The Foundation

“Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens.” –Joseph Story

Faith & Family

“As you have now heard 1,279 times, Glen Beck’s ‘Restoring Honor’ rally at the Lincoln Memorial was held on the 47th anniversary of Dr. King’s speech. … Glenn Beck created a non-political (he asked that no one bring protest signs and almost no one did); pro-American, and pro-religious event. … The attempt by the Left to paint the event as racist was pretty seriously undermined by the appearance and speech by the niece of Martin Luther King, Alveda King, a noted Black conservative activist…. Then came the claims that Beck’s call for a religious renaissance in the United States was somehow anti-Constitutional. The First Amendment, as you well know, does not forbid the mention of God in American life – even official American life. In fact, it appears to say just the opposite: ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof (emphasis added).’ Our Declaration of Independence ends with these words: ‘And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.’ Renewing our ‘reliance on the protection of Divine Providence’ doesn’t seem like such a bad idea, even after 234 years.” –political analyst Rich Galen

Culture

Who says conservatives don’t care about the environment? Unlike the liberal lemmings who showed up for Barack Obama’s coron… uh, inauguration, the conservatives who came to the “Restoring Honor” rally actually cleaned up after themselves.

Government

“If our expectations about politicians and government are lowered, we will then start expecting less from them and more from ourselves, then our prospects for happiness will likely be much improved. Take spending. Clearly we can’t go on like this. … Our massive debt has produced an unease that America may be at greater risk from economic collapse than from terrorists. Excessive debt is terror by other means. Brian Riedl of The Heritage Foundation has performed a useful service by analyzing the 10-year budget baseline of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which puts the deficit at $6.2 trillion. Riedl says that’s a phony figure because CBO is forced to make assumptions based on what Congress tells it. The true baseline deficit, says Riedl – based on a continuation of current spending and tax policies – amounts to $13 trillion over the next decade. If ever there was a time when ‘we can’t afford it’ actually means something, this is that time. … Some Republicans, like Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, are offering credible and thoughtful ways to get us out of this mess. Will the Republican leadership follow, or will it simply try to manage the big government liberal Democrats created, cutting only a little around the edges? Lowering expectations of government and politicians is only half the equation. We must then raise expectations for ourselves.” –columnist Cal Thomas

Political Futures

“It’s a bit too early for House Republican leader John Boehner to measure the drapes and pick out new wallpaper. But the Intrade pay-to-play prediction markets are now showing a 76 percent chance of a GOP House takeover in November, along with a 60 percent probability that Republicans will capture at least seven new Senate seats. … What might a newly ascendant congressional Republican majority actually stand for? Republican leaders are expected to publish a governing agenda next month, probably an updated version of the bold and successful Newt Gingrich/Dick Armey ‘Contract With America’ of 1994. Boehner is a key alumnus of that effort. But folks around the country are waiting to see if congressional Republicans will make a strong and aggressive case for a true economic-growth and jobs agenda now, in 2010. The stock market, for example, has known for months that the GOP will capture the House. But investors are not yet confident that the GOP will focus on gross domestic product, instead of mere ambiguous generalities, trying to be all things to all people. Indeed, if the Republicans borrow heavily from the tea party ‘Contract From America’ – and its call for constitutional limits to government, tough spending restraint, free-market reforms and supply-side tax policies – stocks could mount a mighty rally in the weeks ahead.” –economist Lawrence Kudlow

The Gipper

“We speak tonight of an agenda for the future, an agenda for a safer, more secure world. And we speak about the necessity for actions to steel us for the challenges of growth, trade, and security in the next decade and the year 2000. And we will do it – not by breaking faith with bedrock principles but by breaking free from failed policies. Let us begin where storm clouds loom darkest – right here in Washington, DC. … [W]e cannot win the race to the future shackled to a system that can’t even pass a federal budget. We cannot win that race held back by horse-and-buggy programs that waste tax dollars and squander human potential. We cannot win that race if we’re swamped in a sea of red ink.” –Ronald Reagan

Re: The Left

“I recently wrote about leftists’ hatred for conservatives as people, not merely for conservative ideas. Demonization of opponents is a fundamental characteristic of the left. It is not merely tactical; they believe people on the right are bad. (Here’s a test: Ask someone on the left if active support of California Proposition 8 – retaining the man-woman definition of marriage – was an act of hate.) A related defining characteristic of the left is the ascribing of nefarious motives to conservatives. For the left, a dismissal of conservatives’ motives is as important as is dismissal of the conservatives as people. It is close to impossible for almost anyone on the left – and I mean the elite left, not merely left-wing blogs – to say ‘There are good people on both of sides of this issue.’ From Karl Marx to Frank Rich of The New York Times, this has always been the case. In the left’s worldview, conservative opponents of affirmative action cannot be driven by concern for blacks – opposition is animated by racists; conservative opponents of illegal immigration are animated by racism and xenophobia; opposition to abortion is a function of sexism; President Bush went to war for oil and American imperialism; and conservative supporters of retaining man-woman marriage hate gays. This is not true of elite conservatives. Leading conservative columnists, leading Republicans, etc., rarely depict liberals as motivated by evil. Conservatives can say ‘There are good people on both sides of the issue’ because we actually believe it.” –radio talk-show host Dennis Prager

