WSJ:
Former Obama Administration Officials Vie to Unseat House Republicans
Large contingent is part of Democratic effort to create a counter to President Donald Trump’s efforts to rollback policies they helped put in place
“I was actually looking to work on someone’s campaign but didn’t find anyone who spoke to me,” she said. “I decided the way that I would have other options was if I made them.”
Back in the Michigan district of Rep. Bishop, Ms. Slotkin is challenging with decidedly more moderate positions than her Democratic colleagues from safer districts. They are focusing on localized issues that their would-be constituents are talking about, not attacking the president.
Ms. Slotkin said she refrains from criticizing the president and won’t say if she supports current House Democratic leadership. Democrats have targeted the seat in the past and lost, making Stu Sandler, Mr. Bishop’s spokesperson, hopeful the congressman can win a third term.
We like pedants. Mostly. And wish them a Happy New Year. (Pedants: But you can’t start a sentence with a conjunction! Me: You just did.)
My New Year’s resolutions are twofold:
1. Be nicer to pedants
2. Elect a Democratic Congress
But not in that order.
Dan Balz/WaPo:
Democrats think 2018 will be a good year, but are they realistic about their own problems?
The ample availability of competitive House districts is one reason there is a growing consensus, or at least a rising chorus among the political class, proclaiming a tsunami-in-the-making across America. If that turns out to be the case, Democrats would have the power to frustrate Trump’s and the GOP’s agenda while putting the president himself under a microscope. Many Democrats salivate at the prospect.
...
Democrats stand for many things that are popular with a majority of Americans. They oppose cutting tax rates for the wealthiest taxpayers. They oppose changes to Medicare and Social Security that would reduce future benefits or notably alter the eligibility requirements. And they want some immigrants, known as “dreamers,” to be able to stay in this country and not face the threat of deportation over the fact that they were brought to the United States illegally by their parents.
But there are hard questions for the Democrats. What exactly is their health-care policy likely to be in the future? Stand pat with the 2010 Affordable Care Act after some modifications? Move toward a single-payer plan, as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and others now advocate?
…
Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont and former chair of the Democratic National Committee, has been a one-person chorus calling for a generational change in leadership for his party in 2020. He has said he would like to see his party nominate someone age 55 or younger, preferably 50 or younger. His argument is that the party needs a new-generation leader who can speak to the future more authentically than someone a decade or two older.
If by problems, you mean we are wrestling with America’s problems, well, that’s what we do.
NY Times:
Mr. Trump is the 45th president of the United States, but he has spent much of his first year in office defying the conventions and norms established by the previous 44, and transforming the presidency in ways that were once unimaginable.
Under Mr. Trump, it has become a blunt instrument to advance personal, policy and political goals. He has revolutionized the way presidents deal with the world beyond 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, dispensing with the carefully modulated messaging of past chief executives in favor of no-holds-barred, crystal-breaking, us-against-them, damn-the-consequences blasts borne out of gut and grievance.
Accurate… and shameful. His enablers have a lot to answer for.
Ross Douthat/NY Times on the follies of being a deficit hawk:
Instead, in hindsight the most important economic argument of the early Obama years was between two schools of thought that agreed we should put moremoney into the economy and only disagreed about how to do it — the Keynesians who wanted massive government spending and the market monetarists who favored looser monetary policy. Today, both sides of that debate look far better than the strict fiscal and monetary hawks, and the endless arguments about Bowles-Simpson look like an interesting exercise that did not deserve so much swarming attention from politicians and the press.
Richard Haass/Atlantic:
America and the Great Abdication
Don’t mistake Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the world for isolationism.
Under Donald Trump, however, U.S. foreign policy shows clear signs of significant departure. Support for alliances, embrace of free trade, concern over climate change, championing of democracy and human rights, American leadership per se—these and other fundamentals of American foreign policy have been questioned and, more than once, rejected. Trump is the first post–World War II American president to view the burdens of world leadership as outweighing the benefits. As a result, the United States has changed from the principal preserver of order to a principal disrupter.
This change has major implications. It will make it far more difficult to deal with the challenges posed by globalization, including climate change and nuclear proliferation, to regulate cyberspace on terms compatible with American interests, or to help relieve the plight of refugees on terms consistent with American values. It will make it more difficult to build frameworks that promote trade and investment and to ensure that the United States benefits from them.
Matt Bennett and Gabe Horwitz/USA Today:
Trump's dangerous America First path: This is how empires crumble
Once we wondered how on earth we could have lost Vietnam. We should ask a similar question now as China claims our global economic leadership role
The world has noticed America’s withdrawal from its leadership post, and China is already stepping in to fill the void. As part of its “One Belt, One Road” policy, China is spreading its influence to every corner of the globe, securing natural resources, opening new markets, and developing strategic alliances. China snapped up Greece’s main port at Piraeus to gain an economic and political foothold in the European Union — strapped for cash, Greece is in no position to argue with one of its biggest investors when it comes to regional political questions.
With hundreds of new infrastructure projects across Asia, Africa, Europe and even our own backyard of South America, China is creating new customers for its goods, new jobs for its people, and new leverage with its economic partners. China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has frequently been referred to as the world’s most powerful man and recently cast himself as the global defender of free trade, globalization, and liberal markets in his speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos. China’s ability to credibly claim the mantle of global economic leadership is a breathtaking, dangerous turnabout for the United States. This is how empires crumble.
Axios:
Donald Trump in one year has done more to discredit and diminish truth, facts and media than any other figure in our lifetime.
You might love his middle finger to the media. But even the strongest of Trump backers should think long and hard about a world without facts and common truths.
His techniques — especially claiming bad or unwanted news is "fake news" — are getting copied worldwide, just as evil actors like Russia are getting better at spreading misinformation. Here's a snapshot:
- Despots use fake news as a weapon: Leaders or state media in at least 15 countries have used the term "fake news" to try to quell dissent or defuse questions about human rights violations.
- In the U.S.: Within seconds of any major attack or shooting, fake news (real fake news: news that is actually false) starts circulating about the suspect and victims, forcing tech platforms to apologize for surfacing news from faulty sources — think Vegas shooting, Times Square subway bombing, etc.
Bret Stephens/NY Times:
Why I’m Still a NeverTrumper
And, of course, Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court. What, for a conservative, is there to dislike about this policy record as the Trump administration rounds out its first year in office?
That’s the question I keep hearing from old friends on the right who voted with misgiving for Donald Trump last year and now find reasons to like him. I admit it gives me pause. I agree with every one of the policy decisions mentioned above. But I still wish Hillary Clinton were president.
How does that make sense? Can I still call myself conservative?
The answer depends on your definition. Here’s one I’ve always liked: “The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society,” said the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan. To which he added: “The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself.”
NY Times:
Undermining the F.B.I. is not helping the United States protect its citizens,” she said. “When people stop working with us, we have a bigger problem than politics. Sowing distrust undermines the integrity of the agents and analysts. This can ripple out to every other agency.”
Democrats, for their part, have tried to ratchet up their defense of Mr. Mueller and federal law enforcement — positions typically claimed by Republicans. More than 170 House Democrats penned a letter of support last week, and on the Senate floor, Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, urged his colleagues to set clear “red lines” that Mr. Trump must not cross.
Whether the role reversal could become something more permanent remains to be seen, but Mr. King said Republicans should be concerned.
“I don’t know if the Democrats would ever assume the mantle but it could certainly weaken the hold that Republicans do have on being supporters of law enforcement,” he said.
I especially like this one because of the cracks in the decades-old bullshit about Republicans being the law and order party, based on Nixon’s hippie bashing and other ephemera.