Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Friday, September 2, 2016
Helping Trump Isn’t Easy
Donald Trump actually looked like a statesman in Mexico City Wednesday afternoon. It didn’t matter what he and the president of Mexico talked about. It didn’t even matter if they made a secret handshake deal to split the cost of building the great Wall of Trump. For the first time in his long campaign, Trump actually looked presidential. The visual gravitas didn’t last long, though. Six hours later in Arizona the old Trump was back, reading a speech from the teleprompter and throwing big slabs of U.S. Prime red meat to his hardcore fan base. He erased all thoughts that he was headed to a kinder, gentler place on immigration, which, unfortunately, remains the signature issue of his campaign.
Why Now Is the Right Time to Talk About Ethanol
Since it’s been seven months since the Iowa caucuses and it’ll be another three-plus years until that hell is fresh again, this is the best time to talk about ethanol. Just in case you didn’t know, ethanol is very popular in Iowa and other corn states, which is why most presidential candidates swear once every four years that they love ethanol so much they’d marry a jug of it if they could. If only for a moment, loyalty to this government moonshine becomes as fraught with political symbolism as a gay wedding in which both grooms refuse to wear American flag pins while declining to stand for the national anthem in support of our troops.
The Battle of the Secret Cabals
Anyone contemplating this year’s appalling presidential campaign may be tempted to explain what’s happening by applying the third rule of bureaucratic organizations, enunciated by the late poet and definitive scholar of Soviet terrorism Robert Conquest. “The behavior of any bureaucratic organization,” Conquest explained, “can best be understood by assuming that it is controlled by a secret cabal of its enemies.” The Republican and Democratic parties aren’t exactly bureaucratic organizations; they just aspire to be. But their behavior this year certainly looks like it might have been scripted by their fervent foes. Is it known, for example, just who whispered in Donald Trump’s ear that this was a good year to run for president? He’s been mulling it before, and accumulating national fame as a reality TV star.
Farm Team Conservatism
This has been a bad year for conservatives at the ballot box. Washington Republicans and their allies, enabled by chaos in the presidential race, began targeting down-ballot conservatives for defeat. They were highly successful. Concurrently, the last vestiges of the old tea party movement finally divided between pro-Trump populists and principled conservatives. Unshackled from principle, the populists saw their candidates defeated in elections across the country. Kelli Ward, a hero of pro-Trump populists, went down to defeat in Arizona after her opponents exposed her as a believer in chem-trails.
The Only Immigration Solution
The one great service of Donald Trump’s extended peregrinations on immigration policy is to have demonstrated how, in the end, there’s only one place to go. You can rail for a year about the squishy soft, weak-kneed and stupid politicians who have opened our borders to the wretched refuse of Mexico. You can promise to round them up — the refuse, that is, not the politicians (they’re next) — and deport them. And that may win you a plurality of Republican primary votes. But eventually you have to let it go. For all his incendiary language and clanging contradictions, Trump did exactly that in Phoenix on Wednesday. His “deportation task force” will be hunting ... criminal aliens. Isn’t that the enforcement priority of President Obama, heretofore excoriated as the ultimate immigration patsy?
Trump Created an Opening; He’d Better Drive Through It
The stars are finally aligning for a significant shift toward Donald Trump in this presidential campaign. Hillary Clinton is rightfully under siege. The polls have already narrowed, and Trump hit home runs — at least triples — in Mexico City and Phoenix. Each day brings news of another real Clinton scandal — or more information on those already in progress — cumulatively cementing the public’s perception that the Clintons are unrivaled among untrustworthy, bloodsucking politicians. On top of all the other Hillary Clinton email bombshells, we’ve learned that she continued to send classified information from her personal email account after leaving the State Department — just more evidence of her brazenness and her unmitigated arrogance.
No Respect for National Anthem Haters
The Black Lives Matter movement is two years old, so it’s a little odd that San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick has suddenly become a convert. He must certainly be pleased that everyone knows he refused to stand up during the national anthem at a preseason game against the Green Bay Packers. Kaepernick announced: “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. ... There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.” Now, photos show him wearing socks in training camp featuring pigs with police hats on them.
