Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
The Problem With Romney Nostalgia
In 2007, when President Obama announced that he was running for president, he did it in Springfield, Ill., to highlight his supposed connection to Abraham Lincoln. He brought in his biggest fans to cheer him on. When George W. Bush announced in 1999, he did it in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The Bush campaign, likewise, brought in a big crowd of supporters. John Kerry announced in Patriot's Point, S.C., in 2003, amid a sea of American flags, war veterans and an aircraft carrier in the background. And where was Mitt Romney when he announced on Friday that he was thinking of another run in 2016? He, too, was talking to his base: about 30 deep-pocketed donors in New York City. "Tell your friends," he said.
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Guilt by Association
Liberals are contemptuous of those who believe that associating with bad apples might be an indicator that you yourself are rotten to the core. In fact, if you dared point out that Robert Byrd, who wound up serving 51 years in the U.S. Senate and not only became the Senate majority leader, but the President pro tempore -- placing him third in line of presidential succession -- had jump-started his political career by forming a chapter of the Ku Klux Klan in Sophia, West Virginia, they'd accuse you of McCarthyism. Joe McCarthy, for the youngsters in the audience, was a junior senator from Wisconsin. He was a drunk and a boor, but that's not why his name has come to be equated by liberals with the very worst elements in American politics. After all, Lyndon Johnson was a bigger drunk and a bigger bully, and if you look up "boor" in the dictionary, you'll find his picture. In spite of that, LBJ is hailed as a shining star and a champion of civil rights by Democrats.
Get America on Track With Opportunity for All, Favoritism to None
Americans need a game plan to put the country back on track
Why Washington Politicians Want to Hike the Gas Tax
Suddenly everyone in Washington wants a gas tax hike -- apparently so consumers don't save too much money at the pump. As prices keep falling, the politicians and the moochers in Washington want a piece of the action. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Whip Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and even Republicans such as Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee have linked arms with the entire road-building industry and green groups that want the cost of fuel to go up. Pelosi won't even hide her cynical motivation: With gas prices low, maybe motorists won't notice that we're gouging them. "If there's ever going to be an opportunity to raise the gas tax, the time when gas prices are so low -- oil prices are so low -- is the time to do it," she explained.
On Immigration, GOP Borders on Courage
Paris may be a long way from D.C., but the impact of what happened there is hitting a lot closer to home. With terrorists opening a new chapter in their war against the West, France isn't the only government under the microscope. Four thousand miles away in the U.S. House, conservatives are taking the opportunity to educate Americans to our own vulnerabilities under the White House's immigration policy (or lack thereof). And Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) seems more than willing to lead that charge. When conservatives fell a few votes short of replacing the Speaker last week, the media said the right wing of the party had lost. But as I said last week, the most constructive step that John Boehner could take in wake of the conservative challenge was to win people back -- not by getting even, but getting to work rebuilding that lost trust. In conversations with members over the weekend, it seems the Ohio leader is willing to put the embarrassment behind him and move forward in a "message received" mentality.
Islam Gets Special Treatment
Since 9/11, the Western world's academic, media, political elites have done their best to portray Islam in a favorable light, treating it very differently from all other religions. Criticism of every doctrine, religious or secular, is permitted, often encouraged. But not of Islam. Only positive depictions are allowed. We'll start with an example of pro-Islamic bias that is so ubiquitous that no one seems to notice it. Why do Western media -- overwhelmingly composed of irreligious people, one might add -- always deferentially refer to Muhammad as "the Prophet Muhammad" in news articles and opinion pieces? When Jesus is mentioned, the media never refer to him as "Christ, the Lord" or as "the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." Just "Jesus." In fact, "A.D." ("anno Domini" -- "year of our Lord") has been completely dropped by the very academics and media who always write "The Prophet Muhammad."
War of Ideas
By savagely attacking and murdering writers and cartoonists as well as Jewish shoppers, French Islamists clarified something that many in the West have deceived themselves about: that the war we are engaged in is a war of ideas. Islamists have once again reminded us that freedom itself is their target. This discomfits the left. They prefer to pretend that Islamist violence (when they acknowledge it at all) springs from unemployment, poverty or, most frequently, colonial oppression. Most leftists, and some on the libertarian right, believe that American responses to Islamists' attacks -- ranging from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to NSA wiretapping -- are the causes of the murderous rage that has claimed thousands of victims on every continent (10,000 in 2013 alone) and has in the past three months plunged Australia, Canada, Israel, Pakistan and now France into agonies as civilians (including children) have been coldly massacred in the name of Allah.
