Hoover Daily Report | August 11, 2025

Today, Andrew Roberts considers why Winston Churchill’s critics are having a comeback moment; Peter Berkowitz identifies the values and institutions that will help America endure a period of civilizational fragility and world chaos; and Eugene Volokh examines several legal options available to religious institutions seeking to maintain religious qualifications for their employees. 

Hoover Daily Report | August 11, 2025

Episode Transcript

>> Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Hoover Daily Report.
Ideas Advancing Freedom It's Monday,August 11, 2025.

>> Speaker 2 (00:06):
Today, Andrew Roberts considers why Winston Churchill's critics
are having a comeback moment.
Peter Berkowitz identifies the values andinstitutions that will help America endure
a period of civilizational fragility andworld chaos.
And Eugene Volok examines severallegal options available to religious
institutions seeking to maintain religiousqualifications for their employees.

>> Speaker 1 (00:29):
Why the Far Right Hates Churchill Writing at
the Wall Street Journal Opinion Page,Distinguished Visiting Fellow Andrew
Roberts asks why the political far rightin Britain and the United States is
targeting Winston Churchill with derisionand inaccurate revisionist narratives.
Attempting to cast the formerUK Prime Minister as the chief villain of
the Second World War, Roberts argues thatChurchill is in the crosshairs because his

(00:54):
quote, practical aims and principlesas a leader of the west were directly
opposed to the new strain ofisolationism in America and Britain.
Roberts further notes that today's newrevisionism is possible only because
the greatest generation is dying out andtheir sacrifice is becoming
a debatable part of historyrather than a lived reality.

(01:15):
In his essay, Roberts rebutsseveral popular claims regarding
Churchill's leadership during the war andshows how British neutrality in the face
of Hitler would have led to a world ina vastly worse place than the one that
Churchill andRoosevelt helped to fashion in 1945.

>> Speaker 2 (01:31):
Countering the present disorder in an essay for Civitas Outlook,
Senior Fellow Peter Berkowitz reviewsWasteland A World in Permanent Crisis by
Robert Kaplan.
Berkowitz highlights several themes fromKaplan's book how technology is making
the world smaller and and more connected,the intensification of politics due to
increasing urbanization and thesimultaneous decline of three major great

(01:55):
powers the United States,China, and Russia.
Berkowitz emphasizes that although Kaplanpaints a grim portrait of global trends,
the prolific author rejects fatalism.
Berkowitz extends Kaplan'sargument that a rededication
to the best of the classicalliberal tradition in the west,
focusing on constitutionalism,equality of rights under the law,

(02:16):
and toleration for those competing viewsof the good life that themselves tolerate.
Competing views can help avert, decline,and achieve better outcomes for
the United States and the world.
As Berkowitz concludes, quote,the convictions and commitments that
formed the United States remain essentialto countering the present disorder.

>> Speaker 1 (02:36):
Religious Hiring what Courts Should do at his Volok Conspiracy blog,
Senior Fellow Eugene Volok considers howthe US Judicial system currently handles
cases where religious organizationsfile a non minister employee for
violating the group's beliefs about sex ormarriage.
Volok shows that courts have tendedto apply the ministerial exception or

(02:56):
the principle that religious groupsshould retain authority to select and
control who will minister to the faithfulto cases covering clearly non ministerial
employees, even when the religiousdefendants do not wish to claim
the ministerial exceptionagainst this status quo,
Volok argues that other legal tools arespecifically designed to protect religious

(03:17):
groups interest in maintaining religiousqualifications for employment, and
courts should not hesitate to use them.
Volok concludes that inthese types of cases, quote,
religious groups have several strong,overlapping and
mutually reinforcing legal defenses,all of which point to the same conclusion.
Religious groups have the freedom tomaintain religious qualifications for

(03:39):
their employees.

>> Speaker 2 (03:42):
Another one Bites the Dust Visiting fellow Matthew Turpin kicks off
his weekly China Articles newsletterwith his analysis of current rumors
that senior Chinese diplomatLiu Jianchao has been disappeared.
Turpin notes how Liu has beenviewed by many China watchers
as a potential contender forthe position of foreign minister.

(04:03):
While acknowledging the abundantuncertainty around Liu's status, Turpin
reminds readers of similar past episodeslike the 2023 Purge of the short lived
Foreign Minister Qin Gong, whose reasonfor dismissal is still officially unclear.
In Terpin's view, the episode highlightsthe precarity of service in the Chinese
diplomatic corps, whose members drawongoing scrutiny from state security

(04:26):
services because of their manyinteractions with foreigners beyond
the watchful eye of the Chinesesurveillance system.
Perhaps Lu Jianqiao will emerge in a weekor two cleared of suspicion, says Turpin.
But regardless of the outcome, everyoneelse in the party has been reminded yet
again of how vulnerable they are andwhy they need an escape hatch.

>> Speaker 1 (04:49):
Will Mayor Mamdani cause unemployment to rise in New York City?
In a post for his substackEnvironmental and Urban Economics,
visiting fellow Matthew E.
Khan asks,when a superstar city elects a socialist,
does the unemployment rate go up or down?
To analyze the probable effects ofa Mamdani victory in New York City's
upcoming mayoral election, Khan positsthat a socialist mayor will strengthen

(05:11):
rent control laws toprotect tenant rights.
Citing recent research, Khan suggests thatstrong protections for renters increase
the unemployment rate because coveredtenants are less likely to search for
work further from where they live.
As he writes, quote,
rent control locks people in because theydon't want to lose their great deal.
Khan then argues that progressive policiesintended to help renters by providing

(05:35):
subsidized apartments and
ironclad tenant protections will actuallyharm the recipients of those benefits.
As he concludes, quote, individuals wouldhave more option value and flexibility if
they did not receive a spatial subsidythat tied them to an unproductive place.

>> Speaker 2 (05:52):
Featured from the Hoover Library and
Archives Literature Digital Collection theHoover Institution Library and Archives
offers a digitized collection of more than1500 items from the history of literature.
The collection features many items fromthe papers of the Pasternak family,
whose members included poet andnovelist Boris Pasternak.
Additionally, severalepisodes of William F.

(06:14):
Buckley Jr's television program FiringLine, dealing with literary culture,
are included in this collection.

>> Speaker 1 (06:20):
That's your Hoover Daily report for Monday, August 11, 2025.
Each weekday we bring you research,analysis and commentary focused on public
policy, national security, and the ideasshaping American society and government.
The Hoover Institution at StanfordUniversity is grounded in constitutional
principles with a commitment tosustaining the safeguards of the American

(06:41):
way of life.
Thank you for listening.
For links to all the articles andinterviews mentioned today,
visit Hoover.org HDR.