WHICH REFUGEES? by Nayla Rush We Can Direct Our Aid Less Arbitrarily
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WHY CORPORATE AMERICA CAPITALISM $4.99 TURNED TO THE LEFT 10 Kevin D. Williamson
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MARCH 6 , 2017 | VOLUME LXIX, NO. 4 | www.nationalreview.com
ON THE COVER Page 24 Progressivism
In the Sally Satel on treating opioid addiction Boardroom p. 26 The capitalists are not prepared to offer an intellectual BOOKS, ARTS defense of capitalism or of & MANNERS classical liberalism. They 35 TREASON OF THE CLERKS believe in something else: the David Pryce-Jones reviews From Benito Mussolini to Hugo managers’ dream of command Chávez: Intellectuals and a and control. Kevin D. Williamson Century of Political Hero Worship , by Paul Hollander.
COVER: ROMAN GENN 36 FIRST PRINCIPLES Jeremy Carl reviews Patriotism Is ARTICLES Not Enough: Harry Jaffa, Walter Berns, and the 13 FOREIGN ENTANGLEMENTS by Dan McLaughlin Arguments That Redefined The Trump Organization’s unnecessary emoluments-clause problem. American Conservatism , by Steven F. Hayward. 16 WHICH REFUGEES? by Nayla Rush We can direct our aid less arbitrarily . 39 A NEW MAN Dominic Green reviews Montaigne: TRUMP AS COMMUNICATOR by Heather R. Higgins 18 A Life , by Philippe Desan. The president has developed an aggressive, successful idiom. PRESERVING THE MAGIC INDUSTRIAL POLICY BY TWEET by Robert D. Atkinson 45 20 David P. Deavel & Catherine Jack A novel use of the bully pulpit . Deavel discuss J. K. Rowling’s extended universe. 22 PERMANENT FEBRUARY by Jay Nordlinger Some personal thoughts on the ‘Blacksonian.’ 47 EMPIRE BUILDER Ross Douthat reviews The Founder. FEATURES 24 PROGRESSIVISM IN THE BOARDROOM by Kevin D. Williamson SECTIONS A class and its interests . Letters to the Editor TREATING OPIOID ADDICTION by Sally Satel 2 26 4 The Wee k Never before have so many tools been available. 33 Athwart ...... James Lileks FIXING FINANCE, STILL by Nicole Gelinas 34 The Long View ...... Rob Long 30 Poetry ...... Len Krisak Replace Dodd-Frank with something that will work. 39 48 Happy Warrior ...... David Harsanyi
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EDITOR IN CHIEF Richard Lowry Senior Editors The Importance of NATO Richard Brookhiser / Jonah Goldberg / Jay Nordlinger Ramesh Ponnuru / David Pryce-Jones Managing Editor Jason Lee Steorts To the paragraph about President Trump’s getting NATO mostly wrong (the Literary Editor Michael Potemra Vice President, Editorial Operations Christopher McEvoy Week, February 6), I would add the following: Yes, Article 5 has been invoked Executive Editor Reihan Salam Roving Correspondent Kevin D. Williamson by NATO just once in history, and it was for the U.S. Most Americans are National Correspondent John J. Miller unaware that, following the atrocity committed on September 11, 2001, NATO Senior Political Correspondent Jim Geraghty Art Director Luba Kolomytseva sent six of its AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) aircraft to Deputy Managing Editors Nicholas Frankovich / Fred Schwarz Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., to fly cover over our great country. The reason Production Editor Katie Hosmer Assistant to the Editor Rachel Ogden they came to our aid with these aircraft is that most of our own AWACS air - Research Associate Alessandra Trouwborst craft were scattered all over the globe ensuring the security of the free world. Contributing Editors Shannen Coffin / Ross Douthat / Daniel Foster Having spent more than a couple of years in NATO, I can tell you it was a Roman Genn / Arthur L. Herman / Lawrence Kudlow warm feeling having our NATO partners at Tinker flying cover for us. Mark R. Levin / Yuval Levin / Rob Long Mario Loyola / Jim Manzi / Andrew C. McCarthy I would also add, for what it is worth, that, yes, our allies ought to pay their Kate O’Beirne / Andrew Stuttaford / Robert VerBruggen share of NATO costs; but whatever the cost to the U.S., it is most assuredly NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE Editor Charles C. W. Cooke worth every penny to keep this important alliance together. NATO has kept Managing Editor Katherine Connell Deputy Managing Editor Mark Antonio Wright Europe safe for many decades. National-Affairs Columnist John Fund Staff Writer David French Reporter Katherine Timpf Frank Alfter Associate Editors Molly Powell / Nick Tell Digital Director Ericka Andersen Colonel, United States Air Force (Ret.) Technical Services Russell Jenkins Web Editorial Assistant Grant DeArmitt Beavercreek, Ohio Web Developer Wendy Weihs Web Producer Scott McKim EDITORS - AT - LARGE Kathryn Jean Lopez / John O’Sullivan NATIONAL REVIEW INSTITUTE VAT Chance THOMAS L . RHODES FELLOW Ian Tuttle Kevin Hassett, in exhorting Congress to implement a VAT-like consumption BUCKLEY FELLOWS IN POLITICAL JOURNALISM Alexandra DeSanctis / Austin Yack tax to “move the tax base toward the international norm,” appears to be
COLLEGIATE NETWORK FELLOW unaware of two things. The “international norm” in terms of the advanced VAT Paul Crookston economies is now low growth at best and more typically stagnation. The EU Contributors Hadley Arkes / James Bowman / Eliot A. Cohen had a 2015 growth rate of 1.8 percent; its major economies (Germany, France, Dinesh D’Souza / Chester E. Finn Jr. / Neal B. Freeman and Italy) were well below that. Japan has not achieved sustained 2 percent James Gardner / David Gelernter / George Gilder Jeffrey Hart / Kevin A. Hassett / Charles R. Kesler growth for over a decade. Both have VATs at or near the “international norm.” David Klinghoffer / Anthony Lejeune / Michael Novak Alan Reynolds / Tracy Lee Simmons Mr. Hassett also appears to be unaware of something more fundamental: Terry Teachout / Vin Weber There is small chance of a VAT-type consumption tax replacing the income tax Vice President Jack Fowler at the inception. Congress might express an intention for an eventual phase-out Chief Financial Officer James X. Kilbridge Accounting Manager Galina Veygman of the income tax, which also has an approximately 0 percent chance of ever Accountant Lyudmila Bolotinskaya Business Services Alex Batey really happening. Once a VAT is implemented, the income tax would find its Circulation Manager Jason Ng Advertising Director Jim Fowler sunset fading away into a distant future as government grew accustomed to Advertising Manager Kevin Longstreet having more money than even it ever thought possible. A VAT would be pre - Assistant to the Publisher Brooke Rogers Director of Revenue Erik Netcher cisely what it has become in the slow-growth countries that have implemented PUBLISHER CHAIRMAN it: an undammed river of fresh private-sector dollars flooding into the govern - Garrett Bewkes John Hillen ment’s bottomless pocket to augment high income-tax rates. It is an odd sort FOUNDER William F. Buckley Jr. of economics that regards that as optimal, and an ingenuous political outlook
PATRONS AND BENEFACTORS to believe that something better might happen. Robert Agostinelli Dale Brott Mr. and Mrs. Michael Conway John L. Rogitz Mark and Mary Davis Virginia James San Diego, Calif. Christopher M. Lantrip Brian and Deborah Murdock Mr. & Mrs. Richard Spencer Mr. & Mrs. L. Stanton Towne Peter J. Travers Letters may be sub mitted by e-mail to [email protected].
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n Honestly, we do kind of wonder whether he told Flynn, See page 12. “You’re fired!”
n National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was ousted. He had told Vice President Mike Pence that he hadn’t discussed anti- Russian sanctions with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak in December 2016, when President Obama imposed them. Pence had defended him based on that assurance. Then unnamed mem - bers of the intelligence community reported that Flynn had indeed discussed the sanctions. Flynn apologized to Pence and to Pres i - dent Trump before leaving his job after less than a month. Should Flynn have talked to Kislyak? Democrats invoked the Logan Act, which forbids private citizens to negotiate with foreign powers, but how can an incoming administration signal its intentions ex - cept by the use of intermediaries? Why did the American intelli - gence community leak on Flynn? Because they hated him, evidently; but who will say anything to anyone if our own spooks routinely leak it? Should Flynn have misled the vice president? No (Flynn claims a faulty memory). It was the public revelation of the erroneous account that brought him down. With Congress promising investigations of Russia’s role in the election and Dem o crats, the media, and bureaucrats ready to form a hanging party, we are closer to the beginning of this story than the end. n Vice President Mike Pence cast a tiebreaking vote to confirm Betsy DeVos as the nation’s secretary of education after two n Interviewed before the Super Bowl by Bill O’Reilly, President Repub li can senators—Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski and Maine’s Trump yet again equated modern America and Vladimir Putin’s Susan Collins—joined Democrats in acquiescing to the demands Russia. “I do respect him,” Trump said of Putin, whereupon of teachers’ unions. Since DeVos’s nomination in November, the O’Reilly said, “Putin is a killer.” “There are a lot of killers,” National Education Association, the American Federation of Trump responded. “We have a lot of killers. Well, you think our Teachers, and the rest have demonstrated to what extent they con - country is so innocent?” The only effect of an American president trol the present-day Democratic party, coordinating the extraor - speaking this way could be to make people cynical about repub - dinary antagonism to DeVos that defined her confirmation lican government and indifferent to thuggery. Intellectually, such process. NEA president Lily Eskelsen Garcia said that DeVos is remarks are at the level of Twitter trolls; morally, they are worse “dangerously unqualified” and that she has designs to “harm our than many Twitter trolls. The president and his colleagues should students”; the president of the Michigan Education Association be ashamed of them. said that DeVos is beholden to a “disastrous ideology.” The New York Times and other publications sought to bolster these accusa - n Left-wingers have been mining Supreme Court nominee Neil tions by declaring DeVos’s charter-school program in Detroit a Gorsuch’s record and coming up empty. Nancy Pelosi claimed failure, misrepresenting the data to make their case. Days after that Judge Gorsuch is “hostile” to schoolchildren with autism. In her confirmation, protesters attempted to block DeVos from the relevant case, Gorsuch found that the law did not entitle the entering a D.C. public school. DeVos has spent nearly a quarter family in question to the specific assistance they wanted. But he century promoting a multifaceted school-choice agenda that has expressed sympathy for them, and two other judges, including a helped states and municipalities free parents and students of fail - Bill Clinton appointee, joined the decision. Senator Ron Wyden ing public-school monopolies. She now has an opportunity to said that “Gorsuch represents a breathtaking retreat from the no - advance that work by rolling back the federal government’s tion that Americans have fundamental constitutional rights” but aggressive insinuation of itself into the day-to-day workings of supplied no evidence to support that outlandish claim. Senator school districts and classrooms. If that has teachers’ unions and Kirsten Gillibrand accused him of being “out of the mainstream” their Democratic allies worried—good. because he ruled in the Hobby Lobby case that a corporation could be treated as a person with the right to invoke a religious-freedom n Senator Cory Booker (D., N.J.) seems to be suffering a case of N N E law. Only two justices of the Supreme Court took the same view amnesia. In January, Booker made a show of breaking with Sen - G N A
M as the senator in that case. It’s Gorsuch’s critics, in other words, ate precedent to testify against the nomination of Alabama sena - O R who are out of the mainstream—and, worse, dishonest. tor Jeff Sessions for attorney general—just eleven months after
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THE WEEK
Booker declared himself “blessed and honored to have partnered drug-addled black youth wandering the streets. ‘With four more with Senator Sessions” to award the Congressional Gold Medal years of John Lindsay,’ the narrator intoned, ‘he will be coming to to participants in the 1965 Voting Rights March from Selma to your neighbourhood soon.’ The ad flashed to the anxious faces of Montgomery, Ala. Then, in February, Booker cast a vote against two well-dressed white women. ‘Vote for Fred Trump. He’s for Betsy DeVos—just nine months after giving a supportive address us.’ The other commercial, ‘Real New Yorkers,’ showed scenes of to the American Federation for Children, the school-reform ‘real’ people from across the city, all of them white. Fred Trump, group founded and long chaired by DeVos. In fact, Booker has the narrator said, ‘is a real New Yorker too.’ In the end he didn’t long been a school-choice advocate. During his two-term may - run, but his campaign themes were bequeathed to his son.” It oralty in Newark, he expanded the city’s charter-school system, made for a good story. The only problem was, it never happened. which currently serves 14,000 students, even earning the oppro - Trump seems never to have weighed a mayoral run; the videos brium of the local teachers’ union, which backed his opponent were created last year by “Historical Paroxysm,” a video-art pro - during his 2010 reelection campaign. In 2012, again at an AFC ject that creates “found footage from alternate realities.” The LRB conference, Booker said that he “cannot ever stand up and stand removed the misleading paragraph from the essay (adding, sniffi - against parents’ having options” and that he would “fight for the ly, that it still “accurately reflected Trump’s racial attitudes”), but freedom and the liberty and the choice and the options of my peo - the smear will no doubt live on, having been widely circulated ple.” With 2020 in his sights, it seems America’s schoolchildren among credulous readers. Or, as Blumenthal would surely say: are no longer Senator Booker’s people. Mission accomplished.
n Passion can run high on the floor of the Senate: In 1850, Henry n Secretary of State Rex Tillerson wanted foreign-policy em - Foote pulled a pistol on Thomas Hart Benton, and in 1856 i nence Elliott Abrams as his deputy. A meeting with Pres i dent Charles Sumner was beaten with a cane. Rule 19, adopted in Trump appeared to go well. Then Trump learned that Abrams 1902, forbids senators to impute unworthy conduct or motives to had criticized him during the 2016 campaign. (The criticisms one another in debate. It was invoked against Elizabeth Warren were fairly mild, but Abrams’s critics have made them spicier (D., Mass.) when, in speaking against Jeff Sessions’s confirma - in the retelling.) He vetoed the nomination. Some of Abrams’s tion as attorney general, she quoted 31-year-old comments by fans are grousing about Trump’s “thin skin,” but any president Coretta Scott King and Teddy Kennedy opposing Sessions’s would prefer to staff his administration with people who sup - nomination as a federal judge (Kennedy had called him “a dis - ported him in the election. Trump has not adopted an ironclad grace”; King had said he had “chill[ed]” black voting rights). no-past-critics rule, though, selecting Nikki Haley, Betsy Rule 19 makes it marginally harder for senators to debate the DeVos, and Rick Perry for top jobs. These exceptions reflected merits of nominees who are their colleagues. Yet Senate decorum that Trump isn’t like any previous president: A lot of Re pub li - is a good thing. Add incivility to the list of Senator Warren’s pec - cans criticized him; he is short-staffed, particularly in key cadillos—or speaking with crooked tongue. foreign-policy posts; and the people he has do not have much government experience. And Trump has just hurt the credibility n It seems that all too many journalists are reaching a point of of one of those people, Tillerson, who was unable to get the dep- maximum anti-Trump credulity. Take, for example, the kerfuffle u ty he wanted. The last-minute nixing of Abrams is not a disas - over an allegedly “botched” Special Forces raid in Yemen. Gen - ter. It does seem like bad management, and bad judgment. er al James Mattis recommended and President Trump approved a dangerous raid in Yemen that the Obama administration had n Nordstrom, the department-store chain, announced that it will planned but handed over to the new administration because of not carry Ivanka Trump’s products. Then Kellyanne Conway operational concerns. When the raid actually happened, American imprudently urged those listening to her interview on Fox News forces lost the element of surprise, and in the ensuing firefight a to “go buy Ivanka’s stuff.” From Ivanka’s couture to diplomats’ SEAL lost his life, al-Qaeda forces used human shields, and civil - booking themselves into the Trump International Hotel in Wash - ians died. In the immediate aftermath of the battle, Reuters ing ton to the Trump sons’ not-so-arm’s-length management of reported about unnamed defense sources who claimed that their father’s empire, there is an odor of favor-seeking and self- Trump had approved the raid “without sufficient intelligence.” promotion about this presidency. The most important thing Trump Journalists forwarded the story enthusiastically, and a narrative could do to dispel it and defang his critics is to release his tax was born. Never mind that the New York Times contradicted returns. Never before has such a wealthy man, active around the Reuters with a far more comprehensive report. Never mind that world and new to public service, occupied the White House. Who operational planning isn’t a presidential responsibility. This raid, his partners, creditors, and debtors are is of interest to the public. to some, was “Trump’s Benghazi.” But the raid wasn’t an outrage; The law does not require transparency, but republican seemliness it was war. It was also a reminder that not every Trump scandal is does. Then let people buy whatever shmattas they like. real and not every anonymous source is right. When it comes to separating truth from lies, a little investigation goes a long way. n Mother Jones thinks Keith Ellison—congressman for Min ne - so ta’s fifth congressional district and front-runner to head the n Never one to miss an opportunity for a hit job, Sidney Blu men - Democratic National Committee—may be “just what Dem o crats thal—yes, that Sidney Blumenthal—used his essay “A Short His - need” to rally after a year of crushing defeats. But the long essay to ry of the Trump Family” in a recent issue of the London Review touting him may not be quite the favor the magazine intended. of Books to explain how Donald Trump’s father, Fred, created two Reporter Tim Murphy uncovers examples of the anti-Semitism test television commercials while weighing a run for New York for which Ellison was well known as a Minneapolis activist but City mayor in 1969: “One of them, called ‘Dope Man,’ featured a which he has long denied, and demonstrates that, while claiming
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In 2013, protesters used ities, attending meetings, speaking in the local leadership’s stead, this same tactic on Kris Kobach, the secretary of state in Kansas. and even showing up to community events flanked by members He said he would defend his family by force, if necessary. Now of the Fruit of Islam, the organization’s security wing. Murphy protesters have gone to the homes of the two party leaders in the notes: “It was only in 2006, as his run for Congress floundered, Senate: Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer. In each case, the that Ellison repudiated Farrakhan.” Ellison, who was elected the protesters were upset at President Trump’s cabinet nominations. first Muslim member of Congress in 2006, has long suggested (Protesters were damning the Democrat, Schumer, for voting for that criticisms of his past associations were simply thinly veiled some of them.) This is mobocracy, not democracy. Politicians’ at tacks on his faith. But Mother Jones shows that assertions of El- homes should be out of bounds. As Kobach said four years ago, li son’s radicalism are no smear campaign. They are simple fact. there are public offices and other public spaces. Protesters can take their act there, and leave it there. n In 2011, Democrats in Wisconsin were upset at the reforms pro - posed by Governor Scott Walker and his fellow Republicans. n In search of an inspiring quote from Lincoln to include in its Gaudy protests took place in the capitol building. And some of the tweet honoring the 16th president on his birthday, the Republican The Road Back from France ? ACK in 2007, I wrote an article for Bloomberg that administration was even a bit lower than that. European argued that U.S. growth was likely to slow growth (not shown) dropped even more. But, as men - B because our economic policy was on the “road tioned in this space in December, the OECD expects to France.” The U.S. had posted a significantly better major policy re forms in the U.S. that, when fully in effect, track record than most of Europe through 2006, and will take growth almost back to the old normal. the academic consensus was that a major driver of our The OECD staff, it seems, buys into an analysis that is higher growth was our smaller government. But the consistent with that Bloomberg piece from a decade ago. expiration of the Bush tax cuts created a surge in rev - The U.S. copied the policies of Europe and began to grow enue that would give the Dem o crats who controlled like Europe. If policies head in the other direction, then Congress at the time an excuse to spend more money. growth will too. That, plus the impending upswing in entitlement spend - There is a respectable opposing view, that the financial ing, meant that the small-government U.S. was going to crisis created a collapse in global demand from which we look like big-government Europe. How could growth fail still have not recovered. According to that view, we were to look more European? doomed to slow growth no matter what. Perhaps—but if it Looking back on that piece a decade later, we see that is hope you are looking for, be grateful that we are on the many unexpected things occurred. A financial crisis road back. knocked the stuffing out of the economy, and President —KEVIN A. HASSETT Obama’s prferred approach to digging out, a Keynesian stimulus, ac cel er at ed the upswing in government spend - ing. Reg u la tions surged much more than one might have ex pect ed in 2007, as did entitlements, because of the Af - Average Annual ford able Care Act. It is well known that recoveries from GDP-Growth Rate financial crises are slow, but as the dust settled it be came clear that, after a rocket-powered trip down the road to France, we settled in at a growth rate that just about 3.5 matched the European one that was so concerning back in 2007. 3.0 h The nearby graph shows the average annual GDP- t w 2.5 o growth rates across different periods of time for both the r G t U.S. and the EU. These rates come from the OECD data - n e 2.0 c r base, which includes past growth figures as well as future e P projections. The most current projections were published 1.5 this past November. Since the EU has changed composi - tion over the past 30 years, the 15 countries included in the 1.0 chart are the EU countries prior to May 1, 2004. As seen in the graph, the average annual growth rate of 0.5 the EU was more than three-quarters of a percentage 0 ä ä ä point lower than that of the U.S. between 1985 and 2006. U.S. EU U.S. U.S. 1985 2006 1985 2006 2010 2016 2018 OECD The U.S. average over the past few years of the Obama Projection 8 | www.nationalreview.com MARCH 6 , 2017 base_new_milliken-mar 22.qxd 2/14/2017 2:03 PM Page 1 In tr L od uc O to W ry $ P ri c 2 A e ! S 0 6 ea 0 ch Actual size is 40.6 mm Millions Demand America’s Purest Silver Dollar. Shouldn’t You? Secure Your New 2017 Eagle Silver Dollars Now! illions of people collect the The Most Affordable 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee American Eagle Silver Dollar. In Precious Metal—GOVERNMENT You must be 100% satisfied with your 2017 Mfact it’s been the country’s most GUARANTEED American Eagle Silver Dollars or return them popular Silver Dollar for over thirty years. Silver is by far the most affordable of all within 30 days of receipt for a prompt refund Try as they might, that makes it a very hard precious metals — and each full Troy ounce (less s/h). Don’t miss out on this exclusive new “secret” to keep quiet. 