The ISIS Leader How to Fix Can Megyn PLUS What Sex Was Really From Texas Hollywood Kelly Escape Like in the Victorian Era BY GRAEME WOOD BY ALEX WAGNER Her Past? Why You’re a Bad Driver BY CAITLIN FLANAGAN Luxury Doomsday Bunkers

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CONTENTS | MARCH  VOL . 3 1 9 – NO . 2

Features

President Trump—shown here in Trump Tower in New York in 2015—will likely want not to repress civil unrest, but to publicize it.

  REDUX How to Build Containing The Black American an Autocracy Trump List Everyone Jihadi BY DAVID FRUM BY JONATHAN RAUCH Wants to Be on BY GRAEME WOOD The preconditions are The survival of BY ALEX WAGNER John Georgelas present. Here’s how democratic norms How Franklin Leonard was a military brat Donald Trump could set depends on how civil and a precocious THE NEW YORK TIMES is pushing Hollywood the country down a path society responds to his to think beyond sequels underachiever from toward illiberalism. administration. and action  icks Texas. Now he’s a leader in the Islamic State. JOSH HANER

THE ATLANTIC MARCH  3 CONTENTS | MARCH  VOL . 3 1 9 – NO . 2

Dispatches

BIG IN … BOLIVIA  Zebras in the Streets A di erent sort of animal crossing BY ISABEL HENDERSON

STUDY OF STUDIES Unsafe at Any Speed The case against GEOPOLITICS human drivers  BY JAKE PELINI It’s Putin’s World How the Russian president became a hero for nationalists everywhere BY FRANKLIN FOER TECHNOLOGY
BUSINESS Our Bots, Ourselves  Siri’s spawn Wall Street BY MATTHEW HUTSON Diversifi es Itself Exchange-traded funds POLITICS are changing the face of  investment management. Red State, Blue City BY BETHANY M C LEAN The escalating war between urban and rural America BY DAVID A. GRAHAM

SKETCH WORKS IN PROGRESS   Instamom A Resort for the Amber Fillerup Clark’s Apocalypse lucrative brand The booming market for of motherhood luxury bunkers BY BIANCA BOSKER BY BEN ROWEN

Departments
Poetry The Conversation
  Pencil BY A. E. STALLINGS The Big Question What was the most in uential  lm in history?

4 MARCH  THE ATLANTIC Slack is where work happens, for millions of people around the world, every day. CONTENTS | MARCH  VOL . 3 1 9 – NO . 2

The Culture File

THE OMNIVORE  A Saint for Di icult People From bohemian to radical to Catholic activist, Dorothy Day devoted her life to the poor, however unlovable. BOOKS BY JAMES PARKER  Before Straight and Gay The discreet, disorienting passions of the Victorian era BY DEBORAH COHEN

BOOKS

The Shine Comes O Silicon Valley Awestruck visions of the tech industry have BOOKS become less convincing than ever. ‚ BY ANNA WIENER The Sentimental Sadist Ghosts and schmaltz haunt George Saunders’s rst novel. BY CALEB CRAIN

Essay  On the Can Megyn Kelly Escape Her Past? Cover Charting a route into the mainstream media, Fox News’s former star has Illustration by downplayed her role in an ugly election. Je rey Smith BY CAITLIN FLANAGAN

6 MARCH  THE ATLANTIC Texas A&M has a long and storied history, and oft en even makes history, such as the discovery of the most distant galaxy known to humans. Formally titled z8GND-5296, this galaxy was formed within 700 million years of the Big Bang, meaning Texas A&M scientists saw 13 billion years into the past — and closer than ever into the mysteries of the universe. THE CONVERSATION RESPONSES & REVERBERATIONS

My President Was Black For the January/February cover story, Ta-Nehisi Coates interviewed Barack Obama and analyzed his legacy as America’s rst black president. “This is the best postmortem on the Obama presidency I’ve yet seen,” Cory Doctorow wrote at Boing Boing, “the cornerstone of the literature that will be written about the previous eight years.”

Ta-Nehisi Coates compel- Obama’s presidency under- I know the advantages I have Coates tells the reader, lingly details the inexcusable, score that. But we should had in being male. “For most African Americans, racially charged rhetoric with remember—and take solace I know this is not my ght, white people exist either as a which many Americans have in the fact—that the many but I also know that my direct or an indirect force for described our rst black presi- in‘ammatory words and president, too, was black. And bad in their lives.” I nd that dent. It pains me to consider racist acts Coates describes that made me proud. It gave troubling as well. Certainly the racial tension that festers certainly do not represent the me hope. there are white people who within our country. majority of white people, the Coates emphasizes that are both direct and indirect At what point, though, majority of conservatives, or whiteness in America is a forces for bad in the lives of do reports like this widen the majority of Americans. “badge of advantage”—a African Americans. But they the racial rifts by describ- Garrett Haley concept that no intelligent are that way because of their ing Americans’ views with LUBBOCK, TEXAS person could refute. But he character, not their skin color. too broad a brush? After all, also writes that in response to We need to change this narra- Coates fails to mention that I know the battle surround- a black president, “the badge- tive to focus on behavior and the white-supremacist-tinged ing race in this country does holders fumed. They wanted beliefs rather than pigmen- language and extreme anti- not belong to me the way it their country back. And … tation. If we fail to do that, Obama vitriol documented belongs to Ta-Nehisi Coates. they would have it.” His use we risk sliding further and in his article come from the I am a middle-aged white of they troubles me, because further away from our goal fringes of our society and do guy. Still, I have reread “My it blurs the lines between me of making progress. We risk not represent the views of President Was Black” twice as a white male and the insidi- sliding backwards to a time most Americans. Surely the now. I love reading what ous, hateful people coming when everything was judged number of people who would Coates writes, but am also out of the woodwork in the in terms of color. gleefully chuckle at things deeply troubled by much of wake of Donald Trump’s elec- Coates talks about trust like “Obama Bucks” and what the piece has to say. I tion. I don’t have my country a lot in the piece. He writes “Obama Waƒes” is terribly know the racism this country back; I have had it hijacked about Obama’s ability to trust small (not to mention the fact faces is not my ght the way by a man who rode to the white people because his that some individuals cited it is his. I know it is not my presidency on the backs of the childhood experience taught in the article have apologized ght the way it is the ght of worst monsters that humans him that white people were for their own remarks). the black students who sit in could conjure up. While I am to be trusted. Later he writes, We should not dismiss the disproportionate numbers white, I don’t think my race “What Obama was able to uncomfortable picture Coates in the lower-level academic makes me any less distraught oŒer white America is some- paints; yes, our country’s classes that I teach. I know at who will run this country, thing very few African Ameri- racial divides run deep, the advantages I have had how he got elected, or what cans could—trust. The vast and the hurtful reactions to because I am white, just like that says about this nation. majority of us are, necessarily,

8 MARCH  THE ATLANTIC too crippled by our defenses themselves. It is seductive to THE BIG QUESTION to ever consider such a propo- believe Obama could shape On TheAtlantic.com, readers answered January/February’s Big Question sition.” That does not leave us that in some way, much less and voted on one another’s responses. Here are the top vote-getters. much room to move forward. control and direct it. But, as If in fact the transgressions Coates details in painful case of whites that came before after case of political obstruc- Q: Who is the worst leader me make it so that a great tionism among Democrats of all time? voice of contemporary black and Republicans during the America can’t even consider rst black president’s terms, 5. Neville Chamberlain: and epic military blunders the proposition of trusting me, Obama never had the abil- “Peace for our time” led to ultimately led to the collapse then we are doomed. If little ity to shape white people’s World War II and millions of of the first French empire. kids are raised to mistrust my attitudes. White people’s atti- civilian and military casualties. — Dan Fredricks two young boys just because tudes, the contradictions of — Gerald Bazer of their color, their generation their racial identities and class 2. Adolf Hitler was evil; is doomed as well. consciousness, made Obama. 4. Nicholas II, the last George W. Bush’s policies I hope Obama’s sense of Obama did not make them. emperor of Russia, took a produced evil results. hope does not die in the face It didn’t matter that Obama reasonably functioning coun- — Bill Turney of one catastrophic failure. I had faith in white people; try and left it vulnerable to hope Coates can see in me an they needed only to have faith radical revolutionaries. He lost 1. Adolf Hitler was the worst ally, a man who wants for his in him: in his willingness to the war with Japan and was leader in history. He provoked child the same thing I want reˆect their ideal selves back losing his side of World War I. World War II, which was the for my own children. I hope at them, to change the world His misjudgment allowed greatest and most destructive we can all see one another for without changing them, to Rasputin to become influen- event in history. He caused tial. That was a huge mistake. the most deaths by war ever, who we are, and not revert to change blackness for them and unprecedented suŠering. supercial and detrimental without being black to them … — Ahmad Alsaleh His political philosophy was denitions of race. Obama could look at years 3. Few can compare to the most bigoted and violent Jeremy Knoll of pictures of his wife and MEDFORD, N.J. the enigmatic Napoléon over the widest expanse of children drawn as apes and Bonaparte, whose grandiose, space and people. decades of white backlash ambitious foreign policies — Robert L. Flax The theory that Obama could to perceived black socio- be elected president because economic gains as racial, his white family had imbued albeit not racist: “I’m careful him with an authentic love for not to attribute any particular it is impossible to close the bow at the altar of presumed and faith in white people that resistance or slight or opposi- racial wealth gap … political expediency. the typical black American tion to race.” That is catnip to There is no doubt that the William A. Darity Jr. EXCERPT FROM A does not have is intuitive millions of white voters. political obstacles to congres- THEATLANTIC.COM ARTICLE but wrong. I suspect, given Tressie McMillan Cottom sional approval of black repa- EXCERPT FROM A Obama’s own words over THEATLANTIC.COM ARTICLE rations are signicant. But in hours of conversations with 1820 in the United States one Coates, that he believes he might not have been able to Despair and Hope in really does have some special In his conversation with conceive that American slav- the Age of Trump insight into white people’s Coates, the president appears ery would ever come to an better angels. Nothing is more to acknowledge that there is end, yet there were some who In the January/February issue, emblematic of the problem a sound moral and philo- advocated abolition. In 1950 James Fallows, grappling with with this theory than Obama’s sophical case for reparations, in South Africa one might not the results of the 2016 presi- assessment of Donald particularly if—as Coates have been able to imagine dential election, observed that Trump’s election chances presses him to concede— that apartheid would ever Americans are optimistic about to Coates: “He couldn’t incremental changes in come to an end, but there the communities they live in, but win” … Obama’s faith, like existing social programs will were activists who already not their nation. the theory that it made not close the gaps, especially had begun to oppose the Obama’s presidency possible, the racial wealth gap. The system. If black reparations is I am a great fan of James mis understands race as some- president ultimately takes the the right thing to do—and Fallows, but I believe that he thing black folks can choose position that it is politically I know in the depth of my may have missed the mark without white folks’ assent. untenable to enact a repara- soul that it is—then we here. Some 63 million people White voters allowed Barack tions program. If so—and if should work to make it chose to vote for the coarsest, Obama because they allowed nothing comparable can be happen, no matter how long stupidest, most ill-informed, him to exist as a projection of realized—then I contend that the odds. We should not megalomaniacal, dishonest,

THE ATLANTIC MARCH  9 THE CONVERSATION and just generally vile candi- while eorts seem to be made about “real Americans” in the date in memory and probably to keep the Wall Street bonus heartland, and has missed the in history. Why? Anger. Anger system intact. Anger that so unifying mood of the country. at our politicians for failing to many of the people getting Arthur Moss govern. Anger at our political the new jobs we hear touted WILMINGTON, DEL. system and the economic can’t make a living wage, system it has spawned that even in manufacturing. As an admirer of James unrelentingly concentrates I am a retired scientist Fallows, I think everything obscene levels of wealth in with a Ph.D. My friends are he says in “Despair and Hope ever fewer hands—hands scientists, engineers, doctors, in the Age of Trump” rings attached to all too many lawyers, teachers, academ- true, but in my view the things people who increasingly ics, and corporate people. he left out are more signi- alienate themselves from We are by many denitions cant. To James Comey, the might very well have won the the broader community and part of the professional elite. Russians, and the relentless Republican primary race. In a care nothing for its welfare. And we are angry too. We see poll-watching that declared contest with Barack Obama, Anger at a president many the growing inequities in our Hillary Clinton a done deal, she might have won the of us expected to be Teddy society, the threats to our own add the national press cover- presidency. As a nominee and Roosevelt but turned out to well-being, the disintegration age of Clinton’s non-scandals as a president, Rice would be Jimmy Carter, and who, of America’s social fabric. versus Trump’s real ones. have had the full support of alas, was really not qualied Some of us even voted for What this election shows us Fox News and its thuggish for the job. Anger that so Trump, simply because he is not just the breakdown of commentators; they would many people who have lost oered the promise of some- norms in ‰yover country, but not have generated sexist, their jobs, their communities, thing dierent. in the institutions we depend or racist, attacks against the their health, and their homes I think Fallows gets exces- on to perpetuate the norms in Republican torchbearer. have been largely ignored sively teary-eyed when talking the upper echelons of Wash- I live in a very right- ington and New York. wing, rural community. In Margot Ammidown August 2008, one of our ASHEVILLE, N.C. right-wingers put up an eight- BAROMETER by-four plywood sign on a The most-read magazine stories from 2016 on TheAtlantic.com highway on which he painted Fear of a Female ˜™š›œ žŸ¡ ¢›£¤ ˜¡¤¥›¦¤œ§. President In November 2008, he 1 crossed out the word vice. The Obama Doctrine In October, Peter Beinart I contend that if a right- Je€rey Goldberg (April) examined the “gender back- wing nutcase was all in favor 2 lash” against Hillary Clinton, of a female president in 2008, The Mind of Donald Trump arguing, from a sociological then we may safely assume Dan P. McAdams (June) and psychological standpoint, that the glass ceiling had that “the Americans who dislike been broken well and good 3 her most are those who most by that time, and that we are My Secret Shame fear emasculation.” now free to focus on policy Neal Gabler (May) and principles, rather than on Peter Beinart did not identify identity politics. 4 correctly the root cause of the Sallie Skakel The Case for Hillary Clinton—And Against Donald Trump attacks on Hillary Clinton. She GOLDENDALE, WASH. The Editors (November) was attacked because she is a To contribute to The 5 Democrat, pure and simple. Conversation, please email What’s Ailing American Politics? In 2008, if Condoleezza Rice [email protected]. Include Jonathan Rauch (July/August) had run for president, she your full name, city, and state.

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THEATLANTIC.COM/DAILY “Rising S Bunkers, one of several companies that specialize in high-end shelters … DISPATCHES says sales of its $500,000-plus units increased 700 percent IDEAS & PROVOCATIONS last year.” March 2017 — Ben Rowen, p. 30

•GEOPOLITICS It’s Putin’s World How the Russian president became the ideological hero of nationalists everywhere BY FRANKLIN FOER

 , 
  ­ returned to the presidency after I a four-year, constitutionally im- posed hiatus. It wasn’t the smooth- est of transitions. To his surprise, in the run-up to his inauguration, protesters †lled the streets of Moscow and other major cities to denounce his comeback. Such opposition required dousing. But an opportunity abroad also beckoned— and, more generally, the progressive “infertile and gender less,” while Russian and the solution to Putin’s domestic direc tion in which elites had pushed their propaganda derided Europe as “Gay- crisis and the ful’illment of his inter- societies. With the traditionalist masses ropa.” At the heart of Putin’s case was national ambi tions would roll into one. ripe for revolt, the Russian president had an accusation of moral relativism. “We After the global ’inancial crisis of an opportunity. He could become, as the can see how many of the Euro- Atlantic 2008, populist uprisings had sprouted paper’s title blared, “The New World countries are actually rejecting their across Europe. Putin and his strategists Leader of Conservatism.” roots, including the Christian values sensed the beginnings of a larger up- Putin had never spoken glowingly that constitute the basis of Western civi- rising that could upend the Continent of the West, but grim pronouncements lization,” he said at a conference in 2013. and make life uncomfortable for his geo- about its fate grew central to his rheto- “They are denying moral principles and strategic competitors. A 2013 paper from ric. He hurled splenetic attacks against all traditional identities: national, cul- the Center for Strategic Communica- the culturally decadent, spiritually des- tural, religious, and even sexual … They tions, a pro-Kremlin think tank, observed iccated “Euro-Atlantic.” He warned are implementing policies that equate that large patches of the West despised against the fetishization of tolerance large families with same-sex partner-

ALEXEI NIKOLSKYAFPGETTY feminism and the gay-rights movement and diversity. He described the West as ships, belief in God with the belief in

Illustration by EDMON DE HARO THE ATLANTIC MARCH  13 DISPATCHES

Satan.” By succumbing to secularism, he noted on another occasion, the West was trending toward “chaotic darkness” and a “return to a primitive state.” Few analysts grasped the potency such rhetoric would have beyond Rus- sia. But right-wing leaders around the world—from Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines to Nigel Farage in Britain to Donald Trump in the U.S.—now speak of Putin in heroic terms. Their fawning is often discounted, ascribed to under- the-table payments or other stealthy Russian efforts. These explanations don’t wholly account for Putin’s outsize stature, however. He has achieved this prominence because he anticipated the global populist revolt and helped give it ideological shape. With his apoca- lyptic critique of the West—which also François Fillon with Vladimir Putin in 2011. Fillon, who is now running for the French presidency, plays on anxieties about Christendom’s cultivated a tight relationship with the man he has called “my dear Vladimir.” supposedly limp response to Islamist terrorism—Putin has become a mascot but I confess to appreciating his frank- The gloom is xenophobic, but also of traditionalist resistance. ness, his calm, his authority. And then self-loathing. Right-wing polemicists he is so Russian!” These were gaudy bellow that France will squander its rev- ˆ ‰Š‹Œˆ, most Western observers gestures, but hardly idiosyncratic. Sar- olutionary tradition and cultural heri- A assumed that Putin wouldn’t win kozy’s rival François Fillon behaved tage without lifting a ¥nger to save itself. fans outside the furthest fringes of the just as e¢usively, though his a¢ection The de¥ning screed is Éric Zemmour’s right. In France, Russia’s hopes initially seemed less contrived—during his years The French Suicide, an unabridged cata- focused on Marine Le Pen, the ’ierce as prime minister, from 2008 to 2012, he log of the forces sucking the vitality from critic of immigration and globalization, cultivated a tight relationship with the his country—post-structuralist academ- whose National Front party has har- man he has called “my dear Vladimir.” ics, unpatriotic businessmen, techno- bored Holocaust deniers and Vichy nos- In November, Alain Juppé, the Republi- crats in the European Union. talgists. In 2014, a Russian bank loaned can contender initially favored by odds- Contrary to prevailing wisdom, the Le Pen’s cash-strapped party 9 million makers, moaned, “This must be the ¥rst new populism cannot be wholly attrib- euros. Le Pen, in turn, has ampli’ied presidential election in which the Rus- uted to economic displacement. In Putin’s talking points, declar ing Russia sian president chooses his candidate.” a short period of time, the West has “a natural ally of Europe.” But deriding his opponents for “acute under gone a major cultural revolution— If Europe’s far-right parties were Russophilia” hardly helped him: Fil- an influx of immigrants and a move - Putin’s landing beach, he has made lon is now the party’s nominee, having ment toward a new egalitarianism. Only inroads, and hovers over the current drubbed Juppé by more than 30 points. a decade ago, an issue like gay marriage French presidential election. During The French embrace of Putin has was so contentious that politicians like last year’s campaign for the nomination roots in the country’s long history of Barack Obama didn’t dare support of France’s Repub lican Party—the newly Russophilia and anti-Americanism. But the cause. The movement’s success rechristened home of the center-right— Putin’s vogue also stems from the sub- seemed like one of the marvels of the candidates tripped over themselves to stance of his jeremiads, which match age—an object lesson of what can hap- pay obeisance. Former President Nico- the mood of France’s conservative base. pen when the internet helps tie people las Sarkozy, vying to resurrect his career, As French book sales reveal, the public together and the entertainment indus- sprinted away from his own history of has an apparently bottomless appetite try preaches tolerance. It seemed that slagging the Russian strongman. On a for polemics that depict the country the culture wars had been extinguished, trip to St. Petersburg in June, he made plummeting to its doom. Much anxiety that the forces of progress had won an a point of stopping for a photo op with focuses on the notion of le grand rem- unmitigated victory. Putin, pumping his hand and smiling placement, the fear that France will turn Except they hadn’t. In search of a broadly. Sarkozy’s pre-campaign book into a Muslim country, aided by native- global explanation for the ongoing re-

swooned, “I am not one of his intimates born couples’ failure to reproduce. volt, Pippa Norris of Harvard’s Kennedy KOLESNIKOVAAFPGETTY NATALIA

14 MARCH  THE ATLANTIC •GEOPOLITICS

School and Ronald Inglehart of the Uni- and countries stand up against the cul- beliefs against this new barbarity that’s versity of Michigan have sifted through tural and ideological imperialism of starting, that will completely eradicate polling data and social science. They’ve what he sees as a decadent west.” This everything that we’ve been bequeathed found that right-wing populists have type of homage became a trope among over the last 2,000, 2,500 years.” largely fed off the alienation of older conservative thinkers—including Rod Of course, Kulturkampf is not merely white voters, who are angry about the Dreher and Matt Drudge—and in turn a diagnosis of the world; it is a political erosion of traditional values. These vot- in†uenced their followers. In mid-2014, strategy. Putin has demonstrated its e±- ers feel stigmatized as intolerant and 51 percent of American Republicans cacy. When protesters looked like a chal- bigoted for even entertaining such viewed Putin very unfavorably. Two lenge to his rule, he turned the nation’s anger— and their rage grows. “These are years later, 14 percent did. By January, attention to gays and lesbians, whom he the groups most likely to feel that they 75 percent of Republicans said Trump depicted as an existential threat to the have become strangers from the pre- had the “right approach” toward Russia. Russian way of life. The journalist Masha dominant values in their own country, (When asked about this change, Putin Gessen described this fomented wave left behind by progressive tides of cul- replied, “It’s because people share our of homophobia as “a sweet potion for a tural change,” Norris and Inglehart write. traditional sensibilities.”) country that had always drawn strength Their alienation and fear of civiliza- Donald Trump, who hardly seems and unity from fearmongering.” The tional collapse have eroded their faith in distraught over the coarsening of secularist scourge would later be used to democ racy, and created a yearning for a American life, is in some smear those who opposed strongman who can stave o­ catastrophe. ways a strange inductee the invasion of Ukraine: Gay marriage is a divisive issue in into the cult of Putin. Kulturkampf Pro-European demonstra- France, where Fillon has vowed to block Indeed, of the raft of is not tors in Kiev were portrayed adoption by same-sex couples. The bat- theories posited to ex- merely a as wanting same-sex mar- tle against Islamism also remains a rally- plain Trump’s worship- diagnosis of riage. Traditionalism has ing cry; Fillon’s campaign manifesto is ful attitude toward the the world; it allowed Putin to consoli- called Conquering Islamic Totalitarian- Russian leader, many is a political date power while sucking ism. When he genu†ects before the Rus- focus less on ideology strategy. the life from civil society. sian president, he knows that his base than on conspiracy. And The specter of decline yearns for everything Putin embodies— yet, Trump’s analysis of has haunted the West ever manliness, thumbing one’s nose at poli- the world does converge with Putin’s. since its rise. But the recent spate of jer- tical correctness, war with the godless Trump’s chief ideologist, Steve Ban- emiads is di­erent. They have an unusu- cosmopolitans in Brussels, refusal to non, clearly views Western civilization ally large constituency, and revisit some tolerate the real and growing threat of as feckless and inert. In 2014, Bannon of the most dangerous strains of apoca- terrorism. As the Hudson Institute’s spoke via Skype at a conference hosted lyptic thinking from the last century—the Benjamin Haddad told me, “Fillon may by the Human Dignity Institute, a con- fear of cultural degeneration, the anxiety justify his embrace of Putin with inter- servative Catholic think tank. Shortly that civilization has grown unmanly, the national relations, but he is increasingly after the election, BuzzFeed published a sense that liberal democracy has failed a symbol for domestic purposes.” transcript of his talk, which was erudite, to safeguard civilization from its ene- nuanced, and terrifying. mies. Trump doesn’t think as rigorously ŒŽ‘’ “”• ‘’–—˜Ž—™ the Cold Bannon was clear-eyed about Putin’s or as broadly as Putin, but his campaign P War narrative. Back in Soviet times, kleptocratic tendencies and imperial was shot through with similar elements. the West was the enemy of godless- ambitions. That skepticism, however, If he carries this sort of talk into o±ce, he ness. Today, it’s the Russian leader didn’t undermine his sympathy for will be joining a chorus of like-minded who seeks to snuff out that supposed Putin’s project. “We, the Judeo-Christian allies across the world. threat. American conservatives are West, really have to look at what [Putin’s] There is little empirical basis for the struggling with the irony. They seem to talking about as far as traditionalism charge of civilizational rot. It speaks to know that they should resist the pull of goes,” Bannon said. He shared Putin’s an emotional state, one we should do Putinism—many initially responded to vision of a world disastrously skidding o­ our best to understand and even empa- his entreaties with a ritualistic wringing the tracks—“a crisis both of our Church, thize with. But we know from history of hands—but they can’t help themselves. a crisis of our faith, a crisis of the West, that premonitions of imminent barba- In 2013, the columnist Pat Buchanan a crisis of capitalism.” The word crisis is rism serve to justify extreme counter- championed Putin as an ene my of secu- used so promiscuously that it can lose measures. These are the anxieties from larism: “He is seeking to rede¢ne the ‘Us meaning, but not in this case. “We’re at which dictators rise. Admiring strong- vs. Them’ world con†ict of the future as the very beginning stages of a very bru- men from a distance is the window- one in which conservatives, traditional- tal and bloody conflict,” Bannon said, shopping that can end in the purchase ists, and nationalists of all continents exhorting his audience to “¢ght for our of authoritarianism.

THE ATLANTIC MARCH  15 DISPATCHES

“If it has the whole family in a pretty place, traveling, that’s going to do the best,” Fillerup Clark said. On another occasion she’d told me, “We always have to think of our life as ‘Where can you take the prettiest pictures?’ ” Not so long ago, Fillerup Clark was a broke student in Provo, Utah. Today, at age 26, she is the equivalent of inter- net royalty: a “relatable influencer,” someone whom hundreds of thousands of women trust as a friend and whom companies pay handsomely to name- drop their products. Stepping for the † rst time into her living room in Manhattan, I found it intimately familiar, thanks to the up-close-and-personal Instagram photos, YouTube vlogs, Snapchat vid- eos, and blog posts Fillerup Clark shares with her 1.3 million Instagram followers, 227,000 YouTube fans, and 250,000 monthly blog readers. I knew from the redecoration “reveal” she’d posted a few months back that the velvet side chair had been provided by West Elm, and I recognized the tangle of curls on a shelf as clip-in hair extensions from Barefoot Blonde Hair, Fillerup Clark’s own line of products, which sold out within 72 hours of its debut in October. I •SKETCH could even name the stu§ ed dog on the couch: That was Chauncey, it belonged to Atti cus, and it had been named after Instamom the family’s real golden retriever. The enviable, highly pro† table life of Amber Fillerup Clark, Since launching Barefoot Blonde perfect mother and social-media in‰ uencer in 2010, Fillerup Clark has adhered to a deceptively simple formula: beau- BY BIANCA BOSKER tiful pictures of herself—she has the golden locks, lithe frame, and whole-     in early each one for Barefoot Blonde, Fillerup some femininity associated with prom November, Amber Filler up Clark’s blog about motherhood and queens who date quarterbacks—paired O Clark sat at her dining- fashion. As we talked, she adjusted the with breezy diary entries that read like room table, which serves colors in the pictures, giving them the texts from a best friend. “Me and my as her desk most days, peering at her lap- warm pastel hues characteristic of wed- friends were talking about how long the top. She had professional photo- editing ding portraits. She assured me that she perfect massage would be and I think software open, and was using it to tweak stops short of Photoshopping appear- we settled on 5 hours lol,” she wrote in pictures that her husband, David Clark, ances, then reconsidered: “Sometimes a blog post featuring 19 photos of her had snapped of their toddlers dressed I’ll whiten teeth.” family’s lazy day at home. Nothing is up as Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Fillerup Clark has shared enough too momentous or mundane to share: The children had rotated through several holidays and milestones that she and Watch a video of Filler up Clark in a hos- costumes before Halloween—11-month- her husband can predict what types of pital gown, shortly before giving birth old Rosie wore a lamb out† t; 2-year-old images will charm her followers. “Be- to Rosie, then scroll through pictures of Atticus dressed as a dragon; the whole fore we post a picture, we can usually her walking Chauncey, her out† t anno- family donned matching superhero tell how good the engagement will be tated with links (when a reader pur- getups—and Clark had photographed based o§ the content,” Clark said. chases an item, Fillerup Clark usually

16 MARCH  THE ATLANTIC Illustration by JOHN CUNEO earns a commission). She has chron- company’s diapers.) And where Arm- she has two assistants, she handles most icled her engagement to David, their strong’s cohort divulged the frustrations fan-facing details herself: She vets com- wedding, both their children’s infancies, of parenting—“Feeling guilty for blam- ments, replies personally to followers, and their 2014 move from Alabama to ing my farts on the baby,” reads a typi- brainstorms photo shoots, plans outts, New York City. Soon the blog will detail cal dooce post—current bloggers, in her writes her blog entries, and curates the construction of their dream house, near view, present an airbrushed, Pinterest- pictures. (She and Clark do have a part- Fillerup Clark’s hometown of Mesa, Ari- ready vision of parenthood, one that can time nanny, who has traveled with them.) zona, where the family will move early leave readers feeling jealous, inadequate, Filler up Clark speculates that logging her next year. or ashamed when they almost inevita- life might come naturally because—like a bly fall short. “Because the way to make disproportionate number of top mommy œšš—£¨© ªš¡£«¬® ©™£¢£¡œ¢ money now is through sponsorships, bloggers— she and her husband belong to F of domestic bliss has earned her we’ve lost the grit, truth, and messi- the Mormon Church, which encourages a top spot among the second genera- ness,” said Armstrong, citing pressure keeping a journal. tion of so-called mommy bloggers. She from sponsors to tone down her voice Fillerup Clark did not originally joins a clique of stylish women, among and rope her daughters into promotions. intend to make Barefoot Blonde a them Naomi Davis of Love Taza and “It’s all staged. It’s all fake. It’s like, ‘How career. She created the site while volun- Rachel Parcell of Pink Peonies, who have many photos did you have to take to get teering at an orphanage in Fiji when she acquired loyal followings (and incomes that one photo?’ ” was 20, so she could update her family rumored to be in the seven °igures) by Fillerup Clark rejects the idea that she back home; after returning to Utah, she showing themselves excelling as ordi- whitewashes motherhood. “We take pic- transitioned to posting style inspirations nary wives and mothers. If the feats these tures as it happens. Whatever we get, we and musings on college life. The blog’s blogs capture are familiar—dressing well, get,” she said, as she winnowed about early popularity earned her a gig with an attending to children—this is a key part of 30 photos of her kids in their Trump alarm-system company that paid her to the appeal; the women epitomize a new and Clinton costumes down to six blog- wear a T-shirt with its logo around cam- breed of celebrity, as public fascination worthy shots. She noted that she regu - pus. But school failed to keep her inter- expands beyond the rich larly shares aches and pains est, and after a year she transferred to a and famous to the well- in the text accompanying yearlong hair styling program; she went off and above-average. Bloggers at her photos. And when it back to college for a second year before “We’re seeing people fol- Fillerup comes to her own appear- dropping out. During their rst year of lowing almost idealized Clark’s level ance, she is candid about marriage, she and Clark made ends meet versions of themselves,” can earn the ways she gives Mother by donating plasma at a blood bank and said Rob Fishman, a co- between Nature a helping hand, living in his parents’ basement. Then, founder of Niche, an ad $1 million openly discussing her fond- in 2014, the blog got its rst big break: network for online influ- and ness for sunless tanning, a sponsored campaign with the hair- encers that is now owned $6 million false eyelashes, veneers, care brand Tresemmé. Before the year by Twitter. “It’s this attain- a year. and hair extensions. was up, Barefoot Blonde was protable able perfection.” As Fillerup Clark clicked enough that Clark quit law school to be- Mommy blogs °irst through photos, I asked how come a “blog husband.” Today he serves emerged as a mainstream obsession in she chose which ones to post. Given that as the go-to photographer and manages the mid-2000s, led by dooce, which fea- millions of Instagrammers perseverate logis tics for the hair-extension line. The tured Heather Armstrong, an irreverent over vacation snapshots and food pic- Clarks declined to tell me their income, ex-Mormon, dishing on the agony and tures in the hopes of attaining even a frac- but Karen Robinovitz, a co-founder of ecstasy of raising two daughters. Arm- tion of Fillerup Clark’s success, I steeled Digital Brand Architects, the agency that strong, who cut back on blogging in 2015, myself for a spiel on the hallmarks of the represents Fillerup Clark, said bloggers has trouble recognizing the genre in Barefoot Blonde brand. Fillerup Clark at her level can earn between $1 million its current form. As she sees it, written looked at me like I’d asked why she and $6 million a year. storytelling has given way to pretty pic- was right-handed. “I don’t know,” she tures. Where advertising was once con- said. “Whichever ones I like best.” What –— ˜™šš™›œžŸ ¡˜¢—£ž™™ž, ned to banner ads, “native advertising” fueled her success on Instagram? “It just T I joined all four Clarks for a photo now packages sponsors’ messages in a kind of happened.” Why do people nd shoot in Central Park. Fillerup Clark, blogger’s voice. (Many Barefoot Blonde her interesting? “Good question. I don’t Rosie, and Atticus wore matching jean photos include product placements: A know.” This might have sounded coy. But jackets— freebies from a boutique—and post sponsored by Seventh Generation, Fillerup Clark seems to just instinc tually Fillerup Clark tossed leaves above the for example, features the Clarks picking under stand what the internet wants, and kids’ beaming faces while the photogra- berries with their kids out°itted in the to take pleasure in offering it. Though pher, a friend hired for the day, snapped

