From the right: Conservatives Were Right About Sex
“Whether liberals want to acknowledge it or not,” Mark Hemingway avers at The Weekly Standard, “conservatives have embraced a large degree of social progress in the last 50 years on everything from women in the workplace to rejecting overcriminalization of marijuana use.” So the #MeToo movement is a good time for the left to “meet conservatives halfway on some important social issues. A good first step is acknowledging that conservatives were right about sex all along.” After all, the society now beset by sexual-harassment “was molded by birth control, abortion, no-fault divorce, and a celebration of hedonism. And it was utterly predictable that such a society would evolve into one where relationships are based on an ultimately dangerous and degrading sexual Darwinsm.”
Media watcher: Trump’s Anti-Press Threats Are Empty
President Trump loves to take shots at the media, even making scary-sounding threats — to ease libel laws, to review broadcast licenses. But, explains Jack Shafer at Politico, he never follows through. If the press is “the enemy of the American people,” as the president once notoriously declared, “he appears to have joined with the enemy!” His nominee to head the FCC and his Supreme Court pick both vigorously support press freedom. That’s not to say his attacks don’t have consequences — they create a hostile environment for reporters and undermine legitimate reporting. But he’s mostly bark, not bite. Why? Shafer answers: “He loves the give-and-take of the interview, of seeing his face on the cover of magazines . . . of appearing on television and of being the center of attention.”
Libertarian: Angry Americans Should Be Like Churchill
Everyone’s angry it seems, writes A. Barton Hinkle at Reason: “People have plenty to be angry about. But much of the animosity seems out of all proportion.” Hinkle advises following the example of Winston Churchill. In 1940, “Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had signed the Munich Agreement,” which became the ur-example of appeasement. Yet rather than gloat, at Chamberlain’s funeral Churchill eulogized, “We can be sure that Neville Chamberlain acted with perfect sincerity according to his lights and strove to the utmost of his capacity and authority, which were powerful, to save the world from the awful, devastating struggle in which we are now engaged.” The speech “shows that even in the most difficult straits, it is possible to concede the other man’s humanity and idealism without also conceding the political argument.”
Culture file: America’s Lasting, Unmatched Achievements
We’re No. 1! We’re No. 1! No, really, we are, writes Shikha Dalmia at The Week: “When it comes to the sciences, arts, technology, and business, America dominates the world.” From the light bulb to the motion-picture camera to cars and satellites, “America pioneered nearly every transformational technology of the industrial age.” Medicine, too: “America’s advances in diagnostic medicine — MRIs and PET scans — and pharmaceuticals have vastly improved the quantity and quality of human life,” plus we’re a leading center of genetic research, the next medical revolution. Then there are the arts and architecture, especially the big screen. And don’t forget about music: “American genres such as ragtime, blues, jazz, folk, country Western, R&B, rock and roll, hip hop, and rap have been incorporated and ‘appropriated’ by musicians across the world.”
Former county exec: Reforms to Clean Up New York
At City & State New York, Steve Levy offers five reforms Albany desperately needs. One: “Open the committee process” for legislation, which is now bereft of public comment and debate. Two: “Create an independent legislative budget office” to serve as Albany’s version of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Three: “Eliminate the Rules Committee,” where legislation goes to die. Four: “End lulus for committee chairs and leadership.” These are “extra stipends” that “come with appointments to committee chairs and leadership positions” and “make individual legislators hostages to leadership.” Five: “Provide similar support staff for all legislators” — don’t underfund offices in the expectation that lawmakers will come begging for more cash — and feel as if they owe leadership a favor for granting it.
— Compiled by Seth Mandel