Rule to Defund Planned Parenthood Moves Forward

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WASHINGTON (ChurchMilitant.com) by Anita Carey : The federal government is proposing removing federal tax dollars from Planned Parenthood, and is seeking the public’s opinion on its proposed rule.

In May, when President Trump spoke at the Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List) Gala, he introduced the Protect Life Rule that would stop all federal money from the Title X family planning program from going to organizations that perform abortions. Last week, the federal government opened the mandatory 60-day public commenting period before legislative discussions to adopt the rule.

Father Stephen Imbaratto of Priests for Life calls this “a good and proper first step to totally defunding the abortion industry.”

Eric Scheidler, executive director of Pro-Life Action League, told Church Militant, “Planned Parenthood likes to pretend that low-income women depend on them for health care, but that’s simply untrue.” He explained that they offer mostly contraception and abortion services, while only providing about one percent of all STD testings and less than one percent of all Pap tests.

Title X was passed in 1970 and was aimed at providing government grants to public or nonprofit entities to establish and operate family planning projects, “including natural family planning methods, infertility services and services for adolescents.” The program was never intended to be used to fund abortion.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) explained that the new rule is needed because there is not sufficient guidance to ensure funding is not used to encourage or promote abortion as a method of family planning.

Scheidler said that the $60 million Planned Parenthood would be stripped of “would go to healthcare providers that offer a wider range of services and a higher standard of care.” He added, “This could include pregnancy resource centers and abstinence programs.”

Mallory Quigley, vice president of communications for Susan B. Anthony List, told Church Militant, “The Protect Life Rule directs tax dollars to Title X centers that do not provide or perform aboartions — such as the growning number of community and rural health centers that far outnumber Planned Parenthood facilities — without reducing family planning funding by a dime.”

“These alternatives offer holistic ppreventative and primary care, not just for women, but for their children, as well as men,” Quigley noted. Planned Parenthood often tells women not to bring their children with them to appointments.

In 2016, Title X handed out over $286 million in taxpayer money to 48 states and 43 family planning agencies that provide contraception, testing for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and cancer screenings to almost 3,900 clinics. Planned Parenthood receives about $60 million from Title X grants, representing only about 20 percent of all the federal money they receive.

Father Imbaratto told Church Militant, “Planned Parenthood gets more than this and by all accounts spends all government monies either directly or indirectly to elect pro-abortion candidates.”

Quigley said abortion mills can use this funding as a “slush fund” that allows them to pay for rent, electricity, and other overhead costs. “It can also be used for advertising within the community to attract more clients,” she said.

A recent poll found 60 percent of Americans oppose taxpayer funding of abortion. Quigley said it’s important for all pro-life Americans to submit comments to the HHS: “A large outpouring of public support ensures that the abortion lobby understands the majority of Americans side with President Trump and support the pro-life action taken by the administration.”

Scheidler pointed out that stripping Planned Parenthood of its Title X funding would “reduce Planned Parenthood’s access to low-income women, who will have to go elsewhere for family planning.” He said this could reduce the number of women seeking abortions because “Planned Parenthood will not be able to market abortion to these women.”

Susan B. Anthony List agrees, saying, “Research released by the Charlotte Lozier Institute in 2018 shows Planned Parenthood has inflated the U.S. abortion rate, controlling more than 35 percent of the abortion industry and resulting in more than three million ‘extra’ abortions that could have been avoided.”

Quigley noted that Planned Parenthood’s annual report show that “despite the increase in taxpayer funding, the only thing not to decline at Planned Parenthood is the number of abortions they do.”

“To fully defund Planned Parenthood of all federal money would require legislation,” Scheidler explains. He said the November general election could provide enough votes in the Senate to look at “making Planned Parenthood ineligible for Medicaid funds, which would be a dramatic pro-life victory — and very bad for Planned Parenthood.”

“There is no need to justify withholding such funds,” Dr. Monica Miller, national director of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, said. “One red cent of taxpayer money should never be granted to any group that fails to respect life.”

“No other argument need be given and Planned Parenthood is the flagship when it comes to carrying the blood of the unborn,” Miller said.

Quigley noted that their “working to-do list” in the pro-life movement mirrors Trumps’s campaign promises: “appointing only pro-life Supreme Court nominees,  to defund Planned Parenthood … to protect the Hyde Amendment, and to advance and sign into law the Pan-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act — which would end abortion after five months.”

“This is not about the pro-life movement,” Fr. Imbaratto clarified. “It’s about babies and moms.”

The commenting period runs to July 31. Pro-lifers are asked to weigh in before the period closes.

VP Pence: When Push Comes to Pulpit…

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One of the first promises Donald Trump made to evangelicals as a candidate was to the pastors of America: We’re going to get rid of that [Johnson amendment],” he promised. Now, a year and a half into his administration, it’s somewhat fitting that he and Vice President Mike Pence have made a priority of keeping their dialogue with churches going.

Today, Vice President Pence did that in spectacular fashion at the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). The largest evangelical denomination in America, the SBC hosted as many as 11,000 delegates in Texas. And to them, the administration’s second-in-command had a simple message: We “will always stand with you.”

The vice president took the opportunity to talk about the progress the Trump administration has made on issues of importance to the SBC – and evangelicals in general: protecting life, preserving religious liberty, helping the persecuted church, standing with Israel. But those gains, he reminded them, can’t be sustained without engaged, churchgoing Americans.

“Today, we only ask the men and women of this convention to continue in your calling with renewed energy. Stand and go and speak. Stand in the gap. Because in these too-divided times, I believe that your voice, your compassion, your values, and your ministries are more needed than ever before.

But you should also know that we recognize that the most important work in America doesn’t happen in the White House or anywhere in Washington, D.C. for that matter. We know the most meaningful work, the most transformative work happens where you live, where your ministries impact: in the hearts and minds of the American people.

The truth is no podium that President Trump and I will ever stand behind will be of greater consequence than the pulpits you stand behind every Sunday morning. (Applause.) No policy we enact will ever be more meaningful than the ministries you lead. And no action we take will ever be more powerful than your prayers.”

As he touched on the country’s divided times, several in the room probably thought about the division right there in that room. Just yesterday, one SBC messenger made a motion to disinvite the vice president, insisting that, “By associating publicly with any administration, we send a mixed message to our members, suggesting that to be faithful to the gospel, we ought to align with a particular administration.”

Fortunately, wisdom prevailed, soundly defeating the ill-conceived resolution. But it is a clear indication that there are some within the church that are either too ill-informed or too focused on the headlines to understand the difference between influencing and being influenced, or — as Jesus described in John 17 — being in the world but not of it. We can’t influence if we retreat. We don’t have to agree with everything this president has said or done, and we don’t, but it is foolish and even detrimental to persecuted believers around the world to fail to acknowledge that this administration is being used to set the table for the church to do its work unhindered. The vice president, Mike Pence, is an unabashed believer who’s championing their cause in the White House. Look at the doors this administration is opening for religious liberty and free speech. Now is not the time for shutting doors – now’s the time to rush through and seize this moment of opportunity.

Tony Perkins’ Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC senior writers.

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The Dark Underbelly of Refugee Resettlement in the U.S.

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When I first began writing this blog in July 2007, one of the issues that attracted my attention was the puzzling decision by the Virginia Council of Churches, working for major resettlement contractor Church World Service, to place refugees in one of the worst buildings in the worst section of Hagerstown, MD.

cws logo

But, here we are 11 years later and Church World Service has placed Congolese refugees in Greensboro, NC in housing that is managed by a company that has a record of many years of troubling business practices.

