{"id":1744,"date":"2017-07-09T03:42:14","date_gmt":"2017-07-09T10:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=1744"},"modified":"2017-07-09T03:43:13","modified_gmt":"2017-07-09T10:43:13","slug":"writers-on-the-right-and-left-react-to-trump-in-europe-the-new-york-the-new-york-timestimes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=1744","title":{"rendered":"“Writers on the Right and Left React to Trump in Europe”, The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Anna Dubenko, July 9, 2017<\/p>\n

The political news cycle is fast, and keeping up can be overwhelming. Trying to find differing perspectives worth your time is even harder. That\u2019s why we have scoured the internet for political writing from the right and left that you might not have seen.<\/em><\/p>\n

Has this series exposed you to new ideas?<\/em><\/p>\n

Tell us how. <\/em>Email us at ourpicks@nytimes.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

From the Right<\/h4>\n

\u2022 Rod Dreher<\/a> in American Conservative<\/a>:<\/h4>\n

\u201cElites […] wish to deny the religious basis of their respective cultures, and pretend that we\u2019re all a bunch of universalists. We\u2019re not, and never will be.<\/strong>\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr. Dreher, a Catholic columnist who often writes about religious issues, found President Trump\u2019s speech in Warsaw \u201cnot a bad speech, if somewhat anodyne.\u201d However, to read the left\u2019s response to the speech, he writes, you would think \u201cit had been drafted by Dr. Goebbels.\u201d The heart of the issue for Mr. Dreher and the president\u2019s critics is Mr. Trump\u2019s rhetorical and ideological positioning of Western civilization. Mr. Dreher defends the president\u2019s \u201cstanding up for the West\u201d against accusations that to do so is a \u201cvicious, racist act.\u201d Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u2022 Jonah Goldberg<\/a> in National Review<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump often does say crazy things. He does make stuff up \u2014 but usually not in prepared texts at big events.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to Mr. Goldberg, some the critical reactions to Mr. Trump\u2019s speech in Poland can be attributed to historical ignorance \u2014 a factor that also contributes to our political polarization. He adds, \u201cThe instantaneity of TV and Twitter only amplifies the problem.\u201d Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u2022 Charles Lipson<\/a> in Real Clear Politics<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump showed a clear-eyed recognition of the threats from Russia and radical Islam, promised continued U.S. engagement in Europe, offered to support Poland against Moscow, and wrapped it all in a full-throated defense of Western civilization and its achievements.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr. Lipson applauds Mr. Trump\u2019s \u201cReaganesque defense\u201d of the West, and is heartened by the president\u2019s articulation of the threat of Russia and of support for NATO. Seeing it as a foreign policy reversal of sorts, Mr. Lipson writes, that Mr. Trump\u2019s words \u201cnot only rejected President Obama\u2019s tentativeness, they reversed Trump\u2019s own inward-looking nationalism on the campaign trail.\u201d Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u2022 Roger Kimball<\/a> in American Greatness<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no idea who wrote the rousing speech that Donald Trump<\/a> delivered Thursday in Warsaw. But I think I know who might have provided a model: Pericles of Athens.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr. Kimball sees an ancient Greek antecedent for the president\u2019s speech: the funeral oration of Pericles at the onset of the Peloponnesian War. He admires the Greek statesman\u2019s \u201cfrank and manly self-confidence,\u201d and quotes his address to the people of Athens on what sets their city, and their form of government, apart. Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n

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From the Left<\/h4>\n

\u2022 Peter Beinart<\/a> in The Atlantic<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most shocking sentence in Trump\u2019s speech \u2014 perhaps the most shocking sentence in any presidential speech delivered on foreign soil in my lifetime \u2014 was his claim that \u2018the fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive.\u2019\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many of the columnists featured in the right section of this roundup took issue with Mr. Beinart\u2019s take on the Warsaw speech. He understood Mr. Trump\u2019s emphasis on the survival of the West to be the ultimate \u201cstatement of racial and religious paranoia,\u201d and a marked departure from the foreign policy of both Republican and Democratic presidents before him. Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u2022 Anne Applebaum<\/a> in The Washington Post<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn giving such a speech in such a place, Trump has confirmed Poland\u2019s nationalist government in its isolationist and anti-democratic course.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

If Mr. Goldberg wants greater context in evaluations of the president\u2019s trip to Europe, Ms. Applebaum\u2019s column delivers both the historical and political conditions that frame Mr. Trump\u2019s speech in Poland. The country, according to Ms. Applebaum, is run by a political party that has \u201claunched an assault on the country\u2019s democratic institutions.\u201d She also explains why the location for Mr. Trump\u2019s speech \u2014 a monument to the Warsaw uprising \u2014 is ironic. Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u2022 Jeva Lange<\/a> in The Week<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been said that Trump has \u2018<\/strong>no doctrine<\/strong>,\u2019 or that his doctrine is putting \u2018America first.\u2019 On Thursday, Trump proved it to be something else entirely: A war against an undefined, and perhaps even nonexistent, \u2018other.\u2019\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ms. Lange connects Mr. Trump\u2019s inaugural speech<\/a> to his speech in Poland, offering what she sees as a sequel to the brutal \u201cAmerican carnage\u201d imagery. To Ms. Lange, the Warsaw speech is a reflection of nationalist thinking espoused by advisers like Stephen K. Bannon, where radical Islam, Russia and other unnamed \u201cpowers\u201d and government bureaucracy come together to form a \u201cstrange axis of evil.\u201d Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u2022 Jen Psaki<\/a> in CNN<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cPutin may have less of a warm diplomatic bedside manner, but he understands the art of presentation and how to set a trap. And set a trap is exactly what he just did.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ms. Psaki worked for the Obama administration as the White House communications director and as the State Department spokeswoman. According to her, the meeting between Mr. Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin<\/a> of Russia had a predictable outcome: \u201cThe Russians just played the president.\u201d She describes the Russian art of public manipulation and stage management \u2014 something the Trump administration should have expected and rebuked, but didn\u2019t. Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n

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And Finally, From the Center:<\/h4>\n

\u2022 Jonathan Swan<\/a> in Axios<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump and Putin perfectly staged their first meeting so that both men could get what they needed out of it, politically.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr. Swan reads between the lines of the meeting with Mr. Putin and declares victory for both sides. Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u2022 Matt Latimer<\/a> in Politico<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cSo how, in fact, might history have changed if Trump descended that infamous golden escalator and declared his candidacy for the Democratic nomination? And how would it be (depressingly) the same?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Take a break from reactions to the president\u2019s trip abroad with this provocative thought experiment by Mr. Latimer: What if Donald J. Trump had won as a Democrat? The answer might encourage you to re-evaluate the way you think about our political culture. Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Anna Dubenko, July 9, 2017 The political news cycle is fast, and keeping up can be overwhelming. Trying to find differing perspectives worth your time is even harder. That\u2019s why we have scoured the internet for political writing from the right and left that you might not have seen. Has this series exposed you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1744"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1744"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1746,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1744\/revisions\/1746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}