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APRIL 20, 2015 | VOLUME LXVII, NO. 7 | www.nationalreview.com

Charles C. W. Cooke on Jeremy Clarkson ON THE COVER Page 28 p. 26 A Place for Conscience BOOKS, ARTS That the civil-rights movement organized & MANNERS

to advance the condition of black Americans 40 UPPER CRUST is a fitting and natural precedent to the move- Florence King reviews Hissing Cousins: The Untold Story of ment organized to advance the condition of Eleanor Roosevelt and Alice gay Americans is an exercise in question- Roosevelt Longworth, by Marc Peyser and Timothy Dwyer. begging, one that is, given the American 42 A NEW FORM OF temperament, almost inevitable. Kevin D. Williamson GOVERNMENT Matthew Spalding reviews COVER: ROMAN GENN A Republic No More: Big Government and the Rise of ARTICLES American Political Corruption, by Jay Cost. 16 JEB, SCOTT, AND THE REST by Ramesh Ponnuru How fare the Republican presidential hopefuls? 44 ON THE COUCH Mona Charen reviews Admirable 18 THE TAXMAN ENDURETH by Patrick Brennan Evasions: How Psychology ted Cruz’s abolish-the-iRS idea has little merit. Undermines Morality, by Theodore Dalrymple. 20 BETTING ON INDIA’S ECONOMY by Sadanand Dhume its strength will be our strategic asset. 45 WOMEN’S LIVES Robert P. George reviews North of WHAT MUSLIMS SHOULD FEAR MOST 22 by Reihan Salam the Tension Line, by J. F. Riordan. it isn’t american xenophobia. 50 FILM: TERROR IN THE ANTI-SCOLD 26 by Charles C. W. Cooke PLAIN SIGHT on the phenomenon of Jeremy Clarkson. Ross Douthat reviews It Follows.

51 CITY DESK: WRITING À DEUX Richard Brookhiser on a marriage FEATURES of writers. 28 A PLACE FOR CONSCIENCE by Kevin D. Williamson anti-gay discrimination is wrong, but it is not Jim Crow. 30 ANOTHER WIN FOR RIGHT-TO-WORK by John J. Miller SECTIONS Now, in half the states, you cannot be forced to join a union. 2 Letters to the Editor 33 THE WRONG BOX by Tim Heffernan and Graeme Wood 4 The Week our prisons’ use of solitary confinement is inhumane. 38 The Long View ...... Rob Long 39 Athwart ...... James Lileks 35 MAJORING IN ANTHRO by Jay Nordlinger 45 Poetry ...... Sarah Ruden a lament for a field. 52 Happy Warrior ...... Jonah Goldberg

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APRIL 20 ISSUE; PRINTED APRIL 2

EDITOR Richard Lowry Senior Editors Richard Brookhiser / Jonah Goldberg / Jay Nordlinger Mr. Republican’s Military Ramesh Ponnuru / David Pryce-Jones Managing Editor Jason Lee Steorts Literary Editor Michael Potemra In “Conservatarianism” (March 23), Charles C. W. Cooke characterizes “the Vice President, Editorial Operations Christopher McEvoy Washington Editor Eliana Johnson Right’s traditional approach to defense” as being based on the “sober recog- Executive Editor Reihan Salam Roving Correspondent Kevin D. Williamson nition that the global order requires a strong power [namely, the U.S.] to National Correspondent John J. Miller Art Director Luba Kolomytseva underwrite its security.” Deputy Managing Editors Katherine Connell / Nicholas Frankovich / Fred Schwarz Senator Robert A. Production Editor Katie Hosmer Taft of Ohio was Assistant to the Editor Carol Anne Kemp Research Associate Alessandra Haynes “Mr. Re publi can” of Contributing Editors the 1940s and ’50s Shannen Coffin / Ross Douthat / Roman Genn Jim Geraghty / Florence King / Lawrence Kudlow and narrowly lost the Mark R. Levin / Yuval Levin / Rob Long Mario Loyola / Jim Manzi / Andrew C. McCa rthy Re publican presiden- Kate O’Beirne / Andrew Stuttaford / Robert VerBruggen tial nomination to NATIONALREVIEWONLINE Editor-at-Large Kathryn Jean Lopez Eisen hower in 1952. Managing Editor Edward John Craig Opinion Editor Patrick Brennan His credentials as a National-Affairs Columnist John Fund “traditional” conser- Staff Writer Charles C. W. Cooke Political Reporter Joel Gehrke vative are impecca- Reporters Andrew Johnson / Katherine Timpf ble. He had this to say Associate Editors Nick Tell / Molly Powell / Nat Brown about the use of military force in a speech to the Ameri can Assembly on Editorial Associates May 22, 1951: Brendan Bordelon / Christine Sisto Technical Services Russell Jenkins Web Developer Wendy Weihs Web Producer Scott McKim My view is that American foreign policy should be directed primarily to the EDITORS- AT- LARGE protection of the liberty of the people of the United States, and that war Linda Bridges / John O’Sullivan should only be undertaken when necessary to protect that liberty, that we are NATIONALREVIEWINSTITUTE BUCKLEYFELLOWSINPOLITICALJOURNALISM not justified in going to war simply to increase the standard of living of the Ryan Lovelace / Ian Tuttle Contributors people throughout the world, or to protect their liberty unless such protection Hadley Arkes / Baloo / James Bowman is necessary for our own defense. . . .There is one policy and only one policy Eliot A. Cohen / Dinesh D’Souza Chester E. Finn Jr. / Neal B. Freeman which can destroy this nation—the commitment to projects beyond our James Gardner / David Gelernter George Gilder / Jeffrey Hart capacity to fulfill. Kevin A. Hassett / Charles R. Kesler David Klinghoffer / Anthony Lejeune D. Keith Mano / Michael Novak Alan Reynolds / Tracy Lee Simmons Taft saw a leadership role for America, but not a leadership based on Terry Teachout / Vin Weber power. In his book A Foreign Policy for Americans (1951), he said that we Chief Financial Officer James X. Kilbridge Accounting Manager Galina Veygman should assume “moral leadership . . . in impressing on the world that only Accountant Lyudmila Bolotinskaya Business Services through liberty and law and justice . . . can [it] hope to obtain the standards Alex Batey / Alan Chiu which we have attained in the United States.” Circulation Manager Jason Ng WORLD WIDE WEB www.nationalreview.com Traditional conservatives such as Taft supported the selective application MAIN NUMBER 212-679-7330 SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES 386-246-0118 of American power (he supported the Korean War, for example) but not its WASHINGTON OFFICE 202-543-9226 ADVERTISING SALES 212-679-7330 use to underwrite the security of the “global order.” Sadly, this misreading Executive Publisher Scott F. Budd of history limits the usefulness of Mr. Cooke’s article as a blueprint for an Advertising Director Jim Fowler Advertising Manager Kevin Longstreet alliance between conservatives and libertarians. Assistant to the Publisher Emily Gray Director of Philanthropy and Campaigns Scott Lange Associate Publisher Paul Olivett David E. Steuber Director of Development Heyward Smith Director of Revenue Erik Netcher Mineral Point, Wis. Vice President, Communications Amy K. Mitchell

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n The Left predicted that Jon Stewart’s succession by a bira- cial foreigner would be greeted with hate and fear from para- noid, partisan zealots. And they were right.

n Clean as a hound’s tooth, or a Hillary server. Representative Trey Gowdy (R., S.C.), head of the House Benghazi probe, was told by Clinton lawyer David Kendall (of impeachment fame) that the private server on which Mrs. Clinton conducted business during her tenure as secretary of state was now blank, because she had wiped it after turning her job-related e-mails over to the State Department. She turned them over years after she left office and only when the House asked for them, and she herself decided what was job-related and what was not. Assume there was nothing—Benghazi-related, Clinton Foundation–related, anything-related—that might now embar- rass Mrs. Clinton. The fact remains that she operates, by pref- erence, secretly and outside regular channels. She did so as first lady, she does so still, she would do so as president. That may be the norm in jerkwater countries like Kazakhstan or the Congo, but it should not be the norm in the United States.

n Senator Ted Cruz is the first Republican to formally an - nounce that he is running for president next year. We heartily welcome his candidacy. This publication is a longstanding fan fore we see whether new enforcement methods work (and are of his, dating back to before he was the longshot conservative allowed by courts to work). Is Walker still for increasing low- candidate facing down Texas’s political establishment in 2012. skilled immigration, as the legislation he once backed would (He had a distinguished legal career before he entered national do? If Walker has crossed the border into the hawkish camp, politics.) Since joining the Senate, he has been a relentless we are happy to welcome him to put down roots here. scourge of the Left and, frequentl y, of the leadership of his own party. This has made him a hated figure, not just in the Dem o - n James Baker has been a virtual member of the Bush clan crat ic cloakroom and the media, but also among elements with- since he managed Bush 41’s presidential campaign in 1980.e H in his own party’s establishment. Often, the criticisms made of is one of Jeb Bush’s foreign-policy advisers now. In March he Cruz are unfair at best, and completely unhinged at worst. The gave the keynote speech to the fifth annual conference of J legitimate critique is that he has shown more interest in rhetor- Street, the liberal lobbying group on Middle East policy, say- ical flourish and tactical maximalism than in prudent strategy ing predictably liberal things: “The chance of a two-state solu- and policy entrepreneurship. Cruz is fearless, but some of that tion seems even slimmer,” which Baker blamed on Benjamin courage should be devoted to pushing a novel, positive conser - Netanyahu’s campaign rhetoric. Those lines could have come va tive agenda. (Senators such as Mike Lee and Marco Rubio from the Obama White House, and Rep ublicans reacted with have outshone Cruz in this regard.) If Cruz does so, it will be scorn. In the aftermath, a Jeb spokesman stated that her boss good for his candidacy, and the country. thinks J Street is “wrong,” while Jeb himself condemned (on our website) “diplomatic scolding of Israel.” More cannot rea- n Where does Scott Walker stand on immigration? He and his sonably be expected: Jeb is not going to repudiate directly an spokesman have, intentionally or not, clouded the issue. Walk - 84-year-old family friend, even one who on this occasion has er, March 1: “My view has changed. I’m flat-out saying it.” shown poor judgment. Spokesman, March 26: “His position has not changed.” We know that he used to support “comprehensive immigration n Senator Harry Reid (D., Nev.), not long ago the Senate ma jor - reform,” including a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants; i ty leader, is retiring. Senatorial collegiality is the father of a now Walker opposes that path and his spokesman calls it “am- million happy-mouthed lies, so allow us to say what the senators nes ty.” Near as we can tell, he remains open to offering ille gal won’t: Harry Reid will not be much missed. He is the personi- immigrants legal status. The questions Republican voters should fication of much of what is distasteful and dishonorable about now ask: What does it mean for enforcement to come “first”? American public life, an intellectually cheap and fundamentally

ROMAN GENN It ought to preclude handing out visas to illegal immigrants be - dishonest huckster who has grown wealthy in office, a man

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THE WEEK with the audacity to grandstand for campaign-finance reform indeed, protecting bakers and florists who do not wish to at the very moment he was diverting campaign funds to his participate in same-sex weddings is part of the intent. family members and taking dubious steps to cover up those Governor Pence, under pressure, has called for a clarifying transactions. Reid’s longtime friend and associate Harvey amendment. But the law is a good one, unless the official Whittemore was recently convicted of a fistful of felonies for coercion of midwestern wedding-cake art ists is the great making illegal donations to Senator Reid’s campaign. Reid civil-rights crusade of our time. used the Senate floor to demonize private citizens for holding political opinions at variance with his own, and when the Su - n Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who was released by the Taliban preme Court stopped Democrats from punishing people for ad- in 2014 in return for five high-ranking prisoners from Gitmo, vo cat ing political positions incommodious to Harry Reid, he has been charged by the army with desertion and misbehavior led every Democrat in the Senate into voting to gut the First before the enemy. Bergdahl walked away from his unit in Amendment in order to enable the suppression of political speech. He lied shamelessly in 2012 when he fabricated a story that Mitt Romney had failed to pay taxes for a decade. He cyn- ically bemoaned “obstruction” while he himself was the pri- mary obstacle to most congressional action for years. Nevada should replace him with a better senator, and then spend some years atoning.

n It’s not what you know, it’s whom you know, they say. And it’s especially helpful if you know a Democrat. That is the finding of the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general, who reported in March that the former head of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) agency, Alejandro Mayorkas, intervened to obtain visas for foreign in ves tors with close ties to top Democrats. Investors in a Ne - va da casino project with ties to Senate minority leader Harry Afghanistan in 2009. His defense is now arguing that he left to Reid, an investor in an electric-car-manufacturing scheme in report misconduct directly to another unit, though his then- Virginia with ties to Governor Terry McAuliffe, and Hillary comrades call that preposterous. Bergdahl deserves his day in Clinton’s brother all received Mayorkas’s special attention the military’s legal system. Even if he is guilty as charged, between 2009 and 2013. Although the report did not accuse there was reason to want him back: Ideally we should punish Mayorkas of wrongdoing, it noted that he “communicated our own miscreants, not leave them to the mercies or manipu- with stakeholders on substantive issues outside of the normal lations of enemies. But the Obama administration paid too adjudicatory process, and intervened with the career staff in high a price and coated the exchange with a sheen of misplaced ways that benefited the stakeholders. Mr. Mayorkas’s con- triumph: a Rose Garden ceremony with Bergdahl’s parents, duct led many [CIS] employees to reasonably believe that Susan Rice telling the Sunday talk shows that Bergdahl had specific individuals or groups were being given special ac- served “with honor and distinction.” Whatever Bergdahl was cess or consideration in the EB-5 program.” Mayorkas is no thinking, we know how the Obama administration was acting— longer at CIS. In 2013 he was promoted—to DHS deputy imprudently, and with poor judgment. secretary, the department’s No. 2 job. Reid pushed through his nomination over Republican opposition. It’s whom you n Bipartisanship is nice, but when a bill passes Congress over- know, indeed. whelmingly, as did the recent Medicare bill that the House approved by a margin of 392–37, it’s generally a good idea to n “Boycott Indiana!” goes the latest hashtag-activism battle wonder why. In this case, the bill is a fiscally irresponsible cry, though soybean futures and the Indy 500 do not seem to effort that pleases most of the powerful interests involvedn i have much taken notice. The ritual denunciation of Indiana fol- the issue. It aims to permanently replace something called the lows Republican governor Mike Pence’s signing of the Re li - “doc fix,” a legislative patch passed every year for the past gious Freedom Restoration Act, making Indiana one of 20 couple of decades to avert automatic cuts to Medicare reim- states to have enacted their own versions of the federal statute, bursements. Hospitals and doctors have long wanted a perma- signed by President Bill Clinton 20-odd years ago, that re - nent fix, and they don’t want to have to pay for the cuts at all. FILE

, quires government to proceed in the least invasive mode The plan the House just passed is only partly paid for. Given when its actions put citizens into conflict with their own reli- the leverage the doc-fix situation provides, Republicans should gious beliefs. Among those calling for a boycott of Indiana have held out for a fully paid-for fix and real reforms to is Connecticut’s Democratic governor, Dannel Malloy—whose Medicare. Instead, they got only one good reform—cuts to state has an RFRA of its own, one that is slightly stronger than Medicare benefits for wealthier Amer i cans—along with a variety Indiana’s. RFRAs and equivalent legal doctrines have long of other “reforms” that look likely to reinforce Medicare’s dys- been used to negotiate how to handle Indi ans’ peyote use in function, not fix it. Con ser va tives should oppose this bill in the

VOICE OF JIHADr WEBSITE VIAeligious AP VIDEO ceremonies and Amish buggy-drivers’ compliance Senate. It is not a disaster, but it is a missed opportunity, and a / with traffic laws. Critics fear that Indiana’s statute will be bad sign for how serious congressional Republicans are about

AP PHOTO used to enable discrimination against homosexuals, and, entitlement reform.

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THE WEEK n An equally bad sign is that the Senate Republicans are run- largely redundant, though some provisions, including the ning away from Medicare reform. In previous years they have mandatory disclosure of proprietary information, are troubling. voted, most of them, for the same changes that House Repub li - What is most troubling is the source of the regulation: the federal can budgets have included. Those changes would allow seniors government. In 2005, Congress passed a law explicitly reserv- to choose either the traditional Medicare program or a private ing the regulation of fracking to the states, which have long plan, in either case supported by taxpayer funding but with taken the lead in governing energy production. But the Left, par- incentives to shop for value. But the first budget from Senate ticularly the faction within the environmental movement dedi- Republicans since they took control of the chamber omits those cated to undermining domestic energy infrastructure (call it the reforms and, pathetically, says Republicans will accept Pres i - Andrew Cuomo wing), is unsatisfied with that state of affairs, dent Obama’s targets for Medicare savings and seek to find them because the states, being more directly accountable than federal in different, unspecified ways. There is no evidence that Re pub - bureaucracies, are in the progressive view insufficiently hostile licans paid a political price in either 2012 or 2014 for supporting to natural-gas exploration. The hope is that if the federal camel Medicare reform. What appears to be on display here is cow- can gets its nose under the tent in the form of Interior or EPA ardice as a reflex. regulations, then these can be effectively converted into a national standard. The online publication Vox voices the con- n The Republican Congress is raising defense spending over ventional progressive view when it denounces the current President Obama’s plans by . . . 0.2 percent. It took an uproar by regime as “patchy and inconsistent” with rules that “vary from defense hawks to get us that far: The initial GOP budget would state to state.” Other things vary from state to state, too, for have cut defense spending further than Obama’s. And the rever- example geology and hydrology, which is why a single national sal of those cuts comes from an expansion of funding for “over- regulatory regime is irrational. From Pennsylvania to Texas, the seas contingency operations” rather than of the Pentagon’s base states have shown themselves more than able to regulate gas budget. Sequestration continues to squeeze defense, and will extraction in a responsible fashion. Washington has not. squeeze it more in future years. Sequestration was adopted, re - mem ber, as a political maneuver to force a bipartisan budget n Speaking at the City Club of Cleveland, President Obama sug- agreement on taxes and entitlements. That was a reckless way to gested that all Americans eligible to vote should be compelled to treat defense, and it still is. vote. “It would be transformative,” he said. He mused that it would reduce the influence of money on elections. May be. But it n The Interior Department has issued new regulations govern- would increase the number of uninformed and weakly commit- ing certain oil-and-gas drilling techniques—hydraulic fractur- ted voters, and could thus encourage candidates to stress image ing, or “fracking”—on federal land. The rules themselves are over substance even more than they do now. Not voting can be a    


               
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THE WEEK kind of political position too, a reflection of satisfaction or dis- how much money is being funneled to them through various fed- dain that the government should respect. It is with regard to the eral agencies, grant programs, and Medi caid is not easy to find relations between the federal government and the individual that out. A report from the Government Account ability Office re - this idea would be “transformative,” and not for the better. leased in March at the request of several dozen Republican con- gressmen revealed the numbers: Planned Parenthood and its n A team of Justice De part - affiliates alone received $345 million from the federal govern- ment lawyers discovered last ment between 2010 and 2012. Counting state Medicaid pay- month that, contrary to the ments brings the total to $1.5 billion. Representative Chris Smith proverb, hell hath no fury (R., N.J.) found the right word: “unconscionable.” like a federal judge misled. Judge Andrew Hanen, of the n In Colorado, a woman attacked a pregnant woman, cutting the Southern District of Texas, unborn child from the womb and killing her—the baby, but not who in February issued an in - the mother. The killer has been charged with attempted murder junc tion temporarily block ing (of the mother). She has not been charged with murder of the President Obama’s No vember baby—because the baby does not count as a person under Col o - immigration am nes ty, was ra do law. The baby’s father said he had seen the girl gasp for visibly upset as he de mand ed breath as she died, but the coroner said her “lungs had never to know why DOJ lawyers inflated,” in the words of a news report. So, the child was never had repeatedly as sured the a person (according to the law). How do you tell a mother, “Don’t court that the De part ment of worry, ma’am: Your child was never a human being in the first Homeland Se cur ity would place”? The girl had already had a name, by the way: Aurora. not be accepting requests for deferred ac tion under the chal- n Cosmopolitan magazine recently reported the findings of lenged No vem ber order until British researchers who studied the reactions of unborn babies to mid Feb ru ary—only to reveal cigarette smoke inhaled by their mothers. The smoke agitated the in early March that DHS had been accepting, and granting, appli- babies, providing “further confirmation that nicotine is terrible cations (approximately 100,000 of them) all along. Did the gov- for unborn children,” reporter Tess Koman explained. The find- ernment’s lawyers lie? Or did they make a months-long mistake? ings themselves are significant—but not surprising, in light of It was clear what Hanen thought: “When I asked you what would our increasing awareness of fetal pain. Astonishingly, given the happen and you said nothing, I took it to heart. I was made to look venue, the phrase “unborn children” made an appearance. like an idiot.” The administration, in short, is handling the litiga- Mostly, they were “babies.” In the headline, they were “unborn tion with the same respect for the rule of law as it did the policy. babies.” Twenty years ago, that was the language of sentimental- izing anti-abortion zealots, as they were characterized. It’s now n A bill to provide services to victims of human trafficking— mainstream, and an eloquent refutation of the conceit that history people, most of them women, who have been kept in domestic moves only leftward on social issues. servitude and sex slavery—and to fund new anti-trafficking police units, is being blocked by Senate Democrats, who object n Yemen, that remote and mountainous country, is suddenly the that the legislation will not permit public funds to be di vert ed to stage for events that give ominous shape to the future. Cunning the coffers of Planned Parenthood: Moloch, too, is a jealous god, and unscrupulous as ever, Iran is extending its reach by means of as is whatever deity watches over Democrats’ campaign coffers local proxies, the Houthis, who can put into the field perhaps as as abortionists fill them. Democrats first ob ject ed that they’d many as 10,000 guerrillas. Like their Iranian sponsors, Houthis been blindsided by the bill’s inclusion of Hyde-amendment lan- are Shiites, so this is sectarian warfare against the Sunnis, not guage, a common legislative prohibition on the public funding of a tribal issue. Storming Sana’a, the capital, the Houthis drove abortions. When that excuse didn’t stick, Democrats protested President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, a Sunni, into exile. that the use of the Hyde language was inappropriate here in that American diplomats and Special Forces im me di ate ly cut and ran, the funds for trafficking victims will be raised not through taxes abandoning valuable military equipment. Chief representatives but through fines paid by traffickers—as if funds in government of the two divisions of Islam, Saudi Arabia and Iran have long accounts were not fungible, and as if public money and public been engaged in a cold war. Recently enthroned and widely writ- funding were not public money and public funding regardless of ten off as too old and un well, King Salman of Saudi Arabia inter-

JPG whether the funds are raised through taxes or fines. Democrats preted the capture of Sana’a as a declaration of open warfare on . are desperately looking for a culture-war issue to invigorate their the part of the Shiites. He has formed a coalition of ten Sunni- HANEN /

02 dispirited foot soldiers and donors, but the politics—to say noth- majority countries, including Egypt and nuclear-armed Pakistan, /

2015 ing of the policy—here favors Republicans, inasmuch as the pub- moved an invasion force of 150,000 to the frontier, joined battle / lic has consistently favored keeping the government out of the with the Houthis in the southern harbor of Aden, and started UPLOADS / grisly business of underwriting abortions. But as the politics play bombing, all ostensibly to restore President Hadi to office. themselves out, spare a thought for the trafficking victims, too, According to Saudi spokesmen, Iran is embarking on imperial CONTENT - slaves in the land of the free. conquest in the belief that current negotiations over its nuclear WP /

NET program already establish that it is the main regional power. It . n We’ve long known that Planned Parenthood and several other takes real effort to alarm Saudi Arabia and Israel simultaneously,

THEFILAM abortion providers and advocates are federally subsidized. Just but current U.S. policy is managing it.

