Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Wednesday, July 27, 2016
Thiel’s Republicans Depart From Reagan
The primetime airing of remarks of billionaire technology entrepreneur Peter Thiel at the Republican National Convention was no accident. Thiel was given a starring role at the convention to make some things clear. That although lip service may be paid in the party platform to traditional, biblical values and opposition to gay marriage, this is really no longer what the GOP is about. Thiel brought his credentials as a high-tech billionaire to the stage to announce to the world that he is gay. In this, those organizing the convention told the world that, despite what the platform says, Thiel represents a new Republican Party.
When Americans Want to Elect Mommy or Daddy
Americans want to elect Daddy or Mommy. That’s what this election has become. It hasn’t been about competing or contrasting visions of government. It hasn’t been about rooting out corruption in Washington or bringing change to the system. It certainly hasn’t been about principle. No, this election has become a simple decision: Do you want the thickheaded loudmouth who understands your problems, or do you want the cold and calculating robotic manipulator who doesn’t? Do you want the real-life Archie Bunker, or would you prefer Mary Tyler Moore in “Ordinary People”?
A True Martyr
Not far from the Normandy beaches where Allied forced began the liberation of Nazi-occupied Europe, Islamofascists loyal to ISIS stormed a church this morning. They forced Father Jacques Hamel, an 86 year-old priest, to his knees, beheaded him and filmed the attack. A nun also suffered life-threatening wounds before French police shot and killed the jihadists. One of the attackers had been previously convicted of terrorism charges and was supposed to be under electronic surveillance. News of this disgusting attack is being met with widespread revulsion in France, throughout Europe and here in the U.S. It is important to remember that this is not an isolated event.
Hillary’s Philly Stakes
Bernie Sanders supporters aren’t the only ones frustrated with the DNC. So is the press. After a single day on the ground, the Left’s cheerleaders are already fed up with the horrible conditions at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. And they aren’t just talking about the gender-free bathroom (although that’s gotten its own share of complaints). The event is so disorganized that people like Yahoo News’s editor-in-chief took to Twitter to complain. “To be totally objective and nonpartisan: the logistics at DNC are appalling. Squalid hotels, sweltering workspace, no directions. Chaos.”
WikiLeaks Reveals Media Collusion
The radical leftist collective known as WikiLeaks tried to ruin the Democratic convention by posting a trove of Democratic National Committee emails that easily proved that party leader Debbie Wasserman Schultz and her staff shunned neutrality in favor of pushing Hillary Clinton’s nomination. The Bernie Sanders socialists were enraged, their suspicions confirmed. The media paid some attention to that, especially when Schultz was quickly ousted from her job. Guess what else was confirmed, which the media largely skipped over? The evidence in the emails that revealed great chumminess and coordination between Democrats and the supposedly “objective” national press.
#BlueLightFriday: From the White House to Your House
When you need something done, call a retired cop. That’s how Blue Light Friday at the White House came together last week. Unlike the lame duck occupant at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., I have little experience as a community organizer. So I asked retired New York Police Department officer John Cardillo if he could help me turn out his law enforcement friends, families and supporters to honor the fallen. His one-word answer: “Yes.”
Single-Payer System Stops Religious Freedom Challenges to Abortifacient Mandate
U.S. District Judge Jean Hamilton ruled last week that the federal government cannot force Paul and Teresa Wieland — an American mom and dad — to violate their religious beliefs by compelling them to purchase a health insurance plan that covers sterilizations, contraceptives, and abortion-inducing drugs and devices. But in making the Obama administration’s case that the government should be able to do so, lawyers for the U.S. Justice Department made a telling claim: A single-payer health care system would effectively put a stop to such arguments in defense of religious liberty. In a complaint filed in 2013, lawyers Timothy Belz (who represented the Wielands) and Peter Breen (of the Thomas More Society of Chicago) first made the family’s case in federal court.
What Can Discrimination Explain?
A guiding principle for physicians is primum non nocere, the Latin expression for “first, do no harm.” In order not to do harm, whether it’s with medicine or with public policy, the first order of business is accurate diagnostics. Racial discrimination is seen as the cause of many problems of black Americans. No one argues that racial discrimination does not exist or does not have effects. The relevant question, as far as policy and resource allocation are concerned, is: How much of what we see is caused by current racial discrimination?
Tuesday, July 26, 2016
Food for Thought on the Eve of the Real Hurricane Season
Here is a forecast: If the kind of worry I have about this season — which I have been very public about since spring — occurs because of a plainly natural cause, we will hear the very thing that was laughable in a day and age when JFK was running for president.
Abortion Poll: Trump-Pence Mainstream, Clinton-Kaine Extreme
Although Hillary Clinton and the beleaguered Democratic National Committee (DNC) are attempting to paint Donald Trump and Mike Pence as out of step with the country on abortion, new polling shows that a majority of Americans actually agree with Trump-Pence on this hot-button issue, while Clinton is pushing an abortion agenda opposed by almost 80 percent of Americans. A new Marist poll of over 1,000 American adults (sampling all adults yields more liberal results than registered voters, and significantly more liberal than likely voters) finds that while 51 percent of Americans use the term “pro-choice” to describe their abortion views, that term is misleading, because 78 percent of Americans believe in substantial restrictions to abortion.
What’s ‘Making America One Again’ About?
