The Patriot Post Digest 3-7-2016

[nChrist]

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The Patriot Post Digest 3-7-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Mid-Day Digest

Mar. 7, 2016

THE FOUNDATION

“I was summoned by my country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love.” —George Washington (1789)

Farewell, Nancy1

Former First Lady Nancy Reagan died Sunday at age 94. Coming so close on the heels of the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, it feels that yet another tangible connection to the Reagan Era has been lost, and we mourn it.

According to2 The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, “Mrs. Reagan will be buried at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, next to her husband, Ronald Wilson Reagan, who died on June 5, 20043.”

The Foundation also recounted:

    After leaving the White House on January 20, 1989, Mrs. Reagan established the Nancy Reagan Foundation to continue her campaign to educate people about the serious dangers of substance abuse. In 1994, the Nancy Reagan Foundation joined forces with the BEST Foundation For A Drug-Free Tomorrow and developed the Nancy Reagan Afterschool Program, a drug prevention and life-skills program for youth.

    For ten years, Mrs. Reagan’s priority was caring for her husband at home as he battled Alzheimer’s Disease. Following his death in 2004, she was devoted to projects related to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, where she served on the board of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, and promoted her husband’s legacy of leadership and freedom.

Nancy Reagan brought beauty and a decorum to the White House and never forgot that it wasn’t actually her house. “Families think about coming to the White House for years,” she once said. “They plan for it, they save for it, they look forward to it, and it means so much.” The White House belongs to the American people, and Nancy knew it, which is why she protested if events closed portions of the White House to public viewing.

Ronald and Nancy Reagan loved each other deeply — he used to say he missed her even “when she’s just in the next room.” For her part, she wanted “everyone to feel about Ronnie the way I do” — that is, a profound love. Indeed, in 1998, she said, “When I say my life began with Ronnie, well, it’s true. It did.”

Now that her life is completed, we’re grateful that it did begin, and we’re thankful for her part in the Reagan Revolution.

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Cruz Closes the Gap4

On Saturday, voters in four states — Kansas, Maine, Louisiana, Kentucky — made their pick for the next Republican nominee for president. Ted Cruz won Kansas (by a “yuge” margin) and Maine, while Donald Trump won Louisiana (barely) and Kentucky. Trump leads the GOP pack with 384 delegates, but Cruz has accelerated to a close second with 300.

This has raised even more questions about the viability of the campaigns of Marco Rubio and John Kasich. On Saturday, Trump called on Rubio to drop out of the race — naturally. However, it appears Rubio will stay a bit longer. Puerto Rico held its primary Saturday, and Rubio snatched all of the island’s 23 delegates, winning an amazing 74% of the vote. But the deciding moment in the Rubio campaign will come in the Florida primary on March 15. If Rubio loses his home state, his chances of getting the nomination drop to roughly zero. If he wins, he might be a shot. Plus, he stops Trump from taking the 99 delegates at stake in the winner-take-all primary.

Kasich, too, signaled he’d fight until his home state of Ohio holds its primary Mar. 15. Kasich’s top strategist, John Weaver, said: “No candidate is currently on track to win the nomination outright. Our campaign is built for the long-term.” Built to lose just about everywhere, including Ohio.

Meanwhile, the results for Louisiana’s primary indicate that the Trump wave might be breaking5. Although Trump won, he won because his supporters voted early. Voters who spend more time making up their minds and weighing facts like the fraud at Trump University6 supported someone else. This is a trend that occurred in other primaries, and a trend that could diminish Trump as the race goes on. As Yogi Berra, who knew a thing or two about playing another game where teams could win with singles or home runs, said, “It ain’t over till it’s over.”

Trump Avoids Grassroots Conservatives7

Thousands of activists convened in National Harbor, Maryland, over the weekend to hear grassroots leaders speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Current GOP presidential contenders Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, John Kasich and Donald Trump were invited and all but one took time away from the campaign trail to make an appearance. Their speeches8 included, among other topics, ways to liberate the economy and empower individuals through free market reforms, strengthening America’s military prowess, the Supreme Court vacancy and making an impact at the local level.

Rubio emphasized individual Liberty and Providence — “this nation was founded on a powerful, spiritual principle that our rights do not come from government” — and reminded us how to achieve the American Dream: “Free enterprise is the best economic system in the history of the world because it’s the only system where you can make poor people richer and you don’t have to make rich people poorer.” Cruz said, “I believe, like Ronald Reagan, in peace through strength. I actually think the weakness of Barack Obama invites military conflict and it encourages our enemies.” And Kasich made a point of advocating personal responsibility. “Don’t wait for somebody to come and fix the problems where you are,” he advised. “Fix them yourself. Send education, welfare, infrastructure, health care for the poor, and job training, all back to where you live, and you’ll have more power because we have to run America from the bottom-up. That’s what works.”

