UPDATE November 11, 2018: partisanship replaces right to free, honest elections
After nearly two years spent trying to figure out how Russia trashed our Democracy, we just proved again that America can’t even count its own votes. When we go to a recount, our right to free, honest elections is called into question.
Florida’s own Alcee Hastings joined prominent Democrats who got behind the effort to clean up their state’s election machinery before midterms:
As instructed by the Omnibus, the Election Assistance Commission will make $19,187,003 available to the State of Florida. We urge you as our chief state election official to request these grant funds to help fortify Florida’s election equipment and systems databases, as well as provide cybersecurity training to election officials.6
That’s a lot of money to spend on another vote counting snafu.
Did state Rep. Lois Frankel forgot she signed the letter? Frankel directed her ire at Trump:
The latest Twitter tirades by President Trump and Senator Rubio, along with Governor Rick Scott’s lawsuits, threaten to distort the will of the people in Palm Beach and Broward Counties.7
So did Congresswoman Frederica Wilson. She accused Governor Rick Scott and Sen. Marco Rubio of trying “to silence the voices of voters in our state.”8
As statewide officeholders, Rubio and Scott should be working overtime to ensure that every single constituent’s ballot is counted. Rubio has chosen instead to echo Donald Trump’s conspiracy theories, while Scott has filed a lawsuit and called for an investigation into ongoing ballot counts.9
There shouldn’t be anything partisan about tallying election results. This is about stewardship and simple math, not a war between Republicans and Democrats.
Next time around we should let Russia count the ballots for us. We haven’t seen any indication yet that they would be less respectful of our Democracy and right to free, honest elections than our own people and we do know for certain that they people who are more tech savvy than whoever is steering the election process in Broward and Palm Beach Counties.
UPDATE February 17, 2019: no freedom to protect yourself when the government won’t
On Thursday Nancy Pelosi was quick to threaten Republicans with a possible presidential emergency declaration against guns as revenge for Trump’s efforts to build a border barrier.
That’s assuming, of course, that the party manages to push its ridiculous open borders, green deal, everything for free agenda past naïve liberal voters in 2020.
The Fourth Amendment gives us the right to be secure in our persons. Granted, this freedom is meant to protect us from unreasonable police intrusion but it’s not much of a stretch to assert that we should have the freedom to be secure from attacks by foreigners the government allows into our country in violation of the law.
It’s also not much of a stretch to worry when the government refuses to protect us and then threatens to deny us the freedom to protect ourselves.
UPDATE July 3, 2019: don’t expect the freedom to enjoy the 4th of July as a conservative American
Not even our most quintessentially American observance of who and what we are is sacred. Democrats decided to turn the 4th of July into another opportunity to vent their partisan rage.
In the same week that a congressional visit to the Southern Border led to unsubstantiated claims of migrants drinking from toilets to further deteriorate our national image and a ridiculous suggestion that we go after individuals because of their online remarks about members of Congress we are confronted with Democrats attacking Trump over his plans for the 4th:
President Trump’s decision to insert himself into the U.S. capital’s nonpartisan Fourth of July celebration keeps inviting more controversy to a holiday best known for uniting Americans around celebrations of the nation’s birthday.10
The criticism keeps coming. From Rep. Betty McCollum (DFL-MN):
The Fourth of July festivities in our nation’s Capital are intended to be patriotic and welcoming to all Americans. Instead, Mr. Trump is hijacking the celebration and twisting it into a taxpayer-funded, partisan political rally that’s more about promoting a Trumpian cult of personality than the spirit of American independence and freedom.11
Democrat Don Beyer (D-VA) demanded that the president pay us back:
President Trump’s attempts to make the annual Independence Day celebration in the National Capital Region about himself are appalling. Even worse, the authoritarian-style trappings he demands, including tanks, will come at a great cost to taxpayers, and threaten significant harm to local roads and bridges.12
And the damnation will rain down until the clock strikes midnight on July 5.
