Border watch: GOP Still Wins on Immigration
“The general consensus in America is against illegal immigration — making it perhaps the most popular issue available to Republicans seeking to avoid midterm losses in November,” notes Paul du Quenoy at Chronicles. Per a new Harvard/Harris poll, it “remains Trump’s leading issue, with 49 percent of respondents expressing approval of his immigration policies.” And “when Trump is removed from the polling data,” the issue looks “even better for Republicans”: Some 80% of Americans back deporting illegals who commit other crimes, while 56% back deporting all illegals. “This remarkable consistency in public attitudes had persisted despite nearly a year and half of media sob stories”; for Republicans hoping to retain control of Congress, “illegal immigration is, in at least some respects, the 80-20 issue they need.”
Schools beat: The Meaning of NY Diploma
Starting in 2027, “New York will no longer require passing Regents exams to graduate” high school, lament City Journal’s Jennifer Weber and Ray Domanico. The big question: “What does a New York State high school diploma tell us about a student’s knowledge and capabilities?” Alas, no real answer has come from the state. It might look to the “New York Performance Standards Consortium,” a group of high schools that’s used a different curriculum than the Regents for years, one that demands real work across literature, mathematics and more, with standards meaning “the same thing in every building.” But even a “graduation standard by itself does nothing”: “Qualities such as ‘critical thinker’ or ‘effective communicator’ mean little until the state identifies the academic tasks through which a student must demonstrate it.”
From the right: DSA Backers Blind to US Liberty
“Young urban progressives in the U.S.” who’ve grown “disenchanted with the flaccid Democratic” mainstream “seek to stage a socialist revolution with the goal of taking over the Democratic Party,” scoffs The Wall Street Journal’s Allysia Finley. Recent victories in Dem primaries in NYC show young voters on the left are “tired of mealy-mouthed politicians and want” more vigorous opposition to “corrupt and dishonest” politics-as-usual. Tellingly, “social media charlatan” Hasan Piker and many of the DSA candidates are “children of immigrants” and actually “exemplify the economic mobility that they claim isn’t possible in the U.S.” These “young progressives” take for granted American liberty and their “constitutional right to criticize and protest their government.”
Media desk: Eyes Wide Shut on Major Stories
Major media outlets are conducting a “Soviet” style “news blackout” on “crucial news stories,” frets the Washinton Times’ Robert Knight. Like a report from outgoing DNI Tulsi Gabbard, for example, that “documents how Dr. Anthony Fauci lied to Congress” about the origins of COVID-19. “Fauci steered media away from the obvious lab leak explanation,” and thus “undermined a duly elected President.” In Britain, the release of a major exposé of the rape gang case has been “ignored by major American cable and broadcast media,” though “the scale of the crimes is staggering.” Meanwhile, “media are still going crazy over maintenance problems at the Reflecting Pool in Washington.” With the country facing serious crises, the “American voter” cannot “count on media.”
Conservative: Nuns Caught in Woke Dragnet
New York bureaucrats targeted the Catholic Dominican sisters of Rosary Hill Home, whose “care for the dying poor,” over Gov. Hochul’s Bill of Rights for LGBTQIA+ New Yorkers, grumbles The Washington Post Editorial Board. The bill says long-term care centers must “use patients’ preferred pronouns . . .and refuse to assign rooms based on biological sex.” Compliance would “violate the sisters’ conscience,” yet they could face imprisonment if they don’t comply. So they sued, and the Justice Department is now siding with them. The nuns welcome “people who struggle with their gender identity,” but say they can’t deny someone’s “God-given sex.” Why doesn’t the state save “itself inevitable embarrassment in court,” and let the nuns “care for the dying poor in peace.”
— The Post Editorial Board
