Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
36 Hours in New Jersey Bolster Christie's Pitch in New Hampshire
Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey had planned on six uninterrupted days campaigning in New Hampshire, hoping to build momentum in the last weeks before the first presidential primary on Feb. 9. Then came winter storm Jonas, which enveloped much of the East Coast in a historic blizzard, sent devastating flood waters into Jersey Shore towns, and left tens of thousands of New Jersey residents without power. Though Christie had said on Thursday he had no plans to return to his state, by Friday afternoon he had no choice.
Running on Empty
Cars run on fuel. Politicians run on votes, and they'll do almost anything to get them. That includes supporting mandates that force us to use ethanol, a fuel made from corn that Iowa farmers grow. They support ethanol because Iowa is the first state to vote on presidential candidates. Candidates want to look strong at the start of the race, so every four years they become enthusiastic ethanol supporters. Even those who claim they believe in markets pander to Iowa's special interests.
Corny Crony Capitalism in Iowa
The "report card" from America's Renewable Future, a biofuel industry group, is not complicated. If you are a presidential candidate participating in Monday's Iowa caucuses and you support "the commonsense, bipartisan Renewable Fuel Standard," you get a "good rating," symbolized by a fuel gauge pointing to "full." Otherwise, you get a "bad rating," symbolized by a fuel gauge pointing to "empty." Despite its simplicity, this single-item checklist is a useful test of character — one that all but two candidates fail. That's because they pass muster with ARF by supporting the Renewable Fuel Standard, a 2005 congressional mandate that forces Americans to buy gasoline mixed with corn-based ethanol. That policy epitomizes the crony capitalism that both major parties decry.
Liberals Continue to Distort the Truth About Abortion
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood (the nation's largest provider of abortions), wrote an opinion column noting the 43rd anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion-on-demand in our nation. They claim that Republicans want to turn back the clock and take away "women's right to safe, legal abortion." "Every woman should be able to make decisions about her pregnancy," they continue, "including whether to end it, without shame, judgment, harassment, or intimidation — and certainly without interference by politicians."
Education Insanity
Some credit Albert Einstein, others credit Benjamin Franklin, with the observation that "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing year after year and expecting different results." Whomever we credit, he was absolutely right. A perfect example of that insanity is education in general and particularly black education.
After Years of False Alarms, the 'Conservative Crackup' Has Arrived
I've been hearing about the impending "conservative crackup" for nearly 25 years. The term was coined by R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr., the founder of the American Spectator. He meant that conservatism had lost its philosophical coherence. But the phrase almost instantly became a catchall for any prediction of the right's imminent demise or dissolution. These dire prophesies always reminded me of those "Free Beer Tomorrow" signs. As Annie sings, tomorrow is "always a day away." Well, thanks to Donald Trump, tomorrow may be here. There's a fierce internecine battle over whether to oppose Trump's run, passively accept his popularity, or zealously support his bid.
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
Cruz Dares to Take on King Corn
Ted Cruz has dared to provoke the ire one of the most ruthless and vengeful political forces on the planet, and it's not Donald Trump. The Texas senator has crossed the ethanol industry in Iowa, which is a little like getting on the wrong side of the Catholic Church in Vatican City. Cruz's core theme is fighting the "Washington cartel," which would be a lot easier if its tentacles didn't extend all the way into the state crucial to Cruz's presidential hopes.
There's More to Being President Than Deal-Making
Politically we appear to be living in the year of the outsider. Donald Trump has shocked the established political class and its loyal journalistic following. Senators Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders are upsetting governing elites almost as much as Trump. The public says it is angry and isn't going to take it anymore. Yet the prescription offered by these three candidates is very different. The Donald constantly trumpets that he is a deal maker. Cruz and Sanders are more interested in the substance of the deal and always ready to say no deal.
No Trump!
When the publisher of National Review Magazine, Jack Fowler, called and asked me to write 300 words on why I oppose Donald Trump for president of the United States, my first thought was about the derision that was sure to come from Trump supporters. I was not disappointed, or rather I am disappointed that no one who reacted negatively rebutted any of the arguments I, or the other contributors, made about why we think a President Trump would not pursue conservative goals.
Bloomberg Too?
Think we need another candidate running for president this year? We may get another one! Various reports indicate that former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is seriously considering a third-party bid for president. If he runs, polling suggests Bloomberg would get about 13% with Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton essentially tied at 37% and 36% respectively. But that really doesn't tell you much because the presidency is won in the Electoral College, which is based on individual state results. For example, does Bloomberg carry New York, taking that state out of the Democrats' column?
Cruz Has Been Right All Along
I believe Donald Trump's meteoric and sustained rise is a direct result of Obama's largely successful campaign to fundamentally transform America and the establishment Republicans' unwillingness to fight back. Grassroots conservatives have wanted someone to stand up to Obama and stand up for our nation — and they are sick and tired of Beltway politicians and pundits alike patronizingly assuring them that nothing extraordinary is occurring and to calm down. "We'll take care of it after we're re-elected." Sure. Yes, some of these establishment, moderate or, if you prefer, unexcitable types have finally come around, belatedly acknowledging Obama's intentions but failing to admit they were slow on the uptake, much less that they're sorry for branding the rest of us who caught on years before they did as mean-spirited, extremist or kooky.