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THE BEST SOURCE FOR COINS WORLDWIDE™ week_QXP-1127940387.qxp 2/15/2017 2:38 PM Page 10 THE WEEK National Committee hit on this one: “And in the end, it’s not the n It is a rare day on which the ACLU, the NRA, and a host of years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” The trou - America’s mental-health and disability advocates agree upon a ble was that Lincoln did not, in fact, utter this banal bit of uplift. cause, but that day came in January. The aim of this motley crew It comes from an advertisement for a 1947 self-help book by Ed - was a noble one: to reverse an Obama-era rule that labeled Amer - ward J. Stieglitz. Alerted to its mistake, the RNC quickly deleted i cans on disability who are unable to manage their finances as too the tweet, but not before it had earned a round of well-deserved dangerous to own a gun. The target of the coalition was the Re - mockery. If GOP staffers want to honor Lincoln’s legacy, they pub li can Congress, which, under the Congressional Review Act, might start by reading him. They’ll find he doesn’t sound much has the power to identify bad rules and to remove them from the like Oprah. books. The reasons given were varied—some noted that the med - ical reasoning was shamefully bad; others that the rule should n The Reforming American Immigration for Strong Em ploy - have been explicitly authorized by Congress; yet more that there ment (RAISE) Act, introduced by Republican senators Tom were no due-process protections—but the argument was clear Cot ton (Ark.) and David Perdue (Ga.), is a carefully crafted, and unanimous: This wasn’t a partisan matter, and its resolution albeit limited, bill that would change America’s immigration was of the utmost urgency. Happily, the House agreed, passing system to better serve the American economy. It would restrict the reversal without fuss and sending it on to the Senate. We wish family-based chain migration—a key source of the large-scale it a speedy journey to the president’s desk. immigration of low-skilled and unskilled workers that is pulling down wages in low-skill occupations—to the spouses n Remember the dramatic announcement, not long before the and minor children of U.S. citizens and legal permanent resi - 2015 Paris climate conference, that the purported 20-year hiatus dents. (It makes an exception for elderly parents in need of in global warming had been based on a miscalculation, and in caretaking, who would receive a temporary visa on the condi - fact the world’s temperature was rising fast? Now John Bates, a tion that their children dem on strate that they will provide com - climatologist who just retired from the National Oceanic and pletely for their parents’ health-care needs.) It would end the Atmo spheric Administration, has cast doubt on those results. Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, which makes 50,000 visas Accord ing to Bates, the scientists behind the revision used available annually to en trants from countries with low rates of incomplete, unverified data; processed it with unfinished, buggy immigration to the U.S. That program serves no clear economic software; ignored contrary evidence; and relied on unsound as - or humanitarian aims and promotes diversity only questionably. sump tions. (For example, ocean-temperature readings taken And it would cap the number of green cards available for from ships are higher than those taken from buoys, since ships refugees at 50,000 per year, in line with the average of the Bush generate heat. The researchers increased the buoy readings to and Obama eras. The bill is not a fix-all, but its proposals ought make them comparable to the ship readings, even though de- to be key elements of any conservative immigration agenda. creasing the ship readings to match the buoys would have given The senators’ Republican colleagues should follow their lead a more accurate result.) In any event, says Bates, the researchers on this issue. did not back up their research with proper records, so it can’t be duplicated. To be sure, scientists often disagree, and nobody is n In 1954, a conservative nonprofit group campaigned against accusing the researchers of anything worse than using debatable Lyndon Johnson, then a senator, in the Democratic primary. The methodology. But Bates’s caveats are a reminder that the projec - result was what is called the “Johnson amendment”: a law forbid - tions and averages on which climatology—and, more to the ding tax-exempt organizations, including churches, to support point, climate policy—depends are inherently approximate. We or oppose political candidates, whether through contributions should avoid making expensive, large-scale changes on the basis or statements. It has never been consistently enforced, and of anything but the most precise data. religious-conservative groups have long sought its abolition. Pres i dent Trump agrees. So do we: Churches and nonprofits n At the risk of having you suspect we’re engaged in a cheap and ought to be able to make endorsements in the course of their usual transparent ploy to sell magazines with titillating headlines, a few activities without threatening their tax status. (If any of them words about the fiduciary rule, which the Trump administration spent most of their time and money on politics, it would be a dif - is reviewing with an eye to its reform or repeal. Formulated by ferent story.) Pastors, priests, imams, and rabbis have many good the Department of Labor under the Obama administration, and reasons to refrain from overt political involvement, but fear of the originally scheduled to take effect this April, the rule would le gal consequences should not be among them. oblige certain salesmen of financial products to act in a “fidu - ciary” capacity, meaning they would be legally bound to act in n A new video from the pro-life group Live Action has revealed their clients’ best interest irrespective of their own interest in fees, that the Planned Parenthood Federation of America has long im - com missions, or other sources of income. Registered investment posed abortion quotas on its affiliates, rewarding clinics that meet advisers have long been required to act as fiduciaries, but the their target numbers with pizza parties and extra paid time off. In DOL rule would also apply that to “registered representatives,” an interview with Live Action, a former clinic manager and a for - who are essentially salesmen for brokerages rather than invest - mer Planned Parenthood nurse explain that upper management ment advisers. The effect of the rule would be to give federal reg - vigorously enforced these quotas for financial gain, incentivizing ulators a whip hand over fees and commissions charged to those workers to manipulate vulnerable women into choosing abortion. who are investing for retirement. The problems with the rule are “I felt like I was more of a salesman sometimes, to sell abortions,” several: For one thing, there will be implicit conflicts as long as said former nurse Marianne Anderson in the interview. But we are there are fees and commissions, and the fiduciary rule does not told there’s nothing to see here but “women’s health.” eliminate those. For another thing, what is good financial advice 10 | www.nationalreview.com MARCH 6 , 2017 week_QXP-1127940387.qxp 2/15/2017 2:38 PM Page 11 depends heavily on what happens in the market. What seemed and delivered at a small gathering in early February, Brown, a like excellent advice for someone retiring in June 2007 might Muslim convert, discussed slavery in Islam, comparing it to serf - have worked out poorly after the housing crash, whereas what dom in Christian Europe and to the bond that ties an employee to might have looked like self-interested advice (buy an annuity and his employer. Serfdom? Good riddance. And, no, an employee is pay me a large commission!) might have turned out better. This not like a slave. He’s a free agent: He doesn’t have to pay his boss is a case in which disclosure—about who is getting paid what by for the right to quit. Historians share no single, precise definition whom—is a better strategy than prohibition. of slavery, Brown argues: “Ownership, freedom and exploitation come in shades of gray.” But in medieval Islamic societies they n Overshadowed by liberal behemoths Massachusetts, Con nec - often came in some of the same stark colors that, looking back, ti cut, and New York, Rhode Island seems determined to show Americans recognize in “the peculiar institution” that our fore- that it can be just as loony-left as its bigger neighbors: City Jour - fathers died to abolish. Clear-eyed acknowledgment of past sins nal calls Little Rhody “the bluest state”; in last year’s primary, it increases one’s honor. The attempt to excuse them diminishes it. gave Bernie Sanders 55 percent; the entire state has declared it - In whitewashing the historical record, Pro fes sor Brown only self a sanctuary for illegal aliens; and its idea of a Republican was does a disservice to his faith. Lincoln Chafee. Now a Rhode Island legislator has introduced a bill regarding judicial vacancies, under which any departing trial n Milo Yiannopoulos was prevented from delivering a talk judge who is a “person of color” must be replaced by another at the University of California at Berkeley when rioters be - “person of color.” Here, as so often happens, life imitates televi - gan attacking police and bystanders, destroying property (a sion; yet even if this were not a silly idea for all the obvious rea - half-million dollars’ worth, according to the local business sons, it clearly violates the U.S. Constitution as well as that of association) and finally firebombing a campus building. Rhode Island. Yiannopoulos is a right-wing performance artist who thrives on this sort of thing; indeed, we wonder whether he even n Vladimir Kara-Murza is a democracy activist in Russia. He bothers writing speeches anymore or simply allows rioters to worked closely with Boris Nemtsov, the democratic politician. relieve him of the necessity. He is a distasteful character, but Nemtsov was murdered within sight of the Kremlin in February the villains in this story are those who en gaged in political 2015. Three months later, Kara-Murza fell into a coma, the vic - violence—what happened at Berkeley is plain terrorism— tim of poisoning. He recovered. In early February, he was again and the Berkeley authorities who in dulged it. The black-bloc in a coma—again the victim of poisoning. The latest news is rioters know that they are not going to face any sanction at that he has regained consciousness. A long time ago, he sent his Berkeley: One of them, an undergraduate by the name of family out of Russia, for safekeeping. But he himself remained. Neil Lawrence, even went so far as to give an interview to He is an extraordinarily brave man. In other news—and related Newsweek describing the thrill of violence. The student news—Alexei Navalny has been effectively disqualified from newspaper had published his threats before the event. The running for president in 2018. He is one of Vladimir Putin’s most so-called peaceful protesters had as their explicit aim sup - prominent critics. Therefore, the Kremlin has bedeviled him with pressing Yiannopoulos’s speech—at the home of the “Free phony charges. Putin controls the media, business, and much Speech Move ment.” Berkeley police should prosecute the else. We are told that he is terribly popular in Russia. Why, then, rioters, and the university should expel those en gaged in vio - should he fear such a man as Navalny? Dictators and strongmen lence and van dal ism. If they do not, Pres i dent Trump should are not as secure as they sometimes appear. follow through on his threat to seek to restrict federal funds to the institution. n The Swedish government proclaims with a swagger that it is “feminist.” Equality of men and women is a stated objective of n Yale University announced that it would un-name one of its Swedish foreign policy. Prime Minister Stefan Lofven led a del - residential colleges for John C. Calhoun (class of 1804). The col - egation to Tehran 15 strong, eleven of them women. A law in Iran lege’s new eponym will be Grace Murray Hopper (Ph.D., 1934), obliges women to wear the hijab or headscarf, and the visiting who helped develop the UNIVAC computer and the early com - Swedish eleven duly wore it “almost all of the time.” At a recep - puter language COBOL. Calhoun (1782–1850), congressman, tion with President Hassan Rouhani, they might just as well have sen a tor, secretary of state, and vice president, was a smart, prin - been Iranian. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, cipled, public-spirited man who did immeasurable damage, tweeted his satisfaction. Under their hijabs and side by side at a maintaining that slavery was a positive good and devising consti - signing session, Ann Linde, a Swedish cabinet minister, and her tutional arguments for bolstering the rights of slave states. No Iranian counterpart looked indistinguishable. When she was crit - doubt the tide of history and the pull of self-interest would have icized for complying with compulsory discrimination, Linde’s led the South to secede if Calhoun had never lived, but he gave it apologia was “One can hardly come here and break the laws.” a good conscience. The best argument for Yale’s keeping his Diplomats and scholars have long been saying that reform in name was memory: We cannot fix the past by closing our eyes. Muslim societies will come from women demanding their rights. The stronger argument, for removing it, is that we should honor They just won’t be Swedes, evidently. mankind’s benefactors, not those who have led it astray. n “You should see that any question about slavery is very com - n Some residents of Henryetta, Okla., had a nice idea: a Val en - plicated,” says Jonathan A. C. Brown, a professor of Islamic stud - tine’s Day dance for adult sweethearts. Then the city attorney told ies at Georgetown, sliding from scholarly nuance to sophistry in the organizers about an obscure municipal ordinance that bans the service of Muslim apologetics. In a paper published online dancing within 500 feet of a church. Hardly anyone in town had 11 week_QXP-1127940387.qxp 2/15/2017 2:38 PM Page 12 THE WEEK heard of it. One might think that, in a state whose very nick name celebrates lawbreaking, the occasional forbidden shindig would be indulged. But a rule’s a rule, so the event had to be canceled. The law in question, it turns out, was passed in 1979, not be- cause any preachers considered dancing the road to perdition, but to preserve public order: The previous fall, a miscreant had set up a dance floor on Main Street and (according to a contempo - rary newspaper account) invited Henryettans to get their groove on to “Disco Duck.” That by itself might not get you sent to hell, but it should at least put you on the watch list. Happily, with the disco threat at last starting to subside, Henryetta is set to consider repea ling the ordinance at a February 22 city-council meeting. n It’s the funniest thing she has done in years. Comedienne Sarah Silverman indignantly tweeted a photograph of the pavement near her hotel, which bore a spray-painted marking that resembled the x of algebra textbooks. It’s a common symbol, used to show the location of underground utility lines, but the sight of it made Silverman frantic. Math anxiety? No, just leftist paranoia: She suggested that the symbol was a swastika, though it was at best Circuit has upheld his usurpation of the power to make American perhaps a swastika’s second cousin. Critics corrected her in the national-security policy. usual robust Twitter fashion, and Miss Silverman responded as gra - According to the three-judge panel, perhaps even illegal aliens ciously as you’d ex pect, calling her interlocutors “condescending have due-process rights against government actions to protect c***s” and explaining that lately she’s been getting lots of Nazi Americans from foreign threats. Therefore, the president and messages and it’s all Trump’s fault. We have found today’s equiv - Congress (i.e., the branches of government constitutionally re - alent of the 1950s John Birchers who saw “Reds under the bed.” spon si ble for national security) may not take such actions unless and until the judiciary (the branch with no such responsibility) n It was the best of games, it was the worst of games, it was the has approved those actions. height of pluck, it was the abyss of choke. The New England Pa- That aliens are not citizens and have no constitutional right to tri ots scored 19 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to tie the come to the United States is apparently superseded by their new - game and send it to overtime. On second and goal, Tom Brady fangled “right” to be welcomed into the United States’ courts. tossed the ball to running back James White for the first walk- And if they are not here already, even if they remain in the far off touchdown in 51 years of Super Bowl history. Final score: reaches of the globe, this alien “right” may be asserted by state Pa tri ots 34, Falcons 28. Glory in Boston, gloom over Atlanta. governments, whose interest in having foreign students and scholars at their public universities outweighs the public’s inter - n When John McCain ran for president in 2008, some thought est in excluding aliens who may be terrorists, law-breakers, pub - him too old. His mother has just turned 105. Roberta McCain was lic charges, or individuals hostile to our Constitution and culture. born when William Howard Taft was president. Woodrow The unanimous ruling is the type of lunacy with which the Wilson was gearing up to challenge him. A few days after she was Ninth Circuit has become synonymous. It is also the inevitable born, Arizona became a state. Her son now represents that state result of an earlier judicial power grab (2008’s Boumediene v. in the Senate. She has seen a lot and weathered a lot—personally, Bush ) in the realm of national security, in which the Supreme nationally, and globally. She is a beautiful lady. And we wish her Court radically altered the doctrine of separation of powers, many happy returns. effectively arrogating to itself the plenary power of the politi - cal branches to conduct foreign relations, repel foreign inva - IMMIGRATION sions, and prescribe the conditions under which aliens may be admitted to and remain in the United States. Writing for the lib - Judicial Overreach eral majority in Boumediene , Justice Anthony Kennedy announced that, henceforth, the courts would have the last HE Ninth Circuit’s decision against President Trump’s word on these subjects. immigration order is worse than wrong. It is dangerous. The political branches’ constitutional power, and the height - T In January, Donald Trump issued an executive order ened deference owed by courts to their national-security judg - temporarily blocking entry by refugees and aliens from seven ments, is precisely at stake in the matter of President Trump’s Muslim-majority countries—Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, So - executive order. In the interest of preserving both, it may be best S E G ma lia, and Sudan—chosen not for reasons of bigotry but because at this point for the White House to consider a tactical retreat. A A M I Y T they have governments that are either non-functional or implaca - new, more narrowly tailored order, implemented with the T E G / Y bly hostile to the U.S., rendering any efforts to screen their citi - thoughtfulness that was manifestly lacking in January, would H P A R zens uniquely difficult, as was made clear in a statute enacted by be easier to defend in public and in court. G O T O Congress and signed by President Obama. This was insufficient Even in a post- Boumediene world, the high court might recog - H P S C for Seattle-area federal judge James Robart, who issued a tempo - nize the wisdom of judicial self-restraint. Because if not, we’re I R E rary restraining order against the travel ban, and now the Ninth all living in the Ninth Circuit now. 12 | www.nationalreview.com MARCH 6 , 2017 3col_QXP-1127940387.qxp 2/15/2017 12:04 AM Page 13 dependent on regulatory favor (especially in diplomatically sensitive countries such as Turkey and the Philippines), rents space to a state-owned Chinese bank in Trump Tower, and has opaque financing relationships with Russian interests. Trump’s lifelong habit of mix - ing business with everything else hasn’t abated even in the Oval Office. He took to Twitter to berate Nordstrom for drop - ping his daughter Ivanka’s clothing line, even though she had supposedly re signed from any role in the clothing business. He has also used Trump Or gan i za tion properties for state purpos es, footing the bill for Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe to stay at Mar-a-Lago and mix with the paying members. Liberals looking for a silver bullet to justify an immediate impeachment of Trump have seized on the idea that Trump’s business dealings violate the foreign-emoluments clause. A Brook- ThFe Torumrp eOrigagniznati onE’s unnetceassarny egmoluemenmts-cleausne ptrosblem ings Institution paper by Norman L. Ei sen (the chairman of David Brock’s BY DAN M C LAUGHLIN lib eral gadfly group Citizens for Re - spon si bil i ty and Ethics in Wash ing ton T is a measure of the foresight of the gift if ever there was one) did not violate [CREW]) and law professors Richard Founding Fathers that every few the clause, since the Nobel committee is Painter (the vice chairman of CREW) and I years we suddenly consider some not a foreign sovereign. Laurence Tribe argues that any payment obscure part of the Constitution that But the foreign-emoluments clause or legal benefit from a foreign govern - had long been ignored, from the proce - wasn’t an afterthought in the Con sti tu- ment or leader to the Trump Or gan i za - dures for impeachment to the resolu - tion. It was carried over from the Ar ti - tion—such as when a head of state or a tion of deadlocked elections. This year, cles of Confederation, which in turn had diplomatic delegation stays at one of thanks to Donald Trump’s sprawling borrowed it from a 17th-century Dutch Trump’s hotels around the world, or even global business empire, it’s the foreign- statute. It was chiefly aimed at the prac - when any Trump business is granted a emoluments clause (Article I, Section 9, tice among European royalty of lavish - trademark or a building permit—would Clause 8): ing gifts on foreign diplomats, but it was qualify as an “emolument” from a foreign written to cover all federal officers. A sovereign that Trump might accept only No title of nobility shall be granted by the constitutional amendment that was with the consent of Congress. United States: and no person holding any passed by Congress in 1810 and nearly While there is scholarly debate over office of profit or trust under them, shall, ratified would have expanded the clause whether the foreign-emoluments clause without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, beyond federal officers to cover every actually applies to the president, based on office, or title, of any kind whatever, American citizen and strip the citizen - conflicting evidence from the founding from any king, prince, or foreign state. ship of anyone who violated it. The con - generation, Trump’s lawyers have agreed cern it reflects for insidious corruption of that he must comply with it. But what, How obscure is the foreign-emoluments American officials by foreign sovereigns exactly, is an “emolument”? clause? There are few references to it in remains a serious one, touching on issues The Constitution mentions emoluments the convention and ratifying debates of that range from foreign donations to the in two other clauses. The compen sation 1787, the courts have never been asked to Clinton Global Initiative to the long list clause (Article II, Section 1, Clause 7) interpret it, and Congress has never of American officials who have ended up bars the president from receiving emolu - charged any federal official with violat - on the Saudi payroll after leaving office. ments from a state or the federal govern - ing it. Potential violations rarely get far - One durable argument in favor of elect - ment besides his presidential salary, and ther than the Office of Legal Counsel, ing billionaires to public office is that they the incompatibility clause (Article I, which in 2009 advised President Obama are too rich to be bought. Yet whatever the Section 6, Clause 2) bars sen ators and that his Nobel Peace Prize (a gratuitous actual size of Trump’s fortune, he could representatives from taking any federal still face a blizzard of potential conflicts office whose emoluments have been N N Mr. McLaughlin is an attorney practicing securities E of interest in representing America increased during their current term in G N A and commercial litigation in New York City and a M while his Trump Or gan i za tion runs over - Congress, until the full term is over. In O R columnist at NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE . seas hotels and golf courses that can be both clauses, the term has historically 13 3col_QXP-1127940387.qxp 2/15/2017 12:04 AM Page 14 been understood to refer only to the salary received a prohibited “present” if one of has proposed a complex and opaque series and monetary benefits of the office itself. his hotels were paid above-market rates by of protections against conflicts of interest, President Obama faced no compensation- a foreign sovereign (a particular concern including an ethics ombudsman for the clause challenges for collecting income when doing business in areas that, unlike Trump Or gan i za tion and the donation of from the federal government on more hotel rooms, have no clearly comparable “all profits from foreign governments’ than half a million dollars’ worth of market price, such as a licensing deal or patronage of his hotels and similar busi - Trea sury bonds he owned while presi - the construction of a landmark building). nesses during his presidential term to the dent, since the income wasn’t connected Even if the Trump Organization doesn’t U.S. Treasury” (in the words of Trump’s to his job. And “benefits” has sometimes violate the Constitution, there could still lawyers). This is a good start, but it’s essen - been construed narrowly: The Office of be an appearance of impropriety if foreign tially a toothless honor system. That’s par - Legal Counsel approved Presi dent Rea - leaders tried to curry favor with Trump by ticularly true with the mal le able concept gan’s receipt of a pension from the State patronizing his businesses. of “profits,” given how easily privately of