Liberal: Trump’s Impressive Latino Support
“Donald Trump has done almost everything he can to anger Latino voters,” Kristian Ramos opines at The Atlantic — yet the president’s support among Latinos hasn’t fallen but rose to 30 percent, up from 28 percent four years ago. While that number “may not seem high,” it should worry Democrats: Trump “enjoys more support from this electorate than Mitt Romney did in 2012, and about the same level that John McCain did in 2008.” In large part, that’s because of the “growing economy,” but it’s also because Democrats are “too focused on immigration” instead of “the economy, health care and education, the issues about which these voters care most.” If Democrats don’t address these other bread-and-butter issues, Ramos warns, they will face a “real threat” in November.
Legal watch: America’s Brussels
On Jan. 31, Britons finally left the European Union — and in that, “British politics seems to foreshadow what happens in the United States,” comments Peter Wallison at The Washington Examiner. While America is “not subject to foreign control through a supranational organization such as the EU,” the American people are largely unable to “control the rules and regulations” made by the “administrative state,” a band of “unelected officials in federal agencies.” There is a solution, though: If the judiciary strikes down “any law that delegates excessive or unlimited authority to an executive agency,” we can “return to the original constitutional structure.” If not, we will be living in an EU-like “governmental system the Framers would not recognize.”
Foreign desk: Countering China’s Tech Threat
When it comes to high tech, asserts David Goldman at PJ Media, “China is getting the jump on us while we dither.” How to counter Beijing? “Think Manhattan Project. Think Sputnik moment. Think JFK’s Moonshot. Think Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative.” America needs “a grand mobilization of material and human resources to meet the challenge of the 21st century.” China’s Huawei is leading in the “game-changing technology” of 5G telecommunications, which “make possible industrial robots that design production processes by themselves, driverless cars, virtual-reality controlled surgery at long distance and a dozen other breakthroughs.” China may be an “innovation powerhouse on its own” now, but there is, writes Goldman, still time to catch up — so long as “we mobilize our resources and stay focused on the goal.”
From the left: Dems, Don’t Be Like Mitt
Democrats have been “banging their heads against the wall trying to figure out what went wrong in 2016,” Dan Pfeiffer notes at Politico, but they should really be focusing on is 2012 — because then-Republican candidate Mitt Romney “misread and misplayed the election in ways that the Democrats desperately need to pay attention to now.” For one thing, Romney tried to “make the race all about” President Barack Obama — a “fatal strategic error” that Democrats risk repeating if they “make this election solely about Donald Trump.” For another, Romney had “lost touch with how voters saw Obama” — and, if Democrats want to win, they similarly have to “get out of the liberal Twitter bubble” and recognize Trump’s support. Bottom line: Trump’s heading for victory in November unless the Democratic Party “learns the lessons” from Mitt Romney’s loss.
Media watch: Pundits’ Unlearned Avenatti Lesson
It was an event of unimaginable rarity, snarks Greg Gutfeld at FoxNews.com: “In front of an audience you can count on just your fingers and toes,” a cable anchor “provided a moment of self-reflection!” CNN host Brian Stelter ’fessed up to thinking Michael Avenatti “could be a serious candidate for president” and asked: “Was that stupid on my part?” Avenatti, the anti-Trump huckster, has been convicted for attempting to extort Nike, so the answer, says Gutfeld, is: “Yes, you were stupid.” And “that’s putting it lightly, because this mea culpa should have happened before all the montages of hacks kissing Avenatti’s butt forced your hand.” The anti-Trump pundits’ newfound reflectiveness is welcome, so far as it goes, “but remember: These suckers just spent three years calling you ‘suckers’ for supporting the president.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board