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n President obama has decided to delay a planned reduction in a hoax, one that Rolling Stone and others in the press were all the U.S. troop presence in afghanistan. we have roughly 10,000 too eager to believe. troops there now, and obama had wanted to withdraw half of them in the coming months, toward the goal of a complete n three persons of the left, two of them professors, assail the withdrawal by the end of his presidency. instead, we will fog of prudery that has settled over the nation’s campuses, where maintain 10,000 troops until the end of the year. the change was it is not only forbidden to be offensive, but increasingly forbid- announced during the visit of new afghan president ash raf den to discuss being offensive, or doing any other harmful act. Ghani, who is both more grateful to the U.S. and more rational Judith Shulevitz, in an essay in the New York Times, asks why stu- than his predecessor, Hamid Karzai. obama’s move shows at dents are “so eager to self-infantilize.” “Universities are not fall- least a little flexibility in his otherwise fixed objective of “end- out shelters,” argues Columbia professor todd Gitlin in the ing” the war in afghanistan just as he “ended” the war in iraq, online magazine Tablet. “Deal with it. You’re at school to be dis- with disastrous consequences. turbed.” Bluntest of all is a professor who blogs under the name “white Hot Harlots.” “i know how to get conservative students n Chen Guangcheng, the blind legal activist from China, made a to question their be liefs,” she writes, but “liberal students scare daring run to the U.S. embassy in 2012. Soon, he was al lowed to the sh** out of me. . . . all it takes is one slip . . . even momen- fly to the United States, where he is in exile. in her 2014 memoir, tarily exposing them to any uncomfortable thought or imagery— Hard Choices, Hillary Clinton cites the Chen matter as one of the and that’s it, your classroom is triggering, you are insensitive, human-rights achievements of her tenure as secretary of state. kids are bringing mattresses to your office hours and there’s a She and her staff did “what Chen said he wanted every step of the twitter petition out demanding you chop off your hand in repen- way,” she writes. that’s interesting. in his new memoir, The tance.” like the cavalry in the last reel, love of one’s own mind Barefoot Lawyer, Chen says that U.S. officials were extremely comes perhaps to the rescue. Perpetual fear can breed only soli- nervous about upsetting their Chinese counterparts: there was an darity, not thought. May the lesson stick. important summit coming up. U.S. officials pressured him to leave the embassy and return to the arms of the Chinese govern- n at lincoln Center, the New York Philharmonic premiered a ment, says Chen. He was supposed to trust that all would be well. work by John adams, who is arguably the most famous and im - “Negotiating with a government run by hooligans,” he writes, por tant classical composer of today. the new work was Sche her - “the country that most consistently advocated for democracy, a zade.2, a “dramatic symphony for violin and orchestra.” Before freedom, and universal hu man rights had simply given in.” it was the performance, adams himself took a microphone and spoke to only pressure from the U.S. Congress and public, says Chen, that the audience about the work. He described its origins. the com- won his trip to america. Perspectives on events vary, of course— but it seems clear that someone isn’t telling the truth here: Chen or Hillary. even David Brock can’t make that a tough choice. A NOTE ABOUT NR n Prime Minister David Cameron has kicked off Britain’s par- NatioNal Review has decided to go non-profit. liamentary campaign (voters will go to the polls on May 7). when we’ve talked about this transition to people Cameron, who currently heads a coalition government with the over the last several months, the reaction we’ve usu- liberal Democrats, is looking for a more tractable coalition part- ally gotten is: “You’re not already a non-profit?” and: ner, or a plurality large enough to sustain a minority govern- “what took you so long?” (what can we say? we’re ment, or an outright majority. the last of these will be hard to conservatives—we hate change.) as everyone who find in a splintered field, contested by left-wing labour, liberal has read one of our fundraising pitches knows, we Democrats, Scottish nationalists (emboldened, not discouraged, by their loss in last year’s independence referendum), Greens, have always functionally operated as a not-for- and UKiP. Buoyed by the defections of two tory MPs, UKiP profit—we’ve never made money and have always promises to leave the european Union; Cam er on will hold a ref- depended on donations for support—although we erendum if he wins but campaign to stay in; and labour pledges have never had technical not-for-profit status. what to stay in the eU at all events (so do the liberal Democrats, we’re doing here is recognizing what has always been which would complicate the formation of any new coalition). the case: we’re a mission and a cause, not a profit- Cameron believed the tories needed “de toxi fy ing,” that is, rid- making business. the advantage of the move is that ding of their associations with hard-edged conservatism, and his all the generous people who give us their support stance on the eU has been suspiciously mush-mouthed. But he every year will now be able to make tax-deductible has steered Britain capably through a recession and instituted contributions, and we will be able to do more fund - real reforms, particularly in education. everything that ails the raising, in keeping with our goals to continue grow- country will only get worse under labour or a left coalition. ing in the years ahead. we are going to merge with our non-profit sister organization National Review in sti - n “No substantive basis.” that is as far as the police in tute in the coming weeks, and after a few months will Charlottesville, va., are willing to go in characterizing claims of emerge as a unified NatioNal Review that is a non- a purported gang rape at a University of virginia fraternity profit. thanks, as always, for reading, and for the house, breathlessly reported by Rolling Stone, that turns out to amazing support so many of you give us. be a fabrication. the police, and most media accounts, have gone out of their way to avoid stating the obvious: that this was

1 1 week--READY:QXP-1127940387.qxp 4/1/2015 2:25 PM Page 12

THE WEEK poser had seen an exhibition about Scheherazade. Then he read Cornel West’s Prophetic Fragments?” Only Howard Schultz, Arabian Nights, and was appalled by the “casual brutality toward CEO of Starbucks, would choose (c), and unite the country in one women” depicted therein. At the same time, he was reading of bright shining moment of ridicule. brutality toward women around the world: in Egypt, Af ghani - stan, and India, for example. He made it clear, however, that we n The religion that is liberalism has come up with its own ver- were not to think America exempt from this evil: You can “find it sion of infant damnation. During the legislative debate over on Rush Limbaugh.” To this shocking defamation, much of the Indiana’s religious-freedom bill, one black Democratic repre- audience responded with robust and sustained applause—a one- sentative said that a white Republican colleague’s son was minute hate, if not quite a two-minute one. There are Saudi “scared of me because of my color.” The child in question is madrassas with more open-mindedness. 18 months old. Earlier that day, the baby bigot had toddled up to the Dem o crat and then run away in tears, and it’s possible n Archaeologists and geneticists at Oxford have found that a that he was indeed spooked by her color, or something else surprising number of genetically similar Brits live in narrowly in her appearance, or her voice; maybe his father had told de fined regions that correspond to the tribal kingdoms that the boy about the Democrats’ budget policies; or perhaps the occupied the British Isles around the time of the Anglo-Saxon youngster just started screaming and crying on general principles. invasion in the seventh century, after the fall of the Roman Em - Eighteen-month-olds are like that. And some progressives are pire. The Romans who once ruled Britannia left no genetic trace, like that about crying “racism.” though that may not be a meaningful statement, as one blogger astutely pointed out, Rome being so highly cosmopolitan and n David Piccioli worked one day as a substitute teacher, difficult to associate with a single ethnicity. By “Roman,” the and it may have earned him $36,000—a year, for life. au thors of the study, published in Nature, seem to have meant, Piccioli was a state legislative aide and then a lobbyist for roughly, Italian or at any rate Mediterranean. In any case, the typ- the Illinois Federation of Teachers, and he is now receiving ical Briton, it turns out, is almost a thoroughbred, with DNA from pensions from both those jobs. But under a rule sneaked no farther than Britain’s Anglo and Saxon neighbors across the into a 2007 bill, if he spent any time as a classroom teacher, North Sea. He is also the son of a people who went on to rule an all his years working for the union could be made to count empire and to establish their native tongue as the lingua franca of as years of teaching for pension purposes. Hence his one- the civilized world. The nation’s dynamism over the course of its day sinecure, which makes Michelle Obama’s hospital gig history is matched only by its rootedness and stability. look like the labors of Hercules in comparison. One-quarter of Illinois’s state budget is currently being spent on pen- n In March, feminism descended once again into self-parody. At sions. And Democrats wonder why a Republican is now Britain’s National Union of Students Women’s Campaign con- gov er nor of Illinois. ference, attendees attempted to work out how they might show approval without making any noise. When a delegation from Ox - n “Dog or Jew?” That is a pop quiz not from the Ayatollah ford tweeted, “please can we ask people to stop clapping but do Kha me nei but from Lena Dunham writing in The New Yorker. feminist jazz hands? it’s triggering some peoples’ anxiety,” orga- Dun ham, the gifted young basket case who writes and acts in nizers fell over themselves to acquiesce to the demand. Alas, this the television series Girls, took to the pages of that esteemed remarkable concession to self-indulgence was not enough to magazine to trot out some vintage Catskills-worthy ethnic stem the panic, and, before long, concern had moved from hands humor about Jews—they don’t tip, the men are ruined by their to mouths. “Whooping is fun for some,” scolded the leadership, overbearing mothers—and asked readers to guess whether she “but can be super inaccessible for others, so please try not to was talking about her Jewish boyfriend or her dog. Big laughs, whoop! Jazz hands work just as well.” We can only applaud the to be sure. Critics suggested that maybe a moment in history feminist movement’s attempt to bring more mutes into its fold. in which Islamic extremists planning the extermination of the Jewish people while comparing them to dogs (and mon- n The question is: “Yeah, can I get a double espresso, a grande keys and pigs) is not the best time to be trafficking in Jewish cappuccino, and . . . uh, one of those lemon bars?” Is the correct stereotypes while deploying canine comparisons. Some answer (a) “Coming right up!”; (b) a silent, sullen nod delivered went so far as to call the piece anti-Semitic. Dunham can with a palpable air of world-weariness; or (c) “Have you read plea-bargain down to feloniously bad taste, in which she is a repeat offender.

n It’s a paradox of politics that it sometimes takes an honor- able man to make a corrupt system last. Lee Kuan Yew was de voted to Singapore, and over three decades as prime minis- ter plus two more of influential retirement, he worked cease- lessly to lift the city-state to a position of global economic leadership. That he did so with a strict brand of authoritarian- ism that banned chew ing gum and homosexuality, punished WARREN

. graffiti with caning, fined or banished publications that ran

TED S critical articles, and allowed only a token opposition on a very / short leash may have seemed necessary at first in a backward

AP PHOTO nation riven by ethnic divisions and great inequality; but it

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Hear from conservative leaders, including...

Congressman Rachel Campos Duffy State Representative Stephen Hayes Mayor Sean Duffy TW Shannon Steve Lonegan

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THE WEEK could never have Israel is the only country in the entire region that has dem o - been sustained for crat ic traditions, or that no one stopped a single Arab from half a century without voting, and in fact, the Arab bloc in the Knesset will be larger Lee’s personal popu- than it had been. larity and his insis- As for Netanyahu’s supposedly throwing the two-state tence on an honest solution overboard, as the administration has charged, that, civil service and mar- too, is nonsense. his 2009 endorsement of a Palestinian state kets that were thriv- was premised on certain essential security conditions’ being ing and competitive met, and no one serious in Israel expects that to happen any (though certainly not time soon. The bitter fruit of the Israeli withdrawal from free from crony capi- Gaza is a hamas mini-state devoted to terror and the destruc- talism). Managing a tion of Israel, while the entire region is sinking into chaos transition to genuine and bitter warfare between Sunni and Shia radicals. No democracy and civil responsible Israeli leader would pull out of the West Bank in rights will be difficult for Lee’s son, the current prime minister, these circumstances. if that’s what he wants; but in the long run it will be even harder Never before has the U.S. used a few words spoken by a for- to maintain the senior Lee’s mix of social repression and eco- eign leader on the cusp of a highly contested election to blow nomic freedom without his charisma and genuine, if sometimes up a longstanding alliance. But there is a much deeper cause suffocating, love of Singapore and its people. Dead at 91. R.I.P. of the split. Forging an opening to Iran is the Middle east goal to which President Obama has been devoted above all others, and it is much more important to him than the relationship THE MIDDLE EAST with Israel. The terms of the deal have steadily gotten worse Obama’s Manufactured Rift for the West—now we are essentially bargaining over how close Iran should be allowed to get to an inevitable nuclear with Israel weapon—but the administration still considers Netanyahu’s he relationship between the United States and Israel is criticisms of the deal intolerable (even though members of the in crisis, and there is one person to thank: President president’s own party are increasingly skeptical of the pro- T Barack Obama. Upset by the reelection of Benjamin spective deal, as well). Netanyahu, he has tried to use the Israeli prime minister’s A bad Iran deal will be much worse than anything Obama tough election-week rhetoric to justify a dramatic diplomatic has done to the U.S.–Israel relationship to this point. But the break from Israel, even threatening to abandon the country to president’s manufactured crisis in the relationship still presents the anti-Semitic mob that populates a good chunk of the seats a serious problem for Israel, and for Israel’s supporters. It risks in the U.N. General Assembly. loosening the Democratic party’s attachment to Israel (at a time Netanyahu did tack right rhetorically: he warned his party’s when the Left is increasingly hostile to the Jewish state), and if supporters that liberal NGOs were turning out Arab voters in the U.S. goes along with an anti-Israel resolution at the U.N., it droves, and he said he did not see a Palestinian state emerging will be the most effective blow yet in the continued effort to during his prime ministership. These are both reasonable state- undermine Israel’s legitimacy. ments, but Netanyahu was tone-deaf in talking about Arab The upshot of Obama’s Middle eastern diplomacy could be citizens, and right to apologize afterwards. the taking of an enormous step toward normalizing a rogue state President Obama absurdly said Netanyahu’s rhetoric about on the one hand, and toward making a rogue state out of a normal Arab turnout threatened Israel’s democracy. Never mind that country on the other. It is perverse, but not surprising. PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS / AP PHOTO : OBAMA / NETANYAHU ; ED WRAY / AP PHOTO : LEE KUAN YEW

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then quickly fired. He gave the impression of equivocating on whe ther illegal immi- grants should be able to become citi- zens—and giving that impression cannot have been his intention, even if he did, in fact, want to equivocate on the topic. Breadth of support also carries a dan- ger: It means that all the other candidates have a strong incentive to poach Walker’s supporters and criticize him. Bush and Evangelical-conservative favorite Mike Huckabee are generally not competing for the same voters, but both of them are competing with Walker. His broad sup- port could also mean that Republicans with opposing views and tastes are projecting their preferences onto him, in which case some of them will probably be disap- pointed over time. Jeb, Scott, and the Rest Walker is a conservative on social How fare the Republican presidential hopefuls? issues but has said he does not want to emphasize them. Sticking with that BY RAMESH PONNURU approach could cost him socially conser- vative voters, who would have to be part S of late March, Jeb Bush and are too new to politics to have them in the of any coalition to beat Bush; breaking Scott Walker were tied in first place. Now he has the reputation of a from it could cost him other backers. The national polls of Republicans moderate: a reputation based largely on Iowa Republican caucuses have gone for A (judging from the averages at his status within the party establishment, an outspoken social conservative twice in RealClearPolitics). They are neck-and- his advocacy of legal status for many a row (Huckabee in 2008, Rick Santorum neck in New Hampshire; Walker leads in illegal immigrants, and his support for the in 2012). Walker, having declared him- Iowa and Bush in South Carolina. It’s a Common Core educational standards. A self the “front-runner” for the nomination race without a clear front-runner, but with lot of conservatives even have the sense in early March and coming from a neigh- two candidates ahead of the rest. that Bush dislikes them. boring state, probably has to win Iowa. Republican primaries usually follow a That perception could change, and Neither Bush nor Walker has yet for- pattern. The party’s elected officials and presumably changing it will be Bush’s mally announced a run, which would big donors tend to cluster behind one or key task right after he scares all the other cause campaign-finance laws to kick in. two candidates; activists who consider that candidates with his fundraising haul Senator Ted Cruz (an old friend of mine) “party establishment” insufficiently con- from the first quarter of 2015. If it does became the first official candidate, and servative split among several candidates; not change, it could, in combination doubtless did so in part to keep from dis- EBENHACK . and the leading establishment candidate with the widespread hostility to the idea appearing amid all the coverage of Bush wins. But the anti-establishment tenden- of a dynasty, sink him. and Walker. He made the announcement at PHELAN M / cies of Re pub li cans have been growing. Walker has enormous appeal to Re pub - Liberty Uni ver si ty, an Evangelical school

; Mitt Romney, running as the establishment li cans, having fought the public-sector founded by Jerry Falwell. His strategy AP PHOTO : candidate, won the nomination in 2012, unions in a historically progress ive appears to begin with becoming the

RUBIO but Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, state—one that has not voted for a Re - favored candidate of everyone who wants ; running to his right, got more votes in com- publican presidential candidate since someone more conservative than Bush or SOLIS LEFTERIS PITARAKIS . / bination in primaries they all contested. Rea gan’s reelection—and won. In itial ly Walk er—which means eclipsing Hucka - This time Bush is the party- the knock on him was that he lacked bee, Santorum, and several others. AP PHOTO ROGELIO V / : establishment candidate. But so far he charisma, but a speech at a January con- When a top aide left Marco Rubio’s staff

WALKER has been even weaker than Romney ference for religious conservatives in in the fall, Republicans took it as a sign that ; AP PHOTO : was. At the end of March 2011, Romney Iowa went over well and led to a rap id Rubio was going to skip the 2016 race PAUL ; was leading his nearest rival by seven ascent in the polls. His support at the because there was room in it for only one AP IMAGES /

DPA points nationally, rather than tied. moment is unusually broad. It crosses Floridian, Bush. Now it looks like he is / Bush was something of a conservative over both the usual es tab lish ment–vs.– going to run after all. At the moment, con- ALLIANCE

- hero when he finished his two terms as Tea Party and the occasional Evangelical- servatives who objected to his immigration governor of Florida in 2007. (Now would vs.-non-Evangelical dividing lines. bill seem to be letting bygones be bygones, PICTURE / PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS / be as good a time as any to note that my Since that ascent, though, Walker has perhaps because he has backed away from wife works for a political-action commit- stumbled a few times. A few comments the bill, perhaps because opposition to RON SACHS AP PHOTO

: : tee affiliated with Bush.) But memories of blew up in the media. There was a vetting Bush is absorbing their energy. If he comes

BUSH CRUZ Bush have faded, and some conservatives snafu involving an aide who was hired and to the fore, though, he will again draw fire.

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One more senator, Rand Paul, is run- slightly fewer revenue agents to conduct ning. He has been moving toward Re - the same number of audits,” for instance, pub li can orthodoxy on national-security The Taxman says Alan Viard, of the American Enter - issues, even sponsoring legislation to prise Institute. Donald Marron, a Bush- boost defense spending. These moves Endureth administration veteran and former head of seem to be costing him some of his old the widely respected Tax Policy Center, libertarian fans. Paul’s theory appeared Ted Cruz’s abolish-the-IRS says an idea like Cruz’s could make the to be that by being a more moderate ver- idea has little merit IRS “smaller, sure. But vastly smaller? sion of his father, he could add to the lat- Probably not.” ter’s base of support. He runs a risk, BY PATRICK BRENNAN That’s partly because the IRS does a lot though, of subtracting more Paulites than of things besides just process complicated he adds mainstream Re pub li cans. OMPLETELY unworkable,” individual tax returns. Much of its re - Chris Christie ended 2013 in a stronger “irresponsible,” “happy sources, for instance, go into enforcing position than the previous two Republican talk,” “a disservice to the the corporate tax code, which Cruz’s cam- nominees were in at the same point in ‘C political process.” That’s paign says he doesn’t have plans for yet. their electoral cycles, having won reelec- just a sampling of what tax experts, most Meanwhile, a lot of IRS agents—quite tion by a big margin in a very Democratic of them right of center, told me they possibly not enough—are assigned to state. But then came Bridgegate. The gov- think of one of the most popular lines providing customer service to taxpayers. ernor nearly disappeared from the national from Ted Cruz’s stump speech, his And while conservatives are rightly wary stage after that. At least as tough a blow promise that a President Cruz would of the civil-liberties violations that tax came when Bush surprised people by talk- abolish the Internal Revenue Service. enforcers can commit, labor-intensive ing about running. He drew away many of Senator Cruz has been talking about the audits are important. If a lot of income Christie’s potential donors. Christie’s fans idea for a couple of years now, but it got a goes unreported or taxes go uncollected, say that he will shine in debate, but the bit more attention when he mentioned it trust in the system breaks down, rates have first debate will not happen until August. in the speech he gave at Liberty Univer - to be higher, and the economy ails. Perhaps he, and other candidates, can sity to officially launch his presidential Unless we have a different kind of radi- afford to wait. The early kickoff to cam- campaign. The basic idea, according to cal tax reform, such as replacing the paign season raises the possibility that his speeches and a conversation I had with income tax with a state-administered sales voters will be bored with the people being a Cruz adviser, is this: If you radically tax (Cruz has flirted with an idea like this talked about from February through April simplify the individual-income-tax code, but isn’t pushing it now; it has its own prob- and interested in someone new who jumps you can reduce the size of the federal tax- lems), the federal government is still going in come May. Ohio governor John Kasich, collection bureaucracy so much that you to have a huge tax-collection bureaucracy. or Indiana governor Mike Pence, might be could then get rid of the IRS and disperse In an interview, though, the Cruz adviser able to capitalize on that sentiment then. its functions across other agencies. assures me that the senator means what So far, few of the ca ndidates have This is a great applause line: Americans he says: A Cruz administration will dis- fleshed out their policy agendas. The ex- hate how complicated their taxes are, and mantle the IRS and distribute the remain- ceptions are Senator Rubio and, to a lesser they hate the IRS. It’s such a good line, in ing responsibilities across the rest of the extent, Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisi- fact, that other probable presidential candi- federal government. “If [tax reform is] ana. Several of the others could help them- dates, such as Senator Rand Paul and neu- done correctly under a Cruz administra- selves by following the example of these rosurgeon Ben Carson, have adopted it too. tion, there would be no need for the IRS,” two. New ideas could let Bush present The problem: The idea probably isn’t the adviser says. “The remaining responsi- himself as his own man, not an echo of feasible and has almost no merits as a bilities for collecting tax revenue would be the past. Walker could use an agenda to public policy. dispersed throughout existing agencies.” acquire some needed heft. Christie could There is no doubt that an individual- So the federal government wouldn’t use one to make it clear that he is not run- income-tax code with many fewer deduc- end up with many fewer tax collectors, ning on his mixed bag of a personality. tions and credits—Cruz has suggested, for but they’d be working for different agen- Watching the candidates run will yield instance, keeping only the mortgage- cies. Can we do that—ditch the IRS important information voters do not yet interest deduction and an incentive for itself for a different set of tax collectors, have. Can the senators, who have never charitable giving—would be easier to either in a new agency or in existing fed- run large enterprises, organize national enforce and therefore require fewer IRS eral offices? Yes, we can, but it’s not clear campaigns? Can Walker, who has been his agents. (A flat tax per se would not neces- why it’s a good idea, except that it sounds own top political strategist and communi- sarily be easier to administer than a pro- great on the stump. cations director, delegate? Can Bush, who gressive one with many rates but few Most explicit on this point is someone last ran in a real Re pub li can primary 21 deductions and credits. Everyone can read who would know best: Mark Everson, years ago, connect with a much-changed tax tables.) who served as IRS commissioner under party? People who have worked on presi- But tax experts say that, while the fed- George W. Bush, and actually happens to dential races are fond of saying that “cam- eral revenue agency could shrink under be running for president too. The idea of paigns matter.” The question marks over Cruz’s proposal, it could only get margin- distributing the IRS’s functions across the the candidates may make that especially ally smaller—not nearly small enough to federal government, he says, “doesn’t true this time. say it’s been “abolished.” “You’d need reflect any real familiarity with how the

