Biden, Presidency on Crutches

The View from the Middle

 

From 1933 to 1945 the United States had a President with many physical issues.  Franklin Delano Roosevelt moved around with the help of wheelchairs, braces, canes and crutches for his entire Presidency. With the help of the press at the time, most of America was not even aware of his disabilities.  But despite his many physical problems, FDR is consistently ranked by historians as one of the top three Presidents in our country’s history.  He led the country out of the deepest financial depression in our history and guided us successfully through WWII.  This was because, in spite his physical limitations, he was mentally sharp to the very end when he was taken from the earth by a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 63.  

FDR’s story demonstrates how physical issues can be overcome, even in the most challenging job in the world (arguably), as long as that person is mentally tough and capable. Joe Biden is at the opposite end of the Presidential competency spectrum from FDR.  In three months, Joe Biden will be 79 years old.  He will be 82 at the end of his first term, and would be 86 at the end of his second term if he should choose to run and win (heaven forbid).  

The one common thread between FDR and Joe Biden is that the media has protected Joe Biden throughout the campaign and has continued to do so even today.  The Presidential campaign every four years is meant to be rigorous in order to test the physical and mental toughness of the candidates.  In the 2020 Presidential campaign, Joe Biden was allowed to hide in his basement and avoid the tough questions, and that protection continues today.

In regards to the withdrawal from Afghanistan, we can debate whether we should have left Afghanistan in 2002 or if we should continue with a light military footprint for years to come.  The question that must be answered today and most likely in 2022 and 2024 is, “How well has this withdrawal been managed.”  While the chaos at the Kabul airport is getting all of the attention, there are other issues that so far are being pretty much ignored.  Why did we pull out our military before we pulled out our American citizens and Afghan friendlies?  Why did we abandon the Bagram air base without even informing the Afghan military that we were leaving?  Why did we leave $85 billion of weapons and equipment that will now be used by the Taliban to brutalize their own people and spread terrorism throughout the world?

Our lamestream media continues to cover for this President as he lies (misstates), bumbles and vacations his way through this crisis.  After taking the first week off, he has made a few prepared speeches (created by someone else) which he struggles through with one teleprompter, because he can’t handle multiple teleprompters anymore.  He then turns and hightails it out of the room without answering a single question.  Yesterday, he finally answered three pre-selected questions.  He even had to look down at prepared notes to see who he was supposed to call on and then to his notes again for the answer (because he and his staff obviously already knew what the question was).

This “chaos” in Afghanistan could not have been avoided, says the man who is now presiding over the disastrous, chaotic withdrawal.  That is a meaningless statement that neither he nor anyone else can prove and which I sincerely doubt.  And now the State Department and the Pentagon are focusing on the number of people being evacuated, and patting themselves on their backs using words like “we’re making tremendous progress” or “we’ve successfully improved (whatever)”.  This is like an arsonist taking credit for pouring some water on a fire they started.  It is also amazing that of all the people that they have evacuated, they still have no idea how many Americans have been removed or even how many Americans are in the country.  Is it because they don’t know?  My guess is that they know, but we Americans wouldn’t like the answer.  

For the good of the country, the mainstream media needs to stop covering for this President.  This is not like covering up for FDR or JFK for their physical or moral shortcomings.  This is concealing incompetence that America will suffer from for years to come.  The media must share the blame for hiding the lack of cognitive ability of this President.  He’s only seven months into his four-year term and we have crises in Afghanistan, on our southern border, with violence in our major cities and in an economy that is on the brink of collapse because our new authoritarian government cannot get out of its way.  I don’t think we can take three and a half more years of this leadership.  Of course, that may have been the plan all along.

Botched

 The View from the Middle

 

While I disagree with almost all of Joe Biden’s policies, there are three critically important areas where he has made, “unforced errors”, and that is according to senior Obama administration officials.  I disagree, for example with President Biden’s decision to abandon the Keystone Pipeline, while allowing Russia to complete its Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany.  I disagree with his decision to reengage with Iran, the world’s largest sponsor of terror, which included financial support and reengagement in the impotent nuclear deal.  I also disagree with rejoining the Paris Global Warming Accord, and I have published pieces that explain my positions on all of these policy decisions.  We can debate all of these strategic choices, but there are three layups (a basketball term for an easy shot) that Joe has blown that even his most sycophantic followers are beginning to question.

