20160613_cover61404-postal.qxd 5/24/2016 8:32 PM Page 1

June 13, 2016 $4.99

KEVIN D. WILLIAMSONILLIAMSON JOHN J. MILLERILLER The Transgender Culture War Runs for President

Y U R R A Y THE CASE L A S M THE CASE G FORFOR BREXITBREXITD O U www.nationalreview.com base_new_milliken-mar 22.qxd 5/23/2016 11:39 AM Page 2

SPECIAL ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE 2016 DISTRIBUTION NOTICE:

NTRYING TO KEEP UP: Rapid shipments of heavy packages containing Vault Bricks loaded with valuable .999 solid U.S. State Silver Bars are flowing around the clock from the private vaults of the Lincoln Treasury to U.S. State residents who call 1-866-964-2953 EXT. FMS922 to beat the 7-day deadline. U.S. State Silver Bars go to residents in 49 states U.S. residents who find their state listed below in bold get first dibs at just the $57 minimum set for state residents while all non state residents must pay $134, if any silver bars remain

AL AK AZ AR CA CO CT DE FL GA HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VA WA WV WI WY NATIONWIDE – The phone also getting free shipping and heard yet, highly collectible U.S. State Silver Bars. lines are ringing off the hook. free handling. That’s a real U.S. State Silver Bars are “These valuable U.S. State That’s because U.S. State steal because all other state now being handed over at just Silver Bars are impossible to Silver Bars sealed away in residents must pay over six the state minimum set by the get at banks, credit unions or State Vault Bricks are being hundred dollars for each State Lincoln Treasury to residents the U.S. Mint. In fact, they’re handed over to U.S. residents Vault Brick. in 49 states who beat the of- only being handed over at at just the state minimum set Just a few weeks ago, no- fer deadline, which is why I state minimum set by the Lin- by the Lincoln Treasury for body knew that the only U.S. pushed for this announce- coln Treasury to U.S. resi- the next 7 days. State Silver Bars locked away ment to be widely advertised,” dents who call the Toll Free This is not a misprint. For in the private vaults of the Lin- said Mary Ellen Withrow, the Hotline before the deadline the next 7 days residents who coln Treasury would be allo- emeritus 40th Treasurer of ends seven days from today’s find their state on the Distri- cated to the Federated Mint the United States of America. publication date”, said Timothy bution List above in bold are for a limited release to resi- “These bars are solid .999 J. Shissler, Executive Director getting State Sil- dents in 49 states. Every sin- pure fine silver and will al- of Vault Operations at the pri- ver Bars at just the state min- gle one of the 50 U.S. State Sil- ways be a valuable precious vate Lincoln Treasury. imum of $57 set by the Lin- ver Bars are date numbered metal which is why everyone is To make it fair, special Toll coln Treasury. That’s why in the order they ratified the snapping up as many as they Free Overflow Hotlines have everyone should be taking full Constitution and were admit- can before they’re all gone,” been set up to ensure all resi- Vault Bricks loaded with five ted into the Union beginning Withrow said. dents have an equal chance to U.S. State Silver Bars before in the late 1700s. There’s one thing Withrow get them. they’re all gone. “As Executive Advisor to wants to make very clear. Rapid shipments to state res- And here’s the best part. the Lincoln Treasury I get State residents only have sev- idents are scheduled to begin Every state resident who gets paid to deliver breaking news. en days to call the Toll Free at least two Vault Bricks is So, for anyone who hasn’t Order Hotlines to get the (Continued on next page) P7027A OF19613R-1 base_new_milliken-mar 22.qxd 5/23/2016 11:40 AM Page 3

SPECIAL ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE (Continued from previous page) with the first calls being accept- ed at precisely 8:30am today. WEIGHTS AND DATE NUMBERED “We’re bracing for all the MEASURES FULL IN WHICH THE calls and doing everything we TROY OUNCE SOLID STATE RATIFIED THE .999 FINE SILVER CONSTITUTION AND can to make sure no one gets WAS ADMITTED left out, but the U.S. State Sil- INTO UNION ver Bars are only being hand- ed over at just the state resi- BACK dent minimum set by the Lin- coln Treasury for the next FRONT seven days or until they’re all gone, whichever comes first. For now, residents can get the U.S. State Silver Bars at just the state minimum set by the Lincoln Treasury as long as they call before the order dead- CERTIFIED SOLID SILVER PRECIOUS ALL 49 STATES line ends,” confirmed Shissler. METAL LISTED TO THE LEFT “With so many state resi- AVAILABLE. 1 STATE dents trying to get these U.S. ALREADY SOLD OUT. State Silver Bars, lines are busy so keep trying. All calls will be COURTESY: LINCOLN TREASURY answered,” Shissler said. N PHOTO ENLARGEMENT SHOWS ENGRAVING DETAIL

RESIDENTS IN 49 STATES: COVER JUST $57 STATE MINIMUM Call 1-866-964-2953 EXT. FMS922 beginning at 8:30am 1. If all lines are busy call this special toll free overflow hotline: 1-866-964-3394 EXT. FMS922 2. Residents who find their state on the Distribution List on the left in bold and beat the deadline are authorized to get individual State Silver Bars at just state minimum of $57 set by the Lincoln Treasury. That’s why everyone should be taking full Vault Bricks loaded with five State Silver Bars before they’re all gone. And here’s the best part. Every state resident who gets at least two Vault Bricks is also getting free shipping and free handling. That’s a real steal because all other state residents must pay over six hundred dollars for each State Vault Brick.

ALL OTHER STATE RESIDENTS: MUST REMIT $134 PER STATE SILVER BAR 1. No State Silver Bars will be issued to any resident living outside of the 49 states listed to the left in bold at state resident minimum set by the Lincoln Treasury. 2. If you are a U.S. resident living outside of the 49 states listed to the left in bold you are required to pay $134 for each State Silver Bar for a total of six hundred seventy dollars plus shipping and handling for each sealed State Vault Brick loaded with five U.S. State Silver Bars. This same offer may be made at a later date or in a different geographic location. Non-state residents call: 1-877-263-3007 EXT. FMS922

FEDERATED MINT, LLC AND LINCOLN TREASURY, LLC ARE NOT AFFILIATED WITH THE U.S. GOVERNMENT, A BANK OR ANY GOVERNMENT AGENCY. IF FOR ANY REASON WITHIN 30 DAYS FROM SHIPMENT YOU ARE DISSATISFIED, RETURN THE PRODUCT FOR A REFUND LESS SHIPPING AND RETURN POSTAGE. DUE TO THE FLUCTUATING PRICE IN THE WORLD GOLD AND SILVER TRADES, PRICES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE. THIS SAME OFFER MAY BE MADE AVAILABLE AT A LATER DATE OR IN A DIFFERENT GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION. FL & OH RESIDENTS ADD 6% . NO SHIPMENTS TO MN. FEDERATED MINT 7600 SUPREME AVE. NW, NORTH CAN- TON, OH 44720 ©2016 LINCOLN TREASURY P7027A OF19613R-1

NA SNEAK PEAK INSIDE SILVER VAULT BRICKS: Pictured left reveals for the very first time the valuable .999 pure fine silver bars inside each State Silver Vault Brick. Pictured right are the State Silver Vault Bricks containing the only U.S. State Silver Bars known to exist with the double forged state proclamation. Residents who find their state listed to the left in bold are authorized to get individual State Silver Bars at just $57 state resident minimum set by the Lincoln Treasury. That’s why everyone should be taking full Vault Bricks loaded with five State Silver Bars before they’re all gone. And here’s the best part. Every state resident who gets at least two Vault Bricks is also getting free shipping and free handling. That’s a real steal be- cause all other state residents must pay over six hundred dollars for each State Vault Brick. TOC_QXP-1127940144.qxp 5/25/2016 2:25 PM Page 1

BOOKS, ARTS Contents & MANNERS 37 BEYOND THE LANGUAGE OF JUNE 13, 2016 | VOLUME LXVIII, NO. 10 | www.nationalreview.com THE LIVING M. D. Aeschliman reviews The Poems of T. S. Eliot: ON THE COVER Page 26 The Annotated Text, edited by Exit Britain? Christopher Ricks and Jim McCue. 39 CRUMBS OF THE UPPER Today, with a vote on CRUST Britain’s remaining in or Fred Siegel reviews Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to leaving the EU taking the Party of the People?, place on June 23, Britain’s by Thomas Frank, I Know Best: How Moral Narcissism Is Euroskeptics are not just Destroying Our Republic, If It back in the mainstream Hasn’t Already, by Roger L. Simon, and The Closing of the Liberal but at the helm of the Mind: How Groupthink and Intolerance Define the Left, most important decision by Kim R. Holmes. facing the country in 42 THE REGRESSIVE decades. Indeed, they PROGRESSIVES may soon be running the Steven F. Hayward reviews Illiberal R eformers: Race, country. Douglas Murray Eugenics, and American Economics in the Progressive COVER: THOMAS REIS Era, by Thomas C. Leonard.

ARTICLES 44 THE HUBBY STATE Jessica Gavora reviews All the 18 THE BETTER JACKSONS OF TRUMP’S NATURE by Nicholas M. Gallagher Single Ladies: Unmarried He has tapped into a tradition that has thankfully grown more inclusive. Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation, 21 TO VOTE FOR TRUMP? by Ramesh Ponnuru by Rebecca Traister. There are different reasonable answers. 46 BLACK AND WHITE AND 22 TRUMP’S GLOBAL VIEW by John O’Sullivan READ: ALL OVER The pluses and minuses of his big foreign-policy speech. Richard Brookhiser can’t find a newsstand. 24 THE SHOCK OF DISAFFILIATION by Jay Nordlinger On leaving the Republican party. 47 FILM: YOUTHFUL LONGINGS Ross Douthat reviews Brooklyn and Sing Street. FEATURES SECTIONS 26 EXIT BRITAIN? by Douglas Murray Britons are considering whether to assert their sovereignty in leaving the EU. 4 Letters to the Editor THE TRANSGENDER CULTURE WAR by Kevin D. Williamson 6 The Week 30 Athwart ...... James Lileks Accommodation will never be enough. 35 36 The Long View ...... Rob Long 32 GARY JOHNSON ASKS YOU TO GOOGLE HIM by John J. Miller 43 Poetry ...... A. M. Juster The leading Libertarian candidate for president sees a moment to seize. 48 Happy Warrior ...... Daniel Foster

NATIONAL REVIEW (ISSN: 0028-0038) is published bi-weekly, except for the first issue in January, by N ATIONAL REVIEW, Inc., at 215 Lexington Avenue, , N.Y. 10016. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y., and additional mailing offices. © , Inc., 2016. Address all editorial mail, manuscripts, letters to the editor, etc., to Editorial Dept., N ATIONAL REVIEW, 215 Lexington Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016. Address all subscription mail orders, changes of address, undeliverable copies, etc., to NATIONALREVIEW, Circulation Dept., P. O. Box 433015, Palm Coast, Fla. 32143-3015; phone, 386-246-0118, Monday–Friday, 8:00A.M . to 10:30 P.M. Eastern time. Adjustment requests should be accompanied by a current mailing label or facsimile. Direct classified advertising inquiries to: Classifieds Dept., NATIONALREVIEW, 215 Lexington Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016 or call 212-679- 7330. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to N ATIONAL REVIEW, Circulation Dept., P. O. Box 433015, Palm Coast, Fla. 32143-3015. Printed in the U.S.A. RATES: $59.00 a year (24 issues). Add $21.50 for and other foreign subscriptions, per year. (All payments in U.S. currency.) The editors cannot be responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or artwork unless return postage or, better, a stamped, self-addressed envelope is enclosed. Opinions expressed in signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of the editors. base_new_milliken-mar 22.qxd 5/23/2016 11:33 AM Page 1

Featured SPeakers: BENEFITS: · · Katie Pavlich · · Lt Colonel » Improve your understanding of conservative ideas · Conor Burns, MP · Speaker » Meet prominent conservative leaders and be inspired · David French · Rachel Campos Duffy by their stories · Dr. Burt Folsom » Adopt techniques to improve your club’s reach on campus www.yaf.org » Learn ways to promote conservative principles to your classmates » Meet like-minded friends from across the country » Receive invaluable resources you can use to advance freedom » And much more!

For more about Young America’s Foundation’s programs, please contact Conference Director, Jolie Ballantyne at [email protected], call (800) USA-1776 or visit www.yaf.org. letters_QXP-1127940387.qxp 5/25/2016 2:18 PM Page 4 Letters

JUNE 13 ISSUE; PRINTED MAY 26

EDITOR Richard Lowry Free Men and 401(k)s Senior Editors Richard Brookhiser / / Jay Nordlinger Ramesh Ponnuru / David Pryce-Jones Managing Editor Jason Lee Steorts There are three ways to get a man to do something. You can coerce him, you Literary Editor Michael Potemra Vice President, Editorial Operations Christopher McEvoy can fool him, or you can talk him into it. The first treats him as a serf, the second Washington Editor Eliana Johnson treats him as a sucker, and only the third treats him as a free man. Andrew Executive Editor Reihan Salam Roving Correspondent Kevin D. Williamson Biggs’s proposal (“Entitlement Reform after Trump,” May 23) to make 401(k) National Correspondent John J. Miller Senior Political Correspondent Jim Geraghty enrollment automatic upon hiring represents the second. Chief Political Correspondent Tim Alberta Who should properly decide whether an employee should open a 401(k) Art Director Luba Kolomytseva Deputy Managing Editors account and how much he should pay into it? If you trust him enough to make Nicholas Frankovich / Fred Schwarz Production Editor Katie Hosmer his own decisions about his money, you present his choices and let him decide. Assistant to the Editor Rachel Ogden Biggs would make the decision for him and hide it in the paperwork, just like Research Associate Alessandra Trouwborst the car dealer who signs you up automatically for the extended warranty “for Contributing Editors Shannen Coffin / Ross Douthat / Daniel Foster your own protection.” Roman Genn / Arthur L. Herman / Lawrence Kudlow It is good to save for retirement, but it is not the only good. When you take Mark R. Levin / Yuval Levin / Rob Long Mario Loyola / Jim Manzi / Andrew C. McCarthy money out of an employee’s paycheck without his consent to contribute to a Kate O’Beirne / Andrew Stuttaford / Robert VerBruggen 401(k), you’re really ordering him to spend less on anything else. That could NATIONALREVIEWONLINE be food, clothing, shelter, health care, debt payoff, education, charity, or gifts Managing Editors Katherine Connell / Edward John Craig Deputy Managing Editor Nat Brown for his family. You can claim to be entitled to do this because you are wiser National-Affairs Columnist John Fund Staff Writers Charles C. W. Cooke / David French than he, but the fact is that you get to do it because as his employer you have Senior Political Reporter Alexis Levinson power over him. The brokerage house and the insurance company don’t get Political Reporter Brendan Bordelon Reporter Ka therine Timpf to sign him up automatically for anything, do they? Not unless he is one of Associate Editors Molly Powell / Nick Tell Digital Director Ericka Anderson their employees. Assistant Editor Mark Antonio Wright If automatic 401(k) enrollment is wise and good, then I suggest that the circu- Technical Services Russell Jenkins Web Editorial Assistant Grant DeArmitt lation department of NATIONAL REVIEW apply the same benevolent principle. Web Developer Wendy Weihs Web Producer Scott McKim They should add all Americans to their subscription list and start billing them all. If they don’t pay, send their debts to collection agencies and start the EDITORS- AT- LARGE Linda Bridges / Kathryn Jean Lopez / John O’Sullivan collections harassment. They have no right to complain, since you’re doing it for their own good. NATIONALREVIEWINSTITUTE BUCKLEYFELLOWSINPOLITICALJOURNALISM Jack Olson Elaina Plott / Ian Tuttle Via e-mail Contributors Hadley Arkes / James Bowman / Eliot A. Cohen Dinesh D’Souza / Chester E. Finn Jr. / Neal B. Freeman ANDREW BIGGS RESPONDS: Any employer who offers a voluntary retirement plan James Gardner / David Gelernter / George Gilder Jeffrey Hart / Kevin A. Hassett / Charles R. Kesler must choose how to treat who make no active decision with regard David Klinghoffer / Anthony Lejeune / D. Keith Mano Michael Novak / Alan Reynolds / Tracy Lee Simmons to participation. Research since the late 1990s has found that a sizable number Terry Teachout / Vin Weber of employees—perhaps one-third—will follow the default policy: If the default Chief Financial Officer James X. Kilbridge Accounting Manager Galina Veygman is to participate, they will happily do so. If the default is not to participate, many Accountant Lyudmila Bolotinskaya employees will not take part. This group of non-choosers is predominantly Business Services Alex Batey Circulation Manager Jason Ng young, low-income, and minority, groups that conservatives presumably wish Advertising Director Jim Fowler to introduce to personal wealth-building and the role that capital and financial Advertising Manager Kevin Longstreet markets play in a vibrant economy. Assistant to the Publisher Brooke Rogers It’s not clear that automatic enrollment in 401(k)s is objectionable even from Director of Revenue Erik Netcher a purely libertarian perspective. After all, employees are free to withdraw if they PUBLISHERCHAIRMAN choose. From a broader perspective, automatic 401(k) enrollment has the poten- Jack Fowler John Hillen tial to significantly increase wealth, particularly for low earners who otherwise FOUNDER William F. Buckley Jr. might not save. Increased personal wealth-building will not only improve retire- ment income security but also hold off progressive efforts, captained by Bernie PATRONSANDBENEFACTORS Robert Agostinelli Sanders and Elizabeth Warren but now accepted by , to expand Mr. and Mrs. Michael Conway Mark and Mary Davis Social Security and establish state-government-run supplementary retirement Virginia James Christopher M. Lantrip plans to take the place of 401(k)s. Brian and Deborah Murdock Peter J. Travers

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

4 | www.nationalreview.com JUNE 1 3 , 2 0 1 6 base_new_milliken-mar 22.qxd 5/24/2016 3:40 PM Page 1

Narrated by Jim Caviezel

A powerful new lm now airing nationwide on public television stations

Visit JP2film.com for details week_QXP-1127940387.qxp 5/25/2016 2:11 PM Page 6 The Week

n Perhaps there’s some sort of battle of the sexes playing out in the Sanders household: She bankrupted one college, and now he proposes bankrupting them all.

n Following his victory in the nomination fight, Trump shot up in several polls, some of which showed him slightly ahead of Clinton. The vast majority of Republicans are supporting him over her even as they continue to harbor serio us reserva- tions about him. Roughly half, for example, do not regard him as a good representative of Republican values. His fans, and even neutral observers, are jumping to the conclusion that this will be a competitive race, contrary to those who said he had no hope. That conclusion could end up being right. But it is too early to say, since Democrats remain split between Clinton and Sanders. –ABC poll, for example, had Trump up two points. But that’s in part because he is winning 24 percent of liberals. Some of those liberals are opposing her because they are caught up in the heat of the Sanders cam- paign; a lot of them are likely to come around once she wins the nomination. The polls show both of these candidates have serious vulnerabilities, with neither being trusted by the vot- ers—which shows, at least, that the electorate still has a reser- voir of good sense.

n Presumptive nominee has rethought his views on taxes, Muslim immigration, and the minimum wage. Trump’s tax plan, issued in September, proposed cuts that threatened to add trillions to the deficit. After clinching the nomination, on his list confirmed would require a titanic struggle with the Trump said the taxes of the wealthy would “go up,” then said Democrats, who are intensely interested in the composition of the they would go up only above his previously proposed cuts. In federal judiciary. The most important reassurance Trump could December, Trump called for a “total and complete,” albeit tem- give conservatives would be to say that on this issue, he will resist porary, shutdown on Muslims’ entering the U.S. Now he says the temptation to show his mastery of the art of the deal. “it hasn’t been called for yet, nobody’s done it, this is just a suggestion.” At a Republican debate in November, he said the n Single-issue politics is not like the decathlon: You don’t care federal minimum wage had to be left “where it is,” though in about the long jump or the shot put if your one concern is the 100 December he tweeted, “Wages in are [sic] country are too low” meters. The NRA’s concern is gun rights, not ISIS or the econ- and in May said he was “open to doing something with it.” Bar ry omy. Donald Trump, after years of calling for , now Goldwater promised a choice, not an echo. Trump promises says he opposes it. Hillary Clinton, after years of calling for gun choices, among his positions. control, continues to call for gun control. Endorsing Trump was always in the cards. The speed with which the NRA gave its n It is yet another mark of how unusual a campaign Trump has blessing raises eyebrows, however. Recent NRA-backed can- run that he should be courting conservatives by talking about didates—, John McCain, George W. Bush in judicial appointments only after he has already sewn up the nom- 2004—did not get the nod until October. One would think that ination. He released a list of respected conservative judges he conservative organizations, single- and multiple-issue, would might appoint to the Supreme Court if given the chance—al - demand strong signs of good intentions from a newcomer. The though he then clarified that he might add to that list. The list NRA did not ask for much; may they not be repaid in kind. pleased conservatives, but did not dispel all doubts. Trump has not, after all, shown much interest in constitutional limits on n Campaigning in , Hillary Clinton pledged to put government, religious , , or the separation of Bill “in charge of revitalizing the economy, because you powers, and when he has mentioned constitutional issues such know he knows how to do it”—especially, she went on, “in as free speech and property rights, he has come down on the op- places like coal country and inner cities.” There are three ROMAN GENN po site side from most conservatives. Getting any of the people things to say about this. 1) Hillary was flailing in Kentucky,

6 | www.nationalreview.com JUNE 1 3 , 2 0 1 6 base_new_milliken-mar 22.qxd 5/23/2016 11:20 AM Page 1

ContractsNo

ALL-NEW Bigger Buttons FREE Car “My friends all hate their Charger Say good-bye to everythingcell phones… you hate about cell phones. I love Say hello mine!” to the ALL-NEW Jitterbug Flip.

Monthly Plan $14.99/mo $19.99/mo Here’s why.Monthly Minutes “Cell phones have gotten so small, 200 600 I can barely® dial mine.” Not the new Operator Assistance 24/7 24/7 Jitterbug Flip. It features a larger keypad Long Distance Calls No add’l charge No add’l charge for easier dialing. It even has a larger Voice Dial FREE FREE display so you can actually see it. Nationwide Coverage YES YES

1 “I had to get my son to program it.” Friendly Return Policy 30 days 30 days Your Jitterbug Flip set-up process is simple. We’ll even program it with your favorite numbers. More minute plans available. Ask your Jitterbug expert for details.

