Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Friday, March 18, 2016
Merrick the Moderate? Hardly
We are learning more about President Obama's nominee to the Supreme Court, Judge Merrick Garland. The White House and its allies have attempted to spin a narrative that Garland is a moderate judge whom Senate conservatives should be eager to confirm. But he is hardly a moderate.
An Open Letter to Sen. Marco Rubio
When I read this morning that Marco Rubio had said that Ted Cruz is the only conservative left in the Republican presidential primary race, it reinforced my decision to write Rubio an open letter urging his endorsement of Sen. Cruz. Rubio didn't go so far as to endorse Cruz, but he could have said nothing at all. Or he could have said, "We have to beat Donald Trump, and only Ted Cruz has a chance to do so." Instead, he specifically said Cruz is the only conservative left in the race, by which he sent a signal that John Kasich is not suitably conservative and that he, Rubio, cares deeply about conservatism. That is significant and gratifying.
Arguing With Data
For seven months, Republicans — myself included — have argued against the data. The data showed that Donald Trump would be a viable candidate. Many of us presumed he would eventually fade. Many of us presumed he would eventually burn out his supporters with his gaffes, waffling and walk backs. What many of us misunderstood was Republican voter anger. There are a lot of angry people out there and they are flocking to Donald Trump. They have good reason to be angry. Washington politicians, particularly Republicans, have broken promise after promise. People in Washington seem to be doing quite well while the nation suffers.
Only Ted Cruz Can Stop Donald Trump
Can Donald Trump be stopped from winning the Republican nomination? The answer is yes. Despite his big win over Marco Rubio in Florida and his narrow wins over Ted Cruz in Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina, he has not won a majority of delegates yet awarded — 661 at this writing, with several more to be added when Missouri and Illinois congressional district totals are tabulated. Any candidate needs to get a 1,237-delegate majority to be nominated. To get there, Trump needs to get a majority of delegates in the contests ahead. The March 15 results show how that could happen. For Republican voters who fear Trump's nomination will damage the party, the nation or both, the question is what to do about it.
There's an Air of Menace About This Campaign
By international and historical standards, political violence is exceedingly rare in the United States. The last serious outburst was 1968 with its bloody Democratic-convention riots. By that standard, 2016 is, as yet, tame. It may not remain so. The political thuggery that shut down a Donald Trump rally in Chicago last week may just be a harbinger. It would be nice, therefore, if we could think straight about cause and effect.
Thursday, March 17, 2016
No Need to Consider Judge Garland
With the death of Justice Antonin Scalia the Supreme Court is left with one chief justice and seven associate justices. President Obama has nominated Merrick B. Garland, chief judge of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, who was a Clinton appointee and clerked under liberal Supreme Court Justice William Brennan. Even before the nomination, the vacancy produced urgent calls for a replacement to be nominated based on claims that an eight-person court would not be "fully functioning," would "hamstring the judiciary," and would amount to "partisan understaffing." With Obama's nomination of Garland, the clamor for immediate action will increase.
Giant Texas Cross Sparks Atheist Lawsuit
Lifelong atheist Patrick Greene has a huge problem with a giant cross under construction alongside Interstate 37 in Corpus Christi, Texas — a city whose name literally means "Body of Christ." "It's tacky as hell," Mr. Greene told me. The 230-foot tall cross is being erected on property owned by Abundant Life Fellowship — paid for by donations. Pastor Rick Milby said it will be the largest cross in the western hemisphere. So tall, in fact, that the church was required to install a lighted beacon on the top.
Rethinking Crime and Punishment
Sen. John Cornyn recalls visiting a Texas prison where some inmates taking shop classes could not read tape measures. Cornyn, who was previously a district court judge and Texas Supreme Court justice, knows that prisons are trying to teach literacy and vocations, trying to cope with the mental illnesses of many inmates and trying to take prophylactic measures to prevent drug-related recidivism by persons imprisoned for drug offenses. "The criminal justice system," he says, "has become by default a social services provider."
The Buck Never Stops Here
In a cover story in the latest issue of The Atlantic magazine, President Obama offers astonishing scapegoating for his own foreign policy disasters. According to Obama, the deterioration of the ISIS wasteland that is now Libya was not due to improvident administration bombing followed by a hasty departure, but was largely the fault of others. European allies, the president complained, did not do any follow-up nation-building despite the proximity of Libya. Obama depicts French President Nicolas Sarkozy as a showboater who tried to claim credit for the air campaign in Libya after the U.S. had done the heavy lifting.
Anticipating the Effects of Overtime, Over Time
Wouldn't it be nice if your boss were forced to pay you more because the government said so? Not if — as the result of the government's intervention — you lost your job, saw your salary reduced or couldn't work from home anymore. Yet that's what the Obama administration is trying to do by requiring that employers pay overtime for salaried employees who earn less than $50,440 per year. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, most employers must pay time and a half for overtime hours (usually understood as hours worked above and beyond 40 hours per week) for salaried employees who don't have sufficiently advanced job duties or make less than $23,660 annually. Employers only have to track the hours of salaried employees eligible for overtime.
