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June 25, 2012 $4.99 THE WAR ON SODA

KEVIN D. WILLIAMSON: THE PAIN IN SPAIN —Rob Long

His Diminished Chances His Radical Past RAMESH PONNURU STANLEY KURTZ His Convention Mistake His Constructed Self MICHAEL KNOX BERAN JOHN HOOD

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JUNE 25, 2012 | VOLUME LXIV, NO. 12 | www.nationalreview.com

ON THE COVER Page 16 John R. Bolton on Syria A Real Race p. 30 Democrats have been overconfident about President Obama’s chances BOOKS, ARTS this fall. Only slowly, if at all, is it & MANNERS dawning on them that Mitt 37 CAME THE HERO Romney poses a serious Michael Knox Beran reviews Barack Obama: The Story, challenge. Ramesh Ponnuru by David Maraniss.

COVER: AP 39 EXTREMELY NON-PARTISAN Joseph Postell reviews It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How ARTICLES the American Constitutional System Collided with the 16 A REAL RACE by Ramesh Ponnuru New Politics of Extremism, Why President Obama is in trouble. by Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein. 17 CONVENTIONAL UNWISDOM by John Hood North Carolina’s Democratic party descends into chaos. 42 MYTHS OF MOSSADEGH Amir Taheri reviews Patriot of 20 BLACK STUDIES 101 by Robert VerBruggen Persia: Muhammad Mossadegh A newcomer discovers what he’s been missing. and a Tragic Anglo-American Coup, by Christopher de Bellaigue. 22 WHEN THE GOOD COP WAS BAD by Marc A. Thiessen What Ali Soufan does not teach us about the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah. 44 DECLINE ALL AROUND Claire Berlinski reviews How THE STICKY SLOPE by Rob Long Civilizations Die (And Why 24 Islam Is Dying Too), Hands off my soda, Mayor Bloomberg. by David P. Goldman.

46 WRITTEN ON THE MIND FEATURES Ryan T. Anderson reviews Natural Law and the Antislavery 25 OBAMA ON THE FRINGE by Stanley Kurtz Constitutional Tradition, The president belonged to a social-democratic third party. by Justin Buckley Dyer.

27 FALLING BRICKS by Kevin D. Williamson The proverb that murdered the Spanish economy. SECTIONS

30 WHAT TO DO ABOUT SYRIA? by John R. Bolton 2 Letters to the Editor Thoughts toward a strategy. 4 The Week 35 Athwart ...... James Lileks ON DETERRING IRAN 32 by Robert G. Joseph & Keith B. Payne 36 The Long View ...... Rob Long Why it’s complicated, why it matters. 46 Poetry ...... Charles Baudelaire 48 Happy Warrior ...... Mark Steyn

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Don’t Forget Payroll Taxes JUNE 25 ISSUE; PRINTED JUNE 7 I was happily reading Arthur C. Brooks’s article in the May 28 edition, agreeing EDITOR all the way, until I hit the point at which he picks up what I will call the Rush Richard Lowry Limbaugh line of argument on federal taxes: “In America today, the top 5 per- Senior Editors Richard Brookhiser / Jay Nordlinger cent of earners pay 59 percent of federal income taxes while earning 35 percent Ramesh Ponnuru / David Pryce-Jones of the income.” Managing Editor Jason Lee Steorts Literary Editor Michael Potemra The math is, while technically correct, misleading. “Federal income taxes” do Executive Editor Christopher McEvoy Roving Correspondent Kevin D. Williamson not include payroll taxes, which, despite the recent cut in them, still accounted National Correspondent John J. Miller for 40 percent of all federal revenue in 2010—just shy of the 42 percent that Political Reporter Robert Costa Art Director Luba Kolomytseva federal income taxes produced. Further, an employee earning up to $110,100 per Deputy Managing Editors Nicholas Frankovich / Fred Schwarz year is paying payroll taxes on every dollar he earns, whereas deductions can be Robert VerBruggen taken against federal income taxes. And after $110,100, payroll taxes disappear Research Director Katherine Connell Executive Secretary Frances Bronson completely: A $220,200-per-year earner is paying payroll taxes on only half his Assistant to the Editor Madison V. Peace income. Contributing Editors Robert H. Bork / Shannen Coffin In addition, a $50,000-per-year worker is told that only half his payment for Ross Douthat / Roman Genn Jim Geraghty / Jonah Goldberg Social Security and Medicare counts. The other portion is called the employer’s Florence King / Lawrence Kudlow / Mark R. Levin share. I would submit that the $50,000 earner would be earning more if his Yuval Levin / Rob Long / Jim Manzi Andrew C. McCarthy / Kate O’Beirne employer didn’t have to pay these taxes, so the whole total should be counted David B. Rivkin Jr. / Reihan Salam toward his tax burden, but that wouldn’t serve the “half the nation is on welfare” NATIONALREVIEWONLINE Editor-at-Large Kathryn Jean Lopez argument that conservatives seem to like so much. Managing Editor Edward John Craig I have never in my life voted for a Democrat. I cannot vote for a party that National Affairs Columnist John Fund News Editor Daniel Foster supports abortion, and I am disinclined to back a party that wants wholesale Editorial Associates Charles C. W. Cooke / Katrina Trinko redistribution of wealth. But, sadly, I am becoming equally disinclined to side Technical Services Russell Jenkins with folks who make arguments like this one. Web Developer Wendy Weihs Web Production Assistant Anthony Boiano

EDITORS- AT- LARGE Joe Hainthaler Linda Bridges / John O’Sullivan Lancaster, Pa. Contributors Hadley Arkes / Baloo / James Bowman Eliot A. Cohen / Brian Crozier RThuR RookS RepLIeS Dinesh D’Souza / M. Stanton Evans A C. B : It is quite correct that low-income earners pay pay- Chester E. Finn Jr. / Neal B. Freeman roll taxes, and it is true that they pay a higher percentage than the rich do, given James Gardner / David Gelernter George Gilder / Jeffrey Hart that the system is capped and the tax is flat. The system was designed this way Kevin A. Hassett / Charles R. Kesler David Klinghoffer / Anthony Lejeune precisely because it was intended not as a pay-as-you-go arrangement, but rather D. Keith Mano / Michael Novak as a forced-savings plan. The fact is, however, that Social Security and Medicare Alan Reynolds / Tracy Lee Simmons Terry Teachout / Vin Weber have become middle-class welfare programs, entailing large transfers to the Chief Financial Officer James X. Kilbridge median, middle-class retiree, as my American enterprise Institute colleague Accounting Manager Galina Veygman Accountant Zofia Baraniak Andrew Biggs has argued. This is one of the forces driving America in the direc- Business Services tion of a european-style debt crisis. Alex Batey / Kate Murdock Elena Reut / Lucy Zepeda We should not compare payroll taxes with federal income taxes, which are Circulation Manager Jason Ng WORLD WIDE WEB www.nationalreview.com designed to pay not for private retirement, but for public goods. Today, accord- MAIN NUMBER 212-679-7330 ing to the heritage Foundation’s William Beach and patrick Tyrrell, 49.5 per- SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES 386-246-0118 WASHINGTON OFFICE 202-543-9226 cent of non-dependent Americans pay no federal income tax. It is dangerous when ADVERTISING SALES 212-679-7330 Executive Publisher Scott F. Budd half our citizens have effectively no “skin in the game” in paying for national Advertising Director Jim Fowler defense, for our nation’s infrastructure, or for programs for the truly needy. Two- Advertising Manager Kevin Longstreet ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Paul Olivett thirds believe everybody should pay something in federal income taxes, accord-

PUBLISHER ing to the Tax Foundation. There is a tipping point between being a society of Jack Fowler makers and being one of takers, beyond which, we rightly sense, our nation will CHAIRMANEMERITUS Thomas L. Rhodes no longer be the same.

FOUNDER William F. Buckley Jr. Letters may be sub mitted by e-mail to [email protected].

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n Why is Wisconsin like Eric Holder testifying before Congress? See page 10. They both said, “I don’t recall.”

n The May job numbers were even worse than April’s, and came with a downward revision of those (and March’s). The political implications were immediately obvious: The Obama administration cannot run on its record. The economic implica- tions are alarming, unless you believe that the worst has already happened in Europe or that the U.S. will be unaffected by it. Perhaps it is time to try lower tax rates, lower spending, less regulation, and a predictable monetary policy.

n Mitt Romney played to an empty house in California’s Bay Area—in front of one, actually: the headquarters of Solyndra, the solar-energy company that got half a billion dollars in fed- eral money, then went bankrupt. He hit it as an instance of waste, “the Taj Mahal of corporate headquarters.” He hit it as an instance of corruption, Obama having funneled “taxpayer money . . . to an enterprise that was owned in large measure by his campaign contributors.” But these were secondary defects, consequences of Solyndra’s fatal flaw, and Romney hit that head-on. “I’m afraid the reason . . . that the recovery has been so tepid is that the president fails to understand the basic nature of free enterprise in America. He thinks that government- dominated decisions like this make America stronger. They make us weaker.” Romney identified the guiding philosophy of Mitt Romney could buy and sell him. Could the Kennedys, in the Obama administration, from bailouts to stimulus to health their prime, have bought and sold Mitt Romney? Leave such care. And that guiding philosophy points toward a bankruptcy considerations to the gimlet eye of envy, and ask, rather, What more painful than Solyndra’s. can these men do for their country?

n “Obama longs for GOP rival like McCain,” read the headline n In the summertime when the weather is high / You can stretch over an Associated Press report. The president told a group of his right up and touch the sky . . .The weather wasn’t the only thing donors, “John McCain believed in climate change. John be - that was high at Punahou School in the Seventies, according to lieved in campaign-finance reform. He believed in immigration Barack Obama: The Story, by David Maraniss. Young Obama reform. I mean, there were some areas where you saw some hung with a set called the Choom Gang, “choom” meaning to overlap. In this election, the Republican party has moved in a smoke marijuana—and that they did, in cars with the windows fundamentally different direction.” Toward victory, let’s hope. rolled up (so as not to waste any smoke), and in the Choom Wagon, a VW bus. Writes Maraniss: “When a joint was mak - n Ann Davies was born into a wealthy family. She married Mitt ing the rounds, [Obama] often elbowed his way in, out of turn, Romney, who came from another wealthy family, and who shouted ‘Intercepted!’ and took an extra hit.” If you were there became wealthier still over the course of their life together. She it was funny, if you were high. We have no doubt that as Obama rides horses, especially in the sport known as dressage (which matured he put away childish things. But, in memory of those highlights precise, almost balletic movements, emphasizing the days, and to console poor David Axelrod, who has had a rough rider’s control). Expect to hear more about it as the campaign spring, cue that tinkly music one more time. Sing along with us, unfolds. The New York Times is on the story (“In Rarefied Sport, dee dee dee dee dee . . . a View of the Romneys’ World”—not yours, sucker). Amer icans have had conflicted feelings about presidential wealth since n According to Haaretz, the New York Times of Israel, George Washington. On the one hand, as John Adams wrote, President Obama told a group of American Jewish leaders some “there is nothing . . . to which mankind bow down with more interesting things. He “stressed he probably knows about reverence than to great fortune.” On the other hand, mankind Judaism more than any other president, because he read about (including Adams) resents great fortunes. Thanks to the royal- it.” He also said “he had so many Jewish friends in Chicago at

ROMAN GENN ties from his memoirs, Barack Obama is by now a millionaire. the beginning of his political career that he was accused of

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THE WEEK being a puppet of the Israel lobby.” He has also been accused n If sleaziness, dishonesty, and egomania were criminal of - of having a self-regard that knows no bounds. One of those fenses, John Edwards would deserve a life sentence. But they charges has proven more enduring than the other. are not. Neither is giving a lot of money to your mistress. Edwards walked in a trial that never should have happened. n Liberals—Senator Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.), assorted scrib- Prosecutors relied on a creative interpretation of campaign- blers—are trying to exert pressure on Chief Justice John finance law to argue that the woman with whom he had a Roberts in the Obamacare case, warning him that he will be daughter, the star-struck hanger-on Rielle Hunter, was a cam- seen as a partisan if the Court strikes down its individual man- paign expense, and therefore the Edwards donors who paid to date. He will, they say, be labeled a right-wing activist who is keep her happy had, in effect, made donations to his campaign threatening to undo the New Deal from the federal bench. He above the legal limit. But the money didn't go to his campaign will know better: The issue in Obamacare is unprecedented, the and wasn’t spent by his cam- federal government never having tried to make the purchase of paign. Edwards would have a product compulsory without specific constitutional warrant, had an incentive to keep and therefore the Court has no need to overturn any precedents Hun ter on board even if he to rule that the legislation exceeds the legitimate powers of hadn’t been running for pres- Congress. In any event, public confidence in the Court has ident—to avoid the obloquy survived previous fits of liberal rage at alleged conservative of public exposure. The jury activism, and seems likely to do so in a case where all polls sug- acquitted Edwards on one gest that the public wants the Court to side with conservatives. charge and deadlocked on We’re sure that the chief justice is touched by liberals’ new- the rest. “Not a criminal” is found concern for his reputation. We’re also pretty sure he will about the best thing anyone give their advice the brush-off it deserves. can say of John Edwards.

n Forty-three Catholic institutions filed twelve lawsuits against n Florida governor Rick Scott has launched an effort to identi- the Obama administration’s attempt to force them, and nearly all fy and remove ineligible voters from the state’s voter rolls. But other employers, to provide insurance that covers contraception, Janet Napolitano’s Homeland Security Department has refused surgical sterilization, and abortion drugs. The editors of the New to provide Florida access to federal databases that would aid its York Times describe the suits as a “dramatic stunt” and a “parti- efforts—ignoring nine months of petitions—and Eric Holder’s san play.” This is not, needless to say, the Times’s usual reaction Justice Department has ordered the initiative halted, contending when groups that believe their rights have been violated seek that it violates federal law, which prohibits voter-roll mainte- a judicial determination of the question. Evidently we are to nance within 90 days of an election (Florida’s primary is August believe that the administrators of the University of Notre Dame, 14), and discriminates against Hispanic voters. The Florida one of the plaintiffs, went from giving President Obama an hon- department of state’s initial search, conducted in 2011, indi - orary degree and a chance to address its students at commence- cated that more than 180,000 registered voters may not be U.S. ment to being a willing cog in Karl Rove’s machine. In the real citizens. Since April, Florida officials have flagged 2,700 vot- world, there is a law called the Religious Freedom Restoration ers for removal. In addition to accusations of racism (58 percent Act, and it requires the federal government, when it infringes on of the flagged voters are Hispanic), state Democrats have toted religious conscience, to act in the “least restrictive” manner out bathetic examples of “flaws” in the program, including needed to pursue a “compelling interest.” Forcing employers to the flagging of a 91-year-old World War II veteran. But those violate their consciences in order to effect a marginal increase in who receive letters need only supply valid proof of citizenship access to contraception cannot meet any fair reading of that test. within 30 days—which several hundred people, including the Expect more hyperventilation from the Times as courts, and veteran, have done. Some Floridians have even admitted to voters, reject the administration’s diktat. being ineligible or have requested removal from the rolls. So the program is working, though perhaps not to the advantage n A federal court struck down a portion of the Defense of of the administration. Marriage Act, in part by invoking an opportunistic and inco- herent theory of federalism increasingly favored by proponents n When Gallup began asking Americans in 1995 whether they of same-sex marriage. The act defines marriage, for purposes of identified as “pro-life” or “pro-choice,” respondents called federal law, as the union of a man and a woman. A state may themselves “pro-choice” by a margin of 56 percent to 33 per- choose to recognize other types of union as marriages in its own cent. Since then, despite handwringing from some quarters over law. But a state may not force taxpayers everywhere else to the futility of the “culture wars,” the country has been moving give the parties to same-sex unions the Social Security benefits in a decidedly pro-life direction. According to the latest results federal law reserves to spouses. The court claims that the act released in late May, only 41 percent of Americans now identi- “intrudes extensively” into a state domain. But all the federal fy as “pro-choice”—a record low—while 50 percent call them- government is doing is defining the terms of its own laws. The selves “pro-life.” Just 25 percent believe that abortion should be absurd result of the court’s argument would be that the Con - “legal under any circumstances,” which is the position held by AP / stitution grants states a right to determine the flow of federal President Obama and the Nancy Pelosi wing of the Democratic benefits to their citizens. Nobody can seriously believe that, and party. Obama might want to keep this number in mind the next JUNKINS C nobody will once this claim has finished being useful to the time he’s tempted to decry legislative attempts to restrict abor-

JERRY M cause of redefining marriage. tion as “extremism.”

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THE WEEK n The House voted on a bill to prohibit abortionists from know- n The Commerce Department is considering a petition to ingly performing abortions to select for sex. The vast majority name Arab Americans a “minority group that is socially or of Republicans voted for the bill, while the vast majority of economically disadvantaged” and thus eligible for special as- Democrats voted against it. The White House weighed in with sist ance from the Minority Business Development Agency. Obama’s disapproval, on the specious ground that abortionists The petition is the handiwork of the American-Arab Anti- (“doctors,” to use the White House term) would be subject to Discrimination Committee, which has previously supported prosecution for not determining the motive behind an abortion. such causes as the Palestinian “right of return,” the divestment Even if successful, the bill would save few unborn children, but movement against Israel, a boycott against Lowe’s for cancel- the administration’s open opposition to it is nonetheless clari- ing an ad on the show All-American Muslim, and censorship fying—as, in a different way, is its dissembling about its of the film Aladdin. The preferential treatment it seeks is motives. unjustified: Arab Americans are quite successful in small New Class Dismissed

ISCONSINITES have gone to the polls and decided policies of social democracy and technocracy, policies W the political fate of Governor Scott Walker and that would further empower the new class and enfeeble perhaps, one could say with only modest exag- capitalism. Like a parasitic infection that wears down the geration, the fate of the country as well. Walker’s retention host over time, the new class would ensure the demise of means that his reforms will be kept on the books, which in capitalism and the birth of corporatism (not socialism, as turn means that the stranglehold of public-sector unions Marx had predicted). will be broken. No one knows all of the national repercus- Anyone looking at what has happened to Europe and sions that will flow from Walker’s win, but few doubt that the United States over the last few decades can acknowl- they will be profound. edge that Schumpeter was at least on to something. In all of the punditry about the aftermath of the Wis - Just look at the role public-sector unions are playing in con sin recall, it’s unlikely you’ll hear much about Joseph California. A diverse coalition of new-class activists has Schumpeter. So let me remedy that driven that state to the brink of obli - here. vion. Or look at the relationship be - Schumpeter is most famous for tween Obama and Wall Street, GE, the updating and popularizing the con- insurance companies, and the auto cept of “creative destruction” found in industry. Marx’s writing. The basic idea of this What Schumpeter didn’t fully ap pre - version of creative destruction, also ci ate was the capacity for democratic known as Schumpeter’s Gale, is that societies to self-correct. In Wisconsin, capitalism is constantly breaking down the first state to legalize public-sector inefficient means of production and unions and the intellectual birthplace creating new and better ones. Cre - of the corporatist-progressive project, ative destruction describes how can- the election results dealt the new Joseph Schumpeter dlemakers got replaced by light-bulb class a terrible blow manufacturers. Creative destruction is why there’s so That’s the great flaw in Schumpeter’s theory. While the much churn in the list of the top 50 companies. Firms new class may be perfectly happy to feed parasitically off grow big, are challenged by more innovative and nimble the host until it dies, the host has a say in things, too. The firms, and eventually die (or adapt). Schumpeter (and tea parties represent an antibody counterstrike to the Marx) recognized that creative destruction generated new-class infection. Of course, there’s no guarantee that enormous amounts of productivity and wealth. this immune response will succeed. One doesn’t get the So far, so good. But Schumpeter also had a gloomy sense that the Europeans have as strong an immune sys- side. He predicted that capitalism was doomed in the tem (which points to the huge importance of culture). long run because the very wealth it created would pro- Democracy has merely a capacity for self-correction. It duce a new class of workers who would undermine it also has a capacity to fail. from within. This new class of managers, lawyers, social Still, the self-correcting is blowing strong in the Badger workers, and intellectuals, despite benefiting enormous- State, and that is cause for hope. ly from the prosperity capitalism makes possible, would personify values hostile to capitalism. It would advocate —JONAH GOLDBERG

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THE WEEK business, and their incomes are, on average, 10 to 20 percent effectively (citizens with sweet teeth can buy multiple small higher than the national median. According to data from the drinks or doughnuts). The zeal of the busybody can be its own Arab American Institute, 45 percent have a bachelor’s degree form of gluttony. or higher, compared with 28 percent of Americans at large. Unless not being designated as a “disadvantaged group” con- n In January 2010, stitutes a disadvantage in modern America, Arab Americans after the Fort Hood do not count as one. murders and the too- close-for-comfort failure n Ted Cruz, the conservative running for the U.S. Senate in of the Underwear Bomber, Texas, has just finished second in a nine-way primary. the Obama administration inaugurat- Finishing first was the lieutenant governor, David Dewhurst, ed a new procedure—drone strikes on al-Qaeda terrorists, with 45 percent of the vote. Cruz received 34 percent. Because approved by the president after he consults a “kill list” of the top man received less than 50 percent, the two leading can- potential targets. Drones have picked off terrorists (including didates will compete in a run-off election, to be held on July al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen) in 31. Dewhurst is running a campaign devoid of ideas, but he is Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia. Obama approves each strike the front-runner and is rich enough to finance his own ads. because “he’s determined to keep the tether pretty short,” as Cruz has the time and talent to catch him. If Texas Republicans Thomas Donilon, his national-security adviser, put it. Good choose Cruz, they will be promoting an advocate of conserva- for him. After years of banging on the Bush administration for tive principles who could help their cause for many years to its cowboy policies, Obama has retained and expanded a vital come. tactic in a dark conflict. Is he micromanaging? Do drone strikes create enemies on the ground? Time will tell. But the commander-in-chief does not always have time to wait. n Democrats have been crossing over to the Republican President Obama has shouldered the responsibilities that party for many years; traffic goes the other way less often. Candidate Obama and his party could not, or would not, But Artur Davis is a particularly nice catch for the Re - understand. publicans. Like Barack Obama, he is black, savvy, and a graduate of Harvard Law. (He is also a graduate of Harvard n Things sure are different when they’re trying to get their College.) He represented Alabama in the U.S. House for guy reelected. Remember the media outrage over Scooter four terms. He was the first congressman outside Illinois, Libby’s leaking of information from a National Intelligence Obama’s home state, to endorse Obama for president. Davis estimate to journalist Judith Miller—which was not a leak of lost in a gubernatorial primary two years ago. Is there op - classified material, since President Bush authorized its dis- portunism in his party switch? If so, that would be typical. closure? Libby turns out to be a piker compared with the But there also is principle: Davis has become increasingly Obama administration, which has thrown the NSA vault open disenchanted with the Democrats and their non-solutions for the New York Times. Times reporter David Sanger has thus to serious problems. There is bravery, too: obligingly written a book on the boss’s brilliant, daring cyber Black Democrats, and white ones, war against the Iranians. (we refer to the Obama administra- can be very unkind to black Repub- tion’s boss, not Sanger’s—although any confusion is under- licans. Probably the most famous standable.) The Gray Lady published a mammoth account Democrat-turned-Republican was of Obama’s authorization of the “Stuxnet” computer “worm,” a charter subscriber to NATIONAL which may have set the Iranian nuclear program back by RevIew and the 40th president of more than a year. The most interesting aspect of the account the United States. Davis, who has is that the cyber strike is yet another Bush national-security written for NATIONAL RevIew program that Obama maintained (even as he publicly criti- ONLINe, may not go that far. But cized Bush’s handling of Iran). Bush officials never leaked it. he has much to say and offer, and That was left to Obama, whose minions have compromised we look forward to this new chapter operational details. we wish we could be sure that the admin- in his career. istration has given as much thought to its Iran strategy as to its campaign strategy.

n Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s latest initiative is to ban big n After egypt’s parliamentary elections gave the Muslim sugary drinks, because he thinks New Yorkers are too big. Brothers and other Islamic extremists a majority, moderates “Obesity is a nationwide problem,” said the mayor, “and all hoped a presidential election would provide some checks and over the United States, public-health officials are wringing their balances, however imperfect. when the votes were counted, hands, saying, ‘Oh, this is terrible.’ New York City is not about though, Mohammed Morsi, the Brothers’ candidate, and wringing your hands; it’s about doing something.” Under fed- Ah med Shafiq, a former prime minister and general from eralism, states and localities have latitude to do something Hosni Mubarak’s inner circle, had about a quarter of the vote about all manner of behavior (there are still dry counties here apiece. Next week’s run-off between them will decide what AP : and there). But what regulations are sensible—especially in a kind of country egypt is going to be. For 30 years, Mubarak city-state like New York? As he so often does, Bloomberg seeks was an arbitrary ruler imposing a stultifying hand on his peo-

ARTUR DAVIS to impose his personal notion of the good life, this time not even ple, but his politics were at least stable and predictable. The

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THE WEEK revolution his misrule did so much to foster has wrecked the euro zone and a return to the drachma. If the election were economy, blighted tourism, and led to such widespread crime being held in Germany, the Greek exit would stand an excel- that the police no longer try to contain it. Now there are lent chance of winning: Half of Germans want Greece gone. frightening uncertainties of the kind that carry seeds of vio- Since the first, inconclusive election on May 6, Greece’s lence: The military can call out the tanks; the Muslim stock market has declined by 27 percent, its banks have suf- Brothers can call out the street. The Brothers also dominate a fered credit downgrades, and speculation has increased that it parliamentary committee set up to draft the a constitution. will leave the euro—voluntarily or otherwise. But there is no The strange situation arises that Egypt is almost sure to easy way out: With its government finances in disarray and choose a president before his powers have been defined. its banking system on the verge of collapse, Greece is in no Conditions look ripe for an imminent test of strength, and the position to start from scratch with a new currency. At the electoral process offers flimsy protection. same time, export-driven Germany is in no position to weath- er the economic disintegration of southern Europe and the n In Abbottabad, the town where Osama bin Laden hid out, bankruptcy of its trading partners there. A northern bailout of one of bin Laden’s neighbors was Shakil Afridi. A doctor Europe’s south would probably entail the loss of the last ves- with a surgical practice, Afridi ran a vaccination program that tiges of national sovereignty in Greece, Spain, Portugal, and he used as a cover to establish the identity of bin Laden and possibly Italy—an outcome not entirely abhorrent to the pow- his family by means of swabs and DNA. Three weeks after ers that be in Brussels. Come what may, the Greek tragedy has Navy SEALs had shot bin Laden dead, Afridi was arrested by shown the dream of a semi-federal Europe to be a folly, and Pakistani intelligence. Officials at all levels felt humiliated an expensive one. by the discovery that bin Laden had found shelter in Ab bot t - abad, almost certainly with some connivance. Their intention n Queen Elizabeth has spent 60 years on the throne, and the could only have been to punish Afridi for presumed connec- British partied for four days to celebrate it. Who says they’re tions to the CIA. After a year’s delay, Afridi was brought to reserved? The country treated this Diamond Jubilee as a car- trial before a four-man council of tribal elders who could nival of patriotism. Thousands of street parties were held. obviously be relied on to pass whatever judgment the Pak i - There were balloons, fireworks, bell-ringing, and beacons set Britain may have changed almost beyond recognition during the Queen’s reign, but the Diamond Jubilee seems to show that the British remain the people they always were.

stani authorities wanted. Afridi was thought to be facing on fire throughout England and the 16 other countries of charges of treason, but instead he was accused of links to an which the Queen is head of state. Picked at random out of an Islamist warlord. For this fiction, he was sentenced to 33 immense and enthusiastic crowd for an interview on televi- years in prison. Rumors about his supposed bad character sion, an unidentified woman with a Union Jack in her hand then blackened him. The outraged U.S. Senate has voted to said, “This is who we are, this is what we do”; she spoke for cut the symbolic sum of $33 million from aid to Pakistan. millions. History was acknowledged by a flotilla of a thou- Defense Secretary Leon Panetta points out that Afridi was sand small boats on the Thames, led by the Queen, a person working against al-Qaeda, not Pakistan. The one very clear and a figurehead all in one, as she stood in the prow of an aspect of this murky case is that a monstrous injustice has ornate and stately barge. Then, in acknowledgement of the been done—is being done—to Afridi. present, with the entire royal family in attendance and Buck - ingham Palace as a backdrop, pop stars and other celebrities n In late May, a video surfaced on YouTube showing a Saudi staged a huge concert. Addressing his mother at the end of Arabian woman refusing to leave a mall in Riyadh. “I’m stay- it, Prince Charles thanked her “for making us proud to be ing and I want to know what you’re going to do about it,” she British.” Britain may have changed almost beyond recog- told an officer who had instructed her to go home. Her crime? nition during the Queen’s reign, but the Diamond Jubilee Wearing nail polish. Although its grip has been slightly light- seems to show that the British remain the people they always ened in recent months, the law in Saudi Arabia still com- were. mands women to cover themselves with a full abaya and hide their hair when in public. This woman was having none of it: n Awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom to the late “It’s none of your business if I wear nail polish,” she shout- Jan Karski, a hero of the Polish resistance in World War II ed, adding, “You are not in charge of me.” Unfortunately, the who later became a professor at Georgetown, was meant to authorities in Riyadh are still very much in charge of her. honor a great man, show respect for a NATO ally, and woo Polish-American voters in Pennsylvania and Ohio. It all blew n Greece will hold a second round of national elections in up when President Obama referred, in his remarks, to Kar - late June, in essence a referendum on whether to remain in ski’s having been smuggled into a “Polish death camp.” The the European Monetary Union or attempt an exit from the death camps in Poland were built and run by Nazis; Polish

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Catholics joined Polish Jews among their victims. This was n The unveiling of Green Lan - no impromptu blunder: Obama was reading off a teleprompt - tern, a comic-book superhero, er, so numerous sets of eyes had seen his words. After mat- as gay is less path-breaking than ters were made worse by a mere expression of regret from a it seems. There are about half a White House spokesman, Obama himself wrote a letter to the dozen different Green Lanterns, Polish government. it’s either the jitters of an administration each with his own name and that fears its time is short, or the tone-deafness of one that is separate universe (though they little interested in European affairs. Take your pick, and may occasionally get together in the we soon be spared the choice. fourth dimension). Each Green Lantern wears a magic ring n Why do women’s haircuts cost more than men’s? Well, that is the source of his power. women’s hair tends to be longer, and is more likely to have So let’s see: He wears a form- been dyed, making it fragile; also, women actually care how fitting suit with tights and fancy it looks, and they know what things like conditioner are for. boots, plus a cape, and a fabu- That’s why, according to one stylist, it takes twice as long to lous piece of jewelry is the cen- cut a woman’s hair as a man’s. These simple truths are lost on terpiece of his outfit . . . you New York City’s gender police, who recently fined 200-odd know, in retrospect, all the signs barbershops and salons for charging women more than men. were there. Such raids have been occurring sporadically since the mid- 1990s, yet the pricing differential stubbornly persists. if n Which is more improbable, a no-hitter or a team that has forced to charge men and women the same, most shops would played 8,019 games without ever pitching one? We’ll leave it have to boost the men’s price—which is why the law is en - to the statisticians at Baseball Prospectus to answer that. forced only now and then, when the relevant bureaucrats are Suffice it to say that under a waxing gibbous moon at Citi feeling neglected. So barbershops and salons will continue to Field in Flushing, Queens, on the first day of June, the two charge sensible prices, and to pay the occasional fine for vio- improbabilities coincided as Johan Santana threw nine hitless lating liberal pieties. innings, the first time in the half century of New York Mets baseball that the Amazins found themselves on the winning n An anthology of fiction and other writing by Middle side of such a feat. True, the 33-year-old southpaw had help, Eastern women was to be published by the University of most notably from batterymate Josh Thole, who called a good Texas. Of the 29 authors who signed on, 13 refused to partic- game, and from third-base umpire Adrian Johnson, who ipate when they learned that two of the contributors were called a fair ball foul. Outfielder Mike Baxter kept a monster israeli. Kamran Scot Aghaie, the director of the Center for fly to left from dropping in. Meet the Mets, whose streak of Middle Eastern Studies at UT, was now faced with a choice: no no-hitters, which began during the Kennedy administra- Drop the two, or lose the 13 and with them the whole project. tion, is finally broken. New York 8, St. Louis 0. Ya gotta He refused to drop the two, and the book has been canceled. believe. “As an academic institution, we cannot censor people for the country they are from,” he said. “To do so is simply discrim- n The Nicaraguan contras, much lauded in the 1980s by this ination, and it’s wrong.” For those who worry that tolerance magazine and American conservatives for their struggle is honored at our universities more in the breach than the against Marxists, were habitually derided by the Left as fas- observance, this is good news. cists and authoritarians. Adolfo Calero Portocarrero’s example belied such slander. He was the epitome of the men President n An Atlantic blogger points to poll results showing that the Reagan called “the moral equal of our Founding Fathers”—a average adult thinks 25 percent of America’s population is graduate of Notre Dame and Syracuse; a Coca-Cola executive gay. This is a considerable overestimate, perhaps by an order who stood up to the Somoza dictatorship; then a contra mili- of magnitude; while definitions can be a bit fuzzy, most tary leader; then a politician and lawyer in a more democratic informed estimates of the gay population are somewhere in Nicaragua. Calero was one of the few contras well-known in the low single digits. What accounts for the discrepancy? the U.S., making him a favorite target for Lenin-loving liber- After all, the poll was not taken in San Francisco, or at a Judy als. At a speech Calero gave about Sandinista censorship at Garland retrospective, or among frustrated internet daters, Northwestern, a professor charged on stage to assert that “fas- but of a random sample of American adults. Some attribute it cists have no right to speak.” NATiONAL REviEW noted that to television and movies; between gay characters in series these incidents evinced the “zeitgeist” of a time when men like and films and gay issues in the news, gay people do seem to Calero were castigated by much of this country because they be everywhere (especially if you believe the Hollywood con- fought and died for others’ freedoms. But Calero was a true vention that every opponent of the gay agenda is secretly gay democrat, and a hero. R.i.P. himself). Yet there may be a simpler explanation. The Atlantic blogger and others have noted that Americans tend to n Paul Fussell was a distinguished historian, best known for overestimate the size of just about every minority population his National Book Award–winning 1975 work The Great group—blacks, Hispanics, foreign-born, illegal aliens, and so War and Modern Memory. He was renowned as a literary forth. Perhaps what the poll results show is that we just aren’t critic, and was elected, in 1977, a fellow of Britain’s Royal very good at math. Society of Lit er a ture. But he was also one of the most

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THE WEEK insightful—and caustic—critics of American culture. His ing seven-figure donations from AFSCME and the AFL-CIO, portrayal of the different strata of American society in his six-figure donations from the NEA and the AFT, and a mere 1983 book Class: A Guide Through the American Status $720 from its three (that’s three) individual donors. The Left System was wince-inducingly accurate, but rather unsparing; will complain that Walker outspent Barrett handily, but this is his 1991 book BAD: The Dumbing of America was less pen- no sin, considering Walker also handily outraised Barrett in etrating, but more passionately argued. He had evidently individual donations, about three-quarters of which were of come to relish the role of national curmudgeon. Dead at 88. less than $50. It was Walker’s strength, after all, that con- R.I.P. vinced national Dem o crats to stop spending on a race they didn’t think they could win. Scott Walker saved his job by, above all, being the adult in POLITICS the room. While Democrats in Washington seem to be rely- Walker, Unbowed ing on their belief that the U.S. government is “too big to fail” to justify a program of taxing and spending our way out of HE year-long saga of the Wisconsin recall is, at long debt, the states have no such luxury. And so, across the coun- last, over, and Scott Walker is still standing. The low- try, in states red, blue, and purple, they have turned to men T key Republican governor has withstood a sustained such as Scott Walker—and Chris Christie, and Mitch Daniels, (and expensive) onslaught from the forces of Big Labor and and others—to close structural deficits, stabilize out-of- its allies on the left, an onslaught that featured everything control spending, and break the death embrace between from the coordinated cross-border retreat of intransigent Big Labor and Big Gov ern ment. In taking this toxic part - Democratic lawmakers, to the occupation of the statehouse nership on, in a state with a rich progressive history, no less, by a band of radicals, bongo drummers, and high-school tru- Walker became its biggest target. His enemies spent a year ants, to ill-fated attempts to nullify Republican legislative and $100 million, give or take, preparing to take their best majorities and pick off uncooperative judges. Walker’s ene- shot at him. Then they missed. They missed because voters mies did everything but release the kraken. are starting to understand that governing through crisis Yet he won. Throughout, Walker has stayed even-keeled, requires someone willing to make unpopular choices, stand evincing, if not exactly cockiness, then something like the up to entrenched interests, and hold the line against loud and fatalism and serenity of an innocent man in the middle of a determined opposition. trial for his life. An equanimity, and a faith that his reforms Quite simply, Wisconsin voters realized that if they no would be embraced by Wisconsin voters, that turns out to longer had Scott Walker, they would have to invent him. have been fully warranted. Walker won because his reform program is popular, and because it is working. The governor’s approval numbers in Wisconsin hover around 50 percent—not bad for a man onto whom most Wisconsinites have at least once in the last year seen a Hitler mustache and Nazi regalia photoshopped. But more telling is the popularity of Walker’s reforms. According to one recent Reason-Rupe poll, 72 percent of Wisconsinites favor the requirement that public-sector workers increase their pension contributions to 6 percent of their salaries. And 71 percent favor making government employees pay 12 percent instead of 6 percent of their health-care premiums. Such commonsense measures, which put public-sector employees on a more even footing with the taxpayers who pay their salaries, have already led to over $1 billion in savings across the state, sparing public-sector workers from layoffs in the bargain. The reforms’ success has also neutralized them as campaign issues for Walker’s opponents, who were forced to turn away from the very raison d’être of the recall and empha- size instead a grab bag of non-issues (Walker’s record on women’s rights) and non-controversies (vague and discredit- ed whispers about a pending Walker indictment and a secret college love child) in the final weeks of the race. Walker won because he represented the taxpayer, while his opponent represented the groups whose livelihoods depend on bilking the taxpayer. Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett NEWSCOM / served less as an alternative than as a vessel for Big Labor’s ZUMA / unmoored wrath. He raised a mere $4 million on his own, while outside PACs did the heavy lifting—We Are Wisconsin

BRIAN CAHN raised more than $5.5 million in the last month alone, includ- Victory night in Wisconsin

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ry campaign made them look more fatal than they are. The timing of the elections worked against him. Jay Cost, a writer for The Weekly Standard, points out that win- ning the Florida primary in 2008 gave John McCain the momentum to do well on Super Tuesday. This time around, Romney won Florida, his poll numbers improved, and then . . . and then the next actual primary was held four weeks later, and Super Tuesday a week after that. Momentum dissipated. Some of Romney’s vulnerabilities in the primary won’t matter much in the general election. His primary opponents had an incentive to use his record of flip- flops to portray him as unconservative and untrustworthy, but Obama can’t simultaneously portray him as a right- wing extremist and a flip-flopper. All signs point to his deploying the right- wing-extremist attack, since it’s scarier. The country is closely divided. After the 2006 and 2008 elections, some ana- lysts decided that the country now had a natural Democratic majority. In retro- A Real Race spect—and again, this should have been obvious at the time—those seem like Why President Obama is in trouble abnormally Democratic years (as 2010 seems like an abnormally Republican BY RAMESH PONNURU one). Even if 2008 had been a happy year for our nation, Republicans would have had E’vE gotta wake up,” long slog. (Except for his “negatives”: the to contend with the public’s instinct that James Carville wrote in percentage of people who told pollsters it was time for a change after eight years a May 31 fundraising e- they had an unfavorable impression of of their party in the White House. But ‘W mail. “Everywhere I go, him. That number rose.) Plenty of cover- there was also an economic crisis, which people are telling me that ‘Obama has it age suggested that Romney was going to hit just weeks before the election. The in the bag.’ Newsflash: nothing is in the have trouble unifying the party. Repub - Republican presidential nominee none - bag.” He’s right: Democrats have been licans grew pessimistic. theless won 46 percent of the vote. overconfident about President Obama’s But it should have been obvious that Republicans were always likely to do sig- chances this fall. Only slowly, if at all, is these perceptions were dependent on nificantly better in 2012, simply because it dawning on them that Mitt Romney circumstances that were already chang - the odds of their facing similarly awful poses a serious challenge. ing. The primary highlighted Romney’s circumstances again were so low. For months now, the polls have sug- deficiencies from the point of view of You can’t make history twice. There’s gested that Obama, while not a sure loser, conservatives. In the general election, another reason the Republicans’ 2008 is in trouble. In the Real Clear Politics Re pub licans were never going to be performance was likely to represent a average of polls, the president has not choosing between Romney and Santorum floor for the next election. Strong turnout cracked a 50 percent approval rating or Gingrich. They were going to face a among voters who were young, black, or so far in 2012. In both its average and choice between Romney and a candidate both swelled Obama’s totals. Both black Pollster.com’s, the candidates have since who favors higher taxes, took health care voters and young white voters are likely the first week of May been consistently farther down the road to government con- to vote for Obama again, but probably less than three points apart. trol, and will continue to appoint liberal not in the same numbers, because the There are several reasons Romney is judges as long as he can. On each of these excitement of voting in the first black giving Obama a tough race. issues Republicans strongly prefer Rom - president has faded. The primary campaign distorted per- ney’s position. That is why they quick- Obama didn’t change the map. Be - ceptions of the general-election cam- ly consolidated behind him once he cause his 2008 victory reached deep paign. It seemed to take forever for wrapped up the nomination. into “Republican territory”—that is, he Romney to win the Republican nomina- While Romney has his weaknesses as a carried seven states that had gone for

tion, and his poll numbers sank during the candidate, the arduousness of the prima- George W. Bush twice—some analysts ROMAN GENN

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thought Obama had made assembling an the Democratic primaries: a stunning Electoral College majority harder for the achievement, but one that took place Republicans. But his sweep was a func- within a liberal universe. In the general Conventional tion of a national Democratic wave, not a election, the economic crisis delivered permanent geographic realignment. swing voters to him. George W. Bush, Unwisdom As Sean Trende points out in his Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton won book, The Lost Majority, Obama’s win- competitive statewide elections before North Carolina’s Democratic party ning coalition was actually narrower they ran for president, and had to fight for descends into chaos geographically than Bill Clinton’s. votes in their first presidential races, too. Missouri, which was very recently a Obama’s political history is closer to that BY JOHN HOOD swing state, seems now to be a lost cause of George H. W. Bush and Gerald Ford, for the Democrats. And Obama’s hold on both of whom lost their bids to keep Raleigh, N.C. the states he carried in 2008 is weak. office. ELL you crazy people, Florida seems to have become more The president is showing his lack of is this the Democratic Republican over the last decade, too. connection to the American center as party or what?” That The Democrats have written off Indiana, he flails about for a campaign theme. In ‘W was David Parker, the and are surely ruing their decision to the fall he suggested that inequality is embattled chairman of the North Caro - hold their national convention in North the challenge of our time. But Americans lina Democratic party, announcing on Carolina, not least because its state Dem- aren’t especially concerned about in- May 12 that he would continue to lead ocratic party is immersed in scandal. equality per se—a dominant passion the state’s Democrats through the rest of Even some states long in the Democratic only for the Left. They worry much more the 2012 election cycle despite wide- fold look iffy. Wisconsin, which has not about subpar growth. In recent weeks, spread criticism for his handling of a voted for a Republican presidential can- Obama adviser David Plouffe has said sexual-harassment scandal at party head- didate since 1984, seems to be in play. that the president’s campaign will try to quarters in Raleigh. Parker was using Minnesota last voted for a Republican in portray Romney as a throwback to the “crazy people” as a term of endearment

Mr. Hood is the president of the John Locke Obama has no instinctive feel for Foundation, a public-policy think tank in Raleigh, voters in the middle of the political N.C., and the author, most recently, of Our Best spectrum, let alone those on the right. Foot Forward. He has never had to develop one. Head of School Opportunity 1972, but its Democratic tilt (compared 1950s. But most Americans do not inter- with the national electorate) declined a pret our nation’s recent history in terms TASIS The American School in Switzerland, an independent boarding and day school little in the 2008 election, and a solid of liberation from the oppression of that providing excellence in American educa- Romney victory nationally could well decade, and do not fear that its mores are tion based on the traditional values and ideals of Western civilization, is seeking an accom- sweep it in. about to return and engulf us. Again, plished educational leader for July 2013. The economy hasn’t cooperated. We such emotions are widespread only on TASIS, the oldest American boarding school in haven’t had a strong recovery, or one that the left. Europe, serves 630 students of 55 nationalities most people trust will last. Democratic in grades Pre-K to 13 on a magnificent cam- * * * pus near Lugano, in the southern part of optimism about Obama has been tied not Switzerland near the Italian border. The School only to Romney’s primary struggle but Romney is still being underestimated. offers unparalleled opportunities through a broad-based academic program—Core also to a few months of data suggesting Even James Carville, in a recent op-ed on Knowledge, EAL, American AP, and Inter- the economy was picking up. But we his “wake up” theme, wrote, “Pathetic is national Baccalaureate curricula—and a varied extra-curricular program enriched have now had a few months of more a kind word for Romney and this cam- by travel throughout Europe. recent, ominous data—and the continu- paign.” But Romney is a disciplined and Qualifications include a solid liberal arts edu- ing crisis in Europe, or heightened ten- intelligent politician, and he may turn out cation, experience in boarding schools, sion in the Middle East, could tip us back to be a reassuring figure in a time of tur- administration, and hiring, as well as expertise in the management of school operations. into recession. bulence. International experience or experience with The president’s political talents are Every president who has won reelec- multi-lingual educational programs or institu- tions, a strong interest in European culture, overrated. Obama has no instinctive feel tion since Andrew Jackson has gotten a and the ability to build rapport and loyalty with for voters in the middle of the political higher percentage in his second election constituencies and faculty are most desirable. spectrum, let alone those on the right. He than in his first. This race might be tight For more information on this premier European has never had to develop one. Before until the end, or Romney might pull away career opportunity contact Reni Scheifele, 2008, he had run one statewide general- for a big victory. But a big Obama win, in TASIS, CH6926 Montagnola, Switzerland, or email [email protected]. election campaign—against Alan Keyes, line with the historical pattern of reelect- The deadline for applications a fringe candidate from out of state. In ed presidents, does not seem likely to is September 28, 2012. 2008, he defeated Hillary Clinton in repeat itself.

