‘We are starting to enjoy hatred’
Peggy Noonan in The Wall Street Journal
Americans have been divided for a long time, says Peggy Noonan. The “political polarization” has been a source of distress. People have lamented the increasing “harshness of our political discourse” and the “outrageous and dehumanizing things” both the left and the right say about each other. But we’re entering a new stage where the two sides “enjoy looking down” on each other. “Nobody’s trying to win anybody over.” We can’t go on like this forever.
‘The failed Gaza pier proves our military isn’t prepared for extreme weather’
Tim Gallaudet in The Hill
The unmooring in high seas of the Army’s floating pier for delivering humanitarian aid into Gaza should serve as a “warning,” says Tim Gallaudet. The Defense Department is “failing to adequately prepare for and deal with weather-related hazards.” The Biden administration’s climate change policies have “foolishly focused” on “mitigation through greenhouse gas emission reductions.” The Pentagon “needs to target climate resilience and adaptation” to be ready for a new era of weather and climate threats.
‘Trump’s stunning guilty verdict shatters his aura of invincibility’
Greg Sargent in The New Republic
Donald Trump’s conviction in his hush-money case shattered “one of the most bizarre things” about the era of his GOP dominance — “his aura of invincibility,” says Greg Sargent. Trump has lied about everything from his poll strength to crowd sizes as if “conceding any hint of weakness” would “shatter him entirely.” Republicans have backed him up every time. But “a jury of ordinary Americans heroically stood up” and showed Trump he’s not “beyond accountability.”
‘With apologies to all those drunken sailors’
Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial board
President Joe Biden tries to “pass himself off as a fiscal hawk” but his record is “abysmal,” says the Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial board. He has made “$7 trillion COVID-style budgets the new norm.” This year’s deficit could exceed $1.6 trillion. “The problem is bipartisan.” Trump “did little to curb spending” and “too many” of his fellow Republicans “talk a good game about fiscal sanity but succumb” to the temptation of treating the Treasury like a re-election “slush fund.”