How is the US viewed abroad? The UK's Economist thinks our "sickly democracy" is in trouble, and its remedy has the unusual distinction of simultaneously dissing progressives and supporters of former President Trump. The main takeaway is that President Biden and the Democratic Party need to more forcefully distance themselves from the "extremes" pulling the party to the left. The editors write that "fringe and sometimes dotty ideas have crept into Democratic rhetoric" since 2020, from defunding the police to abolishing immigration enforcement to what the editors see as a ham-fisted effort to handle racism in classrooms.
"If the Democrats are defined by their most extreme and least popular ideas, they will be handing a winning agenda of culture-war grievance to an opposition party that has yet to purge itself of the poison that makes Mr. Trump unfit for office," they write. The editorial makes clear that it sees another Trump presidency as dangerous for America, and it complains that too many Republican lawmakers remain in sway of the former president. The only way that's going to change is if Democrats trounce Republicans at the polls, and the only way that will happen is if Democrats embrace "the bullseye" in the political center.
Biden "needs to be louder and clearer in defending ideas that used to be uncontroversial: rising crime is unacceptable and the police force is needed to contain it; legal immigration is better than the illegal sort, and borders should be kept secure; the study of racism belongs in the school curriculum, social-justice praxis does not," per the editorial. "It is not enough for Democrats to bemoan Republican disinformation. They need to counter the idea that they themselves are in thrall to their own extremes." (Read the full editorial.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