For the Record

“Obama has lost his connection with the American people. He’s aloof without inspiring confidence. On issue after issue – terrorism, immigration, the oil spill, the environment and the ground zero mosque – he seems determined to craft his responses in a way that will annoy the most people possible. Liberals are frantically trying to explain away Obama’s problems. Some want to protect their investment in Obama, and some want to protect their investment in liberalism. So some claim that his mistakes stem from not being progressive enough, while others insist that he’s played his cards right, but we need to wait a bit longer for the payoff. I’m dubious on both counts. Obama has delivered massively for progressives, and it strikes me as idiotic to say that if he only squeezed a bit more liberalism into his first two years, everything would be better. Moreover, I don’t think the payoff is coming, because I think the policies are wrong. But, again, that’s an argument for a different day. What’s clear right now is that the president who claimed to be the personification of a world-historical moment has clearly misread his mandate, the mood and the moment. He’s lost at sea, and not even a bigger boat will save him.” –columnist editor Jonah Goldberg

Reader Comments

“As a daily reader of The Patriot Post, this issue – Mark Alexander’s essay, ‘Birthright Citizenship’ – is one I disagree with the Post quite distinctly. My primary problem with the entire issue of not granting citizenship to babies born here is the fact that you cannot and should not hold the sins of the father against the child. The whole concept is offensive to me. Why did their parents come here? For a better life, as virtually all immigrants have done since the 1800’s. My main issue is the lack of all political parties from getting the issue settled. Why no guest worker program? America is a country of immigrants and always will be. America’s govt needs to get the path to citizenship spelled out, and soon. Illegal, yes, but I cannot but admire them as they have done what my ancestors did 100+ years ago. They gave it all up for a shot at what America had to offer. I simply can’t hold that against their children.” –Trent

Editor’s Reply: America will be NOTHING more than a Socialist democracy if the Rule of Law codified in our national Constitution is allowed to languish.

“It is actually a sad comment on our culture when laws trump human dignity and history. Mexicans (latinos) were here (in the US) before the Irish, Italians, English… historically. In our Orwellian double speak state of mind we believe that they are wrong for living in the land where their culture originated and ancestors lived. I hate this new nazi standard conservatives are projecting. Human dignity and rights didn’t start with Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and the US. Those prinicpals [sic] are found in the hearts of most people. Fear those who worship the government and its laws who lack the courage to change them for they oppose the intent of our founding fathers and are our greatest threat as US citizens.” –Peter

Editor’s Reply: If you want to witness a great indignity to human rights, discard the Rule of Law for the rule of feelings. The Founders did provide a method for amending our Constitution, as outlined in Article V. If you want to change the 14th Amendment and abolish U.S. borders, start a petition. I most certainly do NOT worship government, and clearly distinguish between government and Rule of Law. As for the “nazi” comparison, as you might recall, they were Socialists, and killed millions of Jews and other innocent folks – hardly what anyone is prescribing in the case of illegal immigrants and the law. Ignorance of the law is the greatest threat to the U.S. and its authentic citizens.

The Last Word

“MSNBC’s Monday programming was dedicated to denouncing Sen. Mitch McConnell’s response to a question about whether Obama is a Muslim. McConnell said: ‘We all have to rely on the word of (Barack Obama) – something about as reliable as a credit default swap.’ No, I’m sorry, that’s what The Atlantic’s Andrew Sullivan said about whether Trig Palin was really Sarah Palin’s child. McConnell responded by demanding that Obama be fired – or at least have his security clearance suspended. No, no – wrong again: That was Sen. John Kerry and Sen. Chuck Schumer, respectively, not taking Karl Rove at his word when he said he had not released Valerie Plame’s name to the press. (It turned out Rove was telling the truth; it was Richard Armitage, and it wasn’t a crime.) What McConnell actually said in response to the Muslim question was: ‘The president says he’s a Christian. I take him at his word. I don’t think that’s in dispute.’ Over at MSNBC, that’s Republican code for: ‘He’s a Muslim!’ North Korean TV’s Ed Schultz hysterically babbled: ‘McConnell gave cover. That’s what he did. He gave cover to all those low information voters out there who still believe this garbage about President Obama being a Muslim. … The Republican leadership just loves to feed the fire.’ Chris Matthews was so impressed with Schultz’s nonsensical argument that he spent the entire hour on NKTV’s ‘Hardball’ making the same one: … The statement ‘I take him at his word,’ Matthews said, was a ‘pitch-perfect dog whistle to the haters.’ He continued: ‘Yes, sure, whatever he says. Right. This is not about belief. It’s an accusation that President Obama is not one of us. The right wing’s attempt to de-Americanize the president.’ … Meanwhile, liberals absolutely refuse to take Republicans at their word when they identify their own children. Or deny leaking a low-level CIA functionary’s name to the press. Or when they deny they are racists. … Accusations of racism apparently do not require the ironclad proof demanded for accusations that someone is a Muslim.” –columnist Ann Coulter