Opinion

Democrats try to change the subject and other commentary

From the right: Democrats’ Losing Strategy

“The Democrats have a novel solution to their crumbling popularity: avoid tackling any of the actual issues facing American families” and continue “pinning the January 6 riot at the Capitol on former president Donald Trump,” quips Spectator World’s Amber Athey. “This is all an obvious attempt at distraction from real issues facing the country. Democrats offer few solutions outside of a progressive fever dream spending bill that would only exacerbate inflation,” even though they face “a walloping in the upcoming midterm elections.” So they’re trying to make Republicans “politically toxic by affixing them to the alleged ‘insurrection.’ . . . Once again, the out-of-touch left clearly still hasn’t learned anything from recent bellwether elections in Seattle, Minneapolis, New Jersey, New York and Virginia.”

Free trader: Onerous Regs Fuel Supply Crisis

The supply-chain crisis has spurred a new “Made in America” push — yet, Mario Loyola argues at National Review, “the real culprit is an uncompetitive level of regulation and taxation,” and protectionism only makes that worse. The “hallmark” of the crisis is the lowest labor-force-participation rate in decades, fueled by generous COVID unemployment benefits. The Jones Act, requiring ships that transport goods between US ports to be made in America and owned and crewed by Americans, has worsened the problem, limiting unloading sites and, combined with other regulations, rendering the industry among the most inefficient in the world. “Politicians need to stop treating American companies — and by extension American workers — like enemies.” Let US workers compete, “and they will put an end to the supply-chain crisis.”

Crime watch: Tearing the ‘Fabric of Civilization’

“Being pro-criminal and anti-police is beginning to undermine the fabric of our civilization,” fears former House Speaker Newt Gingrich at Fox News, citing the “dramatic rise in murders,” mobs looting stores and “rioting and violence” in Portland, Ore., for “almost two years.” In New York, a no-bail-required rule lets criminals “walk out of jail faster than the police can fill out arrest reports.” Yet we know “a sound program of crime prevention” leads to safety: “In 1991, New York City was disastrous, crime-ridden and dangerous. It became safer — first through Mayor [Rudy] Giuliani and then through Mayor Michael Bloomberg,” who employed broken-windows policing. Yet Mayor de Blasio and “his Big Government Socialist belief” in “favoring criminals undermined” the success. The sooner Americans tire of that approach, “the sooner we can eliminate lawlessness.”

Pandemic journal: Panicking Over Omicron

“Unless you live in South Africa (and even if you do), there is no need to panic” over the COVID-19 Omicron variant, declares Roger Kimball at American Greatness. “Zero cases have been reported in the United States,” and companies are lining up with novel vaccines and new treatments. “But if you are bored, then by all means, panic.” On Friday, the Dow fell more than 900 points, though it was “long overdue for a correction.” New York Gov. Hochul also “forbade elective hospital surgeries in New York, just as bad boy [former Gov. Andrew] Cuomo did when he was busy packing the nursing homes with COVID patients, and consequently then the morgues, with your grandparents. Are we really going to do this again?”

Education beat: Spreading CRT Curriculum Further

“Classrooms across the United States” are now using Lucy Calkins’ “Units of Study” curriculum, which is “informed” by critical-race-theory writers and “focuses on identity-based power dynamics, victimhood, white supremacy” and the like, lament teachers Daniel Buck and James Furey at City Journal. It’s a “radical approach” that “upends” former notions of what education should be, “replacing the goal of fostering inquisitive, capable minds with ideologically trained” kids. CRT’s ultimate goal: to “use race and history as a lens through which to judge — to condemn — Western values.” Rather than give kids “foundational” skills, we’re sending them “radical messages about identity.” And rather than training them “to love what is beautiful and true, our modern progressive theorists are training them only to deconstruct it.”

 — Compiled by Victoria Marshall & Adam Brodsky