Archives for July 2016

Despite a Republican convention featuring public rules fights and Donald Trump being stiff-armed by his closest rival to the nomination, one of the leading conservative insurgents in Congress believes the party is unifying around core principles and could get a lot of good done for the American people if GOP congressional leaders would just do it.

Rep. David Brat, R-Va., shot to prominence in the summer of 2014 when he stunned then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in a congressional primary.  Brat is also the author of “American Underdog: Proof that Principles Matter.”

While he admits this has been a very contentious year within Republican ranks, Brat believes the party can coalesce around the key pillars of American greatness and western civilization itself.

“The Judeo-Christian tradition, the rule of law and the free market system.  Those three happen in a certain order in western canon.  If you look at countries that have those three pieces, you’re looking at countries that have good civil rights, political liberties, role of women, clean environment, better economic growth, higher standard of living, good health care,” said Brat.

He believes the Republican nominee appreciates that bedrock.

“Donald Trump is affirmative on all three of those,” said Brat.  “The left is a full-frontal assault on all of them.”

Brat quickly admits several differences remain between Trump and many Republicans, but he sees the amount of common ground slowly growing.

“There’s some divergence between (House Speaker Paul) Ryan and Trump and various groups.  But on those three pillars that made us great, we’re all unified.  We’re all fighting for those three.  Sometimes we get lost down in the weeds.  But at the 30,000-foot level, I feel pretty good about where we’re going,” said Brat.

Brat wants to see much more in the way of specifics from Trump, but he believes what we’ve seen so far is encouraging.

“Trump’s already put some stuff out on paper: promises on judges, he’s got a tax plan on paper and he’s been zooming in more and more with Mike Pence.  That’s a good sign of a conservative move, so I think we’re heading in the right direction,” said Brat.

While details of Trump’s agenda trickle out, congressional Republicans are waging their own public relations campaign.  Known as “A Better Way,” Speaker Ryan is laying out policy proposals in a variety of areas designed to shrink government and roll back government regulations in the lives of Americans.  Brat think some proposals are better than others, but says one question bothers him about the House GOP campaign?

“The whole question is when are we going to do it.  We’ve been in charge for four years, six years.  Senate.  House.  The deficit this year is $535 billion under Republican leadership,” said Brat, who notes that issues ranging from tax reform to authorizing military action to immigration need to be addressed.

“People want to see us take some action now. not always promising action a year later,” said Brat.

Republican critics of Brat’s approach often say such demands are unrealistic, since President Obama would never sign most legislation passed by a Republican Congress.  Brat has no use for that mindset.

“I absolutely reject that logic.  The whole point is to put legislation we believe in through the House.  Then the Senate has to do their job.  Then let the president sit there and veto one good piece after another,” said Brat.

Brat, a former economics professor, is most concerned about legislative dawdling on spending and debt.  He points to Congressional Budget Office reports showing we are just ten years away from spending all revenues on mandatory spending alone.  He says this is a problem caused by both parties.

“There are too many big spenders that want to dole out $4 trillion to the cronies.  That’s just ruining the country,” said Brat.

He says without urgent action, future generations can kiss entitlement programs goodbye.

“Our kids are not going to have Social Security and Medicare.  They’re both insolvent in 15 years unless we get our heads on straight.  So we’ve got some heavy lifting to do quickly,” said Brat.

Brat says America is more than capable of making a strong comeback.  He says the people in this country are strong but government needs to do its job.

“Our institutions are broken.  The American people are the greatest people on the earth.  We’ve been exceptional for over 200 years, outperforming the world on every single metric you can think of.  The American people have it in them.  They have the right stuff.  We’ve still got our faith,” said Brat.

“But the elites are blocking our faith.  They’re blocking our work ethic.  They’re blocking the institutions,” said said Brat.

Greg Corombos of Radio America and David French of National Review review several different aspects of Donald Trump’s loud, long convention speech.  They slam his contention that he can solve all problems from the executive branch while the speech made no mention of the Constitution, limited government or delegating problems to states and communities to solve.  They are disgusted as the Trump-dominated Republican convention issues an unconditional surrender in the culture war.  And they cringe as Trump and his daughter spout liberal talking points on economic issues.

The Republican Party found itself in turmoil following Sen. Ted Cruz’s refusal to endorse Donald Trump and instead telling voters to vote their conscience, a move that longtime conservative activist Richard Viguerie says amounted to a political suicide on national television.

