Liberal: Dems’ Growing Working-Class Woes
As “the most rapidly-diversifying state in the country — it recently became majority-minority —” Nevada should stay solid for Democrats, notes The Liberal Patriot’s Ruy Teixeira. But their winning margins there “from 2008 to 2016 declined sharply from 12.5 to 2.4 points” and stayed at 2.4 even as Dems gained nationally in 2020. The problem: They’re losing working-class votes, including black and Hispanic ones. At risk is Catherine Cortez Masto’s Senate seat, as voters are furious over jobs lost to pandemic lockdowns, gas prices and cultural issues including border security. Dropping the Title 42 rule and so boosting the illegal migrant surge may doom her: It seems top Democrats “have still not absorbed the extent of their party’s Hispanic and working class voter problems.”
Climate desk: The Cost of Killing Fossil Fuels
“Rich countries’ pursuit of carbon neutrality at almost any cost limits economic opportunities for the world’s poor and poses serious geopolitical risks to the West,” warns Jason De Sena Trennert at The Wall Street Journal. Fact is, exploration and production of fossil fuels have “done more to benefit the lives of ordinary people than any other technological advance in history”: There’s a “strong correlation between the use of fossil fuel and life expectancy.” Plus, as the Ukraine war shows, leaving these fuels in the ground can leave the West at the mercy of dictators, “increasing the risk of atrocities.” By contrast, easing regulations on oil and gas to flood the global market “would do far more than any sanctions to stop Vladimir Putin’s barbarism.”
Border watch: From Crisis to Catastrophe
“America’s border security is about to go from terrible to the worst it has ever been,” predicts Buck Sexton at Fox News. “With the White House’s recently announced decision to end Title 42 Authority — a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regulation that allowed a portion of illegal migrants to be expelled from U.S. soil during the COVID pandemic — the ongoing flood of illegal migrants is about to turn into a tsunami.” In fact, the feds estimate “18,000 illegal migrants [will be] apprehended at the southern border every day,” with close “to a million illegal migrant border crossings within six weeks.” This “will completely overwhelm the system.” Unfortunately, this lawlessness will continue “unless the Democrats are made to fear an electoral annihilation this November.”
Democrat: Hunter Could Ruin the Party
The “investigation into Hunter Biden and his business ventures” is “rapidly developing” and could soon become a “mainstream election issue,” writes Douglas E. Schoen at The Hill. As “more information comes to light, the risk of this becoming a problem for the president is increasing.” There’s already “some circumstantial evidence” that Joe Biden “actively assisted his son’s business ventures” for “the collective benefit of the Biden family.” If it’s proven that “President Biden was not only involved in but profited from Hunter’s business deals with Chinese state-owned firms,” for example, “it would be a politically calamitous development for the president” — and “what is now likely a red wave election could turn into a massive blowout that is more substantial than anything seen in recent history.”
Foreign desk: Where Putin Ends
“Most comparisons of” Russian President Vladimir Putin with Adolf Hitler “are overdrawn,” observes John Gray at The New Statesman. “Though the atrocities that are being perpetrated on his orders are mounting,” Putin “has not launched a colossal campaign of genocide as the Nazis did. His strategy in Ukraine — which aims to subdue the country by laying waste to its cities — is the same” one he used in Syria. “In their turn of mind, however, Hitler and Putin may have something in common” — something very dangerous. “No longer only the kleptocrat he has been during much of his time in power, Putin seems ready to destroy his country in order to leave his mark on history.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board