First, there is President Biden’s handling of our southern border.  While he can claim that he inherited this problem, the facts on the ground do not support that assertion.  In Trump’s final year we averaged about 35,000 border apprehensions per month and for all four of the Trump administration years we averaged about 40,000 per month.  This was because of policies like “Stay in Mexico”, the elimination of catch and release and Title 42 expulsions which allowed Border Control to return illegal immigrants due to exposure to covid-19.  Joe Biden decided to reverse all of those effective policies and since we have been averaging almost 200,000 apprehensions per month and we are headed for a two million apprehension year for 2021.  Plus, who knows how many people are not being apprehended.  These are called “got-aways”, and are the most dangerous illegal entries for obvious reasons.  Border Patrol is projecting that we will experience 500,000 of these “got-aways” this year.  Joe Biden could have and should have just done nothing which is what makes his handling of the border a total botch.

Next, we have the Biden Administration’s handling of the Coronavirus vaccine implementation.  Despite the fact that President Biden tried to suggest that the vaccine didn’t exist before he became President, the truth is that it was developed in record time by the Trump administration and Joe received his first shot in December of 2020.  Joe’s job was simply to get the vaccine shots into the arms of the American people.  

Joe and Kamala, in their thirst to be elected, began to sow the seeds of distrust of the vaccine way back during the Democrat primary when they both indicated that they wouldn’t trust or take a vaccine developed under the Trump administration.  Then, when they took office, they obviously had no idea what was going on.  Joe promised that he was going to get “a million shots per day” into American arms.  Then, someone on his staff reminded him that the Trump administration was already ahead of that pace before they left office.  This lack of awareness did not inspire confidence in the American people and resulted in an immediate drop in that daily vaccination rate. 

Finally, Joe could have gone on a campaign to build trust in the vaccine and thus convince the American people to get vaccinated.  He and his administration, unfortunately, chose to shame and demonize the American people who were hesitant to get vaccinated.  There has been a big miss with black Americans who, for good reason, harbor a mistrust of big government. Only about 30% of US blacks have gotten the shots compared to a 60% level for all of our citizens.  He could have given the previous administration some due credit and pursued a positive message, but he didn’t.  This could have been easy, but he blew it and dramatically missed his goal.

And now we have our withdrawal from Afghanistan.  To be fair, I’m not going to blame Joe for getting us into Afghanistan, although he was part of a unanimous vote in the Senate to fund our actions there.  I won’t even blame him for staying there beyond accomplishing our initial mission, which probably happened in 2002, even though he was Vice President for eight of the last 20 years.  There are plenty of people, Democrat and Republican alike, who can take credit for all of those mistakes.  But Joe must take full responsibility for botching the very tactical withdrawal.

Most of us are not politicians or diplomats or four-star generals, but we do have brains and some common sense.  Common sense would suggest that you should not give your enemy a firm timetable of your withdrawal with no connection to conditions on the ground.  Common sense would tell you NOT to execute that withdrawal during the peak “fighting season” of your enemy.  Common sense would suggest that you have over half of your withdrawal of equipment and personnel completed before you tell your enemy anything.  Common sense would tell you not to remove the military before you remove American citizens and Afghan collaborators.  President Biden decided to ignore all of that common-sense advice and now must own the carnage that is about to ensue.

The Taliban is going door-to-door right now to find the Afghan men who cooperated with us and they are looking for women to become their sex slaves.  The next month will be brutal in Afghanistan.  There will be blood in streets, and that will be just the beginning of the suffering and dehumanization for the women there.  The good news for Joe Biden is that the Taliban are not the most transparent people so the world will probably not see much of the savagery.

And finally, this will impact our foreign policy for years to come.  What ally will trust us in the future (think South Korea, Taiwan and Israel) and our enemies will not fear us and will see this as an opportunity to take advantage.  How many terrorists can cross our southern border over the next few months, and how much damage can they do here.

All of these were unforced errors.  That’s three layups missed in just six months.  Joe, if I were your coach, you would be benched.  

Can Government Deliver a Risk-Free Utopia?

The View from the Middle

 

Three years ago, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez said, and I am quoting here, “The world is going to end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change (now).”  I’m sure she is using that exact same quote today, but I’m going to help Ms. AOC with some fundamental math facts, because I know she’s not particularly strong academically in that area (or any other that I am aware of).  Twelve minus three is nine.  The clock is ticking, and I plan to be here in nine years to call her a liar, a fearmonger and a complete idiot.  And I don’t say that with any misogynistic venom.  I believe women can say and do stupid things just as often as men can and AOC is simply proving my point.

