what's driving the democrats apart

68 Pages·2016·10.6 MB·English

JULY/AUGUST 2016
TAKING DOWN TRUMP FUKUSHIMA’S GHOSTS THE REAL BORDER WALL
THE SPLIT
23 SCHOLARS,
ARTISTS &
ACTIVISTS ON
WHAT’S DRIVING THE
DEMOCRATS APART
NAOMI KLEIN JOHN JUDIS
RICK PERLSTEIN RIVKA GALCHEN
MARK GREEN ZEYNEP TUFEKCI
JOHNETTA ELZIE DAVID SIMON

contents
JULY/
AUG
2016
18 30
Reboot the World
The internet was supposed to be democratic
and open to all. Then Facebook and the
NSA got their hands on it. Here’s how we can The Split
reclaim our digital future.
BY PAUL FORD
19 reasons the Democrats are
22
so divided—and what it means
for the party’s future.
The Ghosts of Fukushima
It’s been five years since the meltdown forced them
to abandon their village. Now they’re going
home. Can a town devastated by nuclear disaster
be brought back to life?
BY STEVEN FEATHERSTONE
42
Borderline Madness
What lies between the United States and Mexico.
N) PHOTOGRAPHS BY RICHARD MISRACH
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P (
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A/ UP FRONT COLUMNS REVIEW
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CE 6 Food producers caught 14 The Republican Party’s 48 After going undercover in
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C misusing federal funds are addiction to whiteness. North Korea, a journalist faces
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L B quietly pressuring Congress BY JEET HEER her critics. BY SUKI KIM
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U to shield them from public
MAN scrutiny. BY TED GENOWAYS 16 The moral obligation 52 In Emma Cline’s debut novel,
S). to protest the Republican attraction can be deadly.
ER 8 Our analysis of every primary- convention. BY THESSALY LA FORCE
D
AN season attack ad reveals BY MICHAEL ERIC DYSON
Y (S how Donald Trump defied the 55 Did an illicit love affair
TT give birth to Moby-Dick?
E conventional wisdom.
G
HY/ BY LAURA RESTON BY WILLIAM GIRALDI
T
AR 58 How factory revolts inspired
MCC 11 If Barnes & Noble goes out of a new form of the novel.
E business, it’ll be a disaster for
MI BY RACHEL KUSHNER
A book lovers. BY ALEX SHEPHARD
TOS: J 12 How hard-core gymnastics 62 What men got wrong about
PHO fans are revolutionizing the economy. BY MALCOLM HARRIS
E
NC the way the sport is covered. 64 Backstory
E
ER BY ELSPETH REEVE PHOTOGRAPH BY STÉPHANIE BURET
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E
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O POETRY 61 Himalayan BY CAROL FROST COVER ILLUSTRATION BY PIOTR LEŚNIAK
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JULY/AUG 2016 | 1
contributors
Michael Eric Dyson, a contributing editor at the new
republic, is university professor of sociology at Georgetown and the Editor
author of The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race Eric Bates
in America. He’s calling on “all good citizens of conscience and decency”
Executive Editor Culture Editor
to join him in Cleveland for the Republican National Convention this Ryan Kearney Michelle Legro
summer to “protest the specter of a Trump presidency by putting our Politics Editor Features Directors
bodies on the line.” WE MUST MARCH ON CLEVELAND, P. 16 Bob Moser Sasha Belenky
Deputy Editor Theodore Ross
Steven Featherstone, a journalist based in Syracuse, has Ryu Spaeth Senior Editors
visited both Chernobyl and Fukushima twice. “I learned to stop Story Editor Brian Beutler
Laura Marsh Jeet Heer
asking about radiation altogether,” he says. “Only then did I begin to Elspeth Reeve
Managing Editor
see the tremendous human impact the Fukushima disaster has had.” Elaine Teng News Editor
THE GHOSTS OF FUKUSHIMA, P. 22 Alex Shephard
Art Director Poetry Editor
Rivka Galchen, a novelist and essayist, is the author of Parker Hubbard Cathy Park Hong
Atmospheric Disturbances. Her most recent book, Little Labors, is Photo Director Associate Editors
Stephanie Heimann
an essay collection published this year. She has been emotionally Mikaela Lefrak
Production Director
managing the election season by reading the novels of Anthony Adam Peck
Pamela Brandt
Bijan Stephen
Trollope and not combing her hair. THE SPLIT, P. 30
Contributing Editors Assistant Editor
Naomi Klein is an award-winning journalist, columnist, activist, James Burnett, Alexander Chee, Esther Breger
