Infocusfocusquarterly Governing Post-Pandemic

VOLUMEVOL. 9 ISSUE 15 ISSUE 4 | FALL 2 | 2015 SPRING 2021

ininFOCUSFOCUSQUARTERLY Governing Post-Pandemic

ALLIANCES:Featuring AMERICAN an Interview INTERESTS with Prof. IN A GlennCHANGING Loury WORLD LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER

elcome to Spring. Daffodils Jason Bedrick consider school choice inFOCUS are up, people are being as a Jewish option. And Tevi Troy asks VOLUME 15 | ISSUE 2 vaccinated (not fast enough, what, if anything, we’ve learned about but the whole process medicine and our medical systems. Not Publisher W Matthew Brooks has been epic from the start of our all of our priorities are domestic – Peter understanding of the virus, through Huessy reminds us that nuclear mod- Editor Chinese obfuscation and lies, to tens ernization can’t be put off forever. Paul Shoshana Bryen of millions of jabs and more to come). Larkin lowers our blood pressure with Associate Editors That means Congress and the White the value of rehabilitation animals, for Michael Johnson House should be focused which we are grateful. Lisa Schiffren on where our country is Brown University Copy Editor going as the fog lifts. We, Professor Glen Loury rais- Shari Hillman

at inFOCUS Quarterly es it again with a remark- Published by: are here to help with our able, no-hold-barred inter- Jewish Policy Center annual “issues issue.” view on race in America. PO Box 77316 We have priorities. Shoshana Bryen re- Washington, DC 20013. Our first, and overriding priority is views The Kennedys by Lawrence J. Haas (202) 638-2411 the bridging partisan divide that makes and, almost by accident, discovers the progress on the others nearly impossi- roots of many of today’s foreign policy Follow us: ble and undermines the strength of our conundrums back in the “Swingin’ 60’s.” JewishPolicyCenter Republic. Mark Meirowitz outlines the If you appreciate what you’ve read, @theJPC key gifts of the Founders. Max Abrahms I encourage you to make a contribution tackles domestic extremism – left and to the Jewish Policy Center. As always, The opinions expressed in inFOCUS do not right. For Philip Hamburger and David you can use our secure site: http://www. necessarily reflect those of the Jewish Policy Center, its board, or its officers. Wurmser, the Constitution is the guide jewishpolicycenter.org/donate for both the parameters of free speech To begin or renew your subscription, please and the fiduciary responsibility of our Sincerely, contact us: [email protected] banking and investment system. It is ig-

nored at great peril. Richard Rahn con- © 2021 Jewish Policy Center siders another societal peril – looming Matthew Brooks, inflation as a result of our pandemic- Publisher driven choices. Tom Finnerty vets the www.JewishPolicyCenter.org “New Green Deal.” Ian Kingsbury and

MARK MEIROWITZ, Ph.D., is a professor at the State Manhattan Institute. (20) University of New York Maritime College. (3) TEVI TROY, Ph.D., is a presidential historian, former White MAX ABRAHMS is Associate Professor of Political Science at House aide, and a JPC Fellow. (25) Featuring Northeastern University. (6) IAN KINGSBURY is an Education Fellow at the Empire Center PETER HUESSY is President of GeoStrategic Analysis. (8) for Public Policy. JASON BEDRICK is Director of Policy at RICHARD W. RAHN is chairman of the Institute for Global EdChoice. (28) Economic Growth and MCon LLC. (12) PAUL J. LARKIN JR. is a Senior Legal Research Fellow at PHILIP HAMBURGER is a professor at Columbia Law School Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage and president of the New Civil Liberties Alliance. (14) Foundation. (31) TOM FINNERTY writes about politics and energy policy for DAVID WURMSER, Ph.D., is Director of the Center for The-Pipeline.org, an energy newsletter. (17) Security Policy’s Project on Global Anti-Semitism and the U.S.-Israel Relationship. (34) GLENN LOURY is the Merton P. Stoltz Professor of Economics at Brown University, and a Senior Fellow at the SHOSHANA BRYEN is Senior Director of the Jewish Policy Center and Editor of inFOCUS Quarterly. (37) Can the Founding Fathers Help With Today’s Challenges? by MARK MEIROWITZ

merica is at a crossroads. The about majoritarian control. Madison, in view, then the balancing envisioned by pandemic combined with deep Federalist No. 51, said that “[i]f a major- the Founders does not work. The problem political polarization has led ity be united by a common interest, the of the outsized influence of political par- AAmericans to question the effica- rights of the minority will be insecure.” ties has been a phenomenon irrespective cy and value of our governmental institu- Madison was also concerned that “the of the party in power. Also there needs tions. Our political parties are in a mortal accumulation of all powers, legislative, to be a balancing between the various battle on a variety of issues, and politics executive and judiciary, in the same branches; George Washington said that has become a zero-sum game, in which hands, whether of one, a few, or many, the Framers created the Senate to “cool” each party, when in control of a branch and whether, hereditary, self-appointed, down House legislation, just as a saucer of government, ignores the views of the or elective, may justly be pronounced was used to cool hot tea. This cooling other party. As of this writing, the U.S. the very definition of tyranny.” function doesn’t work very well when po- Congress implementing a $1.9 trillion Covid Relief Package which was passed in the Senate through a procedure entitled ...You must first enable the government to control the “reconciliation,” requiring only a ma- governed; and .... oblige it to control itself. jority vote (i.e., the approval of only one political party). One minority Senator demanded that the 628-page Covid relief bill be read in its entirety, wasting endless The Founders were realists, under- litical parties determine the interaction of hours of time, instead of proceeding by standing that a government established the two houses of Congress. unanimous consent (the custom). Both by men, rather than angels (under which Our basic institutions and standards parties have resorted to scorched earth no government would be necessary), have come under scrutiny and criticism. warfare to get bills passed. would need to find a way to function ef- A few examples: One wonders what the Founding fectively. They came up with checks and Fathers might have thought of all this. balances as the solution. “Ambition must ❚ Impeachment When asked by an inquisitive pass- be made to counteract ambition,” and that The standard for impeachment erby at the Constitutional Convention, “in framing a government which is to be and conviction in Article II, Section 4, “What have we got a republic or a mon- administered by men over men, the great “high crimes and misdemeanors” is still archy?” Benjamin Franklin replied, “A difficulty lies in this: you must first enable unclear. Indeed, when the Committee republic… if you can keep it.” This is our the government to control the governed; of Eleven debated this provision at the challenge today. and in the next place oblige it to control Constitutional Convention, George On political parties, Thomas itself” (Madison, Federalist No. 51). Mason suggested that the proper stan- Jefferson was quite explicit, “If I could dard for impeachment was “maladmin- not go to heaven but with a party, I would ❚ The Influence of Parties istration” as well as treason and bribery. not go there at all.” James Madison spoke In today’s political maelstrom, one James Madison was of the view that about the “mischiefs of faction.” “When senses that the government appears to “maladministration” was too vague, so a majority is included in a faction, the be dysfunctional, and is not control- the resulting provision as suggested by form of popular government, on the ling itself, with the conflict deriving not Mason, and included in the Constitution, other hand, enables it to sacrifice to its from the branches competing with each was “treason, bribery, or other high ruling passion or interest both the pub- other, but from the influence of politi- crimes and misdemeanors.” Alexander lic good and the rights of other citizens” cal parties within the branches. If the Hamilton was of the view (Federalist No. (Federalist No. 10). House, Senate, and Presidency line up 65) that impeachment was directed to ad- The Founders were also very worried on an issue, following only one party’s dress “offenses which proceed from the

Governing Post-Pandemic | inFOCUS 3 misconduct of public men, or, in other through implementing the National they are not able to govern themselves.” words, from the abuse or violation of Popular Vote Compact, which provides The Founding Fathers were not great fans the public trust,” and that these matters that the candidate who wins the national of pure democracy but conceded that the “are of a nature which may with peculiar popular vote will automatically receive all source of government power was the peo- propriety be denominated POLITICAL of the electoral votes in each state. ple (“We The People”) and the consent of as they relate chiefly to injuries done The Electoral College was estab- the governed. The Founders created po- immediately to the society itself.” With lished by the Founding Fathers to pre- litical institutions like the Presidency and prescient insight, Hamilton added that vent the people from directly electing the U.S. Senate that were insulated from the determination in an impeachment the President. In order to avoid “tumult the people. proceeding “will connect itself to pre-ex- and disorder,” the Founders wanted the isting factions… and in such cases there popular vote to be filtered through “elec- ❚ The Filibuster and Cloture in will always be the greatest danger that tors,” a “small number of persons, selected the Senate the decision will be regulated more by the by their fellow-citizens from the general These allow Senators to place a hold comparative strength of parties, than by mass, [who] will be most likely to possess on legislation, with the hold removed (via the real demonstrations of innocence and the information and discernment requi- a Cloture Vote) only by a 3/5 vote (or 60 guilt” (Federalist No. 65). site to such complicated investigations” votes) in the Senate. In the past, to stop This resonates in terms of our recent (Hamilton, Federalist No. 68). That is to a bill from proceeding, Senators would experience with the two impeachments, say, the ordinary people were not capable hold the floor for hours by reading the and Senate trials of a President, and of of making the choice directly through Bible and newspapers (reminiscent of the same President when out of office. their votes. Nowadays, electors are select- Jimmy Stewart in the film “Mr. Smith Our recent experience with impeach- ed by their respective political parties, and Goes to Washington,” literally holding ment has opened our eyes to the fact that, have no discretion to make independent the Senate floor until he faints from ex- as Hamilton predicted, the matter would judgments as to who they wish to choose; haustion to prevent a bill from passing). be determined by politics. President they must cast their electoral votes for This is a rule which used to provide for Gerald Ford was not far off the mark the candidate to whom they are pledged. a required 3/5 vote on Presidential nomi- when he said that impeachable offenses are “whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers them to be at a Our recent experience with impeachment has opened moment in history.” We saw this clearly in the impeachment by the House on pure our eyes to the fact that, as Hamilton predicted, the party majority lines in 2020, and that the matter would be determined by politics. only factor that prevented the conviction of the former President in February 2021 was the high political bar (a 2/3 vote of Indeed, it is settled law as a result of the nees (under Advice and Consent) as well the Senate). We also witnessed the anom- Chiafolo and Baca Supreme Court cases as for bills. The rule was first changed to aly of the U.S. Senate deciding (on party that “faithless electors,” who vote against remove the 3/5 requirement from Senate lines and without solid precedent) that it their pledged candidates can be fined or votes for nominees other than Supreme was constitutional to hold an impeach- removed. Political parties decide the elec- Court justices, and then was removed ment trial of a former President. Politics tions, not the electors themselves, as origi- from Senate votes for Supreme Court jus- intervened and the wishes of the political nally envisioned by the Founding Fathers. tices as well – meaning that all such votes parties predominated. To the point about taking power in the Senate, other than for bills, would away from the people, and noting not henceforth require only a majority vote. ❚ The Electoral College only the way the Electoral College de- What remains now is only the 60-vote The Electoral College is widely mis- prived the people of a direct popular vote requirement for bills – and Senators no understood, especially because of the (coupled with the fact that the Senate was longer have to hold the floor for hours to anomaly that a candidate can win the originally elected by the State legislatures maintain the filibuster; they can merely Presidency by winning the Electoral and not by the people directly; which put a hold on a bill, and the bill will be put College but losing the popular vote. There was changed by the 17th Amendment), aside unless the required 60 Senate votes have been calls for the replacement of Jeremy Belknap, a contemporary of the remove the hold. the Electoral College by a direct nation- Founders, stated: “Let it stand as a prin- The purpose of the filibuster and al popular vote, or, since amending the ciple that government originates from the cloture was to foster compromise. The Constitution would prove too difficult, people; but let the people be taught…that majority party in the Senate now is

4 inFOCUS | Spring 2021 Can the Founding Fathers Help With Today’sMARK MEIROWITZ: Challenges?

Washington as Statesman at the Constitutional Convention by Junius Brutus Stearns, oil on canvas, 1856. clamoring for the elimination of the nationally (including the recent Brnovich has become supercharged and overheat- filibuster because the minority party re- case in the U.S. Supreme Court regarding ed, and we need to tone down our differ- fused to agree to the Covid relief package. voting procedures in Arizona); redistrict- ences and work together to achieve what The “reconciliation” maneuver avoided a ing (whether redistricting should be non- is good for all Americans. This requires showdown on the filibuster for the time partisan); and with respect to the power the collaboration of all branches of gov- being. However, the issue of the filibuster and influence of the U.S. Supreme Court ernment, and of all of our leaders from will likely come to the forefront again in (the one branch not elected by the people, both parties. Our leaders must focus on the battle over the $15 minimum wage, but with enormous impact on the nation). benefiting the nation as a whole, and not which the Senate Parliamentarian ruled On all of these issues, the impact of politi- on whether their respective political par- could not be passed via “reconciliation.” cal parties is enormous. ties will win the next election or score the There is now intense political pressure next political victory. The pandemic and within the majority party in the Senate ❚ The Spirit of Compromise the chaos of January 6th have taught us to reinstate the in-person filibuster, and Civility an important lesson: we must find a way which would make the filibuster much The Founders at the Constitutional to resolve disputes without rancor. more difficult to sustain, or to eliminate Convention had little choice but to com- To return to Ben Franklin, the only the filibuster completely (which, as a rule promise on a number of major items, way we will “keep” our Republic is by change, can be done by simple majority such as the way in which Americans finding a way to work out our differences vote). For now, eliminating the filibuster would be represented in the two houses thinking only of the nation, and not just is a non-starter, because one senator has of Congress. There have been other major about partisan political differences. We opposed this move. An instrument of compromises throughout our history. have kept our Republic until now, de- compromise between the parties is being We seem to have lost the spirit of spite all of the complexities the Founding challenged by the forces advocating for compromise, and the triumph of one po- Fathers incorporated into our political one-party government. Eliminating the litical party over another has become the system. We can achieve a bright future filibuster would, in effect, end bipartisan highest value. only by working together, and through compromise. There is also a need for civility in dis- political compromise. There are many other points of discourse. To avoid chaos, we must act with agreement between the political parties, respect toward one another, even when MARK MEIROWITZ, Ph.D., is including with respect to voting rights, we have different political views. Our po- a professor at the State University which are raging throughout the courts litical discourse in an age of social media of New York Maritime College.

Governing Post-Pandemic | inFOCUS 5 Don’t Give Domestic Extremists the ‘Post-9/11 Treatment’ by MAX ABRAHMS

ou may remember the Walmart Six former senior directors for counter- specialists to the newly formed National shooting in El Paso, Texas, which terrorism at the White House’s National Security Council. And Senate Majority killed 23 people in August 2019. Security Council released a joint state- Leader Chuck Schumer called on the FBI YThis “deadliest attack to target ment calling on the government to go af- to place all Capitol riot participants on Latinos in modern American history” ter the Timothy McVeighs as ferociously the federal no-fly list. was obviously extreme, but so was the as the Osama bin Ladens. But the post-9/11 treatment is hard- response to it. The January 6 attack on the Capitol ly worth emulating. The war on terror A flurry of opinion-makers de- has recommenced calls to give right- has cost $6.4 trillion and 801,000 lives manded that the federal government wing extremists in America the post-9/11 according to one estimate, created a give domestic terrorism what I call the treatment. Elizabeth Neumann, who massively expanded security state, and “post-9/11 treatment.” The Stanford po- served for three years under President actually helped al-Qaeda to grow in litical science professor Michael McFaul Donald Trump in the Department of Iraq, Libya, and Syria by generating the recommended after the El Paso attack, Homeland Security, said that “We have sorts of power vacuums that are ideal for in a now-deleted tweet, for America to to go after the[se] people…with the same terrorists to thrive. “start a war on terrorism at home.” The intensity that we did with al-Qaeda.” Counterterrorism is admittedly Atlantic staff writer and Washington And we must treat Trump like Osama difficult. The main challenge is to elimi- Post columnist Anne Applebaum agreed bin Laden for inciting the violence, as nate existing terrorists without generat- that our government should employ a he was the “spokesperson that rallied ing new ones in the process. To thread “similar response” to “domestic white the troops.” Gen. Stanley McChrystal this needle, law enforcement must supremacist terrorism” as “foreign ji- claimed that right-wing extremists are distinguish between two types of “ex- hadi terrorism.” The Daily Beast echoed, following “the evolution of al-Qaeda in tremists”– those who employ extreme “Now, before it grows any stronger, should be the time to move against it with the same kind of concerted international focus of attention and resources that were trained on Osama bin Laden. The war on terror has cost $6.4 trillion and Now is the time for a global war on 801,000 lives, ... created a massively expanded white nationalist terrorism.” In the pri- maries, Democratic presidential candi- security state, and actually helped al-Qaeda... date and military veteran Pete Buttigieg told audiences that he “learned a lot [in Afghanistan] that sadly will be applica- ble here at home, too.” Former CIA and FBI practitioners Iraq,” which led to ISIS. Alex Stamos of tactics versus those who merely harbor likewise specified all sorts of ways the the Stanford Internet Observatory rec- what may be regarded as extreme po- post-9/11 global war on terror could be ommended that we treat white national- litical preferences. Law enforcement applied to fighting white-nationalist ter- ists at home like ISIS by monitoring and should go after the former but not the rorists, from tracing the networks of ex- restricting their social media. The New latter. That is, it should punish those tremists “just like we did against other York Times noted the growing push for guilty of committing attacks like those terrorist groups” after 9/11 to changing a “9/11 Commission” for domestic ex- against the Capitol or against shoppers our laws for us to “fight domestic terror tremism. Already, President Joe Biden at Walmart without assuming the role groups…the way we treat foreign ones.” is looking to add domestic terrorism of the thought police.