There had been reports ahead of the Cruz speech that the GOP presidential runner-up would not publicly support Trump and the Trump campaign approved the speech.

Near the conclusion of the address to the Republican National Convention, Cruz gave delegates hope that he would back the nominee but ultimately did not.

“To those listening.  Please don’t stay home in November,” said Cruz.

But he didn’t follow that with the words many delegates expected and wanted.

“If you love our country and love your children as much as you know that I do, stand and speak and vote your conscience.  Vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom and be faithful to the Constitution,” said Cruz to a growing cascade of boos.

Thursday morning Cruz said he ended his pledge to back Trump after his rival retweeted an unflattering photo of Heidi Cruz and repeatedly suggested the senator’s father had ties to the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Nonetheless, Viguerie says Cruz’s actions on a national stage were disgraceful.

“It was a serious, serious, huge mistake for him.  It hurt Ted Cruz.  It hurt the conservative movement.  It hurt the Republican Party.  It hurt America,” said Viguerie.

Viguerie says the mood swing in the convention hall told him all he needed to know.

“When Cruz was introduced, he got a thunderous ovation.  If they had taken a vote right then, he would have got a majority of the votes for the nomination.  When he left the stage after his speech, he widely booed.  He didn’t have a lot of support after he left the stage,” said Viguerie, who says Cruz hurt himself the most through his own tactics.

“It does a great deal more harm to Ted Cruz than it does to Donald Trump,” said Vigurie.  “He made a mistake that may be difficult to overcome for the rest of his life.”

So was the better move for Cruz to stay home if he couldn’t bring himself to endorse Trump or perhaps not mention voting if he wasn’t going to recommend the GOP nominee?  Viguerie says neither of those would have been the right move.  He says Cruz had a responsibility to suck it up and back Trump for the good of the nation.

“He has to be a bigger man than to hold these grudges.  We’re talking about America.  We’re talking about western civilization.  We’re talking about our freedoms here.  This is not a city council race.  This is not a House race or a Senate or governor’s race.  This is for leadership of the free world,” said Viguerie.

“Trump wasn’t most of our number one, number two or number three choice.  Now we have a binary choice.  Either Hillary Clinton’s going to lead America or Donald Trump.  It’s not a close call,” said Viguerie.

He says whether right-leaning voters disgusted by Trump of not, the facts are clear heading into the general election.

“Those people who do not support Trump are supporting Hillary.  They may deny it, but there’s no honest way to say anything other than to say if you are not supporting Trump, you are supporting Hillary Clinton,” said Viguerie.

But beyond the choice between Trump vs. Clinton, Viguerie says he is increasingly optimistic that a Trump presidency would advance some conservative principles.

“With Mike Pence’s selection, who is a movement conservative, with Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama playing a major role, with people like Art Laffer and Stephen Moore and other important conservatives playing an important role in this campaign, I have every expectation that this will definitely be a right-of-center administration,” said Viguerie.

Greg Corombos of Radio America and Ian Tuttle of National Review applaud Ted Cruz for refusing to offer an endorsement for Donald Trump that would not have been genuine, even if it may cost Cruz a future shot at the nomination.  They slam Trump for telling the New York Times that he might not defend NATO allies unless they meet his demands.  And they get a kick out of the communist protester trying to light a U.S. flag on fire and lighting himself on fire instead.

Donald Trump is officially the Republican nominee for president but some conservatives say the process that got the party to this point was another example of the Republican National Committee flouting their own rules in a grab for even more power.

Three major moments frustrated these conservatives, led by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.  First, the RNC rules committee rejected an amendment to the convention rules to allow delegates to vote their conscience.  Next, came Monday’s floor showdown, when the majorities of well more than the needed seven states demanded a roll call vote on the final rules package.

That request was ignored and the presiding officer passed the rules on a simple voice vote.

Cuccinelli is incensed.

“If you look back to 2012, they did the same thing,  They broke their own rules to trample the grassroots,” said Cuccinelli, referring to a rule change at the convention that made Ron Paul ineligible to be nominated.  “The divisiveness they introduced was tremendous.  Here they go and do it again.”

The official RNC explanation was that lobbying by GOP leaders and the Trump campaign convinced enough states to withdraw their push for a roll call vote so that there was not enough support to proceed.

