E-Newsletter No. 58 ___ October 2018
In last month’s newsletter, we discussed the fallacies of Socialism. The Left continues to fail to learn from history regarding Socialism, and there are many other instances where the Left has rejected the fundamental concepts behind our country’s founding. The Left continues to deny the reasons why those ideas and concepts are the reasons why America continues to be a great country.
In some of our earlier newsletters, we have discussed the Left’s attacks on Free Speech and the First Amendment. The most troubling examples of these attacks occur on our college campuses. These attacks are oftentimes perpetrated by the members of the Radical Leftist group, Antifa, who refuse to allow the dissemination of alternative (conservative) points of view, which oftentimes contradict the Left’s narrative and the “progressive” agenda that they attempt to advance.
The First Amendment also states that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. Thankfully, earlier this year, the Supreme Court ruled that the state of Colorado could not force a Christian baker to provide a wedding cake for a same-sex wedding. This ruling was important because the Colorado law was written to coerce citizens to comply with one of the key planks of the Left’s agenda. The ruling simply confirmed the exact words of the Constitution as it was written – – the baker was free to exercise his religious beliefs.
One of the key tenets of Marxism is atheism. (“Religion is the opium of the people”). Communists do not believe in God. This is an obvious rejection of our country’s official motto, which was adopted in 1956 and appears on every coin and dollar bill – – “In God We Trust”. Another example of the Left’s attacks on religious liberty is the ongoing attempt to remove the words “under God” from our Pledge of Allegiance. One of the best examples of this attack was the attempt to eliminate a reference to God from the Democratic party’s 2012 platform. Only after three votes from the floor on a proposed amendment was the phrase “God-given potential” re-inserted into the party’s platform. What is most troubling about this incident is that when the convention’s chairman announced that “The ayes have it” (after the third vote) loud boos erupted within the arena. (https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/democrats-rapidly-revise-platform-include-god/story?id=17164108 ).
The Left’s attacks on the Second Amendment are well documented. Any school shooting is obviously and undeniably an extremely tragic event. The members of our Editorial Board also believe that 650 homicides in the city of Chicago during 2017 (down from 771 during 2016) represent an ongoing series of tragic events. But here are some inconvenient truths – – there has been (and will probably always continue to be) evil in the world; guns do not kill people – people kill people; putting yet another gun control law on the books will NEVER stop the next incident of murder; and banning “assault rifles” will NEVER stop the next murder. Earlier this year, the school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas, was carried out by the perpetrator who used a shotgun and two pistols. The Columbine school shooting in 1999 was also perpetrated without the use of an “assault rifle”.
The Radical Left’s real agenda (and their erroneous belief) is that in order to reduce gun violence, the government needs to ban and confiscate all firearms. But unfortunately, this line of thinking is fatally flawed. While it is true that such a law could serve to prevent a law-abiding citizen from being able to defend him-/herself, such a ban would NEVER be able to guarantee that a criminal / murderer would ever follow such a law. There is only one sure-fire way to reduce the number of incidents of school shootings, and that is to implement the same type of screening at our schools that is used at other public places (such as at sporting events, concerts, our airports, the US Senate and House of Representatives buildings in Washington DC, etc.). In addition, an armed presence within our schools would serve as a deterrent (but not a guarantee) against future school shootings. Such an approach towards school safety has proven to be effective in Israel.
The Left has betrayed the US Constitution and continues to show contempt for border security and our country’s immigration laws. The concept of a “sanctuary city” is a direct, fundamental violation of Article VI of the US Constitution, which states “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States… shall be the Supreme Law of the Land.” We find it very interesting that the Left generally wants to increase the size and power (and coerciveness) of the federal government, except in those instances where existing federal laws run afoul of their agenda.
The most troubling aspect of the immigration issue is that many elements of the Left support open borders and unrestricted immigration. They also want to implement an increase in the minimum wage to $15 per hour. With the minimum wage in Mexico being set at 88.36 pesos per hour (approximately $4.25) what “unintended consequences” would you expect to happen? Guatemala’s minimum wage is even less. Any rational person should anticipate that a flood of immigrants would arrive in our country through our open borders to compete for these “entry level” jobs. But unfortunately, a minimum wage of $15 per hour would severely reduce the number and availability of ANY entry level job, and this would only serve to keep many of our country’s legal citizens trapped in poverty and sitting on the sidelines.