Is Paris Burning?
The late Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist for the Los Angeles Times, Paul Conrad, frequently used religious symbols to illustrate his point of view. Conrad drew the ire of some readers whenever he used the Star of David or a cross in his drawings. Letters to the editor denounced him, but to my knowledge no one showed up at the newspaper to kill him. This is the difference between radical Islam and other faiths. Jews and Christians have been targets of persecution, but with rare exceptions in modern times those faiths do not encourage, or tolerate, murder in the name of God. Were he alive today, I wonder if Conrad would draw a cartoon that depicts the Prophet Mohammed in a bad light -- or any light -- following the terrorist murders last week in Paris.
Obama Handcuffs America in War on Terrorism
In the wake of President Obama's pathetic disengagement over the Islamic jihadist attacks on Paris, people are once again decrying his lack of leadership, but the problem is something more fundamental than leadership. Even if Obama were a gifted leader, when it comes to many issues, especially confronting radical Islam, he wouldn't know where to lead us. If you misapprehend a problem, you can't possibly navigate, much less lead, toward a solution. From the beginning of his term in office, Obama has evidenced a deep moral confusion, a distorted worldview perhaps based on a bizarre upbringing. It's not that he doesn't distinguish between good and evil; it's that he often doesn't clearly recognize which is which.
The West Wakes Up -- Maybe
"The West," as we pleasantly call the tatty, post-Cold War remnants of Western civilization, got off its numb if still-hifalutin bottom Sunday and took to the streets of Paris in defense of -- well, its life, its future, the future of everything in life that matters. An existential threat will do that to you. People want to grind you down, mow you down -- it gets you to thinking. And acting. The sort of assault on life and freedom that three Islamists with the moral sense of a dead caterpillar launched last week in France would have taken more robust generations about a millisecond to decode. Hands would have felt for sword scabbards, and jaws would have set with determination.
New Year's Irresolution
President Barack Obama's absence from the great gathering in Paris of national leaders from other countries, to show their solidarity with France in its opposition to Islamic terrorists, was another sign of the Obama administration's continuing irresolution in the face of terror. Even the recent courageous message of Egypt's president, Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, calling on his fellow Muslims around the world to "revolutionize" the interpretation of Islam, to make it more compatible with peaceful relations with other peoples, put no steel in the spine of Barack Obama.
A Leftist-Islamic Alliance
The twin massacres in Paris were, according to the perpetrators themselves, payback for blasphemy. In other words, Islamists believe in the "right not to be offended." If that sounds familiar, maybe it's because the American left believes exactly the same thing. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education's (FIRE) latest report reveals that of the 437 colleges and universities they surveyed, more than 55 percent maintain what FIRE refers to as "red light" restrictions on free speech. In 2012, FIRE president Greg Lukianoff offered examples of those "speech codes," noting that they may consist of restricting speech that "feels offensive," "demeaning," that which will "discredit the student body" or any language deemed to be "abusive, indecent, profane or vulgar."
Can Anyone Come Up With a Platform for Primaries, General and Presidency?
There are likely to be many surprises in a race for the Republican presidential nomination that has something like 20 plausible potential candidates. The first of those surprises came in the last hours before New Year's when Jeb Bush announced he was setting up an exploratory committee to consider running for president. The website of Bush's new PAC, Right to Rise, shows that he has been paying attention to the ongoing policy dialogue among conservative thinkers. "The central moral promise of American life," it declares, is the right "to move up the income ladder based on merit, hard work and earned success."
Monday, January 12, 2015
Economic Recovery, Free Enterprise, and Keystone
Now that the U.S. economy is showing signs of life, President Obama is not wasting a moment to take credit for this recovery. "The steps we took nearly six years ago to rescue our economy and rebuild it on a new foundation helped make 2014 the strongest year for job growth since the 1990's," he said in a recent speech. For sure we can expect the president to continue this message in his upcoming State of the Union address, as he works to rebuild his credibility, thinking toward his final two years in office and his place in history. And it's working. The president is creeping back up in the polls. His current Gallup 45 percent approval rating is the highest it has been in almost 8 months.
