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NowNow What?What? Conservatives suffered a terrible defeat on November 6, and there is no point pretending otherwise.
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DECEMBER 3, 2012 | VOLUME LXIV, NO. 22 | www.nationalreview.com
Michael Knox Beran on the Rich Vote ON THE COVER Page 18 p. 33 The Party’s BOOKS, ARTS Problem & MANNERS Republicans have lost the 46 BLAST FROM THE PAST popular vote in five of the last Helen Rittelmeyer reviews six presidential elections. The Strom Thurmond’s America, by Joseph Crespino. most logical explanation for the pattern is that the Republican 48 THE BEST OF MARINES David French reviews Into the Fire: party is weak—and has been A Firsthand Account of the for a long time. Ramesh Ponnuru Most Extraordinary Battle in the Afghan War, by Dakota Meyer and Bing West. COVER: CHARLES REX ARBOGAST/AP PHOTO 50 CHURCHILL’S ANGLOSPHERE ARTICLES Tracy Lee Simmons reviews Mr. Churchill’s Profession: The 18 THE PARTY’S PROBLEM by Ramesh Ponnuru Statesman as Author and the Republicans will be elected when they advance middle-class interests. Book That Defined the “Special Relationship,” by Peter Clarke. 24 BEYOND TAX CUTS by Kevin D. Williamson The GOP needs a broader economic agenda. 52 TRIED IN THE FIRE James E. Person Jr. reviews Lincoln’s 26 O FORTUNA by Steven F. Hayward Battle with God: A President’s Victory and defeat are likewise impermanent. Struggle with Faith and What It Meant for America, AMNESTY IS NO SOLUTION 30 by Heather Mac Donald by Stephen Mansfield. Hispanic voters want big government. 53 FILM: A DAWN OF OBAMA’S CODDLED ELITES 33 by Michael Knox Beran AWARENESS An overlooked piece of the election jigsaw puzzle. John J. Miller remembers the original version of Red Dawn. 35 AGAINST THE TIDE by Jay Nordlinger Notes on the culture and what’s possible. 55 FILM: FLESH AND BLOOD 36 WHO CARES? by John O’Sullivan Ross Douthat reviews Flight. That’s what voters want to know. 38 THE ACTIVISM TO COME by Edward Whelan SECTIONS Obama could shift the Supreme Court far to the left. 4 Letters to the Editor 39 REDEEMING OBAMACARE by Avik Roy 6 The Week How to introduce the Affordable Care Act to free markets. 44 The Long View ...... Rob Long 45 Athwart James Lileks 42 WHAT WOULD JINDAL DO? by Reihan Salam ...... 51 Poetry Bryce Taylor Louisiana’s governor can be a guide on health care and education...... 56 Happy Warrior ...... Mark Steyn
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DECEMBER 3 ISSUE; PRINTED NOVEMBER 15 Two Historians Thank you for articles of great interest on Eu - EDITOR Richard Lowry gene Genovese (“Up from Leftism,” Novem ber Senior Editors 14, 2011) and Eric Hobsbawm (“The Tyrants’ Richard Brookhiser / Jay Nordlinger Ramesh Ponnuru / David Pryce-Jones Historian,” October 29, 2012). Managing Editor Jason Lee Steorts It would have been illuminating to compare Literary Editor Michael Potemra Executive Editor Christopher McEvoy them in a single article. One used the methods of Roving Correspondent Kevin D. Williamson National Correspondent John J. Miller Marxism to uncover much that had long been Political Reporter Robert Costa hidden about the Old South, the Civil War, and Art Director Luba Kolomytseva Eu gene Genovese Deputy Managing Editors Reconstruction, while the other used Marxist Nicholas Frankovich / Fred Schwarz Robert VerBruggen emotionalism and infantilism to defend Stalinism and its crimes and criminals. Production Editor Katie Hosmer During my 38 years on a university faculty of history, I heard more praise of Editorial Associate Katherine Connell Research Associate Scott Reitmeier Hobsbawm than of Genovese. Assistant to the Editor Madison V. Peace Contributing Editors Robert H. Bork / Shannen Coffin Norman Ravitch Ross Douthat / Roman Genn Jim Geraghty / Jonah Goldberg Savannah, Ga. Florence King / Lawrence Kudlow / Mark R. Levin Yuval Levin / Rob Long / Jim Manzi Andrew C. McCarthy / Kate O’Beirne Affirmative Action in Action David B. Rivkin Jr. / Reihan Salam I’ve just concluded “A Failed Policy” (November 12), Abigail and Stephan NATIONALREVIEWONLINE Editor-at-Large Kathryn Jean Lopez Thernstrom’s review of the book Mismatch, a critique of affirmative action. As a Managing Editor Edward John Craig National Affairs Columnist John Fund former history instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy, I am intrigued by the review News Editor Daniel Foster and will be purchasing the book shortly. Editorial Associates Charles C. W. Cooke / Katrina Trinko The book’s authors conclude that policies intended to aid black and Hispanic Technical Services Russell Jenkins Web Developer Wendy Weihs students in fact “do more harm than good,” because they result in students’ being
EDITORS- AT- LARGE admitted to schools for which they are unprepared. I can say from experience that Linda Bridges / John O’Sullivan this holds true for the Naval Academy. Professor Bruce Fleming, a tenured Contributors Hadley Arkes / Baloo / James Bowman English professor at the Naval Academy, has been arguing this case for years, but Eliot A. Cohen / Brian Crozier he has unsurprisingly been dismissed not only within the Navy but also by the Dinesh D’Souza / M. Stanton Evans Chester E. Finn Jr. / Neal B. Freeman wider world of academia. James Gardner / David Gelernter George Gilder / Jeffrey Hart All service-academy graduates are commissioned officers in their respective Kevin A. Hassett / Charles R. Kesler David Klinghoffer / Anthony Lejeune services, and they will lead enlisted personnel, perhaps in combat. Unprepared D. Keith Mano / Michael Novak and incompetent service-academy graduates should be a cause of concern for all Alan Reynolds / Tracy Lee Simmons Terry Teachout / Vin Weber Americans, especially parents entrusting their children Chief Financial Officer James X. Kilbridge to recently graduated officers empowered with sub- Accounting Manager Galina Veygman Accountant Zofia Baraniak stantial legal authority. Business Services Alex Batey / Kate Murdock I’ll never forget a midshipman I taught. The mid- Elena Reut / Lucy Zepeda shipman had a combined SAT score of 800: 450 math Circulation Manager Jason Ng WORLD WIDE WEB www.nationalreview.com and 350 English. This individual struggled all semes- MAIN NUMBER 212-679-7330 SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES 386-246-0118 ter and could not even cheat effectively: For an assign- WASHINGTON OFFICE 202-543-9226 ment on the French Revolution, this person simply ADVERTISING SALES 212-679-7330 Executive Publisher Scott F. Budd Googled “French Revolution” and copied the text at Advertising Director Jim Fowler Advertising Manager Kevin Longstreet the first link. I failed the student and documented the EXECUTIVEVICEPRESIDENT Paul Dilion transgression. But the midshipman was retained.
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n At least now, when the president blames the guy in his job four years ago, he’ll be right.
n That was a thumping, make no mistake. A failed president earns another four years; his party cements its hold on the Sen - ate; there will be no legislative repeal of Obamacare, little chance to block left-wing judicial nominees . . . Shall we list the next 20 or 30 bad things Election Day brought us? But cheer up. Liberals will have their own travails (the curse of second terms, the back-loaded weight of their policies). We have lived through worse (the Seventies: the fall of Nixon, the fall of Saigon, bad hair). “A stout heart, a clear conscience, and never despair”— John Quincy Adams to Charles Francis Adams, January 1, 1848.
n The Benghazi debacle slid into bedroom farce with David Pe traeus’s resignation as director of the CIA. A week before he was scheduled to testify before Congress, Petraeus stepped down, admitting an affair with Paula Broadwell, his (ahem, over-enthusiastic) biographer. Broadwell was under investi - gation by the FBI for sending harassing e-mails to another woman who knew Petraeus. There is still much to learn that isn’t merely titillating. When did Attorney General Holder—the FBI’s boss—know? When did the president? David Petraeus performed prodigies with the Iraq surge; his fall is shameful for doing well, or well enough. This myopia covered the popular him and a shame for his country. But it must not obscure the still- vote and the swing states, the presidential election and numerous unanswered questions about Benghazi. Why were Ambassador Senate and House races. The pollsters assumed that there would Stevens’s requests for increased security ignored? Why, during be fewer minority and young voters than in 2008, when in fact an hours-long firefight, did the only reinforcements come from the no-shows were working-class whites. Time, evidently, for Tripoli, not (in force) from Sicily? The press will obsess over new pollsters. Another shortfall is cultural: President Obama the sex scandal, but it will be up to the House, if not the Senate, was mocked for appearing with The View’s ladies and the Pimp to dig into the important questions. with the Limp (a Miami rapper/DJ), but that’s how you reach the public this millennium. James Madison wrote Federalist n With taxes set to go up across the board at the start of the papers; he also hawked subscriptions for friendly newspapers, year, the politicians are bargaining. Speaker John Boehner says spoke in open-air debates, and married a wife who threw great that while he opposes raising tax rates because it would hurt parties for fellow pols. Go, and sulk no more. the economy, he is willing to accept a tax reform that raises revenue from high earners if it is coupled with entitlement n The election results mean that Obamacare will not be repealed reform. Some Democrats have talked about letting all the tax in the next four years. Conservatives should not conclude that it rates go up, introducing tax cuts for the middle class alone, and will therefore be a permanent feature of American life. State then daring the Republicans to block them. This scenario should governments should refuse to establish the exchanges the law not frighten Republicans: The Republican House will surely envisions: Thanks to a flaw in the law’s design, the federal pass a bill blocking tax increases on anyone, including the government can establish exchanges itself but cannot legally put middle class. If middle-class taxes go up, voters may well blame its taxes and subsidies into effect without the states’ cooperation. the man in the White House, especially since he is part of the (States should also join Oklahoma in its fight to keep the IRS party usually as sociated with higher taxes. Republicans should from flouting the law.) Even if the law goes into full effect, its negotiate in the confidence that they have the power to walk many perversities could require congressional attention. If that away from the table. happens, Republicans will have major leverage—at least if they offer serious alternative proposals to make insurance affordable, n One thing Republicans have to do in the wake of the elec- as they should long ago have done. tion is step up their technical game. It wasn’t just naïfs who believed Dick Morris, who expected a victorious GOP surge; n Most American presidents have been well-off, many have
DARREN GYGI Republican-campaign pollsters themselves thought they were been filthy rich, but none like to say so. Wealthy presidents
6 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 3 , 2 0 1 2 base:milliken-mar 22.qxd 11/12/2012 2:22 PM Page 1
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THE WEEK have hid their silver spoons in various ways. Some used n Voters in Colorado and Washington approved ballot mea- military service: James Monroe (Trenton), Zachary Taylor sures that legalized marijuana for recreational use, making them (Buena Vista), TR (San Juan Hill), JFK (PT-109). Some lied: the first two states in the country to do so and putting them on a William Henry Harrison’s supporters said he lived in a log collision course with the feds. Notwithstanding his past with the cabin (he actually had a comfortable Ohio estate). Mitt “Choom Gang,” Barack Obama has been something of a drug Romney wouldn’t lie, nor could he. His biography and his warrior, taking on the 16 states in which medical marijuana is C.V. were dramatically plain: He was a rich man’s son who legal and describing dispensaries as “drug kingpins and cartels.” had made his own fortune; indeed No sooner were the returns in from the two votes than federal his business competence was one officials had announced plans to fight back. “This is a symbolic of his main selling points as a victory for [legalization] advocates, but it will be short-lived,” potential chief executive. The cult Kevin Sabet, a former adviser to the Obama administration’s of the common man enables its “drug czar,” told curious reporters. Congress should revisit own deceptions—what is so common federal law with attention to the message sent by the voters of about career Beltway hacks?—but it seems to be inseparable two states: “Dude, relax.” from the democratic model, and it has produced enough good men not to have disgraced that model. Mitt Romney was a n Proponents of school choice celebrated a pair of victories good man laboring under a great weight. on Election Night. In Washington State, an initiative to allow the creation of up to 40 charter schools passed by a slim margin. n Four states approved same-sex marriage by referendum— Washington is one of nine states without charter schools, and the first time any state had done so—albeit by narrow margins measures to allow them had been rejected three times since and in blue states. Public opinion has been moving rapidly in 1996. Georgia voters resoundingly approved a measure favor of the idea. It’s still not a good one. The only good reason allowing the creation of a state commission to authorize charter for public policy to take an interest in marriage is that the schools, breaking the stranglehold that union-controlled local institution channels the behavior that creates children into school boards currently have on the approval process. The Conservatives should continue to resist judicial attempts to force governments to accept the new progressive definition of marriage, and to make the case for marriage properly understood.
responsible child-rearing. (Channels it imperfectly, of course, teachers’ unions continue to make the case that their opposition and more and more imperfectly in recent decades.) We have to educational choice is “for the children,” but it seems that par- already moved too far away from that understanding of mar- ents increasingly see who it’s really for. riage, and same-sex marriage moves us farther. The shift in opinion makes a federal constitutional amendment defining n Asked during a debate about whether abortion should be marriage as the union of a man and a woman a pipe dream. banned in cases of rape, the Republican Senate candidate for Conservatives should, however, continue to resist judicial Indiana, Richard Mourdock, did not reply that the issue is almost attempts to force governments to accept the new progressive entirely academic, or stress that we should work against the 98 definition of marriage, to defend the rights of the dissenters percent of abortions that take place for other reasons before from the new orthodoxy, and to make the case, both firmly and debating these cases. Instead he said that when women become charitably, for marriage properly understood. pregnant as a result of rape, it is God’s will that the babies be born. It was bad enough that his answer highlighted an issue n The voters of Massachusetts narrowly rejected a ballot where most people strongly disagree with his view; worse that it initiative to legalize physician-assisted suicide. Proponents of could easily be distorted into the claim that Mourdock thinks the measure, which would have allowed doctors to prescribe that rape is sometimes God’s will. The resulting controversy, late lethal drugs to patients diagnosed as terminally ill, argued that in the campaign, sank Mourdock. The Democratic candidate individuals should be able to choose “death with dignity.” A won the seat. After the Todd Akin flap, Mourdock should have coalition of disability-rights groups, medical professionals, known to weigh any words in the vicinity of “rape” carefully. It’s and religious leaders pointed out that it is almost impossible to still good advice for pro-lifers going forward. en sure that such a choice would be free from coercion, and that allowing doctors to help their patients end their lives turns the n Was it really less than two years ago that President Obama Hippocratic Oath on its head. Sean Cardinal O’Malley ex - looked down from his lectern in the House chamber and pressed the hope that “the citizens of the commonwealth will not scolded the justices of the Supreme Court for ruling, in Citizens be seduced by the language ‘dignity, mercy, compassion,’ which United v. F.E.C., to “open the floodgates” and allow elections to [is] used to disguise the sheer brutality of helping someone to be “bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests”? It seems kill themselves.” That they were not was a hopeful sign in a a different age. All the “dark money” (why not cut to the chase bleak election season. and call it “evil money” next time around?) of the mighty con-
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THE WEEK servative PACs and crusading millionaires has been discharged, Michael Bloom berg do? He gave incoherent and inaccurate without result. The Obama campaign, the Democratic party, and warnings on Sat ur day, two days before landfall, saying there Priorities USA outraised their Republican counterparts and would be a gradual storm surge (there is no such thing—surges outspent them by some $100 million. The president’s fund - begin slowly, then always speed up); he delayed an evacuation raising machinery was terrible to behold. Relentless and order until late Sun day morning; he proposed to hold the unbound by tact, it emblazoned the slogans and signifiers of the New York City Marathon six days after the hurricane hit, until Obama brand on every bit of mass-producible material culture the protests of cold, hungry, and homeless New Yorkers, and of with a printable surface. It insinuated itself, with open palms, embarrassed marathoners themselves, made him recant. Bloom - into wedding registries and graduation parties and estate plan- berg is the typical big-city big-government mayor: He can nings. Worst of all, it worked. The corrosive influence of money insert himself in photo-ops and beg for after-the-fact hand- in politics, indeed. outs; otherwise he hectors his constituents about cigarettes and Big Gulps. One more year, then good riddance. n Except for the Bronx, New York City is a collection of is - lands—Manhattan, Staten Island, western Long Island n The case for being worried about climate change, formerly (Brooklyn and Queens), and a few more in the harbor and known as global warming, begins with the unobjectionable and along the Atlantic shore. Every low-lying tract was hammered escalates to the absurd. The least plausible claim is that specific by Hur ri cane Sandy; much of what wasn’t flooded was events, such as the damage inflicted by Hurricane Sandy, are plunged into darkness by power failures. So how did Mayor attributable to specific U.S. public-policy decisions. That this Smiling Through the 2012 Nakba
KNOW I’ve told this story somewhere in NR’s pages many of the first editors of this magazine). But Reagan before, perhaps even in this space. But I’ll tell it came to conservatism organically, and he learned to I again. A friend of mine lived in Costa Rica for a speak its language both through immersion and through while. While there, she went to the movies. She saw the conviction. He was also, in the best sense of the word, a first Wayne’s World movie in English, but with Spanish great politician. subtitles. Fluent in both languages, she liked following Mitt Romney, meanwhile, seemed to learn the language the translated dialogue. In one scene, Wayne (played by rote, memorizing phrases the way a committed tourist by Mike Myers) says, “Yeah, when monkeys fly out of studies a Berlitz phrasebook on the flight across the pond. my butt!” Add in the man’s utterly authentic stiffness and you can see The translation on the bottom of the where his “47 percent” comments came screen? “Yes, when Judgment Day from. At the Conservative Political comes.” Action Conference, he told the audience In short, something was lost in he was “severely conservative”—a translation. phrase that not even severe conserva- This was Mitt Romney’s problem in a tives have ever thought to use. nutshell. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not Conservatism, and the Republican trying to shovel all of the blame onto party it largely controls, faces deep Mitt Romney for what shall henceforth and complicated challenges, to be be known as the conservative nakba sure. There are myriad debates to be (an Arabic term meaning “disaster” or had over policy, philosophy, branding, “calamity,” usually used in the Middle what have you. As I write this, there’s a East to describe Israel’s creation in 1948). lot of chatter about how Republicans should find some But there’s no escaping the fact that “candidates grand bargain on immigration to put the issue behind us. matter.” I put that phrase in quotation marks because it is I would like that myself, if it were possible. It vexes me no already gelling into a kind-hearted euphemism among end that the Left has managed to co-opt the immigrant conservative pundits for “Romney was a bad candidate.” success story as one of its talking points. But even if Indeed, a LexisNexis search reveals that I was the first some grand amnesty worked beyond our wildest person to point out that Romney speaks conservatism as dreams, there’s little evidence that Hispanics would a second language. He’s a smart and decent man— suddenly be come Republicans. That still takes persua- smarter and more decent than yours truly or most people sion. And the plain truth is that voters won’t buy even the you’ll ever meet. Nonetheless, he came to conservatism best conservative ideas if the guy hawking them doesn’t very late. It is axiomatic: The man who ran to Ted Ken - speak the language—in English or Spanish. It won’t ne dy’s left on the issue of abortion in Massachusetts was happen if he keeps talking until Judgment Day, or even not a lifelong conservative. until monkeys fly out of his butt, whichever comes first. PARAMOUNT PICTURES / That in itself isn’t damning. Ronald Reagan was a
S WORLD relatively late convert to conservatism (as were a great —JONAH GOLDBERG ’ WAYNE
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THE WEEK assertion stands in contravention of the best scientific analysis unexpectedly low, that there were “only” so many). maybe has not stopped the most unhinged climate alarmists from matthews needs a much longer rest—say, from here on out. making it. The more reasonable argument holds that warmer oceans lead to more-intense hurricanes and other extreme n When Hurricane Sandy hit and the power went out, Occupy weather events. But Sandy was not an unusually powerful hur- rejoiced. On Twitter, the outfit gleefully wrote: “No subways. No ricane—it inflicted so much damage because it arrived at the electricity. No chains.” Somewhere, the Earl of Shaftesbury confluence of a nor’easter and a high-pressure system and smiled at Hobbes. The return-to-Eden instincts of the Occupy plowed into densely populated urban areas at high tide. In fact, movement’s would-be savages synthesize the penchant for aim- the arrival of powerful hurricanes on our shores is somewhat less revolution explored so graphically in the most recent Batman diminished of late: The last Category 3 hurricane to make land- movie and the heady disdain for the modern world best expressed fall was seven years ago, the longest such interval in a century. by Paul Ehrlich. Occupy types may disdain electricity—and take As Professor Roger Pielke Jr. of the University of Colorado to the Internet to do it, no less—but the millions to whom points out, 1954–55 saw three back-to-back hurricanes more modernity has brought heat and light and transportation do not destructive than Sandy—two in the same month—crashing onto have such luxuries. Indeed, one can only presume that “No our shores. As so often, the science is complex while the politics hospitals. No water purification. No air-traffic control. No are simpleminded. Global-warming hysteria is a fashion, and it chains” didn’t quite have the same ring to it. is exciting to some people. It would not be accurate to say that it serves no one, but Al Gore’s fortune is not in obvious need of n House majority leader Eric Cantor, inspired in part by our own supplementation, and we did not believe Barack Obama’s Ramesh Ponnuru’s recent article on President Obama’s lawless- promise of halting the oceans’ rise the first time around. ness, compiled a grim list of the president’s acts of dubious legality. The pattern that emerges from his report is of a president who rewrites laws to suit an ideological agenda, and in many n Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey will spend a cases does not even bother to advance any argument that he has long time trying to live down his post-hurricane embrace the legal authority to do so. Reelected, and continuing to face a of President Obama. It was one thing for the governor to Re pub li can House, he will surely continue in the same vein. Hide welcome the president to his state in the wake of a natural the women, children, and constitutional lawyers. disaster. It was another to praise him fulsomely in the waning days of a hard-fought presidential n Remember that cute hippieish girl who stood in front of the arts campaign. Romney’s advisers concluded building seeking contributions for Amnesty International? Oh, that Christie did not particularly care come on, you remember her. Now, did you know that she won a about their candidate’s fortunes when he Nobel Peace Prize? Well, sort of: AI won the prize in 1977, and refused to attend—even briefly—a she was involved with AI, so she earned the right to call herself a Romney event in the Philadelphia sub- Nobel Prize winner. Sound far-fetched? No more so than the urbs not far from Trenton. Christie climate scientist michael mann’s claim, put forth in a press is a talented man and an im - release and a lawsuit against NR (more about that in due course), pressive public servant, with to have been “awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.” You see, the an abiding love of New International Panel on Climate Change won the prize in 2007, Jersey, but his and mann, who devised the “hockey stick” global-warming choices in the graph, reviewed some papers for the IPCC that year. So he gets a waning days of participation certificate! Unfortunately for him, the Nobel Prize the presidential committee says categorically that michael mann has never won c a m p a i g n a Nobel Prize. We’re not surprised to learn that Professor ma nn will not soon is not exactly a stickler for accuracy. be forgotten. n The troubled Anglican Communion will soon have a new leader. The Right Reverend Justin Welby, currently bishop of Durham, will take office as archbishop of Canterbury in march n At 3 A.m. on Election Night, mSNBC host Chris matthews 2013, succeeding Rowan said, of Hurricane Sandy, “I’m so glad we had that storm last Williams, whose unfortunate AP / week.” When co-host Rachel maddow gasped, matthews excursions into left-wing add ed: “Not in terms of hurting people. The storm brought in poli tics have caused much possibilities for good politics,” whereupon maddow did a heartburn to conservatives OWEN HUMPHREYS
:@ prompt outro. The next night a refreshed and rested matthews both in England and abroad. apologized: “It was a terrible thing to say, period. I can say it was On strictly religious matters, WELBY ; AP
/ be cause I was tired but the fact is I wasn’t thinking of the horri- Welby is from the Church of ble mess this storm has made of people’s lives.” matthews apol- England’s evangelical (as op - ogized because he is basically a decent man. But there is also posed to high-church) wing.
