Politicizing The Fourth Of July

Friday, June 7, 2019

By Gary Bauer

A left-wing Washington Post columnist is REALLY upset with President Trump.   (Shocker, right?!) 

 
What's his offense this time?  The president plans to deliver a speech at the Lincoln Memorial during the July 4th celebrations.  According to this columnist, Trump's presence will be "a stain on the Lincoln Memorial."
 
I guess we should be at least a little happy that the left is now defending our monuments rather than encouraging the left-wing mobs trying to tear them down.
 
But how exactly will Trump "stain" the memorial?  The columnist is afraid that Trump will politicize a national symbol that should not be politicized. 
 
This is coming from the movement that has politicized EVERYTHING -- our national anthem, the Pledge of Allegiance, entertainment, sports (see below), the Boy Scouts, religious liberty, etc.
 
And what about the author's main point that we shouldn't permit the memorial to be politicized?  That must be news to George W. Bush, who kicked off four days of inaugural ceremonies at the Lincoln Memorial in 2001. 
 
It must really be a shock to Barack Obama who held a major inaugural event with Beyonce, Garth Brooks and Bruce Springsteen at the Lincoln Memorial in 2009.  In fact, they even made a movie about it.  
 
At that event, Obama declared, "You proved once more that people who love this country can change it."  Translation:  If you didn't vote for him, you don't love the country.  Wow!  I'm so glad Obama didn't politicize the Lincoln Memorial.
 
The Lincoln Memorial has been politicized by the left for decades.  It was the backdrop for multiple anti-war rallies when the country was divided over the Vietnam War.  Left-wing speakers routinely stood on the steps of the memorial and excoriated our soldiers as "baby killers" and "fascists." 
 
Richard Nixon was so upset by the demonstrations that he went down to the memorial at 4 AM on the morning of May 9, 1970, and debated them.
 
And does anyone remember when a few Catholic boys were having fun on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial?  The left was so outraged by their MAGA hats that they tried to ruin their lives with a fake story that they harassed a Native American elder.
 
The left has no problem politicizing the memorial.  So what is this really all about? 
 
They are scared to death that Donald Trump will do exactly what he did yesterday at Normandy, only this time it will be in front of a national audience in prime time. 
 
They are terrified that Trump will talk to the country about America's greatness without the press offering incessant "fact checks" and twisting his remarks into a speech about "white supremacy." 
 
Trump unfiltered, making an unapologetically pro-American speech before the entire country, is what scares them so much.

Stop with the Emotions and Use Logic to Find the Real Solution to Mass Shootings

By Jennifer Bennett

Gov. Ralph Northam is planning on recalling the Virginia state legislators to address gun violence and to pass "common sense public safety laws."

In response to the Virginia Beach shooting, Northam says, "we must do more than give our thoughts and prayers. We must give Virginians the action they deserve." And by doing more, he is looking to ban bump stocks, suppressors and assault weapons, to create a universal background check and to reinstate the one gun a month law, among other items.

As lofty as the goal of "doing more" sounds, Gov. Northam is using the well-worn page from the democratic playbook, "never let a good crisis go to waste," as immortalized by then President Obama's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

When the argument devolves to emotions instead of logic, the true solutions are unattainable.

And the emotions are raw from the Virginia Beach shooting where the shooter killed 12 before he was stopped by police. The fact that is not discussed, a bad guy with a gun was stopped by a good guy with a gun.

Northam's emotional reaction to the Virginia Beach tragedy is to simply outlaw the gun. According to the New American website, the Virginia Beach municipal building was a gun-free zone, "thanks to Virginia's state preemption law" signed by then Governor Terry McAuliffe. The purpose of the executive order in 2015 was to "protect our citizens and state employees from gun violence." The fact of the matter is that, according to an article published by the ChicagoTribune.com, "98% of mass shooting since 1950 have occurred in places where citizens are banned from having guns."

Gun free zones don't work. In response Governor Northam is taking full opportunity to use the emotions of the Virginia Beach shooting to ban bump stocks and assault weapons. Neither the bump stock nor assault weapons were used in the Virginia Beach shooting.

Additionally, the Governor is calling for Universal Background Checks. The truth is, this shooter – and most would-be mass shooters – legally purchased the weapons they use. In this case, it was a .45 caliber handgun, yet this gun is nowhere on the list of proposed items to be banned.  So, why is Governor Northam using the tragic event of the Virginia Beach Shooting for political gain?

If Governor Northam wants to tackle mass shootings, he needs to forego the political emotional reaction and have a rational and logical discussion regarding the culture that has allowed and created the environment of mass shooting.

First, the need to bring back the sanctity of life. Without a doubt, random killing while roaming a building for the next victim points to a shooter that has no regard for life. If we are to end mass shootings, we need to return to a culture that values life, from birth to natural death. When a society allows for the unborn life to be ended in what should be the safest place – ever – the mother's womb, society devalues all life.

