The Foundation

“Let justice be done though the heavens should fall.” –John Adams

Zimmerman Acquitted

In his column “Race Hustlers” last Thursday, Mark Alexander wrote, “Once the race hustlers and DoJ had plowed the Florida fields, Obama, the consummate racial agitator, nationalized the Zimmerman/Martin case by sowing this seed a month after the incident: ‘This is a tragedy, uh … uh and when I think about this boy, uh, I think about my own kids, uh … I think that all of us need to do some soul searching to figure out how something like this happened. … If I had a son he would look like Trayvon, and, uh, you know, I think [his parents] are right to expect that all of us as Americans, uh, are going to take this with the seriousness it deserves.’”

On the Zimmerman verdict, Alexander notes, “Now that Zimmerman has been rightfully exonerated, perhaps Obama can nationalize the race-based murder of a white man in Georgia by a group of black gangbangers. I suggest he start by declaring, ‘If I had a son, he would look like those thugs…’ who murdered Josh Chellew last week.”

Government

“Benjamin Jealous of the NAACP is already lobbying Attorney General Eric Holder to indict Mr. Zimmerman on federal civil-rights charges. … Millions of Americans would see such federal charges as an example of double jeopardy, and a politicized prosecution to boot. … There is no doubt that many law-abiding black men are eyed suspiciously in some quarters because they are black. The motivation may sometimes be racial. But such a discussion also cannot exclude that the main victims of crimes committed by young black men are other blacks. … Mr. Zimmerman made many mistakes that February evening, not least failing to heed police advice not to pursue Martin. Despite his acquittal, he will pay for those mistakes for years as he defends against a possible civil suit and must wear a bullet-proof vest to protect himself from threats of violent revenge that he has to take seriously. If there is any satisfaction in his acquittal, it is that the jurors followed the law’s requirements that every defendant deserves a fair trial, even one who becomes a symbol of our polarized racial politics.” –The Wall Street Journal

For the Record

“[Attorney General Eric] Holder’s minions, it is worth remembering, consulted with the NAACP before the Justice Department dropped the New Black Panthers voter intimidation case that the government had already won. … There would have been no Florida prosecution of Zimmerman absent the extortionate pressure brought to bear by Attorney General Eric Holder. We knew that even before learning last week that Justice’s ‘Community Relations Division’ (Alinsky-style rabble-rousing under the guise of ‘peacemaker’) colluded at taxpayer expense with the NAACP and other agitators to demand that charges be brought against Zimmerman – managing, in the process, to get Sanford police chief Bill Lee cashiered for daring to do his job faithfully, tune out the politics, and decline to arrest Zimmerman because the evidence didn’t support it. Recall that contemporaneous with the spring 2012 demonstrations against Zimmerman that the Justice Department abetted – and with President Obama’s nod-and-wink incitement that, if he had a son, the son would ‘look like Trayvon’ – Holder sped down to Florida. There, he sang the praises of race huckster extraordinaire Al Sharpton, joining Rev. No Justice, No Peace in calling for Zimmerman’s scalp. Holder’s M-O was to threaten a federal civil rights prosecution if Florida failed to act.” –former DoJ prosecutor Andrew C. McCarthy

Opinion in Brief

“Zimmerman’s picture … appeared in [a] People magazine story as it did ubiquitously: an unsmiling, unshaved man in an orange, jail-issue jumpsuit. When the first stories appeared, Zimmerman was identified as white; only later, when it turned out that his mother was an immigrant from Peru, did most news stories refer to him as a white Hispanic or white and Hispanic. … [T]he designation was important to making race a central issue in the case. If Zimmerman were simply ‘Hispanic,’ or had he been black, then the killing would never have become a national story. … Blacks commit the overwhelming majority of black homicides – 93 percent in 2008, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. But stories of black-on-black crime don’t get much play, nor do stories in which perpetrator and victim are from differing minority groups. But portray the killer as an armed, white man in pursuit of any young black male he thinks might be about to commit a crime, and the case becomes a metaphor for white racism. … If the media had stuck to the facts and not played the race card, the debate over this case might have focused more on ways the death might have been avoided – which would have included both Martin and Zimmerman behaving differently that fateful night. Instead, the media have encouraged young black men to believe they all have bullseyes on their backs.” –columnist Linda Chavez

Reader Comments

“In reading Race Hustlers and Double Standards, I am impressed that Mark Alexander can express a logical and dispassionate opinion on such a ‘hot button’ topic. I fear for our Country. I fear that we may not be able to come back from the cliff Obama and his minions have driven us to.” –Carol in Asheville, North Carolina

“Race relations is an industry in our country. Many non-profit groups, who long ago out lived their own stated goals, must continue race-baiting and doing exactly what Martin Luther King preached against. What is truly sad is that they are not as passionate about solving the real problems in the ghettos and inner cities, in places like DC, Detroit and Chicago. Instead they use these disastrous places as justification to try and disarm all law-abiding Americans and demand even more tax dollars be spent on failed programs.” –Ed in Tallahassee, Florida

“Over the past several years I’ve read numerous articles from Mark Alexander that were great. However, Race Hustlers is outstanding and I believe it should be required reading for all who are allowed to vote in this country. I have pledged and given before to The Patriot Post, but I will certainly be increasing my contribution in hopes that you will reach as wide a readership as possible. Thank you for your dedication and tireless efforts.” –Jack in Royse City, Texas