California despite the compensation Presidents and other high executive- held businesses can show a paper loss. clause, and Hugo Black was allowed to branch officials often have significant A more responsible way to resolve the leave his Senate seat in the middle of business interests before taking office, but foreign-emoluments clause and conflict- his term and sit on the Su preme Court typically as stockholders—sometimes of-interest issues would be to obtain after Congress had recently given re - large stockholders, such as Dick Cheney as bipartisan congressional ap prov al for an tired justices a pension, despite the Halliburton’s ex-CEO and Rex Tillerson as ethics structure that would install a non - incompati bil ity clause. When Hillary ExxonMobil’s ex-CEO. Stocks and part - partisan federal monitor to confirm the Clinton was nominated for secretary of nerships, as passive investments, can more Trump Organization’s compliance with There could still be an appearance of impropriety if foreign leaders tried to curry favor with Trump by patronizing his businesses. state in 2009, after Congress had in - easily be managed with blind trusts and specified rules for avoiding profits from creased the salaries of Cabinet officers other strictly financial solutions to reduce foreign governmental business. A moni - during her term, Congress revoked the conflicts with a public official’s duties. tor could report confidentially to a select increase for Clinton’s office to avoid an The Trump Organization is another committee of Congress. incompatibility-clause problem. matter. The “Organization” is a web of Unfortunately, nobody has an incentive These and other historical precedents hundreds of privately held enterprises, right now to do that. Trump got away with are cited by University of Iowa law pro - often with Trump and/or his family as flouting prior ethical norms when he fessor Andy Grewal, who argues that, in controlling owners, so shares cannot refused to release his taxes, and he has general, the term “emoluments” was long easily be liquidated. Moreover, Trump’s every reason to think he can do the same understood to refer to the compensation businesses are often highly leveraged for now. Congressional Re publicans want for holding a particular office or perform - (i.e., bought with mostly borrowed mo - to save their bullets to push Trump to sup - ing specific duties for a government, and ney), so disposing of them at fire-sale port their policy priorities and are loath not to every kind of revenue produced by prices would trigger significant losses on to engage him on an issue with no imme - commerce or investments. As Grewal outstanding debt. And many of them diate political upside. And Democrats notes, under the broad definition of emol - count the “goodwill” of Trump’s personal would rather have an ethical cloud hover - uments used in the Brookings paper, the “brand” on their books as a major asset. ing over Trump than offer him any solu - proposed 1810 amendment would have Trump is also very resistant to disman - tion he might be tempted to accept. stripped the citizenship of any American tling the business: Even if he serves two Under the best reading of the foreign- inn keeper who rented a room to a pass - full terms and is ready to retire at age 78, emoluments clause, the Trump Or gan i - ing diplomat, or any merchant who sold he has built the organization with the za tion’s ordinary business operations tobacco to foreign royalty, or even the obvious intention of handing it over to his won’t put President Trump in violation author of a book if one copy was pur - children. A true blind trust is also impos - of the Constitution. But any ethical con - chased by a foreign prince—a draconian sible: Trump has actively managed the flicts that might be presented by his busi - sanction that would surely have raised organization for years and is intimately nesses are completely avoidable, and if some debate before it passed both houses familiar with its holdings, many of Trump’s promises of forgoing profits of Congress. Under that test, Obama which consist of landmark buildings with from foreign deals are sincere, he has would have been impeachable if any for - Trump’s name on them. nothing to lose from accepting oversight. eign head of state had bought a copy of These are all matters that Trump and If Trump and congressional Republicans The Audacity of Hope , and Trump would voters should have considered well before want to avoid trouble from a less friendly be in violation if one of his hotels rented a he became president. Nonetheless, the Con gress down the road, they’d be well room to an official from a foreign nation. vot ers elected Trump, and practical accom - advised to present a plan now for con - Under Grewal’s interpretation, Pres i - modations should be made to enable him gressional sign-off on neutral oversight dent Trump might still be deemed to have to serve to the best of his ability. Trump of the Trump Or gan i za tion. 14 | www.nationalreview.com MARCH 6 , 2017 base_new_milliken-mar 22.qxd 2/14/2017 7:04 PM Page 1 3col_QXP-1127940387.qxp 2/15/2017 12:04 AM Page 16 the U.S. are selected solely on the basis for refugees takes 18 to 24 months, and of referrals from this U.N. agency, that the program is safe because fami - whose staff is entrusted with the entire lies, women, and children are being Which selection and pre-screening process. resettled here. U.S. officials do not know much about But these talking points are not valid. RWee cfanu digrecte ouer asid ? the men and women who are believed to In reality, refugees are not rigorously possess the good judgment and expertise screened, despite the insistence of less arbitrarily needed to make refugee determinations Obama-administration officials that and resettlement referrals; they are hired they are. For the most part, there is sim - BY NAYLA RUSH by the United Nations and accountable ply no information to check against. By only to it. the admission of Kelly Gauger, a State HE Trump administration has Moreover, this selection process is Department official under President paused the U.S. refugee- based on a “benefit of the doubt” policy Obama, the resettlement system is over - T resettlement program for 120 and can be somewhat subjective. whelmed and “not the fastest program in days for assessment. That is a UNHCR’s 2011 guidelines for determin - the world.” Gauger explained: “We are good thing. It is time the United States ing refugee status state: “It is hardly pos - not spending 18 months doing security reconsidered not its humanitarian efforts sible for a refugee to ‘prove’ every part checks.” In other words, this time frame is to help refugees but the manner and of his case and, indeed, if this were a more about waiting than vetting. means by which it provides this help requirement, the majority of refugees Speeding up the system is not the while keeping Americans as safe as pos - would not be recognized. It is therefore answer, either. It’s not reassuring that the sible. The new administration has the frequently necessary to give the appli - State Department conducted what it opportunity to reform a broken refugee cant the benefit of the doubt.” This is called a “surge operation” to meet Presi - system by resettling those who cannot understandable, because UNHCR’s mis - dent Obama’s 2016 refugee target. For stay put, assisting them better and longer, sion is to help as many refugees as pos - this, it interviewed more than 12,000 and helping millions of refugees in their sible. But United States government Syrian refugees in just three months. own regions more efficiently. officials are not heading a humanitarian As for family-oriented resettlement, Here’s how. agency. To the extent that the U.S. takes it is also not a safeguard. The Somali The administration should not simply UNHCR’s referrals, we should recog - refugee responsible for the terrorist attack pick a lucky few out of millions who are nize the organization’s limitations and in Ohio in November 2016 came to the undergoing common hardships. Choosing not follow it blindly. United States as a teenager with his moth - to offer some a better life in the U.S. and Let us not forget that resettlement is er and six siblings. In a desire to reassure leaving behind others who are in similar one of UNHCR’s “durable solutions.” A the American public, State Department circumstances is akin to playing God. resettlement card gives access to U.S. officials often stress that the refugees This huge responsibility should not be in citizenship because resettled refugees admitted here are different from migrant the hands of a few and should always be are required by U.S. law to apply for a flows that recently made it to Europe, guided by nothing less than urgency and green card (permanent residence) one which were disproportionately young, necessity. Resettlement should be applied year after arrival. (Green-card holders unmarried, unaccompanied, and male. as it was initially intended under the aus - can apply for American citizenship after But in the case of the recent Ohio attack, pices of the United Nations High Com- five years; refugees may apply for citi - terror came from one of the seven chil - missioner for Refugees (UNHCR): as a zenship four years after they receive dren. It shouldn’t come as a surprise, but protection available solely to the most their green card, because the five-year terrorists have families, too. vulnerable refugees who are not able to count starts on the day of arrival.) So Vetting is essential and should remain remain in the country to which they fled. UNHCR is not only deciding who can a top priority. But no matter how ex - Contrary to officials’ claims under the move to the United States; it is also treme it is, it can give only a glimpse of Obama administration, the U.S. has not choosing who ultimately gets a chance the past and the present; it does not been prioritizing these urgent cases. The to become an American. Given such secure the future. Even if refugees them - recent pause in the program can help high stakes and existing safety haz - selves pose no threat, the risk could ensure that we’re offering resettlement to ards—terrorist attacks and attempts come down the road, because terrorist those who are in real danger in their coun - committed by groups such as ISIS, with groups prey on vulnerable communities tries of refuge—including people who ISIS agents infiltrating refugee flows and recruit people who feel estranged in urgently need medical care that’s unavail - into Europe—the Trump administra - their host country. The initial screening able where they are, or persecuted reli - tion should reconsider its collaboration of the Somali family mentioned above gious minorities such as Christians in the with UNHCR. was not necessarily flawed; if U.S. offi - Middle East or Muslims in Burma. Vetting measures must be improved. cials found nothing, it might well have The United States should reconsider Current ones, especially for refugees been because there was nothing to find. its total reliance on UNHCR. Currently, coming from countries that present The son’s radicalization might have the refugees chosen for resettlement in national-security challenges, are flawed. come later. The Obama administration argued that Successful integration and shared val - Nayla Rush is a senior researcher at the Center for refugees are subject to the highest level of ues are the best shields against radicaliza - Immigration Studies. security checks, that the vetting process tion of resettled refugees. But the current 16 | www.nationalreview.com MARCH 6 , 2017 base_new_milliken-mar 22.qxd 1/3/2017 1:10 PM Page 1 0 PLEASE JOIN US FOR NATIONAL REVIEW INSTITUTE’S IDEAS SUMMIT THURSDAY, MARCH 16 and FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 2017 MANDARIN ORIENTAL, WASHINGTON, D.C. Featuring THE INAUGURAL WHITTAKER CHAMBERS AWARD DINNER 1955 Society members are invited to join us for a special dinner at Mount Vernon on Friday, March 17 and a private breakfast with NR talent on Saturday, March 18. Space is limited. Formal invitations will be extended to all members registered for the conference. For registration and additional information, please visit www.nrinstitute.org/ideas-summit or call Alexandra Zimmern, National Review Institute, at 212.849.2858. www.nrinstitute.org National Review Institute (NRI) is the sister nonpro(t educational organization of National Review magazine. NRI is a quali(ed 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. EIN#13-3649537 3col_QXP-1127940387.qxp 2/15/2017 12:04 AM Page 18 debate about refugees often revolves return home as soon as possible. A new around admissions numbers while large - refugee strategy is in order for today’s ly ignoring the issue of integration. This refugees, who are “overwhelmingly is where the Trump administration can fleeing mass disorder rather than state Trump as make a difference. Currently, refugees persecution,” according to Oxford econ - are assisted for the first eight months by omist Paul Collier, who recommends CTohem presimdent uhasn deiveclopaed taon r “voluntary agencies” partly funded by that refugees live in a “haven that is the government that help with (among proximate, so that it is easy to reach and aggressive, successful idiom other things) housing, English lessons, from which it is easy to return once a cash, job searches, applications for conflict ends.” BY HEATHER R. HIGGINS Social Security cards, school registra - A development-based policy (rather tion for children, arranging medical than a resettlement-based one) could EVER before have we had a appointments, and connecting refugees give millions autonomy and opportunity president who so consumes the with social services. But refugees, espe - and render them better equipped to N national conversation. Because cially the most vulnerable, are not likely rebuild their post-war countries. UNHCR of his style, most attribute to integrate (economically, socially, cul - is a humanitarian agency rather than an Trump’s constant dominance of our pub - turally) into the United States in just a organization with economic compe - lic colloquy to an extraordinary, emotion - few months. For traumatized people who tence, and it is not equipped to meet the ally impulsive, and self-indulgent ego. have suffered a lot, integration is espe - true needs of refugees. That would explain That perspective may be right—but it is cially tough. They need assistance for why 90 percent of refugees “ignore it,” an assumption that made it hard to see longer than eight months. It’s important according to Collier, and choose not to how Trump could win even a primary, to ensure that they are socializing, for stay in camps. Refugees’ “top priority never mind a general election, and makes instance, and are happy at their work - is not food and shelter,” Collier said in it hard now to fathom what he says or why place. Follow-up help by social workers a recent interview. “If you’re going to he says it. might be helpful in that context. be a refugee for some years, your top Let’s stipulate that he has a large ego— The notion that all refugees can easily priority is the ability to earn a living.” after all, who gets to be president without integrate into Western societies and live Economic agencies such as the World one?—and consider another hypothesis: happily ever after is an illusion. And Bank, various NGOs, and businesses— that Trump’s outbursts and pugnacious - refugees are not interchangeable; some which are far better equipped to provide ness are not random, thoughtless, and are better equipped to integrate, and oth - training and job opportunities—should emotionally driven, but are calculated and ers need ongoing assistance. Economic step in. intentional, reinforced by their useful by- achievements, for instance, vary by na- The United States is the world’s products—for example, chilling potential tionality. For three groups of refugees— biggest donor to the UNHCR. The new criticism, intimidating opposition, or suc - Iraqis , Somalis, and Cubans—longer U.S. administration can encourage develop - cessfully negotiating better deals—and residence does not equate with higher ment-based initiatives that empower learned from years of success in business, income, according to data from the Mi - refugees close to their homes and redi - media, and now politics. gration Policy Institute. rect some (if not most) of the U.S. fund - If Trump’s public persona were simply It is important that resettled refugees be ing for that purpose. Current refugee driven by a need to be the center of atten - provided with every tool possible for suc - programs often fail the very people they tion, one would expect him to be a narcis - cessful integration. The Trump adminis - were meant to protect. A better refugee sist in his off-camera life too. Certainly tration can intervene to ensure that every system would put more emphasis on he’s no angel, and many see much they refugee admitted receives the appropri - helping refugees where they are while don’t like. Yet by multiple accounts, the ate, personalized help necessary to build working to end conflicts and eventually private Donald Trump is not what one a successful life in the United States, even secure the refugees’ safe return to their would expect from the tabloid reporting. if that means admitting fewer refugees homelands—though this may require He’s often described as charming—even and focusing on better and longer-term years of effort. It could also provide bet - by those who didn’t want to like him or care for each one. ter and longer-term help to those who expect to be impressed—an attentive lis - While some Trump critics are shocked have no choice but to be resettled here, tener, a loyal friend, deeply interested in by the order to temporarily halt the making sure that they integrate success - his lowest-level employees’ lives and resettlement program—the arrival of fully into American culture and that opinions, a great father, and someone thousands into the United States could their wounds (mental and physical) are generous to and concerned about others. be postponed—they do not seem equally largely healed. Even his ex-wives seem to like him. outraged by the terrible conditions mil - Bottom line: Stop using the refugee- It seems likely that, if his speech were lions of refugees face in their own resettlement program as a political tool, a driven by emotional impulse, his repeated regions. Refugees don’t want handouts; fund-raiser, or a conscience alleviator. and—we were assured during his cam - they want jobs, as attested by refugee Choosing to resettle just a few out of mil - paign—doom-guaranteeing “missteps” scholars, activists, U.N. officials such as lions of refugees in similar circumstances would have sunk his candidacy. Instead, UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi, and is not praiseworthy. Helping refugees refugees themselves. Above all, most help themselves, whether here or there, is Heather R. Higgins is the president and CEO of refugees state clearly that they want to the right thing to do. Independent Women’s Voice. 18 | www.nationalreview.com MARCH 6 , 2017 3col_QXP-1127940387.qxp 2/15/2017 12:04 AM Page 19 repeated predictions of Trump’s certain work to control the conversation and punch preemptively, and, more than demise were proved wrong. Did all his speak directly to voters. He’ll do so, anything else, to reward, as with this attacks work? No, and some certainly first, by telling us preemptively what tweeted praise: “Miami-Dade Mayor backfired. But many hit home. Had these will happen, and then claiming credit drops sanctuary policy. Right decision. been random, emotional broadsides, their when his predictions are borne out. Strong!!” With the right amount of car - failure rate would have been far higher, Trump is a master at framing stories rots, and the knowledge of a very pow - and he would have been hoist by his own before they happen, as he so successfully erful stick, management by tweet can be petard long ago. did with media bias, terrorism, the most effective. If impulse and emotion were driving immigration crisis, and Brexit. Recall Trump has said he will keep his own what he targets and how he tweets, his that during the campaign, Trump was Twitter account, and therefore his own barbs would not so often be “kill shots”— the only candidate to provide a list of audience, as president. We can expect that a term first applied by the ever-insightful potential Supreme Court nominees and he will use every means to bypass the Scott Adams—e.g., “low-energy Jeb.” to promise to pick from the list. Then he usual media filters, occasionally even Moreover, the issues Trump chooses to did just that, and now he can say, “See, I calling in to TV and radio shows and champion would not all have consistently did what I said I would do.” Or consider thereby avoiding editing and interpreta - been shown to command public support. his labeling of the media as dishonest. tion. He will tell the American people that One could ascribe to demagogic ego When they prove him right, people see they don’t need the biased elites and pun - Trump’s long-running feuds with jour - it, and he takes credit for pegging them dits telling them “what Trump meant.” nalists who have been critical of him. accurately. Trump knows that when peo - Rather, he will let Americans them - Alternatively, those feuds could be part of ple are looking for something, they are selves interpret what he says. He will a strategy to always be on offense, to solid - more likely to see it, or see its absence. use local and targeted media in areas of ify an intimidating reputation that will When he frames it for them, they’ll see the country where his most loyal con - make others think twice before tangling it from his perspective. stituents live, and he’ll rely less on the with him. Perhaps it is both. But the im - Trump will use Twitter and other urban, liberal media outlets that he per - portant thing to consider is that the strate - social media proactively more than re - ceives have a history of bias against him gy has huge utility and is intentional. actively in the future. He will now have or don’t represent the views of all More important, were his vanity in the awesome resources of the presiden - Americans. After all, why empower charge, we wouldn’t see Trump repeatedly cy at his disposal to amplify everything “the opposition”? reverse tone with neck-whipping speed he does and says, and not only will he Trump will communicate at lightning when it suits his purpose to pivot from use Twitter to punch back at his critics in speed and with high frequency. While the aggressive attack to gracious conciliation. the media, but he will also use it to media, dotting their “i”s, crossing their These are clues that his bravado and bluster are an act. Trump has learned that To some, sunglasses are a fashion accessory… intimidation, misdirection, controlling the conversation, graciousness, and concilia - But When Driving, tion all have their uses. If, despite appearances, what drives the These Sunglasses tweeter in chief is not uncontrolled emo - tional impulses and self-gratification, what is it? May Save Your Life! 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Media are already trying to did so by a relatively small 2.9 percent. slow him down by expressing concern Policy by Hopes were high that the world was over a potential hacking of his Twitter entering a new era of turbo-charged account and the inherent security risks of Tweet growth powered by China’s admittance a president’s communicating important A novel use of the bully pulpit into the global trading system. President issues seemingly impulsively on social Clinton called China’s accession to the media. In response, expect President BY ROBERT D. ATKINSON WTO “a hundred-to-nothing deal for Trump to just go . . . faster! America when it comes to the economic Trump knows that what matters most is MONG the most controversial consequences,” while George W. Bush not policy but what people see with their uses that President Donald promised it would “narrow our trade own eyes, in their own neighborhoods A Trump has found for the bully deficit with China.” and lives. Trump will use storytelling, pulpit, at least in the eyes of But it very quickly became clear that, and we will see him highlight lots of free-market advocates and believers in as H. Ross Perot famously said about the examples of people positively affected by Washington’s pro-trade consensus, has North American Free Trade Agreement, his presidency. been to hector individual companies into China’s WTO entry actually would create One of the things they should expect to keeping jobs in the United States. Indeed, “a giant sucking sound” as U.S. manufac - see, and see a lot, is Trump doubling in what appears to be a wholesale rejec - turing jobs whooshed away. down. We saw it during the campaign. He tion of the economic principle of “com - Even before the ink on the WTO agree - never backed off from a controversy and parative advantage,” which holds that ment was dry, consulting firms sounded often ratcheted them up. We saw it more countries should specialize in whatever the call: If a company’s CEO was not recently with his refusal to dial back they’re best at and not worry about the moving a significant share of jobs to rhetoric about making Mexico pay for a rest, President Trump insists that compa - China, then it was time for him to find a wall on its border, even to the point of nies must use U.S. labor if they want to new job himself. Emblematic was the scuttling a planned summit with Mexico. sell their products to U.S. customers. assessment of Boston Consulting Group And we are even seeing it preemptively, As with much else he has done, the (BCG) that, “for more than a decade, as in Trump’s saying that he’d be fine president has telegraphed his policy inten - ‘Made in China’ has been a compelling with the Senate’s using the “nuclear tions on Twitter, as when he trumpeted, “I sourcing option. Today, in almost every option” if needed to get Neil Gorsuch want new plants to be built here for cars industry, it is becoming an imperative.” It confirmed as a Supreme Court justice. sold here!” And woe betide any company advised its client CEOs that “the question This refusal to back down is one more that announces plans to build a factory is not ‘Why outsource to LCCs [low-cost way of conveying that he will do what he outside the U.S., for retribution on Twitter countries]?’ but ‘Why not? ’” says he’ll do, and normal Washington will be swift, as Toyota found out when Sure, some workers might lose their impediments won’t stop him. Trump tweeted, “Toyota Motor said will jobs (as about 20 percent of U.S. manu - Finally, the Left and the media will build a new plant in Baja, Mexico, to facturing workers in the 2000s lost their continue to portray Trump’s behavior as build Corolla cars for U.S. NO WAY! jobs owing to trade), but the Washington chaotic and outrageous. Trump in turn Build plant in U.S. or pay big border tax.” elite told us that the U.S. economy would is already using their own arguments Ford evidently heard that message loud gain. They were wrong, though. Recent against them, describing as outrageous and clear, and in response Trump tweeted, studies have shown quite clearly that, the Democrats’ theatrical obstruction “Thank you to Ford for scrapping a new far from opening its doors to the world, of his nominees. Who will win this plant in Mexico and creating 700 new China has been surreptitiously hauling in fight? People will tire of the perpetual jobs in the U.S. This is just the begin - as much foreign production as possible outrage from the media and progres - ning—much more to follow.” through a deep embrace of mercantilist sives. They will see Trump’s actions as All of which raises the question: Does industrial policies (e.g., currency manipu - Trump being Trump—which is what Trump’s industrial activism herald a lation, standards manipulation, export they are. How outrageous is some - new kind of economic patriotism (albeit subsidies, and other policies designed to thing when it happens all the time? We forced) that will be good for the economy, restrict imports and boost exports) that can see the Left’s fear of the public’s or is it instead a kind of banana-republic have severely wounded the U.S. economy. acceptance of Trump by their aggres - manipulation that will lead to misalloca - MIT economist David Autor esti mates sive effort to fight his “normalization.” tion of resources, a lower standard of that 2.4 million U.S. manufacturing jobs They will fail, not least because the living for Americans, and less globally have been lost to Chinese-import com - more they discuss him, the more “nor - competitive U.S. companies? petition since China joined the WTO, mal” he will become. Before we answer that, we need to go five times more than all the manufactur - Either Trump is the luckiest SOB on back to the year 2001, when China joined ing jobs lost in the 1990s. Rob Scott (of the planet to have achieved what he has, the Economic Policy Institute) and the or there is a method in his madness. My Mr. Atkinson is the president of the Information Information Technology and Innovation money is on the latter. Technology and Innovation Foundation. Foundation have found similar impacts. 20 | www.nationalreview.com MARCH 6 , 2017 3col_QXP-1127940387.qxp 2/15/2017 12:04 AM Page 21 So this gets us back to President Trump’s jawboning. Given the damage done by the mercantilist-inspired move - ment of U.S. jobs, is he right to be the demander in chief, threatening recal - citrant CEOs with Twitter retribution or worse? There are several reasons why the U.S. government should indeed apply some form of countervailing pressure against the offshoring surge. First, the study of economics is not nearly as pure as econ - omists often imagine it to be; economics is really about “political economy,” in which markets and politics are inter - twined. To wit: Even if one insists that offshoring has been welfare-enhancing (e.g., expanded per capita GDP), there is simply no denying that it has produced considerable blowback among people who don’t live and work in ivory towers. We all saw that on November 8. Even A vast Chinese factory BCG acknowledged that this was a risk, writing that, “as more companies discov - because of China’s underhanded indus - much produc tion to China as U.S. com - er the advantages of manufacturing in trial practices, but they also hid from panies did. They responded that the first China, the impact on Western jobs will the fact that America was even in eco - thing they did was call in their engineers grow, making it an increasingly potent nomic competition with other nations in to see whether they could restructure the political issue.” No kidding. So now the the first place. product or manufacturing process to do pendulum may very well swing too far Third, much of the acceptance of off - the work economically in Austria. Only if toward the protectionist side. A little shoring came from a deep-seated but that wouldn’t have worked did they move jawboning rather than cheerleading in sim plistic belief that the economy auto - jobs overseas. When I asked what would the 2000s might have kept us from the matically maintains equilibrium bet ween happen if they moved them without tak - political conundrum we face now, in supply and demand and that any attempt ing that step, their response was reveal - which it’s harder to adopt trade- to modify this balance leads to disequi - ing: “We would be shunned socially.” expanding policies such as the Trans- librium. But as economist Elvio Accinelli We will have to watch carefully to Pacific Partnership agreement. finds, economies can be in equilibrium determine whether Trump’s hectoring Second, it was one thing to support with either a high level of innovation and is a constructive form of social pressure global markets and free trade, but it was high skills, or a low level of both. The to get companies to take a deep breath unforgivable to put the pedal to the latter alternative creates a “poverty trap.” before offshoring—to look first to their metal without calling for complemen - In other words, if there are not enough engineers rather than to their accoun - tary policies to ensure that the process skilled workers, then firms will not tants—or instead is just a blunt instru - unfolded in an above-board fashion. adopt advanced technology; and simi - ment of undifferentiated protectionism. Where was the call to get tough with for - larly, if firms don’t adopt advanced tech - If all Trump does is fire tweets at CEOs eign innovation mercantilism (i.e., poli - nologies, then workers won’t seek out to shame them, that won’t be enough to cies, such as forced technology transfer the skills needed to use these technolo - restore American competitiveness. The and intellectual-property theft, designed gies. Thus, when China emerged as a president should instead look to the to grow a nation’s innovation industries) global player, there could have been two Conservative-party governments of that artificially spurred offshoring and market responses: the one that happened David Cameron and Theresa May in obstructed U.S. exports? Where was the (i.e., companies decided they had no the U.K. for a model: They have low - call for a national competitiveness agen - choice but to move production to ered corporate taxes, expanded govern - da, starting with fixing the broken cor - China), or an alternative of increasing ment funding for industry-led R&D porate tax code, which imposes the investment in machinery and worker partnerships, invested to boost worker highest statutory rate in the Organi - skills to compete with China by raising skills, expanded export financing, and zation for Economic Co-operation and productivity. Most U.S. companies’ first embraced other steps appropriate to a Development (OECD)? While many response was to move, partly because of well-devised industrial strategy. Ulti- G R Republican and some Democratic elect - relentless pressure from investors to mately, a bit of jawboning could be just O . S W ed officials did call for corporate-tax meet unforgiving quarterly earnings tar - what the doctor ordered, as long as it’s E N A M I re form, the trade community was large - gets. But that is not the prevailing cul - coupled with policies to help American R P . W ly silent, in part because not only did ture everywhere. I once asked a group of companies improve their productivity W W they deny that jobs were being lost Austrian CEOs why they didn’t move as and competitiveness. 21 3col_QXP-1127940387.qxp 2/15/2017 12:04 AM Page 22 “Everybody wants to get into the act,” born a slave. On this opening day, she Jimmy Durante used to say. rang a bell. (The Smithsonian has a National Mu- The building is distinctive on the Mall: Permanent seum of the American Indian, but that is an inverted pyramid, in bronze. The another story. Another essay, perhaps.) corona is meant to evoke the Yoruban SomFe peersbonarl tuhouaghtrs oy n the I am aware that I had an unusual up- culture of West Africa. bringing, for a white kid. I was steeped I paid a visit on a bright February day. ‘Blacksonian’ in black history and black culture. Many (A February visit to a February muse - years ago, a literary agent suggested um?) The museum is a stone’s throw BY JAY NORDLINGER that I write a memoir called “Growing from the Washington Monument and an Up Black.” even shorter throw from the National HEN I first heard about it, I In my school system, we heard at Museum of American History. As I said, “Oh, great: segrega - least as much about the Edmund looked at the two museums, I thought of W tion on the Mall. A perma - Pettus Bridge as we did about the a word: apartheid . In Afrikaans, it nent February.” As you Mayflower . I’m pretty sure we heard means “apartness.” I also thought of a might guess, I wasn’t very happy about more about John Lewis than about phrase out of the American past: “sepa - it. What was I talking about? The coming John Winthrop. I’m not sure that rate but equal.” National Museum of African American Audie Murphy’s name came up. I have The Blacksonian is spiffy, having that History and Culture, to be part of the joked that, every year from the sev - new-car smell. It will get dingy, like all Smithsonian Institution, ensconced on enth grade through grad school, I was material things, but for now it is pris - the National Mall. assigned either Black Boy or Native tine. The atmosphere on this day is There was already a National Mu - Son . (Books by Richard Wright.) I was almost festive. The majority of the vis - seum of American History. And if black never assigned Hamlet . itors are black, and the majority of Americans aren’t part and parcel of I am not complaining, necessarily: I those are students. To get to the history this history, who is? Betsy Ross, Audie liked all this, and regarded it as important. galleries, you have to take a large eleva - Murphy, and a few select others? At my university, there was a dorm tor downstairs. In anticipation of what As for “February,” I was talking that had a lounge for black students only. we will see—and possibly nervous—a about Black History Month, which has (At least it was this way in practice.) young man jokes to his friends, “I ain’t always gotten my goat. It gets Morgan We’re talking about the Angela Davis pickin’ no cotton.” Freeman’s, too. In a controversial inter - Lounge. I’m not sure which was worse: Once downstairs, we enter a dark view with Mike Wallace in 2005, the a segregated lounge or one named after room, where there is a piece of timber actor called Black History Month “ri - Gus Hall’s running mate. In this period, and an iron ballast. These are from the diculous.” He also said, “Black history she was the vice-presidential nominee São José , a slave ship. In another room, is American history.” of the Communist party. Twice. Had there are shackles. A woman says to a It is also a rich field, black-American black Americans struggled, bled, and boy not more than three, “Do you know history. Rich enough and distinctive died so that we could celebrate this dar - what those are? They’re called ‘shack - enough to justify a separate museum? A ling of the Soviet bloc? les.’ They were put on people’s wrists separate museum in America’s Back- E pluribus unum —“Out of many, and ankles, to control them.” Is the boy yard (as the Mall is called)? one”—are three of the most vital too young for that lesson? I tend to think I was worried about the further - words in the American creed. I wish so, but maybe I’m wrong. ance—indeed, the enshrining—of iden - that more of us took them to heart. I The museum points out the paradox tity politics, a national curse. I was wish the integrationist instinct were of the American Founding: a republic also worried about the furtherance and stronger and the tribal instinct weaker. devoted to liberty, which held slaves. On enshrining of the grievance culture, I also remember, “If wishes were horses, the wall is a quotation from Frederick another curse. Americans are con - beggars would ride.” A great many Douglass, to wit, “Liberty must either stantly flicking the scabs off wounds. people prize their racial or ethnic iden - cut the throat of slavery or slavery “Let’s flick the scab off that wound,” tity. This may be especially true of peo - would cut the throat of liberty.” One or President Nixon would say, when he ple whose forebears were persecuted. the other. wanted to reopen a grievance, for some So, here we are. There are many interpretations of his - political purpose. Having been established by Congress tory—American and other history—and There is a difference between clarity in 2003, the National Museum of Afri - you can’t enshrine them all on the about wrongs, past and present, and can American History and Culture National Mall. Unless you perform an scab-flicking. Happy is he who adopts opened on September 24, 2016. That impressive balancing act, you can’t the former and avoids the latter. name is a mouthful, by the way, and the enshrine both Forrest McDonald (the Here was another concern: If you have acronym is awkward: “NMAAHC.” A late conservative) and Howard Zinn (the a separate museum for black Americans, lot of people just say “the Blacksonian.” late leftist). So, who gets enshrined? what about other racial or ethnic groups? President Obama presided over the Also, what artifacts do you include? Or religious groups? A Mormon museum opening ceremony, which featured a This museum has almost 37,000 of would be interesting, wouldn’t it? You remarkable woman: Ruth Bonner, 99 them. Nat Turner’s Bible, anyone can envision a proliferation of museums. years old. She is the daughter of a man could understand. But the handcuffs 22 | www.nationalreview.com MARCH 6 , 2017 3col_QXP-1127940387.qxp 2/15/2017 12:04 AM Page 23 The National Museum of African American History and Culture used on Professor Henry Louis Gates The classical-music section omits cious and harmful in America today. It when he was arrested in 2009? (Presi- William Grant Still, which I find odd. covers a multitude of sins, present dent Obama helped make this arrest a He is probably the most famous black- ones—for which distant slavery may cause célèbre.) Really? American classical composer (unless be a mere scapegoat. The more recent the history becomes, we count Scott Joplin as classical, for I think I have greater sympathy with the more tendentious, or disputable, the his opera Treemonisha among other Henry Ford—“History is bunk”—than I museum gets. I suppose this is natural. things). It does include George Walker, do with Baldwin. I consider the museum’s treatment of who happens to be 94 and living in New Yet I should not be too breezy. And I the Black Panthers a disgrace. They are Jersey. I got an e-mail from him a cou - recognize that it can be hard, if not utterly whitewashed, pardon the expres - ple of years ago, in response to some - impossible, to slip into other people’s sion. They are portrayed as extra-bold thing I had written. skin. Let me give you a lesson from civil-rights activists and social-welfare A group of little kids are sitting on a Sunday school, a few weeks ago. providers. The Panthers “quickly came bench, having a rest. They are black. I was teaching the Bible, as one does, into conflict with the police and the Their teacher, or guide, is white: a nice and my sole pupil that morning was a FBI,” says the museum. Funny how white lady. “What has been your little girl whose parents came from that happens when you kidnap, rape, favorite thing about the museum so India. With a look of concern on her and murder. far?” she asks. One boy says, “Army!” face, she said, “Does dark mean bad?” We see a prominent picture of Anita Another boy agrees, “Army!” The lady For a second, I was stuck for words. Hill. She is testifying against Clarence says, “Oh, you mean learning about the Then I muttered something about how Thomas, accusing him of sexual harass - African-American men and women people have long feared the night and ment. That is all we know of Justice who have served in the armed forces?” waited for the break of day. My pupil Thomas, from the Blacksonian. (Con - The boys look a little confused, and say was mollified, but not 100 percent satis - servatives are making this a cause again, “Army!” fied. I could tell. célèbre, or trying to.) I love it. You can’t stop boys from All day long, I could say that “dark” is Yet there are sections of the museum being boys, no matter what. merely metaphorical. But if I had dark that are less tendentious, less disputable, In huge letters on a wall, there is a skin—would I be so metaphor-friendly? and pure fun. Chuck Berry’s 1973 con - statement from James Baldwin: “The Whether we wished for its birth or not, vertible Cadillac, in candy-apple red? great force of history comes from the the Blacksonian has been born and it is Sweet. In a section on fashion, George fact that we carry it within us, are uncon - here to stay, plonked prominently on the C. Wolfe, a playwright and director, is sciously controlled by it. . . . History is National Mall. It is, in many respects, a quoted: “God created black people and literally present in all that we do.” wonderful museum, and I hope it will do black people created style.” This is a That sentiment is very popular, and I some good. I also hope that America will permissible boast, I think. But I can hear don’t believe it. I also agree with not die from Balkanization, which is Italians, from the Renaissance onward, Thomas Sowell that the phrase “lega - encouraged, in ways subtle and gross, saying, “Huh? Seriously?” cy of slavery” is one of the most spe - day after day. 23 2col_QXP-1127940309.qxp 2/15/2017 12:47 AM Page 24 Progressivism in the Boardroom A class and its interests BY KEVIN D. WILLIAMSON HE Organization Man, whom we first met in 1956, is black-bloc terrorists don’t burn down the tax office or the still very much with us. And his eccentric career since police station: They smash the windows of a Starbucks, never T that time partly answers a question that mystifies mind CEO Howard Schultz’s impeccably lefty credentials. many contemporary conservatives: Given that pro - Weird thing, though: With the exception of a few big shiny tar - gressives profess to hate corporations, why are our corporate gets such as Koch Industries (the nation’s second-largest pri - leaders so progressive? It is easy to understand their taking a vately held concern, behind Cargill) and Walmart (the nation’s self-interested stand against the Trump administration over largest private employer), the Left’s corporate enemies list is things such as the H-1B program and visa waivers, which inter - dominated by relatively modest concerns: Chick-fil-A, which, fere with their access to workers and customers, respectively. in spite of its recent growth spurt, is only a fraction of the size of But 130 corporate leaders—including the CEOs of American McDonald’s or YUM Brands; Hobby Lobby, which is not even Airlines and Bank of America—getting together to come down numbered among the hundred largest private U.S. companies; on North Carolina over public-bathroom rules that annoy trans - Waffle House, a regional purveyor of mediocre grits and a bene - gender activists? Together with business leaders who have no factor of Georgia Republicans. Carl’s Jr. was founded by a daily presence in North Carolina and nothing to do with the state or communicant and Knight of Malta, a man who had some not- its politics? very-progressive opinions about gay rights. But even in its new Is it only cravenness—or something more? role as part of a larger corporate enterprise (the former CEO of In the progressive lexicon, the word “corporation” is practi - which, Andrew Puzder, has been nominated for secretary of cally a synonym for “evil.” Corporations, in the progressive labor), the poor man’s answer to In-N-Out is not exactly in a posi - S T view, are so stoned on greed and ripped on ruthlessness that tion to inflict ultramontane Catholicism on the world at large, Y M A they present an existential threat to democracy as we know it. though the idea of a California Classic Double Inquisition with B U L When the Left flies into a mad rage about . . . whatever, the Cheese is not without charm. 24 | www.nationalreview.com MARCH 6 , 2017 2col_QXP-1127940309.qxp 2/15/2017 12:47 AM Page 25 Far from being agents of reaction, our corporate giants have for tle stupid in spite of their expensive educations, that you are not decades been giving progressives a great deal to celebrate. so bad after all, and that you are spending mucho shmundo “turn - Disney, despite its popular reputation for hidebound wholesome - ing algae into biofuel,” in the words of one Exxon advertisement, ness, has long been a leader on gay rights, much to the dismay of and combating malaria and doing other nice things. All of that is a certain stripe of conservative. Walmart, one of the Left’s great true, and Exxon makes sure people know it. The professional corporate villains, has barred Confederate-flag merchandise activists may sneer and scoff, but they are not the audience. from its stores in a sop to progressive critics, and its much- Even if it were only or mainly a matter of publicity (and it publicized sustainability agenda is more than sentiment: isn’t—Shell, among other oil majors, is putting real money into Among other things, it has invested $100 million in economic- renewables and alternative energy), big companies such as mobility programs and doubled the fuel efficiency of its vehicle Exxon and Apple would still have a very strong incentive to fleet over ten years. Individual members of the Walton clan engage in progressive activism rather than conservative activism. engage in philanthropy of a distinctly progressive bent. For one thing, there is a kind of moral asymmetry at work: In fact, just going down the list of largest U.S. companies (by Conservatives may roll their eyes a little bit at promises to build market capitalization) and considering each firm’s public politi - windmills so efficient that we’ll cease needing coal and oil, but cal activism does a great deal to demolish the myth of the conser - progressives (at least a fair portion of them) believe that using vative corporate agenda. Top ten: 1) Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, is fossil fuels may very well end human civilization. The nation’s an up-and-down-the-line progressive who has been a vociferous F-150 drivers are not going to organize a march on Chevron’s critic of religious-liberty laws in Indiana and elsewhere that headquarters if it puts a billion bucks into biofuels, but the many like-minded people consider a back door to anti-gay dis - nation’s Subaru drivers might very well do so if it doesn’t. crimination. 2) When protesters descended on SFO to protest The same asymmetry characterizes the so-called social issues. President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration, one The Left will see to it that Brendan Eich is driven out of his posi - of the well-heeled gentlemen leading them was Google founder tion at Mozilla for donating to an organization opposed to gay Sergey Brin, and Google employees were the second-largest cor - marriage, but the Right will not see to it that Tim Cook is driven porate donor bloc to President Barack Obama’s reelection cam - out of his position for supporting gay marriage. For the Right, the paign. 3) Microsoft founder Bill Gates is a generous funder of question of gay marriage is an important moral and political dis - programs dedicated to what is euphemistically known as “family agreement, but for the Left the exclusion of homosexual couples planning.” 4) Berkshire Hathaway’s principal, Warren Buffett, is from the legal institution of marriage was something akin to Jim a close associate of Barack Obama’s and an energetic advocate of Crow, and support for it isn’t erroneous, it is wicked. Even those redistributive tax increases on high-income taxpayers. 5) Ama - on the right who proclaim that they regard the question of homo - zon’s Jeff Bezos put up $2.5 million of his own money for a sexual relationships as a national moral emergency do not behave Washington State gay-marriage initiative. 6) Facebook’s Mark as though they really believe it: Remember that boycott of Zuckerberg has pushed for liberal immigration-reform measures, Disney theme parks launched with great fanfare by the American while Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskovitz pledged $20 mil - Family Association, Focus on the Family, and the Southern lion to support Hillary Rodham Clinton and other Democrats in Baptist Convention back in 1996? Nothing happened, because 2016. 