A Defense of Nationalism
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20170220_bl_cover61404-postal.qxd 1/31/2017 7:36 PM Page 1 February 20, 2017 $4.99 ofof FORFOR LOVELOVE AA DEFENSEDEFENSE COUNTRYCOUNTRYofof NATIONALISMNATIONALISM Ramesh Ponnuru & Richard Lowry www.nationalreview.com base_new_milliken-mar 22.qxd 1/31/2017 1:04 PM Page 1 NAPA VALLEY LEGENDS! Visit us online, at our Park Avenue store, or call us to learn more about our vast inventory! 505 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10022 • 212-838-7500 www.Sherry-Lehmann.com TOC-READY_QXP-1127940144.qxp 2/1/2017 3:25 PM Page 1 Contents FEBRUARY 20, 2017 | VOLUME LXIX, NO. 3 | www.nationalreview.com Jay Nordlinger on Down Home Ranch ON THE COVER Page 33 p. 27 For Love of BOOKS, ARTS Country & MANNERS Nationalism can be a healthy 43 MYTHICAL PRESIDENT and constructive force. Since Ben Domenech reviews Audacity: nationalistic sentiments also have How Barack Obama Defied His Critics and Created a wide appeal and durability, it would Legacy that Will Prevail, be wiser to cultivate that kind of by Jonathan Chait. nationalism than to attempt to move 45 CLOUDS OVER THE PACIFIC James Holmes reviews The End of beyond it. Ramesh Ponnuru & Richard Lowry the Asian Century: War, Stagnation, and the Risks to the COVER: FREDERICK CHILDE HASSAM'S FLAGS ON FIFTH AVENUE, WINTER 1919, 1918. World’s Most Dynamic Region, (PHOTO BY BUYENLARGE/GETTY IMAGES) by Michael R. Auslin. ARTICLES 46 BEYOND GETTING TOUGH THE GERRYMANDER MYTH by Dan McLaughlin Rachel Lu reviews Locked In: 16 The True Causes of Mass Democrats are wrong about why Republicans control the House. Incarceration—and How to FAIR-WEATHER ORIGINALISTS by Josh Blackman Achieve Real Reform, 20 by John Pfaff. The Left discovers the Constitution. DOCTOR DOOM by Ian Tuttle 52 EXCELLENTLY FOOLISH 23 Joseph Postell reviews When Reason Michael Mann, climate scientist, demands that you submit. Goes on Holiday: Philosophers 25 MR. WONDERFUL GOES TO OTTAWA? by J. J. McCullough in Politics, Kevin O’Leary’s Trump show in Canada. by Neven Sesardic. 27 ACT OF LOVE by Jay Nordlinger 54 FILM: FEAR AND TREMBLING An unusual ranch in Texas. Ross Douthat reviews Silence. 31 VOICE OF AMERICA by Kevin D. Williamson 55 NOTES FROM What accent would you vote for? UNDERGROUND Richard Brookhiser rides the train. FEATURES 33 FOR LOVE OF COUNTRY by Ramesh Ponnuru & Richard Lowry SECTIONS A defense of nationalism. 2 Letters to the Editor GUN CULTURE IN BLACK AND WHITE by David French 36 4 The Week The experience, and danger, of firearms varies by race. 41 Athwart . James Lileks The Long View . Rob Long A VERY SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP by John O’Sullivan 42 38 53 Poetry . Sally Cook America and Britain after Brexit. 56 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, New York, N.Y. 10016. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y., and additional mailing offices. © National Review, Inc., 2017. 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. 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His view that cybersecurity is National Correspondent John J. Miller not politically savvy and thus becomes an issue only after a major attack Senior Politica l Correspondent Jim Geraghty Art Director Luba Kolomytseva perfectly accounts for the post-election alarm over Russia, as news outlets Deputy Managing Editors Nicholas Frankovich / Fred Schwarz push “Russian Hacking” headlines without any substantive reporting. I Production Editor Katie Hosmer Assistant to the Editor Rachel Ogden was ignorant concerning the lax response to previous hacks, which gave Research Associate Alessandra Trouwborst Russia a tacit imprimatur for the DNC releases, and also concerning the Contributing Editors byzantine PPD-41 document. I hope to count on NATIONAL REVIEW in the Shannen Coffin / Ross Douthat / Daniel Foster Roman Genn / Arthur L. Herman / Lawrence Kudlow future to provide this kind of trenchant and informed reporting on the Mark R. Levin / Yuval Levin / Rob Long Mario Loyola / Jim Manzi / Andrew C. McCarthy seemingly nascent (as the networks would have us believe), but actually Kate O’Beirne / Andrew Stuttaford / Robert VerBruggen much older, problem of cybersecurity. NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE Editor Charles