6 inFOCUS | Spring 2021 Don’t Give Domestic Extremists the ‘Post-9/11MAX ABRAHMS: Treatment’ Waco. A common narrative after the Capitol attack was that it would spur recruitment for the far right. The New York Times, for example, ran a piece titled “Capitol Attack Could Fuel Extremist Recruitment for Years, Experts Warn.” And yet far-right violence has historically eroded support for far-right movements, whereas government abuses have increased it. For this reason, many terrorists actually hope to elicit government overreactions in order to increase membership rosters. As some scholarship suggests, such overreactions give people an incentive to become terrorists – not only by creating grievances but also by reducing the relative risks of turning to violence. A standard assumption in political science is that terrorists are rational actors. Many people decide against becoming terrorists because they know that the costs to them will be severe. But if the government is going to treat innocent people like terrorists anyway, then no additional risk is in- curred. Unsurprisingly, terrorists thrive in the most illiberal countries, where governments fail to distinguish between terrorists and political dissidents. Big Tech has been working with the government to combat extremism, often in counterproductive ways. A common approach is to “deplatform” leaders seen as extreme, including Trump. Some commentators say that the logic is the same as killing the leaders of terrorist groups to make them less extreme. In reality, the research indicates National guardsman deployed near the U.S. Capitol following the January 6, 2021 riot. the opposite. As I have shown in multiple (Photo: Michael Johnson) studies, taking out the leaders of terrorist Former CIA Director John Brennan For Brennan, both are enemies worthy groups tends to make them even more ex- exemplifies how not to conduct counter- not only of contempt, but action or at treme by empowering subordinates less terrorism. In an interview on MSNBC least government scrutiny. restrained from using terrorism. shortly after the Capitol attack, deserv- This wide-net approach risks breed- Government responses to the far edly mocked on social media, he claimed ing more terrorists. right must be research-based and not that law enforcement is moving “in la- For starters, terrorists thrive on just emotional reactions. Otherwise, serlike fashion” to combat an “unholy grievances. And the far right in par- they will make our country less free – alliance” of “authoritarians, fascists, big- ticular has historically been fueled by and make the far-right threat worse, too. ots, racists, nativists, even libertarians.” perceived injustices. Timothy McVeigh Notably, Brennan did not distinguish be- attacked the Alfred P. Murrah Federal MAX ABRAHMS is Associate tween those who use extreme tactics and Building in Oklahoma City to avenge Professor of Political Science those with whom he disagrees politically. government abuses at Ruby Ridge and at Northeastern University.

Governing Post-Pandemic | inFOCUS 7 Nuclear Modernization in an Era of Great Power Competition by PETER HUESSY

merica’s nuclear weapons deter and holds at risk an adversary’s military subsequent 15 years to near twelve thou- attacks on the United States from capability without which they cannot sand treaty-compliant warheads. By 1980 biological, cyber, conventional, or achieve their hegemonic objectives. Moscow believed the “correlation of forc- nuclear weapons. That deterrent es” had shifted so dramatically it would A ❚ capability has kept the nuclear peace for How Did We Get Here? enable the Soviets to “win” the Cold War. seventy-five years but is now in danger of While the U.S. has been on an rusting to obsolescence. Why? extended “nuclear procurement holiday,” ❚ Closing the Window of With the dissolution of the Soviet the Russians paused only temporarily Vulnerability empire, the U.S. kicked the nuclear mod- to comply with START I reductions and To remedy this imbalance, in 1981 ernization can down the road, going on regain their economic footing. But since President Ronald Reagan called for a com- what MG Garrett Harencak, USAF (ret.) 2004, Russia has completed 90% of its bined nuclear modernization, and reduc- called a three-decade “nuclear procure- planned acquisition of 22 new types of tions in nuclear weapons. Particularly ment holiday.” Consequently, the U.S. nuclear-capable cruise, land, and sea- important was closing the “window of now needs to acquire a new nuclear triad, based ballistic missiles, bombers, and vulnerability,” by securing major reduc- warhead production complex, and com- submarines. tions in overall nuclear forces and a ban mand and control system rapidly and on large, multiple-warhead land-based sequentially. The challenge of doing so ❚ The History of Arms Control missiles, the Soviet weapons most capable at “the speed of relevance” over the next Can more arms control rectify the of carrying out a feared pre-emptive bolt- 25 years is more daunting than any effort current imbalance of a fully modernized from-the-blue attack. since World War II. Russian nuclear complex compared to a President Reagan also proposed a “ze- The good news is the modernization U.S. nuclear force now older than at any ro-zero” option, banning the Soviet SS-20 plan has been endorsed on a bi-partisan time during the nuclear age? No, it can- medium range missiles in Europe and Asia. basis under both Presidents Obama and not. However, while arms control cannot Originally ridiculed as a “trick,” the deploy- Trump and approved by Congress for 12 consecutive years. That consensus is a national gift that should not be squandered. ...while the United States still has the smallest and The not-so-good news is that to con- oldest nuclear deterrent in 60 years, a bipartisan tinue, the U.S. will have to be clear about deterrent funding requirements, under- modernization consensus exists to rectify the current stand the threats, avoid adopting unten- geostrategic imbalance. able options that would cripple the deterrent, and ignore calls for more delay. end the underlying pursuit of hegemonic ment of a NATO-approved Pershing and ❚ What is Deterrence? nuclear objectives by Russia, if done cor- Ground Launched Cruise Missile (GLCM) Nuclear deterrence is the state where rectly it could help strategic stability by counter missile deployment, a “peace an adversary chooses not to attack the providing transparency about Russian through strength strategy,” ended the Soviet United States or our allies because our nuclear forces. attempt to intimidate our European NATO will to use our military capability can For example, despite the 1972 SALT allies. The subsequent 1987 Intermediate inflict unacceptable costs on them. Our nuclear arms agreement and a policy of Forces Treaty (INF) banned such missiles deterrent strategy is carefully crafted, “détente,” Moscow’s long-range strategic on both sides, the first such agreement in conventional wisdom notwithstanding, nuclear arsenals increased five-fold in the history.

8 inFOCUS | Spring 2021 PETER HUESSY: Nuclear Modernization in an Era of Great Power Competition President Reagan’s larger geopo- 40 nuclear capable legacy B-52 bombers and appeared to show real Soviet missiles litical strategy also succeeded, and just for continued deterrence. All of which fit headed our way. The disarmers fear that four years later the Soviet empire col- within the constraints of the agreement. such an error could happen again, and lapsed. With the subsequent signing of The Obama administration con- the President might mistakenly assume the START I (1991) and START II (1993) firmed the New START framework the Russian strike was real. And if the treaties by President George H.W. Bush, with Congress in December 2010 in a President was under pressure to launch our deployed strategic nuclear warheads on bipartisan deal with Senator Jon Kyl. In ICBMs (“use ‘em or lose ‘em”) there would both sides were intended to be cut by an short, while the United States still has not be time to determine whether the at- unprecedented 70 percent. Reagan’s new the smallest and oldest nuclear deterrent tack was authentic. The notion then arose and sensible idea worked: you could si- in 60 years, a bipartisan modernization that ICBMs are on ‘hair trigger” alert, and multaneously reduce nuclear weapons consensus exists to rectify the current vulnerable to launch on warning. while modernizing. (While the 1991 geostrategic imbalance. The real story is that the 1980 alarm START I treaty entered into force, the was quickly determined to be false, the START II ban on multiple warhead ❚ Two Choices Ahead USAF went back to normal alert levels, but land-based missiles, signed by Presidents Admiral Charles Richard, more importantly, a technology fix was Yeltsin and Bush in 1993, was eventually Commander of USSTRATCOM, under- instituted to where such a false warning rejected by the Russian Duma.) scored that the United States faces two from a training tape is no longer possible. In 2002, President George W. Bush choices: we either replace our legacy sys- first removed the United States from tems with modern deterrent forces, or ❚ Sponge Strategy? the ABM treaty in order to deploy a our forces become obsolete within the Bound and determined, the disarm- missile defense against North Korean next decade. ers then invented another ICBM ghost missile threats. Nonetheless, nuclear critics are ad- story. In this new narrative, our 450 ICBM silos and their 45 launch control centers spread out over tens of thousands Since the inception of New START in 2010, the of square miles in five midwestern states, are assumed to be strategically irrelevant Russians have deployed 20 new types of nuclear and nothing but a “giant sponge.” systems including cruise, land-based and sea-based If Russia decided to take out strategic missiles, submarines, and bombers. America’s nearly 500 ICBM assets, Moscow would need to use upwards of 1000 highly accurate warheads, and thus divert weapons that would otherwise And then the next year, the United vocating for major force changes: the uni- have been used against American cities. States and Russia agreed to the “Moscow lateral elimination of the Ground Based However, when examined, the narra- Treaty” further reducing deployed stra- Strategic Deterrent program; eliminating tive falls apart. First what are the chanc- tegic nuclear weapons from the START I up to half of our submarines; and end- es the Russians would actually attack level of 6000 to 2200, proving you could ing the bomber cruise missile. If adopted, American ICBM silos? The 2018 Nuclear build defenses while also doing arms con- these measures would unilaterally reduce Posture Review, a 2020 Federation of trol, upending a long-standing disarma- American SNDVs under New START American Scientist essay, and a 2021 ment community assumption. from 700 to 156, a whopping 80%. The Carnegie Endowment for International In 2010, the United States and Russia biggest push by disarmers is to eliminate Peace publication, all concluded the signed New START, capped Strategic ICBMs. Their argument goes as follows: chances of such an attack are “near zero.” Nuclear Delivery Vehicles (SNDVs), at • The ICBM missiles are in fixed silos. Why? As former Air Force Chief of 700 long-range strategic missiles and • It is assumed that in a crisis the Staff, General David Goldfein explained, bombers, while cutting warheads to a no- Russians would attack those locations. the U.S. ICBM force is so broadly spread tional 1,550. • The U.S. might mistakenly cause out that any disarming attack is techni- American drafters of New START Armageddon by launching our mis- cally and operationally impossible. In knew the U.S. required a modern siles having assumed a Russian attack is addition, even after such an attack, the ICBM force of Ground Based Strategic underway. U.S. could respond with upwards of a Deterrent (GBSD) missiles, a fleet of 12 In fact, in 1980, a training tape used thousand retaliatory warheads from new Columbia class submarines, and a at Strategic Air Command was mistak- surviving elements of the Triad and de- nuclear capable B-21 bomber, along with enly loaded into the early warning system stroy most significant vestiges of Russian

Governing Post-Pandemic | inFOCUS 9 military power. This makes any such ini- cruise, land-based and sea-based strate- Admiral Charles Richard, the tial Russian nuclear attack suicidal. gic missiles, submarines, and bombers. Commander of U.S. Strategic Command, Second, even if you assume the By contrast, the U.S. will not initial- has explained that Minuteman is old Russians would use 1,000 warheads in a ly deploy a new type of nuclear weapon technology that can no longer be re- suicidal attack on the U.S. ICBM “sponge,” until 2029. As former Defense Secretary placed. The Vice Chairman of the Joint the Russians retain plenty of additional Harold Brown described the arms race Chiefs of Staff, General John Hyten, has warheads to incinerate America’s largest and the Soviets: “When we build, they said that shortly after 2030, Minuteman cities. Thus, there is no “sponge strategy.” build. And when we stop, they build.” will “begin to fall apart.” The sponge idea exists only in the fevered General Hyten led requirements imagination of some in the disarmament ❚ Nuclear Threats when ICBMs were assigned to Air Force community. What are the major nuclear threats Space Command where he examined the the United States and its allies face? issue. He has repeatedly testified before ❚ Does The United States Have First, Russia and China are building Congress that the Minuteman system Too Many Warheads? up their nuclear forces across-the-board. cannot be further refurbished, that the Another disarmament meme – also Second, Russia and China have a militar- 1995-2005 guidance and propulsion re- wrong – is that the U.S. just has too many ily cooperative policy, including conduct- placement program was only designed to warheads, as we can destroy most Russian ing joint military exercises. Third, and give Minuteman an additional 20 years cities with a much smaller force. Since the most disquieting, Mr. Putin has adopted of life. During that extra time, it was as- early 1970s, the United States adopted a an “escalate to win” nuclear strategy, a sumed the United States would develop “counter-force” deterrent policy where threat in a crisis or during a conventional and begin to deploy a new land-based we hold at risk an adversary’s military conflict to use a limited number of nu- missile – which indeed is the current plan capability and forces but not their cities. clear weapons against the United States approved by Congress. Mutual assured destruction, or “MAD” to coerce the U.S. to stand down. The Numerous studies by both the U.S. as it was known, that called for “city bust- Russians, and now increasingly Chinese government and outside independent ing,” went out the strategy window some Communist Party leaders, believe this groups have all concluded GBSD is re- half century ago. will succeed, as they assume the United quired to sustain credible nuclear deter- The deterrent policy requirements States will not have the stomach to risk, rence and is the cost-effective choice. are not set by the U.S. military but by the or have the necessary forces to credibly Extending the life of Minuteman III – President. Military leaders then adopt deter, any such threatened escalation. even if possible– makes no sense because a strategy to implement those require- However, it is important to acknowl- it simply cannot provide the required ca- ments. Today, that strategy holds at risk edge that under a limited strike scenario, pabilities for a credible nuclear deterrent. enemy military targets which, if de- all U.S. nuclear forces, including ICBMs, The GBSD not only meets the deter- stroyed, would compel our enemies to would be available for retaliatory strikes. rent requirements set by U.S. Strategic stop the fight and the pursuit of their he- The Russians and Chinese if contemplat- Command, but the new modular tech- gemonic objectives. Our deterrent is sized ing such strikes, would face the full pano- nologies also allow for considerably less to accomplish that task. ply of Americas retaliatory deterrent forc- required maintenance personnel. This es, but credibly available only if acquired factor alone may eliminate tens of billions ❚ The U.S. Has to Stop Arms in a timely fashion. of dollars in lifetime costs. Racing? But isn’t the U.S. engaging in an ❚ Eliminate the GBSD ❚ Stability, Hedge Capability, arms race by modernizing its nuclear en- Minuteman III for the time being and ICBMS terprise? Wouldn’t U.S. restraint end the remains a credible deterrent. It was up- What if the United States eliminated “arms competition.” graded starting in 1995 with a propulsion all ICBMs and if needed, moved all the The United States is not in an arms and guidance replacement program that ICBM warheads to the submarine fleet? race; Russia and China are. The Russians extended the life of the system through The United States currently has over are building new types of nuclear systems the year 2030. 500 nuclear assets with which any poten- at two-thirds the Cold War rate. While Having repeatedly lost the fight to tial adversary must contend if contem- the Chinese are projected to double their unilaterally eliminate U.S. ICBMs, crit- plating a military conflict with United nuclear arsenal within this decade. ics have adopted an interim idea – extend States. Eliminating the ICBM force would Since the inception of New START Minuteman III, delay GBSD, and study reduce the number of strategic targets an in 2010, the Russians have deployed 20 everything – again. adversary would have to attack to disarm new types of nuclear systems including Does this make sense? No. the U.S. from about 500 to 10-13 – three

10 inFOCUS | Spring 2021 PETER HUESSY: Nuclear Modernization in an Era of Great Power Competition by treaty? The U.S. could, in theory, add all 400 ICBM warheads to all 16 missiles deployed on each of 12 Columbia class submarines. The end result would be a submarine fleet maxed out at 1536 warheads, and thus with zero ability to add to the American arsenal. This eliminates any “hedge” or insurance policy to build back up if the strategic environment worsens.