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tax code works, what the responsibilities bureaucracies would have to get bigger, it of the IRS are, or frankly how to manage goes unsaid). When pressed about why dis- the government.” Breaking up the tax persing IRS functions across other parts of Betting on agency “makes no sense” and would make government would be an improvement, he tax enforcement nearly impossible, he says, offered no clear justification. “It will be India’s because of how poorly federal agencies vastly more efficient to put the people who work with one another. “It’s hard enough to are doing jobs that still need to be done into coordinate within the IRS, let alone if you agencies that have existing infrastructure” Economy have different agencies in volved,” he says. for similar purposes, the adviser said, with- Its strength will be our strategic asset In fact, while IRS discrimination under out offering any reason why that would be the Obama administration against con- “vastly more efficient” than the current sit- servative political nonprofits has only uation. I also asked whether the idea is that, BY SADANAND DHUME increased the contempt many Americans in light of the nonprofit-targeting scandal, have for the agency, the IRS does a fairly the agency is so corrupt that it has to be dis- ITH China slowing, Brazil good job of collecting taxes and has rela- mantled; I didn’t get an answer. stagnating, and Russia tank- ing, India has once again W emerged as a bright eco- A better, more pro-growth tax nomic spot in the developing world. A system could actually mean more business-friendly new Indian govern- ment, a windfall from lower global oil federal employees, not fewer. prices, and robust new growth figures have all contributed to a sense of opti- tively few scandals in its history. (A num- Many Americans surely do just want mism about Asia’s third-largest economy. ber of them can be blamed on the White to end the IRS, period. They don’t need Albeit aided by a change in how it mea- House or the FBI, not the agency itself.) any convincing. But one would hope for sures GDP, India officially grew faster “If you pin down, if you put a lie detector a little more seriousness from a presiden- than China in the final quarter of last year. on people who have been critics of the tial campaign—an explanation of why Finance minister Arun Jaitley predicts IRS, like [Republican senator] Chuck doing this should be a key priority in the that next year the Indian economy will Grassley, they would admit the IRS is one important task of tax reform. expand by more than 8 percent. of the better-performing federal agen- Some moves toward a better, more pro- Washington has several reasons to seek cies,” says James Wetzler, a left-of-center growth tax system could actually mean warmer ties with New Delhi. Though tax lawyer who spent more than a decade more federal employees, not fewer. Re- both countries take pains to deny that at the Joint Committee on Taxation and publican tax plans, for instance, generally their partnership is aimed at neutralizing served on a commission to reform the IRS propose moving to what’s called a territo- China, it’s hardly a secret that they share in the 1990s. This is not the highest praise; rial tax system, ending the taxation of concerns about Beijing’s rising clout in the IRS regularly fails to meet trans- income American citizens and companies the re gion. Wedged beside Pakistan and parency requirements, for instance. But it earn abroad. That would require new IRS Afghanistan, India is also an oasis of rel- does manage to do the job it sets out to do resources, AEI’s Viard says, to make sure ative stability in a region roiled by radi- at a relatively reasonable cost, Wetzler that companies don’t exploit this change to cal Islam. As a model for Asia’s smaller says, which is enough to outshine other evade taxation. Taxing employment bene- countries to emulate, India—democratic federal bureaucracies. fits such as health insurance just as wages and pluralistic, with a large English- Not everyone agrees with that positive are taxed, usually a conservative priority, speaking middle class—is naturally assessment. Chris Edwards, director of could also mean more IRS work, because appealing to Americans. tax studies at the Cato Institute, says the the value of those benefits has to be Stripped to its essentials, though, the IRS is “a typical bad federal agency.” assessed. Plenty of ways of making taxes U.S. bet on India is a bet on its economy. But there’s definitely some evidence of easier to file, such as offering the option of Unless India can find a way to sustain its efficiency: The United States’ “tax pre-filled tax forms, would free up busi- rapid economic growth, it will fail to gap,” the difference between taxes owed nesses’ and individuals’ time and money live up to its potential as a natural check and taxes collected, compares well with for productive purposes, but would proba- against Chinese hegemony in Asia, a those of other countries, and the IRS is bly require more IRS employees, too. model of democratic prosperity for its well regarded internationally. Congress Tax experts agree that the main prob- Asian neighbors to follow, and an in- chose to task the IRS with the imple- lem with America’s tax system is the creasingly important engine of the global mentation of Obamacare, Everson points Congress that wrote it, not the agency economy. Thus, the overarching goal of out, because the other available agencies that administers it. That is where serious U.S. policy toward India should be to are considered less capable. tax-reform efforts should be focused. help modernize its economy while deep- When I spoke with the Cruz campaign, Cruz has months to flesh out his stump ening trade ties to tether the two democ- they didn’t even attempt to make a case for speech with a broader policy agenda. racies more firmly to each other. abolishing the agency. Cruz is “not going The implausibility of one of his favorite to get rid of one bureaucracy only to create campaign promises, though, is not a Mr. Dhume is a resident fellow at the American another,” the adviser says (other, existing heartening sign. Enterprise Institute.

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Rosy GDP figures notwithstanding, U.S. secretary of state and India’s both the Indian economy and the external-affairs minister, the U.S. com- U.S.–India economic relationship could merce secretary and her Indian counter- do with a boost. To begin with, economic part would now meet on a yearly basis as comparisons between India and China well. In a statement, Secretary of Com - are often misleading. Growth in India merce Penny Pritzker said, “The new has averaged a healthy 6.4 percent since commercial element of our most impor- the launch of economic reforms in 1991. tant bi lateral dialogue will focus on But the legacy of the more than four our shared priorities of growing our decades of socialism that preceded eco- economies, creating good jobs, and nomic liberalization, and a slowdown strengthening our middle class.” that hit in the wake of the global finan- Beyond the diplomatic platitudes, cial crisis, mean that India is still play- increased attention to the economic ing catch-up with much of East Asia. component of U.S.–India ties is wel- With annual GDP approaching $9.5 come. But there’s real danger in getting trillion, China’s economy is five times the bogged down in day-to-day disputes size of India’s. A decade ago, the average and losing sight of the relationship’s Chinese was twice as rich as the average larger, long-term stakes. Indeed, before Indian. Now, with a per capita income of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s elec- $6,800, the average Chinese is more than tion last May, which ushered in the four times richer than the average Indian country’s first single-party parliamen- (per capita income: $1,500). It should be tary majority in 25 years, persistent easy for India to grow faster than China economic disputes between the U.S. partly for the same reason that it’s easier and India were causing friction in the for it to grow faster than America— deepening bilateral friendship. India’s economy starts from a lower base. At the World Trade Organization, the The strategic consequences of this two countries have squabbled over poul- mismatch with China scarcely need elab- try, solar technology, and steel products. oration. The Stockholm International Indian software firms accuse the U.S. of Peace Research Institute estimates India’s discriminating against them by making 2013 defense budget at $47.4 billion, temporary work visas expensive and hard about a fourth of China’s $188 billion for to get. India also wants workers who re- the same year. Though India’s large popu- turn to India after a stint in the U.S. to be lation and tradition of strategic autonomy allowed to reclaim their payments into the automatically give it more wherewithal U.S. Social Security system. than most countries to stand up to Chinese For its part, the U.S. has found fault with belligerence, over time no country can India’s tax laws, local-content re quire- ignore a vast disparity in resources that ments in manufacturing, and relatively only grows wider each year. poor intellectual-property protections. At Nor are U.S.–India trade ties particu- the request of Congress, the International larly strong for two countries that be - Trade Commission has been investigat- tween them account for about one-fifth of ing India since August 2013, for industrial the world’s population and an annual eco- policies “that discriminate against U.S. nomic output of nearly $19 trillion. For trade and investment.” the last three years, U.S.–India trade in To be sure, as the relationship be - goods and services has hovered at around tween the U.S. and the EU proves, eco- $100 billion, less than one-sixth of U.S. nomic friction needn’t necessarily get in trade with China. When both goods and the way of close strategic ties. But in the services are counted, the U.S. is India’s U.S.–India relationship, it often appears top trade partner. (China tops it in goods as though Washington misses the for- alone.) But for the U.S., India ranks only est for the trees. As my colleague eleventh in goods trade, between Taiwan Derek Scissors has pointed out, the and Saudi Arabia. short-term interests of individual firms What should this mean for U.S. policy often rise to the top of the United States’ toward India? In January, as President economic agenda for India, even when Obama visited New Delhi, the U.S. and serving those interests does little to India “elevated” their annual talks from a advance the strategic U.S. goal of boost - “strategic dialogue” to a “strategic and ing India’s economy. commercial dialogue.” This meant that, Following Modi’s election, and his on top of the annual meeting between the back-to-back summit meetings with

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Obama in Washington and New Delhi, more than fivefold, to $500 billion, over U.S. officials are studying ways to deepen the next ten years. But beyond just that economic ties with India. Some potential number, the U.S. should also aim to stay What ideas, such as negotiating a bilateral in - ahead of China in volume of bilateral trade vestment treaty or backing India’s mem- with India. This will likely spur more day- muslims bership in the asia–Pacific Eco nomic to-day attention to the relationship than Cooperation forum, have been on the a theoretical longer-term target would. agenda for several years. Others, such as Third, while consistently advocating Should freeing U.S. liquefied-gas exports to for U.S. businesses, Washington should energy-hungry India, have arisen more not allow individual companies to hi - Fear most recently. Some of modi’s signature ini- jack the agenda. For instance, while tiatives, including building so-called India will undoubtedly benefit from It isn’t American xenophobia smart cities equipped with modern infra- opening up its retail market to Walmart structure, bringing high-speed Internet and others, by no stretch of the imagina- BY REIHAN SALAM connections to much of the country, ex - tion is this the most pressing economic panding the use of renewable energy issue facing the country. am often told that america is a dan- such as solar power, and turning India India needs to liberalize its labor and gerous place for muslims. Recently, into a manufacturing hub, have naturally land markets, reduce expensive food, the left-of-center news site Vox pub- attracted attention from america’s pri- fuel, and fertilizer subsidies, and priva- I lished a piece insisting that the vate companies and its government alike. tize loss-making state-owned companies. shooting death of ahmed al-Jumaili, an But if economic relations between Over time, as India’s economy becomes Iraqi who had recently moved to Dallas, India and america are to avoid getting bigger and more outward-looking, many be seen as part of “the growing trend of violence against muslims in the United States.” But it seems that this claim was unfounded. Soon after al-Jumaili’s death, police apprehended a 17-year-old sus- pect who was apparently unaware of al-Jumaili’s religious background. Earlier, three muslim americans— Deah Barakat, Yusor mohammad abu- Salha, and Razan abu-Salha, all of them very young adults—were shot to death over a parking space in Chapel Hill, N.C. Ever since, many muslims, in the United States and elsewhere, have insisted that their killer, Craig Stephen Hicks, was motivated by anti-muslim animus and that to suggest otherwise is to diminish what is undoubtedly a grave crime. Yet it appears that Hicks behaved in a hostile and threatening manner to neighbors of all persuasions, and his angry Facebook rants suggest that he reserved his deepest bogged down in the problems of the past, of these decisions will likely benefit U.S. hatred for Christian fundamentalists. and are instead to serve U.S. strategic companies. But they’re important mostly The death of a loved one is always a goals in asia, the U.S. ought to adopt because they will unleash India’s own tragedy, and to lose a loved one to sense- three broad objectives. economic potential. Though the U.S. less violence is more tragic still. It is easy First, america should encourage India cannot make policy for India, it can cer- for me to see why the families of these to become a more competitive, market- tainly provide assistance to would-be victims might have wanted to give some oriented economy for its own sake, even Indian reformers who look to it for ideas larger meaning to their deaths. That I can if specific reforms offer no clear payoff and expertise. forgive. I’m less inclined to forgive the for U.S. firms. For instance, India needs During the Cold War, the U.S. under- political activists who’ve rushed to use better roads, but given the lack of U.S. stood that it had a stake in the economic these tragedies to advance the notion that competitiveness in this area they will success of countries as different as South anti-muslim xenophobia is somehow a likely be built by Korean and malaysian Korea and Indonesia. Today, the future graver threat to civil peace than is violent firms, not by american ones. of asia hinges, to a significant degree, on Islamic extremism. In truth, the United Second, the U.S. should aim to remain the evolution of India. If it pays off, States has proven a very hospitable home India’s top trade partner. In January, america’s bet on India’s economy could for muslims, and in particular for those Secretary of State John Kerry reiterated be one of the most important invest- who reject the most austere and the most the goal of multiplying U.S.–India trade ments it makes in the years ahead. radical interpretations of Islam. Indeed,

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the fact that observant Muslims feel immigrants from countries plagued by after these industrious pioneers died, comfortable wearing religious garb in Islamist violence. My parents are immi- they were remembered fondly as, in America all but guarantees that some of grants from Bangladesh, a Muslim- Eaton’s words, “vivid mythico-historical them will be victims of violent crime, if majority country in South Asia, so this figures, saints whose lives served as only because it would be statistically applies to me personally. It’s not often metaphors for the expansion of both improbable for a large group of people to that I think about my Muslim identity. religion and agriculture.” be completely exempt from our country’s I come from a family of moderately Suffice it to say, the Islam practiced larger violence problem. observant Muslims, yet Islam was never in these newly settled communities Muslims do encounter discrimina- the central organizing principle of our was not of the orthodox variety prac- tion in America. It just so happens that lives. I’d say that our ethnic attachment ticed in Islam’s Arabic-speaking heart- they don’t often face religiously moti- to things Bengali was as strong as our land. Rather, it blended Islamic beliefs vated hate crimes. The FBI reports attachment to Islam. When I was in ele- with beliefs associated with various that Jews are far more frequent targets mentary school, my parents hired a other religious traditions. In the cen- of religiously motivated hate crimes tutor to teach me Arabic and to offer turies that followed, it was not at all than Muslims are. One of the things their heathen offspring some religious uncommon for Muslim Bengalis to that make me most uncomfortable about instruction. Alas, I got into a huge take part in Hindu festivals or for Muslim Americans do encounter discrimination in America. It just so happens that they don’t often face religiously motivated hate crimes.

the response to the Chapel Hill shoot- argument with my tutor over whether Hindus to worship Sufi saints. By the ing is the effort to take a unique set of androids have souls, and I haven’t had early 20th century, a new generation of circumstances and force it into a larger all that much to do with organized reli- Bengali Muslims had decided that the narrative that doesn’t necessarily fit. gion since. So I should stress that I’m local expression of Islam was far too It’s possible that Craig Stephen Hicks far from an expert on Islam. permissive and far too open to Hindu was not a crazed Islamo phobe and Over the past several years, however, influence. Since then, most of these that hatred and suspicion of Muslims I’ve been hearing from relatives and self-described reformers have used are a real problem. To the extent that friends about how Islamic extremism arguments and persuasion to make their this hatred and suspicion exist, how- has transformed the political and social case, as civilized people should. But ever, there is good reason to believe climate in Bangladesh. In just the last some have used violence and intimida- that it is fading. few months, a Bangladeshi-born U.S. tion to impose their intolerant under- A 2014 survey from the Pew Re search citizen, Avijit Roy, was murdered dur- standing of how Islam ought to be Center found that on a scale of 0 to 100, ing a visit to his native country for the practiced, and their numbers are grow- 0 being the coolest and 100 being the supposed crime of promoting atheism ing. Those who fall in this latter camp warmest, Republicans rated their feelings on his personal blog. Just a few weeks are the kindred spirits of al-Qaeda and toward Muslims at an average of 33, just later another Bangladeshi blogger, the Islamic State, and they’ve trans- below the 34 they gave atheists. Demo - Washiqur Rahman, was murdered for formed a poor but peaceful country into crats gave Muslims a 47, above the 46 his alleged apostasy. a poor but violent one. they gave atheists and the 44 they gave This is all very poignant in light of the And that’s why I have a hard time Mormons. This gap can mostly be chalked fact that Bengali Muslims have tradi- taking complaints of anti-Muslim xeno- up to the fact that people are more likely tionally been considered open and toler- phobia in America as seriously as per- to think well of Muslims if they know ant. Richard M. Eaton, a his torian at the haps I should. Though I don’t doubt that one, and Democrats are more likely than University of Arizona, maintains that in there is suspicion and distrust of Mus - Re publicans to know Muslims personally. the 16th century the Mughal rulers of lims in America, the underlying trend And before Democrats assign too much Bengal offered rent-free land grants to toward greater acceptance seems firmly significance to the feelings thermome- settlers willing to chop down the dense established. So does the underlying trend ter, they should note that Re publicans forests that dominated the eastern part of toward chauvinism and extremism in feel more warmly toward Evangelical the province and start growing crops. much of the Muslim world, not just in Christians, Jews, and Catholics than They had no interest in converting the Bangladesh. Having witnessed Bangla - Democrats do. I don’t think it’s fair to Bengali masses, whom they saw as an desh’s transformation from a distance, say this makes Democrats more anti- alien people. But most of the pioneers and having also witnessed the assertive- Evangelical, anti-Semitic, or anti-Catholic who took up the Mughals on their land ness of American Muslim activists in than Republicans. offer were adventurous Muslims, and defending their rights, I have a hard time Another thing to keep in mind about the locals they hired as manual laborers thinking that it is xenophobia and not the Muslim Americans is that many of them came to look up to them, and indeed to extremist threat that should keep me up are either immigrants or the children of attribute mystical powers to them. Long at night.

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You deserve a factual look at . . . Three Deceptive Myths of the BDS Movement Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) advocates use inspiring human rights language to condemn Israel—but are their accusations accurate? Supporters of BDS make three stirring demands: Stop Israel’s colonization, occupation and apartheid in Palestine. But how valid are these three accusations, and what are the real goals of the BDS movement—for Israel and the Palestinian people? Above all, does BDS really seek peace? diplomacy will surely be needed to resolve the territorial issues WhatBoycott, are Divestment the andfacts? Sanctions advocates shrewdly use that divide Arabs and Israelis, it is intellectually dishonest to human rights rhetoric to inspire followers. But anyone tempted by declare Israel an occupier. this appeal must ask two questions: 1) How true are BDS’s Myth #3: Israel is an apartheid state. Apartheid was “an official accusations against Israel, and 2) what is BDS’s political agenda? policy of racial segregation, involving political, legal, and economic If we examine the hard facts, we see that BDS is actually based on discrimination in South Africa against nonwhites.” In fact, Israel is false myths and a disguised purpose. by far the most diverse nation in the Middle East—one whose Myth #1: Israel is colonizing Palestine. While BDS paints the population is 21% Arab and includes the region’s largest Christian Israeli-Palestinian conflict in population. Israel’s Jews hail polarized terms, in fact it is one “We do not support the boycott of Israel.” from Ethiopia, Yemen, Morocco, of the world’s most complex, Iran, Iraq, and Syria, as well as emotionally fraught disputes. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas every European nation and Latin BDS portrays Palestinians as the America. Unlike any other Middle region’s sole “indigenous” people, while in truth Palestine has two Eastern nation, equal civil rights of all ethnic groups in Israel are indigenous peoples—Jews and Arabs. Jews have lived protected—and they include freedom of speech, assembly, suffrage uninterruptedly in the Holy Land for more than 3,000 years, since and sexual orientation. No ethnic group is segregated. Political the time of biblical Abraham. Israel does not insist it is the only office is open to every ethnicity: Israeli Arabs are members of the heir to Palestine, but BDS advocates assert Jews have no right to parliament and supreme court. Economic discrimination is a state there. This denies the Jewish people the right to national forbidden, and when it occurs, as in the U.S., the courts oppose it. liberation. Since colonialism is “the control of one nation by In short, Israel bears no resemblance to South Africa. It is an ‘transplanted’ people of another nation,” and Jews are natives to exemplar of liberty for minorities. Palestine, Israel cannot be termed a colonial force. What do the BDS leaders really want? While the U.S., Western Myth #2: Israel is occupying Palestinian territories. It’s European powers, Israel and the U.N. Security Council have simplistic to argue that Palestine “belongs” entirely to either Jews embraced a “two-state solution” as the basis for peace between or Arabs. Ownership of these territories is disputed—it can only be Israel and the Palestinians, BDS leaders, like Ali Abuminah, argue determined by negotiations. While Israel does not deny Arab rights for a one-state solution in which Arabs outnumber Jews. When to a state in Palestine, BDS opposes Jewish self-determination. BDS talks about occupation, it refers not to disputed West Bank When Israel declared a state in 1948, it was attacked by five Arab territories, but to all of Israel. BDS has consistently opposed armies whose intention was to expel the Jews. In 1967, Arab Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, calling them “collaborationist.” In armies again attacked Israel, but Jordan, Egypt and Syria actually fact, the leaders of BDS openly confess their goal is not peace, but lost to Israel territory they had controlled. In fact, none of the land conquest. No wonder BDS founder Omar Barghouti admits, “If the Israel currently “occupies” in Israel or its ancient lands of Judea occupation ends . . . would that end support for BDS? No, it and Samaria (the West Bank) was ever part of an Arab state. While wouldn’t—no.” This explains why BDS insists on the “right of Israel maintains security in parts of the West Bank, it is to protect return” not for the estimated 50,000 living Palestinian refugees of Israelis from terror attacks that have killed thousands. More Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, but for their five million pointedly: As late as 2007 Israel offered Palestinians 95% of the descendants—a bizarre definition of “refugee” applied to no other West Bank, as well as a capital in Jerusalem, as an incentive for people. Of course, such an influx of foreign Arabs into Israel would peace, but the Palestinians rejected this offer. While smart swamp the Jewish state, conquering it demographically.

For all its emotive appeals, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions effort is based on falsehoods—a hijacking of human rights values. Even Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has acknowledged that BDS is counterproductive, proclaiming, “We do not support the boycott of Israel.” Indeed, anyone who truly desires peace between Israelis and Palestinians must oppose this pernicious movement.

