Impromptus

The need for a show, &c.

By
Then-representative George Santos (R., N.Y.) holds a press conference to address efforts to expel him from the House of Representatives, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., November 30, 2023. (Elizabeth Frantz / Reuters)
On politics and entertainment; a Trump ‘Sir’ story; gradations of milk; a late, great Ritchie Boy; and more

‘Are you not entertained?” This is a famous question from an old movie. Although it’s amazing to describe a movie that came out in 2000 — Gladiator — as old. Anyway, it is a good question: “Are you not entertained?” People want to be entertained, even in their politics. Some people, true, like their politics dull and sober: “Just execute good government, and let us go about our lives.” But most people, it seems to me, want a show.

Donald Trump puts on a good show, a lot of people think. So does George Santos. He is wise, when it comes to public appetites. Listen to him:

Santos is out of Congress now. Expelled. But I bet he will be part of our political scene for a long time to come. Maybe back in office. He gives good “content” — a shudder-making thought.

• Here is Steve Bannon. A lot of people think that he, too, puts on a good show.

I thought of Vladimir Kara-Murza. A Putin crony, Vyacheslav Volodin, said, “There is no Russia without Putin.” Kara-Murza described this as “probably the most insulting thing I have ever heard said about my country.”

• Kara-Murza, a friend of mine, is a political prisoner. He is kept in solitary confinement in Siberia. His wife Evgenia — noble, brave, and poised — is doing all she can to keep him in public consciousness. Here is something from this week:

• One of Donald Trump’s specialties is the “Sir” story. He will tell us that someone said to him, “Sir . . .” — and the tale goes on from there.

The other day, Trump spoke of a general. This general supposedly praised him for debating Hillary Clinton after the release of the “Access Hollywood tape” — the tape on which Trump was heard making vulgar remarks about women.

According to Trump, the general said, “Sir, I’ve been on the battlefield. Men have gone down on my left and on my right. I stood on hills where soldiers were killed. But I believe the bravest thing I’ve ever seen was the night you went onto that stage with Hillary Clinton after what happened.”

I wonder whether Trump supporters believe this. I imagine most do. And the others — do they care, about the matter of veracity? Maybe this is something that can be polled.

• Glenn Youngkin, the governor of Virginia, has pledged to support Trump if Trump is the Republican nominee. They all will, trust me — Republicans both in politics and in the media. I have seen this movie before.

In a column last week, Nick Catoggio wrote,

. . . one of our senior editors offered sage advice to young Dispatch staffers who’ve never covered an election in which Trump is on the ballot. Many of the right-wingers on social media who’ve spent the last year complaining that he’s too old, too divisive, too legally compromised, and too underachieving are about to turn on you viciously for criticizing him, he warned them.

Yup. Again, I’ve seen this movie before.

• In 2013, I wrote a piece, an essay, called “The E-Word: Thoughts on the use and abuse of ‘establishment.’” An interesting topic, I think. Anyway, here comes Ron DeSantis:

It’s just so cheap. So silly. Childish, really. DeSantis and Haley disagree on practically nothing. Why is she “establishment”? Because there’s a modicum of responsibility about her? Because she thinks that support of Ukraine is in the U.S. interest, and consonant with American values?

• Mike Strain — Michael R. Strain — is an economist who works at the American Enterprise Institute and the Georgetown law school. I podcasted with him in September (here). He has written a State of the Union address, so to speak. His address is titled “The State of Democratic Capitalism: 2023.”

I highly recommend it. It gets at fundamental things. Go here.

The “health of democratic capitalism in the United States,” says Strain, “is very strong.” (A big relief.) “But there are dark clouds,” he continues.

I’ll do some more quoting:

The proper relationship between the state and the market has taken a few steps backward in recent years — and I am concerned about that trend accelerating, not reversing, given the similarities between the economic policies of the Biden and Trump administrations.

