April 22, 2025

Now, on to the news…

The Democratic Party’s national brand is in the dumpster. A January poll found that just 31 percent of voters hold a favorable opinion of Democrats. Another mid-November poll found that 67 percent of swing voters who voted for Trump felt that Democrats were “too focused on identity politics.” And in a survey of working-class voters, 68 percent said that Democrats had moved too far left.

In our spring issue, Park MacDougald writes that “[t]his broad-based public exhaustion with cultural progressivism, seen not merely in polling but also in Trump’s newfound status as a cultural icon, seems to suggest that the Democrats’ best path forward is to ditch ‘wokeness’ and pivot to the center.”

That will be a lot easier said than done, however. Read MacDougald’s assessment of the Democrats’ future.

Minnesota’s war on charter schools is escalating. As Naomi Schaefer Riley reports, Governor Tim Walz is pushing deep budget cuts for charters, which disproportionately serve the state’s most vulnerable students, including many with special needs.

Charters consistently outperform traditional public schools in reading gains and often rank among the state’s top performers. But instead of supporting them, Walz is expanding regulatory oversight and starving them of funds, sending a clear message that teachers’ union interests come before those of parents and students.

In saving the Open Technology Fund (OTF), the Trump administration affirmed that empowering individuals with secure technology is just as important to U.S. foreign policy as the content of the messages we broadcast. Now, Congress must follow the administration’s lead, Luke Hogg argues, and realign funding to support the OTF’s mission.

“Restoring Sanity to Make Baseball Great Again.” That’s an executive order President Trump should sign, Harry Stein argues. He points out that the sport has lost its status as the national game, with millions abandoning it over its supposed “slow” pace or interest in other activities. Read Stein’s take on what Trump’s order might say.

Charles Fain Lehman, Hannah Meyers, Ilya Shapiro, and Daniel Di Martino discuss Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s case, New York City’s mayoral race, and Bible stories Hollywood should adapt into films.

“A man who says what he means and means what he says has been elected President of the United States of America. The age of miracles has not passed.”

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greg, commenting on President Trump’s recent memo

Photo credits: Jeff Schear via Getty Images