and author of the international best-sellers This Changes Everything: Ben Crair, Michelle Dean, Reporter-Researchers
Siddhartha Deb, Michael Eric Dyson,
Steven Cohen
Capitalism vs. The Climate and The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Paul Ford, Ted Genoways,
Emma Foehringer Merchant
Capitalism. She is never more grateful to live in Canada than during William Giraldi, Dana Goldstein, Gwyneth Kelly
Kathryn Joyce, Suki Kim,
U.S. elections. THE SPLIT, P. 30 Laura Reston
Maria Konnikova, Corby Kummer,
Rachel Kushner is the author of The Strange Case of Rachel JGerna ePmerec Wy, oJaomd,i lR Sombeitrht, W right IMntaegrgnie Foucault
K and The Flamethrowers, a novel indebted, in various ways, to Nanni
Editorial Assistant Intern, Social Media
Balestrini. Her essay in this issue appears in different form as the
Meaghan Murphy Lillianna Byington
introduction to Balestrini’s We Want Everything, forthcoming from
Verso Books. POPULAR MECHANICS, P. 58 Editor in Chief
Win McCormack
Richard Misrach, an award-winning photographer based in
California, was roaming the desert near the U.S.–Mexico border
in 2004 when he spotted a blue barrel with the word agua printed on VP of Marketing and Director of Sales
Communications Suzanne Wilson
the side. The moment inspired his latest book, Border Cantos, a
Erika Velazquez Advertising Account Manager
cross-disciplinary project with composer Guillermo Galindo, which
Senior Integrated Nano Fabuss
was released by Aperture in April. BORDERLINE MADNESS, P. 42 Marketing Manager Associate Account Executive
Evelyn Frison Shawn Awan
Rick Perlstein is a historian, journalist, and best-selling author
Director, People and Finance Director of Software
of Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American
Paul Biboud-Lubeck Gregg Meluski
Consensus; Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing
Controller Director of Digital Design
of America; and The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of David Myer Silas Burton
Reagan. THE SPLIT, P. 30 Office Manager, NY Product Manager
Tori Campbell Max Zimbert
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor is an assistant professor of
Publisher
African American studies at Princeton University and the author
Hamilton Fish
of From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation. Her research
examines the intersection of race and public policy, specifically as
it relates to American housing policies. THE SPLIT, P. 30
Published by Lake Avenue Publishing
Zeynep Tufecki is an assistant professor at the University of 1 Union Square West,
New York, NY 10003
North Carolina. She started out as a programmer, but after her boss
President
asked her if the computer system she managed could tell when he was
Win McCormack
lying, she switched fields to study the social impacts of technology.
THE SPLIT, P. 30 For subscription Inquiries or problems call [phone]
For reprints and licensing visit www.tnrreprints.com
Clarification: The Adrienne Rich illustration by Janna Klävers on page 59
of the May 2016 issue was based on a photograph by Joan E. Biren. 
2 | NEW REPUBLIC

from the stacks
DEMOCRATS HAVE ALWAYS fought among themselves. The tensions between Hillary
Clinton and Bernie Sanders that we explore in this month’s cover section—between
pragmatists and populists, incrementalists and insurgents—have echoes throughout
the modern era, from Hubert Humphrey and Eugene McCarthy in 1968 to Michael
Dukakis and Jesse Jackson in 1988. In that year, shortly after Dukakis led Democrats to
their third straight presidential defeat, the new republic blamed the loss squarely on
Jackson. In this essay by Ben Wattenberg, a left-wing intellectual who migrated to the
right during his career as a writer and TV pundit, the magazine argued that Democrats
needed to shun liberal activism and focus on appealing to middle-class whites who
had abandoned the party over civil rights. Using racially coded language, Wattenberg
painted Jackson as “an extravagant caricature” who “embodies” every white conser-
vative stereotype of “squishy” liberals. In the short term, Wattenberg’s side won: Bill
Clinton recaptured the White House in 1992 and made centrism the party’s default
platform. Jackson’s brand of populist insurgency went into hibernation. But as Barack
Obama and Bernie Sanders have shown, it was only sleeping.
