-racism united States; 2) This is a deliberate effort to suppress the turnout will be for the 21st century what Communism was for the 20th of minority voters, who often don’t have photo ID. Liberals keep century: a source of violence.” Just so. Let us accept for the repeating these false claims despite the fact that they have been sake of argument that racism is bad, that homophobia is bad, disproved both in the courtroom and at the polling place. that Islamophobia is bad, that offensive utterances are bad, that The claim that there is no voter fraud in the u.S. is patently mean-spirited thoughts are bad. So what? ridiculous, given our rich and unfortunate history of it. As the As bad as they are, the government’s criminalizing all of u.S. Supreme Court said when it upheld Indiana’s photo-ID law them and setting up an enforcement regime in the interests of in 2008, “Flagrant examples of such fraud . . . have been docu- micro-regulating us into compliance is a thousand times mented throughout this nation’s history by respected historians worse. If that’s the alternative, give me “Kung Fu Fighting” and journalists.” The liberal groups that fought Indiana’s law sung by mohammed’s nine-year-old bride while putting down didn’t have much luck with liberal justice John Paul Stevens, two lesbian hecklers sending back the Cat of the Day in a who wrote the 6–3 decision. before being named to the Supreme Chinese restaurant. Court, Justice Stevens practiced law in Chicago, a hotbed of elec- As John milton wrote in his Areopagitica of 1644, “Give me toral malfeasance. the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to Some opponents have tried to narrow down the argument, conscience, above all liberties.” claiming that voter ID can stop only impersonation fraud, and Or as an ordinary Canadian citizen said to me, after I testi- that this particular type of fraud is rare or nonexistent. but as the fied in defense of free speech to the Ontario parliament at Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals pointed out in the Indiana case, Queen’s Park, “Give me the right to free speech, and I will use it to claim all my other rights.” Mr. von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at , is a former Conversely, if you let them take your right to free speech, how member of the Federal Election Commission and former counsel to the assistant are you going to stop them from taking all the others? attorney general for civil rights at the Justice Department.

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the relative rarity of prosecutions for impersonation fraud can be ones who have been caught. If a fraudulent form gets through the “explained by the endemic underenforcement” of voter-fraud minimal-to-nonexistent screening efforts made by election offi- cases and “the extreme difficulty of apprehending a voter imper- cials when they process new voter-registration forms, then the sonator” without the tools—a photo ID—needed to detect such potential exists for bogus votes to be cast in the names of nonex- fraud. istent people. One of the most egregious examples was revealed by a The possibility of double voting was illustrated by an incident Brooklyn grand jury in 1984, a case conve- that was highly embarrassing to the League of Women Voters in niently ignores whenever it rails against voter ID. The grand jury the Indiana voter-ID case. A newspaper in Indiana decided to detailed a widespread conspiracy that operated without detection interview a voter who was highlighted by the League as a victim for 14 years, involving not only impersonation of voters at the of disenfranchisement in its amicus brief contesting the law. It polls, but also voting under fictitious names that had been suc- turned out she had had difficulty voting because she had tried to cessfully registered. Thousands of fraudulent votes were cast in use a Florida driver’s license to vote in Indiana. Not only did she state and congressional elections. have a Florida driver’s license, she was also registered to vote in When I mention that case in debates, the inevitable reply is Florida, where she owned a second home. In fact, she had that it happened a long time ago, as though the 1980s were the claimed residency in Florida by filing for a homestead exemption Dark Ages. Another well-documented case occurred in a city- on her property taxes. council election in Hoboken, N.J., in 2007. The former zoning- More than one study has found individuals who are registered board president noticed a group of men near his polling place in more than one state. A New York Daily News article in 2004 being given index cards by two people. One of those men later found 46,000 New Yorkers registered to vote in both New York entered the polling place and tried to vote in the name of another and Florida. Between 400 and 1,000 had voted in both places in registered voter who no longer lived in the ward. The impostor at least one election. (Remember, George W. Bush won Florida was caught only because he happened to be challenged by the in 2000 by a margin of only 537 votes.) zoning-board president. He admitted to the police that the There have also been many reported cases of non-citizens’ group of men from a homeless shelter had been paid $10 each registering and voting. A federal grand-jury report released in to vote using others’ names. 1984 found large numbers of aliens registered to vote in Chicago. Voter ID can prevent voting under fictitious registrations, double voting by individuals registered in more than one state, and voting by illegal aliens.

One of the reasons that Wisconsin changed its voter-ID law The U.S. attorney estimated that at least 80,000 illegal aliens was the finding of a special task force, set up by the Milwaukee were registered, and dozens were indicted and convicted for Police Department after the 2004 election, that residents from registering and voting. other states had registered and voted. Numerous staffers from out Readers may remember that a California congressional elec- of state working for the campaign and the environ - tion was almost overturned in 1996 because of illegal voting by mental Victory Campaign, a liberal political-action committee, non-citizens. Loretta Sanchez beat incumbent U.S. Rep. Bob had illegally registered and voted in Milwaukee. Dornan by a mere 979 votes. The election was investigated by a If liberals couldn’t convince Justice Stevens, they may also House committee that found “clear and convincing” evidence of have a hard time with Chris Matthews, a former Tip O’Neill 624 invalid votes by non-citizens and “circumstantial” evidence staffer and reliable liberal cheerleader in most circumstances. of another 196 non-citizens’ voting. This election might have When the topic came up on Hardball, Matthews admitted that been stolen by illegal voting (and it probably was, since the this type of impersonation fraud has “gone on since the Fifties.” House investigation compared the voter list only to INS records, He explained that people call up to see whether you voted or are which do not contain information on illegal aliens who have not going to vote, and “then all of a sudden somebody does come and been detained). vote for you.” Matthews knows that this is an old strategy in big- There may not be massive voter fraud in all of our elections, city politics: “I know all about it in North Philly—it’s what went but there are enough reported cases and prosecutions to make it on, and I believe it still goes on.” obvious that we need to take basic steps to ensure the security of our voting system.

N addition to deterring and preventing impersonation fraud, voter ID can prevent voting under fictitious registrations, He baseless claim that voter ID is a Republican plot to I double voting by individuals registered in more than one depress the votes of minorities, who disproportionately state, and voting by illegal aliens. There are numerous cases of T support Democrats, certainly isn’t made by those Dem - these types of fraud. Dozens of ACORN employees have been ocrats who overwhelmingly control the Rhode Island legisla - prosecuted for voter-registration fraud—and those are only the ture that passed voter ID. State representative Jon Brien, a

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Democratic of the bill, said it was wrong for party lead- For those who might reply that this was because Barack ers to “make this a Republican-versus-Democrat issue. It’s not. Obama was on the ballot, think again. Mississippi, with an equal- It’s simply a good-government issue.” Brien added that “we as ly large black population and no voter ID, had its Democratic representatives have a duty to the citizenry to ensure the integri- turnout increase by only 2.35 percentage points. Georgia’s regis- ty of our elections, and the requirement to show an ID will ensure tration records show that while only 42.9 percent of registered that integrity.” State senator Harold Metts, a black Democrat black Georgians voted in 2006, when there was no photo-ID whose support of Rhode Island’s voter-ID bill angered the ACLU requirement, 50.4 percent voted in the 2010 congressional elec- and other leftist organizations, said he was “more interested in tions—an increase of more than seven percentage points. doing the right thing and stopping voter fraud.” And polling Georgia’s secretary of state recently pointed out that, compared shows that the so-called leaders of the civil-rights establishment with 2006, voter turnout in 2010 “among African Americans who oppose voter ID are actually out of touch with their con- outpaced the growth of that population’s pool of registered stituents, who recognize that voter fraud often hits hardest in voters by more than 20 percentage points.” minority communities. Indiana witnessed similar results. In the state considered to Election data in Georgia demonstrate that concern about a neg- have the nation’s strictest voter-ID law, turnout in the Democratic ative effect on the Democratic or minority vote is baseless. presidential primary in 2008 quadrupled from the 2004 election, Turnout there increased more dramatically in 2008—the first when there was no photo-ID law. In the general election, the presidential election held after the state’s photo-ID law went into turnout of Democratic voters increased by 8.32 percentage points effect—than it did in states without photo ID. Georgia had a from 2004, the largest increase in Democratic turnout of any record turnout in 2008, the largest in its history—nearly 4 million state. Neighboring Illinois, which has no photo-ID requirement voters. And Democratic turnout was up an astonishing 6.1 per- and is Obama’s home state, had its Democratic turnout increase centage points from the 2004 election, the fourth-largest increase by only 4.4 percentage points—barely half of Indiana’s increase. of any state. The black share of the statewide vote increased from In the 2010 election, Indiana was one of the states with a sub- 25 percent in 2004 to 30 percent in 2008, according to the Joint stantial increase in black turnout: “The black share of the state Center for Political and Economic Studies. According to Census vote was higher in 2010 than it was in 2008, a banner year for Bureau surveys, 65 percent of the black voting-age population black turnout,” according to the Joint Center for Political and voted in the 2008 election, compared with only 54.4 percent in Economic Studies. The black share of the total vote went from 2004, an increase of more than ten percentage points. only 7 percent in 2008 to 12 percent in 2010.

THE FRANKLIN CENTER FOR GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC INTEGRITY IS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE

Mr. Andrew Stiles 

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Numerous studies—including those by the heritage Foun - he weakness of the case against voter ID has been much dation, the University of Missouri, the University of Delaware, in evidence in courtrooms. The Indiana and Georgia and the University of –Lincoln—have looked at data T voter-ID laws were upheld by state and federal courts. In from many states and several elections and concluded that voter the Georgia case, the federal court pointed out that after two years ID does not depress turnout. In fact, the Delaware/Nebraska of litigation, none of the plaintiffs, including the NAACP, could study said that “concerns about voter-identification laws affect- produce a single otherwise eligible voter who did not have a ing turnout are much ado about nothing.” photo ID or could not easily obtain one. That failure was “partic- About the only thing the Left has had to rely on for its hollow ularly acute,” the court wrote, “in light of the Plaintiffs’ con- claims about photo ID is a flawed 2006 study—titled “Citizens tention that a large number of Georgia voters lack acceptable without Proof”—by the Brennan Center at NYU’s law school photo ID.” Similarly, in the Indiana case, the federal court noted supposedly showing that millions of Americans who are eligible that “despite apocalyptic assertions of wholesale voter disen - to vote lack photo ID. The Brennan Center has been vigorous in franchisement, Plaintiffs have produced not a single piece of opposing almost every sensible voter reform, from voter ID to evidence of any identifiable registered voter who would be pre- requiring proof of citizenship when registering to vote. This 2006 vented from voting.” study is dubious in its methodology and especially suspect in The Georgia court said that the claim that voter ID is the same its sweeping conclusions. It is based on a survey of only 987 as a poll tax “represents a dramatic overstatement.” Imposing “voting-age American citizens,” although it contains no infor - tangential burdens “does not transform a regulation into a poll mation on how it was determined whether a respondent was actu- tax” and “the cost of time and transportation” to obtain a free ID ally an American citizen entitled to vote, and might easily have “cannot plausibly qualify as a prohibited poll tax because those included illegal and legal aliens, felons, and others who are inel- same ‘costs’ also result from voter registration and in-person vot- igible. The survey then uses the responses of these 987 indivi- ing requirements, which one would not reasonably construe as a duals to estimate, based on the 2000 Census, the number of poll tax.” All of the states implementing voter ID have provided Americans without valid documentation. Although the report free IDs for anyone who does not already have one. As Rhode With the courts against them, the public against them, and the turnout in actual elections against them, what do liberals have left? Only racial polemics and fear-mongering.

