January 16-23, 2024 • $7.

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New Life Rich Rishi’s Jim Harbaugh’s A Night
Choices Broken Britain Big Win At The Opera
NICOLE RUSSELL — P.24 DOMINIC GREEN — P.12 OLIVER J. BATEMAN — P.55 NICHOLAS M. GALLAGHER — P.52

Take
Your
Best
Shot
Can either David
beat Goliath
in the Granite State?
JAY COST — P.18

New York City lawsuit
only proves immigration
has real costs
T
here was some consensus on
immigration a generation ago.
We are a nation of immigrants,
but immigration also has costs
often borne by the least fortu-
nate among us. Low-skill immigration in
particular is known to lower wages, which
is why union leaders once fought for stricter
immigration enforcement.
But over the last 20 years, agreement
has evaporated. Now, the Democratic Party
wants voters to believe that mass immigra-
tion costs nothing and is a win for every-
body. That is why Democrats not only push
for mass amnesty for illegal immigrants al-
ready here but also want to decriminalize
what is currently considered illegal border
crossing.
The Biden border crisis has, however,
exposed Democratic reasoning as a fraud.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has is-
sued an executive order stopping charter
buses carrying immigrants from entering
the city at certain times. He is also suing
17 bus companies for the costs of housing
The Democratic Party
wants voters to believe
that mass immigration
costs nothing and is
a win for everybody.
That is why Democrats
not only push for mass
amnesty for illegal
immigrants already
here, but also want to
decriminalize what is
currently considered
illegal border crossing.
immigrants dumped in New York. He wants
$700 million in damages.
So much for immigration being free.
Adams’s suit only singles out bus com-
panies that have participated in Gov. Greg
Abbott’s (R-TX) “Operation Lone Star,”
which the mayor claims has the “evil in-
tention” of “shifting the costs of the care”
to New York City. But as the lawsuit admits,
Abbott is not targeting New York City. In ad-
dition to sending 33,600 immigrants to the
Big Apple, Abbott has sent 28,000 to Chi-
cago, 12,500 to Washington, D.C., 13,800 to
Denver, 3,400 to Philadelphia, and 1,300 to
Los Angeles. Crucially, he isn’t forcing im-
migrants to go anywhere. He is only busing
immigrants where they want to go.
“This lawsuit is baseless and deserves
to be sanctioned,” Abbott told reporters.
“Every migrant bused or flown to New York
City did so voluntarily, after having been
authorized by the Biden administration to
remain in the United States.”
January 16-23, 2024 Washington Examiner
Editorials
That is the real problem. President Joe
Biden is releasing hundreds of thousands
of illegal immigrants into the U.S. every
month, millions every year. Until the chief
executive does his duty and turns off the
spigot, New York and other cities will con-
tinue to suffer.
As smart as Abbott’s decision was to pay
for some bus journeys, it has also made him
a scapegoat for Democratic mayors. The re-
ality is that even without Operation Lone
Star, New York would still be overwhelmed
with immigrants. Since spring 2022, the
city has received more than 165,000 immi-
grants. Abbott’s 33,600 accounts for only a
fraction of the total.
Don’t expect Adams’s executive order
to keep immigrants out. Bus companies
are now dropping immigrants in New Jer-
sey, where the state transit police help them
board trains to New York City. Not coinci-
dentally, New York City Democrats aren’t
blaming them.
“The governor of New Jersey is doing
the right thing,” New York state Assembly-
woman Jaime Williams told reporters. “He
has to protect the people of New Jersey.
Right now, it’s a free-for-all. We’re not a
Third World country. The Biden adminis-
tration needs to do better.”
If Biden doesn’t change course soon, we
will be a third-world country. ★
1
EDITORIALS
Congress must protect
nation’s history from
woke activists
A
fter intense pressure from
Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA), the
Biden administration rescind-
ed its plan to remove a statue
of William Penn from Nation-
al Park Service land on Monday. But the
continued preservation of our nation’s his-
tory should not be dependent on a state’s
governor sharing the same political party
as the occupant of the White House.
Congress should act to stop such his-
torical destruction.
If it is not stopped, what or who is
next? Removing the statues of Thomas
Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln from
the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials?
Renaming the Washington Monument
as the “Nation’s Big Tall Obelisk”? Or
is obelisk a no-no because the ancient
Egyptians used a lot of them?
With scant explanation, the National
Park Service announced it would take
down the statue of Penn and a model of
his iconic house from Welcome Park, an
open space expressly set aside to honor
Penn’s life. Named for the ship Welcome,
on which Penn took 136 mostly Quaker
souls in a harrowing oceanic journey to
the New World in 1682, the park is a trib-
A statue of William Penn stands at Welcome Park in Philadelphia on Jan. 8.
2 Washington Examiner January 16-23, 2024
ute in grass and trees, fresh air, and archi-
tecture to one of the most admirable of all
the early Americans.
Peace-loving and honest, Penn was
famous for his warm relations with Na-
tive American tribes and for scrupulously
abiding by the terms of contracts he signed
with them. He ensured Native Americans
had the right to fair trials against settlers.
Penn also was the author of the Charter
of Privileges, a worthy forerunner to both
the Declaration of Independence and the
Constitution that protected religious lib-
erty and property rights and established
the consent of the governed as a guiding
principle of civic order.
Yet to left-wing activists with whom
President Joe Biden has populated his
administration, European settlers in the
Americas are guilty of the twin offens-
es of being white and of creating homes
on land where tribes roamed. Honor-
ing settlers and this nation’s founders is
anathema to these crusaders, who regard
European history as evil per se and want
it to be expunged. The only excuse the
National Park Service offered for remov-
ing the Penn statue is that it wants an
“expanded interpretation of the Native
American history of Philadelphia” while it
“provide[s] a more welcoming, accurate,
and inclusive experience.”
Accurate? What kind of accuracy can
a park have if it expunges history by elim-
inating physical memorials to the man
in honor of whom the park was built?
Philadelphia was built on lands used by
Native Americans but without rancor
from those peoples. The city itself was an
entirely European creation. What, then,
is the “Native American history” of a city
they didn’t build?
Nowhere does the National Park Ser-
vice explain why paeans to Native Amer-
ican culture and their cooperation with
Penn cannot be added to the park without
removing Penn from it. How can a park
honoring Penn be “inclusive” if it ex-
cludes the park’s very reason for being?
For that matter, there is the simple absur-
dity of trying to erase the man whom the
state itself is named after. There is no lim-
iting principle on the Left’s cultural and
historical vandalism, so we can expect ag-
itation soon for the renaming of the state.
Rabid insistence on replacing real his-
tory with performative homages to “op-
pressed peoples” has become a desperate
contagion. It’s part of a Trotskyite effort
not just to learn from history and move
on from it but to erase it altogether. In this
nihilistic campaign, no memorial is safe,
not even that of the most admirable of
men or of causes. Thus, we have seen the
race agitators pushing the idea that “all
dead white males are evil,” even in forc-
ing the removal of statues of the “Great
Emancipator,” Abraham Lincoln, and Ben
Franklin, who headed a society for the ab-
olition of slavery.
While the preservation of Penn is
welcome news, Congress should not
wait for the woke activists in the Biden
administration to choose their next tar-
get. Congress should pass a new law
requiring concurrence from Congress
before any other monument or statue on
federal land can be renamed or removed.
This isn’t to say all memorials should be
sacrosanct. The onus, however, should
MAT T ROURKE/AP
be on those who would tear them down
rather than on those who would main-
tain what we have inherited from earlier
generations. ★
THIS IS A COMBINED ISSUE. THE NEXT ISSUE OF THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER WILL APPEAR IN TWO WEEKS.
JANUARY 16-23, 2024
Volume 30, Number 3
Editorials
1 New York City lawsuit only proves
immigration has real costs
2 Congress must protect nation’s
history from woke activists
Letter From the Editor
6 Biden boosts Trump,
and Trump helps Biden
Your Land
7 Natty-ral Immunity « Pennsylvania
to Teach Subject That Actually
Helps Students « Go Right Young
Man « Who Changed the Meaning
of ‘Conspiracy’ and Why? « That
Sound Makes Me Furious
11 The Week That Was
Features
12 Rich Man, Poor Man
Can a plutocrat
prime minister
fix broken Britain?
By Dominic Green
4 Washington Examiner January 16-23, 2024
18 New Hampshire Surprise 44 Tiana’s Take What did y’all think
The GOP race against Trump global prosperity and free trade
looks much different than expected meant? Vibes? Papers? Essays?
By Jay Cost
22 The Trump Ballot Question Life & Arts
Elites think this election is too
important to entrust to the voters 46 Books How Harry Truman Came to
By Peter Tonguette Own a Picasso
24 Roe’s Remnants 47 Books I, For One, Welcome Our Old
The pro-life movement’s Computer Overlords
unfinished business
By Nicole Russell 49 Books An Anti-Climatic History
50 Film The Self-Aware Starlet
Washington Briefing
52 On Culture Don’t Be a Diva, Go to
31 Zelensky’s 2024 strategy: Play the Opera
defense, and show Putin Crimea
doesn’t pay 53 TV Slow Horses Staggers Nobly Into
its Third Season
34 Rocky Mountain try: GOP Rep.
Lauren Boebert seeks reelection on 54 Long Life The Mysteries of the
the other side of Colorado Changing Culture
36 Is Rep. Shri Thanedar a new lion of 55 Sports Jim Harbaugh and the
Detroit politics? Return of Bully Ball
38 Biden’s big question: Debate
or decline? The Columnists
40 There’s reason to fret about the 57 Timothy P. Carney Protesting
FCC’s digital discrimination rule for against religious liberty, the Satan
broadband subsidies clubs really are evil
58 Michael Barone Democracy not at
Business risk, but not operating optimally
42 Boeing faces 59 Timothy P. Carney Protesting
trouble after the against religious liberty, the Satan
Alaska Airlines clubs really are evil
flight scare,
forcing the 61 Tom Rogan Israel can go after
suspension Hezbollah without US military
of 737 planes participation
62 Salena Zito Rep. Deluzio, first
Democrat to call for Austin’s
resignation, details why
Obituary
63 Amalija Knavs, 1945-2024
64 Crossword
COVER: Illustration by Thomas Fluharty
HUGO GURDON: LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Biden boosts Trump, Editors

and Trump helps Biden Editor-In-Chief Hugo Gurdon

Managing Editor Chris Irvine

C
Deputy Managing Editor Liam Quinn
News Editor Marisa Schultz
haos created by President Joe Biden’s utter refusal to stop illegal Associate Editor Hailey Bullis
migration across the Mexican border is crucial in understand- Commentary Editor Conn Carroll
ing how he boosts former President Donald Trump in the 2024 Executive Editor (Magazine) W. James Antle III
Managing Editor (Magazine) David Mark
Republican primary, and how Trump will in turn probably help Policy Editor Joseph Lawler
Biden get reelected. Congress & Campaigns Editor David Sivak
Border Patrol intercepted a record 3.2 million aliens at the Investigations Editor Sarah Bedford
Digital Engagement Editor Maria Leaf
frontier in 2023, half a million more than in 2022 and double 2019’s influx. Trending News Editor Heather Hamilton
Biden’s response is to dicker around trying to finesse the issue by Breaking News Editor Max Thornberry
suckering Mexico and Republicans into helping him so he can deflect Associate Breaking News Editor Samuel Schaffer
Overnight News Editor Conrad Hoyt
blame from the Left, which doesn’t want the inflow cut, and from the Homepage Editors Peter Cordi, Lily Larsen
Right, which knows the maneuvers are cosmetic, give rein to a capricious, Life & Arts Editor (Magazine) Nicholas Clairmont
law-flouting president, and will do nothing to mend the practical and phil- Production Editor Joana Suleiman
Chief Web Producer Stacey Dec
osophical catastrophe he has created.
Deputy Commentary Editor Quin Hillyer
It is philosophical because it delineates an abysmal split in our society, Restoring America Editors Kaylee McGhee White, Tom Rogan
which is replicated across the developed West. On one side are those who Contributors Editor Madeline Fry Schultz
regard the nation-state as a racist, colonialist anachronism, evil in theory Design Director Philip Chalk
Deputy Editor (Magazine) J. Grant Addison
and retrograde in practice. They want multilateral government to override
the supposedly parochial and bigoted priorities of citizens, to dismantle Columnists & Writers
borders, and to upend the success of the developed nations, at least inso- Senior Columnists: Michael Barone, Paul Bedard, Timothy P. Carney,
Byron York
far as it benefits their creators. On the other side are people who see the Senior Writers: Barnini Chakraborty, Jamie McIntyre, Mabinty Quarshie,
nation-state, a piece of land governed by laws and customs decided by Salena Zito
its citizens, as the only hope for democracy and peaceful coexistence in a Staff Reporters: Jack Birle, Mike Brest, Christian Datoc, Kaelan Deese,
Breanne Deppisch, Gabrielle Etzel, Joel Gehrke, Julia Johnson, Luke
common culture. Gentile, Anna Giaritelli, Jenny Goldsberry, Reese Gorman, Zachary
Biden, Democrats, the international Left, and multilateral institutions Halaschak, Christopher Hutton, Emily Jacobs, Gabe Kaminsky, Brady
such as the United Nations and European Union are in the first camp. They Knox, Naomi Lim, Cami Mondeaux, Asher Notheis, Ashley Oliver,
Samantha-Jo Roth, Rachel Schilke, Misty Severi, Breccan Thies,
are working to expunge the nation-state, disapproving of the origins and Eden Villalovas, Nancy Vu, Haisten Willis
customs of successful, historically white nations. They want these super- Commentary Writers: Zachary Faria, Tiana Lowe Doescher, Jeremiah
seded fast by radically egalitarian dispensations in which no hierarchy is Poff, Christopher Tremoglie
Contributors: T. Becket Adams, Daniel Ross Goodman, Dominic
allowed. Green, Daniel J. Hannan, Graham Hillard, Rob Long, Jeremy Lott,
Trump, even with the manifest faults that make him unsuitable to be John O’Sullivan, Philip Terzian, Peter Tonguette, Tevi Troy,
president, taps into the alarm and hostility ordinary people feel toward this Robert Woodson
post-national nightmare. They want their own country, not a multicultural Design, Video & Web
morass, and they seize on him as the doughtiest fighter against the disso- Senior Designer: Amanda Boston-Trypanis
lution of the nation. That is why his slogan, “Make America Great Again,” Production Designer: Tatiana Lozano
Designers: Barbara Kyttle, Julia Terbrock
resonates so powerfully. Senior Web Producer: Tim Collins
Too many of them don’t realize they don’t need him. The rise of the Tea Web Producers: Robert Blankenship, Zach LaChance, Alexis Leonard,
Party and then of Trump changed the Republican Party permanently. Every Chris Slater, Robert Stewart
Director of Video: Amy DeLaura
Republican candidate now is firmly on the side of the nation-state against Videographers: Justin Craig, Arik Dashevsky, Shaan Memon,
multicultural collapse. Republicans don’t need Trump’s nationalism, and Timothy Wolff
would be foolhardy to choose him, because all the other nationalist choices Photographer Graeme Jennings
come without his appalling baggage. They would beat Biden more handily MediaDC
than Trump would. Chairman Ryan McKibben
That’s why Biden and the Democrats want to run against him. They Chief Executive Officer Christopher P. Reen
know he is probably the only candidate so unappealing that he alienates President & Chief Operating Officer Mark Walters
Audience Development Officer Jennifer Yingling
enough voters to return the hapless incumbent to the White House. Thus, Chief Digital Officer Tony Shkurtaj
Biden has much to gain by stoking illegal immigration, which scares angry IT Director Mark Rendle
nation-staters almost atavistically into Trump’s arms. Director of Strategic Communications and Publicity Carly Hagan Brogan

It is breathtakingly cynical, it displays a damnable indifference toward Advertising

the idea of America and its future, and it appears to be working. The New Vice President, Advertising Nick Swezey
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 Pennsylvania to Teach Subject That Actually Helps
Students P. 8  Go Right Young Man P. 9  Who
Changed the Meaning of ‘Conspiracy’ and Why? P. 9
 That Sound Makes Me Furious P. 10

Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy

celebrates their win against Washington in
the national championship NCAA College
Football Playoff game on Jan. 8 in Houston.

Natty-ral Immunity COVID lockdowns. Or, more specif-

ically, the lack of COVID lockdowns in
lockdown-free Florida.
McCarthy’s 2020-21 season was

T
he Michigan Wolverines won
the 2024 College Football Play-
off National Championship.
You can thank Florida Gov.
DAVID J. PHILLIP/AP
producing NFL talent. But McCarthy
was born and raised in La Grange Park,
Illinois. Before IMG, he played for three
years at local Nazareth Academy. So how
not going to happen in Illinois, where
Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker had high
school sports (and much of everything
else) on lockdown. Florida had no such
lockdowns, however, and IMG Acade-

Ron DeSantis. does a top QB recruit already playing for my played a normal fall season with an
Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy an elite prep high school football team in eight-game schedule. By the time Naz-
graduated high school from IMG Acad- his own backyard end up transferring to areth started its shortened four-game
emy, the Florida prep school known for another prep school 1,220 miles away? season in the spring of 2021, McCarthy

January 16-23, 2024 Washington Examiner 7

YOUR LAND

had already been on Michigan’s campus

for two months.
That made a big difference. McCar-
thy’s development would have been se-
verely stunted by taking a year off from
football, especially as a quarterback. A
lockdown fall season at home where he
would end up having to skip a short four-
game season in the spring to get his head
start at Michigan would have changed
his entire career trajectory. In the world
where McCarthy stays in Pritzker’s Illi-
nois, Michigan probably doesn’t win the
national championship after all.
This Michigan championship is yet
another consequence of decisions made
during COVID, both the good (Florida
staying open) and the bad (Illinois stay-
ing locked down). It would make a great
ad for DeSantis to run in Michigan in
a general election, so long as no one in
Ohio hears about it.
—By Zachary Faria
promoting useless subjects that left the school year, according to the Philadel-
nation’s students lagging behind the rest phia Inquirer.
Pennsylvania to Teach of the world. “No offense to biology teachers or
After years of social justice education calculus teachers, but this class is going
Subject That Actually curricula that accomplished nothing but to be information they are going to use
Helps Students leave over 60% of the state’s students every day of their life,” Republican state
lacking proficiency in mathematics and Sen. Chris Gebhard said. He’s the legisla-
nearly half unable to pass English stan- tor responsible for the bill’s proposal and

P
ennsylvania legislators have tak-
en the radical position of pass-
ing a law forcing schools to teach
something beneficial to students. It’s a
shocking development after decades of
dardized testing, high schools in the Key-
stone State will now be required to teach
a financial literacy course that students
must take to graduate. The law will go
into effect beginning with the 2026-27
getting it across the legislative finish line,
the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Christian Sherrill, director of advo-
cacy for Next Gen Personal Finance, a
nonprofit organization that encourages
high school students to “take a semester
of personal finance before graduating,”
aided Gebhard in putting the new law
together. As a result, Pennsylvania will
be one of 25 states with a financial liter-
acy requirement when the courses start,
the Philadelphia Inquirer reported — a
simultaneously shocking and encourag-
ing revelation.
“We want students to be able to make
smart decisions about money in the real
world,” Sherrill told the Inquirer.
This is arguably the first bill in de-
cades in the state requiring schools to
teach a subject actually designed to help
students in the real world. Learning
about 73 genders, how men can get preg-
nant, and how racist the country is is fine
for brainwashing students to become fu-
ture Democratic voters, but it does noth-
ing to help them succeed in life. Teaching
students about banking, finances, and
credit, however, absolutely will.
—By Christopher Tremoglie

8 Washington Examiner January 16-23, 2024

 YOUR LAND

publicans by a 56% to 42% margin. ed crack cocaine, and it is a “conspiracy

Go Right Young Man All Republicans have to do, apparent-
ly, to get women to switch parties is find
a good man for them to marry.
theory” that Jews control the weather.
Nowadays, though, writers use “con-
spiracy” and “conspiracy theory” inter-

G
eneration Z, pollsters tell us, is the
most left-leaning generation yet.
And there is some truth to that.
Where Generation X voted for House
Democrats in 2012 by just a 48% to
41% margin, a decade later Generation
Z went for Democrats by a much larger
62% to 31% margin.
Now in the ensuing decade, Genera-
tion X has gotten even more conserva-
tive. In fact, by 2022 Generation X voted
for House Republicans over Democrats
by a 52% to 40% margin. As voters get
older, they still do get more conservative.
Will the same thing happen to Gener-
ation Z? Probably.
If you drill down into the Generation
Z numbers, you’ll find that they are much
more polarized along gender lines then
millennial voters were. In 2013, just 38%
of young men identified as Republicans.
Fast forward 10 years and now 49% of
young men identify as Republicans.
But all those new Republican young
men are being drowned out by young
women who are more attached to the
And it is no secret why young men
are abandoning the Democratic Party in
droves.
The message the Democratic Party
has for men is clear: you are, at best,
worthless. Democratic Party programs
have empowered women to procreate
without you entirely. In fact, most likely
you are a #MeToo pervert who needs to
be punished, without due process, by a
college inquisition board.
If you want, you can be a silent ally
for women’s causes, but please don’t ever
talk — we’ve heard enough from the pa-
triarchy already.
No wonder so many young men are
becoming Republicans.
—By Conn Carroll
Who Changed the
Meaning of ‘Conspiracy’
and Why?
changeably. This is as revealing as it is
unfortunate. It almost presumes that
there are no actual conspiracies in the
world and that any talk of a “conspiracy”
is simply a “conspiracy theory.”
This raises another question: Why
should “conspiracy theory” be a term of
derogation?
Tasmanian professor David Coady
explored this. “The bad reputation of
conspiracy theories is puzzling,” Coady
recently wrote in the journal Educational
Philosophy and Theory.
“After all, people do conspire. That
is, they engage in secretive collective be-
havior which is illegal or morally ques-
tionable. Conspiracies are common in
all societies throughout history, and
have always been particularly common
in politics. Most people conspire some
of the time, and some people (e.g., spies)
conspire almost all the time.”
Theft from department stores these
days is often not a lone-wolf crime but
part of an organized crime ring — a con-
spiracy. Street gangs and the KKK exist,

Democratic Party than ever.
But will those women stay that way?
Past evidence suggests not.
It turns out that as women transition
from being single to being married, they
are also prone to switching from consid-
ering themselves Democrats to consider-
ing themselves Republicans. For example,
in the 2022 election single women voted
for Democrats by a 68% to 31% margin.
But married women actually voted for Re-

The message the Democratic
Party has for men is clear:
you are, at best, worthless.
Democratic Party programs
have empowered women
to procreate without you
entirely. In fact, most likely
you are a #MeToo pervert
who needs to be punished,
without due process, by a
college inquisition board.
W
ords only mean what we un- and the people in these little platoons
derstand them to mean, and if conspire to do bad things.
we use them to mean all sorts What’s more, Trump’s birther theory
of things at once, they end up meaning about Haley doesn’t posit any conspiring
nothing.
“Conspiracy” is the word that has
been stretched the most in recent years
on the torture racks of social media and
the internet. MADE BY JIMBOB.
National Public Radio recently ran a
headline that would have been incom-
prehensible, or at least shocking, just 15
years ago: “Haley’s rise in polls draws
Trump’s birther conspiracy, again.”
The author, discussing former Pres-
ident Donald Trump’s baseless specu-
lations that former U.S. Ambassador to
the United Nations Nikki Haley might
be a foreigner ineligible to run for presi-
dent, alternates between calling Trump’s
unhinged rantings a “conspiracy” and a
“conspiracy theory.”
“Conspiracy,” for a few hundred
years, described a plan hatched, usually
in secret, and executed by many people
working together. A “conspiracy theory”
was the claim that a “conspiracy” was
behind something officially chalked up
to chance, nature, or a lone actor. It is a
“conspiracy theory” that the CIA creat-

