Hate watch: ‘Anti-Zionism’ Doesn’t Need Facts
“What is starting to look like a hate-crimes hoax in Vermont is being used to further increase the ways anti-Zionism seeks to divide the Jewish world against itself and society against the Jews,” fumes Commentary’s Seth Mandel. “In late November 2023 three college students, two of them wearing keffiyehs, were shot in Burlington.” “A Students for Justice in Palestine-affiliated speaker called the shooting ‘a crime of unspeakable racist hatred . . . a crime borne out of Zionism,’” while “one progressive writer called for Burlington to ‘make the streets unsafe for Zionist lynchers.’” But with the attacker’s arrest, “it became clear that there was no connection to any Jewish or Zionist groups.” Anti-Zionism now “requires no association with the land of Zion,” and “there is really no limit to what you can blame on the Jews.”
Politics beat: Our Unwavering Distrust in Gov’t
“Some assert that the public’s distrust of government is a recent development,” but Karlyn Bowman counters at The Liberal Patriot: “The trust deficit is decades old.” In “only three periods since the 1970s” has the public’s trust in the government “ticked up,” and it never for long. “Absent a crisis or an economic renaissance,” it’s unlikely “to be restored any time soon,” since “distrust of government is our default response.” Trust collapsed Uncle Sam grew, and “bigness is a problem. There is a lot more of the government around to criticize.” Plus, “expanding the size and scope of the federal government creates more opportunities for malfeasance and scandal.” Then, too: “The public knows politicians pay attention to polls showing a trust deficit.”
Conservative: Growing US Birth-Rate Divide
“A recent report from the Institute for Family Studies highlights the very real and growing divide between liberals and conservatives when it comes to having children,” observes USA Today’s Ingrid Jacques. Notably, this decade “only 40% of liberal women between the ages of 25 and 35 reported being parents. Meanwhile, 71% of cons`ervative women in this age group say they are parents — a 31 point gap.” The divide is so stark that “in states where Trump won the popular vote, the aggregate child population increased by 7.3% since 2000. The opposite was true in states where Harris won the popular vote — the child population decreased by 7.1%.”
Eye on Cali: Newsom’s ‘Homeless’ Follies
While “Gov. Gavin Newsom has made reducing the homelessness crisis in California a top priority,” RealClearInvestigations’ Ana Kasparian notes that his signature $3.75 billion Project Homekey “has been marred by failures and scandals.” Homekey was “touted by officials as a more cost-effective way to house the homeless” yet federal prosecutors found that some of the “cost savings was lost to fraud.” It was supposed to “save taxpayers money by rehabbing existing buildings rather than constructing new housing.” A state audit found “officials weren’t tracking the progress of its homeless programs.” Yet Newsom vetoed legislation requiring greater “accountability.” Undeterred by the fraud, Newsom recently allocated “$106.2 million toward six Homekey+ awards to pay for the development of 321 permanent supportive homes.”
Libertarian: High Court Can Restore Balance
“The constitutional separation of powers was absolutely vital” to the Framers because “each branch would jealously guard its powers from being seized by the other branches,” observes Reason’s Damon Root. Yet “Congress has relinquished its lawmaking power over many years both to the executive branch and to the executive-ish federal agencies” that wield “ ‘quasi-legislative authority.” Look back to the 1930s, when the court “did its part to enforce the separation of powers” by striking down much of the early New Deal, “even though the legislative branch had voluntarily surrendered some of its powers to the president.” Fact is, “that same judicial solution to the intertwined problems of executive overreach and congressional abdication is still an option today” — “if the current Supreme Court is prepared to do its job.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board
This story originally appeared on NYPost
