Federal programs that mean well and could do some good simply need finer tuning. That means pulling back the reins on rules that poorly fit large parts of America.

I was left alone in that parking lot with Chad’s empty cruiser and the red Firebird he had stopped. If asked how long I remained there I would swear that it had been several hours, when in actuality it was probably 20 minutes. Looking back, those minutes were some of the longest in my life.

Kamala Harris is the single best argument for Democrats trying to prop up Joe Biden no matter what. She has been a disaster as vice president, even as she’s done nothing particularly noteworthy either good or bad. She’s simply a political black hole, whose abysmal ratings reflect not just Biden’s troubles but her own profound, inherent flaws as a political figure.

Donald Trump doesn’t love you. He is a con man from Queens who cares about nothing that doesn’t line his pockets or fatten his ego. Hundreds of you are now imprisoned or facing indictment because of him. And he’s taken you for a quarter of a billion dollars, besides. But sure, you go right on believing in him. Everybody plays the fool.

While many Democrats (and the two Republicans) on the House January 6 committee blame former president Donald Trump for inciting the Capitol riot, they are curiously unconcerned about the rhetoric of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and others within their own party.

Unfortunately, the more deeply people are invested in the comfort of lies, the less use they have for the challenges of truth. So it seems likely the Jan. 6 committee’s appeal for Republicans to rejoin reality is destined for meager success at best.

Both Nixon and Trump have been willing prisoners of their compulsions to dominate, and to gain and hold political power through virtually any means. In leaning so heavily on these dark impulses, they defined two of the most dangerous and troubling eras in American history.

Biden would surely be great if unleashed at Fourth of July picnics. What does that get him, though? He’s not running for the Wilmington, Delaware, city council. He’s trying to right the listing ship of state of a great continental nation.

The United States must get serious about its own survival as a republic dedicated to protecting individual life and liberty.

If the activist left succeeded in portraying itself as the heart and soul of the Democratic Party, the fault lies in much of the political media. Rather than sending Democrats a message, California has sent the media a message on where Democrats really stand on crime.