January 16-23, 2024 Washington Examiner 9

YOUR LAND
by anyone.
In the muddy parlance of our mud-
dled times, a theory can become a “con-
spiracy theory” without any theorizing
about multiple people getting together
to do a bad thing or cover up anything.
Now, a “conspiracy theory” just means a
“wacko theory,” and this gets shortened,
at NPR at least, to “conspiracy.”
But we can go further back — the Lat-
in roots of “conspire” are not at all neg-
ative. Con is about people doing things
together, and spire comes from the same
word for breathing, for hope — the root
of inspiration. Hoping together with could
be a positive thing.
Nowadays, though, a conspiracy
doesn’t involve any con or spiring. It’s yet
another word to lose its meaning, making
it harder to communicate clearly. I won-
der who’s behind this pernicious trend.
—By Timothy P. Carney
That Sound Makes
Me Furious
A
fter the New Orleans Saints’ sea-
son-ending game on Jan. 7, I gave
up the season tickets my family
has had since the Saints were founded
— 57 years of games, the last 49 of them
at the Superdome’s 50-yard-line.
The ticket abandonment isn’t due
to finances or to fading loyalty to the
10 Washington Examiner January 16-23, 2024
The jumbotron blasts “3rd Down” during a Dallas Cowboys football game in Dallas.
Saints (I remain obsessed with their for-
tunes) or to health or to the time com-
mitment required. Instead, the culprit is
a societywide problem that has become
unbearable: constant artificial sensory
overstimulation. Fans can’t converse
with each other without yelling and
can’t avoid hours of leftover ear-ringing
after the game unless they wear earplugs
(which makes it even more difficult to
converse). Almost every single minute
for more than four hours (including pre-
game) features bombardments of piped-
in sound and flashing lights.
Every time opponents go two plays
without gaining 10 yards, the score-
board erupts with the words “THIRD
DOWN” in giant letters as the loud-
speaker blares at about 95 decibels that
“IT’S … THIRD …DOWN!!!” If one team
scores, the speaker plays loud rap mu-
sic all during the commercial break, not
stopping until the kicker’s foot meets
ball on the ensuing kickoff. Either that
or the audio-video system plays some
gaudy “contest” promising free grocer-
ies or $20 of free chips for a nearby ca-
sino’s slot machines.
No space at all is left for crowd en-
thusiasm to ebb and flow organically in
reaction to action on the field. Yet if the
dome is all noise all the time, the home-
field advantage of sudden surges in nat-
ural excitement levels is lost. What aids
home team players isn’t the noise level
so much as the growth of it, rising, cre-
scendoing, crashing down on the oth-
er team in clutch situations. In today’s
world of nonstop superstimulation, the
sense of a spontaneously growing drama
disappears.
It’s not as if Saints fans need the stim-
ulation. This is a fan base that literally
stopped a game for 21 minutes by boo-
ing so loudly the referees couldn’t work.
It’s a fan base that went so wild when a
half-footed kicker made a 63-yard field
goal in 1970 that the noise could be
heard more than half a mile away (when
the games were outdoors at the old Tu-
lane stadium).
Today, though, every venue thinks ev-
ery human is so conditioned by senso-
ry input from glowing hand-held boxes
that, somehow, we would all shrivel and
evaporate without a constant electronic
barrage. Enough is enough. This Saints
fan is marching out. And, from friends
across the country, I hear pledges of sim-
ilar exoduses from their hometown ven-
ues. Stop the noise; we want to get off.
—By Quin Hillyer
The Week That Was QUOTE OF THE WEEK
STAT OF THE WEEK

20,000 Yeah, I’m going

to go to it and I’m
going to explain
Hertz announced it will sell off a third of its
I don’t know who
electric fleet, totaling roughly 20,000 vehicles, the hell she is,
and use the money they bring to purchase I have no idea.
more gasoline powered vehicles. Executives
said electric vehicles have been hurting — Former President Donald Trump told reporters on Jan. 11 he would
Hertz’s financials because they have higher attend the E. Jean Carroll defamation trial that is set to begin this week.
collision and damage repair costs and, also, Carroll, a former magazine columnist, alleged Trump raped her in the
higher depreciation. mid-1990s and then defamed her when he denied her claim.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK // GRAEME JENNINGS/WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Musician Jason “Jelly Roll” DeFord testifies during a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs hearing to examine
stopping the flow of fentanyl, focusing on public awareness and legislative solutions on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on
Jan. 11.

January 16-23, 2024 Washington Examiner 11

Rich Man,
Poor Man
Can a plutocrat prime minister
fix ‘Broken Britain?’
W
By Dominic Green
e booked a taxi
because the
London Un-
derground, the
“Tube,” would
be closed for
a week by a
strike. The rail
workers’ union
canceled the strike with just hours to
spare. The union said it had secured a
“significantly improved” but unspecified
offer of a pay rise in the next round of
negotiations. We canceled the taxi and
took a crowded Tube across the center of
London but were trapped underground
because of “an earlier fire alarm” at an-
other station.
The overground commuter train left
on time but stopped 20 minutes short
of its destination. There was supposed
to be a crew change, but the replace-
ment crew hadn’t turned up. We waited
on a freezing platform in the dark, then
squeezed into an already crowded local
service, standing room only. Our 53-min-
ute journey took 2 1/2 hours.
Welcome to Broken Britain. Noth-
ing works as it should. Everything costs
more than it used to. Only the tourists
have money to spend. Everyone is angry.
No one agrees on why Britain is like this.
12 Washington Examiner January 16–23, 2024
A poster on London’s Underground.
Is it Brexit? Is it inflation? Is it the price
rises, especially in food and energy bills,
that even the government admits have
caused a “cost-of-living crisis”? Is it be-
cause the British are, contrary to their
reputation, a nation of idle slobs?
Everyone agrees whose fault it is. The
Conservative Party coined “Broken Brit-
ain” when it was in opposition back in
2007. The new Conservative leader, Da-
vid Cameron, accused the governing La-
bour Party of causing a “moral collapse”
into crime, drugs, welfare dependency,
and single motherhood. The Conserva-
tives have been in power since 2010. All
these social ills have worsened, and the
collapse is more than moral. As British
society devolves into chaos, the architec-
ture of the British state is coming apart.
The tax burden is now higher than at
any time since the end of World War II.
Legal and illegal immigration are at the
highest levels ever. So is the number of
recorded crimes and the percentage of
the permanently unemployed. No elect-
ed politician dares to suggest that there
might be a connection. Nor is it consid-
ered polite to wonder aloud why it is that
the ads in the Tube carriages now need to
be interspersed with orders not to harass
other passengers sexually, advice on how
to intervene if you see someone being sex-
ually harassed, and tips on how to report
it once you’ve been sexually harassed.
The Conservatives did not break
Britain alone. Public sector spending
and the deficit rose consistently under
the Labour governments of Tony Blair
(1997-2007) and Gordon Brown (2007-
10). Still, after pausing for “austerity”
cutbacks under Cameron (2010-16), the
Conservatives have spent like socialists
since 2016. The prime ministers come
and go (Theresa May, Boris Johnson,
Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak), but government
spending keeps rising, and so do the tax-

es that fund it. And now Britain is about
to break the Conservatives.
By law, the next general election must
be held by the end of January 2025. In
practical terms, that means before the
end of 2024. Labour has been around 20
points ahead in the polls since Sept. 6,
2022, the day that Johnson resigned as
prime minister. According to YouGov,
if the general election were held today,
Sunak, or, if you’re President Joe Biden,
“Rashid Sanook,” would win only 23%
of the vote, making him the worst-per-
Illustration by Dean MacAdam
forming Conservative leader in the par-
ty’s history. The Conservatives would
crash from the 365-seat landslide that
Johnson won in 2019 to as few as 150
seats — worse than their 1997 wipeout,
when John Major won only 165 seats and
Blair stormed in.
The Conservatives were out of pow-
er for a generation after 1997. They are
headed for a similar exile now. In 2019,
Johnson created a new Conservative
coalition. He welded the London-cen-
tric, socially liberal voters of southern
January 16–23, 2024
Welcome to Broken
Britain. Nothing works
as it should. Everything
costs more than it used
to. Only the tourists
have money to spend.
Everyone is angry.
England to the London-phobic, socially
conservative voters of northern England.
Carried by his charisma and campaign-
ing on a single issue, “Get Brexit Done,”
Johnson breached Labour’s “Red Wall”
of historically working-class seats. This
was a historic realignment of the kind
achieved by Margaret Thatcher in 1979
and Blair in 1997. When Johnson’s
fellow Conservatives deposed him,
his coalition collapsed.
On the Conservative left, metropolitan
and anti-Brexit Conservatives are switch-
ing to the Liberal Democrats. On the Con-
servative right, it’s worse. Northern voters
are returning to Labour or despairing of
electoral politics and declaring they won’t
bother voting at all. The populist right is,
once again, in revolt against a Conserva-
tive Party that seems uninterested in con-
serving anything. In April 2020, Reform
U.K. was polling at 2%, even lower than
the Green Party. By the end of 2023, Re-
form U.K. was breaching 10% in the polls.
That would be enough to displace
dozens of “safe seat” Conservative
members of Parliament in the general
election. These MPs were given their
safe seats by party committees that
sought to shape the party for the future,
typically in the image of the southern,
liberal wing of the Cameron-era Conser-
vatives. Many of them are familiar faces
with government experience. If they lose
their seats, the party would effectively be
decapitated. Sunak has less than a year
to save not just his job but also the Con-
servative Party as we know it.
* * *
If you asked an ad agency to invent
a prime minister for modern Britain,
the resulting pitch might look like Ri-
shi Sunak. He is the brown-skinned son
Washington Examiner 13
of Hindu immigrants with a backstory
in the British Empire. He is financially
astute. He is a global thinker with a fu-
ture-facing, problem-solving mind. If
only he were a natural politician, too.
No one in Britain talks about the
“British dream,” as even the British now
dream of success in American terms, but
Sunak’s story is a uniquely British dream
of social ascent and meritocratic oppor-
tunity. His grandparents were economic
migrants from British India to East Afri-
ca. His father was, like Barack Obama’s
father, born in Kenya, and his mother
was born in Tanganyika, now Tanzania.
They came to Britain in the 1960s and
opened a pharmacy in the southern port
of Southampton. They worked so hard
and saved so much that they were able
to educate their three children privately.
Rishi, the Sunaks’ oldest child and
first son, helped his parents with the
books in the evenings and worked as a
waiter in a curry house during summer
vacations. He became head boy of Win-
chester College, one of the most presti-
gious schools in Britain, and then took
a first-class degree in politics, philoso-
phy, and economics at the University
of Oxford. The PPE course was creat-
ed in the 1920s as a primer for public
service. First, however, Sunak took the
no-less-traditional diversion into that
other school for would-be Conservative
MPs, the City of London. He worked as
an analyst at Goldman Sachs, became a
hedge fund manager at a company called
the Children’s Investment Fund, paused
for an MBA at Stanford University, and
then became a partner in a Californian
hedge fund, Theleme Partners.
In 2009, Sunak married a fellow Stan-
ford MBA, Akshata Murty. They have
two daughters. Murty is the daughter of
Indian billionaire N.R. Narayana Murty,
who is one of the seven founders of the
multinational IT company Infosys, which
is India’s second-biggest IT company.
Narayana Murty has co-chaired the World
Economic Forum’s knees-up at Davos.
Time magazine has called him the “father
of the Indian IT sector.” In 2013, he made
Sunak a director of one of his companies,
Catamaran Ventures, whose U.K. subsid-
iary is owned by Akshata Murty.
Sunak had interned at the Conser-
vative Party’s central office as a student
and joined the party. In 2015, he inherit-
ed a safe seat from William Hague after
Cameron promoted Hague to the House
of Lords. Almost immediately, Sunak
faced a crucial decision: to back Camer-
14 Washington Examiner January 16–23, 2024
Rishi Sunak and his wife, Akshata Murty, center, meet with charity fundraisers in
front of the prime minister’s residence in London, Oct. 30, 2023.
Rishi Sunak is the
brown-skinned son
of Hindu immigrants
with a backstory in
the British Empire. He
is financially astute.
He is a global thinker
with a future-facing,
problem-solving mind.
If only he were a natural
politician, too.
on in opposing Brexit or to side with the
pro-Brexit rebels led by Johnson?
Sunak backed Brexit. Perhaps he had
a better feel for the public mood than the
patrician Cameron, who called a referen-
dum on Britain’s membership of the Eu-
ropean Union because he was confident
that he and the Remainers would win.
Perhaps Sunak, who had written a re-
search paper on the value of post-Brexit
free ports, was voting like a hedge fund
manager. The City of London could see
the advantages in extracting Britain’s fi-
nancial services industries from the EU’s
regulatory net, making the most of the
global economy and turning London into
“Singapore-on-Thames.”
Only two years after entering Parlia-
ment, Sunak became a government min-
ister. The new prime minister, Theresa
May, was a compromise between the Re-
mainers and Brexiteers. She staffed her
unstable Cabinet on similar lines. Sunak
voted in favor of all three of her failed at-
tempts to pass her version of the treaty for
Britain’s withdrawal from the EU. Then,
when the Brexiteers overthrew her in July
2019, he backed Johnson for the top job.
In mid-February 2020, Johnson,
having won his landslide, rewarded Su-
nak by appointing him chancellor of the
exchequer. Yet again, Sunak faced a cri-
sis almost immediately and managed it
successfully. Sunak was ideally qualified
to plot a post-Brexit economic course
for Britain. But his brief changed. Only
days after he had moved into 11 Down-
ing Street, just next door to Johnson, the
coronavirus pandemic broke out.
Instead of opening Britain’s economy
to the world, Sunak was charged with
saving British society from collapse. On
March 20, 2020, he announced massive
subsidies for British companies and an
unprecedented “furlough” scheme in
which the government paid up to 80%
of workers’ salaries. He seems to have
worked with remarkable speed and effi-
ciency amid a government handicapped
by a sclerotic, risk-averse civil service.
He was also clearsighted enough to op-
pose the second and third of the three
lockdowns that caused so much public
misery and economic harm.
BELINDA JIAO / AP
Sunak kept up the pace and the flow
of subsidies for the next two years. His
schemes preserved Britain’s corporate
infrastructure and saved British workers
January 16–23, 2024 Washington Examiner 15
from a 1930s-style crash. These were the
right things to do, electorally and morally,
at the time. Unfortunately, they were also
expensive. So were other schemes, such
as the “Eat Out to Help Out” campaign in
which the government paid half the check
in pubs and restaurants. The chancellor
who might have transformed the British
economy for the 21st century instead
transported it back to the 1970s, when
interventionist governments cooked the
books and subsidized service industries
by issuing “Luncheon Vouchers” to be
used in restaurants instead of cash.
Sunak became popular for his gen-
erosity with other people’s money. In a
September 2020 poll, admittedly an out-
lying artifact of the COVID-19 madness,
he had the highest ratings of any chan-
cellor since 1978. The obscure neophyte
was now tipped to be Johnson’s succes-
sor. The tabloids were calling Sunak, a
vegetarian teetotaler who rises early and
pumps his Peloton pedals before dawn,
“Dishi Rishi.” The extra attention soon
led to suspicions about “Fishi Rishi.”
* * * opinion while pivoting
In November 2020, the Guardian
claimed that Sunak had failed in his min-
isterial duty to declare “relevant” assets
to the register of ministerial interests.
The assets in question all belonged to his
wife, Akshata Murty. Her shares in Infos-
ys were worth 430 million pounds, about
$550 million. This, the Guardian sniped,
made her “one of the wealthiest women
in Britain, with a fortune larger than the
Queen’s,” and Sunak almost certainly
the wealthiest British prime minister
ever. Other Murty assets included a di-
rect shareholding in a British company
that runs restaurant chains in India and
in five other companies, including New
& Lingwood, which, the Guardian said,
“supplies the tailcoats worn by pupils at
Eton College.”
Sunak’s own assets went into a blind
trust when he entered government. In
April 2022, an independent investigation
found him blameless. By then, Murty’s
finances were again in the papers. As a
“non-domiciled” taxpayer, Murty paid a
single 30,000-pound annual fee that al-
lowed her to live in Britain but avoid tax-
ation on an estimated 20 million pounds,
about $25 million, in non-U.K. earnings.
This was entirely legal, but it looked bad.
As chancellor, Sunak had raised tax-
es to historically stratospheric levels and
lectured the public on the need to take
the medicine. As husband, he seemed
16 Washington Examiner January 16–23, 2024
A London protest against Tory
immigration policy, Nov. 15, 2023.
Sunak is feinting to
the right of public
to the center in the
Commons to save
his neck. This may
keep Sunak in office,
but it will doom the
Conservatives in the
general election.
to be benefitting from his wife’s tax
avoidance, entirely legal though it was.
It also emerged that Sunak, who had
obtained a U.S. green card in the 2000s,
had retained it after resuming British
residence, including during his first 18
months as chancellor. If he wanted to
give the impression that he was in gov-
ernment until something better came up
in Silicon Valley, this was how to do it.
Akshata Murty now pays U.K. tax-
es. Sunak has informed the U.S. Citi-
zenship and Immigration Services that
being prime minister is a full-time job
requiring British residency, so he must
renounce his green card. An inquiry has,
of course, cleared him, but the damage is
done. Sunak doesn’t just look like a plu-
tocrat. He is one.
Britain is not America. At a time
when the little people are broke and
resentful, his personal wealth and the
wealth and influence of his wife’s family
are electoral handicaps. If you and your
wife have multiple homes, the least you
can do is build a few for some of the little
people — especially if you cannot con-
trol illegal immigration.
Fortunately for Sunak, the public did
not elect him. Sunak was in the back-
ground when Johnson was overthrown
in September 2022 over his passing in-
volvement in drinks parties at Downing
Street during the coronavirus lockdowns.
After a televised leadership debate in
which Sunak came off as peevish and en-
titled, the party membership elected Liz
Truss. Her desperate attempt to jump-
start the economy did not convince Su-
nak’s friends in the City of London, and
she lasted just 44 days. Conservative
MPs then elected Sunak. He holds the
office, but they hold the power.
From Dishi Rishi to Fishi Rishi and
now “Squishi Rishi.” Caught between
factions, Sunak is trying to reconcile
Johnson’s impossible promises with the
fiscal realities that Sunak himself played
a crucial part in creating. He is feinting to
the right of public opinion while pivoting
to the center in the House of Commons
to save his neck: pursuing Johnson’s daft
scheme to deport illegal immigrants to
Rwanda while exiling the party’s popu-
lists and bringing back Cameron. This
may keep Sunak in office, but it will doom
the Conservatives in the general election.
Not unlike Paul Ryan, Sunak is the
best man for the economic job but the
worst man for the political job. He is ex-
posed as one of nature’s head boys: a ser-
vant of the real power, in a schoolboy’s
suit. He lacks the money and political
support to deploy his economic acumen.
He has the instinct for office but not the
common touch.
No one is better equipped to fix the
economy of Broken Britain. Then again,
no one did more to break it, for the best
of all reasons. This is not Sunak’s trage-
dy, though he may find it a little frustrat-
ing when an impecunious, enraged, and,
yes, economically ignorant electorate
refuses to pay the tab for the policies it
demanded. He will be fine, anyway, be-
cause life really is different for the rich.
The tragedy is that of the people he will
KIRST Y WIGGLESWORTH / AP
leave behind. ★
Dominic Green is a columnist for
the Washington Examiner and a fellow
of the Royal Historical Society. Follow
him on Twitter @drdominicgreen.
January 16–23, 2024 Washington Examiner 17
New
Hampshire
Surprise
The GOP race against Trump
looks much different wthan expected
By Jay Cost
A
fter many months
of lead-up, the
Republican pri-
mary is no longer
a matter of sheer
speculation. It be-
gan with the Iowa
caucuses on Jan.
15. A year ago, few
people would have guessed that former
President Donald Trump would have
emerged from his post-midterm dol-
drums as the prohibitive front-runner.
And insofar as anybody was going to
pose a legitimate challenge to Trump’s
hegemony, the easy money in January
2023 was on Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL).
He was coming off a big win in Florida
in the 2022 elections, had loads of cash,
and had a sterling reputation with Re-
publicans nationwide.
Nobody would have bet that former
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley would
be the main anti-Trump candidate. But
18 Washington Examiner January 16–23, 2024
here we are: It is looking increasing-
ly like the Republican primary, if it is
going to be competitive at all, will be a
Trump-Haley contest.
Haley’s competent
For most of the summer, Haley performances,
seemed like a bit of an “also-ran” in the supplemented
Republican contest, out of the conversa-
tion that seemed to be occurring between
by aggressive
supporters of DeSantis and Trump. There campaigning and
was even a brief moment when Sen. Tim solid fundraising,
Scott (R-SC) was rising in the Iowa polls,
while Haley was stuck in the third tier propelled her to
with former Vice President Mike Pence. challenge DeSantis
That all changed in the late summer, for the position
thanks to the debates. Without Trump
onstage, the debates have not meaning- of anti-Trump
fully altered the overall trajectory of the candidate.
race — it’s been Trump versus “every-
body else.” But Haley’s competent per-
formances, supplemented by aggressive
campaigning and solid fundraising, pro-
pelled her to challenge DeSantis for the
position of anti-Trump candidate.
And arguably more, for as DeSantis
 remained mired in a distant second in so, while Haley could win South Caroli- from the first contests, so name recog-
Iowa, Haley rocketed up the New Hamp- na, it would be in large measure because nition counts for a lot. But so close to
shire polls. She is positioned well with- she’s a favorite daughter rather than her the actual election? No candidate in the
in range of the former president in the better reflecting the mood of the party modern era of primaries and caucuses
Granite State, at least as of this writing, electorate. By any measure, Trump is still with a lead as large as Trump’s has ever
and at the same time, she clawed her way the one with the firm grasp on the party. lost the nomination.
into a tie with DeSantis in the Iowa polls. Indeed, Haley’s rise is partially attribut- And all of this assumes that Haley
Through all of this, we see a clear able to DeSantis’s collapse, which hap- can actually win New Hampshire. Trump
Haley strategy. The goal was to finish a pened because DeSantis reckoned that could very well beat her there. But she
strong third or surprising second in Iowa, he could position himself as a Trump-lite will face one fewer obstacle. Former New
keep DeSantis from defeating Trump in alternative to the former president, but Jersey Gov. Chris Christie suspended his
the Hawkeye State, and then head into the gambit largely failed. campaign before Iowa. He banked his
New Hampshire with a de facto two-per- In fact, one reason Haley’s strategy entire candidacy on opposition to Trump
son race. With the field con- and focused more or less
solidated, Haley would then exclusively on New Hamp-
vault ahead of Trump in New shire. He tended to poll in
Hampshire, paving the way the double digits there and
for the subsequent primary was even ahead of DeSantis
in South Carolina on Feb. 24. in the state while remaining
While Trump is strong in the well behind both Haley and
Palmetto State, Haley was Trump. It stands to reason
governor for six years, and Christie voters will now
she can rely on goodwill as migrate to Haley. However,
a “favorite daughter.” With Christie appeared to take
wins in New Hampshire and shots at Haley and downplay
South Carolina, she would be her chances in a hot mic mo-
well positioned to challenge ment on his way out.
Trump in Michigan on Feb. “She’s gonna get smoked,
27, then Missouri and Idaho and you and I both know it.
on March 2, and finally Super She’s not up to this,” Chris-
Tuesday on March 5. tie was heard saying, seem-
That’s clearly the plan, at ingly in reference to Haley,
any rate. Can this work? moments before pulling the
It is a low-probability plug on his own campaign.
bet, for sure, but then again, All in all, what are the
most candidates like Haley odds Haley can pull this
have only a low-probabili- off? Shortly before the Iowa
ty shot at the White House. caucuses, the RealClearPol-
Sometimes, they pay off: for Nikki Haley with Gov. Chris Sununu (R-NH) in Manchester, New itics average of the various
Hampshire, after receiving his endorsement, Dec. 12, 2023.
instance, Bill Clinton in 1992 betting houses gives Trump
and Barack Obama in 2008. a 74% chance of winning the
And the allure of even the faintest pros- makes sense is because the New Hamp- nomination and Haley 15%, with DeSan-
pect of success is enough to make the shire Republican primary often has a tis and Vivek Ramaswamy combining
most ambitious politicians sacrifice 18 lot of non-Republicans participating in for most of the rest. That seems a bit too
months of their lives to make it happen. it. Dispositionally, the state skews inde- friendly to Haley. Assuming she wins
And Haley’s strategy does have his- pendent, and polls indicate that these New Hampshire, she is still going to need
torical justifications behind it. It is not nonpartisan voters are partial to Haley. something to happen between the first in
uncommon for Iowa and New Hamp- These voters are not going to be a driving the nation primary and Super Tuesday to
shire to issue split decisions. It happened force in most of the subsequent contests. change the Republican electorate’s atti-
in 1980, 1988, 2000, 2012, and 2016. In In fact, the absence of a meaningful Dem- tude toward Trump meaningfully. Could
each of those cases, South Carolina re- ocratic contest in New Hampshire means that happen? Absolutely. But her odds
solved the dispute in favor of the ultimate that a lot of people who conceive of them- are probably no greater than 1-in-10.
victor. If Haley can win New Hampshire selves as Democrats will participate in Of course, everybody would have said
as Trump wins Iowa, the tiebreaker is her the Republican primary just to cast a vote the same thing about Clinton, Obama,
home state. That’s a smart angle. against Trump. That could propel Haley and even Trump at various points in
Yet its weakness should be evident in the short term, but she cannot rely on their campaigns. And yet all three be-
right from the start. This is merely a such voters to win the GOP nomination. came president. It goes to show you nev-
ROBERT F. BUKAT Y / AP

