WHATEVER Charm?HAPPENED TO by JOSEPH EPSTEIN

OCTOBER 15, 2018 • $5.99 • WEEKLYSTANDARD.COM Contents October 15, 2018 • Volume 24, Number 6

2 The Scrapbook Throwing ice, ‘theybies,’ & more 5 Casual Michael Warren, teacher-pleaser 6 Editorials The Bad-Faith Filibuster • Rethinking Syria 8 Comment The Kafkaesque trial of Kavanaugh by Christopher Caldwell In defense of inarticulate rage by Barton Swaim A European Union that divides the British by Philip Terzian 5 Articles

14 A Seat Republicans Can’t Possibly Lose by Tony Mecia In California’s 8th, both candidates are on the right. But which is Trumpier?

16 Surprisingly Competitive by Mark Hemingway Will Oregon be the next blue state with a Republican governor?

17 A Conspiracy So Vast . . . by Eric Felten But where’s the crime?

19 They Balked by John Psaropoulos The failed Macedonia referendum 6 Features

21 Life’s Little Luxury by Joseph Epstein Charm makes the world seem a more enticing place—but it is going the way of chivalry, good manners, and unmotivated kindness

30 Battle of Birmingham by Dominic Green Britain’s Conservative party comes together—and soon it will be coming apart

Books & Arts 17 34 Flames of History by Ashley May How safe from destructive fire are American museums?

37 All That May Become a Man by Noah Millman The promise and pitfalls of cross-gender casting in Shakespeare

42 The First Modernist by James Gardner Delacroix’s undeserved reputation for greatness

45 Upon This Rock by Andrew Egger The prickly street preacher who helped create the Christian rock genre

46 The Veteran Pessimist by Gerard Alexander Walter Laqueur, 1921-2018

21 48 Parody Capt. Morgan accuses Kavanaugh

COVER: AUDREY HEPBURN IN 1955 • ULLSTEIN BILD / GETTY THE SCRAPBOOK Ice Ice Maybe any news organizations have to drunkenness. Not that the Times left-wing and virulently pro-choice M disgraced themselves over these or anybody else cares if he drank too Emily Bazelon. Her lefty opinions last few weeks in the unlovely quest much in college, but Christine Blasey wouldn’t disqualify Bazelon from writ- for peccadillos in Brett Kava­naugh’s Ford alleged that Kava­naugh and a ing the piece (though one might have youth, but the New York Times has out- friend were drunk when the former thought her editors at the Times would shone the rest. A story on October 2 assign someone else to such a politi- brought us finally to the point of self- cally sensitive story), but Bazelon has parody. The lede was breathtaking in put herself on record as emphatically its silliness: “As an undergraduate stu- opposing the Kava­naugh nomination. dent at Yale, Brett M. Kavanaugh­ was On July 9, the night President Don- involved in an altercation at a local bar ald Trump announced his choice of during which he was accused of throw- Kava ­naugh, she tweeted: “As a [Yale ing ice on another patron, according to Law] grad & lecturer, I strongly disas- a police report.” sociate myself from tonight’s praise of The Times found a police report of Brett Kava­naugh. With respect, he’s a a barroom incident in New Haven, 5th vote for a hard-right turn on vot- which had been described by a class- ing rights and so much more that will mate, Chad Ludington, but it is not at harm the democratic process & prevent all clear from the report what Kava­ a more equal society.” naugh’s role was. Based on a police assaulted her, and the picture Lud- When Bazelon posted her Times report, what’s known for sure is that ington paints of an often drunkenly story on Twitter on Monday, she Kava ­naugh was at a bar with friends belligerent Kava­naugh would seem to prefaced it with the observation, “No in 1985 and that some kind of mayhem buttress Ford’s claim. Just so do con- report of an arrest. Could have been broke out, either because Kava­naugh spiracy theorists search for data points expunged, I’m told.” We wonder how threw ice at another guy or something that confirm the truth of their cocka- Kava ­naugh is supposed to prove that else, and that the police were called. mamie narratives. a record of his arrest in 1985 wasn’t There was no record of any arrests. Perhaps the surest sign that we are expunged. Maybe he can work on that So he threw ice. in the realm of partisan journalistic while he proves he didn’t expose him- The point, of course, is to build hackery is that one of the two coau- self to female Yalies and take part in a the case that Kava­naugh was prone thors of the Times story is the avowedly gang-rape ring. ♦

mildly amusing wisecrack from a col- Ghetto Beto lege student as morally and politically barroom tussle? Drinking beer insignificant. O’Rourke had no need A on a weeknight? That’s nothing. to apologize. How about the time the 19-year-old What he hasn’t apologized for, but wrote a theater review in which he ought to, is his frequent use of a bogus lamented the cast of “perma-smile story about a girl the U.S. government actresses whose only qualifications supposedly deported. Until recently seem to be their phenomenally large O’Rourke liked to tell the story of an breasts and tight buttocks.” What sort unnamed “Dreamer,” someone who of vile misogynistic brute would say came to the United States illegally such a thing? Get him out of here! Mistakes were made. as a child, who had recently become Oh, wait. That wasn’t Brett Kava­ salutatorian of her high school. The naugh. It was Beto O’Rourke—or in Texas, issued a groveling apology: feds found out about her and, accord- rather, Robert O’Rourke, according to “I am ashamed of what I wrote and ing to O’Rourke, she was deported to the byline—writing in the Columbia I apologize. There is no excuse for her country of origin, Mexico, despite Daily Spectator, Columbia University’s making disrespectful and demeaning not knowing Spanish. student newspaper, in 1991. comments about women.” The arti- A sad story but, as a report in the Predictably Rep. O’Rourke, the cle was turned up by Politico, but all Dallas Morning News revealed, a fic-

Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate fair-minded people must regard this tional one. The congressman had / O’ROURKE: SERGIO FLORES DARTS: BIGSTOCK. BELOW: GETTY; KAVANAUGH: TOP: FIGURE: BIGSTOCK / GETTY; BLOOMBERG

2 / The Weekly Standard October 15, 2018 relied on what he’d been told by someone else. The actual woman did speak Spanish and was not deported, and it didn’t happen recently but a decade ago. Also, she was valedicto- rian, not salutatorian, and she’s now a citizen. (Other than that, as they say, the story was accurate.) Robert/Beto is rather less inclined to say sorry for that one. His spokes- man insists that the congressman was “going off what he was told.” A Capi- tol Hill Democrat repeating uncor- roborated anecdotes? If O’Rourke wins in November, please don’t put him on the Judiciary Committee. ♦ Liberté, Égalité, Futilité rench politician Marine Le Pen F is a great fan of Vladimir Putin, a social progressive, and leader of a polit- ical party that from time to time flirts with the anti-Semitic right—she’s not a woman with whom we can ordinarily sympathize. Still, she has a talent for stirring European elites in ways that expose their intellectual shallowness and hypocrisies, and from time to time it’s hard not to take her side. Two weeks ago Le Pen was ordered by a French court to undergo psychiatric evaluation. Her offense? In December 2015, in response to the Bataclan terrorist attack in Paris that killed 130 people, she used her Twitter account to post graphic pho- tos of atrocities committed by ISIS. Le Pen was then “charged with circulating violent messages that says she won’t comply with the order, with unconventional opinions to see a can be viewed by minors,” accord- and it seems there’s little French shrink. Let’s keep this one quiet. ♦ ing to news agency France 24. courts can do to enforce it. “I’d like In France, anyone charged to see how the judge would try with a similar “crime” must and force me to do it,” she told Rockabye Theybies undergo psychiatric evalu- reporters. She’s right to refuse. s if bureaucracies weren’t com- ation. In one sense it’s Here in America, we seem to A plicated enough. The New York encouraging to know that do just fine without forcing Times reports that beginning next the French insist on impos- irresponsible politicians and year, New York City will give people ing even their dumbest impulsive social-media the option of identifying themselves laws on everyone (in zealots to take psych evals. on their birth certificates not only as Italy she could easily Not that the French want “male” or “female,” but also as “X.” have gotten a waiver), any advice from us. New Yorkers such as Charlie Arro- but that any West- More likely, the French wood (who, we are told, “uses the ern democracy would idea will travel west- pronoun ‘they’ and the courtesy title impose such a law on ward, and in a few months ‘Mx.,’ a gender-neutral alternative to anyone is chilling. we’ll be reporting that uni- Ms. and Mr.”) are evidently delighted

For her part, Le Pen versities are forcing students by the change. So too is Mx. Furuya, FIGURE: BIGSTOCK LEFEVRE / GETTY; LE PEN: SYLVAIN

October 15, 2018 The Weekly Standard / 3 one of the first people in the country acknowledged that we don’t know if to obtain a “nonbinary” birth cer- our kid is nonbinary, male or female.” tificate (in California), although he These parents are raising their kids (sorry!) admits that “it often takes as “theybies,” refusing to reveal the them a few tries to explain who child’s biological sex to anyone out- www.weeklystandard.com they are.” When the Times reporter side the family, and say their kids Stephen F. Hayes, Editor in Chief asked for just such an explanation of will choose their own gender “when Richard Starr, Editor they are ready.” Fred Barnes, Robert Messenger, Executive Editors gender identity, Furuya responded Christine Rosen, Managing Editor with a diagram that included “four The goal of “theybie” parents, as a Peter J. Boyer, Christopher Caldwell, Andrew Ferguson, Matt Labash, category umbrellas and nine subcat- recent article in New York magazine National Correspondents egories.” In other words, X means: described, is to “create an early child- Jonathan V. Last, Digital Editor Barton Swaim, Opinion Editor It’s complicated. hood free of gendered ideas of how Adam Keiper, Books & Arts Editor Kelly Jane Torrance, Deputy Managing Editor Setting aside the grammatical con- a child should dress, act, play, and Eric Felten, Mark Hemingway, fusion spawned by the use of they in be.” It’s perhaps not a coincidence John McCormack, Tony Mecia, Philip Terzian, Michael Warren, Senior Writers place of the pronouns he or she, this that these same children have been David Byler, Jenna Lifhits, Alice B. Lloyd, Staff Writers new option is likely to sow chaos saddled with names like “Sojourner Rachael Larimore, Online Managing Editor among competing local, state, and Wildfire,” “Storm,” and “Zoomer.” Hannah Yoest, Social Media Editor Ethan Epstein, Associate Editor federal government agencies when it (Zoomer’s parents even run a website, Chris Deaton, Jim Swift, Deputy Online Editors Priscilla M. Jensen, Assistant Editor comes to correctly identifying people raisingzoomer.com, that offers infor- Adam Rubenstein, Assistant Opinion Editor on official documents. Many state mation and articles about their “gen- Andrew Egger, Haley Byrd, Reporters Holmes Lybrand, Fact Checker agencies, as well as the Social Secu- der creative parenting approach.”) Sophia Buono, Philip Jeffery, Editorial Assistants Philip Chalk, Design Director rity administration and U.S. passport Parenting is a challenge in the eas- Barbara Kyttle, Design Assistant office, still recognize sex as either iest of times, and bureaucracies are Contributing Editors Claudia Anderson, Max Boot, Joseph Bottum, male or female on official forms. feared and hated for a reason—they Tucker Carlson, Matthew Continetti, Jay Cost, Terry Eastland, Noemie Emery, Joseph Epstein, There is no “X”-box on your federal tend to make life a great deal more David Frum, David Gelernter, income tax return. complicated than it needs to be. Why Reuel Marc Gerecht, Michael Goldfarb, Daniel Halper, Mary Katharine Ham, Brit Hume, But there might be soon, if a new do these woker-than-thou parents Thomas Joscelyn, Frederick W. Kagan, Yuval Levin, Tod Lindberg, Micah Mattix, Victorino Matus, generation of gender-neutral parent- want to do the same for the sex of P. J. O’Rourke, John Podhoretz, Irwin M. Stelzer, ing militants have their way. One their children? Perhaps a better ques- Charles J. Sykes, Stuart Taylor Jr. transgender parent, the founder tion to ask is: How will little Zoomer William Kristol, Editor at Large of a “gender-open playgroup” in feel about his parents’ insistence on MediaDC Ryan McKibben, Chairman Brooklyn, recently listed the sex of gender-neutrality when he reaches Stephen R. Sparks, President & Chief Operating Officer his (?) child as “****” on its birth puberty? We’re guessing—and hop- Kathy Schaffhauser, Chief Financial Officer Mark Walters, Chief Revenue Officer certificate. He told the Times, “I ing—the next generation has more Jennifer Yingling, Audience Development Officer David Lindsey, Chief Digital Officer wanted a designation that literally sense than ours. ♦ Matthew Curry, Director, Email Marketing Alex Rosenwald, Senior Director of Strategic Communications Nicholas H. B. Swezey, Vice President, Advertising T. Barry Davis, Senior Director, Advertising Jason Roberts, Digital Director, Advertising Andrew Kaumeier, Advertising Operations Manager Brooke McIngvale, Manager, Marketing Services Advertising inquiries: 202-293-4900 Subscriptions: 1-800-274-7293

The Weekly Standard (ISSN 1083-3013), a division of Clarity Media Group, is published weekly (except one week in March, one week in June, one week in August, and one week in December) at 1152 15th St., NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20005. Periodicals postage paid at Washington, DC, and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to The Weekly Standard, P.O. Box 85409, Big Sandy, TX 75755-9612. For subscription customer service in the United States, call 1-800-274-7293. For new subscription orders, please call 1-800-274-7293. Subscribers: Please send new subscription orders and changes of address to The Weekly Standard, P.O. Box 85409, Big Sandy, TX 75755-9612. Please include your latest magazine mailing label. Allow 3 to 5 weeks for arrival of first copy and address changes. Canadian/foreign orders require additional postage and must be paid in full prior to commencement of service. Canadian/foreign subscribers may call 1-386-597-4378 for subscription inquiries. American Express, Visa/MasterCard payments accepted. Cover price, $5.99. Back issues, $5.99 (includes postage and handling). Send letters to the editor to The Weekly Standard, 1152 15th Street, NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20005-4617. For a copy of The Weekly Standard Privacy Policy, visit www.weeklystandard.com or write to Customer Service, The Weekly Standard, 1152 15th St., NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20005. Copyright 2018, Clarity Media Group. All rights reserved. No material in The Weekly Standard may be reprinted without permission of the copyright owner. ALAN SINGER / NBC / NBCU PHOTO BANK / GETTY The Weekly Standard is a registered Uh, so, Pat—how are little Storm and Zoomer? trademark of Clarity Media Group.

4 / The Weekly Standard October 15, 2018 CASUAL

sizing that no nuts or nut-related The Big Sink products were allowed in lunches, snacks, or birthday treats. As the nurse listed all kinds of nut-based foods that were no-gos, I started he first time I felt it was in perpetrators, in the same elevator. I thinking of Christopher Guest’s char- the first grade. I wasn’t knew I hadn’t done it, and the dean acter in the mockumentary movie in Mrs. Conn’s class, but let me go. Best in Show telling his interlocu- she reprimanded me for I’m grown now, so I’ve put all that tor about his preternatural ability Ttalking back as we stood in line in behind me, right? No such luck. Last to “name every nut that there was.” the lunchroom. The feeling, a cold week the Big Sink returned, courtesy Peanut, hazelnut, cashew nut, maca- burn, rose briefly in my chest before of a call in the middle of the day from damia nut, pine nut, pistachio nut, sinking down, down, down, into the my older son’s school nurse. Noth- red pistachio nut, all-natural white pit of my stomach. Woooop, went ing was wrong, she said, but she did pistachio nut. I was shaken from my the Big Sink. Mrs. Conn was going have a very important question for me. daydream when another parent in to tell my teacher, Mrs. Page, that Henry had a sandwich in his lunch- the classroom asked, incredibly, if I had been disrespectful. This was box that looked suspiciously like pea- almond butter was okay. serious. I was in trouble. At school. nut butter. Ever the teacher-pleaser, I have of The gracious Mrs. Page course very obediently abided must have spared me from by the no-nuts diktat. Each consequences, or else I don’t school night I make Henry a remember. What I do remem- sandwich with sunflower butter, ber is that sense of dread, an an expensive spread that tastes intimation of final judgment. just enough like peanut butter The institutional authority a to fool a 4-year-old—with zero teacher brings to a dressing- risk of sending a hypothetical down is deeply intimidat- allergic classmate into anaphy- ing to a 6-year-old. Looming lactic shock. But anything that behind her reprimand is the looks as if it might carry even vice principal, the principal, a trace of nut or legume is sup- and even the legendary perma- posed to be meticulously labeled nent record. Maybe I felt this as safe, along with the date and pang more acutely because I (I may be exaggerating slightly) was a hopeless teacher-pleaser. a notarized document authenti- Maybe kids who acted out cating its nutlessness. more regularly were numb I have followed these guide- to the Big Sink. For me, though, lines, at times grudgingly, but the feeling was worse than any the nurse’s call suggested some- talking-to I got from my parents. As is probably the case at most thing was amiss. “There’s no label,” And it came back. During my first schools these days, Henry’s class- she said. Suddenly, I was right back semester at college, I received an room is “nut free.” (It is also free, his to first grade.Woooop . I assured her it ominous summons via email to meet teachers once let slip, of any kid with was safe, which was all she needed to with a dean to discuss a “disciplinary a nut allergy of any kind. But policy hear, and apologized profusely for my matter.” Woooop. There it was. It hit is policy.) The school has made this slip-up. again when I walked into the dean’s prohibition exceedingly clear. There This time, the Big Sink lingered, office later that week.Woooop . Fortu- are no-nut signs posted on every especially after I got a text message nately, the dean began by saying, “I classroom window, seeming to say, from my wife, who was out of town, don’t think this is you.” He turned his “Abandon all nuts, ye who enter here.” wondering about the calls she had screen around to show surveillance The nut ban made it into every piece missed from the school and if there video of two young men in the ele- of orientation literature we received, was something wrong with our son’s vator at my dorm, one of whom was starting in the summer and right up lunch. She had no doubt felt the Big smashing the electronic card reader through the first day of school. Sink, too. with his fist. Earlier that night, the At the parents’ meeting in late Does it ever go away? cameras had captured me and a friend, August, the teacher and the school

DAVID CLARK DAVID wearing the same color shirts as the nurse made separate speeches empha- Michael Warren

October 15, 2018 The Weekly Standard / 5 EDITORIALS The Bad-Faith Filibuster

ince the summer of 1987, when Judge Robert Bork too, the cynical way in which she was manipulated by her was publicly defamed by such Democratic luminaries attorneys and Senate Democrats. Her claims include a S as Ted Kennedy and Joe Biden, confirmation hear­ number of gaps and inconsistencies and utterly lack cor­ ings for the Supreme Court have become more and more roboration. Their truth is ultimately unknowable and, for full of sanctimony and cant. Hostile senators ask questions many Democrats, irrelevant. Their primary interest is in to which there can be no good answers; nominees respond lengthening the nomination process. Dianne Feinstein obligingly with anodyne rhetoric and evasion. and company don’t care if Brett Kava­naugh was a sot in Republicans are not blameless in this sad progres­ the 1980s, any more than they cared 20 years ago if Bill sion, but it is chiefly the result of the Democratic under­ Clinton was a serial sexual abuser. The point is to stretch standing of the judiciary. The the process out—to filibuster court, in that understanding, without the power to filibuster. is a political institution; it is That is why, from the start empowered, just as Congress of Kava­naugh’s nomination, and the presidency are empow­ Senate Democrats have made ered, to deliver policy results. one impossible demand after And so Democrats treat seats another. Even before the hear­ on the federal judiciary, and ings began, they demanded especially those on the High to see tens of thousands of Court, as though they were documents related to Kava­ elective offices—positions of naugh’s time as staff secretary power for which they are will­ in the George W. Bush White ing to play dirty. House—as if this classified The unlovely consequences Judiciary Committee Democrats huddle: Chris Coons, paperwork were somehow more of this outlook are fully upon Cory Booker, Richard Blumenthal, and Dick Durbin. relevant to Kava­naugh’s quali­ us. From the moment Judge fications than his hundreds of Brett Kava­naugh was nominated, the preponderance of publicly available opinions as a federal judge. The hearings, Democratic senators openly asserted their opposition to Democrats argued, ought to be delayed by weeks in order him. He was a conservative, and they were against him. for them to examine these allegedly crucial documents. New Jersey’s Cory Booker and a few others announced Booker gave away the game when he complained he’d their opposition before Kava­naugh was nominated. Many been denied authority to release some of these documents senators refused even to meet with the nominee prior to and did so anyway. It was his “I am Spartacus moment,” he the hearings. Democratic minority leader Chuck Schumer said. In fact he had been cleared to release them the night announced that he would “oppose him with everything before, but he didn’t care what the documents revealed and I’ve got.” he didn’t want the authority to release them. They were We remember the Bork hearings, in which a distin­ only useful insofar as they occasioned a dramatic demand guished jurist was portrayed as a bigot and a monster; the for more time. Clarence Thomas hearings, in which Democrats mar­ Once the sexual misconduct allegations were leaked shaled sickening and unsubstantiated allegations in an to the media, Democrats issued more demands for time. effort to keep a black conservative from the Court; and There had to be another hearing, one involving Kava­naugh the Samuel Alito hearings, in which Democrats shame­ and his accuser. When Republicans agreed to this request, lessly tried to impute racism to a wholly decent man. Democrats made new ones. They urged Ford and her attor­ Even so, we were unprepared for the grand spectacle of neys to make evolving demands on the timing of her testi­ bad faith and mendacity to which Democrats have sub­ mony in an obvious ploy to delay the process. jected Brett Kava­naugh. Before, during, and after the hearing, Senate Demo­ Leave aside Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation that crats insisted that the FBI investigate Ford’s claims. After