says it was weighted to account for underrepresentation of race, Island state senator harold Metts said, “In this day and age, very it does not provide the methodology used. few adults lack one of the forms of identification that will be By neglecting to ask whether respondents were actual or like- accepted, and the rare person who does can get a free voter-ID ly voters, registered voters, or even eligible voters, the study card.” ignored the most relevant data: the number of eligible citizens With the courts against them, the public against them, and the who would have actually voted but could not because of voter- turnout in actual elections against them, what do liberals have ID laws. All pollsters know that the only really accurate polls left? Only racial polemics and fear-mongering. Vitriolic rhetoric are of likely voters, not of the voting-age population. Surveys is a sign of desperation, since claims of “suppression” and of registered voters have shown the exact opposite of the “intimidation” have been shown to be completely untrue. Is the Brennan Center study: American University found that less problem here that certain liberals want to be able to preserve what than one-half of 1 percent of registered voters in Maryland, Chris Matthews says still goes on in the Democratic machines in Indiana, and Mississippi lacked a government-issued ID. A places like Philadelphia? We can be grateful that even some 2006 survey of more than 36,000 voters found that only 23 peo- Democrats at the local level are finally realizing that everyone ple in the entire sample would be unable to vote because of an who believes in our democratic system has an interest in ensur- ID requirement. ing the security and integrity of our election process. That’s why Also, the Brennan Center survey didn’t ask whether people it was Democrats who passed the Rhode Island law, and Dem - had IDs; it asked whether IDs were “readily available.” And the ocrats in Kansas who signed on with their Republican colleagues question about citizenship documentation asked whether respon- to pass their voter-ID law. dents had access “in a place where you can quickly find it if you As Texas state representative Joe Pickett, a Democrat from el had to show it tomorrow,” even though elections are not sched- Paso, said, “If I really, truly thought that this would disenfran- uled on such a short-term basis. This was obviously intended to chise somebody, I would’ve voted against. In these days and skew the results. The survey also failed to ask whether respon- times, it’s just not the case. . . . having a basic identification is a dents had student IDs, which are acceptable under many state function of everyday life.” laws, or tribal IDs, which are acceptable in some states, includ- Nobody likes standing in line at the DMV, but elections come ing Georgia and Arizona. On one question, 14 percent of respon- only every other year, and are scheduled well in advance. There dents were so confused that they said they had both a U.S. birth is no reason for a voter to lack a photo ID, and every reason to certificate and naturalization papers. require one.

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Chinese assertiveness during the 1990s and in the months just before 9/11. But during each of the post-WWII periods, there was a broad national consensus on the key threats to America’s Build, Hold, safety and the key opportunities for its prosperity, and Europe and the Middle East dominated national-security thinking throughout. In the coming Indo-Pacific era, the U.S. will not abandon its commitments to the Middle East, and will have to And Clear deal with a potentially nuclear-capable Iran, possible European economic collapse, and continued terrorist threats. But our An American strategy for Asia new national consensus will undoubtedly center on the oppor- tunities and threats that Asia poses to America’s future. BY MICHAEL AUSLIN The Indo-Pacific region stretches from the Indian Ocean to the Western Pacific. It contains over half the world’s popula- tion, including India and China, the two most populous coun- MErICA’S next global era is dawning. As we scale tries; the world’s largest democracy, in India; two of the largest down military operations in both Afghanistan and economies, in China and Japan; and at least three nuclear- Iraq, our future prosperity, influence, and security capable powers. The struggle for democracy and liberalism has A will be determined by what happens in the rising made extraordinary strides in the Indo-Pacific over the past sev- Indo-Pacific region. If we play a leading role in the great area eral decades. The region has been anchored by Japan, Australia, stretching from India to Japan, the coming decades will see the and India, and countries ranging from South Korea to Taiwan, strengthening not only of American power, but also that of our Mongolia, and Indonesia either have become full-fledged liberal, democratic allies. Conversely, surrendering the high democracies or are continuing their liberal political evolution; ground in Asia to China will likely result in the ebbing of the others, such as Thailand and the Philippines, struggle with post-war liberal international system and the establishment of democratic stability. a region, and world, of greater insecurity and instability. Two The Indo-Pacific is the world’s economic engine and is questions face a Washington focused on cutting budgets and responsible for the bulk of global consumer production. With stressed after a decade of combat in the Middle East. First, do a growing middle class in the hundreds of millions stretching we have the will to succeed in the Indo-Pacific? And second, from India through China to Japan and Korea, it is also one of do we have the means to continue to lead? the primary growth markets for global exporters. Already, the The answers may lie in our recent combat experiences. A region accounts for about $1 trillion in trade in goods with the cornerstone of America’s counterinsurgency approach in Iraq United States. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce calculates that and Afghanistan has been the strategy of “clear, hold, and around 11 million U.S. jobs depend in some fashion on trade build”—that is, clear out insurgents, hold the area, and then with the broad Asian region. build up local political and economic institutions to maintain The growth of the Indo-Pacific region, while beneficial to stability. While many observers worry that the Defense consumers, nonetheless poses significant challenges for future Department under former secretary robert Gates became too economic stability. China’s energy consumption has doubled monolithically focused on counterinsurgency, the reigning since 2000, and it accounted for 78 percent of the global counterinsurgency doctrine may actually provide a strategy for increase in the use of coal in the past decade. Japan is the America’s policy in the Indo-Pacific region over the next world’s fourth-largest consumer of energy, while Korea clocks decades—but only if it is turned upside down, into a “build, in at number ten. All of these countries are dependent on hold, and clear” strategy. imports. The long-term economic expansion in Asia not only The Indo-Pacific is and will remain the most dynamic region will put increasing pressure on global energy prices in coming on earth. After World War II, we—a nation with a tradition ally decades, but has implications for the security of maritime Eurocentric mindset—naturally placed Europe at the apex of transport routes, port safety, terrorism, and regional conflict over our national-security concerns, despite our involvement in potential energy resources. Such conflict has spiked in recent proxy wars around the globe. As the peacefully years, with conflicting claims over territory in the East and dissolved in 1991, our focus moved to the Middle East, spurred South China Seas that holds oil and natural-gas reserves. by Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait. The following The Indo-Pacific region also hosts some of the world’s decade saw American involvement in that region slowly deep- largest militaries. China, Japan, South Korea, and Australia en, as al-Qaeda and Islamic terrorism generally impinged have sophisticated, modern air and naval forces, while devel- more and more on U.S. interests, culminating in the global war oping countries such as India, Indonesia, and Vietnam are buy- on terror from 2001 onward. Now, with the end of combat ing new submarines (and, in the case of India, new ships and engagement in the Middle East, America is being drawn far- fighter jets as well). North Korea maintains a million-man ther east, to the Indo-Pacific region. army and an active nuclear- and ballistic-missile program. Obviously, during each of these periods, Washington Over 40,000 U.S. troops remain permanently based in the remained engaged around the world, dealing with multiple Indo-Pacific, and the majority of our aircraft carriers, destroy- crises in the Middle East during the and confronting ers, and submarines are either in the Indo-Pacific region or based on the West Coast of the U.S. In coming years, the U.S. Mr. Auslin is a resident scholar, and a director in Asian and security studies, at the will likely base a larger percentage of its bomber and fighter American Enterprise Institute. fleet in the Pacific region.

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Of particular concern is China’s military buildup. Beijing is countries, providing aid, concluding free-trade pacts, and developing military capabilities to reduce America’s qualita- sometimes doing joint military exercises. most important, tive superiority and effectively target our bases and forces. Its each is influential among its neighbors, so all four might take hope is to create an environment in which the U.S. military will leadership roles in their immediate neighborhoods, in partner- be hindered from accessing the region and operating freely ship with U.S. military forces. Washington should aim at a per- within it. Among the programs especially worrisome to U.S. manent high-level forum with these four liberal nations to military planners are the DF-21 anti-ship ballistic missile, discuss region-wide security issues, identify common threats which is designed to track U.S. large ships at sea; the J-20 and challenges, and speak with a common voice when possible stealth fighter, which could reduce the edge of our stealthy in regional and international institutions. F-22s and future F-35s; the growing submarine fleet, which While it might be easier initially to work with America’s now numbers over 70; and ongoing cyber-warfare programs, three current allies, no realistic diplomatic and security ini - de signed to attack the networked structure of America’s defense tiative is possible without India’s participation. U.S. policy machine. should encourage all four nations to commit to shaping region- al political institutions in a liberal vein and to committing resources to uphold regional security both broadly and, more OlICymAkerS need to begin planning and implementing specifically, in their immediate areas. Working with the U.S., a strategy for the next American era today, before we each should slowly expand the range of its maritime patrols, P lose more ground economically or before insecurity conduct larger and more regular military exercises, enhance leads to instability and the possibility of military conflict. and share intelligence, and work with smaller nations to like traditional counterinsurgency, this takes time, encourage liberal development. commitment, and resources. The way forward is While this outer triangle is focused on the grand strategy to build, hold, and clear. of the Indo-Pacific region, the U.S. should also build an inner The core of American strategy in Asia triangle, comprising Indonesia, Singapore, malaysia, and for the past six decades has been a Vietnam. This triangle is centered on the lower South China system of bilateral mutual-defense Sea and, particularly, crucial sea lanes including the malacca alliances. These pacts, with Japan, Strait, through which over 60,000 vessels and one-quarter of South korea, Australia, Thailand, global trade passes every year, not to mention half of global oil and the Philippines, not only com - shipments. This area is the hinge between the Indian and mitted the U.S. to the protection Western Pacific Oceans, linking together the two halves of the of these nations during the Cold Indo-Pacific. These countries are strategically located, deeply War, but also made possible a involved in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations permanent U.S. presence in the (ASeAN), pressed by Chinese maritime territorial claims, eco- region, particularly because of nomically crucial, and (with the exception of Vietnam) liberal- the alliance with Japan, which izing in varying degrees. provides the major bases for U.S. economic growth in all these countries is creating a new, forces in Asia. affluent middle class, and each government should be encour- While these bilateral alliances aged to further liberalize its political and economic systems. have served us well, and will remain Already malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia have joined in the core of U.S. security relationships in anti-piracy patrols and cooperated with the U.S. and Australia Asia, it is time to build a larger communi- on anti-terrorism policy. each has pushed ASeAN to take a ty in the Indo-Pacific region with partners firmer stand against Chinese assertiveness in the South China both old and new. By building such a new struc- Sea and has also been involved in developing the east Asia ture, the U.S. can more explicitly promote a more dem- Summit (which is the only all-Asia multilateral forum, and in ocratic, prosperous, and stable region. This new community which liberal nations are trying to play a leading role). Their should comprise liberal or liberalizing nations large and small interests and location make them ideal partners to contribute that collaborate with one another and with Washington to pro- to enhanced security in the crucial sea lanes, providing valu- mote regional stability and enhance security. This new archi- able intelligence locations and possibly new access for U.S. tecture can be conceived of as a set of “concentric triangles,” and allied naval and air forces. Indonesia, malaysia, and linking regional powers with smaller, developing nations. It is Vietnam in particular seek to build up their naval and air capa- not an alliance system, but rather a community of interests that bilities to patrol their widespread coastlines and maritime will provide varying levels of public goods—stability and territories. security—necessary for future economic growth in the Indo- The U.S. and the countries of the outer triangle should work Pacific. with the inner-triangle states to identify common security con- The outer triangle should comprise Japan, South korea, and cerns, develop the inner-triangle countries’ military capacity, Australia, all American allies, along with India, the next great increase professional military exchanges, engage grass-roots rising power in the region. The basic political and social values political movements and civil-society leaders, and encourage shared by these four countries, along with their growing com- further political liberalization. The aim should be building a mitment to global , provide a common foundation for steady movement toward openness and democracy while promoting democratic governance, civil society, and rule of strengthening the inner-triangle countries’ security capabilities law throughout the region. each is involved with numerous and cooperation.

