The Tory Kingmaker
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THE KAVANAUGH NOMINATION FRED BARNES • PETER J. BOYER TERRY EASTLAND • ANDREW FERGUSON JULY 23, 2018 • $5.99 THE TORY KINGMAKER How backbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg came to hold the fate of Theresa May’s government, the future of his party, and the outcome of Brexit in his hands BY DOMINIC GREEN WEEKLYSTANDARD.COM Contents July 23, 2018 • Volume 23, Number 43 2 The Scrapbook Attention-seeking nincompoops, Kavanaugh panic, & more 5 Casual David Skinner, taskmaster 6 Editorials Judging Kavanaugh • Trump Rattles NATO 9 Comment Boola boola: the Yale Law School freakout BY ANDREW FERGUSON The long, long quest for a conservative High Court BY TERRY EASTLAND Another win for The List BY PETER J. BOYER Donald Trump and the return of prescriptivism BY BARTON SWAIM 2 Articles 16 Targeting Kavanaugh BY FRED BARNES Democrats will go after him by fair means or foul. Mostly foul. 17 All Aboard the Trump Train BY JOHN MCCORMACK The GOP primary in Wisconsin is a contest of personalities, not policies 6 19 Bernie Persists BY ALICE B. LLOYD Will he ever stop running? 21 The Trade Routes Not Taken BY TONY MECIA There are better ways than tariffs to get concessions Features 23 Manners Maketh Man BY DOMINIC GREEN When the end comes for Theresa May, Jacob Rees-Mogg will be the Tory kingmaker 29 A Modest Proposal BY ANDY SMARICK Three lessons from Hayek that helped a conservative reformer 19 Books & Arts 34 The Battle of Pershing Park BY CATESBY LEIGH Why is it so hard to build a World War I memorial near the White House? 39 Remedial Bergman BY JOHN SIMON On his centennial, introducing the great director to a new generation 42 Your Other Body BY B. D. MCCLAY A thought experiment in how we relate to the world 34 44 Not a Parody Trump channels Thucydides COVER BY BRITT SPENCER THE SCRAPBOOK Area Doofus Makes Nuisance of Self t’s July. The news tends to be less Coverage also appeared, the hem of the robe of I momentous than at other times. among other places, in the Statue of Liberty. THE SCRAPBOOK understands that. But Politico, Newsweek, and The woman, Patricia the media’s sudden fixation on indi- the New York Times. Okoumou, refused vidual acts of “protest” has us wish- Then we were given to come down until ing for more stories about kids giving extensive coverage in the “all the children are back to the community and celebri- Post and USA Today and released,” though after ties saying dumb things. on CNN and MSNBC of about three hours The week of Independence Day a mom, no doubt heed- police nabbed her was especially packed with stories ing the counsel of Rep. and took her away. about people making asses of them- Maxine Waters to harass Meanwhile, visitors selves. In Huntsville, Ala., a man cabinet members, who who traveled great shouted “Womp, womp” as a priest confronted then-direc- distances to see Lady delivered the invocation at a small tor of the EPA Scott Liberty on the Fourth gathering at a park gazebo to protest Pruitt as he lunched at a of July were turned President Trump’s policies along the Washington restaurant. away, and cable and U.S.-Mexico border. (“Womp, womp” Video of the encounter network news chan- is the dismissive sound made by the quickly went viral on nels had reporters on egregious Corey Lewandowski on social media. Initial reports described location to cover this major news Fox News when another commenta- the woman, Kristin Mink, as a “school event. A week later THE SCRAPBOOK tor mentioned a girl with Down syn- teacher,” and so she is, but the fact that received an email press release urg- drome separated from her parents.) her employer is the very upmarket ing Okoumou’s sympathizers not to This lone counter-protester then D.C. private school Sidwell Friends donate money to “false gofundme brandished a gun, ensuring his instant rather complicated the idea that her accounts attempting to raise money arrest by nearby police officers. exploit was a spontaneous demand for in her name,” which suggests that A story about an idiot trouble- justice from the hoi polloi. “[Pruitt’s] the news media weren’t the only ones maker would have worked well on a scandals, I told him, would ultimately trying to capitalize on her stunt. local alt-paper’s police blotter page, push him out,” the woman wrote in We appreciate the challenge posed but it strikes us as thin gruel for a full an op-ed for the Guardian, after video by slow news days. But surely there 800-word story in the Washington Post, of her stunt went viral, “but his real are more interesting things for enter- complete with interviews and dramatic crime was the one he was committing prising journalists to cover—gas narrative storytelling (“All around against children like my son . ” prices? restaurant sanitation rat- [the priest], people were shaking, cry- On the Fourth itself, another ings?