Sep. 1, 2022
Permission to republish original opeds and cartoons granted.
Biden’s attack on Make America Great Again (MAGA) Republicans is the real threat to democracy
By Robert Romano
This evening, the President of the United States of America, Joe Biden, will deliver a primetime speech from Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pa. laying out his case that so-called Make America Great Again (MAGA) Republicans, that is, those Republicans who supported former President Donald Trump in the 2016 GOP primary, the 2016 election and the 2020 election, and perhaps believe he represents them better than the Republican Party leadership that preceded him, are an “extremist threat” to our democracy.
The White House is dubbing it the “Soul of the Nation” speech. That’s fitting.
For, by doing so, it is the President who is threatening democracy itself. Biden is not talking about some radical group or some offshoot nobody’s ever heard of, he’s targeting tens of millions of hard-working, patriotic Americans, who voted for Trump and still stand with him. They love Trump, you might not believe it, but they really believe he fought for them when nobody else would.
Because he did.
And now they’re watching in horror as the President and his lackeys at the Justice Department, including Attorney General Merrick Garland, who because of his actions targeting the opposition party in an election year with yet another unconstitutional counterintelligence investigation of Trump over documents Trump declassified more than a year ago, is the worst Attorney General in history and should be removed from office for targeting Biden’s principal political opponent who says he might be running for President again in 2024.
The sheer number of people that Biden is referring to must not be overlooked, and rather, should be put into its proper context. 73 million Americans voted for former President Trump in the last election.
NBC News has a running poll for the past couple years asking Republicans if they identified more with Trump or the Republican Party, where sometimes half say Trump, or half say the party. Today the number of Republicans saying they identify with Trump more is 41 percent.
If we’re looking at Trump’s vote count in 2020, that is 30 million Americans. That is way too many for the President to speaking in this way.
But Trump’s appeal crossed party lines. If it didn’t, he would never have been elected in the first place. If instead, we consider Gallup’s recent voter identification survey that found 28 percent of Americans say they are Republicans, 29 percent say they are Democrats, and 41 percent say they are independents, then the number of MAGA Republicans would seemingly drop to 18 million. Still way too many for President Biden to be targeting them.
On the other hand, if you were to ask self-identified independents who voted for Trump if they identified more with Trump or the Republican Party, there’s only one possible answer: They already said they don’t identify with the Republican Party, and so they too at least nominally identify more with Trump than the GOP.
Which is fine, by the way. We pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, not to a political party. And not to transitory figures such as politicians. Even Trump.
Including them, if all independents who trust Trump more than a political party are added to the MAGA tally, then the number actually rises to about 55 million. They’re not MAGA Republicans, but they’re still MAGA. And MAGA is the part Biden’s specifically concerned about.
In a Aug. 25 speech in Bethesda, Md., Biden compared Trump supporters to fascists and Nazis from almost a century ago that America fought in World War II: “what we’re seeing now is either the beginning or the death knell of an extreme MAGA philosophy. It’s not just — it’s not just Trump. It’s the –it’s the entire philosophy that underpins — it’s — I’m going say something — it’s almost like semi-fascism, the way in which it deals.”
On Aug. 31, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre further expounded on the President’s speech, stating, “The president thinks that there is an extremist threat to our democracy… When we talk about our democracy, when we talk about our freedoms, the way that he sees it is the MAGA Republicans are the most energized part of the Republican Party. This is an extreme threat to our democracy, to our freedom, to our rights. They just don’t respect the rule of law. You’ve heard that from the president.”
But it’s neither fascism nor semi-fascism.
Instead, we’re looking at 55 million voters who like Trump and his America First platform more than what the political parties are dishing out. That is not an “extremist threat,” that’s a massive voting bloc for the former President that he can utilize perhaps to once again secure the Republican nomination in 2024 if he chooses, or which ever successor runs in his stead.
How dare any president or politician speak about so many Americans in this way, comparing them to war criminals who murdered tens of millions of people in a war our grandfathers fought and won, and a few of whom had the chance to vote for Trump in 2016?
And why, we should ask? Because we voted the wrong way? Or that we didn't believe the conventional Republican Party represented us anymore? Either way, that's insane.
A politician who keeps his word, as Trump did, is good enough. In his case, he kept promises to build the wall on the southern border (as much as he could without even a Republican Congress in 2017 that was willing to help even though they promised they would), get better trade deals with Canada, Mexico, South Korea, Japan and China including for the first time including currency devaluation as a non-tariff trade barrier, negotiating the Abraham Accords between Israel and her Arab neighbors, slashing taxes, eliminating the Obamacare individual mandate to purchase insurance and who oversaw the nation’s response to the Covid pandemic in 2020, including pushing for rapid production of vaccines, ventilators and making military resources available to states that were concerned hospitals would be overrun with patients, and ensuring the U.S. economy did not fall into a years-long, deflationary depression by guaranteeing small businesses’ payrolls with forgivable loans, postponing mortgage and rent payments and shoring up households who were otherwise taking a massive pay cut that year to offset the economic lockdowns.
Trump offered a political program to his constituents, and still does, and that’s a perfectly legitimate endeavor, love him or hate him. And if he’s the best nominee Republicans come up with in the 2024 primary, that’s fine, too. Finally, win or lose in 2024, that will almost certainly be Trump’s last run owing to either term limits or age.
Trump stood with us, and that’s why we still stand with him. If that makes me a MAGA Republican, fine. Make America Great Again, Mr. President—and do what you promised in your inauguration speech: “Bringing America together. Uniting our people. And uniting our nation.”
