Conservative: Abortion’s No Longer a Top Issue

The Supreme Court’s likely decision to overturn Roe v. Wade can help Democrats only if “they are able to find Americans who stayed home in 2018 — at the height of the Trump presidency,” writes Sara Isgur at Politico. It’s also important to remember that “abortion has been steadily falling on the list of issues that voters mention as being the most important.” Indeed, “the real political fight” over Roe “may be within the parties,” which have hidden behind the ruling for decades. “Legislative cosplay” around abortion “is all fun and games until the courts return the issue to voters.”

Libertarian: Biden’s Phony ‘Fiscal Austerity’

“The national debt is at an all-time high” and this year’s budget deficit is expected to be “the third or fourth-largest in American history” — yet President Biden claims his administration is “overseeing a period of fiscal austerity,” marvels Reason’s Eric Boehm. “We’re on track to cut the federal deficit by another $1.5 trillion,” Biden gloats — but fails to mention that he “took office the year after the budget deficit hit previously unimaginable highs due to a completely unprecedented spending binge triggered” by the pandemic, and that it caused the annual deficit to jump “from about $900 billion in 2019 to more than $3.1 trillion 2020.” Biden is “bragging about presiding over what’s likely to wind up as the fourth-largest deficit in history.”

Free-speech beat: Biden’s Authoritarian Leap

The “early signs” of the new Disinformation Governance Board “are not promising,” Helen Raleigh writes at Fox News. Raleigh grew up under China’s “authoritarian regime” and sees parallels “between DGB and the Chinese government’s Central Propaganda Department.” Like the CPD, which “controls all media outlets in China” and works with Beijing’s muzzlers, the DGB threatens to use “state power to censor Americans’ speech,” meaning “the Biden administration has taken a giant leap into authoritarianism. Should Americans who disagree with the Biden administration’s version of ‘truth’ on issues such as immigration and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine expect to face imprisonment if they dare to speak out?” It’s a scary possibility, because “when the government becomes the sole arbiter of ‘truth,’ our health and well-being will be in danger.”

Culture critics: Museum’s Foolish DeSantis Ban

“We know things are bad when a Jewish institution — in this case, a museum whose purpose is to keep Jewish heritage alive by remembering the Holocaust — turns on its own and tries to make a virtue of its own intolerance,” thunder Jewish Leadership Conference chairmen Elliott Abrams and Eric Cohen at The Wall Street Journal. They’re talking about the Museum of Jewish Heritage’s decision to ban Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis from an event because it claims he doesn’t “align” with its “values and its message of inclusivity.” Yet the JLC invited him because of the Jewish “renaissance” in Florida and because “the preservation of Jewish heritage depends” on channeling its “sacred memories toward a vibrant Jewish future.” Besides, “preserving a free society requires at least some ability to respect other viewpoints and other people.”

From the right: Terror’s Not Fueling Food Crisis

National Review’s Jim Geraghty doubts anything “sinister” about two plane crashes and a rash of fires at food-processing plants over the past few months, though it’s certainly fair to wonder — and “some folks on the internet” are indeed taking notice. “Is this a nefarious conspiracy of arsonists, terrorists or foreign agents?” Probably not: “At this point, there’s no evidence of that and no reason to think” that’s the case.” Instead, folks are likely just paying closer to attention to potential supply-chain issues. “The world has a genuine food-supply crisis,” and that is “likely going to increase prices on certain foods here in America. But the higher food prices we are seeing are thankfully not occurring because of small plane crashes or fires.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board