The rise of “Third Worldism” rightly has conservatives apprehensive. While there’s some debate as to its cause — is it mass migration or dining-hall Maoism — it’s worth bearing in mind the great historian Paul Johnson’s take on the phenomenon when it was still largely confined to the Third World: the mischief wrought by the professional politician.
In Modern Times Johnson described it as “the great destructive force of the twentieth century: the religious fanatic reincarnated as the professional politician.” Today’s overeducated and underemployed need a professional outlet, and it sure seems to be a “career” in DSA politics.
This is not to say that a life of public service in a free society is a bad thing. Indeed, it can be quite noble.
Take, for example, one of the great men of modern Washington, the late C. Boyden Gray. The grandson of the president of R.J. Reynolds tobacco, he prepared at St. Mark’s School before graduating magna cum laude from Harvard. He then went on to be editor in chief of the law review at the University of North Carolina School of Law and a law clerk to Chief Justice Earl Warren.
Gray proceeded to work in private practice for a spell but left to serve as legal counsel to the vice president, George H. W. Bush, later becoming White House counsel when Bush ascended to the presidency himself. Gray would go back to his law firm (and start another one that continues to do great things) but remained committed to helping the conservative cause and future Republican administrations for the rest of his life.
I was reminded of Gray when the news broke this weekend of my old friend, Will Scharf, being named the next White House counsel by President Trump. Will’s trajectory in many ways mirrors Gray’s. He prepared at Phillips Academy before graduating magna cum laude from Princeton and going on to Harvard Law School. After clerking he decided he wanted to live in “real America” and not Manhattan, settling in St. Louis at one of the city’s top law firms.
But, like Gray, Will proceeded to public service, first working on a Missouri gubernatorial campaign before becoming policy director to the eventual victor. He later became an assistant U.S. attorney and ran for attorney general of the state. Eventually he joined Donald Trump’s legal team alongside the likes of John Sauer, Todd Blanche, and Emil Bove and has served for a year and a half as staff secretary to the president — a job made famous in legal circles by Brett Kavanaugh. Next month he’ll start as White House counsel.
Gray and Scharf are the opposite of Johnson’s professional politicians and the Third Worldism they imply. To each, the professional world was their oyster, but both instead opted for consequential service to their country. We’re fortunate that they chose to do so and that, in Will’s case, the president has recognized and rewarded his patriotic virtues. May it continue.