The Week USA 03.20.2020

“A sense of duty is useful

in work, but offensive in

personal relations.”

Philosopher Bertrand Russell,

quoted in Forbes.com

“I like nonsense, it

wakes up the brain cells.”

Dr. Seuss, quoted in

USA Today

“The only sense that

is common in the long

run, is the sense

of change—and we all

instinctively avoid it.”

Writer E.B. White, quoted in

the Associated Press

“The past is always trick-

ling under the soil, a slow

leak you can’t trace.”

Author Hilary Mantel, quoted

in the Financial Times

“It takes all the running

you can do, to keep in the

same place.”

Lewis Carroll, quoted in

The New York Times

“Man is the only

animal that can remain on

friendly terms with the

victims he intends to eat

until he eats them.”

Novelist Samuel Butler,

quoted in Lapham’s Quarterly

“Believing in progress

does not mean believing

that any progress

has yet been made.”

Franz Kafka, quoted in

TheBrowser.com

Talking points

Wit &

Wisdom

Ge

tty

NEWS 17

Poll watch

Q62% of Republicans

think that news reports

on the seriousness of the

coronavirus outbreak are

“generally exaggerated,”

double the 31% percent

of Democrats who feel

the same way. Democrats

are more likely to believe

Covid-19 spreads “very

easily” than Republicans

(47% to 34%) and are

more likely to avoid public

spaces such as restau-

rants and shopping malls

(53% to 37%), large events

or concerts (67% to 49%),

and gatherings of friends

or family (38% to 25%).

Axios.com/SurveyMonkey

Supreme Court: Unleashing the whirlwind

Unable to get the Supreme

Court to agree with them,

Democrats led by New York

Sen. Charles Schumer have

turned to a “shameful” effort

to “bully the courts,” said

Carrie Campbell Severino

in NationalReview .com.

“I want to tell you, [Neil]

Gorsuch! I want to tell

you, [Brett] Kavanaugh!”

Schumer thundered last week

at an abortion-rights rally in front of the Supreme

Court, “you have released the whirlwind and

you will pay the price!” It was a brazen, personal

threat that the Democrats would exact vengeance

if the justices didn’t vote Schumer’s way in a

Louisiana abortion case. When Chief Justice John

Roberts called Schumer on this “unprecedented

attack,” Schumer claimed he meant only that

Republicans would be punished at the ballot box,

said David Harsanyi in the New York Post. That’s

a lie—it’s very clear to anyone that this was “a

transparent attempt to intimidate.”

Schumer “didn’t necessarily start this fight,”

said Dahlia Lithwick in Slate.com. If his words

sounded familiar, it’s because they echo what

Kavanaugh himself said in his confirmation hear-

ing, when he threatened that if liberal senators

blocked him, they’d reap a “whirlwind” felt “for

decades to come.” Roberts ignored that, just as

he’s ignored Trump’s “direct

attacks” on federal judges

and targeting of Justices

Ruth Bader Ginsburg and

Sonia Sotomayor. “Umpire

Roberts clearly can only see

one side of the plate.” The

Republican outrage is “a

cynical attempt to distract

from the real issue at hand,”

said Marge Baker in USA

Today.com. Schumer was

talking about political consequences if women are

stripped of their reproductive rights, and he’s not

the only one pointing out that “alarming deci-

sions” from courts packed with “extreme ideo-

logues” have electoral consequences.

But “even that charitable reading is grim,” said

Ian Millhiser in Vox.com. If he didn’t intend to

make a personal threat, it’s still clear Schumer

“believes that the judiciary places partisan politics

ahead of the law.” That view reflects “a much

deeper rot within American democracy.” Democ-

racies “depend as much on informal norms as

they do upon constitutional rules.” When party

leaders violate those norms, they invite a “death

spiral” in which each party uses the other’s

transgressions to justify its own. Trump may

have written the book on norm violation, but if

Democrats respond in kind, we could easily end

up “riding this spiral to the bottom.”

The presidential race “is suddenly becoming the

dementia campaign,” said John Harris in Politico

.com. With Joe Biden, 77, battling Bernie Sanders,

78, for the chance to take on President Trump,

73, “questions about age-related infirmity” are

unavoidable. Biden’s surge in the Democratic

primaries has been accompanied by an uptick in

verbal fumbles that have been replayed again and

again on Fox News, such as his mangled attempt

to recite the Declaration of Independence at a cam-

paign event: “All men and women created by—

you know, you know, the thing.” Biden has always

been gaffe-prone, said Miranda Devine in the New

York Post. But the famously capable bloviator is

increasingly wedded to his teleprompter. Anyone

who’s witnessed Biden on the trail this year knows

he’s suffering “cognitive impairment.” He often

seems bewildered, can’t remember “if he’s running

for the Senate or the presidency, or even whether

it’s Super Tuesday or ‘Super Thursday.’”

“All of this feels very familiar,” said Nancy

LeTourneau in WashingtonMonthly.com. In 2016,

Republicans waged a “disinformation campaign”

to paint Hillary Clinton as corrupt, and now

they’re smearing Biden as mentally incapable. Of

course, there’s nothing in Biden’s medical records

that indicates a cognitive impairment. But we do

know the former vice president suffers from a stut-

ter, and that the mental effort needed to keep it at

bay can result in mangled syntax. If Republicans

harp on Biden’s blooper reel, said Gail Collins in

The New York Times, then Democrats should roll

out the footage of Trump’s bizarre gaffes. Our

president has praised America’s Continental Army

for “taking over the airports,” called his wife

“Melanie,” and referred to the midterm elections

as “midtown or midturn.” We could go on, and

“before November, I bet we will.”

Voters are right to worry about a president “going

senile in office,” said Graeme Wood in TheAtlantic

.com. The chief executive faces brutally complex

decisions every day, and we’ve all seen older rela-

tives struggle with “a remote control.” But many

older Americans have watched a younger rela-

tive “flip channels like a madman.” Perhaps “the

creaky machinery of an aging brain might make

a president better at the job.” Studies show that

older adults “are better at keeping their emotions

and impulses in check” and can display judgment

superior to that of youngsters. “A leader who is

economical in his actions and laconic in his tweets

does not sound all that unwelcome right now.”

Old politicians: The risks of cognitive decline

Schumer: ‘You will pay the price.’