Category Archives: Liberal

A liberal group has lodged a complaint against Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt, alleging he violated federal lobbying laws in the run-up to President Trumps decision to pull out of the Paris climate deal.

The American Democracy Legal Fund (ADLF) is asking the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to consider whether Pruitt improperly used his position to lobby the public on the U.S.s involvement in the Paris accord.

The group is citing federal law that bars federal agencies or officials from lobbying on issues that are before Congress.

In April, he reportedly told the National Mining Association about his opposition. ADLF alleges such a pronouncement would run afoul of federal lobbying laws because members of Congress had previously introduced bills pertaining to the Paris deal.

The group also said media interviews he gave in which he spoke against the deal could violate similar lobbying bans.

Administrator Pruitts communications demonstrate a clear appeal encouraging lawmakers in Congress to publicly support the United Statess withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, and thereby oppose pending legislation reaffirming the United Statess commitment to the agreement, ADLFs complaint said.

A spokesman for the EPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The GAO only responds to investigative requests from members of Congress or federal officials, meaning someone else would need to back up ADLFs complaints before an audit of the agencys actions would take place.

The GAO has previously ruled against EPA efforts that they concluded broke federal laws dealing with covert propaganda.

In 2015, the office ruled the EPA, under Obama appointee Gina McCarthyGina McCarthyLiberal group files lobbying complaint against Pruitt Trumps budget prioritizes polluters over people Trump pulls US out of Paris deal: What it would mean MORE, improperly used social media campaigns to support the proposed waters of the United States rule.

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Liberal group files lobbying complaint against Pruitt - The Hill

Merrimack Colleges new approach (Giving it the new college try, Page A1, July 18) is neither new nor laudatory. I taught there from 1965 to 1985. During earlier years the schools mission was to introduce, to educate its blue-collar constituency in the liberal arts and sciences. As a professor in a developing English department dedicated to writing and literary study, and in a humanities division offering team-taught courses, supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, in history, fine arts, classical literature, philosophy, and theology, I taught students who continued their education in law school, medical school, social services, broadcasting, even politics, as well as in graduate work and teaching in English.

By the 1980s the schools mission became pragmatic, catering to those equating college with vocational training. Our English majors dropped from about 50 graduates to 10, our department declining toward a service department. Because of my scholarly publications, which were of little consequence at Merrimack, I was invited to Brigham Young University and spent the next 22 years where the liberal arts were still valued.

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It is lamentable that a college identifying as Catholic has in fact a history of moving away from the traditional liberal arts. The drift, national really, has much to do with our loss of ideals.

John J. Murphy

Newton Centre

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Nothing laudatory about drifting away from traditional liberal arts - The Boston Globe

Hamburg, Germany, July. As world leaders gather for the G20 summit, far-left anti-fascist (Antifa) rioters set fire to cars and property, terrorize residents and injure more than 200 police officers attempting to keep the peace. Did you miss it? CNNs initial reports referred to the protesters as eclectic and peaceful.

But you need not cross the shining seas to experience violence, destruction of property and a general dismantling of liberal values from the political left. You could simply visit Americas elite college campuses like Yale, Middlebury or Berkeley, where tomorrows leaders attempt to shut down conservative voices with protest or riots. At Middlebury, rioting students landed liberal professor Allison Stanger in a neck brace for the crime of defending a conservative academics right to speak. At Berkeley, mobs of students created a war zone ahead of a planned visit from conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos, injuring Trump supporters and causing $100,000 in damages.

Or head to Portland, Oregon, one of the most liberal cities in the nation in the heart of the progressive Pacific Northwest, which this month Politico labeled Americas Most Politically Violent City. The progressive paradise where Republicans are virtually an extinct species has witnessed millions in damages attributed to the same types of anti-fascists-in-name-only that kept Hamburg residents paralyzed in fear this month. A counter-protest to a planned pro-Trump rally landed 14 Antifa in jail for attacking the police with explosives and bricks.

Witness the blood-soaked congressional baseball field in Alexandria, Virginia, site of the June attack on House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and other Republicans batting up for their annual bipartisan game. James Hodgkinson, a fervent supporter of progressive politics, showed up to the field with a rifle, a handgun and a hit list of Republicans. As Scalise fought for his life, MSNBC host Joy Reid felt conflicted: the attempted assassination was a delicate thing because of Scalises conservative views like opposition to gay marriage. Are we required in a moral sense to put that aside in the moment? she wondered. Yes, Joy, you are. The shooting of a mainstream, congressional Republican leader is reprehensible, and in no way justifiable.

