Mamdani is poison for Dems, Trump proves right on violence and other commentary

Liberal: Mamdani Is Poison for Democrats

“It is time for Democrats to move away from” past obsessions of ideological purity like “MeToo# allegations,” which have become “a disaster for the Democratic Party,” and elect Andrew Cuomo as a “step in the right direction,” argues Joe Klein at Sanity Clause. Cuomo “would be a mayor who concentrated on the ‘how’ of politics” and the “practical steps” needed to keep New York “afloat.” Zohran Mamdani is “political poison” with his support for “Hamas terrorists” and “socialist twaddle.” Moreover, “a Mamdani victory would become an open question, an open wound, for every last Democrat running for office nationally,” at a time when “Dems are weak enough as it stands.”

Conservative: Trump Was Right on Soaring Violence

“A new Bureau of Justice Statistics report” shows “Trump was right” last year “when he said, ‘Crime here is up and through the roof,’” reports John R. Lott at RealClearPolitics. The media focused on the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports, which reflects only offenses reported to DC by police departments. But BJS’s National Crime Victimization Survey asks people if they were crime victims and whether or not they reported them; it shows violent crime surged 59%. The problem? There’s a “growing gap between reported crimes and actual victimization,” as victims don’t bother reporting crimes that won’t be prosecuted by progressive prosecutors — who also deliberately downgrade “violent” offenses. “Until the justice system” restores “accurate reporting, Americans will continue to face rising violence that the FBI’s official statistics fail to capture.”

Faith desk: Religion’s Global Rebound

“A spiritual hunger grips America” as “young people are drawing closer to a higher power,” observes Joel Kotkin at UnHerd. Even “decidedly secular Europe” is seeing a “revival” of interest in religion, including “a rapid rise in sales of the Bible.” Though “conventional wisdom” holds that religious people are “less curious, less ambitious, and less intelligent” than non-believers, recent data reveal that “religiously engaged people have become more likely to be well-educated, while atheists are less so.” Plus, young believers have “embraced political positions on race, immigration, and transgenderism” that are at odds with contemporary progressive thought. Globally, “Africa has undergone a religious revolution in tandem with its economic growth.” Ultimately, the “tie between religious faith and growth, so visible in Africa, could also shape the West.”

Space beat: A New Race to the Moon

“The 11th test of the Starship was so perfect that SpaceX made flying the enormous rocket look easy,” cheers Mark R. Whittington at The Hill, yet “the path ahead” to “get human beings on the lunar surface is daunting.” The key: “the necessity to refuel the spacecraft in low Earth orbit before sending it to lunar orbit to dock with the Orion capsule before making the final descent.” Jared Isaacman may be back in the running to run NASA; he “has the ability to think outside the box to find solutions to problems that may not have occurred to most people” and is just the guy “needed to get the Artemis program back on track and, hopefully, stop the Chinese from stealing a march and getting back to the moon first.”

Waste watch: Obamacare’s Invitation to Fraud

While COVID era “federal subsidies” making “Obamacare plans free” increased enrollment nationwide, grumbles City Journal’s Chris Pope, “in Florida’s Miami-Dade County, enrollment has leapt to almost six times the national average.” “In Miami-Dade, more supposedly low-income residents are now enrolled in free Obamacare plans than actually live there — despite most already having other health insurance or being ineligible due to their immigration status.” “Billions of dollars of fraud” has resulted as “some insurance brokers have systematically misreported enrollees’ incomes” and some have paid homeless people to enroll. Nationwide, 7% of Americans are enrolled in subsidized Obamacare vs. 20% in Florida. “Making plans completely free is a needless invitation to fraud” and any further expansion should require “that all enrolled contribute at least something to the cost.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board