for The Hill

For Virginia Democrats like me, the odd-year elections earlier this month were like a gruesome coda to Halloween. Republicans swept the top three statewide offices, took over the House of Delegates and knocked the Old Dominion back into swing state status.

As painful as they were, however, the Democratic losses in Virginia and close shave in New Jersey have had one salutary effect: They seem to have popped the progressive bubble — the activist left’s claims, credulously accepted by many media commentators, to be the authentic voice and future of the Democratic Party.

Post-election analysis has highlighted the pitfalls for Democrats of heeding only that voice. The protracted battle in Washington over progressives’ big social spending demands has reinforced public doubts about President Biden. Republicans also made notable gains among parents angry over school closures, falling standards and academic “antiracism” theories promoted by progressive social justice warriors.

for The Hill

At the 11th hour of climate negotiations in Scotland last week, the U.S. and China released a “Joint Glasgow Declaration on Enhancing Climate Action in the 2020s” outlining increased cooperation on a wide range of climate and clean energy topics. The communique’s careful language was redolent of Cold War détente documents, increasing a sense that climate change bargaining with China, Russia and other adversaries is becoming like Cold War nuclear nonproliferation negotiations: failure could be catastrophic, so enhanced cooperation is crucial, but often slow-going.

Yet, the climate crisis doesn’t permit the luxury of time. Leading science finds that to limit devastating near-term climate impacts, and reduce risks of runaway warming, China especially must cut its emissions as soon as possible this decade, not just in the long-term.  So far, however, despite the new declaration, and climate discussions this week between President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Beijing has made no such commitment. In fact, Chinese coal use just reached an all-time high.