THE EMPTY PANTSUIT Hillary Clinton Is All Calculation and Maneuver Kevin D.Williamson

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May 9, 2016 $4.99

JEREMY CARL: HENRY OLSEN: ELIANA JOHNSON: No, the Process Isn’ t Rigged What Trump Means The Lessons of Wisconsin

THE EMPTY PANTSUIT Hillary Clinton is all calculation and maneuver Kevin D.Williamson

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MAY 9, 2016 | VOLUME LXVIII, NO. 8 | www.nationalreview.com

ON THE COVER Page 29 Henry Olsen on Trump’s faction The Empty Pantsuit p. 32 Mrs. Clinton may be a retro throwback to the 1990s, a time when she was a BOOKS, ARTS retro throwback to the 1970s, but her & MANNERS campaign is cutting-edge in one 36 A MAN OF STRATEGIC VISION important sense: It is almost entirely Lou Cannon reviews Ronald free of content, liberated from Reagan, by Jacob Weisberg. substance, an empty pantsuit. Kevin D. Williamson 38 THE EU’S SOFT UTOPIA John Fonte reviews The New Totalitarian Temptation: COVER: ROMAN GENN Global Governance and the Crisis of Democracy in Europe, by Todd Huizinga. ARTICLES 43 WITNESSES THE NOMINATION PROCESS ISN’T RIGGED by Jeremy Carl Paul Hollander reviews Exit Right: 18 The People Who Left the Left Rather, its mix of direct and indirect democracy is a strength. and Reshaped the American 20 ‘NEVER TRUMP’ AFTER WISCONSIN by Eliana Johnson Century, by Daniel Oppenheimer. The businessman’s opponents won an important, but not a decisive, victory. 44 WELCOME BACK, DOS ABORTION AND PUNISHMENT by Robert P. George & Ramesh Ponnuru Jay Nordlinge r appreciates The 22 Theme Is Freedom, by John Why women should not be penalized for the killing of their unborn children. Dos Passos. TRUMP’S IMMIGRATION DISASTER by Reihan Salam 24 46 FILM: HOLLYWOOD’S GREAT His campaign has set back the cause of border enforcement. JUNGLE OBAMA’S ENDLESS WAR by Bing West Ross Douthat reviews The 26 Jungle Book. Refusing to prosecute an effective strategy against ISIS only prolongs the suffering. MODERN FAMILY by Charles C. W. Cooke 47 MANHATTAN MOVIEGOING 27 Richard Brookhiser goes to We may lack jetpacks, but technology is no less wonderful for that. the movies.

FEATURES SECTIONS 29 THE EMPTY PANTSUIT by Kevin D. Williamson Hillary Clinton doesn’t stand for anything—and that is her appeal. 4 Letters to the Editor The Week TRUMP’S FACTION by Henry Olsen 6 32 34 The Long View ...... Rob Long Its primary concerns are citizenship and nationality. 35 Athwart ...... James Lileks 44 Poetry ...... Sally Cook 48 Happy Warrior . . . . . David Harsanyi

NATIONAL REVIEW (ISSN: 0028-0038) is published bi-weekly, except for the first issue in January, by N ATIONAL REVIEW, Inc., at 215 Lexington Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y., and additional mailing offices. © National Review, Inc., 2016. Address all editorial mail, manuscripts, letters to the editor, etc., to Editorial Dept., N ATIONAL REVIEW, 215 Lexington Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016. Address all subscription mail orders, changes of address, undeliverable copies, etc., to NATIONALREVIEW, Circulation Dept., P. O. Box 433015, Palm Coast, Fla. 32143-3015; phone, 386-246-0118, Monday–Friday, 8:00A.M . to 10:30 P.M. Eastern time. Adjustment requests should be accompanied by a current mailing label or facsimile. Direct classified advertising inquiries to: Classifieds Dept., NATIONALREVIEW, 215 Lexington Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016 or call 212-679- 7330. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to N ATIONAL REVIEW, Circulation Dept., P. O. Box 433015, Palm Coast, Fla. 32143-3015. Printed in the U.S.A. RATES: $59.00 a year (24 issues). Add $21.50 for Canada and other foreign subscriptions, per year. (All payments in U.S. currency.) The editors cannot be responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or artwork unless return postage or, better, a stamped, self-addressed envelope is enclosed. Opinions expressed in signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of the editors. base_new_milliken-mar 22.qxd 4/4/2016 2:24 PM Page 1 letters--FINAL_QXP-1127940387.qxp 4/20/2016 1:38 PM Page 4 Letters

MAY 9 ISSUE; PRINTED APRIL 21

EDITOR Richard Lowry The VOA's Unfulfilled Promise Senior Editors Richard Brookhiser / Jonah Goldberg / Jay Nordlinger Ramesh Ponnuru / David Pryce-Jones As a former Voice of America manager responsible for launching the VOA Managing Editor Jason Lee Steorts Literary Editor Michael Potemra Ukrainian TV program hosted by Myroslava Gongadze, I applaud Jay Nordlinger Vice President, Editorial Operations Christopher McEvoy Washington Editor Eliana Johnson for his article on this courageous and talented Ukrainian-American journalist Executive Editor Reihan Salam (“A Voice of America,” April 25). I feel obliged, however, to comment on VOA’s Roving Correspondent Kevin D. Williamson National Correspondent John J. Miller early history and its current effectiveness. Senior Political Correspondent Jim Geraghty Chief Political Correspondent Tim Alberta Contrary to the Voice of America’s promise to tell the truth, during World War Art Director Luba Kolomytseva II it was primarily a propaganda tool of the Roosevelt White House and its own Deputy Managing Editors Nicholas Frankovich / Fred Schwarz pro-Soviet sympathizers. The station’s World War II leadership did not permit any Production Editor Katie Hosmer Assistant to the Editor Rachel Ogden significant criticism of Joseph Stalin after his alliance with Hitler collapsed and Research Associate Alessandra Trouwborst Russia suddenly became Britain’s and America’s valuable wartime ally while Contributing Editors remaining a strategic and ideological enemy. Elmer Davis, the head of the Office of Shannen Coffin / Ross Douthat / Daniel Foster War Information (OWI), VOA’s parent agency, personally penned commentaries Roman Genn / Arthur L. Herman / Lawrence Kudlow Mark R. Levin / Yuval Levin / Rob Long promoting the Soviet lie that the Nazis were responsible for the executions of thou- Mario Loyola / Jim Manzi / Andrew C. McCarthy Kate O’Beirne / Andrew Stuttaford / Robert VerBruggen sands of Polish prisoners of war in the Katyn Forest massacre. More than 20,000 Polish prisoners were in fact murdered on Stalin’s orders in 1940 by the NKVD NATIONALREVIEWONLINE Managing Editors Katherine Connell / Edward John Craig secret police. Even State Department diplomats were appalled by VOA’s pro-Soviet Deputy Managing Editor Nat Brown National-Affairs Columnist John Fund Katyn propaganda and urged caution. Their warnings were ignored. Staff Writers Charles C. W. Cooke / David French Elmer Davis and others in charge of VOA’s World War II broadcasts openly Senior Political Reporter Alexis Levinson Political Reporter Brendan Bordelon referred to themselves as propagandists during and after the war. They sought White Reporter Ka therine Timpf House approval to coordinate their propaganda with the Soviet government. A Associate Editors Molly Powell / Nick Tell Digital Director Ericka Anderson number of Soviet sympathizers employed by VOA made sure that spokesmen Assistant Editor Mark Antonio Wright Technical Services Russell Jenkins for non-Communist governments allied with the United States in fighting the Web Editorial Assistant Grant DeArmitt Nazis but viewed unfavorably by the Kremlin would not be heard in U.S. over- Web Developer Wendy Weihs Web Producer Scott McKim seas broadcasts. The OWI even tried to censor U.S. media to prevent the news of massive Soviet human-rights crimes and Stalin’s aggressive designs on Eastern EDITORS- AT- LARGE Linda Bridges / Kathryn Jean Lopez / John O’Sullivan Europe from reaching the American public. After the war, several of VOA’s

NATIONALREVIEWINSTITUTE foreign-language broadcasters and their spouses left the United States to work BUCKLEYFELLOWSINPOLITICALJOURNALISM for the Communist regimes in Eastern Europe as anti-American propagandists. Elaina Plott / Ian Tuttle One of them, Stefan Arski, had worked on VOA’s Polish desk during the war. Contributors Hadley Arkes / James Bowman / Eliot A. Cohen Another defector who became a Communist official, Adolf Hofmeister, had been Dinesh D’Souza / Chester E. Finn Jr. / Neal B. Freeman in charge of VOA’s wartime broadcasts to Czechoslovakia. James Gardner / David Gelernter / George Gilder Jeffrey Hart / Kevin A. Hassett / Charles R. Kesler Thanks to Myroslava Gongadze and other similarly experienced Voice of David Klinghoffer / Anthony Lejeune / D. Keith Mano Michael Novak / Alan Reynolds / Tracy Lee Simmons America broadcasters, some of the current propaganda from the Kremlin is being Terry Teachout / Vin Weber exposed, but VOA’s overall performance is highly uneven due to years of mis- Chief Financial Officer James X. Kilbridge Accounting Manager Galina Veygman management by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the federal agency Accountant Lyudmila Bolotinskaya now in charge of VOA. While journalists such as Ms. Gongadze cannot be fooled Business Services Alex Batey Circulation Manager Jason Ng by Russian propaganda, the same cannot be said about all Voice of America and Advertising Director Jim Fowler Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) programs. (RFE/RL, also overseen Advertising Manager Kevin Longstreet by the BBG, made a recent Facebook post accusing Israel of practicing “whole- Assistant to the Publisher Brooke Rogers sale racism” in its anti-terror security measures.) Ms. Gongadze alluded in her Director of Revenue Erik Netcher interview to some of these difficulties and the lack of sufficient support from PUBLISHERCHAIRMAN VOA’s government agency. Journalists like her cannot be fully effective against Jack Fowler John Hillen the new massive anti-American propaganda offensive from Putin’s Russia and FOUNDER William F. Buckley Jr. from ISIS until the U.S. Congress and the White House work together to reform the Broadcasting Board of Governors. PATRONSANDBENEFACTORS Robert Agostinelli Mr. and Mrs. Michael Conway Ted Lipien Mark and Mary Davis Virginia James Former VOA Acting Associate Director Christopher M. Lantrip Brian and Deborah Murdock Via e-mail Peter J. Travers

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

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he Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty, named in honor of perhaps the greatest champion of liberty in the 20th century, is presented every other year to an individual who has made a significant contribution to advancing human freedom. Nominees are from all walks of life, with scholars, activists, and political leadersT among the hundreds of people nominated for the first seven prizes. The prize will be presented at the Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty’s Biennial Dinner on May 25, 2016, in New York City, at the Waldof-Astoria Hotel. The name of the 2016 award recipient will be announced to the public in the near future.

The keynote address will be delivered by Angus Deaton, recipient of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Economics and Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University. For additional information and dinner reservations, please visit www.cato.org/friedmanprize. www.cato.org week_QXP-1127940387.qxp 4/20/2016 1:55 PM Page 6 The Week

n Is there anything insulting we can say about New York?

n The New York Post, for decades a conservative opinion lead - er with a brash, Gotham accent, endorsed Donald Trump for president. The quick reaction (short enough for the wood) is: Who else? Trump has been a mainstay of the Post, especially its gossip columns. Not to have endorsed him would have been fratricidal. And Trump did indeed sweep the New York primary. The long reaction (suitable for the paper’s often thoughtful commentary) is: What were they thinking? The Post says Trump has “electrified the public.” Just like the third rail. It calls him “a do-er” with a “can-do approach” who “gets things done.” As many bankruptcies and frauds, alas, as buildings. “He’s slammed the system for being rigged”—when the sys- See page 16. tem’s peculiarities (e.g., winner-take-all primaries) have benefited Trump as often as not. Then, as if rethinking its own de ci sion, the Post urges Trump to rethink his positions on trade, border control, and pulling troops out of Japan and South Korea. That’s a big rethink. Well, when the dust settles, we’ll still have the op-ed page, sports, and Page Six.

n John Kasich, speaking in Watertown, N.Y., was asked by a female college freshman how he might help her feel “more secure regarding sexual violence, harassment, and rape.” who has wondered what he ever did to deserve nine months in Kasich imparted a bit of fatherly advice (Kasich has twin a dorm with Ted Cruz. We wonder what Ted Cruz ever did to teenage girls): “Don’t go to parties where there’s a lot of alco- deserve Craig Mazin. hol.” Whereupon the roof fell in. A DNC flack accused him of “insulting women every day . . . by blaming victims of sexual n Cruz now stands accused of supporting a ban on sex toys. and domestic violence.” ThinkProgress called i t “the latest in The charge stems from Cruz’s work as solicitor general of [his] long line of tone-deaf comments to and about women.” Texas. In 2007, while Cruz did that job, Texas was sued over a Angelina Chapin in the Guardian: “the latest in a long tradition 1970s law that prohibited certain “obscene” items from sale. of Republican victim-blaming.” Great minds think alike, do By his own account, Cruz considered the offending statute to they not? Which helps explain the rise of Donald Trump: be “ridiculous.” Nevertheless, his office was obligated to de - When the concern swarm descends on him, he gives it all back fend it in court. This he and his team did, drawing on legal with a flip of the bird. Crudely? Yes. Inaccurately? Often. But precedents that had been established in the 1980s and advanc- how liberating it feels, if for only a moment, when the drum ing the wholly defensible argument that there is a difference starts beating, for someone to kick the drumhead in. between good public policy and constitutional public policy. Where the Constitution is silent, Cruz argued, it must not be n Spending one year in a dorm with someone can be trying. But used to override the popular will. Fealty to the rule of law, with due respect to the trials of residential-college life, there are though, can’t compete with a cheap shot at the height of the genocide survivors less traumatized than Craig Mazin purports political season. to be. In 1988, the former Walt Disney executive, Hollywood screenwriter, and Princeton alumnus was the freshman-year n Hillary Rodham Clinton wants a $15 minimum wage. Or a roommate of then-17-year-old Rafael Edward “Ted” Cruz— $12 minimum wage. Possibly a $12.50 minimum wage. Or a and he has never let the world forget it. Since Cruz’s ascent to minimum wage scheduled to go from $12.50 to $15 subject to the national stage in 2012, when he was elected to the U.S. review by the great minds who made Albany Albany. It really Senate from Texas, Mazin has been waging a Twitter crusade depends on the venue. Her tormentor in the Democratic presi- against him. Cruz has “no principles, no moral center, no val- dential primary, Senator Bernie Sanders (S., Further), is fixed ues,” he tweeted in March. He is “devious, hypo critical, uneth- on $15—he’d take $25, if that were on the table, because that ical, pointlessly ambitious, valueless.” He’s “ creepy, unfunny, is his model of politics: Take whatever you can now and then mean, boring.” He’s a “jackass,” a “d***head,” and “garbage.” get ready to start asking for more. Mrs. Clinton is, in this con- ROMAN GENN As of this writing, more than 96,000 Twitter users follow Ma zin, text, the conservative, though her conservatism is rooted in

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Since the advent of the technology age, By restoring this fundamental right to Americans, of the world’s most recognizable and most trusted has enjoyed more than a decade of appreciation American investors have become increasingly President Reagan provided a means whereby precious metal coins. Produced continually for as a commodity, giving potential long-term enamored of online stock investing as if they average Americans could insure their family’s the past 10 years, these gold coins are made from EHQH¿WVWRHDFKSUHFLRXVPHWDOVSXUFKDVH were trading with Monopoly money. However, IXWXUH DJDLQVW WKH HURVLRQ RI WKH ¿DW YDOXH RI precious metals mined and minted exclusively in but it has also brought hours of enjoyment to prudent investors have always desired having the US dollar. President Reagan understood that the United States. Backed by the full authority families who have been collecting it over the some of their money in tangible assets they could as the dollar’s value declined over time due to of the United States Congress, American Gold years. Buying the American Gold Buffalo coin hold in their hands.Congress TakesLQÀDWLRQDU\WUHQGVWKHSULFHRIJROGZRXOGOLNHO\ Steps to RestoreBuffaloes are welcomed Americans’ in the retirement plans, issued by Wealththe U.S. Mint is your chance to own increase. This counter relationship provides a personal portfolios, and any corner of the world real money in a form that stands up to the tests of In 1985, when President Reagan authorized means for Americans to maintain their wealth where you choose to travel. There is no doubt time. By transferring your money from paper to the Gold Bullion Coin Act of 1985, he clearly and future purchasing power. This is but one about their authenticity or value. WDQJLEOHDVVHWV\RXSURWHFW\RXU¿QDQFLDOIXWXUH understood how valuable it was for Americans to more reason why Reagan’s vision and leadership There is simply no other form of wealth with be able to own tangible, government guaranteed will result in his being viewed as one of the Every government issued Gold American the history, recognition, and security of precious gold in their retirement portfolios. For this greatest Presidents in modern American history. %XIIDORLVFHUWL¿HGOHJDOWHQGHUEXWWKHLUZRUWK metal coins. reason, the law also makes it possible for goes well beyond their face value. Gold not only American Gold Eagles and $50 Gold Buffaloes By Executive Order of Congress, Public Law to be legally eligible for inclusion in personal 99-185, Americans have the right to own IRA plans. government issued precious metal coins. With the release of the 2016 U.S. American Gold Prior to President Reagan signing the Act Buffaloes, you have the chance to own the 12'($/(563/($6( LQWR ODZ LW KDG EHHQ PRUH WKDQ ¿IW\ \HDUV newest coins issued by the U.S. Mint. 2 ) ) ( 5 2 1/< 9$ / , ' since the United States government had :+,/(6833/,(6/$67 minted legal tender gold coinage for private These 2016 American Gold Buffaloes are wanted RZQHUVKLS 8QGHU WKH *ROG &RQ¿VFDWLRQ $FW ,) :( $5( 81$%/( 72 by collectors and investors around the world. )8/),// <285 25'(5 of 1933, President Roosevelt had suspended The U.S. Treasury is racing this month to keep EXPIRATION: <28 :,// 5(&(,9( 5/15/16 $ all gold coin production and made it illegal for up with the record global demand levels. China, 3520375()81' Americans to hoard gold for private purposes. India, and Europe’s indebted central banks had 25,*,1$/+$5'&23< 0867%(,1+$1'72 voracious appetites for U.S. government issued 3/$&(25'(5 JROGFRLQVLQDWUHQG0LQWRI¿FLDOVH[SHFW to continue.

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politics rather than in prudence. Many economists (including greater incarceration had taken hold in the 1980s. But Clinton many progressives, such as those at the Washington Center for is right that not all the lives that matter are captured by the Equitable Growth) worry that a $15 minimum wage will pro- Left’s slogans. vide a nasty reminder about the interaction of price, supply, and demand, with employers simply eliminating many low- n The Inner Circle is a journalists’ club in New York. It’s like wage jobs rather than paying $31,200 plus benefits a year for the Gridiron Club in Washington. Every year, the Inner Circle them. But the only job that Mrs. Clinton cares about, or ever puts on a comedy show for charity. This year, Hillary Clinton has cared about, is the one she wants. was a special guest. She was onstage with Bill de Blasio, the mayor of New York, and Leslie Odom Jr., an actor in the n President Obama took to Fox News Sunday in April to Broadway hit Hamilton. In a skit of sorts, Clinton said, “Thanks defend Hillary Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server while for the endorsement, Bill. Took you long enough.” De Blasio secretary of state. “Here’s what I know,” Obama told Chris answered, “Sorry, Hillary. I was running on CP time.” Here, Wallace: Hillary “would never intentionally put America in Odom broke in. (The actor is black, and “CPT” has long stood any kind of jeopardy.” Moreover, the president insisted in - for “colored people’s time.”) He said, “I don’t like jokes like scrutably, “there’s classified, and then there’s classified. There’s that, Bill.” Hillary set him straight: “Cautio us politician time.” stuff that is really top-secret top secret, and there’s stuff that is The world reacted with its usual excitement and stupidity— being presented to the president or the secretary of state.” this despite the fact that de Blasio is married to a black woman Presumably, Clinton was pleased to hear that the White House and has half-black children. Message to the world: Lighten up. is backing her in public. But, substantively, Obama’s defenses And, no, that is not a racial remark. were irrelevant. Per 18 U.S.C. 1924, if Clinton became “possessed of documents or materials containing classified information of the United States . . . with the intent to retain such n Bernie Sanders held a rally in front of the Brooklyn apart- documents or materials at an unauthorized location,” she’s ment building where he lived as a boy. The neighborhood guilty of a crime. That Obama does not consider the informa- (Midwood), once solidly Jewish, is now home to many tion she possessed to be “classified classified” is immaterial. Russians. An enterprising New York Times reporter inter- Likewise, Obama’s insistence that Clinton “never intentionally viewed one of them, in the apartment two stories above put America in any kind of jeopardy” is legally beside the Sanders’s old one. “I hate him!” said Farida Lazareva, 57. point. Under 18 U .S.C. 793(f)(1)–(2), it is a felony to transmit “If you lived under socialists, you’d hate them too. They information “relating to the national defense” through unap- make everyone poor. . . . If it will be Sanders, we will have proved channels, and the applicable legal standard is not the same here. Everybody who comes from a Communist “knowledge” but “gross negligence.” Not for the first time, the country, Russians, Eastern Europeans, even Latinos president has a tenuous grasp on the law—and his appropriate from Cuba, feel this way. role as chief executive. When you know what will happen, when you see n This time last year, Bill it—you’re Repub li - Clinton was largely repu- can.” Immi grants: diating the 1994 crime bill doing the intellec- that, in the dubious histo- tual work that riography of the Black American social- Lives Matter movement, ists won’t do. is responsible for a phenomenon of “mass incarceration.” But when Black Lives Matter protesters interrupted Clinton during n In an interview with the New York Daily News, Sanders GETTY IMAGES / a campaign speech for his claimed that in the Gaza war, Israel killed “over ten thousand wife in Phila delphia, the innocent people” (almost five times what Hamas itself claims). ERIC THAYER : former president offered a In a Brooklyn debate with Hillary Clinton, Sanders spoke at full-throated defense of length about Gaza’s devastated apartment buildings and infra- SANDERS ; the bill, arguing that it structure. Sanders’s Palestinian advocacy is doubly unfortu-

VIA AP helped bring about a “25- nate. Unfortunate on substance: Palestinians lead wretched year low in crime.” He lives because they are governed by gangsters and terrorists, even accused the protest- ever picking fights they intend to lose (because casualties will ers of defending “the gang leaders who got 13-year-old kids earn the sympathy o f leftists like Sanders). Unfortunate politi- hopped up on crack and sent them out onto the street to mur- cally: Sanders’s stand allows Hillary Clinton to position her- PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

THE der other African-American children.” Left-wing pundits self as a friend of Israel, when she has in fact followed the / hammered Clinton, accusing him of “historical amnesia” policies of the Obama administration, her former employers ED HILLE

: and “white mansplain[ing].” Both Clinton and his critics (e.g., Benjamin Netanyahu is “a chickensh**”). Sanders has exaggerate the effects of the crime bill—crime was already moved the window of campaign discourse on the sufferings of CLINTON beginning to drop when it passed, and the trend toward Palestinians—and let in a cloud of distortions and lies.

