Pressure builds on Maduro, peace through energy dominance and other commentary

Americas beat: Pressure Builds on Maduro

The deployment of “the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group” to the southern Caribbean shows that the United States has “changed its deterrence and diplomacy” as well its general “approach to narco-dictators” in Latin America, notes Arturo McFields at The Hill. The US Navy’s most advanced aircraft carrier “is not just a powerful tool of war; it’s the full toolbox,” and will “support the president’s directive to dismantle transnational criminal organizations.” While “dictators like Maduro aren’t going to go away just by destroying a couple of boats,” the Venezuelan strongman has flaunted “threats and misbehavior” but “his options seem to be running out.”

Conservative: Peace Through Energy Dominance

Not only does “the maintenance of American power” require “energy security,” it also “requires energy dominance,” argues Clifford D. May at the Washington Times. US energy dominance — beyond fossil fuels production — includes controlling “the critical minerals used in military and commercial applications, from fighter jets to cellphones.” China, which controls “about 70% of the mining of rare earths” and “up to 90% of the processing,” recently “imposed export restrictions on products” containing those minerals. “America is in an energy arms race” and can’t afford to come in second to China. “Energy dominance is about prosperity at home and peace abroad,” as Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has stated. Unlike past administrations, cheers May, Team Trump is developing “these essential instruments of American national power.”

Urbanist: Rise of New Economic Centers

“For decades, as the American economy tilted toward white-collar work, big urban counties thrived” and large cities like New York “boomed on the back of fast-growing service industries,” explains City Journal’s Steven Malanga. But post-pandemic, “freed by remote work, many workers and their families left big cities” for smaller communities. “States once plagued by brain drain are now luring educated professionals from elsewhere.” Remote work and “reindustrialization” in “Republican-led states” is “giving rise to new economic and political power centers.” “Rising social disorder,” plus “extended school closures” also triggered the “dramatic shift in migration patterns.” Since the pandemic, rural areas have grown thanks to “lower crime, better schools” and “more natural amenities.” Without reform, “big cities won’t regain their populations.”

Media watch: The Left Turns on KJP

“Sneering mockery” and “blistering criticism” of former White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre “from the left and center left” is a “little too convenient,” observes National Review’s Jim Geraghty since in those same circles it was long “considered rude, and perhaps even racist or sexist” to notice that she was a “thoroughly ineffective communicator.” But now that she’s “on her book tour and defending her and Joe Biden’s record,” her old allies savage her as a “walking disaster area.” Why is it suddenly “safe to do so”? Her “idiocy was conveniently discovered” by reporters as soon as she had no access to offer. And by still insisting “Biden could have served another four years,” she’s embarrassing Democrats by repeating claims they now want “memory-holed.”

Democrat: Find Common Ground To Beat China

“If we want to win the competition with China, we need to think well beyond the next election and even the next decade,” warns Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (NH) at The Wall Street Journal. We’ll “need to rebuild a durable bipartisan consensus over how to approach the world’s most consequential relationship.” Alas, “as traditions of bipartisanship have eroded, especially in foreign policy, our global position has weakened. Adversaries have taken note.” The new consensus must recognize “neither a go-it-alone strategy nor a policy of accommodation has proved effective” in dealing with China, and address economic and diplomatic as well as military shortfalls. Finding common ground might not be easy, but “getting this relationship right matters,” as it will “define America’s place in the world for the rest of the century.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board