My MAGA hat?
Populism and my…MAGA hat?
I had a book review in Discourse this month, of a book about the evils of populism. The article was commissioned by a different journal, which then rejected it on the grounds—I’m not making this up—that it was too pro-Trump. Seriously: the editor said I was “wearing my MAGA hat while writing it.” I don’t think that’s right, because my argument is that the book ignored some legitimate complaints about regulatory agencies that motivated some of the votes for Trump. But you can decide whether it’s a fair interpretation by reading the article here.
Can Congress forbid states from cutting taxes?
The Goldwater Institute filed a brief in the Supreme Court urging the justices to take up Ohio’s challenge to the Biden Administration’s Covid bailout law, which includes a provision forbidding states from cutting taxes. As we argue, this is a totally unwarranted attack on federalism, but the lower court said Ohio had no standing to sue. You can learn more about why that was wrong here.
Albert King
I also got a chance this month to write for The Dispatch about my favorite blues musician, Albert King, whose 100th birthday was this month…probably. Actually, he kind of fibbed a bit about the circumstances of his birth, so we don’t really know. King was surely the most influential blues musician after Robert Johnson (and maybe even more than Johnson; I’ve never really understood why people like Johnson so much). His students included Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix, who was said to have photographed Albert’s hands while playing in an effort to figure out how he did it. Anyway, here’s an excerpt:
What Vaughan admired most was the way King sang with his guitar, bending Lucy’s voice into a personality as real as his own. In “Laundromat Blues,” she’s alternately sassy and vindictive; in “I Wanna Get Funky,” she’s a confident, cunning seducer; in “As the Years Go Passing By,” her brooding matches Albert’s introspective vocals. That took more than proficiency; it required a grasp of the emotional impact of Lucy’s sound, and a willingness to hold back. “If you play too fast or too loud, you cancel yourself out,” King advised young players. “First, you got to get in your mind what you want to play. If you hear a good lick—even if you’re just rehearsing to yourself—and you feel it, then hit another one…. But if you rush right through, hitting them all, you’re not even going to know what you did. You’ve got to…take your time in your delivery.”
It wasn’t that King played slow, but he had a spare form of expression, with the patience to build a mood. “When we’d get tired of jumping up and down in the clubs,” he told Stevie Ray, “we’d back up—reach and get one from the bottom.” The conservatism of his playing in such slow-burn tunes as “The Sky is Crying” (performed here with Vaughan, Paul Butterfield, Phil Collins, and B.B.) shows the wisdom of not confusing profusion with eloquence. “[King] can take four notes and write a volume,” said bluesman Michael Bloomfield. “He can say more with fewer note than anybody I’ve ever known.”
The Arizona Constitution’s Gift Clause
I signed two publication agreements for law review articles about the Constitution’s Gift Clause, which forbids the government from subsidizing private businesses. Although almost every state has some form of Gift Clause, Arizona’s is the strongest in the country, and the reason why is rather interesting. The first article is about the Clause’s historical origin, and you can read the current draft here. The finished article will be in the Regent University Law Review. The second article is about the Clause’s meaning in the 21st Century, and you can read the draft here. The final version will appear in the Drexel Law Review.
Talking about Freedom’s Furies at Dartmouth College and on the Hugh Hewitt show
I had the opportunity this month to talk about my book Freedom’s Furies: How Isabel Paterson, Rose Wilder Lane, and Ayn Rand Found Liberty in an Age of Darkness, at Dartmouth College, at the invitation of the Dartmouth College Libertarians. They recorded it, and you can watch it here:
I also joined Hugh Hewitt on his radio show to talk about the book, and you can watch that interview here:
This month’s music
I leave you this month with a recording of Albert King’s masterpiece, “Blues Power.” Some people call them “the reds,” or “the pinks,” but when you get through, it’s the old fashioned country blues…