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This was a year in which America agonized over the age of its leaders and watched the GOP flail and Donald Trump fight with prosecutors and judges in courtrooms. Baseball changed its rules, Sam Bankman-Fried went down hard, ChatGPT caused mass anxiety, and our republic survived another year.
Here is what the Tribune Editorial Board had to say about national issues in 2023.
The job of America’s Federal Reserve System, commonly know as the Fed, is to maximize employment, stabilize prices, make sure that the nation’s banks are stable and taking care of our money and conduct impartial research so American businesses and individuals have a better basis for their individual decision-making.
The job of the Fed is not to solve the issues of climate change, societal inequity, systemic bias, or indeed to meddle in a whole variety of other contentious political issues that some in the progressive wing of the Democratic Party would like to see on the party’s daily agenda. Voters elect representatives to wrestle with such issues. They’re not the Fed’s job, not least because the entity is supposed to be an independent central bank that is neither elected nor beholden to the political administration of the day.
Jan. 25: The life of freshman U.S. Rep. George Santos, a Republican, has started to unravel.
We will add our voice to the massed choir that calls for Santos’ resignation. If a fabulist of this level of invention is fit to serve in Congress, then the message sent to young Americans about what public service represents and demands is utterly compromised. It befuddles us that Santos’ Republican colleagues apparently don’t see this situation through a longer lens than the political expediency of the moment.
But that’s not our main point here. The Santos situation is a reminder that once unsuitable candidates are elected for public office, they are very difficult to remove because colleagues weigh the possibility of other consequences, especially for themselves. Exhibit A here is former President Donald J. Trump.
There were was plenty of prominent early misgivings in the media to read when it came to Trump. But when it comes to local races, voters cannot always trust the media with the biggest reach to do that job for them. The Santos affair is a reminder that it is imperative to get to know the candidates for whom you are voting, whatever the nature of the election.
The statement from the Energy Department should be cause enough for much of the U.S. media to conduct a painful post-mortem on why it was so reluctant to credit this clearly logical theory with any status beyond a fringe view held by supporters of Donald J. Trump and other so-called outliers.
Whatever eventually proves to be the truth of the COVID-19 beginnings, here is evidence of just how partisan and unhinged much of the media coverage of the pandemic became, especially when combined with a cadre of often self-anointed and dubiously qualified public-health experts who had been seduced by the chance to make their names, and in some cases a buck or two from their personas on social media.
We are no fans of the former president and see his influence on our democracy as chaotically pernicious. Still, the collective hatred of Trump and the scorn with which his pronouncements typically were greeted meant that many in the media suspended one of journalism’s most crucial creeds: to check everything out.
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Assault-style rifles are built for mass killing. An AR-15 bullet wields three times more speed and energy than a round from a handgun. Together with high-capacity magazines, assault-style rifles serve the sole purpose of inflicting mass carnage. We have written many times about the scripted argument Republican legislators make after every mass shooting: It’s not the gun, it’s all about the person brandishing it. And, yes, clearly guns do not fire themselves.
But how many mass shootings, how much bloodshed at schools, will it take for Americans to realize this crisis should be tackled solely with a nonpartisan approach? After the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S., Americans collectively rallied against the threat of terrorism. The scourge of mass shootings shouldn’t be treated any differently.
The Saudi role in the international business community, which includes sports, is open to debate, as is the question of whether the country’s involvement with international golf could be a positive for all concerned.
Still, there is no argument whatsoever to be made for Monahan suddenly dropping his moral posturing when Saudi cash started to flow his way, too, and it appeared he would be able to retain his own power. All he had to do was swallow his scruples. That pivot was simply unconscionable. Even cynical politicians were blown away by the brazenness of it all.
“So weird. PGA officials were in my office just months ago talking about how the Saudis’ human rights record should disqualify them from having a stake in a major American sport,” U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., tweeted Tuesday. “I guess maybe their concerns weren’t really about human rights?”
We guess you are correct, Senator.
July 21: Tony Bennett has died, and the American Songbook loses its great defender.