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Here’s what happened next: Governor Easley fell out of favor, immersed him- self in scandal, ended his second term under a cloud of ethics violations, and then pled guilty to a felony. Senator Edwards—well, you know what he did. The Democratic speaker of the state house and majority whip of the state sen- ate were indicted, convicted, and incar- cerated on separate corruption charges. The lieutenant governor, Perdue, waged a successful campaign for governor in 2008 that happened to include a variety of illegal campaign contributions and expenditures. In the midst of a painful recession, in a state with one of the nation’s highest unemployment rates, Perdue and the Democratic legislature enacted a massive tax increase in 2009. Voters punished them in 2010 by deliv- ering both houses of the state legislature to Republicans. By early 2012, several of Perdue’s aides and donors were David Parker, chairman of the North Carolina Democratic party either indicted on criminal charges or about to be, and she had become one of for the hundreds of Democratic activists to begin on September 3 in Charlotte, the the most unpopular governors in the in the room. But many state and nation al Obama campaign is finding it hard to dis- country. Democrats—including those managing associate itself completely from the host In late January, Perdue announced that President Obama’s reelection cam- state’s Democratic infrastructure. she wouldn’t seek a second term—per- paign—think Parker is nuts, that any To illustrate the scope of the problem, haps the only major decision she made Democrats who would vote to keep him let’s jump in the Wayback Machine and as governor that actually boosted her in power are nuts, and that the decision travel ten years into the past. In 2002, party’s prospects. But because she an - to hold the Democratic national conven- North Carolina Democrats could claim nounced her retirement so late in the tion in North Carolina may prove to be to have built one of the strongest records cycle, the Democratic primary for gov - catastrophically nuts. of electoral success in modern Ameri - ernor turned into a mad scramble. Lieu - Political parties have to hold their can politics. While other southern states tenant governor Walter Dalton ended up nominating conventions somewhere, and were moving steadily toward the Re- with the nomination, defeating former it makes sense to try to leverage them to publicans, not just in presidential elec- U.S. representative Bob Etheridge. But political benefit in a battleground state. tions but in key races down the ballot, Dalton’s coffers were depleted. And for North Carolina certainly qualifies; in North Carolina had continued to elect the first time in North Carolina history, 2008, the Tar Heel State voted Dem - Democrats to most of the state’s top jobs. polls showed that a non-incumbent Re - ocratic for president for the first time Republicans had gotten just two gover- publican, former Charlotte mayor Pat since 1976, albeit by only 14,000 votes nors elected in the past century—Jim McCrory, would enter the governor’s out of 4.3 million cast. This year, the bat- Holshouser (1973–77) and Jim Martin race as the front-runner. tle for North Carolina’s 15 electoral votes (1985–93). Democrats had controlled Just when it looked like things couldn’t will be fierce. If you average the results both houses of the state legislature since get much worse for North Carolina of the last three statewide polls, President Reconstruction, except for a brief period Democrats, news broke that a young Obama and Mitt Romney can each claim of GOP rule in the state house in the man, a former staffer at party head - about 46 percent support. mid-1990s. In 2002, Democrat Mike quarters, had made sexual-harassment The problem for Obama is that North Easley was in his second year as gov - charges against the party’s executive Carolina’s Democratic party is an utter ernor, after eight years as state attorney director, Jay Parmley, who had previous- mess. Most of its recent leaders are either general. Democrat John Edwards was ly run the state party in neighboring in trouble with voters, in trouble with the in the U.S. Senate. The lieutenant gover - South Carolina. It further came to light AP / law, or both. It would be in President nor, Beverly Perdue, other statewide that longtime party activist and attorney Obama’s political interest to stay as far exec utive officers, the leadership of David Parker, who hired Parmley as away from the North Carolina party as he both legislative chambers—all were executive director in 2011, had respond- can, campaigning there via broadcast ads, Democrats. The only major exception ed to the harassment allegations by keep- THE NEWS AND OBSERVER / social media, and appearances that do not to the trend was longtime conservative ing Parmley on the job and authorizing a include unpopular state Democrats. But U.S. senator Jesse Helms, and he was late-2011 financial settlement with the

CHRIS SEWARD with the national convention scheduled about to retire. staffer, whose grievance had expanded

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to include a claim of wrongful termina- it became clear that some Democratic tion after Parmley fired him. activists were not convinced Parker Party officials managed to keep the needed to go. They blamed the Obama Black story under wraps for several months. team and the governor for staging a Reporters heard rumors but couldn’t power play to get control of the state Studies 101 confirm them. In early April, however, party. Some in the Parker faction even someone leaked internal party e-mails to suggested that the sexual-harassment A newcomer discovers what the Daily Caller, which broke the story. claim had been a financial shakedown by he’s been missing North Carolina newspapers and broad- a disgruntled staffer who had fabricated cast stations quickly picked it up and or exaggerated what occurred between BY ROBERT VERBRUGGEN fleshed out the details. It turned out that the two men, or that the dispute went Governor Perdue and other prominent public only because greedy Democratic ACk in May, conservative Democrats had long known about the operatives wanted to overthrow Parker writer Naomi Schaefer Riley sexual-harassment allegations. “Get so they could get lucrative consulting managed to get herself fired over it,” Perdue snapped to a reporter contracts from a new leader. E-mail in- B from The Chronicle of Higher asking her about the settlement, exhibit- boxes, comment threads, and Facebook Education. The Chronicle had run a ing the touch for public relations that pages filled up with conspiracy theories cover story about black-studies Ph.D. denied her a second term. Parmley re - and personal attacks. students at Northwestern University (my signed his job as executive director of the The morning of the May 12 vote, the alma mater, as it happens). Continuing party, inducing a mixture of snorts and new Democratic nominee for governor, with that theme, Riley wrote a blog post giggles by stridently protesting his inno- Walter Dalton, appeared before the on the Chronicle’s website entitled cence and blaming conservative blog- executive committee at its meeting in “The Most Persuasive Case for Elimi - gers for his demise. Greensboro and sought to bring the splin- na ting Black Studies? Just Read the Attention next turned to the future tered North Carolina party together. “As Dissertations”—though as critics soon of David Parker. State and national you know, David is resigning as the chair pointed out, she had not, in fact, read the Democrats urged him to resign. Obama- of the party,” Dalton said. “And he says dissertations. campaign operatives put out the word he is committed—he’s indicated he’s Instead, she dismissed their topics that if he didn’t, their North Carolina committed to a smooth transition. I want as self-evidently absurd, much the way operation would bypass the state party you to know that this is a very selfless a judge might throw out a weak case altogether rather than manage a separ - act.” Shortly afterward, Parker offered before the trial starts. She briefly de - ate but complementary effort alongside another spirited defense of his conduct, scribed the students’ essays, including other Democratic campaigns, as origi- left the room to applause, and began the one about how black experiences are nally planned. And DNC officials hoped 90-minute drive east to Raleigh to clean neglected in the natural-birth literature, that Parker would save them the trouble out his desk. The executive committee one about how black conservatives are of disinviting him from the Charlotte deliberated, voted, argued, voted again, betraying the civil-rights movement, convention. and by late afternoon had decided to and one about how the federal govern- But it was not to be. On April 19, reject Parker’s resignation. Parker head- ment’s subsidizing of single-family Parker held a bizarre Raleigh press con- ed back down Interstate 40, entered the homes for blacks in the 1970s was ference at which he defended both his room in triumph, and pledged to remain secretly racist. Riley found these ideas handling of the case and Parmley him- the Democratic chairman until Election to range from “irrelevant” to “liberal self. Allegations of Parmley’s improper Day. Dalton and his team were aghast. hackery”: “What a collection of left- touching and comments simply reflected Whether it was all a theatrical produc- wing victimization claptrap.” In the re - the fact that he was “a friendly guy,” tion, a spontaneous revolt against the sulting outcry, thousands signed a peti tion Parker said. He compared Parmley’s party establishment, or some combina- to get Riley fired, and the Chronicle contact with the male staffer to Mitt tion, I don’t know. What I do know is obliged. Romney’s patting Rick Perry’s shoulder that Democratic pros in North Carolina As Riley later noted, the offending at a GOP presidential debate. He even and beyond see Parker’s retention as post totaled a mere 500 words, and was described his former executive director capping off a disastrous series of events. meant mostly as a conversation-starter. as “a close talker,” prompting late-night The host state of the national convention But was she right? Should black studies comedians such as Comedy Central’s Jon now has a barely functioning party or - be eliminated? Stewart to riff on the party leader’s ganization, one that faces the prospect It would be impossible to make a thor- “Seinfeld defense.” While Democrats of losing both the governor’s office and ough, convincing case to that effect, and were appalled at Parker’s press confer- the legislature to the Republicans for perhaps equally hard to make a case ence and annoyed at his refusal to submit the first time since General Sherman’s against it. There are hundreds of black- an immediate resignation, they were at troops were camped outside the state studies departments throughout the least comforted by his announcement that capital. country, and they serve a variety of pur- he would step aside in May and let the For its part, the Obama campaign is poses, of varying merit. Then there is the Democratic party’s executive committee pretending that the North Carolina Dem - question of whether the work of black- elect a new leader for the 2012 cycle. ocratic party doesn’t exist. Wouldn’t studies departments could or should As the election approached, however, you? take place in other fields. Further com-

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plicating matters, research has found that students who study their own eth- nicity are less likely to interact with members of other racial groups. If col- lege administrators are serious about “diversity,” they should see this as a problem, given that a clear majority of the field’s students are themselves black. How should schools weigh this factor against the academic value of black studies? But one thing is clear: Most black- studies departments could be much bet- ter than they are. Whatever the merits of the particular dissertations Riley criti- cized—I wasn’t able to read them either, because they are not finished yet—she was correct in her two main assertions: There isn’t much useful work coming out of black-studies departments, and John McWhorter the discipline is fixated on proving that everything and everyone is racist. Black tation of black defendants in the criminal- the Civil War. (High crime rates among studies is nominally a multidisciplinary justice system. Claude Steele (psycholo- european immigrants were seen as a field—it’s supposed to be combining gy) has made a valiant attempt, with result of economic pressures; high crime the methods of economics, sociology, debatable success, to show that standard- rates among blacks were seen as a ra - criminology, history, literature, and ized tests are racially biased. Mahzarin cial problem.) The New Welfare Bur - other subjects, and using them to explain Banaji and anthony Greenwald (psy- eaucrats, by Northwestern’s Celeste black life. Instead, for the most part, it’s chology) have developed a test that, Watkins-Hayes, is a fascinating account wallowing in its own obsessions. in my opinion, establishes that most of how welfare caseworkers interact When I first encountered Riley’s white people subconsciously harbor neg- with their clients, and in particular of claim that black studies is not produc - ative thoughts about blacks. Thomas J. how the race and class of the casework- ing valuable work, it rang true. I’ve been espenshade (sociology) has rigorously ers influence the decisions they make. closely following academic debates analyzed the effects of affirmative ac - The Journal of Black Studies and the over race and racism for about a decade, tion. Journal of African American Studies first as a college student and then as a Not a black-studies professor in the often include useful material; recent journalist. I’ve read countless studies, bunch. If I wanted to cheat a little I issues have featured an analysis of I’ve reviewed books about race for could have counted the famed William why black males drop out of two-year NaTIoNal RevIeW and other publica- Julius Wilson, who today is affiliated colleges, a look at how the media cov- tions, and I spent a year-long journalism with the black-studies department at ered the court case that overturned anti- fellowship looking at race. Yet as I set Harvard in addition to the sociology miscegenation laws, and an essay about out to write this piece, I struggled to one. otherwise, I have encountered black- what members of black sororities think think of a single black-studies professor studies professors primarily through the about homosexuality. a conservative whose academic work I paid attention popular media—Harvard’s Henry louis reader will find much to disagree with in to. Gates Jr. writes opinion articles on a reg- these works. Some are weighed down by It’s not as though I keep myself in ular basis and hosts Tv shows in which ridiculous jargon and unstated leftist some kind of conservative bubble or he uses DNa tests to track people’s assumptions, but there’s no denying that refuse to read black-studies work simply ancestry; Princeton’s Cornel West was they provide interesting perspectives because it’s black studies. In fact, I’ve in two of the Matrix movies, released a and introduce new facts into the discus- read lots of liberal-leaning academic notoriously awful spoken-word album sion. material on race, much of which I find a few years back, and recently had a But it’s also not hard to see where convincing. Ian ayres (economics and cameo on 30 Rock. Riley was coming from when she dis- law), Devah Pager (sociology), and Mar- So I made an effort to see what black missed some black-studies work as i anne Bertrand and Sendhil Mullain - studies has to offer. and in fairness, irrelevant without reading it—when I athan (economics) have conducted there is good work to be found. The went through journals looking for the ex periments showing that racial bias Condemnation of Blackness, by Khalil best papers to read, I skipped over an still exists when americans do things Gibran Muhammad, director of the awful lot without thinking twice, simply such as hail cabs, buy cars, and apply for New York Public library’s Schomburg because they were about topics that al - jobs. Bruce Western (sociology) and Center for Research in Black Culture, is most no one cares about. To pick just Glenn C. loury (economics) have writ- an in-depth study of how social scien- one example, the ways in which af - ten insightfully about the overrepresen- tists analyzed racial crime statistics after ri cans resisted white colonialism are

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undoubtedly worthy of study, and I long discussions about his world view, would have no objection if an essay which included a tinge of socialism. After mentioned that Zimbabweans came up When the Abu Zubaydah railed one day about the with derogatory nicknames for whites— influence of Amer i can imperialist cor - but I have no interest whatsoever in Good Cop porations, he asked Sou fan to get him a reading an entire paper called “Nick- Coca-Cola—a request that prompted the naming as a Mode of Black Resistance: two of them to laugh.” In Soufan’s telling, Reflections on Black Indigenous People’s Was Bad Zubaydah gave Soufan information that Nicknaming of Colonial White Farmers What Ali Soufan does not teach us about led to the arrest of American al-Qaeda in Zimbabwe.” the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah operative Jose Padilla as he arrived in Then there’s what Loury, in an online Chicago to carry out a terrorist attack. discussion of black studies with the BY MARC A. THIESSEN Then, just as Zubaydah was opening up to linguist and right-of-center political him, Sou fan claims, the CIA took over his commentator John McWhorter, called FTER Barack Obama shut down interrogation—with disastrous results. “this racism, racism, racism stuff.” In the CIA’s terrorist-interrogation In his new book, Hard Measures, Jose Why I Hate Abercrombie & Fitch, a program, the FBI retook the lead Rodriguez—the man who ran the CIA’s Northwestern black-studies scholar A in the interrogation business. interrogation program—breaks his silence makes the case that Abercrombie—the They have not had many subjects to work and offers an inside account of the inter - famous maker of preppy, expensive on in the last three years, since the Obama rogation of Abu Zubaydah. It is starkly clothing—is not merely a company that administration kills virtually every high- different from the one Sou fan has been serves a primarily white customer base, value terrorist it finds. But if Mitt Romney peddling for years. but an oppressor of blacks. Also racist, is elected this fall, chances are America While Rodriguez does not mention according to various black-studies jour- will again be capturing and interrogating Soufan by name (referring to him simply nals, are “limited government values,” senior terrorist leaders—and the debate as a “Muslim FBI agent”), he makes clear which are a way for whites to enact anti- between the FBI’s “rapport building” tech- that Soufan has left out a lot of unflattering black policies; the media’s coverage of niques and the CIA’s “enhanced interroga- details about the FBI’s interactions with Venus and Serena Williams, which con- tion” techniques will come roaring back. Zubaydah. “De spite the current claims by stitutes a form of racial “surveillance”; The most vocal advocate of the rapport- former FBI agents that they had bonded and race-neutral policies in public con- building approach has been former FBI with AZ [Abu Zubaydah] and were able to tracting, which are actually “colorblind agent Ali Soufan. In 2009, Soufan came to charm information out of him,” Rod ri guez racism.” public attention when he testified before writes, “the facts are quite different.” The racism obsession extends beyond Congress from behind a black curtain to Far from opening up, Zubaydah stopped research and into teaching. Several declare the CIA’s techniques useless and talking after repeated missteps by the years ago, McWhorter (who’s black) say he could have extracted the same intel- Soufan-led interrogators. “AZ told CIA went through the curricula and syllabi ligence from al-Qaeda terrorists using the interrogators that he respected all of our used in numerous black-studies depart- FBI’s traditional, non-coercive methods. team, especially the female chief of base ments, the central message of which he Since then, Soufan has traded the black (whom he called ‘the Emira,’ Arabic for found to be that “racism and disadvan- curtain for a book deal and appearances on ‘princess’ or ‘leader’) of the black site. He tage are the most important things to Colbert and Jon Stewart—but his story respected them all, he said, except for a note and study about being black.” An remains the same. Muslim FBI agent, who had offended him astounding number of courses focus To support his claims, he regularly cites early on.” That would be Soufan. solely on how racism affects this or that his purported success questioning a senior What had the Muslim agent done to corner of American life, and many of the al-Qaeda facilitator named Abu Zubaydah anger Zubaydah? “The agent, it turned curricula teach students the details of in 2002. In a Newsweek story subtitled out, had tried to debate Islamic theory with black radical politics without touching “How Ali Soufan, an FBI agent, got Abu AZ, who thought the agent had insuf- on black conservative thinkers. Mc - Zubaydah to talk without torture,” Soufan ficient grounding in the facts,” Rodri guez Whorter suggested a curriculum that described how he used rapport-building writes. He describes an interrogation ses- includes a more diverse set of perspec- techniques—nursing the wounds Zubay - sion in which “the Bureau guys decided tives—adding not just conservative ideas, dah had sustained during his capture and to try to ‘recruit’ AZ. In a meeting with the but also analysis of non-political aspects debating Islamic theory with him—to win terrorist, the Arab-American agent told of life, such as music. Zu bay dah over and get him to provide AZ, ‘Don’t pay attention to those CIA McWhorter’s goal is worth pursuing. actionable intelligence. “As the sessions people . . . you work with me,’ and he gave Black studies is unlikely to be eliminat- continued,” the Newsweek story recount- him a candy bar. AZ was offended that the ed as an academic discipline, but black- ed, “Soufan engaged Abu Zu bay dah in agent would think that he could be bought studies scholars might be persuaded to for a Snickers bar.” broaden their field of inquiry. Their de - Mr. Thiessen is a fellow at the American Enterprise Later, “the FBI man tried to use his Arab partments do not need more professors Institute, a columnist for the Washington Post, heritage as an opening to get AZ to talk, crying racism. They need professors and the author of Courting Disaster: How the but it turned out to be counterproductive. who make a more thorough effort to CIA Kept America Safe and How Barack ‘You are the worst kind of Arab,’ AZ told study black life. Obama Is Inviting the Next Attack. him, ‘you are a traitor!’”

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Then the FBI agent tried to bribe Zu- ing,” but Rodriguez says this is false. “At party to enhanced interrogation. Now they bay dah. “The FBI agent told him, ‘Amer - the time the contractor was still just an wanted back in.” In the end, however, the ica knows who its friends and who its advisor. He was not in charge of the inter- CIA turned down the FBI’s request to be enemies are. Work with us and we can rogation and hadn’t even received all the re admitted. “In part we were afraid that make you a wealthy man.’ AZ responded, security clearances to allow him to read FBI special agents would only disrupt the ‘What makes you think I would turn my the most highly classified cable traffic program,” Rodriguez writes. “But another back on Allah for money?’” flowing to and from the black site.” factor was that the location of the new sites During the raid that brought Zu baydah No matter, Rodriguez writes. “At one was not known to them and we didn’t to justice, the CIA had captured the terror- point, after being rebuffed at an interroga- want to expand the circle of witting offi- ist’s personal diary and was using it to cre- tion attempt with AZ, [Soufan] threatened cials for fear that knowledge of the sites ate the illusion of omniscience—shocking violence, not against Abu Zubaydah but would leak and their effectiveness would Zubaydah with details about his life that against the contractor. He eventually be compromised if not ended.” he thought were secret—until one day the calmed down and apologized, blaming his That eventually happened anyway. And FBI blew the ruse. “That cost us the bene- outburst on being ‘hot-blooded.’ He didn’t in 2009, President Obama shut down the fit of surprise.” stay calm for long, however, and eventual- CIA’s interrogation program and put the When the FBI’s rapport-building tech- ly departed the black site, saying he did not FBI back in charge of questioning terror - niques failed, the Bureau turned to more want to be part of such procedures.” ist “suspects.” It was then that Soufan aggressive measures. One day, Rodriguez Eventually, the CIA employed the launched his career as the “good inter- writes, an FBI agent told CIA officers panoply of enhanced-interrogation tech- rogator” who could have gotten the same before going into an interrogation session niques on Zubaydah, including water- information without the CIA’s techniques. that he “planned to ‘go Sipowicz’ on Abu boarding. It worked. “After Abu Zu bay dah So who is right? One eyewitness for the Zubaydah”—a reference to Andy Sipo - broke under waterboarding,” Rodriguez CIA is none other than Soufan’s FBI part- wicz, a rogue police detective from the writes, “he told our officers something ner. In 2009 the De part ment of Justice 1980s show NYPD Blue. “The FBI man remarkable. ‘You must do this for all the released an inspector general’s report on entered AZ’s holding cell and started brothers,’ he said. AZ explained to them the FBI’s involvement in detainee interro- Zubaydah said that waterboarding was a relief because it finally lifted a great moral burden from his shoulders: the burden of resistance.

screaming at him, calling him a ‘moth- that Allah knew that they were only hu - gations. In that report, Soufan’s partner erf***er’ and a ‘son of a bitch.’ Abu man and once they had been tested to their (referred to by the alias “Agent Gibson”) Zubaydah, who speaks decent English, limits there was no shame in their cooper- said it was the CIA—not Soufan—that got apparently mentally translated the slurs ating with us.” Indeed, Zubaydah said that the information on Jose Padilla. Ac cording literally and later said that the agent was waterboarding (which he underwent five to the inspector general, Gib son told him calling his mother ‘a dog.’” Another FBI times, not 83, as is commonly asserted) that “CIA personnel assured him that the agent, writes Rodriguez, told Zubaydah was a relief because it finally lifted a great procedures being used on Zubaydah had “that if he cooperated we would make sure mor al burden from his shoulders: the bur- been approved ‘at the highest levels’ and his mother was well taken care of. ‘Stay den of resistance. that Gibson would not get in any trouble. away from my mother,’ he said; ‘if she So he spilled his guts. The information Gibson stated that during the CIA interro- thought I was cooperating with you she that came from Zubaydah, and later from gations Zubaydah ‘gave up’ Jose Padilla would be ashamed of me.’” other CIA detainees such as Khalid Sheikh and identified several targets for future al- Zubaydah did eventually reconsider his Mohammed, was a treasure trove that led Qaeda attacks” (emphasis added). decision to clam up, Rodriguez says— to the capture of dozens of al-Qaeda oper- Agent Gibson further told the inspec - after the CIA began to employ some initial atives and the disruption of numerous tor general that he “did not have a ‘moral enhanced-interrogation techniques de - planned terrorist attacks. Intelligence from ob jection’ to being present for the CIA signed in consultation with a psychologist detainees in CIA custody also became the techniques because the CIA was acting contractor, “such as limited sleep depri - basis for the final report of the 9/11 com- pro fessionally and [Gibson] himself had vation, isolation, bombarding his cell mission. undergone comparable harsh interro - with noise, and the like.” These actions “The windfall reported in the intelli- gation techniques as part of U.S. Army “seemed to upset at least one of our FBI gence reports coming out of KSM’s in - Survival, Evasion, Re sist ance, and Escape colleagues [Sou fan], who made a play to ter rogation was so dramatic,” writes (SERE) training.” take control of the interrogation. He got Rod riguez, “that FBI officials petitioned Soufan told Newsweek: “We didn’t very confrontational and seemed to blame the CIA to get back into the interrogation have to do any of this. We could have done our contractor for everything.” program, which they had abandoned dur- this the right way.” But if Rod ri guez and Soufan told Newsweek that the contrac- ing the early days at the first black site. At Gibson are right, we did try it Soufan’s tor “[had taken] charge of the question- the time they said they didn’t want to be way—and he failed.

