So how do we go about strengthening families, religious organizations, schools and all those mediating institutions? Levin’s recommendations are aggressively vague, and where they get specific they seldom surprise. He calls for a “mobility agenda,” with economic growth spurred by tax and regulatory reform, a more competitive and low-cost health-care system, lower budget deficits — all part of a standard conservative recipe. He proposes education reform that includes more professional certificates, apprenticeships “and other ways of gaining the skills for well-paid employment that do not require a college degree.” He prefers to untether employees’ retirement accounts and health insurance from any particular workplace, but acknowledges that this would require “more fundamental policy innovations, and it is not yet evident just what those will be.” Okay, then. It’s nice if the things you want are all bottom-up and empowering and networked and diverse and flexible, but adjectives are not policies.
The review is more sympathetic than what I expected. In my view, Lozada makes too much of the contrast between Levin and Trump. Of course, that contrast is quite strong, but dwelling on it does not help the reader of the review understand what is distinctive about Levin’s thought. For that, you should go back to my review. And read the book when it comes out, which will be in a few days.
Levin sounds like a looser. Literally. His strategy is to loose everything – culture, land, people, industry, religion, everything – but to do it respectfully. “We are not nostalgic or jingoistic!” . That’s boring, and pointless.
Given that David Brooks is going down his “Sullivan’s Travels” (1941 movie), this focus is localism sounds great but how does it work in the global economy. (That is why policy 100 years ago could be ‘loose’ because the economy, community and church were all local.) How do libertarians increase the influence of the church who has no economic incentives for people to participate?
It is really weird that Trump would be a policy foil. When is the last time you heard anyone discuss Hillary’s policy beliefs? I don’t remember ever. Hillarycare was an agenda, not a belief so that doesn’t count. People just don’t discuss Hillary as if she has actual beliefs. I think it is because she doesn’t. I think Trump doesn’t either. They have enemy lists.