THE ATLANTIC MARCH  17 DISPATCHES away. Like other successful parent blog- “So we’re thinking of having an and had come up with a special design gers, the Clarks have been accused of indoor gym in our home because if we for what they called “Amber’s hallway”: exploiting their children for inancial could even say yes to one or two tness It would be extra wide and lined with gain. They counter that Rosie and Atti- campaigns, then that would pay for the windows and, according to Clark, was cus are never forced to do anything, and gym itself,” Fillerup Clark explained. partly “based o of ‘I want to take pic- that Barefoot Blonde allows the family They’d sprung for an outdoor shower tures there.’ ” more time together than would any tra- for similar reasons. “Sometimes we’ll “The more our house becomes Pin- ditional job. As the shoot continued, the have a campaign where we’re doing nable, the more it leads back to the web- toddlers appeared largely oblivious to shaving cream, and it’s a little awkward site,” said Clark. “We want it to traƒc the camera and delighted to be feeding to be indoors in your shower, so it makes well. We want it to go viral.” ducks with their parents. more sense to have a beautiful outdoor Fillerup Clark says she juggles about shower and do it out there.” They were Bianca Bosker is the author of Cork ve photo shoots a week, not including incorporating picturesque window seats, Dork, which comes out this month. impromptu picture-taking when the family happens to be doing something photogenic. It was the Clarks’ second visit to Central Park that day; the earlier trip, which they’d deemed a casual fam- ily outing, not an oƒ cial shoot, had gen- erated content for an Instagram photo, a Snapchat video, and a blog post. The seemingly e ortless grace with which the Clarks are living the Ameri- can dream appeals to their fans, who are overwhelmingly female, largely in their mid-20s to early 30s, and concentrated in New York and California, according •VERY SHORT BOOK EXCERPT to Clark. Twenty-nine-year-old Gena Baillis, who lives with her husband and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM! their infant son in Charleston, South Carolina, has followed Fillerup Clark for IN HIS BOOK 10 Rules of Writing, Elmore Leonard o ered a rule three years and looks to her “to help me about exclamation points. He stated, “You are allowed no more become a better version of myself.” On than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.” Leonard was Fillerup Clark’s recommendation, Bail- lis has bought nail polish, camera gear, prolic. He wrote more than 40 novels in his career, totaling sports drinks, healthy snacks, and work- 3.4 million words. If he had followed his own advice, he would out equipment. (For her birthday, Baillis have used only 102 exclamation points in his entire career. In said, her husband “bought me a spinning practice, he used 1,651. That’s 16 times as many as he recom- bike because Amber takes spinning and mended! But before you start thinking that Leonard was a secret I swore that’s what would work.”) “My exclamation-point fanatic, consider the chart below. husband’s like, ‘You aspire to be like her, so this is what you need to do,’ ” said Bail- Author Number of ! per 100,000 Words lis. “They kinda seem to live a fantasy ELMORE LEONARD 45 novels 49 life, but they seem pretty down-to-earth. ERNEST HEMINGWAY 10 novels 59 It doesn’t seem fake at all.” TONI MORRISON 10 novels 111 The shoot in Central Park wrapped SALMAN RUSHDIE 9 novels 204 up within half an hour, and as we walked VIRGINIA WOOLF 9 novels 258 back to the Clarks’ apartment, the Man- E. L. JAMES 3 novels 278 hattan skyline glowing gold in the late- F. SCOTT FITZGERALD 4 novels 356 afternoon sun, Fillerup Clark and her JANE AUSTEN 6 novels 449 husband reflected on how Arizona’s TOM WOLFE 4 novels 929 landscape would be less photogenic JAMES JOYCE 3 novels 1,105 than New York’s. They were already — Adapted from Nabokov’s Favorite Word Is Mauve: What the Numbers Reveal planning ahead to ensure their new About the Classics, Bestsellers, and Our Own Writing, by Ben Blatt, published in home would o er attractive backdrops. March by Simon & Schuster

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•BUSINESS live in. Female representation in nance dropped slightly from 2000 to 2015, and a 2013 Government Accountability Wall Street O‚ce report found that in the U.S., black people held just 2.7 percent of senior Diversifies Itself positions in ˆinancial-services compa- nies. Business Insider, after reviewing Exchange-traded funds are challenging the status quo in self-reported diversity metrics from investment management—including who’s in charge. six of the biggest Wall Street banks, re- BY BETHANY M C LEAN ported in 2015 that more than 80 percent of exec utives were white and more than ˜™™ š“›’’“ œš an un- the 14 members of the global executive two-thirds of them were men. likely vanguard against committee are women. A group called Against this backdrop, ETFs stand W corporate America’s Women in ETFs, started three years ago out. And unlike many other parts of diversity problem. The by ˆive prominent female executives, the nance industry since the crisis of white shoes of investment management now counts more than 2,000 members. 2008, they’ve also been wildly success- are still worn almost exclusively by white Reggie Browne, the head of ETF trad- ful: Altogether, they now control more men. So it’s notable that the surging busi- ing at Cantor Fitzgerald—whom Forbes money than hedge funds do. It’s worth ness of exchange-traded funds, or ETFs— in 2012 dubbed the “Godfather of ETFs,” considering what might make the ETF investment funds that generally track an index like the S&P 500 and are traded on ex- changes like stocks— looks a little di¡erent. The demograph- ics of this slice of the ˆinancial-services industry haven’t yet been studied. But I recently spoke with roughly a dozen women and people of color working in ETFs who say that they see more diversity in their business than elsewhere in nance— and the anecdotal evidence is convinc- ing. While McKinsey reports that women represent only about 20 percent of senior vice presidents and vice presidents in asset management and who is himself African American— business distinct—in hiring as well as and institutional investment, Laura says that at least one woman or person of performance—and whether the rest of Morrison, the head of exchange- traded color holds a senior position at every ETF the industry could catch on. products at Bats Global Markets, says company or unit he knows of. Ben John- that women make up half of the team son, who analyzes ETFs for Morning- ‘’ ’“” •––— is part of a revolu- that works to get funds listed on Bats’s star, says that compared with the rest of T tion in the way money is invested. exchanges around the world. At iShares, the investment-management eld, the The funds, most of which simply fol- the largest provider of ETFs in the world, workforce “is somewhat more diverse.” low the performance of an index, rep- which was acquired by the ˆinancial “Somewhat,” of course, isn’t a ringing resent a trend toward so-called passive giant BlackRock in 2009, seven out of endorsement. But consider the world we management— a strategy that has begun

20 MARCH  THE ATLANTIC Illustration by DOUG CHAYKA to pose an existential threat to stock Morgan Stanley and Barclays Global leadership roles and meet possible spon- pickers. A study by S&P Dow Jones Indi- Investors in the mid-’90s under the sors outside their own companies. ces found that from 2006 to mid-2016, leadership of Patricia Dunn. “It was a It’s not an accident that these 87 percent of all actively managed U.S. deeply entrepreneurial organization,” practices took hold in an area where equity funds underperformed the mar- recalls Sue Thompson, a founder of white men hadn’t already staked their ket. ETFs also have the advantage of low Women in ETFs who worked at i Shares claim, where the rules of the game fees, which average less than a third of until last spring, when she left to start her weren’t already deŒned, and where the those of actively managed mutual funds. own consulting Œrm. career path wasn’t seen as prestigious. In just over two decades, assets in ETFs Dunn was a strong supporter of Browne—who recently helped Cantor have expanded to more than $2.5 trillion women, and Thompson recalls times Fitzgerald start an internship program in the United States alone, making them when the entire slate of interviewers for for graduates of historically black col- one of the fastest-growing investment a prospective hire would be made up of leges and universities—points out that products in history. women. “My boss was a woman, and in the nascent ETF business, there was What’s generally considered to be my boss’s boss was a woman, and her “no old boys’ network that holds people the Œrst ETF in the U.S. was launched boss’s boss’s boss was a woman!” says down.” ETFs “don’t have this 100-year in 1993, when the American Stock Ex- Marie Dzanis, another early employee. history of what the people in charge look change and State Street created some- (Dunn, whose legacy was like,” says Sue Thompson. thing called S&P Depositary Receipts, tarnished by her involve- “My boss “There is more opportunity or SPDRs (pronounced “spiders”). Each ment in a spying cam- for the smartest, the bright- share holds a stake in the 500 stocks paign at Hewlett-Packard was a est, those with the most represented by the S&P 500. Kath - when she was chairman woman, and interest ing vision.” leen Moriarty, who worked at the law of that company’s board, my boss’s Many of these factors— Œrm Orrick in the early 1990s, recalls died of ovarian cancer boss was the entrepreneurialism, a male partner’s assigning her to help in 2011. The Wikipedia a woman, the newness, the growth— with the legal work on SPDRs when he description of iShares and her would also seem to apply happened to stand next to her in the ele- does not mention her, boss’s boss’s to Silicon Valley, where the vator. “Every one thought [SPDRs were] instead giving full credit boss was lack of both gender and a one-oœ,” she says. And because the to two men who helped a woman!” racial diversity has been Œeld was new, “you didn’t have to work develop the business.) well chronicled. But as Lori through several rounds of the organiza- One thing that distin- Heinel points out, in Silicon tional chart. People who gravitated to it guished Dunn’s leadership was that she Valley, where there’s a higher concen - were accepted.” didn’t merely mentor other women; she tration of ¯°±² careers, “there’s a heavy Today, Moriarty is a go-to lawyer for sponsored them. Mentorship generally reliance on an educational background new ETFs. Her nickname in the indus try entails oœer ing advice without much at skill set that is classically more male.” is “Spider-Woman.” But back then, ETFs stake for the advice giver. Sponsorship, For ETFs, on the other hand, much of were considered marginal products. says Lori Heinel, the deputy global chief the infra structure is in marketing, sales, They were governed by arcane laws and investment o«cer at State Street, is “a and relationship management, roles didn’t carry the same star power as ven- willingness to risk your own political that leave openings for those who are tures like invest ment banking and trad- capital to push someone along or pull ambitious, talented, and hardworking— ing. Deborah Fuhr, a prominent Œgure someone up.” Many big promotions even if they don’t have a speciŒc set of in the global ETF community who now require sponsorship, and typically, men technical skills. runs a consulting ¢irm called ETFGI, sponsor other men. As a report by the says the environment made space for consulting Œrm Oliver Wyman puts it, ³´° µ¶·· ³´¸¸±¹ as ETFs women: “Men weren’t clamoring for “It is more di«cult for women to Œnd a W go mainstream? Big ¢irms those jobs, so women were able to take sponsor in their organization, with few including Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, more senior roles.” Amy Schioldager, having senior colleagues pushing them and New York Life have started to who was an early employee of iShares— up to the next career level.” acquire ETF units or launch their own, the ¢irst business to market ETFs to Sponsorship is a large part of the and the upstart business is meeting the retail investors—and now manages thinking behind Women in ETFs—which traditional culture of Wall Street. BlackRock’s worldwide ETF investments, is also open to men, who account for Shundrawn Thomas, who helped says, “Honestly, it was just ‘We need about 10 percent of its members. (Reggie launch ETFs at Northern Trust someone to make this happen.’ ” Browne is a member.) Roughly a quar- and is now part of the ¢irm’s asset- Many prominent women in the indus- ter of the members rank as senior vice management leadership team, says that try have gotten their start at iShares. The presidents or higher, and local chapters he is often the only African American business was originally developed by are designed to let rising women take on participating on industry panels with

THE ATLANTIC MARCH  21 •STUDY OF STUDIES angry while driving are DISPATCHES more likely than others to behave recklessly on the Unsafe at road. [6] So are people others at the executive level. As he has who drive fancy cars. moved up the ranks, he says, “I’m not Any Speed In one pair of studies, sitting around the table with a whole lot researchers observed of diversity.” And while it might seem The case against human drivers that drivers of expensive that absorbing a diverse ETF team BY JAKE PELINI cars (think shiny new would eventually a ect the makeup of BMWs) were less likely a  rm’s management structure, change NDER OHIO LAW, seek out distractions, like than those with older, less doesn’t necessarily trickle up. As U a driver can accrue texting. A meta-analysis expensive, or beat-up Amy Schioldager, who is retiring from 12 points’ worth of viola- of 28 studies confirms vehicles to yield to other tions within two years that typing or reading drivers and pedestri- BlackRock this year, puts it, “We all know before his license is on our phones while ans. [7] And according to senior women beget senior women.” automatically suspended. driving adverse ly a ects a four-year study, adults Seniority is a relative concept, and That is, he could be stimulus detection, reac- who played risk-glorifying when big  rms acquire smaller ones, the caught going 30 miles tion time, lane positioning, video games like Grand culture of the big  rm is likely to prevail. over the limit three times vehicle control, and, yes, Theft Auto as adoles- More than seven years after acquiring (four points each) or collision rate. [3] Some cents were more likely iShares, BlackRock still has few women cause multiple accidents researchers have con- to have risky driving in line for top corporate jobs. resulting in misdemeanor cluded that texting while habits—and to get into Yet women and people of color have reckless-driving charges driving may pose more of accidents—later on. [8] some forces on their side—notably cus- (two to four points each) an accident risk than driv- Compounding the tomers. Pension plans are a big source before losing the right to ing either under the influ- problem, few of us of capital for the asset-management drive. Should he commit ence of marijuana or at accept that we are bad industry, and Reggie Browne points vehicular manslaughter the legal alcohol limit. [4] drivers. Many people out that several state-employee retire- (six points), his license And, contrary to stereo- overestimate their driving ment systems now monitor gender and would be suspended, type, teenagers aren’t the capabilities thanks to racial diversity among their invest- but he could get it primary o enders: A sur- a cognitive bias known ment manag ers. If you can’t meet their back in as little as six vey of more than 2,000 as the illusion of con- months. Other states adults suggests that they trol, which is predictive requirements, he says, “you are done.” have similarly forgiving are just as likely as teens of dangerous driving Last winter, State Street launched an laws. Considering that to have texted behind the behavior. [9] We may be ETF called Š‹Œ, to track the perfor- 94 percent of crashes wheel, and substantially especially prone to over- mance of big companies that have high involve some form of more likely to have talked confidence when we think levels of gender diversity on their boards driver error or impair- on their cellphone. [5] no one is watching. One and among their senior leader ship. The ment immediately before Which isn’t to say study found that we’re California State Teachers’ Retirement impact, [1] you have to we’re all equally bad in more likely to engage in System made an initial investment wonder: Are we too toler- the driver’s seat. Perhaps aggressive behavior such of $250 million in Š‹Œ on the basis of ant of bad driving— or is unsurprisingly, people as cutting across a lane research showing that increas ing a com- the problem more basic? who report becoming when we don’t have a pany’s diversity leads to higher returns. Are we, as humans, passenger. [10] The growing recognition that more- simply not suited to Driverless cars are diverse teams perform better— possibly the task? looking better and even better than teams with high IQs, According to one better: They won’t research has suggested—is giving big analysis, 4 million of text with each other, –irms a –inancial incentive, not just a the nearly 11 million or get angry. They crashes that occur won’t play Grand moral imperative, to move the needle. annually could po- Theft Auto in their As a McKinsey study reported last year, tentially be avoided o -hours. And they “Companies’ commitment to gender if distractions were won’t cut you o just diversity is at an all-time high, but they eliminated. [2] But for the hell of it. Even are struggling to put their commit- instead, we actively if they’re BMWs. ment into practice.” The GAO noted a similar problem with racial diver- THE STUDIES: National Academy of Sciences, Research Center, June 2010) [8] Hull et al., “A Longitudinal sity. That it isn’t easy is all the more March 2016) [6] Dahlen and White, “The Big Study of Risk-Glorifying Video [1] Singh, “Critical Reasons for [3] Caird et al., “A Meta-Analysis of Five Factors, Sensation Seeking, Games and Reckless Driving” reason to look to the ETF business as Crashes Investigated in the the E ects of Texting on Driving” and Driving Anger in the Predic- (Psychology of Popular Media National Motor Vehicle Crash (Accident Analysis and Prevention, tion of Unsafe Driving” (Person- Culture, Oct. 2012) an example. Causation Survey” (National High- Oct. 2014) ality and Individual Di erences, [9] Stephens and Ohtsuka, “Cogni- way Tra ic Safety Administration, [4] Reed and Robbins, “The E ect Oct. 2006) tive Biases in Aggressive Drivers” Feb. 2015) of Text Messaging on Driver [7] Pi et al., “Higher Social Class (Personality and Individual Di er- [2] Dingus et al., “Driver Crash Behaviour” (Transport Research Predicts Increased Unethical ences, May 2014) Bethany McLean is a  nancial journalist Risk Factors and Prevalence Laboratory, Sept. 2008) Behavior” (Proceedings of the [10] Shinar and Compton, “Aggres- Evaluation Using Naturalistic [5] Madden and Rainie, “Adults National Academy of Sciences, sive Driving” (Accident Analysis and the author of several books. Driving Data” (Proceedings of the and Cell Phone Distractions” (Pew March 2012) and Prevention, Oct. 2014)

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battles involving preemption, the princi- ple that state law trumps local regulation, just as federal law supersedes state law. It hasn’t gone well for the city dwellers. Close observers of these clashes expect them to proliferate in the years to come, with similar results. “We are about to see a shit storm of state and fed- eral preemption orders, of a magnitude greater than anything in history,” says Mark Pertschuk of Grassroots Change, which tracks such laws through an ini- tiative called Preemption Watch. By the group’s count, at least 36 states intro- duced laws preempting cities in 2016. State legislatures have put their oar in on issues ranging from the expansive to the eccentric. Common examples in- volve blocking local minimum-wage and sick-leave ordinances, which are opposed by business groups, and bans on plastic grocery bags, which arouse retailers’ ire. Some states have prohibited cities from enacting ‰rearm regulations, frustrating leaders who say cities have diŠerent gun problems than do rural areas. Alabama •POLITICS and Arizona both passed bills targeting “sanctuary cities”—those that do not co- operate with the enforcement of federal Red State, Blue City immigration laws. Even though courts threw out much of that legislation, other The United States is coming to resemble two countries, one states have considered their own versions. rural and one urban. What happens when they go to war? Arizona also made sure cities BY DAVID A. GRAHAM couldn’t ban the gifts in Happy Meals (cities elsewhere had talked about out- š› œžŸ¡›¢ £¡¤¡›£ now and most statehouses, Democrats are lawing them, on the theory that they lure has its most metropolitan turning to local ordinances as their best kids to McDonald’s), and when some of T president in recent memory: hope on issues ranging from gun control its cities cracked down on puppy mills, it a Queens-bred, skyscraper- to the minimum wage to transgender barred local regulation of pet breeders, building, apartment-dwelling Man- rights. Even before Inauguration Day, too. Cities in Oklahoma can’t regulate hattanite. Yet it was rural America that big-city mayors laid plans to nudge the e-cigarettes. Mississippi decreed that carried Donald Trump to victory; the new administration leftward, especially towns can’t ban sugary drinks, and the president got trounced in cities. Repub- on immigration—and, should that fail, to beverage industry is expected to press lican reliance on suburbs and the country- join together in resisting its policies. other states to follow suit. side isn’t new, of course, but in the presi- But if liberal advocates are clinging to Most of these laws enforce conserva- dential election, the gulf between urban the hope that federalism will allow them tive policy preferences. That’s partly be- and nonurban voters was wider than it to create progressive havens, they’re cause Republicans enjoy unprecedented had been in nearly a century. Hillary Clin- overlooking a big problem: Power may control in state capitals—they hold 33 ton won 88 of the country’s 100 biggest be decentralized in the American system, governorships and majorities in 32 state counties, but still went down to defeat. but it devolves to the state, not the city. legislatures. The trend also reflects a American cities seem to be cleav- Recent events in red states where cities broader shift: Americans are in the midst ing from the rest of the country, and the are pockets of liberalism are instructive, of what’s been called “the Big Sort,” as temptation for liberals is to try to embrace and cautionary. Over the past few years, they ™ock together with people who share that trend. With Republicans controlling city governments and state legislatures similar socioeconomic pro‰les and poli- the presidency, both houses of Congress, have fought each other in a series of tics. In general, that means rural areas are

24 MARCH  THE ATLANTIC Illustration by STEPHAN SCHMITZ becom ing more conservative, and cities Chamber of Commerce estimated that subversive politics. Moreover, many more liberal. Even the reddest states con- the city had lost nearly $285 million and municipalities brought trouble on them- tain liberal cities: Half of the U.S. metro 1,300 jobs—and that was before the NBA selves, spending pro²igately to lure rail- areas with the biggest recent popula- yanked its 2017 All-Star Game from the roads through town. Unable to make tion gains are in the South, and they are city. Asheville, a bohemian tourist mag- good on their debts, some towns and Democratic. Texas alone is home to four net in the Blue Ridge Mountains, lost mil- cities dissolved, leaving states holding such cities; Clinton carried each of them. lions from canceled conferences alone. the bag and inspiring laws that barred Increasingly, the most important political For Asheville residents, the series cities from independently issuing bonds. and cultural divisions are not between of preemption bills felt like bullying. In an 1868 decision, the jurist John For- red and blue states but between red “People are furious. They’re confused,” rest Dillon declared that cities were states and the blue cities within. Esther Manheimer, Asheville’s mayor, entirely beholden to their state legisla- Nowhere has this tension been more told me as her city battled to retain con- ture: “It breathes into them the breath dramatic than in North Carolina. The trol of its water system. “We’re a very of life, without which they cannot exist. state made headlines last March when desirable city to live in. We’re on all the As it creates, so may it destroy. If it may its GOP-dominated general assembly top-10 lists. How would anyone have an destroy, it may abridge and control.” abruptly overturned a Charlotte ordi- issue with the way Asheville is running Today’s clampdowns on cities echo nance banning discrimination against its city, or the things that the people of 19th-century anxieties about urban pro- LGBT people (and stating, among other Asheville value?” gressivism, demographics, and insol- things, that transgender people could vency. Many of the southern cities that use the bathroom of their choice). Legis- £¤¥¦§£¨ ©ª¤«¦¨¦¬ª cher- have been targeted for preemption are lators didn’t just reverse Charlotte’s ordi- N ishes the New England town-hall seen as magnets for out-of-state inter- nance, though; the state law, HB2, also meeting as the foundation of American lopers. Republican of´iceholders have barred every city in the state from pass- democracy, and once upon a time, it was. blasted nondiscrimination ordinances ing nondiscrimination regulations, and But the Constitution doesn’t mention like Charlotte’s as contravening nature banned local minimum-wage laws, too. cities at all, and since the late 19th cen- and Christian morality. They’ve argued North Carolina’s legislature wasn’t tury, courts have accepted that cities are that a patchwork of wage and sick-leave new to preemption—previously, it had creatures of the state. laws will drive away businesses, and that banned sanctuary cities, prohibited towns Some states delegate certain powers fracking bans will sti²e the economy. from destroying guns con‹scated by the to cities, but states remain the higher Yet the economic reality that under- police, and blocked local fracking regula- authority, even if city dwellers don’t pinned rural-urban distrust in the 19th tions. It had restructured the Greensboro realize it. “Most people think, We have century is now inverted: In most states, city council so as to dilute Democratic an election here, we elect a mayor and our agriculture is no longer king. Rural clout. In Wake County, city council, we organize our areas are struggling, while densely home to Raleigh, it had democracy—we should have packed areas with highly educated redrawn the districts for Rural voters a right to control our own workforces and socially liberal life - both the school board and harbor city in our own way,” says styles ²ourish. In turn, rural voters har- county commission, shift- growing Gerald Frug, a Harvard Law bor growing resentment toward those ing power from urban to resentment professor and an expert on in cities, from Austin to Atlanta, from suburban voters. The state toward cities local government. “You go Birmingham to Chicago. had seized Asheville’s air- from Austin to any place in America and In this context of increasing rural- port and tried to seize its to Atlanta. ask, ‘Do you think this city urban division, people on both sides water system too. Law- can control its own destiny?’ of the political aisle have warmed to makers had also passed ‘Of course it can!’ The popu- posi tions typically associated with their a bill wresting control of Charlotte’s lar conception of what cities do runs in adversaries. The GOP has long viewed airport from the city and handing it to a direct con²ict with the legal reality.” itself as the party of decentralization, new commission. The path to the doctrine of state criticizing Democrats for trying to dic- HB2 was di”erent, though—it set o” supremacy was rocky. In 1857, when tate to local communities from Capitol a ‹erce nationwide backlash, including New York State snatched some of New Hill, but now Republicans are the ones a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit and York City’s powers— including its police preempting local government. Mean- boycotts by businesses, sports leagues, force— riots followed. But after the Civil while, after years of seeing Democratic and musicians. Since corporate expan- War, the tide of public and legal opin- reforms overturned by preemption, the sions, conventions, and concerts tend to ion turned against local government. party of big government ´inds itself take place in cities, North Carolina’s cit- Following rapid urban growth, fueled championing decentralized power. ies have su”ered the most. Within two in part by immigration, cities came to Both sides may ´ind their new months of HB2’s passage, Charlotte’s be seen as dens of licentiousness and positions unexpectedly dif´icult. As

THE ATLANTIC MARCH  25 have police directing DISPATCHES traic, but their method of doing it is whistling at you, yelling at you, North Carolina’s experience shows, pulling you over, giving preemption-happy state governments you a ticket,” says Derren have a tendency to overreach: The state Patterson, an American supreme court ruled the attempted who owns a walking- takeover of Asheville’s water system tour agency in La Paz. unconstitutional. Federal courts struck “Whereas the way the down the redistricting eorts in Greens- zebras do it, if a car stops boro and Wake County. The takeover of in the crosswalk, they will Charlotte’s airport foundered when the lay across his hood.” In addition to their FAA pointed out that the state didn’t traic duties, the have the authority to transfer the air- cebri- tas visit schools and port’s certi ication. In November, vot- hospitals, and appear in ers ousted Governor Pat McCrory, in parades and on televi- part because of HB2’s deep unpopularity. sion. Most are students In a particularly odd twist, last sum- from disadvantaged or mer Republicans in the North Carolina BIG IN BOLIVIA troubled backgrounds; statehouse joined Democrats in rejecting in exchange for working a bill, oered by a powerful out going Re- ZEBRAS IN part-time as cebritas, publican senator, to redistrict Asheville’s they receive a small city council. In a heated debate, Repre- THE STREETS stipend. A project called sentative Michael Speciale, a Repub lican, Zebra for a Day lets tour- mocked his colleagues for suddenly act- ists and locals alike dress ing as if they knew better than the people EBRAS ARE After a meeting with up as zebras and get a of Asheville. “We may not agree ideologi- Z running rampant Mockus, Pablo Groux, taste of the experience. cally with the citizens of Asheville or the through the who worked for La Paz’s By all accounts, local city council of Asheville,” he said. “I’m streets of La Paz, Bolivia, government, was inspired drivers have grown more where they can be seen to make his city’s “zebra cautious and mannerly sorry, but we don’t need to agree with hanging out in groups, crossings” (striped since the cebritas arrived, them, because we don’t live there.” interacting with drivers, crosswalks) come alive. and the mood on the By and large, though, cities hold the and even directing traf- La Paz’s cebritas employ streets has improved. weaker hand. It makes sense that these fic. The cebritas, as they similar tactics to Bogotá’s “They may be dressed up areas, Žnding themselves economically are known, aren’t of the mimes—they dance, as zebras,” says Kathia vital, increasingly progressive, and politi- equid variety—rather, gesture comically at driv- Salazar Peredo, one of the cally disempowered, would want to use they’re local volunteers ers, and help pedestrians program’s early organiz- local ordinances as a bulwark against dressed in full-body safely cross the street. ers, “but they defend conservative state and federal policies. zebra costumes. When the program what is human about But this gambit is likely to backŽre. In- La Paz’s cebritas launched in 2001, it the city.” In December, sofar as states have sometimes granted program is a spiritual included just 24 zebras; the cebritas won the cities leeway to enact policy in the past, successor to a 1990s-era today, La Paz has 265, Guangzhou International that forbearance has been the result Colombian initiative and the cities of El Alto, Award for Urban Innova- of political norms, not legal structures. launched by Bogotá’s Tarija, and Sucre have tion, which recognizes Once those norms crumble, and state then-mayor, Antanas dozens more. cities and regions with legislatures decide to assert their author- Mockus, who dispatched According to Patricia innovative approaches ity, cities will have very little recourse. mimes to tease and Grossman, who headed to improving public life. shame the city’s drivers the program from 2005 The award’s organizers An important lesson of last year’s for breaking traic rules. to 2011, the cebritas at commended La Paz for its presidential election is that American Mockus, a philosopher one time used whistles response to a “very seri- political norms are much weaker than and mathematician, be- and flags. But organiz- ous challenge” confront- they had appeared, allowing a scandal- lieved that Colombians ers realized that this ing cities worldwide—the plagued, unpopular candidate to were more afraid of ridi- defeated the purpose— subordination of pedestri- triumph— in part because voters outside cule than of punishment. Grossman told me the ans to cars—with “great of cities objected to the pace of cultural He appears to have been zebras were acting like humor and understand- change. Another lesson is that the United onto something: The “civilian police.” Today, ing,” and said they hoped States is coming to resemble two sepa- mimes contributed to a they focus more on the project might inspire rate countries, one rural and one urban. 50 percent decrease in nudging people toward “more civilized streets” Only one of them, at present, appears traic fatalities in Bogotá good behavior. “On a lot around the world.

entitled to self-determination. during his tenure. of busy corners you will — Isabel Henderson IN PICTURESCORBISGETTY

26 MARCH  THE ATLANTIC

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in on the action: It recently announced Aristotle, a voice-controlled AI device that can soothe babies, read bedtime stories, and tutor older kids. These voice systems might eventu- ally go from something you talk to on a device to something that’s in your head. Numerous companies—including Sony and Apple—have developed wireless earbuds with microphones, so your vir- tual helper might be able to coach you on dates and interviews or discreetly remind you to take your meds. You might even be able to commu- nicate back without making a sound.  has developed a system that uses sensors on the skin of the throat and neck to interpret nerve activity. When users silently move their tongues as if speaking, the system can tell what words they’re forming— even if they don’t pro- duce any noise and barely move their lips. Talking Cereal Boxes •TECHNOLOGY  Your main AI agent won’t be the only new voice in your life. You’ll likely confront a cacophony of appliances and Our Bots, Ourselves services chiming in, since companies want you to use their proprietary sys- How the descendants of Siri and Alexa could change our tems. Ryan Gavin, who oversees Micro- daily lives, our thoughts, and our relationships soft’s Cortana, says that in 10 years you BY MATTHEW HUTSON might select furniture at the mall and say, “Hey, Cortana, can you work with    , do best, or what we most enjoy. Here’s the Pottery Barn bot to arrange payment arti cial intelligence will replace what to expect. and delivery?” Consider this a digitally I a lot of human jobs, from driving democratized version of the old power trucks to analyzing X-rays. But it A Voice in Your Head move: “Have your bot call my bot.” will also work with us, taking over mun- Anyone who’s used Siri (on Apple Nova Spivack, a futurist and entre- dane personal tasks and enhancing our products) or Alexa (on Amazon Echo) preneur who works with AI, says a wear- cognitive capabilities. As AI continues has already spoken with a digital assis- able device like Google Glass might, for to improve, digital assistants—often in tant. In the future, such “conversational example, recognize a book and then the form of disembodied voices—will platforms” will be our primary means of connect you to an online voice repre- become our helpers and collaborators, interacting with AI, according to Kun Jing, senting that book so you can ask it ques- managing our schedules, guiding us who oversees a digital assistant called tions. Everything in the world could through decisions, and making us bet- Duer for the Chinese search engine be up for a chat. (“Hello, box of Corn ter at our jobs. We’ll have something Baidu. The big tech companies are racing Flakes. Am I allergic to you?”) Your akin to Samantha from the movie Her to create the one agent to rule them all: In agent might also augment reality with or Jarvis from Iron Man: AI “agents” addi tion to Siri, Alexa, and Duer, there’s visual overlays—showing you a gro- that know our likes and dislikes, and Microsoft’s Cortana, Facebook’s M, and cery list as you shop or displaying facts

that free us up to focus on what humans Google Assis tant. Even Mattel is getting about strangers as you meet them. All AT JEFFERSON © THOMAS FOUNDATION ORTIGETTY; DAGLI DEAG. THE UNIVERSITY FROM OF VIRGINIA LOAN MONTICELLOON

: Al-Jazari, an Arab : Thomas JeŠ erson : Bell Labora- A BRIEF scholar and mechanical genius, acquires a device with two con- tories introduces lays out plans for programmable nected pens that can create a Audrey, the first CHRONICLE OF automatons that could serve copy of any document written speech-recognition ROBOTIC HELPERS drinks and play music. with one of them. system.

HISTORY 1200 11800 8 0 0 1950

2 8 MARCH  THE ATLANTIC Illustration by ALVARO DOMINGUEZ of which sounds rather intrusive. Not out a new XFiles script and mock Craigs- vacuum cleaners and other relatively to worry, says Subbarao Kambhampati, list ads and IMDb content warnings. rudimentary robots. How will we relate the president of the Asso ciation for the to AI agents that speak to us in human Advancement of Arti cial Intel ligence: Mutual Understanding voices and seem to understand us on a Future agents, like trusted friends, will 4 Most machine-learning sys- deep level? be able to read you and know when to tems are unable to explain in human Spivack, the futurist, pictures peo- interrupt—and when to leave you alone. terms why they made a decision or what ple partnering with lifelong virtual they intend to do next. But research ers companions. You’ll give an infant an Smarter Together are working to ”ix that. The military’s intelligent toy that learns about her and 3 In 1997, a reigning world chess Defense Advanced Research Projects tutors her and grows along with her. “It champion, Garry Kasparov, lost a Agency recently announced a plan to starts out as a little cute stu™ ed animal,” match to the supercomputer Deep Blue. invest signi”icantly in explainable AI, he says, “but it evolves into something He later found that even an amateur or XAI, to make machine- learning sys- that lives in the cloud and they access player armed with a mediocre computer tems more correctable, predictable, and on their phone. And then by 2050 or could outmatch the smartest player or trustworthy. Armed with XAI, your digi- whatever, maybe it’s a brain implant.” the most powerful computer working tal assis tant might be able to tell you it Among the many questions raised by alone. Since then, others have pursued picked a certain driving route because it such a scenario, Spivack asks: “Who human-computer collaborations in the knows you like back roads, or that it sug- owns our agents? Are they a property of arts and sciences. gested a word change so that the tone of Google?” Could our oldest friends be A sub eld of AI called computational your email would be friendlier. In addi- revoked or reprogrammed at will? And creativity forges algorithms that can tion, with more awareness, “the robot without our trusted assistants, will we write music, paint portraits, and tell jokes. would know when to ask for help,” says be helpless? So far the results haven’t threatened to Man uela Veloso, the head of Carnegie El Kaliouby, of A™ ectiva, sees a lot of put artists out of work, but these systems Mellon’s machine-learning depart ment, questions around autonomy: What can can augment human imagination. David who calls this skill “symbiotic autonomy.” an assistant do on our behalf? Should it Cope, a composer at UC Santa Cruz, cre- Researchers are developing arti cial be able to make purchases for us? What ated a program he named Emily Howell, emotional intelligence, or emotion AI, if we ask it to do something illegal— with which he chats and shares musical so that our agents can better understand could it override our commands? She ideas. “It is a conversationalist composer us, too. Companies such as A™ ectiva and also worries about privacy. If an AI friend,” he says. “It is a true assistant.” Emotient (which was bought by Apple) agent determines that a teenager is She scores some music, he tells her what have created systems that read emotions depressed, can it inform his parents? he likes and doesn’t like, and together in users’ faces. IBM’s Watson can analyze Spivack says we’ll need to decide they compose symphonies. text not just for emotion but for tone and, whether agents have something like IBM’s Watson, the AI system best over time, for personality, according to doctor-patient or attorney-client privi- known for winning Jeopardy, has en- Rob High, Watson’s chief technology oœ - lege. Can they report us to law enforce- gaged in creative collaborations, too. It cer. Eventually, AI systems will analyze a ment? Can they be subpoenaed? And suggested clips from the horror movie person’s voice, face, posture, words, con- what if there’s a secu rity breach? Some Morgan to use for a trailer, for instance, text, and user history for a better under- people worry that advanced AI will take allowing the editor to produce a  nished standing of what the user is feeling and over the world, but Kambhampati, of product in a day rather than in weeks. how to respond. The next step, accord- the Association for the Advancement of Eventually, digital assistants may co- ing to Rana el Kaliou by, Affect iva’s co- Arti cial Intel ligence, thinks malicious author anything from the perfect corpo- founder and CEO, will be an emotion hacking is the far greater risk. Given the rate memo to the next great American chip in our phones and TVs that can intimacy that we may devel op with our novel. Jamie Brew, a comedy writer for react in real time. “I think in the future we’ll ever-present assistants, if the wrong the website ClickHole, developed a pre- assume that every device just knows how person were able to break in, what was dictive text interface that takes examples to read your emotions,” she says. once our greatest auxiliary could be- of a literary form and assists in producing come our greatest liability. new pieces, by giving the user a series of Getting Attached choices for what word to write next. To- 5 We already know that people can Matthew Hutson is the author of The

STRCALVIN CAMPBELLAP; BEN MARGOTAP CAMPBELLAP; STRCALVIN gether he and the interface have churned form emotional bonds with Roomba 7 Laws of Magical Thinking.

: An MIT professor named 2017 Joseph Weizenbaum invents Eliza, : The butler Jeeves invites : Apple introduces Siri, the first chatbot, and is surprised users to pose questions in which grew out of a DARPA : People begin by the depth of emotional under- natural language (as opposed program to develop an AI interacting with standing that users attribute to it. to keywords) on Ask.com. assistant for the military. AI via brain implants.