❚ Is Defense Affordable? The final issue raised by critics of nuclear modernization is that it’s “not affordable.” Often relied upon are CBO reports estimating American nuclear modernization costs of $1.2 trillion. To get to that number, CBO: • Estimates costs for three decades. • Includes 100 percent of the bomber costs. • Arbitrarily adds a 3 percent per year cost growth; and • Merges legacy system sustainment and new modernization. What’s wrong with these numbers? • Congress considers budgets for five-year defense plans or even a ten-year budget window, but not 30 years. Projecting three decades effectively doubles cost estimates. • The nuclear elements on U.S. bombers are 3% of the total cost. • Fully half of the estimated nuclear An LGM-30 Minuteman III missile soars in the air after a test launch at Vandenberg costs are the maintenance of legacy sys- Air Force Base, California (Photo: U.S. Air Force) tems, not modernization. bomber and two submarine bases plus Roberts underscored this danger. He ex- In short, when these factors are con- five to eight submarines at sea. plained that conventional wisdom as- sidered, modernization costs are actually As former USAF Chief Staff Larry sumes the oceans, unlike the air, space, quite reasonable. Even at its peak in 2030, Welch warned, eliminating ICBMs is an and land, will never become transparent. all nuclear costs will remain at less than 1 open invitation to our enemies to con- Prudence dictates the requirement for a percent of the federal budget, while mod- centrate their technological ingenuity in prompt response capability to deter con- ernization alone will be 0.5 percent and finding our submarines at sea. Without flicts that only ICBMs can provide, and a 3-3.4 percent of the federal and defense ICBMs, the potential to pre-emptively smart insurance policy should a techno- budget, respectively. As former Secretary disarm the United States of its nuclear ca- logical problem arise with our submarines. of Defense James Mattis understood, such pability emerges as a real possibility. Even more calamitous, eliminating costs are reasonable because as he ex- Former Secretary of the Navy John ICBMs reduces the number of warheads plained, “Survival is affordable.” Warner revealed his biggest fear was the United States is allowed under New if one of our “Boomers” did not come START by 64 percent, leaving the U.S. PETER HUESSY is President of home. He noted further: “How would we in a weak position from which to main- GeoStrategic Analysis, founded in 1983 even know who took out one of our bal- tain deterrence or negotiate any further and specializing in strategic nuclear listic missile carrying submarines?” Over arms reductions. and missile defense analysis. This past time, the entire fleet of submarines could Now why not simply add the 400 year he co-directed the publication of be eliminated. ICBM warheads to the submarine mis- a nuclear handbook distributed by Former senior OSD official Dr. Brad siles to maintain the number allowed the Louisiana Tech Research Institute.

Governing Post-Pandemic | inFOCUS 11 Inflation is Inescapable: It Will Not Be Pleasant by RICHARD W. RAHN

iami is a boom town, with These financial failures will spread out- declines. But as previously noted, in the not much sign of the pain of side of New York, and eventually cascade real world some prices increase while COVID other than some mask throughout the economy. The drop in others fall. The government has many Mwearers. The schools have been New York rental income will cause prices measures of inflation, the Consumer open since August, the shops, restau- to drop. Rents and real estate prices are Price Index (CPI) being the best known. rants, bars are open, albeit with some rising in Florida so what appears to be in- Economists frequently use Personal distance spacing. Both the State and the flation in the Florida market will partially Consumption Expenditures (PCE) in City of Miami governments are running offset the price drops in New York. the belief that it gives a slightly better budget surpluses. New construction is Most measures of human activity get measure of real inflation. everywhere. Realtors complain about better over time, but not inflation numbers The government tries to measure the lack of housing inventory, as a flood – more on this below. Inflation is said to changes in prices over time for hundreds of people from New York, New Jersey, be a result of the money supply growing of different goods and services. Some Connecticut, etc. flee those disasters to faster than the supply of goods and ser- things are easy to measure – such as the come to “paradise.” vices – which is true provided the veloc- price of a bushel of wheat or corn – where Florida is benefitting from the in- ity (the number of times the money turns the records of free-market determined competence and destructive policies of over) of money does not change. Last year prices have existed for these products for the poorly managed states. Florida has the money supply grew at a record level – well over two centuries, and the nature of no state income tax, but despite having more than 25 percent - but it did not re- the product has changed only very slowly. a larger population than New York gets sult in immediate inflation because most And at the other end of the spectrum are along just fine on about half of the revenue. of it was not spent. Instead, people and totally new products that replace many Unfortunately, not even Florida is going to businesses greatly increased their savings, other previously produced goods and ser- be able to escape the policy disasters of the causing a decline in the velocity of money. vices, notably the smartphone. Biden Administration and the Congress. Most major governments ran enor- Only a couple of decades ago, trans- Over the last year, many businesses mous deficits this past year, and many Atlantic phone calls could cost several dol- have learned they do not need lots of already had record high levels of debt, as lars a minute. Now, the marginal costs of expensive floor space in Manhattan’s can be seen in the accompanying table. such calls, depending on the device and luxury office buildings to operate per- In the U.S., the Federal Reserve bought communication plan, can cost close to fectly well. Some businesses have moved, much of the new debt from the banks, zero – a massive deflation in communica- or will shortly move to Florida and else- which bought it from the Treasury – but tions’ costs. Two decades ago, most people where, and so it may be many years before then the Fed left most of the funds from had film cameras which required the pur- Manhattan office space is fully occupied. the sale with the banks, as bank reserves. chase of film and then a trip to the store The workers that filled those offices have The result of all these convoluted actions to get the pictures developed – which in- left or will leave, so many of the apart- was to lock up the “new money” so no volved significant costs. Now everyone has ments in the city are going to remain inflation resulted. This shell game can- far better cameras in their phones, where vacant. The restaurants and shops that not continue and as the economy recov- the pictures cost zero to take and send to catered to all of the workers and residents ers and the banks increase their lending, others. Which means that the purchasing will see a long-term drop in demand. The inflationary pressures will rise. power of dollars spent on photography has financial institutions that depended on soared (huge deflation). the mortgage cash flow from the offices, ❚ Deficits & Debt In trying to measure inflation and shops and residences will be faced with Economists define inflation as a deflation, government statisticians at- a high level of defaults, which in turn general increase in the price level where tempt to determine what people spend will cause them to default or scale back. the purchasing power of the money for durable goods – those that last more

12 inFOCUS | Spring 2021 RICHARD W. RAHN: Inflation is Inescapable: It Will Not Be Pleasant

Price Indexes for Personal Consumption Expenditures by Major Type of Product. (Graph: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis) than three years (such as automobiles, the Trump Administration allowed for and paperwork bureaucracy. Tens of mil- furniture, appliances, aircraft, etc.); non- many production efficiencies, again re- lions now have most of their health bills durable goods that are consumed in less ducing prices. paid in part by Medicare, Medicaid, the than three years (such as food, gasoline, Unfortunately, the Biden VA, and other government health insur- paper, etc.); and services (such as bank- Administration is reversing course, and ance and so have little or no idea of how ing and other financial services, mainte- its policies are likely to cause the price much any given medical procedure costs nance or repair work, transportation, le- of energy and many other goods and – and hence are insensitive to the price. gal services, etc.). The above chart shows services to increase. As the restrictions As the medical price system has broken the relative price of average durables has from the pandemic are lessened, tempo- down, the ability to measure medical cost declined for the past twenty-five years rary supply shortages will arise, again inflation has become nearly impossible. (by about 38 percent). (The statisticians causing price increases. For instance, The result is that the house of cards attempt to factor in product improve- there is a shortage of cargo contain- that has been created is going to fall. ment in their price calculations – such ers because, as ocean shipping recov- But no one knows precisely when – next as new safety features in automobiles – ers from the shutdown, the demand for week, next month or next year. Those which is a most difficult task.) The price containers has soared. This has led to old enough to remember the late 1970’s declines have been driven by technologi- large increases in shipping costs that will recall they were not pleasant times cal progress, including manufacturing are, in turn, passed along to the cost of – with soaring inflation and after-tax efficiency improvements, and the “China the goods being shipped and, ultimately, incomes rising more slowly than prices. effect” whereby much manufacturing higher consumer prices. Over the last eight years, the Greeks was transferred to China and other low- Service costs have risen most rapid- have gone through something similar. wage countries, enabling Americans to ly (about 86 percent in the last 25 years) They engaged in more deficit spending buy many things less expensively. These – in part because productivity gains than they could support, and finally no goods were often sold in Walmart and have been so much lower in the service government or company would lend other highly efficient retailers that could sector than in the goods sector. Medical them more money. The result was they cut margins and prices at great benefit to and educational services are major com- had to lower their consumption to what consumers – making their dollars in ef- ponents of the services price indices. As they were actually producing – so living fect worth more (deflation). measured by student achievement and standards have dropped on average by During this same 25-year period, costs per student, most education has more than thirty percent. Much of the the price of non-durable goods rose at shown negative productivity gain – that rest of the world is going to experience about 46 percent. Virtually all of this is, it costs more today in real terms to something similar, including the U.S. price rise occurred before 2012, while achieve reading and math proficiency in People may protest or riot, but there is in the last eight years many prices fell. the average student than it did a quarter no painless way out of reality. The fracking revolution reduced the real of a century ago. price of gasoline and natural gas, and There have been enormous gains RICHARD W. RAHN is chair- huge productivity gains in agriculture in medical science, but these gains have man of the Institute for Global continued. Also, deregulation under been offset by the ever growing medical Economic Growth and MCon LLC.

Governing Post-Pandemic | inFOCUS 13 The Constitution Can Crack Section 230 by PHILIP HAMBURGER

ection numbers of federal stat- The fundamental problems are con- on the power to regulate commerce, utes rarely stir the soul, but one stitutional – the first concerning the there are constitutional dangers, and of them, 230, stirs up much fear, Commerce Clause. Congress’s authority ambiguities in the statute should be read Sfor it has seemed to justify cen- to enact Section 230 may seem indisput- narrowly. sorship. Relying on it, tech companies able because the Supreme Court has, A second constitutional question including Google and Twitter increas- since the New Deal, adopted an almost arises from the First Amendment. The ingly pull the plug on disfavored posts, open-ended view of Congress’s power companies brush this aside because they websites, and even people. Online mod- to regulate interstate commerce. Yet are private and the amendment prohib- eration can be valuable, but this censor- congressionally emboldened censorship its only government censorship. Yet one ship is different. It harms Americans’ poses unique questions. must worry that the government has livelihoods, muzzles them in the in- Originally, the Constitution’s privatized censorship. If that sounds too creasingly electronic public square, broadest protection for free expression dramatic, read Section 230(c)(2) again. distorts political and cultural conver- lay in Congress’s limited power. James It protects tech companies from liability sations, influences elections, and limits Wilson reassured Americans in 1787 – for restricting various material “whether our freedom to sort out the truth for four years before the First Amendment’s or not such material is constitutionally ourselves. ratification – that “a power similar to protected.” Congress makes explicit that But does the 1996 Communications that which has been granted for the reg- it is immunizing companies from liabil- Decency Act really justify Big Tech ulation of commerce” was not “granted ity for speech restrictions that would be censorship? The key language, Section to regulate literary publications,” and unconstitutional if lawmakers them- 230(c)(2), provides: “No provider or user thus “the proposed system possesses no selves imposed them. of an interactive computer service shall influence whatever upon the press.” Seventeenth-century censorship, be held liable on account of . . . any ac- The expansion of the commerce which the First Amendment clearly tion voluntarily taken in good faith to power to include regulation of speech prohibited, was also imposed largely restrict access to or availability of mate- is therefore worrisome. This is not to through private entities, such as uni- rial that the provider or user considers to be obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or other- ...when a statute regulating speech rests on the wise objectionable, whether or not such power to regulate commerce, there are constitutional material is constitutionally protected.” The companies take this as a license to dangers, and ambiguities in the statute should be censor with impunity. read narrowly. That understanding is question- able. Law is rarely as clear-cut as a binary switch. To be sure, courts emphasize the dispute whether communication and versities and the Stationers’ Company, breadth of Section 230’s immunity for information are “commerce,” but rather England’s printers trade guild. Whereas website operators. But there is little if any to recognize the constitutional reality of privatized censorship then was often really relevant federal appellate precedent lost freedom. The expansion of the com- mandatory, the contemporary version upholding censorship by the big tech merce power endangers Americans’ lib- is voluntary. But the tech companies are companies. The question therefore comes erty to speak and publish. protected for restricting Congress’s list down to the statute itself. The answers That doesn’t necessarily mean of disfavored materials, and this means should give pause to the companies and Section 230 is unconstitutional. But that the government still sets the censor- courage to those they’ve censored. when a statute regulating speech rests ship agenda.

14 inFOCUS | Spring 2021 PHILIP HAMBURGER: The Constitution Can Crack Section 230

Google CEO Sundar Pichai testifies remotely during a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing to discuss Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act in October, 2020. (Photo: Greg Nash/CNP) Some of the material that can be Being unable to impose the full breadth a legal duty or someone else’s right and restricted under Section 230 is clearly of Section 230’s censorship, Congress is therefore legally responsible. If the protected speech. Consider its enumera- protects the companies so they can do it. answer is yes, the court must decide on tion of “objectionable” material. The Some Southern sheriffs, long ago, a remedy, which can include damages, vagueness of this term would be enough used to assure Klansmen that they would injunctive relief and so forth. The term to make the restriction unconstitutional face no repercussions for suppressing the “held liable” as used in Section 230(c) if Congress directly imposed it. That speech of civil-rights marchers. Under can fall into either category. Thus, the doesn’t mean the companies are violat- the Constitution, government cannot protection of tech companies from being ing the First Amendment, but it does immunize powerful private parties in “held liable” may merely mean they can’t suggest that the government, in working the hope that they will voluntarily carry be made to pay damages, not that they through private companies, is abridging out unconstitutional policy. can’t be held responsible and subjected the freedom of speech. Perhaps judges can avoid the consti- to other remedies. The former interpre- This constitutional concern doesn’t tutional problem, but this will be more tation seems more plausible, if only be- extend to ordinary websites that mod- difficult if they read Section 230(c)(2) cause a mere ambiguity seems a weak erate commentary and comments; such broadly. The tech companies can’t have it basis for barring a vast class of plaintiffs controls are their right not only under both ways. If the statute is constitutional, from recourse to the courts on a matter Section 230 but also probably under the it can’t be as broad as they claim, and if as central as their speech. First Amendment. Instead, the danger it is that broad, it can’t be constitutional. After protecting tech compa- lies in the statutory protection for mas- The statute itself also poses prob- nies from being held liable, the stat- sive companies that are akin to common lems for Big Tech. The first question is ute recites: “No cause of action may be carriers and that function as public fo- what Section 230(c) means when it pro- brought and no liability may be imposed rums. The First Amendment protects tects tech companies from being “held under any State or local law that is in- Americans even in privately owned pub- liable” for restricting various sorts of consistent with this section.” This clause, lic forums, such as company towns, and speech. This is widely assumed to mean Section 230(e), may seem to vindicate the law ordinarily obliges common car- they can’t be sued. But the word “liable” the companies, but it distinguishes be- riers to serve all customers on terms that has two meanings. tween a “cause of action” and “liabil- are fair, reasonable, and nondiscrimi- In a civil suit, a court must first con- ity” and thereby clarifies the ambiguity. natory. Here, however, it is the reverse. sider whether the defendant has violated Evidently, when Section 230(c) protects

Governing Post-Pandemic | inFOCUS 15 tech companies from being held liable, it take disproportionate action against objectionable.” The companies under- does not generally immunize them from material, let alone when they unneces- stand this to include nearly anything to causes of action. It merely protects them sarily restrict other things, such as web- which they object. from “liability” in the sense of damages. sites and persons. But Section 230(c) enumerates only To be sure, when a company is sued What is in good faith for a website categories of content, not viewpoints. for damages, Section 230(e) bars not may be different from what is in good The distinction between content and only the imposition of such liability but faith for a tech company that operates viewpoint is crucial in free-speech law: Government can’t discriminate against disfavored viewpoints even when regulating unprotected speech such as “fight- What is in good faith for a website may be different ing words.” It is therefore telling that the list focuses on content. One may protest from what is in good faith for a tech company that that “otherwise objectionable” could in- operates like a common carrier or public forum. clude objectionable viewpoints. But it is obviously a catchall, and following a list of types of content, it would seem to refer only to additional objectionable content. also the underlying cause of action. But like a common carrier or public forum. The tech companies could argue the statute apparently protects tech com- But at least for such tech companies, the that the catchall is still ambiguous. But panies only from being sued for damag- statute’s focus on “material” – combined at stake is viewpoint discrimination by es, not for other remedies. with the requirement of “good faith” vast companies that are akin to common Another question concerns the – stands in the way of any categorical carriers, whose operations function as “material” that the companies can re- protection for suppressing websites, let public forums, and that are carrying out strict without fear of being sued for alone demonetizing them or barring government speech policy. Are we really damages. Section 230(c) protects them persons. to believe that a mere ambiguity should for “any action voluntarily taken in good What does this mean in practice? be interpreted to mean something so faith to restrict access to or availability Even if a company technically can’t bar extraordinary? of material” of various sorts. Even before some material without taking down the Section 230’s text offers the tech getting to the enumerated categories of entire website, it at least must give the companies less shelter than they think. It material, it is important to recognize operators an opportunity to remove protects them only from damage claims that the statute refers only to “material.” the objectionable material before sup- and not at all when they go beyond a It says nothing about restricting persons pressing the website altogether. As for constitutional reading of the statute. or websites. demonetizing sites or barring persons, The implications are far-reaching. To be sure, the statute protects the such actions will rarely if ever be neces- As litigation comes before the courts, companies for “any action” restricting sary for restricting material. they will have to decide the limits of the relevant material, and if taken liter- Such is the statute’s text. If you Section 230 and the lawfulness of priva- ally “any action” could include various nonetheless want large common-carri- tized censorship. In the meantime, some nuclear options, such as barring persons er-like companies to go beyond “good state legislatures will probably adopt and demonetizing or shutting down faith” actions against “material,” pause civil-rights statutes protecting freedom websites. But the term “any action” can’t to consider a little history, if only as a re- of speech from the tech companies. be taken to include actions that restrict ality check about the proportionality of Recognizing that such legislation isn’t not only the pertinent material but also your desires. Even the Inquisition gave barred by Section 230, lawmakers in other things. ”Any action” has to be fo- heretics formal opportunities to recant. several states are already contemplating cused on such material. And even the Star Chamber required its it. One way or another, Section 230 does The statute, moreover, requires that private censors to bar offensive material, not, and will not, bar remedies for gov- such action be taken “in good faith.” At not authors. ernment privatization of censorship. common law, that can mean not acting The next question is viewpoint with the effect of destroying or injur- discrimination. Section 230(c) speci- PHILIP HAMBURGER is a pro- ing the rights of others and, more spe- fies protection for restricting “material fessor at Columbia Law School and cifically, not acting disproportionately that the provider or user considers to be president of the New Civil Liberties to terminate relations. The statute thus obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, exces- Alliance. A version of this article ap- doesn’t protect the companies when they sively violent, harassing, or otherwise peared in The Wall Street Journal.