pattern, not a rule. The pattern holds And Trump has quite a bit of histo- er can tell. ★
because it reflects the underlying reali- ry on his side, too. A year ago, it was not
ties of the Republican electorate — not especially meaningful that Trump had a Jay Cost is Gerald R. Ford senior
because the rest of the Republican elec- huge nationwide lead. Voters are not re- nonresident fellow at the American
torate is duty-bound to follow suit. And ally plugged into the process so far away Enterprise Institute.

January 16–23, 2024 Washington Examiner 19

20 Washington Examiner January 16–23, 2024
January 16–23, 2024 Washington Examiner 21
The Trump
Ballot
Question
Elites think this election is too important
to entrust to the voters
By Peter Tonguette
‘T
he nine most terrify-
ing words in the En-
glish language are: ‘I’m
from the government,
and I’m here to help,’”
Ronald Reagan once
said, but the 40th pres-
ident could never have
known just how right he was.
At the time it was spoken and forev-
er since, Reagan’s statement has been
taken to refer mainly to the excesses of
the federal bureaucracy: the shameful,
wasteful, pernicious but still rather com-
ical unintended consequences of the ad-
ministrative state. In hindsight, however,
Reagan’s insight foretold something far
more ominous, intrusive, and pervasive.
Today, we live in the shadow not
merely of incompetent but well-inten-
tioned government do-gooders but an
elite expert class. Assured of its own
superior intelligence, values, and status,
the elected and unelected brethren of
this class seek not so much to instruct
22 Washington Examiner January 16–23, 2024
citizens on how to live their lives but
to do some of the living for them. Take
the once-uncontroversial matter of gas
stoves. For those poor souls convinced
that grilling salmon contributes to the
melting of the ice caps, it’s not sufficient
to argue against the use of gas appliances
in homes, possibly because they realize
that no one would listen to them, so they
have turned to measures that, in some
cities and states, have led to bans of the
stoves themselves. For an elite certain
of its own virtue, and equally certain
that the great unwashed has long since
stopped respecting them, why bother
with persuasion?
In hindsight, former President Barack
Obama’s Affordable Care Act was the
leading indicator of the mindset among
our new overlords: Personal choice is
all well and good so long as the public
reaches the right choice, and if people
have to be somehow compelled to reach
that right choice, so be it. If you were a
30-something freelancer, entrepreneur,
or gig worker who, for whatever reason,
was considering forgoing health insur-
ance, Obamacare’s penalty-by-tax return
sought to banish such thoughts from your
mind. The idea was to lead you to make
the correct decision by removing you
from your own decision-making process.
Indeed, during the worst months of
the COVID-19 pandemic, public health
officials and their elected flunkies viewed
personal choice as a nuisance they could
not be bothered with. The same set of
assumptions that governed Obamacare
led to the imposition of mask mandates
and vaccine cards. The thinking went
something like this: Lacking the scien-
tific bona fides of Drs. Anthony Fauci,
Deborah Birx, Francis Collins, et al., cit-
izens simply could not be counted upon
to heed the good doctors’ advice. There-
fore, it was no longer “advice” — it was
the law of the land. Mandates rendered
citizens’ private judgment moot.
Now we come to the 2024 presiden-
tial election, which the elite has deemed
 too consequential, too important, too Don’t make arguments against Trump. the determination. They forget that the
dangerous, in the sense that the “wrong” Just delete his name. sorting of worthy and unworthy candi-
outcome might be attained through the I credit all of these institutions and of- dates is the purview of voters, not elected
election of Donald Trump, to be decided ficials with a measure of good faith: They officials, prosecutors, juries, or judges.
by the fickle finger of fate. No matter that are probably sincere in their belief that But they don’t really “forget” this fact. In
“fate,” in this reading, is the decision of a Trump is a menace, but understand that their anti-Trump mania, they just choose
plurality of voters on Election Day. By the they are equally sincere in their belief that to skip this part from Civics 101.
lights of the elite class, however, the evil the public — that’s you — is too ignorant, Indeed, on some level, Trump’s adver-
of Trump is as self-evident as the neces- prejudiced, and mercurial not to vote for saries must recognize that their campaign
sity of masking and vaccines to quell the him. Dear reader, they have no more con- against Trump is recklessly, egregiously,
spread of COVID-19, and appallingly undemocratic. Just
anyone who dissents must imagine the media narrative if
be overruled. Therefore, the a Republican president was in
election must be rebranded the White House and, under
as a kind of pandemic: a fed- his direction or merely under
eral emergency that requires his watch, his leading Dem-
government intervention to ocratic opponent was being
protect us from ourselves. prosecuted and, state by state,
Over the last year, we shoved off the ballot. Yet, if
have seen an extraordinary challenged on such grounds,
series of actions that seek the anti-Trump elite would
to render Trump not un- undoubtedly mount the same
electable at the ballot box defense as our COVID-19-era
but unelectable before he rulers: They would promise
even reaches the ballot box. that it is only just this one pres-
Trump is correct when he idential election, presumably
refers to the prosecutions the last one for which Trump
against him in New York, At left, Colorado Supreme Court Justice William W. Hood III, will run, in which your ability
in Georgia, and by special one of a four-vote majority to rule that Trump’s name could not to vote for the candidate of
counsel Jack Smith as tanta- appear on a 2024 state ballot; at right, Maine Secretary of State your choice at the ballot box
mount to “election interfer- Shenna Bellows, Jan. 4, 2023. will be compromised or cur-
ence.” Even if some of these tailed. Those who would be-
cases have a kernel of legiti- lieve this implicit promise are
macy or might have been pursued against as foolish as those who bought into the
Trump had he not been running for of- fiction that COVID-19 shutdowns would
fice, the fact remains that they have not On some level, last for a mere two weeks, just enough time
been brought in an ideal world but in this to “slow the spread.”
world. These trials and their outcomes Trump’s adversaries “Democracy is the theory that the com-
may have the practical effect of making must recognize mon people know what they want, and de-
voters’ preferences in the election depen-
dent on the whims of judges and juries.
that their campaign serve to get it good and hard,” wrote H.L.
Mencken, and if what the people want is
Perhaps sensing that Trump will draw against Trump’s a second Trump administration, they de-
out, bog down, and possibly prevail in ballot access is serve to get that, too. He is indisputably
some of these cases — and certainly re-
alizing that, short of a conviction, Trump
recklessly, egregiously, the preferred Republican candidate, and
understandably so. Anyone who attests
stands as good a chance as he did in 2016 appallingly to a belief in the will of the people, as do
and in 2020 of winning the White House undemocratic. Trump’s opponents when they speak,
— the Colorado Supreme Court and the endlessly, of his alleged threat to democ-
Maine secretary of state have decided racy, must cope with that reality.
they have had enough of these pesky vot- The judicial and political forces that
ers who remain attached to the Trump era fidence in your ability to vote for someone have gathered to prevent people from ex-
of relative global peace, low unemploy- other than Trump than they did in your ercising their right to vote for Trump lead
ment, and robust border security. These decision to wear a mask or get a vaccine. me to conclude that it is long past time to
people, the elites know in their hearts, will This is the final fruit of our commis- revise Reagan’s famous joke about gov-
never learn. So, in Colorado and Maine, sars treating personal decisions, such as ernment overreach. Forget bureaucracy
the 14th Amendment, the far Left’s new whether to wear a mask amid a pandemic and red tape. Today, the most terrifying
favorite part of the Constitution follow- or whom to vote for, as being subject to words in the English language are surely:
ROBERT F. BUKAT Y / AP

ing the failure of the much-vaunted 25th their advice and consent. Astonishingly, “I’m from the government, and I’m here
Amendment, has been invoked to remove the elites have convinced themselves that to do your voting for you.” ★
Trump from the ballot and thus eliminate some candidates for office are not only
any chance that the weak-minded among unfit for office but unfit even to stand for Peter Tonguette is a contributing writer to
us will check the box beside his name. office and that it is they who shall make the Washington Examiner magazine.

January 16–23, 2024 Washington Examiner 23

24 Washington Examiner January 16-23, 2024
Roe’s Remnants
The pro-life movement’s unfinished business
By Nicole Russell
A
bortion has es- versal of Roe v. Wade in 2022, back into
sentially been the national spotlight.
banned with a Kate Cox is a married mother who
few rare excep- traveled out of Texas to have an abortion.
tions in Texas The 31-year-old was carrying an unborn
since the legis- baby with a slew of health problems, in-
lature passed cluding full trisomy 18, a diagnosis that
the “heartbeat is often terminal. Her own health was
law” in Sep- suffering, too: She’d already been to the
tember 2021. At that time, most Repub- emergency room a few times, once leak-
licans backed the measure, although that ing amniotic fluid.
support has waned a bit since. A district court judge said Cox quali-
In December, a harrowing case chal- fied for an abortion under the exception
lenged the law and undercut the public’s in the state law. Texas Attorney General
perception of it, thrusting the abortion Ken Paxton disagreed and announced
debate, along with the changing, state- that any medical provider who aided
to-state patchwork of laws since the re- Cox’s abortion would not be immune
I think there is a backlash against certain pro-life laws. I think some
people are very angry. They no longer have easy access to abortion, and
I think that’s very real. Abortion is emotional. It is a feelings-driven topic.
That is why it tends to be so controversial for some people.
–Abby Johnson, founder of And Then There Were None, a ministry dedicated to helping abortion clinic workers leave the industry
January 16-23, 2024
from lawsuits. While a Houston-based
medical doctor said Cox’s health could
imminently be at risk, the Texas Supreme
Court sided with Paxton, arguing Cox’s
personal doctor hadn’t been persuasive
enough about the pregnancy’s effects on
her health. Cox and her husband have
been devastated. She considered herself
pro-life.
The reactions were felt nationwide.
“That Texas abortion case is worse
than you think,” a Time magazine head-
line screamed. The New Republic took it a
step further: “How Texas tried to torture
a woman for being pregnant.” An opinion
piece at CNN said, “The Kate Cox case
shows the cruelty of Texas’ abortion law.”
Washington Examiner 25

It’s been about 18 months since the
Supreme Court overturned Roe via Dobbs
v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization,
tossing the abortion question back to the
states to decide. Abortions have signifi-
cantly decreased in conservative states
while spiking in more liberal ones. Tex-
as’s trigger law, which passed following
Dobbs, opened up medical providers who
perform abortions to criminal prosecu-
tion and allowed for civil lawsuits.
The results have been dramatic. In
2020, there were more than 50,000
abortions reported compared to only 34
in the first nine months of 2023. There
were about 115,000 fewer abortions in
the 17 states that had essentially banned
the procedure. More babies are being
born, too. A June Texas Tribune article
suggested at least 10,000 more babies
had been born in Texas since its heart-
beat law passed in 2021.
But in some states, such as Illinois and
California, abortions have actually in-
26 Washington Examiner January 16-23, 2024
Abortion-rights demonstrators protest outside the
Bob Casey Federal Courthouse on June 24 in Houston.
creased. According to one report, the year There were about 117,000 more abortions
after Dobbs, there were 21,500 more abor- in the other states plus Washington, D.C.,
tions in Illinois, more than any other state. where abortion has remained legal. This
amounts to a slight increase in abortions
overall, by about 2,200 a year.
These numbers might be surprising,
even disappointing, to most pro-life ad-
Abortion advocates vocates, especially those who have been
have become angrier rallying against Roe for decades.
and more resolved But it’s not surprising at all to Abby
Johnson, a former clinic director at
than ever since Planned Parenthood turned founder of
Dobbs, stunning some And Then There Were None, a minis-
conservatives. In Ohio, try dedicated to helping abortion clin-
BRET T COOMER/HOUSTON CHRONICLE VIA AP
ic workers leave the industry. “I think
Issue 1, which declared there is a backlash against certain pro-
an individual right to life laws,” Johnson told the Washington
Examiner during a phone interview. “I
‘one’s own reproductive think some people are very angry. They
treatment, including no longer have easy access to abortion,
but not limited to and I think that’s very real. … Abortion
is emotional. It is a feelings-driven topic.
abortion,’ passed with And that is why it tends to be so contro-
a 57% majority vote. versial for some people.”
January 16-23, 2024 Washington Examiner 27
 Abortion advocates have become an-
grier and more resolved than ever since
Dobbs, stunning some conservatives.
In November 2023, Ohio voters passed
constitutional protections for abortions.
Ohio went for former President Donald
Trump in 2020 by a healthy margin. The
amendment, Issue 1, which declared an
individual right to “one’s own reproduc-
tive treatment, including but not limited
to abortion,” passed with a 57% majority
vote.
Dobbs galvanized abortion support-
ers and Democrats in general, showing
what could be possible in other more
blue states when it comes to both abor-
tion and using it as a tool to regain or
maintain political control. “Abortion is
now a constitutional right in Ohio. But
the work isn’t done,” an Ohio Capital
Journal headline said.
Democrats have harnessed abor-
tion as a way to take back or continue
a political majority in a handful of other
states, too, and they’re making headway
in Virginia and Kentucky. Arizona and
Nevada are expected to have similar
abortion measures on ballots this year.
In November 2022, voters in Montana,
Kansas, and Kentucky rejected ballot
measures that would have banned abor-
tion in their states.
“An issue that was once seen pri-
marily as a mobilizing force for the re-
ligious right has risen to the forefront
at the state and national level,” Amelia
Thomson-DeVeaux wrote in a June 2023
FiveThirtyEight column. “And as the one-
year anniversary of Dobbs approaches,
many Americans are more supportive
of abortion rights than they’ve been in
decades.” She went so far as to say that
As the one-year
anniversary of Dobbs
approaches, many
Americans are more
supportive of abortion
rights than they’ve
been in decades. Dobbs
turned abortion into
a huge liability for
Republicans.”
–Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux
28 Washington Examiner January 16-23, 2024
Anti-abortion activist Katherine Aguilar holds a crucifix and prays while opponents
and supporters of abortion rights gather in the state Capitol rotunda in Austin, Texas.
“Dobbs turned abortion into a huge lia-
bility for Republicans.”
The backlash and cases like Cox’s
raise a couple of key questions: Do pro-
life laws change the culture? Was the
public not as pro-life as conservatives
hoped? “The unpleasant reality fac-
ing the anti-abortion movement is that
most Americans don’t actually want to
ban abortion,” Elaine Godfrey wrote in
an April piece in the Atlantic.
In her career at Planned Parenthood,
Johnson said she believed she was help-
ing women in need by facilitating their
abortions — until she actually saw the
gruesome procedure firsthand. She now
tries to educate people who work at
abortion clinics. Johnson, a Texan, said
she believes accurate abortion education
is the only cure for the emotional back-
lash. Since the Cox case has been in the
spotlight, she’s used it as an example of
the need for this education when speak-
ing to others.
“Cox had to travel out of state to get
this procedure done. OK, what is this
procedure? Let’s talk about it,” John-
son says. “Let’s talk about the suffering
that’s going to happen to this fetus in
the womb while it’s being aborted. The
lives of the women matter 100%, and
also there’s another life that matters. We
can’t forget about that life. I’m not here
trying to say the life of the child matters
more than the life of the mother. … We as
a collective need to say no and that they
both matter equally.”
With Roe’s reversal no longer the bea-
con it was for half a century, some say
the pro-life movement has stumbled or
lost steam. Abortion had become the
primary policy objective for socially
conservative Republicans. Roe was an
obvious enemy that presented a clear,
present danger to babies and families, a
foundational element of a healthy West-
ern society: What would they do without
Roe to rise up against?
Anecdotally, Johnson has seen the
fallout: “People are not as engaged as
they once were. People feel like abortion
is not an issue, and I would tell people
abortion is more of an issue now than it
was before Roe was overturned because
… you’ve seen this fringe — now they are
the majority in the abortion movement,
and now they’re pushing in the states for
the extreme to be mainstream.”
States including California, Minne-
sota, Washington, Illinois, and New York
expanded abortion access following
Dobbs. In Minnesota, there are zero re-
strictions or limits on when a woman can
have an abortion, a policy Democrats
might have avoided 20 years ago. Now,
it’s celebrated.
Yet Godfrey observed in the same
Atlantic piece that even if most people
aren’t as pro-life as conservatives want,
pro-life advocates are still moving ahead.
“Even as the anti-abortion movement
lacks a Next Big Objective, a new gener-
TAMIR KALIFA/AP
ation of anti-abortion leaders is ascen-
dant — one that is arguably bolder and
more uncompromising than its prede-
cessors,” Godfrey wrote. “This cohort,
Covering the decisions
that will shape

AMERICA

January 16-23, 2024 Washington Examiner 29

still high on the fumes of last summer’s
victory, is determined to construct its
ideal post-Roe America. And it’s forging
ahead — come hell, high-water, or public
disgust.”
Dobbs didn’t end the battle for life.
It was just a prerequisite for letting the
people shape policy. In many ways, that
fight is just beginning.
Johnson thinks the way ahead is sim-
pler than almost everyone realizes. “I
personally think that we need to get back
to basics in the pro-life movement,” she
said. “We’ve got to get back to basic ed-
ucation about life in the womb. We talk
about abortion, but I don’t think people
know what abortion is, and the perfect
example of that was the Kate Cox case.
… The primary victim in an abortion
procedure is the baby being killed. We
need to get back to: What is an abortion
procedure? What is a child in the womb?
When does a heart start beating? People
need to know this information.” 

Nicole Russell (@russell_nm) is a contrib-

utor to the Washington Examiner’s Belt-
way Confidential blog. She is a mother of
four and an opinion columnist for the Fort
Worth Star-Telegram in Texas. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton makes a statement in Austin, Texas.