JOHN MINCHILLO professional competence to consider. matthews has been in On the current hot-button : journalism for a quarter of a century. Journalists were once issues, he is a something of a
CHRISTIE drilled never to say certain things (e.g., of casualties, however mixed bag (or, perhaps more
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appropriately in this context, a cur ate’s egg): against same-sex regard as their ancestral home, but the move has been contro- marriage, in favor of women bishops. He inherits a global versial in both India and Israel, and the flow of Bnei Menashe Communion that is ferociously divided on these and other into Gaza and the West Bank has been constricted since 2007. issues—always seemingly on the brink of schism, never quite Now their advocates, who include prominent rabbis, expect the getting there. We wish him well; as Amer icans, we find the idea entire community to settle in Israel eventually, in increments. of a “Dr. Welby” being in charge during a tough situation rather Some researchers dispute the historicity of the community’s reassuring. belief that their ancestors were expelled from the Northern Kingdom during the Assyrian exile, but no one doubts the sin- n After winning power this spring, French president François cerity of their self-identification as Israelites. Around 1951, they Hollande and his Socialist party began enacting a standard left- say, a few of them set out for Israel on foot before the hilly jun- wing fiscal package, including 75 percent income-tax rates on the gles forced them back. Sixty years later, their children and grand- rich, an expanded wealth tax, and even a heavy new tax on beer. children are flying there on El Al, their one-way tickets paid for But now liberté, fraternité, and égalité have been joined by réal- by the In ter na tional Christian Embassy Jerusalem. ité, as both the IMF and a panel appointed by Hollande’s own party have warned that high taxes are severely reducing the com- n Academic freedom is, as Jonathan Lynn might have written, petitiveness of French industry. In response, Hollande has “one of those irregular verbs”: I honestly explore ideas, you are announced a plan to slash payroll taxes (which can make compa- needlessly provocative, she is a seditious creep. So determined nies reluctant to hire new employees). It took Hollande and his the president of Fordham University in November, when he fellow Socialists only half a year to figure out that excessive tax- slammed the College Republicans for inviting Ann Coulter to ation is a severe drag on the economy. What’s Obama’s excuse? speak. President Joseph McShane announced that he was “disap- pointed with the [group’s] judgment and maturity.” The authori- n Now cracks a less-than-noble effort: A tax on saturated fats in ties stopped short of banning Coulter from the campus, but Denmark has been repealed by that country’s center-left govern- brought enough pressure to bear on the student group that it saw ment. The levy of 16 kroner per kilogram of fats was having little fit to “regret the controversy” and to “question our decision.” effect on eating habits, and drove consumers Funnily enough, on closer examination, the group found some of across the border to make their sinful pur- Coulter’s past statements disagreeable and promptly disinvited chases. Prices of basic foods, including her (which they say they would have done even without the pres- butter, cheese, and cream, substantially ident’s criticism). For this, McShane congratulated the club. increased; perhaps most appall ingly, the They had passed the test with “flying colors,” he exclaimed. nation’s largest dairy producer noted that Danish “There can,” he added, “be no finer testament to the value of a consumers were resorting to lower-quality cheeses. The law’s Fordham education and the caliber of our students.” At least if repeal will put an end to one other odd occurrence: shoppers’ thinking for themselves is not a desired mark of them. traveling to Sweden for the lower taxes and cheaper prices. n There are many ways to victimize vulnerable youngsters, usu- n It seems that Paul Revere’s apocryphal cry of “The British ally in the guise of helping them. Ria Cooper, originally named are coming!” was a popular one. An analysis, published in Sep - Brad, became Britain’s youngest transsexual at age 17 when she tem ber, showed that, at one point or another, the British in - underwent a year’s worth of hormone treatment, grew breasts, vaded al most 90 percent of the world’s countries, with only 22 and started living as a girl. Cooper’s medical and psychological countries escaping a visit. Only a few of the invaded states were treatment (at public expense, of course) was justified as neces- ever officially a part of the Empire, with the remainder being sub- sary for the patient’s mental health, but since anyone could see jected to military presence, threat of force, or sponsored piracy. that Cooper was undergoing an adolescence even more mer curial “Other countries could write similar books,” the author drily than that of most teens, the sequel is sadly unsurprising: After quipped, “but they would be much shorter. I don’t think anyone dabbling in prostitution and twice attempting suicide, he/she has could match this, although the Americans had a later start and decided not to have surgery and now wants to be a “trendy gay have been working hard on it in the twentieth century.” With the man.” What would have been wrong with having him wait until ex ception of Sweden and Vatican City, many of the nations that adulthood before making this decision? It’s hard to see Cooper as escaped British attention could perhaps have benefited from an anything but a victim of doctors who, in the interests of ideolog- invasion—or at least from losing a war or two. “The real trick,” ical crusading or surgical vanity, have taken a teen’s troubled as an Italian character in Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 says, “lies in adolescence and made it immeasurably worse. losing wars, in knowing which wars can be lost. Italy has been losing wars for centuries, and just see how splendidly we’ve done n Philip Roth told a French interviewer that he will be writing no nonetheless.” Come to think of it, that may be the strategic insight more novels. Quoting Joe Louis, the 79-year-old said, “I did the behind Obama’s defense budget. best I could with what I had.” His best was very good indeed. “Goodbye, Columbus” and the short stories printed with it were n Religious liberty scored a win when the Israeli government a terrific debut—acute, perfectly controlled. Portnoy’s Com - approved aliya, or immigration to Israel, for 275 members of the plaint was something else—obsessed, narcissistic, hideously un - Bnei Menashe, a community of about 7,000 in northeastern fair; also hilarious. If it is not a masterpiece of literature, it is a India. The Bnei Menashe (Hebrew for “children of Manasseh”) masterpiece of stand-up. American Pastoral was Roth’s great claim descent from one of the ten lost tribes of Israel. In the past American novel—a portrait of a place (Newark), a community two decades, about 1,700 of them have settled in what they (Jewish), and an era (from World War II to the Sixties); a tragedy
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THE WEEK of striving, of laying up treasure in this beautiful, corruptible grabbing headlines, often in red type. Most daring of all, Wood world. Early or late, Roth deployed the best American prose brought conservatism to famously liberal New York—not just voice in 70 years—clear and supple, without the tics of so many Daily News–style working-class populism, but thoughtful essays of his peers (Bellow, Mailer, Updike, Wolfe, Didion, David Fos- by authors such as Norman Podhoretz, Thomas Sowell, and ter Wallace . . .). Make that would-be peers. The Nobel Prize giv - George Will. Under ers would honor themselves by acknowledging his achievement. Wood’s steward- ship, the paper’s n Jacques Barzun was one of the great ornaments of American circulation more intellectual life in the 20th century: He had an interest in, and than doubled, to nearly a million. In recent years, the Post has wrote fluently about, topics from baseball to Berlioz to Charles moved upmarket, but it still remains a conservative bastion, and Darwin. His small-“c” catholic approach to the life of the mind is when a juicy story like the Anthony Weiner sexting scandal hinted at in something he was quoted as saying about his taste in comes along, people still say, as they did in Wood’s day, “I won- music: “I look for delight and find it variously in the music of all der what tomorrow’s Post headline will be.” Dead at 87. R.I.P. periods, classes, or lands, not excluding the new musics of John Cage, Harry Partch, and Edgard Varèse.” He served Columbia n Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have University for almost 50 years, in various capacities ranging greatness thrust upon them. In the l940s and 1950s, Joe Ginsberg, from professor of history to provost and dean of the graduate a journeyman catcher, achieved, if not greatness, at least steadi- school. He published more than 40 books, but produced one of ness as a reliable backup for six American League teams. He his very best at the age of 93: From Dawn to Decadence: 500 ended his career by playing two games for the comprehensively Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present (2000) was a inept 1962 Mets, and there can be no greater anticlimax than that. titanic work of cultural history and became a surprise bestseller. But not long afterwards he had greatness, perhaps even a modest Jacques Barzun has died at 104. R.I.P. sort of immortality, thrust upon him. For several decades, the “How to Keep Score” page in the Mets’ game program used the n Elliott Carter will be known as one of the longest-lived com- lineup from the Mets’ first home game as an example, and as it posers ever: He lived from 1908 to 2012, dying at 103. He happened, Ginsberg started that game. So generations of Mets worked and produced right to the end. An American, Carter was fans knew his name, and many came to imagine him as a main- born in the administration of Theodore Roosevelt. He was eight stay of the team instead of a scrub. Casey Stengel, the Mets’ wise when the U.S. entered old manager, had foreseen exactly that when he made out the line- World War I, and re - up card: “You’ve had 13 years in the big leagues, and I want you membered it well. He to catch the first game in New York. You’ll get more credit for that died the day before than for anything else in those 13 years.” Dead at 86, R.I.P. Obama’s re election. But there is more to Carter 2012 than lon gev i ty. He was in the forefront of mod- Learning from Defeat ernism, taking music in ONSERVATIVES suffered a terrible defeat on November 6, ever more abstract and and there is no point pretending otherwise. President dissonant di rec tions. He C Obama won with an improving but still weak economy, had no use for “neo- and while running a campaign that was quite liberal by historical Romantics,” considering standards. His plan for the economy was almost entirely built on their attachment to mel - government-directed investment and government-based employ- ody, harmony, and so on “deplorable.” Our music critic, Jay ment, and he supported abortion more strongly than any previous Nordlinger, interviewed Carter just before his hundredth birth- Democratic presidential candidate had. Republicans lost two day. He does not regard Carter’s contributions to music as Senate seats, even in a cycle with far more liberal than conserva- entirely salutary. Nei ther does he think they will endure. But he tive seats contested. The House was the only bright spot, and that counts Carter one of the smartest and most interesting people he largely because of a favorable redistricting. has ever encountered. An amazing mind has passed from the Blame for this debacle is widely shared. Mitt Romney made scene. And he proved that there is work to be done after 90, 95, many mistakes in this campaign. Yet with the exception of his and 100. R.I.P. failure to press the case against Obamacare—a failure partly explained but not excused by his own record on health care— n In New York City it used to be said that simply by looking at those mistakes reflected party-wide decisions. The party hasn’t someone you could tell what newspaper he read. By the 1970s, kept up with the political technologies Democrats are using. with just three papers remaining, the task was simple: The Daily More important, Republicans from the top to the bottom of the News was for the masses, the Times was radical chic, and the Post ticket did little to make the case that conservative policies would was mainstream liberal. Then, in 1976, Rupert Murdoch bought make the broad mass of the public better off. It wasn’t a theme of the Post and installed Roger Wood, a veteran of Britain’s lively the convention in Tampa, for example, or a consistent theme in tabloids and Australia’s even livelier ones, as editor. Wood Republican ads. AP PHOTO / brought in the Page Six gossip column, easily New York’s best; Most of the post-election discussion has dwelt on the pre dict - a generous helping of cheesecake; a one-sentence-per-paragraph able demographic divides of sex, race, and age. Most of this con-
JOHN LENT style; hard-hitting, earthy editorial cartoons; and attention- versation will be unproductive. Until conservatives devise a
1 4 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 3 , 2 0 1 2 base:milliken-mar 22.qxd 11/12/2012 12:18 PM Page 1
32:(5)8/2:(5)8/1(:(: %22.622.6 ))$$112%/(75($621 ))7+(35,&(723$<$$<<$0XVOLP5LVNV$0XVOLP5LVNV 7KH6WRU\RI6RSKLH6FKROODQGWKH:KLWH7KH6WRU\RI6RS SKLH6FKROODQGWKH:KLWH $OOWR)ROORZ&KULVW W -RVHSK)DGHOOH- 5RVH5HYROW$JDLQVW+LWOHU5RVH5HYROW$JD DLQVW+LWOHU 5LFKDU5LFKDUG+DQVHUG+DQVHU XULQJKLV PLOLWDU\ \ VHUYLFH 0XKDPPDG RSKLH6FKROO DQG KHU EU EURWKHURWKHU +DQV ZHU ZHUHH ' )DGHOOH D \RXQJ J 0XVOLP ,UDTLIU IURPRP D 6KDQGVRPHEULJKWXQLYHUVLW\VWXGHQWVKDQGVRPHEULJKW XQLYHUVLW\ VWXGHQWV ȘɑɄȹȘȘɑɄȹ OHDGLQJ6KLLWHIDPLO\GLVFRYHUVWKDWKLVURRPOHDGLQJ6KLLWHIDPLO\\GGLVFRYHUV WKDWKLVURRP LQ *HUPDQ\$V*HUPDQQ\ $V PHPEHUV RIWKH +LWOHU PDWHLVD&KULVWLDQ0XKDPPDGWULHVWRFRQPDWHLVD&KULVWLDQ0XKDPPDG WULHVWRFRQ 32%R[ )W&ROOLQV&2332%R[ )W&ROOLQV&2 2 week:QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/14/2012 2:52 PM Page 16 We know from history that immigration amnesties encourage yet more illegal immigration, and the suffering and disorder that go along with it. The growth of an illegal underclass is in the long-term interest of neither the citizens of the united States nor those immigrants who aspire to citizenship. Stopgap measures such as “temporary guest worker” programs simply convert that underclass from de facto to de jure. There are many steps we can and should take toward improv- ing our national immigration regime. It should be easier for those with job offers—particularly highly skilled, english-speaking professionals—to gain long-term residency in the united States and to embark on a path to citizenship if they so choose. For those who are here illegally, especially those who were brought here as young children, our policy options are not restricted to amnesty or round-ups and mass deportations. Our most effective and most humane option is steady, consistent, judicious workplace enforcement. We do not lack the means to enforce the law, only the political will to do so. And even if our immigration system is domestic agenda, and a way to sell it, that links small- broadly liberalized, the law still will need to be enforced. non- government principles to attractive results, they are going to have enforcement simply is not a viable permanent state of affairs. a hard time improving their standing with women, Latinos, white Law enforcement would be as necessary after an amnesty as it is men, or young people. And conservatives would be deeply today. unwise to count on the mere availability of charismatic young Republicans who believe that amnesty would buy them an conservative officials to make up for that problem. electoral advantage with Hispanics are deluding themselves. Social conservatives usually get unfairly blamed for Re - That Hispanics are a natural Republican constituency because of publican electoral defeats. There is certainly no reason for their Catholic and family-oriented traditions is wishful thinking. Republicans to stop defending the right to life, and little prospect Hispanics are not uniformly in favor of amnesty for illegals— that they will. Too many social conservatives have, however, polls have shown that a segment of the Hispanic population rang- embraced a self-defeating approach to politics—falling, to take a ing from a large minority to a small majority opposes the policy. painful example, for Todd Akin’s line that his withdrawal from polls also show that a substantial majority of Hispanics support the Missouri Senate race would be a defeat for their causes. It Obamacare, and that Hispanics voted ac cord ing ly on Tuesday. would have been an advance. Those who see in Hispanics a potential bloc of socially conserv- Conservatives are going to have to do all of their rethinking ative voters should consider that polls consistently find blacks to under pressure, because liberalism will not rest. If the president be slightly more anti-abortion than whites, but they are not offers a serious reform of entitlements, or some other worthwhile exactly lining up behind Rick San tor um. There is very little policy, conservatives should be willing to bargain with him. If he reason to believe that Hispanic Catholics are any more likely to continues on the path of his first term—and why would he not, vote like social conservatives than non-Hispanic Catholics. For after this election?—we should feel duty-bound to oppose him. that matter, the majority of Hispanic evangelicals voted for We will have to do it more effectively, while articulating better Obama in 2008. alternatives, than we have so far. The amnesty signed into law by the charismatic and popu- lar president Reagan did not bring Hispanic voters into the IMMIGRATION Re pub li can party; Republican congressional leaders who believe that sending one to president Obama would redound The Amnesty Delusion to their benefit are engaged in a defective political calculus. epubLICAnS are in danger of embracing “comprehen- nor are Hispanics the only group of voters to consider. sive” immigration reform—which is to say, amnesty— blue-collar whites do not appear to have turned out for R out of panic. The GOp does need to do better among Republicans in the expected numbers on election Day. Hispanics and other voters, but amnesty is not the way to achieve Support for amnesty will not bring them back. If the policy it. Our immigration system is in need of deep reform, but advanced the national interest, that consideration might not amnesty is not the first item on intelligent reformers’ to-do list, if matter. It does when supposed political advantage is the indeed it belongs on the list at all. argument for the policy. All decent people have a measure of sympathy for those who, The Republican party and the conservative movement driven by desperation, come illegally to the united States seek- simply are not constituted for ethnic pandering, and cer tainly ing work to provide for themselves and their families. That they will not out-pander the party of amnesty and affirmative so frequently work at low wages in miserable conditions and that action. Re pub li cans’ challenge is to convince Hispanics, they are vulnerable to every kind of abuse is reason for deeper blacks, women, gays, etc., that the policies of the O bama ad - AP / sympathy still. but the solution to their plight is not to abandon ministration are in im i cal to their interests as Americans, not as the law, any more than the solution to the plight of the poor in Les members of any collegium of grievance. That they have con- Misérables is to legalize the theft of bread. The rule of law exists sistently failed to do so suggests that Republican leadership is CHARLES DHARAPAK to alleviate misery, not to mandate it. at least as much in need of reform as our immigration code. 1 6 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 3 , 2 0 1 2 base:milliken-mar 22.qxd 11/12/2012 12:25 PM Page 1 Technology Simplified – New and Improved FREE Automatic WOW… A Computer Designed Software Updates For YOU, Not Your Grandchildren! …It’s easy to read. It’s easy to see. It’s even easier to understand and use! Just plug it in!!! Have you ever said to yourself “I’d love to get a NEW computer, if only I could Touch figure out how to use it.” Screen Well, you’re not alone. Technology Computers were supposed to make our lives simpler, but they’ve gotten so complicated that they are not worth the trouble. With all of the “pointing and clicking” and “dragging and dropping” you’re lucky if you can figure out where you are. 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They use computers on their them, from the Web, Call now, and a patient, jobs everyday, but they cannot 1-877-770-8965 believe what you can do on Email, Calendar to knowledgeable product this computer. It is wonderful... Games– you name it… and expert will tell you how Thanks. a new screen opens up. you can try it in your © 2012 by Copyright – Johnnie E., Ellijay, Ga It’s so easy to use you home for 30 days. If you 80372 3col:QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/13/2012 11:40 PM Page 18 Post-Election 2012 better. (He also did slightly better than Ted Cruz in Texas, a race Blake for some reason ignored.) None of those candidates were as rich as Romney, and almost all of them had more consistently conservative records than he did. It didn’t help them win more votes. The only Republican Senate candi- dates who ran significantly ahead of Romney were people running well to his left in blue states, and they lost too. Akin and Mourdock have received a lot of attention because they fit into the story of the Senate elections of 2010. Most observers believe that Republican-primary voters threw away three Senate seats that year by choosing unelectable extremists over candidates who could have won. This year, Akin and Mourdock each made comments about abortion and rape that doomed them. If not for these five mis- takes in candidate selection, Republicans would have 50 seats. So goes the story. The Party’s Problem It’s an accurate one as far as it goes. But it is not the story of the 2012 Senate races. Republicans will be elected when they advance middle-class interests Berg, Allen, Thompson, and Rehberg all lost, but they were not unelectable BY RAMESH PONNURU extremists: All of them had won statewide races before. We could try to explain these He first thing conservatives of them makes the mistake of assuming defeats in terms of each candidate’s par- should understand about the that this election should have been easy to ticular weaknesses. Blake, the Post electoral catastrophe that just win given the weak economy, the public’s reporter, hints at such an explanation: “It’s T befell us—and it was a catas - dissatisfaction with the status quo, and the pretty clear that lackluster candidates cost trophe—is that any explanation of it that unpopularity of Obamacare. They know Republicans multiple Senate seats on centers on Mitt Romney is mistaken. that the economy has been improving, election Day.” No. That’s the 2010 story. Much of the discussion of the race that the Democratic base in presidential The 2012 Senate races were more like the among conservatives has made the oppo- races has been expanding for decades, ones in 2006 and 2008: wipeouts for site assumption. “Romney proved to be and that the public still blames George W. Republicans of every description—veter- the kind of electoral drag many of us sus- Bush and his party for an economic crisis ans and newcomers, conservative purists pected he would always be,” wrote one that began during his second term. Nor and relative moderates alike. conservative the morning after the elec- are they entirely wrong in their diagnoses All these candidates lost not because of tion. “It was a flawed candidacy from the of Romney’s distinctive weaknesses and the idiosyncrasies of this or that candidate start,” wrote two others. “Romney’s cau- errors. They err mainly in attributing too or the flaws of this or that faction of the tion and ever-shifting policy positions much importance to them. Republican party. They lost not because made him seem fearful, which is to say Romney was not a drag on the of the particular vices of the Tea Party, or weak. His biography hurt him. . . . And Republican party. The Republican party of social conservatives, or of the party because of his own history in Massa - was a drag on him. Aaron Blake pointed establishment. The most logical explana- chusetts, he could never effectively go out in the Washington Post that Romney tion for the pattern is that something com- after President Obama on Obamacare, the ran ahead of most of the Republican mon to all Republicans brought them president’s biggest political weakness.” Senate candidates: He did better than down, and the simplest explanation is that Another called Romney “the worst candi- Connie Mack in Florida, George Allen in their party is weak—and has been for a date to win his party’s nomination since Virginia, Tommy Thompson in Wis - long time. Consider the evidence: Re - WWII.” Still another wrote, “There will consin, Denny Rehberg in Montana, Jeff publicans have lost the popular vote in be a lot of blame to go around, but, if Flake in Arizona, Pete Hoekstra in five of the last six presidential elections. Republicans are honest, they’ll have to Michigan, Deb Fischer in Nebraska, Rick Since the Senate reached its current size, concede that the Romney campaign ran a Berg in North Dakota, Josh Mandel in Democrats have had more than 55 seats bad campaign.” Ohio, and of course Todd Akin in 13 times; Republicans, never. All of these writers are intelligent peo- Missouri and Richard Mourdock in Before settling on this story of party ple (some of them friends of mine). None Indiana. In some cases Romney did a lot weakness, we need to examine three DARREN GYGI 1 8 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 3 , 2 0 1 2 base:milliken-mar 22.qxd 11/12/2012 12:27 PM Page 1 3col:QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/13/2012 11:40 PM Page 20 Post-Election 2012 apparent pieces of evidence of strength. only when they split, as in 1912 and 1916. social issues—for example, stem cells The first is that Republicans retained con- The Great Depression made the Demo - during the George W. Bush presidency— trol of the House even as they lost the crats into the dominant party until 1968. the public sided with the Democrats. On presidential and Senate races. Repub- Only one Republican won the presidency some economic issues, such as taxes licans are likely to have their second- during that period, and under highly during the Reagan presidency, the public largest House majority in 60 years. They unusual circumstances: He had won sided with Republicans. appear, however, to have narrowly lost the World War II, the Democrats had held the The generalization nonetheless holds. popular vote for the House. One reason presidency for five consecutive terms, and Clinton won the White House because of they won so many seats anyway is that the country was beset by inflation, corrup- the recession of the early 1990s, of 2010 was an unusually good Republican tion, and an unpopular war in Korea. course, but also because the end of the year, and Republicans were therefore able The Democrats lost majority status in Cold War took foreign policy off the to draw the lines of congressional districts 1968—they would lose five of six presi- table, badly weakening Republicans, and following that year’s census. What the dential elections from that year through because he systematically addressed House success demonstrates, in part, is 1988, and win one by a hair—but Re - Democratic liabilities on welfare, crime, that Republicans can do well when they publicans did not gain it. They never held and other values-laden issues. During the choose the voters rather than vice versa. the House and rarely held the Senate dur- presidential debates of 2004, Bush did Another reason for the House success, as ing that streak of presidential wins. Why well on social-issue questions while being The problem isn’t so much that Romney was vulnerable to a set of attacks that appear to have discouraged working-class whites from voting; it’s that he didn’t have anything positive with which to counter those attacks. Michael Barone has observed, is that the didn’t Republicans become the dominant defensive on economic issues. In 2006, geographic distribution of Republican party then? It wasn’t because of foreign when Democrats took Congress, they voters within states tends to favor them. policy: That boosted them during the racked up their biggest margin against a That’s not much help, though, in amassing second half of the Cold War, when the Senate incumbent in Pennsylvania, where a national majority from statewide races. Democrats became the relatively dovish they ran a candidate who opposed abor- The second piece of evidence for party. That’s a big reason Republicans did tion and same-sex marriage. Republican political strength is that better at the presidential than at the con- For the last 50 years, voters have been they hold 30 of the 50 governorships. gressional level. It wasn’t because of social alarmed by rapid expansions of govern- That strength too is misleading. Each of issues: The hippies and McGovernites ment (which goes a long way toward those Republican governors was elected helped make Republicans the party of explaining the good Republican years of either in a state Romney carried or in the middle-class values. 1966, 1978, 1980, 1994, and 2010) but unusually Republican years of 2009 and What they did not do is make the also by the prospect of major cuts to 2010—or, in most cases, both. Republicans the party of middle-class government (which goes some way Third is that as recently as eight years economic interests. Most Americans toward explaining 1996 and 2012). In ago Republicans won the White House as associated the party with big business other years, they have held vaguely well as respectable majorities in the and the country club, and did not agree government-skeptical sentiments while House and Senate. Even at that height, with its impulses on the minimum wage, approving most proposals for gradual though, they had nothing like the domi- entitlement programs, and other forms of increases in government assistance (for nance in Congress that Democrats had in government activism designed to protect families paying for college, seniors trying the late 1970s, or 1993–94, or 2009–10. ordinary people from cold markets. to get prescription drugs, and so on). The Republican success of 2004 partly Americans came to be skeptical of gov- After the 2006 and 2008 Democratic reflects the fact that it was the first ernment activism mainly when they blowouts, liberals started to view their presidential election following the terror- thought it was undermining middle-class victory as the new normal in American ist attack of September 11, 2001. Even values (as they thought welfare under- politics, the result of inexorable demo- in that good Republican year, though, mined the work ethic). And even when graphic forces. After the 2010 Republican Republicans went down one Senate seat, voters thought Republicans were better victories, some conservatives began to net, outside the South (while gaining five managers of the economy in general, think that was the new normal. Re - in the South). they thought the GOP looked out for the publicans, they thought, had lost in ’06 Republican weakness emerges even rich rather than the common man. and ’08 because of the Iraq War, the finan- more clearly when we look at a longer This pattern of voter preferences— cial crisis, Hurricane Katrina, Bush’s big timescale. From 1896 through 1930, favoring the GOP on values and foreign spending, and congressional scandals. Republicans were the dominant party, policy, the Democrats on middle-class Given a straight-up choice between con- holding the White House and Congress economics—persisted for a long time. servatism and liberalism, though, the most of the time and losing the presidency There were always exceptions. On some people would choose the former. 