This ad has been published and paid for by FLAME is a tax-exempt, non-profit educational 501 (c)(3) organization. Its purpose is the research and publication of the facts regarding developments in the Middle East and exposing false propaganda that might harm the interests of the United States and its allies in that area of the world. Your tax- deductible contributions are welcome. They enable us to pursue these goals Facts and Logic About the Middle East I and to publish these messages in national newspapers and magazines. We P.O. Box 590359 San Francisco, CA 94159 I have virtually no overhead. Almost all of our revenue pays for our educational Gerardo Joffe, President James Sinkinson, Vice President work, for these clarifying messages, and for related direct mail. 147 To receive free FLAME updates, visit our website: www.factsandlogic.org 3col:QXP-1127940387.qxp 4/1/2015 12:16 AM Page 26

totem of resistance to all of the closed, This he did with great aplomb. On humorless, effete, and “politically cor- Top Gear, in a series of best-selling The Anti- rect” pathologies that have become all books, and in the pages of Britain’s the rage on both sides of the Atlantic. many rightward-leaning newspapers, Scold Now that he is gone, you can hear his Clark son has for years now played a fans ask, who will speak up for us? starring role in the country’s national On the phenomenon of At present, this is a question that cannot life. He is the man through whom the Jere my Clarkson be answered with any specificity. But common sensical meek can live vicari- this much we can say: If he disappears ously; the man who can say what oth- from view, somebody else will come ers will not dare to say; the man who BY CHARLES C. W. COOKE along. Why? Well, because Jeremy Clark - has never had to grow up. Most impor- son is what happens when a nation’s cul- tant, perhaps, he has been the grumpy He renegade British television tural elites set out to forge an environment old codger who still remembers the presenter Jeremy Clarkson has in which nobody is allowed to say any- days when it was acceptable to poke been fired from his wildly thing remotely risqué without drawing fun at everything—including one- T popular automotive show, Top condemnatory looks and an open invita- self—and to do so without being Gear, and his fans are not happy. A tion to apologize. As yin invites yang and hauled into court. petition, hosted by Change.org, attracted positive necessitates negative, political Within the collective imagination of more than a million signatures in under correctness has created Jeremy Clarkson the rest of the world, the British have a two weeks, and was delivered to its in - to serve as the anti-scold. reputation for politeness and, in some tended recipients in a tank. “We the corners at least, for the sort of decorum undersigned petition the BBC to rein- that one sees on exported television state Jeremy Clarkson,” the missive shows such as Inspector Morse, Down - reads. They are fighting, they say, for ton Abbey, and, a little while back, their “freedom to fracas.” Brideshead Revisited. To a limited ex - To peruse the many comments that tent, this estimation is deserved. And have been left under the entreaty is to yet sitting happily alongside the stoic garner something of a false impression. glances and stiff upper lips and reflex- “I pay my TV license,” one contributor ive self-deprecation is a sense of insists, “to ensure that irreverent people humor that is pointed, thick-skinned, can express themselves.” “A minority of and even a little cruel. The Australian- over sensitive people should not ruin turned-British comedian Steve Hughes one of Britons [sic] favourite shows,” has noted how extraordinary it was that proposes another. “Jeremy,” one man the Irish were the first to ban smoking suggests simply, “is a bastion of light in in pubs. “It’s us?” Hughes has an a dark PC world.” astonished and befuddled Irishman As it happens, this lattermost assever- say. “But we live in pubs.” That the ation may well be true. And yet, all British have of late done so much to things considered, it is wholly irrelevant castrate their own national pastime, to the question at hand. As the BBC has humor, is similarly bizarre. confirmed, Jeremy Clarkson was fired Nothing escaped Clarkson’s wither- after he physically assaulted a col- ing eye. Not German cars, which he league at a hotel; he wasn’t fired for suggested are capable of travel- his profanity or for his imperti- ing from “Berlin to Warsaw in nence or because he upset the one tank” and come with a sensibilities of his employer. GPS system that “only He hit a guy. He had to go. goes to Poland”; not Still, one suspects that to affirmative action: “If look for intellectual consis- one presenter on a show tency in this instance is rather is a blond-haired, blue- to miss the point. Whatever eyed heterosexual boy, they may say in public, the the other must be a harsh truth of the matter is black Muslim lesbian”; that Clarkson’s apologists are not Stephen Hawking: a not so much defending their “great man, but most of man’s immediate behavior as him doesn’t work”; not they are lamenting the loss Mexican na tionals: of a much-loved and much- “lazy, feckless, flatu- needed public figure. For years lent, overweight” types

ROMAN GENN now, Clarkson has served as a who spend their days

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“leaning against a fence asleep looking he was forced to sit through an extended at a cactus with a blanket with a hole in warning that had been designed to pre- the middle on as a coat”; not public- vent his walking through glass windows. sector unions on strike: “I would take He took aim at big government, too, them outside and execute them in front often wondering aloud what the govern- of their families”; and certainly not the ment thought a free people would do if United States of America, for which he left to their “own devices.” In a book has a particularly pronounced dislike appropriately titled “Is It Really Too I M P O R T A N T of precisely the sort that is common Much to Ask?” Clarkson insisted that he among English men of his class: “Most really could be trusted not to “park on N O T I C E Americans,” Clarkson argued causti- zebra crossings for a year” without an cally in 2005, “barely have the brains army of government employees nagging to all National Review to walk on their back legs.” at him. The relationship between the cit- Clarkson was never one to shy away izen and the state “has broken down,” he subscribers! from making the controversial com- concluded, “and it’s time for some civil parisons or from going for the obvious unrest.” “This is what should be meant joke. Rather, he spoke to his audiences by people power,” he added: “The power as middle-aged British men speak to for people to choose which of the gov- one another in the pub when they think ernment’s petty, silly, pointless laws they       We are moving our that nobody is listening. “The only want to obey.” person to ever look good in the back of At their root, these criticisms had subscription-fulfillment      a four-seater convertible,” Clarkson something important in common: They 
   office from proposed sacrilegiously, “was Adolf left room for common sense, and Hitler.” How bad is the “Maserati’s carved out a space for honest human Mount   Morris, Ill. gearbox”? Worse than “AIDS” and error. “We are going to have to stop    to Palm Coast, Fla. “Iran’s nuclear program.” Why were penalizing people for making that most Please continue Britain’s nuclear submarines deemed human of gestures—mistake,” Clark -    unsafe? Probably “because they don’t son submitted in one tirade. In a nation to be vigilant: have wheelchair access.” of sinners—and of a trigger-happy and      There are fraudulent It is perhaps the greatest irony of the judgmental priestly class—this mes- “political correctness” movement that sage was welcome indeed. To err, we agencies
   soliciting the more its leading lights repress any- might say, was Clarkson. your    National Review body who steps out of line, the more Which is, ultimately, to say that it brazen the dissenters become and the didn’t especially matter that Clark - subscription !  renewal more leeway their admirers are pre- son’s primary vehicle, Top Gear, was without    our authorization. pared to give them. Clarkson is a tal- about cars, and neither was it espe- Please reply only to ented man, certainly. One does not cially important what he was doing   reach his level of fame and success when he was talking. Providing that it National Review without possessing a genuine charm. afforded plenty of opportunities for   
 renewal notices or But one cannot help but suspect that bonding and for ranting, that it could     he has found himself as the voice of be used as an excuse for adolescent bills—make sure the the vast middle of his country less shenanigans, and that it presented a     return address is because he is unusually gifted and pretext for some good old-fashioned more because many people who would tinkering, any broadly masculine sub-     Palm Coast, Fla. not usually go in for laddish humor ject would have sufficed. Sure, Top Ignore   all requests for found themselves enjoying fruit that Gear began life as a serious car show. renewal that are not was now deemed to be forbidden. But for more than a decade now, its
    directly payable Clearly, one does not have to think worldwide audience has rendered itself     that these things are funny or true in witness to something else altogether— to National Review. order to be thrilled that somebody is namely, a long, slightly adolescent,     saying them with impunity. and always irreverent bachelor party If you receive any mail or And so, secure in his position and with that was organized for, attended by, telephone     offer that makes a growing audience, Clarkson began and celebrated in the name of one man: to preach to the fed-up. “Health and Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson. To -    you suspicious contact safety”—that endlessly malleable ex - day that man has fallen from grace— [email protected]@nationalreview.com.. cuse for nannying and excessive taxa- removed from the field of his own Your cooperation tion—became a rich target. Once, Clarkson jubilee for violent and ungentlemanly     reported with glee, his employer pre- conduct. It is time to grow up, per-      is greatly appreciated. sented him “with a booklet explaining haps. And also to regret the passing of how to use a door.” On another occasion, our youth.

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A Place for Conscience Anti-gay discrimination is wrong, but it is not Jim Crow

BY KEVIN D. WILLIAMSON

hey call themselves the “New Civil Rights Movement.” liberties, it must demonstrate that it has a compelling interest in In reality, that’s not a movement, but a group blog edited doing so and that it has secured that interest in the least burden- by David Badash, father of the Great Nationwide Kiss- some fashion. This leaves considerable room for judgment and T In, a gay-rights protest. But the name speaks to an ambi- negotiation, which is necessary. In the Hobby Lobby case, the tion, and to a rhetoric: that discrimination against homosexuals, Supreme Court found that the federal government had, in secur- from the criminalization of sexual acts to the queasiness that ing its interest in the wide availability of contraceptives, failed to same-sex marriage causes in some people, is to be understood as resort to the least burdensome means, and threw out the mandate. the moral equivalent of the oppression of African Americans and Beyond being a setback for Obamacare, the ruling pushed should be extirpated with the same energy; that harboring reser- progressives’ civil-rights buttons by recognizing not only the vations about the moral status of homosexuality or the social rights of religious institutions but also those of individuals act- desirability of gay marriage should be the social equivalent of ing in concert outside the context of a church or affiliate, in this dropping an infamous racial slur into conversation. case through a closely held for-profit corporation. As Governor Mike Pence and the people of Indiana are dis- Indiana’s RFRA presses harder still on those same civil-rights covering, that is a powerful rhetorical strategy. Indiana has buttons, because it contains a provision not found in the federal enacted a state-level version of the federal Religious Freedom statute or in most of the related state statutes: It allows for reli- Restoration Act, which was signed into law by President Bill gious liberty to be raised as a defense in litigation to which the Clinton after passing Congress with widespread (nearly unani- state is not a party. Contra the allegations of Apple CeO Tim mous, in fact) bipartisan support. The RFRA has been deployed Cook and Issie Lapowsky of Wired, Indiana’s RFRA does not against the so-called Affordable Care Act, notably in the Hobby “make it legal for businesses to refuse service to same-sex couples Lobby case, and so is regarded among progressives as an expres- on the grounds of their religious beliefs,” as Lapowsky put it, sion of right-wing atavism. In reality, one of the few votes though it is possible that a judge would accept an RFRA defense against the RFRA was from Senator Jesse helms, the personifi- in a lawsuit resulting from such a case and that some RFRA sup- cation of congressional conservatism, who worried that prisoners porters hope for that outcome. would use RFRA protections to make mischief; some conser- That the gay-wedding reception really is the new Mississippi vative drug warriors disliked that the bill was brought into lunch counter (the phrase “lunch counter” seems to exist now existence partly to carve out a legal exception for peyote use in exclusively in the context of civil-rights debates) is far from self- Indian religious ceremonies. evidently true, but the belief is widespread, as is the similar belief

RICK CALLAHAN The federal RFRA is reinforced by 20 state statutes and by con- that laws restricting marriage to (two) partners of opposite sex are / stitutional arrangements in another dozen or so states that impose morally indistinguishable from the laws that once forbade inter-

AP PHOTO similar limitations: When government acts to burden religious racial marriage.

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ll discussion about discrimination in the United States Which is not to say that discrimination against homosexuals is has as its template the case of discrimination against acceptable because lots of gay Americans go to grad school and A African Americans, from slavery through the Jim Crow because Ken Mehlman is going to be a big shot in Jeb Bush’s era to the civil-rights movement. This is an understandable campaign. But it is unquestionably the case that the social real- intellectual tendency for the same reason that it is an error: The ity of gay Americans in the age of Tim Cook is not very much like comprehensive political, social, and economic oppression of the social reality of black Americans in the age of Jim Crow—and black Americans is unlike any other episode in American history. when we talk about a “compelling interest,” that reality matters. The history of organized and informal oppression of African Americans tells us little—or nothing—about the situation of other groups that are in a radically different position. he current state of the gay-rights debate—pitting civil- Consider another historical precedent that is probably a better rights rhetoric on one side against religious liberty on the analogue for discrimination against homosexuals: American dis- T other—suggests very strongly that we are suffering from crimination against Jews. As with discrimination against African an unhealthy national tendency toward over-generalization Americans, discrimination against Jews was—is—a moral evil. rooted in false precedent. That the civil-rights movement orga- like discrimination against blacks, discrimination against Jews nized to advance the condition of black Americans is a fitting is bound up in complex social psychology and ancient history. and natural precedent to the movement organized to advance the But there are much more important differences: There have condition of gay Americans is an exercise in question-begging, been practically no official anti-Semitic acts or policies perpetu- one that is, given the American temperament, almost inevitable. ated by the federal government. Jerome Chanes, author of In The Constitution of Liberty, F. A. hayek argued that legis- Antisemitism: A Reference Handbook, puts the count at one: latures could be expected to limit themselves to legitimate uses General Ulysses S. Grant’s infamous Order No. 11, which called of government coercion if they restricted themselves to passing for the expulsion of Jews from areas under his control. President laws that were generally applicable, neutral, and abstract. That Abraham lincoln rescinded that order almost instantaneously. is an indispensable part of the liberal legacy; it is the reason our Jews arrived in the United States as émigrés and refugees, not as Constitution forbids bills of attainder and ex post facto pun- slaves. Organized non-governmental discrimination against Jews ishment, both of which are temptations to divert the law from typically had teeth mainly at the commanding social heights: the the project of securing the general welfare to that of directing infamous Ivy league quotas under numerus clausus; exclusion it toward the advantage or disadvantage of a particular group. from many social clubs, vacation resorts, and the like, and, to a The elevation of generality over narrow communal interests is much lesser extent, under real-estate covenants. These restric- an important part of what distinguishes the liberalism of the tions were unjust, immoral, and surely humiliating, but they did Anglophone world from the feudalism that preceded it and not result in the categorical exclusion of Jews from American from the brute-force interest-group democracy that threatens to social, political, and economic life. even when anti-Semitic feel- consume it; at the same time, it pushes the prudent in the direc- ing was at its most intense, the great majority of American Jews tion of the absurd in the name of consistency, as though dis- could expect to live their lives suffering nothing like the oppres- crimination against the descendants of slaves, in the context of sion that was meted out to black Americans. centuries of ruthless oppression, were no different from a preju - The case of homosexual Americans is more like the case of dice against gingers or the left-handed. Jewish Americans than it is like the case of black Americans. There is real wisdom in the hayekian drive toward the gen- They are subject to discrimination and prejudice, certainly, and eral, but it is not the only wisdom. Conservatism is grounded in they have been subject to desultory acts of official oppression, the understanding of—and perhaps even the love for—real life, too, notably laws that criminalize homosexual acts per se. Those in all of its bewildering specificity and concreteness, as opposed laws were unwise and unjust, but they were never enforced with to what Russell Kirk called the “narrowing uniformity” of the anything approaching the vigor with which segregation was progressive visionary. policed. like the exclusion of Jews from social clubs, the pres- Generalization is valuable—generally. sures that forced (and often still force) homosexuals to conduct Political conflicts very often are the result of competing gen- their personal lives in secrecy were and are humiliating. eral principles. That was the case with much of the civil-rights But the proposition that the social and political situation of movement, especially with regard to the Civil Rights Act of gay Americans in 2015 is even roughly comparable to the social 1964. On one hand, the condition of black Americans was a blas- and political situation of black Americans in, say, 1950 is un - phemy against the fundamental American premise, which is a supportable. Far from being excluded and remanded to a lower theological premise—that all men are endowed by their Creator tier of economic and social life, gay Americans do better than with certain unalienable rights—and demands that there be no average on many fronts. A survey conducted by Prudential in separate people within the republic held subject as effectively a 2012 found that homosexual respondents were more likely to hereditary condition. On the other hand, the American consti- be employed than average, and that they had substantially higher tutional order restricted what the federal government could do incomes, less debt, more savings, etc. A similar study conducted to ameliorate such aspects of that situation as were not the result by the Williams Institute, a UClA think tank focused on gay of federal policy or of state and local policies subject to federal issues, found that men and women in same-sex relationships in preemption. Any individual act of discrimination might be con- two-earner households had substantially higher household sidered trivial on its own, constituting no compelling reason to incomes than their heterosexual counterparts and much higher violate property rights or freedom of association; but in the levels of educational attainment. At rarefied cultural elevations, aggregate, those exclusions created a situation that was ulti- gays are if anything overrepresented. mately incompatible with the American premise. Addressing

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that problem meant doing violence to the American constitu- tional order by extending federal intervention into state and local affairs to an unprecedented degree under a tortured interpreta- Another tion of interstate-commerce powers, something that many of the conservatives at that time (Barry Goldwater, famously) thought too high a price to pay, considering the advancements that already had been made and the price paid for them. That has, Win for Right- incidentally, been the recurring fallacy of the Republican party on the matter of African Americans: Whether it is Gettysburg or the 13th Amendment or the civil-rights progress of the eisen- To-Work hower years, Republicans are always hoping to close the book, to declare the work done when it remains incomplete. Now, in half the states, you cannot That constitutional violence was masked by the doctrine of the “public accommodation,” which is a venerable legal be forced to join a union sophistry designed to obscure that private property is treated as public when politically convenient. We are not very serious about “public accommodations” independent of hot-button social con- BY JOHN J. MILLER siderations; try getting yourself admitted to a fashionable night- club in hollywood while being an unprepossessing middle-aged hen Badger Meter ordered $2.5 million in equip- man wearing Dockers and traveling with similar company. Such ment last summer to start a new line of water- would-be party people are excluded for the same reason that meter products, CeO Rich Meeusen had to pick blacks once were excluded from restaurants—because they W its destination: Mexico or Milwaukee? “We were simply are not wanted there—but such discrimination is hardly on the fence about where to go,” says Meeusen, who weighed invidious. Online classified advertisements for apartments in big Mexico’s cheap wages against Milwaukee’s better location and cities regularly warn that no Republican need apply, which is technical support. Over the last decade, his Wisconsin-based actually illegal under some state laws, a fact that does not seem company had watched the number of jobs on its payroll swell to bother anyone very much. But if a baker does not wish to pro- by 40 percent. Yet Badger Meter had not added any in the vide the refreshments for a gay couple’s wedding, then the state Badger State. of the “public accommodation” becomes a national priority. That changed on March 9, when Governor Scott Walker If the gay-rights and specifically the gay-marriage movement signed a bill on the shop floor of Badger Meter’s Milwaukee fac- is similar to the civil-rights movement, it is in that it presents tory, making Wisconsin the country’s 25th right-to-work state. us with competing goods: It is difficult to see how the social “This legislation puts power back in the hands of Wisconsin exclusion of gay Americans serves any desirable end, but peo- workers, by allowing the freedom to choose whether they want ple of good faith should respect both conscience and piety. An to join a union and pay union dues,” said Walker. Meeusen un usually high degree of respect for religion’s role in public life announced that Badger Meter would hire a dozen workers in (compared with, say, Western europe) is part of the American Milwaukee right away and as many as 50 in the years ahead. “We character, and one for which progressives should be at least as chose to expand here because of right-to-work,” he says. grateful as conservatives: We have a secular government that After a long hibernation, the right-to-work movement has leaves both the atheistic and the ultramontane free to evangelize woken up like a bear in the spring. As far back as the 1940s, as they will because the Mayflower was full of Christian radi- when the strength of Big Labor was near its peak, the belief that cals, not in spite of that fact. union membership should not be a condition of employment And there is the not-insignificant matter that, in a free society, had enjoyed political success in the South and West. States such one has the right to be wrong. as Arizona, Arkansas, and Florida passed laws saying that In the case of the original civil-rights movement, it was obvious workers may decline to join unions without losing their jobs. that something needed to be done, though it was not obvious After 1985, when Idaho became the 20th state to approve a what that was. It is far from obvious that gay Americans are in right-to-work law, the movement seemed to take a long break. a comparable position—it is in fact obvious that they are not. Over the next quarter century, only two states—Texas in 1993 Our general principled tendency toward rejecting discrimina- and Oklahoma in 2001—crossed into its ranks. tion of various kinds is an admirable part of our national char- In the last three years, however, three industrial states in the acter, but it need not always be a police matter (see those Midwest have passed right-to-work laws—an unexpected Republican-excluding Craigslist ads), and it should be con- development in a region where unions had maintained the strained by a sober evaluation of the facts of the case. equal strongest of home-field advantages. In 2012, Indiana became a treatment—not only under the law, but socially as well—is, as right-to-work state, followed soon after by Michigan and now a matter of principle, good. But it is not the only good. The great Wisconsin. Since last December, a dozen counties in Kentucky irony is that in our time the machinery of the state is being used have passed their own right-to-work laws, and even the new by gay-rights activists to enforce ruthless social conformity, Republican governor of Illinois has started to talk about similar even though gay people themselves were not so long ago on the innovations. All of a sudden, right-to-work has become the receiving end of the same sort of bullying. But that is the Left’s hottest idea in conservative labor reform. general model of progress: The opening gambit is a plea for no wonder: Right-to-work states have outperformed the rest. tolerance, and the end game is a bayonet. Between 2003 and 2013, they gained jobs at more than twice

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Wisconsin governor Scott Walker signs a right-to-work bill into law, Monday, March 9, 2015.

the rate of states without right-to-work laws, according to data So, in 2004, Torr introduced his first right-to-work bill. He from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Workers in these states also recognized that it wouldn’t pass: Democrats controlled his saw their incomes rise faster. These trends even shaped demog- chamber of the legislature, and the governor was a Democrat, raphy, affecting the flow of domestic migrants: In the 23 states too. Yet he pursued the cause with the zeal of a missionary. “I that were right-to-work, the population grew by an average of 3 introduced a bill every year,” he says. “I talked to my col- percent during this decade; it fell by an average of 1.1 percent leagues about it. I spoke to every group that would listen. I had in the 27 states that were not right-to-work. a PowerPoint presentation that compared jobs and wages in states with right-to-work and without right-to-work, and I updated it every quarter.” ne of the curiosities of right-to-work’s new phase is Torr needed to keep updating his data because Indiana’s next that it has risen from the ground up rather than governor, Republican Mitch Daniels, refused to support right- O descended from the top down. In other words, state and to-work legislation. Daniels was no Big Labor lackey: In 2005, local officials have pushed for right-to-work, but governors on his first day in office, he decertified Indiana’s government- haven’t. When Walker was a member of Wisconsin’s state employee unions, allowing most members to quit paying their assembly in 1993, for example, he proposed a right-to-work dues. Yet Daniels also made clear that right-to-work would stay law, but then-governor Tommy Thompson, a Republican, wanted off his agenda. “I have said over and over, I’m a supporter of the nothing to do with it. As governor himself, Walker became a con- labor laws we have in the state of Indiana,” he said at a Team - servative hero for beating back union power. Yet last December, sters dinner in 2006. “I’m not interested in changing any of when state legislators mentioned a desire to pass a right-to-work them. . . . Certainly not a right-to-work law.” bill, Walker tried to brush them off. “I think it’s a distraction,” Daniels didn’t oppose right-to-work in principle, but he had he told reporters. He was careful to say that he hadn’t changed other goals—and, like an auto executive who just wants to keep his mind about right-to-work—he still favored it on the mer- the assembly lines moving, he was more interested in making its—but that he considered other issues more important. peace with unions than in confronting their privileges. One of The right-to-work movement always has had supporters in the governor’s most controversial objectives was the privatiza- the mold of state-assembly-era Walker—lawmakers who offer tion of Indiana’s toll road, a money-losing unit of state govern- bills even though they stand little chance of immediate success. ment. Daniels proposed leasing it to foreign investors in return One of them has been Jerry Torr, a Republican who was elected for nearly $4 billion to fund infrastructure projects. As to Indiana’s house of representatives in 1996 and has served Democrats whipped up a populist reaction—he’s selling our

MIKE DE SISTI there ever since. In 2003, a right-to-work activist convinced roads to foreigners!—many union members recognized that , Torr that workers shouldn’t be forced to pay union dues. “I hadn’t Daniels was offering them a good deal. Truckers wanted better

SENTINEL heard of this before,” says Torr. “So I did a little research.” He roads, and construction workers wanted more jobs. Daniels - discovered studies by a pair of free-market think tanks, the eventually got his way, and today a for-profit company runs the Allegheny Institute in Pennsylvania and the Mackinac Center toll road and most people barely recall that there was once a fuss. in Michigan. “Right-to-work states had incredible job-growth For the next several years, Daniels pushed a reform agenda

MILWAUKEE JOURNAL numbers,” he says. “I also noticed that not a single one of our on budgets and education that made him a favorite governor / border states had a right-to-work law at the time. I knew this among conservative policy wonks. As he tried to attract busi-

AP PHOTO would benefit Indiana.” nesses to Indiana, however, he kept hearing the same com-