Essential Liberty

“The point of a government that obeys the law is that it helps keep the opposition from crawling over broken glass to get to the polling booth at the next election and change its ruling class for another one. That is the central problem of ‘czars’ in the White House, of EPA closing down coal-fired electric generation, or Obamacare waivers, or Obamacare voided deadlines. It feeds the natural suspicion of any non-liberal American that their federal government is up to no good, and will make it difficult or impossible for the ordinary citizen to get a fair shake. … Liberals in the Obama administration and elsewhere are so convinced of the truth of their issues, from health care to climate change that any means to advance their progressive agenda seems justified to them. The fact that they are forced to change a few deadlines, or push climate change through the EPA rather than Congress doesn’t seem like anything to get worked up about. Liberals are wrong about this, as about so many things on which they refuse to listen to other voices. … A ruling class that that doesn’t faithfully execute the law is provoking the opposition into raising a head of rebellion.” –columnist Christopher Chantrill

Insight

“When a government becomes powerful it is destructive, extravagant and violent; it is an usurer which takes bread from innocent mouths and deprives honorable men of their substance, for votes with which to perpetuate itself.” –Roman philosopher and statesman Cicero (106-43 B.C.)

The Gipper

“For decades, we have piled deficit upon deficit, mortgaging our future and our children’s future for the temporary convenience of the present. To continue this long trend is to guarantee tremendous social, cultural, political, and economic upheavals. You and I, as individuals, can, by borrowing, live beyond our means, but for only a limited period of time. Why, then, should we think that collectively, as a nation, we are not bound by that same limitation?” –Ronald Reagan

Re: The Left

“[T]he best formula for failing to meet the standard of tolerance that leftists demand is to behave precisely as they do, not as they say. If, on the other hand, you truly want to live and let live – as these sanctimonious scolds insist we do – you must studiously observe their conduct and behave in exactly the opposite way. But from a leftist perspective, it’s not enough for conservatives to peacefully coexist with liberals and let them do as they please. They are satisfied only if they browbeat dissenters into silence or social banishment. … So it is that pro-abortion groups could not let stand an arrangement between the SFLA and the associate branch director of the Town Lake branch of the YMCA of Austin for the SFLA’s use of the Y’s showers for the week of the ‘Students #Stand4Life Bus Tour.’ … Note that it wasn’t that the pro-lifers were carrying placards into the showers or proselytizing recalcitrant pro-aborts while toweling off. It was the mere presence of pro-lifers, even if they were minding their own business, that the pro-abort bullies found intolerable. … [A]ccording to the default liberal mindset … you’re not being unduly political if you support the correct causes. You’re political only if you have the wrong views.” –columnist David Limbaugh

Political Futures

“In announcing his effort to make government smarter – an idea with a very old pedigree – Obama invoked two organizations he’d like government to emulate. The first was Google. … [T]he second exemplar Obama offered for the sorts of best practices the government should adopt was his own presidential campaign. It was ‘one of the most inclusive and most successful campaigns in American history,’ he assured an audience largely comprised of his own White House staff. … Google is a wonderful company, but Google is as relevant to the tasks of government as a garden rake is to the tasks of a surgeon. Similarly, a presidential campaign is a vital tool for electing a president. It is utterly useless for enforcing contracts or repelling foreign invaders. … One of the advantages both a presidential campaign and a company like Google have is that they can fire incompetent employees quite easily. The federal government has no such luxury. According to a study by USA Today, death is the greatest threat to job security at the EPA, HUD and dozens of other agencies. … The only people in the world who don’t want the government to get much smarter are the ones working for it.” –columnist Jonah Goldberg

Culture

“Have you noticed that the only area where our benevolent government does not seek to regulate ad infinitum is entertainment? There, the fewer rules and restrictions, the better. Indecency laws? Violation of the 1st Amendment. Violent lyrics and video games? Parents’ discretion. Exposure of children to graphic sexual behavior at various Gay Pride events around the country each year? Necessary in order to produce tolerant citizens. But let that child try to sip from a Big Gulp while playing ‘Grand Murder Spree 8’ on their video game console and our loving leaders are forced to restrict consumption for the good of the child. Why? Because entertainment is the teat by which they control us. … This would be inadvisable, if the goal was rearing a generation of stalwart men and women to lead this country. But that never has been the goal of our Dear Leaders … Instead they seek to mire our youth in Never Never Land until their self-sufficiency has been degraded to the point of complete vacuity.” –columnist Luke Hamilton

The Last Word

“The civil rights movement in 20th century America attracted many people who put everything on the line for the sake of fighting against racial oppression. But the eventual success of that movement attracted opportunists, and even turned some idealists into opportunists. Over the generations, black leaders have ranged from noble souls to shameless charlatans. After the success of the civil rights insurgency, the latter have come into their own, gaining money, power and fame by promoting racial attitudes and actions that are counterproductive to the interests of those they lead. None of this is unique to blacks or to the United States. In various countries and times, leaders of groups that lagged behind, economically and educationally, have taught their followers to blame all their problems on other people – and to hate those other people. … Groups that rose from poverty to prosperity seldom did so by having racial or ethnic leaders. While most Americans can easily name a number of black leaders, current or past, how many can name Asian American ethnic leaders or Jewish ethnic leaders? The time is long overdue to stop looking for progress through racial or ethnic leaders. Such leaders have too many incentives to promote polarizing attitudes and actions that are counterproductive for minorities and disastrous for the country.” –economist Thomas Sowell

Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!
Nate Jackson for The Patriot Post Editorial Team