Daily Archives: September 24, 2021

Reeling from Barack Obamas reelection in 2012, the Republican Party published an autopsy report at the request of then-chairman Reince Priebus. In corporate pastels, the document recommended Republicans moderate on social issues in order to be more welcoming and inclusive. Then came Donald Trump. Then came 2020.

In retrospect, the autopsys contention that Republicans needed to rebrand as the Growth and Opportunity Party is quite funny. If you were paying attention, it was quite funny then too.

Consider the arc of conservative youth group Turning Point USA, which used to intentionally identify its focus as fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government, lead by a young Objectivist fan of Ayn Rand. Now the group holds Culture War events that would make Rand cringe.

Why? I think my friend Inez Stepman put it perfectly during a recent podcast. The culture war is the big tent, she said. This inverts the GOPs donor-approved conventional wisdom, but it is absolutely true.

Again, if you were watching our culture closely ten years ago (see: Angelo Codevilla), you understood this long before the Trump era. Slower learners needed the Trump moment to see this more clearly. Its also true that Democrats wild reaction to Trump pushed them even further left on cultural issues, which made the state of affairs even more obvious.

Watch this video of a woman tearing obscene OkCupid ads off the walls of a subway car as it careens through New York City. As of this writing, I do not know who the woman is. The video could be staged, but theres no clear reason or evidence of that at this point. It appears authentic.

This is propaganda, the woman says. Its never going to go away until we the people say we dont want this anymore, she adds later, having recruited a couple other passengers to help tear the ads down.

Nonpartisan parents around the country are resisting the excesses of LGBT ideology and critical race theory. The issue transcends the narrow borders of identity politics. I still think the realignment will ultimately prove impossible, but its quite clear that theres political capital to be gained by Republicans leaning into the culture war. The left pushed too far, too fast, and Democrats are now under the thumb of cultural radicals in politics and media, left to defend and promote an ideology that offends most of the country.

Look at the results of this recentpoll from the Minneapolis Star Tribune. There is little support for reducing the size of the citys police force. Youd likely find that opposition to such measures actually animates voters as well.

Democrats are out of step with the public on many high-profile questions, some of which they cant ignore because the party establishment is culturally radicalized and demands they actively promote far-left priorities. Republicans who find that socialism polls poorly in the suburbs should recognize those results dont speak to fears about the national debt. The label has a cultural connotation about creeping radicalism that cant be tapped into with platitudes about free markets.

Not all culture war issues are politically expedient (although that doesnt mean conservatives should budge on them). But contra the 2012 autopsy, standing against the excesses of cultural leftism and actually fighting back will bring voters into the GOP, not repel them. More importantly, of course, its a moral imperative with urgent stakes.

The rest is here:

The Culture War Is The Big Tent - The Federalist

Upon New York Gov. Andrew Cuomos resignation after a bombshell sexual harassment report, there was palpable applause in the conservative world. It was time for the emperor to renounce his throne. But in Cuomos place has emerged a figure no more appealing.

Former Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who joined Cuomos team in 2014, is already pushing boundaries that ought to gall those concerned with their rights and the common good. Corporate media outlets may have referred to the Buffalo native as a centrist Democrat, but anyone paying attention right now might think otherwise.

Like other Democrat leaders, including President Joe Biden, Hochul has joined the bandwagon to compel Americans into COVID vaccination. This week, a federal judge extended a block on Hochuls August order requiring all health-care workers to get vaccinated by Sept. 27 or else be fired. The block will remain in effect until Oct. 12 and comes on the heels of state employees, with legal aid from the Thomas More Society, suing New York over the lack of religious exemptions in Hochuls overbearing order.

What New York is attempting to do is slam shut an escape hatch from an unconstitutional vaccine mandate, attorney Christopher Ferrara of the Thomas More Society said, further arguing that the plaintiffs are not anti-vaccine as much as seeking to retain their constitutional rights.

Preliminary data indicates Americans are dissatisfied with attempts by the government to force them to get COVID shots. According to a recent Convention of States Action and Trafalgar Group poll, only about 30 percent of people think the White House can do so. Worse for Hochul, the poll indicated just over 56 percent of Americans support attempts by state governors to oppose the vaccine requirement. (Another win for Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis).

Robert C. Cahaly, chief pollster at Trafalgar Group, told me the data shows people are not willing to let COVID dictate their lives anymore.

