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Many years ago, a close friend suddenly found his job in jeopardy. He was accused of destroying company property including pouring a soft drink in an expensive printer. Every single allegation was totally false. Fortunately, they believed him and he kept his job.
Now the same thing has happened to Admiral Ronny Jackson, President Trump’s nominee to head the VA. I think it was a poor choice because he doesn’t have any experience running a large bureaucracy. Instead of opposing him for legitimate reasons, some Democratic senators and their staff chose character assassination. They interviewed a number of his associates. They took every negative comment and released it to the press. It didn’t matter whether the accusations were true or false. People in the resist movement care only about one thing, hurting President Trump. They happily went after Jackson. They have little interest in anything else, including the welfare of our country.
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Facebook has been much in the news lately over the way they have played fast and loose with our private information. They are certainly not alone. There is another issue that also has me concerned. CEO Mark Zuckerberg shares it.
Silicon Valley is overwhelmingly liberal. At times their bias is showing. Some pro-choice organizations have a hard time getting their ads place. A church’s ad was recently denied because of the violent imagery. The ad showed a crucifix. Bans on hate speech only apply to conservatives. A conservative comedian was recently kicked off Facebook. Those that threatened his life can stay. Apparently, death threats are fine if the target is right of center. There are a number of other examples. This is part of a growing trend by the Left to Silence the Right. All opinions should be heard in the marketplace of ideas. We should all cherish the rights given to us in the First Amendment and not try to stifle those holding different views. Many have expressed concern over the possibility of President Trump firing Robert Mueller. Members of both parties introduced a bill in the Senate that offers Mueller some protection. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he wouldn’t allow a vote on it.
I have to agree with McConnell on this. If such a bill passed, it would almost certainly be vetoed. More important, I believe it is unconstitutional. Our whole government is based on the idea of separation of powers. One of those powers given to the president is the right to fire anyone in the executive branch except the vice president. Congress has absolutely no right to take away presidential rights. It’s probably a moot point since I doubt Trump would be dumb enough to fire Mueller. The firestorm over the dismissal of Comey would seem like a tea party in comparison. It would likely have little effect on the investigation. If you are my age or older, you probably recall when Nixon fired Archibald Cox. A new special prosecutor was named. The investigation continued and Nixon had to resign. There are plenty of serious issues that Congress should be addressing. There is not need to go outside of their constitutional responsibilities. It isn’t very often that I praise President Trump. His administration’s response to Syria using chemical weapons was measured and well thought out. They took the time to develop a plan. They limited the attack to three buildings involved in chemical weapons. They were also able to bring England and France aboard. This was definitely preferable to President Obama talking big, doing nothing and trusting Russia to remove the chemical weapons.
It is a real shame that he can’t take this approach more often. It is aa real improvement compared to the way he usually operates. He would be much more successful if he kept his ego and mouth in check. However, he shows no sign of change after fifteen months on the job. Recently the FBI raided the office and home of President Trump’s personal lawyer. Undoubtedly, they took confidential communications and work papers. This is a fundamental violation of his constitutional rights. I have not heard the ACLU, or any Democrat, utter a word of protest. Imagine the outcry if it were Hillary Clinton’s lawyer.
In a biography of Voltaire, English author Evelyn Hall used the phrase “I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it”. This is often used to show the importance of freedom of speech. It, and the other protections in the Constitution are the hallmark of our democracy. We need to uphold those rights, especially to those we feel are least deserving. Far too many on the Left have a new philosophy. They believe that their views are the only acceptable views. The only reason someone would disagree with them is because they are a bad person. Allowing them to express themselves is spreading hate. We are even seeing violence as a political tool to stifle others’ rights. While this is a tactic of the extreme fringe, too many have remained silent. To her credit, Nancy Pelosi strongly denounced them. Congressman Keith Ellison appears to endorse violence. He was photographed holding a book on Anfifa. He tweeted that he found a book that would “strike fear in the heart of @realDonaldTrump”. Guarding our precious freedoms should not be a partisan issue. A strong democracy is far more important than who currently occupies the White House. President Trump’s tweets seem to attack almost anyone. He once even went after a war widow. Now he has set his sights on Amazon. Republicans accused President Obama of picking winners. Now we are seeing Trump do the same thing.
