Iconoclast: Run, Hillary, Run!

President Trump this week “did what every president is expected to do,” notes Matthew Walther of The Week, with a healthy dose of sarcasm. “He spoke to the dreams and aspirations of hundreds of millions of Americans, putting into beautifully chosen words the ambitions long kept hidden in the secret chambers of their hearts.” Trump’s idea? “Crooked Hillary Clinton should enter the race” for president. Just what Americans want: a “straightforward soft reboot of the 2016” mess. Instead of issues, “we need Benghazi, Emailgate, the early gritty James Comey-era Russia investigation, DNC hacks, Ted Cruz convention delegate rule shenanigans, non-visits to Michigan, and thousand-word explainers on campaign websites about cartoon Nazi frogs.” Hillary should “give the people what they want,” snarks Walther. “Make America 2016 again.”

From the right: Backing Kurds Was a Time Bomb

President Trump’s desire to quit Syria is “cogent” and “consistent with the Constitution and public opinion,” argues National Review’s Andrew McCarthy. America’s interests there “have never been clear,” and Congress has never approved a Syrian military intervention. Yes, the Syrian Kurds have been our allies against ISIS, yet they fought “not for us” but “for themselves, with our help.” Plus, Turkey, which is now confronting the Kurds, “is our ally,” while the PKK — to which the Kurdish fighters are linked — is a US-designated terrorist organization. Turkey was “never going to countenance a Kurdish autonomous zone” on its border; backing the Kurds was a “time bomb.” Even if US “intentions toward this neighborhood are pure,” warns McCarthy, we can’t ignore the “significant downside risks.”

Interventionist: Don’t Desert the Kurds

Marc Thiessen at The Washington Post calls Trump’s “abandonment” of the Kurds in Syria “shameful” and blasts his claim that America is fighting an “endless war” in the Middle East. Only 1,000 US troops remain in Syria today; more than three times as many are stationed in Spain. Along with 14,000 troops in Afghanistan and 5,000 in Iraq, these soldiers are mainly carrying out “a noncombat mission known as ‘train, advise and assist.’ ” Besides, “if we allow Turkey to wipe out our Kurdish allies, who will be left … to fight the Islamic State? Answer: No one.” We’ll also be letting Iran “own all of Syria,” which will eventually “require us to deploy more troops to the region to counter Iranian aggression.”

From the left: Not All Dems Oppose Charters

“Listening to the rhetoric of Democratic presidential candidates, one would think charter schools were a Republican initiative opposed by all progressives,” Progressive Policy Institute directors David Osborne and Emily Langhorne bemoan at Medium. In fact, they “originated as a Democratic initiative.” What happened? Charters “tend not to unionize,” and by 2000, “union leaders and their allies had gone to war” against them, painting them as “a right-wing effort to ‘privatize’ our public schools.” Yet that’s nothing more than a lie meant to protect “the jobs of mostly white, middle-class teachers and union officials at the expense of mostly poor, minority kids.” Even today, “most education reformers are Democrats,” trying to put children first, even while “union-backed Democrats block them.” Voters should ask Democratic presidential candidates: “Which type of Democrat are you?”

Log Cabin Republican: Gays Can Be Conservative

“There is no easier way to make the left mad than being a gay Republican,” declares Joshua Herr, president of the Log Cabin Republicans of Los Angeles, at the Federalist. That’s because, “left-wing gay activists depend on creating the impression that all LGBT people are Democrats.” Promoting a “false narrative” helps them “consolidate unearned moral authority.” Recall that The Advocate, a magazine for gays, was so troubled when gay billionaire Peter Thiel backed Trump that it “promptly ran a piece arguing he isn’t actually gay — he just has sex with men. (Really. They did that. Look it up.)” It’s a lie that the “left has a monopoly on gay rights.” It doesn’t. In fact, “our ideas are better than theirs,” insists Herr, “and we’re not going anywhere.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board