Our Distrusting Founding Fathers. Socialist Surge: Dems Maybe a Little Too Trusting. Legal Expert: How Roberts Got 14th Amendment Wrong. Newsom on Women’s Sports. ‘Forever Talks’ with Iran. Trump Finances. More
Here’s Today’s Reading Assignment, Gentle Ladies and Fine Gentlemen: “What the Founders Didn’t Trust,” by Barton Swaim in the Wall Street Journal. A double must from your humble Ms. Must.
Our Founding Fathers, “one of the most remarkable group of men in history,” Swaim suggests, “would wonder at our credulous view of human nature.” Swaim writes:
Such a collection of statesmen might have been expected to create a government rooted in the doctrine that man naturally seeks the good. The French, under the spell of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, built their revolution on his theory that man comes into the world pure and only encounters moral defilement from “society.” The triumph of the American Founders lies in their having done the opposite.
The doctrine of original sin—and its implication that humans tend toward rank self-interest and degeneracy—animated every part of the constitutional structure the Founders erected. Arguments about the depth of their religious convictions miss the point. Even the skeptics and deists among them, of whom there were few, happily adopted Christianity’s moral outlook.
Original sin, some wag quipped, is the only Christian doctrine for which there is empirical evidence. But here’s Swaim’s good news about the arguably bad news of OS:
When the authors of the Federalist Papers spoke of the “passions of men,” or of men consistently failing to behave like angels, they acknowledged themselves, too, as passion-prone and defective. The old understanding of man as inherently flawed had a humbling and leveling effect, just as the rejection of it has encouraged political actors across the West to treat their opponents as subhuman spreaders of evil. To recover a saner, less embittered politics may be as simple, and as difficult, as recovering the Founding Fathers’ anthropology.
It’s difficult not to discern credulousness in “The Socialist Wave [that has reached] the Heartland“:
Colorado’s primary results Tuesday show that socialist insurgents are seizing the Democratic Party’s mantle, and not merely in coastal cities. Consider Melat Kiros, the 29-year-old socialist who defeated Denver’s 15-term incumbent, Rep. Diana DeGette.
Ms. DeGette is a progressive, a backer of abortion rights and gun control who has cosponsored Medicare for All legislation. Yet she lost, according to the latest returns, 42% to 51%. The press calls Colorado’s results more evidence that Democrats are in a mood to oust “establishment” candidates. That’s true, but these challengers aren’t simply outsiders new to politics. They’re on the far left.
“We already have socialism, right? It’s in the roads that we drive on. It’s in our fire stations,” Ms. Kiros told 9News last week. She wants that same model “to be in our healthcare, to be in our access to nutritional food.” That includes free pre-K and college. She thinks socialist dreams can be paid for by taxing “centi-millionaires.” Don’t forget rent control.
“Young Socialists in a Hurry” imperil the Democratic Party’s establishment, which so far refuses to notice (“We Are a Big Tent Party,” they spout, as if any tent is big enough to hold surging communists). Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer already “faces the whirlwind” from the Left. Well, I Never: You’d have to be really credulous to doubt this: “Actually, a Lot of DSA Members Are Communists.”
Another Pact: Kamala Harris has reached out to New York’s socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani and pro-Palestine activists. And the astute Ruy Texeira says, “Kamala 2028 Is No Joke“:
The idea that Kamala Harris could once again be the Democrats’ nominee for president is not taken seriously by most observers. After all, Democrats could not possibly do something so, well, stupid, given her catastrophic campaign in 2024. Who would take another chance on her at this point?
Democratic voters, that’s who.
There may be some bumps on the road to the socialist utopia. For example, heatstroke. Mamdani is already telling New Yorkers to set their AC to 78 degrees as New York is walloped by the heatwave. Mamdani also says socialists are cleaning up the capitalist mess with his budget. That is a joke, but it’s not funny.
Meanwhile, two uglinesses meet in the middle: “Darializa Avila Chevalier’s Hostility to Interracial Romances and ‘Ugly Colonizer Women’ Earns Praise From Ex-KKK Grand Wizard David Duke” is a Washington Free Beacon headline.
As mentioned yesterday, Mollie Heminway said that the Supreme Court’s birthright citizenship will one day be repealed à la Roe v. Wade and Dred Scott. “Roberts Gets the 14th Amendment Wrong,” is the headline on Richard A. Epstein’s op-ed in the Wall Street Journal:
The chief justice wholly failed to explain how his flawed originalist methodology supported birthright citizenship for the children of illegal aliens or temporary visitors. His blunder is captured in the false proposition that birthright citizenship “crossed the Atlantic with the colonists—and was adopted with little fanfare after the Revolution” as an outgrowth of the common law of England.
Here He Stands. California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office announces that the Supreme Court’s ruling on men in women’s sports will not matter in California:
The Supreme Court’s decision does not affect California’s laws. The state remains committed to ensuring every Californian, including the LGBTQ community, is met with dignity and respect,” the spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
A source within Newsom’s office provided Fox News Digital a bulleted list titled “As a Governor, Governor Newsom has the strongest record in the country on protecting and expanding transgender rights.”
Vote of Confidence for the Supreme Court. In “The Supreme Court at 250,” Kimberley Strassel argues: “The justices lean in on core constitutional principles—even if that means shaking up the political status quo.”
“Trump Pledged No Forever Wars. Now He Risks Forever Talks with Iran” is the headline on a Wall Street Journal report. Ms. Must can’t help wondering if the talks are something to keep the Iranians busy until the midterms. Not the only Orange Man: It is feared that the mortal remains of erstwhile Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei turned orange in cold storage, but the funeral will go on with historic pomp.
President Trump has prospered exceedingly, including adding a $1 billion-plus from crypto deals, since he took office for a second time. A Wall Street Journal editorial considers what it calls “The Trump Family and ‘Honest Graft’.”
Americans tell pollsters they don’t think they are getting ahead financially. But President Trump and his family are having no trouble, judging from his 2025 financial disclosure report released Tuesday. The Trump clan is cashing in on the Presidency in big and sketchy ways….
We have detailed some of World Liberty’s dubious deals with foreign actors that may have been trying to buy influence with the Administration. This includes DWF Labs, a crypto firm based in the United Arab Emirates, and the Pakistan government. Abu Dhabi used World Liberty’s stablecoin to invest in the Binance crypto platform. ….
Foreigners may come to think they can buy American goodwill or favors if they cut the Trumps in on the action. Americans, and especially his supporters, deserve better from this or any President.
“Trump’s Art of the Self-Deal” is the headline on the lead story at The Free Press. “Trump’s Profiteering Is Legal, Like It or Not,” is the headline on another TFP story this morning.
“America’s Governor,” by Best of the Web columnist James Freeman, says Ron DeSantis is ready for his victory lap:
“Is Ron DeSantis America’s Best Governor EVER?,” asks Stephen Moore in an email from the Committee To Unleash Prosperity. Mr. Moore writes that the Florida Republican is “certainly in the top 10 of all time,” and it’s hard to argue given the Sunshine State’s taxpayer-friendly governance.
Liberal media is not happy.
Semi-good news if you have surgery scheduled: “America’s medical schools tiptoe away from DEI — for now” in the New York Post.
I still wish it would stop trying to write my email replies, but: “Me, Myself and AI” shows how AI makes it easier for solo entrepreneurs.
USA TODAY columnist Nicole Russell reminds us that “On America’s 250th birthday, it’s worth remembering: Prosperity is the byproduct. Liberty was always the point.”