I’m sure CWS rejoinder is—well give us more taxpayer money and we will get them nicer apartments. 

And, I say, this was supposed to be a public-private partnership, so how about you, CWS, raising private money from your churches to help these Africans you placed (so that North Carolina meatpackers could have cheap compliant labor)!

It all began with that fire that killed five Congolese children.  We wrote about it here (fire marshal determined food had been left on the stove).

But, that isn’t the end of it as a Congolese refugee, the father of the dead children, asks (in a heated meeting):

“We are refugees from Africa, we want to know if we have rights.”

I know what some of my readers will say to the Africans, but have some compassion, I’m sure most were never fully informed of what to expect in America.

CWS does much of our processing in Africa and they surely painted a rosy welcoming picture for the Congolese.  (In June 2013, the Obama Administration told the UN that we would take 50,000 from the DR Congo over 5 years. They are still coming!)

From Triad City Beat:

Safety concerns persist at complex that houses Congolese refugees

Congolese refugees, resettlement agencies and the owners of the Heritage Apartments give conflicting accounts of maintenance efforts in the wake of a deadly fire that took the lives of five children last month.

Greensboro meeting

Refugee contractors face unhappy tenants.

Representatives of two agencies that resettle and support refugees in Greensboro had given lengthy presentations about their menu of services to the group of Congolese refugees packed into a sweltering community room at Heritage Apartments on a recent Saturday.

One of the residents, the father of five children who were killed in a fire last month at the apartment complex, asked a pointed question.

“We are refugees from Africa,” said the man, who declined to give his name. “We want to know if we have rights.”

Many of the residents, who work low-paying and grueling jobs in chicken plants in Wilkes and Lee counties, complained about going to the hospital for treatment and coming home with insurmountable hospital bills. Others complained that their apartments lack air-conditioning units.

How about BIG CHICKEN coming up with money for the hospital bills (and air conditioners for their workers)!

Earlier in the meeting, Lynn Thompson, outreach director for the New Arrivals Institute, ventured an answer to the question about refugees’ rights, alluding to widespread community concern about the deadly fire and poor conditions at the apartment complex, which is owned and managed by the Agapion family.

Go buy your own air conditioners says resettlement agency!

“It’s really bad for us,” Anzuruni Juma said through a translator. “When we moved in we didn’t know we only had heating to keep warm in the winter, and nothing to keep cool in the summer. Sometimes we can’t even sleep and have to go to a neighbor’s place to cool off.”

Rachel Lee, a program coordinator for African Services Coalition — one of two resettlement agencies, along with Church World Services, responsible for placing refugees at Heritage Apartments — suggested the residents go to Lowes or Walmart to purchase window units for their apartments. The residents said they don’t earn enough money to be able to afford air-conditioning, prompting some talk that the refugee agencies might turn to churches for donations.

Refugee advocates not happy with Church World Serve and African Services Coalition (Ethiopian Community Development Council)

Some of the advocates directed pointed questions, alongside the residents, at the representatives of the two resettlement agencies.

See Heritage Apartments landlord has history of tenant conflict (2008), and so didn’t CWS or this ECDC subcontractor know any of this?  Do the contractors get some special benefits from choosing certain landlords?

More here.

See other posts on Greensboro, here.

So where are the humanitarian churches*** willing to help the refugees of Greensboro (and America!)?

Too busy protesting the President to do their Christian duty?

cws protest at WH 2

Those small circled signs are CWS signs. How about if CWS spends less time protesting at the White House with CAIR and more time taking better care of the refugees they place in your towns and cities!

Do you belong to one of these churches represented by CWS? If so, ask what is your church getting out of it?

***CWS Member Communions:

African Methodist Episcopal Church

The Meaning of the Stars and Stripes

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“What are you doing to celebrate Flag Day?”

It’s a question you probably won’t hear in the checkout line at the grocery store or around the dinner table with friends this week.

That’s because, unlike other hallmark holidays of summertime—Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day—Flag Day isn’t always celebrated with grand gestures, gatherings, or parades. More often it passes by with perfunctory commemorations at best. At worst, it is all but forgotten.

Yet it wasn’t meant to be that way. When Congress approved and President Harry Truman signed the national observance of Flag Day into law on June 14, 1949, it was for an important reason: “It is our custom to observe June 14 each year with ceremonies designed not only to commemorate the birth of our flag,” Truman said, “but also to rededicate ourselves to the ideals for which it stands. This beloved emblem, which flies above all our people of whatever creed or race, signalizes our respect for human rights and the protection such rights are afforded under our form of government.”

Truman’s words cut right to the heart of this holiday. Our flag is far more than fabric stitched together in stars and stripes. She is a tangible symbol of our national identity, reminding us of who we are, and how far we’ve come.

I wrote a salute to “Old Glory,” which hangs on the wall in my office in Washington, D.C. In part, it reads:

Today, as we pledge our loyalty to this flag,
Think about what she has stood for, think about where she has been.

From the home of Betsy Ross, to the streets of Concord, to the fields of Gettysburg.
From the rocks of Iwo Jima, to the Tundra of Korea, to the jungles of Vietnam,
And the deserts of the Middle East.

She has stood in your front yards, and she has stood on the moon.
She has been sadly placed over coffins, and proudly raised at the Olympics.

This is our flag—a symbol revered and cheered for. Battled and bled for. Both an embodiment of the collective struggles and triumphs of a nation over centuries and a symbol of the individual sacrifice of each man or woman who has fought and died beneath her stripes and stars.

In my district, there was an installation of 1,000 flags placed across 10 acres at Arlington Memorial Gardens in Springfield Township, Ohio, for Memorial Day this year. It was called the “Field of Memories.”

Visible from the highway, each flag was dedicated to a former or active military member, but the 3 feet by 5 feet pieces of fabric also represent a lifetime of memories. Birthdays missed. Joyful reunions after long deployments. Inside jokes shared over the phone across continents. Moving trucks headed to the next base, in the next state. The empty chair at the table. The memories of a single life, and a nation’s life, all stitched into one red, white, and blue emblem.

We don’t just honor our flag—it is also itself a symbol of the utmost honor. On the Thursday evening before Memorial Day, every available soldier in the U.S. Army’s Old Guard walks the rows of more than 228,000 headstones in Arlington National Cemetery, placing an American flag one foot in front of each grave marker with perfect precision. Throughout the weekend, the Old Guard will stay in the cemetery, making sure a flag remains in front of each grave.

This national tradition is called “Flags In” and has been conducted every year since 1948. It is more than a bright display—it is 228,000 distinct reminders of why these men and women gave their lives in the struggle for a more perfect union, and a more free world.

Each flag is a small but powerful statement that this field of memories does not lie forgotten. The freedom that these Americans fought for, and that our flag stands for, lives on.

This week, on Flag Day, Democrats and Republicans will gather on one field to play ball in the annual Congressional Baseball Game in Washington, D.C. This is an event where for one night, both sides come together for charity, putting political differences aside and playing under one flag. It is a fitting moment to “rededicate ourselves to the ideals for which it stands,” as Truman said so many years ago.

I hope that’s what you think of when you see our flag flying this week, and every week. I hope you join me in taking a moment to pause and honor her—to ponder the magnitude of what she represents. The tribute that I wrote to our flag finishes likes this:

She flies through the air. She sails across the sea. She marches over the land.

She has stood for freedom in places around the world,
Until freedom could stand,
On its own two feet.

Evildoers have feared her,
Those in need have prayed for her arrival.
She has always stood for exceptionalism,
And for that we do not apologize.