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UIldINg a new community of interests in the Indo-Pacific Washington should look for ways to reduce the maneuvering is of little value if the U.S. does not hold its position in space of regionally disruptive actors. This means ramping up B the region. A holding strategy requires committing the pressure on North Korea by reinstituting broad financial sanc- diplomatic, economic, and military resources required to carry tions, and refusing to do business with Chinese companies that out the building policy described above. are supporting Pyongyang’s economic activity. With regard to We must have a clear diplomatic line that does not confuse China, this means not ceding “water space,” as the U.S. Navy our friends and realistically calls out those nations that act in puts it, and continuing full surveillance in regional waters and air- destabilizing ways. The Obama administration has begun to space. It also means that the U.S. must more aggressively sha dow openly put such pressure on China over maritime territorial Chinese naval ships that are in the process of harassing neigh- claims, but our reluctance to make clear China’s negative poli- bors, and maintain a constant presence in sometimes contested cies with respect to North Korea, Burma, Iran, and other waters. If China continues to abet Pyongyang’s missile prolifer- nations, as well as its continuing abysmal human-rights record, ation or acts in other disruptive ways, the U.S. should not hesitate means we are sending mixed messages to those nations that to limit or cancel the military exchanges with Beijing that we seek to adhere to higher standards of international and domes- have been eager to keep going as proof of our earnestness. tic behavior. Washington needs not only to play a more promi- Ultimately, the U.S. must be serious about its willingness to nent role in regional institutions such as the East Asia Summit, deal with problems that threaten to precipitate conflict. The but host Indo-Pacific democracy forums to give a voice to steady erosion of stability caused by North Korea’s ongoing liberal elements throughout the region. provocations and China’s growing assertiveness may lead to The Indo-Pacific’s great economic dynamism makes it espe- miscalculation or such heightened tensions that military con- cially unfortunate that, under the Obama administration, the flict erupts. For example, South Korea has made clear U.S. has surrendered the high ground on free trade. We are los- that it will respond to any further attacks on its ter- ing to China, which has steadily expanded its free-trade zones, ritory, and U.S. war planners must be willing including with ASEAN, though in ways that do not protect to take action to degrade North Korean workers’ rights or include rigorous consumer-safety - capability to carry out such attacks. We nisms. Washington needs to recapture leadership on free trade, also must be ready to exploit weak- ensuring markets for American exports, continued affordable nesses in China’s military systems consumer goods at home, and the free flow of ideas that fosters and command structures so as to economic activity. Our position in the Indo-Pacific will become ensure decisive victory in any less tenable if we are a bystander to the growth of India, con frontation, in part as a way Vietnam, Indonesia, and other countries. to reduce the likelihood that a Holding our military position in the region is of seminal conflict will break out. As seri- importance, particularly in the face of China’s development of ous as such steps would be, advanced weapons systems that may one day equal our naval even worse would be to reach and air forces. In the foreseeable budgetary future, this will be a tipping point at which U.S. one of the most difficult elements of the strategy to carry out, credibility is lost, and a more but the expense is far outweighed by the potential cost of losing Machtpolitik competition among our military edge in a rapidly changing security environment. regional powers leads to long-term Holding our position requires a careful mix of maintaining instability. top-level forces in the theater as well as expanding our access throughout the region. Rebalancing our global forces so as to put more submarines, ballistic-missile defense measures, and BUIld, hold, and clear strategy is the stealth aircraft in Asia will reassure allies and complicate any most flexible and realistic approach to aggressive plans of potential adversaries. gaining basing rights A maintaining American influence and protecting in Australia, and seeking access for air and naval units in our interests in the Indo-Pacific region. No doubt some, espe- Southeast Asia, will provide flexibility in times of crisis. given cially those in Beijing, will see this as a plan to contain China. China’s increasing ability to target our forward bases in Japan In reality, this approach is not anti-China, but pro-Asia. Our and guam, however, part of holding our position in the Indo- goal should be an unreserved commitment to defending against Pacific must include developing next-generation long-range the slow deterioration of security in the Indo-Pacific region, strike capabilities that can be based securely on U.S. soil but leading the continuing growth in economic production and will be able to reach areas where adversaries will attempt to trade, and furthering the trend of political liberalization. deny access to U.S. air and naval units. America’s economic health and global leadership in the next Even as the U.S. builds and holds in the Indo-Pacific, the generation depend on maintaining our role in the world’s most region will continue to change. Enmities among Asian nations dynamic region. This means deepening the liberal order that has are unlikely to disappear anytime soon, China’s military growth driven Asia’s growth over the past half century. It also means already is resulting in other nations’ building up their naval and providing a viable alternative to China’s growing political, eco- air forces, and North Korea continues to threaten its neighbors nomic, and military influence. By promoting a more prosperous and regional stability. Thus, America must be willing to clear and more stable Indo-Pacific region, not just we, but our allies out obstacles to stability and political development. This means and partners, will benefit, and China, too, eventually may decide not a simple reliance on military force, but rather a plan to apply to play a more constructive role in upholding a system from the forms of national power discussed above. which it has benefited as much as any other nation.

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The Bent Pin BY FLORENCE KING The Virgin Mother

NEW version of an old song is running through doesn’t have a baby to love, so she has no choice but to give my head. “‘M’ is for the million threats against up her son to her (married) friend. you. ‘O’ is for Orlando’s mounted cops. ‘T’ is for Thus begins her obsessive, undeviating devotion to some- A tattoos about the fast lane. ‘H’ is how you framed body else’s adopted baby that no one could fail to interpret your poor old pops. ‘E’ is for your eyes so cold and empty. ‘R’ correctly. She starts a cosmetics business and turns it into an means lots of royalties in store . . . ” empire so that she can buy him anything he wants. She even Put them all together and they spell Casey Anthony, Mother tries to buy him, using her influence with the bank to pressure of the Year. the adoptive family to let him live with her, but she swarms I have a dog in this fight. If the West Point class of 1915 is over him like an adoring bat until he recoils from her and she called “the class the stars fell on” for the number of World War is forced to send him home. II generals it produced, my junior-high class of 1950 is the In despair she moves to England to oversee the London class a ton of bricks fell on from Hollywood’s gut-wrenching branch of her business. She never marries, contenting herself portrayals of mother-love in ’40s-era movies. They have since by keeping scrapbooks on her son with the photos and old been shown so many times that they have become virtual report cards sent her over the years by the adoptive mother, who lodestars of America’s cultural baggage, which is why two- has long since guessed the truth. She is still living in London thirds of the country plus Nancy Grace (the other third) all during World War II when her love child, now an Army pilot, hate Casey Anthony. arrives with the American forces. Overcome with joy, devour- Three movies raise the bar of maternal devotion so high ing him with her eyes, she fixates on him as before, showering that it is hard to see over it, much less clear him with money, tickets, reservations, and it. The first is Stella , starring Barbara luxury accommodations, and using her in - Stanwyck as a low-class woman who mar- fluence with the British government to fix ries a high-class man on the rebound and his leave problems until at last he figures finds that she can’t shake her innate com- out who this “family friend” really is. I’ve monness. They soon separate, and Stella always maintained that it was seeing the takes up self-immolation, living only for bulging scrapbooks that did it, but in any case their daughter, who takes after her father he got the movie’s last line just right. When and, like him, is embarrassed by her moth- he says “May I have this dance, Mother?” er’s trailer-park tastes and habits. After each there wasn’t a dry eye in the house, and one faux pas, feisty Stella swallows her tears woman had to be supported up the aisle. and tries, tries again until we accept that Like Stella Dallas, Jody Norris led a com- Barbara Stanwyck in Stella Dallas motherhood means being bravely hurt, pletely chaste life after childbirth. When spunkily crushed, and gaily heartbroken on a daily basis. a platonic admirer who knows her secret tries to point out the At last, with only one sacrifice left, she makes it and gives difference between loving a child and loving a man, she dis- the girl up to her father. In the final scene, she stands happily agrees, saying, “It’s the same love, really.” That really raised in the pouring rain gazing through the window of a mansion the bar and the casting did not help: The same actor—John whose aristocratic guests she fears to embarrass with her Lund—played both father and son. presence, watching her daughter wed a rich boy. Afterwards The third movie in our cultural baggage room is Johnny she walks away, overjoyed at the thought of her daughter’s Belinda, starring Jane Wyman as a deaf mute on a Canadian brilliant future and utterly unmindful of her own bleak one. farm who is raped by a brutal clod and gives birth to a boy. In case we miss the most vital point, Stella drives it home. Everyone assumes the father is her sign-language teacher but Discouraging a flirtation, she says: “I’m so wrapped up in the rapist, knowing better, decides to take “his son” away Lolly that I don’t think a man could light a fire in me any- from “the dummy.” But when he moves toward the crib, more.” It was motherhood versus sex and sex lost. Wyman grabs her father’s shotgun and blows him to bits. The second movie in our cultural baggage room is To Each The movie audience exploded with applause and audible His Own, starring as Jody Norris, a gasps of “Maternal instinct!” People kept talking about ma - small-town virgin who gets pregnant by a pilot ternal instinct. Men especially liked this angle, often quoting who is soon killed in action. She has the baby, a boy, in New “The female of the species is deadlier than the male” in York and returns home with a bizarre scheme to have him left sonorous tones, and nodding solemnly when women com- on a poor family’s doorstep so that she can offer to adopt him. pared themselves to “a lioness with her cubs.” The message But before she can bring it off, a middle-class townswoman was clear. The ideal mother, when she is not being a sacrifi- has a nervous breakdown when her own newborn dies. The cial lamb and a worshipful benefactress, can take a day off doctor tells Jody that the woman will lose her mind if she and be red in tooth and claw, but she’d better not be sexy. Casey Anthony’s jury examined the evidence but the rest Florence King can be reached at P.O. Box 7113, Fredericksburg, VA 22404. of us examined the baggage. MGM

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Athwart BY JAMES LILEKS The Empire Goes Hungry

