Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Thursday, August 18, 2016
School District: Don’t Call the Children ‘Boys & Girls’
Teachers in Charlotte, North Carolina, have been advised to stop calling the children “boys and girls,” according to a training presentation on transgender issues. Instead, the progressives who control Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools want teachers to identify the youngsters as either “students” or “scholars.” So what if a teacher has a student who is dumb as a rock? Would the child still be called a scholar? The transgender guidelines, which will go into effect later this month, range from the absurd to downright outrageous. For example, boys who identify as girls would be permitted to participate on overnight all-girl field trips. That’s a rule sure to be a hit among the 13-year-olds.
Trump Appeals to Black Americans
Donald Trump’s law and order speech in Wisconsin [Tuesday] night was masterful. He did what Republicans have failed to do for decades by directly going after the votes of black Americans who have been most hurt by liberal policies. I’m realistic about his chances in winning over black voters, but at least he made the case! There are many black mothers with frightened children struggling to lead families without fathers. They don’t want their streets turned into war zones. And Trump appealed to them.
When the Suspect Is an Armed Black Man — and the Cop Is Black
After the death of a young black man by a Milwaukee police officer, riots, looting and fires followed. In one instance, as a gas station burned, people watching chanted, “Black power!” Local news reported that the 23-year-old suspect was not only armed but that he also defied orders to drop his gun. The Milwaukee police chief refused to identify the officer involved, but did say that he was “black.” At one time, such a fact would suggest that racism and police brutality were not at play. But as the death of Freddie Gray — a black man who died after being transported in a Baltimore police van — shows us, not necessarily. Of the six officers involved in Gray’s arrest and van transportation and who were prosecuted, three were black. In fact, just weeks before the death of Freddie Gray, a White House task force praised the Baltimore Police Department, as well as its black chief, for “implementing national best practices for policies and training” and “use of force” reforms.
Hold the Election — Hillary Clinton Needs a Rest
This political campaign has already become too long and too arduous for campaigners and voters alike. Dare I say it? Politics as practiced in America is in danger of becoming a health hazard. I can see it now. There may well develop a movement among forward-lookers to limit the length of campaigns. You doubt me? Think of what the forward-lookers did to cigarette smoking. There was a time in the 1920s, as I remember, when all forward-lookers were ardent supporters of the right to smoke in public, especially the right of women to smoke in public. Smoking was actually viewed as being very salubrious, particularly for the vocal chords. Every singer worth their salt went through a pack a day.
Sheriff David Clarke Speaks Truth
Growing up, I watched a lot of Westerns. In addition to the cowboy hero, the town sheriff was almost always a model of integrity. He stood for law and order against bank robbers, cattle rustlers and horse thieves all trying to disrupt the peace. A contemporary and real-life version of those fictional characters is Sheriff David Clarke of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin. Clarke has been trying to restore law and order after several nights of rioting following the shooting death of 23-year-old Sylville Smith by a Milwaukee police officer. Smith had a lengthy criminal record, longer than some people’s resumes. He should have been in prison.
Promising More of Everything — Except for Growth
Hillary Clinton recently laid out her plan for the economy, which boils down to more government, more spending, more taxes, more regulations and more red tape. It translates into more debt and less growth. Some of the most outrageous provisions of her plan are those that target U.S. corporations abroad. To be fair, Clinton’s policies are very similar to those of President Barack Obama. They both want to prevent U.S. companies from leaving the country through a process called inversion. They both also fundamentally misunderstand the reasons behind inversions and try to fix the perceived problem by treating the symptoms rather than the causes.
Where’s the Letter From Democratic Security Officials Opposing Hillary?
A group of 50 conservative foreign policy elites and veteran national security officials of prior Republican administrations recently wrote an open letter denouncing Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. They cited especially his lack of character and moral authority — and his “little understanding of America’s national interests.” Particularly bothersome, they wrote, is Trump’s inability “to separate truth from falsehood.” The letter stated that Trump’s one-year campaign of blustery rhetoric suggests he could be as reckless in deed in the White House as he has been in word on the campaign trail. Is there a like group of past Democratic wise men and women who can commensurately “police their own” and so warn us about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton?
