Politics Archives

Friday

December 10, 2021

Silence of the Jussie Smollett defenders

Some people say that the only certainties in life are death and taxes. Nonsense. There is also the certainty that in America circa 2021 anti-black racist events are hoaxes perpetrated by left-wing whites or, more often, by blacks themselves. Right now, the world is mesmerized by the case of Jussie Smollett. Until he faked the “racist” attack on himself back in 2019, no one you knew had heard of Smollett. Now he is famous, not for being an actor, but for being a race-baiting hate monger. The fake-news, enemy-of-the-people, Trump-hating media slobbered all over that story. So did the slimy Democratic politicians sup daily on fifty-seven varieties of “racism” because they think it buys votes.

Oliver Wiseman

A bevy of bad news for Biden’s Build Back Better

Bad news for Build Back Better Most economists expected this morning’s inflation news to be bad. And it was. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, US consumer prices have soared by 6.8 percent over the past twelve months, the biggest spike since 1982. This is bad news for American households, bad news for the Biden administration and especially bad news for those Democratic lawmakers tasked with getting Build Back Better onto the books. Senate leader Chuck Schumer is, slowly but surely, ticking items off his December to do list. The National Defense Authorization Act has passed. The debt limit deadlock has been broken. But this legislative Santa and his big-spending elves have left the trickiest job 'til last.

Meghan Murphy

The end of Canadian liberty

This week, my home country of Canada implemented a slew of new travel restrictions in response to Omicron, the newest ideation of what will surely be endless Covid variants. Based on the reports, this variant is mild and nothing to panic about. But hey, why not panic, just to be safe? And by “safe,” I mean “sufficiently naive and fearful so as to ensure we continue to comply with ever-irrational regulations and restrictions, dutifully marching along dressed in useless and humiliating masks that restrict both breathing and communication, and maintaining religious devotion to vaccines that only work in that they reduce symptoms.” Some countries and states have responded to Covid humanely and rationally.

Thursday

December 9, 2021

Lewis M. Andrews

The rise of the second-string left

If a recent Scientific American opinion piece purporting to explain how growing opposition to critical race theory damages public education reveals anything, it is that the real problem with today’s left goes much deeper than its progressive ideology. The co-authors assert that resistance to CRT is based on white supremacy, a refusal to acknowledge history, a rebirth of ‘50s-style anti-communism, and the conservative desire to harden racial divisions. These stunning inaccuracies raise questions not just about the validity of their argument but the competence of the supposed experts making it.

Amber Duke

Is Pfizer about to cash in on the Omicron variant?

The new Omicron variant of Covid-19 is “mild” and no reason to panic, according to one of the South African doctors who discovered the new strain. Nonetheless, American politicians and public health officials are extending mask mandates, expanding vaccine mandates, and warning of the potential for another lockdown. Pfizer is taking their cues and stepping in to play hero. Despite only having a week or two of research available to them, the pharmaceutical giant insists that preliminary lab results show that three doses of their vaccine work well at neutralizing the Omicron variant. How convenient that the so-called “booster” shot Pfizer and President Joe Biden have been pushing for months is now found to be super effective against this new variant.

Cockburn

Kevin McCarthy’s alleged lover runs for Congress

Cockburn has never been quite sure what to make of Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. Previous GOP skippers have been easy for this Washingtonian workhorse to understand: John Boehner was an old-school cigs-and-digs backroomer, who frequently used to stop by Cockburn's table at Shelly's and rant about Ted Cruz apropos of nothing. Paul Ryan was a libertarian wonk in both the best and worst senses of the term. But McCarthy? Other than accidentally blurting out the Republicans' entire anti-Hillary Benghazi strategy on a cable news bender several years back, he's never really stood out. Thankfully, though, McCarthy isn't totally devoid of Washington intrigue. Six years ago, rumors surfaced that he'd had an affair with fellow Republican rep Renee Ellmers of North Carolina.

Oliver Wiseman

Have vax mandates jumped the shark?

Have vax mandates jumped the shark? Last night, the Senate dealt a major blow to Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for large employers, albeit a largely symbolic one. Fifty Republicans were joined by two Democrats, Joe Manchin and John Tester, in the vote to repeal the administration’s vaccine regulations, which have already encountered major legal problems in courts across the country. Given that the measure is not going to be picked up by the House, the Senate vote will not change the law. Not so long ago, vaccine mandates were assumed by the White House to be good policy and good politics. The fact that more and more judges agree that the administration’s regulations happen to be unconstitutional somewhat undercuts the first claim.