AOC also demonstrates a new political technique that I am calling “The Convenient Argument”.  A Convenient Argument is one that cannot be proven wrong or right and allows politicians to take credit or place blame no matter what actually happens.  I am a climate change agnostic as was the late, great Charles Krauthammer.  Is the world’s climate getting warmer?  Possibly, however given how the scientists gather that information, I actually don’t know, and I’m fairly certain that none of you do either.  Has the earth been through this kind of warming before when man’s activities could not possibly have been a contributing factor?  Absolutely, and there is plenty of scientific evidence to prove that.  

Have 100% of Al Gore’s predictions been proven wrong?  Yes.  Has 99% of climate panic drivers’ (scientists) predictions been proven wrong? Again, absolutely.  The polar bears are still here and so are the polar ice caps.  New York City is not under water nor are the Maldives (islands who are and have been only six feet above sea level).  The fact is, we should all be very skeptical of the Henny Penny, “the sky is falling” doomsdayers who are trying to take away our money and our rights TODAY by threatening global cataclysm in the distant future.  As I have said before, anyone who tells you that they know for certain what is going to happen in 100 years (the new goalpost for climate fearmongers) is lying.  And I won’t even get into the claim that “global” warming can be corrected by the United States alone.  

I’m NOT saying that we should be living irresponsible lives, trashing the environment as we prance through life.  I’m NOT saying that we shouldn’t be trying to harness renewable energy sources, particularly the sun.  But we shouldn’t be doing this in a panic, destroying entire industries and collapsing the economy of the most environmentally conscious country in the world, which is the US.  We also should not be burdening our children and grandchildren with a national debt that will crush their opportunities and severely limit their choices in the future.

Few people, if any, actually understand climate.  Even Al Gore’s chief climatologist admitted that “Climate” is so complex that it is impossible to predict.  But our politicians in Washington really don’t care about any of that.  They only care about power and their next election.  That is why climate change (or global warming, or whatever they will call it tomorrow) is such a great centerpiece for their campaigns.  If the climate cools, as it has done throughout the history of this planet, the politicians will take credit.  If it does not, they will simply blame their political enemies saying that they didn’t do enough.  No one will be able to prove any of this because it is unprovable, and I believe it’s because this is God’s plan and He has been in control all along.

The Covid-19 debate is very similar.  Few if any actually understand this virus, where it came from and how to mitigate it.  Do masks work?  Fauci said “no” before he said yes, and there is no actual data (evidence) that they do.  There is, however, evidence that they make no difference, especially in children.  Florida has done a study that compared infection rates in schools that mandated masks to schools that did not, and they found no difference.  And a study in Massachusetts found that cloth masks actually increase the likelihood of being infected.  Did shutting down the world’s economies work?  Actually, no!  Our highest infection rates and deaths have come during the world’s most stringent lockdowns and highest mask usage.

I align with the many doctors and virologists, including Dr. Dan Stock from Indiana, who believe that Dr. Fauci, the CDC and the NIH are NOT in control as they suggest.  This virus is in control.  It is doing what viruses have done since the beginning of time.  It infected everyone it could until the beginning of herd immunity challenged its existence and then it mutated in an effort to survive.  But politicians will quickly take credit for naturally occurring declines in infections and will be quick to blame naturally occurring surges on their opponents or you.  Since none of the connections between these actions and results can be proven, it is a perfect and convenient political argument.

And if you won’t march to their demands, they will try to shame you into it.  They will say that if you don’t wear a mask, etc, you want people to die, particularly children.  This is a lazy, despicable, divisive claim.  First, it suggests that infection with Covid-19 is a death sentence when we all know that 99.8% of people who contract this disease will survive.  And the survival rate is even higher for children.  While children aged 17 and under represent approximately 25% of the US population, they represent only .06% of our deaths (that's only 354 out of 610,000 total Covid deaths).  In fact, the seasonal flu is usually deadlier for children than Covid-19, but I don’t remember mask mandates in our schools for that.  The shame offensive is a shame in and of itself.  Life is full of risks.  We could bubble-wrap our kids and put them in padded rooms from birth, but even that wouldn’t guarantee this virus would not find its way into their bodies.  We need to allow people to manage life’s risks as they see fit, not as our bloated, inept, corrupt government suggests.

