Suicide of the West
17. For an attack on free speech as assault, see: http://dailybruin.com/2016/05/16/keshav-tadimeti-hurtful-discriminatory-comments-should-not-be-defended-as-free-speech/. For a defense of assault as a free speech, see: http://www.dailycal.org/2017/02/07/violence-helped-ensure-safety-students/
18. Samuel Earle, “Macron Shouldn’t Misinterpret His Mandate,” Atlantic, June 11, 2017. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/06/macron-france-election/529656/
19. Sohrab Ahmari, “Illiberalism: The Worldwide Crisis,” Commentary, June 16, 2016. https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/illiberalism-worldwide-crisis/
20. Jonah Goldberg, “Days of Future Past,” National Review 66, no. 18, October 6, 2014. http://www.nationalreview.com/article/388860/days-future-past-jonah-goldberg
21. Andras Kovacs, “Antisemitic Prejudice and Political Antisemitism in Present-Day Hungary,” Journal for the Study of Antisemitism: Eastern European Antisemitism 4, no. 2 (2012), p. 445. http://web.ceu.hu/jewishstudies/jsa.pdf#page=93. See also Sam Sokol, “Ultra-Nationalist Jobbik Party’s Gains Worry Hungarian Jews,” Jerusalem Post, April 7, 2014. http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-News/Ultra-nationalist-Jobbik-partys-gains-worry-Hungarian-Jews-347799
22. Ahmari, “Illiberalism.”
23. Daphne Halikiopoulou, “Why the Golden Dawn Is a Neo-Nazi Party,” Huffington Post, June 23, 2016. http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/daphne-halikiopoulou/golden-dawn_b_7643868.html
24. See, for example, Harriet Alexander, “Nicolas Maduro Threatens to Throw ‘Bourgeois Parasite’ Heinz Executives into Prison,” Telegraph, December 2, 2015. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/venezuela/12029569/Nicolas-Maduro-threatens-to-throw-bourgeois-parasite-Heinz-executives-into-prison.html
25. Hubert Tworzecki and Radoslaw Markowski, “Why Is Poland’s Law and Justice Party Trying to Rein in the Judiciary?,” Washington Post, July 26, 2017. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/07/26/why-is-polands-law-and-justice-party-trying-to-rein-in-the-judiciary/?utm_term=.8eb83d5c10fb
26. Ahmari, “Illiberalism.”
27. Maggie Haberman and David E. Sanger, “Transcript: Donald Trump Expounds on His Foreign Policy Views,” New York Times, March 26, 2016. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/27/us/politics/donald-trump-transcript.html?_r=1&mtrref=www.theatlantic.com
28. Robert Costa, “Listening to Donald Trump Swear and Talk Politics on His Private Plane,” Washington Post, July 12, 2015. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/07/12/listening-to-donald-trump-swear-and-talk-politics-on-his-private-plane/?utm_term=.467d43bf40f5
29. Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, “In a Revealing Interview, Trump Predicts a ‘Massive Recession’ but Intends to Eliminate the National Debt in 8 Years,” Washington Post, April 2, 2016. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-turmoil-or-triumph-donald-trump-stands-alone/2016/04/02/8c0619b6-f8d6-11e5-a3ce-f06b5ba21f33_story.html?utm_term=.88433f6f2926
30. Jeremy Diamond, “Donald Trump: ‘I Keep Whining and Whining Until I Win,’ ” CNN, August 11, 2015. http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/11/politics/donald-trump-refutes-third-party-run-report/
31. Donald J. Trump, “58—Inaugural Address—January 20, 2017.”
32. Franklin D. Roosevelt, “130—Address at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, Georgia—May 22, 1932,” American Presidency Project, John Woolley and Gerhard Peters, eds. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=88410
33. Jonathan Martin and Adam Nagourney, “Mocking Critics, Donald Trump Says He Can Win Without Republican Unity,” New York Times, April 29, 2016. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/30/us/politics/trump-campaign.html
34. John Patrick Diggins, “Flirtation with Fascism: American Pragmatic Liberals and Mussolini’s Italy,” American Historical Review 71, no. 2 (January 1966), p. 495.
35. See Jonah Goldberg, Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Change (New York: Broadway Books, 2009 [2007]), pp. 166-67.