Look at college crowds in red and blue states, see the traffic on the roads, or just go to Home Depot on a Saturday morning. People are telling us that COVID is in their rearview mirror and they would like for the government to respect their choices in the matter, Cahaly said.

Hochul doesnt seem to get the message, though. Its no wonder the governor said in August she desires the legal clearance to mandate all charter and public school employees get tested, while claiming she would mandate it given the opportunity.

Keep in mind, this is the same official whose administration has been accused by lawmakers of rejecting local governments vaccination plans and prolonging dosage plans back in January. Hochul tried to rationalize this failure in a recent briefing, noting, There is a role for state government [and] a role for local government. This is ruling class hierarchy at play.

After the Supreme Court ruled Bidens eviction moratorium unconstitutional, Hochul signed into law an extended moratorium on COVID-related evictions in effect until Jan. 15, 2022. Landlords already struggling to collect rent as New Yorkers flee the state will be further burdened by the moratorium.

New York Citys largest landlord group, the Rent Stabilization Association, is suing Hochul and claims the unsworn hardship declaration tenants would sign to avoid rent will go unvetted since residents wont need to provide any documentation of the hardship. As The New York Daily News reported, the states moratorium program has continued to deal with glitches and only a small portion of the more than $2 billion program is being allocated to landlords.

Joe Borelli, a Republican New York City Councilman, told me he thinks Hochuls administration is hurting working-class New Yorkers by freezing evictions.

Democrats have a misguided belief that every landlord owns a skyscraper, but unfortunately the people who will get crushed the most by this are small mom-and-pop landlords and two-family homeowners, Borelli said. They have decided to arbitrarily suspend the concept of a contract for some backwards political gain.

Hochuls office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The supposed centrist is assuming office at a time Democrat governors are increasingly expanding the scope of government and backing further coronavirus restrictions after lockdowns led to social and economic devastation. Mask mandates have trickled back in several blue states, including in schools.

Borelli is appalled by Hochuls COVID leadership thus far and calls it Kafkaesque that further mandates are on the table after all this time.

Its just unclear to anyone observing how despite our lower numbers, an effective vaccine, and successful treatments, the mandates and restrictions only seem to be getting worse, the councilman said.

In her short time in office, Hochul keeps reinforcing the power of the COVID hierarchy. Her administration represents not a break with Cuomo, but its indefinite extension.

The rest is here:

Andrew Cuomo's Replacement Is Just As Feckless As He Was - The Federalist

In the time it took you to click on the link to this piece and finish reading this sentence, youd already be dead. 15 seconds. Thats how long Israelis living Gaza border towns have to get themselves, their infants, their spouses, their elderly parents, out of the shower, the bedroom, the bar, or the supermarket, and into the shelter. 15 seconds.

Its longer, but not by much, for Israelis living farther away from Gaza I put farther in quotation marks because most people dont realize how tiny Israel really is. At its narrowest point, the width of the country is a mere 9 miles. Its roughly the size of New Jersey. You could drive from the North to the South in less than a day. And walking, you could cross the country in 3 hours. So Israelis living farther from Gaza might have, lets say, 60 seconds to grab their children and run to the nearest shelter.

They wouldnt have time to grab diapers, snacks, or drinks, so the enterprising among them will have packed a go-bag and left it by the door. If Im making it sound like Israeli civilians live in war zone, its because they sometimes do.

Much of this anguish has been mitigated by the Iron Dome air defense missile system. The Iron Dome is a defensive system that counters incoming rocket fire. When Hamas which the U.S. designated as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997 fires thousands of rockets at metropolitan areas with the goal of killing and maiming innocent men, women, and children, the Iron Dome detects and intercepts those rockets. In other words: it is often the one thing standing between terrorists and their would-be victims.

President Biden signaled his commitment to replenishing Israels Iron Dome batteries (which are much-depleted thanks to Hamass ceaseless rocket barrage this past May) both during the latest round of fighting and again, just last month, during his meeting with Prime Minister Naftali Bennet.

But this week, his own party stripped $1 billion from their funding bill which had previously been earmarked for the Iron Dome. It didnt matter that Biden had promised the Israelis his help. It didnt matter that Democrats have long proclaimed support for the State of Israel and for Israels right to defend itself. It didnt matter that the Iron Dome has exactly zero offensive capabilities. What mattered is that the progressive wing of the Democratic party has claimed complete control. Gone are the days of Pelosi ruling her party with an iron fist.

