‘This Hanukkah and Christmas, remember it takes all of us to stand up to hate’
Jenan Mohajir and Rebecca Russo at USA Today
The “dual bigotries of antisemitism and Islamophobia are a risk to the future of our families and our nation,” say Jenan Mohajir and Rebecca Russo. It is “imperative to ground our work within the larger goal of reducing all types of religious, ethnic and other forms of bias and discrimination.” Framing “efforts to address antisemitism and Islamophobia within a vision of pluralism allows us to have a guiding light for our work.”
‘Dommaraju Gukesh and India’s chess comeback’
Sadanand Dhume at The Wall Street Journal
India “has dramatically improved its standing in world chess,” and “geopolitical trends are still reflected in chess today — the rise of India, the China-India rivalry, the relative decline of Russia, and America’s ability to remain at or near the top of virtually every field,” says Sadanand Dhume. Some “sporting analogies can be taken too far, but to understand how Indians view their country’s rise in the world, chess is a good place to look.”
‘Elon Musk as House speaker would be the perfect result of the GOP’s long devolution’
Rotimi Adeoye at MSNBC
As “government funding talks crater,” Democrats “have a novel opportunity: let Republicans own their chaos entirely,” says Rotimi Adeoye. Democrats “should embrace the absurdity of the GOP’s current trajectory and push for their ultimate symbolic leader, Elon Musk, to become speaker of the House.” On “basic governance, such as funding the government, Democrats have repeatedly been the grown-ups in the room.” Making Musk speaker “would be the logical culmination of the Republican Party’s decades-long devolution.”
‘Trump must heed the Bromwich Principle’
James W. Carden at The American Conservative
National security staffing “presents a unique challenge to any incoming administration,” says James W. Carden. Donald Trump has an “obligation to the country to put itself in as strong a position as possible,” and should follow the “Bromwich Principle: Staffing not just at the top, but deep into the bureaucracy matters,” and “staffing as carefully and as wisely as is possible.” Failing at this “can make or break a president’s foreign-policy legacy.”