Fast Takes: RI govs lesson for Dems, North Koreas Lefty pawns and more

Rhode Island Gov.Dan McKee’s loss in the Democratic primary last week “is a lesson that courting the left can’t overcome government incompetence,” argues The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board.

Having slipped on the repair of a major bridge, to which “the press attributes his drubbing,” McKee “tried to buy union support” by passing a tax hike and “imposing a three-year moratorium on new charter schools,” which the teachers union had demanded.But “such sops to the left” didn’t help him.

Especially when Rhode Island’s “declining business environment” led CNBC to “rate the state’s economy dead last” this year.“Buying off liberal special interests doesn’t offset the costs of government dysfunction, even among Democratic voters.”“A proliferation of pro-North Korean groups” in recent years “have done wonders for North Korea’s image on the broader Left” in America, warns City Journal’s Stu Smith.

These groups “portray totalitarian North Korea as one of the world’s most democratic countries,” and their “growing reach” among activists and NGOs “poses threats to regional security.” The movement “is committed to reducing American defensive might in the region” and “strengthening” America’s foes.Pro-North Korean organizers have recently “stepped up their outreach efforts,” and as the “bloc of activist groups expands and strengthens” itself, the “time has come to take meaningful action against it,” because “policymakers and lawmakers can no longer afford to ignore the questions surrounding these groups.”“I grew up in Pennsylvania in the 1970s,” recalls Steven Greenhut at The Orange County Register, when “giant steel mills, oil refineries, and clanking, pollution-spewing factories” all “loomed over our communities.” So why the panic over “clean, low-slung and quiet” data centers? The nation’s “data-center concerns are so severe” that they’re warping pol...