The U.S. Senate is scheduled to take action on the dangerous nomination of David J. Barron to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

We need you to please call our U.S. Senators Dick Durbin and Mark Kirk now and ask them to OPPOSE this radical nominee. The Capitol Switchboard number is (202) 224-3121.

Barron believes in what he calls “progressive constitutionalism,” which sees the Constitution as a living, breathing document that can be shaped to whatever the progressive judge believes is appropriate at any given moment.

Here is Barron writing for the Harvard Law and Policy Review:

It has long been a precept of the progressive view that the Constitution is not frozen. … Its provisions are, in important respects, simply too open-ended and forward looking for that not to be the case, and the deficiencies of a pure originalism are now too well known. The Constitution is, as Richard Fallon recently put it, a dynamic document. But for that very reason, the task for progressive constitutionalism, as I see it, is to engage with the substance of constitutional interpretation in light of new understandings of the progressive tradition itself. …

If Barron is elevated to the appellate court, his judicial philosophy will allow him to do whatever he wants, given his lifetime appointment. You might have seen in the news that he has even argued in a memo to the White House that it would be okay for a president to kill Americans using drones, without due process of law as required by the U.S. Constitution. The White House does not want to release that memo to the public.

Barron’s views are so radical, even the ultra-liberal American Civil Liberties Union is asking the White House to release those memos.

Take ACTION:  Click HERE to send an email or a fax to Senators Durbin and Kirk to ask them to reject this judicial nominee.  The U.S. Senate is scheduled to consider this nomination later today or tomorrow, the senators need to hear from you now!  Tell them simply:  David Barron should not be confirmed.

A Massachusetts court has ruled that a “heckler’s veto” will not be tolerated in public schools when it comes to the Pledge of Allegiance.

Dianna Verm, an attorney with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, tells OneNewsNow that the American Humanist Association, an atheist advocacy group, filed suit demanding a change in the Pledge in the state’s schools.

“… [T]hey disagreed with the words of the Pledge – specifically the words ‘under God’ – and the court upheld the Pledge of Allegiance with a resounding victory for religious liberty,” the attorney explains.

In fact, the vote was unanimous. But Verm rushes to add the school policy isn’t a burden on anyone. “The Pledge treats everyone the same way,” she says. “Anyone can say it and anyone can choose not to say it if they don’t want to – and they don’t have to give a reason.”

According to Verm, those who filed the lawsuit are being told they don’t have a heckler’s veto in which a small minority can squelch religious freedom and free speech because they don’t like the message.

She explains: “The court is sending a message to these secularist atheists that ‘God’ is not a dirty word, [and that] we don’t have to purge anything that has a whiff of religion from the public square just because it may offend some people.”

The end result of this particular lawsuit, says Verm, should send a message to others considering similar court action. Nevertheless, she emphasizes that the Becket Fund will be there to defend religious freedom if other suits are filed.

This article was originally posted at the OneNewsNow.com website. 

It’s hard to think of a more dangerous threat to First Amendment freedoms than the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) scheme a few months ago to station government “researchers” in newsrooms.

It had all the makings of a 1984-style intimidation of journalists, and it was allegedly abandoned shortly after a public outcry.

I say “allegedly” because our betters never give up their quest to dictate to us what is allowable speech. They wait until they think we’re not paying attention, and try again. A couple of years ago, they floated, but abandoned, the old Fairness Doctrine, which throttled talk radio before the FCC under President Reagan rescinded it in 1987.

In recent days, an even more hare-brained plan has arisen, courtesy of Massachusetts Democratic U.S. Sen. Ed Markey and Democratic New York U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries. They’re sponsoring a bill to have federal researchers comb through broadcast radio and television, cable and public access television, “commercial mobile services and other electronic media” – and get this – the Internet – for any communications that may have prompted violent acts and “hate crimes.”

Given that our ruling elites insist that merely stating that marriage necessarily involves a man and a woman is evidence of “hate,” this is scary stuff.

The bill’s language assures that the eventual report on all this data will include recommendations “consistent with the First Amendment.”

Remember, this crowd thinks the Constitution is a “living document” constructed primarily of judicial silly putty.

The good news is that “The Hate Crime Reporting Act of 2014,” introduced in early April, is not going anywhere in the current Congress – we hope.

Even liberal commentator Alan Colmes has raked it over the coals. Noting that Markey and Jeffries tied their companion bills to the deadly shootings on April 13 at a Jewish Center in Kansas, Colmes writes, “no matter how many heinous crimes are committed by deplorable white supremacists, it’s inane to make the case that it’s because [of] something someone said on the radio.”

