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« Reply #1 on: September 12, 2016, 07:05:13 PM » |
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The Patriot Post Digest 9-7-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
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In 2012, with Republicans demoralized after the defeat of Mitt Romney in the presidential election, the lame duck session yielded “the largest tax increase in history,” a $620 billion hike passed by the Democrat-controlled Senate at 2:00 a.m. on New Year’s Day, and signed by Obama while he was vacationing (yet again) in Hawaii.
The lame duck session of Congress was a rare occurrence until 2000, with only 13 such sessions between 1940 and 2000, nearly always for the purpose of addressing emergencies. Since 2000, there has been a lame duck session in every Congress, but rather than dealing with emergencies, they have been used to push through agenda items that were not dealt with during the regular session. While hundreds of millions of Americans are trying to enjoy the holidays, Congress has taken advantage of their distraction to pass amnesty measures for illegals, new regulations, and confirm controversial judges to the bench with lifetime appointments. This year, conservatives fear it may get even worse19, even with Republicans at the helm.
In short, politicians have used the lame duck session to pass legislation that is unpopular with the American people. It may be time to end the lame duck session altogether, as it was once significantly limited by the passage of the 20th Amendment.
The other troubling election issue is early voting. In recent years, more and more states have passed or expanded early voting laws. North Carolinians can start casting votes this Friday, nearly two months before Election Day. Alabamians get to start voting next week, and voters in Minnesota and South Dakota can cast ballots a week and a half later. All told, voters in two-thirds of the states can cast ballots before Election Day.
In order to maintain our constitutional republic we must have a citizenry that is informed and engaged, one which takes seriously its obligation to be thoroughly versed in the philosophy and form of our government, and its mechanisms.
Instead, we have a nation where depressingly high numbers of citizens are simply ignorant20 about America’s history and political system; where barely a third (36%) can name all three branches of government, and roughly a quarter (27%) know that it takes a two-thirds vote of Congress to override a veto.
And yet politicians work tirelessly to register as many people to vote as possible, and get them to lock in their votes as early as possible. Nearly a third of votes cast in 2012 came before Election Day, which prompts some questions: With so many voters voting so early, what if something happens to make them change their mind? And how early can early voting get before it becomes ludicrous?
As National Review’s Jim Geraghty sarcastically observes21, early voters are stuck if, “in the final debate, Hillary Clinton has a sudden mental breakdown and begins barking like a dog. (Again.) Or imagine that Donald Trump declares that he loves reading Hitler’s speeches, or some other statement completely beyond the pale. Some voters would suddenly realize they had already cast a ballot for a candidate they cannot abide, and there is no way to un-do their decision.”
True, the same can often be said for officials after they’re elected, but elections are our primary chance to weigh all the available facts and make an informed decision.
In our republic, voting is a sacred privilege, and one in which all Americans should be encouraged to participate. But more importantly, we must demand that voters have a minimum level of civic knowledge in order to participate. Early voting and lame duck sessions of Congress have caused much damage to our national well-being, and if voters are informed, they may just decide to end both.
MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST
Death to the Death Tax22 — Obama’s Treasury is seeking to squeeze more revenue from small businesses.
Muslims Want to Rewrite 9/1123 — The facts surrounding 9/11 are very clear. Islamic radicals committed jihad on American soil.
Successfully Hammering the Coal Industry24 — Both Obama and Clinton are working to bankrupt coal.
Merkel Takes a Beating, but Doubles Down25 — Recent elections show Germans are turning on the chancellor over migration.
OPINION IN BRIEF
Ben Shapiro: “For months Americans wondered whether the FBI, led by Director James Comey, would take down the most corrupt woman in the history of American politics, Hillary Clinton. As it turns out, Hillary Clinton took down the FBI. … There is no excuse for Clinton escaping charges. Not one. The FBI’s own documents prove that she took action that you would only take if you were attempting to obstruct justice, destroy evidence and lie to law enforcement. And yet the FBI, as a wing of the Obama White House, went out of its way to ensure that the Democratic presidential candidate would evade prosecution. That means it lacks basic legitimacy. It’s not the only agency the Obama administration has exposed as a political hammer. It has corrupted the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Justice, the Environmental Protection Agency, the State Department and the Department of Health and Human Services. The list is nearly endless. No wonder so many Americans seem willing to turn to a man who promises to burn the entire structure down, Donald Trump. There’s little worth saving here, unless you’re a Democrat hoping to uphold the integrity of institutions dedicated to preserving scandal-ridden Democrats.”
SHORT CUTS
Upright: “Many, perhaps most people who vote Republican don’t do so because of tax rates or trade agreements or Kelo or Ex-Im or even abortion or guns. Rather, it is nationalism — understood as the political expression of the emotion of patriotism — that’s the substructure of support for the Right, the policy specifics about taxes and the rest being the superstructure. Voters who don’t particularly care about the three-legged stool of conservatism voted Republican anyway because they were one-nation patriots and the Democrats had become the party of post-Americanism and balkanization. This is the real source of the revulsion at Obama — it’s not his father’s race and it’s not really even Obamacare and the other outrages of this administration, outrageous as they are. It’s his post-Americanism, which combines his citizen-of-the-world pretensions with an aggressive campaign of deconstructing the American people.” —Mark Krikorian
For the record: “The media’s general lack of interest in Clinton scandals also shows that most journalists have a ‘temperament’ problem. They present themselves to the public as ornery, nonpartisan watchdogs, but in reality they’re the aggressively obsequious partisans that swoon over Clinton when she buys a burrito. Is it any wonder that trust in the media is so low?” —L. Brent Bozell & Tim Graham
Art of the deal: “[Hillary Clinton] has 33,000 emails that she deleted. When is she going to release her emails? Let her release her emails and I will release my tax returns immediately.” —Donald Trump
A vast right-wing conspiracy: “I believe I have created so many jobs in the conspiracy theory machine factory, because honestly, [Republicans] never quit.” —Hillary Clinton
Belly laugh of the week: “They even went after my foundation last week. Now that was really funny. I was sort of Robin Hood, except I didn’t rob anybody. I just asked people with money to give it to people who didn’t have money.” —Bill Clinton (He must mean giving money to Hillary, who, after all, was “dead broke” when the foundation kicked off.)
And last… “Late Friday, at the beginning of the Labor Day weekend, the FBI released some of the notes that agents took during their Fourth of July weekend interview with Hillary Clinton. Do you see the pattern here? Fourth of July… Labor Day… I can’t wait until Thanksgiving!” —Gary Bauer
Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis!
Managing Editor Nate Jackson
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