Eye on the economy: Trump’s Helped Minorities

Karl Smith at Bloomberg offers a “reasonable explanation” for the upward drift in President Trump’s approval ratings over the past two years: “The economic expansion has been particularly beneficial for minority workers.” Jobless rates for African Americans, Hispanics and Asians are all at “historic” lows. The unemployment gaps between both blacks and whites as well as Hispanics and whites have also hit “all-time” lows. “It’s not just that the job market has been good: For minorities, it has been historically good.” Plus, over the past year, wage gains for nonwhites have been “substantially higher than those of whites,” which suggests “minority workers are getting a greater share” of GDP. “Wittingly or not, Trump’s policy has been more favorable to minority workers than they expected.”

Conservative: Why Americans Love Socialism

“Russia and China are still struggling with the legacy of genocidal communism,” Eastern Europe still suffers after “decades of Soviet-imposed socialist chaos” and Cuba, Nicaragua, North Korea and Venezuela are “unfree, poor and failed states,” observes Victor Davis Hanson in the Chicago Tribune. Yet, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are “either overtly or implicitly running on socialist agendas” and polls show a majority of millennials have a favorable view of socialism. Why? Hanson blames “massive immigration” from socialist countries, the progressive rich’s feelings of guilt about their wealth, “a lost generation of woke and broke college graduates” and Republican blindness to “the real-life consequences” of unemployment in the “red-state interior.” Taken together, it’s easy to see why socialism now is “seen as cool.”

National-security expert: ISIS Isn’t Dead

Despite the US special forces’ “extraordinarily effective raid” that left ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi dead, the war against the terror group “is far from over,” warns ex-CIA officer Daniel Hoffman at The Washington Times. ISIS has “repeatedly managed to regroup,” and it reportedly has 18,000 fighters at large. Its “savvy internet use shows cutting-edge 21st century technique,” and Baghdadi’s recorded media appearances “will continue to attract jihadists across the globe.” Meanwhile, “Russia, Syria, Iran and Turkey lack the capability and the will to finish the fight,” and relying “solely on self-interested regional powers risks our nation’s security.” We need “continued U.S. leadership from the bully pulpit and battlefield,” Hoffman insists, or “we risk suffering the consequences.”

Libertarian: Score One for a Diner Owner

Tom Messina, owner of Tom’s Diner in Denver, Colo., just beat the preservationists, cheers Christian Britschgi at Reason. After 20 years behind the grill, Messina hoped to retire and was set to accept a $4.8 million offer from a local developer. Then local activists filed an application to declare Tom’s Diner a historic landmark. They argued that the diner — thanks to its mid-century “Googie” architectural style — was part of the Denver landscape. That almost sank the deal. But “public opinion was on Messina’s side,” and the activists ultimately stood down. “Messina can now retire in peace” — but “so long as expansive historic preservation laws remain on the books,” warns Britschgi, “the next property owner might not be so lucky.”

Culture beat: The Secret to Spicer’s Success

Sean Spicer’s “certainly not surviving on the merits of his dancing, and I’m not sure it’s his natural charm, either,” muses Emily Jashinsky in The Federalist, referring to the former Trump press secretary’s “delightfully talentless romp” on the reality TV dance competition “Dancing with the Stars.” Nevertheless, “week after week, Spicer returns victorious, scoring poorly with the judges but well enough with voters to be ineligible for elimination.” Clearly, his ties to Trump have helped him. “For many, a vote for Spicer is a vote for Trump, and sometimes a vote for Trump is a vote against the haters.” Spicer agrees, though he adds that “there’s a good chunk of people who enjoy my approach.” Of course, “reality television voting is complicated.” But at least Spicer’s run has given people “a harmless outlet to stick it to everyone” who hates Trump. “Sure, it’s trolling, but it’s victimless trolling” — and “Spicer is very entertaining.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board