Wednesday

December 8, 2021

Matt Purple

Missing Bob Dole in witless Washington

Bob Dole passed away this week, and according to the press coverage, he took with him an entire golden age of senatorial comity. The New York Times characterized Dole's time in the Senate as "the days when Republicans and Democrats at least tried to work together" while praising "his instincts as a deal maker." It was yet another lament for a supposed Pax Bipartisana gone by — and it's not like the Times is entirely wrong. Congress really was less dysfunctional during the 1980s and 90s when Dole was at his prime. But just as the famous Ronald Reagan/Tip O'Neill working relationship is overrated (Tip in his memoir: "It was sinful that Ronald Reagan ever became president"), so too was Dole not just some huk-yukking back-slapper.

Bill Zeiser

Why shouldn’t conservatives ‘build their own Twitter’?

Taco Bell Patron in the year 2032: "What would you say if I called you a brutish fossil, symbolic of a decayed era gratefully forgotten?" John Spartan: "I don’t know…thanks?" — Demolition Man “Right wing builds its own echo chamber,” warns the headline from a short piece in Axios about conservatives creating their own media outlets and other institutions like publishers and cryptocurrencies and social networks. The headline is a play on a trope of the Big Tech age (provided you believe Axios is capable of such self-awareness).

Oliver Wiseman

Dan Crenshaw fires right

Omarova and out Saule Omarova, Joe Biden’s pick to be one of America’s top banking regulators, has withdrawn from the nomination process. You may remember Omarova — as I explained in the DC Diary a few weeks ago, she is the shoplifting radical with a track record of dicey economic thinking. Why is Omarova backing out of her bid to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency? According to the president, it’s because “from the very beginning, Saule was subjected to inappropriate personal attacks that were far beyond the pale.” According to the New York Times, “Bank lobbyists and Republicans painted [Omarova] as a communist because she was born in the Soviet Union.” It might be true that a few Republican lawmakers took their red-baiting too far.

Rachel K. Paulose

The nuances of the Kim Potter manslaughter trial

For the fourth time in the last four years, Minnesota is trying a police officer for excessive use of force in a highly-publicized case watched by people around the world. In three of the four cases, an officer killed a black man during an alleged misdemeanor stop in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. On April 11, 2021, Kim Potter, a former police officer from Brooklyn Center, Minnesota was training a new officer, Anthony Luckey, when they pulled over twenty-year old Daunte Wright. Luckey told Wright he was questioning him for displaying in his white Buick both an air freshener from his rearview mirror and expired license plate tabs.

Tuesday

December 7, 2021

Gilbert T. Sewall

What Functional America wants

The United States is still rich enough to meet higher-order needs and call them entitlements. The decades-long response to race, class and gender proves the point. Americans can fixate on respect, status, self-esteem, hurt feelings and positive recognition because the essentials just happen. Potable water, traffic lights, microwave ovens and freedom from fear. They are there, like magic. Because all Americans are fed, reasonably policed and more civil than not — this point cannot be overstressed — authorities can sidestep policy basics and empirical findings. The radical left evidently wishes to dismantle much of what makes this plenty possible — and what many rely on for survival — in the name of social justice. Functional America notices.

Taylor Millard

Both parties want to control what you say on the internet

The long slog towards government regulation of social media is snaking its way towards reality. The House and Senate hold hearings this week on bills enacting rules on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube. Many of these proposals revolve around Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a rather innocuous 1996 law protecting online platforms from civil liability for hosting and moderating third-party content. Section 230 includes language praising “the vibrant and competitive free market” existing for the internet and tech companies, without state or federal government rules. It’s all about to change twenty-five years later, with both major parties seeking to get their pound of ideological flesh from Big Tech.

Karol Markowicz

Bill de Blasio’s anti-child vaccine mandate

As we near the final days of his term, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is taking his final shot at children by implementing an indoor vaccine mandate. This means that kids will not be able to dine indoors at restaurants, visit museums or do any number of other cultural activities around the city. Additionally, children ages five to eleven will no longer be able “to participate in high-risk extracurriculars including sports, band, and dance.” The new rules are as cruel as they are pointless. Twenty percent of New York City children ages five to eleven are vaccinated against COVID-19. That number is actually pretty high as kids face an extremely low risk of any kind of poor COVID outcome.

