When George Mason University President Angel Cabrera said, “You belong at Mason,” he must not have meant conservatives. After the election, GMU tried to reassure people that the university was a place where everyone was welcome. “Today, more than ever, we must keep working hard to help students of all backgrounds learn and grow… We must reaffirm our commitment to embracing a multitude of people and ideas in everything that we do, to respecting differences, and to protecting the freedom of all members of our community to seek truth and express their views… This was our mission the day before the election and it remains our mission today.”

Unfortunately, that message of inclusion never got to Senior Admissions Officer Andrew Bunting, who took it upon himself to alienate about half of the campus — and prospective students — by declaring on his Facebook page that anyone who agrees with Donald Trump on a variety of issues is “a worthless piece of trash.” “For people who say, ‘don’t worry, it won’t be that bad’… this is what I, and so many others, are worried about.” He cites an article by the National Organization for Marriage that praises the president-elect, writing that its goal is to “Limit life. Limit freedom. Limit the pursuit of happiness for millions of American. If you agree with them that is your opinion. Just know that to the rest of us, you are a worthless piece of trash.”

So much for the Left’s call to respect the “dignity of every person”! How can a university — a publicly funded university, no less — expect Bunting to be objective in his admissions decisions if he’s already declared half of the country unwelcome at GMU? That kind of exclusionary worldview has no place in a learning environment, particularly one funded by hard-working Americans. It’s one thing to disagree with a group of people — and quite another to openly berate them for it. If CEOs at Target, Angie’s List, and Starbucks want to insult conservatives, that’s their prerogative. Customers can choose to take their business elsewhere. But a school that enjoys government support should not be free to alienate half of the country.

And here’s the irony: if it’s natural marriage supporters Bunting is targeting, they’re more than half the country! According to the Wilson Perkins Allen polling from this month, 53 percent of Americans still define marriage as the union of a man and woman. The senior admissions officer is the one in the minority — not the nation that elected Donald Trump. Since Media Research Center broke the story, Bunting’s post has disappeared — but the senior admissions officer has not. University officials have yet to comment on the controversy, which would roil the founding father the school was named for. A fierce proponent of the power of the people (and a skeptic of bureaucrats), George Mason would have strongly denounced a public servant for commenting on an election from another section of government.

As the story picks up steam, pressure is building for GMU to act. Alumni, students, local taxpayers and others have plastered the university’s phone number on social media, urging people to call in and complain. In a world where heroes like FRC’s Lt. General Jerry Boykin (U.S. Army-Ret.) can be fired from a private university for supporting something as reasonable as safety in public restrooms, surely real zealots like Bunting can be held accountable. One man’s “trash” is another man’s student! If you agree, contact the office of the president at 703-993-8700 or email [email protected].

Originally published here.

Trump Names Names on Court

A lot of things have changed since May, but Donald Trump’s list of potential Supreme Court nominees has not. Five months after he became the first GOP presidential nominee to release the names of his potential SCOTUS picks, the campaign says the election hasn’t altered a thing. Much to the Left’s displeasure, the president-elect’s choices are all strong originalists who agree that a justice’s role is to uphold the Constitution — not rewrite it.

[Wednesday], reporters asked campaign manager Kellyanne Conway what they can expect from Barack Obama’s successor on the court. “You’ve seen the list of 21. The list has not changed. President-elect Trump has committed to choosing his Supreme Court justices, particularly the vacancy created by the untimely death of Justice Scalia. He’s committed to choosing from that list of 21.”

That will undoubtedly spell the end of Merrick Garland’s nomination, Obama’s so-called “moderate” pick to replace Scalia. Republicans, who showed the kind of spine that won them control of Congress last week, were vindicated for holding the line on Merrick, insisting that the new president should fill the seat. Based on the GOP’s internal polling, 54 percent of people “were more concerned about a liberal justice being chosen to replace Scalia, compared to the nearly 41 percent of respondents who were more worried about the seat being open for a year or more.” That’s a big gap — big enough to give Republicans the confidence they needed to hold their ground. Obviously, the American people shared their concerns that Obama’s only interest in filling the seat is finding a lifetime surrogate on the Court.

With SCOTUS topping the list of most conservatives’ concerns, Wednesday’s comments by Conway will go a long way to reassuring the base. One group who isn’t reassured? Senate Democrats, who are already sharpening their knives for a knock-down-drag-out fight over whomever Trump nominates. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who will be the ranking member on the Judiciary Committee when Congress reboots in January, fired a warning shot on the slim majority Republicans hold in the chamber. “When President-elect Trump is willing to support reasonable politics and nominees, I’ll hear him out. But this committee has a vital role to protect the Constitution.” Since when have radicals like Feinstein cared about protecting the Constitution? Their only interest has been in finding activist judges to carry out agendas they could never pass legislatively. Thank goodness that under Donald Trump that may finally change!

Originally published here.

RSC: Running Toward Walker

[Yesterday], members of the House of Representative’s conservative Republican Study Committee (“RSC”) voted for Mark Walker (R-N.C.) to serve as their chairman, replacing Bill Flores (R-Tex.). Chairman Flores served during the 114th Congress and Chairman-Elect Walker will begin his work in January, when he’ll also begin only his second term in Congress. Rep. Walker competed against Dr. Andy Harris (R-Md.) for the position. Both of these men are friends and have been great advocates for values.

Before serving in Congress, Chairman-Elect Walker served his church as a pastor. In fact, while he was at home in North Carolina over the October recess, Walker joined the FRC Action bus tour to encourage North Carolinians to get to the polls and vote their values.

The chairman-elect voted his values during his first term in Congress, and his voting record is strong. Though he did vote against a budget reconciliation bill that would’ve worked toward repealing Obamacare and defunding Planned Parenthood, when the bill passed the Senate and the president vetoed it Walker voted to override the president’s veto. Repealing Obamacare and defunding Planned Parenthood will be two of FRC’s top priorities for the 115th Congress, and it is great to have Chairman-Elect Walker as a strong supporter of those efforts.

The chairman-elect said it is clear “the American people want to reclaim constitutional principles and reinvigorate our economy. It is unacceptable for us not to deliver on the faith the voters have invested in us.” In the 114th Congress, the RSC took a lead role in pushing for support of the First Amendment Defense Act (H.R. 2802), which would have prevented the government from penalizing the belief that marriage is the union of one man and one woman and that sexual relations should be reserved for natural marriages. Continuing to advocate for protection of America’s first freedom, the freedom of religion, will be an important role of Chairman-Elect Walker as he assumes his new position. We look forward to Chairman-Elect Walker’s leadership of RSC for the 115th Congress.

Originally published here.

This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.