Democrat: Leave the Theatrics to Hollywood

The US entertainment industry’s “gloriously cutthroat” spirit “makes America the cultural center of the world and a domestic economic growth engine,” but the suit by a dozen blue-state attorneys general to “block the acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery by Paramount Skydance puts it all at risk” with bogus antitrust claims, warns Ari Emanuel at The Wall Street Journal. In their “trash” antitrust case, the AGs “pretend Amazon MGM, A24 and Lionsgate don’t exist” though their films have grossed billions already this year. The merged firm’s “27% share of feature-film box office” won’t “substantially lessen competition”; indeed, the deal leaves the new company “committed to at least 30 theatrical releases a year.” “The harm doesn’t begin when the attorneys general win their suit,” it began when money started to pour “into legal fees rather than productions.” “Let Hollywood creatives get back to trying to rip each other’s heads off . . . it’s what we’re best at.”

Conservative: Dems Outgrew Common Sense

Elon Musk in a recent interview offered “a powerful diagnosis of the growing gulf between America and Europe, Republicans and Democrats, ‘normal people’ and the mainstream media,” remarks USA Today’s Nicole Russell. The interviewer claimed Musk “supports not just the populist right but the far right — in fact, very fringe parties”; he replied, “No, I support the normal people. What you call the far right, falsely.” Russell continues: He dared his questioner “to consider that 10 to 15 years ago, Obama and Clinton held the same views on immigration and other issues that Trump holds today, views the ‘lunatic left’ now brands far right.” At every level of government, “commonsense ideas Democrats once agreed on are now dismissed as fringe” and: “The chasm between right and left” is “dug deeper by the media.”

Libertarian: Too Many Elex Over From the Start

Some 150 House races this year “had no meaningful competition,” gripes Reason’s Eric Boehm, with incumbents “all but guaranteed another two years in office after running unopposed in their primaries” in districts that are super-safe red or blue seats — leaving more than 84 million Americans “effectively disenfranchised.” California, Washington and Hawaii now have “open, all-candidate primaries,” leaving only five of their 63 House seats uncontested. Yes, that often means “two candidates from the same party advancing” to the general, but it beats watching more than one-third of candidates win before the election even starts. “Americans should be embracing any and all ideas that aim to make elections more competitive.”

Historian: DSA Takeover Was By Invitation

The socialist “takeover of the Democratic Party” wasn’t sparked by concerns about ‘affordability,’ ” but “was merely the logical culmination of . . . radicalism within the Democratic aristocracy,” including “Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and Hakeem Jeffries,” contends Victor Davis Hanson at American Greatness. “Mainstream Democrats” spread nearly every “weaponized scam and national hysteria in the last two decades.” Did the “Democratic apparat calm the waters,” when “three would-be assassins got close enough to killing Trump?” Did they “at least pretend to deplore the violence” against ICE? No, socialists “did not hijack the party;” they “were spawned and nurtured by aged Democrats,” adding only antisemitism. “America will soon see how this insanity works out.”

Urbanist: Rent Freeze at Real Risk

In response to the Rent Guidelines Board vote “to fulfill the mayor’s campaign promise” of a “rent freeze,” a group of “affected property owners” have sued “to nullify” that 0% hike, notes City Journal’s John Ketcham. A politically-motivated vote “could constitute a violation of due process.” The law requires the RGB to “weigh evidence of certain economic factors” in its deliberations, yet the “evidence before the RGB — based upon the board’s own research — does not support” the freeze, since it found landlords’ expenses up 5.3% in the last year. Plus, multiple board members have well-documented “histories of anti-owner bias,” also supporting “a finding that the RGB’s decision was arbitrary and capricious.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board