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The energy ever, Republicans have had little to say. interpretation and subtract it from the con- argument was sufficiently effective that In the days since the election, servative one. It’s the 2010 election, not the Obama had to steal some of its rhetoric. Republicans have received (and given 2008 one, that is starting to look aberrant. The absence of a middle-class mes- one another) a lot of advice: Step up the The Iraq War, the financial crisis, and sage was the biggest failure of the ground game. Soften on immigration and other issues specific to the late Bush years Romney campaign, and it was not its abortion. Embrace same-sex marriage. obviously did play a huge role in the 2006 failure alone. Down-ticket Republican Appeal more to single women, Hispanics, and 2008 defeats. But it’s also true that candidates weren’t offering anything and young people. Run the younger, more Republicans weren’t even arguing that more—not the established Republicans, charismatic candidates Republicans have they had a domestic agenda that would not the tea-partiers, not the social conser- waiting in the wings. Some of this advice yield any direct benefits for most voters, vatives. Conservative activists weren’t is good, and some of it bad. But the weak- and that has to have hurt them. Taxes had demanding that Romney or any of these ness of the Republican party predates the been the most powerful economic issue other Republicans do anything more. emergence of same-sex marriage as an for Republicans for a generation, but Some of them were complaining that issue, the development of Democratic Republicans misunderstood why. In the Romney wasn’t “taking the fight to micro-targeting strategies, and the growth ’80s and ’90s, Republicans ran five presi- Obama”; few of them were urging him to of the Hispanic vote. And wasn’t Josh dential campaigns promising to make or outline a health-care plan that would Mandel, the losing Ohio Senate candi- keep middle-class taxes lower than they reassure voters that replacing Obamacare date, supposed to be one of those great would be under Democrats, and won four wouldn’t mean taking health insurance young conservative hopes? However of them. In 2008 they made no such away from millions of people. much charisma and brains the next crop promise but did say they would lower the Romney’s infamous “47 percent” of Republicans brings to their campaigns, corporate tax rate. gaffe—by which he characterized voters they need a stronger party. In the exit polls in 2008, 60 percent of who do not pay income taxes as free - The perception that the Republican voters said that McCain was not “in touch loaders and sure Democratic voters, party serves the interests only of the rich with people like them.” McCain lost 79 which they aren’t—made for a week of underlies all the demographic weaknesses percent of the voters who said that. To get bad media coverage and some deva s - that get discussed in narrower terms. a majority of the popular vote, he would tatingly effective Democratic ads. It was Hispanics do not vote for the Democrats have had to win 96 percent of the 39 not, however, a line of thinking unique to solely because of immigration. Many of percent of voters who were willing to say Romney. It was an exaggerated version of them are poor and lack health insurance, he passed the threshold test of under- a claim that had become party orthodoxy. and they hear nothing from the Re - standing their concerns. It’s amazing he A different Republican presidential publicans but a lot from the Democrats came as close as he did. (Fifty-seven nominee might not have made exactly about bettering their situation. Young percent of voters said Obama was in that gaffe, or had a financial-industry people, too, are economically insecure, touch, and he had to win only 81 percent background that lent itself to attacks on especially these days. If Republicans of them; he got 86 percent.) outsourcing. He would almost certainly found a way to apply conservative In 2012, the exit pollsters asked a have had a similar weakness on eco nomic principles in ways that offered tangible different version of the question: “Who policy, however, and might have had benefits to most voters and then talked is more in touch with people like you?” additional weaknesses too. (Romney at about this agenda in those terms, they Obama beat Romney by ten points, even least won independent voters, which it’s would improve their standing among all while losing the “better handle the econ - hard to imagine Newt Gingrich, Rick of these groups while also increasing their omy” question by one. Romney, unlike Perry, or Rick Santorum having done.) To appeal to white working-class voters. For McCain, did offer middle-class voters a put it differently: The problem isn’t so that matter, higher-income voters would tax cut, although it’s not clear that this much that Romney was vulnerable to a set prefer candidates who seem practical fact made its way through the din of the of attacks that appear to have discouraged and solution-oriented. Better “communi- campaign to register with the voters. His working-class whites from voting; it’s cations skills,” that perennial item on the campaign made efforts—sporadic rather that he didn’t have anything positive with wish list of losing parties, will achieve than sustained—to make the case that his which to counter those attacks. little if the party does not have an agenda would deliver stronger growth The Republican story about how soci- appealing agenda to communicate. and higher wages. He rarely suggested it eties prosper—not just the Romney Despair has led many Republicans to would make health care more affordable. story—dwelt on the heroic entrepreneur question their earlier confidence that Amer - On only one issue did the campaign stifled by taxes and regulations: an ica is a “center-right country.” It is certain- consistently make the case that Romney important story with which most people ly a country that has strong conservative would take specific actions that would do not identify. The ordinary person does impulses: skepticism of government, re - yield tangible benefits for most Amer i - not see himself as a great innovator. He, or spect for religion, concern for the family. cans: He would allow energy exploration, she, is trying to make a living and support What the country does not have is a cen- which would reduce the cost of living for or maybe start a family. A conservative ter-right party that explains how to act on everyone. He devoted time to that theme reform of our health-care system and tax these impulses to improve the national in his convention speech, which did not code, among other institutions, might help condition. Until it does, it won’t have a touch on affordable health care, higher with these goals. About this person, how- center-right political majority either. 2 2 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 3 , 2 0 1 2 base:milliken-mar 22.qxd 11/13/2012 3:56 PM Page 1 ADVERADVERTISEMENTTISEMENT HHealthealth & WWellnessellness ArAree yyouou tiredtireed of feeling g “foggy”...“foggy”... absent-minabsent-minded...ded... or confused?con nfused? IS YYOUROUUR MEMORYME EMORRYY Do you get lostt going to places you SLIPPSLIPPINGPING AWAAWAY?WWAAAYY? ? usedd tot knowk howh tot get t to?t ? Find out hohoww someso ome people staystay sharps and mentallmentally ly focused --- eevenvenn at age 90! HerHere’se’s their secrsecret...et... By SteStevenven WWuzubia;uzubia; Health CorrCorrespondent;eespondent; start to eexperiencexxperience memory prproblems.oblems. YYourour ability to coconcentrate oncentr aate and stastay ay focused becomes mes Clearwaterllearwater,r,, Florida: compromised.compromiseed. And grgradually,raduallyaduallyy,, a “mental ffog” othing’othing’ss mormoree frustrfrustratingatingg than when yyouou sets in. It cacan an damage eeveryvery aspect of yyourour lilife”. ife” . forforgetget names… misplacee yyourour kkeys…eys… or N In recentrecentt yyears,ears, researchersresearchers identified the just feel ““aa little confused”confused”.. AAnd eevenven though importance of a rremarkableemarkkableable compound called alled yyourour foggy memory gets laulaughedughed off as just phosphatidylserinephosphatidyh h idylserinel i (PS). It’It’ss the h kkeyey iingredientingredidiiient Do you spend a lotot of time looking for another “senior moment”, it’it’s ’s not veryvery funnfunnyy things like yourour glasses or keys? in Lipogen PS Plus. And crucial to youryour abilityabi ility when it kkeepseeps happening to yyou.ou. to learn and d rememberremember things as yyouou ageage.. LikLikee grgrayraay hair and readingreadingg glasses… some people accept their memory lolossss as just a part of EEarth-shaking Science getting olderolder. r.. But it doesn’t hahaveve to be that wway.ay. PublishedPublished,d, clinical rreportseports showshow replenish-replenish- TTodaToday,oday, people in their 770s,0ss, 80’s80’s eevenven their ing yyourour bobody’s ody’s naturnaturalal supply of PhosphatiPhosphati- hati- 90s90s...... araree stastayingying mentally fit, focused and dylserinedylserine,, notn only helps sharpen yyourour memem- em- “fog-fr“fog-free”.ee”. So what do thetheyy knowknow that yyouou ory and conconcentration— ncentration— but also helps “perk perk don’t? WWell,ell, the secrsecretet mamayy be as easeasyy as yyouou up” anand nd put yyouou in a better mood. taking a tintinyy pill called LipogLipogengen PS Plus. YYouroour Memory Unleashed! “My memory wwasass starting to Do you forgetrget important doctor Lipogen PS Plus isis anan impressiveimpressive fusionfus sion visits or dates? fail meme.. I wouldwould forgetforf get all kinds of the mostm popowerful,werful, naturnaturalal memmemory mory of thingsthings.. SomethingSometh hing I just compoundss on Earth. This drug-frdrug-freeee brbrain-aain- moods of the individuals who took the placebo said wwouldould completelycomp pletely slip mymy boosting forformularmula enterenterss yyourour bloodstrbloodstreameam fast (star(starchch pill), rremainedemained unaffected. naffected. mind. My memory seemed d to be gettinggetting (in as little as thirty minutes). But in ororderder to truly apprappreciateeciate hohoww wwellell prettypretty unreliable.unreliable. I waswas worried.worrried. So when It prproducesoducces amazing rresults.esults. Especially for Lipogen PS Plus worksworkss forfor youryour memory—memory— I readread about Lipogen I wantedwantnted to try it. people whoo hahaveve tried eeverythingverything to imprimprove rove yyouou rreallyeally hahaveve to try it. And nonoww yyouou can... ItIt waswas ggradual.radual. It wasn’twasn’t likelik ke “oh I’m their memomemoryory beforbefore,e, but failed. LipogenLipogenn PS Special “See FForor YYourself”Yourourseelf” Risk-FRisk-Freeree Supply rememberingremembering everythingeverything nonnow”.w””.. I wwasas Plus givgiveses yyourour brbrainain the vital boost it needs eeds WWe’vee’ve made arrarrangementsanngements with the taking it on a daily basis forfo or 3 months to jump-stajump-startart yyourour focus and mental clarityclarity.. “It distributor of Lipogen PS Plus to offer youyou a when it hit me,me, ‘I hahaven’tven’t forfforgottengotteng truly is a gogodsend!” odsend!” sasaysys ShinitzkyShinitzky.. speciali l “R“Readerseaderd s OOnly l DDiscount”Discount”.. ThiThis ttrial i l is anythingannythingything recently’.recently’. 1100%00% risk-frrisk-free.ee. NowNow I will definitely recommendrecommmend it to mymy SignificantSiggnificant ImprovementsImprovements It’It’ss a terrific deal. If LipogenLippogen PS Plus doesn’t friends and mymy sistersister.. I wwouldouuld not trust In 1992, doctordoctorss tested phosphatidylserinerine help yyouou think betterbetter,r,, rremembereemember mormore...e... and mymy memory without it. It’sIt’s givgivenen me a on a select grgroupoup of people aged 60-80 yearsyeears imprimproveove yyourour mind, clarityrity and mood – yyouou lotlot moremore self confidence thatth hat I don’t feel old. Their test scorscoreses shoshowedwed imprimpressiveessivsive wwon’ton’t papayy a penny!penny! (except(except s&h). likelike a dope all the time.time. ThThanks hanks Lipogen memory imimprovement. mprovement. TestTest subjects could ould But yyouou must act fast.. YourYour ororderder can only for giving me mymy memory back!” rrememberemember mormmoree and wwereere mormoree mentally alert.lert. be guarguaranteedanteed if it comeses in within the nenextxt - Donna a V.,V., Ocala, FL. But doctordoctorss noticed something elseelse.. 7-da7-days.ys. After that, suppliessuppplies could run out. The grgroupoupp taking phosphatidylserine,phosphatidylserine, not onlyo And yyourour ororderder mamayy not be fulfilled until thetheyy Unblock YYourour BrBrainain enjoenjoyedyed shasharperarper memorymemory,y,, but wwereere also mmormoree araree replenished.replenished. Made eexclusivelyxclusivelyy in IsrIsrael,aell, this incrincredibleedible upbeat and rremarkablyemarkably happhappy.y. In contrcontrast,astast, the supplement feeds yyourour brainbraain the nutrients So don’t wwait.ait. NoNoww yyouou can join the it needs to stastayy healthhealthy.y. Itt wwasas dedevelopedveloped thousands of people who think betterbetter, r, OO cially cially ReviewedReviewed byby the U.S.U.S. rrememberemember mormore—ande—andd enjoenjoyy clearclear, r, “fog- bbyy DrDr.. Meir Shinitzky,Shinitzky, Ph.D.Ph.D.,., former visiting FFoodood and DrugDrug Administration:Administration: prprofessorofessor at DukeDuke UnivUniversity,ersity, and rrecipientecipient of frfree”ee” memorymemory.. Think of it as making a Lipogen PS sasafetyafety has been rreviewdeviewd bbyy the FDFDADAA (FD(FDA FDDAA the prprestigiousestigious J.F.J.F. KKennedyennedy PrizePPrize.. “w“wake-upake-up call” to yyourour brbrain.ain. GRAS Notice No. GRN 000000186)186) PS is the ONLONLYLYY hehealth ealth DrDr.. Shinitzky eexplains;xplains; “Sci“Scienceience has shoshown,wn, supplement wwith a FDFDAA “qualified health claim”” for Call NoNow,ww,, TTolloll FFree!ree! when youryour brbrainain nutrient lelevelsveels drdrop,op, youyou can BOBOTH,TH, COGNCOGNITIVE NITIVE DDYSFUNCTIONYSFUNCTION AND Dementia. ntia. 1-800-497-13271-800-4997-1327 THESE STSTATEMENTSA TEMENTS HAVEHAVE NOT BEEN EVALUATEDEVALUATED BY THE US FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION.ADMINISTRARATION. THESE PRODUCTS AREE NOT INTENDED TOTO DIAGNOSE, TREAT,TREAT, CURE OR PREVENT ANY DISEASE. RESULTSRESULTTS BASED UPON AVERAGES.AVERAGES. MODELS DELS ARE USED IN ALL PHOTOSPHOTOS TOTO PROTECT PRIVACYPRIVACY 3col:QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/13/2012 11:40 PM Page 24 Post-Election 2012 never heard of. That is because of the wrote conservatives, not Republicans. counterintuitive fact that individuals The unified Republican government Beyond operating in free markets pay taxes under george W. Bush, whatever its other collectively: If you rent an apartment, virtues, spent money like nobody’s Tax Cuts you don’t get a property-tax bill every business, and that generation of Re - year, but you can be sure that you pay publican leaders managed to single - The GOP needs a broader most or all of your landlord’s property- handedly destroy the party’s reputation economic agenda tax bill, possibly at a higher commercial- for fiscal restraint. They took a piece of property rate and without the income-tax bad luck—the Clinton-gingrich sur - BY KEVIN D. WILLIAMSON deduction for mortgage interest. Which is plus es were always destined to be tempo- to say, as a person who does not get a rary as entitlement spending escalated vERyThINg you think you know property-tax bill, you’re probably paying and the millennial boom tapered off—and about the decline of the U.S. a higher real-property-tax rate than some- made it a great deal worse. All of those economy is wrong. The United body who owns a home. Every time you Democrats braying about how Re - E States is today the world’s order a Big Mac, McDonald’s is nego - publicans squandered the surplus would largest manufacturer, as it long has been. tiating a portion of its tax expenses into have sounded a lot less convincing if W. Depending on whom you ask, the the deal. Every business suffering & Co. had not described the tax cuts as United States is either the world’s increased costs from Obamacare—which measures designed to eliminate the sur- largest exporter or the world’s second- is to say, practically every business—will plus. Mission accomplished, geniuses. largest exporter. For all that dumb talk try to offload a portion of those costs onto The major driver of deficits going for- about the menace of “foreign oil,” the consumers. And consumers, in their role ward is of course entitlement spending, United States is today a net exporter of as employees, negotiate with their and Republicans have some excellent petroleum products—we import a lot of cheap crude and export a lot of expen- The major driver of deficits going sive fuel. The International Energy Agency projects that the United States forward is entitlement spending, and will become the world’s largest oil pro- ducer by 2017, surpassing Saudi Arabia. Republicans have some excellent U.S. technology firms such as Apple and ideas about entitlement reform. google are the envy of the world—a world that sends its best and brightest to employers for higher compensation to ideas about entitlement reform. But it U.S. universities for the purpose of offset living expenses, of which taxes are would be wrong to write off the rest of the bringing them into contact with the a large component for upper-middle to budget as small ball: 20 percent of the innovative, entrepreneurial culture of high-income workers—i.e., for those greatest Leviathan the planet has ever which Apple and google are emblems. who have the most negotiating power in seen is still a lot of green, and there are That’s a lot of opportunity. And all the marketplace. That’s why technology very good economic and political reasons Republicans can think to talk about is companies, for example, often have to for going after it. No, euthanizing Big tax cuts? pay a San Jose–based employee more Bird is not going to balance the budget, The poverty of the Republican eco- than a comparable Austin-based one. The but there is a strong case to be made nomic imagination is something to reality is that taxpayers are in an impor- against having state-run media in a free behold. Tax cuts are held up as the cure tant sense all in this together. (And never society. Foreign aid is a minuscule frac- for everything from stagnant growth to mind the question of whether a tax cut is tion of federal outlays, but there is a high unemployment to lumbago. And, really a tax cut when you have permanent strong case to be made against shunting as it turns out, Mitt Romney was right in deficits: As I have argued in these funds to people who are, pardon us all for one way when he made that “47 per- pages, it is more accurate to regard such noticing, indistinguishable from our de - cent” remark: People who are net bene- cuts as tax deferrals, because the real clared enemies. Eventually, that money ficiaries of federal transfers are not very level of taxation is the level of spending. adds up to something—and so does the much excited by the possibility of tax Borrowing just shifts the tax burden into messaging. cuts. Ronald Reagan boasted of all the the future.) The Right complains of “crony capi- people of modest means he had taken off So the economics of tax rates is deep, talism” and the Left of “corporate wel- of the tax rolls, and he had good reason but the politics of tax rates is right on the fare,” but in the majority of cases we’re for doing so, but once you’ve taken the surface: Tax-cut proposals are politically talking about the same thing: favoritism income tax out of a voter’s life, an inert among voters not directly exposed for politically connected businesses, income-tax cut is not the way to bring to the taxes to be cut. Reagan’s success is often enacted through the tax code but him into your party. the modern Republican’s burden. also present in other federal activity. This The economics of tax rates is a below- But conservatives have a great deal to stuff costs a great deal of money—and it the-surface issue: Even people who do offer the country other than tax cuts. is bad for the economy in that it keeps not themselves have direct tax liabilities The first and most important thing they capital and energy locked up in enter- pay a share of dozens of taxes they’ve have to offer is fiscal rectitude. Note that I prises that are viable only because they 2 4 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 3 , 2 0 1 2 base:milliken-mar 22.qxd 11/13/2012 1:45 PM Page 1 BYZANTIUM by John Julius Norwich 3volumes Yo u r s f o r o n l y Save $9.95 $300 from The Folio Society YZANTIUM is a modern classic of three-volume set—worth $215 for only books are less than $50. Our books are not Bpopular history, an epic story of the $9.95 (including shipping). Reply within 14 available in bookstores. Byzantine Empire in all its magnificent days and you will receive a deluxe set of The The Folio Society, established in England detail. Born out of the wars of the Greek Myths, worth $94.95—yours FREE to in 1947, publishes beautiful illustrated books disintegrating Roman Empire, Byzantium keep whatever you decide. for readers who wish to experience the endured for over 1,000 years. It kept the The Folio Society does not send you pleasure of owning a collection of fine light of classical learning alive and fathered unsolicited books or ‘choices of the month.’ editions to enjoy now and in the future. the growth of Orthodox Christianity. At its In return for this special offer all you Why not start your collection now with heart, of course, was Constantinople, the need to do is order four books from our Byzantium? Simply complete the coupon or medieval world’s most beautiful, important catalogue, nothing more. call Toll Free (24 hours) 1-800-353-0700. and formidable city, the scene of both We pride ourselves on the quality of wondrous and terrible events, which drew every book in our collection. Our current The Folio Society Promise Barbarian, Muslim and Christian armies publications include history and eye- You will never be sent a book you have not ordered. like a magnet, and where Emperors could witness accounts, classic and modern rise or fall on a eunuch’s whim. fiction, memoirs, biographies, children’s As your introduction to The Folio books, humour, myth and legend. Prices P.O. Box 8018, Aston, PA 19014 Society, we are offering you this magnificent start as low as $37.95 and many of our www.joinfolio.com Reply Today and Save $300 Plus your FREE gift To: The Membership Secretary, The Folio Society ORDER TOLL FREE 1-800-353-0700 YES, I am replying within 14 days and claim my free P.O. Box 8018, Aston, PA 19014. Fax:1-610-532-9001 Folio set of The Greek Myths which is mine to keep Please accept my application for FREE trial membership of The Folio Society and send me Byzantium, together with whatever I decide. the Folio catalogue and my FREE deluxe set of The Greek Myths. If I decide to enroll as a member by choosing 4 (please tick box) books from your catalogue, I will keep Byzantium for the special introductory price of only $9.95 (including ship- he Greek Myths are ping). If I am not satisfied — for any reason — I will return the introductory set within 21 days. My membership Tfantastic stories full of passion, adventure, will be cancelled and I will owe nothing. I understand that as a member of The Folio Society, I have the right to suspense and tragedy. return any book if I am not completely satisfied. The Greek Myths are mine to keep whatever I decide. Robert Graves tells them with great verve and flair, Title Name Date from Ariadne and the BLOCK CAPITALS PLEASE Minotaur to the manacling of Prometheus; Jason and Address the Golden Fleece to the birth of Aphrodite. Wor th City State Zipcode ‘Immensely readable’ $94.95 FREDERIC RAPHAEL Please allow 21 days for delivery. Applications subject to approval. Send no money now. Promo=CADX40 3col:QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/13/2012 11:40 PM Page 26 Post-Election 2012 are in part sustained by politics. ever sees. Republicans who want to be Corporate welfare makes markets less in favor of something rather than against efficient, stifles competition, and under- something might take a look at that. O Fortuna mines innovation—and makes the coun- We are in the early stages of an energy Victory and defeat are try pay for the privilege. There is no need renaissance, which will produce many to let the Left and the ideologues who excellent opportunities for manufac - likewise impermanent want to abolish patents dominate the turing, heavy industry, technology, and conversation about corporate welfare: related fields. We also remain a world BY STEVEN F. HAYWARD An enterprising Republican looking to leader in the original mass-production build a name for himself would not have business: farming. China is already using OnSERvATIvES are natural pes- very far to look for an issue that both two-thirds of its annual water consump- simists, based on a realism bolsters the party’s reputation for fiscal tion for irrigation, and there are real con- about fallible human nature responsibility and provides much- straints on its ability to continue to expand C that fuels our opposition to needed evidence with which to answer food production. The production of the coercive utopianism of the Left. The allegations of Republicans’ thrall to Big essential products such as energy and Founders shared this pessimism about Business. Opposing the GM bailout food provide a great many employment human nature and the weakness of would have looked a lot better coming opportunities for the people who have democracy, and kept it at the forefront of from a party that had consistently suffered the most during the long stag- their minds as they designed our poli - opposed other examples of cronyism. nation in real-money wages that has tical institutions: “If men were angels,” Ripe targets include the Overseas Private afflicted the lowest-earning half of and all that. But the conservative pes- Insurance Corporation, the Small Busi - Americans for the past several decades. simism after the GOP’s poor showing in ness Administration, and about half of We have plenty of resources for the kids this election is overdone. The Repub - what the Commerce Department does. who are bound for Harvard and MIT, but lican party and the conservative move- And unless the Republican party is for the up-and-coming generation of non- ment were said to be finished after Barry ready to go the full Rothbard and declare elite workers, from laborers to managers Goldwater’s landslide loss in 1964, and itself an anarcho-capitalist outfit (this I and professionals, things look grim—and again in 1976, when the aftermath of do not recommend), it should work to they have for a while. Republicans have Watergate and Jimmy Carter’s narrow discover a few areas of government in some very good and politically popular presidential win installed Democratic which it finds value beyond those ideas about education reform: Romney supermajorities in both houses of engaged in the sometimes necessary but was right to call that his “human capital” Congress. In 1977, voters who identi- never profitable business of bombing the agenda. Republicans are uniquely well fied with the Republican party fell to an tar out of dusty little countries harboring positioned to take a meat axe to the all-time low of 21 percent. fanatical savages. As conservatives and departments of diversity and the colleges The Founders, too, would have free marketers, we have our skepticism of underwater basketweaving, redirecting thought our pessimism excessive. For about the ability of federal bureaucracies scarce resources into programs that will all of the (well-founded) handwringing to do much of anything right, but there are help to prepare students for real-world about adverse demographics and the a great many opportunities for marginal jobs and connect them with real-world critical mass of government dependents, improvements through reallocation of opportunities. Yes, it would be great if the it is ironic that conservatives—who, resources. As the economist Tyler Cowen guys working in the Pennsylvania gas after all, revere the Constitution—do not has argued, a dollar spent on medical fields read Cicero—and they’re a bunch take into account the “auxiliary precau- research is almost always more produc- of smart guys, so maybe they do—but tions” (in James Madison’s phrase) tive than a dollar spent on health-care they also need steady jobs at decent against the collapse of our republic, or benefits. Most of the work done by wages. And for those who are not college- against periods when “enlightened men” organizations such as the Centers for bound, it would be an excellent thing if would not be at the helm. In an often Disease Control constitutes a legitimate there were fruitful and productive career overlooked passage of Federalist 55 public good. If Republicans ever get seri- paths that began at 18 rather than at 28. about the “safeguards” against execu- ous about cutting spending, they will be But somebody has to build those edu- tive usurpation, Madison writes: sorely tempted to repackage some of cational programs. Somebody has to those savings as tax cuts. And while design those economic reforms. Some - As there is a degree of depravity in shrinking the federal footprint is a neces- body has to make sure that CDC budget mankind which requires a certain degree sary thing—both a moral and an econom- doesn’t end up going into the pockets of circumspection and distrust, so there are other qualities in human nature that ic good—moving resources from the stuff of grievance lobbyists or do-nothing justify a certain portion of esteem and that government has no business doing to contractors. If Republicans can’t take a confidence. Republican government the things that it does constitutes a real look at our economy, our society, and the presupposes the existence of these qual- improvement, too. Encouraging research situation of our young people at this crit- ities in a higher degree than any other at institutions such as the CDC or ical moment in our history, then they are DARPA, as well as supporting university- not paying attention and do not deserve to Mr. Hayward is the Thomas W. Smith Distinguished based science and technology research, lead. If tax cuts are the best they’ve got, Fellow at the Ashbrook Center and the author of the is one of the best uses a federal dollar they’re done. two-volume political biography The Age of Reagan. 