Ben J. Wattenberg
The Curse of Jesse
DECEMBER 5, 1988
If Democrats manage to regain potency on business-is-bad, defense-is-a-waste, law- too far in the ’60s and ’70s? You got it. We
the presidential level, they will have two and-order-is-an-unclean-issue, etc. did. We were wrong. But we’ve learned from
people to thank: George Bush and Jesse Bush has billboarded the excesses of lib- our mistakes. We’ve returned to our roots.
Jackson. eralism. Jackson will almost surely run again We’re ready to govern. And by the way, what
By running a shrewd, brilliant, relevant, in 1992 and embody the issue even if he about ‘The C-Word’? What about those
symbolic, sometimes demagogic, and wholly tries to duck it. And so it is possible that the bozos on your side? Didn’t they also go too
successful referendum on “The L-word,” Bush Democrats will finally be able to do easily far? Now let’s get serious and cut the cards.
focused the mind on the central question and clearly what they should have done long Let’s talk about the future.” …
of modern American politics: Has liberalism ago: Choose up sides, have an up-front The serious problem is not that the
gone too far? By winning with a solid clash of ideas, and decide whether the Democrats keep losing, but what might
majority, he has told doubting Democrats Democratic Party is moderate, tough, and happen if they end up running the world’s
the answer: “Yes.” progressive—or very liberal, squishy, tend- superpower before they have reformed!
If Bush has prominently reidentified ing toward radical. … Was Dukakis a good Every four years there are signs that the
the problem, Jesse Jackson has come to candidate? Not particularly. Was the cam- Democrats collectively understand their
personify it. The man has the courage of paign a good one? Not particularly. Why? … problem and will act to solve it. We’ve now
his convictions. Of those men (13 of them) It’s said that Dukakis’s problem was that lost five out of six for roughly the same rea- Y
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who ran in the Democratic primaries in he didn’t counter Bush’s charges quickly son; sooner or later the message will get ET
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1984 and 1988, Jackson came closest to enough. Wrong. Even when he ultimately through (I hope). … ON/
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speaking his mind. The others fudged; dealt with the issue, he still didn’t get it None of this can happen without a pub- C
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they did not have the intestinal fortitude right. He gave the “dead liberals” answer: lic fight about ideas. The right wing of the OL
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or tactical sagacity to disagree directly “I’m in the tradition of Roosevelt- Truman- left-wing party (that’s the American center) ES
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and/or regularly with Jackson, although John Kennedy-Johnson.” But that’s not the must join in the intellectual combat and the MA
E I
in fact they all did disagree with him. In charge. It’s the “live liberals” that are at issue: political combat. There are young, promi- F
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extravagant caricature, and with monu- McGovern-Carter-Ted Kennedy- Jesse Jack- nent politicians and young, less-prominent HE
T
mental celebrity, Jackson embodies what son (and now, Dukakis). activists who have come to see that the only KI/
A
S
the public holds against the brand of lib- There were three magic words that might way out is to look again to the values of the A
M
A
eralism that has been publicized since the have saved Dukakis: “We were wrong.” As in, earlier generation of tough liberals and apply Y
O
a R
’60s: America-is-guilty, America-is-racist, “George, you want me to say liberalism went those values to the current circumstance. A
T
4 | NEW REPUBLIC

up front
FOOD FIGHT
Schmear Campaign
Food producers caught misusing federal funds are quietly
pressuring Congress to shield them from public scrutiny.
BY TED GENOWAYS
A CLEAR PATTERN IT STARTED WITH a court battle over mayonnaise. mayonnaise: Had they, too, been enlisted to fight
How do states respond In October 2014, Unilever, the multinational food Hampton Creek? Shapiro filed a series of foia
when whistle-blowers titan, sued Hampton Creek, a small food- technology requests to obtain the records of the American Egg
catch the food industry company, for false advertising. Unilever, which Board, a government-funded trade group overseen
engaging in unsafe owns Hellmann’s and Best Foods mayonnaise, was by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. After months
practices? They contesting the name of Hampton Creek’s competing of haggling, the usda released a batch of internal
introduce “ag-gag” product, Just Mayo, a vegan substitute that uses yel- emails that Shapiro describes as “stunning.”