Besides, there’s more than enough left-wing censorship in the media without the government getting into the act. The Los Angeles Times’ letter editor, for instance, announced last October that he would no longer run letters from people who deny the existence of man-made climate change. As with the 1970s prediction of a coming ice age, the science is apparently settled. Well, okay. At least the Times is out and proud with its suppression of skeptics. Thanks for the warning.

Over on Facebook, the censors are hard at work, removing postings that offend liberal sensibilities. This is not to be confused with Mozilla Firefox’s recent forced resignation of CEO Brendan Eich for donating $1,000 six years ago to a campaign for California’s Proposition 8 marriage amendment.

A few days ago, Facebook removed a posting by Fox News and Commentary radio host Todd Starnes that was slyly critical of former Republican Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

Mr. Bush had said that “many” illegal immigrants came here “because they had no other means to work to be able to provide for their family. Yes, they broke the law, but it’s not a felony. It’s an act of love.”

Using as a platform the news about armed federal agents seizing the cattle of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy (who has since gotten into scalding hot water over his beyond-insensitive racial remarks), Mr. Starnes wrote:

“Rancher Bundy should’ve told the feds that those were Mexican cows—who came across the border illegally to seek better grazing opportunities. It was an act of love.”

Well, they didn’t find this amusing in the Facebook guard tower, where they donned their Ministry of Truth helmets and pushed buttons. Presto, the posting was gone, along with thousands of comments. In a column published on the Christian website CharismaNews.com, Mr. Starnes relates what next transpired:

“‘We removed something your page posted,’ Facebook told me in a rather unpleasant message. ‘We removed the post below because it doesn’t follow the Facebook Community Standards.’”

Mr. Starnes continues: “I reached out to Facebook to find out which part of the message violated their standards. Never heard back. I suspect I should’ve used the term illegal alien cows.

“It’s not the first time my postings have been bleeped by the Facebook Purge Police….I’ve been banished, blocked and censored for writing about Chick-fil-A, God, the Bible, Paula Deen, Cracker Barrel rocking chairs, sweet tea, Jesus, the Gaither Vocal Band, the Gideons, the National Rifle Association and June bugs.”

It’s not possible in one column to chronicle all the ways the political Left is suppressing dissent to turn America into a socialist paradise. They want it to be a place where capitalism is a memory, the U.S. is the military equivalent of Tunisia, everyone is subsistent on the government, three people of any sex can marry, guns are confiscated, Christianity is effectively silenced, Tea Party membership is actionable, and illegal immigrants vote early and often.

It’s up to the rest of us to do what we can to make sure their dream doesn’t become our nightmare.

This article was originally posted at the Townhall.com website.

U.S. Senator Edward J. Markey (D-MA) has introduced legislation for the federal government to monitor and analyze speech on the Internet, television, and radio looking for anything it considers “hate speech.”

The Hate Crime Reporting Act of 2014 (S.2219) would capture Internet and other telecommunications that the government interprets as encouraging hate crimes based on gender, race, religion, ethnicity, or sexual orientation.

This is a bad bill, even to the liberal Boston Herald editorial staff. It mandates that the government monitor and analyze speech and press statements that are protected by the First Amendment. The wording is deliberately fuzzy, so that although it sounds like it only addresses constitutionally unprotected speech, it reaches much further.

Take ACTION:  Click HERE to send a message to Illinois’ U.S. Senators Dick Durbin and Mark Kirk asking them to reject S. 2219.  The federal government has no business monitoring constitutionally protected speech.

The danger of this bill
Although the bill innocuously purports to analyze electronic speech that might “advocate or encourage violent acts or hate crimes,” it gives the government far reaching power to monitor constitutionally protected speech…even yours.

We believe S.2219 is a cloaking device for silencing Christians and advancing the homosexual agenda that Sen. Markey wholeheartedly supports.

For example:

• Pastors who upload a message promoting God’s word on marriage on the church’s website could be monitored by the government under U.S. Senator Markey’s bill and have the message labeled as “hate speech.”
• AFA’s Christian radio network and Christian conservative websites will be tracked for promoting natural marriage as between only one man and one woman.
• Even individuals who post personal beliefs on their Facebook page would be subject to government spies and covert monitoring.

The 63rd annual National Day of Prayer, May 1, 2014, will have profound significance for our country.  It is an unprecedented opportunity to see the Lord’s healing and renewing power made manifest as we call on citizens to humbly come before His throne.

