The Patriot Post® · Stunning Upset
According to all the media hype, Tuesday’s special election in Georgia’s Sixth Congressional District was supposed to herald the end of the Trump presidency and beginning of the Left’s resurgence. Consider these headlines:
“Georgia Special Election A Referendum On Trump” — Chicago Tribune
“Georgia Special Election Seen As Last, Best Chance To Stop Trumpcare” — Huffington Post
In spite of the hype and the Left’s best efforts, Karen Handel won comfortably Tuesday night 52%-to-48%. Just how sad was the Left and its big media allies? The facial expressions of these CNN analysts says it all!
Here are some observations:
Democrats and their media allies are attempting to shrug off this loss as no big deal. Don’t believe the spin. The Left went all out to win this seat and it failed.
Liberals all over the country opened their wallets and poured tens of millions of dollars into Democrat Jon Ossoff’s campaign, making it the most expensive House election in history. While estimates vary, the Left spent at least $30 million attempting to make the race a referendum on President Trump.
A remarkably small amount of Ossoff’s $30 million came from Georgia. In fact, he received nearly four times more donations from the San Francisco Bay area than he did from Georgia.
Kellyanne Conway tweeted this masterpiece: “I’m laughing my Ossoff.” She also thanked the media for making it so clear that the election was a referendum on President Trump.
By one measurement, the Left is now 0 and 5 in contested special elections. Some races have been close, but close only matters in horseshoes.
Pollsters are evidently still relying on the same bad models they used in 2016. The polling in the Sixth District was terrible. Most polls showed Ossoff leading, occasionally by as much as seven points. Even as late as Tuesday, pollsters were saying it was “too close to call” and that all the passion was with the Left.
Kudos to Speaker Paul Ryan and other GOP leaders who invested heavily in the race, including President Trump and Vice President Pence. The conventional wisdom said that Trump was a liability here.
But the president repeatedly expressed his support for Handel. He recorded phone calls for her, and both President Trump and Vice President Pence raised money and campaigned for her. When Handel gave her victory speech Tuesday night, she thanked the president and the crowd chanted, “Trump! Trump! Trump!”
Karen Handel’s victory was a victory on many fronts. While Jon Ossoff was adamantly pro-abortion, Handel fought to defund Planned Parenthood.
For those of you who care about Israel, Ossoff was heavily backed by the far-Left, Soros-funded group J-Street. That organization claims to be pro-Israel, but it regularly blames Israel for the ongoing conflict with the Palestinians. It has supported conferences with aggressively anti-Israel speakers and it was a big supporter of Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. J-Street and its supporters invested heavily in Ossoff, who they saw as a rising star on the Left.
Meanwhile, pro-Israel leaders, including yours truly, did everything we could to get the vote out for Karen Handel, who is staunchly pro-Israel.
The Fascist Left
Stabbings have become a favorite tactic of Islamic jihadists in Israel and Europe — and here. A Michigan police officer was stabbed yesterday by a jihadist yelling “Allahu Akbar!”
Not surprisingly, given the increasing alliance between the radical Left and radical Islamists, the so-called “Antifa” movement (anti-fascist movement) appears to be embracing the idea that conservatives should be stabbed to death.
For example, the Antifa movement has produced a poster showing a man in a “Make America Great Hat” being confronted with a bayonet. Behind him is the silhouette of a Nazi soldier, thus equating Trump supporters with Nazis. The caption on the poster reads, “We Beat ‘Em Before, We’ll Beat 'Em Again!” (See it here.)
While it claims to be “anti-fascist,” the organization is engaging in fascist tactics. It has no respect for free elections and free speech.
It wants conservative opinions silenced and it advocates violence against conservatives, just like the fascists of Nazi Germany used violence to silence their opponents. They often dress in black, just like Hitler’s SS.
This extremist organization is out of control and needs to be shut down. It is connected to some of the worst elements of society. It has taken over college campuses, damaged property, harmed innocent people and threatened lives.
It is a terrorist organization. It is engaged in fascist tactics. It is everything it claims to be against.
Again, I urge the Justice Department to investigate left-wing extremism and to apply the RICO statutes against these violent groups.
Why It Matters
I want to briefly revisit the main subject of Tuesday’s report — the West’s “war on terrorism.” As we were wrapping up Tuesday, news broke that a terrorist attacked people at a Brussels train station. As already noted, a terrorist attacked a Michigan police officer yesterday.
However, simply referring to the attackers as “terrorists” loses all context. Both men reportedly shouted “Allahu Akbar!” They were Islamic supremacists. And just as the jihadis use language to identify themselves and their motives, the language we use matters when it comes to public policy.
It matters because if you want to win the war, you must identify the enemy you are fighting.
If the enemy is “terrorism,” then the solution is to make travelers put their shampoo in three ounce bottles. If the enemy is “terrorism,” then the solution is to limit Second Amendment freedoms and ban handguns.
But if the enemy is radical Islam, then the solution is to identify the radicals through extreme vetting and stricter immigration controls so we can prevent Islamic supremacists from getting into the country, which they are trying to do.
If the enemy is radical Islam, then perhaps we should be monitoring mosques to ensure that anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism and jihad are not festering in the hearts and minds of our Muslim youth.
If the enemy is radical Islam, then perhaps we should be more deliberate about teaching our children and grandchildren the values and virtues of Western Civilization and Judeo-Christian culture. Perhaps we should be teaching about our Constitution and the great privilege of being an American, rather than a “citizen of the world.”