laws to crack down on low peas in place of eggs. Since the Food and Drug Industry groups like the egg board, which togeth-
the whistle-blowers. Administration defines mayonnaise as “egg yolk– er received roughly $1 billion in federal funding last
containing,” Unilever argued that Just Mayo isn’t year, are supposed to use tax dollars to promote
really mayo at all. The name, it claimed, was causing their own products—usually through advertising
“serious, irreparable harm to Unilever.” campaigns like the ones for beef (“It’s What’s for
IOWA: Law passed Much of the mainstream media covered the fight Dinner”) and pork (“The Other White Meat”). But
in 2012 after PETA as a “weird war” between corporate competitors. the egg board, it turned out, was a chief architect of
investigators recorded (“Yep, It’s Mayo,” declared Inc. “No Eggs, No Mayo,” the smear campaign against Hampton Creek. Joanne
cruelty against replied Entrepreneur.) But Ryan Noah Shapiro Ivy, the board’s president, had emailed fellow board
animals at a hog farm. took the lawsuit seriously. A graduate student and members, instructing them to consider Just Mayo’s
animal- rights activist, Shapiro is a master at using success “a crisis and major threat to the future of the
the Freedom of Information Act—known as foia— egg product business.” She solicited ideas to thwart
to uncover public records that reveal how industry Hampton Creek, and suggested pushing the FDA to
wields undue, and even illegal, influence over gov- declare Just Mayo’s label misleading. She also used
ernment agencies. a go-between PR firm to pressure Whole Foods to
Shapiro suspected that Unilever was getting drop the product. (The grocery chain refused.) In
help in its war against Just Mayo. Egg manufac-
turers, for example, were also imperiled by vegan ILLUSTRATIONS BY DAVID PLUNKERT
6 | NEW REPUBLIC
one email, a member of the egg board joked that the be treated as government agencies are now claim- CALIFORNIA: Legislation
trade group should arrange a Mafia hit on Joshua ing that they are not government agencies. “They’re introduced in 2013 after
Tetrick, the CEO of Hampton Creek. talking out of both sides of their mouth,” says Tony undercover videos at
When the emails became public, Ivy resigned. Corbo, the senior lobbyist for Food & Water Watch. slaughter plants led to
Utah Senator Mike Lee called for a full usda inves- “You just can’t have it both ways.” largest beef recall in
tigation. The records, he wrote, offer “compelling What’s more, Corbo says, industry groups may U.S. history.
evidence” that leaders of the egg board “may have have once again misused public funds in their
violated the federal laws and administrative regula- effort to be exempted from foia disclosures. The
tions” that govern such tax-supported groups. presidents of the 14 food boards signed a letter to
Shapiro and other activists believed that the Congress requesting the exemption—but getting VERMONT: Bill stalled
scandal would force the government to ensure that such language inserted into a major agriculture in 2013 after Humane
industry food groups don’t misuse public funds to bill, Corbo points out, would likely have required a Society documented
attack their competitors. But the industry had a more extensive campaign. “I’m sure it was followed veal plant workers
different idea. To food manufacturers, the problem up with direct lobbying”—an activity the boards kicking, shocking, and
wasn’t the egg board’s emails—it was the fact that are barred from engaging in under federal law. dragging weak animals.
Shapiro had been able to get his hands on them. (Tom O’Brien, clerk of the Republican-led House
In April, 14 food boards—including the leading Agricultural Appropriations Subcommittee, did not
producers of beef, milk, pork, potatoes, and eggs— respond to requests for information about who had
quietly convinced Congress to insert language into drafted or inserted the language.) IDAHO: Law drafted in
this year’s Agricultural Appropriations Bill that The foia exemption is just the latest front in the 2014 by a registered
would exempt them from all foia requests. If the food industry’s ongoing war against public over- lobbyist for the Idaho
measure passes, America’s biggest food manufac- sight. Over the past decade, in an effort to silence Dairymen’s Association
turers will be allowed to spend millions in federal animal-rights activists and other whistle-blowers, after activists filmed
funds every year, while operating in total secrecy. eight states have passed “ag-gag” laws making it cows at one plant being
The move involves far more than the public’s a crime to film or photograph activities on farms. beaten by workers.
right to know how its tax dollars are being spent. Last year, four activists were charged under Utah’s
With less transparency about how food is produced, ag-gag law after photographing an industrial hog
it will be harder for consumers to make informed farm from a public road. Some states have gone
choices about what to put on their tables. And if even further in shielding the food industry from
the food industry is allowed to operate in the dark,
experts warn, there will be no way to identify and
prevent the kinds of practices that lead to outbreaks
of food-borne illness.
“In long, industrialized supply chains, the thing In one email, a board member joked
that makes the system work is transparency,” says Bill that egg producers should arrange a
Marler, a leading food-safety advocate. “Positive and Mafia hit on a rival CEO.
negative microbial testing, recall information, out-
break information—all of that should be in the public
domain. foia is the public information system.”
