Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Thursday, October 20, 2016
The Candidates’ High Court Priority — and the Constitution’s
Right off the bat, moderator Chris Wallace asked Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump: “What’s your view on how the Constitution should be interpreted?” Right off the bat, Clinton and Trump gave the wrong answers. Clinton announced that the Supreme Court needs to “stand on the side of the American people,” and then rattled off a checklist of political causes and positions she expects the court to endorse: “women’s rights . . . rights of the LGBT community. . . no to Citizens United. . . not reverse marriage equality. . . not reverse Roe v. Wade.” There was nothing in her answer about how the Constitution should be interpreted, because constitutional interpretation is of no importance to her campaign. What matters to Clinton is that the court deliver the results favored by her most ardent supporters (“I will defend Planned Parenthood. I will defend Roe v. Wade”).
Political Terrorism
Governor Mike Pence was in Hillsborough, North Carolina, [Tuesday], surveying the damage at the firebombed GOP headquarters. He condemned the bombing as “cowardly,” an “attack on our political system” and “an act of political terrorism.” Sadly, the political terrorism continued overnight as bricks were thrown through the windows of the GOP headquarters in Delaware County, Indiana. And on Monday, the Arizona GOP headquarters was shut down and evacuated after a bomb threat. If these incidents were happening at Democrat offices, the media would be hyperventilating about the hatred on the right. They would be all in on stoking that theme. But because it is happening to Republicans, well, no big deal.
And They Call It Puppy Love
I am in jolly old London for a Spectator debate about America’s presidential candidates, Donald Trump and What’s Her Name. London is resplendent as ever, and at this point in the election cycle my wife is patrolling my behavior, lest I hazard our bank account by popping into Anderson & Sheppard to order another suit or seeking psychiatric refreshment. I am, of course, arguing for the Republican candidate against the fascist, and I predict a close election. Somehow, Hillary Clinton — the fascist — has everyone in the media scandalized and fretting over Trump’s flirtatious nature back when he was a TV celeb, and no one in the press corps is even interested in her or her husband, Bill the Groper. Did Bill Clinton harass women, and did Hillary Clinton employ private investigators to hound them?
Hillary Clinton and the Battered Black Voter Syndrome
What will it take for Democrats to lose the 95 percent black vote? Hacked email to and from staffers at the Democratic National Committee and to and from John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, shows she cares far more about the black vote than black voters. Concern for lack of diversity: One email, three months before she announced her presidential candidacy, shows Clinton’s future campaign staff mocking the criticism that it lacks racial diversity. Her then-spokesperson and future traveling press secretary Nick Merrill dismissively joked that former Bill Clinton chief of staff and future Hillary Clinton campaign director Robby Mook “claims he’s 1/16th Apache, so we should be all set.”
Court on Obama’s Bathroom Order: Hold It!
North Carolina is a battleground state — but for a lot more than the presidency. In the most-watched race outside of the White House, all eyes have been on the fierce bout between Governor Pat McCrory (R) and liberal challenger Roy Cooper (D), the Tarheels’ attorney general. Pitted against — not only each other, but the raging debate over bathroom safety and privacy — Cooper and McCrory couldn’t present a starker choice to voters.
The Democratic Normal Shouldn’t Be Normal
There’s no question that this election cycle has seen a bevy of radical media double standards. Donald Trump’s sexual harassment and assault accusers have been treated as headline news; allegations about intimidation of sexual harassment and assault victims by Hillary Clinton have been utterly ignored. Trumpian bigotry against a Mexican judge dominated the news cycle for weeks; Clinton-connected bigotry against Catholics went completely unnoticed. We heard for a full week about a Miss Universe contestant Trump allegedly called “Miss Piggy” back in 1997; we’ve heard very little about Hillary Clinton’s perverse dealings with the media and the FBI. We’ve heard for months about Trump’s toxic impact on politics; we’ve seen precious few headlines about the firebombing of a GOP campaign headquarters in North Carolina or shattered windows at other GOP operations or the repeated violent attempts to disrupt Trump rallies or hurt Trump fans.
The Trillion-Dollar Question
Have you noticed that for a few months, President Barack Obama has stopped bragging about how the federal budget deficit is shrinking? That’s because it’s not. For the first time since 2009, the deficit has gone up rather than down. The Congressional Budget Office recently released its budget review for September 2016. It shows that in fiscal 2016, which ended Sept. 30, the deficit grew by $149 billion, from $439 billion to $588 billion. It now stands at 3.2 percent of gross domestic product, up from 2.5 percent last year. It’s also the first increase in the deficit as a share of GDP since 2009.
The Bernie Sanders Effect
Many millennials are OK with socialism, even communism, according to a YouGov poll commissioned by The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. Forty-five percent of those polled between the ages of 16 and 20 years old said they would vote for a socialist, while 20 percent said they could vote for a communist. Maybe that explains the Che Guevara T-shirts so many of them like to wear. Responding to the poll, Marion Smith, the executive director of the organization, said, “An emerging generation of Americans has little understanding of the collectivist system and its dark history.” Partial credit for this should go to former presidential candidate and avowed socialist Bernie Sanders.
Colleges Should Encourage — Not Suppress — a Diversity of Viewpoints
A specter is haunting academia, the specter of specters — ghosts, goblins and “cultural appropriation” through insensitive Halloween costumes. Institutions of higher education are engaged in the low comedy of avoiding the agonies of Yale. Last October, the university was rocked to its 315-year-old foundations by the wife of a residential college master (a title subsequently expunged from Yale’s vocabulary lest it trigger traumas by reminding people that slavery once existed). In response to a university memorandum urging students to wear culturally sensitive costumes — e.g., no sombreros — she wrote an email saying it should be permissible for young people to be inappropriate, provocative or even offensive because “the ability to tolerate offense” is a hallmark of “a free and open society.”