7) Exxon, as an oil company, may be something of a hate conservative parents are not telling their toddlers that they cannot totem among progressives, but it has spent big—billions big—on go to Disney World because the people who run the park are too renewables and global social programs. 8) Johnson & Johnson’s nice to that funny blonde lady who has the talk show and dances health-care policy shop is run by Liz Fowler, one of the architects in the aisles with her audience. of Obamacare and a former special assistant to President Obama. The issues that conservatives tend to see as life-and-death 9) The two largest recipients of JPMorgan cash in 2016 were issues are actual life-and-death issues, abortion prominent among Hillary Rodham Clinton and the Democratic National Com- them. But even among right-leaning corporate types, pro-life mittee, and the bank’s billionaire chairman, Jamie Dimon, is a social conservatism is a distinctly minority inclination. high-profile supporter of Demo cratic politicians including And that is significant, because a great deal of corporate Barack Obama and reportedly rejected an offer from President activism is CEO-driven rather than shareholder-driven or directly Trump to serve as Treasury secretary. 10) Wells Fargo employ - rooted in the business interests of the firm. Like Wall Street ees followed JPMorgan’s example and donated $7.36 to Mrs. bankers, who may not like their tax bills or Dodd-Frank but who Clinton for every $1 they gave to Trump, and the recently trou - tend in the main to be socially liberal Democrats, the CEOs of bled bank has sponsored events for the Human Rights Campaign, major U.S. corporations are, among other things, members of a GLAAD, and other gay-rights groups, as well as donated to local discrete class. The graduates of ten colleges accounted for nearly Planned Parenthood franchises. half of the Fortune 500 CEOs in 2012; one in seven of them went Even the hated Koch brothers are pro-choice, pro-gay, to one school: Harvard. A handful of metros in California, Texas, and pro-amnesty. and New York account for a third of Fortune 1000 headquar - You may see the occasional Tom Monaghan or Phil Anschutz, ters—and there are 17 Fortune 1000 companies in one zip code but, on balance, U.S. corporate activism is overwhelmingly pro - in Houston. Unsurprisingly, people with similar backgrounds, gressive. Why? similar experiences, and similar occupations tend to see the For one thing, conservatives are cheap dates. You do not have world in a similar way. “A new breed of chief executive is to convince the readers of NATIONAL REVIEW or Re publicans in emerging—the CEO activist,” wrote Leslie Gaines-Ross, of Valparaiso that American business is in general a force for good Weber Shandwick, a global PR giant that advises Microsoft and in the world. But if you are, e.g., Exxon, you might feel the need had the unenviable task of working with Centers for Medicare to convince certain people, young and idealistic and maybe a lit - and Medicaid Services on the ACA rollout. “A handful of CEOs 25 2col_QXP-1127940309.qxp 2/15/2017 12:47 AM Page 26 are standing up and standing out on some of the most polarizing issues of the day, from climate change and gun control, to race relations and same-sex marriage.” Hence chief executives’ join - Treating Opioid ing en masse the great choir of hysteria on the question of toilet law in the Tar Heel State. Whereas the ancient corporate practice was to decline to take a public position on anything not related to their businesses, con - Addiction temporary CEOs feel obliged to act as public intellectuals as well as business managers. Many of them are genuine intellec - Never before have so tuals: Gates, PepsiCo’s Indra Nooyi, Goldman Sachs’s Lloyd many tools been available Blankfein. And, like Hollywood celebrities, almost all of them are effectively above money. Some of them are rock-star entrepreneurs. But most of them BY SALLY SATEL are variations on the Organization Man, veterans of MBA pro - grams, management consultancies, financial firms, and 10,000 corporate-strategy meetings. If you have not read it, spare a N Dandridge, Tenn., 16 women sat in a jailhouse cin - moment for William H. Whyte’s Cold War classic. In the 1950s, derblock classroom. Clad in black-and-white striped uni - Whyte, a writer for Fortune , interviewed dozens of important I forms reminiscent of those worn by 1950s chain gangs, the CEOs and found that they mostly rejected the ethos of rugged women were about to hear a presentation that was anything individualism in favor of a more collectivist view of the world. but old-fashioned. The capitalists were not much interested in defending the culture “We’re happy to see you,” Sherrie Montgomery, the director of of capitalism. What he found was that the psychological and the Jefferson County Health Department, told the women, operational mechanics of large corporations were much like according to the Tennessean ’s Anita Wadhwani. “We want you to those of other large organizations, including government agen - relax, and we want you to listen,” Montgomery continued. She cies, and that American CEOs believed, as they had believed then showed the women, some of whom had been arrested on since at least the time of Frederick Winslow Taylor and his 19th- drug-related charges, Born Hurting , a video on the effects of a century cult of “scientific management,” that expertise deployed mother’s opioid addiction on her newborn. through bureaucracy could impose rationality on such unruly Dandridge, like thousands of other communities, has seen a social entities as free markets, culture, family, and sexuality. The wave of infants suffering from neonatal “addiction”—babies supplanting of spontaneous order with political discipline is the who are physiologically dependent on opioids, though not essence of progressivism, then and now. technically addicted, and who require careful weaning with It is hardly a new idea. The old robber barons were far from small doses of methadone, an anti-addiction drug. After the being free-enterprise men: J. P. Morgan and Andrew Carnegie, video, Montgomery led a pointed discussion about the benefits like many businessmen of their generation, believed strongly in of birth control. She made a lot of sense in this context: If you state-directed collusion among firms (they’d have said “coordi - don’t get pregnant after you’re released, you won’t have a nation”) to avoid “destructive competition.” You can draw a drug-addicted baby. straight intellectual line from their thinking to Barack Obama’s Neonatal addiction is just one facet of America’s opioid crisis, views about state-directed “investments” in alternative energy or which now claims the lives of between three and four people medical research. every hour. The term “opioid” refers to narcotic prescription It is not difficult to see the temptations of that approach from medications, such as oxycodone (the narcotic in Percocet and the point of view of a Bill Gates or a Warren Buffett: The deci - OxyContin) and hydrocodone (Vicodin), as well as heroin and sions they have made for themselves have turned out well, so synthetic drugs such as fentanyl, which is 25 to 50 times as potent why not empower them, or men like them, to make decisions for as heroin. In 2015, more than 35,000 Americans died of over - other people, too? They may even be naïve or arrogant enough to doses (13,000 from heroin, 9,600 from synthetic opioids, and believe that their elevated stations in life have liberated them 12,700 from prescription pills)—nearly equal to the number of from self-interest. deaths from car crashes. Populists of the Trump variety and the Sanders variety (who Naturally, politicians and health professionals are calling for are not in fact as different as they seem) are not wrong to see more treatment. Last year, President Obama urged action, and these corporate cosmopolitans as members of a separate, dis - Congress allocated $1.5 billion for treatment expansion and other tinct, and thriving class with economic and social interests of its services. President Trump recently told police chiefs and sheriffs own. Those interests overlap only incidentally and occasionally that “prisons should not be a substitute for treatment.” “We will with those of movement conservatives—and overlap even less fight to increase access to life-saving treatment to battle the as the new nationalist-populist strain in the Republican party addiction to drugs,” the president said, “which is afflicting our comes to dominate the debate on questions such as trade and nation like never, ever before.” immigration. Under attack from both the right and the left, free As an addiction psychiatrist, I applaud these efforts. I also enterprise and free trade increasingly are ideas without a party. share the anxious concerns over what repeal and replacement of As William H. Whyte discovered back in 1956, the capitalists Obamacare might mean for addiction-treatment coverage. At the are not prepared to offer an intellectual defense of capitalism or same time, I think that politicians and public-health experts have of classical liberalism. They believe in something else: the man - agers’ dream of command and control. Sally Satel is a psychiatrist and a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute . 26 | www.nationalreview.com MARCH 6 , 2017 2col_QXP-1127940309.qxp 2/15/2017 12:48 AM Page 27 overlooked a major impediment to the promise of treatment: how call abusers, typically obtains pills from friends, shady doctors, hard it is to get a patient to seek treatment and stay committed to or street sellers. He may “doctor shop” in search of a compliant kicking a drug habit. prescriber or help himself to the medicine chests of unsuspecting While the situation is extremely serious, there is hope: a relatives suffering from cancer, who often receive large quantities develop ing synergy of tools ranging from new anti-addiction of opioids for their pain. medications to newly developed treatment methods (including Heroin use had been simmering for many years. But it began those conducted within the criminal-justice system, e.g., in drug to grow in the mid 2000s and jumped sharply over the last three courts) to a new openness to involuntary civil commitment in the to five years owing to the combination of an accelerated influx most serious cases. Call it all a necessary benign paternalism or a of heroin from Mexico around 2007 or 2008 and the heavy carrot-and-stick approach to addressing America’s opioid crisis. crackdown on illegal sale and abuse of painkillers by law- enforcement and health professionals that began in earnest around 2010. Subsequently, heroin-related overdose deaths OW did we get here? In the mid and late 1990s, cam - surged threefold, in large part because the drug was laced with paigns by patient advocates and some clinicians for the much stronger fentanyl and fentanyl analogues that are now more-liberal use of narcotic painkillers in treating mixed undetectably with heroin. (Notably, while many current Hpain gained ground. This led to doctors’ over-prescribing long- heroin users begin their use of opioids with painkillers they acting, high-dose narcotics in large quantities to treat nasty obtained outside the medical system, only a small subset of such toothaches and minor injuries that required only a few days of painkiller abusers progress to heroin.) pain relief. Aggressive marketing by narcotic manufacturers abetted this trend. As more opiate medications entered circulation, more oppor - T New Jersey’s RWJBarnabas health clinic in West tunities arose for patients—and especially non-patients—to Orange, 200 patients who had had their overdoses abuse them. And as opioid-prescribing increased, so did deaths reversed by Narcan were offered treatment. (Narcan, or from these drugs. nAaloxone, is the fast-acting antidote that works by shoving drug The average abuser of prescription painkillers is not a person molecules off receptors in the brainstem and jump-starting a being treated for pain (though, to be sure, some patients do get person’s breathing.) Over two years, only two of them agreed addicted). The average “non-medical user,” as epidemiologists to enter detox programs, which precede actual treatment and The perfect combination: LIMITED TIME OFFER.* Safety and affordability.for a CallFREE in-homeNow 800-820-9039 consultation and quote. 0UZ[HSSLKPUHZSP[[SLHZVULKH`I` “I love the Hydrojets. I love sitting in there and letting it go for 15 minutes. I love H26/3,9JLY[PÄLKZWLJPHSPZ[H[ everything about the KOHLER walk-in tub.” HZ\YWYPZPUNS`HɈVYKHISLWYPJL *The-Marie, Lifetime LimitedNewtown Warranty Square, is good for PA as long as 0UZ[HSSH[PVUPUJS\KLK the original consumer purchaser owns his/her home. For complete details, call 800-820-9039. ©2017 Kohler Co. 27 2col_QXP-1127940309.qxp 2/15/2017 12:47 AM Page 28 reha bilitation, and both dropped out within a couple of days. In patients relapse, the plan wisely allows community doctors to Camden County, a program offered revived patients $15,000 refer them back to the center for stabilization. vouchers for detox and intensive outpatient treatment. Only nine of the nearly 50 patients who had been offered the vouch - ers since October 2015 entered treatment—and four of them ORE -INTENSIVE involvement with patients early in quickly dropped out. recovery is essential, but it won’t completely solve Those who do enter treatment will likely receive anti-addiction another major problem with any kind of drug treat - medication. Buprenorphine, or “bupe,” is most commonly pre - mMent: dropout. Forty to 60 percent of patients leave treatment scribed. Bupe usually comes as a film strip that dissolves under within a few months of admission. Return to drug use typi - the tongue. Like methadone, the classic addiction medication, cally follows. bupe is itself an opioid. That means it can produce euphoria This should come as no surprise. Users have habits in every (though less effectively than most other opioids). Bupe also pre - sense of the word. Over months and years, they have become con - vents withdrawal symptoms and suppresses drug cravings. ditioned to think about drugs and crave them at the first feeling of Moreover, bupe’s chemical properties make it less risky than distress. That’s because opioids have helped them cope with methadone if taken in excess. It can also be prescribed by any anxiety, despair, loneliness, emptiness, boredom, and hopeless - qualified physician from his office. (To qualify, doctors must take ness. What’s more, addicts are not particularly good at delaying a government-sponsored eight-hour course—a good idea, by the gratification. Economists would call them “steep discounters.” way.) In contrast, methadone must be administered in clinics So when the siren call of craving hits, they often act. tightly regulated by the Drug Enforcement Administration The less time patients have spent in treatment, the less expo - (DEA). I work in such a clinic. sure they have had to vital recovery strategies, such as identifying Bupe’s relative safety and the restrictions on methadone the specific circumstances in which they are most vulnerable to account for the popularity of the former. Even though the drug is craving and devising strategies for subduing the urge to use. in such demand, however, it can sometimes be difficult to find a Leverage to keep patients in treatment is therefore necessary. doctor to prescribe it. To some extent, this is a matter of uneven Most of the time, such leverage comes from the addict’s own life. There is one venue in which leverage is built in: the criminal-justice system, with its accent on monitoring and accountability . Medicaid coverage. But I see it more as a matter of physician Many patients, if not most, come to treatment because some - enthusiasm. Busy primary-care doctors and psychiatrists see how one—a spouse, boss, child, or parent—mightily twisted their challenging it is to provide good care—which includes counsel - arm. At the very least, such pressure gets them in the door. ing and observed urine collection—to addicted individuals on an Incentives provide another kind of leverage. A vast literature outpatient basis. exists, for example, on giving patients redeemable vouchers for In fairness, I should add that some of my colleagues have had making progress in programs and submitting clean urine sam - great success with bupe. But they also tell me that too many of ples. The gift-card vouchers have monetary value that patients their patients continue to use illicit opioids. Bupe is also the third- can exchange for food items, movie passes, or other goods or most-diverted prescription opioid, after oxycodone and hydro - services that are consistent with a drug-free lifestyle. codone, according to the DEA—and most of that supply of bupe In one incentive model, a research team from Johns Hopkins comes from well-meaning clinicians. Its availability is especially offered addicts $10 an hour to work in a “therapeutic workplace” dangerous for people who are not already tolerant to opioids, or if they submitted clean urine. If the sample was positive or if the children, for whom a dose will be fatal. person refused to give a sample, he or she could not attend work So on the whole I’m relieved to work in a methadone clinic. or collect pay for the day. Workplace participants provided sig - Our nurses watch patients swallow the cherry-flavored liquid nificantly more opiate-negative urine samples than controls did, medication daily for at least the first few months. If a patient worked more days, and reported higher employment income and resumes using heroin, we can provide more-frequent counseling, less money spent on drugs. do more-regular toxicology screening, and suspend any take- Clearly, incentives make a difference. The question for policy - home doses of methadone. Such careful monitoring accounts for makers and health professionals is how to most effectively pro - very low rates of diversion of methadone from clinics. vide material encouragement for addicts in cash-strapped clinics. A similar system could be developed for bupe. Rhode Island hopes to develop one. It will establish “centers of excellence” around the state where Medicaid and privately insured patients HERE is one venue in which leverage is built in: the needing bupe will be seen. criminal-justice system, with its accent on monitoring Staff will disburse prescriptions for a few days of medication and accountability. In fact, some of the most promising at a time and provide counseling. As patients progress in treat - tTreatment and rehabilitation models can be found there. ment, supervision will loosen. The goal is to get patients trans - Take drug courts. There are roughly 3,000 such courts, which ferred to local clinicians within six months to a year. Should typically offer offenders dismissal of charges for completion of a 28 | www.nationalreview.com MARCH 6 , 2017 2col_QXP-1127940309.qxp 2/15/2017 12:47 AM Page 29 twelve- to 18-month treatment program. Critically, the courts skip appointments with their supervisory officer and 53 percent impose swift, certain, and fair consequences when participants less likely to have their probation revoked. Programs modeled on fail drug tests or commit other infractions, such as missing meet - this approach are being adapted for other locations and are ings with probation officers or skipping work-training classes. already having success in Washington, Alaska, Texas, South The sanctions can escalate, depending on the number of infrac - Dakota, and elsewhere. tions committed, ranging from warnings from the judge to com - The most paternalistic form of leverage is, of course, involun - munity service to more-intensive probation supervision to flash tary commitment. Most states have some form of involuntary incarceration (temporary stays in jail of one to ten days). substance-abuse treatment. Traditionally, such statutes aren’t These courts are more effective than conventional corrections deployed much, but the appetite for using or refining them may options, such as mandatory jail time or traditional probation. be growing. In January, a New Hampshire state senator intro - According to the National Association of Drug Court Pro- duced a bill that would expand the state’s list of mental illnesses fessionals, offenders whose cases are handled by drug courts are qualifying for involuntary commitment to include “substance-use one-half to one-third less likely to return to crime or drug use than disorders” as defined by the American Psychiatric Association. those who are monitored under typical probationary conditions. On average, nearly two-thirds of drug-court participants gradu - ate drug-free at 18 months. What’s more, if carrot-and-stick HESE approaches—incentives, drug courts, swift-certain- approaches are scrupulously applied and perhaps combined with fair punishment, and civil commitment—will be even anti-addiction medication, it is very possible that not every opioid more effective when combined with medication. In addi - addict will even need rehabilitation treatment. tTion to methadone or buprenorphine, both opioids, there is another The Hawaii Opportunity Probation and Enforcement program addiction medication, called Vivitrol (naltrexone), that should be shows how sanctions such as flash incarceration and incentives used more widely. Offered as a monthly injection, it is an opioid alone can work, without the need for outpatient care or expensive blocker, which means that if a person were to use painkillers or residential treatment. It treats people addicted to the stimulant heroin while on Vivitrol, he would get no effect. This medication methamphetamine, an addiction for which there is no medica - has a major role to play for people who have already been detox - tion, and offers treatment only to those who haven’t quit using ified, such as inmates who will soon be released from jail. after being either threatened with penalties or offered incentives. Never before have there been so many different therapeutic The savings from not having to pay for treating all comers mean elements to apply in combination to promote recovery. The that those who do need intense intervention get more supervision nation saw many drug epidemics in the 20th century, and today and higher-quality care. both politicians and police chiefs are putting a strong emphasis A randomized study found that, after one year, the Hawaii pro - on treatment over punishment. This is a healthy development, but N N E gram’s clients were 55 percent less likely to be arrested for a new it will work only if we are clear-eyed about the nature of addic - G N A M crime than were those on traditional probation, and 72 percent tion and the demands of recovery—an appreciation that in- O R less likely to use drugs. They were also 61 percent less likely to evitably leads us to the virtues of benign paternalism. 29 2col_QXP-1127940309.qxp 2/15/2017 12:47 AM Page 30 at the establishment politicians of both parties who protected investors in large financial firms even as they were oblivious Fixing to the personal cost of foreclosures and job losses. NE of President Obama’s main purposes in signing Finance, Still Dodd-Frank was straightforward. The law, he said during the White House signing ceremony, would Replace Dodd-Frank with something O“put a stop to taxpayer bailouts once and for all.” Nearly seven that will work years later, though, we still have no evidence that the law has ended 2008-style bailouts of large financial firms, for the obvi - ous reason that no large financial firm has failed since then. BY NICOLE GELINAS Both commercial banks and investment banks continue to benefit from the extraordinary measures the government took WO weeks into his term, President Trump took on the after 2008. Record-low mortgage-interest rates, a key post-2008 Dodd-Frank law, President Obama’s 2010 attempt to government policy, have spurred tens of millions of people to T reform the financial industry. “We expect to be cut - refinance their homes or to purchase new homes, generating ting a lot out of Dodd-Frank,” the president said on new fees for banks. Low interest rates have also enabled finan - February 3. The same day, he signed an executive order cial firms to profit from investments in government bonds and directing regulators to look through the nation’s financial laws other supposedly low-risk instruments whose value goes up to determine whether they conform to several key principles when rates go down. he has set out, including that they must “prevent taxpayer- Investment banks and brokerage firms had their most prof - funded bailouts.” itable year ever not in the boom before the crash, but in 2009. Trump is correct to revisit Dodd-Frank. This is a good exam - That year, their $61.4 billion in earnings more than made up ple of his overall predicament: To right a private sector that has for the $53.9 billion in losses they had experienced during the suffered from decades of government distortion, he must con - previous two years. They have continued to do well since. front a deep regulatory state that is a self-contained economy There’s another reason it’s hard to judge Dodd-Frank’s effec - of its own. The government entity that Trump has directed to tiveness. The 848-page law required regulators to write 390 revisit Dodd-Frank, the Financial Stability Oversight Council new rules. Rulemaking is not just a matter of writing a couple To right a private sector that has suffered from decades of government distortion, Trump must confront a deep regulatory state that is a self-contained economy of its own. (FSOC), is itself a creation of Dodd-Frank. Would its staff coun - of lines of text, such as “Thou shalt not steal.” Rather, it is a sel the president to eliminate their jobs? matter of soliciting tens of thousands of pages of comments It will take the FSOC 120 days—four whole months—to from industry players and anyone else interested in comment - report back to the president. Consider that FDR signed into ing, and then writing up thousands of pages of legalese. As of law the Securities Act of 1933, the country’s first major such December, the General Accounting Office notes, more than six law, less than three months after taking office. That much sim - years into the Dodd-Frank regime, regulators had issued only pler law—still only 93 pages, even after decades of amend - about 75 percent of their rules, meaning that “the full impact of ments—continues to serve the country well in preventing the Dodd-Frank Act remains uncertain.” stock-market fraud. Even after the government has issued its rules, the outcome Trump and his advisers are correct to intuit that Dodd-Frank can remain unclear. One of Dodd-Frank’s major provisions to did not end the “too big to fail” policy, and correct, too, to be prevent bailouts, for example, is the “Volcker rule,” named concerned about this. Having large financial firms that are after the Carter- and Reagan-era Federal Reserve chairman immune to marketplace discipline is bad for competition. Small who suggested it. The rule, prohibiting a financial firm from and mid-sized banks are at a disadvantage, because they must making speculative short-term trades that could precipitate its comply with many of Dodd-Frank’s rules and restrictions with - failure and the government’s intervention to save it, seems like out benefiting from the investor perception that the government it should be easy to understand. But the final Volcker rule, would bail them out. along with the background information that the government The persistence of “too big to fail” is a lurking political and thinks is necessary for sophisticated financial-industry work - social disaster, too. Trump won office in large part because, ers to understand it, is 1,089 pages—yes, longer than Dodd- nearly a decade after the financial crisis, voters are still angry Frank itself. The rule attempts to cover every conceivable scenario: What if a bank buys a financial instrument for the Nicole Gelinas, a Chartered Financial Analyst charterholder, is a senior fellow at long term but a regulator makes the bank sell that instrument in the Manhattan Institute. the short term? Should the firm be punished? 