Dems ignore working class, how to make government work again and other commentary

Liberal: Dems Ignore the Working Class

Working-class Democrat voters want “economic populism and nationalism along with socially conservative values,” notes The Liberal Patriot’s John Halpin — something “neither faction in the current Democratic Party fully represents.” “Progressives want to ramp up the economic populism without confronting and purging their extreme cultural leftism.” The moderates “acquiesced too much” to “cultural leftism.” Witness “Joe Biden’s mix of big government spending plus government-wide ‘equity’ measures.” The result? “Inflation and misplaced priorities that cost Democrats tons of voters.” Now, “many solid left-liberal economic ideas never get a hearing with working-class voters because they too often come from cultural elites with strange beliefs.”A new platform? How about “economic development in all regions,” plus “secure borders,” “law and order” and “love of country.”

Red-tape watch: How To Make Gov’t Work Again

At The Wall Street Journal, Philip K. Howard ponders what the “overdue” Department of Government Efficiency should fix. “The civil service certainly needs an overhaul” — not to inject “terror in government employees but to instill trust” and assure accountability. The greatest reform? Ditching “rusty machinery that grinds public choices through years” of “box-checking.” Bureaucratic rules should “give way to human responsibility.” Rather than bog down over “the scope of regulation,” the panel should fix DC’s incompetent “operating structures.” The nation “can’t be strong” if “we’re unable to modernize infrastructure, procure needed ships and technology” quickly, “fix broken schools, or cut red tape that stifles” initiative. The idea shouldn’t be “to hobble government but to make it work again.”

Health desk: The FDA’s Dumb Butter Recall

“Last month, the US Food and Drug Administration recalled almost 80,000 pounds of Costco’s popular store-brand butter due to a crucial labeling error,” sighs Reason’s Emma Camp. “Shoppers apparently don’t know that butter contains milk.” Yes, the FDA requires food manufacturers to say whether their products contain or may have come into contact with milk. But “stringent labeling” to say there’s milk in butter seems less necessary. “In 2023, the agency added sesame to its list of major allergens.” But sesame seeds are so small and difficult to isolate that food producers “resorted to adding small amounts of sesame into their products so they can list sesame as an allergen and avoid FDA scrutiny.” Send the whole shebang to the Department of Government Efficiency.

From the right: Trump-Voter Hate Will Hurt Dems

“The left’s reaction to [Donald] Trump’s win has been both disappointing and revealing,” fumes USA Today’s Nicole Russell. Progressives have “thrown temper tantrums” and “expressed elitist disdain” for Trump voters. But “voters didn’t reject democracy. They rejected far-left policies and politicians.” “The contempt, self-righteousness and the utter lack of self-awareness from the left have gotten old, quickly. But if Democrats continue to smear a majority of the electorate as stupid and racist, without a moment’s pause for self-reflection, it’s they who will pay the price, not conservatives.” Fact is, “if progressives don’t want to understand why voters rejected them and Vice President Kamala Harris by a wide margin,” that’s “their loss. The nation will leave them even further behind as conservatives shape the future.”

Campus watch: UMich Gets Heated Over Israel

“Back in the spring, anti-Zionist activists won control of the University of Michigan Central Student Government,” Commentary’s Seth Mandel recalls. They then “shut down funding for student organizations until “the university agreed to divest from Israel.” On Tuesday, the student government impeached Alifa Chowdhury and Elias Atkinson, the prez and veep, for “inciting violence against the other students” via an unauthorized Instagram takeover. Other student officials had “signed an opinion piece” demanding they resign. Now, a Palestinian student who “doesn’t approve of the thuggish tactics” of these two and their “supposedly ‘pro-Palestinian’ contingent” has “been called “a Zionist, a race traitor, and a bootlicker.” “It’s hard to find a better capsule review of Western political discourse over the past 13 months than that.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board