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In today’s edition:
- Looking back at O.J. Simpson
- Trump’s followers are sinking deeper into disinfo
- Bipartisan, pro-child, anti-fraud, dead on arrival?
The end of O.J.’s run
On Wednesday, O.J. Simpson died of cancer at 76. Headline writers puzzled over how to describe a decedent best known for being a celebrity acquitted of a double murder after a trial that devoured the national news, tabloid and otherwise, for the better part of a year — and who most people still think was guilty. Uh, “football great”?
Yet it is possible to acknowledge the sweep of a life whose most horrific episodes were so shocking in part because of how golden the earlier times had been. Gene Robinson, in a contemplation of the real meaning of O.J., gracefully does just that, without remotely letting the man off the hook. “I have not a scintilla of doubt that he committed the murders,” Gene writes.
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Yet he also remembers, long before that white Bronco chase and all the luridness that followed, “the thrill of watching Simpson run. A linebacker would be bearing down on him, inches away, and suddenly he would zigzag left or right, or both in succession, and he was gone.” If only Simpson could have made that the top line for his legacy, rather than buried in paragraph three.
Fake facts for Trump’s real friends
Is Donald Trump like Nelson Mandela? Or like Abraham Lincoln, but better? Or, come to think of it, is he really more like Jesus?
To be clear, those are figures to whom Trump likes to compare himself, not our analogies. But don’t be too quick to criticize his hubris, says Dana Milbank in this week’s rundown from our crazed capital village: “It is altogether fitting and proper for Trump to compare himself with a Civil War-era leader. This is because, thanks largely to Trump, the rights of American women have just been returned to where they were 160 years ago.” At least in Arizona.
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Dana’s main theme, though, is Trump’s influence on our information ecosystem, and he’s sorry to report that it ain’t great. “As The Post’s Fact Checker, Glenn Kessler, and pollsters Scott Clement and Emily Guskin report, Trump’s supporters have become substantially more persuaded by disinformation than they were six years ago,” he writes. Separating his followers from the facts has become a big part of Trump’s strategy — as many have noted, it’s a classic move for leaders (and would-be leaders) trying to create mistrust in other institutions and reliance only on them.
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Does the disinformation matter? Yes, even with Trump out of the White House. As Dana points out and many of our columnists have noted on particular issues (including Ukraine and the border), he is already effectively controlling a bloc of House Republicans who race to do his bidding — so, presidential election aside, spreading false information around those topics is a consequential move.
“The modern GOP is supposed to be pro-family, pro-tax-cuts and anti-‘waste, fraud and abuse.’ So why are Republican senators trying to tank a bill that is all three?” asks Catherine Rampell.
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Credit where it’s due: The House, which (see above!) struggles to agree on anything these days, got this triple-hit piece of legislation through with support from both parties. As Catherine describes it, what they hammered out is appealing in that it would not only help millions of kids but also cover costs by curbing a pandemic-era tax break that has been plagued by fraud.
But now the bill is languishing in the Senate, which raises the question: Can this Congress pass anything these days that actually improves life for Americans, or is that considered election interference?
Smartest, fastest
- The Editorial Board looks at the upcoming meeting of the World Health Assembly and urges attendees to act to increase international science-sharing in ways that could help contain our next pandemic.
- Fareed Zakaria examines the economic impact of U.S. tariffs, which might sound protective of the American economy in theory but in practice could be part of what’s pushing up inflation.
- Finally, something George Will loathes almost as much as he hates the government making people do stuff: electric vehicles. (This enthusiastic EV driver acknowledges the validity of the resource-extraction concerns George raises about the batteries for these cars.)
It’s a goodbye. It’s a haiku. It’s … The Bye-Ku.
Abraham Lincoln
Or, as we used to call him,
The less good Donald
***
Have your own newsy haiku? Email it to me, along with any questions/comments/compliments/complaints. Have a great weekend, and see you on Monday!
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You’re reading the Today’s Opinions newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox.
In today’s edition:
On Wednesday, O.J. Simpson died of cancer at 76. Headline writers puzzled over how to describe a decedent best known for being a celebrity acquitted of a double murder after a trial that devoured the national news, tabloid and otherwise, for the better part of a year — and who most people still think was guilty. Uh, “football great”?
Yet it is possible to acknowledge the sweep of a life whose most horrific episodes were so shocking in part because of how golden the earlier times had been. Gene Robinson, in a contemplation of the real meaning of O.J., gracefully does just that, without remotely letting the man off the hook. “I have not a scintilla of doubt that he committed the murders,” Gene writes.
Yet he also remembers, long before that white Bronco chase and all the luridness that followed, “the thrill of watching Simpson run. A linebacker would be bearing down on him, inches away, and suddenly he would zigzag left or right, or both in succession, and he was gone.” If only Simpson could have made that the top line for his legacy, rather than buried in paragraph three.
Is Donald Trump like Nelson Mandela? Or like Abraham Lincoln, but better? Or, come to think of it, is he really more like Jesus?
To be clear, those are figures to whom Trump likes to compare himself, not our analogies. But don’t be too quick to criticize his hubris, says Dana Milbank in this week’s rundown from our crazed capital village: “It is altogether fitting and proper for Trump to compare himself with a Civil War-era leader. This is because, thanks largely to Trump, the rights of American women have just been returned to where they were 160 years ago.” At least in Arizona.
Dana’s main theme, though, is Trump’s influence on our information ecosystem, and he’s sorry to report that it ain’t great. “As The Post’s Fact Checker, Glenn Kessler, and pollsters Scott Clement and Emily Guskin report, Trump’s supporters have become substantially more persuaded by disinformation than they were six years ago,” he writes. Separating his followers from the facts has become a big part of Trump’s strategy — as many have noted, it’s a classic move for leaders (and would-be leaders) trying to create mistrust in other institutions and reliance only on them.
Does the disinformation matter? Yes, even with Trump out of the White House. As Dana points out and many of our columnists have noted on particular issues (including Ukraine and the border), he is already effectively controlling a bloc of House Republicans who race to do his bidding — so, presidential election aside, spreading false information around those topics is a consequential move.
“The modern GOP is supposed to be pro-family, pro-tax-cuts and anti-‘waste, fraud and abuse.’ So why are Republican senators trying to tank a bill that is all three?” asks Catherine Rampell.
Credit where it’s due: The House, which (see above!) struggles to agree on anything these days, got this triple-hit piece of legislation through with support from both parties. As Catherine describes it, what they hammered out is appealing in that it would not only help millions of kids but also cover costs by curbing a pandemic-era tax break that has been plagued by fraud.
But now the bill is languishing in the Senate, which raises the question: Can this Congress pass anything these days that actually improves life for Americans, or is that considered election interference?
It’s a goodbye. It’s a haiku. It’s … The Bye-Ku.
Abraham Lincoln
Or, as we used to call him,
The less good Donald
***
Have your own newsy haiku? Email it to me, along with any questions/comments/compliments/complaints. Have a great weekend, and see you on Monday!
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