Kava ­naugh tried to rape her 36 years ago. Leave aside, the investigation was granted, they sent a letter to the FBI GABRIELLA DEMCZUK / GETTY

6 / The Weekly Standard October 15, 2018 and White House counsel Don McGahn demanding that building a land bridge that stretches from Tehran to the bureau interview, “at a minimum,” 24 specific people— Beirut. Such a bridge would give them closer proxim­ including people connected to allegations brought by Deb­ ity to Israel and make it easier to strike the so-called orah Ramirez, whose story the New York Times could not “Little Satan” with the nuclear weapons Iran suppos­ corroborate despite exhaustive efforts, and Julie Swetnick, edly wouldn’t dream of building. One can detect Iran’s who has since walked back key components of her allega­ influence behind Assad’s malignity over the course of tion and gives every appearance of being a fraud. Syria’s years-long, bloody civil war. When President What’s important for Democrats is not that the FBI Trump described Iranian meddling on September 25, he discover anything untoward about Brett Kava­naugh. We wasn’t exaggerating. “Iran’s leaders sow chaos, death, and assume they are smart enough to know that these claims destruction in Syria,” he said at the U.N. General Assem­ are either unprovable or slanderous. What they care about bly. “They do not respect their neighbors and borders. is holding off a Senate floor vote on Kava­naugh long Iran’s leaders plunder the nation’s resources to spread enough to take back the Senate and then stonewalling the mayhem across the Middle East and far beyond.” administration’s judicial nominees for two years. Ford, Fact check: true. Ramirez, and Swetnick are useful tools to achieve that end. James Jeffrey, the newly appointed U.S. special rep­ Kava ­naugh himself is just collateral damage. resentative for Syria engagement, described three objec­ The unhappy truth is that Democrats’ specific objec­ tives for the country in a briefing with reporters last tions to Kava­naugh were always irrelevant. They were irrel­ week: the defeat of ISIS, a renewed political process, and evant because they were asserted in bad faith. Democrats “the removal of all Iranian-commanded forces from the know full well that neither he nor any other nominee can or entirety of Syria.” Jeffrey said that Trump laid out these should detail his views on the merits of Roe v. Wade. They goals himself. “As he spelled out,” he said, “the Iranian know Kava­naugh cannot and should not say how he’d rule forces are accelerants to everything that is going wrong in cases involving an indictment of the president. They don’t in Syria.” care if he drank too much as a teenager. They don’t care A central question facing the United States is how to what “Devil’s Triangle” or “boofing” refer to. Nor do they use its military power toward these ends. National secu­ believe, as they claim to, that a man who responds emotion­ rity adviser John Bolton has tied U.S. military presence ally to the suggestion that he’s a serial rapist thereby disqual­ to the administration’s desire to see Iran out. “We’re not ifies himself from the Supreme Court. going to leave as long as Iranian troops are outside Ira­ Since July 9, Democrats have cared primarily about one nian borders, and that includes Iranian proxies and mili­ thing: November 6, 2018. Our hope is that voters will not tias,” he said in September. reward their cynicism. ♦ Jeffrey and defense secretary James Mattis are more reluctant. Mattis has stressed that the military mis­ sion in Syria is legally confined to fighting ISIS. Jeffrey, meanwhile, told reporters that getting Iran out of Syria needn’t “necessarily” involve U.S. boots on the ground. He pointed to diplomatic options as well as local forces Rethinking Syria we’ve trained in Syria. “For many years, as you know, we had local allies on the ground in northern Iraq and we resident Donald Trump provided air support,” he said. longed for a speedy U.S. Ambiguous rhetoric aside, both Mattis and Jeffrey P withdrawal from Syria. have joined Bolton in warning against an early U.S. exit His advisers convinced him from Syria, and they seem to have convinced the presi­ otherwise. They have drawn dent. The Trump administration is squeezing the mul­ his attention to another mission lahs financially by reimposing sanctions that will limit for the United States in Syria their ability to influence Syria. But sanctions alone won’t beyond eliminating the Islamic do the job. A cash-strapped Tehran is just as likely to see State (ISIS), one focused on Damascus as its satellite as an enriched one. Possibly another malign actor vying for more so. power there: Iran. James Jeffrey Elsewhere, the United States is reportedly shifting Syria’s nightmare is largely resources away from the Middle East and toward regions the work of Iran. Bashar al-Assad is responsible for the proximate to Russia and China. It’s an understandable murder and destruction he’s perpetrated, but Tehran is temptation, but the modest U.S. military presence is one of his enabler: The Iranians have supplied Assad with fight­ the few factors preventing Iran from subsuming Syria alto­ ers, weapons, military training, and cash. gether. If Trump wants to break down Iranian hegemony,

YASIN OZTURK / ANADOLU AGENCY / GETTY OZTURK / ANADOLU YASIN The mullahs are bent on dominating the region and the right course in Syria is clear for now: stay. ♦

October 15, 2018 The Weekly Standard / 7 COMMENT

CHRISTOPHER CALDWELL The Kafkaesque trial of Kavanaugh

ears from now, perhaps only the Clintons, and millions of dollars in it has a dark side, and we have seen days from now, when people money from outside left-wing opposi- the dark side during the hearings. If a Y are no longer quite so inebri- tion groups.” Now the middle ground country is only a set of values, then the ated with partisanship, those who wish was gone, and a new understanding was person who does not share what elites Brett Kavanaugh­ well and those who in place: Whether Ford was lying or “know” to be the country’s values is not wish him ill will probably agree on misremembering, what was happening really a member of the national com- one thing: His defiant September 27 was not a hearing but a show trial. munity and is not deserving of its basic statement denying the charges lev- In that context, splitting the dif- protections, nice guy though he might eled against him in the course of his ference could no longer be passed off otherwise be. Such people “belong” to Supreme Court confirmation is the as moderation. It was cowardice. Any the country in the way some think ille- defining speech of our time. Republican who voted gal immigrants do​—​provisionally. Kavanaugh­ rejected outright against Kavanaugh­ (and, On both sides of this dispute, atti- Christine Blasey Ford’s alle- of course, any Demo- tudes towards evidence were deduc- gation that he had jumped crat who voted for him) ible from political allegiances. Those her and gagged her at a party would thereby exit his who opposed Kavanaugh­ ​—​or who 36 years ago, when both were in party. Just as the congres- were looking for a reason to oppose​—​ high school. He denied know- sional vote in 1846 on the stressed the “believability” of Ford’s ingly having met her. None so-called Wilmot Proviso story. Of course they did. The hear- of the witnesses she named revealed that the fault-line ings were designed to enhance that remembered any such party. in American politics was believability. This was partly due to But it was a Kafkaesque sit- about slavery, not party, politics: Senators were frightened, in uation for Kavana­ ugh: Since the Kava­naugh nomina- an election year, of being seen to beat Ford could not (or would not) tion shows what Ameri- up on a woman presenting herself as say when and where the inci- can politics is, at heart, the victim of sexual assault. But it was dent took place, it was literally about. It is about “rights” partly due to the Senate’s ground rules: impossible for him to exoner- and the entire system that This was a venue in which a man could ate himself conclusively. “Doubts” had arose in our lifetimes to confer them be accused of sex crimes without any been “raised.” Raised by people with a not through legislation but through right to confront or cross-examine his desperate political interest in raising court decisions: Roe v. Wade in 1973 accuser. Ford’s supporters were con- them, it is true. But those who sit on (abortion), Regents v. Bakke in 1979 tent that it should be this way. It was the Senate Judiciary Committee are no (affirmative action),Plyler v. Doe in only a “job interview,” they said. more immune than ordinary human 1982 (immigrant rights), and Obergefell Deprived of these structural advan- beings to the lazy-minded heuristic v. Hodges in 2015 (gay marriage). The tages, the case against Kavanaugh­ was that when accounts clash, the truth Democrats are the party of rights. As weak. Without the information that must lie “somewhere in the middle.” such, they are the party of the Supreme would be turned up regarding both When Ford finished testifying on Court. You can see why Ted Kennedy Kava­naugh and Ford in an ordinary Thursday morning, Kavanaugh­ ’s nom- claimed in a 1987 diatribe that the court discovery, one can pass judg- ination appeared to be finished. Yale law professor Robert Bork would ment only with humility and caution. The moment Kava­naugh began to turn the United States into a police But patterns emerged. Ford answered speak, he broke that logic. The sena- state. For Democrats, an unfriendly questions obliquely. She resorted to tors were not adjudicating a difference Supreme Court is a threat to everything. abstraction (“Indelible in the hippo- of recollections. They were not adju- That means the country itself. The campus is the laughter”). She claimed dicating at all. They were engaged in general Democratic view that has not to remember incidents of recent a “grotesque and coordinated charac- hardened since the 1960s is the one weeks. Much of her corroborating evi- ter assassination . . . a calculated and expressed on many occasions by dence was either generated by herself orchestrated political hit, fueled with Barack Obama. The United States is (she said she had mentioned the inci- apparent pent-up anger about Presi- not a country bound by a common his- dent in a 2012 therapy session) or eas- dent Trump and the 2016 election, fear tory or a common ethnicity—​ ​it is a set ily accessible in the public domain. “A that has been unfairly stoked about my of values. That is an open, welcoming fabulist likely would not know,” writes

judicial record, revenge on behalf of thing to build a country around. But Kavanaugh foe Benjamin Wittes, “of CLEGG LIKENESSES: DAVE

8 / The Weekly Standard October 15, 2018 Kava ­naugh’s friendship with Mark those who claim to be weighing the political persuasions have woken up Judge and their propensity to drink balance between the two are obtuse, this week​—​some with exhilaration, beer together.” Perhaps not, but a hard- nostalgic, or trying to persuade their some with despair​—​to the realiza- working paralegal for one of the law old comrades not to shoot them in tion that, as the essayist Midge Decter firms working pro bono to do opposi- the back as they make their way once wrote, they are going to have to tion research on Kava­naugh would towards enemy lines. Americans of all join the side they are on. ♦ have no trouble finding Judge’s books, in which that friendship is described. The grounds for rejecting Kava­ COMMENT ♦ BARTON SWAIM naugh have shifted steadily. First it was the incident alleged by Ford. Then, second, as the evidence proved under- In defense of inarticulate rage whelming, it was whether the taint of having been accused of such an inci- or anybody who wasn’t totally in courtrooms on a fairly routine basis, dent compromised the perception that committed to the proposition but for those charges to get into a court- he would be a fair judge. Then, third, Fthat Christine Blasey Ford spoke room, they must exhibit some level of it was the question of whether Kava­ only the literal truth about Brett Kava­ plausibility to a prosecutor. The Swet- naugh’s minimizing the seriousness naugh during her testimony to the Sen- nick allegations had none. of his drinking had constituted per- ate Judiciary Committee, there were During the time allotted to Lind- jury. Fourth and finally, it was whether long stretches during Kavanaugh­ ’s tes- sey Graham for questioning Kava­ his outburst at the committee showed timony that felt like a show naugh, the South Carolina a partisanship that was evidence he trial. For hours we watched senator took about a min- lacked the “judicial temperament” to as the Supreme Court nomi- ute to fulminate against his serve on the Court. Whether Kava­ nee was forced to listen to Democratic colleagues. “If naugh’s attacks on the Democratic lengthy descriptions of his you wanted an FBI inves- members of the Senate panel consti- supposed lechery in a nation- tigation,” Graham said tuted partisanship is a trickier factual ally televised broadcast. If to them, “you could have determination than it appears at first. he reacted placidly, he was a come to us. What you want Is an accusation of partisanship parti- sociopath; if intemperately, to do is destroy this guy’s sanship? Such accusations are often unfit to be a judge. life, hold this [Supreme leveled by people who distrust both Even supposing there is Court] seat open, and hope political parties. some truth in Blasey Ford’s you win in 2020. You’ve Kava naugh­ ’s foes were comfort- murky and self-contradic- said that, not me.” able voting against him on the basis tory claims, the other stories “I would never do to [Jus- of temperament. The question is not were pretty obviously manu- tices Elena Kagan and Sonia “whether he’s innocent or guilty,” said factured. But that didn’t stop rank- Sotomayor] what you’ve done to this Cory Booker. “I am emphatically not ing Democrat Dianne Feinstein from guy,” Graham went on, his voice quiv- saying that Kavanaugh­ did what Ford slowly, deliberately reading the accusa- ering. “This is the most unethical sham says he did,” says Wittes. “The evi- tions and phrasing them in ways that since I’ve been in politics. And if you dence is not within 100 yards of ade- seemed to presuppose their truth. “Yes- really wanted to know the truth [about quate to convict him. But whether he terday,” Feinstein intoned, Blasey Ford’s allegations], you sure as did it is not the question at hand.” hell wouldn’t have done what you’ve What is that supposed to mean? [Julie] Swetnick came forward to say done to this guy.” This amounted to saying that Brett that she had experiences of being at “Are you a gang rapist?” Graham Kava­naugh lacks a “judicial tempera- house parties with Brett Kava­naugh asked Kava­naugh. and Mark Judge. She recounted see- ment” because he objected to being ing Kavanaugh­ engage, and I quote, “No,” the nominee replied. summarily executed following a show “in abusive and physically aggressive Graham went on: trial. If you permit the criteria of culpa- behavior toward girls,” end quote, I cannot imagine what you and your bility to shift, then you have the circu- including attempts to, quote, “remove family have gone through. Boy, you lar logic typical of totalitarian regimes. or shift girls’ clothing,” end quote. Not all want power. God, I hope you never Just as there are people famous-for- taking, quote, “no for an answer,” grab- get it. I hope the American people can being-famous, now there are people bing girls, quote, “without their con- see through this sham. That you knew sent,” end quote, and targeting, quote, guilty-of-being-accused. about [Blasey Ford’s letter alleging “particular girls so that they could be assault] and you held it. You had no Suddenly there are two parties in taken advantage of,” end quote. intention of protecting Dr. Ford— this country: There are Kavanaugh none. She’s as much of a victim as you conservatives and Booker Democrats. It’s true that innocent suspects lis- are. God, I hate to say it because these Maybe this will change. For now, ten to false charges made about them have been my friends. But let me tell

October 15, 2018 The Weekly Standard / 9 you, when it comes to this, you’re It’s perhaps worth remembering “Are you really a closet bigot?” Gra- looking for a fair process? You came that Graham reacted in a similar way ham asked. to the wrong town at the wrong time, 12 years ago, though with a little less “I’m not any kind of bigot,” was the my friend. heat. In 2006, during Samuel Alito’s nominee’s careful answer. Graham’s outburst was not elo- confirmation hearings, Sen. Edward Graham went on: quent, but he expressed what I Kennedy—famed for smearing Rob- No, sir, you’re not. And you know regarded at the time, and still regard, ert Bork on the floor—queried the why I believe that? Not because you as the searingly obvious truth that the judge about his onetime membership just said it, but that’s a good enough Democrats on the committee were in a traditionalist organization called reason. Because you seem to be a happy to destroy a decent and accom- Concerned Alumni of Princeton. Alito decent, honorable man. Judge Alito, plished man in order to prevent a 5-4 had put the name of the group on a I am sorry that you’ve had to go conservative majority on the Court. résumé in 1985, though he said he had through this. I am sorry that your family has had to sit here and listen I thought of a passage in Thomas no memory of what it was. The orga- to this. Wolfe’s Look Homeward, Angel, when nization existed from 1972 to 1986 and some of Eugene Gant’s pals surround published a magazine called Prospect. In my experience it is usually folly a poor wretch in an alleyway and taunt Kennedy’s staffers had discovered pas- to assign uncalculating motives to him. One of them points at the boy and sages in the magazine of a decidedly highly successful and ambitious poli- says, “His mother takes in washin’.” reactionary tone. Kennedy read these ticians. But maybe it’s not saying all That gets a laugh, so the accuser says passages deliberately, as if Alito must that much about such a politician to it again and adds a racial slur, and the have relished reading them at the time say he doesn’t care to see a guy called boys all laugh except Eugene. and probably agreed with them now. a creep and a reprobate with no more Eugene turned away indefinitely, “People nowadays just don’t seem evidence than a single accusation. craned his neck convulsively, lifted to know their place,” Kennedy said, Graham reacted as I guess many read- one foot sharply from the ground. reading aloud. “Everywhere one turns, ers of these words would react. “She don’t!” he screamed sud- blacks and Hispanics are demanding How strange that tough-minded, denly into their astounded faces. jobs simply because they’re black and skeptical journalists can interpret “She don’t!” Hispanic,” and so on. After each pas- the obvious grandstanding of one A few hours after Graham’s outburst sage Kennedy would ask the nominee faction as if its words are self-evi- I received an email from an editor at if he remembered reading it, and Alito dently sincere, while the hot-tem- a major news publication asking if I would say, again, that he had no mem- pered defense of a man accused of would be willing to write a short piece ory of the magazine or the organization. crimes without evidence appears to on what the senator was “really” up This and several other lines of ques- them Machiavellian. to. The editor knew I was from South tioning were manifestly intended to For myself, I cannot know what Carolina and thought I might have suggest that Alito was some variety of happened to Christine Blasey Ford in some insight into this mystery. Is Gra- racist. Kennedy’s badgering became so 1982 or whenever it was. But when I ham angling for another presidential intense at one point that Alito’s wife, see a posse of arrogant powerbrokers run in 2020? he wanted to know. Does Martha, left the hearing room in tears. surround a decent man and say he he want an appointed position in the A few minutes later, it was Lind- rapes girls and drinks too much and administration—perhaps attorney gen- sey Graham’s turn to ask questions of lies about it, all I know to say is, “He eral? I turned down this opportunity to the nominee. don’t. He don’t.” ♦ plumb Senator Graham’s psyche, but plenty of others took up the subject. Over the next day or two there were COMMENT ♦ PHILIP TERZIAN pieces in McClatchy papers, on CNBC, on NPR, and in Politico. What struck me about the query was A European Union this: Throughout the Kavanaugh-F­ ord ordeal, this editor and the great major- that divides the British ity of his fellow journalistic practition­ ers treated every calculated utterance or the past half-century and a beat, Conservatives have been a by Senate Democrats as a sincere effort more, Britain’s Conservative house divided since Britain’s first to discover the truth of Blasey Ford’s Fparty has been haunted— application for membership in 1961. claims, though any lamebrain could divided, exhausted, even con- This has never been more pain- see their motives were almost entirely fused—by the European Union. Yet fully evident than in the two years-plus political. It was only Graham’s inarticu- unlike Labour, which has changed since British voters declared their inde- late, unscripted rant that moved them its mind on the subject as much pendence from the E.U. Prime Min- to a state of cynical incredulity. as the Tories but without missing ister David Cameron, who had won

10 / The Weekly Standard October 15, 2018 a stunning general election victory in narrow margin (52-48). And in 2017, Britain’s attitude toward the European 2015 on the promise of a referendum, while Theresa May’s snap election Union has evolved so dramatically was obliged to resign prematurely cost the Conservatives seats in Par- since the first referendum on Brit- when the 2016 Brexit vote went against liament, her Labour opposition was ish membership (1975), which was his wishes. The referendum campaign equally committed to Brexit. broadly favorable. itself had divided members of Camer- The idea that the Brexit vote was There are two reasons for this. on’s cabinet, and Cameron’s successor a terrible error, abetted by lies, dema- The first is that the idea of European Theresa May has, in turn, seen her own goguery, and xenophobia, is com- unity, to which everyone pays lip ser- cabinet riven by her faltering attempts forting to what might be called elite vice, has been transformed in ways to negotiate a graceful departure. opinion in Britain. But it is also an no one anticipated at the dawn of Last week the open divisions among argument—or more accurately an irri- the European Union. It is perfectly Tories were the main ingredient of table attitude—that resonates here. understandable that Western Europe- their annual conference. May’s foreign Like the election of Donald Trump to ans, in the late 1940s, would have sur- secretary Jeremy Hunt was much criti- the presidency, what was unimaginable veyed the effects of two world wars in cized in Brussels for comparing the to some turned out to be appealing to three decades, and the rise of a men- E.U. to the Soviet Union acing empire on their eastern fron- while his predecessor Boris tier, and sought to pool resources and Johnson pleased the Con- In the matter of strengthen common bonds to revive servative rank and file by Brexit—like the their civilization. warning that Britain would Yet what began as an effort to share be “humiliated” by May’s election of Donald assets and revive economies—and, Brexit strategy—and her not least, to reinvent and reintegrate party pay a price at the polls. Trump to the German democracy—has pushed The irony, of course, presidency—what beyond the wide ideal of prosperity and is that both Johnson and friendly borders into the narrow realm Hunt are correct. May’s was unimaginable to of state power and national sovereignty. halfhearted version of a some turned out to be That is the second reason: A benign British departure would project to recover from malign nation- leave her country “half-in appealing to many. alism has become a facsimile of an arbi- and half-out,” as Johnson trary nation-state, governed not by its complained. And her appeasement many. To be sure, the winning sides are citizens but a swollen bureaucracy. of the E.U. has been met with the not necessarily correct, either here or A cynic would argue, of course, sort of dismissive contempt in Brus- there; but democracy is undermined that the nature of governments, as a sels that reminds British voters why not by voting but by failure to accept general principle, is to grow and con- they chose Brexit. As the deadline the results of free and open elections. trol, and the gradual intrusion of the approaches for formal withdrawal In that sense, while the Brexit vote European Union across borders and (March 2019), it seems entirely pos- and its aftermath have surely thrown into legislatures should not have been sible that Brexit will be neither “soft” British politics into turmoil—for a surprise. But the facts that British nor “hard” but chaotic. which the Conservative party may or voters have awakened to this and their Chaos, of course, is inimical to may not be punished in future polls— E.U. brethren—most especially in the democracy and so critics of Brexit now it is not at all clear what the long-term newly liberated states of the old Soviet repeat their insistence, with emphasis, consequences of withdrawal may be. Union—show signs of restlessness are that a second referendum be held to With that in mind, it’s been perceived, and with reason, as threats undo the first. But that’s unlikely instructive since the vote to observe in Brussels. to happen since there’s little evidence the posture of the European Union That would explain the rancorous that reverting to the status quo ante toward Great Britain. Led by the arguments, among Britain’s Conser- appeals to the British electorate. president of the European Commis- vatives and on the Continent, about To begin with, it might reasonably sion, the redoubtable Jean-Claude the nature of national sovereignty be argued that within the past three Juncker of Luxembourg, Brussels and the implications of the E.U.’s years, three nationwide ballots have has been uniformly hostile: con- open-borders policy. It would also been held on the question, and Brexit temptuous of voters, insulting to the explain the E.U.’s petulance about prevailed each time. In 2015, Cam- elected government charged with Brexit. What started as a rebellion in eron’s successful electoral campaign Brexit diplomacy, continually obsti- rural England over agricultural regu- benefited from his promise to hold a nate, obstructionist, even threatening. lations has become a European-wide referendum in the following year. In Whether consciously or not, the E.U. quarrel about who governs whom—a 2016, the referendum vote itself went mandarins—unelected, unaccount- debate Brussels should welcome but against the E.U., albeit by a relatively able, unyielding—have affirmed why clearly does not. ♦