E could spend our time together here detail- world” she means everything and everyone in the United ing the ideas that separate the Right and the States, whose continued happiness is predicated on increas- Left, but if Maureen Dowd has taught us ing transfer payments from their modern shameful levels. W anything, it’s that it’s more fun to cast things Never again shall we revisit the dark days of, say, 2007, in the terms of fatuous, ancient pop-culture references. The when skeletal armies thronged the White House gates bang- other day she used Star Wars—something about Obama was ing empty bowls on the fence; and the less said about the once a Jedi, and then the Tea Party took his lightsaber away. horrors of 1999, when federal spending was 50 percent less Wow! That’ll get the kids reading the paper. Next week: Is than today, the better. We still remember the heart-rending Obama more like Fonzie or Scooby-Doo? pictures of congresspeople with their empty eyes and So let’s get really hip ’n’ current and go back to The Odd swollen bellies, too weak to bat away the flies, barely able Couple. Not the sitcom, but the movie. Oscar and Felix are to muster the strength to increase the marginal rates. For having the Pigeon sisters down for supper. Felix—played heaven’s sake, we hardly spend anything on general welfare with twitchy peevish perfection by Jack Lemmon—has been now—only 66.13 percent of the budget is spent on pay- slaving over a meat loaf, timed to come out at eight. Oscar— ments to individuals—and we’re talking about going down Walter Matthau at his slovenly best—cruises in late with a to 66.02 percent? Just so a handful of people can continue to wolfish grin, ready for a night of meat, liquor, single enten- sail on private gravy-lakes towed around by low-flying cor- dres, and some slap-and-tickle with the ripe and flighty neigh- porate jets? bors. Felix is incensed: You’re late, the meat loaf’s ruined. Yes. Because that old world is over. The old world where a Oscar tells him to pour gravy on it. Felix snaps: mysterious, secretive priesthood called “busi- Where the hell am I going to get gravy at eight ness” conjured wealth out of the ether so the o’clock at night? Oscar: I don’t know. I thought Help me, governing class could strain it through a hun- it just comes when you cook the meat. Felix: Obi-Dowd! dred institutions: done. The idea that no child You’re an idiot. You have to make gravy. It will be educated if the Department of Edu - doesn’t just come. You’re my cation shutters its doors: nonsense. Uterus-to- There’s the Right-vs.-Left view of wealth, quietus welfare: sorry. Ever-escalating ben efits, right there. One side believes it’s something that only hope! paid for by magic sacks of money: impossible. naturally arises by some strange arcane process, A half-century experiment in draping steam - and the real issue is the size of the ladle you use to scoop it up ship anchors around the necks of the productive class and and pour it over the meat loaf. The Right is more concerned expecting them to run a four-minute mile has ended in failure. with how the gravy’s made. The confiscation of rights and property, the moral impover- May I have a Times column now? No? Well, let’s water- ishment of generations caused by the state’s usurpation of board the metaphor some more. The Left, informed that gravy parental obligations, the elevation of a credentialed elite that does not naturally arise, is remarkably incurious about the believes academia’s fashions are a worthy substitute for means by which gravy is produced, impatient with the details. knowledge of history and human nature, and above all the Oh, they have a vague idea—the meat loaf inherits a lot of faith in a weightless cipher whose oratorical panache now gravy unfairly, or it’s made by people in a kitchen who will be consists of looking from one teleprompter screen to the other hapless slaves unless they join the Bouillon Congealer’s with the enthusiasm of a man watching someone else’s kids Local #23, or it comes out of the ground, and must be subject play tennis—it’s over, whether you believe in it or not. It can- to strict regulation lest deep-water gravy wells blow up and not be sustained without reducing everyone to penurious foul beaches with rich, delicious sauce. It doesn’t matter. equality, crippling the power of the United States, and What matters is that gravy gets made somehow, and it’s the subsuming the economy to a no-growth future that rations job of the government to regulate its existence and oversee its energy. distribution. To which some progressives respond: You say that like it’s Caring little for the mechanics, they now find themselves a bad thing. irritated and confused that the meat loaf is done, there’s no You don’t know how to reply to that. Help me, Obi-Dowd! gravy to pour over it, and the neighbor from whom you have You’re my only hope! Okay, a pop-culture finish. When the borrowed 14 trillion cups of gravy doesn’t answer the door Odd Couple have their big fight, Oscar calls Felix’s dinner when you knock. What now? “spaghetti.” Felix replies with cold contempt that it’s lingui- Simple. The world ends. And that’s a good thing. During ni, but it’s actually a metaphor for the United States’ credit the debt-ceiling festival of joy, former Speaker Pelosi rating. Oscar picks it up and throws it at the wall. “Now,” he summed up the progressive intention quite succinctly: says, “it’s gawbage.” “We’re trying to save the world.” Oh, is that all. By “the Indeed. The audience laughs when Felix insists he’s not going to clean it up. Of course he will. Oscar has no idea Mr. Lileks at www.lileks.com. where to start.

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The Long View BY ROB LONG

while I disagree with the decision by MR. GEITHNERTIM: If we could get Standard & Poor’s, I agree with their back to the subject at hand? basic assessment of the current polit- LARRY CHING: Okay, okay. Let me ical environment in the United States, recap. No one will be executed, no Official Transcript: which is making it very difficult to one will be humiliated on television, Larry Ching Live on CCTV, address these critical issues. no one will lose their lakeside retreat LARRY CHING: Who in the Standard & or their Audi, no one will have their SEPTEMBER 9, 2011 Poor’s economic unit will be impris- children’s futures destroyed, no one oned for this humiliation? will face imprisonment or public LARRY CHING: From Harbin, in Hei - SECRETARY OF THE U.S. TREASURY trial? Am I hearing this correctly? long jiang Province, ni hao! MR. GEITHNER TIM: Well, um, no one, This is crazy crazy! CALLER: Ni hao, Larry, and ni hao to I think. SECRETARY OF THE U.S. TREASURY your guest. LARRY CHING: No one? An economic MR. GEITHNER TIM: We don’t do that LARRY CHING: Ni hao, caller. Do you unit of the state is not prohibited from in the United States. have a question for the American sec- humiliating and demeaning the lead- LARRYCHING: Don’t do that! My retary of the treasury, Mr. Geithner ers and the people’s government? viewers, don’t you love this guy? Tim? SECRETARY OF THE U.S. TREASURY Tomorrow night! The whole hour CALLER: I do, Larry, thank you. I’d MR. GEITHNERTIM: Well, no, I mean, with Donnie Yen, Simon Yam, and like to ask Mr. Tim if he is regretful I see your point, but . . . Siu-Wong Fan! The cast of Ip Man! about the recent downgrading of LARRY CHING: Will there at least be From Chengdu, in Sichuan Province, Amer ican sovereign debt? televised show trials? ni hao! LARRY CHING: Good question! What SECRETARY OF THE U.S. TREASURY CALLER: Ni hao, Larry, ni hao Mr. about it, Mr. Tim? But before answer, MR. GEITHNER TIM: No. Tim! can call you Geithner? Is that too LARRY CHING: Will Miss Bachmann LARRY CHING: It’s just Tim. It’s back- familiar? Michele be publicly rebuked? wards over there. Am I right, Tim? SECRETARY OF THE U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY OF THE U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY OF THE U.S. TREASURY MR. GEITHNER TIM: Well, Larry, actu- MR. GEITHNERTIM: Only by the MR. GEITHNER TIM: That’s correct. ally, in English it’s reversed. So my media. CALLER: I am wondering if Tim has first name is Tim and my second LARRY CHING: Will anyone in the spoken to Obama Barack about this name is Geithner. American ruling cadre have their debt situation and if either one of LARRY CHING: How about that! Weird! lakeside retreat or Audi confiscated? them is planning on repaying this Fun stuff! I am enjoying this nutty SECRETARY OF THE U.S. TREASURY debt to the glorious Chinese people interview! MR. GEITHNER TIM: We operate on a and culture? SECRETARY OF THE U.S. TREASURY different system . . . LARRY CHING: Good question! Very MR. GEITHNERTIM: If I may, to an - LARRY CHING: Surely your children’s loosey-goosey operation you have swer your caller’s question, I am of careers have been ruined? over there. Should we be worried course regretful about Standard & SECRETARY OF THE U.S. TREASURY about our money? Poor’s decision to downgrade the MR. GEITHNERTIM: My children are SECRETARY OF THE U.S. TREASURY United States’ debt, but I am hopeful very young still . . . MR. GEITHNER TIM: As I’ve said, Larry, that this situation can be resolved. As LARRY CHING: Wonderful! A family the ability of the United States to you know, the American economy is man! How many instruments do your meet its obligations has never been still the most powerful and energetic children play? questioned. in the world, and our ability to meet SECRETARY OF THE U.S. TREASURY LARRY CHING: Yeah, but you know, our financial obligations remains MR. GEITHNER TIM: I don’t . . . I mean you’ve got all this debt here and then strong. . . . I think one of them is starting you tell me your kids are morons, LARRY CHING: So when do you have piano . . . hard to see how you get out of this to go to the prison farm? LARRY CHING: One of them is starting mess. SECRETARY OF THE U.S. TREASURY piano? Okay. Moving on. What are SECRETARY OF THE U.S. TREASURY MR. GEITHNERTIM: Well, never, I their most recent test scores in the MR. GEITHNERTIM: I didn’t say my hope. math or science arena? kids were— LARRY CHING: Will you or any of your SECRETARY OF THE U.S. TREASURY LARRY CHING: Up next! The Mrs. Hu cadre be executed? MR. GEITHNERTIM: I’m really not tells us all how to eat more healthy! SECRETARY OF THE U.S. TREASURY comfortable discussing my children, Stay with us! Unless you are at work, MR. GEITHNERTIM: No, as I’ve said, Larry. in which case please report to your this is really not a big problem. The LARRY CHING: Ouch! That bad, huh? supervisor for an additional assign- United States remains solvent, and SECRETARY OF THE U.S. TREASURY ment!

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ment—against the bourgeois capitalism and Piranesi’s Imaginary Prisons (1749). the Enlightenment had turned into the For Blanning, it was the day in July Isn’t It stuff of heroism, against natural law 1749 that the eye of Jean-Jacques and natural rights, and against the bal- Rousseau was caught by an advertise- Romantic? ance and predictability that new - ment for an essay contest on the ques- to nian science had imparted to the tion: “Has the progress of the sciences ALLEN C. GUELZO 18th-century world. It clothed itself, as and arts done more to corrupt morals or so many revolts do, in the costume of improve them?” The promoters of the what it deemed an unjustly despised contest were confidently expecting vari- past—Hugo’s medieval Paris, Ossian’s ations on improve; it suddenly swam epics, the Grimm brothers’ German fairy into Rousseau’s head that the real tales—but its real grasp was for the answer was corrupt, and from there future, a future that would glorify the flowed a lifelong declaration of war politics of race and blood, the philoso- against reason, calculation, balance, phy of Dionysian passion, and the aes- law, and orderliness, which Rousseau thetic of the mysterious. believed had snatched away the “inno- The bulk of Tim Blanning’s long cence” of humanity. career as a historian at Cambridge has Isaiah Berlin was deeply suspicious of been devoted to the closing scenes of the fingering Rousseau as Romanticism’s The Romantic Revolution: A History, ancient regime—to Joseph II of Austria progenitor, and Rousseau merits only by Tim Blanning (Modern Library, (the Enlightenment’s model emperor), one passing reference in Clark’s The Ro - 223 pp., $22) to the onset of the French Revolution mantic Rebellion (1973). And Blanning and its wars, and to the reorganization himself introduces a fairly extensive n 1836, Alfred de Musset created of the German cities and states after supporting cast for Romanticism’s two fictional blockheads, Dupuis napoleon’s dismemberment of the Holy debut, including Wordsworth (on the and Cotonet, and allowed them to Roman Empire. But he has also had a sublime), Hamann (on passion), Johann I make themselves ridiculous in longer view for the history of European Heinrich Merck (on the deadness of rea- the pages of the Revue des Deux Mon - culture (as the editor of the Oxford son), and Kant. But his fundamental des, trying to define “Romanticism.” At History of Modern Europe), and espe- instinct for fixing on Rousseau is, I first, they “thought that romanticism cially for 19th-century music. All of this think, straight and true, for Rousseau meant imitating the Germans.” Then, in puts him in a particularly good position represented a repudiation of everything 1830–31, they were sure it meant writing to speak of the arrival of Romanticism the Enlightenment held at its core. Chief historical novels about “Charlemagne, on the European scene, and he does so among those antagonisms was Rous - Francis I, or Henry IV.” Then it occurred with a verve, a breadth, and an authority seau’s (and Romanticism’s) hostility to them that “romanticism might be a that exceed every expectation of what to both democracy and commerce. In system of philosophy and political econ- might otherwise have been an indecently a world of natural plenty, Rousseau omy.” But on further reflection, it brief slide show of the Romantic revolu- believed commerce created artificial seemed more likely to have “consisted in tion. scarcity (Locke had believed the exact not shaving, and in wearing waistcoats Picking a starting point for Roman - opposite—that this was a world of with long, stiffly starched lapels.” In ticism has long been a favorite parlor scarcity that commerce and property despair, they finally wondered, “Is it game: For Berlin, it was Herder and turned into a cornucopia). Those who led anything, or is it only a fine-sounding Kant; for Clark, it was alternately the commercial lives did so under the most word?” Lisbon earthquake, the nightmare in deadeningly and harshly rational rule Defining Romanticism has not gotten 1764 that set Horace Walpole to writing of all, the bottom line, which reduced any easier since 1836, but neither has our The Castle of Otranto, Burke’s Inquiry nature to mere utility. sense of its importance diminished. into the Origins of the Sublime (1757), The bourgeoisie, therefore, was noth- Isaiah Berlin thought Romanticism was ing more than what Goethe called “the “the greatest single shift in the con- gawping public.” What Rousseau hoped sciousness of the West”; Kenneth Clark to be ruled by was a mysterious “gener- believed that it introduced an entirely al will” emerging from “the people” as a new sensibility into European art. But tribal mass, not by the checks and bal- what it certainly was, at the very least, ances of individuals and their represen- was a revolt against the Enlighten - tatives. nations, as culturally defined organisms rather than assemblies of free Mr. Guelzo is the Henry R. Luce Professor of the and equal citizens, became the object of Civil War Era at Gettysburg College. Romantic ardor.