—than what some nincompoops ing and getting up from the ground”). lone demonstrator climbed onto do to gain attention. ♦ If It Stops meet that doesn’t include firing Moving . more reporters. As if things couldn’t get worse, ne of the tragedies of the government of New Jersey O American life, as we’ve had has discovered a way to kill off occasion to lament in these pages local journalism for good—by before, is the slow decline of local subsidizing it. journalism. The Internet and Gov. Phil Murphy has just social media seem to meet many signed a bill that creates some- people’s need to stay connected thing called the Civic Information to their communities, news orga- Consortium. The nonprofit organi- nizations are widely reviled by a zation, according to reports, will be polarized public, and most own- charged with “strengthening local ers of local newspapers can’t seem media” and “focus[ing] on civic to think of any way to make ends engagement and projects that will FIGURE, BIGSTOCK. BOTTOM: TWS ART; GARY LOCKE TOP: 2 / THE WEEKLY STANDARD JULY 23, 2018 meet the information needs of under- served New Jersey residents.” This “consortium” will be a “collaboration” between several New Jersey colleges and universities, including Rutgers and the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Experts in journalism (as distinct from actual journalists) often don’t grasp the principle that independent journalism ceases to be independent the moment it takes money from the government it’s supposed to monitor. Of course, the same principle applies equally to many other areas—academic freedom and state-funded higher edu- cation, for instance—but those of a lib- eral or progressive mindset persist in believing the things they dominate are somehow neutral and therefore deserv- ing of government largesse. We don’t presume to know what will revive local journalism, though we suspect imaginative entrepreneurs will in due time figure out how to make local news coverage profitable again. We’re pretty sure what won’t achieve that end: a lot of academics using public money to “collaborate” with each other. ♦ Whitewash This ith the retirement of Justice W Anthony Kennedy and nomi- nation of Brett Kavanaugh to take his place, liberal academics and commen- tators are panicked, so sure are they that a more conservative Supreme Court will overturn Roe v. Wade. be careful what they wish for. How’s moral outrage. It used to be that you Believing as we do that that? “Getting rid of Roe,” she argues, could always count on anti-abor- Roe was a moral and tion and anti-gay hostilities to stoke the base. But gay people and certain constitutional abomi- would deprive the far [sic] right of one gay rights have become more famil- nation, we can only of its most crowd-pleasing, rabble- iar. There is now a right to marry the hope they’re right. rousing, go-to issues. After all, there adult partner of your choosing. To be In their agitation, is plenty to dislike about abortion, if sure, there has been a presidential full- liberals have come up with one is so inclined: the assumed sex- court press aimed at replacing gays ual promiscuity of careless women with immigrants as the new subverters some pretty awful punditry and disobedient girls; the view that on the subject of abor- of the American way. Yet the last few abortion is murder; and the power weeks have revealed that mistreatment tion and Roe. Take, for Roe gave to women by liberating of immigrant families can cause popu- instance, a July 7 piece by them from their traditional place in lar, religious and legislative blowback, Carol Sanger in the New the home. Roe bashing is a powerful including from conservatives. York Times: “Reversing Roe Could source of solidarity; its absence would deprive Republican politicians and Hurt the G.O.P.” Sanger, a professor Fox News of the issue that stands at The sheer nastiness of this critique at Columbia Law School, suggests the ready to roil the political pot. is something to behold: Republicans that conservatives enthused by the This is especially true now that fewer only oppose abortion, she’s saying, GARY LOCKE prospect of overturning Roe should targets are available for Republican because they can raise money and JULY 23, 2018 THE WEEKLY STANDARD / 3 get votes from it. Has she pondered the possibility that some people may think unborn human lives deserve protection for the same reason born ones do? But leave that aside and www.weeklystandard.com consider her suggestion. She wants Stephen F.