Election Reform? You Can Take It to the Banks
If there’s one issue conservatives have to tackle right away, it’s restoring trust in our elections.
The coronavirus wasn’t God’s gift to the Left — but it was a gift. And Democrats, after balloting chaos that handed them the keys to Congress and the White House, are hoping to make the mail-in process a little more permanent. Not on my watch, says new Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Banks (R-Ind.).
If there’s one issue conservatives have to tackle right away, Banks insisted, it’s restoring trust in our elections. “The public polling is astounding,” he explained on “Washington Watch.” Forty-eight percent of Americans don’t think the election was free or fair. To help change that, Banks and his fellow Republicans have just introduced a bill called the Save Democracy Act. “There are three pillars [to it],” he said. “Voter ID is one of them. The second part of it is really important when it comes to why Americans distrust elections so much after last November…” Look, he pointed out, Americans had one result before they went to bed on election night, and a different result when they woke up. “They found out that some states in some areas started counting ballots, and then stopped… in the middle of the night. And then they had ballots show up for days or weeks after. So the second part of our bill says that once you start counting ballots on election night, you can’t stop.” Lastly, Banks said, he wants to ensure that at least two representatives of each presidential campaign are allowed to watch while the ballots are counted.
It’s one way, he believes, to give people hope that when they’re putting their ballot in a box, it’s going to be counted. Right now, it’s like a bucket with a hole in the bottom. Nobody has confidence in our system. But the good news is, that can change. Back in 1996, when I was in the Louisiana legislature, we had a U.S. Senate race, that I was involved in that was fraught with fraud. Over the next two years, the legislature overhauled our election system. And honestly, there haven’t been any major irregularities since. For the states, the RSC’s proposal is a great model.
And that’s exactly what Banks’s caucus is hoping — that local leaders will pick up the ideas and run with them. “We’ve been reaching out to leaders at the state level, because you really get a sense… that this is what matters most to conservatives, to Republicans. They’ve lost trust in the election process, and they want to know that their vote is going to count when they vote again 2022.” The reality is, Jim explained, the GOP was on the brink “of winning back the House majority… which I still believe we’re going to do. But if Republicans are so disenfranchised because they feel like their vote didn’t count and in November of 2020, they’re less likely to show up and vote in 2022 and in 2024 when we win back to the White House. So that’s why these measures are important.”
As conservatives, they want to make it clear that, constitutionally, states have the authority over elections. So when Democrats push their radical election bill, Vote at Home Act or H.R. 1, what they’re really trying to do is federalize the election process — and take power away from the state so they can implement universal mail-in voting. We can’t let that happen.
“H.R. 1 does a couple of other things that you should be aware of, too,” Jim said. “It gives it grants statehood to Washington, D.C., which is clearly unconstitutional. That would give Democrats two more Democratic senators. And it also provides for public financing of elections, which means that you and I, as conservatives, would be financing the campaigns of socialist Democrats like Bernie Sanders…” That runs completely counter to the framework the RSC is proposing with the Save Democracy Act. It would lock in a system that is ripe for abuse and manipulation. And frankly, every American who cares about free and fair elections should be contacting their elected officials to oppose it.
In the meantime, conservatives like Banks could use your help to educate, inform, and push these reforms in the states. No matter where people fell on the election challenges earlier this year, Jim insisted, surely “most of us agree that we need to do something significant to restore the public’s faith in free and fair elections.”
Originally published here.
Life Marches On
Like so many things about the last 10 months, Friday’s March for Life didn’t look quite the same. But just as the rain, sleet, and snow have never stopped pro-lifers from making the trek, a deadly pandemic didn’t either. Hundreds still turned out to make the solemn walk to the Supreme Court, where they’ve prayed for 48 long years to end the violence of Roe v. Wade. Inside, sits a new justice who brings pro-lifers one step closer to that goal. Outside, hangs the dark cloud of the Biden administration, threatening to do everything in its power to stop her.
As challenging as this new political landscape may be, Kristan Hawkins made a point of reminding people that presidents come and go — "but we always remain.“ After four years of the most pro-life administration in the history of the country, it’s tempting to think all is lost. But the legacy of life that Donald Trump helped build didn’t end when his term did. It’s alive in our courts, our state legislatures, our new leaders, and in the hearts and minds of Americans who’ve come to understand what the other side truly stands for. "This new Washington," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said, "needs the marchers more than ever.”
Fortunately, he went on, “political dynamics change, but the moral truth doesn’t.” Even executive orders, McConnell pointed out, can’t alter the reality of human life. The new president has certainly signed enough to try. Deep into his three dozen mandates and memos, Biden has unleashed his radical wing on the cause he pretended to oppose: abortion. “It looks like the Biden administration is going to stop at nothing to undo the pro-life progress we’ve achieved in the past four years,” Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) said soberly on “Washington Watch.” By making abortion our new export, “the American people are witnessing the country take a sizable step backward in the fight for life.”