12 / The Weekly Standard October 15, 2018 has a photo of himself with Dia- mond and Silk pinned atop his Twit- A Seat Republicans ter page, and his Facebook page has a photo of himself with Don Trump Jr. Ann Coulter is coming to town for a Can’t Possibly Lose fundraising dinner and book signing later this month. He’s been endorsed by Senator Rand Paul and by Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. In California’s 8th, both candidates are on the Much less flashy is Cook, 75, the right. But which is Trumpier? by Tony Mecia incumbent running for a fourth term. He’s a retired Marine colonel who Victorville, Calif. to the general election. Usually, that served in Vietnam and is more a stan- he inside of the beige stucco means voters choose between a Dem- dard-issue Republican. Like many of house in this California des- ocrat and Republican or, since the his colleagues, Cook endorsed Trump T ert town seems like a casual state leans so far to the left, two Dem- only after Trump had locked up the place. There’s a gray sectional couch ocrats. Only rarely do two Republi- nomination, and he skipped the 2016 in the den. The fridge is stocked with cans win the top spots. Republican convention. He tends to La Croix. The TV is tuned to side with party leadership, Fox News. which means he usually votes But if you look around a for spending bills that are little, you’ll see that this isn’t unpopular with some conser- an ordinary house. There’s vatives. He’s been endorsed by the bank of phones set up on the National Rifle Association, tables in the dining room. pro-life groups, and many local The garage is filled with cam- elected officials. paign signs. Then there’s the The choice poses a baffling enlarged Trump tweet posted dilemma for conservatives above the toilet: “Paul Cook is following the race: Do they a decorated Marine Corps Vet- back the challenger who’s like eran who loves and supports Trump or the incumbent who our Military and Vets. He is has backed Trump? Strong on Crime, the Border, Challenger Tim Donnelly, left, and incumbent Paul Cook “It kills me,” says Aaron F. and supported Tax Cuts for the Park, 47, an insurance sales- people of California. Paul has my total In this sprawling conservative dis- man who runs the blog RightOnDaily, and complete Endorsement!” trict, which runs from the Mojave which follows state and local politics. This isn’t just a house. It’s the nerve Desert to Death Valley to just east of “I’m a hard-core conservative, and center of the reelection campaign of Yosemite, that dynamic is producing my heart is with Donnelly. But you Paul Cook, the Republican congress- an odd campaign. President Trump don’t know what you’re getting with man who represents California’s 8th plays prominently in many of this him. He’s so volatile. . . . Donnelly Congressional District, one of the fall’s congressional races, but not usu- doesn’t have a filter. Sometimes he’ll largest, geographically, in the state. ally like this: Cook, the incumbent, is say outrageous things to get an audi- Seated on the sectional couch wear- flaunting Trump’s endorsement. But ence.” He’s backing Cook because, he ing shorts, a T-shirt, and a ball cap, his challenger, Tim Donnelly, is run- says, there are too many red flags in Cook’s campaign manager, Matt Knox, ning as Trump’s doppelgänger. Donnelly’s background. Cook is more acknowledges that it’s unusual to run Donnelly, 52, is a former California moderate, but at least he has backed a congressional reelection campaign assemblyman who was an early leader Trump’s “Make America Great Again out of a buddy’s house. But this is an of the Minutemen, a group of fatigues- agenda,” Park says. unusual district and an unusual race. wearing volunteers who help patrol the Park’s blog links to an anti-Don- It is the only congressional race in southern border. He called for build- nelly site that calls the candidate a the country pitting two Republicans ing a wall years before Trump, at a time “jobless office-seeker” and “convicted against each other. California’s “jun- when Trump was still filming early sea- criminal.” After serving two terms in gle primary” system advances the top sons of The Apprentice and donating to the assembly, Donnelly ran unsuc- two vote-getters, regardless of party, Hillary Clinton’s Senate campaigns. cessfully for Congress and for gov- Donnelly is an outspoken and atten- ernor. He also pleaded guilty in 2012 Tony Mecia is a senior writer tion-getting figure, quick with a sound to carrying a loaded .45-caliber Colt

at The Weekly Standard. bite and prolific on social media. He handgun through airport security. He BILL CLARK / CQ ROLL CALL GETTY TOMMASO BODDI RIGHT: / WIREIMAGE GETTY; LEFT:

14 / The Weekly Standard October 15, 2018 said at the time that he had placed it House Intelligence Committee, which Cook. That’s one of the reasons Cali- in his laptop bag to keep it safely away has examined whether intelligence fornia adopted its primary system, to from his family and forgot to remove agencies conducted surveillance of the encourage middle-of-the-road can- it before heading to the airport. He Trump campaign. didates. Yet Trump’s endorsement of said he tended to be armed to protect She and other Donnelly supporters Cook could steer some anti-Trump vot- himself, since he had received death figure Trump subordinates must have ers to Donnelly. Or maybe large num- threats for being a prominent oppo- coordinated the president’s endorse- bers simply won’t vote in the race. nent of a California bill to give in-state ment of Cook, since Trump has never Democratic groups are refusing tuition to illegal immigrants. gotten to know Donnelly. to endorse either candidate. James More recently, CNN has been on In the district, there doesn’t seem Albert, president of the San Ber- Donnelly’s case over controversial to be much of a traditional cam- nardino County Young Democrats, social-media posts and comments he paign going on. There are no debates says his organization is focusing on made during a stint as a talk-radio host. scheduled, no TV ads, and few pub- electing progressives in other races. In May, CNN reported that Donnelly lic appearances. In a large, rural dis- “The top-two primary has left peo- tweeted that David Hogg, the out- ple feeling underrepresented in a spoken student who is pushing gun lot of our communities,” he says. control after his Parkland, Florida, OREGON “I would encourage Democrats high school was the target of a mass and independents to focus their shooting, had a “Hitlerian fetish attention and energy on down- to disarm Americans” and was a CALIFORNIA ballot races.” “#FakeParklandSurvivor.” Cook would seem to have the Last month, CNN reported NEVADA edge in both organization and that on his radio show in 2015, money. He actually has faced Donnelly referred to “Ayatollah another Republican in a general Obama”: “I don’t know what his election in the past, in 2012 when connection to the Muslim Broth- he was first elected. He won by erhood is, but he’s got them in all 8th 14 points. He beat Democratic kinds of positions of power.” After Congressional challengers by 36 points in 2014 the 2015 San Bernardino shooting, District and by 24 points in 2016. Donnelly said the Obama admin- Jack Pitney, a political science istration should “put the mosques professor at Claremont McKenna on notice. You’d tell them, ‘If you Pacific ARIZONA College, says the race is Cook’s to don’t turn over the extremists and Ocean lose: “So long as he avoids speak- jihadists within your midst then MEXICO ing in tongues or showing other we’ll set the FBI on you. We’ll turn signs of possession, he’s fine.” Oth- your mosques upside down. We’ll ers aren’t so sure, likening the race make your lives a living hell until you trict, campaign signs play an outsized to a party primary in which low turn- rat out those who have declared war role. Cook calls attention to his sta- out could make results unpredictable. on America.’ ” tus as a retired colonel, which plays There appear to be few animating Donnelly didn’t back down, telling well in a district home to Fort Irwin local issues. Federal land-use policies CNN: “You want to hit me for being National Training Center and the have traditionally been important, too harsh on the a—holes who killed Marine Corps Air Ground Com- since the district includes Joshua Tree my neighbor and the worthless poli- bat Center, also known as 29 Palms. National Park, Mojave National Pre- ticians like Paul Cook, who colluded Cook’s background plays well with serve, and Death Valley National Park. with Obama and the #FakeNewsMe- voters like retired businessman Thur- Off-road racing on federal land is a dia to let them into our country.” ston “Smitty” Smith, 60, who says he popular pastime. Real-estate company owner Becky values Cook’s integrity and military “The biggest thing you hear from Otwell, 75, says she favors Donnelly service. Donnelly’s signs include a voters is, ‘Does he support the presi- because he seems more committed to drawing of a Revolutionary War min- dent?’ ” campaign manager Matt Knox Trump’s agenda. She says his campaign uteman holding a rifle, with the slogan says. At 10 on a recent weekday morn- seems more energetic. “Patriot, Not Politician.” ing, a half-dozen young volunteers “I just think we need somebody who The district voted 55 percent for walk in the front door of the campaign is going to get behind Trump and help Trump in 2016. This year, voters who headquarters house in Victorville. him,” she says. She wants somebody don’t like Trump will face their own They walk through the kitchen to the who doesn’t reluctantly back Trump, quandary. Ordinarily, Democrats and phones and start dialing to let people but somebody who will “really work,” independents would be more likely to know that for Cook, the answer is an

THE WEEKLY STANDARD THE WEEKLY like Devin Nunes, the chairman of the vote for the more moderate candidate, unqualified “yes.” ♦

October 15, 2018 The Weekly Standard / 15 think the Portlandia television show image speaks for the rest of the state, Surprisingly but that’s a mistaken view. After years of holding up Portland as the model for urban planning and an incubator Competitive for cutting-edge culture, its boosters have had to reckon in the last few years with the city’s many dysfunctions. Port- land’s homeless problem, exacerbated Will Oregon be the next blue state with a by obvious policy mistakes, is so bad Republican governor? by Mark Hemingway that fixing it has become a statewide issue. The city was publicly called out Tigard, Ore. Research poll from September shows this summer by President Trump after ryan Reed, the campaign Brown up one point, well within the the mayor allowed “protesters”—who manager for Knute Buehler, margin of error. “More importantly are not really distinguishable from the B Oregon’s GOP gubernatorial than us being down 1 is the fact that an city’s aggressive vagrant population— candidate, is not your typical Republi- incumbent who is universally known to camp in front of the city’s Immigra- can campaign flack. Reed’s slight, flat is at 41 [points in the polls],” Reed tion and Customs Enforcement office Midwestern accent betrays for five weeks, threatening fed- that he is from Illinois. But his eral employees who work there. long hair, jeans, and affinity Basic law and order issues for the Grateful Dead go a long in Portland, along with a raft way toward helping him pass of new state taxes and regula- as an Oregonian. Reed is in tions, have outraged Oregon’s Oregon because he has a very business community, the lead- particular expertise: electing ers of which are not neces- Republicans in blue states. He sarily inclined to support the cut his campaign teeth work- GOP. And yet Buehler has ing for Republicans in the earned support from some of heavily Democratic suburbs them. Nike co-founder Phil of Chicago before ending up Knight gave Buehler’s cam- the number-three guy (out of paign $1.5 million. 170 campaign staffers) on Illi- Knute Buehler speaks in the Oregon House chamber. Other significant issues, such nois governor Bruce Rauner’s as education, have undermined successful race in 2014. More recently, observes. “It’s a rough place to be.” confidence in Democratic rule of the he was deputy campaign manager for In some respects, Buehler’s suc- state. Oregon has the third-worst high recently resigned Missouri governor cess shouldn’t be too surprising. Until school graduation rate in the coun- Eric Greitens. about two decades ago, the state was try and the Buehler campaign has But compared with those states, largely governed by liberal Republi- pledged to fix it in part by lengthen- Oregon presents a much bigger chal- cans and centrist Democrats, before ing the school year, which at 990 hours lenge. “I got the voice message from massive out-of-state population per year for high school students is the somebody who got my résumé, and influxes—including lots of progres- shortest in the nation. “The current they said, ‘Hey, we got this candi- sive Californians—to the Portland 165-day average translates into Oregon date, here’s this race,’ ” Reed tells metro area shifted the political land- students attending one year less school The Weekly Standard. “Now, I was scape. Oregon has about 4.1 million [by the time they graduate] than stu- thinking to myself, ‘Oregon gover- residents, and 2.35 million live in the dents in Washington State,” notes a nor’s race? There’s no way that this is Portland region, so the entire state’s Buehler press release. competitive.’ ” But months later, sit- politics have moved dramatically left- Oregon’s short school year is in ting in the corner of a bagel shop in ward along with the growth of the part a byproduct of another enormous the Portland suburbs, Reed doesn’t urban population. This has created problem—the state’s exorbitant pen- regret taking the job. Polls since tension in state politics, because Port- sion plan for public employees, known July have shown that Buehler is in a land isn’t just a liberal city anymore. as PERS. In April, the New York dead heat with incumbent Democrat It rivals San Francisco in progressive Times ran an alarming report about Kate Brown. The most recent Clout extremism, and this is decidedly at how increased payments to PERS are odds with the politics and culture of responsible for, among other things, Mark Hemingway is a senior writer the rest of the state. cutbacks in school days in rural dis-

at The Weekly Standard. Most national observers tend to tricts as well as fewer road repairs and TOM JAMES / AP

16 / The Weekly Standard October 15, 2018 basic services in smaller towns such that Democratic activists in the state never voted for a Republican in my as Klamath Falls in southern Oregon. are less likely to get energized by the entire life and I’m voting for you.’ ” Meanwhile, the retired president of competitive race. Reed concedes that this kind of inter- Oregon Health and Sciences Uni- In the meantime, Buehler’s able action isn’t always an abnormal thing versity collects a pension of $76,111. campaign manager is fielding ques- for a good Republican candidate to Every month. tions and talking up his chances. encounter, but given the bitter national It helps that Buehler is an excep- Buehler would certainly be the contin- partisanship in this particular election tionally good candidate. He played uation of a national trend—Vermont, cycle, it’s astonishing. baseball at Oregon State before going Maryland, and Massachusetts all have “It’s like we’re so far away in Oregon on to become OSU’s first Rhodes low-key, centrist GOP governors who that it’s a different country. It’s really scholar. He eventually graduated were elected in no small part to address strange,” says Reed. “We never see it from Johns Hopkins medical school the dysfunction of Democratic party on the trail. And go back and look at and settled in Bend, a booming ski rule. Reed says, “Anecdotally, people the interviews, there’s just nothing town of 90,000 people, 162 miles jump out at parades; when he’s doing about Trump.” The Buehler campaign from Portland. Though living in an fairs, people leap out of the crowd and is certainly hoping it stays that way outdoor mecca meant his skills as say, ‘Hey, Knute! I’m a Democrat. I’ve between now and November. ♦ an orthopedic surgeon were in high demand, he entered politics and got elected to the statehouse in 2014, defeating a local Democrat. Speaking to people in the Portland A Conspiracy suburbs, where Buehler will have to win over a significant number of Dem- ocratic voters to prevail, the enthusi- So Vast . . . asm for Buehler seems real. That’s in part because he has done a good job of positioning himself in ways that appeal to Democrats. He’s avowedly pro- But where’s the crime? choice and has pledged not to change by Eric Felten the state’s abortion laws. He didn’t vote for Trump. And as a doctor, he’s pledg- ladimir Putin was getting those charges are crumbling, his per- ing to keep tinkering with and trying ahead of himself when he spective may be skewed by the habits to fix key aspects of the Oregon Health V declared, at the infamous Hel- of his own country’s justice system. Plan—the state’s proto-Obamacare sinki press conference in July with The Russian president isn’t exactly attempt to provide health care to every- President Donald Trump, that charges famous for being a rule-of-law kind one in the state. The Oregon Health brought by special counsel Robert of guy. Still, that doesn’t mean he’s Plan has been a fiscal train wreck since Mueller’s team against Concord Man- wrong when he says it’s important to it was conceived nearly 30 years ago, agement and Consulting “just fell apart “look at what happens in the Ameri- and it’s hard to imagine a more con- in a U.S. court.” The Russian company can courts. This is what you should ventional market-oriented Republican is accused of running a campaign of base your view on, not on rumors.” wanting to prop it up. social-media trolling to meddle in the The next thing scheduled to hap- Despite being an unorthodox can- 2016 U.S. election with bogus tweets pen in an American court with Con- didate on the cusp of a possible upset, and phony Facebook posts. cord Management is a hearing slated Buehler is flying under the radar, which Concord hired a first-rate legal for October 15. Concord’s lawyers is exactly how he and his advisers want team to defend itself in D.C. district have filed a motion to have the charges it. His campaign insists Buehler isn’t court. As a company rather than an dropped on the grounds that “the Spe- personally doing any national press individual, Concord can contest the cial Counsel found a set of alleged facts interviews because he wants to stay charges without any of its Russian for which there is no crime. Instead focused on local issues (even if the personnel showing up in the court- of conceding that truth, however, the reporter in question was raised in Bend room. Much of the summer was spent Special Counsel attempts to create a and wants to talk local issues). There in procedural wrangling over discov- make-believe crime that is in fact no are other strategic reasons for this. If ery and other legal niceties. If Putin crime at all.” he’s not discussed in the national press, thinks that merely getting to chal- This isn’t just the standard sort of Buehler is unlikely to be lumped in lenge charges in open court means criminal-mouthpiece motion, ticking with conservative Republicans or oth- off boxes in hopes of a longshot dis- erwise conflated with Trump’s GOP. Eric Felten is a senior writer missal. It’s significant enough that, And a lack of national attention means at The Weekly Standard. after an initial hearing in which the

October 15, 2018 The Weekly Standard / 17 special counsel was represented by U.S. and the Foreign Agents Registration a rule prohibiting interference with attorney Jeannie Rhee, Mueller sent in Act, but they don’t necessarily fit the the functioning of federal agencies. his big guns. At a June 15 status hear- elements of any crime on the books. But given the ubiquity of modern ing, Mueller’s side was argued by one That’s where the conspiracy charge government activity, a statute against of the government’s top appellate law- comes in handy. Concord’s lawyers impeding the government in any of yers, deputy solicitor general Michael say their client has been charged “for its functions threatens to criminalize Dreeben. Concord’s D.C. lawyer Eric a contrived crime not specifically all sorts of behavior that would other- Dubelier took note: “Well, I guess if defined in any statute, without notice wise be lawful. anyone thought for a second there and under a standard known only to To “defraud” the United States used wasn’t anything unusual about this the special counsel.” to be understood in its common-law case,” he cracked, “it’s the first time Yes, and so what? responds the spe- meaning—“to cheat the Government in my career that I’ve seen the deputy cial counsel’s office. Quoting case law, out of property or money.” But in solicitor general of the United 1924, Chief Justice (and for- States down here with us com- mer president) William How- mon folk in district court.” ard Taft wrote an expansion Why does Mueller need an of the term big enough to fill appellate heavyweight—some- the Taft bathtub. To conspire one usually brought in after to defraud the United States a trial—for the preliminary “also means to interfere with sparring? Perhaps it is because or obstruct one of its lawful the legal theory of the case is a governmental functions by bit tendentious. deceit, craft or trickery, or at Dreeben argued that the least by means that are dishon- United States needs only “to est,” Taft wrote in his opinion prove a conspiracy to defraud in Hammerschmidt v. United the United States.” But “we States. “It is not necessary that do not need to prove a crimi- the Government shall be sub- nal violation of the underlying jected to property or pecuniary statute,” he told the judge. In loss by the fraud, but only that other words, the prosecution its legitimate official action is claiming that a conspiracy and purpose shall be defeated to do “x” can be criminal even by misrepresentation.” if “x” is not itself a criminal It doesn’t take much imagi- act. This may sound strange, but it’s Mueller’s team asserts, “The [conspir- nation to see how such a definition of not a mistake. Pressed by Judge Dab- acy to] defraud clause does not depend “defrauding” could be stretched into a ney Friedrich, the deputy solicitor on allegations of other offenses.” And sort of catch-all for federal prosecutors general restated it: “There’s a legion of because of that, “even otherwise ‘law- when they are short on evidence of a cases,” Dreeben said, that “have spe- ful activity may furnish the basis for specific crime with which to charge cifically said you don’t need to have an a conviction under [Section] 371’ ”— a perp. Consider this advertisement underlying illegality in a conspiracy that is, the section of federal law deal- for the utility of the “conspiracy to to defraud.” ing with criminal conspiracies. defraud” charge from a 2013 issue of He’s right. Conspiracy law is noto- How did we get to a place where the in-house Justice Department jour- riously elastic. Even so, a prosecutor agreeing with someone to do some- nal Prosecuting Criminal Conspiracies: would rather have conspirators dead to thing otherwise legal can be pros- “A defendant can be charged with the rights on a clear, willful violation of a ecuted as a criminal conspiracy? And defraud prong of the conspiracy stat- law than have to establish that collud- is Concord Management likely to have ute without any charge of violating ing to do something not proved to be a any luck challenging the constitution- a separate substantive statute.” The crime is nonetheless a crime in and of ality of such a law? authors quote approvingly from a Sev- itself. The latter sort of scenario is why The scope and ambitions of the enth Circuit case: “Neither the con- you might need a deputy solicitor gen- federal government have grown tre- spiracy’s goal nor the means used to eral on your team. mendously since the days early in the achieve it need to be independently The specific acts Concord is 20th century when what is known illegal.” In short: “The Klein con- alleged to have engaged in—paying now as “Section 371” or “Klein con- spiracy is clearly an effective tool that Russians to write social media posts spiracy” law was being established. prosecutors should consider.” about American politics—aren’t nec- When the federal government was The authors of the article admit essarily illegal. Such activities may significantly smaller, there were far that “the conspiracy to defraud prong

violate the spirit of U.S. election law fewer opportunities to run afoul of is not without its limitations and GARY LOCKE