Republicans don’t pass the National Defense Authorization Act on their own. They need help. As Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) points out:
The NDAA process is one of the most important and bipartisan efforts in Washington. That is because legislators from both sides of the aisle recognize that the national defense is our first priority.13
For the astounding amount of taxpayer money that goes into defense each year, shouldn’t we at least be able to see what we pay for?
Not in Democrat Land. This is the same party that raised no objections when Barack Obama decked out the White House in rainbow pride colors to celebrate SCOTUS’ gay marriage decision with no regard whatsoever for Americans who might object to the display.
Now it’s Trump’s turn.
There is no such thing as nonpartisan in Washington. Americans put Trump in the White House and I can guarantee you that as deplorable as Democrats find us, we aren’t going to object to whatever our president dreams up to commemorate American freedom.
As a sop to angry Democrats perhaps he can offer to paint the tanks.
UPDATE July 4, 2019: freedom to be what we are
Let’s skip the history lesson and cut to the chase. America isn’t about socialism. It runs counter to everything this country has ever stood for. Socialism strips the challenge out of life.
It doesn’t level the playing field. It tills it under and leaves it bare and barren.
The results of a new Pew Research survey released last week reveal our frightening acceptance of socialism:
Nearly two-thirds of Democrats (65%) have a positive view of socialism, but only 14% have a very positive view.14
Even 14% is an appalling figure, but two-thirds?
GALLUP tells us that “Four in 10 Americans Embrace Some Form of Socialism” and that 43% think it would be good for America.15
That’s all Americans, not just Democrats.
Oklahoma Congressman Markwayne Mullin all but coined a new term when he argued against our growing socialist inclinations:
America is better than ‘one size fits all’ policies and a theory that inspires zero competition and idleness. Government-run health care? Education for all on the taxpayer’s dime? Doesn’t sound like greatness to me.16
Let’s call the ultimate Democratic Party hypocrisy what it is: “government greatness.” There is nothing great about it unless you are a politician pandering to America’s lowest denominator and intent on creating as many dependents as possible.
Apparently it’s a winning strategy. How else can we explain the prominence of leftist politicians whose words portend America’s decline and eventual downfall?
UPDATE July 27, 2019: freedom to be innocent even if you are the president
Question: what is the only kind of criminal who is guilty without ever being charged?
Answer: a Republican president.
That’s what we heard from the Democratic Party last week after they were embarrassed because Robert Mueller refused to say what they wanted him to say.
The 2020 Election is much too important to let this thing go. Trump is a criminal. He is guilty without ever being charged or tried.
All Democrats need is some evidence to prove it.
That’s a problem. They don’t have that evidence and from what we’ve seen they never will. They’ve been hard at work making Trump a criminal since January 2016.
They’ll continue to scramble down rabbit hole after rabbit hole until the last ballot is contested weeks after November 3, 2020.
This isn’t over until it’s over and that means it’s never going to end.
A win from the Mueller disaster? No, just more empty words.
Democracy Protector-in-Chief John Sarbanes tried to salvage a win from the Mueller wreckage:
In addition, Mueller underscored – in stark terms – the efforts undertaken by President Trump, members of his campaign and officials within his administration to obstruct the Special Counsel’s investigation by repeatedly lying to the FBI, tampering with witnesses, falsifying and destroying documents and engaging in a coordinated cover-up to hide the truth from the American people. Our oversight committees will continue to press the case that no one is above the law and will follow the evidence wherever it leads.17
I’m not a lawyer, but these sound like crimes to me. If the evidence is there, do something. If it isn’t, please just shut the hell up. Just because Democrats hate this president beyond the bounds of reason and sanity is no justification to refuse to extend the protections they will defend to the death for any street level dope dealer.
Even America’s president deserves the freedom to be innocent.
UPDATE August 31, 2019: freedom to pursue happiness
I’m sure there are places where you can enjoy this freedom without interference from the government. Illinois is not one of them and especially not Chicago.
