Which Path will Voters Choose?

Which Direction Will Voters Choose For America?————

`              A commentary

                By J. F. Kelly, Jr.

Nearly every election, it seems, is described by some pundits and campaigners as “the most important election in our lifetime”. Whether that’s actually true or not probably depends a lot upon how many elections one has lived through. I’ve lived through a lot so I’m not sure if this one is the most important in my lifetime but it certainly ranks right up there near the top. That’s because the two major parties are now so deeply divided that each will take the country in very different directions if they win. They seem unable to work together to find a middle road. This could change, of course, but it would probably take a truly major crisis to bring us together. Who wants a truly major crisis?

 

If Republicans retain control of Congress, we can pretty much count on a continuation of the Trump agenda that has so far fostered robust economic growth, more jobs than available qualified workers can fill, elimination of many restrictions and regulations hampering business, a continued crackdown on illegal immigration, a stronger defense posture and the appointment of conservative judges who will interpret the Constitution as written and not as they wish it were written. If Democrats take control of Congress, prepare for single-payer health coverage for everyone, liberal immigration and asylum policies, cutbacks to defense, spiraling debt, opposition to anything that Donald Trump proposes and a return to the government gridlock that now occurs when one party controls Congress and the other the White House.

 

The left wing of the Democrat party is no longer just a wing. It is becoming the force controlling the party. Its members believe that Donald Trump is an illegitimate president whose election was a fluke, noting that he failed to win the nation-wide popular vote. It is practically a given that, if Democrats gain control of Congress, they will attempt to remove him from office by the impeachment process. Many Democrat candidates for Congress are campaigning on that theme. They also talk of impeaching Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and attempting to eliminate the electoral college.

 

I wrote in a previous column that such talk is dangerous and here’s why. Congress can impeach a sitting president or Supreme Court justice only for malfeasance or crimes committed while in office, not for traits, characteristics or conduct prior to his or her election. You can’t impeach a president because you don’t like his character or manners or communication style or use of adjectives. Neither can you impeach a justice for his partying habits in college. Impeachment requires an impeachable offense. Absent one, an attempt to remove from office this duly-elected president could enrage the nearly 50% of the voters that voted for him and the citizens of the states that cast their electoral votes for him. If we cease to abide by the results of elections we will become no better as a nation than a dictatorship.

 

Talk of attempting to eliminate the electoral college is likewise dangerous and irresponsible. Also, it is a waste of energy and emotion because it isn’t going to happen. The United States was formed as a union of states, not of people. Each state that joined this union did so pursuant to certain conditions and retained certain rights. The Connecticut Compromise provided that each state, large or small, would have equal representation in the Senate. Each state’s two senators represent their respective state. The people of each state are represented by their respective members of the House of Representatives (the People’s House) and are apportioned according to that state’s population. Each state has electoral votes equal to that state’s total number of senators (2) and however many representatives that state is apportioned. As David Rivkin and Lee Casey pointed out in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, the Constitution provides that no state shall be deprived of equal representation in the Senate without that state’s consent. Good luck in ever getting that.

 

This arrangement has been in effect since the birth of our nation and attempting to change it now could literally rip this nation apart as would an attempt to impeach the president or a Supreme Court justice absent an impeachable offense. Any candidate for Congress who supports such actions is irresponsible, needs a civics lesson and does not deserve your vote.

October 21, 2018

A Lingering Malaise

             A commentary

                By J. F. Kelly, Jr.

The battle over the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the U. S. Supreme Court is, mercifully, over but the stench lingers on and will continue to pollute the political atmosphere for a very long time. People who believe in the presumption of innocence until proven guilty owe a debt of gratitude to Justice Kavanaugh and his family for having the courage to hang in there throughout the ugliness of the Democrat smear campaign. A lesser person would have withdrawn in the face of vile accusations and threats to his family but that would have handed a victory to the liberal mob and its despicable tactics which would have encouraged a repeat of such tactics against future nominees.

President Donald Trump, on behalf of the nation, apologized to Justice Kavanaugh and his family for what they endured but, as usual, employed some clumsy wording, this time by saying that the confirmation established Kavanaugh’s innocence. It did no such thing and it didn’t have to, because under our system of justice, innocence is already presumed until guilt is proven and the burden of proof is on the accuser. We may, in fact, never know the whole truth regarding who assaulted Dr. Christine Blasey Ford or if she was assaulted at all but the benefit of the doubt must go to the accused in the absence of corroboration and there was none.

Justice Kavanaugh has said that he harbors no bitterness and it would be in the interest of healing if we could turn the page on this sorry episode of character assassination politics and move on but it is painfully obvious that liberal extremists and #MeToo activists are not going to let that happen. They will not only harbor bitterness but will challenge the legitimacy of Justice Kavanaugh’s confirmation and perhaps that of the Supreme Court itself, consistent with their demonstrated inability to accept defeat in elections. This is a dangerous strategy which will sorely try the patience of the so far fairly silent majority and I predict it will backfire.

On the other side, GOP candidates, especially those running for congress, can now run endless TV ads showing Democrat senators, including California’s Kamala Harris, who considers herself presidential material, interrupting the confirmation hearings, prompting the shrill reactions of stooges planted in the audience, plus the paid screamers in the gallery during the final senate vote, along with images of Democrat protesters pounding on the doors of the Supreme Court and harassing senators in the corridors, elevators, restaurants and outside their homes. These images will be accompanied by the following message: “Are these people and their facilitators the kind that you want to see running the country?”

These actions of the Democrat left, which has, apparently, finally taken complete control of the party, make the words of former first lady Michelle Obama ring hollow: “When they go low, we go high.” Really? I can’t imagine anything lower than what they did to Brett Kavanaugh and his family. If it could happen to him it could happen to anyone who dares to run for public office or oppose their liberal agenda and that is why it couldn’t be allowed to happen and must never be allowed to happen in the future.

California’s senior senator and ranking Democrat member of the Senate Judicial Committee, Dianne Feinstein, bears much of the blame for the mess she caused by sitting on Dr. Ford’s accusation for six weeks as a delaying tactic. She deserves to suffer the consequences in the forthcoming election. California Republicans don’t have a senatorial candidate of their own on the ballot, thanks to the state’s open primary, but they could hold their noses and vote for her opponent Kevin DeLeon just to send her a message that such actions have consequences.

Maine’s moderate GOP senator, Susan Collins deserves much credit for her decisive vote in defending the principle of presumption of innocence. Her speech laid out the issues and arguments brilliantly and should be required reading for all legislators and decision makers. For her efforts she was pilloried by the #MeToo crusaders and apparently lost a part-time teaching gig at Harvard. I’ll remember that when they solicit donations from alumni. One critic called her speech a pack of lies. Don’t they even know the difference between an informed opinion and a falsehood?

Finally, I’ve been an advocate for women’s issues all of my adult life, so I feel entitled to offer some brotherly advice. There is still a way to go to achieve complete gender equality but tremendous progress has been made. The surest way to promote gender wars that impede progress will be to demand different standards of justice and believability for women and men. Be careful what you ask for.

October 14, 2018