Dear Weekend Jolter,
Democrats seem to have collectively realized, sometime on or after November 6, that their hyperbolic, self-harming, shortsighted campaign against the filibuster was, in fact, all three of those things.
Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) recently appealed to Republicans for "bipartisanship," after having entertained a plot to eliminate the legislative filibuster when it suits his party. "I'd be lying if I said we'd be in a better position without the filibuster," Senator Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) said, as reported by the Washington Examiner. The most shamelessly cynical admission came from Representative Pramila Jayapal (D., Wash.), who previously had described the mechanism as the "Jim Crow filibuster."
"Am I championing getting rid of the filibuster now, when the Senate has the trifecta? No. But had we had the trifecta, I would have been, because we have to show that government can deliver," she said at a press conference.
"You don't say," pro-filibuster senator Kyrsten Sinema (I., Ariz.) snarked on X in response.
Jayapal's comment all but conceded that the prolonged campaign to anathematize one of the most important safeguards against hasty, majoritarian rule within our deliberative system was — well, it was just politics. "The quiet part out loud," as Christian Schneider wrote.
Democrats' view of filibuster "reform" was fanciful from the start. In Schumer's imagination, senators could have lowered the 60-vote threshold to a simple majority for voting-rights and/or abortion legislation only; Kamala Harris endorsed ditching the filibuster, selectively, for an abortion bill — heedless of how interest groups of all political stripes would then clamor for the abuse to be repeated in service of their own special priorities.
But this holiday weekend, Democrats should be saying grace for the continued existence of that filibuster, and for their failure to this point to vitiate it. In a 53–47 Senate led by Republicans, it will be their most valuable tool for checking the incoming Trump administration and forcing the kind of bipartisanship Schumer suddenly values.
Heck, be thankful that Senator John Thune (R., S.D.) is taking over for Schumer as majority leader, too. "The filibuster is safe for now," he declared on the Senate floor, after pointing out Jayapal's hypocrisy while staking out a more consistent and principled position.
Carrie Severino writes,
Despite coming in with a larger majority than the Democrats had, Republicans will not try to exploit their majority and undermine the Senate. Besides being principled, that stand is also practical. No majority lasts forever, and today's destructive precedents will come back to haunt the vandals when they find themselves in the minority.
Republicans and Democrats alike indeed can be grateful for the filibuster, for it protects each of their interests, in equal measure, when their party is out of power. And it's far from the only norm, institution, or cornerstone of our constitutional system for which Americans should give thanks this season. Thune, in his floor remarks, also called out the Democrats' relentless campaign against the Supreme Court — against its very legitimacy — for issuing decisions they dislike. But Christian Schneider predicts that Democrats will experience a "deathbed conversion on the value of the U.S. Supreme Court, which may become the final line of defense" against the Trump administration. How? The Supreme Court they so despise is responsible for ending so-called Chevron deference, which had granted executive-branch agencies wide latitude in interpreting statutes. Say, that ruling might be useful to Democrats these next four years.
Republicans, too, should be thankful that Donald Trump hasn't (yet!) browbeaten congressional leaders into going along with a scheme to force an adjournment so he could install controversial nominees via recess appointment. As former AG Michael Mukasey writes, "The felt needs and enthusiasms of the moment do not relieve the president and the Senate of their duty to adhere to the obligations imposed by the Constitution." Torching the Senate’s advice-and-consent role would harm all. Setting aside the possibility that Trump's successors might be tempted to pursue similar abuses, a recess-appointed Matt Gaetz, for instance, could have triggered litigation, congressional retaliation, and fundamental questions over the attorney general's legitimacy, in turn snarling Trump's administration indefinitely.
So, yeah: The American system isn't so bad as its committed castigators make it sound. Sometimes, that fence is there for a reason. Senator Thune, play us out:
While I don't have high hopes for Democrats' changing their tune on the Supreme Court, perhaps being in the minority in this next Congress will at least remind Democrats of the importance of protecting minority rights no matter what party is in power — and ensure that the next time Democrats are in charge, they're not quite so eager to tear down this important safeguard.
Preach.
NAME. RANK. LINK.