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showrunner would sit in a director’s gling above the head of the million- chair, face and lips smeared with goo - dollar star. The Sticky ey chocolate, staring slack-jawed and In other words, there’s a place for glassy-eyed at the monitors. “They’re junk food in our lives. It’s the grease— Slope just mini soufflés,” he would say, as if in many cases, literally—that keeps us that somehow made it less elaborate. But all a little more emotionally stable. Un - Hands off my soda, the truth was, they weren’t mini at all. fortunately, in excess, junk food also Mayor Bloomberg They were served in one-quart ramekins makes us fat. with a double-big spoon. Like a big So Bloomberg’s logic is pretty air- BY ROB LONG chocolate pacifier. tight. Sugary drinks make us fat, and fat So when New York City mayor Mi - people get sick a lot, and since we’re all hE best way to give somebody chael Bloomberg announced that he was responsible for each other’s health-care bad news is, first, give him a thinking about banning, within the city costs—you remember when we decided doughnut. This is basically the limits, large sugary drinks—you know that, don’t you, a year or so ago?—ban- T idea behind what we in holly - what I’m talking about, right? those ning those sodas makes economic and wood call “craft services.” giant sodas people cart around? with the social sense. Fewer fat people, lower Craft services—also known as “holy tapered bottoms (because the cups are costs. Think they’ll pass the savings on cow! Look at that huge table of too huge to fit into a normal car-seat cup- to us? snacks!”—is, well, a huge table of snacks, holder) and those super-wide straws?— Fat chance. originally designed to feed, water, and people naturally reacted with unhappy For liberals, what you do with your otherwise satisfy the between-meal surprise. body turns out not to be such a private cravings of the various craft guilds that We like our fat cups of sugar and fizz. matter after all, which is a bit of a populate the business. Following the It’s a little lift in an otherwise stressful switcheroo. I guess the rule is this: If a principle that hungry people are cranky day to step up to the fill-’er-up woman has a big fat stomach that’s people, and that cranky, hungry people dispenser and get your- filled with a fetus, it’s her body and are the last people you want handling self a tankard of Type her choice. If it’s filled with pizza six-ton pieces of equipment and million- 2 Diabetes. And we and soda and Ben & Jerry’s, it’s dollar sets and wires with 18 zillion volts know that this is just time for Mayor Bloomberg to of electricity crackling through them the beginning. It’s a step in. inches from the neck and face of Amer - sticky slope: From so - They make the same ar gu - ica’s beloved TV and film stars, free das we’ll get to french ment about smokers—raise Snapple and unlimited Cool Ranch fries, and then to pretty the price! punish the bas- Doritos look like a pretty bargain way much every large-sized car- tards!—though for some to deliver a safe and sane workplace. bohydrate ever invented, un - reason they rarely make it But that simple calculation has til we’re all walking around about cycling—that’s a morphed, over time, to include the need in sour moods with tripwire pretty upscale sport, with to placate everyone involved in a pro- tempers wondering how to get its tight-panted riders and duction. I had a show on the air, years through the day on carrot sticks and DayGlo helmets, but ago, that involved a lot of complicated fair-trade iced tea. there are an awful lot of location filming. We had weather trouble This has happened on every show gruesome accidents— and airplane-noise trouble and crowd- or film set I’ve ever been on. Eventually, and they almost never make control trouble and all sorts of trouble somebody gets all up in the craft-service it about sexually transmitted dis- that could really be solved, it turned out, table, somebody with clout and an obses- eases, especially those that are transmitted only by an enterprising craft-service guy sion with health, and suddenly the chips in currently chic ways, like between two passing out a tray of mini egg-salad and M&Ms and Double Stuf Oreos get guys who are about to get married. sandwiches at ten o’clock in the morn- replaced by good stuff, healthy stuff, like No one’s trying to ban extreme sports. ing. rice cakes and power bars and things No one’s trying to outlaw Grindr, the An egg-salad sandwich doesn’t solve with carob and antioxidants. smartphone app that helps homosexual production problems, of course, but it’s And then, suddenly, people start to gentlemen find each other quickly via soothing and eggy and pleasantly bland, lose a little of that extra flab. They have satellite technology. No, it’s all about and doesn’t take much energy to chew, more energy. Things happen faster. Pants tacky fat people just trying to get through so eating one—or, in my case, eating a button. Polo shirts get tucked in again. the day, trying to give themselves a little fistful—is a little like sucking on a may- But before you know it, the entire mood bump in the face of a dismal job onnaise lollipop. You forget what you’re production is at each other’s throats. picture, a faltering world economy, and supposed to be upset about. The network is feuding with the studio, an uncertain future for their children. It’s I know of a major television show - the studio is trying to fire the producer, been a non-stop cascade of bad news for runner who had the craft-service person and craft guilds—the whole reason we them, and now the liberals are begrudg- whip up, at the end of a long shoot, a have craft services in the first place— ing them their doughnut. Well, not the mini chocolate soufflé. As they were end up cranky and hungry and a little doughnut, but the super-size drink it shooting pickup shots and retakes, the careless with the 80-pound lights dan- comes with.

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Campaigning in Illinois in 1995 Obama on the Fringe The president belonged to a social-democratic third party

BY STANLEY KURTZ

N 1996, during his first run for public office, Barack Obama The minutes of the public meeting of Chicago’s New Party formally joined a leftist third party called the New Party. Its on January 11, 1996, read as follows: “Barack Obama, candi- Chicago chapter served as the de facto political arm of the date for State Senate in the 13th Legislative District, gave a I now-defunct group ACORN (Association of Community statement to the membership and answered questions. He Organizations for Reform Now). Ideologically, the New Party signed the New Party ‘Candidate Contract’ and requested an sharply differentiated itself from what it took to be the business- endorsement from the New Party. He also joined the New dominated Democratic party of Bill Clinton, identifying instead Party.” Consistent with these minutes, a roster of the Chicago with the social-democratic movements of Europe. chapter of the New Party from early 1997 lists Obama as a The claim that Obama had been a member of the New Party member, giving January 11, 1996, as the date he joined. All evi- gained attention from conservatives during the final two weeks dence now points to an attempt by Obama in 2008 to deceive of the 2008 campaign, but—even though it rested on consider- the American public about this important political affiliation in able evidence—it was never widely reported or discussed in the his past. mainstream press. When I asserted on NATIONAL REvIEW ONLINE in late October 2008 that Obama had indeed been a member of the New Party, the Obama campaign called my charge a “crack- BAmA’s New Party problem must be seen as part and pot smear.” Through its Fight the Smears website, it insisted parcel of his attempts to distance himself from that its candidate had never been a member, and had “never O ACORN. During his third debate with John mcCain, solicited” the New Party’s endorsement. Obama claimed that the “only” involvement he’d had with Documentary evidence—obtained from ACORN files re - ACORN was to represent the group in a lawsuit compelling cently donated to the Wisconsin Historical Society—now con- Illinois to implement the motor-voter law. The ACORN archives tradicts this claim, and establishes beyond any reasonable doubt clearly contradict him, and provide evidence that he had deal- that Barack Obama did solicit the endorsement, and become a ings with ACORN well beyond representing it in a single law- member, of the New Party. Like other candidates who received suit. its endorsement, Obama signed a “contract” in which he pro - Why did Obama falsely deny his ties to ACORN? His sup- mised not only to join the group but also to publicly support and port for its voter-registration efforts in Chicago and his partici- associate himself with it while in office. pation in its training seminars doubtless would have been embarrassing, given its thuggish tactics, its fraudulent voter

Mr. Kurtz is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. registrations, and its role in abetting the subprime-loan fiasco at MARC POKEMPNER

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the root of the 2008 financial crisis. But they would not likely early runs for office. Cultivating the New Party and Progressive have been seriously damaging for him to confess, especially in Chicago was a way of ensuring that support. 2008, when the press was treating him with kid gloves. Ad - In 1996, Obama ran as state senator Alice Palmer’s hand- mitting to having joined a leftist third party controlled by picked successor. She had abandoned her seat in hopes of win- ACORN, on the other hand, could have been damaging indeed. ning a special election to Congress; while she had promised to The records of ACORN’s national office, as well as those of support Obama even if she lost her bid, once defeated for the several local affiliates, including Illinois ACORN and the Democratic congressional nomination she turned around and ACORN-controlled Chicago Local 880 of the Service Em - challenged Obama for her old state-senate seat. Obama eventu- ployees International Union (SEIU), can be found in the ar- ally had Palmer knocked off the ballot for having too few valid chives of the Wisconsin historical Society. Until recently, these signatures to reenter the race, but on January 11, 1996—the day records did not include material more recent than about 1994. Obama joined the New Party, requested its endorsement, and My political biography of President Obama, Radical-in-Chief: signed its Candidate Contract—Palmer’s ballot disqualification Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism, had not yet been officially confirmed. The New Party had made use of these records to sketch a detailed picture of strongly backed Palmer (a true hard leftist) in her congression- ACORN’s operations in Chicago and beyond, and of Obama’s al campaign. At the January 11 meeting, New Party leader ties to the group. Then, apparently sometime around 2010, the Madeline Talbott spoke to the assembled members about her records of Illinois ACORN were updated, with especially disappointment that the party had not been able to push Palmer strong coverage of the mid to late 1990s, and some records over the top. Because of the party’s ties to Palmer, the question extending well into the 2000s. In what follows, I will concen- of whether to endorse Obama was not predetermined by a deci- trate on information in the updated Illinois ACORN records sion of the leadership, but was thrown open to the membership about Obama’s ties to the New Party, drawing on older archival for a vote, without recommendation. material when necessary to fill out the picture. Obama won, and beat back an attempt by Palmer’s supporters to make the New Party’s endorsement of him contingent on Palmer’s official disqualification from the state-senate race. hE Chicago New Party was founded in 1992. Not much (There was even a vote on whether to send a letter to Palmer later, in February 1993, a New Party memo identified explaining the decision; Obama won on that, too, and no letter T Obama as someone worth recruiting, and made special was sent.) Obama’s victory over the far more established Palmer note of his desire to run for office. The early New Party was run can be attributed to his long and close working relationship with jointly by Madeline Talbott, the leader of Illinois ACORN, and ACORN, whose supporters made up by far the largest contin- Keith Kelleher, the head of SEIU Local 880. In July 1993, gent within the New Party. Talbott wrote in her 1996 year-end Kelleher met with Obama to interest him in working with the report: “We endorsed Barack before the decision was final on New Party, and with a New Party–controlled front group called whether he would have opposition in his campaign for State Progressive Chicago. Since many Chicago leftists were reluc- Senate. As it happened, he had none, but he remembers and tant to alienate the Democrats by joining a third party, working appreciates our role.” The foundation of a strong relationship with Progressive Chicago gave them a way to help the New had been laid. Another New Party document, seemingly from Party indirectly. Progressive Chicago also served as a base for around 1997, describes State Senator Obama as a “good ally.” eventual recruitment to the New Party itself. At just about this time, however, the fate of the New Party Obama told Kelleher that he was “more than happy to be was sealed. The 1997 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Timmons involved” in New Party and Progressive Chicago affairs, while v. Twin Cities Area New Party, which upheld the permissibility also saying that he would be cautious about anything that might of states’ banning cross-party “fusion” endorsements, weak- offend regular Democrats. Since the New Party intended to ened the New Party’s prospects of influencing elections, and make frequent use of the tactic of “fusion” (endorsement of thus resulted in its rapid decline. An undated “Transition Plan” select progressive candidates running on the Democratic-party in a folder containing items from 1999 classifies Obama as a line), it was perfectly content to allow its members to be politician friendly to the party and recommends sounding him Democrats as well. Yet many Democrats looked on the New out for membership on the steering committee of a revamped Party with suspicion, and it took real courage—and commit- leadership. Yet it was not to be. The Chicago chapter of the New ment to hard leftism—to have dealings with the group. Party dwindled. True to his word, Obama became a regular signatory on let- ters Progressive Chicago sent out reporting on its meetings. The central task of Progressive Chicago was to identify local races hAT was the New Party’s ideology? National co- that could be won by candidates standing to the left of the main- founders Daniel Cantor and Joel Rogers saw the stream Democratic party, and to suggest such candidates. W group as a “social democratic” party, roughly mod- The Obama campaign’s claim in 2008 that Obama “never eled on the Swedish labor movement. A party standing on the solicited” the New Party’s endorsement is doubly false. Not left side of even Sweden’s political spectrum would clearly be only did he publicly request New Party endorsement on the day radical by American standards. While Cantor and Rogers ini- he joined, he also worked for nearly four straight years with the tially hoped to make the New Party’s social-democratic stance leaders of the New Party (who were also the leaders of ACORN explicit, other party leaders saw such openness as too risky. An and Progressive Chicago) in an unmistakable effort to garner early New Party document, however, makes the party’s social- support for an eventual political run. We know that members of democratic stance very clear. This manifesto, “The New Party: ACORN served as Obama’s on-the-ground volunteers in all his ‘Building the New Majority,’” is dated April 1992, the very

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beginning of the party’s existence, just before formal member- ship sign-up began. It calls New Party members “not just liber- al” democrats but “social democrats.” It dismisses the current FALLING American political system as “a sewer of privilege and exclu- sion,” and condemns the democratic party as “dominated by business, or business-backed candidates, or upper middle class liberal elites searching for a candidate acceptable to business.” BRICKS the manifesto rejects the theory that the democratic party was weakened when a sixties-inflected McGovernite wing took The proverb that murdered the control of it. Instead, it argues, the failure of the democratic party to root itself in community organizing is the true source of Spanish economy its weakness. It repeatedly compares America’s democratic party unfavorably with europe’s social-democratic parties. Yes, BY KEVIN D. WILLIAMSON there are “good democrats” who deserve endorsement, the man- ifesto concedes—but they are really social democrats, and merit Madrid New Party support for precisely that reason. the document ends ust off the Plaza Mayor in the spanish capital, there by describing the New Party platform as an attempt to enact stands an abandoned santander bank branch, shut- authentic social democracy to the extent possible given “the tered, vandalized, and covered in graffiti. “Mur der - constraints on such an order imposed by capitalism.” the J ers!” is spray-painted on the edifice in foot-high, unmistakable implication is that the founders of the New Party blood-red script. the spanish are not shy about sharing their would prefer to throw off the shackles of capitalism entirely. low opinion of bankers. down the street is a smaller square ACOrN’s records show that prior to joining the New Party, upon which weathered romanian whores hawk their services Obama was invited to personally confer with party founder Joel with the sort of dogged fervor usually associated with door-to- rogers, who would have either authored or approved that early door evangelists. A flyer sternly warns against soliciting sex on manifesto. Candidates for New Party endorsement in Chicago the square, and it is supplemented by more graffiti commen- were also regularly asked whether they agreed with the party’s tary: “Here, only the banks are allowed to screw us.” “statement of Principles,” which had been approved by the Greece was an appetizer, but spain is europe’s heaping national Interim executive Council headed by rogers. the helping of poison paella: standard & Poor’s recently handed statement of Principles contains concrete proposals that bring down another round of credit downgrades to the country’s the New Party’s “social democratic” stance to life. there are, biggest banks and to the government itself. Many of the banks for example, proposals to hand substantial control of the bank- are now well into junk territory, and the credit-rating firm egan ing and financial systems over to community groups (such as Jones, which is known to be a bit more skeptical of sovereign ACOrN). the statement of Principles also demands a guaran- finances than the Big three (it was the first to downgrade u.s. teed minimum income for all adults, and a universal “social treasury debt), already has consigned the spanish govern- wage,” defined as cradle-to-grave state provision of health care, ment’s debt to junk-bond status. Borrowing costs are skyrock- child care, education, and the like. eting. Many forecasters believe that spain is on the downward If there is a difference between the New Party’s statement of slope into the second half of a double-dip recession, and the Principles and the program of the democratic socialists of quality of bank assets is deteriorating rapidly. the spanish gov- America, many of whose members also joined the New Party, I ernment does not have anything like sufficient resources to cannot find it. But while the question of whether the New Party recapitalize the banks. Capital equivalent to a tenth of GdP fled was socialist can be argued, the party’s support for a version of the country in the last quarter alone. social democracy far to the left of the American democratic But while spain’s credit rating and economic confidence party cannot. And Obama would almost certainly have had to may remind some observers of conditions on the ground in express some level of support for the statement of Principles Greece, the underlying economics are not the same. Greece is before receiving the New Party’s endorsement and joining up. exactly what it appears to be: an economic, fiscal, political, and so in 1996, while Mitt romney was running Bain Capital, moral basket case that never should have been admitted to the Barack Obama threw in his lot with a leftist third party hostile to european Monetary union in the first place. It is a profligate both American capitalism and the mainstream democratic party. spender, a prodigal waster, and a pitiable tax man, a country surely if Bain sheds light on romney’s views, Obama’s New with no desire to set itself right. It is the suicide bomber of Party membership ought to be a topic of discussion as well, as european economies, one that has managed to command the should Obama’s efforts to disguise this episode of his life. does attention of all europe and the financial world by engaging in Obama’s “Julia” ad betray a cradle-to-grave welfare-state men- a hostage-taking exercise in which the hostage is itself. the tality? that would certainly be consistent with his New Party only reason to keep Greece in the union is that it will hurt just membership. romney’s allegation that the president’s true goal as much to kick it out. is to move America by degrees toward being a european-style spain’s situation is fundamentally different. though Madrid welfare state also grows more convincing in light of Obama’s has trouble policing fiscal affairs in its highly decentralized New Party days. these matters are newsworthy—far more so system of government, spain has not been a particularly ambi- than the youthful love letters of Obama and the childhood tious spender or borrower by european standards, or indeed by pranks of romney, each of which has drawn buckets of real and North American standards: Before its present crisis, spain’s virtual media ink. If only the press agreed. ratio of government debt to GdP was 42 percent, compared

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with 62 percent in the United States. And it was on the way In the United States, the rule of thumb holds that a prudent down, having been reduced by four percentage points from borrower (and a prudent lender) will agree to a mortgage no the year before, while U.S. government debt was climbing. more than approximately 2.5 times the homebuyer’s income. In 2007, Spain’s public debt was not only lower than the In some Spanish cities, the mortgage-to-income ratio was run- OEcD average but lower than that of Sweden, the Netherlands, ning 8:1. And a lot of those mortgages were zero- or negative- Austria, and—take note—Germany, where the government equity from Day One, with loans exceeding even the inflated debt level was half again as large as in Spain. The level of pub- nominal values of the properties. Those who argue that lic debt in Italy and Greece was more than two and a half times European-style banking regulation would have prevented the that of Spain. There is much to lament in Spanish public U.S. bubble and crash cannot account for Spain. finances and in European public finances in general, but those As for los ladrillos, they began to fall, literal bricks bringing looking for a morality tale in which spending and borrowing down the Spanish economy like so many countless tons of are the villains and thrift the potential hero would do better to metaphorical ones. look elsewhere, say to the relative spendthrifts up in sober canada (2007 debt-to-GDP ratio of 66.5 percent). Spain’s debt-to-GDP ratio has skyrocketed since the crisis, but that is hIch is to say, Spain’s situation is analogous to that mostly the result of a collapsing denominator, not a spending of the United States, except with less government spree. W debt and fewer policy options: a housing bubble, the It is just barely plausible that Greece could leave the mone- inevitable bust, and a banking system inadequate to dealing tary union without nuking the entire euro zone. For Spain, a with the fallout. There are a million good reasons to hate the much larger and more integrated economy, no such exit strate- 2008–09 bailouts of U.S. banks and financial institutions, and gy exists. No Spain, no euro. one good reason not to: The U.S. banking system did not col- lapse. Spain is what happens when you can’t do TARP—or at least cannot do it on your own terms. Spain was able to secure l ladrillo nunca baja”—“The brick never comes help in maintaining temporary liquidity in its financial system, down.” For years, that proverb expressed the con- but at a very high price. ‘E ventional wisdom about real estate in Spain: If it’s “In a normal economic crisis, you have fiscal or monetary built of bricks and mortar, it’s a solid investment, and the price tools available, or a flexible currency that you can depreciate will never really fall. There were plenty of bad political deci- and allow yourself some respite,” says one Spain specialist at sions to go around, both from Spanish authorities and from the a household-name global bank. “But if you take away the key European central Bank, but Spain’s housing bubble seems to macro tools that you have to adjust demand, your hands are have been particularly severe because of national psychological completely tied. Spain cannot do anything—there is absolute- factors exogenous to policy. As one longtime Madrid resident ly nothing they can do.” Except follow orders—orders that are tells the story, the boom sent so much money sloshing around coming in German. the Spanish real-estate market that a kind of stigma developed That Germany has emerged as Europe’s fiscal disciplinarian around renting: Of course you owned—only losers rented. Banks is not lost on the young and unemployed in Spain, where were getting it wrong on both sides of the real-estate game, Angela Merkel routinely is compared unfavorably with anoth- financing ridiculous levels of housing development—three hous- er famous German chancellor from some years back. Neither es built for every one sold at the bubble’s peak—and offering has Spain failed to appreciate that the No. 1 beneficiary of subprime loans to borrowers so dodgy that they’d have had to be European monetary policy has been Germany. Germany’s elected officials and “Friends of Angelo” to get a decent mort- impressive productivity gains and its enormous current- gage in the United States. This in a country that already had one account surplus both owe as much to the adoption of the euro of Europe’s highest rates of homeownership. as to any macroeconomic policy emanating from Berlin. Re- The relatively high demand for purchasing properties and placing a relatively strong currency (the Deutschmark) with a the relatively low demand for renting them produced its own relatively weak one (the euro) gave the Germans a critical edge set of perverse effects as landlords allowed their holdings to go in the export market. Professor John Doukas, a financial econ- untenanted rather than let them out for little money. So long as omist at Old Dominion University, argues that Germany may the on-paper price was climbing, landlords regarded their have been the only country to experience significant econom- vacant properties as assets producing returns. Rents declined ic gain from the adoption of the euro: “Germany experienced or stagnated, but sales prices leapt ever higher—so while the a depreciating real exchange rate, while the GIIPS countries total stock of Spanish housing was growing at an unprecedent- experienced an appreciating real exchange rate by adopting the ed rate, the active inventory was restricted by owners’ sitting euro. This, in turn, induced a current-account deficit for the on their hands waiting for soaring prices to soar even higher. GIIPS financed by capital inflows (net borrowing), which led “You could rent an apartment for five years for less than half to their external debt burden. Germany, on the other hand, with of the closing costs to buy it,” a Madrid-based banker says. a rising current-account surplus, became a net-creditor coun- “Plus, Spain is one of the best places in the world to be a renter: try. In brief, Germany is, perhaps, the only EU country that landlords are forced to renew your lease for up to five years. benefited.” But nobody wanted to rent. It was insane.” Renting, he says, was That being the case, it is not surprising that there is a distinct “almost socially taboo.” As a result, “the distortion between sense among the Spanish economic laity that this is all some salary and price point was more pronounced than anything I’d sort of Teutonic plot. “The Germans have always dreamed seen. Florida was nothing by comparison.” of conquering all of Europe,” says one young Spaniard in a