While Governor Pritzker and his flunkies downstate struggle to come up with ways to extract even more revenue from beleaguered state residents, Chicago’s new mayor just dropped a bombshell. The city will come up short to the tune of $838 million in 2020.
People who live in the city know what that means, but that doesn’t mean the rest of us are off the hook. A Democrat in the governor’s mansion brings near-perfect collusion between downstate Democratic politics and Mayor Lightfoot’s violent fiscal wasteland that threatens everyone who lives in this state.
We have the freedom to smoke dope and gamble in our state, but we don’t have the freedom to pursue happiness. The only solution is to leave Illinois because. like other states straitjacketed by irresponsible Democrats, there is no escape from this deepening fiscal tragedy.
UPDATE: freedom from identity politics
Kiss one united America goodbye. Democrats accuse Trump of dividing the country, but the party’s future is pinned to identity politics that recognizes some groups as worthy and others as not only unworthy, but enemies of the people.
Have you ever wondered why Republicans have congressional caucuses with names like “Freedom Caucus” and “Study Committee” while Democrats have caucuses that focus on divisive differences like race, ethnicity and even sexuality like the Black Caucus, Hispanic Caucus, and LGBT Equality Caucus?
It’s a lot easier to serve the needs of small groups of people and use them to push legislation that opens the door to larger social change than it is to serve the needs of the entire American people.
Democrats aren’t stupid, though. They have also turned America’s middle class into a catchall for everything wrong with our society. This is identity politics at its worst, because the argument only works when we turn those who have risen above the middle class into America’s enemies.
We should have the freedom to be one American people again.
Democrats are doing everything in their power to take that freedom away and trust me, we will reach a point where we are so angry and divided that America as we value it will be gone.
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Wow, the RWNJ is strong with this one.
I’m listening, John.
Obama signed a bill to allow the media to profess false narratives for the peoples ow good HR4310
Joseph Goebbels would be so proud.
I don’t know if the intention was to turn lies into the sole means of communicating with the people to the complete exclusion of the truth, but it has certainly paid off for Democrats and the White House.
freedom from harm is not a reasonable freedom. Freedom from unjust aggression is reasonable, and the primary reason for government.
Thanks for your remarks, Ed. Interesting how some of what’s happening now at the hands of government could be considered unjust aggression, like the searches they conducted in Rhode Island looking for New Yorkers. It’s difficult to know where to draw the line between government overreach and the public interest, but that was quite a line to cross.
Obama is tearing our nation apart. and he is banking on the ignorant that don’t pay attention. obama has a shady past and i am not convinced that he is a true citizen of the united states. If you vote democrat you are voting to end america as a freedom country. Obama is taking it all away and people are not paying attention. when it’s gone and you are under the control of a dictator you will wish you had paid attention. but this country has been under attack before obama but now it’s speeded up so much it will be a miracle if we can keep it
We’ll find out next week how well people are paying attention, won’t we, Sandy? I agree, it’s pretty amazing that no matter how bad things are or how misguided the actions of public officials, they still manage to convince people to support what they do. Watch what happens in the Illinois governor’s race next week. If Pat Quinn wins, it’s a pretty good sign that we are truly lost.
People do not understand how the Democrats and the Obama administration are slowly strangling the very freedoms that the Revolution was fought for. The facts are clear when you see the Constitution being trampled on by Obama, and then realize that he could not pass a gun owner background check, which is why he has sealed “ALL” of his records.
If congress were to pass any new legislation on background checking it must include the requirement that “ALL” politicians running for public office must “PASS” those requirements or be disqualified.
As it stands right now, Obama could not ” PASS” a standard FBI check from the details that were written in his book, which is why his certification was challenged. The judges that had cases before them refused to hear the arguments and thusly dismissed those cases. What gutless wonders we have in the justice system including the Supreme Court.