16 inFOCUS | Spring 2021 Biden Energy Policy: All Cost, No Benefits by TOM FINNERTY

mmediately after his inauguration, In this it has been nothing short of amounts of rare earth minerals and oth- Joe Biden got to work on what the a miracle. Due in large part to the frack- er mined materials, so it isn’t as if they Associated Press referred to as “a 10- ing boom, the U.S. has led the world in leave the earth untouched. That prob- Iday blitz of executive actions to redi- carbon emissions reduction since 2000. lem is compounded by the fact that both rect the country in the wake of Donald You’d think environmentalists would wind and solar need hundreds of acres Trump’s presidency...” The intent of these love it. of land to generate sufficient amounts of executive orders was to broadcast the pri- That is not, however, the case. In fact, electricity. Additionally, since wind and orities of the incoming administration. because it has undercut the rationale for sunshine are intermittent, traditional – Environmentalism – energy policy – was transitioning to alternative energy sourc- mostly coal-fired – power plants must most conspicuous among them. es like wind and solar, while also high- be kept on stand-by to cover any gaps in This signalled that the new lighting their expense, the environmen- the power supply, undercutting any car- Administration was on board with the talist movement has long had fracking in bon emission reduction wind and solar to leftward edge of the modern Democratic its crosshairs. This has led to the prolifer- which apologists might point. party, away from the interests of work- ation of anti-fracking propaganda which And then there are the jobs. Fracking ing and middle class Americans, toward tends to assert fracking’s culpability in all has been a boon to the economies of nu- those of elites. For such voters environ- manner of environmental defilement. merous states, including West Virginia mentalism is a religion of sorts. Showing Many of these claims are prepos- and Pennsylvania. At a time when the reverence for the angry climate change terous – no, fracking won’t make your alienation of America’s working classes gods is necessary, to keep them on-side. drinking water flammable. That’s not to has been highlighted by the opioid epi- But the real-world costs of Biden’s say it presents no environmental chal- demic and deaths of despair, those trends handing power to the environmental- lenges. It does, particularly issues re- have been countered by blue collar job ists – both to individual Americans and lated to the wastewater that comes back growth in the oil and gas industry. to the nation’s international standing – up with the gas. Sensible regulation and seem to have factored into that calcula- technological innovation have helped ❚ Reducing Jobs tion barely at all. address these issues. Today much of the Democrats are sensitive about the water left over from fracking is treated suggestion that their energy policies will ❚ Fracking and reused. harm employment prospects among their Fracking is a notable topic where the former voter base. When Biden’s “climate enmity of environmentalists runs counter ❚ Solar and Wind Power czar,” John Kerry, was asked recently to the national interest. The refinement Meanwhile, the proposed alterna- about environmentalist policies endan- of hydraulic fracturing, where water, tives – principally wind and solar power gering jobs, he replied that the Biden ad- sand, and some friction reducing chemi- – create their own environmental issues. ministration wants to make it so oil and cals, (basically soap) are injected at high Wind turbines require 40 to 50 tons of gas workers “have better choices.... [t]hat pressure into the earth to open up tiny plastic, which is made from petroleum they can be the people to go to work to fractures in subterranean rock forma- byproducts. They must be replaced ev- make the solar panels.” Not only was this tions liberating the natural ree contained ery twenty years, and used blades are about as tone deaf as the suggestion that therein, has revolutionized American en- not recyclable; they are simply dumped these workers should simply “learn to ergy over the past 25 years. This has led to into landfills. Solar panels contain toxic code,” it failed to account for the fact that some unalloyed good, including lowering chemicals including cadmium, antimo- such jobs aren’t available, since 70 percent consumer costs while also substantially ny, and lead, which can leach into the of the world’s solar panels are manufac- reducing carbon emissions by transition- soil of landfills, a significant hazard as tured in China. ing America away from coal to signifi- older panels are decommissioned. Even if the Biden administration cantly cleaner natural gas. Solar panels also require significant could bring solar panel manufacturing

Governing Post-Pandemic | inFOCUS 17 to the U.S., by, for instance, massively Mexico’s oil and natural gas production. (then known as TransCanada) proposed increasing the $6.7 billion in annual In Utah and Wyoming, it accounts for Keystone XL, which would connect the subsidies which currently make renew- 63 percent and 92 percent of their re- terminal in Hardisty, Alberta with one in ables competitive with traditional energy spective production totals. Steele City, Nebraska by a shorter route sources in the first place. According to As those numbers make clear, halt- than their existing connection. the Energy Information Administration, ing leases will cause massive disruption So how did this ordinary project gar- American fracking has contributed in the oil and gas industry. It will have ner such notoriety? roughly 500 percent more energy to serious governmental repercussions as The answer is complicated, but it global markets since 2007 than all wind well. As Shawn Regan explained in his boils down to the fact that environmen- and solar combined. It is improbable that recent article The Cost of Not Drilling, talists were wildly successful in getting renewables will be able to make up that “Revenues from energy development on the broader public to notice Keystone difference any time soon. Moreover, as federal land and in offshore waters are a XL. Though Keystone passed every en- energy policy expert Mark P. Mills has major source of federal income, second vironmental review it was subjected to, observed, ending fracking in America only to tax revenue.” it became a cause célèbre of the left. This would trigger a global recession, just as The revenue is divided between the led directly to President Obama’s reject- the Arab oil embargoes of the 1970s did. federal government and the states, and ing the project application in 2015 after Consequently, when Elizabeth while several popular federal programs years of vacillating. During the 2016 elec- Warren famously promised a total frack- are funded by these royalties, it is at the tion, Donald Trump promised to revive it if elected, which he did. Now it has been ...due in large part to the fracking boom, the U.S. cancelled again. has led the world in carbon emissions reduction ❚ Canada’s Response since 2000. This game of political ping-pong has caused tension with America’s neigh- bor to the north. Reports of Biden’s im- ing ban if she were elected president, local level where their loss will really be pending Keystone cancelation domi- Biden demurred. The talking point he felt. Oil and gas revenue account for a full nated headlines in Canada and made settled on was “No more new fracking!” 20 percent of New Mexico’s budget, and the Liberal minority government uneasy. Perhaps he thought this sounded like a much of the $150 million they provide While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reasonable compromise, but as a policy Wyoming is earmarked for K-12 educa- is an environmentalist darling, like any it falls apart under scrutiny. As Mills tion. A recent study by the University of other politician he needs to attend to the noted, fracking, like “manufacturing Wyoming estimated that an extended facts on the ground, and on the ground or farming... is a continual process. So, lease moratorium could cost the states KXL’s termination was bad news. As banning ‘new’ output quickly becomes $1.6 billion per year on average. much as Trudeau might wish it were oth- an overall ban.” erwise, Canada has the third largest oil ❚ The “Climate Crisis” and reserves in the world, and its economy is ❚ Banning Oil and Gas Leases Keystone XL heavily dependent on its resource sector. on Federal Land Still, the costs of the moratorium will In response to the rumors, Canada’s Thus far, President Biden has not take time to become clear, as existing leas- U.S. ambassador released a statement on moved against fracking directly. He es remain unaffected. But the “Executive the government’s behalf, stressing the has, however, put into motion one of his Order on Protecting Public Health and fact that TC had adjusted Keystone in the promises, temporarily banning oil and the Environment and Restoring Science face of every critique such that it was now gas leases on federal land. This is a more to tackle the Climate Crisis,” creates more environmentally sound than when dramatic move than it seems. More than an immediate crisis. This sententiously it was cancelled in 2015: 20 percent of America’s oil production titled order revoked the permit held by and 12 percent of natural gas extraction Canadian oil concern TC Energy “to Not only has the project itself changed occurs on federal land. Those numbers construct, operate, and maintain” the significantly since it was first pro- go up precipitously when you single out Keystone XL pipeline. posed, but Canada’s oilsands produc- our less populous western states – ac- This pipeline is an extension of the ex- tion has also changed significantly. cording to the American Petroleum isting Keystone system which transports Per-barrel oilsands [greenhouse Institute, federal land production ac- Canadian crude to refineries throughout gas] emissions have dropped 31 per- counts for well over 50 percent of New the United States. In 2008, TC Energy cent since 2000, and innovation will

18 inFOCUS | Spring 2021 TOM FINNERTY: Biden Energy Policy: All Cost, No Benefits continue to drive progress... Keystone XL fits within Canada’s climate plan at a time when our economic recovery is a top priority.

Ultimately, this plea was unsuccess- ful – KXL was cancelled and TC Energy immediately fired a thousand construction workers. They also began exploring their options for suing the U.S. government for damages. They’re supported in that proposal by Alberta’s premier Jason Kenney, who has expressed the frustration of Canadian workers in a way that Trudeau could not. He said:

Let’s be clear about what happened today: The leader of our closest ally retroactively vetoed approval for a Ranchers share land with a fracking natural gas station in the Piceance Basin, Colorado. (Photo: Ted Wood / Aurora Photos) pipeline that already exists... directly attacking by far the largest part of consumers, but it will also necessarily COVID-19 has also complicated the the Canada-U.S. trade relationship, increase American entanglement in the foreign policy equation. Iran has been which is our energy industry and ex- messy politics of the world’s petro-states. hit harder than any other country in the ports.... This decision was made with- At the height of the Iraq War, young left- Middle East. It is a destabilizing force in out even giving Canada the opportu- ists would chant “No Blood for Oil!” but the region in the best of times, and it is nity respectfully to make the case for by cancelling Keystone, a Democratic unlikely that the Khomeinist government how Keystone XL would strengthen president has now made American mili- will be made more pacific by the disaster. U.S. national and energy security.... tary intervention in the Middle East in the Meanwhile, China’s management of That’s not how you treat a friend and next few years – to ensure oil tankers have the virus at its outset, as well as its hu- an ally. unobstructed passage through the Strait of man rights abuses, are troubling. Despite Hormuz, for instance – rather more likely. its poor environmental track record – in ❚ The Case for Keystone 2020 alone, new coal-fired power plants What might Canada’s case for the ❚ The Cost of COVID in China outpaced those going online KXL Pipeline have looked like? It would COVID-19 has compounded the in the rest of the world by 300 percent – likely have been similar to the case made cost question. With the development of China has made itself a dominant force in by the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, vaccines and the advance of other treat- the wind and solar industry. which held that building the pipeline ments, the virus appears to be on its way President Biden promised to “build would create 20,000 union manufac- to defeat, but once that has occurred, we back better,” but that requires changing turing and construction jobs; generate will have to come to terms with the dev- course on energy policy, including priori- almost $140 million in property tax rev- astation the pandemic has wrought. tizing domestic oil and gas production, enue for state and local governments; and Unemployment is up, especially and doing business with responsible al- attract an additional $20 billion in private among people who can’t simply work lies like Canada. Rather than subsidiz- sector investment. from home, and the cost of living has rising China’s coal-fired power plants by The cancellation redounds to the en as well. Government spending has in- investing in their alternate energy tech, benefit of nations far less concerned about creased precipitously to fill the gap, while America should emphasize our own low environmental exploitation and human the dramatic contraction of the economy or zero carbon energy sources, like natu- rights abuses than Canada. U.S. refiner- will mean lower tax receipts. ral gas and nuclear. ies will need to purchase oil from such At such a time, it is folly to decimate sources, and with Canada less able to sell an industry which sustains so many jobs, TOM FINNERTY writes about her resources, the global supply will tight- keeps energy affordable, and generates so politics and energy policy for The- en, and prices will rise. This will harm much federal and state tax revenue. Pipeline.org, an energy newsletter.

Governing Post-Pandemic | inFOCUS 19 Equity, Equality, and MLK An inFOCUS interview with Prof. GLENN LOURY

Glenn Loury is the Merton P. Stoltz Professor of Economics at Brown University, and a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. For forty years, he has thought and written extensively about race, poverty, crime, the Black family, affirmative action, and relations between people in our society, during which time he has earned a reputation as a truth teller and a sharp critic of the shibboleth of the moment. When we sat down with him recently, Professor Loury seemed more frustrated than sanguine, and deeply pained about the direction in which much of American culture is heading.

inFOCUS: Let’s jump right in. The computer scientist…. No, of course, of government took place, the econom- How are race and cancel cul- everybody doesn’t know it’s a fraud. But ics department stood on the shoulders ture related? I’m saying it is a fraud and it doesn’t go of generations of reflection about eco- down very deeply in the real root of the nomics. The university has traditions Glenn Loury: They’re joined at the hip, in academy. It would be the tail wagging and the canon. The study of Afro-related my opinion, but it’s not only race. Can- the dog to have these institutions defined affairs should have been vetted through cel culture is also the MeToo movement. and organized around the petulance and the normal channels. Identity in poli- Cancel culture is if you like the Found- sophomoric tantrum-throwing of all of tics should not drive that process. Sadly, ing Fathers or Mount Rushmore, you’re these kids. It’s the tail wagging the dog. what we did in the late 1960s and early in trouble. If you thought Columbus Day I think there’s substance in the uni- 1970s was to lock in an institutional should have been Columbus Day instead versity. I think that the great traditions framework in the universities, such that of Indigenous People’s Day, you’re in of learning that we’ve inherited, they’re identity in politics ended up driving that trouble. Cancel culture is about a lot of Western traditions, not exclusively, but process. That was a mistake. things, but it is substantially about race. substantially so, are real things. They’re We have events [Ed. the death of the achievements of human civilization. ❚ The Discipline of the George Floyd] that become the focus of I think they will weather the storm, al- Disciplines movements. And now they’ve become though I don’t exactly see the end of the iF: And Critical Race Theory? the stage on which people perform rituals storm. of expiation. The president of Princeton Prof. Loury: That’s a slightly different University talked about how racist his iF: What about all those de- subject. I’m not sure I understand it, but institution is. Now, in 2021. It’s madness. partments of race, or sexual I will speculate. It’s not inconsistent with All the affirmative action, all of the Black studies, or identity? what I was saying because the discipline studies, all of the recognition of the legiti- of the academic disciplines is what I was macy of the claim of African Americans Prof. Loury: These departments are here trying to drive toward when discussing against slavery and Jim Crow. We’ve been to stay. I’m sorry to report that. I think Black studies. You have to submit your- doing this for a half century and still it was a mistake, but they’re here to stay. self to the discipline of the disciplines, presidents of Ivy League institutions have Let me try to defend the position that it and you also have to submit yourself to to “fess up” to systemic racism. And ev- was a mistake. The year is 1969, ‘70, ‘71, the discipline of your peers in terms of erybody knows it’s a fraud. Black power, and the kids are taking evaluation. The gates get narrower as over the administration building, and you ascend the pyramid of human excel- iF: Everybody knows that? they demand Black studies. lence. And when we start talking about So, you create Black studies depart- MIT and Caltech, we’re talking about Prof. Loury: The professor of physics, ments. Now, it’s not like there’s nothing the top tier. The narrower the gate, the the professor of organic chemistry, the to study, there’s a legitimate set of ques- more each one of us who seeks to pass person who actually knows something tions. But we all knew, and we always through knows and is aware of the fact about the French Revolution, because he have known that the history department that we’re being judged. or she reads French and studied the texts was where history was done, the political And not everybody is going to be from the 18th and early 19th century. science department was where the study found fit. That’s the nature of the thing

20 inFOCUS | Spring 2021 GLENN LOURY: Interview – it’s elite. Why is the “identitarian” at- traction so powerful? For many, it’s a way of evading the existential angst of confronting one’s own failure in the face of severe competition as you enter into elite venues when nobody knows if they are really on sure footing. The point of a university education is to expose students to the whole vista of what is available to know about life. Students don’t know what they’re going to be after they’ve encountered that vista. So rather than doubling down on what they bring to us at 18 years old, to form their identities, we should be encouraging them to shed that and to open themselves to all these possibilities. And we’re not doing that. Affirmative action exacerbates this.

