Rembrandt Rules at the Norton Museum in West Palm Beach

Greetings from freedom-loving, balmy Florida, and from Palm Beach at that. I’m here for the William F. Buckley Prize dinner, enhanced this year by the 100th anniversary of Buckley’s birth and the 70th anniversary of National Review. There are many reasons to be in Florida, especially for New Yorkers looking with chagrin at the looming Mamdani mayoralty. He’s the apotheosis of identity politics and Obama’s Faculty Lounge, set to a bad rap video.

South Florida has absorbed lots of refugees from the Acela Corridor, not exactly poor and huddled masses but, at least in Palm Beach, word on the street is “more are on the way.” There’s the weather, lovely for at least six months out of the year, ocean breezes, low taxes, good roads, great schools, and the best governance in the country. And no Sharia law!

About the Author

Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

Greetings from freedom-loving, balmy Florida, and from Palm Beach at that. I’m here for the William F. Buckley Prize dinner, enhanced this year by the 100th anniversary of Buckley’s birth and the 70th anniversary of National Review. There are many reasons to be in Florida, especially for New Yorkers looking with chagrin at the looming Mamdani mayoralty. He’s the apotheosis of identity politics and Obama’s Faculty Lounge, set to a bad rap video.

South Florida has absorbed lots of refugees from the Acela Corridor, not exactly poor and huddled masses but, at least in Palm Beach, word on the street is “more are on the way.” There’s the weather, lovely for at least six months out of the year, ocean breezes, low taxes, good roads, great schools, and the best governance in the country. And no Sharia law!