In the law there's an adage about argument. When one has the law on her side, she is to argue the laws. When she has the facts on her side, she is to argue the facts. When she has neither the law nor the facts on her side, she is to yell louder than her opponent.
That is what the Left is doing these days.
Surprised by the stunningly bad campaign run by the doyenne of the Democratic party and the unexpected win by Donald Trump in the 2016 elections and unable to admit that it was as much their fault for losing as it was President Trump's tactics that brought him to win, the Left has engaged, since the election, in a strategy that is devoid of substance but chock-full of distraction and empty rhetoric.
According to the Left, the POTUS and his followers are nothing but sexist, racist homophobes bent on keeping poor people in chains. Did they learn nothing from the backlash that was had when Cankles referred to us as Deplorables? While this language may stir their base, the Left is hardly convincing many independents to go over to their side.
Riots, violence and protests involving very graphic and vulgar rhetoric are staples of their campaign. Lately, however, they've turned to public shaming of Trump administration employees, claiming that they are complicit with the policies with which they disagree. From not allowing them to eat at public restaurants in peace to asking them to leave said restaurants to throwing eggs at Trump supporters -- and worse -- these actions evoke pre-war Nazi Germany which, ironically, is how they themselves are describing the Trump administration and his supporters.
Talk about projection.
Even congressmen are getting in the act. Maxine Waters, stooping to new lows even for elected officials, is calling on people to harass Trump administration in public. This amounts to a call for mob action, since these employees are entitled to private lives even when they're out in public. Legally, should anything happen to these peoples, the statements Ms. Waters is making may be actionable. The trouble with that is twofold: Litigation would give these cretins a platform and may also expose the plaintiffs to judges appointed by Clinton and Obama; all bets are off if that happens.
Since his election, there have been calls by the famous and the not-so-famous to assassinate President Trump. Kathy Griffin infamously sacrificed her career to pander to her audience by standing with a mock-up of the President's severed head. Peter Fonda just took it on the chin publicly when, in support of the removal of detention centers and the end of family separation, he called for Barron Trump to spend a night in a detention center away from his parents but with pedophiles and other criminals. Thinking himself immune to criticism and safe from reprisal, he learned the hard way that conservatives are fed up: His personal information was quickly spread over the internet, with every address, every phone number, every piece of contact information made public. He also undercut the very argument in favor of open borders -- that the people streaming over our borders are just innocent refugees looking for a better life -- by implying that there are pedophiles and criminals in the detention centers.
Actions have consequences. Conservatives have had this preached to them for nearly a year and a half now. Much like a tracer bullet, which shows not only where the shot is going but whence it came, their actions, no matter how well-intentioned they believe them to be, are bringing them unwanted consequences. Their tactics are eerily reminiscent of the Brownshirts of pre-war Germany. Roughing up opponents, heckling speakers, preventing opponents' rallies -- these things were done by the Nazis. There has even been at least one attempted murder by a deranged liberal.
During the Obama era, when plenty of things were suspected to have been done wrong, the conservatives kvetched but largely kept the protests civil. Not so the liberals. Overreacting as only liberals can, egged on by the coastal elites that are comprised of many in the entertainment industry with platforms far more substantial than the average citizen, these people act as if they're repelling barbarians and ousting them from the castle walls. Civil discourse does not involve such conduct as the liberals engage in. Their whining has become not only annoying, but dangerous.
I hope and pray that when the liberals resume power in however many years that may be, the country rights the ship and returns to the era when only the words were rough.
(c) 2018 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles
Thursday, June 28, 2018
Wednesday, June 27, 2018
Year of the SCOTUS
All right, vacation's over. In truth, it wasn't a vacation but a combination of being overly busy at work, out of town on the weekends and without a computer for the last so many months. But I have a couple of days whereby I can write, and so I will.
In the last couple of the days, the Supreme Court of the United States -- otherwise known as the SCOTUS -- has delivered opinions in 5-4 decisions upholding the travel ban put in place by President Trump, striking a decision that required a Christian family planning center to inform clients about abortion as an option and striking down the requirement that state employees must pay certain union dues even if they don't belong to the union. In each case, the conservative position was upheld by the Court. Personally and professionally, I saw each outcome before it happened, meaning that I thought that would be the proper result. That each outcome was what it was is both shocking and refreshing.
Many on the Left are complaining that the SCOTUS is bought and paid for by conservatives. Oddly, when decisions went their way during the Obama Administration, there was no equivalent gnashing of teeth and rending of garments. Chris Matthews, whose career is best defined as political gadfly, was apoplectic at the first two results. Here's hoping the Janus decision on union dues pushed him over the edge.