Now cross the Potomac and visit the halls of Congress, where Democratic lawmakers have accused Republicans of murder for supporting an overhaul to the spiraling, ruined Obamacare program, which by next year will leave dozens of counties without a single option for insurance. Reasonable people can disagree about how much our Medicaid program should grow without comparing the Republican bill to 9/11, as Sen. Bernie Sanders, the independent from Vermont, did recently. Or saying the health care bill is paid for with blood money of dead Americans, as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, tweeted shortly after the Scalise attack. If our sitting senators dont act more responsibly, who will?

Instead of retweeting, liberals who care about preserving our political system should be outraged that these are the standard-bearers of their party.

Nobody is directly responsible for a shooting except the shooter, and nobody throws a brick except the person who picks it up. No side has a monopoly on political violence. There are loonies at the fringes of every political movement mentally ill, perturbed and paranoid who can be stirred toward violence or dissuaded from it.

But when we have Democratic senators accusing political opponents of murder, when our college campuses descend into assault zones for conservative speakers (or those that defend them), when our major cities become playgrounds for far-left rioters and the media glosses over it, we move toward a more violent and fractured society, not a safer one.

If gay people were pouring into bars and punching straight people, I as a gay man would speak out. If Jews were propagating terror in the name of our religion, I would condemn it vociferously. And when violence has come from the conservative side, I dont hesitate to stand against it. But its not.

There have been no right-wing groups storming campuses and flinging feces at speakers we dont like; no tea party mobs destroying property, assaulting police officers, and paralyzing our major cities; and no Republican senators calling their colleagues murderers just weeks after a political assassination attempt.

From Portland to New Haven to Washington, the violence were witnessing is largely a product of the hard left, and the reaction from mainstream liberals mostly silence, dismissiveness, equivocation means it will continue to flourish.

To move toward a less violent and hyper-charged society, we must be clear-headed about violence where we see it, and not avoid the subject. We must condemn it without conditions.

If you think Republicans are murderers, youre an extremist. If youre trading in that kind of rhetoric just to shut the other side up or raise a buck, youre giving cover to extremists. And if you object to political violence but fail to speak out, your weakness is causing our society to fracture.

Its time for liberal America to speak out against violence and the rhetoric that incites it.

Albert Eisenberg is the former communications director for the Philadelphia Republican Party. He runs his own digital marketing firm. @RealHotCheetos. He wrote this for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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Liberal America has a political violence problem Opinion ... - Bangor Daily News

Russia is holding its own presidential election in nine months, and President Vladimir Putin suspects U.S. interference of the most devious kind, Trevor Noah said on Wednesday's Daily Show: fidget spinners. Because of Putin's fears that fidget spinners are a U.S. ploy to undermine him, "Russia is banning fidget spinners," Noah said. "And just like that, there goes Russia's reputation as a fun country." Putin was apparently tipped off to this nefarious plot when people passed out the faddish gizmos at an anti-Putin rally, he explained, Putin's opponents ran with it, and now, "according to Vladimir Putin, everyone in the world with a fidget spinner opposes him."

"This is genius," Noah said. "Every other resistance movement should do the same thing. You just tie yourself to a popular fad, and make it look like it's bigger than it is." As an example, he suggested that Nelson Mandela should have coopted Pokeman. "But it turns out, fidget spinners aren't the only thing Russia is toying with," Noah said, leading into President Trump's second, undisclosed meeting with Putin at the G-20 summit. He said he just didn't understand why Trump, under investigation for colluding with Russia, would have a private conversation with the president of Russia.

"Maybe this is our fault," Noah said. "Maybe we've been parenting Trump the wrong way. Because clearly, if we tell him to stay away from that bad boy Vlad, we're going to push him right into his arms." He elaborated, then pointed out the salient point that Putin himself mischievously hinted at: Trump is an open book, and Russia's good a reading. "Right now, the best we can hope for is that Trump is so full of B.S. that he's too unreliable to be spied on," he said. Watch below. Peter Weber

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Full Frontal valiantly tries to cool down, redirect liberal Trump-impeachment fever - The Week Magazine

The sky is falling! President Trumps Commission on Election Integrity is looking for ways to better protect the ballot box against voter fraud undermining the integrity of U.S. elections.