“I tried my sister’s cell phone… “I’d like a cell phone to use in an emergency, but I don’t I couldn’t hear it.” The Jitterbug Flip want a high monthly bill.” The Jitterbug Flip has a plan to fit is designed with a powerful speaker and your needs… and your budget. is hearing aid compatible. Plus, there’s an adjustable volume control. “Many phones have features that are rarely needed and hard to use!” The “I don’t need stock quotes, Internet Jitterbug Flip contains easy-to-use features sites or games on my phone. I just want that are meaningful to you. A newly to talk with my family and friends.” Life designed built-in camera makes it easy is complicated enough… The Jitterbug Flip 5Star Enabled and fun for you to capture and share your is simple. favorite memories. And a new flashlight with a built-in magnifier helps you see in 12:45PMon Jun 13 “What if I don’t remember a number?” Friendly, dimly lit areas, the Jitterbug Flip has all the helpful Operators are available 24 hours a day and features you need. will even greet you by name when you call. Enough talk. Isn’t it time you found out “My cell phone company wants to lock me in more about the cell phone that’s changing a two-year contract!” Not with the Jitterbug Flip. all the rules? Call now, Jitterbug product There are no contracts to sign and no penalty if you experts are standing by. discontinue your service. Available in Red and Graphite.

and receive a Order now NEWCall toll-free Jitterbug to get your Flip Jitterbug Cell Phone Flip. for your Jitterbug Flip – Please mention promotional code FREE Car Charger 103387. a $25 value. Call now! www.jitterbugdirect.com

1-888-778-1869 We proudly accept the following credit cards: 47665

IMPORTANT1 CONSUMER INFORMATION: Jitterbug is owned by GreatCall, Inc. Your invoices will come from GreatCall. Plans and Services require purchase of a Jitterbug phone and a one-time setup fee of $35. Monthly fees do not include government taxes or assessment surcharges and are subject to change. Coverage is not available everywhere. 5Star or 9-1-1 calls can only be made when cellular service is available. We will refund the full price of the Jitterbug phone and the activation fee (or setup fee) if it is returned within 30 days of purchase in like-new condition. We will also refund your first monthly service charge if you have less than 30 minutes of usage. If you have more than 30 minutes of usage, a per minute charge of 35 cents will be deducted from your refund for each minute over 30 minutes. You will be charged a $10 restocking fee. The shipping charges are not refundable. There are no additional fees to call GreatCall’s U.S.-based customer service. However, for calls to a GreatCall Operator in which a service is completed, you will be charged 99 cents per call, and minutes will be deducted from your monthly rate plan balance equal to the length of the call and any call connected by the Operator. Jitterbug and GreatCall are registered trademarks of GreatCall, Inc. ©2016 GreatCall, Inc. ©2016 firstSTREET for Boomers and Beyond, Inc. week_QXP-1127940387.qxp 5/25/2016 2:11 PM Page 8

THE WEEK

after promising in March “to put a lot of coal miners . . . out and other religious organizations would have preferred a ruling of business.” By clinging to Bill’s pants, she won narrowly. on the merits that completely vindicated their religious-liberty 2) The royalization of the presidency proceeds apace. claims, but the Court is validating their core contention: It is Siblings, spouses, children all sail to power with the prince. not necessary to make them violate their consciences, and Bill as president put his wife in charge of health care; now therefore it is necessary not to. Hillary will put her husband in charge of the economy. 3) But of course, no president—or spouse—can singlehandedly n In November 2014, President Obama granted effective am - revitalize the economy. A president proposes policies, then nes ty to millions of illegal aliens through executive actions, works with or against Congress; meanwhile, fate, and the an act he had previously acknowledged was beyond his au - decisions of hundreds of millions of economic actors, here thor ity. A few months later, after 26 states led by sued and abroad, play their parts. A panicky pol throws her mate to halt these orders, lawyers in the Department of Justice com- into an assignment that only our childishness would confer pounded the president’s bad faith by lying to a federal judge on her: American politics, 2016. about how they were being carried out. Their stunning mis- conduct was exposed in an excoriating 28-page ruling in May n As P. J. O’Rourke might put it: If you think college is ex - by Judge Andrew Hanen sanctioning them for multiple pensive now, wait until it’s free. Senator , who breaches of eth ics. The lawyers had assured Hanen in early is tormenting Mrs. Clinton in the Democratic presidential pri- 2015 that no steps were yet being taken to implement the pro- mary, has promised to eliminate tuition at public universities. gram, even as the Department of Homeland Security went His math on these things is a little fuzzy, which seems to be a ahead and issued de por ta tion relief to 100,000 aliens. Called problem in the Sanders household: His wife, Jane, was the to account for this deception, the DOJ suggested that its (very well-paid) president of Burlington College when she lawyers “lost focus on the fact,” or that perhaps the “fact re - embarked on an ambitious plan of real-estate acquisition, to ceded in memory or awareness.” Judge Hanen was unim- no obvious end: What use the school’s 200 students would pressed by this explanation and, among other remedies, called make of an additional 30 acres of land (the University of Tex as on Attorney General Loretta Lynch to create a “comprehen- has 40,000 undergraduate students on a 40-acre main campus) sive plan” to ensure that DOJ lawyers tell the truth. Step One was not en tirely clear. She secured a $10 million loan to under- would be a more honest accounting of how they came to with- write these shenanigans, with assurances that she already had hold facts in this case. millions of dollars in hard fundraising commitments to repay it. She didn’t have them, Burlington College didn’t repay its n The Transportation Security Administration, purveyor of debts, and the financially ruined institution is closing its tedious airport-security theater, has always been a goat rodeo, doors—after paying Mrs. Class War more than $200,000 in albeit a very slow-moving, sedate goat rodeo. It has always been severance. Add in a dacha in Sochi and a ZiL limo and this will inefficient, but its recent catastrophic slowdown is of a different be a very, very familiar story. order and may in fact be an intentional work action to lobby for higher pay and larger budgets. The usual Washington shadow n Not a sparrow falls without the Lord’s taking notice, and theater is unfolding here: TSA security chief Kelly Hoggan has there is nothing too trivial for the lordly Obama administra- been “fired,” which in Washington means reassigned. Investi ga - tion to stick its imperial snout into, including the management tors are looking into allegations that TSA have of kindergarten toilets, which are now a federal civil-rights been retaliated against with punitive demotions. In Chicago, air- battleground. The Department of Education has sent a “Dear port workers rolled out cots—cots!—for hundreds of passengers Colleague” letter to the nation’s public schools informing them stranded by the TSA’s inability or refusal to process them in time that, so far as the federal police powers are concerned, students to meet their flights, even though most of them had arrived hours must be permitted to use whichever facilities are “consistent early. TSA boss Peter Neffenger needs to go, by which we mean with their gender identity.” Some young people experience fired the way they fire people in the private sector. genuine psychological distress over their sexual identity. The most common practice is for schools to stick with whatever n Senator Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) sex is listed on a student’s official identification, with the un - has emerged as the leading oppo- derstanding that it might change during the pursuit of a radical nent of a bipartisan bill to reduce realignment of sexual identity. There is no good reason to sentences for federal crimes. He think a federal solution was required here, or that statute pro- argues that “we have an under- vided for one. incarceration prob lem” rather than an over-incarceration prob- n The Little Sisters of the Poor won an encouraging victory lem, because law enforcement at the Supreme Court. The mainstream media claimed that identifies and arrests a likely per- the court “punted” because it didn’t decide the case on the petrator only in a minority of merits, and journalists ignored the underlying legal and prac- crimes. His argument is a non tical realities. The Sisters came to the court after a loss in a sequitur: The failure to catch BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES / court of appeals. The Supreme Court vacated that opinion and criminals is not a reason to doubt ordered lower courts to hear further arguments on how the that the sentences for the ones we government could increase access to contraception without catch can ever be too long. The ANDREW HARRER making anyone violate her religious conscience. The Sisters root disagreement here concerns

8 | www.nationalreview.com JUNE 1 3 , 2 0 1 6

BIE_milliken-mar 22.qxd 5/13/2011 1:48 PM Page 1

ADVERTISEMENT Choose Life Grow Young with HGH

From the landmark book Grow Young with the blood at the same levels HGH existed in The new HGH releasers are winning converts HGH comes the most powerful, over-the- the blood when we were 25 years old. from the synthetic HGH users as well, since counter health supplement in the history of GHR is just as effective, is oral instead of man. Human growth hormone was first There is a receptor site in almost every cell in self-injectable and is very affordable. discovered in 1920 and has long been thought the human body for HGH, so its regenerative by the medical community to be necessary and healing effects are very comprehensive. only to stimulate the body to full adult size GHR is a natural releaser, has no known side and therefore unnecessary past the age of 20. Growth Hormone first synthesized in 1985 effects, unlike the synthetic version and has no Recent studies, however, have overturned this under the Reagan Orphan drug act, to treat known drug interactions. Progressive doctors notion completely, discovering instead that the dwarfism, was quickly recognized to stop admit that this is the direction medicine is natural decline of Human Growth Hormone aging in its tracks and reverse it to a remark- seeking to go, to get the body to heal itself (HGH), from ages 21 to 61 (the average age at able degree. Since then, only the lucky and instead of employing drugs. GHR is truly a which there is only a trace left in the body) the rich have had access to it at the cost of revolutionary paradigm shift in medicine and, and is the main reason why the the body ages $10,000 US per year. like any modern leap frog advance, many others and fails to regenerate itself to its 25 year-old biological age. The next big breakthrough was to come in will be left in the dust holding their limited, or 1997 when a group of doctors and scientists, useless drugs and remedies. Like a picked flower cut from the source, we developed an all-natural source product which gradually wilt physically and mentally and would cause your own natural HGH to be It is now thought that HGH is so comprehen- become vulnerable to a host of degenerative released again and do all the remarkable sive in its healing and regenerative powers that diseases, that we simply weren’t susceptible to things it did for you in your 20’s. Now it is today, where the computer industry was in our early adult years. available to every adult for about the price of twenty years ago, that it will displace so many a coffee and donut a day. prescription and non-prescription drugs and Modern medical science now regards aging as a disease that is treatable and prevent- GHR now available in health remedies that it is staggering to think of. able and that “aging”, the disease, is America, just in time for actually acompilation of various the aging Baby Boomers The president of BIE Health Products stated in diseases and pathologies, from and everyone else from a recent interview, I’ve been waiting for these everything, like a rise in blood glucose age 30 to 90 who doesn’t products since the 70’s. We knew they would and pressure to diabetes, skin wrinkling want to age rapidly but come, if only we could stay healthy and live and so on. All of these aging symptoms would rather stay young, long enough to see them! If you want to stay on can be stopped and rolled back by beautiful and healthy all top of your game, physically and mentally as maintaining Growth Hormone levels in of the time. you age, this product is a boon, especially for the highly skilled professionals who have made large investments in their education, and experience. Also with the failure of Congress to honor our seniors with pharmaceutical coverage policy, it’s more important than ever to take pro-active steps to safeguard your health. New! Doctor Continued use of GHR will make a radical Recommended difference in your health, HGH is particularly helpful to the elderly who, given a choice, would rather stay independent in their own home, strong, healthy and alert enough to • RELEASEImproved sleep YOUR & emotional OWN GROWTH stability HORMONE• Strengthened AND ENJOY: heart muscle All Natural • Controlled cholesterol manage their own affairs, exercise and stay • Increased energy & exercise endurance Normalizes blood pressure Formula • Loss of body fat • involved in their communities. Frank, age 85, • Increased bone density • Controlled mood swings walks two miles a day, plays golf, belongs to a dance club for seniors, had a girl friend again • Improved memory The& mental alertnessReverse• Wrinkle disappearanceAging Miracle and doesn’t need Viagara, passed his drivers test • Increased muscle strength & size • Reverse many degenerative disease symptoms and is hardly ever home when we call - GHR • Reverse baldness & color restored Regenerates Immune System • Heightened five senses awareness delivers. • • Increased skin thickness & texture This program will make a radical difference in your health, HGH is known to relieve symptoms of Asthma, appearance and outlook. In fact we are so confident of the Angina, Chronic Fatigue, Constipation, Lower difference GHR can make in your life we offer a 100% back pain and Sciatica, Cataracts and Macular refund on unopened containers. Degeneration, Menopause, Fibromyalgia, Regular and Diabetic Neuropathy, Hepatitis, helps Kidney Dialysis and Heart and Stroke fotcudorPA1-877-849-4777 recovery. htlaeHlabolG www.biehealth.us stcudorP For more information or to code NRV BIE Health Products order call 877-849-4777 3840 East Robinson Road www.biehealth.us Box 139 ©copyright 2000 Amherst, NY14228 DIVGHR 2037839 ON These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. week_QXP-1127940387.qxp 5/25/2016 2:11 PM Page 10

THE WEEK

the drug war. Cotton lumps non-violent drug offenders in with but 16 Repub li cans joined the Demo crats to thwart the violent criminals. He suggests that murders will increase be - amendment. The nation has affordable-housing problems, cause 77 percent of drug offenders released by states commit especially, as Lee noted, in areas of the country controlled new crimes. But most of these are non-violent offenses, and by Democrats. Federal oversight of the suburbs does not only 1 percent are homicides. It is reasonable to infer from seem like a promising solution, or one that Republicans Cotton’s speeches that he thinks there is nothing wrong with should endorse. the drug war that longer sentences wouldn’t fix—and to infer, from his failure to say so candidly, that drug warriors are n The Obama administration has decided to rewrite the finally on the defensive. nation’s overtime rules, mandating that practically all em - ployees, including salaried managers, be paid overtime after n The evidence supporting the claim that there exists a the 40th work hour in a week for jobs paying up to $47,476 “Ferguson effect”—an increase in violent crime due to more- per year, just short of twice the median individual wage and timid policing—continues to grow. Not only is FBI director double the current threshold. The administration here means James Comey continuing to sound the alarm, so is at least one to interpret very liberally its powers under the Fair Labor previous skeptic. Criminologist Richard Rosenfeld spent Stan dards Act (FLSA), a New Deal fossil that will, at some almost a year attempting to debunk claims of a Ferguson point, have to be revisited and simplified. The economic effect; now he calls the effect his “leading hypothesis” to effects of this innovation are difficult to foresee, but it is a explain the sharp increase in murder rates in many American safe bet that what will not happen is that every assistant man- cities. Even the left-leaning statistics site FiveThirtyEight ager at Bur ger King currently putting in the occasional 50- published a piece outlining how Chicago’s murder rate spiked hour week starts earning time and a half. More likely, as arrests and stops declined. As serious a problem as police business owners will respond by increasing the number of misconduct is, Americans may have less to fear from it than part-time employees, as other Obama policies have given from lies about it. them incentives to do. Other businesses will reclassify salaried workers as hour ly workers, reduce wages for new n The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, child of Ba - hires, outsource ad min is tra tive work, or, as we are seeing rack Obama and Elizabeth Warren, proposes to nullify an act dramatically right now in the case of fast-food franchises and of Congress, which it has no power to do. It proposes to de - bank branches, invest heavily in automation. (There is no lete arbitration clauses from financial institutions’ contracts FLSA for robots.) What employers need most is flexibility; with their clients, on the theory that such arbitration is what employees need is a strong labor market. The Obama unjust. Even if such arbitration were irredeemably unjust administration is delivering neither, and making it more dif- (and it isn’t—the law already provides for court challenges ficult for its successor to do so. to biased or corrupt arbitration), it is protected by the law, namely by the Federal Arbitration Act, which specifically n Baltimore police officer Edward Nero was acquitted on all mandates the enforcement of arbitration contracts and which counts related to the death of Freddie Gray, the African- contains no exception for financial firms. Consumers, more- American man who perished last summer following a severe over, willingly enter these contracts. CFPB says that the con- spinal injury sustained in a police van. State’s attorney tracts’ provisions for arbitration are “fine print”—a n argument Marilyn Mosby has now failed to win a conviction against that could be deployed to nullify practically any contract. the first two officers put in the dock (William G. Porter’s We suspect that the real flaw of arbitration agreements in trial ended with a hung jury), and four more Baltimore cops Democratic eyes is that they inhibit class-action lawsuits are yet to be tried. Playing to the mob rather than following that enrich progressive lawyers directly and progressive the evidence, Mosby short-circuited the police investigation fundraisers indirectly. Liberals have created a legal system with what she described as her office’s “independent inves- that serves their interests, and letting people contract around tigation. As she talked up the case in the media (“I heard it is not on their agenda. your call for ‘no justice, no peace’”), she delayed required disclosures of key exculpatory facts to the defense—e.g., n Federal meddling in local that Gray had been under the influence of drugs at the time housing decisions is set to in - of his arrest and had previously claimed back injuries. crease under President Obama, Simply stated, the case is a disgrace. This is not to say the thanks to the “Affirmatively police conduct was above reproach. Any errors, however, Furthering Fair Housing” rule called for administrative discipline, not a criminal prosecu- being promulgated by his tion. Freddie Gray’s death was a tragedy. So is the death of Department of Housing and due process in a great American city. Urban Develop ment. The rule uses federal grants to local gov- n Edmund Lee, a third-grader at Gateway Science Academy, ernments to cajole them to a public charter school in St. Louis, has been prohibited from change zoning and housing returning next fall, because his family moved to the suburbs policies to conform to the and he’s black. The genesis of that disgrace is, ironically, a dis- CQ ROLL CALL department’s de sires. Senator crimination lawsuit originally filed against the St. Louis pub- / Mike Lee (R., ) offered an lic-school system 44 years ago. The settlement entailed certain amendment to block the rule, race-based school-transfer policies to help integrate the sys- BILL CLARK

1 0 | www.nationalreview.com JUNE 1 3 , 2 0 1 6 week_QXP-1127940387.qxp 5/25/2016 2:11 PM Page 11

tem: Black kids living in the city could attend schools in the n In an op-ed in the Hartford Courant deploring the rise of suburbs, and white kids living in the suburbs could attend Donald Trump, Lowell Weicker, former senator and governor schools in the city. Court orders to that effect were dissolved of Connecticut, takes a crack at WFB. “The moderate eastern by a federal court in 1999, but local authorities have extended Republican,” he writes, “fell victim to Republican extremists the 1970s-era desegregation measure anyway, and so now a from within, such as William F. Buckley.” Well, one “moder- school whose enrollment is 80 percent white has to bar its ate” eastern Republican did: Weicker lost his last Senate race in doors to a black child on the wrong side of the city limits. part because WFB zealously backed Democrat Joe Lieberman, Nowadays you can bar black kids from the schoolhouse door who was strong on defense and socially conservative. It’s good in the name of social justice. to remember jobs well done, and it’s good that they were done to remember. too. n New York City has issued a ruling that restaurants and bars may not refuse to serve alcohol to pregnant women. The n An extended New York Times profile of Obama foreign- explanation: “Using safety as a pretext for discrimination or policy guru Ben Rhodes set Washington aflame. It re - as a way to reinforce traditional gender norms or stereotypes vealed an administration full of foreign-policy novices is unlawful.” So to establish the principle that people of any who elevate narrative over truth and have withering con- gender can be lushes, a pregnant woman (whoops, we mean tempt for their ideological opponents. Even when the facts “pregnant individual,” as the document carefully puts it) who of foreign policy show the failure of their ideology—with is drinking for two must be allowed to have as many Bloody death tolls soaring in the Middle East, seizing American Marys as she (or he, soi-disant) can hold. The city’s reasoning sailors, ISIS looming as a global threat, and Russia relaunch- is unclear; if a “pregnant individual” can be of either gender, ing a version of the Cold War—the Times describes Rhodes then surely denying him or her a drink cannot constitute gen- and his boss as largely unmoved. Everything is someone der discrimination. Yet allowing bars to deny service would else’s fault, they trust no one but themselves, and they are require acknowledging that an unborn child is a person with blinded by their own towering self-regard. “They Knew rights that require protection—and New York’s bureaucrats They Were Right” was the title of a book attacking the neo- will mire themselves in any logical conundrum to avoid conservatives of the Bush administration; they have nothing admitting that. on this crowd.

95 Est. 1915 POWERHOUSE 12 $ Compare at $119.85 CIGAR CIGAR COMBO 19 12 Premium Hand-Rolled Dominican Cigars Bonus Cherrywood-finish Humidor (Holds 20 Churchills) Ultra Reliable Butane Torch Lighter (may vary) A Guillotine Cigar Cutter SAVE Order Now! Limited Supply Call 1-800-458-9551 83% thompsonspecials.com Promo Code TA508 OFFER GOOD FOR 30 DAYS

Add $4.95 for Shipping – #926985. One per customer, residents ADD 7% sales tax, not available to minors and good only in the USA. All written orders must include your date of birth and signature. In the event of high demand, substitutions of equal or ©2016 Thompson Cigar Co. greater value may occur.

1 1 week_QXP-1127940387.qxp 5/25/2016 2:11 PM Page 12

THE WEEK

n The killing of Mullah Akhtar Mansour with a drone is something of a coup. As head of the Taliban since July of n Dilma Rousseff, Brazil’s leftist president, has been last year, he had been trying to turn Afghanistan into an impeached by the country’s senate and suspended from Islamic emirate, in touch with other Sunni extremists, for office pending a trial over allegations that she falsely manip- instance Ali al-Baghdadi, the self-appointed caliph of the ulated Brazil’s finances to hide an exploding budget deficit. Islamic State currently formed out of Syrian and Iraqi Dilma has been replaced by Vice President Michel Temer, provinces. The secrecy and violence of a man like that is who—apparently sensing the Brazilian people’s mood— hard to unravel and harder still to deal with. Intelligence has begun to clean house: announcing, among other mea- of a high order traced him to Pakistan, traveling alone sures, the elimination of cabinet ministries used exclusively except for a driver. In the wreckage of the car was a pass- for patronage, such as the Ministry of Fishing. Brazil has a port made out in the false name of Wali Muhammad, fur- long way to go: Corruption scandals involving kickbacks to nished with an Iranian visa. Pakistan complains of and from the state-owned oil company, Petrobras, extend infringement of its sovereignty; Iran denies any knowl- to the national legislature and the administration of for- edge of anything. The usual suspects say that this single mer president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Throw in the death changes nothing much—all the same, less malice Zika health crisis, a struggling is afoot. economy, and this August’s problem-filled Olympic n MS804, an EgyptAir Airbus 330, took off from Charles Games in Rio and it’s clear de Gaulle airport in Paris for Cairo with 66 people on that Brazil has a lot on its board, ten of them crew, including three sky marshals. Michel Temer plate. Prepare for a very Midway between Crete and the Egyptian city of Alex an - long, very hot summer. dria, the aircraft went down with total loss of life. In Oc to - ber 2015, 224 people lost their lives when Islamist ex trem ists brought down a Russian aircraft flying over Si nai. Is an Islamist campaign under way? Some time ago, an unknown hand daubed on the fuselage of MS804, “We will bring this plane down.” To the authorities as they hem and haw, that means little or nothing. There is evidence of smoke in the aircraft, and trouble with the cockpit windows, the autopilot, and the flight-control system. Seemingly, a bomb n America’s colonial rule in the Philippines was not entirely had exploded, but the black box with indispensable in for - unblemished, but one invaluable thing we bequeathed the Fili - ma tion is on the seabed, down at 8,000 to 10,000 feet. pi nos was democracy. It took them a while to get the hang of it, Eighty-five thousand men and women, many of them Mus - to be sure; but nowadays elections in the Philippines are free, lims, have clearance to work at the Paris airports, and French open, and vigorously contested. In the one just concluded, for anti-terror police are trying to sift through them in case a example, Rodrigo Duterte, a rough-edged longtime mayor famed breach of security is in that number. Mean while tour ism in for his toughness, easily defeated the candidate considered to be Egypt, an important source of the country’s in come, has his main rival, Grace Poe, the privileged daughter of an influen- dried up. tial family. In other words, a charismatic, know-nothing thug defeated a lackluster, politically connected woman; looks like we n One objective of President Obama’s Asia tour was to taught them American democracy only too well. pursue what he called “a lengthy process of moving towards normalization with Vietnam.” The majority of the n In a morbid twist on the concept of the suicide hotline, the population is too young in any case to have known a Dutch legal and medical establishment, hearing a young woman United States in arms. The Chinese drill for oil off the cry for help as she stood on a figurative window ledge, reassured Vietnamese coast and claim lands in the South China Sea, her that help was on the way: Would she like a push? Dutch doc- altogether changing the national experience of the coun- tors recently killed a patient in her 20s through lethal injection try, and not for the better. When Obama said—in a Saigon because she suffered mental illness that included hallucinations renamed Ho Chi Minh City, of all places—that “big and chronic depression resulting from sexual abuse. They de - nations should not bully smaller ones,” the applauding clared her incurable but competent to make the decision to end audience took it as an expression of cooperation rather her life. In the wake of her death, the Daily Mail reported on a than apology. Vietnam remains a one-party Communist 45-year-old woman who suffers from obsessive-compulsive dis- state, and the Party’s general secretary, Nguyen Phu order and, according to her sister, “dearly wants to die.” And if Trong, no doubt let Obama’s bromides about freedom of modern medicine cannot cure her, killing her is certainly feasible. speech and association go in one ear and out the other. Concretely, he obtained support for Vietnam’s participa- n Fourteen of 31 athletes determined to have doped in the 2008 tion in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which seeks to Summer Olympics are Russian, the International Olympic GETTY IMAGES / counterbalance Chinese influence in the region, and Committee (IOC) informed the Russian Olympic Committee in AFP / above all, the lifting of the embargo in place these past 40 May. The International Association of Athletics Federations years on the sale of arms. The news will not have gone (IAAF) had already suspended Russia from international compe- EVARISTO SA down well in Beijing. tition, citing a damning report from the World Anti-Doping

1 2 | www.nationalreview.com JUNE 1 3 , 2 0 1 6 Unmaking of a mayor book full page and coupon1_milliken-mar 22.qxd 9/29/2015 6:43 PM Page 1 gn. As d that “The proc phere of Americ and other major d the problems o nsti- conclude n of ills that plagued New York of a Mayor is a time$22.95! capsule of the politicalportation, atmos racial bias, mismanagement, taxes, an ONLY police, and education. Buckley’s nimble dissection of these issues co CELEBRATE THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE llent e CAMPAIGN THAT SAVED . GET BILL BUCKLEY’S n serv- THE UNMAKING OF A MAYOR NEW FOREWORD BY NEAL B. FREEMAN. NEW AFTERWORD BY JOE SCARBOROUGH.

onsidered by many to be one of the best political books ever written, National Review is thrilled to announce a new “Fiftieth Anniversary” edition of Bill Buckley’s classic candidate memoir, CThe Unmaking of a Mayor. Could it be a half century already since Buckley launched his famous Conservative Party effort to become mayor of New York City, an effort that revitalized—indeed, saved—the conservative moment, flat on its back from the 1964 Goldwater drubbing? It is. And the Golden Anniversary is well worth celebrating, heralding a seat-of-the-pants campaign that captivated the nation. Yes, it failed, as Bill captured just 13% of the vote on Election Day, with liberal Republican John Lindsay emerging as the next Mayor of New York. But: Did it really fail? In fact, the effort prevailed, in large, historic, and consequential ways, as Candidate Buckley, by dint of his persona, moxie, wit, verve, and - ligence, revived and resuscitated the conservative movement from coast to coast. The Unmaking of a Mayor is Buckley at his finest—in youthful prime, in the center of the maelstrom, standing athwart history, casti- gating the liberal elite, bringing the conservative message to millions, who found it . . . quite to their liking. This handsome, big (nearly 500 pages!), high-quality softcover edition, re-published in conjunction with our friends at Encounter Books, is only $22.95 a copy, and includes two terrific additions to the original printing. One is a tour-de-force Afterword by host Joe Scarborough, a huge WFB fan, who wrote of the effort:

But because of his own virtuoso performance on the trail, the NR editor somehow managed to turn a municipal election into a national event. Along the way, he also managed to supply a badly needed spark to what the candidate himself had called a dying ideology. The Buckley campaign would also unite a coalition of working class voters who would be labeled “Reagan Democrats” in the coming years. The conversion of these Democrats to the Conservative cause would provide an electoral road map for Republican suc- cess that would soon make Buckley’s damaged party the dominant force in American politics for a generation to come.

