2018 ideology primer:

2018 ideology primer:

Progressivism: “We want to take what you earned and give it to those who feel entitled to it, don’t deserve it, and shouldn’t have it.”

Conservatism: “No”

— John Cardillo (@johncardillo) January 1, 2018

Why have California's pension funds fallen so far short of their projected returns? Part of it is that they base investment decisions on their political beliefs.

Why have CA pension fund returns tanked? Part of it may be they invest based on their political beliefs https://t.co/K3lqsAP00w #CAPolitics

— HJTA.org (@HJTA) February 21, 2017

The day he was sworn in to the California Assembly, freshman Bay Area Democrat Ash Kalra filed his first piece of legislation: Assembly Bill 20, which would force the state’s two largest public employee retirement funds, CalSTRS and CalPERS, to divest from companies involved in building the disputed Dakota Access pipeline.

The bill, if it were to become law (and it shouldn’t), wouldn’t stop the project from being completed. The Army Corps of Engineers has already given final approval to the remaining section of the pipeline. It would, however, blow a multibillion-dollar hole in the pension funds — and the public pocketbook, because state and local taxpayers would be left to fill that hole....

Polls show 50% of Democrats have no problem with gov't owning or controlling the private sector

Polls show 50% of Democrats have no problem with gov't owning or controlling the private sector. https://t.co/6skVH1jHRD #tcot

— IBDeditorials (@IBDeditorials) April 30, 2016

NOONAN: Trump is on track to become the BIGGEST primary vote-getter in GOP history

NOONAN: Trump is on track to become the BIGGEST primary vote-getter in GOP history. https://t.co/xIkIL04LmG

— slone (@slone) April 29, 2016

NOONAN: Trump's popularity is rooted in patriotism, not adherence to party dogma. https://t.co/xIkIL04LmG pic.twitter.com/9z3H9zXmKL

— slone (@slone) April 29, 2016

...Mr. Trump’s appeal is simple: What Trump supporters believe, what they perceive as they watch him, is that he is on America’s side.

And that comes as a great relief to them, because they believe that for 16 years Presidents Bush and Obama were largely about ideologies. They seemed not so much on America’s side as on the side of abstract notions about justice and the needs of the world. Mr. Obama’s ideological notions are leftist, and indeed he is a hero of the international left. He is about international climate-change agreements, and leftist views of gender, race and income equality. Mr. Bush’s White House was driven by a different ideology—neoconservatism, democratizing, nation building, defeating evil in the world, privatizing Social Security.

But it was all ideology.

Then Mr. Trump comes and in his statements radiate the idea that he’s not at all interested in ideology, only in making America great again—through border security and tough trade policy, etc. He’s saying he’s on America’s side, period.

And because people are so happy to hear this after 16 years, because it seems right to them, they give him a pass on his lack of experience in elective office and the daily realities of national politics. They accept him even though he is a casino developer and brander who became famous on reality TV.

They forgive it all. Not only because they’re tired of bad policy but because they’re tired of ideology....