30 | www.nationalreview.com MARCH 6 , 2017 2col_QXP-1127940309.qxp 2/15/2017 12:47 AM Page 31 T he Vo lcker r ule also falls s hort bec aus e it re qu ires re gula - lon ge r go ve rnment m an agement is n ecessar y to p reser ve the tors to de termine the intent of tr aders at finan cial f irm s, n ot company’s va lue or t o pro tect the financ ial sy stem’s stability. their act ions. For ex amp le: Is a broker bu yi ng a bond because Thi s giv es t he go ve rnment e xtraordinary po wer to c ush ion the he thinks a customer might want to buy it tomorrow, or because blow for investors in a failed firm. It can use ta xpa yer m oney he want s t o m ak e a quick b uck by sell ing it bac k o n the open fr om a Tre asury-financed fund to lend to, or purchase the m arke t tom orro w ? Attorn ey s at the la w firm D avis P olk assets of, the afflicted company; to guarantee its assets against obser ved in Janu ary that “t he intent- bas ed focus . . . of the loss; an d to as sume its obli gatio ns. Volcker Ru le is a fu ndamen tal f law; disc ernin g inte nt in a com - Ye s, even un der Do dd -Fran k, credit or s and s ha rehold ers, plex, rap id tradi ng envi ronme nt is effecti vely imp ossib le.” ev entually , a re supp osed t o b ear losses. B ut the governme nt Th e fatal fla w o f the Volcker ru le, though , is that it see ks to can fa vor some cr editor s over other s, in its making o f pay - prevent firm s from fa iling i n the first plac e. In a healt hy free- ments to th em and othe r areas, if i t thin ks doing so is neces - marke t ec onom y, fir ms will in e vitably fail. The gov ern m ent’s sa ry “to m aximize th e value” of the firm’s ass ets . If the goal shou ld be to p revent th eir fa ilure from infecting the rest governm en t can not re coup th e t axpayer mo ney it has pu t int o of the ec onomy. the f ailing fir m, it can rec oup it via an asse ss ment o n other On that fr ont , there are re asons to be sk ept ical tha t Do dd- large f inan cial fir ms. Frank can he lp r egulat ors avoid b ailouts of critica lly impor tant There is a lo t wr ong wi th this . F ive ye ars is a lo ng tim e for financi al firms—r easons that can be found b oth in th e of ficial the g over nme nt to run, say, B a nk of A mer ica. B ecau se the mechanism s laid out f or those re gulato rs i n the eve nt of such Fede ral De po sit I nsu ranc e Corpor atio n would ru n a fai led failur e and in reg ulators’ pos t-2008 beha vio r. The m ain way financial f irm, and becau se t he pres ident appoin ts th e FD IC ’s Dodd-Fr ank i s suppos ed to av oid bailout s is t hrough som e - boar d, the p resident would have extraordinary control over a thing new call ed a n “o rderly- liquid ation aut hori ty,” wh ich large part of the economy. And the government doesn’t have a allo ws the go vernment to seize a struggling financial firm good t rack record of fig ur ing out w hat to d o wi th the financ ial rather than allow it to go through bankruptcy. firms it al read y run s. It s till ha sn’t fig ure d out what to do with In bankr uptcy, b ondh olders, len ders, a nd other investors Fann ie M ae and Fr ed die M a c, t he mo rtgage fi rms that it ha s could rec over their m oney only if the firm’s asse ts had suffi - run, under a mecha nism sim ilar t o orderly-l iqu idation aut hor - cient va lu e. I n orderl y-liquidation aut hority, by cont rast, the ity, for n early a de cade. governm ent can seize a financia l co mpa ny in dan ger of It is al so not clear w hy the sh ar eholder s of ot her finan cia l defau lt, p ump gove rn ment money into it, an d run it fo r three fir ms s hould h ave to t ransfer t heir profi ts to the in vestors in a years, or fiv e years i f the gover nmen t inform s Cong ress that failing firm . Such ri sk tr ansfer isn’ t just un fair a nd anti-ca pitalist. :: ::: :::::: '5/6#4.44622*+633 2-556//,3+6 $%61100-,0!6**2 "&1)1(35. nationalreview.com/nrdsubscribe)*%,'#"(+,!0%/+*0,1#-(/- '(0/,0$,-1&+)1 "0.11'*.)+/. )&$+, ,!*+ 31 2col_QXP-1127940309.qxp 2/15/2017 12:47 AM Page 32 President Donald Trump signs an executive order to initiate a review of financial regulations, February 3, 2017. It could trigger a panic if several large firms were to come banking and securities regulators already had the authority to under liquidation authority all at once and investors in the require banks to hold more capital. They didn’t need complex sur viving firms were uncertain that they could bear the losses new legislation to exercise that authority. of their fallen competitors at the same time as they dealt with a struggling economy. Orderly-liquidation authority is complicated, and we can’t IXING Dodd-Frank’s too-big-to-fail shortcomings know how it will really work until there is an opportunity to see should be one of the Trump administration’s top priori - it in action. But there are already some indications that the gov - ties in addressing financial regulation. How to go about ernment would be gentle with failing firms. Under Dodd-Frank, iFt? First, ask Congress to repeal the Volcker rule. It is a regula - banks must create “living wills” to demonstrate how they could tory distraction, and it perpetuates too-big-to-fail rather than fail without harming the rest of the economy. But five big banks confronts it. After all, if the government has failed to stop a out of the eight that must endure such tests initially failed them financial firm from short-term speculation that ends in its ruin, last year. Wells Fargo has failed twice, the second time in why isn’t the government also responsible for insulating December. That is, the government has decreed that, as of now, investors from this failure? Unlike Obamacare, the Volcker there is no way Wells Fargo could fail without unacceptably rule will be missed by nobody if it is gone, except for all of the harming the rest of the economy, yet the firm still exists; the lawyers and compliance officers who have spent seven years government has only told Wells Fargo that it cannot make cer - working for it or against it. tain acquisitions while it figures out how to pass the test. Second, take a page from the House Financial Services Another problem is practical. The large financial firms are Committee’s proposed Financial Choice Act, released last year much bigger than they were before Dodd-Frank. In 2010, just and updated in February for the Trump era. Ask Congress to as Dodd-Frank was passed, the nation’s seven largest banks— repeal Dodd-Frank’s orderly-liquidation authority and require each with half a trillion in assets or more—each had, on aver - large financial firms to go through the same federal bankruptcy age, a 7.39 percent share of the market. By mid 2016, the seven code that other companies must. (Small depositors would keep banks were down to six, and each had, on average, a 10.52 per - the FDIC protection they have had since the FDR days without cent market share. Such concentration is bad for competition. the need for wider bailouts of more sophisticated investors.) Dodd-Frank would also make winding down the banks harder. Democratic members of Congress have an incentive to sup - S E G If the government had to seize JPMorgan Chase, to whom, port these changes. In a financial crisis, they must ask them - A M I P A exactly, would it sell the bank, or its pieces? selves: Do we want Trump in charge, armed with all of the / X P I / The good news about big banks is that they have much discretion that Dodd-Frank gives him to favor some financial H C N U more capital—money available to absorb losses—than they firms and creditors over others and to run multitrillion-dollar P A I D E did a decade ago. Large financial institutions’ capital hov - banks for years on end under an utterly untested procedure? M / I C C ered below 7 percent of their assets, on average, before the Or do we want the independent judiciary to oversee bankrupt - U R R E financial crisis. Today, it is closer to 12 percent. But this cies under tools and rules that worked well for decades before U G E D isn’t necessarily good news about Dodd-Frank. Before the politicians threw them away in favor of bailouts in the U A Dodd-Frank became law, the Federal Reserve and other 2008 crisis? 32 | www.nationalreview.com MARCH 6 , 2017 Lileks--READY_QXP-1127940387.qxp 2/15/2017 12:02 AM Page 33 Athwar t BY JAMES LILEKS Sufficient unto the Day HE TV action serial 24 has been revived. You who are breaking into the homes of Special Forces opera - remember that show, right? Jack Bauer running tives and killing everyone in revenge for the assassination of around shouting “ WE’RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME ” Sheik Yemini Krikit, or someone. T into his cell phone while harried computer You just know that every one of these guys not only is experts in a dimly lit room squinted at floor plans on a mon - devoted to the destruction of America but is probably also itor. Every segment ended with the sound of an enormous overstaying a visa. The super-terrorists also want a box that alarm clock being crushed repeatedly: Chang CHANK . has a flash drive with the names and locations of terrorist Chang CHANK . Chang CHANK . sleeper cells—which means there are agents planted all over The first show premiered two months after 9/11 and was America ready to blow things up on behalf of whatever an odd form of comfort food for a nervous, unsettled audi - Islamist group the writers wanted to stand in for ISIS. ence. Its hero was patriotic, clear-eyed, and capable of, shall When the word comes down from the Top Sheik, they’ll we say, improvisational persuasion when it came to national activate the network of 25-year-old single male refugees security. Sample: who claimed to persecute Syrian puppy vets! In other words—ripped from the headlines! As timely as Jack : TELL ME WHERE THE BOMB IS ! tomorrow’s news! Sneering terrorist : Never. Your infidel president, his cabi - Except this is 24 , and you know this isn’t what it’s really net, and also your daughter who is involved in a seemingly about. It may look like a terrorist plan to cripple America, but unrelated subplot—all will die horribly! it’s really going to be about a cabal of corporate executives Jack : THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE ! led by Jon Voight who want to increase drug prices. Terrorist (sneering): American fool! I am a soldier of God, There’s a new Jack Bauer, named Corey Hawkins; he’s an swarthy and stubbled! I have sworn to Sheik Aroma Bin- African-American spec-ops guy who’s just as brave, and also Ladle that I will never— doesn’t need to eat or use the bathroom. Jack : (Saws off terrorist’s leg) He’s good in the role, but he’s not having a good time. No Terrorist (screaming): I WILL TELL YOU EVERYTHING one in TV who is defending America has a good time. INCLUDING MY HOTMAIL PASSWORD . Compare these characters to James Bond, who was always Jack : THAT ’SASTART ! (Beats terrorist with severed leg) going to exotic locales, wooing a beautiful biochemist named Bosom DeChlorophylle while trying to find a missing It struck a nerve at the time—or, rather, salved a raw one. aircraft carrier. We knew that Jack Bauer’s secret outfit, CTU, wasn’t real. We can’t have that sort of blithe, confident, dapper national But surely the government had something like that, right? A symbol anymore. Our shadowy soldiers must be dark, gritty, place with lots of monitors and young people who knew how conflicted, anguished, and so on—and it has to slap us in the to hack into things by typing really quickly, then saying, face with the wet mackerel of our bigotry. Example: There’s “There’s encryption in the firewall, I’m going to inject an a powerful government figure who’s nominally Hispanic; SQL Trojan,” and then they could access all the records of you get the sense that the producers thought, “He’s ethnic, the Lebanese warlord behind the evil plot to blow things up. but he’s, you know, Jimmy Smits ethnic.” The show also had the foresight to make the POTUS an The character—played by Jimmy Smits, as it happens— African American—a new idea for some, though old-hat has a Muslim aide, who isn’t Huma Abedin at all, NO SIR . for those who knew from movies that Morgan Freeman There’s an accusation that she attended a radical mosque was the first black president. There would be a female and used her position to access secret documents. This hap - president later, because the producers saw Hillary the way pens in the second episode, so it’s possible she’ll be exon - NASA astronomers detect asteroids that won’t enter our erated in the fourth but re-indicted in the 17th when it turns solar system for ten years. out she really works for fake Islamic terrorists in league Oh, it was great. At first. Then it swerved into the left lane, with Opus Dei. as these things do. If the 24 reboot does well, the next season will have to The bad guys, revealed in the second half of the series, adapt to a changing cultural landscape, and you know usually turned out to be a front for the League of Shadowy Hollywood will step up to the plate and tailor its product to White Capitalists. The writers treated Jack so shabbily you reflect the new zeitgeist. expected the last season to be nothing but Jack on hold with Hour 1 : A threat is made against a brash, unconventional the VA for 24 hours, trying to get painkillers for his leg. president by white nationalists who are furious the POTUS Now it’s back. The first episode seems to reflect the new hasn’t banned all Muslims yet. tropes of the Trump times, as if the producers saw his elec - Hours 2–24 : The hero agent sits in a café doodling on a tion months in advance. The bad hombres are Arab terrorists napkin, occasionally checking Twitter to see if anything is happening, sending all the calls from CTU to voicemail. Mr. Lileks blogs at www.lileks.com. Chang CHANK . Chang CHANK . Chang CHANK . 33 longview--READY_QXP-1127940387.qxp 2/15/2017 2:39 PM Page 34 The Long View BY ROB LONG KELLYANNE : (finishing)—just a few MR. B ANNON : Okay, Kellyanne, you can minutes of your . . . time? have a raise. REINCE : I wouldn’t head in there, KELLYANNE : —that I get a raise. Kellyanne. He’s in a bad mood. Beat. KELLYANNE : I don’t care! I’ve been KELLYANNE (C ONT ’D): What? here for almost six weeks and it’s time I Mr. Bannon smiles. “The Kellyanne Conway got a raise. MR. B ANNON : You know something, Show” She stands at her desk and crosses to Kellyanne? You’ve got integrity. Mr. Bannon’s office, smoothing her dress KELLYANNE : Thank you, Mr. Bannon. Episode 107: Out Like Flynn and fixing her hair as she does. She MR. B ANNON : I hate integrity. takes a deep breath, then knocks. Kellyanne’s face drops. FADE IN: INT . OFFICE —DAY MR. B ANNON (OS): What? MR. B ANNON : I’m just kidding, Kelly - KELLYANNE : Mr. Bannon, I’d like to anne. You don’t have integrity. Kellyanne enters in a rush. Reince is speak with you if I could. Her smile returns. already at his desk, typing away. MR. B ANNON (OS): You can’t. KELLYANNE : Thank you, Mr. Bannon! KELLYANNE : (to Reince) I cannot KELLYANNE : Mr. Bannon, I’m coming believe I’m late again! I have to learn in there! CUT TO : not to trust that Metro! So many delays! Kellyanne crosses into Mr. Bannon’s INT . OFFICE —CONTINUOUS It’s like the Metro is for people who are office. Donald Trump enters from the looking for jobs, not for people who lobby doors. Donald Trump stands by Reince’s desk, have them! DONALD TRUMP : Hi guys! pointing out parts of a prepared speech. REINCE : That explains why I saw Mike They ad-lib hellos. DONALD TRUMP : And that’s why I Flynn walking to the Foggy Bottom sta - DONALD TRUMP : Reince, I need to talk think we need something in there about tion this morning. to you about the material you wrote for my resort property in Ireland. Not Kellyanne gives him a look. me last night. I have to say, it was a little because it’s mine, Reince, but because KELLYANNE : Oh, Reince! off-color. it’s beautiful. It’s a beautiful pristine REINCE : What? I saw him heading REINCE : (sighs) What are you talking place untouched by anything. Still pure down the escalator and all I could think about? It was a short speech about the and empty and new. was, there but for the grace of The Big Middle East. REINCE : Sort of like your mind. Mouth goes I. Donald Trump produces a piece of DONALD TRUMP : Ha ha. Very funny. I The office door swings open and Mr. paper and shows it to Reince. just think people should know we still Bannon enters from his office. DONALD TRUMP : What’s this word? have units available. MR. B ANNON : Reince! Where’s that REINCE : “Shiite.” Kellyanne enters from Mr. Bannon’s executive order I asked for? DONALD TRUMP : Oh. office. REINCE : The one about no Muslims KELLYANNE : (to Donald Trump) Sir! allowed on television? CUT TO : Good morning! I’ve been looking MR. B ANNON : Yeah. INT . M R. B ANNON ’S OFFICE —CONTINU - for you! REINCE : Not doing it, Steve. Unconsti - OUS DONALD TRUMP : Well, you found me! tutional. Kellyanne, will you talk to Reince MR. B ANNON : Wait. Seriously, Reince? Kellyanne is standing in front of Mr. about putting dirty words in my REINCE : Seriously, Steve. Bannon’s desk. Mr. Bannon ignores her speeches? MR. B ANNON : I wish you had told me! as he types on his typewriter. He types REINCE : Donald! “Shiite” is not a dirty I scratched one out last night and handed for a few moments without looking up. word. And neither is “emoluments.” it to the big guy for review. MR. B ANNON : (still typing) Kellyanne? DONALD TRUMP : Are you sure about REINCE : Well, maybe he read it and KELLYANNE : Yes, Mr. Bannon? that last one? Sure sounds sexual. realized it’s out of bounds and didn’t MR. B ANNON : You’re hovering. I hate KELLYANNE : Sir, I was hoping I could sign it. hovering. ask you to give me back the paper with Long pause. She sits. the Muslim television ban on it? REINCE : I’m kidding. Did we all forget MR. B ANNON : Okay, now you’re sit - DONALD TRUMP : No time to talk, what kidding is? ting. Don’t know which I hate more, Kellyanne. I have to go announce that Mr. Bannon looks to Kellyanne. hovering or sitting. I’ve banned Muslims from television. MR. B ANNON : Kellyanne! We need to KELLYANNE : Mr. Bannon, I’ve been Afterwards, we can talk about whatever get that executive order found and working here for almost two months, it is you’re talking about. destroyed before you-know-who finds and in that time I’ve done a great job. I Donald Trump exits toward the televi - it and signs it. mean, I think I have. I’ve appeared on sion studio. KELLYANNE : On it, Mr. Bannon! And, I news shows, spoken up for our policies, KELLYANNE : Uh boy. was wondering if I could have— been ever-vigilant against Muslim Mr. Bannon heads back into his office apologists, and I really think it’s time, I FADE OUT . and slams the door. mean I really really think it’s time— END OF ACT ONE . 34 | www.nationalreview.com MARCH 6 , 2017 books_QXP-1127940387.qxp 2/14/2017 6:31 PM Page 35 Books, Arts & Manners master of revolution the whole world Emil Ludwig, the famous and the infa - Treason of over, coined the cynical phrase “useful mous alike, shifted the climate of opinion idiots” for the throng from Europe and in favor of dictatorship. An archetypical the United States who were promoting fellow traveler was Romain Rolland. A The Clerks Communist fictions, best of all if they Frenchman and winner of a Nobel Prize were not aware of doing so. In the same in Literature, he enjoyed absolute free - DAVID PRYCE-JONES vein, George Orwell once famously dom of speech. A visit to Moscow in the observed: “There are some ideas so summer of 1935, and an interview with absurd that only an intellectual could Stalin, led him to pour out admiration for believe them.” Communism regularly in the Party news - What goes into the making of a fellow paper in Paris. The diaries and correspon - traveler was an unexplored subject until dence of this bafflingly split personality Eric Hoffer’s The True Believer came at the very same time reveal horror that out in 1951, and that book still remains friends of his and colleagues of Stalin’s fresh and original. According to him, one had been subjected to show trials and who takes up a cause has found a way to summary execution. The consistent mis - be violent and basically obedient and representation of Communist reality is a submissive at the same time. He quotes lasting monument to credulity and, more someone who says, “We are free from than that, evidence of bad character. From Benito Mussolini to Hugo Chávez: freedom,” which Hoffer takes to mean Flaubert used to publish a short but Intellectuals and a Century of Political Hero that happiness and fulfillment do not telling lexicon of the idiocies of his lit - Worship , by Paul Hollander come from within the individual but erary colleagues, and Hollander’s new (Cambridge, 338 pp., $29.99) from losing himself in a cause. book From Benito Mussolini to Hugo Hollander’s Political Pilgrims (1981) Chávez is a similar sort of anthology. AUL HOLLANDER was in his is a fully researched study of the extraor - For instance, Joseph E. Davies, Ameri - mid twenties when he left his dinary phenomenon of fellow-traveling can ambassador to the Soviet Union native Hungary at the time of and the damage it leaves in its wake. from 1936 to 1938, reported that Stalin the 1956 revolution. Firsthand Written objectively, as though classifying had a cordial smile, great simplicity, Pexperience of Nazism and then Com - pathological symptoms, that book is a and wisdom, and noted that “his brown munism marked him for life. These dic - classic. Fellow-traveling is shown to have eye is exceedingly kindly.” Stalin, he tatorial regimes claimed to be acting on grown out of rejection of democratic and thought, “insisted upon liberalism.” behalf of the masses, but he could recog - homegrown society; in other words, an The show trials then being staged in nize persecution and injustice when he aspect of it is anti-Americanism writ Moscow were “authentic,” and Andrei saw it. Settling in the United States, large. For the Left, it has been axiomatic Vyshinsky, prosecuting—and, in court, Hollander found thousands and thou - that equality is a good far greater than openly raving against the accused— sands of educated men and women who any other, a supreme end in itself, and was “calm, dispassionate, intellectual, supported Communism. The virtues they that Communism alone can achieve it. able, and wise.” This complete suspen - ascribed of their own free will to the Liberty, the main contending good, will sion of critical faculties, as Hollander Soviet Union were fictions that they obviously have to be suppressed. Trying sums up, “set a new record in misper - were asking the public to take for truth. to get that point across, Party appa - ception.” Long since exposed as un - Not merely deluded, they were also jus - ratchiks deceived fellow travelers with trustworthy and quite probably corrupt, tifying the strong as they set about vic - techniques of dissembling and hospitality Walter Duranty, the New York Times timizing the weak. A good many of them well described by Hollander, and fellow correspondent in Moscow, also judged were not members of the Communist travelers deceived themselves because Stalin to be wise and perceptive, “a Party but intellectuals possessed by self- they wanted