❚ Summer 2020 iF: Last summer the Black Lives Matter explosion along with the claims of structural racism and White privilege, went from zero to Kamala Harris for president. What happened? Prof. Glenn Loury. (Photo: Brown University) these silly letters mouthing the Black conspiracy theory territory, but I don’t Prof. Loury: God, I’m befuddled by what Lives Matter platitudes. I thought, “My think you could rule it out. But I think happened in the summer of 2020, but God, we’re a university, and we’ve surreal damage was done on the race ques- I’m also chastened by it because this is rendered our reason and our capacity to tion. a deep thing about our country. I mean, reflect about subtle moral issues to this... There will be a backlash. They think there are small points. Where’s Tom We’ve now joined that movement?” It’s they’re winning, the racial radicals, the Wolf when we need him? George Floyd insulting to the intelligence and since “critical race theory” people. They’re not was buried in a gold casket. There was these are precious institutions... I speak winning. It’s a big country. There are 330 a caisson. It was a state funeral. George about universities, but I could be speak- million people. There is a lot that’s go- Floyd – I don’t mean to disparage him, ing about newsrooms mouthing that ri- ing on. It’s fast moving. We’re a nation but this wasn’t Emmett Till, lynched. ots were “mostly peaceful protests.” of immigrants. The Asians and Latinos, So, what’s going on? This is theater. everything is changing. “America needs to get its knee off the iF: Where did the mobs come neck of Black people.” Come on, this from? ❚ Civil Rights and School is preposterous. It’s an absurdity. The Failure Black Lives Matter movement, those ri- Prof. Loury: Opportunity presented Technology will be completely dif- ots. American will be a long time recov- itself. I remember the book by Edward ferent in 25 years. There are real impedi- ering from the summer of 2020 in terms C. Banfield, The Unheavenly City. He ments to success in the modern world of race relations. had a chapter called, “Rioting for Fun and those problems got set back in the I was deeply disquieted by what and Profit.” He pointed out it’s an op- Black community. happened in summer. This will bear bit- portunity if you’re 18 years old, sitting We’re decades past the start of the ter fruit, in my opinion. around talking to your friends and have Civil Rights movement. We should be Mainstream institutions let us nothing else to do. I don’t know whether all over school failure, advocating choice down. This is why I objected when the there was something more systematic, and charters and every other kind educa- president of my university wrote one of I certainly can’t rule it out. It gets into tion. It should be a main pillar of the Civil

Governing Post-Pandemic | inFOCUS 21 Rights movement. And I’m not saying American Jew couldn’t possibly support course, there are the issues that everyone that as a partisan, neo-liberal, I’m just say- the Iran nuclear deal. talks about in terms of disparities, but ing, if kids can’t learn to read and count come on, we’re citizens of this Republic, in large numbers, it’s a time bomb. We iF: Oy... we are a part of the warp and woof of need the country to embrace this project America at its center. And in fact, per- – not just in a racial way because kids are Prof. Loury: It seems like it shouldn’t be haps overrepresented to some degree at like this in Appalachia and Southwestern so, but believe me, it can happen. Afri- its center because gatekeepers and cul- Ohio, and so on. We should get beyond can Americans are the richest and most tural barons want to compensate for the this identity thing, but that’s a separate powerful people of African descent on history of exclusion. conversation. We were talking about the the planet. Thirty or 40 million people – So, the African American middle- race question. And I’m saying, the issue billionaires, industry-defining moguls, class is profoundly significant in indicat- here is the incomplete development and entertainers, and athletes who set glob- ing what’s possible to accomplish here in the ineffective functioning of these peo- al styles. There are artists and writers. America, notwithstanding the dispari- ple in terms of their ability to cope in life. Doctors and lawyers and Indian chiefs. ties and the gaps. But the politics of it – We need the country to tackle that A lot of people who are setting up busi- as far as I can tell, they’re 80% behind problem. And what happened in the nesses and so on. The United States has the woke narratives. summer of 2020, I think, alienates the an extremely prosperous, extremely ac- They are committed to liberalism country from a sense of responsibility complished, large population of people without a doubt, and the Democratic for – and engagement with – these ques- of African descent. party. I want to make this point about tions. Now it’s about a kind of bargain- There are problems and there are is- the African American middle class ing, where belligerents sit on one side of sues, and some of what affects the lower and their political instincts: They’re the table threatening to burn the thing classes of the Black community creeps going to circle the wagons around the down and the powers-that-be placate across the line. But on the whole, I think, Democratic party and around the lib- and pay them off. Corporate America there’s much to celebrate. When Gunnar eral agenda, and many around the woke pays them off, the foundations pay them Myrdal, the Swedish economist came to agenda. But there are issues that are ambiguous and complex. The implications of relatively uncontrolled entry into the We should be all over school failure, advocating choice country of low-skilled labor from south and charters and every other kind education. It should of the border is one of those issues What unchecked immigration im- be a main pillar of the Civil Rights movement. plies for African Americans is not a simple question. It seems to me that it should be an agonizing question causing deep off, the Democratic Party pays them off the U.S. in the middle of the 20th cen- deliberation. Same with the appropria- and they lie about the real problem. tury to write about the American Negro, tion of the phrase “people of color.” This Violence and lethality are a funda- the typical occupation for a Black man is a cultural move that’s been made with mental impediment to Black life. The was a laborer in manufacturing or on Critical Race Theory. The moral capi- homicide numbers are unbelievable. the farm. Most Black women who were tal of Black people within this country, They’re stratospheric. working were domestic servants of one because of our history, has been com- sort or another. It was a completely dif- modified, generalized, and appropriated ❚ The Black Middle Class ferent world. by other causes. Other groups basically iF: There’s a very large Black Now there is a tremendous demand draw an analogy to the rights claims of middle class, and we don’t for the services of the educated African African Americans, including transgen- hear about them. How are they American middle class. This is the so- dered people, or immigrants who are doing? They seemed to be doing cial revolution that gave us Barack and coming from south of the border, who better under Trump, economi- Michelle Obama. And it’s a part of the speak Spanish as a native language. How cally. The Black middle-class remarkable story. When you think about did they get to be people of color? How cannot possibly support loot- it in broader terms, African Americans did they get our moral authority? ing and rioting? emerged from slavery just 150 years ago. The black middle class doesn’t take And this population has become inte- up these questions because of the mono- Prof. Loury: Oh, don’t be so sure. grated fully, not socially integrated in lithic character of the narrative in intel- That would be a little bit like saying an terms of intermarriage, but still... And of lectual life.

22 inFOCUS | Spring 2021 GLENN LOURY: Interview

Demonstrators gather outside the White House in the days following the killing of George Floyd (Photo: Michael Johnson) ❚ Who is Black? and action, not race. And then going to jigger such that we get a parity iF: Barak Obama was the first that all seemed to go south. of outcome notwithstanding the fact that black President, but not from we don’t have parity of performance. the traditional African Prof. Loury: The weight, the center of The reality of the development ques- American, former slave com- gravity, has shifted away from the color- tion was too daunting. If you go color munity. Now we’ve got Kamala blind ideal – which is a great mistake, it blind, you have to live with the conse- Harris and it’s the same thing. is a historic wrong turn. But the turn has quences, like a law firm with a class of been made. I don’t know how we go back. new partners that didn’t have any Blacks Prof. Loury: Obama’s father was born in What happened was that “equal op- in it. You’d have to live with schools like Kenya and his mother was born in Kan- portunity” was not enough. The chal- Stuyvesant [Ed. competitive high school in sas. Neither one of those is the Southside lenge of getting people equipped to ac- Manhattan] which, when they admitted of Chicago. And Kamala Harris’s father tually compete and perform wasn’t met. a thousand kids, had 15 Black kids in it. is Jamaican and her mother is Indian. Equal opportunity was not enough to People don’t want to live with that. They And yet they’re Black. bring a parity of performance about, prefer a security blanket of mandated What other group is so porous that quickly enough. And so, the latest ver- “equity.” And again, I say they’re wrong. people whose neither mother nor father sion of this is, they play with language. They think they’ve got a trump card belonged to the group get to be iconic We need George Orwell to protect us in identity, but it is as if they say, “I can’t tribunes embodying the aspirations of from these people. They don’t want to compete. I’m not going to be able to cut the group? talk about equality anymore, they want it on the basis of performance. I demand to talk about equity. And you know what because of slavery. I demand because of ❚ Equity, Equality and MLK they’re talking about? They’re talking Jim Crow, redlining, micro-aggressions, iF: When we were younger, it about covering up the fact that outcomes cultural appropriation. I demand.” This looked like our society was will not be proportionate because perfor- is what goes on in a big newspaper, heading toward that Martin mance it’s not equal. But we’re not going talking about what’s going to be on the Luther King ideal of color- to judge based on performance, we’re go- editorial page. People are throwing tan- blindness: individual character ing to judge based on outcomes, and we’re trums and they’re throwing fits. This is

Governing Post-Pandemic | inFOCUS 23 a department in a university insisting I don’t have a policy agenda, but yes, I basement. I want to write the sermon. that they don’t have enough people on would put my finger on child-rearing, I want a movement for this, so that I the faculty who are this, or that – not on parenting, on the family, on the sta- think about my identity differently. I want based on the books that they’ve written bility of the environment in early life. a movement where people start saying or work they’ve done. They think they’ve And I think the issues for the African how they want to live, and then start im- got a trump card, but at the end of the American family are significant. posing those expectations on their peers. day everybody knows it’s a shell game “You are not in good standing within our and people are being tolerated, patron- iF: Is it fixable? community if...” And this would have ized, placated, condescended to. to have its effects in Hollywood on the Prof. Loury: It may not be. These are popular culture, it would have to have its ❚ The Family and a New Black very large forces at work. It’s s not neces- effect in the Academy. Movement sarily something that can be fixed by us, Myron Magnet first made this argu- iF: When you talk about the de- meaning the entire national community. ment in The Dream and the Nightmare. velopment that didn’t occur, I It may require a movement of us, within He wrote something like, “America presume you’re talking about the black community, a mobilization caught a cold in the ‘60s with sex, drugs, the family. that would have to be cultural and would and rock and roll, throwing over every- have to be driven by an inspirational ar- thing. And the poor, the Blacks at the Prof. Loury: I am talking in part about ticulation of a sense of Black identity. bottom, they got pneumonia.” Because the family because that’s where human This cuts against colorblindness, so it once you threw away all these guardrails development is anchored, and about starts to get complicated. Call it “cul- and people didn’t have any resources, it out of wedlock births and single par- tural reform,” which entails changing was going to be a nightmare – and it has ent families and multiple paternity. I’m bedrock patterns, expectations, habits, been a nightmare. That’s certainly a part not a sociologist, but there’s just a lot and customs within a community, such of the problem, I think, that the larger of child abuse, there’s a lot of domestic as “How do you behave inside the con- culture has become so libertine. Black identity, all you have to do is look at hip hop, which is often musical genius, but it’s also not a part of the restoring the Black family program that I was giving African Americans are the richest and most powerful voice to a moment ago. people of African descent on the planet. iF: What comes next? Give me something optimistic, or is there nothing?

violence, there’s woundedness and bro- text of marriage?” or “Do you enter into Prof. Loury: The last thing I put up in kenness and it affects kids. Schools can’t it?” Changing that single childbearing my newsletter was that I’m in complete do everything. This is a part of it. It’s not practice and interactions between men despair. And I feel like I’m just tilting at the only thing, but it’s a part of it. And and women. windmills and it makes me think, “This transfers of money will not solve all of These are very intimate things. And is not what you want to do if you’ve only these problems. Not that I’m necessar- to mobilize on that perhaps might draw got a limited amount of time. Try to find ily against trying to help people who are on positive black identity. I’d say, “Our some pragmatic way.” poor, but it’s not a panacea. And policy ancestors didn’t bring us this far in order So, I am thinking concretely about is limited to the extent that you respect for us to let them down by...” This kind prison reform. And I am teaching a privacy and autonomy, and there are of talk. And that’s very sectarian. It’s very class, with 20 very eager Brown under- places you don’t want the state to enter, thick with groupness. And so, on the one graduates, who are furious at how sti- to try and govern people’s lives. hand, from the civic point of view, I want fling things are. We are reading Plato, We could talk about what you can the nation to be a nation of laws in which and John Stuart Mill, and we are all try- do about helping people be better par- people are getting the equal protection ir- ing to think about the big questions. ents – about supplementing the experi- respective of their identity. But if I have ence of early childhood with one kind of a cultural impediment and I want to do iF: Prof. Loury on behalf of the intervention or another, about various something about it, I need to mobilize Jewish Policy Center, and the environmental, nutritional stopgaps. people and to draw them into the church readers of inFOCUS, Thank you.

24 inFOCUS | Spring 2021 Healthcare: What Did We Learn from 2020? BY TEVI TROY

rom the beginning, 2020 was an W. Bush warned of – and took preliminary started to exert more effort into the realm extremely consequential year in but crucial steps to protect from – a of non-communicable conditions created a multitude of ways, but perhaps pandemic flu outbreak. by human behavior. Instead of looking at Fnone more so than in health care. Despite all of these warnings, and pandemics, public health paid more and This traumatic and upheaval-filled year despite billions of dollars spent in creat- more attention to criticizing and trying taught U.S. a great deal about the state of ing, filling, and maintaining the Strategic to root out human behaviors like the con- American health care, where its vulner- National Stockpile, when the SARS- sumption of large sodas. The focus became abilities are, where its strengths are, and Covid-2 outbreak occurred in 2020, the behavior modification rather than disease where it might be going. U.S. was not ready. We did not properly mitigation, and that may have contributed prepare for the disease before it came to to the lack of preparedness for a once in a ❚ We Weren’t Ready our shores – to be fair, the Chinese govern- century pandemic. The biggest and most painful lesson ment’s obfuscation helped here – we could Then, once the pandemic struck, the was in the area of pandemic response. not track and trace outbreaks via robust politicization continued, with disastrous The U.S. has had years of warnings about and effective testing once it got here, and effects. Initially, the public health commu- preparedness for a new outbreak of a we had no countermeasures in the form of nity tried to downplay the risks, suggesting deadly disease. The year 2018 was filled vaccines or antivirals. When the biggest that flu shots and attending Chinese New with reminders of the one hundredth disease outbreak that the world had seen in Year celebrations were more important anniversary of the 1918 Spanish Flu and a century came, all that the most advanced than worrying about a mysterious virus. how we as a society need to get ready for health care system in human history could Worse, as Americans started considering the next one. In 2016, this author published do was… tell people to shelter in place and the adoption of face masks, something “Shall We Wake the President: Two wash their hands. It was a humbling come- not natural in American culture, Surgeon Centuries of Disaster Management from down for a society that was used to having General Jerome Adams tweeted: “Seriously the Oval Office,’ (reviewed by inFOCUS technology fix its problems. people- STOP BUYING MASKS! They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if healthcare providers can’t get them to care ...public health paid more and more attention to for sick patients, it puts them and our com- criticizing and trying to root out human behaviors munities at risk!” Later, it emerged that public health like the consumption of large sodas. officials intentionally downplayed the use of masks, not because they were ineffective, but because they wanted to maintain supply levels for frontline health care Quarterly in summer 2017) which warned ❚ Politicizing the Health Care workers. Making sure that supplies were that “One specific area that could stand Community adequate for the front line was and is an improvement is the development of The second disturbing lesson from admirable goal, but the intentionally mis- coronavirus countermeasures.” In 2014, 2020 was about the increasing politization leading communiques had a disastrous the U.S. had a brief Ebola scare in which of the public health community. The pub- effect. Once public health officials dis- we learned that our systems of infection lic health world, which is supposed to pro- covered that masks did have some level controls were not as robust as they needed tect the public from the spread of deadly of effectiveness at preventing the spread to be. And in the 2000s, President George communicable diseases, had lost focus and of a communicable airborne disease,