Cities Throw in the Towel on Bathroom Bills
The Left calls them "fairness ordinances" -- but for whom? Certainly not Christians, many of whom are being hauled before city commissions as casualties of them -- or worse, losing their jobs and businesses altogether. No, these aren't fairness ordinances. They're a license to discriminate against anyone who holds the mainstream view of marriage or sexuality. Thanks to a very public clash in Houston that pulled back the curtain on the LGBT's agenda, Americans are starting to wake up to the nightmare of these ordinances, which slipped through too many cities when voters weren't paying attention. Now they are -- and their pushback is throwing a major wrench in the Left's plans. In states where these measures might have snuck by, more churches and families are on guard, ready to go to the mat against a movement disguised as "equality" but delivering anything but.
Justices Don't Belong at the State of the Union Pep Rally
Next week, President Obama will be on Capitol Hill, appearing before a joint session of Congress for the annual ritual known as the State of the Union address. Amid the hoopla and pageantry -- the partisan cheers and ovations, the shout-outs to honorees in the gallery, the approving nods or deprecating scowls from the vice president and House speaker -- one dour anomaly will be hard to miss. Members of the Supreme Court will be sitting poker-faced in the front row, draped in their black robes and refraining from any applause or show of loyalty. The Constitution directs the president to periodically "give to the Congress information of the State of the Union," and most presidents since Woodrow Wilson have delivered that "information" in a formal speech. But nothing in the Constitution requires the Supreme Court to be on hand for the performance, and there is no time-honored tradition that explains their presence. It wasn't until the late 1950s that justices began regularly showing up for State of the Union addresses. Nothing has been gained by the change, least of all admiration for the Supreme Court or confidence in its impartiality.
Sunday, January 11, 2015
In 2015, Normalize the Federal Reserve
Ordinarily, the plunging oil prices experienced during the last three months would be welcomed as beneficial for the economy -- lowering transportation costs and stimulating consumer spending. But these are not normal times, and the sharp 45 percent drop in oil prices can trigger a larger financial market crisis and a recessionary contraction. The debt crisis that brought the U.S. economy to its knees in 2008 has been largely absorbed and papered over by prolonged deficit spending and the Federal Reserve's easy money policies of debt monetization and zero interest rates. Consider that when the subprime debt crisis unfolded in 2008, total U.S. Treasury debt, including IOUs to HHS and Social Security, stood at about $10 trillion. Today, just six years later, it exceeds $18 trillion, with the Federal Reserve's balance sheet having grown by 425 percent -- all in Treasury and mortgage debt.
Questions for a Nominee
Senate confirmation hearings put nominees on notice that, as a Michigan state legislator reportedly once said, "I'm watching everything you do with a fine-toothed comb." Loretta Lynch, a talented lawyer and seasoned U.S. attorney, should be confirmed as attorney general. Her hearing, however, should not be perfunctory. Questions like the following would highlight some festering problems: -- Next year is the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, which began the slow, serpentine progress to our modern panoply of rights, including those of persons accused of serious crimes. Today, however, regarding sexual misconduct on campuses, the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights uses the threat of withdrawing federal funding to coerce colleges and universities into jettisoning crucial defendants' protections when adjudicating, in improvised tribunals, accusations of sexual assault. Presumption of innocence? The new presumption is that accusations are valid until disproved. The right to confront one's accuser? No, it would be traumatizing to the "survivor" (note the prejudgment). Proof beyond a reasonable doubt? Now a mere "preponderance of the evidence" will suffice. Are you comfortable with this traducing of due process?
Two Views of Capitalism
Why are you and I enjoying the bounty of the richest country in the history of the world instead of grubbing around in the forest for roots and berries the way our ancestors did? It turns out people appear to have two very different answers to that question. And it's not just ordinary people who disagree. Even the experts – economists and historians – disagree. That's the view of Johnathan Haidt, a social psychologist at New York University's Stern School of Business. (HT: Tyler Cowan)
On & Off the Radar
(Fox News, Boko Haram, Obama, Justin Bieber, “Unbroken, “Peanuts,” Alan Jay Lerner)