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madrid café. “now they are.” And Frau merkel? “Hitler in a become a recruiting center for al-Qaeda or other terrorist ele- dress.” ments. There is more to an economic collapse than economics. But Berlin has as much to lose from a Spanish collapse as madrid does. Its banks are exposed to Spanish risks, and the streets of madrid are filled with BmWs and Audis, even if a nd yet . . . it doesn’t seem so bad. At 9:30 p.m., the great many of them are running on visibly bald spare tires these beautiful people are still wearing their prada sunglass- days. Germany cannot write off southern Europe without writ- A es at the Cerveceria Santa Ana, and not just to pose: ing off a very large chunk of its own export-driven economy. There is still plenty of sun as the afternoon stretches out, It’s a Quentin Tarantino–style mexican standoff, everybody impossibly long. They lounge under umbrellas at the tables on holding a gun to everybody else’s head. the square and at the sidewalk cafés, picking at Russian salads, smoking cigarettes, and sipping blond beer. A well-built young man wearing flip-flops and a pink tutu, and nothing else, HAnk God for the termites, eh?” pablo is taking a dances artfully with a life-sized stuffed ape as a flamenco long, long lunch break from his job as an extermina- singer wails about the state of his corazón. A beautiful young ‘T tor, drinking an espresso and smoking marlboros at a woman joins a party in progress at one of the tables, fair and table on the sidewalk next to his death van. (The Spanish may slender and a perfect explanation of why Europhilia persists in not be the fun-in-the-sun Euro-layabouts of Anglo-Saxon imag- the United States and elsewhere. She is wearing a T-shirt that ination, but this is still not the place to be if you detest a siesta.) reads: “We Still Have Time Left. Let’s make the most of What “I thought I would be an architect or an engineer, but then I went We Have.” Still time, indeed—but how much? parties end, and into this business. now, I am the only one of my friends mak- tabs must be settled. Even the seemingly endless Spanish after- ing any money. Lawyer, banker, teacher—nothing, nothing, noon does not last forever. nightfall is coming. nothing. But always we have termites. I buy all the drinks.” He What will the darkness bring? The two most likely possibil- hears that new York City is suffering from a bedbug epidemic, ities are total economic collapse or total loss of economic sov- and he looks a little envious. “Bedbugs are very good.” ereignty. It has long been remarked that a European monetary The visual effects of mass joblessness are somewhat cam- union without a European fiscal union is a guarantee of disas- ouflaged in Spain. There may have been a stigma attached to ter, and now the disaster is upon us. If an anarchic meltdown renting, but there is not one attached to living at home with of southern Europe is going to be averted, northern Europe, one’s parents well into one’s thirties, and that’s what pablo and Germany above all, is going to have to put up the money. That a lot of young Spaniards are doing. Unemployment in Spain is idea is wildly unpopular in the north, but for Berlin, the real running around 23 percent, and outside the relatively wealthy choice seems to be to take a hit up front and calm the waters or urban centers it is estimated to be more like 35 percent. The to let the storm rage and take a hit, possibly a more severe one, numbers are higher for the young and the less educated—and on the backside as its trading partners go under and the debt for immigrants, who tend to be both young and less educated. tsunami rolls over European finances. There is talk of the nowhere is that contrast more pronounced than in Caña - issuance of Europe-wide bonds or, short of that, Europe-wide da Real Galiana, a sprawling illegal slum that has grown up on short-term bills. It is not clear whether even that will be the outskirts of madrid, about a half hour’s drive from the enough. cervecerias and discos of the city center. Tens of thousands of The distance between the slum of Cañada Real Galiana immigrants and a growing number of native Spaniards live in and the charming squares of madrid, only a few miles, is very squalor in this sliver of the Third World abutting the conti- much on my mind as I depart, making my way through the nent’s second-largest city. The driver I hire to take me there massive labyrinth of Barajas Airport. Between the Iberia air- requires some serious persuasion before he will agree to make line check-in and the Iberian jet there are: seven escalators; the trip. He asks if I am looking to buy drugs, and does so in about a mile of corridors, each impressive expanse covered that subtle way that suggests he knows a better place to score with about as many square feet of marble as the floor of the Taj some heroin, if that’s my thing. Indeed, drugs seem to be not mahal; five of those moving-sidewalk contraptions; a subway only the largest business in Cañada Real Galiana but the only ride about as long as my morning commute in new York; a business—there is not a gas station or food stand to be seen, short bus trip; and, finally, a run up the stairs—connecting the and hardly a shop of any kind. There is knee-high garbage, jets to the jetways apparently is beyond Iberian powers. Like smoke from open fires, scrofulous dogs, women in chadors, the trip from madrid to Cañada Real Galiana, it’s about a half and young men who squat between cars to transact their nar- hour’s journey, not counting the inevitable delays at security cotics business. Occasionally, the government sends through and customs. The security screenings are handled with dis- bulldozers to level the squatters’ shacks and inspectors to hand patch—the problem with the airport is not bureaucracy or out hilariously large fines that never will be paid. personnel, but the scale of the thing: It is a pointless and coun- If Spain ever had much of a chance of assimilating its large terproductive exercise in high-modernist aesthetic giganticism population of muslim immigrants from morocco, the down- built by a government-run airport authority facing billions of turn has made it a remote one indeed. The black-market econ- euros in debt that it cannot pay, with a million signs marked omy is their only economy. A bust in the slum two years ago “SALIdA” but no easy way out. Cervantes himself could not found 120 people transacting business in a single building— have imagined a more perfect metaphor for the European and €12,000 in cash, thought to be a single morning’s take. Union. But Spain is very old, while this new thing called Spain has been a regular target of Islamist terror attacks, and “Europe” is a postmodern phenomenon. Only one of them is the national police worry that Cañada Real Galiana has going to survive.

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ground forces. Our mere presence in Iraq could have preclud- ed Iran—or, what we see today, an Iraq under Iran’s influ- What to Do ence—from trying to protect Assad. That possibility is now much more remote, given the wide- spread infiltration of the anti-Assad forces by al-Qaeda and other terrorists. In truth, we do not know enough about the About Syria? opposition’s political or military leadership (which currently, at least, appears confused and divided) to predict who would Thoughts toward a strategy prevail in the immediate aftermath of Assad’s overthrow. In such circumstances, the risk of a radical Islamist regime’s replacing Assad is considerably higher than it would have been BY JOHN R. BOLTON if we had moved to oust him years ago. A relatively orderly exit by Assad is one thing. A disorderly, indeed chaotic exit is quite S hostilities in Syria roll on unabated, the civilian another, especially given the risk that Syria’s chemical- and casualties rise because of combat operations in biological-weapons assets, and possibly nuclear assets, might urban areas and execution-style killings. In re - fall into hands even worse than Assad’s. A sponse, calls for U.S. military intervention of one There is one other important consideration. Assad and his sort or another to aid the opposition increase, while the Obama father routinely butchered their Sunni political opponents to administration dithers over whether to continue relying on the protect their political base in the Alawi sect, an offshoot of United Nations Security Council and former U.N. secretary Shia Islam. If the civilians whose bodies we have seen recent- general Kofi Annan. ly on television were the victims of Alawite militias or Syrian But what are the American interests at stake, and what is the government forces, it is, sadly, more of the same. There is lit- best way to protect them? Although it is easy to concentrate on tle doubt that the Sunni desire for revenge is strong. After years the stomach-churning television images, we should operate on of oppression and brutality, how could it not be? Accordingly, the basis of strategy, not emotion. That does not mean doing we are blinking at reality if we do not recognize that, follow- nothing. But neither does it mean knee-jerk reactions instead ing Assad’s ouster, especially if the violence grew, the blood- of careful analysis. lust would be high and the risk of large-scale massacres of Syria’s Assad family–Baath party dictatorship had nothing Alawites all too real. How would we feel if U.S. weapons were to recommend it before the current conflict, other than its being used in such massacres? Without a substantial on-the-ground the devil we knew. Now, it is increasingly an Iranian satellite troop presence, we could no more prevent them than we can under Tehran’s growing regional influence. Syria remains a prevent the current killings of civilians. threat to Israel; has continuing aspirations to control Lebanon Advocates of U.S. intervention argue that, if we are unwill- while serving as a conduit to supply and support the terrorist ing to supply weapons to the opposition, we can at least declare group Hezbollah; provides a base of operations for Russian a no-fly zone along the Turkish border and continue to supply military activity in the Middle East; and is quite possibly the non-lethal assistance. This less visible approach implicitly site of ongoing, illicit nuclear-weapons activity by Iran and acknowledges that Arab states determined to prevent Iran from North Korea, despite Israel’s destruction of a Syrian nuclear consolidating its hold over Syria are now arming the rebels and reactor in September 2007. will continue to do so. Of course, they will arm factions they Accordingly, regime change in Syria is prima facie in believe are congenial to their interests, and not necessarily America’s interest as well as the interests of Israel and our those congenial to ours, a fact we can do little to change. In- Arab friends in the region, who see nothing but danger for deed, any level of U.S. support, if it turns out to be effective, themselves if Iran’s hegemonic ambitions unfold successfully. implies the same potential political and humanitarian problems Why Republicans and democrats alike have coddled Syria’s as does U.S. support that is truly robust. The more effective our tyrants over the years is extraordinarily difficult to understand. aid is, the more likely the opposition is to prevail. The issue is Of course, as with overthrowing Saddam Hussein and Mo - whether we want that to happen when we have so little under- ammar Qaddafi, there is the question of what will replace a standing of, let alone influence over, what a successor regime concededly distasteful regime. And today, that uncertainty is a would be like. major factor constraining our options for dealing with Syria’s conflict. It would have been one thing to work with the Syrian dias- SSAd remains in power because of Russia and Iran, pora to remove Assad and the Baath party when we had a mas- with China supporting him in the background. Russia sive military presence in Iraq, right on Syria’s border. In the A has been providing arms, economic and financial days just after Saddam’s ouster in 2003, conditions were assistance, and full political backing to the Syrian government. op timal (if nonetheless imperfect) for overthrowing Assad Iran has done the same and more. According to credible and replacing his regime with something compatible with reports, officers of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards are aid- American interests. We would not have needed to use U.S. ing Syrian-government forces and even directing them in com- bat. While China has no significant direct stake in Assad’s Mr. Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, is a senior fellow at future, it does have a stake in staying close to Russia, in hopes the American Enterprise Institute and the author of Surrender Is Not an that Moscow will support Beijing on issues where China’s Option: Defending America at the United Nations and Abroad. interests are much stronger, such as North Korea and, poten-

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A poster of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, January 2012

tially, China’s assertive territorial claims in the South and East will continue to fail to resolve the Syria conflict. The Security China Seas. On June 1, the U.N. human Rights Council voted Council is and will remain hopelessly divided, given Russian to condemn the violence against Syria’s civilians, and only and Chinese intransigence. Kofi Annan’s ill-fated ceasefire three countries voted no: Russia, China, and Cuba. plan and his overall approach prove beyond dispute that nego- Both Russia and Iran are prepared to shed a lot of Syrian tiations require a negotiator with something in his back pocket blood, civilian or otherwise, to keep Assad in power, because it other than a white handkerchief. So long as the various Syrian is in their interests, as they perceive them, to do so. And neither factions believe they can prevail militarily, they have no incen- Moscow nor Tehran is much swayed by emotional arguments tive to negotiate or compromise. Even the Obama administra- or by that perennial bugaboo for Western diplomats: “isolation” tion now seems to recognize that the U.N. is an empty vessel. from the international community. Consider the expulsion of Obama is not up to the job in Syria. The gravest risk of Syrian diplomats from Western capitals at the end of May. Does American involvement is that his administration and Iran anyone seriously think Assad will change course because his might find common ground in the Middle East chess game: diplomats now have to return to Damascus? Do any of us doubt Iran would allow Assad to fall, losing its pawn, and in exchange that the Europeans (and Obama) will quietly welcome those Obama would agree to do even less than he is doing now to stop Syrian diplomats back in due course if Assad prevails? Iran’s nuclear-weapons program, allowing Iran to protect its Significantly, U.S. intervention could not be confined to queen. The prospect of such a nightmare scenario, which the Syria and would inevitably entail confronting Iran and possi- Europeans could well accept, is palpable. bly Russia. This the Obama administration is unwilling to do, The case of Libya provides no encouragement. Unlike although it should. Assad, Qaddafi had zero outside support. In any event, post- In the case of Russia, such a confrontation would likely Qaddafi Libya is hardly something to boast about. Indeed, break the famous “reset” button beyond repair. As a president Libya’s prospects themselves demonstrate that the chimerical waiting for reelection so he can be more “flexible” toward “responsibility to protect” doctrine under which Obama jus - Moscow, Obama is simply incapable of contemplating this tified U.S. intervention is not tethered either to reality or to step. American interests. To extend “responsibility to protect” to In the case of Iran, U.S. military assistance to Syrian rebels Syria without contemplating the larger consequences for our would almost certainly end any prospect of further negotiations interests worldwide would simply be irresponsible. Advancing over Iran’s nuclear-weapons program. In fact, that would be no those interests sensibly might make it possible to ameliorate great loss, since Iran was never going to negotiate away its the situation in Syria, but we must first set our logic and prior- longstanding nuclear-weapons aspirations, a reality that Obama ities in order. is congenitally unable to acknowledge. Syria today is the focal point of the ancient Sunni–Shia conflict, which is well beyond America’s power to resolve. Rather than encourage more fight- hUS, neither U.S. military assistance to the opposition ing in Syria, we should concentrate on eliminating Tehran’s nor current administration policy, which has stumbled GETTY / AFP

/ nuclear-weapons program. So doing would make our Arab T from failure to failure over the past year, will advance friends less worried by, and more able on their own to rebuff, legitimate American interests. If we assume, however, that Iran’s politico-military adventurism around the region. Obama wakes up to reality—or, more likely, that the conflict

LOUAI BESHARA Unsurprisingly, the United Nations has failed, is failing, and in Syria drags on until Governor Romney’s January 20, 2013,

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inauguration—what should we conclude the United States ought to do? Or must we simply watch the killing continue? First and foremost, we should cut Syria off from its major On Deterring supporters. The television images from Syria will not change permanently until the underlying strategic terrain changes per- manently. Russia should be told in no uncertain terms that it can forget about sustained good relations with the United IRAN States as long as it continues to back Assad. We should resume full-scale, indeed accelerated, efforts to construct the limited Why it’s complicated, why it matters missile-defense system designed by George W. Bush to protect American territory not against Russia but against rogue states BY ROBERT G. JOSEPH such as Iran and North Korea. But we should immediately & KEITH B. PAYNE make it clear to Moscow that we will begin to consider broad- ening our missile-defense program to deal with Russian and S a determined Tehran pursues a nuclear-weapons Chinese ballistic-missile capabilities. We should also an - capability, and develops and deploys increasingly nounce our withdrawal from the New START arms-control long-range ballistic missiles, a debate on the pro - treaty, and our utter disinterest in negotiations to prevent an A spective role of deterrence begins to take shape. On “arms race” in space. Let Moscow and Beijing think about all one side is the assertion that Iranian leaders are “rational”; on the that for a while. other, the fear that, when it comes to the use of nuclear weapons, The magnitude of such a shift as a response to the conflict in they may not be. Their frequent calls for the destruction of Israel Syria may seem startling, but each of these proposals is meri- raise particular concerns in this regard. torious on its own terms. Wrapping several major policy redi- In both policy and academic debates about deterrence, to label rections around the Syria problem thus advances multiple leaderships rational is often tantamount to declaring them objectives simultaneously. Both Russia and China think deterrable. And if a leadership is deemed irrational, this is a Obama is weak, that America is declining, and that they can coded way of saying that it likely cannot be deterred. But while ignore our views on Syria and many other issues with complete equating “rational” with “deterrable” may make for a conve- impunity. It is time for a wake-up call to the Kremlin and nient shorthand, it is not particularly helpful in determining Zhongnanhai. whether the Iranian leadership, or any other regime, is deterrable Next, we should tell Iran that our patience with their decade- in fact. long ploy of using diplomacy to gain time to advance their It is a common assumption that a nuclear-armed Iran would nuclear-weapons program has ended. Tehran should face a not be a nightmare scenario because, while Iranian leaders may stark choice, and we can leave to their imagination what will be eccentric, they are not suicidal. In this narrative, their fear of happen if they fail immediately to dismantle all aspects of their the consequences would deter them from using nuclear weapons existing nuclear effort. We should also reverse the fantasy still or engaging in other severe provocations likely to incite Western trumpeted by Obama that, despite its repeated violations of the retaliation. Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty over 20 years, Iran is some- This view is often backed up by the observation that even how entitled to a “peaceful” nuclear program. Until there is a Stalin and Mao, who were considered highly eccentric, ultimate- new, trustworthy regime in Tehran, there can be no claim to ly proved to be rational and deterrable. There is no reason to benefits or “rights” under a treaty Iran has grossly abused. We believe that Iran’s leaders are any more eccentric, the argument should introduce this new reality to our European friends as goes. Even their pursuit of nuclear weapons is explained on the well, perhaps by simply being unambiguous with them. basis of a rational calculation: Such weapons would give Iran Finally, in Syria itself, we should do now what we could have both prestige and a means of deterring attacks from the West. begun to do ten years ago (and what the Obama White House at Confidence that Iranian leaders are rational does not directly least says it is doing now): find Syrian rebel leaders who are translate into acquiescence to Iran’s goal of obtaining nuclear truly secular and who oppose radical Islam; who will disavow weapons. But, according to those who hold this view, the United al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, and other terrorist groups; and who will States should be careful not to overreact to Iran’s nuclear pro- reject Russian and Iranian hegemony over their country. We gram. In particular, it should avoid the use of military force. will need some reason to believe that this opposition can prevail Since a nuclear-armed Iran could be deterred, why risk the con- against not only the Assad regime but also the terrorists and sequences of using force—Iranian-sponsored acts of terror, for fanatics who also oppose Assad. This must be not a faith-based example, or missile attacks on U.S. military forces and U.S. judgment but a clear-eyed assessment of reality. Such is the allies in the region, or economic disruptions in the oil market? kind of opposition that, assuming it exists, we should support, The alternative narrative is that Iranian leaders have such aiming for regime change in Damascus when—and only eccentric views that they are effectively irrational. If Iranian when—it becomes feasible on our terms. On this matter, too, we should tell our European allies that we want their support for Mr. Joseph, a senior scholar at the National Institute for Public Policy, was under something other than semiotic diplomacy. secretary of state for arms control and international security from 2005 to 2007. If we had pursued these kinds of policies after Saddam Mr. Payne, a professor at Missouri State University and the head of its graduate Hussein’s overthrow in 2003, we might today be in a very dif- department of defense and strategic studies, was co-chairman of the Pentagon’s ferent place in the Middle East and have avoided much of the Deterrence Concepts Advisory Group from 2001 to 2002 and a deputy assistant ongoing bloodshed. Better late than never. secretary of defense from 2002 to 2003.

