Tuesday, February 10, 2015
From: Gary L. Bauer
Inside The Left-Wing Mind
President Obama sat down for an interview recently with the left-wing website Vox. The interview is being widely panned. Politico accused Vox of pitching the president “softball — no, make that Nerf ball — questions.”
In the second-half of the lengthy interview, they ventured into foreign policy. Follow me now through the looking glass as we consider this excerpt from the president’s response to a question about terrorism:
“Look, the point is this: my first job is to protect the American people. It is entirely legitimate for the American people to be deeply concerned when you’ve got a bunch of violent, vicious zealots who behead people or randomly shoot a bunch of folks in a deli in Paris.
“We devote enormous resources to that, and it is right and appropriate for us to be vigilant and aggressive in trying to deal with that — the same way a big city mayor’s got to cut the crime rate down if he wants that city to thrive. But we also have to attend to a lot of other issues, and we’ve got to make sure we’re right-sizing our approach so that what we do isn’t counterproductive.”
Where to start!?
The attack at the Paris deli wasn’t a random attack against a “bunch of folks.” The jihadists who carried it out were part of a sleeper cell, pre-positioned to attack when ordered. And they targeted the kosher deli in order to kill Jews.
These attacks are atrocities in a war against our civilization, not crimes. The jihadists are not trying to mug us. They mean to destroy us.
As for counterproductive policies Obama wants to avoid, here are a few he should reconsider.
Releasing Gitmo prisoners who return to the fight and threaten the lives of our soldiers.
His failure to identify the enemy as radical Islamists.
His alienation of allies and appeasement of enemies.
And his attacks on the values of Judeo-Christian civilization.
Chaos From The Courts
The latest skirmish in America’s culture war erupted in Alabama yesterday. Chaos ensued after federal and state courts issued conflicting orders regarding the status of Alabama’s marriage law.
In 2006, 81% of Alabama voters approved a constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. They did so in order to prevent state judges from redefining marriage. Yet that is precisely what happened last month when a federal judge voided the will of voters and attempted to impose same-sex marriage on the state.
Alabama officials appealed to the Supreme Court, requesting an injunction against the federal judge’s order. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear several cases regarding same-sex marriage in coming weeks, with a decision expected later this summer.
But rather than allowing Alabama’s law to remain in place while they deliberate, the justices ruled 7-to-2 yesterday that same-sex marriages could begin now. That decision essentially nullified Alabama’s marriage amendment and disenfranchised the 81% of voters who approved it.
Injunctions normally do not stir passions at the Supreme Court. But Justice Clarence Thomas issued a harsh dissent in which he accused the majority of demonstrating contempt for the sovereignty of states and their voters. Thomas wrote:
“. . . the Court looks the other way as yet another federal district judge casts aside state laws. . . This acquiescence may well be seen as a signal of the Court’s intended resolution of [the same-sex marriage] question. . . . Today’s decision represents yet another example of this Court’s increasingly cavalier attitude toward the States. . . . I would have shown the people of Alabama the respect they deserve and preserved the status quo while the Court resolves this important constitutional question.”
Obama’s Credibility Gap
David Axelrod, President Obama’s top political strategist, writes in his new book that Obama misled the country about his position on same-sex marriage in 2008. (He opposed it then.) Anyone who took the time to examine Obama’s record knew that he had expressed support for same-sex marriage in 1996.
But Barack Obama had the audacity to sit in Rick Warren’s church and say to Pastor Warren and the American people, “I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman. Now, for me as a Christian, it is also a sacred union. God’s in the mix.”
When Obama later claimed to be “evolving” on the issue, well, that wasn’t the truth either. There was no “evolving” going on.
Obama misled us about keeping doctors and health insurance plans we liked. That was Politifact’s Lie of the Year.
He misled us about not raising taxes on the middle class. That was the only way the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare, by finding that the individual mandate was tax, not a penalty.
Obama has a credibility gap.
“Whatever The Cost”
David and Jason Benham are examples of the American Dream. After leaving professional baseball, they launched a real estate company that became one of the fastest growing private companies in America, eventually spreading to 35 states. Then they signed a deal for a reality TV show with HGTV.
But the network cancelled the show after the Benham brothers were “outed” as conservative Christians. The Benham brothers joined a growing list of bakers, florists, photographers, tech titans and university administrators who have been attacked by the “tyrants of tolerance” for daring to live out their faith. But they are unbowed.
Their new book is appropriately titled, “Whatever The Cost.” I encourage you to pick up a copy. I know you will be inspired by their story.
Safe, Legal And No Big Deal?
A new Gallup poll finds that only about one in three Americans is satisfied with U.S. abortion policies –the lowest share since 2001. In such an environment, one might expect abortion-rights advocates to be looking for ways to find common ground with their anti-abortion adversaries.
But, as I write in an op-ed for USA Today, some abortion-rights advocates are arguing that it’s time to ditch the apologetic language surrounding abortion and embrace abortion for what they believe it is: an unequivocal social good. You can read more here.
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