Farewell to Dolly Parton. Rhinestones and Self-Reliance. Darline Graham Scores Narrow Win. Coalition of the Pathetic. WaPo Forced to Rehire Bad Karen. Leaflet: Please Try Not to Rape Anyone. More
Dolly Parton, whose death yesterday at the age of 80 brought an intense outpouring of grief, was that rare cultural icon beloved by everyone.
“We Will Always Love You, Dolly,” proclaimed the New York Post cover. The Free Press elaborated:
Equally beloved by Baptist church ladies and buxom drag queens, Dolly’s Southern charm drew everyone into her orbit.
She is remembered as “Dolly Parton, Pure Product of America” (also the Free Press, by Caitlin Flanagan):
Try to think of anyone who has made as deep and long-lasting a mark on American culture as she has.
“From rags to rhinestones – farewell to the Queen of Country” is the headline to a story that celebrates her “more than 200 songs throughout her incredible career, including hits such as Jolene and 9 To 5, and I Will Always Love You, made famous by Whitney Houston’s cover in the 1990s.” Choked up Tennessee Governor Bill Lee told Gillian Turner that his state had “lost its favorite daughter.” Just FYI: The Governor’s favorite Dolly Parton hit is “Coat of Many Colors.” Her appeal, writes James B. Meigs in the Wall Street Journal’s Free Expression section, “went beyond her larger-than-life image.” She was “the only voice in the world,” adds Bob Greene.
Even George Will loved Dolly. Will’s column is headlined “Gifted in Song and Storytelling, She Got the Rainbow.” Will recalls that Ms. Parton’s “ethic of self-reliance.” It’s a terrific column, and I bet Ms. Parton would love it:
The doctor who ushered the infant Dolly Rebecca Parton into the world in 1946 was paid with a sack of cornmeal. Such was the transactional nature of health care for some around the Great Smoky Mountains in East Tennessee. Her father and mother had been 17 and 15, respectively, when they married, and could not have imagined how the world would be their daughter’s oyster.
But not immediately. …Her family knew the old story of a cheerful preacher saying to a hardscrabble farmer, “This is a right nice place you and Lord have here,” and the farmer replying, “You should have seen the som’bitch when the Lord had it hisself.” Young Dolly was steeped in the ethic of self-reliance.
Another Plucky Southern Woman. Trump-endorsed Senator Darline Graham narrowly won the Senate runoff yesterday in South Carolina. The sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham defeated Rep. Ralph Norman. Axios notes:
The victory underscores Trump’s continued sway with Republican voters and positions Graham as the odds-on favorite to win a full term in November.
James Antle writes in the Examiner that the victory of Senator Graham, who flubbed a national defense question, has a message for the GOP for midterms:
Maybe voters, including even Republican primary voters, are more interested in the economy and domestic issues than foreign affairs.
Maybe Too Plucky. Michigan Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed tried to fend off a question about gender treatment for minors from Fox host Jesse Watters by asking Watters if he was circumcised. Bethany Mandel suggests that El-Sayed’s “dodge-and-weave” performance will hurt Democrats:
El-Sayed wasn’t just unprepared to answer questions on transgender medical interventions for children; he was equally unable to intelligently discuss Sharia law, reparations, healthcare costs and windmills on Lake Michigan.
His smarmy performance has been a gift to Republicans who see in the candidate a dark turn toward a new generation of extremists running as Democrats: elites promoting socialism while remaining deeply disconnected from the concerns of everyday Americans.