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
Let Us Now Praise Famous Nonpoliticians
From House Speaker Paul Ryan’s office comes word of an event to be held next month in Statuary Hall, one of the US Capitol’s grandest chambers. Under a law dating from 1864, each state may be represented in the Capitol by statues honoring two of its (deceased) citizens who were “illustrious for their historic renown.” Ohio is about to add a new statue to the collection: a bronze likeness of Thomas Edison, larger than life and holding an incandescent light bulb — arguably the greatest invention of the greatest inventor in American history. Edison’s statue will replace that of William Allen, an Ohio Democrat who served two terms in the US Senate (1837-1849) and was elected governor in 1873. Ohio’s other statue is of James Garfield, the nation’s reluctant 20th president.
The Secret to Knowing God’s Will in Business and Life
Recently a good friend of mine was questioning about how to know God’s will for his life and in particular his business. If you’re like me and my friend, you’ve likely also wondered just what is God’s will for your life. There have been many times when God’s will has seemed elusive to me, even when I’ve tried to earnestly seek and find it. So is there a way to really know what God has in store for you and me? I believe so, and it involves two components. To be clear, I am not suggesting these two components are the only requirements, but they are integral to discovering God’s will for you and me.
‘New Nationalism’ Amounts to Generic White Identity Politics
To listen to both his defenders and critics, Donald Trump represents the U.S. version of a new nationalism popping up around the world. I’m not so sure. In a fairly representative analysis, Politico’s Michael Hirsh explained the “new nationalism” as “a bitter populist rejection of the status quo that global elites have imposed on the international system since the Cold War ended, and which lower-income voters have decided — understandably — is unfair.” James P. Pinkerton, writing for the stridently pro-Trump website Breitbart.com, sees nothing less than a “Worldwide Trumpian Majority” forming to oppose globalization in all its forms.
Trump Isn’t an Easy Decision, and Nobody Should Pretend He Is
Serious acrimony has now broken out among conservatives regarding whether to vote for Donald Trump. As I’ve made clear, as of now I have no intention to vote for Trump. He’s personally unpalatable, of course — a serial adulterer who brags about sleeping with married women and says doesn’t repent, an extreme narcissist with delusions of grandeur. He’s not conservative. He thinks Planned Parenthood does wonderful work, he has no coherent foreign policy, he wants to leave entitlement programs in place, he supports tariffs and government subsidies, he doesn’t care if Republicans lose the Senate and he has nothing to say about religious freedom for business owners, among a myriad of other policy shortcomings. He’s volatile and nasty. He has mocked prisoners of war and a disabled journalist, compared his own sacrifices to those of Gold Star families and gone soft on the Ku Klux Klan. He lies constantly, about nearly everything.
Vice Presidential Prospects
We’ve heard nonstop criticism of both the Democrat and Republican presidential candidates — for good reasons. So are their running mates any better? Yes. Trump’s vice presidential pick, Mike Pence, has some good points. He supported a guest worker program. He opposed reckless spending, including Republican bills, like No Child Left Behind, George W. Bush’s Medicare expansion and the Wall Street bailout. Then he became one of only four governors to get an A rating from the Cato Institute for keeping government spending under control. As a result, Indiana has a budget surplus and a good credit rating. Of course, that was easier for Pence because the very responsible Mitch Daniels was the previous governor. On the other hand, Pence is a consistent supporter of bad wars, like the Iraq War and the toppling of Moammar Gadhafi. He’s also a social conservative who wants to force his beliefs on others.
In Praise of Paul Ryan
Voters in last week’s Republican primary in Wisconsin wisely supported House Speaker Paul Ryan, in a landslide, to continue to represent them in Congress. Ultimately, in our beautiful democratic republic, members of Congress answer directly to those voters they directly represent. And those, like the speaker of the house, who achieve power as national leaders, still ultimately answer to the voters in their district. Despite some outside dissenting voices from today’s fractured Republican Party trying to unseat Speaker Ryan, the locals spoke with clarity — 84 percent voted for him. The bottom line is that Paul Ryan is a gentleman and leader and, above all, an American patriot. Those closest to him, the citizens in his own district, know it. All his career, Ryan has been a man of ideas, committed to advancing the principles of American freedom, and this is what has always motivated him — not accumulation of political power.