to. quiet, unobtrusive man.” Collectiviza - righteousness and identified in the One example so extreme that it verges tion of agriculture meant enforced apparently neutral idiom of the period as on the comic is Beatrice and Sidney famine, deportation, and death in “fellow travelers.” Webb’s Soviet Communism: A New Siberian camps for millions. Duranty Pursuing an academic career, Hol - Civilization? These two prominent intel - blanketed Stalinist crime with the noto - lander found his place in the battle of lectuals (he had been a cabinet minister) rious observation that you can’t make ideas and ideology known as the Cold mistook every fiction for fact, so that an omelet without breaking eggs. Hol - War. A hero of rationality and a human - their descriptions and judgments on the lander notes that Fredric Jameson, a ist, he is everything a genuine intellectual page bear no relationship to what is visi - Marxist literary critic, dismisses the ought to be, rescuing political and moral ble and encountered in the street. Taken evidence and claims that Stalinism suc - discourse from the demoralizing level of together, George Bernard Shaw, H. G. cessfully fulfilled “its historical mis - fellow-traveling. Lenin, the would-be Wells, Henri Barbusse, Jean-Paul Sartre, sion” to industrialize—which is only SPONSORED BY National Review Institute 35 books_QXP-1127940387.qxp 2/14/2017 6:31 PM Page 36 BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS another version of the broken-eggs- who denied or minimized the mass mur - and-omelet apologia. ders carried out by the Pol Pot regime in First Nazi Germany offers comparisons. Cambodia. Professor Bruce Cumings of Hitler’s eyes, just like Stalin’s, made an the University of Chicago pleaded for overpowering impression of good inten - “the proper understanding and urgent Principles tions upon interlocutors. In common moral rehabilitation” of Kim Il-sung in with almost everyone who had an inter - North Korea. Impressed by Syrian presi - JEREMY CARL view with Hitler, the historian Arnold dent Bashar al-Assad, Professor David Toynbee came away “convinced of his Lesch, a Middle East expert, described sincerity in desiring peace in Europe”; him as “the type of person who has wanted this was in 1936, as Hitler’s planned to help people his entire life.” Richard campaign of conquest was getting under Falk of Yale and then the United Nations way. Two years later, I know from pri - suggested that Ayatollah Khomeini was vate information, Toynbee refused to “defamed by the news media” and that vouch for a Jewish art dealer from there was no trace of religious fanaticism Hamburg desperate to reach Britain, in him. The attorney and journalist Eva telling him that now was the moment Golinger found that the Venezuela of when Jews should be loyal to the Führer. Hugo Chávez “is truly a beacon of the The philosopher Martin Heidegger world.” Many in the news media took Patriotism Is Not Enough: Harry Jaffa, Walter included the slogan “Heil Hitler” in one the death of Fidel Castro as an opportu - Berns, and the Arguments That Redefined American of his articles. He saw in Hitler, in a nity to praise him as a heroic figure sure Conservatism , by Steven F. Hayward phrase Hollander quotes from historian to go down in history as one of the great - (Encounter, 296 pp., $25.99) Claudia Koonz, “the embodiment of the est leaders of Latin America. His respon - ethnic regeneration for which he had sibility for the judicial executions of TEVE HAYWARD may be the most versatile man in American conservatism. A prolific author, The Age of Dictators perhaps best known for his Sjustly lauded two-volume biography of may be fading, but its legacy is President Reagan, Hayward has written psychological disorder . highly regarded books on everything from Winston Churchill’s leadership to longed.” Another philosopher, Alfred some 8,000 dissidents, the long-term environmental theology. He’s a leading Bäumler, presided over the book-burning prison sentences handed out to many blogger at the popular Power Line site, a carried out by storm troopers in Berlin in more, and the huge numbers that pre - prolific podcaster, formerly a frequent 1933, and then “played a major role in ferred exile to Cuban Communism were guest host of Bill Bennett’s talk-radio the Nazification of universities.” Konrad grounds for silence or prevarication. show, and currently a senior resident Lorenz, a post-war Nobel Prize winner, That same wish ful thinking turns Che scholar at UC Berkeley’s Institute of joined the Nazi Party in 1938 and as a Guevara, essentially a gangster and mur - Governmental Studies. biologist became a member of the derer, into “the subject of an unprece - But even given Hayward’s diverse Party’s Office of Racial Policy. Accord - dented global hero worship.” skills and prolific output, Patriotism Is ing to Hollander, he contributed The Age of Dictators may be fading, Not Enough still comes as a surprise. actively to Nazi policies of repopula - but its legacy is psychological disorder. There are just not many conservative pub - tion and ethnic cleansing in Poland. A The great mistake of the intellectual class lic intellectuals who have deep knowl - Jewish professor of classics at Kiel has been to believe that the supreme end edge of public policy who can also offer a University sincerely compared Hitler to of equality justifies all means to obtain it. subtle and textured analysis of political the Emperor Augustus. This is how the show trials, concentra - philosophy. But in this study of Leo Far exceeding Hitler and Stalin in the tion camps, secret police, and terror Strauss and some of his leading disciples number of his victims, Mao Tse-tung in came to be treated as necessary and ben - and their profound effects on American Hollander’s account is at the top of the all- eficial steps toward the promised utopia. conservatives’ views of politics and time list of ideologically inspired mass Hollander attributes this complete sus - statesmanship, that is just what Hayward murderers. The Great Leap Forward in pension of critical faculties to “a reli - has done. 1957, by itself, left some 30 million dead. gious, or secular-religious, wellspring” On further reflection, however, perhaps This did not prevent Professor John K. that conditions useful idiots. Human be - Patriotism isn’t such a departure after all. Fairbank, probably the most acclaimed of ings, he emphasizes, have always shown It ties together the various strands of specialists on China, from asserting in a remarkable capacity to hold a wide Hayward’s career: After his writings on 1972 that “the Maoist revolution is on the range of inexplicably bizarre beliefs. I environmentalism, he explores politics as whole the best thing that happened to the take it from this thoroughly documented a study of “human ecosystems”; and his Chinese people in centuries.” and heartfelt book that he doesn’t think This showcase of useful idiots includes a big change for the better is coming Mr. Carl is a research fellow at the Hoover Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman, anytime soon. Institution, Stanford University. 36 | www.nationalreview.com MARCH 6 , 2017 books_QXP-1127940387.qxp 2/14/2017 6:31 PM Page 37 studies of Churchill and Reagan showed elevation of the importance of states - only by the fact that “it does not know the practical importance of leadership and manship, which Hayward defines as “the that it fiddles and it does not know that statesmanship, which Patriotism now point of contact between political philos - Rome burns.” grounds in philosophy. ophy and real politics.” Hayward’s book touches on prominent Hayward’s in tellectual roo ts are very Des pite th e often bitter and fundamen - philosophers from Plato and Aristotle to much in high political theory and, in tal disagreements the Straussians had, Locke and Heidegger; it even includes an particular, the school of West Coast this focus on statesmanship rather than extensive discussion of Shakespeare’s Straussians that grew up around Harry data analysis united them well outside the politics. He also profiles statesmen and Jaffa at the Claremont Graduate School. It mainstream of academic political sci - more obscure philosophers whose work is was there that Hayward was first exposed ence. (As Hayward approvingly quotes relevant to his theme, always showing a to some of the principal ideas that ani - Strauss disciple Herbert Storing regard - firm grasp of the material. The theoretical mate his book. The book is part history ing his fellow Straussians: They feel sledding is at times heavy—“Locke is and part memoir, written in a literary “relief that they have not allowed political what Aristotle would have been had style that brings out his wry personality. science to make them more stupid than Aristotle experienced the challenge of Patriotism is, at its heart, an explo - they need to be.”) Christian revelation”—but Hayward ration of some of the most important Above all, Hayward, like the colorful writes in an accessible and easily compre - philosophical debates in modern conser - figures he profiles, calls for a return to hensible style, even when covering diffi - vatism, taking as its point of departure the values in politics and a skepticism of the cult territory. deaths on the same day in 2015 of Jaffa supposedly value-free modern social sci - One noteworthy element of Patriotism and Walter Berns, who, despite many ence. He quotes Strauss disciple Edward is the way that it eschews all of the mod - areas of fundamental agreement, carried Banfield’s attack on so-called scientific ern buzzwords of Straussianism that on a lifelong quarrel about the meaning politics: “Would anyone have main - caused Strauss to become something of a of Strauss’s work and its relationship to tained that in the Convention of 1787 the household name among conservative America’s founding. The book is also a Founders would have achieved a better intellectuals. There is no discussion of critique of modern political science, result with a staff of model-builders?” ancients vs. moderns or the “theologico- which has denigrated statesmanship in For Strauss and his disciples, the posi - political problem,” and no analysis of favor of regression modeling and “value tivism and historicism of contemporary esoteric writing. Hayward’s Strauss is the free” methodology. What unites Strauss social science kept it from answering Strauss of the public square, not the and his followers, even those who, like truly important questions. Strauss wrote Strauss of the academic cloister. Berns and Jaffa, quarreled bitterly, was that modern social science was like Nero At the heart of the dispute between their rejection of this approach and their fiddling while Rome burns, excused Jaffa and Berns was the role of natural YOU’LL DIG ‘DIGGING IN’ Get NR Senior Editor Jay Nordlinger’s Wonderful New Collection eloved essayist, music critic, columnist, podcaster, language guru, travel spec- tator, cultural observer, political wiseman, historian (Peace, They Say and Children of Monsters) Jay Nordlinger’s new book—Digging In: Further BCollected Writings—is a 400-plus-page delight, including some 70 classics that com- prise an engaging array of pieces produced for National Review over the past decade. 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ORDER ‘DIGGING IN’ @ STORE.NATIONALREVIEW.COM SPONSORED BY National Review Institute 37 books_QXP-1127940387.qxp 2/14/2017 6:31 PM Page 38 BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS law as embodied in the Declaration of “emblematic of why libertarianism areas of agreement that the arguments Independence, as a source of U.S. law as attracts so few adherents.” sometimes appear to be “a distinction interpreted by the judiciary. For Jaffa, Patriotism does not attempt to refer - without a difference”—which Hayward the Declaration and the Constitution ee the dispute between Berns and Jaffa. acknowledges. For example, while were inextricably intertwined, and the Instead, it shows how they strength - Hayward brilliantly delineates the great rights spoken of in the Declaration must ened conservatives’ engagement with differences between the philosophical be vindicated by judges interpreting serious constitutionalism. The two camps background of Justice Scalia’s judicial American law. For Berns, as a textual - defined by Jaffa and Berns have split conservatism and that of Justice ist, the Constitution itself should be the the conservative legal movement, with Thomas’s version, in the real world vir - only guide, and to go beyond the consti - luminaries such as Bork and Scalia on tually all conservatives would be tutional text was to invite judicial the side of Berns and the textualists, delighted to have either, and certainly activism. With respect to the various and legal scholars such as Richard both are vastly preferable to the basket schools of Straussians, Hayward inclines Epstein and Randy Barnett and Justice of deplorable liberal justices on to- somewhat toward a more expansive Clarence Thomas endorsing Jaffa’s day’s Supreme Court. To have angst natural-law view of constitutionalism (a natural-law view. about the Scalia –Thomas differences position taken by his mentor Jaffa), but But while Patriotism does not expli - is the ultimate conservative “First he is a scrupulously fair judge and is citly favor either Scalia’s or Thomas’s World problem.” quick to detail the problems with the view, Hayward is quick to critique Both Jaffa and Berns were politically position at length, especially as it opens today’s law students, even at the best engaged; Jaffa wrote for Barry Gold - the door to leftist meddling and the cre - schools, as “constitutional technicians water the famous line that “extremism in ation of nonexistent “rights” at the whim rather than constitutionalists,” because the defense of liberty is no vice.” Early of liberal activist judges. they are unable to argue the underlying in the book, Hayward recounts a conver - Hayward also stresses the importance meaning of the Constitution outside of sation he had with Jaffa late in Jaffa’s of practical, or pragmatic, wisdom in narrow court precedents. They lack even life. The fate of the world, Jaffa told Patriotism does not attempt to referee the dispute between Berns and Jaffa. Instead, it shows how they strengthened conservatives’ engagement with serious constitutionalism . statesmanship. In discussing Lincoln’s the conceptual framework to deal with Hayward, depends on the United States, position on slavery, a subject of great the Jaffa –Berns debate. the fate of the United States depends on interest to Straussians, Hayward notes Given their critique of contemporary the conservative movement, and the that “securing a right is not the same as social science, it is unsurprising that fate of the conservative movement declaring a right”—a fact that the ver - Hayward and the thinkers he profiles depends on the health and success of the bose yet toothless Obama administra - are critics of the modern technocratic Republican party. tion would have done well to study. For administrative state and its pretensions Whether this presents a hopeful view example, Lincoln’s less ambitious claims to be apolitical, a conceit that deifies or a cautionary one in the age of Trump about the rights of African-American the technocrat and ignores the larger remains to be seen, but, as with much else slaves helped develop a consensus questions of government. And this in this sparkling book, it provides a direct among his fellow Republicans that ulti - skepticism has more than just theoreti - connection between the work of the mately secured those rights after the cal implications. philosopher and that of the statesman. Civil War and set up the foundation for “That bureaucratic government is the While Hayward’s book is a deep medita - future gains. Lincoln’s mastery of the partisan instrument of the Democratic tion on statesmanship and political phi - politics of the possible is something of party is the most obvious, yet least re - losophy, one need not be an admirer of or a touchstone of leadership for both marked upon, trait of our time,” Hay ward even familiar with Leo Strauss to appre - Berns and Jaffa (Jaffa having written a notes. This is not simply a philosophical ciate this paean to statesmanship. classic study of the Lincoln –Douglas aside: This will be one of the most The title of Patriotism comes from debates, The Crisis of the House Di - pro found challenges President Trump Jaffa, who often liked to say that “patrio - vided ). Hay ward not only handles these faces. The issues raised by Hayward, tism is not enough” to command the debates skillfully, he also shows aware - Berns, and Jaffa are very relevant for respect and affection of a nation’s citi - ness of occasional controversies about modern politics. zens—a theme his adversary Berns Lincoln and state power among conser - As in any book, there are some areas echoed in his own work. For both of these vatives and libertarians, some even that leave the reader eager for more. Straussians, to be worthy of its citizens’ present in the early days of this maga - Despite their rancor, the disputes be- respect and affection, America must be zine. He memorably dismisses harsh tween Strauss’s disciples that Hay ward great again. And if we are going to make critiques of Lincoln by Lew Rockwell illuminates are so much less consequen - America great again, our citizens, and our (a major influence on Ron Paul) as tial, at least on the surface, than their statesmen, must be good again. 38 | www.nationalreview.com MARCH 6 , 2017 books_QXP-1127940387.qxp 2/14/2017 6:31 PM Page 39 shoulders above the religious violence and gain were inseparable. The intellec - A New that preoccupied his contemporaries. tual currency of humanism was fungi - What he stood for in his lifetime seems ble, and was most valuable at the royal incidental. This is the desired effect of the court. His father, following Erasmus’s Man Essais in their posthumous form, the advice in De Pueris (“On Boys,” 1529), sixth edition of 1595. But that is the affect chose Latin as Michel’s native tongue. DOMINIC GREEN Montaigne’s conversational tone con - Even the valets and maids had to speak veys, and the result of an editorial process it to him. After that, from the age of six as much autobiographical as literary. to 13, Michel boarded at the best school The flyleaf of the Bordeaux Copy in the region, the College of Guyenne, carries Montaigne’s handwritten in - for more Latin, some Greek, and a little structions for the printer of the next French, too. edition. The printed title page omits The rest of his education is obscure. Montaigne’s public offices and titles, Desan is surely right to suppose that even though the inheritance and pursuit Montaigne studied law at Toulouse, of public office defined his life. What where he had relatives on his mother’s remains is our image of Montaigne as the side, and perhaps in Paris, too. The philosopher of private experiences, writ - essay “Of Cripples” implies that Mon - ing in his private tower, describing taigne was in Toulouse in 1560 and Montaigne: A Life , by Philippe Desan instead of prescribing, a conversational - attended the trial of the false Martin (Princeton, 796 pp., $39.95) ist not an orator. Guerre, a soldier accused of usurping a Philippe Desan’s Montaigne: A Life is fellow soldier’s identity. HE story of Michel de Mon - an elaborate, exhaustive, and frequently At the time, the law courts were the taigne is that rare case, a polit - brilliant restoration of Montaigne’s life forum for the usurpation of the old ical life that ends in success. to its times. Born in 1533 on the family “nobility of the sword” by the parvenu Not, admittedly, the success estate near Bordeaux, Michel Eyquem “nobility of the paper”—families like tThat Montaigne sought. Nothing suc - de Montaigne seemed destined for pub - Montaigne’s. In 1556, family connec - ceeded so well for Montaigne as failure. lic life. Michel’s great-grandfather, tions secured Montaigne a magistracy “My world is done for, my form is emp - having made a fortune in herrings, on a local court at Périgueux. A year tied,” he wrote shortly before his death in bought the Montaigne estate and noble later, he joined the parlement , or 1592. “I belong entirely to the past.” title. Michel’s father was the mayor of provincial court, at Bordeaux. His mar - Montaigne wrote this in the margins of Bordeaux. His mother, Antoinette de riage in 1560 to Françoise de La what scholars call the Bordeaux Copy, a Louppes, came from a merchant dynasty Chassaigne was a treaty between two print copy of the fifth edition of his of Sephardic Jewish extraction. He families. Marriage, Montaigne wrote, Essais . Published in Paris in 1588, the rarely mentions her in the Essais , but his was “a bargain,” made for “procre - fifth edition was the last to appear in father figures prominently. ation, alliances, wealth.” Only one of Montaigne’s lifetime. The 1588 edition Montaigne was raised to “live nobly,” their six daughters survived infancy. added a third book of 13 chapters and in standing as in thought. “In my youth I His wife does not appear much in the 600 revisions to the two books and 94 studied for ostentation,” he was to claim Essais , either. chapters of the first edition of 1580. This in one of his last essays, “later, for recre - Another “paper friendship” shaped expanded the text by about a third, and ation, never for gain.” But ostentation Montaigne’s political and literary the Essais from one volume to two. No sooner did the 1588 edition appear than Montaigne started to revise it. The Bordeaux Copy’s text is thick with cor - rections and underlinings, its margins IMAGE dense with expansions and explana - Between the sunset and the window shade, tions. The emendations are the work of a The maple leaves were quaking in the wind. man very intent on merging a literary form that will belong to the future—the I saw the shaken shadows that they made essay—with its author’s image. As if in fear—as if they were afraid That Montaigne is a philosophical That soon a palling dark was coming on, stance, not a historical personality. He And that their shadows, trembling and unpinned, stands for the Renaissance in France, Cast on translucency, would, in one black, and the philosopher in the character of Fade fast and disappear. Then they were gone Hamlet. He stands at the head of the In fact, and, I could see, would not be back, line of belles-lettres, and head and No matter what the wind did, come the dawn. Mr. Green, a fellow of the Royal Historical Society, teaches politics at Boston College. —LEN KRISAK SPONSORED BY National Review Institute 39 base_new_milliken-mar 22.qxd 1/31/2017 8:30 PM Page 2 base_new_milliken-mar 22.qxd 1/31/2017 8:27 PM Page 3 full page cabins_pdf_Layout 1 1/17/2017 11:34 AM Page 1 FIFTY EXCITING THINGS TO DO ON THE QUEEN MARY 2 "'8ICDIF=IJ1>FHC?)BJ$@DGIJ0GHCJ0IC2D=IJ7IA=E:IJHBJ National Review 2017 Trans-Atlantic Crossing Application Mail to: National Review Cruise, The Cruise and Vacation Authority, 1760 Powers Ferry Rd., Marietta, GA 30067 or Fax to 770-953-1228 Fill out application completely. Mail with deposit check or fax with credit-card information. One application per cabin. If you want more than one cabin, make copies of this application. For questions call The Cruise and Vacation Authority (TCAVA) at 888-283-8965. 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No provisions of this Agreement will be interpreted in favor of, or against, any of the parties hereto by reason of the extent to which any such party or its counsel participated in the drafting thereof or by reason of the extent to which any such provision is inconsistent with any prior draft hereof or thereof. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: I understand and accept the terms and conditions of booking this cruise package and acknowl - ______edge responsibility for myself and those sharing my accommodations (signed) SIGNATURE OF GUEST #1 DATE books_QXP-1127940387.qxp 2/14/2017 6:31 PM Page 44 BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS devel opment. Étienne de La Boétie was of Huguenots, as French Protestants cost. Like Henry III, he “affected and a little older and a lot more successful as were known. In 1571, the year of Mon - studied to make himself known by a lawyer. Montaigne knew La Boétie taigne’s ostensible retirement to his being unknowable.” In his handwritten first on paper, through La Boétie’s tower, Charles IX elevated him to the revisions to the 1588 edition, the politi - Discourse on Voluntary Servitude , a rank of knight of the Order of St. cal Montaigne disappears. A new and founding work of French political phi - Michael. Charles IX and his successor, final Montaigne emerges, the public losophy. They were friends for little Henry III (1574 –89), used the Order as a man who speaks as a private individual. more than three years, until La Boétie’s “political tool,” to “attract allies” and Machiavelli whispers in his prince’s death, probably from dysentery, in retain the loyalty of mid-level provincial ear. Francis Bacon, domesticating 1563. Montaigne idealized their friend - lords, such as Montaigne, who remained Montaigne’s essay to English, builds ship as a union of souls—“because it silent about the Saint Bartholomew’s sentences with the balance and force of was he, because it was I”—but Desan Day massacre of 1572 and about the mathematical formulae. But Bacon, identifies a creeping annexation, on mass executions of Protestants in while a better lawyer than Montaigne paper, of La Boétie by Montaigne. Bordeaux that followed. and a more successful politician, was a Aristotle, in his Nicomachean Ethics , Montaigne understood that, rather worse human being. Montaigne is a defined friendship in relation to utility, than ancient virtus , modern politics conversationalist, a free associator of pleasure, and virtue, with virtuous required Machiavelli’s virtú , amoral ideas offering an ideal of friendship. friendship the only true friendship. Mon - self-interest. One of the chief pleasures As Philippe Desan shows, this impli - taigne, in the late essay “Of the Useful of Desan’s biography derives from its citly radical exploration of his inner and the Honorable,” notes the decline of portrait of Montaigne as a practiqueur , a freedom makes him a perpetual com - noble values and the rise of the utility- negotiator exploiting the utility of his panion, for the same reason that Bacon minded, mercantile bourgeois. Desan friendships amid massacre and famine. never was. Montaigne understood that, rather than ancient virtus , modern politics required Machiavelli’s virtú , amoral self-interest . detects this drift in Montaigne’s relation - Both ambitious and cautious, he secured Erich Auerbach observed that Mon- ship to La Boétie. Montaigne, the erudite royalist regional patrons, the Foix- taigne created “a new profession,” the but unspectacular lawyer, felt pleasure at Gurson family, while stepping lightly man of letters, and “a new social cate - finding a brilliant companion; he ideal - between Charles IX and his Protestant gory,” the non-specialist “writer” who ized pleasure as a virtue. After La rival Henry of Navarre. It is, Desan addressed the mass of the laity, not the Boétie’s death, Montaigne edited his writes, “sometimes very difficult” to fel low specialists of the clergy. Auerbach, friend’s works. In the process, Montaigne determine whether Montaigne acted noting that the Protestant reformers had reworked a virtuous friendship for its as a negotiator in a series of civil wars earlier addressed them selves to the laity, utility. La Boétie became an asset to or as a “double agent in the service of identified the vernacular version of Cal- Montaigne’s literary persona and its a third political force,” the Foix- vin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion “commerce” with politics. Gurson family. (1536) as a forerunner of Mon taigne’s In 1568, Montaigne’s father died, and The first edition of the Essais offered essayist persona. he inherited the family estate and title. what Desan calls a “new approach to Montaigne adopted the literary style In February 1571, Montaigne, then 38, post-Machiavellian politics.” But Henry of the new religious personality, but retired to the tower of the family III, as his sister Margaret of Valois said, not its social forms. Formally and chateau with his books and started writ - was “of such a humor that he was politically, Montaigne remained a ing his Essais . In the inscription over offended not only by effects but also by Catholic. Yet the Essais do not discuss the bookshelves in his study, he ideas.” In the 1580s, Mon taigne’s polit - the theological principles for which described himself as “weary of the ical career foundered. In the 1588 edi - Europe’s Christians were slaughtering servitude of the court and of public tion of the Essais , he extricated himself one another. Mon taigne contemplates employments,” and as wishing to spend from the quicksand of religious poli - death like an ancient. Death is a philo - the rest of his life in “freedom, tranquil - tics. The obsolete politician reinvented sophical terminus, not the anteroom to ity, and leisure.” But the Essais , Desan himself as a private philosopher, a martyr heaven or purgatory. In a world of reli - argues, were intended as an “entrance to only to his kidney stones. gious war, the only predestination is politics” during the barbarism of the In a late essay, Montaigne criticized that all men shall die. Montaigne, like French Wars of Religion. Henry III for lacking “a middle posi - Hamlet, considers what a later age Geographically, Desan notes, Mon - tion”: The king was “always being car - called the “problem of commitment.” taigne lived “at the heart of the religious ried away from one extreme to the In this, as in much else, the Essais are discord of his time.” South western other.” Montaigne tacked between the “a mirror and critique of their time”— France contained a substantial minority extremes of a fanatical age, but at a and ours. 44 | www.nationalreview.com MARCH 6 , 2017 books_QXP-1127940387.qxp 2/14/2017 6:31 PM Page 45 Preserving The Magic DAVID P. DEAVEL & CATHERINE JACK DEAVEL HALL I go on? ” This is the question for all creators of magnifi - cent and popular series of ‘Stales. After his third Oz story, L. Frank Baum tried to write other works, some of which, including Queen Zixi of Ix , were mildly successful. But he was forced to keep coming back to the Oz franchise, owing to the failures of his other novels. Arthur Conan Doyle wrote the death of Sherlock Holmes in an 1893 story, freeing himself, he thought, from what his literary estate’s website calls “a fictional character that oppressed him and overshadowed what he considered his finer work.” By 1901, public outcry had brought more Holmes. What is the author of a beloved series to do? The later instances of Sherlock Holmes continued in quality. The later versions of Oz are, in the words of our Eddie Redmayne in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them seventh-grader, who has read all of them, “crummy, cheesy, and preachy.” They are also inconsistent in detail with Joanne “J. K.” Rowling said in 2007 She did branch out, with The Casual the other books. Perhaps Conan Doyle’s that Harry Potter and the Deathly Vacancy (2012), an adult novel that return to the well was reasonable, but Hallows , the seventh and final book, pub - would sell over a million copies and Baum’s was mistaken? lished that year, would be the end of her later be adapted as a three-part BBC What both authors did right was to best-selling Harry Potter series and that miniseries, and then, under the pseudo - turn to other artistic and commercial out - her future writing would not likely be in nym Robert Galbraith, the detective lets for their creations, particularly the the fantasy genre. Her books had already novel The Cuckoo’s Calling (2013), fea - stage. Doyle adapted “The Adventure of become a series of rather inconsistently turing private investigator Cormoran the Speckled Band” for the stage, and made but unbelievably profitable movies. Strike. Early reviews of the latter were Baum, a theater junkie who also acted, She, unlike Baum, actually has an amuse - solid, but this was no million-copy run— similarly adapted The Wonderful Wizard ment park for her creation, along with until a tweeter connected to Rowling’s of Oz and Ozma of Oz . The Patchwork seemingly endless tie-in toys and gadgets. legal team leaked the hypothesis that Girl of Oz was written with the stage in Rowling bruited the idea of a Potter ency - Galbraith was really Rowling. While mind but ultimately became a film. (The clopedia but claimed that it might take Rowling professed disappointment, the classic 1939 film version of The Wizard ten years. And though she had written a result was that the book took off. Two of Oz was made 20 years after Baum’s few extra Potter-themed books for chari - more Cormoran Strike novels have been death.) Baum even spoke of purchasing ty, they were supplements to the fic - published, and a seven-part BBC series property to create an Oz amusement tion— books that had “existed” in the based on the novels is planned for 2017. park, though there is no evidence that he fictional universe of the original series, Yet if branching out was successful, ever acted on the impulse. including Newt Scamander’s Fantastic moving on was perhaps a broom ride too Beasts and Where to Find Them (2001), far. By 2010, Rowling was dishing with Mr. Deavel, the editor of Logos magazine, is an Kennilworthy Whisp’s Quidditch through Oprah about what future Potter books assistant professor of Catholic studies at the . the Ages (2001), and the book of fairy might be like. In 2011, she launched S O R University of St. Thomas. Mrs. Deavel is an asso - B stories that plays such a decisive role in Pottermore, a website including new R E ciate professor of philosophy at the University of St. N R the series’ outcome, Tales of Beedle the writing in the vein of the encyclopedia A W Thomas. Bard (2008). she had discussed four years before. SPONSORED BY National Review Institute 45 books_QXP-1127940387.qxp 2/14/2017 6:31 PM Page 46 BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS And 2016 saw the arrival of two new No- Majs (the American equivalent of such investments will be possible with Potter-themed stories. One is Harry “Muggles”), particularly given the rise Newt and Tina. Potter and the Cursed Child —a play of the “Second Salemers” anti-witch Though Rowling didn’t write the actually written by theater and TV veteran movement. Newt Scamander, a world- script of Harry Potter and the Cursed Jack Thorne but based on a story co- traveling scholar and protector of rare Child , this eighth Potter story has an written by Rowling—which has had magical creatures, has arrived, purport - advantage in that it returns to the the - remarkable success in London, recently edly to obtain one creature but really to matic core of friendship and family that winning the Evening Standar d’s Best release another, a Thunderbird, into the was at the heart of the Potter books. The Play award for 2016. It’s now in dis - Arizona desert. Several magical crea - play follows Harry’s son, Albus Severus cussion for a 2018 run on Broadway, tures escape from his suitcase and, in the Potter, a teenaged black sheep who has according to the play’s website. The other midst of retrieving them, he accidentally befriended Scorpius, the son of Harry’s is Rowling’s first screenplay, Fantastic trades suitcases with a No-Maj named old nemesis Draco Malfoy. Albus longs Beasts and Where to Find Them , a pre - Jacob Kowalski. The rest of the story is to impress his father, now a middle- quel to the Potter series. With A-list actor a madcap 48-hour scramble in which aged auror who is yesterday’s hero. Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander, Newt and Tina Goldstein, a demoted When the aging father of Cedric Diggory, the film has certainly been a financial American auror (magical policewoman) who died in the fourth book, hears about success, making over $720 million try to retrieve the creatures while the a time-turner device confiscated by the worldwide by December 21 (its budget American magical community searches Ministry of Magic and demands that was $180 million), though the reviews for a young wizard whose magical Harry travel back in time to save his have been mixed at best. power has been suppressed, thus creat - son, Albus sees his chance. Albus and That it’s a moneymaker is hardly sur - ing an angry magical cloud called an Scorpius, egged on by Delphi, Mr. prising. Her books have sold more than “Obscurus” that has been wreaking Diggory’s caretaker and supposed niece, 450 million copies worldwide. Any - havoc on New York and now threatens steal the time-turner and end up bringing thing with her name associated with to kill the young wizard. One character about various alternative histories, in The true test of the wisdom of J. K. Rowling’s decision to go on should be not financial success but faithfulness to her literary universe . it—as the Cormoran Strike novels is revealed to be Albus Dumbledore’s one of which Voldemort wins. When show—will reach literary platinum. old opponent Grindelwald. Albus and Scorpius manage to reverse But the true test of the wisdom of This summary can’t do justice to all this time-travel disaster, Delphi, re- Rowling’s decision to go on should be the plot lines begun in the script, vealed to have a strange connection to not financial success but faithfulness to including two love stories and what Voldemort, strands the two back in her literary universe. We haven’t been promises to lie at the heart of the five- 1981, on the eve of Voldemort’s attack to London for the play, but one of us movie series—Grindelwald’s desire on Harry’s parents. Harry, Ginny, Ron, journeyed with four children to the for war on Muggles. This overstuffed Hermione, and Draco Malfoy—now multiplex for a screening of Fantastic introduction to a larger series results their ally—go back in time to foil Delphi Beasts . And anyway, to judge the sto - not only in an uninspiring plot but also and rescue Albus and Scorpius. ries as stories, we’ve been able to read in a cast of characters for most of While the time-travel plot has the them both. Rowling’s continuation of whom it is difficult to care, since we Swiss-cheese incoherence of all such the Potter universe via stage and screen know them so little. One of the forgot - stories, The Cursed Child has more of has been accompanied by releases of ten aspects of the original Potter books the deeper core animating the book the play and movie scripts—another bit is how much time the books took with series, and an appreciation of the moral of financial genius resulting in more the characters, in both ordinary and seriousness of our choices. The time- millions of books sold. Do her pub - extraordinary situations—the hun - travel element also allows a kind of lished scripts give evidence of the, dreds of pages that readers would nostalgia tour of the books, with re - well, magic that really was at the heart spend with them. Even the best of the turns to key scenes and deceased char - of the Potter books? films fell short of the charming detail acters. Both of Rowling’s new Potter Fantastic Beasts has the double disad - of Rowl ing’s world and the emotional projects are most successful when they vantage of being Rowling’s first screen - depth that came from access to Harry’s stick to the themes and character-driven play and the introductory story of a inner thoughts, but the films could approach of the original books. The reported five-film series based on the invoke readers’ connection to the challenge for Rowling in going on with original book. Its world is 1926 New source material. By the time the over - her Potter stories will be to continue in York, where the American magical com - all plot got going in the books, readers this direction, despite her shift to gen - munity takes a very hard line against had an investment in the characters. res less intimate than that of her origi - interactions between Wizards and It’s an open question as to whether nal books. 46 | www.nationalreview.com MARCH 6 , 2017 books_QXP-1127940387.qxp 2/14/2017 6:31 PM Page 47 Film Empire Builder ROSS DOUTHAT N “The Founder’s Paradox,” a late chapter in his unusual business book Zero to One , Peter Thiel dis - cusses the tendency of successful Itycoons to contain multitudes—to “oscil - late between sullen jerkiness and appeal - ing charisma,” to be dorkish outsiders one moment and consummate insiders the next, and to be adulated one moment and Michael Keaton in The Founder scapegoated soon after. In The Founder , John Lee Hancock’s The order comes from San Bernardino, restaurant, mortgaging himself to the smoothly ingratiating origin story about a Calif., and Kroc unfurls the map and hilt to put golden arches up outside little restaurant chain called McDonald’s, decides, why not, and drives there. What Chicago, and then fighting a two-front we get a fascinating variation on the he finds is a work of Fordist brilliance. In war to simultaneously ex pand the Thielian paradox. The movie’s subject a flashback that, rather cleverly, feels like brothers’ restaurant empire and per - is Ray Kroc (played energetically by its own biopic distilled, we watch the suade them to give him the flexibility he Michael Keaton), the man who put the McDonalds pursue their hamburger-stand needs to make everybody (but mostly golden arches in every town and strip mall dream, discover all the flaws involved in himself) rich. and rest stop in this fair land. And Kroc is, drive-in ordering, and finally achieve By the end of the story, it’s his restau - indeed, a creature of paradox: a lifelong their breakthrough—the assembly line of rant empire, thanks to the brothers’ failure who suddenly found astonishing hamburger preparation, the stripped- naïveté and some complicated corporate success, a gee-whiz salesman who turned down menu (just burgers and fries and maneuvering, in which a clever lawyer, out to be a ruthless corporate infighter, a milkshakes), the meal in a paper wrapper, Harry J. Sonneborn (B. J. Novak), plays man who sold McDonald’s as the most all- and “Welcome to McDonald’s!” a crucial role. Which makes Kroc a sort American and family-friendly of restau - Except that people don’t understand it: of villain, or at least an antihero, a trans - rants and eventually saw it become the The burger-flippers make a hash of the formation underlined by the fact that he epitome of soulless, mechanized fast food. process and have to be coached like the essentially steals his second wife (Linda But the title has a wink in it, because team in Hoosiers , the crowds come on Cardellini) as well, taking her from one Kroc was not actually the founder of opening night expecting a drive-in or a of the go-getters who signs up to run one McDonald’s. Or, perhaps more accurate - sit-down restaurant, and then the bright of his very first franchises. ly, there was no single founder: Instead, lights bring a plague of bugs, and our But the argument in The Founder , its Thiel’s paradox found expression not heroes think all is lost, they’re about to contribution to the literature on found - just in Kroc himself but in the relation - close the restaurant . . . and then a boy ings, is that a little villainy is a re - ship between the hustler and the men shows up and orders a burger and fries. quirement if you’re establishing an whose idea he borrowed, amplified, and And then another one shows up, and empire—and that when you start out with ultimately stole. another, and another, and in this little men of genius who lack that killer Those men were Mac and Dick Mc- movie-within-the-movie there is exulta - instinct, a great imperial success like Donald (the reliable character actor John tion, apotheosis, the American dream McDonald’s requires something like the Carroll Lynch and Nick Offerman, the imagined and then grasped. strange, ultimately unhappy dynamic Parks and Recreation star), a pair of But what the brothers have grasped between Kroc and the brothers McD. brothers touched by genius but lacking is a thriving business in a single mid- They are one part Wozniak to his Jobs, the ruthlessness required for billions and size city in southern California. It one part Remus to his Romulus: There billions sold. We see their genius through takes our man Kroc, heretofore a mid - would have been no golden arches with - Kroc’s eyes: He’s schlepping milkshake life Willy Loman who gets mocked at out them, but their idealism had to give makers around the Midwest, listening to the local country club his dignified wife way to his persistence for the empire to Y N A P motivational records in his underwear in (Laura Dern) insists they join, to grab be born. M O C cheap motels, when he gets an order for the idea and take it national—inking a If this sounds a little glib, a little like a N I E T S not one but six of his milkshake churn - franchising deal with the control-freak salesman’s self-justifying pitch—well, N I E W ers—six, when he can’t get the hamburger brothers in which they retain absolute spend two hours in the dark with Keaton’s E H T joints he’s hitting up to buy just one. control over the design of every single Kroc. See if he sells you on it. SPONSORED BY National Review Institute 47 backpage--READY_QXP-1127940387.qxp 2/15/2017 2:39 PM Page 48 Happy Warrior BY DAVID HARSANYI Sensitive Senate ERE , I feel compelled to rise in defense of later by beating him within an of inch of life with a walk - Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. ing cane. Or, more precisely, I rise to defend the ability This incident is what everyone seems to bring up when - H of any politician, even a squawking socialist ever congressional incivility is mentioned. Many consider demagogue, to have her say on the floor of Congress. it symbolic of the breakdown of discourse that made pol - In a widely covered recent kerfuffle, Warren was said to itics untenable and the Civil War inevitable. But perhaps have been “silenced” by Senate majority leader Mitch it wasn’t immoral to call out those who supported the idea McConnell after violating the institution’s rules of deco - of human chattel. And perhaps the nation got a sense of rum—igniting widespread rending of garments and a slew what civility meant to those who did. of catchy hashtags across the Twitterverse. We’ve got our own problems, of course, yet we’re Warren was in the midst of assailing fellow senator nowhere close to that kind of animosity. So it doesn’t hurt Jeff Sessions, the president’s nominee for attorney gen - to be skeptical about institutions that arbitrarily use sweep - eral, when she was told to knock it off. The former reg - ing rules regarding “civility” to police rhetoric. To Senator ulatory czarina persisted and continued reading a Rubio, I say that many autocrats enact laws of civility to Coretta Scott King letter likening Sessions to a modern- insulate the powerful from censure, as well. day Bull Connor. To put an end to it, McConnell invoked You may recall, for instance, that when the Tea Party the super-secret Rule 19, which prohibits members from was first gaining political currency in Washington and the taking to the floor and “directly or indirectly by any nation was immersed in a conversation about civility, form of words imput[ing] to another Senator or to other House Democrats sent out copies of Section 370 of the Senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecom - House Rules and Manual to remind the GOP that many ing of a Senator.” topics were off the table. My question: Why should the feelings of the powerful Referring to officials as “our half-baked nitwits han - be spared in pursuit of the truth? What if a senator has dling foreign affairs” (no, I didn’t make that up), or to gov - engaged in conduct unworthy or unbecoming of his ernment as “something hated, something oppressive,” or office? To make my point and avoid impugning the char - to the presidential message as a “disgrace to the country,” acter of any sitting elected official, I’ll use a fictitious or to alleged “sexual misconduct on the president’s part” politician . . . let’s call this person “Chris Murphy, the junior was all permitted. United States senator from the State of Connecticut.” What On the other hand, Democrats had forbidden describing if “Chris Murphy” were nothing more than an authoritar - the president’s veto of a bill as “cowardly” and charging ian popinjay whose entire career was a thinly veiled that the president was “intellectually dishonest” or a “liar” effort to weaken the document he’d sworn to protect? or a “hypocrite.” Isn’t it then the duty of his peers to impute this unworthy That puts some potentially important topics off limits. or unbecoming motive to him? In his Manual of Parliamentary Practice for the Use of Republicans argue that maintaining civility is a test of the Senate of the United States , Thomas Jefferson asks national character and a hallmark of a durable republic. members to avoid “hissing, coughing, spitting, speaking or “Turn on the news and watch these parliaments around whispering” while others members are speaking. No the world where people throw chairs at each other, and standing up or interrupting. No walking across the cham - punches, and ask yourself how does that make you feel ber or any other discourteous action that might distract the about those countries?” Republican Marco Rubio person addressing the Senate body. asked. “It doesn’t give you a lot of confidence about So don’t spit on your coworkers or yell “You lie!” as those countries.” they’re giving a speech. But do not regulate speech. We Well, it depends. can’t be so brittle a citizenry that we’re unable to handle a In 1856, anti-slavery Republican Charles Sumner of raucous debate regarding the future of the country—espe - Massachusetts famously accused Stephen Douglas of cially on the floor of our lawmaking institutions. Illinois of being a “noisome, squat, and nameless ani - None of this is to say that Sessions is a racist. It is to mal.” Of North Carolina’s Andrew Butler, who was suf - argue that Sessions is a big boy and can handle criticism. fering a speech impediment because of a stroke, Sumner Senators are, of course, free to institute any rules of deco - said, “He cannot open his mouth but out there flies a rum they please. Norms of courteousness make for healthy blunder.” No one stopped the irascible lawmaker from debate and a functioning legislative branch. Still, attempts deploying these attacks. Well, I mean until Preston to quiet, subdue, and bring “civility” to America have Brooks, a Demo cratic representative from South almost always been incognito attempts to chill speech, Carolina and relative of Butler’s, stopped him two days undermine debate, and protect the powerful from criti - cism. This is what worries me. Even when it comes to Mr. Harsanyi is a senior editor of the Federalist . squawking socialist demagogues. 48 | www.nationalreview.com MARCH 6 , 2017 base_new_milliken-mar 22.qxd 2/14/2017 7:52 PM Page 1 world's largest ga f the ther s o ing ar o e f Y f r e 0 e 1 m g i n t n i d a r s b l e e C th ANNIVERSARY102007-2017 AT THE EXPLORING THE NEW CROSSROADSFRONTIERS OF FREEDOM Mock Trial Judge Lisa Kennedy "CAPTAIN OF FREE ENTERPRISE" Fox Business News JULY 19-22 2017 WILLIAMREGULAR REGISTRATION SHATNER RATE THE REGULAR RATE USE CODE REVIEW - LIMITED TO 100 ATTENDEES! 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