Theres a lot hippy-dippy peace and security for both sides language that the left typically employs. This Iron Dome funding is a good litmus test that proves that for the leftist Squad and their ilk, a lot of that is pure and complete fabrication. People who want peace and security for all peoples would have no issue funding a defensive missile system. But in the end, their problem with Iron Dome isnt that its defensive its that its defending Jews.

But despite their machinations, the funding passed its first hurdle Thursday, with the help of Congressional Republicans. The House voted overwhelmingly (420 in favor, 9 opposed) to replenish the Iron Dome missiles. This is great short-term news because it means Israel will have no trouble restocking the system with the batteries needed to intercept Hamass rockets. But it cures nothing in the long term.

Progressives have once again proven that they can hold the Democratic Party hostage. And despite the fallout from the original vote, nine members of Congress voted against saving the lives of Israeli civilians. Those people are: Cori Bush, Andre Carson, Jesus Garcia, Raul Grijalva, Thomas Massie, Marie Newman, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib.

Remember those names. When people tell you who they are, believe them. These nine members have told us in no uncertain terms that they do not want innocent men, women, and children to have anything standing in between them and destruction.

Its worth mentioning that there was actually one surprise today. Absent from the aforementioned list is Rep. Alexandria Oscasio-Cortez. Though she was widely expected to vote against (and had reportedly been instrumental in getting the original funding provision stripped) AOC voted present, and made a big show of sobbing in a near-hysterical fashion. The idea of Jewish civilians being in fewer life-threatening situations is apparently deeply triggering. Again: when people tell you who they are, when they shout it from the rooftops, believe them.

See the original post here:

The Squad Tries To Shoot Down Israel's 'Iron Dome' Defense System - The Federalist

The Biden administration and the corporate medias lies about the border are collapsing and neither institution is prepared to do damage control.

While the White House frantically repeats lies about the administrations handling of the border including that officials are expelling migrants under Title 42, even though federal authorities are releasing thousands of illegal aliens into the U.S. even Politico admits that Everyones mad at Biden over migration.

For months, Republicans have called out the Biden administrations incompetence at the border. Just this week, 26 Republican governors begged Biden to take action to protect America, restore security, and end the crisis now. But even more telling than the GOPs cries for action is the lack of approval from U.S. adults on President Joe Bidens immigration policy. In a mid-September Reuters/Ipsos poll, only 38 percent of those surveyed said they approved of Bidens handling of the border crisis his administration created and exacerbated.

While the White House does damage control and tries to win back public approval points by claiming that the administration is using Title 42 to deal with an influx of illegal aliens in Del Rio, Texas, its also fighting off the increasingly progressive sect of congressional Democrats who are demanding the administration immediately put a stop to deportations.

Right now, Im told there are four flights scheduled to deport these asylum-seekers back to a country that cannot receive them. Such a decision defies common sense. It also defies common decency and what America is all about, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told his congressional colleagues on Tuesday.

Schumer did not hold back any criticism from the administration for keeping what he called a hateful and xenophobic product of former President Donald Trump.

Even Bidens corporate media allies who go to great lengths to cover up his other failures are noting the White Houses inability to fully address the humanitarian and political sides of this crisis. MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle condemned Vice President Kamala Harris, who Biden appointed to address the root cause of illegal migration to the U.S., this week for ignoring the mounting problems in Del Rio.

How about the message from our vice president, where is she? She was supposed to be in charge of all of these migration issues, going to those Northern Triangle countries thats obviously not Haiti, that was one of her first international trips with the message do not come here illegally, Ruhle said on MSNBC. People arent listening. What is she saying now?

Similarly, CNNs anchor Brianna Keilar pressed Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on why he is still refusing to call the months-long struggle at the Southern border a crisis.

This is really this is something we havent seen before. A this camp inside of the United States, with thousands of people, what is the reticence to call something that is so clearly a crisis a crisis? Keilar asked.

I call it a heartbreaking situation, a tremendous challenge, Mayorkas said.

Jordan Davidson is a staff writer at The Federalist. She graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism.

See the article here:

The White House And Media's Border Lies Are Collapsing Live On TV - The Federalist