Trump Takes on Radical Islam
Donald Trump’s foreign policy speech [Monday] in Youngstown, Ohio, was well-conceived and well-delivered. He outlined three major pillars to make America great and respected again around the world. Trump pledged to aggressively confront and defeat radical Islam. He vowed to make national security the primary concern in our immigration policy with a new system of “extreme vetting.” Lastly, he promised to end the hubris of nation building. Trump forcefully condemned the atrocities committed by ISIS, including the genocide of Christians in the Middle East. He said, “ISIS is rounding-up what it calls the ‘nation of the cross’ in a campaign of genocide. We cannot let this evil continue.”
Hillary’s Headhunter: Sleazeball Ken Salazar
The Loathsome Cowboy rides again. Ken Salazar, President Obama’s disgraced ex-interior secretary and former U.S. senator from Colorado, was named Hillary Clinton’s White House transition chair on Monday. The pick confirms that a Clinton presidency would not only be Barack Obama’s third term ideologically, but also culturally. As in the Democratic culture of corruption. Ken Salazar is a thug. Before stepping down as Obama’s interior secretary in 2013 “to spend time with family,” Salazar threatened violence against a local Colorado Springs Gazette reporter who had the audacity to challenge one of the ten-gallon hat-wearing bureaucrat’s cronyism-tainted deals.
A Valentine of Investigative Journalism
When the Washington Post puts its top investigative reporters on the beat of the distant youth of presidential candidates, there’s no telling what student scandal they might uncover. In 2012, the Post devoted a 5,400-word, front-page article to breaking the news that at age 17, then-Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s “pranks could go too far.” He was accused of giving a classmate at Cranbrook School an involuntary haircut, and this was invested with deep meaning across his life. Sometimes, however, the investigation produces a different result. On Aug. 15, 2016, the Post once again displayed on the front page the labor of its hard-boiled, first-draft historians, who were again dwelling on a school scene. This time, the subject was a Democrat, and the headline reflected it: “At Wellesley, fiery speech was a breakout moment.”
Obama’s Anti-Terror Strategy: Release Gitmo Detainees
“I’ve been working for seven years now to get this thing closed,” President Barack Obama said in a Feb. 23 speech explaining his latest plan to close the terrorist prison at Guantanamo Bay. Part of his plan, he explained, was to release many of the 91 prisoners then still held there. “First,” he said, “we’ll continue to securely and responsibly transfer to other countries the 35 detainees — out of the 91 — that have already been approved for transfer.” Another part was to release even more prisoners than that.
Is Free Trade Causing Job Loss?
International trade figures heavily in the presidential race. Presidential candidate Donald Trump said, “Hillary Clinton unleashed a trade war against the American worker when she supported one terrible trade deal after another — from NAFTA to China to South Korea.” And adding, “A Trump Administration will end that war by getting a fair deal for the American people. The era of economic surrender will finally be over.” He lamented, “Skilled craftsmen and tradespeople and factory workers have seen the jobs they love shipped thousands and thousands of miles away.”
Tuesday, August 16, 2016
Will Trump Take Down Congressional Republicans?
On Friday, Republican National Committee and Trump campaign staffers held what one described as an “emergency meeting” at the Ritz Carlton in Orlando. The obvious subject: what to do about Donald Trump’s flagging campaign and how Republican down-ballot candidates can avoid the possible (likely?) downdraft. Current polling shows Trump losing to Hillary Clinton by 6 percent. He’s within range in 2012 Obama-carried target states with older populations and many non-college-graduate whites (Florida, Ohio, Iowa and Nevada) but has fallen behind in Pennsylvania and is well-behind in younger-population, higher-education target states (Virginia, Colorado and New Hampshire).
A Tragic Weekend
Sadly, there were many deaths over the weekend, but five really stand out. Sylville K. Smith, a 23-year-old black man, was shot and killed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Saturday afternoon. His death set off riots in which half a dozen businesses were burned, several police cars were destroyed, officers were attacked and innocent bystanders were assaulted. Here’s what we know as of now. The shooting, by all accounts, appears justified. According to body camera video, Smith had a gun and refused to drop it. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, who has seen a still photo taken from the video, said, “That still photo demonstrates without question that [Smith] had a gun in his hand, and I want our community to know that.”