One would figure that the Democrats would welcome such a move. After all, CNN uses 93 percent of its airtime to talk about the Russia narrative. An impartial look at the circumstances around each part of the election is something both sides normally would agree upon.

However, the manic left threw that one out the window. Looking into registration forms and voter ID is the new dog whistle of racism.

Kobach: Americans have widespread "lingering doubts" about elections from voter fraud https://t.co/eqyvYfGiry pic.twitter.com/DqqlSA3LQ8

The commissions first action was toaskall 50 states to send in voter registration records including names, dates of birth, and voting history in order to study the extent of voter fraud. A number of states haverefusedto comply.

How could states hold onto such information? Well, they cant. The Trump administration only requested information that is publicly available under the laws of your state. In the case of the last four digits of social security numbers, the commission only requested that informationif it is public recordin any particular state. States can of course send in all the other informationto the commissionbut withhold partial social security numbers if they are not public record.

Thats not what the headlines say, though. There is full-on panic from the same people that say voter fraud never happens. To a CNN contributor, its a sham. To the New York Times editorial board, its fraudulent. Left-of-center voters were so offended by the commission, that they bombarded its office with porn. The open meetings are operating in the dark, says the ACLU. It will suppress the vote. Its Trumps biggest lie.

None of these points address the stated goal of the commission. The media derided President Trumps assertions that millions of illegals voted in the 2016 election. But his claims may be true. Millions of non-citizens voted in 2008 according to some studies and overwhelmingly for Democrats. This number likely handed over Minnesotas Senate seat to Al FrankenAl FrankenOPINION | Liberal hysteria over Trump's voter fraud panel proves why it's needed Three Dem senators call for 'immediate review' of Kushner's security clearance Live coverage: Trump's FBI nominee questioned by senators MORE and gave Democrats a 60 vote, filibuster-proof majority.

#BREAKING: Trump: It's the "sacred duty" of his voter fraud commission to find "full truth"https://t.co/GVgnzWTHuo pic.twitter.com/td2J58AK20

Will Trumps commission have a chilling effect on the number of votes cast? Likely not. If past history is any indication, there will be a combination of effects. First, the number of illegal immigrants casting ballots will fall substantially. Secondly, more voters will turn out for a system they feel isnt rigged against them; remember, candidate Trump turned outso-called low propensity voters just waiting for a person on the ballot that spoke to them, not over them.

As mentioned earlier, the information the administration wants is out there already. In fact, many campaigns and states regularly sell this same voter information to campaigns, candidates, and political strategists for a hefty profit. The information available to the highest bidder is almost word-for-word the same as that requested from the Commission Chair Kris Kobach. Personally-identifiable data was not requested and much of the information is held by local polling canvassers or county clerks offices.

So whats at stake here? 24 million, or about 13 percent of all voter registrations are incorrect nationwide. Nearly 3 million people are registered to vote in two states. Close to 2 million registered voters are deceased. A Virginia student recently registered 18 dead people and that follows a report that 5,500 non-citizens were discovered on the states voter rolls.

WATCH LIVE: Trump speaks at voter fraud commission's first official meeting https://t.co/cwHP5dEqqE pic.twitter.com/BmbA5yzGA3

Using publicly-available voter roll information, the commission could cross-check voter registration rolls with a list of known illegal immigrants and other non-citizens. Its a legal, transparent, and practical step yet the Obama administration infamously declined to support this. For all of the talk on the left about how voter fraud isnt real, perhaps it is because only one side actually enforces the law.

Research showed that about 18,000 noncitizens in Kansas Kobachs home state were either on voter rolls or attempted to register to voteandup to 2.6 percent of the states populationis undocumented. Illegal immigrants make up nearly 6 percent of Californias population. Some back of the envelope math means that there could be more than a million illegal voters in the state alone. Meanwhile, California somehow recorded a 75.2 percent turnout last year, way above the 58 percent national average.

State after state after state went well out of their way to deny their voter info to the feds. In the words of President Trump, What do they think the commission will find?

