Those of us who retain the skepticism about ambitious government that once seemed to define the right are ceaselessly told that we are obsolete. We do not, the cliché has it, know “what time it is.” It is . . . a time for strongman rule; a time to let go of a Constitution that has served our country reasonably well (exceptionally well when we have actually adhered to it); a time to forget everything we have ever learned about how government plans can go awry.

Well, it’s time to “reset the clock,” says Ramesh. To counter the notion that “an excess of market freedom is a major problem in American life,” freedom conservatives have a lot of work to do. They don’t need to “refuse to cooperate politically with conservatives whose priorities lie elsewhere,” and in fact there are areas where the different strains of conservatism can find common ground. The piece sets out the mistakes that freedom conservatives must avoid as they make their case, so that they can “repay the obligation we owe to Madison, Lincoln, and our other forebears.”

Also in this issue, NR is honored to publish “Devices,” a short story by Cynthia Ozick, one of the great writers of our day. It’s the story of Arnold Ungelernter, accidental inventor of “the Device” — “a primal necessity, like a shoelace or a doorknob” — who wants a piece of more highfalutin glory; his wife, Estelle, who is willing him toward it but is only too sharply aware of Arnie’s shortcomings; and Baldur Gustavsson, the odd figure — opportunistic vagrant or neglected scholar of Icelandic studies, this man with the “marauding magnetic ice-blue fathomless eyes”? — on whom their efforts hinge.

This issue brims with the insights of an array of terrific writers:

• Yuval Levin: “The Trump-Era GOP’s Dangerous Drift”
• Andrew C. McCarthy: “Trump’s Board of Peace Is a Faux Pact”
• Christine Rosen: “Why Americans Fear the AI Future”
• Jim Geraghty: “Club Dread: On the Ground in NATO’s Nervous Eastern Flank”
• Andrew Roberts: “Keir Starmer Has Destroyed a British Tradition”
• Andrew Stuttaford: “Don’t Panic About Falling Birth Rates”
• Christopher Tollefsen: “Why AI Will Never Have a Mind”
• John R. Puri: “The Stakeholder in Chief“
• Howard Husock: “Beware the Census-Imposed Gerrymander“

In the latest installment of Our Spacious Skies, Jennifer Tiedemann visits one of the great American roadside attractions. Take the off-ramp to South of the Border and tank up with unabashed joy.

In this month’s wonderfully varied Books, Arts & Manners, we have Brian Allen on “The Art of Making Great Art,” Ian Tuttle on the letters of Harold Bloom, and reviews of an alternative women’s history, an examination of the cult of Kim, and a biography of the Rolling Stones. Martha Bayles heartily approves of a 2024 TV version of The Count of Monte Cristo, and Ross Douthat offers his take on Obsession, “the movie of the moment.” Vahaken Mouradian, in the Bookshelf, considers history that reads like fiction, fiction that reads like poetry, and poetry that could’ve read better. In the Happy Warrior, Luther Ray Abel takes us out on a note of sweetness, light, and laughter.

Jessica Hornik Evans
Managing Editor

National Review magazine