On U.S. Steel; crime in our cities; Trump and religion; the spectacular Simone Biles; and more
There was a time when U.S. Steel was the mightiest company in America — indeed, in the world. Now it is a shell of itself. The company has been in the news lately because it is set to be acquired by a Japanese corporation. This has caused controversy.
Today, I would like to contribute something light — something that speaks of a bygone era. Jeffrey Hart, the late professor of English, and senior editor of National Review, was talking about fandom. He was talking about the New York Yankees, in particular. During the late ’40s, 1950s, and early ’60s, they won World Series after World Series.
Jeff said that people used to say, “Rooting for the Yankees is like rooting for U.S. Steel.”
Again, “redolent of an era,” as they say.
(I’m from southeastern Michigan. And the Big Three — the big three automakers — are . . . shells. One of the most constant things in an economy — certainly a free one — is change.)
• Reading this, from a reporter covering municipal affairs in D.C., made me wince:
This city is down so bad right now. It's honestly very heartbreaking. I absolutely love me some D.C. but I absolutely hate what is happening to the city. It's very unsafe right now. https://t.co/U3e4Yud1C0
— DC REALTIME NEWS (@RealTimeNews10) December 21, 2023
People love to knock Washington, D.C., I know. (I’m talking, just now, about the city, as distinct from the federal government.) It has its fans, it has its non-fans. I love Washington — but this is probably inseparable from my personal experiences. Many wonderful things in my life happened there.
(Uh-oh, this threatens to get gooey.)
For one thing, I was in love with politics and government. (That was a long time ago.) I spent a semester of my college years in Washington. Later, I lived and worked there. Also — here I must boast — I am from something pretty rare: an old Washington family.
One of the first Nordlingers in America established himself in Georgetown in 1865. (The allure of the cocktail parties!) All four of my father’s grandparents were born within D.C. city limits. Walter Johnson, the “Big Train,” was a customer of one of them.
(My great-grandfather was a merchant, and Johnson was a pitcher for the Washington Senators, an immortal.)
I could go on . . .
Anyway, Washington is a beautiful and glorious city. It ought not to be allowed to go to the dogs. It ought to be a showplace, enjoyed and marveled at by visitors from all over.
And don’t get me started on San Francisco (about which I have repined in this column several times). It is arguably our most beautiful big city. The fact that it has been allowed to go to the dogs — this is a matter of national dishonor.
And Chicago . . .
• Brian Kemp is an unusual kind of Republican. He is the governor of Georgia. He has a certain immunity to MAGA nonsense. This immunity extends to his staff. (As a rule, a staff reflects the man or woman at the top. I was writing about this just a few weeks ago, here.)
Let me give you an article from last week — which begins,
A viral claim that began circulating over the weekend alleging more than 17,000 invalid votes were counted in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia is the product of “bogus online blogs,” a spokesperson for Gov. Brian Kemp said Monday.
Here is the spokesman’s statement: “Retelling the same lies for three years does not make them true . . . The moon landing was real, Bigfoot does not roam the forests of North America, and the 2020 election in Georgia was not stolen.”
Dayum. That ought to get you kicked out of the Republican kingdom. Even Republican journalists don’t speak that bluntly, to say nothing of pols and their staff. But this governor Kemp is exceptional.
(All of my life, “Kemp” meant Jack. It has been hard to adjust, but I’m getting there.)
• A story from the Detroit News: “Trump recorded pressuring Wayne County canvassers not to certify 2020 vote.” Yes, there are recordings. It’s all in black and white, or the audio equivalent. (To read the report, go here.)
Tens of millions want this man to be president — again. It seems clear to me that the idea of democracy is not properly planted in the breasts of Americans. This is, broadly speaking, a failure of civic education.
• Donald Trump is campaigning as follows:
“Under Crooked Joe Biden, Christians and Americans of faith are being persecuted like nothing this nation has ever seen before. Catholics, in particular, are being targeted, and evangelicals are surely on the watch list as well.”
Some more:
“Over the past three years, the Biden administration has sent SWAT teams to arrest pro-life activists. The FBI has been caught profiling devout Catholics as possible domestic terrorists and planning to send undercover spies into Catholic churches, just like in the old days of the Soviet Union.”
Finally,
“Catholics, you cannot vote for the Democrats. You cannot even think about voting for Biden. What they’re doing to you is shocking.”
(For an article on this Trump tack, go here.)
I think of the 2020 campaign — in which Trump said that Biden was “against God.” “He’s against God, he’s against guns, he’s against energy.” The Biden agenda, according to Trump, was this: “take away your guns, destroy your Second Amendment, no religion, no anything, hurt the Bible, hurt God.”
Millions of Americans think of Trump as a, or the, Defender of the Faith. (Many Americans think of Putin the same way — even more grotesque.) This is a phenomenon that will be studied for generations.
• Listen, also, to another Trump — namely, Jr.: “If you vote for Democrats in 2024, you are literally voting to send your friends, maybe your conservative uncle, to the reeducation camps, in time.” (For a video, go here.)
The “in time” is an interesting moderate touch.
• Let’s have a little language. In recent days, I have noticed people saying “to relish in.” They say it when they mean “to revel in” or “to relish.” Weird. I spotted it in a headline, too, about the NBA: “Poole relishes in unforgettable Chase Center return vs. Warriors.” (Article here.) A weird one indeed.
Is it here to stay? Or more like a passing cold?
• Simone Biles, the gymnast, has been named the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year — for the third time. (To read about this, go here.) There is nothing better than a comeback, in my book, and Biles has come back spectacularly. She faltered at the Tokyo Olympics and took a long break from gymnastics. Now she is national champion again. And world champion again. This ought to encourage human hearts everywhere. You can come back.
At the time of the Olympics, Charlie Kirk, the young Republican leader, labeled Biles a “selfish sociopath” and a “shame to the country.” He said, “We are raising a generation of weak people like Simone Biles.”
I hope we have many more — more people with the strength and perseverance of a Simone Biles.
• Carlos Lyra, a prominent exponent of bossa nova, has died at 90. Politically, he was a leftist, even a Communist. In 2015, he made an interesting statement, as recorded in the New York Times’s obit: “I consider myself politically proletariat. I consider myself economically bourgeois. And artistically I consider myself an aristocrat.”
Reflecting on this statement, I thought of one of Conquest’s Laws — an axiom of the great Robert Conquest: “Everyone is a conservative in his own field of expertise.”
• Robert Solow, the economist, has died at 99. I would like to quote something from the Times obit — believable and touching:
In an interview for this obituary in 2013, Alan S. Blinder, a Princeton University economics professor, a former deputy chairman of the Federal Reserve Board and a Solow pupil, said, “All his former students idolize him — all, with no exceptions.”
I have had such teachers (fortunately).
• Something worthy of a short story by Guy de Maupassant or Roald Dahl:
had to tell my son that santa isn't real in the middle of the night because he was hysterical about a strange man coming into the house, but made him *promise* not to tell his younger sister that he doesn't exist. so instead he told her that santa's dead
— Emma Szewczak (@EmmaSzewczak) December 25, 2023
• Let me return to language, here at the end. I was in a convenience store, and bought some peppermint-bark ice cream. An immigrant from East Asia runs the store. He said, “‘Peppermint bark.’ That’s funny. Like a dog, with peppermint?” I explained about the other kind of bark, on a tree. He did a quick check of Google Translate (or something) on his phone. And then grinned: “Got it!”
A delightful man. His kids are probably valedictorians. And isn’t our English language strange, confusing, and endlessly wonderful?
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