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The annual gathering of patriots near Washington, D.C. by the American Conservative Union this past weekend served to airily loft Donald Trump’s bid for re-election as president this coming November. Known as the “Conservative Political Action Conference”, this long-standing yearly confab regularly sees several thousand consciously constitutional conservatives, both traditional and libertarian, assemble in the nation’s capital for four days of platform speeches and panel discussions, breakout meetings, book-signings, marathon media interviews, and intensive networking among activists, pundits, authors, journalists, and concerned citizens. The atmosphere of 2020’s conference possessed an electric air of vitality and spiritedness, no doubt informed by POTUS 45’s extraordinary litany of accomplishments to date in the face of the Democrats’ and major media’s vituperative, relentless but thus far abortive, onslaughts to delegitimize him and derail his bold, comprehensive policy agenda of reform and national renewal. With all of the left’s animus still well aburgeoning, conservatives surely needed a special boost going into Campaign 2020, and CPAC delivered masterfully.

Conservatives have never before encountered such an expansive array of hostile opposition presidential candidates, venomous media spin-artists, wealthy campaign self-funders, cyber trolls, and celebrity thugs as they are witnessing this election cycle. Between multibillionaire candidates lacking any substantive appeal (Bloomberg, Steyer), bilious know-nothing upstarts (Beto, Buttigieg), overtly neoMarxist radicals (Sanders, Warren), and a flack media corps that endlessly pushes filtered, perverse, and ever more disingenuous memes, the challenges faced this year by America-loving candidates are immense. But CPAC’s roster of solidly conservative politicians, media stars, pundits, and accomplished activists met all of it head-on with great élan; lots of insightful, informed commentary on all major current issues; and impassioned calls to political action in the coming months. There is a lot of bright, articulate, and seasoned talent advocating for an America characterized by constitutional limited government, free markets, fiscal responsibility, nationalist economic and foreign policies, a strong first-tier military, well protected borders, and traditional values. As such, the coming electoral fracas will see the responsible right highly focused, stolidly empowered, and very well represented.

Vice President Pence, who spoke on Thursday, delivered a workmanlike review of the Trump administration’s many accomplishments in the economy, foreign trade, foreign affairs, taxes, and criminal-justice reform. His presentation was marked by a number of droll observations, even evoking an occasional near-smile from his otherwise innately phlegmatic countenance. But it was left to Wayne LaPierre, executive leader of the National Rifle Association, to rouse the listening audience to passionate ovations on Saturday morning ahead of the president’s keynote speech. LaPierre emphasized the preciousness of our unique American liberty heritage and the central place that the 2nd Amendment’s firearm freedoms play in that constellation of treasured jewels. Because the rights guaranteed by that amendment serve to protect all the rest of the natural rights enshrined in the Bill of Rights, he reminded us that the left’s mad assaults against it are precursors of a wholesale evisceration of all of the key rights and freedoms that Americans have historically cherished, enjoyed, and fought for, should we ever falter in our efforts to preserve, protect, and defend them.

Finally, late on Saturday afternoon, President Trump strode onto the podium and up to the lectern with much fanfare, welcomed by an adoring crowd, proud of all that he has done to restore America’s stature, strength, power, and greatness both at home and abroad in such a remarkably short span of time. Alternately stern and sharply direct at times and then playful, familiar, and even frolicking, he recounted his rise to power, the scope and virulence of the abject hatred and petty mockery he has faced starting in June 2015 from so many quarters, the maniacal rolling attempts to oust him from office since his inauguration in 2017, and his grand legion of policy milestones aimed at making America great again – and keeping her that way in future. By vocal inflection and physical antics, he skewered each of the leading Democrats contending for the right to oppose him in November. A highlight was his prediction that “Mini-Mike” Bloomberg would soon disappear from the nomination contest – and punctuated it by shortening his own vertical stature behind the lectern in several incremental steps to just oh-so-cutely accentuate that upcoming event. The crowd roared and howled with delicious delight!