18 / The Weekly Standard October 15, 2018 courts have expressed concerns about its scope.” Courts indeed have been gradually warming up to the idea of They Balked constraining Klein conspiracy pros- ecutions. The First Circuit Court of Appeals, for example, recognized in a The failed Macedonia referendum. 1997 ruling that the “defraud clause of section 371 has a special capacity for by John Psaropoulos abuse [by prosecutors] because of the vagueness of the concept of interfering Athens important, it was to have inaugurated a with a proper government function.” he Euro-Atlantic trajectory new advance for Western institutions. More recently, a district court judge of the Western Balkans was E.U. enlargement stalled after the in a tax case alleging a “conspiracy to T cast into doubt after a Sep- addition of Croatia in 2013 and was defraud” instructed the jury, “Not all tember 30 referendum in the former reversed with the departure vote of conduct that impedes the lawful func- Yugoslav Macedonia backfired. Britain in 2016. NATO enlisted Mon- tions of a government agency is ille- Prime Minister Zoran Zaev gam- tenegro last year, but it has faced Rus- gal. . . . It is not illegal simply to make bled on the popularity of his coun- sian military incursions in larger the IRS’s job harder.” try’s entering the European Union aspiring members Georgia (2008) and Legal blogger Jack Townsend is a and NATO—which enjoy Ukraine (2014). These have former DoJ tax division attorney and the support of 83 percent appeared to define the alli- coauthor of a standard law-school and 77 percent of the pop- ance’s limits, and the limits textbook, Tax Crimes. He’s also a ulation respectively—to of American hegemony. vocal critic of how Section 371 con- carry a proposal to change In a visit to Athens last spiracy charges are used and abused. the country’s name from the December, E.U. commis- “The federal government does lots of Republic of Macedonia to sioner for enlargement things, more and more every year, and North Macedonia. Greece Johannes Hahn stressed many things private parties do can get agreed last June to lift vetoes the importance of Greece’s in the government’s way,” Townsend to the Balkan country join- role in shepherding the six and his colleagues write in their text- ing both bodies if it adopts Western Balkan nations book section on conspiracies. “It can’t that name. The dispute over Zoran Zaev into the fold. “We have to be that each such action is automati- the name traces to the fact close a gap which exists cally a felony.” that much of the historic kingdom of when it comes to connectivity and But does a Russian troll-farm have Macedonia lies within the present-day border cooperation,” Hahn said. any chance challenging the law? Macedonian region of Greece. “Greece has very strong economic “Concord’s arguments have trac- While polls had shown more than ties to the region in trade and for- tion,” says a prominent Washington 90 percent of voters supporting the eign direct investment. It’s impor- lawyer. “But Judge Friedrich isn’t name change, only 36.9 percent of eli- tant for . . . foreign investors to have going to overthrow Supreme Court gible voters turned out, making the ref- stability in the region. This is only precedents” that accept Klein conspir- erendum legally invalid. The hardline possible [in the E.U.]” acy law as constitutional. For starters, opposition’s call to boycott the vote is The European Commission in Feb- district court judges aren’t in the habit widely perceived as having won. ruary announced its goal to induct of contradicting longstanding High An array of dignitaries had vis- the countries of the western Balkans Court rulings. And there’s also a mat- ited the former Yugoslav Macedo- by the mid-2020s. Greece launched a ter of jurisprudential realpolitik: To nian capital, Skopje, to support the flurry of diplomatic activity to settle challenge even a clearly wrongheaded yes vote, including Defense secretary decades-long disputes with neighbors. precedent, says the lawyer, a litigator James Mattis and German chancel- It is delineating its continental shelf needs an attractive and sympathetic lor Angela Merkel. Had the yes vote with Albania and ending a technical client. A Putin-linked business fund- prevailed, it would have clinched state of war with that country that has ing Russian social-media trolls doesn’t approval of the Prespes Agreement, existed since 1940. fit the mold. named after the border-straddling lake A political earthquake in former Townsend hopes that’s not the on whose shores it was signed, solving Yugoslav Macedonia made a rap- case: “You always want a sympa- the 27-year dispute between Greece prochement there possible as well. In thetic client,” he says. “But many and former Yugoslav Macedonia. More December 2016, the hardline Mace- courts will recognize that in extend- donian Internal Revolutionary Orga- ing constitutional protections to John Psaropoulos is an independent journalist nization (VMRO) fell after a decade unsympathetic defendants, they are who covers Greece and the Balkans. His blog in power. The country’s VMRO-affili-

EMMANUELE CONTINI / NUR PHOTO GETTY protecting everyone.” ♦ is thenewathenian.com. ated president, Gjorge Ivanov, refused

October 15, 2018 The Weekly Standard / 19 to swear in the opposition, a coali- votes and managed to pick up three, Macedonia was the area that is now tion of social democrats, liberals and but none from the VMRO. “The big the northern province of Greece,” says minorities under Zoran Zaev. When question is how to get nine from the Stephen Miller, professor of archaeol- the speaker of parliament invited VMRO,” says veteran political analyst ogy at the University of California, Zaev to form a government, VMRO Hristo Ivanovski. “Maybe they can Berkeley. “There is a geographical, thugs attacked Zaev, who appeared on manage two or three, because they are geological distinction: the range of television with blood streaming down involved in corruption scandals and mountains that divides that from the side of his head. His swearing-in [the government] can start legal pro- the area of Skopje. The area where after a U.S. diplomatic intervention cedures against them. At the same Skopje is in ancient times was called ushered in a new era. time VMRO had a kind of internal Paeonia. It was a kingdom. We don’t “There was an extremely big opti- policy, unofficially, that every single know a lot about it. We know that mism surrounding us,” says Miroljub MP has signed a bank check of about Philip, father of Alexander, defeated Sukarov, a respected economics pro- 250,000 euros [to the party]. If they the king of Paeonia and incorporated fessor at South East European Uni- want to change their political camp that it into his kingdom. . . . But it was a versity in Skopje. “Things started in a check will be automatically activated. distinct area. It wasn’t Macedonia, it perfect way. The government adopted So to get nine means 2.25 million euros. was Paeonia.” several laws in the economy, encour- It will not be easy [for Zaev] to find that That geography was immaterial aging private investments and mak- kind of money.” The government’s until the age of the nation-state, and the ing no distinction between foreign final play would be to hold an election issue was settled in favor of the Greeks and domestic investors.” in November, the defense minister in 1913 when they took the Macedo- Sukarov contrasts this with the pre- recently revealed, and hope thereby to nian capital of Thessaloniki just hours vious, politicized economy, in which achieve a coalition that would ratify the ahead of Bulgarian troops and estab- jobs, licenses, and bank loans often Prespes Agreement. lished today’s national border between depended on good terms with the rul- Greece and its northern neighbors. The ing party. “[VMRO] had a lot of instru- fficially, the sole purpose of the formation of Yugoslavia after World ments to force companies to be their O Prespes Agreement was to find War I dampened identity issues but did members or financiers. If you did a mutually agreeable name for the not eradicate them. not deal with them, they sent you an former Yugoslav Macedonia. In fact, In the quarter-century since the inspection and shut you down.” the agreement cuts to the heart of the fall of communism, former Yugoslav The change of government and the identity issues that divide Greek and Macedonia has been recognized by reopening of talks with Greece in Janu- Slav Macedonians. more than 100 countries by its consti- ary appear to have produced spectacu- Referendum abstainers objected to tutional name, the Republic of Mace- lar economic results. Foreign direct the stipulation that “the official lan- donia. Greece has failed to quell Slav investment tripled in the first half guage and other attributes of [former Macedonians’ claim to the M-word, of this year compared with the same Yugoslav Macedonia] are not related to but has accepted a composite version period last year. Exports soared. Job the ancient Hellenic civilization, his- with a qualifier, such as Slav or North- creation rose 6 percent year over year, tory, culture and heritage [of Greece].” ern Macedonia. This compromise and salaries grew by 5.3 percent. In other words, those who self- has divided Slav Macedonians. Many Sukarov doesn’t now expect the identify as ethnic Macedonians must would like to move on. government to reach its growth tar- abjure all claim to Greece’s Hellenis- Others agree with the VMRO’s get of 3.2 percent this year because tic heritage—the empire of Alexander Stoilkovski that the Prespes Agree- of political uncertainty. Despite the the Great and its aftermath—which ment is “a capitulation.” “There are disappointing turnout in the naming Greeks see as a vital component of a lot of things [in the Prespes Agree- referendum, Zaev has vowed to try to their nationhood. After all, it was ment] which are hard simply to push the Prespes Agreement through Alexander who spread the Greek lan- read. . . . Would you have said to some parliament, where he needs a two- guage and learning across Asia. other country to change their history thirds majority. His coalition controls This stipulation was included on books, change their code, change their 68 seats in the 120-seat chamber, so he Greek insistence, to sweeten the pill name? . . . Macedonia has to take all needs 12 more votes. of sharing Macedonian identity with these steps and Greece has only one— “There is no possibility of any MPs their Slav neighbours, something to not block Macedonia’s integration.” of the VMRO to give legitimacy to most Greeks object to. They want it NATO and the E.U. are sorely this Prespes Agreement,” says VMRO made clear that non-Greek Macedo- needed in southeast Europe, where the spokesman Naum Stoilkovski. “The nians are so named by virtue of shared rule of law is weak and foreign inves- people voted, or did not vote, against geography, not heritage. tors hesitate to commit to countries this agreement . . . so this does not The academic consensus favors with an arbitrary and vindictive politi- have any legitimacy.” the Greeks on the questions of iden- cal climate. Building the political will Zaev has mined the opposition for tity and geography. “In antiquity, to summon them is another matter. ♦

20 / The Weekly Standard October 15, 2018 Life’s Little Luxury Charm makes the world seem a more enticing place—but it is going the way of chivalry, good manners, and unmotivated kindness

By Joseph Epstein Humpty Dumpty in Through the Looking-Glass, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.”) For hen a few years ago I decided to the people at Avon, Charisma is the name of a perfume. It write a book about charm, I began is the first name of an actress in a television series about vam- asking friends and acquaintances pires. What charisma really means, as set out by the German if they could name five people in social scientist Max Weber, is authority “resting on devotion contemporary public life—in show to the exceptional sanctity, heroism, or exemplary character business,W television journalism, politics, sports—they of an individual” that shows up not in pleasing conversation thought charming. None could do it. but on the world stage. Jesus had charisma; Some couldn’t name one. Many of the so, too, did Napoleon, Gandhi, and a very names that did come up seemed easily few others, not including Charlie Chaplin, disqualified. Someone mentioned Tom Buster Keaton, or Laurel and Hardy, who, Hanks. Nice enough as far as one knows, each in his own way, had great charm, but but charming, no. Another mentioned no charisma whatsoever. Oprah. Immensely famous, perhaps the Some people I talked with thought most famous person in the country, but charm was synonymous with “cool.” In charming—I didn’t think so. The same fact, the two, charm and cool, are all but few names came sputtering out: Steve opposed. Cool aims for detachment, dis- Martin, Lady Gaga, Bill Murray, Meryl tance; charm is social, bordering on the Streep, Paul McCartney, talented people intimate. Cool is icy; charm warm. Cool is all but scarcely charming. costive; charm often ebullient. Cool doesn’t If I had asked this same question 50 or require approval; charm hopes to win it. 60 years ago, the names would have come Cool began life in jazz under the great sax- cascading out: Cary Grant, Katharine ophonist Lester Young, who first used the Hepburn, Ronald Colman, Myrna Loy, term, but it soon descended to the argot Jack Benny, William Powell, Barbara Stan- Mel Brooks in 2017 of drugs. Cool gave way to hip and hep. wyck, Yogi Berra, and on and on into the In Dave Frishberg’s song “I’m Hip,” the night, all people about whose charm one could be assured singer proclaims that he watches “arty French flicks with to get an immediate consensus. What, during the interven- [his] shades on” and is so hip “I call my girlfriend ‘Man.’ ” ing years, has happened to in effect all but put charm out of Miles Davis was cool, Louis Armstrong charming. business in our time? Nor is charm the same as style. Many charming people When I batted down some of these candidates for the have distinctive styles, but there is no one style that marks golden circle, a discussion of the definition of charm often the charming. Style, V. S. Naipaul thought, was ultimately followed. A surprising number of the people I talked with a way of looking at the world, which suggests the immense conflated charm with “charisma,” though their definitions variety of available styles: dark, complex, cheerful. Some of that vogue word generally turned out to be far from clear. styles are, of course, more winning, richer, grander, more Charisma is one of those words that most people use to mean interesting than others, and to the extent that they are so whatever they want it to mean. (“When I use a word,” says the more likely they are to contribute to a person’s charm. Some styles are charming; some charm is stylish. Neverthe- Joseph Epstein is a contributing editor to The Weekly Standard. less the two remain distinct. His Charm: The Elusive Enchantment was published Personal elegance is sometimes thought to be charming,

October 1 by the Lyons Press. but it isn’t—at least when not backed up by other traits. / FILMMAGIC GETTYAXELLE / BAUER-GRIFFIN

October 15, 2018 The Weekly Standard / 21 Elegance can even be off-putting. Think of old-line movie come untied, and names would have flowed. Everyone, I actors like Adolphe Menjou, George Sanders, and George suspect, has his or her own list of the uncharming. Mine Macready, who used elegance—of dress, of diction, of gen- is comprised chiefly of people who badly overrate their eral manner—to be off-putting in villainous roles in the charm, and includes Barbara Walters, Bill Clinton, a Fox movies. Elegant manners are meant to lubricate social life, News host named Greg Gutfeld, Whoopi Goldberg, Larry but they can also chill it. I think here of the writer Lucius King . . . I could go on. What unites this otherwise dispa- Beebe, who was said to be “menacingly groomed.” When rate group is that, in their too great confidence, they over- elegance seems natural, it can supplement charm, but it is rate their charm. The one rule I have devised about charm not essential to it. Many inelegant, even deliberately vulgar, is that if you think you are charming, you probably are not. people can be charming. People who are opinionated tend not to be charm- Most charming people are likable, but charm is more ing. So, too, people who are argumentative. Too great, too than the ability to make oneself liked. obvious a competitiveness is rarely One can like all sorts of uncharming peo- charming. Flattery may work, but ple: for their candor, their loyalty, their however artfully applied, its charms seriousness, their simple decency. Nei- Perhaps alone are too specific (namely, on the per- ther are puppies, kittens, and small chil- among movie stars, son flattered) to qualify as charm- dren charming. Cute they may very well Audrey Hepburn was ing. Obvious vanity does not be, but charm implies a certain urbanity, admired equally by charm; neither does name-drop- experience, worldliness that is not avail- men and women. She ping. A taste for gossip, carefully able to puppies, kittens, or children. kept in bounds, may charm, but The standard dictionary definition of combined fragility shown in the least excess it does not. charm holds that it is “the power or qual- and sprightliness in a Charm laid on too heavily can prove ity of giving delight or arousing admira- unique and immensely overdone, tiresome, uncharming. tion.” Which is all right as far as it goes, attractive way. As Can charm be learned, or is it a but it doesn’t go far enough. Lots of women wished to look gift of God or, if you prefer, of the things, after all, give delight (a birthday gods? Charm can’t be taught, but it cake, for example), and not a few arouse like her, wear clothes can, to get a bit Zen koanish about admiration (athletic prowess), without as she did, speak as it, be learned, though not by every- being notably charming. “Though defin- she spoke, most men one. The place most people of a cer- ing be thought the proper way to make wanted to protect her. tain age learned about charm was at known the proper signification of words,” the movies. Those of us who from a wrote John Locke in his Essay Concern- fairly early age went every Saturday ing Human Understanding, “yet there are some words that afternoon to a double-feature at our neighborhood the- will not be defined.” Well before Locke, Aristotle in the ater learned, boys and girls alike, if only by osmosis, how Nicomachean Ethics noted that different subjects allow for to dress, smoke, kiss, open car doors, deal with headwait- differing levels of clarity and that “precision is not to be ers, and a good deal more. Charm, being individual, has sought for alike in all discussions, any more than in all the many models, and the movies turned up a large number products of the crafts.” Later in the same paragraph, Aris- of them: the taciturn charm of Gary Cooper, the elegant totle added: “It is the mark of an educated man to look for charm of Cary Grant, the masculine charm of Clark Gable, precision in each class of things just so far as the nature of the urbane charm of Humphrey Bogart, the British charm the subject admits; it is evidently equally foolish to accept of Herbert Marshall, the comic charm of Marcello Mastroi- probable reasoning from a mathematician and to demand anni, and many other variants, both male and female. from a rhetorician demonstrative proofs.” Charm, given its Whatever the variant, charm was considered highly elusive and sometimes widely various nature, turns out to desirable, and to possess it was if not one of the goals cer- be one of those subjects for which precision of definition tainly among the pleasures of adult life. One didn’t so much isn’t finally available. Joining love, happiness, justice, and copy any of these cinematic ideals of charm as try to assimi- beauty in being among these less than easily defined con- late parts of them—a bit here, a bit there—in the hope that ceptions, charm is, as charm by its nature always hopes to one day these parts would come together to form a charm be, in good company. of one’s own, unlike any other but pleasing in its own way. Easier, of course, to determine what charm isn’t. Had I Movies with charm at their center are no longer asked friends and acquaintances to list the five least charm- being made. The directors able to make them or even ing people in contemporary public life tongues would have interested in doing so—the Leo McCareys, the Preston

22 / The Weekly Standard October 15, 2018 Sturgeses, the Billy Wilders, the George Cukors, the Blake he is but what is notable about his vulgarity, his unabashed ­Edwardses, the Stanley Donens—are long gone. Nora coarseness, is that it is deliberate and, somehow, fails to Ephron attempted with some success to make such mov- leave the dreary stain vulgarity usually leaves. ies, in the spirit of our time, but she has had no follow- I remember many years ago watching Mel Brooks ers. Quite possibly charm is no longer marketable. With being interviewed by Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes. It fewer and fewer models of it available, it may go the way went something like this: In answer to Wallace’s first ear- of chivalry, good manners, and unmotivated kindness. nest question, Brooks pushed back the cuff of Wallace’s sleeve and asked him where he f one cannot define charm got his wristwatch and what with real precision, how, he paid for it. Wallace posed a I then, does one recognize second question, and Brooks it? One recognizes it, as one leaned in, rubbed the lapel of does its compatriots in inexact Wallace’s suitcoat and mut- definability, pretty much case tered, “Nice material. What’s a by case, instance by instance. jacket like this set you back?” One recognizes charm when Wallace broke up in laughter. one feels it, sees it. Charm- What Mel Brooks (born Mel- ing is the song we don’t want vin Kaminsky) was doing, of to stop playing, the painting course, was playing the vulgar that won’t leave our minds, the Jew, playing it for laughs and piece of writing we don’t want getting away with it. Just as he to end, the man or woman we played perhaps the ultimate wish never to leave the room. vulgarities—flatulence jokes, Charm, when present, enlivens racism—in his movie Blaz- and lights up a room, makes ing Saddles and got away with the world seem a more entic- it there. Who but Mel Brooks ing place. Not quite true that could have made a comedic charm, like beauty, is in the eye movie, later an immensely of the beholder, for there are successful Broadway musical, levels of sophistication in the about Adolf Hitler—and, yet realm of charm. Some charm is again, get away with it? How subtler than others; some more did he—how does he still in obvious. Not everyone is likely his 90s—do it? to be charmed by Noël Cow- Gene Wilder, who played ard; most people are likely to be in several of Brooks’s movies, charmed by the Marx Brothers. remarked: “Sometimes he’s Not the least impressive vulgar and unbalanced, but . . . thing about charm is the rich- I know that little maniac is a ness of its variety. Along with genius. A loud kind of Jew- traditionally charming peo- Audrey Hepburn filming ‘Sabrina’ in 1954 ish genius—maybe that’s as ple of the kind that one used close as you can get to defining to meet fairly regularly in the movies, there have been him. As for his vulgarity, which cannot be argued away, it is through history rogue charmers, gay charmers, yes, even indubitably a healthy vulgarity.” Brooks can be raucous, but vulgar charmers, and this scarcely, as the philosophers say, he is never mean. One senses no putdown, no one-upman- exhausts all cases. Famous charmers have included figures ship, not the least malice in him. If he can be wild, his is a as varied as Alcibiades, Casanova, Louis Armstrong, Tallu- controlled wildness. However bumpy the comedic flights lah Bankhead, Lord Byron, Mme de Sévigné, Duke Elling- he takes us on, we, his audience, can be certain that he will ton, and scores more. land the plane safely. Vulgar he may be, but his has been a Consider people so different as scarcely to seem to healthy vulgarity, one that flies under the flag of charm. inhabit the same planet, yet each in his or her own way To be seated at a dinner party, Mel Brooks on one’s left, notably charming: Mel Brooks and Audrey Hepburn. Audrey Hepburn on one’s right, would make for a most

ARCHIVE PHOTOS / GETTY Brooks falls under my category of vulgar charmer. Vulgar interesting, if perhaps somewhat dizzying, evening. The

