Eye on DC: Dems’ Shutdown Contradictions

Democrats “are selling two conflicting messages” to justify their refusal to fund the government and keep it running, observes Dan McLaughlin at The Telegraph. “One school of thought” holds that Dems shouldn’t fund President Trump’s vengeful, “authoritarian” government. But if he’s “not a normal president, how do you end up shaking hands with him?” “On the other hand,” Chuck Schumer is demanding Republicans roll back Medicaid reforms they passed this year and “spend more” on health care. Yet that’s “the opposite of standing up for democracy”: Schumer “is trying to use leverage to win a victory he didn’t have the votes to get. It completely contradicts the Democrats’ theme that they’re the ones standing up” for “representative government.”

Conservative: Chicago’s Vile Teachers Union

“When I first saw the Chicago Teachers Union’s post honoring Assata Shakur, I thought it was a headline from the Babylon Bee,” fumes Corey DeAngelis at The Spectator World. But it was “real and beyond parody.” “The union, entrusted with educating Chicago’s children,” was mourning “the death of a convicted cop killer.” The post “is a glaring sign that the CTU can’t be trusted to educate children.” “Chicago Public Schools are failing spectacularly” and “not a single child is proficient in math.” CTU President Stacy Davies Gates claims public-school kids belong to her union; were that true, she “would be in jail for child abuse, given the horrifying academic outcomes.” Chicago “children deserve a chance to succeed, not a union that honors killers while failing them in the classroom.”

Mideast beat: Peace Plan Means Business

The Trump peace plan puts the “ball” in “many different courts but not Bibi’s,” explains Commentary’s Seth Mandel. Qatar, having extracted a public apology from Israel for bombing Doha, “has no excuses now” to avoid pushing Hamas to agree to the deal. And “if Hamas says no, it will be because Hamas has no intention of ever saying yes.” Nevertheless, “now that Netanyahu has agreed to end the war, the narrative undergirding Israeli politics shifts.” The UK-French-etc. “recognition stunt does nothing at all for the Palestinians”; only the US/Israeli approach “treats the Palestinians as if they are something more than a reality TV show.” Netanyahu’s commitment to the process “will make it easier even for skeptics to picture the light at the end of this tunnel.”

Republican: Trump’s Duty in Oregon

Oregon and Portland sued President Trump after he said he was sending National Guard troops to the city to protect ICE facilities, recalls USA Today’s Nicole Russell. Gov. Tina Kotek claims the city faces no public-safety threat that warrants “military intervention.” Counters Russell: “Violent protests” targeting federal facilities prove “local leaders and law enforcement are either unable or unwilling to maintain law and order.” Shootings have also trended up since 2019, and “Oregonians have reported some of the highest rates of substance-abuse disorder in the nation.” Local officials “have the responsibility to provide Portlanders with public safety”; if they don’t, “particularly with federal agents and property, it is Trump’s right and duty to employ the National Guard to reinstate order.”

Election watch: Smack the Partisan Nonprofits

“If the goal is to dismantle the left-wing NGO complex” that many “believe enables and encourages left-wing extremism,” then “voter registration groups are the best place to start,” argues Parker Thayer at The Federalist. “It’s an open secret that a small army of voter registration nonprofits operates as an extension of the Democratic Party.” E.g., members of the Everybody Votes Campaign “have been repeatedly investigated for submitting thousands of fraudulent registration forms in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Arizona,” while the Voter Participation Center “was caught filtering their Facebook and Instagram voter registration ads” to avoid accounts with conservative-coded interests. Dozens of state-level affiliates downstream from these outfits “do more than just register voters.” “At a minimum, the worst offenders — the VPC, EVC, and others like them — should have their tax-exempt statuses revoked.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board