At the end of his speech, as the President left the lectern and strode back across the stage to the wings, he stopped to physically embrace Old Glory, standing motionless on a solitary flagpole on the floor, and flashed his trademark pearly mug to the assembled throng. All of gleeful and cute yet again, it was also a deeply poignant moment for everyone present: A fearless American president who deeply loves his country and countrymen for all the right reasons, surrounded by thousands of them who share that love, appreciation, and dedication – and who then unabashedly, exultantly return all of it to him. This past week, CPAC did him, and all of us who call America beloved home, proud indeed.

The Far Left in America—which ever more obviously includes the national leadership of the Democratic Party—has been in high dudgeon against classical American memes and themes for a very long time, certainly long before the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Its leaders, whether elected officeholders or not, and its myriads of minions are increasingly agitated by all of Trump’s actions, statements, tweets, and policy initiatives.

The fact that the Republican leadership in Congress and the Senate has slow-walked or otherwise impeded the enactment of key components of the conservative agenda (e.g., repeal of Obamacare, enactment of national concealed-carry reciprocity) has not served to dampen their vitriol and vehemence to any degree. Indeed, they are already sorely inflamed to the point where some conservative pundits have now publicly coined the term “Trump Derangement Syndrome” (TDS) —characterizing an antipathy so strong and irrational that it makes civil political discourse more and more difficult. TDS, of course, is just the latest edition of Bush Derangement Syndrome, a similarly visceral hatred of George W. Bush for a variety of reasons having to do with the policies, presentation, and basic personality of the former president. It is a quasi-psychological diagnosis of profoundly irrational animus that throws into bold relief the deepening polarization of American society.

History instructs us that an advanced society begins the process of disintegration when its elites—all of social, cultural, and political—decide to abandon the governing ethos that informed their society’s founding and enabled it to grow to prominence. Ancient Rome had its imperial generals, exhaustion of resources servicing an empire, palace intrigues, violations of the rule of law, and loosening of moral strictures before being overcome by its external invaders. Even the Jacobins, the provocateurs of the French Revolution in 18th century France, quickly divested themselves of their noble ideals in the bloodbath of the guillotine, ultimately replacing their nation’s decrepit monarchical court, conniving aristocracy, profligate spending, and imperial drains with a dictator in the person of Napoleon. That America’s own elites have been similarly jettisoning our nation’s core values and precepts for several decades is now beyond dispute. That the nation is today on a downward trajectory of accelerating slope is so manifest, it beggars the imagination. Once again, the elites—social, cultural, political—are leading the way.

Two days ago, thousands of school-age children rallied across the nation at the behest of their teachers for more gun-control laws in the aftermath of an atrocity committed at a high school in Parkland, Florida last month. They want a plethora of restrictions placed on law-abiding Americans’ exercise of their constitutionally guaranteed rights to keep and bear arms for personal safety and common political security. The perpetrator, a student ejected a year earlier from the same school for multiple episodes of antisocial behavior, had conveniently given ample notice to several others of his evil mindset and criminal intentions—and yet nothing was done to investigate him and, as necessary, restrain or sequester him for the common safety via some form of court order.

His school system was subject to a politically correct PROMISE program (under which certain misdemeanors were not to be prosecuted, in an effort to lower crime statistics that might otherwise cast minority child-perps in a “disproportionately” negative light); Cruz, the name of the perp in this case, happens to be a Hispanic surname. Both the FBI and local law enforcement refused to pay heed to any calls phoned-in about this particular Cruz’s aberrant behavior or statements from concerned citizens, including his own mother. On the day of the actual atrocity, local law enforcement’s on-scene rep, a deputy sheriff, decided that discretion was the better part of valor and defaulted on his professional duty to intervene. We will never know how many of the 17 innocent souls taken that day might be alive today if manly virtue had prevailed in that deputy’s heart.