Governing Post-Pandemic | inFOCUS 25 changing the messaging encountered needed to do a better job communicat- for the development. This approach led some skepticism among an American ing with conservatives. In the piece, to the development of two vaccines in public long disinclined to mask wearing. Leininger and Pollack argued that public record time, both with over 90% effec- The result was that masks unnecessar- health needed to treat conservatives as tiveness, with other vaccine candidates ily became a political issue, and another another demographic group that required emerging as well. The results from the flashpoint in the detrimental perceived targeted outreach. They also pointed vaccine in Israel, the world leader in vac- war between conservatives and the public out that survey showed that 72 percent cinations thus far, have been incredibly health community. of public health officials considered encouraging, with deaths, illnesses, and themselves liberals, while only 4 percent instances or transmission all going down. ❚ Conservatives, Social classified themselves as conservatives. By all accounts, the development of the Protests and COVID-19 While this disconnect has existed and vaccine has been a stunning success. The tensions between the commu- been widening for a while, 2020 showed nities worsened over the summer dur- that this disconnect had real world con- ❚ Distribution Failures ing the Black Lives Matters protests. The sequences in terms of the willingness of Unfortunately, and at the same time, public health community had been at the Americans to comply with public health the distribution of the vaccine, particular- forefront of pushing for lockdowns and pronouncements. ly in the U.S., has been a disappointment. social distancing, and particularly criti- The reason that the paragraph above refers cal of protests against those lockdowns. ❚ W’s Vaccine Strategy Success to the impressive results in Israel is that Yet when the BLM protests took place On the positive side, one lesson we the distribution there has been sufficiently this summer, over 1,000 public health learned was that vaccine development had efficient and widespread to enable us to experts signed a letter giving their bless- made incredible advances over a short pe- see these impressive results. In the U.S., ing to mass gatherings in the streets: “We riod of time. When George W. Bush put though, distribution has not been nearly created the letter in response to emerg- together his pandemic preparedness plan, as efficient, and the very success of the vac- ing narratives that seemed to malign one of the plan’s long-term goals was to cine development has been diminished by demonstrations as risky for the public increase vaccine development capabilities. the confusion and disorganization of its health because of COVID-19. Instead, we In fact, the Bush administration’s plan distribution. Instead of focusing solely on wanted to present a narrative that priori- specifically called for a “crash program” getting vaccines to the highest risk people, tizes opposition to racism as vital to the to “accelerate cell culture technology.” For or to the greatest number of people in the public health, including the epidemic re- years, our egg-based vaccine development shortest amount of time, CDC and state sponse. We believe that the way forward system had a host of vulnerabilities, in- public health officials allowed political is not to suppress protests in the name of cluding the limitations of the egg supply, considerations to affect the prioritization public health but to respond to protesters susceptibility to allergic reaction in some, of vaccines. This was yet another instance demands in the name of public health, and imperfect levels of effectiveness in our in which the politicization of public health thereby addressing multiple public health annual flu vaccine. got in the way of responding to the coronavirus. In addition, distribution challenges beyond the politicized prioritization pro- To millions of Americans, the message seemed to be: cess meant that the demand for shots far all social activities are forbidden, except for ones that exceeded the available supply of them in the crucial early months of the vaccine advance a preferred political agenda. when the U.S was trying to stem the tide of the virus. Given these lessons, the question crises.” To millions of Americans, the Now, with the new flu vaccines, we going forward should be how we can message seemed to be: all social activities are using even more advanced mRNA take the lessons of 2020 – and some of are forbidden, except for ones that ad- technology. The flu vaccines were de- 2021 – and apply them to making sure vance a preferred political agenda. veloped in less than a year under the that something like this never happens The disconnect between conserva- Operation Warp Speed initiative. This again. The overwhelming costs of the vi- tives and the public health community initiative called for active cooperation be- rus in the U.S., hundreds of thousands was so stark that public health experts tween the public and the private sectors, of dead, trillions of dollars spent, U.S. Lindsey Leininger and Harold Pollack with the federal government standing as credibility severely damaged, and na- wrote a piece in The Washington Post de- a guaranteed purchaser of the product, tional vulnerabilities exposed for enemy claring that the public health community and the private sector being responsible state and non-state actors alike. If there

26 inFOCUS | Spring 2021 TEVI TROY: Healthcare: What Did We Learn from 2020?

U.S. Army medical staff at coronavirus pandemic relief facility set up at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City. (Photo: U.S. Army) is to be another deadly pathogenic out- in terms of trying to reform the WHO pathogen comes our way. break in the future, the U.S. will have to to make it a better partner in the future. Finally, the key lesson of 2020 is the have a far better response than what we The second area of required improve- need to depoliticize public health. Public witnessed in 2020. ment is in the area of domestic monitor- health should focus on the hard science of ing and testing. Clearly, reliance on CDC preventing and or mitigating the spread of ❚ Lessons for the Future to develop the testing needed to measure deadly diseases rather than the soft non- To do better in the future will re- an outbreak in the future will not work. science of advancing its political prefer- quire a careful examination of this re- Going forward, the U.S. will have to learn ences. Focusing on politics rather than cent past and a willingness to do better the lessons from Operation Warp Speed disease prevention leaves officials unfo- next time. The first lesson and required and ensure that there is active coopera- cused on the deadliest problems we face, improvement is in the area of interna- tion between the private and public sec- weakens our ability to respond, and per- tional monitoring. We will of course tor, allowing the public sector to set di- haps worst of all, damages the credibility need to be more skeptical of informa- rection and indicate governmental needs, of public health among large sections of tion coming from China next time, but but to allow the private sector to do what the population at the very moments when there is no guarantee that the next out- it does best in terms of developing and we most need population-wide adher- break will come from China. In the fu- manufacturing the required tests. ence to science-based disease prevention ture, the U.S. will have to be both more Third, the U.S. must rethink its guidelines. We cannot know what patho- active and skeptical of official reports Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) in the gens we may face in the future, but we al- when it comes to international monitor- future and ensure that it focuses on more ready do know what we need to do now to ing. Since the U.S. can’t be everywhere, nimble platforms and less on specific hit prepare for what may come. this will entail international coopera- or miss products. The groundbreaking tion and working with the World Health mRNA success of Operation Warp Speed TEVI TROY, Ph.D., is a presidential Organization (WHO). Unfortunately, indicates that the U.S. does not need to historian, a former White House aide, the WHO’s continued unwillingness to have vaccine on hand for a particular and a JPC Fellow. His latest book is hold China to account suggests that the pathogen so much as the ability to de- “Fight House: Rivalries in the White U.S. and its allies have a lot of work to do velop a vaccine – quickly – for whatever House from Truman to Trump.”

Governing Post-Pandemic | inFOCUS 27 Why American Jews Should Embrace Education Choice by IAN KINGSBURY and JASON BEDRICK

ue to the longstanding attach- from shtetl to suburb, they also tend to of the research literature found that ment that most non-Orthodox believe that they train individuals from private schools typically outperform American Jews have had to pub- diverse backgrounds to embrace liberal public schools in instilling civic val- Dlic education, the institutions democratic norms, such as respect for ues such as political tolerance and vol- representing them have long opposed religious and ethnic diversity. In other untarism. Two studies published since “education choice” policies, such as words, the same public schools that then only reinforce the private school school vouchers and K-12 education sav- taught American Jews to become good advantage, especially as it relates to the ings accounts, that allow public funds to neighbors also taught our neighbors to welfare of American Jews. A 2017 study follow the child to the school of his or be kind to the Jews. co-authored by one of us concluded that her family’s choice. It is time to rethink For these reasons, the notion of ex- private school-educated adults were less that attachment. Private schools have panding education choice policies does likely to profess belief in anti-Semitic proven better than public schools at in- not necessarily elicit great enthusiasm stereotypes, even after controlling for a stilling the type of civic virtues that are from the Jewish community. In fact, the variety of background characteristics. essential to the flourishing of religious anti-Defamation League explicitly oppos- Another 2017 study meanwhile found and ethnic minorities, like Jews, within es school vouchers, their opposition pred- that among the seven jihadist home- a representative democracy. As radicals icated in part on the concern that “under grown U.S. terrorists for whom the re- attempt to indoctrinate children with voucher and neo-voucher programs, searchers could find education records, anti-Israel and even anti-Semitic beliefs, our educational system and our country none of them attended Islamic schools. educational choice policies are necessary would become even more Balkanized Scholars do not agree about why pri- not only to provide educational alterna- than today.” Likewise, the Reform move- vate schools outperform public schools tives, but also to empower families fight- ment’s Religious Action Center lists a lit- in preparing Americans for virtuous ing to keep such odious views out of the any of reasons they oppose school choice democratic citizenship. In the study public education system. policies, including that they supposedly about the education origins of home- The notion of significant structural reform to the American K-12 education system is often met with resistance in many quarters of the American Jewish ...a pluralistic education system better meets the community. For one, public education is conventionally regarded as the crucible needs of a pluralistic polity, making Jews safer and through which Jews became Americans. more accepted. Moreover, the traditional public education system has worked well for American Jewry. In popular imagination, public schools fueled rapid Jewish social mobility, both by conveying the “threaten the First Amendment’s guaran- grown Islamic terrorists, researchers knowledge and skills required to suc- tee of religious liberty” and “divert des- posit that Islamic schools give students ceed in the labor market and employing perately needed resources away from the a sense of purpose, the absence of which a significant number of Jews as educa- public school system and help only a few is linked to subscription to extremist tors. Finally, just as many American Jews of the nation’s children.” ideologies. In the aforementioned study long believed that public schools helped The ADL and RAC position does about education background and anti- the community make the adjustment not hold up to scrutiny. A 2007 review Semitism, the authors postulate that

28 inFOCUS | Spring 2021 Why American Jews Should Embrace Education Choice IAN KINGSBURY and JASON BEDRICK: “our answer might rest in the critical While anti-Jewish pedagogy is “apology” for accusations of even more self-examination that Christian, par- nothing new, there are some indications grotesque remarks, while Sarsour has ticularly Catholic, organizations under- that the phenomenon is becoming more praised Palestinian terrorism as “the took after the Holocaust… The greater acute and widespread. As the recent pub- definition of courage.” tolerance of Jews observed at private lication of the 1619 Project highlighted, Reversing the rising tide of anti- schools – the overwhelming majority of culture warriors are increasingly less Semitism in America’s K-12 education which are affiliated with religious orga- willing to allow facts to get in the way of system will require bold new policies nizations – might simply reflect contem- self-affirming narratives. that shift the locus of control away from porary church teachings.” Other studies Postmodern, “woke” sensibilities bureaucrats and special interests and to- linking private schools to positive civic were clearly reflected in the first draft of ward families. outcomes stress the importance of an California’s controversial ethnic studies open classroom climate: Private school curriculum, which omitted the Jewish- ❚ Education Choice: Exit and teachers are willing to engage students American immigrant experience and Voice in controversial topics (e.g. Holocaust championed the Boycott, Divestment, A half-century ago, economist denialism) that public school teachers Sanction (BDS) movement as a “global Albert O. Hirschman described two are trained to avoid. social movement that currently aims to ways that members of an organization Whatever the reason, a pluralistic establish freedom for Palestinians living can cope with a decline in the quality education system better meets the needs under apartheid conditions.“ Moreover, of the service or benefits the organiza- of a pluralistic polity. That relative ad- the curriculum identified “classism, ho- tion provides: exit or voice. They can vantage might say as much about the mophobia, Islamophobia, and transpho- speak up and try to influence the orga- failure of public education as it does the bia” as types of oppression, but omitted nization from within or they can simply success of private education. anti-Semitism. In fact, American Jews leave. Public schools, alas, tend not to be were initially not even mentioned as a particularly responsive to either exit or ❚ The Growing Threat of Anti- minority group. After a wave of criti- voice. This is particularly true in lower- Semitic Ideology in Public cism, a third version included two les- income areas where parents cannot af- Education sons on American Jews – one which ford either to move to a better district Anti-Semitism is on the rise in taught “that Mizrahi Jews coming to or pay for private school. In such cases, America’s schools. According to a study the United States from Arab lands were the public schools are a monopoly with by the ADL, hate incidents directed at mistreated by ‘white’ Ashkenazim” a captive audience. Those who have no Jews quadrupled in K-12 schools from and another that claimed “that Jews of choice will also have difficulty exercising 2015 to 2017. Indeed, the ADL found European descent have white privilege.” their voice. that “in 2017, K-12 schools surpassed In other words, in a curriculum based Education choice policies break that public areas [such as parks and streets] on a reductive worldview that catego- monopoly. By allowing public funds to as the locations with the most anti-Se- rizes racial and ethnic groups as oppres- follow the child to the learning environ- mitic incidents.” sor and oppressed, Jews were portrayed ment that parents choose, school choice Worse still, there are indications primarily as oppressors. policies provide families with an exit that the U.S. public education system Given local control of public option. If families are unhappy that the itself sometimes contributes to the schools, anti-Jewish woke pedagogy is public school system has become politi- problem. Reviews of popular American more likely to take root in California cized, choice policies provide an imme- textbooks concluded that “information districts before it does, say, in Texas diate escape hatch. concerning Jews and Israel is fraught districts. Still, the phenomenon is not Indeed, universal choice policies with half-truths, double standards, confined to the West Coast, and it draws have the potential to fundamentally and outright lies.” For example, sev- support from national teacher unions. transform the U.S. education system. eral textbooks erroneously characterize Worryingly, in recent years, the national When asked what type of school the Second Intifada as a spontaneous teachers’ unions have cozied up to far- they would choose if cost were not a uprising. One textbook falsely claims left radicals. For example, American factor, only 35 percent of parents of that Israel placed Palestinians in refu- Federation of Teachers President Randi K-12 students said they would prefer gee camps, while several that cover the Weingarten called former Women’s a public school, compared to 40 Arab-Israeli conflict omit mention of the March leaders Tamika Mallory and percent who would choose a private migration of Jewish refugees from Arab Linda Sarsour “friends” and “warriors school. This differs dramatically from nations around the time of the founding for justice.” Mallory accused Jews of actual enrollments. At present, about of the modern state of Israel. “upholding white supremacy” in an 83 percent of U.S. students attend a

Governing Post-Pandemic | inFOCUS 29 traditional public school while only their children receive using education response to it. Parents quickly came to eight percent attend private school. choice programs. realize that their diverse needs could Even if nothing else changes, choice The growth in education choice not be met by a single institution. When policies would mean far fewer children over the last quarter-century has been schools closed and shifted to distance being exposed to anti-Semitic curricular impressive, but there’s still a long way learning, some kids thrived but most materials. If so, dayenu, that would be to go. Most programs limit participa- foundered. A report from McKinsey in enough. Therefore, we should be even tion via restrictive caps or by limiting December 2020 found that on average, more grateful that education choice eligibility to special needs and other dis- students “lost the equivalent of three policies also have the potential to affect advantaged students. Only in Arizona months of learning in mathematics what goes on in the public schools. and Florida are five percent or more of and one-and-a-half months of learning Although Hirschman himself was K-12 students utilizing a choice program in reading.” Learning losses were even initially skeptical of the use of the exit to access a private school or to home- greater among students of color. option in a public education setting, he school, and only nine additional states Yet when parents – exhausted eventually reversed himself, conclud- plus Washington, D.C. top one percent. from trying to manage their children’s ing that “opening up of previously un- The education choice movement Zoom school schedule while they also available opportunities of choice or exit may be hitting a tipping point, however. worked from home – demanded that may generate feelings of empowerment As of March 2021, more than 30 states public schools re-open as the private in parents, who as a result may be more are considering legislation to create schools down the street managed to do ready than before to participate in school new education choice policies or to ex- safely, they had a rude awakening: pub- affairs and to speak out.” In other words, pand existing ones. The movement has lic schools were not directly account- parents are more likely to speak up when the potential to top its high-water mark able to them. Instead, the schools were they have other options–and the school when the Wall Street Journal declared beholden to special interests – particu- administrators know it. 2011 “the Year of School Choice” after larly teachers unions – that wanted to 13 states enacted new choice policies or keep the schools closed. And so, in most ❚ Education Choice in expanded existing ones. It’s not just the cases, closed they remained. A survey by America Today quantity of bills – it’s also the quality. Education Next in the fall of 2020 found More families are exercising edu- Instead of traditional vouchers, which that only 24 percent of public school cation choice than ever before. When can be used at private schools, more parents said their schools were open for Nobel Laureate economist Milton than a dozen states are considering K-12 in-person instruction compared to 60 Friedman founded the Friedman education savings accounts that can also percent of private school parents. Not Foundation for Educational Choice be used for tutoring, textbooks, home- surprisingly, the same survey found that (now called EdChoice) in 1996, only a school curricula, online courses, edu- private school parents were more than handful of states had school vouchers or cational therapy, and more. Legislators twice as likely as public school parents to individual-use tax credits or deductions are going bolder with more expansive report being “very satisfied” with their for private education expenses. Twenty- policies, including potentially universal school’s performance during COVID five years later, there are 67 choice eligibility for education savings accounts (55 percent to 25 percent). policies–also including K-12 education in New Hampshire and West Virginia. Whether 2021 becomes the “Year of savings accounts and tax-credit scholar- Legislative interest in enacting Education Choice” remains to be seen. ships–serving more than 600,000 kids choice policies follows a spike in enthu- More and better bills are advancing, but in 29 states plus Washington, D.C. and siasm among parents. According to poll- entrenched special interests are doing Puerto Rico. ing by EdChoice, support for education everything in their power to stop the Participating families are highly savings accounts hit 80 percent among momentum. To successfully enact edu- satisfied. In a survey of parents of stu- parents of K-12 students in February cation choice policies, families will have dents using Florida’s tax-credit scholar- 2021, up more than 20 percentage points to flex their civic muscles and show poli- ship program – the largest choice pro- since 2016. Support was even higher cymakers that they care deeply about the gram in the nation – more than nine in among parents who were black (81 per- issue, and that they will hold legislators ten expressed satisfaction with both the cent), Hispanic (83 percent) and Asian accountable for their votes. program and the school their child at- (87 percent). tends using the scholarships. More than Much of the recent enthusiasm IAN KINGSBURY is an Education two dozen other parental satisfaction for choice policies stems from the Fellow at the Empire Center for surveys also find that families are over- COVID-19 pandemic – and especial- Public Policy. JASON BEDRICK whelmingly satisfied with the education ly the public school establishment’s is Director of Policy at EdChoice.