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n Sanders met Pope Francis in person the other day at the Vatican guesthouse where Francis lives and Sanders was staying. They might have met earlier in your imagination: If the secular Jewish socialist from New England were a South American Jesuit who spoke rough Italian, he could be mis- taken for Papa Bergoglio’s twin brother, gabby and grand - fatherly and charming in his dottiness. Sanders was in town to speak at the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. With some justification, he thinks that the pope shares his sentiments, those Sixties pipe dreams that he mistakes for ideas on economic policy. Francis makes the parallel error of confus- ing the Per on ism of his youth with Catholic social teaching. Suffer fools gladly, Saint Paul tells us, and so we do. We just try not to vote for them. to the Kardashians, that we still have a republic that, in its rush for happiness, took time to interest itself in them and their n Eagle Forum, the conservative organization founded and for ideas would move and gratify them. many years run by Phyllis Schlafly, is in the midst of a civil war: Schlafly has reportedly asked six members of the board, n It sounds like a conspiracy theory, but it is right out there in one of whom is her daughter, to resign; the board has tried to the open: There was a press conference and everything. Demo - remove the group’s current president. The proximate cause of cratic attorneys general, frustrated by the Left’s inability to get the turmoil appears to be presidential politics. Schlafly has en - its way on climate change as a matter of national policy, prom - dorsed Trump, which is in keeping with her longstanding ised to use their prosecutorial powers “aggressively” and “cre- support for protectionism and related causes if not with her atively”—because aggression and creativity are what you want longstanding commitment to social conservatism and good in police agencies—to achieve through civil and criminal pros- character in leaders. The board members prefer the consistent ecution that which they could not achieve through ordinary conservatism of Cruz. Eagle Forum has historically combined political channels. Al Gore, green entrepreneur, was on hand a lot of useful work with some kookery. (Schlafly has, for ex - when the self-proclaimed “Green 20” announced their plan, am ple, sounded the alarm against a North American currency, and, shortly thereafter, the investigations and subpoenas started: the “amero,” th at nobody is seriously proposing.) We hope the Prosecutors in the U.S. Virgin Islands, New York, and Cal i- group comes through with its best traditions intact. for nia have opened cases against Exxon, broadly organized around the notion that the firm’s involvement in political n During Clarence Thomas’s confirmation hearings for the Su - ac tivism on the question of global warming is legally preme Court, Anita Hill charged that he had made lewd remarks actionable fraud to the extent that the company’s claims are to her as her boss. HBO is airing a dramatization of the story that at variance with Democrats’ beliefs. The libertarian-leaning takes her side and omits key facts. Journalist Stuart Taylor Jr., Competitive Enterprise Institute, which is critical of global- writing in the Wall Street Journal, puts them back into the record. warming scholarship, has been served with a subpoena by the Hill had followed the alleged creator of a hostile work environ- U.S. Virgin Is lands, whose attorney general demands a ment to a new job, even though she had job security as a federal decade’s worth of the institution’s correspondence. This is one employee. There was evidence she had friendly relations with part political campaign and one part extortion, Exxon being him even after she stopped working with him. She changed her the world’s most valuable firm by market capitalization. testimony. Two FBI agents contradicted her account of a conver- Prosecuting companies and think tanks for political activism is sation they had had with her. For these reasons and more, most strictly brownshirt stuff, irrespective of one’s view on the ques- Americans did not believe Hill at the time of the hearings. As the tion of anthropogenic glo bal warming. The Obama administra- details receded from memory, her account became more widely tion, naturally, is considering parallel federal action. This is accepted. HBO is doing its part to keep those details forgotten. unconstitutional, illegal, and wildly unethical.

n It took a while, but the academy has finally realized that the n Commissioned salesmen do not always have your best inter- musical Hamilton praises a Federalist and the creator of the est at heart. The Obama administration, eager to bring every first Bank of the United States. In a New York Times round-up, aspect of the investment business under maximum federal Annette Gordon-Reed (Harvard) said th e show gives a “rosy over sight, has declared that certain financial advisers are— view of the founding era.” Sean Wilentz (Princeton) noted presto change-o—“fiduciaries,” meaning people with a legal that Alexander Hamilton was “a man for the 1 percent.” Lyra responsibility to act in the best economic interest of their cli - D. Monteiro (Rutgers) said the Founders “really didn’t want ents, even when that conflicts with their own self-interest, a le - to create the country we actually live in today.” Rosy? The gal standard generally applied to senior corporate managers show depicts strenuous debate, up to the dueling ground, and trustees acting on behalf of minors and charitable founda- about politics and policy. Among the topics debated are tions. The fiduciary rule doesn’t prohibit financial advisers

WIREIMAGE whether Hamilton served the elite (the view of Thomas Jefferson from earning commissions for selling particular financial prod- / and James Madison) or the country as a whole (the view of ucts—that would be too easy—or set comprehensible limits on George Washington). While the Founders would no doubt be those commissions, on fees, or on other forms of remuneration; THEO WARGO dismayed by many aspects of modern America, from Obamacare rather, it simply (simply!) requires that such compensation be

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“reasonable.” Reasonable according to whom? That’s the n Indiana enacted a set of anti-abortion policies, including a point. By creating an open-ended police power at the point of ban on abortion based on the race or potential disability of the sale, the Obama administration attains a power over financial unborn child and a requirement that fetal remains from an abor- institutions that can be wielded with little or no oversight, a tion or miscarriage be cremated or interred. The main response handy cudgel to use against politically noncompliant firms and of supporters of abortion has been to charge that Indiana Re - institutions. If you’re wondering why Congress empowered pub li cans have an unhealthy interest in women’s menstrual cy - the president to do this, it didn’t. There is no new enabling law. cles, to celebrate their own wit in making this response, and to While taking a loosey-goosey approach toward “reasonable,” say that they are raising an extremely serious point with it. If the the rule defines “advice” broadly enough to include Jim Cra- point is that they are unable to think maturely about what we mer’s television program and Ric Edelman’s radio show. That owe nascent human life, they are certainly right. vagueness isn’t by accident, either. n San Francisco has enacted a new and cumbrous family- n The economy wobbles, the debt soars, jihadists whet their leave policy. Under existing California law, workers needing beheading blades, and the nation’s attention is rapt, commanded time off to care for a newborn or an ailing family member are by the question of which toilets people use. Activists wept— paid 55 percent of their salaries out of a fund sustained by a and filed lawsuits—after North Carolina enacted a law provid- dedicated payroll tax; under the new rule, San Francisco ing that bathrooms, locker rooms, and the like in the state’s workers will be entitled to 100 percent for up to six weeks, public schools and government facilities be single-sex facili- with the additional 45 percent being paid directly by employ- ties if they are shared facilities. For the purposes of the law, a ers. San Francisco has fewer children per capita than any oth er person’s sex is the sex on his or her birth certificate. In the large American city, and local practices (a zoning regime that case of transgender people, North Carolina offers the very rea- makes housing unbearably unaffordable for people of ordi- sonable accommodation of single-person facilities. But that nary means) make it one of the most hostile places in the accommodation is insufficient for the LGBT* (seriously; country in which to raise a family. The San Francisco rule, they want that asterisk in there) activists, who demand that like the state policy, applies only to firms with 50 employees people who believe themselves to be a member of the oppo- or more, and relatively few workers avail themselves of the site sex be not only tolerated but recognized in law. The usual benefit—most California workers, according to a recent sur- miscreants threaten the usual boycotts. That’s the state of vey, have never even heard of the program. Like the woeful- American bigotry: Men who believe they are women are in - ly misnamed Affordable Care Act, the policy creates one structed to use private facilities instead of the girls’ locker more reason for small firms to keep their headcounts down room at Podunk Junior High. and to keep part-time workers part-time. It also creates a reason for growing firms to cross the city limits. San Francisco n Agents from California’s is home to a great many innovative and wildly profitable Department of Justice raid- companies, which compete ruthlessly with one another for ed the Orange County home the best em ploy ees. But not every company is a successful of David Daleiden and seized app maker, and standardizing benefits packages through all his video of Planned force of law is ill advised. Parenthood officials wheel- ing and dealing to get good n If anyone doubts the Left’s intolerance, witness its temper prices on their sale of fetal tantrum in response to Tennessee legislation that would protect tissue and body parts from counselors or therapists from being forced to counsel clients unborn children who had “as to goals, outcomes, or behaviors” that conflict with the been aborted at their facili- counselor’s religious beliefs. For most people, this is common ties. A Texas grand jury that sense (who wants counseling from a person who believes your had convened to look into lifestyle is immoral?), but for the Left it is “discrimination,” Planned Parent hood ended and they at once summon the ghost of Jim Crow. This is pre- up in dicting Daleiden and a posterous. There is no shortage of counselors ready and willing colleague of his for forging to counsel gay clients or any others in distress. If counselors California driver’s licenses and for misdemeanors related to don’t enjoy rights of conscience, who does? their assuming false i dentities in their undercover videos. Their guilt or innocence notwithstanding, their work was valuable n Puerto Rico does not have the money to pay its debts. We documentation of the dark underbelly of the nation’s largest could soon face a humanitarian crisis or a bailout by federal VIA GETTY IMAGES abortion provider. Kamala Harris, the state attorney general taxpayers. House Republicans are trying to avert those dangers and a Democratic senatorial candidate who has received cam- with legislation that allows those debts to be restructured, cre- paign contributions from Planned Par enthood, has floated the ates a fiscal control board to put the island’s budget in order,

WASHINGTON POST risible suggestion that her actions would help her determine and lets businesses in Puerto Rico pay a lower minimum wage. THE / whether Daleiden’s organization has violated state charity- The bill isn’t perfect. It should be strengthened to include more registration requirements. What it has truly violated is Demo - pro-growth elements, such as relief from the Jones Act, a pro- cratic orthodoxy, and Harris’s treatment of that fact as illegal is tectionist measure governing shipping to and from the main- sufficient evidence of her fitness for both the office she holds land that raises costs for Puerto Rico. Changing the rules CHARLES OMMANNEY and the one she seeks. regarding debt retroactively, though precedented, is obviously

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not ideal. Short of time travel, though, we have no ideal solu- He in vad ed Ukraine, he rescued his Syrian allies with over- tion. The question congressional conservatives need to ask is whelming air power, and he’s rearming Iran. We’re reliving whether they prefer the likely alternative of a bailout. the bad old days of military brinkmanship. Obama did in fact reset the American–Russian relationship—all the way back n What is in the 28 pages? The pages, for those not immersed to the Cold War. in the story, are a portion of Congress’s 838-page report on 9/11. The 28 may be read by members of Congress but remain n Few public personalities have taken the fate of Muslim refu - classified. Former senator Bob Graham (D., Fla.) wants them gees to heart as openly as Pope Francis. A couple of years ago released to the public. They reportedly suggest that support he visited the Italian islan d of Lampedusa, where thousands of was extended to 9/11 hijackers by Saudi businessmen and illegal immigrants were being held. He has sheltered some government officials. Does this mean the Saudi state ordered Muslims in the Vatican, washed the feet of others, and spoken 9/11? No: But Saudi Arabia is a family business run by a huge of Muslim suffering in addresses to worshippers in St. Peter’s clan with different agendas and byzantine interconnections. Square. On the Greek island of Lesbos are some 8,000 refu - Broadly speaking, the Saudi state supports global jihad by gees, many of them Syrian; and three families, a total of twelve encouraging its homegrown extremists to go abroad and by people and all of them Muslims, were selected by lots. Pope propagating the most aggressive forms of Islam through oil- Francis flew in his private plane to greet them and bring them funded mosques, madrassas, and lobbying groups. We have back with him to Rome, where a charity will look after them. cooperated with Saudi Arabia for years on a number of issues, They speak of him as their “savior.” An increasing number of from fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan to driving Saddam Christians escaping from the Middle East would like him to be Hussein from Kuwait. We have cooperated with worse (Stalin, their savior, too. World War II). But we should know what we are doing. Let the sun shine in. n Jan Böhmermann is a German satirist who specializes in going too far, and then some more. In a late-night comedy n Russian fly-bys and simulated attacks against American show on television, he read a skit of his aimed at Turkish presi - warships and aircraft represent a dangerous but fitting con- dent Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The accusation of repressing mi - clusion to the Obama administration’s failed Russian “reset.” nor i ties, “kicking Kurds and slapping Christians,” is all too Obama pursued a thaw throughout his first term, even to the true, but Böhmermann mixed in a fantasy about amorous re - point of taunting a wary-of-Russia Mitt Romney (“The la tions with a goat. A furious Erdogan wanted to prosecute. Eight ies are calling. They want their foreign policy back.”). Under an obscure and virtually lapsed law of 1871, insults Then, in Obama’s second term, Putin dropped the hammer. against organs or representatives of foreign states are punish- :: : :: :: : :: :

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able with up to three years in prison. Chancellor Angela Mer - men.” You can imagine what happened next. After several kel gave consent to the state prosecutor to start proceedings. days of Sturm und Drang, McEwan recanted: “Biol o gy is not Critics argue that the deal just reached with Turkey to ex - always destiny.” But bowing to the sexual-identity inquisi- change refugees gives Erdogan the whip hand over Mer kel. tors apparently is. Besides, this self-proclaimed sultan is in the habit of ob tain- ing prison sentences for journalists whose opinions he dis- n A generation ago, in one of the early signs that liberals had likes. Merkel appears to be on an increasingly slippery ceded control of American higher education to leftists, Stan - slope, and, as befits a satirist, Böhmermann may very well ford University dropped a requirement that its students take a have the last laugh. course on W estern culture. This came in the wake of protests led by Jesse Jackson, who appeared on campus in 1987 to lead n Haiti has been plagued by many forms of misery-inducing a group of buffoons in a notorious chant: “Hey, hey, ho, ho, calamity over the past 100 years, but cholera was not among Western culture’s got to go!” And so it went, ejected by a facul ty them—until six years ago. In 2010, following a catastrophic that no longer cared about transmitting a glorious heritage to earthquake, a cholera epidemic began that has so far taken young people. Earlier this year, a group of undergraduates con- some 10,000 lives and infected nearly one in ten people in nected to the Stanford Review, the conservative student news- the country. The source of the outbreak turned out to be a paper, tried to revive this area of study, proposing that it U.N. peacekeeping base, where the contaminated feces of replace a watered-down humanities requirement. They gath- U.N. soldiers from Nepal were unceremoniously dumped ered enough signatures to put their non-binding proposal on into an open pit near a major river system. The Obama ad - the ballot for a student election in April. Despite their gallant min is tra tion’s Centers for Disease Control has worked assid- effort, the measure lost—by a margin of six to one, guarantee- uously to suppress this politically inconvenient fact, as the ing that Western culture will remain dead and gone at one of journalist Jonathan Katz has documented. The U.N. itself the country’s great schools. has likewise declined to take responsibility. “From our point of view, it really doesn’t matter” what the source of the out- n Harvard has a Board of Overseers, composed of alumni. break was, said a U.N. spokeswoman. Really? It matters Five new members are chosen each year. Ron Unz, a con ser- enough to obscure. va tive software entrepreneur, has formed a five-man slate. Be - sides him, it includes Stuart Taylor Jr. (mentioned above for n A yearning for freedom beats in every human heart, and the correcting the record of an HBO film about Clarence Thomas) same thing applies to mollusks, it seems. In New Zealand’s and Ralph Nader. They are running on a platform summarized National Aquarium, Inky the Octopus climbed up the wall of as “Free Harvard / Fair Harvard. ” They favor free tuition for all his tank, squeezed out through a gap in the glass, and then slid —saying that the university has more than enough money to down a 150-foot drainage pipe that led to the waters of cover that. And they favor transparency in the admissions pro - Hawke’s Bay, his former home. When the story got out, he cess. For example, what are the racial criteria? Are there racial became a Kiwi folk hero. A slippery character with a talent for quotas? Do these quotas disadvantage Asians? We aren’t so sure getting out of tight spots, Inky may have a future in politics about the free tuition, but we’re sure about the transparency. We back in the bay. endorse the slate. So, there you have it—a historic event: NATIONAL REVIEW for Nader. n Lily Parra’s parents were advised by their doctors to consider having her killed in the womb because she would probably n Believe it or not, there are places even more PC than Dart- die shortly after birth. They chose not to, and their now four- mouth. The New Hampshire college was founded by the Rev - month-old baby is in need of a heart transplant to survive. Her er end Eleazar Wheelock, who—according to the lyrics of a doctors decided, however, that she should not be on the list to still-popular campus anthem usually described, somewhat receive a heart if one became available—not because of her redundantly for Dartmouth, as a “drinking song”—“set forth chances for survival, but, the Parras say they were told, be - into the wilderness to teach the Indian.” A similar backstory is cause she may have an intellectual disability. Apparentl y they attached to Whitman College, in Walla Walla, Wash., named view a potentially cognitively impaired life as less worth sav- for a pair of missionaries who came to the Northwest in the ing. Lily’s mother has started an online petition to appeal the 1830s to teach and convert the Cayuse tribe. Until recently, the decision. She knows that her daughter faces many obstacles to college was proud of its history; for the last century or so, procuring life-saving surgery; she simply asks that unjust dis- Whitman’s athletic teams have been called Missionaries, and crimination not be one of them. the student newspaper has been the Pioneer. But on today’s more enlightened campus, everyone knows that missionaries n Celebrated British novelist Ian McEwan gave a speech to were racist imperialists and that pioneers turned pristine the Royal Institution in London on the representation of wilderness into strip malls. So now the teams and the paper are “self.” The author of Atonement said that identity politics are looking for new names. May we suggest Diversity Officers reaching the point where anyone can now pick his preferred and the Undocumented Migrant? “self” off the “shelves of a personal-identity supermarket.” Anatomically normal males are identifying as women, he n Perrie Edwards, of the British female pop group Little Mix, lamented, and demanding admission to women’s colleges went online and posted a picture of her favorite footwear, a and access to women’s locker rooms. “Call me old-fashioned,” beaded pair of American Indian–style moccasins that she’d had McEwan said, “but I tend to think of people with penises as since she was 13, and from the reaction you’d think she had

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THE WEEK

tomahawked Elizabeth Warren: “If you’re not Native American you have no business wearing these. . . . It’s silly and wrong and disres pectful.” “Someone’s culture isn’t a fashion statement.” “Moccasins are a part of a traditional Native American regalia and something like that is earned, not just given to you.” So we guess that walking a mile in someone else’s shoes is no longer on the agenda.