The other is a brilliant Foreword by frequent NR contributor and Buckley Campaign aide-de-camp Neal Freeman (“It’s been fifty years now since Bill Buckley demanded a recount. Perhaps we owe him one.”). If you want a fascinating piece of history, a National Review 215 Lexington Avenue New York, NY 10016 world-class campaign memoir, an example of w w w Buckley—the writer, the polemicist—at his very Send me ______copies of The Unmaking of a Mayor. My cost is $22.95 each (that includes best, a book that is as relevant today as it was a shipping and handling). I enclose total payment of $______. Send to: half century ago, then you must get (direct from Name NR) this new anniversary edition of The PAYMENT METHOD: o Check enclosed (payable to National Review) Unmaking of a Mayor. Address o Bill my o MasterCard o Visa HOLY WORLD WIDE WEB! YOU CAN City State ZIP Acct. No.

Expir. Date ORDER UNMAKING RIGHT NOW AT e-mail: STORE.NATIONALREVIEW.COM Signature phone:

(NY State residents must add sales tax. For foreign orders, add $10US to cover additional shipping.) week_QXP-1127940387.qxp 5/25/2016 2:11 PM Page 14

THE WEEK

Agency (WADA), which found a culture of state-sponsored national-security adviser and secretary of state a war criminal doping. WADA has accused IAAF officials of turning a blind for her role, a decade earlier, in the U.S. decision to invade eye to positive test results; former IAAF president Lamine Iraq and topple the regime of Saddam Hussein. Noting that Diack is among those arrested last fall by French prosecu- “commencement should be a time of joyous celebration” and tors. Now CBS’s 60 Minutes has aired evidence of fraudulent that her scheduled participation in it had “become a distrac- blood and urine samples from Russian athletes at the 2014 tion,” Rice withdrew. Two years later, Rutgers invited Presi - Winter Games. The corruption has been vast and interlock- dent Obama, a Democrat, to speak at commencement, and ing. WADA appears to be the cleanest, most responsible New Brunswick did not erupt in indignation over his drone agen cy caught up in this sordid story. Vitaly and Yuliya Step - strikes. Obama in his speech was, no surprise, silent on that a nov, a couple immersed in Russia’s athletic bureaucracy, specific inconsistency but had some pointed words for the deserve praise for blowing the whistle on much of the she - related failure of the campus community to prefer debate over nan i gans. The integrity of the Olympic Games could hardly censorship. He addressed the uproar over Rice, calling “mis- withstand the participation of a national contingent so thor- guided” the notion that the university “or the country would oughly tainted. be better served . . . by shutting out what she had to say.” It was a but welcome glimmer of the post-partisanship that n When a vulgar German comedian described Turkish prime he promised eight years ago. minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan engaging in carnal relations with a goat, Erdogan demanded that the jokester be prosecuted n For well over a century, Harvard’s “final clubs,” which a by German authorities—which he was, under an obscure 19th- small fraction of upperclassmen are invited to join, have century statute protecting foreign statesmen from insult. In re - exercised great influence over campus social life. That’s why sponse, Douglas Murray (whose article on Brexit can be found Harvard president Drew Faust, backed by students and deans, in this issue) announced a contest for the most offensive Er do - is trying to put them out of business. Faust’s main gripe is gan limerick, to celebrate Britain’s (relatively) free press. The that some of the clubs have single-sex membership policies, contest was won by Boris Johnson, a member of Parlia ment which often—especially when that sex is male—end up who recently finished two terms as mayor of London. Johnson “enacting forms of privilege and exclusion at odds with our actually managed to surpass the comedian in vulgarity, making deepest values” (because if there’s anything Harvard opposes, his entry well worthy of the contest’s 1,000-pound prize. Yet it’s privilege and exclusivity). So Harvard’s students are dis- we can’t help feeling a bit nostalgic for the days when MPs tressed that there’s something they can’t get into, and its lobbed quotations from Cicero back and forth during debate administrators that there’s something they can’t control: If and unwound by writing historical tomes. O tempora, o mores Adam Smith were a 21st-century academic, he might say, —or, in the spirit of the contest: “People of the same gender seldom meet together, even for Britain’s had many statesmen who wrote. merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a con- Ben Disraeli penned novels of note, spiracy against the other.” Now Harvard has announced that Gladstone published on Greece, any member of a single-sex social organization will be barred Churchill on war and peace . . . from a leadership role in campus organizations and will not be Boris Johnson? On sex with a goat. recommended for scholarships. Thus the Ivy League cavemen have been judged. n Facebook features a list of “trending topics,” which turn out to be selected not by algorithm but by its left-leaning employ- n Yale last fall unveiled 23 “all gender” bathrooms in a rainbow- ees. A former employee suggested that as a result, conserva- ribbon-cutting ceremony. (Most of them were simply already- tive stories, and stories from conservative outlets, are spiked. existing single-stall restrooms next to which a red placard Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg met with conservatives to had been placed featuring a stick figure wearing half a dress.) address his p.r. problem. Conservatives, naturally, took the The university took the occasion of its commencement this opportunity to fight among themselves. The first camp ac - spring to promote the bathrooms, printing a map of them on cused the second of trying to shake the company down, and the program and featuring them on its commencement-guide the second accused the first of trying to suck up to it. The website. The school announced as well that it would print alleged “shakedown” consisted of suggesting that Facebook transgender students’ “preferred names”—i.e., not necessarily might look for political and not just racial diversity in its hir- their legal names—on their diplomas for the first time. Pro - ing. Is that such a terrible idea? Facebook is an important part fes sors had already been required to use students’ “preferred of the media: Many Americans get news from it. Op-ed pages pronouns” when addressing them. “This is about public signal- that present themselves as forums for multiple views tradi- ing,” Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences dean told the As so - tionally seek out such views. That’s why the Washington Post ciated Press. Signal received: Yale stands ready to bow to has conservative columnists, for example. Whether or not whatever the new orthodoxy requires. conservatives address Facebook nicely, they should encour- age it to adopt a similar philosophy—or to declare itself a lib- n Here’s a tip for hate-crime fakers: At least try to be plausible. eral “safe space.” There’s something about Victim Munchausen Syndrome that brings out everyone’s histrionic tendencies, whether it’s n Condoleezza Rice was invited by the Rutgers University Tawana Brawley in the 1980s being smeared with feces or the board of governors to speak at commencement ceremonies in gay Texas pastor who falsely accused Whole Foods of writ- 2014. Students and faculty protested, calling the former ing “FAG” on a cake he had ordered. (Another tip: Get some

1 4 | www.nationalreview.com JUNE 1 3 , 2 0 1 6 base_new_milliken-mar 22.qxd 5/23/2016 11:19 AM Page 1

Show Your Allegiance to This Great Nation

Crafted in Tough-as-an-American, Stainless Steel «« Detailed with Proud Patriotic Images «« Gleaming with a Genuine Black Sapphire

God Bless Actual size Etched on the Reverse Side with: America “God Bless America” MEN’S SHIELD PENDANT A Custom-designed Jewelry Exclusive from The Bradford Exchange A STRIKING STATEMENT TO WEAR WITH PRIDE From the early settlers who risked their lives to enjoy the fi rst taste of this land and stripes in raised relief. The combination of the shield shape, for of opportunity, to those who fought for our independence during the American protection, and the bold symbols of God and country, provide the perfect Revolution... from the pioneering spirit that helped to grow this country and make representation of the might and right that has kept this country strong. it strong, to the sacrifi ces made to defend freedom here and around the world... A genuine black sapphire and black ion-plating adds to the bold look. America and the generations of people who call it home have many reasons to be The pendant is etched on the reverse side with “GOD BLESS AMERICA,” proud. Now, you can show your allegiance to the United States of America and and the a matching 24" stainless steel chain has a lobster closing clasp. all it stands for with a custom jewelry exclusive that makes a strong statement of The pendant is available at the remarkable price of just $79*, which you can patriotism—the “God Bless America” Men’s Shield Pendant. pay for in 4 easy installments of $19.75, and is backed by our unconditional 120- day guarantee. To reserve your pendant, send no money now; just fill out and Superb Craftsmanship... mail the Reservation today! an Exceptional Value Crafted of solid stainless steel, our shield-shaped pendant features sculptural www.bradfordexchange.com/22873 images of a majestic eagle and a traditional cross against our fl ag’s stars ©2016 The Bradford Exchange 01-22873-001-BIB PRIORITY RESERVATION SEND NO MONEY NOW Signature

Mrs. Mr. Ms. Name (Please Print Clearly) 9345 Milwaukee Avenue · Niles, IL 60714-1393 Address

YES. Please reserve the “God Bless America” Men’s Shield Pendant for me City State Zip as described in this announcement. Limited-time Offer... Please Respond Promptly State Zip *Plus $8.98 shipping and service. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery of your jewelry after 01-22873-001-E55231 we receive your initial deposit. Sales subject to product availability and order acceptance.

week_QXP-1127940387.qxp 5/25/2016 2:28 PM Page 16

THE WEEK

new material. Anti-gay bakers, always thin on the ground, gains. But Team Clinton, using the immemorial arts of small-p have lately been hunted to extinction.) Whole Foods handled politics—declaring Sanders delegates ineligible, winning du - the accusation well, stoutly denying the allegation and bi ous voice votes via the ear of a friendly chairwoman—man- defending its staff with video evidence, whereas any college aged to hold its own. Shouting and milling about ensued, president would have jumped on the incident, true or false, as whereupon the state party formally complained of the Sanders an excuse to hold a “Day of Healing.” campaign’s “penchant for extra-parliamentary behavior— indeed, actual violence.” Sanders spiritedly defended his troops: n Ninety percent of American The Democratic party could welcome “people who are prepared Indians are not offended by the to fight for real economic and social change,” or it could “choose name of the Washington Red - to maintain its status quo structure.” skins, according to a new poll What happened in Las Vegas did not stay there. Sanders an - by the Washington Post. The nounced that he backed , a lawyer challenging DNC Annenberg Public Policy Cen - chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz in the August primary ter asked American Indians the for her Florida congressional seat. Wasserman-Schultz’s mandate same question in 2004 and got all along was to smooth the path to Hillary’s coronation, and she the same result. In 2002, the has done the best she could, scheduling few Democratic Peter Harris Re search Group debates and holding them in low-viewing time slots (at least, reported that 69 percent of for as long as that seemed helpful to Hillary). Now Sanders Ameri can Indians did not object wants payback: “The political revolution,” he wrote in a fund - to the name of the storied NFL franchise and that 83 percent raiser for Canova, “is not just about electing a president, sisters were fine with Indian names and mascots of sports teams in and brothers. We need a Congress with members who believe, general. Though that sample of polls is small, it shows that like Bernie,” in “chang[ing] a corrupt system.” opposition to the Redskins name is waning among those on Politics is a contact sport, and losers typically take their whose behalf a coalition of white liberals and American licks with more or less good grace. Sanders, though, wants to Indian activists has been shouting with increasing shrillness in get even, and get mad. Ideology, age, and temperament spur recent years. Most American Indian non-activists, and most him on: He is not a Democrat but a son of the old and ; Americans period, continue to shrug at the controversy. If an this is his last hurrah; he is as cranky and megalomaniacal as offense is neither intended nor taken, perhaps it does not exist. he is principled. Why do so many like him? Hillary Clinton is both corrupt 2016 and unpleasant. There is pent-up unhappiness with a president The Democrats’ Civil War who the Left believes has been too cautious. And while few embrace or even understand socialism per se, a number of fac- HE new thing in politics, the rise of Trump, has tors—fading memories of the Soviet collapse, Occupy Wall T over shadowed the old thing: Democrats fighting Street performance art, Thomas Piketty’s big book of num- among themselves. bers—have given socialism a rosy glow. The contest between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Hillary’s eventual nomination and a possible Trumpocalypse took a nasty turn at the state convention in Las Vegas will sweep most Democrats back into the fold, but expect a in mid May. Sanders supporters, buoyed by success in elect- long march to the primary, and possibly all the way ing delegates at the county level, expected to reap modest to their convention. GETTY IMAGES / AFP /

JEWEL SAMAD Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton in debate, February 4, 2016.

1 6 | www.nationalreview.com JUNE 1 3 , 2 0 1 6 base_new_milliken-mar 22.qxd 5/23/2016 11:27 AM Page 1

To Investors Who Want to Retire Comfortably

 e Big Switch—Saving to Spending About Fisher Investments Deciding how to generate income in retirement is one of the most Fisher Investments is a money management stressful, complicated and confusing aspects of retirement life. Even  rm serving successful individuals as well as if you have accumulated a large nest egg—in excess of $500,000— large institutional investors. making the wrong income moves could put your entire retirement Fisher Investments and its subsidiaries at risk.  at’s why you need this free guide. use proprietary research to manage over A Complicated Balancing Act $63 billion* in client assets and have a Generating retirement income requires balancing many things, 35-year performance history in bull and including in ation, stock market volatility, interest rate trends and bear markets. your expected longevity. Too conservative and you risk having Ken Fisher, Founder, CEO and Co-Chief in ation strip you of purchasing power. Too aggressive and you risk Investment O cer, has been Forbes’ losing your money. It’s a tough proposition, with lots of emotional “Portfolio Strategy” columnist for over components, and it can lead to disastrous decision making. 30 years and is the author of more than Our Free Guide Can Help 10  nancial books, including 4 New York Times bestsellers.  e De nitive Guide to Retirement Income was written to help you assess your current situation, formulate clear goals, set spending levels and better understand how to generate cash  ow. It can help you make better decisions and give you peace of mind.

Please hurry!  iso  er contains timely information. Call today for your FREE guide! Toll-free 1-888-283-9647 Reference code AZ28 when calling

©2016 Fisher Investments. 5525 NW Fisher Creek Drive, Camas, WA 98607. Inestments in securities involve the risk of loss. Past performance is no guarantee ® of future returns. *As of 12/31/2015.

3col_QXP-1127940387.qxp 5/24/2016 9:35 PM Page 18

plex—and they comprise too wide a swath of the American public—to be rightly considered atavistic or a sec- tional rump. When Jacksonians take up politics, they do so with a vengeance, and Jack - sonian uprisings have overturned the American political order more than once. But Jacksonians tend to be quiet politically when things are going well. Much of the time, it’s easy for elites to misread them as supporters of other movements, forget them, or take them for granted. And that’s exactly what Republicans had been doing. After the “paleocon- servatives” and Buchananites were de - feated a generation ago, leading GOP politicians minimized and sometimes outright denied tensions between Jack - sonian sentiment and conservative ide- ology. They focused on issues where the two viewpoints overlapped (from an aversion to liberal identity politics to the need to take the fight to the bad guys The Better Jacksons of after 9/11), while politely ignoring (or forgetting) the important differences Trump’s Nature between the groups. This was made He has tapped into a tradition that has thankfully grown more inclusive easier by the fact that for much of that period, a rising economic tide lifted all BY NICHOLAS M. GALLAGHER boats and kept the visibility of disagree- ments to a minimum. Many Republicans, especially those ONALD TRUMP clinched the civil rights), and to advocacy of govern- of the “neocon” persuasion, went a GOP nomination by exploiting ment assistance for “de serving” mem- step farther by denying the existence D vulnerabilities few were aware bers of the folk group. Looking abroad, of outright. This existed. When the 2016 race they are uninterested in Wilsonian nation- usually involved their contrasting began, almost no one seemed to have building projects or promoting global nationalism, which was something understood that a plurality of the Re - order, but if they feel the nation is bad that others (usually: Europeans) publican party had a fundamentally dif- threatened, they are willing to fight back had in dulged in, with patriotism, which ferent set of policy preferences from by whatever means are necessary. Sound was presented as good and American— those of doctrinaire conservatism. Trump familiar yet? and universalistic and ideal-based. In saw this opening and took full advantage. Jacksonians don’t fit easily into his first inaugural address, President Trump’s positions follow the contours either the liberal or the conservative George W. Bush declared: “America has not of but of camp; they are the “radical middle.” never been united by blood or birth or American folk nationalism, often known They also don’t comport with regional soil. We are bound by ideals that move us as Jacksonianism. As Walter Russell stereotypes. Jacksonians are not syn- beyond our backgrounds, lift us above Mead, my boss over at The American onymous with southerners or rednecks: our interests, and teach us what it means Interest, has noted, Jack sonians char- Trump has performed best in north- to be citizens.” acteristically emphasize anti-elitism eastern states and prospered in cities. It is true that America is a country and while drawing a And while Trump is supported by uniquely rooted in ideas, with a univer- sharp distinction between members of racists (especially by the ugly little sal message accessible to all people. It’s the folk group and those outside it. In band of trolls known as the alt- also true that Americans are patriotic. domestic policy, this translates to right), Jacksonians cannot be dismissed But for much of the Right, patriotism— tough-on-crime stances and stubborn as such en masse. In the past, Jack - love of country—itself has be come iden- adherence to traditional views on social sonians have been found at the heart of tified with reverence for a specific body issues (and, historically, opposition to the Confederacy, but they also formed of ideas, including the classical-liberal, the core of the Union Army, and later individualist, and universalist Enlight - Mr. Gallagher is a staff writer at The American the one that defeated Hitler. Their en ment ideals enshrined in America’s Interest. motivations and history are too com- founding documents. At its most expan- ROMAN GENN

1 8 | www.nationalreview.com JUNE 1 3 , 2 0 1 6 base_new_milliken-mar 22.qxd 5/23/2016 11:32 AM Page 1

Genius Creates Affordable Portable GeneratorAdvertisement – Produces 1500 Watts of Power From Sunlight! Fed up with spotty service and high rates, he vowed to beat the electric companies at their own game.

NASHVILLE, TN – Frank Bates was living in a small northeast town when his electricity went out for the fourth time that winter. The result of a powerful nor’easter that knocked down trees and power lines, the blackout lasted for nine bone-chilling days. In the middle of a vicious winter, his family had to endure life XW_MZNWZ\PMX]UXVW_I\MZNWZLZQVSQVO_I[PQVOWZÆ][PQVO*]\ with no refrigeration for perishables, no electric stove for cooking, no televisions, no cellular telephones, no computers – and with no

the absolute worst of it was they had no heat. “That did it for me,” said Bates, “We were totally dependent on a PATRIOT POWER GENERATOR 1500 giant utility company. And too often their power went out, even in nice weather. But they still had the gall to constantly demand rate increases. Their bills were killing us and their service plain stank. “Depending on that company for uninterrupted power was a LW_VUWZMWN\MV\PIVQ\LWM[)Va_Ia1LMKQLML1PIL\WÅVLI_Ia fool’s game. Of course, the entire electrical system all across the generator was complete. And months more before full production country is so decrepit that I guess we should be happy it doesn’t go could begin. *I\M[¼[ÅZ[\[\MX_I[\WUW^M\WI_IZUMZ[\I\M_PMZMPQ[MVMZOa Bates says it was worth the wait. Thrilled with the performance to reduce my complete dependence on greedy utility companies.” of his new solar-powered generator, he named it the Patriot Power Generator 1500. Bates had accomplished everything he’d set out QUUMLQI\MTa[\IZ\ML[I^QVOZMITUWVMa)VLNWZ\PMÅZ[\\QUMM^MZ needs would be reduced. Then, he set out on a mission to learn to do. “Finally,” he said with a grin, “I was able to thumb my 1SVM_1VMMLMLUaW_V OMVMZI\WZ *]\ Q\ PIL \W 1_I[KWVÅLMV\\PI\UaNIUQTa_W]TLPI^MZMTQIJT MMTMK\ZQKXW_MZٺQZ[\ W.¹ everything he could about the alternatives available to frustrated nose at the massive utilities that were just about bleeding me dry. I consumers who want to slash their ties with the mega-utilities.

be something I could easily move and take with me if we had to whenever they needed it.” leave home quickly. But all the so-called portable generators on This remarkable generator is actually able to operate safely and near-silently indoors to produce 1500 watts of continuous AC \MM UISMZ?Q\P I 8I\ZQWٺthe market weighed a lot more than I can lift. Plus, many used [TW_ KWWSMZ I\WI[\MZ W^MV M^MV I KW something like 15 gallons of gas each day just to keep running. And power – up to 3,000 watts peak. That’s enough to power a freezer that’s assuming gas will be available, and it may not be. What’s to ensure a long-lasting supply of safe-to-eat food. Or to use a more, those things are all incredibly noisy, they smell awful, and their exhaust can literally kill you.” Power Generator 1500, you could have enough lights for safety Bates quickly realized that a gas generator was not the answer and comfort. You’d be able to charge your cell phones, laptops or he was looking for. Instead, he concluded the time had come for a tablets. Power an electric blanket so you can stay warm at night. lightweight portable generator that was not only powerful, but also Even keep certain essential medical devices operating. And 100% fueled by the sun. He had uncovered research that showed much more. the technology for such a generator already existed. It had been The heart of the Patriot Power Generator 1500 is a safe, state- of-the-art lithium-iron-phosphate battery (LiFePO4) battery that proven again and again. However, it also showed he would have to XW]VL[1\Å\[VMI\TaQV\WITUW[\IVaKIZOW[XIKMIVLQ[OZMI\\W get it designed and built from scratch. charges fully in as little as 3.5 hours, using the included advanced- By a stroke of luck, a friend introduced Bates to a rogue design folding solar panel. Surprisingly, the unit weighs just 38 engineering genius in Utah. “Just like me, he was sick of being held hostage by the electric company,” Bates explained. “And bring along if you go camping. It can be recharged up to 2,000 for over 20 years, he’d been working to perfect the use of solar times, and holds a full charge for 12 months, so it’s instantly ready energy around the world. He jumped at the opportunity to join for use when you need it. Interested parties can learn more about the Patriot Power forces with me to do something that hadn’t been done before. It was WZLIJTMIVLQ\PIL\WJM Generator 1500, by logging onto BLACKOUT15.COMٺI\M[[XMKQÅML\PI\Q\PIL\WJM^MZaI* really very exciting. After all, we would be designing a completely or by calling a special toll-free number 1-800-953-6173. new generator.” Agents are standing by to take orders. Get started on the road to energy independence. portable. Also, he wanted it to operate as quietly as possible. And most importantly, it could not use even a single drop of gasoline. It took manyCALL months 1-800-953-6173before the design of this breakthrough OR GO TO BLACKOUT15.COM 3col_QXP-1127940387.qxp 5/24/2016 9:35 PM Page 20

sive, this can include—and was read as and if America has not yet achieved immigration—a large chunk of it not including—a series of classical-liberal total reconciliation on racial matters, sanctioned by law—have altered the economic prescriptions, certain foreign- nevertheless this record of assimila- nature of the American folk group. The and domestic-policy assumptions, and tion is an immense and unprecedented latter has weakened social cohesion, even originalist judicial philosophy. achievement in the bloody annals of a and the former not only grates on There’s something to this. Lincoln, fallen world. Jacksonians’ sense of economic security who revered the Declaration of Inde- Second, Jacksonianism has usually but undermines their very identity as pendence and used its principles to embraced and supported American ide- industrial workers and providers. Mean - animate his political views, was a bet- alistic patriotism. It’s an oversimplifi- while, the perception that the world ter patriot than Stephen Douglas or cation to think of these as competing abroad was threatening and thankless Robert E. Lee, even though in some ideologies: One operates (mostly) at the grew even as confidence in the efficacy sense all three loved their country. But level of feeling and the other at the level of conservative foreign and military pol- expansive rhetoric and blurred cate- of principle. Most Jacksonians would icy waned. The conditions for a Jack - gories can muddle thinking. The con- profess to be ardent patriots and lovers sonian revolt were ripe. servative movement, which reveres of America’s founding principles, and While conservatives are more than tradition, forgot that there were other most Americans have at least some within their rights to write off Trump, traditions of how to view one’s coun- Jacksonianism in them. they would be neither wise nor justified try and understand what binds us The tension between the two is none - to write off the Jacksonians. They may together. The idea that America has theless real and tricky to manage for a be disgusted with Trump’s antics, and never had a sense of national folk conservative movement that is, as it’s they may find some Jacksonian posi- identity is just plain false—and mak- suddenly and rudely been reminded, a tions inchoate, wrongheaded, or unful- ing political and policy judgments on minority both in the country and within fillable. But after the dust from this