Why would anyone be against such measures? Many of the same politicians seem to think little of the integrity of the democratic process. It is not a cudgel or bully pulpit. The vote is the peoples will and most sacred right. Citizenship is a federal issue, not a caveat for states to politically posture.

But I guess its less fun that way.

Kristin Tateis a conservative columnist and author of the book Government Gone Wild: How D.C. Politicians Are Taking You For a Ride And What You Can Do About It. She was recently named one of NewsMaxs 30 Most Influential Republicans Under 30.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.

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OPINION | Liberal hysteria over Trump's voter fraud panel proves why it's needed - The Hill (blog)

CNNs Jake Tapper is used to taking heat. President Obama mocked him at the 2016 White House CorrespondentsDinner (Tapper left journalism to join CNN), while one of the emails from Hillary Clintons campaign, published by WikiLeaks, had her campaign chairman, John Podesta, calling him a dick.

But the criticism leveled on Tuesday against Tapper by liberal activist and Womens March co-founder Linda Sarsourhas struck many as malicious, misguided and unjustified, though others defended her ferocity. More broadly, the spathas revived arguments on the political left about how much to emphasize identity politics and the kind of social-justice discourse that was central to the Black Lives Matter movement. While some believe that a measure of militant rhetoricis necessary, others worry that it will turn away centrists who are necessary to Democratselectoral chances in 2018 and beyond.

The origin of the Tapper-Sarsour brouhaha was a tweet from the Womens March account celebrating the birthday of Assata Shakur,a black militant who killed a New Jersey state trooper in a 1973 shootout. She was eventually caught and imprisoned but escaped in 1984 to Cuba, where she still lives today. A return to the United States is unlikely, since she is on the FBI's most wanted terroristslist.

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What, exactly, Shakur has to do with the resistance to the presidency of Donald J. Trump is difficult to say. On its Twitter account, the Womens March posted a multipartjustification of its celebratory tweet:

Tapper, though, was having none of it. On his show,The Lead, he frequently evinces visceral annoyance at shoddy thinking, hypocrisy and grandstanding. He is not a huge fan of blowhards, either. Victims of his criticismhave included close Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, whose evisceration by Tapper went viral.

This time, it was Sarsour and her fellow liberals, whom he chided in a tweet:

Sarsour chose to respond by branding Tapper a member of the alt-right, a loosely defined movement that includes nativists, nationalists, anti-Semites, Islamophobes and anti-establishment meme warriors. Under no definition of the term, however, would Tapper, who is Jewish and a long-standing member of the Beltway media-politicalnexus, belong in that category.

He answered, in turn, by pointing to Sarsours own history of inflammatory statements, which have often come in defense of her Muslim faith but which sometimes lack a measureof discretion.

The exchange continued, with Tapper pointing to a tweet, since deleted, in which Sarsour appeared to advocate for the genital mutilation of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a former Muslim who has become a vociferous critic of that faith, one embraced by many conservatives.

In an email on Wednesday morning, Sarsour explained her positionand maintained it. I never said he was a member of the alt-right,she told me. I said in a midst of a smear campaign against me from the alt-right he joined in. His tweet mentioning me to his million followers was random and unnecessary.

It is true that Sarsour has routinely been harassed by members of the far right, who seem to dislike her proud shows of Islamic faith nearly as much as her shows of political liberalism. This time, though, her critics came from all sides:

An especially withering and incisive assessmentcame from Emily Shire ofThe Daily Beast, who compared Sarsour to Trump in her baseless denunciation of unfavorable media coverage.

The concern Tapper raised about progressives standing with violent radicals speaks to a much larger problem regarding the intersectionalist approach to social justice movements. On the one hand the intersectional feminist movement has been making strange bedfellows; on the other, it has been increasingly hostile to those who question those additions.

When Sarsour was asked in an interview in The Nation about whether Zionist feminists were welcomed in the modern, intersectional feminist movement in March, she said they were not. I would say that anyone who wants to call themselves an activist cannot be selective, she replied.

That means no support of any kind for Israel. No criticism when theWomens March formally champions a convicted murderer like Shakur.

Sarsours attempt to slanderTapper, as Shire calls it, is only herlatest attempt to silence critics. This winter, she loudly denounced a Dartmouth student who confronted her at a talkthere, wondering why a young white manwas challenging her at an event organized by an Asian American.Hed wanted her to account for the infamous female genital mutilation tweet, which she dismissed as stupid shit.

