At Issue this week... Marriage by Phyllis Schlafly

May 13, 2015

2016 Election Justice Kennedy learns a new word Morris (30) Will (8) Baltimore upreme Court Justice Anthony M. The same-sex-marriage advocates like to majority opinion that judges should limit Buchanan (17) Kennedy learned and used a new say that as many as 37 states have already their rulings to “fundamental rights and lib- Chavez (18) word during the Supreme Court’s made same-sex marriage legal, and they use erties which are, objectively, deeply rooted in Elder (18) oralS argument about Marriage. He said, “The the argument of inevitability to pressure the this Nation’s history and tradition” — which Erickson (4) word that keeps coming back to me in this assisted suicide, like same-sex marriage, Harsanyi (16) rest of us to go along. The truth is that only Limbaugh (15) case is millennia.” eleven of the fifty states authorized same-sex clearly is not. Lowry (23) He wasn’t talking about the new voting marriage by the legislative process, Two years ago, when the Supreme Court Shapiro (17, 24) bloc of young people called the millennials. heard California’s Proposition 8 case, Justice Blacks in America He was referring to the thousands of years in Scalia famously asked gay marriage attorney Buchanan (20) which the public has honored marriage as the Phyllis Ted Olson, “When did it become uncon- Massie (21) union of a man and a woman. stitutional to exclude homosexual couples Williams (21) Schlafly Britain “And suddenly,” as Justice Stephen F. from marriage? 1791? 1868 when the 14th Barone (31) Breyer said, “you want nine people outside (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate Amendment was adopted?” After much Greenberg (28) the ballot box” to change that by judicial hemming and hawing Olson finally admitted, Thomas (30) fiat. That sounds like somebody is seeking and only three of those were ratified by a “I can’t answer that question.” Clinton, Hillary government by judicial supremacists instead vote of the people; the others were dictated Echoing the gay advocates, Obama’s So- Barone (9) Saunders (10) of by “We the people” (as our Constitution by judges, who are now being asked to im- licitor General Donald Verrilli told the Su- Cop-Haters says). pose the same rule on the U.S. Territories of preme Court that “it is simply untenable ... to Malkin (22) Guam and Puerto Rico. wait until the majority decides that it is ready” Dear Mark THE VERDICT of history that extends for same-sex marriage. In other words, good- Levy (19) even farther back than the U.S. Constitution THE BEST precedent for what the Su- bye to government “of the people and by the Democrats is why Kennedy said “the word that keeps people” and welcome to government by un- Tyrrell (10) preme Court should do about gay marriage Economy coming back to me in this case is millennia.” is the assisted suicide case of 1997 known as elected judges. Kudlow (13) Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. added, “Ev- Washington v. Glucksberg. At a time when Lambro (14) ery definition that I looked up, prior to about assisted suicide was illegal in every state, a ASKING THE Court to reject the will Fast Track a dozen years ago, defined marriage as unity lawsuit asked the Supreme Court to rule that of the American people and impose a new Morris (11) between a man and a woman as husband and suicide with a doctor’s assistance is a form rule that is not “objectively, deeply rooted in Gender Equality wife.” this Nation’s history and tradition” means, as McCaughey (26) of individual liberty protected by the Four- Isakson, Johnny It was not only the longevity of the hus- teenth Amendment to the Constitution. Rehnquist warned in 1997, that our beloved Towery (9) band-wife definition of marriage that trou- Although the Justices were as deeply di- Constitution would be “subtly transformed Leadership bled the Justices, but also its universality. vided on social issues then as they are today, into the policy preferences of the members Cushman (6) Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. pointed out that, the Court unanimously declined the invi- of this Court.” Greenberg (6) “until the end of the 20th century, there never tation to create a new constitutional right. Lambro (12) was a nation or a culture that recognized mar- May 5, 2015 Leftists Then-Chief Justice Rehnquist wrote in his Hollis (5) riage between two people of the same sex.” Limbaugh (3) Alito noted that in ancient Greece, for ex- Prager (4) ample, only opposite-sex couples could be Lusitania married even though same-sex relationships Will (29) were openly tolerated. That proves the defini- Marriage Schlafly (1) tion of marriage is not borne of prejudice or Thomas (11) “animus” against homosexuals. MSNBC The same is true of the non-Western so- Coulter (7) cieties of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Obama’s Drones Incidentally, have you noticed that only Napolitano (27) Christian small business people have been Okinawa Bay (26) harassed and sued for refusing to participate Texas Attack in same-sex marriages, even though our fast- Bozell (25) growing immigrant populations of Muslims, Lowry (25) Hindus, and other faiths are also opposed to Murchison (24) that concept? Trivia Bits Paquet (14) The use of same-sex marriage to attack Welfare State Christian businesses, but not businesses run Farah (2) by members of other religions, demonstrates Sowell (13) what is really driving the demand for a new Wolf Hall constitutional right to same-sex marriage. It Krauthammer (23) is simply the latest attempt to destroy Chris- WWI Bay (29) tian institutions and discredit Christian be- liefs. 2 Conservative Chronicle WELFARE STATE: May 6, 2015 ‘The Moynihan Report’ after 50 years s Baltimore smolders in the the black family — one worse, in some black family been destroyed as Moyni- Is this phenomenon worth re-explor- wake of Ferguson, Tray- ways, than even slavery. han predicted but also the whole of the ing 50 years later, with our cities more von Martin and unprovoked As he observed later, “the work be- American family has been. dysfunctional than ever before and some blackA mob attacks on nonblacks in cities gan in the most orthodox setting, the Moynihan’s report concluded that of them in flames? across America, it’s time to consider the U.S. Department of Labor, to establish the structure of family life in the black Yes. possibility that the promise of the civil at some level of statistical conciseness community constituted a “tangle of pa- What are the chances America will rights movement of the 1960s has been what ‘everyone knew:’ that economic thology ... capable of perpetu- make an effort to put the American fam- betrayed. conditions deter- ating itself without ily back together at the very moment the This year marks the 50th anniversa- mine social condi- assistance from the national dialogue obsesses over the ur- ry of what has become known as “The tions. Whereupon, Joseph white world” and gent need for “same-sex marriage?” Moynihan Report,” actually titled in it turned out that Farah that “at the heart Slim to none. 1965 “The Negro Family: The Case for what everyone of the deterioration But there are people making just that National Action,” an official publication knew was evident- (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate of the fabric of Ne- last-ditch case. of the U.S. Labor Department written ly not so.” gro society is the Moynihan is gone. But Phyllis by the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan, What Moynihan discovered has still deterioration of the Negro family. It is Schlafly has been beating this drum on who later became a U.S. senator from not been acknowledged by the very peo- the fundamental source of the weakness the national stage since the 1960s. Her New York. ple most adversely affected by the prob- of the Negro community at the present newest book, Who Killed the Ameri- lem: Rates of black male unemployment time.” Further, the report argued that the can Family?, is there for us to read and MOYNIHAN WAS a sociologist and welfare enrollment, which had al- matriarchal structure of black culture embrace. Of course, nobody can force and Democrat who focused on the root ways run parallel, started to diverge in weakened the ability of black men to Americans to look reality in the eye causes of black poverty and concluded 1962 in a way that would come to be function as authority figures. and accept it. Many Americans today that the destruction of the nuclear fam- called “Moynihan’s scissors.” weren’t around 50 years ago to remem- ily was at the heart of the problem. He In 1965, Moynihan foresaw the HE CONCLUDED in his report, ber “the good old days,” and they were suggested that neither economic nor po- coming destruction of the black fam- “The steady expansion of welfare pro- better for nearly everyone — black or litical equality could ever be achieved ily because the black out-of-wedlock grams can be taken as a measure of the white. without addressing the advantage of birth rate was 25 percent. Americans steady disintegration of the Negro fam- Paul Kengor has also provided new families with both mothers and fathers were shocked by that statistic 50 years ily structure over the past generation in insight into the death of the American present in the home. ago. But today the number is over 72 the United States.” family, with his newest book, Take- Moynihan noted that attacks on the percent among blacks. Among Hispan- Did anyone listen? down. It reveals the active and success- black family began during slavery and ics, it’s more than 53 percent. And it’s Yes, but expansion of welfare pro- ful effort to systematically destroy the grew more intense during the Jim Crow more than 29 percent among whites. grams continued unabated. In fact, American family — not just the black era. But what surprised everyone who By contrast, in 1965, the rate of out-of- they exploded exponentially, as did the family. read his report was that America’s “war wedlock births among white Americans breakdown of the black family and the on poverty” had turned into a war on was at 3.1 percent. Not only has the entirety of the American family. BUT IT TAKES more than facts and knowledge to turn things around. It takes will. It takes hard work. It takes fighting the inertia of doing the same old thing over and over again expecting dif- ferent results.