36. Time Staff, “Read President Trump’s Interview with Time on Truth and Falsehoods,” Time, March 23, 2017. http://time.com/4710456/donald-trump-time-interview-truth-falsehood/?xid=homepage
37. Donald J. Trump [and Tony Schwartz], Trump: The Art of the Deal (New York: Ballantine Books, 2015 [1987]), p. 58.
38. Timothy L. O’Brien, “How Much Is Trump Worth? Depends on How He Feels,” Newsweek, October 19, 2015. http://www.newsweek.com/how-much-trump-worth-depends-how-he-feels-384720
39. Daniel White, “Donald Trump Tells Crowd to ‘Knock the Crap Out of’ Hecklers,” Time, February 1, 2016. http://time.com/4203094/donald-trump-hecklers/
40. Mark Berman, “Trump Tells Police Not to Worry About Injuring Suspects During Arrests,” Washington Post, July 28, 2017. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/07/28/trump-tells-police-not-to-worry-about-injuring-suspects-during-arrests/?utm_term=.150e4947530e
41. Sophie Tatum, “Trump Defends Putin: ‘You Think Our Country’s So Innocent?,’ ” CNN, February 6, 2017. http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/04/politics/donald-trump-vladimir-putin/index.html
42. Steve Turnham, “Donald Trump to Father of Fallen Soldier: ‘I’ve Made a Lot of Sacrifices,’ ” ABC News, July 30, 2016. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trump-father-fallen-soldier-ive-made-lot/story?id=41015051
43. Trump carried the Electoral College—not, as he claims, in a historic landslide but by a relatively narrow margin. (It ranks as the forty-sixth best tally; see: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/18/us/elections/donald-trump-electoral-college-popular-vote.html). Moreover, were it not for five counties—four in Florida and one in Michigan—he would have lost to Hillary Clinton, who won the popular vote decisively. His margins in the historically “blue” states were also remarkably thin: 10,000 votes in Michigan, 22,000 in Wisconsin, and 46,000 in Pennsylvania. (See: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/12/02/donald-trump-s-pollster-says-the-election-came-down-to-five-counties.html.)
44. Jan-Werner Muller, What Is Populism? (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016, Kindle edition), Kindle location 69-70.
45. Ibid., Kindle location 323-25.
46. Ibid., Kindle location 471-72.
47. See, for example, https://theoutline.com/post/1122/study-excluded-people-more-likely-to-believe-conspiracy-theories
48. William Jennings Bryan, “Bryan’s ‘Cross of Gold’ Speech: Mesmerizing the Masses,” History Matters, George Mason University. http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5354/
49. Goldberg, Liberal Fascism, p. 47.
50. “Populist Party Platform of 1892,” July 4, 1892, Political Party Platforms, American Presidency Project, John Woolley and Gerhard Peters, eds. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29616
51. Christopher Hitchens, “From Christopher Hitchens,” Filmsnobs Reader Mail, Filmsnobs.com. http://www.filmsnobs.com/index.php?nowShowing=articles&by=Shimes&id=44
52. It would be grossly unfair and inaccurate to deny that sometimes populist feelings of resentment are warranted. The farmers of the Free Silver movement had legitimate grievances. The masses that formed the initial ranks of Italian Fascism or Coughlin’s National Union of Social Justice may have reached the wrong conclusions, but they were right to feel ill-served by their leaders. Even the hordes who swelled the rallies of Adolf Hitler had good reason to search for a better way, even if their searching led them in an evil and calamitous direction. The tide of populist nationalism that led to the victory of the Brexit movement had many sound arguments on its side. Similarly, here in Amer
ica, many of the resentments that Donald Trump tapped into were wholly understandable.
53. Zeke J. Miller, “Donald Trump Has a Grand Unified Campaign Conspiracy Theory,” Time, October 13, 2016. http://time.com/4530568/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-conspiracy/
54. Tim Hains, “Donald Trump’s ‘Argument for America’ Ad Targets ‘Failed and Corrupt Political Establishment,’ ” RealClearPolitics. https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/11/04/ad_donald_trumps_argument_for_america.html
14: THINGS FALL APART
1. Abigail Geiger, “For Many Voters, It’s Not Which Presidential Candidate They’re for but Which They’re Against,” Pew Research Center, September 2, 2016. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/09/02/for-many-voters-its-not-which-presidential-candidate-theyre-for-but-which-theyre-against/
2. Nancy Knowlton, “Corals and Coral Reefs,” Ocean Portal, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. http://ocean.si.edu/corals-and-coral-reefs
3. Jeremy T. Claisse et al., “Oil Platforms off California Are Among the Most Productive Marine Fish Habitats Globally,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 111, no. 43 (September 22, 2014). http://www.pnas.org/content/111/43/15462.full
4. Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion (New York: Knopf Doubleday, 2012, Kindle Edition), p. 308.
