Iconoclast: The Second Coming of Russiagate

“The Russia thing didn’t really pan out, did it?” The Week’s Matthew Walther snarks. Nor did Democrats’ other attempts to investigate President Trump — and nor will the new claim that Trump did something wrong by using “the legitimate authority of his office to draw attention to, well, Joe Biden’s possible use of the legitimate authority of his office to benefit his son, Hunter.” As the “collusion”-style hysteria ramps up once more, Democrats are turning impeachment, “once a grave and rare undertaking,” into a routine “a generic response to any action taken or not taken, alleged or proved or simply imagined, by the president of.” But fact is, “we live in a globalized economy ruled by an internationalist class of gazillionaires who all have ‘ties’ with other internationalist gazillionaires” and lobby “each other’s governments.” If the liberal definition of “collusion” holds, “simply being a member of this class renders one unfit to hold public office.” Walther archly concludes: “There might be a real lesson here after all.”

Energy beat: The Insane War on Fracking

Leading Democratic presidential hopefuls have joined greens in endorsing a global ban on fracking, supposedly to cut emissions. But they’re simply wrong, Ellen R. Wald warns at The Hill. “The natural gas produced through fracking has become abundant, cheap and a more environmentally friendly replacement for coal,” making it “the best option to replace coal power generation quickly.” Fracking will allow Americans to enjoy cheap fuel at home, export it overseas and liberate the West from petro-despots and Mideast instability. Bottom line: “Targeting fracking is irresponsible.” Fracking “is about more than just cheap gasoline. It is about cleaner air right now, about a healthy domestic economy and about controlling our own geopolitical strategies.”

Conservative: A Moderate Dem Survives — for Now

“Politicians willing to exhibit bipartisanship aren’t exactly en vogue at the moment,” rues National Review’s Alexandra DeSanctis. A prime example: Sen. Krysten Sinema, an Arizona Democrat who took Republican Jeff Flake’s old seat last year. Last week, Arizona Democrats’ progressive caucus considered censuring her for voting roughly half of the time with President Trump and supporting his nominees. In the end, she avoided “any formal censure, at least for now.” Her party would be wise to reject “efforts to push all of its politicians into one progressive mold,” if they want to keep winning in red and purple states. “In a place such as Arizona,” after all, “Republicans have more to fear from Democrats willing to moderate than they do from those bullied into progressivism by the party’s far-left activists.”

Libertarian: Climate Strikers vs. Commutes

“Car horns, police whistles, and people chanting ‘the polar bears are on fire!’ ” were the cacophonous sounds of Monday’s “climate strike” in Washington, reports Noah Shepardson at Reason. “Several groups of climate activists took to Washington’s streets in support for stricter” environmental regulations, “marching down and blocking off streets with dozens of police units in tow” and dozens arrested for blocking traffic. Although some commuters sympathized with the activists’ message, for others, “the consequences of the commotion hit a little harder,” with “one disgruntled motorist” grumbling that he might lose his job because the activists had made him late. Not that getting ordinary people fired concerns the activists. One of their leaders insisted that her activism “far outweighs” such petty matters.



From the right: Trump’s Poverty Win

New government data show that the number of households enrolled Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides food stamps, has dropped by “roughly 7 million people and 4 million households,” according to Chris Talgo at The Washington Examiner. Why? The “primary driver of the dramatic decrease” is the “booming economy” made possible by the Trump administration’s free-market policies. “Employed people can afford their own groceries, and there is now more money in people’s pockets to buy them.” Wages are up, and the “taxes and regulations” introduced under President Obama have been slashed. With that economic backdrop, “it should come as no surprise that seven million fewer Americans are counting on Uncle Sam to help foot their grocery bills.”

— Compiled by Karl Salzmann