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[email protected] Visit our web site at: Contact us at 800-888-3039 or email: [email protected] www.conservativechronicle.com May 13, 2015 3 LEFTISTS: May 5, 2015 Leftist media see conservative goblins everywhere hree more Republicans de- which he spent years building through clare their intention to be incredible dedication, hard work and presidential nominees, and public service — is in dire jeopardy. theT leftist media, as if on cue, pounce That is truly sad, but we’ve seen simi- on their prey like panthers. lar fates befalling other high-profile When venerated neurosurgeon Ben blacks who have been outspoken con- Carson announced his intentions, servatives. Washington Post reporter Robert Sam- The Post piece was rela- uels leaped into tively tame com- action, under a pared with one in headline reading David Politico that took in part, “Many Limbaugh aim at Carson and blacks see a he- two other Repub- ro’s legacy fade.” (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate licans — Carly So what has Fiorina and Mike changed? Has Carson been charged Huckabee — who are also throwing with a crime? Did he commit some their hats into the GOP presidential violent act? Domestic issues? nomination ring. Politico’s head- line reads, “Pushing the limits on the NO, IT’S SIMPLY that “for many fringe: Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina and young African Americans who grew Mike Huckabee are launching, with no up seeing Carson as the embodiment holds barred.” of black achievement — a poor in- Yes, to the liberal media, if you are ner-city boy who became one of the a conservative black person, you have world’s most accomplished neurosur- betrayed your race; if you are any poli- geons — his emergence as a conserva- tician and adhere to conservative prin- tive hero and unabashed critic of the ciples instead of pandering to the left, United States’ first black president has you are a fringe extremist. been jarring.” If you stand up for constitution- sentially centrist. For the leftist me- such questions about an accomplished Let’s pause right here. Isn’t it sad al principles and the Constitution’s dia, extreme liberalism is normal, and liberal businesswoman, he would be that the politics of the black commu- framework of limited government, if anything that differs appreciably from treated like a craven sexist. nity are presumed to be inflexibly lib- you are a businesswoman who still it is aberrant. It’s not just a difference Equally revealing, though, is Politi- eral, to the point that if one of its own, believes in capitalism or if you are an of opinion; it’s morally bankrupt. Oh, co’s bogus question as to whether Fio- even one who has been universally re- experienced state governor who is a the bubble they live in — often unwit- rina “is still representative of the very spected, comes out as a conservative, card-carrying Christian, you are an en- tingly. business community whose values and it is newsworthy and scandalous? emy of society. expertise she touts as her greatest asset Carson committed the sin of devi- The leftist media obviously see no SO IT IS THAT the leftist media as a candidate.” ating from the prescribed monolithic imbalance in their narrative of treating treat Barack Obama as an open-mind- What’s this about, you wonder? political position by criticizing Obam- mainstream conservatives as danger- ed moderate despite his taking this Well, Fiorina is “increasingly out-of- acare and announcing his support for ous kooks while depicting inarguably country as far left as one man could step with her corporate brethren. ... traditional marriage, and his glowing extreme and uncompromising liberals possibly do nonviolently in a mere Major U.S. companies have parted reputation among his own race — as reasonable, compromising and es- six years. His government takeovers ways with a Republican Party that it of automobile companies and health once saw as its champion in American care, his lawless executive and admin- politics.” istrative orders on immigration and Do you see the pattern? If people extreme-green enviromania, his po- from identity groups liberals pretend liticization of the Justice Department, to exclusively protect depart from the his fanning the flames of racial divi- liberal liturgy, they are no longer bona sion, his ramping up the national debt fide members of the group and are to historic and frightening levels, his proper targets for assault. coddling of our enemies and mistreat- Carson can’t hold a view not held ment of our allies, and his panoply of by most members of his race, and Fio- scandals — from the IRS to Fast and rina dare not have an opinion different Furious to Benghazi — are the new from the feminist perspective or from normal. the views the media declare are held So it is that the leftist media will- by corporate America. ingly cover for the sordid scandals of So much for respecting individual- Hillary and Bill Clinton, the most re- ity and freedom of thought. So much cent of which involve a brazen burning for respecting blacks and women of improperly classified emails and a — truly respecting them as thinking funding scam bursting with possible people by allowing them the courtesy criminal conflicts of interest, a possi- of their opinions and treating them ble selling of the national interest and decently even if you don’t agree with possible obscene personal enrichment their views. leveraged by their political power. So it is that while ignoring real LEFTISTS ARE nothing if not scandals involving Hillary Clinton, the hypocritical and, sadly, blinded by leftist media get out their high-power their own morally inverted self-assess- microscopes to examine Fiorina’s “du- ment as morally superior. bious record” as Hewlett-Packard’s CEO. If a conservative reporter raised 4 Conservative Chronicle LEFTISTS: May 5, 2015 Why the left won’t call rioters ‘thugs’ wo months ago, the New York “Did she or anyone else at CNN use any of the social pathologies in inner One reason is that the left does not Times published an op-ed piece the ‘T’-Word” when the Denver Bron- city black life — presumably such as divide the world between traditional no- by a professor of philosophy cos won the Super Bowl ... or when the the disproportionate rate of violence, the tions of good and evil. Rather, it divides titled,T “Why Our Children Don’t Think San Francisco Giants won the World almost 80 percent out-of-wedlock birth the world between white and black, rich There Are Moral Facts.” Series?” rate or the riots — on the values (or lack and poor, and powerful and weak. One This is how the professor began his Actually, it turns out that this is pre- of them) in black culture. Any therefore sides with the non-white, the piece: cisely how many such pathologies poor and the weak. “What would you say if you found of us in the opin- are due to vari- A second reason is that the left rarely out that our public schools were teaching ion media have Dennis ous manifestations fights evil (it fights those who fight evil). children that it is not true that it’s wrong characterized riot- Prager of white racism. It fights such things as inequality, fossil to kill people for fun or cheat on tests? ers of every race. Specifically, the fuels and an alleged “rape culture” on Would you be surprised? I was.” A word search on (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate professor wrote, American campuses. But it doesn’t fight “thugs” and “Oc- it is the “contin- real evil (like rioters). THE PROBLEM, as the profes- cupy Wall Street,” for example, reveals ued profitability of racism ... a country A third reason is that the day even a sor described it, is that a generation of that just about every major conserva- that still segregates people along racial third of America’s blacks come to be- Americans has been taught that there is tive commentator called those rioters lines, the financial enrichment of land- lieve that their problems are largely a no moral truth. There may be scientific “thugs.” lords, corner store merchants and other product of poor cultural values, they will truth and historical truth, but no moral vendors selling second-rate goods.” have become conservative and the left truth. IN THE TIMES last week, an asso- Why is it impossible for the left to will have begun to lose its most impor- The professor is, of course, right, as ciate professor at Johns Hopkins Uni- blame black rioters for their looting, tant demographic group. some of us — overwhelmingly from versity, N. D. B. Connolly, wrote a piece burning and destruction — the latter in- religious perspectives — have been la- titled, “Black Culture Is Not the Prob- cluding an old-age home in the case of THOSE ARE the reasons the left now menting for decades. lem.” Its thesis is that one cannot blame the Baltimore rioters? opposes calling black thugs “thugs.” Now we have another example of the denial of moral truths. Last week, BALTIMORE: May 1, 2015 a number of leftists — black and white — announced that it is racist to label the rioters and looters in Baltimore “thugs.” Even though both the black mayor of Baltimore and the black president of the Let’s not spend money United States did so, the left-wing ar- he Maryland Alliance for the In other words, Baltimore City resi- be planted. Some of those ideas will be gument is that the term “thug” is never Poor released a 2014 poverty dents are being taken care of by the deeply antagonistic to freedom. Others, applied to whites, only to blacks. The T- profile for Maryland. The American taxpayer. About 84 percent of hopefully, will plant seeds that provide word is, in effect, the new N-word. CatholicT Charities of Maryland hosts a individuals who are eligible for govern- a future bountiful harvest to nourish the Soledad O’Brien, former CNN an- copy on its website. According to the ment assistance with food have gotten souls in Baltimore. chor, on CNN’s Reliable Sources: report, the 2012 median income in Bal- into the program, and there are workers In that vein, Baltimore does not need “I think when you examine when the timore was $39,788. The U.S. Census paid to find the rest of the people and more politicians. It needs more God- word is used, it’s used to describe the notes that from 2009 to 2013, the me- enroll them. fearing churches spreading a Gospel actions of people of color, specifically dian income was roughly $41,385. For The reaction by many, looking at the of sacrificial love and redemption. The people who are in the inner city. comparison, the State of Maryland as a rioting in Baltimore this past week, will race baiters and race hustlers are going “I can’t think of a situation where whole has a median income of $73,538. be that we need to spend more money to spread their seeds. Will America’s there’s ever been a headline or someone in Baltimore and help people more. The churches also try to penetrate Baltimore has called a white young person who is BALTIMORE IS No. 1 in the child reality is that at some point and make disciples? in the middle of a violent protest dem- poverty rate. In 2012, “36.5 percent of The War on Poverty in the United onstration, whatever, a thug. We use it children in Baltimore city lie below the States has done vastly more damage all the time when we’re talking about poverty line — $23,492 for a family of Erick than good. It has created a culture of people in the inner city. four,” the Alliance for the Poor noted. Erickson entitlement and dependency. It has aid- “Thugs” [is] a proxy, a word we use Baltimore is also No. 1 in Maryland for ed the collapse of the American family. instead of the N-word.” the number of senior citizens below the (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate It has been deeply destructive in black Baltimore City Councilman Carl poverty line. It is also No. 1 in “individu- homes. We have spent trillions of dol- Stokes interviewed by Erin Burnett on als living below 200 percent of poverty.” people have to help themselves. Many lars to subsidize the poor, not elevate CNN: About 46 percent of people in Baltimore in Baltimore did help themselves and people out of poverty. Isn’t “thugs” the right word to de- hit that mark. The city is No. 2 in un- started businesses in their communi- Jesus said, “The poor you will al- scribe the rioters and looters? CNN’s employment. Again, from the Alliance ties to help others. The rioters burned ways have with you.” Well-meaning Erin Burnett asked the councilman: for the Poor, “9.7 percent of residents of and destroyed several of those busi- Americans have too often interpreted He responded: “No, it’s not the right Baltimore City are unemployed.” nesses. In deep irony, the very protes- that to mean the same poor people will word to call our children ‘thugs.’ These Baltimore ranks No. 1 in Maryland tors who burned down the black-owned always be poor. Consequently, Ameri- are children who have been set aside, for “residents receiving temporary cash businesses to protest police brutality can policies have been shaped to take marginalized, who have not been en- assistance,” No. 1 for “children receiv- would probably, if given the chance, care of the same poor people, instead of gaged by us.” ing temporary cash assistance,” No. 1 riot to demand a “living wage” for the creating policies to elevate poor people “But how does that justify what they in “percent of population participating employees of the businesses they just out of poverty and prepare to take care did?” Burnett then asked. “That’s a in food supplement program,” No. 8 in destroyed. of the next group of poor people. sense of right and wrong. They know it’s “adults receiving temporary disability wrong to steal and burn down a CVS and assistance,” No. 1 in “percent of chil- MORE GOVERNMENT is not BALTIMORE DOES not need a an old persons’ home. I mean, come on.” dren who participate in the free and re- the solution to what ails Baltimore. government spending-spree. It needs “Come on? Just call them ‘Niggers.’ duced price meal program” and No. 3 Culture is the issue. Culture is also a change of culture within families. Just call them ‘Niggers,’” argued Coun- in “penetration rate of food supplement upstream from politics. Culture flows It needs a sense of community. Gov- cilman Stokes. program. That last one means “84.3 per- downstream impacting politics. Politics ernment cannot provide that, but the The left-wing website Daily Kos cent of eligible individuals in Baltimore does not impact culture. But as culture Gospel can. Instead of ceding poverty agreed with Councilman Stokes and City participated in the Food Supple- flows downstream, eroding society, it programs to the government, churches challenged Burnett: ment Program.” leaves a fertile plain in which ideas can should start taking back that work. May 13, 2015 5 LEFTISTS: Aoril 30, 2015 A dangerous certainty: Opposing views silenced n Roland Joffe’s 1984 film, The advancing them are enemies, against Killing Fields, we see the Cam- whom any and all tactics are warranted. bodian Communist revolution What is notable about these regimes andI its aftermath through the eyes is not only the brutality and misery of Dith Pran, the film’s main charac- they inflict, but the steel-booted- cer ter. In one iconic scene in a Khmer tainty of their adherents. It is alarming, Rouge re-education camp, Pran looks therefore, to see the speed with which on while children these kinds of atti- march in a circle, tudes are seeping fists pumping in Laura into the public dis- the air, chanting course and politi- Khmer Rouge Hollis cal activity in the propaganda. Else- (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate United States. where, a group of By way of ex- seated adults are encouraged by party ample, college campuses, intended to leaders to admit their bourgeois pasts be bastions of vigorous inquiry, have and come forward. They are promised taken on a vague whiff of leftist au- a fresh start in the “new” Cambodia. thoritarianism: This, of course, is a ruse; having iden- — Unpopular viewpoints are char- tified themselves, they are then taken acterized as threats to student “safety,” out and shot. or contributing to a hostile climate. Conservative speakers are shouted ANYONE WHO has studied his- down, pelted with pies or — increas- tory will recognize these as signature ingly — “uninvited” out of fears of tion when someone you have privilege publicly proclaim their justification in tactics of contemporary extremist po- public disorder or violence. over speaks to you about oppression” doing so; where political opponents litical movements, not only in Cambo- — In classrooms and extracurricular and “Don’t tell me what’s oppressive. I use vague and overbroad laws to break dia but in North Vietnam, China, Laos, activities across the country, discus- tell you; you shut up and listen.” down your door, terrify your children, North Korea, Cuba and every socialist sion of innumerable topics is preceded You can’t say “X.” You can’t speak. seize your property, intimidate you republic in the former Soviet Union. or even precluded by “trigger warn- You shut up. You don’t question. into silence and deprive you of legal Let’s not spend money Truth and inquiry are replaced by pro- ings” — calls for “sensitivity” so in- Odd sentiments to be expressed at recourse; and where social pundits call paganda. Education becomes indoctri- discriminate and sweeping that faculty institutions of higher learning. for violence against those with whom nation. All speech save that which has of all political stripes find themselves they disagree. been pre-approved is forbidden. Those silenced and infuriated. NOR IS THIS limited to higher In a timely New York Times piece on with opposing viewpoints are mocked, — The new accusation of “privi- education. As recent events in Indi- cyberbullying this week, author Nick dehumanized and finally silenced — lege” effectively silences or discredits ana and Oregon demonstrate, Chris- Bilton quotes Friedrich Nietzsche: “Be typically by imprisonment or death. anyone who is male, or white, or Chris- tians who wish only to go about their careful when you fight the monsters, The justifications are always the tian, or Jewish, or upper-middle class, business and live their faith must be lest you become one.” same: Such strictures are necessary or not disabled, or raised in a family hauled out into the public eye, mocked to remediate “oppression.” One group with both parents, or not the victim of and shamed, threatened, driven out of WE MUST avoid the dangerous (the “oppressed” and their ideological a crime. Charles C. W. Cooke recently business — all for holding a personal certainty that our opponents are mon- allies) is in possession of all “truth.” described an exchange at the Universi- viewpoint that is presently unpopular. sters in the first place. Questions and competing arguments ty of North Carolina, in which student Those who attempt to assist them must are dangerous to society, and those comments included, “You don’t ques- be thwarted as well. After a GoFundMe We welcome a new columnist to our site raised over $800,000 for the own- publication. Laura Hollis received ers of Memories Pizza in Walkerton, her undergraduate degree in English Indiana, the crowdfunding company and her law degree from the Univer- shut down a similar effort to help Or- sity of Notre Dame. She is presently on egon bakers Aaron and Melissa Klein the faculty at the University of Notre defray a $135,000 judgment imposed Dame, where she teaches courses in when they refused to bake a cake for a business law and entrepreneurship. lesbian wedding. Professor Hollis’ career as an attor- Perhaps most disturbingly, these tac- ney has spanned 28 years, the past 23 tics have moved into the political arena. of which have been in higher education. The Wall Street Journal and National She has taught law at the graduate and Review have reported extensively on undergraduate levels, and has nearly “John Doe” raids in Wisconsin, insti- 15 years’ experience in the develop- gated by political opponents of Gov. ment and delivery of entrepreneurship Scott Walker, and targeting his sup- courses, seminars and workshops for porters and other conservatives. Police multiple audiences. battered down doors, threatened people Professor Hollis began her academ- and their children, confiscated their ic career at the University of Detroit property and forbade them to speak to Mercy, where she was a tenured pro- anyone — even counsel. fessor of law. She later served as visit- No, this isn’t Cambodia. But there ing professor of law at Michigan State is cause for concern in a climate where University Law School. In addition to differing beliefs are not allowed; where her legal publications in the Temple opposing views are silenced by sweep- Law Review, Cardozo Law Review and ing and unsubstantiated accusations; the Cornell Journal of Law and Public where your livelihood can be destroyed Policy, she has been a freelance politi- by hate campaigns on social media; cal writer since 1993. where those who threaten your safety 6 Conservative Chronicle LEADERSHIP: May 1, 2015 Commander-in-chief: Actions speak louder or 14 minutes that seemed end- buses have their extended say. to James William Fulbright, Rhodes to liberty and justice for all, neither of less Tuesday, our president did Ike had patience and tolerance. For Scholar and Deep Thinker, compared which is possible if civil order is sacri- his Hamlet bit, delivering a so- a while. He let J. William Fulbright, he to his promise as the next Metternich ficed to mob rule. Ike would have none liloquyF instead of anything that might of the notorious Southern Manifesto, or Talleyrand, even if he would turn of that. So he acted. be mistaken for action, or leadership, pretend to be above the fray. Sen. Ful- out to be something closer to Got any objections? If so, tell it to the or anything else presidential. He waxed bright’s discreet re- the next Chamber- Marines, or rather those U.S. Army para- philosophical, he mused and fretted, he sponse to the Crisis lain? troopers standing there with bayonets at listed the Fors and Againsts, he talked of ‘57 was to duck Paul When Ike and the ready. For here the law would be en- and talked and then ... talked some more. out of the country the country had forced, not just endlessly discussed. Whether anybody was still listening or as it approached. Greenberg had enough of such not. Actually to take a (c) 2015, Tribune Media Services nonsense, that IMAGINE IF this president had stand for law and president didn’t dispatched the 101st to Baltimore last IT WOULD have taken a masoch- order, for the brotherhood of man and just talk but acted. Or rather he let the week, or federalized the National Guard ist or a reporter to have hung around for the law of the land, might have endan- 101st Airborne act for him. Unmistak- there the way Ike did Arkansas’ back in Barack Obama’s whole press conference gered the senator’s precious political ca- ably. The message those troops ringing ‘57. The effect would have been elec- instead of drifting off to the nearest bar reer, not to mention his inflated idea of Central High that day in 1957 sent was trifying. It would have been clear that for a good stiff one. We intend no dis- himself as a global statesman. clear enough — to the country and the the United States of America had a chief respect to bartenders by that remark; whole watching, waiting world: This executive, a commander-in-chief of its we’ve heard more than a few in our time WHAT WERE the long-denied was still a nation where law and order armed forces, a president ... and not just who could address a question simply and rights of millions of his countrymen would prevail, a nation still dedicated a discussion leader. directly. Unlike this president, whose vague subject, which he might actually LEADERSHIP: April 30, 2015 touch on now and then, was the latest outbreak of racial violence in an Ameri- can city, this time Baltimore. And what was it he said? Can anyone recall whole days later? He seemed to Beliefs and outcomes be all for peaceful protest (what good ccording to C.S. Lewis, “We From what demographics are these publican presidential primary candi- American isn’t?) and all against the vio- are what we believe we are.” shifts coming? The shift out of upper- dates. The challenge stems from the lent kind (which most Americans surely If he is correct, then it raises class/ middle-class identification is fact that we have experienced a down- are). He’s all for the police except when thisA question: Do our beliefs on where less prevalent for those with college grading of how we feel we fit into the they abuse their powers. All of which is we fit in among the economic classes degrees and more prevalent for those country from an economic perspective. nice, but none of which much matters if create a self-fulfilling prophecy, and, if between the ages of 30 and 64 — those The opportunity is for a candidate to the Hon. Barack Obama isn’t going to do so, can downgrading our beliefs change who are in the years when earnings articulate a clear vision of a positive anything about what happened in Balti- our economic outcomes? power is supposed to be greatest. future, from an economic perspective, more except talk about it some more. We all know from experience that be- Since 2001, there has been a two that will inspire people to not only vote Once again the president called for liefs and outcomes can be mutually re- percent decline in “upper-class” iden- for him or her but to work for his or her a period of national soul-searching, but inforcing, in positive and negative ways. tification, a two percent decline in “up- campaign. it sounded as if he were searching not The trainer who helped me get into the per-middle-class” identification, a 10 Words have power; they create im- his soul but his community organizer’s best shape of my life about eight years percent decline in “middle- ages and possibilities and provide a manual for ways to involve all but not ago had a mantra that he drilled into my window into the future of what could actually do anything about what had head: “You can do it; you can do it — Jackie be. The best leaders use positive words happened in Baltimore. put your mind to it.” Of course, what he to communicate a potential future for Who could object to this president’s meant was to put my biceps, triceps and Gingrich a country that is possible if actions are parade of platitudes? There was nothing quadriceps, etc. into it as well. But it all Cushman taken. They inspire action, progress to object to — nothing new, nothing of started with my belief system — did I (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate and positive results. For words to mat- substance ... in short, nothing. For this believe that, with hard work, I could do ter, they must be supported by a solid Americans need a president? it? class identification,” a three percent foundation. If memory serves, Barack Obama increase in “working-class” identifica- The clearer, simpler and more direct once took an oath to faithfully execute THIS BELIEF in who we are — in tion, and a huge jump in lower-class the vision, the faster people will con- the laws of the United States, but he did terms of economic class — has changed self-identification from three percent to nect and embrace our country’s poten- everything but that in this 14-minute ex- dramatically in the past 15 years for 15 percent. This is a quintupling of the tial future — working for its outcome. ercise in talk, not action. many Americans. In 2000, almost two- percentage of those who self-identify The reason that President Ronald Once upon a time the United States of thirds of Americans identified them- in the lower-class economically. Reagan was so effective is that his America had a chief executive who was selves as upper- or middle-class, while words were simply an extension of who a chief executive, a president and com- one-third identified themselves as work- THIS 15-YEAR change might ex- he was. His belief system, his founda- mander-in-chief of its armed forces who ing- or lower-class according to Gallup. plain why Democratic presidential tion, had been formed over a long time, acted like one. His name was Dwight D. This week, Gallup released a survey candidate Hillary Clinton rolled out and he focused not on changing his Eisenhower, though everybody called in which “51 percent of Americans say her campaign talking about every- core belief system, but on clearly com- him Ike, and many of us — millions of they are middle class or upper-middle day Americans, with her quote on the municating his belief that a brighter fu- us — liked Ike, and trusted him to do the class, while 48 percent say they are low- home page of her website, Hillaryclin- ture awaits. right thing. Some of us still remember er class or working class.” (April 9-12, ton.com, saying: “Everyday Ameri- and sorely miss him. For behind that in- 2015, 95 percent confidence level, plus/ cans need a champion. I want to be that CONTENT IN who he was, he pro- fectious grin, there was a general’s will minus five points.) While the increase champion.” vided the calm reassurance that Amer- and determination. in those self-identified as working- and “Everyday Americans” is a broader ica is great, that its people are resilient When civil disorder threatened an lower-class has gradually increased term than “middle-class.” Regardless and that we simply have to have as American city, and defiance of law was from 2008 until now, the downward of where one might identify on an eco- much faith in ourselves as he did. Alas, all the rage, literally, Ike gave the trou- shift in upper- and middle-class self- nomic basis, my guess is most would that combination of leadership shows, blemakers and talkers and all those who identification occurred primarily be- identify with “everyday Americans.” once again, that we need someone who found excuses for them plenty of rope. tween 2008 and 2012 (from 63 percent This recent poll highlights both a can lead our country forward into a He let the Jim Johnsons and Orval Fau- to 50 percent). challenge and an opportunity for Re- brighter future. May 13, 2015 7 MSNBC: April 29, 2015 MSNBC police brutality experts — incredible! t’s beginning to look as if the how smart and disciplined and clean him and shoot him until he goes all the “is very credible and truthful. ... And Democratic Party can’t whip the activists are. way down to the ground.” I thought Dorian was very credible as African-Americans into an anti- Which reminds me, whatever hap- Under O’Donnell’s tough cross- well, and watched his interviews. ... A whiteI frenzy to turn out on Election pened to Lawrence O’Donnell’s star examination, Tiffany disputed the idea 22-year-old guy cannot make that up. Day, and then say, “OK, thanks, guys! witness to the Ferguson shooting, Tif- — now proved true by gobs of forensic ... So I think they’re both very cred- That’s all we need.” fany Mitchell? evidence — that Brown had wrestled ible.” How else do liberals explain the You’re all surely familiar with with Officer Wilson for his gun: Lisa Bloom, NBC legal analyst, upsurge in racial unrest since Obama Dorian Johnson, Brown’s ex-con co- MITCHELL: said, “I can tell you, as a practicing trial became president? Why would white conspirator in What I saw was Mi- lawyer, who assesses witnesses every racism — their view — latent for the the cigar robbery, chael trying to pull day for a living, Tiffany Mitchell is ex- previous 15 years, burst forth meteori- who invented the Ann away from the cop cellent. I give her an A.” cally just as the country elected its first whole “hands Coulter through the win- Qualification to become an MSNBC dow. black president? up, don’t shoot” (c) 2015, Ann Coulter expert analyst: Be dropped on your fantasy. MSNBC O’DONNELL: head a lot as a child. DID WE ELECT this bumbling played Dorian’s version of the shoot- And could you see if the police offi- Everything Dorian and Tiffany said incompetent, then suddenly remember ing a million times a day last summer: cer was touching Michael when he was has, of course, now been proved, after that we’re racists? “The officer is out of the car now ... trying to pull away? months-long, astronomically expen- I have an explanation! It’s sub- and as he got closer, he fired one more MITCHELL: Yes, he was. He was sive investigations by both the grand tly alluded to in the title of my book, shot. That shot struck my friend in the pulling him in. jury and Eric Holder’s Justice Depart- Mugged: Racial Demagoguery From back. (Big Mike) then stopped what he O’DONNELL: And so, he was try- ment, to be a pack of lies. Wilson has the Seventies to Obama. What’s theirs? was doing and stopped to turn around, ing to — what you saw was the police been completely vindicated in shooting I’ve tried looking on Salon, which is with his hands in (the) air, and started officer trying to pull Michael into the Brown, who did wrestle with the cop like a liberal website from IFC’s “Port- to tell the officer that he was unarmed car? for his gun, was not shot in the back landia” (typical headline: “Smashing and he was not — and before he can MITCHELL: Yes. and did not have his hands up. police cars is a legitimate political get his last words out, the officer fired As O’Donnell summarized the evi- Maybe that’s why MSNBC is not strategy”), but Salon shows no interest several more shots and my friend went dence: “Two very valuable witnesses even trying to report on what happened Beliefs and outcomes in exploring why white racism has sud- down in the fetal position.” there, Dorian Johnson and Tiffany with Freddie Gray, the cause celebre of denly exploded under Obama. As assiduous MSNBC viewers will Mitchell.” the Baltimore riots. MSNBC, having been thoroughly also recall, Tiffany Mitchell’s state- And whatever happened to the South embarrassed with the Michael-Brown- ments about the shooting played on an BUT TO BE extra sure he was get- Carolina case of an apparently unjusti- was-shot-in-the-back-while-walking- endless loop on O’Donnell’s show: ting the absolute, complete truth from fiable shooting of fleeing suspect Wal- home-from-his-cancer-research-intern- “The officer gets out of his vehicle Dorian and Tiffany, O’Donnell then ter Scott by North Charleston police of- ship narrative, has gone totally abstract and he pursues him. As he’s follow- interviewed a series of experts — all ficer Michael Slager? Left-wing racial with the actual cause of the Baltimore ing him, he’s shooting at him. And of whom were blown away by the cred- agitators don’t have to listen to me, but unrest. The network covers the riots Michael’s body jerks as if he’s hit. He ibility of Dorian and Tiffany! that seemed like a better case for them like a sporting event, with Chris Hayes turns around and he put his hands up MSNBC’s law enforcement ana- than Michael Brown. Why so silent? constantly jumping in to talk about and the officer continued to walk up on lyst, Jim Cavanaugh, said that Tiffany Black lives matter, people! Obscure websites claim that Slager had been shot by his own Taser and had reason to believe Scott was run- ning away, still holding the Taser gun. Photos seem to show the Taser wire be- ing pulled taut from the officer’s chest to the fleeing suspect, who’d gotten tangled up in it. And why did Scott run? Did he suddenly remember he forgot to tape Judge Judy? Did the Mercedes belong to him? Who was his passenger? It may turn out that Officer Slager shot a citi- zen in the back without reason or justi- fication, but can’t we get the basic facts of what happened? This is what I loathe about lawyers. They refuse to let their clients talk — in order to save the perfect case for trial. But in big public cases like these, that strategy doesn’t work. Their clients are left to twist in the wind for six months, and, by the time the trial comes around, the guy’s life is ruined anyway.

LUCKILY FOR Officer Darren Wilson, his girlfriend called into a ra- dio station to give his version of events soon after the shooting. Eight months and millions of dollars later, it turns out her account was the only true one, de- spite all those very credible, highly be- lievable, salt-of-the-earth eyewitnesses testifying on MSNBC. 8 Conservative Chronicle 2016 ELECTION: April 30, 2015 What stands in Lindsey Graham’s way indsey Graham once said his able to press the point effectively. Eight road to Congress ran through years after the hard lessons of Iraq, he a coronary clinic because it too supported violent regime change in involvesL so many South Carolina bar- Libya. His primary regret was that insuf- becues. Today, as a senator, he thinks ficient U.S. force was employed. In he sees a path to the Republican presi- a joint statement with John dential nomina- McCain, Graham tion. He has many George said “Americans strengths, but two can be proud of the substantial prob- Will role our country” lems. (c) 2015, Washington Post Writers Group played, except for Two clarifying “the failure of the issues efficiently reveal who actually United States to employ the full weight is conservative and underscore two of of our air power.” Hillary Clinton’s vulnerabilities. They Graham did urge taking responsibil- are the U.S. attack on Libya, and her at- ity for the aftermath: “Let’s get on the tack on freedom of political speech. ground and help the Libyan people es- tablish a democracy.” Democracy’s SECRETARY OF State Clinton prerequisites were, however, as lacking helped initiate a protracted assassina- there as they were in Iraq, where we tion attempt — eight months of chasing should have learned the perils of “na- Moammar Gaddafi with fighter-bomb- tion-building,” and how discordant that ers. This exercise in regime change project is with all conservative precepts. ited spending for issue advocacy inde- Challenged about this, he says he succeeded in decapitating Libya’s gov- Clinton promises to vastly expand the pendent of candidates’ campaigns. The might consider instead undoing the ernment. It was, however, progressive power of the political class to regulate court simply reasoned that Americans damage he, his friend McCain and oth- imperialism, supposedly humanitarian campaign speech about itself, “even if do not forfeit their First Amendment er “reformers” have done. Removing muscularity untainted by any clear and that takes a constitutional amendment.” rights when they join together to mag- limits on contributions to parties (with substantial U.S. national interest. Hence Graham is a better lawyer than Clinton nify their political speech. immediate disclosure on the Internet) its appeal to a liberal administration, but not clearly a better friend of the First Clinton’s aspiration to make the Bill would divert the flow of money from which neglected to ask the question Amendment. He knows it would be of Rights less restraining on govern- super PACs back to the parties, where conservatives have learned to ask be- necessary to amend this Amendment in ment and less protective of individuals it once went. Parties should then be able fore going abroad in search of monsters order to overturn the Supreme Court’s would be accomplished by empowering to make unlimited expenditures for, to destroy: “But then what?” 2010 Citizens United decision, which Congress to legislate what it considers and coordinate with, their candidates, Now we know what. Libya is a failed he, like she, dislikes. reasonable restrictions on contributions which present law severely restricts. state incubating radical Islamists. to finance the dissemination of political This would make parties more robust In 2016, when Clinton is asked CITIZENS UNITED upheld the speech. The Washington Post reports and accountable, and campaign political about her complicity in this calamity, right of corporations (in practice, al- that in New Hampshire recently Gra- financing more transparent. she might say, “What difference at this most entirely incorporated nonprofit ham “called for a constitutional amend- Super PACs, which Graham regrets point does it make?” Graham will be un- advocacy groups) and unions to unlim- ment to overturn Citizens United.” as strongly as he needs and desires the backing of one, have been summoned into existence by limits on contributions to candidates and parties. These lim- its have diverted money into the super PACs that must not “coordinate” with candidates. The infancy of super PACs is, Gra- ham says, over. “They are full-blown teenagers” who in this cycle could, he thinks, produce a brokered nominating convention. A super PAC devoted to helping a particular candidate can “cre- ate viability beyond winning.” Usually, he says, candidacies are ended by a scar- city of money or a surfeit of embarrass- ment, or both. Suppose, however, that super PACs enable, say, five 2016 can- didates to survive until July, losing often but winning here and there, particularly in states that allocate their delegates not winner-take-all but proportionally. Sup- pose the five reach the convention with a combined total of delegates larger than the 1,236 (this might change) needed for a nominating majority. What fun.