Second, the need to bring back the belief in God to our public square. In 1963, one person challenged prayer in school and when Madalyn O'Hair won in ill-decided SCOTUS decision, all prayer in school country wide was eliminated. Our culture now has generations of children, many are now adults, who no longer believe in something larger than themselves. With the ability to kill one's own child, by reasonable extension, God-less individuals now believe they can be 'god' and decide who lives and who dies. Our country has long been a country full of firearms, and yet, prior to 1963, when a high schooler could display their rifle in their parked car at school, our God-fearing culture had almost zero mass shootings. Today, with numerous gun laws (and the inability to bring a fire arm to the gun free schools), the number of mass shootings is on the rise.

Third, our culture needs to help those struggling with mental illness. When we hear about mass shootings, it is most likely the shooter suffered from some kind of mental illness. Two recent examples are the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and the Washington Navy Yard Shooting. Both shooters struggled with mental illness. And, in both shootings, officials were aware of this fact beforehand, yet did little or nothing about it.

If we want to end mass shootings in our culture, Governor Northam and others need to focus energy, time and resources on evidenced-based research, and the real cause of mass shootings, instead of using the emotions of tragedy for political gain.

Jennifer Bennett is the Navy Yard Survivor, shot point blank with a sawed-off shotgun. She is the only Navy employee who was shot and survived. Her book, Standing Still in A Culture of Mass Shootings, is available at NavyYardSurvivor.com.

Please contact Shak@GuidingLightBooks.com or 703-425-2554.

Will Lobbyist money buy the race in the 24th?

By Robin McMichael

Well it's obvious that Emmett Hanger is terrified. Obvious because he has completely abandoned the "nice guy" "good ole Emmett" persona and is now spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in attack ads against Tina Freitas. So what brought on this onslaught of mud slinging from Emmett Hanger? Tina Freitas actually dared to publish Hangers official voting record. Bill numbers, dates, floor speeches, all of the things Hanger thought were safely locked away in Richmond. It turns out Hanger has voted wrong on guns, life, taxes, Obamacare, etc. etc. 

When campaigning he send out mailers that says he is 100% Pro Life...in Richmond he voted to send millions of dollars to Planned Parenthood, was the only Republican to vote against the Pro Life Hyde Amendment, and even voted for the ERA which has been used to force tax payer funded abortion all the way up to birth. 

On Guns he says he is a strong supporter of the second amendment, but once again he was the ONLY Republican senator to vote against Constitutional Carry!

What about taxes? Well it turns out that Emmett Hanger has voted for 3 of the largest tax increases in Virginia history. 

Tina has not attacked Emmett Hanger personally, she has exposed Hangers voting record for what it is. And for doing that Emmett Hanger has dropped hundreds of thousands of dollars in attack ads against Tina. He says she is lying...but he doesn't refute his votes. He says she is a "Never Trumper", but Tina voted for and supports the President and has done so very publicly, where as Emmett Hanger was the Virginia Co Chair of "Never Trumper" John Kasich presidential campaign. Then he bashes her for not having been born in Virginia! Tina was a military souse that lived all over the country.

So why does Emmett Hanger think he can get away with lying about his voting record and his opponent? Because he has gotten away with it for 36 years in elected office. When Emmett Hanger broke with Republicans and sided with Ralph Northam to pass Obamacare Expansion in Virginia, it "earned" him hundreds of thousands of dollars in lobbyist money, which he is now using to try and save himself. He knows Tina Freitas doesn't have the money that he does to throw at this race and so he is counting on the fact that people wont actually check his record. The only question is, will it work again? Will we all once again be fooled by slick mailers and TV ads which launch false allegations against a good conservative woman?

If Hanger was the conservative he claims to be he would be able to run on his voting record, but that is the very thing he is trying to cover up! Instead he has made his entire campaign a combination of viciously attacking Tina Freitas and counting on left wing groups like "Unite Virginia", which disguises itself as a conservative group, in order to push for Hanger. Hanger has even sent out mailers directly targeted to Democrat voters reminding them that this is an "Open Primary" and that he was the only Republican Senator that pushed for Obamacare Expansion. Does that sounds like a conservative? 

On June 11th, vote for Tina Freitas, not only because she is the far better candidate and a true conservative; vote for Tina to send a message to all Republicans in elected office, that they had better vote the way they campaign! That their days of buying elections with lobbyist money while ignoring their conservative base is over. Vote Tina Freitas on June 11th!

A visual explanation of why we need the Electoral College - FYI

Save the Date: July 20th

 

SAVE THE DATE

REPUBLICAN PICNIC

Saturday, July 20, 2019

Rapidan Hunt Club

1-4 p.m.

Congressman Riggleman (and other elected officials still to be invited) will attend, barring disaster.

For the whole family!