Townhall Review | Conservative Commentary On Today's News

Ronald Reagan used to ask: “if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else?”  But to have self-government, we must depend on many things, foremost among them: Trust. Over the past decade, credibility in major institutions has plummeted.

Given the delays and changing results in the recent California elections, we have another exhibit of the growing distrust in our elections. Alleging fraud in seeing Spencer Pratt sink to third place after the now-second place finisher had previously conceded her loss is said to be paranoid. But here comes the New York Times, with a headline: there is “a lack of evidence of any widespread fraud.”  The word “widespread” carries a lot of water in suggesting at least some fraud, no?

Voting day needs to be voting day, not month. ID must be required; ballot harvesting, stopped; mailed ballots, postmarked.  Nothing could undermine our experiment in self-government more than distrust in the legitimacy of our elections.

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Over the past couple of weeks, President Trump has shifted pressure for ending the war from Iran to Israel. He pressed for a ceasefire in Lebanon to incentivize the IRGC to make a deal. Hezbollah refused to comply, continuing to launch missile attacks on Northern Israel. That escalated over the weekend, with Iran launching missiles at Israel and the IDF responding.

Trump insists the attacks are distracting from a deal that—for two months—he’s promised is close to completion. Thus far, though, the IRGC refuses to comply with the terms of the current ceasefire.

Israel has waited for 20 years for Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah and for the terrorist proxy to comply with the ceasefire brokered last year.

Trump’s current pressure strategy is misplaced.

Israel is not an obstacle to peace in the region. Trump needs to apply pressure to the regime in Iran, and to Hezbollah and Hamas as well to comply with the agreements they have already made.

Until they do, what value is there in negotiation?

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The Maine primary is this Tuesday.

Why is it that Democrats are sticking with their deeply flawed, Nazi-tattoo-wearing Graham Platner?

Drip, drip, drip come the revelations, but Democrats are standing proudly behind the deeply troubled candidate.

On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was pressed by reporters about his backing of Platner after the latest batch of awful headlines about Platner’s increasingly chaotic campaign.

“I met with Graham Platner today. We will beat Susan Collins and take back the Senate.” Shumer went on to repeat that refrain four more times before ending the interview.

“Sunk costs” have crippled many a business and life decision, and they plague politics too. Sunk costs are expenses or investments that have already been incurred and cannot be recovered. Rational decisions focus on future costs and benefits, not past expenditures. Sunk costs can lead to emotional decisions in business and personal finances. And politics.

Both politically—and morally: Democrats are sinking in Maine.

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The next few months are anniversary-heavy for our nation.

Before the fireworks of the 250th Fourth of July begin, try with family and friends to agree on what we are celebrating. Try as well to articulate how we defend what our country has long been committed to.

We’re also only three months away from the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks by Al Qaeda.

The great and the awful anniversaries are connected by that which the first proclaimed and which the second attempted to end: freedom.

We ought also to spend part of this celebration in reflecting on admiration for the courage of not just those who voted “yes” on the Declaration, but also to who had the courage to actually sign their names to it on August 2, 1776.

This brace of anniversaries should remind every American that ours is a unique and enduring commitment to human liberty.

May we all renew our commitment to the country’s first principles.

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As we close in on our nation’s birthday, more and more data give us cause for great concern.

As Abraham Lincoln put it in his time, so too is it true today: “At what point is the approach of danger [to us] to be expected? [I]f it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”

Look around at our civic health just now.  Article IV of our Constitution guarantees us a republican form of government—but, in our major states and cities, we now see elected leaders and political candidates from one of our two major parties that embrace both national and democratic socialism, fascism and communism—we see a party fully embracing hatred of free enterprise as much as constitutionalism and Americanism. 

And: It all comes with a large dose of antisemitism.

This must be pointed out—and reversed.

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