Peace patrol: Negotiate To Free Iranians

New US-Iran talks will “focus on Iran’s nuclear ambitions,” admits The Free Press’ Eli Lake, but “President Donald Trump should aim higher than just another nuclear deal that eventually expires”: He has a chance “to make good on his initial pledge” to aid the people he “promised to liberate.” He has the leverage to ensure that ordinary Iranians “get something out of a deal.” Trump can choose to extract “promises from a near-bankrupt regime not to rebuild a nuclear program,” but he can also “pressure the mullahs to restore the internet, end the executions,” and free imprisoned Iranians.

Urban beat: ‘Effective Leadership’ = Safer Streets

Washington, DC, these last five years has “witnessed a stunning shift in carjacking offenses, exposing the consequences of political leadership,” reports Charles Stimson at The Washington Times. During President Joe Biden’s time in office, carjackings soared, averaging 586 a year. “An alarming 74%” involved firearms, and juveniles made up 64% of arrests. The arrest-to-offense rate “hovered at a meager 25%.” Yet in President Trump’s first year, “carjackings plunged to 232,” less than half the Biden rate. The arrest-to-offense rose to 58%, which “speaks volumes,” and juvenile arrests fell to 51%. “These are not coincidences”: “Effective leadership and a willingness to enforce the law translate into safer streets.” Now it’s time to close “loopholes, empower law enforcement, and protect our city.”

From the left: Stonings Aren’t ‘Accountability’

Vile as Eric Swalwell is, “what’s happening with him is insanity, not progress,” argues Racket News’ Matt Taibbi. Bare days after the first sex-assault allegations hit, he was out of California’s gov race, under criminal investigation and resigned form the House, “going from Congressman to corpse in less than 72 hours.” The “rising subtext” here: “Because Americans are clamoring for ‘accountability’ they feel is lacking in the Jeffrey Epstein drama, it’s appropriate to speed punishment for Swalwell and others.” No! “Punishing one person faster to make up for perceived slowness in other cases is the opposite of justice.” Yet due process is out the window, “left and right.” Beware: “Swalwell may be scum, but it’s worth taking time to find out exactly what kind, for when his former peers rush justice, they threaten something much worse.”

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Justice: Progressives vs. the Declaration

“The Constitution is the means of government,” expounds Justice Clarence Thomas in The Wall Street Journal, but “it is the Declaration [of Independence] that announces the ends of government,” which is to protect the “vision of universal, inalienable natural rights” that defines the American project. “Progressivism’s rejection” of that vision, led by Woodrow Wilson, was informed by “a great deal of contempt for us, the American people.” Among the “principles of the Declaration” is the “conscious decision to reject central planning and administrative rule,” a choice that explains why “America has never had a socialist party” and all the bloodshed that attends socialism, which occurs when “natural rights give way to the higher good of notions of history.”

Conservative: What Not To Debate About Trump

National Review’s Dan McLaughlin explains why he no longer writes much “about Trump’s personal and public character, and on the extent to which he acts, speaks, carries himself, and makes decisions in ways that a president should”: “Just about everybody in political commentary has said just about everything along the way that they could possibly say on the topic, and just about every American who consumes political news has been more stuffed to the gills” with it. “I don’t believe that a man of Trump’s character ought to be president,” but for the next 2½ years, he “holds the constitutional powers of the presidency.” “It is sensible, fair, and necessary to continue to critique what he does with those powers. But there is not much more to be gained at this juncture by criticizing who he is.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board