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YUVAL LEVIN on the War on Civil Society 2012_8_13 B UPC_1_cover61404-postal.qxd 7/24/2012 7:14 PM Page 1 August 13, 2012 $4.99 AURORA & EVIL — D GEORGE GILDER: WHAT IS CAPITALISM? a v id G e le rn te r Under President Obama: Julia has looked to the government for guidance and succor at every stage of her life. But it has been no subst itute for real community. She is a bleached-out creature of the state, living in a hollow republic. $4.99 YUVAL LEVIN 33 on the war on civil society 0 74820 08155 6 www.nationalreview.com base_milliken-mar 22.qxd 7/23/2012 3:45 PM Page 2 Trim 1 D CYAN BLK : 2400 9 45˚ 105˚ 75˚ G PMS base_milliken-mar 22.qxd 7/23/2012 3:46 PM Page 3 Strike Mobility Surveillance & Engagement Unmanned & Missile Systems Global Support www.boeing.com/militaryaircraft TODAYTOMORROWBEYOND D BLK : 2400 9 45˚ 105˚ 75˚ G toc_QXP-1127940144.qxp 7/25/2012 1:37 PM Page 1 Contents Amity Shlaes on Calvin Coolidge p. 18 AUGUST 13, 2012 | VOLUME LXIV, NO. 15 | www.nationalreview.com COVER STORY Page 27 BOOKS, ARTS The Hollow Republic & MANNERS 41 GREEN SHIFT President Obama’s “you didn’t build Steven F. Hayward reviews How that” speech in Roanoke, Va., shows to Think Seriously about the Planet: The Case for an us not only a man chilly toward the Environmental Conservatism, potential of individual initiative, and not by Roger Scruton. only a man deluded about the nature 42 THE OBAMA FAILURE of his opponents and their views, but Samuel R. Staley reviews Debacle: Obama’s War on Jobs and also (and perhaps most important) a Growth and What We Can man with a staggeringly thin idea of Do Now to Regain Our Future, by Grover G. Norquist and common action in American life. Yuval Levin John R. Lott Jr. COVER: ROMAN GENN 44 MAKING SENSE OF INEQUALITY ARTICLES Scott Winship reviews The Great Divergence: America’s 14 WHAT CAN CAPITALISM DO FOR ME? by Ramesh Ponnuru Growing Inequality Crisis and It’s the voter question Romney must answer. What We Can Do About It, by Timothy Noah. CALLING CAL by Amity Shlaes 18 46 A DYNASTY BEGINS Look to Coolidge for inspiration today. Florence King reviews Winter King: Henry VII and the Dawn of THE ENEMY OF MY FRIEND 20 by Mario Loyola Tudor England, by Thomas Penn. Our foreign policy is rewarding adversaries and alienating allies. 50 FILM: A KNIGHT 24 MASS-MURDER GROUP THERAPY by David Gelernter TO REMEMBER Let’s not pretend we can make sense of what happened in Aurora. Ross Douthat reviews The Dark Knight Rises. FEATURES 51 COUNTRY LIFE: FLASHES OF LIGHT 27 THE HOLLOW REPUBLIC by Yuval Levin Richard Brookhiser offers Kerouacian Can Obama imagine a middle ground between the state and the individual? haikus. 30 PENNILESS IN PARADISE by Kevin D. Williamson The decline and fall of California. SECTIONS 32 UNLEASH THE MIND by George Gilder 4 Letters to the Editor Capitalism means benevolent creativity. 6 The Week 39 Athwart . James Lileks 36 WHO GAVE US OBAMACARE? by Kevin Glass 40 The Long View . Rob Long The medical industry provided crucial support. 44 Poetry . Richard M. Loomis 52 Happy Warrior . Mark Steyn NATIONAL RevIew (ISSN: 0028-0038) is published bi-weekly, except for the first issue in January, by NATIONAL 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., 2012. Address all editorial mail, manuscripts, letters to the editor, etc., to editorial Dept., NATIONAL RevIew, 215 Lexington Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016. Address all subscription mail orders, changes of address, undeliverable copies, etc., to NATIONAL RevIew, Circulation Dept., P. O. Box 433015, Palm Coast, Fla. 32143-3015; phone, 386-246-0118, Monday–Friday, 8:00 A.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., NATIONAL RevIew, 215 Lexington Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016 or call 212-679- 7330. POSTMASTeR: Send address changes to NATIONAL RevIew, Circulation Dept., P. O. 