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    10 views48 pages

    National Review - 28 05 2018

    Uploaded by

    sunata

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
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    WOK 4 ee ee ITI ieee eet a ? Hist irs i a rere Parente Se ee nnn a] conference in the world, |attend pe een ae Emr Rea Lo eee ee en) Brena eee nats my aan ood S77 vy oe IA) WY ag tin a aa oe BO Miele] ace sf S A EMERGENCY | 12128 was ECONOMIC SUMMIT vere )\. $905 5895 nA per couple Call 855-850-3733 ext 202 it FreedomFest.com SOT nd Contents “Aya MAY 28, 2018 1 VOLUME LXX,NO. 10 1 www.nationaleview.com ON THE COVER Page 24 BOOKS, ARTS Cold War II & MANNERS At some point in the last few years, what 35. UNDERSTANDING THE former Russian president Boris Yeltsin ae Cu The called the “cold peace” of the 1990s rere has given way to a new cold war. Cold “Areican Poly by Sela 20 War Il is fundamentally different from oe Cold War | in important respects. 37. Kes TAUMPHS Unless American policymakers eee understand the differences, the yp ‘the World the 1950 U.S. risks strategic failure and ee ee national humiliation. 6.6)! 39. -urtte money suT 6000 ‘CANOEING’ Geral Rl ris Imaginative Conservatism ARTICLES The Letters of Russell Ktk, hey Joes E Pro fe 13 arianeon reas Hawise by Hey Olen ‘They should act like a third party. a0 wer 14 one-oienstonaL CHESS by Orn Car Se ine The sdainisenton pods a eter ade poly Tit wansto cope wth Ching — |. gue erg 16 rue waaes oF DEATH bly Sak Seach Assisted suicide continues its inexorable expansion. _— 18 mew auaa in cMna, Jy jy Noda 43. supenienoesm rent The mass incarceration of a minority people. be poe ere megs: 20 tne sMeanine oF TOBY YOUNG fy KS When he Leh dscces ou odeenable 22 noWiCE FORINGELS Kinin lanadans SECTIONS FEATURES 2 Lata te Estar 24 coup wan wb ltd 4 The weak Inthe contest with Chinn, people nc geo econoics mast bon. 33 Awan oo 29 ce 34° The Long View Rob Long DEGENERATE FEDERALISM by Chi: ye 4 teu pits In practice, federalism has become largely a way of bilking U.S. taxpayers. 44 Happy Warrior... Paid Haran NATIONAL REVIEW pte Se / Dal oe “Tor hates CW, Conk Kap reas "mes Gander / Dr rere / Gro Cader ‘haa Reser od Rg ve Brin be Print Real kre Crise Ne “katt, Letters A Thesis on the Bendy Straw In his Athwart column (May 14), James Lileks imagines some future academic \writing “a thesis on the insidious invention of the bendy straw.” While I am not, aware of an actual thesis, a fair amount of scholarly work has been done on this very topic. ‘The inventor was Joseph Friedman, a Cleveland native living in San Francisco, His brother ran an ice-cream shop, and when Friedman saw his young daughter struggling to drink her soda through a straight straw, he devised a method to corrugate a section of it in a way that would permit bending. He received a patent in 1937 and began manufacturing the straws after World War I at first selling mainly to hospital. Friedman's papers are in the Smithsonian. And far from being “insidious,” the bendy straw is naw celebrated as an carly example of “universal design,” in which ‘changes instituted to accommodate the disabled end up helping everyone. Alison Sckildkraut Des Moines, lowa The Power of Presidential Character ‘The dialogue between Victor Davis Hanson's “Donald Trump, Tragic Hero” and Michael Knox Beran’s “The Magnanimous Magistrate” in the April 30 issue is particularly interesting. The two writers seem to be in agreement: Presidential character is eminently important to the well-being of the republic. But while Beran takes a positive view, suggesting that magnanimous character can fill space and bring positive change, Hanson operates from the negative, suggesting that Trump’s lack of character, or atleast magnanimous character, may be the ‘greatest tool in shifting the path of this country. Beran limits his analysis to “irst-rank presidents,” those who “in some way stirred the nation even as they undertook to reform its laws and manners.” Perhaps Trump does not fall within this rank, his “hamartia," as Hanson puts it, excluding him, almost as a martyr, from these highest reaches. So while Trump's lack of character may be an effective agent of change itself, it does not necessarily signal positive change. Beran writes, “The presidency of a wholly unmagnanimous man, ‘whatever its surface