We need to ignore the political fearmongers.  They are no more in control of this virus than they are in control of the sun, although they will try to convince you that they are.  We need to be independent, responsible adults who can do their own risk assessments and live our lives without the heavy hand of a power-hungry government that will force its will upon us.  You certainly should wash your hands frequently and stay home from work if you have symptoms.  If you want to wear a mask, go ahead, although I personally think that most masks don’t work.  I encourage all to get the vaccine, but that is a personal decision.  If you have already had Covid-19 and recovered there is little evidence that the shots will improve your resistance.  All of this, however, is really just tinkering around the edges of this virus.  It has already proven that IT will have its way despite our best efforts, and we certainly shouldn’t be creating new ones in labs with less safety protocols than your local Subway sandwich shop.

Remember the famous despotic, autocratic, Marxist motto, “don’t let a good crisis go to waste”.  In other words, power-hungry politicians will take advantage of this and every challenge we face to take away our freedom and money with a promise of utopia, which will never come.  Resist the urge to give up your liberty at all costs.  That freedom is what has made this country the best in the world and without it we will experience a descent into poverty, chaos and strife like all of the promised utopias of the past – Russia, Cuba, China, Venezuela, and so on.

Did Jen Psaki Actually Say That?

 Did Jen Psaki Actually Just Say That?

The View from the Middle

Just yesterday, Jen Psaki, the Whitehouse spokesperson, admitted that the Biden administration is colluding with Facebook and Twitter to block what they deem misinformation.  I don’t know what is more frightening, what she was admitting to or the fact that she was bold enough to say it out loud in front of reporters.  We should all, Democrats or Republicans, be absolutely outraged by this admission for a number of reasons.

First, this goes beyond being just inappropriate.  It is illegal and unconstitutional.  The first amendment clearly states that the government shall not abridge our right to free speech.  It is particularly heinous when the government provides liability protection for these big tech companies through section 230 of the Communications Act and then directs them to stifle speech that they think is incorrect or that they just don’t agree with.

Even if the government claims to be blocking inaccurate information, their track record stinks in recognizing what is actually misleading.  If the government had its way, for example, we would have never even heard about the possibility that the Wuhan Lab was the source of Covid-19.  The Biden Administration would have totally blocked this story which today, thanks to freedom of speech, is proving to be the most likely explanation for this global pandemic.

We would also have never heard about Hunter Biden’s lost laptop.  In the beginning, government sources declared that this story was nothing but lies and, in fact, the product of a Russian disinformation campaign.  Both Twitter and Facebook censored the New York Post’s account – Yes, the New York Post, the 4^th largest newspaper in America - because they claimed that the Hunter Biden computer story was based on “hacked” information from the Russians.  That has since been proven to be a pile of “you know what”, but with this new Orwellian speech and thought control we would have never heard of Hunter’s emails revealing his drug addled life and Joe Biden’s (The Big Guy’s) financial participation in it.  

Just yesterday, Kevin McCarthy, the Republican Minority Leader in the House, wrote an article on the dangers of inflation for the Wall Street Journal and that article was immediately taken down by both Facebook and Twitter.  The article was filled with facts about the massive amounts of money our federal government is spending or is proposing to spend.  There are different opinions as to what effect this spending will have on our economy and our spending power. The citizens of America, however, should hear both sides of that debate.  

And, of course, there is much, much more.  The last article I wrote talked about the incredible amount of “Big Lies” that are coming out of Washington.  Do we really want these devious politicians controlling what we get to hear and read?  And when does this censorship move from erroneous blockages of inconvenient facts to “problematic” opinions.  That is the term that Jen Psaki used to describe the direction the Whitehouse is giving to these tech giants.  The question is, which messages are “problematic” and to whom?

When, for example, does a pro-life message become “problematic” for this or any administration?  I can argue the benefits of both sides of this argument, but the country should not be limited to just one.  I can argue the Keynesian economic model, although I don’t believe in it totally, but I can also argue the benefits of free-market, private sector solutions to our economic issues.  The point is, the American people should hear both sides of this discussion, not just one.  But, if this kind of collusion continues between one political party and the entire communications industry (big tech and the mainstream media) our Republic, as it was intended is in real jeopardy.  

The words of our Declaration of Independence will have to be changed to, “half of our people are endowed with certain inalienable rights”.  The other half are to be ignored at best or demonized at worst.

