FRIDAY short TAKES.

As the Congressional and some gubernatorial elections approach, let us review a few hard lessons.  Democrats were warned this time.  "The inflation that vaulted Reagan into office was not an accident or an incidental effect of policy. It was the result of deliberate policy choices."  To the malaise, add authoritarianism.  "Biden and other Democrats are arousing fears that it is they themselves who are acting in heavy-handed ways alien to American democratic tradition."  Two years of corona tyranny should have established that beyond any doubt.  "Fundamentals, from COVID to Crime, Favor Republicans."

But the Donks' court intellectuals have forgotten nothing and learned nothing.  “How could you not see that? How could you not see the echoes or near-plagiarism of Willie Horton?”  That is the attitude of the common room.  "Democrats really are no longer the party of the common man and woman. The priorities and values that dominate the party today are instead those of educated, liberal America which only partially overlap—and sometimes not at all—with those of ordinary Americans."  Normals of all ethnicities notice.  "The Left has gone too far for many voters in many big cities across the country, and it is starting to pay the price for its excesses."

The weekly round-up of pithy elaborations of traditional Cold Spring Shops themes follows.

1.  Preach it.  "It is people of color who suffer disproportionately when crime is rampant, when business investment dries up, and when national chains pull up stakes."  Now sell it.

2.  Hectoring, condescending, and deplorable shaming: too much for Barack Obama!  “Hell, not being a buzzkill. And sometimes Democrats are.”

3.  The affirmative action asterisk: "It's a stigma."

4.  Practice restraint.  "[O]rdinary partisans don't mind a child marrying someone outside their party if that person doesn't talk a lot about politics; moreover, parents don't want their child to marry someone in their own party who talks a lot about politics."

5.  Deny coherent beliefs, another reminder.  "[A] society that can no longer discern basic truths is headed for devastating consequences."

6.  The straw man argument for the Welfare Economics Paradigm.  "It sneaks in the assumption that markets have to be optimal in order to be preferable to government intervention."

7.  Cry "Stiglitz!" and let slip the rent-seekers.  "[I]nterventionism creates ideal conditions under which corporations and authorities may collude. And boy they do."

8.  The quintessence of process-worship.  "The rest of the world has been traveling with high-speed trains for decades. And in the United States, we are going to court where it has taken literally years to decide if a railroad is, in fact, a railroad."

9.  Work on your value proposition, ladies.  "Women Gain From Sports Deals, but Men Gain the Most."

10.  To mix a metaphor, "[P]rogressive women keep banging on about abortion."

11.  We speak of mutually beneficial trade for a reason.  "[T]he most important aspect of this competitive process is cooperation."  Advantage, Cold Spring Shops.

12.  Just win, baby.  "It’s real simple here: if you don’t want me parading around your field wearing a cheesehead, don’t let me beat you by 17 points."

13.  That loss might have been a long time coming.  "There is no magic pill to solve a problem that’s been growing for months, if not years."

14.   Rule K for motorists.  "Drivers, pedestrians and cyclists should be aware that rail traffic will run on both tracks in both directions."  Brightline speed testing begins!