'A golden opportunity to uphold true patriotism'

'Democrats should reclaim patriotism'

Mona Charen at The Bulwark

Republicans scored points with "middle-of-the-road voters" for decades by accusing Democrats of "anti-Americanism," says Mona Charen. "Today, it is the Republican party that — despite its MAGA slogan — is trafficking in dark, anti-American ideas and imagery," claiming to "put 'America first'" while applauding a leader, former President Donald Trump, who describes the nation as a "failing," "crime-infested hellscape." This presents Democrats with an opportunity "to scoop up the banner of patriotism" by praising what's right with America.

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'Kudos to Mitch McConnell's final public service — confronting the isolationist right'

Isaac Schorr in the New York Post

"Mitch McConnell has spent his 17 years as Republicans' leader in the Senate frustrating — even tormenting — his Democratic counterparts," says Isaac Schorr. But as the Kentucky Republican "finishes his final year as leader," his "focus has shifted" to confronting what he calls "the advocates of a more laissez-faire American foreign policy," including "the isolationist movement" of his party. His final public service will be projecting the "moral clarity" younger peers lack on the need to "beat Russia."

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'What Americans lost when they stopped going to church'

Derek Thompson in The Atlantic

About 40 million Americans "stopped going to church in the past 25 years," says Derek Thompson. The nation now has "the highest level of non-religiosity" ever in a Public Religion Research Institute poll. With organized religion seemingly "beset by scandal and entangled in noxious politics," agnostics might ask, "what is there really to mourn?" The answer is that many people, "having lost the scaffolding of organized religion," have "found no alternative method to build a sense of community."  

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'Havana syndrome might have been a Russian attack. The U.S. can't stop investigating.'

The Washington Post editorial board

U.S. intelligence assessments concluded the mysterious health problems diplomats have suffered in Cuba and elsewhere were probably not linked to a foreign adversary, but "there are compelling reasons to dig deeper," says The Washington Post editorial board. An investigation by Russian, American and German journalists that was just released indicated Moscow's military intelligence service was "the possible culprit." If so-called Havana syndrome was "a deliberate attack, the perpetrator must be identified and held to account."

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