Good morning.
This weekend, Free Expression columnist John J. Miller talks to Tevi Troy about “Tom Clancy’s Ghost,” the piece he wrote for us about Hollywood’s twisting of the writer’s intentions after his death. How in the name of Marko Ramius did America end up the villain?
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Vice President JD Vance is a great talker, and he did a lot of it this week. Smart people have parsed his claims about the memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran. In a conversation with a columnist at another paper published locally, Mr. Vance took a break from his Iran-deal salesmanship to pitch his new book. This naturally led him to the subject of economics, about which he holds hopelessly Manichaean views:
[T]here’s also a Christian economic tradition of trying to uplift the poor and supporting your community and being there for people who are really struggling. I think a lot of the business side of the Republican Party doesn’t pay attention to that side of the Christian tradition, and I think that’s a mistake.
Mr. Vance thinks something called “your community,” which is good, is always at odds with something called “the business side of the Republican Party,” which is bad. Apparently the only thing standing between your community and the Scrooge wing of the GOP is something called “the Christian economic tradition.”
I hear a lot about this tradition. I must say, it sounds nice. But I never hear Mr. Vance or his allies define this tradition in any kind of workable way. Mr. Vance is known to criticize GDP as an “economic abstraction” while throwing around phrases like “the common good” as if everybody knows exactly what he’s talking about.
Read my colleague Barton Swaim’s review of “Communion”:
Straw men populate the book’s later chapters, particularly on economic questions. He equates the free-market outlook with amoral indifference to anything apart from abstract economic-growth numbers. Reciting stories of people trampling one another to buy new tech products on Black Friday, Mr. Vance observes that “from the view of classical economics, they’re doing something far more ‘productive’ than reading a book or spending time with their children.”
The idea has gotten loose on the American right that to be a good Christian you have to ignore the poverty destroying effects of capitalism. Comfortable men in fine suits who eat nothing but grass-fed beef and sauerkraut have taken to telling bargain-hunting shoppers that instead of saving a few bucks they should be home reading books to their kids. Is that the Christian economic tradition?
Free markets uplift the poor. They enable human flourishing by increasing material prosperity. They don’t make you a good person. Nobody ever said they would or could. But they make it possible for people who are really struggling to improve their circumstances. That is something that every community should want for itself.
“Every problem in the Middle East tracks back to Iran. Hezbollah? Iran. Shia militias that are destroying and threatening Iraq? Iran. Hamas? Iran. The Houthis? Iran. Assad when he was in Syria? Iran. Everywhere you turn, they’re behind all of it. They are a destabilizing, dangerous, evil force that had to be dealt with, that had to be weakened.” — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio
What We’re Reading
“Leonard Cohen’s Dark Faith” by M.G. Scott
“Fatherhood and the Church” by Will Thibeau
“Obama’s Legacy Is the Trump Presidency” by Matthew Continetti
“A Revolution for All Humankind” by Allen Guelzo
Jargon That Deserves Immediate Retirement
Agentic
Maxxing
Mogging
Slop
Warfighters
The Light-Rail Boondoggle
Buses aren’t as cool as trains. But they provide a much better bang for a city’s buck.
By James B. Meigs
Don’t Cry for the Education Department
Trump can’t abolish it without Congress, and what he’s doing actually looks pretty good.
Free Ex Q&A: Ignat Solzhenitsyn
‘Life outside music or without music would not make sense, would not be appealing to me at all.’
Who Killed the Patriotic American Movie?
Cinema once made audiences swell with pride. Now many are questioning the flag.
Storytime With Starmer
The U.K. government uses secrecy, misdirection and storytelling to stifle unease about its radical immigration policies.
Elon Musk Is Gaining Altitude
A year after I came to his defense in Congress, the SpaceX founder is breaking records on the stock exchange—and inspiring my son.
By Elise Stefanik