October 15, 2018 The Weekly Standard / 23 two represent the boundaries of charm, charm in its mascu- Everything that is known about Audrey Hepburn line coarseness and its feminine refinement. Perhaps alone supports the picture of her as naturally refined, generous, among movie stars, Audrey Hepburn was admired equally goodhearted. When her agent suggested she ought to ask by men and women. She combined fragility and sprightli- a royalty of Hubert de Givenchy for his using her name in ness in a unique and immensely attractive way. As women connection with his perfume L’Interdit, she refused, saying wished to look like her, wear clothes as she did, speak as she that Givenchy was her friend, and she wouldn’t think of spoke, most men wanted to protect her. Careful casting set doing such a thing. For the last five years of her life Hep- her in movies against attractive, older leading men: Gary burn worked seven or eight months of the year for UNI- Cooper, Gregory Peck, Henry Fonda, CEF’s project on behalf of starving Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, William children. Always a nervous public Holden, Fred Astaire, Rex Harrison. speaker, she nevertheless gave count- Their maturity suggested they could Charm is that less speeches to arouse interest and protect her, and her youthful sweetness lighthearted element raise money on behalf of UNICEF— seemed to give them a second chance in that is in such sad short speeches said to have been extraor- life with a virginally fresh woman. supply in contemporary dinarily effective. While working for Gamine, elfin, sprightly, fey: No one UNICEF she eschewed all the perks has been able to nail Audrey Hepburn’s life. How we lost charm normally expected by the high-level precise physical quality. But everyone is a story about changes celebrity she was: She flew coach, rode seems to have been taken by it. Sex in our culture, changes in trucks, ate the same food as everyone wasn’t at the heart of it. Aud Johansen, so considerable as to else working for the organization. A a woman who danced in a chorus line qualify as revolutionary. good heart on display, such as Hepburn on the London stage with the young possessed, one free of all falsity and fak- Audrey Hepburn, remarked, “I have the ery, might itself stand in as one strong biggest tits on stage, but everyone looks definition of charm. at the girl who has none at all.” What Hepburn had was charm, which wears harm is that lighthearted ele- better and longer than sexiness. ment that is in such sad short The lives of movie stars of the great C supply in contemporary life. studio era are best not looked into too How we lost charm is a story about closely. One too often finds boorishness, changes in our culture, changes so con- drunkenness, domestic tumult, crushing siderable as to qualify as revolutionary. sadness, and a wild disparity between on- A cultural revolution is never so clearly and off-screen personality. But Audrey marked an event as a political revolu- Hepburn seems to have had the same tion. When we think of revolutions we lovely qualities on-screen and off. Fred think of 1776, 1789, or 1917, but there Zinnemann, who directed her in The are no precise dates for cultural revolu- Nun’s Story, said of her: “I have never tions, which, when they occur, usually seen anyone more disciplined, more gra- establish themselves with wider per- cious, or more dedicated to her work Cary Grant, circa 1960 vasiveness and, ultimately, greater effi- than Audrey. There was no ego; no ask- cacy than political ones. Revolutions ing for extra favors; there was the greatest consideration for in our culture—radical changes in what we find permissi- her co-workers.” Stanley Donen, who directed her in Cha- ble or admirable or detestable, and in how these affect our rade, Funny Face, and Two for the Road, said “her magnetism everyday living—are less murderous than political revolu- was so extraordinary that everyone wanted to be close to her. tions but in some ways more profound. Recent revolutions It was as if she placed a glass barrier between herself and the in our culture have, alas, made charm if not quite irrelevant world. You couldn’t get behind it easily. It made her remark- then nearly obsolete, which is to say, to use the dictionary’s ably attractive.” Billy Wilder, who didn’t in the least mind words, “no longer produced or used; out of date.” knocking actors with whom he had worked, said, “Audrey The first of these revolutions has been in the nature of was known for something which has disappeared, and that contemporary political life. One of the rules for anyone set- is elegance, grace, and manners. . . . God kissed her on the ting out to be charming is to avoid politics, for like as not cheek, and there she was.” Alfred Lunt said that “she has as soon as one brings up the subject of politics one will lose

authentic charm. Most people simply have nice manners.” half the room. In asking friends for five charming people, HARRY CRONER / ULLSTEIN BILD GETTY

26 / The Weekly Standard October 15, 2018 a few mentioned the name Barack Obama and one men- Which is why, too, politics is always dangerous ground, tioned his wife, Michelle. But then I recalled that at no seeded with landmines, for anyone who would like to time in his presidency did Barack Obama have an approval establish him- or herself as charming. rating much above 50 percent, and his approval was often So divisive has politics in America become that movie well below that. There have been politicians noted for their stars, athletes, and television personalities do well to steer charm—Benjamin Disraeli, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, clear of it, though fewer and fewer of them seem able to Winston Churchill—but Disraeli, it turns out, exerted most do so. Hollywood has always been political, but under the of his charm on Queen Victoria; Roosevelt was loathed by old studio system, the stars were constrained from pub- Republicans like no other politician in the 20th century; licly announcing their political views. They were so lest and Churchill, after no less an accomplishment than sav- an actor’s politics affect his box-office appeal. In our time, ing Western civilization from Hitler, was voted out of office. with the studio system gone, movie stars have less and less With its inherent contentiousness, politics has never hesitation in lining up for political causes, usually with sad- been an arena in which charm flourished. It cuts too close der effects on their careers than helpful effects for the cause. to the bone to allow for charm. Politics, after all, isn’t Jane Fonda is a case in point. A beautiful woman, a fine about politics alone. For most of us our politics are tied actress, Fonda’s strong stand against American involve- up with our sense of our own virtue. If one is liberal, one ment in the Vietnam war—Hanoi Jane she was called, like wants to think oneself a strong advocate for the underdog Tokyo Rose, the woman who gave anti-American broad- and for social justice generally; if one is conservative, one casts during World War II—crippled her career, making is likely to think liberty and the development of charac- fewer movie parts available to her and keeping a large por- ter the first order of business in any society. Liberal versus tion of the audience away from those movies in which she conservative is only partially about conflicting ideas about did play. Bob Hope, once universally considered charming, governing; the two represent dueling virtues. Which lost much of the cachet of his charm when he sided with is why arguments about politics can get to the shouting Richard Nixon during the years of the Vietnam war. Closer stage faster than arguments about nearly any other subject. to our own time, something similar may be happening to

The New NAFTA

THOMAS J. DONOHUE borders with Mexico and Canada every We are very disappointed that the PRESIDENT AND CEO year. And this flow of trade supports steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE the livelihoods of 14 million American and Mexico, along with retaliatory workers across our country. tariffs on $20 billion of U.S. exports, After 13 months of talks, and a The Chamber’s experts are carefully still remain in place. Imposing these whole lot of ups and downs, the U.S., going through the new agreement with tariffs on our neighbors does little Mexico, and Canada have reached our members to assess its implications to address the real issue of Chinese agreement on a successor to the for U.S. businesses and our economy. overcapacity. Instead, they only 25-year-old North American Free But we already know that negotiators alienate our best customers and closest Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The aim got the most important detail right— allies. Our message is clear: Trade of the new United States-Mexico- they kept the agreement trilateral. works; tariffs don’t. We will be working Canada Agreement (USMCA) is to For a few fraught weeks it appeared overtime to remove these tariffs. bring North American trade policy possible that Canada could be left There’s a long road between last into the 21st century. Negotiators out—an outcome that would have been week’s announcement and a ratified deserve a lot of credit for working unacceptable to the private sector and pact. Having had a front row seat through all 34 chapters and dozens of dead on arrival in Congress. for every free trade agreement that annexes and coming up with a pact Early indicators also show numerous the U.S. has done, I can attest that a that all three nations could agree on— wins for U.S. business including on lot of hard work remains. But, today, it was no small feat! digital trade, intellectual property, we can say this much for sure: This From the beginning of the debate financial services, and agricultural is an important step in reducing the over the future of NAFTA, the trade. In these and other areas, the uncertainty that has stymied North U.S. Chamber of Commerce agreed USMCA is truly a 21st century trade American trade—and two of our most it should be modernized. But we also deal. However, the agreement appears vital economic partnerships—for more made it clear that we would vigorously to mark a setback on investment than a year. oppose any effort to undermine the protections and access to government underlying deal. NAFTA supports procurement opportunities, issues we Learn more at the $1 trillion in trade that crosses our will continue to work on. uschamber.com/abovethefold.

October 15, 2018 The Weekly Standard / 27 the career of George Clooney, who too closely identifies is the enemy; confession good, if not for the soul, certainly himself with every passing left-wing cause. In sports, Tom for the psyche. Brady, possibly the best quarterback in the history of pro- The sobbing memoir is among the leading literary fessional football, is disliked by a great many fans because genres of our time. Novelists, poets, critics, journalists, he is thought to be a friend to Donald Trump. Michael Jor- learning they are going to die or having lost a child or hus- dan, when asked why he never took strong political stands, band or wife, see in the event a rich possibility for a book. is said to have answered, “Republicans buy sneakers, too.” Others must be content with exposing their parents or Charm is about consensus, politics about division. The former husbands or wives, retailing the heavy mental tor- ever more divisive field of politics is the last place for charm- tures visited upon them. Reticence and tact, two arrows ers to work their magic. That the current age happens to in the quiver of charm, have no standing in the therapeu- be as dominated by politics and is as tic culture. Decorum, another politically divisive as any on record is significant element in charm, is one of the reasons charm in our day For English philosopher diminished, if not destroyed. Sex is onto lean times. So many people who columnists openly consider the might otherwise be thought charming Michael Oakeshott, the merits of non-monogamous sex, of have allowed their political interests to ideal character was cross-dressing, of choking during diminish their charm. Politics is a popu- composed of integrity, sex. Why not? Why hold back? lar spot for charm to go to die. the inheritance of Vast is the pain that psycho- civilization known as therapy, greatly aided in recent revolution affecting charm decades by pharmacology, has deeper than politics is that culture, and charm—the relieved, making life livable for A entailed in what the social three joined together by schizophrenics, those suffering scientist Philip Rieff called, in a book piety, by which Oakeshott bipolar disease, and others born of that title, the “triumph of the ther- meant reverence for life. with genetic miswiring. It has also apeutic.” The underlying beliefs of been useful in propping up those the culture of therapy—that the great depressed and otherwise defeated enemy of human beings is repression, that relief is to be by the misfortunes life has visited upon them. Much can be had through the widest possible confession, and that the said about the value of psychotherapy generally, but its toll great goals in life are self-gratification and self-esteem—are on charm has been heavy. deadly for charm. In a 2013 essay in the Atlantic on “The Rise and Fall of The doctrines of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Karen Charm in American Men,” Benjamin Schwarz noted that Horney, and Wilhelm Reich may have lost much of their “only the self-aware can have charm; it’s bound up with a credibility, but the spirit of the therapeutic has nonetheless sensibility that at best approaches wisdom, or at least world- thoroughly permeated American life. The notion of chang- liness.” Schwarz goes on to say that charm cannot “exist ing one’s personality is central to the culture of the thera- in the undeveloped personality. It’s an attribute foreign to peutic. The 1960s set out as a goal that of doing one’s own many men because most are, for better or worse, childlike. thing; the 1970s—Tom Wolfe’s “Me Decade”—advanced These days, it’s far more common among men over 70— this to a deepening concern with the self. In our day, the probably owing to the era in which they reached maturity therapeutic has swept the boards, exercising a subtle but rather than to the mere fact of their advanced years.” genuine tyranny over contemporary culture. Under the cul- Schwarz’s claim is that men—but, of course, women, ture of therapy the concentration is exclusively on the indi- too—who grew up when models of charm were both omni- vidual, the emphases falling on self-regard and authenticity. present and strong are likely to have attained a maturity The charming person asks, “How may I please?” The ther- of a kind unavailable to those who came after them. He is apeutic personality wants to know how he can please him- also arguing that to be charming one has to be adult, and self. Warfare has never been openly declared, but the two, to be fully adult one has to have grown up before the cult charm and therapy, are nonetheless implacably opposed. of youth took root and spread through contemporary life. Owing to the triumph of the therapeutic, actors in our This phenomenon, the closing down of adulthood, has day feel perfectly at ease going on talk shows to discuss been well underway since the 1960s. “Don’t trust anyone their mistreatment by sexually perverse fathers, alcoholic over 30,” it will be recalled, was one of the reigning shib- mothers, or brutish husbands. Men speak openly about boleths of the protest movement of those years. Those who their sex addictions, in interviews women recount their shouted it are now in their 70s and appear still to believe it. battles with drugs. Why hold back? Repression, remember, Youth, once understood to be a transient stage in life,

28 / The Weekly Standard October 15, 2018 has become its goal. Two of the greatest compliments in over the burning marle.” If your vocabulary is as limited as American life are “You’re so thin” and “You don’t at all look mine, you will have to look up marle, which turns out to be your age.” F. Scott Fitzgerald, in The Crack-Up, anticipating “unconsolidated sedimentary rock or soil consisting of clay our own time, called growing up “a terribly hard thing to and lime, formerly used as fertilizer.” What Sydney Smith do. It is much easier to skip it and go from one childhood was too charming to say straight out is that charm helps us to another.” Many years later Tom Wolfe remarked that in to get over the crap in life, which, as anyone who has lived a our time one goes from juvenility to senility with no stops respectable number of years knows, can be abundant. in between. So pervasive does the cult of youth sometimes In his Notebooks, the English philosopher Michael seem that, as difficult as naming five charming people may Oakeshott posited what he thought an ideal character. This, be, no less difficult would it seem to he held, was composed of integrity, the name five adults. inheritance of civilization known as Two of the most popular sitcoms culture, and charm, the three joined in recent decades, Seinfeld and Friends, together by piety, by which Oakeshott were about the refusal of their char- meant reverence for life. “Charm,” acters to grow up. The characters on he wrote, “compensates for the lack both shows were funny but far from of everything else: charm that comes charming. The continuing theme on from a sincere and generous spirit. Seinfeld was the selfishness of peo- Those who ignore charm & fix their ple refusing to be adults. No one on appreciation upon what they consider Friends had a serious job or seemed more solid virtues are, in fact, ignor- likely to acquire one soon. The char- ing mortality.” Since we all die, all are acters on both shows were somewhere merely guests briefly here on earth, roughly between their late 20s and we have an obligation to get the most early 30s. Adulthood was for none of of our limited time, or so Oakeshott them anywhere in sight. believed. In his reading, then, those If Ponce de León were alive who ignore charm are ignoring one of today, viewing older billionaires with life’s genuine pleasures. oxblood-colored hair, aging actresses Louis Armstrong, circa 1970 In an age with a paucity of charm, with skin drawn so tight by cosmetic those of us who hunger for it fall back surgery they cannot close their eyes at night, old men on the past: on the movies of Leo McCarey and Preston whose jogging pace resembles nothing so much as that Sturges; the dancing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers; of infants just beginning to walk, former student radi- the comedy of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Laurel cals now sporting gray ponytails or topknots, no doubt and Hardy; the traditional ballets of George Balanchine. the Spanish explorer would give up his legendary search Toss in the songs of the brothers Gershwin, Cole Porter, for the fountain of youth and resign himself to aging as Johnny Mercer, Harold Arlen, and Jerome Kern; the gracefully as possible. George Santayana thought it a trumpet of Louis Armstrong, the saxophone of Lester great sin, the greatest, to set out to strangle human nature. Young, the clarinet of Artie Shaw; the singing of Alberta The attempt to stay perpetually young is the most com- Hunter, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Blossom Dearie; mon attempt to do so in our day. It is also among the most the big bands of Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, and effective ways to divest oneself of charm. Jimmy Dorsey. The essays of Charles Lamb and Max Beerbohm, the novels of P. G. Wodehouse and Evelyn harm will not feed the hungry, help end wars, or Waugh, the poetry of John Betjeman and Philip Larkin fight evil. I’m not sure that it qualifies as a vir- all provide charm in its literary division. If all this seems C tue, and, as is well known, it can be used for devi- rather light fare, that is because light, in its most approba- ous ends. Yet charm does provide, among other things, a tive sense, is what charm indubitably is. form of necessary relief from the doldrums, the drabness Charm elevates the spirit, widens our lens on life, of everyday life. Sydney Smith, the 18th-century clergy- heightens its color, intensifies and sweetens it. Life holds man and himself an immensely charming man, wrote that out the rewards of achievement, acquisition, love of family “man could direct his ways by plain reason and support his and friends, but without the infusion of charm the enter- life by tasteless food; but God has given us wit, and flavour, prise is, somehow, a touch flat, less than complete. Charm and brightness, and laughter, and perfumes to enliven the is one of life’s lovely luxuries. No one truly needs it, but

MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES / GETTY days of man’s pilgrimage and to charm his pained steps how sad to live without it. ♦

October 15, 2018 The Weekly Standard / 29 Battle of Birmingham Britain’s Conservative party comes together— and soon it will be coming apart

By Dominic Green protesters dressed in the E.U.’s colors of blue and gold; and a woman dressed as a badger. Birmingham, U.K. This gallimaufry summarized the issues that Theresa he Romans substituted theater for politics, May’s government does not want to address and would but we moderns prefer politics as theater. not be considering in the conference hall: public concern Nowhere is this more apparent than in the about fracking in areas with high population densities; scripts and rituals of the party conference. encroachments onto public land and green spaces; the The surprises are negotiated in committee. mass culling of badgers on scientifically dubious grounds; TThe policy announcements are leaked to the media before and the End Times. the speeches. The ovations are about as spontaneous as Verily, signs of the end are upon us in Britain. As it was those at the get-togethers of the Chinese Communist party. written in Article 50 of the European Constitution, the A conference is a carefully staged day of apocalypse will occur 180 days advertisement, a drama with little plot after the Sunday address from Conser- and no suspense. In a good year, that is. vative chairman Brandon Lewis open- In a great year, it goes off script. In such ing the conference. On March 29, 2019, a year, as the Democratic leadership two years to the day after Theresa May discovered at Chicago in 1968, there invoked Article 50, Britain will leave is real drama on and off the stage, and the European Union. When the eco- the audience has the pleasure of see- nomic veil of Euro-regulation is lifted, ing the party planners, the scriptwrit- 52 percent of the people shall rejoice at ers, and the media spinners landing on their newly restored independence. But their collective posterior. On those rare the 48 percent who voted Remain shall occasions, a party conference is not a stock up on candles, tinned food, and partisan advertisement but an inadver- water. Brother shall decry brother as a tent confession of the truth about the An anti-Brexit protester Little Englander, and the Little Eng- party and the times. That’s what hap- lander shall put up two fingers. pened to Britain’s Conservatives last week at their annual The lion is rumored to be in preliminary talks about conference in Birmingham. lying down with the lamb. Anti-Brexit Conservative and To enter the secure zone at Birmingham’s conven- Labour MPs are believed to be considering setting up a tion center, I ran a gauntlet of single-issue lobbyists: an centrist party, to restore common sense and unity by call- all-female group of anti-fracking activists from northern ing a second referendum in order to undo the democratic England dressed in white Victorian gowns like a team of result of the 2016 Brexit referendum. Brexiteers are wail- radicalized Miss Havishams; two anti-circumcision cam- ing that Theresa May’s idea of Brexit is Remain by another paigners with pained expressions, waving photographs of name. Remainers are gnashing their teeth because May, mutilated penii and shouting about child abuse; a dog- who voted Remain, is threatening to leave the E.U. with- collared preacher reading uncut from the Book of Rev- out a deal if she cannot secure a minimal Brexit. Everyone elation into a boombox; four men in suits of armor from is worried about their exports, imports, jobs, mortgages, the Wars of the Roses protesting the redevelopment of a and summer holidays. nearby battlefield; a raging horde of pro-European Union “It’s time for common sense!” a Europhile wearing a blue top hat, a yellow waistcoat, blue trousers, and a yel- Dominic Green is the Life & Arts editor of Spectator USA low morning coat bellowed into a megaphone. If the Euro-

and a frequent contributor to The Weekly Standard. pean Union ever sponsored a real circus, as opposed to DOMINIC GREEN

