Foreign desk: Trump’s Iran Policy Is Working

Some people faulted him for not striking Iran militarily, but President “Trump was right to show restraint, and his Iran policy is working,” argues Marc Thiessen at Fox News. The president told Iran he would counterattack if there was a loss of an American life, and “it is no mere coincidence that [Iran has] been careful not to cross Trump’s red line.” Besides, his actions in Syria already proved his “willingness to use force.” And his sanctions “hurt Tehran far more” than a military strike would’ve. “Trump was moments away from ordering an airstrike,” notes Thiessen. The message was clear: “Iran got one free pass; it may not get another.”

From the right: Stop Calling Lefties ‘Progressives’

The City Journal’s Myron Magnet has had enough of leftists calling themselves “progressive,” suggesting “their politics represent a higher consciousness” than that of “unthinking deplorables.” For over a century, self-styled progressives have seen themselves as “leaders and thinkers who saw through the mystifications of capitalism.” Yet today, “the Left’s program has shrunk to campus microaggressions, environmentalist opposition to capitalism, and a reborn socialism.” Its hallmarks are “bicycling against global warming or pointing to micro-groups of supposed victims.” No, people who “threaten to break into conservative pundits’ homes or hound Trump administration officials out of restaurants” can hardly be called progressives, say Magnet. “For now, I’ll stick with ‘Lefty.’ ”

2020 watch: Mayor Pete’s Mystique Is an Illusion

Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., is everything the media love: “young, earnest, credentialed, progressive but with a self-image as an ideologically moderate pragmatist,” notes Rich Lowry at Politico. Yet the “hostility of some black residents” at a recent South Bend meeting on the shooting of a black resident by a white cop “highlights the manifest shortcomings of his candidacy.” The town hall served as a reminder that Buttigieg has virtually no supporters in the black community, which isn’t “moved by his progressivism in a technocratic guise.” On paper, Buttigieg may be a dream Democratic candidate, but the “wealthy, white Democrat” vote isn’t enough to “win the nomination.” But one thing is sure: “Buttigieg is going to come out of this with a hell of a collection of press clippings.”

Border beat: Blame Parents, Dems for Angie’s Death

The deaths of Angie Martinez, who drowned in the Rio Grande, and 3-year-old Alan Kurdi, a symbol of the Syrian civil war, were both “tragic,” writes Tiana Lowe at The Washington Examiner. “But they weren’t caused by the same impulse. Kurdi’s family was fleeing “certain death”; Martinez’s was “due to the brash, illegal and reckless actions of her parents” — and “throw in some blame” for Democrats for “refusing to fund asylum courts.” El Salvador, notes Lowe, wasn’t persecuting the Martinez family, and, anyway, Mexico would’ve been a safe place to stay. But when her parents couldn’t get a date for an asylum hearing, they opted to cross the Rio Grande. Lowe’s prescription: Democrats must stop “the theatrics” and fund more asylum courts, And migrants must ask themselves if their grievances “justify the risk of killing their children.”

Conservative: The Left Is Blind to True ‘Intersectionality’

Being black, gay, Texan and Republican feels natural, William Booher writes at #gaynrd: “Keeping the government out of my pocket, out of my bedroom, and off my property line is all I ever knew growing up.” He has known bias: He recalls heading to his Wall Street job in the late ’90s for a casual Friday wearing “a Gucci top and a pair of purple Versace pants.” A mentor saw him and warned, “You can be gay dude, but not ‘out and about.’ ” Now Booher gets “the sinking feeling of being told to go home and change” again, but this time with the intolerance coming from the left: “My experience has been questioned, my authenticity has been questioned, my connection to gay and black issues have been questioned because I am who I am politically . . . It’s as if those who pinned the term intersectionality fail to recognize the Archetype of it.”

— Compiled by Ashley Allen & Mark Cunningham