The Demand for Villains
The latest tempest in a teapot controversy is over a lack of black nominees for this year's Academy Awards in Hollywood. The assumption seems to be that different groups would be proportionally represented if somebody were not doing somebody else wrong. That assumption carries great weight in far more important things than Academy Awards and in places more important than Hollywood, including the Supreme Court of the United States. In an earlier era, the groupthink assumption was that groups that did not succeed as often, or as well, were genetically inferior. But is our current groupthink assumption based on any more hard evidence?
Americans Tired of Elites Considering Them Stupid and Vicious
How stupid and vicious do they think we are? That's a question that I think explains a lot of things about politics and society today — and about this year's unpredicted presidential race. The "us" in that question are ordinary citizens and the "they" are political and media elites who hold them in contempt — which they do over and over again by trying to obfuscate and cover up the source and motives of terrorist attacks. Barack Obama, who refuses to use phrases akin to "Islamist terrorism" is a prime, but far from the only, offender. His predecessor, George W. Bush, after the attacks of Sept. 11 made a point of visiting mosques and calling Islam a religion of peace.
Stimulate Growth Now by Cutting the Corporate Tax Rate
Everyone's blaming the collapse of oil prices and China's sliding economy for the rout in the stock market to start 2016. That's part of the story, but there may also be a policy explanation for the selloff. Call it the "Bernie Sanders effect." In the most recent Democratic presidential debate, the race was on to see who could raise taxes and punish businesses more. While Hillary Clinton was touting her income-tax surcharge on millionaires that could raise income taxes to near 50 percent (and her capital-gains tax hike), Sanders said that a 90 percent tax rate might be too high, but somewhere approaching that number is the target he'd shoot for. Bernie also talks about breaking up the banks, putting Wall Streeters in jail, a single-payer health care plan and adding trillions in new government spending.
National Review, Donald Trump and Moral Bank Accounts
National Review's special issue, "Against Trump" was courageous and important. There is no way to do good in this world without risking making enemies. That National Review was prepared to do that — among its own readers, no less — in this day of great financial challenges to newspapers, magazines, and news and opinion websites, was an act of courage. In opposing Donald Trump for president — which, it happens, I did in a column I wrote four years ago — I face the same issue among some in my radio audience. I receive emails from listeners who say they can longer to listen my show because of my opposition to Trump (though I do regularly distinguish between Trump and his supporters).
Monday, January 25, 2016
The Real Iranian Moderates
Everyone loves to deal with moderates, especially when they represent a rare shift toward moderation for a rogue state. The trouble is that the concept of a moderate is relative. In dealing with the former Soviet Union we heard the term "Politburo moderates" over and over. Reaching out to this fabricated species was an excuse for being nice to despicable governments. In the case of the Islamic Republic of Iran, reaching out to "moderates" among the ayatollahs' inner circles has been a constant dream of American officials for the past 30 years. These moderates are supposed to be the cure to the Iranian enigma, which has been a unique problem for every US administration for the past three decades.
Debates & Delusions
I was busy all day so I didn't get to watch the two GOP debates from South Carolina until late at night. As a result, I didn't get to sleep until nearly 3 a.m. That's how seriously I take my responsibility to those of you who are already so sick and tired of the primaries that you have literally tuned out. Overall, I thought that the early debate, the one that consisted of Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum and the ghost of Rand Paul, was the more bearable of the two. For one thing, it was over in an hour. For another thing, none of the debaters carried on as if either of the other two was toxic and would be a greater catastrophe, if elected, than Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders.
Sunday, January 24, 2016
Obama Regrets Polarized Rancor. He Should.
One of the "few regrets" of his presidency, President Obama said dolefully in his State of the Union speech, was "that the rancor and suspicion between the parties has gotten worse instead of better." Were he endowed with "the gifts of Lincoln or Roosevelt," he remarked, he could have done more to bridge the partisan divide. But he pledged to "keep trying to be better so long as I hold this office."
A Tale of Two Cities: Lessons From Michigan
Two Michigan cities made the front page of The New York Times on Thursday. One concerned contaminated water in Flint, leading to lead poisoning in children. The other exposed the sorry state of the public schools in Detroit, where student test scores are abysmal, the buildings are filthy and teachers are engaged in an illegal strike.
Will Obama's Overreach Be Policed?
During Watergate, Henry Kissinger's mordant wit leavened the unpleasantness: "The illegal we do immediately; the unconstitutional takes a little longer." President Obama often does both simultaneously, using executive authoritarianism to evade the Constitution's separation of powers and rewrite existing laws. Last week, however, the Supreme Court took a perhaps momentous step toward correcting some of the constitutional vandalism that will be Obama's most significant legacy. The court agreed to rule on Obama's unilateral revision of immigration law.