Whether you honor her by raising her in your own front yard or visiting a veterans’ cemetery, by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance or singing “The Star-Spangled Banner,” this week, please join me in honoring our grand United States flag, and all she represents.

COMMENTARY BY

Portrait of Brad Wenstrup

Brad Wenstrup

Brad Wenstrup is the U.S. representative for Ohio’s second congressional district. Twitter: .

RELATED ARTICLE: The Value in Learning the Army’s History

Dear Readers:

With the recent conservative victories related to tax cuts, the Supreme Court, and other major issues, it is easy to become complacent.

However, the liberal Left is not backing down. They are rallying supporters to advance their agenda, moving this nation further from the vision of our founding fathers.

If we are to continue to bring this nation back to our founding principles of limited government and fiscal conservatism, we need to come together as a group of likeminded conservatives.

This is the mission of The Heritage Foundation. We want to continue to develop and present conservative solutions to the nation’s toughest problems. And we cannot do this alone.

We are looking for a select few conservatives to become a Heritage Foundation member. With your membership, you’ll qualify for all associated benefits and you’ll help keep our nation great for future generations.

ACTIVATE YOUR MEMBERSHIP TODAY

EDITORS NOTE: The featured image of the American flag is by franckreporter/Getty Images.

From Tolerance to Celebration: How Corporations Impose Sexual Orthodoxy

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June is Pride Month for many lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans, and popular fashion retailer J. Crew has collaborated with the Human Rights Campaign to create a clothing collection to support the “fight for equality.”

The clothing includes adult and children’s socks, T-shirts, and a tote bag, and depicts rainbow-printed slogans such as “Love First” and “Love to All” as well as the yellow equal sign logo of the Human Rights Campaign, one of the nation’s largest advocates of the LGBT political agenda. The items come in sizes for children as young as 2.

J. Crew says it will donate 50 percent of the purchase price of items in the collection to HRC. In addition, J. Crew stores nationwide reserved June 9 as a day of “LGBTQ pride” celebration on which customers could “share the love” or “get ready for a parade” with free flags and temporary tattoos.

J. Crew is a private company that has the right to partner with any organization. But it is part of a growing trend in corporate America of household brands that promote illiberal legislation to undermine the First Amendment.

Others include Amazon, American Airlines, Apple, Bank of America, Coca-Cola, Facebook, General Electric, Google, Hershey, Microsoft, Target, Twitter, and Uber.

In the name of promoting “tolerance” for some customers, these corporations erode the freedoms of others.

The Human Rights Campaign, or HRC, spearheads efforts to pass state and federal legislation that would limit the constitutional freedoms of those who believe in marriage between a man and a woman, a belief that has been held by people around the world for millennia.

In Congress, the Human Rights Campaign leads the charge to pass the Equality Act, a bill that would add both “sexual orientation” and “gender identity”  to the Civil Rights Act, the Fair Housing Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Jury Selection and Services Act, and several other laws regarding employment with the federal government.

If passed, the Equality Act would impact a broad spectrum of private businesses by adding “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to laws prohibiting discrimination in public accommodations. Although the original purpose of such laws during the civil rights movement was to shield racial minorities from invidious identity-based discrimination, LGBT activists seek to abuse these laws by turning them into swords to punish people whose religious beliefs teach that marriage is between a man and a woman.

This is precisely how the state of Colorado used its law to punish bakery owner Jack Phillips for creating custom cakes only for occasions and messages that align with his traditional Christian beliefs, and not for a same-sex wedding or a divorce celebration.

Tim Gill, who has poured $422 million of his fortune into legislative campaigns to insert sexual orientation and gender identity into antidiscrimination laws, candidly admitted in Rolling Stone magazine that he is doing so to “punish the wicked.” That is, those who disagree with his view of marriage and sexuality.

Gill and the Human Rights Campaign have succeeded in passing such “SOGI” measures in 21 states and the District of Columbia. The HRC also enlisted the support of corporate America to try to limit Phillips’ First Amendment freedoms at the Supreme Court.

J. Crew’s Pride Month collaboration with the Human Rights Campaign will fund national legislation to empower LGBT activists to leverage the power of government to punish millions of Americans for living according to their religious beliefs.

And even after its campaign is over, J. Crew’s support of the Equality Act will continue channeling money from customers into legislation that will reduce their freedoms.

Jim Brett, CEO for J. Crew Group Inc., has said that the brand is committed to doing what it can to help bring about “a more inclusive world.” But by supporting the Human Rights Campaign and, in turn, the Equality Act, J. Crew is furthering the exclusion of its orthodox Muslim, Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant customers from public life.

HRC President Chad Griffin has boasted of being able to form coalitions of major businesses, including Walmart Inc., to defeat religious freedom protections for citizens in Indiana and Arkansas.

J. Crew’s Pride Month campaign also helps market homosexuality and animus toward orthodox religious believers. For instance, images of same-sex couples, children, and a celebrity are used to market the attire. Each photograph is accompanied by a quote relating to “love” or “pride.”

Actor and producer Evan Jonigkeit responds to the question “What does Love First mean to you?” He says: “It’s about setting aside your preconceived notions about any particular individual and working from a place of empathy.”

Such advertising advances the false notion that anyone opposing the Human Rights Campaign and its mission is not only narrow-minded but cold-hearted and unfeeling. In reality, many moral and legal reasons exist to oppose the HRC’s agenda, none of which involve bigotry or hatred.

It is no coincidence that corporate America prioritizes the LGBT agenda over the freedom to live according to one’s religious beliefs about marriage.

The Human Rights Campaign publishes an annual ranking of corporations according to their public support for “SOGI” legislation, including the Equality Act.

In 2017, J. Crew received a relatively low score of 20 percent. But through its Pride Month collection, the company may be able to boost that score.

Of course, any and all customers may refrain from purchasing the merchandise, or tell J. Crew to focus on its product line rather than on promoting illiberal causes. Customers also may tell the company to stop pressing the new sexual orthodoxy on them and their children.

But, as both children and adults model J. Crew clothing, the Human Rights Campaign’s intolerant message will spread to multiple generations of Americans, no matter how low or high the company’s sales are.

Unfortunately, J. Crew is now only one of many large corporations whose cultural cronyism undermines their customers’ freedoms, and uses their own money to do it.

COMMENTARY BY

Alexa Secrest

Alexa Secrest is a member of the Young Leaders Program at The Heritage Foundation.

Portrait of Emilie Kao

Emilie Kao

Emilie Kao is director of the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Religion & Civil Society at The Heritage Foundation. Twitter: .

RELATED ARTICLE: Left Coast Rallies for Freedom to Change

Dear Readers:

With the recent conservative victories related to tax cuts, the Supreme Court, and other major issues, it is easy to become complacent.

However, the liberal Left is not backing down. They are rallying supporters to advance their agenda, moving this nation further from the vision of our founding fathers.

If we are to continue to bring this nation back to our founding principles of limited government and fiscal conservatism, we need to come together as a group of likeminded conservatives.

This is the mission of The Heritage Foundation. We want to continue to develop and present conservative solutions to the nation’s toughest problems. And we cannot do this alone.

We are looking for a select few conservatives to become a Heritage Foundation member. With your membership, you’ll qualify for all associated benefits and you’ll help keep our nation great for future generations.

ACTIVATE YOUR MEMBERSHIP TODAY

EDITORS NOTE: The featured image was taken at the Wango Tango concert June 2 at Banc of California Stadium in Los Angeles. (Photo: Mario Anzuoni/Reuters/Newscom)

The Instincts of Donald Trump are Uniquely American

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For a lot of Americans, while President Trump’s mannerisms are not always where they want them to be. But they saw that the supposedly well-mannered President Obama was an existential threat to the country, while Trump is making America stronger at every level. This would never show up in Obama’s approval ratings because so many decent Americans are simply terrified of even the thought of being considered racist.