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DARREN GYGI and Syria launched a massive armored attack against Israel, when it was expected to work. For example, in 1973, Egypt to be even greater. voking a powerful opponent but consider the risks of not acting take high-risk actions. And they may recognize the risks of pro- eventhough Israel was widely suspected ofhaving nuclear to them compelpersonal—that even or ideological,religious, military,goals—political,overriding have may Leaders sons. rea-varietyofcomplexa forprocessfailterrencea can that is De deterrable. - predictably not often are psychopathologies Weshouldrecognize sufferthatevenleadersnotdowho from unwarranted.is hopeeither Unfortunately, confidencein high weapons. nuclear forgo to decide will they that or deterrable tration’s defense “pivot” toward Asia. inthe context of austere U.S. defense budgets and the adminis- primary Iranian the means of against attack: missiles.capabilities These its steps may particularly be a hard allies, sell its of U.S.should alsostrengthen itsdefensive capabilities andthose pre pareseriously possibilitythefor failure. itsof To theso,do to and possible, as effective as capabilities, conventional and nuclearbothdeterrence,of meansmake byto UnitedStates is lengeboundariesthe reason,of thenprudentthe course thefor If Iranian leaders are so afflicted, or are eccentric enough down to of chal- cognition and display symptoms such as hallucinations. if they are irrational in the sense that they suffer from a break- nuclear arms. state,deterrabletheywillleadbesoaand theyacquireevenif ers are rational or they could not function at the level required to commentary on Iran and other rogue states. To wit, Iranian lead- rence alone would suffice? the challenge of defending the American population when undertakedeter-threat.Whynuclear Soviet the againstdefenses gic logicwas one reason for the U.S. decision to forgo most strate- deterrenceWar,relativelymakeColdeasy. itytheDuring this take military action, since its nuclear and conventional superior-to pressurelittleunder isStates United the suggestionthat its that deterrence will always work. It is conclusion additionallycomforting comfortingthe yields in presumption This properly. leaderscountedcalculatebetocanon nuclearcosts the of war to be in a position of authority must be rational, and that rational Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. greatrisks—and tousemilitary force, ifnecessary—to prevent the conclusion that the United States should be prepared to take decision-makingIraniandescriptiongenerallyaccompaniesof This retaliation. nuclear possible of face the in even cations, provo extreme - undertake might they destruction, own their leaderslackgoodthesensefearwidespreadto devastation and weapons. Henry Kissinger, secretary of state at the time, later intervention that would move Israel toward concessions in its concessionsintoward Israel move wouldintervention that superpowercompel to therebyhoped he and action, such ing Egyptian honor following earlier losses to Israel demanded tak- ofrestorationthe believedSpecifically,risks. heapparent the despitewarlaunching thepowerfulforreasons had Sadat But irrational.consideredso Egyptianbeleader to Sadat Anwar said that the U.S. was surprised by the attack because no one Historyoffers manyoccasions whichondeterrence failed Thealternative is to hope that Iranian leaders will be reliably Itis true that leaders are unlikely to be predictably deterrable contemporaryin seen be thoughtcanWarColdThat of line The typical presumption is that any state leader sound enough for example, sponsoring terrorist acts against Israel and other and Israelagainst acts terroristsponsoring example, for escalation of tensions and outright conflict. This could involve, an to leadcould that ways maneuveredin it as coversecurity it giveregionalwouldhegemon.weaponsNuclear positionof the to Iran elevating includes agenda That weapons. nuclear O do we know with confidence that they would not. would take high-risk actions? Of course not. Neither, however, Iran’sleaders that know therefore we Do views.) similar held andtherefore protected against long odds and high risks. (Hitler his belief that he is supernaturally guided in his decision-making Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has publicly expressedconsistentapocalyptictheirwithfuture. religious thevision of use of nuclear weapons would produce, because that outcome is theymayeveneagerbe for thechaos and martyrdom thattheir expressedeliminatinggoalof Israel.Somehave suggested that leadersto make high-risk decisions? One possibility is their oft- believe it is worth dying beautifully.” see your willingness to die beautifully,” he said, “but we do not responseSovietthepremierviceofby AnastasMikoyan.“We leadership calculated the risks and costs differently, as indicated attack would pose to Cuba and anthe suchworld. that Fortunately,risks obvious the despiteprevail,the andSovietcapitalism ers apparently perceived a moment when socialism could attack the United States, according to Soviet leaders. The Cuban lead- ership lobbied hard for a Soviet nuclear strike from Cuba against Rationality held, but deterrence failed. inlaunching the attack for these reasons, but not his rationality. dealingswith Egypt. It is possible to question Sadat’s prudence What motivations, hidden or explicit, might inspire Iranianinspiremight explicit, or motivations,hidden What Earlier, during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the Cuban lead- aggressive agenda in the Gulf and beyond if it had it if beyond and Gulf the in agenda aggressive promoteitstoriskyless considerwoulddence:Iran it NE prediction,however, canmadebewith some confi- 3 3 2col_QXP-1127940309.qxp 6/5/2012 9:42 PM Page 34

nations, fomenting political unrest in the Middle East, and tor Leon Panetta estimated in December 2011 that it would take undercutting the U.S. position in Iraq and Afghanistan. Iran “about a year” to build a nuclear weapon following a deci- This conclusion has enormous implications for U.S. policy. It sion to do so. Would it not be rational for Iran’s leaders to cal- suggests that, if Iran achieves nuclear capability, effective deter- culate that, once they have achieved their goal of becoming a rence strategies will be particularly important but also potential- nuclear power, the international community would, after a ly difficult to put into practice. decent interval, forget and forgive, as it has done with India, During the Cold War, Jimmy Carter’s secretary of defense, Pakistan, and other states? Harold Brown, concluded that effective deterrence requires a While the Obama administration has asserted that all options credible threat to what the enemy “considers most important.” are on the table, it has also been explicit in saying that it does The application of that conclusion to Iran leads to two funda- not want to threaten or use force. Indeed, former secretary of mental questions. What is it that the Iranian leadership considers defense Robert Gates called the use of force “insane.” More most important? And can the United States credibly put it at risk? recently, President Obama has reportedly sought to constrain There is some evidence that what Iranian leaders hold dearest Israel from threatening or using force. The irony is that the most is the Islamic Republic itself and their autocratic leadership of effective way to improve the prospects for a peaceful diplomat- it. For example, the founding leader of the Islamic Republic, ic settlement would be to make it clear to Tehran that force is a Ayatollah Khomeini, decided in 1988 to accept a ceasefire in his credible option. What was the case with Libya in 2003—that it nation’s long war with Iraq—a ceasefire that essentially had preferred abandoning its nuclear-weapons program to risking been available since 1982—because the war had come to pose a the military strike it believed the United States was prepared to threat to his regime. He did this even though he regarded it as launch against it—is likely the case with Iran today. drinking “the cup of poison.” In addition, he established as a In a similarly unhelpful vein, the Obama administration has governing axiom that the supreme religious value is the preser- promoted its vision of “global nuclear zero,” according to which vation of the Islamic Republic and by extension revolutionary the U.S. should take steps toward unilateral nuclear reductions. Islam, and that virtually any act may be condoned if undertaken The argument, unsupported by evidence, is that such measures for that purpose. would rally the international community in support of nonpro- Indeed, this raison d’état likely underlies Iran’s apparent liferation and, in the process, of sanctions against proliferators. commitment to acquiring nuclear weapons, despite repeated This is expected in turn to serve the cause of keeping nuclear declarations by the U.S. and other powers that such an outcome weapons out of the hands of terrorists. It’s all very neat. It’s all would be “unacceptable.” The regime may believe that nuclear very logical. But just think about how the international commu- weapons will protect the survival of the Islamic Republic and the nity has responded to the Iranian nuclear challenge, and the con- leadership’s position in it both from external threats and from clusion seems inescapable: The proposition is without merit. foreign military support for its democratic opposition, possibly The ultimate question is how to effect or encourage political supported by foreign governments. The world’s patient and rel- change in Iran. Here, again, we are handicapped by a history of atively benign treatment of North Korea is likely to have demon- seeking accommodation with the mullahs. In 2009, the U.S. strated to Iranian leaders that nuclear weapons would enable response to protests in the streets of Tehran and other Iranian them to hold their opponents at bay, just as the fates of Saddam cities was to sit quietly and wait, out of concern that support for Hussein and Moammar Qaddafi demonstrated that the cost of the protesters would derail the prospects for engagement with challenging the West with only conventional forces can be pro- the Iranian government. hibitively high. Will the United States be able to establish credible strategies for deterring Iran’s leadership? Perhaps, but the policies of the E need to devise our policies and adjust our capabili- Obama administration with respect to Iran are not encouraging. ties in a way that will deter and defend against threats To date, they likely have reduced the credibility of U.S. deter- W to our country and our allies. The underlying prob- rence strategies. How so? lem, the real danger, is when our government pursues that goal A central theme of the administration’s national-security pol- in a way that produces effects that are the opposite of what it icy has been an almost unshakable faith in engagement. Presi - intends. That is what we did in the aftermath of the First World dent Obama came to office promising an open hand to the War, with the promotion of first the Wilsonian League of mullahs in Tehran. In practice, this has meant that for almost Nations and then the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928. Both con- three years the administration opposed—actually opposed—the tributed to a failure of deterrence that helped create the condi- imposition of effective sanctions on the regime in order not to tions that brought about the Second World War. The flaw of reduce prospects for nuclear talks. By placing engagement at the those two measures was not in their vision. It was, as George center of its Iran policy, the administration has not only failed to Kennan has argued, in their implementation—in the naïveté and achieve its objective, but has also bought time for Tehran to con- wishful thinking that, combined, increased the likelihood of war, tinue work on its nuclear program. through bad policy and self-deluding complacency. If the sanctions to which Iran is now subject had been imposed The hope that Iranian leaders will ultimately choose to forgo earlier, perhaps they would have been more effective. As things nuclear weapons, or that they will be reliably deterrable, should stand, they are causing economic pain, but there is no apparent not be a source of comparable wishful thinking and complacen- evidence that they are slowing Iran’s nuclear program. One can cy today. A realistic assessment can only end in the conclusion only speculate about what the leadership in Tehran is thinking. that Iran might continue on its path to a nuclear weapon, and Will the sanctions perversely lead to an acceleration of the pro- that, if so, strengthened U.S. deterrence strategies will be criti- gram now that its completion may be near? Former CIA direc- cally important but not foolproof.

3 4 | www.nationalreview.com JUNE 2 5 , 2 0 1 2 lileks--READY_QXP-1127940387.qxp 6/5/2012 7:47 PM Page 35

Athwart BY JAMES LILEKS Agent Obama

veRY so often you find yourself reading a gripping inability to understand the president’s technical mastery. “You account of a super-secret government program got Fox News out there 24/7 telling people he’s a Muslim, and designed to foil the plots of our foes, and you people understand that Islamic mathematicians invented alge- E think: Why am I reading a gripping account of a bra, and they hated algebra.” super-secret government program designed to foil the plots of You would not be surprised to learn that the president met our foes? During the Bush years you could count on the New with Bill Gates and said he probably knew more about com- York Times to reveal any stealthy scheme, just to embarrass puters than any other president in history and his experience in the cowboy-in-chief; now, during the tenure of Professor Chicago gave him a keen appreciation of their strategic appli- Wonderful, we get secret details to remind cations. (He played a lot of Space Invaders.) us what an awesome war he’s running. That Nor would you be surprised if he told aides Yemeni bomb-plot we foiled? Oh, we total- The long to let it be known he personally approved ly had a secret double agent in there, work- twilight the nose-cone art for the drones, to make ing with Saudi and Israeli intelligence! His sure it was inclusive of all genders and body name was Bob, and he lives with his fami- struggle has types. There might be some Pakistani vil- ly in Silver Spring now. Here’s his address, lager with binoculars who suffered from if you want to see the house on Google turned into poor self-image if she saw some classic Street view. standing in cheesecake on a drone in the sky right Shut up! Shut up already! Stop telling me before it blew her legs off. secret things! front of 1600 You would, however, be surprised if they Now we have details about Stuxnet, the kept their mouths shut about these things. worm that wreaked havoc on the Iranian Pennsylvania Key terms in the quote from the Times: nuclear program. The New York Times ran Avenue with a “According to members of the president’s an excerpt of a tell-all book that says Obama national security team who were in the room approved the Stuxnet program, inasmuch megaphone. . . .” Unless a clown car pulled up and 15 as Bush started it and Obama didn’t stop it. guys in makeup got out, it should have been At one point, the worm spilled into the wild and the project a fairly small team. So someone should be quaking about his threatened to unravel. The story’s first quote is telling: The job, right? You assume they cover this on your first day at work: president frowned, looked around the room, told everyone they had 48 hours to engineer a kill switch, and said, “Gen - “Okay, this is a covert op. We’re in a race against time to stop tlemen, failure is not an option.” Iran from getting the bomb, and in this shadow war we must Just kidding! “‘Should we shut this thing down?’ Mr. never let the other side grasp the extent of our capabilities. Obama asked, according to members of the president’s Uh—question? There, in the back?” “So if things go wrong and the program is discovered, can I national security team who were in the room.” tell a reporter about it a few years later, with gripping details It could be worse. Given the hagiography that infuses the about meetings with the president? I promise not to use my full Left’s view of President Obama, nowadays you expect to read name.” something like this: “You can, but you will be stuck with a poison dart in your shin on a trip to Disney World, and we’ll make sure the death The president, who has frequently cited his high-school report blames ‘tertiary syphilis.’ Anyone else? Okay then.” habit of getting baked on reefer and watching Star Trek as instrumental in his intuitive understanding of computers and So you’d like to think. But the long twilight struggle has the complex codes that make them run, strode into the room turned into standing in front of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with with an unmistakable air of purpose and concern. He had found an error in line 27,394 of the code. a megaphone, apparently. CNN recently reported: “The presi- “There are those who say the value of this container should dent himself became the first administration official to be two or four,” he said, “but I reject these false choices. I say acknowledge U.S. drones were conducting attacks in Pakistan it is time we try three.” The change was made, the program was when he made a comment to a supporter in an online chat, even recompiled, and it ran perfectly. Within a week, it had not only though officials through all the years of the program had never found Osama bin Laden by analyzing Pakistani credit-card said publicly they were being conducted.” A comment. To a transactions for purchases of moisturizer (bin Laden was supporter. In a chat room. It’s not quite like FDR having lunch rumored to suffer from chapped hands), it had also identified at Rudy’s Haus of Schnitzels and talking about D-day planning millions in savings to be had in the drone-manufacturing in a loud, confident voice, but it’s not exactly discreet. process, mostly by expanding the “kill list” to include workers Perhaps aides will make it easier in the future; when the taking a smoke break outside. president gets an online message about national security, there Behind the scenes, aides are often frustrated by the public’s will be a little blue button at the bottom of the screen that says Mr. Lileks blogs at www.lileks.com. “share this on Twitter.”

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The Long View BY ROB LONG

client needs to adjust her end of the That said, it’s simply onerous to agreement to suit your client’s ap - expect my client to pay for and main- petites. As stated, my client agreed to tain the kind of personal security allow seven (7) lady-time/pornograph- force required to ensure, as you and Wilson & Sterling ic-actress/female-companion events of your client seem to demand, that A professional corporation your client’s exploding onto the front no pornographic actress ever be pages, in exchange for the delineated photographed embracing the former IN RE: CLINTON/CLINTON political assistance your client is obli - president and current husband of your CONTINUATION OF MARRIAGE gated to render. client. His travel and public events AGREEMENT 2000, Please confer with your client and are simply too numerous and too var- AND ADDENDA, UPDATED respond as soon as possible. ied for this to be possible. As such, JUNE 2012 my client was merely trying to come Yours sincerely &c. to some more flexible—and realis- Dear Steve: tic—definition of lady-time/por no - Many thanks for the phone call Greg graphic-actress/female-companion yesterday. I have received your e-mail (DICTATED BUT NOT READ) event, which, as you admitted to and have discussed it with my client, me on the phone, is a “murky legal Secretary Clinton. area.” My client is of course very grateful Wilmer, Patton In addition, my client feels that each for the work your client has done to A professional corporation event should be treated as a single further the idea that a Hillary ’16 cam- event, irrespective of how many fe - paign isn’t such a far-fetched notion. IN RE: CLINTON/CLINTON males there are in the photograph or Further, she is grateful to your client CONTINUATION OF MARRIAGE encounter. for his willingness to make recent pub- AGREEMENT 2000, Finally, while we all agree that polit- lic statements defending and support- AND ADDENDA, UPDATED ical advice, public messaging, and sud- ing the current Republican nominee, JUNE 2012 den disruptive for-attribution quotes Mitt Romney, especially as regards his are all part of the umbrella agreement work at Bain Capital. Dear Greg: on my client’s responsibilities and All of this, as we have discussed, Many thanks for your letter, and for deliverables, it must be said that his comes under the agreements in Appen - your timely response to my client’s recent work in re: the Romney cam- dix XXIX to the CONTINUATION request. paign, and his clearly articulated criti- OF MARRIAGE AGREEMENT with As you know, my client has tried cism of the current occupant of the special reference to the paragraphs ini- many times to contact your client White House, go far beyond the out- tialed by your client that agree to make directly—something he is allowed to lines of the CONTINUATION OF “such statements and public utterances do under the JOINT AGREEMENT MARRIAGE AGREEMENT, both in as shall be necessary for the continua- 11/2008 ADDENDUM TO CONTIN- its original form and in its amended tion of the signature party and her UATION OF MARRIAGE AGREE- and extended form, with special regard political viability.” MENT, PARAGRAPH iv. for the 2011 ADDENDUM “NEU- So, in conclusion, while we remain Your client was stated to have been TRALIZING BIDEN” PROTOCOLS. pleased with your client’s consistent unavailable because of “travel,” which All of his recent work inures to the and material compliance with our stat- is of course understandable for the sit- benefit of your client, the secretary of ed agreement(s), such actions do not ting secretary of state. But my client is state, and to her eventual presidential warrant a reopening of the agreement a former president of the United States campaign in 2016. It is churlish and itself, nor additional compensation in and also has a busy travel schedule, operating in bad faith to deny my client the form of increased lady-time/por - and it was only natural that he would the full extent of the lady-time/porno- nographic-actress/female-companion want to contact your client directly. As graphic-actress/female-companion allowances. Your client has been fair- part of their healthy and strong mar- events to which he is entitled, and to ly compensated in that regard with riage, both parties have negotiated the most flexible definition of same. seven (7) lady-time/pornographic- through their attorneys a certain num- I look forward to hearing from you. actress/female-companion events per ber of direct contacts (DCs) that are annum. As we discussed and agreed, not required to be vetted for legal and Sincerely, he is currently at his ceiling for 2012. compliance issues, and this certainly And while I agree that, in your words, seemed to come under the agreed-upon Steve “it’s only June,” I’m not sure why my definition of a DC. (DICTATED BUT NOT READ)

3 6 | www.nationalreview.com JUNE 2 5 , 2 0 1 2 books6-25_QXP-1127940387.qxp 6/5/2012 7:26 PM Page 37 Books, Arts & Manners

the older man came to honolulu for a he sometimes gives the impression of few weeks. the visit, Maraniss writes, being “a stranger in a strange land,” it is Came the “turned out to be the only time” in the because he decided, at a later stage in his future president’s “conscious life that he life, to see himself in that light. Hero would see his father in the flesh.” Obama has said that, in his memoir Nor did the four years Obama spent as Dreams from My Father, he created MICHAEL KNOX BERAN a boy in Indonesia play much of a part in “composite” characters and rearranged his reinvention of himself in the 1980s. the chronological order of the events. But Obama returned to america from Jakarta there “is more to it than that,” Maraniss in 1971 and never afterwards resided out- writes: side the United States for any consider- able length of time. When, in 1975, his the character creations and rearrange- mother returned to Indonesia to pursue ments of the book are not merely a mat- her anthropological researches, Obama ter of style, devices of compression, but did not accompany her. “No way was he are also substantive. the themes of the book control character and chronology. going to drop his buddies and his amer - time and again the narrative accentuates ican existence to live in that strange characters drawn from black acquain- country again,” Maraniss writes. tances who played lesser roles in his real Because his mother was often absent, life but could be used to advance a line Barack Obama: The Story, Obama was to a great extent raised by his of thought, while leaving out or distort- by David Maraniss (Simon & Schuster, maternal grandparents, Stanley armour ing the actions of friends who happened 641 pp., $32.50) Dunham and Madelyn Payne Dunham. to be white. Sometimes the composites they are perhaps the most appealing are even more complex; there are a few hat saves this narrative of characters in the book, and were devoted instances where black figures in the Barack Obama’s early life to their grandson, but they were not like- book have characteristics and histories that Obama took from white friends. from being a data dump (it ly to inspire an odyssey of racial self- the racial scene in his family history W is very long and marred by discovery. Stanley, the son of Ralph Waldo that is most familiar to the public, the superfluous detail) is its account of how Emerson Dunham and Ruth Lucille ar - time when he heard his grandparents in the future president recast himself, in his mour, was born in Wichita in 1918; he hawaii argue because his grandmother college and post-college years, as a bi- served in the army in World War II and was afraid of a black man at the bus stop, racial outsider, an exotic golden child later sold—or more often failed to sell— also happens to be among those pulled tormented by the perplexities of racial al- furniture and insurance. Madelyn, born out of its real chronology and fit into a legiance. Washington Post writer David in Peru, Kansas, in 1922, also contributed place where it might have more literary Maraniss shows that long before Obama to the war effort, working long hours in resonance. entered politics, he fashioned a heroic the Boeing B-29 plant in Wichita; later, in myth of himself. It went something like honolulu, she rose to be a vice president In fact, Obama imposed on his boyish this: Only by solving the riddle of his of the Bank of hawaii, and was the self a point of view he attained only when racial identity could he take up the strug- breadwinner of the family. he was in his twenties, and he “focused gle that was to be his life’s work. “If there is a representative teenager’s the narrative through that racial lens.” Obama’s boyish exposure to different life,” Maraniss writes, “Barry Obama “the tendency in his self-portrait,” Mar - cultures had little to do with the conver- lived a version of it in hawaii in the aniss writes, is “to present himself as sion he experienced in his twenties, when 1970s.” he loved basketball and dreamed blacker and more disaffected than he he first felt himself called to be a biracial of becoming a professional player. he was, if only slightly so.” In truth, more superhero. to be sure, his mother, Stanley had lots of friends, was always, a con- than slightly. Obama’s high-school class- ann Dunham, told him stories about temporary remembered, “in the mix, mate tom topolinski, of Polish and africa, but he never saw the continent never on the sidelines.” true, he later said Chinese ancestry, never sensed “any bit- with his own eyes until he was 26, and that when he was 15 he often felt sorry terness, identity crisis, or internal strife” his Kenyan father had almost no person- for himself, but self-pity is hardly unusu- in the pre-1980 Obama. “he never ap - al influence on him. Stanley ann left al in an adolescent. Schoolmates remem- peared distraught, even after a lot of pot Obama père in august 1961, shortly after ber him as “happy-go-lucky,” “always smoking and beer drinking.” “In hawaii the birth of Barack: the child would not smiling,” “the kind of guy who kept peo- we are all of mixed races and back- see his father again for ten years, when ple in a good mood.” he grew up playing grounds,” topolinski told Maraniss. If on the same games, watching the same tV one or two occasions Obama was treated Mr. Beran is a contributing editor of City Journal shows, and hacking around in the same uncivilly on account of his race, such and the author, most recently, of Pathology of the ways countless other americans who incidents were exceptional; in hawaii Elites. came of age in that era did. If as president in the Seventies it was arguably more

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BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS difficult to be a young white man than a struggle’ (Mythology of the heroic strug- said “he felt like an impostor. Because he young black man. “I experienced a lot of gle . . . ).” was so white. There was hardly a black racism growing up,” Dan Hale, one of Describing a particular kind of hero, bone in his body.” He took to carrying Obama’s schoolmates, said to Maraniss. Lionel Trilling said that “his motive is the a tattered copy of Ellison’s Invisible “If you’re a haole [white outsider] here legendary one of setting out to seek his Man, to remind him of what he wanted you’re a minority most places. There was fortune, which is what the folktale says to be. a lot of anti-haole stuff going on, and I when it means that the hero is seeking Genevieve was another test, a tempta- caught a lot of that.” himself.” The hero believes “that there is tion to be overcome. “Somehow splitting It was during his college years at Occi - some mystery about his birth; his parents, himself off from people,” she wrote, “is dental and more especially at Columbia if truth were known, are of great and even necessary to his feeling of following that Obama underwent an existential cri- royal estate.” Obama told classmates in some chosen route? which basically sis. In New York he lived an eremitic exis- Hawaii that he was the son of an African remains undefined. And am I to be left tence in tiny apartments, reading, writ ing, prince, and later he would make much of behind also?” She knew the answer. He and thinking. He dropped the name the improbable union of Kansas and “wants to fly,” she wrote in May 1984, “Barry” and became “Barack,” and with- Kenya that produced him and seemed to “and hasn’t yet started to take off, so drew into a mental wilderness. He mark him out as the healer of a fractured resents extra weight.” seemed at times less like an American col- people. Other prerogatives of whiteness had lege student than like a character in a There is another element in the ro - also to be rejected, and here, too, recalci- Russian novel—Pasha Antipov (Strelni- mance: The aspiring hero, Trilling said, trant facts had to be reworked to fit a nar- kov) in Pas ternak’s Doctor Zhivago or “understands everything to be a ‘test.’” rative of heroic overcoming. In Dreams Rakhmetov in Chernyshevsky’s What Is Obama found his tests in resisting his from My Father Obama exaggerated the to Be Done? privileged whiteness (the badge of the glamour of his first job, an entry-level It was during these years of ascetic insider) and cultivating in its stead an position in a midtown research firm. He introspection that Obama fashioned his alienated blackness (the mark of the out- described how, coming “out of an inter- myth of “the struggle.” The most articu- sider, the stranger). For biracial though he view with Japanese financiers or German late witness to this phase of his life is was, he did not feel himself to be black. bond traders, I would catch my reflection Genevieve Cook, daughter of Australian His own experiences were quite different in the elevator doors—see myself in a suit diplomat Michael J. Cook. She is the from those of the writers to whom he and tie, a briefcase in my hand—and for a unnamed white girlfriend in Dreams from looked for guidance—James Baldwin, split second, I would imagine myself as a My Father who, after going with Obama Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, and captain of industry, barking out orders, to a play by a black playwright, wonders W. E. B. DuBois. His father’s people in closing the deal, before I remembered who “why black people [are] so angry all the British Kenya were not slaves, and if they it was that I wanted to be.” This picture of time.” In an interview with Maraniss, suffered under colonial rule they also the lowly researcher rubbing shoulders Obama “acknowledged that the scene benefited from it—Obama’s father was with Swiss bankers amused former co - did not happen with Genevieve.” More taught by English schoolmasters and workers whom Maraniss interviewed. revealing than this admission are the in - helped by American missionaries. Obama reworked his experiences, one of sights of Genevieve’s diary: “Barack frets Obama could never believe in Mal- them thought, “as the temptation of Christ about the continual comfort I am always colm X’s “white devil.” The white people . . . the young idealistic would-be commu- willing to offer—recognizing it as feeling to whom he was closest, his mother and nity organizer who gets a nice suit and good, but also chafing against the threat his maternal grandparents, loved him barely escapes moving into the big man- of its impeding a rawer sense of ‘the and sacrificed for him. To Genevieve, he sion with the white folks.” The Story ends with Obama, having passed his tests and found the black out- sider within, about to enter Harvard Law School and devote himself to “the strug- gle.” But if inwardly he subordinated his white self to his black one, he preserved outwardly many of the characteristics of plain-vanilla whiteness—characteristics that would enable him, he believed, to be a new kind of leader, one who could rise higher than previous minority politicians and do more in the struggle to raise up those who (in his view) are victims of an unfair racial and economic order. Although Obama had not yet composed his gospels, Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope, the myths that would make his ascent possible had taken Genevieve Cook and Barack Obama shape.

