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Liberal: How To Fix the Dem Brand
Democrats “would do well to remember how the party came back the last time it was in the political wilderness,” argues Al From at The Bulwark. “In 1985, I joined with a group of governors, senators, and representatives to form the Democratic Leadership Council.” In 1990, “Bill Clinton became chairman of the DLC” and went on to end “the Democrats’ losing streak,” as the party won the popular vote in seven elections from 1992 to 2020. How? We “shored up Democratic weaknesses on the economy, crime, and national security” and “eschewed interest group and identity politics” while being unafraid to “take on intraparty fights when necessary.” “The next generation of Democratic leaders can learn a lot by studying why the DLC was so successful.”
Conservative: Even Lefties Now Hate ObamaCare
“Progressives are at last acknowledging that ObamaCare is a failure,” at least based on their “social-media screeds against insurers, triggered by the murder” of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, notes The Wall Street Journal’s Allysia Finley. A CBS medical contributor also lamented that “health care is so inaccessible and unaffordable” that “people are justified in their frustrations,” while a new Gallup finds only 44% of Americans rate US health care good or excellent, down from 62% when Democrats passed ObamaCare in 2010. There’s no doubt why: “The U.S. is spending $2 trillion more on healthcare” than pre-ObamaCare, yet “Americans aren’t healthier.” And for young people, who rarely meet their premiums, the Obama law’s mandatory insurance is “worthless except in the event of a catastrophic emergency.”
From the right: Patel Is Perfect for FBI
“President-elect Trump’s nomination of Kash Patel as FBI director has sparked a frenzy of outrage,” snarks Rep. Devin Nunes at Fox News, who recalls Patel’s stalwart work for him “uncovering evidence that the entire Russia collusion narrative was a hoax funded by the Democratic Party and the Hillary Clinton campaign and weaponized by our own intelligence and law enforcement agencies.” Even when “directly threatened by top-level Department of Justice officials,” Patel “was fearless, methodical, and intelligent.” For an FBI chief who’ll “transform the bureau into an impartial, trustworthy law enforcement agency that zealously goes after criminals instead of political targets,” “Kash is, bar none, the right man for the job.”
Final frontier: On to Titan — Maybe Permanently
In “another win for Elon Musk’s launch company,” smiles Mark R. Whittington at the Hill, NASA chose the “SpaceX Falcon Heavy to launch the Dragonfly aerial probe to Titan” because it could “reduce the time Dragonfly would take to get to Titan.” SpaceX’s “relentless drive to make space launches cheaper and more reliable” has also “made the Artemis return to the moon program possible,” while “benefiting planetary missions as well.” When Dragonfly lands “in 2034, after a six-year voyage,” it’ll explore “using eight rotor blades as a vertical takeoff and landing drone” to “examine one of the most enigmatic celestial bodies in the solar system.” Who knows? “Children growing up today may live to see, in their old age, settlers braving the cold and deadly conditions of the strangest of new worlds, like Titan.”
Libertarian: A Tentative Win for Small Business
“Last week, a federal judge in Texas issued a temporary restraining order against a new requirement that small companies identify their owners to the federal government,” cheers Reason’s J.D. Tuccille. The judge found the law “didn’t even pretend to assert constitutional justification” for the rule. Good: “Many small businesses remain unaware of the intrusive rule” and face steep fines imposed via the Corporate Transparency Act in 2021, set to take effect in January. This follows a related federal-court ruling that imposed a nationwide injunction against the CTA — but the Biden administration “intends to appeal the decision,” so “the legal fight over the constitutionality of the CTA and the rules it imposes continues.” For now, “celebrate a welcome slap-down of an effort to expand government intrusions into new areas of our lives.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board