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BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS One of the most remarkable aspects The Routledge Encyclopedia of the of Blanning’s little book, and the one Romantic Era takes 1850 as a cutoff date Was Burke a most often missing from historical sur- for the Romantic revolution, and there was veys of Romanticism, is his easy grasp at that time no shortage of voices that wept of Romantic music, and particularly for Romanticism’s demise at the hands of Burkean Beethoven, Wagner, and Berlioz. Only the triumphant bourgeoisie. Blanning is (and, in a more strictly unconvinced: Rousseau’s curdled con- Conservative? academic sense, Charles Rosen) are tempt for reason may have lost its initial more effective at connecting the dots momentum a century after his epiphany DANIEL FOSTER between the likes of Goya and Friedrich on the road to Vincennes, but not its endur- on one hand, and Carl Maria von Weber ing attraction, something that Blanning and E. T. A. Hoffmann on the other. If picks out unerringly in Schoenberg, Gro - there is a serious gap anywhere, it lies in pius, and postmodernism. “All postmod- Blanning’s failure to draw Romantic pol- ernists have in common a rejection of itics into this net. For certainly, authori- grand narrative, teleology, and rational- tarian notions of society and polities ism,” and when postmodernism is mixed built on Blut und Eisen feed their souls with “a vaguely leftist” touch of “anarchic on a Romantic rejection of democratic hedonism,” the result belongs “squarely universalism and natural law. In that . . . in a line that stretches back to . . . sense, Romanticism’s darkest legacy is romanticism.” I should add only this: that the one that stained the 20th century with the sound we hear, pulsing beneath, is fascism and socialism. the thump of jackboots. for Our Time: Moral Imagination, Meaning, and Politics, by William F. Byrne (Northern Illinois, 246 pp., $40) SOUTHERN STORM

En FRAnklIn wrote in 1787, a To the east is subtropical fern year of some moment, that Whose shadows imprint the trails to the springs, “only a virtuous people are More ancient than the forests themselves. B capable of freedom. As na - tions become corrupt and vicious, they To the west of these too-deep predawn pools have more need of masters.” In many There are rolling fields and oaks, ways, avoiding the latter consequence Green ladies trailing gray lace who shade was the central preoccupation of the Anglo-Irish statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke, a Franklin contem - The horses grazing there. porary. It is also the preoccupation of William F. Byrne’s new study of Burke’s Far from northern cities I feel the rain moral and political thought. Blasting the roof where I have sought cover From Burke’s time to ours, he has From the lightning which, oddly enough, waxed and waned and, with the caprices Never strikes the horses who have turned of intellectual fashion, waxed again in Their backs to the storm. the estimation of conservatives—at the mean, a kind of patron saint of stodgy, staid, cautionary politics more about I look out at the sudden dark process than about substance. But Burke As it moves toward me and the lashing was not so easy to pin down even in his Ropes of light as they try to strike the sky. own day. A reform-minded, pragmatic British MP, he had expressed sympathy It moves toward me, then away. for the American Revolution, worked I wish to measure it and understand its weight. on behalf of the oppressed Catholics in But it is gone. Ireland, and stridently opposed the Crown’s imperial policies in India. So Thomas Paine, who’d assumed he had I wonder at the force of its wave a natural ally in Burke, was perhaps And the intensity of its light as much as understandably taken aback by Burke’s I fear the age of the forests pique at the revolution in France in And the depth of the springs. 1789, and his famed Reflections on the same. Similarly, though Burke was a —RICHARD E. TRENNERT Whig during most of his parliamentary

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career, he counted no less a figure than the exception of these stylistic tics, how- write our political order that, in a kind of Samuel Johnson—who had called Whig- ever, Byrne’s prose is highly readable, counter-Marxism, he argued that “even gism “the negation of all principle” and and his reading of Burke both plausible commerce and trade and manufacture, japed that “the first Whig was the and illuminating. the gods of our economical politicians, Devil”—as his good friend and admirer. Byrne invests much (perhaps too much) are themselves perhaps but creatures, Burke despised the programmatic fixity of his reading of Burke in a phrase— are themselves but effects which . . . we of “metaphysicians,” but wrote a treatise “moral imagination”—that though Burke choose to worship.” In other words, it on aesthetics that influenced the young appears to have coined, he used only once, takes a people with the right sort of Immanuel Kant. in a famous passage from the Reflections. habits—the right moral imagination—to And while he has been read by many It is worth quoting in full: create a functioning capitalist society. as a Natural Lawyer of one stripe or (And how can we doubt this, as Amer - another, he’s also been accused, per All the pleasing illusions which made icans grow shyer of work and increasing- Byrne, of being “some sort of utilitarian, power gentle and obedience liberal, ly expect the government to vouch safe a or proto-progressive, or historical deter- which harmonized the different shades middle-class living?) of life, and which, by a bland assimi- minist, or pragmatist, or even nihilist.” What, in particular, furnishes this lation, incorporated into politics the The muddle is such that there is a grow- sentiments which beautify and soften “moral imagination”? Family and com- ing segment of scholarship that con- private society, are to be dissolved by munity, for starters, “the little platoon[s] cludes Burke had no coherent philoso phy this new conquering empire of light and we belong to in society” that are “the at all, that he was a politician who dealt reason. All the decent drapery of life is first principle . . . of public affections.” with questions à la carte. to be rudely torn off. All the superadded , too, which Burke calls “the Byrne, a political scientist at St. John’s ideas, furnished from the wardrobe of a basis of civil society, and the source of University, means with this book to push moral imagination, which the heart all good and of all comfort,” and which back against this conclusion. He argues owns and the understanding ratifies as Byrne reads as important to Burke not that Burke’s writings contain the ele- necessary to cover the defects of our only (and perhaps not even primarily) naked, shivering nature, and to raise it ments of a rich and robust system of for the literal truth of its doctrines, but to dignity in our own estimation, are to thought that can accommodate Burke’s be exploded as ridiculous, absurd, and for its “rites, narratives, and other trap- seemingly scattershot judgments, one antiquated fashion. pings.” The trappings of power are a centered on a respect for tradition, for big deal for Burke, and he doesn’t apol- caution, and for the place of both reason There is much going on here. In the ogize for it. Indeed, as Byrne shows, and sentiment in human intercourse as aftermath of the French Revolution, there is a deep agreement between ingredients for a society both publicly Burke saw the substitution of a cold and Burke’s writings on politics and his trea- virtuous and politically free. It’s a famil- unmoored rationalism, novel in the tise on aesthetics on this score. Burke’s iar picture of Burke, if also a subtler one worst sense of the word, for the body of treatment of “the sublime” in art and with some novel elements. As the title mores and morals that had long held nature focuses on our appreciation of suggests, Byrne also promises a usable French civil life together. Byrne’s Burke the awe-inspiring: those objects and Burke, a Burke “for our time.” This the understands our moral faculty as an ideas that, in their sheer scale, complex- author delivers as well, though perhaps admixture of reason and sentiment. ity, and power, dumbfound and awe us. not in the way he intends. Healthy judgments of right and wrong Likewise, he understands that part of Behind Byrne’s scholarship is the come from an application of what he what is required for real political order sociological fact that he is a working, repeatedly calls “prejudices”—instincts, is a sense of—strange as it may sound— presumably tenure-tracked academic of - habits, virtues culturally inherited— terror, an appreciation for our part in a fering a full-throated normative defense aided by reason. White papers, eco - whole that is itself beyond our com- of canonical conservative thought. This nomic models, and graduate seminars prehension. So, for Burke, the Catholic makes for some fairly pained attempts to get you only so far. The rest requires the Church must be catholic. Her Majesty distance both the author and his subject wisdom of “nations and . . . ages” must be majestic. There is a real con - from the kind of right-wing politics that (Burke’s words) that is all too often dis- nection between this idea and Burke’s are anathema in faculty halls every- missed as (our words) “the conventional recognition of the fundamental vicious- where. (Often as not, the word “conser- wisdom.” ness of political programs that assume in vative” appears in scare quotes, and the We thirst for this conventional wis- principle that every problem is solvable, fear is palpable.) Nor would I be sur- dom, for the common sense that can’t be all points of view worthy of considera- prised to learn that Byrne’s slim book gleaned from an Ivy League education tion, and each man the equal of every had a previous life as a doctoral disser- but comes only from participation in a other. tation. Like the conscientious graduate multigenerational order greater and Education is another furnisher of student, Byrne zeroes in on his thesis more enduring that any passing ideo - moral imagination, and Burke saw in statement early and then spends each logical fad. (How else to explain Sarah revolutionary France a prefiguring of subsequent chapter hammering it from Palin?) “Prejudice,” Burke wrote, “ren- our present cult of self-esteem when he a different oblique angle, frequently ders a man’s virtue his habit, and not a admonished that “instead of forming falling into the trap of telling us what series of unconnected acts.” He placed their young . . . to an admiration he’s going to argue, arguing it, and then so much stock in the power of our man- of famous examples, and to an averse- telling us what’s he’s just argued. With ners, sentiments, and habits to under- ness to anything which approaches to