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necessity of political conflict. George very little difference between a northern Wash ington denounced the “baneful and a southern (or western) Republican. Extremely effects of the spirit of party” in his farewell The same is true of Democrats. The caus- address, and Thomas Jefferson famously es of this trend are numerous (political, Non- declared that “we are all Republicans, migratory, and demographic), and they we are all Federalists” in his first inaugur - ultimately came to a head in the 1960s, Partisan al address. But at the same time, the when Democrats lost their strong hold Founders engaged in bitter squabbling, on the South and Republicans’ strength JOSEPH POSTELL using partisan newspapers to spread slan- in New england began to wane. Mann derous rumors about political opponents. and Orn stein’s account of this trend, And these petty tactics resulted in an infa- though it spans only ten or so pages, is mous set of laws passed in the name of interesting and readable, and is a good preserving political harmony: the Alien introductory treatment of this important and Sedition Acts. topic. This tension between political harmony But the authors devote most of their and political conflict has produced total effort to defending their second propo - confusion and hypocrisy in many of to- sition—that “the Republican party has day’s commentators. In this new book, become an insurgent outlier,” incapable of two longtime Beltway political analysts coexisting with a well-functioning demo - lecture readers on how dysfunctional cracy. Their argument bears all of the char- Wash ington has become, and how the acteristics, and the subtlety, of a rant. Republicans are responsible for it. They There are conspiracy theories and para- It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American thus produce a book that suffers from noia, identifying the usual suspects (Newt Constitutional System Collided with the New exactly the sort of one-sided narrative they Gingrich and the Koch brothers) and Politics of Extremism, by Thomas E. Mann denounce. the not-so-usual suspects (John Roberts). and Norman J. Ornstein (Basic, Their argument is relatively simple: Bizarrely, several pages are dedicated to 240 pp., $26) There are “two overriding sources of dys- discussing a chain e-mail about congres- function” in today’s politics. The first is sional pensions. he impulse for harmony in poli- “the serious mismatch between the politi- The resulting conclusion is that we face tics is understandable. All else cal parties . . . and a governing system that, an unprecedented situation, in which one being equal, most of us would unlike a parliamentary democracy, makes major party is so beyond the pale that it T pre fer civility to narrow-minded it extremely difficult for majorities to act.” threatens the very fabric of the country. partisanship and petty bickering. The The second is “the fact that . . . one of the Mann and Ornstein are very clear that difficulty is, of course, that all else is not two major parties, the Republican Party, what happened last summer with the equal. Most of us would accept partisan- has become an insurgent outlier.” persistent battle over the debt ceiling ship and bickering if it meant the enact- The first of these two propo si tions—that was evidence of a crisis. But several ment of better policy. our party system has been transformed pieces of anecdotal evidence do not con- This is the problem with facile appeals and polarized over the past several dec - stitute a proof. A book that offered seri- to comity and non-partisanship. When ades—is worthy of serious consideration. ous dis cussion of a widening philo sophical people innocently ask why the parties This story is familiar to most political sci- gap between the two major parties and can’t get along, there is often a veiled entists: “Political parties today are more linked that gap to an increase in par - assumption: The other side needs to stop internally unified and ideologically dis- tisanship would be a fascinating and dragging their feet and get with the pro- tinctive than they have been in over a cen- important contribution. Unfortunately, gram—our program. They would be per- tury.” The parties have become essentially that is not what Mann and Ornstein have fectly willing to fight (rather than get nationalized. Repub licans tend to hold written. along) if it meant that their vision of jus - the same political views as other Repub - Anticipating this response, the authors tice would be enacted. Thus they display li cans, regardless of geography. There is acknowledge that “readers might be struck bumper stickers proclaiming “Dissent is by a lack of balance in our treatment of the highest form of patriotism” when in the two major parties.” In reply, they fall the opposition, and denounce partisanship back on bare assertion: “Democrats are when in the majority. hardly blameless and have their own This problem has afflicted political par- extreme wing and their own predilection ties since the birth of our republic. The to hard ball politics. But . . . those tenden- Founders embodied this tension between cies have not generally veered outside the the desire for political harmony and the normal boundaries of robust politics. At the same time, Republicans in office have Mr. Postell is an assistant professor of political science driven both the widening of the ideologi- at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. cal gap between the parties and the stra - He is a co-editor of Rediscovering Political “There’s no such thing as a free lunch, and, by golly, tegic hy perpartisanship on such crucial Economy. I’m going to Washington to change that!” issues as financial stabilization, economic

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Sailing November 11–18 on THE NATIONAL REVIEW Holland America’s luxurious Nieuw Amsterdam 22001122 PPoosstt--EElleeccttiioonn CCrruuiissee JOIN Jonah Goldberg, Rich Lowry, Bernard Lewis, Victor Davis Hanson, Ralph Reed, John Yoo, Scott Rasmussen, Daniel Hannan, Peter Robinson, James L. Buckley, Ed Gillespie, Cal Thomas, Elliott Abrams, Brian Anderson, James Lileks, Mona Charen, John O’Sullivan, Mark Krikorian, John Fund, Bing West, Alan Reynolds, James Pethokoukis, Jay Nordlinger, Michael Walsh, Rob Long, Robert Costa, Ed Whelan, John J. Miller, Ramesh Ponnuru, Roger Kimball, Andrew McCarthy, Kevin D. Williamson, Jim Geraghty, Kathryn Jean Lopez, Kevin Hassett, Andrew Stuttaford, and Anne Bayefsky as we visit the beautiful and sunny Caribbean ports of Grand Cayman, Ocho Rios (Jamaica), Roatan (Honduras), Half Moon Cay, and Ft. Lauderdale

ign up for what’s certain to be one of the most exciting sea- Anderson, The New Criterion editor Roger Kimball, immigration faring adventures you will ever experience: the National expert Mark Krikorian, author Michael Walsh, NRO editor-at- S Review 2012 Post-Election Cruise. Featuring a cast of all- large Jonah Goldberg, NR editor Rich Lowry, political correspon- star conservative speakers, this affordable trip—prices start at dent John Fund, former NR editor John O’Sullivan, “Long View” $1,999 a person—will take place November 11–18, 2012, aboard columnist Rob Long, senior editors Jay Nordlinger and Ramesh Holland America Line’s MS Nieuw Amsterdam, the Ponnuru, NRO “Exchequer” blogger Kevin Williamson, acclaimed ship of one of the world’s leading cruise NRO editor-at-large Kathryn Jean Lopez, political lines. From politics, the elections, the presidency, and reporter Robert Costa, NRO “Campaign Spot” blogger domestic policy to economics, national security, and Jim Geraghty, and national correspondent John J. foreign affairs, there’s so much to discuss. That’s pre- Miller. And, as a special treat, our contingent will cisely what our array of three dozen leading conservative include someone who is so close to the history of both analysts, writers, and experts will do on the Nieuw Amsterdam, National Review and the conservative movement: former U.S. your floating luxury getaway for scintillating discussion of major Senator, federal judge, and Reagan Administration official James events, trends, and the 2012 elections. L. Buckley. We’ll have a wonderful group of speakers on board to help No wonder we’ve had over 180 cabins booked so far! make sense of politics, elections, and world affairs. Our stellar The “typical” NR cruise alumnus (there are thousands) has line-up includes Islam scholar Bernard Lewis, historian Victor gone on four of our voyages and knows that NR trips are marked Davis Hanson, pollster Scott Rasmussen, former RNC chairman by riveting political shoptalk, wonderful socializing, intimate Ed Gillespie, political guru Ralph Reed, European Parliament dining with editors and speakers, making new friends, rekindling conservative Daniel Hannan, columnists Cal Thomas, James old friendships, and grand cruising. That and much more awaits Lileks, and Mona Charen, military expert Bing West, foreign you on the National Review 2012 Post-Election Cruise. affairs experts Elliott Abrams and Anne Bayefsky, Uncommon Here’s our exclusive event program: nine scintillating seminars Knowledge host Peter Robinson,legal scholars John Yoo and Ed featuring NR’s editors and guest speakers; two fun-filled “Night Whelan, economics experts James Pethokoukis, Alan Reynolds, Owl” sessions; three revelrous pool-side cocktail receptions; a Kevin Hassett, and Andrew Stuttaford, City Journal editor Brian late-night “smoker” featuring world-class H. Upmann cigars (and complimentary cognac); and inti- JOIN U S FOR SEVEN BALMY DAYS AND COOL C ON SERVAT IVE N IGHT S mate dining on two evenings with a guest speaker or editor. DAY/DATE PORT ARRIVE DEPART SPECIAL EVENT The best reason to come is the SUN/Nov. 11 Ft. Lauderdale, FL 5:00PM evening cocktail reception luminary line-up. This tremendous ensemble (we’re awaiting RSVPs MON/Nov. 12 Half Moon Cay 8:00AM 4:00PM afternoon seminar “Night Owl” session from many more invited guests) guarantee fascinating and informa- TUE/Nov. 13 AT SEA morning/afternoon seminars tive seminar sessions. WED/Nov. 14 Ocho Rios (Jamaica) 7:00AM 4:00PM afternoon seminar a Some of our primo prior cruise evening cocktail reception experiences have been the informed THU/Nov. 15 Grand Cayman 7:00AM 3:00PM afternoon seminar interchanges between Bernard Lewis late-night Smoker and Victor Davis Hanson on the FRI/Nov. 16 Roatan (Honduras) 9:00AM 3:00PM afternoon seminar brutal, age-old struggle between “Night Owl” session Islam and the West. SAT/Nov. 17 AT SEA morning/afternoon seminars a Watch John Miller, Brian evening cocktail reception Anderson, Peter Robinson, and SUN/Nov. 18 Ft. Lauderdale, FL 8:00AM Debark Roger Kimball discuss just how deep the media is in the liberal tank. caribbean 2012_2 page June 25 issue_carribian 2p+application.qxd 6/5/2012 3:53 PM Page 2

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BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS recovery, deficits and debt, health-care tions. Perhaps Congress was designed as a reform, and climate change.” In other party-based institution in which conflict words, Dem ocrats use hardball politics, was resolved through confrontation. In Myths of but they do so within “the normal bound- grappling with this question, William F. aries of robust politics”; Republicans do Connelly Jr.’s 2010 book James Madison Mossadegh so in pursuit of a radical, ideological, Rules America is far more helpful and hyperpartisan agenda. nuanced. AMIR TAHERI In the end, then, Mann and Ornstein Furthermore, perhaps the specific seem to oppose not hardball politics, but source of today’s partisan conflict is found hardball politics in the pursuit of certain earlier than Mann and Ornstein think: in ends. The tactics aren’t the problem. The the mass democracy introduced during the Democrats can be nasty, because they are Progressive Era. With the rise of mass right. The Republicans cannot be nasty, democracy, problems of campaign fi - because they are wrong. If the Republi - nance, demagoguery, and media influence cans weren’t so damn conservative, there inevitably became more acute. Sidney wouldn’t be so much partisanship. The Milkis’s Theodore Roosevelt, the Pro - implicit premise is that Republicans are gressive Party, and the Transformation of radical and partisan because they are con- American Democracy (2009) provides a servative, and we’d be much better off if good discussion of these issues. we returned to the days when Republicans In the end, some of Mann and Orn - Patriot of Persia: Muhammad Mossadegh were content to go in the direction of pro- stein’s proposals are interesting and de - and a Tragic Anglo-American Coup, gressive liberalism, albeit a little bit more fensible. Some of them are obvious (the by Christopher de Bellaigue (Harper, slowly. media should be more responsible in 300 pp., $27.99) To restate the argument in this manner is reporting the truth about Washington poli- to demonstrate the problem with it. The tics and policy). Others ought to be given OR decades, the debate on Iran authors provide very little argument that serious consideration (reforming the clo- in the United States has been the Republicans have crossed an ideologi- ture rule in the Senate). dominated by a legend in which cal Rubicon in any substantive way. There Their closing proposals aim to direct F an elderly aristocrat plays the are a few quotes from Republican dis- voters in an especially helpful way: “Pun - central role. The legend is that in August senters Chuck Hagel and Mike Lofgren, ish a party for ideological extremism by 1953, a couple of CIA operatives orga- but that is all they offer. voting against it. (Today, that means the nized a coup d’état that toppled a demo - cratically elected government and paved the way for the seizure of power by the Mann and Ornstein provide very little mullahs 26 years later. The hero of the legend is one Muhammad Mossadegh, argument that the Republicans have who had been appointed prime minister crossed an ideological Rubicon in any by the shah for a second time in 1952. The legend was born almost a decade substantive way. after the events, when the CIA, its repu- tation in tatters after the Bay of Pigs fi - They do note that a couple of promi - GOP.) . . . Consider carefully which presi- asco, was desperately looking for some nent commentators (Ramesh Ponnuru and dential ticket (the candidates, party, and success story. Since dozens of books Steven Hayward) have warned against platform) you prefer to lead the country. have already been written on it, one might taking a position of avoiding, at all costs, Then entrust that party with the majority wonder why Christopher de Bellaigue, a accommodation and compromise. But in the House and Senate. It makes more British journalist, thought it necessary to these statements are not the smoking gun sense than divided government in these offer yet another. The answer is that the Mann and Ornstein are looking for. They times of partisan polarization.” The solu- legend fails to fade away. Right now, it is are simply a friendly reminder that oppo- tion for partisan polarization turns out to cited by Obama-administration officials sition is most effective when it offers fea- be quite simple: Give the Democrats to justify the policy of a “stretched hand sible alternatives—something that the control of the House, the Senate, and the of friendship” toward the mullahs in Teh - Republicans have arguably been doing, presidency. Voilà! No more partisan op - ran. with Paul Ryan’s Roadmap on the budget position! De Bellaigue blames the “tragedy” on and the repeal-and-replace approach on Mann and Ornstein acknowledge that Republicans who were in power in Wash - Obamacare. The book never acknowl- the idea for It’s Even Worse Than It ington at the time of the coup: specifical- edges the existence of these alternative Looks was hatched in the wake of the ly, President Eisenhower and the Dulles ideas. debt-ceiling debate last August, a mere brothers. Under the Republicans, “fair In tracing the causes of our present nine months before it hit bookstores. discontent back to the 1960s, Mann and Unfor tunately, the haste with which the Mr. Taheri is an Iranian-born journalist based in Ornstein ultimately miss the bigger pic- book was written explains, but does not Europe and the author of The Persian Night: ture and fail to address the larger ques- ex cuse, the final product. Iran under the Khomeinist Revolution.

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play had gone by the board at home, constitutional, they did not alter the sub- intervene to end Mossadegh’s dictator- where Senator Joseph McCarthy was stance or the form of Iran as a nation- ship. directing a persecution of suspected Com - state. Even Mossadegh himself never But was Mossadegh a man of the peo- munists,” and Eisenhower’s team had challenged the shah’s right to dismiss ple, as de Bellaigue portrays him? Again, concluded that “it was a good moment for him as prime minister: During his trial, he the author’s own account provides a dif-

a muscular assertion of American values claimed that he had initially doubted the ferent picture. A landowning prince and

abroad.” The president and the Dulles authenticity of the shah’s edict dismiss- the great-great-grandson of a Qajar king, brothers not only plotted against Mossa - ing him. Nor did Mossadegh himself Mossadegh belonged to the so-called degh but also organized a propaganda claim that the Americans had played a thousand families who owned Iran. He campaign in Iran “to blacken the [Tu- role in ending his tenure as prime min - and all his children were able to un - deh’s] name by showing that it was a ister. dertake expensive studies in Switzer - creature of the Soviets.” (The Tudeh was De Bellaigue is at pains to portray land and France. The children had French Iran’s Communist party, which, accord- Mossadegh as—in the words of the jack- nannies and, when they fell sick, were

ing to its own leaders, was founded by et copy—“one of the first liberals of the sent to Paris or Geneva for treatment.  Moscow in 1941 and controlled by the Middle East, a man whose conception (De Bellaigue even insinuates that Mossa - KGB to the very end.) of liberty was as sophisticated  as any degh  might  have  had a French sweet- The point man for the coup was Kermit in Europe or America.” But the trouble

Roosevelt, who, if de Bellaigue is to be is, there is nothing in Mossadegh’s   

believed, was a genius in black arts: He career—spanning half a century, as pro - arrived in Tehran on July 19 and over- vincial governor, cabinet   minister,  and   CAN   YOU  TRUST threw Mossadegh just a month later. To finally prime minister—to portray him as NATIONAL REVIEW? assist him, the CIA had a few assets, in - even remotely a lover of liberty.  De  cluding New York Times reporter Kenneth Bellaigue quotes Mossadegh as saying CanW hyou trust National i d Review f dly?      Love and an obscure UPI stringer of that a trusted leader is “that person whose Yes.i Please do so when planning  Iranian origin. every word is accepted and followed by your estate. Keep us standing De Bellaigue’s anger is not directed the people.” To which de Bellaigue adds: athwart history, yelling Stop.

only at the Republicans in Washington: “His understanding of democracy would Mossadegh’s Iranian opponents also always be coloured by traditional ideas of By remembering National Review get a thorough thrashing. While Mossa - Muslim leadership, whereby the com - in your will, estate, or trust, you degh’s supporters are described as “the munity chooses a man of outstanding will leave a legacy of continued people,” his opponents are labeled “slum- virtue and follows him wherever he takes dwellers.” them.” Word for word, that could have support for those conservative Our author simply cannot imagine that been the late Ayatollah Khomeini’s defi- causes and beliefs that will be as vital to future generations as they at least some ordinary Iranians might nition of a true leader. have disliked Mossadegh. Only “goons” Mossadegh also made a habit of ap - are to ours. Please contact: and “mobsters” marched against him. pearing in his street meetings with a copy When they burn buildings and shops, of the Koran in hand. According to de Jim Kilbridge Mossadegh’s supporters are merely Bellaigue, Mossadegh liked to say that National Review “show ing popular anger.” But when “anyone forgetting Islam is base and dis- 215 Lexington Avenue Mossadegh’s opponents do the same honourable, and should be killed.” New York, NY 10016 thing, de Bellaigue calls their action During his premiership, Mossadegh 212-679-7330 ext. 2826 “sedition.” demonstrated his dictatorial tendency to But what about the underlying truth of the full: Not once did he hold a full meet- the matter? In fact, the Mossadegh legend ing of the council of ministers, ignoring is full of holes. Let’s start with the claim the constitutional rule of collective re - that, prior to the supposed CIA inter - sponsibility. He dissolved the senate, the “Rated One of New York City vention, Iran had been a democracy. second chamber of the Iranian parlia- ‘Best Value’ Hotels.” ... Zagats The truth is that Iran was not a demo - ment, and shut down the Majlis, the cracy but a constitutional monarchy in lower house. He suspended a general which the king, known as the shah, election before all the seats had been wielded immense power, including the decided and chose to rule with absolute right to appoint and dismiss the prime power. He disbanded the high council minister. By 1953, the shah, who had of national currency and dismissed the acceded to the throne in 1941, had ap - supreme court. During much of his New York’s all suite hotel is located in

pointed and dismissed ten prime minis- tenure, Tehran lived under a curfew while the heart of the city, near corporations, theatre & great restaurants. Affordable ters, among them Mossadegh. Between hundreds of his opponents were impris- elegance with all the amenities of home. 1953 and 1979, when he left for exile, oned. Toward the end of his premiership, he was to appoint twelve more. None of almost all of his friends and allies had 149 E. 39th St. (Bet 3rd & Lex) New York, NY 10016 those changes of prime minister was broken with him. Some even wrote to the Reservations 1-800-248-9999 Ask about our special National Review rates. described as a coup d’état, because, fully secretary general of the United Nations to

