Swan Song
By Karl Zinsmeister

"The word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart." --Deuteronomy

The central premise of this magazine, from the moment I began shaping it in 1994, has been that the instincts needed to keep America healthy and strong will more often be found in everyday citizens than among experts. We're hardly the only ones to believe that. The crispest encapsulation of this view was William F. Buckley's declaration that he would rather be ruled by the first 2,000 names in a phone book than by the Harvard faculty.

Our Founding Fathers made the same choice. Though it was a radical idea at the time, they concluded that the large body of ordinary Americans--intently focused on their private affairs and the facts on the ground in their home communities--would be less likely to drift into misunderstandings of human nature, social reality, and economic truth than persons who manipulate theory for a living.

The rule of ordinary people is not wholly accepted today even in democracies like Japan and many European nations. Those societies are more traditionally commanded from above--by a small elect anointed at places like the Sorbonne, Tokyo University, and tight networks of gatekeeping institutions and clans.

The egalitarian instinct of our Founders, though, has proved out. The American tortoise surpassed the hare represented by overseas elites. At 230 years of age, the U.S. government is now the oldest and stablest on the planet. We've dodged the traumas of revolution, expansionist war, and genocide that even our most advanced peer nations have stumbled into. Our decentralized, bottom-up economy has outperformed all counterparts managed by mandarins from above. And our citizenry has turned into (statistically speaking) the most educated, inventive, hard-working, faithful, and charitable population on the planet.

Ordinary Americans are not saints or savants with magical decision-making powers. But there are structural reasons why individual households will often make better decisions than experts. For one thing, they usually have richer information. Trying to separate good schools from mediocre ones, or excellent doctors from poor ones, for example, is very hard when attempted from a government bureau or academic office. Yet individual Americans make those kinds of judgments routinely. Rule by the millions works because they are close to daily realities, and when they make errors in judgment, their errors usually cancel each other out.

The superiority of governance by the massive middle is not a simple matter of liberal vs. conservative, it's not a class struggle, it's not a question of good people on one side against bad people on the other. Every major American political and intellectual faction will from time to time wander too far from the American heartland consensus and end up getting spanked. I for one don't fear those rejections. As I look back at the popular defeats experienced during my lifetime by causes I admire, I see that the public's "No" verdicts almost always resulted (usually fairly quickly) in a stronger, wiser, invigorated reform movement. Mind you, I see no good effect from undemocratic blockages (imperialist courts, unresponsive institutions, etc.). But a rejection by middle America, if you will take it seriously and respond, will almost always make you smarter.

Anyway, that's been the operating principle of this magazine. I say all this in order to express my sincere respect and appreciation for our regular readers. I have edited this magazine with the foremost idea that you are the sovereigns all politics-related institutions, including this one, should serve. I know some of our material is challenging for people busy with families and businesses and no paid time to sit and read. Each of our installments has the substance of a small book. But if everyday citizens are to intelligently arbitrate the great decisions of the day, they need to absorb lots of information. That's why we pack statistics and history and rich detail into each issue.

I write every word of my own essays with subscribers from across the country firmly lodged in my mind's eye. That has not been hard to do. I've always had a policy of personally answering all correspondence sent to me by readers, so I've gotten to know many of you well over the years.

And now I will miss you.

For almost half of my adult life, I have poured myself into The American Enterprise. It has been thrilling, gratifying work, and TAE is now at a peak in terms of circulation, business efficiency, and national influence. But building a small magazine, on both the editorial and business fronts, is hard labor. There are lots of excellent publications covering politics, business, and culture today, and we have steadily climbed into circulation brackets where we are competing against magazines with three to ten times our budget.

Earlier this spring I decided I would like to turn more to writing books and articles of my own. I asked my remarkable boss Christopher DeMuth to find a fresh set of eyes and hands to take over responsibility for this magazine. And I am now pleased to inform you that long-time TAE columnist James Glassman will be my successor. Over the years, Jim has mastered almost every niche in journalism, from magazines and newspapers to TV and the Internet. Every magazine is an intimate reflection of its editor, and I'm sure Jim will make TAE his own. He is a fine thinker, communicator, and man, and you can be sure he will produce a high-quality publication.

I am an admirer of Cincinnatus, and had intended to return quietly to my writer's plow after handing off TAE. However, I received an unexpected flurry of proposals after announcing my plans, one of which I could not ignore. I have been asked by President Bush to serve as his domestic policy adviser, and by the time you receive this I will be working in the White House. It is a big job and I have a lot to learn. I'd be grateful for your support and practical guidance in the months ahead.

It is not uncommon to find screamers and egomaniacs and phone-throwers at the top of a political pyramid. But a central reason I accepted my new job is because this particular White House is chock-a-block, everywhere I have looked, with people who are not just talented but also very fine human beings. And I have been spoiled in that regard. The publisher of this magazine, Chris DeMuth, and our chief on the business side, David Gerson, have tolerated with kindness and grace many quirks on my part--like the fact that I've chosen to edit a national political magazine from 450 miles outside of Washington, D.C. Most importantly, Chris and David have given those of us running the magazine the freedom to think and argue and experiment creatively, sometimes well beyond the boundaries of safe, proven paths. I doubt there is an editor of a serious magazine anywhere in this country, in the last generation, who has been allowed more intellectual freedom than I have. For that I am extremely grateful.

I also want to express my gratitude to the loyal band of contributors who have written our articles, edited them, drawn the charts, laid out the pages, fixed the production problems, and served our subscribers. I started to list the names of TAE stalwarts as I drafted this note, but erased them for fear of leaving off some deserving soul. Those of you who have read this magazine steadily know who has done the hard and excellent work.

Let me close with a challenge to you as readers. America is a fleet without an admiral. As I've argued in this essay, there is no central elite ruling over us. We each steer our own skiffs, and when you put the flotilla together we become a mighty force.

Each of you is a skipper, entrusted to navigate in your own sphere. And the nation as a whole will only travel as far as you collectively impel it. There is a serious obligation in that: You must improve yourself. You must study the stars and learn to navigate intelligently. You must be ready to take an occasional hand-blistering turn at the oars.

It would be much more pleasant to relax in a deck chair. But you are free citizens responsible for your own destiny. So build your mind and muscles--in these pages or elsewhere--and then serve your shifts on watch for our nation.

In the words of Ecclesiastes:

Whatever your hand finds to do,
do it with all your might,
for in the grave, where you are going,
there is neither working
nor planning nor knowledge
nor wisdom.

My heartfelt thanks to you all.