5. Arthur C. Brooks, “America and the Value of ‘Earned Success,’ ” Wall Street Journal, May 9, 2012, A13.
6. Arthur C. Brooks, “A Nation of Givers,” American Enterprise Institute, March 11, 2008. https://www.aei.org/publication/a-nation-of-givers/
7. Barack Obama, “32—Inaugural Address—January 21, 2013,” American Presidency Project, John Woolley and Gerhard Peters, eds. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=102827
8. Yuval Levin, The Fractured Republic: Renewing America’s Social Contract in the Age of Individualism (New York: Basic Books, 2016), p. 209.
9. Ibid., p. 4.
10. Joel Gehrke, “DNC: ‘Government Is the Only Thing That We All Belong To,’ ” Washington Examiner, September 4, 2012. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/dnc-government-is-the-only-thing-that-we-all-belong-to/article/2506923
11. The original website is no longer active, but curious readers can still access the statist slideshow here: https://web.archive.org/web/20120907070601/https://barackobama.com/life-of-julia
12. Nicholas Eberstadt, “Our Miserable 21st Century,” Commentary, March 2017. https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/our-miserable-21st-century/
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. George F. Will, “America’s ‘Quiet Catastrophe’: Millions of Idle Men,” Washington Post, October 5, 2016. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/americas-quiet-catastrophe-millions-of-idle-men/2016/10/05/cd01b750-8a57-11e6-bff0-d53f592f176e_story.html?utm_term=.1c72ed7e3967
16. Stephen J. Rose, “The Growing Size and Incomes of the Upper Middle Class,” Research Report, Urban Institute: Income and Benefits Policy Center, June 2016, p. 6. http://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/81581/2000819-The-Growing-Size-and-Incomes-of-the-Upper-Middle-Class.pdf
17. Bernadette D. Proctor et al., “Income and Poverty in the United States,” Current Population Reports, U.S. Census Bureau, p. 23. https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2016/demo/p60-256.pdf (I recommend printing it out, or tilting your head.)
18. “The American Middle Class Is Losing Ground: Share of Adults Living in Middle-Income Households Is Falling,” Pew Research Center: Social & Demographic Trends, December 8, 2015. http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2015/12/09/the-american-middle-class-is-losing-ground/st_2015-12-09_middle-class-03/
19. Ronald Bailey, “Natural Gas Ambush Killed Off Coal Mining Industry, Not Obama’s ‘War on Coal,’ ” Reason, October 11, 2016. http://reason.com/blog/2016/10/11/natural-gas-ambush-killed-off-coal-minin
20. Scott Lincicome, “The Truth About Trade,” National Review online, April 4, 2016. http://www.nationalreview.com/article/433575/trade-american-economy-free-trade-costing-american-jobs
21. See https://www.bea.gov/iTable/iTable.cfm?reqid=56&step=2&isuri=1#reqid=56&step=51&isuri=1&5602=208
22. Ana Swanson, “A Single Chart Everybody Needs to Look at Before Trump’s Big Fight over Bringing Back American Jobs,” Washington Post, November 28, 2016. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/28/theres-a-big-reason-trump-might-not-be-able-to-keep-his-promise-on-jobs/?utm_term=.bde6c7d970f0
23. Rich Lowry and Ramesh Ponnuru, “For Love of Country,” National Review 69, no. 3, February 20, 2017. https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2017-02-20-0000/donald-trump-inauguration-speech-and-nationalism
24. ACS, “My Country Right or Wrong,” American Chesterton Society. https://www.chesterton.org/my-country-right-or-wrong/
25. Frederic Cople Jaher, The Jews and the Nation: Revolution, Emancipation, State Formation, and the Liberal Paradigm in America and France (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002), p. 135.
26. Hans Kohn, “Napoleon and the Age of Nationalism,” Journal of Modern History 22, no. 1 (March 1950), pp. 21-37.
27. “Every people,” Rousseau insisted in 1765, “has, or should have, a national character; and if a people did not, the first thing to do would be to provide it with one.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau, “Constitutional Project for Corsica,” Constitution Society. http://www.constitution.org/jjr/corsica.htm [inactive]
28. Isaiah Berlin, “Herder and the Enlightenment,” in Three Critics of the Enlightenment: Vico, Hamann, Herder, Henry Hardy, ed. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013), p. 256.
