Fast Takes: Dems rotten record on pump pain, Chicago rebukes teachers union, and other commentary

“Democrats won” the midterms “largely on the issue of higher gas prices,” notes Fox News’ David Asma, but “those same Democrats have done everything they can to raise gas prices when they’ve been in power.” President Joe Biden “cancelled the 1,200-mile-long Keystone XL pipeline,” which provided “exactly the kind of fuel we’re in most need of right now.” And the “multi-trillion-dollar green energy spending boondoggle” in “Biden’s infamously named ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ ” was “a major factor in the Biden administration’s 21.5% cumulative inflation, which is still part of the unaffordability crisis that Democrats blame on President Trump.” Yes, “voters became understandably frustrated” with higher prices as the Iran war dragged on, but “Democrats are in no position to criticize current gas prices with their history of policies that increase the price at the pump.”The Windy City just saw “the clearest voter referendum yet” on the Chicago Teachers Union’s “militancy and outsized impact on city politics,” cheers the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board.Voters elected independent Jessica Biggs as school-board president over union-backed Hilario Dominguez; the CTU’s “strained and absurd efforts to tie Biggs to Trump” totally “fell flat.” The board will be split “between those supporting CTU’s agenda and those who are independent,” but her tie-breaking vote keeps “control of the board out of the hands of the union” in the “near-bankrupt” district.

CTU members should “take stock of their union’s unpopularity and consider a change in direction.” Biggs must steer the board away from “agitating for more cash to prop up a bloated system,” prioritizing the 304,000 public-school students who’ve been “pawns in CTU’s ideological crusade.”“Trump has run on instinct and whatever courtiers and hangers-on whisper in his ear, ignoring public opinion,” argues Keith Naughton at USA T...