Newsletter Special: Yuval Levin's " A Time to Build"
David Shasha
Introduction: Yuval Levin and the Brave New World of Trumpist Neo-Conservatism
Yuval Levin has become arguably the most important intellectual of the contemporary Neo-Conservative movement. In his prominent role at the influential American Enterprise Institute he has inspired fellow travelers like David Brooks, who cites him repeatedly in his columns and articles.
Levin has recently published an important book A Time to Build that deals with American institutions, knowing the brutal job of destruction that Trumpworld has done to them in its march to Tyranny and Authoritarianism through planned institutional incompetence based on blind loyalty to the leader cult.
Levin did a book event at Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C. that was broadcast on C-Span’s Book TV. In my remarks on the event I made note of the irony of a Reaganite trying to argue for American institutions, as Reagan famously sought to undermine government and our Social Safety Net; diligently working to roll back the New Deal and Great Society infrastructure through Trickle-Down Economics. Give to the rich and take from the poor, just as we are seeing today. To hell with public safety – just give all power to the corporate class.
Indeed, it is quite possible to see the current Trumpian mishandling of the Coronavirus epidemic in light of Reagan’s lack of human concern and scientific realism with the AIDS crisis. And Trump’s gutting of the NIH and CDC follows Reagan’s evisceration of government agencies under the rubric of privatization and a primal disdain for public welfare institutions.
With the exception of my note, you will not find the name Ronald Reagan in any of the other articles in this special newsletter.
We naturally begin the proceedings with our dear friend David Brooks who, like his idol Levin, is trying to figure out what our political system is at this dark period in our history. While Levin is more overtly anti-Trump in the Politics and Prose event, Brooks continues to remain ambivalent; probably because the Orange Pig has co-opted many of Reagan’s Right Wing policies, with his penchant for appointing radical judges to our federal courts and for breaking the mechanisms of government from the inside, and of course all that privatization.
It is fascinating to see Brooks grapple with the political issues, as he struggles to apply Levin’s nuanced thesis to his ongoing socio-political confusion.
Mona Charen’s review of the Levin book in National Review begins to expand our understanding of the current institutional problem in Neo-Con circles. NR has had its own internal problems with Trump, as it began with Never-Trumpism, but has now very comfortably settled in, much like Republican stalwarts Lindsay Graham, Mitch McConnell, and Ted Cruz, with the decrepit new order of things. Corruption is a very catchy thing, and once it starts it is very hard to stop.
The bulk of this special newsletter is devoted to a symposium on A Time to Build that was just published by the radical Right Wing religious-political journal Law and Liberty.
The three articles do an excellent job of exposing the various fault-lines inside the Right Wing punditocracy and the way in which it is trying to deal with Trumpian Nihilism and the complete undermining of the Rule of Law, while still remaining nostalgic for a lost America which Trump has used as bait to rope in his base of support.
In other words, these Neo-Con radicals are trying to bring Reagan and Trump together in a way that Levin has tried to put into question. While Levin is also loath to attack the Gipper in any direct or overt way, his arguments do try to confront the post-Reagan malaise in an indirect manner.
I have continued to ponder whether Levin’s salutary promotion of our normative institutions might act as a bridge to heal the Left-Right Never-Trump divide, but I remain uncertain. It is unclear whether Levin has as wide an audience as Brooks, or whether his analysis and policy prescriptions will be affirmed by what has become a very Trumpist Right Wing world.
But I do believe that understanding this Right Wing world is critical if we are to figure out a way to get beyond the current Authoritarianism and creeping Fascism. The Neo-Con Levin shares with Liberals the love of American institutions and our democratic heritage. And though there are serious differences that will continue to divide us, it is important that we seek out common ground and try to better understand the issues that are currently dividing the Neo-Cons in Trumpworld.
David Shasha
Reaganite Yuval Levin Promotes American Institutions on C-Span’s Book TV
By: David Shasha
The Future of American Politics
By: David Brooks
Book Review: A Time to Build
By: Mona Charen
Law and Liberty Symposium on Yuval Levin’s A Time to Build
Confessions of an Institutional Dropout
By: Rachel Lu
Failures in Moderation
By: Titus Techera
A Time to Repeal and Replace
By: Scott Yenor