Some politicians will say anything to get elected — and thanks to Project Veritas, Americans are finding out exactly who those politicians are. In deep red states, where Democrats have to play moderate to win, it’s been tough for people like Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) to keep their true feelings in check. It’s a tough act to maintain — too tough, new undercover videos show.

The Missouri senator, who pretends to be a friend of the Second Amendment, has quite different views behind closed doors. In the safety of her campaign offices, the woman in a neck-and-neck race with state Attorney General Josh Hawley (R) made it clear in a new undercover video that she’s just hiding her agenda for votes. In footage released this week, McCaskill and her staffers are almost giddy at the thought of tighter gun control laws, including outlawing “high capacity magazines. Turning to the senator, an undercover journalist asked her if she would support a ban, "Of course! Of course!” she insists.

But she’s not going to tell voters that, her office insists — “because that could hurt her ability to get elected.” Off the record, far-Left groups like Mom’s Demand Action know they have a friend in the senator. It’s just better to keep the relationship “hush-hush.” “She’s worked out stuff with Mom’s Demand Action to make sure that she can support their goals without supporting the organization openly,” said one of McCaskill’s staffers. And what about Barack Obama? Why isn’t he out campaigning for the senator?

“He’s a very liberal candidate. And like … Claire [is] distancing herself from the party [because it will] help her win more votes.” Nicolas Starost, who works on the McCaskill campaign, said they do everything they can to keep voters in the dark about her radical views. So she and Obama “essentially have the same views on everything?” the Project Veritas journalist asks. “Yeah,” Starost replied smiling. “People just can’t know that.”

Just like people can’t know McCaskill’s secret support for impeaching President Trump. Campaign worker Glen Winfrey says she could explain her flip-flop on the issue by telling Missourians, “Get over it. It was a national security question.” Or her private push to outlaw semi-automatic weapons. “… I think we could actually be in a position to get votes on this stuff on the floor and we’d get 60…” Of course, McCaskill’s race to the middle might convince a few people, but it’s hard to bury her actual record. She has an “F” rating from the NRA and supported President Obama’s agenda 98 percent of the time.

Now, in frantic damage control mode, she’s insisting that these Project Veritas videos are the work of challenger Josh Hawley. “It is startling that Josh Hawley would be part of fraudulently embedding somebody in my campaign. He’s the Attorney General of the state of Missouri. He’s supposed to be going after fraud, not participating in it.” Nice try, Hawley fired back. “@clairecmc & staff caught on tape deceiving Missouri voters and her response is to accuse me of fraud? For HER words? Her campaign is unraveling.” The latest numbers seem to agree. Most polls have Hawley pulling ahead of McCaskill by anywhere from two to five points.

In Tennessee, the Volunteers got a front-row seat to the split personality of Rep. Marsha Blackburn’s (R) opponent for Senate, Phil Bredesen (D). Like McCaskill, his campaign office was also caught on video spilling the beans on the Democrat’s strategy on Brett Kavanaugh. Field organizer Maria Amalla said his statement about supporting the new Supreme Court justice was a complete lie — “a political move… to make up points.” The undercover journalist says that he was “so confused because I just can’t believe he would actually vote yes [to confirm Kavanaugh.]” Oh, Bredesen’s staffer says, “He wouldn’t. He’s just saying he would.” Don’t worry, a worker named Will Stewart says, “Between you and me, once Phil actually gets into the Senate, he’ll be a good Democrat.” Does that mean he’s not a fan of Trump, the mole asks? “…Oh yeah. Oh, he hates Trump, like yeah…” “Are the people of Tennessee that ignorant?” “Yeah,” Stewart replies.

Now, like McCaskill’s campaign, the Bredesen camp is scrambling to explain the footage away. That’ll be tough to do, insiders think. In the handful of days since singer Taylor Swift trashed Blackburn’s views and the tape was released, Marsha has managed to turn her single-digit lead into a double-digit advantage. “This is exactly the kind of ‘say whatever to get elected’ politics Tennesseans hate,” Blackburn’s campaign told reporters. “Marsha always says you ‘may not always agree with me, but you will always know where I stand.’”

Originally published here.

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P.C. in D.C.? How One Party Is out of Touch with America

Raise your hand if you’re tired of political correctness. According to a new study, you’re not alone. About 80 percent of the country is sick of being P.C. — which could be bad news for the party pushing an entire agenda of it.

The study, “Hidden Tribes: A Study of America’s Polarized Landscape,” may have set out to show how divided the country is. Turns out, Americans aren’t as nearly split as the media would have you believe. Yes, people have strong opinions, but it’s the political class that is driving the narrative. There are only about eight percent of Americans in the ‘hard-Left’ camp — almost all white (80 percent), all well-educated, all voting, all giving money to campaigns, and all active on social media, Axios points out. There are another six percent on the “hard-right” who are just as white (88 percent), just as educated, voting, helping campaigns, and active on social media.

