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20171016 subscribers_cover61404-postal.qxd 9/27/2017 12:58 AM Page 1 October 16, 2017 $5.99 RAMESH PONNURU SPECIAL SECTION ON KEVIN D. WILLIAMSON Against Upper-Class Tax Cuts EDUCATION For the Tech Monopolies BERNIE’S BAD MEDICINE$5.99 42 CHRIS POPE on Medicare-for-All 0 73361 08155 1 www.nationalreview.com base_new_milliken-mar 22.qxd 9/26/2017 12:50 PM Page 1 Analyze Aristotle, Encounter Einstein, Savor Shakespeare, Turn to St. Thomas. Interested in a college where students read and discuss the great books to learn the truth about nature, man, and God? We would like to meet you. thomasaquinas.edu/welcome quinas A C s o a l m l e o Thomas Aquinas College g h e T C 1 Truth Ma ers al 7 if 19 ornia - TOC2_QXP-1127940144.qxp 9/27/2017 3:24 PM Page 1 Contents OCTOBER 16, 2017 | VOLUME LXIX, NO. 19 | www.nationalreview.com ARTICLES 13 THE NORMAL ONE by Jim Geraghty What Ed Gillespie’s gubernatorial campaign means for conservatives. 15 A MIDTERM FORECAST by Jay Cost Jim Geraghty on Ed Gillespie Republicans should not forget their umbrellas. p. 13 18 THE PRICE IS RIGHT by Peter Laakmann American health care costs about what it should. BOOKS, ARTS 21 UNTAXING THE RICH by Ramesh Ponnuru & MANNERS A misguided Republican obsession. 52 THE MANY-SIDED 22 CUT THE PAYROLL TAX by James C. Capretta SCI-FI MASTER It will help middle-class households and boost growth. John J. Miller reviews Complete Stories, by Kurt Vonnegut. 24 THE GRAVE HUNTER, HUNTED by Jay Nordlinger Russia’s Yuri Dmitriev on trial. 53 PROVIDENCE AND A POPE Kathryn Jean Lopez reviews Lessons in Hope: My Unexpected FEATURES Life with St. John Paul II, by George Weigel. BERNIE’S BAD MEDICINE by Chris Pope 26 55 BINDING WOUNDS The folly of Medicare-for-all. Nick Ripatrazone reviews The 29 ‘WE ARE AS GODS AND MIGHT AS WELL GET GOOD AT IT’ Ninth Hour, by Alice McDermott. On the tech monopolies. by Kevin D. Williamson 56 CLASSICS OF CONSPIRACY Peter Tonguette discusses paranoid 32 DON’T FORGET HIGH EARNERS by Henry Olsen thrillers. A tax reform that offers them nothing will drive them farther away. 58 APPETITE FOR CREATION Ross Douthat reviews Mother! EDUCATION SECTION 59 URBAN SYMPHONY Richard Brookhiser hears the sounds of 36 CLASSES OF KINDERGARTENERS by Frederick M. Hess & Grant Addison the city. Play-acting oppression at a ‘current-century, progressive’ Chicago school. 38 CONGRESS AND CAMPUS by David French Students and faculty need federal free-speech protection. SECTIONS 42 HISTORY IS FOR MAKING GREAT CITIZENS by Alexi Sargeant Toward a character-centered approach to teaching our national story. 2 Letters to the Editor 4 The Week RECLAIM CHARTER SCHOOLS by Michael J. Petrilli 44 50 The Long View . Rob Long Conservatives have forgotten why they liked them. 51 Athwart . James Lileks Poetry . James Matthew Wilson BOOKS FOR CHILDREN: A SYMPOSIUM 54 48 60 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 19 West 44th Street, Suite 1701, New York, NY 10036. 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, 19 West 44th Street, Suite 1701, New York, NY 10036. 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., N ATIONAL REVIEW, 19 West 44th Street, Suite 1701, New York, NY 10036 or call 212-679-7330. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to NATIONAL 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 Canada 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. letters-FINAL_QXP-1127940387.qxp 9/27/2017 3:30 PM Page 2 Letters OCTOBER 16 ISSUE; PRINTED SEPTEMBER 28 EDITORINCHIEF Richard Lowry Give Me Your Poesy Senior Editors Richard Brookhiser / Jonah Goldberg / Jay Nordlinger Ramesh Ponnuru / David Pryce-Jones Managing Editor Jason Lee Steorts I very much enjoyed Kevin D. Williamson’s essay on Emma Lazarus Literary Editor Michael Potemra Vice President, Editorial Operations Christopher McEvoy (“Wretched Refuse, Indeed,” August 28) and the way in which her famous Executive Editor Reihan Salam poem, which had several opportunities to disappear, succeeded in newly Roving Correspondent Kevin D. Williamson National Correspondent John J. Miller branding the Statue of Liberty as representing the welcoming of poor and Senior Political Correspondent Jim Geraghty Art Director Luba Kolomytseva oppressed people. Deputy Managing Editors I concur with all his main points—it’s close to doggerel. But as he notes, Nicholas Frankovich / Fred Schwarz Robert VerBruggen it remains affecting to many people. I see two reasons. Production Editor