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review of When Hollywood Was Right: How Movie Stars, Studio Moguls, and Big Business Remade American Politics

December 16, 2013  •  The Weekly Standard

Hollywood's hostility to conservatives is so unrelenting that at times it reaches comic levels. In the recent remake of The Three Stooges, the film's producers tried to communicate the depth of scurrility of Sofía Vergara's villainess by showing her reading this estimable magazine in bed.

That the character was played by the voluptuous Vergara no doubt lessened the impact of a blatant attempt to mock and condemn conservatism. Nevertheless, the fact that the filmmakers used this shorthand signal indicates both the endemic nature of modern liberalism in Hollywood and its propensity to indulge in open contempt of more than half of the American populace—specifically, those who do not share Hollywood's ideological leanings.

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The Three Failed Promises of ObamaCare

December 2013  •  Commentary

No matter the degree of disastrousness of its October debut, no matter the efforts of Republicans to derail it, there is little or no chance that ObamaCare can be stopped before the president leaves office in January 2017. The Affordable Care Act and its complicated and costly system of mandates, regulations, and subsidies will now shape our health-care system.

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Israeli leaders are readers

November 17, 2013  •  The Jerusalem Post

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu began a recent speech with words that are not too common coming out of the mouths of modern leaders: "I recently read a hundred-page book by a wonderful American historian who passed away nearly 50 years ago."

The historian was Will Durant, and Netanyahu referenced Durant's Lessons of History to make the point that Durant generally believed greater numbers would triumph over lesser numbers, except in the case where the lesser numbers had attained a rare state of "cultural unification."

In Netanyahu's view, Israel's survival in its tough neighborhood could be attributed to its successful cultural unification, something that Israel must continue to maintain in the years ahead.

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George W. Bush's Jewish Problem

November 15, 2013  •  RealClearReligion

Much of the Jewish world is irate over reports that former President George W. Bush has accepted a speaking invitation from a messianic Christian group that aims to convert Jews to Christianity. Few issues have the capacity to get Jews more excited than this one.

Jews are a famously fractious group, prone and even eager to disagree over any issue, including but not limited to Israel, abortion, education, kosher standards, and even the number of minutes after sundown at which the Sabbath ends. The Talmud itself is a 63 tractate work outlining hundreds of years of rabbinical disagreements.

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Framing diplomacy through images

November 10, 2013  •  Philadelphia Inquirer

As President Obama struggles with a shrinking second-term domestic agenda, he - like many of his predecessors - will increasingly be pivoting toward foreign-policy goals.

Of course, foreign policy is not easy, and getting things done relies on building strong personal ties with other leaders, something that does not come easily to the president. Obama does, however, have one strong card to play. In two national elections, he has been best able to relate to the American people through his knowledge of popular culture. In dealing with foreign leaders, he should employ this same skill.

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Books by Tevi Troy