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BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS pride, petulance, and self-conceit,” the converting the pagan Anglo-Saxons early-20th-century social-democratic revolutionaries “artificially foment these slowly, allowing them to retain—in cer- movement, was the slow, piecemeal evil dispositions, and even form them tain cases right up to the Reformation— introduction of socialism to the United into springs of action.” those native customs and festivals Kingdom. It is hard not to see Burke’s He cites as well “the theatre” (read com patible with Christianity, “in order fingerprints. today: music, television, film), and be - that the prejudices of the people might There is now a debate on the right that lieved that a society and its arts could not be too rudely shocked by a declared is not usually described in Burkean either provide a base of mutual support profanation of what they had so long terms, but perhaps should be. It centers for a healthy society, or chase each other held sacred.” on the following question: If, the Reagan in a vicious cycle. Although Burke him- Burke was himself a pious Christian, revolution notwithstanding, American self authored a long-form satire, he so he must see the conversion of the political discourse has become pre - believed strongly that some subjects Anglo-Saxons as a good thing. But this judiced, in the Burkean sense, toward were not laughing matters. He wrote is supposed to be problematic, since and statism by the of his concern about “Players, who daily Burkean conservatism as it is typically consoli dation and entrenchment of the more than burlesque by their vile Al - understood assumes that traditional and the Great Society, does terations, the Authors from whom they practices are, ipso facto, good and wor- that make the Right’s political program have their daily Bread; and, not content thy of retention. But Byrne suggests that itself radical? Does it make progressives with the many Pieces they have already passages like the above show that Burke in Washington conservative? (Consider of that Nature . . . turn all that we cares less about whether a standing the popularity of such books as Rules for have, great or noble, to Farce.” Think of order is objectively good and more Radical Conservatives.) the transition from Edward R. Murrow about how it is subjectively perceived Why is fear-mongering on Social to ; from Pride and by a people: The old “prejudices” of the Security and Medicare reform such a Prejudice to Pride and Prejudice and pagans are to be preserved only so as not potent tool for opportunists on the left? Zombies. to rock the societal boat, smoothing and Is it because the idea of a world in which As Americans—Left and Right— stabilizing the transition to the new prej- senior citizens rely even slightly less on we’re prone to sniff at a conception of udices provisioned by Christianity. But the machinery of the state is now alien to political order that has more do to with this reading, in turn, raises the question people’s political prejudices? Or, to put submission than with choice, with emo- of whether Burke is at root a relativist— it more forcefully: Is it because the old tion than with reason. So it is perhaps or, at best, concerned with order simpli - American political prejudices, including important to stop here and realize that citer, while being agnostic as between the emphasis on industriousness and Burke is not defending the French crown particular orders. (There is other evi- self-reliance, and on a safety net that per se, and that his own political tradi- dence of this, such as Burke’s apparent is at least as much familial and civil- tion, which the Reflections seeks to pro- 180 on the concept of natural rights, societal as it is governmental, have been tect against the dangers of Jacobinism, is from generally for to generally against vitiated by the slow, steady progress of itself a fairly liberal constitutional monar - around the fulcrum of 1789, and more progressive liberalism? chy that took its then-current form only generally the muddle and dissonance of And if this is the case, what of Burke’s after a violent revolution and restora- his political positions over his career.) usefulness to “conservatives” on the tion. Burke’s very point is Benjamin Byrne’s answer is nuanced, but it right? Byrne flutters in the general Franklin’s, that free societies as such amounts to a kind of “yes, but.” The idea vicinity of this question only briefly, in cannot exist without these virtues and is that Burke believes in something like a concluding section titled “Burke and sentimental ties. natural law and an objectively good the Twenty-First Century,” in which he Byrne spends roughly the first two- order authored by Providence, but that wonders whether we have come to a thirds of his book on Burke’s concept of we can grasp it but faintly, and our poli- point where we must choose between a moral imagination. This constitutes an tics must grope toward it humbly, not “liberal order” in the sense Burke argument about the how of political make bold sallies under the inspiration would have venerated, and “the sort of order: How, for Burke, is a stable, func- of grandiose theories. radical Enlightenment liberalism that tional social-political order built? The That Burke can be read as relativist undermines meaning and . . . exists in latter third of the book Byrne spends or instrumentalist—whether or not he opposition to its cultural heritage.” But attempting to answer the question of actually is one—gets to the core of the again, fear of “the C-word” prevents what the ultimate good is, at which pol- doubt that Burke should be considered a him from saying much of use here. So itics should aim. The answer involves figure of the Right at all, and opens up we must ask: Would Burke venerate the the doctrine most often ascribed to space for his appropriation by liberals as status quo and argue for a slow, cautious Burke qua Burkean conservative: the well as conservatives (as we understand evolution? Or would he see the vitiation doctrine of gradualism. those terms today). When President of our moral imagination at the hands of While it is prominent throughout Obama is described as “temperamen - “this new conquering empire of light Burke’s works, Byrne finds the earliest tally conservative,” we may snicker, but and reason” and call for something evidence of this gradualism in an unfin- in fact it is quite possible for a commit- more drastic? If Burke’s legacy is as ished history of England Burke under- ted political progressive to prefer his the Cassandra of Jacobinism, we may took at the age of 28. In it, Burke praises progress gradual. The organizing prin - ask: What if the Jacobins have already Pope Gregory I and his successors for ciple of Fabianism, the late-19th- and won?

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In 1957, the new Warren Court modi- Stalin and a ready fifth column in the event fied the Dennis decision. In Yates v. U.S., that war broke out between the U.S. and Something the Court argued that proving a defen- the USSR. Martelle understands that dant’s intent to teach revolution was not Soviet spying was not a figment of the To Fear sufficient to prove that the defendant actu- imagination, and that the Smith Act indict- ally intended to try to make a revolution ments took place concurrently with the RONALD RADOSH (and thus run afoul of the Smith Act). The revelations by concern- defendants in Yates were acquitted. Even ing the spy networks she handled in the The Fear Within: Spies, Commies, and American Justice Felix Frankfurter, who had con- United States. Yet he exempts the Amer- Democracy on Trial, by Scott Martelle curred in the earlier decision, changed his ican CP leaders from any connection to (Rutgers, 296 pp., $26.95) mind: He had come to believe that First espionage, arguing that “no one was ac - Amendment protections of free speech cused of spying,” and that no one indicted ECADES ago, the historian and assembly had been compromised. As was charged with any “overt acts” or Theo dore Draper wrote about Martelle writes, Yates “brought the Smith “detailed plans to attack the government.” what he called the “minor aca- Act prosecutions to a screeching halt.” Martelle therefore buys the argument of D demic industry” dedicated to The heart of Martelle’s book is a day- the defendants’ allies that they were indict- resurrecting the reputation of the Amer- by-day account of the first trial, which led ed only for the books they read, the insti- ican Communist party. The industry’s to the conviction of Eugene Dennis and tutions they supported, and, “in essence, ranks were composed of “post–New the other first-string Communists. Al - their thoughts.” From the beginning, read- Leftists [who] have turned back to the though Martelle has made use of the ers are told to understand that the trial was Communist past in their search for a new papers of the presiding judge, Harold one of Americans for their ideas alone, and faith and vision,” and—despite all that has Medina, as well as the papers of some clearly a violation of our fundamental been learned since Draper wrote those Communist leaders and the CPUSA’s rights as citizens. It is highly ironic that, as words—their effort continues without archives at the Tamiment Library in New Martelle acknowledges, the Communists pause. Each year brings a variety of new York, most of his account depends on the themselves were initially supporters books informing readers of how the transcript of the nine-month trial. He of Smith Act prosecutions: In 1941, he American Commu nists were a major would like his readers to share his conclu- writes, the CPUSA “applauded” the positive force for necessary progress in sions: that the trial “helped propel [the wartime indictment of its Trotskyist ene- our country, and how, had not repression ‘Red Scare’] by giving legal sanction to mies. What Martelle does not mention is been heaped upon them, they would have political persecution” that went far beyond that, in the 1941 case, the Communist been able to preserve those institutions— the CPUSA itself, and that “the marginal- party—in the words of party boss Earl including the trade-union move ment—that ization of progressive politics shifted the Browder’s associate Philip Jaffe—“pre- might have prevented the rise of American electoral mainstream to the right.” pared for the Department of Justice an conservatism. It is clear, therefore, that Martelle writes important collection of documents to help The latest in this genre is by a Los from the perspective of the political left. prove the guilt of the Socialist Workers Angeles journalist, Scott Martelle, and he His approach leads him to ignore much Party”: These documents emphasized the offers in The Fear Within a study of the evidence in his own book that undercuts SWP’s position that the war was an impe- post-war Smith Act trial that took place his arguments. Over the past two decades, rialist war, and concluded that the SWP in 1949, when the Justice Department since the release of the so-called Venona was essentially a “sabotage organization, brought to the docket the top leaders of the decrypts of Soviet intelligence operations concentrating upon the disruption of the American CP, and indicted them for con- in the U.S. and the more recent Vassiliev war effort.” What the CP argued in de - spiring to advocate the overthrow of the KGB files, as well as documents found in fense of the Smith Act is exactly what the U.S. government by force. The case went Moscow by Harvey Klehr and John Earl 1949 Justice Department would argue was all the way to the Supreme Court. In Haynes, much evidence has been assem- the danger posed by the CPUSA in the Dennis v. U.S., the Court, led by Chief bled that proves beyond any doubt that the Cold War era. Justice Fred M. Vinson, ruled in a 6–2 deci- American Communist party was not just When it comes to the 1949 trial, Mar - sion that the convictions were legal and another political party, but an institution telle believes that all the testimony against that the Smith Act under which the defen- whose policies, leadership, and programs the defendants from FBI informants and dants were indicted was constitutional. The were forged in Moscow, and that served as from ex-Communists was false. The Court’s majority decision stated that the a recruiting ground for Soviet intelligence, Com munists claimed, as one of them said government had a right to prohibit the with the participation and cooperation of at the trial, that they were “fighting the bat- intention to commit acts meant to over- the ’s top leaders. tle of constitutional democracy versus fas- throw the American republic, and to prose- The name of the late political philoso- cism” and the “right to associate, form a cute the plotters before they acted. pher appears nowhere in political party of their choice . . . without Martelle’s book, but had he read Hook’s interference by the government.” The Mr. Radosh, an adjunct fellow at the , major essay “Heresy Yes—Conspiracy irony that cadres who wanted a dictator- blogs regularly at www.pajamasmedia.com/ronradosh. No,” he might have had to take into ship of the proletariat, with only one polit- He is the author of a memoir, Commies: A account those who, even back at the time ical party ruling all, would claim to believe Journey Through the Old Left, the New Left of the trials, understood that the American in the principles of American democracy, and the Leftover Left. Communist party was an organ of Joseph evidently does not register with Martelle.