Ross Perot’s Lessons for Today
In “Fiddler on the Roof,” the milkman Tevye imagines what life could be like in “If I Were a Rich Man.” Among the shrewder lyrics is the insight that “the most important men in town will come to fawn on me” and pose questions that would “cross a rabbi’s eyes.” Why? Because “when you’re rich, they think you really know.” One cannot guess how much credibility Donald Trump gains through his reputation for business acumen, but it’s safe to say, quite a lot. He trades, both in entertainment and in politics (if there’s still a distinction), on his reputation as a tycoon, which may be one reason for his refusal (despite pledges) to release his tax returns. Trump’s “brand” is everything. When Tim O’Brien authored a book questioning Trump’s net worth, Trump sued him and, after lengthy litigation, lost.
Kaepernick Has a Right to Free Expression. And So Does Everyone Else.
San Francisco 49er quarterback Colin Kaepernick won’t stand for the national anthem, because, well, we’re not exactly sure why. Sorry, but if you’re going to wear a shirt praising Fidel Castro and then protest the lack of “freedom, liberty and justice for all” in America, then thinking people have no cause to take your arguments seriously. The hypocritical reaction to his protest, though, is another story. The 49ers team says it recognizes “the right of an individual to choose and participate, or not, in our celebration of the national anthem.” Good. There’s no reason a franchise should inhibit Kaepernick from protesting perceived injustices. When Americans clamor to get people fired for taking unpopular political positions, they contribute to an environment that chills speech (though it looks like Kaepernick may lose his job simply for being bad at it, but that’s another story).
Trump’s HUGE Day
Donald Trump had a great day [Wednesday]! His energy is unbelievable. He is making Hillary look like a terrible, low-energy candidate who can barely handle a full day. First, Trump flew to Mexico, at the invitation of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. They held a joint press conference that was carried live by every news channel. What the American people saw was a calm Donald Trump looking very presidential. It was an extremely effective counterpunch to the only line Hillary has — that Trump lacks the temperament to be president of the United States. Right now, Donald Trump is being vastly outspent on TV. But that visual yesterday was priceless.
Thursday, September 1, 2016
In Historic Move, Virginia Legislators File Contempt Motion Against McAuliffe Over Felon Voting
Virginia state legislators have filed a motion with the Virginia Supreme Court asking for an order requiring Gov. Terry McAuliffe to “show cause” why he should not be held in contempt for violating the court’s July 22 order that vacated McAuliffe’s executive orders restoring the voting rights of 206,000 felons. The court ruled that the governor’s clemency and pardon power could only be exercised on an individual, case-by-case basis and that the voter registrations of felons who had registered as a result of McAuliffe’s orders had to be canceled. Being held in contempt by a court can occur if a party to a lawsuit deliberately disobeys a prior order of the court. A governor being held in contempt by a state supreme court for such behavior is rare and would be a history-making event in Virginia.
Homeowner Told to Remove ‘Noxious & Offensive’ Pro-Police Flag
Rodney Ivester of Corinth, Texas, is the kind of guy you’d like as a neighbor. He maintains a tidy lawn, doesn’t make much of a racket and he flies an American flag. About three weeks ago, Rodney decided to post another flag alongside Old Glory to honor law enforcement. It’s a black and white version of the U.S. flag adorned with a blue stripe. He told me that posting the flag was a small way that he could honor the memory of the five police officers gunned down in Dallas in July. “I love my country and I wanted to show my support for law enforcement and military personnel,” he told me. “I put the flag up so that I can honor the fallen officers and support those that are in the heat of the battle.”
A ‘Slush Fund’ by Any Other Name
Because truth in labeling laws are among the laws from which Washington feels exempt, the titles of congressional legislation often take liberties with the facts (e.g., the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act). The Stop Settlement Slush Funds Act, however, precisely names the ailment for which it is the remedy. The Justice Department has negotiated “bank settlement agreements” whereby banks make restitution to the government for the damage they allegedly did in connection with the creation and sale of residential mortgage-backed securities in the subprime mortgage crisis. Our subject here is not, however, whether the sums extracted from the banks (e.g., Citigroup $7 billion, Bank of America $16.65 billion, JPMorgan $13 billion) are proportionate to their alleged culpabilities. Rather, our subject is what Justice does with millions of these dollars.