She was referring to the president’s order Thursday, which overturned the pro-life Mexico City policy and made Americans the unwilling benefactors of global abortion. Like most people, Rep. Foxx can only shake her head. How do you have unity when you’re pursuing something 77 percent of the country opposes? It’s impossible, the congresswoman agreed — "[especially] when you know that almost 75 million people didn’t vote for you… We know there are many things that this administration is going to be doing that goes against what the American people want. But life is the most precious thing that they’re [targeting]… And particularly in this area, the American taxpayers, hard-working taxpayers, do not want their tax dollars going to provide abortions, whether it’s in this country or it’s in another country.“
And we’re not just talking about Republicans here. As the latest polling pointed out this week, there’s a virtual consensus in this country that where Biden is taking us on abortion is wrong. Americans want to limit the destruction of innocent life — not expand it to a vast and barbaric degree. Republicans understand that — and they’re flooding the House and Senate floor with pro-life bills to make that point. By Friday morning, conservatives had sent almost 20 pieces of pro-life legislation into the congressional record — an avalanche of proposals to show the Democratic majorities that they’re ready to fight for the people they refuse to.
If you want to be encouraged about the Republicans in Congress, check out this list of pushback:
No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act (sponsored by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J,. and Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss.)
Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (sponsored by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.)
Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act (sponsored by Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., and Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Nebr.)
Support and Value Expectant Moms and Babes Act (sponsored by Rep. Bob Latta, R-Ohio, and Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss.)
Protecting Life and Integrity in Research Act (sponsored by Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-Mo.)
Defund Planned Parenthood Act (sponsored by Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo., and Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa)
Ensuring Accurate and Complete Abortion Data Reporting Act (sponsored by Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Ala., Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa)
Protecting Life in Foreign Assistance Act (sponsored by Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah)
Dignity for Aborted Children Act (sponsored by Rep. Jackie Walorski, R-Ind., and Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind.)
Protecting Individuals with Down Syndrome Act (sponsored by Rep. Ron Estes, R-Kans., and Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla.)
Protecting Life in Crisis Act (sponsored by Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas, and Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kans.)
Pregnant Women Health and Safety Act (sponsored by Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., and Sen. John Kennedy, R-La.)
No Abortion Bonds Act (sponsored by Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo.)
Second Chance at Life Act (sponsored by Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo.)
Ensuring Accurate and Complete Abortion Data Reporting Act (sponsored by Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., and Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Ala.)
Women’s Public Health and Safety Act (sponsored by Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, and Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla.)
Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act (sponsored by Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.)
Passing legislation isn’t going to be easy — especially under the Congress we have now. But, as Rep. Foxx told me, "Republicans don’t always go for the easy things. We go for what’s right.” And what’s right is protecting life — at all costs.
“I want to live in a nation where respected the sanctity of life," Rep. Norman insisted, "where condemning the murder of a child is not up for debate, but a matter of course.” As long as pro-lifers are in Congress, he said, they’ll continue to do everything they can to make that kind of country — the one our founders envisioned — a reality. “Nothing less,” Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) insisted, “than our identity as a nation is at stake.”
Over the course of the past year, we’ve learned how to “go virtual” in many areas of life. But here at FRC, we’ve been equipping pro-lifers to take action in the digital sphere for years. Watch our special broadcast of the 16th annual ProLifeCon Digital Action Summit now, and share the broadcast with your friends.
Originally published here.
Is It FACE Time for the Abortion Mob?
“Fund abortion, not cops!” That’s what their signs said when activists burst into a Catholic mass in downtown Columbus and marched through the aisles. “Two, four, six, eight, this church teaches hate,” they chanted as they rushed the pulpit where Bishop Robert Brennan was leading a day of prayer for the unborn. While a stunned congregation looked on, the police had to haul the women, pushing and shouting, from the sanctuary. A week into the investigation, most people want to know: can the rioters be charged with a crime? Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost says yes.
Congress won’t be much help in keeping the new administration in check. Ultimately, it’ll fall on the states to decide how successful Biden’s era of extremism is. That’s why this case in Ohio is so important. It gives local leaders the opportunity to draw a bright red line on religious freedom — especially where the safety of the church is concerned. After a summer of vandalism, arson, and graffiti, most congregations are wary. They’re tired of the mob getting a free pass to disrupt, destroy, and mock their faith. And unfortunately, Yost explained on “Washington Watch,” most states don’t have the laws in place to hold the Left accountable.
“The interesting thing to me is the only real charge here… would be a fourth degree misdemeanor, only punishable by a maximum of 30 days in jail called disrupting a lawful meeting,” he said. “Surprisingly, California, of all places, has a much better law that protects any religious service from being disrupted. And it’s a first-degree misdemeanor, up to a year in jail, and a thousand dollar fine. So I’ve already had some discussions here in Ohio with legislators that maybe we ought to import that California law into Ohio.” Frankly, he warned, these attacks are only going to increase under a Congress and White House that emboldens them — and we need to be prepared.
One of the avenues for bringing these thugs to justice is a little-known provision of the FACE Act — which, ironically was passed to protect abortion center access but also happens to include a provision safeguarding churches. In subsection (a)(3), it calls for prescribes penalties for someone who “… intentionally damages or destroys the property of a place of religious worship.” There was talk, back in the heat of the same-sex marriage debate when Sunday services were being disrupted by LGBT activists, of dusting it off and invoking it. The government never did. Now that the threats against men and women of faith are increasing, it might be a good time to dust it off and try it.
“I don’t know that it’s ever been used in this way,” Yost agreed. But “the state attorney general has the right — not only to file criminal charges, but to bring a civil lawsuit and an injunction against people that violate the disruption provisions of that law. And we’re looking at that right now. We may be taking some legal action under that provision.” He believes that Ohio could very possibly ask for and win an injunction to keep these bad actors away from houses of worship. If that means using the FACE Act, he’s open to it. “We [want to send] a message that sacred places are sacred. That’s why 1 Timothy 2 tells us to pray for those in authority so that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.”
Originally published here.
This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.