Last week, The Forward reported that Sarsours project meant to restore Jewish cemeteries vandalized in a rash of attacks following Trumps election, had not distributed funds as expediently as some had hoped.

Sarsour responded with a Facebook post. I am exhausted,the post said in part. I am tired of the lies, liesand more lies.

This article has been updated to more accurately describe Sarsour's efforts to restore vandalized Jewish cemeteries.

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CNN's Jake Tapper Is Alt-Right Lackey, Liberal Activist Linda Sarsour Says - Newsweek

Recently, Gallup published the results of its annual Values and Beliefs poll.

The headline of the report speaks for itself: Americans Hold Record Liberal Views on Most Moral Issues.

Gallup has been doing this poll since 2001, and the change in public opinion on the moral issues surveyed has been in one direction more liberal.

Of 19 issues surveyed in this latest poll, responses on 10 are the most liberal since the survey started.

Sixty-three percent say gay/lesbian relations are morally acceptable up 23 points from the first year the question was asked. Sixty-two percent say having a baby outside of marriage is OK up 17 points. Unmarried sex, 69 percent up 16 points. Divorce, 73 percent up 14 points.

More interesting, and of greater consequence, is what people actually do, rather than what they think. And, not surprisingly, the behavior we observe in our society at large reflects these trends in values.

No one lives in a vacuum. We all live in a country, in communities. We are social beings as well as individuals, no matter what your political philosophy happens to be. Everyones behavior has consequences for others.

For instance, more and more research shows the correlation between the breakdown of the traditional family and poverty.

In 2009, Ron Haskins of the Brookings Institution published his success sequence. According to Haskins, someone who completes high school, works full time, and doesnt have children until after marriage has only a 2 percent chance of being poor.

A new study from the American Enterprise Institute and the Institute for Family Studies focuses on millennials those born between 1980-1984. And this study reaches conclusions similar to those of Haskins.

According to this study, only 3 percent of millennials who have a high school diploma, who are working full time, and who are married before having children are poor. On the other hand, 53 percent of millennials who have not done these three things are poor.

Behavior increasing the likelihood of poverty does have consequences on others. American taxpayers spend almost a trillion dollars a year to help those in poverty, a portion of whom would not be in this situation if they lived their lives differently.

But the same liberals who scream when Republicans look for ways to streamline spending on antipoverty programs like Medicaid, scream just as loudly at any attempt to expose young people to biblical values that teach traditional marriage and chastity outside of marriage.

The percent of American adults that are married dropped from 72 percent in 1960 to 52 percent in 2008. The percentage of our babies born to unmarried women increased from 5 percent in 1960 to 41 percent by 2008. This occurred against a backdrop of court orders removing all vestiges of religion from our public spaces, beginning with banning school prayer in 1962, and then the legalization of abortion in 1973. In 2015, the Supreme Court redefined marriage.

Losing all recognition that personal and social responsibility matters, that the biblical tradition that existed in the cradle of our national founding is still relevant, is bankrupting us morally and fiscally.

We are long overdue for a new, grand awakening.

Star Parker is an author and president of CURE, Center for Urban Renewal and Education.

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Liberal values are bankrupting us - Marshalltown Times Republican

Hamburg, Germany, July. As world leaders gather for the G20 summit, far-left anti-fascist (Antifa) rioters set fire to cars and property, terrorize residents and injure more than 200 police officers attempting to keep the peace. Did you miss it? CNNs initial reports referred to the protesters as eclectic and peaceful.

But you need not cross the shining seas to experience violence, destruction of property and a general dismantling of liberal values from the political left. You could simply visit Americas elite college campuses like Yale or Middlebury or Berkeley, where tomorrows leaders attempt to shut down conservative voices with protest or riots. At Middlebury, rioting students landed liberal professor Allison Stanger in a neck brace for the crime of defending a conservative academics right to speak. At Berkeley, mobs of students created a war zone ahead of a planned visit from conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos, injuring Trump supporters and causing $100,000 in damages.

