A few days ago, I was talking with a young friend of mine—someone immersed in politics. I said I had learned a lesson, later than I should have, but I was glad to have learned it regardless: You don’t have to defend everything.
I was a red-hot Reaganite. I defended President Reagan on Bitburg (his visit to that military cemetery in West Germany). I defended him on Iran-contra. I hated his enemies even more than I liked him, and I was loath to “give” them anything.
I am so, so glad to have outgrown that.
Tribalism or partisanship is an enemy of thinking—an enemy of independent thought.
It is hard to be an individual, don’t you think? The pull of the tribe is very strong. There must be a biological root to it. Individuals are scarce as hen’s teeth, really.
I will give you three examples of individuals—true individuals—in journalism: George F. Will, Kevin D. Williamson, and Nick Cohen.
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In 1962, there was a Port Huron statement—the political manifesto of SDS, i.e., Students for a Democratic Society. Well, President Trump has made a Port Huron statement himself. He held a rally in that Michigan town on Sunday.
I will quote from the Reuters report:
U.S. president Donald Trump on Sunday escalated his invective against Norway, calling it a “shit-house country” and saying Norwegian immigrants were not welcome in the United States because the Nobel committee, based in the capital Oslo, had not awarded him a peace prize.
What a crybaby. It’s a wonder that grown men and women support him.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awards the peace prize, is independent of the Norwegian government. It is hard to convince some people of that. In 2010, the committee gave the prize to a Chinese political prisoner, Liu Xiaobo. China retaliated against Norway.
And nothing can convince Donald Trump that the Nobel committee is separate from Norway at large. Other people share and echo his grievance—House speaker Mike Johnson, for example. I wrote about this in a column last January, here.
If you would like to know more about the Nobel Peace Prize, consult my history, Peace, They Say. The peace prize is indeed an expression of Norwegian political culture. But many of the committee’s decisions have made life difficult for the government.
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The United States should really not be like China. The president of the United States should really not be like the Chinese dictator. Have you seen this news? Trump officials have floated the idea that Viktor Orbán, the former prime minister of Hungary, should be the secretary-general of the United Nations. Orbán would be the consensus candidate of the U.S., China, and Russia.
Of course he would.
How disgusting, to have our great country in the company of the Chinese and Russian dictatorships, which are mass-murderous.
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I would like to make a point about realism—realism in foreign policy. First, I will quote Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Moscow:
After Hitler invaded Poland, some “hoped” he’d stop there.
Hope is not a strategy.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is realism. And it’s amazing how unrealistic self-styled realists can be when it comes to Putin and Russia. Amazing.
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Stick with “amazing”: How do you explain the self-styled nationalists who are hostile to Ukraine and soft on Putin? Ukraine is the great nationalist cause of our time. A people is fighting to retain its independence against an invader that seeks to drag it back into empire.
But we have a plethora of anti-Ukraine, pro-Putin “nationalists.” I will give an explanation my best shot.
Some people are simply confused—ignorant. They have heard from their favorite TV hosts or podcasters that Ukraine has to do with “global elites.” But others are simply authoritarian at heart. If nationalism serves their ends, fine. If it takes imperialism, also fine.
That’s the best I can do today.
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Yesterday, I had the privilege of talking with Yaroslav Trofimov, the chief foreign-affairs correspondent of the Wall Street Journal. He was born in Kyiv—Soviet Ukraine—in 1969. You will find our podcast here.
As we were talking, the following thought gelled in me:
Trump has worked hard to scapegoat Ukraine—to convince Americans that their high gas prices are the fault of Ukraine and that their arsenal is being depleted on account of Ukraine. What rotten lies to tell about a nation under siege, fighting for its very right to exist.
People say that Americans aren’t buying the lies. I hope this is true. Still—how rotten.
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Who is next on the scapegoat list? “Look, if we had [had] smart presidents,” said Trump, “the Taiwan problem with China wouldn’t exist. Nobody would care. They stole our chip business [Taiwan, that is]. All of it. A hundred percent.”
Show me where a person, or a party, or a movement, stands on Ukraine and Taiwan, and you have shown me a lot.
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William F. Buckley Jr. favored Latin phrases, one of which was this: Mirabile dictu. “Wonderful to relate.” I thought of it when seeing a tweet from a famous Republican, in the bosom of Trumpland:
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Less heartening was a statement by Tim Scott, the senator from South Carolina (Republican, of course). There is a U.S. Senate race in South Carolina this year: Darline Graham, the Republican, versus Annie Andrews, a Democrat. President Trump, of course, calls the Democrat “Tranny Annie.” Andrews is a pediatrician with three children. Senator Scott has adopted this nickname, this insult: “Tranny Annie.”
I have been quoting Shakespeare—his Falstaff in particular. “I am not only witty in myself,” says Sir John, “but the cause that wit is in other men.” So too, Trump is not only vile in himself, he is the cause of vileness in others. Republicans from coast to coast adopt his insults, grievances, falsehoods.
When will it end? And will you give the adopters a pass, for what they did in this era?
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Nothing drives my old nationalist-populist colleagues crazier than the suggestion that America is an idea. Well, a statement by Margaret Thatcher was brought to my attention last week: “Europe was created by history; America was created by philosophy.” My gosh, there is profundity in that …
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“The cardinal sin of performance,” said Liszt, “is dullness.” I attended a concert that was very dull, I’m afraid—and it was given by three excellent performers. Oh, well. Even Homer nods, and even three Homers nod. For my review, go here.
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Maybe I could insert a quick shot of Central Park, as fall begins here in New York:
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Emily Brontë is known for Wuthering Heights—quite a book to be known for. A friend of mine sent me a poem by her, thinking I would like it. Boy, was he right. And if I am the last person to know it—forgive me. Better late than never.
The poem begins,
No coward soul is mine
No trembler in the world’s storm-troubled sphere
I see Heaven’s glories shine
And Faith shines equal arming me from Fear
One more stanza, from later on:
Vain are the thousand creeds
That move men’s hearts, unutterably vain,
Worthless as withered weeds
Or idlest froth amid the boundless main
Okay, the last two:
Though earth and moon were gone
And suns and universes ceased to be
And Thou wert left alone
Every Existence would exist in theeThere is not room for Death
Nor atom that his might could render void
Since thou art Being and Breath
And what thou art may never be destroyed.
Thank you so much for joining me today, my friends. No coward souls are yours!
Jay, regarding your comments on learning not to defend the indefensible, I think (hope) that I have learned this lesson, but there is an important distinction between Reagan’s mistakes (some of which you elaborated) and it has to do with character. Reagan (et al) certainly made errors in judgment, but was his heart in the right place? I think it probably was. For me at least, it’s the difference between a lapse in judgement and villainous treason.