EDITORIALS
Our holiday edition: What We're Thankful For
What, exactly, is Trump trying to accomplish here? Trump's Tariff Tangle
ARTICLES
Rich Lowry: The Anti-institutionalists
Dan McLaughlin: Where Trump Won: The Rust Belt
Dan McLaughlin: Where Trump Won: The Sun Belt
Todd Young: U.S. Service Academies Must End Race-Based Admissions
Jay Nordlinger: The World, Yesterday and Today
Michael B. Mukasey: Trump's Faulty Recess Appointments Stratagem
Abigail Anthony: DEI Training Material Increases Perception of Nonexistent Prejudice, Agreement with Hitler Rhetoric, Study Finds
Noah Rothman: Nancy Mace–Style Theatrics Won't Serve the GOP Well
Andrew McCarthy: The Collapse of Anti-Trump Lawfare
Jim Geraghty: Here Come the Trump Tariffs
Jack Butler: How FDR Stole Thanksgiving
CAPITAL MATTERS
Dominic Pino, with a holiday message: Stop Calling Them 'Student Loans'
LIGHTS. CAMERA. REVIEW.
Armond White would contend that this film's title aptly describes itself: The Weaponization of Wicked
"There's not a roasted turkey to be found, or a Pilgrim, a football, or a float in parade formation. He's still America's premier Thanksgiving artist." Brian Allen explains: The Work of America's Rembrandt Is as American as Pumpkin Pie
EXCERPTS FRESH OUT OF THE AIR FRYER
NR's Thanksgiving editorial is brimming with gratitude:
As Americans, we have much for which to be thankful.
As was traditional at harvest time, we can begin with our many material blessings. We remain the world's richest nation, with a standard of living approached by no nation of even remotely comparable size. Many of Europe's most distinguished states have a median income on par with the poorest states in our union.
The greatness of the United States and its way of life has many causes, but it would be churlish to deny the role that our land itself has played in that success. The Mississippi River basin, draining into the Father of Waters, contains more miles of navigable river than the entire rest of the world put together. We have many large natural harbors, around which have grown up great cities such as New York, San Francisco, Boston, Seattle, New Orleans, and Baltimore. The history of Africa alone shows what difference can be made by the absence of these two blessings. Unlike the nations of Europe and Asia, we enjoy the protection of two vast oceans, separating us from all but two neighbors by sea. As recently as 1917, we scarcely had or needed an army worthy of the name.
We are blessed by huge stretches of fertile farmland, sturdy forest, gorgeous beaches, and teeming fisheries. We were the first nation to strike oil beneath our own soil. From the gold rush to the natural-gas boom, the land itself has showered us with plenty. Our great diversity of climes and communities means that every American restless of home can find some place more congenial within our borders. There remains much room to grow. With nearly 340 million people, we still have a lower population density than the Faroe Islands.
And yet, many other big nations have natural resources and large, desirable territories. That alone has not made America.
We are thankful for our patrimony. Western civilization came down to us from its beginnings in ancient Greece and Rome, stretching back two and a half millennia. The Judeo-Christian religious tradition traces back even further. The political traditions of England planted the seeds of American exceptionalism in Jamestown and Plymouth from the outset: representative assemblies, consent to a constitutional charter, and the liberty of dissenting religious communities. Colonies founded by charters to private companies and peopled by restless dreamers gave us an entrepreneurial spirit from the outset. May we never lose it.
We are thankful, yet again after a national election, for the genius of our political system. We are thankful that over 150 million Americans were able to exercise their self-government and their God-given right to change their rulers with an election few doubt was free and fair. We are thankful that an assassin's bullet did not derail that process, however close it came in a field in Butler, Pa.
We have the world's oldest continuous written constitution and the oldest system for the peaceful transition of power. These things have proven enduring against internal dissension and civil war, disputed elections, riots, assassinations, leaders of dubious character and competence, and huge cultural changes and conflicts. We approach the nation's 250th birthday in two years having survived and surmounted wars, depressions, slavery, plagues, and great-power nuclear showdowns. We traveled in less than two centuries from the Old North Bridge to the moon.
It has been our gratitude, not our grievances, that has allowed us not only to do great things as a nation, but to do them as a continuous nation, still following a common rulebook and still represented in a continuous national legislature. The hardship of the Pilgrims still reminds us of how we got here. The doughboys invoked a debt to Lafayette when he was nearly a century in his grave. We still revere the Declaration of Independence, argue over the Constitution, and recite the Gettysburg Address because our society has long understood that the harvest of our liberties and our prosperity are all the more bountiful from uninterrupted cultivation.
Abigail Anthony reports on an eye-opening study on DEI that other media outlets chose not to cover:
A new study found that diversity, equity, and inclusion materials have a wide range of negative consequences, including psychological harm, increased hostility, and greater agreement with extreme authoritarian rhetoric, such as adapted Adolf Hitler quotes.
Both the New York Times and Bloomberg prepared stories on the findings, but axed them just before publication.
