Back from the Broadmoor
We’re back from the 2016 Weekly Standard summit at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, where, you’ll be glad to hear, a good time was had by all. Despite the slightly depressing political circumstances that obtain around us (#NeverTrump), the panelists, ranging from Charles Krauthammer and Steve Hayes to Daniel Halper and John McCormack, managed to stay (mostly) cheerful, the mixing and mingling at the receptions and dinners was a lot of fun, and everyone enjoyed the beauty and amenities of a really remarkable hotel and resort.
Next up: our post-election TWS Caribbean cruise, departing Ft. Lauderdale December 4, 2016…and heading straight to Australia, where we’ll set up shop for the next four years. Just kidding! In any case, the business staff here would kill me if I didn’t provide a link to sign up for the cruise. Whatever the election results, we’ll certainly have a lot to discuss.
One thing we won’t discuss, I suppose, is the election of retired Marine General James N. Mattis. It was while we were at the Broadmoor on Thursday that I received an email from Jim informing a few of us who’d been discussing a possible independent presidential run with him that he’d concluded he wasn’t the right man to do it. As I wrote my fellow Draft Mattis co-conspirators Friday morning:
But of course the fight to help the country do better than a choice between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton goes on.
And so it does. I understand the widespread skepticism as to whether such an independent effort could succeed, given the strength of the two-party system in American history. But I don’t think it’s as un-doable as conventional wisdom has it, and it would be good to have some candidate one admires for whom to vote in November. I’ll keep you posted on any developments in this sphere as they happen—and those of you involved in parallel efforts around the country, please keep me informed.
Meanwhile, we wait to see what the good citizens of Indiana do at the polls tomorrow. I had hopes that Donald Trump’s embrace of convicted rapist Mike Tyson might do him in—and maybe, current polls to the contrary notwithstanding, it will. If this were an Allen Drury novel (if you haven’t read them, you might begin with Advise and Consent), there would be a dramatic address on statewide television tonight in Indiana by Ted Cruz’s running mate (and the star guest at last year’s Broadmoor meeting) Carly Fiorina, which would turn things around and produce a Cruz upset victory. And after all, they say, life imitates art…
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An additional note on Cantor’s Shakespeare
Speaking of art: We’ve received lots of interesting comments about Paul Cantor’s cover piece from the last issue on Shakespeare and Cervantes, “Against Chivalry.” Some conservatives don’t want to believe that Shakespeare was as harsh a critic of chivalry as Cantor claims; others want to call attention to other aspects of Shakespeare’s multifarious work. The emails and conversations all serve to remind me how complicated and thought-provoking Shakespeare, when read and watched carefully, really is. They also remind me how useful it is when a critic makes an argument, as opposed to merely trying to be edifying—because you’re encouraged to react to and learn from an argument in a way you don’t if you’re just enjoying a warm bath of approbation for someone. All serious thinkers know that there are many sides to most questions or issues; they also know that taking a side—while also perhaps quietly indicating the limits of the side they’re taking—may be the best way to provoke actual thought in their readers.
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Meanwhile, in the world of sports…
And speaking of taking sides: Lots of interesting developments in the world of sports this past week. Steve Hayes was on tenterhooks at the Broadmoor, riding the Washington Capitals’ roller coaster as he watched them on TV, first winning in overtime Thursday night and then losing by a goal Saturday night to the Penguins. He’ll be there in person to root them on later this week. Meanwhile, much to Charles Krauthammer’s satisfaction, the Nats are on a roll, sweeping the Cardinals this weekend, after beginning the week with an amazing 16-inning win on Sunday at Nationals Park (here’s Tom Boswell’s column on “The Twilight Zone Game“). And the basketball fans at TWS watch to see if the Warriors, temporarily without Stephen Curry, can follow up their record-setting regular season performance with a league championship.
And there’s more—especially in baseball, where we have some of the best young players in a long time on the scene, allowing for the kind of historically-informed, stats-filled, excessively complex debates that can kill hours at “work”: Who’s better, Bryce Harper or Mike Trout? Are they today’s Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays? Who’s which? Etc., etc…
Anyway, it’s all a good diversion from…Donald Trump!
I’ll close with an email I received from an impressive young man I know slightly, someone who was lucky enough to get a good liberal education in college, then served in the Marine Corps and is now working in government and exploring a future in politics. He writes, “I just wanted to say I hope you’re well given the predicament the Republic is in at the moment. To that end I couldn’t resist sending this picture – a passage from the Education of Cyrus. Perfect commentary on present day demagogues in my view.”
The passage he photographed was from Book II, Chapter Two, of Xenophon’s Education of Cyrus (in the translation by Wayne Ambler). This is Cyrus speaking:
“I think that the noble and good endeavor to lead to what is noble and good, and the vile to what is vile. And often, therefore, inferior [people] get more like-minded followers than do serious ones, for since vileness makes its way through the immediate pleasures, it has them as aides in persuading many to share its view. Yet virtue, since it leads uphill, is not very clever at drawing others along immediately, especially if there also are rivals who invite them to what is downhill and soft.”
I choose to be more encouraged by young men quoting Xenophon than discouraged by their elders voting for Donald Trump.
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Onward!
Bill Kristol