n James Levine is one of the most important classical musi- cians in the world, and one of the best. A conductor and pianist, he has been music director of the Metropolitan Opera since 1976. He first conducted the company in 1971. Now, at age 72, he will step down from the music directorship and take on emeritus status. In recent years, Levine has been plagued by health problems. He has set musical standards for the whole world: discipline, wisdom, precision, integrity. His conducting is unmistakable. There are many stories about Levine, but here’s one: When he was a teenager, he was conducting an orchestra in Aspen. A very senior conductor observed this. He said to a bystander, “Who’s that?” The bystander said, “That’s Jimmy Levine, from Cincinnati. He’s going to Juilliard next year.” The conductor asked, “Why?” Trump threw a tantrum over Colorado and Wyoming, states where Ted Cruz swept the available delegates. Trump called the n Born in an abandoned boxcar in Oildale, Calif., in the valley of results “totally unfair” and on Twitter asked: “How is it possible the Great Depression, Merle Haggard attempted robbery 20 years that the people of the great State of Colorado never got to later and landed in San Quentin. He knew privation. Johnny Cash vote in the Republican Primary?” Eleven states and five terri- performed at the prison and inspired him to become a songwriter tories opted for caucuses or state conventions over primaries. and musician. Ten years after Haggard’s release in 1960, nine of People nonetheless had a chance to vote. In fact, in Colorado his recorded songs, some of them about the trials and woes of on March 1, 60,000 Republicans attended nearly 3,000 pre- incarceration, had topped the country charts. In 1972, Governor cinct caucuses to elect delegates to the county assemblies and Ronald Reagan formally pardoned him of his past crimes. Hag - congressional-district conventions that convened during the gard’s lyrics oozed a compelling mix of dignity and poignancy. following weeks. Nothing was “stolen.” The poor mother’s “hungry eyes” he painted in words and music Repeatedly in recent weeks, Trump has been outmaneuvered are instantly memorable. He was proud to be an “Okie from Mus - by a Cruz campaign that has demonstrated exhaustive knowledge ko gee,” where no one bought the radical chic of the 1960s, or so of the delegate-selection process, a vastly superior organization, he sang. Some critics thought the song was ironic, but it became and unflagging hustle. Cruz operatives were on the ground in an anthem of a kind of counter-counterculture nonetheless. He Colorado eight months ago, preparing for the March 1 precinct continued to perform until his death, on his 79th birthday. R.I.P. caucuses. By contrast, Trump’s last-ditch effort to secure delegates at Colorado’s state convention—his campaign had report- n Vint Lawrence joined the CIA right out of Princeton. He spent edly decided not to begin working on this effort earlier because it the 1960s with the agency, including four years in the jungles of expected to have the nomination sewn up beforehand—was so Laos, where he helped Vang Pao’s guerrillas fight Communists chaotic that his team ended up inadvertently directing votes in their own country and in Vietnam. Then he did something toward Cruz delegates. In Wyoming, Cruz showed up to speak at unexpected: He quit and turned to art, having had no formal the convention, whereas Trump surrogate Sarah Palin was a last- training in it. He eventually became one of America’s great minute no-show. political caricaturists. He put his pen to the service of liberalism, The nominee-selection process has emerged from evolution drawing for the likes of The New Republic and The Washington more than design, and it includes different kinds of contests. That Monthly. Lawrence was very good at what he did, telling stories diversity respects federalism. It also means that to win the nomi- about the figures of the day through his exaggerated renderings. nation, a candidate has to show demographically and geographi- Dead at 76. R.I.P. cally broad support and build an organization that can master the details. Not coincidentally, those things are related to picking a 2016 strong general-election nominee and a good president. Whine and Roses Trump wouldn’t be either of these, and his failure on the ground in Colorado, Wyoming, and elsewhere is yet another in - ONALD TRUMP is right: The system is rigged. It’s rigged di ca tion. Contrary to his endless boasts, he is not a quick learner, in favor of front-runners. That’s why Trump, who is lead- he does not run complex organizations well, and he does not hire GETTY IMAGES / D ing the Republican nominating contest, has a larger per- the best people. centage of delegates than of votes. Unsurprisingly, Trump never Trump may well get to 1,237, and certainly his huge dele- mentions when the rules have helped him. He much prefers to gate haul in New York helps. But if he falls short, he will wish whine and peddle conspiracy theories when they don’t. that he had whined less and worked more. MARK WALLHEISER

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against a large field of candidates, who divided the votes of Republicans who opposed him. Analyzing exit polls of the head-to-head preferences of voters, we can say definitively that the divided field cost Cruz victories in Arkansas, Missouri, Michigan, and North Carolina—and very likely in Illinois, Kentucky, and Louisiana. It is possible that divided opposition swung Georgia, Tennessee, and Mississippi into the Trump column as well. In Michigan, which Trump won by 13 percentage points over Cruz, exit polls showed Cruz beating Trump head to head. In many Republican primaries, Trump has benefited tremendously also from the ability of non-Republicans to vote. A cowboy hat is used to collect votes at a Republican caucus in Ottumwa, Iowa, February 1, 2016. Through mid April Cruz had won as many closed GOP contests as Trump had. The states in which Cruz expected to be strongest held their contests when the field of candidates was much larger, The Nomination Process but Cruz has never complained. Now that the field has narrowed to two and a Isn’t Rigged half candidates, the contest is being Rather, its mix of direct and indirect democracy is a strength waged in states that are generally more favorable to Trump. The next six pri- BY JEREMY CARL maries are in “blue wall” states that have voted Democratic in each of the N one of his rare cases of truth in In effect, Trump is complaining that last six presidential elections. Trump advertising, Donald Trump recently the nomination process is a process, tends to poll well among Republicans in I commented, “I keep whining and complete with competition for delegates these Democratic strongholds, none of whining until I win.” That tactic has and different rules in each state, and not which he would carry were he the nom- never been so obviously on display as in simply a coronation of the winner of the inee in November. his recent drumbeat of comp laints about popular vote nationally. “The rules sur- Having written in these pages about the GOP primary-election process. rounding the delegate selection have problems with the current Republican Never mind that, as of this writing, been clearly laid out in every state and delegate-allocation system, I should in Trump leads the GOP field with 45 per- territory and while each state is differ- theory have some sympathy for Trump’s cent of all delegates awarded to date, ent, each process is easy to understand critique. The process is in need of re - despite having won only 37 percent of for those willing to learn it,” NCthe R form, with arcane delegate rules that GOP voters, a ratio far more advanta- said recently in a memo in response to favor insiders, most egregiously in the geous than that of his closest rival, Ted his charges. cases of the 59 delegates awarded to ter- Cruz (whom I have endorsed). Never Trump has counted on his free-media ritories that will not vote for president mind that, according to mediaQuant, a advantage. (Media like Trump because and of the disproportionate number of firm that calculates the advertising value he boosts ratings, and liberal media like delegates awarded to Washington, D.C., of free TV exposure, he’s received free him also because they see him as the which has few Republican voters. Rubio coverage estimated to be worth $2 bil- weakest potential Republican nominee.) won most of these delegates in the GOP’s lion, almost 600 percent more than Cruz If Trump were on track to win a majority rotten boroughs, with Trump and Kasich has received, even though Cruz has won of the vote, or anything near it, he would in a tight fight for second place, and only 9 percent less of the vote. And be coasting to the nomination no matter Cruz trailing far behind. never mind that the man demanding that what GOP and conservative leaders The allocation of delegates to states the GOP elect him by acclamation by tho ught. But he doesn’t have a majority, should also be changed, though the cur- VIA GETTY IMAGES effectively disenfranchising delegates and his failure to build an effective cam- rent system hardly seems to be the result has not managed to command a majority paign organization is coming back to of an establishment conspiracy against

of voters in any state except his home haunt him. Trump. His victory in the primary in WASHINGTON POST THE state of New York. To better understand the spurious- New York, whose 29 electoral votes the / ness of Trump’s complaint, it is useful Democratic nominee will almost cer- Mr. Carl is a research fellow at the Hoover to review the primary process to date. tainly win in November, helps him Institution, Stanford University. Trump won most of his early victories almost as much as does his win in the MATT MCCLAIN

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primary in Florida, a crucial swing geneity of GOP contests, a mix of pri- greatest strength of the current nomina- state. Note also that the timing of the maries, caucuses, and state conventions, tion process. Texas primary and its allocation rules is an advantage of the nomination That process is divided into different were disadvantageous to Cruz, re- process, not a flaw. The same is true of categories of election that reflect different sulting in the awarding of 48 of the party’s mix of open and closed pri- degrees of popular representation, Texas’s 155 delegates to Trump, de - maries. Even conventions, which Trump much as the three branches of the feder- spite Cruz’s having won all but six of malign s, are hardly smoke-filled rooms. al government do. This year, 40 states Texas’s 254 counties. In the first stage of the Colorado con- and territories hold primaries, eleven The GOP understandably wants to vention were almost 3,000 precinct- hold caucuses, and five hold conventions. compete in every state, but California level events that involved tens of This does not prevent the democratic will should not be weighted more heavily thousands of voters. The convention, of voters from largely determining the than Texas in determining the party’s like state caucuses, rewarded knowl- first-ballot vote in Cleveland. If a majority nominee. The party should develop a edgeable activists who care about the of GOP primary voters voted for Trump to formula that rewards performance, solid party and conservatism. In Wyoming, be the nominee, he almost certainly Republican states, and, in particular, also a subject of recent Trump com- would be. (John McCain won an over- swing states, while deemphasizing deep- plaints, precinct caucuses (some involv- whelming delegate victory in 2008 with blue states. Nor should Puerto Rico be ing hundreds of voters) and county just over 46 percent of the popular vote.) weighted as heavily as Wyoming and conventions elected delegates to the But so far, among party activists and vot- more heavily than Delaware. If one state convention, which gave its support ers alike, Trump’s staunchest opponents were to impute bias to the GOP estab- to Cruz unanimously. “In primaries, we appear to outnumber his staunchest allies. lishment, it would be against Cruz, who will become numbers, we will become Only if no candidate wins a majority is harmed by the high number of dele- statistics,” one prominent Colorado of delegates from the popular-vote gates that Trump is likely to win in GOP activist told the Denver Post. process do party activists and operatives solidly blue states that will not be in play “There will be no conversations . . . and begin to assume a decisive role in select- in the general election. no ability to influence our neighbors.” ing the nominee. It is a rare occurrence. But the flaws in Trump’s critique are This combination of direct and indirect The GOP hasn’t had a plainly contested more fundamental than that. The hetero- democracy, which Trump abhors, is the convention since 1952. Typically, by the

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spring of election year, one candidate Wisconsin has become the subject of emerges as the likely nominee and is intense interest for his foes, who are now acceptable enough for the party, both looking to pull off a repeat in Indiana. leaders and ordinary voters, to coalesce ‘Never “It’s like the Spanish Civil War,” says around. We saw this in 2008, for exam- Wisconsin-based talk-radio host Charlie ple, when the party’s base, which dis- Trump’ after Sykes, who opposes Trump’s candidacy liked McCain, embraced him as its and conducted a bruising interview with presumptive nominee after he narrowly The Wisconsinbusinessman’s opponents won an him a week before the primary. “Both sides won some critical contests. That Trump are trying out their military tactics, and has failed to win acceptance by the important, but not a decisive, victory whatever happens to have worked or not majority of his party is his fault, not the worked will be applied in other war zones.” party’s. If the party establishment real- BY ELIANA JOHNSON A Trump loss in Indiana on May 3, with ized its fever dream of selecting a nom- 57 delegates at stake, would make a con- inee who is not presently running for IFTEEN days before Wisconsin’s tested convention virtually inevitable. president, it might validate Trump’s April 5 primary, the Club for Reaching that point would be a decisive broader critique, but Cruz’s savvy cam- F Growth polled Republican voters victory for Trump’s opponents and would paign would appear to have precluded in the state. Ted Cruz led Donald knock the businessman back on his heels. that prospect by ensuring that as many Trump by five points, 36 to 31 percent. His campaign has been heavy on media delegates as possible will support Cruz John Kasich was running third at 21 per- and rallies but light on the infrastructure as soon as they ar e able to do so. And of cent. When the results came in on Election necessary to wrangle delegates on the course Trump himself might have ren- Day, Cruz had trounced Trump by a 13- convention floor, so he would arrive in dered the question moot by now had he point margin, and Kasich had taken home Cleveland at a distinct disadvantage—for campaigned as rigorously and smartly just 14 percent of the vote. Voters had the first time in months, Donald Trump as Cruz. moved significantly in just two weeks, would be the underdog. The GOP primary process implicitly and Wisconsin marked the first clear win But the Trump vote has proven rela- acknowledges the full range of skills a for the forces that have on Twitter dubbed tively inelastic. In some states, such as president needs to be effective, of which themselves “#NeverTrump.” Wisconsin, it sits in the mid 30s. If that’s proficiency in the bully pulpit is just one It happened at a critical juncture, when the case, he’s beatable, according to a top among many: He must pay attention to a Trump victory would have significantly Republican operative, because enough detail, win allies, and organize behind increased the businessman’s odds of Kasich voters can be convinced to hold the scenes. He must sometimes slog. amassing the 1,237 delegates needed to their noses and vote for Cruz to cobble The work of governing is hard and often secure the nomination before the Repub - together a coalition large enough to defeat tedious. Trump’s rally-and-telly cam- lican National Convention convenes in Trump. But the Kasich contingent can’t paign has failed miserably to demonstrate Cleveland this summer. Instead, Cruz be so big that the Ohio governor’s sup- that he is capable in these regards. A pres- made a contested convention more likely. porters see no reason to abandon him, and ident must do more than tweet and appear Many of Trump’s Republican foes in many northeastern states Kasich has on Sean Hannity’s show. “We are very have argued for months that defeating run even with Cruz. Defeating Trump has blessed that our opponent had no idea him would require an all-hands-on-deck been far more difficult in states—New what he was doing on this until about a effort: opposition from elected officials, York, Florida, Massachusetts, Arizona— month ago,” notes chief Cruz delegate conservative media, and top-dollar donors. where his support hovers in the mid 40s. hunter Ken Cuccinelli. If Trump won’t While there has been a lot of buzz about It will stay that way, at least so long as this bother to seriously organize in states an anti-Trump movement, its compo- remains a three-man race. where he easily won the popular vote, nents have rarely worked in tandem. The The Club for Growth’s early polling in why should we think that, when grappling literary critic Lionel Trilling wrote in Wisconsin showed that nearly a third of with complex legislation and regulation, 1950 that conservatism was less a body Kasich supporters were open to backing he would be organized enough to take on of ideas than a series of “irritable mental Cruz in order to stop Trump. So the group the liberal establishment in Washington? gestures”; its expression in the form of a spent a million dollars broadcasting a tele- Like many liberals before him, Trump movement to destroy Trump and save vision spot called “Math,” which urged demands more direct democracy. But itself has been similarly disjointed. them to do just that. Bar graphs danced on our Founders understood the danger of In Wisconsin, the stars aligned. Outside the screen, demonstrating visually how that approach and rejected it. The mixed groups funded by Republican donors the Cruz and Kasich vote together could system of republican governance that poured millions of dollars into ads attack- defeat Trump but keeping them divided they established is admirably reflected ing Trump. Local talk-radio hosts ham- would hand Trump the win. in the GOP nomination process, despite mered him relentlessly. And the state’s The ad worked: Kasich’s numbers, as that process’s flaws. popular governor, Scott Walker, emerged measured in the Club’s poll, fell seven Cruz learned and followed the rule- from self-imposed hibernation to champi- points by Election Day; Cruz’s vote shot book. Trump has continued to whine. on Cruz over Trump. up twelve, to 48 percent from 36. It looks likely, however, that he will Trump’s loss was a galvanizing mo - Trump’s voters aren’t all that persuad- fail to fulfill his promise to whine until ment for the forces aligned against him. able. “All of the ads that have called he wins. So it makes sense that his defeat in Trump too liberal, or said he hates women,

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or that he ripped people off at Trump U, they’re all good messages,” says a top GOP strategist. “But they aren’t moving voters away from Trump. The Kasich vote is far softer and easier to move around.” That certainly proved true in Wisconsin. That said, direct attacks on Trump can convince conservatives he’s enough of a menace that they should back the candidate likeliest to defeat him—even if that candidate wasn’t their first choice. Our Principles PAC, the super PAC partly funded by TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts and his wife, Marlene, put up a seven-figure sum to air a television ad featuring a series of actresses reading some of Trump’s most eye-popping statements about women. (“You know, it really doesn’t matter what they write as long as you’ve got a young and beautiful arguing, essentially, that Cruz had started Trump while its current chief executive, piece of a**.”) it. “I expect that from a twelve-year-old Doug Ducey, stayed on the sidelines. “We were really looking to hit him in bully on the playground,” Sykes told him Trump’s foes are cautiously optimistic a way that would kind of feel like a kick on air. “Not somebody who wants to hold about their chances in Indiana. Trump has in the gut,” says Katie Packer, the the office held by Abraham Lincoln.” fared poorly in the Midwest, where his group’s executive director. Produced by The media reactions came in swiftly. bluster is ill suited to people for whom Larry McCarthy, who created the famed The conservative website RedState: courtesy and manners are a cultural Willie Horton ad that helped sink “Charlie Sykes Just Destroyed Donald touchstone. “We are conservative politi- Michael Dukakis in 1988, the spot gar- Trump.” The New York Times: “Wisconsin cally, philosophically, and temperamen- nered a million views on YouTube with- Radio Host’s Combative Interview tally. And Trump’s New York values and in the first 48 hours. Surprises Donald Trump.” Mashable: brash campaign style will not play well And then, Trump started playing into “Donald Trump Meets His Match in here, in my humble opinion,” says Curt the caricature. On March 24, he retweeted Wisconsin Radio Interview.” Smith, the president of the Indiana Family a now infamous tweet featuring an un - The following day, Wisconsin governor Institute, who has endorsed Cruz. flattering snapshot of Cruz’s wife, Heidi, Scott Walker joined Sykes’s show to Trump also performs best among peo- next to a glamorous professional shot of announce that he was endorsing Ted Cruz, ple with low educational attainment: his own wife, Melania, a former model. introducing another element into the com- There’s a high correlation be tween sup- “The images are worth a thousand words,” bustible mix and offering a test case for port for Trump and lack of high-school read the caption with the photos. Trump what could happen if a popular conserva- diplomas. That’s good news for Cruz: had threatened to “spill the beans” on tive governor got off the sidelines. Statewide, Indiana, like Wisconsin, boasts Mrs. Cruz the previous day. Walker had bowed out of the presiden- above-average high-school-graduation From there, conservative talk radio and tial race in September, urging marginal rates, though in other ways the educational elected officials helped turn the screw. candidates to join him so that the party attainment of Indiana voters suggests While many nationally syndicated con- could focus its resources on defeating they will be more favorable to Trump. servative talk-radio hosts have been tacit Trump, and then he went quiet. When the Trump struggled in Wisconsin’s Re - Trump allies, Wisconsin was a different race hit Wisconsin, though, he not only hit publican strongholds, the suburban areas story. “How do we get to April of 2016 back against Trump’s juvenile barbs but that happen to be some of the most and nobody got in his face before?” Sykes went out of his way to help the Texas sen- highly educated counties in the state. asked before the primary. ator, appearing alongside him at rallies Ninety-five percent of adults in subur- A few days earlier, Sykes, the king of and cutting television ads on his behalf. ban Milwaukee’s Waukesha County, for the medium in the state, had been one of This sort of support for Cruz and oppo- example, hold high-school diplomas or the first to do just that: “I know you real- sition to Trump has been notably lacking the equivalent degree, compared with 88 ize that here in Wisconsin we value things in other important contests. In Iowa, percent of the U.S. population at large, like civility, decency, and actual conserv- Governor Terry Branstad set aside his while 41 percent graduated from college, ative principles, so let’s possibly make custom of staying out of presidential pol- compared with the 33 percent national some news,” Sykes said when Trump itics and urged his constituents to stop average. Cruz carried Waukesha County appeared on his show a week before the Cruz; in Florida, Governor Rick Scott with 61 percent of the vote, compared primary. He challenged Trump to declare was friendly to Trump for weeks and with 22 percent for Trump. the wives of the candidates off-limits and endorsed him the day after he won the In Indiana, the state’s reddest counties to apologize for implicitly mocking Heidi state’s primary; and in Arizona, the state’s look similar to Waukesha County, though ROMAN GENN Cruz’s appearance. Trump rebuffed him, former governor, Jan Brewer, endorsed they’re less educated across the board.