TO REACH a rendezvous with Clinton in the autumn of 2016, Graham must play by the rules we have. Win or lose, he is too intelligent to join her in proposing slapdash constitutional van- dalism. May 13, 2015 9 HILLARY CLINTON: May 5, 2015 Clinton defenders advance an unpersuasive argument ome of Hillary Clinton’s de- tons’ defenders expect and hope in their Newt Gingrich was knocked off the from office. He’s been elected to two fenders have taken to saying case that you will instead be suspicious speaker’s chair days after Republicans terms; he’s been performing tolerably that voters shouldn’t pay atten- of those who make so many accusa- lost seats in the midterm election. well — so what if he lies under oath tionS to the latest Clinton scandals — the tions. After all, they’re always saying But there’s a big difference between about conduct that is personal and out- gushing of often undisclosed millions nasty things! In this view, even charges then and now. Bill Clinton was the in- side his official duties? to the Clintons and their organizations advanced and amplified by theNew York cumbent president when he was im- (That doesn’t mean that Clinton’s con- by characters seeking official favors — Times may be summarily dismissed as peached. Hillary Clinton is a duct didn’t have political consequences. because the charges are just one more in the products of a vast right-wing con- private citizen who is running The Lewinsky revelations put an end to a long series: Whitewater, the Rose law spiracy. for president. negotiations between Clinton and Gin- firm billing records, the Buddhist temple Of course, for Michael Most voters want- grich on serious entitlement reforms. fundraising, the Lippo Group. some voters, the ed Clinton to remain They’ve been delayed now going on 20 So, the theory goes, because the Clin- just-one-more- Barone in office. He was years.) tons have been accused of so many scan- scandal argument (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate re-elected in 1996 But that doesn’t mean voters were dalous doings before, people shouldn’t may cut the other by an eight-point necessarily buying the Clintons’ de- be concerned now about Secretary Clin- way. They may decide that they’ve en- margin over Bob Dole. Before the Mon- fenses. Even as his job approval rose, ton’s actions that helped certain donors dured enough Clinton scandals. ica Lewinsky scandal broke, his job ap- Clinton’s favorable/unfavorable ratings turn over 20 percent of U.S. uranium Still, Clinton defenders have some proval was in the high 50s. Once he was declined. People thought less of him per- reserves to a state-run Russian company. basis for thinking that the just-one-more- threatened with removal, that bounced sonally, but they also couldn’t accept the scandal argument has worked for the up to 70 percent. idea of pushing him aside. COMMON SENSE might tend to Clintons before. Bill Clinton may have Hillary Clinton is in a different posi- make you more suspicious of those who been interrogated and impeached, but IN EFFECT, a crucial number of tion. She is a candidate, not an incumbent. attract many accusations. But the Clin- he wasn’t removed from office. Instead, Americans were saying not to boot him Candidates are easily dispensed with, as former Sen. Gary Hart learned when the photos of him sailing on the “Monkey JOHNNY ISAKSON: April 30, 2015 Business” appeared in May 1987 when he was seeking the Democratic nomina- tion for president. His staffers vowed he would hold onto his support, but it wasn’t D.C.’s ‘hardest working man’ his to hold on to. He quickly withdrew he late soul singer James Isakson was likely named to chair the they thought no one in the state could and faded from view. Brown used to call himself Ethics Committee thanks to his no-non- defeat Isakson for re-election next year. Hart’s position in 1987 was weaker the hardest-working man in sense, businesslike and ethical approach The state’s last Democratic governor, than Clinton’s position today. His lead showbiz.T Now another Georgian, a to everything he has ever done. That Roy Barnes, said he, too, would be a in Democratic primary polls was not U.S. senator, is proving to be the hard- includes running a large Atlanta-based Republican if everyone in the state GOP overwhelming, and there were other se- est-working man in his line of work. real estate company as a private citizen, were like Isakson. rious active or potential candidates in Many Americans likely don’t know serving in the Georgia legislature and That’s not likely because Barnes the field or just over the horizon. That’s the name Johnny Isakson. He’s not the later as successor to Newt Gingrich in agrees with all of Isakson’s conservative because even in Ronald Reagan’s 1980s, type to ever push his name into the his Congressional seat. positions. It is more likely that Barnes, Democrats of varying ideological stripes limelight. But insiders on Capitol Hill Gingrich made it clear to his friends who served with Isakson in Georgia’s were winning major offices around the know him, and it’s no secret that Geor- that he wanted Isakson to win the elec- legislature years ago, recognizes Sen. country. Democrats had reason to think gia’s senior senator is everyone’s “go- tion held to replace him after Isakson’s ability to keep a cool head, they had a good chance of nominating a to” person when it comes to producing listen to all sides of an issue and make a strong ticket without Hart. concrete results and to promoting the fair decision on all types of issues. Today’s Democrats fear they are not conservative agenda in a businesslike Matt What many independent voters don’t in this comfortable position. They’ve and respectable manner. like about the Republican image is just been losing most elections lately in con- Towery that — its image. They view Republi- stituencies beyond those where their core ISAKSON, WHO was sworn into (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate cans as brusque, knee-jerk and polariz- constituencies — blacks, some Hispan- office in the Senate in 2005 along ing. Of course, with a mainstream media ics, gentry liberals — are clustered. They with, among others, then-Sen. Barack Newt resigned from Congress. He later that never really lets voters see just how don’t have many prominent plausible al- Obama, has rocketed up in seniority. publicly endorsed Isakson, who won the polarizing and knee-jerk the current ad- ternative candidates. He now is the only member of the Sen- race by a whopping 40 points. ministration and other Democratic lead- Absent Hillary Clinton, they would ate to serve as chairman of two com- Ironically, Gingrich had been cool ers are, it’s hard for Republicans to get be faced with a choice of tax-raiser Mar- mittees. One of those in itself is a hand- toward Isakson in earlier years, consid- a fair break. tin O’Malley, socialist Bernie Sanders, ful: Veterans’ Affairs. The other one ering him to be too moderate on many But if the GOP wants to attract inde- Reagan appointee Jim Webb, former could at any time become a full plate, issues. But in the more immediate years pendent swing voters in ‘16 while still Republican scion Lincoln Chafee or the too: the Ethics Committee. Add to that leading up to his departure from Con- staying true to the party’s conservative gaffe-prone Joe Biden. None run as well Isakson’s seat on both Foreign Rela- gress, Gingrich came to know Isakson philosophy, they need to search for and as Clinton in general election polls. tions and the powerful Finance Com- as not only a solid Republican and con- hold on to candidates like Johnny Isak- But how strong is Clinton? Her num- mittee and you get an idea that this is servative, but also as a solid man. son. bers have been declining, and she runs one busy guy. In the end, it’s the genuine nature of under 50 percent against lesser-known But there are plenty of busy people NEWT GINGRICH’S assessment the man that makes him so popular both Republicans in most national and target- in Washington. What makes Isakson an proved to be on target. If Newt wanted a at home and in Washington. Isakson is state polls. All voters know her, and most important role model for Republicans conservative to follow in his footsteps, the type of elected leader who is never don’t favor her. She runs stronger in polls who will be seeking to keep control he got what he wished for. Isakson fol- too busy to help out constituents or to of all adults, not just registered voters. of the Senate and capture the White lowed Gingrich’s conservative approach return on weekends to the same Georgia That gap suggests she could have a hard House in 2016 are the other attributes in the House and later in the Senate, home he has lived in with his wife since time inspiring maximizing turnout. that have made him reportedly the where National Journal ranks him the the 1970s. most popular member of the Senate. seventh-most-conservative member. THE ARGUMENT that the Clintons He’s also a man who is held in highest In a recent Atlanta Journal-Constitu- REPUBLICANS WOULD do well have always faced scandal charges is regard by both Republicans and most tion article, the biggest names in Geor- to follow the lead of the hardest-work- intended to shore up her support. But it Democrats in his home state. gia’s Democratic Party essentially said ing man in Washington. may have the opposite effect. 10 Conservative Chronicle DEMOCRATS: April 30, 2015 Can a one-percenter lead the Democrats? oes it strike you as an indica- ising national candidate that the Demo- reappear in the White House after years going to get worse when all the details tion of a political party’s ro- crats were grooming to become their of being subpoenaed? In the mid-1990s, of Schweizer’s book are divulged. Not bust vitality that in a country next Messiah was bumped off in the an American Spectator reporter found a only do the Clintons take money from of Dmore than 300 million people that wave elections of 2010 and 2014. Those young man back in the Little Wall Street and Hollywood, but also party has just one likely nominee for waves were Re- Rock night duti- they have taken donations from foreign president? Notwithstanding the fact that publican waves. R. Emmett fully burning Rose entities, often foreign governments, she has at her disposal nearly a billion The Democrats Law firm records. occasionally hostile foreign govern- dollars, she is 67 years old and stands have been left with Tyrrell I would have ments. Supposedly, the Clintons have accused of committing at least one felo- the ever youthful, (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate thought that he made enough money since leaving the ny. What country are we talking about, ever energetic, burned them all. White House — amid rumors of par- the old USSR? No, we are talking about ever so late-1960s Hillary and her now dons pedaled and government property the contemporary U.S. of A. anile husband, Bill. So right now Hill- IT IS REPORTED that today’s pilfered — to qualify as members of the ary is the Democrats’ candidate, assum- left-wing Democrats — their blood- left’s hated one-percenters. How can the THIS IS THE condition in which ing she is not indicted for destroying her shot eyes bulging, the veins in their Democrats nominate a one-percenter to the Democratic Party now finds itself, 30,000 emails much like she destroyed heads throbbing — are unhappy with lead the party of the down and out? I say and it calls itself the party of youth- or concealed her billing records back Hillary for continuing to gouge Wall the Democratic left nominate an alter- ful vigor. After Hillary Rodham Clin- in the 1990s. By the way, how ever did Street and Hollywood for money. This native to Hillary. How about Joe Biden, ton, the next two candidates in line for those billing records disappear and then is one of their issues with her, and it is ha-ha? her party’s presidential nomination are 72-year-old Vice President, Joe Biden May 3, 2015 (ha-ha!), and a 65-year-old senator from HILLARY CLINTON: Massachusetts whose Native-American heritage is widely viewed to be an op- portunistic fiction and in some quarters a pretty good joke. After that there is Hillary Clinton changes on crime a 73-year-old Socialist by the name of “It’s time to end the era of mass in- The Washington Post duly noted that at least 18 arrests since 2007, mostly on Bernie Sanders and the ex-governor of carceration,” Hillary Clinton proclaimed Clinton is breaking with her husband’s drug charges, and with more than one ar- Maryland who benefits from being only in a scheduled criminal-justice speech 1994 crime law, without mentioning his rest in certain months. Until his untimely 52 years of age — though last weekend, Wednesday that gave her the opportunity legislation by name. The 1994 Violent death, Gray was a repeat offender for Baltimore, the city which he earlier pre- to address sentencing reform in the con- Crime Control and Law Enforcement whom arrest meant not draconian time sided over as mayor, erupted in racial text of the troubles in Baltimore. It was a Act created tough penalties for drug of- but a turnstile experience. Bill Otis, a for- rioting because of a police department lukewarm effort in keeping with Hillary- fenders and dedicated $30 million to mer federal prosecutor with the Criminal whose strategies for policing are widely land rules. Say as little as possible. Of- hire local police and build prisons. Justice Legal Foundation, believes the held to be brutal and devised by him. fend no interest group. Let handlers alert Drug Policy Alliance Execu- circumstances of Gray’s death “are quite Does anyone know how the Demo- the media that the candidate is engaging suspicious,” but not all facts are in. Otis cratic Party fell into such a heap? Well in a big policy shift that is bound to at- Debra J. also thinks that any 25-year-old with 18 for one thing it suffers from being the tract young voters, even if the big policy arrests has “made his decision on how dubious beneficiary of the Taranto Prin- shift leaves out specific positions on, say, Saunders he’s going to live,” so don’t blame crimi- ciple. According to the Taranto Prin- marijuana legalization or the death pen- (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate nal penalties for his crimes. ciple, first identified by the Wall Street alty. Clinton had to give this speech, given Journal’s James Taranto, the main- tive Director Ethan Nadelmann declared that Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a declared stream media’s coddling of its pets — I DON’T think it was smart to com- he was delighted Hillary Clinton made White House hopeful, has been a hard- read its pets in the Democratic Party bine sentencing reform and the use of criminal-justice reform the focus of the core critic of Washington’s war on drugs. — encourages the pols’ worst instincts: force by police in the same speech. We first major policy address since she an- “If he’s the Republican nominee and self-indulgence, eccentric behavior, ar- do not know whether Baltimore police nounced her candidacy for president. But she’s the Democratic nominee,” opined rogance and, in the Clintons’ case, in- caused the death of Freddie Gray, who he also was disappointed that Clinton Tom Angell of the pro-legalization Mari- fluence pedaling. According to a new died from a spinal cord injury after being never addressed her support of draconian juana Majority, it will be embarrassing book, Clinton Cash by Peter Schweizer, taken into police custody. State’s Attor- drug law sentences. for Clinton. the Clintons have joined the fabled one ney Marilyn J. Mosby made a damning The person who really showed up percent selling influence to the highest case as she announced she was charging HILLARY CLINTON campaign Clinton is mother and grandmother Toya bidder. six officers with murder or lesser charges. spokesman Jesse Ferguson, however, Graham of Baltimore. While Clinton cites Still, we haven’t heard from the cops yet. did tweet that the reason Hillary’s take is her status as a grandmother as a factor be- VIEWED FROM the rationale pre- People thought a white cop had killed an different from Bill’s is not that Bill was hind her position of the day, Graham has cincts of the non-mainstream media, unarmed black youth in Ferguson, Mis- wrong in 1994 but that “times change.” a flesh-and-blood stake in Baltimore. She the Democratic Party is in a heck of a souri, only to learn police Officer Dar- I was disappointed in Clinton’s will- showed up at Monday’s riot because her mess. Its labor unions have gone Lud- ren Wilson shot Michael Brown in self- ingness to throw all law enforcement 16-year-old son had told her he planned dite, socialist and, in some instances, defense. Sometimes facts support the — federal, state and local — in one pile to participate and she did not want him pre-industrial. Its leavening of moder- very understandable suspicion that race as she talked about “excessive incar- to become the next Freddie Gray. When ates hardly exists. Its conservatives died is the defining element when police use ceration.” Federal mandatory minimum Graham saw her son in a mask holding a out long ago or became Republicans. force; think of the video of a white South sentences have fallen disproportionately rock, she lost it and clobbered him. Gra- The Democrats take great comfort when Carolina officer shooting an unarmed on African-Americans and doomed low- ham later said to CBS News that she told they are recognized by their amanuen- African-American in the back multiple level offenders — often with no history her son: “You will not be throwing rocks ses in the mainstream media as diverse, times. Sometimes they do not. Until the of violence, sometimes with no prior and stones at police officers. At some forward-looking and progressive. Yet facts are in, police deserve the same pre- convictions — to years, even decades, in point, who’s to say that they don’t have to they are really only party hacks wearing sumption of innocence that is the right prison. As I’ve written for decades now, come and protect me from something?” masks: Environmentalists! Feminists! of every American. Clinton should have Congress needs to return sanity to the The down-and-out of the working class! said as much. system so that minimum sentences reflect CLINTON WANTS to be president, The bores from identity politics. Instead, she focused on the need to the low end of the corrections spectrum, so she simply said Baltimore should and The reason Hillary is the only Demo- reduce incarceration rates, as keeping not the harshest punishment imaginable. does “tear at our soul.” If Clinton cannot crat even dreamed of for the Democratic offenders “behind bars does little to re- Gray, 25, was swept into a different speak Toya Graham’s plain truth, she has nomination in 2016 is that every prom- duce crime.” This is a change of tune. vortex — local law enforcement — with no business running. May 13, 2015 11 FAST TRACK: May 4, 2015 GOP surrenders leverage over Obama magine if Republicans could quirement of a two-thirds majority of force President Obama to re- the Senate for ratification. A simple ma- scind his executive amnesty for jority would suffice. Congress could not immigrantsI coming to this country il- amend the trade agreements and would legally. Or repeal the mandate to buy have only 60 days to cast an up health insurance that lies at the core of or down vote. Under fast Obamacare. Or re- track, the president voke the EPA reg- Dick could do what he ulations that are wants. increasingly em- Morris Republicans bracing all aspects (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate have historically of American life in been the party the signatories. It is easy to see how this tions, but we know that this president the name of stopping climate change. of free trade, arguing that it brings us provision could be expanded now or cannot be trusted to exercise restraint All this would be possible if the Re- closer to Adam Smith’s world of free in the future to include all immigration in using any power he has been granted. publicans dug in their heels and refused markets. So they have always backed under the guise of creating a European- And once provisions for immigra- to grant Obama fast-track authority to presidents who seek to make trade deals style free flow of labor. Even if this pro- tion and climate change are included in get ratification of trade deals. easier to cut. vision is not in the treaty, the Senate will the treaty, they cannot be superseded or But in this era, a trade deal may not be asked to ratify, it could be included even modified by an act of Congress. INSTEAD, Republicans are fall- be just about trade. The administra- subsequently under the pretense that the The treaty provisions would have the ing all over themselves to give Obama tion could use the fast-track authority administration is simply fleshing out the force of the law of the land under our more power and to curtail Congres- to force through deals that are partly terms of an already negotiated trade deal. Constitution. sional checks and balances. Even as about commerce but that get into other Likewise, environmental protections The impetus for the fast-track leg- Obama seizes power by unprecedented areas such as immigration and climate embodied in the agreement could be in- islation is the Trans-Pacific Partner- use of executive authority, Republicans change. terpreted to require climate change regu- ship Trade Deal now under negotia- Hillary Clinton changes on crime in both houses are trying to give him lation even in the absence of Congres- tion. Embracing 12 nations including more. AUSTRALIA REPORTED that the sional authorization. the U.S., Peru, Chile, Mexico, Canada, Under fast track, trade deals will negotiations are including provisions for The administration is anxious to as- Japan, Vietnam, Australia, Brunei Da- not be subject to the Constitutional re- free flow of white-collar workers among sure Congress that it has no such inten- russalam, Malaysia, New Zealand and Singapore, nobody knows the exact provisions of the accord. In fact, they MARRIAGE: April 30, 2015 have not yet been worked out. But Obama wants Republicans to approve fast-track authority on spec and the GOP is eager to oblige. Until the court do us part? Democrats, for their part, are break- n 2-1/2 hours of oral arguments appeals about an Authority higher than have done so by a “vote of the people or ing with the president over issues like before the U.S. Supreme Court themselves, how can they be persuaded the legislature.” currency manipulation, labor standards Tuesday, Justice Anthony Ken- that same-sex marriage is a bridge too To the surprise of conservatives, and environmental protection. But Re- nedyI asked the right question: whether far? After all, don’t they “know” gay liberal Justice Stephen Breyer echoed publicans are standing with the presi- it is appropriate for the Court to discard people, whom they regard as wonder- Kennedy’s concern: “The opposite dent to beat them back. a definition of marriage that “has been ful and kind? That “standard” becomes rule has been the law everywhere for If anyone ever doubted the power with us for millennia,” adding, “it’s subjective and when it reaches the level thousands of years.... And, suddenly, big business holds over the Republican very difficult for the court to say, ‘Oh, of personal feelings it becomes a shift- you want nine people outside the ballot Party, the events unfolding on the trade well, we know better.’” ing boundary that is drawn in invisible box to require states, that don’t want to deal should dispel these doubts. In their Kennedy, who is regarded as the ink rather than set in stone. do it, to change what you’ve heard ... pursuit of profits, American business is swing vote on this and many other con- Only two years ago, in the case change what marriage is to include gay prepared to give Obama the keys to the troversial issues, may not answer his of “U.S. v. Windsor,” which people.” kingdom and let him venture far afield own question the way proponents of That is precisely what the advo- in vindicating his left-wing agenda, traditional marriage wish, but the ques- Cal cates for same-sex marriage want, just without consulting Congress. tion is not rhetorical. Should this court, as the pro-abortion movement wanted Obama is already seeking to en- or any court, re-define and force the Thomas the same court 42 years ago, in “Roe v. shrine EPA regulations about climate states to accept a new definition of mar- (c) 2015, Tribune Media Services Wade,” to discard state laws protecting change in an international “executive riage that will not only affect same-sex the unborn. That 1973 decision contin- agreement” — which would not re- couples, but open the door to other peti- argued whether the IRS could give fed- ues to stir controversy and should be a quire Congressional ratification. He is tioners, for example, polygamists, who eral tax benefits to all legally married lesson to the court not to make a similar also trying to jam through gun controls wish to “marry” more than one person? homosexuals, regardless of state law, mistake with marriage. as part of the Arms Trade Treaty nego- Justice Kennedy warned it was wrong Here is the real problem: If people tiated by the United Nations. The ATT IF HUMAN history, tradition, the for courts to “put a thumb on the scales worship pleasure and material things, would require ratification and, doubt- Bible, the Constitution and biology are and influence a state’s decision as to they are more likely to get leaders who less, won’t get it. But Obama’s strategy to be ignored or re-defined, on what ba- shape its own marriage laws.” And now give them what they want instead of is clear enough: Bypass Congress and sis do courts say “no” to anything? If this court could do precisely that. what they need to hold society together. act through the treaty-making power “equality” and “fairness” are the new If we erase the boundaries that have to implement his program. With fast standard, one might as well have no CHIEF JUSTICE John Roberts told guided humanity for generations, we track, he need not worry about the standard at all because such emotional the plaintiff’s attorneys on Tuesday, weaken our society. filibuster or a super majority or pesky appeals could justify any relationship or “But if you prevail here, there will be Congressional amendments. They will form of behavior. no more debate. ... People feel very dif- A VERSE from the Book of Judges all be banned. The problem for traditionalists — es- ferently about something if they have a seems to define America in 2015, as pecially those who believe scripture is chance to vote on it than if it’s imposed we sink deeper into a moral and cul- HAS THE GOP lost its collective the sole authority in such matters — is on them by the courts.” tural morass: “In those days Israel had mind? Or just its soul? that in an increasingly secular society Yes, they do, which is why, as Jus- no king; everyone did as he saw fit.” where younger people are less attuned to tice Antonin Scalia noted; only 11 states (Judges 21:25) 12 Conservative Chronicle LEADERSHIP: May 5, 2015 It’s time for experienced executive leadership he pack of little-known Repub- many more from coast to coast. lican presidential candidates When he won the nomination in 1980 grew larger this week, raising and went on to beat Jimmy Carter, he had thisT unasked question: run the nation’s most populous state for Do any of them believe they have a se- two terms and was clearly ready to lead rious chance of winning the nomination the country. and the presidency in a political process That’s the kind of job preparation our that usually rewards high-profile figures political process demanded then, as it did who are widely known among the broad for others before and after. base of their party? This week, Ben There are ex- Carson, a brilliant ceptions to this Donald former brain sur- tucky, an eye surgeon; and Marco Rubio The people who voted for him were rule, but more geon and a char- of Florida, the son of Cuban immigrants. mesmerized by his teleprompter oratory, often than not, Lambro ismatic speaker, In terms of their elective status in believing he was equipped to lead the people with White (c) 2015, United Media Services threw his hat in the the Senate, they are freshmen. Cruz has country. But many became sorely disap- House ambitions ring, along with been in office for only two years and four pointed when the lackluster, underper- who have beaten the competition and Carly Fiorina, who led Hewlett-Packard months, much of it spent campaigning forming recovery dragged on year after won the highest office in the land had for six years as its CEO. around the country. Paul and Rubio have year. been working toward it for a long time. Carson has drawn his share of sup- both held their seats for just four years So here we are, nearly six and a half Consider Ronald Reagan, who de- porters as he’s gone about the country, and four months. years later, with an economy that virtu- voted years to the chicken dinner cir- though he is hardly a household name. ally stopped growing in the first three cuit, giving inspiring speeches across the Fewer Americans know Carly Fiorina. EVEN THOUGH none of them have months of this year (0.2 percent), the country long before he won California’s Recent polls show Carson has the sup- completed their first terms yet, they be- stock market in decline, gas prices rising, governorship and went on to capture the port of six percent of GOP voters. Fiorina lieve they’re fully prepared to be chief and voters in a sour mood about the coun- presidency. draws only one percent. executive of the government, run the try’s direction. Both can deliver inspiring speeches country and lead the Free World. The Gallup Poll reported this Tuesday NOT ONLY was he widely known about how they’ve overcome huge ob- That’s more than a bit of a stretch, that economic confidence among Ameri- among his party’s rank and file, but also stacles in their lives to rise to the peak wouldn’t you say? cans was “down sharply last week.” among untold millions of Americans who of their professions. But neither of them Looming over the 2015-16 presiden- “Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index had been listening to him on the radio for stands a chance of winning the nomina- tial election cycle is the fact that Barack was minus-nine for the week ending May years. tion. Obama served less than four years in the 3 — its lowest weekly score since De- In 1976, when Reagan came within an They have no serious campaign or- Senate (most of it campaigning around cember,” the pollsters said. “This reflects eyelash of beating President Gerald Ford ganization to speak of, nor well-known, the country) before he resigned his seat in a six-point decline from the previous for the nomination, Americans had been high-level advisers on their teams. They November 2008 to prepare for the presi- week, and is the largest week-to-week hearing his five-days-a-week radio com- are largely unknown to the broader elec- dency. drop since last July.” mentaries over hundreds of stations. torate. And we know how that turned out, What this tells me is that our country Washington’s campaign reporters They’re not the only ones. At least don’t we? needs someone with executive experi- thought of him as little more than a right- three GOP senators are in the race, all of The result is that voters are, I hope, far ence who knows how to strengthen our wing former actor, largely unaware that them early in their first term: Ted Cruz of more attuned to the issue of experience, economy, create jobs, boost incomes and he was being heard by farmers across Texas, who is electrifying audiences with or lack thereof, because they’ve had to slash our debt-ridden budget. rural America, a lot of truck drivers, and fire-breathing oratory; Rand Paul of Ken- endure its painful shortcomings. The GOP candidates who know how to do this are the governors who have run state economies, slashed unemployment and pruned their budgets. Three of them are running for presi- dent or seriously considering entering the race: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, for- mer Florida governor Jeb Bush and Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Walker took a high-unemployment economy and cut the jobless rate to 4.6 percent, turned a $3.6 billion deficit into a $911 million surplus, cut taxes and raised per-capita incomes. Bush took charge of the nation’s fourth-most-populous state by lowering taxes, enacting school choice reforms, curbing spending and cutting the state’s bureaucracy. Kasich turned around Ohio’s shattered economy by boosting investment, growth and new job creation. The state unem- ployment rate there is at a 5.1 percent low.