Katie Hosmer Assistant to the Editor Rachel Ogden One, the poem is likely to conjure a cloud of sentiments that remind the Contributing Editors reader of other types of mercy. For example, rescuing an orphan cat, setting Shannen Coffin / Ross Douthat / Daniel Foster up a charity hospital for the indigent, setting up an orphanage, and so on. Roman Genn / Arthur L. Herman / Lawrence Kudlow Mark R. Levin / Yuval Levin / Rob Long Second, the poem doesn’t make sense if one assumes the distant, poor, Mario Loyola / Jim Manzi Andrew C. McCarthy / Andrew Stuttaford huddled masses will simply be piling up here on our sidewalks and in our NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE gutters as poor huddled masses again. It only makes sense with the impli- Editor Charles C. W. Cooke cation that things will be better here. Again, this conjures favorable senti- Managing Editor Katherine Howell Deputy Managing Editor Mark Antonio Wright ments. They’re not just yearning to be free, but likely to breathe free, stand Senior Writers Michael Brendan Dougherty / David French up, have work, and so on. Critic-at-Large Kyle Smith Thanks for your good work. National-Affairs Columnist John Fund Reporter Katherine Timpf Associate Editors Molly Powell / Nick Tell Manager, Office & Development Russell Jenkins Bruce Quinn Web Editorial Assistant Grant DeArmitt Web Producer Scott McKim Los Angeles, Calif. EDITORS- AT- L A RG E Kathryn Jean Lopez / John O’Sullivan Wages and Immigration BUCKLEYFELLOWSINPOLITICALJOURNALISM Alexandra DeSanctis / Theodore Kupfer COLLEGIATE NETWORK FELLOW Perhaps I missed it, but I didn’t see the word “immigration” in “A Wage- Philip H. DeVoe Growth Conundrum,” by Robert VerBruggen (July 31). Contributors If the potential labor pool includes not only Americans but also every Hadley Arkes / James Bowman / Eliot A. Cohen Dinesh D’Souza / Chester E. Finn Jr. / Neal B. Freeman tech worker in India and every farm worker in Mexico, etc., etc., surely this James Gardner / David Gelernter / George Gilder Jeffrey Hart / Kevin A. Hassett / Charles R. Kesler must put rather a lot of downward pressure on wages? David Klinghoffer / Anthony Lejeune / Alan Reynolds Tracy Lee Simmons / Terry Teachout / Vin Weber I’m curious to know why this isn’t addressed in the article. Vice President Jack Fowler Chief Financial Officer James X. Kilbridge Tom Roberts Accounting Manager Galina Veygman Via email Accountant Lyudmila Bolotinskaya Circulation Manager Jason Ng Head of Integrated Sales Jim Fowler OBERT ER RuGGEn RESPOnDS Senior Account Executive Kevin Longstreet R V B : I do tend to believe that immigrants put downward pressure on the wages of natives who have similar skills. PUBLISHERCHAIRMAN E. Garrett Bewkes IV John Hillen (That’s one reason I support limiting low-skilled immigration; see my piece “A DACA Deal” in the October 2 issue of nR.) But there’s simply FOUNDER William F. Buckley Jr. no good evidence that immigration is producing the wide-scale wage scle- PATRONS AND BENEFACTORS rosis I documented in this piece. In fact, even George J. Borjas, the econo- Robert Agostinelli mist most willing to challenge his profession’s pro-immigration dogma, Dale Brott Mr. and Mrs. Michael Conway finds that immigration has actually increased American wages slightly Mark and Mary Davis Virginia James overall, though he argues it has been harmful to high-school dropouts and Christopher M. Lantrip college grads specifically (because immigrants disproportionately compete Brian and Deborah Murdock Mr. & Mrs. Richard Spencer with people of these education levels). Mr. & Mrs. L. Stanton Towne Peter J. Travers Letters may be sub mitted by email to [email protected]. 2 | www.nationalreview.com OCTOBER 1 6 , 2 0 1 7 base_new_milliken-mar 22.qxd 9/26/2017 12:39 PM Page 1 pŷpľƅ̂ÌĞťľ éƝÌpÐúpľˢŎ ZĞŎŘŎ̂ŘƃĸƅpľŎ ɒ̏͏̂úÐééÐĞĀ ŘĞjƅɅ̂éƝÌpÐúpľˢŎ̂ZĞŎŘŎ̂ŘÌp̂ZĞťĀŘľƅ̂ ɒ̏ɳʳ̂VÐééÐĞĀ̂̂ƅpľ˒̂ŘÌŘ̂ĀťúVpľ̂ŹÐéé̂ļťjľťĸép̂ ŘĞ̂Ğŷpľ̂ɒ˂̂ŘľÐééÐĞĀ̂Ğŷpľ̂ŘÌp̂ĀpƃŘ̂ÀpĀpľŘÐĞĀ˒ ÐĀZľpŎp̂ºťĀjÐĀÀ̂ºĞľ̂éƝÌpÐúpľˢŎ̂ľpŎpľZÌ̂ĀĞŹ˒ éɕƥ˥ʪ̂ʤʹ˥ɕ̂ƥ̅̂ƥʛ͋˒ʹ˥ɻ́ƥ˴ʗȷʹʪɻ˥ɕ˴˴ week2_QXP-1127940387.qxp 9/27/2017 3:04 PM Page 4 The Week n Some stood, some knelt, all winced. n President Trump’s speech to the U.N. General Assembly was a combination of idealism and blunt talk. Most striking was his ode to national sovereignty. The nation-state gets a bad rap, since it is a frequent (though by no means the only) agent of strife. But it is also the most effective forum of liberty and self-rule—an insight of both the Founders and Lincoln (cf.