POLITICS: Beware Dems’ affordability mantra, Gaza famine was always a lie, and other commentary

Midterms watch: Beware Dems’ Affordability Mantra

In 1992, President George H.W. Bush should’ve been “a shoo-in” for re-election, given his administration’s “spectacular foreign policy successes and a rebounding economy after a brief recession that had ended 15 months before,” grumbles American Greatness’s Victor Davis Hanson. “Instead, the pseudo-recession of 1992 dominated the campaign,” and Bill Clinton crushed Bush. President Trump shouldn’t “repeat the same mistake in the 2026 midterms.” In just under a year, Trump’s “foreign policy achievements are almost as impressive as Bush’s entire four years.” Plus, the Trump economy has seen “record energy production,” “falling gas prices” and “inflation below 3%.” Yet Democrats are pushing “affordability” just like the Clinton folks did. The midterms hinge on whether Team Trump “learns from the past” and “fixates on the economy.”

Mideast: Gaza Famine Was Always a Lie

Those looking for specific actions that can be taken to blunt the spread of escalating anti-Semitism got one this week thanks to a prominent famine monitor’s about-face on Gaza,” cheers Commentary’s Seth Mandel. It seems “Gaza is miraculously in much better shape” than IPC “researchers claimed.” For “political leaders presiding over a wave of deadly Jew-hatred,” and unsure of “how to respond,” they can begin with “excluding the IPC’s claims from all policy discussion in the future.” Good news: “There was no famine in Gaza.” Bad news: IPC knew “there was no famine and manipulated data in order to spread false accusations against Israel.” The “child-killer” narrative has been critical to “a global campaign of ever-escalating violence against Jews around the world.”

Culture critic: A Better Marriage Pool for Women

“America,” frets The Wall Street Journal’s William A. Galston, is in trouble — at least if its “well-being depends on” families. Marriage rates have “plunged” among the non-college educated. With more women now possessing college degrees than men, “one would predict a downward trend in marriage for these women,” but their marriage rates have remained stable as they’ve become “increasingly likely to marry high-earning men without degrees.” This has “sharply reduced the pool of economically stable partners available to non-college women,” leaving America “facing a working-class marriage crisis.” The solution: “more high schools offering 21st-century skills training,” to increase “the number of men without college degrees who can offer young women what they’re looking for in a husband.”

Science desk: To Guard Against Research Bunk 

“What is the correct response to the rash of science exposés,” including the debunking of much of famed neurologist Oliver Sacks’ work? asks Tyler Cowen at The Free Press. First, “trust literatures,” which are “collective work conducted by many researchers, acting in decentralized fashion, to publish and circulate the results that will best persuade other researchers,” instead of “individual research studies.” They’re “more trustworthy,” with work being “scrutinized dozens of times, or maybe hundreds of times.” “Second, treat research articles, or their popular media coverage, as possibilities to put in your mental toolbox rather than settled truths.” If you reserve judgment on individual papers and pieces of news “until there is a chance for other scientists to examine the evidence and reach broad agreement, you will be (relatively) liberated from ideology.” 

Liberal: Dem Voters Are Shedding Religion

“The values, beliefs, morals, and attitudes” of “increasingly secular Democratic elites” conflict with “Americans who remain religious (mainly Christian) in some capacity,” observes The Liberal Patriot’s John Halpin. He cites a “dramatic decrease in Christian affiliation among Democrats” and a “sharp” spike in the percentage of religiously unaffiliated atheists, agnostics, etc., with that share more than doubling among Dems from 2008 to 2023. But since “two-thirds of U.S. voters overall remain Christian,” the increasingly secular “Democratic Party remains out of touch with a huge chunk of Americans.” Moreover, “the increasingly zealot-like demands of secular non-profits and democratic socialist ideological movements” have turned away “a lot of working-class, rural, and minority voters,” a “tradeoff” that’s “bad electorally” as well as “for the country’s pluralistic cohesion.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Page