WASHINGTON IS a mess. The economy remains weak, wages are flat, the government is up to its neck in debt and is badly in need of experienced ex- ecutive leadership. We can no longer af- ford to offer the next president on-the-job training. May 13, 2015 13 ECONOMY: May 2, 2015 Zero inflation is holding the economy together Don’t expect any miracles from the cans. They both think American wages businesses large and small even lower So if you look at four-quarter trends economy. But don’t expect a collapse, and jobs will be damaged. But as House costs and greater competitiveness. But for perspective, RGDP actually rose either. Ways and Means chair Paul Ryan ar- the corporate tax cut is not going to hap- three percent over the past year. And In political terms, it’s kind of a Mexi- gues, free trade is a positive sum — pen — at least until after the 2016 elec- business investment increased nearly can standoff. Team Obama says they both sides benefit — not a zero sum. tion. five percent, despite a big cutback in saved us from another Great Depres- Export-related jobs typically create energy-company capex. sion. And they point out that 3.1 million higher wages. And 1 in 5 American jobs SO WE’RE left with a trade deal In addition, exports over the past year jobs have been created in the last 12 depend on trade. Moreover, the spread that may well happen. President Obama increased three percent and imports 5.5 months. Republicans counter that this of market capitalism and free trade in is working with Republicans to per- percent. People keep telling me the is the slowest post-WWII recovery on China, India, Vietnam, South America suade Democrats to come strong dollar is killing our exports. But record and that real GDP is roughly $2 and parts of Africa on board with trade. they forget two things: King Dollar has trillion below potential. They add that has lowered dol- Larry Obama deserves led to across-the-board price drops, the labor-force participation rate is 62.7 lar-a-day abject credit. boosting consumer and business real percent, a 39-year low, and that there are poverty by 80 per- Kudlow Meanwhile, incomes. And if exports keep slowing, at least 15 million people who work but cent over the past (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate back to the econ- blame the lack of production out of Eu- can’t get jobs. three decades. omy, real-GDP rope, China, Japan and elsewhere. (Pope Francis, take note.) And with (RGDP) growth was barely above water And you can’t overlook the very core YET BOTH sides may actually hundreds of millions of people entering at 0.2 percent in the first quarter. Bad of the American economy: private con- come together for a major pro-growth the global middle class, America’s low- winter weather undoubtedly played a sumption plus private investment (C + initiative: an Asia-Pacific free-trade deal cost producers are seeing their markets roll. But consider this: A year ago we I). It’s been rising at roughly 3.3 percent that will lower tariffs and other barriers. expand. had a decline in economic growth of year over year for the past several quar- Lower tariffs are lower taxes. Of course, a strong corporate tax cut, two percent — again, largely due to the ters. Not bad. And profits and stock mar- Democratic labor unions don’t like on a territorial basis, with easy repatria- weather — but the next two quarters re- kets hover near record highs. this. Neither do isolationist Republi- tion of overseas profits, would give U.S. bounded by nearly five percent. Then there’s the most underrated fac- tor in today’s economy: zero inflation. WELFARE STATE: May 5, 2015 This is totally pro-growth. It’s a tax cut. The Fed’s monetary machinations haven’t worked. The M2 money sup- ply has hovered around six percent for years, with nominal GDP (NGDP) Race, politics and lies around four percent. The monetarist mong the many painful ironies whether racism in general or a “legacy ing the much lamented 1950s, while it experiment went nowhere. And that’s a in the current racial turmoil is of slavery” in particular. Like most emo- went up after the much celebrated 1960s, good thing, as excess bank reserves nev- that communities scattered tionally powerful visions, it is seldom, if reaching levels more than double what er circulated through the economy and acrossA the country were disrupted by ever, subjected to the test of evidence. they had been before. Most black chil- the velocity (turnover) of money contin- riots and looting because of the demon- The “legacy of slavery” argument is dren were raised in two-parent families ues to fall. But the strong greenback is strable lie that Michael Brown was shot not just an excuse for inexcusable be- prior to the 1960s. But today the great holding prices down, including energy. in the back by a white policeman in Mis- havior in the ghettos. In a larger sense, majority of black children are raised in Gold prices have been stable for years. souri — but there was not nearly as much it is an evasion of responsibility for the one-parent families. So NGDP at four percent with zero turmoil created by the demonstrable fact disastrous consequences of the prevailing Such trends are not unique to blacks, inflation leaves room for four percent that a fleeing black man was shot dead by social vision of our times, and the politi- nor even to the United States. The wel- real growth. It’s a good spot for the a white policeman in South Carolina. cal policies based on that vision, over the fare state has led to remarkably similar economy. But if the Fed had its way and Totally ignored was the fact that a past half century. trends among the white underclass in raised inflation to two percent, RGDP black policeman in Alabama fatally shot England over the same period. Just read might be crowed out to two percent or an unarmed white teenager, and was Life at the Bottom, by Theodore Dal- less. Why do we want that? cleared of any charges, at about the same Thomas rymple, a British physician who worked Paul Volcker used to argue that low time that a white policeman was cleared in a hospital in a white slum neighbor- inflation increases real growth. He was of charges in the fatal shooting of Mi- Sowell hood. right. But Ben Bernanke and Janet Yel- chael Brown. (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate You cannot take any people, of any len argue that higher inflation increases color, and exempt them from the re- real growth. They are wrong. IN A WORLD where the truth means ANYONE WHO is serious about quirements of civilization — including American economic growth has so little, and headstrong preconceptions evidence need only compare black com- work, behavioral standards, personal fallen way behind its long-term per- seem to be all that matter, what hope is munities as they evolved in the first 100 responsibility and all the other basic formance trend. Instead of two percent there for rational words or rational be- years after slavery with black communi- things that the clever intelligentsia dis- growth, we need four or five percent. havior, much less mutual understanding ties as they evolved in the first 50 years dain — without ruinous consequences This leads me to a final thought: It across racial lines? after the explosive growth of the welfare to them and to society at large. was Arthur Laffer and Robert Mundell When the recorded fatal shooting of a state, beginning in the 1960s. Non-judgmental subsidies of coun- who created the ultimate pro-growth fleeing man in South Carolina brought in- You would be hard-pressed to find as terproductive lifestyles are treating peo- mix of monetary and fiscal policy. Keep stant condemnation by whites and blacks many ghetto riots prior to the 1960s as we ple as if they were livestock, to be fed the dollar sound for price stability, and alike, and by the most conservative as have seen just in the past year, much less and tended by others in a welfare state reduce marginal tax rates to rejuve- well as the most liberal commentators, in the 50 years since a wave of such riots — and yet expecting them to develop nate supply-side incentives. That mix that moment of mutual understanding swept across the country in 1965. as human beings have developed when worked in the JFK 1960s and in the was very fleeting, as if mutual -under We are told that such riots are a result facing the challenges of life themselves. Reagan-Clinton 1980s and 1990s. Add standing were something to be avoided, of black poverty and white racism. But in a strong dose of free trade and de- as a threat to a vision of “us against them” in fact — for those who still have some ONE KEY fact that keeps getting regulation, and the Laffer-Mundell hy- that was more popular. respect for facts — black poverty was far ignored is that the poverty rate among pothesis will return us to our long-term That vision is nowhere more clearly worse, and white racism was far worse, black married couples has been in single economic path and renew American expressed than in attempts to automati- prior to 1960. But violent crime within digits every year since 1994. Behavior leadership worldwide. cally depict whatever social problems ex- black ghettos was far less. matters and facts matter, more than the ist in ghetto communities as being caused Murder rates among black males were prevailing social visions or political em- QUESTION IS, will the GOP take by the sins or negligence of whites, going down — repeat, DOWN — dur- pires built on those visions. that growth model and run with it? 14 Conservative Chronicle ECONOMY: April 30, 2015 The poorly performing economy not because of weather he Obama economy virtually vestment in business expansion and new Other factors play a bigger role in how some of the most populated, range be- stopped growing in the first start-up enterprises that would fuel new the economy performs quarter after quar- tween six and 7.7 percent. three months of 2015 in another job creation, incomes and growth. ter, year after year. But millions of frustrated jobless bleakT sign of its persistent weakness over Before 2000, small businesses were Chief among them are the govern- workers who’ve given up looking for the last six years. creating more jobs than big corporations ment’s fiscal policies, including anti-in- full-time work are not counted among The Commerce Department’s report in a surge of capital investment. But that vestment, anti-growth tax rates, mounting the unemployed. That’s why the nation’s that the economic growth rate barely rose isn’t happening under an administration deficit- spending and debt, workforce has shrunk to recessionary by a minuscule 0.2 percent in the first that’s raised taxes pro-job-creation trade levels, with only 44 percent of adult-aged quarter was much worse than the one per- on capital and, in policies, or the lack workers on the nation’s payrolls. And cent rise most forecasters expected. the process, driven Donald thereof, and eco- millions more are in part-time jobs when Economic writers struggled to come it out of the econ- nomic confidence they want and need full-time employ- up with the right words to describe omy. Lambro that unlocks risk- ment. the economy’s sluggishness, including The result, (c) 2015, United Media Services taking, pro-growth The Gallup Poll’s daily tracking sur- “slowed to a crawl” or “slowed nearly to Morici writes, is business capital. veys put the number of underemployed a halt.” that the number of new entrepreneurs It should come as no surprise to any- Americans at nearly 15 percent of the la- “has fallen off and new business start-ups one, except those in the White House, bor force. HOW ABOUT was barely breathing? — incubators for the next generation of that Americans worry most about the “This economy is still showing a lot of “The U.S. economy stumbled badly,” Apples and Googles — are down over- economy and finding a job, according fragility,” says Diane Swonk, chief econ- Scott Anderson, senior vice president and all.” to just about every poll that’s been taken omist at Mesirow Financial. chief economist at the Bank of the West in Obama and his shameless apolo- since Obama was sworn into office. The Federal Reserve Board thinks so, San Francisco, told the New York Times. gists in the news media are blaming the But the president still lives in a delu- too. That’s why economists now say the Weak growth in the last three months economy’s paralysis on the harsh winter sional dream world where he believes he Fed is unlikely to raise interest rates any- of 2014, which slowed to a lackluster weather. has rescued the U.S. economy and pulled time soon until it sees improvement in the 2.2 percent rate, “turned into virtually no But that threadbare excuse needs to it firmly out of its recession. economy. growth in the first quarter of 2015,” An- be taken with a very large dose of skepti- Yet six years and four months into this America can do better than this with derson said. cism. presidency, the economy had significant- the right leadership and sensible pro-jobs, The economy’s uneven, subpar perfor- The “tie between weather and eco- ly slowed in the fourth quarter of 2014, economic growth policies. That means mance has been the hallmark of Barack nomic performance is often overstated, and has all but stopped growing in the reforming a dysfunctional tax code, cut- Obama’s presidency, though he still in- according to the small number of experts first quarter. ting tax rates to unlock investment in new sists it is much improved under his poli- who’ve searched for a correlation,” says Symptoms of our long-lingering eco- businesses, opening new export markets cies. economic analyst Chico Harlan in the nomic illness are all around us. Wages re- for our products and putting our nation’s But for the entirety of 2014, the econo- Washington Post’s Wonkblog. main essentially flat. Retail sales are ane- fiscal house in order. my grew at a 2.4 percent rate, well below “In the coldest January-March period mic and consumer spending is “tepid.” quarterly growth levels of five to 8.5 per- of the last 30 years (1985), the gross do- New home sales plunged 11.4 percent WE’VE TRIED Obama’s failed cent in the 1980s. mestic product in the same time went up in March and existing home sales were snake-oil remedies. Now it’s time to re- “In this century, economic growth has by four percent,” Harlan reported. weak. Durable goods factory orders have turn to policies of growth and renewal averaged 1.9 percent per year — down “In the snowiest period (1998), growth declined in recent months. that once made our economy the bea- from the 3.4 percent of the prior two was four percent as well. In the least The unemployment rates in 15 states, con of hope and opportunity around the decades,” says University of Maryland snowy quarter (1988), GDP grew by 2.3 plus the District of Columbia, including world. economist Peter Morici. percent. In the second least-snowy quar- Anemic growth rates under this ad- ter (2009), the GDP shrank by 5.4 per- TRIVIA BITS: May 4, 2015 ministration’s policies are “squeezing cent,” he writes. wages, the middle class and working poor,” Morici says in a recent analysis A RECENT analysis by researchers titled “Why America Doesn’t Grow.” at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago One of the major weaknesses in the “concluded that the effect of weather ‘is Trivia Bits Obama economy has been plunging in- not very large,’” Harlan writes. 1. What world leader, born in Lille in 1890, was called “the Great Aspara- gus,” given his height, forehead and Paul nose? A) Charles De Gaulle Paquet B) Benito Mussolini (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate C) Franklin Roosevelt D) Josef Stalin A) Flower 2. Who was the first person to appear B) Rain on two straight Entertainment Weekly C) River covers, once as Sylar, once as Spock? D) Joaquin A) Leonard Nimoy 5. What Chinese dam holds back so B) Chris Pine much water that the weight of it tilts the C) Zachary Quito earth’s axis nearly an inch? D) Milo Ventimiglia A) Three Flowers Dam 3. What country issued chocolate- B) Three Gorges Dam smelling stamp that came in a foil- C) Three Provinces Dam wrapped booklet? D) Three Rivers Dam A) Belgium 6. A 7-foot-2-inch Masai named Bo- B) Hungary laji Badejo played what movie villain? C) Norway A) The alien in Alien D) Switzerland B) Apollo Creed 4. The Phoenix kids all got oddball C) Bigfoot names. Which one had Joan of Arc as a D) Darth Vade middle name? (answers on page 19) May 13, 2015 15 BALTIMORE: May 1, 2015 Joan Walsh certainly does not think for me read an opinion piece this week ciety will do it for them — and they may by liberal writer Joan Walsh de- not survive it.” crying the presumed jubilation of That’s mighty self-congratulatory of “whiteI America” and the media over a Walsh, but it really is bizarre thinking. mother’s public spanking of her son for Maybe she presumes that because participating in the Baltimore riots. she’s an all-empathizing and Walsh quotes superior liberal, she the mother, Toya David can presume what Graham, as ac- motivates all black knowledging that Limbaugh people to engage she “just lost it” (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate in certain behav- when she saw her iors. Perhaps she son on camera and went into action to also presumes she knows what every get him off the streets. white person is thinking because she is white and intelligent. WALSH WRITES: “Her moment I can’t speak for blacks, but I can of losing it made her a hero to much conjecture that they aren’t thinking of white America — and not just to the about slavery or Jim Crow when they right. Coast to coast, the media is hyp- administer corporal punishment to their ing Graham as ‘Hero Mom’ and her on- children. Do you really think black par- camera beating as ‘Tough Love.’” She ents who discipline their children are calls it “heartbreaking.” motivated by a desire to prevent future Walsh continues, “Anyone white white racists from unfairly incarcerating propriately to the horror of her son’s and simply — as parental discipline so who’s applauding Graham’s moment of their children? How about because they participating in a very dangerous and often is, modeling, by the way, God’s desperation, along with the white media don’t want them to join gangs or to be a potentially criminal activity. These riot- disciplining of human beings. figures who are hyping her ‘heroism,’ perpetrator or victim of black-on-black ous mobs in Baltimore feloniously as- What a condescending inference is essentially justifying police brutality, violence, which is far more prevalent saulted police officers and caused mil- Walsh is drawing in suggesting whites and saying the only way to control black than white-on-black violence? lions of dollars’ worth of damage. Let’s are applauding Graham for “beating up” kids is to beat the s--- out of them.” I can’t speak for all whites, either, but not downplay the stunning gravity of her son “as though that’s the only way Hysteria much, Ms. Walsh? I can speak for myself. the situation. to discipline a black child.” What in Walsh acknowledges that she’s aware Let’s examine Walsh’s claim that by the world? Neither the mother’s nor the many African-Americans are praising hyping Graham’s heroism, we are jus- SUCH IRRESPONSIBLE behav- child’s skin color is relevant. I would Graham, as well, but says her criticism tifying police brutality and saying the ior, in my view, justified Graham’s applaud any mother for disciplining her isn’t aimed at them. Their situation only way to control black kids is to beat strong reaction and her righteous emo- child in that situation. She did not beat “is richer and more nuanced.” Why is the blank out of them, acknowledging tions accompanying it. Let’s also be him up. Give me a break. that, you ask? Because, she explains, upfront, of course, that we’ll never be clear that she in no way physically How outrageous for Walsh to suggest “most black people debating the issue able to apply the nuanced thinking that harmed her child, but she did get his at- that cops are like Pavlovian dogs who acknowledge that the desperate public she employs to get to the heart of the tention, mostly by her strong disapprov- will adjust their reaction to black chil- beating came from centuries of black matter. al. At the risk of sounding platitudinous dren based on what one of their mothers parents knowing they have to discipline When I saw Graham slapping her and repetitive of what so many others does. So because whites lionized Gra- their children harshly, or else white so- son, I thought she was responding ap- have said, it was an act of love — purely ham for slapping her child, the police (who weren’t any more white than black, by the way) will amend their manual to call for beating blacks like animals as their mothers have signaled to us there’s no other way to control them? Sorry, Ms. Walsh, but police officers are human beings, too, regardless of the popular trend to judge them like subhu- man racists lying in wait for the next tar- get of their heinous bigotry. Most cops are fine people and perform services that most of us wouldn’t want to do but without which we’d live in anarchy — the type of anarchy we witnessed in Bal- timore this past week. Is that the kind of America we want to live in?

I DON’T THINK Graham is a hero, but when so many other parents obvi- ously had no control over their kids wreaking havoc and violence in those mean streets, I think she should be ap- plauded for trying to bring her own son under control. He will be much the bet- ter for it. And I will not apologize for applauding her, nor will I accept Walsh’s supercilious attempt to cast those who disagree with her in this situation as rac- ists or whatever in the world it is that she’s trying to say. 16 May 13, 2015 Of course Dems deserve the blame for Baltimore f a person happens to point out publicans. “And there’s a bunch of my that Baltimore’s criminally inept agenda that would make a difference government has been run exclu- right now,” Obama claimed before go- sivelyI by Democrats since 1967 (with ing on: “Now, I’m under no illusion that one Republican mayor since 1947) and out of this Congress we’re going to get features not a single city councilor who massive investments in urban communi- isn’t a liberal, he may be called a lazy ties, and so we’ll try to find areas where apparatchik. Because not everything, we can make a difference, you see, is reduc- around school re- ible to mere party David form and around job politics. training and around Now, if an eco- Harsanyi some investments nomic renaissance (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate in infrastructure sparked by the in these communi- progressive policies of Stephanie Raw- ties and trying to attract new businesses lings-Blake had lifted Baltimore from in.” poverty, I imagine Democrats would What piece of legislation have Re- be eager to claim credit for the accom- publicans obstructed that would have plishment. Entire political debates are helped keep families together in Bal- predicated on the effectiveness of par- timore — right now? Which proposal tisan ideas. We blame presidents for re- would have created jobs to turn the city cessions they probably have little to do around? What law has Obama lobbied with, yet according to liberal pundits, for that would have made Baltimore’s the party overseeing a city riddled with police department — which has been poverty, failing schools, high crime answering to one party for decades in spending per pupil. Like most big city As Obama noted, the citizens of rates and racial tension bears no respon- — more compassionate or effective? districts, there is no accountability. It’s Baltimore (and all of us) have an alter- sibility for what’s happening. Is there a criminal-justice reform ef- Democrats who consistently sink con- native. They can care more, just as he fort that Obama’s been spearheading servative education reform ideas (ones does. “But that kind of political mobili- THE PRESIDENT disagrees. Sort all these years that we’ve all forgotten that in many cities are popular among zation, I think, we haven’t seen in quite of. After a night of violence and looting about? African-American parents) for their some time,” he explained. Rather than in Baltimore, Barack Obama spoke to union patrons. resort to counterproductive violence the press and said that “we, as a country, YES, THE WAR on drugs is a di- For that matter, when did the presi- — the kind of violence numerous left- have to do some soul-searching” — by saster. But Democrats are complicit in dent ever offer comprehensive legisla- ist pundits were justifying — Baltimore which he meant “they,” as in conserva- that war, too. And Democrats are also in tion that would have brought “massive can vote for candidates who reflect and tives, need to get on board. charge of a city school system that has investments” to inner cities or reformed act on their concerns, candidates who Obama said that solutions to mend huge failure rates, despite the fact that how government functions in urban will demand the police be accountable Baltimore’s suffering are sitting right Baltimore’s school district also has con- communities? Was it when Democrats to civilian oversight. There are African- there in Washington — unpassed be- sistently ranked in the top five among controlled both houses of Congress and Americans in elected office and power cause of ideologically inflexible Re- the nation’s 100 largest school districts the White House? Or was it after? positions throughout the city, so surely, there is no active racist faction under- mining the ability of blacks to partici- pate in democracy. Right now, they need better Democrats in Baltimore. Where does the blame for the civil unrest lie? In plenty of places. Some of those places have absolutely nothing to do with politics and can’t be fixed by any Washington agenda — imagined or otherwise. The tribulations plaguing cit- ies such as Baltimore are complex, hav- ing festered for years. But does that ex- cuse the bungling of Democratic Party governance? Does it change the fact that massive amounts of spending have done little in the war on poverty?

AND IF Democrats claim that they are uniquely sympathetic toward the poor and weak, that welfare programs can never be reformed, only expanded, and that perpetually pumping “invest- ments” into cities is the only way to alle- viate the hardship faced by citizens, it’s more than fair to gauge the effectiveness — not to mention the competence — of those allocating and overseeing those policies. Because Republicans may be horrible, but they aren’t running Balti- more.

