CommentaryMAY 2019 > NOAH ROTHMAN > ABE GREENWALD > JOHN PODHORETZ NIKKI HALEY AT THE U.N. JON LERNER THE MERITOCRACY Commentary BLUES CHRISTINE ROSEN Beginning This MAY 2019 : VOLUME 147 NUMBER 5 147 : VOLUME 2019 MAY Month: Rob Long’s Hollywood Commentary $5.95 US : $7.00 CANADA $7.00 : US $5.95 MAY 2019 COVER.indd 1 4/16/19 12:49 PM SAVE THE DATE The 10TH Annual COMMENTARY ROAST OF BEN SHAPIRO will take place on Monday, September 16, 2019, New York City The Roast is a benefit to support For information on COMMENTARY INC., tables and tickets, the nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization contact Stephanie Roberts that publishes Commentary Magazine. at sroberts@ commentarymagazine.com Commentary MAYJanuary 2019 2019 COVER.indd Cover.indd 2 2 4/16/1912/14/18 12:49 1:51 PM PM EDITOR’S COMMENTARY A Few Things of Note JOHN PODHORETZ ITH THIS ISSUE, we inaugurate two new daily bloggers, has become a monthly features. First, replacing our regular member of our podcast W Media Commentary column that begins crew, and will write longer arti- on our last page, we will now present Hollywood Com- cles in the magazine in addition mentary—an inside look at the machinery of American to her column. popular culture by the vet- Now look to your left at eran TV writer-producer Rob the announcement on the fac- Long, with whom I share a ing page for our 10th annual twice-monthly podcast called Commentary Roast with the GLoP Culture along with Jo- victim of 2019, Ben Shapiro. nah Goldberg. This 35-year-old pipsqueak Christine Rosen Our Media Commentary has just published The Right columnist these past five years, Side of History, a prodigious small volume that takes Matthew Continetti, has shifted us on a tour of Western thought—and as of press time, gears and departments and will Ben’s book has sold in excess Rob Long now write our monthly Wash- of 100,000 copies. He’s got ington Commentary. He suc- millions of YouTube viewers, ceeds Andrew Ferguson, who has decamped for a staff podcast listeners, Twitter fol- writing position at the Atlantic. lowers…let’s face it, someone You will also find in this issue a new monthly en- who seems to triumph at every- try we’re calling Cultural Commentary. It’s a two-page thing ought to be taken down compendium of recommendations of books, services, a peg or two just to keep him films, and TV shows we like and wish to commend to honest. Our roast, on Septem- your attention, written by the magazine’s staffers. The ber 16 here in New York, will first Cultural Commentary includes favorable notices Ben Shapiro be phenomenal. You should on a book about therapy, a collection of short stories, come. You should buy a table a Netflix movie, a free streaming-video service for and bring your teenage kids. We need you. It’s our only people with library cards, and a compelling investiga- fundraiser of the year. Contact Stephanie Roberts at tion of the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight [email protected] to learn more. 370. You can find it on page 15. Over the coming months, we’ll be doing some Christine Rosen, who has been writing our Social renovations at our website, www.commentarymaga- Commentary column since December 2015, has joined zine.com, to make it more aesthetically pleasing. But our staff full-time as a senior writer, working out of this is all probably enough change for the moment. We Washington. She joins Noah Rothman as one of our two are conservatives, after all.q Commentary 1 Columns.indd 1 4/16/19 12:13 PM May 2019 Vol. 147 : No. 5 Articles Noah Democrats Go Wild 17 Rothman A decade in the wilderness is leading to some bizarre policy proposals. Abe Neurotic Nation 24 Greenwald Our politics is now characterized by fights over problems that don’t quite exist. John Plato’s Twitter Cave 29 Podhoretz The forces driving Democrats to distraction. Seth How Bibi Did It 32 Mandel The West’s most successful politician scores again. Jon The UN and Israel 35 Lerner in the Nikki Haley Era The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations stood up to the most powerful anti-Israel organization in the world. Politics & Ideas Richard Saving the Nordics from the Mongrels 42 Starr The Guarded Gate, by Daniel Okrent Gil Israel and the Illiberal Liberals 44 Troy The Lions’ Den, by Susie Linfield Columns.indd 2 4/16/19 12:13 PM Politics & Ideas Sohrab Man of Evin 47 Ahmari Prisoner, by Jason Rezaian Culture & Civilization Terry Henrik Ibsen, Part 2 49 Teachout He invented realistic theater, and now he bores. Why? Barton Unfree Radical 52 Swaim My Father Left Me Ireland, by Michael Brendan Dougherty Monthly Commentaries Editor’s Commentary Washington Commentary 1 John Podhoretz