May 30, 2016 • $5.99 WEEKLYSTANDARD.COM May 30, 2016 • $5.99 WEEKLYSTANDARD.COM May 30, 2016 • $5.99 WEEKLYSTANDARD.COM Contents May 30, 2016 • Volume 21, Number 36 2 The Scrapbook Looking back, blond on blonde, & more 1,000th ISSUE 7 Casual Joseph Bottum, memory man 9 Editorials A Choice Not an Echo BY WILLIAM KRISTOL Runaway Train BY STEPHEN F. HAYES Articles 13 Unheralded Triumph BY FRED BARNES 13 Mitch McConnell wins one 14 The Truth About Trump BY DAVID GELERNTER It’s the personality, not the ideas 18 The Insider BY JAY COST Trump’s success is less populist than you think 20 The Gig Is Up BY IKE BRANNON A salutary development for the U.S. economy BY C. J. CIARAMELLA 20 22 Guilty Mind Did Hillary know the rules? Features 24 The First Thousand Issues BY MATTHEW CONTINETTI . and beyond 28 The Deal with the Art BY PHILIP CHALK Kudos, complaints, and threats 30 The Art of Aging Gracefully BY P. J. O’ROURKE Advice on the occasion of THE WEEKLY STANDARD’s 1,000th issue 33 High Peaks and Splendid Walks BY GEOffREY NORMAN The pleasures of Rocky Mountain National Park 30 Books & Arts 38 The Spartan Example BY J. E. LENDON As always, Greece has something to teach us 40 Homage to Poe BY MICHAEL DIRDA The works and life of the Great American Man of Letters 45 Conservative Minder BY JAMES SEATON Russell Kirk’s political and cultural legacy 47 Manners Makyth Stillman BY JOHN PODHORETZ Movies at the intersection of morality and hilarity 38 48 Parodies A selection of greatest hits COVER IMAGES BY DANIEL ADEL (GEORGE W. BUSH); THOMAS FLUHARTY (BILL CLINTON, PAT BUCHANAN, SARAH PALIN, & DONALD TRUMP); JOHN KASCHT (BOB DOLE & ROSS PEROT); GARY LOCKE (BARACK OBAMA, AL GORE, LAUGHING MULLAH, MITT ROMNEY, ERIC HOLDER, PAUL RYAN ET AL., DICK CHENEY, & JOHN MCCAIN); AND DAVE MALAN (HILLARY CLINTON) THE SCRAPBOOK Looking Back HE SCRAPBOOK fondly remembers So we have reprinted elsewhere in awaits . treasure amid lots of dross, if T the birth of this magazine in the this issue some of our favorite cari- we’re being honest. long ago summer of 1995. We had catures and parodies from those 999 Journalism is notoriously perish- previously worked at four small mag- issues, which we hope our loyal long- able—the “first rough draft of his- azines and considered it tory” is how figures in the something of a vocation. trade put it in their self- Those who share the important moments (i.e., vocation, or who know all the time). And we all something of the maga- know where rough drafts zine business, will un- belong: in the recycling derstand our smirk when bin. Or, these days, ef- a colleague at the think faced immediately by tank where we were then the delete key. At rough- marking time said that ly 25,000 words per this was a great oppor- issue, a lot of what we tunity (true) and that by published is now dated getting in on the ground and sometimes spec- floor of a new publica- tacularly wrong. People tion, we would be “set for (you know who you are) life” (laughably, hilari- occasionally like to point ously optimistic). this out to us, to which And yet here we are, THE SCRAPBOOK always if not quite “set for life,” replies, “Yes, but it was which nobody ever is in true when published!” the notoriously unsettled The firstS CRAPBOOK, September 18, 1995 The work of our art- world of periodical pub- ists and parodists, on the lishing, nonetheless about to watch time readers will enjoy seeing again, other hand, seems to retain all its the 1,000th issue of THE WEEKLY like a good friend from days gone charm and vibrancy. We’re not sure STANDARD roll off the presses. A by. And perhaps new readers will be why, but we hope you agree. A suit- small celebration therefore seemed enticed by them into our archives at able topic to revisit, perhaps on the in order. weeklystandard.com, where treasure occasion of our 2,000th issue. ♦ Chikin-Hearted Mayors the cheery fast-food outlet whose temptuous of Chick-fil-A—“I’m cer- president once expressed his opposi- tainly not going to patronize them, HE SCRAPBOOK is well aware that tion to gay marriage. Boston, said and I wouldn’t urge any other New T politics sometimes informs con- its current mayor, one Marty Walsh, Yorker to patronize them”—but those sumer choices. Good progressives doesn’t “need a company . that dis- “other” New Yorkers have put him in used to avoid Welch’s candies because criminates against anyone.” a quandary: Chick-fil-A already has its owner was the founder of the John As it happens, Chick-fil-A doesn’t several outlets in New York, and their Birch Society. And THE SCRAPBOOK do business in Boston, and may immense popularity seems to increase admits to resisting