ERIC GAY/AP

30 Washington Examiner January 16-23, 2024

 Campaign P. 34
Congress P. 36
White House P. 38
Technology P. 40

national security

Zelensky’s 2024 strategy:

Play defense and show Putin
Crimea doesn’t pay
GUT TER CREDIT

UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS OFFICE/AP

January 16-23, 2024 Washington Examiner 31

WASHINGTON BRIEFING
After ten years of war with every advantage,
Russia controls only 18% of Ukraine
By Jamie McIntyre
A
s the war in Ukraine ap-
proaches the end of its
second year, Ukrainian Pres-
ident Volodymyr Zelensky is
facing the harsh reality that
his Western-supported sum-
mer counteroffensive failed to produce
any significant territorial gains and that
Russian President Vladimir Putin has
even less incentive to give any ground
given that U.S. and Western support ap-
pears to be weakening.
In a New Year’s interview with
the Economist, Zelensky sounded resolute
but realistic about what can be achieved
this year, absent the ability to break
through Russia’s multilayered defenses to
cause a collapse of the front lines in the
occupied southern region of the country.
“The war in 2024, this is the new
page,” he said. “We have one strategy
goal: to de-occupy our territories.”
“Our goals didn’t change. The goal is
to save and to have more successful steps
in the Black Sea, to continue success on
Crimea, on the south,” Zelensky told
Zanny Minton Beddoes, the Economist’s
editor-in-chief. “I can’t tell you the de-
tails, but we will do it.”
Minton Beddoes later told CNN, “He
was very frustrated. He senses that the
narrative has shifted in the West and
people think the Russians have the up-
per hand.”
“He called Putin an animal who senses
weakness, and [he argued] that if you al-
lowed Putin to win in Ukraine, it would be
much, much worse, it would be an exis-
tential risk for the rest. And that argument
just at the moment isn’t landing, I think,
and that’s what really is sort of underpin-
ning his sense of frustration, which was
very real,” Minton Beddoes added.
There are multiple explanations for
the failure of Ukraine’s counteroffensive
to turn the tide of battle in 2023: U.S. aid
was too slow in coming, giving Russia too
much time to fortify its defenses, Ukraine
lacked airpower and longer-range weap-
ons that could cut supply lines, Ukrainian
32 Washington Examiner January 16-23, 2024
forces were dispersed along too many
fronts, and breaking through Russia
lines would cost the lives of too many
Ukrainian troops.
At the outset of the counteroffen-
sive, Ukraine’s top military commander,
Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, believed his bet-
ter-trained, Western-equipped troops
would prevail, inflicting heavy casualties
on the demoralized, poorly led Russian
troops.
A declassified U.S. intelligence report
provided to Congress in December as-
sessed that Russia has lost 315,000 dead
and injured troops since the start of the
war.
In the last six months, Russia’s ca-
sualty rate has been upward of 20,000
troops a month, according to the
Ukrainian General Staff.
“Russia has lost at least 150,000 dead.
In any other country, such casualties
would have stopped the war,” Zaluzhny
told the Economist in a separate Novem-
ber interview.
But not Russia, where Putin has little
regard for the loss of life on either side.
“That was my mistake,” Zaluzhny
lamented.
Ukraine, which does not release its
casualty figures, has also suffered heavy
casualties, with U.S. estimates suggest-
ing more than 70,000 Ukrainian troops
have been killed and more than 100,000
wounded.
At an end-of-year news conference in
Kyiv, Zelensky revealed that after almost
two years of intensive fighting, his mili-
tary commanders are facing a manpower
shortage and have asked for more troops
for the front lines.
“They proposed to mobilize an addi-
tional 450,000 to 500,000 people,” Zel-
ensky said. “This is a significant number.”
Zelensky, who had high, if unrealis-
tic, hopes of winning the war in 2023, is
not making any sweeping predictions for
2024 except to say there is no way he will
negotiate with Putin, who has shown time
and time again he can’t be trusted.
“We are not ready to give our freedom
to this f***ing terrorist Putin,” Zelensky
told NBC News in November. “That’s it.
That’s why we are fighting. That’s it.”
Zelensky is facing a shortage of ar-
tillery shells and anti-aircraft munitions
needed to blunt the constant aerial bom-
bardment of Russian drones and missiles.
Putin is sacrificing his troops and bid-
ing his time, clearly banking on Western
support evaporating and the reelection
of former President Donald Trump, who
has publicly indicated he would force
Ukraine’s capitulation in less than a day.
“I will need 24 minutes — yes, 24 min-
utes, not more. Yes, not more, 24 min-
utes to explain to President Trump that
he can’t manage this war. He can’t bring
peace because of Putin,” Zelensky said in
the NBC interview.
Many Western military experts, in-
cluding retired U.S. commanders, dispute
the notion the grinding war of attri-
tion has settled into a stalemate or that
Ukraine is losing simply because its land
campaign failed to produce a dramatic
breakthrough.
“I do not believe that ‘failed’ is the
right descriptor,” retired Gen. Philip
Breedlove, a former supreme NATO com-
mander, said at an Atlantic Council event
this month. “The Russians have lost large,
impactful numbers of soldiers as they
have been throwing themselves at the
Ukrainians, so even though the Ukrainian
large land movements did not materialize,
Ukraine made progress on the ground.”
Breedlove, like other analysts, argues
the focus on the limited gains on land is
eclipsing Ukraine’s stunning defeat of
Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in 2023 despite
Ukraine not having a navy.
“One area where I think the media has
not done a good service is in highlighting
the success of ‘the battle of the Black Sea,’
as I call it,” the Hudson Institute’s Luke
We are not ready to
give our freedom to
this f***ing terrorist
Putin. That’s it.
–Ukrainian President Zelensky
Coffey said at the Atlantic Council event.
“The Ukrainians are achieving amaz-
ing things in the Black Sea. I think the
latest number is 21 ships of the Black Sea
Fleet have been destroyed or damaged.
Many of the ships have moved out of
Crimea, and the shipping lanes are open
for grain exports to the global South,”
Coffey said.
“All these things are made possible by
the weapons that the West is providing
combined with Ukraine’s ingenuity, cre-
ativity, and boldness.”
Zaluzhny, Zelensky’s top wartime gen-
eral, advocates shifting to what he calls
“positional warfare,” which emphasizes
defensive operations, along with more
drones, electronic warfare, anti-artillery
capabilities, and de-mining equipment to
maintain the initiative and avoid falling in
a long war, which would play to Russia’s
advantage.
It’s a strategy that should not be seen
as “an acceptance of an inevitable Rus-
sian victory,” retired Australian army Maj.
Gen. Mick Ryan said in a recent podcast.
“It is defensive, but only as a temporary
position while the Russians are attrited,
their drone and missile attacks defeated,
and the Ukrainians rebuild their strength
for a larger and more capable offensive in
2025.”
Still, Zelensky wants 2024 to be the
year the Russians are forced to abandon
Crimea, the strategic peninsula Putin ille-
gally annexed in 2014.
Ukraine has already made the Crimean
port of Sevastopol untenable for Russian
warships with its drone and missile at-
tacks — dropping a section of the 12-mile-
long Kerch Bridge, the critical supply link
between Crimea and Russia, could do the
same for the whole peninsula.
“Russia has to know that for us, this
is a military object,” Zelensky said in
his Economist interview, but he insists
he needs longer-range weapons such as
American ATACMS or German Taurus
missiles.
“Ukraine armed with ATACMS and/
January 16-23, 2024 Washington Examiner
or TAURUS would be able to reach ev-
ery square meter of Russian-occupied
Ukraine,” retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges,
former commanding general of the U.S.
Army Europe, posted on X, formerly
known as Twitter. “No Russian HQ or
rocket launcher or ammunition storage
site would be safe. No Russian ship would
be safe. It’s only our lack of political will
that stops this.”
“After ten years of war with every
advantage, Russia controls only 18% of
Ukraine, has failed to achieve air supe-
riority, its Black Sea Fleet is retreating
from Sevastopol, over 330K killed and
wounded, and they are begging North
Korea for ammunition,” Hodges noted.
“Who’s losing?” ★
Jamie McIntyre is the Washington Exam-
iner’s senior writer on defense and national
security. His morning newsletter, “Jamie
McIntyre’s Daily on Defense,” is free and
available by email subscription at
dailyondefense.com.
33
WASHINGTON BRIEFING
CAMPAIGN
Rocky
Mountain
try
GOP Rep.
Lauren Boebert
seeks reelection
on the other
side of Colorado
By David Mark
I
t’s a five-hour, 350-mile drive from
Rifle, Colorado, where Rep. Lauren
Boebert once owned and ran the
Second Amendment-themed Shoot-
ers Grill restaurant, to the small mu-
nicipality of Holyoke, in the state’s
northeastern corner. Boebert is betting
the political distance isn’t so vast.
Boebert, a high-profile House Re-
publican and one of former President
Donald Trump’s staunchest defenders
in Congress, is leaving the Pueblo area
and Western Slope 3rd Congressional
District. She’s moving clear cross-state,
running for reelection in the eastern Col-
orado and Denver exurbs 4th Congres-
sional District, effectively trying to trade
a conservative-leaning yet increasingly
purplish district straddling Colorado’s
entire western state line, with Utah, for
a deep-red constituency whose deep-red
politics more mirror those of neighboring
Kansas and Nebraska.
Boebert, first elected to the House in
2020 after upsetting a 10-year incumbent
in the Republican primary, is moving after
seeming to wear out her welcome in west-
ern Colorado. In 2022, she beat Demo-
cratic rival Adam Frisch 50.1% to 49.%, or
546 votes out of more than 327,000 cast.
That in a district where in 2020 Trump
would have beaten President Joe Biden
52.9% to 44.7%. Frisch, a businessman
34 Washington Examiner January 16-23, 2024
and former member of the Aspen City
Council, is running again, with Colorado’s
congressional primaries on June 25.
Boebert made a name for herself na-
tionally soon after joining Congress three
years ago. Her controversies included
resisting mask and vaccine mandates in
the House chamber, which earned her a
$500 fine from the House Ethics Com-
mittee. She set off metal detectors at the
entrance to the House floor by refusing to
part with her gun, causing a dispute with
Capitol Police. Boebert also amplified
Trump’s baseless election fraud claims,
tweeting that “today is 1776” on the day
of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Dem-
ocrats seethed at Boebert’s behavior and
have an even longer bill of particulars
about her outrages, which they deem un-
becoming a member of Congress.
Yet Boebert’s political prospects took
on a more dire tone after a September in-
cident in which she was escorted out of
a Denver performance of Beetlejuice for
vaping, groping her companion, and gen-
erally causing a disturbance. Social media
and late-night comics ran wild with jokes
about Boebert’s “hands-on” brand of pol-
itics and the like.
A NEW CONSTITUENCY
The 4th Congressional District seat is
open because Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) is re-
tiring after eight years. Voters there would
have backed Trump over Biden 58% to
39.%. So, winning the Republican prima-
ry is all that matters to nab the open seat.
The next five months will test how
much of a desire there is by voters for
Boebert’s brand of performative politics.
Several prominent Republicans also are
seeking their party’s nod. That includes
Mara Bailey, a former congressional aide;
former state Sen. Ted Harvey; state Rep.
Richard Holtorf; Weld County Council-
man Trent Leisy; state House Minority
Leader Mike Lynch; businessman and
former congressional aide Chris Phel-
an; and Logan County Commissioner
Jerry Sonnenberg, who previously was
a member of both chambers in the state
legislature.
WASHINGTON EXAMINER ILLUSTRATION; J. SCOT T APPLEWHITE/AP
Each rival candidate to Boebert brings
his or her own MAGA-esque credentials
to the Republican primary. And the bulk
of them have held public office for years
in the region.
As for Democrat Frisch back in the
3rd Congressional District, his candidacy
could go a couple of ways. It’s still pos-
sible Frisch could win. After all, Frisch
raised a ton of money, and even if his
fundraising doesn’t continue at strato-
spheric levels now that Boebert’s out of
the race, he’ll still have the necessary re-
sources to wage a competitive race.
 Moreover, while the congressional
district has a distinct Republican tilt, it’s
not insurmountable. The district also
includes several Denver suburbs and ex-
urbs, which are growing increasingly blue.
“Adam is running to make sure his dis-
trict has real representation in Congress.
We’re going to help him finish the job and
put the House back to work for the Amer-
ican people, not political extremists,”
Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA)
posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Dec. 28.
And another 2024 Democratic House
candidate, Will Rollins, running in the
inland Southern California 41st Congres-
sional District, told the Washington Ex-
aminer in an interview that Frisch was a
model for others challenging Republican
opponents. Rollins credited Frisch with
coining the term “Angertainment” about
right-win provocateurs in the House,
such as Boebert and Reps. Marjorie Tay-
lor Greene (R-GA) and Matt Gaetz (R-FL).
Still, Frisch could wind up like the
would-be 2014 challenger to then-Rep.
Michele Bachmann (R-MN). Bachmann,
like Boebert, was a telegenic conservative
female House member with a knack for
drawing national attention. Bachmann
became a Tea Party-era star about half-
way through her 2007-15 House tenure
as Republicans won a majority in the
chamber.
But Bachmann flew too close to the
sun politically. Bachmann’s Minnesota
voter support wilted in the northern and
western Minneapolis exurbs 6th Con-
gressional District, which she’d first been
elected to represent in 2006. Wealthy
Democratic local businessman Jim
Graves jumped in the 2014 race after her
2012 bid for the Republican nomination
flamed out. Democrats were high on his
chances — until Bachmann, facing polit-
ical reality, quit the race.
That ended the raison d’être for
Graves’s candidacy. His support from
House Democrats’ campaign arm dried
up. He was gone by the end of May 2013.
Tom Emmer went on to claim the seat,
and the nearly 10-year Republican con-
gressman now is the House majority
whip.
Frisch looks likely to finish out his
race over the next 9 1/2 months. Repub-
lican candidates in the 3rd Congressional
District include state Rep. Ron Hanks and
attorney Jeff Hurd, who had jumped into
the nomination fight even before Boebert
picked up and left the district.
INCUMBENT DISTRICT SWITCHERS
Boebert’s move is a rare example of an
incumbent lawmaker moving clear across
the state to run in a different district. Some
House incumbents have run elsewhere in
their regions when new maps came into
being due to redistricting, usually in years
starting with “2” after once-in-a-decade
Census Bureau figures are released.
Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) did so
ahead of the 2002 election cycle. Af-
ter the 2000 census made the then-5th
Congressional District, in suburban Dal-
las, slightly more Democratic, he moved
to the newly created 32nd District. He
easily prevailed in that new district, in
redder parts of the Dallas area, and has
spent most of the rest of the past 20 years
as a House member.
The closest analogy to Boebert’s move
is Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), first
elected in 2002.
In February 2010, he jumped to a
neighboring South Florida district be-
ing vacated by his brother, retiring Rep.
Lincoln Diaz-Balart. Unlike Rep. Mario
Diaz-Balart’s old 25th Congressional
District, the 21st Congressional District
had long been considered the Miami
area’s most Republican seat. No oth-
er party even fielded a candidate when
filing closed on April 30, 2010, handing
Diaz-Balart the seat. He hasn’t had a
tough race since and now is the most se-
nior member of Florida’s congressional
delegation.
House members with two separate
stints in office sometimes represent
districts hundreds of miles apart. Take
former Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA), who
represented a Long Beach-based district
in Southern California from 1979-89.
After eight years as attorney general and
being the losing 1998 Republican guber-
natorial nominee, Lungren made a po-
litical comeback in a Sacramento-area
House district that’s usually a six-hour
or so drive from his old home. Lungren
said those years in state government, as
January 16-23, 2024 Washington Examiner
California’s top law enforcement officer,
made him a Sacramento-region resident,
and he won an open House seat in 2004.
But like much of California, the dis-
trict was becoming bluer, and Lungren
lost reelection in 2012. Yet he had set an
example, followed by a longer period of
electoral success from Rep. Tom McClin-
tock (R-CA). Elected to the California
State Assembly at age 26 in 1982, rep-
resenting a then-conservative-leaning
swath of territory northwest of Los Ange-
les, primarily in Ventura County, McClin-
tock became a prominent conservative in
California.
McClintock had a second Assembly
stint in the late 1990s and moved up to
the state Senate for eight years. In be-
tween, he lost a series of races, first for
the House, in 1992, followed by statewide
bids for controller (twice), lieutenant gov-
ernor, and in the 2003 California guber-
natorial recall election.
But a new political opportunity arose
in 2008, when the incumbent Republican
House member in a northeastern Califor-
nia district retired after 18 years. McClin-
tock ran for, and won, the seat, about 300
miles north of the district McClintock
represented in the state Senate. Today,
McClintock represents the upper Central
Valley and Sierra Nevada foothills 5th
Congressional District.
Further up the West Coast, Gov. Jay
Inslee (D-WA) once turned electoral de-
feat into a chance at starting over polit-
ically. As a state representative in 1992,
Inslee won the then-4th Congressional
District, based in the central-eastern part
of the state. But he lost reelection in the
1994 “Republican Revolution” after a sin-
gle, two-year term.
So, Inslee moved west to the Seattle
area, nearly 150 miles from his home base
in the city of Yakima. Inslee ran a much
bluer district and beat a Republican in-
cumbent. Inslee easily held the seat until
resigning from the House seven months
before the 2012 Washington gubernato-
rial election. Inslee won easily and is set
to retire from the governorship after the
2024 elections. ★
David Mark is managing editor of the
Washington Examiner magazine.
35
WASHINGTON BRIEFING
CONGRESS
Is Rep. Shri
Thanedar
a new lion
of Detroit
politics?
Thanedar’s support
for Israel’s military
action in Gaza
stands in contrast to
Rep. Rashida Tlaib
By Jeremy Lott
I
n sports and politics, the past year
has brought a few surprising results
from the Motor City. The Detroit
Lions are good this season, and a
freshman Democratic congressman
has been bucking a large faction of
his party over some aspects of identity
politics and support for Israel.
The Lions are enjoying their first tru-
ly great season in quite a few years. The
team used to battle for the worst place in
the NFL. In the 2008-09 season, the team
went 0-16. In the 2021-22 season, they only
won three games. Now, they appear to have
turned a corner.
The Lions had a winning season in the
2022-23 season, but just barely, notch-
ing up nine wins and eight losses. In the
2023-24 season, they had 12 wins to five
losses, and they aren’t done yet. Quarter-
backed by Jared Goff, the team closed out
the regular season with a 30-20 win over
the Minnesota Vikings. The Lions won
their division, now the NFC North, for the
first time since 1993 and could go as far as
the Super Bowl.
Another unlikely Detroit player of
sorts is Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-MI), an
Indian immigrant and naturalized U.S.
citizen who looks much younger than his
68 years because of a surprisingly robust
36 Washington Examiner January 16-23, 2024
head of hair. His career before politics
was as a successful pharmaceutical test-
ing entrepreneur.
Thanedar ran in a crowded field for
the Democratic nomination for Michigan
governor in 2018, making little headway.
He scaled back his ambitions and served
one term in the Michigan legislature be-
fore running for the House in 2022, from a
district covering much of Detroit and the
city’s southwestern suburbs.
In Thanedar’s bid for Congress, he
again contended in a crowded Democrat-
ic primary. Thanedar emerged with the
nomination from the 13th Congressional
District and won the seat with just over
71% of the vote. That seat has historically
gone to black candidates, which appears to
have engendered some resentment among
fellow Democrats in the region.
So far, Thanedar’s politics have been
those of a typical progressive Democrat.
He pushed for a $15 minimum wage,
co-sponsored the Medicare for All Act, and
wants an assault weapons ban and feder-
al laws to support abortion. There is one
issue that has set him at odds with many
progressives, especially those in Michigan,
however: his solid support for Israel fol-
lowing the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.
“I stand shoulder to shoulder with the
Israeli people in condemning this recent
attack by Hamas,” he posted on the day it
happened in an X post and hasn’t backed
down since. A few days later, Thanedar
was filmed as one link in a chain of Mich-
igan officials holding hands and dancing
at a synagogue in a Detroit suburb. The
congressman also announced that he was
breaking ties with the Democratic Social-
ists of America over the organization’s sup-
port for Hamas.
Thanedar’s support for Israel’s mili-
tary action in Gaza has been controversial
among many Michigan activists. Protesters
President Biden
arrives at Detroit
Metropolitan Wayne
County Airport to
join striking United
Auto Workers on the
picket line, on Sept.
26, 2023, in Romulus,
Mich. From left,
Rep. Rashida Tlaib,
D-Mich., United Auto
Workers President
Shawn Fain, Rep. Shri
Thanedar, D-Mich.,
and Michigan Lt. Gov.
Garlin Gilchrist.
showed up on his lawn in the wee hours
one morning. A party that he attended in
December dissolved into fisticuffs.
“[Protesters] created a situation of vio-
lence where innocent party goers, including
elderly people, were injured. Some serious-
ly,” he posted on X on Dec. 17, adding, “I
love and value the First Amendment, and
encourage civil disagreement, but violence
of any kind is unacceptable. And if these
protestors think hurting senior citizens at
a Christmas party is going to win people
over to their side, they are very mistaken.”
Against Thanedar’s steadfast support
for Israel, fellow Democratic Rep. Rashida
Tlaib of Michigan’s neighboring Detroit
and western suburbs 12th Congressional
District makes quite the contrast. While
Thanedar’s moral fortitude and strategic
thinking in support of Israel in trying times
has made him like the winning Lions of pro
football, Tlaib, to keep the sports analogy
going, is more like the NBA’s moribund De-
troit Pistons.
The once-storied franchise won NBA
championships in 1989, 1990, and 2004,
but has had mostly losing seasons from
the 2008-09 season on. This season, the
basketball team is 3-35, and endured a 28-
game losing streak, tied for the worst in
NBA history.
Tlaib, for her part, has been censured by
the House of Representatives in a vote that
included 212 Republicans and 22 Demo-
crats “for promoting false narratives re-
garding the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack
on Israel and for calling for the destruction
of the State of Israel.”
Whether people think the censure vote
was just may hinge on what they think of
AP PHOTO/EVAN VUCCI
the protest chant “from the river to the
sea,” which Tlaib, the House’s only Pales-
tinian American member, has parroted.
The American Jewish Committee explains
the phrase’s origin and teases out its maxi-
mally antisemitic interpretation.
“‘From the River to the Sea, Palestine
Will Be Free’ is a rallying cry for terrorist
groups and their sympathizers ... [includ-
ing] Hamas, which called for Israel’s de-
struction in its original governing charter
in 1988 and was responsible for the Octo-
ber 7, 2023, terror attack on Israeli civilians,
murdering over 1,200 people in the single
deadliest day for Jews since the Holo-
caust,” the AJC writes on its website.
The AJC adds that the phrase “is also a
common call-to-arms for pro-Palestinian
activists, especially student activists on
college campuses. It calls for the estab-
lishment of a State of Palestine from the
Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea,
erasing the State of Israel and its people.”
A few observers have questioned
whether many of the young protesters
who employ that phrase really understand
its full implications. Presidents of Harvard,
Penn, and MIT were asked whether calls
for “genocide” were against their schools’
codes of conduct and should therefore be
punished in a Dec. 5 congressional hearing,
and they tried to duck the question.
Rather than explain that many of their
students were too dull to understand what
they were chanting, these heads of univer-
sity said that discipline should be based
on the “context” in which one called for
genocide. Many donors were furious. Two
of those three school presidents are now
ex-presidents.
In addition to her unfortunate wa-
ter-based sloganeering, Tlaib also blamed
Israel for shelling a hospital in the Gaza
Strip. She refused to apologize when it
became clear this hadn’t happened. She
also accused President Joe Biden’s ad-
ministration of perpetuating “genocide”
itself by not demanding an Israel cease-
fire in Gaza. She has taken jabs at Tha-
nedar in the Detroit News for “posting
memes” and “leaving his working-class
communities across his district with no
real advocate.”
January 16-23, 2024 Washington Examiner
The divide between Thanedar and Tlaib
is not an ideological one, or at least not ide-
ology as it has functioned for much of the
last century. If anything, Thanedar has a
more progressive voting record than Tlaib.
The conservative Heritage Action report
card gives Tlaib a “session score” of 28%
and a “lifetime score” of 16% versus Tha-
nedar’s current session score of 0%.
But Israel is emerging as a wedge issue
in American politics. And it is far from cer-
tain how it will play out in Michigan, the
U.S. state with the highest Arab Ameri-
can population. Like Thanedar, President
Joe Biden has taken a reasonably stout
pro-Israel line since the Hamas attacks
in October. He has also taken a beating in
Michigan polling. This fluctuation could
be a coincidence, or it could be a portent
of a less-than-winning political season to
come. ★
Jeremy Lott is a contributor for the
Washington Examiner.
37
WASHINGTON BRIEFING
white house
Biden’s big
question:
Debate or
decline?
Presidential debates
have been an election
fixture since 1976, but
that may change in
2024 and beyond
By Haisten Willis
P
resident Joe Biden may be
weighing his own version of
the famous Hamlet question
as fall approaches: to debate
or not to debate.
Since 1976, the answer to
that question for every major party pres-
idential nominee has been “yes.” But there
are rumblings from within the Democratic
Party that Biden should turn that prece-
dent on its head — particularly if his 2024
Republican opponent is former President
Donald Trump.
“I would think twice about it,” Sen. Dick
Durbin (D-IL) recently told the Hill. “[In
2016] I watched him do outrageous things
and say outrageous things. It’s just an op-
portunity for him to display his extremism.”
There are prominent and recent ex-
amples of politicians skipping debates
without damage, something that will
surely factor into Team Biden’s deci-
sion-making process.
One obvious parallel is that Trump
himself has skipped all GOP primary de-
bates and has only seen his polling num-
bers rise as a result. If debating doesn’t
help, why do it?
There’s an old adage in politics that
incumbents don’t debate, on the prem-
ise that doing so puts the challenger on
a level playing field with the champion in
the eyes of voters. Biden himself is refus-
38 Washington Examiner January 16-23, 2024
ing to debate his small field of intrapar-
ty challengers, most notably Rep. Dean
Phillips (D-MN), as have most presiden-
tial incumbents during primary season.
Trump is different, at least in theory.
Booted from office in 2020, he’s run-
ning in an open primary, yet his status
as a former president seeking a noncon-
secutive second term — unique within
living memory — grants him a sort of
semi-incumbency, which he’s used to
his advantage.
Trump polled at 55% on Aug. 20, ac-
cording to the RealClearPolitics polling
average, just before the first Republican
primary debate. Nearly a half-dozen
Trump-free debates later, he’s now poll-
ing above 62%.
But Trump insists he’s willing and eager
to go against Biden, telling radio host Hugh
I was in the room for
one of the debates
in 2020. The former
president in no way
at all respected the
rules or the tradition
or decorum [of
presidential debates].
... It was a disaster.
–Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE)
Hewitt in typical Trumpian fashion that
he’d “look forward” to facing Biden in 10
debates rather than the traditional three.
Democrats aren’t so sure.
Publicly stated concerns include the
fear that Trump will say or do something
erratic during an appearance with Biden,
along with cautions against “platform-
ing” views that most left-leaning voters
view as extreme.
“I was in the room for one of the de-
bates in 2020,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE)
said. “The former president in no way at
all respected the rules or the tradition or
decorum [of presidential debates]. ... It
was a disaster.”
Coons cited Trump’s comments
about immigrants poisoning the blood
of the nation, which the senator de-
scribed as “hateful, fascist remarks,”
as the kind of thing that should not be
uttered on a debate stage.
Neither the Biden nor Trump cam-
paigns responded to questions from the
Washington Examiner about whether
their candidate would agree to debates.
Despite Coons’s concerns about tradi-
tion and decorum, televised presidential
debates do not have as long of a history as
some might assume. The first ones were
held in 1960, a famous episode featuring
John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, after
which some reports held that people who
JULIO CORTEZ/AP
listened on the radio thought Nixon won,
while those who watched on TV favored
Kennedy. A total of four Kennedy-Nixon
debates took place that year.
 Then-President Donald Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden during the second and final presidential debate on Oct. 22, 2020.
Another 16 years passed before the
next general election presidential debate
was held, and they have been a regular
fixture since the 1976 election.
Changes in both technology and the
political landscape may endanger the
three-debate format in 2024 and beyond,
and not everyone thinks that’s a bad thing.
“Refusing to participate in the pres-
idential debates would be one of the few
decisions Joe Biden has made since 2020
that I would endorse,” said William Voege-
li, a senior fellow at the Claremont Insti-
tute. “America elected presidents without
face-to-face debates from 1792 through
1956. The evidence from 1960, and then
1976 through 2020, argues that the debates
have done more harm than good.”
Recent precedent showcases one
path Biden may follow.
Gov. Katie Hobbs (D-AZ) refused to de-
bate her Trump-tinged challenger, former
news anchor Kari Lake, during her 2022
campaign. While she took some heat for
PATRICK SEMANSKY/AP
the decision, Hobbs emerged victorious.
Biden faces some of the same issues
as Hobbs. Trump is a former television
star comfortable in front of a camera,
and Biden could potentially lean on the
danger-to-democracy arguments he’s
been making to say that appearing on-
stage with him is too dangerous.
The risk for Biden is twofold. One is
that ducking debates could further no-
tions that Biden is too old and enfeebled
to handle the duties of the presidency.
The other is that it would undermine his
presentation as the candidate who re-
spects traditions and norms in contrast
to the unhinged Trump.
“Oddly enough, Biden, who’s running
as the guy who promises to be more like
a normal politician, might look worse for
threatening to skip a debate than Trump
would,” said Rob Boatright, director of
research for the National Institute for
Civil Discourse. “Debates are really one
of the few things that people expect in a
presidential campaign.”
If debates do go the wayside, Boatright
said it’s hard to separate out whether ris-
ing partisanship or changes in technology
away from television and toward the inter-
net played a bigger role in the shift.
One 2020 debate was canceled when
Trump refused to go virtual after testing
positive for COVID-19. Otherwise, Trump
and Biden’s status as a former and current
January 16-23, 2024 Washington Examiner
president, along with their exceptionally
long tenures in the public eye, mean that
most voters have little to learn from seeing
the pair together onstage.
“We all know Trump, we all know
Biden, so in one sense one may argue
debates are less consequential than in
prior years,” Boatright said.
What ultimately happens may come
down to who is leading in the polls over the
spring and summer. Biden currently trails
Trump in a number of swing states, which
traditionally means he should be more ea-
ger to take the debate stage if that holds.
But Voegeli predicts that Biden may
decide not to debate this fall — and that
doing so won’t hurt him.
“[Biden’s] age and forensic lim-
itations are priced in at this point,”
Voegeli said. “He won in 2020 by run-
ning a basement campaign, and may
be able to win in 2024 by running a
Rose Garden one. The press has been
protective of him, and will likely be-
come even more so as Election Day
approaches.” ★
Haisten Willis is a White House reporter
for the Washington Examiner.
39
 Technology

