Conservative: The GOP’s Real Millennial Problem
Republicans are “rightly concerned” about their standing with voters age 18-34, who went heavily for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, agrees Henry Olsen at City Journal. But those working to build bridges misunderstand millennial dislike for the GOP: It’s not because of their social liberalism — though they are the “most socially liberal” and least religious generation in history — but because “they are, in substantial numbers, racial minorities.” Fact is, the voting gap between millennial voters and older ones “is actually rather small” in each racial breakdown. But non-white voters, who are overwhelmingly Democratic, make up a larger share of millennials than any other age group. Says Olsen: “Focusing more on improving the party’s appeal to non-whites, and less on wooing white college graduates,” is the right GOP strategy.
Ex-governor: Under Trump, US No Longer Says ‘Kick Me’
One reason the American Left “so despises President Trump” is the determined way he has “gone about the business of dismantling Obama-era policy,” contends former Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich at National Review. This animosity, he adds, “is further fueled by Trump’s in-your-face modus operandi.” And most particularly the one thing “all his supporters firmly believed: that the ‘kick me’ sign that had hung around America’s neck for eight years would be gone.” Obama sent the message that “the US would no longer manifest its arrogance on the world stage.” So we were “better liked, but much more endangered and much less intimidating.” And many voters saw this “as too many ‘kick me’ signs displayed for consumption by America’s bullies.” Now they’re gone, and “good riddance.”
Political scribe: No Tax Dollars To Aid Political Donors
The newly revealed federal probe of Crystal Run Healthcare “fits a common pattern with Albany scandals,” notes Bill Hammond at the Albany Times-Union: “It’s not just about bad behavior but also bad policy.” The upstate doctors group won $25 million in state grants and loans “it didn’t really need” after donating $400,000 to Gov. Cuomo’s campaign account. The “whiff of pay-to-play is unmistakable,” he says, but we should also question “why the state was handing out money like that in the first place.” Because “taxpayers, not providers,” who are “on the hook for paying bondholders back.” Fact is, “the providers in question are private businesses” who “should be financing their own capital projects.”
Media critic: Times Caught Peddling Fake News
When President Trump did precisely what media outlets confidently predicted he’d never do — walk away from the North Korea summit, then announce it might still be held — The New York Times reported that “a senior White House official” said “holding it on June 12 would be impossible.” When Trump claimed such an official “didn’t exist” and the story was wrong, some media outlets then went ahead and identified him. But as Mollie Hemingway at The Federalist notes, while Trump clearly was wrong, audio of the briefing shows that the Times clearly “mischaracterized” the remarks. The official “definitely says it would be difficult to prepare for the summit given the lack of time to do so.” But “at no time” does he say “a June 12 meeting is “impossible’,” as the Times wrote. A news media “that desires to hold this president accountable simply must be accurate in its newswriting.”
Libertarian: Be Glad Tycoons Are Focused on Space
Old-time tycoons are back, says Glenn Harlan Reynolds at USA Today, and happily “they’re funding spaceships and thinking about moon bases.” In fact, the space development work being done by Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk “is probably the most important work that anyone is doing. That’s because humanity has reached the point where one planet isn’t enough, and that’s a dangerous place to be.” Simple prudence, he suggests, “favors getting human beings established on the moon, in orbit and elsewhere throughout the solar system, making it much less likely that war, an asteroid strike or some other calamity could wipe us all out.” But with “so much of both government and industry seemingly ossified . . . it’s nice to see someone shake things up.”
— Compiled by Eric Fettmann
