A pair of esteemed economists have two words to describe the favorite pet ideology of a certain population of Democrats: “Socialism Sucks,” the title of their book — subtitled “Two Economists Drink Their Way Through the Unfree World.”

Authors Robert Lawson and Benjamin Powell cite all the logical reasons for the sudden chic popularity of socialism, fueled by alarmist concerns over economic and cultural upheavals.

“This book is a truthful accounting of our travels, and so includes excessive drinking, low-grade misogyny and salty language. We are white, middle-aged American males who are not ‘woke’ and don’t even know what ‘intersectionality’ means. If that offends you, you can put this book down and read one of our boring academic journals instead,” the authors advise.

“We’re aiming for a popular audience that will appreciate not just our economic insights, but our down-to-earth honesty. We wrote this book because too many people seem to be dangerously ignorant of what socialism is, how it functions and its historical rack record. We also wanted to get drunk in Cuba, and this was a great way to write off our expenses.”

Mr. Lawson is the director of the O’Neil Center for Global Markets at Southern Methodist University, Mr. Powell is an economics professor at Texas Tech University.

They explain the mystique of Swedish “socialism,” the failures in Venezuela and Cuba, and more importantly, “Why American socialists have no idea what socialism really is.”

The book is published by Regnery, and the “irreverent but honest” authors will star in a Cato Institute forum at noon Wednesday. Watch it live at Cato.org.

MR. HURT HAS A SAY

President Trump has encountered a serious backlash from media critics and political rivals over his ongoing comments about Rep. Elijah E. Cummings regarding the woes of Baltimore — much of which makes up the majority of the Maryland Democrat’s district.

In a series of tweets over the last four days, Mr. Trump cited Baltimore’s crime statistics and severe infrastructure issues, suggesting Mr. Cummings was “corrupt” and a “bully” — and that billions of dollars sent to aid the city had been misspent or even stolen. The president was deemed a “racist” by multiple news organizations.

Washington Times opinion editor and columnist Charles Hurt, however, had a another take.

“Only in Washington would somebody see the president attacking Elijah Cummings and say, ‘Oh, this is all about race.’ It’s not about race,” Mr. Hurt said during an appearance Tuesday on Fox News’s “America’s Newsroom.”

“The president is talking about the Russian collusion fairy tale. He’s talking about the fact that Elijah Cummings went after his Homeland Security director who is desperately trying to fix the crisis at the border. Donald Trump is going after issues. And what do you get in Washington? All you get is ‘Oh, this is racist.’ It’s not racist,” Mr. Hurt said.

“President Trump is being combative, as he always is. He is an equal opportunity offender when it comes to being combative. But this idea in Washington that everything is about race is crazy,” Mr. Hurt concluded.

“You have to understand is there is a pattern here, not to just be taken in isolation,” countered fellow commentator Juan Williams.

“When you take this in its totality, don’t you see a fairness, and a president who is being equitable on the overall issue? He doesn’t see it as color, doesn’t see it as race. He just sees what he feels is right and what is wrong,” Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer observed.

“No, I think this is acting,” Mr. Williams replied, adding that Mr. Trump was “without any sense of the history of race in this country.”

VOTERS NOW LEANING CONSERVATIVE

Heritage Action for America has released three surveys meant to identify issues which are pivotal to “victory in 2020.” A total of 4,500 likely voters in key congressional districts revealed that these voters agreed with many conservative beliefs.

The polls revealed that 76% of all voters say the a baby who survives an abortion must be protected with medical care, 73% of all voters also reject political correctness, 70% disapprove of single-payer health care, 65% oppose socialism and 63% says the U.S. border crisis is “an emergency.”

Another 57% say that Democrats are becoming “increasingly extremist” while half no longer support the Democratic Party because it has become too liberal — and radical.

“Our goal was simple: To find out what issues currently motivate the coalition that elected Donald Trump and Republican congressional majorities in 2016, so that we can keep that coalition together and expand it while simultaneously advancing the conservative ideas we hold dear. We found that the GOP isn’t connecting the dots between its own innate conservative principles and voters’ preferences — which, our polling reveals, are more similar than many realize” Tim Chapman, executive director of the organization, wrote in a rationale for Politico Magazine.

FOXIFIED

Fox News Channel ended July at No. 1 in the entire cable realm throughout the day for 37 consecutive months, besting non-news and news rivals alike according to Nielsen Media Research. In prime-time, Fox drew an average 2.4 million viewers compared to 1.5 million viewers for MSNBC and 797,000 for CNN.

The heavy hitters this month were “Hannity,” with an audience of 3.3 million and “Tucker Carlson Tonight” with 3.1 million. Such numbers illustrates why Fox New has been the top cable new network for 213 months in a row — or over 17 years.

POLL DU JOUR

• 44% of U.S. voters “strongly oppose” providing health insurance coverage to undocumented immigrants; 73% of Republicans, 48% of independents and 16% of Democrats agree.

• 16% of voters overall “somewhat oppose” providing coverage to undocumented immigrants; 7% of Republicans, 19% of independents and 23% of Democrats agree.

• 19% overall “somewhat favor” providing the coverage; 10% of Republicans, 13% of independents and 30% of Democrats agree.

• 13% overall “strongly favor” providing coverage to undocumented immigrants; 7% of Republicans, 4% of independents and 21% of Democrats agree.

Source: A FOX NEWS poll of 1,004 REGISTERED VOTERS conducted July 21-23.

• Kindly follow Jennifer Harper on Twitter @HarperBulletin

Sign up for Daily Newsletters Manage Newsletters

Copyright © 2020 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.