SWEDISH MESSAGE CHRISTOPHER CALDWELL SEPTEMBER 24, 2018 $5.99 Rise of the (Catholic) Resistance JONATHAN V. LAST MARY EBERSTADT Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington WEEKLYSTANDARD.COM Contents September 24, 2018 • Volume 24, Number 3 2 The Scrapbook Reagan nostalgia, Kavanaugh hysteria, & more 5 Casual Joseph Epstein, eyeing the exit 6 Editorials Trying Is Half the Battle • Democratic Crack-up • Competitors and Adversaries 9 Comment Steele and the State Department BY ERIC FELTEN Woke emotionalism is not a substitute for sober policy debate BY CHARLES J. SYKES The rise of ‘senior officials’ and decline of the presidency BY PHILIP TERZIAN 5 Articles 14 A Well-Aimed Blow BY JEREMY RABKIN John Bolton is right about the International Criminal Court 16 A Gruesome Plan BY WESLEY J. SMITH Keep the ‘dead donor rule’ 17 Idlib and Beyond BY THOMAS DONNELLY The vultures are circling in Syria 19 An Equal Opportunity Offender BY D. G. HART Mencken mirrors our own complexities 21 The Adjective ‘Late’ BY STEPHEN MILLER 6 A guide for the perplexed Features 22 The Rise of the (Catholic) Resistance BY JONATHAN V. LAST Pope Francis, Cardinal Wuerl, Theodore McCarrick, and the crisis of a church divided 27 The Elephant in the Sacristy, Revisited BY MARY EBERSTADT Catholic scandals past and present 32 Swedish Message BY CHRISTOPHER CALdwELL The anti-immigration nationalists come up short Books & Arts 22 36 Fear and Quoting BY MICHAEL WARREN in Trump’s White House 39 How Football Became the American Game BY MICHAEL NELSON As the season kicks off, a roundup of new and forthcoming books 44 The Kafka Papers BY CHRISTOPH IRMSCHER It took an international legal battle to settle the fate of the author’s manuscripts 46 The Ol’ College Heist BY GRANT WISHARD Why four young men risked prison to steal rare books from a university library 47 Evil in the Dock BY JOHN PODHORETZ Retelling for a new generation the story of Eichmann’s capture and trial 39 48 Parody Another anonymous op-ed COVER BY WIN MCNAMEE / GETTY THE SCRAPBOOK He Was Honest, Eventually ast week, Barack Obama finally “good new ideas” or just bad ideas; affordable for a nation with the bud- L did what Democratic activists had and in any case we haven’t the slight- getary obligations of the United been desperately hoping he would est clue what the connection is States—$32 trillion over 10 years. do—he reproached his successor between “egregious corporate tax But hold on. We seem to remem- ahead of the midterm election. It was cuts” and the high costs of higher ber that in 2009 Obama specifically a long, discursive oration, as Obama’s education. But we can’t let Obama’s disavowed any intention of national- orations usually are, and it contained endorsement of “Medicare-for-all” izing the health-care industry. “What lots of impromptu gibes and derisive are not legitimate concerns are those harrumphs that made the 44th presi- being put forward claiming a public dent sound less like a retired states- option is somehow a Trojan horse for man than a candidate vying for office. a single-payer system,” Obama said Amidst all the verbiage, though, to the American Medical Associa- even those of us perverse enough to tion soon after taking office. “I’ll be listen to the whole speech might have honest. There are countries where a missed a key moment: the bit where single-payer system works pretty well. Obama admitted—finally—that he But I believe—and I’ve taken some favors nationalizing the health-care flak from members of my own party industry. “So Democrats aren’t just for this belief—that it’s important for running on good old ideas like a our reform efforts to build on our tra- higher minimum wage,” said the man ditions here in the United States. So who gave us the Affordable Care Act; when you hear the naysayers claim “they’re running on good new ideas pass without comment. The phrase that I’m trying to bring about gov- like Medicare-for-all, giving work- was made famous by Bernie Sanders, ernment-run health care, know this: ers seats on corporate boards, revers- and it signifies the full-on national- They’re not telling the truth.” ing the most egregious corporate tax ization of the health-care industry That’s a tortured quotation, so cuts to make sure students graduate so that everybody can enjoy the ben- allow us to summarize what the presi- debt-free.” efits of America’s most expensive and dent meant nearly a decade ago: If you We’ll leave readers to decide if worst-run health-care program. It also like private-sector health care, you can these items are “good old ideas” or signifies a plan that’s not remotely keep it. ♦ special attention being given to what- The