Teresa Mull

Big government is ruining trucking

With Christmas right around the corner, the supply chain crisis, and what or whom to blame for it, is a hot topic this season. The New York Times and Wall Street Journal recently published a pair of articles about a purported nationwide shortage of truck drivers causing delivery delays. According to Business Insider, however, the reports of a driver shortage are “overblown.” Time, too, rebutted the claims with a column declaring that “The Truck Driver Shortage Doesn’t Exist.” (My theory is that all the sane truck drivers in America abandoned their rigs and ran for the hills the moment they heard Joe Biden say he “used to drive an 18-wheeler.” Egads!) What, then, are we to believe? Why, the truck drivers themselves, of course! So off to Sapp Bros.

Oliver Wiseman

A perilous moment for America — and Biden

Will Biden meet this perilous moment? William Burns was honest about what he didn’t know but clear about what was possible. In an interview Monday, the CIA director said that US intelligence agencies have not concluded that Russia will invade Ukraine but that the army assembled by Vladimir Putin close to the border “could act in a very sweeping way.” Burns widened the lens to argue that we are at a “rare moment of transformation.” It’s hard to disagree. From Ukraine to Taiwan, from Iran’s nuclear proliferation to a burgeoning shadow war in space, the nature of threats to America are changing. And one cannot but feel that all of this is approaching an uncomfortable pinch point.

Alex Perez

Hispanics will not submit to ‘Latinx’

A piece in Politico titled “Democrats fall flat with ‘Latinx’ language” dropped yesterday, and as is always the case with such stories, activists and pundits took to Twitter to decry or defend “Latinx.” What was interesting this time around, however, is that some big-name progressives came out against the term. Fernand Amandi, an MSNBC analyst and the principal at Bendixen & Amandi International, the polling outfit quoted in Politico, tweeted: https://twitter.com/AmandiOnAir/status/1467843020838080512?s=20 According to the poll, only 2 percent of Hispanics refer to themselves as Latinx; 68 percent prefer Hispanic and 21 percent identify as Latino/Latina.

Monday

December 6, 2021

William Murchison

Bob Dole, defender of America

The usualness, you might say, of the late Bob Dole is what would render him highly, and commendably, unusual in today’s politics. He was no Reagan or Taft, and certainly no Madison. He had no grand vision he wished to implement in public life. But he had judgment and common sense. He lacked entirely the dubious gift for making long-term enemies. His patriotism — his love of the land he served and fought for, with lieutenant’s bars on his GI helmet — was deeply embedded. Most conspicuously, he had guts and determination. He was up for any contest that involved the preservation of his convictions and ideals — including the lifelong contest he waged against the agony of a partly destroyed physical body.

Jonathan Bydlak

‘Build Back Better’ could limit access to prescription drugs

Much has been written about the expansiveness of the Biden administration’s signature priority: the Build Back Better Act (BBB). The legislation is projected by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to spend more than $1.6 trillion in its attempts to address countless Democratic priorities ranging from climate change to the expansion of Medicaid. One aspect of the bill, however, has attracted far less fanfare than it should have: its impact on the cost of prescription drugs. Provisions in the bill would, among other things, impose rebates on drug manufacturers if prices rise faster than inflation. It’s an idea that sounds great in the current moment of creeping inflation, but is ultimately little more than a market distortion likely to produce an array of adverse consequences.

Oliver Wiseman

Dana Milbank thinks we’re being too mean to Joe Biden

Bob Dole, RIP An epic American life came to an end when Bob Dole died at ninety-eight in his sleep on Sunday morning. Reading Dole’s obituaries, it’s hard not to be moved by his journey from the small Kansas town of Russell to the top of American politics, via near fatal injury in the Second World War. As the Wall Street Journal account of Dole’s life puts it, “Bob Dole went from the plains of Kansas to the battlefields of Italy, where he was left for dead with grievous wounds, before a dogged recovery enabled him to become a widely respected leader of the Senate and Republican nominee for both president and vice president.” In a piece for National Review, Craig Shirley salutes Dole for being “the first and best compassionate conservative.