Stabber was a policy fail, who’s the extremist party? and other commentary

Crime beat: Stabber Was a Policy Fail

After Monday’s deadly stabbing-spree by a man “with a troubling criminal history,” City Journal’s Rafael A. Mangual asks: Why was this guy “on the street?” The answer: “bad policies.” Bail reform “made it so that nearly all accused criminals in the state would be released pretrial rather than held in detention” and strengthened “the prohibition on judges considering public-safety risk when making release decisions.” It’s one of many “missteps” by New York “leaders seeking to go easier on criminals.” And these “are political problems, which mean they have political solutions.” But, absent “serious policy shifts from progressive politicians,” we’re all “on our own—there’s no Batman coming to save us. Even if there were, Alvin Bragg would probably put him in prison.”

Libertarian: Who’s the Extremist Party?

The election results exposed how “it’s Democrats who moved away from the mainstream of American thought, leaving Republicans closer to the center and more relatable to voters,” observes Reason’s J.D. Tuccille. Experts point “to policing, affirmative action, and immigration as areas where Democrats moved far from the median voter. Americans picked up on the shift.” For all the left’s wailing, “the party that most often throws around words like ‘extremist’ is itself rather removed from the beliefs of the median voter.” And “political movements that sharply veer from most voters without making serious efforts to persuade them — that instead rely on censoring or shaming those who disagree — risk losing badly at the voting booth.”

Conservative: Dems’ Deportation Fear-Stoke Fail

MSNBC and CNN are fearmongering on the potential economic impact of mass deportation, but “even if there is a cost, it’s a price voters are willing to pay” because “Americans simply want mass deportations, no matter what,” argues Derek Hunter at The Hill. “Once the deportations do start, expect the complaints to be deafeningly loud in the media.” ”Democrats, inside and outside of media, are already doing all they can to scare the voters away from what they just unambiguously voted for” by warning about potential sharp increases in grocery prices and labor costs. “The public . . . isn’t buying it.” What they see is “the very people who broke the system arguing that the problem they created is too costly to fix.”

Nominee watch: Trump’s FCC Pick No ‘Radical’

Democrats on the Federal Communications Commission “spent four years” pushing the left’s agenda, recall The Wall Street Journal’s editors. Yet the press sees Brendan Carr, Donald Trump’s pick for the agency’s chairman, as radical because he wants to “focus on its core mission.” Carr led the FCC’s efforts “to streamline broadband permitting and accelerate” 5G’s build-out during Trump’s first term, then in the Biden years became a “needed voice of dissent” to Dem “overreaches.” He (correctly) flagged Kamala Harris’ pre-election “Saturday Night Live” appearance for violating “equal time” rules. He wants to “free up more broadband.” And though he backs changes to the law protecting online platforms from lawsuits over user content, he’d leave that to Congress. Now that’s “radical — a regulator who wants to stay in his lane.”

From the right: Hegseth’s Tats are Perfectly Fine

“There are fair objections and concerns to secretary of defense nominee Pete Hegseth, but a Jerusalem cross tattoo isn’t one of them,” snarks National Review’s Jim Geraghty. Social media commentators contend that the “tattoo is a swastika or an iron cross, because apparently all symbols with right angles look alike.” Yet “that accusation and its consequences have already affected Hegseth’s life.” In 2021, he was ordered “to stand down rather than report for duty for the inaugural events” after a naval intelligence officer spotted his “Deus Vult” tattoo. “If the Senate doesn’t want to confirm Hegseth, it should do so for a real reason — don’t hide behind the fact that some of his tattoos look scary if your vision is poor and you barely know any history.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board