There’s reason to fret about the FCC’s digital

discrimination rule for broadband subsidies
The details of how to distribute the federal funding
are hitting a partisan snag
By Jessica Melugin

H
eralded as a rare bipartisan
achievement, a spending bill
to expand internet access is
revealing devils in its details.
When Congress and Pres-
ident Joe Biden enacted $65
billion worth of broadband subsidies as
part of the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure
law, it also directed the Federal Com-
munications Commission to adopt new
rules to prevent “digital discrimination”
in the rollout of high-speed access. But
in crafting those new rules, the FCC’s
decision to go beyond banning “discrim-
inatory intent” on the part of providers
and instead prohibit “disparate impact”
on broadband adoption has revealed de- President Joe Biden speaks during an event about high-speed internet infrastructure
cidedly partisan cracks in the program’s in the East Room of the White House on June 26, 2023, in Washington.
implementation.
In the same year the legislation was man for implementing the $1.2 trillion M. Gomez released a statement say-
passed, the Pew Research Center found law, told reporters last year, “It is arguably ing, “As we make historic investments
that 23% of the public did not have ac- bigger than what happened in the New in our nation’s infrastructure that will
cess to a broadband connection at home. Deal, and I think it’s bigger than what impact generations to come, we must
Reasons for the so-called digital divide happened in the Eisenhower administra- prioritize digital equity.” In a lengthy
include geographic impediments and tion when they built the highway system.” dissenting statement, Republican Com-
socioeconomic hurdles. The issue came Harold Feld, senior vice president at missioner Brendan Carr called the rules
to the forefront of political agendas af- progressive think tank Public Knowl- “a framework that gives the FCC nearly
ter COVID-19 lockdowns pushed people edge, praised the bill and its prohibition limitless power to veto private sector de-
increasingly online. The gap is widely on discrimination, writing, “Congress cisions.” The rules were adopted along
believed to put those without home in- swiftly moved to fight digital redlining — party lines, with the three Democratic
ternet access at a disadvantage regarding the practice of broadband providers sys- commissioners approving and the two
learning, employment, and even health- temically underinvesting in communities Republican commissioners objecting.
care opportunities. of color and lower-income communities Previously, groups or individuals ac-
Citing the consensus in its legislation — by requiring the FCC to create rules cusing companies of violations would
that “a broadband connection and digital ending this behavior.” have to prove intentional discrimina-
literacy are increasingly critical to how in- While there was broad agreement for tion by providers to trigger a violation
dividuals participate in the society, econ- federal spending to close the digital di- of civil rights law. However, under the
EVAN VUCCI / AP PHOTO

omy and civil institutions of the United
States,” Congress passed the spending bill
that Biden signed into law on Nov. 15, 2021.
Former New Orleans Mayor Mitch
Landrieu, until this month Biden’s point
vide, the details of how to distribute the
funds, a task delegated to the FCC, are
hitting a partisan snag.
Upon adoption of the rules last fall,
Democratic FCC Commissioner Anna
new rules, government or third-party
plaintiffs would only need to show that
different groups of people use the same
services at different prices. This stems
from the inclusion of “income level”

40 Washington Examiner January 16-23, 2024

among the prohibited categories previ-
ously limited to “race, ethnicity, color,
religion or national origin.”
In December, a coalition of
25 free-market and conservative groups
sent a letter to Congress warning of the
FCC’s statutory overreach in shifting the
standard for violating the law. The letter
cautioned that the move would incen-
tivize a “shakedown of any telecommu-
nications company that tries to expand
broadband services to any underserved
areas under the threat of lawsuits.” The
groups claim this will “chill investment”
in new broadband infrastructure and
discourage participation from potential
providers in the Broadband Equity, Ac-
cess, and Deployment, or BEAD, funding
program, therefore leaving federal efforts
to close the digital divide unfulfilled.
Curt Levey, president of the conser-
sumers by ensuring that fewer companies
provide broadband access and that the
$65 billion Congress allocated, under the
bipartisan infrastructure law, to expand
broadband access goes less far.” He con-
tinued, “All of that means less broadband
access at a higher price for consumers.”
It is arguably bigger
than what happened
in the New Deal, and
I think it’s bigger
than what happened
in the Eisenhower
administration when
they built the highway
Critics of the rules charge the new
regulations will also allow the FCC to mi-
cromanage what should be private busi-
ness decisions by broadband providers,
including fees and network management.
They think the 218 pages of new regula-
tions go beyond what Congress empow-
ered the agency to do and urge lawmakers
to rein in the proposal.
If Congress demurs, the rules will soon
go into effect. The FCC will review con-
sumer complaints through a new portal. If
the agency finds violations, it can facilitate
mediation and issue fines to providers.
Many telecom policy observers and legal
experts predict constitutional challenges to
the new rules to be brought to court. Those
efforts jeopardize one of the Biden admin-
istration’s signature achievements headed
into a reelection year for the president. ★

vative nonprofit group Committee for system. Jessica Melugin is director of the Center
Justice, told the Washington Examiner –Former New Orleans Mayor Mitch for Technology & Innovation at the Com-
that the FCC’s approach will “harm con- Landrieu petitive Enterprise Institute.

January 16-23, 2024 Washington Examiner 41

Alaska Airlines N704AL, parked at a maintenance hanger in Portland, Ore. on Jan. 5th, 2024.

air travel

Boeing faces trouble after the

Alaska Airlines flight scare, forcing
the suspension of 737 planes
Airbus might receive a bit of a boost from Boeing’s misfortune
By Zachary Halaschak

B
oeing is facing some trouble
after a piece of one of their
planes was torn off during
takeoff, causing the federal
operated by Alaska Airlines, which took
off from Portland, Oregon. Shortly into
the flight, door plugs on the aircraft blew
out, causing phones and other items to be
might have gone wrong. The FAA acted
quickly and ordered inspections for cer-
tain Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft operated
by U.S. airlines or on American territory.
CRAIG MITCHELLDYER/AP

government to ground doz-
ens of aircraft pending an
investigation.
The incident in question occurred on
Jan. 5 and involved a Boeing 737 Max 9,
sucked outside of the plane.
Videos of the harrowing scene quick-
ly spread on social media, with many
expressing anxieties about flying in such
planes and questioning where Boeing
In total, some 171 airplanes will be affect-
ed by the grounding order.
“The FAA is requiring immediate in-
spections of certain Boeing 737 Max 9
planes before they can return to flight,”

42 Washington Examiner January 16-23, 2024

 FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said.
“Safety will continue to drive our de-
cision-making as we assist the NTSB’s
investigation into Alaska Airlines Flight
1282.”
Boeing, which has faced blowback
in the past after other notable incidents
involving the 737 Max, felt the repercus-
sions as soon as markets opened on the
Monday following the Friday evening
incident.
Boeing shed as much as 8% of its total
value as the markets opened. As of Jan.
5, the company’s stock was still down
about 7% from before the incident, show-
ing that investors remain nervous about
what is to come for the aircraft and the
company.
Notably, companies downstream
of Boeing were also feeling the heat.
Suppliers of aircraft parts like Spirit
AeroSystems Holdings, Hexcel Corp.,
and Triumph Group all saw their stocks
tumble in the wake of the kerfuffle.
Jungho Suh, an assistant professor
at the George Washington University
School of Business, told the Washing-
ton Examiner that this adds to a string
of misfortunes involving the aircraft in
question.
For instance, back in 2018, a Lion Air
flight in Indonesia crashed shortly after
takeoff, killing all 189 people on board.
Just months later, in March 2019, an
Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed minutes
after takeoff and also killed everyone on
the plane.
Based on the track
record of these Boeing
incidents, it couldn’t be
NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD/AP
more imperative that
the company changes
high-level management
approaches.
–Jungho Suh, assistant professor at the
George Washington University School
of Business
Photo released by the National Transportation Safety Board shows the Boeing 737
Max 9 jetliner with a gaping hole where a panel used to plug an area reserved for
an exit door blew out on Jan. 5, 2023.
The combined 346 deaths, and the
fact that both planes were Boeing 737
Max variants, prompted groundings of
the aircraft across the globe. Boeing stock
dropped at the time.
Suh said he thinks that Boeing needs
to take a step back given the most recent
incident and reevaluate how it approach-
es safety and its overall business model.
Suh said that the most important thing
Boeing can do right now is prioritize safe-
ty, and in the long run that would improve
shareholder value.
“Based on the track record of these
Boeing incidents, it couldn’t be more
imperative that the company changes
high-level management approaches,” he
said. “Their passengers’ lives depend on
their product and business model.”
Airbus is Boeing’s main competitor.
While Boeing has seen its stock price fall
over the past several days, Airbus has
reaped positive gains from the situation.
Airbus’s stock popped immediately after
markets opened on Monday, and as of
Jan. 10 was up nearly 4.4% in the past
five days alone.
Suh said that, from a short-term per-
spective, Airbus might receive a bit of a
boost from Boeing’s misfortune. Still, he
noted that both Airbus and Boeing are
January 16-23, 2024 Washington Examiner
in the same industry, so they face the
same issues with balancing safety and
profitability.
As videos of the Alaska Airlines inci-
dent circulate on social media, it might
give some customers pause when picking
out flights. For instance, they might try to
avoid flights that are operated using the
737 Max, although Suh pointed out that
the volume of such planes and limited op-
tions make picking and choosing tricky.
“There are not many players in the
business,” Suh said.
Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said
during a town hall staff meeting this week
that a panel blowout “can never happen
again.” He also vowed that the company
is going to approach it “with 100% and
complete transparency every step of the
way.”
“I got kids, I got grandkids, and so do
you. This stuff matters. Everything mat-
ters, every detail,” Calhoun said. “I know
I’m preaching to the choir here, this isn’t
a lecture, not by any stretch. It’s nothing
more than a reminder of the seriousness
with which we have to approach our
work.” ★
Zachary Halaschak is an economics
reporter for the Washington Examiner.
43
 BUSINESS
TIANA’S TAKE
What did y’all think global
prosperity and free trade meant?
Vibes? Papers? Essays?
W
h
‌‌ en Hamas massacred the Middle East but also to prevent ag-
some 1,200 soldiers and gression elsewhere in the world, includ-
civilians in Israel, Jew ing deterring the Chinese from invading
haters here at home Taiwan. But as a matter of pure self-in-
took to social media to terest, America and its allies must make
celebrate the terrorists, that point especially clear to the broader
branding what became the most deadly Middle East, particularly the parts that
day of antisemitic violence since the Ho- comprise the epicenter of global shipping,
locaust mere “decolonization.” which is under increasing control by the
“What did y’all think decolonization medieval pirates in Yemen also known
meant?” New York-based writer Najma as the Hamas- and Iran-allied Houthis.
Sharif wrote in an X post that has since There’s a reason why the U.S.-led alli-
garnered 100,000 likes. “Vibes? papers? ance with the United Kingdom, Australia,
essays? losers.” Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, Greece, the
Now that the United States has toler- Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, and 10
ated nearly four months of those same anonymous allies is called “Operation
terrorist toadies shutting down every Prosperity Guardian,” not “Operation
road, bridge, and airport entrance they Democracy Guardian.”
can find in protest of America’s assis- Since about a week after the Oct. 7
tance in Israel’s counteroffensive, it would Hamas attacks on Israel, the Iranian-fund-
be wise to remind these TikTok-loving, ed Houthis have deployed missiles and
fast-food-eating, fast-fashion-wearing unmanned aerial vehicles on both south-
terrorists-in-training that the might of ern Israel and international shipping. At
the American military is not just a matter press time, the Houthis have launched a
of aiding our allies. But rather: What did total of 26 attacks on commercial shipping
they think global prosperity, free trade, lanes, with Operation Prosperity Guard-
and two-day shipping for the latest junk ian successfully shooting down ballistics.
trending on social media meant? Vibes? But the U.S. and the rest of the West
Papers? Essays? have refused to shoot down Houthi ships
The U.S. has obvious long-term stra- altogether, and given the havoc wreaked
tegic interests in aiding the Israelis, not on global markets, it’s high time that Op-
just to help our only diplomatic ally in eration Prosperity Guardian starts turning
Photo released by the Houthi Media Center shows Houthi forces boarding the cargo
ship Galaxy Leader in the Red Sea on Sunday, Nov. 19, 2023.
HOUTHI MEDIA CENTER/AP
44 Washington Examiner January 16-23, 2024
these pirate ships into fish food as deter-
rence. The obvious lack thereof so far is
indeed becoming an increasing threat to
matters of global prosperity.
Considering that 15% of all seaborne
trade traverses the Red Sea and 30%
of global container ship volume passes
through the Suez Canal, the econom-
ic losses wrought by Western weakness
in response to Houthi aggression could
mount to the tens of billions of dollars.
Already, the price of container shipping
between Asia and Europe has about tri-
pled, and Drewry’s World Container Index
is up a shocking 61% for the start of the
year. Given the basic geography of Houthi
attacks on ships in the Bab-el-Mandeb
Straight, running between Yemen to the
east and the African continent to the west,
it’s easy to see how.
Take the route between Rotterdam
and Singapore. While passing through
the Suez Canal takes an average of 26 days
and 8,500 nautical miles, avoiding the Red
Sea and instead sailing around the Cape
of Good Hope takes 36 days and nearly
12,000 nautical miles, which the Council
on Foreign Relations estimated requires
an extra $1 million just in additional fuel
costs.
Sinking the Houthi fleet isn’t a mere
matter of standing with Israel. Rather, it’s
the only way to restore the global supply
chain that has formed the backbone of
the post-world order and avoid the sort
of inflation that spun out of Russia’s war
on Ukraine.
Recall that the entire global trade in-
frastructure was developed out of the
1944 Bretton Woods Agreement, which
laid the groundwork for the Internation-
al Monetary Fund, International Trade
Organization, and World Bank, and that
new world order was firmly enforced by
the enormous military might of the win-
ners of World War II in general and the
U.S. military in particular.
It’s true that the West can effective-
ly deploy the soft power of icing out our
enemies from favorable multilateral trade
deals, and if our adversaries continue to
run afoul of our standards, harder pow-
er can include slapping offending powers
with sanctions or tariffs. Yet the final bul-
wark, or the hardest power the U.S. must
deploy, is military force to ensure global
trade is not disrupted. ★
Tiana Lowe Doescher is an economics
columnist for the Washington Examiner.
 Long Life Every decade has its dangers, P. 54
Sports The leave-no-corner-uncut champions, P. 55
On Culture A breakout opera star is an occasion to rethink the whole artform, P. 52

Also: Harry Truman vs. modern art  As goes IBM, so goes the USA?  Earth over time  The return of the rumpled spy

Sidney Sweeney
and Glen Powell
in Anyone But You.
BROOK RUSHTON/SONY PICTURES

“[Sydney Sweeney] recognizes that the key to a good film is sex appeal
and chemistry”
Kara Kennedy, P. 50

January 16-23, 2024 Washington Examiner 45

LIFE & ARTS

the Cold War as well as an overview of
modern art in America, beginning with
Alfred Stieglitz, a photographer who
made taking pictures into an art. Stieg-
litz opened a gallery for artistic photo-
graphs in New York and included works
of modernistic art. He introduced many
avant-garde European artists to the U.S.
BOOKS and first brought Picasso and his art to
the United States in 1911. He was married
How Harry to painter Georgia O’Keeffe.
Soon after the Look story came out,
Truman purchased The Peacemakers for
the White House. This 1868 realistic por-
trait by George P.A. Healy depicted Abra-
ham Lincoln in a strategy session with
advisers, suggesting, according to Algeo,
that Truman was unable to appreciate
the more cultured modernists.
Truman was a farmer. He had been
rejected from West Point because of
poor eyesight and had endured a string

Truman Came to Algeo delves into the contention

between those promoting modern art
of business failures. After he joined
Missouri’s Democratic Party, he rose in

Own a Picasso and those discrediting it. Critics called

Picasso’s Standing Female Nude a glori-
fied fire escape. They also panned New
By Diane Scharper
York’s 1913 Armory Show, which in-
spired artists as well as free verse poets
power, becoming a judge and a senator,
then vice president. But he felt anxious
when Franklin Delano Roosevelt died,
and he inherited issues of U.S. domestic
and foreign policy including the closing

H arry Truman excelled at piano les- like William Carlos Williams. One of its
sons, and at a young age, he memo- best-known pieces, Nude Descending a
rized numerous sonatas by Beethoven, Staircase by Marcel Duchamp, was paro-
chapters of World War II.
Yet his years in office from 1945 to
1953 were successful. He ended World
Chopin, and Mozart. Years later, Truman died as “The Rude Descending the Stair- War II and established a strong foreign
jokingly said, “My choice early in life was case (Rush Hour at the Subway).” policy, halting communism in Turkey
either to be a piano player in a whore- The American Artists Professional and Greece, initiating the Marshall Plan,
house or a politician. … And to tell the League and other conservative artists NATO, and the Berlin Airlift. He was also
truth, there’s hardly any difference.” spurned modern art and attempted to a strong leader in his domestic policies.
One of many telling quotes in Mat- keep it out of museums, while the mod- He desegregated the armed forces, estab-
thew Algeo’s breezy new history, When ernists fought back with programs like lished the CIA and the Defense Depart-
Harry Met Pablo: Truman, Picasso, and the Gallery on Wheels, which brought ment, committed U.S. forces to Korea,
the Cold War Politics of modern art to military and contained the war.
Modern Art, the words hospitals until govern- Algeo paints Truman’s accomplish-
suggest Truman’s down- ment funding was can- ments with broad strokes. If one wants
to-earthiness and lack of celed. The Advancing a more detailed account of the former
polish. They also bring to American Art movement president, Algeo recommends the 1,120-
mind Truman’s esteem for promoted U.S. modern page Pulitzer Prize-winning biography
classical art and by exten- art in the Americas and Truman by historian David McCullough.
sion, his disdain for mod- Europe. But funding was But Algeo finds it hard to believe that
ernism, the backstory of terminated because some McCullough had nothing to say about
Algeo’s latest. in Congress considered the time when Harry and Bess Truman
Algeo has published modern art ugly, saying it along with their friends, Sam and Doro-
several books like this did not portray American thy Rosenman, spent the day with Pablo
one. Part travelogue, part scenes in a positive light Picasso and his young paramour. As he
history, he follows the and therefore had a com- notes, “none of Picasso’s or Truman’s
footsteps of a VIP and munist connection. many biographies have discussed the
visits the same towns and When Harry Met Look magazine pub- meetings at any length … McCullough’s
Pablo, Truman,
the same attractions as his Picasso, and the lished an article with the magisterial and megasized Truman
subject. In his 2009 book, Cold War Politics headline, “Your Money doesn’t mention it at all.”
Harry Truman’s Excellent of Modern Art Bought These Paintings,” Algeo provides interesting (though
Adventure: The True Story By Matthew Algeo that included Yasuo Kuni- sometimes extraneous) glimpses into
Chicago Review Press yoshi’s Circus Girl Rest- Truman’s itinerary. There’s a discur-
of a Great American Road
256 pp., $28.99
Trip, for example, Algeo re- ing. The Chicago Tribune sive recounting of Truman’s visit to the
cords the 2,500-mile drive described it as a “beefy Matisse Chapel of the Rosary in Vence,
that the Trumans took in their Chrysler female in a state of undress” with leer- France, for example, which although
in 1953 after he left office. ing eyes. The Washington Post called it it could be a book in itself, never quite
In the new book, Algeo covers Tru- “the product of an Easter Islander after feels in place here. Algeo also provides
man’s life and opinions, beginning with a bad night.” According to Truman, Cir- an overly long discussion of cruise ships
his Missouri childhood and ending with cus Girl Resting was created by an art- in the late 1950s because the Trumans
Truman’s visit to Europe and his meet- ist who stood off from the portrait and sailed to Europe by way of the cruise
ing with Pablo Picasso. Algeo includes a threw paint at it. “If that’s art, then I’m a ship Independence since Bess was afraid
quick look at midcentury America and Hottentot,” he said. of airplane travel.