Our theme for 2014 is One Voice, United in Prayer, emphasizing the need for individuals, corporately and individually, to place their faith in the unfailing character of their Creator, who is sovereign over all governments, authorities, and men.  To further highlight our theme, we’ve chosen Romans 15:6 as our Scripture for this year:  “So that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

For the May 1st observances, Anne Graham Lotz, the 2014 Honorary Chairman, wrote a special prayer to be simultaneously read throughout the nation at noon (EDT).  This recitation will create a huge wave of prayer, flowing from one coast to the other, illustrating the unity of God’s people and acknowledging His dominion over the circumstances facing us.  Millions of people will gather to pray at thousands of events facilitated by our volunteer coordinators and people just like you!  We hope you’ll join with our staff again as we seek to bring more communities than ever before together in prayer.  As a way of assisting you, we have assembled a variety of resources that describe how to organize and publicize citywide prayer breakfasts, worship services, and rallies.  These materials also present creative ideas geared toward helping individuals and families to establish meaningful devotional times.  If you have any questions after reviewing these items, please don’t hesitate to contact our NDP staff at (800) 444-8828.  We would count it a privilege to lend a hand in whatever manner we are able.

At this crucial time for our nation, we can do nothing more important than pray.  Thank you in advance for making this spiritual discipline a personal priority and for standing with us as we encourage others to incorporate prayer in their lives.  The Lord has graciously anointed our efforts, empowering them to touch and change many hearts and lives.  We look forward to seeing His hand move across our land in exciting ways each May in response to our petitions!  In closing, we ask that you prayerfully consider becoming a volunteer in your church or community to lead a National Day of Prayer gathering. May the Lord’s peace fill your heart as you rest in Him throughout the days ahead.

Quick Links:

• National Prayer by Anne Graham Lotz
• Theme Resources
• Pray for America Website
• Event Ideas

It’s hard to think of a more dangerous threat to First Amendment freedoms than the Federal Communications Commission’s scheme a few months ago to station government “researchers” in newsrooms.

It had all the makings of “1984”-style intimidation of journalists, and it was allegedly abandoned shortly after a public outcry.

I say “allegedly” because our betters never give up their quest to dictate to us what is allowable speech.

They wait until they think we’re not paying attention, and try again. A couple of years ago, they floated, but abandoned, the old Fairness Doctrine, which throttled talk radio before the FCC under President Ronald Reagan rescinded it in 1987.

In recent days, an even more hare-brained plan has arisen, courtesy of U.S. Senator Edward J. Markey (D-MA), and U.S. Representative Hakeem Jeffries (D- New York). They’re sponsoring a bill to have federal researchers comb through broadcast radio and television, cable and public-access TV, “commercial mobile services and other electronic media” and, get this – the Internet – for any communications that may have prompted violent acts and “hate crimes.”

Given that our governing elites insist that merely stating that marriage necessarily involves a man and a woman is evidence of “hate,” this is scary stuff.

The bill’s language assures us that the eventual report on all this data will include recommendations “consistent with the First Amendment.”

Remember, this crowd thinks the Constitution is a “living document” constructed primarily of judicial Silly Putty.

The good news is that the Hate Crime Reporting Act of 2014, introduced in early April, is not going anywhere in the current Congress – we hope.

Even liberal commentator Alan Colmes has raked it over the coals. Noting that Messrs. Markey and Jeffries tied their companion bills to the deadly shootings on April 13 at a Jewish center in Kansas, Mr. Colmes writes, “no matter how many heinous crimes are committed by deplorable white supremacists, it’s inane to make the case that it’s because [of] something someone said on the radio.”

Besides, there’s more than enough left-wing censorship in the media without the government getting into the act. The Los Angeles Times‘ letters editor, for instance, announced last October that he would no longer run letters from people who deny the existence of man-made climate change.

As with the 1970s prediction of a coming ice age, the science is apparently settled. Well, OK. At least The Times is out and proud with its suppression of skeptics. Thanks for the warning.

Over on Facebook, the censors are hard at work, removing postings that offend liberal sensibilities. This is not to be confused with Mozilla Firefox’s recent forced resignation of CEO Brendan Eich for donating $1,000 six years ago to a campaign for California’s Proposition 8 marriage amendment.

A few days ago, Facebook removed a posting by Fox News and Commentary radio host Todd Starnes that was slyly critical of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

Mr. Bush, a Republican, had said that “many” illegal immigrants came here “because they had no other means to work to be able to provide for their family. Yes, they broke the law, but it’s not a felony. It’s an act of love.”