Cuccinelli says that’s patently false.

“What they said from the stage was not accurate in terms of the number of states that filed petitions.  Ten filed petitions.  You only need seven,” said Cuccinelli.  “Ten were filed.  Eleven were brought up, but the gentleman from Alaska , Fred Brown, was physically blocked by security from turning in Alaska’s petitions,” said Cuccinelli.

Cuccinelli stresses that the work in the rules committee and pushing for a roll call vote was not part of some Never Trump effort.  He says some Trump supporters were with them.

“It wasn’t just Cruz delegates.  We had Kasich and Trump representation in the coalition and we had people who hadn’t endorsed anybody in the primary.  We were all working together to put together a package of conservative grassroots rules that would decentralize power in the Republican Party, empower the grassroots and fix some of the things that Donald Trump himself said were rigged parts of the system that he was right about,” said Cuccinelli.

Ultimately, the Trump campaign sided with RNC leaders to quash the conscience amendment.

The next flap occurred during the nomination vote on Tuesday as delegates committed to other candidates were frustrated their votes were being assigned to Trump.  The RNC ruled that once all other candidates are out, bound delegates are automatically counted in the tally for the remaining candidate.

Cuccinelli says while some state rules do have that provision, that decision was also wrong for other states.

“Utah didn’t have a rule like that.  I’m not aware of Alaska having a rule like that. so they inappropriately moved votes from one candidate to another,” he said.

Cuccinelli calls the heavy-handed rules plays “dumb” because the pro-Trump forces would have won all the votes anyway.  He calls these moments an “embarrasment” for RNC chairman Reince Priebus.

“It’s really petty, tyrannical, vindictive leadership from Priebus and the RNC.  It’s just more establishment power-grabbing at the expense of the RNC,” said Cuccinelli.

While he will vote for Trump, Cuccinelli says the RNC is not helping efforts to unify the party by regularly thumbing its nose at the grassroots.  He also says it turns the GOP into hypocrites when attacking Hillary Clinton.

“This is the party that is out there publicly prosecuting Hillary Clinton for being above the law and they’re above their own rules,” said Cuccinelli.

Greg Corombos of Radio America and Ian Tuttle of National Review applaud the GOP for a withering indictment of Hillary Clinton Tuesday night at the convention.  They also react to stories that question how much Donald Trump really wants to be president.  And they react to Twitter banning pro-Trump provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos.

Greg Corombos of Radio America and Ian Tuttle of National Review applaud the strong condemnation of many Republican convention speakers for the dismal national security record compiled by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. They also rip The RNC and the Trump campaign for ruthlessly quashing a push for a roll call vote on approving convention rules. And they shake their heads as some lines from Melania Trump’s speech were not only plagiarized but taken from a Michelle Obama speech.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan fought off a coup attempt last week, but a top foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump says the fallout may lead to a more Islamist Turkey bent on crushing any dissent and he says that uncertainty adds even more evidence that a change is needed in U.S. foreign policy.

Military elements launched the coup on Friday but just hours later it was a clear failure.  Nonetheless, Turkey will remain in a state of upheaval for some time.

“This does not mean that the tensions are gone.  Tensions will remain.  It all depends on how the Erdogan government is going to behave after crushing the coup,” said Dr. Walid Phares, a longtime terrorism and Middle East expert.  He was announced as a foreign policy adviser to Trump back in May.

Since the failed coup, the Turkish authorities have rounded up thousands of military personnel, many of whom have nothing to with the plot to oust Erdogan.  In addition, thousands of judges and other government workers are in custody.

Phares finds this especially worrisome.

“One thing is to stop a military coup.  We don’t like to accept military coups in the 21st century.  Another thing is to use that military coup to have a counter-coup and then eliminate an entire political opposition,” said Phares.

He says Erdogan may well use the coup as grounds to trample rights and ditch Turkey’s secular legacy.

“This could be an excuse that this government could use to control political life completely and then move the country towards becoming an Islamic regime,” said Phares.

Phares says Turkey is just the latest example of why American voters need to reject the current U.S. foreign policy and align with Trump.  He says the Obama administration has made things worse everywhere from Iraq to Syria, Egypt to Libya, and Yemen to Iran.

On top of that, we now have an unleashed urban jihad in the West, from San Bernardino to Orlando to Paris.  This is enough evidence for any voter, whether they be a Republican, Democrat or independent, that we need to change course,” said Phares.

