Item one: Those college presidents’ testimony |
Almost everyone has been piling on that pitiful troika of elite university presidents after their congressional testimony on Tuesday. A few other folks, people I know and respect like Michelle Goldberg of The New York Times and Jay Michaelson of The Daily Beast, have added some valuable nuance, arguing that in context, the position the presidents were defending actually had merit. I agree with the main points both made in their columns—in effect, that Republican Representative Elise Stefanik’s disingenuous grilling of the presidents, which conflated free speech with targeted harassment, set a trap that forced them to appear to equivocate about antisemitism. But I want to make a different point, one that is sharply critical of the presidents on different grounds. I was personally offended by their gross incompetence, and it wouldn’t bother me in the least if they were all fired simply for that reason (if any of them are forced out, of course, it won’t be for this reason). Here’s what I mean. As the president of Harvard, Penn, or MIT, you are by definition one of America’s leading representatives of the liberal values of inquiry, critical thinking, science, anti-superstition, and, yes, free speech. On your home turf, you are confronted from time to time, or maybe more frequently than that, with situations in which some of these values come into conflict with each other, and you have to make a difficult decision. The national media, especially the right-wing media, is monitoring every move you make, every syllable you utter. You exist, that is, at the center of an ideological tornado. You know this, or should. And you show up to Capitol Hill so unspeakably ill prepared that you—and your coterie of almost-certainly overpaid handlers—haven’t prepped for exactly the line of questioning that Stefanik pressed upon you? Indefensible. |
A memorable moment in a 1988 presidential debate helps explain the key error the trio made. CNN anchor Bernard Shaw opened the proceedings by asking Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis about his opposition to the death penalty. “If Kitty Dukakis were raped and murdered,” Shaw asked, “would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer?” Dukakis restated his opposition to the death penalty with all the ardor of someone reading the phone book (what’s a phone book, you ask? This). The next day, some commentators criticized Shaw for being a little blunt, but mostly people laid into Dukakis for not saying something like: “First of all, Bernie, how dare you talk that way, even hypothetically, about my wife? You should be ashamed. And second of all, if I got my hands on the guy, they wouldn’t need the death penalty.” Cheap? Theatrical? Sure. But it isn’t insane for people to want to see leaders show a little emotion about emotional things. These presidents made the Dukakis error. They showed no emotion about one of the most emotional topics in the history of the human race, antisemitism. Harvard’s Claudine Gay said the right words, twice; she said hateful antisemitic speech was “personally abhorrent to me.” But she spoke with all the passion of someone giving a passerby directions to Widener Library. What she and the others needed to do was show a little passion. Passion would communicate that this actually matters to them in a deep way. And they could still make the point they went on to make. It isn’t complicated. They could have said: “Congresswoman, antisemitism repulses me. When I hear someone say ‘gas the Jews,’ or when I watched those people march with those Nazi-like torches in Charlottesville in 2017, I shake with rage. I will never tolerate that on my campus. And yet, Congresswoman, universities must foster debate and allow free speech, even offensive, disgusting speech. Maybe you don’t understand this. I notice that your civil liberties and free speech vote ratings are nothing to write home about.” Boom: from defense to offense. I know a lot of liberals will scoff at this point, but it’s quite serious. For better or worse we live in an age of theater, and right-wingers are just really good at theater. We must deal with reality as it is. Countless Americans, likely the majority, are getting their news in sound bites that elide context and nuance—on Fox News, yes, but also in 15-second videos on social media. How do we think that testimony has been playing on TikTok over the last three days? It should go without saying, but I’ll say it all the same, that I obviously hold no brief for Stefanik. She’s a conscienceless fascist who was once a fairly reasonable conservative but took a sip from the poisoned MAGA chalice in 2016, and her career has been one long brownshirt rally ever since. But the awfulness of her public persona just reinforces my main point. We are at war in this country. On the one side are the values embodied by Stefanik and Donald Trump and Steve Bannon and the soulless evangelical leaders who know exactly who Trump is but have elevated him to savior status because he wants to eradicate “vermin” like you and me. On the other side are the values represented, however imperfectly, by (among other institutions) our universities, great and not so great. And if you’re on the liberal side, and you decide to waltz into the lion’s den, you had damn well better be ready. You are charged with defending a way of thinking and living that is under ceaseless attack, and you have a responsibility to represent that way of thinking and living for the rest of us who believe in it but don’t have the opportunity to appear before Congress. These presidents let half a country down, and for that, they should be ashamed. |
Item two: The GOP game on Ukraine aid |
Things are looking grim for Ukraine aid. Right now it’s tied up in the Senate, where Republicans want to attach extreme immigration restrictions to Joe Biden’s request for aid to Ukraine and Israel. (He included border security money in the request, and the GOP countered with an asylum crackdown.) I would guess the Senate might work something out. But I wonder more about the House. Speaker Mike Johnson has said he supports Ukraine aid but was a little cryptic Monday: “The Biden administration has failed to substantively address any of my conference’s legitimate concerns about the lack of a clear strategy in Ukraine, a path to resolving the conflict, or a plan for adequately ensuring accountability for aid provided by American taxpayers,” he said. It would be a disaster if Ukraine aid isn’t passed. But we have to understand: This is a disaster that the MAGA right wants. In Trumpworld, they want Russia to win, for two reasons: One, they just admire Vladimir Putin; two, they know that they can, after voting against Ukraine aid, blame “losing Ukraine” on Biden. This is who they are. Never underestimate their naked cynicism. Those naïve university presidents failed to understand this too. The MAGA right don’t care about the people of Ukraine, and they certainly don’t care about global democracy. They care about handing Trump a campaign issue. Period. The objective truth will be that Biden did an amazing job of rallying Western support and helping Ukraine stay in the fight for two years and that it was Republicans in Congress who cut them loose. But Trump will go around saying it was all Sleepy Joe’s fault and the whole thing never would have happened if he’d been president, which may be true, but only for the perverse reason that Trump would have forced Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in yet another “perfect” phone call, to give Putin what he wanted without an invasion. It’s a sick situation that shows precisely the priorities of the Republican Party today. |
