There were two events in the first year of Ronald Reagan’s presidency that justify the use of the overworked phrase “defining moment”: the assassination attempt after only the tenth week in office, and the firing of over two-thirds of the nation’s air-traffic controllers when they went on strike in early August of 1981. Reagan’s tough handling of the illegal strike has loomed large both for Reagan’s fans and for his critics. It presents a simple story line. His admirers see it as a sign of his decisiveness, strength, and determination; his critics see it as evidence of his pro-business malevolence …
Unfriendly Skies
Collision Course: Ronald Reagan, the Air Traffic Controllers, and the Strike that Changed America, by Joseph A. McCartin (Oxford, 496 pp., $29.95)
In This Issue
Articles
Romneynomics by the Numbers
Mitt Romney released a 59-point economic plan in September. Very little attention has been paid to its details, which is perhaps surprising given that he is widely considered to be ...
Perry’s Program
Gov. Rick Perry has never been a split-the-difference kind of guy, and being a conservative in Texas means that he’s never much had to. But with his presidential campaign foundering, ...
The Coptic Winter
One of the powerful images that came to define the Arab Spring was that of Christians and Muslims praying together in Tahrir Square in Cairo. That image helped shape the ...
The Billionaire’s Passport
I have a friend who is a billionaire, which is not a sentence I ever expected to write. But these days there seem to be a lot more billionaires around.
My ...
Features
Mobility Impaired
What’s the most important issue in American politics? In a narrow sense, the sputtering economy and ballooning deficits are likely to dominate the 2012 election season. But while every election ...
Closing the Achievement Gap
During the recent struggle over collective-bargaining rights in Wisconsin, a number of left-of-center observers, including New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, pointed out that students in unionized Wisconsin do better ...
Progressivism, Race, and the Training Wheels of Freedom
In 1865, amid the final throes of the Civil War, Frederick Douglass worried that the prospect of fulfilling the promise of the Declaration of Independence, by finally securing to blacks ...
Up from Leftism
Atlanta, Ga. — ‘The first time my name appeared in the New York Times, I was described as ‘an obscure associate professor,’” says Eugene D. Genovese. “I’ve always thought of ...
Books, Arts & Manners
Bad News
Until I read this book, I fondly thought that I was a pessimist; but now, having read it, I realize that on the Cassandra scale of one to ten I ...
Unfriendly Skies
There were two events in the first year of Ronald Reagan’s presidency that justify the use of the overworked phrase “defining moment”: the assassination attempt after only the tenth week ...
Ancient and Modern
Three thousand years ago, King David captured Jerusalem from the Jebusites. Archaeologists are currently excavating what is thought to have been his palace. The scale is rather small, though some ...
Wrong Track
For all the glory of the transcontinental railroads, it’s not hard to find bad things to say about them. As the first truly national American big businesses, they made quite ...
A Real Camino
This has been an unusually good run for religion at the movies. Dramatizing spiritual experience is notoriously difficult, and filmmakers tend to look for easier paths — the anthropologist’s condescension, ...
Volume Discount
Books were like print-outs, with text on both sides of the paper, fastened together along one side with stitching (in older books) or glue. The pages, or papers, were numbered ...
Sections
Letters
The Brush-off
Kevin D. Williamson’s piece on presidential aspirant Ron Paul (“Ron Paul’s Last Crusade,” September 19), coupled with Jack Hunter’s subsequent retort (October 3), brought to mind my own encounter ...
The Week
‐ Invading Congo? He really is turning us into Belgium after all.
‐ The Cain mutiny against establishment politics rolls on. Cain is a charmer, and he is right to buck ...
C O N F I D E N T I A L
CLIENT: Senior Romney Campaign
TEAM: Bain & Company Campaign Consulting Practice
IN RE: Report from our initial consulting efforts
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Many thanks for allowing BAIN CONSULTING to serve your campaign, and for giving ...
Frigid Pink
Occupy Wall Street gets all the press, but the world-changing assemblies are happening all over, you know. Here in Minnesota the locals formed OccupyMN and took over Government Plaza. It’s ...
Poetry
KING DAVID LEAVES OFF MOURNING FOR HIS SON
I’m dressed. The sky is stone, my path a sea.
I’m going to him, he won’t return to me.
I eat. The shattered waves have ...
Saint Who?
When it’s not explicitly hostile, Western liberals’ attitude to Ayaan Hirsi Ali is deeply condescending. One thinks of Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times, pondering the author’s estrangement from ...
Recommended
Biden Signs Executive Order Allowing the U.S. to Fund Global Abortions
The policy was first instated by President Reagan to ensure that taxpayers would not be required to indirectly fund abortions in other countries.
Democrats Are Laying a Trap with Trump’s Impeachment Trial
Beware: Those arguing the Dems are making a miscalculation have got it all wrong.
Exclusive: 48 Senators Promise to Oppose Any Bill that Funds Abortion
Pro-life lawmakers pledge to resist spending bills that don’t include the Hyde amendment.
Cruz: Actually, It Is Constitutional to Impeach and Convict a Former President
Never mind how he voted.
What Happened to Officer Sicknick?
Democratic impeachment managers have a duty to explain how Officer Sicknick died.
The Icons of the Left Collapse
In the last 24 hours, three icons fell from their high pedestals and landed with a hard ‘thud.’
The Latest
As CPAC Begins, Trump Still Looms Large
What to expect this week at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
Locked Out of Yale's Gallery? This Museum Has Class and Heritage to Spare
The COVID-afflicted Connecticut Art Trail leads these days to Hartford’s Wadsworth Atheneum.
The Struggles of Old Age
Anthony Hopkins’s portrayal of The Father is both brutal and brilliant in a film that explores unpleasant truths.
The Great Texas Power Crash
Everybody’s got a self-serving explanation of what happened in Texas, but there’s no convenient narrative here.
China Rattles Its Rare-Earth-Minerals Saber, Again
Is the Biden administration prepared to confront China’s rare-earth-mineral advantage?
Stanford Lefties Must Swallow Their Hoover Hate — for Now
The woke faculty have it in for these fellows. But it’s not going so well for them.