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As of 2010, in central Indiana’s Hamilton this view. The Republican platform, after County, which the Cook Political Re - declaring that unborn children have a port’s David Wasserman compares to right to life, affirms “our moral obligation Wisconsin’s Waukesha, 96 percent of Abortion and to assist, rather than penalize, women chal- adults had completed high school and lenged by an unplanned pregnancy.” Anti- nearly 54 percent had bachelor’s degrees. WhyPunishment women should not be penalized abortion laws traditionally have shown The surrounding counties, though—some no interest in punishing the women. On of Indiana’s most conservative, including for the killing of their unborn children this point, at least, Blackmun was correct; Boone, Hendricks, Johnson, and Shelby— indeed, he understated the truth. Most boast above-average shares of adults with BY ROBERT P. GEORGE & states had explicit exemptions for the high-school diplomas but below-average RAMESH PONNURU women, and the rest had exemptions in shares of adults with college degrees. practice. Clarke Forsythe has pointed out The other open question—the ele- HOULD the government punish that there was no documented prosecution phant in the room—is whether Indiana’s women who procure abortions? of a pregnant woman under an abortion conservative governor, Mike Pence, will S Most pro-lifers say no, but all law anywhere in the United States between influence the race. Trump couldn’t stop parties to the debate over abor- 1922 and 1973, the year Roe was decided. him self from attacking Walker in front of tion have considered the question an Some pro-lifers, however, believe that, the very people who had elected Walker uncomfortable one. It appears to put to be consistent, they should seek legal three times in four years, and he hurt him- them in an unwinnable position. If they penalties for abortionists’ clients; and self in the process. Could Pence, who was say yes, they hand supporters of the others resist that reasoning but are not sent to Congress six times by Hoosiers abortion license another reason to call sure why it’s incorrect. and elected to the governorship in 2012, them extreme, or at least to say that their That resistance is justified. The histori- help Cruz and hurt Trump? view should be rejected because of its cal practice was right, and the mainstream Like Walker, Pence is ideologically, unacceptable implications. If they say no, pro-life position is right, to seek to protect if not temperamentally, sympathetic to they can be accused of lacking coherent unborn children from abortion (and abor- Cruz. As a congressman, he was a proto- convictions, or of lacking the courage of tionists) but not to punish their mothers tea-partier, one of the few Republicans those convictions. for seeking it. A coherent and sound set of who spent the Bush years lambasting The topic came up in Roe v. Wade itself. views, not just squeamishness and politi- their party for growing government. He In his opinion striking down nearly all cal cowardice, supports that position. made a stink in the House and voted state laws against abortion, Justice Harry The core pro-life conviction is of course against several of Bush’s signature do - Blackmun noted that “many states” did that unborn children have a right to life: a mestic achievements—from Medicare not provide for the prosecution of women right, that is, not to be deliberately killed, Part D to No Child Left Behind. for cooperating in abortions performed and a right to be protected by the govern- But Pence is up for reelection this year, on them. Parties in favor of allowing ment from being deliberately killed. All and early polls show that he has a compet- abortion, he pointed out, inferred from human beings have this right, the most itive race on his hands. He hurt himself this fact that the laws had never been con- basic right any creature can have. The badly a year ago when he bungled public cerned with the protection of fetal life. right attaches to human beings in the appearances connected with the passage of The implicit argument, which Blackmun embryonic and fetal stages of develop- a state religious-freedom bill. Pence wasn’t repeated without challenging, was that ment, just as it does at later developmental prepared for the national onslaught that exempting the women from prosecution stages, because human embryos and fetus- many Republican governors have since is incompatible with viewing the human es—no less than human infants, toddlers, faced. He meekly signed the bill in private fetus as a bearer of a right to life: a person. adolescents, and adults—are living, indi- and has rarely poked his head up since. Donald Trump recently stumbled over vidual members of the human species. For Pence, dipping his toe into the wa - this topic. Asked whether women should They are not dead, or inanimate, or mem- ters of a tumultuous Republican primary be punished for seeking abortions once bers of a different species, or functional may appear to have no political up side. they are prohibited, he said yes—perhaps parts of larger organisms (in the way that But he would become a hero to the anti- under the impression that this answer log- sperm and egg cells, or liver and skin Trump forces were he to throw political ically follows from prohibition, or under cells, are functional parts of larger organ- caution to the wind and strongly back Cruz. the impression that pro-lifers would find isms). Embryos and fetuses differ in cer- Trump’s critics, a motley crew, now this answer appealing. But pro-lifers were tain important respects from other human believe that Republicans will see a con- generally appalled by the answer, and beings. But these differences—notably, tested convention in July. They’re less Trump quickly retreated from it. but not exclusively, differences in their certain how far below a majority of the Most pro-lifers say they have no desire stage of development, size, location, and delegates they can keep Trump before he to punish women who seek abortions. All condition of dependency—cannot justify touches down in Cleveland, or whether the major pro-life organizations share denying them this fundamental right. Cruz can clinch the nomination swiftly Lawmakers are thus justified and thereafter on a second ballot. Mr. George is the McCormick Professor of indeed duty-bound to treat abortion as an It’s too soon to know, but, thanks to Jurisprudence at Princeton University. Mr. Ponnuru, injustice, to communicate the truth about Wisconsin, #NeverTrump finally has a senior editor of NATIONAL REVIEW, is the its injustice in law, to prohibit it, and to a playbook. author of The Party of Death. take steps to make sure that the prohibition

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is not violated. (Citizens who are not law- sometimes prospectively by lawmakers. A None of the differences between the makers are justified and duty-bound to man kills his wife’s lover, and a business- killing of unborn children in abortion and work to persuade lawmakers to do these man kills a rival. Both victims, equally, the killing of older human beings outside things, and to work to elect lawmakers had their right to life violated, but the law the womb furnishes a good reason for who will do them.) treats the killings differently. In doing so, failing to prohibit the former. The fact The precise dimensions of a legal regime it does not treat one victim as more impor- that many people of good will in our cul- that meets these goals cannot simply be tant, as having more worth and rights, ture view abortion as morally permissible deduced from the goals. There is room than the other. If a government punishes does nothing to extinguish the unborn for legislative judgment, which means the killing of a police officer more severely child’s moral claim to be protected: De - that different legislators could reasonably than the killing of an ordinary citizen, it is cent people have in other times and places reach different conclusions even while not acting on the view that police officers seen nothing wrong in denying basic sharing the basic premise that unborn have a greater right to life than everyone human rights in ways we now wish gov- human beings have a right to life that the else: It is making a reasonable (though, of ernments had been able to prevent. government should respect and protect. course, debatable) judgment about the (Slavery is the obvious illustration of this The legal regime necessary to achieve these conditions and requirements of public point in our country’s history.) Unjust goals would also probably vary in certain order. (It might make a similar judgment killing is unjust killing, regardless of the respects from place to place and era to era. about punishing the killing of witnesses motives and the social context. Notwithstanding those important ca - to a crime, even when those witnesses are But the motives and the context can and veats, a legal regime designed to give not people of upstanding character: The do justify a certain leniency of treatment. teeth to a prohibition of abortion would judgment does not turn on the moral Again, though, it’s important to note that almost certainly, in any time and place, worth of the victim.) in different t imes and places, different Does justice require penalties beyond those necessary to protect unborn children from the injustice of abortion?

have to involve penalties for abortion- Now apply these considerations to judgments might apply. In a society in ists. Deterring abortion might require, the punishment of abortion. Abortion is which the vast majority of citizens appre- for example, stripping doctors who com- wrong and unjust, but neither the women ciated the moral truth about abortion—the mit abortions of their medical licenses who procure abortions nor the abortion- society that pro-lifers should strive to and levying steep fines and even jail ists are typically acting out of malice. The bring about—it would probably be the terms on anyone who commits abortions women are frequently in difficult, and case that abortionists were more likely to without medical licenses. sometimes in desperate, circumstances. be depraved, and tougher punishments for Does justice require penalties beyond They do not have the same emotional abortionists might then be warranted. those necessary to protect unborn chil- bonds with their unborn children that But our society had a better understand- dren from the injustice of abortion? mothers of infants and toddlers typically ing of abortion 100 years ago, and even Those who say that the pro-life position do. The abortionists typically believe they then sympathy for pregnant women in dis- logically entails punishment for the preg- are providing a kind of humanitarian ser- tress was a weighty consideration that led nant women involved in it are implicitly vice—grotesquely, in light of moral real- to the waiving of penalties. That consid- answering that question affirmatively. ity, but nonetheless sincerely. For these eration was supplemented by a practical Both the abortionists and their cus- reasons, some pro-lifers avoid (and all one: The women’s testimony against abor- tomers are committing a grave wrong pro-lifers should avoid) using the word tionists was necessary for the law to fulfill against another human being, and in “murder,” with its connotation of malice, its primary aim of protecting the unborn. most such cases government exacts a to describe abortion. Historically our anti-abortion laws did measure of retribution. What may be most important is that in what the pro-life movement wants laws When deciding how harshly to punish a our society, both the mothers and the to do today: They recognized that unborn crime, however, the law rightly takes abortionists have had their understand- children are living human beings with the account of more than the gravity of the ings of abortion shaped by a culture that same right not to be killed that the rest of us injustice worked by the crime. It also takes does not communicate the truth about possess; they gave effect to this recognition account of the rippling consequences of abortion and unborn children—a culture by prohibiting abortion; and they imposed the crime and the blameworthiness of those that includes laws that do not treat abor- no legal penalty on the mothers. The laws involved in it. Did the act show depravity, tion as a crime or wrong at all, and that were right on all these points, and most callousness, malice? Were there aggravat- deny the very humanity of unborn chil- pro-lifers are right on all of them today. ing or mitigating circumstances? Did it dren. In this way, our law and culture lead That movement—the great human- undermine the community’s sense of safe- people into serious moral error. A reformed rights movement of our time—has rightly ty? If punished lightly or not at all, would it law and culture need to take account both sought to save babies, not punish women. be likely to lead to widespread vigilantism? of the seriousness of that error and of the And it has rightly understood that we can Sometimes these determinations are way that our culture has diminished peo- save unborn babies without threatening made retrospectively by judges and juries, ple’s culpability for it. to punish their mothers.

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Democrats? There are a number of fac- also true among anti-Trump Repub - tors at work. The composition of the licans. As long as Trump is the most vis- Republican and the Democratic elec- ible figure on the anti-immigration Trump’s torates has changed over time, and as the right, extremists on the other side of the salience of the immigration issue has immigration issue seem sober-minded Immigration increased, at least some anti-immigration by comparison. Democrats and pro-immigration Repub - Early in March, Univision’s Jorge Disaster li cans have presumably switched sides. Ramos, a fervent advocate of mass immi- His campaign has set back the cause Older voters tend to be more skeptical gration who also happens to be a news of border enforcement about immigration than younger voters anchor, asked Hillary Clinton to promise are, and the Democratic coalition is that she would not deport unauthorized- BY REIHAN SALAM somewhat younger than the Repub - immigrant children. Clinton made that lican coalition. pledge, and she went even further, telling F there is one thing we know about Moreover, naturalized immigrants are Ramos that she did not want to deport the Donald Trump, it is that he wants to more likely to identify as Democrats than families of unauthorized-immigrant chil- I strengthen America’s borders and as Republicans, and naturalized immi- dren, either. This has long been a goal of drive down immigration levels. So grants are, not surprisingly, more pro- the partisans of amnesty—to extend there is no small irony in the fact that the immigration, not least out of a desire to deportation relief beyond those who most likely end result of his insurgent bring their family members to the U.S. entered the United States unlawfully as presidential campaign will be the weak- Family immigration accounts for two- children, to their parents. Clinton has ening of border enforcement and a drastic thirds of all lawful immigration, and any accepted this goal without hesitation, increase in immigration levels. serious effort to reduce immigration lev- making it a central part of her immigra- True, Trump has helped make immi- els would necessarily involve making it tion agenda. At one point she said that she gration one of the central issues in the more difficult for naturalized immigrants would deport immigrants only if they had race for the Republican presidential nom- to bring, say, adult daughters and sons criminal records. Bernie Sanders fol- ination, and his success may well have into the country. Recently, the econo- lowed suit. stiffened the spine of anti-immigration mists Anna Maria Mayda, Giovanni Peri, One can imagine a different universe conservatives. Yet Trump’s rhetoric has and Walter Steingress found that as the in which pragmatic Democrats ques- not just been heard by Republicans. It share of immigrants in the adult popula- tioned the wisdom of what amounts to an has also been heard by independents and tion of a given U.S. state increases, so immigration free-for-all. If the leading Democrats. While it looks as though does the Democratic vote share. The candidates for the Democratic presiden- Trump’s rise has had virtually no effect main driver of this phenomenon is that tial nomination say that they have no on attitudes toward immigration among naturalized immigrants vote for Demo - desire to deport immigrants without Republicans—a large majority of GOP crats at higher rates than natives do. While criminal records, are they not suggesting voters believed that immigration levels some pro-immigration conservatives that we welcome all comers, whether should be decreased before Trump, and attribute this pattern to the immigration they enter lawfully or otherwise? But they feel the same way now—it has had issue alone, the fact that households have Clinton and Sanders been forced to a not insignificant effect on attitudes headed by naturalized immigrants tend to answer for endorsing lawlessness at the among Democrats, and in particular have lower incomes than those headed border? Not at all. Instead, they seem among the elite Democrats who set the by natives, and to rely more heavily on eager to double down. party’s agenda. safety-net programs, un doubtedly con- Bernie Sanders will not be our next To be clear, Trump has not single- tributes to it. As long as most immi- president. Nevertheless, his sharp change handedly made Democrats embrace high grants have below-average incomes, it of course on immigration reflects a immigration levels. There has been a stands to reason that they will favor the broader trend. Earlier in the campaign, in spike since last fall in the share of Demo - party of redistribution. an interview with Ezra Klein, editor of crats taking a pro-immigration stance, So why blame Trump for the the liberal news site Vox, Sanders objected and Trump surely played a role there. But immigration-policy disaster to come? to the idea of open borders, deriding it as that’s only part of the story. Over the past While Trump’s champions insist that part of an anti-labor agenda advanced by decade, the gap in partisan perceptions of their candidate has shifted the main- the Koch brothers, a rare instance of a immigrants has widened, with Repub- stream conversation on immigration to Sanders utterance I find entirely sensi- licans taking an increasingly skeptical the right, I would argue that Trump’s ble. He has since been keen to curry view of the virtues of mass immigration noxious tone has made it much harder favor with immigration advocates, in and Democrats moving in the opposite for restrictionists to win new allies. recognition of their growing power in the direction. For example, the share of Some voters who might have otherwise Demo cratic coalition. It turns out that if Democrats believing that immigrants been open to calls for more-stringent you’re trying to win the nomination of a strengthen the country has climbed border enforcement and a more selective party that increasingly relies on the votes from 49 percent in 2006 to 78 percent in immigration policy have recoiled from of struggling immigrants who depend 2016, while it has gone from 34 percent Trump’s thinly veiled appeals to racial on wage subsidies, Medicaid, and food to 35 percent among Republicans. What and ethnic resentment. This is true among stamps to lead decent lives, calls for lim- accounts for this longer-term shift among Democrats and independents, but it is iting immigration aren’t going to fly.

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No one understands this better than Hillary Clinton. During his first term, Bill Clinton sensed that anti-immigration sen- timent was becoming more potent, and so he endorsed the findings of the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform, which backed modest reductions in legal- immigration levels and more-rigorous immigration-enforcement efforts. Almost immediately, Clinton met with a fierce backlash from pro-immigration groups on the left and the right, and he soon abandoned his flirtation with a more restrictionist stance. Instead, the Clinton administration backed the Citizenship USA initiative, designed to make it much easier for immigrants, including formerly unauthorized immigrants legalized under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, to naturalize. As Republicans in grants and giving them a pathway to citi- million unauthorized immigrants would Congress fought to limit the access of zenship, Clinton will bring unauthorized lead to a surge in family immigration recent immigrants to safety-net programs, immigrants out of the shadows and into that was quite a bit larger. And these a large wave of immigrants naturalized in America’s social safety net. immigrants would encounter a labor part to oppose these measures through In 2013, the Migration Policy Institute market far less hospitable to less-skilled the political process. The politics of found that almost one-third (32 percent) workers than that of the 1980s and 1990s, immigration had irrevocably changed, of unauthorized-immigrant adults lived in when demand for such labor was com- and Bill Clinton deftly switched sides. families below the poverty level, and 62 paratively high and real minimum wages Hillary Clinton has clearly not forgotten percent lived in families earning less than were relatively low. By backing a steep the lessons of that era. Naturalized low- 200 percent of the poverty level. A narrow increase in the federal minimum wage at wage immigrants depend on public assis- 51 percent majority of unauthorized- the same time that she opens the flood- tance, and as they have brought more of immigrant children lived in families gates to less-skilled immigration, Clinton their similarly poor relatives with them to earning less than the federal poverty would re-create the conditions seen in the U.S., these immigrants have become level; 78 percent lived in families earning much of Europe, where immigrants have a bedrock Democratic constituency. less than 200 percent of that level; and been priced out of the labor market by If Hillary Clinton is our next president, only 8 percent lived in families earning rigid regulations. an outcome that is all but foreordained if more than 400 percent of it. Moreover, Whether or not Clinton succeeds in Trump is the Republican nominee, it is a only 30 percent of unauthorized- passing sweeping legislation, she has safe bet that her first big legislative push immigrant adults are proficient in English, explicitly promised to shield virtually all will be on immigration. She will charac- a strong barrier in itself to upward mobil- unauthorized immigrants from deporta- terize her victory over Trump as a repu- ity. In recognition of the fact that the vast tion. In other words, she has promised diation of the restrictionist cause and a majority of unauthorized immigrants are that, under a Clinton administration, mandate for immigration legislation so poor, the Gang of Eight, a group of there will be no danger that the agencies more permissive than the comprehen- senators who unsuccessfully pushed for charged with enforcing our immigration sive immigration-reform bill backed by comprehensive reform, sought to win laws will do their job. Over time, the President Obama. Unlike Obama and conservative support by proposing to bar unauthorized immigrants whom Clinton George W. Bush, who felt obligated to immigrants granted provisional legal will have essentially invited into the make their pathways to citizenship for status from various safety-net programs. country will form families and give birth unauthorized immigrants seem onerous, Leaving aside whether these restrictions to citizen children. They will then be - Clinton has made it clear that she intends would have been enforced in practice— come virtually impossible to remove. to make her pathway to citizenship as I’m skeptical—it is hard to imagine So far, conservatives haven’t given cheap and easy as possible. Clinton backing such limits. much thought to Hillary Clinton’s immi- It is not obvious that conservatives in The effects of new immigration legis- gration agenda. To the extent that her Congress, who could suffer major losses lation won’t stop there. Once these immi- views have been addressed at all, they’ve if Trump is their party’s presidential nom- grants are granted citizenship, they will been treated as little more than campaign inee, will be in a position to prevent such be able to sponsor family members. The bluster. That is a mistake. Donald Trump’s legislation from passing. Let’s assume 1986 amnesty, which legalized roughly success has made it far more likely that that Clinton succeeds in establishing her 3 million unauthorized immigrants, led she will be our next president, and we immigration agenda as the law. By ex - to a surge in family immigration. One need to start thinking very hard about ROMAN GENN tending legal status to unauthorized immi- assumes that legalizing as many as 10 what that means.

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of history,” he said in the interview, “I defensive.” While this is undoubtedly am optimistic. I believe that overall, true, ISIS can remain intact for many humanity has become less violent, more years. Merely increasing the bombing Obama’s tolerant, healthier, better fed, more empa- campaign won’t defeat it. thetic, more able to manage difference.” No war can end without someone’s EndlessRefusing to prosecute anWar effective Obama’s foreign policy is based upon a boots on the ground. Retired Army gen- benign spiritualism. Other nations have eral Ray Odierno has estimated that a strategy against ISIS only prolongs taken advantage of it. Russian aircraft ground offensive, even if composed the suffering buzz over our warships, China con- mostly of Arab soldiers, would require structs artificial islands to extend its con- U.S. troops on the order of 50,000. BY BING WEST trol of the sea lanes, and Iran captures Obama has firmly rejected that idea. our sailors. These affronts occur because So where is Obama’s war headed in his N September 10, 2014, Presi - Obama will not stand up to provocations. last eight months in office, and where will dent Obama pledged to de - Similarly, ISIS exists because the that leave his successor? O stroy ISIS. Three years earlier, president has flinched on a number of In the northern parts of Iraq and Syria, on June 22, 2011, he declared occasions. In 2011, against the advice of the Kurds already have an independent that “the tide of war is receding.” But the Pentagon and the State Department, state protected by 80,000 to 240,000 since he made that claim, more than half he withdrew all U.S. forces from Iraq; Peshmerga fighters. The U.S. is aiding a million people have been killed just in the Shiite government in Baghdad then them with modest equipment and effec- Syria and Iraq. Currently, ISIS numbers oppressed the Sunnis. In 2012, Obama tive bombing. The Kurds will fight ISIS to about 20,000 fighters and controls an encouraged the Syrian population, mostly defend the borders of a de facto Kurdistan area of thousands of square miles in Sunni, to overthrow the Assad regime and advance their goal of independence. Syria and Iraq populated by roughly 4 (which relies on Shiite support) and Over the next decade, they will engage in million Sunnis. declared a “red line” that Assad must not a serious struggle, both political and mili- How, specifically, does the Obama cross by using chemical weapons against tary, with Turkey more than with ISIS. administration plan to destroy ISIS? the Sunni towns. When Assad did employ In the central parts of Iraq and Syria, Here’s an answer from a Pentagon chemical weapons, Obama refused to ISIS flourishes because Assad’s Shiite spokesman: “By degrading them in Phase respond with force, and also refused to regime in Syria and the Shiite govern- One and then dismantling them in Phase fully train and arm the Sunni rebels. ment in Iraq are oppressing the Sunnis. Two, we believe that that will set us up for Since 2003, Assad had been giving shel- Only Sunni Muslims can eradicate ISIS. Phase Three, which, of course, is the ulti- ter to Sunni jihadists and former senior To do so, they need the incentive of self- mate defeat of this enemy.” There are two officers from Saddam’s army. By 2010, governance. According to prominent mil- problems with that approach. First, the most of these terrorists had been driven itary analyst Joel Rayburn, even if ISIS administration has ruled out the use of out of Iraq. By 2013, they had turned were wiped from the earth tomorrow, the U.S. troops in combat—which means that against Assad’s Shiite regime. Ruthless Sunni–Shiite war would continue the “dismantling” the enemy is unlikely, and highly organized, the jihadists swiftly next day, with Iran trying to overthrow never mind defeating it. Second, de - gained thousands of Sunni recruits and Sunni regimes. feating ISIS should itself be only an came to dominate the “moderate” Sunni Throughout the Middle East, Obama is intermediate goal: The ultimate goal is a rebel groups. With Assad’s regime in mor- viewed as having tilted toward the stable, pro-Western government after tal danger, Russian president Vladimir Iranian and Shiite side. In addition to his ISIS. Our huge mistake in Iraq in 2003 Putin sent in aircraft to bomb the “mod- suspect nuclear deal with the Iranian gov- was not having a sensible plan for who erates,” while Iran dispatched Hezbollah ernment, he has urged the Saudis to was to govern after we defeated Saddam’s fighters to fight alongside Assad’s. The “share the neighborhood” with Iran. In forces. By not having a plan for what hap- U.S. responded by bombing the jihadists Iraq, Obama supports a sectarian govern- pens after ISIS, the U.S. administration is but not Assad’s forces. ment aligned with Iran. He has been today repeating that mistake. By 2014, the Sunnis in Iraq, furious at unable to persuade Baghdad to grant rea- In Obama’s view, ISIS is not a serious their treatment by the Shiite government sonable self-rule to the Sunnis and Kurds. threat. The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, in Baghdad, tolerated and in many cases Iraqi forces, whether the army with after interviewing the president, reported abetted the return of the jihadists—now American advisers or the Shiite militias that “Obama frequently reminds his staff called ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and with their Iranian advisers, lack the that terrorism takes far fewer lives in Syria) rather than al-Qaeda in Iraq—to logistical capability to retake all the America than . . . falls in bathtubs do.” that country. Rather than fight ISIS, the Sunni lands. The distance from Baghdad Bathtubs don’t murder people, but in Iraqi army abandoned the Sunni northern to Mosul is 220 miles—the same distance Obama’s parallel universe, the tide of his- part of Iraq. Both Iran and the U.S. rushed as from New York City to Washington. To tory is like the gravitational pull of the in trainers and advisers to aid the Shiite the Iraqi military, that is an enormous dis- moon: The course of time is gentling the government in Baghdad. Iran added sol- tance. While Iraq slouches toward Mosul, nature of man. “If you look at the trajectory diers on the battlefield, while the U.S. the residents of Fallujah, 35 miles from contributed a bombing campaign. Baghdad, are starving. To the Sunnis, this Mr. West has written eight books about the wars in In mid April 2016, Obama declared proves the Baghdad government does not Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. that “in Syria and in Iraq, ISIS is on the care about them, only about symbols.

