Commentary

Too often post-election pundits can’t help but paint broad brushes of why certain demographics did or did not turn out and why they voted the way they did. When things go wrong for one party or right with the other, the analysis centers on messaging, strategy, and outreach. In Maryland, Asian-American and Pacific Islander voters are too often seen as a monolith. As a result, grassroots or media outreach is rarely comprehensive. Intentional AAPI outreach requires time and effort — candidates and aligned organizations must work with community and business leaders across the AAPI spectrum to pinpoint the issues that are important to this very diverse community. In some districts, it can be the difference between winning and losing.

As Christmas approaches, not everyone is celebrating. American families — hit hard by inflation, wage stagnation and layoffs — must confront another challenge: an expired child tax credit. The program, which provides cash handouts to parents and is vociferously backed by President Joe Biden, has been hailed as instrumental in reducing child poverty. But renewing the child tax credit has proved challenging. Now, with a few weeks remaining before a new Congress takes office, advocates of the child tax credit are pushing for a renewal in an end-of-year tax package. The political pain point comes down to work. Republicans want parental toil in exchange for government cash. Democrats, not so much.

As Robert Iger takes the reins at Disney from maligned outgoing CEO Bob Chapek, industry analysis has treated his re-ascension to the helm as a necessary antidote for the struggling company. But the fact that Iger is retaking the CEO role demonstrates real limitations and blind spots in his own leadership. Chapek, of course, was Iger’s hand-selected successor. While many of Disney’s current challenges may have come about from Chapek’s stilted rule and ill-devised decisions to focus on profit over culture, it is also clear that he was not set up to succeed.

Maine lobster has become somewhat controversial in recent months, as conservation groups identified the gear fishermen use to trap lobster (specifically, the vertical lines used to retrieve traps) as a threat to the already-endangered North Atlantic right whale. Critics took issue with the propriety of serving lobster to French President Emmanuel Macron — even if butter-poached with American Osetra caviar — at the first state dinner of Joe Biden’s presidency on Dec. 1. And Whole Foods announced last month it would stop carrying Maine lobster in its stores, as it was no longer regarded as sustainable by the nonprofit Marine Stewardship Council or California-based Seafood Watch. Yet getting entangled with lobster gear in the Gulf of Maine or Georges Bank is not the only threat facing right whales.

Quick, what do the Baltimore County communities of White Marsh and Lutherville have in common? Well, they are both near the Baltimore Beltway at major interchanges (Interstate 95 for White Marsh and Interstate 83 for Lutherville). They are both classic unincorporated, relatively small suburban communities, and married couples are the leading demographic in each, with most residents living in single-family homes. And they are both dominated by fading centralized commercial centers with noticeable vacancies — White Marsh Mall for one, and the cluster of strip shopping centers around Ridgely and York roads for the other.

For Maryland Republicans, the 2022 general election is probably one to forget. Their statewide candidates were drubbed by the victorious Democrats. Of three competitive county executive races in the suburbs, they won zero. They lost seats in the Maryland General Assembly, including the defeat of the party’s first Black woman state delegate in Maryland. Where does the Maryland Republican Party go from here? It’s hard to say, as the party’s recent state convention was closed to press and the newly elected chairwoman and the executive director didn’t respond to our interview requests. But we’ll give it a shot.

Last week, the Air Force unveiled its first new strategic bomber in 34 years — a boomerang-shaped stealth plane called the B-21 Raider that may ultimately cost taxpayers some $200 billion — and the country barely noticed. Also last week came reports that China’s nuclear warhead stockpile had doubled since 2020 and could reach 1,500 by the mid-2030s, closer to parity with the United States and Russia. This also went mostly unnoticed. Maybe we were too busy freaking out over Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter.