Here’s how it's so easy to identify the national media as liberal Democrats: They hate “moderate” Democrats. They love moderate Republicans. They despite disunity in their party, and love to fester disunity in the Other Party. This week, we’ve witnessed an outpouring of love for Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, whom the Institute for Legislative Analysis evaluated as voting for limited government just 37 percent of the time in 2024. These journalists loathed "centrist" Democrats like Sen. Joe Manchin or even Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. Murkowski is selling a new book titled Far from Home: An Alaskan Senator Faces the Extreme Climate of Washington, D.C.  The liberal networks haven’t offered a welcome wagon to books by conservative senators like Tom Cotton, Mike Lee, and especially, Rand Paul, whose last book put Anthony Fauci on the cover and was titled Deception: The Great Covid-19 Coverup. CBS started the love train with Sunday Morning, a program usually reserved for Democrat gushfests. Norah O’Donnell celebrated how the senator beat back a Tea Party challenger in 2010 by running and winning as an independent. “Did that enforce in you this idea that, okay, I’ve got the backing of my constituents to do what I think is morally right and sort of strike out in this independent way?” She later asked: “Alaska relies more heavily on federal funding and programs than perhaps any other state in the country. Are you worried that your constituents may be punished for your independence?” They repeated the embrace on Monday’s CBS Mornings. Co-host Tony Dokoupil worried about MAGA pushback: “How can you have a free and frank conversation in Congress or anywhere else where, as you’ve acknowledged, there’s this fear of retaliation. Maybe it’s physical. We’ve seen lawmakers targeted. Maybe it’s not physical, but it’s definitely not just political. It’s beyond that. How can democracy function when retaliation is so real and so intense these days?” Co-host Gayle King asked the senator “How do you navigate Donald Trump, who has been sometimes unkind, disparaging to you?” Co-host Vladimir Duthiers interjected: “And are forced to hire security sometimes?” The MAGA crowd are violent, unlike oh, anti-ICE rioters. King concluded: “You’re also grounded by your values, which come across in this book. We thank you so much.” On Monday’s PBS News Hour, the entire thing was a MAGA-bashing session. Co-host Amna Nawaz lovingly quoted the senator from her book finding Trump “isn't that smart. Trump lacks the ability for strategic or linear thinking. He isn't able to form or follow through on complex plans." The same goes for his allies: "As the populists have gained power, they haven't succeeded in governing. They have slogans, but slogans are not solutions." NPR spent 14 minutes on All Things Considered on Monday and Tuesday presenting Murkowski as a courageous bulwark for democracy.  NPR won’t consider the books written by  those right-wing Republicans. But co-host Juana Summers brought the conversation around to President Trump’s request to rescind $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, NPR’s taxpayer trough. Murkowski reassured her: “I am an unabashed supporter of public broadcasting in my state that is so highly rural.” So it’s obvious that PBS and NPR are putting Murkowski on their platforms precisely because they’re rewarding their own financial backers on the proper congressional appropriations committees. None of these interviewers focused on the leftist half of the “Extreme Climate” in Murkowski’s book about Congress. Extremists among the Democrats? Maybe these journalists can ask Joe Manchin about that when he comes out with his memoir Dead Center in September. But nobody should count on that.

America has long celebrated its greatest moments by train.In 1915, a steam locomotive carried the Liberty Bell from Philadelphia to San Francisco and back, drawing enormous crowds. In 1947, the Freedom Train crisscrossed the country with priceless artifacts of American history. Then came the biggest triumph: the Bicentennial American Freedom Train of 1976, which drew more than 50,000 people at each of its 138 stops.The train would take the quarter-millennial celebration directly to the people — right where it belongs.On the cusp of the nation’s 250th birthday, it’s time to bring that tradition back. The red, white, and blue steam train should roll again — celebrating America’s founding and bringing history to Main Streets across the land.The original idea came from John Wayne. That alone might have been enough for Kamala Harris to oppose it, had she been elected president. Add in the train’s cinematic clouds of smoke, its role in commemorating the westward settlement, and its unapologetic embrace of American greatness, and it’s hard to imagine today’s progressive leaders welcoming it.But President Trump would. He’s restoring the spirit Wayne loved: American strength, love of country, masculine virtue. Trump has already pledged to include a statue of the Duke in his proposed National Garden of American Heroes. If he also allows the new train to display the federal artifacts its predecessors carried — the original Constitution, the Louisiana Purchase document, Lincoln’s hat, Ruth’s bat — then the American Freedom Train can run again in 2026.The artifacts are key. If the administration releases them, the biggest remaining challenge will be time.In 1976, the train took 15 months to organize. Today, in a country where builders are building again, that timeline can be compressed. But it will take at least a year to prepare the train — to build display cars, ready the steam engine, transport and secure the artifacts, and tackle the logistics of a 48-state journey.The clock is ticking. A decision now could kick off the celebration by next July 4.The Bicentennial Freedom Train didn’t just appear for a few fireworks in early July. It helped stretch the nation’s celebration over nearly two years — from the April 1975 anniversary of Lexington and Concord to a final stop in Miami on New Year’s Eve 1976.A Quarter-Millennial Freedom Train would do the same. It would extend the celebration beyond Independence Day and tie together local and national events like nothing else. That was exactly the intention in 1976. John Warner, head of the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration, called the train “the most visible” element of the celebration — one that helped “sew together” diverse festivities across the country.Once again, the train would showcase cherished artifacts: Paul Revere’s saddlebags, Washington’s personal copy of the Constitution, JFK’s handwritten inaugural address, even lunar rocks and Olympic memorabilia from the 1980 “Miracle on Ice.”RELATED: John Wayne’s epic ‘Freedom Train’ could save America’s 250th birthday Denver Post via Getty ImagesPrivate citizens would lead the effort, just as they did before. The American Freedom Train Foundation includes veterans of the original Bicentennial train. They know how to plan and execute a coast-to-coast expedition. They just need modest federal support — and access to the artifacts — to bring it to life.Army veteran and Nashville artist Tim Maggart sings that the Freedom Train is “as American as a line drive.” And that’s exactly what it would be: a rolling, photogenic, crowd-pleasing tribute to our nation. Day after day, the locomotive would thunder past landmarks, through cities and farmlands, beneath America’s spacious skies. And at every stop, Americans would cheer.The train would symbolize both American power and American pride. It would carry our founding history from coast to coast, just as it once did. And it would take the quarter-millennial celebration directly to the people — right where it belongs.

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