Or head to Portland, one of the most liberal cities in the nation in the heart of the progressive Pacific Northwest, which this month Politico labeled Americas Most Politically Violent City. The progressive paradise where Republicans are virtually an extinct species has witnessed millions in damages attributed to the same types of anti-fascists-in-name-only that kept Hamburg residents paralyzed in fear this month. A counter-protest to a planned pro-Trump rally landed 14 Antifa in jail for attacking the police with explosives and bricks.

Witness the blood-soaked congressional baseball field in Alexandria, Virginia, site of the June attack on U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., and other Republicans batting up for their annual bipartisan game. James Hodgkinson, a fervent supporter of progressive politics, showed up to the field with a rifle, a handgun and a hit list of Republicans. As Scalise fought for his life, MSNBC host Joy Reid felt conflicted: the attempted assassination was a delicate thing because of Scalises conservative views like opposition to gay marriage.

Now cross the Potomac and visit the halls of Congress, where Democratic lawmakers have accused Republicans of murder for supporting an overhaul to the spiraling, ruined Obamacare program, which by next year will leave dozens of counties without a single option for insurance. Reasonable people can disagree about how much our Medicaid program should grow without comparing the Republican bill to 9/11, as Sen. Bernie Sanders, the independent from Vermont, did recently. Or saying the health-care bill is paid for with blood money of dead Americans, as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., tweeted shortly after the Scalise attack.

Instead of retweeting, liberals who care about preserving our political system should be outraged that these are the standard-bearers of their party.

There are loonies at the fringes of every political movement mentally ill, perturbed and paranoid who can be stirred toward violence or dissuaded from it.

But when we have Democratic senators accusing political opponents of murder, when our college campuses descend into assault zones for conservative speakers, when our major cities become playgrounds for far-left rioters and the media glosses over it, we move toward a more violent and fractured society, not a safer one.

There have been no right-wing groups storming campuses and flinging feces at speakers we dont like; no tea party mobs destroying property, assaulting police officers, and paralyzing our major cities; and no Republican senators calling their colleagues murderers just weeks after a political assassination attempt.

From Portland to New Haven to Washington, the violence were witnessing is largely a product of the hard left, and the reaction from mainstream liberals mostly silence, dismissiveness, equivocation means it will continue to flourish.

To move toward a less violent and hyper-charged society, we must be clear-headed about violence where we see it, and not avoid the subject. We must condemn it without conditions.

If you think Republicans are murderers, youre an extremist. If youre trading in that kind of rhetoric just to shut the other side up or raise a buck, youre giving cover to extremists. And if you object to political violence but fail to speak out, your weakness is causing our society to fracture.

Its time for liberal America to speak out against violence and the rhetoric that incites it.

Albert Eisenberg is the former communications director for the Philadelphia Republican Party. He runs his own digital marketing firm. @RealHotCheetos. He wrote this for The Philadelphia Inquirer. From Tribune News Service.

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Eisenberg: Liberal America has a political violence problem - Daily Commercial

Are you a limousine liberal? Do you live in a trendy NYC neighborhood maybe in a building with a doorman but still vote for Democrats or consider yourself progressive?

Though he or she might prefer Uber rather than an actual limo, a limousine liberal is generally someone who espouses a brand of politics that doesnt quite match up with his or her tax returns and actions.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, with his police-chauffeured SUV rides from Gracie Mansion to his Park Slope gym, is a limousine liberal. He tells tales of two cities, but its getting harder for New Yorkers to believe hes in touch with theirs.

His liberal bona fides will be put to some sort of test in November. Hes raising tons of cash for his re-election campaign. No, hes not using money from the now-defunct Campaign for One New York, which got substantial coin from real estate developers and invited the attention of local and federal prosecutors. However, the mayors progressivism and hat-in-hand requests for cash now look strange, and somewhat despicable, after this so-called progressive criticized how non-mayor New Yorkers ask for money on the street.

Not long after stepping out of his SUV and into a plane headed for Germany, our limousine liberal mayor phoned in to a NYC radio show and shared his disdain for panhandling. Some New Yorkers begging for money do it for the fun of it, he theorized, despite his lack to evidence to back it up. Hes asking the NYPD to be creative in how it enforces rules against begging, which isnt illegal.