Strain’s “dark clouds” have names: “populism” and “economic nationalism.” His piece deserves to be read in its entirety — there are subtleties — but I will excerpt a key paragraph:

On a fundamental level, populism disempowers people by telling them that they are helpless victims of a powerful elite. Because populism tells people that they don’t have agency — they aren’t empowered to better their circumstances — it undermines the success of free-market capitalism, which depends on people working hard, aspiring, innovating, and taking risks. Populism opens the door to a larger role for government intervention in markets, both because it weakens political support for markets and because it makes people think that they need intervention to better their outcomes to a greater extent than is empirically supported.

In this way,

economic nationalism flows directly from populism. And populism becomes not just a threat to economic liberty, but to political liberty as well: As the role of the state in economic affairs grows, the ability of free markets to serve as a check on politics erodes. And the larger the role of the state in economic affairs, the smaller the role for voluntary cooperation among society as a whole. The voluntary nature of participation in free markets is itself a bulwark against political tyranny and authoritarianism. Populism and nationalism aren’t just a threat to free markets, they are a threat to democracy as well.

I often feel the need to go back to 101 — to elementary and foundational things. Mike Strain has enabled me to do so. I think of the words of an old song (made famous by Casablanca): “The fundamental things apply . . .”

• Got milk? What type is your milk? Long ago, I learned something, or thought I did: Whole milk tasted great — almost like cream — but was bad for you. Two percent was better (for your health). One percent, better yet. And skim — that bluish gruel — best of all.

In recent years, I have heard other things. But one never knows: What’s bad for you this year, according to experts, is good for you next year. And bad again, the year after that.

I can’t get into it. I can link to this news report:

The House has passed a bill allowing whole milk to be served in school cafeterias for the first time since 2012.

The Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, which permits the National School Lunch Program to serve whole milk, passed 330-99 in the House on Wednesday afternoon. It now heads to the Senate.

Okay den. (Can we move on to half and half?)

• A reader from Georgetown, Ky. — David French’s hometown — writes, “We Kentuckians love nothing more than watching two superbly conditioned athletes compete at the highest level of their sport.” Our reader directs me to this news story: “Owner of large Kentucky cockfighting pit pleads guilty, agrees to dismantle venue.”

I’m glad about that. I also think of Clifford Geertz, who was once probably the most famous anthropologist in America. (I don’t think there are any famous anthropologists anymore.) His best-known piece of writing was “Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight.” I might should revisit it.

(Long live the American vernacular.)

• “Ted Morgan, 91, Dies; Pulitzer-Winning Writer Straddled Two Cultures.” Which two? The French and the American. Morgan was born “Sanche de Gramont.” His father was a count. “Ted Morgan” is an anagram of “de Gramont.”

Actually, he had a longer name at birth: “Sanche Charles Armand Gabriel de Gramont.” Nice, huh?

Interesting and productive life. Let me quote the last paragraphs of Jonathan Kandell’s wonderful obit:

For all his literary and journalistic accomplishments, Mr. Morgan insisted that he preferred to be remembered most for having abandoned his Old World roots to assume a New World identity.

“I think,” he wrote, “I would want my gravestone to read: ‘Here lie the remains of Ted Morgan, who became an American.’”

• Guy Stern was an American, but not necessarily by choice. He was born “Günther Stern,” in Hildesheim, Germany, in 1922. At 15, he was sent to live with relatives in St. Louis. His parents, sister, and brother were unable to get to America. Günther (Guy) could not find sponsors for them. They were killed.

Stern returned to Europe as one of the “Ritchie Boys,” trained to interrogate prisoners of war. He landed in Normandy three days after D-Day. He has died at 101. For Richard Sandomir’s obit in the New York Times, go here.

In a 2005 interview, Stern said, “We were fighting an American war, and we were also fighting an intensely personal war. We were in that war with every inch of our being.”

• Well, nothing should follow that, really. But maybe we can have some pictures. Here is a winter-twilight scene in New York:

I thought this was amusing:

Some girls were playing soccer, in the cold, next to the Hudson River (we’re still in New York). I thought their pink uniforms went nicely with the light behind them.

One more pic:

Have a good one, my friends.

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