October 15, 2018
- A Seat Republicans Can't Possibly Lose — Tony Mecia
- Surprisingly Competitive — Mark Hemingway
- Battle of Birmingham — Dominic Green
The October 15, 2018 issue of The Weekly Standard featured Joseph Epstein's cover essay exploring the decline of charm in modern society, arguing it has become as obsolete as chivalry and good manners. The issue also covered midterm election dynamics, including a competitive California Republican primary in the 8th district and Oregon's surprisingly competitive gubernatorial race, alongside analysis of political developments including a Macedonia referendum failure and British Conservative party struggles. The arts section examined museum fire safety, gender-inclusive casting in Shakespeare, and the historical reputation of the painter Delacroix.
Articles in the Archive — 20
Surprisingly Competitive
Will Oregon be the next blue state with a Republican governor?
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.
Signs of the End are Upon Us in Britain
Britain’s Conservative party comes together—and soon it will be coming apart
The Bad-Faith Filibuster
An ugly, dishonest and ever-changing attack on Brett Kavanaugh and the nomination process.
Trump Rethinks Syria
Administration officials seem to have talked the president out of leaving Syria. They’re right.
A European Union That Divides the British
What started as a rebellion in rural England over agricultural regulations has become a continent-wide quarrel about who governs whom.
Kavanaugh Conservatives vs. Booker Democrats
Years from now, perhaps only days from now, when people are no longer quite so inebriated with partisanship, those who wish Brett Kavanaugh well and those who wish him ill will probably agree on one thing: His defiant September 27 statement denying the charges leveled against him in the course of…
In Defense Of Lindsey Graham’s Righteous Rage
For anybody who wasn’t totally committed to the proposition that Christine Blasey Ford spoke only the literal truth about Brett Kavanaugh during her testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, there were long stretches during Kavanaugh’s testimony that felt like a show trial. For hours we watched…
A Conspiracy So Vast . . .
But where’s the crime?
Which California Republican Will Out-Trump the Other in California’s 8th District?
In California’s 8th, both candidates are on the right. But which is Trumpier?
They Balked
The failed Macedonia referendum.
All That May Become a Man
Noah Millman on the promise and pitfalls of cross-gender casting in Shakespeare.
The First Modernist
James Gardner on Delacroix’s undeserved reputation for greatness.
Flames of History
Ashley May on the fire that destroyed Brazil’s Museu Nacional—and the risk factors for American museums.
Upon This Rock
Andrew Egger on the prickly street preacher who became the ‘father of Christian rock.’
Rockabye Theybies
As if bureaucracies weren’t complicated enough. The New York Times reports that beginning next year, New York City will give people the option of identifying themselves on their birth certificates not only as “male” or “female,” but also as “X.” New Yorkers such as Charlie Arrowood (who, we are…
Liberté, Égalité, Futilité
French politician Marine Le Pen is a great fan of Vladimir Putin, a social progressive, and leader of a political 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…
Ghetto Beto
A barroom tussle? Drinking beer on a weeknight? That’s nothing. How about the time the 19-year-old wrote a theater review in which he lamented the cast of “perma-smile actresses whose only qualifications seem to be their phenomenally large breasts and tight buttocks.” What sort of vile misogynistic…
Ice Ice Maybe
Many news organizations have disgraced themselves over these last few weeks in the unlovely quest for peccadillos in Brett Kavanaugh’s youth, but the New York Times has outshone the rest. A story on October 2 brought us finally to the point of self-parody. The lede was breathtaking in its…
That Awful Sinking Feeling in Your Stomach. Does It Ever Go Away?
The first time I felt it was in the first grade. I wasn’t in Mrs. Conn’s class, but she reprimanded me for talking back as we stood in line in the lunchroom. The feeling, a cold burn, rose briefly in my chest before sinking down, down, down, into the pit of my stomach. Woooop, went the Big Sink.…