- Nicholas Kristof on the three fundamental ingredients of America’s greatness that Trump and MAGA are undoing.
- Short items about Elon Musk, D&D, and racist; Christian presumption about church and state; how easily Nick Fuentes has been endorsed by many Republicans; Trump’s bribes; and how Trump is wrong about fentanyl.
It’s been studied — what makes some societies great, and others failures. Which is why the slogan MAGA is so ironic.
NY Times, Nicholas Kristof, 15 Nov 2025: America’s Formula for Greatness Is Under Threat [gift link]
What’s the secret formula that has made the United States the dominant superpower in the world today?
I’d point to three fundamental ingredients, each of which is now being weakened. When I think of the historical legacies of our generation and of President Trump, I wonder if they will be less about the political battles in the headlines and more about the slow shriveling of America’s global standing.
I’ll excerpt. Here’s the first.
A commitment to education at every level, resulting in global leadership in science and technology.
I believe the answer to almost every question is education — the highest-return long-term investments are often in human capital. Yet throughout the ages there have always been those eager to execute Socrates, to subject Galileo to the Inquisition, to ban books.
Second:
An inclination toward free markets and free trade, supported by the rule of law.
This is the pillar that Trump is most respectful of. He mostly believes in capitalism and free markets — probably more than many Democrats — but has led a rapid retreat from free trade. His tariffs are the highest since the 1930s. Trump has also systematically chipped away at some of the underpinnings of a market economy. …
Third:
Immigration and the absorption of some of the brightest minds from around the world.
My dad, an Armenian refugee from Eastern Europe, arrived in the United States in 1952. Soon after, his landlady returned his rent, saying, “I can’t take money from a refugee.”
Such a welcoming spirit, while far from consistently applied, has enormously enriched the United States. Four of the Magnificent Seven tech companies are led by immigrants, and 46 percent of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children, according to the American Immigration Council.
These three things are among those that Trump and the MAGAites are undoing. Kristof concludes:
I see these three factors as central to America’s rise as the world’s leading power today. And these strengths are now being systematically undermined, especially universities, trade, the rule of law and recruitment of the world’s best minds.
… Throughout history, we’ve repeatedly seen how great nations sometimes lost their energy and drive, slipping because of what Jawaharlal Nehru described in the context of India as a “gradual oozing out of hope and vitality.” In the year 1000, the greatest city in the world was Kaifeng in China, then the most important country in the world — but China and Kaifeng then lost ground for most of the next millennium before reviving in recent decades.
The United States may or may not experience such decrepitude, but decline seems to me more likely if America chokes trade and immigration while stifling universities. Without its secret sauce, America would be just one more tired old nation watching other, more youthful countries race past it. Those are the stakes.
\\\
Briefly noted.
- The Atlantic, Adam Serwer, 11 Nov 2025: Why Elon Musk Needs Dungeons & Dragons to Be Racist, subtitled “The fantastical roots of ‘scientific racism'” — — It seems that conservatives are attracted to racist tropes, and they also resent the game being changed to remove such tropes. (I have never played D&D.)
- Salon, Marissa Greene and Cecilia Lenzen, 11 Nov 2025 (from ProPublica): Inside a Texas church’s training academy for Christians running for office, subtitled “‘There is no separation between church and state,’ one graduate said — — What the graduate means is that there shouldn’t be any separation between *his* church at the state.
- Vox, Hady Mawajdeh and Noel King, 15 Nov 2025: The insidious strategy behind Nick Fuentes’s shocking rise, subtitled “How a neo-Nazi infiltrated so deep into the Republican Party.” — — And how quickly it’s happened, as if Republicans were primed for such beliefs.
- JMG, 15 Nov 2025: Axios: How To Buy Trump’s Favor With Lavish Gifts (Axios) — — Naked bribes.
- NY Times, guest essay by David Herzberg, 15 Nov 2025: I Am a Drug Historian. Trump Is Wrong About Fentanyl in Almost Every Way.
The fentanyl story is based on an argument about history: The United States went from greatness to crisis because open-border Democrats betrayed the honest, hardworking people of America by exporting jobs and allowing in foreign drugs. Stopping the drugs, Mr. Trump wants us to believe, will let the wholesome, traditional American culture that he idealizes to flourish again. As a historian of drugs, I can tell you that this argument is wrong in almost every way.
- Beginning with “There is no wholesome, traditional drug-free America that we can return to.”