Our Editorial Board supports the concept of private-sector unions and the rights of workers to voluntarily join together to negotiate with their employer regarding compensation and working conditions. Many of the goals of these private-sector labor unions have been achieved and codified into law (which is one of the reasons why private-sector union membership has steadily declined since the 1950s). However, we oppose the concept of public sector unions. Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) was one of the most pro-union presidents in American history, and yet he was strongly opposed to government employee labor unions. (You can read his August 16, 1937 letter here ). FDR knew these unions were fundamentally different from private-sector unions and that there is a fundamental conflict of interest between these unions and the governmental units where these union members work. By their very nature, public-sector unions are “pay-to-play” politics at its worst. These unions take taxpayer-funded union dues and funnel them back to career politicians. One of the worst outcomes of this closed-loop system is that the members of these unions have been able to obtain (coerce) compensation and pension benefits that are much more generous than anything seen in the private sector for similar types of service.
Fortunately, earlier this year, the US Supreme Court took a major step forward in its decision in Janus vs. AFSCME to limit the power of these public-sector unions. Prior to this ruling, a number of states allowed the situation where a non-union member (as a condition of their employment) was forced to pay an “agency fee” to a union whose views they might oppose. The forced payment of these fees was deemed to be a violation of these workers’ rights to free speech and free association under the First Amendment.
Another of our country’s mottos “e pluribus unum” (“From Many, One”) is also under attack by the Left. In our Editorial Board’s review of the Democratic Party’s 2016 platform ( see http://www.f2ppr.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/The-2016-Democratic-Party-Platform.pdf ) we noted that the Democratic party’s platform is extremely divisive. The Left’s platform was merely a collection of promises being made to a number of special interest groups. The only common principle was the party’s desire to give a special favor to each subsegment of our country’s citizens. But probably the most egregious example of hypocrisy about our country’s motto was Representative Joe Kennedy’s response to the 2018 Sate of the Union address. Mr. Kennedy evoked the motto in his speech, and yet he also spoke several sentences in Spanish. A large portion of our country’s citizens were excluded from understanding whatever point he was conveying to the Dreamers. What is most troublesome is the Left’s refusal to support a proposed piece of legislation to make English the official language of our country. The fact of the matter is… If we can’t talk to each other, we will never be One. Our Editorial Board believes it should be a requirement that each and every immigrant possess a rudimentary level of English language skills, so that they can pass the US Citizenship test (in English) which will ultimately help them assimilate to life in our country. If we do not embrace English as our official language, we will continue to further Balkanize our country.
As Dennis Prager noted in his video on the difference between the Left and the Right (see https://www.prageru.com/courses/left-and-right-differences/how-big-should-government-be-left-vs-right-1) the Left fears Big Business and the Right fears Big Government. Coca Cola cannot break into your house or confiscate your wealth, or build concentration camps, or commit genocide – – only Big Governments can do that. The Left does not like Big Business, but more specifically, they are envious of successful individuals who are employed by Big Businesses. What the Left really fears is the advancement of conservative values and capitalism. The Left appears to be motivated more by envy of the rich than by compassion for the poor. The Left’s fear of Big Business is misguided, because we have never seen a single instance where a corporation has been able to cast a vote at the ballot box in any of our elections. What the Left really opposes is the “undue influence” of Big Business, and we agree – – we strongly oppose crony capitalism. Crony capitalism is a violation of “Favoritism to None.” The federal government should not provide any special favors to Hollywood producers, or a “green energy” company, or ANY special interest industry. We agree that the federal government has an important role to play in protecting our environment and our country’s citizens, but the government should never show favoritism to any special interest group or corporation, or attempt to “socially engineer” our country’s citizens.
And lastly… Many conservatives feel that one of the most menacing aspects of the Radical Left’s agenda is (in effect) a clandestine, undeclared war against the most fundamental building block of a stable society – – the family. Please see the Preamble of the Platform for The Party of Personal Freedom (http://www.f2ppr.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/The-Party-of-Personal-Freedom.pdf ).
US Debt Clock – – September 1st – $65,320 per citizen / October 1st – $65,444