“Ascendant No More, Democrats Are a Coalition of the Pathetic” is the intriguing headline on Matthew Continetti’s WSJ column. Ronald Brownstein coined the term “coalition of the ascendant” to describe Obama voters, who were destined to hold an “enduring advantage” over Republicans. But the coalition was not so enduring:
What has replaced the coalition of the ascendant is a coalition of the pathetic: Very Online millennials and zoomers with college and graduate degrees, few prospects and far-out beliefs. They take their cues from Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the Democratic Socialists of America. They want to cut off aid to Israel, abolish private health insurance and immigration enforcement, nix the Electoral College and even the Senate, pack the Supreme Court and grant statehood to Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. Establishment Democrats want to harness its energy while encouraging it to become more moderate. Good luck. …
Grievance drives the new socialism—outrage that their educational credentials haven’t delivered them wealth and status. According to Nate Silver, Americans with advanced degrees and incomes of $30,000 to $60,000 are the most Democratic voting bloc. The three largest self-described occupations in the 2021 DSA member survey were “unemployed, disabled, retired” (15%), “white collar” (13%) and “teacher, scholar, academic” (10%).
The well-credentialed are likely to push “postmaterial” causes such as climate alarmism, transgenderism, defunding the police and opposition to Israel. But the ideas that motivate the new coalition repel parts of the old one.
“Most Depressing Election of the Year” is Best of the Web columnist James Freeman’s headline:
One can argue that Los Angeles voters have only themselves to blame after a primary mayoral election in which they rejected the candidate urging a new approach to the city’s rising homelessness.
On the other hand, more timely reporting of the depth of the crisis might have made a difference in a fairly close election. Regardless, it’s almost as if the city’s working, taxpaying residents are now being taunted by candidates asking which flavor of tragic boondoggle they prefer.
Germane. In “California’s Billion-Dollar Union Machine,” in City Journal, natch, Chris Rufo and Schrupp write about public-sector unions that harvest taxpayer cash and rule the state.
The Supreme Court, as you’ve likely heard, lifted the hold on President Trump’s executive order enlisting the U.S. Postal Service to help restrict mail in voting. But, as an editorial in the Wall Street Journal complains, the Justices did not address the legality of the president’s order but only the pause. The midterms are looming, but the core issue remains undecided:
Yet the Court emphasizes it takes no position on the lawfulness of whatever concrete changes might result from Mr. Trump’s order: “On that score, time will tell.” As it happens, the USPS on Friday published its final rule, effective immediately, though it’s currently blocked by a second injunction, issued by the same judge in a separate case. The Trump Administration also wants that one dissolved, though a challenge to the final rule will arrive before long.
It’s hard to imagine Mr. Trump’s plan could take effect before November, and the timing is getting worse.The Administration first asked the Justices for help on July 27. What took so long? The main opinion is 10 pages. A dissent by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Elena Kagan, is four pages and says the decision “merely postpones” the case.
As usual, one Justice distinguished herself:
Then comes Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, with a separate 23-page dissent, diving into the merits. “The President does not have any legal authority to require that elections be conducted in accordance with his preferences,” she says, “or to withhold delivery of mail-in ballots that are not formatted consistent with the President’s wishes.” If she’d resisted the urge to write this and deploy the word “Kafkaesque,” could the Court have ruled sooner?
What is the fastest-growing religion in the U.S.? You’ve probably read about young people converting to Catholicism, but the fastest-growing religion is Islam. Paul Sperry addresses the refusal of a large segment of Muslims to assimilate to U.S. culture in “American Medinas: Turning US Cities Into ‘Beachheads’ for Islam.”
But the West seems eager to adjust our culture to that of recalcitrant newcomers. In “Welcome to Britain. Remember Not to Rape Anyone,” Louise Perry writes about the leaflets the U.K. prepared for immigrants. “We Shall Leaflet Them on the Beaches,” promises Mark Steyn in response to the U.K.’s helpful reminders.
Reinstated. The Washington Post has been forced to rehire columnist Karen Attiah, who called Charlie Kirk a “white man that espoused violence.” She’s a charmer all right:
In another post that day, she wrote: “Refusing to tear my clothes and smear ashes on my face in performative mourning for a white man that espoused violence is … not the same as violence.”
The Path to Zero. That’s the title of a new Wall Street Journal documentary on our catastrophic Joe Biden-ordered withdrawal from Afghanistan, which you can view online. It is billed as an “unflinching account of America’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, told by the people who lived it.”
