Media watch: ‘Biden, Es Su Responsibilidad’
Mediaite’s Zachary Leeman flags (and translates) Luis Carlos Vélez’s “scathing critique” in Spanish of President Biden’s Tuesday speech on inflation. Closing out Univision’s Firing Line, the host implored: “President Biden. Please. Stop the blame game and face the inflation problem in this country. People just can’t take it anymore! Your words today just flabbergasted us all, OK?” Calling Biden’s speech more “blame game,” he fumed: “It was the administration’s fault for handing out stimulus packages when people no longer needed them. And it is your fault to this day we have not set a motion in plan to solve the supply chain problem.” Now “the responsibility to do something falls solely upon you, Mr. President.”
Conservative: Dems’ Betrayal of Black Voters
Democrats’ treatment of black Americans “as political weapons, not people or even constituents,” has left many blacks “disenchanted with the party,” warns Jeff Charles at Newsweek. “While once there was significant racism” coming from the right, “those days have long been in our rearview mirror.” Yet Dems still use blacks’ “history and struggles” to “maintain the upper hand against Republicans in cultural and political battles.” When Democrats need “to score valuable political points against the opposition,” as “in the discussion around abortion,” Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover or voting rights, they’re quick “to call racism,” even as they fail “to enact policies to affect real change for one of their most valuable voting blocs.” Dems have long enjoyed “overwhelming support” from blacks, but “it is a wholly one-sided relationship in which Democrats are the only ones who benefit.”
From the right: Abortion’s Racial Disparity Gap
When it comes to abortion, “black-white disparities have not only persisted but widened,” observes The Wall Street Journal’s Jason L. Riley. “The black abortion rate is nearly four times higher than the white rate,” federal data show. “The number of babies aborted by black women each year far exceeds the combined number of blacks who drop out of school, who are sent to prison and who are murdered.” Pro-choice activists blame this on poverty; in fact, “single black women are less likely to abort than other groups of single women,” but “black women still have more abortions because they are far more likely than their white counterparts to be single.” Needed is “frank talk about counterproductive attitudes toward marriage and solo parenting in low-income black communities” — a discussion the left won’t have.
Libertarian: Green Jobs — for Gov’t Lawyers
The Justice Department’s new Office of Environmental Justice “enacts a racialized vision of law” that gives officials “carte blanche to ruin the day of whoever draws their attention,” rails Reason’s J.D. Tuccille. Attorney General Merrick Garland claims it’s Justice’s job to ensure justice for communities hit hardest by “environmental harms” — notably, minority groups — but that skips weighing “the necessary tradeoffs involved in the byproducts of industry, agriculture, and overall modern civilization.” It also opens the door for Justice to target other activity that disproportionately “burdens” particular communities. So this “divisive” strategy “looks an awful lot like a guarantee of full employment” for Justice’s lawyers: It’s sure to “keep government officials busy,” even if it keeps “Americans at each other’s throats.”
Foreign desk: Taiwan Needs Training Now
“What does Ukraine really mean for Taiwan?” asks Michael R. Auslin at Spectator World. “Even if Russia’s invasion fails, the hollowness of Western moral arguments about defending democracies from aggression has been revealed in the streets of Kyiv and Kharkiv,” and Washington’s actions (or inaction) in Ukraine “will undoubtedly play a role in Beijing’s” calculations. With “no serious American debate over whether Taiwan, a rapidly aging society, can defend itself,” the “ways in which Washington can help defend Taiwan are narrowing, given the People’s Liberation Army buildup.” Selling Taiwan more “advanced weapons systems can help, but only if there is a Taiwanese military large enough and well trained enough to be able to make a difference.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board