“Is it going to be Joe Biden or Donald Trump. I mean, think about the cancel culture mob [that] says that if you stand for the pledge now, you stand for the anthem, somehow you’re terrible,” Jordan said.

[…]

“The fundamental question, I think, for the American people is who do you think can stand up to the mob? Joe Biden or President Trump? That is really what this election now in my mind all boils down to,” Jordan said.

“Where does it end? Where does it stop? No one is safe with the mob and that’s why it is so important that we stand up now before this gets even more out of control. Stand up and say it is wrong, it should not happen, this politically correct cancel culture left-wing mob is exactly wrong for this country and this election is when we can stand up and say ‘we’re not going to tolerate it.'” //

Rep. Jim Jordan
@Jim_Jordan
America's choice is clear:

Mob Rule or Law & Order

Philip Wegmann
@PhilipWegmann
What changed? Sanders said Mt. Rushmore made him proud to be an American in 2016, and CNN seemed to agree. Now people want to blast the presidents off the mountain.

I have a few theories about what made my article about being a Democrat who went to a Trump rally go massively viral. Perhaps it was the… //

But what was so refreshing was that there was very little talk about race or gender or orientation or anything that would indicate a collectivist mindset. People viewed each other as individuals and engaged in discussions of ideas.
In theory, I knew this would be the case, but experiencing it in practice was different. You must understand that right now in the land of the Democrats, EVERYTHING is about identity politics. Every. Single. Thing. And race is at the top of the list. If you’re white, no matter what you say or what you do, you are expected to be contrite in your inherent racism and continually re-affirm your shame in how you were born. It does not matter if you grew up poor, or how you’ve struggled, or any hardships you’ve had to overcome. All that matters is the color of your skin. Or your gender. Or your orientation. Or your ableness. It is exhausting to have to live in a constant state of self-deprecating purity and to perceive everything in your experience as a struggle between those who have power and those who are “oppressed.”
It wasn’t like that at CPAC. People didn’t see others as a race, or a gender, or an orientation, or a disability. They saw each other as people who were fully capable of stepping into their greatness without a handout. And some of the standouts at the whole event were those who the woke left would call “marginalized.” //

But perhaps one of the most striking things about my CPAC experience was the emphasis on individual liberties and privacy. This was a major theme that was consistent across the majority of the talks I attended. //

as I sat at CPAC and listened to all their talks about individual liberties and freedoms, it dawned on me that, although there are many things we differ on, I had been looking towards the wrong group of people to protect the things I care about the most.
Attacks on civil liberties are not coming from the right — they just want the government to get out of their business. The attacks are coming from the left. They’re coming from people who have convinced themselves that “words are violence.” They’re coming from people who are seeking to ban so-called “hate speech,” as if the speech that everyone agrees on ever needs to be protected. They’re coming from the social media giants who continue to ban conservatives for absurdly minor things while allowing progressives to harass and bully them with no repercussions. They’re coming from far-left groups like Antifa, who think that violence against your political opponents is always justified.
The conservatives I met at CPAC don’t care what the color of your skin is — they care about the content of your character. They don’t care who you love, or how you worshipped, or what you have between your legs. They believe in self-sufficiency and empowerment and about not paying taxes to support your lifestyle (but in return, they won’t ask you to pay taxes to support theirs). And they may not agree with everything you say, but they will defend your right to say it. //

Don’t worry, I’m not running right out to join the Republican party. I just escaped the grasp of the Democrats and am perfectly happy sitting in the land of the politically homeless for a while. But if I end up needing to choose between liberty and authoritarianism, I know exactly where to go.

Why do some critics fear Americans can’t safely engage in the election process amid COVID-19 when Liberia was able to do it successfully despite Ebola?

James Madison hated fighting in the world of public opinion and parties until he was left with no other choice. //

There are no roads in the American journey that we have not passed by before, and this time the subject of use is James Madison. During the Constitutional Convention and the ratification process, Madison believed that the structure of the document and new government it framed would be strong enough to protect against public opinion, party, or faction.

So diffused was the representation he thought, and so limiting of power the checks and balances that no one interested party or set of interested parties would be able to steer the ship of the state alone. But by the early 1790s, Madison found himself in Congress as the leader of the opposition to the Washington administration and the Alexander Hamilton-led Federalists. The mercantile class, in Madison’s view was running roughshod over the agrarian South and he believed violating the constitution.