But the Far Left, energized by our nation’s “disarmament devils” both in Congress (Rep. Pelosi; Sens. Schumer, Murphy, Blumenthal, et al.) and outside (such as former NYC Mayor Bloomberg, et al.) and aided by the major-media echo chamber, sought instead to demonize the firearm used (a semi-automatic AR-15 type) to commit the crime—an inanimate object incapable of any independent, sentient thought, feeling, or motivation. If, say, the instrument of death had been a rented 2-ton truck instead (as was used by an Islamist jihadi in Nice, France in 2016 to murder 86 people), there’s no doubt but that the same calls would have been loudly made—about guns, not trucks. The eyeteeth of Essential Liberty will always be under attack by those who believe everyday Americans deserve no self-protection from criminal violence or—the even greater purpose—from a domestically hatched and imposed tyranny.

That we are nowadays reaching, as a society, towards the American Founders’ greatest fear of a domestic tyranny is reflected in and by an event that occurred this week in a college classroom. A student at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania was kicked out of a class on Christianity after arguing that there are only two biological genders. As was reported:

Student Lake Ingle was suspended from a class on Christianity after he argued that there are only two genders. After viewing a TED talk by transgender ex-pastor Paula Stone Williams, Ingle raised his hand and claimed that biologists believe that there are only two genders. Ingle was immediately kicked out of class by the professor and asked not to return.

Now, pending an administrative investigation, Ingle, a senior, may not graduate in May. In a shocking letter, university Provost Timothy Moerland says that on top of Ingle’s suspension from the classroom, he will be required to apologize to the class. Ingle will then be forced to listen to his peers describe how his comments made them feel.

Lake will write an apology to the professor that specifically addresses each of the disrespectful behaviors described above, demonstrating ability to take responsibility for inappropriate behavior which has significantly damaged the learning environment of this course. He will explain the importance of an atmosphere of safety for an educational environment, acknowledge how his class behavior has significantly damaged this classroom atmosphere, and explain how he will demonstrate respect for the professor, the course material, and all fellow students at each remaining class session. On March 8th, Lake will begin class with an apology to the class for his behavior and then listen in silence as the professor and/or any student who wishes to speak shares how he or she felt during Lake’s disrespectful and disruptive outbursts on February 28th.

This student later told Fox News in a comment:

My professor is violating my First Amendment rights because of the fact that my views and ideology [are] different from hers. So she took it on herself to silence and embarrass me–bully me–for speaking up in class. It is my firmest belief that every human being has the freedom and right to identify, dress, and represent oneself as they see fit. I think this is all an attempt to silence my views personally because they contradict the ones she pushes in class so evidently.

 
The professor, Alison Downie, a faculty member in the university’s Women’s and Gender Studies program, claims expertise in “Christian Feminist Theology.” The smart student has asserted that this incident has only strengthened his own motivation to become a professor, stating, “When you see that kind of misuse of intellectual power, you want to be the person that comes back and does it responsibly and with morals. Instead of being the purveyor of your ideology, you can be an educator.”

This student has it doricly right and is a sterling example of knowledge, self-awareness, courage, and resolve, and should be widely lauded for all of the same. He is a warrior for another core element of Essential Liberty: Freedom of speech and, with it, the right to disagree—with anyone, whatever their official station and putative authority.

Unless opposed staunchly, unflinchingly, and unequivocally, this episode represents the shape of things to come in America. The fascist Left is on the march, emboldened by their hatred of Donald Trump and for all things classically American, and aiming without any hesitation to demonize, vilify, and eventually criminalize traditional viewpoints of all kinds. This is what all totalitarian minds do very single-mindedly in their drives to obtain and attain absolute power over all their fellows: Control speech, thought, conscience, and action through shaming, mockery & derision, isolation, marginalizing, and suppressive bullying. And, if and when they finally come to acquire total authority, they use laws, edicts, and severe physical punishments to enforce their mandated conformity and deal with any and all recalcitrants. It is a well remarked, well honed, and repeatedly practiced modus operandi in the world history of the 20th century. But not here, yet.

