Newsletter: The problem with savvy opinion punditry during a constitutional crisis

Good morning. It Saturday, Feb. 8. Let’s look back at the week in Opinion.

Regular readers of this newsletter probably know that no kind of punditry bothers me more than contrarianism informed by little more than a writer’s political savvy. It bothered me when, in 2022, some commentators preemptively went “meh” before the House Jan. 6 Committee hearings detailed the disturbing actions Trump took to overturn an election.

I get it: Eschewing earnestness can be fashionable. You don’t want to be thought of as naive. But when you filter everything through a political lens, it can be hard to see that this stuff really matters.

Which brings us to a piece that, to put it mildly, irked me. Reacting to congressional Democrats’ public protests over the alarming shutdown of the U.S. Agency for International Development — a body authorized by an act of Congress — journalist Ken Klippenstein on his Substack page slammed not Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency minions who are illegally terrorizing the federal workforce. The objects of his ire were the Democrats protesting the rapid dismantling of USAID for demonstrating that they were “laughably out of touch.”

Yeah, but aren’t the Democrats basically right? Isn’t it wrong for an unvetted, unelected shadow president to visit destruction on government agencies authorized and funded by Congress? Am I laughably “out of touch” to think debates over the administration of USAID belong in Congress and not on the agency’s doorstep as it is being shut down?

I am of the mind that we need earnestness right now. You might tire of it — because really, who wants to worry all the time? — but a constitutional crisis demands it. For a good example of commentary that combines the urgency that this moment demands with a level of political savvy accrued over a long career reporting in Washington, look no further than our own op-ed columnist Jackie Calmes. Her latest piece, summarizing the “diktat a day” presidency of Donald Trump, contains a chilling message that’s a lot less fun to read than something about clumsy Democrats:

“The nation is in the midst of a rolling constitutional crisis.

“Though the founders charged presidents to ‘take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,’ the nation’s first convicted felon turned commander in chief has no time or patience for the process of passing laws or repealing those he doesn’t like. He’s choosing to be a strongman, exactly what the anti-monarchical founders were trying to prevent.”

And now, for the rest of the week in Opinion ...

Trump is right to end federal diversity programs. Matt K. Lewis says there’s at least one thing Trump got right in the first weeks of his presidency: “Amid the flurry of executive orders and initiatives President Trump has undertaken since returning to the White House, there are plenty of controversial — and in many cases probably unconstitutional — actions. But his order to dismantle diversity programs in the federal government stands out as a notable exception. Let’s hope it will be a shot across the bow, accelerating an end to these initiatives in the private sector as well.”

Corporate America isn’t abandoning DEI — it’s just rebranding it. The “DEI in the dustbin” narrative doesn’t hold up when you look at the data. Kenji Yoshino and David Glasgow of New York University say businesses are indeed adjusting to political and legal pressures and describing their diversity, equity and inclusion practices in different terms. Few, however, have abandoned the values underpinning their efforts.

How fast can L.A. get rid of all this debris from the fires? Trump suggested it could take a few days to clean up after the 6,100 homes that burned in Altadena and 5,500 that were lost in the Palisades fire. Of course, a debris removal effort of this scale will take a lot longer than that, but The Times’ editorial board says efforts should still be made to do it quickly. This will involve the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s oversight of the delicate process of removing toxic materials and, later, a large effort by private contractors and government agencies.

The Los Angeles fires demand a better answer to the question “How can I help?” Natalia Molina, a USC professor who was evacuated from her home in north Pasadena during the Eaton fire, says she sees challenges of instilling a service culture among her students today. “The well-documented decline of social-emotional skills in Gen Z post-pandemic doesn’t help build sustained, meaningful community engagement either,” she writes, and the institutions that serve young people need to respond.

From our columnists

• Jonah Goldberg: Many will lie about the consequences of Trump’s tariffs. The markets won’t
• Robin Abcarian: A new generation has its own Dr. Spock — and a very different take on parenting

From guest contributors

• 10 books to add to your reading list in February
• Why the federal worker buyouts are no panacea for the U.S. budget
• Not for his haters or his superfans, this Woody Allen biography is for the rest of us
• Why no water system is built with capacity for fires like Palisades and Eaton

Letters to the editor

• “I hope you lose sleep”: A doctor’s message to senators who vote to confirm RFK Jr.
• Republicans, are you truly OK with Trump’s retribution against Mark Milley?
• Elon Musk’s illegal takeover of the U.S. government needs to stop now