A Significant Shift That Went Unseen: Democrats Need to Abandon the Lawfare Mentality

Focus on DC: A Major Shift, Almost Overlooked

“Few have noticed” that Donald Trump “eliminated affirmative action through executive order,” observes Christopher Caldwell at The Free Press, despite it being “the most significant policy shift of this century,” given that affirmative action represents “the longest and most expensive moral campaign in American history.” Had the “affirmative action framework been intended for purposes other than desegregation, it might have been deemed sinister and authoritarian,” imposing “doses of remedial racism” on “20 percent of the American workforce.” This scenario was something “the public could not accept and neither government nor business could openly support. It created a climate of deceit.” “Ten presidents succeeded in shielding affirmative action from public scrutiny. Eventually, it became clear that altering anything necessitated dismantling everything.

Journalist: Dems Must Abandon Lawfare Mentality

Democrats don’t require “the literal elimination of the lawyers controlling the party” to regain power, contemplates Alexander Nazaryan at UnHerd, but instead need to discard “the lawfare that has obscured the real purpose of politics.” A “lawyerly approach” caused Democrats to pursue Donald Trump through “various legal avenues.” “Following Trump’s pardon of all the January 6 rioters,” progressive Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner pledged to bring his own charges, overlooking the fact that he was elected to address the “crimes and drug crises still rampant in the city.” It’s time to forget about “legalistic politics” — voters desire “a Democrat ready to fight for the working class.”

Education Desk: Culture Wars Drain Billions

“The culture war is draining billions from school districts,” cautions Emma Camp from Reason. A report from the UCLA Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access examined “67 school districts nationwide” regarding expenditures on “issues like critical race theory, book bans, gender debates, and other politicized subjects” (including “increased security costs,” such as hiring armed plain-clothes officers to oversee school-board meetings), amounting to “$3.2 billion during the 2023–2024 school year” alone. Furthermore, numerous “teachers, counselors, and administrators” have left “due to unwillingness to operate in such a divisive environment,” straining resources for finding replacements. In essence, culture wars, akin to those fought abroad, come with hefty price tags. “When the discussion surrounding school curricula turns into a fierce, contentious battle, districts are compelled to redirect funds away from students toward addressing security, legal, and public relations issues.”

From the Right: Trump’s Disruptive Second Term

“Act quickly and disrupt everything” seems to be “the guiding principle of President Donald Trump in these early days of his second term,” and it has faced “surprisingly little opposition,” notes Michael Barone at the Washington Examiner. The first step was “Trump’s executive orders unraveling the poorly named diversity, equity, and inclusion framework.” This was followed by his “high-profile deportations of criminals and other unlawfully residing immigrants.” “A third alteration that hasn’t garnered major headlines but is likely to persist” is the revocation of Biden’s electric vehicle regulations. “The DEI lobby,” “the open-border immigration lobby,” and “the climate control lobby” have all “successfully imposed their will on the Biden administration’s policy.” “Now, as Trump moves to disrupt, they are responding not with a bang, but rather a whimper.”

Tech Update: DeepSeek’s Insight for Capitalism

“The triumph of DeepSeek,” China’s “more cost-effective” AI rival, “demonstrates the ineffectiveness of U.S. sanctions,” dismisses George Gilder at The Wall Street Journal. While the Biden administration has been “dominated” by “the world’s clumsiest national-security socialists,” China is guided by some of its “most agile capitalists.” Their response to U.S. “‘Stargate’ program socialism” aiming for “more with more” is to “achieve more with less.” By “discrediting U.S. sanctions and subsidies,” they’re “indirectly benefiting U.S. capitalism.” Given that DeepSeek utilizes microchips more efficiently, it is “advantageous for the U.S. economy.” Its “wafer-scale integration” indicates “a new era in the materials science behind information technology.” Although America’s “national-security apparatus” might support sanctions against China, technology remains crucial for “human advancement” — and is “inherently global.”

— Summarized by The Post Editorial Board