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JUNE 8, 2011 |
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By Matthew Continetti |
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COLD OPEN |
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California used to be the most important state in American politics. Then the mantle passed to Florida. The Sunshine state continues to matter, for sure. But it's probably time we crown Wisconsin the state with the largest influence on the national scene.
Wisconsin has gone from Democratic stronghold to battleground in record time. Wisconsin went for Republicans decisively in the 2010 cycle, with GOP candidates winning the governor's mansion, both chambers of the state legislature, two U.S. House seats, and a U.S. Senate seat. Over the last couple of years, several badgers have become major stars: Rep. Paul Ryan, House freshman Sean Duffy, Senator Ron Johnson, and Governor Scott Walker. All these men will shape our politics for years to come.
Not only is Wisconsin home to the author of the GOP budget, it's where the battle over public sector unions has been fought most intensely. The fallout from Governor Walker's budget repair bill is ongoing. Conservative David Prosser may have won a tight judicial election against liberal JoAnne Kloppenburg, but labor still wants to use the July 12 recall elections to take control of the state senate. Governor Walker is also preparing for a possible recall challenge, perhaps from Russ Feingold. Walker has become a test case for how far a politician can go to limit government. The answer isn't clear.
Interestingly, none of America's 44 presidents has come from Wisconsin. But there's a first time for everything. |
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LOOKING BACK |
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"At the center of middlebrow was an admirable faith that the quality of one's character was in one's own hands. Leisure time spent with high culture would make you a better person. This creed drew on the longstanding Emersonian faith in high culture. 'Culture,' Emerson wrote in 1867, 'implies all which gives the mind possession of its own powers.' And the idea drew on the Unitarian tradition of self-mastery. A person's leisure time was considered consequential. If it was spent with works of art that were purifying, then character would be uplifted. Such a person would have richer perceptions and a fuller life. Degraded culture, on the other hand, would appeal only to the 'lower self' and magnify that aspect of a person's personality. In short, how you spent your leisure time mattered; the choices you made would affect the quality of your character."
—David Brooks, "The Importance of Being Earnest," from our April 15, 1996, issue.
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FROM THE DESKTOP |
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The complexities of philo-Semitism
Joseph Epstein on how to write a sentence
Is Bill Simmons America's best sportswriter?
Tax cuts for Millennials
Jonathan V. Last profiles Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus |
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK (SO FAR!) |
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"Thomas Jefferson was the master of the single sentence. Time and again, like some harried quarterback deep in his own territory, he steps into the pocket—Tories, monarchists, clergymen swarming over his defensive linemen; Madison doing his earnest and ineffectual best to block; Washington sitting on the bench, remote and withholding; the crowd, a confused roar (the people, his mainstay, yet so often unaccountably misled)—and lofts a pass that floats for a hundred yards, and for centuries."
—Richard Brookhiser, Alexander Hamilton: American (1999), p. 161. |
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LOOKING AHEAD |
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Watch out for John McCormack's profile of Herman Cain, Noemie Emery's review of Laura Hillebrand's Unbroken, Matt Labash's report on his fishing trip with veterans, and lots more in upcoming issues of THE WEEKLY STANDARD. |
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PARTING SHOT |
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Be sure to read Jonathan Last's piece on the great comic book crash of 1993. JVL draws an incisive parallel between the comic book market of 20 years ago and the housing market of today. One of the things I liked most about his article was its section on comic book stores, those hole-in-the-wall shops filled with rack after rack of comic books, and often sports cards and memorabilia.
When I was around 10 years old, I started visiting every comic book shop I could find. My favorite was simply called "Books." It occupied two rooms in a strip mall in Burke, Virginia, and was owned and managed by two brothers who resembled Dumbledore the wizard. The first room was filled with comics. As you entered, the new issues were to your left. To your right was the elevated counter where the two brothers presided over their realm. Farther back in the room, next to the baseball cards, were the racks of back issues. The comics were old, faded, and had the look and feel of buried treasure.
As I grew older I became more interested in the second room, where the brothers housed their stock of used books. Never had I seen so many books in one place (this was before Borders and Barnes & Noble arrived in northern Virginia). The wooden bookshelves towered over my 10 year-old-self, filled to the brim with dusty mass-market copies of classic literature, philosophy, history, and science fiction. Sometimes I'd get dizzy as I looked up at the top of the shelves, my eyes straining to read the dull print on wrinkled bindings. When I was teenager I bought a used mass-market copy of Dangerous Visions, the 1967 anthology of New Wave science fiction edited by Harlan Ellison. For me, discovering Ellison was akin to unearthing the lost codex of a forgotten ancient Greek. I was enthralled.
I like to think every reader has a special used bookstore. Mine is long gone. But the sense of mystery and adventure and wonder I felt whenever I opened its door is as real to me as the keyboard with which I write these words.
See you next week. And don't forget you can write me at editor@weeklystandard.com.
--Matthew Continetti
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