The McCarthy Reboot, Joe’s ‘White Supremacy’ Race-Baiting and Other Commentary

From left to right: McCarthy’s reboot

The May 18 House hearings with three FBI whistleblowers provided “another raucous display of the once disgraced tactic of questioning the loyalty and patriotism of American witnesses,” thunders Matt Taibbi of Racket News, while “questions from Democratic members have garnered a strong echo. from the infamous House Committee on Un-American Activities. Indeed, it’s “even crazier than” the McCarthy era: “They just take the fact that an agent privately raised a question about an FBI operation — his right under both the First Amendment and FBI procedure to make a protected disclosure — and used it to publicly imply that the man lacks “d ‘allegiance to the United States’ Have we all gone mad Representatives Linda Sanchez and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz were grotesque, while New York’s Dan Goldman falsely said “all three had ‘in varying degrees’ expressed ‘support for the January 6 Insurrection’, when they had simply questioned or opposed specific FBI tactics and actions.

From right: Joe’s ‘White Supremacy’ Race-Baiting

President Biden’s recent assertion that ‘white supremacy’ is America’s ‘most dangerous’ domestic terrorist threat could be technically true, notes Wilfred Reilly at National Review. Since “deaths related to riots and “common crimes”” do not count in the total deaths from terrorism, “right-wing terrorists kill more American citizens per year than left-wing domestic terrorists”. But the average number of all those deaths between 2014 and 2021 were just 31. Contrast that with, say, the 20,000 murders in 2020. “Why the national focus on the rather niche issue of white supremacy?” Because white people can be “attacked without significant social risk,” fueling a narrative, America is a “white supremacist country.”

Libertarian: We can solve homelessness

“Maybe homelessness isn’t an unsolvable problem after all,” wondered Steven Greenhut of the Orange County Register. San Antonio, Texas “has built a charming campus in an industrial area not far from downtown” that “offers dormitories, a cafeteria, clean restrooms, and an array of social services.” This nonprofit-run program “moved 6,000 people to permanent housing,” with the city’s “downtown homeless homeless population” dropping by 80 percent. California, meanwhile, “spent $20 billion to fix the problem in five years” — to no avail. Its “Housing First” policy “views homelessness primarily as a housing issue, minimizing the addictions and mental health issues that are at the root of the crisis.”

Foreign desk: the Chinese Mandela

The documentary “The Hong Konger” “highlights [Jimmy] Lai’s story and the sad demise of Hong Kong”, as the city “is rapidly being reshaped into the mainland’s authoritarian image” because “a free Chinese society on China’s doorstep is, in itself, a threat to the Communist Party,” Jeremy Hurewitz laments at The Hill. It shows “Lai’s big heart and moral convictions in action as he pleads with his fellow Hong Kong people not to succumb to violence against the constant encroachments of totalitarian reach. Now: “As the world watches China pivot to a much more aggressive posture than its recent past,” the Nelson Mandela “of China languishes in prison and the world pays him little attention.” Note “one of his closing statements in the film: ‘A China that does not respect people’s rights will not respect the rights of its neighbors.'”

Liberal: the missing dividend of progressivism

Surely moving to the center of cultural and green issues would help Democrats “with moderate and persuasive voters who are not comfortable with Democrats’ recent embrace of uncompromising leftist stances in these areas,” Ruy Teixeira writes. , liberal patriot. There was no “support dividend” for the party’s leftward shift as the progressives had promised. In 2022, Democrats did “worse among their general voter base” as the change allowed conservatives and the working class “to vote out their ideology instead of a default loyalty to the Democratic Party.” The party base “would be more likely to lean toward a Democratic party associated with safe streets, a healthy economy, and a sensible, non-divisive approach to social issues.” For Democrats, moving to the center is “where the real electoral gain is.”

– Compiled by the Editorial Board of The Post