How Many Big Lies Are There

The View from the Middle

The lamestream media would like us all to believe that there is only one “Big Lie” being told in America, but even that “Big Lie” has been ill-defined and unproven.  Donald Trump continues to suggest that the 2020 election was stolen from him and many Americans are concerned that the temporary changes that many states made in their election laws in response to the pandemic led to an unusual amount of voter fraud.  Those are actually two different things.  I personally don’t know of anyone who believes that the 2020 election can be reversed, but the audits in Arizona and Georgia have already uncovered irregularities in their voting results and Pennsylvania will soon launch their audit which will give us some more data on the level of voter fraud in that state.  The Democrats have fought these audits in the courts, but I’m unsure as to why.  These audits will identify improper voting actions and will only improve voter integrity in our country.  I’m not sure what the Democrats are afraid of, but questioning some of last year’s voting practices is not a “Big Lie”.  It is simply an effort to increase voter integrity.

Washington, however, is the home of “Big Lies”.  Let me take this opportunity to remind you of just a few.  The first “Big Lie” is that Republicans are actually behind the “Defund the Police” movement because they didn’t support President Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus bill.  There was $350 billion for state and local governments in that bill that Jen Psaki said “could be used” to hire more police.  There was, however, no suggestion and certainly no mandate that this money should be used to support the police.  I believe that this money was really intended to allow liberal run cities to balance their books after years of pathetic and even criminal financial mismanagement.  Even the ultra-liberal Washington Post gave Ms. Psaki and the Biden administration three Pinocchio’s for that accusation.  

Hunter Biden alone is responsible for a mountain of “Big Lies” all by himself.  First, there’s the “Big Lie” that he actually deserved his position on the Burisma board because of his knowledge and expertise in the energy industry and his familiarity with Ukraine.  The next “Big Lie” is that his father, Joe, had no knowledge of Hunter’s business dealings in China or Ukraine.  Sure!  Then there was Hunter’s laptop that wasn’t his laptop and is now being ignored for the media.  And now we are to believe that Hunter’s art, which he blows through a straw (isn’t that how da Vinci did it?), is worth $500,000 per piece.  But, of course we can’t ask who buys his amateurish, splashes of color for those exorbitant prices.  Certainly, those buyers wouldn’t expect access to the current President of the United States, would they?  Hunter is a bundle of “Big Lies” all by himself.

Then there was the insurrection that wasn’t actually an insurrection.  The protesters weren’t even armed despite the fact that President Biden said they would need F-15’s and nuclear bombs to take over our government.  The Senate was back in session within four hours and the only person killed was an unarmed Trump supporter.  Also, a big lie within a big lie was that police officer Brian Sicknick was beat to death with a fire extinguisher by a Trump supporter. It took 30 days to confirm that officer Sicknick actually died the next day of a stroke. By that time most people couldn’t even remember who Brian Sicknick was.  A lie followed by the delay of truth.  Man, these people really know how to deceive.

All of this is just a distraction from what happened last summer as rioters tore through cities across this nation looting, destroying and killing people.  Those riots inflicted over $2 billion of damage in blue cities across the country and at least 25 people were killed including six children.  I don’t know if we should call the coverage of these riots by the lamestream media a “Big Lie” or a “Big Rationalization”, but to compare January 6^th to this is journalistic malfeasance.  

Here’s a quickie.  The lamestream media will try to tell us that there is nothing wrong with Joe Biden’s mental acuity.  The reality is that he is nearly 80 years old (he’s 78) and he is showing all the signs of his age.  He is constantly using note cards to remind him of what to say.  Even during photo-ops with Putin and during press conferences, which also reveals that he knows the questions before they are asked.  He stumbles through speeches even on the teleprompter, he often responds to reporters in inappropriate anger and what is it with this creepy whispering thing.  This is something the media should be investigating, but that is not going to happen unfortunately.

Even “The Big Lie” is a “Big Lie”.  The media continues to allow Democrat politicians to compare the new voting laws in Georgia and Texas to the Jim Crow laws that were abolished almost 60 years ago.  They, the media, allow Democrats to demonize those who support these laws as racists and bigots without offering any specific examples of how these laws suppress voters.  In both Georgia and Texas, access to the polls has actually been expanded vs pre-pandemic requirements.  Even the Washington Post gave Joe Biden four Pinocchio’s for his suggestion that Georgia’s new law suppressed voting access there.