Item three: Mark David Chapman is still alive |
It’s December 8, and inevitably I think back to the assassination of John Lennon on this date in 1980. I was at my friend Jay’s place watching Monday Night Football, which meant that, like millions of Americans, I got the news from Howard Cosell: |
Mark David Chapman was the killer; he’s still alive, still in custody, and it seems pretty obvious he’ll never get out. There’s been a lot of speculation over the years about his motivation. His wife, Gloria, who married him the year before the shooting, says it was about religion. Chapman, though a Beatles fan, was also a born-again religious zealot, and he hated some of Lennon’s anti-religious lyrics and statements. So there we are. One more thing to blame on right-wing religious excess. Ah, well. Let’s end this grim tale on a happy note, with this video. Lennon was great at many things, but he’ll never make a list of greatest rock guitarists. That said, one thing he could do really well was play a very fast, rapid-fire, machine-gun rhythm guitar. I play reasonably well myself, and I never have been able to play the opening chords to this song the way he does: |
Last week’s quiz: Don’t “Tempt” Me: a quiz on the history of Motown, in honor of Berry Gordy’s 94th birthday. |
1. The Funk Brothers, the Motown house band that played the backing tracks on the hits for so many vocal artists, were legendary. Perhaps their most celebrated member was the bassist, considered one of the great innovators in bass history. Who was he? |
A. Benny Benjamin B. Isaac Hayes C. David Sancious D. James Jamerson |
Answer: D, James Jamerson. Benjamin was the drummer. David Sancious was Bruce Springsteen’s first keyboardist. And Isaac Hayes was Isaac Hayes. |
2. Which Motown songwriter composed the most Hot 100 hits? |
A. Barrett Strong B. Smokey Robinson C. Lamont Dozier D. Eddie Holland |
Answer: B, Smokey. According to this website, Robinson had 79 Hot 100 hits, Holland 78, Dozier 71, and Strong 39. |
3. Everybody knows that Diana Ross led The Supremes, and most people know that Mary Wells was the group’s second-most-famous member (until she left because she and Ross were such rivals). But who was the third Supreme in the group’s heyday? |
A. Tammi Terrell B. Ronnie Spector C. Florence Ballard D. Martha Reeves |
Answer: C, Flo Ballard, although I was horrified to receive an email last week from Andy Schwartz of Saugerties, New York, correcting a really bad error on my part. Mary Wells wasn’t a Supreme. It was Mary Wilson. I can’t believe I confused them. So this is what’s in store as I age, eh? |
4. Match the artist to the hit. |
The Marvelettes The Contours Martha and the Vandellas Four Tops |
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“Bernadette” “Please Mr. Postman” “Do You Love Me” “Heat Wave” |
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Answer: Marvelettes, “Postman”; Contours, “Do You Love”; Martha, “Heat Wave”; Four Tops, “Bernadette.” Best song of those four? Probably “Heat Wave.” |
5. What was the date, in the Temptations’ “Papa Was a Rolling Stone,” that the singer’s daddy died? |
A. The 3rd of September B. New Year’s Day C. The 4th of July D. Juneteenth |
Answer: A; “It was the third of September” is the first line of the song. Probably one of the 20 best songs of the last 70 years. |
6. Berry Gordy, who founded Motown in 1959, also wrote or co-wrote a substantial number of his label’s classic hits. Which of these hits did he not write or co-write? |
A. “Shop Around” B. “I Want You Back” C. “Money (That’s What I Want)” D. “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” |
Answer: D, “Grapevine,” which was written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong in 1966. |
This week’s quiz: “Just like the ones I used to know.…” On several centuries’ worth of Christmas music. |
1. According to Billboard, this is the oldest English-language Christmas carol, dating back to the 1650s: |
A. “Silent Night” B. “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming” C. “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” D. “The Holly and the Ivy” |
2. There is a theory these days holding that “O Come, All Ye Faithful” was written with secret political intent, as a rallying crying for what cause? |
A. The Stuart Restoration of 1660 B. The attempted Stuart retaking of the throne in 1745 under “Bonnie Prince Charlie” C. The consolidation of the Austrian Empire in 1804 D. Napoleon’s return from exile in Elba in 1815 |
3. According to a 2015 tally by FiveThirtyEight, what is the most covered Christmas song of all time? |
A. “Silent Night” B. “White Christmas” C. “Jingle Bells” D. “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” |
4. According to a 2021 YouGov poll, what do Americans think is the worst Christmas song of all time? |
A. “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” B. “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” C. “All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth” D. “Santa Baby” |
5. And according to a 2021 ranking by SmoothRadio.com, what is the best country Christmas song of all time? |
A. “Jingle Bell Rock,” by Bobby Helms B. “Blue Christmas,” by Elvis Presley C. “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” by Brenda Lee D. “Christmases When You Were Mine,” by Taylor Swift |
6. Which of these artists has never recorded a Christmas song? |
A. Snoop Dogg B. They Might Be Giants C. Bee Gees D. Foo Fighters |
This is the last Fighting Words, and thus the last quiz, of 2023, as I’ll be taking a good chunk of December off. I’m sure some of you won’t want to wait until January 5 for the answers, so we’ve figured out a way for you to see them by clicking here. Enjoy your holidays, and let’s all pray, whether we’re praying types or not, for a 2024 that does not culminate in disaster. Feedback to [email protected]. —Michael Tomasky, editor |
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