This is precisely why America’s Founders guaranteed in the Bill of Rights our people’s right to resist via, first, the First Amendment’s protections of speech, press, conscience, and peaceful assembly, and then, as ultimately necessary, the Second Amendment’s rights to keep and bear arms in defense of our Essential Liberty—the contrarian, cynically incited emotionalism of uninformed school-age children and the seductive siren deceits of their covert manipulators seeking pervasive omnipotent control be damned. We will all tearfully rue the day when that latter pair succeeds in forcing a hostile face-to-face match-up with the former.

Ominously, such a menacing prospect appears to be approaching us today with a burgeoning intensity that, despairingly to say, perhaps only America’s founding generation could fully appreciate. And alas, with a sober nod to Edmund Burke, men and women endowed with all of their razor clarity, wisdom, conviction, and courage may not be present now in enough numbers to lead us through it to win.

Time will certainly tell.

Since President’s Trump surprise election last fall, and particularly since his January inauguration, the hard Left has been in high dudgeon, apoplectic across the nation that the neosocialist globalist determinism they so passionately espouse has been so sorely interrupted. How, they wonder, could such a buffoon — a truly gross caricature — have taken the helm of the United States? And especially after having prattled on endlessly about building a border wall (“xenophobia”), the need for “extreme vetting” of desperate Syrian Muslim refugees (“Islamophobia”), protecting American businesses and workers’ jobs (“populism”/“nationalism”), and celebrating America’s police and military (“racism”) – not to mention his execrable boasting of his penchant for “grabbing” women (“sexism” /”misogyny”). Really, how could a nation that is becoming so much more “enlightened” and “progressive”, more “compassionate and caring”, have possibly succumbed to the cajolery of such a conceited, wealthy white primitive? For the Left, it’s enough to drive any effete elitist to opioid addiction – Oh, the pain! Where’s my OxyContin?!

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Last week, the air force of Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad, a London-trained physician, deployed chemical weapons (presumably Sarin, a dreadfully toxic nerve agent) against civilians in Idlib province, killing over 80 men, women, and children in an agonizing way.   The use of such deadly chemical agents in warfare has been proscribed by the Geneva Convention since 1925.  Not surprisingly, this appears to be of no moment in the Muslim Arab world, given earlier slaughters of many more Syrians by Assad throughout 2013 and the mass murder of Kurds by Saddam Hussein in Iraq in 1988 and others in 1991.   Even the pronouncement of an American “red line” by President Barack Obama in 2012, apparently promising teeth-laden consequences for its violation, did nothing to dampen Syria’s readiness to deal death from the sky via poison against its own people.

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In the 2016 election cycle, Presidential candidate Donald J. Trump, alone among all the Republican contenders, campaigned on strong nationalist promises to deal with America’s long-standing, nearly untrammeled invasion by foreign nationals, so as to preserve all of America’s sovereignty, demographic integrity, economic and fiscal stability, and the rule of law. This week, President Trump’s attorney general, Jeff Sessions, announced that the federal government will act to withhold federal funds from those American cities whose mayors have declared them “sanctuaries” for illegal aliens, refusing to cooperate with the feds in detaining and holding them for possible deportation.

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An elective despotism was not the government we fought for. ~ Thomas Jefferson

This past First Tuesday’s upset win by Donald Trump of the Presidency caught a great many Americans of all political persuasions by surprise.  The consternation among most in the media, the celebrity news-commentator and pundit class, and the elite establishments of both Republican and Democratic parties was deliciously palpable to the grassroots.  And, the acting out in the streets of major cities of thousands of disgruntled millennials in the nights following the election, apparently terrified of being dispossessed of their entitlements and the endless pandering to them by so-called progressive leaders, was stark confirmation of just how indoctrinated, infantile, and dependent many, if not most, of this new generation has become.

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