May 1, 2015 This Week’s Conservative Focus 17 Baltimore Killer cops or malicious prosecutor? Who killed Freddie Gray? retribution. But unless she has far more BUT WHERE is the evidence for The Washington Post reported that According to Baltimore prosecutor evidence than has been revealed, Mosby any of this? the second prisoner said that on the fi- Marilyn Mosby, Freddie was murdered is talking a stronger hand than her cards True, as Freddie had a legal knife, he nal leg of the trip to the police station, in a conspiracy of six cops who impris- are showing on the table. had committed no crime and should not Freddie was thrashing around, possibly oned him in a police van and there as- For consider the captivity of Freddie have been arrested. And the cops should injuring himself. saulted and killed him. Gray, step by step. have used the seat belt in Consider. In the Rodney King case, The killer was African-American of- Making con- the van to buckle in where there was film of his extended ficer Caesar Goodson, driver of the van, tact with a cop at Freddie. beating with billy clubs, a Simi Valley who, with a “depraved heart,” murdered 8:39 in the morn- Pat But those are po- jury refused to convict any of the four Freddie. ing, Freddie fled, Buchanan lice failings, not cops. In Ferguson, Michael Brown sus- This is a summation of the charges was caught with a police felonies. tained half a dozen gunshot wounds. Yet against six Baltimore cops made Friday knife, and put in (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate And while officer Darren Wilson was not indicted. by Mosby, as she ranted into the TV a police van that Freddie should On Staten Island, 350-pound Eric cameras: made four stops. have been taken sooner to a hospital, Garner was seen on film being taken “To the people of Baltimore, and the On the first, the cops lifted Freddie did the cops know how badly injured he down by five cops in an arrest that led demonstrators across America: I heard off the floor and sat him down. On the was? How could they have known — if to his death, but none of the cops was your call for ‘No justice, no peace.’ ... second and third, they looked in on him they had done nothing to injure him? indicted. To the youth of this city: I will seek jus- again. On the fourth, they had detoured And when and how was Freddie’s And there is far less visible evidence tice on your behalf. ... to pick up another prisoner. spinal cord severed? of any police crime in the case of Fred- “This is your moment. ... You’re at Mosby is charging that not only did There appears thus far no evidence die Gray than in any of those three in- the forefront of this cause and as young the cops willfully ignore Freddie’s cries that five of the cops did anything to cidents. people, our time is now.” for help, but also the driver deliberately cause this. And no evidence has been The heart of the case against all six handled the van in so reckless a manner brought forward that Goodson tried to is that they denied Freddie the medical MOSBY HAS cast herself as the as to inflict a fatal injury, the severing of injure Freddie by giving him “a rough treatment needed to save his life. But avenging angel of those clamoring for his spine. ride.” where is the proof the officers knew how gravely injured he was, that he was in danger of death? By going on national television and ordering the arrest of the six officers on charges that could mean the rest of their lives in prison, Mosby may have Ignoring personal responsibility is a riot stopped the riots and calmed the crowds ours after residents of Balti- once assured us. And he chooses to they strip themselves of opportunity in Baltimore. more, Maryland, set the city heal souls by suggesting that all the ills through lack of values. Children are But she has kicked this can right up aflame, President Barack of inner city communities crash down not merely “born into abject poverty” the road into 2016. ObamaH took to the Rose Garden to on those communities through imper- — they have parents who get pregnant For what is coming is predictable. explain in professorial style just why sonal forces having nothing to do with while in poverty and outside wedlock. Thus far, Freddie Gray has been por- America, under his administration, individual rotten choices. Those fathers are not merely absent trayed by the media as the victim of keeps watching young black men loot because of “substance-abuse problems brutal vigilante cops. But, soon, those buildings and attack police officers. “WITHOUT MAKING any ex- or incarceration or lack of education” six officers are going to be seen as flesh- “We have seen too many instances cuses for criminal activities that take — they are absent because they make and-blood cops who may have blundered of what appears to be police officers place in these communities,” Obama terrible decisions to do drugs, commit in not seeing the extent of Freddie’s in- interacting with individuals — pri- said, preparing to excuse criminal ac- crimes, drop out of school and aban- juries, but who are being railroaded by marily African-American, often poor tivities in the black community, “what don their children. Kids do not just a malicious prosecutor pandering to an — in ways that have raised troubling we also know is that if you have im- “end up in jail or dead” rather than in angry mob calling for vengeance. questions. And it comes up, it seems poverished communities that college — they grow up in an environ- While we have seen film of the arrest like, once a week now, or once every ment where crime is a way of life, and of Freddie Gray and his placement in couple weeks,” Obama said, proclaim- they choose to engage in crime. Balti- that van, film that is inconclusive, what ing that police brutality against blacks Ben more does not simply lack investment we are going to hear now is the other amounted to a “slow-rolling crisis.” Shapiro because of cruel white businessmen; side of the story, the cops’ side. From He added, “This is not new, and we (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate it lacks investment because no sane now on, they will be the underdogs, and shouldn’t pretend that it’s new.” business owner would drop millions Americans love underdogs. have been stripped away of opportuni- to place a CVS where the last CVS A nation already riveted by the Fred- OBAMA’S DISGUSTING impli- ty, where children are born into abject burned. die Gray episode, already divided, will cation was, of course, that a massive poverty — they’ve got parents, often become more so, as we move toward the trend of police violence mirroring the because of substance-abuse problems TO BLAME a mythical white pow- indictments, the trials and the verdicts. racist police violence of the 1950s has or incarceration or lack of education er structure for personal decisions that In our deepening political divide, broken out across America. That’s themselves — can’t do right by their destroy lives represents an abdication the left invokes the narrative that black false. Your chances in America of be- kids, if it’s more likely that those of personal responsibility. Baltimore males are all too often terribly treated by ing killed by hornet attack are 1 in kids end up in jail or dead than they has a black mayor, a majority black brutal cops, while the right sees tough 56,000; your chances in America of go to college, in communities where city council, a black police commis- policing as having cut crime to more tol- being killed by a police officer if you there are no fathers who can provide sioner. Baltimore hasn’t had a Repub- erable levels and cops as the thin blue are a black man are 1 in 60,000. None- guidance to young men, communities lican in a position of true power since line between them and anarchy. theless, Obama continued by suggest- where there’s no investment, and man- 1967. America is not the problem. Bal- ing that police forces had to “do some ufacturing has been stripped away, and timore is not the problem. The people THE BATTLE lines have been soul searching,” that “some communi- drugs have flooded the community ... who live in Baltimore and choose to drawn upon which the “War On Cops” ties ... have to do some soul search- we’re not going to solve the problem pursue irresponsibility, egged on by issue will be fought out in 2016. ing,” and that America as a whole had [with just police].” big government advocates like Presi- As Pete Seeger sang, “Which side are to do some “soul searching.” This is cowardice. Impoverished dent Obama, are the problem. you on?” Fortunately, President Obama is communities like Baltimore are not here to heal souls, as Michelle Obama “stripped away” of opportunity — April 29, 2015 May 5, 2015 18 Conservative Chronicle BALTIMORE: April 30, 2015 Tell people they’re victims — they’ll act like victims n watching Baltimore burn, “pro- pressure — a grand jury refused to indict that a child growing up without a father gel, D-N.Y., for example, made this ac- gressives” run out of scapegoats. him. No cameras. No CNN. is 20 times more likely to end up in jail. cusation in his last race: “Everything we Over a week ago, a black man Just two days after Ferguson police Today over 70 percent of black children believe in, everything we believe in (Re- namedI Freddie Gray died after being ar- officer Darren Wilson shot and killed are born to unwed mothers compared to publicans) hate. They don’t disagree — rested by police. Videotape shows Gray Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, a 25 percent in the 1965. they hate. ... Some of them believe that being dragged into a police van. Within “not white” cop in Salt Lake City, Utah, To earn their near-monolithic 95-per- slavery isn’t over and that they won the a less than half an hour, his spine was shot and killed an unarmed 20-year-old cent black vote, the Democratic Civil War.” This is how Democrats get 95 somehow severed and he died seven days man whose race has been described as Party repeatedly tells blacks percent of blacks to vote one way — by later. Hispanic. The of their continued telling them the other side is evil, that “the Did an officer or the officers intention- family of the dead Larry oppression. During system” is corrupt and racist. So when a ally or inadvertently cause the injury? man believes that the 2012 election, Freddy Gray, in police custody, turns up Did the vehicle suddenly stop, causing the cop is a mur- Elder Democratic Na- dead under suspicious circumstances, a possibly untethered or poorly tethered derer. No cameras. (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate tional Committee some will take to the streets to vent that suspect/passenger to break his neck? No CNN. chair, Debbie Was- “slavery isn’t over.” Why was Gray stopped in the first place? serman Schultz, accused Republicans of Given that he ran from the police, did this SO, WHY RIOT in Baltimore? The seeking to “literally drag us all the way YES, MARTIN Luther King Jr. said, provide a basis for pursuit, search and ar- answer is that for some people facts and back to Jim Crow laws.” “A riot is the language of the unheard.” rest? Does this not underscore the impor- reason don’t matter. It’s about anger, ex- So, when a questionable white cop/ When he said that, none of America’s ma- tance of police body cams and car-dash citement, disruption. Some call it a “sub- black suspect takes place, some people, jor cities had a black mayor. The country cams? culture.” Others say these are “at-risk conditioned to react with anger and dis- did not have back-to-back black attorneys youth.” Still others call it the “under- trust, lash out. — it’s “us against them” general. The country did not have a black THESE ARE, of course, legitimate class.” But the 800-pound elephant in the and “they are trying to oppress us.” president elected — and re-elected. Balti- questions. And, in addition to the Balti- room is the absence of fathers — respon- Come election time, Democrats fan more’s riot is the tragic language of mod- more police investigation, the Depart- sible, involved fathers. Obama has said and exploit this anger. Rep. Charlie Ran- ern welfare state. ment of Justice announced that it, too, would examine the circumstances sur- rounding Gray’s death. BALTIMORE: May 1, 2015 So, why riot? Unlike Ferguson, where riots also took place, black Baltimore residents do not lack political power and representation. The mayor is black. The A thug by any other name police commissioner and deputy com- or most Americans, including to understand the perpetrators’ motiva- whether charges are to be filed against missioner are black. The police depart- President Barack Obama, the tion or to excuse their actions is a great the officers in charge. We don’t know ment is approximately 40 percent black, term “thug” seemed an appro- disservice to the victims of the violence. exactly what happened — and perhaps in a city with a black population of 63 priateF appellation for the rioters who Thank goodness the riot was short- we never will. But we know enough to percent. The new head of the Depart- destroyed businesses, homes and other lived. The credit goes in equal measure say that something went terribly wrong. ment of Justice, Loretta Lynch, is a black property in Baltimore this week. Now to Baltimore residents who took to the The Washington Post has reported female, the second consecutive black liberals are crying foul. The Baltimore streets to say no to violence and the that a prisoner being transported in the person to run the Department of Justice. Sun has editorialized, “Having city governor of Maryland, who ordered a van with Gray claims Gray was thrash- And, of course, the president of United leaders apply it to the high school stu- state of emergency and sent in state po- ing about and hitting the sides of the ve- States is black. dents and others who rioted throughout lice and the National Guard to restore hicle, perhaps in an attempt to hurt him- There’s every reason, therefore, to be- Baltimore tells the offenders that they order. self. But even if those reports turn out to lieve that the investigations will be full, weren’t just wrong in what they did, but The fact is that the neighborhoods be true, it does not necessarily absolve complete and thorough. This does not that they’re also worthless because of it that suffered most in the riots need the police department of culpability in mean that the results will please every- — something too many people already more police officers, not fewer, despite his injuries. Throwing a handcuffed one, but that the examination will be fair believe.” the chants of some protesters. Baltimore suspect in the back of a van unsecured and open. After all, if a wildly popular has long bucked a national trend of de- is an invitation to injury. To excuse the mayor who received 84 percent of the BALTIMORE’S MAYOR, after clining violent crime. As Jason behavior of individuals — even police vote cannot be trusted, who can? initially using the term, apologized on officers — who treat a human being, in- This isn’t Mississippi in 1955, where Twitter: “That night we saw misguided cluding a criminal suspect, like human Emmett Till, a 14-year-old boy, was bru- young people who need to be held ac- Linda garbage isn’t much better than calling tally murdered, only to have the obvious- countable, but who also need support. Chavez thugs “misguided.” ly guilty killers acquitted by an all-white And my comments then didn’t convey We give police officers tremendous jury. This is not the 60s of white-run cit- that.” Several commentators have lik- (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate authority and deference in our society ies, with nearly all-white police depart- ened the use of the term to the N-word. — but with that comes responsibility. I ments policing all-black communities. But a thug by any other name remains Riley noted in the Wall Street Journal, don’t underestimate the toll inflicted on In New York City, for example, most just that. What does one call the people violent crime in Baltimore is three times police who have to deal day in and day officers are people of color. Los Angeles running into a Baltimore CVS and strip- the national rate, and the murder rate is out with violent, dangerous individuals. had back-to-back black police chiefs, and ping its contents before setting it afire? more than six times higher. And things It’s not a job most of us could do. But as with New York City, the majority of Somehow “misguided young people” are getting worse. Through the first turning a blind eye when individual po- L.A.’s street cops are people of color or doesn’t quite convey the behavior or the three months of this year, the murder lice officers use excessive force or are women. participants. rate was up 20 percent over the same negligent in ensuring the safety of those And it is not true, as some protes- The world watched while parts time period last year. in their charge encourages the bad ac- tors claim, that “it doesn’t happen the of Baltimore burned. Not just stores tors. other way around.” In Mobile, Alabama, owned by big corporations who can re- NONE OF THIS is to diminish in 2012, a black police officer shot and build — though most likely somewhere the horror of what happened to Fred- THOSE OF us who believe in law killed a white teenager. The white teen, else — but mom and pop storefronts die Gray in police custody. The man and order must hold all individuals who high on drugs, was completely nude, and blazed throughout the night, as did a suffered three broken vertebrae and a behave violently accountable for their still the officer — fearing for his life — brand-new senior housing center and nearly severed spinal cord. A police in- actions — and that goes for kids hurl- shot and killed the suspect. An investiga- modest row houses that had been owned vestigation has now been turned over ing rocks and looting, as well as the men tion cleared the cop and — despite public by some families for generations. To try to state prosecutors, who will decide and women who arrest them. May 13, 2015 19 DEAR MARK: May 1, 2015 Baltimore and chimp habeas corpus DEAR MARK: attention,” he said of the peaceful pro- fellow Democrats should search their The riots and destruction in Baltimore tests. “And one burning building will be own souls and stop demonizing the suc- CONTACT INFORMATION as a result of protests are disgusting. I looped on television over and over and cessful in our country and try to emulate can understand people being upset by over again, and thousands of demonstra- them instead. Individual Contact Information the death of Freddie Gray while he was tors who did it the right way, I think, have Instead of a summit involving Al in police custody but how in the world is been lost in the discussion.” Sharpton, how about a summit consist- Greenberg - [email protected] destroying a neighborhood going to solve To my fellow conservatives don’t wor- ing of true black leaders, disenfranchised Krauthammer - [email protected] anything? — South Lake Johnny ry because my honeymoon with President black youth and a group of “one percent- Dear Johnny: Obama was short lived as he once again ers” who can share their formula for suc- Levy - [email protected] The answer is destroying a neighbor- couldn’t stay consistent in his thinking cess? Lowry - [email protected] hood solves nothing. And all you libs bet- or should I say his feelings because we Malkin - [email protected] ter hold onto your hats because I actually know liberals don’t think. DEAR MARK: Napolitano - [email protected] agreed with a statement President Obama An idiot judge in New York has grant- Saunders - [email protected] made concerning the riots. The president ed two chimpanzees the status of “legal Schlafly - [email protected] said the following when asked about the Mark person” in order to be freed from a re- Thomas - [email protected] events in Baltimore. search lab. I don’t understand this rul- Will - [email protected] “There’s no excuse for the kind of vio- Levy ing at all and can’t imagine how a judge lence that we saw yesterday. It is counter- (c) 2015, Mark Levy could even come close to a decision like Contact through Creators Syndicate productive,” Obama said at a press con- this. Can you offer any clarity? — I’ll be ference from the White House. “When The president continued with remarks a Monkey’s Uncle individuals get crowbars and start pry- that showed his double standard toward Dear Monkey’s Uncle: Michael Barone, Austin Bay, Brent ing open doors to loot, they’re not pro- law enforcement: “I think there are police Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Bozell, Pat Buchanan, Ben Carson, testing. They’re not making a statement. departments that have to do some soul- Barbara Jaffe originally granted a writ of Mona Charen, Linda Chavez, Larry They’re stealing. When they burn down searching. I think there are some commu- habeas corpus to two chimpanzees Her- Elder, David Harsanyi, Terry Jeffrey, a building, they’re committing arson. nities that have to do some soul-search- cules and Leo. The Nonhumans Rights Larry Kudlow, David Limbaugh, Dick And they’re destroying and undermining ing,” Obama said. “But I think we as a Project sued on behalf of the chimps to Morris, William Murchison, Chuck businesses and opportunities in their own country have to do some soul-searching.” seek relief from false imprisonment. Norris, Paul Paquet, Dennis Prager, Ben communities.” So let me get this straight, the presi- I can understand groups seeking re- Shapiro, Thomas Sowell President Obama was exactly right dent believes that a minority of violent lief for animals that might be undergo- when it came to the violence because protestors should not be used to over- ing needless cruel treatment but granting A thug by any other name there were peaceful protests going on up shadow the peaceful march of thousands animals the same legal rights as humans Contact - [email protected] until the thugs took over. As the old say- of protestors. Yet President Obama will is opening a huge can of worms. Maybe ing goes you can catch more flies with gladly let the actions of a few bad police next it will be worms seeking freedom Contact through Universal Press honey than with vinegar and if black officers (if that turns out to be the case) from becoming fishing bait. America wants to garner any sympathy not only overshadow the 765,000 law en- Then again why shouldn’t monkeys Ann Coulter for their plight from the rest of the coun- forcement officers nationally but Presi- seek personhood? At some point in his- try than they’d better get this kind of dent Obama is willing to let this police tory snakes apparently succeeded in court Contact by mail : thuggery under control. incident indict the entire country. and have been running Washington ever c/o Universal Press Syndicate President Obama then proceeded If President Obama feels the country since. to get a little dig in at the media “They needs to do some “soul-searching” to E-mail your questions to mar- 1130 Walnut Street were constructive and they were thought- solve the problems of inner city black [email protected]. Follow Mark on Twit- Kansas City, MO 64106 ful. And frankly, didn’t get that much neighborhoods then maybe he and his ter @MarkPLevy Answers from page 14 TRIVIA ANSWERS Trivia BITS ANSWERS 1) Charles De Gaulle looked vaguely like an asparagus. 2) Zachary Quito was on two straight Entertainment Weekly cov- ers. 3) Switzerland issued a stamp that smelled of chocolate 4) That would be Rain Joan of Arc Phoenix. 5) The Three Gorges Dam is in China. 6) Speaking of which, Bolaji Badejo played the alien in Alien.

Need to make a correction on your mailing label? Contact us at 800-888-3039 or [email protected] 20 Conservative Chronicle BLACKS IN AMERICA: May 1, 2015 Candidate Hillary Clinton blames the cops ad Freddie Gray been robbed, “My heart breaks for these young men beaten and left to die in the and their families. We have to come to streets of his Baltimore neigh- terms with some hard truths about race borhood,H no one would be mourning him and justice in America.” today. We certainly do, Hillary. No one would be marching for Fred- She specifically mentioned Trayvon die. No one would be using Freddie as the Martin and Michael Brown. new poster child of But Trayvon died “Black Lives Mat- when he was shot ter!” Pat sitting on top of and No one would Buchanan beating senseless a neighborhood care, three weeks (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate later, but his fam- watch guy, “mar- ily and friends. tial arts style,” and banging his head on the sidewalk as he screamed for help. IT WAS THE manner of his death, Michael Brown died of gunshot suffering a fractured spine in police cus- wounds when, after knocking over a con- tody, that makes Freddie matter. For he venience store and throttling the clerk in can now be credibly cast in the victim’s Ferguson, Missouri, he tried to wrestle a role in the great new narrative against gun from a cop, and, told to halt, charged America — that ours is a society of un- the officer. equal justice where racist cops routinely This latest great narrative against As for incarcerations, every impris- Where the illegitimacy rate was 23 brutalize black men and boys and are America — that the men in blue are a oned male has confessed to or been con- percent in 1965, it is 72 percent now, rarely called to account. threat to us all, especially black America, victed of a crime. And many of the drug and the gap between black and white test In this narrative, the liberal is always rather than the last line of society’s de- charges for which blacks are in prison scores endures. In the black community, the hero. fense from its criminal class — is but an- were a result of their being allowed to the dropout rate, crime rate, drug use rate Hillary Clinton knows the narrative by other big lie, rooted in a tiny truth. plea bargain to a lesser offense. and incarceration rate are now far higher heart and has rushed forward to cast her- Yes, some black men and boys are now than in 1965. self as the champion of black America. killed every year in clashes with cops. FREDDIE GRAY had a rap sheet of And one notices something else in As the Washington Times reports, Hill- And, yes, blacks are incarcerated in far a dozen arrests. America. The lawns are being mowed, ary declared Wednesday she would help greater proportions and suffer, on aver- Fifty years ago, Lyndon Johnson de- potholes filled, ditches dug, fast-food to end a “pattern” of cops killing black age, more early deaths. But who is killing clared at Howard University, “We seek ... served, dishes washed and buildings men. them? not just equality as a right and a theory cleaned increasingly by folks who are “There is something wrong when a but equality as a fact and equality as a re- newcomers. It is they who are, in Jesse third of all black men face the prospect of WHEN BLACK men and boys are sult.” Jackson’s phrase, “movin’ on up.” prison during their lifetimes. And an es- shot to death, overwhelmingly, it is by In pursuit of equality of result there be- Looking back to when LBJ’s Great timated 1.5 million black men are ‘miss- other black men and boys. Their prema- gan one of the most massive transfers of Society was launched, and the moral, so- ing’ from their families and communities ture deaths are due to the violent culture wealth in all history. Trillions of tax dol- cial and cultural revolution of the 1960s because of incarceration and premature in their own communities, not rampaging lars were plunged into programs of social began, what has liberal ideology done for death. ... white cops. uplift. The results in black America? black America? Their work ethic has been eviscerated by an endless flow of social welfare ben- efits. Those benefits have often removed the incentive to find or hold a job, and the necessity to have a breadwinner, a father in the home. The social and cultural revolution of the 1960s undermined the black churches and depopulated them of their young. The expulsion of the Bible and of all religious and moral instruction from pub- lic schools left black children defenseless against the lure of the lifestyles of gang leaders and rap singers. The conscience- and character-form- ing institutions that inculcated the beliefs and values that sustained black families through the Depression, the war and the 1950s have collapsed. Result: Many black neighborhoods are unsafe for those who live there. Hillary’s answer: “It’s time to end the era of incarceration in America.” But how will returning scores of thousands of con- victs to their home communities make them safer — not to mention ours?

