America

If the establishment had its way, America would be no country for angry white men. As WSJ reports, Tuesday’s primary elections underscored an emerging, central reality of the 2016 presidential campaign: This is the year of the dissatisfied white male.

Those white males are the voters who propelled Donald Trump to convincing victories Tuesday in Michigan and Mississippi, as they have elsewhere. And, as The Wall Street Journal reports, they may determine whether he can roll on next week in a series of big industrial states.

• Angry White Males Propel Donald Trump—and Bernie Sanders (WSJ)
• Trump Beats Back Attacks and Tightens Hold on Primary Race (BBG)
• Fed Likely to Stand Pat on Rates, Keep Options Open for April or June (Hilsenrath)
• Draghi Stimulus Fails in Stock Market as Swings Match 2008 (BBG)
• Sabine Oil wins pipeline ruling in a blow to pipeline operators (Reuters)
• U.S. Officials Propose Test Program Aimed at Lowering Medicare Drug Costs (WSJ)
• Death of a Shale Man: The Final Days of Aubrey McClendon (BBG)

A reader who is a college professor writes:

Bowe Bergdahl walked off.

In the court of public opinion, this is the central fact all can agree upon—-that a 24-year-old Army private first class who had been in Afghanistan fewer than two months walked off his outpost one day and vanished.

Everything that happened between Bergdahl’s walk-off and the present moment, where he stands trial for desertion and “misbehavior before the enemy,” has formed the basis of one of the most bizarre and dramatic tales of a missing soldier in recent memory. To say this case has become a political flashpoint is an understatement.

I am convinced that the most advantageous situation and the best possible laws cannot maintain a constitution in spite of the manners of a country; whilst the latter may turn to some advantage the most unfavorable positions and the worst laws. The importance of manners is a common truth to which study and experience incessantly direct our attention. It may be regarded as a central point in the range of observation, and the common termination of all my inquiries.