Conservative: Don (Rickles) Trump
“The U.S. has real problems, and the Republican Party faces an enormously consequential choice about its presidential nominee in 2024,” notes National Review’s Jim Geraghty. Yet, “judging from former president Donald Trump’s Truth Social feed” — including a post that mocked how his main GOP rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, pronounces his own name — “the Trump of this cycle will be like that of 2020,” only “more erratic and focused on juvenile name-calling and personal insults.” If America wants to see “Trump hurling Don Rickles-style insults on another prime-time reality show, I’m sure some network or streaming service would be happy to organize that.” But “how about we leave the presidency to the grown adults who actually want to do the work?”
Liberal: Why Dems Aren’t More ‘Moderate’
Democrats, as The New York Times’ David Leonhardt put it, need more “Scaffles” — i.e., socially conservative and fiscally liberal voters, writes the Liberal Patriot’s Ruy Teixeira. That’s because they’re the ones most up for grabs. So why aren’t Democrats more moderate on social issues? Because they’re “more dependent” on more affluent and educated voters, who tend to be “very socially liberal” and who “contribute an enormous amount to the Democratic Party.” It “gives a whole new meaning to the traditional leftist slogan of ‘get money out of politics!’ ” And perhaps “a whole new perspective on why Democrats can’t seem to moderate their approach on cultural issues to appeal to Scaffles, despite the trove of votes that might be awaiting them there.”
Ed beat: Unions’ Path to a ‘Disfigured’ World
“Although union bosses like Randi Weingarten continue to obfuscate,” thunders Alex Gutentag at Tablet, “the historical record is clear”: Unions “pushed to keep schools closed, and areas with greater union influence kept schools closed longer.” Now, “more than 80% of U.S. schools” report “an increase in behavior issues.” In New York City last year, 50% of all black students and 47% of all Latino students were “chronically absent.” Schools can’t “repair learning loss” because “the available workforce is simply not up to the task.” And the kids who “never catch up will grow into damaged, illiterate adults” plagued “by social dysfunction and decay. Ultimately, the union will achieve its vision of remaking the world — only it will be a broken, disfigured world that no one wants.”
Eye on ’24: Biden’s Primary-Elex Woes
“The last time an American president faced a serious primary challenge, the Soviet Union still existed,” cracks Peter Savodnik at The Free Press. But “that’s the dynamic Joe Biden is up against today” as he faces down Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and “best-selling author and former self-help guru Marianne Williamson” — with the most recent CNN poll showing Kennedy winning one in five voters, Williamson at 8% and another 8% of Democrats supporting “someone else.” All of which reflects Dems’ “profound dissatisfaction” with the state of their party, its leadership and its current standard-bearer. Why? Biden’s seen as “a function of a system that a growing majority of Americans don’t trust.” And “the confusion and sense of loss on the left” could “upend the whole progressive project.”
Albany watch: Progressives’ Gift to China
Albany progressives want to “upend the $70 trillion global sovereign debt market” — more than half of which is governed by New York law — “by capping private creditor recoveries when low-income countries default,” warns The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board. China will just “love” the move. The progs aim to “jam through legislation before their session ends next week” to limit “recoveries for private creditors in a sovereign debt restructuring to ‘equitable burden-sharing standards’ under ‘international initiatives’ led by the International Monetary Fund or World Bank.” China would benefit most, given how much it has lent to low-income countries and because the Albany rule wouldn’t apply to China. Yet, “invariably,” interest rates would rise for borrowers, hurting the very people progressives “claim they want to help.”
— Compiled by Adam Brodsky & Sam Munson