46 Washington Examiner January 16-23, 2024


Former President Harry S. Truman shakes hands with artist Pablo Picasso
during a meeting in Vallauris, France, on June 11, 1958.
Finally, on June 11, 1958, the retired
U.S. president and an aging Spanish artist
shook hands beside the doorway of Pote-
rie Madoura, the ceramic studio in France
where Picasso created his ceramics, one
of which he gave to Truman. Picasso met
the Truman party even though he disliked
company. He also disliked Truman’s dis-
paraging remarks about modern art. (One
of these remarks had come at MoMA,
whose founding director, Alfred Barr, ar-
ranged the Truman-Picasso meeting.)
The two men were both in their 70s
COURTESY OF THE TRUMAN LIBRARY
but couldn’t be more different, Algeo
writes. Picasso was the preeminent mod-
ern artist of the 20th century. Truman
saw modern art as “the vaporings (sic)
of half-baked lazy people.” One painted
Guernica, acclaimed for its profundity as
an anti-war statement. The other used
the atomic bomb on Japan. One was a
sophisticated and highly respected ar-
biter of taste. The other, though he had
occupied the White House, could be an
uncouth bumpkin.
Ultimately, Picasso had no love for
Truman, and the feeling was mutual.
Truman saw modern artists as char-
latans and their art as fraudulent. He
called it “ham and eggs” art, saying, “I
dislike Picasso and all the moderns —
they are lousy. Any kid could take an
egg and a piece of ham and make more
understandable pictures,” and as Algeo
portrays him in this congenial history,
Truman, although he kept the souvenir
from Picasso, never did change his mind
about the quality of his art.
Diane Scharper is a poet and critic. She
teaches the Memoir Seminar for the Johns
Hopkins University Osher Institute.
January 16-23, 2024 Washington Examiner
LIFE & ARTS
BOOKS
I, For One,
Welcome Our
Old Computer
Overlords
By Derek Robertson
W riting in 2018 — at possibly, or
perhaps hopefully, the zenith
of the reformist social revolution that
has remolded American institutions
over the past decade — New York Times
columnist Ross Douthat posed a wist-
ful counterfactual to the decline of the
WASP establishment, speculating about
how they might have kept “piety and
discipline embedded in the culture of a
place like Harvard, rather than the mix of
performative self-righteousness and raw
ambition that replaced them.”
Although Harvard is, by default, near
the center of any discussion about the
ethos of the American elite, his invoca-
tion of it now seems prescient consider-
ing the recent ouster of the university’s
president, Claudine Gay, for failing to
abide by its barest academic standards.
For all the nuclear-grade soporific folde-
rol that surrounds the role of vaguely de-
fined social forces such as “wokeness” or
racism in Gay’s firing, the episode resur-
faces an extremely basic question at the
heart of American identity: What kind of
person is fit to rule us?
In The Greatest Capitalist Who Ever
Lived: Tom Watson Jr. and the Epic Story
of How IBM Created the Digital Age, au-
thor Ralph Watson McElvenny, with co-
writer Marc Wortman, provides a simple
answer: his grandfather.
OK, it’s a bit more complicated than
that. McElvenny, the son of Watson’s
daughter Jeannette, enlists the journal-
ist and historian Wortman to assist him
in painting a portrait of the seeming
uber-WASP, a silver-haired midcentury
business titan who rubbed elbows with
presidents and potentates, sailed and
skied his way across the globe, and left a
deep personal imprint on the company
that defined 20th-century computing.
Hagiographic as the book might in-
evitably be, it does present a perhaps
unintentionally sophisticated portrait
of how the beliefs and preferences of
47
LIFE & ARTS

American elites are formed, a strange sparked a lifelong interest in Soviet af- have consulted the smartest people he
hydra of inspirational C-suite biography, fairs that would culminate in a short stint could find, gotten management consen-
technological history, and Balzacian so- as President Jimmy Carter’s ambassador sus, built loyalty from the bottom up, and
cial portraiture. For Watson was not to the Soviet Union. with another bold 360-type bet or bets,
your textbook WASP. Rather than an Upon returning from the war, Watson ensured IBM stayed on top at the fore-
unbroken chain of sons and daughters put those newfound qualities to use in front,” he writes. In other words, if my
of the Revolution, he was the progeny climbing the IBM corporate ladder, in grandpa had been there, it wouldn’t have
of a self-made man of the Gilded Age, a which he rebelled against his father by gone down like it did.
former traveling salesman who swore off embodying the modest, austere values It’s impossible to prove McElvenny’s
alcohol (and later, Ford-like, forbid IBM of the WASP establishment of which, counterfactual, but one doesn’t have to
employees from its consumption) after although he shared its inherited wealth, look far for examples of today’s leaders’
his horse, buggy, and wares were stolen he was decidedly not part. He succeeded shortcomings. The heads of our cur-
during a bender at a saloon. his father as IBM’s president in the early rent tech behemoths reap profits that
Watson Sr., here referred to as T.J., 1950s, and the gilded portraits came would have been unimaginable, and
was a quintessential only-in-America down. He aggressively cut his own pay likely unseemly, to Watson by churning
entrepreneur, transforming IBM from a in the style of WASP paragon and fellow out products and services that amount
record-keeping firm on life support to a postwar business-do-gooder George to little more than distraction or make-
prewar tech dynamo through sheer force Romney, something Watson’s father work engines. Elon Musk, the closest
of will (and a few borderline-monopo- would never have even considered. The cousin to the kind of personalized rule
listic business practices). He plastered IBM songbooks were closed. and dynamic risk-taking the Watsons
the walls of IBM offices with portraits The book’s narrative hinges on the embodied, hardly shares their sense of
of himself and quite literally forced his risky but ultimately successful rollout of social responsibility, whether embodied
employees to sing his praises, as McEl- the System/360 line of mainframe com- as Watson Sr.’s fogey-ish paternalism or
venny and Wortman quote from the puters, which the authors note has been Jr.’s civic-minded noblesse oblige.
“Songs of the IBM” hymnal with a not- cited as one of the most successful prod- And then there’s the rest of the es-
quite-bemused detachment (“The name uct launches of all time, along with the tablishment, encompassing politics and
of T.J. Watson means a courage none can Model T and Boeing’s 707. They admit academia. McElvenny’s book closes
stem / And we feel honored to be here to Watson’s shortcomings — a depressive, with the charmingly out-of-fashion as-
toast the IBM”). This gauche self-regard unpredictable temper, a troubled family sertion that Watson’s “greatest legacy
and overweening paternalism revolted life, and a fumbled planning of his own was showing that there is no conflict
the young Watson Jr., who succession that led to ma- between what I would call humane capi-
raged against his father jor stumbles for IBM in the talism and profit.” Intentionally or not, it
and flamed out of a per- 1990s — but the book’s echoes David Leonhardt’s call for a more
functory effort as an IBM tone is ultimately rever- “democratic capitalism” in his recent
salesman. ent, deeply respectful, and book Ours Was the Shining Future, seek-
Luckily for Watson, a even defensive. The latter ing a middle ground between rapacious
morally reformative ex- is most readily apparent in venture capitalism and the de rigeur
perience was right around their refutation of claims techno-pessimism of writers like the
the corner in World War from the author Edwin historian Jill Lepore — whose 2020 dys-
II. Watson served as an Black that IBM technol- topian history If Then placed IBM near,
aide-de-camp for Maj. ogy directly enabled the if not at, the origin of America’s modern
Gen. Follett Bradley, who Holocaust. McElvenny ills, never mind the fact that the Watsons
directed the U.S. lend- and Wortman note that were uncharacteristically staunch liber-
lease program to Soviet both the United States als for their class, pioneering industrial
Russia, helping to turn the Holocaust Memorial Mu- desegregation and combating McCar-
tide on the Eastern front. The Greatest seum and historians of the thyism and nuclear proliferation.
Although Watson’s name Capitalist Who Ever census have said Black’s Ironically, that hubristic certainty
surely helped ensure he Lived: Tom Watson Jr. most maximal claims are about the root causes of American dys-
wasn’t directly in the line and the Epic Story of technologically impossible. function mirrors the vices of which Wat-
How IBM Created the
of Nazi fire, he couldn’t Digital Age In a personal epilogue, son and his generation stand accused by
lean on it, for example, to By Ralph Watson McElvenny makes an argu- their modern critics. Oppressive, top-
configure a 56,000-pound McElvenny and ment that echoes Douthat: down governance; an insular set of social
bomber for a safe air trek Marc Wortman If Watson, or at least some- rituals and expectations whose violation
from Siberia to Nome or PublicAffairs one sharing his ethos, had merits censure or exile; fetishization of
592 pp., $32.50
pilot it across the Atlantic kept his hand on the wheel meritocratic credentials: What else, if
with no gauges or navi- at IBM, the firm might anything, could Claudine Gay and her
gation. In McElvenny and Wortman’s have maintained its status as one of the defenders share with their imagined
telling, Watson’s war experience gave world’s leading technology companies Watsons, or Bushes, or Rockefellers? The
him both confidence and a procedural instead of ceding it to successors like writer Helen Andrews argued in a 2016
competence he previously lacked and Microsoft or Google. “He would likely essay that the current generation of pro-

48 Washington Examiner January 16-23, 2024


gressive elites is inherently stymied in
their capacity to rule fairly by their very
political beliefs, that is to say, their re-
fusal to admit that they are rulers.
In telling his grandfather’s story,
McElvenny and Wortman have, at the
very least, unearthed an example of the
material, nonsymbolic victories that
might be achieved once that admission
is made.
Derek Robertson co-authors Politico’s
Digital Future Daily newsletter and is a
contributor to Politico Magazine.
BOOKS
An Anti-Climatic
History
By Varad Mehta
W hat can the past tell us about the
future? This question, which has
vexed and intrigued students of history
for almost as long as there has been such
a concept as history, looms over The
Earth Transformed: An Untold History,
Peter Frankopan’s vast, sweeping, deep-
ly researched, and often compelling new
book about the role climate has played in
shaping Earth’s existence and that of the
creatures that have inhabited it.
Frankopan’s stated purpose is “to
look at how our planet ... has changed
since the beginning of time” due to
causes including “human endeav-
ors, calculation, and miscalculation.”
Frankopan devotes all but his first four
chapters to the last 6,000 years, which
constitute the whole of human history
as it is typically understood, though the
Earth is about 4.5 billion years old. While
that is a rather conventional framework
for what is anything but a conventional
book, the choice makes sense since this
is the era in which man’s impact on his
environment became as great as its im-
pact upon him.
Given his subject, Frankopan is moti-
vated by concerns about climate change.
He had three aims. One was “to expand
the horizons of how we look at history”
by incorporating previously neglected
“themes, regions, and questions” that
can “push the boundaries” of histori-
cal research. Another was “to reinsert
climate back into the story of the past
as an underlying, crucial, and much-
LIFE & ARTS
overlooked theme in global history.” change. This is obviously true of the
Finally, Frankopan’s third objective was post-Cold War phenomenon we call by
to recount the tale of man’s “interaction the term “globalization,” which Franko-
with the natural world over millennia pan characterizes as “by far the most in-
and to look at how” we have exploited tensive period of commercial exchange
and transformed the environment to our and integration” ever. But it is no less
will, “for good and for ill.” true of 19th-century European imperial-
Frankopan’s effort is a valiant one. He ism, the Columbian exchange, the steppe
wields an impressive array of evidence, empires of Eurasia, all the way back to
including the sorts of literary and docu- Sumer.
mentary sources one expects to find in a A renowned scholar of the Silk Road
history book, but also reconstructions of who teaches at Oxford, Frankopan is
rainfall patterns, pollen measurements, particularly interested in moments when
ice core samples, “predictive models, the creation of trade networks and other
satellite imagery, acoustic surveys, and connections accelerated, which they
topographic and bathymetric LIDAR” have at regular intervals throughout his-
analyses, to mention a few types of the tory. But while this has brought human-
scientific and technical data he refers to. ity many advantages, the cost has been
The key themes of Frankopan’s 6,000- steep as well. Frankopan doesn’t say it in
year, 650-page opus include lessons for so many words, but he implies that a cer-
today. One is that, for all we think of cli- tain level of environmental damage is the
mate change as something novel, it is, in inevitable price of civilization. “‘Civiliza-
fact, part of the natural order. Extended tion’ is by far the single greatest factor
periods of cooler and warmer tempera- in environmental degradation and the
tures than normal have been routine oc- most important cause of anthropogenic
currences down the ages. As Frankopan climate change.” Every time civilization
observes early on, an average global tem- levels up, so to speak, and stimulates fur-
perature increase of 1.5-2 degrees Celsius ther urbanization, population increases,
(the amount that many climate treaties resource consumption, and draws the
and activists describe today as an outer globe closer together, it exacts a great-
limit of what is tolerably er toll upon the natural
survivable) is, while dra- world.
matic, “modest” compared Laudable as it is in so
to the “very many and reg- many ways, the book isn’t
ular double-digit rises and without flaws. The lack
falls that have occurred in of notes is unacceptable.
the past.” Moreover, even These, because they would
though we dread climate have lengthened it by 200
change today, it has often pages, have been relegated
been a boon for mankind. to the internet. It is unfair
All through history, we’ve to expect the reader to
taken advantage of favor- whip out their phone or
able shifts to expand our iPad every few sentences
footprint on the globe, find to check a source. Hope-
new food and other re- fully, this does not become
sources, and exert greater The Earth a trend. Frankopan’s fre-
control over the natural Transformed: quent references to “prom-
world. The entire time of An Untold History inent scholars,” “famous
mankind’s slow technologi- By Peter Frankopan historians,” “some schol-
Alfred A. Knopf
cal progress to manipulate ars,” “one leading scholar/
736 pp., $40.00
the natural environments historian,” and the like
has been marked by atypi- quickly become grating.
cally benign and stable climatic condi- They’re not anonymous. Just name them.
tions. No species, Frankopan avers, has Because it covers so much ground —
benefited more from “such transforma- not only environmental history but also
tions in the past.” social history, political history, Chinese
Arguably, the book’s most important history, African history, U.S. history, the
theme is that episodes of intensified history of science, and so many more
interaction between human communi- kinds of history — Frankopan’s tome is
ties produce significant environmental brimming with information and facts.
January 16-23, 2024 Washington Examiner 49
LIFE & ARTS
Sometimes too much so, as from time
to time, he loses the forest for the trees.
This is most glaring in the last part of
the book, which covers the 19th century
to the present. Here, the once-abundant
climatic evidence disappears. There is
no more talk about volcanoes or rainfall
shortages, and we hear no more about
the North Atlantic Oscillation or the El
Nino-Southern Oscillation. The actual
climatic phenomena simply drop out,
and just when climate change becomes
a salient matter. Volcanoes are a major
influence on the global climate. After
paying considerable attention to them
for most of the book, Frankopan makes
little mention of their activity in the last
200 years. The impression one gets is
that there’s been less vulcanism over that
duration than in the past. But without a
comparison of the data, it’s hard to tell.
Frankopan disclaims any intention of
trying to forecast “what will happen in
the future.” But he clearly hopes to im-
part some lessons about what the past
tells us about how climate change may
play out. What it teaches is that humans
cope and adjust — they have done so
before and will do so again. We are mar-
velously adaptive creatures. But it also
reveals that, sometimes, conditions be-
come so adverse, when combined with
other factors, that societies and civiliza-
tions collapse. “What history in general
and this book in particular show is that
there have been a great many times in
the past when societies, peoples, and
cultures have been unable to adapt.” One
crucial distinction between global warm-
ing today and previous phases of ex-
traordinary climatic conditions — such
as the Roman Warm Period, Medieval
Climate Anomaly, and Little Ice Age —
is that even widespread ones were local-
ized, not universal. Climate change now
is “globally coherent.” The whole planet
is experiencing the same transformation.
There is nowhere to run or hide.
It’s true we’ve survived worse. But,
Frankopan wants to drive home, it’s
never been pretty. And given the conse-
quences of past transformations of the
environment and the unprecedented
scope and scale of our own present role
in shaping it, it is perhaps a gamble we
shouldn’t take.
Varad Mehta is a writer and historian. He
lives in the Philadelphia area. Find him on
Twitter @varadmehta.
50 Washington Examiner January 16-23, 2024
FILM
The Self-Aware
Starlet
By Kara Kennedy
T here were two main reasons I wanted
to go and see the new rom-com Any-
one But You, starring Sydney Sweeney on
the silver screen. Two bouncy, perky, and
perfectly formed reasons.
One hundred and three minutes of
staring straight at them with a craned
neck is enough for any woman to walk
out suicidal and any man to walk out
drooling. Sydney Sweeney knows this
and does it anyway, then does an inter-
view about how she rejects the claims
she’s being objectified in a Rolling Stones
video to make sure that she keeps her
knockers fresh in the news cycle. Re-
gardless of your feelings toward her, for Sidney Sweeney
the last two years she has managed to and Glen Powell
consistently remain a main character of in Anyone But You.
the internet, and I think that she is one
of the smartest Hollywood figures of the
last 50 or so years.
Anyone But You is a fine film. It has
some good lines, mainly delivered by mestic box office and has so far grossed
Roger (Bryan Brown), the politically- $58.7 million worldwide. Apart from very
incorrect bumbling father of the black beautiful romantic leads Sweeney and
lesbian bride-to-be. During an attempt Powell, who spend the majority of the
to get Bea (Sydney Sweeney) and Ben film naked or nearly there, Anyone But
(Glen Powell) in bed together to end You doesn’t possess any special ingredi-
their yearlong feud, the wedding party, ent. It’s just the regular cheesiness with a
whose characters are loosely based on Generation Z, Instagramified twist.
those of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About In the era of woke or post-woke com-
Nothing, talk loudly to manipulate Bea edy, where the only things we talk about
and Ben into falling in love. Roger, in his are journeys and therapy and inclusion,
thick Aussie twang, loudly discusses the and the only punchlines we deliver are
pair with his son, Pete, telling him that he the you-can’t-say-that-but-I’m-going-
thinks Ben should give it a go with “the to-say-it-anyway ones, this film does
plump chested one with the sad eyes.” very well to avoid both. They check the
One wonders if executive producer Syd- boxes without it feeling forced. The wed-
ney Sweeney had anything to do with ding of an interracial lesbian couple feels
that line. like it wasn’t chosen to lecture you but to
If the film succeeds at anything, it’s entertain you, and even the repeated de-
showing studios that the R-rated ro- pictions of informed consent — “Are you
mantic comedy is back. On its 18th day gonna kiss me now?”; “Permission to put
of release, the film flew to No. 1 at the do- my left hand on your right buttock?” —

