Page 29 - aruba-today-20180623

A29
PEOPLE & ARTS Saturday 23 June 2018

Charles Krauthammer, conservative columnist and pundit, dies

By HILLEL ITALIE needs are more primitive,
Associated Press an infantile hunger for ap-
NEW YORK (AP) — Charles proval and praise, a crav-
Krauthammer, the Pulit- ing that can never be sat-
zer Prize-winning columnist isfied. He lives in a cocoon
and pundit who helped of solipsism where the world
shape and occasionally outside himself has value —
dissented from the con- indeed exists — only insofar
servative movement as he as it sustains and inflates
evolved from “Great Soci- him.” Trump, of course,
ety” Democrat to Iraq War tweeted about Krautham-
cheerleader to denouncer mer, who “pretends to be
of Donald Trump, has died a smart guy, but if you look
at age 68. at his record, he isn’t. A
His death was announced dummy who is on too many
Thursday by two long- Fox shows. An overrated
time employers, Fox News clown!”
Channel and The Wash- Krauthammer married
ington Post. Krauthammer Robyn Trethewey, an art-
had said publicly a year ist and former attorney, in
ago he was being treated 1974. They had a son, Dan-
for a cancerous tumor in his iel, who also became a col-
abdomen and earlier this umnist and commentator.
month revealed that he The son of Jewish immi-
likely had just weeks to live. In this March 31, 2015, file photo, Charles Krauthammer talks about getting into politics grants from Europe, Kraut-
“I leave this life with no re- during a news conference in Corpus Christi, Texas. hammer was born in New
grets,” Krauthammer wrote Associated Press York City and moved with
in The Washington Post, a diving board accident, For the Post, Time maga- 2012. his family to Montreal when
where his column had run continuing his studies from zine, The New Republic and But he prided himself on his he was 5, growing up in a
since 1984. “It was a won- his hospital bed. He was a other publications, Kraut- rejection of orthodoxy and French speaking home. His
derful life — full and com- Democrat in his youth and hammer wrote on a wide took on Republicans, too, path to political writing was
plete with the great loves his political engagement range of subjects, and in observing during a Fox spe- unexpected. First, at McGill
and great endeavors that dated back to 1976, when “Things That Matter” listed cial in 2013 that “If you’re University, he became edi-
make it worth living. I am he handed out leaflets for chess, baseball, “the inno- going to leave the medi- tor in chief of the student
sad to leave, but I leave Henry Jackson’s unsuccess- cence of dogs” and “the cal profession because you newspaper after his pre-
with the knowledge that I ful presidential campaign. cunning of cats” among his think you have something decessor was ousted over
lived the life that I intend- But through the 1980s and passions. As a psychiatrist in to say, you betray your what Krauthammer called
ed.” beyond, Krauthammer fol- the 1970s, he did ground- whole life if you don’t say his “mindless, humorless
Sometimes scornful, some- lowed a journey akin to breaking research on bipo- what you think and if you Maoism.” After Krautham-
times reflective, he was such neo-conservative pre- lar disorder. don’t say it honestly and mer announced that he
awarded a Pulitzer in 1987 decessors as Irving Kristol He was attacked for his pol- bluntly.” was dying of cancer, Israeli
for “his witty and insightful” and Norman Podhoretz, itics, and for his predictions. He criticized the death pen- Prime Minister Benjamin Ne-
commentary and was an turning against his old party He was so confident of alty and rejected intelligent tanyahu wrote him a let-
influential voice among Re- on foreign and domestic quick success in Iraq he ini- design as “today’s tarted- ter, telling him that he had
publicans, whether through issues. He aligned with Re- tially labeled the 2003 inva- up version of creationism.” gleaned wisdom from his
his syndicated column or publicans on everything sion “The Three Week War” In 2005, he was widely cited insights. “You never bored.
his appearances on Fox from confrontation with the and defended the conflict as a key factor in convinc- You were never mun-
News Channel. He was Soviet Union to rejection of for years. He also backed ing Bush to rescind the Su- dane,” Netanyahu wrote in
most associated with Brit the “Great Society” pro- the George W. Bush ad- preme Court nomination of his June 10 letter.
Hume’s nightly newscast grams enacted during the ministration’s use of torture the president’s friend and “More than anything else,
and stayed with it when 1960s. as an “uncontrolled experi- legal adviser Harriet Miers, you have lived a life of pur-
Bret Baier took over in 2009. “As I became convinced ment” carried out “some- whom Krauthammer and pose. As a proud Ameri-
Krauthammer is credited of the practical and theo- times clumsily, sometimes others said lacked the nec- can and a proud son of
with coining the term “The retical defects of the social- cruelly, indeed, sometimes essary credentials. And he the Jewish people, you
Reagan Doctrine” for Presi- democratic tendencies of wrongly. But successfully. It differed with such Fox com- harnessed your formidable
dent Reagan’s policy of my youth, it was but a short kept us safe.” mentators as Bill O’Reilly intellect to defend liberty
aiding anti-Communist distance to a philosophy “For decades, Charles’ and Laura Ingraham as he and the Jewish state.”
movements worldwide. of restrained, free-market words have strengthened found himself among the In the late 1970s, while a
He was a leading ad- governance that gave our democracy,” George increasingly isolated “Nev- psychiatric resident at Mas-
vocate for the Iraq War more space and place to W. Bush said in a statement. er Trumpers,” Republicans sachusetts General Hospi-
and a prominent critic of the individual and to the “His work was far-reaching regarding the real estate tal, a professor with whom
President Barack Obama, civil society that stands be- and influential — and while baron and former “Ap- he had researched manic
whom he praised for his tween citizen and state,” his voice will be deeply prentice” star as a vulgar- depression was appointed
“first-class intellect and first- he wrote in the introduc- missed, his ideas and val- ian unfit for the presidency. to a mental health agency
class temperament” and tion to “Things That Matter,” ues will always be a part of “I used to think Trump was created by President Jim-
denounced for having a a million-selling compilation our country.” an 11-year-old, an unde- my Carter. Krauthammer
“highly suspect” character. of his writings published in Krauthammer was sure that veloped schoolyard bully,” went, too, began writing
Krauthammer was a former 2013. As of midday Friday, Obama would lose in 2008 he wrote in August 2016, for The New Republic and
Harvard medical student the hardcover edition of because of lingering fears around the time Trump of- was soon recruited to write
who graduated even af- “Things That Matter” Was from the Sept. 11, 2001 at- ficially became the Re- speeches for Carter’s vice
ter he was paralyzed from No. 1 on Amazon.com. The tacks, and foresaw Mitt publican nominee. “I was president and 1980 running
the neck down because of paperback was No. 2. Romney defeating him in off by about 10 years. His mate, Walter Mondale.q