What's as surprising as well as troubling is the dissent in the travel ban case reads as if it's out of the Left's playbook. Invoking Korematsu, the execrable 1940's decision allowing the internment of Japanese-Americans on the basis of national security, Justice Sotomayor railed at the anti-Muslim bias of the travel ban, invoking then-candidate Trump's comments about Islamic terrorism. Nevermind that the ban, on its face, was neutral in that regard and, as any lawyer would point out, the first level of inquiry of any statute is the plain-language of the statute.
The hysteria on the Left is entertaining, because it's equivalent to a child whining when it doesn't get its way. To be sure, disappointment and sadness are to be expected, but the Left's rhetoric -- which in recent days has reached historic lows, a topic for another upcoming post -- smacks of hysteria.
That hysteria is about to go into overdrive. Today, on the heels of the trio of SCOTUS decisions, Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement. Assuming the POTUS's nominee is approved by the Senate, which necessarily will happen because the Democrats misplayed the Gorsuch nomination forcing the Republicans to invoke the nuclear option, conservatives will have a 6 to 3 majority in the SCOTUS. That majority will increase sometime in the next two years, in all likelihood, because Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg is older than Justice Kennedy and has been rumored to be in ill health.
Of course, nothing is written in stone. Anyone with any sense of history about the SCOTUS will recall Dwight Eisenhower's ill-fated appointment of Earl Warren as Chief Justice in 1953. Justice Warren led what many believe was one of the most liberal and activist Courts in its history. Many conservatives have complained that Chief Justice Roberts suffers from the same malady, not being nearly as conservative as they expected him to be when he was appointed. Ideally, this means that the nominee is independent in thought and action and not doing the President's bidding. Time will only tell, but for now it doesn't look good for the Left.
I think the SCOTUS reached the right decisions on these three cases. I don't have a vested interest in any of the outcomes beyond that of any American citizen. As an attorney I think the right result obtained.
It will be interesting to see how the rest of the Year of the SCOTUS plays out.
(c) 2018 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles
In the last couple of the days, the Supreme Court of the United States -- otherwise known as the SCOTUS -- has delivered opinions in 5-4 decisions upholding the travel ban put in place by President Trump, striking a decision that required a Christian family planning center to inform clients about abortion as an option and striking down the requirement that state employees must pay certain union dues even if they don't belong to the union. In each case, the conservative position was upheld by the Court. Personally and professionally, I saw each outcome before it happened, meaning that I thought that would be the proper result. That each outcome was what it was is both shocking and refreshing.
Many on the Left are complaining that the SCOTUS is bought and paid for by conservatives. Oddly, when decisions went their way during the Obama Administration, there was no equivalent gnashing of teeth and rending of garments. Chris Matthews, whose career is best defined as political gadfly, was apoplectic at the first two results. Here's hoping the Janus decision on union dues pushed him over the edge.
What's as surprising as well as troubling is the dissent in the travel ban case reads as if it's out of the Left's playbook. Invoking Korematsu, the execrable 1940's decision allowing the internment of Japanese-Americans on the basis of national security, Justice Sotomayor railed at the anti-Muslim bias of the travel ban, invoking then-candidate Trump's comments about Islamic terrorism. Nevermind that the ban, on its face, was neutral in that regard and, as any lawyer would point out, the first level of inquiry of any statute is the plain-language of the statute.
The hysteria on the Left is entertaining, because it's equivalent to a child whining when it doesn't get its way. To be sure, disappointment and sadness are to be expected, but the Left's rhetoric -- which in recent days has reached historic lows, a topic for another upcoming post -- smacks of hysteria.
That hysteria is about to go into overdrive. Today, on the heels of the trio of SCOTUS decisions, Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement. Assuming the POTUS's nominee is approved by the Senate, which necessarily will happen because the Democrats misplayed the Gorsuch nomination forcing the Republicans to invoke the nuclear option, conservatives will have a 6 to 3 majority in the SCOTUS. That majority will increase sometime in the next two years, in all likelihood, because Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg is older than Justice Kennedy and has been rumored to be in ill health.
Of course, nothing is written in stone. Anyone with any sense of history about the SCOTUS will recall Dwight Eisenhower's ill-fated appointment of Earl Warren as Chief Justice in 1953. Justice Warren led what many believe was one of the most liberal and activist Courts in its history. Many conservatives have complained that Chief Justice Roberts suffers from the same malady, not being nearly as conservative as they expected him to be when he was appointed. Ideally, this means that the nominee is independent in thought and action and not doing the President's bidding. Time will only tell, but for now it doesn't look good for the Left.
I think the SCOTUS reached the right decisions on these three cases. I don't have a vested interest in any of the outcomes beyond that of any American citizen. As an attorney I think the right result obtained.
It will be interesting to see how the rest of the Year of the SCOTUS plays out.
(c) 2018 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles
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