ABCDE OUTLOOK sunday, september 19, 2010
Book reviews, B5-6
INSIDE
A faithful narrative Jim Wallis on the untold story behind Pastor Terry Jones’s change of plans. B4
Nick Clegg on Britain’s shotgun marriage
interview by Lally Weymouth in london
servative candidate David Cameron. But when the Conservative victory fell short of the majority needed to govern, Camer- on unexpectedly turned to Clegg and formed a coalition with the Liberals — a party that had not been in power for nearly 100 years. Now the two men have embarked on an ambitious economic program to slash their nation’s deficit, and many of Clegg’s supporters — who are to the left of Britain’s Labor Party — feel they are not getting what they bar- gained for. Clegg sat down Wednesday with The Washington Post’s Lally Wey- mouth in his London office. Excerpts:
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Were you friends with David Cameron before you became his deputy prime minister? No, we barely knew each other.
And now? I don’t think either one of us looks to the other for friendship. But we work well to- gether — we cooperate well. I think we both surprised ourselves and each other.
ick Clegg rose to stardom in British politics this year dur- ing the parliamentary election debates, when the young Lib- eral Democrat attacked Con-
I U / Here we are now,
medicate us Teaching high school in the age of Ritalin. B2
The can-do mayor
who couldn’t Adrian Fenty had the Worst Week in Washington. B2
5
ing for somewhere to call home. The Dis- trict was a place, I felt, where black power could become reality. But the city I arrived in wasn’t some set
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Britain’s deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg
showcase for black political leadership. It was gradually turning into one, and it is changing still. I was reminded of this when Eleanor Holmes Norton, the Dis- trict’s congressional delegate, said to me casually earlier this year: “I grew up in a city that was predominantly white.” She’s a native Washingtonian. The District today is becoming more
KRISTIN LENZ; ISTOCKPHOTO
racially, ethnically and culturally diverse than it has been in my 41 years here. The tax base is expanding, something every mayor in every city finds desirable. But this also means more affluent residents are displacing poorer residents. And with our city’s troubled racial history, gentrifi- cation can be socially and politically vola- tile. That volatility has resulted in Mayor Adrian Fenty’s ouster. Vincent Gray, a de- cent and thoughtful man, benefited from black voters’ anger at Fenty, a result of four years of real and perceived slights by the mayor toward his black constituents. But that anger has propelled us into a fu- ture that concerns me. While the past should inform the future, it shouldn’t handcuff it. Gray, the presumptive new mayor, will
I KENNETH FALLIN
What is your biggest disagreement? The Liberal Democrat Party and the Con- servative Party come at things very dif- ferently when it comes to Europe. When it comes to political reform, we have a much greater tradition in the Liberal Democrats of social justice and fairness than the Conservatives do. We went in different directions on the Iraq war — they supported it, we didn’t.
In the campaign, you said Britain should be more independent from the United States. Is that what you and David Cameron believe? We want a relationship which is strong, driven by shared interests, but not one of excessive diffidence on our part or exces- sive dominance on the part of the United States.
clegg continued on B3
A religious test every candidate should take
by Damon Linker F BOOK REVIEW In ’08, Hillary lost but feminism won by Connie Schultz I
n the early pages of “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” Salon’s Rebecca Traister seems determined to alienate every female reader over 40. Had I fallen for her false start, I would have missed her
considerable contributions to the on- going feminist narrative described by Gloria Steinem as the “revolution from within.” At first, Traister gleefully harpoons the warriors of old to explain why her younger generation is done with antiquated notions of feminism. Consider, for example, her de- scription of the women at a nonpartisan,
BIG GIRLS DON’T CRY The Election That Changed Everything for American Women By Rebecca Traister Free Press. 336 pp. $26
pro-abortion-rights gathering: “It was a crowd of monied, Botoxed, electorally en- thralled dames who, in the popular imagi- nation of the time, should have had ‘Hillary ’08’ mown into their Hamptons house topi- ary, if not their bikini lines.” That comes a mere four pages after she argues that, if young women are to care about feminism, the “conversation had to be drained of some of its earnest piety. Talking about
gender in the new millennium required us, I thought, to get over ourselves a little bit, to dispense with the sacred cows, to ques- tion power and cultivate new ideas and leaders.” Hillary Clinton had allowed her hus-
band “to play her for a fool,” Traister writes, before embarking on her quest to become “the most powerful girl on the Senate floor.” A few pages later, Traister offers Princeton University associate pro- fessor Melissa Harris-Lacewell’s parsing of Elizabeth Edwards’s popularity: “A fat woman married to a good-looking man is always a good story, particularly if she is a
feminism continued on B2 Connie Schultz is a nationally syndicated columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer and an essayist for Parade magazine.
ifty years ago, in the midst of his presi- dential campaign against Richard Nix- on, Sen. John F. Kennedy gave a speech to ease voters’ concerns about his Catholic faith. Speaking in Houston, Kennedy emphasized that Article VI of the Constitution maintains that no “reli-
gious test” may keep a candidate from aspiring to po- litical office. He went further, implying that his Ca- tholicism should be off limits to public scrutiny. To treat a politician’s religious beliefs as politically rel- evant was an affront to America’s noblest civic tradi- tions, he declared. The speech was a huge success — and not only be- cause it helped Kennedy win. Its most enduring lega-
cy was to persuade journalists, critics and citizens at large not to question the political implications of can- didates’ religious beliefs. While it was still acceptable to assess the dangers of generic “religion” in public life, evaluating particular faiths came to be viewed as bigotry. No longer. Since the rise of the religious right in the
late 1970s, traditionalist believers have actively in- jected faith into the political realm, pushing public figures to place their religious convictions at the core of their civic identities and political campaigns. From Jimmy Carter to George W. Bush, U.S. presidents have made overt — and largely innocuous — gestures toward satisfying this expectation. Today, President Obama’s religious beliefs are at the forefront of public debate. While Fox News per-
religion continued on B4
Damon Linker, a contributing editor at the New Republic and a senior writing fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, is the author of “The Religious Test: Why We Must Question the Beliefs of Our Leaders.”
govern a diverse city. The thrill of his not being Fenty will soon wear off. He will be confronted by demands to continue school reform with Michelle Rhee and demands to continue school reform with- out Michelle Rhee. He’ll be asked to do that without hurting anyone. Black and white residents will demand to know, without explicitly saying so, whose side he’s on. He’ll be asked to prove he’s not Marion
Barry. Some will press him to reopen D.C. General Hospital. Because his agenda is not yet clear, supporters will attempt to foist their priorities on him. His every ap- pointment will be scrutinized to see if he’s reaching backward or reaching for- ward. For me, understanding this moment means reaching back four decades. Washington turned out to be a good place to observe and experience a tremendous growth in black power. At one level, that growth resulted in what my friend Frank Smith (a former Ward 1 D.C. Council member) once called “The Barry Revolu- tion”: Leadership positions, jobs and con- tracts once reserved for whites in the city were essentially transferred to blacks. Back then, we black-power advocates were primarily concerned (at least if we believed our own rhetoric) with the least among us, the poor. Our naive notion was
mayor continued on B4
Kojo Nnamdi is the host of the “Kojo Nnamdi Show” on WAMU (88.5 FM) and “Evening Exchange” on WHUT TV.
B DC MD VA B
myths about “don’t ask, don’t tell.” B3
D.C.’s vote, a bold step into the past
by Kojo Nnamdi
hen I came to the District of Columbia from New York City in 1969, I was a restless 20-something actor and black-power activist look-
Franzen. Turow. Allende. Remnick. Smiley: Inside the National Book Festival.
in today’s paper, behind sports
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