Don’t underestimate AOC, Dems promote scarcity and other commentary

Republican: Don’t Underestimate AOC

In 2015, “a fool’s parade” of Democrats “found it hilarious that Trump truly thought he could beat ‘seasoned’ Republican politicians in the primary,” recalls Douglas MacKinnon at The Hill, certain “the ‘delusional’ Trump could never beat Hillary Clinton in the general election.”

Yet “Trump was propelled by a powerful message” that “resonated” with millions of voters. We’re now seeing another massive political and populist sea change”: Gallup finds “a growing number of Democrats and Independents are souring on capitalism.”

“Republicans laughing at the prospect of AOC or any other far-left populist becoming the next Democratic nominee” better devote time, “energy and money on devising strategies to defeat them come 2026 and 2028.”

Energy beat: Dems Promote Scarcity

“Electricity prices have jumped 6% nationwide over the last year,” gripe The Wall Street Journal’s editors, “about twice as much as overall inflation.”

Democrats “downplayed surging electricity prices during the Biden Presidency” and now blame the GOP tax bill, “which rolls back future subsidies for solar and wind.”

But the “real problem” is “hostility to fossil fuels.”

New Jersey’s Gov. Phil Murphy (D.) “blocked” a new pipeline to “move cheap natural gas” to Garden State residents who “rely on gas to heat their homes” while “emissions regulations,” a “renewable energy mandate,” and “rich green-energy subsidies” slam consumers.

“National” Democratic policy is “deliberate energy scarcity.”

DC beat: Comey’s Real Sins

“We have no idea” if James Comey will be convicted of authorizing “subordinates to leak” and lying about it, concedes Victor Davis Hanson at American Greatness, but we know he’s not facing “a Trumpian $500 million” in fines or 93 indictments and “the scrutiny of five different local, state, and federal prosecutors.”

Nor, like some arrested over the 2021 Capitol Riot, “will he be sent to solitary confinement to await a trial in a year or two or be charged with ‘illegal parading.’”

He isn’t charged for “pleading amnesia or ignorance . . . a reported 245 times while under oath to House investigators and misleading them, nor for “birthing the entire governmental role in the Russian collusion hoax” nor for entrapping Mike Flynn.

“Comey’s problem is not really legal, at least not entirely. It is moral and ethical.”

Conservative: Des Moines’ School Surprise

National Review’s Jim Geraghty marvels at news of the arrest of Des Moines Public School Superintendent Ian Andre Roberts, a Guyana national who in 2023 apparently lied to the district about being a US citizen.

Wild: He “had an order to remove issued back in May 2024, and his appeal was denied in April of this year, and no one noticed until ICE arrested him in late September?”

Democratic Senate candidate Jackie Norris, who chairs the Des Moines School Board, claims the board hired private companies to vet Roberts; “What exactly was this firm looking for in that background check, excessive sharing of Netflix passwords?”

Hmm: “Iowa state government has effectively banned ‘sanctuary cities,’ but apparently that doesn’t mean the state doesn’t have at least one sanctuary school district.”

Libertarian: Insulting FTC Attack on Amazon

“Forbidding Amazon’s non-Prime checkout button from reading, ‘No, I don’t want free shipping,’ is an implicit indictment of the intellect of the American public,” snarks Reason’s Jack Nicastro, yet that’s what the Federal Trade Commission did in muscling Amazon into paying $2.5 billion to settle a suit over its sign-up and cancellation process.

“The FTC sued Amazon in June 2023, alleging” that the company “signed up millions of Americans for Prime without their consent” and comparing the cancellation process “to Odysseus’ 10-year voyage back to Ithaca.”

But “an Amazon spokesperson tells Reason that ‘96% [of customers are] able to cancel in 90 seconds or less.’ Hardly a herculean feat.”

The FTC “may believe big firms like Amazon are inherently bad,” but Americans feel otherwise, regarding “the company more favorably than any American institution, except for the military” in 2021.

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board