2 6 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 3 , 2 0 1 2 NRI SUMMIT:books ad from mrs nicks letter.qxd 11/13/2012 10:15 PM Page 1 The Future of Conservatism A NATIONAL REVIEW INSTITUTE SUMMIT TO ASSESS THE MOVEMENT’SPRIORITIES AND TO FORGE THE WAY AHEAD Join top conservative thinkers, journalists, and politicians for a wide-ranging discussion and debate. w w YOUR VOICE IS CRITICAL. YOUR PARTICIPATION IS VITAL. VISIT WWW.NRINSTITUTE.ORG/SUMMIT FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO GET UPDATES ON SPEAKERS, TOPICS, AND THE SCHEDULE OF EVENTS. DATE! SAVE THE January 25–27, 2013 The Omni Shoreham Hotel Washington, D.C. 3col:QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/13/2012 11:41 PM Page 28 Post-Election 2012 form. Were the pictures that have been everyone is calculating political tactics campaigns, but that’s a long subject for drawn by the political jealousy of some for future election cycles and contem- another day.) among us faithful likenesses of the plating whether and how to handle Second and more immediately, the human character, the inference would immigration, abortion, and other wedge approach of the “fiscal cliff” in a few be, that there is not sufficient virtue issues, few people seem to be taking weeks ought to be regarded as a big among men for self-government; and account of a troubling fact: Romney ran opportunity for boldness rather than a that nothing less than the chains of well ahead of many losing GOP Senate narrow window for a defensive compro- despotism can restrain them from destroying and devouring one another. candidates in red states such as Montana mise. News reports indicate that Obama and North Dakota. It is not sufficient to is settling in for a long slog on taxes and So, as good and faithful constitu- say that the remedy is “better candi- spending. So here’s an idea: The House tionalists, let’s take stock. We have not dates,” though this was surely true in GOP should call the Obama-Krugman elected Obama to be plenipotentiary Missouri and Indiana. The disconnection bluff—of letting us go over the fiscal cliff emperor for life; he merely gets to head of presidential campaigns from con- on January 1—by passing a sweeping, the executive branch for four more years, gressional races, and the single-minded pro-growth tax-reform package right with a less compliant Congress than he focus on the ten battleground states to now, and sending it to the Senate, cou- had in his first term. To be sure, a presi- the exclusion of the other 40, is eroding pled with an announcement that it is not dent can do a lot of damage, but he can’t the kind of rightful partisanship that is going along with tax increases for anyone foreclose on the republic on his own. To necessary for significant transformative unless taxes increase for everyone. The think so little of the abilities of the 30 governance in the future. Given that House GOP could even just pass The concern about whether this election result means that we have passed the point of no return, and that sufficient “republican virtue” no longer remains in the American people, is out of focus. Republican governors, not to mention Romney’s chances of repealing Obama - Simpson-Bowles, and rightly say they GOP leaders in the House and Senate, is care depended on a GOP Senate are passing the plan President Obama’s to display a lack of courage and faith majority, Romney should have—future own commission recommended. The about our grand institutions that is GOP nominees please take note—made House should be prepared to let all the unworthy of us. time for campaign stops with embattled Bush tax cuts expire, which will expose The concern about whether this elec- GOP Senate nominees in red states. A the liberal fiction that they helped only tion result means that we have passed the few joint TV spots are good, but a more “the rich.” (The tax increase will happen point of no return, and that sufficient forceful message that asks voters to without a vote to increase taxes, so “republican virtue” no longer remains in make a clear partisan choice is better, Republicans will be able to pursue this the American people, is similarly out of such as: “I can’t succeed as your presi- strategy without violating their no-tax- focus. In some vital respects the prob- dent, Montana, unless you send Denny increase pledges.) It will all be on Obama lem is worse than Obama himself. We Rehberg to Washington to help me.” It is and Senate Democrats. If Speaker John need to recognize that, if Obama can political malpractice for the party nomi- Boehner is serious that the House GOP cement in place or further extend the nee to neglect the congressional races. has just as much of a mandate as the welfare state, he will be building on a (And it is the deliberate genius of mod- president, then this is the time to act on it. hundred-year foundation that liberals ern liberalism to drive this wedge be - A final point is that even conservatives constructed stone by stone. Beyond re - tween executive and congressional of pessimistic bent ought to orient them- pealing Obamacare, it was never clear selves according to a fragment from T. S. that a President Romney would have Eliot that longtime NATIONAl REVIEW been able to—or was even inclined to— contributor (and happy pessimist) Russell make a sustained effort to roll back the Kirk liked to quote in these pages: architecture of modern liberalism. Here is a deeper problem for the pessimists If we take the widest and wisest view of to ponder, and if they do so honestly a Cause, there is no such thing as a lost they should conclude that Obama is a Cause because there is no such thing as a symptom more than a cause. There are Gained Cause. We fight for lost causes because we know that our defeat and no quick fixes or gimmicks for this. dismay may be the preface to our succes- Symposium to follow. sors’ victory, though that victory itself But there are a couple of breaks with will be temporary; we fight rather to keep past political practice that we might something alive than in the expectation consider after this loss. First, while “Yes, but I•broke my campaign promises in good faith!” that anything will triumph. 2 8 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 3 , 2 0 1 2 Wonder book ad:books ad from mrs nicks letter.qxd 10/23/2012 11:42 AM Page 1 A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS GIFT! GET THIS NEW, RESTORED COLLECTION OF CLASSIC CHILDREN’S LITERATURE: THE BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED National Review Wonder Book of Fairy Tales T he National Review Wonder Book of Fairy Tales is an near-exact reproduction of a beautiful—exquis- ite!—1917 volume of famous tales that enter- tained and instructed generations of children, before and since. We thought this classic book to be such a treasure, such a delight, in content and visu- ally, that we decided to republish it, to afford today’s chil- dren the same joy as that experienced by young Americans nearly a century ago. Originally published for the Frederick A. 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That is what any child will experience when they open the pages of The National Review Wonder Book of Fairy Tales. This big (360 pages, 8 by 10 inches) handsome hardcover book, copiously illustrated and printed on high-quality stock, will make a wonderful gift for any deserving child, and is a perfect addition to every family’s library. You’ll want a copy for your own home, and, with Christmas approaching, you’ll National Review w 215 Lexington Avenue w 11th Floor w New York, NY w 10016 w Fax to: 212-696-0340 want more copies for those spe- cial young someones in your life. Send me ______copies of The National Review Wonder Book of Fairy Tales at $25.00 each (you save $5.00 Get your copies direct from NR off the cover price, plus shipping and handling are included!). I enclose payment of $______. Send to: (these books are not available in Name stores) for the low price of $25 PAYMENT METHOD: Address National Review each, which saves you $5 off the o Check enclosed (payable to ) Bill my o MasterCard o Visa cover price, and includes ship- City State ZIP Acct. No. ping and handling. e-mail: Expir. Date phone: Signature (NY State residents must add sales tax. For foreign orders, add $15 for additional shipping.) 3col:QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/13/2012 11:41 PM Page 30 Post-Election 2012 poll conducted in September. Only 25 tax-and-spend liberal, and was endorsed percent of those voters want the act by the state’s biggest Spanish-language Amnesty Is repealed. daily on precisely that ground. In the 2010 No wonder a Latino pollster, in an race for state attorney general, Hispanic No Solution August interview with USA Today, blast- voters also helped elect ultra-liberal San ed a Spanish-language Romney ad pro - Francisco district attorney kamala Harris Hispanic voters want mising to roll back Obamacare. The ad over three-term Los Angeles district big government epitomized the Romney campaign’s clue- attorney Steve Cooley, a law-and-order lessness about the Hispanic vote, he said. moderate. Even Latinos in Cooley’s BY HEATHER MAC DONALD Republicans’ hostility to the Affordable hometown went for Harris. Whites of all Care Act this year was nearly matched by party affiliations, by contrast, favored ARACk OBAMA’S popularity their contempt for California governor Cooley over Harris. with Hispanics—he won 71 Jerry Brown’s voter referendum to raise But wait! open-borders Republicans percent of the Hispanic vote— taxes in order to avoid reforming the will insist. In 1994, Californians passed B has triggered a stampede state’s bloated public sector. Latinos, Proposition 187, a voter initiative deny- among Republican political and opinion however, favored the measure by margins ing most government benefits to illegal leaders to support “comprehensive of two to one in every pre-election survey. aliens. Then-governor Pete Wilson, a immigration reform.” (California’s exit poll showed a closer Republican, prominently backed the The formidable Charles krauthammer spread—53 to 47 percent—but leading initiative. Surely it is the memory of encapsulated the new consensus in his pollsters have thrown the reliability of this Proposition 187 that repels California syndicated column. A “single policy year’s exit data into doubt.) Brown Latinos from their natural Republican change”—amnesty—would fix the His - crowed after the vote: “I think this is the home? panic “problem,” he predicted. kraut - only place in America where a state actu- Actually, no. It is the Republican hammer employed the same reasoning ally said, ‘Let’s raise our taxes for our party’s purported economic philosophy that open-borders conservatives have kids, for our schools, for our California (“The party favors only the rich”; “Re - endorsed for years: Hispanics “should be dream.’” Maybe California was the only publicans are selfish and out for them- a natural Republican constituency,” he place this year that linked higher taxes to selves”; “Republicans don’t represent the argued: “striving immigrant community, the “dream,” but it will likely not be the average person”) that is the bigger turnoff religious, Catholic, family-oriented, and last place, given the ever-growing Latino for Latinos, compared with its immigra- socially conservative (on abortion, for share of the national population. A Pew tion positions, according to a 2011 survey example).” Hispanic Center poll in 2002 found that of Hispanic voters by Moore Information. krauthammer’s logic may seem impec- 55 percent of the Latino electorate would Moreover, Proposition 187 was imme- cable, but the facts on the ground don’t rather pay higher taxes in order to support diately gutted by the federal judiciary. It is bear him out. It is Democrats’ core eco- a larger government and more public now ancient history, with little impact on nomic principles—their support of big services. The preference for big govern- today’s political attitudes. Jim Tolle, pas- government and extensive, taxpayer- ment is just slightly lower among Latino tor of one of the largest Hispanic churches funded social programs—that draw Republicans, putting them to the eco- in Southern California, La Iglesia En El Hispanics into the Democratic camp, as nomic left of white Democrats. (By com- Camino, in formerly Republican Van much as, if not more than, Democrats’ parison, 77 percent of white Republicans Nuys, says that his congregation knows opposition to immigration enforcement. would prefer a smaller government and nothing about the initiative. Dismantling Obamacare, for example, lower taxes.) Sacramento’s Latino Caucus is now the was a key plank of the Republican plat- California’s Hispanic population nearly biggest force in California politics push- form this year. On this issue the GOP was equals its white population, making the ing for racial and ethnic quotas. It puts in sync with the Catholic Church, which state the leading edge of this country’s continuous pressure on the state’s public vocally opposed the administration’s con- immigration-driven demographic trans- universities to admit students by skin traception mandate and charged that it formation. California Latinos’ allegiance color, despite Proposition 209, a 1996 violated religious liberty. How did that to the Democratic party and platform voter initiative banning race and gender play with Hispanics? Not so well, pri - trumps their “social values” and ethnic preferences in government. marily because Hispanics have the lowest loyalty, as I discuss in the current issue of Hispanics’ support for the Democratic rate of health insurance in the country and City Journal. Hispanics backed San economic agenda, both in California and heavily rely on government-subsidized Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom for nationally, stems in part from their receipt health care. Sixty-two percent of likely California lieutenant governor in 2010, of government assistance. Nationally, Latino voters support Obama’s handling rejecting incumbent Abel Maldonado, non-immigrant Hispanic households (i.e., of health care, including his Affordable a Hispanic Republican previously ap - households headed by a U.S.-born His - Care Act, according to a Fox News Latino pointed to the position by Governor panic) are enrolled in welfare programs at Arnold Schwarzenegger. Newsom, who over twice the rate of U.S.-born white Heather Mac Donald is a fellow at the Manhattan had extra-legally and unilaterally in - households (42 percent vs. 19 percent), Institute and a co-author of The Immigration structed San Francisco officials to marry according to an analysis of March 2012 Solution. gay couples in 2004, was the epitome of a census data by the Center for Immigration 3 0 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 3 , 2 0 1 2 base:milliken-mar 22.qxd 11/12/2012 12:41 PM Page 1 You deserve a factual look at . . . A persistent mantra maintains that only two possible solutions exist to the seemingly intractable, centuries-old conflict between Arabs and Jews in the Holy Land. But is that really true . . . or is there a more sensible alternative? as Iran) would certainly join the fray and assist in the final The “One-State Solution.” Some commentators advocate a one- destruction of the beleaguered and helpless Jewish state. state solution, in which Jews and Arabs would be joined in one Which Solution Should Israel Choose? It’s clear that neither the state, with all inhabitants having the same citizenship – call it one-state solution nor the vaunted two-state solution would Israeli or Palestinian. But such a “solution,” as most observers resolve the region’s issues. How then should Israelis respond to the know, is totally unacceptable to the Jewish population. Given the demand that they choose either of these “solutions”? In fact they murderous hate expressed daily in state-controlled Palestinian need choose neither. Those who insist that they choose between media toward Jews, this would be a those two “solutions” either don’t fully recipe for a second Holocaust. Within “How then should Israelis respond understand the problem . . . or they one generation, Arabs, with their high oppose Israel’s continued existence. birth rate and inevitable immigration to the demand that they choose The reality is that, according to from abroad, would be a majority. They either of these ‘solutions’? In fact virtually every Palestinian leader, would unleash a civil war that would including President Mahmoud Abbas, make the Lebanese and the Syrian wars they need choose neither.” the Palestinians are not interested in a seem like child’s play. With more than resolution of the conflict or even in the half the world’s Jews now living in Israel, Adolf Hitler’s most creation of a twenty-third Arab state. Their unrelenting, stated fervent genocidal wish would finally be fulfilled. mission is destruction of the Jewish state and extermination of its The “Two-State Solution.” This second solution is favored by inhabitants. Neither does the conflict have to do with territory. The much of the world, including the U. S. government. But this Arab states occupy territory larger than the United States solution is not much better than one state and almost as including Alaska. Israel is the size of New Jersey. Would the unacceptable to those who support the welfare and future of the seething Arab-Muslim world finally lapse into peace and Jewish state. The example of Gaza is instructive. In order to contentment if they were to acquire this tiny piece of land? advance peace and appease world opinion, Prime Minister Ariel A Practical Solution to Resolve the Conflict. Clearly, Israel Sharon abandoned Gaza with no reciprocal agreement from the cannot agree to a “solution” that would eventually lead to the end Palestinians. All Jewish inhabitants, most living there for of the Jewish state and the slaughter of its citizens. Because the generations, were expelled from their homes by Israel and Palestinian leadership refuses to negotiate peace and continues to resettled in “Israel proper.” What reward, what thanks did Israel advocate conquest of the entire Holy Land, like it or not, Israel get for its generous gesture? Today, almost daily bombardments by must for security reasons remain in control of the “West Bank.” deadly Hamas rockets force up to one million Israel civilians into However, there’s no reason that even under today’s current bomb shelters. Israel’s forbearance to these affronts is almost impasse the Palestinians should not have full autonomy—which unimaginable. One can imagine how our country would respond if they almost have today—as an “unincorporated territory.” While Mexico were to launch hundreds of rockets on San Diego. Thus it’s the situation is not ideal, until the Palestinians agree to full peace easy to foresee what would happen if, under a “two-state solution,” with Israel, providing they do not resume terrorism, they could be Israel were to abandon Judea/Samaria (the “West Bank”). Israel welcomed as partners in the Israeli economic system and should would surely suffer daily rocket assaults on its population be able to fully participate in Israel’s commercial and creative life. centers—Tel Aviv, its international airport, its industrial heartland Even without statehood, in less than a generation the Palestinians and its military installations. Life would become impossible. could become the most advanced and prosperous people in the The surrounding Arab states and Muslim countries beyond (such entire Arab world. Obviously the prospect of the Arabs having to wait longer for the launch of a Palestinian state will be painful for them. But this is a price that must be paid if Palestinian leaders refuse to negotiate peace and cling to the futile dream of conquering Israel. Israel has given its land in Gaza to the Palestinians in the name of peace and receives rockets in return. Israel has offered 97% of the West Bank and a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem in the name of peace and received rejection. It’s time the Arabs acclimate to a status quo of their own making and take advantage of living next to one of the most successful countries in the world. In any case they must accept that their dream of Israel’s annihilation will never be fulfilled. This ad has been published and paid for by FLAME is a tax-exempt, non-profit educational 501 (c)(3) organization. Its purpose is the research and publication of the facts regarding developments in the Middle East and exposing false propaganda that might harm the interests of the United States and its allies in that area of the world. Your tax- deductible contributions are welcome. They enable us to pursue these goals Facts and Logic About the Middle East and to publish these messages in national newspapers and magazines. We P.O. Box 590359 San Francisco, CA 94159 have virtually no overhead. Almost all of our revenue pays for our educational work, for these clarifying messages, and for related direct mail. Gerardo Joffe, President 134 To receive free FLAME updates, visit our website: www.factsandlogic.org 3col:QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/13/2012 11:41 PM Page 32 Post-Election 2012 Studies. That welfare use is driven by exemplified by the remarkable vilifica- sales, vandalism, littering, burglary, ille- Hispanics’ higher poverty rate—over tion of the Secure Communities initia- gal vending, robbery—nothing. twice that of whites. Lagging educational tive. Secure Communities merely noti fies The open-borders Right regularly attainment and out-of-wedlock child- federal immigration agents when an ille- insists that immigrants and their children rearing in turn lie behind those poverty gal alien is arrested and booked into a are assimilating at a brisk clip. It would be numbers. Hispanics have the highest local jail. But according to the increas- nice to see them advocating as well, then, dropout rate in the country. Over 53 ingly successful argument against the an English-only practice in all govern- percent of all Hispanic births are to unwed program, to even think of deporting an ment communications. No more Tower of mothers, notwithstanding their “social illegal-alien criminal is unfair and heart- Babel ballots; leaving aside the critical conservatism,” in Krauthammer’s par- less unless he has committed the most question of whether a citizen should lance, compared with 29 percent of white heinous of felonies. If it is no longer muster enough English to be able to read births. Hispanics’ teen-pregnancy rates acceptable in the elite worldview to a ballot, once we offer multilingual vot- are the highest of any American racial or deport illegal-alien criminals, we’re cer- ing, why shouldn’t every foreign lan- ethnic group. tainly not going to penalize a job-seeker guage in a locality, no matter how few its Hispanics’ welfare consumption—and at a slaughterhouse who presents a fake speakers, be included? To be sure, learn- their affinity for the Democratic mes- ID. Even were Republicans to extract an ing at least one foreign language should sage—will decline over time as they E-Verify program (by which employers be a cultural imperative for all students. climb the economic ladder. In the short electronically check Social Security But doing so should not be necessary to term, however, Hispanic economic prog - numbers) in exchange for amnesty, in communicate with one’s fellow citizens. ress is moving too slowly to matter polit- other words, it would not be backed up by Any U.S. citizen who moved to a foreign ically. The share of Hispanic households government action. country and expected its companies, resi- using at least one major welfare program Ironically, an amnesty may worsen dents, and public institutions to start using is actually larger in the third generation Republicans’ alleged problems with the English with him would rightly be labeled compared with the second (41 vs. 38 Hispanic vote in the long term, for it will an ugly American. percent), as is the share living below the attract more of the low-skilled, low- But the most important quid pro quo for official poverty line (19 vs. 17 percent), educated illegal aliens whose households an amnesty would be an overhaul of according to the Center for Immigration disproportionately consume government legal-immigration policy. The status quo Studies. services. Republican open-borders pundits privileges immigrants with family mem- Moreover, Hispanics’ sympathy for have spent little time in classrooms such as bers already in the country; the better pol- big government represents a cultural pre- those in Los Angeles’s Pico Rivera district, icy would favor immigrants with skills, dilection as well as an economic one. a low-income barrio southeast of down- education, and the ability to speak “We are a very compassionate people. town. Were they to do so, they would see English. Democrats will fight such a We care about other people and under- the ever-swelling ranks of mostly union- change tooth and nail because they see stand that government has a role to play ized social-service workers—the anti- the current family-reunification/chain- in helping people,” John Echeveste, gang counselors, the dropout- prevention migration system as favoring their politi- founder of the oldest Latino marketing teams, the English as a Second Language cal interests, which they should be firm in Southern California, told me, in specialists remediating U.S.-born stu- presumed to understand rightly. explaining why Republicans don’t do dents—who cater to the children of Millions of Hispanic immigrants and well among Hispanics. Hispanic single mothers and who them- their children have brought an admirable Is an amnesty nevertheless worth it—a selves increasingly come from Los work ethic and respect for authority to this relatively costless way to add to the Re - Angeles’s Hispanic communities, pro vi - country. They have revitalized sullen publican rolls? (Forget any atavistic and ding yet more electoral support for higher ghettos with small businesses. Leaving abstract concerns you may have about taxes and a larger government sector. aside amnesty, what should Republicans upholding the rule of law; that battle is If, however, an amnesty we must do to woo them? Nothing different from lost. Merely raising the issue—or noting have, ideally it would be limited to a what they should already be doing with that an amnesty would mock the millions DREAM Act–type plan, since the non- any other group of citizens: explaining the of immigrants who did respect our laws— complicitous children of lawbreakers beauty of free enterprise and the creative is a cringe-inducing faux pas.) have an indisputable moral claim on an power of markets; and stressing the essen- Well, besides a hypothetical uptick in exemption from the law. All current tial role of personal responsibility, self- Republican forces, what will the country DREAM Act proposals allow youthful discipline, and learning in getting ahead. get with an amnesty? It will almost cer- illegal immigrants with criminal records The Republican message should not be tainly get an increase in illegal immi - to qualify for amnesty; any law that is tailored to ethnic or gender groups. Nor gration, if historical precedent in the U.S. actually passed should require a spotless should race or gender play a role in select- and Europe holds. It will most certainly record and a decent GPA. The no- ing political nominees. Ideas, achieve- not get stricter immigration enforcement criminal-history rule applies a fortiori to ment, and eloquence should be the only against illegal aliens who enter after the the broader-based amnesty that undoubt- criteria for political advancement, a rule amnesty. The ideological campaign edly will follow. No convictions—even that will allow plenty of minority candi- against penalizing immigration law - better, no arrests—for shoplifting, assault, dates—Marco Rubio comes most imme- breaking is by now unstoppable, and is drunk driving, graffiti, drug possession or diately to mind—to flourish. 3 2 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 3 , 2 0 1 2 3col:QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/13/2012 11:41 PM Page 33 the rebel yell, Evangelical hillbillies clinging to guns and religion interbreed with the spawn of banjo-strumming red- necks formed on the model of G. W. Harris’s Sut Lovingood, the backcoun- try cracker who says that if “ever yu dus enything to eny body wifout cause, yu hates em allers arterwards, an’ sorter wants tu hurt em agin.” It was just possible, before the elec- tion, to imagine that the broken econo- my would incite the white-collar coastal squirearchy to put down the glass of Merlot and join forces with toothless Appalachia itself to restore fiscal sanity in Washington. But cultur- al style trumped economic substance in counties like Westchester, where well-heeled voters affected to take President Obama at his word when he said that he was a free-enterprise man who believed in “self-reliance and individual initiative and risk-takers’ being rewarded.” Obama’s Coddled Elites Naïveté in higher suburbia? To be sure. But before casting judgment on a An overlooked piece of the election jigsaw puzzle man, drive a mile in his Range Rover. If, in your 25,000-square-foot McMansion BY MICHAEL KNOX BERAN with a carbon footprint the size of Liechtenstein’s, your leisure is absorbed ITy Mitt Romney. He couldn’t expected to resist Washington’s efforts to in anxiety about subsidized contracep- get even the 1 percent. tamper with it. But when, that Monday, a tives for the masses and the integrity of Not only did President quantity of Bushmills had been con- the ecosystem, you have little time to P Obama carry eight of the sumed and talk turned to the election, a keep track of the various trillions being nation’s ten richest counties as mea- show of hands revealed an 8–3 majority promiscuously squandered in Wash - sured by average annual household for Obama. ington. And why should you keep track income; he carried them by a margin What happened? of them, when the most respectable ora- greater, CNBC reported, than that in the It’s not news that the Republican cles of the coastal suburbs—the New overall vote. party puts off a lot of people in places York Times, PBS, Diane Sawyer, Andrea Things have changed since the days like Westchester. In an interview with Mitchell, David Letterman, et alia— when swells in evening clothes went Bob Woodward, President Obama dis- readily assure you that under President down to the Trans-Lux to hiss Roosevelt. missed House speaker John Boehner as Obama “it’s all good”? I should have had an inkling of this “a golf-playing, cigarette-smoking, Of course, voting for a politician on when, on the Monday before the elec- country-club Republican.” Such rare account of free condoms for the prole- tion, I was hanging out with a dozen birds may still be extant in the Ohio tariat or the well-being of the stubfoot guys in my town in northern Westchester Valley, but they are virtually extinct toad is a luxury if you are having a hard County, N.y., which the Census Bureau east of the Alleghenies, where the time keeping your family fed. Counties identifies as the poorest of the country’s Thurston Howellses of today’s yacht like Westchester, however, have been ten priciest counties. Like Fairfield clubs and golf clubs associate the GOP insulated from the worst effects of the County, Conn., and Morris County, N.J., with Bible-thumping yokels in the underperforming economy. The unem- Westchester was once a Republican sticks. ployment rate here was 7.3 percent in redoubt, home to people who’d done Coastal elites have, as a rule, little September (the national rate was suppos- well under free enterprise and could be firsthand knowledge of the flyover edly 7.9 percent), and in suburban counties where such strength as the Westchester the rate was almost cer - Mr. Beran, a lawyer and a contributing editor of Republican party retains is concen - tainly lower still. (yonkers, the most City Journal, is the author of several books, includ- trated; they imagine it a sinister, hick populous city in the county, has an ing Forge of Empires, 1861–1871: Three world of tattoo parlors and trailer parks, unemployment rate of 9 percent and Revolutionary Statesmen and the World part Deliverance, part Children of the drives up the county’s numbers.) They Made. Corn, where, to the muezzin music of Wrapped in the protective membrane DARREN GYGI 3 3 3col:QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/13/2012 11:41 PM Page 34 Post-Election 2012 nurtured by President Obama’s poli- money,” “going Weimar,” and “fantasy lawyers in the age of Obama. cies—the placenta of the privileged— dollars” are not as verbally attractive as The very people who used to provide the Westchester and Fairfield and Morris that vague but comforting formulation, the Republican party with crucial elec- counties of America are splendidly iso- “quantitative easing.” Who in this fallen toral support are being corrupted by the lated from the reality of President world would not be eased? Actually, the president, who is turning them into Obama’s America. Herein lies a clue to Fed itself calls quantitative easing by an wards of the state. He steadily resists the mystery of the president’s reelection. even more opaque name—“policy letting them do the one thing they are Few or no politicians on either side of accommodation,” the effort to promote really good at: enlarging the economy the aisle are innocent of the art of using growth through purchases of securities through investment. The one perk the pork to coddle favored constituencies. from banks to the tune of $85 billon a president doesn’t want the well-off to But today’s Democrats have simul- month. (The fiat cash is electronic now, have, a low capital-gains tax, is pre - taneously degraded the art into a trade so you don’t need wheelbarrows to cart cisely the one that encourages those who and elevated it into a science. For four it around.) have capital to share it with the rest of us consecutive years the president has run Anthony Randazzo, writing in Reason, by bankrolling new enterprise. up trillion-dollar deficits to succor vot- points out that quantitative easing is “a The Democrats have long had a lock ing blocs essential to his reelection. regressive redistribution program” that on the votes of the poor, the unions, the Public-sector unions rejoice in policies boosts “wealth for those already engaged public-sector workers, and the academic- that promise to nurse thousands of new in the financial sector or those who already media clerisy. But the prosperous sub- tax gatherers and health-care clerks at own homes.” It passes “little along to the urbs, although they have been trending For four consecutive years the president has run up trillion-dollar deficits to succor voting blocs essential to his reelection. the public teat. The president bailed out rest of the economy” and is a “primary blue for years, did not seem a lost cause Chrysler and General Motors on the tax- driver” of income inequality and crony to the Republicans. Until now. The payers’ dime; women are promised free capitalism. Mitt Romney’s promise to get gender gap once offered the GOP a ray of birth control as part of Obamacare, rid of Ben Bernanke, whose policies are light in these jurisdictions—surely the which also spares the plaintiffs’ bar fee- driven by the president’s own, probably most successful white-collar men would killing tort reform. hurt Republican chances in Richtopian break for the Republican nominee in a In like spirit, the administration took America as much as anything else. year when the Democratic incumbent care to ensure that its economic incom- 3. The American Action Forum had badly botched things. But men petence would not drive America’s recently found that the Obama admin- themselves are changing. Their sense of prosperous, blue-leaning suburbs into istration has added “more than $488 liberty, as Gibbon wrote in a similar con- the red camp of Republicanism. Three billion in regulatory costs since January text, has become “less exquisite.” The initiatives go far to explain how the 20, 2009—$70 billion in 2012 alone.” Left has a monopoly of the nation’s president has kept not only Range Rover The AAF observes that $488 billion is schools, and its program of “socializing” moms but also BMW dads in the only the cost floor, not the ceiling, and the individual—that is, reducing him, in Democratic fold: that it is “a tremendous burden on pri- Hannah Arendt’s words, to “the level of a 1. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street vate entities and local governments,” conditioned and behaving animal”—has Reform Act makes Washington’s tacit amounting to “more than U.S. GDP succeeded in taming even the recalcitrant policy of “too big to fail” the law of the growth from the past three quarters male of the species, and has gotten him, if land, freeing money mavens from the ($442 billion).” not to love, by no means altogether to fear that once tempered their avarice— Regulatory compliance is a drag on hate Big Brother. that of losing their shirts. In prosperous the economy, but it’s good for lawyers, Gibbon said that the Romans in their suburbs that depend on the big banks for who are disproportionately represented last decay “were incapable of discerning the weekly caviar klatsch, voters are in upper suburbia. They were hit harder the decline of genius and manly virtue, pleased that, thanks to Washington’s in this recession than previous ones, in which so far degraded them below the promise to continue subsidizing failed part because law schools have graduated dignity of their ancestors; but they could risk-taking, the good times will go on . . . too many of them. President Obama feel and lament the rage of tyranny, the and on, until the American Republic promises to correct the problem. The relaxation of discipline, and the increase goes the way of the Roman one. Roman lawyers in the age of Con - of taxes.” If only our brightest suburbs 2. Like the functionaries in Dickens’s stantine, Gibbon said, had “an inex- could feel the relaxation of fiscal disci- Circumlocution Office, Washington’s haustible supply of business in a great pline and the increase of taxes. The cun- potentates are all but incapable of call- empire already corrupted by the multi- ning prodigality of the president has ing things by straightforward names. plicity of laws, of arts, and of vices.” (temporarily) preserved them from the Considered merely as slogans, “printing The same will soon be true of American reality. 3 4 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 3 , 2 0 1 2 3col:QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/13/2012 11:41 PM Page 35 “The culture is a sewer,” I once heard degree of thought control and limitations Mark Helprin say. This very morning, I of freedom of expression without parallel Against the saw an ad on a cab that was frankly, in the Western world since the 18th cen- unblushingly pornographic. T. S. Eliot tury, and in some areas longer than that.” Tide wrote, “Paganism holds all the most Now and then, young editors and valuable advertising space.” He hadn’t writers at NATIONAL REvIEW will say to Notes on the culture and seen anything. me, “Lighten up—it’s no big deal. Yes, Obviously, this question of two the Left dominates, but we turned out all what’s possible Americas—a cultural divide—has been right. Plus, it’s fun to be embattled. It’s around for years. In 1999, Gertrude fun to swim against the tide.” The answer BY JAY NORDLINGER Himmelfarb published a book called is, it’s fun for some—but inconceivable, One Nation, Two Cultures. There is the or at least unattractive, for others. Most RESIDENT OBAMA ran an ad say- dominant culture, she said, and a more people go with the flow. It has probably ing, “Mitt Romney. Not one of conservative culture—a “dissident cul- always been this way, in every time and us.” That’s putting it pretty ture,” in her words. The book came out place. It’s unnatural to come out from the P bluntly. Nixon used to talk that in the wake of the Lewinsky affair, world and be separate. People like to way, but only privately. “Is he one of us?” which pitted Bill Clinton versus Ken think of themselves as rebels, with or I’m not exactly sure who Obama’s us is. Starr. There could hardly be two more without a cause. very few are. But Romney is not one of them. Neither different Americans. Which one is the One brief word about Hollywood: For am I, and neither, possibly, are you. In nation’s sweetheart? And which one was as long as most of us can remember, busi- 2004, the Democrats’ vice-presidential resoundingly demonized? nessmen in movies have been villains. nominee, John Edwards, went around “It takes a village,” said Hillary Heroes have been such people as environ- saying there were “two Americas.” He Clinton. “It takes a village to raise a mental activists. During the recent cam- meant rich and poor. Are there two child.” In an important sense, it does. The paign, the Left used “Bain” as a scare Americas when it comes to culture and child is shaped by everything around word, a bogey word: “Bain!” (Bain Cap - morality? (Scary word, that last one.) It him, in the home and out. In the mid- ital, of course, is the business that Mitt would seem so, yes. And it’s clear which 1980s, Tipper Gore wrote a book called Romney co-founded.) In late De cember, America is on top. Raising PG Kids in an X-Rated Society. a new Matt Damon movie will come out. Romney was a man out of his time, in a Gore and her husband were dabbling in According to reports, it will portray way. Out of time and out of step. He was a kind of social conservatism at the time. hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, as evil. a throwback—a conservative business- Frank Zappa and other cool cats mocked The movie is bankrolled by Gulf Arabs. man who believed in free enterprise, and reviled them. The Gores quickly got Fracking would be a boon to American loved his church, gave a ton to charity. He with the program, dropping the stodgy energy, without harm to the environment. didn’t even drink, poor devil. “The Sixties stuff and rising in the Democratic party. But can you fight City Hall? Can you left no mark on him,” people observed. Who runs the village? What are the fight Hollywood? Many more people Some thought this was great, others bad. forces that shape men and women? Well, watch Matt Damon movies than bother to Toward the end of the campaign, the we could name education, K through learn anything about oil production. New York Times ran a very good article graduate school. The movies. Popular Since Election Day, conservatives have that marveled at Romney’s language. The music. Entertainment television. The been morose, understandably. Morose headline was, “Gosh, Who Talks Like news media. In all of these areas, the and defeatist. “We’ve done our best,” That Now? Romney Does.” For some, the Left holds sway. Where does the Right some say. “Let’s just give up—quit GOP candidate was too square for hold sway? Country music, talk radio, politics, and tend to private life, such as words. On a morning show, David NASCAR—it’s hard to go on. it is. Let’s look after our families, our Axelrod, Obama’s political strategist, said One brief word about education: The places of worship, our friends. The cul- of Romney, “He’s just in a time warp.” Apgar Foundation is devoted to sup- ture is lost to us. Politics follows culture. After the election, the Washington Post porting Western civilization on college We’ll cling to our guns and religion, just ran a column headed “The Republicans’ campuses. I serve on its board. Often, as Obama said we do.” These conserva- 1950s campaign.” we’re involved in efforts to establish tives are resigned (for the moment) to One of Obama’s ads featured an actress Great Books programs, or Great Works being a Remnant. Or to living in a kind of named Lena Dunham. It was pitched to programs. We want students to have the dhimmitude, whereby we’re tolerated by young women, and to the hook-up culture opportunity to know Locke, Beethoven, the majority culture, but know our place. they inhabit, and almost everybody in - and other such folk. You might be Back in 1999, Paul Weyrich wrote a habits. “Your first time shouldn’t be with shocked at the resistance we get from letter that prompted an interesting con- just anybody,” said the actress. “You want administrators and faculty. They think it’s servative debate. He said, “We need to to do it with a great guy.” She was not all a right-wing plot (which, perversely, drop out of this culture, and find places, talking about a husband. (Don’t mean to it is, in a way). In a speech a few years even if it is where we physically are right shock you.) In a country where this ad ago, Bernard Lewis reflected on his own now, where we can live godly, righteous succeeds, rather than backfiring, can field, Middle East studies, and academia and sober lives.” The temptation to drop someone like Mitt Romney be elected? in general. He said we are seeing “a out—a phrase Weyrich borrowed from 3 5 3col:QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/13/2012 11:51 PM Page 36 Post-Election 2012 Timothy Leary and the gang—may be student newspaper, said he made his strong. But for those who want to resist, donation out of pro-life convictions.) there are options. Then there is building your own— Who Conservatives can do two things, as your own institutions, your own bas- far as I can tell: They can make as many tions. Not just your own Witherspoon Cares? inroads as possible into Left bastions; Institutes, valuable as they are, but your and they can build their own bastions. own Princetons (much harder). In 1986, That’s what voters The day after Election Day, my col- Sidney Blumenthal wrote a book called league Mona Charen went on National The Rise of the Counter-Establishment— want to know Public Radio. The other guests on the meaning our establishment, the conser v - program were “exultant liberals,” as she ative establishment: our think tanks, BY JOHN O’SULLIVAN put it. Her job was to be the token—the magazines, etc. Blumenthal hated that dhimmi, if you will. Was she right to establishment. Anyway, let’s make it LMOST anyone who has stud- participate, or should she have left the bigger. Let’s have more publications, ied the Declaration o f In - field to the Left? She was right. By what more TV stations, more charter schools, dependence has been told at she said, she may have made an inroad— maybe a movie studio or two. More of A some point that, in reality, it may have reached someone. everything, more “counter.” offers Americans the sober promise of The Witherspoon Institute is an inroad. Another colleague of mine, David life, liberty, and property rather than the It’s an elegant little conservative speck on Pryce-Jones, was talking the other day heady but qualified utopianism of life, the Princeton University campus. It is about the need to press on. The need to liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. tolerated, apparently, as a dhimmi. Let us resist defeatism, and to counter. He men- “Pursuit” is a general get-out clause, of have more Witherspoon Institutes, if we tioned that he was recently contacted by a course. “Happiness” would have been can. Incidentally, public records tell us man from the BBC. This came out of the understood by a gentleman farmer of the that 157 Princeton faculty and staff con- blue. The man said, “I want to talk to you. late 18th century as meaning a state of tributed to the presidential nominees this You’re the only person I’ve ever come life that makes contentment possible, year. One hundred fifty-five contributed across who has the same ideas I do. I dare i.e., the secure possession of property. to Obama, two to Romney. The two were not open my mouth, where I work.” Well, And the most liberal of Whigs would a visiting lecturer in engineering and a there’s one BBC man. Maybe there will have known that no kind of political janitor. (The janitor, interviewed by the be others, and maybe, with numbers, they regime could guarantee its citizens a will feel bolder. Many of us have had psychological state of well-being. No people from “mainstream” organizations government official can compensate “come out” to us. A nice experience. Jack for the fact that Jill loves someone Pryce-Jones also spoke about the else. little magazines that sprouted after the That said, the full committee drafting war, when Communism was making the Declaration crossed out “property” strides in the democratic world. These and inserted “the pursuit of happiness.” were humane, anti-Communist maga- At the very least they intended to convey zines: Encounter in Britain; Preuves in a nuance. And as the age of scarcity France; Der Monat in West Germany; recedes into history, the voters seem Quadrant down in Australia. They more and more disposed to agree that made a difference. They were even - the U.S. government should offer more tually damned as CIA creations, but to them than the opportunity to accu- they still made a difference—they told mulate property and the right to its the truth. And “think of George Or - secure enjoyment. well,” said Pryce-Jones: He was dying There are many explanations of why of tuberculosis, but he used the very last President Obama won the election just of his strength to write 1984. That made completed: His GOTV organization a difference. It struck a blow, a blow was better; he effectively demonized from which Communism and the Left his opponent by an early negative- reeled for a long time. campaigning blitz; the ethnic balance of We don’t all have the talent of Orwell the electorate had shifted in his favor; (or Pryce-Jones). But we can do what we the white working-class voters who can, in our myriad ways. Here a little, might have compensated for this shift there a little, chipping away, defending, stayed at home; Mitt Romney was ill advancing where possible. Setting an suited to win their votes; etc., etc. But example. Providing an alternative. Re - one factor seems to have been present in minding people of the better angels of most of these explanations—namely, their nature. Standing for what we regard that the Republican party was seen as a Where the power is as true, whether it’s popular or not. cold, aloof, mercenary, and self-interested FOCUS FEATURES 3 6 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 3 , 2 0 1 2 3col:QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/13/2012 11:41 PM Page 37 party with no interest in promoting the without children, went strongly Demo - uncritical “caring” as glossing over their happiness of the people, however de - cratic. But they outnumbered their mar- real problems and likely to run into the fined, and that Romney was all too rep- ried sisters; and, in this election, women sand. Republicans are in fact better resentative of his party. In short: The voters as a whole outnumbered their equipped than Democrats to offer this GOP didn’t care about ordinary Ameri- male counterparts by a substantial 54 to “tough love” to suffering groups because cans. The Democrats fixed on this 46 percent. If family breakdown and they are widely seen to be more practical image, reinforced it, and were able to marital instability continue to rise, and realistic in their overall approach. play on it in relation to every item of therefore, both political parties will be Third, talk is cheap. And “compas- political controversy. faced with a large and growing con- sionate conservatism”—which my The American Enterprise Institute’s stituency of voters who look to govern- Hudson Institute colleague Michael polling expert recently cited a very ment not only for support but even for Horowitz defines as offering half of revealing exploitation of this trend signs of concern. What goes for single whatever financial benefits the Demo - from Canadian politics. When Michael women is equally true for other blocs crats offer—is cheaper still. Voters Ignatieff, a policy academic much of voters, such as the elderly retired have been exposed to self-interested respected by the United Nations and who are dependent on government. political boasting about compassion for other bodies, returned to Canada to head And at least some other electoral blocs, so long that they increasingly react the Liberal party, his Conservative op - not directly wanting state aid, nonethe- like Emerson: “The louder he talked of ponents ran a series of ads lampooning less judge political parties by the his honor, the faster we counted the his personal aloofness, his transnational degree to which they show such con- spoons.” sympathies, and his long absence with cern for others. The hunger in the electorate is less for the slogan: “He didn’t come back for Three points should be made about a specific welfare policy than for evi- you.” Ignatieff was the leader of the this. The first is that governments, dence that a political party has got an “caring” party and he had a long and unfortunately, cannot solve the deep authentic interest in ameliorating peo- creditable record of support for human social problems that lie at the root of ple’s distress. That can be provided in rights. But these things did not insulate the unhappiness of these large groups. this case only by the Republicans’ actu- him. The charge that Ignatieff was a They can alleviate their distress in prac- ally doing things—especially things that remote, ambitious intellectual with no tical ways, such as providing the right run counter to the caricature of Re- interest in ordinary Canadians struck kind of income support; they can avoid publicans in popular culture. Horo witz home; the Tories won; the Liberals making their problems worse through has developed a range of such practical slipped to third place. perverse incentives, such as, e.g., pre- policies under the general rubric of the In the U.S. election, the Democrats’ ferring welfare over work; and they can Wilberforce Agenda, and he has con- exploitation of this same theme had its shape law and social policy to encour- structed a series of coalitions to push most surprising impact in relation to age more responsible behavior, for them through. It’s a heterogeneous contraception and abortion. Considered instance, holding men responsible for collection of reforms that includes a as single issues, neither made any sense their children. campaign against sex trafficking (the (even when aggravated by occasional There will need to be a change in the equivalent of slavery in our time), mea- clumsy comments on rape from individ- social attitudes of ordinary Americans, sures to assist Christians threatened by ual candidates). Republican candidates and of elites as well. The campaign persecution worldwide, and the funding don’t oppose easy access to contra - against smoking succeeded largely be - of techniques to circumvent the Internet ception; the GOP’s maximalist position cause it was a campaign conducted by firewalls erected by dictatorial regimes on abortion is to return it to the states for almost all respectable people (with the to prevent millions of their citizens from decision. And though most Americans exception of a few principled libertarians) accessing news independently. The oppose most abortions, more women against a minority that felt guilty about most interesting idea from the stand- than men do so. One opinion expert its habit. Indeed, the campaign went far- point of getting the Republicans re - was thus puzzled to discover that the ther than it should have in bullying peo- considered by the American people is Demo crats’ charge of a war on women, ple. Its tactics needed, in my view, a the prevention of prison rape. This is a though implausible on its face, had stronger cause to justify them. But it does widespread and horrible crime, but it is seemingly won over even some conser- show what a social campaign can achieve treated in the popular culture merely as a vative women like herself. She con - once elites put their shoulders behind it— dirty joke. Laws have been passed cluded tentatively that women thought as Victorian elites put their shoulders against it, but they are hardly enforced. of it as an expression of concern for behind the cause of stabilizing family life The assumption of most people would be them at a time of widespread economic and reducing crime. that this is the kind of social evil that the and emotional insecurity. The second point follows from this: It Right would never care about. It is the It is an odd expression of concern, but is that concern for others cannot be kind of social evil that the nation and the the election results seem to bear out this reduced to expressing sympathy for administration seem not to care about. view. Married women (who presumably them. Concern will often, indeed usually, It is therefore the kind of social evil enjoy more of both sorts of security than require straight-talking to those whose that the GOP should tackle as soon as their unmarried sisters) voted heavily problems are self-generated. They know possible as a down payment on its for the GOP. Single women, with or their own situation well and will see future reputation. 3 7 3col:QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/13/2012 11:48 PM Page 38 Post-Election 2012 grouped into two cohorts. In the older matter, any such departures would of cohort are Ginsburg (79), Scalia (76), course more likely come from justices in The Activism Kennedy (76), and Breyer (74)—two the older age cohort. liberals, a conservative, and Kennedy. In As for retirements in the ordinary to Come the younger cohort, the conservatives— course: Ginsburg has repeatedly stated Thomas (64), Alito (62), and Roberts her goal of at least equaling the nearly Obama could shift the Supreme (57)—currently have a three-to-two 23-year tenure of Justice Louis Bran d eis edge over the liberals—So to may or, now (a favorite predecessor of Gins burg’s). Court far to the left 58, and Kagan, the youngster at 52. To do that, she would need to remain on (It’s striking that Thomas, who has been the Court until at least April 2016 (and BY EDWARD WHELAN on the Court for more than two decades, she’d surely aim to stay through the June is only two years older than Alito.) completion of any Court term she ReSenTed the gift of two Su - Combining these dimensions, we see starts). The pros pect that Ginsburg preme Court seats to fill in his that if Obama is able, say, to replace both might defer her retirement until the first 15 months in office, Ginsburg and either Scalia or Kennedy year of the next presidential election P Barack Obama appointed lib- with liberals in their 50s, he will estab- will fill progressives with dread. erals Sonia Sotomayor and elena lish a liberal majority on the so-called Back in 2011, Harvard law professor Kagan. Given their relative youth— Roberts Court and create a four-to-three Randall Kennedy called Ginsburg and Sotomayor was 55 when appointed, and edge for liberals among the younger Breyer irresponsible for not enabling Kagan only 50—Obama likely ce - justices. If he is somehow able to replace Obama to replace them in his first term. mented their seats on the left for the next Ginsburg, Scalia, and Kennedy with Already some voices are suggesting two or three decades. young liberals, he will likely ensure two that Ginsburg should instead stay on In his second term, President Obama or three decades of liberal dominance of the Court until she matches the age could, depending on which vacancies the Court. (82 years and three months) at which arise, push the Court further leftward and Which departures from the Court Bran deis retired—which she would do engender a new era of aggressive liberal might occur over the next four years? in June 2015. Look for the pressure on judicial activism. At the very least, he is In the realm of involuntary departures, Ginsburg to step down no later than likely to entrench another seat on the left. it is hazardous and unpleasant to antici- then to intensify sharply, and look for As a backdrop for assessing the pate who might be struck by death or Ginsburg to give in to it. damage that Obama might inflict, let’s disabling illness, though as a statistical none of the other justices in the older consider the current state of the Court along two dimensions: ideology and age. In rough ideological terms, the Court currently consists of four judicial con- servatives (John Roberts, the chief justice—in my judgment, the Obama - care ruling provides no basis for reclas- sifying his general position on the ideological spectrum—along with Antonin Sca lia, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito) and four liberals (Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Soto - mayor, and Kagan). Then there’s the swing justice, Anthony Kennedy, who has swung with the liberals in some huge cases and with the conservatives in others. For example, Ken ne dy provided the critical fifth vote in 1992 to retain Roe v. Wade and in 2003 to invent a consti - tutional right to homosexual activity, yet he also joined (and presumably authored) the majority opinion in Bush v. Gore and wrote the Citizens United ruling against campaign-finance restrictions. As for age, the nine justices can be Mr. Whelan, a regular contributor to NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE’S Bench Memos blog, is the president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C. 3 8 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 3 , 2 0 1 2 3col:QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/13/2012 11:41 PM Page 39 cohort has given any signal of intending Pam Karlan, 53, would excite the Left to retire. Scalia has stated the obvious but likely alienate everyone else. The proposition that he “would not like to be names of some His pan ic women are Redeeming replaced by someone who immediately also being floated, but, under the un- sets about undoing everything that [he written rules of the diversity game, Obamacare has] tried to do.” He, Kennedy, and there is no way that Oba ma will Breyer all appear to be in good health, nominate a second His panic before he How to introduce the Affordable and, absent a debilitating illness, it is nominates his first African American. Care Act to free markets difficult to see why any of them would My own judgment is that Obama have an incentive to leave the bench. might instead replace Ginsburg with a BY AVIK ROY So the most likely scenario during man, especially if he were achieving Obama’s second term is that the only another diversity first, such as the first OMeTIMeS it is hard to accept vacancy he will have to fill is Ginsburg’s Asian nominee. State Department legal defeat. On December 18, 1974, seat. But conservatives shouldn’t take adviser and former Yale Law School Teruo Nakamura, the last much solace from this forecast. If Obama S known holdout from the Im - dean Harold Koh, who turns 58 soon, succeeds in replacing Gins burg, he will has long been a favorite of the Left perial Jap an ese Army, finally surren- lock up her seat on the left for another (even if some now regard him as a war dered to In do ne sian authorities. It may generation. Plus, there is still a sub - criminal for defending drone strikes), take three decades, too, for some con- stantial chance that the less favorable but his fervent support for progressive servatives to accept the defeat of the scenarios could arise. transnationalism would make his movement to repeal Obamacare. But just The parlor game of identifying Su - nomination intensely controversial. as Japan re invented itself after World preme Court candidates is already under Plus, in the course of fighting internal War II to become one of the wealthiest way, and the roster of names being administration battles, he has made countries in the world, there is an oppor- flung about is a resounding testament some influential enemies. tunity in this moment: for conservatives to how thin the Democratic bench is And then there’s Goodwin Liu, now to co al esce around a long-term strategy and to how much the Left elevates 42, the former Berkeley law professor for reforming our entitlements and liber- considerations of diversity over those whose Ninth Circuit nomination was ating our health-care system. of quality. For starters, it’s remarkable blocked last year by a Senate filibuster, The first thing to understand about that, even after Obama’s appointments with one Democrat joining Senate Obamacare is that its existence stems of Sotomayor and Kagan, savvy folks Re pub li cans. Now that he has spent an directly from a blind spot in the post- such as SCOTUSblog’s Tom Goldstein uneventful year on the California su - war conservative movement. The coali- take it as a given that Obama’s replace- preme court, Liu’s supporters are try- tion forged by Bill Buckley and others ment of Ginsburg would have to be ing to rehabilitate him. But while Liu’s in the 1950s—famously, a fusion of another woman. It’s even more striking boundless ambition will lead him to lie anti-Communists, free-marketeers, and that the “ideal nominee” that Goldstein low for a few years, nothing can erase cultural conservatives—focused, in prac- comes up with (and a name that others the aggressive left-wing ideology that tice, on lowering taxes and defeating the are now echoing) is California attorney he manifested in his previous writings Soviets. Health-care policy rarely ap - general Kamala Harris, who has zero and speeches, his apparent efforts to peared on conservatives’ radar. judicial experience and offers no evi- conceal many of the most incendiary Progressives, by contrast, from the dence of being an intellectual heavy- of them from the Senate, and his wildly Truman administration on, have had one weight. Goldstein may well be right to implausible confirmation testimony. public-policy goal above all others: perceive that what matters most to No nominee should arouse more deter- universal, single-payer health care. And progressives is that Harris is one of mined opposition than Liu. they have been spectacularly successful at them (quite far left, in fact) and that she Unless the composition of the sneaking health-care half-loaves into their would be the first black woman on the Senate changes dramatically in two policy agenda. even LBJ, with hist ori - Court. years, Sen ate Republicans will have cally large Democratic majorities, One big question is whether Obama, little pros pect of defeating an Obama couldn’t push single-payer through Con - now that he no longer is constrained by nominee to the Supreme Court in an gress. Instead, he created health-care pro- the desire to win reelection, will seek to up-or-down vote. That fact shouldn’t grams for the very poor (Med i caid) and nominate the “liberal lions” that pro - deter Re pub li cans from fighting the the elderly (Medicare), leaving everyone gressives have been clamoring for. nominee vigorously on grounds of else, in theory, in the private system. If so, Seventh Circuit judge Diane judicial philosophy, just as they effec- In 1967, Congress projected that Wood, who was a runner-up to both tively made the case against Soto - Medicare would cost a modest $12 billion Sotomayor and Kagan, might well be a mayor and Kagan (even winning one in 1990, inclusive of inflation. Actual short-lister again if a vacancy arises soon. Democratic vote against Kagan). And, Medicare spending in 1990 was not $12 But she’s already 62, and her aggressive depending on how aggressive Obama record on an array of culture-war issues gets and on whom he is replacing, we Mr. Roy is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute might well lead the White House to pass may well see a high-stakes filibuster and was a health-care adviser to the Romney over her again. Stanford law professor battle. campaign. 