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Ending shutdown prevented negative outcomes

National Columnists

In 1940, Winston Churchill ordered the evacuation of 338,000 troops facing annihilation on the beaches of Dunkirk. Churchill called the successful operation “a miracle of deliverance.” Historians portray it as a perfect example of victory in defeat. Democrats raging at eight members of their caucus for ending the government shutdown might take a few lessons from the master of morale and strategy. What some hotheads framed as “capitulation” is, in the long run, the wisest plan. Right after Dunkirk, Churchill famously said, “Wars are not won by evacuations.” That is so, ...

When compromise dies, democracy follows

National Columnists

In a recent interview, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared in unequivocal terms that President Donald Trump was “the worst thing on the face of the Earth.” You heard that right. Not a threat to democracy, not a danger to civility, the worst thing on the face of the Earth. It was a statement so hyperbolic that it felt less like political commentary and more like a sermon from a zealot who has mistaken politics for theology. Such rhetoric isn’t harmless. It corrodes the political imagination of a people already steeped in outrage. It plants in the public mind a simple but ...

Deal increases access to obesity drugs

National Columnists

Americans are going to get a little healthier. President Trump cut deals with the drugmakers Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk to increase access to obesity drugs in a major benefit to American public health. The agreements are a win-win-win — good for consumers, good for the companies and good for Trump. One of the most irrational superstitions of our time is that Big Pharma, which has long been routinely delivering near-miraculous therapeutics to extend and improve our lives, is a public enemy. Its latest breakthrough is a class of so-called GLP-1 drugs that make it easier to lose ...

Remind voters what this country is about

National Columnists

Reading commentary about the recent elections, I thought of an observation of Nobel prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman. Feynman said, “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.” That is, we must always be disciplined in looking at things as they are and not bend to the temptation to see them as we wish them to be. After the recent Democratic election sweep, we are hearing that there is unhappiness out there. But is this really news? Currently Gallup reports that 27% of the Americans are satisfied with the direction ...

Trump needs to focus on state of economy

National Columnists

Time is short for the Trump administration. Last week’s elections were a setback, but not a devastating one: New Jersey is still a blue state, and while Virginia went red four years ago, it’s been trending Democratic for more than a decade. Republicans also fared poorly in Pennsylvania, however, an all-important presidential battleground. Democrats even made inroads deep into the South, taking two state senate seats in Mississippi — ending a GOP supermajority — and picking up city council spots in South Carolina and Florida. With results like these, the Republicans’ ...

Fear stopped clock of American electorate

National Columnists

I once met a man who claimed to make up his mind who he wanted in presidential elections only after stepping into the voting booth. “Are you kidding me?” I asked, aghast. How could anyone, I marveled, not know who they were planning to vote for? What were they waiting for, a message from beyond the grave? “Yep,” the guy said, kind of shrugging with a laugh. The older I get, the more I think he’s the Everyman American Voter: ignorant and indifferent. In the wake of recent elections, I’ve read and heard plenty of crowing over the Democratic victories in ...