“Make America One Again.” That was the stated theme of the last night of the Republican National Convention. In the welter of analysis of Donald Trump’s acceptance speech, few have commented on it, but it’s worth taking it seriously. Liberal commentators have dwelled repeatedly on Trump’s “dark” and “dystopian” view of America. Apparently, you’re not supposed to think badly of our nation when we have a black Democratic president. This is mostly just partisan spin. The candidate of the out party invariably takes a dim view of the way things are going. Yes, they usually add more uplift than Trump provided.
Black Votes Matter
Black votes matter. If Republicans could get 20 percent of black votes, the Democrats would be ruined. This is highly unlikely, given the approach used by Republicans. However, the point is that Democrats must not only continue to get nine-tenths of black votes, they also need to get a high turnout of black voters on election day. People who expected the election of President Barack Obama to lead to racial healing and a post-racial society failed to take account of the political reality that racial healing and a post-racial society would, at a minimum, reduce black voter turnout.
Perception vs. Reality
A big debate erupted in the media over the weekend. Many talking heads feel our political discourse is “too dark.” They say the rhetoric is exaggerating America’s problems. My initial reaction is that many of the talking heads who live and work in the cloistered environments of Manhattan and Washington, D.C., aren’t actually experiencing the problems average Americans are confronting. Anyone who tells you that things are okay is whistling past the graveyard. Most Americans know that. As I noted last week, a recent Gallup survey found that just 17% of Americans are satisfied with the state of the country. And with good reason.
OK, Hillary, Have Fun Defending Obama’s Record
Some Republicans are disillusioned with their party’s nominee, but imagine how rank-and-file Democrats must feel. Their presumptive nominee, Hillary Clinton, not only is exceedingly unappealing in her own right but also seeks to fulfill Barack Obama’s third term and must defend — even champion — his disastrous record. Apart from Clinton’s own baggage — her corruption, her empty record, her enabling of her husband’s sexual exploits, her enormous unlikability — she has sidled up to Obama so much during his tenure that she is stuck with his record, whether she likes it or not.
The Late, Great Democratic Party
This week, the Democrats officially appoint the battered Hillary Clinton to be torchbearer of the party. She has slouched to the finish line. She is tired and the country is tired of her. Sorry, Democrats, no do-overs. You’re stuck with her. But it isn’t just Clinton who is out of touch and in tragic decline. It’s the whole Democratic Party. My friends at the American Enterprise Institute reported last week that the Democratic platform is silent on economic growth. Maybe that is because across the country during the past eight years of Obamanomics, economic growth has been silent.
Philadelphia: The City of Motherly Love?
It looks like Hillary Clinton plans to run on the only economy this president has improved: Planned Parenthood’s. Over the weekend, the campaign announced that abortion will be taking center stage at the Democratic National Convention this week in Philadelphia with confirmed speakers Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood (whose group enjoys at least a million dollars a day from taxpayers) and Ilsye Hogue, president of NARAL. Of course, highlighting these organizations is somewhat redundant, since the biggest cheerleader for abortion is the one running for election.
Trump’s Speech Wasn’t ‘Dark’ Enough
One of the many remarkable traits of the progressives is their lack of self-awareness. This trait was on display last week in the media and Democratic Party’s characterization of Donald Trump’s acceptance speech — and the entire Republican National Convention — as “dark.” For the left to dismiss other Americans as having a dark view of America is preposterous. Because no one — not Trump, not the Republican Party, not any conservative — has nearly as dark a view of America as does the left.
Trump’s Acceptance Speech
Donald Trump’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention was too long — 75 minutes — and too loud. Modulation is the key to good public speaking. One’s voice should rise and fall like the tide, which allows really important points to be made whether the volume is low or high. His adult children are better speakers. Having said that, Trump hit mostly high notes — the country is on the wrong track. The latest Real Clear Politics data shows 69.3 percent of those surveyed believe we’re on the wrong track. One has to go back to the ’70s and Jimmy Carter to see similar numbers.
Lawsuit: Macy’s Worker Fired Over Catholic Faith
Javier Chavez loved his job at Macy’s. The devout Roman Catholic was hired in 1990 as a door guard. A few years later he was promoted to store detective, and he eventually became a senior store detective at the department store’s location in Flushing, Queens. But after more than 26 years on the job, Mr. Chavez was fired — allegedly over an incident involving a man who identifies as a woman using the ladies room. Mr. Chavez has filed an official complaint with the New York State Division of Human Rights claiming he was terminated because of his religious beliefs.
Monday, July 25, 2016
The Path Ahead for Clinton
En route to fight one of his many duels, French politician Georges Clemenceau bought a one-way train ticket. Was he pessimistic? “Not at all. I always use my opponent’s return ticket for the trip back.” Some Hillary Clinton advisers, although not that serene, think her victory is probable and can be assured. Her challenge is analogous to Ronald Reagan’s in 1980, when voters were even more intensely dissatisfied than they now are. There were hostages in Iran and stagflation’s “misery index” (the sum of the inflation and unemployment rates) was 21.98. By August 1979, 84 percent of Americans said the country was on the wrong track. A substantial majority did not *want* to re-elect Jimmy Carter but a majority might do so unless convinced that Reagan would be a safe choice. Reagan’s campaign responded by buying time for several half-hour televised speeches and other ads stressing his humdrum competence.