On history, liberal democracy, ‘enemies of the people,’ smartphones, the American diet, and more
Last week, I was having a conversation with a prominent historian. We discussed “the uses of the past,” to borrow an old phrase. A study of history can give us a better understanding of the present. But I recalled something I once heard a professor of mine say. This was long ago. And it has never left me.
“Why do we study history?” he began a class. “Many will tell you: in order to understand the present. Yeah, but it’s equally true that the present helps us understand the past.”
In the last several years, I have had frequent occasion to think of that. A colleague said, “I now understand the 1930s better than I ever have — better than I ever wanted to.” Mainly, he had a clearer picture of the capitulation of the intellectuals, and their desire to be near power. Or their desire to be in the good graces of a dominant movement.
When I see the explosion of antisemitism, and how unblushing people are about it — well, I understand the past a little better. I see how hatreds, even murderous hatreds, reside in the woodwork, waiting to be called forth by leaders, movements, or events.
Yes: History can help us understand the present. But the reverse is true as well.
The historian with whom I was talking last week recalled a line of Marc Bloch: “Sans se pencher sur le présent, il est impossible de comprendre le passé.” “Without looking at the present, it is impossible to understand the past.”
Bloch was a French historian who lived from 1886 to 1944. A member of the Resistance, he was executed by the Gestapo.
• On Friday, I published a post that ended as follows:
For now, the heart of the American Right belongs to Trump, Orbán, and their ilk. In 2018, Orbán famously declared, “The era of liberal democracy is over.” But it is a powerful thing, liberal democracy: and the heart of the American project. Waiting and available to be re-embraced, when the weather changes.
Saturday, on X (as Twitter is now called), I was doing some conversatin’ with some friends and colleagues. Quin Hillyer wrote,
Jay, what is happening is an open rejection, from major parts of both the Right and the Left, of Madisonian republican pluralism and of the Enlightenment liberalism from which it springs. It’s scary.
That’s right. As I see it, many people have simply turned their back on the American project. (The last essay Charles Krauthammer ever wrote was on this topic: “The Authoritarian Temptation.” I wrote about it last month, here.) When I was growing up, you often heard the phrase “the American experiment.” Sort of a curious phrase. And it has recurred to me in recent years. Will this experiment succeed or fail? Well, it depends on us, doesn’t it? Us collectively?
On X, Charles Kupfer wrote,
When my academic career started I heard bien pensants disdaining the Enlightenment Project & Am Experiment. Was glad not to be like them. Now I hear ‘conservatives’ scorning our history & values. Spirit of ’76? Gettysburg? Normandy? NATO? Moon? For suckers like us!
And I’d rather be a sucker with my fellow conservatives, or classical liberals, than “know what time it is” with illiberals of any stripe. For American values, it is always time. Long live our experiment. May we keep our republic.
I’m spoutin’ the kind of rhetoric you hear on the Fourth of July. Patriotic platitudes. But, you know? I believe that now is the right time for such talk. This kind of talk is not corny — not to me. It’s fundamental and important.
• On Friday, Orbán visited Trump at the latter’s home in Florida. Orbán has endorsed Trump for president, ringingly. As I said in my above-linked post, that is a rare thing for a foreign head of state to do. But we are in a screwy era.
Hailing Orbán — pouring praise on him — Trump said, “There’s nobody that’s better, smarter, or a better leader than Viktor Orbán.” Moreover, “he’s a non-controversial figure because he says, ‘This is the way it’s going to be,’ and that’s the end of it, right? He’s the boss.”
In some respects, Trump is utterly consistent. I recall his gushing praise of Kim Jong-un (not that Orbán is in the same class as Kim). Trump said, “He speaks, and his people sit up at attention.”
Well, that’s for sure. If not — the gulag awaits.
• Speaking of the gulag — the one in the Soviet Union: A lot of people were sent there as “enemies of the people.” Or they were executed as “enemies of the people.” The same thing happened in Cambodia, when the Khmer Rouge were in power, and elsewhere.
Trump likes to call people “enemies of the people.” He did so in the White House on Thanksgiving Day 2020. Brad Raffensperger, the secretary of state of Georgia, had refused to cooperate with Trump in the falsifying of the presidential election, just held. So, there in the White House, Trump said of him, “He’s an enemy of the people.”