1 9 5 0 1975 1 9 7 5 2 0 0 0 2000 PREDICTIONS PREDICTIONS2 0 5 0 2050

THE ATLANTIC MARCH  2 9 DISPATCHES

•WORKS IN PROGRESS 1 A Resort for the Apocalypse Texas’s Trident Lakes is the latest entry in a booming market for luxury bunkers. BY BENN ROWENOW N

N JULY 25, 1961, car depot 2 —says sales O President John of its $500,000-plus units F. Kennedy spoke increased 700 percent last are building entire survival to the American people of a year. (This compares with a communities in remote loca- 5 need “new to our shores” for more modest 150 percent in- tions. Some of them share emergency preparedness, crease across other Rising S literal foundations with Cold including fallout shelters. units.) Bunker companies War buildings: One proj- The bunkers of that era— won’t disclose customers’ ect, Vivos XPoint, involves Brutalist, cement, with names, but Gary Lynch, refurbishing 575 munitions- foldout beds and stockpiled Rising S’s CEO, told me his storage bunkers in South food—were designed to pro- clients include Holly wood Dakota; Vivos Europa One, in tect families in the event that actors and “highly recogniz- Germany, is a Soviet armory the Cold War turned hot 1 . able sports stars.” Other turned luxury community It never did, but fears luxury shelters are marketed with a subterranean swim- of cataclysm—nuclear and to businesspeople, from ming pool 3 . otherwise—are back. So are bankers to Bill Gates, who By contrast, Trident shelters, with a twist. Growing is rumored to have bunkers Lakes 4 , a 700-acre, preparedness,” it is the proj- numbers of “preppers” hope beneath his houses in Wash- $330 million development in ect of a group of inves tors to ride out various doomsday ington State and California. Ector, Texas, an hour and a who incorporated as Vintu- scenarios in luxury. Whereas Cold War shel- half north of Dallas, is being ary Holdings. Accord ing to Rising S Bunkers, one ters, by design, were near the built from scratch. Marketed James O’Connor, the CEO, of several companies that home and easy to get to, a as a “5-star playground, Trident Lakes “is designed

specialize in high-end handful of bunker companies equipped with DEFCON 1 for enjoyment like any other 3: TERRAVIVOS 2, 4, 6: CHRIS PHILPOT; 1: BETTMANN§GETTY; shelters— its Presidential model includes a gym, a workshop, a rec room, a greenhouse, and a

RIFLE RANGE 4 DRIVING RANGE PHASE 1 BUNKERS SSPA

PHASE 3 BUNKERS

PHASE 2 BUNKERS

ENTRY GATE HHOTEL POLO ARCHERY SHOPS

STABLES

30 MARCH  THE ATLANTIC resort.” (This pitch is rather dierent from its Cold War– 2 era counterparts: A 1963 bunker advertisement from GYM the Kelsey-Hayes company shows a family tucked under its home, with just rocking GREEN chairs for comfort 5 .) HOUSE In some regards, the plans for Trident Lakes STORAGE do resemble those for a resort. Amenities will LAUNDRY include a hotel, an athletic ROOM center, a golf course, and polo fields. The com- munity is slated to have CAR DEPOT 600 condominiums, rang- to be a 55,000-square- GENERATORS ing in price from $500,000 foot fountain 7 . By June, to $1.5 million, each with a Vintuary plans to unveil the waterfront view 6 (to which development’s entrance and WORK end, three lakes and 10 the shells of six bunkers. If all SHOP beaches will be carved out goes according to schedule, of farmland). Other features the first units will be finished me that violence “seems to are more unusual: 90 per- next year. be the unfortunate trend cent of each unit will be Je Schlegelmilch, in the U.S.” He believes the underground, armed security the deputy director of the community’s location will personnel will guard a wall National Center for Disaster prove to be ideal under surrounding the community, Preparedness at Columbia the circumstances. “Ector and there will be helipads for University, told me that oers … a very rural area,” In case things do go coming and going. the luxury-bunker trend is he said, “so the likelihood of south, Trident Lakes will As of January, only one “not just a couple of fringe having risks like that, in the oer “Navy SEAL Experi- part of the project was groups; there is real money absence of specific target- ence” self-defense training, under way: a 60-foot statue behind it—hundreds of mil- ing, is extremely low.” and a vault for family DNA. that will feature Poseidon, lions of dollars.” But why are The hope is that, down the

5: KELSEY¥HAYES; 7: PAYNE WINGATE PAYNE 7: 5: KELSEY¥HAYES; amid what is supposed wealthy people buying? line, scientists could use Some customers appear 3 genetic material to replicate 7 to be motivated by old anxi- residents who were lost to eties, recently revived—the catas trophe, thereby ensur- threat of nuclear war, or a ing “family sustainability.” national-debt default that Where these scientists might leads to unrest. Others have come from isn’t clear, but for newer fears: climate change, a group selling cataclysm, pandemics, terrorism, far-left the gesture seems an oddly and far-right extremism. The hopeful bet on the future. presidential election has brought new faces into the 6 fold, namely liberals (who also contributed to a record number of background checks—an indicator of gun purchases—on Black Friday). “Typically our sales are going to conservatives, but now liberals are purchasing,” says Lynch, the Rising S CEO. Rob Kaneiss, Trident Lakes’s chief security oicer and a former Navy SEAL, told

THE ATLANTIC MARCH  31 O 32 desire it—is merely to live in accordance with these elementary facts. among other things, that the world is hollowed-out and illumined by beams of divine divine of beams by illumined and hollowed-out is world the that things, other among tion rumbles on—Dorothy Day was most deƒnitely a saint. love, that the ƒrst shall be last and the last shall be ƒrst, and that sanctity—should you sanctity—should that and ƒrst, be shall last the and last be shall ƒrst the thatlove, Whether or not the Catholic Church makes it the o†cial—and cause for her canoniza MARCH  THE ATLANTIC From bohemian to radical to CatholicDorothy activist, Day CULTURE FILE CULTURE devoted her life to the poor, however unlovable. Dicult PeopleDicult       the saints—the radiant, aberrant radiant, saints—the the       or where, or where, or atomic into structures. and the They seen essential have buzz seen, beings next to whom the rest of us look so shifty and shoddy—is to shoddy—is and shifty so look us restof the whom to next beings has led them unblinkingly to conclude that reality is not at all what, imagine them as cutting-edge physicists. Their research, if you like, A Saint for Saint A BY JAMES PARKER BY JAMES who THE OMNIVORE we think it is. They have penetrated the everydayhavepenetratedthe They is. it think we Te Is a saint, because her holiness - “cool-mannered,tweed- wearing, and down the days; / I ed Him, down That’s the legacy of Dorothy Day,Dorothy of That’slegacy the Dorothy Day: The World Will Be Saved Works of Mercy—feeding the hun the Mercy—feeding Works of O’Neill—in a bar called the Hellthe called bar O’Neill—ina Heaven”: Francis Thompson’s “The Hound of mouth”Hole.O’Neill,“bitter with Day was about people, especially people, about Daywas For her, what the Church deƒnes as Pare her right down to her pith, strip gry, visiting the sick, sheltering the shelteringthe sick, the gry,visiting granddaughter Kate Hennessy ingranddaughterHennessyKate example, is more challenging and challenging more is example, drinking rye whiskey straight with straightwhiskey rye drinking and “monotonous grating voice,”grating“monotonous and cheekbones and a command to love. wich Village Dorothy, cub reporter, and her example, her Americanher example, her and are kaleidoscopic. There’skaleidoscopic. are Green focused purely of mission, a life, a story.Althougha What Beauty. by and itisendless. whatand doyou get? ƒerceA of set biography,and history her all away thermodynamics. of lawƒrst the as since her death, at age 83, in 1980, in 83, age at death, her since she called with some wryness “the “the wryness some with called she sacriƒce and activism— sacriƒce and activism— the images but physical principles, as inevitable buddy buddy Eugene O’Neill— has suˆered no decrease in vitality vitality in decrease no suˆered has homeless, and so on—were not pious to motherhood to Catholicism toCatholicism to motherhood to straightforward—are it) discern to tual progress (so far as we presume spiri chronology,the eventhe and interesting, intensely are theless, is reciting one of his favorite poems, injunctions or formulas for altruism in the teens of the 20th century: 20th the of teens the in mount importance of serving them. parapoor,”the undeserving and no discernible eˆect.” She’s with her poor poor people, especially those whom was. ever it than provocativetoday particularly as revisited by herby revisited as particularly from bohemianism to radicalismto bohemianism from Her history and biography, never- I ed Him, down the nights the Eugene Eugene - - - -

BETTMANNGETTY How worldly you are has nothing to do with a passport. THAT’S CONTINENTAL LincolnContinental.com/Roadtrip the arches of the years. By way of response, Dorothy person, the forgotten man. Dorothy Day lived sings “Frankie and Johnny.” Te with the forgotten man, and he was a huge pain There’s young Dorothy lying in darkness on Cu lt u re Fi le in the ass. His name was Mr. Breen, and during a work-farm bunk in Virginia, on a hunger strike, his residency at the Catholic Worker house on having been arrested, beaten, and terrorized THE OMNIVORE Mott Street he was a vituperative racist and a re for joining a picket line of su—ragists. (“I lost all hazard. His name was also Mr. O’Connell, who consciousness of any cause,” she would write of stayed for 11 ill-natured years at Maryfarm, the this episode in her memoir The Long Loneliness. “I Catholic Worker farming commune in Easton, had no sense of being a radical, making protest … Pennsylvania, slandering the other workers with- The futility of life came over me so that I could out mercy, hoarding the tools, and generally not weep but only lie there in blank misery.”) making of himself “a terror” (in Day’s words) and There she is in 1922 in Chicago, following “hateful, venomous, suspicious ” (in Hennessy’s). an abortion, a failed marriage, and two suicide One gets the sense from Hennessy’s book, and attempts, “ˆing[ing] herself about” and in love from Day’s own writing, that she reserved a special with the pugilistic, alpha-male newspaperman respect for these very di†cult people, because it Lionel Moise. was with them—so thornily particular—that she And there she is in December 1932, on East 15th Dorothy was obliged to put ˆesh on all those airy abstrac- Street, with Peter Maurin knocking at her door: Day lived tions about justice and generosity. This was, so Maurin, the street philosopher who, Hennessy to speak, where the rubber met the road. Loving writes, “didn’t say hello or goodbye, and every time with the Mr. Breen, loving Mr. O’Connell—that involved he arrived … began talking where he had left o—.” forgotten great vaulting maneuvers of self-negation. Deal- He told Dorothy that he had been looking for her. man, and he ing with them day to day was a high moral sci- Maurin is the pivot character in this story. More was a huge ence. How tolerant could or should one be? At even than the birth of Tamar, Day’s daughter (and what point was one simply indulging one’s own Hennessy’s mother), whose out-of-wedlock arrival pain in the goody-goodiness? “This turning the other cheek,” in 1926 jump-started her conversion to Catholi- ass. she wrote in her memoir Loaves and Fishes, “this cism, Maurin’s entrance marks the great shift in inviting someone else to be a potential thief or the narrative of Dorothy Day. A self-described murderer, in order that we may grow in grace— peasant, 20 years older than she was and originally how obnoxious. In that case, I believe I’d rather from France, he was a liminal ¨igure, a kind of be the striker than the meek one struck.” intellectual jongleur, who gave his ideas—a very Meekness was not in her nature. Her obedi- personal hybrid of radical politics and Catholic ence, her submission—to the Church and to the social teaching—to the air in extraordinary, rip- poor—was as headlong and headstrong in its way pling singsong. (He claimed that the word com- as her benders with Eugene O’Neill had been. But munism had been “stolen from the Church.”) A it made her whole. Or rather it joined her to the crank, perhaps. Some people, notes Hennessy, whole. In The Reckless Way of Love, a new miscel- found him ridiculous. lany of her spiritual writings, Day quotes one of But not Day. In his inspired eccentricity, Mau- the mottoes of the Industrial Workers of the World, rin gave her a hinge between the natural and the otherwise known as the Wobblies. “The old IWW supernatural, and in his exhausting monologues slogan ‘An injury to one is an injury to all,’ ” she she heard a program for action. With him she writes, “is another way of saying what Saint Paul almost instantaneously founded the Catholic said almost two thousand years ago. ‘We are all Worker movement, the entity (Hennessy calls it members of one another, and when the health “the great American novel”) to which she would of one member su—ers, the health of the whole henceforth give herself in serial gestures of the body is lowered.’ ” Which happens to be a perfect heart and commitments of the body. The move- synthesis, Peter Maurin–style, of st-in-the-air ment was rst a newspaper—The Catholic Worker, communitarianism and Christian dogma. But it which Day edited for 40-odd years—and then in also directs us to the mystical body of Dorothy short order a number of “houses of hospitality,” Day—the Catholic Worker movement, in all its some urban, some agrarian, all autonomous, aspects and expressions—and to her own non- dedicated to the provision of welcome (and food, mystical body, so present in Hennessy’s book: her and shelter) for the chronically un welcome. The body in pleasure, in pain, under political punish- newspaper continues to be published, and more DOROTHY DAY: ment, in motherhood, and nally surrendered in than 200 Catholic Worker houses and commu- THE WORLD WILL the luminous drudgery of service. BE SAVED BY nities are currently active in the United States. BEAUTY A lot of gas has been spewed recently—green, KATE HENNESSY James Parker is a contributing editor at heavy, showbiz-wizard gas—about the overlooked Scribner The Atlantic.

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Now in Paperback and eBook VINTAGE Read excerpts, author interviews, and more at VintageAnchor.com ANCHOR typhoid fever on February 20, 1862, at age 11. The BOOKS dead boy’s spirit wants to stay for the sake of his father’s visits to the “hospital-yard,” as the ghosts The Sentimental Sadist refer to their cemetery. But staying endangers him, because of an ugly twist that Saunders Ghosts and schmaltz haunt George Saunders’s has added to the usual principles of ghostology: Psychic deterioration overtakes some ghosts who Žrst novel. loiter too long after death. Saunders has played BY CALEB CRAIN with this idea before. “Why do some people get everything and I got nothing?” the corpse of a       —his irst, deceased aunt ranted in Pastoralia (2000), despite after four collections of short stories and a novella— having been a meek Pollyanna in life. Similarly, takes place in the afterlife. Or rather, it takes place in at the end of In Persuasion Nation (2006), one the “bardo,” a term that Saunders has borrowed from ghost warned another that those who tarry can Buddhism for what might be called the “justafterlife”— become “trapped here forever, reenacting their the interval between a ghost’s separation from its body deaths night after night, more agitated every year, Gand its departure for whatever comes next. As in The Sixth Sense and other Žnally to the point of insanity.” movies and television shows, the ghosts imagined by Saunders linger in our Even the sane ghosts in the new novel are world because they either don’t know they’re dead or aren’t yet resigned to disŽgured by desires they failed to act upon while leaving. “You are a wave that has crashed upon the shore,” they are told by alive, and the dis igurements have a Dantean brow beating angels who visit intermittently, but they refuse to listen. speciŽcity. One of the more talkative ghosts, for In form, the novel is a combination of Žlm script and Lincoln-focused example, is of a printer named Hans Vollman, scrapbook, alternating dialogue among the ghosts with excerpts from who appears naked and with a distended member historical accounts of the Civil War era, some genuine and some invented. because he died before he was able to consum- At the center is the ghost of Willie Lincoln, a young son of Abraham and mate his marriage to a teenager. His friend, a Mary Todd Lincoln, and the action takes place shortly after Willie dies of ghost named Roger Bevins III, manifests with

36 MARCH  THE ATLANTIC Illustration by RENAUD VIGOURT multiple sets of eyes and hands, which seem to my SHARDS,” using idiolect to refer to his rape represent the sensuous appetites that, as a clos- Te of female slaves. eted gay youth, he failed to fully explore before he Cu lt u re Fi le The vignettes are miniatures of the cruel, committed suicide. No literalized neurosis marks satirical stories that have won Saunders fans, and Willie Lincoln’s form when he emerges from several are poignant, but they don’t have much his cofin—or rather, “sick-box”—but because connection to Willie’s story. The characters in Willie is a child, he is vulnerable to a distortion question are dead, after all; their stories are over, even more extreme. If he’s not vigilant, he will be and not amenable to further development. Saun- pinned down by creeping tendrils consisting of ders bends the rules a little, giving ghosts who damned souls, which will join up to encase him sit inside a living person the power to sense the in a carapace that will degrade his consciousness person’s thoughts and transmit ideas to him. But and transform him into a series of violent and this is anti-novelistic, too. The fun of novels is that repulsive ­gures. people can’t get in one another’s heads except by This is a fairly awful peril—in fact, so cartoon- talking; the impediment multiplies the opportuni- ishly awful that as a reader I rebelled. Whatever Thanks ties to mislead and mis understand. Saunders does Willie’s sins may have been, surely death in what he can to amp up the naughtiness—three childhood was punishment enough? Moreover, to his separate ghosts take poops, for example. But as perils go, it’s a bit contrived. Hurry, President willingness a novel is bound to stagnate if characters are Lincoln! the book in effect exclaims. Someone to be cruel, incapable of taking decisive action, and it quickly has tied Willie to the oor of the mausoleum, and turns maudlin or pious if they have no chance to a monster is coming! A crude plot can be e ective, Saunders deceive one another. and I turned the pages briskly. In the real world, has been though, tendrils don’t envelop undead children able to ˜™ š›œž› ˜Ÿ¡›¢ of Saunders’s in carapaces, as far as I know, and it’s impossible probe early stories was more lively and to ignore that the tying-up in this case has been T un predictable, though his cast of charac- done by the somewhat heavy-handed author. painful ters was limited to brutes and sad sacks, and the It’s awkward, too, that the outcome of the novel questions openness of the sadism could be a little hard to hinges on whether Willie can acknowledge in time about class. take. In his debut collection, CivilWarLand in that he’s dead. A character’s struggle to accept Bad Decline (1996), for example, the longest tale the death of a loved one would be a ecting, as features a mutant, with claws instead of toes, who would a character’s struggle to face up to his own leaves a steady job in a historical-reenactment imminent death. But mercifully, no human being theme park in order to rescue a sister who has on Earth will ever need to accept that he is dead. been sold into what he fears is sex slavery. I lost And if, on some future cosmic plane, any of us ever patience when the narrator of the story wrote, of a do need to make such an acknowledgment, then neighbor who killed and ate the family dog, “Who by virtue of our being able to think about it, death could forget him, satiated and contrite, o ering will have lost much of its sting. The book’s crux, Mom a shank?” The curlicue of the word shank in other words, is either impossible or trivial. As if seems to invite the reader to admire not only to compensate, the ghosts rush about a great deal, the cleverness but also the heartlessness of the detonating “matterlightblooming” explosions diction. The character seems to be boasting of whenever one of them accepts death and shoots having mocked his own emotional attachments o to the great beyond. The pell-mell comes to before anyone else could. resemble the ­nal half hour of a superhero movie. I sympathized with the rage that I suspected In calm moments between the explosions, a was driving the sadism, however. Several decades number of ghosts tell their life stories, and the ago, corporate America began to demand that tales of disappointment, in­delity, and loss bring employees take part in goal setting, trust games, to mind Spoon River Antholog
(1915), Edgar Lee and other manipulative protocols that would com- Masters’s collection of poems in the voices of a mit their voices, if not their hearts and minds, to small Illinois town’s dead. Masters wrote in a the corporation. Saunders has written about how plain but self-consciously classic style, which alienated he felt in the job he held as a white-collar Saunders updates to antic pastiche. A soldier technical writer when his ­ction career was getting addresses his wife through a veil of simulated o the ground. By setting many of his early stories Civil War–era misspellings (“It was a terrible ­te in demented theme parks, where the disparity as I believe I rote you”). An alcoholic couple regret between corporate culture’s false cheeriness and LINCOLN IN THE in em-dash-obscured cusswords the comedown BARDO the underlying conditions of labor is grotesque, that forced them to move to a “s—hole by the GEORGE SAUNDERS he was able to satirize the psychic encroachment river.” A plantation owner boasts of “pounding Random House rather brutally. In the title story of Pastoralia, the

THE ATLANTIC MARCH  37 hero’s job is to impersonate a prehistoric caveman. violence into schmaltz. Only a portion, though: He’s expected to utter nothing but grunts all day, Te He remains uninching enough to let the reader but the joke is that he hasn’t yet sunk as low as Cu lt u re Fi le know that the puppy will now be left to starve in he can go: The human-resources department is a corn
eld. about to pressure him to rat out his cave mate. BOOKS The joke, in other words, ends up being as much   ­€ ‚ ƒ­€ of schmaltz on him as on his behalf. The note of complicity in in Lincoln in the Bardo. In some of the the degradation left me a little uncomfortable, but T historical eyewitness testimony that comfortable probably isn’t how rage is supposed Saunders has fabricated, he rivals the Victorians to make a reader feel. at death kitsch—no mean achievement. Next to Thanks to his willingness to be cruel, Saunders genuine eulogies about Willie Lincoln’s innocence has been able to probe painful questions about and gentleness, for example, he sets invented ones socioeconomic class. “Do you think you have to that praise the boy as “a sweet little mu‘n of a be rich to be nice?” a father in “Pastoralia” asks fellow.” In a concocted “Essay Upon the Loss of his son. The character intends the question to a Child,” he rhapsodizes over “the feel of the tiny be rhetorical, but the son answers, “I guess so,” hand in yours—and then the little one is gone!” and in Saunders’s universe, the son is right: Some As with “Puppy,” however, sadism does persist. people’s lives are so
nancially precarious that The decisive epiphany for Willie the ghost—that humanity, as traditionally understood, feels like he is dead—comes through sharing, in ghoulish a luxury they can’t a›ord. Tolerance, for example, detail, his father’s memory of the boy’s death and often seems out of their price range. Saunders’s his corpse’s embalmment. early stories contain ethnic slurs and o›-color He remains Sadism and sentimentality preside over the jokes about male prostitution and gay sex, as if unflinching novel hand in hand. Saunders’s Lincoln comes to signal that Saunders considered himself to to realize that “we must try to see one another … be writing about the disa›ected working-class enough to as su›ering, limited beings,” with the corollary whites that one now thinks of as Donald Trump’s let the reader that as president he must strive, in waging the constituents. Indeed, a non§iction account by know that Civil War, to “kill more e‘ciently.” When ghosts Saunders of Trump’s rallygoers, published in the puppy of blacks appear, one, who prides himself on The New Yorker last summer, was exceptionally his self-education, is caught in an endless loop insightful and clear-eyed. Saunders the reporter will be left of brawling with the ghost of the bigoted white had to respect the law that his new novel breaks: to starve in a plantation owner. Another melds his mind with He revealed his subjects’ motives through obser- cornfield. Lincoln’s and decides to try to induce the president vation and talk. “to do something for us,” as if the secret cause of Over the past decade, Saunders has progressed emancipation was a personal emotion of Lincoln’s. from theme parks to other varieties of capital- In one of Saunders’s early stories, “CivilWar- ist falseness, including sitcoms, advertising, Land in Bad Decline,” the narrator, who works in a product-testing focus groups, and the exploita- run-down historical theme park as a yes-man and tion of immigrant labor. He has also extended his
xer, says of the authentic 19th-century ghosts range of characters to include more-fortunate who happen to haunt the park, “They don’t realize types who, as we now conceive our divided coun- we’re chronologically slumming.” The park’s visi- try, might be supporters of Obama and Clinton. tors pay for the privilege of not having to realize it, The two classes meet and misunderstand each either. The reader, however, knows the score. The other in “Puppy,” a story in Tenth of December story’s ironic edge depends on Saunders’s aware- (2013), in which an upper-middle-class mother, ness, which he invites the reader to share, that a who has steeled herself to “adopt a white-trash touristic longing for the pathos of another era is dog,” catches sight of a developmentally disabled readily subject to manipulation and exploitation. boy harnessed and leashed to a tree in the dog Lincoln in the Bardo is CivilWarLand under new owner’s backyard, and recoils. Saunders has no management, sleek and professional. The sets are patience for the woman’s condescension and brightly painted; the period detail is well curated; squeamishness, and it’s the mother of the “white the reenactors have had top-notch dialect coaches. trash” family who gets to deliver the story’s moral, The ghosts, formerly dupes, are now heroes, and which Saunders has her repeat, in italics: “Love if you like a salty-sweet mix of cruelty and sap- was liking someone how he was and doing things piness, you’ll enjoy your visit. But you can’t see to help him get even better.” This is a bit treacly, backstage anymore. The new administration has unfortunately. The cost, for Saunders, of moving much tighter message discipline. beyond the stylized violence of his early stories seems to be the transmutation of a portion of his Caleb Crain is the author of Necessary Errors.

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1 888–304–0550 CASPER.COM was considered a magnetic preacher and, like his BOOKS brothers, was an irrepressible author of briskly selling books. All told, the family published more Before Straight and Gay than 200 volumes. An exemplary Victorian family, or so it seems. The discreet, disorienting passions of the Victorian era But let us borrow one of Charles Dickens’s favorite literary devices and pull the roof oš the Benson BY DEBORAH COHEN home to take a peek inside. It is 1853. Edward is 23 years old, handsome, determined, and already      of eminent embarked on a promising career. Perched on his Victorian families, the Bensons were an intimidating lot. knee is his cousin Minnie, a pleasingly childish Edward Benson, the family’s patriarch, had vaulted up the 12-year-old. Edward has just kissed Minnie to seal clerical hierarchy, awing superiors with his ferocious work their engagement. Wait 40-odd years, lift the habits and cowing subordinates with his reforming zeal. roof again, and we ™nd grown-up Minnie tucked Queen Victoria appointed him the archbishop of Canter- in her marital bed with Lucy Tait, the daughter Ebury, the head of the Anglican Church, in 1883. Edward’s wife, Minnie, was of the previous archbishop, who has been living to all appearances a perfect match. Tender where he was severe, she was a with the Bensons at Edward’s invitation. At the warmhearted hostess renowned for her conversation. Most important, she Sussex home where Minnie and Lucy moved three was Edward’s equal in religious devotion. As a friend daringly pronounced, years after Edward’s death, they were joined by Minnie was “as good as God and as clever as the Devil.” Minnie’s daughter Margaret, the Egyptologist, All ™ve of Edward and Minnie Benson’s adult ošspring distinguished cohabiting with her intimate lady friend. As for themselves in public life. Arthur Benson served as the master of Magda- the Benson boys, well, none of the three married, lene College at Cambridge University, wrote the lyrics to Edward Elgar’s and contemporaries in the know had a pretty good hymn “Land of Hope and Glory,” and was entrusted with the delicate task understanding of their romantic feelings for men, of co-editing Queen Victoria’s letters for publication. His brother Fred in all likelihood never acted upon. The Bensons was a best-selling writer, well known today for the series of satirical Lucia were, as Simon Goldhill writes in his subtle, smart novels (televised for the second time in 2014, on the BBC), which poked book, a very queer family indeed. good-natured fun at the pomposities of English provincial life. Their sister Wresting the Victorians from the prison of Margaret became a pioneering Egyptologist, the ™rst woman to lead an dour, prudish stereotypes to which their children archaeological dig in the country and to publish her ™ndings. Even the fam- and grandchildren consigned them is a project ily’s apostate, the youngest brother, Hugh, a convert to Roman Catholicism, that has occupied scholars for more than a few

40 MARCH  THE ATLANTIC Illustration by MARC BURCKHARDT decades now. Goldhill, a professor at Cambridge, six children (ages seven months to 11 years) for has produced an insightful contribution to that Te half a year. Even allowing for the extravagant effort. But even more resonant for our own Cu lt u re Fi le language in which Victorian women conducted times of sexual and gender heterodoxy—when their female friendships, Minnie’s letters to her ambiguity is the new frontier—is what the Ben- favorites were unremittingly romantic: “Did you sons can tell us about the prehistory. As a great possess me, or I you, my Heart’s Beloved, as we deal of queer history has by now demonstrated, sat there together on Thursday and Friday—as we the strictly dened categories of “homosexual” held each other close, as we kissed.” Another let- and “heterosexual” are relatively new: bright ter to the same woman closed with equal rapture: lines drawn across the late-20th-century sexual “My true lover, my true love, see, I am your true landscape that made “coming out” a dichoto - lover, your true love.” mous choice. Edward Benson clearly understood, and to a For the Victorians, the situation was much certain degree accepted, his wife’s longings for more fluid. A woman’s romantic interest in other women. The subject was discussed by the another woman could be seen as excellent prepa- couple, not hidden. Edward took Minnie on his ration for marriage. Though sex between men knee to pray together about these stirrings. “Ah, was a criminal o„ense (in Britain, lesbianism What was it my husband’s pain, what he bore, & how lovingly, was invisible before the law), there was, as yet, like to live how gently,” she wrote years later in a journal. hardly a homosexual identity dened by same- And it was of course Edward who invited Lucy sex desire. Until the early 1950s, a man could before and Tait, 15 years younger than his wife, to live with have sex with another man without thinking during the the Benson family. Paying homage to Edward’s himself in any respect “abnormal”—as long as invention of generosity and to the “fullness and strength of he steered clear of the feminine dress or behavior modern married love,” Minnie worked to reconcile her that marked a so-called pouf or queen. To pry o„ sexual and spiritual longings. If “Love is God,” the Benson roof is to ask the question: What was sexuality? as she came to believe, then passion could exist it like to live before and during the invention of without physical expression—though, as she modern sexuality? acknowledged, with Miss Tait lying beside her, the bed continued to be their “own region of mistake.” ‘ ’““ ”•– —˜™š›œ in the Benson household, the most discomting to our ‘ ’““ ˜‘ ”•™œ sounds bewildering, that, O own sensibilities is Edward’s romance for Goldhill, is precisely the point. Absolute with Minnie. She was just 11 when Edward decided I as Victorian moral certainties appeared to make her his wife, though at her mother’s insis- to be, they nonetheless permitted a great deal tence, he agreed to delay the wedding until Minnie of ambiguity in matters romantic and sexual, turned 18. In opting for a child bride, Edward was even in the most respectable of families. The calculating as well as passionate: It would be a few marriage of Minnie and Edward—“intricate, years before he had enough money to marry, and sensitive, caring, and deeply committed,” as here was an opportunity to mold his future wife Goldhill describes it—ran alongside her love for to suit his own pious requirements. For her part, women. True, the complications of the Benson Minnie was girlishly eager to please. marriage caused some anguish on both sides and Domineering, moody, given to ts of displea- undeniably left their children confused as to the sure, a end for detail, Edward was a cartoonish state of their parents’ feelings for each other. But Victorian patriarch. His children were frightened to his credit, Goldhill doesn’t attempt to tidy up of him. “He brought too heavy guns to bear on the Bensons’ complexities. positions so lightly fortied as children’s hearts,” Like the best writers working in a biographical his son Fred wrote. Minnie put up with Edward’s vein recently (many of whom eschew the conven- bullying, accommodated his ambitions, soothed tions and certainties of biography), he uses the him when he was depressed, entertained the inner conflicts of his subjects to immerse his hordes of guests that high clerical o§ce entailed, readers in an unfamiliar and disorienting world. and only occasionally lapsed into bouts of He doesn’t diagnose the Bensons retrospectively ill health. and anachronistically as a family of repressed A VERY QUEER But there was much more going on in the arch- FAMILY INDEED: homosexuals. Instead, he dwells on the equivo- bishop’s marriage than a simple story of feminine SEX, RELIGION, cations and the accommodations that could be acquiescence. Minnie’s intimate friendships with AND THE BENSONS made “within the tramlines and travails of a very IN VICTORIAN other ladies frequently tipped into romances, one BRITAIN conventional life.” Not least, Goldhill appreci- of which—with a Miss Hall—caused her to prolong SIMON GOLDHILL ates the Bensons’ own feat of simultaneously a trip to Germany, away from her husband and University of Chicago Press probing and withholding as they churned out

THE ATLANTIC MARCH  41 all those books, many of them devoted to their the term homosexual was coming into currency, family relations. Te he did not use it until 1924, the year before he The Bensons’ memoiristic zeal was phenom- Cu lt u re Fi le died. And when he did use it, after a theoretical enal—from Arthur’s two-volume, 1,000-page conversation on the subject with Fred, he wrote biography of his forbidding father, to Fred’s BOOKS the word out—“the homo sexual question”—in a three volumes of memoirs and book about his way that suggested unfamiliarity. mother’s life after his father’s death, to Hugh’s There’s another way of understanding reti- autobiographical musings. And that is merely a cence, though, which Fred, Arthur’s sunnier sampling of the family’s output (Arthur’s diaries brother, supplies. Although Fred lived to see the ran to 180 volumes), and leaves out the novels new mores of the post–World War I world (he was in which they most freely worked over the inci- the last of the family to go, in 1940), in a curious dents of family life. Yet the Bensons’ loquacity fashion he clung to his Victorian inheritance. He was remarkable chiefly, as Goldhill notes, for saw the virtue—and, perhaps more important, the its reserve. utility—of reserve. It laid the groundwork for a Arthur’s biographical avalanche gave away person’s privacy. What wasn’t said and couldn’t almost nothing about how he felt about his august be named allowed a latitude for action. parent: “His heart and mind remained, and still Fred’s enigmatic judgment about his mother’s remain, a good deal of mystery to me.” In one of marriage was characteristic: “If her marriage was Arthur’s novels, by contrast, a small boy named a mistake, what marriage since the world began Arthur writes “I hate papa” on a scrap of paper, was a success?” Writing in 1930, Fred thought which he buries in the garden. About the vexed the much-deplored “Victorian reticences and marriage of the elder Bensons, Arthur and Fred Virginia secrecies” needed defending in an increasingly were equally inscrutable. Fred managed the feat Woolf confessional era. They were “proŽtable as well of making Minnie and Edward sound almost as prudish.” The same year, Virginia Woolf (who ordinary, describing his father’s courtship of the lamented had both a husband and a female lover) lamented 11-year-old girl as a “little authentic Victorian the erosion the erosion of sexual ambiguity. Unlike Fred love story.” Arthur, while acknowledging marital of sexual Benson, she was unsentimental about her Vic- tensions, took refuge in constrained understate- ambiguity. torian upbringing, yet as the dichotomy between ment. After Minnie got married, he wrote, she homosexual and heterosexual solidiŽed, she could “began to experience a certain fear as to whether see what had been lost: “Where people mistake, she could give my father exactly the quality of as I think, is in perpetually narrowing and nam- a”ection which he claimed.” ing these immensely composite and wide “ung passions— driving stakes through them, herding žŸ¡¢ £¤¤ ¢¤¥¢, Arthur and Fred, them between screens.” the two main memoirists of the family, As ambiguity and in-betweenness have rolled A were cagey about sex. Today, we name around again, they inevitably look di”erent than sexual orientations and gender identities in order they did to the Victorians. The Bensons expended to live freely; confession is the mode of liberation. millions of words questing after the building By contrast, the Bensons cultivated what Goldhill blocks of identity. Today, Edward, Minnie, and terms a “highly articulate indirectness.” One way the kids would log on to Facebook, make their of understanding their reticence is as a queerness choice from an extensive ready-made menu— that was writing itself, falteringly, into being. In everything from pangender to the plain-vanilla Arthur’s case, that seems an apt description of cis man—and share the result with an army of discretion exercised, paradoxically enough, at “friends.” The irony of all this is something that great length and over many volumes. no gay liberationist would have thought possible “Anyone might think they could get a good when the campaign for homosexual rights was picture of my life from these pages, but it is not regarded as a grave threat to the social order. so,” Arthur mused in his diaries, noting (without Sandwiched between the “uidity of the Victorian naming) the subjects he kept in his “carefully years and the proliferating sexual and gender locked and guarded strong room.” Although he identities of the new millennium, the late 20th dilated on the pleasures of sentimental friend- century’s straight-gay paradigm looks decidedly ships with the boys in his care, he studiously old-fashioned—maybe even a little stodgy. policed their platonic boundaries, rejoicing in the bronzed bodies at the swimming bath but Deborah Cohen is the Peter B. Ritzma Professor skirting anything that smacked of lust. Was it of the Humanities and a professor of history at possible, Arthur wondered, that he had “the soul Northwestern. Her most recent book is Family of a woman in the body of a man”? Even though Secrets: Shame and Privacy in Modern Britain.