GIVEN HOW it all worked out, are we really ready for Hillary and another giant leap forward into Great Society lib- eralism? May 13, 2015 21 BLACKS IN AMERICA: April 28, 2015 NYT board implies blacks too stupid for thinking jobs he editorial board of the New families and, by extension, less stable that is negative is an affront to reason- said that blacks are beneath animals; York Times (NY Times) quot- communities. The missing men should able minds. White neo-Leninist liberals that they have no control. ing from an analysis also in be a source of concern to political lead- and black race-mongers combined with theT NY Times, Titled: “1.5 Million Miss- ers and policy makers everywhere.” excuses for malevolent behavior is the THE REASONS the NY Times edi- ing Black Men,” seized upon the recent And therein you have the rub. The real problem. torial board give for the pandemic of spate of highly publicized, “white cop comment at the end of the previous Blacks are quick to point out that black out-of-wedlock births, broken shoots black.” The article was titled paragraph pursuant to who should be they have been in America homes, low marriage rates, poverty, etc., “Forcing Black Men Out of Society.” concerned defines 400 plus years. I ask, should be insulting to blacks, not her- (April 25, 2015) the purpose of the then exactly when alded as keen observation. article. The article Mychal do they plan on em- The problem with blacks is the lack IN FACTUALITY it was nothing is intended to pro- Massie bracing moder- of personal responsibility and account- more than a treatise using statistics to vide validation for (c) 2015, Mychal Massie nity? Japanese, ability. In less than 50 years blacks oppose punishment for the great number politicians advo- Africans, Viet- have gone from Duke Ellington, per- of blacks who act out anti-social crimi- cating: 1) reward for bad behavior; and/ namese, Irish, Italians, Mexicans, politi- sonal pride, and ambition to memorial- nal behavior. or 2) reward for lack of personal respon- cal refugees, and illegal aliens, to men- izing Tupac Shakur, gangsta’ rap, pants The NY Times article stated: “More sibility. But in either case the conversa- tion but a few, have come to America hanging off their behinds as a cultural than one in every six black men in the tion will include generous references to and succeeded. Blacks who have been statement, Erebusic commonality, foul 24-to-54 age group has disappeared the NY Times as if same is the singular here 400 plus years are undereducated, mouths, small minds, and a rejection of from civic life, mainly because they authority for all things black. underemployed, reportedly have little to modernity. died young or are locked away in pris- Par for the course of a white uber- no wealth to pass on, ad nauseum while This is not a statement that demands on. This means that there are only 83 liberal editorial board (of the newspa- all other population groups come/came keen observation and in-depth study. It black men living outside of jail for ev- per that amounts to nothing more than here and succeeded. All the while blacks demands honesty and common sense; ery 100 black women— in striking con- mouth organ for all things antithetical are demanding government handouts apparently two things lacking in the NY trast to the white population, where men to traditional America), the NY Times and blaming white people. Times editorial board. are about equal in numbers.” assigns blame instead of personal ac- The NY Times editorial board called The NY Times piece was nothing The article continued: “This astound- countability. blacks too stupid to be personally re- more than the continuation of attempt- ing shortfall in black men translates into The idea that death and imprisonment sponsible and you can bet every news ing to explain away impropriety juxta- lower marriage rates, more out-of-wed- are the contributing factors for blacks outlet will at some point parrot the NY posed to confronting it as inappropri- lock births, a greater risk of poverty for being at the top of every quantifiable list Times article. The NY Times in effect ate and self-defeating. Liberals love to make excuses for irresponsibility and zero accountability. The end result of BLACKS IN AMERICA: May 6, 2015 same is what we witness today. Blaming the collapse of manufac- turing, low-skilled jobs, the “war on drugs” and mass imprisonment as pri- Black lives matter ... if mary causal factors for dysfunctional efore we examine the issue take the person into custody, would you Eric Garner and Walter Scott would be black homes is like blaming Jupiter for of police shootings of blacks, advise the person to swat away the arms alive today. a bad wheat harvest. I would like to start the con- of the arresting officer, to tell the officer Criminal activity is a major problem The mentality behind the NY Times versationB with another question. Here it “Don’t touch me!” and to continue re- in many black communities. That means article was staggeringly bigoted and is: If a person chooses to stand on rail- sisting arrest? many black citizens will have some racist. The editorial board in no uncer- road tracks in the face of an oncoming What about the shooting of Walter kind of contact with police officers, ei- tain terms told the world that blacks are train, who is responsible for his being Scott by a North Charleston, ther as victims of crime or as criminals. capable of working only at low-paying run over? And if many people meet their One of the true tragedies is that black entry-level jobs and that blacks are not maker this way, what would you recom- politicians, preachers and civil rights capable of behaving in culturally ac- mend as the best way to reduce such Walter advocates give massive support to crim- ceptable ways unless said culture is con- deaths? Would you focus most of your Williams inals such as Brown, Garner and Scott. sistent with neo-Neanderthalism. When one parses the NY Times edi- efforts on train engineers, or would you (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate How much support do we see for the counsel people not to stand on railroad overwhelmingly law-abiding members torial board’s unabashed opinion of tracks in the face of an oncoming train? South Carolina, police officer? If an of the black community preyed upon by blacks, it leaves no questions as to why officer makes a traffic stop, would you criminals? they malign Americans such as myself, IN PRINCIPLE, the answer to these advise that the driver flee so as to avoid The average American has no idea Justice Clarence Thomas, and other questions might help with the issue of arrest? of the day-to-day threats and fears en- conservatives of color as unacceptable. police shootings in general and particu- countered by the law-abiding majority These liberals despise independent larly those of blacks. First, the Ferguson, LET ME BE CLEAR: I am justify- in black neighborhoods on account of thinking morally responsible persons Missouri, case: Having robbed a liquor ing neither the behavior of police of- thugs. In addition to giving threats and of color. They want persons of color to store, the person is walking in the mid- ficers nor the deadly outcomes of their instilling fears, criminals have turned be beholding to them vis-a`-vis govern- dle of the street and blocking traffic. A confrontations with these three black many black communities into econom- ment for their daily bread. police officer tells the person to get out men. Similarly, I would not justify the ic wastelands where there is a lack of The tragedy is that not enough blacks of the street. What would you suggest behavior of a train engineer or the out- services that most Americans take for grasp this truth. Neo-Leninists view the person do? Would you suggest that come a person experiences standing on granted, such as supermarkets, other freethinking self-determining persons he ignore the police officer’s instruc- the train tracks in the face of an oncom- shops and even home delivery. Black such as Dr. James David Manning, Rev. tions, push the officer as he attempts to ing train. I would counsel a person not residents must bear the expense of hav- Jesse Lee Peterson, Larry Elder, and get out of his vehicle and afterward at- to stand on railroad tracks in the face of ing to go out of their neighborhoods to myself as threats. tempt to take the officer’s pistol? an oncoming train. Similarly, the advice shop or shop at high-cost mom and pop In the case of the New York City that I would give to anyone of any race stores. WE ARE THREATS because death of Eric Garner, what would you in dealing with police is: Follow the of- we and those such as ourselves have recommend? A person is illegally sell- ficer’s instructions. Do not resist arrest THE PROTEST chant that black achieved sans affirmative action and ing cigarettes. The police try to effect or attempt to flee. Do not assault the lives matter appears to mean that black prostituting our melanin content. Inde- an arrest. What would you recommend police officer or try to disarm him. Had lives matter only if they are taken at the pendent thinking threatens their control that the person do? As the police try to this advice been taken, Michael Brown, hands of white police officers. over those they keep as chattel. 22 Conservative Chronicle COP-HATERS: May 6, 2015 What Assata (a.k.a. Joanne Chesimard) taught me “What Assata taught me” is the new fight also left her brother-in-law, Black “Hands up, don’t shoot.” Liberation Army leader Zayd Malik For $35, you, too, can sport a politi- Shakur, dead. At the time, the BLA cally correct black hoodie emblazoned had been tied to the murders of more with a fugitive convicted murderer’s than 10 police officers across name. Assata’s the country. Be- apparel is the new fore Chesimard’s rage among per- Michelle shootout, the BLA petually enraged had ambushed two Baltimore and Malkin pairs of NYPD Ferguson social (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate officers in a 48- justice warriors. hour spree, kill- It won’t be long now before hipster ing two of them; murdered another cop actresses and cable news progressives in Atlanta; and executed another pair are Instagramming themselves wear- of NYPD officers in 1972. ing this latest entry in radical chic to Chesimard, Zayd Shakur and anoth- show their “solidarity.” er member were wanted for question- ing in the murder of two of those cops HERE’S WHAT Assata taught me: when they were stopped. The left’s sick fetish for cop-killers is Just as New York City has endured still going strong after four decades the targeted assassinations of three of- of violence, bloodshed, bigotry and ficers (Moore, Wenjian Liu and Rafa- excuses. The timing couldn’t be more el Ramos) in the past five months by blood-boiling. As the relatives, friends vengeful black assailants — plus the and colleagues of NYPD Officer Brian hatchet jihad attack last October that Moore, 25, prepare to bury their hero wounded Officer Kenneth Healey in on Friday after he was brazenly shot in the head and slashed Officer Joseph Chesimard’s colleague, BLA killer ward O’Grady and Brink’s guard Peter the face this weekend by a thug with a Meeker in the arm — the nation en- Tyrone Rison, admitted to participat- Paige were murdered during the siege. long rap sheet and a deep hatred of po- dured a “terror and chaos” campaign ing in a series of armored-car rob- Chesimard’s brother, Jeral Wayne Wil- lice, Assata’s army remains as militant by the BLA aimed at “assassinating beries, including a $250,000 heist in liams (a.k.a. Mutulu Shakur), was the as ever. law enforcement officers” between the Bronx in June 1981, which left a convicted ringleader of the group re- “Assata” is Assata Shakur, a.k.a. 1968 and 1973 and again in 1981. Brink’s guard dead. Rison also con- sponsible for murdering those law Joanne Chesimard. Forty-two years fessed to taking part in the planning enforcement officers; he also master- ago this week, the radical black lead- CHESIMARD WAS convicted and of the Rockland County, N.Y., $1.6 minded Chesimard’s escape. His re- er shot and killed New Jersey State sentenced to life in 1977, but escaped million Brink’s robbery by leftwing lease is set for February 2016. Trooper Werner Foerster execution- from prison two years later with help domestic terrorists in October 1981. Chesimard has lived comfortably style during a traffic stop. The gun- from violent leftwing accomplices. Police officers Waverly Brown and Ed- in Cuba ever since her escape thanks to the generosity of Fidel Castro. The cop-killer diva has been hailed by rap- pers Jay-Z and Common — and now she’s a hoodie heroine. Assata is, plain and simple, a domestic terrorist who represents lawless hatred of the po- lice. There has been no peace for the families of those whose loved ones sacrificed their lives on the front lines. Where is their justice? Despite impassioned pleas for As- sata Shakur’s extradition by law en- forcement leaders in New York and New Jersey, the Obama White House has done nothing. Nada. The inaction speaks for itself. And his bland words of support for the police ring hollower than a hula hoop.

