The Country With No Artists
There are no artists in North Korea. This is what dissident painter Song Byeok tried to explain to me as we sat in an art gallery in Columbia Heights, surrounded by huge pop art depictions of Song’s oppressed countrymen and their eternal Supreme Leaders.
The Country With No Artists
Must-Reads from Magazine
Good News and Bad News on American Support for Israel
National security is not a partisan issue.
The Pew Research Center regularly asks Americans this question: “In the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians, which side do you sympathize with more, Israel or the Palestinians?” Last year, Pew recorded a dramatic decline in support for Israel among Democrats. In 2016, 43 percent chose Israel, and 29 percent chose the Palestinians. In 2017, those numbers were 33 percent and 31 percent. The remainder chose “both,” “neither,” or “don’t know.”
The Invisible Crisis in Europe
Terrorism's incubator.
America’s immigration debate in recent days has been marked by grandstanding, brinkmanship, and not a little absurdity. Its tone has been degraded, owing mainly to You-Know-Who. But at least Americans are getting to have a debate. That is more than can be said for much of Western and Northern Europe, where mainstream parties for decades have suppressed debate about immigration and assimilation. The result has been a massive crisis of social cohesion and physical security–one that remains invisible to those, on both sides of the Atlantic, who treat any dissent from the policy status quo as beyond the pale.
The ‘Resistance’ Is Futile
Schumer isn't the problem.
The sense of betrayal among the self-styled liberal “Resistance” to Donald Trump is palpable. New York Times opinion columnist Michelle Goldberg called it “infuriating” to “see the Senate Democratic leadership” give up the ill-conceived three-day government shutdown and “sell the Dreamers out.” “They blinked,” said outgoing Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez, “because they’ll always put the party and the success of the party first.” “Today’s cave by Senate Democrats—led by weak-kneed, right-of-center Democrats—is why people don’t believe the Democratic Party stands for anything,” lamented Stephanie Taylor, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. That word, “cave,” is the same expression Donald Trump’s reelection campaign used to describe how congressional Democrats climbed down from the high-stakes gambit they let get out of hand.
Shut Down Senselessness
Podcast: Government shut down, ???, profit!
John Podhoretz is out today. In his absence, the remaining COMMENTARY Magazine hosts untangle the complicated policy and politics behind a short-lived government shutdown. Who benefits, who doesn’t, and what was at stake? Did this brief cessation of non-essential government activity change the political landscape ahead of 2018? Give a listen.
The Democrats’ CHIP Hypocrisy
Mixed messaging.
Congressional Democrats appear to have meandered into a cul-de-sac. Ostensibly, the federal government shut down last week during an impasse over whether to make the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) permanent this month or next. Democrats had threatened to shut down the government over DACA recipients before but backed off amid mounting objections from the party’s moderate governing wing. As public polling has confirmed, Americans are in favor of legal status for this deserving set of illegal immigrants who suffer that status through no fault of their own, but voters do not believe that outcome is worth a government shutdown. It’s therefore reasonable to expect that Democrats will soon shift gears, leaning into the other ostensible reason why the government shut down: lapsed funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Yet here, too, the Democrats and their allies in media are playing a double game.