His favorite charge is that the US Post Office is losing money delivering Amazon packages. This is utterly ridiculous. The post office has tremendous fixed expenses. It transports mail around the country and drives by everyone’s house six days a week. It doesn’t cost more to drop off a package at the same time they deliver mail. If Amazon stopped using the post office, their losses would skyrocket. He also attacks them for hurting brick and mortar businesses. Of course it’s true but that’s part of the free enterprise system. Neighborhood grocery stores gave way to supermarkets. Malls replaced downtown department stores. Many local stores have been replaced by chains. We may not like it, but I am not sure what we can do about it. We could ban internet sales or go socialist but the cure is worse than the disease. It seems strange for a billionaire businessman to attack another business. It’s time for him to quit throwing temper tantrums and get back to work. Once you get past gender, ethnicity, political affiliation and being presidents, it’s hard to imagine anything those two have in common. I was reading a biography of James Buchanan (Lincoln’s predecessor) as part of a book I am writing. Each had to face opposition that was totally unhinged.
First, a quick history lesson. In the early 1850’s most people believed that the controversy over slavery had been put to rest. Senator Stephen Douglas (a longtime rival to Lincoln) wanted to open up the Great Plains to settlement. He couldn’t get the South to go along without revisiting the question of slavery in the territories. This led to the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This created a total political realignment in a short time. The Republican Party was formed. Their main purpose was to keep slavery out of the territories. Very few were talking about abolishing slavery where it currently existed. Many people went way overboard in their reaction with Buchanan leading the way. Of course, the political divide got wider and wider. Many southerners went berserk when Lincoln was elected. States started to secede well before his inauguration. Buchanan did nothing to stop it and some of his actions bordered on treason. Clearly the sensible thing to do was wait and see if Lincoln was the wild-eyed monster they thought he was. Instead, they fired on Fort Sumter and started the worst event in our history. In the end, they lost just about everything they held dear. Grover Cleveland was the only Democrat elected president in the next fifty years. We are seeing much the same thing today. There are many valid reasons for people to oppose Trump’s policies and his persona. Virtually the entire campaign was about vilifying Trump and his supporters. Once he won, they tried wild schemes to keep him out of office. There was talk of impeachment before he was inaugurated. They compared him to Hitler. Since he didn’t start rounding up undesirable, he was just a white supremacist. Then there has been all the resist nonsense. Conservatives call it Trump Derangement Syndrome. I think the name fits. In an eight-year period Democrats in Congress went from the strongest they had been in fifty years to the weakest they have been in nearly a century. They are operating out of hate and doubling down on the strategies that got them in this mess. Everyone has made up their mind about Trump so negative campaigning won’t work. They need to develop positive reasons to vote for them. They need to woo back the millions of Democrats who voted for Trump. Instead, Hillary Clinton is demonizing them. Nancy Pelosi tells them $1,000 is crumbs. Focusing on hate and fantasizing about a wave election won’t get the job done. We certainly won’t see another civil war although some in California are talking about secession and Jerry Brown thinks he should have veto power over President Trump. Democrats could potentially face a very grim future. Both parties are moving to the extremes. Nature abhors a vacuum. As I have said before, I think there is a fairly good chance of a new party forming. If that happens, the Democratic Party could become a far-left third party. We would never see another Democrat in the White House. Democrats should take a look at their 1860 counterparts. They need to decide if they want to focus on venting their hatred or winning elections. President Trump stopped the DACA program established by President Obama. It set up a system to keep people brought here as children from being deported. I didn’t have a problem with his actions since I believe such programs should be enacted through legislation rather than executive fiat.
He gave Congress six months to come up with a new plan. The time limit has expired with no action. Even though most Americans favor it, Congress failed to act. I think both sides blew it. They cared more about political posturing than helping people who are here illegally through no fault of their own. President Trump wanted his entire immigration program passed as a condition for DACA. Democrats wanted a clean bill which gave Republicans nothing. Neither side was really interested in compromise. Trump can show his anti-immigration base how tough he is while Democrats can use this to bludgeon Republicans. What about the people who could be deported to a country they never knew? They were nothing but pawns in a political tug-of-war. Both sides let them down. They also let the country down. We deserve better. |
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