Globalism is dead, Zohran Mamdani too extreme and other commentary
Conservative: Globalism Is Dead
The effect of President Trump’s policies on trade, immigration and the stock market shows a “three-dimensional collapse of the narrative atop which we built our economy over the past generation,” argues Oren Cass at Commonplace.
Contra the tariff-panic crowd, “consumer sentiment is up and inflation is down,” while “the stock market is up.”
Plus, “the dollar is down” which means cheaper goods. “With aggressive immigration enforcement, the United States has ceased releasing illegal migrants into the country entirely,” and “one million people in the country illegally may already have departed.”
“And as the State Street index shows, a basic S&P 500 fund has been outperforming the private equity industry over every timeframe.”
The globalist conventional wisdom is dead. “We are seeing now that a different course has always been available.”
From the right: A Sane Step in Visa Vetting
“Checking the social media accounts of visa applicants for hostility toward America is an obvious step in safeguarding America’s security and values,” proclaims the Washington Examiner’s editorial board.
The State Department will do a “‘comprehensive and thorough vetting’ of all student and exchange visitor applications, including a review of applicants’ social media profiles.”
Smart: “The revolutionary fervor and deep anti-American activism that ripped apart university campuses last year requires a closer examination of the views of foreign students.”
“A US visa is a privilege, not a right. No one is entitled to access to our universities or job markets.”
This “visa vetting overhaul, with its sharp focus on social media scrutiny, is a bold and necessary move.”
Energy beat: NY’s Looming Energy Crisis
“For all Gov. Hochul’s talk about ‘affordability’, it seems electricity prices have not received that memo,” snarks the Empire Center’s Zilvinas Silenas.
Per the US Energy Information Administration, “New York households on average pay the sixth-highest price for electricity” in the nation.
Meanwhile, the state “is slowly losing the capability to make energy” just as officials are electrifying “everything — heating, cooking and transportation — all of which will require much more electricity.”
Plus, “the development of energy-intensive industries” requires the production of additional electricity “which New York likely cannot supply on its current trajectory.”
To make New York more competitive, state pols “need to remove all hurdles to cheap, plentiful energy” which “will help with affordability, too.”
Democrat: Zohran Too Extreme
“Today’s Democratic activists must keep extremist, unpopular positions out of our party’s platform and serious conversations,” warns William M. Daley at The Wall Street Journal.
Daley — Clinton-era Commerce Department secretary and White House chief of staff under President Barack Obama — sees Zohran Mamdani’s platform as “equally outlandish and radical” as President Trump’s.
Mamdani’s Democratic Socialists of America “seeks to ‘defund the police’ by cutting ‘budgets annually towards zero,’ to ‘disarm law enforcement officers,’ to ‘close local jails,’ and to ‘free all people from involuntary confinement,’” along with a slew of other radical economic and social proposals.
“Mainstream Democrats must loudly disavow these views.” Just as the GOP is now dominated by Trump’s ideas, Democratic “party leaders risk a similar fate if they shrug off Mr. Mamdani’s victory.”
It’s “a wake-up call. Will my party answer it?”
Foreign desk: A Middle East Reset
As the Abraham Accords “come up on their five-year anniversary at the end of the summer, the transformation they represent is only starting to become clear,” cheers Commentary’s Seth Mandel.
On CNBC recently, Trump envoy Steve Witkoff teased news regarding “some pretty big announcements on countries that are now coming into the Abraham Peace Accords.”
Obvious candidates are Syria and Lebanon: With the Accords serving as “a new regional structure,” if they “want to make it in the new Middle East, they cannot rely on Iran and Russia. They must navigate the increased influence of the US and Israel.”
Indeed: Accords membership is “becoming a sort of security umbrella.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board