Woke wars: College ‘Donor Revolt’?
“When Hamas brutally murdered babies, raped women, and took the disabled as hostages, it was business as usual” on America’s college campuses, notes Jacob Savage at The Free Press: “silence from the universities; cruel and maximalist rhetoric from left-wing student groups.” But then: “People started to say no,” including major donors. There’s “schadenfreude in watching would-be corporate lawyers realize” they don’t “enjoy the Mandate of Heaven.” But “liberals and centrists seem to have paid attention to conservative boycotts of Bud Light and Target.” The furor now is a sign that “maybe we can agree that political litmus tests for employment are bad, that requiring DEI statements is bad.” The “donor revolt” may be “what a turning point might look like.”
Libertarian: State COVID Bailouts a Waste
“Two years after Congress authorized a hugely expensive bailout of state and local governments as part of a COVID-era emergency spending bill, most of the money still hadn’t been spent,” flags Reason’s Eric Boehm. While “the emergency COVID spending was meant to help states address an immediate public health crisis — or to offset the costs of it,” “a good chunk” of the cash was “put to questionable use, including subsidizing money-losing, government-owned golf courses. Lots of other governments used the stimulus cash to pad the paychecks of public employees.” “With so much pandemic-era emergency cash still waiting to be spent, state and local governments will find more silly ways to blow through piles of taxpayer money they never should have gotten their hands on in the first place.”
House beat: Empower the Speaker Pro Tempore
In the weeks since “every Democrat in the House joined eight Republicans in ousting Rep. Kevin McCarthy,” the House GOP doesn’t seem “even a single step closer to picking a new leader,” lament the Washington Examiner’s editors. Passing “temporary spending authority” and “aid to Israel” will require voting “to give temporary powers to Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry (R-NC).” Current House rules only let McHenry “do whatever is ‘necessary and appropriate’ to” elect a new speaker. Yet “House Republicans could quickly vote to give McHenry full speaker powers temporarily to pass legislation” which explains why “no one seems in a rush” to find a permanent speaker. Until they do, Republicans must “give McHenry the power to make the House function.”
Neocon: A Telling Quote
Harvard’s Stephen Walt tweet-quoted W.H. Auden’s poem “September 1, 1939” this weekend, “Those to whom evil is done / Do evil in return,” and Commentary’s John Podhoretz finds it fitting for a prof infamous for disfavoring Israel — since Auden “had a profound change of heart,” later telling another poet, “Between you and me, I loathe that poem.” He then “began to refuse to allow it to be anthologized.” Says Podhoretz: “The moral relativism that suffused Auden’s poem and reaction to the invasion of Poland is perfectly and precisely mirrored today by people like Stephen Walt, who quote words Auden himself came to view with contempt and shame.” This “repellent relativism is a perfect reflection of the bizarre hunger on the part of those unwilling to face the true meaning of Hamas’s attack.”
Law prof: Don’t Hire My Anti-Semitic Students
“If you don’t want to hire people who advocate hate and practice discrimination, don’t hire some of my students,” advises Berkeley’s Steven Davidoff Solomon at The Wall Street Journal. “Anti-Semitic conduct is nothing new on university campuses,” including at Berkeley. But a top law firm just revoked a job offer to an NYU student who publicly blamed Israel for Hamas’ attacks. Others should follow: “If a student endorses hate, dehumanization or anti-Semitism, don’t hire him. When students face consequences for their actions, they straighten up.” Indeed, “if a student endorses hatred, it isn’t only your right but your duty not to hire him. Do you want your clients represented by someone who condones these monstrous crimes?”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board