In asking for the sweeping foia exemption,
the industry groups argue that they should not
be required to make their records public because unwanted scrutiny. In North Carolina, businesses
they are “not agencies of the federal government.” can sue anyone, including an employee, who
But a decade ago, the food boards took exactly the documents corporate lawbreaking on company
opposite position—and won. In a case before the property. In Wyoming, it is now a crime to col-
Supreme Court in 2005, they argued that they lect water-quality data on public lands—or even to
should be allowed to use tax dollars to promote share such data with the federal government.
their products because those efforts constitute Ryan Shapiro first started focusing his attention
“government speech.” The court agreed. “The mes- on the food industry in 2005, as the recent wave of
sage set out” in the industry’s ad campaigns, Justice expansive ag-gag laws were coming up for legislative
Antonin Scalia declared in his majority ruling, “is debate. To expose how the government was collabo-
from beginning to end the message established by rating with industry to monitor and discredit animal-
the federal government.” rights activists, he began bombarding the FBI with
Food-safety advocates are outraged that the foia requests. Finally, in 2012, the government asked
same organizations that went to court specifically to a federal court to block Shapiro from obtaining more
JULY/AUG 2016 | 7
up front
documents from the FBI, arguing that the informa- the government and private industry are doing, all
tion he was uncovering could be pieced together in of a sudden there’s this rhetoric of terrorism and
ways that posed a threat to national security. attempts to shut off the flow of information.”
“Whenever government or industry wants to As the food industry comes under increas-
collect information about private individuals and ing scrutiny for its dangerous and often illegal
advocacy groups, there’s unobstructed access,” says practices, Potter predicts, its efforts to evade pub-
Will Potter, the Marsh Visiting Professor of Journal- lic scrutiny will only intensify. “Big agriculture is
ism at the University of Michigan. “But when you really facing a crisis of public awareness,” he says.
try to turn the tables even a little bit, and have jour- “foia is a critical tool, and the industry is trying to
a
nalists or concerned citizens try to find out what cut it off at its knees.”
BEYOND TEFLON
The ‘I’m Rubber, You’re Glue’ Candidate
Our analysis of every primary-season attack ad reveals how
Donald Trump defied the conventional wisdom.
BY LAURA RESTON
IT WAS JUST before the New Hampshire primary the tried-and-true script of smearing an opponent
in February. Jeb Bush, once the heir apparent in a with his own words.
sprawling Republican field, was mired in fifth place. Except for one thing: It didn’t work.
In debate after debate, he had been outmaneuvered The ad aired for seven straight days before vot-
and humiliated by Donald Trump, whose reality- ers went to the polls in New Hampshire. Before it
show instincts and merciless insults had turned the started, Trump was sitting at 33 percent. The day it
GOP primaries into a demolition derby. But unlike his ended, he won the state with 35 percent of the vote.
rivals, Bush had a campaign war chest big enough to And among voters who made up their minds during
pick off anyone who stood in his path. So he did what the week the ad aired, more broke for Trump than
candidates have always done when they’re plunging for Bush.
in the polls: He flooded the airwaves with attack ads. For the past year, the new republic has tracked
In the fiercest ad of the primary season, the Bush every political ad released by presidential candi-
campaign set out to expose Trump as an unhinged dates and their super PACs. Of the 325 Republican
bully. For two full minutes, the commercial cycles commercials in our online archive, 141 were attack
ads—and Trump was the target of nearly half of
them. His GOP rivals spent $75 million to assail him
on everything from his Mafia connections to shady
business deals to flagrant misogyny and racism.
Brutal ad blitzes not only failed to dent But according to our analysis, the brutal ad blitz-
Trump, they often made him stronger. es not only failed to dent Trump, they often made
him stronger, shoring up his base and sending him
surging in the polls. “People who support Trump
could care less how many people attack him,” says
Shanto Iyengar, a political science professor at Stan-
through clips of Trump spewing outlandish insults ford University and the co-author of Going Negative,
at John McCain, Carly Fiorina, and a disabled New a seminal book about political advertising. “To be
York Times reporter. “I could stand in the middle of attacked by the elites, it is a red badge of courage. It
Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody,” Trump brags, makes people more enthusiastic about him.”
“and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?” The ad was a
classic example of campaign mudslinging, following CARTOON BY RAUL ARIAS
8 | NEW REPUBLIC