30 / The Weekly Standard October 15, 2018 the unreal procedurals of the Brussels bureaucracy, this is packed with dutiful applauders. In Theresa May’s theater what its ringmaster would look like. of the absurd, the stalls were often half empty. On Sunday, “What do we want? A people’s vote! When do we want May’s new foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt made headlines it? Now!” a woman in blue and yellow shouted, blocking by calling the E.U. a “prison” and implicitly comparing it my path. And so it was that I came to enter the conference to the Soviet Union, but the hall was only half full. Nor did with a sticker reading “Bollocks to Brexit” on my lapel. that many care to hear chairman Brandon Lewis’s vision for the Conservatives’ future. On Tuesday, even fewer turned saw hardly any Conservatives wearing “Bollocks to up when Sajid Javid, the new home secretary, called for the Brexit” stickers inside the secure zone, but I saw hun- party to reach out to ethnic minorities, and expounded his I dreds of them wearing “Chuck Chequers” stickers. The plans for a merit-based immigration system that will treat Chequers plan, announced in July, is Theresa May’s offer E.U. applicants no differently from anyone else. to Brussels of terms for a negotiated exit. Instead of rally- The real action took place in the media and at fringe ing a cabinet and party divided by Brexit, the plan broke the events. Everyone followed the media dueling of Boris cabinet and split the party. Johnson, who called Chequers “entirely preposterous” and May’s foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, and her Brexit negotiator, David Davis, resigned. Jacob Rees- Mogg, leader of the anti-E.U. European Research Group, continues to threaten a vote of no confidence if May sticks with the Chequers plan. The party membership is in open revolt. The European Union’s negotiators have said that the Chequers concessions are insufficient anyway. Yet Chequers remains the May government’s policy. “I haven’t seen many government staff, special advisers, or officials,” said Susan, who has worked for the party in Parliament and is attending her ninth conference. “Some people might say this is due to people not wanting to be in the firing line.” Ministers put their heads above the parapet with a visible lack of enthusiasm. Michael Gove, a key Brexiteer who has remained in May’s cabinet Theresa May enters for her keynote address, to polite applause. and supports the Chequers plan, hurried along Broad Street, Birmingham’s rundown shopping thorough- “deranged,” and May’s ally and finance minister Philip fare, but not quickly enough to evade a fellow Conservative Hammond, who said that Johnson had “no grasp of detail” who ran up and shouted, “Michael, when are you going to and was living in “fantasy world” if he thought the E.U. chuck Chequers?” would grant Britain a Canada-style free trade agreement. Rory Stewart, the ex-soldier turned prisons minister, And almost everyone voted with their feet and headed inspected the rank and file in the lobby of the Marriott to the small events. It was hard to find a seat at the panel hotel that adjoined the conference venue, then took cover talks on “popular capitalism” hosted by the Centre for in a huddle of advisers. Iain Duncan Smith, who briefly Policy Studies and its online think tank, CapX, or Policy led the party in the early 2000s, contrived to be visible but Exchange’s panel on how to involve millennials in “home- unapproachable and spent most of Monday holding court owning democracy.” It was impossible to get into the build- in the Marriott’s restaurant, which was fenced off from the ing at any event featuring Jacob Rees-Mogg. lobby and bar by a low wall and potted plants and guarded “When we said we wanted to leave [the E.U.], we by a gate. Liam Fox, the minister for international trade, wanted to leave,” said Ron Ramage on Monday afternoon. refused to answer my questions about party members’ criti- Ramage is a district councilor from Braintree, Essex, in cisms of Theresa May. the pro-Brexit commuter belt east of London. “We’re not “I’m escaping,” Fox told a friend, as they descended the doing it the way people voted for. It’s not going to work.” stairs into the mad scrum of the Marriott bar. Ramage had just come from “Brexit Means Brexit,” an “Where to?” event hosted by the anti-E.U. Bruges Group. “Priti Patel, “Korea,” Fox laughed. who’s my MP and an ex-cabinet minister, was there. We

MATT CARDY / GETTY CARDY MATT Normally, the main hall of a Conservative convention is had [ex-agriculture minister] Owen Paterson, who’s very

October 15, 2018 The Weekly Standard / 31 vocal. We had Andrea Jenkyns, a new MP. She’s only been The Chequers terms, Johnson said, were “politically around for three years, and she’s asking the prime minister, humiliating for a two trillion pound economy” and would ‘Why does Brexit mean Remain?’ The meeting was abso- make it “difficult, if not impossible” for Britain to make lutely packed. Like Owen Paterson said, we are the main- trade deals with non-E.U. states. Chequers was an insult to stream of the party.” British democracy and a liability for the Conservative party. I asked if Theresa May had lost her legitimacy as party “We will not only be prevented by the Chequers deal leader. “Yes,” Ramage replied. “Every one of the MPs at from offering our tariff schedules,” Johnson argued. “We that fringe meeting said she should have stood down, and I will be unable to make our own laws—to vary our regulatory think that’s right. She’s got a bit of a thankless task, and it is framework for goods, agrifoods, and much more besides.” going to be difficult, but she’s just not going the way that we “This is not pragmatic, it is not a compromise. It is want. We want to leave, but Theresa May wasn’t for leaving. dangerous and unstable—politically and economically. My Look what happened to Boris Johnson. He’s been kicked fellow Conservatives, this is not democracy. That is not into the long grass for now, but he’s still there.” what we voted for. This is an outrage. This is not taking While we were talking, the cover of the London back control: This is forfeiting control.” Analysts frequently link the surprise Brexit vote of June 2016 with the electoral victory of Donald Trump later that year. Both phenomena are interpreted as eco- nomically and culturally isolationist, reactions against immigration and open borders. But Johnson, the de facto leader of the groups that won the Brexit referen- dum, is very much a “globalist,” and not only because he was born and partly schooled in New York City. To Johnson, and to many other Conservatives, Brexit is an opportunity to extract the U.K. from the E.U.’s regula- tory tentacles and the eurozone’s sluggish economy, and integrate Britain into global markets. While Donald Trump talks of imposing tariffs, free-market Brexiteers talk of escaping the tariff-bound European Union. In September, Johnson visited Washington to receive the American Enterprise Institute’s Irving Boris Johnson takes a moment—and a prop—to mention home building. Kristol Award. His remarks at AEI’s annual din- ner were the first round of an apparently coordinated Standard’s afternoon edition showed Johnson running push for American support for a post-Brexit free trade deal through a field in his jogging kit. The punditry saw this between the United States and the United Kingdom. In the as a calculated mockery of May’s claim that the naughti- following days, Owen Paterson made the case at the Heri- est thing she had ever done was to run through a field of ripe tage Foundation, and Daniel Hannan, the most prominent wheat as a child. Johnson’s ideas on naughtiness—the phi- pro-Brexit campaigner in the Conservative delegation in landering that recently ended his second marriage, the the European parliament, argued similarly in the Washing- clowning for the cameras and the public, the intriguing for ton Examiner. office and the top job—charm the membership for the same “If we get it right,” Johnson said on Tuesday, “then the reason they irritate his parliamentary colleagues. He is not a opportunities are immense. It is not just that we can do free team player. Ramage chooses his words carefully. trade deals. In so many growth areas of the economy, this “He can be a loose cannon in some respects, but I am a country is already light years ahead. Tech, data, bioscience, big fan of his, very much so. But whether he could be the financial services, you name it. We can use our regulatory right man for the leadership is another thing.” freedom to intensify those advantages.” Johnson’s impassioned speech was received with ohnson made a flying visit on Tuesday. He spoke at cheers, whoops, and a standing ovation. But the time for Conservative Home, a fringe venue, but his speech was action is running short. “The situation is critical,” Shanker J the main event of the entire conference. People queued Singham of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) told for four hours to get in. “The energy in the room was elec- me. While Theresa May insists that there is no alternative tric,” one attendee told me. “There was definitely a sense to Chequers, the European Research Group has offered

that something historic was happening.” new proposals for maintaining a “soft” border between PETER MACDIARMID / GETTY

32 / The Weekly Standard October 15, 2018 Northern Ireland, which is part of the U.K., and the Repub- proposal risk prosecution under the 14th-century statute of lic of Ireland, which will remain in the E.U. In late Sep- praemunire, which says that no foreign court or government tember, Singham and his IEA colleague Radomir Tylecote shall have jurisdiction in this country.” published “Plan A+,” in which Britain would pursue free The law of praemunire was taken off the statute books in trade agreements with the United States, China, and other 1967. Johnson was speaking metaphorically and appealing foreign partners; deregulate financial services; and seek a to the patriotic emotion that May seems incapable of arous- goods-only free trade deal with the E.U. “We need to pivot ing. The politics of Brexit are not mere theater. They run to this plan as soon as possible,” says Singham. deep into history and the very soil, and they have caused a civil war in the Conservatives—civil, because they’re still ne thing we all know about Boris is that he’ll the Conservatives, but a war nonetheless, in which only put on a really good show,” Theresa May told one side can win. ‘Oa BBC interviewer after Johnson’s assault on “I’m here to represent the heritage of Bosworth Field,” her premiership. She kept smiling, like a combatant in the one of the four men in armor at the entrance to the venue Wars of the Roses who has just been jabbed in the poli- told me. In 1485, a Welsh adventurer named Henry Tudor cies with a hot poker and is trying not to show it. “There are one or two things that Boris said that I am cross about,” she admitted. May took the stage on Wednesday swaying like a drunken spider to ABBA’s “Dancing Queen”— perhaps not the right choice for a leader widely seen within her own party as a usurper of Brexit who can’t put a foot right. Her speech was meant to be the finale, but it was an anticlimax. Everyone watched it because they wanted to see if she would flinch or if, as happened at last year’s conference, she would be rendered incapable of speech by a coughing fit while the scenery collapsed around her. Instead, she was the game mediocrity, the duti- ful incompetent, that she always is. The title of her speech, “Campaign 2022,” was an invitation to a Jeremy Corbyn prime ministership. The question, Fancifully attired protesters gather to be ignored in Birmingham. as it has been since May took office in the summer of 2016, is how long she has left and whether Johnson will defeated Richard III’s army at Bosworth, near Birming- time his run against her correctly. ham, and ended England’s medieval civil war, the War of Of course, her party applauded her. The script requires the Roses. As Henry VII, he founded the Tudor dynasty nothing less than a happy ending. But the conference was and laid the foundations of the English state—the state an embarrassment for May. All her grinning and bearing that the Chequers plan would permanently turn into a cannot hide the distrust of the membership and the hostil- province of the European Union. ity between the majority of Conservative MPs, who voted “Plans are going ahead to build a driverless car test- for Remain, and the majority of the rank and file, who ing track on the western side of the battlefield,” the knight strongly support Brexit. The parliamentary Conservatives explained. The men in armor, like the badger lady who was can hide from the press, and they can hide from the vot- standing with them despite their polite requests that she ers until 2022, but they cannot run from their own mem- return to her sett, felt that they were an endangered indig- bership. Not even Liam Fox. Unless, that is, he had North enous species. They were laying siege to the conference, Korea in mind. politely but firmly, with an insistence that suggests no elec- The longer Boris Johnson talks about May’s failings, the torate will ever endorse Chequers. less likely he looks as a candidate to replace her and the more “It’s part of our heritage,” he said. “It’s important to us. he looks like a farceur than a serious actor. Being Boris, he It was the decisive battle of the War of the Roses. It’s one could not help but over-egg the soufflé of his verbosity on of three major events that changed our history. You’ve got Tuesday. Condemning the E.U.’s arrogation of powers over the Norman Conquest of 1066, Bosworth in 1485, and the the British Parliament, he jocosely accused Theresa May of Battle of Britain in 1940. This is like chipping away at war

DOMINIC GREEN treason: “It occurs to me that the authors of the Chequers memorials. It’s not right, is it?” ♦

October 15, 2018 The Weekly Standard / 33 Books&Arts

The fire at Brazil’s Museu Nacional on the night of September 2 destroyed millions of irreplaceable artifacts. Flames of History

How safe from destructive fire are American museums? by Ashley May

olonel Cândido Rondon was so unpopular that the Brazilian stayed alive himself was a cause for awe. wasn’t yet 25 years old Army started detailing prisoners to After a quarter-century, Rondon when, in 1890, the newly his missions. It wasn’t just the hard- had made some limited progress. He created Brazilian republic ships—disease, rapids, unfriendly ani- knew the Amazon better than anyone Casked him to lead its Strategic Tele- mals—that concerned the men, but alive. He had built up a communica- graph Commission—a project intended also Rondon’s imposition of a baffling tion system with remote interior tele- to run a telegraph line through the additional mandate to be followed at all graph stations. And on his returns country’s Amazon interior and in times and in all circumstances: Do no to Rio, he didn’t come back empty- the process make contact with the violence to any Indian for any reason. handed: He bore gifts—evidence of indigenous tribes living in its recesses. Historian Candice Millard relates that his slowly improving relationships Rondon himself was a caboclo, a man of Rondon “valued the lives of the Ama- with the Amazon’s panoply of inhabit- mixed Indian and Spanish blood who, zonian Indians above his own life—or ants. Gifts were Rondon’s chief diplo- orphaned at age 2, hailed from a rural the lives of his men. Surely there was matic tool; he always carried presents village far from the influence of Rio not a soldier in the Rondon Commis- for each tribe and, when times were de Janeiro. sion who could not recite by heart his good, received something significant Rondon’s corps was supposed to colonel’s now famous command: ‘Die in return—musical instruments, weap- include up to 150 men but was rarely if you must, but never kill.’ ” He would ons, food, anything thought to be of at capacity; assignment to his unit enter the jungle with 81 men and come value. On one journey he brought back with 30, or go in with 100 men along an anthropologist skilled in cap-

Ashley May is a writer in Washington, D.C. and return with 55. The fact that he turing sound and so was able to return BUDA MENDES / GETTY

34 / The Weekly Standard October 15, 2018 with some of the first recordings ever annual average of 620 structure fires of the last remembrances of a vanish- made of indigenous music. in or at libraries, museums, court- ing people. Stanley had presciently A chunk of Rondon’s collection, evi- houses, or other public or govern- written of his worry that “a few gen- dence of first contact, went to the kind ment properties. There are fires about erations hence our descendants will of institution where such artifacts— “once a week” at museums and art have nothing except . . . memorials, to irreplaceable cultural treasures—typi- galleries, according to Andrew Wil­ remind them of the . . . existence of a cally go: the national museum. In son, a fire-protection engineer who was race.” Smithsonian secretary Joseph this case, the Museu Nacional in Rio formerly the Smithsonian’s top fire- Henry’s daughter, Mary, described the de Janeiro. Yes, the one that recently safety official and is now a consultant. firein her diary: burned down. If you broaden the focus to include all Truly it was a grand sight as well as a The fire on the night of Septem- of the nation’s 35,000 museums and sad one the flames bursting from the ber 2 destroyed not only the museum’s historic properties—often churches windows of the towers rose high above indigenous Brazilian ethnology collec- in poor condition—the number is them curling round the ornamental tion but also nearly everything else—an much higher. In fact, hours before the stone work through the archs and tre- estimated 90 percent of the museum’s Brazil fire, Fred and Melinda Kent of foils as if in full appreciation of their symatry, a beautiful fiend tasting to the 20 million items. The oldest human Natchez, Mississippi, received the bad utmost the pleasure of destruction. skeleton found in the Americas. Ani- news that the historic 1903 club they mal fossils, including dinosaurs. The had recently purchased and renovated Six months later, the most popular and world’s largest collection of lace bugs. as a museum had caught on fire and controversial museum in the United Whole lifespans of work by modern- sustained a 40-50 percent loss. They States burned to the ground. P. T. Bar- day scientists. As the cinders are sifted, were due to reopen the building, added num’s American Museum in New York it will be easier to catalogue what has to the National Register of Historic held all sorts of curiosities, including remained than what has been lost. For Places in 1979, the following week. relics from the American Revolution now, the chief surviving artifact is one The very next day, in Gulfport, Flor- and two living whales (which unfor- of the world’s largest meteorites, which ida, the Gulfport History Museum, tunately were not rescued and boiled the New York Times, with dark irony, housed in a 20th-century Method- alive in their tanks). When Barnum’s says has “been through worse.” Just ist church, caught fire, reportedly the resurrected museum, built at another another hazard of falling to Earth. unintentional result of a homeless location, also burst into flames in 1868, Scholars, curators, scientists, and cul- man’s actions. That fire, fortunately, he gave up on bricks and mortar and ture-lovers have been searching for met- left most of the little museum’s collec- took his act on the road. aphors appropriate to this moment of tion unharmed. Fire-protection engineers like Wil­ collective lament. One politician called A list of American cultural institu- son work with architects, landscapers, the fire a “lobotomy of the Brazilian tions that have suffered devastating and curators to devise and implement memory.” An American scholar com- fires would be very long and would strategies for preventing fires from pared it to the Metropolitan Museum in include many big names, like the starting and minimizing damage when New York burning to the ground. The Museum of Modern Art and the Amer- they do. The design of the J. Paul Getty secretary of the Smithsonian Institution ican Museum of Natural History. The Museum in Los Angeles, for example, kept it simple: The fire was a “terrible Library of Congress burned repeat- takes into account the museum’s wild- tragedy.” Wikipedia started a campaign edly—in 1814 thanks to the British, fire-susceptible location. While nearby soliciting photos of artifacts shot by vis- and then again in 1825 and most disas- residents were evacuated in the lat- itors in the past—a fine idea, although trously in 1851—before moving into est bout of California flames in 2017, of course even the most successful such a building designed with fire safety in a Getty staff member told the press crowdsourcing effort could only hope mind. The nearby Smithsonian castle that the safest location for the artwork to help us comprehend more fully the on the National Mall caught fire in was “right here.” The complex has a immensity of the loss. January 1865 when workers install- sophisticated air-filtration system that Then there is the question that any- ing a temporary stove to warm an art can push air out and also reverse the one outside Brazil reading about the gallery connected the stovepipe not to flow. The landscaping keeps the driest fire or looking at pictures of it must a ventilation shaft but to an enclosed plants on the outskirts and those with consider: Could something similar wall. Destroyed in that fire were the the highest water content closest to the happen here? personal effects of James Smithson— building. And the Getty has a million- the mysterious English donor whose gallon water tank at the ready. All this useum fires are much more com- bequest made the museum possible— comes at a cost: The Getty Center took Mmon in the United States than and most of the paintings of John Mix more than a dozen years to build, to you might think. According to the Stanley, an artist-explorer known for the tune of $1.3 billion. National Fire Protection Association, his portraits of Native American lead- Of course, most cultural institutions from 2012 to 2016, local fire depart- ers. Not unlike the Museu Nacional, don’t have access to that kind of money. ments responded to an estimated what the Smithsonian lost were some It’s no secret that the Museu Nacional

October 15, 2018 The Weekly Standard / 35 was perilously short on funds, its bud- can take place in the building and are safe to install in their galleries.) get a casualty of Brazil’s economic and under what type of supervision. Beyond these basics, the details political woes. And in the United States, Creating and enforcing such rules of fire prevention and suppression once you look past the top tiers of well- can go a long way to preventing fires. necessarily vary from institution to funded cultural institutions, you’ll find But in addition to fire-prevention institution. But there are not many that many midsize and small museums plans, museums need fire-suppression people who concern themselves with are in historic houses and churches systems—that is, sprinklers. “If one fire protection at cultural properties. likely to have specific fire-safety con- were to examine every cultural prop- According to Wil­son, in the United cerns. Think of the Laura Ingalls Wilder erty lost to a fire,” Wilson­ writes, “the States there are eight fire-protection Historic Home and Museum in Mans- only factor they would share in com- engineers who work full-time for field, Missouri, which hosts some 30,000 mon would be lack of an automatic museums; seven of them work for visitors annually. Or of Mother Bethel fire suppression system.” This was the the Smithsonian and the eighth is AME in Philadelphia, established in case in the Museu Nacional: There was at the National Gallery of Art. Other- 1794—home to an active congregation no sprinkler system and the hydrants wise, institutions hire consultants from and the site of a museum commem- engineering firms or cross their orating its history as the mother fingers for a speedy response from church of the oldest African- the local fire department. American denomination. How can There are fewer than 10 schools institutions at that scale, with in the United States that offer a limited budgets and many other master’s degree in fire-protection pressing concerns, take proper engineering—and fewer still that fire-safety precautions? offer an undergraduate degree. One Wil ­son’s advice begins with undergraduate program is at the awareness that “no institution University of Maryland. It fluctu- is immune from fire” and with a ates between 200 and 250 students basic understanding of how fires (including grad students); once start and spread—and the sugges- they have their degrees they’re tion that each institution develop gobbled up by engineering firms a “fire plan.” and large corporations looking to You may have learned in child- The 1865 burning of P. T. Barnum’s American Museum secure their properties. Depart- hood that there are three elements ment chair Jim Milke says that needed for a fire: oxygen, a fuel source, outside the building were dry. The last “the job market’s been overwhelming.” and an ignition source. Not much can time one of the world’s major national The primary problem for his depart- be done about oxygen, leaving engi- museums was lost to fire—when the ment’s graduates isn’t finding a job but neers like Wilson­ two prongs of attack: Natural History Museum in New choosing from among the offers avail- to limit and monitor fuel sources Delhi burned totally in 2016—faulty able to them. And while few of them and to extinguish ignition sources. For sprinklers were also involved. go on to work directly for the country’s example, the Smithsonian does not Museum sprinklers don’t work the tens of thousands of cultural institu- permit exhibits to be built of regular, way they do in movies. You can picture tions, some do go on to work for engi- old-fashioned wood; it has to be fire- the scene: Thomas Crown has thrown neering-consulting firms that specialize retardant treated wood. (Most building tear gas into the gallery and protec- in the needs of that sector. materials today come in fire-retardant tive walls are closing in to cover the varieties.) Engineers recommend that hanging art. Then the sprinklers come fter the fire in Brazil, protesters museums completely prohibit smok- on—all of them—showering the stat- A took to the streets to mourn and ing and limit the number of electrical ues and everything not yet covered. expose the government’s mishandling appliances like toasters, stoves, space As wonderful a device as this is in The and mismanagement of its treasures— heaters, hot plates, and coffeemakers Thomas Crown Affair, it’s not how sprin- the artifacts bought with the lives of on the premises. Basic maintenance klers in museums actually work. In real Rondon’s men and the life’s work and orderliness has to be kept, includ- life, each individual sprinkler head has of countless others. Brazilians have ing regular checks and corrections to its own seal, which only breaks when voiced shame and disappointment, dis- heating and air-conditioning systems heat reaches a certain level. Smoke has gust and distrust in their leaders. and electrical systems. According to nothing to do with it. So when sprin- For sympathetic and concerned Wil ­son, one leading cause of fires at klers activate, the water is very local- Americans there are a few things that museums is renovation-related weld- ized—making them more effective and might be done to reduce the risks of ing, cutting, and burning. To minimize reducing water damage to the rest of the destructive fires at our own cultural vulnerability, many institutions need museum. (It’s also how engineers con- institutions. One place to start is bet-

rules about what kinds of “hot work” vince nervous curators that sprinklers ter information-gathering—attempting CORBIS / GETTY