However, Americans also understand that good manners don’t necessarily make a good president.

Good manners don’t cancel out lying about the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, good manners don’t cancel out stoking racial tensions at every opportunity, such as lying about what happened in Ferguson; good manners don’t cancel out weaponizing the IRS and EPA to destroy the lives of political opponents; good manners don’t cancel out a federal gun-running scheme to Mexican drug cartels that killed at least one American border guard; good manners don’t cancel out throwing the health insurance market out of whack and lying about Americans’ ability to keep their doctor and have their premiums reduced; and good manners don’t cancel out turning the FBI against Americans and a presidential opponent.

Good manners in a bad president still leave Americans with a bad president.

And while Trump’s mannerisms may leave something to be desired, his instincts on what is good for America and the American people are as good as they come. From tax reform to piecemeal Obamacare repeal to Jerusalem to North Korea and China to the Paris Climate Accords to actually looking out for American interests at the G7 summit to his directly confronting a dishonest and hostile media, President Trump’s instincts far surpass his sometimes ill-mannered ways.

Many of Trump’s opponents consider his lack of experience or deep understanding of the dark wonkiness of the federal government are his weaknesses. But are they? Even there, perhaps the thing we need in a president right now — even a flawed president — is one who will not easily get consumed by the detailed workings of the mammoth federal government and lose sight of the strategic goals for which he was elected.

While many in what Glenn Harlan Reynolds calls the “Front-Row Kids” of highly educated, mobile and globalists consider President Trump a bumptious rube, bumbling his way around in a racist, misogynistic fog, much of America sees hims as basically a patriotic guy who intuitively knows the nation has been on the wrong path — and for longer than just the disastrous Obama administration.

Trump doesn’t really get politics, certainly not the cesspool of Washington politics of public glad-handing and private backstabbing. But that’s not only good, it’s probably mandatory at this point. And he has certainly proven himself able to learn — from constitutional issues to international affairs to macro economics.

So there’s a lot in the machinations of self-serving Washington, D.C. that Trump does not get. Sometimes that hurts, often that helps keep him on track in the big picture.

But what Trump does get is imperative: He gets the American people, and does so in a way the Front-Row Kids cannot even grasp.

Over and over and over again, the elite and media and establishment are sure that his latest whatever is going to be what brings him down. Some tweet, some comment, some supposed scandal — something that Washington deems to be negative — is going to separate him from his base and he is going to tumble.

But he doesn’t. In fact, Trump’s popularity is growing as solid, conservative policies and judges are put in place and people begin to see the results. The reason is simple: Washington doesn’t actually know America very well. It knows the thin layer of Front-Row Kids, which is essentially coastal elites and the powerbrokers and monied interests in major metro areas.

But Washington doesn’t know America. And somehow, this billionaire Manhattanite does.

It’s not because he’s studied America in any traditional way. That’s not Trump’s style. It’s not that he has palled around with Joe Schmoe American. Obviously, it’s not his golden Trump Tower style, either.

What he does have that so many elites do not — and most certainly his predecessor did not — is a genuine, deep and abiding love for America, and for Americans. He probably cannot even explain why very well, but he instinctively does. Further, he seems to have a reasonably strong grasp of human nature, not one bushwhacked by the latest deranged theories in feminist-gender studies or liberal poli-sci classes. And that helps him relate to such a variety of Americans in a way totally unexpected for a man who came from wealth and then built enormous wealth.

Consider these few areas where his instincts are in line with Americans, and not surprisingly, American interests: China trade; Immigration; G7; NFL kneeling debacle; North Korea; Israel; Americans view of D.C.

On every one of these, the Front-Row Kids get it wrong. Because they don’t know America. Trump gets it right, because he does.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in The Revolutionary Act.

Vitriol Goes from Zero to DeNiro…

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For the handful of Americans sitting at home watching the Tony Awards, it must have been a confusing scene. Actor Robert DeNiro walked out on stage, pumped his fists in the air, and started talking. The audience went wild with applause — but since CBS producers had scrambled to bleep out the Godfather star’s profanity, no one was quite sure what all the frenzy was about. Unfortunately for the liberals who are trying to knock off President Trump in two years, they do now. “I’m going to say one thing,” DeNiro started. “F— Trump. It’s no longer down with Trump. It’s f— Trump.” After a gasp, the whole room stood and cheered. Though, 24 hours later, no one is quite sure why. Though plenty of liberal activists probably agree with DeNiro, they also know the kind of damage this kind of anti-Trump rage can do.

As commentators on the Right and Left pointed out, the only one who stands to gain from it is the man he’s trying to shame!

“These idiots are going to make sure Trump is president forever,” tweeted one liberal pundit. People like Laura Ingraham can’t believe the Left continues to be so out of touch with America. “Another ‘celebutainment’ gift to the GOP & @realDonaldTrump.” It might as well be, Becket Adams agreed in the Washington Examiner, “an early in-kind donation to the committee to reelect Trump.” Over at the Atlantic, Sophie Gilbert called it “toothless,” saying, “It’s easy to be angry. It’s easy to take a platform that offers easy (if bleeped-out) access to millions of people and use profanity to capture a mood, to express an emotion. But the outrage that will doubtless ensue is a distraction from what really matters, and what’s much harder to realize: the work of trying to change a situation, not just rage against it.”

Once again, some on the Left are coming unhinged. There’s no longer even a fig leaf of impartiality with the entertainment industry and liberal extremists. This administration, through their reversal of President Obama’s anti-family, anti-faith policies, is clearly revealing what the 2016 election did: the fault lines in America. As we’ve seen with Meryl Streep, Avenger director Joss Whedon (who tweeted a death wish for the president), the curtain is now clearly pulled back on America’s so-called cultural elite (and I have to say “so-called,” because their limited four-letter word vocabulary shows how they truly lack culture).

There was a time when civil society didn’t allow for such language in public. Now, some want to feign disgust at the president while, as former press secretary Sean Spicer pointed out, “they engage in the same behavior they find reprehensible – except,” he points out, “they do it in public, on public airways where every American can see and see just how deplorable they are.” The hypocrisy is astounding. So is the elitists’ belief that this condescension is working. The more they sneer and belittle Trump’s base, the more committed voters will be.

When it comes to Hollywood, regular folks — the New York Post’s Salena Zito warns — have had enough.

Tony Perkins’ Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC senior writers.

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Foundation grants $100,000 to Islamic Supremacists to force Islamic Law on American businesses

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CAIR issued a news release titled CAIR-Massachusetts Receives $100,000 Cummings Foundation Grant.  The news release states in part:

The Massachusetts chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations is one of 100 local nonprofits to receive grants of $100,000 each through Cummings Foundation’s “$100K for 100” program.

CAIR-Massachusetts intends to use the funds to hire two legal fellows to assist with case management and to support its civil rights programming for the Massachusetts Muslim community.

Cummings Foundation has granted $100,000 to CAIR Massachusetts so that it can harass and sue businesses to force them to comply with certain provisions of Islamist Sharia law.  Many of the oppressive tenets of Sharia law are antithetical to the rights afforded all Americans by the United States Constitution.

CAIR has harassed companies in an attempt to force them to allow employees Salah times of prayer.  Requiring businesses to allow groups of employees to meet to pray five times a day results in making Islamic Salah times for Muslim prayer a priority over fairness to other employees and a company’s efficiency, profitability.  Example 1.  Example 2.  Example 3.  Example 4.  Example 5.