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Modern

We may Familylack jetpacks, but technology is no less wonderful for that

BY CHARLES C. W. COOKE

PEND a little time in the more tech-minded corners of the S Web and you will eventually come across a lament: “The future has arrived,” someone will say, half in jest. “So where’s my jetpack?” President Obama pledges to lead a broad coalition to fight ISIS, September 10, 2014. Into this one succinct meme are dis- tilled all manner of disappointments. As the war drags on, the Sunnis will jihadists and a cunning Iran will persist Sure, its progenitors will concede, the remain embittered toward the Shiite for the next decade. advancement of the microchip and the political system and will view the U.S. Obama’s policy is to dam up the finan- arrival of the Internet have significantly as being on the Shiite side. Over 90 per- cial streams of ISIS while hammering its altered the way we communicate: With cent of young Iraqis in a recent poll fighters with air and artillery attacks. The just an iPhone, we can send videos viewed the U.S. as an enemy, and over next president will probably proceed across oceans in a matter of seconds, we 50 percent view Iran as an ally. The odds along that same course, seeking to grind can order our groceries without leaving are low that a nonsectarian Iraq, with its down the jihadists like a steamroller, our couch, and with just one swipe of current state boundaries intact and a slowly but steadily. This means our our credit card we can stream pretty government not in the Iranian orbit, will defense budget, which Obama has re - much anything that has ever been filmed emerge from this Sunni–Shiite war. Yet flexively reduced, must be inctreased. I or recorded. that end state is what Obama envisions also means more civilian casualties and But the world doesn’t look especially when his war ends, many years after he staggering damage to the cities, where different today from how it did in 1954. has left office. the jihadists hide among the pitiable Children who grew up in the aftermath In Syria, to defeat ISIS will require Sunni people. Regrettably, many in the of the Second World War were pro - foreign boots on the ground. They won’t Arab world will interpret this strategy as mised a wholesale change in their arrive for many years, if ever. Syria is American support for Iran and its Shiite lifestyles—not just hoverboards and permanently broken apart; the only ques- proxies. The destruction inside Iraq and robot butlers and easy-to-use video tion is who will broker the sectarian Syria is worse than what occurred in chatting, but an in toto alteration of the pygmy states that will emerge from it. Belgium and France in World War II— classic American aesthetic. Open up an Iran and Russia will support the future but these Arab populations lack the edu- original brochure for Disneyland’s Alawite/Shiite statelet in western Syria. cation, cultural initiative, and concern “Tomorrowland,” turn on an old epi - The odds greatly favor the emergence of for the commonweal to snap back as sode of The Jetsons, or drive past the an independent Kurdistan in northern Western Europe did. The Sunni region rusting remnants of the 1964 New York Syria and Iraq, guaranteeing a decade of of Mesopotamia will lie in ruins for World’s Fair, and you will detect the serious friction with Turkey. The third many years. auguring of an architectural revolution statelet will be an impoverished, strife- The Obama legacy in the Middle East that never came to pass. In the 1930s, ridden Sunnistan in central Syria and will be a resurgent Russian military pres- middle-class types were told that by the northern Iraq. ence, an expansionist Iran, a broken Iraq, year 2000 they’d be living in spherical When Yugoslavia broke apart in the a catastrophe in Syria, chaos in Libya and houses that could move with their own- 1990s, the U.S. and NATO did enforce Yemen, and a rampant Islamist scourge ers. In the 1950s, Monsanto’s “house of the creation of a half dozen such statelets. across the region. By irresolution, the the future” was set to cram a whole Assuming there is not another attack on president lost the war in Iraq, convulsed family into a hard plastic shell atop a the scale of 9/11, however, no American Syria, imperiled Afghanistan, and antag- garage that would hold a self-driving president will undertake a similar mis- onized our traditional Sunni allies. Worse car. In the 1960s, we were all going to sion in Mesopotamia. With 75 million still, he convinced the American public live on the Moon. people in that region, the task is much that the decisive application of military And now? As the British comedian GETTY IMAGES / greater than the one in Yugoslavia was. force was not possible. Obama has said Jack Dee puts it, it can at times be hard POOL - The costs of a U.S.-Arab army invasion he does “not support the idea of endless not to suspect that the “information are simply not worth the benefits. The war.” Yet his fecklessness has created superhighway” was little more than a SAUL LOEB conflict between the West and both Sunni that very condition. clever marketing line for “typing in your

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bedroom,” and that “the future” largely things. And suppose I want to do some- not be too long until one can sport a consists of low-interest mortgages on thing somewhat more prosaic, such as wristwatch that monitors skin tempera- timber-framed houses and better Wi-Fi reorder the usual toothpaste? I can just ture and instructs the heating system routers for our laptops. ask Amazon to send it to me. Rosie the accordingly. How, one wonders, would Or does it? Curmudgeonly as I can be Robot, eat your heart out. the future-watchers of the 1950s have at times, I’m not sure that the pessimists To the skeptic, these developments reacted to that? yearning for jetpacks are correct in their may sound like gimmicks or, worse, And yet we still seem to feel that rueful resignation. Not only do today’s indulgences. But they have changed the we are doing less well than we should Americans casually use technology that way I live at least as much as the be. Why? would have made their grandparents “world-changing” offerings that General The answer, I’d argue, is that human gawk (imagine explaining Netflix to Electric boasted in the 1960s changed beings have a tendency to privilege the your recent ancestors), but they are also the lifestyles of that generation’s tin- superficial over the real, and thus to beginning to use it to create precisely the kerers. During my wife’s recent preg- draw the wrong conclusions about sort of “futuristic lifestyles” of which nancy, I worried that she would fall in how much progress we are actually the 1950s generation could but dream. the winter’s snow. By installing Wi-Fi- making. In almost every depiction of Using products that are available off the controlled lights that came on automati- the future—be it Blade Runner, 2001, shelf at the Apple Store or at Best Buy, cally when it got dark—and, more or Back to the Future Part II—the networking tools that come standard important, that came on extra bright “advanced” nature of the society is sug- with any household cable package, and a when she got within a mile of our gested as much by peculiar clothes and little DIY know-how, it is now possible house—I made sure that her path from oddly shaped buildings as by techno- to refashion your home without spend- the outdoor garage to the house was logical developments. This has skewed ing a fortune. always lit. Moreover, because the smart our expectations of what real change Human beings have a tendency to privilege the superficial over the real, and thus to draw the wrong conclusions about how much progress we are actually making.

I know, because I’ve done it. In the locks on the front door no longer require looks like, such that if the person sell- past year, I’ve put in digital thermome- a physical key, I knew that she would ing the latest gizmos is wearing a blue ters and Web-connected smoke alarms, never again be locked out of the house polo shirt rather than a boiler suit—and installed Wi-Fi-enabled locks, replaced (or put at risk—neither of us has to be if the device he is hawking comes with my old filament bulbs with LED lights home to let visitors in, nor do we have to self-installation instructions rather than that can be controlled from a browser or give or leave a key for strangers). What as an integrated part of a gleaming, an app, added a garage-door opener that price that peace of mind? retro-futuristic space home—we are senses when I arrive home, and wired in Once I discovered how much is on less dazzled. We were told that the a set of security cameras that I can mon- the market, I found it hard to stop. Be - must-have gadgets of the year 2015 itor from anywhere—even, should I cause our smoke alarms are linked both would be large and metallic with beep- desire, from 30,000 feet in the air. By to the local police station and to our ing noises and flashing lights. When, adding Amazon Echo and the voice- phones—and because of security cam- instead, they were small, quiet, and control functions that come with even a eras accessible from anywhere—we housed in beige plastic, we were under- basic cellphone, I have been able to pro- now know immediately if there is a whelmed. And when the great strides in gram these devices to respond immedi- problem at home, even if we are abroad. computer and home technology came ately to my spoken command. Because we have remote control of our not via the centralized planning of a gov- And, with a little tinkering with free thermostats, we can now let the house ernment or mega-corporation but from a sync services such as IFTTT, I have pro- get cold or hot when we are not there, thousand separate places via a million grammed them all to work together. then heat it up or cool it down when incremental, hard-won advances, we Suppose I want the lights to go down, we’re on our way back—which has dra- were skeptical. the TV to switch on, and the speakers to matically reduced our heating bill. Soon, What we have is even better than what turn up to a pre-approved level? No these sorts of features will be available we were promised. But it can be hard to problem. I just have to say “Movie time” on dishwashers, stoves, microwaves, see, because it defies our expectations. In aloud while in the den and the room and refrigerators; and eventually, even the ’50s, the model was Robert Moses; in changes before my eyes. Suppose I am the most standard equipment will be 2016, it is the plucky little startup in a ready for bed and I need the doors to able to distinguish between family Silicon Valley garage. In the ’60s, we lock, the lights to switch off (except in members and guests, react to individu- were promised EPCOT; instead, we got the bedroom), the temperature to rise, als’ locations within the home, and even suburban sprawl. and the garage door to close? Easy. A respond to biometric variables such as The future may not have jetpacks. But single button press can do all of those body temperature and heart rate. It can- that does not mean it isn’t here.

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Hillary Clinton at the Democratic presidential-primary debate in Brooklyn, April 14, 2016 The Empty Pantsuit Hillary Clinton doesn’t stand for anything—and that is her appeal

BY KEVIN D. WILLIAMSON

Brooklyn ANIEL and Rachel are Hillary Rodham Clinton voters, Republican talking about it after cocktail hour and he may well part of a crowd that merrily taunts her rival, Senator agree that she will win. IT’S TIME FOR A WOMAN IN THE WHITE D Bernie Sanders, with the chant SEND BERNIE HOME! HOUSE! has its appeal, but it comes with an implied question: SEND BERNIE HOME! When the right-wing provoca- “Why this woman?” teur who has infiltrated the crowd suggests that this is a peculiar I’M WITH HER! I’M WITH HER! I’M WITH HER! thing to chant in Brooklyn, inasmuch as, as anybody with ears Of course you are. This is Brooklyn, you are gainfully knows, Senator Sanders grew up in Brooklyn, about eight miles employed, and you are not stoned out of your gourd on a away from the Brooklyn Navy Yard (where we’re waiting for Thursday afternoon. You are not Bernie people. And neither the candidates to show up and debate, or at least to engage in are you about to confess to the NATIONAL REVIEW reporter that the weird and backward performance-art spectacles that we you’d really been hoping Rick Perry would make the cut this insist on pretending are presidential debates), while Mrs. time around, or maybe Rick Santorum. Of course you’re with Clinton comes from the well-off suburbs of Chicago, the her. But why? response among the Rodhamites is somewhere between cow- I BELIEVE THAT SHE WILL WIN! eyed confusion and that harrowing final scene in Invasion of the A big chartered bus goes chugging by, emblazoned with

VIA GETTYBody IMAGES Snatchers (1978 version) in which Donald Sutherland three-foot-high lettering: BLACK MEN FOR BERNIE SANDERS. (spoiler alert!) points and shrieks at the unassimilated humans There is a reproduction of a photo screened onto the side of the who once had been his friends. bus, which, amusingly, has no black men in it. (It is a picture They get tired of SEND BERNIE HOME! But the ensuing selec- of Senator Sanders confronting police at a 1963 protest.) Much WASHINGTON POST BELIEVE THAT THE tion of chants is equally uninspiring: First comes I to the consternation of the Hillary people, who have been / SHE WILL WIN! Perhaps, but there are lots of people who believe standing outside the Brooklyn Navy Yard for hours, the Bernie that she will win who also believe that she is a miscreant, a people, who have developed a slight degree of media savvy, MELINA MARA criminal, a crook, and worse. Get your average Washington show up about 15 minutes before the debate kickoff, carrying

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electrified signs that, in the early-evening darkness, exaggerate and controls everything while the great masses of people founder their numbers vis-à-vis Team Herself. in penury. I reply that I understand her concern and wonder why “We’ve been here for hours,” sighs a young professional non- her response is to vote for a woman whose husband owns $1 mil- profit fundraiser, still in his I’ve-got-a-good-job workaday suit lion worth of wristwatches, who herself was paid $6,000 a but looking barely old enough to shave. minute to flatter Manhattan investment bankers’ sense of self- What keeps these two teams of partisans, Hillary’s and importance. “I don’t care about personal things like that.” Bernie’s, out into the late hours on a still-cold April night in a bleak, dead corner of Brooklyn dominated by housing projects, half a mile from the nearest subway station and a mile from the ILLARY RODHAM CLINTON has this weird thing she does nearest Starbucks (in a city with nearly 300 locations), is the when she’s even more Nixonian than usual: She for- hope of glimpsing a candidate, or at least a lower-level political gets to smile until a half a second after she has entered celebrity. When a small entourage of Democratic politicos Ha room. (Anthony Hopkins captures this defect perfectly in marches past into the heavily guarded Navy Yard, the crowd Oliver Stone’s Nixon.) If you keep your eyes open, you can see cheers lustily and then whispers, with nearly one voice, “Who her do it (as I have, in Des Moines, Las Vegas, Brooklyn . . .) was that?” (It was, unless my eyes deceive me, Chuck Schumer.) and practically hear the hoists and pulleys and whatnot lurching But they remain disappointed: Mrs. Clinton does not show up. Of squeakily into action to pull that dour mug into its familiar for- course she shows up at the debate, but she is brought in, quietly, public-consumption rictus. Maybe she’s feeling antsy: She’s through another entrance, probably in one of those many black under federal investigation, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard, scene SUVs with blackout windows that go rolling through like a of the New York Democratic-primary debate, used to house a modern-day Trujillo dinner excursion. federal prison. She isn’t lovable, and she knows this. What she is But they needn’t be too disappointed: Even when she shows is a scarecrow, a placeholder for the political hopes and anxieties up, she doesn’t show up. She isn’t there, and never has been. of a certain kind of reasonably well-off white progressive and for non-whites across the income spectrum who remember with fondness (and in error) her much-diminished husband as HY Hillary?” Daniel doesn’t seem to have been one of their champions. expecting the question, and he needs a minute to The debate ends up being familiar stuff: Senator Sanders and collect his thoughts. He gives a surprisingly cogent his honking Brooklyn accent, Herself and her horrifying vice answer,‘W which is that he supports the policies of President Barack principal’s screech, his take-what-we-can-get-while-we-can-get- Obama and believes that Mrs. Clinton represents the best oppor- it approach to every question contrasting with her less-of-the- tunity to consolidate and make permanent those political gains. If same difference splitting. In practical terms, what that means is you have spent very much time speaking with people who come that Senator Sanders demands a $15 federal minimum wage out to political rallies—who are, let’s not forget, about 10,000 immediately, while Mrs. Clinton would pause for consideration percent more informed, energetic, and committed than run-of- at $12.50, which is, as she repeatedly reminded the audience, the-mill voters—you will despair, and you will recognize that the approach taken by the State of New York. (Obviously, we Daniel’s thoughtful answer, simple though it may be, sounds like want the entire country to be governed by the high ethical stan- Solon compared with the usual sort of thing one hears. dards and bottomless economic acumen constantly on display Of course, it does not take very much to unravel Daniel’s sen- in Albany.) Bernie promises—his word—“revolution.” Mrs. timent. I ask him which of Obama’s policies is most important to Clinton promises to deliver the same basket of goodies as him, and he answers, “The Affordable Care Act.” He is a nurse Sanders, more or less, without the revolution. practitioner who works with a mainly Medicaid-dependent pop- There’s a contrast, sure, but not too much—and that’s her ulation, and so this does not surprise me. He is perfectly bright, strategy. Like George H. W. Bush accidentally reading his well scrubbed, educated, and no doubt a regular reader of what- stage directions (“Message: I care!”), Mrs. Clinton a few days ever aggregation of digital communiqués passes for a newspaper after the debate will appear on the cable-news program hosted in his household. But when I inform him that Mrs. Clinton has in by her husband’s former press secretary (because that’s not fact been vocally critical of the Affordable Care Act, that she has weird and incestuous or anything) and declare that Senator criticized what she calls the “family glitch” that can make many Sanders was dishonestly trying to draw “some big contrast” ACA-compliant policies too expensive in practice for many fam- between himself and Herself on the minimum wage. A big con- ilies, that she has been critical of ACA plans’ high deductibles, trast on that issue—or on any issue—is precisely what she rising premiums, etc., and that Chelsea Clinton has expanded on aims to avoid, which is why her policy statements, to the extent this criticism, complaining of “crushing” health-care costs, his that they exist, are such a nugatory collection of banalities, eyes turn slightly feral, narrow. He literally clenches his fists and vagueness, and wishful thinking. takes a step backward. He is under attack. “It’s still better than She has learned her lesson: Issues are dangerous. what we had before,” he says. It does not occur to him that, regardless of whether he is correct in that assessment, his argument is with Mrs. Clinton rather than with the NATIONAL REVIEW reporter. HE next day, a hilarious picture makes the rounds: Mrs. Rachel offers up “economic policies” but whiffs with the Clinton enters the kitchen of a government-supported follow-up: “Which ones?” Sounding more like a Bernie voter, home for oldsters in East Harlem, with plants in the sink she says she is very concerned that if Republicans have their way, Tand a little bit of domestic disorder in evidence. She looks— then the United States will end up like some banana republic in horrified, a dowager countess plunked down in a Walmart. It which a tiny ruling elite—“the corporations”—effectively owns was a good get by Josh Robin of NY1. On a normal day, there’s

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no way a working reporter lays a glove on Herself. Her events genes are: through parents. Political loyalties are transmitted with are tightly scripted and access to them is tightly controlled. In remarkable efficiency down generations: In a recent Gallup poll, Des Moines, reporters were literally penned in, kept separate 71 percent of teenagers identified their politics as being essentially from the crowd. That the Secret Service is used for press man- the same as those of their parents. Children identify with their agement goes unremarked upon. parents’ political parties about 70 percent of the time. There’s plenty of spectacle to be had, sure: At a recent San As Christopher H. Achen and Larry M. Bartels document at Francisco fundraiser hosted by the actor George Clooney, pro- great scholarly length in their recent Democracy for Realists, testers lamenting the enormous amount of money involved—you voters are guided mainly by irratio nal reactions to very recent could be a “co-chair” for $353,400 per couple—decided to make events, making little or no distinction between those that are it rain, pelting those attending the gala with dollar bills. Clooney, results of political decisions and those (such as natural disas- apparently shamed by the protest, later agreed that the money ters) that are not, along with “political loyalties typically involved was indeed “obscene.” He added: “The Sanders cam- acquired in childhood.” Rachel tells me that she has seen charts paign, when they talk about it, is absolutely right.” that prove Americans do better economically when there are That looks like it might threaten to be a big contrast, so . . . Democratic presidents. I ask her how much effect she believes Of course Mrs. Clinton laments that “obscene” money, too, po licy differences between the parties to have in the near term, even as she collects it by the bucket. She, too, wants to see and she looks at me as though it is the first time she ever has Citizens United overturned—after all, the dispute in that case was considered such a question. whether the federal government might ban the showing of a film Daniel and Rachel and I stand in the shadows of a dozen critical of her. She has learned, and learned well, the lesson of her Brooklyn housing projects, towers of dysfunction that once ren- husband’s presidency: Policy doesn’t matter. Consistency dered the neighborhood in which we are standing one of the more doesn’t matter. Ideology doesn’t matter. It sure as hell doesn’t dangerous places in New York. The Brooklyn Navy Yard, behind matter to Daniel and Rachel. What matters is that Republicans us, was an economic black hole for decades, a blight on the are evil, evil, evil, and that Bernie Sanders is a nobody compared neighborhood until it was largely turned over to free enterprise. with the great and eternal Herself. Today, it hosts businesses that employ thousands of people What matters to Hillary voters is what she isn’t: an addled kook like Bernie, a right-wing caveman like Ted Cruz, a horror show like Donald Trump.

Mrs. Clinton may be a retro throwback to the 1990s, a time producing everything from food to whiskey to sweaters, and it when she was a retro throwback to the 1970s, but her campaign also hosts what will be one of the largest film studios outside of is cutting-edge in one important sense: It is almost entirely free of Los Angeles. The move to open up the Navy Yard to business was content, liberated from substance, an empty pantsuit. Of course a project of Republican mayor Rudy G iuliani made possible by her policy statements draw from the market basket of comfortable- Manhattan moneymen, a project continued and expanded on lifestyle liberalism with which a Clinton candidacy is necessarily by billionaire megalomaniac entrepreneur and sometime Re- associated: She isn’t going to suddenly change her views on abor- publican Michael Bloomberg. It’s a story seen all over New York, tion or (now that she’s settled on one that is reasonably popular) from Williamsburg to the Bowery, and all over the country: cap- gay marriage. But neither is she going to press any of that to the italism overcoming political shenanigans, cleaning up and repur- point where a voter might have to think—think—about what it posing the disastrous “investments” politicians make. means to support Herself. She can be whatever you want—the There’s another “big contrast” waiting to be made. $15-an-hour candidate or the $12.50-an-hour candidate. What “I think this neighborhood is a Democratic success story,” matters to Hillary voters is what she isn’t: an addled kook like Rachel says. She doesn’t see the blight, the almost complete Bernie, a right-wing caveman like Ted Cruz, a horror show like lack of enterprise outside of the locked-down Navy Yard, where Donald Trump. security conditions are such that one worker therein says it is Beyond that, everything is kept intentionally vague enough like “working in a federal prison.” (Which, again, it used to be.) that the nice young professionals in Brooklyn can project onto She doesn’t wonder why there’s a craft whiskey distillery operat- Mrs. Clinton’s campaign whatever their hearts may fancy. It’s not ing from a former military site but no grocery store on the corner. like they know what she really plans to do. It’s not like she does, Jonathan Swift asserted that it is impossible to reason a man either. For Herself, everything is negotiable. out of an error he wasn’t reasoned into. There’s no reaching the Before the word “meme” meant “a funny picture and caption I Hillary voter. I’M WITH HER is sufficient for them, and she knows saw on the Internet,” it had a more specific and interesting mean- this. And that is why she will, to the extent that the Republican ing: an idea, style, or behavior that spreads through cultures in a candidate permits it, refuse to take a definable stance on almost way analogous to the way a gene spreads through a population. anything except the vague progressivism that is hers as a matter Some critics have bemoaned the “meme-ification” of politics, of course. Beyond that, she is perfectly insubstantial. There may but the fact is that political affiliation has always been a meme have been an ideologue down in there, somewhere, once upon a and always will be. In fact, political identity is one of the better time. But Hillary isn’t the 2016 zombie candidate; she’s the examples of the form, in that it is largely transmitted the way 1965 Zombies candidate: She’s not there.

