Fast Takes: Singing the ActBlues, girl dads mobilized in Maine and more

From the left: Singing the ActBlues

ActBlue, the Democratic donation-processing behemoth, has “been criticized by its own stakeholders for being too careless in its compliance with campaign finance laws, too lax in its policing of PACs that use its platform, and for extensive internal chaos,” warns The American Prospect’s Robert Kuttner. Worse, the criticism has brought no real changes, with reports of “sham PACs” that “use ActBlue to deceive donors” and steer money to PACs’ consultants rather than candidates. Plus, ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones has been slammed for her “top-down brand of management and a regal travel style.” A “criminal indictment” could bring “an unfortunate squandering of infrastructure that took three decades to build.” Democrats “deserve better from their own.”

From the right: Girl Dads Mobilized in Maine

For all Maine’s “progressive credentials,” a group of 8,000 girl dads is pushing an initiative “rooted in biological reality to reclaim women’s sports,” for their daughters, cheers The Wall Street Journal’s William McGurn. Leyland Streiff & Co. aim to “get their Protect Girls’ Sports in Maine initiative on the November ballot.” They say it’s not about excluding trans students, but getting “their daughters to take their rightful places on fields.” Opponents say the proposition “violates the Maine Human Rights Act,” which “forbids discrimination on the basis of ‘gender identity,’ ” but it aligns Maine with federal protections under Title IX. The group collected 70,000 signatures, but “approval was then reversed after a review by Maine’s secretary of state found more than 12,500 signatures invalid.” Mainers support this initiative, polls show; if it doesn’t make the ballot this year, says Streiff, it will “in November 2027 or 2028.”

Eye on education: Choice Helps G&T Deliver

“Do public school Gifted and Talented (G&T) programs improve outcomes, or unfairly favor affluent families?” asks City Journal’s John Ketcham. Whines that “G&T is mostly a way to entrench disadvantage” miss “the bigger picture.” Big-city parents have “few realistic options”: Charter schools, “private schools” or moving to pricey “neighborhoods zoned for higher-performing district schools” or completely out of town. In places “where families have real alternatives, traditional public systems are more likely to create differentiated, high-quality curricula and realize parents’ expectations.” Competitive “school choice would let G&T fulfill its promise” as a program “striving for educational excellence” that “should not be abolished.”

Conservative: Elon Is an Inspiration

Elon Musk becoming the world’s first trillionaire made “economists, politicians and Democrats mad,” chuckles USA Today’s Nicole Russell. Yet his (paper) wealth is “a byproduct of ingenuity, risk-taking and perseverance — traits that have always defined American success.” Vengeful billionaire-bashing Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren’s angry push to tax the rich would discourage the “risk-taking that produces broad prosperity” and so “hurt the very people they seek to help.” Plus, most of Musk’s net worth is tied up in stocks — “unrealized gains that aren’t taxed until sold.” Dems see “that one man’s trillion is somehow taken from everyone else,” but Musk’s success is not “late-stage capitalism”: It embodies “the American spirit” and “inspires people to pursue what once seemed impossible.”

Defense beat: US Military Production Too Slow

A major problem “with how the United States equips and arms our military” became clear after “sending 10,000 Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine” in 2022 cleared out much of the US inventory, and will “require multiple years of production to replace,” frets Arthur Herman at The Free Press. America’s “defense industrial base” is in “serious turmoil,” catastrophically “atrophied” even as “China’s own stockpiles and armaments industry” is on a “wartime footing.” A “drastic decrease” in major military contractors has thinned production, and overreliance on Pentagon contracting has led companies to stretch out their timelines to ensure revenue flow. “Too much regulation” is also a problem, with an “endlessly complicated bureaucratic process” that drives promising companies away “from ever getting involved with the Pentagon.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board