42 MARCH  THE ATLANTIC “A POIGNANT TRIBUTE TO HOPE, to resilience, and to the capacity for grace and generosity that dwells deep in the human heart.”

—KHALED HOSSEINI, author of The Kite Runner

WHEN DOAA AND HER FIANCÉ LEAVE SYRIA IN SEARCH OF A BETTER LIFE, they join hundreds of refugees on an overcrowded ship. After four days at sea, their boat is sunk— and Doaa is adrift with two little girls clinging to her neck. Doaa must stay alive for them. She must not lose hope.

“DRAMATIC, RIVETING, and ULTIMATELY HOPEFUL.”

—BRANDON STANTON, Humans of New York

“In a few years, when people will look back at our current time of CONFLICTS, DISLOCATION, and DISPLACEMENT, the story of Doaa al-Zamel will stand out as one of its defining narratives.”

—BRUNO GIUSSANI, European director, TED

HOPEMOREPOWERFUL.COM AVAIL ABLE IN HARDCOVER AND EBOOK WHERE BOOKS ARE SOLD. of political correctness), he endeavored to make the case that college was a limiting and outdated model. The Thiel Fellowship, as it came to be known, was representative of a particular strain of anti-establishmentarianism in tech-industry culture. Who needs higher education? In Valley of the Gods: A Silicon Valley Story , Alexandra Wolfe, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, zooms in on a handful of Thiel fellows from the 2011 inaugural class. Among them are John Burnham, an antsy teen who has his sights set on asteroid-mining robots; Laura Deming, a prodigy working on life extension; and James Proud, who founded GigLocator, an app for locating tickets to live concerts, and sold the company in 2012. As the fellows adjust to their new environs in the Bay Area, Wolfe follows them into a constellation of mentors and afˆiliates, subcultures and institutions—“Silicon Valley’s elite and underbelly.” Her goal is a portrait of the tech industry as “a new social order, one with an anti-‘society’ aesthetic that has taken on a singular style.” Wolfe is an entertaining writer, if not an out- standing prose stylist, and she largely lets her sub- jects speak for themselves, skimping on broader context. Her subjects, mostly entrepreneurs, founders, and ˆigureheads, are indisputably more elite than underbelly, but no matter. From the futurist and author Ray Kurzweil to Todd Hu–man—a biologist, an early participant in the now-defunct San Francisco “intentional commu- nity” Langton Labs, and an aspiring cryogenically preserved corpse—Wolfe lands on characters who are vibrant and open-minded, each deserving of more inquiry than a 250-page book allows. Through visits to start-up incubators, communal-living groups in mansions, and polyamorous households on Paleo diets, Wolfe constructs an argument that in Silicon Valley, BOOKS “institutions and routines such as raises, rents, mortgages—marriage—were as inconsequential, The Shine Comes O breakable, and ™exible as the industries technol- ogy disrupted.” She deploys her anecdotes to serve Silicon Valley her vision of the culture as a reaction to “the East Coast’s hierarchy,” as well as its foil. She pokes Awestruck visions of the tech industry have become less fun at the tech industry’s own self-aggrandizing convincing than ever. fetishes while also aœrming them. Incubators are “a sort of West Coast Ivy League,” a fast track to BY ANNA WIENER access and social capital. Millennials prefer the “freedom” of Silicon Valley to the “old world” of £ ¤¥¦§ ¨©ª©, during a «reside chat at the tech-industry confer- the East Coast. Gone is Wall Street’s uniform ence TechCrunch Disrupt, the venture capitalist and entrepre- of Thomas Pink and Ti–any; in its stead, “the neur Peter Thiel disclosed that he would award 20 enterprising only outward signs of tech success are laptops teenagers $100,000 apiece over two years to bypass college in and ideas.” Pitting East against West even gets favor of entrepreneurship. “Stopping out,” Thiel called it. Having ontological. Using New York City hedge-fund I decried student debt (not to mention universities’ inculcation managers as an example, Wolfe writes that the

44 MARCH  THE ATLANTIC Illustration by JACK HUDSON “retrowealth” of the East Coast is “a harkening tech media, a reminder of the sort of narratives back to what it was to be human last century.” Te that have contributed to growing impatience Silicon Valley, by contrast, has trained its sights Cu lt u re Fi le with the mythos. on how to “disrupt, transgress, and reengineer … humanity as a whole.” ALLEY OF THE GODS is Œne as an artifact V hurtled from a more innocent time, as far  ­ €‚ƒ „ive years, as scene-driven reportage is concerned. but the bulk of her reporting appears But what feels like a throwback perspective takes W to be from 2011 and 2012. And a a toll on the larger argument of Wolfe’s book. lot happened in the years between the cocky- She relies at every turn on stereotypes such as nerd drama of 2010’s The Social Network and the “Asperger’s Chic” and “engineering geeks [who] Œrst quarter of 2016, which brought zero initial barely knew how to make friends or navigate a public o“erings from tech companies. In 2012, cocktail party, let alone be politically manipu- new start-ups were flush with money and the lative.” Statements like “Only the young and tech sphere was overwhelmed by ardent media ambitious who grew up with the computer saw coverage; the verb disrupt was elbowing its way it for what it might become” aren’t just vaguely into vernacular prominence and had not yet Portraying ageist, but also ahistorical. (What the computer become a cliché. Facebook’s IPO was not only Silicon has thus far “become” is only one version of many record-setting but a šag in the ground, and the potential outcomes and visions.) Peter Thiel’s West Coast seemed a hopeful counternarrative Valley’s friends, in her summation, are part of “a whole in an otherwise šailing economy. Stories about powerful as new world of often-wacky people and ideas that Silicon Valley were imbued with a certain awe “uber-nerds” didn’t seem to subscribe to any set principles that, today, is starting to fade. is reductive or social awareness.” Leaning on Silicon Valley Since the genre’s takeo“ in the late 1990s, dur- tropes, Wolfe fails to take her subjects—and their ing the Œrst dot-com boom, writing about the tech and economic and political inšuence, which has only industry has traditionally fallen into a few limited unhelpful. increased over the past Œve years—seriously. camps: buzzy and breathless blog posts pegged She also undercuts her own point about the to product announcements, suspiciously redolent disruptive ethos of the place. “Today’s uber-nerds of press releases; technophobic and scolding are like the robber barons of the industrial revolu- accounts heralding the downfall of society via tion whose steel and automobile manufacturing smartphone; dry business reporting; and lifestyle capabilities changed entire industries,” she writes. coverage zeroing in on the trappings, trends, and “But instead of massive factories and mills, they’re celebrities of the tech scene. In di“erent ways, doing it with little buttons.” Portraying Silicon each neglects to examine the industry’s cultural Valley’s powerful as “uber-nerds” who struck clout and political economy. This tendency is it rich is as reductive and unhelpful as referring shifting, as the line between “tech company” to technology that integrates personal payment and “regular company” continues to blur (even information and location tracking as “little but- Walmart has an innovation lab in the Bay Area). tons.” The e“ect is not only to protect them behind Founders and their publicists would have you the shield of presumed harmlessness, but also to believe that this is a world of pioneers and uto- exempt them from the scrutiny that their economic pians, cowboy coders and hero programmers. and political power should invite. But as tech becomes more pervasive, coverage The sort of mythology that celebrates a small that unquestioningly echoes the mythologizing handful of visionaries and co-founders blurs impulse is falling out of fashion. important social realities. Technology has always The backlash is unsurprising. Accelerated, been a collective project. The industry is also venture-capital-fueled success is bound to inspire cyclical. Many failed ideas have been resuscitated more than just wonder. In the past year alone, and rebranded as successful products and ser- three Silicon Valley darlings—Hampton Creek, vices, owned and managed by people other than Theranos, and Zene„its—have been subject to their originators. Behind almost every popular painful debunking by the media. Thiel’s own app or website today lie numerous shadow ver- reputation, always controversial, has come into sions that have been sloughed away by time. Yet question since his „inancing of a lawsuit that recognition of the group nature of the enterprise shuttered Gawker and his emergence as an avid would undermine a myth that legitimizes the Donald Trump supporter. Valley of the Gods, which VALLEY OF THE consolidation of proŒt, for the most part, among GODS: A SILICON opens with a tribute to Thiel and the “counter- VALLEY STORY a small group of people. intuitive idealism” he aimed to encourage, feels ALEXANDRA WOLFE If technology belongs to the people only insofar like a time capsule from a previous iteration of Simon & Schuster as the people are consumers, we beneŒciaries had

THE ATLANTIC MARCH  45 better believe that luminaries and pioneers did hardly a meritocracy— diversity metrics make that something so outrageously, so individually innova- Te clear, and old-school credentials and pedigree still tive that the concentration of capital at the top is Cu lt u re Fi le have clout out west—but it’s more meritocratic than deserved. When founders pitch their companies, other, older industries like consulting or ”nance. or inscribe their origin stories into the annals of BOOKS Few women ”gure in Wolfe’s book, which also feels TechCrunch, they neglect to mention some of the accurate, especially at the higher levels. most important variables of success: luck, timing, The trouble with telling “a Silicon Valley story” connections, and those who set the foundation for is that the real stories are not just more nuanced them. The industry isn’t terribly in touch with its and moderate but also relatively boring. Many own history. It clings tight to a faith in meritocracy: people working in technology are legitimately This is a spaceship, and we built it by ourselves. inspiring, but they don’t necessarily gravitate toward ™ashy projects, and won’t be found stroll-    ­€‚ of working in The line ing across a š stage. If they fail, they may not tech, almost all of which were spent at between fail up, and they certainly won’t write a Medium A start-ups in San Francisco, I’ll happily “tech post afterward in an attempt to micromanage acknowledge that the industry contains multi- their personal brand or recon”gure the narrative. tudes: biohackers and anti-aging advocates, company” The other, less ™attering truth is that the dif- high-flying techno-utopians and high-strung and “regular ference between the East and West Coasts is not co-founders, polyamorous couples and M.B.A.s. company” fundamentally all that great. The tech industry But they’re just people, and their lifestyle choices continues owes a huge debt to the ”nancial sector. Wolfe are usually in the minority. They’re not a new is eager to depict Silicon Valley as the new New social order. Even if they were, plenty of people to blur. York, but much of the money that funds venture- just like them live in New York City, too. capital ›irms comes from investors who made Valley of the Gods is journalism, not ethnography. their fortunes on Wall Street. (The tech industry As with any caricature, the world depicted in its also owes a great debt to “Main Street”: Private- pages is largely an exaggeration—even, in some equity funds regularly include allocations from cases, a fantasy—but certain dimensions ring true, public pension plans and universities.) Cultural and loudly. It’s important to note what Wolfe gets diŸerences abound, but they’re not a function of right. This is a culture that champions acceleration, the tech industry. They’re a function of history, optimization, and e’ciency. From communication of the deeply entrenched cultural and social to attire, some things are more casual than they are circumstances that slowly come to de”ne a place. on the East Coast, and people seem to be happier As the mythology gets worn away, the contours of for it. Irreverence is often rewarded. This is far from the Valley become easier to see. The view, though punk rock (the irreverence is often in the name of less glamorous, still oŸers plenty to behold. building ”nancially successful corporations), but experimentation is encouraged. Silicon Valley is Anna Wiener is a writer living in San Francisco.

COVER TO COVER joining The New specialty was “stories the commotion deep The Rules Yorker as a sta writer about women who are within and takes the in 2008, knew early too much.” measure of her have- Do Not Apply: on “the kind of woman Levy counted it-all generation. A Memoir I wanted to become: herself among that Without giving A R IEL LEV Y one who is free to undaunted company. away her story, I don’t RANDOM HOUSE do whatever she She still qualifies, even think you can beat chooses.” A bold and after being bueted this as a trailer for bookish girl growing by deep grief in mar- the turmoil unleashed up in Westchester, riage and pregnancy, in her one-of-a-kind DON’T BE FOOLED along with them, “my New York, in a pre-9/11 and chastened to memoir: “And the truth by this book’s neon ideas about the kind world, she thrived learn how much in is, the ten or twenty cover, or by what of life I’d imagined I throughout her 20s life eludes control. minutes I was some- could be taken as was due.” When her and into her 30s on “a Levy has the rare body’s mother were the Trumpian tone of world was upended, compulsion to thrust gift of seeing herself black magic. There is its title. Ariel Levy’s she had not yet myself toward adven- with fierce, unfor- nothing I would trade subject is sudden, turned 40. ture.” She had male giving clarity. And them for. There is no all-encompassing Levy, who began and female lovers. She she deploys prose place I would rather loss—of a son, a her career at New traveled to far-flung to match, raw and have seen.” spouse, a house, and, York magazine before places. Her journalistic agile. She plumbs — Ann Hulbert

4 6 MARCH  THE ATLANTIC Changing the Conversations that Change the World

Hitler’s American Model Fraud The UnitedU StatesS and the AAn American History from Making of Nazi Race Law Barnum to Madoff James Q. Whitman Edward J. Balleisen “ Hitler’s American Model is a “ A hugeh achievement.h Thish willll beb theh breathtaking excavation of America’s authoritative historyy of fraud in the United shameful contribution to Hitler’s States for many years to come. Edward genocidal policies. This book is a Balleisen takes us on a fascinating and profound testament to what the past entertaining tour of the many ways that can teach us about the present and swindlers have consistently shadowed is more timely than Whitman could America’s proudestp innovations, possibly have imagined. A brilliant sometimes even outdoing the originals for page-turner.” ingenuity and impact.” Cloth $35.00 Cloth $24.95 — Laurence H. Tribe, Harvard — Walter A. Friedman, Harvard Law School Business School

##Republicp Happiness for All? Divided Democracy Unequal Hopes and Lives in in the Age of Social Media Pursuit of the American Dream Cass R. Sunstein Carol Graham

In this revealing book, Cass Sunstein, “ Carol Graham uses well-being measures to bring new insights to the divisions tthee New York Times bestselling that are threatening America. Far from author off Nudge and The World dreaming of a better tomorrow, many AAccordingg to Star Warss, shows how Americans, especially white Americans, today’sy Internet is drivingg political are deeply pessimistic about their ffragmentation,g polarization, and future and the futures of their eevene extremism—ande t e s a d whatat canca be children. This book brings much to dodonee about it.t think and to worry about.” Cloth $29.95 Cloth $29.95 — Angus Deaton, Nobel Laureate in Economics

One Nation Undecided Read My Lips Clear Thinking about Five Hard Why Americans Are Proud to Issues That Divide Us Pay Taxes Peter H. Schuck Vanessa S. Williamson “ At a time of deep social and political “ Read My Lips is a brilliant and necessary division, along comes a much-needed book. Filled with innovative, important, book to steer us toward solutions to and convincing arguments, it is five very difficult national problems. indispensable for anyone who wants There could be no better guide for this to understand what Americans think endeavor than Peter Schuck, one of the about taxes and why. A tour de force.” clearest and most thoughtful legal and — Isaac William Martin, University of policy scholars of this or any generation.” California, San Diego — Robert E. Litan, author of Trillion Cloth $29.95 Cloth $29.95 Dollar Economists

See our e-books at press.princeton.edu

The preconditions are present in the U.S. today.

If Congress is quiescent and the public listless, Donald Trump can set

the country down a path toward illiberalism, institutional subversion, and endemic graft.

Here’s the playbook he’d employ. BY DAVID FRUM | ILLUSTRATION BY JEFFREY SMITH

THE ATLANTIC MARCH 2017 4 9 It’s 2021, and President Donald Trump will shortly be sworn in for his second term. The 45th president has visibly aged over the past four years. He rests heavily on his daughter Ivanka’s arm during his infrequent public appearances.

Fortunately for him, he did not need to campaign hard for fairness. Under the agreement that settled the Department of reelection. His has been a popular presidency: Big tax cuts, big Justice’s antitrust complaint against Amazon, the company’s spending, and big de„cits have worked their familiar expansive founder, Je Bezos, has divested himself of The Washington magic. Wages have grown strongly in the Trump years, espe- Post. The paper’s new owner—an investor group based in cially for men without a college degree, even if rising in™ation Slovakia—has closed the printed edition and refocused the is beginning to bite into the gains. The president’s supporters paper on municipal politics and lifestyle coverage. credit his restrictive immigration policies and his TrumpWorks Meanwhile, social media circulate ever-wilder rumors. Some infrastructure program. people believe them; others don’t. It’s hard work to ascertain The president’s critics, meanwhile, have found little hearing what is true. for their protests and complaints. A Senate investigation Nobody’s repealed the First Amendment, of course, and of Russian hacking during the 2016 presidential campaign Americans remain as free to speak their minds as ever— sputtered into inconclusive partisan wrangling. Concerns provided they can stomach seeing their timelines „ll up with about Trump’s purported con™icts of interest excited debate obscene abuse and angry threats from the pro-Trump troll in Washington but never drew much attention from the wider armies that police Facebook and Twitter. Rather than deal with American public. digital thugs, young people increasingly drift to less political Allegations of fraud and self-dealing in the TrumpWorks media like Snapchat and Instagram. program, and elsewhere, have likewise been shrugged o. The Trump-critical media do continue to „nd elite audiences. president regularly tweets out news of factory openings and Their investigations still win Pulitzer Prizes; their reporters big hiring announcements: “I’m bringing back your jobs,” he accept invitations to anxious conferences about corruption, has said over and over. Voters seem to have believed him—and digital-journalism standards, the end of ‰Š‹Œ, and the rise are grateful. of populist authoritarianism. Yet somehow all of this earnest Most Americans intuit that their president and his relatives eort feels less and less relevant to American politics. President have become vastly wealthier over the past four years. But Trump communicates with the people directly via his Twitter rumors of graft are easy to dismiss. Because Trump has never account, ushering his supporters toward favorable information released his tax returns, no one really knows. at Fox News or Breitbart. Anyway, doesn’t everybody do it? On the eve of the 2018 con- Despite the hand-wringing, the country has in many ways gressional elections, WikiLeaks released years of investment changed much less than some feared or hoped four years ago. statements by prominent congressional Democrats indicating Ambitious Republican plans notwithstanding, the American that they had long earned above-market returns. As the air social-welfare system, as most people encounter it, has „lled with allegations of insider trading and crony capitalism, remained largely intact during Trump’s „rst term. The pre- the public subsided into weary cynicism. The Republicans held dicted wave of mass deportations of illegal immigrants never both houses of Congress that November, and Trump loyalists materialized. A large illegal workforce remains in the country, shouldered aside the pre-Trump leadership. with the tacit understanding that so long as these immigrants The business community learned its lesson early. “You work avoid politics, keeping their heads down and their mouths shut, for me, you don’t criticize me,” the president was reported to nobody will look very hard for them. have told one major federal contractor, after knocking billions African Americans, young people, and the recently natu- o his company’s stock-market valuation with an angry tweet. ralized encounter increasing dif‘iculties casting a vote in Wise business leaders take care to credit Trump’s personal most states. But for all the talk of the rollback of rights, cor- leadership for any good news, and to avoid saying anything porate America still seeks diversity in employment. Same-sex that might displease the president or his family. marriage remains the law of the land. Americans are no more The media have grown noticeably more friendly to Trump and no less likely to say “Merry Christmas” than they were as well. The proposed merger of AT&T and Time Warner was before Trump took o•ce. delayed for more than a year, during which Time Warner’s People crack jokes about Trump’s National Security Agency CNN unit worked ever harder to meet Trump’s de„nition of listening in on them. They cannot deeply mean it; after all,

50 MARCH  THE ATLANTIC there’s no less sexting in America today than four years ago. a member state of the European Union and a signatory of the Still, with all the hacks and leaks happening these days— European Convention on Human Rights. It has elections and particularly to the politically outspoken—it’s just common uncensored internet. Yet Hungary is ceasing to be a free country. sense to be careful what you say in an email or on the phone. The transition has been nonviolent, often not even very When has politics not been a dirty business? When have the dramatic. Opponents of the regime are not murdered or rich and powerful not mostly gotten their way? The smart thing imprisoned, although many are harassed with building to do is tune out the political yammer, mind your own business, inspections and tax audits. If they work for the government, enjoy a relatively prosperous time, and leave the questions to or for a company susceptible to government pressure, they the troublemakers. risk their jobs by speaking out. Nonetheless, they are free to emigrate anytime they like. Those with money can even IN AN 1888 LECTURE, James Russell Lowell, a founder of this take it with them. Day in and day out, the regime works more magazine, challenged the happy assumption that the Consti- through inducements than through intimidation. The courts tution was a “machine that would go of itself.” Lowell was right. are packed, and forgiving of the regime’s allies. Friends of the Checks and balances is a metaphor, not a mechanism. government win state contracts at high prices and borrow on easy terms from the central bank. Those on the inside grow rich by favoritism; those on the outside su‘er from the general deterioration of the economy. As one shrewd observer told me on a recent visit, “The bene˜t of controlling a modern state is less the power to persecute the innocent, more the power to protect the guilty.” Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s rule over “The benefit of controlling a Hungary does depend on elections. These remain open and more or less free—at least in modern state is less the power to the sense that ballots are counted accurately. Yet they are not quite fair. Electoral rules favor incumbent power-holders in ways both obvious persecute the innocent, more and subtle. Independent media lose advertising under government pressure; government allies the power to protect the guilty.” own more and more media outlets each year. The government sustains support even in the face of bad news by artfully generating an endless sequence of controversies that leave culturally conservative Hungarians feeling misunderstood and victimized by liberals, foreigners, and Jews. You could tell a similar story of the slide away Everything imagined above—and everything described from democracy in South Africa under Nelson Mandela’s suc- below—is possible only if many people other than Donald cessors, in Venezuela under the thug-thief Hugo Chávez, or Trump agree to permit it. It can all be stopped, if individual in the Philippines under the murderous Rodrigo Duterte. A citizens and public ofˆicials make the right choices. The comparable transformation has recently begun in Poland, and story told here, like that told by Charles Dickens’s Ghost of could come to France should Marine Le Pen, the National Christmas Yet to Come, is a story not of things that will be, Front’s candidate, win the presidency. but of things that may be. Other paths remain open. It is up to Outside the Islamic world, the 21st century is not an era of Americans to decide which one the country will follow. ideology. The grand utopian visions of the 19th century have No society, not even one as rich and fortunate as the United passed out of fashion. The nightmare totalitarian projects of States has been, is guaranteed a successful future. When early the 20th have been overthrown or have disintegrated, leaving Americans wrote things like “Eternal vigilance is the price behind only outdated remnants: North Korea, Cuba. What of liberty,” they did not do so to provide bromides for future is spreading today is repressive kleptocracy, led by rulers bumper stickers. They lived in a world in which authoritarian motivated by greed rather than by the deranged idealism of rule was the norm, in which rulers habitually claimed the Hitler or Stalin or Mao. Such rulers rely less on terror and more powers and assets of the state as their own personal property. on rule-twisting, the manipulation of information, and the The exercise of political power is di‘erent today than it co-optation of elites. was then—but perhaps not so di‘erent as we might imagine. The United States is of course a very robust democracy. Larry Diamond, a sociologist at Stanford, has described the Yet no human contrivance is tamper-proof, a constitutional past decade as a period of “democratic recession.” Worldwide, democ racy least of all. Some features of the American system the number of democratic states has diminished. Within many hugely inhibit the abuse of o¢ce: the separation of powers of the remaining democracies, the quality of governance within the federal government; the division of responsibilities has deteriorated. between the federal government and the states. Federal What has happened in Hungary since 2010 offers an agencies pride themselves on their independence; the court example— and a blueprint for would-be strongmen. Hungary is system is huge, complex, and resistant to improper in£uence.

THE ATLANTIC MARCH  51 Yet the American system is also perforated by vulnerabilities no less dangerous for being so familiar. Supreme among those vulnerabilities is reliance on the personal qualities of the man or woman who wields the awesome powers of the presidency. A British prime minister can lose power in minutes if he or she forfeits the conˆdence of the majority in Parliament. The president of the United States, on the other hand, is restrained Širst and foremost by his own ethics and public spirit. What happens if somebody comes to the high o‹ce lacking those qualities? Over the past generation, we have seen ominous indicators of a breakdown of the American political system: the willingness of congressional Republicans to push the United States to the brink of a default on its national obligations in 2013 in order to score a point in budget negotiations; Barack Obama’s assertion of a unilateral executive power to confer legal status upon millions of people illegally present in the United States—despite his own prior acknowledgment that no such power existed. If this were happening in Donald Trump, however, represents something much more radical. A president who plausibly owes his o‹ce at least in part to Honduras, we’d know what to a clandestine intervention by a hostile foreign intelligence service? Who uses the bully pulpit call it. It’s happening here to target individual critics? Who creates blind trusts that are not blind, invites his children to instead, and so we are baled. commingle private and public business, and somehow gets the unhappy members of his own political party either to endorse his choices or shrug them o–? If this were happening in Honduras, we’d know what to call it. It’s hap- pening here instead, and so we are ba˜ed.

MBITION MUST BE MADE to counteract ambition.” Republicans. In the ordinary course of events, it’s the incoming With those words, written more than 200 years ago, president who burns with eager policy ideas. Consequently, the authors of the Federalist Papers explained the it’s the president who must adapt to—and often overlook—the most important safeguard of the American consti- petty human weaknesses and vices of members of Congress in “ tutional system. They then added this promise: “In order to advance his agenda. This time, it will be Paul Ryan, the republican government, the legislative authority nec- speaker of the House, doing the advancing—and consequently essarily predominates.” Congress enacts laws, appro- the overlooking. priates funds, conˆrms the president’s appointees. Trump has scant interest in congressional Republicans’ A Congress can subpoena records, question o‹cials, ideas, does not share their ideology, and cares little for and even impeach them. Congress can protect the their fate. He can—and would—break faith with them in an American system from an overbearing president. instant to further his own interests. Yet here they are, on the But will it? verge of achieving everything they have hoped to achieve for As politics has become polarized, Congress has increasingly years, if not decades. They owe this chance solely to Trump’s become a check only on presidents of the opposite party. ability to deliver a crucial margin of votes in a handful of Recent presidents enjoying a same-party majority in states—Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania—which has Congress—Barack Obama in 2009 and 2010, George W. Bush provided a party that cannot win the national popular vote a from 2003 through 2006—usually got their way. And congres- eeting opportunity to act as a decisive national majority. The sional oversight might well be performed even less diligently greatest risk to all their projects and plans is the very same during the Trump administration. X factor that gave them their opportunity: Donald Trump, The ˆrst reason to fear weak diligence is the oddly inverse and his famously errat ic personality. What excites Trump is relationship between President Trump and the congressional his approval rating, his wealth, his power. The day could come

52 MARCH  THE ATLANTIC The Senate historically has oered more scope to dissenters than the House. Yet even that institution will nd itself under pressure. Two of the Senate’s most important Republican Trump skeptics will be up for reelection in 2018: Arizona’s Je Flake and Texas’s Ted Cruz. They will not want to provoke a same-party president—especially not in a year when the president’s party Viktor Orbán of can aord to lose a seat or two in order to discipline dissenters. Hungary, the late Hugo Mitch McConnell is an even more results- oriented politician Chávez of Venezuela, than Paul Ryan—and his wife, Elaine Chao, has been oered a and Jacob Zuma Cabinet position, which might tilt him further in Trump’s favor. of South Africa all Ambition will counteract ambition only until ambition turned their countries discovers that conformity serves its goals better. At that time, away from liberal Congress, the body expected to check presidential power, may democracy and toward become the president’s most potent enabler. kleptocracy. World- Discipline within the congressional ranks will be strictly wide, democracy is enforced not only by the party leadership and party donors, but in recession. also by the overwhelming inŒuence of Fox News. Trump versus Clinton was not 2016’s only contest between an overbearing man and a restrained woman. Just such a contest was waged at Fox, between Sean Hannity and Megyn Kelly. In both cases, the early indicators seemed to favor the women. Yet in the end when those ends would be better served by jettisoning the it was the men who won, Hannity even more decisively than institutional Republican Party in favor of an ad hoc populist Trump. Hannity’s show, which became an unapologetic info- coalition, joining national ism to generous social spending—a mercial for Trump, pulled into rst place on the network in mid- mix that’s worked well for authoritarians in places like Poland. October. Kelly’s show tumbled to fth place, behind even The Who doubts Trump would do it? Not Paul Ryan. Not Mitch Five, a roundtable program that airs at 5 p.m. Kelly landed on her Mc Connell, the Senate majority leader. For the rst time since feet, of course, but Fox learned its lesson: Trump sells; critical the administration of John Tyler in the 1840s, a majority in coverage does not. Since the election, the network has awarded Congress must worry about their president defecting from Kelly’s former 9 p.m. time slot to Tucker Carlson, who is posi- them rather than the other way around. tioning himself as a Trump enthusiast in the Hannity mold. A scandal involving the president could likewise wreck From the point of view of the typical Republican member of every thing that Republican congressional leaders have waited Congress, Fox remains all-powerful: the single most important years to accomplish. However deftly they manage everything source of visibility and a˜rmation with the voters whom a else, they cannot prevent such a scandal. But there is one thing Republican politician cares about. In 2009, in the run-up to they can do: their utmost not to nd out about it. the Tea Party insurgency, South Carolina’s Bob Inglis crossed “Do you have any concerns about Steve Bannon being in the Fox, criticizing Glenn Beck and telling people at a town-hall White House?,” CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Ryan in Novem ber. meeting that they should turn his show o. He was drowned “I don’t know Steve Bannon, so I have no concerns,” answered out by booing, and the following year, he lost his primary the speaker. “I trust Donald’s judgment.” with only 29 percent of the vote, a crushing repudiation for an Asked on 60 Minutes whether he believed Donald Trump’s incumbent untouched by any scandal. claim that “millions” of illegal votes had been cast, Ryan Fox is reinforced by a carrier Œeet of supplementary insti- answered: “I don’t know. I’m not really focused on these things.” tutions: super ›œžs, think tanks, and conservative web and What about Trump’s conflicts of interest? “This is not social-media presences, which now include such former pariahs what I’m concerned about in Congress,” Ryan said on CNBC. as Breitbart and Alex Jones. So long as the carrier Œeet coheres— Trump should handle his conŒicts “however he wants to.” and unless public opinion turns sharply against the president— Ryan has learned his prudence the hard way. Following the oversight of Trump by the Republican congressional majority airing of Trump’s past comments, caught on tape, about his will very likely be cautious, conditional, and limited. forceful sexual advances on women, Ryan said he’d no longer campaign for Trump. Ryan’s net favorability rating among ONALD TRUMP WILL NOT set out to build an authori- Republicans dropped by 28 points in less than 10 days. Once tarian state. His immediate priority seems likely to un assailable in the party, he suddenly found himself disliked be to use the presidency to enrich himself. But as he by 45 percent of Republicans. does so, he will need to protect himself from legal risk. As Ryan’s cherished plans move closer and closer to presi- Being Trump, he will also inevitably wish to inŒict dential signature, Congress’s subservience to the president payback on his critics. Construction of an apparatus will likely intensify. Whether it’s allegations of Russian of impunity and revenge will begin haphazardly and hacks of Democratic Party internal communications, or alle- opportunistically. But it will accelerate. It will have to. gations of self-enrichment by the Trump family, or favorable D If Congress is quiescent, what can Trump do? A treatment of Trump business associates, the Republican better question, perhaps, is what can’t he do? caucus in Congress will likely §ind itself conscripted into Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House, who often

SEAN GALLUP; AVERY CUNLIFFEPHOTOSHOT; CUNLIFFEPHOTOSHOT; AVERY SEAN GALLUP; GETTY CHESNOT; serving as Donald Trump’s ethical bodyguard. articulates Trumpist ideas more candidly than Trump himself

THE ATLANTIC MARCH  53 might think prudent, o›ered a sharp lesson in how dicult The courts, though they might slowly be packed with it will be to enforce laws against an uncooperative president. judges inclined to hear the president’s arguments sympa- During a radio roundtable in December, on the topic of thetically, are also a check, of course. But it’s already dicult whether it would violate anti-nepotism laws to bring Trump’s to hold a president to account for
nancial improprieties. As daughter and son-in-law onto the White House sta›, Gingrich Donald Trump correctly told reporters and editors from The said: The president “has, frankly, the power of the pardon. It New York Times on Novemb er 22, presidents are not bound by is a totally open power, and he could simply say, ‘Look, I want the conict-of- interest rules that govern everyone else in the them to be my advisers. I pardon them if anybody
nds them to executive branch. have behaved against the rules. Period.’ And technically, under Presidents from Jimmy Carter onward have balanced the Constitution, he has that level of authority.” this unique exemption with a unique act of disclosure: the That statement is true, and it points to a deeper truth: The voluntary publication of their income-tax returns. At a United States may be a nation of laws, but the proper func- press conference on January 11, Trump made clear that he tioning of the law depends upon the competence and integrity will not follow that tradition. His attorney instead insisted of those charged with executing it. A president determined to that every thing the public needs to know is captured by his thwart the law in order to protect himself and those in his circle annual
nancial- disclosure report, which is required by law has many means to do so. for executive-branch employees and from which presidents The power of the pardon, deployed to defend not only family are not exempt. But a glance at the reporting forms (you can but also those who would protect the president’s interests, read them yourself at www.oge.gov/web/278eguide.nsf) will dealings, and indiscretions, is one such means. The powers of show their inadequacy to Trump’s situation. They are written appointment and removal are another. The president appoints with stocks and bonds in mind, to capture mortgage liabilities and can remove the commissioner of the IRS. He appoints and and deferred executive compensation— not the labyrinthine can remove the inspectors general who oversee the internal deals of the Trump Organi zation and its ramifying networks workings of the Cabinet departments and major agencies. He of partners and brand-licensing aliates. The truth is in the appoints and can remove the 93 U.S. attorneys, who have the tax returns, and they will not be forthcoming. power to initiate and to end federal prosecutions. He appoints Even outright bribe-taking by an elected of“icial is sur- and can remove the attorney general, the deputy attorney general, prisingly dif“icult to prosecute, and was made harder still and the head of the criminal division at the Department of Justice. by the Supreme Court in 2016, when it overturned, by an There are hedges on these powers, both customary and 8–0 vote, the conviction of former Virginia Governor Bob constitutional, including the Senate’s power to con
rm (or Mc Donnell. McDonnell and his wife had taken valuable gifts not) presidential appointees. Yet the hedges may not hold in the future as robustly as they have in the past. Senators of the president’s party traditionally have expected to be consulted on the U.S.-attorney picks in their states, a highly coveted patronage plum. But the U.S. attorneys of most interest to Trump—above all the ones in New York and New Jersey, the locus of many of his businesses and bank dealings— come from states where there are no Republican senators to take into account. And while the U.S. attorneys in Florida, home to Mar-a-Lago and other Trump properties, surely concern him nearly as much, if there’s one Republican senator whom Trump would cheerfully disregard, it’s Marco Rubio. The traditions of independence and professionalism that prevail within the federal law-enforcement apparatus, and KATOPODIS AFP GETTY TASOS within the civil service more generally, will tend to restrain a president’s power. Yet in the years ahead, these restraints may also prove less robust than they look. Republicans in Congress have long advo cated reforms to expedite the
ring of under- performing civil servants. In the abstract, there’s much to recommend this idea. If reform is dramatic and happens in the next two years, however, the balance of power between the political and the professional elements of the federal gov- ernment will shift, decisively, at precisely the moment when Members of the the political elements are most aggressive. The intelligence Trump family— agencies in particular would likely
nd themselves exposed Melania, Ivanka, Eric, to retribution from a president enraged at them for reporting and Donald Jr.— on Russia’s aid to his election campaign. “As you know from listen to the second his other career, Donald likes to
re people.” So New Jersey presidential debate Governor Chris Christie joked to a roomful of Repub lican at Washington donors at the party’s national convention in July. It would be a University in St. Louis, mighty power—and highly useful. Missouri, in October.

