The insurance Dems need in 2024, libs’ dangerous ‘politicization’ claims and other commentary
From the left: The Insurance Dems Need in 2024
“This ‘how can we lose?’ attitude is uncomfortably reminiscent of Democrats’ attitude in 2016,” warns the Liberal Patriot’s Ruy Teixeira.
Despite the Donald Trump indictments and the fact that “abortion rights such a strong motivator” for voters, “perhaps it’s time to take out an insurance policy.”
A Biden-Trump “race looks very, very close” in polls— and voter “simulations” show “a strong white working class surge in 2024 would deliver the election to the GOP.”
Democrats “view white working-class voters and their populist, pro-Trump leanings as reflecting these voters’ unyielding racism and xenophobia.”
Since that’s “neither substantively justified nor politically productive,” Dems should get “rid of these attitudes toward 40 percent of the electorate.”
“This attitude adjustment might irritate some of their activist supporters,” but that’s “a small price to pay for a potentially vital insurance policy.”
Law prof: Libs’ Dangerous ‘Politicization’ Claims
“There’s some basis for claims that the judiciary has become politicized.
Indeed, it has never been completely free of politics,” notes Ilya Somin at The UnPopulist, since the Constitution “gives partisan politicians — the president and the Senate — the power to appoint and confirm federal judges.”
But “claims of politicization are also dangerously overstated.”
They ignore “a wide range of important issues on which conservative judges have elevated legal and constitutional principles over partisanship and thereby curbed dangerous right-wing initiatives and abuses of power.”
“Most obvious” is federal judges rejecting Donald Trump’s “and other GOP efforts to overturn the” 2020 election.
Plus, “conservative judges, including those on the Supreme Court,” have “been skeptical of new state laws trying to force social media providers to platform right-wing speakers they would prefer to exclude.”
Yet liberals claim “politicization justifies drastic measures like court-packing or executive defiance of judicial decisions” — policies that would actually “enable an authoritarian presidency” by creating “a court unable or unwilling to challenge policies supported by the dominant party in government.”
From the right: Same Old ‘New’ IRS
The IRS “recently tried to reinvent itself,” scoffs Sen. J.D. Vance at The Wall Street Journal.
But despite “an additional $80 billion” and 87,000 agents and a “new set of priorities,” it’s still “buried under more than half a million unprocessed” forms for the Employee Retention Credit, a COVID-relief program that “compensated businesses for pandemic-related losses and wages paid to employees.”
This hurts “thousands of small businesses” and proves “the federal government suffers not from a lack of capacity, but from a lack of focus.” Indeed, “public policy should leverage the benefits of the market-based system,” not “seek to tame them.”
Foreign journal: Magic Mushrooms on the Menu
On a diplomatic trip to China, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen “accidentally dined on hallucinogenic mushrooms” but “swears she didn’t actually get high from the dish,” reports Reason’s Emma Camp.
The mushrooms served are “typically foraged by locals in the Yunnan province and praised for their ‘umami-laden and porcini-like’ flavor, not their hallucinogenic properties.”
Yellen thought they were “delicious,” and the event’s publicity “has led the dish to sell out in China.”
It’s “an amusing tale about the weirder sides of diplomacy — and perhaps distracts from Yellen’s disastrous handling of the national debt.”
Culture critic: Don’t Watch Soccer — Play It!
“These should be among the best of times for American soccer,” observes City Journal’s Steven Malanga — but despite Lionel Messi’s arrival and good TV ratings, there’s been “a sharp decline in the number of American boys and girls playing the game.”
And all games: In the past decade, the participation of 6- to 12-year-olds in team sports dropped from 41.4% to 36.8%.
Why? Well, there’s “a correlation between the rise of social-media use among the young and a decline in physical activity.”
And don’t forget “extreme pandemic lockdowns.” How long can money “keep flowing into America’s top sports if fewer and fewer kids are playing”?
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board
