High time

If this country is to reverse the tide of cultural insanity and political suicide in which it has become increasingly awash - and I admit, that's a big "if" - then we need people who are willing to tear up the rule book which has been put together over many years by the progressives, the one that governs our national "discussions", the one that has so successfully encouraged a spirit of self-censorship among members of the center-right.

Toward that end, I was absolutely delighted to see President Trump call out the America-hating "squad" of AOC and company, and now that sanctimonious old gas-bag Elijah Cummings and (in the president's own very appropriate words) the con man, Al Sharpton. Among other things, Trump's criticism of Cummings, by contrasting the congressman's district with conditions at the U.S-Mexican border, casts an unsparing light on the utter uselessness (or, more accurately, the genuine harmfulness) of "progressive" urban policy, and the relentless decay to which it leads. Trump has, perhaps accidentally, bumped into a statistic that certain conservative op-ed writers have been pointing out for some time: cities ruled by Democrats for decades have become, or are on their way to becoming, third-world s**t-holes. It is far past time to turn this information into fodder for successful conservative election campaigns.

And it is certainly past time for us to get rid of the notion that members of minority and other established grievance groups - especially if they are politicians - should be free from strong criticism.