3 9 3col:QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/13/2012 11:41 PM Page 40 Post-Election 2012 billion, however, but $110 billion. This coverage was a main focus for candidates utopia. It includes an individual mandate. year, we spent $550 billion on Medicare. and activists alike. It requires that insurers provide a speci- Ten years from now, the Con gres sion al It is often said, by both liberals and fied set of minimum benefits, but also Budget Office projects that we will spend conservatives, that Obamacare moves requires that beneficiaries pick up a $1.1 trillion on the program. When it America in a European direction. But this meaningful portion of the costs of their comes to health care, liberals’ half-loaves is a flawed conception. For one thing, per own care, so as to incentivize frugality. always seem to grow into industrial capita government health-care spending Indeed, in 2003, 42 percent of Swiss bakeries. Another example: the State in the United States was the third-highest citizens opted for high-deductible health Children’s Health Insurance Program, or in the world in 2009, prior to the pas- plans of the kind advocated by American S-CHIP, created in 1997 by a Republican sage of Obamacare. In that year, federal conservatives. Swiss citizens who seek Congress at the behest of Ted Kennedy. and state governments spent $3,795 per additional coverage are free to purchase A decade and a half later, one in four person on health care in the U.S. The it, and the Swiss cover the poor by offer- American children are enrolled in this French, by contrast, spent only $3,100. ing low-income citizens a means-tested Medicaid-like program. Canada spent $3,081, Sweden $3,033, premium subsidy with which to pur- Conservatives, by contrast, have never Belgium $2,964. And the most socialized chase insurance for themselves. coalesced around a vision of what a free- system in the developed world—the If this approach sounds vaguely market health-care system would look British National Health Service—spent a familiar, it should. Paul Ryan’s pro posals like. As a result, Re pub li cans’ compro- mere $2,935 per person. In other words, if for Medicare reform borrow heavily mises have been myopically tactical, and we measure health-care statism by the from the Swiss model. And so does a have tended to move health care in a lib- amount our government spends on the key portion of Obamacare: the law’s eral, rather than a conservative, direction. category, the U.S. is already more statist subsidized, state-based exchanges for Republicans criticized LBJ’s original than our “European” peers. certain low- to middle-income Amer i - Medicare bill as too modest, because it The other big misconception is that cans. Both the Ryan reforms and Oba - didn’t cover physician services, a flaw the U.S. has a “free-market” health-care ma care provide means-tested premium that Democrats were quite happy to cor- system, whereas the rest of the developed subsidies for certain Americans to shop rect in the final product. In 1974, as a world suffers (or benefits) from single- for insurance on a regulated market. conservative alternative to single-payer, payer welfarism. One can make the case And this commonality sows the seeds of Richard Nixon proposed a “Compre - that, in certain ways, the French health- what could be, in the long term, a strate- hensive Health Insurance Plan” that care system is more market-oriented gic victory for free-market health care. would have forced all employers to than America’s. The U.S. system is far Obamacare, of course, has many provide costly, government-defined cov- more statist than those of the two world destructive features. The law dramatically erage to their workers. In 1993, as an leaders: Sing a pore and Switzerland. The expands Medicaid, America’s worst alternative to Hillarycare, Republicans Swiss mod el, in particular, provides health-care program, and makes matters rallied around a bill sponsored by Senator American conservatives with a strategic worse by cutting payments to health-care John Chafee (R., R.I.) that proposed an road map for achieving a fiscally sustain- providers, which will drive hospitals and individual mandate. able, market-oriented, private-sector doctors out of business. The law raises From 2001 to 2006, when Re publi - health-care system. taxes by $1.2 trillion over the next ten cans occupied the White House and In Switzerland, government spending years. It significantly increases the cost controlled most of Congress, they did on health care is less than 3 percent of of health insurance, through burden- not push for large-scale, free-market gross domestic product. By contrast, some mandates and regulations. Above health-care reform. Their most signifi- U.S. government health-care spending all, it deeply injures our already dam- cant health-care legislation, the 2003 approaches 8 percent of GDP. Despite aged constitutional tradition of indi - Medi care prescription-drug law, con- spending far less than we do, the Swiss vidual and local autonomy. tained some salutary reforms but left have achieved universal health coverage, But Obamacare’s one Swiss-like the broader health-care system largely in a system composed entirely of private component—its state-based insurance unchanged. Instead, Republicans focused insurers. Because Swiss citizens pur- ex changes—provides a ray of hope. on lowering taxes, prosecuting the War chase insurance for themselves on a Im a gine an alternative universe in which on Terror, and funneling taxpayer dol- government-regulated market, instead of Obamacare’s exchanges had entirely lars to their constituencies. having it chosen for them, Swiss insurers replaced Medicare and Medicaid, instead This is not to say that no Republican are focused on reducing cost and im - of being used to expand coverage. Such has ever proposed far-reaching reforms. proving quality. an outcome would have been justly Some have. But lack of interest among the The strengths of the American system viewed as a conservative triumph. broader conservative movement meant are also those of Switzerland’s. The The Obamacare subsidies apply only, that good market-based proposals went Swiss enjoy nearly complete freedom to on a sliding scale, to those below 400 nowhere. Republican politicians never choose their own doctor, and have access percent of the federal poverty level: faced pressure from the conservative base to all the latest medical technologies. $60,520 for a two-person household. to reform health care in a conservative Waiting times for doctors’ appointments Ryan’s plan, by contrast, subsidizes every direction. Contrast that to the 2008 are similar to those in the U.S. retiree, regardless of income, though his Democratic primaries, in which universal The Swiss system is no libertarian proposals do apply modest means- 4 0 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 3 , 2 0 1 2 Hanson book full page and coupon_milliken-mar 22.qxd 9/11/2012 4:09 PM Page 1 HANSON ON OBAMA The heralded historian separates the Dream from the Reality, as only he can, in this rivetting new collection of his acclaimed National Review Online columns o writer in America has delivered a more consistent, intelligent, and stark critique of Barack Obama than has Victor Davis N Hanson, the esteemed historian of things ancient and modern, in his weekly column and writings for National Review Online. We’ve assembled his very best columns and articles—126 in all, written with Hanson’s renowned perception and perspective, taking readers from the throes of the 2008 presidential election, through the tumult of Obamacare’s imposition on America, and to the consequential liberal setbacks of the 2010 election races—in this big (over 500 pages) new collection that you must have. Obama: The Dream and the Reality, available only from National Review, is a must for any conservative who seeks a trenchant retrospective of what VDH calls “the strange ascendency of a heretofore mostly unknown Barack Obama,” and the Nobel Prize winner’s ensuing fall, marked by the birth of the tea-party movement, the angst of a people over a leader who proudly denies American Exceptionalism, and the rejection of Obama’s policies and brand of politics by the voters in the historic 2010 congressional elections. Writing with unfailing wisdom about Obama, Hanson’s collected thought, in this brilliant new NRO “best of,” truly separates the Dream of the Community Organizer from the Reality of a President. From the book’s Preface: First, as I watched the rise of Barack Obama, I was struck by just how lit- tle we knew of his past or present life, his political agendas—and how even less we were going to know, given the media effort neither to report nor ana- lyze fully any matters perceived to be injurious to the Obama cause. In response, I tried, as many did during the Obmaa ascendency, to point out how contradictory and orthodox was the reality of his hope and change agenda, an assessment more than borne out by the record of his first-term in office. Second, I confess to a certain naiveté. While I accurately predicted that the Rev. Wright matter, inconsistency in both Obama’s campaign and governance, his often clumsy proclamations, and a certain petulance with critics and boredom with the mechanics of governance would all conspire to end the 2008 Obama hysteria and later send his presidential polls plum- meting, I underestimated the resiliency of Obama, the candidate and the president—and in particular his iconic value. Segmented into nine chapters (from “The ‘Good’ War in Afghanistan, the ‘Bad’ War in Iraq” to “Obama, Dream and Reality”) that include over ten dozen columns and essays (including “Win One for the Messiah!,” “The Age of Middle East Atonement,” “A Thug’s Primer,” “Resetting Our Reset Foreign Policy,” and many more), Obama: The Dream and the Reality—big, National Review w 215 Lexington Avenue w New York, NY w 10016 handsome, new, printed in quality softcover, Send me ______copies of Obama: The Dream and the Reality. My cost is $22.00 each and pure VDH—is yours for just $22.00 (shipping and handling are included!). I enclose total payment of $______. Send to: (which includes shipping and handling charges) direct from National Review. Name PAYMENT METHOD: Address Order Obama: The Dream o Check enclosed (payable to National Review) City State ZIP Bill my o MasterCard o Visa and the Reality right now at Acct. No. store.nationalreview.com e-mail: Expir. Date phone: Signature (NY State residents must add sales tax. For foreign orders, add $10US to cover additional shipping.) 3col:QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/13/2012 11:41 PM Page 42 Post-Election 2012 testing. So Obamacare’s exchanges, if up Obamacare’s subsidy spending, but applied to Medicare, would result in the Congressional Budget Of fice makes a significantly less spending than the Ryan plausible case that the new spending What Would plan would, while still providing compre- would be offset by a reduction in the $300 hensive insurance to those who can’t billion–per–year federal subsidy for Jindal Do? afford it on their own. employer-sponsored insurance that is In this way, we begin to conceive of a granted through the tax code. Over time, Louisiana’s governor can be a guide strategy for gradually converting the this migration could actually help reduce on health care and education broken U.S. health-care and entitlement the deficit. Congress could consider system into one of Swiss-like efficiency reforms of Obamacare’s employer man- BY REIHAN SALAM and fiscal sustainability. date—for example, exempting businesses Step One of this new strategy would with fewer than 200 employees, or elimi- n Tuesday, november 13, be to improve the market orientation of nating it entirely—so as to stimulate just one week after a dispirit- Obamacare’s insurance exchanges. The economic growth while improving the ing presidential election for exchanges are larded with excessive O the GOP, reporter Jonathan market for individually purchased health mandates and regulations that will drive insurance. Martin of Politico published an inter- up the cost of their insurance products. Step Four would be to move the view with Bobby Jindal, the Republican Re publicans in Congress should require Medicaid population into the exchanges, governor of Louisiana. Having spent the De part ment of Health and Human starting with higher incomes and working most of his career in public life as a Ser vices to reduce this regulatory bur- down to lower ones. This change would wunderkind, Jindal now finds himself den. The centerpiece of their message have the important effect of lifting the an elder statesman among Republican ought to be: “Dem o crats want to raise disincentive that Medicaid recipients elected officials. Shortly after his first the cost of your health insurance. We have to find work, because they would gubernatorial victory in 2007, he was want to lower it.” now enjoy a reasonable continuity in their taken seriously as a potential vice- And red states shouldn’t feel obligated health coverage even as their incomes presidential nominee. And though Mitt to hew to Obamacare’s restrictions. Last rose. Such a reform would significantly Romney eventually chose Paul Ryan as summer’s Supreme Court decision gave reduce state-based health-care spending, his running mate, Jindal was seen by states significant leverage in their health- at the cost of higher federal health-care many on the right as a candidate who care dealings with Washington. Utah, for spending. Congress would need to offset could give the former Massachusetts example, has set up a health-care ex - this change by reducing federal spending governor a boost among committed change that is far more market-oriented elsewhere. Senator Lamar Al ex an der (R., conservatives. Despite having been than Obamacare’s. Utah could agree to Tenn.) has proposed a “Grand Swap” in overlooked not once but twice, Jindal is accept Obamacare’s subsidies in return which Washington takes over Medicaid seen as a likely 2016 presidential con- for a contractual assurance that HHS will spending in exchange for abandoning its tender, which is why his interview with not interfere in the operation and structure role in funding K–12 education. Martin was so interesting and telling. of its exchange. After these four relatively simple Jindal, who gives few interviews to Step Two would be to move Medi care steps, we would be left with a health- reporters not based in Louisiana, was very patients into Obamacare’s exchanges. For care system that would look a lot like frank with the D.C.-based Martin, telling example, Congress could agree to raise Switzerland’s. Rises in premium subsi- him that “we cannot be, we must not be, Medicare’s eligibility age by three dies could be held to a sustainable the party that simply protects the rich so months every year for the foreseeable growth rate to ensure their long-term they get to keep their toys.” More broadly, future. In effect, over time, this would fiscal stability. And Americans might he insisted that “we need to stop being gradually introduce premium-support- finally have the opportunity to purchase simplistic, we need to trust the intelli- style reforms into the retiree population, insurance for themselves, gain control gence of the American people, and we without requiring Congress to get bogged of their own health-care dollars, and need to stop insulting the intelligence of down in complicated reform legislation. enjoy a wide range of low-cost, high- the voters.” Jindal warned against defining Congress could also transfer the “dual quality coverage options. the GOP against President Obama, and he eligible” population—seniors who are The movement to repeal Obamacare expressed the importance of framing a enrolled in both Medicare and Medi- may lie in ashes. But all hope is not lost. positive agenda. Yet Jindal shied away caid—onto the exchanges. Be cause this Indeed, the great irony of Oba ma care’s from making explicit policy pledges— high-risk population consumes health victory at the ballot box is that there he chose not to wade deeply into the care through two different programs, its remains a path for the most desired immigration-reform debate, and avoided care is usually uncoordinated and costly. conservative outcome of all: a fiscally specifics when he talked about tax reform, The exchanges might help address this sustainable, fully reformed set of health- school choice, energy policy, and creating problem. care entitlements. It’s an outcome that is a “bottom-up government for the digital Step Three would be to accept that far from assured, but one that is emi nently age.” To Martin, Jindal’s most noteworthy many employers will move their workers achievable.. It would be the most signifi- policy suggestion was that Republicans onto the exchanges. It is reasonable to be cant policy victory of our generation. So should embrace financial reform. concerned that this migration will drive let’s get back to work. So what should we make of Jindal’s 4 2 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 3 , 2 0 1 2 3col:QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/13/2012 11:41 PM Page 43 remarks? Are they an indication that one policy questions such as health-care monly understood depends on the emer- of the brightest lights of the conservative reform. As executive director of the gence of leaders who can build entirely movement has embraced moderation? Or National Bipartisan Commission on the new schools. This is possible in dense is Jindal merely calling for cosmetic Future of Medicare, he was one of the urban areas with a large supply of talented changes to the case that conservative architects of the premium-support model teachers and administrators, but far less so Republicans make? When Jindal says for Medicare reform that Paul Ryan in rural areas or urban areas suffering that “we’re a populist party and we’ve advocated. Jindal served as head of the from a dearth of talent. Course-level got to make that clear going forward,” Louisiana Department of Health and instructional choice effectively shrinks one could be forgiven for thinking that he Hospitals and as a senior official in the the unit that needs to be developed from sees a need not for fundamental change U.S. Department of Health and Human an entire school to something as simple as but simply for a clearer message. Services while still in his 20s. As gover- a class. Rather than ask parents and stu- Another interpretation, and a more nor, he has sought to overhaul the state’s dents to leap from one school to another, plausible one, is that Jindal recognizes approach to providing medical care to this approach gives them a choice be - that the debate over where Republicans the poor, focusing primarily on reform- tween, say, a Spanish class taught by a should go next has focused too narrowly ing Louisiana’s extensive but antiquated local teacher and a Mandarin class taught on immigration and abortion. As Ramesh network of publicly operated charity hos- online. The chief virtue of course-level Ponnuru observes elsewhere in this issue, pitals to improve the cost-effectiveness instructional choice is that it allows many on the right have reacted to and the quality of care. students to benefit from the many other President Obama’s success among His - But creativity is a double-edged institutions—colleges and universities, panic voters by calling for comprehen- sword. By choosing to tackle Medicaid sive immigration reform. In a similar reform head-on, Jindal has made many vein, moderates and a not-inconsiderable enemies. His push to shift Medicaid number of conservatives have pointed to from being a fee-for-service program to the Republican platform’s embrace of the being a more integrated model of care Human Life Amendment as a political delivery has been met with fierce resis- liability to be jettisoned posthaste. What tance. Now that federal support for these interpretations miss, however, is Louisiana’s Medicaid program is expect- that Hispanics and unmarried women, ed to decline sharply, Jindal has been the constituencies critics often have in forced to take drastic steps to contain mind when they call for a shift to the left spending. He is also on the front lines of on immigration and abortion, tend to be the debate over President Obama’s anxious about their prospects for upward health-care law, having explic itly re - mobility. jected federal funds for a large expan- Jindal, in contrast, maintained that the sion of Medicaid eligibility planned for Republican party should keep its pro-life 2014. The debate over health-care reform stance while softening its tone. Moreover, in Louisiana is fraught with danger for his caution on immigration reform sug- Jindal, yet his long experience uniquely gests that he continues to be somewhat qualifies him for it. His handling of the skeptical of a comprehensive approach next few months will have a great impact Bobby Jindal, Republican governor of Louisiana that includes a sweeping amnesty for on his ability to shape the national unauthorized immigrants. Instead, he health-care-reform conversation and, by private firms, the military—that can seems to want to move the conversation extension, his political prospects. provide developmental experiences as about Republican reinvention to the Jindal has also overseen a dramatic valuable as those offered by K–12 issues most relevant to middle-income overhaul of education policy in Louisi - schools. The most successful providers of households of all ethnic backgrounds, ana, in partnership with John White, instruction can scale up by offering their including access to high-quality educa- Louisiana’s state superintendent of courses across a wide array of existing tion, a fairer tax code, and preventing yet education. One of White’s most promis- schools, and not just by building new another financial crisis. ing initiatives is course-level instruc- schools from scratch. For a number of reasons, Jindal is well tional choice, a concept that aims to There is much more that Jindal will placed to make this argument. As a com- introduce the principle of choice within have to do before he can become the mitted social conservative, he does not existing public schools. Having previ- GOP’s champion of the middle class. need to demonstrate his anti-abortion ously served as superintendent of New Most important, he needs to think deeply bona fides by employing strident lan- Orleans’s innovative Recovery School about how conservatives can address guage. Indeed, his devotion to the pro-life District, the nation’s first district to wage stagnation and the widening oppor- cause might give him greater moral consist primarily of charter schools, tunity gap between those who are raised AP authority when criticizing candidates who White recognizes the power of school in stable two-parent households and those / employ polarizing rhetoric on the issue. choice—yet his approach also recog- who are not. But his opening salvo is And Jindal has been one of the more nizes its limitations. encouraging, and one hopes that other creative Republican governors on critical Essentially, school choice as it is com- conservatives will follow his lead. PATRICK SEMANSKY 4 3 longview--ready:QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/13/2012 10:53 PM Page 44 The Long View BY ROB LONG panics and asians.” Syndicated 11:30 a.m.: Outside Observation Deck, columnist Mona Charen leads a dis- “Stu Stevens Takes a Swim.” Former cussion with UC-Berkeley law pro- Romney campaign adviser Stuart fessor John Yoo on conservative Stevens will be wrapped tightly in outreach in minority communities. plastic wrap, which will be duct-taped shut by NaTiONal Review contri - NATIONAL REVIEW 5:45 p.m.: Main auditorium (lower butors Jim Geraghty and Robert Post-Election Cruise 2012 Promenade Deck), “learning From Costa, after which Mr. Stevens will be Our Mistakes.” Re publican Na - thrown overboard. PleaSe NOTe: Special Program Note: Some events tional Committee chairman Reince Space is limited on the Outside have been adjusted or replaced since Priebus discusses the key takeaways Observation Deck. Participants who Election Day. from the election. How does the wish to witness this fun event will party learn from its mistakes, how be chosen by lottery. Please see Monday, November 12: San Juan, does it reform its message and voter NaTiONal Review ONliNe editor-at- Puerto Rico outreach, and how do conservatives large Kathryn lopez for details. win again? 4–5 p.m.: lower Promenade Deck. 3 p.m.: Main auditorium (lower 6:30 p.m.: Upper Promenade Deck, Chained and gagged Karl Rove avail- Promenade Deck), “what went Reince Priebus executed by firing able for taunting and prodding. Sign- wrong.” NaTiONal Review editors squad. Dress: Formal. and contributors in a roundtable ups available at the Help Desk. discussion about election Day. Jonah Goldberg moderates. Participants wednesday, November 14: Turks & include Rich lowry, Jay Nordlinger, Friday, November 16: Half Moon Caicos islands and Robert Costa. Cay, Bahamas 7:30 p.m.: Cocktail Reception, all Day Event: During all planned 4 –5 p.m.: lower Promenade Deck. Queen’s lounge Promenade Deck. afternoon presentations, Republican Chained and gagged Karl Rove avail- all registered guests are invited to the strategist Karl Rove will be onstage in able for taunting and prodding. Sign- Queen’s lounge for informal drinks leg irons and a ball gag, arms tied ups available at the Help Desk. and conversation. behind his back. He will be available 8 p.m.: The viking Culinary arts and for taunting and prodding by regis- education Centre (Navigation Deck), tered participants throughout the pro- Saturday, November 17: at Sea Pre-dinner event: “The Torture and gram. all taunters and prodders Dismemberment of Todd akin.” MUST wear their official NR cruise 4–5 p.m.: lower Promenade Deck. name badge. NO ONe will be allowed Chained and gagged Karl Rove avail- all registered guests are invited to to approach Mr. Rove without having able for taunting and prodding. Sign- join NaTiONal Review editors and signed up in advance. Please see ups available at the Help Desk. contributors in the ritual torture and NaTiONal Review publisher Jack dismemberment of failed U.S. Fowler to sign up for a five-minute 6:30 p.m.: lido Deck aft, Farewell Senate candidate from Missouri window. Please avoid bruising or luau. Participants gather for the gala Todd akin. Participation is first- wounding Mr. Rove or in any way farewell dinner. Drinks and passed come-first-served. Smocks and pro- rendering him inedible. (See Sat - appetizers will be available on the tective goggles are available for urday’s program: “Farewell luau” for outside deck, to the rear of the ship. purchase at the Help Desk beginning further information.) enjoy our final sunset together in a two hours before the event. Tools convivial and fun atmosphere. will be provided. Please note: Mr. 7 p.m.: lido Deck aft, “Run, Karl, akin will NOT be sedated or Thursday, November 15: Grand Run.” Mr. Rove will be released and restrained during this event. He will Cayman allowed to run for his life. all regis- be held down by Campaign Spot tered participants are encouraged to blogger Jim Geraghty. all partici- 10 a.m.: Main auditorium (lower chase after him with pointed sticks pants MUST sign a release waiver Promenade Deck), “what went until he is cornered in some godfor- BeFORe participating in the event. wrong ii.” NaTiONal Review editor saken part of the Holland america Dress: Smart casual. Jay Nordlinger interviews former line’s flagship Nieuw Amsterdam. Romney campaign adviser Stuart Mr. Rove will then be dragged Stevens on the campaign strategy, throughout the ship and roasted alive. Tuesday, November 13: at Sea its media efforts, and its overall tacti- PleaSe NOTe: This will be “fam - cal perspective. Mr. Stevens has gra- ily” service, with vegetables and 3:30 p.m.: Main auditorium (lower ciously agreed to answer questions sides served buffet-style. Dress: Promenade Deck), “winning His- from registered attendees. Athletic wear, good running shoes. 