And if you think that voter ID is the issue, you would be wrong.  A recent Rasmussen survey found that 75% of Americans are in favor of voter ID and there is almost no difference between black and white voters on this issue.  In fact, most black Americans find it insulting to suggest that they are less capable of getting a photo ID to vote.

And maybe the biggest lie of all is that Joe Biden intends to unite our country.  He continually demonizes anyone who disagrees with him.  Calling virtually half of Americans racists and bigots is easy, but not uniting.  It requires no proof and actually shuts down any discussion that might lead to compromise.  A few months ago, President Biden stooped to calling Governor Abbott of Texas a “Neanderthal” for opening up that state’s economy.  Since that time Texas has consistently outperformed almost all other states, even California and New York.  When the President apologizes to Governor Abbott, I will consider that a small glimmer of hope that he actually intends to unite this country.  Unfortunately, I think his plan looks more like “divide and conquer” than unity and prosperity.

Happy Birthday, Thomas Sowell

 The View from the Middle 

Thomas Sowell is a brilliant economist, social theorist and philosopher who you might not have heard of.  He has lived an extraordinary life, rich in experiences and formal education which has given him the material to write over 30 books.  He was born on June 30^th, 1930 (happy birthday, Thomas!) in Gastonia, North Carolina.  Unfortunately, his father died before his birth and because his mother already had four children, his great aunt along with her two grown daughters adopted and raised Thomas.  He was not born to privilege, but his challenging upbringing just added to the rich quiver of life trials and adventures that has formed his opinions.

At age nine they moved to Harlem, where he eventually qualified to attend the prestigious Stuyvesant High School in New York.  Unfortunately, at age 17 he was forced to withdraw from “the Stuy” for financial and family reasons.  But he didn’t turn to crime as a solution.  He got multiple jobs and even tried out for the Brooklyn Dodgers before he went into the Marines as a photographer.  After leaving the Marines he took night classes at Howard University and scored high enough on College Board exams to enter Harvard.

I won’t bore you with an extensive list of his awards and accomplishments, but let me highlight just a few to give you a sense of the significance of his life’s work.  He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard after dropping out of high school at age 17.  He received his master’s degree from Columbia and his doctorate from UCLA and has served as a faculty member at Cornell and UCLA.  As if that’s not enough, he’s a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.  He dabbled in Marxism in his early years, but he abandoned that notion in 1960 and his fellowship at Stanford is named after Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize winning, free market economist, whom he calls his mentor.  He has been an unapologetic capitalistic, libertarian ever since.  And, if he ran for President today, even at age 91, I would vote for him.  But sadly, he is too good for politics so we can best benefit from his wisdom by reading his books.

Thomas Sowell is not just a stone-cold genius, but he is a black man whose opinions are supported by more than his intellect and education.  He has lived through Jim Crow, discrimination, civil unrest and the civil rights movement, and those experiences along with his intelligence form his opinions.  I believe he is a “must read” when it comes to economics, of course, but also when he speaks out on race relations.  His books like “Black Rednecks and White Liberals”, “Discrimination and Disparity” and his “Controversial Essays” are plainly written, powerfully reasoned and, as always supported by mountains of documented facts.  

There are many, many areas where Dr. Sowell and I agree. For example, he is no fan of our public-school system, and of course neither am I.  When my two daughters were in school, my wife and I had the luxury of “school choice” and sent our girls to a private, Christian school.  Our girls have been long out of school, and I would not personally benefit from a voucher system today, so why am I such a rabid supporter of that concept?  It’s because I think it is the best thing for our children and our country.  It would make our public schools compete or die, and it would give millions of people more choices in the education of their children.  That’s a choice that I had and it’s a choice that I believe every family should have.

Thomas Sowell put it this way, “No group is more in favor of vouchers than blacks – and no one is more opposed to vouchers than Democrats…This doesn’t mean that Democrats are racist.  It is just that they need the support of the teachers’ unions and they are not going to get it if they vote for vouchers, whereas they can count on the votes of blacks regardless.”  It is the ugly truth of politics.  Politicians often make choices not in the best interests of their constituencies in order to get elected.

In his “Controversial Essays” he added that, “public schools are where the battle needs to be fought, but too many black leaders are too dependent on labor unions in general and teachers’ unions in particular to fight that battle.  And they are too dependent on a vision of victimhood to risk telling young blacks that they have to get their own act together too.”  I love this thought because it states the obvious to me.  While all Americans need to work together to find solutions to our national problems, young black men and women must exercise some personal responsibility to eliminate any gaps (actual or perceived) between the races. 