While conservatives are more than within their rights to write off Trump, they would be neither wise nor justified to write off the Jacksonians.

that assumption was madness. The the Republican party. Conservatives need election settles, it will be urgently nec- reappearance of naked nationalism has Jacksonian votes to form a governing essary to once again fuse patriotic, ide- been a shock to those who spent coalition. Yet from trade to immigra- alistic, and inclusive conservatism with decades maintaining that America’s tion, foreign policy to fiscal policy, Jack sonian nationalism. unique and unqualified achieve ment Jacksonian instincts are often incompat- Ideals need gut instincts and folk has been to synthesize love of country ible with conservative prescriptions. tradition on their side in order to be and universal democratic ideals. Jack - There are lots of ways to deal with efficacious. The Jacksonian sense of sonians have consistently felt that some this friction. The least helpful is to pre- common American identity enables combination of ethnicity, where you tend it doesn’t exist. Exhibits A and B self-governance, charity, and neighbor- were born, and (though Bush didn’t of this tendency are the proposed immi- liness; for many—including groups mention it) faith unite the American gration bills in 2007 and 2013, which that the GOP has been trying to court people, though not quite in the same repeated in their essentials the failed for years, such as Hispanic Americans way as—and generally much more 1986 amnesty-for-enforcement bar- and single women without college de- expansively conceived than—the Euro - gain. More broadly, party leaders failed grees—it gives important meaning to pean “blood and soil” ideologies to to take the Jacksonian base’s positions life. And Jacksonian support will also which President Bush alluded. on economic policy into account or be necessary to addressing our pressing As a form of nationalism, Jackson - even acknowledge them rhetorically, foreign-policy problems. ianism has had two saving graces. First, and they failed also to respond to For now, Jacksonianism lies closer to it’s proven to be expandable in a way Jacksonian dissatisfaction with the conservatism than it does to the identity- that no other folk nationalism in history Wilsonian aspects of the Iraq War. By politics Left, and one may reasonably has been. Although it was originally the time 2016 rolled around, the hope for a “best of both” compromise carried to America by the Scots-Irish Republicans—including much of their between intellectual conservatism and who settled the frontier, the Jacksonian supposed anti-establishment wing— Jacksonian impulses. It will take some understanding of the folk group has were acting as though Jacksonianism time to work out the details, but time expanded in time beyond its white, didn’t exist. is something we conservatives will Anglo-Saxon, Protestant roots to include Meanwhile, structural shifts in the have a lot of as we spend the rest of the millions of immigrants from far-flung economy, from globalization to automa- 2016 presidential campaign in the places, such as Irish Catholics and East - tion, have been breaking down tradi- political wilderness. Consider it the ern European Jews. If this process was tional sources of blue-collar and clerical price of ignoring political reality for rougher than is sometimes remembered, employment, even as 50 years of mass a generation.

2 0 | www.nationalreview.com JUNE 1 3 , 2 0 1 6 3col_QXP-1127940387.qxp 5/24/2016 9:35 PM Page 21

Others—especially among conservative do more profound and long-lasting writers, activists, and think-tankers— damage to conservatism than a Presi dent say they will never vote for him. This Clinton would. Her liberal initiatives To Vote for minority is further divided: Some say would elicit nearly uniform oppo sition that they will vote for the c andidate of a from Republicans; his would split them. Trump? third party (maybe the Libertarians, or a He would make the Republi can party There are different new party), and some even say they will less conservative while simultaneously reasonable answers vote for Clinton. discrediting conservatism with large This debate splits people who have portions of the public, possibly for BY RAMESH PONNURU heretofore been friends with similar views many years. on almost all issues, and who on each side For many of Trump’s critics, though, have reasonable arguments to hand. It is these concerns are not the decisive AY what you will about Donald therefore being conducted in a spirit of ones. If they merely disagreed with Trump, but he has never lied to mutual rage, bitterness, and contempt. him on trade and entitlement reform, S the families of dead service- Trump supporters cannot believe that they would still strongly favor him men. He has not committed some conservatives would rather see over Clinton. But they think his morals himself to appointing to the Supreme Clinton in office than support the Re - and personality make him not merely Court left-wing justices who would pro- publican nominee—and that they deny flawed but unfit for the presidency. He tect a right to abortion found nowhere that their lack of support for him amounts is cruel, impulsive, petty, and insecure; in the Constitution. He is not promising to effective support for her, and all her he admires dictators; he undermines to raise taxes, or endorsing President prospective works. These supporters ad - standards against political violence Obama’s unconstitutional amnesty and mit, many of them, that Trump has seri- and bigotry. pledging to expand it. ous flaws. But they say that he is certain Some conservatives who work in for- And say what you will about Hillary to do better than she. eign policy have already declared a pref- Clinton, but she has never mocked some- They allow that Trump’s promise to erence for Clinton. In part that is because one’s disability, or tried to link a political appoint conservative justices to the Su - Trump sometimes makes Buchananite rival to the JFK assassination, or encour- preme Court cannot be wholly trusted. noises. But even people who disagree aged political violence. She has not Getting them confirmed would take a with on foreign policy prom ised to launch a trade war. She has fight, and he has shown very little inter- have to admit that he has given some seri- not said she would order troops to com- est in the issues, from the protection of ous attention to the topic, as has Clinton. mit war crimes against innocent people. religious liberty to the restoration of Trump acts as though bluster is all a pres- Trump vs. Clinton is a dismal set of democratic authority over abortion, that ident needs. election choices for Americans and espe- it would involve. But any Clinton nomi- For many conservatives, then, the cially for conservatives. So it is not sur- nees, they note, are guaranteed to be left- choice of which candidate to put in the prising that conservatives are divided wing activists. Oval Office—Trump or Clinton—is a about what to do. Most are backing Trump, Anti-Trump conservatives, on the other difficult and painful one. What might the presumptive Republican nominee. hand, argue that a President Trump would make it easier is that individual voters are GETTY IMAGES / AFP / GABRIELLE LURIE : CLINTON ; GETTY IMAGES / AFP / BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI : TRUMP

2 1 3col_QXP-1127940387.qxp 5/24/2016 9:35 PM Page 22

not really in the position of having to There are large downsides to this. make that decision. Trump had already earned the reputation When endorsed Trump, of a wild man in his primary campaign. he said that the election presented voters Trump’s Maybe his zigzags on foreign policy with a “binary choice.” That may be true were not a clever negotiating strategy but for them collectively. Barring a strong Global View the outward sign of some inner vertigo third-party run, which is not showing The pluses and minuses of his big that simply alarms everyone. His critics any sign of happening, the next president foreign-policy speech in the U.S. foreign-policy establishment will be either Trump or Clinton. But think so and have written about him in from the standpoint of an individual, BY JOHN O’SULLIVAN largely dismissive terms. So there was conservative or otherwise, the choice in real interest last month when he presented the ballot booth is not nearly so fraught. his big-picture view of foreign policy in Arguments over whom you should OME years ago, I heard the late a major speech. vote for usually ask you to picture your- Herman Kahn, founder of the It was no easy task. Trump’s speech self as the deciding vote: to imagine that S and a kind of had to reconcile his “isolationist” argu- your vote will swing your state and the global-strategic polymath, sug - ment in the primaries—that America election. It is a useful exercise of the gest a surefire way to win the game of should not intervene excessively in other imagination insofar as it encourages you “chicken,” in which two drivers aim people’s quarrels—with the reality that to take your vote seriously. But the imag- their cars at each other and whoever many unresolved conflicts involving ined picture is obviously false: The veers away first is “chicken.” Kahn both other countries and U.S. interests probability that your vote will deter- advised that anyone determined to win are heading toward the next president’s mine the winner cannot meaningfully should get into his car obviously drunk, desk. President Obama’s basic approach be distinguished from zero. (And that aim it squarely at his opponent, step on has been to withdraw American power probability diminishes still further if the accelerator, and, with 30 yards’ dis- from key strategic regions in the belief any candidate has a wide lead going tance to cover, throw the steering wheel that the locals will then establish their into the election.) out the window. own balance of power. Instead, it has Political theorists have had a hard time Did Kahn ever meet Donald Trump? created or aggravated war and instabili- coming up with convincing explanations His chicken strategy looks suspiciously ty, and weakened and isolate d America’s for why people should vote given that like an early move in “the art of the allies. For the moment, however, the fact. Any explanation has to start with the deal.” It signals a willingness to suffer American voter, blindfolded by the media idea that voting is, first and foremost, an and inflict injury rather than be defeated. and White House aide Ben Rhodes expressive act. It expresses what the voter Most players of chicken would veer their working together, has not noticed the values and prioritizes; what he wills for cars away from such a collision, because gathering storm. his country. there’s no possibility of compromise or Trump’s speech was accordingly more The fact that individual voters have hope of gain. Their opponent is saying: “nuanced” than his usual casually sweep- almost no effect on the outcome of an “I’m not bluffing. Better take me seri- ing asides. He laid out five weaknesses election should make anti-Trump conser- ously on this and all other matters.” in our present foreign policy: We’re vatives feel less pressure to vote for Is Trump playing the chicken game overextended; our allies don’t pay their Clinton, and anti-Clinton conservatives when he threatens China with a 45 per- share; they feel they can’t depend on us; less pressure to vote for Trump. They cent tariff on its exports or bangs the our adversaries don’t respect us; and we may accept that one of them will be pres- NATO table and demands that Europe have no clear goals. All these criticisms ident. But in the special, and, let’s hope, pay more for its own defense? Very are more or less undeniable. Then he pro- not to be repeated circumstances of this likely he is. On other occasions, he says posed three measures to remedy this state year, they may reasonably decide that he wants deals with rival powers such of affairs: develop a long-term plan to they will not join their will to either out- as China and Russia that will serve the defeat radical Islam; rebuild America’s come: that if either one of them will be common interests we have with them. economy and military; and base foreign president, they at least will not be formally (Characteristically, he promises Putin a policy on U.S. national interests. All complicit in elevating one of them. deal that is good for Russia but great for these are desirable policies, if hard to No voter is under any moral obligation America.) He admits at times that he implement. He finally laid great stress on to judge whether Trump or Clinton is the makes these threats as an opening gam- the importance of “stability” in interna- lesser evil. bit in negotiations in which he will tional relations. Refusing to vote for either one of eventually settle for less. That admis- From a political standpoint, the speech them—by writing someone in, voting sion might undercut the threats, but looks designed to lay the groundwork for third party, or voting only for other Trump probably calculates that a will- a new foreign-policy consensus on the offices—need not be an evasion of real- ingness to enter negotiations is itself an right. About a third of voters express iso- ity or a shirking of civic duty. It may be admission that he won’t throw the steer - lationist views in polls. Most of them the right choice, at least if it is com- ing wheel out the window. So he’s ad - change their minds when foreigners insult bined with tolerance for conservatives mitting nothing, perhaps confusing his the American flag or take American lives. who make different judgments in this opponents, and getting credit for candor They turn into Jacksonians who favor dismal year. into the bargain. intervening abroad to punish, restore

2 2 | www.nationalreview.com JUNE 1 3 , 2 0 1 6 3col_QXP-1127940387.qxp 5/24/2016 9:38 PM Page 23

order, and warn against repetition, and then leaving. Trump has them and wants to keep them. But as Owen Harries, the founding editor of , to which Trump addressed his remarks, used to point out teasingly, after 50 years of fighting a worldwide Cold War, most Americans have gotten very com- fortable with a quasi-imperialist national role. The conservatives among them have become Hamiltonian supporters of a world commercial order favorable to U.S. interests. Trump is hoping to win over them, too. Creating a new foreign-policy consen- sus will require more than one speech by a mere candidate. But Trump probably obtained his short-term aim when John Bolton praised the speech and endorsed him. Many conservatives will reckon that if he’s good enough for John, he’s good enough for them. Judged as a strategic exercise, Trump’s speech was sober, slightly more nation- alist in tone than most such exercises, but Trump delivers his foreign-policy speech in Washington, D.C., April 27, 2016. otherwise not particularly novel. From anyone other than Donald Trump, it might have passed beneath the punditoc- Foreign-policy principles, like battle which has forces fighting in both Syria racy’s radar. That didn’t stop commenta- plans, tend to disintegrate on first contact and Ukraine? If not—which is my judg- tors from across the spectrum from being with actual crises. Sticking with them ment—then we should focus first on the highly critical. My colleague Andrew C. when they do is worse than inconsistency, threats posed by Russia rather than play- McCarthy thought it “incoherent and for international politics is the domain ing, as Obama has sometimes done, with shallow.” Fareed Zakaria agreed: not of principle and consistency but of the idea of a deal with Putin to defeat circumstance and prudence. One might ISIS. Putin has already demonstrated Trump is against humanitarian interven- almost say that circumstances define the folly of such an approach by using tions, but he implied that we should have such principles as the national interest the threat of ISIS to bomb Syrian oppo- intervened to help embattled Christians and stability and even facts like peace sition groups supported by Washington. in the Middle East. Which is it? Trump and war. Looking at Trump’s proposed It would be the worst of two worlds if a put America’s closest allies on notice that if they didn’t pay their fair share on policies, I agree with Jonah Goldberg in future President Trump were to settle defense, . . . he would end America’s thinking them “not bad,” even pretty the Ukraine crisis on Putin’s terms in security guarantees to them. . . . Then he good, as abstract propositions. But how return for his support in defeating ISIS, assured them that he would be a close do they look in the light of circumstance? to the main benefit of Putin’s allies in and reliable ally. Take, for instance, his making the Syria and Iran. defeat of ISIS his highest priority. ISIS This does not mean we should encour- These criticisms seem to me over- is certainly a security threat to the age the Kiev government to maintain its drawn. Bismarck is supposed to have Middle East and an important source of current military resistance to Putin’s said that asking him to take principles inspiration to radical Islamists every- aggression in Eastern Ukraine. Putin has into account in his conduct of foreign where. It is an enemy well worth fight- already lost most of Ukraine beyond policy was like asking him to walk ing, provided we have a clear idea of recall, in a huge geopolitical defeat. As through a dense forest with a twelve-foot how to defeat it in an acceptable time Professor A. J. Motyl of Rutgers points pole between his teeth. Anyone trying to frame. Another failed intervention out, it makes little sense to continue los- do so would soon have to remove the would be the worst possible outcome, ing three or four young Ukrainian lives pole—i.e., pursue policies contradicting strengthening ISIS and boosting its in - every week in order to prevent Russia the announced principles. Both Obama fluence worldwide. from annexing, owning, and subsidizing GETTY IMAGES / and Hillary Clinton have reversed poli- Even if we grant that the military a ruined and expensive Donbass statelet AFP / cies in office, for instance on Iraq. That is defeat of ISIS is achievable at reason- of no value to it. A President Trump one way of resolving contradictions. able cost, however, we must still ask: Is should urge Kiev to cede the Donbass Obama’s persistence with his Iran agree- ISIS a threat—to the U.S., NATO, our region de facto in return for Western aid ment is a worse way: pressing ahead with main allies, and wider world stabili- on a Marshall Plan scale. Building up BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI mistakes to avoid admitting error. ty—comparable to Putin’s Russia, Ukraine, imposing the costs of the

2 3 3col_QXP-1127940387.qxp 5/24/2016 9:35 PM Page 24

Donbass onto Moscow, and maintain- tion to the Democrats: I thought the ing EU and NATO sanctions would be Republicans were a boon to the coun- “peace,” but in circumstances that dam- try and world. age Putin more than war. The Shock of But then they nominated, or were Consider, now, stability and interest, poised to nominate, Donald J. Trump both principles embodied in two allied Disaffiliation for president. And that’s where I get institutions, namely NATO and the EU. On leaving the off. I ceased to be a Republican on the Or are they? Circumstances will tell us. Republican party night of May 3, when the results of A stable Europe is certainly a U.S. the Indiana primary came in. A party interest. But the euro and the EU’s BY JAY NORDLINGER that thinks Donald Trump ought to be migration policy are currently the president is not a party I should be - sources of two major crises threatening long to. Europe’s stability fundamentally. Our AST year, when the presidential “But he’s only the presidential nom- main allies have no idea of how to season got going, I made an inee!” you might say. “There are mil- calm these crises because they cling to L observation: Donald Trump lions of other Republicans. the EU structures that brought them would often say “the Repub - is speaker of the House, for heaven’s about—and stability is more threat- licans” or sometimes even “you Re - sake! He’s as different from Trump as ened by clinging to fossilized struc- publicans,” as though they were foreign a daisy is from an eel.” Yes. But a presi- tures that block gradual change than by to him, and he to them. Yet he was run- dential nominee is the face of the party: adapting to reality. Trump’s recent ning for the Republican nomination. its symbol, its representative, on the remarks about helping the U.K. in the Which he has now cinched, apparently. national stage and the world stage. Every event of Brexit (rather than sending I myself have had to start saying party has its clowns, fools, and embar- Brits to the end of the “queue,” as “the Republicans,” and I find it very rassments. But if they are down-ballot, it Obama threatened) suggests one of two hard. Sometimes I slip up, saying doesn’t matter so much. In nominating things: Either he was deliberately irritat- “we” and “us.” Those words come someone for president, a party says, ing David Cameron, who had recently naturally to my lips. I used them for so “This is who we are.” attacked him, or he sees the need for long. Indeed, I was a Republican a lot I was a student in Europe during the Euro-structures to become more flexi- longer—decades longer—than Trump Reagan years—1984, to be specific. ble, more accommodating to national has been. That president may be remembered interests, and more attentive to real Divorced people may tell you about a warmly now, but he was hated then, by problems than to utopian aims. But he similar transition. For years, they said a great many. After I landed, I took a has not yet developed a full critique of “we,” “our,” “us.” To revert to “I,” “my,” long train ride. In my compartment was global governance, nor sought allies “me” can be shocking. a fellow American student. She said, against it. He will need to do both if a I think I registered as a Republican as “I’m hoping I can pass for German.” foreign policy based on national inter- soon as I was old enough to vote. I She was ashamed of being an American est is to be more than a slogan. remember my first vote, for sure: It while Reagan was president. Interest and stability also complicate was in 1982 for ’s Republi - By classmates and teachers, I was Trump’s handling of the NATO allies. can gubernatorial candidate, Richard teased, baited, and mocked for being There is a reason that for years the Headlee. He lost (as many of my can- a Republican and a Reaganite. But I Europeans have remained free riders and didates would). I don’t believe I have defended him with gusto. I was happy that Americans have complained but ever voted for a Democrat, for any to be associated with that man, and gone on paying. It is that alliances such office. (Divorced from the Republican his worldview. as NATO, which preserve peace and party or not, I’m not about to start now.) So it was when the first Bush was uphold international stability, are harder Like many a conservative, or other president. And when Bob Dole was the to create than to maintain. His recent anti-collectivist, I’m not much of a Republican nominee. And when the criticisms of NATO’s free riding suggest joiner. But I did belong to the GOP, second Bush was the nominee, and a rehearsal for a game of chicken with gladly. A few years ago, I wrote a little president. I have worked in Salzburg, NATO allies that Trump imagines him- essay called “A Hopeless ‘R.’” I de - at the music festival, every summer self playing after November. If so, he has scribed and explained my hard-bitten since 2003. During the George W. Bush an advantage that previous presidents partisanship. Many of my conservative years, they said the worst things about lacked. Nervous about Putin’s military brothers say, “I’m not a Republican, the American president: that he was the buildup and the threat of radical I’m a conservative.” I always stressed Texas equivalent of Osama bin Laden, Islamism, NATO governments are start- the importance of the Republican party. for example. I was often confronted on ing to hike defense spending. Trump A philosophy, such as conservatism, the subject of Bush. I was pleased— could take credit for that and insist also has to have a vehicle, if it’s to make very pleased—to defend him and be that they maintain sanctions on Russia headway in life. associated with him. for the next round of chicken. I disliked the Democrats intensely. I Then we had John McCain and Mitt Putin may be driving a Lada, but he thought they were right about practi- Romney—the losers to . has already thrown his steering wheel cally nothing. But my Republicanism The country was the real loser, I think. out the window. was not merely negative, i.e., a reac- I admire both men, and am glad to be

2 4 | www.nationalreview.com JUNE 1 3 , 2 0 1 6 3col_QXP-1127940387.qxp 5/24/2016 9:35 PM Page 25

in armies or foxholes with them. Mc - mocks the handicapped—physically that almost anything can be normal- Cain, to take just the former, may not be mocks them—for the enjoyment of ized. Even now—at this speed—it my political ideal. But I think his world- his audience. He insults women on seems practically normal that the pres- view is sound, and of his heroism, the basis of their looks. He brags of idential nominee of the Republican there is no doubt. the women he has bedded, including party linked a rival’s dad to the Except from the Republicans’ new “seemingly very happily married” assassination. Trump is a “new nor- nominee. At the beginning of his cam- ones. He mocks the religions of oth- mal,” as they say, but it is a twisted and paign, he said that McCain was “not a ers. (Distinctly un-American.) He im - wrong normal. war hero” because he was captured. “I plied that ’s father had a link He made his remarks about Rafael like people who weren’t captured.” True, to the Kennedy assassination. And on Cruz and JFK on the day he won, May 3. McCain was shot down—on his 23rd and on. That night, a new hashtag appeared on bombing raid over North Vietnam. Then By nominating him, the Republican Twitter: “#ExGOP.” I do not want to he endured five and a half years of tor- party has disfigured itself, morally. wear that tag, but I suppose I do. May 3 ture. He refused early release, offered Democrats won’t like to hear this, but was my Independence Day—the day I because his dad, Admiral McCain, was for all those years, I thought the Re - became an independent. Unlike the head of the Pacific Command. publican party had the high ground, Fourth of July, it was not a happy day. I Trump, meanwhile, received four morally. I feel that this ground has col- never wanted to be an indie. student deferments. Many received lapsed beneath me. That is one of the I have not yet bothered to change deferments. But do they slam the ser- painful aspects of this moment. my registration—too lazy, I guess, and vice of McCain, of all people? In 1997, If someone now says to me, “Ha, ha, too allergic to bureaucracy. I have sim- Trump was talking with Howard Stern Donald Trump is the presidential ply disaffiliated, mentally. The most

The presidential nominee stamps the party. He is the brand of the party. As I see it, or smell it, an odor now attaches to the GOP, and it will linger long past 2016.

on the radio—about sleeping around, nominee of your party!” I say, “No, he famous two-word message in Ameri - and the perils of doing so, given vene- isn’t.” He represents the Republicans, can history, probably, comes from real disease. “I’ve been so lucky in who, on the basis of this nomination, John L. Lewis. Withdrawing his min- terms of that whole world,” he said. are transformed. I respect, admire, and ers from the AFL, he wrote, “We disaf- “It is a dangerous world out there— love many Republicans, of course—I filiate.” I disaffiliate, too. it’s scary, like Vietnam. Sort of like was their fellow party member until Reagan changed his party registra- the Vietnam era. It is my personal two seconds ago. But, to say it again, tion when he was over 50—about the Vietnam. I feel like a great and very the presidential nominee stamps the same age I am now. We all know what brave soldier.” party. He is the brand of the party. As I he said, because we’ve heard it quoted In my view, Trump is grossly unfit see it, or smell it, an odor now attaches for decades: “I didn’t leave my party, it to be president, in both mind and char- to the GOP, and it will linger long past left me.” I know how he feels. Unlike acter—especially the latter. Even if I 2016, no matter what happens on him, I don’t have a party to jump to. agreed with him on the issues—even Election Day. Why does my party affiliation, or if I thought his worldview sound—I Parties are not static entities (alas). I non-affiliation, matter? It doesn’t at would balk at supporting him, owing to joined a Reaganite party. It was the all, not even to me, all that much. The the issue of character. But let me spend clear descendant of Lincoln’s. Now it is fate of the Republic does not hang on a second on the issues. undergoing Trumpification. The Demo - one man’s outlook and angst. But I His tendency is toward big govern- crats have undergone profound shifts, offer the above words because my fel- ment. He says no to a reform of entitle- historically. Thirty years ago, I heard low conservatives and classical liber- ments. He says no to . He my colleague Mike Potemra enunciate als might find them interesting, in this threatens to withdraw from NATO. He his Jacksonian Theory of the Demo - weird, dislocating time. likes Obama’s unilateral opening to cratic Party: It had gone from Andrew “Sometimes party loyalty asks too . He sings the praises of Planned Jackson to Scoop Jackson to Jesse much,” said JFK. That’s putting it Parenthood. And so on. Jackson. Today, the Democrats are well mildly. And speaking of the dead What he calls for, mainly, is strength, represented by Hillary Clinton and president: Will a Trump administra- plus “winning.” This is not the mental- Bernie Sanders. tion prosecute, or at least investigate, ity of a constitutional conservative or a Flux, flux, flux. You eventually learn Rafael Cruz? If not, why not? Trump liberal democrat. that this is the way of the world. I some - supporters—and normalizers and Then, overshadowing everything, times kick against flux, which is one lookers-away—might want to ponder there is the issue of character. Trump mark of a conservative. You also learn that question.