Most tellingly, however, is who those in attendance didn’t get to hear — Donald Trump. On Friday, CPAC wrote on Twitter that he would not be participating despite having been scheduled to appear: “Very disappointed @realDonaldTrump has decided at the last minute to drop out of #CPAC — his choice sends a clear message to conservatives.” Trump didn’t show up for CPAC because he didn’t want to be booed or walked out on — a clear indication that he knows his pandering views, which are clearly at odds with conservative principles, would not be well received. It remains to be seen what impact his decision will have on upcoming primaries. But suffice to say, Cruz did better than expected on Super Saturday. An omen? We’ll see.

[nChrist]

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The Patriot Post Digest 3-7-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

    Peggy Noonan: The Republican Party Is Shattering9
    Ken Blackwell: Mr. President, Mr. Secretary: It Is Genocide. Say So!10
    Jeff Jacoby: Samantha Power’s Squandered Moral Authority11

For more, visit Right Opinion12.

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Won’t Get Fooled Again?13

By Arnold Ahlert

Two of history’s most famous uprisings — the French and American revolutions — were both precipitated by people whose anger and frustration with the status quo could no longer be contained. However, those revolutions produced dramatically different results. While Americans pursued the organization of a new country, the French pursued bloody payback against their aristocracy. And while there is little doubt that “off with their heads!” was emotionally satisfying, such blood lust is even more grotesque in comparison to the noble ideals set forth in the Declaration of Independence, and the ensuing creation of the Constitution and our great republic.

A funny thing happened last Thursday night at the schoolyard brawl promoted as a Republican presidential debate14. In between Donald Trump assuring us the size of his manhood was sufficient and taunting Marco Rubio by calling him “Little Marco,” the casino mogul offered his supporters a substantially different take on the H-1B visa program than his previous stance on the issue. When pressed by Megyn Kelly about the difference between what was on Trump’s website, which says expanding H-1B visas would “decimate American workers,” and his enthusiastic support of those visas during a previous debate, Trump had this to stay:

    “I’m changing. I’m changing. We need highly skilled people in this country. And if we can’t do it, we’ll get them in. And one of the biggest problems we have is people go to the best colleges … as soon as they’re finished, they get shoved out. They want to stay in this country. They want to stay here desperately. They’re not able to stay here. For that purpose, we absolutely have to be able to keep the brainpower in this country.”

Kelly followed up, “So you are abandoning the position on your website?”

“I’m changing it,” Trump replied, “and I’m softening the position because we have to have talented people in this country.”

After the debate, Trump “clarified” — i.e., reversed — his position once again:

“Megyn Kelly asked about highly-skilled immigration. The H-1B program is neither high-skilled nor immigration: these are temporary foreign workers, imported from abroad, for the explicit purpose of substituting for American workers at lower pay. I remain totally committed to eliminating rampant, widespread H-1B abuse and ending outrageous practices such as those that occurred at Disney in Florida when Americans were forced to train their foreign replacements. I will end forever the use of the H-1B as a cheap labor program, and institute an absolute requirement to hire American workers first for every visa and immigration program. No exceptions.”

Thus in the space of two days, Trump hardened, softened and re-hardened his position on the issue. In leftist precincts, when Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton went from favoring the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) passed during the Clinton administration to declaring their support for same-sex marriage, such change is known as “evolving.”

You know who else “evolved” considerably in the last few years? A GOP establishment handed two mandates by their base in 2010 and 2014, with the primary goal in both cases of putting a halt to the expansion of progressive ideology. And both times the establishment GOP not only failed to do so, but actually accommodated that expansion in a number of ways that infuriated the base, perhaps none more so than funding the Obama’s constitutionally dubious effort to unilaterally legalize millions of illegals.

It was anger over that betrayal15 that led directly to the rise of Donald Trump. The very same Donald Trump who catapulted himself into the hearts and minds of millions primarily because he was willing to take the hardened positions of “building a wall” on our Southern border and putting a stop to the “decimation” of the American worker.

    I’ll tip my hat to the new constitution
    Take a bow for the new revolution
    Smile and grin at the change all around
    Pick up my guitar and play
    Just like yesterday
    Then I’ll get on my knees and pray
    We don’t get fooled again
    Don’t get fooled again
    No, no!

The above is the penultimate verse of one of The Who’s greatest songs, “Won’t Get Fooled Again.”

One would have to be living under the proverbial rock not to get the idea that Americans are as furious and frustrated with the status quo as they have ever been. They see a cabal of government officials and crony capitalist insiders more than willing to deal cards to the average American from the bottom of the deck, whenever it suits their purposes. Moreover, those Americans are not remotely in the mood to be lectured by members16 of that same cabal, or a gaggle of media pontificators, all of whom are aghast that a “Cossack” like Trump can withstand their oh-so “enlightened” vitriol.

And now that same base is telling them all in no uncertain terms: lecture us all you like, make any promises you want, and even offer an occasional apology — but we won’t be fooled again.

While snobbish presumptuousness has driven Americans toward, not away, from Trump, the question must nonetheless be asked: Are they actually getting what they want with Trump, a la the American revolution? Or, much like the French revolution, do they want change without much thought as to what that change actually engenders once it has occurred?

