Columnist.
A Fourth of July Gallup poll presented an interesting picture about our country. Americans overwhelmingly express pride in being American, yet the division is wide and deep about what being an American means. Eighty-five percent of respondents say they are "extremely" or "very" proud to be an American. Yet, 71 percent say they think the signers of the Declaration of Independence would be "disappointed" how the country has turned out.
The Book of Proverbs, part of biblical canon, once a vital part of American culture, tells us: "Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall." It's this haughty spirit, this pride that precedes destruction, that lies behind the Supreme Court's decision last week to bury the Defense of Marriage Act. DOMA defined marriage, for purposes of federal law, as traditional marriage -- the union of man and woman.
The House passed a historic piece of legislation last week that prohibits late term abortion. The "Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act" -- introduced by Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) along with 187 co-sponsors and passed in the House by a vote of 228 to 196 -- prohibits abortion after 20 weeks. As Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) noted in her remarks, science is clear that, at the end of the second trimester of pregnancy, the unborn child feels pain.
Anyone who doubts that the Republican Party can attract black voters needs only look south to Louisiana.
It's time to close the door on a bankrupt, antiquated Social Security system and give every working American the opportunity to build wealth and share in the American dream.
We ought to get perspective on the real nature of the most recent push on gun control, initiated out of the White House. This is classic bait-and-switch politics, characterized by what current Chicago mayor, and former Obama chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel once called "never let a crisis go to waste." That is, never forgo an opportunity to exploit the emotions produced by a crisis or tragedy to further a pre-existing political agenda. This has been sadly and transparently the case with this latest round of gun control politics.
Some 25 years ago I changed my life. A visit inside a church opened my eyes to the destructive life I was living, financed by welfare checks generously provided by American taxpayers. I got off welfare, went to work, got politically active and became a Republican. I didn't become a Republican because of what the party looked like. I became a Republican because of what the party stood for.
With the convictions in the case against abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell -- three counts of murdering live babies and one count of involuntary manslaughter -- abortion is back in the national discussion. It's pretty clear from the Grand Jury report that, during Gosnell's thirty plus year career, he likely murdered hundreds, if not thousands of babies. But because of the difficulty in documenting it all, he was just convicted of three. Reports now are coming in from around the nation indicating that more Gosnells are out there.
Put me down as happy to see former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford coming back to Washington. He handily defeated Elizabeth Colbert Busch in Tuesday's special election for a House seat he himself once held. I hope he brings his piglets with him. Once as governor, Sanford showed up at the statehouse in Columbia with two piglets -- one named "pork" and one named "barrel" -- to protest the Legislature's quick move to reject his proposed budget that included large spending cuts.
In 1854, Abraham Lincoln confronted America's first "pro-choice" Senator, Stephen Douglas, in a speech in Peoria, Illinois. "Choice" then was about slavery, not abortion. Douglas sponsored the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which addressed the sticky question of how to deal with the legality of slavery in new territories entering the union. The Kansas-Nebraska Act resolved this by "choice." Residents would vote to decide if slavery would be legal in their territory.
The trial of Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, facing the death penalty for the deaths of four infants and one woman in his clinic, is over. America has moved on. It's exactly what the pro-abortion contingent wants. They want Gosnell out of the news because they want abortion out of the news. Ongoing discussion provokes thought about the status quo. And pro-aborts want to keep things as they are. And, they have reason to be confident.
Kirsten Powers has done a national service, by virtue of her now famous *USA Today* column, of getting the news of the trial of abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell on the national radar screen. This of course, is the horror story of a cesspool in Philadelphia posturing as an abortion clinic, operating without inspection for 17 years. Gosnell, the doctor who ran the place, has been formally charged of murder of one woman and seven infants. However, the grand jury report and testimony of family and staff at the trial indicate that if there were records in this dump, where life and death were meted out daily, Gosnell would be indicted for hundreds of murders of live children.
Dr. Ben Carson stepped into the national spotlight recently when, as speaker at the National Prayer Breakfast, to an audience that included President Obama, he was openly critical of the President's approach to health care and his overall management of the nation's economy. Carson, who is director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital, is a hero to many. His life story, rising from a Detroit ghetto to a life of accomplishment and distinction, is a story of American ideals on steroids. Those ideals say that America is about merit not circumstance. Your life, your achievements are the result of what you do and how you live, not where you came from.
A bi-partisan group of Senators, known as the Gang of 8, have put together a framework for the immigration reform that supposedly America is waiting for. Provisions of the agreement have been widely leaked and, from what I see, these Senators should return to the drawing board. If we are going to tackle immigration reform, there should be agreement at the outset on what objectives should be achieved. In my view, there should be three. It should enhance the freedom, fairness, and security of the nation. If not, why bother? The Gang of 8 proposal makes no gains on any of these fronts, and on at least one -- fairness -- makes a bad situation even worse.
As the nation has focused on the Supreme Court hearings on the constitutionality of same-sex marriage, news from the state of Indiana could prove far more important regarding the nation's future. The Indiana Supreme Court has just ruled unanimously, 5-0, that Indiana's school voucher program, signed into law in 2011, the most expansive school voucher program in the nation, does not violate the state's constitution. Those who challenged the law argued that the voucher program is unconstitutional because it allows public funds to be used for religious education.
We are now hearing the usual voices of protest in Detroit in the wake of Michigan governor Rick Snyder appointing an outside expert to take over financial management of the near-bankrupt city. Detroit is the largest city in American history to be seized in this fashion and turned over to an outside manager. Reported deficit of the city is $327 million dollars and long-term liabilities are in the range of $14 billion. But no matter to the unions, politicians, and bureaucrats who have been at the helm for years as the city has spiraled into the depths of the black hole in which it now finds itself. These interest groups, who have been the driving force behind this fiscal travesty, have one interest -- to keep their respective beds feathered. Citizens and public welfare be damned.
As President Obama prepares for his first trip to Israel, I hope when he gets there he sees what I saw. Several weeks ago I returned from my first trip to Israel. I went with a delegation headed by Governor Mike Huckabee, who visits Israel at least once every year. What did I see? I saw kids, no more than 18 years old, walking down the street, waiting at bus stops, wearing Army green khakis, and carrying machine guns on their backs. One young girl was as black skinned as me.
In April of 2007, a mentally disturbed student showed up at the campus of his school, Virginia Tech, brandishing two semi-automatic pistols, and murdered 32 students, teachers and school employees and wounded 17 others. Then he took his own life. It was the one of deadliest mass shooting incidents in American history. The nation was in shock, as it is now following the December mass murder at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. The press and public outcry was the same then as now. How can we stop horrors like this from occurring? We've got to stop criminals and nut cases from getting their hands on guns.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has become the eighth Republican governor to agree to expand Medicaid coverage in his state under the provisions of Obamacare. Is the last line of Republican resistance to Obamacare disintegrating? In 2011, 26 states joined a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the provision of Obamacare, which forced them to participate in expanding Medicaid coverage as a condition to continue to participate in the program. The Supreme Court ruled in their favor last year, negating the mandatory requirement, so it is now voluntary for states to expand Medicaid coverage.
This past Friday my organization, CURE, sponsored a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, to bring attention to the importance of rigorously defending the right of all Americans, guaranteed under the 2nd Amendment of our Constitution, to own a gun. Our event provided a forum for black leaders from the world of politics and public policy in Washington, from the business community, from academia, and from the clergy to express their deep concern about efforts currently underway to limit our God-given and constitutional individual right of self-defense. Why would an organization like CURE, whose mission focuses on the relevance of American values of faith and freedom to minorities, be so concerned about guns?
