On WNRI 1380 AM/95.1 FM, John DePetro and Justin Katz discuss:
- Lunacy on campus
- Businesses’ leaving when not understood
- Scapegoating misinformation (i.e., information) in elections
- Child butchers come for Barrington kids
- Foulkes and Smiley bring reason’s last hurrah
Featured image by Justin Katz using Dall-E 3.
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“Had the girl not broken the law by purchasing and using pepper spray, she likely would have been raped — or worse.” Sure, the story Stephen Green is sharing comes from Denmark, and sure, one big advantage we have in the United States is the Second Amendment. But policies change and, increasingly, our rights can go unprotected.
Overbearing government will come down hardest on those it can control, and we can’t afford to let it come to the point that we have to decide between protecting ourselves (increasingly often from people the government has let into the country or let out of prison with unreasonable leniency) and following the law.
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They can be won, as James Brooke suggests in the The Sun:
In the latest sign of a rightward swing of the pendulum in Latin America, voters in Ecuador opted overwhelmingly for tough anti-crime measures, including joint army and police patrols against cocaine gangs.
Ecuador is only one example.
This reminder does not mean the border does not need to be brought to order or that the Democrats’ illegal immigration flood should be absorbed in entirety. It also does not mean Republicans should try to win immigrants’ support the same way Democrats do: by pandering to them and trying to win their votes.
Rather, Republicans should put in the effort to craft a genuine and coherent set of policies with positions many immigrants will find attractive. Furthermore, they should not dehumanize immigrants, as Democrats do when they instrumentalize and infantilize them. Rather, even when policies involve options for deportation, the humanity of people seeking a better life should never be forgotten.
Too often we lose the debate to progressives when we accept their emotionalist intellectual shortcut. The fact that somebody is deserving of compassion does not mean the appropriate actions of others is obvious. The success of the West is premised on trying to bring people into the fold and to offer them a path toward mutually beneficial relationships. Keep that always in mind.
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This has become a focus of the Providence Journal’s city reporter:
What stories is Russo not covering because she’s spending so much time on this one? Why is a personnel matter at a private organization newsworthy?
As for the content, it finally provides some explanation for a mythical cliché. I’ve never understood the rule that you had to invite a vampire into your house. The rule applies well to DEI “professionals.” Once you let them in, they’ve got you. That is the critical decision point.
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With that perspective, I’d suggest that America works better when voters put the adults in charge but then laugh at them through media and entertainment. Once, adults could be of either party, but they became increasingly of the Republican variety. Unfortunately, voters’ frustration with the inability to return to adult policies is loosening that rule, too.
That said, what we need above all is a division between government and social and cultural institutions. That means electing problematic Republicans so the media can come closer to fulfilling a healthy role, rather than acting as propaganda organs for problematic Democrats.
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That’s why, although I agree with Jordan, here, I think he’s a step away from the key point:
We must reframe. A libertarian lean is correct, but valorizing success won’t work. The impulse to identify with the oppressed has to be changed to wanting to help people, to make THEM successful. It’s the principle at the intersection of Christianity and free markets.
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This exchange between CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr has made the rounds and received its share of commentary:
To my mind, the most telling part is when Collins looks for a comparison among conservatives to progressive bureaucratic government impositions and points to a local library debate. What Barr should have asked is: “Do you think you’ll have a better chance changing policies you don’t like in your hometown or in Washington, D.C.?”
The notion that different activities are appropriate at different levels of government is too often glossed over, and it’s central to our civic system. Arguably among the biggest contributors to growing division is the sense that progress means political questions are answered at higher and higher levels. In that view, it’s great if your local library board promotes your beliefs, but it’s even better if the federal government does, because it affects more people. That isn’t the pluralistic ideal of self-governance on which our country was founded.
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On WNRI 1380 AM/95.1 FM, John DePetro and Justin Katz discuss:
- A picture of McKee traffic unseen
- Details of McKee’s plan proclaimed but not provided
- Superman bills yet to come
- Differentials in campaign announcement coverage
- The unions’ “captive audience”
- The DEI vampires on campuses
- State Police catch sight of Cranston politics
Featured image by Justin Katz using Dall-E 3 and Photoshop.
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The concept of triangulation used to mean politicians looked at the political landscape and positioned themselves on the field to advance their policy goals. The worsening development, facilitated by mass media and social media, is the attempt to manipulate the landscape. That’s where we start to think of the Overton Window, shifting the range of positions people think are acceptable, and it’s what we see here:
I think Jonah misunderstands (or pretends to misunderstand) what’s going on, here. Democrats (among whom I count the mainstream media) promoted Trump and are doing everything they can to paint him as a monster because the worse they make him out to be the worse they can be. That’s why Barr is right that, in a binary decision, Trump is preferable, and not seeing it may be why Jonah has taken his wise reservations about Trump so far as to be an error.
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