Hawley Breaks Mob Rules
“I won’t bow down to their mob.”
In a way, the Left’s obsession with Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is a compliment. The mob doesn’t waste its time with leaders who aren’t true threats. And the Missouri conservative is a threat all right — because regardless of what they call him, try to do to him, or take away from him, he’s not backing down.
The MSNBC headline was one of the most comical. On the Maddow Blog, Steve Benen was beside himself. How can Josh Hawley repair his reputation, he said, if he doesn’t even bother to try? Of course, the irony is, Hawley’s reputation is only damaged in circles where he was never respected in the first place. And as far as the Left is concerned, there’s only one road to “redemption,” and that’s caving to the extremists’ demands. Well, they can hope for that all they want, Hawley said on “Washington Watch,” but it’s not going to happen. This senator doesn’t believe in white flags — only American ones.
As calls for his resignation grow, so has Hawley’s resolve. If you want to know why the Left is so angry, he said, it’s simple: “I won’t bow down to their mob.” Under this supercharged cancel culture — the one ushered in by January 6 — they argue that even representing your constituents is a crime! “It’s an unbelievable attempt to silence all opposition,” Hawley argued. “And it’s a threat to democracy.” Look, Hawley said, the reality is, “It’s not really about [people like Ted Cruz and myself]. It’s about the people we represent… [it’s] about the 75 million Americans who took a different view in the last election. They want to crush that dissent… and I’m not going to go along with it.”
Joe Biden and his party don’t want unity. They want control. “[What] he’s talking about — what Democrats in Congress and the media, the Left-wing mob [are talking about] — is total control of political discourse,” Hawley warned. “What they want is everyone who disagrees with them to be shut up, silenced, or expelled… That’s half the country [who they think] have illegitimate views — who should repent of ever supporting anyone but Democrats. This is crazy stuff,” he shook his head. “And I, for one… am not going to be told what to think or do or say by the mob.”
But the scary thing, as we talked about, is that big businesses, Big Tech, the media — they’re all in league with the Left. What we’re seeing here is an unprecedented alliance between monopoly corporations and the Democratic Party. “I don’t know that we’ve ever seen quite this much concentrated power in so few hands,” Hawley said, “in American history.” And it’s not going away on its own. Americans can’t just say, “Okay, well, we’ll be nice and play by your rules.” They’ll crush us. The only way to keep our freedoms is to use them — and fight for them.
If they won’t unify the country, we will — around the bedrock principles of free speech, free exercise, open debate. Because frankly, this isn’t just a threat to conservatives — it’s a threat to everyone. If you believe in the First Amendment, regardless of your political persuasion, it’s time to stand up and say, “Enough.” In America, we don’t shame people for their views — we discuss them. But unfortunately, since the election of Barack Obama, and the acceleration of these radical and unpopular policies, the Left isn’t interested in dialogue. They don’t want to have a civil conversation on their agenda, because they can’t logically, rationally, or scientifically support it. Instead, their attitude is, “If I disagree with you, I’ll try to criminalize you.” And that’s about as dangerous to a free society as it gets.
So what can people do? For starters, Senator Hawley urges, stop buying in to the media’s lies. “We’ve got to resist this idea that if you hold a different opinion or you represent a part of the country that doesn’t agree with the latest radical agenda that you can be silenced… [W]e’ve got to go back to the basic things that unite all Americans: the First Amendment, the principal of democracy. That’s where we’ve got to take our stand.”
As a country, this is a crucial moment. The other side sees the confusion and frustration of this moment as a chance to finish conservatives off for good. But take heart. The Left can only win if we bow down in fear and let them. As Senator Hawley said, this is the time to graciously — but firmly — stand and say, “This is my view. I’m protected by the First Amendment, and I’m not going to surrender.”
Originally published here.
Planet Parenthood: Biden’s Order to Export Abortion
If you asked most people about Joe Biden in the 1980s, “abortion radical” is hardly a term they’d use to describe him. But the man who used to walk in the March for Life wouldn’t even recognize himself now, sitting behind a desk in the Oval Office — signing the death warrant of unborn children. Today, his evolution to the outer limits of his party was officially complete. By reopening America’s wallets to abortion, his legacy as a moderate anything is permanently finished.
It was billed as President Biden’s “health care day.” But only on the illogical Left could exporting abortion be considered medical aid. The announcement, Dr. Susan Berry warns, is the clearest sign yet that he’s abandoned his call for unity. As pollsters will tell you, outlawing overseas abortion funding is an area of near consensus for both parties. In fact, as the new Marist survey announced today, the opposition to policies like Biden’s has only grown since last year. Seventy-seven percent of Americans want to ban taxpayer-funding of abortions abroad — including 55 percent of Democrats and 64 percent of “pro-choicers.” Only 19 percent share Joe Biden’s new view that bankrolling the killing of foreign babies is a good use of U.S. dollars.