Using as a platform the news about armed federal agents seizing the cattle of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy (who has since gotten into scalding hot water over his beyond-insensitive racial remarks), Mr. Starnes wrote:

Rancher Bundy should’ve told the feds that those were Mexican cows – who came across the border illegally to seek better grazing opportunities. It was an act of love.

Well, they didn’t find this amusing in the Facebook guard tower, where they donned their Ministry of Truth helmets and pushed buttons. Presto, the posting was gone, along with thousands of comments. In a column published on the Christian website CharismaNews.com, Mr. Starnes relates what next transpired:

“We removed something your page posted,’ Facebook told me in a rather unpleasant message. ‘We removed the post below because it doesn’t follow the Facebook Community Standards.’

Mr. Starnes continues:

I reached out to Facebook to find out which part of the message violated their standards. Never heard back. I suspect I should’ve used the term illegal-alien cows.

It’s not the first time my postings have been bleeped by the Facebook Purge Police. I’ve been banished, blocked and censored for writing about Chick-fil-A, God, the Bible, Paula Deen, Cracker Barrel rocking chairs, sweet tea, Jesus, the Gaither Vocal Band, the Gideons, the National Rifle Association and June bugs.”\

It’s not possible in one column to chronicle all the ways the political left is suppressing dissent to turn America into a socialist paradise. They want it to be a place where capitalism is a memory, the United States is the military equivalent of Tunisia, everyone is subsistent on the government, three people of any sex can marry, guns are confiscated, Christianity is effectively silenced, Tea Party membership is actionable, and illegal immigrants vote early and often.

It’s up to the rest of us to do what we can to make sure their dream doesn’t become our nightmare.

This article was posted at the OneNewsNow.com website.

Written by Chad Groening

A public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption says it has evidence that Lois Lerner, the former IRS official already in hot water for her role in targeting conservative tax-exempt groups, also was conspiring with the Justice Department to prosecute those same groups.

Through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, Judicial Watch has obtained internal IRS documents it says show Lerner was in contact with the Department of Justice about the potential prosecution of 501(c)(4)tax-exempt groups. Lerner is already being held in contempt of Congress by a House committee for failing to cooperate with congressional investigators in the alleged targeting of such groups.

Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, says according to documents obtained this week, Lerner received communication last May from U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) about why the conservative groups had not been prosecuted.

“Lois Lerner received a call from the Department of Justice about how to respond to Whitehouse’s concerns,” Fitton explains. “And her response was Let’s have a meeting with DOJ, let’s bring in our criminal investigation branch and have a discussion about prosecuting potentially these very same types of organizations. It’s really incredible.”

He says the revelations about the discussions between Lerner and DOJ officials should prove enlightening to House members.

“Before it was just about delaying someone’s application for tax-exempt status and thereby shutting them down, practically speaking,” the Judicial Watch leader notes. “[But] here they’re talking about prosecuting people – people [who] Shelton Whitehouse didn’t like.

“They were talking to another agency: the Department of Justice. So this isn’t just an IRS scandal anymore,” he concludes. “This is a broader scandal within the Obama administration and it involves the Department of Justice as well.”

Fitton argues that it’s time for a special outside counsel to be brought in to investigate and conduct any prosecutions if appropriate.

This article was originally posted at the OneNewsNow.com website.  

The postal services in the U.S. and in Finland are honoring two homosexuals who have contributed to moral decline by announcing each will get their own stamp.

One is “Tom of Finland” (Touko Laaksonnen), the late graphic artist well known in Finland for his homoerotic sketches. In the U.S., it’s Harvey Milk – the San Francisco supervisor killed in 1978 along with Mayor George Moscone by Dan White, a former city supervisor.

Matt Barber, vice president of Liberty Counsel Action and founder of BarbWire.com, continues to be astounded at the accolades being heaped on Milk, a proven sexual predator.

“This is a man who was known for a perverse sexual appetite for teenage, runaway, drug-addicted boys,” relates Barber, “and the fact that this Obama administration and the postal service would choose to ignore that and go with the propaganda and the hype that this guy was some kind of hero and a pro-LGBT martyr – it just boggles the mind.”

Arguably, both men made an impact – but Barber tells OneNewsNow it was definitely negative.

“That [Harvey Milk] would get his own stamp and that this other homosexual activist would get a stamp honoring a lifestyle that has led to the AIDS epidemic, that has led to the spread of syphilis and STDs and a decline in our culture’s morality, just speaks to how far we have fallen as a nation,” he concludes.