accomplishments, would almost certainly be a disaster, and destructive of the republic's moral life.” This seems to me the strongest point against Hanson; though Trump may indeed be forced to sacrifice his presidency for the sake of some goods (a Supreme Cour justice's nomination or a tax-reform bill's passage), the damage his eaddishness and lack of scruples may do to the country’s moral foundations ‘may temper their glow. Trump's legacy is not yet complete, and one can still hope that character will rule the day. Nora James Annapolis, Md. eaters may be submited by email co letrs(@natonskeview-com, CATHERINE KEENER JEANNE TRIPPLEHORN LITTLE PINK HOUSE The Week 1 We propose a total and complete shutdown of New York attor- neys general until we can figure out what the hell going on, '™ Rudy Giuliani began his service on President Trump's legal team by dousing the smoldering Stormy Daniels affair with gas0- line, First he admitted that Trump knew about the payments for- rmer lawyer Michael Cohen made to hush up Daniels before the election. This contradicted a string of Trump’s denials, and was itself contradicted by Trump, who said Giuliani should “get his facts straight.” Giuliani then said that Cohen might have made similar payments to other women, and that $130,000—the amount given Daniels—was not real money anyway, merely a ‘nuisance” payment. Everyone knows Trump is a cad; his enc- mies claim to be shocked by it, his supporters don’t care, Everyone also knows that Trump blusters and lies whenever he {eels his amour-propre is threatened. What we did not know was {hat Team Trump could be so feckless in self-defense, especially when its new point man is both a former prosecutor and a long- time friend of Trump's. Saddestis to ee Giuliani ending asome- times heroic career as a vaudevillian. Trump should admit he paid off bimbos, pay the fine for not declaring it as a campaign expense, and end the legal and media circus, ' Robert Mueller finally has a skeptic he can’t afford to ignore: federal judge T. S. Ellis I of the Eastem District of Virginia. Mueller and his nominal but seemingly passive supervisor, Dep- uty Atomey General Rod Rosenstein, have long dodged ques- tions about Rosenstein's non-compliance with regulations: vesting Mueller with apparently limitless jurisdiction, failing to articulate the crimes he has authority to investigate. But in a tense hearing on Mueller’s prosecution of Paul Manafor, Judge Ellis posed those questions, putting prosecutors in the hot seat. A Rea- {gan appointee known for impolitie bluntness, Elis observed that the charges against Manafort, which deal with shady work for a Kremlin-backed Ukrainian political party going back over a decade, have nothing to do with Russia's meddling in the 2016 election; hence, the judge tally noted, the prosecutor is squeez- ing Manafort to get his cooperation with an eye toward impeach- ing Trump. Ellis was especially omery over prosecutors’ refusal to show him an unredacted version ofa classified memo in which Rosenstein purports to have spelled out Mueller’s jurisdiction. He indicated he may dismiss the indictment ifthe special counse! does not relent. We suspect that Ellis will not do that, but that Mueller isin for a tough go. As head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt has been a champion of deregulation and the rule of law. He has also, it increasingly appears, been exploiting taxpayers for his enjoyment. The Washington Post claims that four § sources say that when he took office, he “drew up a list of at ¢ least a dozen countries he hoped to visit and urged aides to help 5 him find official reasons to travel.” If that and similar reports are true, President Trump should arrange for him to see the ‘world as a private citizen and be replaced by someone with the same policies and better ethies. Vice President Mike Pence, in Arizona to address a pro- ‘Trump group, called out former sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was in the audience, as “a great friend of this president” and a “tireless ‘champion of strong borders and the rule of law" Arpaio should be a great friend of this president, who pardoned him for c1 inal contempt. But “champion of... the rule of law"? When he ‘was sherilT of Maricopa County, Arpaio wrongfully arrested or prosecuted political enemies, causing the public to spend mil- lions in