The Patriot Post® · Sloppy Joe Biden Makes a Decent Mess
If Democrats kicked off their 2020 campaign today, they’d have some pretty interesting bumper stickers. “I heart socialism!” “Killing newborns is a choice!” “Non-binaries for Bernie!” “Friends don’t let conservatives become friends!” They’re the party of no babies, no borders, no God, and now – as Joe Biden so painfully reminded everyone – no decency.
A day after Congressmen Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) surprised everyone with their unusually close friendship, the former vice president made it clear that there’s no room in his party for mutual respect. Hours after referring to Mike Pence as a “decent guy” during a forum in Omaha, the man who may have been the party’s best shot at moderate voters, walked his comment back.
LGBT activists like Cynthia Nixon were furious, tweeting that Pence is “America’s most anti-LGBT leader… Please consider how this falls on the ears of our community.” Chastened, the former VP apologized. “You’re right, Cynthia. I was making a point in a foreign policy context, that under normal circumstances a Vice President wouldn’t be given a silent reaction on the world stage. But there is nothing decent about being anti-LGBTQ rights, and that includes the vice president.”
This is the man who was supposed to be the party’s counterweight to liberal fanaticism. The grown-up in the room who’s likeable and understands the value of bipartisanship. As far as most people were concerned, that was Biden’s only path to the nomination – distinguishing himself from the party’s extremism, not embracing it. Now even he’s exposed as just another pathetic puppet of the radical Left. “If Biden enters the race only to spend the next year apologizing for being insufficiently ‘woke,’” the Washington Examiner’s Philip Klein writes, “he’ll just look like a complete buffoon, without convincing any skeptics who will have plenty of alternatives to choose from who are younger and more in touch with contemporary sensibilities on the Left.”
All because he couldn’t bring himself to stand by a benign nicety to a fellow vice president. Biden didn’t endorse Pence’s views or lavish praise on his leadership. “‘Decent,’” Aaron Colen half-joked. “Perhaps the most lukewarm compliment that’s ever been paid to another person.” And yet, in this brave new party, even that was inexcusable. Folks, this is significant. Not only does it show what’s in store if the Left regains the levers of power in America, but it also proves the intense stranglehold that abortion and LGBT activists now have on the Democratic party. This isn’t just a war on common courtesy. It’s a war on moderation. And it’s a harbinger of things to come.
Joe Biden’s pitiful capitulation is proof – there is no space in government or public life for people who disagree with the radical rejection of biblical and historical morality. This is the “deplorables” on steroids. “You cannot be civil,” Hillary Clinton said last October, “with a political party that [doesn’t agree].” That angry mob approach may work at fancy fundraising dinners, but it doesn’t translate to mainstream America. Most people are tired of the dehumanization and division. They’re sick of the fighting and vitriol. And they aren’t on board with this trip to the final frontiers of sexuality, gender, immigration, and infanticide. And that include some who make up the historical base of the Democratic party.
This is a hole Democrats started digging for themselves back in 2016 when it adopted a platform that alienates as many as 77 percent of its own party. “You’re killing us,” rural Democrats told headquarters. “Tell me how in the world Nancy Pelosi, or some of those folks in Congress,” one local Democrat told Politico, “how would they even be able to sit there and talk with [the pro-life, pro-God Democrats here]? Do they even know [they] exist? That’s why I say that the East Coast elitists have forgotten America. They’ve not been to America, they forgot America, they forgot about certain parts of America. Maybe they’ve done it intentionally,” Terry Goodwin, the leader of the Indiana caucus said soberly. “I hope not.”
A perceptive Republican party would seize on this opportunity by pursing the policies outlined in the GOP’s platform, which couldn’t provide a clearer contrast between the two parties. From God to life and parental rights to public restrooms, the GOP’s vision of America is 180 degrees from the Left. And that vision will be central in attracting disaffected Democratic voters in 2020.
Originally published here.
Dems Give Born-Alive the Silent Treatment
Ten. That’s the number of times pro-life Republicans have walked to the House floor and asked for a vote to end infanticide. It’s also the number of times Democratic leaders have turned them down – increasingly, Rep. Paul Mitchell (R-Mich.) found out, less politely.
When the Michigan conservative took his turn asking Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to put aside her extremism and schedule a vote on the Born-Alive bill, no one actually heard him. That’s because the liberal chair cut off his microphone before he finished. They ruled him out of order and silenced – not just his voice, but the voice of 80 percent of Americans.