Bennett’s Ravinia appearances toward the end of summer were the most poignant, his signature voice offering a note of melancholy as Chicagoland families, often arrayed together on the lawn, bellies full, wine glasses empty and bodies wrapped in blankets, pondered the passage of another season as Bennett opened up his heart for them. The singer’s advancing age was, of course, an inherent part of the experience: Many of his fans were similarly amazed at how old they seemed to be becoming themselves, and they took solace in Bennett’s keeping on, keeping on.
Even as the world kept changing, and to many minds kept getting worse, Bennett was a constant. Crucially, he offered a measure of balm and restoration. He did not have Frank Sinatra’s abrasion or even Sammy Davis Jr.’s level of talent. But he was knowable, a singer who knew how to reflect his audience right back at them. And to convey their aspirations for love, friendship and happiness as he did so.
He was a one-man force when it came to educating America on its own history of popular music. Now he is gone, the American Songbook has reason to worry.
Ohio GOP lawmakers who put the measure on the ballot smoke-screened their real intent by pitching it as a bid to firewall the amendment process from deep-pocketed special interests.
The gambit didn’t work. It clearly was all about torpedoing a ballot initiative slated for November that would beef up Ohio’s state constitution with an amendment protecting abortion rights. Turnout among Ohioans for last week’s vote was massive — almost twice as large as it was for last year’s primaries for governor and legislative races. And instead of neutralizing the push to codify abortion rights, the GOP measure emboldened it by forging a coalition of liberal Democrats, independents and moderate Republicans who believe in a woman’s right to choose.
Now Republicans may see Ohio join California, Michigan and Vermont as states that have amended their constitutions to protect abortion rights. In 10 other states, pro-abortion rights advocates are trying to get abortion protection amendments added to state constitutions. When will the GOP learn?
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Sept. 3. Jimmy Buffett, singer and entrepreneur, has died.
Nashville didn’t understand Jimmy Buffett. Nor, for that matter, did Broadway. But the singer’s fans, Parrotheads by name, knew that Buffett was actually something of a prophet: He sang, fundamentally, of a world beyond work, a tuneful place of fun and cocktails, friendships and frolic, community and good times.
Like Dolly Parton, Buffett was an all-American unifier, serving up concerts that, as he said once rightly told the Tribune, put people in a “state of exuberation.” However questionable the noun, he made it work. His fans would go back to their jobs the following Monday, perhaps better armed for the stress and the strain.
Writing about Buffett on Labor Day seems incongruous, but, in fact, his personal brand was the embodiment of the rewards of hard work: a chance to kick back, have a good time, listen to some tunes, look for a lost shaker of salt.
Buffett also was a kindhearted man who loved Chicago. We once asked him about his retirement. “Retire from what?” was his answer.
The business of AI would benefit from more transparency and open disclosures, to build the trust and credibility that does not exist today. AI should be deployed with as much mutual consent among those involved as possible. And paying attention to the livelihoods of the people most directly affected also would go a long way to relieving concerns about what’s happening in the bowels of tech companies developing AI. ...
Chicago Tribune Opinion
Technically, computers may be able to outthink us, and they certainly can process data more efficiently. But humans will always have the edge because we are more creative. After all, we built the machines.
And one last thing: Some editorial boards of late have been having AI write an “editorial” or two as a kind of instructive case study or as a lighthearted exercise. As far as we know, there has been clear disclosure. But that’s still playing with fire. And it won’t happen here, at least not until somebody, or something, runs us out of town.
Dec. 17: America’s elite campuses have been roiled by debates over free speech and antisemitism.
The main issue with the congressional testimony, aside from the (three university) presidents failing to make a clear statement in support of their fearful Jewish students, was the Johnny-come-lately aspect of their defense of free speech by critics of Israel. Everyone knows they had not been affording similar, Voltaire-like principles to anyone with whom the progressive orthodoxy disagreed, often citing student safety, of all things. The hypocrisy was breathtaking.
We suggest these leaders pour themselves a glass of mulled wine as they close up their campuses and resolve in 2024 to reengage with critical thinking, hire more faculty with diverse points of view as well as diverse racial identities and privilege teaching over activism. They should refrain, too, from issuing institutional memos of outrage or support, unless they honestly think they can do so when the issue in play is out of their ideological comfort zones.
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