He says Trump wants a stable Middle East and has three major pieces of his plan to accomplish that.

“The U.S. is perceived as weak.  It’s perceived as weak so we’ve got to change that perception,” said Phares.

He also says we need better international teammates.

“We’re going to form coalitions.  You can’t be operating left and right without having coalitions of moderates in the Arab world, in the region, with the Europeans,” he said.

Finally, he says we need to start working with people who will build a responsible Middle East.

“We need to work with civil society forces instead of running around and strengthening rebel jihadists.  We should be working with NGO’s in civil societies.  In the long term these, are the forces that will stabilize these societies from the inside and isolate the jihadis or the terrorists,” said Phares.

Greg Corombos of Radio America and Ian Tuttle of National Review shudder at the latest deadly assault on police.  They also fear what may come next in Turkey after the failed coup.  And they shake their heads as President Obama calls for adding the public option to Obamacare.

Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton is blasting President Obama for offering nothing new in the fight against radical Islamic terrorism and stubbornly sticking to a weak policy policy that isn’t getting the job done.

On Friday, Obama spoke in response to the Bastille Day terrorist attack in Nice, France, where 31-year-old Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel drove a delivery truck down a crowded pedestrian avenue, killing at least 84 people and wounding as many as 200 others.

Obama’s initial statement Thursday evening referred to the atrocity as a “horrific terrorist attack” but the bulk of the message promised assistance to the French government and vowing that France would remain strong in the wake of the attack.

Bolton says Obama once again offered “nothing new.”

“His heart’s not in this.  He talked about development assistance to alleviate poverty, as if there’s the slightest correlation at all between poverty and radical Islamic ideology or the terrorists,” said Bolton.

“In fact, the correlation goes the other way.  It’s some of the wealthier, better educated people who turn into terrorists,” added Bolton.

He says Obama simply refuses to see the extent of the threat.

“The president doesn’t believe in this struggle.  He doesn’t believe the terrorists are waging a war against the U.S. and the rest of the West.  He thinks it’s a law enforcement matter.  I can predict with confidence, although with sadness, he will not do a single thing differently,” said Bolton.

“It’s not something that can be responded to after the terrorists have struck by prosecutions as if they’re just jumped up versions of robbing the local Starbucks.  This president’s never going to understand that.  Hopefully a new president will,” said Bolton.

Obama and Secretary of State Kerry contend the increase in deadly attacks is a result of desperation on the part of ISIS, as it’s territory shrinks in Iraq and Syria.

Even if the restrained air campaign against ISIS is gaining some ground, Bolton says the time it’s taking to accomplish gives ISIS and other radical groups a major advantage.

“One of the things that is the unfortunate result of the president’s bad strategy is that he’s giving ISIS time to redeploy to completely broken countries like Libya if they’re forced out of Iraq and Syria,” said Bolton.

And he says the lack of urgency increases the likelihood of more attacks.

“The idea that we can slow roll the defeat of ISIS just means that ISIS and other terrorists can plot more attacks like the one like we’ve just seen in Nice, France,” said Bolton.

Bolton fiercely disagrees with Obama’s degrade and destroy strategy.  He says the second part is the only policy we need.

“The strategy should be one word: destroy ISIS and implicit in that is to destroy it immediately.  Every day that goes by allows them to continue to fight,” said Bolton.

He is also taking aim at another frequent Obama talking point – that the U.S. will defeat terrorism because of our values and because we’re on the right side of history.  Bolton says that sort of talk is very harmful.

“Those are death warrants for innocent civilians, because both statements imply an inevitability to the outcome of this conflict,” he said.

Bolton says Hillary Clinton would be nothing but another four years of the Obama foreign policy and he is hopeful a Donald Trump policy of a smarter, tougher approach to terrorism would mean a coherent military strategy.  He says an effective plan to defeat ISIS and other Islamic radicals involves denying bases of operation, stopping the training of terrorists and rooting out the social media and internet recruitment efforts of our enemies.

He believes the American people are disgusted that our national leadership has failed in it’s most basic task.

“The American people are way out in front of their political leaders on this.  They expect the government in Washington, at an absolute minimum, to protect the country, which it is not doing now.  If the people were given a chance to speak, there wouldn’t be any ambiguity in what they said,” stated Bolton.