settlements, The county gave millions more tothe fan ilies of prisoners who died at the hands of his deputies while in custody. Arpaio talked about “strong borders” often enough, but maybe he should have spent more time doing his job. Pence should not be willing to swallow any toad to appease the worst passions of Trump's base, © Don Blankenship, a disgraced coal magnate, briefly seized the national spotlight in the West Virginia Republican Senate primary with his Iunatie attacks on Mitch MeConnell, aka. je Chao, who was born in Taiwan, Republicans feared that the likely unelectable Blankenship might ride a tide of infamy to victory in the three-way race, but Trump helpfully slapped down Blankenship on Twitter, and state attorney general and NR- endorsed candidate Patrick Morrisey prevailed. Morrisey is a Ata High School Conference al the Reagan Ranch... Your Teenager Can Walk in President Reagan’s Footsteps and Learn Conservative Ideas You can send your teenager to visit life will expand his or her knowledge Ronald Reagan's California ranch of economics, American history, to learn about the 20" Century's personal responsibility, and President ‘greatest president. What better way a8 to celebrate freedom than by walking through a series of innovative eagan’s footsteps lectures, discussions, and briefings. about the ideas he For dates and information, and to register a student for this invaluable, Young America’s Foundation _ historical experience, please contact, ool Conference at the Young America’s Foundation’s Reagan Ranch, the student in your conference director at 800-USA-1776. YOUNG AVERICAS The Reagan Ranch Center» 217 Sate Street» Santa Barbra, California 93101 + 88-USA1776 ae Satonal Headquarters * 11480 Commerce Park Drv, Sith Foor“ Reston, Virgina 20191 - 00-USA.1776 — wwvwtyaf org — Use offer code “NR” to save 15% —— TROP hm COMUNE Ce Reta mee nT acceso» (ory ctor Jolie Ballantyne at 800-USA-1776 or hard worker and a rock-solid conservative, and he'll have a ddecent chance of beating Senator Joe Manchin, who has to be nearly as disappointed at Blankenship's third-place showing as Blankenship is Kanye West, the mercurial hip-hop star, has shocked the world, Returning, to Twitter after a selfimposed absence, Kanye beyan to say that he had become “free thinker.” More specifically, he expressed some support for President Trump, conceded that he admired the prominent black right-winger Canda« ‘Owens, and quoted right-leaning figures such as Thomas Sowell, Making expli- cit what Kanye had left implied, his friend Chance the Rapper piled on, proposing that “black people don't have to be Democrats.” Kanye is an eccen- tic, and is David Bowie-esque in the frequency of his persona changes. Accordingly, whether he is really in the midst of a transformation, whether this would be a net positive for conservatism, and whether anyone should care ‘much remain open questions, Nevertheless, the reaction that his words provoked has been fascinating. Across Hollywood, celebrities have expressed shock and anger. Kanye's friend John Legend has been trying to stage a slow-motion interven tion, And Ta-Nehisi Coates, the celebrated Alantic writer, has penned a florid and bizarre essay essentially accusing Kanye of ‘acting white.” Meanwhile, President Trump's approval rating among black men has doubled in the space of a week. We live in volatile times. An undeniable achievement of Donald Trump has been the ‘wrecking ofthe White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Overtime this annual event morphed from Beltway bonhomie and charity fundraising to parody Oscars: bloated, self-regarding, liberal. Re- publican presidents came to don rictuses of good fellowship while being skewered; Democratic presidents came to join in the skewering. This ereaky spectacle had become the target even of intelligent liberals. (See Cullen Murphy’s 2007 book Are We Rome? Murphy's answer was, Yes, and his Exhibit A was the Correspondents’ Dinner.) Trump's decision to skip the last two dinners deprived them of the necessary focus. Michelle Wolf's ‘monologue this year, both acid and limping, showed what Trump was missing: Not much. As the song says, you been a good old ‘wagon, but you done broke down, MSNBC television host Joy Reid is under attack once again for inflammatory posts on her now-

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