from David French at National Review, 2016: The Year Liberal Ideas Failed

A president who promised hope and change left most Americans behind. As Obama leaves office, rich Americans are doing just fine. The rest of the country is stagnant. Indeed, the white-working-class death rate is actually rising in the richest nation in the history of the world. Despair is so palpable that people are increasingly taking their own lives through suicide, alcohol, and drugs. A flood of public assistance couldn’t soothe private pain, and increased immigration was the worst medicine for economically struggling communities.

As jihad spread, crime increased, and families stagnated, the Democrats waged culture war. The Obama administration tried to force nuns to facilitate access to abortifacients. It tried to inject the federal government even into the pastor-hiring process. It lawlessly imposed federal transgender mandates on public schools, and it manufactured a fake rape crisis on campus. All of these things pleased its radical academic base. None of these things helped the communities that were hurting the most.

It’s likely true, if sad, that most Americans don’t care about policy. But most Americans do care about outcomes, and ideas have consequences. For Democrats, those consequences include losing control of every branch of government and the vast majority of the states. This year was the year of their failure. Will they change any of their ideas?

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