54 MARCH  THE ATLANTIC of cash and luxury goods from a favor seeker. McDonnell then meeting, talking to another ocial, or organizing an event— set up meetings between the favor seeker and state ocials without more—does not
t that de
nition of an ‘ocial act.’ ” who were in a position to help him. A jury had even accepted Trump is poised to mingle business and government with an that the “quid” was indeed “pro” the “quo”—an evidentiary audacity and on a scale more reminiscent of a leader in a post- burden that has often protected accused bribe-takers in Soviet republic than anything ever before seen in the United the past. The McDonnells had been convicted on a combined States. Glimpses of his family’s wealth-seeking activi ties 20 counts. will likely emerge during his presidency, as they did during The Supreme Court objected, however, that the lower the transition. Trump’s Indian business partners dropped by courts had interpreted federal anticorruption law too broadly. Trump Tower and posted pictures with the then-president- The relevant statute applied only to “ocial acts.” The Court elect on Facebook, alerting folks back home that they were now de
ned such acts very strictly, and held that “setting up a powers to be reckoned with. The Argentine media reported that Trump had discussed the progress of a Trump- branded building in Buenos Aires during a congratulatory phone call from the country’s president. (A spokesman for the Argentine president denied that the two men had dis- cussed the building on their call.) Trump’s daughter Ivanka sat in on a meeting with the A president determined to Japanese prime minister—a useful meeting for her, since a government-owned bank has a large thwart the law to protect ownership stake in the Japanese company with which she was negotiating a licensing deal. himself and those in his circle Suggestive. Disturbing. But illegal, post- McDonnell? How many presidentially removable has many means to do so. ocials would dare even initiate an inquiry? You may hear much mention of the Emol- uments Clause of the Constitution during Trump’s presidency: “No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Oce of Pro
t or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Oce, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.” But as written, this seems to present a number of loopholes. First, the clause applies only to the president himself, not to his family members. Second, it seems to govern bene
ts only from foreign governments and state-owned enterprises, not from private business entities. Third, Trump’s lawyers have argued that the clause applies only to gifts and titles, not to business transactions. Fourth, what does “the Consent of Congress” mean? If Congress is apprised of an apparent emolument, and declines to do anything about it, does that qualify as consent? Finally, how is this clause enforced? Could someone take President Trump to court and demand some kind of injunction? Who? How? Will the courts grant standing? The clause seems to presume an active Congress and a vigilant public. What if those are lacking? It is essential to recognize that Trump will use his position not only to enrich himself; he will enrich plenty of other people too, both the powerful and—sometimes, for public consumption— the relatively powerless. Venezuela, a stable democracy from the late 1950s through the 1990s, was cor- rupted by a politics of personal favoritism, as Hugo Chávez used state resources to bestow gifts on supporters. Venezuelan state TV even aired a regular program to showcase weeping recipients of new houses and free appliances. Americans recently got a preview of their own version of that show as grateful Carrier employees thanked then-President-Elect Trump for keeping their jobs in Indiana.

THE ATLANTIC MARCH  55 “I just couldn’t believe that this guy … he’s not even president conicts of interest surrounding Trump’s son-in-law, Jared yet and he worked on this deal with the company,” T. J. Bray, a Kushner, Trump tweeted that flag burners should be 32-year-old Carrier employee, told Fortune. “I’m just in shock. A imprisoned or stripped of their citizen ship. That evening, as if lot of the workers are in shock. We can’t believe something good on cue, a little posse of oddballs obligingly burned ags for the Šnally happened to us. It felt like a victory for the little people.” cameras in front of the Trump International Hotel in New York. Trump will try hard during his presidency to create an Guess which story dominated that day’s news cycle? atmosphere of personal muniŠcence, in which graft does not Civil unrest will not be a problem for the Trump presidency. matter, because rules and insti tutions do not matter. He will It will be a resource. Trump will likely want not to repress it, but want to associate economic beneŠt with personal favor. He to publicize it—and the conservative entertainment-outrage will create personal constituencies, and implicate other people complex will eagerly assist him. Immigration protesters in his corruption. That, over time, is what truly subverts the marching with Mexican flags; Black Lives Matter demon- institutions of democracy and the rule of law. If the public strators bearing antipolice slogans—these are the images cannot be induced to care, the power of the investigators of the opposition that Trump will wish his supporters to see. serving at Trump’s pleasure will be diminished all the more. The more o‡ensively the protesters behave, the more pleased Trump will be. HE FIRST TASK for our new administration will Calculated outrage is an old political trick, but nobody in be to liberate our citizens from the crime and ter- the history of American politics has deployed it as aggressively, rorism and lawlessness that threatens our commu- as repeatedly, or with such success as Donald Trump. If there nities.” Those were Donald Trump’s words at the is harsh law enforcement by the Trump administration, it will “ Republican National Convention. The newly nom- beneŠt the president not to the extent that it quashes unrest, inated presidential candidate then listed a series of but to the extent that it enames more of it, ratifying the apoca- outrages and attacks, especially against police ožcers. lyptic vision that haunted his speech at the convention.

America was shocked to its core when our T police ožcers in Dallas were so brutally executed. Immediately after Dallas, we’ve seen continued threats and violence against our law-enforcement ofŸicials. Law ofŸicers have been shot or killed in recent days in Georgia, Missouri, Wisconsin, Kansas, Michigan, and Tennessee. On Sunday, more police were gunned down Civil unrest will not be a problem in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Three were killed, and three were very, very badly injured. An attack on law enforcement is an attack on all Americans. for the Trump presidency. It I have a message to every last person threatening the peace on our streets and the safety of our will be a resource. Trump will likely police: When I take the oath of ožce next year, I will restore law and order to our country. want to enflame more of it. You would never know from Trump’s words that the average number of felonious killings of police during the Obama administration’s tenure was almost one-third lower than it was in the early 1990s, a decline that tracked with the general fall in violent crime that has so blessed American society. There had been a rise in killings of police in T A RALLY in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in December, 2014 and 2015 from the all-time low in 2013—but only back to Trump got to talking about Vladimir Putin. “And then the 2012 level. Not every year will be the best on record. they said, ‘You know he’s killed reporters,’ ” Trump A mistaken belief that crime is spiraling out of control—that told the audience. “And I don’t like that. I’m totally terrorists roam at large in America and that police are reg- against that. By the way, I hate some of these people, ularly gunned down—represents a considerable political asset but I’d never kill them. I hate them. No, I think, no— for Donald Trump. Seventy-eight percent of Trump voters these people, honestly—I’ll be honest. I’ll be honest. I believed that crime had worsened during the Obama years. would never kill them. I would never do that. Ah, let’s In true police states, surveillance and repression sustain the A see—nah, no, I wouldn’t. I would never kill them. But power of the authorities. But that’s not how power is gained I do hate them.” and sustained in backsliding democracies. Polarization, not In the early days of the Trump transition, Nic Dawes, a jour- persecution, enables the modern illiberal regime. nalist who has worked in South Africa, delivered an ominous By guile or by instinct, Trump understands this. warning to the American media about what to expect. “Get Whenever Trump stumbles into some kind of trouble, used to being stigmatized as ‘opposition,’ ” he wrote. “The he reacts by picking a divisive Šght. The morning after The basic idea is simple: to delegitimize accountability journalism Wall Street Journal published a story about the extraordinary by framing it as partisan.”

56 MARCH  THE ATLANTIC Trump supporters in Grand Rapids, Michigan, at a stop on Trump’s postelection thank-you tour

The rulers of backsliding democracies resent an inde - illegally.” He followed up that astonishing, and unsubstantiated, pendent press, but cannot extinguish it. They may curb statement with an escalating series of tweets and retweets. the media’s appetite for critical coverage by intimidating It’s hard to do justice to the breathtaking audacity of such unfriendly journalists, as President Jacob Zuma and members a claim. If true, it would be so serious as to demand a criminal of his party have done in South Africa. Mostly, however, investigation at a minimum, presumably spanning many modern strongmen seek merely to discredit journalism as states. But of course the claim was not true. Trump had not an institution, by denying that such a thing as independent a smidgen of evidence beyond his own bruised feelings and judgment can exist. All reporting serves an agenda. There is internet otsam from agrantly unreliable sources. Yet once no truth, only competing attempts to grab power. the president-elect lent his prestige to the crazy claim, it By ›illing the media space with bizarre inventions and became fact for many people. A survey by YouGov found that brazen denials, purveyors of fake news hope to mobilize by Decem ber 1, 43 percent of Republicans accepted the claim potential supporters with righteous wrath—and to demoralize that millions of people had voted illegally in 2016. potential opponents by nurturing the idea that everybody lies A clear untruth had suddenly become a contested possibility. and nothing matters. A would-be kleptocrat is actually better When CNN’s JeŒ Zeleny correctly reported on November 28 served by spreading cynicism than by deceiving followers with that Trump’s tweet was baseless, Fox’s Sean Hannity accused false beliefs: Believers can be disillusioned; people who expect Zeleny of media bias—and then proceeded to urge the incoming to hear only lies can hardly complain when a lie is exposed. The Trump administration to take a new tack with the White House inculcation of cynicism breaks down the distinction between press corps, and to punish reporters like Zeleny. “I think it’s those forms of media that try their imperfect best to report the time to reevaluate the press and maybe change the traditional truth, and those that purvey falsehoods for reasons of prožt relationship with the press and the White House,” Hannity said. or ideology. The New York Times becomes the equivalent of “My message tonight to the press is simple: You guys are done. Russia’s RT; The Washington Post of Breitbart; NPR of Infowars. You’ve been exposed as fake, as having an agenda, as colluding. One story, still supremely disturbing, exempli›ies the You’re a fake news organization.” falsifying method. During November and December, the This was no idiosyncratic brain wave of Hannity’s. The slow-moving California vote count gradually pushed Hillary previous morning, Ari Fleischer, the former press secretary in Clinton’s lead over Donald Trump in the national popular vote George W. Bush’s administration, had advanced a similar idea further and further: past 1 million, past 1.5 million, past 2 million, in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, suggesting that the White House past 2.5 million. Trump’s share of the vote would ultimately could withhold credentials for its press conferences from media clock in below Richard Nixon’s in 1960, Al Gore’s in 2000, John outlets that are “too liberal or unfair.” Newt Gingrich recom- Kerry’s in 2004, Gerald Ford’s in 1976, and Mitt Romney’s in mended that Trump stop giving press conferences altogether. 2012—and barely ahead of Michael Dukakis’s in 1988. Twitter, unmediated by the press, has proved an extremely This outcome evidently gnawed at the president-elect. On eŒective communication tool for Trump. And the whipping- November 27, Trump tweeted that he had in fact “won the up of potentially violent Twitter mobs against media critics is

DON EMMERTAFPGETTY popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted already a standard method of Trump’s governance. Megyn Kelly

THE ATLANTIC MARCH  57 blamed Trump and his campaign’s social-media director for If citizens learn that success in business or in public service inciting Trump’s fans against her to such a degree that she felt depends on the favor of the president and his ruling clique, compelled to hire armed guards to protect her family. I’ve talked then it’s not only American politics that will change. The with well-funded Trump supporters who speak of recruiting economy will be corrupted too, and with it the larger culture. a troll army explicitly modeled on those used by Turkey’s A culture that has accepted that graft is the norm, that rules Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Russia’s Putin to take control of don’t matter as much as relation ships with those in power, and the social-media space, intimidating some critics and over- that people can be punished for speech and acts that remain whelming others through a blizzard of doubt-casting and mis- theoretically legal—such a culture is not easily reoriented back information. The WikiLeaks Task Force recently tweeted—then to constitutionalism, freedom, and public integrity. hastily deleted—a suggestion that it would build a database to The oft-debated question “Is Donald Trump a fascist?” is track personal and ƒnancial information on all veriƒed Twitter not easy to answer. There are certainly fascistic elements to accounts, the kind of accounts typically used by journalists at him: the subdivision of society into categories of friend and major media organizations. It’s not hard to imagine how such foe; the boastful virility and the delight in violence; the vision compilations could be used to harass or intimidate. of life as a struggle for dominance that only some can win, and Even so, it seems unlikely that President Trump will that others must lose. outright send the cameras away. He craves media attention Yet there’s also something incongruous and even absurd too much. But he and his team are serving notice that a new about applying the sinister label of fascist to Donald Trump. era in government-media relations is coming, an era in which He is so pathetically needy, so shamelessly self-interested, so all criticism is by deƒnition oppositional—and all critics are to ƒtful and distracted. Fascism fetishizes hardihood, sacriƒce, be treated as enemies. and struggle— concepts not often associated with Trump. In an online article for The New York Review of Books, the Perhaps this is the wrong question. Perhaps the better Russian-born journalist Masha Gessen brilliantly noted a com- question about Trump is not “What is he?” but “What will he monality between Donald Trump and the man Trump admires do to us?” so much, Vladimir Putin. “Lying is the message,” she wrote. “It’s By all early indications, the Trump presidency will corrode not just that both Putin and Trump lie, it is that they lie in the public integrity and the rule of law—and also do untold same way and for the same purpose: blatantly, to assert power damage to American global leadership, the Western alli ance, over truth itself.” and democratic norms around the world. The damage has already begun, and it will not be soon or easily undone. Yet HE LURID MASS MOVEMENTS of the 20th century— exactly how much damage is allowed to be done is an open communist, fascist, and other—have bequeathed question—the most impor tant near-term question in American to our imaginations an outdated image of what politics. It is also an intensely personal one, for its answer will 21st- century authoritarianism might look like. be determined by the answer to another question: What will Whatever else happens, Americans are not going you do? And you? And you? to assem ble in parade-ground formations, any more Of course we want to believe that everything will turn out than they will crank a gramophone or dance the turkey all right. In this instance, however, that lovely and customary trot. In a society where few people walk to work, why American assumption itself qualiƒes as one of the most serious T mobilize young men in matching shirts to command the streets? If you’re seeking to domineer and bully, you want your storm troopers to go online, where the more important tra˜c is. Demagogues need no longer stand erect for hours orating into a radio microphone. Tweet lies from a smartphone instead. “Populist-fueled democratic backsliding is dif™icult to counter,” wrote the political scientists Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Erica Frantz late last year. “Because it is subtle and incre- mental, there is no single moment that triggers widespread resistance or creates a focal point around which an opposition can coalesce … Piecemeal democratic erosion, therefore, typ- ically provokes only fragmented resistance.” Their observation was rooted in the experiences of countries ranging from the Philippines to Hungary. It could apply here too. Twitter has proved If people retreat into private life, if critics grow quieter, if an extremely effective cynicism becomes endemic, the corruption will slowly become communication tool more brazen, the intimidation of opponents stronger. Laws for Trump, shown intended to ensure accountability or prevent graft or protect here in his office at civil liberties will be weakened. Trump Tower. “Troll If the president uses his o˜ce to grab billions for himself armies,” mobilized and his family, his supporters will feel empowered to take in his support, may be millions. If he successfully exerts power to punish enemies, a fixture during his successors will emulate his methods. his administration.

58 MARCH  THE ATLANTIC impediments to everything turning out all right. If the story Trump and his team count on one thing above all others: ends without too much harm to the republic, it won’t be because public indifference. “I think people don’t care,” he said in the dangers were imagined, but because citizens resisted. September when asked whether voters wanted him to release The duty to resist should weigh most heavily upon those his tax returns. “Nobody cares,” he reiterated to 60 Minutes of us who—because of ideology or partisan a‹liation or some in November. Conicts of interest with foreign investments? other reason—are most predisposed to favor President Trump Trump tweeted on November 21 that he didn’t believe voters and his agenda. The years ahead will be years of temptation as cared about that either: “Prior to the election it was well known well as danger: temptation to seize a rare political opportunity that I have interests in properties all over the world. Only the to cram through an agenda that the American majority would crooked media makes this a big deal!” normally reject. Who knows when that chance will recur? What happens in the next four years will depend heavily on A constitutional regime is founded upon the shared belief whether Trump is right or wrong about how little Americans that the most fundamental commitment of the political system care about their democracy and the habits and conventions is to the rules. The rules matter more than the outcomes. It’s that sustain it. If they surprise him, they can restrain him. because the rules matter most that Hillary Clinton conceded Public opinion, public scrutiny, and public pressure still matter the presidency to Trump despite winning millions more votes. greatly in the U.S. political system. In January, an un expected It’s because the rules matter most that the giant state of Cali- surge of voter outrage thwarted plans to neutralize the inde- fornia will accept the supremacy of a federal government that pendent House ethics o‹ce. That kind of defense will need to be its people rejected by an almost two-to-one margin. replicated many times. Elsewhere in this issue, Jonathan Rauch describes some of the networks of defense that Americans are creating (see page 60). Get into the habit of telephoning your senators and House member at their local o‹ces, especially if you live in a red state. Press your senators to ensure that prosecutors and judges are chosen for their independence—and that their independence is protected. Support A would-be kleptocrat is better laws to require the Treasury to release presi- dential tax returns if the president fails to do served by spreading cynicism so voluntarily. Urge new laws to clarify that the Emoluments Clause applies to the president’s than by deceiving followers. immediate family, and that it refers not merely to direct gifts from governments but to payments from government-af™iliated enterprises as well. Demand an independent investigation by quali›ed professionals of the role of foreign intelligence services in the 2016 election—and the contacts, if any, between those services and American citizens. Express your support and sympathy for journalists attacked by social- media trolls, especial ly women in journalism, so Perhaps the words of a founding father of modern con- often the preferred targets. Honor civil servants who are ›red servatism, Barry Goldwater, offer guidance. “If I should or forced to resign because they de›ed improper orders. Keep later be attacked for neglecting my constituents’ ‘interests,’ ” close watch for signs of the rise of a culture of o‹ cial impunity, Goldwater wrote in The Conscience of a Conservative, “I shall in which friends and supporters of power-holders are allowed to reply that I was informed their main interest is liberty and out rules that bind everyone else. that in that cause I am doing the very best I can.” These words Those citizens who fantasize about defying tyranny from should be kept in mind by those conservatives who think a tax within forti›ed compounds have never understood how liberty cut or health-care reform a su‹cient reward for enabling the is actually threatened in a modern bureaucratic state: not by slow rot of constitutional government. diktat and violence, but by the slow, demoralizing process of cor- Many of the worst and most subversive things Trump will do ruption and deceit. And the way that liberty must be defended will be highly popular. Voters liked the threats and incentives is not with amateur ›rearms, but with an unwearying insistence that kept Carrier manufacturing jobs in Indiana. Since 1789, upon the honesty, integrity, and professionalism of American the wisest American leaders have invested great ingenuity institutions and those who lead them. We are living through the in creating institutions to protect the electorate from its most dangerous challenge to the free government of the United momentary impulses toward arbitrary action: the courts, the States that anyone alive has encountered. What happens next is professional o‹ cer corps of the armed forces, the civil service, up to you and me. Don’t be afraid. This moment of danger can the Federal Reserve—and undergirding it all, the guarantees also be your ›nest hour as a citizen and an American. of the Constitution and especially the Bill of Rights. More than any president in U.S. history since at least the time of Andrew David Frum is an Atlantic senior editor. In 2001 and 2002, he

THE NEW YORK TIMES REDUX JOSH HANER THE NEW YORK Jackson, Donald Trump seeks to subvert those institutions. served as a speechwriter for President George W. Bush.

THE ATLANTIC MARCH  59 60 MARCH  THE ATLANTIC Our new president may well try to govern as an authoritarian. Whether he succeeds depends less on what he does than on how civil society responds.

BY JONATHAN RAUCH ILLUSTRATION BY JEFFREY SMITH

THE ATLANTIC MARCH  61 Whatever his intellectual and political gifts, Richard Nixon, the 37th president of the United States, was a cunning and dangerous criminal. For him, issuing illegal orders was literally just another day at the o‚ice.

One such day, in July of 1971 (nearly a controversial president who, whatever “are thinking about Trump as a policy year before the Watergate break-in), one may think of his policies and person- problem: how he will lead to the depor- found him ordering his chief of staff, ality, proves to be responsible and ešec- tation of un documented immigrants or H. R. Haldeman, to execute a burglary. tive as a chief executive. But we might lead the U.S. to pull out of the Paris cli- The president was exercised about get Infantile Trump, an undisciplined mate agreement. But I think Trump is politically damaging documents that he narcissist who throws tantrums and also potentially an authori tarian threat imagined were possessed by scholars at governs haphazardly. Or perhaps, to the survival of liberal democracy.” the Brookings Institution, a respected worse yet, we’ll get Strongman Trump, Mounk is a 35-year-old German who Washington think tank, where I now who turns out to have been telegraph- studied in the United Kingdom before work. “We’re up against an enemy, a ing his real intentions when, during coming to the United States. He’s Jewish, conspiracy,” Nixon railed, banging on the campaign, he spread innuendo and and in Germany his Judaism made him the desk for emphasis. “They’re using mis information, winked at political vio- an object of curiosity. “They thought of any means. We are going to use any lence, and proposed multiple violations me as an outsider,” he told me. When we means. Is that clear? Did they get the of the Constitution and basic decency. ‘rst spoke, he was waiting for his ‘nal Brookings Institute raided last night?” Quite probably we’ll get some combina- immigration interview before taking the Haldeman: “No, sir, they didn’t.” tion of all three (and possibly others). oath of U.S. citizenship. In America, he Nixon: “No. Get it done. I want it If we get Strongman Trump or Infan- says, “It doesn’t matter what ethnicity done! I want the Brookings Institute safe tile Trump, how would we protect our you are, what religion you are. That’s cleaned out!” democratic institutions and norms? where I want to live.” He sees America Anyone who wants to hear the presi- “Don’t be complacent,” warns Timothy as the world’s preeminent example dent of the United States sounding like Naftali, a New York University histo- of multiethnic liberalism, a model he a B-movie mobster will ‘nd dozens of rian who was the founding director of believes is under attack. examples on the Nixon presidential the Nixon presidential library. “Don’t Mounk’s work ‘rst came to my atten- library’s website. Nixon compiled lists of assume the system is so strong that a tion this past summer, when he and enemies, tried to suborn the IRS and the bad president will be sent packing. We Roberto Stefan Foa, of the University of CIA, demanded that Jews be investigated have someone now saying things that Melbourne, published an article in the and ‘red (“You can’t trust the bastards”), imply unconstitutional impulses. If he Journal of Democracy showing a decline created a personal black-ops team (the acts on those impulses, we’re going to be in support for democracy in the West. Plumbers), raised hush money and estab- in the political struggle of our lifetimes.” The decline is alarming. In the U.S., the lished slush funds, suggested engaging Meeting that challenge, I think, hinges proportion of people saying it would be thugs to beat up protesters, proposed on whether civil society can mobilize good or very good for the “Army to rule” selling ambassadorships, spied on politi- to contain and channel Trump. Fortu- rose from one in 16 in 1995 to one in six cal activists, and orchestrated cover-ups. nately, that’s happening already. in 2014. Ominously, the trend was stron- He remained in o–ce for nearly six years, gest among the young. When asked to ultimately being forced out only because T’S TEMPTING to think of Trump rate on a scale of one to 10 how essen- he made the astonishing mistake of as a Ÿuke, and to believe that at the tial it was for them to live in a democ- recording himself breaking the law. Until end of his administration every- racy, 75 percent of Americans born in the Supreme Court ordered the tapes thing will return to normal. Many the 1930s chose 10, but the proportion turned over to a special prosecutor in July people hold a darker view, though— dropped with each succeeding decade, of 1974, Nixon still had enough support among them Yascha Mounk, the falling to only about 30 percent for peo- to survive a removal vote in the Senate. co-founder of a new watchdog ple born in the 1980s. The 45th president, Donald Trump, group called After Trump. A lec- The trends were similar in Europe. might pose the gravest threat to the I turer on government at Harvard “I started looking at developments in constitutional order since the 37th. Of and a fellow at the New America Europe and also in the United States,” course, he might not. Perhaps we’ll get Foundation, Mounk thinks the stakes Mounk told me, “and started thinking Grown-up Trump, an unorthodox and are high. “Most people,” he told me, that democracy was much less stable

62 MARCH  THE ATLANTIC than people assumed.” In Hungary, the those factors are visible in a multitude between the densest economic cen- Philippines, Poland, Turkey, Venezuela, of places. “Democracy is no longer the ters and the rest of the country,” write and other new and emerging democra- only game in town,” Mounk says. Brookings’s Mark Muro and Sifan Liu, cies, authoritarian-minded populists Why? Mounk suspects the mutually who reported the data. had adopted versions of what Viktor reinforcing effects of three different Globalization exacerbates all three Orbán, the prime minister of Hungary, but related social vectors. The irst is of those vectors. And the vectors has called illiberal democracy, which economic anxiety. “In a lot of coun- (especially the rst two) reinforce one Mounk denes as democracy without tries,” he says, “you’ve always had a another. Together they seem to cre - rights. In Austria, Britain, France, Ger- very rapid increase in living standards ate political opportunities for illiberal many, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, from one generation to the next. That’s democracy and tough-guy populists. So and other mature democracies, author- no longer the case in many countries in Trump might be a black swan. But he itarian populists were gaining in popu- Europe and in North America.” Some of also might be a transformative gure in larity and clout. what always looked like unconditional a global anti democratic backlash.

’M A CAUTIOUS OPTIMIST. After all, this isn’t the rst time the U.S. has seen panic about an anti democratic presidency. In 1828, many serious people believed that Andrew Jack- son was an authoritarian who would impose military rule, and Jack- son’s record provided real grounds I for concern. “The phrase was that he was going to be an American Bonaparte,” says the Jackson biog rapher Jon Meacham. “He would become a dic- tator.” But the Constitution survived, and Jackson’s presidency, although con- troversial to this day, proved e›ective. Yascha Mounk, We have reason to hope that Trump the co-founder of will gure out how to be a modern-day a new watchdog Jackson. Anyone who over a ve-decade group called After career succeeds as a real-estate devel- Trump, believes oper, an author, a television star, and that Donald Trump now an insurgent politician clearly pos- represents an sesses adaptability and talent. But we authoritarian threat also have reason to fear that he might use to the survival of the powers of his o¥ce to violate court liberal democracy. orders, encourage supporters to harass his political opponents, suborn the Jus- tice Department or the IRS or other powerful agencies, circumvent Con- At irst, scholars and editors pooh- support for democracy may actually gress, or aggrandize and enrich himself. poohed Mounk’s alarmism. Recent have been conditioned on rising pros- In an accompanying article in this issue events, though, have made a global perity. The second vector is ethnic and (“How to Build an Autocracy,” page 48), retreat from democracy look disturb- racial anxiety: historically dominant David Frum imagines how a corrupt and ingly plausible. Mounk calls the trend groups’ perception (frequently accurate) corrupting Trump presidency might “democratic deconsolidation.” When that they are losing majority standing look. Just as important, however, is how I asked why, he explained that many and the cultural status that goes with it might not look: obvious. students of political develop ment have it. The third vector, Mounk believes, is For this article, I set out to develop supposed that in prosperous and demo- growing economic inequality between a list of telltales that the president is cratic parts of the world, liberal democ- urban centers and rural hinterlands. endangering the Constitution and racy has consolidated its standing. The United States in 2016 o›ered a par- threatening democracy. I failed. In fact, Unfortunately, that reassuring theory ticularly vivid example: Hillary Clinton I concluded that there can be no such now appears to be wobbly. Democracy carried only 472 counties, out of more list, because many of the worrisome can start to unwind if popular support than 3,000, but those 472 were predom- things that an anti democratic president for it declines, if the public becomes inantly urban and accounted for nearly might do look just like things that other open to undemocratic alternatives, and two-thirds of the country’s total eco- presidents have done. Use presidential if undemocratic politicians emerge nomic output. “No election in decades power to bully corporations? Truman

STEFFEN JÄNICKE STEFFEN who can exploit that opening. All of has revealed as sharp a political divide and Kennedy did that. Distort or exag-

THE ATLANTIC MARCH  63 gerate facts to initiate or escalate a war? dential powers. He said he could deƒne networks that constrained Bush are still Johnson and George W. Bush did that. the entire world as a battleƒeld in the there, and Trump has put them on red Lie point-blank to the public? Eisen- War on Terror, designate noncitizens alert. “Every single thing he does will hower did that. Defy orders from the and citizens alike as enemy combatants, be scrutinized with an uncharitable Supreme Court? Lincoln did that. Sus- and then seize and detain them indeƒ- eye,” Goldsmith said. “That’s true of pend habeas corpus? Lincoln did that, nitely, without judicial interference or most presidents, but it’s true to an even too. Spy on American activists? Kennedy congressional approval or the oversight greater degree with Trump.” and Johnson did that. Start wars at will, called for by the Geneva Conventions. The forces are already mobilizing. In without congressional approval? Tru- What happened next, says Jack Gold- the ƒrst ƒve days after the election, the man did that. Censor “disloyal” speech smith, a veteran of the Bush Justice American Civil Liberties Union saw what and ƒre “disloyal” civil servants? Wilson Department, was unprecedented push- it called the greatest outpouring of sup- did that. Incarcerate U.S. citizens of for- back from “giant distributed networks of port in its history: more than $7 million eign extraction? Franklin D. Roosevelt lawyers, investi gators, and auditors, both from 120,000 contributors, a 25 percent did that. Use shady schemes to circum- vent congressional strictures? Reagan did that. Preempt Justice Department prosecutors? Obama did that. Assert sweeping powers to lock people up with- out trial or judicial review? George W. Bush did that. Declare an open-ended national emergency? Bush did that, and Obama continued it. Use regulatory Trump might be a black swan. authority aggres sively and, according to the courts, sometimes illegally? Obama But he also might be a did that. Kill a U.S. citizen abroad? Obama did that, too. Grant favors to transformative figure in a global political friends, and make mischief for political enemies? All presidents do that. antidemocratic backlash. Context is everything. Many of the beha viors that Trump displayed during the transition— leaning on corporations to retain American jobs, questioning Department of Energy bureaucrats about their climate- change activities, criticiz- ing by name a union of“icial who chal- inside and outside the executive branch.” increase in Facebook followers (to lenged his veracity—could be interpreted Goldsmith, now a professor at Harvard nearly 1 million), and 150,000 additions as dangerously illiberal, but they could Law School, discusses the phenomenon to its email list. By early January, the also be interpreted as ordinary presiden- in his 2012 book, Power and Constraint: ACLU had raised an impressive $35 mil- tial assertiveness. Authoritarianism lies lion online, from almost 400,000 These forces swarmed the gov- not in any individual presidential action contributors. Meanwhile, according to ernment with hundreds of critical but in the patterns of action that emerge reports and lawsuits that challenged Politico, progressive donors were dis- over the course of a presidency. Lincoln every aspect of the President’s war cussing “forming a liberal equivalent to and Eisenhower and all the others I’ve powers. They also brought thou- the right’s Judicial Watch, which spent just named were committed small-d sands of critical minds to bear on the much of the past eight years as a thorn democrats. Their excesses were excep- government’s activities, resulting in the Obama administration’s side, ƒl- tional or occasional. Unlike Nixon, they in bestselling books, reports, blog ing legal petitions under the Freedom of did not engage in concerted efforts to posts, and press tips that shaped Information Act.” undermine the integrity of the Constitu- the public’s view of presidential I have seen evidence of mobilization tion or the government. Moreover, and action and informed congressio- ƒrsthand. Just days after the election, a nal responses, lawsuits, and main- more important, when excesses did hap- friend told me that he and others were stream media reporting. pen, the rest of the system usually pushed organizing a network of law ƒrms will- back, usually successfully. Whether any In response, the Supreme Court and ing to provide pro bono legal services particular presidential action, or pattern Congress weighed in to regulate and to people fending off harassment or of action, is authoritarian thus depends constrain Bush’s powers, and the result bullying by the new administration or not just on the action itself but on how is a detention process that has its con- its allies. Before November was out, everyone else responds to it. troversial aspects but ƒts comfortably the Niskanen Center, a center-right For a good example, one need look within our constitutional norms. think tank in Washington, announced back no further than the presidency of “Civil society had a huge and unprec- a project to bring together intellectuals George W. Bush. After the 9/11 attacks, edented impact during the Bush admin- and activists and politicians (especially Bush claimed alarmingly broad presi- istration,” Goldsmith told me. The Republicans) to make the case for lib-

64 MARCH  THE ATLANTIC eral democracy, hold the line against a result, where Nixon-style illegality or seem aware of this power and willing to incursions, and try to prevent Trump’s naked power grabs are concerned, I’m use it. In December, when CNN’s Jake excesses from being normalized. “It’s optimistic that the constitutional frame- Tapper asked Kellyanne Conway, one important for people coming from work will hold. of Trump’s top advisers, whether it was the center and center-right to resist appropriate for a soon-to-be president the forces and ideas coming out of the UT THERE’S A tougher prob- to make bogus statements on Twit - Donald Trump campaign,” Jerry Taylor, lem we’ll have to confront: ter about massive electoral fraud, she the center’s director, told me. “We’ll be behavior by either the admin- replied, “Well, he’s the president-elect, keeping a very close eye on administra- istration or its allies that is, in so that’s presidential behavior.” tion undertakings and events on Capitol Goldsmith’s phrase, “law- If Trump or his supporters (with his Hill, and when things cross the line we ful but awful.” As Benjamin explicit or tacit approval) were to con- will be energetically pushing back.” Wittes, a Brookings Institu- tinue in the same vein as before he took Yascha Mounk, too, will be push- tion expert on legal affairs, of‚ice—by spreading disinformation, ing back. When I ‚irst met him, the B told me, “The ‚irst thing trolling or harassing opponents, mock- Friday after the election, he and Justin you’re going to blow through is ing the intelligence agencies, and the E. H. Smith, an American academic not the laws, it’s the norms.” By “norms,” like—outside groups couldn’t do much based in Paris, had grabbed the domain he means such political and social cus- to stop them. Here is where a second name AfterTrump.org and were setting toms as respecting the law, accepting the aspect of Mounk’s effort, and that of up their new watchdog organization. legitimacy of your political opponents, Jerry Taylor and others, becomes rel- Two weeks later, Mounk told me that they tolerating speech you disagree with, per- evant. Mounk’s most ambitious goal is had enlisted about 20 core supporters— forming civic duties like voting and stay- to develop an appealing case for demo- academics, journalists, activists—plus 50 ing informed, treating public o˜ce with cratic institutions and open societies. to 100 friends and helpers. In December, dignity, and not lying. Fervently and fre- “We need a positive vision of what poli- they developed plans for a blog, an online quently, the Founders warned that the tics can be after Trump,” Mounk says. dashboard on the state of liberal democ- Constitution would stand or fall on the “We need to build a new vision of how racy, podcasts, and a new magazine. public’s commitment to high standards liberalism can improve people’s lives Their most important idea, though, is to of behavior—what they called republi- while pulling them together.” use crowdsourcing to monitor potential can virtue. James Madison said “parch- Mounk acknowledges that he doesn’t illiberal maneuvers by the Trump admin- ment barriers” could not withstand the yet know how to ežect this mission. It’s istration, thereby building up a database corruption of democratic norms. George likely to require revising the liberal- that, over time, could reveal subtle pat- Washington, in his farewell address, democratic social contract to meet the terns of worrisome or abusive behavior said, “It is substantially true that virtue challenges of societies struggling with that sporadic media attention might miss. or morality is a necessary spring of pop- growing inequality, disappointing eco- If you think it’s ridiculous to imagine ular government.” John Adams warned nomic mobility, weakened institutions, that one nascent group, or even a hand- that “avarice, ambition, revenge, or gal- and an angry, jaded public. It’s going to ful of heavy hitters like the ACLU, could lantry would break the strongest cords require a collective ežort of activists and shift the orbit of Planet Trump, you’re of our constitution as a whale goes citizens and elites on several continents. right. The point is that a civil-society through a net.” When Benjamin Frank- Years will pass before we know whether mobilization involves multitudes of lin was asked what kind of government liberal democracy can muster a new groups and people forming a whole the Constitution established, he replied: case for itself. greater than the sum of its parts—the “A republic—if you can keep it.” That said, Mounk’s core insight— phenomenon that Goldsmith describes Prior to entering of‚ice, Trump that the work needs to get done—is in Power and Constraint. Goldsmith calls mounted an unprecedented assault on sound. To help the body politic resist the vast array of watchers focused on republican virtue. During the campaign, de- norming, you need to make an argu- the president the “synopticon.” Today and continuing into the transition, he ment for the kind of government and the synopticon is far bigger and more showed that he could de‚ine political society that the norms support. You developed than it was in Nixon’s day. deviancy downward at the speed of have to explain why lying, bullying, The White House and executive agen- sound. When, just a month after declar- and coarsening are the enemies of the cies are scrutinized by watchdog groups, ing his candidacy, he attacked Senator kinds of lives people aspire to. Instead mainstream media, bloggers, leakers, John McCain for having been a pris - of pointing to Trump with shock and inspectors general, lawyers, and all oner of war, decent people assumed disgust—tactics that seem to help more sorts of others—sometimes to the point he had gone too far. Speaking for many, than hurt him—you need to ožer some- of impeding legitimate executive action, Senator Lindsey Graham said Trump thing better. In other words, you need to but also making abuses harder to hide or had “crossed a line.” Actually, Trump emulate what the Founders did so many •nesse than Nixon ever imagined. had erased the line, and then erased years ago, when they ožered, and then Nixon’s gift to American democracy many others. A president has much built, a more perfect union. was to inadvertently establish the infra- greater power than a candidate to erase structure that will contain Trump. The accepted standards of conduct, because Jonathan Rauch is a contributing editor harder he pushes to stretch or violate millions of partisan supporters will rally at The Atlantic and a senior fellow at the the law, the more he’ll be swarmed. As to him. Trump and people around him Brookings Institution.

