… but the ability to spend $1.7 trillion with relative ease and minimal scrutiny is a whole lot of incentive to manipulate elections. In debates about such issues, it’s shocking that nobody ever mentions the incentive.
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Whatever your view of Donald Trump and/or David Cicilline, take a moment to think about the underlying perspective required for a position like this:
Democratic Rhode Island Congressman David Cicilline is leading an effort to ban former President Donald Trump from holding public office again.
If this means anything, it means that Cicilline wants to forbid the American people from electing Donald Trump. That means Cicilline believes either (A) the American people can’t be trusted not to operate an actually representative democracy or (B) he doesn’t trust our electoral system to accurately reflect the will of the people.
In fairness, Cicilline is pretty much guaranteed election for the rest of his life in Rhode Island, so he has good reason to be cynical about the effectiveness of elections.
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I know, I know… put something else on the list why don’t you? Well, this is an area that cannot be forgotten:
Progressives have spent decades deliberately invading institutions with an eye toward turning them politically to their favor, which mean first making them political. I’m not among those on the other side who believes we ought to ratify that strategy by running it in reverse, but it’s definitely an area in which we need to have a defense.
That is, where progressives hope these personnel searches land on activists, we must make some effort to encourage organizations to hire people who respect the boundary between their core missions and ideological warfare.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
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Yes, Marcellus Drilling News appears to be more on the advocacy side of things, but its mockery of Rhode Island is worth keeping in mind as a brutal cold front lashes its way across the United States:
[Open full post]Last year the State of Rhode Island, a small Communist stronghold in the United States, voted to phase out the use of all fossil energy by everyone in the state by 2050–the so-called Act on Climate. It’s more like the Shoot Yourself in the Head Act. Of course, passing a law and then trying to accomplish what the law stipulates are two completely different things, as the Commies in Rhode Island are discovering. They are beginning to flail about looking for solutions to how they can force their citizens to dump fossil energy without completely destroying the state’s economy. (Spoiler alert: They won’t find such a solution.)
Sure, yes, this is in England, which does not have a First Amendment:
A charity volunteer has been arrested and charged on four counts after she told the police she “might” be praying silently, when questioned as to why she was standing on a public street near an abortion facility.
This appears to be video of the arrest.
Do not doubt, however, that this milestone exists farther down the road that progressives and Democrats want to take the United States, in a world where speech can be violence.
The prospect is even worse than it seems, however. These are not objective, even-handed rules that apply to everybody. The way they get to “speech is violence” is by creating protected classes (e.g., minorities) and favored activities (e.g., abortion) that call for special protection. Your speech is violence, but their violence is speech. Thus, they can shut down roads and attack pro-life organizations, but silent prayer as you stand on the street is forbidden.
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At the moment, it appears to be simply talk, but this is a concerning idea for Democrat Rhode Island Senate President Dominick Ruggerio to float:
Ruggerio floated an outside-the-box idea for the state takeover of Providence schools: He wants to work with the Rhode Island Foundation, the state’s largest philanthropic organization, to see if it will “supplement what’s going on in the city of Providence.” …
“They have money, they can appropriate money for certain things,” Ruggerio said. “The foundation does a great job with fund-raising. I think they could be a great adviser. I think you have some people on that board who would be great mentors.”
Especially since it inaugurated its Civic Leadership Fund in 2012, which is now nearing $1 million in annual donations, the RI Foundation has held a conspicuous place in the state’s governance, as if, like Ruggerio, politicians see it as an adult who can actually help when the kids in the political sandbox can’t cooperate. We shouldn’t expect the organization to be the home of objectively minded angels.
It’s nice that the foundation lists most of the donors to its civic fund, but note that “anonymous” is among them. The truth is, Rhode Islanders can’t know who is giving how much to the foundation or what its internal decision-making involves. Bringing in the foundation, even as a leverage-wielding “advisor” could mean handing the Providence schools entirely over to the labor union… or corporate interests… or left-wing crazies… or (for that matter) right-wing crazies.