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lines that the “four factions” theory would predict. Cruz has done very well among very conservative Evangelicals and almost as Trump’s Faction well among very conservative seculars. Marco Rubio ran strongest among somewhat conservatives, while John Kasich has Its primary concerns are racked up large margins among moderates who don’t back Trump. The real-estate developer has not renovated the GOP; he citizenship and nationality has simply built an addition to its existing structure. Many conservatives think that this addition threatens their BY HENRY OLSEN principles, because Trump voters are out of sync with some of the sentiments that dominate today’s conservative movement: They are suspicious of, if not opposed to, free-trade agreements T is tempting, if disheartening, to believe that Donald Trump and entitlement reform; they are not strongly pro-life; and they has irrevocably changed the GOP for the worse, imperiling question the sort of foreign military intervention many strong I conservatism’s hold on the party. But he hasn’t. The same conservatives favor. But this does not mean that Trump voters are dynamics and fissures that existed prior to this cycle remain unconservative; it simply means that they sing from a different intact today. Trump’s armies do, however, constitute a new “fifth hymnal than the one distributed in today’s conservative church. faction” that now competes with the GOP’s traditional “four factions” for party dominance. This new faction is not wholly unconservative. It is instead a forceful reassertion of a kind of HEIR hymnal is one of nationalism and citizenship. Virtually conservatism that has long lain dormant. every one of the major concerns that move Trump’s voters “Trumpism” is best understood as a resurrection of the conser- can be tied together under the idea that America is an entity vative ideas of nationality and citizenship. Trump’s success Tthat exists apart from voluntary arrangements of its residents, and shows how important it is to reincorporate these neo-Kirkian that this entity obligates all of its members to act on behalf of all the strands into modern conservatism, thereby creating a new fusion- other members. In this view, citizenship is not simply voting and ism that can command a national, conservative majority. paying taxes: It is a membership by birth in a body that demands Republican nominating contests prior to this year were pri- things from everyone and in return protects and supports everyone. marily battles between four factions. Two of these groups tend- This view will strike many readers as odd, given the by-now- ed to identify as “very conservative.” Evangelicals constituted ossified conventional wisdom that Trump’s support is based on about 20–25 percent of the GOP electorate, and they liked can- his extreme anti-immigrant rhetoric, his ability to tap the GOP didates who focused on giving their religion a role in public life. base’s anti-establishment fervor, and his persona. But the exit-poll Another 10–15 percent of GOP voters were hard-line fisca l con- data show that none of these assumptions is quite true: Trump’s servatives, and they liked candidates who talked about cutting appeal contains these elements but largely transcends them. taxes and lowering spending. The immigration argument is easy to refute. Exit polls regularly The other two of the traditional four factions, often referred to ask which of four issues is the most important to GOP voters, and as the “establishment,” were actually distinct groups with differ- immigration almost always ranks last, with just 8–12 percent of ent priorities. Moderates, who accounted for about 30 percent of respondents. Trump does capture most of these voters—he nor- the national party, always liked candidates who downplayed reli- mally gets between 50 and 70 percent of them—but they are a gion’s public role and favored making government work over cut- small share of the electorate, and the bulk of his supporters think ting it. “Somewhat conservatives,” the largest group of the four, some other issue is more important. Nor does his advocacy of were the remaining 35–40 percent of Republican voters, and they deporting illegal immigrants explain his rise. The exit polls show backed candidates whom movement conservatives considered that there are only two states, Alabama and Mississippi, where a “moderates”: Bob Dole, George W. Bush, John McCain, Mitt majority of Republican voters favor deportation. Trump normally Romney. Though they were not the preferred choice of the party’s wins only a bit more than half of such voters, and in virtually “very conservative” factions, these men stood farther right than every state, about half of his backers oppose deportation. moderates would have liked, endorsing movement-conservative Anti-establishment fervor is also overstated as a cause of goals such as lower taxes and a strong national defense. Trump’s rise. One exit-poll question asks whether voters prefer Trump’s coalition does not fit neatly into this paradigm. someone with political experience or someone from outside the Although he does better with the two “establishment” factions establishment. While a majority normally prefers the outsider, than with the two “very conservative” ones, his support is strong and Trump wins about two-thirds of that vote, this is a classic in all four groups and seems to be driven by class more than ide- chicken-or-egg question. Do voters want an outsider and then ology: The less formal education one has, the likelier one is to back choose Trump, or do they like Trump and then say they want Trump. The group that likes him the most has never been to college, someone without political experience? A better gauge of the depth and the group that likes him the least has post-graduate degrees. of anti-establishment fervor is to ask whether voters feel “be - Since the race now seems to be defined in terms of whether one trayed by Republican politicians.” A majority say they do, but is for or against Trump, some pundits have contended that he has Trump does not fare much better among these voters than he does completely upended the party and made old distinctions irrelevant. among those who say they don’t. Indeed, in five of the 14 states A closer look at the data shows that this isn’t quite so. Support where the question was asked, Trump ran better or as well among for the non-Trump candidates has broken on exactly the ideological those who did not feel betrayed by Republican officials. Trump’s persona doesn’t explain his success, either. Exit polls Mr. Olsen is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. ask voters what quality they find most important in a candidate,

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Donald Trump acknowledges supporters at a campaign rally in South Carolina, February 5, 2016.

and one of the options is “tells it like it is.” We should expect this The exit polls confirm this interpretation. The ban is highly to be one of the most popular answers among Trump’s supporters popular among Republican primary voters, with between 63 and if they were primarily attracted to his brashness. It is not. It almost 78 percent approving it in every state where the question was always ranks third, just ahead of electability, and is usually men- asked. Trump normally wins between 45 and 50 percent of these tioned by about 20 percent of all voters. Trump does clean up with voters. But this actually understates the import of the issue to his that 20 percent—he usually gets around 80 percent of the vote candidacy. Between 80 and 90 percent of his voters back the ban, among those who prefer someone who “tells it like it is.” But meaning that it unites his backers more than any other concern. fewer than half of his voters overall choose that answer. This fact helps us understand the change his voters want. A larger share of Trump’s vote comes from people choosing Opponents of Trump’s views on immigration, trade, and a ban on another quality, the one that often finishes first or second: “can Muslims’ entering the United States often use individual-based bring needed change.” About a third of all voters select this arguments to justify their views. Immigration is needed because quality on average, and Trump usually gets about half of their individual employers need to contract with individual workers. votes. Indeed, these voters are so important to him that he Free trade is good for individual companies and consumers, and always either loses or wins quite narrowly when he gets fewer for the (often foreign) individuals with whom they trade. The than 45 percent of their votes. Those who want to understand rights of individual Muslims in America outweigh the concerns Trumpism, therefore, must understand the nature of the change of native-born Americans about their safety. The implicit under- Trump’s voters want him to bring. standing conveyed by many in the “never Trump” movement is that the country is little more than a land mass containing individuals rather than an entity with obligations to, and capable of E can do so by looking for the common thread that ties imposing obligations on, those who belong to it. together the issues those voters care about: a per- Trump voters disagree with this view. The America they want to ceived failure on the part of government to protect “make great again” is not a land mass, a large, rules-based network vulnerabWle Americans from threats to their way of life. that lets individuals coordinate with minimal transaction costs. It With immigration and trade, the danger is economic— is instead a place, a people, a nation. Trump voters believe that they Americans (in the view of Trump voters) are losing jobs and have upheld their side of the American social contract, while others— wages to competition from foreigners, and the people who run businessmen, politicians, journalists, professors—have violated it. the country prefer profiting from that competition to protecting In past generations, American conservative philosophy and workers who are harmed by it. political leadership incorporated this strand of thinking into the The stakes are felt to be much higher with Trump’s proposed movement. Writers such as Russell Kirk and Edward Shils would indefinite ban on Muslims’ entering the United States: The per- remind us that society has organic, primordial elements that no ceived danger is to life itself. Trump voters believe they are culture of individuality can erase. Leaders such as Ronald Reagan threatened by Islamic terrorism. If Muslims come to America, subtly weaved this element of thought into their invocations of they think, Americans will be more likely to die. Trump’s pro- American nationality. The “boys of Pointe du Hoc” were worthy posed ban seems to them to be common sense: The first duty of of praise not because they individually made courageous choices, a national government is to protect its citizens from foreign although they clearly did in the heat of battle. They were worthy threats. One must not underestimate how important the proposed of praise because they did their duty, they fulfilled their end of the ban is to Trump’s voters and to his appeal. Trump’s national poll national bargain. Reagan’s appeal to Americans, especially to the numbers were stuck in a narrow band in the mid 20s prior to the so-called Reagan Democrats, rested in part on the notion that he Paris and San Bernardino terrorist attacks, according to the would always commit the country to fulfilling its end of the deal. RealClearPolitics averages. He started to move into the high 20s Recapturing Reagan’s blend of American individualism and GETTY IMAGES / immediately after the Paris attacks, and his appeal skyrocketed American nationalism will be difficult but not impossible. A con- after he proposed the ban on December 7. Polls taken after that servative movement that can achieve this goal will not only heal date show him in the mid to high 30s, a position of dominance a fractured party; it will also create a not-so-silent majority and SEAN RAYFORD that he has held ever since. win many elections to come.

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The Long View BY ROB LONG

money into risky cattle futures and Thanks, Mark. Did you all know makes over $100,000 in a week or that some of the radical changes in so with no trading slips to back up banking laws—which I assure you I the transactional record, they say, will be reviewing as president, I Hey! What a great investor! When a mean, what I’m trying to do here is From the Archives woman does it, they call in CSI: establish a dialogue between the of the Hillary Wall Street! regulatory structure and you guys. Rodham Clinton Am I right? That’s a topical refer- It doesn’t have to be adversarial. ence! Hope you all enjoyed that! You have a nice little bank here. Be Presidential Library Oh, right: The work you guys do a shame if something happened to —particularly you, Adebayo, and it. Wasn’t that a fun reference? I’m you, too, Deborah—and may I just a fun person! It’s really wonderful to be here pause for a moment to ask this Anyway, let me demonstrate with you all today. And I must say, question: Which one of you is re - some of the wonderful new exciting the view from here is extraordinary. sponsible for my check today? I changes that I support in the new It’s always a treat to catch up with don’t mean in general, I’m just try- banking and finance environment. my old friend Lloyd Blankfein, and ing to get granular here and find out As you can see, I’m taking out my you, Michelle, and the whole terrific who it is I need to see when I com- smartphone right now and photo - team here at Goldman Sachs, who I plete these remarks to collect pay- graphing this check—wow, still not know are working hard to increase ment? Is it you, Mark? Just raise used to all of those zeroes!—and shareholder value in many wonder- your hand if you would. Yes? that photograph somehow—don’t ful ways. Thanks, sincerely, for Mark? Great. ask me how! I’m not a tech nerd having me. I’m wondering, Mark—and like, well, like you probably are, My remarks today will be about here we can maybe take a moment Lakshmi!—but the photo from my the regulatory work we’re doing and reflect, silently, to ourselves phone becomes a deposit slip of a in Washington, particularly as it on what I’ve already said—I’m kind, and right now—wait, let me impacts the work that you all do— wondering, Mark, if it would be just press send—right now, at this work, may I say, that is very im - possible for you to give me the very moment, the check is being portant and I’m not one, as you all check right now, during my re - deposited to my account and will know, to demonize the things that marks? Is that possible? I know probably be converted into cash by go on here on Wall Street. As some it’s unorthodox, but then one of the time I finish this little talk. of you know—well, maybe some the things I admire about Gold - So please don’t let anyone tell of you older folks here! This man is its willingness to take you I’m anti-bank! I love banks! crowd gets younger and younger risks, to be entrepreneurial. Is that There! Did you hear that beep? each time I speak here at Gold - something you can do? Yes? Isn’t that great? That’s the sound of man, which is now about, what? Thanks! Come on up here with the your check clearing my account. Monthly? Could be more often if check and we can continue with Which means I can spend this money you’d like. We can talk about that the presentation. right now, if I wish. offline. As Mark makes his way to the Thank you, sincerely, for your Anyway, where was I? Right: As front, let me also thank you for the time. I really enjoy visiting with all some of you know, I’m no Wall scrumptious dinner you’ve been so of the Goldman Sachs team and Street basher. I respect the work kind as to prepare. As you know, I hope I can do it more often. and the artistry of the financial sec- ate very little of it, so I’m wonder- I’m happy to answer questions as tor—and as some of you know, I ing if some of it might be packed up I walk to the elevator. But first, I myself dabbled in commodity in - for me to take along with me, on my have a question for you all: These vesting rather successfully—some way to JPMorgan Chase. Is that chairs, in the conference room— thought too successfully, for a possible? Whatever you’ve got is what are they, leather? Can I have woman. They didn’t add that last fine—my plate and/or anyone else’s, one? Wait, two? Can I have two? part—for a woman—but you always frankly, I can put the leftovers to And the flower arrangements— knew that’s what they meant. When good use in the office fridge, so you’re done with those, right? Can a man invests $20,000 of borrowed don’t be shy. I just—

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Athwart BY JAMES LILEKS Supersize My Government, Please

HE bag of coffee was on sale, so I thought I’d try CANDIDATE NO. 3: You know, as I travel around the coun- a new brand. It was McCafé, a product of the try, talking to people, people who are real people, I am McDonald’s Corporation, still believing that reminded that it is the people who are the people of the T “Mc” is an attractive prefix and not a slangy country, and that’s why I have FOUGHT my ENTIRE CAREER TO shorthand for something quick and cheap. No one would FIGHT FOR WOMEN’S HEALTH AND ACCESS TO OPPORTUNITY say, “I need my head opened up. Hope I can find a Mc- AND THE RIGHT TO HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO ACCESS WAGE Neurosurgeon.” But as I said, it was on sale, and I am con- EQUALITY. (Pause.) I have also worked hard in Washington stitutionally unable to spend $14.99 for eight ounces of to reach comprehensive solutions to the issues about coffee- shade-grown, fair-trade, sustainable organic beans that were bag wires we all share, but also to fight Republican efforts spat into by the hipster who ground them, because you to force our children to eat contaminated lead by the bucket. shouldn’t buy your coffee pre-ground. MAN, BEANS BEFORE They say, Oh, the science on eating lead, it’s not settled. I SWINE. (Ptui) say IT IS SETTLED, just like THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE is settled The wire closure that cinches the bag fell off when the bag and Citizens United IS NOT. was opened. It had failed after three seconds of use. Well, CANDIDATE NO. 4: Well that’s an interesting question. I roll it up. Second bag: same thing. That’s a 100 percent hear that a lot. After eight years of Clinton-Obama policies failure rate. It felt like the Seventies all over again: it’s what we’re seeing in a lot of areas. But let me tell you Nothing works, everything’s cheap. This is a problem and what concerns me. A lot of the coffee-bag wire enclosures, I want a presidential candidate to solve they come from China. They’re our big - it for me. Dear possible leaders, the wire g est trading partner, and they’re trying to closures keep falling off my coffee manage an economic contraction. They bags! What say you? have excess capacity in many industries, CANDIDATE NO. 1: We don’t make and they’re shutting down plants. A lot of wire-closing things anymore, it’s a disas- people who moved from the rural area to ter. Right? In South Carolina—where the cities are out of work, just like here they love me by the way, I was ahead by in America. But they don’t have the free- millions and not even the polls saw that dom that makes this great land so great. coming but we did very well, very well, They don’t have a Constitution that gives and they have factories, okay? They them the right to dissent. I worry that don’t make anything. They used to make social unrest in China will lead to reck- things. They don’t anymore. We’re going lessness in foreign affairs, and we are not to change that. What’s that? How will we prepared. When I am president, China change it? Listen, we got smart people, Yale graduates, will know better than to invade Taiwan, because we will Harvard graduates, and they all say I’m one of the smartest have a president who’s not afraid to assert what God put us people they know, and they know doctors. But you got dumb here to do. Let us pray. people—really, really dumb people—in charge of our wire Those are four approaches, and I suppose there are oth- situation. I’m sorry but a lot of dummies. A lot. We’ll work it ers. (“My father was a mailman, and he used wire to bun- out and it’ll be great. We’ll have so much wire, people will dle together the mail people built up over vacation. He be saying, Where did all this wire come from? We will lead brought those letters together, and I can bring the country the world with the wire. together.”) But they don’t address the real issue. First of CANDIDATE NO. 2: For too long, Big Coffee has been pun- all, those wire things fall off half the coffee bags you buy. ishing the American worker by downsizing the amount of It isn’t just a McDonald’s thing. Second, you have to won- wire you get! In the 1950s, a man could feed a family of der whether McDonald’s is branching out into grocery- twelve on what he made down at the wire works! Thirty store coffee to soften the impact of higher minimum years of unregulated capitalism has ruined the industry in this wages on overall corporate growth. It would be refreshing country! I have spoken to the men and women who used to if a candidate addressed those things—you know, it’s not be the backbone of the abacus industry, and they tell me really the worst problem in the world, and McCafé does they’re living off turnips and soup made from boiled dande- say something about how corporations constantly seek lions because we let capitalism spread computers every- new opportunities. where, and that’s why we need to break up the banks into But the issue isn’t the wire. It’s the glue. The glue’s small, digestible pieces with a caramel flavor, like those cheap. What if the candidate blinked and said, “Why, Werther’s candies I like to give to small children! Is it cold in you’re right. I went charging ahead with boilerplate without here? Why do they keep it so cold in here? WAITRESS! really thinking. Sorry! I’ll try not to do that again, and I’ll S ’ really listen to what you say.” Mr. Lileks blogs at www.lileks.com. President in a landslide. MCDONALD

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Weisberg’s readable book does not sprayed his mist cynically, but I do A Man of match the best books in this series, think he had considerable control over notably Garry Wills’s on James it, at least until his later years. He Madison and Douglas Brinkley’s on could disappear into the fog at difficult moments and reemerge when condi- Strategic Gerald Ford, but he does try to be fair tions were more auspicious. to a president whose views he does not Vision share. Despite giving a greater share Weisberg develops his fog theory— of the credit to Mikhail Gorbachev, he compares Reagan to an “inversion L O U C A N N O N Weisberg realizes that Reagan played layer” in which the weather is murkiest an outsize role in ending the Cold near the ground—to explain why Reagan War and in the subsequent demise of was a resonant communicator with the the Soviet Union. He even acknowl- American people while often distanced edges that some of Reagan’s econom- from his family and closest aides. He is ic policies succeeded, though he does not alone in struggling with this sup- not appreciate the full reach of posed contradiction. Reagan’s remote- Reagan’s legacy. ness—Nancy Reagan called it “the Unfortunately, Weisberg’s account Barrier”—drove Morris, his official is undermined by pop psychoanalysis, biographer, up the wall. Unable to Freudian jargon, and an excessive ten- understand Reagan, he resorted to fic- dency to portray Reagan as detached, tion. Weisberg, with scant personal

Ronald Reagan, by Jacob Weisberg (Times, 208 pp., $25) Reagan is hardly the only popular president who was an enigma up close. ONALD REAGAN was good for the United States of disengaged, and unable “to distinguish experience of Reagan, prefers psycho- America. He’s also been a fact from fancy.” The latter quote is analysis, for which he lacks dis- boon to the publishing in - from an interview by Edmund Morris cernible qualifications. dustry,R with the number of Reagan of Reagan’s first serious girlfriend, Biographers should resist the temp- titles now exceeding 1,000. The Reagan some 55 years after she had last seen tation to describe their subjects as liv- presidency casts a long shadow. Per - him. The girl’s father, a minister, is ing in a fantasy world, because they haps because of our country’s present described by Weisberg as a father fig- don’t know what’s going on in the sub- plight, there is a growing realization ure for Reagan, which he might have jects’ heads. Reagan is hardly the only across the political spectrum that been. But Franklin D. Roosevelt, popular president who was an enigma Reagan as president made a construc- Reagan’s first political idol, is labeled up close. For instance, the playwright tive difference. an “alternative father figure,” which is and biographer Robert Sherwood saw Jacob Weisberg realizes this, too, a stretch. It may not ma tter, since in FDR “a thickly forested interior” although he’s not quite sure how it Weisberg believes that Reagan was in that kept others from penetrating his happened. His book is the latest in the a “fog” much of the time. In the mind. Sherwood never put FDR on the American Presidents series, created by author’s words: couch, as Weisberg does with Reagan, the historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. but he did use psychological insights and now edited by Sean Wilentz, which Willed blurriness became a technique to explain him. I tried to do the same in aims “to present the grand panorama of [Reagan] used to overlook moral laps- my books about Reagan without hav- our chief executives in volumes comes by the country he loved. . . . Tuning ing any illusion that there was a single pact enough for the busy reader, lucid out discomfiting realities allowed key to his personality. My explanation enough for the scholar.” Put less Reagan to articulate his resonant ver- for Reagan’s distancing was that his grandly, these books are extended sion of American exceptionalism, his father, Jack Reagan, was a nomadic essays for readers who want to know belief in the country’s divine chosen- alcoholic who moved his family from something, but not too much, about a ness and moral superiority. Reagan one Illinois town to another during found that vagueness was a good man- particular president. Ronald Reagan’s formative years, agement technique as well. Setting broad direction and leaving the details depriving him of the opportunity to Mr. Cannon covered the Reagan presidency for the form boyhood friendships. Of necessity, Washington Post and wrote five books about to others meant he got credit for what others accomplished, but less than the Reagan became comfortable in his Reagan, including President Reagan: The Role ordinary measure of blame when his own company. He wasn’t aloof, how- of a Lifetime. plans ran aground. I don’t think Reagan ever. Young Reagan was a popular boy

