It’s…the Jobs Game!
“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world…”
Ain’t that the truth? Almost a hundred years ago, Yeats saw 2016 coming: The Chicago Cubs win a World Series for the first time since 1908. Donald J. Trump becomes the first man ever who hasn’t held either elective office or a cabinet position, or who hasn’t been a general officer, to win the presidency. And then, on Saturday, disaster: Yale (going into The Game with a 2-7 record) defeats 7-2 Harvard, for the first time in a decade.
WHAT IS GOING ON?
Who knows? It’s enough to drive a person–especially a #NeverCubs/#NeverTrump/#NeverY
Even if you’re not close to the winning candidate, even if you aren’t seeking anything yourself, even if you haven’t been directly in government or politics for two decades…if you’ve been around D.C. for a while, it turns out you know lots of people who want a job, you know some people who deserve a job, and you know a few people who have a real chance at a job in the new administration. And you know some of the people who have (or supposedly have) the ear of the President-elect or those close to the President-elect. So, for a few weeks in November and December, it’s nonstop phone calls, emails and texts, conspiracies embedded in conspiracies, and masses of uninformed speculation swirling around with occasional nuggets of truth mixed in.
Needless to say, it’s kind of fun. And you rationalize the time you spend on this by thinking that if you help one good person get an important position, and a few good people get senior positions, and lots of younger people get a start, then it’s time well-spent. Or at least it’s probably time better-spent than whatever else you’d doing. So…back to the phones!
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Trump’s Win
OK, not quite back to the phones yet. I’ve got a newsletter to write. And I have a couple of things to recommend if you’re trying to make sense of what happened and what comes next.
One is the new issue of TWS, with some terrific articles (if I may say so). Leave aside my editorial, “The Trump Administration“–though I think there’s a point or two in there worth considering. Do read Rich Danker’s thought-provoking analysis of the election, “Trump’s Winning White House Bet“, as well as terrific pieces by our regulars who rose to the occasion, including Fred Barnes, Noemie Emery, Andrew Ferguson, Eric Felten, and Geoffrey Norman.
And then there’s Lee Smith’s notorious editorial on how to undo the Iran Deal–notorious because it was the subject of Mike Pompeo’s last tweet Friday morning before being nominated to head the CIA. ( Here’s his tweet, with, as you’ll see, nearly six thousand retweets.) It’s a good sign for Pompeo at the CIA that he is so assiduous a reader of TWS that he was tweeting about Lee’s piece just a few hours after the magazine went up online. His tweet has also probably made Lee’s editorial the single TWS piece most read ever by foreign intelligence services. As for Lee, he’s moved into the undisclosed secure location I vacated after getting the all-clear from friends on the Trump transition team…
And there’s more to do! In addition to reading the print magazine and visiting the website and listening to the podcasts (here’s my latest), take a look at the latest Conversation from the Foundation for Constitutional Government. It’s a special 2016 post-election conversation
I trust we’ve provided plenty to read and listen to while avoiding relatives over Thanksgiving!
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In Shifra’s Arms
Not that WE have any relatives we seek to avoid. WE look forward to Thanksgiving. But I know some of you…
And speaking of things we should give thanks for, let me briefly report on an event we attended Saturday night. It was a fundraiser for a small non-profit organization, In Shifra’s Arms, started a few years ago by our friend Erica Pelman, who happens to be the daughter of TWS readers, cruisers, and Broadmoor-attendees Alan and Susan Sager. In Shifra’s Arms is the only Jewish crisis pregnancy organization in the United States, and they do terrific work helping vulnerable pregnant women. (Take a look at their website here.)
The event was held at the Lithuanian Embassy, and featured delicious Lithuanian food (much of which seemed to be a close cousin to Eastern European Jewish food), and a terrific short recital by a young pianist, Edvinas Minkstimas. He played a couple of variations based on Lithuanian folk songs, and then a very moving variation on a theme of a melody from the Vilna ghetto during World War II, “Dos elnte Kind.”
I’ve got to admit I was skeptical about driving into D.C. for the event Saturdayevening–I was still recovering from Harvard’s loss to Yale, and was looking forward to more (probably pointless) hours on the phone intriguing with job-seekers. But I was glad I went. It was great to be there with others who were committed to a good cause, and to see, in a time when there’s so much pessimism about the country, America at its best. There were volunteers coming together to help their fellow citizens, and we were benefitting from the hospitality of a friendly small country that has witnessed and participated in its share of travails, and that remains under threat.
So it was a nice pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving.
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Onward!
Bill Kristol