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plaint: Employers didn’t want to move into a state that tilted the Susana Martinez has endorsed right-to-work, the house of playing field in labor’s direction. Many of them liked every- representatives approved a bill, but it died in the Democrat- thing about Indiana except its lack of a right-to-work law. So controlled senate. A bill also passed Missouri’s house, but when Republican majorities in the legislature finally passed a Democratic governor Jay Nixon has promised a veto. Ohio right-to-work bill in 2012, Daniels signed it, making Indiana looks like a good candidate for right-to-work, if only because of the first state in the Rust Belt to adopt the law. “Seven years of the competition it now faces from neighboring Indiana and evidence and experience ultimately demonstrated that Indiana Michigan. Large GOP majorities dominate its legislature. Yet did need a right-to-work law to capture jobs for which, despite Republican governor John Kasich insists that he’s not interested. our highly rated business climate, we are not currently being “It’s not on my agenda,” he said in February. “Right now in our considered,” said Daniels in a statement at the time. state, we have labor peace.” Even so, right-to-work optimists Next came Michigan, where Republican governor Rick observe that this is precisely how Daniels, Snyder, and Walker Snyder, like Daniels, initially shied away from right-to-work. once spoke about the issue. Running for office in 2010, he had labeled it “too divisive.” Two years later, however, Michigan’s unions pushed a ballot initiative to enshrine collective bargaining in the state constitu- hE next major advance for the right-to-work movement tion. Voters, including about one-quarter of Democrats, rejected might take place not in a state capital but rather at the it. Labor looked weak. In the days that followed, Snyder repeated T local level. This strategy is the brainchild of Brent his claim that he had no interest in a right-to-work law. Yet he Yessin, a lawyer who runs Protect My Check, a right-to-work refused to say that he opposed one in principle. A few weeks advocacy group. he noticed that many cities and counties have later, GOP lawmakers put a bill on his desk. Snyder signed it, strong charters that grant them a lot of independence on eco- and Michigan—the home of storied labor leaders such as nomic policy. Could they pass their own right-to-work rules? Walter Reuther and Jimmy hoffa—became the 24th state to he discussed the approach last spring with Andrew Kloster and prohibit compulsory unionism. James Sherk of the heritage Foundation, who examined the When Walker signed Wisconsin’s right-to-work law in question and issued an analysis in August: “Cities and counties March, he generated a few dutiful complaints from union have a good legal argument that they are free to pass” right-to- activists—but nothing like the theatrics of 2011, when he was a work ordinances, they concluded. brand-new governor who wanted to limit the collective- “After that, it was just a matter of deciding where to launch bargaining rights of most of his state’s public employees. Back a beta test,” says Yessin. he picked his home state of then, several state legislators wanted to include in Walker’s Kentucky, where Democrats control half of the legislature as package of labor reforms a right-to-work measure covering well as the governorship. Yessin knew that Kentucky’s busi- private-sector employees as well, but the governor and his part- ness leaders were feeling a sense of urgency. Along the I-69 ners worried that a few key Republicans might defect. So they corridor, which runs from Mexico to Canada, Kentucky now is left it out. “We also hoped that the trade unions would sit on the the only state without a right-to-work law. “Businesses that sidelines,” says Scott L. Fitzgerald, majority leader of Wis - rely on I-69 don’t want to start a business or relocate here,” says consin’s senate. That didn’t happen: Tens of thousands of pro- Lee Lingo, president of the Madisonville–hopkins County testers flocked to Madison, occupying the state capitol and Chamber of Commerce. “They just go south to Tennessee or camping out on its grounds. Democratic senators fled the state Texas or north to Indiana or Michigan.” to deny a quorum to GOP lawmakers, delaying the vote on the Since December, a dozen counties in Kentucky have reform. Despite the rancor, Walker and his allies prevailed. Their approved their own right-to-work rules, from big Boone proposals became law, and the governor went on to survive a County just outside Cincinnati to tiny Fulton County on the recall election the next year and win reelection last November. banks of the Mississippi River. Unions have sued to stop them, Although Walker began his second term with even larger but the movement could expand to nearby states soon. Bruce Republican majorities in the state legislature, he remained Rauner, the new Republican governor of Illinois, already has reluctant to take up right-to-work. “I just think there [are] a lot issued an executive order that bans government unions from of things that are going to keep the legislature preoccupied for coercing workers to pay union dues. Now he’s talking about a while,” he said in a television interview on January 4. “So right-to-work at the local level. “We’re the economic muscle even though there [was] a lot of buzz a few weeks ago, I don’t of the Midwest, and we’re sitting here with closed-shop know that that’s the first thing they’re going to start out with.” restrictions,” he told the Wall Street Journal. “If DuPage Yet conservatives were eager to press forward. “What hap- County wants to have closed shop in their county, keep it—ter- pened in Indiana and Michigan opened our eyes,” says Fitz - rific, no problem. But why should DuPage force Effingham gerald. “We knew that if we were going to remain competitive, County to be closed shop? If Effingham wants to compete with we’d probably have to do it, too.” Fitzgerald and his allies Indiana for a new business, and be on the list where companies pointed to economic data: In 2013, both Indiana and Michigan will look for employment flexibility, why shouldn’t they be benefited from more growth than Wisconsin. The polls backed able to choose to do that?” them as well—62 percent of state residents supported right-to- From its earliest days, the right-to-work movement has relied work legislation, according to a survey by the Wisconsin Policy on its simple appeal to the power of choice. If it continues to Research Institute. When a right-to-work bill finally cleared the prevail, other states and localities will feel pressure to let workers legislature in February, Walker embraced it. make their own decisions about unionizing. At least they’ll Several other states have flirted with right-to-work legisla- always have the ability to say no—a courtesy they currently tion this year. In New Mexico, where Republican governor refuse to extend to their own citizens.

3 2 | www.nationalreview.com APRIL 2 0 , 2 0 1 5 2col:QXP-1127940309.qxp 3/31/201511:23PMPage33 T social experiment that we’ve undertaken without public discussion of its morality or wisdom. The results are not as sublime as a as sublime as not are results The wisdom. or morality its of and for society. In effect, it’s a vast effect,it’sasociety. Infor and almost all of the day, for a period of 15 days or more. Some prison w dcds te rwh f these of growth the decades, two population in isolation grew 40 per-populationisolation40grewin popu tween 1995 and 2000, the total prison of the prison population overall. Be - es r hr t fn. h 70,000 The find. to hard are bers em oiay ofnmn wr a were confinement solitary term Chekhov,Foris. effectsthelong-of ua big o ofnd Te a’ sia it isnt is insanity into spiral man’s The confined? so being human fortunecaptor.hisfroma win willlodge, happensa he What to a contributingeditorat Atlantic. The Mr. based in New Heffernan journalist isanindependent York City. Mr. Wood is population grew 28 percent, but the percent,but 28population grew serious consequences for prisoners for consequences serious matter of speculation. But in the mod- cent. (exact and more recent num- recent more and (exact cent. Chekhov story, though in some ways they are just as tragic. set data best the from comesfigure term solitary is long- an experiment system, that penal has American ern outsideworld.lastshe Ifthewhole 15 to be the condition of being withoubeing conditionof the be to available, from the Bureau of Justice been run tens of thousands of times. described mostly through his enigmatic requests for reading mate- butno human contact: no conversation, no letters, no news of the rently held in near-totalinisolationin held rently sealed lodge in the banker’s garden. He will have food and books Statistics 2005 rial. It would be a crime against literature to spoil the story for you, but suffice it to say that 15 years of solitude is not healthy. state and federal penitentiaries. Those held in municipal jails might push the total t The WrongBox rod—until the past few decades, that hs om f mrsnet has imprisonment of form This Long-termsolitary confinement isunderstood, byconvention, ehp 7,0 pol ae cur- are people 70,000 Perhaps h cpie ece smis f ans ta fw have few that madness of summits reaches captive The closer to 80,000. During the past lations far outpaced the growth He by Anton Chekhov, in a story called “The Bet.” Its plot is simple: A wealthy banker bets a younger,man poorera betsbankerwealthy simple:A that the young man cannot live 15 years alone in a small, & N A N R E F F E H M I T Y B greatest fictional depiction of solitary confinement is Our prisons’ solitary useof prison census.) confinement isinhumane D O O W E M E A R G t regular human contact forcontacthumanregular t yearswithout leaving the are immovablesteel-bars,latticeareofconcrete aslabs; instead of Far from being dark and dungeon-like, it is well lit and unset tlingly there’s nobox. place for that.” dark He says a those conditions in are unaccept- McQueen Steve night—it’s from day ing confinement” “solitary phrase the at bristle administrators isolated, clinical in its design and orderliness. It is a facility whose mentally New York City jails. “‘Solitary’ is sensory deprivation, not know- relieved by an hour of solitary exercise in a cage or courtyard. forbidden. Prisoners typically spend 23 hours per day in their cell, the perforations in the metal doors of their cells, but they see only a a key tool in the state’s efforts to manage its prison gangs. The SHU atPelican Bay, on the border with Oregon, is the most notorious. we call it ‘solitary,’” says Martin Horn, the former head of the of headformer the Horn,Martin‘solitary,’” says it call we because of the associations it conjures. “We make a mistake when plated doors. Windows, if they exist, are small and sealed.The andsmall are exist, theydoors.Windows,plated if to twelve long. Instead of a bunk and a stool, as in the movies, there ruinous effects are concealed behind a curtain of banality. able under any circumstances, and are not imposed in modern in imposed not are circumstances,and any under able worsethan the Shawshank-style black box. Amongthe most criti- Housing Units in California, which state correction officials say c blankwall. They get daily recreation—alone infeaturelessa con- lightsare on 24 hours a day. Food, mail, and medicine are passed U.S. prisons. What we do have are varieties of prisoner “segrega- crete box—but are mostly condemned to a life without humanwithoutlife a tocondemned mostly are box—butcrete tion,”eitherpunish to rule violations prisoninkeepto preda-or onersminimized,is andcommunication b through a narrow aperture. Physical contact between staff and pris- tory prisoners from attacking others. ment in this country, the cells are tiny, ized implementations of solitary confinement are the Secure the are confinement solitary of implementations ized In some ways the modern forms of solitary confinementaresolitary of formsmodern the ways some In The SHU’s goal is to neutralize alleged gang leaders. Inmates Semanticsimplementationsmostaside,in solitaryofconfine- in some cases, for years at a time. They can look through six to eight feet wide and ten etweenprisoners often And are are 3 3

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interaction, in a small room without even a window. They turn, like It is not coincidental that some of the most vigorous supporters Chekhov’s victim, to books—they are limited to ten at a time—and of solitary confinement are the guards whose job—an incredibly to that universal modern babysitter, the television set, which they dangerous one—is to keep prisons orderly. “Punitive segregation may watch as much as they like, as long as they wear headphones. is a necessary tool, and it should be available around the country,” If you have ever felt sluggish or unhealthily inert after too many says Norman Seabrook, president of the New York City correc- hours as a couch potato, imagine five or ten or even 20 years of tional officers’ union. It “saves lives at the end of the day.” Martin little else. The SHU is a very modern method of draining life away. Horn is a bit more cynical: “If you’re a correctional officer, your In truth, modern solitary confinement drains more than life: It ideal prison is one where every inmate is locked down 100 percent drains away the self. Johnny Perez, an advocate for recently of the time.” But a handful of studies suggest that solitary con- released prisoners at the Urban Justice Center in New York, spent finement has little impact on prison violence, both against guards 14 years in jail and prison for weapons possession and robbery. He and between prisoners. spent nearly four years in solitary. “I remember talking to myself a Solitary confinement used to mean a short stay to punish lot out loud, singing, just to hear another human voice,” he says. serious rule violations. But prisons and jails now lock away He says “unrealistic thoughts” invaded his mind: What if the cor- inmates for months, even years, for small infractions—and rectional officers leave and never come back? He underwent sometimes for no infraction at all. Disciplinary segregation, as “feelings of complete worthlessness” and profound depression. the practice is called, is used to punish a wide range of viola- This vertiginous cycle of thoughts is typical, says psychiatrist tions of prison rules, and the sentences run consecutively rather Terry Kupers, of California’s Wright Institute. “The studies that than concurrently. A young prisoner caught with 17 packs of look at three months [of isolation] universally report a list of symp- cigarettes, for example, might serve two weeks in solitary for toms that include anxiety, paranoia, compulsive acts like cleaning each—a total of more than eight months. (This exact case is and exercises, problems of concentration and memory.” These described in the Vera Institute of Justice’s landmark 2006 prisoners exhibit a “high suicide rate, sleep problems, headaches.” report “Confronting Confinement.”) And “that’s in relatively healthy people. For people with innate Or, if he’s young enough, he might go to solitary just because tendencies toward mental illness, isolation makes it worse.” of his age and perceived weakness. Beginning in the 1990s, large Those who are isolated for years undergo deeper changes. “They numbers of inmates started getting put in solitary not for things just withdraw, even more than the isolated confinement requires. they did but for things that others might do to them . Members of And they have mounting anger, along with fear—terror—that the vulnerable groups—isolated gang members surrounded by anger will erupt and get them in further trouble.” As a result, “they members of rival gangs; gay or transgender prisoners; infor- work hard to suppress their anger,” and the suppression “makes mants; juveniles held in adult facilities—may be locked up them feel generally numb—a zombie stage, or walking dead.” The alone for their own protection. The mentally ill are kept alone long-term isolated often simply disappear into their troubled almost as a rule, often to avoid the social friction associated with internal lives: “When guys are new, they do talk to their neigh- other prisoners’ intolerance of their eccentricities. bors. After a while, they stop.” Perez began to refuse visitors— Last, the incorrigibly violent— serial rapists and their ilk—are friends, family—who had traveled upstate from the Bronx to held in solitary for the safety of other prisoners and the prison comfort him. “That’s when I began to lose touch with reality,” he staff. These “worst of the worst” provide the popular imagina- says. “It got to the point where I was more comfortable in than out.” tion with its image of the sort of prisoner held in solitary con- Stuart Grassian of Harvard and Craig Haney of the University of finement. In reality, they make up a tiny fraction of those so Southern California echo Kupers’s findings: The confined experi- held, according to Horn. ence irrational anger, suicidal ideation, unaccountable quiescence, obsessive-compulsive behavior and imagined physical ailments (itches that can’t be scratched, growths that aren’t there), and, ulti- HIS last group provides what is easily the favorite argu- mately, a kind of Stockholm syndrome in which the cell itself is ment of tough-on-criminals constituencies and correc- the welcomed oppressor. Many long-term-isolated prisoners, upon T tional officers who defend the status quo of solitary release or transfer into non-solitary confinement, refuse to leave confinement. “When you have an inmate who’s violent, abu- their cells, the prospect of even limited freedom having become sive, and a threat to [correctional officers] and the general pop- more terrible than the predictability of total confinement. Others ulation, he will assault, murder, and slash other human beings,” engage in self-harm—cutting themselves, biting off their own fin- Seabrook says. He views proposed limits on the use of solitary gers, mutilating their genitals—as both an extreme display of per- confinement as attempts to bind the hands of his correctional sonal liberty and the only reliable way to feel the touch of other officers: Prisoners “made adult decisions with a 9mm, and then human beings: the doctors and nurses who treat their wounds. come to jail and have to be treated like children.” Seabrook is not exaggerating when he says correctional offi- cers suffer frequent assault. One common act is a practice OW did we get here? In part, the problem of solitary con- called “gassing,” which involves prisoners’ saving their excre- finement is just the problem of mass incarceration. For a ta, then blowing them, raspberry-style, so that they aerosolize H number of reasons—mandatory minimum sentences, and spray the guard as he walks by. An incorrigible gasser “tough on crime” legislation, the drug war—the prison population needs to be punished and deterred—but if the use of solitary is has expanded faster than it can be safely accommodated. As larger highly restricted or taken off the menu, as numerous activist numbers of inmates came to live together in cramped quarters, groups argue it should be, the remaining options are few. “If I solitary confinement became a common form of discipline and a can’t use punitive segregation for more than 60 days in a year, way of maintaining order. what can I do for the rest of the year?” Seabrook asks.

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But the costs of locking people up alone are mounting, and they are not only monetary. on March 19, 2013, tom Clements, the head of the Colorado prison system, was shot dead at his home by Majoring in a man who had spent much of his eight years in prison in solitary confinement—only to be released into the free world with little to no psychiatric evaluation to see whether he was capable of living on the outside again. Anthro Virtually every prisoner in isolation will one day be released. not surprisingly, studies suggest that ex-felons who spent ex - A lament for a field tended periods in solitary break parole and reoffend at higher rates. Many are taken directly from their cells, where they may have lived for years, to the bus depot. “Imagine taking someone in BY JAY NORDLINGER shackles from [solitary] and putting them onto public transporta- tion,” says Rick Raemisch, Clements’s successor and an aggres- ot long ago, Eric owens of the Daily Caller wrote an sive reformer of his state’s solitary-confinement system. “Why not article about the latest antics of the American just tattoo on their forehead, ‘I’m going to hurt someone’?” As of Anthropological Association. (they were threatening February 2015, Colorado was holding just 136 prisoners in soli- N to boycott Israel.) He described anthropology as “the tary, down from 1,500 in 2011. “Running an efficient institution is most pathetic college major” whose name “doesn’t end in the a noble goal, but that’s not our mission,” Raemisch says. “It’s hav- word ‘studies.’” this made me grin and wince simultaneously ing a safer community.” (if such a thing is possible). I thought the remark was funny. I Martin Horn, who since leaving office has become a strong also thought it might be true, and this pained me—for I myself voice against solitary confinement, says new york State’s current was an anthro major, and I once had great respect, even love, for number of prisoners in long-term isolation, 12,000, should be the field. I still do, in a way. But I know that the field was long reduced to about 400—only the truly incorrigibly violent. And, ago captured by the flaky Left, to use a shorthand. counterintuitively, he suggests that in solitary they should have By the way, I was interviewing Jeb Bush a few years ago and more privileges (phone calls, books, recreation, visitation) than brought up the fact that he majored in Latin American studies. regular prisoners, not fewer, to maintain their sanity and encourage I pointed out that this field is dominated by lefties. He said, good behavior. “Well, most ‘studies’ are dominated by lefties, when you think He distinguishes between segregation of inmates for punish- about it.” true. ment and segregation of inmates to deprive them of opportunities What has happened to anthropology can’t be separated from to be violent again. the latter is not a form of punishment. It is sim- what has happened to academia as a whole. But anthro may have ply part of the prudent operation of a prison. Consider, Horn says, pride of place, when it comes to political correctness and the the incorrigibly violent prisoner who attacks a fellow prisoner. He corruption of scholarship. Stanley Kurtz says, “I’ve always should be punished. But the prison authorities should not mistake bragged that anthropology is the worst of all the disciplines, his solitary condition for a form of punishment—one that could much worse than English, despite what some of our conservative last for years, as retribution for whatever crime he perpetrated friends think.” Kurtz is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public against another inmate. Policy Center in Washington, D.C., and an anthropologist, or for- Instead, he says, solitary “should be a tool of last resort.” these mer anthropologist: a Ph.D. from Harvard. He is, in a sense, a inmates “have simply crossed a line of decency and demonstrated refugee from anthropology. there are others. an inability to live with civilized people.” But to keep them sane, In 2008, the anthropologist Hugh Gusterson wrote, “Anthro pol - he says, we’ll need to pay for more chaplains and social work- ogy is, by many measures, the academy’s most left-leaning disci- ers—employees of the prison who will talk to the inmates, play pline.” (A fact of which he apparently approves wholeheartedly.) pinochle with them, anything. the prisons chief, he says, is “still In 2004, a study was conducted on the political affiliations of responsible for their welfare.” American professors. of all the disciplines, anthropology came As it happens, the United States experimented with mass soli- out the most Democratic at 30 to 1. this is shocking to me: I would tary confinement once before, in the first half of the 19th century. be surprised to find one Republican in a hundred anthropologists. In what was known as the Pennsylvania System of incarceration, When I was in college—the mid 1980s—all of my anthro pro- prisoners were locked away alone and given only the Bible to read. fessors were Marxists, I believe. It would have been hard to be the idea was to induce repentance. the system gave us the word anything else. If you were an astronomer, you were a Copernican, “penitentiary.” It also drove prisoners insane. It was soon widely if you were an anthropologist, you were a Marxist. But they were condemned and rarely replicated (though not entirely phased out serious people, my professors. they were not flakes. Since that until the early 1900s). time, however, postmodernism and other such strains have flooded the current system of solitary confinement is a historic in. So has political activism (which, of course, has its place, though anomaly, and one we have embraced at considerable moral probably not in classrooms). cost. It fails to make correctional officers, prisons, or society much safer. It costs too much—twice or thrice per capita what general-population incarceration does. It destroys minds, and it ntHRoPoLoGy is, simply, the “science of man,” as we punishes many who deserve protection and medical care. And used to say in the bad old days, when you could use it releases broken souls into society, which suffers the pre- A “man” in that sense. In the 1950s, the superb Mischa dictable consequences. titiev published a textbook called “the Science of Man.” one

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dictionary defines anthropology as “the science that deals with or the nude is to art.” No more, however. Anthropologists were the origins, physical and cultural development, biological char- excused from this particular task, as from others. acteristics, and social customs and beliefs of humankind.” Stanley Kurtz says, in effect, “Don’t forget Edward Said.” Said’s Anthropology belongs to the sciences, the social sciences, and book Orientalism, published in 1978, influenced anthropology the the humanities, all at once. It is a wonderful field for a generalist way it did many other fields. Said threw cold water on the very (like journalism, as it happens). idea of culture, to say nothing of kinship. Napoleon Chagnon says, There are four main branches of anthropology: cultural (or in effect, “Don’t forget Derrida and Foucault.” The post - social) anthropology; physical (or biological) anthropology; modernism of these philosophers covered anthropology like a fog. archeology; and linguistic anthropology. The cultural branch is Anthropologists began competing with one another, says Chagnon, the most populated, by far, and it is also the one most vulnera- to see who could find “the most arcane ways” of expressing sim- ble to politics and fads. I will concentrate on this branch. ple things. “A lot of battles in anthropology were intellectually Perhaps the Republicans, whatever their numbers, are to be faddish battles between gurus and ayatollahs and rabbis and high found in the other branches? priests.” Respect for the scientific method went down, down. I should not romanticize the past—a conservative vulnerabil- The field proliferated into little anthropologies, such as “reflex- ity—but there were once giants: Lewis Henry Morgan, Franz Boas, ive anthropology”: You behold a culture and ponder your own Anthropology came to resemble victim studies, or victimology, in which the central question is ‘Who is oppressing whom?’

