The nadir of President Barack Obama’s relations with Capitol Hill Democrats came in his first term when he abandoned immigration reform, and Rep. Luis Gutierrez threatened “civil war” in the party. Instead of fixing the problem, Obama used it as an unresolved grievance in his 2012 reelection campaign.
Empty vessels make the most noise, and the party shouting loudest about an issue often has least incentive to deal with it. If empty rhetoric lost votes, politicians would avoid it. Conversely, when voters back a party making promises with no sell-by date, that party can keep campaigning on problems rather than resolving them.
Democrats blocking Sen. Tim Scott’s police reform bill this month display cynicism of the same stripe. They make electoral hay blasting the police, alleging systemic racism, poor training, etc. But they’d rather keep the issue and bash President Trump with it before November’s vote than tackle it seriously, give the president a legislative win, and take the issue off the table.
Why throw away a weapon that can win you power? Why, except, as Speaker Paul Ryan once told Gutierrez, because it’s “the right thing to do.” It would show you care more about America than about seizing power. But (chuckle), the suckers will never notice.
Police forces need reform and better training, particularly for tense encounters with racial minorities. Reform is not anti-police but pro-police. It would support them, help them do their jobs better, restore public faith in them, and restore their own faith in their leadership, which lets them twist in the wind.
But Democrats on Capitol Hill and in city governments would rather throttle the subdued police, just as a Minneapolis cop did to George Floyd, igniting today’s urban conflagrations.
The disaster of “defund the police” and collapsing police morale is the subject of our cover story, “Cops Out!” Karol Markowicz reports that more and more police are turning in their badges — abuse and abandonment are not what they signed up for — leaving law-abiding citizens, especially minorities, to the scant mercies of criminals and political militants.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a fighter for women’s rights worldwide, leaps to defend author J.K. Rowling, whom trans activists are trying to “cancel” for rejecting their dangerous falsehoods.
Byron York interviews Michael Pack, new head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, who is laughably accused of working for Steve Bannon to turn America’s international voice into a Trumpist propaganda outfit.
Nick Clairmont profiles Elon Musk, a modern-day entrepreneurial Houdini, and Dhruva Jaishankar steps into the clash between China and India on the roof of the world.
Charlotte Allen revisits Gone With the Wind, the great novel rather than the film, after the latter’s defenestration in the blundering frenzy of our new culture war. Brad Polumbo reviews How Innovation Works, And Why It Flourishes in Freedom, Matt Ridley’s thorough debunking of the precautionary principle that ties progress up in red tape. Eric Felten resists magic mushrooms.
