More Attacks Upon Our Nation's Past and Its Values
I have written often about the great push among those on the left in America today to denigrate the past. They want to rewrite history with the express purpose of sanitizing it. In their history there would be no more slavery because all those who either had slaves or favored slavery would be expunged from history. So we remove statues of Confederate leaders such as Robert E Lee and Jefferson Davis. In their history the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution would be nullified because it was written by a bunch of "white supremists."
Since the election of 2016, one of the targets of the left has been the Electoral College, one of the tenets of the Constitution. The Electoral College is one of the great compromises of the Constitutional Convention held in Philadelphia in 1787. Oh the wisdom of our Founding Fathers. They wanted to ensure that every vote in a presidential election was valued. They were concerned that, if the election of a president was only by popular vote, then those voters who lived in the urban communities would be the decision makers - after all, cities like New York, Boston, and Philadelphia were major metropolitan centers. Those who lived in the rural reaches of Upstate New York or the hills of Western Carolina or the farms of Georgia would have little impact upon who would become president. Thus the Electoral College. Each person living in each state has a voice in selecting the next president.
Gary Bauer writes in an article posted at: www.patriotpost.us/opinion/65040-transforming-america, about this desire to eliminate the Electoral College. He writes, "Earlier this week, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez denounced the Electoral College as 'a scam.' Just to be clear, the Electoral College is part of the Constitution and the Constitution is not 'a scam.' What else in the Constitution does she consider to be 'a scam'?
"AOC argued that our system should be 'one man one vote.' That is a pure democracy and our system is a constitutional republic. She also said that we should get rid of the Electoral College because it gives too much power to 'white voters over voters of color.'
"Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa responded by tweeting: Actually @AOC, eliminating the Electoral College would silence our voices here in Iowa and in many other states across the country. This is just more evidence of how out of touch the Democrats have become. Sen. Ernst is right. As you know, there is an effort underway to nullify the Electoral College by getting states to award their electors based on the national popular vote, rather than the state's results. But the Democratic governor of Nevada infuriated the left recently when he vetoed a bill to join this movement. 'In cases like this, where Nevada's interests could diverge from the interests of large states, I will always stand up for Nevada,' Gov. Sisolak said."
Gary Bauer continues, "The left wants the secular, progressive populations of big cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, and Miami to dominate the rest of the country. It wants big cities to decide national elections in order to use the power of the federal government to force the rest of America to live under the values that prevail in the urban centers.
"As you also know, the left does not believe in states' rights. Many of the divisions in the country today could be tolerated if the left was willing to allow the people of Tennessee to have prayer in school even if the people of New York did not want it. But the left won't do that. Progressives preach tolerance, but have none for conservative values. They will not allow conservatives to live their values anywhere in the entire country. The radical left wants to force the people who live in 80% of the country to kneel before those who live in the other 20%. This growing intolerance for tens of millions of citizens is not progress. It is a prescription for disaster."
Well said, Gary Bauer. I am sadly confident that as we get closer to the 2020 election, there will be a more intensive effort to destroy the Electoral College. Because it would take an amendment to the Constitution for this to happen officially - which takes a long process, requiring 3/4 of the states to ratify such an amendment - there will be increased pressures upon states to pass legislation over-riding the Electoral College process. In effect, to steal the election from the will of "all the people."
One other example of the attack upon our past is in an article written by Todd Starnes, found at: www.patriotpost.us/opinion/65047-leftists-declare-war-on-archaic-and-white-nationalist-pledge-of-allegiance. He writes: "Many lawmakers and educators have been triggered by the Pledge of Allegiance. The belief that we are one nation under God has caused an untold number of leftists to suffer microaggressions. The latest incident occurred in Arcata, California, where a lawmaker called for the eradication of the Pledge of Allegiance at city-council meetings. 'I would love to get rid of the flag salute,' city councilman Paul Pitino said Aug. 21 in remarks reported by the Lost Coast Outpost. Pitino made national headlines in 2018 when he called for the removal of a statue honoring President William McKinley. City leaders voted to remove the statue because they viewed McKinley's annexation of tribal lands in the western U.S. and Hawaii as 'racists toward indigenous people.'