Bronislaw Malinowski, E. E. Evans-Pritchard. They wrote famous relationship to it. Do you feel guilty to be a Westerner? (You ought books such as Argonauts of the Western Pacific (Malinowski) and to.) There is also “transpersonal anthropology”—something The Nuer (Evans-Pritchard). I was assigned those two classics, and about altered states of consciousness. Then you have “public many others. As Peter Wood, an anthropologist who heads the anthropology,” which aims for political and social activism—as if National Association of Scholars, points out, I got in “just under anthropology didn’t have enough of that already. the wire.” I was ex posed to serious work. I was also assigned a pri- Anthropology came to resemble victim studies, or victimology, matology textbook that was explicitly “feminist.” Yes, there was in which the central question is “Who is oppressing whom?” as feminist science, as distinct from scientific science, I suppose. Peter Wood puts it. Worse, it got to be so that you could call There came a time, says Wood, when “anthropology went off a anything and everything “anthropology.” Andy Warhol said, cliff.” Napoleon Chagnon uses similar language: “Anthro pologists “Art is what you can get away with.” Sadly, something like that went nuts over new fads, and a lot of cultural anthropology went maxim applies to anthropology. down the drain.” Chagnon is possibly the most famous anthro- pologist in the world, as well as the most “controversial,” as everyone says. He has made many enemies by insisting on a role vER the years, plenty of serious people have majored in for biological evolution in human behavior. His 1968 mono- anthropology. Saul Bellow did (and in sociology too). Rob graph, The Yanomamö: The Fierce People, is probably the most O Portman, the senator from Ohio, did. Michael Crichton, famous such book in the literature. It would be only natural for the late writer, did. Today, however, anthro has a reputation as a other anthropologists to resent this a bit. major for basket-weavers, potheads, and slackers. The field seems In the 1970s and ’80s, anthropologists began to regard their not to attract the most talented or go-getting students. Practical field’s past as shameful. (I am taking the liberty of generaliza- considerations come into play, of course. In 2012, Forbes ranked tion, as throughout this piece.) Often heard was the bromide anthropology the very worst major for post-graduation employ- “Anthropology is the handmaiden of colonialism.” The earlier ment and earnings. A writer on the blog Living Anthropologically heroes of the field were now painted as villains—as racists and wore this ranking as a badge of honor. “We’re #1!” he said. He exploiters. This was a gross defamation. These anthropologists also gloated, or sneered, “Anthropology is the worst major for cared enough about primitive peoples to study them, understand being a corporate tool.” He added, “Anthropology is the major them, and in some cases make them famous. (A word of advice most likely to change your life” (for the better, presumably). to the current anthro student: Better not say “primitive.”) The field was unhappy when Governor Rick Scott of Florida Peter Wood cites two key dates in the downfall of anthropology: spoke in 2011 about his spending priorities for education. “If I’m 1973 and 1984. In the first of those years, Clifford Geertz pub- going to take money from a citizen to put into education,” said lished his Interpretation of Cultures, hugely influential. According Scott, “then I’m going to take that money to create jobs. So I want to Geertz, an anthropologist could interpret a culture the way a lit- that money to go to degrees where people can get jobs in this state. erary critic interprets a poem. Nothing was quite true; everything Is it a vital interest of the state to have more anthropologists? I was subjective. In 1984, David M. Schneider came out with his don’t think so.” The president and the executive director of the Critique of the Study of Kinship. It essentially threw cold water on American Anthropological Association wrote him a rebukeful but the very idea of kinship, saying it was just another instance of polite letter. It transpired that one of Scott’s daughters had Western bias. Before, kinship had been fundamental to anthro- majored in anthropology—and gone on to business school. pology: a hard, exacting study. In a much-quoted remark, Robin Appreciation of capitalism is not a hallmark of the anthro- Fox said, “Kinship is to anthropology what logic is to philosophy pological community. That same blogger at Living Anthro -

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pologically wrote, “A spectre is stalking Capitalism—the spectre enabled by a long history of national and global anti-Blackness.” of Anthropology. All the Powers of Capitalism have bound them- In short, “we charge genocide.” selves in a crusade against this spectre,” which powers include The charge of genocide—the wholesale murder of a people— Governor Scott, Forbes, and Napoleon Chagnon (bizarrely). is one I heard on my campus in the 1980s. Protesters were “Anthropology knows that what currently exists does not have incensed by the attempts of the Reagan administration to slow the to be. Anthropology knows more about capitalism than any rate of growth of social-welfare spending. They chanted, other academic discipline.” So, you see, anthropology is what “Reagan, Bush, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide.” will at last bring capitalism and the money-power down. In one issue of Anthropology News, the editors published four On its website, Princeton has a section on choosing majors. pieces on the controversial death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, There are questions and answers, written by students. These are Mo., at the hands of a police officer. One anthropologist wrote of charming, and also helpful. One question on the page relevant to “a violence that is critical in maintaining the privilege that accom- us is, “What are common misperceptions about anthropology panies whiteness.” There was a lot more where that came from. The majors?” The answer begins, “Some consider us ‘fluffy humani- four pieces prompted Peter Wood to write an essay for Minding the ties people.’” Another question is, “Why would anyone want to Campus: “Ferguson and the Decline in Anthropology.” he said that date an anthropology major?” Because “you can expect an the quartet of pieces published in AN showed what his field “has anthropology student to have original and quirky opinions on sunk to.” he lamented “a profound misappropriation of an intel- everyday social phenomena.” Frankly, given their “broad per- lectual discipline.” To its great credit, AN republished this piece— spectives and experiences,” you can think of anthro students as no an act that kicked up a storm among the AN and AAA faithful. less than “the most interesting people in the world.” I have no doubt that students of anthropology at Princeton are brilliant, fascinating, and datable. More generally, however, T should go without saying—though I will say it—that there Peter Wood is surely right when he notes, with sorrow, that his are anthropologists at our universities who do good and seri- field has become “flypaper for dimmer under graduates,” who I ous work, including good and serious teaching. They are need only have the approved attitudes, opinions, and commit- scholars before they are political actors and indoctrinators. Na - ments to win A’s from their profs. poleon Chagnon cites a number of departments where “re - searchers are not just cultural anthropologists but a new breed of people who have additional skills and training in evolutionary he American Anthropological Association has many task biology.” Among these departments are those at Missouri, Arizona forces, and these tell us a fair amount. There is the Global State, Michigan, harvard, and Utah. Peter Wood has a tip for T Climate Change Task Force. The Race and Racism Task telling a real anthropologist from a fake one: If the guy talks about Force. The Task Force on AAA engagement on Israel-Palestine. social structure, kinship, and other such concerns, rather than the (This last one must bend over backward to be fair to Israel.) The political preoccupation du jour, he’s apt to be the real McCoy. AAA also has sub-associations, an alphabet soup of such associ- I’m reminded of a fellow who said that the congregation in ations, an array that would make the Balkans blush. You have the which he took part was mad at the rabbi. They suspected he was Association of Black Anthropologists, the Association for a conservative—because he never talked about poli tics. Instead, Feminist Anthropology, the Association of Latina and Latino he talked about things like God, the Bible, and Judaism. Anthropologists, the Association for Queer Anthropology— Academia is a minefield in which it is increasingly difficult to “formerly the Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists.” say anything without causing an explosion. Recently, a professor (You can imagine the debate over that name change.) unburdened himself of his fears in a piece online, published anony- A perusal of Anthropology News, the “official news source” mously, of course. “Personally, liberal students scare the sh** out of the AAA, is not much different from a perusal of Mother of me.” If a conservative student complained about him to admin- Jones or any other left-wing publication, except that there are istration or on social media, he could swat that student away like extra helpings of self-importance and academic gobbledygook. a fly. “The same cannot be said of liberal students. All it takes is one A typical headline reads, “Capitalism vs. the Climate.” There is, slip,” and “that’s it,” you’re finished. Anthropology is about human in fact, an “AAA Statement on humanity and Climate Change.” and cultural differences, as well as similarities. It is absolutely It contains such lines as “Anthropologists recognize that studded with mines. how the subject can still be taught at all is humanity’s actions and cultures are now the most important semi-miraculous. The pressures of political correct ness are intense. causes of the dramatic environmental changes seen in the last In that piece about Ferguson and decline, Wood writes, 100 years. We consider this period the Anthropocene” (a geo- logical epoch in which man wrecks the earth). Anthropology, rightly understood, is an effort to understand There is a piece called “When Conversation Is Not enough: human nature through systematic study of those qualities in us that Reflections on the Makings of the #AAA2014 Die-In.” At the vary in time and place—and those that don’t. Anthropology looks recent annual meeting of the AAA, hundreds of members lay at how we emerged as a species and how we have diversified into down on the floor of the hotel lobby, pretending to be dead, in thousands of languages, tribes, and civilizations. The field became a “discipline” by sternly demanding of itself rigor in how it went protest of what they regard as a police and broader national war about this inquiry. Mostly that rigor required a steadfast determi- on black Americans. A statement of the Association of Black nation to stand outside the myths people tell themselves and, by Anthropologists begins, “The [ABA] condemns, in no uncertain standing outside, to see things as they really are. terms, the ongoing terrorism waged against Black U.S. commu- nities by the state, police, and White vigilantes.” It goes on to say, That field sounds like very heaven to me—one I’d like to “These are state-sponsored massacres of our people, massacres major in.

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The Long View BY ROB LONG

edge programming, all retooled and maker guest from wherever he or rethought for the way the Millennials she happens to be at the time. Using absorb information. the “everywhere” attitude for which Millennials are famous, we’ll be DaILY SCHEDULE: able to see Mika and Joe going 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. Morning Joe about their daily lives while at the FoR ImmEDIatE RELEaSE The flagship MSNBC talk and same time carrying on the fresh and issues program is now expanded to fearless conversation that is their Announcing the 2017 MSNBC five hours in the morning. Join Joe signature. Viewers will access this Schedule! and Mika as they welcome news - programming by adding the show makers from the nation’s capital. as a “contact” on Skype, calling in Chelsea Clinton, president and Mika will be broadcasting from in- to the show one minute before air- CEO of MSNBC, the nation’s leading side her Prius via her iPhone. Joe will time, setting their Skype status to progressive Web- and mobile-based be chiming in as possible from his “Mute”—this is very important— news and information network, room in the mental-health facility and watching the conversation announced a new lineup this after- to which he committed himself unfold! noon. after the election of former Texas “This is a time of great challenge, senator Ted Cruz to the presidency. 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. DMs with Rachel but also great opportunity, in the Viewers can easily access this new Maddow television-news and public-affairs five-hour offering by logging in to a Legendary MSNBC host Rachel space,” Clinton said via the smart- GoToMeeting.com webinar link. Maddow sits in a quiet place, wher- phone application Periscope. She ever she happens to be, and tweets went on to list the many ways that 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sittin’ and out her thoughts to her followers, MSNBC has responded to the new Knittin’ with Grammy engaging in thoughtful and nuanced and changing landscape of communi- Take a load off and relax with @replies as the situation warrants. cations technology. America’s favorite grandmother, for- The audience simply follows along “We’ve right-sized our workforce, mer secretary of state Hillary Rodham. on Twitter! No “cable” or screen become leaner and more competitive, The secretary—or “Grammy Hills,” necessary! and redirected our energies from old- as her guests will call her—will style legacy broadcasting—with its relax in the sunroom of her home in 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Nighttime Joe reliance on expensive cameras and Chappaqua with an iced tea and a The flagship MSNBC morning viewing audiences—to a nimbler and slice of lemon cake as she spins tales show that became a terrific new after- lighter way to tell the vital stories of of her life in and out of the spotlight. noon wrap-up now becomes a late- the day,” she said. With a heavy emphasis on homemak- night digest of the best moments of “Our overall expenses, along with ing, crafting, international affairs, the afternoon wrap-up! On YouTube! our production costs, have been and personal finance, Grammy Hills reduced by 97 percent! And that will take your calls, talk over the big 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. Sleepytime with allows us to do what we do best: talk issues of the day from a decidedly Ed Schultz! to Americans about the issues that “homestyle” perspective, and coax Ed Schultz, MSNBC’s dynamic matter to them.” newsmakers and celebrities to show former nighttime host, sleeps in his “For instance,” she added, “I am a different side of themselves. bed while watched over by you, the broadcasting this myself, using my Viewers can find this show by “fol- viewer! Viewers simply search for iPhone and a selfie stick.” lowing” @grammyhillaryrodham on Ed’s feed on Periscope and click “Millennials are the key audience Insta gram and continually refresh- “Join”—it’s as simple and as mobile for us,” she continued, “because ing their feed. as that! The audience is invited to they’re young and mobile and they participate in the show by tweeting want to get their information where 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Afternoon Joe directly at local first responders they are—on the go, on smartphones The flagship MSNBC morning when Ed’s breathing becomes and tablets, without a lot of heavy show becomes a terrific new after- labored or stops altogether due to information or what we around here noon wrap-up of everything people severe sleep apnea. call ‘homework.’ The New MSNBC have been talking about since Morn - is going to be more about making you ing Joe. Expect the same fireworks The New MSNBC premieres next feel a certain way and less about and sharp opinions, except this time week! making you think.” with an afternoon sensibility. Mika For more information, please DM The New MSNBC lineup includes and Joe will appear side by side on or tweet @msnbcpr. Please allow some old favorites and some cutting- Skype as each interviews a news- four to six weeks for a reply.

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Athwart BY JAMES LILEKS Persian Doormat

F the president wanted to give Iran nuclear weapons, you’ll never have a two-state solution, because both the how would he act differently? It’s a silly question. An East and the West Bank will be one solid fused sheet of executive order, obviously. No, these talks have been glass. But that’s for President Hillary to worry about. I an attempt to show the mullahs that the bad old days But back to the hard-nosed, bare-knuckle Iranian nego- of cowboy swagger are over. Surely they must think: tiations. Leaked reports from behind the scenes say tem- The United States, once so arrogant and powerful, is pers, longstanding suspicions, and mutually inconsistent now a whimpering wet whelp on its back with its throat worldviews have come close to derailing the deal, and that exposed, begging for an agreement. What strange new- would be good news if we weren’t talking about the U.S. found respect we have for them! Let us concede things vs. France. When it comes to getting a deal with perfidious that we might enter into this wonderful new concord of Persia, it seems there’s no posture of acquiescence the eunuchs. administration will not assume. Bowing down with one’s Sure. That’s how it works. forehead on the floor is a good start, but perhaps if we The treaties that endure are like agreements between old turned around it would be a more accurate reflecti on of our friends to play golf every Saturday, because both partici- position in this relationship. pants have mutual respect, similar goals, and know a little Surely we must get something out of this when it’s done. cheating is part of the game. But let’s say you want to enter At least cab fare on the nightstand, right? Maybe an into a golf treaty with someone who hates golf. expression of compassion and concern when the Iranian Negotiations would go like this: negotiator leaves the room after the signing and says, We’re on the same page, then. We meet every noon for “Better put some ice on that.” Turns out we do get some- golf? thing in return for letting Iran give us the illusion that we Noon is the time for prayers. The unbeliever shall be are managing its nuclear timetable. cast into the pit of Ananargin, the Thrice-Beaked Scourge 1. Weekly chants of “Death to America” changed for a of Impiety, and pecked unto the end of time. month to “Serious head injury to America resulting in So, 1 P.M.? 48-hour stay in hospital for observation, followed by Golf is a godless pursuit of earthly fame. As the discharge and therapy.” The State Department agrees to Prophet said, “Chase not the small orbs, lest ye lose sight provide printed phonetic guides to help the crowds of the large orb that yea, verily, shall hit thee in the back chant this new line successfully. (“Death to Israel” chant of thine head.” changed to “Extra death to Israel,” to compensate.) Should Well he might have, sure, but if you’re worried there’s a the Iranian government refuse to allow inspections of softball practice field nearby, there isn’t— nuclear facilities, the crowds will be required to chant for Doth not the Prophet say, “Thy sticks and clubs shall be two weeks “Momentarily painful paper cuts to America, of of no use when the tribulations arrive, and the flame of the type one gets when licking an envelope.” truth consumes them all”? 2. At least 20 homosexuals facing the death penalty will Flame of truth? You’re thinking of those courses in be given the option of leaving Iran and relocating to the Arizona where you have to play in the morning! It’s a United States, but they will be warned that they may end scorcher there, I’ll tell you. So I guess I’m wondering what up in Indiana and subject to bakery/decoration restrictions. you want. 3. Since previous insistences that Iran not fund suicide We want your cries to be lost in the ceaseless din of attacks were predicated on the “cross my heart and hope to perdition as despair engulfs all you have known, and your die” protocols, which in retrospect did not seem quite as kingdom passes from this earth into the realm of darkness strict as believed, from now on Iran will “pinky swear” not and eternal torment. to commit acts of terror abroad. This is no small diplomatic oh, you want to play Meadow Pines, eh? That back nine triumph. Early in the negotiations, the U.S. presented Iran will bring a strong man to his knees. with evidence that several hundred Revolutionary Guards You get the idea that the other side really doesn’t want to were stepping on cracks in an attempt to “break the backs” play golf. Likewise, in our current dealings with Iran, you of mothers in the West. Iran insisted that these crack- sense the president believes Iran would be wholly dis- treading operations were intended to be therapeutic exer- mayed if all those nuclear things somehow got jostled and cises for the spinal health of domestic mothers. accidentally formed a nuclear bomb because that is so not Under the new guidelines, Iran will be allowed 400 the idea. or the president doesn’t care as long as Iran underground facilities with 6,000 cracks subject to interna- announces the completion of the Amazing Jew Reducer on tional inspection, provided that six months’ notice is given. his watch. As for those ICBMs? Hey, they could just be NoTE: Under terms of the deal, “inspection” consists of testing a way of relocating minarets. Worst-case scenario, waiting outside in the car while someone runs in and knocks on the door. If no one answers, they can try again Mr. Lileks blogs at www.lileks.com. in six months.

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Roosevelts showed just how close to a It was the first of the many times they monarchy American democracy can would be compared. Who was the “poor Upper veer. Either Theodore or Franklin was little thing” people spoke of: orphaned on a national ticket for eight of twelve Eleanor or motherless Alice? Not Alice, Crust presidential elections, and no other who formed her own Rough Riders from family has dominated two political Washington boys and led them in trash- FLORENCE KING parties, three if you count Theodore’s ing the streets of the capital on their bicy- Progressive Republicans. Most signifi- cles. But Eleanor, who had escaped from cantly, no other family produced two her grandmother and attended the posh women who dominated the national but left-wing English boarding school conversation like Alice and Eleanor.” run by the socialist Mme. Souvestre, took They were born a few months apart in up good works to help as many poor little 1884, both saddled from the start with things as she could find. father complexes that were clinical in At first, Theodore tried to control intensity and gothic in atmospherics. Alice by comparing her unfavorably Theodore Roosevelt was hurrying home with his niece. Eleanor’s charitable from Albany to be with his wife, who activities were those of a proper gentle- had just given birth to their first child, woman, he said, but when he succeeded and his mother, who had a cold. But to the presidency after McKinley’s when he finally got through the snow assassination, all comparisons were Hissing Cousins: The Untold Story of Eleanor and arrived at his Manhattan town- off. His daughter became “Princess Roosevelt and Alice Roosevelt Longworth, house, both women had taken a turn for Alice,” America’s first professional by Marc Peyser and Timothy Dwyer the worse and died within hours of each celebrity. She christened a ship for the (Nan A. Talese, 332 pp., $28.95) other the following day. His wife’s death kaiser of Germany, met the dowager was caused by an undiagnosed kidney empress of China, who gave her ermine FTER more than two centuries disease, not childbirth, but it might as and black-fox coats, and inspired a hit as one of New York’s found- well have been as far as baby Alice was song about her favorite color, “Alice ing clans, the Roosevelts dis- concerned. To prove that death had Blue Gown.” In 1906, she married A covered that their family tree not defeated him, the authors write, future House speaker Nicholas Long - had so many branches that a woman Theodore effectively “blotted out” the worth in a White House wedding with could marry within the fold without whole marriage, just as he had blotted no bridesmaids, preferring to shine changing her maiden name. Eleanor out the life-threatening asthma of his alone, and cut the cake with a sword Roosevelt Roosevelt never changed youth by going out West and living as a she borrowed from a military aide. hers; Alice Roosevelt Longworth did, cowboy. Lest he be seen as a “molly- After that, her fame simply went off the but the newspapers that reported her coddle,” the image of softness he charts. Some years later, two men were every outlandish action and utterance dreaded, he refused to speak of his first discussing the plan by the State of always referred to her by all three. marriage or even mention his wife’s Massachusetts to honor the birthplace It’s too bad that a book as good as name, and threw himself into politics of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow this one should have such a misleading until he captured national acclaim with when one of them said, “Aw, nobody title. “Hissing Cousins” is perfect for his Rough Riders in the war with Spain ever heard of him until he married sales, but the book is not, per se, about in 1898. Alice Roosevelt.” catfights. The oil-and-water personali- Eleanor was eight when her cold, When Eleanor became first lady, the ties of the two cousins are simply the indifferent mother died and nine when national press tried to pit her and Alice opportunity to illustrate what the she lost her beloved father, Elliott, against each other with rival newspaper authors see as the persistence and easy whose love lay elsewhere. According columns, Eleanor’s “My Day” and acceptance of Old World–style politi- to his brother Theodore, Elliott drank “What Alice Thinks,” but it did not cal dynasties in our supposedly modern “whole bottles of anisette and green work out as hoped. Eleanor’s column era, and what it could mean for 2016 mint besides whole bottles of raw ran from the early Thirties until three and beyond. brandy and champagne, sometimes a weeks before her death in 1962, while “Despite our being one of the modern dozen in the mornings.” He knocked Alice’s lasted 18 months. It should not world’s oldest republics,” they write, over an oil lamp and set fire to his have surprised anyone in the editorial “the Adamses, Harrisons, and Bushes house, tried to jump out the window, business. Like so many good talkers, produced two presidents. . . . The and ran up and down the stairs like a Alice couldn’t write. When she was rabid dog. When he died shortly there- telling a story her timing was perfect, Florence King can be reached at P.O. Box 7113, after, Eleanor was sent to live with her but if she tried to put it on paper her Fredericksburg, VA 22404. maternal grandmother. prose was as turgid as the instructions in

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Eleanor Roosevelt Alice Roosevelt Longworth

a knitting book. She also had a problem human doormat” after she went to sleep Eleanor on long car trips and the pair relating with her readers, as when she in the vestibule of her house rather than stayed alone in motels. described surprise as “feeling like Lady drag Franklin away from a party to tell Hickok’s papers, released in 1970, Godiva with an upswept bob.” Most of him she had forgotten her key. One reveal that they did what was then the just-plain-folks who read the popu- evening, Eleanor looked across the White called “necking” but probably did not lar press had no idea who Lady Godiva House dinner table and said pleasantly, go all the way. That would have made was and had never seen an upswept bob. “Alice, why don’t you give one of your no difference to Alice, who settled the Eleanor, on the other hand, could write impersonations of me now?” A witness matter during luncheon in an elegant about nothing much at all and keep it said Alice blanched briefly but did the restaurant, when she drowned out the lively and universal, as when she de - imitation, and Eleanor laughed along soft, well-bred voices with her stentori- scribed her efforts to get rid of a ticklish with the rest. “The most helpful criticism an announcement. throat to keep from coughing at a meet- I ever received,” Eleanor later wrote. “I “I don’t care what you say!” she ing. Her years of good works had taught realized that I had many things to cor- shouted. “I refuse to believe that her that for the common people, life rect.” It was a masterpiece of subtlety, but Eleanor Roosevelt is a lesbian!” grinds exceeding small, and she kept as Alice must have realized, it was game, It has long been my unpopular belief her commentary in proportion. set, and match for the human doormat. that when a handsome man marries a When she became first lady, the Alice also used sex against Eleanor in homely woman, something besides Roosevelts became a dynasty within a a way that no one else would have blind love is afoot. In FDR’s case, that dynasty. Alice, ensconced in her Massa - dared. For years people had been gos- something was his obsessive effort to chusetts Avenue mansion, held court siping about the lesbian friends the first look like, sound like, and turn himself for the Republican or TR side, smoking lady had gathered round her in the into another man altogether. through her long ivory holder as she ran course of her work with labor unions and His success at this masquerade can be down the Hyde Park Democrat with women’s-rights groups. Chief among measured by the election of 1920, when venomous delight, even suggesting that them were Nancy Cook and Marion he ran for vice president on the ticket he drop the family name entirely and Dickerman, who were standard left- headed by Democrat James Cox. “Many call himself Franklin Delano. Then she wingers and at least had each other, but voters assumed that FDR was TR’s son,” entertained her guests with her famous when Eleanor took up with AP reporter the authors write, “and the Democrats impersonation of Eleanor. In the mean- Lorena Hickok, who was unattached, did little to clarify things.” time she visited the White House when- the whispers grew more intense. Hickok He lost the election, but he must have ever she got an invitation—which was got so involved with FDR’s 1932 cam- been overjoyed by the mistaken identity. often, because, being family, they paign that she had to quit her job, telling It was more than just the name. As a couldn’t very well not invite her. her bosses that she was no longer able to young man he had adopted TR’s un - Eleanor’s self-confidence had grown be impartial. Frankly masculine-looking becoming pince-nez glasses and his

AP PHOTO since Alice had called her “a literal and doing nothing to hide it, she took speech habits (“I like it bully well!”),