29. Tim Blanning, The Romantic Revolution: A History, Modern Library Chronicles (New York: Random House, 2011, Kindle edition), Kindle location 1856-58.
30. Donald J. Trump, “58—Inaugural Address,” January 20, 2017, American Presidency Project, John Woolley and Gerhard Peters, eds. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=120000
31. Ian Schwartz, “Trump: ‘We Will Have So Much Winning If I Get Elected That You May Get Bored with Winning,” RealClearPolitics, September 9, 2015. https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2015/09/09/trump_we_will_have_so_much_winning_if_i_get_elected_that_you_may_get_bored_with_winning.html
32. Geoffrey Skelley, “Just How Many Obama 2012-Trump 2016 Voters Were There?,” Sabato’s Crystal Ball, University of Virginia Center for Politics, June 1, 2017. http://www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/articles/just-how-many-obama-2012-trump-2016-voters-were-there/
33. Publius Decius Mus [Mike Anton], “The Flight 93 Election,” Claremont Review of Books, September 5, 2016. http://www.claremont.org/crb/basicpage/the-flight-93-election/
34. Quoted in George J. Borjas, We Wanted Workers: Unraveling the Immigration Narrative (New York: W. W. Norton, 2016), p. 15.
35. See ibid., pp. 13-31, for starters.
36. Ronald F. Inglehart and Pippa Norris, “Trump, Brexit, and the Rise of Populism: Economic Have-Nots and Cultural Backlash,” Faculty Research Working Paper Series, Harvard Kennedy School, August 2016, pp. 4-5. https://research.hks.harvard.edu/publications/getFile.aspx?Id=1401
37. David Card et al., “Immigration, Wages, and Compositional Amenities,” Norface Migration, Discussion Paper No. 2012-12. http://davidcard.berkeley.edu/papers/immigration-wages-compositional-amenities.pdf
38. Hillary Clinton, Twitter, November 19, 2015. https://twitter.com/hillaryclinton/status/667371059885301761?lang=en
39. Robert D. Putnam, “E Pluribus Unum: Diversity and Community in the Twen
ty-First Century: The 2006 Johan Skytte Prize Lecture,” Scandinavian Political Studies 30, no. 2 (June 2007), pp. 150-51.
40. Ibid., p. 149.
41. Fukuyama, Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity (New York: Free Press, 1996), p. 26.
42. “Chapter 5: U.S. Foreign-Born Population Trends,” Pew Research Center, September 28, 2015. http://www.pewhispanic.org/2015/09/28/chapter-5-u-s-foreign-born-population-trends/
43. Anna Brown and Renee Stepler, “Statistical Portrait of the Foreign-Born Population in the United States, 2014,” Pew Research Center, April 19, 2016. http://www.pewhispanic.org/2016/04/19/statistical-portrait-of-the-foreign-born-population-in-the-united-states-2014-key-charts/#2013-fb-origin
44. “FFF: Back to School: 2015-2016,” U.S. Census Bureau, September 2, 2014. https://www.census.gov/newsroom/facts-for-features/2015/cb15-ff17.html
45. Robby Soave, “The University of California’s Insane Speech Police,” Daily Beast, June 22, 2015. http://www.thedailybeast.com/the-university-of-californias-insane-speech-police
46. Amanda Taub, “The Real Story About Fake News Is Partisanship,” New York Times, January 11, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/11/upshot/the-real-story-about-fake-news-is-partisanship.html?_r=1
47. Ibid.
48. Carolyn Declerck and Christopher Boone, Neuroeconomics of Prosocial Behavior: The Compassionate Egoist (San Diego, CA; Waltham, MA; Oxford, U.K.: Academic Press, 2016), p. 158.
49. Taub, “The Real Story About Fake News Is Partisanship.”
50. Tyler Cowen, “Move On—This Isn’t True Here,” Marginal Revolution, July 26, 2008. http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2008/07/xxxxxxx.html
51. Amy Chozick, “Hillary Clinton Calls Many Trump Backers ‘Deplorables,’ and G.O.P. Pounces,” New York Times, September 10, 2016. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/11/us/politics/hillary-clinton-basket-of-deplorables.html