Matthew Continetti 11 A Few Let’s Praise Ourselves Things of Note for the Worst Reporting of the Decade! Reader Commentary Jewish Commentary 4 Letters Meir Y. Soloveichik 13 on the Misunderstanding the Drops of Wine March issue Cultural Commentary Social Commentary A Compendium 15 8 Christine Rosen Books, movies, and television The Meritocracy Blues that interested us this month Hollywood Commentary Rob Long 56 The Moguls Who Couldn’t Deliver the Goods Columns.indd 3 4/16/19 12:13 PM READER COMMENTARY American Exceptionalism To the Editor: Empire of its possessions under Furthermore, a portion of the Trust N CLAIMING THAT the United the South Pacific Mandate of the Territory of the Pacific Islands has IStates is exceptional and justi- League of Nations. It then immedi- evolved into the Commonwealth fied in its expansionism, John ately legitimized its control as the of the Northern Mariana Islands, Steele Gordon writes that the U.S. administrator of the Trust Terri- a United States–organized insular “did not seek or acquire any addi- tory of the Pacific Islands under the area represented by a delegate in tional territory as a result of [World United Nations, of which the U.S. is the US House of Representatives. War II]” (“What Makes America a P5 Security Council member and The U.S.’s complicated and difficult Exceptional,” March). This is at which Japan did not join until De- reckoning with its own composi- best simplistic and at worst baldly cember 1956. The U.S. also estab- tion is only impeded if there is false. While the initial intentions lished the United States Military not an understanding of the full of the U.S. may not have reflected Government of the Ryukyu Islands expanse of the country. expansionist spirits, the result in after the Battle of Okinawa, one of Samuel W. Biddle the Pacific was a massive expansion the most hard-fought battles of the Annapolis, Maryland of America’s territorial commit- Pacific theater. This organization ments under its own terms. was succeeded by the United States 1 This U.S. did this both in the Civil Administration of the Ryukyu South Pacific and the East China Islands, which lasted until 1972, John Steele Gordon writes: Sea. The country, through action and the ongoing Marine presence EGARDING Samuel W. Biddle’s in Kwajalein, Enewetak, Peleliu, on the island. Robjections, yes, the Northern Saipan, Tinian, and the surround- It does a disservice to remove Marianas are now U.S. territory (all ing waters stripped the Japanese these areas from the discussion. 179 square miles of them—about 4 May 2019 Columns.indd 4 4/16/19 12:13 PM half the size of New York City). But the reason is that the people of the Northern Marianas wanted it that way. It was their choice and they made it. The other territories he mentions, such as the Ryukyu Islands, which run south from Ja- May 2019 Vol. 147 : No. 5 pan to Okinawa, were artifacts of a war that Japan started and lost. They are all, once again, Japanese territory. John Podhoretz, Editor Abe Greenwald, Senior Editor 1 Noah Rothman, Associate Editor Christine Rosen, Senior Writer � Carol Moskot, Publisher Regime Kejda Gjermani, Digital Publisher Leah Rahmani, Publishing Associate � Change and Ilya Leyzerzon, Business Director Stephanie Roberts, Business Manager Nationalism � Terry Teachout, Critic-at-Large � To the Editor: Board of Directors AY I OFFER two comments Daniel R. Benson, Chairman Mon Michael Mandelbaum’s Paul J. Isaac, Michael J. Leffell, excellent “In Praise of Regime Jay P. Lefkowitz, Steven Price, Change” (March), in which he Gary L. Rosenthal, Michael W. Schwartz points to the three states that dis- rupt global peace—Russia, China, and Iran—and calls on changing their regimes? Cover Illustration: Victor Juhasz First, Mr. Mandelbaum calls the invasion of Ukraine, attempts To send us a letter to the editor: [email protected] to control the South China Sea, We will edit letters for length and content. and dominance in four Arab capi- To make a tax-deductible donation: [email protected] tals “aggressive nationalism”; but For advertising inquiries: [email protected] would these not better be called For customer service: [email protected] imperialism? More broadly, is not aggressive nationalism always im- perialism, that is, ruling foreign peoples? This distinction is impor- Commentary (ISSN 0010-2601) is published monthly (except for a combined July/ tant to keep in mind. August issue) by Commentary, Inc., a 501(c)(3) organization. Editorial and business offices: 561 Seventh Avenue, 16th Floor, New York, NY, 10018. Telephone: (212) 891-1400. Fax: (212) Second, Mr. Mandelbaum is too 891-6700. 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