Here is the Heritage Take on the top issues today.Please reply to this email to arrange an interview.
The battle over parents’ rights in education is just getting started <[link removed]> – Schools are promoting the notion that some kids – perhaps many kids if recent trends continue – are born in the wrong body. Suddenly, from Florida to Texas to Wyoming, parents are discovering that schools are teaching, seemingly across the curriculum, that an internal sense of gender trumps biological sex. Worse, some schools are changing, at their students’ request – but without their parents’ knowledge <[link removed]> or consent – their students’ names and pronouns to conform to a child’s surprising new “gender identity.” When parents come to school board meetings to complain, far too many are met with silence or risible accusations that they are politicizing education. Parents have the primary right and responsibility to raise and teach their children. Many parents delegate part of the teaching task to schools, in an act of trust. Rather than acting as faithful stewards of that trust, too many schools have decided that it’s their job to alienate kids from “regressive” views of their parents. Is it any wonder that this has proved controversial? We could dissipate some of the heat by increasing the rights of parents over their children’s schooling. States should connect school money to children, rather than to school buildings. Universal school choice for everyone – rich and poor, conservative and liberal – would not just make schools better and more competitive. It would make them less of an arena for the culture war that is otherwise roiling our culture. Heritage Expert: Jay Richards <[link removed]>
‘Is there a U.S.-China Cold War’ is the wrong question <[link removed]> – Protecting the U.S. economy from Beijing <[link removed]>’s debilitating exploitation and consequent malicious actions requires an offensive-defensive mix. Washington must vouchsafe Americans and their interests from Chinese actions that undermine U.S. competitiveness and prosperity. It must also take active deterrence measures to significantly reduce Beijing <[link removed]>’s ability to threaten America and our allies. The U.S. must have a plan that will make economic aggression unaffordable for Beijing <[link removed]>, while allowing the American economy to grow and thrive. To win this kind of war, the U.S. must have a decade or more of unprecedented growth. That means removing needless Washington-imposed restraints on growth, re-establishing American energy dominance (including fossil fuels and nuclear energy), and curbing federal spending and the burgeoning national debt. It means also strengthening the U.S. military so China <[link removed]> is deterred from thinking it could survive — let alone win — a military conflict. Washington has allowed our military to shrink and hollow out to the point that, for the first time ever, the annual “Index of U.S. Military Strength” now rates our hard power as “weak,” compared to mounting global threats. This trend must be reversed. Heritage Expert: James Carafano <[link removed]>
How Europe’s Energy Crisis Is Becoming an Economic Crisis <[link removed]> – For Europe, the current energy crisis is teetering on that ledge. The result of the EU’s centrally-managed approach has been a series of layoffs and cutbacks <[link removed]>, and high prices have led European families to switch off appliances <[link removed]> and stockpile <[link removed]> firewood to cut down on energy costs. Countries are scrambling for short-term relief. But while reopening shuttered coal <[link removed]> plants and filling gas storage facilities to
capacity <[link removed]> may offer some momentary reprieve, it does not shield the continent in the long term. Rather than committing to ban the sale of gas-powered vehicles by 2035 <[link removed]> or to finance new wind turbines and solar parks <[[[link removed]]]>, the EU should refrain from centrally managing Europe’s energy economy. Instead, European politicians should focus on fostering a market environment that allows a diverse and resilient energy economy to emerge. Europe cannot continue a policy of restriction. What the continent needs is to adopt policies that open energy markets and promote energy abundance. That is the only way to secure Europe’s energy and economic future. Heritage Expert: Rachael Wilfong <[link removed]>
1 State Seeks to Prevent Its Own Roe Among Midterm Choices on Abortion <[link removed]> – Most recently, in a 2019 case, Westerfield v. Ward <[link removed]>, the Kentucky Supreme Court was faced with interpreting a proposed amendment to the commonwealth’s constitution that was slated for publication on the upcoming election ballot. In determining that the proposed amendment was not constitutional in light of other provisions of the commonwealth’s constitution, Minton wrote: “When interpreting constitutional provisions, we look first and foremost to the express language of the provision, ‘and words must be given their plain and usual meaning.’” Together, the effect of these principles of
interpretation is clear: The express language of the commonwealth’s constitution confers no right to abortion. And Kentucky judges cannot read one into that constitution, no matter the abortion policy outcome they want. Kentucky’s proposed constitutional amendment is an effort to avoid the commonwealth’s own version of Roe v. Wade. And, as the U.S. Supreme Court determined in Dobbs <[link removed]>, to keep the power in the hands of the “people’s representatives” on a matter of significant importance. Heritage Expert: Sarah Parshall Perry <[link removed]>
Bibi’s Back <[link removed]> – Benjamin Netanyahu has won the fifth Israeli election in as many years and will form a new government in the coming weeks. Netanyahu can be expected to broadly reprise his signature policies in pursuit of strong national security and robust economic growth for the Jewish state, along with his opposition to the Islamic Republic of Iran. While his relationship with the Biden administration will likely be frosty, he will enjoy high support among Republicans and conservative Jews in the U.S. This sets up a unique dynamic for the U.S.–Israel relationship as it approaches its 75th anniversary next May. Netanyahu is already Israel’s longest-tenured prime minister, having previously occupied the post from 1996 to 1999 and from 2009 to 2021. He has also, at one time or another over the years, been Israel’s minister of foreign affairs, its minister of finance, its minister of communications, and its permanent representative to the United Nations. He is, in short, the most credentialed politician in Israeli history. Heritage Expert: Victoria
Coates <[link removed]>
Why International Climate Summits Are Doomed to Fail, Part 2:
Upward Mobility for Poor Depends on Energy <[link removed]> – Here’s a reality-framing statement for the roughly 190 countries headed to the COP27 climate summit <[link removed]> in Egypt that opens on Sunday: Global carbon dioxide emissions in 2022 appear to be higher than
pre-pandemic levels, again, and yet, according <[link removed]> to the U.N., greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced 43% (relative to 2019 levels) by 2030. Why is the Conference of the Parties 27 in Egypt likely destined for failure as the <[link removed]>summits before <[link removed]> it were? Two-thirds <[link removed]> of carbon dioxide emissions growth is coming from developing countries—and for good reason. While many Western nations have enjoyed relatively uninhibited access to energy for more than a century, people in developing countries lack reliable and affordable—or in some cases, any—access to heat, power, and transportation energy. Heritage Expert: Katie Tubb <[link removed]>
-