2 5 2col_QXP-1127940309.qxp 5/24/2016 9:43 PM Page 26

Exit Britain? Britons are considering whether to assert their sovereignty in leaving the EU

BY DOUGLAS MURRAY

OR at least a quarter of a century, there was no greater ness dwellers began to assume the mantle of prophets. The bore in British politics than the Eurobore, who warned backbenchers in Westminster and the MEP (Members of the F against Britain’s loss of sovereignty to Brussels. From European Parliament) flotsam in Brussels who had kept a flame the moment the House of Commons narrowly passed of British independence alive became politically palatable the Maastricht Treaty in the early 1990s, turning the European again. Their knowledge of the minutiae of EU laws and regula- Economic Community into the European Union, the species tions proved useful. Soon bigger political beasts found the could be sighted around Westminster. But its natural habitat courage once again to join this renegade band. Today, with a became sparsely populated meetings of the already converted. vote on Britain’s remaining in or leaving the EU taking place on Occasionally an overreach by Brussels would find the Euro - June 23, Britain’s Euroskeptics are not just back in the main- bore staring into the bright lights of the nation’s broadcast stream but at the helm of the most important decision facing the media, there to answer a few hostile questions while demon- country in decades. Indeed, they may soon be running the coun- strating an unappetizing combination of monomania and try. With the polls currently showing “Remain” and “Leave” over-fondness for detail. But for at least a generation, people tied, an entire political establishment is now angrily trying to said to be “banging on about Europe” suffered from the polit- work out why Leave is doing so well. Why has wheeling out ical equivalent of halitosis. every other expert and authority in the land not browbeat the And then things began to change. Of course, nobody wanted British people into overwhelmingly voting Remain? Why, to credit the fact, but over the course of recent years the wilder- indeed, does it seem to be pushing them the other way? Sad to say, the explanation is the facts—and two very large facts in Mr. Murray is an associate editor of The Spectator and the author, most recently, particular, both of which have long been visible from Britain, of Bloody Sunday: Truth, Lies, and the Saville Inquiry. even if not from Brussels. THOMAS REIS

2 6 | www.nationalreview.com JUNE 1 3 , 2 0 1 6 2col--NEW_QXP-1127940309.qxp 5/24/2016 10:07 PM Page 27

The first is the legacy of the endless euro-zone crises. For German chancellor Angela Merkel effectively opened the doors years, British Euroskeptics argued that currency union, or the of Europe to the entire Third World. A migrant flow had persisted euro, could not possibly work unless the countries that partic- across the Mediterranean for years, but it now became a flood. ipated in it gave up all remaining sovereignty. How, they By the German government’s own private figures, in 2015 asked, could Greece and Germany share a currency if they did alone around 1.5 million migrants, in addition to those visiting not share fiscal habits and constraints? How the Europhiles workers who had already been expected, entered Germany. scoffed at this! From different political sides, the former That is around 2 percent of the German population. Similar deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine and the über-Blairite numbers entered Sweden and other countries. Experts expect a Peter Mandelson pooh-poohed all such complaints. Indeed, similar flow this year, and the summer rush has already begun. these grandees insisted that Britain would regret not joining the In anticipation, Merkel arranged billions of dollars in bribes euro zone. Such men may still pretend to sail on as though from the EU to the Turkish government to stem the flow through nothing ever ruffled this core argument, but for seven years the Turkish territory. Along with the European Commission, she nightly news has torn it to shreds. also agreed that, to keep out several million refugees this year, The euro-zone crises that have battered the Continent since the EU would award visa-free travel inside the EU to Turkish 2009 vindicated every British Euroskeptic fear. As one south- citizens, who number 75 million. ern European country after another found itself unable to refi- Meanwhile, the Schengen arrangement—a central pillar of nance its debts, the euro zone became a raft of the Medusa. In EU progress, which allows citizens of EU countries to enjoy an effort to impose fiscal restraint on the southern European borderless travel in Europe—began to break down. After hun- countries, northern European countries, especially Germany, dreds of thousands of undocumented people walked across the not only imposed further financial rules on their neighbors but territory of Hungary and other countries, and even more so ousted their elected leaders, imposing bureaucrats to run after the terrorist attacks in Paris and Belgium this past year,

The EU today, as IMF figures show, remains the only region of the world to be consistently experiencing zero economic growth.

things on Brussels’s behalf. Even now, youth unemployment Europe’s borders have begun to go back up. Now even Frans in these countries sits between 25 and 50 percent, blighting an Timmermans, vice president of the European Commis sion, entire generation. admits what everybody with eyes could tell: that most of the As events in Greece keep showing, these southern countries people—his figure is 60 percent—who arrived last year came retain the ability to crash the entire continent at any moment. from countries where there is no conflict. They are not refugees After lying their way into the euro zone (they cooked their but economic migrants with no right to claim asylum. They have books to mask the weakness of their financial state) and then no more reason to be in Europe than does any other non- refusing to impose sufficient austerity while inside it, the European in the world. What is one to do with an entity able to Greeks unwittingly demonstrated what the Euroskeptics had make such historic missteps and so unable to correct them? long warned about. In any ordinary financial arrangement, a The EU might have dodged the logical conclusion of one of country such as Greece should have been thrown out of the these mighty blows, but not both. For these are not quibbles union and allowed to return to its own currency, devalue, and over EU overregulation of the size of cucumbers or the shape of then climb its way out of recession in the usual manner. The bananas. They are blows to the foundation, vision, and purpose EU’s refusal to allow Greece to do this was just one reminder of the EU itself. The principle of “ever closer union” was that the euro project—like everything else the EU does—was enshrined in every major treaty of the EU and its predecessor never about economics so much as it was about politics. The organization, from the Treaty of Rome (1957) onward. It was economics could not be allowed to fail, because the political meant to lead to the breaking down of borders, the pooling of project could not be allowed to fail. A Greek exit from the euro sovereignty, and the harmonization of economic activity across zone risked pushing other countries to exit. So despite its fail- the Continent. The plan was the nearest thing that post–World ure, the euro zone stays together even now, with the effects felt War II Europe had to a religion. even outside it. The EU today, as IMF figures show, remains the It is worth recalling how explicit these Europhiles used to be. only region of the world to be consistently experiencing zero At Louvain, Belgium, in 1996, German chancellor Helmut economic growth. Kohl said, “The nation-state cannot solve the great problems of the 21st century.” European integration was, he said, “a ques- tion of war and peace in the 21st century.” In the 1990s, when UT it was the security disaster added to this economic the great push to turn a trading bloc into a single political disaster that helped bring the Euroskeptic case back. union began, this was a common enough sentiment. Around The questions of sovereignty and accountability seemed the same time, the leader of the German Greens claimed that arcaneB for a time. But the EU’s disastrous handling of what is after Auschwitz it was no longer possible to be “against” the now known as the great migration crisis brought such matters EU, and a member of the Bundesbank directorate, Helmut to the political fore. Last year the European Commis sion and Hesse, declared that monetary union was “the last step in a

2 7 2col--NEW_QXP-1127940309.qxp 5/24/2016 10:07 PM Page 28

process of integration that began only a few years after the votes from the United Kingdom Independence party (UKIP) Second World War in order to bring Europe peace and pros- and win a majority for the Conservatives. Suspecting that he perity.” When the British Euroskeptics opposed ever closer would not get a majority but would most likely have to form union, they were told that they were “little Englanders,” another coalition, he must have expected that he would never opposed in fact not only to the Continent but to the inevitable have to keep his promise. When he did get a slim majority in course of history and to peace itself. May of last year, it became clear that he would have to deliver. Even ten years ago this argument was still being made by EU In preparation, he went through the charade of making “de- elites. When the Dutch went to the polls in 2005 to vote on the mands” of Brussels, returning with what even his political latest EU constitution, the European Commission ran ads fea- allies recognized as crumbs, though they were presented as turing footage from the Holocaust and urging the Dutch to major changes. He then asked the British people to vote on approve the document. The insinuation was that the sole alter- approving those changes or getting out altogether. By rushing native to ever closer union was a return to Auschwitz. EU elites the vote as he did, the prime minister hoped to beat a likely professed to be liberals in favor of further integration, out of repetition of the alarming scenes of last summer’s migrant optimism for the Continent. In fact, whenever they seemed rush, and by making it a stark, in-or-out question, he hoped to under pressure, they showed fear of the people. So it was hardly rely on the innate conservatism of the British voter to reject surprising when they increasingly took steps to bypass the peo- such a profound change. ple altogether. In 2005 the Dutch and French populaces rejected Unfortunately for the prime minister’s plan, he promptly the new constitution. The EU authorities forced the publics to lost some of his closest colleagues to the Leave side. Former vote again, until they came up with the “correct” answer, and London mayor Boris Johnson gave the Leave campaign popu- then stopped having referendums. lar heft, while Justice Minister Michael Gove gave it serious It is worth remembering this not-so-distant history in order to intellectual weight. Priti Patel, Iain Duncan Smith, and many understand why feelings about Europe go so deep in British pol- others made the Leave camp look mainstream and respectable, itics, especially on the right. For decades, the conservative as did the respected Labour MPs Frank Field and Gisela Stuart. Euroskeptics warned everybody who would listen that there were Perhaps it was because his opponents looked so strikingly rea- consequences to dissolving your own national bonds and giving sonable that Cameron’s immediate strategy was to forget every up sovereignty to an unelected foreign bureaucracy. Only among shade of EU gray he had previously recognized and paint the politicians did this become an unusual position, furthering a alternative to his own deal in blackest black. growing disconnect between electorate and elected. In the campaign to date, the prime minister has informed the British public that the vote he has offered, should it go the “wrong” way, will lead to global recession, a simultaneous rise VER recent years, Conservative MPs got around this by in mortgage payments and slump in housing prices, the invasion flagrantly pandering to their Euroskeptic voters. They of Europe by Vladimir Putin, the end of peace on the Continent, would pretend to be mad as hell about Brussels even and the arrival of at least three out of the four horsemen of the Owhen they were, like current prime minister David Cameron, Apocalypse. Of course, if these really were the consequences increasingly relaxed about it. And this is just one of the reasons of a “wrong” vote, then it was jolly silly of Mr. Cameron to risk that, whatever happens in the referendum, the Conservative a vote in the first place. party is going to badly need stitching back up afterward. It will be hard for many voters to forgive a prime minister who spent his life posing as a Euroskeptic only for the referendum to have VERY day Downing Street releases another joint letter turned him into one of the EU’s greatest advocates. The same signed by select industry heads, former intelligence will go for many of his ministers. In six years in office, Home and military chiefs, and foreign dignitaries to try to per- Secretary Theresa May has failed to meet every immigration suadeE the British public that doom awaits it outside the EU. target—a reduction of annual net migration from hundreds of President Barack Obama came to declare that, notwithstanding thousands to tens of thousands—she has announced. Each time its shared history with America, Britain had no more claim on she blamed that failure on constraints imposed by the EU. Now U.S. affections when it came to trade deals than did Papua New she is campaigning for Britain to stay in that same EU, in order Guinea. Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau swung by to to meet immigration targets. The level of careerist-driven dis- say that trade with his country also could not be taken for granted. honesty is enough to make you give up on politicians entirely. To the consternation of Downing Street, this strategy, which That people have partly done so will be a strong reason for the media have dubbed “Project Fear,” appears not to be shifting outcome of the election if the vote is for Britain to leave. the British people. Nor are the endless bribe campaigns where- Although the bureaucrats of Brussels like to summon the by Brussels tries to stop Britons from getting back their sover- specter of the conservative Euroskeptic to explain every eignty, promising, among other things, lower mobile-phone strange behavior of the British, when it comes to this referen- tariffs and cheaper holiday flights should they stay in. dum they do for once have a point, because the fact that the That isn’t to say that the Remain side has no arguments. Its vote is happening at all is one of the few victories the Euro - strongest argument is that the aftermath of a Leave vote would skeptic movement can claim for itself. Conservative-party be uncertain. Remain proponents are right about that, and the dynamics have played a large part in the process the country extent to which they can terrify the public with that uncertainty is now voting on. will decide whether they will prevail on June 23. The nearly At the last election, Cameron promised a referendum on EU 300 actors and others who in mid May published a letter urging membership for the sole reason that he was trying to regain a Remain vote said that “leaving Europe would be a leap into

2 8 | www.nationalreview.com JUNE 1 3 , 2 0 1 6 base_new_milliken-mar 22.qxd 5/23/2016 11:30 AM Page 1 2col_QXP-1127940309.qxp 5/24/2016 9:43 PM Page 30

the unknown for millions of people across the UK who work in the creative industries.” It is true that for any two members of the Leave side whom you ask to detail which “option” The (Switzerland and Norway, for example, are not EU members but participate in different functions of the European Union) they would prefer once Britain leaves the EU, you will get two Transgender different answers. But neither is the “stability” argument on the Remain side in such a good state as its exponents seem to think. Because if you believe that the EU has indeed brought Culture War peace and security to a continent, you should find it strange that the Continent is in such a mess. From north to south, west Accommodation will never be enough to east, every country in Europe is now experiencing an upsurge of populist revolt. From Marine Le Pen’s Front Na- tional to the Sweden Democrats and Austria’s Freedom party, BY KEVIN D. WILLIAMSON all are objecting to the lack of democratic accountability in the EU, the dissolution of European culture by mass migration, and the destruction of national identity by an entity that HE mainstreaming of homosexuality took a long time. believes national identity is the problem. If getting out of the Gore Vidal’s The City and the Pillar, a literary medi- EU is a “leap in the dark,” as the prime minister likes to say, T ocrity but a cultural milestone, was published in 1948. why is that worse than locking yourself into a room that is Fifty-five years later, homosexual acts re mained clearly getting darker, with phantoms whose outlines are criminal in much of the United States, until Lawrence v. Texas already clear? To be fair to it, the EU was always remarkably was decided. The culture wasn’t quite sure where it stood: forthright about what it wanted to be when it grew up, and many Americans are generally liberal about these things, and posi- British people regard the EU as, at best, an answer to a prob- tive depictions of gay characters had been an ordinary part of lem that is not theirs. American culture for decades. But even after Lawrence, both Of course, for years Americans of right and left have urged Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama felt it prudent to Britain to stay in whether they like it or not, in the belief that run as candidates opposed to gay marriage in the 2008 Demo - Britain can have a free-market, Atlanticist influence on what cratic primaries. It wasn’t until last year that the Supreme Court might otherwise be a socialist juggernaut. All one can say is put the imprimatur of its civil-rights protection on gay mar- that anybody who thinks Britain can perform that task has riage with Obergefell v. Hodges. never studied the workings of the European Commission. No Transgenderism took a shorter and much more direct path. country has been voted against more. No country has been lis- There wasn’t a transgender City and the Pillar, or even a tened to less. The promise that it will be different tomorrow transgender Will and Grace. Hollywood has always had a soft will not do. There are those who say, “But that is because you spot for transvestite comedy, but mainly in the context of never really wanted it.” And it is true that Britain has always broad situational comedy well insulated from any messy sex- been suspicious of what its Continental friends were actually ual questions: Robin Williams cross-dresses to be close to his up to with this project. Which is one of the best reasons for children, Shawn and Marlon Wayans because they are dedi- Britain to let them get on with it but to remove itself from the cated FBI agents. It is a longstanding complaint (and one not path of their “progress.” without some basis) among advocates that media portrayals of If on June 23 Britons vote to stay, they will lose the only transgender characters are largely of the Silence of the Lambs leverage with Brussels they ever had—the possibility th at they variety, which used to be the Last Exit to Brooklyn variety and, might walk at any moment. That will mean inexorably closer before that, the Vengeance Is Mine variety (spoiler alert: “Juno union for Britain, too. A mandate for Brussels from the British was a man!”): serial killers, prostitutes (one-fifth of transgender people will mean that from now on Britain will just have to suck characters in film and television are prostitutes, by GLAAD’s up its European Commission refugee quotas (they vary among inventory), and vampiric deviants who scheme to ensnare het- EU member states and in any case are inadequate to the num- erosexual men. The anxiety surrounding the possibility that a bers arriving) and pay its financial dues like everyone else— straight man might fall into a transgender attraction gave us The and accept that from now on British influence in the world is Crying Game and M. Butterfly; Boys Don’t Cry was unique not primarily exercised not through the historical, political, and in being based on actual events (David Henry Hwang adapted military might of the fifth-largest economy in the world but M. Butterfly liberally from an actual episode) but in that the through an unelected and unaccountable bureaucracy, in transgender deception is perpetrated on a woman. Brussels, that is failing before everyone’s eyes. Thirty years passed between the American Psychiatric Asso - For years, the leadership in Brussels and Berlin summoned the ciation’s 1973 decision to remove homosexuality as a mental presence of the conservative Euroskeptic as a definition of the disorder from its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual and homo- Continent’s problem, something that held everyone else back sexuals’ arrival as a protected 14th Amendment class in Lawrence. from the sunlit uplands. As Britons look across the Continent The time lapse between the APA’s removal of “gender-identity today, with those uplands looking ever dimmer, not the least of disorder” (replaced with the less disorderly “gender dysphoria”) the year’s amusements is that the people who were most reviled and the emergence of transgender people as a protected class and ridiculed for the span of a political lifetime turned out to be under civil-rights law as interpreted by the Obama administra- the only people in Europe to have been right. tion: three years.

3 0 | www.nationalreview.com JUNE 1 3 , 2 0 1 6 2col_QXP-1127940309.qxp 5/24/2016 9:43 PM Page 31

The cultural changes accompanying the mainstreaming of New Black, and he appeared on the cover of Time over a transgenderism have been notably different from those that headline announcing “The Transgender Tipping Point.” Be - accompanied the mainstreaming of homosexuality. In the case cause my essay expressed a nonconforming view on the subject of homosexuals, the main cultural instrument was the sympa- (that surgical mutilation should not be considered therapeutic thetic example. As hectoring as the gay-rights movement so and that the rhetoric of “gender” should not be used to erad- often is, what changed Americans’ minds about homosexuals icate the fact of sex), there sprang into existence a campaign was the gradual realization that the leather boys in the Chelsea to have Google’s advertising network banish the Sun-Times parades are outliers within the gay experience just as they are as a forum for “hate speech” (the involved activists’ discus- outliers within the mainstream culture, that homosexuals can sion of that project, still available online at , is illu- be, and generally are, as ordinary and tedious as the rest of our minating) and of course to have NATIONAL REVIEW banished neighbors. That domestication of homosexuals, particularly of as well. A petition and social-media campaign was launched gay men, has been lamented, not least by Gore Vidal and others to have the Sun-Times fire me, and the Sun-Times eventually of his stripe. John Waters, the filmmaker who brought the drag announced its compliance, which was amusing, inasmuch as queen Divine to popular audiences, declares himself conflicted, I did not work for the Sun-Times. The newspaper has since telling The Advocate in 2011: “I’m for gay marriage. I don’t want memory-holed the episode. What’s notable here is that much to do it, but I certainly think people should be allowed to, and I of what I wrote relied upon an essay by Dr. Paul R. McHugh wouldn’t vote for anybody that would be against it. But at the published in the 1993 volume of Best American Essays, edited same time, why do we have to be good now? Why can’t we be that year by Joseph Epstein, who was himself the subject of a villains in movies?” Perhaps anticipating the worse that was yet protest and sit-in in response to his 1970s Harper’s essay to come, Waters continued: “Dumbbell censors are easy. You “The Struggle for Sexual Identity.” It is very difficult to use their quotes in the ad [for your movie]. Liberal censors are believe that a man such as Epstein would be permitted to edit much harder to fight.” such a volume today (he is now associated with explicitly The liberal censors (perverse term) have been aggressive on conservative outlets such as and The the transgender issue, the Millennial culture being notably New Criterion) or that McHugh’s essay would be published prohibitionary where the gay culture of the 1960s and 1970s in it, despite his expertise as the former chairman of the psy- was liberationist. For the Obama administration, that means chiatry department at Johns Hopkins, where he eventually using the cudgel of federal civil-rights litigation against North ended the practice of sex-reassignment surgery. Criticism of Carolina after authorities there offered a reasonable accom- the assumptions underpinning transgenderist rhetoric—that modation—private facilities—between those who claim a sex is “assigned at birth,” that there exists a “social con- gender identity at odds with their biological sex and those who struct” known as “gender” that is entirely independent of sex, object, not without some justification, to the presence of bio- that the male–female “binary” is the result of a sort of con- logically male persons in women’s restrooms and locker spiracy—is effectively silenced outside of explicitly conser- rooms. (That the converse possibility does not often come up vative organs. in discussion, and that it is not accompanied by similar anxi- ety, is perhaps another example of underlying sexual reality asserting itself in spite of our political and cultural attempts to HICH is to say, the cultural police power here is tripar- explain it away—which is to say, it is for roughly the same tite: Official political power backed by state violence reason that male teachers who have sexual relations with threatens to visit ruination on pronoun noncon- underage female students are treated much more harshly than Wformists and on noncompliant state and local powers; cultural are female teachers who have sex with underage male students.) institutions and activism silence nonconforming views; and the For New York City under the mayoralty of Bill de Blasio, that medical community uses its prestige to limit the range of accept- means threatening nonconforming businesses and other enti- able political opinion. ties subject to civil-rights litigation with quarter-million-dollar It is not as though the APA is immune to political persuasion, fines if they fail to adjust their language to the preferences of or even pretends to be: One of the refreshingly honest aspects a person describing himself as transgender, “regardless of of the campaign to abolish “gender-identity disorder” from the the individual’s sex assigned at birth, anatomy, gender, med- DSM was the frank acknowledgment that it was, in fact, a lob- ical history, appearance, or the sex indicated on the individ- bying campaign. There had been no great breakthrough in the ual’s identification.” (The superstition that sex is “assigned at scientific understanding of the phenomenon the APA now calls birth” rather than an aspect of biology is now deeply en- “gender dysphoria”: Transgender advocates objected to the trenched.) New York being New York, this extends to the use term “disorder” but also demanded that the APA keep some of the plural (“they/them/theirs”) for individuals, as well as sort of diagnosis on the books in order to compel insurance mandating the use, if demanded, of the invented gender-neutral companies to subsidize sex-change operations, now known sa pronouns “ze” and “hir.” “gender-affirmation” treatment. Concurrent reports in The The liberal censors who worry John Waters are not only Advocate were open about this being a political campaign— people with formal political power. In June 2014, the Chi - the word “lobbying” was commonly used—rather than a cago Sun-Times reprinted an essay I had written for NA TIONAL reevaluation of scientific evidence. Transgender advocate REVIEW titled “Laverne Cox Is Not a Woman.” Laverne Cox, Dana Beyer (formerly Wayne Beyer), who advised the Wash - formerly Roderick Cox (a fact scrupulously scrubbed from ington Psychiatric Society on related questions, also was Wikipedia and most of the public record), is a transgender explicitly political, insisting that the APA change meant thata “ actor playing a transgender prison inmate in Orange Is the right-winger can’t go out and say all trans people are mentally