36 / The Weekly Standard October 15, 2018 to determine comprehensively the risk at U.S. museums and what could be B A done to shore up fire protection. There & appears to be no good clearinghouse of information about fire prepared- ness at American cultural institutions. All That May Christopher Provan, who chairs the American Alliance of Museums’s Secu- rity Professional Network, says that Become a Man “although museums need to comply with their specific states’ regulations, The promise and pitfalls of cross-gender casting there is still a large variance in fire pre- in Shakespeare. by Noah Millman vention from museum to museum.” He adds, “Everyone is concerned about fire but it is often an ‘it can’t happen here’ mentality.” An assessment or survey—perhaps funded by the gov- ernment, perhaps by foundations—of fire-protection measures at cultural institutions would go far to make the problem much less abstract and could lead to museum staff and friends wak- ing up to the real risks to their institu- tions. Even the act of participating in such a survey would nudge organiza- tions to think about their fire-preven- tion and -suppression efforts. As a side benefit, such a survey could be broad- ened slightly to provide information on other kinds of risk preparedness, like readiness for non-fire disasters and security measures in place for shoot- ings or terrorism. It could also lead Martha Henry as Prospero and Michael Blake as Caliban institutions to improved sharing of best in the Stratford Festival’s production of The Tempest practices and give donors a sense of the needs and opportunities. t’s a classic high school drama Well, the girls have grown up, and Short of such a national reckoning, teacher problem: The time has they’ve long since noticed. What in private citizens can also help. Go ahead come to cast the school play—and Sarah Bernhardt’s day was afforded only and ask your favorite cultural institu- once again, far more girls than boys to the greatest actress of her generation tions what their fire-prevention plans Ihave auditioned. Last year, it was Harry (her legendary performance as Hamlet are and specifically about the presence the Horse, Big Jule, and Lieutenant is the subject of a new play by Theresa of fire-suppression systems. Are these Brannigan; this year, Benvolio, Paris, Rebeck, currently on Broadway) is now systems properly maintained? Show- and the Prince will all be played by girls. a call for wholesale redress. Women who ing staff that you care could elevate Even these adjustments aren’t suffi- have put decades of their lives into learn- the issue in the museum’s culture. cient to make casting truly meritocratic, ing how to breathe iambic pentameter When you see hallways used for stor- though. The boy you cast as Romeo, sad are demanding the opportunity to play age or general uncleanliness, don’t just to say, has all the romantic appeal of an roles commensurate with their talents— go home and write a negative review overcooked noodle. But Juliet’s love is and there are only so many Cleopatras, on TripAdvisor—tell a staff member, Romeo, not Ramona. And so you limp Rosalinds, and Gonerils to go around. point out the fire hazard, give the staff along one more year, hoping the talented The future of classical theater—quite an additional incentive (even if it’s just girls don’t notice how thoroughly the possibly the very near future—is some- your esteem) to fix the problem. Such deck is stacked against them by a canon thing approaching gender parity. Which Tocquevillean, participatory tactics are written without them centrally in mind. means we’ll be seeing a lot more female well suited to the local nature of the Hamlets, Lears, and even Romeos in the problem—and a fittingly American Noah Millman, a filmmaker and a columnist years to come. way of taking action to protect our cul- for the Week, is working on a book about How will that change our under-

DAVID HOU / STRATFORD FESTIVAL HOU / STRATFORD DAVID tural heritage. ♦ Shake­speare and the Hebrew Bible. standing of the plays, our relationship

October 15, 2018 The Weekly Standard / 37 to our theatrical tradition—even our custom came back with the royal court prison, and it is these inmates who understanding of what theater, funda- and women were permitted for the first are supposed to be putting on (and mentally, is? That’s what remains to time to perform on the English stage. to some extent commenting on) the be seen. Far from becoming obsolete, those Shake­speare. The audience, then, is At first glance, it might seem that woman-dresses-as-a-boy roles became not asked to accept that these women there’s nothing much to see. Cross- only more popular once they were are these men, merely that they are gender casting was, after all, a fea- played by women; according to scholar playing them. And a great deal of the ture of theater from its beginnings Elizabeth Howe, fully one-quarter of meaning of the plays lives in the inter- in ancient Greece, when female roles the plays performed in Restoration-era play between the roles the actors are like Antigone would have been played London contained one or more roles playing—the women in the prison— by male actors. The same convention for actresses in men’s clothes. The rea- and the roles those prisoner charac- obtained in Shake­speare’s England. son, though, was less subversive than ters are playing within Shakespeare’s­ But what did audiences see when they drama. By interposing that additional saw these men claiming to be women? layer of performance, they implicitly Did they suspend disbelief and see The challenge is to acknowledge the chasm between a women? Or were they perpetually contemporary audience’s expectations conscious of theatrical artifice? mount Shakespeare’s of theatrical realism and the effects of The answer is probably not entirely plays in such a way cross-gender casting on a large scale. one or the other. The fact that boys They are not simply doing the play. with slighter builds and higher-pitched that you can introduce That, though, is the challenge: voices played the roles of young women a new audience to his to mount these plays in such a way suggests the goal was to assist the audi- that you can simply do the play, and ence in its suspension of disbelief, just work—but using casts introduce a new audience to the work as, in our day, women are hired to play that reflect the talent thereby, but using casts that reflect the roles of young boys like Cherubino, the talent pool that exists in our Peter Pan, and Bart Simpson. Certain pool that exists in our day rather than the one that existed roles—like the Nurse from Romeo and in Shake­speare’s. Juliet—undeniably lend themselves to day rather than the one As it happens, this year Ontario’s camp comedy, but it’s hard to believe that existed in his. Stratford Festival, the largest clas- that Shake­speare intended Ophelia or sical repertory company in North Desdemona or Imogen to be played as America, is offering a season that caricatures of femininity rather than prurient; men’s clothes were far more grapples directly with this very ques- with an honest attempt at signification. form-fitting than women’s, and the tion. Three of the Shake­speare plays On the other hand, Shake­speare moment of revelation of a character’s it is staging—a late romance, an early made a potent meta-theatrical virtue true gender provided ready excuse for comedy, and a Roman tragedy—were of the necessity of cross-casting. He the actress to bare her breasts. deliberately cross-gender cast, but in repeatedly put his boys-playing-women That’s certainly not what today’s three distinct ways, reflecting three into plots that required them to don classical actresses are aiming for; for different ideas about how to make breeches again and disguise themselves that sort of thing, you go to HBO, not such casting work. The contrasts as boys, thereby drawing attention to the RSC. But it’s a frequently voiced among them suggest some of the the artifice of performance and giving concern with cross-gender casting opportunities—and some of the pit- future generations of scholars ammuni- in our era: that, in the absence of a falls—directors will increasingly face tion to debate the performative nature socially agreed theatrical convention, as cross-gender casting ceases to be a of gender itself. And just as he made the casting may usurp the play and novelty and becomes the norm. frequent reference to the theater in his turn it into camp. plays, he was wont to draw attention One solution is to reverse Elizabe- he Tempest is perhaps the trickiest to the artifice of cross-casting, even in than conventions themselves and have Tof Shake­speare’s most frequently tragic roles. When his Cleopatra com- women play all the parts. All-female produced plays. Though it is far from plains of actors in the future who will productions of Shakespeare­ have the only play in which one of Shake­ “boy my greatness,” I have to believe achieved considerable artistic and speare’s characters decides to play the aim was less a knowing laugh than commercial success, as Phyllida Lloyd’s director—Rosalind does it, Hamlet a double-take, by an audience so caught trilogy vividly demonstrates. But her does it, and the Duke in Measure for up in the poetry and emotion of the productions—of Julius Caesar; Henry I V, Measure does almost nothing else— moment that it had forgotten this was a Part 1; and The Tempest—relied on a those characters remain fully embedded play and Cleopatra just a boy. meta-theatrical concept to ground their in their worlds and their dramas. Pros- Ironically, camp became a larger fac- casting choices. The actresses in her pero largely stands above his, manipu- tor after the Restoration, when French productions play inmates in a women’s lating the other characters by magical

38 / The Weekly Standard October 15, 2018 means—and thereby drains their sto- was moved to puzzle over this question, Even without any such overarching ries of nearly all their narrative weight. moved to read a mother’s concern for conceit, surely some things will change The only important decision in the play her daughter as different in kind from in meaning with a change in gender, is Prospero’s own late turn toward for- what we might expect from a father. and change in a fundamental way. giveness and renunciation. One critic read Martha Henry’s perfor- Prospero’s early confrontation with As a consequence, more than any mance as centering on the tension so Caliban, the slave who tried to rape her other play of Shake­speare’s, The Tempest many women artists feel between the daughter, cannot really read the same as is a pure star vehicle, an opportunity for demands of their art and the demands a male Prospero’s would, because her a great actor at the top of his game— of motherhood, as though her magical relationship with his would-be victim or nearing the end of his career—to matchmaking is an attempt to make up is different: She surely feels some level speak some extraordinary valedictory for lost time. But, again, the text won’t of identity with another vulnerable speeches and demonstrate how a well- cooperate. Prospero has been exiled woman. And her acknowledgment of trained human voice can inspire more with her daughter, not from her. And Caliban, that “thing of darkness,” as her wonder than all the spectacle own—in our #MeToo era, that is that costume designers and pyro- not a declaration from a woman technicians can conjure. In this that can be taken casually. case, the actor is an actress. And yet, it mostly is. Notwith­ Artistic director Antoni Cimo­ standing his written notes, lino’s answer in his production Cimolino­ doesn’t particularly to the problem of how to get lean into the gender change; his more women into classical roles is in every other way a very con- is the one most consonant with ventional production, aiming to the conventions of realism we keep as much familiar as possi- inherited from the 19th century: ble. That is probably to be regret- He changed the gender of the ted. Shakespeare­ has a mythic character. As Julie Taymor did register, which dominates in his in her film starring Helen Mir- tragedies and his late romances ren, Cimolino­ makes Prospero in particular, and if you don’t a woman (though he doesn’t choose to ironize that aspect, a change her name to Prospera), crucial change in gender will played by veteran Stratford Beryl Bain (left) as Dromio of Syracuse and Jessica B. Hill lead you down a different set of actress Martha Henry, who began as Antipholus of Syracuse in The Comedy of Errors mythic paths, which might well her career on the same stage more be more fruitful to follow than than half a century ago playing Pros- if the magic is art, why drown it just avoid. Make Hamlet a princess and pero’s daughter, Miranda. when her daughter has outgrown the she becomes Elektra; make Macbeth a The potent symmetry of Henry’s need for mothering? queen and she becomes Clytemnestra. career, coupled with making the cen- I found myself groping for a mean- Change one word of the spell and it tral relationship one of mother to ing to the change that the produc- weaves a different magic. daughter, inevitably conjures an aura tion does not fully provide. Perhaps, I of torch-passing. Prospero’s art is read- thought, this female Prospero’s exile ut what if you set out to prove ily analogized to that of the theater should be read as a kind of secluded Bthat gender doesn’t matter? That itself, so when this female Prospero, domesticity, in which a distinctly femi- there truly is no meaningful difference who was once a Miranda, shows off nine magic blooms—necessary for sur- between men, women, and those who just how much magic she’s learned to vival in those straitened circumstances reject the gender binary—to the point her daughter, played by her successor but to be set aside upon reentry to the where nobody can tell them apart? as classical ingenue, it feels like a les- traditionally masculine world of power. That would seem to be the point of son, a master class. In his director’s notes, Cimo­lino him- director Keira Loughran’s production The only problem is: The play self suggests that Prospero’s usurpa- of The Comedy of Errors, one of the few doesn’t support this conceit. Pros- tion and exile—always triggered by an Shake­speare comedies that doesn’t itself pero’s goal for her daughter is not inattentiveness to matters of state and involve cross-dressing but that does mastery but matrimony. And in the a preference for books that was seen as involve plenty of identity confusion. end, Prospero will not hand down her unmanly—were in this case driven by We begin with two pairs of identi- book but drown it. assumptions about the unfitness of her cal twins, one pair well-born, the other Does the meaning of this renun- gender, and recalls English pamphlets pair servants to the former, separated, ciation have to change when Prospero from 1601 (a decade before The Tempest along with their parents, during a ship- becomes a woman? Perhaps not—but was written) that called for an end to wreck; it’s a frame story not unlike that

CYLLA VON TIEDEMANN / STRATFORD FESTIVAL CYLLA VON TIEDEMANN / STRATFORD I’m not the only audience member who “old woman’s government.” of a romance like The Tempest. Egeon of

October 15, 2018 The Weekly Standard / 39 Syracuse has been searching for his son, and Dromio are not only female, they woman—and playing it campily, so Antipholus, who in turn had gone off also appear to be biracial while their we’re aware that he’s really a man. And to search for his long-lost twin brother, siblings are not. Why should gender that man in a dress is playing a charac- but when he arrives in Ephesus, Egeon be different? ter who may be biologically male but is immediately condemned to death (as But there is a difference between whose chosen pronouns are female and all hated Syracusans are). But from then suspensions of disbelief we undertake is playing it, as it were, straight. until the tearful reconciliation scene at for the sake of the story and changes The confusion is undoubtedly delib- the end that reunites all the lost rela- made within the story. We put aside our erate, to make the point to the audi- tives and sets Egeon free, we’re in the awareness that the actors don’t actually ence not to trust its own prejudices realm of farce. The bulk of the story look alike—may even have different and preconceptions. But the confusion involves the hijinks that ensue when racial backgrounds—because putting works against the comedy, rather than the Syracusan son arrives in Ephesus that aside lets us enjoy the play, within in its service: They are supposed to be with his servant and is immediately confused; we are supposed to be laugh- mistaken for his Ephesian twin—by his ing. Moreover, the comedy itself makes wife, his servants, his business associ- For theater’s essential assumptions about gender roles that ates, and so forth. collaboration between are pretty thoroughly retrograde and So what happens if, as in this pro- that the actors have no choice but to duction, the twins are not identical, but the actor and the play out, which jars badly when it can- fraternal boy-girl pairs? Can they still not be squared with the gender-related both have the same name—Antipho- audience to work, changes swirling around it. Finally, lus for the well-born, Dromio for the the language must absent a clear language within which to low-born? They do. Can they still be understand the games being played, the routinely mistaken for each other? be shared. It is not actors are left unable even to use ready They are. Will the female Dromio still enough to tear down opportunities for humor. For example, be pursued by the male Dromio’s lusty Dromio of Syracuse cannot play off the kitchen wench (played by an older man the old language, fact that the kitchen wench pursuing in deliberately unconvincing drag)? simply asserting that her is obviously a man when she anato- She will. Will the female Antipholus mizes the countries of the wench’s body, still pledge her affection to her broth- gender is insignificant; and the mistress of the Porpentine can’t er’s wife’s sister? She will. And will that it is necessary to build play up her sexual allure for fear of hav- sister, when she learns this Antipholus ing to reveal (or further confuse) what is neither already married to her sister up a new one. the nature of that allure might be. nor, in fact, a man, respond joyfully to a Theater is all about make-believe, proposal? Reader: She’ll marry her. playing at alternative identities. But it is Gender is bent in a handful of other the world of which they look identi- a collaborative medium, and the essen- ways in the production: The Duke cal. Besides, the two Antipholuses tial collaboration is between the actor of Ephesus is played by a man in a have very different personalities from and the audience. The actor uses lan- dress, for example, and the courtesan one another, as do the two Dromios, guage to lead the audience to imagine at the Porpentine is played by a man so part of the humor has always been the vasty fields of France, horses print- in a corset who I believe is intended our laughing at their wives and associ- ing their proud hoofs in the receiving to be portraying a transgender woman, ates for not being able to tell them apart earth, and the warlike Harry himself, though I’m not totally sure. The conceit when they are so obviously different. who in truth may be just some guy seems to be that in Ephesus, gender is That’s one reason why, though the com- from Sudbury. For that collaboration supremely fluid, to the point where no edy works even when you cast a single to work, the language must be shared. one notices the difference between the actor to play both twins, it works better It is not enough to tear down the old male and female twins, not even their when the difference is readily discern- language, saying—as in this instance— own father. ible to the audience. that gender doesn’t signify anything of Does any of this matter? Perhaps It doesn’t work so well when you consequence. It is necessary to build up it shouldn’t. Shakespeare’s­ identical- set out to change the world within the a new one. A theater that abjures signi- twin plot, borrowed from Plautus, is a play for the sake of ends that are not fication as such abjures meaning, and patently absurd contrivance to begin related to the drama. The multiplicity even so slight a comedy as this early with. Why not up the crazy ante fur- of ways that gender is manipulated in farce must mean something if we are to ther? Moreover, we accept, as a matter this production never even lets us settle laugh at it. of modern colorblind casting conven- on a language of theatrical signification. tion, that Lear may be black but have That man in a dress seems to be just a ulius Caesar is, next to Timon of Ath­ three white daughters. In this produc- man in a dress. But that man in a dress Jens, arguably the most masculine tion, in fact, the Syracusan Antipholus is an actor playing a character who’s a of all of Shakespeare’s­ plays. There

40 / The Weekly Standard October 15, 2018 are only two female roles of note, both the mode of Duncan, nor petulantly as a reveler. So it is startling to see wives (Brutus’s Portia and Caesar’s Cal- entitled like Richard II. So why does he him played, by Michelle Giroux, as a purnia), each of whom exists primarily fall? From where I sat, his fall was fated complete aristocrat, with the highest- to be ignored by her husband. That not by his ambition but by the nature turned nose and most precise diction makes it an interesting choice for cross- of his primacy. This Caesar comes off as of them all. It’s an almost unthinkable gender casting—more interesting, in a legitimate diva, a supremely talented choice for a male actor to make—and it fact, than for an all-female cast, since and confident leading actress, the kind has the effect of completely dissipating the play itself is already nearly entirely fully capable of cowing any director the contrast between Antony’s funeral single-gender. into submission. It’s a kind of authority oration and Brutus’s self-justifying Director Scott Wentworth’s pro- speech of introduction. That in turn duction comes close to leaning over reminds the audience that the com- into all-female territory. Three of ing battle over Caesar’s corpse is the top four roles—Caesar, Cassius, fought between wealthy patricians, and Antony—are played by women, that Brutus’s republican principle as are ancillary roles like Octavius, and Antony’s Caesarian populism Cicero, and Lucius. But all of them are alike feats of formal rhetoric and play their roles as men; the charac- that the people’s true stake in the ters are unchanged. And one key role battle’s outcome is negligible. is played by a male actor: that of Bru- The real revelation of the produc- tus, whom Antony eulogizes as the tion, though, is Irene Poole’s Cassius. noblest Roman of them all. Cassius seems pretty easy to read at The design of the play lets us the outset: envious, small-minded, know from the outset that the and power-hungry, a man who sees conventions of realism will not be how Brutus can be manipulated working precisely as we are used to. and has no scruples about doing so. The actors are costumed in Elizabe- But there’s a deeper current flowing than garb, garnished with touches beneath that doesn’t fully surface of Rome: a toga draped over a dou- until the tent scene, where Brutus blet, a short sword instead of broad, and Cassius begin by arguing about a laurel wreath instead of a coronet. Cassius’s bribe-taking and end with The aim isn’t an “original prac- the determination to go into battle tices” replication of an Elizabethan when, as Brutus puts it, they are on theatrical experience. Rather, it full sea. Brutus’s argument is not a tells the audience visually that the very good one—his metaphor doesn’t world they are entering is Shake­ even work in his own description, speare’s, not Caesar’s. since by his own reckoning the tide That choice has a variety of con- of their support is already going sequences, some of which mute the Michelle Giroux (right) as Mark Antony and out. But Brutus’s arguments have impact of the play—most particu- Seana McKenna as the title character in Julius Caesar never been very good. What they larly in terms of its politics. Julius have been, always, is sincere—but Caesar is an explicitly political play, that commands respect—but not infre- why should sincere foolishness carry with characters who make frequent quently sparks resentment. That effect, the day, with so much on the line? reference to republican ideals, and it is of a manifest personal authority that What we see on Cassius’s face in very hard to read the play as not being is nonetheless resented, is one that, I the moment he agrees to Brutus’s plan about these matters. But the Elizabe- think, would be much harder to achieve answers that question: It is, simply, than setting manages to shake loose of with a male actor, and it throws a use- love. At the outset, perhaps, he merely any political concerns, leaving us with fully harsh light on the jealousy of Cas- envied the regard in which the other a drama largely of people—and of men. sius and the other conspirators to bring senators and the people held Brutus, And that drama winds up being shaped him (her) down. but by now it’s something warmer, not in very interesting ways by the cross-­ The man who takes up Caesar’s a desire to have Brutus’s qualities, but a gender casting. cause, Mark Antony, is nearly always desire to be near him, even if that means Seana McKenna—who has previ- played as a natural populist and good- to die with him. It’s a crucial moment ously played Richard III as a man and time guy. And there’s ample basis for the human drama that dominates King Lear as a woman—plays Caesar in the text for that characterization; this play, and I cannot doubt that Poole as utterly sure of his authority. Too he’s teased by Caesar for loving the was better able to find that love, and so sure, as it fatally turns out. But he theater, mistrusted by Cassius as an readily display it, in part because of her

DAVID HOU / STRATFORD FESTIVAL HOU / STRATFORD DAVID comes off as neither too trusting in orator, and mocked before combat gender. I don’t doubt either that it was