Mitchell was stunned. On Twitter, where the video of the incident went viral, he posted, “Today on the House floor, I asked for unanimous consent to bring up H.R. 962, the #BornAlive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which requires medical care be given to babies born alive during failed abortion procedures. For the [10th] time now, @HouseDemocrats blocked the vote,” he said.
Fortunately, in states like Kentucky and Georgia, pro-lifers can’t be censored. The outrage over New York’s birth day abortions and Senate Democrats’ support for infanticide is lighting a fire under leaders, who refuse to let Washington speak for them. “Surely, there can be no debate that life exists at birth, and we should do what we can to protect those children,” state Sen. Whitney Westerfield (REP) argued. And in her chamber, there was no debate. By a 32-0 vote, lawmakers did what 44 senators here in Washington would not: pledged Kentucky’s support to babies born alive.
Over in Georgia, the Peach State is being richly rewarded for electing Governor Brian Kemp (REP) in a tight election last fall. In response to what he’s seen on the federal stage, Kemp is pushing Georgia to pass a “trigger” law similar to the one just inked by Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson (REP). When Roe v. Wade is overturned, a string of states are guaranteeing that a ban on abortion goes into immediate effect in their areas. Kemp, who’s pledged to make Georgia the most pro-life state in America, said it’s time to defend “the innocent and vulnerable.” “Our state values life – from conception to natural death. This legislation reflects our calling to protect the unborn and our desire to ensure opportunity for all.
This spontaneous response around the country is encouraging, but we must also have a federal law that ensures children who survive the first attempt on their life will be given the medical care and protection any human being deserves. Join with FRC and thousands of other pro-life Americans in sending a visible message to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that on the day of a baby’s birth, they should be protected by our laws, not murdered because of them.
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Originally published here.
The Hurdles of Genderless Track
When two boys finish first and second in a track meet, it isn’t national news. But it is when the races are for girls.
Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood have dominated their sport for two years. That’s because they’re actually boys allowed to compete against girls. Thanks to the brave new world of genderless sports, kids that wouldn’t have a prayer racing against their own sex are racking up the wins. If you’re a female runner who has a problem with that, Miller says, try harder.
Connecticut high schooler Selina Soule, one of the girls who missed out on the podium because of the unfair advantage the sport gives boys, was on Fox News’s "The Ingraham Angle” talking about how “demoralizing” it is to know the outcome of the race before it even starts. And no, she says, this isn’t about being prejudiced.
“I fully support them for being true to themselves and having the courage to do what they believe in,” she said. But athletics is “an entirely different situation. It’s scientifically proven that males are built to be physically stronger than females. It’s unfair to put someone who is biologically a male, who has not undergone anything in terms of hormone therapy, against cis-gender girls… It’s upsetting when we work hard all season and put in a lot of effort, only to turn up at the state meets and get beat by someone who is biologically a male and lose state championships over this.”
And these boys aren’t just stealing trophies, FRC’s Cathy Ruse points out, they’re stealing coveted scholarships too. “Selina Soule would have qualified for the New England regionals which would have allowed her to run in front of more college coaches, if the two competitors who identify as transgender hadn’t taken the top spots, according to the Associated Press.” And when college coaches look at her times, Soule pointed out, “they’re looking at major discrepancies in times without any explanation.”
With the Olympics around the corner and the debates exploding across the sports world, even athletes who’ve identified as gay or lesbian are calling the trend what it is: cheating. Tennis pro Martina Navratilova has been a great ally for the LGBT movement, but she had no bones blasting the radical ideology that’s killing sports and healthy competition. “It’s punishing the innocent,” she wrote indignantly, “and it’s insane.”
If there is a silver lining to this politically correct lunacy, it’s that more people are starting to see the quandary that’s created by policies and decision that aren’t based in anatomical realities but emotional whims. If biological sex doesn’t matter in sports, where does it matter? This is all fine if you’re a kid playing make-believe, but if you’re a society in the age of terrorism, security – not to mention biology – should be the top consideration. What about driver’s licenses and passports, the most dependable form of ID our country offers? How can the people working to keep us safe do so when a suspect could be described as either a man or a woman – or neither – depending on how they feel at that time?
If it’s unfair for a man to compete as a woman on the sports field, what about the battlefield? Thanks to the Left’s sexless agenda, we now have federal courts ordering Americans to open the draft to females. Even women who want to be in combat can’t compete on the same level as men, as the Marines’ own studies have proven. And when we pretend otherwise, we aren’t just hurting the military – we’re hurting them. As NRO argues, only a barbaric nation drafts its mothers and daughters in combat. But only a nation that abandons truth ever gets to that point in the first place.
Originally published here.
This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Tony Perkins’ Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC Action senior writers.