THE ATLANTIC MARCH  65 HIS ANONYMOUS SURVEY

HAS LAUNCHED CAREERS,

RECOGNIZED FOUR

OF THE PAST EIGHT

BEST PICTURE WINNERS,

AND PUSHED MOVIE STUDIOS

TO THINK BEYOND SEQUELS

AND ACTION FLICKS. ARTPHOTOGRAPHY CREDIT ARTPHOTOGRAPHY

66 MARCH  THE ATLANTIC HOW FRANKLIN LEONARD CREATED THE HOLLYWOOD LIST EVERYONE WANTS TO BE ON

BY ALEX WAGNER PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOE PUGLIESE

THE ATLANTIC MARCH 2017 67 T Ÿ¡ ¢£¤¥¡¦ §Ÿ¨§ have IN THE AGE OF come out of Black List scripts comprise a Murderers’ Row THE GARGANTUAN of critics’ picks: Spotlight, The Revenant, Whiplash, Argo, The King’s Speech, Slumdog Millionaire, The BLOCKBUSTER, Wrestler, Juno, There Will Be Blood. Four of the past eight Best Picture winners at it wasn’t immediately clear that the story of a suicidal mathematician in wartime the Oscars and nine of the past 18 win- England would make for a successful movie. In fact, it wasn’t clear that it would make ners for Best Screenplay or Best Adapted for a movie at all. Screenplay appeared on the Black List. In 2010, Graham Moore was a precocious 28-year-old author who had just written Franklin Leonard was a junior exec- a novel about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. At a cocktail party in Los Angeles, a producer utive at Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian named Nora Grossman mentioned to him that she and her producing partner were Way Productions when he started the interested in making a „lm based on a biography of Alan Turing—the English scien- Black List. “Throughout the year in tist who is credited with developing the „rst computer but was punished for his homo- Hollywood,” he told me, “there are sexuality. Moore was immediately intrigued; he’d been interested in Turing’s story all these conversations happening at since he was a teenager. “I have to be the one to write this!” he told Grossman. all levels about ‘What have you read She and her partner, Ido Ostrowsky, agreed, and Moore set to work. After he that’s good lately?’ ” In 2005, he de - „nished the screenplay, he called his agent. “ ‘Hey, I have this script about a gay Eng- cided to anonymously survey his Rolo- lish mathematician who killed himself,’ ” Moore deadpanned to me, recalling that— dex, soliciting from his contacts their because of the subject matter—he didn’t expect it to be an instant success. But his picks for the top 10 scripts of the year agent loved the script, recognizing that Moore had managed to turn what could have that were not yet being made into mov- been a morbid biopic into a riveting thriller. A few months later, Warner Brothers ies. Ninety-three executives and studio bought a one-year option to make the „lm. assis tants responded. Leonard compiled But selling a screenplay is not the same as making a movie, as Moore would soon the results, ranked them by the number learn. Warner Brothers, like many of the major studios today, is largely in the business of mentions each got, and sent his con- of making big movies, and the script, despite being very good, did not „t the mold of tacts a PDF of the list from an anony- the tentpole franchises that might do well in, say, China. Moore wondered whether mous email address. A couple of years it would ever get made. “It would have been their lowest-budget movie in 30 years,” later, the Los Angeles Times outed him he told me recently. as the Black List’s creator, and eventu- Nine months into Warner Brothers’ year-long option, Moore got a call from Greg ally he started announcing the list more Silverman, then an executive vice president at the company, who gave him his script publicly— on Twitter and YouTube, and back on good terms and told him to “go make this as the small indie „lm that you on a website he created. always should have.” Technically, Warner Brothers could have sat on the script for Though Leonard created the survey another three months, so getting it back when Moore did was a boon. Yet he knew essentially because he was looking for the project faced an uncertain future. Many scripts bounce from studio to studio, cast some good reading material, he quickly and crew come and go according to availability, and even a great story can languish realized that it had a certain subversive for years—or never get told. potential. Leonard is outspoken about But Moore had an important advantage. In 2011, shortly after Warner Brothers the lack of diversity in Hollywood— not optioned his screenplay, it landed in the No. 1 spot on something called the Black List: just when it comes to who appears on- an anonymous survey in which industry professionals name the scripts they liked the screen, but also in terms of what kinds most that year. The Black List was started in 2005 by a 27-year-old „lm executive from of stories get told. The number of „lms west Georgia named Franklin Leonard, and has become an inœuential index of the produced by the major studios has fallen most original and well-written—if not the most bankable— screenplays in Holly wood. in recent years, and the industry has Its power to launch careers and expedite projects is astound ing. become highly dependent on foreign Moore saw this power „rsthand when he tried again to sell his script. “Because sales. As a result, studios have begun of the Black List, everybody had already read it,” he said —including the Norwegian to stick to a narrower range of „lms that director Morten Tyl dum, who would end up making the movie, and the English actor they think will be pro„table—and they Benedict Cumberbatch, who would star in it. appear ever less likely to take a chance At an event in 2014, Cumberbatch recalled „rst hearing about the script. “What on unusual but compelling screenplays. could have been a sort of English-scented rose garden of a script kind of landed with Leonard sees the Black List as a tool that huge heat on it, because it was top of the Black List,” he said. “I was intrigued by can highlight promising scripts outside people of taste who said ‘You’ve got to read it’—including everyone who votes on that range, helping to promote excep- the Black List.” tional storytelling at a time when market Having gotten the attention of Tyldum, Cumberbatch, and other key players, the forces are pushing Hollywood toward project sailed along. “We skipped six steps,” Moore told me. “We were shooting less cookie-cutter action extravaganzas. than 12 months later.” Leonard isn’t surprised that the The movie, like the script, was called The Imitation Game. It went on to garner eight selections on the list tend to depart Academy Award nominations—and to win the 2015 Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. from standard blockbuster fare. “The

68 MARCH  THE ATLANTIC Black List is asking a different ques- As The Imitation Game demonstrates, the Black List can act as an accelerant— tion than the market does,” he told me. focusing Hollywood’s attention on a project and giving it crucial momentum. “The “We’re asking what scripts people love. survey forces Hollywood to look in the mirror and say, Here’s what you said you liked!,” The market requires that they answer Leonard told me. “Because there’s been so much success with the list, not only are ‘Which scripts do you think will result in a studio execs and producers saying that, but now you have actors—when the list protable movie?’ ” The list o­ers proof comes out—going through it, calling their agents, and saying, ‘Hey, you gotta get that the industry still recognizes great me that script.’ ” stories, even if it doesn’t always make Rowena Arguelles, an agent who represents screenwriters and directors such as them into movies with great haste—or Chris Terrio (Argo) and Ava DuVernay (Selma), agrees. The Black List is “part of our at all. Leonard named it the Black List industry lexicon,” she told me. “The phrase means something to the town.” in part as a tribute to the screenwriters Consider the example of the 2015 Best Picture nominee Whiplash, an unlikely and other professionals whose careers psychodrama about a jazz orchestra at a top New York conservatory. “We knew it were ruined by the House Un-American would be a di¡cult sell, so we thought we’d take a scene and make it a short,” Helen Activities Committee in the 1940s and Estabrook, the producer, told me. “We shot it in three days, and we took it around ’50s, and in part as “a conscious inver- town as a proof of concept.” sion of the assumption that black some- During this time, the script landed on the 2012 Black List. “I was basically walking how signies something negative.” around town with the DVD” of the short, Estabrook said, “and it certainly helped to The survey has since grown to include have it on the list.” up to 300 executives in any given year, I asked Estabrook why, and she explained that the spot on the Black List o­ered and the Black List now recognizes about “a level of validation that proved, ‘Hey, I’m not a crazy person—many other people 75 scripts. In 12 years, about a third of the agree with me.’ ” scripts named to the list have been made into lms—by Holly wood standards, an W £¤¥¦§ ¨©ª£¤¨§ «¬§¥ §®ª¨ª¯§¯°± about the Black List is impressive record. To be sure, some of that nobody had ever thought of it before, given its obvious utility. these movies would have been made “Historically, what movies got made and what movies were good without the help of the Black List. Many were the decisions” of a small number of individual executives at scripts have already caught the interest the studios, Leonard said. And even the most esteemed studio heads of studios or producers and are spoken have blind spots. for by the time they make the list. But Because of the nancial pressures associated with making a movie, they tend to that doesn’t necessarily ensure a •ilm err on the side of safety, preferring lms that are somehow similar to ones that have will be made quickly . It’s not un common done well in the past. (Thus, the seven Fast and the Furious sequels.) But convention for scripts that have been optioned or can be the death of creativity—and it’s no guarantee of box-o¡ce success, either. The purchased to fall into a state of limbo, Black List o­ers a di­erent way of looking at scripts. By using the wisdom of the whether because of a lack of funding, a crowd to assess the best stories, it reassures nanciers, executives, and producers lack of a big-name director and actors that they’re not going too far out on a limb. committed to the project, or a lack But while the list inevitably helps those in the middle and at the top of the Holly- of enthusiasm among studio executives. wood food chain—agents, producers, executives, actors—the subset most clearly assisted is the group traditionally at the low end: writers. Even if not all the scripts on the list get made, the careers of the writers on it certainly can be. “I’ve read plenty of great scripts on the Black List that wouldn’t necessarily make great mov- ies,” Ruben Fleischer, who directed Zombieland, 30 Minutes or Less, and Gangster Squad (all of which appeared on the Black List), told me. “It can be a really entertaining script and an incredible screenplay, but it might be a hard movie to realize.” For writers, though, getting onto the Black List “can be great exposure and great access.” Take Joshua Zetumer, who was working as an assistant “not really in Hollywood,” though he (sort of) knew two people who were. “One was a friend of an ex, the other was my roommate’s brother,” he told me. In 2006 Zetumer wrote a dark thriller about two brothers, called Villain, and passed it along to his friends of friends, who Graham Moore has credited the Black List with helping to get got it to an agent. That year, Villain was the No. 4 The Imitation Game made into a film. It won the Oscar for Best

KEVIN WINTERGETTY Adapted Screenplay in 2015. script on the Black List.

THE ATLANTIC MARCH  69 Little Miss Sunshine Black List 2005 Won Best Original Screenplay in 2007 The Juno Descendants Black List 2005 Black List 2008 Won Best Original Won Best Adapted Screenplay in 2008 Screenplay in 2012

2005 2008

SCRIPTS FROM THE BLACK LIST HAVE A RECORD OF WINNING OSCAR BAIT CRITICAL ACCLAIM AND LOTS OF ACADEMY AWARDS.

2007 2009

Slumdog The King's Millionaire Speech Black List 2007 Black List 2009 Won Best Picture Won Best Picture and Best Adapted and Best Original Screenplay in 2009 Screenplay in 2011

“It was the rst big thing that happened,” Zetu mer told me. The script never ended L.A. and network themselves into a posi- up getting made into a movie—it was “a violent, character-driven thriller,” Zetumer tion.” That expectation, he noted, is ne said—but he quickly started booking serious writing gigs. He wrote two more scripts— for kids who went to Ivy League schools one for Leonardo DiCaprio and another that had Hugh Jackman attached to it— that (Leonard himself went to Harvard) or made the Black List, but neither of those has been made into a movie yet either. have parents willing to oat them cash “It’s frustrating,” he said, “but o‘ of those scripts, I’ve been able to get a wonder- while they work in agency mail rooms. ful career.” Zetumer has worked on “But if you’re a suburban mom in Chi- big-budget projects like the James Bond cago,” he said, “you can’t do that. And movie Quantum of Solace and the Robo- that has nothing to do with whether Cop reboot, as well as the recent žilm JOSHUA ZETUMER you’re a good writer or not.” WAS WORKING Patriots Day. “I can’t say what my life AS AN ASSISTANT Earlier in his career, Leonard urged would have been like” without the Black WHEN HIS SCRIPT would-be writers outside Hollywood List, he told me. APPEARED ON to apply for the Nicholl Fellowship, a THE BLACK LIST. "I CAN'T SAY WHAT $35,000 grant for amateur screen- F Ÿ¡ ¢£ ¤¢¥¦ nobody-to- MY LIFE WOULD writers offered by the Academy of somebody stories as the Black HAVE BEEN LIKE" Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. But List has created, its power to WITHOUT IT. the Nicholl is highly competitive— open up Hollywood to new o‘ering no more than ve grants a year voices is limited, as Leonard to an average of 7,000 applicants—and himself readily admits. Scripts have to eventually he decided that it was “an nd their way into the industry pipeline in su“cient answer.” before they can make the list: An agent or “There was no e“cient mechanism a manager has to have the script in order by which people with talent could even to get it into the hands of other agents and executives so that they may, in turn, like it make the industry aware of their talent,” and vote for it. And it is a select group of men and women who can move to Los Ange- he said. So he decided to try to create les and forge the connections necessary to get a script into the pipeline in the rst place. one. In September 2012 he left his job at “The industry is a closed circle,” Leonard told me, criticizing the arrogance Overbrook Entertainment, Will Smith’s

behind the assumption that “everyone who wants to work in Hollywood will move to production company. The next month, EVERETT COLLECTION; PICTURES; ENTERTAINMENT ALAMY PHOTO12; UNITED ARCHIVES;

70 MARCH  THE ATLANTIC Django Unchained Argo The Black List 2011 Black List 2010 Won Best Original Imitation Won Best Picture Screenplay in 2013 Game and Best Adapted Black List 2011 Screenplay in 2013 Won Best Adapted Screenplay in 2015

2010 2011

2013

The Social Network Black List 2009 Won Best Adapted Screenplay in 2011 Spotlight Black List 2013 Won Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay in 2016

he added the Black List screenwriting through its year-end survey. They were interested in directing and writing, but had service to his website. One aim of the never seriously considered moving to Los Angeles. “We write a lot of southern sto- service is to give would-be writers, for a ries,” Ruckus told me. Still, they would visit the city a few times a year, to “try and fee, a chance to get critical feedback on make inroads.” their scripts—a coveted asset in a town Lane described the futility of doing this without an agent or a manager. “We where honest and thoughtful critiques would go out there and accomplish literally nothing,” she said. “We were meeting are hard to come by. with someone’s friend who was in the mail room.” The two had just nished writ- Once a script is uploaded to the site, a ing the script for a low-budget jailhouse thriller, Rattle the Cage, when they saw the Black List reviewer reads it. These anon- announce ment for the Black List screenwriting service in late 2012. They decided to ymous men and women have worked try it, “just to see what would happen.” for at least a year as an assistant in the The reviewers on the site oƒered encouraging feedback. “I remember one of the industry. If a script performs well in its rst ones was ‘This is a no-brainer. This lm should be made,’ ” Ruckus said. “Up until initial evaluation, the writer is given the then, just our friends had read it.” Within six weeks, they got a call from a manager in option of a second, free evaluation. As Los Angeles who was interested in representing them. Soon they were having meetings long as the feedback remains good, the on studio lots. A year later, a director named Majid Al Ansari, who is based in Abu Dhabi, script is entitled to further free reviews. read the script on the Black List website—he had joined the site to look for new material. In this way, Leonard attempts to ensure Rattle the Cage takes place in Georgia. The Skyes wanted to direct the lm them- that the best scripts stay in circulation, selves, and gured it was a story that would shoot well—which is to say, for little and that good work is rewarded. The site money—in their backwoods. The script was lled with southern colloquialisms, but also gives moviemaking professionals a this was apparently of no concern to Al Ansari. He liked the script and wanted to make portal through which they can search the lm. And he wanted to set it in the Middle East. out new—and well-reviewed—scripts, The Skyes refused—they were determined to direct the lm themselves. Al Ansari based on any number of criteria, includ- was undeterred. His employer, Image Nation Abu Dhabi, oƒered to buy only the ing budget, genre, and a variety of tags Arabic- language rights; the Skyes could keep the English rights for themselves and (explod ing buildings, sharks, yakuza). direct the American version when the time (read: money) was right. “We tried hard Ruckus and Lane Skye, a husband- to think of a reason not to do it—and we couldn’t,” said Ruckus. The couple agreed. and-wife šilmmaking duo based in Rattle the Cage became Zinzana, the rst thriller shot in the United Arab Emirates.

AF ARCHIVE; PHOTO12; PICTORIAL PRESS; ALAMY PICTORIAL AF ARCHIVE; PHOTO12; Atlanta, širst heard of the Black List Last March, Net˜ix acquired the rights to stream the lm globally.

THE ATLANTIC MARCH  71 How did a movie set in a southern jail cell become an Arabic thriller? Instead sales,” he said. But Strong didn’t agree of the backwoods of Georgia, the jailhouse was set in the desert, sometime in that The Butler had limited appeal. “To the 1980s. The most signi cant character change was to turn an unmarried preg- me,” he said, “the beats of that movie nant woman into a chubby woman with asthma—presumably to conform to the were very mainstream. It was not this UAE’s strict religious views. Overall, the Skyes said, it was “about 80 percent” the indie, art-house  lm. It was a sweeping, same  lm. mainstream, emotional epic.” The southern version of the  lm is now fully funded, with the Skyes attached to Spielberg ultimately passed on di- direct it. They no longer have day jobs, Ruckus told me, because “this is what we’re recting it, but Lee Daniels, fresh off doing.” They had found a new way into an exist ing power structure. an Oscar nomination for the ilm Pre- cious, signed on. Daniels put together S žŸŸ¡¢¢ ¢£¤¥¦¡¢ like the Skyes’ show how the Black List screen writing a cast that included prominent black service might begin to widen the funnel through which talent reaches stars such as Oprah Winfrey and Forest Hollywood. Still, in one respect Leonard has been disappointed: He’d Whitaker, as well as major white stars hoped that the site would help more women and minority screen writers such as Robin Williams and Jane Fonda get discovered. Instead, the overwhelming majority of submissions have to play the presidents and irst ladies. come from white men, a pattern that mirrors the industry as a whole. Daniels then went to “every Hollywood The lack of diversity in Hollywood has come under increasing public scrutiny,  nancier and studio—and every single espe cially since last year’s Academy Awards. The all-white nominees for the top four one of them said no. Not one wanted to acting categories, plus the overwhelmingly white casts of all the Best Picture contend- make it,” Strong recalled. ers, sparked a national outcry. Movies are still one of America’s most powerful and In the end, The Butler found a cham- popular forms of cultural expression, advo cates argue, and they should re© ect the pion in a producer named Laura Ziskin, realities of their American audience. who had considerable clout in Holly- A recent study by the Motion Pic- wood: She had produced Pretty Woman ture Association of America found that and the Spiderman trilogy. (She died in people of color purchased 45 percent "MANY OF 2011 of breast cancer.) Strong told me of movie tickets in 2015. But a report THE BELIEFS that Ziskin went on a “crusade” to raise from the Annenberg Foundation and ABOUT WHAT'S the money independently. She targeted the Annenberg School at the University PROFITABLE ARE wealthy African Americans, urging FUNDAMENTALLY of Southern California revealed that in RACIST AND them to fund the project because it was the 100 highest-grossing  lms of 2015, MISOGYNIST," a chronicle of the civil-rights movement. only 26 percent of the characters with LEONARD SAYS. Sheila Johnson, a co-founder of BET speaking parts were nonwhite. Statis- (Black Entertainment Television), was tics like these have stoked a debate over one of the  rst to sign on. Dozens of oth- whether the market for ilms starring ers followed. “It took 41 producers to white actors is simply larger, or whether get the  lm made!,” Strong told me, still the industry is guilty of bias in producing somewhat in disbelief. “The producers an overwhelming number of  lms with were anyone who gave us money or got white stars. people to give us money—they got an Danny Strong, a writer, actor, and director, told me a story that revealed how bias— onscreen credit. That was the journey.” whether conscious or not—can seep into assess ments of a  lm’s  nancial prospects. The journey was indeed an extraor- Strong wrote the script for the HBO  lm Recount, about the 2000 election, which dinary one. I was astounded that even nabbed the top spot on the Black List in 2007. The  lm came out in 2008 and won three with the critically lauded team of Strong Emmys and a Golden Globe. He was then hired to write a script about Eugene Allen, a and Daniels, a script that was acknowl- butler in the White House who had served eight presidents. The script, calledThe Butler, edged to be one of the year’s best, and appeared on the Black List in 2010. Steven Spielberg “planted his © ag in it” just three the involve ment of Oprah—a kingmaker days after Strong  nished writing the  rst draft, he told me. Yet despite the writer’s good in her own right—The Butler had faced reputation, his clearly well-liked script, and the interest of an industry titan, gettingThe such an uphill battle. Did it really come Butler made into a movie took years. I asked Strong why, and he laid out the challenges. down to  nanciers and studio executives He began by detailing the  nancial realities of Hollywood. “Because of the adver- thinking that a black, American-history tising costs,” he said, “it’s $20 million to $40 million to promote a  lm. And DVD movie couldn’t do well overseas? If that sales used to bring that in, if not more.” But streaming has largely supplanted DVD was the case, had they been right? sales—which fell by almost 70 percent from 2005 to 2015—and isn’t nearly as pro t- able for studios. “When that went away,” Strong said, “it caused irreparable harm to the  lm business, as far as getting movies green-lit.” Faced with a dismal sales forecast, big studios have chosen to focus on  lms they expect to do well overseas. In Leonard sees the Black List as a tool to help ensure 2015, international sales accounted for more than two-thirds of the industry’s revenue , Hollywood doesn't give up on with the majority coming from Asia, especially China. making great films. According to Strong, The Butler had to overcome two of Holly wood’s widely held assumptions: Films starring African Americans don’t do well abroad, and neither do  lms about American history. “It had two X marks against it for international

72 MARCH  THE ATLANTIC I asked Strong how The Butler had That was the plan, until Fox Searchlight picked up the marketing and distribution done in the foreign market. rights for a limited release and the  lm became a word-of-mouth and critical sensa- “Gangbusters,” he said. The tion. It was only after it won Best Picture at the 2009 Academy Awards that ticket international-distribution rights sold sales really took o , raking in $141 million in North America and $365 million inter- for double the expected amount. The nationally. All for a  lm that very nearly wasn’t released in theaters. Weinstein Company ultimately picked How could so many people in Hollywood have been so embarrassingly, over- up the movie for distribution— and gave whelmingly wrong? Strong was sanguine. “Everything always goes back to that Wil- it the wide release that Strong had always liam Goldman quote,” he said: “ ‘Nobody knows anything.’ ” believed it deserved. The Butler was the Leonard has a more pointed explanation. “The industry is making a subset of all No. 1 movie in America for three weeks. scripts that exist, based on a set of beliefs about what’s pro table,” he told me. “Many It brought in more than $116 million. of the beliefs about what’s pro table are fundamentally racist and misogynist.” Take Strong then recounted the story the example of The Hunger Games, the  rst installment of one of the most successful behind Slumdog Millionaire, whose movie franchises in recent history. script —an Indian love story set against The script , which was based on a young-adult book, featured a strong, indepen- the backdrop of a high-stakes game dent teenage girl as its heroine, an unusual protagonist for an action  lm. Most of the show —appeared on the 2007 Black List. major studios passed on it, leaving it to Lionsgate, a studio that had little experience Warner Independent Pictures, a division making this type of movie—up until that point, the studio was mostly known for the of Warner Brothers, picked up the  lm Saw horror-movie franchise. but was soon shuttered. The executives Lionsgate bought the script in 2009, just before the book was published. The next at Warner Brothers decided to release year, the script appeared on the Black List and the book sold 4.3 million copies. Lions- Slumdog Millionaire as direct-to-DVD. gate was rewarded for its foresight: The Hunger Games brought in $408 million at the U.S. box ož ce, and another $286 million overseas. In 2012, it was the third-highest- grossing Ÿilm in the U.S., and the ninth- highest- grossing  lm worldwide. When the Academy holds its 89th Oscars on February 26, it will likely recognize a con- siderably more diverse pool of talent than it did in 2016. Films like Moonlight, Fences, Lion, and Loving, all of which star lead actors of color, demonstrate that while Hollywood is of course the home of the Fast and the Furi- ous franchise, it is also a place of true artistry from diverse voices. Yet such  lms are by no means the future of the industry. They are rare and extraordi- nary exceptions—the backstories of which almost inevitably include a great deal of per- severance and serendipity. The very thing that Hollywood prides itself on—making Ÿilms with compelling plots and rich, inter- esting characters—is the thing that it is doing less and less of. This isn’t a problem just for Ÿilm buffs. Story telling lies at the root of  lmmaking—a truth that can get lost in the analysis of foreign- box-ož ce sales and pro t margins. “We are, as a culture, de ned by the myths that allow us to dream about what’s possible, and think about how we interact and value each other as human beings,” Leonard said. Without stories that re¤ ect both the great and the tragic, the mainstream and the marginalized, the coun- try risks losing a vital artery for empathy, con- cern, and curiosity. Movies, after all, are one of the ways America tells itself who it is.

Alex Wagner is a contributing editor at The Atlantic and an anchor and correspondent for

ARTPHOTOGRAPHY CREDIT CBS News.

THE ATLANTIC MARCH  73 74 MARCH 2017 THE ATLANTIC John Georgelas was a military brat, a drug enthusiast, a precocious underachiever born in Texas. Now he is a leader within the Islamic State. Here’s the never-before-reported story of his long and troubling journey.

By Graeme Wood | Illustrations by Ian Wright

THE ATLANTIC MARCH 2017 7 5 to a bus station. Tania started to leak amniotic uid due to the journey, and she spent the next weeks recovering in Istanbul, and then with family in Lon- don. Six months pregnant, she weighed 96 pounds. As his family traveled to London, relieved to have escaped the worst place on Earth, Yahya felt relief of his own—he could now pursue his dreams unencumbered by a wife and children. He felt liber- ated. He carried visions of the caliphate yet to be declared, and ideas for how to shape it. warm September Se morning in 2013, a minivan pulled up to a These thoughts wereere not idle. Yahya, by then, had a small but shattereshattered villa in the town of Azaz, Syria. A long-bearded in uential following,ng, and his calm erudition had won him the 29-year-29-year-old white man emergedg from the building,g alongg with respectp that his teachersachers and parents had withheld during his his pregnant British wife and their three children, ages 8, 4, youth. His own destiny seemed to be converging with that of and almost 2. They had been in Syria for only about a month the world’s. It was the best day of his life. this time. The kids were sick and malnourished. The border they’d crossed from Turkey into Syria was minutes away, but the passage back was no longer safe. They clambered into the minivan, sitting on sheep- skins draped on the floor—there were no seats—and the driver took them two hours east through a rav- aged landscape, eventually stopping at a place where the family might slip into Turkey undetected. They disembarked amid a grove of thorny trees. Signs warned of land mines. The border itself was more than an hour’s walk away, through the desert. They’d forgotten to bring water. Tania dragged the puk- ing kids along; Yahya carried a suit- case and a stroller. Midway, Tania had contractions, although she was still several months from her due date. They continued on. At the bor- The war-ravaged town of Azaz, Syria, where Yahya Abu Hassan, his wife, Tania, and their three sons lived in 2013 before Tania and the children fled to Turkey der itself, while the family squeezed through the barbed wire, a sniper’s bullets kicked up dirt nearby. Yahya had arranged for a human traŠ traŠcker cker to meet them, them    the name Yahya Abu Hassan and when the traŠcker’straŠ cker’s truck arrived, Yahya pressed a few in 2014, while reporting on an article for this hundred dollars into the man’s hand. Yahya and Tania had magazinegazine about the rise of the Islamic State. I I wasas in a suburb of Melbourne, talking with been married for 10 years, but they did not say goodbye. Satis- Satis —ed— ed that his family would not die, Yahya turned and ran across Musausa Cerantonio, an Australian convert to the border, back into Syria—again under gun˜ire—withougun˜ire—without Islam who has servedrved as an unoŠ unoŠcial cial spiritual guide to many even a wave. English-speaking followers of the group, about its history and The traŠ cker drove Tania and the kids a short distance theology. (He is now in jail, charged with attempting to travel into Turkey, then dropped them by the roadside without food to Islamic State territory.) or water and sped o™ . Tania carried the children and luggage In our earliest conversations, Cerantonio mentioned a fel- toward the nearest town. The day ended with the intercession low convert— a “teacher” or “leader,” he called him—who had

of a stranger on a motorcycle, who helped carry their things done much to prepare Muslims for the religious obligations ANDREE KAISERMCTGETTY

76 MARCH  THE ATLANTIC that would kick in once a claimed Yahya was Greek. “He is on the eld”—in the caliphate had been estab- war zone—“and part of the IS,” the swordsman wrote. lished. Cerantonio spoke “A great mind and a trustworthy student.” of his teacher with awe. He then shared a link to a website that featured a Yahya was deeply devoted collection of Dhahiri writings by Cerantonio and a few to the idea of the caliph- others— including a “Yahya al-Bahrumi.” In € uent Arabic ate, he said, and showed and English, Yahya wrote proli cally about many jihadist a staggering mastery of subjects. He projected calm even in his most grotesque Islamic law and classical opinions, and wore the label irhabi (“terrorist”) with pride: Arabic language and lit- erature. Jihadists in Syria This word (“terrorist”) has also been cast as an insult and has been received as such. But irhab [“terror”] knew him by reputation, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, the Islamic State’s spokesman itself is something notable scholars have declared and they honored him and second-most-powerful obligatory and supported verbatim by the Qur’an itself. when they met him. figure before his death in Cerantonio said that August 2016, was reportedly He called for emigration to lands where Sharia would close to Yahya. in early 2014, Yahya had be fully enforced, and wrote that choosing not to emi- pressed the leaders of grate was a form of apostasy: what was then the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (œžœž) to declare a caliphate. He Call me extreme, but I would imagine that all of those who began preaching that the conditions for the declaration of a willingly choose to live among those with whom Muslims are valid caliphate had been met—the group held and governed at war are themselves at war with Muslims—and as such, are not actually Muslims. territory, and its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was a physically Get out if you can—not only in support of your brothers and mentally t male of Qurayshi descent, capable of ruling ac- and sisters whom your taxes have been killing, but also to cording to Sharia. Delaying further would mean disregarding a protect yourselves from the punishment Allah has ordained fundamental obligation of Islam. for those who betray the nation. Yahya had developed a relationship with Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, the group’s spokesman, chief strategist, and direc tor He called for Muslims to hate, “ight, and kill in“idels— of foreign terror operations. “Yahya was like this with Adna ni,” among whom, he said, were many so-called Muslims who Cerantonio told me, pressing his ngers together. Yah ya met nulli ed their faith by neglecting prayer, deviating from the with Adnani near Aleppo and warned him that Baghdadi would narrow literalism of his interpretation of scripture, or, in the be in a state of sin if he did not promote himself to caliph imme- case of rulers, not instituting the brutal system of justice for diately. Yahya and his allies had prepared but not yet sent a let- which the Islamic State was then becoming famous. ter to the emirs of the œžœž provinces, airing their displeasure at In dozens of articles posted over several years, Yahya dem- his failure to do so. They were ready to make war on Baghdadi onstrated knowledge of classical Arabic—the notoriously dif- if he delayed further. Adnani replied with good news—that a cult language of educated religious speech—and familiarity caliphate had already been declared secretly, months before, with Islamic sources and history. His Arabic was stunning even and that it would soon be publicly announced. to Cerantonio, an extremely self-con“ident religious auto- Yahya shared the update with Cerantonio, who leaked word didact. Cerantonio told me that another Muslim in their inter- of the caliphate declaration on Facebook. Within weeks the net discussion group had once challenged a theological point o¡ cial public declaration took place in Mosul, Iraq, and Yahya Yahya had made. “Then Yahya did something that shocked us immediately pledged himself to Baghdadi, urging others to all,” Cerantonio said. “He responded to the guy in traditional do likewise. Arabic poetry that he devised o” the top of his head, using The gure of Yahya—an English-speaking convert within the guy’s name in the poetry, explaining the situation, and œžœž with powerful connections and the cojones to chal- answering his objections.” lenge Baghdadi to a death match—intrigued me. But For any claim, it seemed, Cerantonio didn’t elaborate on his identity and referred Yahya could instantly to him only by an alias, in the traditional Arabic style, WHEN JOHN UTTERED spout textual support, with his rst name and the name of his rstborn: Yahya, and confronted with any father of Hassan. He said Yahya was a fellow Dhahiri—a THE MUSLIM counterclaim, he could member of an obscure, ultra-literalist legal school that undercut the argument DECLARATION OF had enjoyed a sort of revival within the Islamic State. He with a sweep of the leg. didn’t, or wouldn’t, say more. I wrote down the name FAITH, THE ASHES The website the swords- and committed to investigating Yahya later. man had pointed me to Soon enough, I began collecting clues to his identity. OF THE WORLD included a narrative biog- In early 2015, a pro–Islamic State Twitter user (his han- raphy and a small photo TRADE CENTER WERE dle identi ed him as a “swordsman”) wrote to me and of Yahya, its founder. The advised me to contact “Abu Yahya” to learn more about BARELY COOL. picture showed a bearded, the group. The name resembled Yahya Abu Hassan’s bespectacled young man closely enough to lead me to believe he was the same with a Kalashnikov over person Cerantonio had mentioned. The Twitter user his shoulder. He was

THE ATLANTIC MARCH  77 dressed for cold weather, as if in preparation for a night raid or patrol. When I saw him, I wondered when I had last seen someone looking so content. As for the biography itself, nearly every word showed signs of careful selection, including his name, Bahrumi, a portmanteau of the Arabic words bahr (“sea”) and rumi (“Roman”). Many jihadists construct a nom de guerre from their  rst name and their national origin. He called himself Yahya of the Roman Sea, or Yahya the Mediterranean. The biography continued:

His roots are from the island of Crete in the Ro- man sea (Bahr al-Rūm). Born in 1404 [¦.§. 1983– Yahya first traveled to Syria in December 2001. He devoted himself completely to the study of Arabic and gradually adopted a violent jihadist interpretation of Islam. 84] and raised as a Nazarene [Christian], Yahya then entered Islam in 1422 [¦.§. 2001–02]. He traveled seeking knowledge and work in the path of Allah until Allah granted him hijrah [migration] to Sham. However canny the Islamic State’s internet-based recruiting, He now resides in the countryside of Aleppo. a personal touch remains crucial to fully radicalizing most tar- gets and signing up new terrorists. In the United Kingdom, more Now I thought I had enough data to narrow down his iden- than 100  ghters have waged jihad after contact with a group tity: a philologically inclined Cretan jihadist convert not just to called Al Muhajiroun; in Belgium, Sharia4Belgium has recruited Islam but to Dhahirism, a minuscule legal school. The list of numerous Islamic State  ghters. But in the United States, groups candidates could not be long. like these exist only in the fever dreams of Islamo phobes. Many converts choose Arabic names that are the equiva- Fewer than 20 percent of the Americans in the Islamic lent of their birth names. Yahya is Arabic for John, in English, State are known to be converts to Islam, and many have long- or Ioannis in Greek, so I began searching online for Dhahiris standing family connections with other countries—long peri- with these names. In a German-language jihadist chat room, I ods of residence in Kuwait, say, or ties to the Somali tribes of found a reference to “Ioannis Georgilakis,” and here the trail their parents. They do not, as a rule, ascend to high positions began to sizzle under my feet. Georgilakis’s Facebook page in the Islamic State’s organization. One Bosnian American, showed photos of the same hirsute young man with glasses, Abdullah Pazara, parlayed Serbian military training into com- dressed in Muslim garments and playing with his kids. mand of an ‹Œ‹Œ tank battalion. But even Pazara (who died in As I looked at his Facebook page, I began to wonder whether 2014) was relatively obscure and uncelebrated. In the United the Greek was an a“ ectation. Many of his Facebook friends States, his most glorious achievement was owning a barely were English speakers, and few were Greek. Georgilakis isn’t pro table trucking company. an especially common surname, and given Yahya’s apparent Not all recruits are stupid. At least three have a college edu- creativity in self-naming, I tried a few permutations, including cation and, according to friends and family, good academic the English John and the vanilla, non-Cretan Greek version of records and habits. The smart ones, though, have in e“ ect Georgilakis, which would be Georgelas. renounced their learning in favor of the greater glory of jihad. One of the  rst hits on Google for John Georgelas was an Having made it onto the dean’s list for a degree in computer August 15, 2006, press release from the Department of Justice. science counts neither for nor against you if your goal is to ex- “Supporter of Pro-Jihad Website Sentenced to 34 Months,” it plode in a crowd of apostates. crowed. At the time of his conviction, he lived in North Texas, Yahya, it seemed to me, was unique. He in some ways near Plano, 20 minutes’ drive from the house where I grew up. resem bled his fellow Americans in Syria: He went to  ght, and he would have welcomed a battle eld death if God had willed      in the it. But he was no mere foot soldier; his religious scholarship, Islammic State: Only 53 are publicly known to connections, and standing distinguished him—even if I didn’t havee traveled to Syria as jihadists, according to then understand their full extent. I wanted to know more. A Seamusmus Hughes, the deputy director of George Washingtonshington University’s Program on Extrem-      from downtown ism. (The United States has stopped more than 100 others Dallas,llas, toward the Oklahoma border, a ™ ™atland atland in the process of preparing to travel, or to act on behalf of the sproutingrouting subdivisions watered by money from Islam ic State in America.) P thee region’s burgeoning tech sector. Shortly Hughes, a former Senate staffer, has meticulously cata- afterer his probation expired, John Georgelas had loged the Americans who have made it to Syria, and places posted a résumé online listing as his address an elegant brick nearly all of them in the category of “knuckleheads”—brawny house with white Doric columns, a small portico, and a circular idiots with little hope of understanding a discussion of Islamic driveway. In August 2015, when I  rst drove up, I could hear the theology. Many have by now ful lled their dream of battle eld happiness of children. I saw a boy, who looked about 10, bounc- death; all that remains of them is a martyrdom notice, posted ing a basketball in the driveway and two others playing nearby; like a headstone, on their Facebook page. they were about the same ages as the kids in the Facebook

78 MARCH THE ATLANTIC photos. As I approached the front door, I spied a yellow-ribbon a long period out of school, recuperating. Lonely and depressed, decal (“We support our troops”) in the window, and behind it his mind turned to God in idle moments, and he became a foyer, tidy and richly decorated, and a piano festooned with attached to the Greek Orthodox Church. Wheelchair -bound, family photos. he hounded his family into attend ing services more regularly. The man who answered the door was Timothy Georgelas, Among his spiritual mentors was a clergyman who encour- John’s father and the owner (with his wife, John’s mother, Mar- aged John to hate and distrust Muslims, with an intensity that tha) of the house. Both parents are Americans of Greek ancestry. would later change its polarity. (A family member calls John’s Tim is a West Point graduate and a physician. He has a full attitude one of “righteous fury, jacked up with certainty”—a head of gray hair and soft features that betray no sign of the bright-burning sanctimony that has been consistent across his stress of having raised an Islamic State terrorist. He has, how- religious transformations.) ever, no illusions about the life his son has chosen. “He and As the family’s male heir, John enjoyed a special status in John are enemies,” I was told by someone who knows them the Georgelas patriarchy. With that status came expectations, both—“until the Day of Judgment.” and therefore disappointment when it became clear he was un- Tim wore shorts and a T-shirt, and a crisp draft of air con- suited for a soldier’s life. His body refused to grow into robust, ditioning escaped as he said good morning. When I told him I battle-ready form. Tim is tall, a former high-school quarterback, had come to ask about John, he stepped outside and shut the but John was shorter, his torso tending to pudge. His tempera- door as if to seal o™ the house from his son’s name. He slumped ment wasn’t suited to military discipline. When he returned in a white wicker chair by the front door, and with a reluctant to school after his leg injury, he had little interest in academic gesture, he invited me to sit across from him. achievement or rule-following. His father tried repeated ly to He stared at the magnolia tree in the front yard and said correct his behavior and failed. (This account is drawn from nothing. I told him what I knew—that his son, John, was Yah ya. sources close to John, including family members, co-workers, Tim sat, lips pursed, and with a shake of his head began to friends, and correctional o‡ cers.) speak. “Every step of his life he’s made the wrong decisions, Nor did he ‰ t in well with his peers. He gravitated toward from high school onward,” Tim told me. “It is beyond me to the skateboard set, and he didn’t date much, if at all. (One under stand why he threw what he had away.” Two of Yahya’s acquain tance told me, “If you put a million bucks on the table sisters have earned advanced degrees, he added, as if to dem- and told him to use it to go get laid, he couldn’t do it to save his onstrate that it wasn’t failed parenting that led his only son to life.”) Like many a military brat before him, John experimented drop out of school, wage holy war, and plot mass murder. with the counterculture. He smoked pot, dropped acid, and ate “He was always the youngest kid in the class, and always a magic mushrooms. He hated his father for punishing his drug follower,” Tim said. “I have bailed him out so many times— use and hated the U.S. government for criminalizing it. By the ‰ nancially, in circumstances with his wife and kids, you name time he graduated from high school, his primary interests were it. I always pick up the wreckage.” computer hacking, skateboarding, and the voracious consump- The Yahya Tim described to me was a sad ‰ gure, a sheep tion of psychedelics. His grades were miserable, Tim says, but who had strayed into a wicked œ ock. Above all, he was eas- his standardized-test scores were better than those of his high- ily manipulated. This, for me, was another puzzle. The achieving sisters. John ended up studying philosophy at the Yahya I had encountered online, and the one Musa Cerantonio College Station branch of Blinn College, an open-admission described, was nothing like a sheep, and no pathetic follower. junior college in central Texas. He passed only a few classes. He was not the boy his father described. At some point, Yahya In a class on world religions at Blinn, the instructor’s cur- had shape-shifted into a wolf, into a leader of men. sory lecture on Islam annoyed him, so John sought more infor- mation from local Muslims. Curiosity turned to something     , John Thomas George- more, as he discovered that Muslims were not the demons he las was born into a wealthy family with a long had been led to expect them to be. A few days before Thanks- militaryitary tradition. His grandfather Colonel John giving 2001, on the ‰ rst day of Ramadan, John converted at a I Georgelasorgelas was wounded twice in the Sec- mosque in College Station ondd World War and worked for the Joint frequented by foreign stu- Chiefs of Sta™ . Timm Georgelas spent three years in the dents from Texas A&M. U.S. Army, then accepted an Air Force commission to AMERICANS ARE Whether the conver- attend medical school. He retired as a colonel in 2001, sion was meant to spite and now practices radiology in a north-Dallas breast- KNOWN TO HAVE his parents or whether imaging clinic. He is politically conservative, as is Mar- spite was just an ancil- TRAVELED TO SYRIA tha, his short, dark-haired wife, whose Facebook cover lary bene‰ t of his spiritual photo shows her standing proudly in front of the George AS JIHADISTS. MOST salvation, it is not pos- W. Bush Presidential Center, near downtown Dallas. sible to say. But the tim- The Georgelases moved frequently during John’s ARE KNUCKLEHEADS. ing is suggestive. When youth, as Tim’s military assignments required. John John uttered the Muslim YAHYA, IT SEEMED, entered school at the age of 4, while the family was liv- declaration of faith, the ing in England, and he was young and small for his class. WAS UNIQUE. ashes of the World Trade He was sickly—he grew benign tumors and had brittle Center were barely cool. bones—and his in‰ rmities may have pushed him toward Anti-Muslim sentiment religion. When he was 11, his leg shattered, and he spent in America was reaching

THE ATLANTIC MARCH  79 new highs, and in central Texas, conversion to Islam would their trucks: If he couldn’t understand or x it himself, it didn’t have been a singular act of rebellion. feel like his. John’s parents found his conversion to be a sign of men- He acquired The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written tal weakness. “Every university town in this country has a Arabic, a cuboid volume that is the standard Arabic-English mosque for one reason,” Tim told me. “Kids are away from reference work. It is not meant to be read through. The typical home for the rst time, vulnerable and subject to inš uence. student of Arabic keeps the Hans Wehr on a corner of his desk They hear the message and they’re hooked, and that’s what and consults it as needed for the rest of his natural life. Yahya happened to John.” John took the name Yahya, and sold his memorized it in six months. Then, as a chaser, he memorized pickup truck to buy a plane ticket. In December 2001, the fam- Kitab al-Ayn, the eighth-century Arabic dictionary by al-Khalil ily received an email from Yahya announcing that he was in al-Farahidi. He wandered through Damascus, chatting up Damascus learning Arabic. every one and learning classical Arabic to a level of pro ciency rarely achieved even by educated native Arabic speakers.     nd nd their way to vio- He drifted further from his parents and sisters. Later, when lencece many di di erent erent ways, but they often match counseling other Muslims about how much e ort to put into a pro ro le. And that pro pro le le t t John like a wet suit. proselytization at home versus heading directly to the Islamic W He came from an upper-middle-class family. He State, Yahya wrote: squanderedandered opportunities commensurate with What about those [Muslims] who are trying to work on their his innate talent; he recognized that he would not excel in the families, but their families insist on kufr [disbelief in Islam]? elds chosen or glori ed by his parents and authority gures. gures. Should they wait their whole lives in patience, trying to guide Often, a personal crisis—a death in the family, a near-death someone whom Allah has not chosen for guidance, or should experience of one’s own—triggers existential contemplation, they move on and help their true family: the Muslims? leading to religious exploration; in John’s case, his childhood frailty might have lled that role.     in 2003 on a Muslim Jihadists are also overwhelmingly left-brained, quantitativequantitative- matrimonialtrimonial site. Tania was born in London in analytic types. Diego Gambetta of the European University Y 19833 to Bengali British parents. It was almost InstituteInsti tute and Steffen Hertog of the London School of Eco- Eco as iff they had shared the same life, before even nomics have noted a preponderance of former engineering beingng introduced.intro duced. Like Yahya, Tania grew up students among jihadists; they suggest that the mental style oof riddled with benigngn tumors and incorrigibly rebellious. She that discipline disposes certain people toward jihadism. As a tormented her parents by practicing, with alarming vigor, the teen, John had taught himself to program. His computers ran religion they had neglected in the pursuit of an assimilated the Linux operating system, not the Windows or Mac software English middle-class existence. favored by the masses. Years later, after he had become a full- She was a pretty girl, a petite recracker. But her mischief blown jihadist, he would share a line of C++ code on his web- was not of the usual variety, like dating boys her parents didn’t site, a geeky statement of his own hard-line stance: approve of. When her parents suggested that she try to meet boys, Tania hissed “Muslims don’t date.” She had a type: Her if (1+1+1 != 1 & & 1 == 1) r e tur n tr u e; el s e d ie(); heartthrob was John Walker Lindh, the American who fought for the Taliban in 2001. She swore that until marriage no Translation: If you believe the Christian Trinity (“1+1+1”) is strange man would know anything more of her physical ap- not really monotheistic (“!= 1”), and if you believe in the unity pearance than its cloaked outline, and by her late teens she was of God (“1 == 1”), then great. Otherwise: Die. draping herself in a full-body covering, or jilbab. She fantasized Despite these binary inclinations, upon his arrival in Damas- about packing a bomb under it. At 19, she married Yahya. cus Yahya envisioned himself as a Su , a Muslim mystic After meeting online, who sought oneness with God through poetry, perhaps, Yahya and Tania fell in or dance or song, and who could countenance a shaded, love fast, and just as cou- or nuanced, version of Islam. That posture may have YAHYA AND TANIA ples bond over Netš ix or been a holdover from his counterculture teens. Gradu- jogging or cooking, they ally, though, under the influence of British Muslims LIED TO ANYONE WHO bonded over jihad and a who were more rigid in their approach to the faith, he shared capacity for bad became jihad-curious. They persuaded him to follow a INQUIRED ABOUT THEIR decisions. After a month bin- Ladenist approach, hostile to Su sm, instead. ACTIVITIES. WHEN of digital š irtation, Yahya Yahya soon surpassed them in intolerance. To his š ew to London, and they jihadism he added general displeasure with the hier- SYRIAN GOVERNMENT met in person on March archy of scholarly authority in mainstream religion. He 15, 2003. Within three objected to mainstream imams’ telling him to trust the SPIES STARTED ASKING days they married se- words of scholars and not to attempt his own interpreta- NEIGHBORS ABOUT cretly, then left for Texas. tion of scripture and law. Muslim laymen are generally They settled in College advised not to derive legal rulings on their own, and to THEM, THEY MOVED ON. Station and partook of follow more-experienced scholars. But Yahya main- the pleasures of freedom, tained a typically American can-do attitude toward his young love, and indepen- reli gion, similar to the one many Texans adopt toward dence from family. They

80 MARCH  THE ATLANTIC Yahya and Tania bonded over their childhood similarities, their commitment to jihad, and their passion for getting high.

lived cheaply and happily, embrac embracing ing as their community the started asking neighbors about them, they moved on, settling foreign students at the mosque where Yahya had converted. brieŒ y in a town selected because it was prophesied to be the The mosque threw them a wedding party, and rich Gulf Arabs headquarters of the prophet Jesus upon his return. who lived near the university kicked in money to support Yah- They often quarreled. Still strong-willed, Tania wanted to ya’s continued study of Islam. obey only God. But God’s words were unequivocal: “Men are The couple indulged, too, in their other shared passion: get- in charge over women,” says a Koranic verse. So for most of the ting high. Islamic orthodoxy considers cannabis an intoxicant, 10 years before the founding of the Islam ic State, Yahya main- and therefore forbidden. But Yahya’s practice of Islam was un- tained a Rasputinlike control over her. He hadn’t had much conventional even then. In a historical essay titled “Cannabis,” success ‰ nding social esteem in his prior life, but in Tania he heavily footnoted with classical Arabic sources, he made the found his ‰ rst student. He mesmerized her with his con‰ dence, Islamic case for pot. There was evidence, he wrote, that early and she repressed her own misgivings whenever she found Islam ic leaders had taxed hemp seeds. Since Muslims gener- herself questioning him. Tania has mild dyslexia; Yahya’s read- ally cannot tax forbidden substances, such as pork or alcohol, ing of Islamic texts convinced her, with his Œ uency and recall Yahya reasoned, they must have considered pot permissible. and breadth, that he could produce an unanswerable argument As for psilocybin: Yahya cited an obscure hadith (a report of about any point on which she disagreed. She determined that the sayings and actions of Muhammad) that he said described Yahya was a genius with gifts God had denied her, and she Muhammad’s having descended from a mountain after medi- accepted her place in the world of jihad: Service to Yahya tation and extolling the medicinal properties of mushrooms— was her ticket to heaven. She endorsed slavery, apocalypse, particularly as a cure for diseases of the eye. Yahya and Tania polyg amy, and killing. She aspired to raise seven boys as holy took this to mean that God had sanctioned the ingestion of psy- warriors— one to conquer each continent. chedelic mushrooms. So the young lovers blissed out under the From Syria they returned to London, where Yahya chose to Texas sky, shrooming after the example of the prophet himself. follow a Jordanian known as Abu Issa. He had allegedly fought the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s, and on April 3, 1993,   , Yahya and Tania traveled to his followers there swore loyalty to him and created what the Damascusmascus for an extended honeymoon, liv- French scholar Kévin Jackson calls “the forgotten caliphate,” ing there furtively and quietly associating with an unsuccessful precursor of the Islamic State. I otherer jihadists. Their existence mirrored that of Abu Issa declared himself caliph and ruled a small por- manyny young radical tumbleweeds of yesteryear: tion of Afghanistan’s Kunar province in the mid-to-late 1990s. Black Panthers, Baader-Meinhofaader-Meinhof gangsters, ‰ ‰n n de siècle anar- There he implemented many practices that the Islamic State chists. They dodged the authorities and lied to anyone who would later realize on a larger scale. The total area governed inquired about their activities. When Syrian government spies did not extend beyond a few small towns, and the local

THE ATLANTIC MARCH  81 Afghans despised Abu Issa and his supporters. When Osama bin Laden came to Afghanistan Afg in 1996, Abu Issa sensent a mes- sage demanding his obedience. ob (There is no record of a reply.) In the late 1990s, when w the Taliban took over KuKunar prov- ince, Abu Issa and his followers f relocated to London, aand it was in that diminished sstate that YahyaYah ya and Tania – –rst rst encoun- tered them. For a while, whi Yahya had the jihadist-dorjihadist-dork dream job of tutoring the caliph’s cal son in the subjects of computerc hacking and martial arts. Ulti- mately Yahya and Abu Issa fell out over a dispute reregarding interpretation of Islamic Isla law. But during that period, perio Yah ya An artist’s rendering of nurtured an interest in the obli- Yahya and two of his sons gation to declare a caliphate c (whose faces have been and in Islamic literaliliteralism, both blurred) on the Nile around 2011. In Egypt, he translated of which would drive him, in fatwas and began to develop the end, back to Syria. Syria a religious following. At a bookshop in London, he found a copy of the th works of Ibn Hazm (994–1064), by far the greatest Dhahiri scholar. wage jihad. On April 8, 2006, he accessed the passwords of a Dhahirism is the most binary and monochrome of Islamic legal client, the American Israel Public A airs Committee, with the schools. In some ways, it resembles the constitutional original- intention of hijacking its website. ism of Clarence Thomas or Antonin Scalia: It drastically and As hacking jobs go, it was amateurish. Rackspace found out, pitilessly winnows down the sources of legal authority to the and the FBI, aware of Yahya’s terror links, moved fast. When a Koran, the sayings and actions of Muhammad, and the ironclad „ †‡ team came to his house in Grapevine, Texas, early in the consensus of the prophet’s followers within his own lifetime. It morning, he and Tania were already awake for dawn prayers. refuses to accept new laws based on analogy to old ones, and it He surrendered peacefully and warned that a child was sleep- urges jurists and theologians to resist allegorical or – gurative ing inside and that his wife needed to get dressed. The Depart- readings, and instead stick to rulings with plain textual support. ment of Justice prosecuted him for hacking into a protected The rejection of ¦igurative readings, legal analogy, and computer—this was the source of the press release I had found other types of extended interpretation strikes most main- earlier—and a judge sentenced him to 34 months’ imprison- stream Muslim scholars as preposterous. But through Dhahiri ment. Prior to his arrest, he had planned to travel to Iraq to eyes, scripture should simply be read like a manual—or like – ght against the Americans, so prison may have saved his life. software. It is a legal and theological methodology that aligned Yahya’s arrest caused marital friction of a new sort. With her well with Yahya’s left-brained, autodidactic disposition. husband in prison and studying Islamic texts full-time, Tania began asserting her independence. After receiving scowls from     , Yahya and Tania re- neighbors due to her Muslim dress, she told Yahya she planned turnedned to the United States, relying – –nancially nancially to wear just a veil, and not a full-body cloak. Yahya, furious, on Yahya’s parents. They settled brie§ brie§y y in Tor- demanded that she cover herself fully when she visited him in I rance,ce, California, with Yahya hoping to – –nd nd work prison, to be sure no one would titter at the immodesty of the as an imam. His jihadism disquali–eddisquali– ed him for sheikh’s wife. (He had Muslim acquaintances in prison and was mosque jobs, however,wever, and increasingly the two sought only the most scholarly among them.) He told her to leave in– del each other’s spiritual camaraderie. They stopped frequenting America to join the group known as the Nigerian Taliban, a pre- mosques altogether, on the grounds that they were dens of spies. decessor to Boko Haram. She refused and threatened divorce. In 2004, their – rst son was born in California. Yahya and But she didn’t leave him—even after he got out of prison Tania moved back to greater Dallas, and a year later, Yahya and took a second wife, a Jamaican British friend of Tania’s. took a job as a data technician at Rackspace, a server company Tania did not approve, but she didn’t forbid the union. The in Texas. At night, he cruised jihadist forums and o ered tech bride still lived in London, and the groom could not travel support to Jihad Unspun, a Canada-based Islam ist news site without violating parole. Yahya investigated the Islamic widely thought to be a recruiting ground for would-be terror- legality of a marriage conducted across physical distance. ists. He also looked for ways to use his position at Rackspace to He found precedent: Muham mad had married the widow of

82 MARCH  THE ATLANTIC his brother-in-law when she was in Ethiopia and he was in conducted in Arabic and En glish did much to “prepare” West- Medina. Having ascertained the validity of marriage-by- erners for the declaration of the caliphate that would come a telecom,elecom, Yahya and his second wife married over the phone, few years later. Musa Cerantonio, who would become his lead- with Tania present and quietly fuming. (Yahya later divorced ing Australian disciple, met him digitally. European jihadists his second wife.) began traveling to Egypt to learn from him. He impressed one About his crimes, he remained unrepentant. “He can justify sheikh so much that the man declared that it would be sinful anything he does, and he didn’t think he did anything wrong,” for Yahya to expose himself to danger on the battle eld in a Tim says. “He is just full of himself.” During his parole, Yah Yahya ya con­ ict like Afghani stan’s or Syria’s. “Your blood is haram,” he livedived in Dallas and worked as an IT specialist for a shoe whole- said— forbidden to spill. saler. In August 2009, 10 months after he’d left prison, a sec- In his sermons and public statements, Yahya anticipated ond child arrived, another boy. The extended Georgelas family many of the themes of Islamic State propaganda, including tookook a trip to Hawaii, and the couple came along. Tania stayed distrust of Islamist movements that compromised their reli- secluded, says one acquaintance, and Yahya harangued every- gion by partaking in secular politics. On social media, Tania one about the virtues of Sharia law. But he mostly stayed quiet supported his views, but with each child she bore, her eager- during that period. The family wondered whether he had mel- ness to join the jihad by then under way in Syria waned. Yahya lowed,owed, though Yahya’s colleagues at the shoe company report reminded her that the Koran judges harshly those who give up thathat he and Tania occasionally posted politically worrisome on hijrah: Angels will rip their souls from their mortal bodies itemstems on Facebook. and prepare them for judgment by God. “The angels will say, Among their enthusiasms, at this point, was the libertar- ‘Was not God’s earth spacious [enough] for you to emigrate in ianan Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, whose anti- it?’ For those, their refuge is Hell.” government obsessions and isolationist foreign policy Yahya In July 2013, a secular military coup toppled the Muslim and Tania both found congenial. The prophet had endorsed the Brotherhood–led government in Egypt, and the Islamist gold standard, and so did Paul. Yahya and Tania liked pot, and moment there passed as quickly as it had arrived. Yahya and thehe Libertarians were the closest thing to an anti- anti-prohibitionist prohibitionist Tania fretted about the possible consequences for them as party in the United States. And— And— nally—Paul’s nally—Paul’s foreign policy jihad ists, and sought escape. Cerantonio encouraged them to suggested a possible disengagement with Israel. “You guys consider the southern Philippines, where he was living at the (meaningmeaning Americans) need to stop supporting democracy, and time. It turned out to be too rustic. “Look, I’m happy to be in, justust make Ron Paul your king,” Tania later wrote on Facebook, like, a mud hut,” Yahya said to him. “But my wife is very spe- only half joking. Yahya wanted revolution. “Tyranny is here,” ci c and is asking you to take photos of houses.” The houses he replied, “and the Tree of Liberty is thirsty.” were inadequate, so they scrapped that plan.

  , 
, Yahya’s parole expired, expired  , , the Syrian civil war presented andd he drove to the Dallas–Fort Worth airporairport opporortunities tunities that Yahya couldn’t decline. His withh his wife and two children, a free man. man U poetrytry frequently had a martial tone: O He was leaving America—probably for good. good “Muslimsuslims in America,” he wrote around that Rise,e, cut ties: spies disguised in white, time, “remember:: Hijrah is always an option and sometimes by the sword, forr the Lord of Might an obligation.” Defeat the cheat, trite ­ ­eet eet of fright, The family ­ ew to London, then Cairo. Yahya and Tania by rod—by God!—by baud, by byte. lived in Egypt for the next two years, at rst happily: The boys were clever and precocious—YouTube videos show the younger For years before the Islamic State’s rise, Yahya had said his one reading words in English, French, and Arabic before the weapon of choice was the keyboard (“by baud, by byte”). But age of 3—and they were joined on Christmas Day 2011 by now that Syria was becom- another boy. The family sailed feluccas on the Nile and ing the battle eld he had savored life beyond the reach of the U.S. government. dreamed of, he was ready Yahya earned money by translating fatwas from WHEN A SWAT TEAM to take up other arms. the salaried religious scholars of the government of When they left Cairo, CAME TO THEIR Qatar. Ever allergic to human authority, he seethed Yahya insisted on going at the banality of the fatwas and the government cler- HOUSE IN GRAPEVINE, to Turkey. Once there, ics’ abject servitude to tyrants. None of the fatwas ever in August 2013, he took mentioned what he considered the core imperatives of TEXAS, EARLY IN his family onto a bus Islam, stressed by Ibn Hazm a thousand years before, and told them they were THE MORNING, YAHYA such as the establishment of a caliphate and emigration going on a trip. He did from lands of disbelief. The scholars relentlessly glori- AND TANIA WERE not reveal their destina- ed the Qatari royal family. The fatwas, Yahya claimed, tion until Tania (now were based not on evidence but on mere opinion. ALREADY AWAKE FOR almost £ive months preg- In Cairo, Yahya met other jihadists and became re- DAWN PRAYERS. nant with their fourth spected for his scholarly rigor. One person who knew child) saw the Syrian bor- him then describes him as one of the strongest pre-©ª©ª der. By then, the Assad pro-caliphate voices, and says the online seminars he government had lost

THE ATLANTIC MARCH 83 control of large parts of northern Syria, and around AleppoAleppo,    has not wavered. After he factions were working with and against one another. The turnedned away from his wife and children that day region had become an anarch ic wasteland haunted by death. T in 2013,013, Yahya added a new and unlikely chapter They squatted in a villa, the abandoned residence of a Syr- Syr to thehe Georgelas military tradition. For several ian general, in the town of Azaz, a few miles inside the bor- bor months,nths, he trained as a soldier as part of an der. The windows had been smashed and the plumbing shushut Islam ic State–alignedned group near Aleppo. He saw battle there, o˜ , but the chandeliers were still hanging. Mujahideen groups and during combat in April 2014, a mortar blast sent shrapnel controlled the territory, and Yahya’s connections assured his into his back, nearly severing his spine. family a meager supply of food. He spent days with jihadist “I was in immense pain,” he wrote on his website, “but I at friends. He had known some of them only in an online fantasy least knew that my reward is with Allah and that comforted life; now they were comrades in arms. me greatly.” He spent time in a hospital in Turkey. Then, fear- Tania and the children got sick and developed mysterious ing detection as an American (he could pass as Syrian, but not infections. She prepared herself for the possibility that gov- inde nitely), he went back to Syria and received treatment from ernment forces or other rebels would overrun their position. Adam Brookman, an Australian alleged jihadist who has since But she also still loved the rush, and was curious about the returned to Australia and is under arrest (Brookman, a nurse, ghting nearby. She wanted to see the action, but because she maintains that he went to Syria solely for humanitarian reasons). was a woman, when she poked her head out the window, she Yahya posted images on Facebook of his suppurating wounds was told to be sensible and get back inside. When she com- and of himself on bed rest, smiling. The scars are, for him as for plained to Yahya about being brought into a war zone with- other jihadists, a VIP pass in the afterlife, a badge of honor that out consultation— “How could you do this to us?”—he cited a shows his commitment to God during his time on Earth. ha dith: “War,” he said, “is deception.” His injuries left him temporarily unable to walk—disabled She Ÿinally decided: Ten years of this was enough. She again, 20 years after his rst leg injury. But he was content demanded to take the kids back to Turkey. Yahya could not or and proud. A fellow jihadist posted a photograph of a grinning, would not join them. He had come to ght for ”•”•, and he knew the penalty in the afterlife for retreating from the battle eld. But his kids were not mujahideen, so he let them go—across a mine eld, through sniper re, back into Turkey—with the assump tion that the family would reunite, in this world or the next.

      HIJRAH to Plano, moved into Tim and Martha’s house,use, and gave birth to a boy, her T fourth,urth, in January 2014. In December 2014,14, she petitioned for divorce. Her own transformationon has been bittersweet. These days she describes herself as “agnostic,” and has said, in her discussions with friends online, that she is “a lost cause to Muslims now.” In her social-media postings, she looks like any other painted-lady in del of north Dallas. She dresses stylishly, baring a shoulder now and then, and has highlights in her dark hair. Still in In April 2014, during her early 30s, she looks free, even reborn. “Some peo- combat near Aleppo, a mortar blast sent ple would make tak r of me”— excommunicate her— shrapnel into Yahya’s “for this,” she writes. “But I have hope in God that he back. He remained under stands my weaknesses.” content throughout his convalescence, and Many would call Yahya’s treatment of Tania unfor- continued to tweet and givable and urge her to forget him. But the two have write in support of jihad. shared most of their adult lives, in di£ cult and thrilling circumstances. She has left jihadism, but she cannot completely leave Yahya. On social media, she wrote to a relative bespectacled Yahya on Facebook, with the caption “Ameri- of her husband’s: can muhajir injured in reef halab [the outskirts of Aleppo] by mortar shrapnel Alhamdulillah improving and cant wait to Where do I begin discussing the ‘Ioannis complex’? … He’s get back on his feet.” During that period he took up with a new a man torn between two worlds, well actually four or more wife, a Syrian, and had a daughter with her about a year after in his case (East vs. West, religious principles vs. family and happiness) … We made some really poor choices that back- Tania’s departure, and another some time later. Throughout red on us … his convalescence, he continued to tweet and write aggres- Ioannis is xated on changing the hearts and minds of sively in favor of ”•”•, though he was not yet in ”•”• territory. people and the course of history. I’m somewhat jealous of His website, still obscure, attracted more followers, though it the love and devotion he has for Islam over me. remained a highbrow product, too scholarly for the masses.

84 MARCH  THE ATLANTIC It was around this time The fact is, even if you were to stop bombing us, that he began pestering imprison ing us, torturing us, vilifying us, and usurping š›š›’s leaders— particularly our lands, we would continue to hate you because our Adnani—to declare a primary reason for hating you will not cease to exist until caliphate. When the dec- you embrace Islam … laration happened, in What’s equally if not more important to under stand June 2014, Yahya was liv- is that we
ght you, not simply to punish and deter you, ing near Aleppo, about 100 but to bring you true freedom in this life and salvation in the Here after, freedom from being enslaved to your miles from Raqqah, the whims and desires as well as those of your clergy and Islamic State’s capital. legislatures, and salvation by worshipping your Creator “This is the moment I have alone and following His messenger. been waiting [for] for Tania petitioned for divorce from Yahya in 2014. She now years,” he wrote. He imme- describes herself as agnostic. The Islamic State has staked its survival on creating diately committed to mov- a revolutionary Muslim mass movement—one that can ing to Raqqah. compensate for its loss of territory in Iraq and Syria by ris- His plans were thwarted ing up elsewhere. With Yahya it lends an American accent for a time after the Free Syrian Army captured him. He was to its universal jihadist message, and a speaker whose strengths, eventu ally released, and silently vowed to return to behead his weaknesses, personality, and insecurities are deeply American captors. For a brief while he feigned cooperation with the group. as well. He knows how to speak to Americans, how to scare them, But in mid-2015, he made his way to the caliph ate’s capital. His how to recruit them—how to make the Islam ic State’s war theirs. shattered back would have earned him exemption from front- It is unknown how far Yahya’s role extends beyond key- line military duty—but š›š›’s leadership by then recognized that board jihad. But clues have very recently emerged that point his talents were best put to use not as a grunt but as a scholar toward an extraordinary possibility. In August, a drone killed and spokesman. Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, the Islamic State’s most power- On December 8, 2015, Yahya’s voice came through clearly ful leader save for Baghdadi himself, and—according to Musa on Al Bayan radio—the voice of the Islamic State. He is now Cerantonio —Yahya’s friend and patron. Adnani is widely sus- the Islamic State’s leading producer of high-end English- pected of having directed foreign terrorist attacks on behalf of language propaganda as a proli
c writer for its ¦ agship mag- the Islamic State, including the mass murder of restaurant- and azines, Dabiq and Rumiyah. For a while, he tweeted under concertgoers in Paris in November 2015. The suspected opera- pseudonyms, but in keeping with a general Islamic State move tional mastermind of that attack, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was toward other, better-encrypted media, he stopped and now emir of the foreign
ghters in Azaz around the time of Yahya’s appears to be limited to o§ cial channels. The pro
le photo for residence there. Adnani himself was from the town of Binnish, one of his last personal Twitter accounts is a well-worn laptop also in northwestern Syria. with a Browning 9 mm semiautomatic handgun resting across Adnani’s death left a job opening, and on December 5, 2016, the keyboard. the Islamic State announced the name of his successor: Abu The
rst article in Dabiq that I have been able to con
rm al-Hassan al-Muhajir. That name is nearly identical to an was written by Yahya was published in April 2016, and took as active alias of John Georgelas, Abu Hassān al-Muhajir. (A its subject Western Muslims who, despite calling themselves muha jir is someone who has immi grated to the Islamic State, a Muslims, are in
dels. The headline, “Kill the Imams of Kufr foreign
ghter rather than a Syrian or an Iraqi.) The title inher- [Disbelief] in the West,” was only marginally less grotesque ited by “Abu al-Hassan” is mutahaddith, or “spokesman.” The than the accompanying design: crosshairs over images of job may or may not include Adnani’s responsibility for direct- prominent mainstream Western Muslims; an image of ing overseas attacks. It a crouching, blindfolded “apostate” at the moment an certainly means that the executioner’s blade enters his neck. In the article, Yahya YAHYA IS THE Islamic State—in all its recounted many stories of Muhammad and his com- of™icial pronouncements, panions’ harsh treatment of Muslims who had lapsed. ISLAMIC STATE’S its incitements to terror, Hands and feet are severed, eyes gouged out with nails, its encouragements of its bodies stomped to death. LEADING PRODUCER supporters—will speak in The issue that followed bore Yahya’s
ngerprints OF HIGH END Abu al-Hassan’s words. everywhere. A polemical article about Christianity The voice that deli vered notes, with a familiar pedantry and some of Yahya’s ENGLISH LANGUAGE the December 5 speech was favorite Bible verses, inconsistencies between Chris- not Yahya’s. But the Islamic tian doctrine and the historical record. Some articles are PROPAGANDA. State has altered voices clearly his, and others, whether his or not, use the voice RECENTLY, CLUES HAVE in the past, to protect the he has perfected. Unsigned, but likely written by Yahya, identities of key ™igures— is the pellucid “Why We Hate You & Why We Fight You,” EMERGED THAT HE and however fluent Yah- which avows the religious nature of the war. “We hate ya’s Arabic is, it might have you,
rst and foremost, because you are disbelievers,” MAY BE MUCH MORE. preferred a native speaker it begins. The article reads like a distillation of every to deliver a prepared text conversation I have ever had with a jihadist: under his name.

