The candidate emerging as, I think, most likely to win the Democratic presidential nomination promises to cancel almost all student debt, make college free, create a massively-subsidized government childcare network, and pay reparations for slavery. The cost for this and her many other “free” goodies runs into the trillions of dollars.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, for it is she, would probably regard the above paragraph as an advertisement, as she does not conceal her intentions but proclaims them vigorously and often, and doubtless likes them repeated, even here.
But I intend this as a warning. Her proposals would be ruinous, especially since she would ice the economy by imposing a wealth tax, slapping a 7% tax on big business profits, banning new energy drilling and all fracking, and giving unions control over corporations via their boardrooms. The last of these, as former Sen. Phil Gramm and Mike Solon noted in the Wall Street Journal, would shatter the retirement incomes of people who have earned and saved thriftily throughout their working lives.
Warren plans to plunder the diligently created property of the middle classes and of the businesses upon which that wealth is founded and dole it out at moral hazard to youthful voters whom she hopes thus to lure in excited droves to the polls on Election Day. It is dangerous, demagogic, and disgraceful.
When Warren declared her intention to seek the presidency, I wrongly thought her moment had passed when she declined to run against Hillary Clinton in 2016. But the senator has made steady progress for eight months and is now neck-and-neck with former Vice President Joe Biden, whose stumbles and bumbles are receiving increased scrutiny from both his rivals and a party terrified of making the wrong choice again by accepting that it’s Buggins’ turn.
As doubts accumulate about Biden as a safe choice, and as the always-improbable Sen. Bernie Sanders fails to distinguish himself except by his antiquity and unattractiveness from the crowd of socialists in the field, Warren is hoovering up support from both these top-tier rivals. As our cover illustration shows, she is pushing them aside and emerging into the limelight. Jay Caruso, the magazine’s deputy editor, examines the rise and rise of Elizabeth Warren.
Kyle Sammin reviews the new book by Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch. Its title, If You Can Keep It, refers to Benjamin Franklin’s comment about the new American republic and the difficulty of preserving it. What emerges in Gorsuch and his book is a sort of inspired humility about his own position vis-à-vis the founders, which underpins the textualist restraint of his judicial philosophy.
Bridget Phetasy writes of “Comedy’s Last Stand” against political correctness and wonders if it can last another generation; Naomi Schaefer Riley reveals how difficult it is to hire college presidents now that they are a persecuted class facing the unquenchable wrath of woke warriors; and Grant Addison takes issue with a trend toward absurd copyright claims; Ohio State University wants to copyright the word “The.” Seriously!