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BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS He writes that one prosecution witness reinforced [the prosecution’s] argument testified that “party members were told that these men were dangerous radicals that an emissary from Stalin had sent word bent on sowing the seeds of revolution.” Failure of that war was in the offing,” and that “when Of course it did—because they were. it began they were to go underground and After the guilty verdict came in, a few of Design sabotage the capitalist war machine from the convicted defendants fled while on within.” He says this underscored other bail, and hid out for years. One of them ARTHUR HERMAN testimony “about the secretive nature of was World War II hero Robert Thompson, the party.” Were these statements as far- who had received the Distinguished Ser - fetched as he implies? A few years ago, a vice Cross. He came to the home of labor historian named Albert V. Lannon another underground party cadre, Carl wrote a post on a historians’ Internet dis- Ross, asking to be put up in a safe house. cussion group. Lannon is the son of Al He told Ross it was important that he, Lannon, later a Smith Act defendant in Thompson, stay free because he was both the second New York Communist trial a senior CP leader and had military ex - in 1951, who was the CP’s head of Com- perience in both World War II and the munist waterfront dock workers in New Spanish Civil War, and he would be need- York City. Lannon wrote that, at the time ed to lead U.S. Communist guerrillas of his father’s trial, his father told him that against the American fascist regime, or while he was in Moscow at the Lenin during World War III should war break Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the school for party cadres, he was instructed out between the U.S. and Russia. Soul of American Business, by Bob Lutz that if war broke out between the U.S. and So when key FBI informants—includ- (Portfolio, 256 pp., $26.95) the Soviet Union, he was to organize party ing ex-Communist Louis Budenz and cadres in the factories and get those at the Herbert Philbrick, an FBI infiltrator into HeN I was born, one out of Celanese plant in Cumberland, Md., to the party—testified that, in the event of every two cars sold in the engage in sabotage. domestic repression, they would have United States was made Martelle also writes that one defendant, become underground saboteurs, they W by General Motors. As the Gil Green, acknowledged that he had, in a were telling the truth. John Gates and Gil biggest corporation in the world, GM speech, urged the use of violence to attain Green, two of the defendants who con- produced 10 percent of everything the the party’s goal of achieving Communism tended that that was not true, were both United States made to win World War II. in America. Green, he writes, “admitted lying. When GM CeO Charles Wilson was that he had at times advocated vio- Years after the trial, I came to know (mis)quoted as telling Congress in 1953, lence—though only . . . if, ‘heaven forbid, John Gates. As I sat with him by a swim- “What’s good for General Motors is good America becomes the victim of a fascist ming pool in upstate New York one sum- for the country,” some were furious but dictatorship and change became impossi- mer, he told me that going to prison was few doubted he knew what he was talk- ble by orderly, majority, and, above all, the best thing that had happened to him, ing about. democratic means.’” Martelle accepts this because it was there that he both discov- Fifty years later, GM was in pieces on as a solid explanation. He ignores what he ered America and learned the need to the floor, as were Ford and . has, earlier in the book, demonstrated: break away from the sectarian Communist Despite rising sales after the trough of the that, hard as it is to comprehend, in 1949 world. In prison, he said, he had time to early eighties, costs and debt were so the CPUSA believed that the U.S. was read and think. Later, after Khrushchev’s overwhelming that even a $17 billion most of the way to fascism already, and speech denouncing Stalin and after the loan from the Troubled Asset Relief that Pres. Harry S. Truman was the leader Soviet invasion of Hungary, Gates led Program in 2008 to GM and Chrysler of the Wall Street warmongers who de - those American Communists who wanted couldn’t save them from looming bank- sired war with the USSR and the head of to change the CP into a democratic orga - ruptcy (a humiliation that Chrysler had an essentially fascist government. Thus nization. Gates would soon leave the been spared once already by Jimmy Green’s own words reveal that the prose- party’s ranks and, eventually, go to work Carter). A year later, President Obama cution was indeed correct in its assertion for David Dubinsky’s anti-Communist ordered a government-supervised reorga- that the Communists were advocating ILGWU garment-workers’ union, where nization of both—which left Washington force and violence, necessary because he saw himself for the first time help - owning 61 percent of the company that they lived in a fascist America. ing patriotic American workers with once symbolized American free enter- Another defendant, Carl Winter, admit- their real problems. Like Sidney Hook, prise. ted that—in Martelle’s paraphrase—“the Gates proudly defined himself as an anti- explaining this decline and fall on a new communist government might have Communist social democrat, and strongly Gibbonesque scale is what Bob Lutz, to use force to dissolve class distinctions defended the U.S. war in Vietnam. GM’s former vice chairman, who left and against the ‘repressive’ police for - How unfortunate that writer Scott Mar - shortly after the government takeover, ces.” According to Martelle, the defen- telle, unlike John Gates, still sees the U.S. tries to do in his new book. Lutz is no dants’ “long-winded answers decrying during the Cold War years as a repressive capitalism and the failures of the modern power bent on stifling the free speech of Mr. Herman is a visiting scholar at the American state to defend the poor and minorities innocent revolutionaries. Enterprise Institute.

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Gibbon, and the story is already familiar for the sale of small and mid-sized cars, asked those who were present in 1990 to any reader of Paul Ingrassia’s Crash with America’s auto industry trying des- just what the hell they were thinking at Course or Alex Taylor’s Sixty to Zero. perately to catch up, shedding factories the time.” It turned out GM’s “bean coun- But it’s good to be reminded again of just and jobs along the way. When Roger ters” had assumed that health-care costs how America all but killed off its most Smith (the man chases had peaked, and would go down over important manufacturing industry—and after in his 1989 movie Roger & Me) the next decade. They turned out to be how nearly every attempt to reverse the decided that GM had to beat Toyota at its wrong as, Lutz asserts, they were so often decline only made things worse. own high-productivity, low-cost game, wrong. Then came 9/11, followed by the Lutz started at GM in the glory days he set up GM’s Saturn division, which 2008 financial panic, in which the moun- of the Fifties and Sixties, when its divi - proved a financial head-on crash. tain of debt became a landslide and sions produced classics such as the Pon- The CAFE madness continues to this General Motors found itself transformed tiac GTO, the Buick Riviera, the ’55 day, of course, steadily tightening the into Government Motors. Chevrolet with its V-8 engine (which sold screws on America’s car makers. In fact, As for the future, GM has put its faith in record numbers), and the Cadillac it permanently skewed the auto market. It in its electric Chevy Volt. Lutz mounts a Coupe de Ville. GM designers Harley relegated the two- and four-door sedan spirited defense of the car, calling it “a Earl and Bill Mitchell are Lutz’s arche- market to the former Axis powers, but shining testimonial to the company’s type “car guys,” who understood how to left light trucks like the Dodge Ram, Ford vision and willingness to accept large create cars that were both innovative and 150, and Jeep Cherokee exempt. GM, risk.” But that risk is cushioned by bil- appealing to the American public, and Ford, and Chrysler came to rely on rising lions in loans from the federal govern- were built for every purse and purpose, as sales of SUVs to remain profitable, ment, which have yet to be repaid. In GM’s Pater Patriae Alfred Sloan once because SUV buyers didn’t care how addition, there’s something bizarre in cit- put it. much gas the vehicles burned as long as izens’ paying a subsidy of $7,500 in tax Then in the Seventies and Eighties, the they did the job and looked tough. The credits on a car costing $41,000 made by accountant “bean counters” took over— result was that, far from cutting back a company that’s still partly owned by including Lutz’s biggest bête noire, GM on oil imports, Washington’s policies those same citizens. CEO Roger Smith. They understood expanded them. In 1973, they accounted Still, as Paul Ingrassia has pointed out, numbers better than they knew cars. for 35 percent of U.S. oil consumption; in the GM bailout may have a silver lining. Steadily but inexorably, GM, like Ford the past decade, they have reached as It forced the unions to claw back their and Chrysler, began to move in the direc- high as 60 percent. mammoth benefits packages, which has tion of short-term profits instead of long- Even so, the Big Three could have enabled both GM and Chrysler to regain term vision and growth. remained profitable by dominating this some control over their costs. A decade Yet as Lutz himself admits, the two strong if narrow domestic market, except ago, employee wages and benefits ac - forces that backed GM and the rest of the for a second major factor. This was the counted for a third of the cost of building auto industry into a corner had nothing to unions, specifically the United Auto a car; now they’re less than 10 percent. do with beans. The first was Congress, Workers. After World War II they and the UAW workers still pay only 5 percent of with its decision in 1975—in the shadow Big Three developed an uneasily cozy their health-care costs, and pictures of of an Arab oil boycott and a growing relationship, as Lutz admits, with the Chrysler workers smoking pot on the job green movement—to impose Corporate UAW negotiating with one carmaker haven’t done much to reassure the public Average Fuel Economy standards on cars every three years for a contract that was that is back. But it’s a step toward sold in America, set at 18 miles per gallon the model for everyone else. The employ- recovery. by 1978 and 27.5 mpg by 1985. Over - ee benefits in those contracts went steadi- The real test is whether GM and Amer - night, the cars that had made GM’s repu- ly upward until 1990, when GM CEO ica’s other car companies can sell cars tation, and the sales numbers for the Big Bob Stempel gave way on everything the again. But sell to whom? Right now, U.S. Three, became “gas guzzlers” that the UAW wanted, including zero-co-pay sales are less than 20 percent of the world companies couldn’t produce even if cus- health insurance for workers and their market, whose fastest-growing sector is tomers wanted them. All three scrambled families. Ford and Chrysler were forced China. The reigning king of world auto to retool and redesign. Chrysler, already to follow suit, even though the policy sales is Japan’s Toyota, which surpassed in trouble, tipped into bankruptcy. At held all future profitability hostage to the GM for the first time in 2007 (the tsuna- GM, as Lutz describes it, the CAFE stan- cost of x-rays and hospital stays. mi has sent its numbers down this year, dards became the excuse for a disastrous “In 2001,” Lutz writes, “I repeatedly but that’s likely to be only a short-term change to front-wheel-drive designs. The problem). Meanwhile, analysts agree that result was a series of mediocre models South Korea’s Hyundai is today’s hottest that no one wanted to drive, let alone buy. car company, and that the man who most But German and Japanese auto com- resembles Henry Ford in his drive and panies, living with higher gas prices for vision is Ratan Tata of India’s Tata years, had entire fleets ready to go to Motors. market. Lutz surely has it right: Car makers Suddenly cars by Volkswagen, Honda, with a “passion for excellence” will and Toyota were no longer for oddballs “You’re not fooling “So?—you other people are always win out. It’s just been a long time but defined the mainstream. A race began anybody but yourself.” all illusory anyway.” since they spoke English.

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BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS his wife and son and unborn daughter. the a little heavy-handed—well, it is. But Film professor (William Mapother) is thrown Another Earth deserves points for owning into a coma, while Rhoda spends four years its heavy-handedness and playing its in prison. then the movie leaps ahead to genre mash-up completely straight, with- Roads Not after they’ve both been released—him into out a trace of sub–David Lynch surreal - grief, her into guilt—and tracks her at - ism or ironic self-awareness. One joke or Taken tempts to forge some kind of connection wink, one suggestive dream sequence, one with the man whose life she recklessly hint that the entire earth 2 phenomenon ROSS DOUTHAT destroyed. might be happening inside Rhoda’s guilt- So far this probably sounds like a typi- wracked mind, and the spell would be ate summer, like midwinter, is cal aftermath-of-tragedy melodrama, by broken. Instead, the movie’s unwavering a time of year when it’s best to turns wrenching and implausible. But commitment to its premise lends Another shun the big studio releases. there’s a science-fiction twist: that Earth an interesting sort of integrity, and L any star-studded blockbuster “earth-like planet” turns out to be literally enables the movie to at least approach the or crowd-pleasing comedy that’s actually earth-like, a carbon copy of our own mix of dread and wonder that the film- worth its budget (i.e., not Cowboys & world that suddenly looms up, moon and makers are clearly aiming for. Aliens or The Change-Up) would have continents all, in the sky above Rhoda’s the visuals help. Another Earth depicts elbowed its way into theaters between New Haven home. Moon and continents New Haven—the faded brick-and- Memorial Day and July 4th; any drama and people and all: When a SetI scientist concrete city, not just the Yale oasis—as with more than a hint of Oscar potential tries to make radio contact with the mys - a kind of wintry limbo, all sunsets and (i.e., not The Help) would have been saved terious new world, she ends up having a blue-gray dawns, with the huge earth 2 for November or December. Moviegoers conversation with her doppelganger on looming like a promise of paradise (or are better off seeking out the smaller earth 2. damnation?) overhead. In the New eng- releases instead, looking for the curious I just called this “science fiction,” but land farmhouse where the bereaved pro- pieces of artistic driftwood that sometimes really it’s better to call it a Twilight Zone fessor has hunkered down, the earthlight wash up in a season’s dying days. conceit, since no real scientific explana- washes in at all hours, like a searchlight Perhaps this year’s strangest such offer- tion is ever proffered for the doubled sweeping over an andrew Wyeth exhibit. ing is Another Earth, a movie notable for earth, beyond vague references to hidden the budget is obviously shoestring and the its leading lady (about whom more anon) orbits and alternate universes. It’s the lat- digital video sometimes feels a little and its peculiar genre-bending premise. ter possibility—that the new world repre- ragged, but overall the movie has a strange Late on a New england night, the teen - sents some sort of road not taken, where beauty all its own. aged and MIt-bound Rhoda Williams the same people might be living out very But it’s the cast that really sells the (Brit Marling) hears a radio report about different lives—that makes the other earth story. Mapother (recognizable to fans of a newly discovered earth-like planet, an object of obsession for Rhoda, and a Lost and the 2001 indie darling In the drunkenly leans out her car window to destination that she begins plotting desper- Bedroom) has a great face for suffering, stare up into the night sky, and plows into ately to reach. with sunken eyes and furrows like ravines. a college professor and his family, killing If the symbolism here seems more than Marling has a great face, period: Long and luminous and expressive, with precisely the mix of loveliness and mystery that sep- arates the potential movie star from the mere onscreen beauty. She’s in almost every scene, and she holds the film togeth- er: the melodrama may creak and the fantastic element may teeter on the edge of absurdity, but the audience never stops believing in Rhoda’s humanity, her anguish, or her heart. Marling co-wrote Rhoda as well as bringing her to life. (the script for Another Earth is her collaboration with the film’s director, Mike Cahill, who’s also her ex- boyfriend.) I’m not sure if she should stick with screenwriting: this movie is too strange to tell us much about what its mak- ers might be capable of writing next. But her acting is another matter. Whether Brit Marling keeps turning out scripts or not, every director in Hollywood should be

FOX SEARCHLIGHT lining up to make sure that she keeps on Brit Marling as Rhoda Williams starring in them.