"' For me, it's something that has been added in and we just - by rote- accepted that it's something we do. And the necessity for it, to me, doesn't exist outside of trying to promote adherence to the flag, which is starting to become a little archaic in my mind,' Pitino said, referring to the pledge. 'I don't do it because it gets close to being religious in a way, or a belief mechanism if you want to call it that, and I don't think it has any place in our council meetings.' The city council did not take immediate action on Pitino's request, but given its aversion to patriotism, I would not be surprised if the pledge got the heave-ho."
Then Mr. Starnes recalled one other incident. "Meanwhile, in Hammond, Indiana, a member of the South Shore Convention and Visitor's Authority caused a bit of a tiff when he refused to recite the pledge because of its alleged white-nationalist origins. 'An important tenant in the way I live my life is introspection, self-criticism, and a historical perspective,' Raymundo Garcia told newspaper columnist Jerry Davich. 'We need to remind people of the hypocrisy, the true racial origin and the historical context in which the Pledge originated.'"
The article closes with a quote from President Reagan: "'In honoring our flag, we honor the American men and women who have courageously fought and died for it over the last 200 years - patriots who set an ideal above any consideration of self and who suffered for it the greatest hardships. Our flag flies free today because of their sacrifice. ... Every time we place our hand over our heart and pledge allegiance to the flag, we'll be reminded that our most precious inheritance is freedom and that history has bestowed on our nation the unique responsibility for its protection.'" Todd Starnes concludes, "Unfortunately, we live in a day when the leftists not only want us to forget the past, they want to destroy the past."
Friends, how important it is for us to remember our heritage. To remember the freedoms we take so for granted. To remember our past. Those men and women who guided in those early days of our independence were not perfect people. They were flawed just as we are today. They held ideas which were important to them just as we have today. Yet they possessed something that is critically missing today. They had a willingness to put those personal ideas aside in order to answer a greater questions: What is truly best for America? In our narcissistic environment today, that question is seldom on our leaders' minds.
Friends, I worry about this rush to rewrite history, even to expunging those parts we do not like. For in doing so, I believe we will create something that will eventually destroy this nation which President Abraham Lincoln, in his message to Congress in December 1862 declared, "the last best hope on earth."
Since the election of 2016, one of the targets of the left has been the Electoral College, one of the tenets of the Constitution. The Electoral College is one of the great compromises of the Constitutional Convention held in Philadelphia in 1787. Oh the wisdom of our Founding Fathers. They wanted to ensure that every vote in a presidential election was valued. They were concerned that, if the election of a president was only by popular vote, then those voters who lived in the urban communities would be the decision makers - after all, cities like New York, Boston, and Philadelphia were major metropolitan centers. Those who lived in the rural reaches of Upstate New York or the hills of Western Carolina or the farms of Georgia would have little impact upon who would become president. Thus the Electoral College. Each person living in each state has a voice in selecting the next president.
Gary Bauer writes in an article posted at: www.patriotpost.us/opinion/65040-transforming-america, about this desire to eliminate the Electoral College. He writes, "Earlier this week, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez denounced the Electoral College as 'a scam.' Just to be clear, the Electoral College is part of the Constitution and the Constitution is not 'a scam.' What else in the Constitution does she consider to be 'a scam'?
"AOC argued that our system should be 'one man one vote.' That is a pure democracy and our system is a constitutional republic. She also said that we should get rid of the Electoral College because it gives too much power to 'white voters over voters of color.'
"Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa responded by tweeting: Actually @AOC, eliminating the Electoral College would silence our voices here in Iowa and in many other states across the country. This is just more evidence of how out of touch the Democrats have become. Sen. Ernst is right. As you know, there is an effort underway to nullify the Electoral College by getting states to award their electors based on the national popular vote, rather than the state's results. But the Democratic governor of Nevada infuriated the left recently when he vetoed a bill to join this movement. 'In cases like this, where Nevada's interests could diverge from the interests of large states, I will always stand up for Nevada,' Gov. Sisolak said."