While de Blasios comments are reminiscent of Rudy Giulianis crusade against the squeegee men in the 90s, keep in mind another irony for a mayor whos attempted to promote his progressive image abroad despite a homelessness problem here at home. While de Blasio flew to Germany to protest world leaders, including President Donald Trump, during the G-20 gathering of world economic power brokers, residents in my neighborhood of East Harlem unveiled a mural on East 116th Street to protest the mayor.

Movimiento Por Justicia en El Barrio, an immigrant-led group of tenants and families who have rejected city rezoning plans for the neighborhood and rallied against the mayor, pushed for the mural to object to the mayors housing plan. A Trojan horse sits at the center of the mural, a symbol of the citys affordable housing plan, which they say is a luxury housing plan.

As with all politicians, its best to focus on de Blasios actions not his words or political stunts. Taking money from the real estate industry, being protested by tenants and bashing beggars arent indicative of a progressive reformer. You see, our limousine liberal mayor doesnt want us to ask for change either on the street or in ballot box. He represents the status quo of rising rents and disdain for the poor.

Its time to show him the door and work to keep people in their homes with policies that favor the poor, not the rich.

Josmar Trujillo is a trainer, writer and activist with the Coalition to End Broken Windows.

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Our limousine liberal mayor - amNY

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Posted: Jul 19, 2017 12:01 AM

Recently, Gallup published the results of its annual Values and Beliefs poll.

The headline of the report speaks for itself: "Americans Hold Record Liberal Views on Most Moral Issues."

Gallup has been doing this poll since 2001, and the change in public opinion on the moral issues surveyed has been in one direction -- more liberal.

Of 19 issues surveyed in this latest poll, responses on 10 are the most liberal since the survey started.

Sixty-three percent say gay/lesbian relations are morally acceptable -- up 23 points from the first year the question was asked. Sixty-two percent say having a baby outside of marriage is OK -- up 17 points. Unmarried sex, 69 percent -- up 16 points. Divorce, 73 percent -- up 14 points.

More interesting, and of greater consequence, is what people actually do, rather than what they think. And, not surprisingly, the behavior we observe in our society at large reflects these trends in values.

Hence, the institution of traditional marriage is crumbling, Americans are having fewer children, and, compared with years gone by, the likelihood that children are born out of the framework of marriage has dramatically increased.

Undoubtedly, the liberals in academia, in the media, in politics, see this as good news. After all, doesn't removing the "thou shalt not's" that limit life's options liberate us?

Isn't the idea of freedom supposed to be, according to them, that you have a green light to do whatever you want, as long as you're not hurting someone else?

But here's the rub. How do you measure if you are hurting someone else?

No one lives in a vacuum. We all live in a country, in communities. We are social beings as well as individuals, no matter what your political philosophy happens to be. Everyone's behavior has consequences for others.

For instance, more and more research shows the correlation between the breakdown of the traditional family and poverty.

In 2009, Ron Haskins of the Brookings Institution published his "success sequence." According to Haskins, someone who completes high school, works full time, and doesn't have children until after marriage has only a 2 percent chance of being poor.

A new study from the American Enterprise Institute and the Institute for Family Studies focuses on millennials -- those born between 1980-1984. And this study reaches conclusions similar to those of Haskins.

According to this study, only 3 percent of millennials who have a high school diploma, who are working full time, and who are married before having children are poor. On the other hand, 53 percent of millennials who have not done these three things are poor.

Behavior increasing the likelihood of poverty does have consequences on others. American taxpayers spend almost a trillion dollars a year to help those in poverty, a portion of whom would not be in this situation if they lived their lives differently.

But the same liberals who scream when Republicans look for ways to streamline spending on antipoverty programs like Medicaid, scream just as loudly at any attempt to expose young people to biblical values that teach traditional marriage and chastity outside of marriage.

The percent of American adults that are married dropped from 72 percent in 1960 to 52 percent in 2008. The percentage of our babies born to unmarried women increased from 5 percent in 1960 to 41 percent by 2008.

This occurred against a backdrop of court orders removing all vestiges of religion from our public spaces, beginning with banning school prayer in 1962, and then the legalization of abortion in 1973. In 2015, the Supreme Court redefined marriage.

Losing all recognition that personal and social responsibility matters, that the biblical tradition that existed in the cradle of our national founding is still relevant, is bankrupting us morally and fiscally.

We are long overdue for a new, grand awakening.

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Liberal Values Are Bankrupting Us - Townhall