BEFORE CHUMMING it up with David Letterman and raising cash for the DNC on Monday, the president took a few seconds to pay obligatory tribute to fallen officer Brian Moore. He and his fellow cops, Obama mum- bled, “deserve our gratitude and our prayers, not just today, but every day.” Stuff it. By his inaction on long-fester- ing anti-police vigilantism, it’s clear which side the social-justice warrior in chief stands on: the side of Assata, Castro and the cop-hating mob. May 13, 2015 23 WOLF HALL: May 1, 2015 Men wielding power in hellish times olf Hall, the Man Booker Hilary Mantel, an ex- and anti-Catholic ormation, the pursuit and savage perse- ing. The nature of the modern audience Prize-winning historical (“the Catholic Church is not an institu- cution of heresy were the norm. helps too. In this secular age beset by novel about the court of tion for respectable people”), has set Indeed, when Cromwell achieved throat-slashing religious fanatics, we HenryW VIII — and most dramatically, out to rehabilitate Cromwell and de- power, he persecuted Catholics with a are far more disposed to despise exces- the conflict between Thomas Cromwell fenestrate More, most especially the zeal and thoroughness that surpassed sive piety and celebrate the pragmatic, and Sir Thomas More — is now a TV More of Robert Bolt’s beautiful and ha- even More’s persecution if ruthless, modernizer. series (presented on PBS). It is mad- giographic A Man of Protestants. Wolf deningly good. for All Seasons. Hall’s depiction of WHICH CROMWELL was, as the Maddening because its history is ten- Who’s right? Charles Cromwell as a man chief engineer of Henry’s Reformation. dentiously distorted, yet the drama is so Neither fully, Krauthammer of great sensitivity He crushed the Roman church, looted brilliantly conceived and executed that though Wolf and deep feeling the monasteries and nationalized faith you almost don’t care. Faced with an Hall’s depiction (c) 2015, Washington Post Writers Group is, therefore, even by subordinating clergy to king. That imaginative creation of such brooding, of More as little harder to credit. He may flatter today’s reflexive anticleri- gripping, mordant intensity, you find more than a cruel heretic-burning hypo- was cruel and cunning, quite monstrous calism. But we do well to remember yourself ready to pay for it in historical crite is particularly provocative, if not both in pursuit of personal power and that the centralized state Cromwell inaccuracy. perverse. To be sure, More-worship is wealth, and in serving the whims and helped midwife did prepare the ground, somewhat overdrawn, as even the late wishes of his royal master. over the coming centuries, for the rise AND WOLF HALL’S revisionism Cardinal Francis George warned at a Nonetheless, Cromwell’s modern of the rational, willful, thought-control- is breathtaking. It inverts the conven- 2012 convocation of bishops. More had reputation will be enhanced by Mark ling, indeed all-controlling, state. tional view of the saintly More being his flaws. He may have been a man for Rylance’s brilliant and sympathetic It is perhaps unfair to call Crom- undone by the corrupt, amoral, serpen- all seasons but he was also a man of his cinematic portrayal, featuring a still- well (and Henry) proto-totalitarian, as tine Cromwell, the king’s chief minis- times. And in those times of merciless ness and economy of expression that some critics have suggested, essentially ter. This is fiction as polemic. Author contention between Rome and the Ref- is at once mesmerizing and humaniz- blaming them for what came after. But they did sow the seed. And while sup- pressing one kind of intolerance, they BALTIMORE: April 30, 2015 did little more than redefine heresy as an offense against the sovereignty not of God but of the state. However, Wolf Hall poses questions Baltimore, a great society failure not just political but literary. When such resident Barack Obama re- The city has been shedding jobs and worked for everyone else. a distortion of history produces such a sponded to the Baltimore riots people for decades, including in the At the same time, the city has failed wonderfully successful piece of fiction, with a heartfelt bout of self- 1990s when the rest of the country was at the basic functions of government. we are forced to ask: What license are righteousP hectoring. booming. Mayor Kurt Schmoke, in office for we to grant to the historical novel? Supposedly, we all know what’s Baltimore is a high-tax city, with three terms beginning in the late 1980s, For all the learned answers, in real- wrong with Baltimore and how to fix it, malice aforethought. “Officials raised was notoriously soft on crime. Siegel ity it comes down to temporal prox- but don’t care enough. Not only is this property taxes 21 times between 1950 and Smith write, “During the nineties, imity. If the event is in the recent attitude highhanded, it rests on a fla- and 1985,” Steve Hanke and Stephen tolerant Baltimore’s crime rate, much past, you’d better be accurate. Oliver grantly erroneous premise. Walters of Johns Hopkins University of it drug-fueled, rocketed upward (75 Stone’s paranoid and libelous JFK will President Obama doesn’t have the write in the Wall Street Journal, “chan- percent of the city’s murders were drug- be harmless in 50 years, but it will take slightest idea how to fix Baltimore. His neling the proceeds to favored related); tough-on-crime New York’s that long for the stench to dissipate. On solutions fall back on liberal bromides voting blocs and causing plummeted.” the other hand, does anyone care that going back 50 years. Dating back to the Under Mayor Martin O’Malley’s Shakespeare diverges from the record Kerner Commission after the riots of Rich subsequent, more strenuous policing, (such as it is) in his Caesar or Macbeth the 1960s, the left’s go-to solution to ur- the crime rate dropped. But it is still or his Henrys? ban problems has been more social pro- Lowry a violent city. Baltimore has the fifth- Time turns them to legend. We don’t grams. Since then, we’ve gotten more (c) 2015, King Features Syndicate highest murder rate among cities with a feel it much matters anymore. There social programs — and just as many ur- population of 100,000 or more. is the historical Caesar and there is ban problems. many homeowners and entrepreneurs The schools, predictably, are a disas- Shakespeare’s Caesar. They live side — disproportionately Republicans — to ter, run by and for the teachers unions. by side. EXHIBIT A is Baltimore itself. The flee. It was brilliant politics, as Demo- On top of all this, two-thirds of births The film reviewer Stanley Kauff- city hasn’t been “neglected.” It has been crats now enjoy an eight-to-one voter in the city are out-of-wedlock. Toya mann said much the same about David misgoverned into the ground. It is a registration advantage.” Graham is being rightly celebrated for Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia vs. the real Great Society city that bought fully into To counterbalance the taxes, they smacking her 16-year-old son and get- T.E. Lawrence. They diverge. Accept the big-government vision of the 1960s, note, developers need to be lured to the ting him out of the streets during the ri- them each on their own terms, as sepa- and the bitter fruit has been corruption, city with subsidies, and the developers, oting. You can admire her pluck and still rate and independent realities. (After violence and despair. in turn, contribute to politicians to stay be daunted by the challenges she faces all, Lawrence’s own account, Seven We don’t know all the facts surround- in their good graces. This makes for fer- as a single mother of six. Pillars of Wisdom, offers magnificent ing Freddie Gray’s tragic death. But as tile ground for the city’s traditional cor- What is Obama offering in response prose but quite unreliable history as a general matter, it is easy to believe ruption. to this deep, decades-long decline? well.) that the Baltimore police are corrupt, Among other things, more pre-K educa- dysfunctional and unaccountable — BALTIMORE’S preferred driver tion and job training, even though these SO WITH the different versions of because most of the Baltimore govern- of growth has been government. Ur- programs have a long history of ineffec- More and Cromwell. Let them live side ment is that way. ban experts Fred Siegel and Van Smith tiveness. by side. Wolf Hall is utterly compelling, This is a failure exclusively of Dem- write in City Journal that Baltimore has but I nonetheless refuse to renounce ocrats, unless the root causes of Balti- “emphasized a state-sponsored capital- THE IMPERATIVE in Baltimore A Man For All Seasons. I’ll live with more’s troubles are to be traced to its ism that relies almost entirely on federal should be to think and act anew. But both Mores, both Cromwells. After all, last Republican mayor, Theodore Roos- and state subsidies, rather than market the left’s takeaway will be that there’s for centuries we’ve accepted that light evelt McKeldin, who left office in 1967. investments.” The model makes for an urgent need for more of the same, as is both wave and particle. If physics And it is an indictment of a failed model high-profile development projects, but Baltimore and places like it continue to can live with maddening truths, why of government. trickle-down crony capitalism hasn’t rot. can’t literature and history? 24 Conservative Chronicle TEXAS ATTACK: May 4, 2015 Silence of the lambs: Not that ‘pure and simple’ ere’s how it stands with decadent, febrile West, we’re coun- Western civilization — seled not to take with any great alarm what’s left of it, I mean — the growing presence of such preach- insofarH as various Westerners are con- ers — and the growing fervor of their cerned. followers. We’re progressive Western- You keep your lip buttoned when- ers; we believe in outreach and under- ever foes, internal as well as external, standing. jump up and down on you, kick you For genuine progressives, around, make such sentiments known their fond- come naturally. Su- est wish is to do William pernatural religion, you in, ideals and Murchison contrasted with the Person of the Trinity, and therefore stitutions and sunk deep the founda- all. You hope for religions of this superior to all prophets, seems no big tions of Western civilization — of all (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate the best while do- world (e.g., pri- deal to our taste-makers). Insult the civilizations the freest and most gener- ing nothing. vate jets and sex- Prophet and, hey, followers of his, the ous? Who established here the freest, You follow, that is to say, the coun- any-way-you-want-it) doesn’t much likes of the Garland Two, got guns! most democratic government in his- sel of “Jacques,” who posted Monday interest today’s elites. They can take You wouldn’t want to see them use tory, for all its latterday mishaps and on the New York Times’ website, dis- it or, better yet, leave it. Can’t we all those guns, would you? So — keep it misjudgments? burdening himself as follows concern- just knock off this truth-claims stuff? down. ing the Sunday shootings at the Mo- Not really, inasmuch as “Truth,” by That the Garland Two wound up IT IS SAD that two who enjoyed hammed poster contest in Garland, definition, rises superior to competing unnecessarily dead — victims of their the undoubted blessings of a civiliza- Texas: claims. You see anyway why our pro- own mental torments — is unfortunate, tion not their own recoiled violently “The Far Right is using ‘freedom’ gressive elites see no point in disput- as I trust anyone would acknowledge. against that civilization. It is sadder as a stick to beat and provoke Mus- ing or “insulting” Islamic truth claims. That the American Freedom Defense yet to see this tale of malice and moral lims. Cartoons depicting the Prophet Who cares, you know? Initiative pulled the triggers in ques- confusion play out 19 miles from the Mohammed do not advance the cause tion is nonsense. place I call home. of freedom one iota. It is provocation CERTAINLY, THE elite assure Who got to this new land first, pure and simple.” us, no one should “insult” the Prophet Christians or radical jihadists? Who (though insulting Jesus, the Second built the churches and democratic in- MAYBE NOT so “pure,” maybe not so “simple,” Jacques. The Jacques line of thought is heavily represented BALTIMORE: May 6, 2015 in commentary on the shootings of the two men whose apparent goal was to disrupt, with hot lead, a lightly at- tended event of which I had been pre- The new lynch mob viously unaware: just 19 miles from n Sunday, Democratic Mary- “objectively bada--.” Fusion called her cast racial aspersions on the prosecutor my home. land State Senator Catherine “America’s favorite prosecutor.” who refused to file charges against Of- The American Freedom Defense Pugh lavished praise on What, exactly, did Mosby do to earn ficer Darren Wilson (even Eric Holder’s Initiative, New York-based organizer state’sO attorney Marilyn Mosby, who such plaudits? She announced that she Department of Justice found Wilson’s of the event, is under verbal assault just days before announced that her of- would charge the six officers, three of actions against Michael Brown justifi- for stirring up the animals (H. L. fice would file a bevy of charges against whom were black; she did so without able). Furthermore, Mosby’s husband, Mencken’s delicious phrase). Why, if all six officers involved in the death of laying out a compelling narrative sup- Nick Mosby, has excused rioting while the AFDI folk hadn’t invited ridicule 25-year-old Freddie Gray. Gray’s death porting the charges brought (failing to serving as a Baltimore city council- of the Prophet, all would have been drove protests and riots throughout Bal- buckle a seatbelt does not amount to man. Mosby’s prosecution of the case peachy! timore, serving as the spark to ignite lo- either manslaughter or second-degree amounts to a serious conflict of interest. I would venture that depends on cal rage, and focusing national attention murder); she brought the charges while But even were Mosby not personally your definition of peachy. If you mean on the state of inner city black Ameri- simultaneously pandering to the riot- compromised by the political issues sur- quiet — well, yeah. Why quiet, never- cans. Pugh said that Mosby “really set ers, stating, “I heard your calls rounding the case, mob justice seems theless? Out of general agreement on the bar for the nation in terms of how to be running amok. When Sharpton, first principles? Or out of intimidation: these sorts of cases ought to be looked Cummings and the rest demand “jus- the self-suppression of viewpoints, at.” Ben tice,” they aren’t demanding justice: honestly arrived at but depicted as rot- Shapiro They’re demanding the heads of police ten and shameful by “opinion-mak- PUGH WASN’T Mosby’s only con- officers, without supporting evidence. In ers.” spicuous fan. Rep. Elijah Cummings, (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate Ferguson, the narrative of the murder of A shameful viewpoint, in these times D-Md., who has represented the failing Michael Brown trumped the facts of the of religious flux, is the unassailability city of Baltimore for decades, said, “Her of no justice, no peace. ... To the youth case; Sharpton, Cummings and the rest of Islam, the religion that millions of integrity is impeccable without a doubt.” of this city, I will seek justice on your still cite Brown’s death in their litany of migrants are bringing to the capitals The widow of Eric Garner, the New York behalf. This is a moment. This is your instances of police brutality. of the nominally Christian West and City man who died after police officers moment. ... As young people, our time insisting on practicing their own way, used a submission hold on him, said, “I is now.” MOSBY’S PROSECUTION, how- without reference to local norms. For feel like the same scenario that happened ever, elevates the lynch mob to legal instance, the opinion-makers consider in Baltimore also happened with my IF THAT sounds more like a cam- status. As Alan Dershowitz put it, “this it rude and boorish today to insist on husband. I would just like to see some- paign speech than an announcement of is a show trial.” America has a lot of the preponderant truth of Christianity, thing done.” Race-baiter and riot-stoker charges, that’s because it is a campaign show trials in store, if the mob is to be as narrated in the Creeds. Say all that extraordinaire Al Sharpton stated, “We speech. Mosby was elected in January placated. Marilyn Mosby doesn’t care stuff in church, if you must, but don’t cannot keep playing Russian roulette on 2015 as the youngest district attorney in who burns, so long as social justice and press your case outside, lest the sensi- whether or not we get a good prosecutor America; she reportedly has aspirations political expediency are served. And the bilities of “others” be offended. or not.” Crowds in Baltimore reportedly to higher office. Before her election, mob doesn’t care what burns, so long as When radical Muslim preachers, celebrated Mosby’s indictment of the she publicly questioned the jury ver- they get to hijack the political system to nevertheless, stir up jihad against the officers. The Huffington Post called her dict in the George Zimmerman case and serve their thirst for vengeance. May 13, 2015 25 TEXAS ATTACK: May 6, 2015 ‘Hate group’ blamed for ISIS attack iberals claim to be the world’s nalists deplored AFDI’s exercise of free boldest defenders of freedom of speech and blamed the targeted victims expression, which is, of course, for the attack. nonsense.L Here’s another canard: Liber- Within hours, ABC described als also claim to be the most offended AFDI as “notorious for its an- against anyone ti-Islamic views.” “blaming the vic- Brent The shooters were tim.” What liber- not “notorious,” als possess is an Bozell the shooting targets ideological system (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate were. On the Mon- which identifies day evening news, favored groups as victims and supports all three “objective” networks were re- squelching the free speech of anyone peating a leftist group’s highly emotional challenging them. “hate group” designation. “It happened at a Dallas suburb where ONE OF THOSE favored groups is a group [that has been] labeled an anti- Muslims. Over the weekend, the Ameri- Islamic hate group was holding a Prophet can Freedom Defense Initiative held Mohammad cartoon contest,” announced the Muhammad cartoon contest in Dal- NBC anchor Lester Holt. las, obviously a provocative event. But Washington Post national reporter it wasn’t meant to result in two Islamic Lindsey Bever wrote a highly negative most visible and flamboyant figurehead.” shooting. NBC terrorism analyst Evan extremists showing up with assault rifles, article labeling AFDI leader Pamela In addition, “She’s relentlessly shrill and Kohlmann even claimed they were not later shot to death by police after they Geller as an “incendiary organizer” of a coarse in her broad-brush denunciations holding a free-speech event: “These opened fire. Muhammad cartoon contest. The Post, of Islam and makes preposterous claims.” people are not standing by that principle; Two men identifying as ISIS have now too, went to that same highly emotional they’re standing by the principle of ha- attacked America — in our homeland. So leftist source for a smear. Geller was ON MSNBC, Chris Matthews blamed tred for other people. That’s their guiding how did the press respond? Liberal jour- labeled the “anti-Muslim movement’s AFDI for “causing” or “provoking” the light. That’s what they do. They are in- tentionally trying to provoke a response from the Muslim community.” May 4, 2015 TEXAS ATTACK: This spin is obnoxious and offensive. By this standard, MSNBC spends most of its waking hours operating on the “prin- ciple of hatred of other people,” people Jihadi censorship comes to America who define themselves as conservatives. errorists assaulted a “Muham- Geller and her cohorts were as much of late Muslim immigrants. The critique Activists like Geller and her partner The new lynch mob mad cartoon” event in Texas a problem as the fanatics who planned to carried a whiff of self-congratulation Robert Spencer are making a provoca- sponsored by activist Pamela censor them at the barrel of a gun. about how much better the U.S. is as a tive point about how free speech is being Geller,T and the response has been, in Geller refers to her meeting as a free- melting pot, and so it is. uniquely curtailed out of sensitivity to part, soul-searching over what’s wrong speech event while her critics prefer to Yet two Phoenix roommates were Muslims, who apparently “earn” this sen- with Pamela Geller. call it an anti-Islam event. They are real- still prepared to commit mass murder to sitivity by being violent or making threats Geller is an attention-hungry provo- ly one and the same. In today’s circum- keep people from drawing images they of violence. Liberals and their media cateur who will never be mistaken for stances, criticism of Islam is at the van- don’t like. One of them, an American outlets have no such sensitivity toward Bernard Lewis, the venerable scholar guard of the fight for free speech, since it convert to Islam named Elton Simpson, Christians or Jews. of Islam. Her Texas gathering to award is susceptible to attack and intimidation had been convicted of lying to the FBI Freedom of speech, not religious sensi- a cash prize for the best cartoon of Mu- by jihadists and calls for self-censorship about discussions about traveling to So- tivity, was the mantra for the media when hammad — depictions of whom are by the politically correct. malia allegedly to engage in terrorism. the National Endowment for the Arts sub- considered offensive by many Muslims He evidently took inspiration from ISIS sidized the maker of “Piss Christ” in the — was deliberately offensive, but so calls to attack the Garland, Texas, event, 1990s, as it was when museums hosted what? Rich in another sign that the poisonous ideol- Chris Ofili’s dung-spattered “art” work Lowry ogy of radical Islam knows no borders. on the Virgin Mary, as it was when the TWO ARMED Muslim men showed It will ever be thus until all of Islam National Portrait Gallery promoted a vid- (c) 2015, King Features Syndicate up intending to kill the participants, and accepts the premises of free society, as eo of a crucifix with ants crawling over were only thwarted when they were shot “Yes, but ...” defenses of Geller don’t have other major world religions. The the body of Christ. dead by a police officer who was part of cut it. She had a perfect right to do what day there can be the Muslim equivalent But freedom of speech for criticizing the elaborate security arrangements. she did, and it’s a condemnation of her of The Book of Mormon without the Islam? There’s apparently no room for Absent the security, we might have enemies — and confirmation of her ba- writers, actors and audience members that in America. They won’t even show had a Charlie Hebdo-style massacre on sic point about radical Islam — that the fearing for their lives will be the day that the cartoon. these shores, in Garland, Texas, no less, act of drawing and talking elicited a vio- Islam is reformed. Then, and only then, And who was their source, anyway? a suburb of Dallas. (The world would be lent response. will mockery of Islam by the likes of The Southern Poverty Law Center — a safer and better place if the forces of Pamela Geller and her ilk be a tasteless yes, that group that has also labeled the civilization everywhere were as well- IF CARTOONS of Muhammad may irrelevance, rather a statement from atop Family Research Center a “hate” group prepared and well-armed as they are in seem a low, petty form of speech, they the ramparts of free speech. for supporting traditional marriage, lead- Texas.) are only the fault line in a deeper clash ing to an assassin using their “hate map” That horrifying prospect didn’t stop of civilizations. A swath of the Muslim YES, THERE is such a thing as self- to go to FRC’s building and open fire, se- CNN from interrogating Geller the world doesn’t just want to ban depic- restraint and consideration of the sensi- riously wounding a security guard, with morning after the attack about her views tions of Muhammad, but any speech bilities of others, but it shouldn’t be the the intent to kill as many staff as possible, of Islam and her decision to have as the critical of Islam. self-restraint of fear. Pamela Geller is a before being subdued. keynote speaker for her event the anti- There was much tsk-tsking after the bomb-thrower, but only a metaphorical, Islam Dutch politician Geert Wilders Charlie Hebdo attack about how France not a literal, one. That’s the difference THE LEFTIST media know that. (who has to live under 24-hour protec- had made itself vulnerable to domestic between her and her enemies — and be- And still use SPLC as their source. tion). The implicit assumption was that terrorism because it has failed to assimi- tween civilization and barbarism. 26 Conservative Chronicle OKINAWA: May 6, 2015 Remembering Okinawa: Prelude to the atomic bomb kinawa’s ground battle be- cut across the island. On the same day, heavy casualties. One assault cost the Americans and wounded approximate- gan April 1, 1945, when four U.S. Army units encountered in-depth Japanese 7,000 dead. The Americans ly 50,000. It was the U.S. Navy’s big- American divisions simulta- defenses to the south. The kamikazes employed endless volleys of artillery gest killer, with 4,907 sailor deaths and neouslyO assaulted the 65-mile-long is- hit the fleet; Japanese in the Southern and on-call air strikes. 4,874 wounded. Japan lost an estimated land. sector launched several vicious attacks. Monsoon rains slowed operations 75,000 military dead. As for civilians? With two U.S. Marine and two U.S. And Okinawa’s great bleeding began. i n late May. The mud and Estimates run from 50,000 to 110,000. Army divisions debarking, the attack From April 12 muck reminded some was one of the Pacific theater’s largest to 14, the Japanese Austin of WWI’s Ypres bat- U.S. PRESIDENT and WWI vet amphibious assaults. attacked along the tlefield. U.S. forces Harry Truman understood Tokyo’s stra- U.S. commanders, however, were entire south front. Bay chipped away at tegic message. Over a six-day period planning another Pacific D-Day, one Both sides suf- (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate the concentric de- during the Meuse-Argonne offensive that would far exceed Okinawa and the fered casualties; fense. An intense (September-October 1918), Truman’s Philippines’ invasions in scope, com- the U.S. invasion stalled. On April 30, artillery barrage would rake a Japa- own division had 1,126 killed and 5,000 plexity and — yes — casualties. an Army division had to be withdrawn. nese bunker; a limited infantry assault wounded. WWI ended a long month lat- Bunker battles had reduced the division would finish the dirty job. Behind the er. He didn’t want young Americans to THAT WOULD be the war-con- to 30 percent strength. bunkers, GIs found more bunkers, but bleed for every inch of Japan. And why cluding assault on Japan’s home islands. the defenders were less skilled. Fighting should 500,000 Japanese die in a lost Okinawa’s 660 square miles provided JAPANESE ATTACKS in early lapsed. On June 22, the Japanese com- cause? Well, maybe they wouldn’t have America with a big logistics dump and May rattled U.S. forces. However, out- manders committed ritual suicide. had to if the A-Bomb project panned staging area only 350 miles from Ky- side their forts, the Japanese suffered All told, Okinawa killed 12,500 out. ushu’s Southern tip. Japanese leaders knew defeating the GENDER EQUALITY: May 6, 2015 U.S. attack was most unlikely. Okina- wa, like Peleliu and Iwo Jima, would be a battle of attrition and a delaying ac- tion. Translated, that means a bloodlet- ting to buy time. Can women take the heat? Fanaticism served Tokyo’s military f you’re ever trapped in a burn- Court orders are compelling Chica- phia, Tampa, Fla., and at least a dozen purposes and strategic diplomatic ends, ing building, just pray the fire- go to relax its standards. Two federal other cities are being sued for allow- so everyone expected fierce Japanese fighter climbing up to rescue you class-action lawsuits brought by wom- ing a culture of bawdy, suggestive be- resistance on Okinawa. However, the isn’tI Rebecca Wax, or someone like her en who flunked Chicago’s firefighting havior. A Tampa Fire Rescue person- sustained fanaticism in the island’s sur- who’s been given an EZ pass through tests claimed the exams required more nel chief, known as “Uncle Touchy,” rounding waters cruelly tested the U.S. firefighter training for the sake of gen- than what is actually needed to be an just resigned after admitting he had Navy. On April 6, hundreds of suicide der equality. This week, Wax, who re- effective firefighter. Women account hugged, massaged and flirted with fe- planes attacked ships supporting the in- peatedly flunked the rigorous physical for 3.4 percent of the Chicago force, male firefighters. vasion. By June 22, the day fighting on test required by the New York City Fire compared with 5.7 percent of firefight- Many departments face the practi- Okinawa officially ceased, Japan had Department, will be allowed to gradu- ers nationally. Chicago authorities set- cal problem that firefighters — male launched 1,465 kamikaze attacks, sink- ate anyway, according to the New York tled the case last month, admitting into and female — work 24-hour shifts and ing or severely damaging 30 U.S. war- Post. All over the nation, fire depart- training women who had previously sleep in an open bunk room, with no ships. ments are easing physical standards to failed and paying millions to others no privacy curtains or separate chang- On shore, some 80,000 to 100,000 increase the number of women firefight- longer eligible. ing areas. That’s hardly conducive to Japanese manned hardened fortifica- ers. It’s roiling fire departments, and the a professional working environment. tions. Historians debate the total num- turmoil is a preview of what’s to come Nigro says he is going to remedy these ber of defenders. The Okinawan Home for the U.S. military, which has com- Betsy problems in New York. Then again, the Guard (Boeitai) participated, but to mitted to opening all combat roles to Tampa female firefighters are fanning what extent is uncertain: 500,000 civil- women by 2016. McCaughey the flames. To raise money for burn ians lived on the island. Though Tokyo’s (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate victims, they put out a calendar. The ruling supremacists regarded Okinawa- WAX TRIED six times to pass New trouble is, some even posed in bikinis. ns as low caste, they encouraged them York’s Functional Skills Training test In Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti That’s sending a mixed message. to die for the Emperor, in droves. within the 17-minute 50-second dead- is plainly unhappy with this year’s all- The touchy issue of women in tradi- That served the diplomatic end. With line. Five times she couldn’t finish at male class of firefighting graduates. tionally male occupations will be center the European war drawing to a close, all; on the sixth try, she needed 22 min- There were four women among the stage this fall, when the Pentagon will Japan’s rulers gambled that strategic fa- utes. Women’s groups claim the test is 44 recruits who started last December, announce its “gender-neutral” rules for naticism would convince war-wearying needlessly difficult and unfairly bars but they all dropped out. Desperate all military assignments. Some femi- America that fighting Japan was too women. Trainees wearing 50 pounds of to diversify, Garcetti paid the RAND nists argue that the Marine Corps’ gru- costly. Attention Mo., N.Y., Texas — gear and breathing through an air tank Corporation a whopping $270,000 for eling combat endurance test is more of your soldiers will die for each inch of must climb six stories, raise ladders, advice. RAND’s brilliant insight was an “initiation rite” than a fair appraisal rock. break down doors and drag a dummy that L.A. should recruit women ath- of physical ability, just like Wax’s sup- The Japanese decided to defend Oki- through a dark tunnel, all at breakneck letes who can take the grueling train- porters are arguing in New York. nawa in selected sectors. Troops would speed. Sounds like firefighting. ing. Duh! wait inland. If the kamikazes sank a few The test is tougher than most cities JOINT CHIEFS Chairman Mar- supply ships, that might slow the land require, but New York City buildings THAT’S WHAT San Marcos, Ca- tin Dempsey ominously announced at attack. As U.S. troops approached, Japa- are higher. Nevertheless, Fire Commis- lif., learned upon hiring Siene Free- a Pentagon briefing that if “a particu- nese forces would attack then withdraw sioner Daniel Nigro gave Wax a pass man. Several other female recruits had lar standard is so high that a woman into the defense system, forcing a bun- because she had good performance on washed out, but for her, a former mara- couldn’t make it, the burden is now on ker-to-bunker fight. Defenders in other measures, including academic thoner and weightlifter, the training the service to come back and explain: the South might resist for months in tests. was a piece of cake. Does it really have to be that high?” the concentric defense surrounding the Nigro wants to significantly boost the Municipalities who already have Military brass are too ready to lower town of Shuri. number of women in the FDNY, now women firefighters are being hit with standards; never mind the consequenc- U.S. troops initially met limited oppo- only 0.5 percent, and he wants to do it lawsuits for another reason: sexual es on the battle field. Is that really a sition. By April 4, a Marine division had before he’s staring at a court order. harassment. This year alone, Philadel- victory for women? May 13, 2015 27 OBAMA’S DRONES: April 30, 2015 The tyranny of one man’s opinion homas Cromwell was the prin- right to fairness from the government. cipal behind-the-scenes fixer If one man in the government becomes for much of the reign of King prosecutor, judge and jury, there can be HenryT VIII. He engineered the inter- no fairness, no matter who that man is rogations, convictions and executions or what his intentions may be. That is at of many whom Henry needed out of least the theory underlying the require- the way, including his two predecessors ments for due process. as fixer and even President Barack the king’s second Obama has rejected wife, Queen Anne. Andrew not only the theory When Crom- but also the practice well’s son, Greg- Napolitano of due process by ory, who became (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate his use of drones sickened as he launched by the watched his father devolving from coun- CIA to kill Americans and others over- selor to monster, learned that an execu- seas. The use of the CIA to do the killing tioner for the queen had been sent for is particularly troubling and has aroused from France a week before her convic- the criticism of senators as disparate in tion, he asked his father what the pur- their views as Rand Paul and John Mc- pose of her trial was if the king had pre- Cain, both of whom have argued that the ordained the queen’s guilt and prepaid CIA’s job is to steal and keep secrets and Moreover, the War Powers Resolu- that in January, the government launched the executioner. Cromwell replied that the military’s job is to further national tion regulates the president’s use of the its 446th drone into a foreign land, and the king needed a jury to give legitimacy security by using force; and their roles military and essentially precludes secret this one killed three Americans and an to her conviction and prevent the public should not be confused or conflated, be- wars. It requires the public consent of a Italian, none of whom had been targeted perception of “the tyranny of one man’s cause the laws governing each are differ- majority of the full Congress for all of- or posed a threat to national security at opinion.” ent. fensive military action greater than 90 the time of his murder. The drone, which Can women take the heat? days. That, in turn, brings about transpar- was dispatched by a computer in Virgin- IN AMERICA, we have a Constitu- THEIRS IS not an academic argu- ency and requires a national political will ia, was aimed at a house in Pakistan and tion not only to prevent the perception ment. The president’s use of the CIA is to use military force. was sent on its lethal way without the ap- but also to prevent the reality of the tyr- essentially unlimited as long as he re- President Obama has formulated rules proval of the Pakistani government or the anny of one man’s opinion. The Consti- ceives the secret consent of a majority — agreed to by a majority of the 37, but knowledge of President Obama. tution’s Fifth Amendment makes clear of the members of the House and Senate not by a majority in Congress — that The use of drones is not only constitu- that if the government wants life, liberty intelligence committees. The secret use permit him to kill Americans and oth- tionally impermissible but also contrain- or property, it cannot take it by legisla- of these 37 senators and representatives ers overseas when he believes they are dicated by the rules of war. Drones pose tion or executive command; it can do so constituting the two committees as a engaging in acts that pose an imminent no threat and little danger to those doing only by due process — a fair jury trial Congress-within-the Congress is pro- threat to our national security, when their the killing. Except when the intelligence and all its constitutional protections. foundly unconstitutional because Con- arrest would be impracticable and when is bad — as it was in the January case The constitutional insistence upon gress cannot delegate its war-making personally authorized by the president. revealed last week — deploying drones due process was the result of not only powers to any committee or group with- This is not federal law, just rules Obama is a low-risk endeavor for the country do- the Colonial revulsion at the behavior out effectively disenfranchising the vot- wrote for himself. Yet none of the Ameri- ing so. But Obama’s wars by robots pro- of Henry and his successors but also ers whose congressional representatives cans he has killed fits any of those rules. duce more killing than is necessary. War the recognition of the natural individual are not in the group. Last week, the White House revealed should be dangerous for all sides so as to limit its lethality to only those venues that are worth the risk — those that are vital for national security. If war is not dangerous, it will become commonplace. By one measure — the absence of personal involvement by decision-makers — it has become com- monplace already. A mere three years after his self-written rules for the deploy- ment of drones were promulgated, the president has delegated the authority to order drone killings to his staff, and the members of the congressional intelli- gence committees have delegated their authority to consent to their staffs. Obama apparently doesn’t care about the Constitution he swore to uphold, but he should care about the deaths of inno- cents. Obama’s drones have killed more non-targeted innocents in foreign lands than were targeted and killed in the U.S. on 9/11.