Gipper ever the president might say. and the Pictures Weinberg saw hundreds of films n our latter years THE SCRAPBOOK with the Reagans this way. In the I has become rather a sucker for book he recalls 17 of them, includ- books about Ronald Reagan. We own ing Ghostbusters, The Untouchables, a couple of shelves of them and admit Chariots of Fire, 9 to 5, and Top Gun. to enjoying even the mediocre ones, He recalls what the president said so highly do we esteem the modern about each one and suggests ways era’s greatest president. in which each may have shaped his One of these volumes, published thoughts about the challenges facing earlier this year by Simon & Schus- his administration. ter, gave us particular delight: Mark Among the book’s best chapters is Weinberg’s Movie Nights with the the Aspen Lodge screening room, the one about what is, in our view, Ste- Reagans: A Memoir. Weinberg was a the president and the first lady would ven Spielberg’s best film: E.T. the Extra- deputy press secretary in the Rea- welcome guests—his personal aide, Terrestrial. That screening happened at gan White House, and it fell to him his physician, a military aide, a Secret the White House, not at Camp David, to represent the press office in the Service agent, Marine One’s pilot, and Spielberg himself was there. So president’s entourage when Reagan and so on—and watch the week’s were Neil Armstrong and the newly traveled to Camp David on week- selection. Afterward the group would confirmed Sandra Day O’Connor, as ends. There, at precisely 8:00 P.M. in assemble and discuss the movie, well as other guests and their children. ARCHIVE / GETTY / HULTON BOTTOM: FOUNDATION GARY LOCKE. JOHN KOBAL TOP: 2 / THE WEEKLY STANDARD SEPTEMBER 24, 2018 After the movie ended, the presi- dent stood up and thanked Spielberg, then said: “And there are a number of people in this room who know that everything on that screen is absolutely true.” That led a number of hacks in the press and elsewhere to speculate that Reagan believed in aliens, but Weinberg gets at the truth when he writes that E.T. was “fundamentally Reaganesque in tone and approach. Its wholesome depiction of Middle Amer- ica, its impish sense of humor, and its subtle placement of the protagonist in opposition to the government aligned with his identity.” Weinberg’s memoir captures Rea- gan at his best—witty, kind, keenly intelligent. It also reminds us of the great man’s robust capacity to see the world not just through politics and policies but also, perhaps especially, through the imagination. ♦ Shut Up, She Explained he spectacle of protesters jump- T ing out of their chairs at regular intervals to shout incoherent slogans during the Brett Kava naugh hearings did not lend itself to the view that those who oppose the judge’s confir- mation are especially clearheaded in their beliefs. Their antics, if we may speak plainly, made them look like idiots. The fact that they were encour- aged and abetted in their behavior by Democratic senators—the very officeholders who regularly (and often rightly) castigate Donald Trump for And so it was. Consider, for instance, particularly hysterical about wanting his uncivil and unbecoming con- a column in the Washington Post by to keep them. There’s also nothing duct—leads us almost to despair. Monica Hesse headlined “ ‘Civility’ particularly hysterical in pointing out Even so, we were confident that the vs. ‘hysteria’ at the Kava naugh hear- that real people will be impacted by laws. Thousands of women had ille- great majority of Americans beheld ings.” As a piece of sophistry it’s aver- gal abortions before Roe v. Wade; hun- the protests with disgust. Most of our age: It takes her 800 words to make dreds of them died. We should weigh countrymen, we feel sure, still believe the point that incivility is okay when that. Really weigh it, whether we are that the reasoned expression of com- it’s about something really important. pro- or antiabortion, because nobody plex views by accomplished public It’s really important, in Hesse’s view, wants women to die. servants deserves something better if it “relates to central questions in our than the tantrums of ignoramuses. democracy”—meaning, we’re led to That’s true; no one wants women We were equally confident, how- conclude, that the more impor- to die. But another thing we should ever, that the opinion-makers tant a question is, the more we weigh, really weigh, is that this year of progressivism would should shout at each other: alone around 600,000 pregnancies find a way to defend There’s nothing particularly will end in abortion—that is, death— and praise these civil about taking away peo- in the United States.