In this column, we (I) talk a lot about politics and a lot about language. Often, these two subjects go together. “Politics and the English language” — there’s a phrase that someone should latch on to.

(To read Orwell’s famous essay of 1946, go here.)

For years, Senator J. D. Vance, the Republicans’ vice-presidential nominee, has been making comments about people without children. Disparaging comments. He has suggested that people with children should have more electoral power — more votes — than people without. And so on and so forth.

Receiving some backlash for this, Vance and his supporters have said: Look, all we mean is that government policy should be pro-child and pro-family.

Those are slippery phrases. (So are “pro-life” and “pro-choice.” We could go on.) The child tax credit is “pro-child, pro-family,” people say. Are those who are against this credit, and similar credits, “anti-child, anti-family”?

This is a debate about tax policy and about the nature and purposes of government generally. People have different views. I know smart and eloquent advocates of the child tax credit and smart and eloquent opponents of it. Some of the advocates have children, some don’t; some of the opponents have children, some don’t.

I once heard Pat Moynihan say, “Let’s face it: Tax policy is social policy.” (I have paraphrased him, but closely.) But ought it to be? And how close is “social policy” to “social engineering”? Do they mean the same thing, but with the second phrase pejorative?

We have a jillion political terms, and it’s hard to say which is the worst of all. But I would nominate “pro-war” and “anti-war.” (This is a theme of a book I wrote, years ago: a history of the Nobel Peace Prize.)

• Conservatives are often faulted for being “judgmental.” Yet, when I was coming of age, the most judgmental people on earth were on the left. They judged the food you ate, the books you read, the friends you made, the music you listened to, the clothes you wore, the language you used — everything. They had a slogan: “The personal is political.” Conservatives, I found, were more liberal, if you will — certainly far less judgmental.

But I keep reading about Senator Vance’s broadsides (in this article, for example). Broadsides against the childless, broadsides against “career women,” etc. If Cotton Mather were here, he might say, “Take it easy, boy. Don’t you have any problems of your own? Do you have to police and damn everybody else?”

• An article by Michael Reneau and Hannah Anderson had a neat subheading — a subheading that encapsulates a point of view: “When having children becomes a means to culture-war ends, we’ve lost the plot.”

• Why did Cotton Mather’s parents name him “Cotton”? It was his mother’s maiden name. His mother was also the stepsister of his father, Increase Mather, who was the president of Harvard for 20 years: 1681 to 1701.

In 1936, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke at Harvard, his alma mater, on the occasion of its 300th anniversary. “In the olden days of New England,” he said, “it was Increase Mather who told the students of Harvard that they were ‘pledged to the word of no particular master,’ that they should ‘above all find a friend in truth.’”

Wise words, for anybody.

• In the last year, Columbia University has been infamous for antisemitic harassment, and a task force of that university has now released a report. For a write-up in the New York Times, concerning the report, go here.

Members of the task force listened to nearly 500 students. A paragraph in the Times reads,

Some students said they had tried to hide their Jewish identities amid campus unrest and avoided walking alone. Others said they had necklaces ripped off their necks and were pushed into walls while walking back to their dorms after synagogue. Students also described being unsure how to report these incidents, and frustrated with what they considered an insufficient response from the university.

This is appalling and infuriating. (I’m glad for the task force and its report. May this schoolyear, which, at Columbia, starts today, be different.)

• Mike Gallagher was a congressman from Wisconsin, starting in 2017. He is a conservative Republican, but of the pre-Trump variety. He resigned from Congress last April (39 years old). Why?

David Ignatius, of the Washington Post, explores that question in this column. The main answer: How long should someone have to put up with violence, or the threat of violence? Especially when he has a family?

I think of Anthony Gonzalez, of Ohio — a Republican similar to Gallagher, who had a similar experience. (I wrote about Gonzalez here.) He served two terms in Congress, from 2019 to 2023. When he decided not to run again, he was 36.

Who needs it?

There are many important stories in our country. To me, there is hardly any story more important than what I have just touched on, and have addressed for years now: the factor, the influence, of violence in our politics.

• People tend not to follow up. I’ll give you an example. Last month, Donald Trump told a tale about being in a helicopter with Willie Brown. The trip was a near-fatal one, said Trump. Moreover, Brown had told him “terrible things” about Kamala Harris.

Is it true? Any of it? Did the helicopter ride take place?

Here is a headline from the New York Times, August 9: “Trump Claims He Has Helicopter Trip Records and Threatens to Sue.” (Article here.)

All right. Where are the records? Do they exist?

Last week, members of the Trump campaign got into an altercation with an employee at Arlington National Cemetery — a woman trying to do her job. The Army has defended her, unequivocally. For their part, Trump staffers have called her a “despicable individual” who suffered “a mental-health episode.”

What’s more, they have video (they said): video proving the woman’s culpability.

Great. Where is it?

No one follows up, and very few care. This is a problem.

• By now, it is old news: The Chinese government killed Hong Kong. But take note of a case nonetheless. Two journalists have been convicted of sedition. They are Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam. These are the first convictions for sedition in Hong Kong since the British handed the city over to China in 1997.

(For an article on the matter, go here.)

• A month ago, I discussed an article from ESPN: “How the NBA got into business with an African dictator.” That would be Paul Kagame, of Rwanda. ESPN has produced a documentary on this relationship, too: here.

“You may have heard the phrase ‘sportswashing,’” I wrote. “That’s what Rwanda is doing, what Saudi Arabia is doing, what China is doing, etc.”

A week ago, ESPN published this: “Senators ask NBA about Rwanda relationship.” That article begins,

Two U.S. senators sent a letter Tuesday to NBA commissioner Adam Silver accusing the league of “putting profit over principle,” in response to an ESPN story that detailed the NBA’s extensive relationship with Rwandan dictator Paul Kagame. . . .

The senators asked Silver to respond within one week to a series of questions.

(1) I’m glad. (2) Is it the position of senators to be doing this?

Perhaps I can deal with (2) in a separate column . . .

• “Simon Verity, World-Renowned Stone Carver, Is Dead at 79.” That obit is here. The subheading reads, “He headed the team that created the statues of biblical figures at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan.” This Verity spent a life evoking truth in stone, so to speak. He was well named.

Check out this video. When Nixon says “sock it to me,” he smiles. Why? Because it was a tagline of Laugh-In, the TV show.

Nixon had been a guest on Laugh-In, uttering the tagline, but with a twist — emphasizing the final word. Watch him here.

• Speaking of showbiz: They were filming an episode of Law & Order across the street from me. Did not ask me to be an extra or anything. Afraid I would overshadow the stars?

• The show had brought in a Mack truck. Isn’t it rather beautiful, with its shiny cab?

Thank you for joining me today, my friends. Hope you’re having a good week.

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