David Henderson busts the myth that military conscription increases citizens’ skin in the game.
James Eiler decries Europe’s protectionism.
Arnold Kling offers a distressing but credible prediction about political-party alignment.
Wall Street Journal columnist Holman Jenkins is justly critical of Biden. A slice:
Mr. Trump and Ms. Harris have little choice now but to sing and dance their way through a 90-day attempt to patronize and distract. It will be a campaign of one-liners and trivialities, even if one or more debates are held.
Every signal—age, his polls, his record—was pointing in one direction. Had Mr. Biden withdrawn in a timely and responsible fashion, Mr. Trump likely wouldn’t be the GOP nominee today. To a large and unadmitted degree, the revival of Mr. Trump’s political brand was Mr. Biden’s doing.
Which points to the greatest ignored truth. Mr. Biden and other Democratic leaders haven’t seen Mr. Trump as a menace. They’ve seen him as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do things they could never have gotten past voters otherwise. This includes enacting uber-progressive policies such as opening the border. It includes trying to shove down the electorate’s throat a visibly senile incumbent, then trying to push through an unvetted last-minute substitute.
Robby Soave appropriately reminds us that “Tim Walz was a covid-19 tyrant.”
Also writing informatively about Tim Walz is Eric Boehm. A slice:
But Walz’s folksy Midwestern charm doesn’t always hit the mark. On at least one occasion, he’s described socialism as being akin to “neighborliness.” Try pitching that message to Florida voters who fled Castro’s Cuba—or, for that matter, any American with a passing understanding of history or economics. (That line gets even weirder when you recall that pandemic era hotline. What exactly does Walz think neighborliness means?)
