‘The big winner of the 2024 GOP primaries was the “big lie”‘
Ramesh Ponnuru in The Washington Post
The clearest winner in the GOP primaries is “the big lie,” says Ramesh Ponnuru in The Washington Post. Former President Donald Trump insisted, “against all evidence,” that the 2020 election was stolen from him. This “canny, though reckless,” tactic “preserved his political viability in the Republican Party and kept him from smelling like a loser.” Instead of asking what went wrong in 2020, the party’s cowardly leaders now must “feign happiness” and rally behind him again.
‘The “resurgence” of organized labor is media spin’
Dominic Pino at National Review
Contrary to the media hype, we’re not witnessing a “union renaissance,” writes Dominic Pino at National Review. Newspapers gave strikes and unionization votes “wall-to-wall” coverage last year, making it appear organized labor was “surging in popularity.” But the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that “the unionization rate hit a record low of 10.0 percent in 2023, down from 2022’s 10.1 percent.” It’s “astonishing” how many headlines news outlets produced about “something that isn’t happening.”
‘Do you love avocados? Do you know what that’s doing to Mexico?’
Max Schoening in the Los Angeles Times
America’s hunger for “guacamole and avocado toast” is fueling an ecological disaster, says Max Schoening in the Los Angeles Times. Expanding thirsty avocado orchards to meet U.S. demand is spurring “widespread deforestation and water scarcity,” and harming Indigenous communities in Mexico’s “drought-prone” Michoacán and Jalisco states, which “supply 4 out of 5 avocados sold” in America. The U.S. should ban avocados from recently deforested land and pressure the industry to make “avocado supply chains truly sustainable.”
‘Why the Supreme Court could matter more than Iowa and New Hampshire’
Erica Orden at Politico
It’s tempting to conclude Donald Trump’s New Hampshire victory “puts him on an easy path to the nomination,” says Erica Orden at Politico. But the former president faces another “hurdle” at the Supreme Court, which must decide “whether Trump is an insurrectionist” constitutionally barred from office. It’s unlikely the conservative-dominated court will “declare Trump ineligible,” but the fact there’s any “legal doubt” shows how his “unprecedented legal woes are interlaced with his political fortunes.”
Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