That 14 percent of America – half liberal and half conservative — who are dominating politics. Arthur Brooks explains in a New York Times column that “The good news is that once you get outside these two elite groups you find a lot more independent thinking and flexibility. This is not a 50-50 nation. It only appears that way when disenchanted voters are forced to choose between the two extreme cults.”

Roughly two-thirds of Americans, Brooks points out, “across four political types, fall into what the authors call ‘the exhausted majority.’ Sixty-one percent say people they agree with need to listen and compromise more. [And] 80 percent say political correctness is a problem.” The country has different opinions, to be sure, but they’re equally frustrated with the growing P.C. climate.

On yesterday’s “Washington Watch,” Daily Wire commentator Michael Knowles attributed a lot of this to President Trump’s refusal to acquiesce on common sense. “The opposition to P.C. has accelerated in just the last two years,” he explains, “thanks, probably, to a very un-politically correct president. In the beginning of the 1990s, you already had 53-54 percent opposition to political correctness. By 2016, surveys were putting that number somewhere around 73 percent. Now it looks like it’s around 80 percent. People have had it.”

What changed? “I think the reason for this — I think what finally broke the camel’s back — is the transgender ideology,” Knowles says bluntly. “It’s an ideology that a man is not really a man or can become a woman — and vice versa. When you tell [a] guy that he has to allow other men to follow his daughter into the changing room at the local pool because there’s no such thing as biological sex that is a bridge too far. And I think it forces people to have to choose between their own… eyes and the cult and ideology of political correctness… I think it’s finally pushed people over the edge.”

That’s a bad sign for the far-Left, which has made P.C. the cornerstone of their radical ideology. The election of 2016 was, in large part, a referendum on that thinking. Forced to choose between a continuation of Barack Obama or a man who refuses to bend to the political winds, Americans chose Donald Trump. “Now we have a president and a Republican Party that isn’t going to kowtow to that ideological vocabulary anymore. I think it’s a breath of fresh air, and I think the more they use blunt and honest language, the better Republicans will do politically.”

The Left’s fringe is used to getting its way. Unfortunately for them, this administration doesn’t know the meaning of the word surrender. If the president doesn’t agree with their fanatical ideas on gender, sexuality, religion, diversity, or immigration, he says so. He doesn’t tremble at the thought of offending someone in public policy. He pursues what he thinks is right, fair, and safe. And liberals have absolutely no idea how to respond, except to pitch a fit.

Michael is right. “We’ve reached a tipping point on political correctness.” And if President Trump has proved anything, it’s that the way to bring about real equilibrium is standing up to it!

Originally published here.

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City Burned by Fire Chief Discrimination

Nothing can take back what happened to Kelvin Cochran after he was fired for his faith, but a $1.2 million settlement certainly helps. The former Atlanta fire chief, who was terminated back in 2014 for writing a Christian Bible study, may never get those four years back — but at least he’ll have closure.

This week, the Atlanta City Council agreed to settle with the Obama appointee by an 11-3 vote, putting an end to a personally and professionally challenging chapter in Cochran’s life. After 34 years of trying to reach the very job they fired him from, Kelvin was astounded. “The city basically said you have to check your beliefs at the door when you work for the government,” his attorney, Alliance Defending Freedom’s David Cortman, said. “You don’t promote diversity by firing people who disagree with your opinion.”

Before the controversy, his promotion had been “a childhood dream come true, a fairytale career,” he told Fox News’s Todd Starnes. “My life is a story of faith and patriotism.” The city gave offered several reasons for giving this public servant the pink slip — but a later investigation concluded that there was no evidence that Cochran’s beliefs compromised his leadership. FRC’s Director of Religious Freedom Advocacy, Alexandra McPhee, explains that throughout the legal battle, even the court recognized Cochran’s reputation as “an excellent Fire Chief” and his mission to “assemble a group of firefighters, who represented diverse backgrounds, characteristics, and beliefs” — including at least two employees who identified as LGBT under his leadership.

“Not all of Cochran’s constitutional arguments were accepted by the court,” Alexandra points out. “But Cochran’s large settlement is a signal that the city knows that it has the losing side of the argument. "The government is here for the people, not the other way around. No American should be punished simply for holding beliefs that are different from the government.” Let this be a lesson for the Left: Discrimination will cost you.

Meanwhile, Georgians will tell you that there’s no way to stop what happened to Kelvin from happening again — not if the state keeps refusing to pass a religious freedom law like Mississippi’s. Hopefully, that’ll be a deciding issue in next month’s election between Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams and Republican Brian Kemp, who’ve taken very different stances on the importance of a policy that would make this kind of religious intolerance illegal.

To see where the two gubernatorial hopefuls stand, check out this article in the Savannah Morning News.

Originally published here.

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