October 15, 2018 The Weekly Standard / 41 helpful for Brutus, the only man among humanity so abominably” is not alone fectly fine a choice as changing the set- the four principals whose audience is that we not imitate human beings ting or translating the text, so long as internal and whose nobility consists in badly, but that we not become imita- it is intentional and driven by a deep tion members of the human species, seeming never to be other than himself, abominations; as if to imitate, or rep- contest with the material. But regard- to be the only one played by a man. resent—that is, to participate in—the less of the goal—even if the goal is to species well is a condition of being be able just to do the play—acting can- n Theresa Rebeck’s play Bernhardt/ human. Such is Shakespearean­ the- not be mere imitation. A woman can Hamlet, the divine Sarah declares that ater’s stake in the acting, or playing, play Hamlet because there is a woman I of humans. only a woman can play Hamlet, because in Hamlet, because the feminine is pres- the men who are young enough can’t “Then,” Cavell audaciously concludes, ent in every man. And there is a Hamlet master his depths and the men who have “Hamlet’s picture of the mirror held in every woman of sufficient depth of the experience can’t muster his youth. up to nature asks us to see if the mir- talent to assay him. If we do not imi- One may debate both points while still ror as it were clouds, to determine tate humanity abominably, then we can agreeing that she was on the right track whether nature is breathing (still, trust the audience to respond as they in suggesting that cross-casting is, ulti- again)—asks us to be things affected did in Shakespeare’s­ day and see not an mately, casting. It means seeing who the by the question.” actor boying Cleopatra’s greatness, nor character, your version of the character, And that is the question. Changing a woman seeming to be Hamlet, but is, and why only this actor can bring that the gender of a character inevitably that within which passeth show, that is character to life. So if we are entering a changes the play, and that is as per- to say: Cleopatra, Hamlet. ♦ world where directors will be routinely expected to consider women to play male characters, that means first and B A foremost that directors will need to be & more attuned to what a woman could distinctly bring to those roles—or, bet- ter, more open to discovering what those The First Modernist things might be in collaboration with the women actors they cast. Because it Delacroix’s undeserved reputation for greatness. probably won’t be what either of them by James Gardner expects at the outset. Meanwhile, a flood of female Ham- lets could, ironically, help in combating ugène Dela­­croix, it seems, is our age’s obsession with treating art as having his moment. A retro- Del­a­croix about representation. Yes, it is meaning- spective of his paintings that Metropolitan Museum of Art through January 6 ful, even vital, to see characters like one- began at the Louvre has just self on stage. But the real promise of the openedE at the Metropolitan Museum theater is the discovery of other selves of Art, and the critical consensus seems none of his works seemed quite equal within oneself.­ A girl in the audience to be that a star is reborn. Everyone, of to that esteem. This is not to deny that might see a female Hamlet and say: I course, has heard of Del­a­croix, but for Del­acroix­ was a good painter, but it could play the lead—on stage and in my the past century or so no one has really is vigorously to question whether he own life—and that’s wonderful (and it’s cared very much about him. There was was a great painter. And yet so many wonderful for her brother to see that, nothing especially wrong with him; it artists whom I admire more than too). But anyone in the audience might was just that there was little in his oeu- Del­acroix—van­ Gogh, Cézanne, and see a female Hamlet and say: There are vre that inspired great excitement. But Picasso—spoke of him in terms of more things in heaven and earth than for some reason the art-loving public has highest praise. How can it be that the were dreamt of in my philosophy, for resolved to turn to him now in a state of querulous, demanding, infinitely dis- I see a side I didn’t see before, of him receptivity, approaching fervor, that it cerning Degas eagerly collected 250 of and of myself. And that to me is even could not have mustered a decade ago. Del­acroix’s­ paintings and drawings, more wonderful. For some critics, however, by which when Dela­­croix at his best could not Stanley Cavell, in his seminal book I mean me, this sudden and enthusias- rival Degas on a bad day? Disowning Knowledge in Seven Plays of tic reassessment is baffling. I have long The answer, as best I can determine, Shake­speare, comments on Hamlet’s been aware of Del­acroix’s­ eminence involves an art-historical calculation advice to the players as follows: in the pantheon of French artists, but that was more important to his contem- poraries than it should be to us. Dela­­ Why assume just that Hamlet’s pic- ture urges us players to imitate, that is, James Gardner is completing The Louvre: croix, born into affluence and social copy or reproduce, (human) nature? A History, to be published by prominence in 1798, was instrumental His concern over those who “imitated Grove Atlantic in 2019. in introducing an entirely new spirit

42 / The Weekly Standard October 15, 2018 and formal language into visual art. He is the first modernist in painting, in exactly the sense in which his con- temporaries Victor Hugo and Hector Berlioz were the first modernists in lit- erature and music respectively. That is to say that although none of them was a true modernist—that movement would emerge long after they had established themselves in their careers—each fought for and achieved a new zone of impassioned freedom in his given art, a freedom that stood in explosive oppo- sition to what preceded it and was the genesis of so much that followed. In the case of Dela­ ­croix, he liberated painting from the compositional rigid- ity of neoclassicism while endowing his work with a fougue—a flame and fury in the textures of the paint itself—that stood in such obvious contrast to the smooth, serenely flat canvases of his more academic contemporaries. Per- haps most of all, Dela­­croix pried open the very notion of what a painting could depict and be about. Entire reg- isters of experience—geographical, in Arabia; temporal, in the Middle Ages; experiential, in the life of everyday men and women—that had seemed off- limits to serious artists were henceforth to replace the aristocratic fawning and neo-Platonic indirection of earlier art. Del­acroix­ was not alone in this quest: Above, Eugène Del­a­croix, Self-Portrait with Green Vest (ca. 1837, when He acknowledged his debt to the young the artist was nearly 40). Below, Basket of Flowers (1848-49). Englishman Richard Parkes Boning- ton, whose brilliance would be far bet- ter known today had he not died at the age of 25 in 1828. Yet it was Dela­­croix who, for more than 40 crucial years, until his death in 1863, was the stan- dard bearer of The New. But these achievements of Del­a­ croix, properly assessed, were more important in the context of art history than of art itself. If Hugo and Berlioz won similar battles in their disciplines, they also produced works that master- fully implemented those revolution- ary innovations. With Del­a­croix, by contrast, one is apt to feel that many followers used his new language and engaged his new themes more compel- lingly than he did. Nearly 150 works are included in the Met exhibition, ranging from small

TOP: MICHEL URTADO / RMN-GRAND PALAIS / MUSÉE DU LOUVRE; BOTTOM: MUSEUM OF ART / MUSÉE DU LOUVRE; METROPOLITAN / RMN-GRAND PALAIS MICHEL URTADO TOP: drawings to large paintings, as well as

October 15, 2018 The Weekly Standard / 43 battle members of the bourgeoisie and the working class. At her side a young boy somewhat alarmingly brandishes a pistol in either hand. If these three works were unable to travel, at least one of Dela­­croix’s fin- est paintings is indeed in the present show: Self-Portrait with Green Vest (ca. 1837). The mustachioed painter, his flowing hair carefully parted to either side, rises up against an unspecified brown wall and assesses the viewer with no obvious approbation. But Del­a­croix is rarely that good. From the late 1820s onward, a literary sensibility overtakes his painting, to regrettable effect. It is no accident that some of his most representative works are illustrations of Dante, Shakespeare, and Tasso. But the besetting problem with this literary inclination is that it is more concerned with what is depicted Women of Algiers in Their Apartment (1834) than with how it is depicted. Although Dela­­croix has always been numerous prints and book illustrations. across the canvas in a highly artificial, famous for his thickly applied paint tex- From all periods of Dela­­croix’s career, almost abstract way. With its startling tures, it is astonishing how rarely the these pieces touch on the main themes blast of crimson, this work is infused viscous pigment springs to life. Its appli- of his work: The viewer will never have with the truth of art, if not gravity: The cation to the surface of the canvas is full seen quite so many turbaned infidels figures float freely through space in a of bravado, but the result, more often raising their sabers in Byronic rage than not, is inert clumps of matter wait- against persecuted Christians or quite ing for that Promethean fire by which, so many kings and councilors parading Although Del­a­croix has one generation later, the Impressionists about in the stockings and petticoats of always been famous for would awaken them. In looking at his the French Renaissance court. two depictions of baskets of flowers and Through no fault of the Met, how- his thickly applied paint fruits from 1849, weakly composed ever, the present exhibition leaves out and chromatically dull, it is impossible some of the artist’s best works, which textures, it is astonishing not to think what Monet or Renoir, what were deemed too important to leave how rarely the viscous Cézanne or Fantin-Latour, could have the Louvre; among these are The Mas­ done—what they did do—with all those sacre at Chios, The Death of Sar­danapa­­ pigment springs to life. dahlias, asters, and peonies. lus, and Liberty Leading the People. The The result, more often Even one of the most famous paint- first of these three canvases, from 1824, ings in the Met exhibition, Women of depicts the contemporary uprising of than not, is inert clumps Algiers in Their Apartment (1834), is the Greeks against their Ottoman over- of matter. marred by its inept execution, despite lords, who pass on horseback among its status as a forerunner of Courbet the prostrate survivors of their aggres- and Realism. The three seated women sions. In the greenish-gray palette and way that perfectly corresponds to the occupy an interior space whose per- tunnel-like progress to a distant van- opulent dissoluteness of their lives, and spective is incoherent, while the tur- ishing point, Del­a­croix seems to have that is the entire point of the painting. baned woman on the right twists her learned a great deal from Velázquez.­ Del­acroix’s­ most famous work, surely, body backward in a way that is ana- This is almost a proto-realist work in its is Liberty Leading the People, painted tomically baffling and, as so often studious fidelity to observable reality. a year after the 1830 Paris uprising in Del­acroix,­ results from his insur- Two years later, however, his depic- against Charles X, which it commemo- mountable weaknesses as a draftsman. tion of the death of the Assyrian king rates. The incarnation of Liberty—a It is difficult to see this painting with- Sar­dan­apalus­ is conceived as a slightly bare-breasted young woman—waves out longing for the Apollonian per- woozy perspective that flattens and the tricolor aloft as she climbs over the fection of Ingres, a very different and

unfurls its dozen figures, naked or not, dead and the moribund, leading into incalculably greater artist. ♦ / MUSÉE DU LOUVRE / RMN-GRAND PALAIS FRANCK RAUX

44 / The Weekly Standard October 15, 2018 your body sweats. / Why don’t you look B A into Jesus? He’s got the answer.” & At the same time, Norman­ wrestled with doubts about whether entertaining concertgoers was a worthwhile endeavor Upon This Rock for the kingdom of God: At several points, he retreated from his recording The prickly street preacher who helped create career to throw himself into the more the Christian rock genre. by Andrew Egger classical evangelical pursuits of street preaching and church-planting. Perhaps this also explains the bizarre dynamic ock-star biographies can be of his typical concerts: “Norman­ would vacuous affairs: fun but for- Why Should the Devil Have often quit playing if people started clap- mulaic recitations of record All the Good Music? ping during his songs or singing along. Larry Nor­man and the deals, albums, and concerts Perils of Christian Rock His main interest was forcing his audi- Rspiced up (if you’re lucky) with “before by Gregory Alan Thorn­bury ence toward self-examination, so if peo- he was famous” anecdotes and little- Convergent, 292 pp., $26 ple were having fun at his concert, Larry known details from the artist’s life. But thought, they probably weren’t thinking not all such books—and not all rock hard enough.” stars—are cut from the same cloth. Nor ­man’s critique of problems Take for instance Gregory Alan Thorn­ within the church, like the critiques bury’s new biography of Jesus-rock of many other cultural crusaders of godfather Larry Norman.­ the ’70s, often blurred into invective Thorn bury­ , the former chancellor against institutional religion itself. “To of King’s College in Manhattan and a me religion’s not real, it’s all based on scholar noted for his books of popular superstition, guilt, and ritual,” he told theology, might seem an odd guy to put an interviewer in 1973. “I don’t have to out a book on the OG Christian rocker. go to church every day. I go to church But he has the zeal of a superfan and the Larry Norman (1947-2008) in my heart. I don’t have to kneel or long view of an intellectual historian, bow, my spirit has been humbled and resulting in a book that’s both a worthy scolding the institutional church for bowed.” The great irony of Norman­ ’s panegyric and an important meditation its failure of Christian witness—par- career, Thornbury­ tells us, was that the on the developments that shaped evan- ticularly for not addressing the nation’s Christian-rock genre for which he paved gelicalism in the last decades of the 20th social problems. Consider his fiery the way quickly became just the kind of century. Thorn­bury portrays Nor­man “Right Here in America”: institutional juggernaut he had picked as an enormously talented and prolific up a guitar to protest in the first place. singer, guitarist, and songwriter who So I ask you, America: Where do “Christian contemporary music” simply you stand? Your people are starving, never managed to solve the central ten- they’re beaten, and they’re raped, became the new idiom through which sion of his life: how to reconcile his role and they’re dying in jail cells, so record labels could cash in on religious as an entertainer, which won him thou- what are your plans? I’m not talk- fervor and evangelicals could create sands of fans, with his calling to spread ing to Congress or you politicians socially relevant “worship music.” or Panthers or Muslims or Nixon or the gospel of Christ. Still, Larry Norman­ ’s story provides Birch. I’m addressing this song to The 1970s was a convulsive decade the church. a ray of optimism. Another recent book, in American Christianity. “Traditional Randall J. Stephens’s The Devil’s Music: Christian religion stood for ‘fixed’ val- But Norman­ ’s songs also frequently How Christians Inspired, Condemned, ues, politically, culturally, and sexually,” witnessed directly to the people he saw and Embraced Rock ’n’ Roll, depicts Thorn­bury writes. “It was hidebound, as the lost sheep of rock ’n’ roll, casting the evangelical foray into rock as an out of step with the times, and square.” the gospel as an antidote to the poisons attempt to recover lost cultural power (The more things change . . .) Mean- of modern secular life. One of his most and as a cash cow for record labels. At while, the broader culture “valued per- enduring songs, “Why Don’t You Look least Thornbury­ ’s book reminds us that sonal fulfillment and self-expression into Jesus?,” was written as a response to such cynical considerations were not the above all.” An aspiring musician in the self-destruction he’d seen from other whole picture: There was also a glint of Los Angeles, Larry Norman­ acquired a rock artists, notably Janis Joplin. “Take something real that Norman­ and other loyal following with idiosyncratic songs a look at what you’ve done to yourself / pioneers of Christian rock strove for. Why don’t you put the bottle back on “These are troubled days,” he sang in Andrew Egger is a reporter the shelf? / Yellow fingers from your 1977’s “If I Were a Singer.” “I want to

at The Weekly Standard. cigarettes / Your hands are shakin’ while live my life for you and show the way.” ♦ MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES / GETTY

October 15, 2018 The Weekly Standard / 45 OBITUARY

vulnerable when they are ignorant even of the last few decades of their The Veteran Pessimist own history. Laqueur commented in one of his books that “human mem- ory is notoriously frail,” because its knowledge evaporates unless studied, Walter Laqueur, 1921-2018. talked about, and taught. by Gerard Alexander If people weren’t learning the needed history in school or on their alter Laqueur was versity and then Brandeis and finally own, he would teach it to them in the most influential Georgetown embraced him. books and magazine articles that neoconservative intel- Instead of the one research spe- dredged up the crucial facts and lectual you may never cialty to which scholars tend to apply showed readers their implications. Whave heard of. He does not always themselves, he eventually developed a For instance, Europeans habituated figure in the roster alongside to a quarter century of politi- Norman Podhoretz, Irving cal peace reacted with panic Kristol, and other luminaries. to the terrorism of the 1970s But he should; for decades he that they considered new and was one of the most prolific, horrifying. Laqueur wrote a insightful, and instructive string of works calmly not- among this list of thinkers and ing that terrorism had deep advocates who were defined by historical roots and was their concerns about naïveté unlikely to destabilize confi- (and worse) at home and gath- dent democracies. When the ering threats abroad. ordeals of Vietnam led some Like some other American to think that well-intended intellectuals of his generation, people could craft interna- Laqueur was a refugee from tional rules and organiza- foreign turmoil. He was born tions that could ensure peace, and raised in Breslau in east- Laqueur refreshed their mem- ern Germany (now Wroclaw, ories about similar ventures Poland), and starting at the age in the 1920s and 1930s that of 11, he navigated the ended in tragedy. When many increasingly fraught life of of the same people interpreted German Jews under Nazi rule. the leaders of the Soviet Union He emigrated alone, late in in the 1970s and 1980s in the game, in 1938, dodging a increasingly charitable terms, threat that his parents did not he analyzed the Soviet story survive. He made his way to the Brit- number of them: Russia, totalitarian- and came to very different conclu- ish Mandate of Palestine, where he ism, political violence, the Arab-Israel sions. When the collapse of the USSR did some further schooling, picked conflict, Jewish culture and politics, in 1990-91 raised hopes that a new up languages like Arabic and Rus- Zionism, 20th-century European Russia might be a good global citizen, sian along the way, and began work society and politics, and U.S. foreign Laqueur warned that if the country’s as a journalist. policy. From his pen would flow an history were any guide, Russians were But he quickly became an essay- impossibly large volume of work on just as likely to be national chauvin- ist and researcher who was a better these subjects. ists and authoritarian populists. That fit with academia. Not all academics In London, he founded two aca- proved as prescient as any of his fore- agreed. Because Laqueur never had a demic journals, one on modern his- casts. Laqueur used history to offer settled enough life to earn advanced tory and the other on foreign policy these lessons not because he believed degrees (and possibly not the patience and international affairs. The pair- history repeats itself rigidly, but either), some university faculties ing nicely sums up what he made his because being ignorant of history is resisted hiring him. But Tel Aviv Uni- daily work: bringing modern history the surest way to repeat the mistakes to bear on international issues and of our predecessors. Gerard Alexander is an associate professor debates. He did so to combat the fool- These and other of Laqueur’s warn-

of politics at the University of Virginia. ishness and error to which people are ings have in common a pessimism that JOHN MARTYN / GHOST ULLSTEIN BILD GETTY

46 / The Weekly Standard October 15, 2018 he acknowledged, including in the title of one of his books, Reflections of a Veteran Pessimist. This was no doubt ‘The bogus sciences’ partly a product of his personal story. When sympathizers hailed the radical he American youth revolt Whole sections of the univer- student movements of the 1960s and T was sparked off by Vietnam, sities could be closed down for early 1970s as idealistic and inspira- by race conflict, and later on by a year or two, and the result, far tional, he pointed out that the Ger- the crisis of the university. At any from being the disaster to civiliza- man youth movements of the 1920s point along the line rational alter- tion which some appear to antici- were idealistic but also malevolent. He natives could have been formulated pate, would probably be beneficial. had lost his family, his home city and and presented. Instead, the move- Unfortunately, this is about the country, and later even the peculiar ment preferred a total, unthink- last thing that is likely to happen, pluralistic character of the mandatory ing rejection, and so became for it is precisely the non-subjects, Palestine in which he had matured. politically irrelevant. the fads, and the bogus sciences to He knew a huge number of people Yet a revolution is in fact over- which the “radicals” in their quest who had died violently. It would have due in the universities. There is for social relevance are attracted as been hard to maintain simple opti- nothing more appalling than the if by magnetic force. As for the con- mism through all that. sight of enormous aggregations of sequences of all this, one thing can But by the same standard—he students religiously writing down be predicted with certainty: those survived, after all—his pessimism pearls of wisdom that can be found to be most directly affected by the was not a sense of doom. He worried more succinctly and profoundly put new dispensation in the universi- that Western Europe was a region in in dozens of books. There is noth- ties will emerge from the experience decay, with a gaping chasm between ing more pathetic than to behold more confused and disappointed its economic might and its politi- the proliferation of social-science than ever, and more desperately cal mousiness. But he drew strength non-subjects in which the body of in need of certain truths, firm from the élan and vitality he detected solid knowledge proffered stands beliefs. . . . in the United States, Israel, and other usually in inverse ratio to the scien- —‘Reflections on Youth­ Movements,’ places. He just believed those ener- tific pretensions upheld. Commentary, June 1969 gies would prosper in a society that was clear-eyed and levelheaded. He wrote about the “West in retreat” not for right-wingers of the traditional shuttled for decades between homes because he thought retreat inevitable or populist type. And he repeatedly and workplaces in the United but because he knew it was not, which insisted that Israeli Jews were insuf- States, Britain, and Israel. He once is why he was part of an effort to rally ficiently attentive to the Palestinian remarked that learning several lan- the West, starting with its resolve. question, from the Mandate period guages “was one of the side effects of Running through his work like a right up through what he considered being uprooted.” He was uprooted river, most emphatically in the pages the ill-advised settlement policy. so much that he never settled into of Commentary magazine, was a series If Laqueur is too often overlooked any single identity. That made him of assumptions, lessons, and traits that in the roster of the founding genera- unlike, say, Henry Kissinger, who characterized what came to be called tion of neoconservatism, it might be had a thicker accent but a simpler neoconservatism. These included real- because he deliberately spoke to pol- self-conception as an American. ism about imperfect politics, an appre- icy and intellectual elites more than But Laqueur deserves to rank ciation of the scarcity of time and other to mass audiences. Maybe, too, it’s with the greatest intellectuals of resources, a conviction that thugs can because he did not define himself as his generation. During a dangerous and should be deterred and that fanat- the world’s greatest expert on any sin- period in Western history he worked ics need to be called out instead of gle issue, instead spreading himself furiously to communicate to anyone indulged, and a belief that our ideologi- thickly across a dozen topics. And who would listen the crucial lessons cal hopes and dreams should not write maybe it’s because he was not actu- that history can teach us about the checks that human nature cannot cash. ally a conservative, situated instead international threats we face, what These views led him to vigorously in the liberal wing of the movement, strategies are likely to work in con- defend liberal democracies. This was along with Daniel Bell and Daniel fronting them, what tempting mis- not because he romanticized their Patrick Moynihan. takes to avoid along the way, and citizens. He believed corners of the Finally, Laqueur considered why an imperfect America is well American New Left were more sin- himself a European instead of an worth fighting for. Sometimes immi- ister than naïve. He also had no love American. It is symbolic that he grants see that most clearly. ♦

October 15, 2018 The Weekly Standard / 47 “Some Democrats see Michael Avenatti’s entry into the Brett Kavanaugh scandal as a ‘distraction’” PARODY —Business Insider headline, October 2, 2018

October 15, 2018