Gary Bauer continues, "The left wants the secular, progressive populations of big cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, and Miami to dominate the rest of the country. It wants big cities to decide national elections in order to use the power of the federal government to force the rest of America to live under the values that prevail in the urban centers.
"As you also know, the left does not believe in states' rights. Many of the divisions in the country today could be tolerated if the left was willing to allow the people of Tennessee to have prayer in school even if the people of New York did not want it. But the left won't do that. Progressives preach tolerance, but have none for conservative values. They will not allow conservatives to live their values anywhere in the entire country. The radical left wants to force the people who live in 80% of the country to kneel before those who live in the other 20%. This growing intolerance for tens of millions of citizens is not progress. It is a prescription for disaster."
Well said, Gary Bauer. I am sadly confident that as we get closer to the 2020 election, there will be a more intensive effort to destroy the Electoral College. Because it would take an amendment to the Constitution for this to happen officially - which takes a long process, requiring 3/4 of the states to ratify such an amendment - there will be increased pressures upon states to pass legislation over-riding the Electoral College process. In effect, to steal the election from the will of "all the people."
One other example of the attack upon our past is in an article written by Todd Starnes, found at: www.patriotpost.us/opinion/65047-leftists-declare-war-on-archaic-and-white-nationalist-pledge-of-allegiance. He writes: "Many lawmakers and educators have been triggered by the Pledge of Allegiance. The belief that we are one nation under God has caused an untold number of leftists to suffer microaggressions. The latest incident occurred in Arcata, California, where a lawmaker called for the eradication of the Pledge of Allegiance at city-council meetings. 'I would love to get rid of the flag salute,' city councilman Paul Pitino said Aug. 21 in remarks reported by the Lost Coast Outpost. Pitino made national headlines in 2018 when he called for the removal of a statue honoring President William McKinley. City leaders voted to remove the statue because they viewed McKinley's annexation of tribal lands in the western U.S. and Hawaii as 'racists toward indigenous people.'
"' For me, it's something that has been added in and we just - by rote- accepted that it's something we do. And the necessity for it, to me, doesn't exist outside of trying to promote adherence to the flag, which is starting to become a little archaic in my mind,' Pitino said, referring to the pledge. 'I don't do it because it gets close to being religious in a way, or a belief mechanism if you want to call it that, and I don't think it has any place in our council meetings.' The city council did not take immediate action on Pitino's request, but given its aversion to patriotism, I would not be surprised if the pledge got the heave-ho."
Then Mr. Starnes recalled one other incident. "Meanwhile, in Hammond, Indiana, a member of the South Shore Convention and Visitor's Authority caused a bit of a tiff when he refused to recite the pledge because of its alleged white-nationalist origins. 'An important tenant in the way I live my life is introspection, self-criticism, and a historical perspective,' Raymundo Garcia told newspaper columnist Jerry Davich. 'We need to remind people of the hypocrisy, the true racial origin and the historical context in which the Pledge originated.'"
The article closes with a quote from President Reagan: "'In honoring our flag, we honor the American men and women who have courageously fought and died for it over the last 200 years - patriots who set an ideal above any consideration of self and who suffered for it the greatest hardships. Our flag flies free today because of their sacrifice. ... Every time we place our hand over our heart and pledge allegiance to the flag, we'll be reminded that our most precious inheritance is freedom and that history has bestowed on our nation the unique responsibility for its protection.'" Todd Starnes concludes, "Unfortunately, we live in a day when the leftists not only want us to forget the past, they want to destroy the past."
Friends, how important it is for us to remember our heritage. To remember the freedoms we take so for granted. To remember our past. Those men and women who guided in those early days of our independence were not perfect people. They were flawed just as we are today. They held ideas which were important to them just as we have today. Yet they possessed something that is critically missing today. They had a willingness to put those personal ideas aside in order to answer a greater questions: What is truly best for America? In our narcissistic environment today, that question is seldom on our leaders' minds.
Friends, I worry about this rush to rewrite history, even to expunging those parts we do not like. For in doing so, I believe we will create something that will eventually destroy this nation which President Abraham Lincoln, in his message to Congress in December 1862 declared, "the last best hope on earth."
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