“With the restoration of free speech protections on Twitter, panic has grown on the left that its control over social media” is waning, notes Jonathan Turley at Fox News. So “advocates of censorship in Congress” — including Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) — are “specifically warning Facebook not to follow Twitter.” Indeed, “they want Facebook to expand its censorship.” “It is not hard to see the cause for alarm.” For years, “some public officials knew they could circumvent the First Amendment by getting these companies to block opposing views by proxy. However, the public and the marketplace may succeed where the Constitution could not — and that’s precisely what these officials fear.”

It “hasn’t been a good year for authoritarianism,” cheers Jonah Goldberg at the Los Angeles Times, with “Putin badly blunder[ing] in his attempt to conquer Ukraine” and China changing “course after two years of a ‘zero tolerance’ COVID policy” as “vast spontaneous protests shook the regime and called into question Xi’s grip on power.” At home, “the fad of illiberalism can seem appealing, in part because our system’s failures are always on display, while authoritarianism’s remain hidden behind Potemkin facades.” So “I don’t think the Chinese regime is about to crumble any time soon, though I’m less gloomy about Russia or Iran,” but “I do think they will all crumble eventually, because tyranny is not sustainable over the long haul.”

A recent ranking of “the most tax-friendly” states puts high-tax California in its Top 10 because its middle-class taxes are modest — but why, wonders City Journal’s Steve Malanga, are hundreds of thousands of middle- and lower-income folks fleeing California, whose net outmigration “ranks highest among the states”? Answer: Taxes are just “one component of a governing philosophy” that involves greater regulation and “more pervasive government.” High taxes on the wealthy and businesses cost California businesses that offer good middle-class jobs, and its onerous regulations drive up housing costs. So “lower- and middle-income residents can’t wait to leave. Some tax haven.”

The Free Press’ Olivia Reingold looks at “Florida voters who, until recently, identified as Democrats but in November opted to reelect Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis,” from a black woman tending bar at a “gentleman’s club” to Democratic Palm Beach County Commissioner Dave Kerner, who says “I can tell you I’m not the only one.” Reingold finds “these voters are not all that dissimilar to the Reagan Democrats who fueled the Republican’s 1980 White House victory,” as they “feel condescended to, abandoned by the progressive elites who bankroll Democratic candidates and shape the party’s agenda” — but different in that they’re “not confined to any class, constituency or ethnic category — although Democratic pollsters say Latinos were more likely to flip for DeSantis.” Crucially, he’s seen as “effective” and “his voters don’t feel judged.” Question is, “are there DeSantis Democrats elsewhere in America waiting to vote for the man in 2024?”

“New York’s part-time senators and assemblymembers are poised to give themselves a 29 percent pay increase,” warn the Empire Center’s Ken Girardin & Cam Macdonald, “that would make them, by far, the highest paid state Legislature.” That’s in addition to “state healthcare, dental and vision coverage, retiree health coverage, and state retirement benefits” and “reimbursements for their travel to Albany and per-diem payments to cover lodging and meals in Albany.” The bill would hike pay to $142,000 starting in January. California would be No. 2 at $122,694; then Jersey ($49,000) and Connecticut ($45,000) “in salary and stipends.” Hmm: New York legislators insist that they work full-time, but the jobs they do seem “connected more to lawmakers’ desire to get re-elected than any statutory or constitutional duty.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board