AND THE WORLD is vastly less stable now than it was on 9/11. The president’s flying robots of death have spawned the Islamic State group — a monstrosity far exceeding even Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell in barbarity. 28 Conservative Chronicle BRITAIN: May 1, 2015 British elections: A guide for the perplexed s a public service, here is a strategic assets like Baltic and Mediter- brief guide for Americans to ranean. tomorrow’s British elections. To keep up with all this politicking, NotA that you really need one. The oper- you’ll need to know the cast of char- ating principle is easy enough to under- acters in this protracted drama. Some stand — like the British taste for deli- will be familiar faces, like cacies like toad in the current prime the hole, bubble- minister David and-squeak and Paul Cameron, who is spotted dick. Not Greenberg forever trying to to mention spe- (c) 2015, Tribune Media Services pass himself off cialties like kip- as a Man of the but now Labour’s appeal has dropped have sprouted like weeds, undercutting pers salty enough People, but it’s hopeless. He’s got the precipitately where it was once stron- any appeal a Third Force might once to make the Dead Sea seem alkaline. map of Mayfair on his ruddy face and gest: Scotland. have had. Still, the Liberal Democrats As I said, easy to understand. Like the a plush accent to go with it. You’d no It seems the Scots have been bitten may be needed by the Big Two to form game of cricket, whose rules are as more mistake him for a plebeian as you by the nationalist bug and produced a Britain’s next government, and so find clear to an American as a London fog. would a pub for a wine bar. party of their own with a program of its themselves in an influential bargaining To quote Hugo Rifkind — a long- own: independence. Which has cut into position. ONCE THE election returns are in time observer of British politics, so- Labour’s support there dramatically. The rest of this overcrowded field tomorrow night, it’s just a matter of co- ciety and mores, which have a way of Nicola Sturgeon is not a fish but the is filled with the same kind of self- alition-building, a game that resembles blending into one highly hierarchical leader of the Scottish National Party, destructive nationalist parties that no musical chairs. All the political parties culture — the prime minister is “belea- which almost achieved its goal of Scot- longer value the safe harbor the British that poll a share of the vote, however guered by accusations that he’s too rich tish independence last year, drawing 45 Empire once afforded them. The result minuscule, proceed to circle each oth- and privileged to understand anybody percent of the vote. Now the same party could be a balkanized Britain as vari- er warily until “Rule, Britannia” stops else. He often appears to genuinely not that sought to leave the United King- ous ethnic, geographic and linguistic playing and then begin scrambling for understand these accusations, thereby dom seeks a role in governing it. Such subdivisions of the British isles decide seats in the next cabinet. (“I’ll give you creating the strong impression that are the weird workings of nationalism, they’re separate nations and try to strike Home for Defence with Work and Pen- they’re true.” whose excesses may leave the nation it out on their own: the Welsh, Northern sions thrown in. ...”) A poor little rich boy, the PM under- professes to love alone and isolated, cut Irish, you name it, they proliferate. You won’t need a scorecard to tell all stands that the best argument for his off from the empire that once sheltered It might take us former colonials to the players but an encyclopedia, con- re-election is the quality of the alterna- and indulged it. appreciate the stability the British Em- sidering the number of political parties tives. Such as: pire once lent the world as less benign involved. In that respect, the game of Ed Miliband, who won his post as THEN THERE’S Nick Clegg, cur- empires now re-emerge: the old Stalin- piecing together the next British cabi- leader of the other major party — La- rently deputy prime minister and leader ist Russia, rampant again under Com- net bears a distinct resemblance to Mo- bour — by defeating his older brother. of the Liberal Democrats, the alterna- rade/President/Czar Putin; a new Ca- nopoly as the players negotiate for the Blood, it seems, is thinner than water, tive to both major parties. Mr. Clegg liphate so bloody-minded that any true most prized properties on the board — or at least political ambition. That’s was the great hope of British politics son of Saladin the Magnificent would like Park Place and Boardwalk — but been true enough since the rise of the some five years ago, but he’s since fad- be ashamed to claim it. ... may have to settle for lesser but still Tudors in not so jolly old England — ed into irrelevance as nationalist parties Lost is the balance of power that once assured a measure of peace, how- ever uncertain, in the world. Empires like the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian contained feuding nationalities by tol- erating them. The British Empire, too, has been an invaluable source of stabil- ity in the world. It wasn’t until those in charge of it abused their power that we Americans were driven to leave it, and then only after long hesitation. (Has there ever been a more reluctant bunch of revolutionaries than our Founding Fathers?) All of which explains why some of us are rooting for the Brits to muddle through, which was once a specialty of theirs, and hold together somehow. It’s a common enough sentiment among those of us who may be outside the Em- pire now but remember it fondly. It’s called Anglophilia.

I ONCE MET a Jewish tailor in Mexico City after he had fled Vilna in Poland to follow the British around the world in search of a safe haven during the war-torn 1940s. He had tried Canada for a while, but “Montreal has only one season: winter.” Something he said has stuck with me: “The English are a cold people, but they have character.” And to some of us, character is still all. May 13, 2015 29 WWI: April 29, 2015 Gallipoli: 100 years of consequences n Australia and New Zealand, interests did not always align with Lon- of attrition between entrenched com- Turkish straits. An amphibious assault the annual holiday Australia and don. batants. Gallipoli was a “high-concept” on Turkey’s northern Aegean Sea coast New Zealand Army Corps Day Turkish commemorations are more battle, one that might end the Western and then seizing the Dardanelles Strait commemoratesI the service of their sol- festive. Gallipoli was one of Ottoman Front’s trench impasses. In September would outflank the Western Front’s diers who died in battle. Turkey’s few Great War victories and 1914, the Western Front’s mobile war trench systems. Allied battleships, their ANZAC Day, April 25, is intimately perhaps the only one of significance. came to a deadly halt. Allied big guns the ICBMs of WWI, would tied to the WWI battle of Gallipoli. On Gallipoli’s winner and losers both suf- and German armies con- then pass the narrow strait and sail to Is- April 25, 1915, sea-borne British Com- fered horrendous structed a flankless tanbul. If Ottoman Turkey failed to sur- monwealth and French forces debarked casualties. By the Austin trench system running render, battleship guns would level its on Turkey’s Gallipoli Peninsula and the time allied forces from the Swiss bor- capital. Follow-on allied invaders would violent Gallipoli campaign began. withdrew (Jan. 9, Bay der to the English seize the Bosphorus Strait. Via the Black 1916), both sides (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate Channel. Massed Sea, Britain and France could supply FOR AUSSIES and Kiwis, ANZAC had each suffered infantry assaults Russia. Day makes a statement about their around 250,000 killed and wounded. against dug-in machine guns and relent- now unique national identities. Their Gallipoli’s role in shaping Aussie and less artillery slugfests produced casual- IN ORDER TO succeed, Allied sol- soldiers’ central and sustained roles in Kiwi identities is a long-term political ties but failed to break the defensive sys- diers had to quickly seize the Turk forts Gallipoli’s eight months of hell sorely effect. There are others, and one of im- tem. Leaders sought alternatives. Can guarding the Dardanelles. British com- tested their once very close political mediate 21st-century import. we restore mobility, possibly in another manders gave the ANZACs D-Day’s identification with Great Britain. Galli- Gallipoli became something it was geographic theater? The Allies with their most critical missions. They were to poli made it clear that Aussie and Kiwi not supposed to be: another WWI battle sea-dominating navies considered the land, clamber up and over the penin- sula’s rugged central ridge, and then as- sault from the rear the big forts guarding May 3, 2015 LUSITANIA: the Narrows. The Australians were perhaps 15 to 20 minutes from crossing the ridge in strength and beginning their descent to The Lusitania’s role in history the forts. Turkish troops they encoun- wning a fragment of his- liam Turner soothed anxious passengers the traffic — the more the better; and if tered on the coast were fleeing. Then the tory — a Gettysburg bullet, by noting that his ship could outrun a some of it gets into trouble, better still.” Aussies’ lead scouts stopped. They heard a Coolidge campaign but- submarine. This was reassuring only as- In his World War II memoirs, Churchill the sound of soldiers fixing bayonets and tonO — is fun, so in 1968 Gregg Bemis suming he would know where the sub- recalled hearing about Pearl Harbor: “I feared an ambush. became an owner of the Lusitania. This marines would be. Turner also said that thought of a remark that [Foreign Secre- An obscure Turkish lieutenant-col- 787-feet-long passenger liner has been upon entering the war zone, the ship tary] Edward Grey had made to me more onel had stopped the fleeing soldiers. beneath 300 feet of water off Ireland’s would be enveloped by the British Na- than 30 years before — that the United His name was Mustafa Kemal (Kemal south coast since a single German tor- vy’s protection. He was wrong. States is like ‘a gigantic boiler. Once the Ataturk); he commanded the Ottoman pedo sank it 100 years ago Thursday. It Woodrow Wilson’s February 1915 fire is lighted under it there is no limit to 19th Infantry Division. In a few mo- contains the four million U.S.-made rifle protest about German submarines tar- the power it can generate.’ ... I went to ments, soldiers from Kemal’s division bullets and other munitions that the ship geting neutral countries’ merchant ship- bed and slept the sleep of the saved and began to arrive. Kemal told them: “I do had been carrying from neutral America ping, Larson writes, “did not impress thankful.” not expect you to attack; I order you to to wartime Britain. Germany’s submarine zealots,” who Churchill’s thinking about the Lu- die!” thought they could cripple Britain before sitania tragedy and the economizing of Fighting and dying Turks — at IT IS COMMONLY but wrongly America could mobilize to intervene in violence was similar. In his World War the battlefield’s most critical point — said that the sinking altered history’s Europe. Germany’s policy put events in I memoir, he wrote that America’s entry stopped the ANZAC maneuver. Attrition trajectory. Yet some people, including the hands of young, ambitious submarine into the war in April 1917 “could have began and continued. Strategic coup be- Britain’s first lord of the Admiralty, Win- captains, such as Walther Schwieger of been done in May 1915. And if done came a strategic morass. ston Churchill, hoped an attack on a ship U-20, whose movements were tracked then what abridgement of the slaughter Kemal’s arrival at the critical point would pull America into the war. They by British intelligence capabili- ... would have been prevented.” was not an accident. In Gallipoli: The may have facilitated Lusitania’s calamity ties unknown to Germany. Larson notes that the day Lusitania Ottoman Campaign, historian Edward by not taking available measures to pre- was sunk, Col. Edward House, Wilson’s Erickson argues convincingly that dur- vent it. Of the 1,198 who perished, 128 George adviser, was in London, where King ing the First Balkan War (1912-1913) were Americans. George V asked him: “Suppose they that the Turks developed “the basic de- In Dead Wake: The Last Crossing Will should sink the Lusitania with Ameri- fensive plans ... used to defend the pen- of the Lusitania, Erik Larson notes that (c) 2015, Washington Post Writers Group can passengers aboard?” Hours earlier, insula in 1915.” As a staff officer, Kemal early in 1915 warfare was evolving. On House had met with Britain’s foreign helped formulate that plan. He advocat- January 19, two zeppelins conducted BECAUSE SOME passengers had to secretary. “We spoke,” House remem- ed positioning reserves where they could Germany’s first air raid on Britain. On be transferred from another liner, Lusita- bered, “of the probability of an ocean quickly move to stop a landing force ex- April 22, near Ypres, Germans sent a nia left America two hours late. To pare liner being sunk and I told him if this iting a beachhead. On April 25, 1915, he cloud of chlorine gas drifting toward costs in the face of declining wartime were done, a flame of indignation would executed that. So much for high concept. French and Canadian lines. travel, the ship conserved coal by using sweep across America, which would in Larson’s story concerns a technology just three of its four boiler rooms, which itself probably carry us into war.” KEMAL’S MILITARY success at central to Germany’s strategy: Subma- prolonged the voyage. If neither delay Gallipoli led to higher commands. Post- rines supposedly would interdict sup- had happened, Lusitania’s course prob- AMERICAN ANGER was more war, his performance gave him a politi- plies heading to Britain, which imported ably would not have intersected U-20’s. muted and the nation’s neutrality sur- cal credential, one he used in building two-thirds of its food. British officials did not tell Turner to al- vived until two months after Germany the Turkish nationalist movement. As The morning the Lusitania left New ter Lusitania’s route to Liverpool and did resumed unrestricted submarine warfare the Turkish Republic’s first president, York, Germany’s U.S. embassy placed not send even a single one of the avail- in February 1917. A “dead wake,” Lar- he became the only man to ever success- on the shipping pages of the city’s news- able navy vessels for protection. son explains, is maritime vernacular for fully turn a culturally Islamic society papers its usual notice that vessels flying Churchill had spoken of attracting a trail of “a fading disturbance,” as from into a parliamentary democracy. Though the British flag “are liable to destruc- shipping to Britain’s shores “in the hopes a torpedo. What Gregg Bemis owns is a Islamists are challenging his reforms, tion” in the war zone, including waters especially of embroiling the United relic of a tragedy that was a consequence, that is a strategic effect of Gallipoli, writ around the United Kingdom. Capt. Wil- States with Germany.” And: “We want not a cause, of many others. large. 30 Conservative Chronicle 2016 ELECTION: May 6, 2015 Huck can beat Hillary and the Clinton machine was there in 1993 when Mike can also bar him from winning, just as Huckabee beat the vaunted Clin- it did when he took on John McCain ton machine in their Arkansas in 2008, only winning southern Bible backyard,I even as the president pulled belt states. all the strings he could to defeat the H e needs to run as a for- Republican’s up- mer governor, not start bid for lieu- as a former Bap- tenant governor. Dick tist preacher. He Those who, to- Morris must articulate his day, question his points in a secular (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate ability to match language, equally up with Hillary accessible to vot- media would still write about him pri- all over itself to give President Obama Clinton on the campaign trail should ers of all different types and degrees of marily in evangelical terms. His re- vast new powers over trade deals, it examine the record of that race to see religious faith. When he says that the cord as governor should provide more will fall to Huckabee to ask if they are how well Huckabee ran. Supreme Court cannot overrule God, than enough credential to run without good for American workers. he scores points for snappy rhetoric looking back more than 20 years at his THE FUNDAMENTAL element but undermines his ability to have a sermons and homilies. But such is the BUT, IF HUCKABEE evolves as a in Bill Clinton’s rise to power, and his nonreligious appeal. Better to have media — once labeled, it is very hard candidate — he has always been a fast continued hold on it in the ‘80s and spoken about how the Court cannot to shake that image. learner — he alone in the field has had ‘90s, was his style of political cam- change cultural norms or individual What Huckabee seems determined the kind of give-and-take experience in paigning. While most candidates take values than to have invoked a theo- to do is to explore the fissure in the battling the Clinton media machine. It their time in responding to attacks and logical theme. GOP between the country clubs and should pay off only gradually realize that opposition corporations on one hand and small charges are scoring, Bill and Hillary OF COURSE, Huckabee could ab- independent businesses on the other. virtually invented the hair-trigger re- jure all religious faith and the news With the GOP establishment falling action time in modern television cam- paigns. When attacked, they lashed BRITAIN: May 5, 2015 back with negative counterpunches and complete rebuttals. Nobody else was able to equal their speed or audac- ity in winning the give and take of paid political advertising dialogue. Neither That unruly Britannia the right-wing of the Arkansas Demo- hey called it “Question Time,” Because the UK does not have a lost a referendum to secede from the cratic party in the ‘70s, nor the Arkan- borrowing the term from the “written” constitution, something UK, but it is expected to win every sas Republicans of the ‘80s, nor Bill’s prime minister’s weekly ap- called The Cabinet Manual directs contested parliamentary seat in Scot- primary rivals in 1992, nor Kenneth pearanceT in the House of Commons, what is to happen in such an eventual- land come election day. Starr, nor Bob Dole. Each was outma- but this was surprisingly and refresh- ity: The fear factor is also coming into neuvered and tied into knots by Bill’s ingly different. “If no single party has an overall play with Home Secretary Theresa May canny dialogue and smart rebuttals. On Thursday, the three main can- majority, there are three main options saying a voter deadlock would expose Hillary sat at our side as we managed didates for prime minister — David for the sort of government that could Britain to terror attacks because Parlia- these dialogues and can be expected to Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg be formed. A formal coalition, made ment would be unable to pass needed conduct her 2016 campaign with simi- — one by one appeared before an audi- up of two or more parties which usu- revisions in its anti-terrorist laws, revi- lar alacrity. (Why she did not in 2008 ence of voters at the Leeds Town Hall ally includes ministers from more than sions the SNP opposes. will remain a mystery.) where for a half-hour voters asked one party; an informal agreement, in As in U.S. elections, turnout, not so The only campaign that beat Clin- them informed, pointed and detailed which smaller parties would support a much the credibility of politicians, will ton was the 1993 effort to overturn the questions. The host, the BBC’s David government on major votes in be key. If the BBC event is any indica- state’s Democratic establishment and Dimbleby, called for questions and tion, a lot of voters here have become elect Mike Huckabee as the first state- occasionally followed up, but mostly Cal hardened skeptics when it comes to wide Republican elected official since voters drove the program. Two of the promises from their politicians. Again, Reconstruction. And he did it by beat- candidates were called liars right to Thomas not much different from how Ameri- ing the Clintons at their own game. their faces. In the U.S., we may think (c) 2015, Tribune Media Services cans view their political leaders. Each time he was attacked, he our candidates liars, but we rarely have The U.S. could benefit from the lashed back, combining his patented a chance to call them on it. return for some concessions; or a sin- British system of shorter campaigns, humor with his familiar tone of moral gle-party minority government, where which would decrease costs and might righteousness. The final exchange in THE BRITISH complain that they the biggest party goes it alone and tries enhance voter interest. The British that heated race came in the last week are tired of this long campaign, which to survive vote-by-vote supported by a could borrow from America and do when, true to the Clinton playbook, has lasted just five months. They series of ad hoc arrangements.” away with multiple parties, which may Huckabee’s Democratic opponent at- should consider what Americans have The latest coalition government is well contribute to a hung Parliament tacked his wife Janet’s role in the to put up with — year-around election the current one. and uncertainty about whose policies campaign. While the state was rocked cycles that never seem to end. will prevail. by the charge, Mike kept his cool and Betfair, the wagering website that IN THE FINAL days before the was on TV the next day with an ad has a good track record of correctly May 7 election, the major parties are AS TO WHICH election process is that instructed his hapless opponent to predicting election results in the UK seeking to out-promise each other on the most efficient and gets the most out “attack me, not my wife.” By making and the United States, forecasts a 90 what they will do if elected. These of its candidates, it’s difficult to say. the issue about family, he defused the percent chance of a hung Parliament, promises range from improving the Politicians are politicians whichever charge and went on to pull off a nar- meaning no party will gain enough National Health Service (Cameron), side of the Big Pond they’re on. What row victory. seats to form a government. If that cutting taxes (Cameron), reversing tax is clear is that voters in the UK have a Huckabee, of course, has a prob- happens, it will spark a round of high- cuts for “the rich” (Miliband) to prom- greater opportunity to hold their politi- lem. His strength among religious vot- stakes horse-trading, as the disparate ising no coalition government that cians’ feet to the fire. American voters ers can be his ticket of admission to parties try to cobble together a ruling includes the Scottish National Party would have a field day with a shot like the final rounds of the campaign but coalition. (SNP) (Miliband). Last year the SNP that. May 13, 2015 31 BRITAIN: May 1, 2015 America’s politics is polarized, Britain’s is fragmented ext week, Britain votes in its British politics used to be like that. In first general election in five the 1951 general election, 97 percent of years. Some aspects of its Britons voted either Conservative or La- politicsN will be familiar to Americans. bour. In the May 2010 general election, Polls show voters are dissatisfied with that percentage was down to 65 percent, politicians of both parties, cynical about and neither major party got a majority whether they will keep their promises in the House of Commons. and closely di- That led to a co- vided between Michael alition government two major par- led by Conservative ties, which have Barone Prime Minister been in existence (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate David Cameron for more than 100 with participation years. by the Liberal Democrats. The coalition But there are differences as well, in produced noteworthy reforms of edu- contrast to decades when British and cation and welfare. It cut public sector American politics seemed to move in payrolls, which was followed not by the tandem — the 1980s of Ronald Reagan recession predicted by Keynesians, but and Margaret Thatcher, the 1990s of by the fastest economic growth among Bill Clinton’s New Democrats and Tony developed countries and a labor force Blair’s New Labour. participation rate of 72 percent (compare that to 62 percent in the U.S.). THE MOST vivid difference is that These policy successes have not been Union in Brussels, despite widespread Blair encouraged Scottish separatism by while American party politics is increas- so successful politically. The Lib Dems British opposition. creating a Scottish parliament to handle ingly polarized, British party politics is have lost at least half their voters, disap- many internal policies, and the Scot increasingly fragmented. Americans, pointed that the party didn’t move left. UKIP’S RISING poll numbers sug- Nats, hitherto a splinter, won a majority even if they like to say they’re politically And the Cameron Conservatives’ em- gested it could siphon off votes from there in 2011. independent, increasingly vote faithfully brace of environmental purism, renew- Conservatives in dozens of districts, They pushed successfully for a ref- for one party or the other. Many don’t able energy and same-sex marriage has blocking any chance they would in- erendum on Scottish independence last think kindly of those who vote the other moved many tradition-minded English crease the 308 seats they won in 2010 September, which was defeated by only way. voters to the United Kingdom Indepen- to a 326-seat-majority, and increasing a 10-point margin. But this year, evident- That unruly Britannia Both major parties in the United dence Party. the chance that the Labour Party under ly, most of that 45 percent have switched States have proved flexible enough to UKIP decries the high immigration its leader Ed Miliband would win more from Labour to the SNP, so that Labor make room for protest movements, like encouraged by the 1997-2010 Labour seats and get first chance to form a gov- could lose 30 to 40 formerly safe seats. Tea Party conservatives and redistribu- governments and continuing today from ernment. Conservatives have been decrying tionist left-wingers. So American poli- Eastern Europe. It chafes under the in- But now Labour faces a threat of its the specter of a minority Labour govern- tics is polarized between two large par- creasing regulations and laws imposed own from the Scottish Nationalist Party. ment supported by the SNP, which seeks ties supported by nearly all voters. by the largely undemocratic European It has itself at least partly to blame. Tony higher taxes and spending and another referendum on independence. It would indeed be odd for a party that wants to split a nation apart to have such enor- mous leverage in its government. There are other splinter parties as well — a Green Party that has one seat in the Commons, the Welsh Nationalists and the separate Northern Irish parties. The result is that a system, which for many years produced clear and broadly ac- cepted decisions between crisp choices to head government, may result in no party receiving a majority for any pos- sible government. Who is to blame for this? You can blame voters for preferring the best over the good. You can also blame the elite leaders of the two parties, who risked alienating core supporters.

ED MILIBAND, from London’s trendy Hampstead, is paying for previ- ous Labour leaders’ stoking of Scottish separatism. The decision of David Cam- eron and his allies to make their party more acceptable to their Notting Hill neighbors has cost them allegiance from English old-timers. Political polarization is decried by many well-intentioned political observ- ers. But political fragmentation may be an even greater threat to good gover- nance. RUSH! •NEWSPAPER• •DATED MATERIAL•

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