Conservative: Will Post-Trump Dems Be Russia Hawks?
Marc Thiessen at The Washington Post says Vladimir Putin actually deserves some credit: He’s turned the Democrats into Russia hawks, which is more than any of “his murderous Soviet predecessors were able to accomplish.” Sure, today’s Dems are “deeply concerned about the threat Russia poses to our democracy.” But during the Cold War, “when the Soviet Union posed an existential threat to our democracy, not so much.” Indeed, most Democrats opposed Ronald Reagan’s policies “that led to the fall of Soviet empire” and “heaped scorn on his blatant anti-Communist rhetoric.” In 2012, Mitt Romney’s “focus on Russia was considered laughable by most Democrats.” So let’s hope their newfound antipathy for Russia “is not just a convenient way to get to President Trump.” Because “the threat will be there when Trump is gone.”
Strategist: Don’t Underestimate the Socialist Surge
The political story of 2018 is the Democrats’ “dramatic and nationwide leftward shift,” contends John Hart at Real Clear Politics. And it has the potential to “reshape not just the party but American politics for generations to come.” Out in Kansas, he notes, Republicans “are taking this threat seriously.” So he urges conservatives nationwide to follow their lead and “take serious steps to counter the socialist surge.” Because “demagoguing socialists as ‘extreme’ or ‘scary’ won’t be enough.” Hart cites three trends: First, “we live in age of movements, not parties.” Second, “America’s anti-incumbent mood is less ideological than Republicans realize.” Finally — and maybe most important — “millennials like socialism.”
From the right: Flint Water Scare Was a Non-Event
The kids may have been photogenic victims, but it turns out the scare over lead contamination in Flint, Mich., drinking water was overblown, reports National Review’s Kyle Smith. Testing now shows that the actual increase in lead content “was small. Tiny, in fact.” And “within the range of normal fluctuation.” True, Flint’s lead saga “should not be overlooked” in terms of municipal management; lead, after all, is dangerous and “requires vigilance.” But the problem was not in the water source: When the city switched to the Flint River in 2014, the pipes were “not properly treated with orthophosphate, which limits corrosion.” Now the water is fine. But that hasn’t stopped Michael Moore from making “absurd claims” that actually helped “drive down property values” by portraying Flint “as a hellhole.”
Historian: Dems Should Stop Whining About the Senate
Liberals like to complain about the GOP’s “unearned advantage” in the US Senate, noting that Idaho (population 1.7 million) has the same number of senators as California (39.5 million). But as Jeff Greenfield notes at Politico, “almost no one points to the identical outrage” in which ruby-red Texas (28.3 million) has the same number of senators as sky-blue Vermont (623,000). That’s because it’s now “an article of faith that the Senate’s constitutional design punishes the states that are reliably Democratic” and unfairly empowers the Republican ones. One problem: It’s wrong. The Senate is “deliberately (and unamendably) ‘undemocratic’ ” to protect the rights of smaller states, “but it is not ‘un-Democratic.’ ” Moreover, he recalls, “liberals weren’t always so fearful of the ways that the Constitution protects minority interests from majority rule.”
On immigration: ‘Birthright Citizenship’ is Wrong Debate
A former national-security aide to President Trump kicked off a debate by arguing in The Washington Post that the Constitution does not explicitly grant automatic citizenship to children of illegal immigrants who are born here. But Bloomberg’s Ramesh Ponnuru notes that many scholars disagree with his reading of the 14th Amendment, enacted in 1866, though he himself finds the statute “unclear.” And, while birthright citizenship does create “an incentive for some people to come here illegally,” Ponnuru notes that “the chance to participate in the American labor market appears to be the biggest magnet.” Which is why “our efforts against illegal immigration should focus on employers” who hire such immigrants “and not on newborns — and not on what we think we know” about 150-year-old constitutional debates.
— Compiled by Eric Fettmann