Trump has certainly fashioned himself a reputation for being an outsider, and there is no doubt he initially gave the base what it wanted. At the same time, one is hard-pressed to imagine a billionaire who boasts about spreading money around with both parties to get what he wants can stand completely apart from those insiders, especially those with whom he has done such business.

But forget Trump for a moment. Does the Republican base itself still have conservative principles? Or has the anger and frustration whose chief objective is to take a wrecking ball to the status quo supplanted them?

[nChrist]

________________________________________
The Patriot Post Digest 3-7-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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In the coming months, the nation will learn the answer to that question. But if this revolution is not about conservative principles, then an uncomfortable question arises: If principles are irrelevant, then what makes the base’s abandonment of them more legitimate than their abandonment by the establishment GOP the base despises for doing so? Trump is certainly indicating a newfound “flexibility” on a pretty important issue. How much more flexibility will be countenanced, simply for revolution’s sake?

Only Americans themselves know the answers to those questions. But if they’ve learned nothing else in the past eight years they should be well aware that flowery campaign slogans, such as “hope and change” or “make America great again,” will be followed by something concrete. A lot of Americans now admit they were fooled by Barack Obama.

The last verse of “Won’t Get Fooled Again” is only two lines, but they pack a considerable wallop:

    Meet the new boss
    Same as the old boss.

The only “lecture” you’re getting from us? Know exactly what it is you want before casting your vote, because the election of a new president — driven solely by anger and frustration — would be a disaster.

MORE ORIGINAL PERSPECTIVE

    ANALYSIS: Clinton’s Libya Problem17
    Trump to Military: You Will Obey Me18
    Democrats' Faith in Flint19
    Did Clinton Aides Illegally Share Passwords?20
    Memo to America: Our History Makes Us Exceptional21
    Sen. Ernst Describes REAL State of National Security22

TOP HEADLINES

    Clinton Authored 104 Classified Emails23
    Wounded Warrior Project Rocked by Fundraising Scandal24
    Britain’s NHS to Harvest Babies' Organs25

For more, visit Patriot Headline Report26

OPINION IN BRIEF

Peggy Noonan: “I think we are seeing a great political party shatter before our eyes. I’m not sure I see a way around or through. … Everything got stretched to the breaking point the past 15 years. Party leaders and thinkers should take note: It’s easier for a base to hire or develop a flashy new establishment than it is for an establishment to find itself a new base. Even if the party stays together with a Trump win, what will it be? It will have been reconstituted. Yes, it will be a formal and proactive foe of illegal immigration, and it will rethink its approach to entitlements, but it will also be other things. What? We are in uncharted territory. But the point is fissures and tensions simmering and growing for 15 years burst through, erupted. The establishment was slow to see what was happening, slow to see Mr. Trump coming, in full denial as he continued to win. Their denial is self-indicting. They couldn’t see his appeal because they had no idea how their own people were experiencing America.”

SHORT CUTS

RIP: “If either of us ever left the room, we both felt lonely. People don’t always believe this, but it’s true. Filling the loneliness, completing each other — that’s what it still meant to us to be husband and wife.” —Nancy Reagan

The Gipper: “I more than love you, I’m not whole without you. You are life itself to me. When you are gone I’m waiting for you to return so I can start living again.”

Braying Jackass: “Nancy Reagan had an undeniable knack for inviting controversy. There were her extravagant spending habits at a time of double-digit unemployment, a chaotic relationship with her children and stepchildren that could rival a soap-opera plot, and the jaw-dropping news that she had insisted the White House abide by an astrologer when planning the president’s schedule.” —Washington Post’s Lois Romano

Fantasy island: “Overall, America’s business has now created new jobs for 72 straight months, six straight years of job creation — 14.3 million new jobs. In fact, our businesses have created jobs every single month since I signed that job-killing Obamacare bill. … I don’t expect that these facts and this evidence will convince some of the politicians out there to change their doomsday rhetoric, talking about how terrible America is. … The fact of the matter is, is that the plans that we have put in place to grow the economy have worked. They would work even faster if we did not have the kind of obstruction that we’ve seen in this town to prevent additional policies that would make a difference.” —Barack Obama

The BIG lie, part I: “I know some of the parents from Sandy Hook. I want people in this audience to think about what it must feel like to send off your first grader, little backpack maybe on his or her back and the next thing you hear is that somebody has come to that school using an automatic weapon, an AR-15 and murdered those children.” —Hillary Clinton, deliberately conflating automatic with semiautomatic

The BIG lie, part II: “Congress has looked into [Clinton’s email scandal]. The Justice Department has looked into it, and they’ve cleared her.” —Rep. Joaquin Castro

Late-night humor: “The Google search ‘How to move to Canada’ started trending after Donald Trump’s impressive showing on Super Tuesday. Or as Canadians put it, ‘Great, now we need to build a wall.’” —Jimmy Fallon

Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis!
Managing Editor Nate Jackson

Join us in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform — Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen — standing in harm’s way in defense of Liberty, and for their families.