We live in dumb times.
—Tammy Bruce, Tucker Carlson, June 11, 2019
Chris Wallace: In June 2011, Chris Wallace asked Michele Bachmann, presidential candidate and Minnesota congresswoman, “Are you a flake?” It’s hard to think of any candidate for the 2020 Democratic nomination for president of whom this should not be asked by every voter.
Can there be that many Democratic leaders who can be so stupid on their policies? Or can they be so stupid as to think the voters can be so stupid as to buy their ideas?
Safe Spaces and Boycotts: No space can be safe enough for liberals and Democrats. And they can always find a reason to boycott. Where are safe spaces for our children and grandchildren where TV programs and newspapers do not promote their agenda against national sovereignty, against the Constitution (the Second Amendment, the electoral college, packing the Supreme Court, and the Senate’s two per state), against capitalism with its freedom, creativity, and alleviation of poverty? And where are the safe spaces from their unremitting agenda for the corruption of our country and our youth with homosexuality, abortion, euthanasia, gender fluidity, legalized pot, and legalized prostitution?
- The safe space Mississippi gubernatorial candidate Robert Foster and his wife tried to create is being criticized. This married couple had agreed that he would not be alone with a woman to safeguard their marriage and his reputation. It was the same practice of evangelist Billy Graham. (Actor and singer Pat Boone refused to ever have an on-film kiss. Take another look at the scene with Shirley Jones in April Love, from 1957.)
- A lot of Americans find it offensive to see professional athletes dishonoring the flag. For them, TV is not a safe space, since they’re forced to watch athletes bringing their political grievances into sports.
- The Little Sisters of the Poor tried to create a safe space for themselves. The Obama Administration and its sympathizers would have none of it.
- Most Americans want to continue the safe space provided by the Hyde Amendment and not be compelled by their government to finance abortions. William Saletan wrote about this in Slate just last month: “Abortion Funding Isn’t As Popular as Democrats Think.” Among the candidates for the Democratic nomination, Joe Biden was a holdout … until he flipped his conscience.
- Liberals can boycott Israel, Chick-fil-A, and Georgia. They can criticize President Trump’s relations with Putin and Kim. But the Democrats and liberals exempt Communist China despite its coerced abortions, pervasive facial recognition, attacks on journalists and lawyers, infringements in Hong Kong, destruction of churches, theft of U.S. intellectual property, between 100,000 and one million Uyghurs in re-education camps, the persecution of Falun Gong, and more.
Iconoclasts: We’ve seen Notre Dame cover up murals of Christopher Columbus, the Philadelphia Flyers remove the statue of Kate Smith (who memorably sang “God Bless America”), and the Charlottesville town council end celebrations of Thomas Jefferson’s birthday in his hometown. Just as there are no principled bounds to the pursuit of safe spaces by today’s liberals and Democrats, there are no bounds to their iconoclasm. Here are four examples.
- Colin Kaepernick, the kneel-down warrior, thinks that the Betsy Ross flag is an emblem of slavery. I’ve got news for this history buff. By his standard, the 48-star flag, the country’s official flag from 1912 to 1959, is an emblem of Jim Crow segregation. Yet, just as there were free blacks who fought in the Continental Army under the Betsy Ross flag, there were people of color who suffered from Jim Crow segregation who fought under this 48-star flag, such as the Harlem Hellfighters, the Tuskegee Airmen, the Navajo Code Talkers, and the Japanese American 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
- As Raymond Arroyo has pointed out, the iconoclasts ignore redemption and removed the New Orleans statue of Confederate General Beauregard. By the same token, we should stop singing “Amazing Grace,” written by the reformed slave trader John Newton.
- The iconoclasts should urge the razing of the reminders of the Greek and Roman slaveowners, including the Pantheon, the Roman Senate, and the Colosseum.
- Is Martin Luther King Jr. and his federal holiday exempt from iconoclasm despite, as detailed by Lance Morrow, his affairs with 40 women and standing by during a rape? There was no exemption for Michael Jackson because of his music, or Bill Cosby because of his humor, or Cardinal McCarrick for his … service? Devotion? But there is for King for civil rights?
Spanish: I understand that candidates want to communicate in languages other than English to those voters comfortable with such languages.
- The candidates, like those in the first Democratic debate, however, mistreat the English-speaking voters and their competitors unless they provide simultaneous translation (or closed caption) in English.
- Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) made a 13-minute speech on the Senate floor in June 2013. It was the first address in a language other than English in the history of the Senate. He did not provide a translator. Not every custom or tradition needs to be broken, Tim.
- This brings up D.C. Metro: It uses audio and print in English and Spanish. Since D.C. has many tourists, visitors, and students from around the globe, it should welcome these people with languages other than English. Why only Spanish?
Giving the Suffrage to Prisoners: This issue is not granting former prisoners, but rather current prisoners: the eligibility to vote. Will candidates be making campaign appearances in prisons? How will candidates who lose an election by a whisker, along with their supporters, feel about prisoners making the margin of victory? How will taxpayers respond to prisoners providing the margin of victory on a bond issue? Or voting for governors and legislators who raise taxes?
“Free” (Taxpayer-Paid) Tuition: Here are three of many issues.
- The proposals are limited to state and public schools. Private schools will no longer be able to compete. Many will have to close. Such a statist result. But the Democrats don’t have an issue with ending choice and thus limiting the scope of the private sphere, much like they do with private health insurance. This proposal is a far cry from the GI Bill, which could be used for private education.
- These proposals are so elitist: they concern college debt but not debt incurred from other postsecondary training and education (such as computer, the arts, and construction trades).