It is at this point that Madison makes an astounding reversal. Suddenly he needed public opinion. Furthermore, the founder who most detested political parties was about to found one with Thomas Jefferson. What Madison learned was that no system, regardless of how magisterial, could on its own secure the freedom and liberty of its citizens. The best it can do is to offer a fair marketplace of ideas.

Conservatives need to ponder and understand this Madisonian moment. The fault of Frenchism is that it relies upon the structure of the Constitution, just as Madison had, to protect against government overreach. But it does so at a time when the marketplace of ideas is shrinking into a progressive media culture that brooks no opposition. The Constitution is a backstop, but it does not in and of itself create the common good, it leaves that to us.

Conservatives must demand to be part of the conversation about drag queens preforming for toddlers, or kids being taught they are inherently racist. We have to be loud when addressing those who would censor newspapers or defund websites. A robust and effective conservative movement founded on the reverence of Western values cannot be achieved by treating the Constitution as the Alamo, just waiting to get wiped out. //

It’s time to stop playing defense. Like Madison, we must open our eyes to the fact that politics is inherently about power, not just resisting power, but also asserting it. If we go too far, let the other side rely on the courts and the constitution for a little while.

Madison would go on to become president, but perhaps more importantly his Democratic-Republican Party would as the name suggests eventually branch into both of our modern parties. He knew when to fight. That is a lesson the right is badly in need of today.

How many passengers unknowingly seeded outbreaks? //

The LA County Department of Public Health wasn’t able to provide any documentation showing that procedures that would save lives were followed and couldn’t provide any. That’s standard operating procedure at this point.

Whatever shall we do without them //

This is all shocking and stunning to me. That the Vichy wing of the Republican party would vote for a Democrat is quite possibly the most shocking thing I’ve heard since some tried to convince me that Pope Francis was supposed to be Catholic.

I can’t speak for anyone else, but I think it is clear that the populist impulse birthed in the Tea Party movement of 2010 that ultimately elected Trump in 2016 is a direct result of the actions of men like Powell, and both Bushes, and McCain, and Romney. These were people who never really cared about working men and women and who owed their primary allegiance to the moneyed and the powerful. I never expected any of these people, who, at least on the national political stage, epitomize the happy losers who’ve allowed the left to utterly corrupt this country; people who, to paraphrase someone famous, love the “salutations in the marketplace,” and care much, much more about the invitations to the right parties and the praise of the New York Times editorial page for being reasonable than they do for the direction of the nation, to vote for President Trump. They look at Trump’s personality and they look at his supporters, many of whom shop at ::gasp ::shudder WalMart, and can’t imagine making common cause.

There is a lot about Trump’s persona that I don’t like. I wouldn’t want my son to grow up to be like him, apart from being wealthy and marrying a supermodel who seems to be a class act as a person…though I’d want him to limit the whole marriage thing to once. But President Trump has done more to restore credibility to the GOP and to move conservatism forward in less than four years that George Bush, a man I generally admire, did in eight. Bush could’ve defunded Planned Parenthood. Bush could’ve controlled illegal immigration. Bush could’ve reined in the EPA. Bush could’ve acted to remove the regulatory burden from the US economy. Trump will never deliberately throw an election the way that John McCain and Mitt Romney did for fear of being called bad names. He may not always win but he doesn’t go away quietly and winning is important to him. //

I don’t care what Cindy McCain or George Bush or Colin Powell or Mitt Romney do because I don’t give a good damn for their advice or opinions because I know they don’t give a damn for me and my family and they really don’t care what America looks like so long as they get the accolades of the ‘right’ people. They don’t see me as a free-born citizen who votes for people to represent my values. They see me as some kind of a serf voting for someone better than me to lead and instruct me. That isn’t how it works. It isn’t how it has ever worked with Americans.

What we’re seeing under Trump, especially if he is reelected, is the last gasp of the old order. The end of the time when the powerful partied and vacationed together and their political battles were little more that choreographed WWE matches for the rubes in the backcountry. The fact that these people are refusing to vote for Trump says in the way that no Trump campaign video ever can that Trump has delivered on his promises and the powers of the status quo are terrified of what a second Trump administration will do to their cozy little deal.

Instagram is claiming a children's book about a girl transporting back in time to learn about the history of women's suffrage might influence an election.

Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Ganzt ended a 17-month struggle for the leadership of Israel on Monday by making an unexpected political compromise. They are now both at the head of the Israeli state.