The More Things Change, the More They Actually Don’t
In today’s technically sophisticated and globally connected world, we assume life has been completely reinvented. In truth, it has not changed all that much. Facebook and Google may have recalibrated our lifestyles, but human nature, geography and culture are nearly timeless. Even as ideologies and governments come and go, the same old, same old problems and challenges remain. Compare what dominated the news in 1966, 50 years ago. Abroad, Israel was constantly fighting on the West Bank against Palestinian guerrilla groups and in the air over Syria. It is likely that in another 50 years the story will remain about the same.
Campaigns So Long They Make Children Cry
A few days before the 2012 election, a Colorado woman posted on YouTube a video of her 4-year-old daughter, Abigael, who had burst into tears after hearing one too many stories about the race for president. “I’m tired of ‘Bronco Bamma’ and Mitt Romney,” sobbed the little girl, a picture of utter misery. Abigael’s despair plainly touched a nerve. The 21-second video went viral, and was viewed more than 17.2 million times. This column is for Abigael — and for everyone else made wretched by the grueling, despair-inducing length of American presidential campaigns. Why do we do this to ourselves?
Hillary Clinton Charges Racism
I have a rule or two about the topic of race. I could possibly extend it to three or four rules. The first rule is that in a dialogue about politics, current events, horticulture, haute cuisine, you name it, the first person to introduce the question of race is probably a racist. If that person belabors the point, he is definitely a racist intent on exploiting the issue for personal gain. Finally, if he is obsessive on the matter, his racism has become pathological. There is no known cure for such creatures. Think of Rev. Al Sharpton discussing haute cuisine without reference to race relations. I suggest it is quite unthinkable.
Living the Nordic American Dream
When outspoken socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders was in the presidential race, he often expressed his dream to turn the United States into a Nordic-type social democracy like the one in Denmark. Hillary Clinton dismissed his comments by claiming that the United States isn’t Denmark. But the truth is that at the center of her political platform is an extensive set of Nordic-like government interventions, including paid sick leave, paid parental leave, subsidized child care and a more generous safety net — and higher taxes. So what’s the appeal of Nordic democracies for U.S. Democrats? Writing in The Atlantic, Anu Partanen (a Finn living in the United States) claims that Nordic nations “offer their citizens — all of their citizens, but especially the middle class — high-quality services that save people a lot of money, time, and trouble.”
Trump Calls for an Oath to America
Loyalty oaths have been tried in the past, but eventually were struck down by the courts as either too vague, or an unconstitutional violation of free speech. These applied, as far as I can tell from reading their history, only to American citizens. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has suggested something different. He wants to screen people coming into America to see if they share American values. Trump says he would exclude not only people who sympathize with terrorists and believe in Sharia law, but those “who do not believe in our Constitution, or who support bigotry and hatred.” Think of it this way, would the NAACP admit a member of the KKK? Who would deny them their right to turn racists away?
Colin Kaepernick’s Fight Against ‘Racism’
Recent polls find a majority of Americans believe that “race relations,” since the election of the first black president, have gotten worse, not better. Colin Kaepernick, a National Football League quarterback, is Exhibit A for why so many people feel this way. Kaepernick signed a $114 million six-year contract in 2014, with $61 million guaranteed. Like President Barack Obama, he is biracial, with a black biological father and white biological mother. Obama’s father left his wife and toddler son, and from the age of 10, Obama was raised by his white paternal grandparents. Kaepernick’s biological father abandoned his pregnant mother, who put him up for adoption. Kaepernick was adopted by a white couple. A standout athlete in basketball, baseball and football, Kaepernick chose to pursue football, making it all the way to the NFL as a quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, one of the most storied franchises.
Trump’s Surge
The election that virtually every analyst and talking head has been telling us was over now appears to be a dead heat. Just last week, a Reuters poll had Donald Trump losing to Hillary Clinton by double digits — 45% to 33%. Before I continue, let me remind you of a little history. A few months ago, Reuters’ polls regularly showed Trump leading Clinton by a few points. Suddenly, Reuters announced that its polling methodology was flawed. Translation: Reuters wasn’t getting the results it wanted. So in a blatant attempt to get a different outcome, Reuters changed how it was conducting the poll. Pat Caddell, a Democrat pollster, blasted Reuters’ move as “the most outrageous thing” he had seen in his profession. Caddell added, “This comes as close as I have ever seen to cooking the results. . . if this was accounting, they would put them in jail.”