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Item #TMG1580 (Regularly $49.50) More options than you’ll find anywhere else! Your Collar Style: Six Collar Choices. Specify promotional code TXFSNR Your Cuff: Button or French Cuff. New customer offer. Limit four shirts per customer. Your Fit: Regular, Big & Tall or Trim. Shipping charges extra. Cannot be combined with 1 other offers. Free exchanges. Expires 9/30/12. Your Size: 14 ⁄2” x 32” to 20” x 37”. Order Today! Call 800-309-6000 or visit paulfredrick.com/introductory letters--ready_QXP-1127940387.qxp 7/25/2012 1:38 PM Page 4 Letters AUGUST 13 ISSUE; PRINTED JULY 26 Must We Think of the Author to Read? EDITOR I admired Ryan T. Anderson’s review of Natural Law and the Antislavery Richard Lowry Constitutional Tradition (“Written on the Mind,” June 25), but I found one point Senior Editors unclear. Summarizing Justin Buckley Dyer’s views, Anderson writes that Richard Brookhiser / Jay Nordlinger Ramesh Ponnuru / David Pryce-Jones Lincoln’s arguments against slavery “require a certain metaphysics of morals,” Managing Editor Jason Lee Steorts one according to which moral principles are “binding because of God’s design.” Literary Editor Michael Potemra Executive Editor Christopher McEvoy But “Dyer quickly adds that one need not start with belief in God and then work Roving Correspondent Kevin D. Williamson toward morality. Instead, the intelligible order of nature, our ‘grasp of human National Correspondent John J. Miller Political Reporter Robert Costa goods,’ and the ‘distinction we draw between right and wrong’ are themselves Art Director Luba Kolomytseva ‘evidence for the existence of such a providential God.’” Deputy Managing Editors Nicholas Frankovich / Fred Schwarz So people can consider themselves bound by moral law without believing in Robert VerBruggen God. This suggests that, even if it is an intellectual error for such people not to Research Director Katherine Connell Executive Secretary Frances Bronson believe in God, a theistic metaphysics is not, after all, required for a political Assistant to the Editor Madison V. Peace consensus against slavery (although it might make that consensus more likely, Contributing Editors Robert H. Bork / Shannen Coffin by allowing people who do not directly recognize the moral law as law to Ross Douthat / Roman Genn reason in the opposite direction, from God to morality). Jim Geraghty / Jonah Goldberg Florence King / Lawrence Kudlow / Mark R. Levin I wondered if Mr. Anderson could clarify Dyer’s and/or his own position on Yuval Levin / Rob Long / Jim Manzi this matter. When he says that the metaphysics is necessary, does he mean that Andrew C. McCarthy / Kate O’Beirne David B. Rivkin Jr. / Reihan Salam we need explicit agreement on it to bring about the political result? Or does he NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE acknowledge that we might get the result without the metaphysics but hold that, Editor-at-Large Kathryn Jean Lopez in this case, some of the people who opposed slavery would be failing to recog- Managing Editor Edward John Craig National Affairs Columnist John Fund nize one of the consequences of their moral beliefs (namely that God exists)? News Editor Daniel Foster Editorial Associates Charles C. W. Cooke / Katrina Trinko Ogden Smith Technical Services Russell Jenkins Ely, Nev. Web Developer Wendy Weihs Web Production Assistant Anthony Boiano EDITORS- AT- L A RG E RyAn T. AnDeRSOn RepLIeS: Justin Dyer’s view, with which I am in agreement, Linda Bridges / John O’Sullivan is that knowledge of the content of the natural law does not require one to know Contributors that God exists. But a fully coherent philosophical account of the natural law Hadley Arkes / Baloo / James Bowman Eliot A. Cohen / Brian Crozier does require acknowledging a natural lawgiver, God. political consensus, Dinesh D’Souza / M. Stanton Evans though proving fragile and insecure, would require only knowledge of the Chester E. Finn Jr. / Neal B. Freeman James Gardner / David Gelernter natural law, not the broader metaphysic that makes such knowledge coherent— George Gilder / Jeffrey Hart and binding. Kevin A. Hassett / Charles R. Kesler David Klinghoffer / Anthony Lejeune D. Keith Mano / Michael Novak Alan Reynolds / Tracy Lee Simmons Terry Teachout / Vin Weber Race to the Finish Chief Financial Officer James X.
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