In a response to the threat of COVID-19, the two rivals have agreed to create a joint government in an effort to lead the nation through the crisis, avoiding a fourth round of elections that would have been likely to continue a yeah and a half of political gridlock. With that possibility out of the way—for better or worse—Israel now has a clearer path forward.

Netayahu will serve as chief prime minister while Ganzt joins him in the office as vice prime minister. Per the terms of the agreement, Netayahu will serve another 18 months as prime minister, after which Ganzt will assume full command of the office.
“I am at peace with myself and at peace with my decision,” Ganzt said. “Israel needs a national emergency government. And Israel comes before all else.”

As reported by the Epoch Times, a Harris Poll that was released on Wednesday showed that a whopping 77 percent of Americans are ready to point the finger at China for the situation the globe currently finds itself in, regardless of party:

A survey from Harris Poll on Wednesday shows that 77 percent of Americans nationally blame the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for the spread of the virus.

The belief was echoed across the political spectrum (pdf), with 67 percent of Democrats, 75 percent of independents, and 90 percent of Republicans attributing the CCP virus to the Chinese regime.

What’s more, it would appear that an overwhelming majority believe it’s time to pull our industry from China and get tougher on trade:

Another 71 percent said Americans companies should pull back from manufacturing their products in China, 69 percent said they believe President Donald Trump should persist in his tough trade stance against the regime, and 54 percent said the CCP needs to pay reparations to other countries due to the pandemic.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi insisted that any relief bill include a left-wing wish list unrelated to the pandemic and the economic slowdown it’s causing. //

Pelosi succeeded in delaying the relief package by several days, but she failed to capitalize on what her No. 2 lieutenant, Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., called a “tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision.” //

Even before this relief package becomes law, politicians on both sides of the aisle were already calling for another one to follow, so expect Pelosi and the progressives to try again to make the wishes on their wish list come true.

Bad at math

Luther Lee and four other ministers of the Methodist Episcopal Church left that denomination in 1843 because of their opposition to slavery to form the Wesleyan Methodist Connection. I was reminded that, as Wesleyans and as Houghton College, we are part of a tradition of Christians who believed that the Gospel of Jesus Christ ought to shape not only our personal morality but our politics. Unlike today, when research would suggest that politics shapes religious preferences in our society (See, for example, Robert Putnam, American Grace, 2010) rather than the other way around, Luther Lee and his colleagues believed that the Gospel shakes up our world as well as our personal lives. //

Houghton College was born out of this tradition. Willard J. Houghton, in 1883, founded an educational institution to prepare bold Christians whose transformation by the Holy Spirit gave them a passion to “fix up the world.” There was for him no divide between a “personal” and “social” Gospel.

I invite you today, as alumni and friends of Houghton College, to live up to the calling of our heritage in the Wesleyan Methodist tradition and, above all, to live up to the bold, adventurous and sometimes risky calling of the Gospel.

For 187 years, the United States had only one president face impeachment. Since 1974, three have. This is a disturbing and dangerous trajectory.

For the first 187 years of American history, exactly one president, Andrew Johnson in the 1860s, faced impeachment. In the last 45 years, three presidents have: Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, and now Donald Trump. Put another way, only one of the first 36 presidents had impeachment brought against him, but three of the last nine have. What has traditionally been an extreme and extremely rare tool for emergencies has turned into a process one out of every three chief executives has faced.

This is a wildly dangerous trajectory for the country. Since the founding of America, no other nation on earth has had such a successful record of transferring executive power through free and fair elections. With the exception of Nixon’s resignation, the only other exceptions occurred when presidents died in office. The normalization of impeachment threatens that record by making the process an extra electoral means of choosing the president. //

This troubling trend showcases the dysfunction of our federal government in recent decades. Consider that from 1787 to 1992 the Constitution was amended 27 times, or roughly every seven years. Since 1992 there have been no successful amendments. For most of American history, Congress was able to conduct its positive duty of amendment often, but almost never its most negative one, impeachment. Now the exact opposite is true. //

The best possible outcome for this impeachment is that Trump is quickly acquitted and Democrats pay a political price for it. That may well happen. After all, Clinton saw a spike in popularity after his impeachment. But even a stern rebuke by the voters may not be enough to stem this modern passion to impeach. As party bases take more power from the cooler, calmer establishment types on both sides, angry calls for impeachment are likely to become more, not less, likely.

