FAST TAKES — Compiled by Eric Fettmann
Historian: Trump Critics Seek Cataclysm They Predicted
Donald Trump’s opponents “are seeking to subvert his presidency in a manner unprecedented in the recent history of American politics,” charges Victor Davis Hanson at National Review. He even likens it to the classic Hollywood thriller “Seven Days in May,” about an attempted military coup. Boycotts, disruption, threatened lawsuits and hysterical celebrities were all “the clownish preliminary to the full-fledged assault” by “career intelligence officers” leaking classified transcripts. Now you have foes openly talking about not just impeachment but assassination. They hope “their prior prophecies of his preordained failure in the election will be partially redeemed by an imploding presidency.” But “ending Trump one way or another is apparently the tortured pathway his critics are taking to exit their self-created labyrinth of irrelevance.”
From the right: Authoritarian or Weakling?
Trump “frequently promised rapid action once he took power” but is lagging behind both George W. Bush and Barack Obama at similar points in their presidencies, argues Ramesh Ponnuru at Bloomberg View. That’s not “entirely his fault” — Republicans vowed seven years ago to repeal ObamaCare “but still have not united on a plan.” Still, he “has been slow to name people,” has assembled a White House “without clear lines of authority” and hasn’t “settled some of the debates in his party over major policies so that everyone would work together.” Suggests Ponnuru: “The problem with Trump may not be that he is an authoritarian strongman, as so many of his critics say. It’s that he is, by the standards to which we have become accustomed, a weak president.”
Education activist: Betsy DeVos Is Still a Target
During her confirmation hearings, Betsy DeVos “was attacked in every way imaginable,” notes Larry Sand at City Journal. Her “sins”: “She is rich, a Christian, a Republican and, worst of all, a school-choice supporter.” Yet even now that she’s secretary of education, “the vitriol has not abated.” Because her goal of providing students with the best possible education “drives the public-school monopolists crazy, as it hints at an alternative to the 19th-century, one-size-fits-all education model they control.” But what critics don’t understand “or won’t acknowledge” is that DeVos “isn’t an absolute monarch ruling over a vast national education empire,” since most policy and financing is handled at the state and local levels. Besides, “school choice won’t kill off public schools; they’ll just have to try harder to hold on to their customers.”
Angry parent: Why Do Schools Hate Recess?
Abby Schachter at Acculturated writes of a New York mother who’s “in a fight with her kid’s preschool” about recess: “The mother wants her kid to be outside more often, while the preschool is of the opposite opinion.” And parents like her “are fighting an uphill battle in many school districts” around the country, especially in winter, when officials ban outdoor play in temperatures below 32. (Though Anchorage, Alaska, does so “only when temperatures hit negative ten degrees.”) Other concerns that schools cite are the need for more classroom time and fears of violence and bullying. “Perhaps a little more common sense is in order,” she suggests, noting the “benefits to having students get up off their backsides, get outside and get their blood flowing while working off excess energy.”
Advocate: Christians Deserve Refugee Priority
Rev. Johnnie Moore at Fox News notes that ISIS has just called for “the full elimination of Christianity in Egypt,” while less than 500,000 Christians remain in Syria, down 75 percent in five years. These are the latest signs that “Islamic extremists continue to follow through on genocidal threats against Christians.” Yet “only 77 Syrian Christians were admitted into the United States between January and November 2016, compared to 13,210 Muslims.” In a less apoplectic time, he says, “the prioritization of threatened, religious minorities in President Trump’s executive order would have been applauded by Republicans and Democrats alike. It still should be.”