If you haven’t read any of his books, I encourage you to do so.  I particularly recommend one of his most recent, “Discrimination and Disparities” or his “Controversial Essays, both of which I have read.  While the latter was written back in 2002, it demonstrates how things just don’t change – the issues or the real, thoughtful solutions to those issues.  And if you have the urge to tear down some statue, somewhere, I would prefer you erect one to this exceptional man in the place of your choosing!!

It's Easy to Divide & Destroy - Hard to Unite & Build

The View from the Middle

 

Back in 2014, I revealed the dirty little secret that terrorist groups employ around the world to extend their control and power.  They have figured out that it’s easier to divide and destroy than it is to unite and build.  The Twin Towers took seven years and the labor of thousands of people to build, but it took the demented effort of just 19 fanatics to bring them down in a few short hours.  It takes nine months to knit together the trillions of cells that is a child, but it takes just a few minutes to abort that life.  When are we going to learn?

Today, our country is being bombarded by multiple empty and negative campaigns that are designed to rip us apart, but promise to deliver nothing but hate and division.  Critical Race Theory (CRT) pits blacks against whites and whites against blacks.  It, at best, ignores the great progress we have made as a nation to bring true freedom and equality of opportunity to all of our people.  At worst, it denies it.  Even Bill Maher, liberal late-night talk show host, shines light on the falsity of that thinking.

I am on record as promoting the idea that we should all know and understand every aspect of our history.  There certainly are regrets in our past, but there is also much to be proud of.  There are men and women to be ashamed of, but there are also men and women we should honor.  CRT dwells on the negative aspects of our history as they push their “rear view mirror” approach to life.  The truth is, however, that while we should be aware of the past, we must be focused on the future if we are going to continue on our path to equality of opportunity.  CRT offers no plans for unity, only hatred and division as it suggests that we walk backwards into the future.

“Intersectionality” is another negative, destructive philosophy that is now being peddled throughout our country. If you look at the chart that explains this ludicrous philosophy, you’ll see that it divides Americans into 30 different slices.  It is the absolute definition of “divide and conquer”, just ask basketball Hall of Famer, Charles Barkley.  It suggests that if you are white, you are an oppressor.  And if you are black, you are a victim (oppressed).  There are no qualifiers.  Intersectionality demands that you judge people by their skin color, sexual orientation, gender and even age, but says nothing about the content of anyone’s character. 

Try to explain this to a six-year-old.  Tell him or her that if they are white, they are an oppressor and if they are black, they are a victim.  This is a terrible message no matter what side of the chart you land on.  It thwarts the prospect for a positive outcome in the future no matter where you fall on the chart.  Intersectionality offers no plan for the future at all.  It simply splits the country into 30 warring groups, and turns both halves against each other.  It’s easy to divide.

And finally, the country has recently been plagued by the explosion of “the cancel culture” where a group of self-identified judges tries to ruin the lives of people with whom they disagree.  I thought that America was the champion of freedom of speech and thought.  Heaven forbid that anyone in this country should dare have a different opinion than these arrogant, condescending “McCarthyites”.  The real goal, however, of this pompous, self-righteous group is to avoid the debate altogether.  If they can silent everyone who disagrees with them, they believe they win the argument, but what really happens is that America loses.  

The bottom line for the cancel culture is that they contribute nothing to the future and our progress in it.  They are solely focused on the destruction of anything different.  Seek and destroy is their motto.  Eliminating interaction is their game.

When will we learn as a country and as a people?  We need to reject these programs or philosophies that demonize and divide our country while also offering no real vision of a brighter future.  We, as a country, should continue to ride the horse that brought us here, which is a great place.  It is a place where millions of people risk their lives to get to every day.  It is a place that has delivered us from the ravages of slavery to our first black President and Vice President in just the last 12 years.

It is a place where we have the freedom of speech and thought and of worship, unless we allow the frauds of CRT, Intersectionality and the cancel culture to strip us of those fundamental rights.  It is the battle of ideas, not the stifling of them, that will deliver better solutions for us than any one sided, one party system ever could.  We can and should unite around our founding documents, like The Constitution and The Declaration of Independence, and our founding principles of liberty, equality of opportunity and faith in God.  That is what will unite our country and deliver us to that brighter tomorrow that we should all be striving to build together.