C. W. Cooke Managing Editor Katherine Connell Deputy Managing Editor Mark Antonio Wright Carl Hamilton National-Affairs Columnist John Fund Upper Gwynedd, Pa. Staff Writer David French Reporter Katherine Timpf Associate Editors Molly Powell / Nick Tell Digital Director Ericka Andersen Technical Services Russell Jenkins Web Editorial Assistan t Grant DeArmitt Web Developer Wendy Weihs Pay No Attention Web Producer Scott McKim EDITORS- AT- L A RG E Kathryn Jean Lopez / John O’Sullivan Over the past eight years, there have been many powerful narratives written to NATIONAL REVIEW INSTITUTE THOMASL. RHODESFELLOW describe the incessant fanfaronade of President Obama, but few have done so Ian Tuttle with the searing accuracy of Michael Knox Beran in his article “After the Fall” BUCKLEYFELLOWSINPOLITICALJOURNALISM (January 23). With a sharp literary scalpel, Mr. Beran cuts with ease, exposing Alexandra DeSanctis / Austin Yack the other side of Obama’s altiloquent facade that so many of his supporters COLLEGIATE NETWORK FELLOW Paul Crookston never saw—or were never willing to see; the man behind the curtain to be sure. Contributors Hadley Arkes / James Bowman / Eliot A. Cohen James McCaffrey Dinesh D’Souza / Chester E. Finn Jr. / Neal B. Freeman James Gardner / David Gelernter / George Gilder Yonkers, N.Y. Jeffrey Hart / Kevin A. Hassett / Charles R. Kesler David Klinghoffer / Anthony Lejeune / Michael Novak Alan Reynolds / Tracy Lee Simmons Terry Teachout / Vin Weber Vice President Jack Fowler Winniversary Chief Financial Officer James X. Kilbridge Accounting Manager Galina Veygman Accountant Lyudmila Bolotinskaya Business Services Alex Batey Matthew Walther’s lovely article Circulation Manager Jason Ng Advertising Director Jim Fowler “Winnie-the-Pooh at 90” (January Advertising Manager Kevin Longstreet Assistant to the Publisher Brooke Rogers 23)—as well as so many like it—is Director of Revenue Erik Netcher the unfortunate reason my saintly PUBLISHERCHAIRMAN Garrett Bewkes John Hillen husband, the NATIONAL REVIEW FOUNDER subscriber, often has to hunt for the William F. Buckley Jr. latest issue until I’m through. PATRONS AND BENEFACTORS Robert Agostinelli Dale Brott Anne Riemer Mr. and Mrs. Michael Conway Mark and Mary Davis Groton, Mass. Virginia James Christopher M. Lantrip Brian and Deborah Murdock Mr. & Mrs. Richard Spencer Mr. & Mrs. L. Stanton Towne Pe ter J. Travers Letters may be sub mitted by e-mail to [email protected]. 2 | www.nationalreview.com FEBRUARY 2 0 , 2 0 1 7 base_new_milliken-mar 22.qxd 1/3/2017 5:38 PM Page 1 !!!!!!!! ! !!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !! "e Reagan Ranch Center ! 217 State Street National Headquarters ! 11480 Commerce Park Drive, Santa Barbara, California 93101 ! 888-USA-1776 Sixth Floor ! Reston, Virginia 20191 ! 800-USA-1776 week_QXP-1127940387.qxp 2/1/2017 3:04 PM Page 4 The Week n We do not expect to miss Barack Obama, but we wish he’d give us a chance. n Ronald Reagan first imposed the “Mexico City policy,” See page 12. which blocks foreign-aid money from going to organizations that perform abortions or advocate their legalization overseas. Every Democratic president elected since then has rescinded the policy, and every Republican following a Democrat has restored it. President Trump became the latest to reinstate the policy. Liberals made two main criticisms of the policy. The first is that it amounted to a “global gag rule” preventing foreign-aid recipi- ents from even talking about abortion: an assertion that neither the text of Trump’s executive order nor past implementation of the Mexico City policy corroborates. The second is that the World Health Organization had f ound that the policy actually increased abortion rates in sub-Saharan Africa by reducing access to contraception. The study relies on a data set full of holes, but even it showed contraceptive use increasing during the period. Contemporary liberals remain strongly committed to abortion, and nearly as strongly committed to making other people pay for it. n President Trump is using the pen he inherited from Pres i dent Obama to advance an energy-abundance agenda. The is sue trade deal. Trump, said May, gave strong backing to NATO (he involves two pipelines: the Keystone XL pipeline, which was noncommittal on maintaining sanctions against Russia).