- Why single out college debt? There are other costs and debts important to personal growth and the overall economy. For example, people need cars or public transportation to get to work or school. New Delhi is making public transportation “free” for 850,000 women.
“Free” (Taxpayer-Paid) Universal Childcare:
- We would be taxing couples with one income, for whom one of the parents is stay-at-home, providing 24/7 care to their children, so that their money can be used to subsidize two-income couples.
- This promotes the institutional care of children, and children of a tender age. At the same time, we promote the deinstitutionalization of convicts, orphans, the mentally ill, and persons with physical and mental disabilities.
Reparations: I’ll mention just five of the many issues.
- If any reparations are to be made, whatever their form of payment, they should be made by the guilty parties (or, shall I say, descendants of the guilty parties). The Republican Party was adamantly against slavery from its foundation, and adamantly against Jim Crow segregation later on. All registered Republicans should be exempt from reparation taxes. On the other hand, the Democratic Party supported slavery for some 150 years and Jim Crow segregation for an additional 100 years. (Thank you, Joe Biden, for reminding us of the segregationists Democratic senators with whom you collaborated.) If any reparations are to be made, they should be made by the Democrats. (Oh, and don’t forget that the Democrats opposed the 70-year effort by Republicans to give women the right to vote.)
- We, the people living today, are well aware of the problems of trying to make a program like reparations work. Three come to mind: compensation sought by Holocaust survivors, the 9/11 compensation fund, and Hurricane Katrina relief awards. The scope of reparations for slavery is far beyond these.
- If there’s money to be had, people will be clamoring for eligibility. How many drops of black blood make a person black? Ask Pocahontas Elizabeth Warren how many drops of Native American blood make a person Native American. (And see the dispute between American Descendants of Slavery (ADOS) and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, with her lineage not from Africa or slavery but from Jamaica and India.
- Is this just a plan to force money out of an elderly, frail white woman with limited funds and redistribute her money to a well-off, able-bodied, working black individual? Is she to be cursed for the sins of her forefathers a number of generations ago? Or is she to be cursed for her whiteness even if her grandparents emigrated here from Norway after the Civil War?
- Will there be a movement toward enlarging reparations to others, such as Native Americans, and then the Irish?
My Money Is Your Money: “There’s plenty of money in this world. There’s plenty of money in this country. It’s just in the wrong hands.” That was New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (the new Chairman Mao) in his presidential announcement video on Thursday, May 16, 2019. The statement speaks for itself.
Infanticide: Is infanticide subject to a doctor-patient privilege? Is the decision to kill, or not to kill, a newborn complicated? “Asked if she was troubled by [Virginia Gov.] Northam’s comments [on infanticide], Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who recently launched a campaign for president, told a reporter to set up an interview to discuss it. In response to a follow-up inquiry, the aide pointed to a comment from Gillibrand in which she said that there is ‘zero place for politicians to be involved in these very complicated medical decisions’ and ‘any bill restricting access to medical care and safe abortion services is an attack on women’s rights.’ ”
“That’s Where the Money Is”: That’s how Willie Sutton answered the question of why he robbed banks. I thought of this answer in reading Annie Linskey and Elise Viebeck’s “Warren Did a Wide Array of Legal Work While a Professor.” Much of Warren’s work was done for corporations at rates around $675 per hour. “In summarizing many of her cases, Warren’s campaign cast her as advocating for victims or saving jobs by representing the interests of a company.” So, friends, when people lobby for, manage, or legally represent a company, large or small, it’s about saving jobs. You can quote Warren’s campaign for this truism. We can paraphrase Willie Sutton: Companies are where the jobs are.
“Deep Down”: It was reported that Democratic presidential candidate “Mayor Pete” [Buttigieg] “thinks President Trump has found favor among many white evangelicals and white Catholics because of his opposition to abortion … But Buttigieg said he believes the president is behaving ‘in bad faith’ and said there’s no evidence that he doesn’t favor abortion rights deep down, reports Sarah Pulliam Bailey in “Evangelicals Helped Get Trump into the White House. Pete Buttigieg Believes the Religious Left Will Get Him Out.” Gee, Mayor Pete, welcome to the world of politics. What did, or what does, Joe Biden believe “deep down” about forcing taxpayers to pay for abortions now that he has flipped on his 40-year record? Or what does he think about forced abortion in China? (Before you answer that one, Mayor Pete, remember what he said when he was in China in 2011, as vice president, about his sympathy for the Chinese situation. So if a regime thinks there are too many people, a regime can kill them.) What does Bernie Sanders believe about the Soviet Union’s socialism? What does New York Gov. Cuomo believe “deep down” about campaign finance reform when tickets to hear him speak went for $25,000 each? Or what did some Democratic representatives believe “deep down” when they went to her as speaker and pleaded with her to let them vote against Obamacare in order to save their seats — and she let them because there were votes to spare?
Endless Lies: The liberals criticize President Trump’s statements, but they never look in the mirror. They don’t see the log in their own eyes. (See Matthew 7:3-5 and Luke 6:41-42.) Here are but a couple examples.
- Biden’s videotaped announcement of his candidacy repeated the Democratic and mass media canard on President Trump’s statement regarding Charlottesville. That is easily disproved by watching the video of the president. Did no one, in preparing the video of a major pronouncement, tell Joe? Or did Joe ignore the evidence?
- An editorial in The Wall Street Journal, entitled “Voter Suppression Myth,” examined and rejected claims made by Democrats Stacey Abrams of Georgia and Andrew Gillum of Florida. Black voter turnout in Georgia increased from 43 percent in 2014 to 60 percent in 2018, and in Florida from 44 percent to 47.2 percent.