Barber encourages people to fight back, suggesting that when they go to a post office to buy stamps and are offered a Harvey Milk stamp, they politely and firmly decline and explain that they choose not to further an immoral lifestyle.

While the USPS has not yet formally revealed the design, Linn’s Stamp News has published an image of the Harvey Milk stamp. It will debut May 22, which is celebrated in California’s public schools as Harvey Milk Day. The “Tom of Finland” stamp series is slated for release in September.

This article was originally posted at the OneNewsNow.com website.

This May Be a Defining Moment for America

We’ve finally gotten to the point where Congress had to pass a law to make sure that the laws they pass are enforced.

In a speech that Representative Trey Gowdy (R-South Carolina) really shouldn’t have had to make, he explains angrily to the U.S. House what its job is, and to President Barack Obama what his job is. Members were heard to applaud as he reached the crescendo.

Five Democrats joined Republicans in passing a bill that directs Obama to follows the laws – clearing the House by a 233 to 181 vote.

They say that lightning never strikes twice in the same place. Not true. It does if you stand high atop a cliff’s edge waving a lightning rod above your head during a thunderstorm. In fact, in the unlikely event you survive the first strike, it’ll keep right on striking until you climb down.

So-called “gun-free zones” are lightning rods for mass murder. It’s time we climbed down from the cliff’s edge.

America mourns yet another needless and preventable mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas. When will gun-grabbing liberals learn?

In a blunt and provocatively titled, though well-reasoned post, submitted shortly after Wednesday’s shooting, Gateway Pundit’s Jim Hoft charged: “Obama Is Responsible for Latest Fort Hood Murders – Still a Gun-Free Zone.”

Wrote Hoft:

“In 2009 Islamist killer Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. Army major and psychiatrist, fatally shot 13 people and injured more than 30 others at Fort Hood, Texas. Fort Hood was a gun-free zone.

“Hasan reportedly screamed, ‘Allahu Akbar!’ as he committed his mass murder. …

“Barack Obama termed this Islamic terrorist attack ‘workplace violence.’ Complete lunacy.

“After the first mass killing nothing changed. Fort Hood is still a gun-free zone. President Bill Clinton’s gun-free policies are still in place.

“Today there was another mass shooting at Fort Hood. Soldiers were told to take cover and hide like cowards as a crazed gunman shot at least 14 Americans on base. The shooter, Ivan Lopez, then shot himself in the head.

“These deaths are the result of failed policies. These deaths are the result of a dangerous ‘gun free zone’ policy.

“The Obama administration is responsible for this mass shooting. They witnessed this before. They didn’t learn a thing. Gun-free zones are death zones,” concluded Hoft.

Of course, no one but Ivan Lopez is responsible for his own horrific crimes. Still, this Obama administration is likewise responsible for its own criminally horrific incompetence.

By maintaining his demonstrably failed “gun-free zone” policy at Fort Hood (and anywhere for that matter), Obama may as well have beckoned: “Hey, would-be mass murderers, we’ve still got some unarmed soldiers here. Come and finish ‘em off!”

This president is undeniably culpable. His reckless insistence upon preserving this obtuse, liberal – but I repeat myself – gun-grabbing policy rendered defenseless, once again, the fine servicemen and women of Fort Hood. It kept in place the same mass-murder-rich environment in which Nidal Malik Hasan committed the first Fort Hood “fish-in-a-barrel” soldier hunt.

And the only people surprised are you gun-control nutters.

Here’s the thing about liberalism, which is really cultural Marxism, euphemistically tagged “progressivism”: It’s never worked and it never will. It can’t. It’s a material impossibility. “Progressivism” can no more work than can one answer a nonsense question like, “How big is blue?” As with all similar such humanistic efforts to achieve a man-made earthly utopia, “progressivism” is a hopeless non-starter.

Why? Because “progressivism” is utterly detached from reality. There’s truth, and then there’s “progressivism.” Central to every single “progressive” policy, without exception, is the fatally flawed denial of the existence of sin – of man’s fallen nature. There’s also a stupidly stubborn refusal to acknowledge the reality of moral absolutes. “Progressivism” is built upon a utopian, relativist house of cards; and when that house comes crashing down, the results are often deadly.

This past Wednesday America witnessed liberalism’s deadly results first hand. A public policy that intentionally disarms American citizens – much less American soldiers – is a policy that creates a pond full of sitting ducks; this, whether we have a terrorist behind the trigger, or a government with designs on tyranny.