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BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS heart, although that is improbable.) On not entirely satisfying: “We were all long- the one occasion when Mossadegh was in-the-tooth student radicals. LaRouche’s sent to internal exile, he took with him a Decline organization was the flotsam washed up whole retinue, including his cook. by the wave of the collective madness that Dean Acheson described Mossadegh as All Around had swept through the youth of the world “a rich, reactionary, feudal-minded Per- in 1968 and left many of its participants sian inspired by a fanatical hatred of the CLAIRE BERLINSKI maladapted to ordinary life for years after- British.” But even his supposed hatred of ward.” the British is open to question: His uncle He was cured of his maladaptation, he Farmanfarma was Britain’s principal ally offers, by norman Bailey, then director of in Iran for almost four decades. In his plans at the national Security Council. memoirs, Mossadegh says that during his “My political education began in his lair first posting, when he was governor of the at the Old Executive Office Building in province of Fars, he and the British consul 1981, when he explained to me that the “worked hand in hand like brothers.” United States would destroy the Soviet As a model of patriotism, too, Mossa - Empire by the end of the 1980s. After I degh is unconvincing. According to his became convinced that the Reagan ad - own memoirs, at the end of his law stud- ministration knew what it was doing, my ies in Switzerland, he had decided to stay break with LaRouche was inevitable.” there and acquire Swiss citizenship. He How Civilizations Die (And Why Islam From Bailey it was a short journey to changed his mind when he was told that Is Dying Too), by David P. Goldman Franz Rosenzweig, and from Rosenzweig he would have to wait ten years for that (Regnery, 306 pp., $27.95) to the steady, unrelenting approach of Him privilege. At the same time, Farman - whom Spengler so earnestly desired not to farma secured a “good post” for him in n 1995, on a whim, I answered a meet. At last, he was a devout Jew. And Iran, tempting him back home. help-wanted ad in the back of The thus had he achieved the only thing in life De Bellaigue tries to portray the Economist and landed a job as an that matters: immortality. 1951–53 drama in Iran as a clash of British I editor with a start-up newspaper in This is the chief thesis of How Civi - colonialism and Iranian nationalism. That Bangkok consecrated to the goal of coun- lizations Die: Immortality is all. “The his- claim, too, is hard to sustain. Iran was tering the White Man’s neo-imperialist tory of the world,” Goldman writes, “is the never a British colony. The Anglo-Iranian journalism. The newspaper was the origi- history of humankind’s search for immor- oil company was present in five remote nal Asia Times, and thus I have always tality,” for humankind cannot bear mortal- localities, which did not amount to even been privy to the secret identity of its pseu- ity without hope. He proposes that this is half of 1 percent of the country’s territory, donymous columnist Spengler, who hap- the central point neglected by modern in one of Iran’s provinces. At its peak the pened to be a white male neo-imperialist political science and contemporary strate- company employed 118 British nationals. and the only journalist there capable of gic thinking; without this understanding, Thus the overwhelming majority of Iran - writing anything interesting—or even geopolitical models bear no real resem- ians had never seen a single Brit in their grammatical. blance to the world in which we live, a lives. In 2009, Spengler publicly revealed world in which the crucial issue is “the Sadly, de Bellaigue seems to know himself in the pages of First Things as willingness or unwillingness of a people nothing of the hundreds of books and David P. Goldman, a classically trained inhabiting a given territory to bring a new thousands of essays that provide the pianist who had enjoyed a storied career in generation into the world.” Faith and fer- Iranian narrative of these events. The the new York financial industry. Among tility go hand in hand, he argues. In this assumption is that, mere objects in their the more bizarre details of his autobiogra- assertion he is supported by almost every own history, Iranians cannot offer a valid phy was his confession of a long associ - serious demographer, although few demo - narrative. It seems that, in the writing of ation with Lyndon LaRouche. “We were graphers are willing to state so forthright- history, scholarly imperialism comes in all about thirty,” he wrote, “and most of ly the conclusions to which their data two versions. In the first, an arrogant us were Jewish. The question, of course, is inexorably lead. “white world” boasts about its historic what were a group of young Jews doing now, a few observations: Spengler is a mission to civilize “the natives,” and in the company of a cult leader with a weirdo and a crank. His book inadvertent- takes credit for whatever is good in the paranoid view of the world and a thinly ly reveals as much about his own exis - world. In the second, the “guilt version,” disguised anti-Semitic streak.” A good tential despair as it does the world’s. But he the “white world” is portrayed as the question indeed, particularly since that is also—much as Max Weber described aggressor and thus responsible for what- anti-Semitic streak was about as thinly Oswald the Ur-Spengler—a “very inge- ever disaster happens to “the natives.” disguised as a Kiev pogrom. His answer is nious and learned dilettante,” and a lively Both of these versions assume that, on and provocative (if occasionally preten- their own, “the natives” cannot accom- Claire Berlinski is a freelance journalist who lives in tious) writer. I have never missed one of his plish anything, right or wrong. The impe- Istanbul. She is the author of Menace in Europe: columns, and this book is one of the few rialism of arrogance and de Bellaigue’s Why the Continent’s Crisis Is America’s, I’ve read in recent years that bubble with imperialism of guilt are two faces of the Too and There Is No Alternative: Why ideas. not all of them are good, and some same coin. Margaret Thatcher Matters. are silly, but at least the thing isn’t boring.

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The most important idea: Contrary to about the clash of civilizations? No, says received wisdom, it is not just Europe that Goldman, quite the contrary, for there is is in demographic decline. The Islamic nothing more dangerous than a dying civ- CRITICAL PRAISE FOR world, too, is on the fast track to demo- ilization. The Islamic world will soon be JAY NORDLINGER’S graphic senility. To my surprise, it seems as elderly as the industrialized world, but it he is quite right: All the studies confirm will not be industrialized. “Imminent pop- it. Muslim-majority countries are now ulation collapse,” he proposes, “makes exhibiting significantly lower fertility lev- radical Islam more dangerous, not less so. els than non-Muslim ones. (Here I should For in their despair, radical Muslims who make my own confession: When, in 2006, can already taste the ruin of their culture I wrote a book treating, among other sub- believe that they have nothing to lose.” jects, the crisis of European demographic Perhaps. It is an interesting thesis, at decline, I failed completely to notice this least. But I am not convinced that Muslims parallel trend. Mea culpa. In my defense, are thinking this way, consciously or un - at least I never worked for Lyndon La- consciously. Europeans and Americans Rouche.) have proven themselves pathologically A particularly interesting point about unable to recognize that, absent a high fer- the fertility plunge in the Islamic world— tility rate, the cost of caring for their de - and it is indeed the entire Islamic world— pendent elderly populations will ruin was made recently by Nicholas Eberstadt them, so why should we expect the in Foreign Policy. These trends, he writes, Mus lim world to be more foresighted? “contradict the received wisdom that fam- Dem ographic projections are remote ab - The New, Acclaimed History of the ily planning programs make an important stractions, published in unread journals Nobel Peace Prize, ‘the Most Famous independent contribution to reducing such as Population and Development and Controversial Prize in the World’ fertility levels in developing countries: Review—until they become reality. No, it John Bolton in The Weekly Standard: With this “erudite and The Islamic world will soon be as insightful history,” Jay Nordlinger “has written not only the go-to reference elderly as the industrialized world, book for the prize and its laureates but also an important philosophical but it will not be industrialized. reflection on the nature of ‘peace’ in modern times.” strikingly, desired fertility rates and the seems to me the Islamic world is brim- avail ability of contraceptives aren’t that ming with confidence these days, with scott Johnson at Power Line: closely correlated.” Exactly how Muslim Islamists in power, or soon to be in power, “. ..a brilliant, thought-provoking, women are managing to avoid pregnancy in Turkey, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, enraging, inspirational, fascinating, sans contraception is a mystery; Eberstadt Libya—well, no need to continue the list, moving book.” suggests the answer may be found in Lant I’m sure it will be longer by the time this MonA chAREn in her syndicated Pritchett’s puzzling and provocative paper goes to print—and the West sunk in a column: “Nordlinger is an engaging published in 1994 and blandly titled “De - morass of gloom and despond. As for and wise tour guide.” sired Fertility and the Impact of Population Iran, its leadership seems positively to be Policies.” The thesis, simplified: When enjoying itself; they must be wiping away National Review, 215 Lexington Avenue, NY, NY 10016 women want children, they have them; tears of laughter after their chummy din- Send me ______copies of Peace, They Say. My cost is when they don’t, they don’t. They have ner parties with EU foreign minister $27.99 each (shipping and handling are included!). I enclose evidently discovered how to make them- Catherine Ashton. total payment of $______. Send to: selves infertile at will, through a mecha- Does Turkey have what it takes to find Name Address nism no one quite understands. its way from agrarian backwardness to City State ZIP But why might Muslim women be so industrial modernity before its youthful e-mail: averse to reproduction? In Goldman’s population become wards of the state? phone: view, the answer is obvious: “The repres- I have been living in Turkey for seven sion of women . . . is part of the warp and years, and I wonder this every day; it is an PAYMENT METHOD: woof of Islamic society, the most obvious excellent question. But I am not sure that o Check enclosed (payable to National Review) manifestation of its inextricable roots in Goldman’s pessimism is warranted. He Bill my o MasterCard o Visa tribal life.” Upon even the most casual is off, in some way, in the subtle details. Acct. No. exposure to the possibility of living other- For example, he dismisses the influential wise—and in the contemporary world, the Pennsylvania-based cleric Fethullah Expir. Date mere possession of a television provides Gülen as a primitive Anatolian peasant Signature this exposure—what woman wouldn’t who believes in djinns and lacks the in - say, “To hell with this”? tellectual sophistication to succeed in (NY State residents must add sales tax. For foreign So does this mean we need not worry the modern world. Gülen does believe in orders, add $15, to cover additional shipping.)

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BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS djinns, to be sure, but his theology is a scendent principles of justice, many con- masterpiece of rigor compared with what temporary figures have downplayed, if not most Americans believe—may I remind Written on flat-out denied, this possibility. By doing Mr. Goldman that The Secret was an so they have undermined the foundations American bestseller?—and only a man The Mind of our political order. crippled by his own snobbery would con- Justin Dyer’s new book explores the clude that Gülen doesn’t have what it takes RYAN T. ANDERSON natural-law foundations of our constitu- to succeed in the modern world. To say tional regime. Against scholarly trends that about the Bernie Madoff of interfaith that argue that our Constitution was in East-West multicultural dialogue is to favor of (or at best neutral on) slavery, ignore the obvious: The man is an entre- Dyer presents a host of early Americans preneurial genius. who argued that the principles of the Goldman is probably right to predict Founding and the logic of the Constitution that much of the Islamic world cannot were undeniably antagonistic to it. Against enter modernity fast enough to forestall Whiggish history that views the abolition disaster, but nothing in my experience— of slavery as the inevitable result of the and I do have some—suggests to me that march of progress, Dyer argues that noth- anyone in this region is so persuaded of ing was inevitable, and that arguments imminent extinction, literal or metaphysi- had to be made in order to secure a just cal, as to justify Goldman’s certainty that Natural Law and the Antislavery Constitutional outcome. Against neat and tidy accounts it will conform to what he terms his Tradition, by Justin Buckley Dyer of the relation of principle to practice, Universal Law #1: “A man or nation at the (Cambridge, 216 pp., $90) Dyer shows how the application of moral brink of death does not have a ‘rational principle to concrete cases is frequently self-interest.’” Indeed, the Islamists where or a nation founded on the convoluted, full of tension and dishar- I live think it is all going swimmingly and Laws of Nature and of Nature’s mony. And against skeptics who deny the according to plan. The sentiment may be God, much of the past century of existence of moral truth and political liber- very different in ten years or twenty, but as F American moral and legal think- als who refuse to allow religious and other of today, the danger emanating from the ing has been a denial of our heritage. “comprehensive doctrines” to influence Islamic world is an excess, not a deficit, of While we once thought that man, the ratio- debates, Dyer insists that the antislavery confidence in its prospects. And thus nal animal, could intelligibly discern tran- constitutional tradition demonstrates that Berlinski’s Universal Law #1, which is moral truths can be known and are vitally no more comforting than Goldman’s: “A Mr. Anderson is the editor of Public Discourse: important. man or nation on the brink of victory has Ethics, Law, and the Common Good, the Alas, he doesn’t make any of these a very rational self-interest. It just isn’t online journal of the Witherspoon Institute of points as effectively as he could, for the necessarily ours.” Princeton, N.J. book’s structure obscures his argument. Without a roadmap, readers may lose their way in the weeds of his case studies. Some CONVERSATION of the chapters are previously published journal articles, which helps explain the You are a lovely sky of autumn, clear and rose! book’s fragmentary feel (along with the But inside me, grief is rising, like the sea, abundant repetition, including quotations Leaving as it ebbs upon my lip morose, that appear several times). only in my sec- Bitter culinary silts of memory. ond reading did I grasp Dyer’s goals, and I fear that many will close the book before —Vainly does your hand slide on my swooning breast; finishing it. And that would be a shame, since the This place it is seeking has been pillaged, friend, book is a carefully argued, richly sourced By the woman’s tooth-and-claw ferociousness. study of an important topic. At its heart is My heart was eaten by the beasts. Let searching end. the proposition that “if all men were creat- ed equal in some relevant moral sense, and My heart is like a palace ransacked by a riot; if legitimate government authority was One gets drunk there, one pulls hair there, one is quiet! both founded on the consent of the gov- —Around your naked neck is swimming a perfume! . . . erned and circumscribed by inalienable natural rights derived from the laws of O Beauty, scourge of hearts, this thing you would consume! nature, then the institution of race-based With your eyes of fire, akin to brilliant feasts, and hereditary chattel slavery stood out as Burn to ash these remnants salvaged by the beasts! a gross contradiction of the theoretical foundations of American government.” —CHARLES BAUDELAIRE It was the Declaration’s truths, Abra - translated by Jennifer Reeser ham Lincoln argued, that the Constitution

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was meant to serve. The principle it an - plained that if the slave “is not a man, why hands of that eminent tribunal.” Lincoln nounced was the word “‘fitly spoken,’ in that case, he who is a man may, as a mat- further insisted, “If I were in Congress, which has proved an ‘apple of gold’ to us,” ter of self-government, do just as he pleas- and a vote should come up on a question he said, alluding to Proverbs 25:11; and es with him. But if the negro is a man, is whether slavery could be prohibited in a thus the Constitution was “the picture of it not to that extent, a total destruction of new territory, in spite of the Dred Scott silver, subsequently framed around it.” self-government?” In his debate with decision, I would vote that it should.” Lincoln insisted that “the picture was Stephen Douglas, Lincoln showed that These arguments require a certain meta- made, not to conceal, or destroy the apple; Douglas’s claim to have no position on physics of morals. As Dyer notes, Lin - but to adorn, and preserve it. The picture slavery—and that each locality should coln’s view was that the Constitution “was was made for the apple—not the apple for decide for itself—amounted to taking a informed by moral principles, grounded in the picture.” The Constitution’s various stance on slavery: “When Judge Douglas human nature, which provided the logical compromises about slavery that were says that whoever, or whatever commu- basis for republican government.” These needed to form a more perfect union, then, nity, wants slaves, they have a right to principles were binding because of God’s should be seen as ultimately putting the have them, he is perfectly logical if there design. Dyer argues that “in Locke’s country on the path toward abolition. is nothing wrong in the institution; but if natural-law theory, as interpreted by the James Madison had insisted it was “wrong you admit that it is wrong, he cannot logi- Founders and amalgamated with Amer - to admit in the Constitution the idea that cally say that anybody has a right to do ican Protestant theology, a providential there could be property in men,” and so the wrong.” God provided the grounds of moral ob - text never spoke of slavery, but used vari- This forced the question of the morality ligation to obey the laws of nature.” Con - ous circumlocutions. of slavery. To answer it—and show its rel- temporary American legal theorists reject Moreover, Dyer shows that a generation evancy to constitutional debates—both much of this: Vanderbilt law professor of antislavery statesmen insisted that “the Adams and Lincoln appealed to the Dec - Mark Brandon notes that “invoking a stan- natural-law principles undergirding the laration’s natural-law truths. Dyer notes dard of human dignity is problematic, not Constitution were antithetical to chattel that Adams appealed to a “transhistorical least because of its metaphysical roots. slavery . . . even though slavery had been basis of right against which the historical Human dignity evokes natural law and protected by the Constitution’s various practice of slavery was thought to be anti- natural rights, which are off limits in the compromises.” For these men, natural law thetical.” And this source of right “had a new constitutionalism.” But this, Dyer gave “the theoretical foundation both for metaphysical basis in reality while also argues, undercuts our entire moral and constitutional arguments against slavery having a historical basis in America’s political order: “If an intelligent, creating and for an antislavery defense of the Con - founding documents,” thus rendering it and moralistic God has not imbued the stitution’s compromises.” “relevant to constitutional adjudication.” natural order with discernible purposes, Exploring the thought of figures such If all men are really created equal and then it is senseless to talk about morally as Lord Chief Justice Mansfield, John endowed by their Creator with rights, slav- binding laws accessible to human reason.” Quincy Adams, and John McLean, Dyer ery was self-evidently wrong. Dyer quickly adds that one need not start shows how even jurists who could not After the Supreme Court’s decision in with belief in God and then work toward champion their antislavery principles Dred Scott, Lincoln affirmed judicial morality. Instead, the intelligible order owing to contingencies of political life review but denied judicial supremacy. The of nature, our “grasp of human goods,” and demands of positive law nonetheless Court’s ruling was binding for the parties and the “distinction we draw between believed that slavery offended the laws of in that case. Yet while it deserved “very right and wrong” are themselves “evi- nature and nature’s God—and that the high respect” in similar cases and from dence for the existence of such a provi- opinions they did issue allowed for more other branches of government, Lincoln dential God.” daring challenges to slavery, especially said, the legislative and executive branch- Dyer closes the book with an assess- those advanced by Adams and Lincoln. es were co-equal with the Court and had a ment of Frederick Douglass’s public argu- We can group these arguments around duty to uphold the Constitution as they ments against slavery. Measuring them, four headings: self-government, the mor- understood it: To give the Court the final along with Lincoln’s, by the standards of ality of slavery, judicial review or su - word on what the Constitution meant was Rawlsian public reason, Dyer concludes premacy, and the metaphysics of morals. to “resign[] their government into the that Rawls’s attempt to find an over - If the Declaration declared the principle of lapping consensus based on current po - self-government, and if the Constitution li tical culture rules out appeals from was designed to thwart arbitrary rule, then so-called “comprehensive doctrines” and on what ground could one claim to govern their deeper metaphysical sources. But another man as property? Dyer notes that the arguments of the antislavery constitu- the “system of chattel slavery established tional theorists “were notable precisely the private despotism of one man over because they challenged, from founda- another; the rule of private human will tional premises, important aspects of their instead of the rule of law; and the ex- own public political culture.” This serves pansion and enlargement of arbitrary as a fitting reminder that the natural-law power.” This put the entire foundation of tradition should help us challenge impor- self-government at risk. “I know!—You nominate me for a Nobel Prize, and tant aspects of our own political culture as At a speech in Peoria, Lincoln ex - I’ll nominate you!” well.

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Happy Warrior BY MARK STEYN Gradus ad Narcissum

ow do you get to Carnegie Hall?” “Practice.” critic thought the new film “tries to recapture some of the men- It’s an old line, and perhaps an obsolescent ace” of old-time fairy tales, but Snow White, having been one. I can’t recall the last time I heard anyone walled up in the tower for the best part of 20 years, makes ‘H use it. Americans don’t seem to want to get to her escape and in nothing flat is transformed into a kick-ass Carnegie Hall, not if American Idol is auditioning round the heroine à la Keira Knightley in Pirates of the Caribbean. She block. And practice is one of those things, like math, the edu- doesn’t need a kiss—and, indeed, when she’s poisoned by the cation system seems to have ceded to the Asians. These days, apple, the prince’s kiss fails to wake her. He’s firing blanks, China not only makes most of the pianos, but plays them. like so many chaps in our unmanned culture. David Goldman (the Internet’s “Spengler”) likes to point out The huntsman chap—Chris Hemsworth—turns up in the correlation between the study of Western classical music another blockbuster of the moment, The Avengers. Different and success in science. “There’s a difference,” he writes, movie poster, same pose, but, instead of an axe, he has a ham- “between an engineer and an engineer who plays Bach.” mer. He’s the mighty Thor. I read Marvel Comics as a boy, and Whenever he makes his case, even those of a conservative dis- loved them, but Hollywood’s dependence on the superhero position fill up the comments section with objections: There’s movie is as sad as those overinflated love songs. The Avengers nothing wrong with an engineer who likes rock-’n’-roll, or is pretty typical. Thor’s evil brother has come to Earth to con- country, or thrash metal or gangsta rap or grunge . . . quer it, and to do that he has to steal a thingamajig that he hopes Be that as it may, music has fled our schools: In California to connect to a whatchamacallit that will open up a portal to and New Jersey, you can reach twelfth grade without having something or other. The point is, before you know it, Iron Man, heard a note of Mozart. At the school concert I attended this the Hulk, and the rest of the gang are zipping around month, the students contented themselves with insipid group Manhattan trying to prevent the supervillains reducing it to karaoke from the current hit parade: rubble. Humanity is confined to the non-speaking parts in the crowd scenes: “Heroism” is what people who’ve been bitten ’Cause, baby, you’re a firework! by radioactive spiders or born a shape-shifting mutant do. Come on, show ’em what you’re worth Until that happens to you, best to steer clear. And so a world of Make ’em go oh-oh-oh As you shoot across the sky . . . superheroes leads to a world without non-super heroes. A world, that is, without heroes. Nobody shot across the sky. The performance barely shot The stories a society tells itself are not unimportant. Today, across the footlights. But at the end the parents whooped nois- we have superhero movies but no westerns with beleaguered ily. A song about how uniquely extraordinary you are is given loners trying to live up to moral codes against the odds, and few a pedestrian performance but showered with extravagant films with amateur adventurers who find themselves caught up praise anyway. To my ears, there’s a sad desperation about in something and forced to see it through because they under- these numbers, but I seem to be in a minority. And the prin cipal stand that honor requires it. Perhaps this is because the ever alternative to songs about how extraordinarily extraordinary more unreal computer effects require ever more unreal charac- your sweetheart is are songs about how extraordinarily extra- ters. Meanwhile, the supposedly unreal musical is as dead as ordinary you yourself are: the western, in part because it requires real human talent and, like Carnegie Hall, practice. The old-timey actors came with Yeah, yeah, when I walk on by specialized skills: James Cagney and Bob Hope were both Girls be lookin’ like, “Damn, he fly” . . . great dancers—and, as my old pal Sammy Cahn liked to say, I’ve got me under my skin. I believe I’ve noted previously, that’s not even what they do. By comparison, what can Brad a propos what a recent survey of contemporary pop lyrics Pitt or Leonardo DiCaprio do? I notice a big dance solo seems called the “narcissism epidemic,” Beyoncé’s song about how to be about the only effect you can’t fake in CGI: If you can’t hot she looks when she’s dancing. I wouldn’t say she looks do it, you can’t do it, and the computers can’t help you. that hot, not in the sense of Dame Margot Fonteyn dancing So instead we have superheroes and vampires and kick-ass Romeo and Juliet with Nureyev. But, as the late Whitney fairy-tale characters. We sing pop songs to each other con - Houston observed, learning to love yourself is the greatest love gratulating ourselves on how just being who we are right now of all. And, if not the greatest, certainly a lot easier. is so totally awesome why bother trying anything difficult? Ease is the dominant characteristic of our pop culture. The And we go to movies that, as the critic James Bowman put it, other day, I took my daughter to see Snow White and the “isolate and quarantine heroism in fantasy-land.” So again, Huntsman. On balance, I’d have preferred Snow White and why bother? Jon Huntsman. In the snows of New Hampshire, the latter had Is a culture that communicates complacency and inertia way tougher odds than Snow White faces up against a sup- likely to raise a generation of non-super heroes willing to make posedly evil queen of unlimited powers. The New York Times the sacrifices to, say, roll back our multi-trillion-dollar debt or reform Medicare? At Carnegie Hall and beyond, we are way Mr. Steyn blogs at SteynOnline (www.steynonline.com). out of practice.

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