are almost, almost undetectable.
With her valley girl drawl, it’s easy to
believe that there’s not much going on
in Sweeney’s brain. But the success of
Anyone But You is largely down to her.
After starting up her own production
company, Fifty-Fifty Films, she came
across Ilana Wolpert and Will Gluck’s
script telling the story of two people
who despise but can’t seem to avoid
one another while they’re at a wedding
in Sydney. Sweeney, with the help of the
hive-mind of the internet sweet on him
after his supporting appearance as a
young fighter jock in Top Gun: Maverick,
BROOK RUSHTON/SONY PICTURES
had Powell down for leading man from
the start. “I really wanted to bring back
that hunk of a romantic-comedy lead-
ing man. Top Gun: Maverick really set
him apart for me. I hopped on a Zoom
with him, we met in person a few times,
I pitched him the script, he read it. He’s
a die-hard rom-com fan, and this really
resonated with him.”
If there’s one thing that Sweeney
really cares about, it’s tradition. It’s no
surprise to me that she wants to revive
the classic romantic comedy and, in do-
ing so, cast herself as the blonde, buxom
bombshell. She understands what has
been missing on screen for the past 20
years: a silly, inconsequential rom-com
with beautiful faces and no moral lec-
ture. In her world, women have spent
the last few decades rejecting traditional
gender roles and striving for recognition
in the form of shiny trophies. Sweeney
has spent the last few years of interviews
lamenting about not yet, at the age of 26,
being a mom. In an interview last year,
she said, “I always wanted to be a young
mom. I love acting, I love the business, I
love producing, I love all of it. But what’s
the point if I’m not getting to share it
January 16-23, 2024 Washington Examiner
LIFE & ARTS
with a family?” She continued, “The
time will come, and I’ll have four kids.
And they will come with me everywhere
and be my best friends.”
It is partly this ideology that has seen
her transform into every man’s fantasy.
That, and the two things I mentioned ear-
lier. And the fact that she spends her spare
time restoring classic cars on her TikTok
page dedicated to it. Her account, called
@Syds_Garage, has gained her 1.7 million
followers and a partnership with Ford.
Whether she films herself half naked get-
ting sweaty under a bonnet because she
really, really likes cars or whether she’s
a very clever woman who knows exactly
what she’s doing is unimportant. It has
hoisted her star, seeing her cast in films
such as Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In
Hollywood. If there were still such a thing,
she’d be on a poster on the walls of every
teenage boy in the country.
It’s not, so she’s one of my friend’s
iPhone background. She recognizes that
the key to a good film is sex appeal and
chemistry, which is why, in the majority
of her roles so far, she has been happy to
oblige. In Anyone But You in particular,
her chemistry with Powell was so con-
vincing on and off screen that the major-
ity of social media users (too young to
realize that it’s the oldest trick in Holly-
wood) believe them to have had an affair.
Sweeney’s acting is nothing to phone
home about. In Anyone But You, it is the
throwaway lines that she delivers best.
Any dialogue with more substance is
delivered in a way that sounds like she’s
reading the script for the first time. Her
roles so far are samey. The slightly mun-
dane love interest of a coked-up finance
bro (Anyone But You), the easily manipu-
lated cult member (Once Upon a Time in
Hollywood), the bitchy, sanctimonious
Gen Zer (The White Lotus), and the pop-
ular yet insecure high school student
(Euphoria). Time will tell if Sweeney is
typecast into these for much longer. Ei-
ther way, many women have had a great
career playing to type and relying on
the adoration of male fans. Just look at
Marilyn Monroe, whose entire career
was subpar acting compensated by her
looks. And everything went fine for her,
kind of.
Kara Kennedy is a freelance writer living in
Washington, D.C. Her work has appeared
in the Spectator, the New Statesman,
Tatler, the Daily Telegraph, and others.
51
LIFE & ARTS
ON CULTURE
Don’t Be a Diva,
Go to the Opera
By Nicholas Gallagher
W hen I try to explain to my non-op-
era-going friends why they should
try it out, I often find myself explaining
that, thanks to the magic of subtitles, it is
now for us what it has long been for the
non-English-speaking West: a marriage of
serious drama (or excellent comedy) with
the best of music, acting, and stage work
— what Wagner called “the complete art
form.” The stereotype of large women in
horned helmets warbling silly nothings
comes largely from the period when Amer-
ican operagoers had lost the language
skills that our great-grandparents had, ei-
ther as European immigrants or Europe-
an-admiring, upper-class swells. Opera,
no longer understandable as drama, had
to become simply spectacle. Basically, ev-
eryone went to see the 50 or so works that
are so good musically that you would listen
to them even if you had no idea what was
going on, while the directing was aimed at
that lowest common denominator. Now,
thanks to technology, it is returning to its
serious — or comic — roots.
But. But, but, but. There are some
things that cannot be intellectualized,
and indeed the attempt to do so cheapens
them. And ultimately, putting aside all the
diva-ish-ness of the divas, disregarding
the type of opera fan who likes to chatter
about how he saw Netrebko in Vienna in
2003 and, darling, you simply had to be
there, cutting through the clippings of the
critics who will tell you that the third lead
was a little sharp last night — ultimately,
there is the wonder of the human voice.
Some feats compel attention in and of
themselves. The swish and crack of a bat
and a Bryce Harper home run flying 450
feet into the upper deck. Odell Beckham
Jr. turning backward, leaping in the air
between two defenders and catching a
pass one-handed for a touchdown. Aigul
Akhmetshina, a petite Russian mezzo-
soprano emptying the perfect harmonies
of Carmen from her lungs into all of the
air in the 3,850-seat room inside the Met-
ropolitan Opera, filling it with the exqui-
site vibrations we call music, reaching the
person in the furthest row of the highest
balcony yet sounding like she’s whisper-
52 Washington Examiner January 16-23, 2024
ing right into your ear.
Because one other thing that my non-
opera-going friends are often surprised to
find out is that opera singing is completely
unamplified. Unlike a Broadway produc-
tion of Hadestown or a Beyonce concert,
anything you’re hearing is coming purely
from the singers’ own lungs, not speakers.
Only live sports, as far as I’ve encountered,
conveys the same wonder of sheer hu-
man achievement. And every time I hear
someone particularly fine at the Met, the
world’s largest opera hall, it fills me with
amazement. For you not only need to be
able to fill a space that big, but also, to be
good, you need to be able to fill it with ev-
ery possible shade of meaning, color, and
intensity. You need to sound like you’re
whispering sweet nothings or shouting
angrily, summoning God to your aid or
calling drunkenly for another cup of wine.
And let me tell you, Akhmetshina is re-
ally good. This was her first time starring
in a Met production, and if you want to be
able to say to one of those toffs who brags
about who they saw when in Vienna that
you saw someone before they were a star,
get to the next one of her shows as soon
as you can. The short version of her short
career: Akhmetshina was discovered in
2018, when, as a 21-year-old understudy,
she subbed in at the last moment at Car-
men at the Royal Opera House, Covent
Garden. She speed-ran the third- and
second-lead apprenticeship that can
sometimes take decades, and this year
has starring turns as Carmen around the
world: at the Met, the Royal Opera House,
the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Bavarian
State Opera, and the Glyndebourne Fes-
The stereotype of large
women in horned helmets
warbling silly nothings
largely comes from the
period when American
opera-goers had lost
the language skills that
our great-grandparents
had. Opera, no longer
understandable as drama,
had to become simply
spectacle.
tival, as well as other performances in
Rome and Naples.
I’ve been excited about this produc-
tion since I saw Akhmetshina perform an
opera-in-concert production of Vincenzo
Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi at the
Salzburg Festival. An opera in concert is
basically the musical equivalent of a read-
through of a stage play: there’s the music
and the singing, but no acting. And aside
from her obvious and incredible musical
gifts, the evening reminded me of a read-
through I’d once seen Paul Giamatti do,
in which, from a seated position, his per-
sonality filled a huge room. Akhmetshina
has the same rare dramatic presence. And
Carmen, whose mezzo-soprano title role
displays a range from seduction to proud
independence to vulnerability and more, is
a perfect vehicle for someone with these
gifts.
Akhmetshina was complemented su-
perbly by conductor Daniele Rustioni and
the Met orchestra, who justly received the
kind of warm applause for the Entr’acte,
the sweet-melancholy piece for flute and
orchestra that precedes Act 3, that the Met
audience usually reserves for a touching
aria from a singer. Unfortunately, direc-
tor Carrie Cracknell’s production of this
Carmen did not match the star caliber of
its singers. The setting in “a contempo-
rary American industrial town” has been
done to the classics for the better part of a
century now, so you had really better have
something new to add if you do it. Mean-
while, the director’s aspiration to impart
new feminist content to Carmen appears
to have overlooked the quite formidable
feminist (not to mention humanist) con-
tent Bizet put in Carmen 150 years ago.
Musically, Angel Blue also deserves
particular mention as an affecting Mi-
caela. Together, the leading ladies rather
left the two gentlemen (tenor Piotr Bec-
zala as Carmen’s lover-turned-murderer
Don Jose and bass-baritone Kyle Ke-
telsen as the toreador Escamilla) in the
dust — though only by comparison. But
at the end of the day, Carmen is about
Carmen. If you have ever wondered how
something that seems so boring as the
opera you have seen portrayed in movies
can draw crowds, well, sometimes to be
hooked, you just need to see something
amazing. Akhmetshina’s performance is
a good place to start.
Nicholas M. Gallagher is a lawyer and cul-
ture writer.

Gary Oldman
in Slow Horses.
TV
Slow Horses
Staggers Nobly
Into Its Third
Season
By J. Oliver Conroy
I t’s not hard to see why the British tele-
vision series Slow Horses, whose third
season is now streaming on Apple TV+,
is slowly becoming a word-of-mouth
hit. There is a John le Carré novel titled
A Perfect Spy. Slow Horses might be called
Imperfect Spies.
Based on novels by Mick Herron, the
show follows employees of the British
counterintelligence service, MI5, who
are suffering internal exile at a shabby
off-site branch called Slough House.
COURTESY OF JACK ENGLISH/APPLE T V+
(Slough House is, as far as I know, fic-
tional.) These officers have each been
sentenced to espionage purgatory for dif-
ferent reasons — because they screwed
up or no one wants to work with them
or they crossed the wrong person at
headquarters — but they have in com-
mon that they’re often their own worst
enemies. Or at least they are when their
actual enemies aren’t trying to kill them.
The show’s winningly rumpled spirit
is epitomized in Slough House’s boor-
ish but shrewd chief, Jackson Lamb.
Portrayed with gruff by Gary Oldman,
Lamb is a belching alcoholic who looks
out for his employees when he isn’t ver-
bally abusing them. Earlier in the series,
Lamb, called by dark circumstances
to rally his team with some rousing
Churchillian rhetoric, instead offered:
“You’re f***ing useless, the lot of you.
Working with you has been the lowest
point of a disappointing career.”
The members of Lamb’s team are
equally idiosyncratic. The ambitious
River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) has a
habit of going overboard and acciden-
tally maiming fellow British officers. The
prickly Louisa Guy (Rosalind Eleazar) is
grieving her boyfriend through emotion-
ally detached sex with strangers. Marcus
Longridge (Kadiff Kirwan) is a gambling
addict. Shirley Dander (Aimee-Ffion
Edwards) has anger problems. And the
team’s tech wizard, Roddy Ho (a scene-
stealing Christopher Chung), is just
all-around insufferable: In one of this
season’s funniest moments, we learn that
his overcompensating mode of transport
is a bright blue wannabe muscle car with
an incongruous automatic gearbox and a
vanity license plate reading “BIG ROD.”
January 16-23, 2024 Washington Examiner
LIFE & ARTS
A recurring theme of Slow Horses is
combat, sometimes bureaucratic, some-
times more literal, between the Slow Hors-
es and their higher-ups in MI5, particularly
Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas),
James “Spider” Webb (Freddie Fox), and
Ingrid Tierney (Sophie Okonedo), who
undermine or sacrifice the Slow Horses
for their own cold and sinister purposes.
The first season involved a disastrous MI5
false-flag operation that led to a far-right
group taking an innocent Muslim man
hostage. The second entailed more intra-
government treachery, as well as Russian
espionage in the heart of London.
The latest season opens with Lamb’s
put-upon assistant, the quiet Catherine
Standish (Saskia Reeves), being snatched
by an armed group. Her abductors’ larger
motives are mysterious, but they threat-
en to kill her and others unless they get
access to a tranche of old and seemingly
useless classified documents. And we’re
off to the races, with a typically tense and
convoluted plot smattered with intrigue,
action, and a slightly shocking character
death.
Slow Horses seems determined to up
the ante a bit for its third outing. The
pacing of the opening episodes is more
frantic than slow burn, and the season
culminates in a shootout set piece slight-
ly bigger and more Die Hard-esque than
53
LIFE & ARTS
those of the previous seasons. Thank-
fully, the show takes pains to ensure
we never confuse its protagonists for
James Bond. Lest we forget, they’re all
in Slough House for a reason.
The show’s sensibility is perfect for
its upper-middle-brow home on Apple
TV+: slicker and wittier than network
potboilers in the 24 or CSI vein without
trying to be quite as grittily realistic as
something like The Wire or the peerless
French spy drama The Bureau. In its deft
balance of humor and vaguely ripped-
from-the-headlines spy suspense, Slow
Horses reminds me a bit of the wry and
delightful recent series The Family Man
(Amazon Prime), about a middle-class
Indian intelligence officer fighting terror-
ism plots even as he struggles at home to
get his wife and children to respect him.
One of the charms, but also limita-
tions, of making a spy series about MI5, a
domestic intelligence agency in contrast
to MI6 and others, is that it roots the ac-
tion within England. Slow Horses’s new
season opens with an atmospheric Is-
tanbul sequence that injects energy and
plot context but also feels like a slight
bait and switch. We’re soon firmly back
in London for most of the subsequent
episodes. The show makes good use of
its British locations — you can almost
smell the doner kebab dribbling down
Lamb’s shirt as he tramps along a gray
street — but Slow Horses might benefit
from finding ways to broaden its set-
tings, just as The Family Man has found
ways to bring characters to or from oc-
cupied Kashmir, Tamil Tiger territory
in Sri Lanka, the Pakistan-Afghanistan
frontier, and the like.
Similarly, the machinations of the
plot are often internal, with the enemies
and conflict provided by MI5 itself rather
than existential threats. While it is a relief
in some ways to be free of, say, the stock
Islamist villains of the “war on terror”
era, the show sometimes feels like it lacks
stakes. That said, Slow Horses’s willing-
ness to kill off characters and traffic in
ticking time bomb tension does partly
ameliorate that structural weakness.
These are minor quibbles, however. Slow
Horses is clever, well paced, sure of its own
voice, and more than a little addictive.
J. Oliver Conroy’s writing has been pub-
lished in the Guardian, New York maga-
zine, the Spectator, the New Criterion,
and other publications.
54 Washington Examiner January 16-23, 2024
LONG LIFE
The Mysteries
of the Changing
Culture
By Rob Long
Y ears ago, I presented my godson a
nearly complete set of Hardy Boys
mystery novels for his 10th birthday —
I loved those when I was his age — and
received for my generosity an aggrieved
call from his mother, who informed me
that the editions I presented were from
the 1950s and were therefore unsuitable.
As any fan of The Hardy Boys Mysteries
can tell you, these books were written
and rewritten every so often to update
the language and settings, so the editions
tend to reflect the customs and attitudes
of whenever the revision was published.
The 1950s versions, I was told, in-
cluded what is now understood as unsafe
behavior for children — lighting bonfires
with kerosene, riding homemade motor-
cycles without head protection, carrying
knives and guns to confront robbers and
kidnappers — and a lot of language that
would now get you fired from pretty much
any job in America. Plus, she told me, the
(very few) nonwhite characters speak in
offensive dialects, spellings and all, and
she was upset when her son looked up
from his copy of The Mystery of the Chi-
nese Junk and asked what it meant to say
that someone had “a Chinaman’s chance”
at something.
I replied frostily that I had originally
intended to present him with the 1920s
versions, which were even more culturally
incendiary, but I couldn’t find a complete
set, so she really should be thanking me.
The past, I told her, is a complicated place
— better he find that out sooner rather
than later — but it’s a small price to pay
to have to encounter some awkwardly
outdated language in order to enjoy the
enthusiastic heroism of Frank and Joe
Hardy, boy Detectives.
She wasn’t buying it. Could I please,
she asked, run gifts by her before present-
ing them? Not a chance, I said, invoking
something called Godparent’s Privilege
(which I had just made up). “In fact,”
I added, “you might say that there’s a
Chinaman’s — “
But she hung up before I could finish.
My point, I think, was that if you go
back far enough, everything’s a minefield
for certain sensitivities. My general feel-
ing was that we’re all perfectly capable of
making adjustments to old ideas and cus-
toms as we go along. And I pretty much
felt that way until a few days ago when I
was in an Uber heading to a meeting and
the driver was listening to “Escape (The
Pina Colada Song)” by Rupert Holmes.
You remember that one, don’t you? It
was released in 1979, well into the con-
temporary era, and told the story of a guy
who was bored with his “old lady” and an-
swered an ad in the personals column —
the 1979 version of Tinder, in a way — and
justified it thusly: “I was tired of my lady/
We’d been together too long/Like a worn-
out recording/Of a favorite song.” He clari-
fies a few bars later: “Me and my old lady/
Had fallen into the same old dull routine.”
OK, so “old lady” is out. We know that,
right? Even in 1979, it must have seemed
at least a little problematic. But then, and
I dearly hope this is not a spoiler alert, it
turns out that the mystery woman who
placed the tantalizing ad in the person-
als section was … well, I’ll let him tell it:
“So I waited with high hopes/And she
walked in the place/I knew her smile in
an instant/I knew the curve of her face/
It was my own lovely lady/And she said,
“Oh, it’s you”/Then we laughed for a mo-
ment/And I said, “I never knew.”
They laughed for a moment? At this
shocking double betrayal? Each revealed
to be a liar and sneak and a cheat, they
laughed, and that was that? The people in
this song are repellent, selfish, and utterly
unforgivable. Nevertheless, “Escape (The
Pina Colada Song)” was a No. 1 song in
1979 and then again a few months later in
early 1980, making it the first pop song to
reach No. 1 in two decades.
I’ll leave it to you to decide whether a
little outdated language from the 1950s
is worse than the trashy sexual antics of
two people in a popular song from the
contemporary era, antics, it must be said,
that go totally unremarked as the song is
played and replayed throughout the years.
As for me, I’m now redoubling my search

for the 1920s versions of The Hardy Boys
Mysteries because it’s impossible they
could be worse.
Rob Long is a television writer and produc-
er, including as screenwriter and executive
producer on Cheers, and he is the co-found-
er of Ricochet.com.
SPORTS
Jim Harbaugh
and the Return
of Bully Ball
By Oliver Bateman
O n the night of Jan. 8, Jim Harbaugh
finished his story. This year, he de-
livered a rare gift to his alma mater: he
won a consensus national championship.
Even Harbaugh’s mentor, the legendary
Bo Schembechler, couldn’t get the Michi-
gan Wolverines higher than a No. 2 rank-
ing in the final polls. The win-at-all-costs
and widely-disliked Harbaugh, who was
suspended for three games earlier this
season by Michigan for recruiting viola-
tions and another three by the NCAA for
improperly scouting opponents, did it
Schembechler’s old-fashioned way: he
rammed it down everyone’s throats, with
a smash-mouth running game and a de-
fense laden with NFL size and speed.
This wasn’t supposed to happen.
The 1995 NFL Comeback Player of the
Year has long been known for rebuilding
teams to a championship level, but then
stopping short when his intensity waned
and his eye wandered — the University
of San Diego, Stanford, and the San Fran-
cisco 49ers were all brought to the brink
of greatness, then left suddenly.
Harbaugh had arrived at Michigan
with a lot of big promises and tough talk
after returning the 49ers to glory and
nearly beating the Baltimore Ravens,
coached by older brother John, in power
outage-marred Super Bowl XLVII. But
those 49ers, led by future social justice
superstar Colin Kaepernick, regressed
in Harbaugh’s final two seasons. And his
first five seasons at Michigan were merely
good, not great. During the COVID-short-
ened 2020 season, the bottom fell out for
Harbaugh; his team went 2-4, and he
was forced to make major changes to his
coaching staff.
Time was running out for the ultra-
competitive man who coached his own
children to maximize their Halloween
candy caches, refused to let them win at
board games, bought additional time for
working by wearing the same cheap pairs
of khakis every single day, and continued
to challenge active NFL quarterbacks to
passing competitions well into his 50s.
The changes worked. Sherrone Moore
and Jesse Minter, the offensive coordina-
tor and defensive coordinator, respec-
tively, have proven themselves to be two
of the best young assistant coaches in the
country; each won games while coaching
the team in Harbaugh’s absence. The play-
ers have gotten bigger, faster, and stronger
— Aidan Hutchinson, the 6-foot-7-inch,
280-pound second-generation defensive
end who was the second overall pick by
the Detroit Lions in 2022, serves as the
model for the massive offensive and de-
fensive linemen who bullied the Alabama
Crimson Tide and Washington Huskies
en route to the 2024 national title. Run-
ning backs Blake Corum and Donovan
Edwards are future NFL starters. Quar-
terback J.J. McCarthy is the spitting im-
age of Harbaugh himself, a reliable game
manager in a run-first offense who none-
theless has surprising speed, toughness,
and a pro-caliber arm.
It’s Big Ten football, all size and power,
and it didn’t seem like it could ever work
again. The last Big Ten team to win a title,
Ohio State in 2014, did so with a coach,
Urban Meyer, who had cut his teeth in
the Southeastern Conference and fielded
a team not dissimilar to his prior Florida
Gators squads. The balance of power had
obviously shifted southward long ago; Al-
abama coach Nick Saban has won seven
national titles coaching in the SEC, more
than the entire Big Ten Conference has
since 1970.
This didn’t matter to the “Michigan
Man.” Harbaugh, son of longtime West-
ern Kentucky University coach Jack
Harbaugh, brought it all back. The bowl-
ing-ball downfield runners. The gigantic
linemen. The quarterback who could do
January 16-23, 2024 Washington Examiner
LIFE & ARTS
more in a glitzier offense, but here does
the most important things of all — con-
trols the flow of the offense, milks the
clock, and rises to the occasion when his
arm is needed. The only compromise to
the old model popularized by Schem-
bechler and his arch-rival Woody Hayes
at Ohio State is speed. Everyone on Mich-
igan’s roster, especially the cornerbacks
and safeties who made Washington star
quarterback Michael Penix Jr. look like a
future draft bust, is incredibly fast.
It’s understandable why Harbaugh is
so disliked: he’s the son of a good coach
and player, played good football at a blue-
chip program for a Hall of Fame coach,
carved out a decent NFL career almost
purely on strength of will, and has won
everywhere he has coached. Except Har-
baugh hasn’t won the big one until now,
and people won’t hesitate to say he cut
corners to get there. He recruited players
during a so-called dead period imposed
by the NCAA during the pandemic; his
school’s huge athletic budget enabled
him to assign an assistant coach to steal
the signs of future opponents. Never mind
that other big schools have done these
things, and done worse — Harbaugh,
with gifts aplenty, strikes many outside
observers as someone who doesn’t need
to cut such corners. Born on second
base, his competitive streak helped him
advance to third and then drove him to
steal home.
In the grand scheme of things, none of
these misdeeds matter. Barring some new
dump of evidence, Harbaugh has already
paid for his crimes. And Michigan, unlike
Rick Pitino’s 2013 Louisville Cardinals
basketball team, will get to keep their
newly-won title. But the stink will surely
linger, as it does for longtime New Eng-
land Patriots coach Bill Belichick, whose
practice-taping and football-deflating
scandals continue to mar his legacy.
Fans who don’t care for Harbaugh can
always cite these mini-scandals as evi-
dence that he didn’t win fair and square,
whatever that might mean in a cash-
saturated college sports context. Like it
or not, however, the pages of history are
inscribed by such winners. Those small
men carping about their indisputable suc-
cesses, by contrast, are losers — and their
stories are soon lost in the sands of time.
Oliver Bateman is a journalist, historian,
and co-host of the What’s Left? podcast.
Visit his website: www.oliverbateman.com.
55
LIFE & ARTS

On Culture
The marvelously
honest Mrs. Maisel
By Daniella Greenbaum
Davis
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is back for a
second season that’s just as captivating,
whimsical, and — yes — marvelous as the
first. But this season is also something
more: honest. Scrape off the gilding of
frosting and fondant and you’ll find some-
thing a bit more hearty than cake. Think
more along the lines of Midge’s brisket —
savory, but with plenty to chew on.
While season one sketches the con-
tours of housewife-turned-comic Miri-
am “Midge” Maisel’s double life, season
two leans into the tensions of her identity
crisis with greater force and narrative re-
alism. Midge (Rachel Brosnahan) finds
herself pulled between two very different
worlds, straddling that imaginary demar-
cation between uptown and downtown
life. On top of all that, she paces back and
forth between two distinct ideals: Will she
embody the kind of domestic-perfection
her mother has always demanded, or will
she embrace the emergent feminist inde-
pendence she has uncovered on stage?
I myself grew up with a pretty marvel-
ous mother. To my knowledge, she’s never
slinked off in the dark hours of the night
to perform at seedy comedy clubs; but,
similar to Midge, she did grow up a Jew on
the Upper West Side, raised by a mother
who lovingly — but firmly — admonished
that women must “suffer for beauty.” She,
too, has a successful, demanding career,
and has always expected the same of me.
But just as slouching was never toler-
ated in my home, neither was delusion.
My mother is the sort of feminist who’ll
look you in the eye and laugh in your face
if you tell her that women in our gener-
ation are going to have it all. Long be-
fore Michelle Obama got real about the
shortcomings of Lean In-style feminism,
my mother taught me that the idea that
women can do it all — and well — is a
schoolgirl’s daydream. Women, even the
marvelous ones, are human.
The great strength of this season is
watching Midge grapple with that reality.
In the span of ten episodes, she acts as
mother, daughter, lover, employee, per-
former, and friend. Her inability to be all
these things simultaneously, but still try-
ing, creates small, simmering rifts with
the people she cares about.
As with the first season, motherhood
takes a back seat to comedy; Midge is of-
ten unaware or unconcerned with who is
watching her children.
This season, friendship is likewise
sidelined — as when Midge throws a baby
shower for her very pregnant best friend,
only to miss it entirely because she’s on
the road touring. She neglects her respon-
sibilities as a daughter, the most obvious
example being when, by happenstance,
her father discovers her hitherto-secret
comedy career. After spying him in the
audience during a particularly blue set,
a visibly flustered Midge reacts by jok-
ing about intimate details of his and her
mother’s sex life.
In the season’s finale, she jumps at the
chance to go on a months-long interna-
tional tour; it’s only later she realizes this
means abandoning her planned engage-
ment to Benjamin (Zachary Levi); she
then sleeps with her estranged husband
in an attempt to find solace. Season two
continually presents Midge with hard
choices, each requiring her to sacrifice
certain roles and responsibilities in favor
of another. Marvelous she may be, but
chasing your dreams still comes at a price.
Season two also makes a point to
showcase the price of comedy itself.
While today, we may look back and imag-
ine some halcyon day of comedy yore —
back when liberals actually supported
comedians’ right to be offensive — Mrs.
Maisel presents a more turbulent land-
scape of social and legal consequences.
After one of his shows, seasoned comedi-
an Lenny Bruce (Luke Kirby) tells Midge
he’s once again “out on bail.” In a later ep-
NICOLE RIVELLI/AMAZON VIA AP