Targeting anywhere from 18 million to 55 million voters who still like Trump is not unity, it is simply wrong, and along with targeting Trump with a contrived criminal investigation, and threatening to imprison his political opponents, Biden will predictably do the opposite, only this time, endangering the lives of those voters who are naïve enough to still believe they're allowed to wear their red MAGA cap this coming Labor Day weekend as campaign events unfold everywhere, because now the President has labeled them an "extremist threat" and enemies of the state. That they still live in a free country. For shame.
Robert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government.
To view online: https://dailytorch.com/2022/09/bidens-attack-on-make-america-great-again-maga-republicans-is-the-real-threat-to-democracy/
Biden’s Radical FTC Gets Punched Back
By Rick Manning
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) under Joe Biden’s radical appointees has made a point to overturning internal rules of action and aggressively expanding its power. In the wake of the Supreme Court’s West Virginia v. EPA case which curtailed the agency’s ability to dramatically expand environmental laws beyond any reasonable congressional grant of power, the FTC’s power grab may be next on the chopping block. The FTC faces a likely challenge to a part of their claimed authority to internally litigate cases effectively dictating their outcome at the Supreme Court in the Axon v. FTC case.
As the FTC’s administrative overreach is already under legal challenge, it is refreshing to see more companies fighting back. Walmart has courageously chosen to push back against the FTC for an “egregious instance of agency overreach.” As the Courts have curtailed the overreach of other agencies in this administration, the FTC should be next. They already face significant legal challenges to their authority and Walmart’s filing raises even more serious issues about their evasion of constitutional limits.
The Courts must act to bring an end to the unconstitutional actions of the FTC – and other power-hungry agencies that ignore the constitution. In addition, Congress must step of its oversight of the FTC, and any agency, who takes action beyond their mandating authority.
In the post West Virginia v. EPA world, those of us who believe constitutional, limited federal government power is essential to maintaining any semblance of individual liberty need to stand up and praise companies like Axon and Walmart for taking the risk of going after those who would wield enormous power if unchecked. It is not easy to have your corporate name on a lawsuit in this woke world where armies of twitter bots can attack your brand at a moment’s notice. And while few have heard of Axon, when a corporate giant like Walmart steps to the forefront and says enough is enough, those who care about individual liberty need to applaud them.
The fight for limited government is necessarily the same as the fight against the ever growing administrative state, which has become a hotbed of government expansion over the years.
The FTC’s rapid and radical attempt to expand the federal government’s reach should serve as a cautionary tale for members of the United States Senate who vote to confirm members of little known quasi-governmental entities which have extraordinary control over the free enterprise system.
America can no longer afford the GOP acceptance of whoever President Biden appoints to positions of power. In fact, you cannot claim to be a limited government Senator and vote for appointees who seek to rip apart the fabric of our nation with untried or rejected legal theories that give federal enforcers the ability to choose a target and then find or manufacture a crime.
It is our sincere hope that the Biden FTC serves as a constant reminder that the left has abandoned the comity of bi-partisanship needed to ensure legitimacy of an unelected administrative body’s actions, and Republicans are elected by their constituents to protect them from wayward regulators.
And in the meantime, let’s hope that the FTC feels the sharp blade of Lady Justice’s sword for their blatant attempts at partisan, corporate score settling when they are forced to defend their positions before the highest courts in the land.
To view online: https://townhall.com/columnists/rickmanning/2022/09/01/bidens-radical-ftc-gets-punched-back-n2612492
Herschel Walker: Ignore the trash talk: Republicans can and will win this November
Trash talk is common in sports. Whether it’s lighthearted or nasty, the purpose is the same: to intimidate your opponent and make them lose focus and feel less confident in their ability to win.
Democrats and their friends in the media are engaging in their own form of trash talk when it comes to the midterm elections. They wave around some meaningless poll or quote an “expert” who would have us believe that Republican Senate candidates are weak, President Joe Biden has had some great successes, the Democrats’ fundraising numbers give them a huge advantage, and Republicans can’t possibly win back the Senate.
None of this is true. It’s nothing more than an intimidation tactic designed to scare conservative donors away, suppress Republican enthusiasm, and discourage Republican candidates and voters.
To my fellow colleagues, don’t fall for it. Primary voters chose us, not because we look and sound like slick politicians but because we are not politicians. That will be an asset in the general election since the politicians in charge have made such a terrible mess.
As for Biden’s “success,” the only thing he and the Democrats have been successful at is making us unsafe, weak, woke, and broke. Democrats and the media can try to spin all they want, but it won’t work. People know the truth. They feel the truth in their wallets every single day.
Are Democrats raising a lot of money? Sure. Much of it is coming from out of state. But my opponent’s out-of-state donors can’t vote in Georgia. I’ll take votes over dollars any day.
I have never backed down from a fight, and neither should you. There is too much at stake. I’m sure you are hearing and seeing the same things on the campaign trail that I am: huge crowds of people who are upset at what Biden and the Democrats have done to this country in just a couple of years.
They see us as the last best hope for turning things around and preserving our freedoms. They are looking to us to save the country from a group of people who are doing their best to destroy it.
Everyday voters are sick of the crime. The chaos at the border. Sky-high food and gas prices. Weakness abroad. Out-of-control government spending. (By the way, these people don’t talk to pollsters. They quietly go about their business. But they vote!)
Ignore the talking-head trash talk. It’s not based in reality. Listen to the voters. Keep pulling. Keep plugging. Together we can do this. We have to.
Many of us are giving up comfortable lives because we want to give back to the country and communities that gave us so much. We don’t need or want power. The power belongs to the people, just like our Founding Fathers intended. It’s up to us to reclaim it for them.
To the people who are putting their trust in us, don’t fall for the trash talk either. Don’t worry. We won’t let you down. Help is on the way.
To view online: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/patriotism-unity/ignore-the-trash-talk-republicans-can-and-will-win-this-november