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BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS and while still at Harvard he was dev- and actuated by some common impulse astated when TR’s Porcellian Club of passion or interest” adverse to the per- blackballed him. He had vowed to have A New manent and aggregate interests of the six children, like TR, and follow his community. Madison’s constitutional career path through New York State Form of system is carefully designed to separate government, serving as assistant secre- and check power so as to break and control tary of the Navy, and then going on to faction, thereby keeping narrow special the White House. Government interests from dominating public policy This is less like admiration and more for their own selfish ends. like what is today called “channeling.” MATTHEW SPALDING But things have not worked out that He wanted to be TR, so why didn’t he way. From the very beginning, politicians pursue a complete resemblance and try have ignored Madison’s advice and con- to marry TR’s daughter? Doesn’t a stantly expanded their powers beyond the daughter trump a niece? He may have Constitution, throwing off the delicate contemplated it—I’ve always thought institutional balance and separation of he did—but Alice wanted money and powers at the heart of the Madisonian he didn’t have enough. Nor did she structure. Without the proper institutional want a mama’s boy, or the dominating checks, politicians behave irresponsibly Sara Delano for a mother-in-law, and and, with more and more money flowing she certainly didn’t want six children. freely, there is more and more corruption. And so he channeled in Eleanor, whom So who let the moneychangers into TR called “my favorite niece,” and took A Republic No More: Big Government and the Rise our constitutional temple? Cost charges her to the White House to help with his of American Political Corruption, by Jay Cost that the flashpoint was in 1790, when the New Deal, which he channeled from (Encounter, 408 pp., $27.99) first secretary of the Treasury, Alexander TR’s Square Deal. Hamilton, proposed the Bank of the The authors turn up several people ECENTLY, former Virginia gov- United States as part of his national eco- who more or less agree with me, in - ernor Robert McDonnell (R.) nomic program. This unprecedented cluding Laura Delano, FDR’s maternal and his wife were convicted on expansion disrupted the constitutional cousin, who was with him when he R federal charges for accepting balance and affected everything that fol- died. She believed that Alice suffered over $100,000 worth of shoes, watches, lowed, launching America on the slip- from lifelong what-might-have-beens and golf clubs from a political donor. pery slope of living constitutionalism and and if-onlys from fantasizing herself as That’s small potatoes compared with rampant corruption. All the Jeffersonians the only American woman to be both what some of the heavy hitters of the (including Jefferson and Madison) even- first daughter and first lady, going from Gilded Age could rake in: In one year tually adopted Hamilton’s plans, which Princess Alice to Queen Alice while the alone, Joseph Foraker (Ohio’s U.S. sena- became the basis of Whig and Lincolnian nations of the world lined up their ships tor from 1897 to 1909) took in nearly $1.2 Republican economic policy over the for her to christen: “How she would million in today’s dollars. And Foraker next century. have loved it!” was hardly the worst offender. Matthew But the Bank is not the prototype of A word about the authors. Marc Quay, boss of the Pennsylvania political modern problems that Cost thinks. The Peyser has been all over the magazine machine, apparently demanded so much bank dispute was an important policy world. Former deputy editor of News­- money that deep-pocketed Standard Oil debate over the kind of economy the new week, he has also worked and written had to pay him in installments. republic would foster. Madison opposed for Vogue, Budget­Travel, and Condé Following closely in the tradition of Hamilton’s initial bank proposal. But he Nast­ Traveler. Timothy Dwyer was Theodore Lowi’s classic The­End­of­Lib­- supported the Second Bank of the United born and raised on Long Island near eralism, Jay Cost’s A­Republic­No­More States not because he had changed his TR’s Sagamore Hill. A graduate of is less about the distinguished history of constitutional philosophy but because he Georgetown and the College of Europe corruption he chronicles than about how had become convinced that a national in Belgium, he is now the CEO of our ways of governing have changed, and bank was legitimately necessary and School Choice International. how the maldistribution of federal powers proper under the Constitution. Similarly, Apropos of nothing except the pleasure feeds corruption and is destroying our it was never really doubted that Jeffer - their book has given me, I call your atten- constitutional republic. son’s purchase of Louisiana (Cost’s other tion to the many interesting facts that crop Cost takes his bearings from James example of Constitution-busting by the up throughout, e.g., that every French Madison’s theory of republican govern- Founders) was a constitutional act by a male descendant of Lafayette is auto - ment, famously outlined in Federalist 10. sovereign country (despite Jefferson’s matically an American citizen, and that Madison warns of the danger of faction- problematic theory of prerogative power). the slang for coffee, “a cuppa Joe,” comes alism, of a minority or a majority “united These were not the fathers of big govern- from the ruling by secretary of the Navy ment birthing an unlimited state. Josephus Daniels, FDR’s teetotaling boss, Mr. Spalding is an associate vice president of What then is the story? The popular who banned liquor from U.S. ships. It’s Hillsdale College and the dean of its educational argument is that big government is the that kind of book, so don’t miss it. programs in Washington, D.C. problem and that size matters. True

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enough. But the real question is not just national patronage with the programmatic This is not an extension of the the degree but the kind of government infrastructure of the welfare state. Founders’ recognition of the need for de - that has been metastasizing throughout But the fundamental change is when cent political management under the American society. government becomes professional- Constitution, or a necessary adaptation of The problem is what Alexis de Tocque - ized, sophisticated, regulatory, and all- the existing constitutional structure to ville called the “centralization of admini- embracing. This happened when the new circumstances, but an altogether new stration.” In Democracy in America, national government, in principle, and all-encompassing form of political Tocqueville foretold how citizens’ lives assumed responsibility for the socio - organization. The fact of the matter is that would become subjected to the uniform, economic well-being of every American we are today subject to a different form of scientific, deadening rules of a central- and set out to build the programs for man- government than the one designed and ized administration of experts bent on aging, from the center, the interactions of practiced by the likes of Madison, Jeffer - mastering every social condition in pur- consumers and producers, employees son, and Hamilton. Indeed, from a broader suit of egalitarian ends. The outcome of and employers, husbands and wives, par- Madisonian point of view, we should con- the drive for bureaucratic rule would be a ents and children—virtually every aspect sider whether government itself has new form of despotism, promoting the of Americans’ day-to-day lives. This is become a faction, with its own interests narrow, selfish, petty interests of ruling precisely because bureaucracy demands and passions separate from the public oligarchs and their favored cronies. that there be no sources of authority inde- good, supported by its own unionized Tocqueville even predicted that the most pendent of the administrative center. labor, and surrounded by lobbyists and advanced form of bureaucracy would also be the most corrupt. This understanding accords well with The structural defects in our constitutional the Founders’ view of the need for de - regime leave government ‘poorly suited’ centralized administration under a lim- ited but energetic federal government to wield the power it now possesses. meant to secure unalienable rights. Their improved political science—an improve- This centralization of administration cronies dealing with agencies and bureau- ment on classical and medieval regimes— has changed the nature of American cracies that for all intents and purposes act would vindicate republican liberty governance. Massive bureaucracies of without the consent of the governed. through the constitutional rule of law unelected experts, who have been dele- In the end, Cost is doubtful much can and by limiting the power of narrow gated virtually endless authority by an be done: The structural defects in our interests in favor of the common good. increasingly irresponsible Congress, constitutional regime leave government After the Founding era came a new sci- exert enormous discretion over extensive “poorly suited” to wield the power it now ence of politics—rooted in the French financial resources and political patron- possesses. Congress is overwhelmed and philosophes and embraced by American age. The ever-growing imperial presidency the executive too democratized for seri- progressives—that offered the promise seeks to unify those resources for ideo- ous institutional adjustments. of technocracy, applying modern science logical political benefit. But while we are not on the cusp of to bring continuous improvement to man The perennial old-style corruption a Madisonian restructuring, Cost con- and society through the administration (think of George Washington Plunkitt of cludes, we may be capable of what he of things rather than the politics of self- Tammany Hall) was mostly personal, calls a “Mugwump moment”—a refer- government. (Alexander Hamilton had parochial, and oddly quaint—greedy and ence to the anti-corruption Republican called it a “heresy” to suggest that, of all vulgar, to be sure, but also unbureaucrat- Mugwumps, who threw the 1884 elec- forms of government, “that which is best ic and unidealistic. The new corruption is tion to Democratic reformer Grover administered is best.”) different: As the personal and parochial is Cleve land—in which we can harass the Cost describes this new type of politics drawn into the administrative machina- factions, disrupt their pathways of cor- well. His underlying narrative therefore tions of the federal government, everything ruption, and buy some time until major eventually supports a more sophisticated becomes social, systemic, and compre- institutional reforms can be implemented. analysis, and a more persuasive argument, hensive. This creates a paradise for the Perhaps Cost is right about that. than the neo-anti-Federalist account on grand corruptions of multiplying political Nevertheless, we should be mindful that the book’s surface. Connect ing the new factions—for preferred corporations bureaucratic rule—as Tocqueville and theory of governance with the new forms (Solyndra), whole industries (the auto Madison held—violates man’s natural of corruption that result is Cost’s most bailout), voting groups (immigration liberty. Which means that, as the political important contribution. executive orders), and segments of the corruptions of expanding administra- We get a whiff of the change in the economy (Obamacare). tive rule become more apparent and 19th century, and then see the phenome- The various domains of corruption that objectionable, the American people— non become full blown in the progressive Cost aptly describes—from ordinary who have not consented to an oligarchy movement’s argument for separating pork-barrel politics and farm subsidies to of experts—may reassert their popular administration and politics, to elevate Medicare and Fannie Mae and Freddie authority over centralized rule and use supposedly neutral expertise over parti- Mac—are the fulcrum of what he calls Madison’s still-surviving institutions of sanship. Cost sees the New Deal as the the “interest-group society” that now pre- constitutional government to become a key turning point, combining robust dominates. republic once more.

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BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS That Freud was at best a philosopher So psychoanalysis was bunk—and and at worst a fraud is now pretty widely culturally destructive bunk at that; but On the acknowledged. His work was com- what of the more scientific branches of pletely unscientific—that is, unmeasur- psychology? Did they too help to under- Couch able, un testable, and founded upon mine morality? nothing more than speculation enforced The behaviorists dispensed with the by dogma. Freud debunkers have filled unconscious and infantile sexuality, but in MONA CHAREN whole bookshelves. The id, the ego, its place they erected a new theory that penis envy, the Oedipus complex—all was supposed to explain with one blind- have been consigned to the intellectual ing insight all of the complexity of human trash. Still, because the man Vladimir experience. It was, according to John B. Nabokov dismissed as “that Viennese Watson, B. F. Skinner, and others, all a quack” has cast such a long shadow over matter of stimulus and response. “What our times—W. H. Auden said that Freud started as methodology became ontol- was not just a man, but “a whole climate ogy,” writes Dalrymple, in one of the of opinion”—Dalrymple attends to fil- dozens of memorable aphorisms that leting him with a few swift strokes. enliven nearly every page of this book. Freud was a “self-aggrandizing mythol- While behaviorism (unlike psycho - ogist and a shameless manipulator of analysis) could claim some clinical suc- Admirable Evasions: How Psychology Undermines people. . . . He was the founder of a cesses, such as treating phobias, it proved Morality, by Theodore Dalrymple doctrinaire sect and a searcher-out absurdly reductionist as a guide to under- (Encounter, 128 pp., $21.50) and avenger of heresy . . . who called standing human behavior as a whole. down anathema on infidels as intoler- The behaviorists treated human beings HeODOre DALryMpLe begins antly as Mohammed.” as laboratory animals, whose thoughts this anti-psychology polemic Though Freud was “undoubtedly bril- and conduct could be controlled by the with a quote from the great liant,” Dalrymple rejects utterly the correct administration of food pellets and T 17th-century memoirist Fran - notion that he originated such concepts as electric shocks. çois de La rochefoucauld: “In the mis- ambivalence, projection, and uncon- Dalrymple allows that cognitive fortunes of our friends, there is scious motivation. A quick glance at behavioral therapy has helped some, but something not entirely unpleasing.” Shakespeare undermines Freud’s pre- he cannot help wondering “whether Dalrymple cites this shrewd and biting tensions, and Dalrymple deploys King many conditions . . . such as eating dis- insight into the complexities of the Lear to good effect: orders . . . spread in proportion as they human heart for two reasons. First, it are known about.” Surely the pharma- serves as a re minder that psychological Why dost thou lash that whore? Strip ceutical companies that advertise cures thine own back. understanding long predated Sigmund for such conditions as “overactive blad- Thou hotly lust’st to use her in that Freud, B. F. Skinner, and other 20th- kind der,” “premenstrual dysphoric disorder,” century chieftains of the “science” called For which thou whipp’st her. and “low T” are counting on creating as psychology. Older in sights into the mind much as discovering sufferers. and heart were often as perceptive as Worse than Freud’s lack of scientific Writing of the “Werther effect”—which modern pseudoscientific explanations, if foundation, and much more significant was named for the rash of suicides that not more so. They were also consider- than any of his personal shortcomings, followed the publication of Goethe’s The ably less excusing and rationalizing. was the effect his odd and baseless the- Sorrows of Young Werther, and refers to It is the latter tendency in modern life at ories had on our civilization. Though the predictable copycat acts that follow which Dalrymple, a psychiatrist himself, Freud didn’t necessarily intend this result the suicides of celebrities—Dalrymple takes steady aim. Though he acknowl- (he was personally quite conventional in notes that human beings are awfully sus- edges that psychology has made some most respects), the effect, Dalrymple ceptible to suggestion. “No statement modest contributions to the alleviation of writes, was to “loosen Man’s sense of that a psychological disturbance has suffering, he offers that the following is, responsibility for his own actions, free- such-and-such a prevalence in such-and- at best, an open question: “If all the anti- dom from responsibility being the most such a population should be taken at face depressants and anxiolytics . . . were highly valued freedom of all.” Freud’s value, especially when it is a plea, as it so thrown into the sea,” “all textbooks of message, warped to be sure by oversim- often is, explicit or implicit as the case psychology were withdrawn and pulped,” plification, became profoundly subver- may be, for more resources to treat it, the “all psychologists ceased to practice,” and sive. Dalrymple explains: “That desire, if supposed prevalence having risen shock- “all psychological terms were excised not fulfilled, will lead to pathology makes ingly in the last few years. It is not merely from everyday speech, would Mankind self-indulgence man’s highest goal. It is a that epidemiological searchers in this be the loser or the gainer”? kind of treason to the self, and possibly to field can find what they are looking for; others, to deny oneself anything.” The it is that they can provoke what they are Mona Charen is a syndicated columnist and a author quotes one of his patients, a mur- looking for.” senior fellow at the Ethics and Public derer: “I had to kill her, doctor, or I don’t While psychology diligently (and not Policy Center. know what I would have done.” selflessly) creates more and more cate-

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gories of illness—the latest Diagnostic each case, and often with extremely un - and Statistical Manual lists some 300 scientific reasoning, we are offered abso- maladies—the social-welfare and tort lution. None of us is really responsible Women’s systems in America and other countries for our behavior. The whole psychologi- encourage and reward victim status. cal enterprise, Dalrymple argues, has Lives Many bad behaviors, such as alcoholism had the effect of excusing poor choices or drug abuse, are labeled as mental ill- and bad character. “Virtue is not mani- ROBERT P. GEORGE nesses and thus placed beyond moral cen- fested in one’s behavior, always so diffi- sure. “There can be nothing morally to cult and tedious to control, but in one’s choose between the disordered conduct attitude to victims.” of a person with a brain tumor or demen- It’s a powerful argument, studded tia on the one hand, and a person who has throughout with chiseled gems of obser- intoxicated himself with drugs on the vation and reflection. other.” Also, once the apparatus for diag- Admirable Evasions is actually an nosing and treating self-reported psy- indictment of modern culture, with its chological ailments is in place, with moral laxity and sloppy thinking. It may caregivers and sufferers alike benefiting be a little too hard on psychology and psy- financially, the “virtue of resilience or chiatry. Though it is beyond question that fortitude” becomes a “sworn enemy.” psychological thinking has damaged our This approach has bizarre conse- culture by elevating non-judgmentalism to quences: the highest plane, it isn’t clear, at least to North of the Tension Line, by J. F. Riordan me, that mankind would truly be better off (Beaufort, 478 pp., $24.95) The expansion of psychiatric diagnoses leads paradoxically and simultaneously without anti-psychotic drugs, antidepres- to overtreatment and undertreatment. sants, and other mood-altering substances. y initial impression of this The genuinely disturbed get short Animals are now commonly trained with book was: I’ve walked shrift: Those with chronic schizophre- rewards (positive reinforcement) rather into the novelistic equiva- nia, which seems most likely to be a than punishments, and so, in many cases, M lent of a chick flick. What genuine pathological malfunction of the are children (with punishment as backup). am I doing here—by myself? I go to brain, are left to molder in doorways, That seems to be a humane advance. And these only in my wife’s company and at streets, and stations of large cities, while many therapists may deliver nothing her behest. while untold millions have their fluctu- but warm sympathy to their clients (which Other male readers are likely to have ating preoccupations attended to with probably does no harm), some are able to the same first reaction. North of the the kind of attention that an overcon- help their patients attain true insight—the cerned mother gives her spoiled child Tension Line is a novel by a woman with more or less the same results. kind that requires painful honesty about about women. Is it for women? Well, I one’s actions. wouldn’t say it’s not for women—but Psychology’s code is roughly that of I would not chuck the entire corpus of my judgment in the end is that it’s also the French proverb: “To understand all is psychology and all the psychotropic for men, perhaps even primarily for to forgive all.” Psychology has served up drugs into the sea. But I would recom- men. A gifted female writer—one with a one excuse after another for bad behav- mend that anyone interested in where the nearly Austenian gift for observing ior—our terrible childhoods, our genes, field, and our culture, has frequently gone human nature and describing the quirks our neurotransmitters, our addictions. In wrong read this incisive little book. and foibles of the entire cast of charac- ters one finds in the human drama—has produced a novel that reveals some THE MOVEMENT ‘HE SHALL things to us guys about how women’s FEED HIS FLOCK’ FROM THE MESSIAH minds and hearts work. Women themselves, of course, already You bought me rest from wind and hail. know these things. They can read North I lay my head on the balcony rail. of the Tension Line for entertainment. Men should read it for instruction. Fiona and Elisabeth, our heroines, are Crickets are seething all around. intelligent, attractive thirtysomething I lay my head on the sunny ground. single women—and best friends. They have interests and professions—satisfy- Your death’s at peace—it’s dead and gone. ing but not high-powered—and are far I lay my head in bed at home. from preoccupied by the need to find

Then why, at rest, where I might sleep, Mr. George is the McCormick Professor of Must I now hold my head and weep? Jurisprudence and the director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at —SARAH RUDEN Princeton University.

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are luxurious, and matched by the indul- A GREAT FAMILY VACATION AWAITS! gent staff, superior cuisine, and top-notch entertainment and excursions. Superior service, gourmet cuisine, elegant accommodations, and And then there is the spectacular itinerary, great entertainment await you on the beautiful Westerdam. Prices starting with beautiful Seattle, and followed over are per-person, based on double occupancy, and include port the next week with these top destinations: fees, taxes, gratuities, all meals, entertainment, and admittance to and participation in all National Review functions. Per-person GLACIER BAY National Park protects a unique rates for third/fourth person in cabin (by age and category): ecosystem of plants and animals living in concert with a chang- Categories J & C 17-younger: $ 736 18-up: $1451 ing glacial landscape. You’ll be awed: monumental chunks of ice Category VC 17-younger: $1301 18-up: $1501 split off glaciers, crashing into the sea, roaring like thunder, water Categories SS & SA 17-younger: $1354 18-up: $1554 shooting hundreds of feet into the air. Glacier Bay has more actively calving tidewater glaciers than anyplace else in the world. DELUXE SUITE Magnificent luxury quarters (from 506 sq. ft.) features use of exclusive Neptune Lounge and JUNEAU is the place to let your imagination run wild. Explore the personal concierge, complimentary laundry/dry- lush Tongass National Forest. Visit the rustic shops in town. Or get out cleaning service, large private verandah, king- and kayak, dogsl ed, raft, whale watch, flightsee or fish. There’s no end size bed (convertible to 2 twins), whirlpool to the adventure because we’re in port long enough to truly take bath/shower, dressing room, large sitting advantage of the long daylight hours. area, DVD, mini-bar, refrigerator, safe, and much more.

SITKA The onion domes of St. Michael’s Cathedral are your first clue Category SA that Sitka was once a Russian settlement. Today, be greeted by Tlingit DOUBLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 5,499 P/P native people and astonishing marine life. SINGLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 9,799

KETCHIKAN clings to the shores of Tongass Narrows and drapes the SUPERIOR SUITE Grand stateroom (from 273 mountains with a cheerful air. The main attractions include Creek sq. ft.) features private verandah, queen-size Street, the Tongass Historical Museum, and Totem Bight State Park bed (convertible to 2 twins), whirlpool (and a floatplane flightseeing trip to Misty Fjords National Monument bath/shower, large sitting area, TV/DVD, mini-bar, refrigerator, floor-to-ceiling win- is a transforming adventure not to be missed). dows, safe, and much more. VICTORIA, B.C. A touch of England awaits in this beautiful port: Category SS afternoon tea, double-decker buses, and the famed Butchart Gardens DOUBLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 4,399 P/P (a brilliant tapestry of color spread across 50 blooming acres). SINGLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 7,499 Use the application on the following page to sign up for what will be seven of the most fun-filled days you’ll ever experience. Or DELUXE OUTSIDE Spacious cabin (from 213 sq. you can reserve your stateroom at www.nrcruise.com (or call ft.) features private verandah, queen-size bed (convertible to 2 twins), bath/shower, sitting The Cruise Authority at 800-707-1634). Remember, there’s a area, mini-bar, TV/DVD, refrigerator, cabin to fit your taste and budget, but don’t tarry: all cabins are and floor-to-ceiling windows. available on a first-come, first-served basis, and supply is limited. Join us this July on the Westerdam, in the company of Daniel Category VC DOUBLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 3,799 P/P Hannan, Arthur Laffer, John Sununu, Stephen Moore, Kevin SINGLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 5,999 Hassett, Michele Bachmann, Pat Caddell, Yuval Levin, Katie Pavlich, Naomi Schaefer Riley, James Lileks, Andrew Klavan, Pete Hegseth, James O’Keefe, John Hillen, Daniel Mahoney, LARGE OCEAN VIEW Comfortable quarters (from Jonah Goldberg, John Fund, Rob Long, Roman Genn, Jay 174 sq. ft.) features queen-size bed (convertible to 2 twins), bathtub/shower, sitting area, TV/DVD, large Nordlinger, Ramesh Ponnuru, Kevin Williamson, Eliana ocean-view windows. Johnson, Jim Geraghty, Kathryn Jean Lopez, Charles Cooke, John J. Miller, Patrick Brennan, Jillian Melchior, Andrew Category C Johnson, Joel Gehrke, Reihan Salam, Katherine Connell, and DOUBLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 2,999 P/P SINGLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 4,299 Kat Timpf on the National Review 2015 Alaska Summer Cruise. GET YOUR CABIN! CALL 800-707-1634 LARGE INSIDE Cozy but ample cabin quarters NOW OR VISIT WWW.NRCRUISE.COM (from 151 sq. ft.) features queen-size bed (convertible to 2 twins), shower, sitting area, TV/DVD.