CAIR has harassed companies in an attempt to force them to allow employees to wear a hijab which exemplifies Islamist oppression towards women that is commanded by Sharia law and fatwas.  Pew Research reports that 57% of Muslim women in America do NOT wear a hijab.  The hijab is a symbol of the cruel creed that it represents.   The hijab was invented in the 1970s over 1300 years after the Quran was written.  The hijab is not derived from the Quran but is legislated by Islamist dictates and fatwas that oppress and dominate woman.   Strict Islamic law, Sharia and fatwa enforcement requiring women to wear the hijab started only within the last 50 years.  Today, women in Iran and Saudi Arabia are put in jail for protesting the hijab.   Click here for more info on hijab.  Example 1.  Example 2.  Example 3.  Example 4.

Numerous Council on American Islamic Relations’ officials have been sentenced to prison and/or deported for supporting terrorism.  CAIR officials have defended people convicted of terror activities in the United States.  CAIR is linked to Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood.  Click here for more info on CAIR.

Did Cummings Foundation officials know about CAIR’s terror linked history and its plans to use Cumming’s grant money to harass American businesses to comply with un-American Islamist Sharia law provisions before granting CAIR $100,000?

Here is a list of all of Cummings Properties real estate rental properties.

Florida Family Association has prepared an email for you to send to express concern to Cummings Foundation officials regarding grant support for CAIR.

To send your email, please click the following link, enter your name and email address then click the “Send Your Message” button. You may also edit the subject or message text if you wish.

Click here to send your email to express concern to Cummings Foundation officials regarding grant support for CAIR.

Click here for contact information.

I Went to DC’s Gay Pride Parade. Here Are 9 Things I Saw. [Graphic images]

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Editor’s note: This article accurately describes a “gay pride” event and contains language and images that may offend some readers.

Thousands of gay rights activists and their supporters celebrated Saturday in Washington, D.C., by participating in and watching the city’s gay pride parade.

The “Pride Month” parade consisted of over 200 floats in addition to marchers and vehicles, and covered 1.5 miles in promoting and celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals, among other gender identities.

I checked out the event for The Daily Signal, observing the parade and talking with attendees. With a warning that some readers will find this content offensive, here are nine things I noticed:

1. Animosity for the Trump Administration

During a rally before the parade, one speaker called Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson a “wacko” and others in his agency “the other wacko wackos at HUD.”

Carson parted with recent “national tradition,” Politico reported Thursday, by declaring June to be “National Happy Homes Month” and declining to recognize it as Gay Pride Month.

2. Law Enforcement Not Welcome

Signs posted near the parade route read: “No cops at pride.”

(Photo: Rachel del Guidice/The Daily Signal)

3. A ‘F–k Them’ Attitude

Some attendees told me that the deeply held religious beliefs of some Americans about marriage—including those such as bakers who don’t want to be forced to design and make a cake for a same-sex wedding—don’t matter.

“F–k them,” one person said of business owners who would choose not to make a cake or provide floral arrangements for a same-sex wedding.

(Photo: Rachel del Guidice/The Daily Signal)

The Supreme Court ruled June 4 in favor of Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colorado, who declined to create a custom cake to celebrate a same-sex wedding because of his traditional Christian beliefs.

Multiple people I interviewed at the parade said bakers should be forced to fill orders that celebrate messages going against their deeply held religious beliefs.

4. Hostility to Traditional Ideas on Marriage

Multiple signs and pins displayed vulgar language suggesting that those who do not support gay marriage are intolerant and hateful.

(Photo: Rachel del Guidice/The Daily Signal)

(Photo: Rachel del Guidice/The Daily Signal)

One person in the parade wore a shirt saying, “Homosexuals are possessed by demons,” which appeared to make fun of the religious beliefs of some who don’t back the LGBT political agenda.

(Photo: Rachel del Guidice/The Daily Signal)

5. Unquestionable Acceptance for the Gay Lifestyle

In contrast to the evidence of hostility and even hatred toward those with traditional views of marriage—one T-shirt read: “If you’re not gay friendly take your b—h a-s home”—the event provided ample public affection for homosexual men and women and acceptance for gay rights.

One marcher held a sign that said, “I love my gay family.” One couple’s sign, “God blessed us with two gay sons.”

(Photo: Rachel del Guidice/The Daily Signal)

6. A Shoutout for Bisexual Moms

One person I encountered along the parade route appeared to be pregnant and wore a tank top with the message “#Still Bisexual,” apparently promoting the opinion that women can have children but be sexually attracted to both men and women.

(Photo: Rachel del Guidice/The Daily Signal)

7. Not Age Appropriate

Aspects of the parade certainly weren’t family friendly or appropriate for children. At one point, men clad only in leather straps marched in front of a school group.

(Photo: Rachel del Guidice/The Daily Signal)

(Photo: Rachel del Guidice/The Daily Signal)

(Photo: Rachel del Guidice/The Daily Signal)

The event also featured trash receptacles along the parade route that advertised lubricant for gay sex.

(Photo: Rachel del Guidice/The Daily Signal)

Some attendees chose not to wear shirts; others wore very revealing outfits.

(Photo: Rachel del Guidice/The Daily Signal)

(Photo: Rachel del Guidice/The Daily Signal)

(Photo: Rachel del Guidice/The Daily Signal)

8. ‘Resist’ Crowd Promotes ‘No Hate on My Ballot’

The anti-Trump “resistance” movement was present in the parade, carrying signs sporting the “HRC” logo of the Human Rights Campaign, one of the nation’s largest advocates of the LGBT political agenda.

Marchers who walked with a “Resist” banner also carried signs with messages such as “Resist. Vote. Win,” “Midterms Matter, Vote 2018,” “Don’t Just Hope for Equality, Vote for It,” and “No Hate on My Ballot.”

(Photo: Rachel del Guidice/The Daily Signal)

9. Planned Parenthood Supports LGBT Rights

Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of abortions in the nation, was present in full force. The organization’s pink shirts, tank tops, and signs had slogans such as “Together We Fight for All,” “#QueersForRepro,” and “Repro rights = LGBTQ Rights.”

(Photo: Rachel del Guidice/The Daily Signal)

COMMENTARY BY

Portrait of Rachel del Guidice

Rachel del Guidice

Rachel del Guidice is a reporter for The Daily Signal. She is a graduate of Franciscan University of Steubenville, Forge Leadership Network, and The Heritage Foundation’s Young Leaders Program. Send an email to Rachel. Twitter: .

RELATED ARTICLE: We Asked DC Pride Parade Attendees About Kids Changing Gender Without Parental Permission. Here’s What They Said.

Dear Readers:

With the recent conservative victories related to tax cuts, the Supreme Court, and other major issues, it is easy to become complacent.

However, the liberal Left is not backing down. They are rallying supporters to advance their agenda, moving this nation further from the vision of our founding fathers.

If we are to continue to bring this nation back to our founding principles of limited government and fiscal conservatism, we need to come together as a group of likeminded conservatives.

This is the mission of The Heritage Foundation. We want to continue to develop and present conservative solutions to the nation’s toughest problems. And we cannot do this alone.

We are looking for a select few conservatives to become a Heritage Foundation member. With your membership, you’ll qualify for all associated benefits and you’ll help keep our nation great for future generations.

ACTIVATE YOUR MEMBERSHIP TODAY

Facebook, Amazon, Google, and Twitter All Work With Left-Wing SPLC

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Four of the world’s biggest tech platforms have working partnerships with a left-wing nonprofit that has a track record of inaccuracies and routinely labels conservative organizations as “hate groups.”

