Nice summary of the genealogy of Commentary and the neocons in general. I grew up with a lot of those people.
Why do you suppose Commentary has taken such a hard, harsh anti-Trump line? Is Commentary a big open borders mag?
I discovered Commentary when, as a law student, I had been invited to debate at a prosperous but liberal synagogue by its verrrrry liberal rabbi who admitted that he could not restrain his enthusiasm for the United Nations. I was the only conservative somewhat public figure in Connecticut that he thought might accept his invitation.
I was preparing to debate a lefty Yale Political Science professor Bradley Westerfield on the question of whether the US should remain in the United Nations back in the days when Daniel Patrick Moynihan was the US Ambassador to the United Nations. I spent about six hours in a public library (in a town with resources and a larger than average percentage of Jewish citizens. I read Commentary back issues and became fascinated with what an excellent magazine it was under Podhoretz and not just on foreign policy or Holocaust issues.
My argument keyed on Moynihan's speeches at the UN on the theme that the genuinely freedom loving nations in the UN could caucus in a phone booth and then saying that it is not enough to take the obvious position that the Holocaust was a total abomination without DOING something (like leaving the UN and expelling it from the country given its rising tide of Marxism and anti-semitism. Westerfield did not know what hit him and the then current rabbi who invited me slipped out the nearest door the moment the ebate was over. That is a forgotten era now with everything that has happened since on so many issues. America in the early 1970s today looks like a different universe.
Now, with that as a prelude, to address your question about Commentary re: Trump. Trump is essentially a showman. He is playing to his audience as I was at that synagogue debate. Of course, I believed each and every word I said in the debate. Given Trump's track record, I suspect that he does not believe everything that he says. That perception MAY be shared by people at Commentary and they are a tough audience.
Trump probably does believe in his expressed immigration and borders policy. He is credible in his expressions that the nation is in ruins. I personally do not doubt that Trump intends to "Make America Great Again" and that, given the opportunity by being elected, he will deliver on that promise. After eight years of Obozo, it will be easily within Trump's talents to hit the ground running and make substantial progress on many issues including immigration right away as soon as the Inauguration is over.
Nonetheless, I am very skeptical of Trump and I would bet that many at Commentary are skeptical as well. One of the areas of concern is that he has been all over the lot on issues for decades now but suddenly he is lining up with easily perceived issue preferences of the conservative base of the GOP. Beefing up the military, building a wall on the Southern border and tracking down and deporting illegal immigrants, taking off welfare those illegals who are on it, opposition to Common Core, support for gun rights, balancing the budget, paying off some debt, getting tough on trade.
Trump may not be a genuine populist but he stayed at Holiday Inn last night as the Holiday Inn commercial might say.
Where I differ from Commentary is that I love populism and the folks at Commentary are skeptical of populists because they have been conditioned to view Hitler as a populist demagogue. I think that is one of the main causes of their concern. The hero riding in on a white horse out of nowhere is not a Jewish cultural fantasy. The folks at Commentary are intellectual warriors not street fighters.
Given the experience of Judaism in the last century, they tend to look for political leadership left or right (obviously Commentary is on the right) who are solid, accomplished proven thinkers with a track record of stable dependable intellectual commitment and accomplishment.
Any of us can name Jewish rogues like the late Abbie Hoffman or Jerry Rubin or Bernardine Doehrn Ayers as to whom the analysis of the last paragraph does not apply. OTOH, as sociologist Gunnar Myrdahl observed of American Jews (the liberal ones): They live like Episcopalians but vote like Puerto Ricans.
If Commentary should comment on "open borders," I suspect that it would be against open borders. The reason is that the tide of immigration, legal or particularly the illegals, means a much heavier voting block that is largely likely to vote Democrat. Democrats are rare at Commentary now. Many there are refugees from the post-McGovern and essentially soviet Democrat Party and horrified by current and any future potential Democrat rule.
Many Commentary folk are only alive because Francisco Franco maintained an "underground railroad" through Spain to Spanish Morocco and thence to wherever they wished to go. The Catholic Church, contrary to carefully invented anti-Catholic popular myths concocted by such as former Hitler Youth member turned Marxist but still anti-Semitic Rolf Hochhuth (The Deputy), was a full participant in assisting Jews seeking to save their lives and to live in freedom. See the work of the distinguished Jewish historian and Oxford history professor Sir Martin Gilbert, documenting, book, by book, the efforts of Righteous Gentiles to save Jews from the Holocaust.
Thus, any Commentary opposition to Trump is unlikely to be over immigration. Trump on the stump more resembles George Wallace than he does Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Although, Trump is an alumnus of the Wharton School of Finance, he scrupulously avoids any stress on his Ivy League pedigree. The Commentary folks are proud of their scholarship and rightfully so. In this, Trump portrays himself as a non-participant in matters intellectual and thus seems alien.
Thanks for the opportunity to address the subject. It is good to hear from you again. Do I understand correctly that you are now Catholic? Regardless of answer, you have my respect and my prayers.
Trump can convince me and he can convince Commentary but it won't be easy. I can imagine myself voting enthusiastically for him but not yet and maybe not at all. We are very early in this campaign. I have no reservations as to Scott Walker or Ted Cruz or several others but they have to get their poll numbers up to compete.
God bless you and yours, Jim Noble!