The New Republic’s Michael Tomasky wants Republicans to nominate Donald Trump for president in 2024. Why? “He’s become the most beatable” Republican, “by far.” If independents abandon Trump as they did his midterm candidates, there’s “no chance” he can keep the election even “close,” and his loss could push him “out of public life.” If the nominee is, say, Ron DeSantis or Glenn Youngkin, independents will vote against Joe Biden, or split evenly, making it “far, far more likely” the prez would lose. Worse, “the master narrative will be: The Republican Party has returned to planet Earth. The Republican Party is normal again.”  Why are Dems worried if Trump can't win?

     “The Biden Administration is using the pandemic to expand the class of Americans who are permanent government dependents,” warn The Wall Street Journal’s editors. Medicaid enrollment has ballooned by 23 million since 2020. And Team Biden is fighting state programs that require beneficiaries to work, like one in Georgia meant to expand Medicaid eligibility. The food-stamp rolls have also “swelled” about 13%, “owing chiefly to the emergency suspension of work requirements.” “After the bipartisan welfare reform of the 1990s, labor participation rose, notably among single mothers.” Yet “too many politicians of both parties today want to expand government dependency. A top priority for House Republicans . . . should be to reverse the pandemic inflation of the welfare rolls.” 

      Answering Rep. Adam Schiff’s demand for action “in response to an ‘unacceptable’ rise in bigoted slurs on Twitter,” Elon Musk countered that hate speech is “down by 1/3” on his watch. “What he should have said is that government officials in a free society have no business demanding the suppression of speech they do not like,” thunders Reason’s Jacob Sullum. The First Amendment bars Congress from “abridging” free speech, so Schiff and his Democratic colleagues “are trying to indirectly accomplish something that the Constitution forbids.” Fact is, Musk is “free to make any decisions he wants about content moderation” (which is more complex than Musk seems to think). So he should simply tell lawmakers “to mind their own business.”