Democrat: ‘New Dealism’ Is the Party’s Future
Debate over the Democratic Party’s direction pits those favoring “democratic socialism” against those supporting “the neoliberal framework that helped destroy America’s middle class, weakened unions and left rural America feeling abandoned,” argues Brendan Frasier at The Hill. Both sides fail to understand “that the Democratic Party succeeds when it roots itself in New Dealism.” Rural voters “do not want socialism” — “they want fairness,” “opportunity” and “an economy that rewards work rather than wealth redistribution.” New Dealism brought “the Tennessee Valley Authority, electrification initiatives, the GI Bill and massive growth in American manufacturing.” “The party’s “future does not lie in neoliberalism or democratic socialism.” Democrats must “rebuild” the movement that made “the working-class hopeful.” Or “continue to lose the very people who once lifted them to victory.”
Libertarian: Progs’ Naive Ideas for US Courts
Disempowering the federal courts “would likely backfire on progressives,” warns Reason’s Damon Root. Left-wing law professors Ryan Doerfler and Samuel Moyn argue that progressives should push for “a system in which elected officials — and the popular majorities they ostensibly represent — are free to impose their agendas without judicial interference.” But in the past, when “the courts have basically followed the Doerfler-Moyn approach, it was the “U.S. Supreme Court acting at its historic worst.” Take Buck v. Bell (1927), when “the Supreme Court upheld a compulsory sterilization law” on the grounds “that the eugenicist measure was enacted by democratically accountable lawmakers,” making it “sufficient to earn it the judicial stamp of approval.” “Perhaps unfettered majority rule is not the political cure-all that some progressives would like it to be.”
Culture critic: US Needs More ‘Loving Attachments’
Love “fuels full engagement” in life, but “Americans seem to be having less of it,” laments The New York Times’ David Brooks. “Marriage rates hover near record lows.” “Americans are having fewer kids” and “have fewer friends.” Plus, “the shares of Americans” who report valuing “patriotism, religion, having children and community involvement have all plummeted.” What happened? Americans chose to “build a culture around individual autonomy” instead of “loving commitments.” In general, conservatives “are more likely to attach themselves to the traditional sources of moral community,” while progressives tend to favor “more social autonomy.” Liberals also value getting married and having kids less, though “on average, married people are happier than unmarried people.” The truth: “If you want to lead a fulfilling life, fill it with loving attachments.”
Conservative: Illegal Entry to US Is a Crime
“Commentators” claim ICE “is arresting and deporting” illegal immigrants “who have no criminal record,” observes The Washington Examiner’s Byron York. But “if they crossed illegally into the United States, they have a criminal record” because, contrary to liberal claims that “coming into the country illegally is a civil offense,” even “a first-time illegal crossing is a misdemeanor.” Of the “estimated 9 million people” who illegally entered the country in the Biden years, all of them are “deportable,” and “how to deal with those illegal crossers” is one of the “most intense debates of the second Trump administration.” It’s “obvious” that “crossing illegally into the U.S. should have serious consequences,” a sentiment that even Barack Obama endorsed in 2004.
Europe desk: The Left Turns on Scandinavia
It used to be hard to “to hear a bad word said about Scandinavia” from the left, notes Spiked’s Fraser Myers. Politicians like Bernie Sanders “regularly cited the Nordic welfare states” as his model for “democratic socialism.” But now the “Nordics” are more often “cursed as pariah states” than as “near-utopian nations,” even though “they retain their generous welfare states and high levels of government spending.” Where they have gone wrong is “on one key issue: immigration,” rejecting the Eurocracy and instead listening “to the concerns of the people.” Denmark is exercising “control over who enters and why.” The Swedes were also smeared their COVID policies. Ultimately, the left’s disapproval of the Nordics says “far more about the left” than anyone else.
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board
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