4 4 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 3 , 2 0 1 2 lileks--READY:QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/13/2012 10:54 PM Page 45 Athwart BY JAMES LILEKS A Message of Compromisers T’S only a matter of time before Chris Matthews between Tranquility Base and here. announces that the amendment limiting presidents to But that’s not right. That’s their way. Besides, if you put two terms is, in fact, racist. There will be a great lusty 60 million Obama voters on the moon, they’d still find a I national clamor for a bill that gives Obama the way to call us out of touch. chance to have as many terms as the white guy who presided No, we’re told that the party has to retune and refine, over a sustained economic crisis. Before this happens, the adjust its message, reach out, and find a way to turn all those conservative movement has to figure out how to attract all upraised middle fingers into a game of horseshoes. the people who hate them. This requires compromise, which is called “caving” Who are these people? Why, they’re a zesty coalition of when the Democrats back off from nationalizing an indus- economic illiterates, young people whose grasp of history is try and “evolution” when conservatives abandon their so feeble they think Bill Clinton freed the slaves by winning defining principles. WWII, and a vast number who don’t like conservatives, don’t But what’s the compromise on gay marriage? GOP offer: believe their ideas, and think “GOP” might as well stand for Okay, two men can be called a married couple, but it has to be “Gouty Oligarchical Plutocrats.” That’s whom we need to a traditional marriage. Fifties-style. One has to wear pearls win over. It brings to mind a scene in Inde - and a dress around the house while vacu- pendence Day, when a scientist asks a cap- uming. Liberal response: That just rein- tured alien what they want humans to do. forces heteronormative gender concepts. “Die,” it croaks. And pearls are gauche. GOP accommoda- Okay, well, everything’s on the table, tion: Okay, you can get married, but you but let’s talk about some options. First step have to promise not to demand that James towards winning back the country: con- Bond go gay in a future movie. Liberal spicuous empathy. Big sloshing wet counteroffer: We’ll pro mise not to com- buckets of the stuff. As Peggy Noonan plain if he just comes out as bi. GOP: Deal! wrote in the Wall Street Journal, the What’s the compromise on immigration? Democrats have the emotional advantage: Okay, okay, everyone’s a citizen. You can People think that the liberals Care. No vote and hold office. You can replace the doubt they do, in the abstract. But the end Constitution displayed in the National result of Official State Caring was seen after Hurricane Archives with a version written in Spanish, but you have to Sandy, when untold numbers of citizens stuffed into Vertical make the original available for viewing if someone requests Poor-Person Storage Buildings were left without power, it 24 hours ahead of time. The border fence will be replaced food, and sanitation. The stairwells stunk of offal; the streets by a one-way pedestrian conveyor, like they have at airports. were piled with rotting trash. News crews interviewed fright- Question from illegal-alien lobby: When it is shut down for ened tenants, and in each case there was evidence of the repairs, will there be buses to bring in relatives? GOP: Well, strange Rapture of the Males that removed all the menfolk okay, but you have to pay the fare. Illegals: Sorry, the from the family structure. The government was the father, of Democrats provide free buses, and they show movies. GOP course—and just as absent as the ones who dropped off some response: Okay, movies, but PG only. Illegals: Sorry, no deal. DNA and melted into the wind. The kids love those Fast and Furious movies. The kids who If this is the result of Caring, you shudder to contemplate weren’t killed by Fast and Furious, that is. the results of indifference. Perhaps the solution rests with untapped identity groups no For now, accept the fact that the country changed while we one’s exploited yet. How about nudists? According to one were out making money and children. Archie Bunker is study, almost 30 million people would consider vacationing dead; Meathead got tenure. Forty years of cultural liberalism at a clothing-optional resort. Peel off 10 percent, and you rewrote the concept of American exceptionalism to mean have Obama’s margin of victory. It needn’t be obvious; don’t that we’re uniquely bad. The iconoclastic skepticism that have to pander. Just have the next presidential candidate once defined both boomers and their spawn has settled into proclaim, during his acceptance speech, that “sometimes the slack-spined posture of the supplicant. “Question I find pants . . . confining” and ask employers to cover Authority,” their self-satisfied college motto, has turned into sunscreen. No: Require sunscreen coverage under penalty of a plaintive whine: What else can you give me today? fines and license revocation. So it’s all lost? No! you say. Buck up! you say. We’re a ’Cause that’s how we do freedom now, dawg. can-do people. If we can put a man on the moon, perhaps we On the other hand, you wonder why they should take any can put 60 million Democratic voters on the moon, and fig- deals conservatives offer. When everything is paid for by ure a way so their absentee ballots get “lost” somewhere someone else or conjured from Bernanke’s Magic Cornu - EON PRODUCTIONS / copia of Dollars, you’d be an idiot to vote for the party of Mr. Lileks blogs at www.lileks.com. restraint. JAMES BOND 4 5 books-12.03:QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/13/2012 6:44 PM Page 46 Books, Arts & Manners career are laid out neatly—the 1948 his first election to the Senate, Thur - presidential run, the 1957 filibuster, the mond was forced to run as a write-in can- Blast from 1964 party switch, and the 1968 didate against his own party’s nominee, Republican convention—and, by filling so low was his stock with the Columbia The Past in neglected details and putting each establishment.) He was ambitious for moment in its proper context, Crespino power, but he knew he could not expect HELEN RITTELMEYER transforms his subject into something favorable committee assignments or much more than a caricature. He also publicity boosts from a leadership still answers the difficult question of how a bitter over the 1.2 million votes he had man could get elected again and again, taken from Harry Truman. He might well into the Nineties, despite having have relied on personal charisma, as been the most fervent supporter of a Huey Long had, but unfortunately he social system now universally consid- did not have any. Far from the back- ered to have been a national disgrace. slapping, joke-cracking stereotype of a The answer to that question begins southern pol, Thurmond was a humor- with the fact that Strom Thurmond was less health nut who drank a glass of not the most fervent segregationist in prune juice every morning and never America, despite appearances to the produced a bon mot in his life. contrary. Consider his filibuster against Neither party nor personality was the Civil Rights Act of 1957, which going to bring him political capital, so Strom Thurmond’s America, by Joseph Crespino looks like a singular display of intransi- he had to earn some on his own by (Hill and Wang, 416 pp., $30) gent racism. At 24 hours and 18 minutes playing the maverick. He was certainly a it still holds the record for longest one- racist, but he was hardly the most He black comedian Dick Greg - man filibuster in the history of the passionate racist in a Senate that also ory said in 1971 that race Senate; the text ran for 96 pages in the included James eastland and John relations in America were easy Congressional Record, at a printing cost Stennis of Mississippi and Richard T to understand: “In the North of $7,776. When he claimed, around Russell of Georgia—whose reason for they don’t care how big I get, long as I hour 23, to be “speaking for the future not filibustering the bill was, inciden- don’t get too close. Down South, they citizens of South Carolina,” a colleague tally, to preserve segregation. Thur - don’t care how close I get, long as I don’t piped up, “Well, brother, if you speak mond’s fellow southern hardliners had get too big.” Since his death, Strom much longer, they will soon be here, made a deal with moderate northern Thurmond has been reduced to proof too.” No other southern senator joined and western Democrats (John F. Ken - of this joke, if not a joke himself: the his effort, which has led most people nedy among them) to water down the arch-segregationist with a black daugh- to assume that his abhorrence for civil bill; according to an internal Southern ter who obviously didn’t mind if “they” rights must have been fiercer and more Caucus memo, a filibuster would cause got quite close indeed. He was a joke for visceral than that of any of his col- these moderates to “feel that the South many years before that, too—the dod- leagues—an easy thing to believe about has betrayed them after they acted in dering nonagenarian, the notorious flirt a man whose grandfather was present at good faith,” which would drive them to who fathered his last child at the age of Appomattox and who hailed from the embrace “every ‘civil rights’ scheme of 74, the southern throwback who patron- same hometown in South Carolina as the the past 20 years.” ized female congressional witnesses congressman who beat abolitionist The second great question about by saying things like “These are the Charles Sumner with a cane on the floor Thurmond is why he switched parties. prettiest witnesses we have had in a long of the Senate in 1856. This is not an idle point of trivia. Today’s time. I imagine you are all married.” In Thurmond did not have any interest Democratic party would dearly like to the world of politics, ancient history is in correcting this false impression at the paint the breakup of the “Solid South” as anything that happened more than 25 time, but today’s historian does. As a straightforward migration of racists years ago, and we have to look back Crespino shows, Thurmond’s filibuster from one party to another, and the closer much further than that to find a time had more to do with circumstances than they can put Strom Thurmond to the when Strom Thurmond was not a punch- with conviction. It wasn’t just that his center of that story, the better they can line. office had been inundated with messages obscure figures such as George Wallace. This is what Joseph Crespino has from constituents imploring him to It is indeed embarrassing for them that done, with considerable success. The take a stand or else face the electoral Wallace could sweep every county in four great landmarks of Thurmond’s consequences. His 1948 presidential run their Florida presidential primary as late on the “Dixiecrat” ticket had alien - as 1972, by which point Strom Thur - Helen Rittelmeyer is a former associate editor of ated Democratic power brokers, both mond, as a Republican, had already NATIONAL REVIEW. in Washington and in South Carolina. (In become the first southerner in Congress 4 6 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 3 , 2 0 1 2 STEYN CLASSICS December 3 2012 issue:all books 1 page april 2004.qxd 11/9/2012 8:53 AM Page 1 STEYN CLASSICS ORDER YOUR COPIES OF MARK STEYN’S BESTSELLERS AFTER AMERICA: GET READY MAKING SPIRITS BRIGHT FOR ARMAGEDDON The quality Mark and old pal Jessica Martin are softcover edition of Mark’s bestseller (fea- back with a full-length album of turing a new introduction) picks up where Yuletide delights featuring almost an America Alone left off, warning how a hour of great music. The twelve supersized Europe-apeing USA is big tracks on Making Spirits Bright feature enough to fail, spectacularly so. 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He was an early supporter of Young Thurmond did cosponsor an anti-busing Americans for Freedom and a popular bill in 1975, but the author of that bill speaker on their lecture circuit. Con - The Best of was a Democratic wunderkind from servative grandee Lee edwards, as a Delaware named Joe Biden. If desegre- young man, ghostwrote the only book Marines gation had been Thurmond’s primary published under Thurmond’s name, concern, a party switch would not have The Faith We Have Not Kept. Lee At - DAVID FRENCH been required. water got his start as a Thurmond The truth is that the GOP appealed to intern. The business plan that would one Thurmond for many reasons having day become the Heritage Foundation nothing to do with race. Of all the ideo- was written by Fritz Rench in Thur - logical mantles he wore in his decades of mond’s Capitol Hill office. politics, “Sunbelt Conservatism” may It is not exactly pleasant to read about have been the one that fit him the best: the many unexpected occasions when anti-Communist, pro-business, strict Strom Thurmond was central to the about constitutional interpretation, skep- growth of the Right, because his early tical of unions, and even more skeptical career is such a source of justified of big government. It is noteworthy that, shame—as Trent Lott found out the hard in his September 1964 party-switch way. Crespino points out two little- Into the Fire: A Firsthand Account of the Most Strom Thurmond was not the most Extraordinary Battle in the Afghan War, fervent segregationist in America, by Dakota Meyer and Bing West (Random despite appearances to the contrary. House, 256 pp., $27) HARLeS DICkeNS famously announcement, Thurmond proclaimed known facts about the remarks Lott began his classic A Tale of Two himself not just a Republican, but a made at Thurmond’s 100th-birthday Cities with the phrase “It was “Goldwater Republican.” party and his subsequent resignation as C the best of times, it was the His economic conservatism was not Senate minority leader. First, Lott was worst of times.” It is that best/worst just deeply felt—though certainly it was forced to speak extempore only because dichotomy that dominates Dakota Meyer that; he had been anti-union since his Bob Dole, who spoke before him, deliv- and Bing West’s new book. It’s a story of political infancy—it was also popular ered all the anecdotes he had prepared. men at their best and at their worst, of a back home. And with good reason. Second, Lott had made the same state- military at its best and its worst, and of Crespino gives the numbers: By the ment almost verbatim in 1980—“You technology at its best, but mostly at its 1970s, South Carolina “enjoyed the know, if we had elected this man 30 worst. The result leaves you gaping in highest level of foreign investment per years ago, we wouldn’t be in the mess we admiration at Medal of Honor winner capita of any state in the nation. Manu- are today”—and no one raised an eye- Dakota Meyer’s courage but ultimately facturing had grown at three times the brow, on the assumption he was talking sharing in his frustration at the shocking national average over the past three about big government, not civil rights. incompetence and timidity of others that decades.” In the broader South, “per But the person who has most cause to made his courage necessary. capita income grew 14 percent faster speak ill of Thurmond—essie Mae At its heart, the book is one man’s story than in any other region.” For the first Washington-Williams, the daughter he of the Battle of Ganjigal—a horrifying time since the days of the carpetbaggers, financially supported but never American loss in which a group of more people were moving into the South acknowledged—has also been the one American advisers walked into an ex - than out of it. The South’s main ad - most willing to forgive him. Chalk it up pected ambush and were ruthlessly cut vantage was that it refused to let free to family loyalty, Christian charity, or down, while soldiers far from the fighting enterprise be strangled by regulation, sheer classiness, there’s no doubt that dithered, equivocated, and imposed ab - taxation, or Big Labor. The Republican she has been kinder to him in her public surd rules of engagement to prevent their party was the natural home for anyone statements than he deserved. Thurmond pinned-down comrades from receiving who wanted this advantage preserved. was written off as out of date again and the help they needed, when they needed it. After his party conversion, Thurmond again in his Senate career. In a world In other words, the world’s most lethal embraced the cause of the “New Right” where essie Mae Washington-Williams military can always defeat itself. with gusto. His influence within the is a member of the United Daughters of By now, readers of books about party might have peaked in 1968, when the Con federacy, and a black man named America’s long wars in Iraq and Afghan - he was able to literally hand Richard Tim Scott defeated Thurmond’s son in a istan are familiar with stories of courage. Nixon a list of vice-presidential candi- Republican congressional primary, this dates from which to choose, but he con- country may finally have earned the right Mr. French is a senior counsel at the American Center tinued to operate behind the scenes long to call Thurmond and his brand of poli- for Law and Justice and a veteran of Operation Iraqi after this high point of power-brokering. tics well and truly obsolete. Freedom. 4 8 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 3 , 2 0 1 2 books-12.03:QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/13/2012 6:45 PM Page 49 Legions of books about special operators the best contemporary history of the their lives sometimes hundreds of kilome- and Marine and Army units engaged in American victory in the Surge in Iraq.) If ters away. thousands of small battles up and down anyone knows combat—and knows how These decisions are then mired in the Iraq and Afghanistan have somehow to write about combat—it’s Bing West. bureaucracy of the rules of engagement, made extraordinary courage seem ordi- He gives the reader the right amount of rules that in this case seem almost per- nary. In other words, we’re used to hear- detail without getting bogged down in fectly drafted to give the ambusher an ing that soldiers are brave, that they military jargon, and the conversational advantage. As a small team of Americans endure danger civilians can’t compre- prose and multiple maps give the reader fought and died against an enemy located hend, and that they live by a code of honor a relatively clear sense of a confusing not just in the high hills around them but that demands they lay down their lives battle. Most important, Meyer and West also in the house down the street, “the for their friends. communicate not just the intensity of directive from the high command was But Dakota Meyer’s story of courage Meyer’s efforts to save his team, but also clear: do not employ ‘air-to-ground or shocks even the most jaded and cynical the intensity of his feelings throughout the indirect fires against residential com- reader. The crisply written book wastes fight. Nothing—and no one (American or pounds defined as any structure or build- very little time on boot-camp stories or Taliban)—was going to keep him from ing known or likely to contain civilians, descriptions of prior engagements. It his team. unless the ground force commander has provides just enough information to set By the time the book reaches its tragic verified that no civilians are present.’” the stage: Meyer is part of a team of climax, the reality of his team’s fate has an Such a rule goes far beyond the require- advisers assisting and training Afghan impact like a punch in the gut. You feel ments of the Law of Armed Conflict, far infantry—one of the least glamorous their loss. beyond the rules in place in virtually any and most dangerous combat assign- And this brings us to the book’s utterly previous American war, and far beyond ments. He’s the only “grunt” (infantry- unflinching honesty. Meyer and West do the bounds of common sense. In fact, the man) on his small team and as such not hesitate to outline in excruciating rule directly incentivizes enemy use of assumes a role well beyond his rank of detail the incompetence and timidity that civilian structures and human shields. corporal. The team—wary of one anoth- cost American lives. There’s much talk And in this case, the rule had a deadly er at first—grows ever closer through stateside of the military’s amazing tech- impact. shared hardship. It’s a classic (and clas- nology—of the astonishing ability to Meyer and his embattled American sically true) soldier’s story. watch battles unfold in real time and bring comrades saw their requests for artillery But then it all goes awry. Through ordnance precisely on target to save support denied again and again, and F-15 haphazard planning and truly puzzling American lives, kill the enemy, and spare Eagles roared over the village in a com- passivity (this reviewer’s unit in Iraq civilians. But this technology has a dark pletely impotent show of “force,” unable would never have simply watched as side: The ability to see things in real time to drop their bombs. Meyer’s air support armed insurgents filtered into a village, can bring an odd sort of paralysis, as deci- through most of the fight was two much less sent under-gunned and out- sions once left to on-scene commanders Kiowas, small and light helicopters with a manned adviser teams into that same are pushed up to ever-higher headquar- fraction of the firepower of a true attack village without strong combined-arms ters, whose officers watch—sipping cof- helicopter. Their pilots did not lack for support), Meyer’s adviser team walked fee—while their fellow soldiers fight for courage (and in fact displayed near- straight into a Taliban ambush—with Meyer separated from his brothers, wait- ing some distance behind. The general contours of the resulting story are well known from the Medal of Honor ceremony and the accompany- ing news stories: Defying direct orders, Meyer—with the help of Army captain Will Swenson and a select few addi- tional Americans and Afghans—led a one- vehicle rescue mission into the village of Ganjigal, saving dozens of Af ghans and engaging in a shockingly intense and up-close battle with Taliban insurgents. At one point, Meyer kills a Taliban in hand-to-hand combat—with a rock. It’s the details, however, that stay with you. Meyer chose his co-author well. Bing West is himself a combat veteran, an accomplished and influential scholar of American military history and strategy, and a bestselling author in his own right. (His book The Strongest Tribe is perhaps Medal of Honor winner Dakota Meyer 4 9 books-12.03:QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/13/2012 6:45 PM Page 50 BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS recklessbravery),buttheysimplydidn’t yetheadywaytotakeinone’shistory havetheweaponstoturnthetide. lessonsonthesly. Perhaps most appalling of all, an Churchill’s That sense of impromptu prose Americanquick-reactionforce—anen- emergingfromafeistysavant,though, tireinfantryplatoon—appearedtoshrink Anglosphere wasacarefullymanicuredillusion.For fromthefight,seeking(andobtaining) Churchill’ssidelinewaspolitics,not permissionfromhigherheadquartersnot TRACY LEE SIMMONS writing;hisprofession,hischiefmeans tomoveintothevillagetoengagethe ofincome,hadbeenthatofjournalist enemyandrescueAmericansunderfire. andauthoreversincehistwenties. ItwasonlyafterwordofmissingAmer- BeforeWorldWarII,infact,that’show icans“reachedathree-stargeneralhun- mostAmericansknewhim,ifatall:as dredsofmilesaway”thatadeclarationof afamousauthorandlecturer.Ifthey DUSTWUN (duty status whereabouts read the international pages of the unknown)wasmade,adeclarationthat newspaper,theyalsoknewheservedas impliesthatAmericansmayhavebeen amemberofParliament,wassaddled capturedandmandatesanimmediateand with a spotty political record, and decisiveresponse.Therearefewmore poppeduponceinawhileinthecabi- attention-grabbing declarations in any net.Timehadnotyetunveiledthewar currenttheaterofwar.Atthatpoint,Spe- hero.ThisChurchillwrotebooksand cialOperationsCommandreacted. wrotethemexceedinglywell.When But it wasn’t Special Operations Kipling had written to Churchill in CommandthatrecoveredthelostAmer- Mr. Churchill’s Profession: The Statesman as Author 1934tocomplimenthimonthefirst icans.ItwasMeyer. and the Book That Defined the “Special Relationship,” volumeofhisfeverishlypackedhistory Thefinalbriefchaptersofthebook by Peter Clarke (Bloomsbury, of an ancestor, the Duke of Marl- detailMeyer’sattempttograpplewith 368 pp., $30) borough,hedidso“asfromcraftsman the loss of his fellow Marines, his tocraftsman,”fromonememberofthe brothers-in-arms.Hisfeelingsofgrief Ir WINSTON CHUrCHIll’S four- fraternitytoanother. anddespairarefamiliartoallwho’ve volumeHistory of the English- PeterClarkehasconfinedhisillumi- seenfriendszippedintobodybagsand Speaking Peoples maynotbe nating book simply to this man, to launchedontheir“heroflight”home.His S on many lists of must-read ChurchilltheWriter,aman“continually friendsdie,and—despiteallhishero- books anymore, but those of us who inthethroesofauthorship.”ButClarke’s ism—hefeelsresponsible.Ininterviews, spentrainyafternoonsandquieteve- aimisevenmoreprecise—totellthe Meyerfamouslysaidthathewasbeing ningsmakingourwaythroughthatfor- storyofhowChurchill’sHistory of the honoredforhisworstday,andherepeats midableworkwereledtoit,oftenas English-Speaking Peoples cametobe thatsentimentinthisbook.Hemadethat adolescents,entirelybytheauthor’s written and suggest what that book statement because he feels like he fameasoneofthesaviorsofthosevery revealsaboutitsauthoranditssubject failed,like he letdownhisteam.But peoplesduringthedarkerdaysofWorld alike,describingwhiledoingsohow DakotaMeyerdidn’tfail;manyothers WarII.Tous,hewasthebulldogwar- Churchilllivedandworkedduringthe failedhim. timeprimeministerwho,alongwithall stormy,interruptedyearsofitscompo- Whiletrueandfairaccountsofbattles his gritty rhetoric and never-say-die sition.Thisisn’tabiography,butitreads are notoriously difficult (the “fog of fortitude,alsohadanimpressivetalent likeone. war”sometimesnevertrulyclears),at forwriting.Afterwewadedthrough Churchilllikedtopainthistorywitha theendofthedayoneisremindedofan someofthebland,turgidhistorytext- widebrush,butthebrushhadtohave ancientlegalprinciple:Res ipsa loquitur, booksforcedonusatschool,reading finebristles.Notforhimthemerely “thethingspeaksforitself.”AnAmer- himfeltlikeatreat,likeauditingacourse inspiritingyarnswithgunsandglory; icanadviserteamanditsAfghanallies thegrandoldmanhadagreedtoteachoff hehadahistorian’sbent,andhewould walked into an ambush, and as the thetopofhishead.Hiswordsmarched besatisfiedinhisstudiesofeventsand world’smostlethalarsenalstoodlargely alongeasily,thestyleseemedconversa- characterswithnothingshortofamass idle,thatteam’srescuewaslefttoacor- tional,theasideswereinstructiveand ofdetailthatcouldtaxhismostdevoted poral,afewcourageouscomrades,anda oftenedifying.Churchillhadasenseof readers.Backin1906hehadpublished singleHumvee. thepageantryofhistory,populatedwith a biography of his politician father Inotherwords,Meyerwasthebestof thenobleaswellasthebase,andhe (whohadn’tthoughtmuchofhisson) Marines,Ganjigalwastheworstofbat- couldtellthestoryimposingly,pointing andthislaborofloyaltyhadtotake,in tles,itwasadayofcourage,itwasaday out the mountains rising above the properVictorianfashion,twovolumes. offoolishness,itwastheepochofhonor, foothills.Inall,thismadeforafriendly Bytheearly1930s,hewasbestknown anditwastheepochoftimidity.Andfor fortwoworks:The World Crisis,afive- thereader?Itistheseasonofgratitude, Mr. Simmons is the author of Climbing volumeaccountofWorldWarIreplete anditistheseasonofanger. Parnassus: A New Apologia for Greek and withthemap-weightedarcanaofstrate- DakotaMeyerearnedhisMedalofHon- Latin. He is working on a book about Thomas gies,campaigns,andcabledmessages or.Andit’sashamethathehadto. Jefferson. thatcouldtireamilitaryhistorian,and, 5 0 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 3 , 2 0 1 2 books-12.03:QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/13/2012 6:45 PM Page 51 in contrast, My Early Life, a brisk, Talk of assistants also reminds us that man with so many other irons in the digestible memoir that enjoyed sur - Churchill did not work alone, nor could fire. Pressure to complete the work prising sales. He would release his four- he have produced so much without ex - often generated bloated, undisciplined volume Marlborough: His Life and pert help. His aides made an impressive prose because, as Clarke puts it suc - Times to steady acclaim between 1933 roll of academic notables that included, cinctly, “there was simply no time to and 1938, but even while deeply en - over the years, Maurice Ashley, Keith make the History shorter.” And meshed in the first book of this project, Feiling, William Deakin, G. M. Young, Churchill had a few good-natured he had already taken on another one that J. H. Plumb, A. L. Rowse, and Denis jostles with his more scholarly advis- was just as ambitious. Bro gan. Clarke tells us how Churchill ers; “I parted rather ruefully with That other project, originally con- rashly took on the English-speaking- some of my tidbits, but I bow to tracted in 1932 to be a three-volume peoples project just as he was in the knowledge,” he wrote to one as he con- work of around 400,000 words, was to thick of the first volume of Marl - ceded a point of fact. Yet the writing be a survey not of all Western or “free” borough. His native optimism con- seemed to calm and steady the author. peoples, but of “English-speaking peo- vinced him that he could meet both “It has been a comfort to me in these ples”—a label that had existed for at contracts easily enough and, oddly, con- anxious days,” Churchill said in 1938, least a couple of generations and been currently, but he soon found otherwise, “to put a thousand years between my batted about liberally after the Great War and the dark clouds gathering over thoughts and the twentieth century.” to mark the affinities peculiar to the U.K. Europe in the 1930s did not make his We find the pages still stacking after and the U.S.—in other words, the basis literary work smoother. He gave priori- September 1939; he was determined to for the “special relationship” be tween ty to Marl borough, which each new finish, even after returning to the cabi- the two nations. So during his time in the volume made ever more successful, but net as First Lord of the Admiralty. political wilderness, seven years before his accepting a bulky advance from his But time and tide caught up with Germany invaded Poland and nine publishers for the other project focused Churchill and the project got shelved as years before America, too, took up arms, his resolve. When Marlborough was events carried him to May 1940, when Churchill had already set himself to finished in 1938, Churchill launched he became prime minister on the eve of telling our story as two peoples united zealously into the History without the Battle of Britain. Indeed the History by more than a common language. missing a beat. of the English-Speaking Peoples would Much of Clarke’s account involves There wasn’t much time left, but not be published until the mid and late descriptions of Churchill’s finances, a Churchill used what he had capitally. 