Security desk: Mattis Always Understood Trump Defects
The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, recalling his spring 2016 interviews with Gen. James Mattis, says the future defense secretary “understood from the beginning” the nature of Donald Trump’s “intellectual, ideological and characterological defects, even as he was pulled into Trump’s orbit and into his Cabinet.” But “patriotic duty is patriotic duty, and he did his” — until finally deciding “he could take no more.” Mattis’ critiques of the president, outlined in his resignation letter, aren’t centered on specific policy disputes. They’re “foundational” — Trump “does not understand the value of allies, or the immorality of disparaging and abandoning them.” Because he’s a patriot, Mattis joined Trump, and “would have remained” if he thought he could influence the president’s policies. But Thursday “marked the end of the illusion.”
Political scribe: Is Dems’ 2020 Frontrunner a Republican?
A recent MoveOn straw poll suggests Beto O’Rourke, the “skateboarding Texas wunderkind,” is the early Democratic frontrunner for president, reports The Week’s Matthew Walther. That’s “less surprising” than a recent analysis of his voting record in the House: Turns out Beto “has voted against the majority of Democrats on some 167 occasions since being elected” and “for the Trump administration position roughly 30 percent of the time.” Nor are these votes “Dennis Kucinich-style breaks with the leadership over matters of leftist principle.” That’s particularly true on climate change and financial issues, where he regularly sides with Republicans. Says Walther: If Beto O’Rourke is considered an acceptable Democratic nominee, it will answer the question of whether a candidate “should have any principles” with a resounding “no.”
Science writer: Apollo 8 Christmas Miracle Saved 1968
Mark Whittington at The Hill recalls the “Pandora’s Box of horrors” unleashed on the world 50 years ago: riots on college campuses and the inner cities, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, political turmoil, the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and the ongoing war in Vietnam. Then, four days before Christmas, astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders lifted off on Apollo 8 in “the boldest space mission” ever — becoming the first humans to orbit the moon and witness the Earth rising over the lunar surface. On Christmas Eve, the crew delivered a live broadcast in which they read the first 10 verses of Genesis — an “event of such awe-inspiring beauty” that it placed the entire year in perspective: “Poor flawed humanity was still capable of doing great things.”
Conservative: Cuomo’s Depopulation War on Upstate
More than a million people have moved out of New York this decade, the Census Bureau reported this week. But Bob Lonsberry at WHAM Radio insists that, for Gov. Cuomo, “that’s not a problem, that’s a victory.” According to Lonsberry, this outmigration “has solidified his party’s hold on power, and it has reshaped the state and its culture in a fashion more congenial to his interests and agenda.” How? Nearly all this population loss “took place upstate, where values and party enrollment are in conflict with the governor and his progressive agenda.” Cuomo “allowed the state’s suffocating taxes, regulations and land-control rules to work like a spreading cancer against the financial interests of rural upstate counties.” Meanwhile, he “delayed and ultimately destroyed the potential for prosperity offered by fracking.”
From the right: Warren Drug Plan Is Placebo, Not Cure
In theory, argues Megan McArdle at The Washington Post, generic drugs “should be the Walmart of the health-care world, where everything is dirt cheap and readily available.” In practice, however, “makers of branded drugs often display a malevolent ingenuity at keeping generic competition at bay.” So Sen. Liz Warren, citing public demand, wants the federal government to get into the business of manufacturing drugs. But the problem with her “particularly silly” scheme is that “so many of the problems that make it harder for generic drug-makers to enter the market are created by government regulations in the first place.” And “if the government is going to relax regulatory requirements” for itself, “wouldn’t it make more sense to just retool the way the market works for everyone?”
— Compiled by Eric Fettmann