Outstanding observations by the best writer for the WSJ.
I Give Up on These Defeatists
From ‘No Kings’ and Iran to data centers, too many Americans are fighting progress.
ET
I can’t stand all the defeatism. After a few short weeks, multiple New York Times columnists used the word “quagmire” to describe Iran. Really? No navy, few launchers, dwindling missiles and drones, plus nukes under rubble, yet the Guardian writes that the president “has lost his Iran war.”
Who does this remind you of? Oh yeah, “Baghdad Bob,” Iraq’s lying former information minister: “Today, the tide has turned, we are destroying them.” Now the media appears to be taking on his role.
Late capitalism, postcapitalism, “America is in decline” pronouncers, partisan professors, socialist mayors, “ICE out”-screaming celebrities—I’m tired of those rooting against us. Add the Tucker Carlson wing of isolationists and defeatists who would leave terror-funding despots in power. Don’t give up on democracy.
Last month saw more civics-mangling “No Kings” rallies—at least 3,300 of them in all 50 states. Even one in London, where it had to be branded “No Tyrants” since they have an actual king. According to the permit for the march in St. Paul, Minn. (why do so many weird things happen in Minnesota?), Indivisible, a George Soros-funded political advocacy group, was the lead coordinator. Other rallies were funded by socialist and communist revolutionary organizations, according to Fox News Digital. Classic astroturf. Be careful who you march for.
I’m all for protests, it’s our right as Americans. But nailing down the reason for No Kings is more like spinning the Wheel of Defeatists Complaints. Signs noted fascism, wars, school funding, billionaires, LGBT issues, allowing illegal immigration, even the Epstein files. And really, the rallies are mostly about Donald Trump’s winning the election. Forget protests, they’re more of a massive primal scream therapy session.
The New York Times recently ran a 4,100-word diatribe of defeatism, beginning “We had a good run,” before taking a swan dive into the muck including this economic gem: “The benefits of globalization had been vastly oversold.” Did you type that on a MacBook or a Remington typewriter? Thought so.
After a decadeslong push for green energy, California has some of the highest electricity prices in the U.S., and now $6.50 a gallon for premium gasoline despite plenty of retrievable oil. We’ve been Gored. The same folks pushing those policies now circularly complain about affordability and the failure of capitalism. How bizarre—their defeatism was self-induced.
Remember the nail-biting that our fragile planet couldn’t handle multiple American standards of living around the world? It happened. We’re OK. The better they do, the better we do, selling them our high-value intellectual property.
If you haven’t figured it out, the main export of the U.S. is our standard of living. It isn’t in decline but the envy of the world, hence the rush to our borders. You won’t find that export in economic statistics, but it drives demand for our technology, medical practices and more. The other thing we export is freedom, which drives innovation and lifts living standards elsewhere. Global growth and productivity will be so strong that we’re rapidly inventing robots and artificial intelligence to handle logistics.
Meanwhile, many fight progress at home. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders, charter members of the Socialists for Defeatism Society, want a moratorium on productivity-driving artificial-intelligence data centers. They really do hate us.
I’m mostly tired of whiners who see defeat behind every minor setback. Sure, hate the president all you want, I have my own grievances to air. But give him credit. He threw out defeatism and acted when everyone else waffled.
Mr. Trump didn’t kick the can down the road by meekly lobbing a missile or two into Iran, like Bill Clinton in Iraq or Barack Obama in Libya. Heck, Mr. Obama, along with sidekick Ben Rhodes, returned a $1.7 billion tallboy can to Iran. This in exchange for quickly ignored sanctions, making Iran the powder keg that it was before Feb. 28.
Whatever happened to Harry Truman’s “The Buck Stops Here”? Well, it’s back. Mr. Trump opened up a can of whoop gas: blowing up drug boats, arresting Nicolás Maduro and, with Israel, vaporizing terrorist-funding mullahs. All a great start. The 3-D chess match continues. Now what?
Because of defeatism, we don’t follow through—no more of Woodrow Wilson’s “making the world safe for democracy.” A shame. Maybe the Trumpian way is to “make the world safe.” I wish we’d finish the task and encourage democracy.
Democracy is worth fighting for. Maybe we can’t force it—purple fingers after voting in Iraq—but we can be ready to pounce. The Middle East is transforming. Someday, the masses in China will demand a political say now that they have an economic say. Same with a post-Vladimir Putin Russia.
Global growth will be hard to hold back, but the world needs to be safe first. And safe from defeatists.
Write to kessler@wsj.com.
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