The Network Contagion Research Institute, or NCRI, and Rutgers University Social Perception Lab released the study "Instructing Animosity: How DEI Pedagogy Produces the Hostile Attribution Bias" on Monday. The study examined whether the themes and materials common in DEI trainings foster inclusion or exacerbate conflicts, and whether such materials promote empathy or increase hostility towards groups labeled as oppressors. The study consisted of three experiments — one focusing on race, one on religion, and the last on caste.
Although proponents of DEI trainings claim that they are designed to educate individuals about biases and reduce discrimination, the study found that participants primed with DEI materials were more likely to perceive prejudice where none existed and were more willing to punish the perceived perpetrators. In one experiment, the DEI materials made people more willing to agree with Hitler quotes that substituted "Jew" with "Brahmin," the highest caste in the Indian caste system.
"Participants exposed to the DEI content were markedly more likely to endorse Hitler's demonization statements, agreeing that Brahmins are 'parasites' (+35.4%), 'viruses' (+33.8%), and 'the devil personified' (+27.1%)," the study reads. "These findings suggest that exposure to anti-oppressive narratives can increase the endorsement of the type of demonization and scapegoating characteristic of authoritarianism."
In the experiment focused on race, the researchers randomly assigned 423 Rutgers University undergraduates into two groups: one control group exposed to a neutral essay about U.S. corn production, and the other exposed to an essay that combined material from Ibram X. Kendi's book How to Be an Antiracist and Robin DiAngelo's book White Fragility. After exposure to either text, participants were presented with the following race-neutral scenario: "A student applied to an elite East Coast university in Fall 2024. During the application process, he was interviewed by an admissions officer. Ultimately, the student's application was rejected."
The results showed that participants primed with Kendi and DiAngelo materials perceived more discrimination from the admissions officer, despite the absence of any racial identification and evidence of discrimination. Those participants also believed that the admissions officer was more unfair to the applicant, had caused more harm to the applicant, and had committed more "microaggressions." . . .
The researchers concluded from the three experiments that DEI materials can "engender a hostile attribution bias and heighten racial suspicion, prejudicial attitudes, authoritarian policing, and support for punitive behaviors in the absence of evidence for a transgression deserving punishment."
"This research raises critical questions about how many individuals, as a result of these programs, have experienced undue duress, social ostracization, or even termination of employment," the report reads.
The study was set to be covered by Bloomberg and the New York Times, although both publications axed their articles just before publication, according to communications reviewed by National Review.
"Unfortunately, both publications jumped on the story enthusiastically only for it to be inexplicably pulled at the highest editorial levels," a NCRI researcher told National Review. "This has never happened to the NCRI in its 5 year history."
Jay Nordlinger looks again to the insights of the late author Stefan Zweig, in observing the dark alliances and cruel collaborations of the modern world. From the ending of his magazine-piece expansion:
At one point in his [memoirs], Zweig uses the word "relapse": "the unimaginable relapse of mankind into what was believed to be long-forgotten barbarism." In 2018, Robert Kagan published a book called "The Jungle Grows Back." I have never known a title to capture so perfectly a book's thesis. When I mentioned this to the author, he said something like, "It's true. You almost didn't need to write a book to go with the title." His subtitle is "America and Our Imperiled World." He writes, "The liberal world order is like a garden, ever under siege from the forces of history, the jungle whose vines and weeds constantly threaten to overwhelm it."
After World War II, Manchuria and Spain were seen as preludes to it. Are we, could we be, witnessing preludes today? This is a "night thought," to borrow a phrase from David Pryce-Jones.
Last year, I had a conversation with Eliot A. Cohen, the political scientist who specializes in strategy. He mentioned a book by the late historian Zara Steiner about the 1930s: The Triumph of the Dark. Future historians may write of the current period as another "triumph of the dark," said Cohen — but "it doesn't have to be that way."
How so? "It's on us," Cohen explained. Human beings have choices. Individuals make a difference. Their character, our character, matters. Human action, or inaction, matters.
There's another book by a Viennese Jew, born two months before Zweig: Human Action (Mises). Maybe we can say that tyranny and depravity are part of human nature, but so is righteous opposition to them. Which side will prevail? And for how long?
Honorable Mention
In case you missed it last weekend, this is from our friends over at National Review Institute, which is currently accepting applications for the Burke to Buckley program:
There are still a few spots left in National Review Institute's Burke to Buckley Fellowship Program in Miami, New York City, and Philadelphia. Burke to Buckley is intended for mid-career professionals from a wide variety of professions and industries. Over eight sessions, a small cohort gathers to engage in discussions of first principles and their application to current issues. Experts from academia and National Review serve as moderators for each session. For more information and to apply, click here. Apply today!
CODA
Once again — Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. And R.I.P. Alice Brock; here's one more for the road.
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