The United States is a republic, not a democracy, but democratic and electoral principles and processes are the foundation of that republic. Are we to become a nation that chooses its leaders through partisan trials instead of elections? It is hard to imagine a future that takes us farther away from the goals of the founders.

The message of the Nativity is simple and has nothing to do with your political cause //

Jesus was not homeless. He was born in a manger because his parents arrived in a Bethlehem in the midst of an influx of people there to register for the census. There were no rooms to be had. It was the manager or nothing. The Holy Family had a home in Nazareth. //

A birth cohort is not “membership in a particular social group.” They Holy Family was a refugee in exactly the same way that anyone today on the run from state authorities would be called a refugee. The move from one region of the Roman Empire to another is not even remotely similar to that of a modern refugee. At a stretch, He could be classed as an internally displaced person, with an emphasis on the singular form of “person” because there were no others similarly situated. The period of time in which the Holy Family was away from Nazareth was fairly short. Herod the Great died no more than a year or two after the birth of Christ and then the family returned home. By age 12, we know the Holy Family was traveling openly to Jerusalem for Passover pilgrimage (again, not a mark of a family in poverty).

The truth here is very simple. Christ is not a metaphor for whatever political cause you are flogging. The Nativity is not a primarily a reminder of illegal immigrants or the poor or the social justice cause you are pushing. The Nativity is the a demonstration of God’s love for the world and his desire that we all be saved, for as Saint John, the disciple whom Christ loved, wrote,

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. 18 He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God.

It is really that simple.

It is increasingly likely that the New Hampshire community is now too small to meet the legal threshold to be a polling place. That probably won’t change in the weeks leading up to the first-in-the-nation primary.

This is the humor we need //

Tomorrow I am launching a “No Tomfoolery” bus tour across Iowa to see the state and ensure there is no tomfoolery taking place. pic.twitter.com/hdk1nHtbX7

— Retired Orrin G. Hatch (@RetiredOrrin) December 3, 2019

On Wednesday we will kick off our “No Folderol” seniors parade float, which will slowly drive across Iowa to stamp out any and all illicit folderol and fiddle dee dee. pic.twitter.com/GMvO0AJoLE

— Retired Orrin G. Hatch (@RetiredOrrin) December 3, 2019

On Thursday I am thrilled to announce the launch of our “No Poppycock” horse-drawn carriage excursion, which will trot around Iowa in search of poppycock to eliminate with extreme prejudice.

Poppycock does not stand a chance against us. pic.twitter.com/jMD4h5V8Mr

— Retired Orrin G. Hatch (@RetiredOrrin) December 3, 2019

Starting next Sunday we are taking our talents back on the road for a bacon-themed “No Hogwash” tour.

As we eat the finest bacon across the country we will celebrate the end of hog (wash). pic.twitter.com/sBJw5kPdYm

— Retired Orrin G. Hatch (@RetiredOrrin) December 3, 2019

Beast mode

Bush and Trump also stopped providing the bar association with the names of individuals being considered for nomination. That way, it renders its opinion on potential judges at the same time as everyone else—after nomination.

It’s reasonable to infer that if the ABA’s “not qualified” rating matters, then so does its “well qualified” rating. Well, tell that to Senate Democrats.

This year alone, the Senate has confirmed 13 of Trump’s appeals court nominees, nine of them with “well qualified” bar association ratings. Those nominees, the ones with the highest ratings, received an average of 42 Senate votes against confirmation.

VanDyke’s treatment shows how much the ABA has changed. The lead evaluator contributed to VanDyke’s opponent in a race for the Montana Supreme Court. The letter about his “not qualified” rating painted a disparaging picture, based solely on unidentified “assessments of interviewees” and unattributed “comments.”

That’s exactly what Blumenthal, now a senator, had criticized in 2006 and what actually brought VanDyke to tears during his confirmation hearing on Wednesday.

The Hill ✔@thehill

"It is a fundamental belief of mine that all people are created in the image of God, and they should all be treated with dignity and respect."

WATCH: Judicial nominee Lawrence VanDyke breaks down amid question about attitude towards LGBT people http://hill.cm/RFbQkqm

The American Bar Association long ago gave away its claim to be a nonpolitical association focused on the legal profession. That reputation is not coming back. Nor is any compelling reason to take its ratings seriously.

“.@TulsiGabbard shows off her fighting skills. https://t.co/5xhy2wkU1b”