3 1 2col_QXP-1127940309.qxp 5/24/2016 9:43 PM Page 32

ill.” If the standard is “dysphoria,” or feeling at odds with one’s sex, then, as Beyer put it, “it no longer matters what your body looks like, what you want to do to it—all of that is irrelevant as Gary Johnson far as the APA goes.” In his critical paper on the subject, McHugh asked: “Is it ethical to perform a surgery whose pur- pose is to make a male look like a female or a female to appear Asks You to male? Is it medical ly appropriate?” The question, so far as the APA is now concerned, is irrelevant. And the answer is officially unspeakable: “To perform surgery on a healthy body involves unnecessary risks; there- Google Him fore, [sex-reassignment surgery] violates the principle primum non nocere, ‘first, do no harm.’” The leading Libertarian candidate for Such surgery often is harmful, or produces harmful results, whereas its general therapeutic value still has not been estab- president sees a moment to seize lished. People who undergo sex-reassignment surgery have in several studies been found to have low scores on several mea- BY JOHN J. MILLER sures of physical and psychological health. A 2004 review of the literature conducted by researchers at the University of Birmingham found little evidence of therapeutic value and Lansing, Mich. cast doubt on prior scholarship, which the study argued was ARY JOHNSON likes to talk about the day Ted Cruz skewed toward positive outcomes by simply ignoring those quit the Republican presidential race. “My Google patients whom doctors lost track of—the ones most likely to G hits went up 5,000 percent,” says the former GOP be experiencing serious problems. Several patients who have governor of , now a Libertarian candi- undergone sex-change surgery have become vocal critics of date for president. He’s speaking to nearly a hundred support- the sometimes superficial evaluation process and the generally ers in a packed room on the second floor of the Radisson Hotel, lax standards of care. at a meet-and-greet on the evening of May 13. An activist from Which, strangely enough, brings us to the good news: There the Libertarian party’s Michigan wing passes out forms, seek- is an increasing number of people, particularly in the English- ing membership dues of $25 apiece. A cash bar in the corner speaking world and in Europe, who identify themselves as sells beer and wine, apparently because there’s no such thing transgender but who do not pursue irreversible surgical alter- as a free drink. ation. Indeed, under the ruthlessly enforced code of etiquette This is one of the Johnson campaign’s larger events, accord- surrounding this issue, it is considered bad form to inquire ing to aides. Just down the hall, roughly the same number of about such matters, even of a public figure: Katie Couric got a people attend a gathering of MITES, the unfortunate acronym lecture from Laverne Cox when she sympathetically inquired of the Michigan Industrial and Technology Education Society. about “transition,” and a thousand enraged commentaries fol- Wearing a pink shirt, blue blazer, and black Nikes, Johnson lowed. Among the transgender population at large, most do not begins to make his case: “Amazing things are happening!” seek genital surgery. Many, though by no means all, of those Starting with a mite-sized base makes it easy for Google hits to identifying as non-binary regard such surgery as irrelevant, or inflate like a balloon. Yet an expansion of 5,000 percent is in some cases as a cultural reinforcement of the very binary sex- impressive almost no matter what, and Johnson has jumped at the ual assumptions that they reject. chance to court Republicans who feel disoriented by the rise of That attitude probably should be encouraged. As silly and Donald Trump. “Look, I can’t support Trump. You can’t either,” dishonest as our rhetoric about the “ gender binary” can be, the he says in a one-minute video released on the day of Indiana’s fact that there exist people whose taste and behavior is at odds primary, when the New York populist be came the presumptive with classical sex roles would not have been news to a man of GOP nominee. “We can fight for and conser- the 19th century. Lytton Strachey wasn’t Stone Cold Steve vative values. Just Google ‘Gary Johnson’ and find out.” Austin. As a question of public policy, how a man or woman At a time when many conservatives harbor deep doubts about chooses to conduct his or her life is a much lower-order con- the man who will head the Republican ticket, Johnson enjoys an cern than the specific and, thanks to the deep involvement of unprecedented opportunity to attract the alienated—and to government in the health-care system, unavoidably political make the Libertarians relevant at the level of presidential pol- questions of whether our medical professionals engage in radical itics for the first time since the founding of their party in 1971. surgeries of questionable therapeutic value and whether hor- On May 18, a poll did something that almost no mone regimes and the like are extended to prepubescent chil- other major poll has done this year. It asked registered voters dren. On the matter of accommodations in changing rooms and to name their presidential preferences—and it included bathrooms, we might be tempted to say that there’s no real Johnson as an option. He drew 10 percent against Trump’s 42 need to make a federal case of it, if the Obama administration percent and Democrat Hillary Clinton’s 39 percent. In March, hadn’t already made a federal case of it. a Monmouth University poll reported a similar result: 11 per- But, as North Carolina has learned, toleration and accommo- cent for Johnson, including 13 percent of self-identified Re - dation are not sufficient for the culture warriors of the Left. publicans and 4 percent of Democrats. These numbers won’t What’s demanded instead is positive affirmation, which is why carry Johnson to the White House. Yet they’re a respectable culture war is war instead of conversation. showing for a guy who flies around the country in coach, carries

3 2 | www.nationalreview.com JUNE 1 3 , 2 0 1 6 2col_QXP-1127940309.qxp 5/24/2016 9:43 PM Page 33

his own luggage, and shakes hands with just about everybody Yet his continued advocacy of drug legalization is a major who attends his events. source of what popularity he still enjoys. “I’ve always main- Even if his polling fails to improve, Johnson could shape the tained that legal marijuana will lead to less substance abuse, presidential race in November. Many Republicans insist that starting with alcohol,” he says. “Nobody has ever documented a cost President George H. W. Bush his reelection in death due to a marijuana overdose.” Johnson says that he 1992, and lots of Democrats complain that but for Ralph stopped using marijuana long before he become governor, but he Nader’s name on Florida ballots, Al Gore would have beaten adds that he started again about a decade ago, for the medicinal Bush’s son in 2000. For his part, Johnson brushes off questions purpose of pain relief after a paragliding accident. When his about his potential role as a spoiler: “I wouldn’t be doing this injuries healed, he quit for a second time, but he took up the now if I didn’t think we had an opportunity to win.” practice once more after joining Sativa, a Nevada company that sells legal marijuana products. “As CEO, I felt I had an obligation,” he says. HE 63-year-old Johnson says that he became a libertar- Johnson also became a figure of abiding curiosity. “From the ian as a high-school student in Albuquerque, when he right angle, he looks like Harrison Ford,” wrote GQ, which read a short tract whose title and author he does not doesn’t normally print admiring profiles of former Republican Tremember. In 1972, he registered as a Democrat and voted for governors—let alone run pictures of them shirtless, as it did George McGovern “because of the war,” he says. He didn’t with Johnson in 2011. It turns out that there’s more to the man stay in the party for long. “As soon as I started making than vetoes and pot. He’s also a devotee of extreme fitness who money, I registered as a Republican.” This was around 1975, follows a gluten-free diet. As governor, Johnson marked an when he graduated from the and anniversary of the Bataan Death March by running 25 miles began a door-to-door handyman business that grew into a through the desert while wearing combat boots and a backpack, construction company with revenues in the tens of millions of and he also participated in Hawaii’s invitation-only Ironman dollars. He continued to regard himself as a libertarian in Championship—not just once, but three times. After spirit and even thought about running on the Libertarian line leaving office, he scaled , where his toes suffered in 1994, when he set his sights on the governorship of New permanent damage from frostbite. He has topped the tallest Mexico. Then he went to the party’s meeting in Bernalillo peak on each continent, completing the “” two County, the state’s largest. “It took about 45 seconds for me years ago with Mount Vinson in Antarctica. The day before his to come to grips with the fact that I would never get elected visit to Lansing, he embarked on one of his typical jaunts: a 74- as a Libertarian,” he says. “It wasn’t an organization and it mile bike ride in New Mexico. If he isn’t sitting in the Oval wasn’t my crowd.” So he entered the Republican race, won a Office in the summer of 2017, he has big plans: “I’ll ‘ride the close primary as a self-funder, and went on to beat an incum- bent Democrat by ten points. Vetoes made him famous. Johnson issued 739 of them, according to Ballotpedia, and that doesn’t count line- item vetoes of spending measures. “I turned them into an art form,” he says now. He didn’t win every battle, as the Democrat-dominated legislature sometimes overrode him. He also never came close to establishing the state wide school-voucher program he envisioned and repeatedly pro- posed. Yet he slowed the growth of government, presided over a series of tax cuts, and finished his eight years in office with fewer employ- ees on the state payroll than when he started. National notoriety struck during his second term, when Johnson be- came probably the highest-ranking elected official in the United States ever to back drug legalization. He called it his “outrageous hypothesis,” and he knew it was politically provoca- tive. The denunciations poured in. Some of the loudest came from , then a district attorney and now the GOP . “I have effectively pulled the pin on my political career,” Johnson confessed at the time, in an ROMAN GENN interview with Reason.

3 3 2col_QXP-1127940309.qxp 5/24/2016 9:43 PM Page 34

Divide,’” he says, referring to a mountain-bike race of more private innovation will continue to solve problems: “The future than 2,700 miles along the Continental Divide, from Canada to is Uber everything,” he says. “Not just for rides, but for doctors, the U.S. border with Mexico. lawyers, and everything.” In 2011, Johnson announced his candidacy for president—as Johnson supports gay marriage and calls himself pro-choice on a Republican. At a September debate, he had one of the fall’s abortion, but he also believes Roe was wrongly decided and says best quips: “My next-door neighbor’s two dogs have created that abortion should be legal only “up to the point of the viability more shovel-ready jobs than this current administration,” in a of the fetus, when it can be sustained outside the womb even if by line he possibly borrowed from . This was artificial means.” (As governor, he favored a parental-consent Johnson’s first shining moment, but also his last: He wasn’t law as well as a ban on late-term abortions and won the endorse- invited to another debate. “It’s a rigged game,” he says. “To de- ment of the Right to Life Committee of New Mexico when he bate, we had to poll at a certain level, but pollsters didn’t ran for reelection.) On immigration, he cites his experience as a include me in their surveys.” border-state governor, scoffs at walls and fences, and talks about Even before this, he had started to question his future in the a generous program of work visas. On judges, he offers the name party. As he watched a Fox News debate that had excluded of a man he says he’d nominate to the Supreme Court: Bruce him, Bret Baier asked the eight candidates present to raise Fein, who is perhaps best described as an iconoclastic former their hands if they would walk away from a federal budget Republican. On foreign policy, he speaks the language of “non- deal that included $10 in spending cuts for every $1 in tax intervention.” Johnson says he has heard the mash-up term increases. From Mitt Romney on down, all eight raised their “conservatarian,” but he doesn’t use it and has not read The hands. “I couldn’t believe it,” says Johnson. “If you think Conservatarian Manifesto, by NATIONAL REVIEW writer Charlie spending is the biggest problem facing the country, you accept Cooke. He urges voters to visit a website: iSideWith.com, that deal. I didn’t raise taxes a penny in New Mexico, but this which offers a political quiz and tries to match participants with was just common sense.” like-minded candidates. So Johnson quit the GOP and ran for president as a Libertarian. Johnson hopes to attract Republicans turned off by Trump, In the general election, he won almost 1.3 million votes, or nearly but he thinks he also shares a bit of Trump’s outsider appeal. 1 percent of the total. For many Libertarians, this was an invigo- “The pitch that Donald Trump is making to the country is similar rating result. Never before had so many Americans voted for a to the one I made in New Mexico. I’d never been in politics, I member of their party. This year, Libertarian officials believe was successful in business, and I knew how to make things they’re poised to improve, particularly because their candidate is work,” he says. Then he continues: “But I’ve never said any- likely to appear on the ballot in all 50 states for only the second thing as uninformed as wanting to deport 11 million people, time in American history ( was the first in 1980). raise tariffs to 35 percent, kill the families of terrorists, and On May 18, Johnson announced his running mate: William force Apple to make its products in the United States.” Weld, who won two elections as governor in in Johnson recognizes his unique opportunity among anti- the 1990s, serving as a Republican. This choice means that the Trump Republicans: “Cruz would have held this thing together.” Libertarian ticket possibly will have more governing experience Yet he also believes he can pick up disaffected Democrats, than the Democratic and Republican tickets combined. Johnson’s especially among the millions who have supported Bernie immediate goal is to capture his party’s nomination at its national Sanders in the primaries: “When Hillary Clinton clinches the convention over Memorial Day weekend in Orlando, Fla., where nomination, where do all those Bernie voters go?” He adds that he comes in as a heavy favorite, having won a series of straw polls. when he answered the questions posed by iSideWith.com, he If Johnson prevails, his next objective will be to earn a spot found himself aligned with a few of his rivals for the Liber- in the presidential debates in the fall. “There’s no way a third tarian nomination. “Outside of them, I was closest to Bernie,” party wins the presidency without being in the debates,” he he says, expressing surprise at the result and hoping it might says. “You’ve got to have a microphone in your mouth, broad- lead to a new source of support. “Holy cow!” casting to tens of millions of people instead of nobody.” The Perhaps the anti-Trump and anti-Hillary factions will give Commission on Presidential Debates plans to use its usual Johnson a look, and then a boost. Given this year’s baffling pol- selection criteria: Getting on stage will require candidates to itics, who can say with certainty that the former governor of meet a threshold of 15 percent in five national polls. “Just put New Mexico won’t play a part? me in the polls!” says Johnson. “They can’t say I’m not polling Libertarian optimists might find comfort by re-reading Milton well if they’re not polling me at all.” Friedman: “Only a crisis—actual or perceived—produces real change,” he wrote in a 1982 preface to Capitalism and Free - dom. “When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend F voters simply pay attention, says Johnson, he’ll do well: on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic “The majority of people are libertarian and just don’t know function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep it.” Johnson describes himself as “fiscally conservative them alive and available until the politically impossible Iand socially tolerant.” He wants to balance the federal budget becomes politically inevitable.” Perhaps this has been the true through a mix of pro-growth policies, spending discipline purpose of Libertarians all along—to lie around until 2016, (including military cuts), and federalism. He supports the Fair when they finally could present themselves to the legions of Tax—i.e., replacing federal taxes with a single national con- voters who suddenly wondered whether they still had a home in sumption tax—but says he would settle for a . To preserve the old-fashioned two-party system. Social Security, he would raise the retirement age, introduce a In the months ahead, Gary Johnson will be waiting for them, means test, and allow personal investments. Free markets and just a Google search away.

3 4 | www.nationalreview.com JUNE 1 3 , 2 0 1 6 lileks--READY_QXP-1127940387.qxp 5/24/2016 9:26 PM Page 35

Athwart BY JAMES LILEKS To Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before

NE of the most dependable ways to ensure is Powerful. Mind you, there aren’t many bathtubs in public the Glorious Future for the People is to ren- bathrooms, which is a very good thing; you’d try to line it der the past indefensible. Today’s lesson with toilet paper and that wouldn’t work at all. Unisex bath- O from the bright-eyed scribes at the website rooms would not have bathtubs, but never mind. We have Buzzfeed: “Gender Segregated Bathrooms Have a Long two new ideas in the mix: abjection and sexual deviance. Ugly History.” As for the first, I have no idea what the author is talking You might have thought that there were different bath- about. I have seen abject bathrooms, but they were usually rooms because men and women were different. Oh no. It’s in the back of a Greyhound bus. As for sexual deviance, part of the relentless imposition of Gendered Spaces on a well, transgender people are literally deviant in the old sense sullen population by the dark forces of history—possibly on of the word, as in “deviating from the norm,” but if you the orders of J. P. Morgan, American Standard, and the Por - believe that the norm is a social construct and should be ce lain Trust. Now that we know that gender is utterly subjec- done away with—along with other norms and the idea of the tive and that men think they’re men because the doctor norm, and anyone named Norm—then sure, these Powerful swaddled them in a blue blanket when they were born, we Spaces of Abjection are— realize that bathrooms aren’t just for bodily duties and the What were we talking about again? Oh. Right. Trans- occasional humiliating peal of concussive release. They are bathroom anxiety, which might bother a few people if Gendered Spaces, and hence they have a Shameful History. they’re inclined to stare at everyone who enters the bath- Start with “Segregation,” which we all know is bad. That room. Most don’t care and are tired of being told they have guy who shot a video of himself asking Target employees if to care. What’s interesting about the debate, though, is the he could use the women’s room even though he was obvi- way it upends progressive tenets. I read an article in which ously a guy? ROSA PARKS. Or maybe Ross. an advocate for anyone-in-any-room-whatever-your-tackle The article lays out the grim situation: said that it wouldn’t be a problem, because you could obvi- ously tell who was going into the wrong bathroom or shower Cultural anxieties about bodily secretions, disease, sex, for jollies: They would not look like a woman. Copious arm shame, and power—codified into law and reinforced by Hollywood—have allowed the segregated institution to hair, a no-no; feminine dress, a plus; and of course, if they stand. But should we let it? accessorized. So if you say to a woman with a lot of arm hair wearing jeans and a shirt and no makeup or jewelry, “You I think you know the answer to that. No. We must march don’t look like a woman,” you are a horrible sexist, but if a and we must chant. WE’RE BIRDS! OFAFEATHER! WE MUST man dresses up like a parody of ’50s femininity, that’s VOID OUR BOWELS TOGETHER! If there is a cultural anxiety okay—and applauding the cliché is a sign of enlightenment. about something, you see, it’s proof of a phobia, an irrational Haven’t we been told that the physical or psychological belief. Personally, I want to live in a society that has a cul- impact of growing up female in this society is formative to tural anxiety about bodily secretions, because the alternative the female identity? Now you can skip all that and proceed is someone saying, “Well, Bob’s done his business in the directly to GO. If you have to go. corner of the break room again.” The author femalesplains some more about how men feel But it was codified into law! Reinforced by Hollywood! in bathrooms and the come-one-come-all policy: “It invites We all remember Bogart pistol-whipping Lauren Bacall the fear of the abject—and of homosexual desire—to fester when she tried to use the men’s room in To Go and Go Not. in these spaces.” These twin oppressive systems have allowed the institution This Festering Fear could be seen as a matter of privacy— of sex-specific bathrooms to stand, when it was clearly with- and we have a right to privacy, correct? It’s in the Con sti tu - in their power to strike a blow toward a shining future when tion and everything. Perhaps a fella simply doesn’t want a males and females blow the bilges in the same room without bloke looking at his capabilities because he does not want Cultural Anxieties. You know, like Bonobo monkeys. They’re to be sexualized while performing a basic human activity. awesome! They have sex with anything. In other words: He doesn’t want to be subjected to the Male We continue: Gaze, which feminist theory has said for years is de hu - manizing, invasive, threatening, and the summation of Hollywood’s depiction of the bathroom reveals it to be one of the most powerful spaces for informing our cultural anx- men’s awful sexual dominance. ieties around gender, bodily shame, abjection, disease, and Except when it’s not! sexual deviance. Next up: The Long Ugly History of Stall Dividers, and how an Open Bathroom fosters community. You’ll be lec- Ah: Our anxieties, which are cultural, are being in formed tured on your Privacy Privileges and reviled for your Abject by movies, and hence we see the bathtub as a Space, which Phobias. What will be everyone’s response when that’s the new thing we all must believe? Mr. Lileks blogs at www.lileks.com. Hold it until you get home.

3 5 longview--READY_QXP-1127940387.qxp 5/24/2016 9:25 PM Page 36

The Long View BY ROB LONG

devastating psychological effect on To that end, the team and I have put your opponent. together some key “psychological 2. HUMA VS. MELANIA operations,” or “PSYOPS,” that we’ll Without a doubt, Huma is the more be developing over the coming weeks. attractive and “classy” companion/ None of these, obviously, are set in aide-de-camp. Your opponent no doubt stone, but it’s a good snapshot of where Memorandum senses this, and his competitiveness we are with our thinking. As always, will be intense and will lead him to we remain at the ready to do whatever TO: HRC make mistakes during the debates. We your bidding or desires might require. FROM: D. BROCK suggest making sure these two are Vulnerabilities IN RE: DEBATE STRATEGIES, seated close together, and during the Your opponent has four key areas of PSYOPS opening pleasantries when the two of weakness, and we recommend exploit- you walk onstage, that you whisper to ing them as follows: Dear H: your opponent something like, “Gee, 1. INSECURITIES I don’t need to tell you how ugly and it’s nice to see your mom here!” Your opponent loves money—really nasty this campaign is going to be. 3. NEEDLE-TIPPED SHOES more than anything or anyone—and to Your opponent has already dragged We also recommend installing the extent that this is verifiable infor- the discourse down to an almost un - small retractable needles—barely vis- mation, you almost certainly have more believably gutter level. But let’s face ible to the naked eye; utterly unde- of it than she, when it’s all properly facts: It’s all going to come down to the tectable under camera lights—in the totaled up. We recommend exploiting debates, and in that setting, you must toes of both of your shoes. A small, this weakness of hers, during the de - be prepared to do what it takes. quick kick to the shins or calf, during bates, by removing a $100 bill every To that end, the team and I have put breaks or introductions, could inject a few moments and casually lighting it together some key “psychological powerful psychotropic substance deep on fire. Her eyes will be unable to focus operations,” or “PSYOPS,” that we’ll into your opponent’s neural network, on anything else, and she will lose her be developing over the coming weeks. such as it is, resulting in a truly terrify- concentration watching her most be - None of these, obviously, are set in ing debate performance. loved thing consumed and destroyed by stone, but it’s a good snapshot of where 4. WEIGHT flame. (NOTE: This will require at least we are with our thinking. As always, This really bugs him. He’s getting $20,000 in cash. Is this possible??) we remain at the ready to do whatever fatter during the campaign. Some- 2. HUMA VS. MELANIA your bidding or desires might require. thing along the lines of “ISIS has No contest. During the pre-debate Vulnerabilities more sleeper cells than my opponent pleasantries, maybe say something Your opponent has four key areas of has chins!” Or: “The middle class is like, “Is that Madeleine Albright sit- weakness, and we recommend exploit- stretched more than my opponent’s ting next to Melania?” ing them as follows: shirt buttons!” 3. CHEMICAL WARFARE 1. INSECURITIES Your submissive servant, She will undoubtedly try to inject a Your opponent has deep-seated inse- David poison or psilocybin delivery device curity issues surrounding his relation- into your central nervous system. Our ship with his parents and his trouble suggestion is to allow her to do this. getting the approval of his father. We You have already shown your ability to are working on a version of a technol- Memorandum prevail in a structured debate experi- ogy that’s currently in use on the ence without resorting to traditional social-media application Snapchat, TO: DJT psychological stability, and the result- called a “face swap,” which allows FROM: R. STONE ing “free-form” responses you give will the user to “swap” a face with another IN RE: DEBATE STRATEGIES AND boost the focus-group dial test. person. We’re trying now to develop INTEL 4. WEIGHT a “face projection” version, which While it is true that your opponent would allow us to “project” a holo- Dear Mr. T: has struggled with weight issues dur- graphic image of Fred Trump onto I don’t need to tell you how ugly and ing the campaign, we think it impru- your face during the debates, which nasty this campaign is going to be. dent to “go there,” as the kids say, until would enable you to “speak” directly Your opponent has already dragged at least the campaign formally takes to your opponent as if you were his the discourse down to an almost un - delivery of the new, white spread- father. “I am very disappointed in you, believably gutter level. But let’s face collar dress shirts in collar size 18½. Donald,” said in a growling lower- facts: It’s all going to come down to the Your devoted and passionate and register voice (something we know debates, and in that setting, you must submissive servant, you can do very well!), would have a be prepared to do what it takes. Roger