Facebook, Amazon, Google, and Twitter all work with or consult the Southern Poverty Law Center in policing their platforms for “hate speech” or “hate groups,” a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation found.

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The SPLC is on a list of “external experts and organizations” that Facebook works with “to inform our hate speech policies,” Facebook spokeswoman Ruchika Budhraja told The Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview.

Facebook consults the outside organizations when developing changes to hate speech policies, Budhraja said, noting that Facebook representatives will typically hold between one and three meetings with the groups.

Citing privacy concerns, the Facebook spokeswoman declined to name all the outside groups working with Facebook, but confirmed the SPLC’s participation.

Budhraja emphasized that Facebook’s definition of “hate group” is distinct from the SPLC’s definition and said that Facebook consults with groups across the political spectrum.

The SPLC accused Facebook in a May 8 article of not doing enough to censor “anti-Muslim hate” on the platform. That article did not disclose the SPLC’s working partnership with Facebook.

“We have our own process and our processes are different and I think that’s why we get the criticism [from the SPLC], because organizations that are hate organizations by their standards don’t match ours,” Budhraja said.

“That doesn’t mean that we don’t have a process in place, and that definitely doesn’t mean we want the platform to be a place for hate but we aren’t going to map to the SPLC’s list or process,” she said.

Of the four companies, Amazon gives the SPLC the most direct authority over its platform, The Daily Caller News Foundation found.

While Facebook emphasizes its independence from the SPLC, Amazon does the opposite: Jeff Bezos’ company grants the SPLC broad policing power over the Amazon Smile charitable program, while claiming to remain unbiased.

“We remove organizations that the SPLC deems as ineligible,” an Amazon spokeswoman told The Daily Caller News Foundation.

Amazon grants the SPLC that power “because we don’t want to be biased whatsoever,” said the spokeswoman, who could not say whether Amazon considers the SPLC to be unbiased.

The Smile program allows customers to identify a charity to receive 0.5 percent of the proceeds from their purchases on Amazon. Customers have given more than $8 million to charities through the program since 2013, according to Amazon.

Only one participant in the program, the SPLC, gets to determine which other groups are allowed to join it.

Christian legal groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom—which recently successfully represented a Christian baker at the Supreme Court—are barred from the Amazon Smile program, while openly anti-Semitic groups remain, The Daily Caller News Foundation found in May.

One month later, the anti-Semitic groups—but not the Alliance Defending Freedom—are still able to participate in the program.

Twitter lists the SPLC as a “safety partner” working with Twitter to combat “hateful conduct and harassment.”

The platform also includes the Trust and Safety Council, which “provides input on our safety products, policies, and programs,” according to Twitter. Free speech advocates have criticized it as Orwellian.

A Twitter spokeswoman declined to comment on the SPLC specifically, but said the company is “in regular contact with a wide range of civil society organizations and [nongovernmental organizations].”

Google uses the SPLC to help police hate speech on YouTube as part of YouTube’s “Trusted Flagger” program, The Daily Caller reported in February, citing a source with knowledge of the agreement. Following that report, the SPLC confirmed it’s policing hate speech on YouTube.

The SPLC and other third-party groups in the Trusted Flagger program work closely with YouTube’s employees to crack down on extremist content in two ways, according to YouTube.

First, the flaggers are equipped with digital tools allowing them to mass flag content for review by YouTube personnel. Second, the groups act as guides to YouTube’s content monitors and engineers who design the algorithms policing the video platform, but may lack the expertise needed to tackle a given subject.

The SPLC is one of over 300 government agencies and nongovernmental organizations in the YouTube program, the vast majority of which remain hidden behind confidentiality agreements.

The SPLC has consistently courted controversy in publishing lists of “extremists” and “hate groups.” The nonprofit has been plagued by inaccuracies this year, retracting four articles in March and April alone.

The well-funded nonprofit, which did not return a request for comment, deleted three Russia-related articles in March after challenges to their accuracy followed by legal threats.

All three articles focused on drawing conspiratorial connections between anti-establishment American political figures and Russian influence operations in the United States.

The SPLC removed a controversial “anti-Muslim extremist” list in April, after British Muslim reformer Maajid Nawaz threatened to sue over his inclusion on the list. The SPLC had accused the supposed extremists of inciting anti-Muslim hate crimes.

Somali-born women’s rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali also made the list.

Ali, a victim of female genital mutilation who now advocates against the practice, is an award-winning human rights activist. But according to the SPLC’s since-deleted list, she was an “anti-Muslim extremist.”

Ali criticized Apple CEO Tim Cook in August 2017 for donating to the SPLC, which she described as “an organization that has lost its way, smearing people who are fighting for liberty and turning a blind eye to an ideology and political movement that has much in common with Nazism.”

Dr. Ben Carson, a neurosurgeon who is now the secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, was surprised to find out in February 2015 that the SPLC had placed him on an “extremist watch list” for his conservative beliefs.

“When embracing traditional Christian values is equated to hatred, we are approaching the stage where wrong is called right and right is called wrong. It is important for us to once again advocate true tolerance,” Carson said in response.

“That means being respectful of those with whom we disagree and allowing people to live according to their values without harassment,” he continued. “It is nothing but projectionism when some groups label those who disagree with them as haters.”

Following a backlash, the SPLC apologized and removed him from its list. Carson was on the list for four months before the SPLC removed the “extremist” label.

Floyd Lee Corkins, who attempted a mass shooting at the conservative Family Research Council in 2012, said he chose the organization for his act of violence because the SPLC listed it as a “hate group.”

The SPLC has faced tough criticisms not just from conservatives, but from establishment publications as well.

“At a time when the line between ‘hate group’ and mainstream politics is getting thinner and the need for productive civil discourse is growing more serious, fanning liberal fears, while a great opportunity for the SPLC, might be a problem for the nation,” Ben Schreckinger, now with GQ, wrote in a June 2017 piece for Politico.

The Washington Post’s Megan McArdle, while still at Bloomberg, similarly criticized the SPLC’s flimsy definition of “hate group” in  September 2017. Media outlets who trust the SPLC’s labels, McArdle warned, “will discredit themselves with conservative readers and donors.”

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Podcast: Student Journalist From Florida’s Broward County Shares His Findings on School Safety

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The school shooting in Parkland, Florida, rocked the nation. It also revealed incompetence and even corruption within the local school board. Kenneth Preston, a student journalist who helped expose some of these issues, joins us.

Plus: A new poll shows Americans are split on whether they want to go to space.

PODCAST BY

Twitter CEO Caves to Liberal Backlash, Says He Was Wrong to Eat Chick-Fil-A

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Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on Sunday expressed regret over eating at Chick-fil-A because of the chicken company’s CEO’s personal views on gay marriage.

Dorsey tweeted a screenshot from his phone that showed a purchase he had made at Chick-fil-A using a mobile application. After a liberal backlash, however, Dorsey apologized for eating at the popular fast-food restaurant.

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At issue was Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy’s 2012 support for defining marriage as between a man and a woman, which he described as “the biblical definition of a family.”

Screenshot/Twitter

(Screenshot/Twitter)

Former CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien was among those to call out Dorsey for eating at the self-described home of the original chicken sandwich.

O’Brien indicated that Dorsey had sinned by publicly eating at Chick-fil-A during gay pride month.

(Screenshot/Twitter)

“You’re right,” Dorsey conceded. “Completely forgot about their background.”

COLUMN BY

Portrait of Peter Hasson

Peter Hasson

Peter J. Hasson is a reporter for The Daily Caller. Twitter: @peterjhasson.

EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey who posted a screenshot of his Chick-fil-A meal and received liberal backlash. (Photo: Mike Segar/Reuters/Newscom)

VIDEO: Dangerous People Are Teaching Your Kids

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Dangerous people are filling the heads of young people with dangerous nonsense.

Who are these people?

They are what Jordan Peterson calls “the post-modernists:” neo-Marxist professors who dominate our colleges and universities. And here’s the worst part: we are financing these nihilists with tax dollars, alumni gifts and tuition payments.

Time to wise up.

TRANSCRIPT

You may not realize it, but you are currently funding some dangerous people.

They are indoctrinating young minds throughout the West with their resentment-ridden ideology. They have made it their life’s mission to undermine Western civilization itself, which they regard as corrupt, oppressive and “patriarchal.”

If you’re a taxpayer—or paying for your kid’s liberal arts degree—you’re underwriting this gang of nihilists.

You’re supporting ideologues who claim that all truth is subjective; that all sex differences are socially constructed; and that Western imperialism is the sole source of all Third World problems. They are the post-modernists, pushing “progressive” activism at a college near you.

They produce the mobs that violently shut down campus speakers; the language police who enshrine into law use of fabricated gender pronouns; and the deans whose livelihoods depend on madly rooting out discrimination where little or none exists.

Their thinking took hold in Western universities in the ‘60s and ‘70s, when the true believers of the radical left became the professors of today. And now we rack up education-related debt—not so that our children learn to think critically, write clearly, or speak properly, but so they can model their mentors’ destructive agenda.

It’s now possible to complete an English degree and never encounter Shakespeare—one of those dead white males whose works underlie our “society of oppression.”

To understand and oppose the post-modernists, the ideas by which they orient themselves must be clearly identified.

First is their new unholy trinity of diversity, equity and inclusion. Diversity is defined not by opinion, but by race, ethnicity or sexual identity; equity is no longer the laudable goal of equality of opportunity, but the insistence on equality of outcome; and inclusion is the use of identity-based quotas to attain this misconceived state of equity.

All the classic rights of the West are to be considered secondary to these new values. Take, for example, freedom of speech—the very pillar of democracy. The post-modernists refuse to believe that people of good will can exchange ideas and reach consensus.

Their world is instead a Hobbesian nightmare of identity groups warring for power. They don’t see ideas that run contrary to their ideology as simply incorrect. They see them as integral to the oppressive system they wish to supplant, and consider it a moral obligation to stifle and constrain their expression.

Second is rejection of the free market—of the very idea that free, voluntary trading benefits everyone. They won’t acknowledge that capitalism has lifted up hundreds of millions of people so they can for the first time in history afford food, shelter, clothing, transportation—even entertainment and travel. Those classified as poor in the US (and, increasingly, everywhere else) are able to meet their basic needs. Meanwhile, in once-prosperous Venezuela—until recently the poster-child of the campus radicals—the middle class lines up for toilet paper.

Third, and finally, are the politics of identity. Post-modernists don’t believe in individuals. You’re an exemplar of your race, sex, or sexual preference. You’re also either a victim or an oppressor. No wrong can be done by anyone in the former group, and no good by the latter. Such ideas of victimization do nothing but justify the use of power and engender intergroup conflict.

All these concepts originated with Karl Marx, the 19th-century German philosopher. Marx viewed the world as a gigantic class struggle—the bourgeoisie against the proletariat; the grasping rich against the desperate poor. But wherever his ideas were put into practice—in the Soviet Union, China, Vietnam, and Cambodia, to name just a few—whole economies failed, and tens of millions were killed. We fought a decades-long cold war to stop the spread of those murderous notions. But they’re back, in the new guise of identity politics.

The corrupt ideas of the post-modern neo-Marxists should be consigned to the dustbin of history. Instead, we underwrite their continuance in the very institutions where the central ideas of the West should be transmitted across the generations. Unless we stop, post-modernism will do to America and the entire Western world what it’s already done to its universities.

I’m Jordan Peterson, Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto, for Prager University.

EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is by Vadim Ivanov/Shutterstock.

Indiana Teacher Forced to Resign After Refusing to Kowtow to Transgender Policies

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An Indiana high school teacher alleges that he was forced to resign because he wouldn’t ascribe to the school’s policy of calling transgender students by their chosen names and pronouns.

“I’m being compelled to encourage students in what I believe is something that’s a dangerous lifestyle,” former Brownsburg High School orchestra teacher John Kluge told NBC News. He alleges that compelling him to address students with pronouns that do not accord to their biological sex violates his religious beliefs as well as his constitutional right to free speech.

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“I’m fine to teach students with other beliefs, but the fact that teachers are being compelled to speak a certain way is the scary thing,” Kluge also told NBC.

The school requires that teachers call students by their chosen name or pronoun provided that the student has a written note of consent from a parent and doctor. The school previously allowed Kluge to call students by their last names but changed the policies two months ago to mandate that Kluge call them by their chosen names and pronouns.

Advocates of queer inclusion at the school and in the community don’t see the requirement as an infringement upon Kluge’s rights but simply as a requirement of respect. “Using a trans student’s chosen name is an invaluable support. Educators need to lead by example with respect for students’ identities, names, and pronouns,” said GLSEN advocacy group education manager Becca Mui, NBC reported.

GLSEN is “a national network of students, educators, parents, & community leaders working to create LGBTQ-inclusive schools,” according to its Twitter handle.

“Everyone deserves to be called by their name, and in doing so teachers are able to effortlessly respect their students and enable them to live authentically,” the Trevor Project’s head of advocacy and government affairs, Sam Brinton, also said. The Trevor Project provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ youth.

A Brownsburg representative maintains that Kluge voluntarily resigned before the end of the school year, but Kluge claims he only sent in a resignation letter because the school threatened to fire him. “I’m pleading … I still want to work here,” Kluge explained.

Kluge has indicated he will appeal to the school board if he and the school can find no compromise that will allow him to continue teaching at Brownsburg High School.

COLUMN BY

Grace Carr

Grace Carr is a reporter for The Daily Caller News Foundation. Twitter: @gbcarr24.

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EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is by Getty Images: DONGSEON_KIM. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities for this original content, email licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

An Interview With Tucker Carlson on What Makes Trump a ‘Political Genius’

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Tucker Carlson, host of the popular Fox News show “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” spoke to Daily Signal Editor-in-Chief Rob Bluey at The Heritage Foundation’s 41st annual Resource Bank meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Carlson received the prestigious Salvatori Prize, recognizing his work to uphold and advance the principles of America’s founding. The full video, plus an edited transcript of the interview, is below.

Rob Bluey: It is a true honor to celebrate the work that you’ve done, and I want to begin with the advice that you left this audience on how conservatives can take back the culture. You had two pieces of advice. Tell us about them.

Tucker Carlson: Well, have more children. I grew up in a world where it was considered embarrassing to have more than two children. I don’t think that’s the case now among middle-class, upper middle-class people, but it was.

First of all, it’s the most rewarding, greatest, most fun thing you can do. But it’s also the most profound thing. If you don’t like the direction of the country, have children, raise them the way that you want, consistent with your beliefs. It seems like all the answers are basic, nature-based answers, in my opinion. To everything. That’s the most basic of all, have more kids. Raise decent children.

And the second was just say what you think is true. I don’t actually think you get a ton out of confronting people and getting in people’s faces. I don’t think you’re going to convince anybody that way. But I think there’s inherent value in speaking principle out loud without shame or fear. And again, without the expectation that you’re going to win people over right away, because most times you’re not going to.