Iran's Missiles and the Nuclear Deal
It seems like only yesterday — and in diplomatic terms it was — that the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress were assuring us the nuclear deal with Iran was something to celebrate, as one might laud the winning of a Nobel Peace Prize. More sober thinkers, fearing Tehran would never comply with the agreement, envisioned Iran gaining access to $100 billion in frozen assets and using it to underwrite terrorism. When Iran's radical leaders believe they get their marching orders directly from Allah, there is no way they would violate those instructions, which include the eradication of Israel and the defeat of the "Great Satan," which would be America.
What a Trump Nomination Means for Conservatives
For years, conservatives have told themselves the pretty bedtime story that they represent a silent majority in America — that most Americans want smaller government, individual rights and personal responsibility. We've suggested that if only we nominated precisely the right guy who says the right words — some illegally grown Ronald Reagan clone, perhaps — we'd win. Donald Trump's impending nomination puts all of that to bed.
Last Weekend Was 1968 All Over Again
I have been an attentive observer of political protests for many moons. You might say I was present at their creation. For me, that would be back in 1968 at Chicago, Illinois's Grant Park. My brother and I stood between a line of young Chicago policemen as they grew increasingly anxious, their backs to the hotels that faced the park. In the park, luminaries of Democratic politics — Eugene McCarthy and Hubert Humphrey — were putting the final touches on their convention performances. What provoked the young cops (those mainly of Irish and Italian descent) was a mob of college-age demonstrators, members of the vaunted youth movement of 1968 who were proponents of the new politics movement. They were about to get what any sane observer would have anticipated. But the Tyrrell boys were reliably sane and faded from the scene.
Trump Asked to Denounce David Duke — but Not Farrakhan
Former Grand Wizard of the KKK David Duke recently made positive comments about Republican front-runner Donald Trump. He did not endorse Trump's candidacy. But it came close enough for Trump's critics — within and without his party — to hammer him for failing to issue an immediate and sufficiently full-throated denunciation of Duke. "Voting for these people, voting against Donald Trump at this point, is really treason to your heritage," said Duke on his radio program a couple weeks ago. "I'm not saying I endorse everything about Trump. In fact, I haven't formally endorsed him. But I do support his candidacy, and I support voting for him as a strategic action. I hope he does everything we hope he will do."
I Get It, but Tell Me Who You're For
The "anybody but Trump" efforts are noble and worthy. There is no doubt that Donald Trump's MO, temperament, judgement and 40 years of support for liberal policies and politicians would make him incredibly dangerous as POTUS. But in spending tens of millions of dollars in advertising in the Super Tuesday II states, the Super Pacs failed to deliver the knock-out punch to Trump that conservatives so desperately need. So what was missing?
Obama's Supremely Bad Nominee
At the White House [Wednesday] morning, President Obama announced his nominee for the Supreme Court — Judge Merrick Garland of the Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The media are dutifully attempting to spin Garland as a "centrist" or a "consensus choice." Consider this headline from the Los Angeles Times: "It's Going To Be Hard For Conservatives To Oppose The Careful, Moderate Merrick Garland."
Obama Leaves Garland Hanging
Political theater. That's the only way to describe [yesterday's] nomination by President Obama of D.C. Circuit Court's Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court. Senate Republicans have been clear both publicly and privately from day one that the American people deserved a voice in the lifetime appointment of the next Supreme Court justice. "Everybody knows any nominee submitted in the middle of this presidential campaign isn't getting confirmed," Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) reiterated. That's how the Democrats governed in the majority, and it's how the Republicans will continue to.
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
Our George Wallace
George Wallace knew how to handle the hecklers who routinely disrupted his events. "These are the folks," he declared at a rally in 1968, "that people like us are sick and tired of. You've been getting a good lesson in what we've been talking about. They talk about free speech but won't allow it to others." Wallace knew the protesters were priceless to him in stoking passions and drawing media attention. "They on our payroll," he joked.
Our Forgotten Statesman
George Washington, our first president, is probably our greatest and most decent statesman. We celebrate Washington's Birthday each February. But March 16th marks the birthday of probably the second-most important and decent American, James Madison. Madison became our fourth president, but his presidency is not the chief source of his greatness. There would have been an entirely different America without Madison's enormous input and foresight at the contentious 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. There were 55 delegates to the convention. Like Madison, some had a formal college education, while others did not. From Madison's notes about the quality of the debates and discourse, one could not tell who was college-educated and who was not. Their ages ranged from 26 (Jonathan Dayton) to 81 (Benjamin Franklin), with the average age being 42.
Explaining the Mystique of Donald Trump
How can we explain the surprising electoral success of Donald Trump, especially in light of his lack of political experience, limited knowledge of and specificity about policy issues, and crude and insulting rhetoric? Who supports him and why do they find the business tycoon to be so attractive?