I agree with Ruggerio that government is not up to the job of reforming Providence schools, whether at the municipal or state levels. Bringing in non-government organizations is part of the solution, but at the low level of allowing families to choose any schools that they believe will work for their children.
Featured image by Devin Kaselnak on Unsplash.
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That’s the question that comes to mind when I see an historical anecdote such as this from Jean-Marie Valheur (via Instapundit):
You will often hear about his great speeches, wonderful quotes, witty little anecdotes here and there. Or insights into his complex marriage. His mental health issues and how he overcame them and carried on in spite of personal hardships. But what is every bit as interesting, to me, was the man’s physicality. Lincoln’s very body was the stuff of legends.
Everything you will ever read of Abraham Lincoln will tell you he was a man of great contrasts. For instance, his height of 6′4″ was impressive, but his shoulders were narrow and his body slim. His hands and arms were exceptionally strong and his voice rather shrill for a man his size. In his youth he was a wrestler, as well as a day-laborer known to easily do the work of three men. “No man could drive a nail deeper,” his old boss would admiringly say.
The habits of work and the feeling of strength change one’s perspective and affect the way one interacts with others and solves problems. As our society becomes increasingly cerebral, with the conceit that we can figure out everything through the contrivances of “experts” and an awed respect for “subjectivity,” I’ve wondered (in light of my experience with manual labor) why none ever seem to factor in the effect of having labored and been strong.
Featured image by Clark VanDerBeken on Unsplash.
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As readers have surely observed, I’m doing an end-of-year cleanout of my bookmarked links. Oddly, after a news search on Google and Bing, I’m not seeing any local coverage of this story, reported in the Washington Examiner in August, at all. Is that correct?
[Open full post]Nicole Solas and the Goldwater Institute filed the lawsuit against the South Kingstown School Committee after the board refused to allow her to attend the meetings of its black, indigenous, people of color, or BIPOC, advisory board.
It’s a shame the mainstream media (extended to glossy magazines) has no space for illustrated commentary as powerfully accurate as this.
We’re so comfortable these days that progressives can exist many layers of abstraction removed from the consequences of their policies and therefore enact policies that roll painfully downhill while undermining real progress.
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I’m midway through reading a book about the psychology of changing your mind, and the author apparently sees understanding the subject as an important tool in overcoming our polarization. I’ll have much more to say about the book, no doubt, not least to suggest that increasingly subtle psychological manipulation may be causing the polarization. After all, the target of the techniques, even if they work, may feel targeted and generally lose trust in reality. On the other side, a movement has to be pretty confident in its righteousness in order to self-justify manipulation and, where it fails, can feel the recalcitrant opposition is something other than human.
Be that as it may, with the federal government currently performing one of the dances by which the permanent uniparty continues to grow its budget, we should consider a more practical reason we’re so divided. For that purpose, I’ll hearken back to a 2021 commentary by Betsy McCaughey concerning the Democrats’ Build Back Better bill:
Barack Obama, the community organizer who became president, was a master at machine politics. The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) outsourced the important job of health plan enrollment to community organizations, handsomely funding them and entrusting them to register people to vote at the same time. Obamacare turned community organizations into a fifth estate with government funding but without government rules.
Now, Build Back Better is funding an even wider array of organizations. It allocates a whopping $5.7 billion “for community-led projects to stabilize neighborhoods.” Translation: rallies and legal action to stop gentrification and “displacement.”
I watched this happening in real time during Obama’s reign. The federal government gave money to state and local governments with the requirement that they hire approved advocacy groups to do the analysis (or whatever it was). Billions of dollars have been flooding into the bank accounts of activists. At a minimum, it keeps them flush and free of the burden of finding other work. More broadly, it gives them money to throw around and multiply themselves. I’d surmise, too, that federal money is helping to fund the research in how to psychologically manipulate public opinion for progressive ends.
These practices must stop. Depressingly, however, a string of revelations show the consequences for those who might disrupt the scheme — from the IRS’s targeting of Tea Party groups to the reaction to President Trump to the government’s involvement with social media censorship and propaganda to much, much more.
Featured image by Bermix Studios on Unsplash.
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