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APRIL 5, 2022
Meyerson on TAP
American Values vs. Big-Money Realpolitik at the Journal
Rupert Murdoch’s editorialists disparage Biden’s stance against Saudi murderers.
Like any self-respecting reader, I try not to let the editorials of The Wall Street Journal annoy me. The paper’s editorialists are to capitalism what Trotskyite sectarians are to socialism: malignant fantasists who embrace so extreme a version of their doctrine of choice that it’s only by accident that good judgement occasionally seeps into their pronouncements. Of course, the viewpoints they express have far more traction than their Trotskyist counterparts’, but that’s because most American capitalists are more prey to extremism than most American socialists.

But my well-honed Journal defense mechanisms notwithstanding, I find that a line from one Journal editorial last month has stuck with me. It’s from an editorial chastising the Biden administration for its undue concern for human rights and even the sanctity of life when it comes to its relations with Saudi Arabia. As the paper put it (and this is not the passage that stuck with me, "Mr. Biden and his advisers say this is all about human rights. They rode into town on a high horse concerning the Riyadh-orchestrated 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi." (Note the deflection of blame from Saudi de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman, whom the CIA identified as the person who ordered Khashoggi’s killing, in the words "Riyadh-orchestrated.")

The "Saudi bungle" of Biden’s failing to curry favor with MBS, the Journal continued, "highlights the failure of Mr. Biden’s brand of righteous liberal internationalism." Then came the sentence I just can’t shake:

President Trump too often gave short shrift to American values, but Mr. Biden has swung too far in the opposite direction.

And thus, President Biden as seen by the Journal: Not just way too "righteous liberal" but also way too, well, "American." Sometimes, those Journal guys are too naked for their own good.

The Rank-and-File Organizers Who Took On Amazon
Amazon’s heavy-handed tactics triggered an explosion of organizing from inside its Staten Island warehouse, leading to a union victory. BY LUIS FELIZ LEON
The Dance of Liberals and Radicals
Appreciating the wisdom of Todd Gitlin—and what his insights about the 1960s tell us about the present moment BY ROBERT KUTTNER
Terms and Conditions Need Not Apply
‘Buy now, pay later,’ the latest fashion in consumer debt, is even worse than credit cards. BY JAROD FACUNDO
Insulin Bill Won’t Help Many Insulin Patients
A proposed cap on co-payments won’t do anything for those without insurance. BY RAMENDA CYRUS
 
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