the temptation not even intend to do so. But Mayor with every de Blasio blast. of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream when it Walsh has hinted that, if Chick-fil-A THE SCRAPBOOK makes no par- thinks of Ben and Jerry and their does seek a permit to open a franchise ticular claim for Chick-fil-A. As with brand of granola socialism. in Boston, he may raise procedural anything of its kind, Chick-fil-A is a So a recent trend among progres- roadblocks. He has the power to do matter of taste, and if your taste runs sive mayors is not exactly news, but so, of course, and may even succeed, to savory fast-food chicken delivered startling nonetheless: The mayors but His Honor would do well to con- with ostentatious politeness, then of Chicago, Boston, New York, and sider the predicament of his fellow Chick-fil-A might be to your taste. other metropolises have urged their left-wing mayor, Bill de Blasio, in What is not a matter of taste, howev- constituents to boycott Chick-fil-A, New York. De Blasio is equally con- er, is the fact that Chick-fil-A is very 2 / THE WEEKLY STANDARD MAY 30, 2016 popular with consumers, including consumers in New York, and its out- lets employ a number of New Yorkers as well. No matter what you may think of its president’s views on mar- riage equality—views expressed, incidentally, at a time when Barack Obama opposed gay marriage as well—Chick-fil-A has a reputation as a generous employer, serves loyal customers of all sexual orientations, and, most important, fills an evident need for Bill de Blasio’s constituents. Is it really appropriate for elected officials—armed with the power to harass and destroy—to take sides among products, to attack law-abid- ing businesses, and to threaten the employment of industrious constitu- ents? Unlike Mayor de Blasio, after all, Chick-fil-A has a proven knack for pleasing New Yorkers. ♦ Souring on Sanders ince the GOP primary has already S produced a harrowing result, THE SCRAPBOOK has turned its attention to the ongoing Democratic primary and begun rooting for chaos. Despite the fact that Bernie Sanders has approximately zero chance of win- ning, he persists in staying in the race both to call attention to the fact that the Democratic primary process is more or less rigged and to build more support for his socialist agenda. we were previously led to believe was may have picked the wrong year for This persistence has started to an ontological impossibility for mem- a revolution”—arguing that Sand- cause unrest: Senator Barbara Boxer bers of the Enlightened Party. ers is too radical in his demands for rather amusingly scolded a hall full However, since Sanders isn’t going socialized medicine to be elected. of Democrats at the recent Nevada to win, most of the Democratic estab- And news broke last week that Bur- Democratic convention for booing lishment, along with liberal media lington College is closing, because her, and actor Wendell Pierce—who institutions such as the Washington the college’s former president—Ber- played Bunk on The Wire and has Post, has started berating Sanders for nie’s wife Jane Sanders—burdened lately been signing his name to DNC staying in the race and destroying the institution with millions in fundraising appeals—was recently party cohesion. And herein, we detect loans it couldn’t pay off. More than arrested for battery after he allegedly a silver lining. Sanders may have suc- a few people noted the high degree tried to force his way into the hotel ceeded in pushing Clinton to the left of irony, given Sanders’s enthusiastic room of a Sanders supporter follow- on a number of issues, but increasing- support from college students and ing a political argument. Both the ly it seems many of her supporters are his radical rhetoric on student loans. Hillary and Bernie camps are claim- souring on Sanders’s socialist policies Sanders has made it a standard ing they have been the target of a as they sour on his campaign. line in his stump speech that it is barrage of intra-Democratic harass- The Washington Post, for instance, unfair that student loans require ment and threats. This includes many ran a heavily promoted piece of pol- higher interest rates than auto loans charges of sexism and racism, which icy analysis—“Why Bernie Sanders and mortgages, and he promises to MAY 30, 2016 THE WEEKLY STANDARD / 3 fix this disparity. Of course, default phone all the time.” Simmons then And they sounded exactly like Moon rates on student debt are much high- suggested throwing the phone away Unit Zappa in that song ‘Valley er than on mortgages or car loans in nearby Flathead Lake while Girl.’ .