Politics makes strange bedfellows. And for me, the strangest bedfellow of late is David Frum. And not so much because he himself is strange, but strange that I find I agree with and am inspired by so much of what he has to say. In part I think that this is because the center-right, never-Trumpers seem to have a much more clear-eyed understanding of how politics actually work rather than the “how-it-should work” obsession of my long term allies on the left.
What has become clear to me in my middle age years is that everything is about power. And as long as liberals or the left are disinterested and or ideologically opposed to obtaining and wielding power, they will lose (or continue to lose) power. Power can mean lots of things, and take many forms. But above all it is the ability to wield influence, control events, and make change. Because power is such a corrupting element, and is most visible when employed violently, or viciously, it’s easy to understand why dismantling power, or rejecting power politics, seems like the proper moral response to power by those who wish to give comfort and bring justice to the powerless.
But as we are seeing today, a party that is uncomfortable with its relationship to power is a party that is out of power. And the party that is obsessed with power is doing everything it can to amass as much power as possible short term, grabbing up all the tools that may in fact help it stay in power long-term.
This is a long way to say that despite believing that George W. Bush is still the worst president of my lifetime1, though maybe not for long, David Frum, former W. Bush speechwriter2, and Iraq war cheerleader, and the annoying and self-contradictatory long-time former “Right” of the NPR show “Left, Right and Center,” is now one of the most prescient analysts of our current politics. Below are a few episodes Finn and I passed back and forth.
Speaking of right-wing leanings, Tyler Cowen is a libertarian economist who considers Peter Thiel a partner and pal. And Chris Arnade is a former Wall Street banker who hates elites. But both love international travel and walking, and have a fascinating conversation about doing both in poor and not always safe places- which is and has been a great love of mine for a long long time, starting with walking miles across Chicago and through the infamous Cabrini Green while skipping school in my teens, and most recently embodied by walking over 100 miles across multiple cities in Japan. Despite a mildly detectable toadyism to money and power, and political sympathies to the traditional right I do not share, Tyler Cowen’s podcast is among my all time favorites, because he talks to so many interesting people (incl. many economists, of all political stripes), asks fantastic questions3, and is exceptionally well read. Ultimately his curiosity outweighs any politics. Which is a lesson in its own right. And though I have generally loathed Arnade’s writing, especially his weird and hypocritical (and generally not very self-aware) ideas about dignity and oppression, his stories about walking are great.
Speaking of Peter Thiel, his interview with Tyler was almost incoherent. Its only worth recommending for its strangeness:
But Ross Douthat’s interview with Thiel, despite going viral for what in long form doesn’t seem as damning as it does in the soundbite, is fascinating and thoughtful, and maybe an intentional attempt at public image repair, but maybe not. Thiel isn’t playing the villain here, a role he was completely embracing on Cowen’s podcast. I liked Thiel’s first book, and I think he’s worth paying attention to, both out of caution and curiosity. Ross Douthat I generally prefer to ignore.
Tyler went easy on Ezra Klein when he came to the podcast to promote Abundance, a book I’ve read and was pretty disappointed by. I didn’t have high hopes, but aside from seeming ill-timed4, it was also shallow and way too slim. It read like bad Gladwell, or if not bad Gladwell, dull Gladwell, and Gladwell, despite what many like to criticize about him5, is never dull. His books are terrifically entertaining. But that’s in part, I think, because Gladwell loves pulp-thrillers, and reads them obsessively, and his non-fiction writing reflects it. Klein and Thompson likely read Gladwell at their most indulgent. I don’t know what Michael Pollan reads for fun, but his books aren’t bad, I’d put him below Gladwell and Michael Lewis, but not far, and his interview style here is tough and smart, taking Klein and Thompson and their ludicrously titled book and movement to task in ways no one else did, and I sat through 3+ hours of the pair on Lex Fridman6.
https://longnow.org/ideas/abundance
- Don’t believe me? 9-11 happened on his watch, because of his indifference and negligence. The war in Afghanistan was badly run due to his obsession with the unnecessary, criminal, and ill-fated war in Iraq. His wars destroyed the fiscal strength he inherited, and his deregulatory efforts led to collapsed energy markets, the collapse of the housing market, and the closest thing to the Great Depression since the Great Depression. The fact that he felt bad about much of this at the end of his term and that he did actually have some interest in education, and was coaxed by Bono et al into PEPFAR humanizes him (and then there’s the paintings) but does not at all redeem the absolute damage he did to this country, its economy and integrity. The entire world was with us after 9-11. He blew all of that by invading Iraq. And the Patriot Act and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security have laid the basis for what could soon become/is becoming a domestic nightmare under Trump. ↩︎
- Remember “the Axis of Evil”- that’s Frum! ↩︎
- And tough questions- listen to these two interviews where he gets into it with his guests, politely, but tough (and deservedly questioning some questionable assertions): https://conversationswithtyler.com/episodes/jonathan-haidt/
https://conversationswithtyler.com/episodes/amia-srinivasan/
↩︎ - I think this book was written for Harris presidency and should have been shelved when she lost. Going on tour to promote a book about the ineffectiveness of democratic government and the fecklessness of liberal democrats after Trump was elected was in poor judgement. Not in the least because it just fuels the fire Trump and his supporters are setting to burn down democracy, but also because so many of there road blocks that Abundance decries were put in place by Republicans to ensure that Democrats couldn’t achieve their agenda. (That said, my own experience is that today’s liberals are so hand-wringy and process oriented that they are not well suited to large scale capital construction). ↩︎
- Mostly that the pop-science behind his airport bookstand bestsellers is dubious at best. Which it may be. I don’t know. A lot of it seems true, and often the critiques I read of his writings read like envy, or mild quibbles made large. Is 10,000 hours a real thing. It certainly seems it can be, and that it isn’t always. That’s the fun of his books though, simple patterns made evident. I’m a big fan. Gladwell’s podcast is great- here’s a recent favorite that touches on today’s politics- all about where RFK Jr. got his anti-vax ideas: https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/revisionist-history/the-rfk-jr-problem
↩︎ - A shockingly dull and uninteresting interviewer. How his podcast is near the top of the charts for the tech-bro set is beyond me. ↩︎