Aggression really doesn’t help much. I’ve definitely concluded that after years of being aggressive. But I think telling the truth is an inherently valuable act.

Bluey: You’ve had tremendous success with your show. It’s highly rated and millions of people are tuning in. How does that last point inform the work that you do on a day-to-day basis?

Carlson: The show’s successful because it’s on Fox News, which is successful. I’ve worked at a lot of different TV networks, and the network is what matters most.

I don’t imagine that my show is successful because I’m so great. I do think much more about what I say because there’s a bigger audience and because we’re in the middle of this revolutionary moment, and I’m counterrevolutionary.

I don’t say a lot of things without thinking them through, which is good. I mean, occasionally I do and get in trouble for it. But I really try to think through what I really believe and what I really think is true.

Bluey: But I’d say the topics you cover and the way that you conduct your questioning is different and unique from other TV hosts.

Carlson: Well, I don’t have a lot to add. I would just say two things. I think President Trump is interesting, and I agree broadly with his agenda. I certainly agree with immigration, that’s for sure. But I don’t think that every story is about Donald Trump, and most other people at the other networks think every story is about Trump.

I don’t have anything to add to that; I don’t think it’s that interesting. I don’t want to talk about Trump five hours a week, I just don’t. And not because I have some political agenda and it’s bad to talk about; I’m just not that interested, actually. There’s a lot of interesting stuff going on. I try to talk about that.

The second thing is, I really try to have an honest conversation. By the way, my mind occasionally changes. There are a bunch of topics, several topics, where I’ve totally changed my views because someone else had a better point than I did. And I love that.

Tucker Carlson at The Heritage Foundation’s Resource Bank. (Photo: Ivan Apfel Photography for The Heritage Foundation)

Bluey: You have a book coming out this fall called “Ship of Fools.” I want to hear about it because it relates a bit to Trump, right? I mean, you’re going after the elites, the ruling class.

Carlson: The book, like the show, is based on the most obvious questions. I’m not a super-clever person, I try to keep it very simple. Why would America elect Donald Trump president?

And the explanation in Washington is, well, they didn’t really. Putin did. Or voters were just so dumb, they didn’t know the difference. Or America’s racist, so they elected a racist. Those are contemptible nonexplanations. Those are stupid.

The real answer, obviously, is that people were so dissatisfied with the leadership in place as of the first Tuesday in November of 2016, that they decided to punish them by electing Trump.

This was a referendum on the ruling class; and by the way, we have a ruling class, and I’ve lived in it most of my life, so I know it’s real. It’s not a conspiracy, but we have a class system, increasingly, in this country.

The people in charge have done a really bad job on the big things, on foreign policy and the economy; and they’ve gotten us into a number of counterproductive wars. That was a bipartisan effort. It was started by Bush, but it was applauded by Clinton. So it wasn’t one party, it was both parties.

They made a bunch of assumptions about the economy that turned out to be wrong, and they helped destroy the American middle class, and then they don’t care. So they’re terrible. They’re deeply unwise and selfish and stupid.

Trump is the result of decades of unwise, selfish, and stupid leadership. It’s so obvious. I’m not a genius, I’m hardly a genius. It’s just so clear, and no one says that. I’m not sure why.

Carlson: He’s certainly made the divisions clear, which was always his role. Trump is whatever the opposite of a technocrat is; it’s Donald Trump. He’s not a detail man, to put it mildly.

He hasn’t swept into town with the “Mandate for Leadership” that Heritage produced in 1980 to guide the Reagan transformation of Washington. Here is how you handle every department of government. There’s nothing like that. And that really wasn’t the point. One hopes that there will subsequently be someone like that, but that’s not Trump’s role.

Trump’s role was to realign, or to make what had already happened obvious to everyone—which is that Republican Party really didn’t represent its voters very well, and the Democratic Party didn’t represent its voters very well either.

Actually, it’s not a contest between left and right so much as it’s a contest or a struggle between people who’ve benefited from the way things were going—me and all my neighbors—and everyone else who has gone backward, particularly economically.

If I could just say, the one sort of sin that conservatives like me committed was not paying attention to the massive transfer of wealth upward, and the stagnation in the middle. We thought that income inequality was something that you weren’t supposed to talk about, or you only cared about if you were Bernie Sanders and against capitalism. I’m totally for capitalism, but that’s bad.

You don’t want to live in a country where a small group of people control everything because you will have a revolution, and the system will be destroyed. Conservatives missed that and liberals were benefiting from it, so they didn’t say anything. That’s what the book’s about.

Bluey: You brought up Bernie Sanders and the left, and we’re having a conversation right now about whether we’re going to have a huge wave of progressives come into Congress next year. What is the left’s end game in view?

Carlson: The end game is always the same, which is to take back power. And Trump is offensive to them probably for a bunch of reasons, but the core offense is taking power away from them, disempowering the technocratic class.

Trump is the candidate for people who didn’t go to Choate and Princeton and Harvard Business School, and work at McKinsey. Those are his voters. The people who did buy into the system—with the expectation they would be in charge—are deeply offended by that, deeply offended by the power transfer.

So the point always is to take back control. But below that, a bunch of different things are going on. And politically, I think it’s pretty obvious now there’s no actual agenda. It’s not like they’re mad about trade.

They don’t like Trump, and Trump’s weird kind of unintentional political genius is to drive his opponents crazy. So all of a sudden you have liberals, some of whom are kind of reasonable, smart people, defending MS-13 and the dignity of porn stars. They basically are pivoting against Trump in such a way where whatever he’s for, they’re against and vice versa. Whatever he’s against, they’re for.

But then do they really want to be on the side of no borders, or calling ICE the stormtroopers, or defending Salvadoran gang members? Like, what?

He’s driven them crazy, and how does that work itself out? I don’t really know, it’s amazing to watch it, though, I’ll tell you that.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson received the prestigious Salvatori Prize, recognizing his work to uphold and advance the principles of America’s founding. The award was presented by The Heritage Foundation’s David Azerrad, director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for Principles and Politics and AWC Family Foundation fellow. (Photo: Ivan Apfel Photography for The Heritage Foundation)

Bluey: It sure is amazing to watch. Tucker, finally, I want to ask you: You started your career at The Heritage Foundation as a writer for Policy Review. Here you are today receiving the Salvatori Prize. What does it mean to you to win this high honor?

Carlson: I’ve always been grateful to Heritage for doing the most important thing you can do for a young person, particularly a young man, and that’s give him a job—making $14,000 a year! But no one else was hiring me, and Heritage did.

Adam Meyerson, who ran Policy Review, hired me and really kind of systematically taught me journalism. He was conservative, it was a conservative publication. But I actually didn’t write about politics, I wrote about the police and it was kind of nonpolitical. It was more a study in how to gather information, organize it coherently in an expository essay, just the basics. They’re not very complicated, but someone needed to teach me, and he did.

The Heritage Foundation made that possible and I’ve always been grateful for that. I don’t know why they hired me. I wouldn’t have hired me. I was a total loser. But they did, and so I’ve never stopped being thankful for that, ever.

Bluey: We’re so glad it worked out.

Carlson: Thank you. I am too.

Bluey: Make sure you watch his show, “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” Pre-order the book, “Ship of Fools.” Tucker, great to be with you.

Carlson: Great to see you, Rob.

INTERVIEW BY

Portrait of Rob Bluey

Rob Bluey

Rob Bluey is editor-in-chief of The Daily Signal, the multimedia news organization of The Heritage Foundation. Send an email to Rob. Twitter: @RobertBluey.

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