3 6 | www.nationalreview.com JUNE 1 3 , 2 0 1 6 books_QXP-1127940387.qxp 5/24/2016 3:54 PM Page 37 Books, Arts & Manners

living critic of English-language poetry tions of his tragic era—Communism, Beyond the and has edited Tennyson and Bob Dylan nationalism, Fascism, Nazism—or the as well as earlier editions of Eliot’s poet- nihilistic aestheticism of French and ry, including a 75th-anniversary edition English writers such as Gide and Language of of “The Waste Land” (1997). He also Virginia Woolf. And his inter-war, was chosen to be the editor of the most international cultural journal The The Living recent edition of The Oxford Book of Criterion (1922–39) attempted to keep English Verse (1999), perhaps the high- alive or resurrect the humane features M. D. AESCHLIMAN est honor that can be paid to a scholar of Western and world civilization that and critic of English poetry. Ricks’s out- were so lethally denied and damaged by standing books of the depressions, ideologies, revolu- include one of the great ones on Eliot, T. S. tions, and wars. Eliot and Prejudice (1988), a profound The great feature of the Ricks-McCue study of Eliot as a conservative thinker, edition is not its definitive, documentary vindicating in painstaking and precise completeness—though this is a massive detail John Henry Newman’s 1841 con- scholarly achievement—but the quality tention that “if we must insist on proofs of its commentaries on and annotations for everything, we shall never come to of the poems. For Eliot’s work, like that action: to act you must assume, and that of all the truly great writers, elicits assumption is faith.” response and enforces judgment from Ricks quotes with approval Eliot’s the individual at the highest psycho- 1916 comment that among “the funda- logical, intellectual, and moral levels. The Poems of T. S. Eliot: The Annotated Text, mental beliefs of an intellectual conser- Commenting in the sixth chorus to “The edited by Christopher Ricks and Jim vatism” is a “distrust of the promises of Rock” (1934) on the illusions of secular, McCue (Johns Hopkins; Volume , ,344 1 1 the future” and a “conviction that the “progressive,” and Marxist views of pp., $44.95; Volume 2, 688 pp., $39.95) future, if there is to be any, must be built human nature and history, Eliot writes: upon the wisdom of the past.” Nineteen- “They constantly try to escape / From the HE publication of this defini- sixteen was the middle of World War I, darkness outside and within / By dream- tive, annotated edition of all the year of the Battle of the Somme, ing of systems so perfect that no one will of T. S. Eliot’s poems in when 60,000 men were killed in three need to be good. / But the man that is will December 2015 coincided days. By the end of this “war to end all shadow / The man that pretends to be.” Twith the 50th anniversary of Eliot’s wars,” which did not, Europe had been In the first chorus, he reiterates the death and must surely be one of the left in waste and the Whig-liberal idea of deepest moral intuition of Western civi- scholarly monuments of humane letters permanent, cumulative, collective, irre- lization since Socrates and the Penta - of this decade, a contention widely con- versible, inevitable progress should have teuch: “The world turns and the world firmed already by reviews in the schol- been interred with the 13 million dead. changes, / But one thing does not arly press. Many years in preparation One of the great paradoxes of Eliot’s change. / In all of my years, one thing and over 2,000 pages in length, it is life and work is that this profoundly con- does not change. / However you dis- monastic in its scrupulous fidelity to the servative man was also the most brilliant guise it, this thing does not change: / texts, including details of their publish- and influential avant-garde debunker and The perpetual struggle of Good and ing history and textual variants. satirist of his age, one who was accused of Evil.” In a great passage from The Its editors are Professor Sir Christo - being a “literary Bolshevik” in his attack Gulag Archipelago 40 years later, pher Ricks, co-director of the Editorial on Edwardian aesthetic and social prefer- Solzhenitsyn would make the same Institute at Boston University, and his ences and self-satisfaction. The reason the point, which Martin Luther King also former Cambridge student Jim McCue, a vast Ricks-McCue edition of Eliot’s made in the “Letter from Birmingham journalist at the London Times for 15 poems should be of great interest to the City Jail.” “To do away with the sense years, the author of a book on Edmund world beyond the academy is that Eliot of sin,” Eliot wrote in 1939, “is to do Burke, and the editor of works of Pope, was, more than any other modern poet in away with civilization.” Ben Jonson, A. H. Clough, Henry James, any major language, a “world-historical The commentaries on such texts are an and Housman. Ricks may be the finest poet,” a writer whose forms, subjects, index of the editors’ sensibilities and themes, and religious-philosophical views judgments as well as of their knowledge. Mr. Aeschliman is a professor of Anglophone culture responded to and meditated on the tragic Quoting Eliot in their short introduction at the University of Italian Switzerland, a professor history of the West and the world from to this edition, Ricks and McCue want to emeritus of education at Boston University, and the 1910 until his death in 1965. Unlike so distinguish between explanation and author of The Restitution of Man: C. S. many other modernists, Eliot never suc- interpretation, and they scrupulously Lewis and the Case against Scientism. cumbed to the major political tempta- resist the latter in the interest of the for-

SPONSORED BY National Review Institute 3 7 books_QXP-1127940387.qxp 5/24/2016 3:54 PM Page 38

BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS

mer. Like good rationalist critics from Santayana had made devastating objec- called “a world of incessant autobiogra- to C. S. Lewis to E. D. Hirsch tions to Whitman’s barbaric primitivism.) phy” that led to Eliot’s revulsion from (in his important 1967 book Validity in Eliot wrote in 1945 that the early arbitrary, self-indulgent, histrionic sub- Interpretation), they assume that respect work of the great French Catholic neo- jectivism—Whitman on the American for and understanding of authorial inten- Thomist philosopher Jacques Maritain scene—and to his praise of aesthetic tion is the necessary initial activity of had made a deep impression on him, and impersonality and the trans-personal the literary critic and the common read- the comment helpfully points up two character of religious orthodoxy. er. This puts their effort and achieve- important capacities that helped create Though himself no Christian, Babbitt ment in profound contrast to our his great cultural authority: his unusual prepared the way for Eliot to appreciate now-dominant academic critical con- command of the French language and and join the anti-Romantic, anti- sensus, as represented by Derrida, Paul (he spent a year study- subjectivist, neo-Thomist Catholic revival de Man, Richard Rorty, and the recently ing in Paris) and his intimate grasp of in France and England whose greatest deceased Geoffrey Hartman, who deliv- the frighteningly complex condition of names in France were Jacques Maritain, ered himself of utterances such as this: philosophy in the modern world (he whom he met in 1926, and Etienne “Formal critical commentary is not very completed all of the coursework for his Gilson. Eliot withstood and critiqued the different from fiction itself.” doctorate in philosophy at Harvard and temptation to Fascism to which figures Observation and description are one many years later published his disser- he knew and admired, such as Charles thing; evaluation is another. Ricks and tation). These two interests were cru- Maurras and Ezra Pound, tragically McCue’s annotations provide a verita- cially stimulated by Eliot’s momentous succumbed. This fascinating and noble ble course in Western literature, in encounter at Harvard with the conserv- chapter in Eliot’s life has been well dis- which they see Eliot, for all his novelty, ative, neoclassical humanist teacher cussed in his friend ’s as profoundly embedded. In critiquing (1865–1933), who learned book Eliot and His Age: T. S. the idea of collective progress and its taught French literature but also had Eliot’s Moral Imagination in the accompanying “Whig interpretation of profound philosophical-religious inter- Twentieth Century (1971), in Roger history,” Eliot bore witness to the rich- ests in Buddhist and Hindu thought and Kojecky’s T. S. Eliot’s Social Criticism ness of past human cultural achieve- their possible usefulness for a conserva- (1971), and in Ricks’s T. S. Eliot and ments—both to their ingenuity and to tive “New .” Prejudice, which provide powerful argu- their provision of resources for intelli- It is a strength of the Ricks-McCue ments against that left-wing critique of gent and sensitive living. editorial material that they quote fre- Eliot that would discredit him by associ- The Ricks-McCue annotations show quently from Babbitt’s critical writings, ating him with Fascism. us that the deepest and most long-lasting which gave Eliot a deeply meditated Against the numerous extremist here- influence on Eliot—from youth to and lucidly written introduction to the sies of the period from 1914 to 1965, age—was Dante, an “obsession” of conservative French intellectual tradi- Eliot’s persistent, concentric “moral which the otherwise-admiring critic F. R. tion in its critique of “Rousseau and imagination” drew ever more deeply on Leavis disapproved. Shakespeare and ” (a subject on which Dante and the central classical-Christian Dickens were certainly the central figures Babbitt wrote, in 1919, a book that is tradition of which Dante is the greatest in Eliot’s experience of English literature, still valuable today) and their progeny poet: For Eliot, no French writer so authoritative and pervasive that he down to Eliot’s own time in Paris, approached Dante in sanity, wisdom, or rarely wrote about them; his widow tells where Babbitt had studied and taught visionary eloquence. The austere, judi- us that “he would often quote passages of as a guest professor. Though Eliot was cious moralist-critic Irving Babbitt had Dickens to me from memory, especially enormously influenced by the French served for Eliot a role similar to the one when he was happy.” But Eliot spent his decadents, symbolists, and aesthetes Virgil served for Dante. time and critical attention instead on in poetry—particularly Baudelaire, The commentaries and annotations of neglected 17th-century English drama- Mallarmé, and Laforgue—for his Ricks and McCue thus provide what tists, poets, and prose writers and late- approach to the tawdry, banal life of amounts to an aesthetic, cultural, and 19th-century French poets, critics, and the great modern city, his philosophi- ethical history of the 75 years, between philosophers. Ricks and McCue show cal bearings were taken by reference 1890 and 1965, that encompassed so how suffused Eliot’s mind, memory, and to the classical, anti-Romantic, anti- much tragedy and destruction and dur- ear were with the poetry of Tennyson and revolutionary French critics to whom ing which Eliot became the world- Kipling (an anthology of whose work he Babbitt introduced him. historical poet. From Eliot’s earliest edited) and the prose of Poe, Hawthorne, Babbitt wrote, of one of these critics, efforts as a schoolboy, we can observe and Henry James. As against our influen- that he believed French literature had his growth in a uniquely revealing way: tial, voluble, Freudian-Gnostic critic “been invaded by that instinct for posing The fastidious upper-class aesthete, Harold Bloom, they document little and stage effect to which, in its lower hunting the Philistines and mocking influence from Walt Whitman, whom forms, the French give the name caboti- them, grows into the orthodox Christian Eliot disliked. In 1928, he wrote: “I did nage.” Babbitt commented: “It would moralist and visionary poet, illuminat- not read Whitman until much later in life, not be easy to exaggerate this element in ing loving solicitude for his fellow and had to conquer an aversion to his French character, especially since human beings. It is an edifying specta- form, as well as to much of his matter, in Rousseau and the romanticists.” It was cle, now permanently documented in order to do so.” (Eliot’s teacher George this sense of what C. S. Lewis later these two volumes.

3 8 | www.nationalreview.com JUNE 1 3 , 2 0 1 6 5/2/2016 2:47 PM Page 1 books_QXP-1127940387.qxp 5/24/2016 3:54 PM Page 39

Power (1971) showed that the profession- Crumbs of al upper middle class, once a mainstay of JAY NORDLINGER’S the GoP, had in the Nixon years migrated to the anti-war wing of the Democratic C H I L D R E N The Upper party. Contemptuous of blue-collar America, the upper-end professionals of MO N ST ER S Crust wanted to become the party of the “aris- tocrats—en masse.” Likewise, Simon An Inquiry into the Sons and Daughters of Dictators FRED SIEGEL reflects on the ways in which liberal “compassion” became a “masquerade for Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the selfishness, a way for elites to feel good Party of the People?, by Thomas Frank about themselves” while insulating them- (Metropolitan, 320 pp., $27) selves from accountability. Simon describes this masquerade as a I Know Best: How Moral Narcissism Is Destroying form of narcissism in which “what you Our Republic, If It Hasn’t Already, by Roger L. believe, or claim to believe or say you Simon (Encounter, 224 pp., $25.99) believe—not what you do or how you act The Closing of the Liberal Mind: How Groupthink or what the results of your actions may and Intolerance Define the Left, by Kim R. be—[determine] how your life will be judged.” Kim Holmes of the Heritage Holmes (Encounter, 312 pp., $25.99) Foundation, in his new book, describes the same disconnect, in which words are wo hundred and forty years judged independently of actions, but he ago, Americans fought the calls it “postmodernism.” “The postmod- English aristocracy to secure ernist Left,” he writes, “is radically sub- their . Today, as our jective, arguing that all truth is merely a bicoastal elites have achieved political matter of interpretation.” And liberals, t’s a fascinating question: What’s it like T to be the son or daughter of a dictator? dominance, we’ve succumbed to the because they hold largely uncontested The offspring of a . . . Stalin? Or Mao? powers of a new aristocracy. Three infor- power in Hollywood, Silicon Valley, and IOr a tin-horn dictator from an African hell- mative new books all deal with the poli- most of the media, generally get to decide hole? Jay Nordlinger’s answers to these and other questions are engaging, witty, insight- tics of our ruling class. which interpretation shall prevail. ful, and make for a hell of a good read. Thomas Frank, who wrote the best- Liberalism’s dreams of an American Here’s praise from outstanding historians for selling What’s the Matter with Kansas? aristocracy, as I explained in my 2014 Jay and his outstanding book: (2004), admonishes the Democratic party book The Revolt against the Masses, were MARK HELPRIN: “A magnetic page- for its residual moderation, and Roger L. integral to the modern ideology from its turner that nonetheless is complex and deep. The fascinating and horrific details Simon, a playwright and novelist and very inception in the aftermath of world Nordlinger unearths flow together to pose one of the founders of PJ Media, writes war I. High-toned New Deal liberals important and disturbing questions about from a conservative perspective. They looked down on Harry Truman, the love, loyalty, history, and human nature.” come at the issue from different angles Kansas City haberdasher, but liberal social ANDREW ROBERTS: “This extraordi- but reach surprisingly congruent conclu- snobbery emerged with full force in the nary book makes us all ask of ourselves: What would we do if we realized that our sions. “Today,” notes Frank, “liberalism Kennedyites’ open disdain for Lyndon beloved father was also a blood-stained is the philosophy not of the sons of toil” Johnson. LBJ biographer Robert Caro tyrant? . . . Jay Nordlinger’s exceptional but of the winners in the “knowledge described the denizens of Camelot as peo- investigation into the children of 20 mod- ern dictators grips and convinces.” economy”: “Silicon Valley chieftains, the ple who were “in love with their own big university systems, and the wall sophistication”: They were “such an in- PAUL JOHNSON: “Jay Nordlinger is Street titans who gave so much to Barack group, and they let you know they were in, one of America’s most versatile and pun- gent writers.” obama’s 2008 campaign.” Similarly, and you were not.” “Think of the snotty Simon shows how “moral narcissism has arrogance displayed,” Caro continued, “as The late ROBERT CONQUEST: “Few writers are well qualified to write about allowed the Democratic party to become these people laughed at LBJ’s accent, his the world’s cultures, and none more so a hidden party of the rich, thus wounding mispronunciations, his clothes, his wife.” than Jay Nordlinger.” the middle class.” In the years since Kennedy, liberal poli- BERNARD LEWIS: “Nordlinger Frank traces the origins of today’s tics has been driven by an alliance of the offers a unique combination of depth liberal elitism back to the McGovern top and the bottom, the over-credentialed and accuracy of knowledge with clarity years and the influential arguments of and the under-credentialed, against the and elegance of style. It is a pleasure to read sophistication without affectation.” washington lobbyist Fred Dutton. middle. Liberals, notes the American-born Dutton’s book The Changing Sources of British journalist Janet Daley, have taken on the pseudo-aristocratic tone of disdain ORDER TODAY AT Mr. Siegel is a contributing editor of the Manhattan for the aspiring, struggling middle class AMAZON OR AT YOUR Institute’s City Journal and a scholar in residence at that is such a familiar part of the British LOCAL BOOKSTORE Brooklyn’s St. Francis College. scene. Rather than face up to the failures of

SPONSORED BY National Review Institute 3 9 base_new_milliken-mar 22.qxd 4/20/2016 1:10 PM Page 2 base_new_milliken-mar 22.qxd 4/20/2016 1:10 PM Page 3 books_QXP-1127940387.qxp 5/24/2016 3:54 PM Page 42

BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS

the Great Society to fully incorporate Ruling Class,” “when the governing elites African Americans into the general Ameri - were made up of such a tight, hermetic, The can prosperity, liberals have lost interest and incestuous clique.” in social mobility: The aim now is to make But with Obama, the ties have grown the marginal more comfortable. (The even tighter. Ninety percent of the first Regressive problem is not solely with liberals: Social Obama administration’s staffers had a snobbery blinded most politicians to the professional degree of some kind; some Progressives rumblings that emerged as .) 25 percent had either graduated from , explains Kim Holmes, Harvard or taught there. The situation STEVEN F. HAYWARD was strongly influenced by the political Frank describes is a government of, by, philosophy of John Rawls. When Presi - and for the increasingly self-interested dent Clinton criticized the welfare system professionals. When the Russians recently as “trapping” people in poverty, he was, invaded parts of Syria, the worst thing says Holmes, “trying to find a balance,” the Obama administration could think to as Rawls did, “between liberty and the say about them was that their actions welfare state.” Thomas Frank will have were “unprofessional.” none of it: Against those Democratic- Clinton’s critics rightly bemoaned his party moderates who found Clinton close ties to Treasury Secretary Robert preferable to the Republicans, he thun- Rubin, formerly of Citibank, whose alle- ders: “Bill Clinton was not the lesser of giance to the bond market was unrivaled. two evils. . . . He was the greater of the But something similar has happened two.” Frank denounces both the 1994 under Obama, without receiving nearly as Illiberal Reformers: Race, Eugenics, and American crime bill and welfare reform as perfidi- much notice. The current president speaks Economics in the Progressive Era, by Thomas C. ous acts, without providing empirical often of inequality, but he is exacerbating Leonard (Princeton, 264 pp., $35) evidence to support his assertions. it with his misguided monetary policy. Holmes points out that, in recent years, The near-zero interest rates imposed by ONSERVATIVES enjoyed extra liberals have jettisoned any affection for Obama’s Fed have pushed profit seekers helpings at the all-you-can- the evidence-based arguments of the into Wall Street stocks, which have soared eat schadenfreude buffet Clinton years and adopted instead an even as the Main Street economy has when leftists at Princeton “epistemic relativism” that assumes that stalled because credit has become harder Cmade the astonishing discovery that “all knowledge is expedient and politi- to come by. Parsimonious middle-class Woodrow Wilson was a racist and de - cized.” Holmes describes postmodern lib- families and small businesses have been manded that his name be struck from eralism as “schizophrenic”: In the name the losers in Obamanomics. In the midst Princeton’s well-known school of public of an identity politics advancing the inter- of Obama’s moralizing about inequality, affairs. Wilson’s racism and other unap- est of putative victims, it marries episte- his presidency has actually produced a pealing traits have long been well known mological skepticism and the absolute record-low level of new-business cre- among conservatives but came as news certainties of politically correct postur- ation, while thrifty families facing retire- to the liberal ignorati. ing. Obama exemplifies this double ment find that their savings earn them The revisionist literature on Pro - game. Obama the cultural relativist, who barely 1 percent. gressivism and the New Deal, once the is not a Muslim but has a strong affinity “Nothing,” writes Thomas Frank, “is near-exclusive province of conservative for Islam, insists that the Islam he en- more characteristic of the liberal class authors and a few eclectic economic countered as a young boy in Indonesia than its members’ sense of their own ele- historians, has been “going main - was a religion of peace (even as he asserts vated goodness.” The liberals’ need to stream” for quite a while. The old narra- that Western civilization should still be repeatedly signal their virtue has become tive of brave and altruistic Progressive doing penance for the Crusades). At the ever more tortured, as with the “civil reformers’ taking on “monopolist robber- same time, notes Roger Simon, Obama rights” struggle for gender-neutral bath- baron capitalism” and government can say with great confidence that rooms. Roger L. Simon concurs, explain- corruption, a narrative that dates back ISIS—the Islamic State—is not Islamic. ing that “purity of thought—mental to the Progressive Era itself, has given Frank has a point when he notes that cleansing of all possible bias—is de - way to a more spectral understanding the incestuous relationships among manded of the populace.” “We were liv- that presents a complicated and mixed Hollywood, Washington, Wall Street, and ing,” he writes, “in a form of dictatorship picture. This revisionism ought to, but Silicon Valley that define the Obama without knowing it . . . a dictatorship of somehow does not, prompt serious years had already blossomed in the elite moral narcissists who decided reflections about today’s so-called Clinton era. Frank quotes journalist Jacob between right and wrong . . . before we progressivism, which in many re - Weisberg, who, as long ago as 1993, could even begin to evaluate the facts for spects departs significantly from its noted the “increasingly cozy relationship ourselves.” I think “dictatorship” is too forebears but in other ways is a direct between the press, law, academia, and strong a word, but the arguments laid out lineal descendant. government.” “There’s rarely been a in these three books strongly suggest that time,” wrote Weisberg in an article pre- our constitutional republic is imperiled as Mr. Hayward is the Distinguished sciently subtitled “Washington’s New never before. Visiting Professor at Pepperdine University.

4 2 | www.nationalreview.com JUNE 1 3 , 2 0 1 6 books_QXP-1127940387.qxp 5/24/2016 3:54 PM Page 43

The latest entrant in the literature is superficial, even for its time, and the and it idled inferior workers already Princeton economic historian Thomas C. same should be said for their grasp of employed. The minimum wage detected Leonard’s Illiberal Reformers. On the German philosophy. the inferior employee.” The Progressive surface, as the subtitle indicates, the book If Leonard’s exploration of these cen- economists a hundred years ago under- is confined to the realm of economics, but tral aspects of Progressive ideology is stood what progressive economists Leonard captures very well how the vari- underdeveloped, it is because of his today have forgotten or willfully over- ous strains of Progressive thought—phi- intense and thorough focus on the cen- look: A minimum wage prices out mar- losophy, political science, history, biology tral question of eugenics in economic ginally productive workers, who today (especially Darwinian evolution), reli- thought. To the extent that eugenics is as then tend to be young, unskilled, and gion, law, and economics—were all amal- thought about today, it is chiefly relegat- minorities. The Progressives a century gamated in the Progressive embrace of ed to social and political enthusiasms, ago thought this would indirectly dis- eugenics. “Hun dreds, perhaps thousands and it is Leonard’s great service to have courage immigration and reduce birth of Progressive Era scholars and scientists provided an exhaustive and detailed rates among immigrant populations. A proudly called themselves eugenicists,” account of its centrality to advanced number of other labor-union and liberal Leonard observes. economic thinking and of the specific measures of the New Deal, such as the The idea of eugenics is thought to be policies Progressive economists ad - Davis-Bacon Act, also had eugenic wholly discredited or repudiated today; vanced in its name. And his exploration underpinnings; they ironically remain Leonard weaves in a number of useful goes be yond simple issues of racial con- totems of liberalism today, despite their reflections on Progressive ideas that descension to show how specific eco- nefarious origins. have endured. What is now widely called nomic doctrines were vitally connected Leonard fully traces out several other “the administrative state” constitutes the to eugenic ideology. forgotten faces of Progressive illiberal- central crisis of American government The most embarrassing idea was ism, such as the surprising connection of today, and Leonard nicely traces out the that the minimum wage could be a tool eugenics with religion and even conser- Progressive roots of this scourge. He for discouraging immigration and pro- vationism. Eugenics, he writes, was “a concisely explains the core idea of moting racial purity. (No one tell Paul keystone of the American conservation Progressivism: that “science” should Krugman.) “A minimum wage worked movement.” Charles Van Hise, president replace “politics” as the basis for govern- on two eugenic fronts,” Leonard ex- of the University of Wisconsin and a ment. This in turn gave license to the plains. “It deterred immigrants and other prominent conservationist, “said that idea that “an industrialized economy inferiors from entering the labor force, Americans must abandon should be supervised, investigated, and regulated by the visible hand of a mod- ern administrative state.” Leonard is equally clear, albeit brief in his explana- INERTIA tion, that this new form of government entailed abandoning the classical-liberal High glinting leaves, philosophy of individual rights. He calls glazed by the post-storm light, this “one of the most striking intellectual are hushing dusk changes of the late 19th century, one in reassuring waves. with far-reaching consequences.” He is especially good in clearing away many Our lichen-clad of the myths and misconceptions about old maple lost three limbs “social Darwinism.” to rain that felt German historicism and Darwinian like reprimands of God. evolution provided the philosophical and scientific bases for abandoning nat- Scraggly, and cut ural rights and validating the presump- unevenly for years tion that expert administrators could to spare town wires, guide the nation more wisely than elect- it angles toward the street. ed politicians. Leonard notes the inher- ent contradiction of a movement that, When August cedes on the one hand, called for more pop- to autumn’s middle age ulist democracy but, on the other, want- of rust and squash, ed to govern more through expert elites the threat to neighbors fades, isolated from direct political account- ability—a contradiction that persists so we will wait, today. Leonard also briefly notes the though soon the driven ice Pro gressives’ “extravagant” and “out- will trap its wood sized” faith in their own scientific exper- in gleaming, fatal weight. tise and altruism. He notes that most Pro gressives’ grasp of science was —A. M. JUSTER

SPONSORED BY National Review Institute 4 3 books_QXP-1127940387.qxp 5/24/2016 4:50 PM Page 44

BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS

however, is very much open. So to for the good of the race.” Here we can The Hubby rouse them to the polls, the Democratic see the seeds of the obsession with the party has sought to mainstream the life “population bomb” of the 1960s and of Julia, even to celebrate going 1970s. There is one surprising omis- State through life unencumbered by a man. sion from his vast catalogue of eugenic To aid this get-out-the-vote effort now ideas and advocates: Margaret Sanger JESSICA GAVORA comes Rebecca Traister with All the is barely mentioned. Single Ladies. Leonard also notes that Progressive Traister, who covered the 2008 economic policies were targeted not only Democratic primaries for Salon and against “inferior races” but also against sobbed when Hillary Clinton lost to women of all races, because women were Barack Obama, writes of a “revolu- either inferior or fragile, requiring the tion” in women’s life options brought protection of the state. He correctly notes on by the decline of marriage. The that, ironically, the only resistance to this requirement that all women, “regard- paternalistic condescension came from less of their individual desires, ambi- the few conservative defenders of mar- tions, circumstances, or the quality of kets and individualism, such as Justice available matches,” must march George Sutherland, who wrote the “down a single highway toward early reviled Supreme Court opinions striking heterosexual marriage and mother- down sex-discriminatory labor laws. All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women hood” has been lifted. The decline of The smug condescension of Pro - and the Rise of an Independent Nation, marriage is the triumph of femi- gressives was of a piece with what by Rebecca Traister (Simon & Schuster, nism—the “liberation [that] is at the Leonard describes as their “unstable 352 pp., $27) heart of our national promise.” amalgam of compassion and contempt,” a It’s worth noting that no conserva- trait that still very much afflicts today’s tive book could make declarations of self-described progressives. It hardly HE 2012 Obama campaign’s such a broad character without pro- needs saying, but Leonard says it anyway: cartoon about an American viding extensive social science to “American Progressive Era eugenics was woman named Julia who back them up. But many liberal writ- anti-individualist and illiberal. . . . The lives (alone) with govern- ers, particularly on the subject of original progressives’ illiberal turn did not mentT assistance from preschool to women, feel themselves under no stop at property and contract rights. They retirement was designed to create a such obligation. All the Single Ladies assaulted political and civil liberties, too, reaction—and it got one. Conserva - does not disappoint those expecting a trampling on individual rights to person, tives took it apart: Head Start doesn’t largely uncritical examination of to free movement, to free expression, to work! is hurtling toward growing singlehood, particularly sin- marriage and reproduction.” insolvency! The state can’t take the gle motherhood. An unstated implication of Leonard’s place of a husband! But conservatives’ The average age of first births for conclusion is that a return to the princi- focus on government programs and American women now precedes the ples of individual liberty and truly lim- social science missed the point of the age of first marriage. In 2013, half of ited government might be in order, for ad, which was political. It was de - first-time births were to unmarried wo - even if it is true that eugenics is discred- signed to court an increasingly impor- men. For women under 30, that num- ited, the undemocratic administrative tant Democratic voting demographic: ber was an alarming 60 percent. But state marches on, running roughshod single women. Traister stolidly ignores the social sci- with the latest pseudo-science in the The statistics are becoming familiar. ence behind her subject in favor of the same fashion as the eugenicists of a Since 2009, single women in America politics of it. She simply asserts that century ago. And while eugenics is have outnumbered married women. poverty causes a lack of marriage, not gone certainly in name, has the idea of The proportion of never-married adults the other way around, and goes on to the “scientific” management of the under the age of 34 has risen to an dismiss the growing evidence that human race been completely aban- amazing 46 percent. Just one of the by- shows precisely the opposite. doned, in the age of increasing abor- products of this growing rejection of Traister chalks up the documented tions for sex selection and disability marriage is that single American diminished life prospects of the chil- avoidance, not to mention the coming women are closing in on a quarter of dren of single parents to “broken age of genetically modified “designer the electorate today. The question of social safety networks and economic babies”? Illiberal Reformers is a great who will get the votes of these women policies that benefit the wealthy, the achievement and an important contri- is settled: Single women are Demo - white, and the educated over the bution to the revisionist historical liter- crats, overwhelmingly so. The ques- poor.” In fact, the latest data show ature, but its tight focus on eugenics tion of whether they will vote, that marriage reduces the likelihood and economics avoids the deeper ethi- that an American woman or her child cal ground on which we must confront Jessica Gavora is an author and ghostwriter in will live in poverty regardless of her this phenomenon. Washington, D.C. race, education, or age. What’s more,

4 4 | www.nationalreview.com JUNE 1 3 , 2 0 1 6 books_QXP-1127940387.qxp 5/24/2016 3:54 PM Page 45

fewer children are poor and the odds after reading All the Single Ladies, to prop up the familiar conservative of escaping poverty are greatest in for wondering whether there were straw man so that she can inspire her communities consisting largely of ever any children at this party to cel- new political charges—single wo - married families—again, regardless ebrate women’s liberation from het- men—to vanquish him. The stakes, of race or educational attainment. erosexual coupledom. she reminds us, are high. “The Simply being married is associated “The most radical of feminist expanded presence of women as inde- with an average reduction in the likeli- ideas—the disestablishment of mar- pendent entities means a redistribu- hood of poverty of at least 40 percent riage—has, terrifyingly for many con- tion of all kinds of power,” she over the unmarried. servatives, been so widely embraced as writes, “including electoral power, In the face of such data, Traister to become habit, drained of its political that has, until recently, been wielded takes refuge in a very old argument in intent,” Traister writes. “The indepen- mostly by men.” feminism: that deep in their hearts, dence of women from marriage de - And she makes no secret of the soci- men fear independent women (women cried by Moynihan as a pathology at ety that electorally empowered single independent of men, that is). Anyone odds with the nation’s patriarchal order women should build. She concedes who sees any downside in the turn is now a norm.” that critics (including me) who charge away from marriage, according to According to Traister, the spread of that feminists seek to construct a Traister, is just scared of uppity this “resistance to wifeliness” from “hubby state” in which government women. And on this subject at least, the black family described by Moyni - assumes the role of husband are essen- she leaves few bases uncovered. She han to the white working classes is a tially correct. Men, she contends, have goes back to the beginning, to Daniel good cultural appropriation, some- long enjoyed the benefits of a “wifely Patrick Moynihan, who first jolted the thing to be lauded, like white flappers state” in which government has sup- national conscience with his report dancing to jazz invented by blacks. ported them through policies such as

Non-marriage has become so commonplace, Rebecca Traister crows, that it’s now a no-brainer, a guilt-free act of liberation and self-actualization.

about the crisis in the black family. The “It has always been the replicative tax breaks for home ownership and 1965 Moynihan report, in Traister’s behaviors or perspectives of white the right to accrue wealth and pass it fevered feminist perspective, wasn’t a women—and not the original shifts to their children. She believes that prescient diagnosis of societal decline pioneered by poor women and women these policies have somehow—though but the first stirrings of the male back- of color—that make people sit up and she doesn’t quite explain how—exclu- lash against “independent,” unmarried take notice and that sometimes be - sively “bolstered the economic and women. “Moynihan boiled his argu- come discernible as liberation,” she professional prospects of men by ment down to one, punishing point: writes. And it is the growing recogni- depressing the economic prospects of that the root of black poverty lay with tion of upper-class white women’s women.” Single women, she asserts, the breakdown of marital norms for “liberation” that has conservatives cry- now require new policies to support which nonconforming women were ing crocodile tears over the plight of their “liberation.” responsible” (emphasis mine). poor, unmarried mothers. At the end of the book, Traister Since then it’s all been uphill as far In fact, all this concern about poverty appends a list of such policies. They as Traister is concerned. Women have and low achievement among families include, but are not limited to, a higher been shunning marriage in greater and headed by single women? It’s conserva- federal minimum wage, national health greater numbers, preferring instead to tives reaching for an easy target to exer- care, housing subsidies for single peo- cohabitate; to live a “sex and the city” cise the fear and aggression they feel ple, government-subsidized day care, life in which domestic chores are less toward powerful single women. It’s paid family leave, universal paid sick- onerous (cooking is replaced by take- influential single women (both real and day compensation, and increased out, and small apartments don’t need fictional) with big megaphones who welfare benefits. One wonders how much cleaning); to find companion- really threaten conservative men in someone could offer such a prescrip- ship and babysitting in friendships Traister’s world. Think Anita Hill. tion and at the same time subtitle her with other women; or to work, go out Murphy Brown. Sandra Fluke. Lena book “Unmarried Women and the Rise to brunch, attend political rallies, but Dunham. But what can men do to stop of an Independent Nation.” never marry at all. Non-marriage has these powerful sisters? Poor, single One also wonders how a publisher become so commonplace, Traister mothers, on the other hand, are easy tar- and an editor could countenance such crows, that it’s now a no-brainer, a gets for their misogyny. dissonance. guilt-free act of liberation and self- This is some tired, old-school gen- And then one remembers that there actualization. One could be forgiven, der feminism. Traister labors mightily is an election coming.

SPONSORED BY National Review Institute 4 5 books_QXP-1127940387.qxp 5/24/2016 3:54 PM Page 46

BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS

were not clean, and neither often were thought to try a tobacco-and-vape shop I City Desk their human attendants. But temples and sometimes pass, stirred by memories of other houses of worship can be pretty magazine stores that once also sold cigars. Black and funky too. They are the resorts of human- Home run: Here was a wall of glossy ity. People (mostly women) pray to make magazines and, on a shelf at the foot of life better; people (mostly men) bought the front counter, a row of newspapers, White and newspapers to see what life was that day. including the desired weekly. You can Why would anyone want to use a news- still get reading material in the city—from Read: All Over stand? The pleasure of service counts for traffickers in cancer-delivery systems. something. Thousands at your bidding do Our previous mayor, the health crusader, not speed, but this man behind his counter would shrug: He made his money from will, if you give him a dollar. Newsstands a financial-data terminal. made a show of plenitude. Their wares I went back to the fourth newsstand, to were on display, from broadsheet serious- inspect its wares more carefully. There ness to tabloid shout. Newsstands made was a modest selection of magazines: the you feel on top of things, even when you décolletage of starlets; bodybuilders; last were in motion. Hurrying to an appoint- and least, news. There were the daily ment, plunging into a subway, you could papers, the two broadsheets and the two tell at a glance, even if you did not spring tabloids, spinning, animate and inani- for a paper, what the headlines were. Just mate, all round and round in one vortex. RICHARD BROOKHISER as promoters of plays used to cover the There were foreign-language papers, board walls around construction sites three in Spanish, one in Russian (if there HAVE always disliked our nation’s with one, two, three, ten, 20 posters, to are newsstands in the outer boroughs, capital. Among its myriad defi- satisfy the eye on the move, so a scatter- take your Berlitz library). There was ciencies, exemplifying the stage- ing of newsstands along your daily com- candy, gum, and breath mints; a notice set quality of life that is lived there, mute served the same function. that if you bought tobacco you would be Iis the absence of newsstands. I remember, But now the city is becoming like the carded; an ATM. one of the very first times I visited as an nation’s capital, as newsstands slowly dis- There are some other options for print- adult, thinking that I wanted to pick up a appear. I first noticed it when a fine one, ed reading material. In the great train and paper, and all I could find were rows of outside one of the subway entrances along- bus stations, there are large shops where mean metal sidewalk boxes, with self- side my neighborhood park, converted to a you really can get everything periodical, serve slots for quarters. Half the time, it shop for Turkish pies. That’s a nice börek, and a selection of best-sellers, for those seemed, the box you opened was empty but it doesn’t tell me how much the Yanks long rides back to Long Island, Jersey, or and you lost your quarter. They were sep- lost by. A spokesman for the newsstand Cheever-land. And when you go out in arate, small, and ugly. Altogether, the operators’ association—yes, there is such the morning rush hour you can still be effect was sterile. They made the side- a thing: in the city you must stand together greeted, at the larger subway stations, by walk they decorated blank, like a moving or be crushed—says the number of news- men standing, or sitting on milk cartons, walkway in an airport. stands has dropped from a high of 1,500 at next to stacks of tabloids (election, star The city, by contrast, had newsstands. mid century to 300-some now. Stand sex, box score: one and done). The vendor sat inside, surrounded by an together and be crushed. It is all going because print is going. array of merchandise, like an idol in a tem- The newsstands that remain struggle to Recitation gave us Homer (and Shake - ple festooned with offerings. The places do their work. I recently had occasion to speare: they are plays first, texts second). pick up a copy of my old weekly newspa- Print gave us the Bible for laymen, per. I wrote for it for 20 years, most Pamela, Waverley, and Fifty Shades of recently nine years ago. I used to buy it, to Grey. And what will the blue pool, infin- savor the pleasure of reading myself in ity in the palm of your hand, give us? print, at one of the local newsstands. So I I just got my first smartphone. So far I made the diminished circuit. Apart from have made three calls, and sent two mes- the defector to Turkish cuisine, there are sages, both tests. I reserve a pants pocket still a handful of newsstands in my vicin- to carry it in—wallets, keys, change ity, chiefly because the local subway sta- bulging the other. But no one knows the tion is an octopus, flinging out six lines to number except my wife; I do not plan to four boroughs. I passed by one stand with- give it out. I got it only because it seemed out bothering to ask: The goods on display to be inevitable. Why am I so reluctant to were all snacks and drinks. The vendors at use it? Is it fear of the Orange Man and the next two had never heard of the week- his posse? Of endless selfies? Of sitting, ly. The vendor at the fourth recalled it with hunched at table, texting back and forth difficulty, like a lost love or an old injury, about what you/I are/am eating and and even produced a dingy copy, but it was where? Certainly I don’t expect to find a week old. A negative grand slam. Then I anything to read. STEVE LEWIS STOCK

4 6 | www.nationalreview.com JUNE 1 3 , 2 0 1 6 books_QXP-1127940387.qxp 5/24/2016 3:54 PM Page 47

Film Youthful Longings

ROSS DOUTHAT

F I were running a film festival on the social history of the 20th cen- tury (I know, I know, the lines would be around the block), I Iwould pair Brooklyn, last year’s widely Emory Cohen and Saoirse Ronan in Brooklyn Ferdia Walsh-Peelo and Lucy Boynton in Sing Street praised adaptation of Colm Tóibín’s novel about an Irish immigrant girl in 1950s New York, with Sing Street, John the Brooklyn Dodgers; in Sing Street, it Raphina—herself basically orphaned, Carney’s new bildungsroman about a involves becoming a rock star. living in a girls’ home whose door is teen rock band in 1980s Dublin. What makes the movies a good pairing never answered by an adult (again, a con- In certain ways these movies tell simi- is that you can watch them back to back trast with the benevolent boarding house lar stories: There’s youthful romance, a and end up identifying with both aspi- in Brooklyn)—passes from amused par- significant older sibling, the urge to rations—because in their respective ticipation to something more. (Conor’s escape Ireland for the bright lights and contexts, both make sense. And taken fumbling advances are expertly staged, big city, even a crucial dance in a church together, the two films suggest a theory and inspired a wince of recognition in hall with watchful clerics circling. about the nature of cultural revolution this moviegoer.) But she has another But Brooklyn is set in an intact social that’s a valuable counterpoint to every iron in the fire, an older boyfriend with order, in which the benevolence of “kids these days” complaint: A social a car. And although this bounder has adults and their institutions is mostly order doesn’t fail when the kids revolt; it weaknesses, like a love of Genesis (“No taken for granted, convention is some- fails when the kids realize that their woman can truly love a man who listens thing to be strained against but also a elders have already given up on it. to Phil Collins,” Conor’s brother reas- form of protection, and even acts of That lesson is imparted to Conor sures him), he’s promised to take her to boldness and adventure—in the hero- (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) early in Sing Street, London, which is a hard offer for a ine’s case, marrying an Italian and stay- when his parents (Aidan Gillen and Maria teenager to match. ing in America—tend to have conservative Doyle Kennedy) take a break from fight- But as the story unspools, as things aspirations at their heart. ing to announce that they’re switching him crumble further for Conor’s family, and Sing Street, set 30 years onward, from a Jesuit school to the one run by the as the headmaster’s tyranny turns more takes place in the same sort of Christian Brothers at Synge Street—a malign, the idea of simply escaping milieu—Irish, Catholic, middle- lower-class sort of place, in which the kids becomes more plausible—the rocker class—except now the social order is mock his diction, a skinhead bullies him, and his model girlfriend, headed out into collapsing, adult protectiveness has and the martinet Brother-headmaster (Don the unknown. disappeared, and what remains of Wycherley) goes to war with him because Before that very post-1960s fantasy authority is basically malignant. his shoes are brown instead of black. unfurls itself, though, we get a glimpse of In Brooklyn, the heroine has a kindly Into this purgatory comes a glimpse of a strikingly different one. Conor’s band widowed mother who hangs on her heaven—a slightly older beauty named sets out to stage a music video in the style daughter’s every letter; in Sing Street, the Raphina (Lucy Boynton), whom Conor of an American high-school prom, and in hero’s parents are squabbling their way to makes bold to approach with the pretense the dreamscape of his imagination it divorce and can’t spare their kids more of seeking models for a music video his turns into a Back to the Future–esque set than cursory attention. In Brooklyn, the band is making. No such band exists, piece, in which Raphina isn’t the only THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY : priest is a benevolent, protective charac- which means that he has to form one, with star: His parents show up, dancing and ter; in Sing Street, the man in the collar is the help of a motley crew of classmates happy and in love, and even the headmas-

SING STREET a petty tyrant and possibly a pederast. In (there’s a hint of Richard Linklater’s ter is reborn as a benevolent figure, back- ; Brooklyn, there’s a whole social support School of Rock in the proceedings), the flipping and suddenly benign. system set up for young people who counsel of his long-haired college-dropout That dream dissipates; the grim reality want to emigrate from Ireland; in Sing older brother (Jack Reynor, an Irish Chris returns. But its appearance is a reminder Street, the kids are cut adrift and trying Pratt), and the inspiration supplied by the that every youthful fantasy is condition- to figure out how to do it on their own. Cure, Joe Jackson, Depeche Mode, Hall al, and that dreams of revolution flour- FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES : In Brooklyn, the vision of the good life and Oates, and many more. ish when more basic human goods seem the protagonist reaches for involves a Their band is quickly better than a strict unrealistic, or fraudulent, or simply out BROOKLYN bookkeeping job and a man who loves realism would lead one to expect, and of reach.

SPONSORED BY National Review Institute 4 7 backpage--READY_QXP-1127940387.qxp 5/25/2016 2:09 PM Page 48

Happy Warrior BY DANIEL FOSTER #MaybeNobody?

HAVEN’T settled on whom I’ll vote for in November, deputy White House counsel Vince Foster in the midst of though I admit I’m leaning toward writing in the the Whitewater scandal. But you know what isn’t a con- immortal world-destroying mutant Apocalypse from spiracy theory? That the Clintons dispatched a future I the latest X-Men movie (“In your heart, you know health and human services secretary to collect Foster’s he’s right”). But I thought as a service to the readers I’d garbage on the night he offed himself. That’s right, Sylvia weigh the pros and cons of the more mainstream choices. Matthews Burwell, then a White House aide and now #MaybeTrump? I was unpleasantly unsurprised by Czarina of Obamacare, made her bones digging through how many people I respect seemed to have burned their a dead man’s Rubbermaid. #NeverTrump cards after Indiana, even as others burned So if you’re #WithHer, you’re with that. their GOP voter registrations. There’s an element of Verdict? Pshaw! party tribalism to the former cohort that I don’t get at all. #WaryOfGary. Over the last few months I’ve been Rote support for the GOP nominee, whoever it is, might tempted a number of times to embrace my inner Ronald make sense for elected officials and party apparatchiks, Swanson / and cast my vote for Gary Johnson. The whose futures and fortunes are tied to the letter in paren- Libertarian-party front-runner was a squishy but com- theses after their names, but it makes little sense for ordi- petent enough GOP governor, as was his presumptive nary voters. This race isn’t Coke vs. Pepsi or the Yanks running mate . And the LP is a symbolically vs. the Sox, and it simply isn’t good enough to say you’ll rich landing spot for disaffected Republicans, as the lib- vote for the Republican because you’ve always voted for ertarian streak that animated the post-Bush GOP the Republican. appears to have been thoroughly extinguished by the I do understand the proposition that Hillary is so bad rise of Trump. that one must countenance a vote for Trump. The trouble But Johnson is a lousy retail politician, and even if is that I also understand the proposition that Trump is so you’re casting a symbolic vote in favor of liberty, he’s kinda bad that one must countenance a vote for Hillary. a crappy libertarian—he’s into mandatory gay cakes and out- But there is one condition under which I’d consider lawing head scarves, that sort of thing. pulling the lever for Donny: If a youngish, compelling, On a side note, I can’t believe how badly committed conservative agrees to be his running mate. whiffed this cycle. I’ve been howling ever since he dropped Why? Well, because under those circumstances there out of the GOP primary race that he should stage a coup might be a good enough chance—between actuarial of the LP. I mean, one major party has the least popular tables, select congressional committees, and a mob of nominee in the history of public-opinion research, and disaffected alt-righters dressed in full Ren-Fair kit and the other major party has the second-least-popular nomi- wielding bastard swords—that the veep would get to nee in the history of public-opinion research. Some polls serve. I’m kidding*, but the presence of a conservative already have the LP at 10 percent in a three-way race. superstar on the ticket would at least give me pause. The And imagine if the party had as its standard-bearer a tal- counterargument, of course, is that any credible conserv- ented politician with a national profile and a handful of ative who agreed to share the ticket with Trump would meaty, bipartisan signature issues? When would there thereby cease to be a credible conservative, in a Catch-22 have ever been a better shot for Rand to accomplish the fit for Yossarian and Doc Daneeka. libertarian–Republican shotgun wedding that has been Verdict? Whatever you do, bring a barf bag. his animating project? Further proof that we live in the #DreadyForHillary? The straightforward argument for darkest time. voting Hillary, made under various glosses by a handful of Verdict? Meh. right-of-center poobahs, is that at least she’ll suck in pre- #RomneyZombieReagan16? It’s hard to score this option dictable ways. The trouble is that the Clintons are world- because no independent ticket has emerged (and most likely historic creeps, and voting for her would reward a none will). There’d certainly be honor in casting a protest Democratic party so sclerotic that it nominated a septuage- vote for an honorable man. The thing is that I am increasingly narian facing possible federal charges who is polling to a of the mind that Trump’s resentment-fueled cadre will skulk tie with Donald Trump. about a lot longer if the #NeverTrump rump gives them an I’ve seen the demographics for the NR-on-dead-tree excuse for losing in November. The race’s fundamentals subscriber base, so I know you know this already, but for suggest Hillary will win, but original sin and the pitiless the benefit of the Millennials who may read this online, logic of Murphy’s law suggests Trump will find some way here’s an example of the Clintons’ dirt-baggery that is to pull it out. Either way, we as a nation have bought the newly relevant. Trump has, in recent days, indulged in tickets to this horror show, so maybe we shouldn’t look old conspiracy theories about the untimely suicide of away when things get gory. Verdict? Choose the form of the Destructor. Choose * I’m not kidding. and perish!

4 8 | www.nationalreview.com JUNE 1 3 , 2 0 1 6 base_new_milliken-mar 22.qxd 5/24/2016 1:50 PM Page 1

SINCE 1955, NATIONAL REVIEW HAS DEFINED THE MODERN CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT AND ENJOYS THE BROADEST ALLEGIANCE William F. BuckleyOF Jr.AMERICAN founded National ReviewCONSERVATIVES. Institute (NRI), as the sister 501(c)(3) nonpro t educational organization of National Review, to advance the conservative principles he championed, complement the mission of National Review magazine, and support NR’s best talent. NRI has developed an impressive array of educational programs that bring together conservative leaders to help unite and strengthen the broader movement, and educate and inform the general public regarding key conservative ideas and principles. To learn more about NRI’s programs that expand NR’s inuence and bring its best talent to audiences around the country please visit www.nrinstitute.org. And if you like the good work done by National Review writers, please consider making a tax-deductible gift to National Review Institute.

e National Review Institute is home to some of the best writers on the “ right. ese NRI fellows concentrate their considerable repower on the Left every day, and practically every hour. ey are respected by nearly everyone and feared by their adversaries on the left, who can’t match their erudition, eloquence, or wit. By supporting NRI you are supporting the broader mission of National Review and some of NR’s very best talent. —Rich Lowry, editor, National Review magazine”

base_new_milliken-mar 22.qxd 4/4/2016 2:35 PM Page 1

Ingenuity keeps her city’s power on and conquers his fear of the dark. Everyone wants the lights to stay on during a storm. A city offi cial needs to keep an entire city safe and happy. A 5-year-old needs his nightlight to keep the monsters away. For them and millions of other people, Siemens Digital Grid technology manages and reroutes power. Ingenuity helps keep the power on, no matter what nature is doing.

usa.siemens.com/ingenuityforlife ©Siemens, All Rights Reserved. 2016. CGCB-A10128-00-7600