#Democrats headed for a shellacking and other commentary

From the right: Dems Headed for a Shellacking

Democrats’ control of the House is “in serious jeopardy,” declares David Bossie at The Washington Times. “Not only is history working against them” — a new president’s party almost always loses seats in its first midterm — but Dems can afford to lose only four votes. And because of the left’s “radical agenda,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi may not be able to stop “sizable Republican gains.” Fact is, Democratic control of the White House and both houses of Congress has been “an unmitigated disaster”: Americans aren’t feeling much relief from COVID, crime is “on the rise,” the White House is ignoring inflation and spending trillions, and parents are fuming over critical race theory in schools. The midterms are just 15 months away, and Democrats “have nothing to show for it.”

Ex-cop: End the Left’s War on Cops

Americans are mourning after a Chicago cop was killed and another critically wounded last weekend, but “if decent Americans” don’t “change the narrative,” such attacks “may increase,” warns former Chicago officer Maurice Richards at The Hill. Police separate “civilization from chaos,” but they’re “under attack,” with more than 185 officers shot nationwide and 35 killed just this year. “Anti-police activists, progressive Democrats and some in left-leaning media organizations have put forth the myth that American policing is ‘systemically racist,’ ” yet “dehumanizing hate results in violence” against cops. The left’s “diabolical strategy” also includes a “takeover of state attorneys’ offices by ‘progressive’ prosecutors” who refuse to prosecute. Americans must connect their “prayers with action” — and “defeat the left’s pro-criminal policies and anti-police propaganda.”

Statistician: No Science Shows Masks Work

As much of the nation re-institutes mask mandates, Jeffrey H. Anderson at City Journal dives into what science actually says. The reality: Public-health authorities’ pre-March 2020 guidance — that masks aren’t effective in stopping COVID’s spread — “was much more consistent with the best medical research.” Though “randomized controlled trials” are seen as “the gold standard” in medical research, “the CDC basically ignores them.” Its favorite study “focused on two COVID-positive hairstylists at a beauty salon in Missouri” that lacked a control group. And of 14 RCTs that tested masks’ effectiveness against respiratory viruses, none showed “statistically significant evidence” of any benefit. “The best available scientific evidence” suggests Americans, “credulously trusting” public-health officials, have been masking “without blocking the transmission” of the coronavirus.

Faith beat: California Defaces Its Saintly Cofounder

Paul Kengor recently visited Ventura, Calif., and noticed that something was “palpably different,” he recalls at the National Catholic Register: The monument of Saint Junípero Serra had been removed — “erased by the mobs of the cancel culture.” The 18th-century Spanish Franciscan, a “cofounder” of the state, was canonized in 2015 by Pope Francis, who celebrated him for defending “the dignity of the native community.” Yet sadly, “such is not the view” of the “woke,” who falsely frame him as a génocidaire and forced the removal of the statue last summer. “One wonders why authorities” couldn’t arrest those “hellbent on destroying public property. . . . But lawlessly yanking down a massive monument is apparently an action not to be stopped in modern America.”

Conservative: Brace for Another School Closure

“Your child’s school will inevitably get shut down by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” predicts The Federalist’s Jordan Davidson. The only question is when. “CDC guidance appears to suggest a full return to in-person learning” by fall, “with the disclaimers that masks must be worn by all students” and that those “eligible for the COVID-19 shot should receive it.” Yet the growing and ever-more arbitrary power of health bureaucrats means the guidance can shift on a dime: “All of a sudden, anything the health officials deem unsafe and not a priority could warrant widespread school closures in the CDC’s eyes. It wouldn’t be hard for them to change their minds. After all, they’ve flip-flopped on masks, lockdowns and other recommendations for more than a year.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board