30 inFOCUS | Spring 2021 Prisoners, Dogs, Love, and Rehabilitation by PAUL J. LARKIN, JR.

To err is human. Others perform as service dogs for the and state prison systems are largely “cor- To forgive, canine. blind or disabled. Still more work with rectional” facilities in name only. They – Unknown the courts where they provide comfort serve principally to isolate and incapaci- for victims or children appearing as wit- tate hundreds of thousands of offend- omewhere between 9,000 and nesses. As Odean Cusack explains in his ers, at a considerable cost, rather than 150,000 years ago, man made a book Pets and Mental Health, “pets seem to reform them, which is largely deemed deal with another species. Man to bring out the best in us. If there is a impossible. If rehabilitative programs us- Sallowed relatively tame wolfs capacity for affection, compassion, for ing dogs can materially contribute to the to enter their small communities to empathy or tenderness overlooked by rehabilitation of offenders in a cost-effec- stay warm by the fire and eat whatever our human fellows, a pet has an uncanny tive manner, they would be a valuable ad- scraps families did not finish. In return, ability to ferret it out.” dition to the options currently available. those protocanines became nighttime What probably few people know, watchdogs, warning of the approach however, is that dogs help some ❚ Rehabilitation as a of predators or rival tribes, as well as Americans who almost no one cares Justification for Punishment hunting companions, whose speed and about: prisoners. Dogs are part of nu- For most of the nineteenth and courage enhanced humans’ ability to merous rehabilitative programs in feder- twentieth centuries, the justification track and capture wild game. al and state prisons in the United States for punishment was the need to correct Over the millennia that followed, and foreign nations such as Australia, the moral failings of wayward parties. man and canine adapted to each other Canada, England, Italy, New Zealand, Punishment should serve, not to satisfy and became far more than just useful and South Africa. Under those pro- impulses of vengeance or retribution by inflicting pain on an offender, but to reform someone who had gone astray be- Dogs are part of numerous rehabilitative programs cause of a disease of the soul or mind. Whether it stemmed from the religious in federal and state prisons in the United States and beliefs that all of us are sinners and that foreign nations... society can bring anyone back into the fold through correction and penance, or the secular belief that some people are “mad” rather than “bad” are therefore collaborators. Today, in many families grams, prisoners raise and train dogs for in need of psychosocial treatment, the dogs are an integral part of the house- a year as a prelude to the dogs’ receipt “rehabilitative ideal” sought to trans- hold. Americans spend billions of dollars elsewhere of advanced training neces- form the character of offenders into that each year in money and time feeding, sary to become service dogs. of ordinary, law abiding citizens. That bedding, treating, exercising, and gener- The concept that dogs can perform justification gave birth to the creation of ally caring for their dogs. In return, dogs a rehabilitative function for prisoners is the so-called correctional facilities like gives us unconditional loyalty and love. a novel development. In the nineteenth the Cherry Hill Prison in Philadelphia, It’s the best deal man ever made. century, society labelled prisons as “peni- the Elmira Reformatory in upstate New Atop being man’s best friend, dogs tentiaries” in the hope that, through York, and the federal correctional facil- perform numerous roles in modern soci- prayer and introspection, offenders ity in Leavenworth, Kansas. ety. Some, like the now famous “Conan,” would acknowledge their wrongdoing In the last quarter of the twenti- assist the military in the field or on base. and reform their nature. Today, federal eth century, however, society ditched

Governing Post-Pandemic | inFOCUS 31 Inmate Paul Dixon plays with Judy as they take part in a program at the Sander Estes Unit of the state prison system in Venus, TX. (Photo: Rodger Mallison)

the rehabilitative ideal and many of its Yet, rehabilitation did not complete- animals lowered patients’ heart rate, rehabilitative mechanisms. Gone was ly become the criminological equivalent blood pressure, and stress. Her in- belief that offenders were not fully re- of kryptonite. Prisons could still offer sight led to the use of Animal Assisted sponsible for their crimes. Gone was “good time” credits toward an early re- Therapy (AAT) in long-term residential the belief that that society was mor- lease (viz., a reward for positive in prison facilities, and to the testing of that prac- ally obligated to help them to walk behavior), along with adult education tice in different psychiatric and women’s the straight and narrow. Gone was the programs, vocational and technical correctional facilities. Each pilot pro- belief that, just as physicians and sur- training, GED classes, cognitive-behav- gram was a success. The rates of violence geons could best decide what medical ioral drug or alcohol treatment, life skills and attempted suicides for psychiatric treatment an injured or diseased pa- training (e.g., managing a checking ac- patients responsible for a pet’s care de- tient needed, judges and parole boards count), and the like. But they were seen creased, and life in the ward noticeably could best determine what rehabilita- as being like a T-Rex’s forelimbs, useless improved. Women prisoners responsible tive efforts were optimal for convicted appendages, rather than as the heart and for a dog developed a sense of self-es- criminals. Prisons became warehouses soul of an effort to reform inmates. teem, learned a skill, and received college for the segregation of prisoners from Then, a few people thought that credit. The practice spread nationwide. society for the length of their sentences, dogs might be better at rehabilitating Today, numerous states and the federal which should be long and uncomfort- prisoners than people are. They were on government have similar programs with able. Incapacitation replaced rehabilita- to something. such doggone clever names as Pawsitive tion as the justification for punishment, Partners Prison Program, Prisoners sentencing guidelines or mandatory ❚ Rehabilitative Power of Dogs Assisting With Support Dogs (PAWS), A sentences became common, and parole More than a century ago, Florence Dog on Prison Turf (ADOPT), Puppies disappeared. Congress went so far as to Nightingale realized that pets have the Behind Bars, Prisoners Overcoming prohibit a district court from even con- power to ease the suffering of hospital Obstacles & Creating Hope (POOCH), sidering rehabilitation at sentencing. patients. Contact with small companion and Death Row Dogs.

32 inFOCUS | Spring 2021 PAUL J. LARKIN, JR . Here’s how those programs work: improves. And the dogs not only escape whether on other criminal justice re- Prisoners must volunteer to become a death row, but also wind up in a “forever sources – such as hiring additional po- trainer. Prison staff select participants home.” The result is a “win times five.” lice officers or upping the salaries for based on such factors as a prisoner’s the ones already on the force – that keep criminal history, disciplinary record, ❚ Why Aren’t these Programs voters safe or on other state functions – custodial level, and remaining term. More Widely Used? such as emergency medical care, public :

Once selected, prisoner-trainers must With all those benefits, why do we education, state parks, electricity gen- Dogs, Prisoners,Love and Rehabilitation keep their noses clean, which means not hear more about these programs? eration, and so forth – that voters use. avoiding fighting or disciplinary infrac- Why are they not part of every prison fa- A third explanation is practical. tions. The dogs have a diverse nature. cility? One explanation is architectural. These programs would have more gravi- They come in all breeds and sizes, often Not every prison is built to accommo- tational power than a black hole if they from a local shelter. The facility pairs date the demands of these programs. If could be proved successful at saving each prisoner with a dog, who might live the dogs stay with prisoners on a 24/7 lives or preventing other serious crimes. with his or her “person” on an around- basis, there must be a way to allow the Unfortunately, that cannot be done. In the-clock basis. Prisoners learn training, dogs outside for recreational and other part that is because it is virtually im- grooming, and caring techniques from purposes at several times during the possible to quanitfy a negative – viz., professional trainers. Each pairing can day. There may be no location near an a crime that was not committed, and a person who was not victimized. In part, that is because there are no “double blind” studies establishing the pro- ...it might not be an uncommon experience for grams’ success that are comparable to prisoners for the first time in their lives to feel loved the ones used to prove that a drug is safe and effective. Why? No prison wants to by another creature, and express their own love for take the risk of canicide by randomly their own dog. assigning dogs to prisoners. As the result, the selection process eliminates the random assignment that statisticians use to measure effectiveness. Even elect- last from 40 days to 18 months. After entrance/exit point that could house a ed officials willing to support can only “graduation,” the dogs leave to become large number of dogs and their trainers. talk abstractly about the societal value service dogs for the disabled, or perhaps If the dogs are kenneled at night, there of rehabilitated offenders. Theoretical move into a home where they become would need to be a separate location for explanations go only so far in the battle members of a new family. Successful them inside the prison but near an exit, over limited public funds. prisoner-trainers can then reapply for so that they are not exposed to the ele- another buddy-in-training. ments. There might not be space in any ❚ “Do Not Ask for Whom the The experience benefits prisoners in such region for them. Dog Barks. It Barks for Thee.” several ways. Prisoners obtain vocational Another explanation is political. Because the phrase “Abandon all skills and work experience that could lead Politicians generally do not use their hope, ye who enter here” is not inscribed to employment in the pet care industry political capital to improve the lot of above the gates of the nation’s prisons, after their release. The experience is also prisoners, particularly in states where we should not jettison all hope for the therapeutic for prisoners. In fact, it might offenders lose their right to vote after rehabilitation of their inhabitants. The not be an uncommon experience for pris- conviction. Politicians also attract fewer federal Second Chance Act is evidence oners for the first time in their lives to feel ballots from eligible voters by arguing, that the nation has not consigned reha- loved by another creature, and express “Every prisoner should have a puppy,” bilitation to the category of failed exper- their own love for their own dog. than by barking, “Every offender should iments. It would not be Quixotic to hope These programs appear to be quite rot in prison.” Chichi rehabilitative pro- that correctional officials will continue beneficial for others too. Non-trainer grams also don’t generate much interest to see the rehabilitative potential of dogs. prisoners benefit from a reduced level or support from like-minded, law-and- of violence and tension in the facility. order legislative colleagues. Voters care PAUL J. LARKIN JR. is a Senior Recipients of a trained dogs wind up with more about themselves than inmates. A Legal Research Fellow at Meese a companion or helper. The commu- dollar spent on one of these programs is Center for Legal and Judicial nity benefits whenever a recipient’s life a dollar that cannot be spent elsewhere, Studies at the Heritage Foundation.

Governing Post-Pandemic | inFOCUS 33 Eroding American Fiduciary Responsibility by DAVID WURMSER

any have recently become Accord, which has no real enforcement In contrast, the NGSF, through the aware of the immense distor- mechanism, this body has teeth designed participation of the central banks, forces tion posed by the alliance of to enforce environmental norms on na- the banking and investment community Mlarge social media with gov- tions as defined by an unaccountable to elevate the priority of environmental ernment, enshrined in U.S. Section 230, body representing the interests of the considerations into the heart of fiducia- which exempts such firms from liability emerging international environmental ry judgments, essentially weaponizing and undermines anti-trust actions. This aristocratic class. At its core, the mecha- the pricing of risk on behalf of an en- poses an obvious threat to free speech, nism upturns the role of fiduciary re- vironmental cause du jour. Moreover, as was exposed during the presidential sponsibility – namely that an investor lest any institution attempts to buck the campaign when major news stories that actually can count on his investment trend, the full weight of international could have influenced the campaign manager to base his judgments on try- banking system and government can be were suppressed. But it is really only ing to make money – and weaponizes used to shut down that effort and put it part of a much larger threat not only to it. Fiduciary responsibility has hitherto out of business. In other words, interna- our First Amendment rights, but to the tempered activist investment being im- tional environmental activists and the integrity of our sovereignty that extends posed on large investment houses or on monopoly of government can be used to far beyond the social media, or communications sector, altogether. An emerging triad of large capital, government, and international ...the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for organizations is moving dangerously Greening of Financial Systems (NGSF)... forces the fast toward subordinating sovereignty to fashionable policies dictated by an banking and investment community to elevate the emerging unaccountable international priority of environmental considerations into the heart aristocracy. Sadly, as the behavior of the social media giants demonstrated, of fiduciary judgments... a good bit of this evolution occurred right under the outgoing Trump administration’s nose despite its best efforts to “drain the swamp.” credit-lending banks. Retirement ac- impose distorted investment decisions counts, government investment funds, on large capital and fundamentally ❚ NSGF: Eroding Fiduciary private and institutional investors all upturn what is meant by fiduciary re- Responsibility invest their money to make money. This sponsibility by prioritizing social credit This threat is materializing fastest bottom line, namely legally enforceable over profit. And this can be done nearly in the environmental sphere over which fiduciary responsibility, has thus far invisibly without any legislature in the John Kerry has been appointed czar on guaranteed prioritization of profit, sobri- U.S. ever passing a single law. behalf of the United States. A few weeks ety, and investment or lending discipline. ago, the U.S. Federal Reserve joined It preserved market competition and en- ❚ Undue Advantage to the “Network of Central Banks and sured that companies with bright new Favored Institutions Supervisors for Greening of Financial ideas have a shot at thriving based on Similarly, the consequences of the Systems” or NSGF for short. So, while their ability to deliver goods or services immense power government wields to the United States is re-entering the Paris to market based on such innovation. grant tax-breaks, offer protection from

34 inFOCUS | Spring 2021 DAVID WURMSER: The Supernational Forces Eroding Fiduciary Responsibility the damage that could be done in such prices dramatically, and undermine It is only a matter of time until distortions, issue contracts or extend our energy independence. Involving the international juggernauts akin to the grants to business large and small will financial sector in such a triad will en- NSGF emerge across the board to barrel make inevitable the emergence of an sure all businesses in all sectors will be over national sovereignty in the finan- alliance between large capital, govern- subordinated. cial and banking sectors forcing social justice considerations to become widespread. Indeed, one needs only look to UN institutions, the WHO and Davos discussions, to understand the politi- The dangerous NGSF structure has now established cal directions this will take beyond the energy sector. Indeed, the NSGF itself a precedent that can be extended beyond social is the brainchild of Klaus Schwab, his media activities and energy sector interests... World Economic Forum (Davos) and his fund, the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, which its own website claims advances “an approach by individuals, groups, startup companies and entrepreneurs, in which they develop, ment and aligned political movements ❚ The European Model for fund and implement solutions to social, and parties. International structures America? cultural or environmental issues.” and sovereign governments grant an Moreover, one needs only to look undue advantage to favored institutions to Europe to see how much the EU ❚ Compromising Foreign Policy in exchange for those institutions’ ad- elites have already distorted their so- As such, not only our industrial hering and advancing the policy aims of cieties and made their business activ- policy, but our foreign policy, will be the government and international struc- ity obedient, with the help of activist compromised. Policies hitherto serving tures, as well as donate to the NGOs ad- courts –such as the Court of Justice of as profound expressions of the unique vocating for them. Facing such a daunt- the European Union and the European American mindset, values, and culture, ing triad, any potential competitor who Court of Justice – whose mission is to will be exposed to international struc- tries to buck fashionable policy aims advance their interpretation of the spirit tures and the domestic allies pursuing withers. And small business – dependent on loans and credit – will have to pay the piper in terms of aligning itself on politics and policy with the reigning powers and their international allies. Our energy sector and its large in- It is only a matter of time until international dustries, which are already reeling from the kibosh on the Keystone XL (KXL) juggernauts akin to the NSGF emerge across the pipeline and the suspension of drilling board to barrel over national sovereignty... permits on federal lands, will soon feel the full weight of this emerging dis- tortion and the power behind it in the coming months and years. The greatest danger, however, is that we will soon see it play out not only in the energy and social media sectors, but in every sec- of European moral and social justice their narrow definitions of social jus- tor. The dangerous NGSF structure has rather than strict constitutional and tice. Businesses, suppliers, banks, and now established a precedent that can rule of law adherence. The new trend investors internationally will find it in- be extended beyond social media ac- will force American businesses to align creasingly impossible to avoid factoring tivities and energy sector interests – as their behavior with the compliant way social justice issues into their activities. much as the former compromises the European businesses operate in coordi- That poses a tremendous threat to key 1st Amendment and the latter can dev- nation with EU elites driven by fashion- allies whom global elites in the interna- astate our energy sector, raise energy able social justice ideas. tional institutions define as “rogue.”