1950s—well after he had published the fatiguing exercise in esoterica for any- After a thrusting start on volume one— last installment of his six-volume body not conversant with British tax and maybe seeing the tea leaves after memoir narrative, The Second World law and publishing practices of the Neville Chamberlain’s return from War, which incidentally earned him the day (and perhaps even for those who Munich—he picked up the pace. During Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953. The are). More invigorating is his portrayal most of 1938–39, as Europe moved History might never have seen day- of Churchill’s work habits, which were inexorably toward war, Churchill was light, but, perhaps knowing this to be both extravagantly admirable and— dashing down an average of 1,500 his last work, Churchill drove through for most of us—utterly unthinkable. words per day, a staggering clip for a to the end. Despite sporadic trips abroad for lec- The result is still in print. But is it turing or painting that might have still worth reading? Is it a mere curi - made his life look more leisurely than it osity, or does it retain a value beyond was, Churchill had to keep an unfor- WITH MY PARENTS AT its illustrious authorship? Every reader giving schedule when home at Chart- TWENTY-ONE makes a separate judgment, of course, well just to meet his minimum pledges and Clarke believes it is and does, but to produce. A typical day of this period for my money the writing alone pays would mean rising at 8 or so, break- They face the hotel ceiling sky its freight, for it was written at a time fasting in bed over news papers and Like restful fresh sarcophagi. when works of history were produced page proofs, then going off to London to to be read, and history stood as a fulfill his obligations as a member of His snores are gulls that dart and skim branch of literature, rather than a Parliament; home in the evenings, when Along her ear's marina rim. second-class province within social he and any guests would dine at 8 and studies, and thus was composed with linger long over brandy and cigars; after I used to have the pluck and size imagination and care. Few better exam- which he would retreat to his study To crawl between their lidded eyes. ples of History as Story could be found. with secretaries and any research assis- Yet it won respectful praise from the tants hanging about and manu facture To give me life, their young selves died. quarters of professional historians, one prose from around 11 or midnight until My young self stares with scared eyes wide. of whom summed up its delicate bal- 2 or 3 in the morning (he called Chart- ance between “the historian telling us well his “word factory”). Not the worst Rebellion calls, the zeitgeist frets— what happened and the moralist distill- way to work, though not, we’re But I will cling to all my debts. ing the lessons.” For some of us, the tempted to add, the best. Still, the work best history requires both, and here we got done and the pages accumulated. —BRYCE TAYLOR get it, still, and abundantly. 5 1 books-12.03:QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/13/2012 6:45 PM Page 52 BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS he belongs to the ages,” initiating near- heritage of his father, thomas Lincoln. ly a century and a half of the ongoing It seemed that God, if He existed, doled Tried in beatification of Father Abraham. out happiness and a soft life to some of Both sides tend to transform Lincoln His children and hopeless misery to The Fire from a man, with all the failings and others—and yet the words of the glory to which human flesh is heir, to Authorized Version held such beauty either a villain with no redeeming JAMES E. PERSON JR. and power and promise of something qualities or a latter-day demigod—but better. Here, to Lincoln, was mystery these clichés are of little help in under- wrapped up inextricably with tragedy. standing the inner man and his motiva- the frontier religion of Abraham’s tions. And thus the need for this book, youth was also a factor, with its which examines the spiritual Lincoln. mixture of high-octane revivalist fer- “Every American president employs vor and fleering hypocrisy: At camp the phrases of Christian piety; yet few meetings, some of the same people presidents have been conspicuously who shouted the loudest about Jesus in devout,” Russell Kirk observed almost one breath could in the next be found 60 years ago. “Lincoln began as a knife-fighting or fornicating in the naïve skeptic; he received next to no bushes nearby. Lincoln thought long religious instruction of any sort; soli- and hard on what he observed, and as a tary reading of the Bible gave majesty young man in New Salem, Ill., he to his mind and his style, but never became known as the village atheist, a brought to him any faith less cloudy skeptic who reveled in scandalizing Lincoln’s Battle with God: A President’s Struggle and austere than a solemn theism.” the pious through his growing verbal with Faith and What It Meant for America, Others have claimed that Lincoln was gifts mar ried to extensive reading in by Stephen Mansfield (Thomas Nelson, nothing more than a typical oppor- the rationalistic works of tom Paine 241 pp., $22.99) tunistic politician who used the lan- and the comte de Volney, author of the guage of faith to sway the more En lightenment work The Ruins of t is difficult, and in some gullible members of the public—akin Em pires. quarters thought to be al - to the smirking Bill Clinton’s conspic- But in time Lincoln’s reading came most tasteless, to talk sense uously carrying a large black Bible to to include the works of intelligent men ‘I about Lincoln,” ob served Sunday services during the Monica of faith, notably James D. Smith, commentator Alistair Cooke. “But we Lewinsky scandal. pastor of First Presbyterian Church in must try.” But Lincoln’s faith was more inter- Spring field and author of a formidable try though we might, few topics of esting than either of these claims work of Christian apologetics titled discussion bring men and women of would suggest, according to historian The Christian’s Defence. A married the Right to sword’s point faster than Stephen Mansfield, author of several man by now, Lincoln was much taken the significance of Abraham Lincoln in other re spected works on the religious with this work, and he spent a great American history. He has been decried views of notable persons: His faith deal of time attending services at First by some as the first significant cham- exceeded “a solemn theism.” Mans - Presbyterian and discussing issues of pion of creeping statism, the author of field understands from the outset of his faith with Smith. Over time, Lincoln confusion on matters related to Amer - book that he faces a tough challenge, became convinced that God exists, and ica’s founding, a law unto himself, a for, just as Lincoln’s historical signifi- that the central tenets of Christianity ruthless suppressor of dissent, an in - cance has been quarreled over, the might be true. citer of servile insurrection, and much question of whether he was a Christian Mansfield details how, during the else. “the monster Lincoln,” he is re - has been hotly debated since the day of years of Lincoln’s political life, this currently called on one website. his death. faith grew—not through having his In other quarters, he has been As Mansfield notes, there are legions of prayers answered in a direct manner, praised as perhaps the nation’s preem- historical commentators—many of them but through suffering. He steadily and inent president, the Great Eman - eyewitnesses to Lincoln’s life—who have convincingly builds the case that, by cipator, an inspiration to generations of had axes to grind. Mansfield delves into 1862, with the death of his beloved schoolchildren, a secular Christ figure, the numerous accounts of Lincoln, and eleven-year-old son, Willie, and with and a symbol of all that is great and focuses on his letters. He finds a huge the Civil War at a low point in terms of good about the American Republic. As clue in the story of Lincoln’s mother, Union successes in the East, Lincoln Lin coln breathed his last, Secretary of Nancy Hanks, who was dogged through- had reached a place at which his spiri- War Edwin Stanton murmured, “Now out her short life by the knowledge of her tual groping had entered the realm of illegitimacy and her unending struggle orthodoxy. Basing his view on Lin - Mr. Person is the author of Russell Kirk: A with deep inner sadness and depression. coln’s writings, and records of his con- Critical Biography of a Conservative Mind Nancy’s son inherited this troubled dis- versations by reliable witnesses, and Earl Hamner: From Walton’s Mountain position, mixed with the trait of pro- Mansfield concludes that Lincoln had to Tomorrow. nounced melancholy that ran in the come to believe 5 2 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 3 , 2 0 1 2 books-12.03:QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/13/2012 6:45 PM Page 53 in god as creator, as ruler of the The characters call themselves the Wol - world, Judge, comforter, the author of Film verines, taking the name from their high justice, the author also of much if not school’s football team—or, as one of the all of the Bible, and increasingly, as soviet officers puts it, “the local sports benevolent guide. he believed in the A Dawn of collective.” holy spirit and in Jesus christ as The movie begins with a series of teacher, savior of the world, and headlines that establish the geopolitical model for mankind. he believed in Awareness heaven, in the resurrection of the situation: The wheat harvest fails in the dead, and in what christians call JOHN J. MILLER soviet Union; Poland riots and Moscow eternal life. he believed in the value invades; cuba and Nicaragua build up of christian ministry, in the duty of high-school history teach er their armies; El salvador and honduras generosity, in fasting and prayer as a looks out the window of his fall; greens gain control of the West means of urging god to change human colorado classroom and sees german government; revolution comes to affairs, in repentance from sins, in A camou flaged paratroopers Mexico; NATo dissolves. And then: observing the sabbath, in reading drop onto an open field beneath a clear “United states stands Alone.” Writing in scripture, and in the religious training blue sky. “i would say they are way off The Nation, a left-wing magazine, An - of the young. And, yes, he also course,” stammers Mr. Teasdale, as stu- drew Kopkind summed it up this way: “in believed in the citizens of the United states being a “christian people,” in dents flock around him for a view. “Very other words, The Nation’s political pro- her military forces being “christian unusual.” he walks outside to investi- ject is being put into practice on a global soldiers and sailors,” in American gate. The soldiers scramble around, scale.” The movie’s stark prologue caters history as the carefully woven tapestry unloading weapons from canisters and to the worst fears of cold Warriors—and of a sovereign god, and in the nation shouting in a foreign language. “What’s however improbable the idea of a soviet possessing a divine destiny yet to going on here, my friend?” asks Teasdale. invasion of the United states in the 1980s, fulfill. A paratrooper raises his gun, opens fire, it sets up a gripping scenario for an action and kills the teacher in a hail of bullets. movie about ordinary people who battle “he had once been the village atheist Moments later, his comrades shoot up the commies on American soil. in New salem and springfield,” adds the school and fire rocket- propelled The driving force behind the film was Mansfield, “but he had grown beyond grenades down its hallways. John Milius, the director. Prior to Red those days and become the kind of man The soviet invasion of the United Dawn, he was best known as a screen- who could valiantly declare his second states has begun. writer for Apocalypse Now. Afterward, he inaugural Address—what must surely or at least it has in the 1984 film Red made more movies and created the televi- be the greatest American political Dawn, one of the most hotly debated sion series Rome, which appeared on sermon—to a wounded, angry, self- movies ever made. on November 21, a hBo. “i was the only person in holly - righteous nation. That he died a pro- rebooted version of Red Dawn will reach wood who would dare do this movie,” phetic figure, determined to show his theaters, but the new interpretation almost said Milius in an interview that appears on countrymen the difference between certainly won’t repeat the astonishing the collector’s Edition DVD of Red ‘the Almighty’s’ purposes and their success of the original. Among conserva- Dawn, released in 2007. “i knew that own, is perhaps all the statement of tives who grew up in the Reagan years, hollywood would condemn me for it.” lincoln’s religion we need.” Red Dawn is a cult classic, full of fighting he was right about that—and the news- if lincoln was indeed a believing spirit against the Evil Empire. its one- paper critics were quick to pounce on the christian, and the evidence seems to word catchphrase—“Wolverines!”—has film’s right-of-center sensibilities. “Better show he was, his was not the beaming, become an in-group allusion to a set of dead than Red Dawn,” sneered the everything’s-fine-with-Jesus-and-me enduring American principles: live free or Washington Post’s Rita Kempley, who brand of christianity popular in some die, don’t tread on me, and so on. Red called the film “sick and silly.” Janet segments of America today: it was a Dawn may not be a masterpiece of the Maslin of the New York Times labeled it spiritually ravaged, tried-in-the-fire cinematic arts, but as an iconic piece of “rabidly inflammatory,” “incorrigibly faith reminiscent of that of another son conservative pop culture, it has enjoyed gung-ho,” and “a virulently alarmist of the soil, Johnny cash. it was a faith an outsized influence on American life. fable.” Bob Thomas of the Associated won through struggle and longtime, Red Dawn was a summertime success, Press condemned its “bathos” as “unre- deep inner pain—in lincoln’s case, kicking Ghostbusters from the No. 1 spot lenting.” Perhaps these were the honest through the suffering and death of his at the box office and going on to gross assessments of dispassionate reviewers. children, his sorely trying marriage to more than $35 million. its youthful cast Even the most fervent fans of Red Dawn the shrewish and possibly bipolar seems familiar today, but back then its would hesitate to claim that it belongs Mary Todd, and the agony of Amer - members were virtual unknowns: Patrick on the American Film institute’s list of ica’s civil War, with its early years of swayze had top billing, joined by Jennifer greatest movies. Yet it was impossible not bloody military reverses for the grey, charlie sheen, and lea Thompson. to detect the media’s biases at work: The Northern forces. in the end, it seems They played teenagers who head to the makers of Red Dawn, complained Kevin lincoln found a faith of mercy and hills following the soviet attack, forming Thomas of the Los Angeles Times, “spent hope, more than capable of outlasting a resistance group that wages guerrilla too much time playing to the rabid anti- the darkness. warfare against communist aggressors. commies.” You know: The movie must 5 3 books-12.03:QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/13/2012 6:45 PM Page 54 The cast of Red Dawn (2012) be awful because those icky conserva- She leaves, and it blows up. Is she a free- The deposed Iraqi dictator was dis- tives approve of it. Even today, many lib- dom fighter or a terrorist? Red Dawn covered in a location known as “Wol - erals resort to knee-jerk denunciations: doesn’t say. verine Two” in a raid called “Operation “Its guiding ideology is actually fascism,” Red Dawn was the first movie to Red Dawn.” The code name was the wrote David Plotz of Slate in 2008. receive a rating of PG-13, that incre - brainchild of Army captain Geoffrey In reality, the ideology most clearly on mental step between PG and R. A month Mc Murray, then 29 years old. “I think all display in the movie is Communism, a after its release, the National Coalition on of us in the military have seen Red Dawn,” threat that many liberals refused to take Television Violence dubbed it the most he told USA Today. “Operation Red Dawn seriously when it mattered most. Much of violent movie ever made. The 2007 DVD was so fitting because it was a patriotic, the story occurs in the fictional town of includes a tongue-in-cheek “Carnage pro-American movie.” Milius applauded Calumet, Colo.—Red Dawn in fact was Counter” that tracks explosions (112) as the effort, telling the Los Angeles Times filmed in New Mexico—and the Soviets well as casualties among the Soviet forces that the soldiers who found Hussein “are crack down on residents who find them- (81), civilians (22), and Wolverines (7). Wolverines who have grown up and gone selves trapped behind enemy lines. The By 21st-century standards, the movie is to Iraq.” A handful of liberals uttered duti- invaders plaster buildings with colorful pretty tame: “It contains considerable vio- ful harrumphs, noting that in Iraq, Amer - posters of Lenin, show the Stalin-era film lence, most of it not very explicit,” wrote icans were the oppressing invaders and the Alexander Nevsky at the local movie Maslin of the Times in her 1984 review. Iraqi insurgents were the scrappy rebels. house, and herd potential troublemakers Today, it would hardly raise an eyebrow. They just refuse to let go—and they’re into concentration camps and before The violence of Red Dawn serves a already mobilizing against the new Red firing squads. Red Dawn rejects moral grander purpose than cheap thrills: It Dawn. In September, Joe Leydon of equivalency: The Soviets are the bad means to show that the Second Amend - Variety mocked “a premise arguably even guys, and the Americans who fight them ment is in the Constitution for a good rea- sillier than the original Red Dawn.” He are the heroes. son. Early in the film, the camera lingers may have a valid point. In the 2012 At least that’s the general rule. The on a Chevy truck’s bumper sticker: “They release, the Soviets are gone, tossed upon details can get complicated. Despite its can have my gun when they pry it from the ash heap of history. Their replace- moments of rah-rah patriotism, Red my cold dead fingers.” Then the image ments are the North Koreans, whose Dawn is also a study in brutality that tilts to the ground, where a Soviet pries a attempted conquest of the United States poses difficult questions rather than pistol from the cold, dead fingers of a requires not just an old-fashioned sus- pushes easy answers. At one point, the fallen American. It may feel like an ad for pension of disbelief but an indulgence of Wolverines unmask a traitor in their the National Rifle Association—recall the gobsmacking ignorance. midst, a boy who has secretly collabo - late Charlton Heston’s rallying cry at the Yet the first Red Dawn makes it easy rated with their foes. On a snowy moun- 2000 NRA convention, “From my cold, to root for the second one, and to hope taintop, Jed Eckert, the leader played by dead hands!” In this case, the slogan that the new version dusts off a few Swayze, struggles with whether to shoot works as an ironic epitaph. As the story of hoary chestnuts of the Reagan era for a the turncoat or show mercy. As he wavers, Red Dawn plays out, however, America’s rising generation of moviegoers: Free - one of his companions spontaneously gun culture allows the Wolverines to fight dom isn’t free, peace comes through chooses death. Is this a righteous execu- back. strength, and when the vast left-wing tion or a cold-blooded murder? In another Red Dawn also fights forward. In conspiracy ap pears ready to deliver its scene, a girl delivers a package to a 2003, the movie made the news when knockout blow, think of one word: MGM “Soviet-American Friendship Center.” U.S. forces captured Saddam Hussein. “Wolverines!” 5 4 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 3 , 2 0 1 2 books-12.03:QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/13/2012 6:45 PM Page 55 and sex to admire the stewardess he just allies try to keep his public halo untar- Film slept with, bicker with his ex-wife on the nished and intact. He cleans out his liquor phone, and then prepare for the morning’s cabinet and fills it up again, woos a flight—looming in just hours, we real- fellow addict and potential love interest Flesh and ize—by doing a pick-me-up snort of (Kelly Reilly) and then loses her with his cocaine from the table beside his bed. drunk’s cruelty, staggers into his ex- Blood Thus fortified, he cruises into the wife’s house and gets screamed at by his cockpit, downs a pair of airline vodka teenage son, makes promises to his union ROSS DOUTHAT bottles with orange juice, and horrifies representative (Bruce Greenwood) and his straight-arrow co-pilot by taking the his lawyer (Don Cheadle) and then fails ew Hollywood career turns have plane off autopilot to battle his way miserably to keep them . . . if you’ve seen been more disappointing than through an early patch of turbulence. an alcoholism-themed movie, then the Robert Zemeckis’s. The director That hurdle overcome, he proceeds to path of Flight will be familiar, and you’ll F who once gave the world Back doze off comfortably at 30,000 feet, see some of the bends and curves and to the Future has spent most of the last waking only when the plane, about to drop-offs coming far ahead. decade exploring the uncanny valley of begin its descent, is jolted by a mechan- But the script, from a screenwriter motion-capture animation, in pursuit of a ical failure and goes into a dive. named John Gatins who had his own cinematic mastery even more absolute Across the next few minutes, it romance with alcohol, makes the familiar than the world-building made possible by becomes clear that the hung-over and vivid again, breathing the necessary life normal special effects. His break- kite-high whitaker’s extraordinary pilot- into addiction’s ugly clichés. The reli- throughs, alas, have all been technologi- ing skills are the only thing between his gious element in the story is powerful cal rather than artistic: In the last decade, passengers and certain death. He exe- without being too obtrusive, the sound- he’s given us The Polar Express, Beowulf, cutes a landing that’s Sully Sullenberger track is a little on-the-nose (lots of classic and A Christmas Carol, reimagining all on steroids: an impossible descent that rock) but still effective, and the fine sup- three classic stories inside a computer, ends with the plane shearing off a church porting cast is highlighted by John and producing a trio of films populated by steeple, scattering white-robed wor- Goodman’s turn as whitaker’s jovial characters at once glossy, creepy, and shipers from around their baptismal pool, dealer, who gives his drug habit the emotionally inert. and then somehow landing intact in the enabler it deserves. Flight, his first movie in a dozen years deep green of a Georgia field. (we watch The movie’s success, though, is ulti- to feature flesh-and-blood per formances, it happen, and then we watch it again and mately all about washington, and the no doubt benefited from its director’s hard- again on the inevitable smartphone video ease with which he puts his movie star’s earned special-effects savvy. The central that becomes the defining recording of the bag of tricks—that magnetic physicality, sequence in the film is a plane crash, ver- crash.) By the time whitaker awakens in that wide smile and easy sex appeal, that tiginous and almost awe- inspiring, that the hospital, he’s achieved a rare combina- hint of threat beneath the charm—in ser- could not exist without digital wizardry: tion: a Sullenberger level of celebrity for vice of a character whose whole life is one It’s a virtual composition whose impact is the lives he’s saved, and a potential crim- long performance. He’s an actor playing an visceral, harrowing, and real. inal investigation for the chemicals that actor, in effect—essentially impersonating But Flight is also an extended rebuke to blood testers found swirling in his system. his own movie-star persona, and then grad- the idea that some Hollywood version of The rest of the movie can’t quite live ually exposing the ugly, wounded reality Deep Blue will someday make the reality- up to the standard set by this sequence. beneath his character’s drug-enabled take based work of human actors obsolete, or The plot runs down the well-worn on the Denzelesque alpha male. turn them into glorified puppets ready for grooves of the addict’s drama, with eventually, computer animation will directorial manipulation. That’s mostly whitaker executing an extended per sonal get the human surface right. But I don’t because the movie stars Denzel wash- and moral descent as his friends and think it will ever reach these depths. ington, a special effect unto himself, who swaggers and staggers through one of the great performances of his career. Indeed, there’s more life in one of his scenes in Flight—in one of his expressions, for that matter—than in all the motion-captured characters who glide through Zemeckis’s last three films put together. washington plays whip whitaker, a mid-career airline pilot with a broken marriage, a drug-and-alcohol problem, and enough charm and charisma to keep his friends and co-workers from acknowl- edging just how bad that problem really is. we first meet him in a dawn-washed PARAMOUNT PICTURES hotel room, waking from a night of booze Denzel Washington in Flight 5 5 backpage--READY:QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/14/2012 1:54 PM Page 56 Happy Warrior BY MARK STEYN Bond in Bankruptcy OR some reason, the quadrennial humiliation of To state the obvious: The whole Republican election cam- the Republican presidential candidate now paign—the primaries, the debates, the genius consultants, the coincides with the release of the new Bond billion dollars on robocalls and attack ads—was a complete F movie. Don’t ask me why; probably a constitu- waste of time. I doubt the final tally in the Electoral College tional amendment I missed along the way. Last time round, would have been any different had the entire GOP gone to Kevin Sessums interviewed Daniel Craig and, as a final the Bahamas for the last 18 months and sent a billion- dollar question, asked which presidential nominee would make the check to some favored Third World charity. And in the long better 007: run they might have done rather better had they used the dough to start a movie studio or buy a TV network. Craig doesn’t hesitate. “Obama would be the better Bond Republican “strategists” remind me of those scientists because—if he’s true to his word—he’d be willing to quite and detectives who stand around looking baffled in the literally look the enemy in the eye and go toe to toe with mysterious indentation of ground at the start of a Godzilla them. McCain, because of his long service and experience, would probably be a better M,” he adds, mentioning Bond’s movie. Then the camera pulls back and you realize the boss, played by Dame Judi Dench. “There is, come to think shallow trench is really a giant footprint. The GOP slogged of it, a kind of Judi Dench quality to McCain.” out the election in the little toe of politics unaware that they were about to be stomped by the Democrat monster of A few readers may recall my response in this very space the broader culture. For much of the electorate, politics is four years ago: now tribal. I don’t just mean the 93 percent of blacks and 71 percent of Hispanics who voted for Obama, but various Oh, great. John McCain has survived plane crashes, just like other demographic niches, from impoverished single Roger Moore in Octopussy. He has escaped death in ship- women to upscale gays. If you know whether someone’s board infernos, just like Sean Connery in Thunderball. He black or lesbian or a college professor, you can guess has endured torture day after day, month after month, with- how they vote and be right nine times out of ten. They are out end, just like Pierce Brosnan in the title sequence of Die Another Day. He has done everything 007 has done except beyond questions of economic or foreign policy: Their get lowered into a shark tank and (as far as we know) bed self-identification trumps politics. Sociocultural identi- Britt Ekland and Jill St. John. fiers count for more than the failure of the stimulus or a And yet Daniel Craig gives him the desk job. cover-up in Benghazi. Just as Obama fits Daniel Craig’s idea of an action hero, so he fits these voters’ idea of a McCain is what an action hero looks like—unkempt, president, and Mitt Romney doesn’t. scarred, maimed, unable (thanks to the Vietnamese) to raise Are you so sure it’ll go differently next time with Ryan or his hands above his head to brush his hair. But Obama is Rubio? Republicans have spent the last half-century surren- what an action hero looks like to a movie producer—cool, dering all the cultural space in which Americans actually fashionable, neither shaken nor stirred, a man who looks as live in the 729 days between elections. Yes, yes, I know; I if he’s never broken a sweat in his life. In Daniel Craig’s said exactly the same thing here four years ago: world, Obama’s glamour trumped McCain’s scar tissue—as it did for the electorate. If Hollywood’s liberal, if the newspapers are liberal, if the pop stars are liberal, if the grade schools are liberal, if the I thought it might go differently this time. In 2008, Craig very language is liberal to the point where all the nice words was promoting Quantum of Solace, which seemed about have been co-opted as a painless liberal sedative, a right: Yeah, it was a grim night for Republicans, but Bush Republican legislature isn’t going to be a shining city on a was unpopular and Americans were war-weary and the hill so much as one of those atolls in the Maldives being global economy had nosedived off the cliff. Four years on, incrementally swallowed by Al Gore’s rising sea levels. Craig’s back promoting Skyfall, and, alas, that seems about right, too. There’s no solace: The sky fell in. Mitt did bad, Which is why the 2010 GOP House made so little differ- and the Republican party did worse. And worse is to come, ence. “We have to get back in the game in all the arenas if the reactions of the “experts” are any indication: On the we’ve ceded to liberalism,” I wrote in 2008. “Otherwise, as one hand, the GOP needs to junk all that uptight social- in Daniel Craig’s improvised casting call, we’ll be lucky to conservative stuff. On the other, they need to reach out to wind up with a cameo in the national narrative.” demographically surging Hispanics because they’re natural Contemplating the enacting of Obamacare, the next two social conservatives. Whatever. Meanwhile, Barack Obama or three Supreme Court appointments, the “flexibility” gets another four years to “quite literally look the enemy pro mised to Putin re the post-American order, the re - in the eye and go toe to toe with them,” which is not how morseless expansion of debt and dependency, that’s kind surviving consulate staff in Benghazi would recall it. of the way it feels, doesn’t it? Like I said, get back in the game—or 2016 will just be the umpteenth GOP remake Mr. Steyn blogs at SteynOnline (www.steynonline.com). of Die Another Day. 5 6 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 3 , 2 0 1 2 base:milliken-mar 22.qxd 11/12/2012 12:11 PM Page 1 The Everyday Guide to Wine Taught by Jennifer Simonetti-Bryan, Master of Wine IM ED T E O IT FF E IM R L 1. Why Learn about Wine? 2. A Taster’s Tool Kit 70% 3. Winemaking— 1 From Vineyard to Harvest O off R Y 4. Winemaking— D R E A From Harvest to Bottle R RU BY FEB 5. The Whites— Riesling to Chardonnay 6. The Reds— Pinot Noir to Cabernet 7. Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines 8. Port, Sherry, and Other Fortifi ed Wines 9. What to Drink with Dessert 10. French Regions—Bordeaux and Loire 11. French Regions—Burgundy and Alsace 12. French Regions—Rhône, Languedoc, Provence 13. Wines of Northern Italy 14. Wines of Southern Italy 15. The Tastes of Germany and Austria 16. The Tastes of Spain and Portugal 17. U.S. Regions—California 18. 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