THE ATLANTIC MARCH  85 “Al-Muhajir” is an epithet shared by a signi cant percent- age of foreign ighters (though most go by a more speci ic PENCIL origin-name, such as “the Belgian” or “the Tunisian”), and many jihadists would have a  rstborn son named Hassan; it is a relatively common name. The Islamic State likely includes Once, you loved permanence, more than one person with the name Abu al-Hassan al-Muhajir, Indelible. You’d sink although I can  nd no record of anyone in the Islamic State Your thoughts in a black well, using that name or Yahya’s variant before December 5, other And called the error ink. than Yahya himself. For Yahya to occupy such a celebrated position would mean an improbable ascent through an organization dominated by And then you crossed it out; Syrians and Iraqis. To succeed Adnani directly would mean You canceled as you went. leapfrogging numerous other candidates with greater senior- But you craved permanence, ity and previous authority in the group. No analyst with whom I have spoken thinks it likely that an American could rise so high And honored the intent. in the group. But no other American is quite like Yahya, and until now, few people outside jihadist circles and the American Perfection was a blot intelligence community have even known of his existence. That could not be undone.      to what he’s doing,” You honored what was not, Timm told me when I rst rst met him. He says they And it was legion. haven’tven’t heard anything from Yahya since 2014, “W andd they hadn’t heard con conrmation rmation that he was And you were sure, so sure, withth the IslamicIslam ic State until I appeared on their doorstep. “He’s noo one I recognize anymore. I’m not looking But now you cannot stay sure. out for what he’s doing, or how he’s doing, because I’m not You turn the point around sure it makes any di— erence.” Martha, he said, has taken lon- And honor the erasure. ger to come to terms with the loss of their son. They don’t think he will return to America—not as long as he has a following in Raqqah, and the certainty of incarceration in the United States. Rubber stubs the page, Tania and the kids lived with them for a long period The heart, a stiletto of lead, after her return, but she now resides separately. The kids stay And all that was black and white with their grandparents during the week and their mother on weekends. Having spent most of the past decade as an itiner- Is in-between instead. ant jihadist, Tania lacks the job skills and degrees to match her intellect, so she does not have the resources or career prospects All scratch, all sketch, all note, to raise four young children on her own. The kids will grow up All tentative, all tensile in Plano, their safety and education  nanced by their father’s abandoned inheritance. Line that is not broken, The Islamic State’s enemies are drawing closer to Yahya, But pauses with the pencil, from all sides and from above. Drones assassinate his breth- ren every few days, and there is reason to believe they will kill And all choice, multiple, him too if they get the chance. The U.S. government’s “kill list,” which once included the Yemeni American jihadist Anwar The quiz that gives no quarter, al-Aulaqi, likely now includes John Thomas Georgelas, if his And Time the other implement name hasn’t been crossed o— already by the time this article That sharpens and grows shorter. reaches readers. Whatever parenting flaws Tim may have had could not — A. E. Stallings possibly merit the anguish he and his wife have su— ered. He still seems to think of his son as “John,” a wayward kid, easily A.E. Stallings’s most recent collection is Olives (2012). inž u enced by his more assertive elders. “This is the  rst time in his life where he’s in a position where he might be emulated,” Tim told me. jobs. There was comfort in imagining that he remained hapless, I wanted to tell Tim and Martha that Yahya had been emu- and perhaps that his Islam was just another phase. They would lated for years, and their inability to see jihadism as a valid be more troubled by the truth—which was that their son, a fail- subject of intellectual expertise had kept them from realizing ure in so many prior pursuits, had found his calling. it. They didn’t know how evil their son had become, or how coolly competent. Like other parents of jihadists, they saw Graeme Wood is a national correspondent for The Atlantic. This him as they wished to see him—as the youngster who bumbled article is adapted from his new book, The Way of the Strangers: through classes, sneaked spli— s, and struggled to hold down Encounters With the Islamic State.

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Can MEGYN KELLY ESCAPE Her Past?

Charting a route into the mainstream media, Fox News’s former star has downplayed her full role in an ugly election. By CAITLIN FLANAGAN Illustration by Michael Marsicano

     in 1996, kind. It has proved to be a big tent, sheltering beneath it some when the entertainment impresario and excellent reporters but also a collection of blowhards, perfor- conservative political consultant Roger mance artists, cornballs, and Republican operatives in rehab Ailes acted on a pair of insights: that most from political failures and personal embarrassments. With the people found television news boring and help of this antic cast, the Fox audience has come to under- that a signi­cant number of conservatives stand something important that it did not know before: The didn’t trust it to represent their interests people who make “mainstream” news and entertainment and values fairly. The TV producer in Ailes saw a marketing don’t just look down on conservatives and their values—they Fniche, and the political operative in him saw a direct way of despise them. courting voters. Rupert Murdoch owned the network, but By 2010, the network had become so popular that— Ailes was its intellectual author. In the two decades since, the according to Gabriel Sherman’s biography, The Loudest Voice in network has thrived without legitimate competition of any the Room—Ailes added a new goal to the mission: the election

88 MARCH  THE ATLANTIC

of the next president. The team did its best for Mitt Romney, but he lacked both the ability to excite crowds and Immediate acclaim for the blood instinct necessary to “rip Obama’s face off” in the debates, which Ailes believed was essential for Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s victory. Almost as soon as the election ended, Fox News went back to work on “fascinating history of the mission, emphasizing a variety of themes, each intended to demonize the women’s lives…Tough left. At the top of the list was the regu- doesn’t even begin to lar suggestion that Barack Obama was an America-hating radical, an elabora- describe it.”—Harper’s tion of Glenn Beck’s observation (on Fox) that the president had “a deep- seated hatred for white people.” Other “To the astonishment of the themes included the idea that straight outside world, the same women white men were under ever-present who vigorously defended threat from progressive policies and attitudes; that Planned Parenthood multiple marriages also fought was a kind of front operation for baby for—and won—female su rage.” murder; that political correctness had —the new yorker made the utterance of even the most obvious factual statements dangerous; “Impeccable scholarship” There can’t have been —Publishers Weekly anyone more telegenic KNopf in the history of the business than Kelly.

and that the concerns of black America—including, especially, those WhiteWalls.com of the Black Lives Matter movement— were so illogical, and so emotionally expressed, that they revealed millions of Americans to be beyond the reach of reason. There is zero evidence that Fox was motivated to help Donald Trump over the other Republican candidates, although in retrospect he seems almost the dream candidate of the new agenda, embodying all the signature Ailes moves, right down to ripping o‰ his opponents’ faces and threatening reporters. (“How would you like it,” Ailes once asked the journalist Kurt Andersen, if “a camera crew followed your children home from school?”) We will never know to what extent Fox created or merely reported on the factor that turned out to be so decisive in the election: that to be white and conscious in America was to be in a constant state of rage. These magnetic whiteboard walls give you and your In the middle of all this, feeding clips team an unlimited blank slate to encourage original ideas of ammo into the hot Fox News machine, and foster out-of-the-box solutions. was Megyn Kelly. To watch her, during 800 624 4154 one of her interviews on the subject of race and policing, interrupt a black guest

90 MARCH  THE ATLANTIC Featuring In a series of newsmaker Interviews With: interviews called We the People, Bret Baier The Atlantic Representative Tom Cole (R-OK) is exploring how Rachna Choudhry Americans can put aside U.S. Army Secretary Eric Fanning differences to work for the Steve Hilton greater good. Valerie Jarrett Kathleen Turner To learn more and watch past events, visit: Susannah Wellford theatlantic.com/wethepeople Yoni Appelbaum Steve Clemons

With Thanks PRESENTED BY to Our Underwriter to ask her whether she’d ever called guard with her when she took her chil- white people “crackers” was to see Kelly dren to Disney World last spring) falls in action, red up and ready to go. In somewhere between a dark irony and some respects, she was an independent a sick statement of where we are in the actor at Fox, with her own show and ulti- year of our Lord 2017. That she should Keel-billed Toucan mate control of its editorial content. But chart a path forward while downplay- Join the smart shoppers and experienced she was also a cog in something turning, ing her full role in an ugly election that travelers who have chosen Caravan since 1952 and what the great machine ultimately helped fuel her rise hardly marks her as produced was President Donald Trump. unusual—many on the right are eager to But a funny thing happened as the blur the norm-breaking excesses of the election season unfolded. Kelly—the recent past. To judge by Kelly’s cover- 8-Day Guided Tour $1195 darling daughter of the conservative her-traces strategy, her trajectory also Includes all hotels, meals, and activities. network—began to change before our conveys another message: Making the Fully guided from start to finish. eyes. She took on some of the most crossover to a major network requires a powerful Republican men in the coun- conservative to change her stripes, which try, including Newt Gingrich (“You is one reason why so many Americans Costa Rica: Caravan Tour Itinerary know what, Mr. Speaker? I’m not fasci- have lost faith in the mainstream media. Day 1. Bienvenidos! nated by sex. But I am fascinated by the Your tour begins in TM protection of women”); Roger Ailes (“I ¤¥¦§ ¨¤©©¦ ª««¬®¤¯ at San José, Costa Rica. picked up the phone and called Lachlan Fox at age 33, in 2004, with Day 2. Explore active Poás Volcano. Murdoch: ‘You need to get your general M almost no experience in the Hike the Escalonia Cloud Forest Trail. counsel on the phone’ ”); and Donald eld. As a teenager, she had not heeded Trump himself (“You’ve called women her mother’s warning that “they don’t Day 3. Cruise on the Rio Frio river. you don’t like fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and give scholarships for cheerleading.” She Relax and soak in volcanic hot springs. disgusting animals”). Over the summer was popular, boy-crazy, obsessed with Day 4. Hike the Hanging Bridges and she joined a group of vocal Hillary Clin- her weight, and the shining star of her visit Leatherback Turtle National Park. ton supporters—Lena Dunham, Emma high-school sorority. She had hoped to Day 5. Free time at your beach resort. Watson, Kerry Washing- attend the fabled New- ton, Eva Longoria, and house School of Public Day 6. Cruise on the others—to take part in a Communications at Syra- Tarcoles River. Float Sheryl Sandberg initiative cuse University, but she through a mangrove forest. Bird watching called Lean In Together whiffed the SAT and got and crocodile spotting. (its name suggestive of rejected. She didn’t turn Clinton’s own “Stronger her back on the “planned Day 7. Explore Manuel Antonio Park. Together” motto) that was pursuits” she had enumer- Hike through rainforest and beaches. dedicated to some vague ated in her high-school Day 8. You return with great memories. vision of a female utopia. yearbook: “College, gov- Hasta la vista! And she published ernment, and wealth.” SETTLE FOR MORE Detailed Itinerary at Caravan.com. a best-selling memoir, She enrolled at Syracuse, Settle for More, that bu™s MEGYN KELLY majored in political sci- away her long history of Harper ence, and fell in love with Choose an Affordable Tour+tax,fees strongly argued and often a lax bro who knew how to Guatemala with Tikal 10 days $1295 principled conservative encourage this fatherless Costa Rica 8 days $1195 opinions and emphasizes her handful daughter to be a winner. “You got this, Panama & Canal 8 days $1195 of progressive ones, packaging herself little girl,” he would tell her when she set Nova Scotia, P.E.I. 10 days $1395 as an independent. The book never once out to claim another prize. Canadian Rockies 9 days $1695 mentions that the network she worked Kelly decided to go to law school Grand Canyon, Zion 8 days $1495 for is a platform for conservative ideas. so that she could become a prosecutor California Coast 8 days $1595 Writing a book about a career at Fox “and be respected.” But once again she Mount Rushmore 8 days $1395 without mentioning its conservative came up short, rejected this time by New England, Foliage 8 days $1395 agenda is like writing a book about a Notre Dame, so she packed up her aero- career at the Vatican without mention- bics leggings and Tri-Delt T-shirts and Brilliant, Affordable Pricing ing its Catholic agenda. Kelly, it seemed, headed back to her girlhood bedroom —Arthur“ Frommer, Travel Editor” was cleaning up her record. Why? The and the Albany Law School, where a answer came in January, when she frenemy told her people were calling FREE Info Guide announced her big new job at NBC. her Barbie (“Shove it up your ass,” Kelly Call (800) CARAVAN The #1 That Kelly should have ended her said when she’d had enough: problem Caravan�com In Value tenure at Fox not just bullied by Trump solved). She loved moot court, where but threatened by some of his deranged she discovered she liked “being ‘on’ in a ® followers (she had to bring an armed room”; she also spent too much money Guided Tours Since 1952 and ruined her credit. Public service was not going to put her right with the col- lection agencies, so she set her heart on “Brilliant and Bickel & Brewer, the rm that pioneered “Rambo litigation”: deliciously At twenty-three years old, I loved it. Kill or be killed! We’re not here readable.” to make friends, we’re here to win! BOSTON GLOBE You sue my client? F— you and your Panama Fedora request for an extension! You want a Classic sun protection handwoven in settlement conference? Pound sand! Our o‰er is screw you! Ecuador from toquilla ber. Grosgrain ribbon band. Reinforced 4½" After a decade in the trenches in crown, 2½" brim. Finished in USA. New York, Chicago, and Washington, S (6¾-6⅞) M (7-7⅛) L (7¼-7⅜) D.C., making bank and cruising toward XL (7½-7⅝) XXL (7¾) partner, Kelly had a little talk with her- self: “I am more exciting than this!” she #1648 Panama Fedora $114 delivered wrote in her journal. “I am more inter- esting than this! I am more interested Shop online or request a catalog than this! I need more out of life!” What #KB-65-2BN she needed, it turned out, was to leave the law and become a TV news reporter. She bought a killer Dolce & Gabbana #1622 #1649 As a litigator in ^ high-stakes lawsuits, 800-324-4934 davidmorgan.com Kelly learned a skill of 11812 N Creek Pkwy N, Ste 103•Bothell, WA 98011 the trade: taunting her adversaries until they snapped. “A wonderful read!” dress and made a demo tape. (“Only ABRAHAM VERGHESE, you would spend a thousand dollars to author of cutting for stone interview for a job that pays seventeen thousand a year!” her rst husband said playfully, unaware that he was soon to “Deeply engrossing.” MODERN MEMOIRS , INC . be moved into the I am more interesting THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE than this! category.) Sure enough, the As-told-to memoirs & dress, the tape, and the moxie got her self-publishing services a job moonlighting with Washington’s since 1994 “Rich in anecdote, local ABC a—liate, and soon she was 413-253-2353 history, personality making a run at Fox News, the only major news network that actually pre- and narrative.” fers to hire reporters with little or no /,7(5$5<$:$5'6 NATURE journalistic experience. In short order, 6(1')25285)5((%52&+85( she was in Roger Ailes’s o—ce, making (DWRQ/LWHUDU\$JHQF\ a case for herself. 32%R[ “You’ll walk away in 6DUDVRWD)/ As she tells it, one of the rst ques- ZZZHDWRQOLWHUDU\FRP awe of this tenacious tions Ailes asked her was “how the  daughter of a nurse and a college pro- institution.” fessor understood anything other than ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY left wing dogma.” She replied that although she’d been raised in a Demo- cratic household, she had always been Available wherever apolitical. She got the job. “He wasn’t books are sold looking for a Republican reporter,” she Doubleday www.doubleday.com writes. “He just wanted someone who

THE ATLANTIC MARCH  93 NATIONAL BESTSELLER

was open-minded.” More accurately, he don’t get the role of religion in people’s wanted people who hadn’t been tainted lives,” by which he meant that the paper WINNER by the left-wing media machine, so they doesn’t get the role of Christianity in   could be trained in the attitudes and people’s lives—something Fox under- opinions the network had been founded stands deeply.) Kelly’s own father, who MAN BOOKER to advance. died suddenly when she was 15, was a Ailes taught Kelly how to adjust her devout Catholic who had “considered PRIZE on-air personality for maximum eec- becoming a Christian Brother” before tiveness, an area of expertise in which marrying, and often encouraged his he is without rival. (He is the person who children to think of what Jesus was like suggested that Richard Nixon warm up “as a man.” Hume—authoritative, parti- his image by touching Pat more often san, religious, and besotted with Kelly when they were on camera together, a in a deeply aectionate, paternal way— small price to pay for bombing Cam- taught her the ropes, and maintains that bodia to his heart’s content.) His signal her rapid rise at Fox was because “she advice to her was “to not try so hard to believes in our mission.” be perfect” all the time on air, and to Kelly is an unbelievably talented allow herself to show “who I really am”— broadcaster—smart, funny, quick- perhaps not exactly the counsel he had witted, and able to handle a bit of Šu oered Bill O’Reilly or Sean Hannity or with as much zeal as she tackles a seri- Bret Baier, but la dierence is big at Fox, ous story. There can’t have been any- and she followed along. Kelly learned to one more telegenic in the history of be more playful on camera, to crack her- the business. Her understanding of the self up and not take herself so seriously legal aspects of news stories and her ten- when she Šubbed a line. She developed dency to conduct interviews as hostile a bantering rapport with regular guests, cross-examinations (“Stay in bounds!” even those she evidently disdained, like “I’ve already ceded the point!” “Don’t Al Sharpton. She leavened her big-city deŠect!”) made her a riveting journalist- style by developing a series of folksy entertainer, the Fox ideal. She moved nicknames for regulars. She called Sharpton “Rev” and Mike Huckabee To see her reporting “GIDDY, SCATHING “Gov,” and (surreally) she called Cornell on Black Lives Matter and DAZZLING.” West “Doc,” as though he’d just ambled was to see how Fox —THE WALL STREET JOURNAL over to the front porch on Hee Haw with his medical bag. often stirred up Ailes was her boss—the unchal - racial anger among “[An] OUTRAGEOUS, lenged “king” of Fox News, she has its viewers. ri -strewn satire on race called him—but Brit Hume, who had in America... but its come to Fox from ABC during the new up quickly through the Fox ranks. Start- network’s ‘rst year, was her ideological ing as a general assignment reporter, most arresting quality father. Kelly writes that when she ‘rst within two years she was co-hosting is the lively humanity entered the ambit of Hume and his wife, a show with Bill Hemmer, “America’s Kim (then Fox’s Washington-bureau Newsroom,” on which she evinced her of its characters.” chief), she felt “like little Orphan Annie signature political stance: free-market —THE NEW YORKER seeing the mansion for the ‘rst time.” enthusiasm combined with Nixonian She was determined to work with them, law-and-order conservatism. “Enjoy “BRILLIANT... and the pair became “actively involved prison!” she would call out after show- unlike anything else in my development.” Kelly learned to ing a video of an especially inept crimi- seek Hume’s approval above all others’. nal enterprise. I’d read before, Brit Hume is a deeply accomplished, She popped off the screen—fun, at once side-splitting and very smart, heart-on-his-sleeve con- sexy, tough—and became popular not servative. He is also a Christian who has just with conservatives but also (in the thought-provoking.” said he has committed his life to Christ mode of a guilty pleasure) with many —THE ATLANTIC “in a way that was very meaningful.” progressives, including her sometime This one fact alone might be enough nemesis Jon Stewart, who once said she to freak out many more-conventional was his favorite Fox personality. She journalists. (After the election, Dean boldly waded into waters that the main- AVAILABLE IN Baquet, the executive editor of The stream news outlets wouldn’t go near. HARDCOVER, PAPERBACK AND E-BOOK. New York Times, made an astonishing Some of her set pieces— unpacking the confession about his newspaper: “We liberal cant about the Supreme Court’s PICADOR decision in the Hobby Lobby case, for she describes the background to that Bill Ayers … Friends. They’ve worked example—were sensational bits of exceptional event this way: “During together for years … But Obama tries to theater. One night she went into a rant the 2008 election, it was reported that hide it … Why?” In between segments about the new federal guidelines on col- Barack Obama launched his career in of the interview, Kelly reminds us of lege sexual-assault adjudication: “Once Bill Ayers’s living room. That was a little the “launching” of Obama’s campaign you are accused, you’re done,” she in•ated. They were both in Chicago and in Ayers’s living room, and says she will shouted, speaking up for male students. in the same social justice circles, and ask Ayers an important question: “Will “You can’t have a lawyer in there repre- Ayers had a cocktail party for the then he bomb America again?” senting you, and the rules say, ‘Don’t aspiring politician.” Not likely, given that he was a allow the accused to cross-examine the That’s a fair enough assessment of 69-year-old grandfather at the time, the accuser, because it could be intimidat- the situation, even sounding vaguely classic tenured radical working on his ing and threatening for her.’ Well—she like something you’d hear on MSNBC— TIAA-£¤¥¦ retirement account more might be a liar! She might deserve a “social justice circles”! But for a stark than on his violent manifestos; Kelly little intimidation!” It was harsh, it was contrast to this measured opinion, go looked liked she could have reached politically incorrect as hell, it was anti- look up the original interview. “Profes- across her glass desk and bench-pressed feminist (women who report rape might sor Bill Ayers admits to terrorizing this him if she’d wanted to. But the premise need to be intimidated?)—and within country, bombing buildings, and com- for hauling this old lefty out of moth- it was a desperately needed kernel of mitting other crimes during the 1970s,” balls, shaking him awake, and interro- pure truth, some “cool water over a hot Kelly says by way of introduction, “and gating him was to remind viewers how brain,” as she has described her style of he got away—scot-free. Because this is dangerous he—and by implication truth-telling. America, he wound up as a college profes- Obama—was to the country, so the ques- But Kelly’s rise to national atten- sor who even helped a president launch tion had to be raised. tion, in 2014, featured a diŒerent sort his political career.” Then—without any The spectacle strengthened the Fox of spectacle. She conducted her career- explanation or context—an old John objective of undermining the Obama making interview with Bill Ayers, a co- McCain ad plays. To the accompani- presidency by suggesting that he was founder of the Weather Underground, ment of Exorcist-style music, images someone akin to Ayers, whom Kelly whom Fox never expected to land as appear on a devilish red-and-black back- described as sounding “like Osama bin a guest and whom Kelly calls “the gift ground, and a creepy female voice says, Laden” at one point and as “like Hitler” that kept on giving.” In Settle for More, “Barack Obama and domestic terrorist at another. But there’s nothing about

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THE ATLANTIC MARCH  95 that in her book, nor is there any men- an ugly mood that was the hallmark of Hughley looked down at the desk, tion of her emotionally laden reporting Fox all last year: one of white aggrieve- obviously restraining himself from say- on abortion, which often features lumi- ment at a country gone mad, led by a ing something he’d regret. “Wow,” he nous sonogram images of “babies” in radical black president supported by said mildly, countering her furious tone utero. After the Center for Medical Prog- irrational black protesters who were with a controlled one. “Don’t ‘Wow’ ress released its sting videos of Planned gaining power. In regard to Black Lives me,” Kelly said angrily. Why was she Parenthood meetings on the handling of Matter speciƒcally, Fox anchors wanted so angry at him? It was never clear; she fetal organs, she interviewed her men- to know why so many in the move - just seemed to be trying to get him to tor Hume about what to make of them. ment continued to invoke the names of bite back, and she continued pushing He explained to her that “when you Michael Brown and Freddie Gray when him on Brown, raising her voice in the wrest from the woman’s womb this little police o¢cers in those cases had been manner of an outraged teacher letting human creature and kill it, that’s not a tidy exonerated. This was a fair question, a class clown have it. Hughley said that little minor ‘procedure,’ really. That’s the and one politically volatile enough that Fox didn’t acknowledge racism. “That’s taking of a human life.” Kelly has often the mainstream media largely steered insulting,” she told him sharply, and said that her feelings on abortion are clear of it. (CNN famously promoted the gestured toward the camera. “You’ve private and unknown to the public. But “Hands up, don’t shoot” narrative before just insulted millions of people watch- you can clearly see from her show that, there was any evidence for it.) But the ing this channel.” at the very least, abortion after the 12th way Kelly went about seeking answers— “And you know what? I’m insulted week horriƒes her. In this, as in so many often by applying her “make them lose by the things I hear on this network, so other regards, she is a conservative. Why, their cool” approach—was disturbing. we’re even,” he said. “I could care less to ask a classic Megyn Kelly question, She invited the comedian and radio about insulting people who insult me on does the topic go all but unmentioned in host D. L. Hughley to her studio to dis- a daily basis.” At the end of the segment, her book? cuss the shooting death of Philando Cas- Kelly thanked Hughley crisply and then More important, why has she left tile in Minnesota in July 2016. After he rolled her eyes at the audience: This is her vigorous—and much discussed— what we’re dealing with. interviews about the Black Lives Matter Kelly is o to the According to Settle for More, Kelly’s movement out of Settle for More? In her great moment of racial awakening memoir, she observes that Fox News big time, which will took place when she watched the black anchors are frequent targets of unfair crush her. receptionist at her law ƒrm cheer the accusations of racism. That bothers O. J. Simpson verdict. She writes that Kelly, who regularly and appreciatively was seated at the glass desk, she turned the moment “opened my eyes to the hosts black conservatives on her show. ƒrst to do a surprise interview with one reality that two people can see the exact But to see her segments on Black Lives of her favorite Fox News contributors on same facts and come to vastly differ- Matter—which ƒrst aired as the prima- race and policing issues: Mark Fuhrman, ent conclusions.” She says this insight ries were getting under way and contin- the former Los Angeles Police Depart- made her “check” her own “bias” in ued until the general election itself—was ment detective—and enthusiastic col- her reporting. to see how Fox often stirred up racial lector of Nazi memorabilia—whose During the Republican National anger among its viewers, a kind of anger racially charged past proved so central Convention in August, sitting in a sky- that was crucial fuel for the Republican in the O. J. Simpson trial. That he should box awaiting a speech by the black outcome Roger Ailes so desired. be one of Fox’s paid consultants on conservative sheri« David Clarke, she these topics is a telling comment about introduced her TV audience to Malik Ž‘’ “‘””• –—˜ a liti- the network. He told Kelly that Cas - Shabazz, the president of Black Lawyers gator in high-stakes law- tile’s girlfriend, who had described the for Justice and a former president of the W suits, she learned a skill of shooting in a live Facebook video, was New Black Panthers Party. Shabazz is a the trade: taunting her adversaries until a liar. When it was Hughley’s turn to radical—an anti-Zionist who believes they snapped. “I might say something talk with Kelly, he was understandably that Jews dominated the Atlantic slave passive-aggressive just to get opposing a bit stunned by what had just trans- trade and were involved in the 9/11 counsel mad,” she writes. “And then pired. “I think it was interesting to hear attacks, he is in a sense far more radical when he got worked up about it, I would Mark Fuhrman, who was actually—got than Bill Ayers—but Kelly did not tell say calmly, ‘You seem upset. Do you in trouble for perjuring himself, calling the audience that. Nor did she tell them need a break? We can take a moment if somebody a liar,” Hughley said. “It’s that she had had Shabazz on her show in you’d like to step outside and get your- ridiculous to me.” the past. The two proved useful to each self together.’ ” She became “an expert “Mmmhmm,” Kelly said, ignoring the other; he got to go deep behind enemy in making them lose their cool.” point. They talked a bit about the case, lines to spread his theories, while she She brought this technique to her and whether or not the girlfriend was got to show her audience members a most contentious interviews on Fox, credible. Kelly compared the incident black man who really does hate them. often generating more heat than light, to the Michael Brown case, and began But to the casual viewer, he seemed like while also getting a fair share of electric almost shouting at Hughley: “ ‘Hands merely another Black Lives Matter sup- moments. But in her regular application up, don’t shoot’ was a lie, and Michael porter, no more or less extreme in his of it to black activists, she contributed to Brown was the aggressor.” views than D. L. Hughley.

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Within two minutes, Kelly was speak- Katie Couric or a Diane Sawyer or a Bar- ing to him in her raised, angry voice—and bara Walters at Fox, so Megyn Kelly is she got him. “Your attitude is part of the oŸ to the big time, which will crush her. problem,” Shabazz told her. “You believe NBC is not going to let her roll her eyes that your lives are better than ours.” She at black activists, or tell her audience told him it was hard to take him seriously; that Santa is white, or hector a Planned he told her—in a low, careful voice—“Oh, Parenthood supporter with a horri·ed take me very seriously.” “So there’s no “Where’s your humanity?” Her recent reasoning with you,” she said. adoption of Sheryl Sandberg–style “you He made some points that might go, girl” feminism isn’t going to help her have enlarged the discussion, had Kelly either. There are only so many uplift- been interested in hearing them. “This ing reports on workplace mentoring type of campaign which promotes rac- you can ·le before sleepy viewers start ism and division,” he said, “it’s going clicking around. The reason Kelly was to create more police who desire to kill so great at Fox is that, unlike just about us.” Kelly wasn’t going there. “Do you every other woman to be called this, she What if buildings of believe that white people are inherently actually is a badass. Settle for More aside, evil?” she suddenly asked, reading from she’s spent her career really not caring if the future were made notes. “Do you use the term cracker to you think she’s a racist or a pro-lifer or a like bones, leaves, refer to white people? … Did you say bully. She’s a strong, strong woman—but eggs, and shells? we should kill every G-damn Zionist in she won’t be one at NBC. She’ll be like Israel? That their G-damn little babies, everyone else. that old ladies should be blown up?” No No matter, it’s still the honeymoon. Learn about the science behind cities at one familiar with Malik Shabazz would Kelly has been approved for general be surprised by these statements, but consumption by The New York Times Kelly knew she had fodder for an audi- (“unlikely feminist heroine”) and Vanity ence that had come to revile the Black Fair (“feminist icon of sorts”). She gave Lives Matter cause. She scolded Shabazz an interview to Terry Gross in which she for taking “antagonistic positions when sounded not like Fox’s avenging angel it comes to white people as a group,” and but like a good liberal, saying that she sent him on his way, another dangerous was concerned about the “relative lack of tm black man among millions. power of certain minority groups and the This was Fox News last spring and fear they’re feeling in the wake of Don- INCREASE AFFECTION summer and into the fall: a place where ald Trump’s election.” She had a brief Created by black guests were always a few prodding badass moment soon after that, at The Winnifred Cutler, questions away from telling the audience Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Enter- PhPh.D.D in biology what they really felt about whites, and a tainment breakfast, where she told the from U. of Penn, post-doc Stanford. place where white hosts were quick to audience she had “high hopes” for Don- Co-discovered defend other members of their race from ald Trump, and that there was “much to human unfair accusations of bias. These tactics admire about the man.” But the Women pheromones in 1986 were integral to the network’s mission: of Hollywood booed her, and Kathy Grif- (Time 12/1/86; and to get conservative ideas out there, to ·n ¹ipped her the bird. They’ll get her in Newsweek 1/12/87) INCREASES YOUR help elect a Republican president, and line. And who knows? Maybe all this time ATTRACTIVENESS! to make exciting television while doing she was just a gun for hire. If so, she took PROVEN EFFECTIVE IN 3 DOUBLE BLIND it. Kelly proved adept on all fronts. some very cheap shots over the past few STUDIES IN PEER REVIEW JOURNALS years. And she hit the target. Vial of 1/6 oz. added to 2-4 oz. of ¯° ±²³´ µ¶± turn a nobody your fragrance, worn daily lasts 4-6 months, or use it straight. into a star—but only of a cer- Caitlin Flanagan is the author of Girl Athena 10X tm For Men $99.50 tain size. You can’t become a Land and To Hell With All That. tm F Unscented 10:13 For Women $98.50 Fragrance Additives Cosmetics Free U.S. Shipping n Alice, Ph.D (CO) “Men that I care about are The Atlantic (ISSN 1072-7825), recognized as the same publication under The Atlantic Monthly or Atlantic Monthly (The), more attentive; they seem to want to be close is published monthly except for combined issues in January/February and July/August by The Atlantic Monthly Group, to me. 600 New Hampshire Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20037 (202-266-6000). Periodicals postage paid at Washington, D.C., I think you are doing an enormous service. Toronto, Ont., and additional mailing o’ces. Postmaster: send all UAA to CFS (see DMM 707.4.12.5); NONPOSTAL Keep up your good work, Dr. Cutler.” AND MILITARY FACILITIES: send address corrections to Atlantic Address Change, P.O. Box 37564, Boone, IA 50037- n Perry (CA) “I am a physician and I have 0564. Printed in U.S.A. Subscription queries: Atlantic Customer Care, P.O. Box 37564, Boone, IA 50037-0564 (or call recommended your product to two other 800-234-2411). Privacy: we make portions of our customer list available to carefully screened companies that oŸer physician friends. I think your product is good. products and services we believe you may enjoy. If you do not want to receive this information, please write to the I believe it works.” Customer Care address above. Advertising (646-539-6700) and Circulation (202-266-7100): 600 New Hampshire Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20037. Subscriptions: one year $39.95 in the U.S. and poss., add $8.00 in Canada, includes Not in storestm 610-827-2200 GST (123209926); add $15.00 elsewhere. Canada Post Publications Mail Agreement 41385014. Canada return address: The Atlantic, P.O. Box 1051, Fort Erie, ON L2A 6C7. Back issues: send $7.50 per copy to The Atlantic, Back Issues, 1900 www.Athenainstitute.com Industrial Park Dr., Federalsburg, MD 21632 (or call 410-754-8219). Vol. 319, No. 2, March 2017. Copyright © 2017, by Athena Institute, 1211 Braefield Rd., Chester Spgs, PA 19425 ATM The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved.

98 MARCH  THE ATLANTIC

THE BIG QUESTION Q: What was the most influential film in history? bellum South, and cemented READER RESPONSES the false image of the black Nancy Wolske Lee, male “savage” in the white Marietta, Ohio Allison Schroeder, Metropolis (1927). A work cultural mainstream. One In 26.6 seconds and 486 screenwriter, of magisterial surrealism hundred years on, the movie frames, the Zapruder „ lm Hidden Figures that both predicted and still has far too much to brought a brutal assassina- Star Wars gave us Leia: incarnated the rest of the answer for. tion into our living rooms a “princess” who de ed 20th century, the lm cast and the world to its knees in the stereotype as a kick-ass its long chiaroscuro shadow Tom McCarthy, director, shock and grief. rebel ghter. She changed over everything from the Spotlight the de nition of a heroine. Third Reich to cyberpunk. The Great Train Robbery And as the revolutionary (1903), directed by Edwin special e ects transformed S. Porter, was one of the rst our imaginations, the story lms to combine multiple set in a galaxy far, far away story lines into a narrative reminded us of our own structure. The lm also used world’s battle between good innovative camera and edit- and evil—one that never ends ing techniques that are still but must always be fought. very much a part of our cin- Tim Cox, Chicago, Ill. ematic vocabulary today. All Jaws—the rst summer Anna Biller, filmmaker Miriam Segal, managing of that in 12 minutes— and it blockbuster—changed the Mae West’s witty dialogue, director and producer, was commercially success- business of lmmaking, revealing gowns, purring Good Films ful to boot! gave us an iconic score, voice, and sexual innuendos Singin’ in the Rain per- and continues to make in She Done Him Wrong fectly illustrates how an Laura Mulvey, film and us fearful of ocean swim- (1933) made her an icon of impeccable script, brilliant media-studies professor, ming even though we know a type of frank female sexu- performances, and time- Birkbeck, University better. ality that would de ne the less characters combine to of London early 1930s and the pre- entertain all ages worldwide. An Italian neorealist lm David Baker, DeLand, Fla. censorship era, and would from the 1940s: Roberto The Godfather. Francis inspire concepts of high Ty Burr, film critic, Rossellini’s Rome, Open Ford Coppola’s Corleone camp and female sexual The Boston Globe City (1945) or Vittorio family represents the Amer- independence in cinema for In American history, it has De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves ican dream, with all of its decades to come. to be D. W. Gri­ th’s The (1948). The lms were pros and cons. Birth of a Nation (1915 )— played across the world, Howard A. Rodman, the rst cinematic block- demonstrating the power president, Writers Guild of buster and a revisionist racist and immediacy of location Want to see your name on this page? Email bigquestion@ America, West artifact that helped resurrect shooting; they in’ uenced theatlantic.com with your response It’s hard to name a lm of the Ku Klux Klan, led to a the French New Wave, to the question for our May issue: What was the most significant more expansive reach than fresh wave of violence, bol- Brazilian Cinema Novo, and environmental catastrophe Lang and von Harbou’s stered myths about the ante- other new- lm movements. of all time?

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