The Left and the Masses: Part III
Claiming the role of champions of the masses is something the political left has been doing ever since there has been a political left — which is to say, ever since the late 18th century, when people with such views sat on the left side of the French National Assembly. Like so much that is claimed by the left, their compassion for the masses has seldom been subjected to any factual test. Both their words and their deeds reveal their low opinion of the people they claim to be championing. When Barack Obama referred to ordinary working people as people who are “bitter,” and who “cling to guns or religion,” that was not just a peculiarity of Obama. He was part of a centuries-long tradition on the left.
This Election Year Features More Than One Presidential Race
A presidential campaign is figuratively called a “race.” Two runners sprint toward the Election Day finish line for the prize of the presidency. But the 2016 presidential campaign has spawned lots of weird races. The first sprint is one between embarrassments and scandals. Will another WikiLeaks disclosure confirm that Hillary Clinton is a dishonest and conniving hypocrite? Or will yet another open-mic tape, disgruntled beauty queen or old Howard Stern interview remind us that Donald Trump’s private life was — and perhaps still is — uncouth?
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
Gold Star Mom Thanks Football Player Who Stood Alone to Honor America
My column about the college football player who stood alone to honor the national anthem while his teammates hid in their locker room really struck a chord with readers. I’ve been inundated with hundreds of emails and messages from across the fruited plain — all affirming their support of Connor Brewer, a football player at Millikin University. The football team had decided to stay inside the field house until the national anthem had concluded — a form of protest against Lord knows what. But Connor chose to do the right thing — the patriotic thing. I was especially touched by a poignant letter I received from a Gold Star mother, Debi Daniels.
Trumped Up
If you rely on press coverage of the presidential race you probably think everything is fine in America. No foreign threats. No domestic crises. No budget or crime problems. Certainly nothing important enough to warrant discussing where the candidates stand. Instead, we see stories telling us that Donald Trump apparently is crude like Bill Clinton. Not that journalists said much about the latter when he ran for office. Then it was a non-issue. But, of course, he’s a liberal, so personal imperfections didn’t matter. Yet in 1992, when Clinton was elected, the real issues didn’t seem so important. America really did stand tall in the world. The Soviet Union had disappeared, Warsaw Pact had dissolved, and Iraq had been defeated. The U.S. was respected internationally and there was no deadly terrorist threat raging around the globe.
Left-Wing Politics More Important Than Knowledge at Many Universities
I have been speaking on university campuses across America for more than 20 years. By my count, I have appeared on 215 different university campuses. I can address the issue of freedom of speech on campuses from firsthand experience. I have been canceled, obstructed, and, on more than one occasion, hecklers have tried to shout me down. What I find distressing today is that the situation is getting worse. The theme is consistent. It is the left, operating under the pretense of fairness and freedom, that is the force of obstruction and intimidation. It is the left that works, usually starting from the office of the sympathetic president, to shut down dissent and alternative points of view.
Dobson Urges Civil Disobedience
My good friend Dr. James Dobson is calling on Christians in California to engage in civil disobedience. At the same time, he is warning Christians across the country about the tremendous stakes in this election and what awaits us all depending on the outcome. Dr. Dobson’s extraordinary statement comes on the heels of an unbelievably anti-religious ruling from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The left-wing court upheld a radical pro-abortion law that forces pro-life pregnancy centers, many of which are religious charities, to promote abortion. Yes, you read that correctly. Federal judges have just ruled that you cannot open a center to promote the sanctity of life without also promoting abortion.
Kaine Speaks in Remorse Code on Religion
The Clinton campaign is sorry about its string of anti-Catholic emails alright — sorry they got out. Real remorse, on the other hand, has been tough to come by. Even Sunday, a few days after Hillary Clinton’s top campaign official and communications director were implicated in the latest WikiLeaks dump, running-mate Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va.) wasn’t overly contrite for the offensive things campaign officials said about his own faith. Taking a turn doing damage control on ABC’s “This Week,” Kaine was asked by Martha Raddatz about the mockery of Catholicism. “Many took offense,” she argued. “...You’re Catholic. Should the campaign apologize?”
Trump’s Right: The Media Is Rigged
On Oct. 16 on his CNN show “Reliable Sources,” host Brian Stelter took the denial of liberal media bias to a new level. In the wake of hundreds of emails underlining media-Democrat collusion, he insisted that every American should deny the evidence: “In Trump’s world, journalists are really just (Hillary) Clinton campaign workers in disguise, collaborating with her in an attempt to rig the election. This is not just false. It’s ludicrous, and it’s damaging.” On what planet does this man live? Even by Clinton News Network standards, this is ridiculous.
Debate Depressive Disorder
How many more broadcast bust-ups will it take before America finally decides to make its presidential election debates tolerable again? I can’t take it anymore. Can you? For the past three cycles — 2008, 2012, and 2016 — I’ve chronicled the depressing, systemic bias of left-leaning partisans whom the Commission on Presidential Debates routinely installs as “moderators.” It would be one thing if these activists posing as journalists were upfront about their political preferences. But they continue to star in phony debate theater wearing their dime-store costumes of objectivity.
Washington’s War Against Your Air Conditioner
Between now and when they face their final judgment, Barack Obama and John Kerry will never be forced to endure extreme heat — because they will always be able to afford air conditioning. If they follow the standard pattern, they are sure to get richer when they leave public office because they served in public office. In a corollary pattern, people grow wealthy in and around Washington, D.C., by taking — directly or indirectly — the tax money other Americans must send to Washington, D.C. That is why the latest Census Bureau data for median household incomes by county shows that five of the nation’s eight richest counties are suburbs of Washington.