AMERICA´S SOFT REVOLUTION / THE WALL STREET JOURNAL OP EDITORIAL

America’s Soft Revolution

Plus the myths of the Black Lives Matter movement and good news from Washington.

By James Freeman


“We’re in the midst of a rebellion,” writes Peggy Noonan, “a kind of soft French Revolution going on in America, with the angry and blocked beginning to push hard against an oblivious elite.” Gloria Steinem “thought she owned feminism, thought she was feminism. She doesn’t and isn’t. The Clintons thought they owned the party—they don’t. Hedge-funders thought they owned the GOP. Too bad they forgot to buy the base!”

Ms. Noonan adds that this rebellion accounts for the rise of Bernie Sanders and also Donald Trump, “a clever man with his finger on the pulse, but his political future depends on two big questions. The first is: Is he at all a good man? Underneath the foul mouthed flamboyance is he in it for America? The second: Is he fully stable? He acts like a nut, calling people bimbos, flying off the handle with grievances. Is he mature, reliable? Is he at all a steady hand? Political professionals think these are side questions. ‘Let’s accuse him of not being conservative!’ But they are the issue. Because America doesn’t deliberately elect people it thinks base, not to mention crazy.”

Mr. Sanders and Hillary Clinton have adopted the message of the Black Lives Matter movement. Today in our pages Heather Mac Donald punctures the myths of that movement.

Ms. Mac Donald writes that “fatal police shootings make up a much larger proportion of white and Hispanic homicide deaths than black homicide deaths.” Also, police officers “are killed by blacks at a rate 2.5 times higher than the rate at which blacks are killed by police.” Ms. Mac Donald adds that the Black Lives Matter movement “claims that white officers are especially prone to shooting innocent blacks due to racial bias, but this too is a myth. A March 2015 Justice Department report on the Philadelphia Police Department found that black and Hispanic officers were much more likely than white officers to shoot blacks based on ‘threat misperception’—that is, the mistaken belief that a civilian is armed.”

Speaking of Mrs. Clinton, our columnist Kimberley Strassel writes that “New Hampshire proved that concerns about Mrs. Clinton’s ethics aren’t merely a right-wing talking point.

They’ve permeated the electorate. Some stunning numbers: Among the one-third of Democratic primary voters who said ‘honesty’ was the top quality they wanted in a nominee, Mr. Sanders won 91%. Among the quarter who said they focused on a candidate who ‘cares about people like me,’ Mr. Sanders won 82%.”

A Journal editorial reports “good news from Washington. On Thursday the Senate finally passed—and the White House said the President intends to sign—a permanent extension of the Internet Tax Freedom Act.” The law will “protect against state and local governments imposing taxes on Internet access services or email.”

Amid downbeat economic news, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen “is being blamed for having raised interest rates a minuscule 0.25%, as if that’s enough to topple a $17 trillion economy,” notes the editorial board. “Our own view is that the Fed should have raised rates long ago when the economy was stronger, and it would have more room to maneuver now that growth is flagging.”

Former U.K. Treasury official Ed Balls says that leaving the European Union “would both weaken Britain’s voice on the big global issues and damage the nation’s economy. With half of U.K. trade tied up in Europe, and many U.S. and Asian multinationals currently basing their European headquarters in London, walking away now would cost us investment, jobs and income, as well as influence.”

Greek Orthodox Bishop Demetrios of Mokissos describes the “anti-Christian genocide” being perpetrated by ISIS and marks the anniversary of last year’s execution in Libya of 21 itinerant tradesman working on a construction job. “All were native Egyptians but one, a young African man whose identity is uncertain.” Though he was not a Christian when captured, “when challenged by the terrorists to declare his faith, he reportedly replied: ‘Their God is my God.’

In that moment, before his death, he became a Christian. The ISIS murderers seek to demoralize Christians with acts like the slaughter on a Libyan beach. Instead they stir our wonder at the courage and devotion inspired by God’s love,” writes the bishop.

“ChemChina’s $43 billion offer for Swiss-based chemical and biotech company Syngenta SYT 0.41 % still faces several obstacles,” notes the editorial board. “But if it goes through, the deal could bring a huge global benefit: breaking down China’s resistance to genetically modified crops and building its protections for intellectual property.”

“Every year, Americans spend nearly $19 billion on retail goods celebrating Valentine’s Day, and about $1.5 billion of that is on candy. One reason that heart-shaped box is so expensive—about $24 a pound for a brand-name basic assortment”—is the federal government’s price-control program, write Rep. Joe Pitts and David McIntosh