Season two makes a point

to showcase the price of
comedy itself. Rachel Brosnahan in scenes from “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”
– Daniella Greenbaum Davis

56 Washington Examiner January 16-23, 2024

CARNEY
Protesting against religious liberty,
the Satan clubs really are evil
T
he First Amendment is very
big and broad, thanks be to
God.
It protects my right to
criticize the government in
my columns (freedom of the
press). It protects my right
as a Catholic to act according to my
conscience (free exercise of religion).
And it protects my right to join the
March for Life later this month (free
speech and freedom of assembly).
The First Amendment is so broad, in
fact, that it protects those who hate the
First Amendment.
Strident atheists, for generations,
have fought to curtail the free exercise
of religion. Oddly enough, the same
article of the Bill of Rights they are
attacking — the very first one —
protects their speech in many cases.
But we shouldn’t let them pretend
they are up to anything else. They
are not flexing their free exercise of
religion. They are protesting against the
free exercise of religion. They are trying
to curb civil liberties. They are trying to
trim the First Amendment.
“Most atheist liberals
who try to gain
accommodation of
their non-religion are
doing so not because
they really want the
accommodation,
but because they
are protesting the
accommodation of
others, whom they
dislike.”
Supposed Satanists have been in the
news lately, as an organization called the
“Satanic Temple” has been sponsoring
after-school clubs at public schools.
The New Republic ran an article
recently on these clubs, and it was
telling in a few ways. The New Republic
didn’t argue for satanism. It argued
against religious liberty and portrayed
the satanism clubs as a worthy troll of
those who try to exercise Christianity,
Judaism, or Islam in public.
Begin with the New Republic’s
headline: “Angry About Your Kid’s
After-School Satan Club? Blame
Clarence Thomas.”
What did Clarence Thomas do to
earn your ire? He ruled 20 years ago that
public schools may not discriminate
against religious clubs — whatever
accommodations a school district gives
to the Social Justice Club or the Chess
Club it should also give to the Koran
Club or the Christian Fellowship.
Since then, especially since Neil
Gorsuch came to the Supreme Court,
state and local governments have
been less free to discriminate against
religious organizations. If you give free
mulch to neighborhood playgrounds
on private property, you can’t exclude
Lutheran-owned playgrounds. If you
give state scholarships to students
attending secular private schools, you
can’t discriminate against students
attending the local parochial school.
This is a problem in the eyes of a
certain sort of secular liberal. Some
people believe that we have too many
civil liberties in this country. Specifically,
they believe that the exercise of religion
deserves less accommodation than any
other sort of activity.
That’s the motive of the pretend
satanists. They want to curtail the
exercise of religion, and the New
Republic admitted as much: “June
Everett, director of the Satanic Temple’s
January 16-23, 2024 Washington Examiner
After School Satan Club program,
insists the clubs are not teaching
children to worship Satan. Their point,
rather, is to protest the use of public
schools by Christian organizations.”
This has always been the case.
Most atheist liberals who try to gain
accommodation of their non-religion
are doing so not because they really
want the accommodation, but because
they are protesting the accommodation
of others, whom they dislike.
You may recall last decade that a
handful of white European atheists
formed a parody religion called
“pastafarianism” that pretended to
worship a spaghetti god and that claimed
colanders as their religious head garb.
When atheist Austrian politician and
commentator Niko Alm fought for the
right to wear a cheap plastic spaghetti
strainer on his head in his driver’s
license photo, he was, in fact, protesting
against the right of Muslim women to
wear headscarves and Jewish men to
wear yarmulkes.
Think about how illiberal that is. He
was protesting the rights of religious
minorities to wear their religious headgear
— and he considers himself a liberal.
A final note: These are not only
protesters against civil liberties, they
are would-be enforcers of uniformity.
They want to live their lives as if there
is no God, which is their right. But they
are upset that other people are openly
living their lives differently. They want
to drive religion into the shadows and
denude the public square of difference.
While seeing themselves as the forces
of enlightenment, these folks who use
the prince of darkness as their mascot
are really intolerant dogmatists. ★
Tim Carney is the senior political
columnist at the Washington Examiner
and a senior fellow at the American
Enterprise Institute.
57
The Columnists
BARONE
Democracy not at risk,
but not operating optimally
I
s democracy at risk this election
year?
Yup, is the answer given
by President Joe Biden in his
speech last Saturday, the third
anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021,
assault on the United States
Capitol as both houses of Congress
were assembled to receive the electoral
votes for the November 2020 election.
He argues that if Donald Trump
is elected to a second term next
November, democracy will be uniquely
imperiled. Casting doubt on that is
the fact that the U.S. did not sink into
dictatorship during the four years of
Trump’s presidency. I say that as one
who wrote back then that Trump’s
words “were uttered with a reckless
disregard for the possibility that
they would provoke violence, which
any reasonable person could find
impeachable.” But the rioters were
dispersed, and the electoral votes
counted.
Nor does the current president have
an impeccable record. As the Wall
Street Journal’s Alyssia Finley points
out, he has acted in blatant disregard
of constitutional limits on student
loan cancellations, banning evictions,
mandating COVID-19 vaccines, and
colluding with social media companies
to suppress dissenting speech.
A strong case can be made that the
administrations of both the current
and former presidents, in important
ways, transgressed constitutional
limits and violated traditional norms.
Which one was worse is subject
to debate, but neither has ended
democracy.
Trump has cynically denied that he
lost the 2020 election and has bullied
many Republicans into echoing his
claims. Dozens of congressional
Democrats voted to reject electoral
votes cast for Republicans in the
58 Washington Examiner January 16-23, 2024
2004 and 2016 elections, and few, if
any, Democrats have confessed error
about participating in the Russia
collusion hoax, which was intended
to delegitimize a legitimately-elected
president.
Actually, to say that electoral
democracy is at risk seems
overwrought in a year that, as The
Economist notes, will be “the biggest
election year in history.” India and the
United States, the world’s two largest
democracies, are holding general
elections. Among populous nations,
Bangladesh has already voted,
Indonesia and Pakistan will soon, and
Mexico and Russia and Britain will
follow.
Altogether, elections will be held
in 70-some nations with more than
4 billion people — a majority of the
world’s people. And if some of these
elections are rigged or perfunctory
— see Vladimir Putin’s Russia — it
is still notable that authoritarian
rulers consider it worth the trouble
to go through the motions of at least
imitating electoral democracy.
Of course all is not well with the
operation of electoral democracy,
even where it has long been
established, in the Anglosphere. Both
of the two oldest political parties in
the world — America’s Democrats and
Britain’s Conservatives — are facing
defeat.
Current polling shows Biden to be
trailing Trump, and Democrats could
lose their 51-49 Senate majority and
fail to regain the House majority they
narrowly lost in 2022. This wouldn’t
be the first setback the Democratic
Party has suffered since it was
founded in 1832 — 192 years ago! —
to reelect Andrew Jackson. But it’s
one it might have avoided if it does
not renominate, as it seems certain
to do, an 81-year-old incumbent
vulnerable for sparking inflation and
opening the southern border.
In Britain, the Conservative party,
in 14 years with a majority in the House
of Commons, has produced no fewer
than five prime ministers — and policy
fiascos that leave it far behind in the
polls. But despite similar repudiations,
it has been Britain’s most winning
party since it was founded by Benjamin
Disraeli in 1846.
One problem these two parties have
had recently is in selecting leaders
capable of winning general elections
and governing effectively once in
office. Democratic and Republican
national conventions go back to 1832
and 1856, but the parties’ current
processes of selection in combinations
of primary elections and caucuses go
back only to 1972.
The constant flux in primary
scheduling and the continued
prominence of certain states — I’ve
never been able to find the provision
in the Constitution that says Iowa and
New Hampshire vote first — have left
the presidential selection process as the
weakest part of our political system.
This year, it has seemed to give
voters little choice, with two nominees
both careless of democratic norms.
Biden has no effective competition for
the Democratic nomination, and the
series of mostly specious indictments
of Trump, starting last March, have
propelled him far ahead of his serious
competitors, Ron DeSantis and Nikki
Haley.
That doesn’t leave democracy at
deadly risk. But modern electoral
democracy, in this year of a record
number of elections, is not operating
optimally in the nation where it started
some two centuries ago. ★
Michael Barone is senior political analyst
for the Washington Examiner.
 CARROLL
Working class overwhelmingly
prioritizes manufacturing
over climate change

W
hat does the working
class really want?
That is the headline
of George Packer’s
review of seven recent
books on politics and
the economy for the
Atlantic. And while the article gives a
surprisingly fair hearing to the role mass
migration has played in the decline of
America’s working class, it still suffers
from a glaring upper-class bias: an
infatuation with climate change.
Responding to John Judis and
Ruy Teixeira’s call for “gradualism” in
addressing climate change in their book,
Where Have All the Democrats Gone?: The
Soul of the Party in the Age of Extremes,
Packer simply asserts that the stakes are Borusan Mannesmann Pipe manufacturing facility in Baytown, Texas, in 2018.
too high for such indifferent messaging;
in Packer’s words, “the planet will be at from American Compass sheds needed According to the poll, 67% of
the mercy of extreme weather.” light on Packer’s original question. working-class respondents (defined
Whether or not the current upper- Headlined as a poll about as those without a college degree and
class hysteria over climate change is globalization and China, the American household income between $30,000
justified — past predictions of doom Compass’s poll that asks respondents and $80,000) chose manufacturing
have fallen comically short — is a subject which policy goal they prioritize higher, over climate change, while just 33%
for a longer post. For now, new polling reversing the decline of manufacturing or chose climate change.
addressing the risks of climate change, is Meanwhile, people in Packer’s
more responsive to Packer’s question. demographic (the upper class was
Here is the exact question defined as those with household
respondents were asked: incomes higher than $150,000)
“Policymakers often consider laws preferred manufacturing over
“While the article that would change how goods are climate change by just a 51% to 49%
gives a surprisingly produced, in ways that might have large margin. Only those self-identifying as
benefits in the long run but would also Democrats chose climate change over
fair hearing to the lead to higher prices in the short run. Two manufacturing, and even then only by a
role mass migration topics that have received a lot of attention 54% to 46% margin.
in recent years are the risks of climate One doesn’t have to buy into the
has played in the change and the decline of manufacturing. entire American Compass industrial
decline of America’s If you had to support at least one policy policy agenda to realize that there is
that would raise prices for you, which plenty of room for conservatives to
working class, it still would be a higher priority for you?” connect with working-class voters
suffers from a glaring Overall, 62% of adults said they
would rather pay higher prices to
on issues like regulatory reform that
would go a long way toward revitalizing
DAVID J. PHILLIP/AP

upper-class bias: strengthen American manufacturing manufacturing in the United States. ★

an infatuation with than pay higher prices to combat
climate change. But the breakdown by Conn Carroll is the commentary editor of
climate change.” class was even more revealing. the Washington Examiner.

January 16-23, 2024 Washington Examiner 59

60 Washington Examiner January 16-23, 2024
ROGAN
Israel can go after Hezbollah without
US military participation
A
s Israel escalates its Israel has the moral and political
military operations right to carry out this action. The
against the Lebanese question: whether, if full-scale war
Hezbollah, the United between Hezbollah and Israel breaks
States should clarify that out, it is in the U.S. interest to join that
it would have to wage war with direct military force beyond
a war with Hezbollah air defense support. The U.S. certainly
without U.S. military participation. has forces in the region that it could
Israel’s intent is to degrade deploy to such a fight.
Hezbollah forces proximate to Israel’s Bolstered Air Force fighter and
northern border and therefore allow bomber squadrons are operating
tens of thousands of Israelis to return in the Middle East. The Eisenhower
to their homes in the north. To increase carrier strike group is in the Red
pressure on Hezbollah, the Israel Sea and is still only three months
Defense Forces are targeting command into its deployment (standard
and control nodes and specific carrier deployments are six months
commanders in its organization. in duration). The USS Bataan-led
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Amphibious Ready Group remains
government evidently assesses that off the Lebanese coast six months
Hezbollah wants to avoid a broader war, into its deployment (standard
so it will tolerate Israeli action without deployment length of 6-8 months).
employing its vast missile arsenal. That force centers on the 26th Marine
Expeditionary Unit, a ground combat
centered unit.
The question is whether it would
be in the U.S.’s interest to deploy
these forces against Hezbollah in
“U.S. military any escalated war. I do not believe it
operations against would be.
There is a key difference between
Hezbollah would the situation now and when these U.S.
forces were first deployed following
represent an Hamas’s Oct. 7 atrocities. Immediately
otherwise avoidable after Oct. 7, there was a legitimate
fear of Israel being overwhelmed by
distraction of a multifront war. The U.S. wanted
uncertain duration. to deter Iran and Hezbollah from
seeking to take advantage of the IDF’s
They would diminish distraction with operations against
the means of Hamas.
That concern is now greatly
addressing America’s diminished. The IDF has destroyed
U.S. strategic concern: much of Hamas’s combat power
and has clearly assumed the
reserving forces for a strategic initiative in Gaza. And
prospective conflict while Netanyahu has interests in
escalating against Hezbollah in order
against China.” to consolidate his weak political
January 16-23, 2024 Washington Examiner
position, the IDF’s success in Gaza
gives him increasing means to
confront Hezbollah better. There is
also growing pressure from the Israeli
right on Netanyahu to expand action
against the Lebanese terrorist group
and political party.
Again, however, it would not be in
America’s interest to enjoin its forces
against Hezbollah.
Were the Marines to enter
Lebanon, they would face fierce
ground combat action. They would
pummel Hezbollah but would also
take casualties. U.S. military action
would almost certainly necessitate
the evacuation of the U.S. Embassy
in Beirut. More importantly, it would
precipitate major diplomatic damage
to U.S. relations with Jordan and the
Sunni Arab kingdoms. As much as
they loathe Hezbollah and its Iranian
sponsor/theological guide, these
governments fear regional escalation.
Most important of all, U.S. military
operations against Hezbollah would
represent an otherwise avoidable
distraction of uncertain duration.
They would diminish the means of
addressing America’s U.S. strategic
concern: reserving forces for a
prospective conflict against China.
Whether in terms of Taiwan or the
Philippines, the U.S.-China conflict
threat is far greater than commonly
recognized. Due to the weak U.S.
munitions base, any air or naval
military action against Hezbollah would
diminish finite stocks of armaments
that might tip the balance between
victory or defeat against China.
Put simply, it is Israel’s prerogative
to risk war with Hezbollah. But the
U.S. should not be a direct party to
that conflict if it arrives. ★
Tom Rogan is an online editor and foreign
policy writer for the Washington Examiner.
61
The Columnists

ZITO
Rep. Deluzio, first Democrat to call
for Austin’s resignation, details why

P
ITTSBURGH — Rep. Chris
Deluzio (D-PA), a western
Pennsylvania Democrat,
retired Navy officer, and
member of the House Armed
Services Committee, said
he is calling for Secretary
of Defense Lloyd Austin’s resignation
largely over the lack of transparency and
the lack of trust he has created between
the public and its government.
Deluzio said in an interview with
the Washington Examiner that his
background in uniform led him to step
up as the first lawmaker in his party to
call for Austin’s resignation after failing
to notify anyone in command of his
health condition.
“I think the chain of command is
just critical, and I think the failure at
the Pentagon here to keep the White
House informed is a serious one, and
that’s what this is about for me,” he said
of posting online asking for Austin’s
resignation last night.
“No one begrudges anyone ever
getting ill or sick,” he said. “My God,
it could happen to all of us. But I think
the failure at the department to keep
that continuity of chain of command
and to make sure the White House was
informed, that’s the failure, and the
buck has to stop with Secretary Austin.”
Deluzio said that break in the
chain drove him to call for Austin’s
resignation: “I take very seriously my
duty on the Armed Services Committee,
and that includes oversight of the
Defense Department, and so, that’s
what drove me to say it. I don’t think
it’s about party politics. I think it’s just
about our readiness and the continuity
of the chain of command.”
Austin, who was nominated by then-
leaving that command. Biden, who got
to know Austin when he visited the
Middle East as vice president, secured
rapid confirmation of the general as the
28th secretary of defense.
Austin and his team have drawn
sharp condemnation for not notifying
both the White House and Congress of
both his Dec. 22 medical procedure and
his emergency hospitalization 11 days
later for severe pain.
Austin also failed to notify Biden or
anyone in the administration that he
was diagnosed with prostate cancer,
White House Officials admitted earlier
this week.
A defiant John Kirby, a spokesman
for the White House’s National Security
Council, said in a White House
press conference Monday, “There
is no plans for anything other than
Secretary Austin to stay in the job and
continuing the leadership that he’s been
demonstrating.”
Deluzio said they still don’t have
the full picture yet of the timeline and
Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-PA)
chain of command, I think that kind
of lapse has to rest with the secretary.
He’s ultimately responsible for the
department, and that’s really what
drove my call today for his resignation.”
Deluzio, who lives in a suburb of
Pittsburgh in a rivertown along the
Allegheny River, represents the 17th
Congressional District, a swing district
that is made up of blue-collar and
suburban neighborhoods in Allegheny
County as well as all of Beaver County.
He will face Republican state Rep.
Rob Mercuri, of Allegheny County, also
a veteran who served two tours in Iraq
in the U.S. Army and was awarded the
Bronze Star medal for his service, for
that seat in November.
For him, Deluzio says it all comes
down to the notification and the
transparency. “I think the breakdown
of making sure that, in this case, the
highest levels of our chain of command,
up to the commander in chief, were
kept in the dark. That failure falls with
the Defense Department and is one that
MAT T ROURKE/AP

President Barack Obama to be the 12th what the involvement of senior folks at I think we can’t stomach here.” ★
commander of U.S. Central Command the Pentagon looked like, “But for me,
in 2012, served 41 years in uniform I think given the potential harm that Salena Zito is a senior writer for the
and retired as a four-star general after could have come here, the gap in the Washington Examiner.

62 Washington Examiner January 16-23, 2024


Amalija Knavs, 1945-2024
Mother of former first lady
Melania Trump
A
PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/AP; MANUEL BALCE CENETA, FILE/AP
malija Knavs, the mother
of former first lady
Melania Trump, has died.
Mrs. Trump
announced the death on
Jan. 9 without disclosing the cause.
“It is with deep sadness that I
announce the passing of my beloved
mother, Amalija,” Trump wrote on
X, the platform formerly known as
Twitter. “Amalija Knavs was a strong
woman who always carried herself
with grace, warmth, and dignity. She
was entirely devoted to her husband,
daughters, grandson, and son-in-law.
We will miss her beyond measure and
continue to honor and love her legacy.”
Donald Trump said at a New Year’s
Eve celebration at his Mar-a-Lago
estate in Palm Beach, Florida, that
his mother-in-law was “very ill” and
his wife was with her at a hospital in
Miami.
“It’s a tough one, very tough one,”
he said of the situation.
During the Trump presidency, the
first lady’s mother lived in New York
along with her father, Viktor Knavs,
January 16-23, 2024 Washington Examiner
OBITUARY
and occasionally appeared at the White
House. Amalija Knavs was at a 2018
ceremony where the first lady debuted
her “Be Best” public awareness
campaign to help children.
“This is a very sad night for the
entire Trump family!!!” Trump wrote
on his social media site, Truth Social.
“Melania’s great and beautiful mother,
Amalija, has just gone to a beautiful
place in the sky. She was an incredible
woman, and will be missed far beyond
words!”
Melania Trump sponsored her
parents’ immigration to the United
States, and they took the oath to
become citizens at a New York City
courthouse in 2018, while Trump was
president. The Slovenian immigrants, a
former car dealer and a textile factory
worker, had been living in the U.S. as
permanent residents.
Their lawyer said at the time
that they applied for citizenship on
their own and didn’t get any special
treatment. The Knavses raised
Melania, born Melanija, in the rural
industrial town of Sevnica while
Slovenia was under Communist rule.
She attended high school in the
Slovenian capital, Ljubljana, and
changed her name to Melania Knauss
when she started modeling.
She settled in New York in 1996
and met Trump two years later. They
married in 2005. 
— Associated Press
63
CROSSWORD

Caucus State 54 Hit the press? 41 “Well done!”

57 Indigenous Canadian 42 Teutonic turndown
By Brendan Emmett Quigley 58 Drivel 43 Pugilists’ org.
59 ___ jacket 47 “Last Week Tonight
            
61 Cremona crowd? with John Oliver”
   62 Pundit Shapiro channel
63 Draft an old 49 Director Chazelle
  
Egyptian kingdom? 51 Topped on eBay
    67 Part of a play 52 Electrician’s concern
     
68 Available 53 Military command
69 Cannery row? 55 Clean, as a spill
   70 Bout stopper, for short 56 Ketanji bench mate
      71 Pressed sandwiches 57 Euripides play
72 Brink 60 Grocery chain with
   
an orange and blue logo
   62 Dracula, at times
64 Sister or mother
       
DOWN 65 Show with spinoffs set
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2 Jedi Obi-Wan 66 Southwest Indian
   
3 “Everything’s fine by me”
     4 Cry from Homer Simpson
5 Teed off
  
6 Total
   7 “I knew it!”
8 PC linkup
9 Baseball legend Satchel
10 Like some cheddar
11 “It was me, wasn’t it?”
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1 Losing streak 31 “No way, ___!” 13 Important
5 Root holders 32 Legendary pirate 18 Frequently, in poetry SOLUTION TO LAST
11 Pen filler 33 Resort 23 Fine WEEK’S CROSSWORD:
14 Lost animated fish 35 Emulates Drake 25 And CLIENT LISTS
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16 Fall flat 39 Wastefully extravagant 28 Give a hand ( / / $ ( 0 2 $ /1 2 6 2
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26 Places for keynotes abbreviation was added 40 Start of some ' $ 6 $ 1 , 1 ( ' . $ 1 (
near the ocean? to five theme answers sequel titles $ 5 7 . , 7 < $ < 6 3 $ 7

64 Washington Examiner January 16-23, 2024