RUTHFULLY YOURS

Multiple explanations exist for Donald Trump’s popularity, but one stands out above all: his willingness to violate that taboos of Political Correctness and speak the unvarnished truth on such hot button topics as immigration and Islam. Nearly all Americans are angry at being lied to and having to watch themselves as if they lived in Stasi-run East Germany. Who wants to risk ending a career by admitting that some groups are more crime-prone or intelligent than others? Or announcing that men are naturally better suited to combat than women and having this self-evident pronouncement treated as an embarrassing gaffe that requires immediate groveling and begging forgiveness? In a nutshell, Trump is unafraid to speak truth about the overly sensitive, easily offended groups protected by the mendacious “establishment.” Now, at last, millions of potential voters long starved for honesty have a champion.

As Trump refuses to fold, it is inevitable that his rivals (and perhaps the Democratic nominee) will grasp the benefit of similarly embracing this anti-PC view. We can already see hints of this copycat strategy in the new “tough” Jeb Bush commercials.

But while it is all too easy to be anti-PC in the abstract, the proof of a candidate’s seriousness can only be displayed in the specifics. With that in mind, let me propose a five-question test to assess a candidate’s aversion to PC that could, in principle, devastate a political career. Destroying careers is not, however, our aim; rather, the goal is to calibrate the sincerity of those who condemn PC on the cheap. We do not expect perfect frankness; more important is how they hem and haw and run for cover when asked “offensive” questions.

WASHINGTON—South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley accused President Barack Obama Tuesday of falling “far short of his soaring words” while also cautioning her own party not to fall for its own populist rhetoric.

Those twin themes dominated Mrs. Haley’s rebuttal to Mr. Obama’s final State of the Union address, with the Republican governor faulting the president for “the squeeze of an economy too weak to raise income levels” and warning her own party against following the anti-immigration rhetoric that has propelled Donald Trump to the lead in GOP presidential election polls.
More on the State of the Union

“During anxious times, it can be tempting to follow the siren call of the angriest voices,” she said, without mentioning Mr. Trump or other 2016 candidates by name. “We must resist that temptation.”

Instead, she said Republicans should focus on bringing prosperity back to America. If a Republican is elected president, “taxes would be lower for working families, and we’d put the brakes on runaway spending and debt.”

Mrs. Haley, who has occasionally been mentioned as a possible vice presidential candidate, said Republicans share blame with Democrats for the nation’s polarized political culture.

“We need to be honest with each other, and with ourselves: while Democrats in Washington bear much responsibility for the problems facing America today, they do not bear it alone,” she said. “There is more than enough blame to go around.”

The revival of terrorism as a prominent fear is also laying bare divisions between the two political parties over what issues should top the government’s priority list, with Republicans citing national security and Democrats remaining focused on the economy and gun violence.
The differences mark a change from the past two presidential campaigns, in which both parties were most concerned with economic growth.
Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey data show how different the concerns of one party’s primary voters are from the other’s. In December polling, GOP primary voters overwhelmingly said national security and terrorism were the top issue for the federal government to address. Some 58% of GOP voters cited it, compared with only 26% of Democrats.
Democratic primary voters instead named the economy and jobs as the top issue for the government to address, with 33% citing it.
The parties’ differing views of the government’s top priority were reflected in other ways: Republican primary voters were more concerned than were Democrats with being the victim of a terrorist attack, 30% to 23%. Democratic primary voters, by contrast, were more concerned than their GOP counterparts of being a victim of gun violence, 37% to 18%.

The results suggest the violence in San Bernardino, Paris, Charleston and elsewhere left Republicans primary voters seeing an enhanced threat from terrorism from abroad, while Democratic primary voters worry about long-running domestic gun violence.
Another difference surfaced in how to respond to the growth of terrorism and to other world events. Among Democratic primary voters, 66% said the country needs to focus more on solving problems at home and agreed with the statement that “America cannot be the world’s policeman.’’