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who excelled in dramatics and swim- tion, “meaning they reserve unto them- The two leaders shared a poignant fear ming. I suspect he had a rich inner life, selves the right to commit any crime, to that the United States and the Soviet as evidenced by his vibrant imagina- lie, to cheat, in order to attain that.” But Union might blunder into a nuclear war tion. But with the exception of Nancy Reagan also said at this press confer- if their nations forever remained on Reagan, he rarely shared this inner ence that he favored negotiating with hair-trigger alert with thousands of world with others. the Soviets “an actual reduction in the missiles pointing at the other. That’s In public life, as governor of Cali - numbers of nuclear weapons” on a ver- still a concern, but Reagan and Gor - fornia and then as president, Reagan ifiable basis. Weisberg quotes the first bachev much reduced the danger. was rarely a detail man, but he dis- statement but not the second. Weisberg chortles at Reagan’s lapses, played what his long-serving secretary From his first day in office, Reagan such as mistaking his housing secre- of state, George P. Shultz, called “strate- repeatedly reached out to the Soviets, tary, Samuel Pierce, for a mayor at a gic thinking.” He may have lacked a observes Jack F. Matlock Jr., a Russian- conference of mayors. But when it precise blueprint, but Reagan knew speaking Reagan adviser, in his valu- mattered, Reagan was a commanding what he wanted to achieve. At the able book Reagan and Gorbachev: leader. This is demonstrated by the Washington Post in June 1980, Reagan How the Cold War Ended. The problem transcripts of the 1986 Reykjavik was asked whether the U.S. arms was the void at the other end of the line. summit between Reagan and Gorba - buildup he advocated would intensify Leonid Brezhnev, the Soviet leader chev, which ended dramatically when the arms race. Reagan said that the when Reagan took office, was so men- Reagan firmly refused to give up SDI. Soviet economy was so unstable that tally frail, said Matlock, that he was There is no sign Weisberg has read the economic pressure of an arms “no longer capable of discussing even these transcripts, which show a confi- buildup would bring the Soviets to the trivial issues coherently.” His two suc- dent Reagan more than holding his bargaining table. Reagan, who had cessors were physically ill. Brezhnev’s own with Gorbachev, no slouch, on been president of the Screen Actors immediate successor, Yuri Andropov, complex issues. The Reykjavik sum- Guild during a turbulent period, wanted died of kidney disease. Konstantin mit led to the important Intermediate- to sit down with a Soviet leader with Chernenko perished from cirrhosis of Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, the basis the United States in a position of the liver. By the time Chernenko died, of every subsequent U.S.–Russian strength. To this end, he pushed on March 10, 1985, Reagan and his arms treaty. Last summer, as Barack through Congress the largest peacetime advisers had prepared a policy frame- Obama and Vladimir Putin were ex - military buildup in the nation’s history. work to engage the Soviets on arms, changing insults, officials from their He also embraced a missile-defense human rights, and other issues. Then, two countries were inspecting each plan, the Strategic Defense Initiative, said Reagan, “along came Gorbachev.” other’s nuclear weapons. that frightened the Soviets because it would have meant competing on multi- ple technologies in which the United States had an advantage. Weisberg properly lauds Reagan for recognizing the fragility of the Soviet system when most of his contempo- raries did not. Had George H. W. Bush won the presidency in 1980, writes Weisberg, he would probably have pursued a “realist foreign policy that . . . accepted the Cold War status quo as a permanent condition. The Soviets would have felt no economic pressure from an accelerated arms race or SDI, and no moral pressure from a righteous American leader.” But Weisberg goes astray in thinking that “Reagan’s idiosyncratic view of the Soviet Union as weak and vulnera- ble pointed him in two contradictory directions,” one confrontational, the other conciliatory. The two were of a GETTY IMAGES

/ piece. Reagan saw the value of calling things by their right names. In his ini- tial press conference as president, on CONTRIBUTOR / January 29, 1981, Reagan responded to a question by saying that the Soviets BETTMANN remained dedicated to world revolu-

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BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS

On domestic issues, Weisberg ac - of the EU from its idealistic beginnings know ledges Reagan’s achievements The EU’s in the ashes of World War II, through the but gives the credit to others. “The leg- creation of the euro more than a decade islative accomplishments of Reagan’s ago, to today’s refugee-migrant crisis. second term were the pet ideas of sen- Soft Utopia He laments that, “after 65 years, the EU ators which Reagan adopted as his has conclusively shown itself to be J O H N F O N T E own: Bill Bradley’s tax reform, Alan inherently undemocratic, unaccountable Simpson’s immigration reform, and and unresponsive to voters.” Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s welfare From the beginning, the intellectual reform,” Weisberg writes. What is he architects of European integration talking about? Reagan favored tax sought to limit democratic sovereignty reform when Bradley was playing bas- in the name of supranational gover- ketball for the Knicks, and he was nance. The strategy to advance integra- always appreciative of the contribution has been dubbed the “Monnet tions of immigrants, legal or not. As for method” after its foremost theorist and welfare reform, Weisberg himself practitioner, Jean Monnet. The method relates that Reagan achieved a major envisioned a gradualist approach that welfare-reform bill as governor of started with consolidating the economic California by negotiating with opposition The New Totalitarian Temptation: Global Governance sphere, but with the ultimate aim of Democrats. He didn’t need Moynihan to and the Crisis of Democracy in Europe, by Todd European political integration—while jump-start him. obfuscating the extent of this transfer of Huizinga (Encounter, 280 pp., $23.99) Weisberg also misunderstands Ameri- power from the citizens of the member can exceptionalism, a concept first de - states, through a conscious policy of scribed by Tocqueville in 1831 and HIS is the best book ever “constructive ambiguity.” enunciated in varying forms by most U.S. written about the European The introduction of the euro was a presidents, including Obama. Reagan Union. The author, Todd classic example of the Monnet method. himself did not use the phrase, much Huizinga (currently with the Huizinga writes that the political decision less assert the “moral superiority” of the ActonT Institute), served as a U.S. to create the euro “defied basic econom- United States. He proclaimed instead Foreign Service officer for two decades. ics”: “The decision was taken . . . explic- that our country was exceptional in After years in Brussels, Luxembourg, itly because they believed a common serving as a haven for freedom-loving and Germany, he knows the EU as few currency would prove unsustainable people and as a global beacon for American scholars or statesmen do. He without political integration. Thus, it democracy. More than a score of deftly captures the essence of the would ultimately force Europeans to nations became democracies during the European Union as a “soft utopia,” a accept a politically integrated EU.” Reagan years, and the United States quasi-religious vision of a secular Indeed, the inevitable crisis resulting didn’t invade any of them except heaven on earth. from the creation of a common currency Grenada, where thugs had murdered the At the core of the EU is the belief in for nations at vastly different stages of Marxist prime minister. U.S. forces supranationalism. The proponents of the economic development (to say nothing arrested the killers, expelled Cuban sol- EU consciously portray its suprana- of different work cultures and mores) diers who were building an airstrip, and tional institutions as a model for “global has resulted in broad transfers of power left as swiftly as they had come. “More governance.” In this intended utopia, all from democratic nation-states to un - than any other people on Earth, we bear nation-states in the future would cede democratic supranational institutions. burdens and accept risks unprecedented national sovereignty, and thus political Hence, today the executive branches of in their size and their duration, not for and legal authority, to supranational democratic states must submit their ourselves alone but for all who wish to institutions, just as today the European budgets for approval to the European be free”: The president who said this Court of Justice is a higher legal author- Commission (an unelected suprana- was not Ronald Reagan but John F. ity for Germans than their own courts, tional bureaucracy) before they are Kennedy. It lucidly expresses Reagan’s and most British laws originate not in submitted to their own elected national conception of American exceptionalism. the House of Commons but in the parliaments. At the same time, the Two Reagans are on display in European Commission in Brussels. European Central Bank has assumed Weisberg’s telling. One decisively sets a From the EU perspective, supranation- unprecedented and unaccountable bold agenda, rewrites and edits speeches, alism is necessary to achieve world political power. and makes productive compromises peace and global human rights. Huizinga notes that because of the with foreign and domestic adversaries. In clear and cogent language, the euro crisis, “the democratically elected The other is staff-dependent and in a author meticulously details the history leaders of Italy and Greece were ousted fog. Readers who know nothing about in late 2011” by EU leaders in the name Reagan will learn from this book that he Mr. Fonte, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, is of economic stability. As New York was a transformational president. But the author of Sovereignty or Submission, the Times columnist Ross Douthat put it, the they won’t have a clue as to how he winner of the 2012 Intercollegiate Studies Institute ousters of the Italian and Greek prime accomplished what he did. book award for best nonfiction. ministers “open a troubling window on

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what a true European state would look Israel, which suffers unrelenting EU ism, and a sober view of human nature.” like. Stability would be achieved at the hostility largely because [it is] a democ- The Constitution, the Declaration of expense of democracy.” ratic and proud nation-state.” Independence, and The Federalist ex - Huizinga writes that German chancel- No doubt EU elites sincerely believe pressed a belief in an objective truth and lor Angela Merkel, “arguably the most in supranational global governance, but, reality and in a flawed human nature powerful person in Europe,” is walking as Huizinga remarks, this idea, “at its (while recognizing that human beings a “tightrope” as she balances between core, cannot but be a sworn enemy to possessed enough redeemable qualities her constitutional duty to German citi- democratic sovereignty as practiced in to make self-government possible). zens and the utopian dream of European the American system.” Therefore, it is The worldview of the Founding political integration and global gover- not surprising that the EU leaders’ Fathers led to the creation of an nance. With “her sporadic calls for more adherence to global-governance ideology Ameri can government that was limited Europe,” Merkel has “updated” the often translates into principled opposi- and emphasized the separation of Monnet method and chosen “the utopian tion to U.S. foreign-policy initiatives powers and checks and balances. The dream of European integration” over and, at a minimum, complicates cooper- American Founders, unlike the revo- democratic sovereignty. “Merkel’s com- ation within the Western alliance. lutionaries of the past century in Nazi mitment to saving the euro at all Huizinga provides us with examples Germany and Communist Russia, costs” has led to significant opposition of this from his days in the State De - China, and Cuba, did not seek to cre- from “prominent business people, partment. President Clinton attempted ate a “new man,” but assumed an economists, and bankers” within to work with our European allies to unchanging human nature. Huizinga Germany. Likewise, her “welcoming” establish a Nuremberg-style interna- maintains that this Judeo-Christian attitude (the German establishment tional court for war crimes, a court that worldview still, for the most part, pre- refers to it as “Willkommenskultur”) would respect democratic sovereignty, vails in America culturally, among toward refugee-migrants has triggered but they rebuffed him and insisted on both believers and non-believers. increased political opposition to her creating the International Criminal On the other hand, Huizinga tells us, policies in Germany and throughout Court with legal authority over Ameri - the worldview of the EU is profoundly Europe. Huizinga asks, “Will Germany, can citizens. President Bush met different: It holds that human nature is until now an indispensable motor of the opposition from European leaders in malleable. It favors a “transformative drive for supranational integration, pull prosecuting the War on Terror, on and liberationist” approach that would back from the dream of European polit- issues rangin g from POW status for ter- reconstruct human nature and “free” ical union?” rorists to the need for U.N. approval for human beings from the constraints of In May 2014, elections to the Euro - any use of force. Even President Obama tradition, family, society, and even pean Parliament in country after country has run afoul of EU globalists for order- objective reality. In several chapters resulted in devastating losses for the ing unilateral drone strikes against examining the EU’s global promotion of pro-EU parties and gains for Euro - Islamist terrorists rather than the pre- radical feminism, LGBT rights, and chil- skeptics of the Right, Left, and center. ferred transnational-progressive “global dren’s (anti-parental) rights, Huizinga The voters expressed an interest in law” solution that would bring the argues that the EU’s transnational- returning power to nation-states, but the “alleged” terrorists before a suprana- progressive agenda seeks to expand a European Parliament is mainly a talking tional court for trial. supranational authority that promotes shop. For example, it cannot introduce Besides globalist ideology, for some the concept of the autonomous, atom- legislation, although it can block ini- Europeans (particularly French offi- ized individual in opposition to the tra- tiatives proposed by the European cials) the purpose of the EU is to provide ditional institutions of civil society Commission. In any case, the leaders a geopolitical counterweight to the (family, marriage, religion). At the of the EU, with the installation of United States. The view that a politically same time, Huizinga examines how the Jean-Claude Juncker (an ardent euro- united Europe could become a world “trickle-down postmodernism” of the federalist) as head of the European power that rivals the U.S. is, Huizinga EU is totally ill prepared, both physically Commission, essentially ignored the writes, “ubiquitous among European and culturally, to face the threat of radi- election results and even expanded the pundits and elites.” cal Islam in Europe. centralized power of the EU administra- Most significantly, Huizinga identi- Notwithstanding his criticism of the tion over the democratic nation-states. fies the “fundamental” source of EU, Huizinga remains deeply apprecia- Huizinga explains that, despite the American–EU tension as “the fact that tive of historic European civilization often touted shared values and long- Europe is largely post-Christian while (“the unrivaled heritage of Athens, standing partnership uniting the U.S. the United States remains culturally, if Rome, and Jerusalem”). He describes and Western Europe, fundamental ten- not in actual religious faith, Judeo- Europe as “America’s most important sions exist between the American Christian.” This divide is seen most ally,” insists that the “old Europe” that nation-state and the EU. At the deepest emphatically in vastly different views of “birthed Western civilization is still philosophical level, “the United States human nature. In The Federalist, Hamil- alive and kicking,” and envisions a by its very existence stands in the way ton, Madison, and Jay sought to con- “reformed” EU of sovereign democratic of the EU vision of a world that has struct the American republic on what nation-states in a strong transatlantic evolved beyond the nation-state,” Huizinga summarizes as “reverence for alliance with the United States. One can Huizinga writes. “The same goes for wisdom and experience, prudent real- only hope.

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more questionable is the grandiose claim ment were also notably different and Witnesses of the subtitle, that the six individuals offer little basis for any generalization. dealt with, and presumably their politi- The book has barely any conclusions: cal attitude change, “reshaped the They amount to two and a half pages of PAUL HOLLANDER American century.” A closer look at what the author calls a “Postscript,” these six people—Whittaker Chambers, which is a poor substitute for them. James Burnham, Ronald Reagan, What we have are six discrete biogra- Norman Podhoretz, David Horowitz, and phies, interesting and informative frag- Christopher Hitchens—offers little sup- ments of intellectual history that do not port for this assertion. Oppenheimer does live up to the promises and claims made not explain how he selected his protago- in the beginning. They often meander nists, a disparate group, members of and lose their intended focus—suppos- which had little in common, other than edly, the roots of political involvement their transient attraction to leftist ideas and disillusionment. and causes. Much has already been writ- Perhaps unavoidably, these mini- ten about all of them. Given the declared biographies drift in the direction of goals (quoted above) of the study, it is far psychobiography. For instance, Oppen - Exit Right: The People Who Left the Left and Reshaped from clear why only those were included heimer plausibly argues that Horowitz the American Century, by Daniel Oppenheimer who “exited to the right,” while those was motivated by “a need to redeem the (Simon & Schuster, 416 pp., $28) who became moderate leftists or liberals, radical hopes and action of his parents,” or withdrew altogether from politics, who were lifelong members of the were excluded. Communist Party of the U.S.A. and HE attempt to better understand Reagan, of course, is the most incon- never revised their beliefs. Less suc- the complex and elusive con- gruous member of this group, which oth- cessfully, he speculates about Horowitz: nections between the personal erwise might have been characterized as “From the anger and self-hatred a polit- and the political realms in our one composed of intellectuals. Aside from ical intuition began to coalesce. Barely Tpsyche is a worthwhile endeavor, hard as differences in personality, education, even an intuition at first—a shard of they might be to unearth and document. and occupation, they are separated, most pain emanating from the suppurating For well over half a century, intellectual im portantly, by sharp and pronounced wound in his psyche gesturing in the historians and authors of different ideological and psychological differ- direction of an intuition.” political persuasions have been asking: ences in regard to the political commit- To his credit, Oppenheimer is, on the Why have Communist movements and ments and beliefs they eventually whole, impressively nonjudgmental and systems attracted so many Western dis carded. Reagan and Podhoretz were sympathizes with the travails that attend intellectuals, and why, and under what never Communists, fellow travelers, or his subjects’ wrenching changes of polit- conditions, have many of the same intel- members of the radical Left. They had a ical attitude. He seems genuinely inter- lectuals become disillusioned with them? lot less to be disillusioned with than oth- ested in understanding their motives and The author of this well-written (and ers of far deeper and more durable com- behavior. Although not a historian or a widely and favorably reviewed) volume mitments. Reagan and Podhoretz used social scientist (he is identified on the seeks to explore these interrelated mat- to be liberals, or Democrats, on the cover as a writer and filmmaker with an ters, and in doing so makes some large American political spectrum. MFA in non-fiction), he did his home- claims. He begins by averring: “This is a Arguably, Reagan was the least work and writes much better than his book about why six men changed—why politically active in this group: The academic colleagues. For example, sum- they moved from one set of political author refers to his having had only a marizing the disillusionment of Burnham beliefs to staunchly different ones. It’s “low-impact commitment” to politics not only with Communist politics but also a history of the American Left in the until he became a vocal conservative. with Marxism itself, he writes: “The 20th century, and the rise of the Right. . . . By contrast, Chambers was a genuine authoritarianism, the deterministic faith It’s a book about how we come to believe Communist and a Soviet spy; Burnham, a in the ultimate triumph of the movement, at all. Why is it that each of us holds the well-educated upper-class Trotskyite the hubristic claims to having perfect beliefs that we do?” writer-intellectual (and a senior editor of understanding of all realms of knowl- Exit Right is certainly not a history of NATIONAL REVIEW later in his life); edge, the irrational loyalty to the Soviet the American Left, but it does provide Podhoretz, a liberal New York intellectual, Union, and, particularly, the mysticism insights and information about it. Far editor of Commentary; Horowitz, a and disguised eschatology of dialectical Sixties radical and activist, author of sev- materialism—these weren’t infected Mr. Hollander is a professor emeritus of sociology at eral books; Hitchens, also a Trotskyite, a appendixes one could simply cut away the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and an British journalist and contrarian (“the from the body of Marxism.” associate of the Davis Center for Russian and underdog was his party,” writes Oppen - Commenting on the disposition of Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. His book heimer) who moved to the United States Podhoretz, he illuminatingly notes: “It From Benito Mussolini to Hugo Chávez: and was a columnist for The Nation. was steeped in Freud, and took as its Intellectuals and a Century of Political The trajectory and sources of these gospel his conviction that reason was but Hero Worship will be published later this year. men’s involvement and their disillusion- a skiff floating atop the sea of terror, con-

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BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS

fusion, and need that filled up most of the “Dahss,” not “Dohss.” For these pages, human psyche.” Welcome Dos Passos reported from the 1964 For readers who know little about these Republican convention. Four months figures and their politics, the book offers later, he voted for the nominee, Gold - substantial, colorfully presented informa- Back, Dos water. Dos Passos died in 1970. tion but no particular new insight or It was in 1956 that he published The proposition. Oppenheimer usefully re- JAY NORDLINGER Theme Is Freedom. It is a collection of affirms that it is almost impossible to sep- his journalism. A better description, and arate the personal from the political, and OT long ago, I was titling a a more accurate one, comes from Dos that one realm should not be used to dis- piece, and a phrase came to Passos himself: a “collection of various credit the other: mind: “The theme is free- writings of a more or less political com- dom.” Where had it come plexion out of tattered back numbers of It is easy to disparage other people’s Nfrom? I knew it was the title of a book by surviving and defunct publications and politics by psychologizing, historiciz- John Dos Passos, one that I had long out of the already brittle pages of some ing, biologizing, or sociologizing them. wanted to read. of my own out of print books.” What - The harder and more important truth to It is also the title of a book by M. ever it is, The Theme Is Freedom is daz- admit is that everyone’s politics are res- Stanton Evans, the famed conservative zling and deep. Who writes like Dos onating on all of these frequencies. journalist. The full title of that book, pub- Passos today? Mark Helprin, for one, Once that point is granted, it casts into relief the problem with one of the lished in 1994, is “The Theme Is Freedom: but not many others. charges that is so often leveled against Religion, Politics, and the American The collected pieces date from 1926 to political turncoats, which is that they Tradition.” I’d like to read this one, too. the present, i.e., 1956. That is a neat span are acting out personal issues. Of Dos Passos was very famous. His name of 30 years. And, for the anniversary- course they are. That’s what being is little remembered today, but it was one minded, this is the 60th anniversary of the human entails. of the biggest in American letters from the book. Throughout the book, Dos Passos 1920s until, say, midcentury. In fact, that’s provides a running commentary, in ital- There remains the question why sev- the title of one of his novels: “Mid - ics. That is, his mid-’50s self comments eral reputable reviewers and important century.” Dos Passos was born in 1896. on his earlier self. He is sometimes publications found this book worthy of Sartre called him “the greatest writer of embarrassed, but he would not have re - considerable attention. Some of these our time.” But something happened: Dos published these pieces if he weren’t reviewers clearly have strong reserva- Passos broke with the Left, where every- pleased with them—as well he should be. tions about the “turncoats” here dis- one was, and moved right, for he was He maintains that, wherever he has cussed, and the volume offers some essentially a liberal, in the old sense. been on the political spectrum, his theme material that, regardless of the author’s Hemingway told him that, if he persisted has been constant: the freedom of the intentions, helps to confirm their nega- in his independence of thought, “the New individual, and therefore of society as a tive disposition. Thus George Packer York reviewers will kill you. They will whole. We can argue with him, and claim wrote in The New Yorker: “Each tale of demolish you forever.” They did. that he tarried too long with the Left, but defection reveals a personal temper that Critics decided that he could no longer he has a case. And, even at his left-most, makes these men passionately hostile to write—which was baldly untrue. One he was usually awake and skeptical, the politics of pluralism. They embrace beneficiary of his writing was a new rather than hypnotized and fanatical. new truths with the convert’s fervor and magazine, NATIONAL REVIEW. NR’s The first chapter of his book is about the certitude. . . . What they loathe most is founder, William F. Buckley Jr., once Sacco and Vanzetti case. Nicola Sacco and liberalism.” Sam Tanenhaus in The talked to me about Dos Passos. People Bartolomeo Vanzetti, remember, were the Atlantic suggested that “the personal called him “Dos,” he said—pronounced Italian immigrants to America who were doesn’t just merge with the political but swallows it whole, . . . as ideological heresy becomes its own form of post- ONE FLOWER modern exhibitionism.” Alan Wolfe (writing in The New Republic) felt that One flower stands for beauty, two for hope. there was not enough emphasis on the More buds begin their version of cross-talk narcissism of these figures and that With tangled leaf and strong, supporting stalk. Oppenheimer took them too seriously. Subject to breeze, they sway but somehow cope. These reviewers seem skeptical about the possibility that disillusionment with Shadows of butterflies, silk wings complete radical leftist beliefs, even when it leads Within this cloistered space are also seen. to new certitudes, indicates that human Their colored layers; texture, pattern, sheen, beings can learn from experience. And Are made from nectar. All the bees repeat they seem reluctant to acknowledge that it Their buzzing truth that no bloom stands alone, takes some courage to publicly reject But echoes every heart and mind and bone. comforting but groundless beliefs and false hopes. —SALLY COOK

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accused of murder in 1920 and executed “redhaired.” Formerly a lawyer in San seven years later. Many protested their Francisco, the officer now serves in our innocence, saying that they were victims of military government. And he doesn’t anti-immigrant prejudice and political dis- much like what he has seen. The Soviets crimination. (The pair were anarchists.) are carving up Europe, and the Ameri - Dos Passos was a protester. In fact, he was cans seem unsure of themselves. arrested alongside Edna St. Vincent Millay. What he tells Dos Passos has, to me, a The next chapter is about the Soviet terribly contemporary ring: Union, which Dos Passos visited in 1928. The Bolshevik state was just eleven years If the American people want to commit old. Then Dos Passos writes about Harlan suicide, I suppose in a democratic country County, Ky., in 1932. Like Sacco and it’s the politician’s business to tie the noose for us so that we can slip it comfort- Vanzetti, the miners were a cause célèbre. ably around our necks. . . . It’s all this apol- Then we have Dos Passos reporting from ogizing that makes me sick. With all our the Spanish Civil War—more dubious faults we have invented a social system by than ever about the Communists, world- which the majority of men for the first wide. Later, we get him among American time in human history get a break, and troops in World War II. The book also instead of being cocky about it we apolo- includes essays, which are timeless. John Dos Passos gize about it. . . . We built up the greatest But then, so are the reporting pieces, for army in the world and won the war with it, their observations about people, passions, This label, says Dos Passos, “was my and now we’re letting everything go to and politics. Reading this book, I thought refuge.” He was guilty of the heresy, and, pieces. . . . We apologized to the French for constantly about the present, which is not though he would join certain causes of saving their country and we apologize to the British and we apologize to the so different from the immediate past—or the Left, he would never give up his Russians. . . . First thing you know we’ll the distant past. I’d like to give you tastes patriotism, his democracy, his attach- be apologizing to the Germans for licking of the book. And we should begin with ment to the Founders’ vision. them. . . . And they all hate our guts and it Sacco and Vanzetti, and their partisans. “The House of Morgan was powerful damn well serves us right. Talking to us in 1956, Dos Passos has in those days,” writes Dos Passos, mean- a memory: ing the 1920s, “but not that powerful. It Incidentally, Dos Passos’s candidate was years before I learned that producing in 1964, Goldwater, titled his memoirs The protest meeting is over and I’m a bogy man was an emotional quirk that “With No Apologies.” standing on a set of steps looking into the blocked clear thinking.” In 1950, Dos Passos wrote an essay faces of the people coming out of the hall. At the beginning of April, a presidential called “The Changing Shape of Society.” I’m frightened by the tense righteousness candidate, Senator Bernie Sanders, sat In it, he issues a word to the wise, or sev- of the faces. Eyes like a row of rifles down with the New York Daily News. An eral of them. “If we are to save the repub- aimed by a firing squad. Chins thrust for- ward into the icy night. It’s almost in editor noted that Sanders liked to accuse lic we must continually be aware of the marching step that they stride out into “corporate America” of tearing the “fabric aims of the republic.” Those aims, he the street. It’s the women I remember of the nation.” Could he name some cor- encapsulates as “the daily effort to give to most, their eyes searching out evil porations that were doing this? The first every man as much opportunity as is pos- through narrowed lids. There’s some- syllables out of the candidate’s mouth sible to fulfill himself in his own way, thing threatening about this unanimity of were “JPMorgan Chase.” I wonder what protected by law from the arbitrary mea- protest. They are so sure they are right. ol’ J.P. (1837–1913) would think: still a sures of those in authority.” He also notes bogy, well into the 21st century. that a society “has to be born again from Dos Passos agreed with the protest, In Spain, Dos Passos saw the Fascists time to time.” As many of us see it, 2016 mind you. Was part of it. But he was and the Communists fighting each other, would be a really good time. unnerved—“frightened”—by the people. with both sides killing the liberals. They Writing in 1956, Dos Passos says, I know these people. I saw them in my “shot the best men first,” he writes, look- “The ordinarily decent impulses the or - hometown of Ann Arbor. You can see ing back on the war 20 years later. He dinary man learned at his mother’s knee them on campuses today, as “SJWs,” or further writes, “How to bring home to are our last line of defense against the “social-justice warriors.” You can see people in America that their own liberties wickedness of overweening power at them wherever there is arrogant, intoler- depended to a certain extent on the liber- home and abroad.” Are mothers still dol- ant extremism, no matter which direction ties of Russians, Spaniards, Esthonians, ing out decency? They’d better be—or it’s coming from. Poles, Moroccans; that freedom in our we’re cooked. Dos Passos writes, world was indivisible?” Even in the most unburdened life, For those words, he would today get there’s not the time to read or re-read The Marxists who are so skillful in the tagged a “neocon”—which, come to what one wants. But I can t ell you that to ULLSTEIN BILD VIA GETTY IMAGES / detection and the isolation of heresies think of it, he was, sort of, like many read or re-read Dos Passos is rewarding. used to inveigh against one particular another ex-leftist. Frankly, I feel like reading The Theme Is heresy that pleased me particularly. They On a train through Germany in 1946, Freedom again, before moving on. HARRY CRONER called it American exceptionalism. Dos Passos talks to an American captain, Slower this time.

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BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS Film Hollywood’s Great Jungle

ROSS DOUTHAT

F you want to have a sunny view of Hollywood, to believe that sometimes it’s actually the kind of place where talented people can have Neel Sethi in The Jungle Book Ihappy lives making movies that the whole family can enjoy, one place to look would be the career of Jon Favreau. First, it’s an extraordinary techno- who updates “I Wanna Be Like You.” But Favreau is a heavyset, long-faced logical feat: a “live action” movie in the Kipling worldview is more fully real- Italian-Jewish guy from Queens who which the creatures and jungles were all ized this time—the hierarchies and mys- made his way west after dropping out of whipped together seamlessly by comput- teries of the jungle, the role of its law, and college to try to make a career in come- ers but the uncanny-valley phenomenon the ruthlessness of its denizens. dy. He did stand-up, landed a few small is mostly absent and the awe of real nature One denizen, in particular: the mighty movie roles, and then had a big break: is remarkably preserved. In terms of Shere Khan, who is voiced by Idris Elba He wrote and starred in (and, crucially, immersiveness and plausibility, the clos- in a perfect mix of voice work and virtual helped cast his friend Vince Vaughn in) est cinematic comparison to the landscape embodiment, and who gets several of the a little movie called “Swingers,” about Favreau conjures is probably the planet movie’s best speeches, several eloquent guys like him hanging out in Los Pandora from James Cameron’s Avatar. (if self-interested) briefs against man- Angeles, that cost $200,000 to make and The technology was younger then, but cubs and Mankind. His work is matched turned into a film that every late-1990s Avatar was portraying an alien world, by Ben Kingsley as the panther Bagheera college male would see at least 16 times. which made an air of artificiality expect- and Lupita Nyong’o as the wolf matri- (Seventeen in my case, I think.) ed and forgivable. Because we all know arch Raksha, and their confrontations Swingers turned Favreau into an what a tiger looks like, The Jungle Book with the tiger have an edge, an adult indie cult figure and a minor movie star. lacks that safety net. And it doesn’t need thrill, that belongs squarely in the jungle But instead of following Vaughn and it: There is a dream-like seamlessness to as Kipling saw it: perilous, serious, a chasing big-time stardom or simply the finished product, but what’s being myth unto itself. hanging out, Parker Posey–style, in the dreamed feels like Rudyard Kipling’s The only place where I wished the indie realm, he pivoted to mainstream world, not some sort of dismal computer- movie had a touch more Kipling was in its directing in the early 2000s and turned ized copy. Mowgli. As embodied by a warm, wide- himself into a very reliable, very capa- It’s not entirely Kipling’s, of course: faced Neel Sethi, he’s the only “really ble maker of big-budget, non-edgy, yet No 21st-century movie marketed to real” thing in the movie, and his work is often excellent movies. children would dare to channel fully just fine—never distracting, sometimes But he didn’t make them all that often, his stoic Anglo-Indian worldview, and charming, fine. But he still feels a touch which left him with the time and space the film’s reviewers have mostly done too modern in his intonations, a little too to maintain what seems like a kind of their due diligence and made sure that informal and relaxed for a boy supposedly Hollywood dream life: He’s married with any favorable reference to his stories reared in the wolfpack and schooled by three kids (no messy affairs or Affleck- is balanced by a “to be sure” dig at his Bagheera. When he recites the poetry of style meltdowns), he executive-produces imperialism and lack of environmen- his upbringing—“For the strength of the genre TV shows, he acts in a couple of talist enlightenment. Pack is the Wolf / and the strength of the movies every year, and then every few But Favreau plainly set out to inject Wolf is the Pack”—he should sound a years he directs a movie that tends to more Kipling than was present in the last little more like a would-be soldier, and a make a lot of money. He’s had duds, of famous Disney iteration of the story, to little less like a kid. course (see Cowboys and Aliens, or, bet- strike a balance between the stern source But then again Favreau is making a ter, don’t), but he’s also given us the best material and the shaggy-dog picaresque crowdpleaser, not a Kipling-fan-pleaser. Christmas movie of the 21st century in of the late-1960s cartoon. So fans of the And since most kids will have no trou- Elf, one of the best superhero movies in latter get a lazy, hustling Baloo (Bill ble following this Mowgli into the jun- Iron Man—and now, in The Jungle Book, Murray) who does, in fact, sing a version gle, one of Hollywood’s most likeable a movie that’s already doing staggering of “The Bare Necessities,” and a Louie entertainers has once again justified WALT DISNEY PICTURES business, and deserves it. the Monkey King (Christopher Walken) his success.

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French movie—no édition Pléiade— regulation of content policed by City Desk not even there. Cardinal Spellman. A movie could For this movie we went to one of show naked women and bloody men if Manhattan the theaters that are devoted to such that was germane to its purpose. The things—foreign films, old movies, auteurs, whose methods were thought documentaries. There are a number of to be incarnated in foreign films and Moviegoing theaters of this type in the city, though certain old classics, went main- they all seem to be run by foundations. stream—a little bit. Good movies of They have mailing lists, and they the new type got made (gentlemen, show, among the trailers, requests for start your lists). But then it turned out support—better than the Hollywood that what inspired the two most suc- Q&As that run in the plexiplexes cessful auteurs—you’ve seen their (“He played Third Monster in The stuff a million times—was boyish Jedi vs. E.T.”), though you do feel as thrills: sharks, spaceships, tomb raiders. if you’re watching public television It got old very fast. Worse were the in begging season. movies that took their boyish thrills It didn’t always use to be this way. from comic books. They were old the Demand was great enough (constant) minute they were born. I have seen the RICHARD BROOKHISER and expenses (rent) low enough that inevitable fruit—a YouTube mash-up there were revival and art houses that of Batman and Hamilton; the lead rap- E went to see a French seemed to make it on their own. I per, in place of Aaron Burr, is the movie (French actors remember one off Broadway on the Joker. Marvel and DC are our classi- and language, with a bit Upper West Side where I saw Olivier’s cal civilization. With the result, one of Russian and Hebrew Hamlet with Joe Sobran, he saying all among many, that the French movie Wthrown in). Where did we go? the lines as or before Olivier did, occa- still plays in a dinky theater. There is a plexiplex on the square, a sionally spinning his right hand impa- The star of the French movie, and few blocks from my apartment build- tiently (pick it up, Larry!). There was the reason my wife wanted to see it, ing. It hulks on a quarter of city block. another in the East Village where I turned out to be a parenthetical fig- Escalators run up and down, on every saw, with Walter Olson, my first dou- ure. The starlet, who played his long- floor there is a gauntlet of concessions ble bill of The 39 Steps and The Lady lost love, recovered in memory, had to run before you reach the right the- Vanishes (how we applauded the big eyes, a crooked smile, and pale ater, they show umpteen movies at a death of the wretched appeaser). My skin, and burned eros like rocket fuel. time. Not there. wife, who is a few years older than I The theme of the movie was a young A few blocks in the other direction am, remembers a theater in Times man (the hero as a lad) trying to find is the retroplex, housed in an old Square—the ranky-skanky Times his way. Yiddish theater. Molly Picon must Square, when the desnudas were hands- Earlier in the week, on the exercise have been a big draw back in the day, on—that showed samurai movies. bicycle at my gym, I saw a bit of a to judge from the size of it. Now it is There, at the climax of Ugetsu, as the Hollywood western, one made before carved into one or two big theaters and hero made love in a windswept outdoor the auteurs came in. The old hero sat a cluster of little ones, tucked in like pavilion to the ghost of a lady who had in the back of a saloon, chatting up pockets in a hunting jacket. Probably never known passion, Jeanne’s com- some Mexican women. In walked a not there. panion stage-whispered, “It’s a shande young man, trying to find his way. He Downtown a bit there is the high- for the neighbors!” addressed a table of poker-playing vil- endplex that puts on cineaste airs: the You went to see such movies with a lains, center stage. One of them had lobby decked with golden-age-of- friend because seeing them was show- killed a friend of his once. Killer drew, Hollywood posters, but in French, for ing off, or at least sharing a sense of but young man beat him, with a knife foreign release. We did see a French specialness (they’re watching Julie to the chest. Behind the young man movie there once—a film of a literary Andrews, we’re watching Toshiro another villain drew, but the old hero, classic, in alexandrines no less. When Mifune). Snobbery can be mere pride; whom we had momentarily forgotten, we got to the theater it was filled with it can also express appreciation and shot the gun out of this villain’s hand. small children. Aspiring city parents friendship. The theaters that showed The chief villain then good-humoredly start their kids young in hopes of such movies encouraged the comrade- called for order, and we went on to the pitching them into the right private ly experience by serving espresso— next turn of the plot. schools, but this seemed remarkable this in the days when, outside of old When you think how obsessively the even by those demanding standards. Italian neighborhoods, caffeine came auteurs, especially the French ones, Then we realized we had mistakenly only as plain old coffee, made (you studied Hollywood, including its west- gone into the auditorium showing a hoped) that year. erns, maybe the array of theaters and movie about heroic turtles. Quickly Then movies changed. Out went the the change of tastes and even the mash- into the right one, where we had missed studios and Julie Andrews, in came ups (well, maybe not the mash-ups) only a few couplets. For the new the auteurs (and agents). Out went the don’t matter so much. Roll ’em.

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Happy Warrior BY DAVID HARSANYI The Aspirin Eaters

VERY morning I wake up and shake the small magic of a virtual reality, it can offer family members and white plastic bottles scattered across my home friends a taste of what migraine sufferers experience. Each office until one makes a familiar rattling sound. ad ends with an I-told-you-so moment: E I open it and pop two Excedrin pills whether I “I’m sorry I ever doubted you”—See one man’s journey have a headache or not—though most mornings I do. The from migraine doubter to believer. process is repeated throughout the day, almost every day, Or: “See? You believe me now”—Tiffany missed until I get ready for bed. That’s when I rummage through Michaela’s birthday because of a migraine. Now her friend my bottles once again and dig out the nighttime headache can see why. medicine (usually something caffeine-free, like Advil or Are there really migraine deniers? Can people empathize Tylenol) and swallow two more pills. only when they have firsthand familiarity with your This process is a means of prevention. But no matter pain? Maybe. Empathy is the ability not only to perceive what I do, every few weeks I will be subjected to another what others feel but also to experience their emotion in debilitating migraine. It might be triggered by the some way. But then we don’t need to have a bone sticking weather—especially cloudy and rainy days. Or it might be out of our leg to understand that compound fractures can activated by a lack of sleep. Or it could be I’ve stared at a be disagreeable. computer screen or binge-watched TV or talked on the Migraine symptoms include pain, nausea, vomiting, and phone for too long. Maybe I was sitting in rush-hour traffic oversensitivity to light, sound, and smell—basically, all or perhaps I failed to hydrate properly. It’s possible that I the faculties that allow us to be sentient human beings are haven’t been eating the right foods or, even more likely, hampered. It is impossible to write or read or think or even that I haven’t eaten enough. Whatever the case, wherever I tweet. Though it isn’t acute in the way most physical pain am, another migraine is coming. I’ve given up trying to can be, it can be incapacitating. figure out why. Who would inflict this on his family or friends? Frankly, When I was younger, I assumed the attacks were attrib- any machine that could re-create the experience—and utable to cigarette smoking. So I quit. Later, I wondered if color me skeptical—should be weaponized. Honest perhaps my irregular sleeping habits might be the cause, so Excedrin advertising language would probably go some- I went to an apnea specialist. He told me to lose a few thing like: pounds. I did. I’ve tried natural remedies, though I was “Take that, you jerk”—Bill was doubting D avid’s pain, certain they wouldn’t work. They didn’t. One doctor even so David strapped him into a migraine-inducing virtual- suggested that I cut my computer time in half and stop reality contraption against his will and laughed and reading so much—which would have necessitated finding laughed and laughed . . . another career. I got another doctor. Only unpleasant prac- At the risk of sounding saccharine, or like a middle-aged tices such as exercising, eating healthy, and drinking less man contemplating his mortality or grousing about his alcohol have proven to be even somewhat beneficial. increasingly brittle body, I’d say that migraines have Gobbling down painkillers at this rate has become per- taught me some valuable lessons. About empathy, pain, functory, and it’s probably toxic for me in the long run. and perspective. My habit already causes self-inflicted “medication- I don’t know if there is any dignity in suffering, but there overuse headaches”—or rebound headaches—which was a time when my headaches only depressed me. Not occur when a person ingests too many analgesics. I have anymore. Now I reflect that most people experience some rebound headaches daily. Yet I continue taking white and form of slow-boil misery in their lives—either physically blue pills, which also attack my stomach and do God or mentally, often far worse than mine. For instance, I knows what to my liver (though my blood is probably a lot recently started paying attention to the never-ending suc- thinner than yours), because few things scare me more cession of pharmaceutical ads on TV. You know the ones: than having to miss work and my family for a day or two bright, clean, well produced, with distinguished gray- because of a migraine. haired couples, D-list celebrities, and retired sports heroes I’m sure a doctor would prescribe something more imploring viewers to ask their doctor about this new drug. potent, if I asked. But knowing how I feel a bout migraines, These people are starting to resemble me. But they have I’d probably abuse those drugs, as well. So I avoid the lung cancer or hepatitis C or unbearable joint pain or temptation altogether. chronic muscle pain or diabetes or gruesome rashes or A few weeks ago, I ran across an ad campaign produced bouts of incapacitating depression or heart disease or mas- by Excedrin featuring the slogan: “A migraine is more than sive allergic attacks—not to mention an impressive array a bad headache. If you’ve never had one, you can’t under- of other ailments I’ve yet to look up on WebMD for fear of stand. Until now.” The company contends that, through the finding out that I have them. And all of a sudden I feel sorta lucky. As I zoom toward 50, I’m kinda glad all I have are Mr. Harsanyi is a senior editor of the Federalist. migraines—pain and all.

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