Category J DOUBLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 2,299 P/P SINGLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 3,399

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National Review 2015 Alaska Summer Cruise Application Mail to: National Review Cruise, The Cruise Authority, 1760 Powers Ferry Rd., Marietta, GA 30067 or Fax to 770-953-1228

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Cabins, Air Travel, & Other Information IV. AIR / TRANSFER PACKAGES o We will provide our own roundtrip air and transfers to and from Seattle All rates are per person, double occupancy, and include all port charges and taxes, all (arriving there on 7/18/15 by 12:00PM and departing after 11:00AM on 7/25/15). gratuities, meals, entertainment, and National Review activities. Failure to appear for embarkation for any reason constitutes a cancellation subject to full penalties. Personal items not included. PLEASE CHECK ALL APPLICAbLE bOXES! o We would like The Cruise Authority to customize roundtrip air (fees apply) from I. CAbIN CATEGORY (see list and prices on previous page) ______o Coach o First Class Air First cabin category choice:______Second cabin category choice:______Arrival date: ______Bedding: Beds made up as o Twin o King/Queen Departure date: ______BOOKING SINGLE? o Please try to match me with a roommate. (My age: ______) Preferred carrier: ______II. DINING w/ FRIENDS/FAMILY: I wish to dine with ______V. MEDICAL / DIETARY / SPECIAL REQUESTS o Every Night o 3-4 times o 2 times o Once Please enter in the box below any medical, dietary, or special needs or requests we should know about any of the members of your party: III. PRE- AND POST-CRUISE TOUR PACKAGES

o Please send me information on pre-/post-cruise packages in Seattle (for 2 or 3 nights) and in Vancouver, B.C. (for 2 or 3 nights). Payment, Cancellation, & Insurance o The card’s billing address is indicated above. o The card’s billing address is: Deposit of $600 per person is due with this application. If paid by credit card, the bal- ______ance will be charged to the same card on 4/17/15 unless otherwise directed. If appli- CANCELLATION PENALTY SCHEDULE: Cancellations must be received in writing by date cation is received after 4/17/15, the full amount of the cruise will be charged. indicated. Fax / email is sufficient notification. Guests must confirm receipt by The Cruise o My deposit of $600 per person is included. (Make checks to “National Review Cruise”) Authority. PRIOR to Feb. 17, 2015 cancellation penalty is $100 per person; Feb. 17 to April 17, 2015, penalty is $600 per person, AFTER April 17, 2015, penalty is 100% of cruise/package.

o Charge my deposit to: AmEx o Visa o MasterCard o Discover o CANCELLATION / MEDICAL INSURANCE is available and recommended for this cruise (and package). Costs are Age 0–49: 7% of total price; 50–59: 8% of total price; 60–69: 9.5% of total price; 70-79: 12.5% of total price; 80-plus: 22.5% of total price. The exact amount will nappear o oooooooooooooooo your cruise statement. Purchase will be immediate upon your acceptance and is non-refundable.

o YES I/we wish to purchase the Trip Cancellation & Medical Insurance coverage. Additions Expiration Date oo/ oo Security Code oooo to the cruise package will increase my insurance premium. Month Year Amex 4 digits on front, others 3 digits on back o NO I/we are declining to purchase the Trip Cancellation & Medical Insurance coverage and Authorized Signature of Cardholder Name of Cardholder (please print) understand that I/we will be subject to applicable cancellation penalties.

Important! RESPONSIbILITY: The Holland America Line (HAL) cruise advertised herein (the “Cruise”), which features guest speakers promoted for the National Review Cruise (the “Speakers”), is being promoted by H2O Ltd. d/b/a The Cruise Authority (TCA) and National Review magazine (NR). You understand and agree that if you elect to use TCA to serve as your agent in connection with the provision of any Services, you will look solely to HAL or the applicable ser- vice provider in the event of any loss to person or property, and you expressly release TCA from any liability for injury, damage, loss, accident, delay or irregularity to you or your property that may result from any act or omission by any company, contractor or employee thereof providing services in connection with the Cruise (including any shore excursions), including but not limited to transportation, lodging, food and beverage, entertainment, sightseeing, lug- gage handling and tour guiding. For purposes of the preceding sentence, the term “Services” shall include, but not be limited to, the following: (i) the issuance of tickets, vouchers and coupons, (ii) arrangements for transportation to and from the point of debarkment , and (iii) hotel accommodations prior to debarkation. = Furthermore, TCA shall not be responsible for any of the following: (i) delays or costs incurred resulting from weather, road connections, break- downs, acts of war (declared or undeclared), acts of terrorism, strikes, riots, acts of God, authority of law or oth er circumstances beyond its control, (ii) cancellation of the Cruise or postponement of the departure time, (iii) price increas- es or surcharges imposed by HAL and/or service providers, (iv) breach of contract or any intentional or careless actions or omissions on the part of HAL and/or service providers, (v) social or labor unrest, (vi) mechanical or con- struction difficulties, (vii) diseases, (viii) local laws, (ix) climate conditions, (x) abnormal conditions or developments or any other actions, omissions or conditions outside of TCA’s control (xi) the accessibility, appearance, actions or decisions of those individuals promoted as Speakers for the Cruise. Should a Speaker promoted for the Cruise be unable to attend, every effort will be made to secure a speaker of similar stature and standing. = TCA does not guar- antee suppliers rates, booking or reservations. In the event you become entitled to a refund of monies paid, TCA will not be liable in excess of amounts actually paid. TCA reserves the right to prohibit any person from booking the Cruise for any reason whatsover. = HAL reserves the right to impose a fuel supplement of up to $10 USD per guest, per day if the price of West T exas Intermediate crude oil exceeds $65 USD per barrel. = On behalf of those guests listed in this application, I authorize TCA to use image(s) (video or photo) for purposes of promoting future NR cruise events. = You acknowledge that by embarking upon the Cruise, you have voluntarily assumed all risks, and you have been advised to obtain appropriate insurance coverage against them. Retention of ticke ts, reservations, or package after issuance shall constitute a consent to the above and an agreement on the part of each individual in whose name a reservation has been made for the Cruise, or a ticket issued with respect to the Cruise. = This Agreement shall be governed by the laws of the State of Georgia, excluding its conflicts of laws principles. Each party hereto agrees that all claims relating to this Agreement will be heard exclusively by a state or federal court in Fulton County, Georgia. Accordingly, each party hereby consents to the exclusive jurisdiction of any state or federal court locat- ed in Fulton County, Georgia over any proceeding related to this Agreement, irrevocably waives any objection to the venue of any such court, and irrevocably waives any claim that any such proceeding in such a court has been brought in an inconvenient forum. No provisions of this Agreement will be interpreted in favor of, or against, any of the parties hereto by reason of the extent to which any such party or its counsel participated in the drafting thereof or by reason of the extent to which any such provision is inconsistent with any prior draft here- of or thereof. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: I understa nd and accept the terms and condi- tions of booking this cruise package and acknowledge responsibility for myself ______and those sharing my accommodations (signed) SIGNATURE OF GUEST #1 DATE books:QXP-1127940387.qxp 3/31/2015 5:45 PM Page 49

Mr. Right. They are open to his walking the standard plot, she begins by blaming deeply for the other. They are cognizant of into their lives and hopeful that someday herself. But, of course, enlightenment each other’s imperfections, but each is no he will: Finding him would be a good eventually comes when she realizes that less aware of her own deficiencies. And thing—indeed, a very good thing—and the fault is not with her at all, but indeed each is grateful to the other for the gift of they’re not making the perfect the enemy with them—and even more fundamen- her friendship. They are fast friends, loyal of the good by holding out for the tally with the institutional sexism and friends. Yet neither woman jealously wor- Ultimate Mr. Right when Mr. Right sexist (and, of course, heterosexist) cul- ries that the entry of a man into the other’s Enough will do. But neither are they pin- ture that is ultimately what is driving life will weaken the lovely bond between ing away, or pursuing their avocational both their bad attitudes and behavior and them. On the contrary, they are pulling for and professional interests as mere dis- her initial impulse to blame herself. each other on the boyfriend front—pre- tractions while they wait. They have Pretty soon she is “off men” and living cisely because they appreciate that there is lives—lives worth living, lives in which happily ever after in a lesbian commune something good, something uniquely ful- non-romantic friends, jobs, passions, in central Massachusetts. filling, that even the deepest friendship goals, and challenges of various sorts What’s refreshing about Riordan’s between two women (or, I daresay, two occupy them meaningfully and worthily. novel is that her protagonists have men) cannot provide. What’s refreshing about J. F. Riordan’s novel is that her protagonists have healthy relationships with men.

Yet J. F. Riordan’s point is not the old healthy relationships with men. And it Most of the guys in the book are good feminist canard about a woman’s needing isn’t because Fiona and Elisabeth—or the guys, and their friendships with other a man like a fish needs a bicycle. Quite guys with whom they have romantic and guys are good friendships. J. F. Riordan the contrary. Fiona and Elisabeth are, like non-romantic friendships—are perfect. finds countless ways—usually suitably most women, sensible. Their hearts yearn They’re not. In fact, North of the Tension subtle ways—to call attention to the deep for a special bond with one of those crea- Line is a sort of study in how imperfect bonds of affection good men can form tures on the other side of the mysterious but fundamentally decent women and with each other. Of course men, being line dividing the sexes, and their minds imperfect but fundamentally honorable men, don’t talk about their feelings much, tell them that such a bond is worth the men can relate to each other (whether but rather express them in actions—in - sacrifices—including some degree of their relationships are romantic or not) in cluding in actions toward women or for loss of independence—required to estab- constructive ways, and find satisfaction their sakes. Because of the setting lish and sustain that bond. They are not and contentment in their relationships. In Riordan has chosen for her study, most of boy-crazy, nor are they imagining a fact, part of her message is that the proj- the men in the novel—at least those we knight in shining armor who will come ect of navigating the mysteries involved get to know best—are skilled workers. astride a white charger to sweep them in relating to people of the opposite sex They build things, or fix things, or do off their feet. What they want is a can—and where our relationships are things (like run a ferry from the mainland decent, honorable man, a man who is healthy almost certainly will—challenge to an island). They are not intellectuals. comfortable in his own skin and who is us and change us in ways that make us Indeed, most are a bit less intellectual willing to be a man—a fellow whose better men and women than we were: a than the women. But they are not less gentle strength would complement their little less imperfect. Relating to each intelligent, nor are they less thoughtful. own strong gentleness. other across the mysterious divide takes What they are, God bless them, is old- There is nothing more familiar to read- effort, but it’s worth it. The payoff is fashioned, even chivalrous. They respect ers and viewers these days than the story genuine. There must be something to the womenfolk, and even look up to them of a woman who manages to be caught the idea that men and women are made in various ways; but their instinct is to help up in an unhealthy relationship with for each other—that by entering each them and protect them because . . . well, every man in her life. She has, or had, an other’s lives they supply a lack and have because that’s what good men do. unhealthy relationship with her father; an a lack supplied. You may, gentle reader, be worried that unhealthy relationship with her first What about the relationships between North of the Tension Line has no villains, boyfriend, then her second, then third, and women and other women and men and mean dogs, or ghosts. But fear not: There so forth; she has unhealthy non-romantic other men? Perhaps part of the reason is an excellent villain—a woman, by the relationships with her guy friends, her Riordan’s characters can relate in healthy way—a scary mean dog, and an exem- boss, her dentist, her pastor, her plumber. ways to those of the opposite sex is that plary ghost. To avoid spoiling things for She has an unhealthy relationship with they have deep, constructive friendships you, I’ll say no more about them than to her husband—one that doesn’t improve with people of their own sex. The friend- report that Riordan’s verbal artistry is up when he becomes her ex-husband. By the ship between Fiona and Elisabeth is front to the challenging task of handling vil- time her son is a teenager, she has an and center, and a beautiful friendship it is. lains, mean dogs, and ghosts—which is unhealthy relationship with him, too. Is The two women delight in each other’s saying something when reviewing a the problem with her—or with them? In company and each appreciates and cares writer’s first novel.

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BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS Film Terror in Plain Sight

ROSS DOUTHAT

he modern horror movie was born in the darkness of the 1970s, and no matter how T many incarnations it goes through—sincere and ironic, restrained and gore-addled—it keeps circling back to the same places, tropes, images, and haunts. When the car stalls out and the dirt road beckons, it’s always some version of Leatherface at the end of it. When there’s something wrong with your Maika Monroe in It Follows child, your house, your neighbors, you never call the doctor; it’s probably the groggily, to find him ranting at her and The camera wheels around a campus devil, and only the exorcist can help. apologizing to her all at once. scene, and you see a lone figure with a And when the implacable killer comes to As the genre requires, their sex was a backpack crossing the quad toward them; call, his hunting ground is always some terrible, life-altering mistake, but not with each 360-degree turn the figure is variation on Michael Myers’s Halloween because her partner is actually an axe mur- closer, and closer, and closer . . . and hometown—the empty, eerie suburban derer. Instead, he’s tied her up as a kind of there’s no way to know until the end (and streets of haddonfield. favor, in order to explain to her—and maybe not even then) whether it’s the The latest haddonfield is an out-of- show her—what she’s in for now. By hav- monster or just someone taking an inno- time Michigan suburb, just a little ways ing sex with Jay, he’s passed on a kind of cent stroll in the camera’s direction. into autumn, in the retro, unhurried, and supernatural curse of which she can rid A great idea does not a great movie taut It Follows. The movie’s setting is sort herself only by having sex with someone make, and the strengths of It Follows are of the present—one girl has a clamshell else in turn. Until she does, she’ll be fol- closely connected to its weaknesses. Its e-reader, at least—but other details place lowed by a specter, a monster—one that stripped-down simplicity can feel ragged, the story in a kind of eternal ’70s. The cars can take on various human forms, some its gestures at Dostoevsky are a little are wide, the TVs still look as if they need strange and some very familiar; one that lame, and its script and cast walk the line rabbit ears, and nobody’s tapping or text- nobody but you can see; one that only between “plausible teenage anomie” and ing or yakking on his iPhone. In fine Me walks and never runs, but also never stops “weak dialogue delivered by middling Decade style, there’s also no adult super- until it reaches you; and one that will find actors.” Monroe, as Jay, is vividly dis- vision. The grown-ups have their own a way to kill you when it does. At which tinct; the rest of the cast just play their problems, and the kids are on their own. point, it will return to stalking its previous archetypes. The last shot lingers, but the This means, at first, doing ordinary target, so even sex itself provides only a confrontation preceding it doesn’t make a teenage things: We watch our protago- temporary escape. lot of sense. And the rules governing the nist, a 19-year-old girl named Jay (Maika As horror-movie conceits go, this is a monster don’t necessarily bear too much Monroe), swimming in her backyard pretty rich one, metaphorically potent on examination. pool and hanging out lazily with her multiple levels—evoking venereal dis- But this is a horror flick, not high art, younger sister and two neighborhood ease, pregnancy, emotional damage, and and when it’s judged by the genre’s stan- friends—one the girl with the e-reader, ultimately death. It’s also scary in a cre- dards, its strengths easily outweigh its who’s reading Dostoevsky’s The Idiot, the atively unsettling way, since the monster weaknesses. The director, David Robert other the skinny Paul (Keir Gilchrist), isn’t a creature in the closet waiting to Mitchell, uses both his score and his set- whose crush on Jay is palpable. But jump out; sometimes it appears unex- ting (the empty suburb, the emptier ruins she’s into somebody else, a handsome if pectedly, but the real menace is in its mix of Detroit) expertly, and they work to - slightly on-edge guy from a different part of implacability and anonymity, the gether with the film’s conceit to create a of town, who takes her to the movies, dread its potential presence injects into kind of geography of dread: a landscape shares six-packs with her by the river, any human context. in which there’s neither a clear threat nor makes love to her in the backseat of a In one of the movie’s most effective any permanent safety, and the appearance car—and then chloroforms her and ties scenes, for instance, Jay and her friends of an ordinary-looking human figure, usu- TWC - her to a wheelchair in the lower level of an head to a high school to do some amateur ally a relief in monster movies, is the most US I

RAD abandoned building, where she awakes, detective work in the yearbook office. fear-inducing thing of all.

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doggedly to cross-examine. I look out has the charm of distance—steampunk City Desk the windows at paradise—pre-war apart- without punk, Flashman in earnest. But ment buildings, a stone church spire, the Internet has produced a change of plane-tree tops rising from an invisible consciousness. Even though I came to it Writing à park, pigeons, crows, a distant neon hos- full of years, it has altered my expecta- pital sign. What more could you need for tions and my attention span. Next to it Deux energy, history, country-in-city, every- television (which I do not watch) and where, romance? When photographers tabloids (which I do read) seem like do odd shoots on the roof of the building Milton. I find myself e-mailing; check- directly across the avenue, it is paradise ing my e-mail; tweeting; checking my with a short story. incoming tweets; getting the forecast You read of couples who must live or from NOAA; reading three favorite web- work in different towns, sometimes on sites (ours is one, Kathryn!); clicking different coasts. I had a cousin whose through articles on Wikipedia; listening husband spent six months a year with to Beatles songs; listening to old rock the Navy in Antarctica. Because of our novelty songs; Googling my friends, skewed schedules my wife and I live on current and former; Googling myself different planets, sharing 900 square (yes, I do, sometimes to the nth page); RICHARD BROOKHISER feet—Write World, and Other World. then doing all the above again. If I am dry, I go to the kitchen (I can ur apartment in the city has emerge for brief forays) to grab a bottle four rooms, two desks, two of seltzer; if I am hungry or tired, I go to PCs, and two authors. In the the kitchen to snap some squares off a O last 35 years, 18 books have chocolate bar. Sometimes I will take up been written there, twelve by me, six by an old friend of a book and reread a my wife (her sixth is in process, but com- favorite passage: Henry Adams describ- ing down the home stretch). I consider ing the Virgin in Majesty at Chartres, that moderately heavy traffic—neither Holmes getting the truth about the blue the Anthony Trollope interstate, nor the carbuncle out of James ryder, the ralph Ellison turn-off to Death Valley. Crocodile telling the Elephant’s child We have written simultaneously, and we what he has for dinner. Then I go back have written out of sync. Just now we are online. We have an evening meal: My out of sync. wife cooks, or we order in kabobs or Cali - My wife’s desk, at one end of the living fornia rolls, or we go to the restaurant room/dining room, is a beautiful thing, where we go so often they bring our the gift of a generous father: dark, almost My wife has a typical daytime: day job drinks unasked. This is our communion purplish rosewood with austere bronze (patients), errands, exercise—what Other and our refueling. After, she goes back to fittings. Where the right hand grasps the World calls living, what Write World work, and I to limbo. mouse the finish has been bleached to a calls The Enemy. So she writes at night. The result of it all is that I have not just paler shade. Her chair has never been Since she is a night owl, when she gets damaged my mind and my soul (my so handsome: We have gone through going she will not stop until 1 A.M. (If I rereading apart) but I have damaged my several contemporary office numbers go out of town she pushes herself until 3 body. Staring at a screen at night under a in the hope of finding one that, after a or 4.) While she writes I have to go else- desk lamp gives me concrete traps and few hours, does not make her back feel where. I understand and agree; even if I rebar neck. My fix was to go to the other as if it had been massaged by an iron promised to sit silently reading the bedroom, my wife’s office, and sit in her maiden. She also suffers from her view— paper, my wife could not risk my blurt- upholstered shrink’s chair. Since there is four feet to a built-in closet. If she ing, while she was in mid-thought, reax no PC or any other device in this room flipped everything around to look in the to the latest amusement or outrage. So I that I must read, I cannot throw my back direction of the street windows, she go into exile. out of whack. would be sitting in a hallway. Her con- If I have some short assignment of my From time to time my wife calls me in centration is so intense she probably own, I can do it at my desk, fine; if I’m to hear the latest. I lie on the sofa, listen- doesn’t miss it. dining out, finer. But I write fairly fast and ing and offering occasional line edits. It is The hierarchy of my master-bedroom I don’t like to be away from my wife, even like hearing a serialized novel, books on work station is reversed. My desk is if I cannot talk to her. So, for the longest tape without tape, Homer at home. When made of something cheap and synthetic, time, I would go to my desk and—what? I write, I tell her about Abraham Lincoln the product of ingenuity operating on Once I would have read—anything. My and Aaron Burr; when she writes, she waste, made respectable (and invisible) favorite browse reading was the eleventh tells me about narcissists, and about a by white paint. My chair is wooden and edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. young woman who was once her. read - retro, oak with slats in the back, such a Second, The New York Review of Books. ing is great, but it is also great to live one as lawyers in suspenders rise from Both wallow in minutiae, though the first with a writer.

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Happy Warrior BY JONAH GOLDBERG The Abusive Businessman’s Enablers

OnG before “crony capitalism” became a battle And yet “social responsibility” is more popular than cry, it was a staple of conservative and libertarian ever. Recently, Starbucks ordered its baristas to deliber- economics to note that big business is a fickle ately slow down production by holding retail teach-ins L ally in the war for economic liberty (and 4F in the on race. Apple’s Tim Cook, CEO of the biggest company culture war). Like the “late Walder Frey” in Game of in the world, seems to be spending more time misread- Thrones, big business is often tardy to the battle and keen ing Indiana’s religious-liberty legislation than debug- on switching sides when there’s advantage to be gained. ging iOS 8. “The simple truth,” observed Albert Jay nock, “is that our The drive for corporate social responsibility—simply a businessmen do not want a government that will let busi- pinstriped version of social justice—runs contrary to the ness alone. They want a government they can use.” doctrine that businessmen are out to maximize profit. Big businesses usually become big in the first place thanks Perhaps a better way for conservatives to see businessmen to the glories of the free market, but, all too often, they stay is, simply, as men—or at least a certain kind of man. big thanks to politicians who find them useful. Medieval For understandable if flawed reasons, conservatives and guilds petitioned the crown to bar from the realm traders big business are married in the public imagination. But it is with better and cheaper wares. Andrew Carnegie, when an ugly marriage. Worse than that, conservatives play the bedeviled by competitors, called for “government control” role of the battered wife. Sure, there are the good days, of the steel industry as a way to cement U.S. Steel’s status— when the chamber-of-commerce types peel off a few bucks and profits. Gerald Swope, the head of GE, paved the intel- from their fat wads to give the little lady her mad money. lectual road to the new Deal’s cartelization of industry with “Go get yourself something nice, honey.” On these sunny his corporatist Swope Plan. Contrary to Barack Obama’s Saturdays of picnics and noodle salad, everything seems claims in stump speeches, the insurance industry backed his fine. Because we want the marriage to work, we think the health-care takeover in the hopes of becoming government- good times will never end. protected utilities. How many digital-era Andrew Carnegies But the fairy tale doesn’t last, because the big busi- lobbied the White House for “net neutrality” to protect their nessman doesn’t want to be married. He wants to be fiefdoms—only to get more than they bargained for? (Of loved or, even better, lusted after. He likes being a catch, course, there have been exceptions. Horrified by what the but he never wants to be truly caught. Besides, the pret- new Deal had become and where it was heading, some big tiest dames are never the ones at home helping to bal- businessmen got together to create the American Enterprise ance the checkbook and striving to raise decent kids. Association in 1938, to promote a “greater public knowledge They’re the always-flirty movie stars, news anchors, and understanding of the social and economic advantages comedians, and popular politicians who play hard-to- accruing to the American people through the maintenance of get. Maybe, just maybe, if the businessman starts wear- the system of free, competitive enterprise.” That group even- ing a turtleneck and talking about “social justice,” he’ll tually became the American Enterprise Institute, where I am catch their eye and get invited to the right parties, or writing this very column.) even into bed. Only a fool or a knave would dismiss this congenital It’s fun. It’s exciting. Charlie Rose has you on to talk defect of the free-enterprise system, but as a mode of about your progressive policies and Sharon Stone coos analysis it leaves something to be desired, because its view about how big your business really is (usually for an of human nature bears an ugly family resemblance to “appearance fee,” left on the nightstand). Maybe Tom similar Marxist or Marxish critiques of man as Homo eco- Friedman will write about a conversation he had with you nomicus. After all, it presupposes that titans of industry at Davos about your views on Millennials and education. are motivated solely by the desire to maximize profits. To It’s all so thrilling. You’re no longer Joe Blow, maker of which the informed and enlightened conservative can widgets. You are Joe Blow, statesman, visionary, progres- only respond: “I wish!” sive thinker. Almost exactly 50 years ago, in these pages, Milton And all the smart set asks of you is that you humiliate the Friedman (praise be upon him) was writing that the doc- little lady in public, through either your actions, your trine of corporate “social responsibility . . . is subversive of words—or both. a free society and a stepping stone to socialism.” In a lovely And each time, conservatives let him. We complain phrase, he denounced it for raising a “conflict of irrespon- among friends at our book group, but we defend him in sibilities.” The CEO who hitches his company to social public and in front of the kids because the alternative, we fads, no matter how noble, is betraying his obligations to think, is to besmirch what we hold sacred in principle, no the workers and the shareholders, i.e., the owners of the matter how often it betrays us in practice. And when he company. As Adam Smith put it, “I have never known comes home, shame-faced and sad about being used by much good done by those who affected to trade for the those he thought really liked him, there we are with a drink public good.” at the ready and an encouraging hug.

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