“If your ‘health care policy’ kills people on purpose, you’re doing it wrong,” Students for Life President Kristan Hawkins said. Her own polling, which took a deeper look at young people’s opinions on the issue, found overwhelming support for abortion limits. Seven out of 10 millennials and Gen Zers don’t share the Democrats’ radical opinion on the taking of innocent life. Fewer than two out of 10 want unlimited abortion through all nine months of pregnancy, and another six in 10 want to see an end to Roe v. Wade. As for funding the barbaric procedure, their attitude is the same as the general public: don’t do it.
For Catholics, who keep hearing the administration use Biden’s faith as an excuse, the executive order was especially frustrating. “I will just take the opportunity to remind all of you,” press secretary Jen Psaki said a few days ago, “that he is a devout Catholic and somebody who attends church regularly.” Give us a break, Alexandria Desanctis wrote. “It’s one thing to push for federally funded abortion and reinstitute U.S. funding of abortions around the globe despite the opposition of most Americans and most Democrats. But it’s quite another thing to do so while gesturing at Biden’s supposedly devout Catholic faith, as if his baptism is a ‘get out of jail free’ card for any policy decision he makes in contradiction of the Church.”
Catholic League President Bill Donahue, who joined me on “Washington Watch” Wednesday, could only shake his head in disgust. “Here we have Biden, a so-called fellow Irish Catholic… whom I don’t recognize at all. Quite frankly, he has nothing in common with any Irish Catholics that I know of, and I know millions of them. This is a disgrace what’s happening…”
Meanwhile, if the move was supposed to appease his radical base, it didn’t. The far-Left’s abortion activists were actually angry he hadn’t gone further. “That’s not enough” was the headline at Salon. The effects of Donald Trump’s policies, Joshua Keating points out, won’t be so easy to undo. Under the 45th president, the government didn’t just ban overseas abortion funding in the State Department. It brought almost $9 billion from State, Health and Human Services, and Defense agencies under the pro-life rule. It will take some serious time and rule-making to clear the path for Biden’s unlimited abortion funding. Besides, Keating argues, most international groups are tired of America’s back and forth. “We get four or eight years,” the director of MSI Reproductive Choices says, “and then it’s back to where we were.” Some organizations, the article explains, had to shut down abortion services completely — and they’ll be a lot more cautious about reopening them if it looks like a limited operating window. “Even if agencies are remarkably clear and reassuring about the types of partnerships and communication that are now allowed, organizations may still overapply the gag rule out of fear that it could be back in a few years.”
Even Planned Parenthood President Alexis McGill complained on Tuesday that “It won’t just be like flipping a switch…” The Left wants permanent reassurance that their pro-abortion extremism will be part of America’s policy forever. That will be tough to do in a country where the majority of people want nothing to do with their radicalism.
In fact, if Democrats want to see how the nation really feels about its newest export, they should schedule a vote on Rep. Virginia Foxx’s (R-N.C.) bill, the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance Act. No doubt most Americans think like she does: “Every dollar of funding we provide should be spent on health care that affirms the dignity of human life… Supporting the termination of human life in the names of ‘global health’ and ‘economic development’ must end for good.”
Originally published here.
States Stand up for Women’s Sports
Good news isn’t hard to come by if you look in the right place: the states. While Joe Biden is busy shredding everything from the military to free speech, plenty of local leaders are back in session, doing everything they can to stop this radicalism at their borders.
When Joe Biden decided to use his first day to end girls’ sports, Americans learned just how painful the next four years could be. “Finished. Done,” was how Olympic track-and-field coach Linda Blade described the future of women’s athletics to the Wall Street Journal’s Abigail Shrier. Not only did the new president order schools to open their sports teams to biological boys — but they threatened “administrative action” to any that didn’t comply. Wave goodbye, Linda warned, to the “leadership skills, all the benefits society gets from letting girls have their protected category so that competition can be fair, all the advances of women’s rights.”
If radical Democrats want to come for girls’ sports, the states say, let them try. In places like Montana, leaders are more than willing to go to the mat with the federal government — and this week, they jumped a monumental hurdle to get there. For the first time since Idaho’s groundbreaking law, a state chamber — the Montana House of Representatives — passed the “Save Women’s Sports Act” by 61-38, paving the way for the state senate to do the same. Barbara Ehardt, the pioneer behind Idaho’s bill testified, warning Montana, “If you don’t pass legislation [like] this, there will come a day when there will be no room, no place, for girls and women to compete.”
Other states seem to be heeding that advice, as Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Dakota, and New Hampshire gear up to fight for women’s rights. Republican state Rep. John Fuller, who sponsored Montana’s bill, couldn’t believe this was even an issue of debate. “Allowing males to compete as women… will result in women, once again, being shouldered aside — to stand below the awards podium — and forced to cheer the accomplishments of men.”
The Biden presidency, we were told, was supposed to be a historic win for women, Ramona Tausz shook her head. Within 24 hours, Americans realized the big lie they’d been fed. This administration isn’t interested in protecting feminism — it’s in the business of undoing it. Our hats go off to Montana — and every state — that’s trying to keep girls’ sports fair and competitive.
Originally published here.
This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.