Governing Post-Pandemic | inFOCUS 35 Consider for a moment what hap- business with any firm whatsoever. United Nations, than the past geopoliti- pens when such an international struc- Israel is not unique in potentially cal solidity that informed our pursuit of ture, in which our Federal Reserve is a being exposed to this sort of threat. national interests and preservation of member, decides that any Israeli indus- Other nations out of fashion with the our sovereignty. try that has any presence in territories progressive EU and other international This vision of the future may appear fantastic, but the experience of the last months with social media and the emerging assault on the U.S. energy sector are only a subset of the signs we have Essentially, Israeli firms with any presence at all in seen lately, wherein social activism has made its way to boardrooms and invest- or supporting Israel’s defense sector Jerusalem – or ment managers. The Federal Reserve’s accused of contributing to the “occupation” in any joining the NSGF is a harbinger of what is to come far beyond the energy sector. direct or indirect way – could be cut off from the Business schools are beginning to teach international financial system. social justice NGO expertise, and business after business – especially faith-ori- ented CEOs and businesses – are already increasingly subject across America to lawsuits and boycotts, such as bakers, Hobby Lobby, and Chik-Fil-A. But these these elites do not consider part of Israel, elites – such as Hungary, Poland, and efforts are the minor leagues compared to such as Jerusalem – even an employee now even the United Kingdom, let alone what is coming down the pike on a level living there – is an investment risk countries such as Taiwan – could easily far higher, and less visible than currently based on a social justice political risk find themselves almost invisibly slip- imagined by those who would most be af- factor index. Any fiduciary advantage ping into such a catastrophic purgatory. fected by it. Lest one have any doubt, just in investing in an Israeli company, then, So, could major religions and their in- look at the swagger of EU elites toward is weighed against the likelihood of the stitutions, such as the Vatican. Brexit to understand the power they are investors (and not just the Israeli com- Thus, foreign policy should be ex- confident they are amassing. pany) being written off as a high credit risk by both domestic and international banking and investment structures. One can only imagine how few companies will make a stand at that point because any gain in investing Lest one have any doubt, just look at the swagger of in such an Israeli company would be EU elites toward Brexit to understand the power they eclipsed by the devastating loss of de- nied credit. Every industry that depends are confident they are amassing. on a banking structure – i.e., every industry – will have to accede to this. Microsoft already did last year when it divested from Israeli firms providing facial recognition technologies, since pected to go the way of environmental these firms involved in developing such policy. It will as well likely be subordi- DAVID WUR MSER, Ph.D., is Director technologies advanced the “occupa- nated to a fashionable aristocracy, rath- of the Center for Security Policy’s Project tion.” Essentially Israeli firms with any er than continuing to be the expression on Global Anti-Semitism and the U.S.- presence at all in or supporting Israel’s of the values, culture and aspirations of Israel Relationship. He is a former U.S. defense sector Jerusalem – or accused the American people as it largely has Navy Reserve intelligence officer with of contributing to the “occupation” in been until now. Our foreign relations extensive national security experience any direct or indirect way – could be will approximate much more closely the working for the State Department, the cut off not only from the international intersectional campus cancel culture Pentagon, Vice President Dick Cheney financial system, but from even doing of today, or the surreal debates at the and the National Security Council.

36 inFOCUS | Spring 2021 “I Want to Improve the Human Condition” review by SHOSHANA BRYEN

ome books are actually two And, suddenly, the Kennedy boys books. You can read them twice, are men, where Haas has a strong prefer- or buy two copies, or take two ence for Ted. Ssets of notes. The Kennedys in the Jack doesn’t fare too well. War hero World: How Jack, Bobby, and Ted Remade and Cold Warrior, Jack offloaded blame America’s Empire by historian Lawrence – the generals were to blame for the Bay J. Haas is one of those. Both books are ex- of Pigs, Bobby was sent to meetings cellent, but one takes a LOT of patience. during the Cuban Missile Crisis so Jack Haas, a former senior White House could disavow knowledge, and he was, official and award-winning journalist, is apparently, preparing to blame the gen- Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy at erals again for the escalation of U.S. mil- the American Foreign Policy Council. He itary activity in Vietnam. He had a close is the author of six books, including the relationship with Bobby, but when Ted outstanding Harry and Arthur: Truman, offered to be helpful to the President, Vandenberg, and the Partnership that Jack said, “Go run for Congress.” Bobby Created the Free World, a 2016 Wall was the interim figure, changing his Street Journal top ten non-fiction book, view of the Vietnam War and promot- reviewed in the Summer 2016 issue of ing social change in South America as inFOCUS Quarterly. the antidote to communist revolution- The Kennedys is, first, the biogra- aries. Ted’s was a full-blown revolution- The Kennedys in the World: phy of Jack, Bobby, and Ted (Haas’s use ary – mostly for others. How Jack, Bobby, and Ted of nicknames saves U.S. from multiple If at that point you thought you Senator Kennedys). Not a full biog- didn’t need another Kennedy biography, Remade America’s Empire raphy – Haas doesn’t care about their even a well-written and interesting one, love lives, personal peccadillos, or as- you’d be right. However, this is where the By Lawrence J. Haas sassinations. Jack is dispatched at the second book starts. end of one section and Bobby at the end of the next. That’s fine. Mary Jo ❚ Dylan’s Foreign Policy Kopechne gets a single mention, which The 1960s were for American for- is less fine, but it is in keeping with the eign policy exactly what they were for so- principle that what counts is how they cial policy – a test bed of new, interesting, were raised and how it impacted public and sometimes, ultimately unsupport- policy. That’s public policy. able policies. They were Camelot, broad- A demanding father and distant ly speaking, where idealism was coin of mother set the stage. Standards for aca- the realm (we’ll get to COIN later). Bob demics, current events, and sports. “Poor Dylan wrote the outline: little rich boy” stories about how Rose didn’t visit Jack when he was in the hospi- And how many years can some peo- tal at Choate, and no suggestion that avi- ple exist ator and eldest brother Joseph Kennedy, Before they’re allowed to be free? Jr. might have been the preferred son. Yes, and how many times can a man

Governing Post-Pandemic| inFOCUS 37 turn his head than rolling it back. The book is unclear. Armed Forces (LAF) was supposed to And pretend that he just doesn’t see? Cold Warrior Jack was firm on the im- keep an alternative to Hezbollah in place portance of Vietnam. He was less firm to protect the interests of the Lebanese People should be free, but are not, about the need to couple the troops and people – as distinct from Hezbollah it- and other people are turning away from arms – which he was willing to autho- self. But the LAF actually shares weapons the oppression. How can you look at op- rize – with aid and pressure for political and training with the terror group that pression without doing anything about change in Saigon. It didn’t take long for bombed the Marine Barracks in Beirut it? And what should you do about it? him to become ambivalent and was con- in 1983. Especially when the song admonishes: sidering withdrawal when he died. Major head-banging. It should be noted that when wars Returning to The Kennedys, Latin Yes, and how many times must the end for some people, they don’t end America was largely a test bed. Ted wrote: cannonballs fly for others. Haas writes, “As the war Before they’re forever banned? (Vietnam) wound down, Ted geared up Here, as in no other continent, the to address global challenges of a different 1970s will determine whether we are And nature…” The war did not “wind down” right in asserting that fundamen- for the Vietnamese, which is a source of tal and rapid change can take place Yes, and how many deaths will it take head-banging for the reader. without violent, bloody disruption… ‘til he knows if we assume that all radical move- That too many people have died? ❚ COIN ments are subversive; if we curtail aid The 60s produced COIN – counter- to governments because they prom- That last one is really ambiguous insurgency operations – which haunts ise swift change; if we curtail aid to because he doesn’t mention whether the American military and foreign policy governments because they promise “too many” deaths are the people of op- makers to this day. COIN says you don’t swift change’ if we deprive them of pressed places or the soldiers who have have to conquer territory – don’t have to our markets and our resources, we stopped turning away from them and are stand in a capital and accept surrender pa- ourselves may force them to look trying to make the oppressed free. Were pers. You can defeat enemies by support- elsewhere. there “too many” deaths at Omaha Beach ing a local faction to kill the communist or Iwo Jima? factions while you offer money and food Consider, for a moment, what we’re A conflicting mishmash of plati- to those who might support the commu- asking of “them” – trading local loyalties tudes and hopes are fine for Dylan, but nists – to induce them to support the U.S. for economic change; social change; mod- more is required of presidents and sena- as well. At Caltech, Bobby called for: ern education; and electoral politics that tors. This is why the reader needs pa- presume multiple, fair elections so that if tience – there is head-banging between …better training for “ foreign na- you lose this time, you can win next time; here and the end. tional to defend themselves against a loyal opposition; and the understanding The Kennedys were not oblivious communist terrorism and guerrilla the coalition building helps. But what if to the suffering of people trapped be- penetration,” but more importantly, governments are unable to do all of those hind the Iron Curtain – all three broth- for “progressive political programs things? What if they don’t want to? There ers made pilgrimages to Eastern Europe which wipe out the poverty, misery, was enormous disillusionment with the – but their efforts (after Cuba) were -di and discontent on which [commu- government of South Vietnam for both rected more toward Soviet machinations nism] thrives.” Jack and Bobby – rather like the disillu- in Asia, and later South America than to- sionment that came with Egypt after the ward undoing the oppression 70 million The trick is knowing which foreign so-called Arab Spring, or with Iraq after people under communist occupation. nationals only want American money the toppling of Saddam, or the 2011 top- Ted, in fact, “argued that Soviet and arms, and which share America’s pling of Moammar Qaddafi, or with a control over Eastern Europe had largely goals – something we haven’t gotten variety of Afghan governments after the ended… ‘Today, with the exception of right yet. Who could have and should ouster of the Taliban. East Germany, Russia has no more satel- have been America’s partners in Iraq? In We seriously have to ask, “What if lites.’” Shortly before the Soviets invaded Syria, the Obama Administration armed they really can’t do it, and what we push Czechoslovakia. and trained the “Free Syrian Army,” them into is NOT a version of ourselves, Perhaps they thought their best claiming it was secular Syrians who but a rift that allows communists, or ji- strategy was to prevent communism wanted to depose Assad. Not exactly. hadists, or anarchists or other despots to from taking hold in new places, rather And American help for the Lebanese gain power?”

38 inFOCUS | Spring 2021 SHOSHANA BRYEN: Book Review More head-banging here. Because Nixon era ABM systems and Reagans physical backlash against us. for all of the good intentions of the Strategic Defense Initiative. But it was On the other hand, our Western Kennedys, and all of the hard work – in- Reagan’s determination to build arms heritage – NOT of electoral politics nec- cluding championing civil rights in the that the Soviets were compelled to ac- essarily - but free speech, rule of law, United States – there are limits to what knowledge they could not match, in free market economics, independent ju- American idealism can do. There were tandem with his support of the people diciaries, property rights and tolerance limits to what the Kennedys could do. of Central Europe that allowed for the – is precisely responsive to the condi- Contrary to Ted’s hope, fundamen- peaceful uprising and political change tions faced by millions of people around tal and rapid change leads to violent, the Kennedys hoped for but couldn’t the globe today. It is appalling – and bloody disruption more often than not. produce. Jack’s “Ich Bin Ein Berliner” more than a little bit condescending – Interestingly, he opposed Reagan’s sup- remark, aside from sometimes be- that where the Kennedy brothers were port of the Nicaraguan Contras and ing translated as “I am a jelly donut,” openly patriotic and admiring of the was thrilled when Congress cut off their didn’t have the clout that Reagan’s, “Mr. American political system and Western funding, saying, “This is a historic day, Gorbachev, tear down this wall” had de- Civilization, today’s political leaders are the day the tide was turned against the cades later. running the other way. secret war in Nicaragua.” Left-wing pacifist head-banging here. Final head-banging here. Actually, the Contras held on long Countries that do not threaten enough to force a democratic election U.S. directly but impose restrictions on ❚ Epilogue in 1990. It was monitored by former the civil rights and human rights of its Don’t read this. President Jimmy Carter and won by citizens should be treated the way we Do, however, buy the book – it is en- Violeta Chamorro, a conservative and treated the Soviet Union – as an abhor- gaging and, if read with the right mind- democratically inclined newspaper pub- rent system of governance. There was no set and two aspirin, will force you to as- lisher, over the communist Sandinistas. assumption that the U.S. could invade, sess the relationship among American Daniel Ortega, the Sandinista leader, occupy, or arm and train guerrillas, to politics, money, and power from the 60s ran and lost in democratic elections un- make over the USSR in our image. And to the current day. The past has some- til he forced changes in electoral law that no likelihood that will do it to save the thing to teach U.S. and Lawrence Haas brought him to power in 2006 with less Uyghurs in China. Maybe because they is a really good teacher. than 38 percent of the vote. Ortega never are really big, with really big armies. looked back. The Kennedys generally mucked around SHOSHANA BRYEN is Senior Ted opposed Reagan’s hard line on in smaller Asian countries and in Latin Director of The Jewish Policy Center the Soviet Union and opposed both the America where there would be no and Editor, inFOCUS Quarterly.

Vice Chairmen: Board of Fellows: Marshall J. Breger Richard Baehr Michael David Epstein William J. Bennett Mona Charen Honorary Chairman: Midge Decter Sheldon B. Kamins Rabbi Daniel Lapi Michael A. Ledeen General Counsel: Michael Medved Jeffrey P. Altman David Novak Daniel Pipes Board of Trustees: John Podhoretz Diana Epstein Norman Podhoretz Cheryl Halpern Dennis Prager Joel Hoppenstein Ilya Shapiro Eliot Lauer Tevi Troy J. Philip Rosen Ruth Wisse Walter Stern

Governing Post-Pandemic | inFOCUS 39 PO Box 77316 Washington, DC 20013

❚ A Final Thought ...

❚ A Final Thought ... Biden’stk Charm Offensive Saudi Arabia is an authoritarian place where religious crown prince despised Khashoggi, they took it on themselves leaderstk have tremendous power, and the royal family has more. to get rid of the guy – hoping to curry favor with a demanding Its standards for justice are not American standards. boss. Did they? Who knows? Not the CIA, apparently. So, when the CIA authors a report on the death of a Saudi In fact, the report was released by the administration to journalist at the hands of Saudi henchmen, it isn’t surpris- topple MbS. It doesn’t matter whether it is credible—it matters ing that the report pointed the finger at Saudi Crown Prince that President Joe Biden says it is. Mohammed bin Salman (MbS). What is surprising is that the Biden is on a “charm offensive” to woo the Iranians back report on the murder of Jamal Khashoggi is just three-quarters into negotiations over a JCPOA. The Iranians expect to be paid of a page of amateurish innuendo. in advance, and undermining MbS is a hot ticket. No evidence. Therefore, the report is best understood in the context of “We assess” – not with confidence, not with human sourc- other reckless moves by the Biden administration: “freezing” es (even anonymous or redacted sources), not with physical arms sales to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, halt- evidence, not with evidence at all. Just “we assess” because the ing intelligence assistance to the Arab Coalition opposing the crown prince had “control of decision-making” and “absolute Houthis, removing the Houthis from the terror list, and work- control” of the intelligence operations. ing with South Korea to unfreeze at least a billion dollars of We needed a report for that? Iranian assets. As well as holding Israel at arms length. Later, “The Crown Prince probably fostered an environ- Biden is well on his way to destabilizing the Persian Gulf ment in which aides were afraid that failure to complete as- and rewarding Iran, a chief sponsor of regional and interna- signed tasks might result in him firing or arresting them.” tional terrorism. Probably? One could equally posit that, given an “environment in – Shoshana Bryen which aides were afraid” and knowing as they did that the Editor, inFOCUS Quarterly