Something bad is going to happen on Friday': Weekly Standard staffers brace for end

[brooklynite]

Politici:

Staffers at the Weekly Standard have been told to gather for an all-hands meeting Friday — and they're bracing for bad news about the conservative magazine's future, according to four people familiar with the plans.

The Weekly Standard’s publisher, MediaDC, has not sent out an official memo announcing the gathering, nor has editor-in-chief Stephen Hayes. But word has circulated among the staff, including from some managers, that they should be prepared to convene, the people familiar with the meeting said.

These people said executives from MediaDC and its parent company, Clarity Media Group, have not shared any updates with staff since the magazine's owner said last week it was "exploring a number of possibilities" for the journal, which has stood out from its conservative peers by opposing President Donald Trump and his style of politics. The billionaire conservative donor Philip Anschutz, who owns Clarity Media, has also remained silent, leaving his employees without any sense of what might happen to their jobs.

“The assumption that everyone has is that something bad is going to happen on Friday," one Weekly Standard writer said.

[dhill926]

1. good...

[Bucky]

2. Not good

When opposition on the right disappears, the remainder on the right becomes monolithic. This is a half step closer to fascism, which conservatives used to oppose.

[exboyfil]

3. I think Buckley would be appalled about

what is going on over at his baby The National Review.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

5. Wouldn't say that TWS was a great publication

They're still a bunch of right-wing hacks. Just not as "hacky" as the Trumpistas.

[Bucky]

6. Naw, it's trash. But the appearance of unanimity on the right legitimizes Trump.

Conservatives have always had a line-up-and-salute problem. Any sign of them thinking for themselves is good, even if they're coming to the same old dumb conclusions.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

7. If they reach the same old dumb conclusions

then why does the route they take matter?


Never Trumpers are mostly the "nice polite Republicans" whom don't really have a problem with Trump's policies but don't like Trump's bizarre OTT behavior and openly racist, xenophobic, and misogynstic tirades. They want to return to the "good old days" of being all of those things....subtly. And as soon as Trump(ism) is gone, it will be more or less back to business as usual.

[Bucky]

8. The point of this thread was TWS wasn't reaching the same conclusions

Advantage of living in Texas as I get to mingle with a pretty diverse ideological range of people. I'm telling you Trump is driving people out of the GOP.

One of my co-workers quit as a member of the county Republican executive committee and became a independent / almost libertarian. He actively supported a straight Democratic slate just to punish the party for nominating Trump. He's also been expressing increasingly modern positions and other issues over the last two years. It's been fascinating to watch.

In his own stupid way, Trump may do for conservatism what Hoover did for the Republican Party three generations ago.

[MelissaB]

4. K&R