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They design things. Then they put their interest, are Caucasian, though New The Straggler names on them. Then people—people York’s orange County, where the place is whose thought processes are as inaccessi- situated, is reckoned by the 2010 census ble to me as those of a siberian shaman— to be 68.2 percent non-Hispanic white.) A Glimpse pay premium prices for the thing with Heaven for them, ’Ell for me. the name on it, which they carry home in Jean-Paul sartre wrote a play portray- Of Hell an ostentatious bag that also bears the ing Hell as a locked room in which three designer’s name. Those people will even very unpleasant people must endure each journey long miles from other’s company for ever. The moral of out here to the bear-haunted wildernesses the thing was supposed to be that Hell is beyond the Tappan Zee Bridge to gather other people. Though far from gregarious, their designer items. I had never previously had much sym - And there they were: Gucci! Izod! pathy with this notion. I have always Tommy Hilfiger! lacoste! Ralph lauren! thought that personally, if stuck in that I know the names of course. How can you room, I’d try to get a game of cribbage live in the world today and not know going. Now, among these happy consum- JOHN DERBYSHIRE them? I had hoped, though, to make it ing throngs, I saw sartre’s point. I—’ave—marched—six—weeks in clear through to the Garden of Rest with- The shoppers drifted to and fro, talking ’Ell an’ certify out ever having to engage with any of of Uggs and Ferragamo. I saw a certain It—is—not—fire—devils, dark, or them. Plainly this grace was not to be light in Mrs. straggler’s countenance, anything, vouchsafed to me. and in my daughter’s, and was at once But boots—boots—boots—boots . . . I need to pause here to explain my utter gripped with a terrible fear: that I might failure as a consumer. I am totally the be forced to browse the stores with my lso shoes, skirts, dresses, wrong person to be living in a consumer womenfolk. I tried to make eye contact blouses, lingerie, jeans, and society. I buy things only when I need with my son, but he was sunk in hopeless sportswear. Jewelry, too; fine them and cannot get them otherwise. . In imagination I saw my happy A leather and luggage; house- Then I use them until they disintegrate. terrestrial home, as I suppose the dead wares and home furnishings. Kipling’s My car is a 1993 Mercury. My TV is a must, and yearned for it—my quiet study, soldier didn’t know the ’alf—sorry, 1992 sony Trinitron, humongous old my desk, my books. Would I ever be half—of it. glass tube in wooden cabinet: It needs two there again? We had been visiting with friends in healthy adult males to lift it. My bicycle Then suddenly—a miracle! We heard a upstate New York. Now we were driv - was given to me by a neighbor who muffled collective gasp from the nearest ing home. The first hundred miles was moved house seven years ago; it had been building, followed by some laughter. delightful: lovely scenery, clear empty at the back of his garage so long he’d People began to surge out, from this and roads under bright skies. Then the land- forgotten he owned it. the other stores. “Power outage,” ex - scape flattened out somewhat, traffic It’s true that I purchased a new laptop plained a passing shopper when we in - thickened as we got closer to New York computer recently, but only because my quired. It was, very appropriately to the City, and towns became more frequent. wife had commandeered the old one. drift of my imagination, a searing hot day. We decided to stop and get something to That’s “old” as in “six years old.” I tell Apparently the local air-conditioning bur- eat before braving the suburban express- you, if my habits of consumption were den had proved too much for some trans- ways. the norm among Americans, our econ - former. The whole place had lost power. Mrs. straggler was at the wheel; I was omy—not to mention China’s—would soon the stores were empty. Em - in the passenger seat, half dozing, half lis- have collapsed long since even without ployees bolted the doors closed. Fire tening to some Teaching Company lec- the attentions of Messrs. obama, Geith- trucks arrived with great clamor, though tures; the kids were in the back with their ner, and Bernanke. their relevance to the situation was not gadgets. My lady saw an exit she liked, All that applies twice over for clothing. clear to me. some of the shoppers stood saying: “I’ve heard of this place. They I buy an item of menswear about once around disconsolate in the plazas; most have a food court.” every five years, and then only after some headed for the parking lots. so did the I grunted assent, assuming this was nagging by my wife. My best suit is one stragglers: two disappointed, one passive, some kind of mall or service area. We I had made by a london tailor during a one inwardly exulting. took the exit. We parked. We walked to a spell of unmarried prosperity in the early In the great crawling press of traffic, it Disneyland-sized complex of buildings 1980s. My second best is newer—late took us 45 minutes to get out of there and and open plazas, teeming with people. 1990s. I bought some white shirts last back on the expressway. I begrudged not Quite suddenly I awoke to the nature of year on a whim, but that was extraordi- one of those minutes, for we were facing the place. It wasn’t a regular mall at all. I nary—possibly I was on some kind of the right way, towards the light and wouldn’t have minded that: A mall gen - medication. air. Virgil has Aeneas emerge from the erally has a bookstore. No, this was a sort You can’t be less of a consumer than I Under world through the gate of false of little village containing nothing but am, unless you’re Amish. Yet here I was dreams—a passage that commentators designer outlets! in consumer heaven. (Practically none of have always had trouble explaining. It is I know about designers, of course. whose inhabitants, I noted with curious no longer mysterious to me.

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Happy Warrior BY MARK STEYN Old Blighted

HAD a new book out the other day. Usual doom and three decades after Burgess’s novel, yet he had their measure. gloom, as the more alert reader may just about be able to There is no great “cause,” despite the best efforts of leftie discern from the subtle title: After America: Get Ready com mentators to kit them out with one. They are the children I for Armageddon. One always hopes, in a competitive of dependency, the product of what Sir William Beveridge, market for shrill apocalyptic alarmists, that there will be some the father of the British welfare state, called a world without topical news peg to give the release date a bit of a lift. And want. And certainly these ski-masked bandits do not want. sure enough, the weekend before the launch day, S&P obli - They do not want to work, they do not want to marry and raise gingly downgraded the United States from its triple-A rating children, they do not want the responsibilities of adulthood, for the first time in history. You can’t buy publicity like that. they do not want to live productive lives of any kind. So Well, okay, you can, if you’ve got $15 trillion and toss it in the instead, under the eyes of a cowed and craven politically cor- Potomac and watch it float out to sea, as the government of rect constabulary, they smash the windows of electronics the United States has done. But other than that, the stars have stores and steal the latest toys. to align pretty darn precisely. (It is untrue, by the way, that Nineteen sixty-two was a good year for Burgess. He S&P stands for Steyn & Publicity.) published a second, less well-known futuristic novel. If A A few days after the U.S. release, the book debuted in the Clockwork Orange predicted the Morlocks of the 21st cen - . Halfway through my narrative, there’s a tury, The Wanting Seed with disarming ease conjured our chapter about civic disintegration in the old country called Eloi. The other day, a reader reminded me of this passage, “The Depraved City.” Obligingly enough, 48 hours before the written in a Britain with very little television (and certainly no British launch, London erupted in flames. Switching on the sets in bedrooms) and a healthy fertility rate, and well before TV to find a beautifully posed image of one of those double- either Ehrlich’s Population Bomb, mass vasectomies and decker buses beloved by tourists vividly ablaze and as per- tube-tying, or even the decriminalization of homosexuality: fectly lit as the iconic shot in a disaster movie (the aliens zapping the White House in Independence Day, say), I won- How long had it been in England since anyone had seen a play? dered if my publicist had perhaps let things get a little out of For generations, people had lain on their backs in the darkness of their bedrooms, their eyes on the blue watery screen on the hand. You probably want to be out of town when she decides ceiling: mechanical stories about good people not having chil- the nuclear finale could use a bit of a plug. dren and bad people having them, homos in love with each What’s happening in London is part of the same story as the other, Origen-like heroes castrating themselves for the sake of downgrade. S&P run the numbers, factor in the political prob- global stability. abilities, and produce a green-eyeshade assessment. London reminds us that, as I wrote in this space a couple of issues He anticipates an entire aesthetic there, although it barely back, culture trumps economics. The blazing double-decker existed even in embryo back then. is where the plot goes after the financial pages. The Eloi and the Morlocks do not interact much except dur- I quote a little bit of Anthony Burgess in my book. Burgess ing street riots, but occasionally the former are obliged to isn’t as famous a name in the futuristic-dystopia biz as Orwell acknowledge the latter—as when a handsomely remunerated or Huxley, but he was remarkably prophetic and in a rather London advertising designer gets the contract for a stylish lightly worn way. His most famous novel is A Clockwork campaign about public violence. At bus stops in London, Orange, thanks to the Stanley Kubrick movie. At one point in there are posters warning, “DON’T TAKE IT OUT ON US.” the book, the precocious psychopathic teen narrator offers his At the Underground stations, you see the slogan “IF YOU dad some (stolen) money so his parents can enjoy a drink ABUSE OUR STAFF, LONDON SUFFERS” above a poster down the pub. “Thanks, son,” says his father. “But we don’t go of Harold Beck’s iconic Tube map rendered as a giant out much now. We daren’t go out much now, the streets being bruise—as if one of those energetic young rioters had what they are. Young hooligans and so on. Still, thanks.” punched London itself in the kisser and beaten the map Burgess published his book in 1962, an era when working- Northern Line black and Piccadilly Line blue, with other parts class Britons lived in cramped row houses on dingy streets of the pulverized skin turning Circle Line yellow and even that were nevertheless some of the most tranquil on the plan- Central Line livid red. et. Their residents kept pigeons and tended vegetable allot- It is a visually striking ad, made with all the award-winning ments. The idea that the old and not so old would not go out, expertise of the Soho advertising world. Alas, on the streets of “the streets being what they are,” “young hooligans and so,” London, the real thing didn’t look half so stylish and witty. was not just the stuff of fiction but of utterly transformative My book’s thesis is stated upfront: It starts with the fantastic fiction. money, but it never stops there—in part because it’s never But it happened in little more than a generation. The men really about the money. What’s worse than debauching your on our TV screens rampaging through the streets were born finances? Debauching your human capital. As London reminds us, much of the Western world is too far down that Mr. Steyn blogs at SteynOnline (www.steynonline.com). grim path.

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