On abortion, woke workplaces, Mitt Romney, a new Marcos, a hurdler, a new Babe Ruth, and more
Roe v. Wade was a bad decision, unmoored from the Constitution. It was “an exercise of raw judicial power,” as Justice White said in his dissent. Even some pro-choicers, knowledgeable about legal matters, were uncomfortable with the decision. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was probably the most famous such person. And I highly recommend a piece by Akhil Reed Amar, the Yale professor, and a pro-choice Democrat, as he says. He lays out the problems with Roe: here.
I began this column, “Roe v. Wade was . . .” Amazing to use that word, “was,” having said “is” my whole career.
Last month, I wrote a piece about abortion: “Coming to Grips with Abortion.” It is not a piece about Roe; it is a piece about — well, what the title says. For a piece on Roe, I recommend, in addition to the Amar piece, our editorial, “A Stain Erased.” Beautifully written.
Now what? For many years, abortion politics has been symbolic, really. But now the rubber has hit the road. The dog has caught the car, to use a metaphor that many used when Republicans succeeded in overturning ObamaCare. Now what?
I wish to recommend another piece, this one by David French: “Roe Is Reversed, and the Right Isn’t Ready.” I will not forbear quoting the opening paragraph:
When I left the full-time practice of law and landed at National Review, my friends and colleagues Jay Nordlinger and Jonah Goldberg both independently gave me exactly the same advice. My job, they said, was to write what I believe to be true. It’s not to please a crowd or build a coalition.
In a 2013 interview, Charles Krauthammer said, “You’re betraying your whole life if you don’t say what you think — and you don’t say it honestly and bluntly.” A writer owes his readers his best judgment. I would say the same is true of a politician — although it’s easier to ask this of a writer than to ask it of a politician, who may cater to a crowd from the moment he wakes up. Yet writers, too, can be in the catering business.
Let me tell you about a problem I’ve long had (not that you asked to hear about my problems!). I will approach it this way: In 1988, there was a large field in the Republican presidential primaries. I loved, among others, Pete du Pont. He was one of my favorite politicians of all time. But on abortion, I thought he kind of dodged. “Leave it up to the states,” he’d say. “Take the question out of Washington and return it to the states, where it belongs. Let the 50 states do what they will.”
That is where we are today. Yet I always thought that abortion was properly a national issue. You recall our civil war? I would not want some states, in a democratic process, to decide, “We’re going to have slavery.” Or take the right to vote. I would not want it “federalized.” “Sure, you can let ’em vote in your state, but they’re not going to be able to vote in ours.”
I am being deliberately over the top — but I trust you know what I’m getting at. Is abortion an issue on a slavery, or civil-rights, level?
We can talk about those things another day. For now: Roe is overturned — a stain has indeed been erased — and the abortion question has been returned to the states. This is an advance — a big, big advance.
• David Mastio is the executive editor of StraightArrowNews.com. I have long associated him with USA Today, for good reason. Let me quote from a column of his, published last week: “I was USA Today’s deputy editorial page editor until August, when I was demoted after I tweeted, ‘People who are pregnant are also women.’”
In that column, you can read about Dave’s experience (unpleasant and unfair). If I could tell publications such as USA Today one thing, it would be this: If you don’t have room for a David Mastio — temperate, informed, professional, judicious — you don’t have room for anyone unbeholden to the latest political correctness. And you will go downhill, presto.
• A headline from the Associated Press reads, “‘Mitt Romney Republican’ is now a potent GOP primary attack.” (Article here.) Yes. “Mitt Romney Republican” is a scare-phrase. I hope that, one day, it will be a compliment. From where I sit, Romney is one of the most decent, most admirable, most experienced, most capable men ever to run for president. The public didn’t want him — too bad for the public, I say. Now he is a bogey in the GOP — too bad for the GOP, I say. In 2020, he became the first person in American history to vote against a president of his own party in an impeachment trial. He stood alone, and majestic. Might does not make right, in my book, and neither does popularity. When someone or something good is also popular — I think it is almost a frickin’ mistake.
Is that cynical? Maybe. But I might call it something more like “realistic.”
• You know the expression “to vote with one’s feet.” I thought of it when reading this article from the Wall Street Journal, headed “Ken Griffin Moving Citadel From Chicago to Miami Following Crime Complaints.” In an April interview, Griffin said the following: “If people aren’t safe here [in Chicago], they’re not going to live here. I’ve had multiple colleagues mugged at gunpoint. I’ve had a colleague stabbed on the way to work. Countless issues of burglary.”
You gotta vote with your feet, if you can. And the place you left might be forced to shape up or die on the vine.
• The Czech Republic is set to approve a Magnitsky act — a law allowing for “targeted sanctions” on human-rights abusers. The catalyst for the Czech action is Russia’s assault on Ukraine. It is cheering to see the Havel spirit alive.
• Philip Marcelo, of the Associated Press, has written an article I wish I could award a prize. The headline: “A new leader in the Philippines, and a family’s old wounds.” The article is reportorial, analytical, and personal, all three. Fascinating — also moving. Even a little disturbing.
• “Poetry in motion” is a cliché. But, by golly, it applies to Sydney McLaughlin, who has just set the record for the 400-meter hurdles — breaking her old record. What poetry, movin’ real, real fast.
• “Living legend” is a cliché — but what better way to describe Shohei Ohtani? Look at this guy: his hitting, his pitching. The Babe has returned to us, in Ohtani form.
• This is baseball at a different level. Hapless Little Leaguers (very little). In a dark, sardonic mood, I’m reminded of my Detroit Tigers . . .
• A very, very interesting obit: “Haleh Afshar, Who Fought for Rights of Muslim Women, Dies at 77.” Here is a tidbit — saying something about the power of education, and literature, and culture:
While attending the prestigious Jeanne d’Arc School for girls in Tehran, she said, “I read ‘Jane Eyre’ and I thought: Well, if you left me on the side of a road, I wouldn’t know which way to turn. I’d better go to this England where they make these tough women.”
• At the top of this obit is a photo of Harry Gesner, with a house he built, in Malibu. A striking, wonderful photo, don’t you think?
• Well, they didn’t give Manuela Hoelterhoff the Pulitzer Prize for nothin’. Here is the opening paragraph of an appreciation she wrote over the weekend:
Sheila Nadler (Ida! to her closest friends) passed away on June 25 at the age of 82 having avoided salad her entire life. I knew the end was near when even a large bag of Reese’s peanut butter cups failed to rouse the usual smile of delight. Her favorite meal consisted of two helpings of mac and cheese washed down by a tall glass of vodka with very little ice. Tuna melt would do in a pinch. Astonishingly, she never got large.
Have a great week, y’all.
If you would like to receive Impromptus by e-mail — links to new columns — write to jnordlinger@nationalreview.com.