Raffensperger and his wife received a barrage of death and rape threats.
Trump is at it again. On Thursday, he wrote,
If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business. I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!
In those few lines, you get at least two of Trump’s moves: the name-calling (“Zuckerschmuck” is a reference to Mark Zuckerberg) and “Enemy of the People!” Republican voters evidently thrill to this kind of thing.
During Trump’s years as president, a lot of my friends and associates chuckled over “enemies of the people.” They thought it was kind of cute. But if you know about history — it’s not so cute. And it is certainly appalling in the mouth of an American president.
• After I saw the below from Donald Trump Jr., I thought of a phrase from William F. Buckley Jr.: “Who can gainsay it?”
Junior says the old Republican Party is dead now that MAGA has taken over the RNC: “That Republican Party no longer exists. The moves that happened – that’s the final blow. People have to understand that MAGA is the new Republican Party. That is conservatism today.” pic.twitter.com/IummLzUb3h
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) March 10, 2024
Trump Jr. is telling it like it is, isn’t he?
You have probably seen this news story: “Donald Trump’s Republican Party elects new leadership, including Lara Trump.” That is a headline from USA Today. (Lara Trump is the candidate’s daughter-in-law, the wife of his son Eric.)
• Turning to Britain — George Galloway is back in Parliament. He is a famous, and poisonous, leftist. But mainly he is a friend to virtually every dictator, every anti-Western tyrant, in the world. Nick Cohen relates that Galloway has interesting company — interesting support:
Just before Muslim voters propelled him to victory, Galloway received the endorsement of none other than Nick Griffin, the former leader of the British National Party (BNP).
To use an overused label correctly for once, the BNP is genuinely neo-fascist. And yet Griffin had no qualms in recommending that his followers ‘get out and vote for George Galloway’ and ‘stick two fingers up to the rotten political elite and their fake news media cronies’.
Like cocktails before a dinner party, obsessions about Jews bring all the extremists together.
What better illustration could you have of the horseshoe theory?
Yes, it is textbook.
• CNN reports, “Starbucks is laying off thousands of workers in the Middle East in response to Gaza boycotts.” (Article here.) Starbucks is perceived as pro-Israel. Therefore, many people are boycotting the chain. Which means Arabs and Muslims get laid off.
Which is — a development.
• “Wait until 8th. Take the pledge.” I found that a little startling. Then I found out the campaign is about cellphones. A story out of Colorado tells us,
A group of parents in the Aspen School District (ASD) are urging Aspen elementary and middle school parents to join a national “Wait Until 8th” campaign that encourages parents to wait until after eighth grade to give their students smartphones.
I think of a debate in a church (many years ago). The members were arguing over the starting time of the Sunday service: Should it be moved from 11 to 10:30? A great and snappy lady stood up and said, “I’m hoping 10:30 is a prelude to 10.”
In that spirit: Let 8th be a prelude to 9th — and maybe beyond?
• A story from an airport restaurant: A patron has observed a youngish waitress serving food: plate after plate of fried chicken and French fries. French fries by the mountains. The waitress is from Asia. (I know you’re not supposed to say “waitress” anymore. I don’t care.) (You’re lucky I don’t say “the Orient.”) The patron says, “Are you sort of appalled at what we Americans eat? And how fat we are?” She giggles. She says, “When I came here from Thailand, I was a size 2. Now I’m a size 6. When I go back home, I can’t buy clothes — they’re not in my size. I’m too big. But here, I’m a petite.”
• When I see a Girl Scout selling cookies, I must buy. It’s some kind of patriotic or cultural compulsion. I don’t care whether I happen to like the cookies she has on hand — I must buy (and perhaps give away).
• Maybe we could have some music: For a review of the pianist Igor Levit in recital, go here. For a post on the violinist Hilary Hahn and the Avery Fisher Artist Program, go here. For a review of La forza del destino (Verdi) at the Metropolitan Opera, go here. And for a review of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, under Franz Welser-Möst, go here.
• When you have time, you might want to read an obit — this one, headed “Josette Molland, Who Told of Life in Nazi Camps Through Art, Dies at 100.” Something to marvel at, gasp at, think about. I barely have the words. I simply shake my head at what some people endure and the courage they demonstrate.
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