Notice a trend here? What do Sandy Hook Elementary, Aurora, Colorado’s Century 16 theater, Columbine High, Fort Hood No. 1 and Fort Hood No. 2 all have in common? They’re all “gun-free zones.”

Oh, if only, rather than “gun-free zone” signs, each of these terror Ground Zeros had had a sign reading: “Staff heavily armed and trained. Any attempts to harm those herein will be met with deadly force.”

Might some of those beautiful souls have still died before one or more well-armed good guys could take out the well-armed bad guys? Perhaps. But how many precious lives could have been saved?

Albert Einstein famously quipped that the definition of “insanity” is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” In that sense, “progressives” are insane.

Or, if not exactly insane, they’re certainly no Einsteins.

I’ll admit that many “progressives” are generally well-meaning and decent people. I even have a handful of “progressive” friends who’ve yet to see the light. I love ‘em, but they still want what they can’t have, at least not until that glorious last trumpet sounds.

They want heaven on earth.

It’s not for lack of sincerity that “progressives” are destroying America and putting lives at risk.

It’s for failure to grasp reality.

Become a monthly supporter of IFI.  Click HERE for more information.

Written by Michael Medved

In trying to explain two consecutive presidential defeats, some Republican commentators blame Christian evangelicals for the perceived decline in their political participation.

But 2012 exit polls showed 26% of all voters identifying as “White Evangelical/Born-Again Christians” – a significant increase from the 23 percent who described themselves that way in 2004, the last time a Republican won. Moreover, that winning candidate, George W. Bush, did no better among his fellow evangelicals than did the Mormon Mitt Romney – both got a commanding 78% of such voters.

In religious terms, Obama’s margin of victory came entirely from the small minority who say they “never” attend church – they preferred the president by 28 points! Among the 82% who visit churches even a few times a year, Romney won a solid majority. For his re-election victory, Obama can thank the Godless as much as God.

A preferred ploy of left-wing change agents is to ridicule critics when they point out the undeniable parallels between the goals of today’s “progressive” movement, to include the Democratic Party in general, and the goals of the early, and very much still alive, communist movement.

If, for instance, one mentions the historical fact that nearly every adult who, at any time, was in any position of influence over a young, soon-to-be-radicalized Barry Soetoro was an avowed communist, to include his own parents, then one is immediately mocked and dismissed as a neo-McCarthyite hack pining for the bygone days of the Red Scare. This is an evasive, ad hominem strategy employed by those who are caught, for lack of a better word, red-handed.

To all this I say, if the jackboot fits, wear it. If it quacks like a commie and goose-steps like a commie, then a commie it is.

There are multiple layers within “progressivism’s” pseudo-utopian, truly dystopian Marxist philosophy. The left’s lust for redistributionist statism is well-known. Less understood, however, is the “progressive” rush toward cultural Marxism.

Cultural Marxism entails, among other things, that secularist aspect of left-wing statist ideology that seeks, within society, to supplant traditional values, norms and mores with postmodern moral relativism. Cultural Marxists endeavor to scrub America of her Judeo-Christian, constitutional-republican founding principles, and take, instead, a secular-statist Sharpie to our beloved U.S. Constitution.

Historian and U.S. military affairs expert William S. Lind describes cultural Marxism as “a branch of western Marxism, different from the Marxism-Leninism of the old Soviet Union. It is commonly known as ‘multiculturalism’ or, less formally, Political Correctness. From its beginning, the promoters of cultural Marxism have known they could be more effective if they concealed the Marxist nature of their work, hence the use of terms such as ‘multiculturalism.’”

Pastor, attorney and Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Scott Lively is globally admired by liberty-loving traditionalists. Conversely, he’s universally reviled by cultural Marxists. He drills down a bit deeper: “Cultural Marxism is a variation of the Marxist strategy to build a utopian socialist order on the ashes of Christian civilization, but through subversion of the moral culture, especially the elimination of the natural family, rather than solely through destruction of capitalism.”

True though this may be, the ideological seeds of contemporary cultural Marxism nonetheless sprout from deep within the dead soil of historical communism. It is not economic redistributionism alone through which “progressives” seek to both “fundamentally transform America” and otherwise conquer the world, but, rather, and perhaps primarily, it is also through victory over the pejoratively tagged “social issues” (i.e., the sanctity of marriage, natural human sexuality and morality, ending the abortion holocaust, religious liberty, the Second Amendment and the like).

This is neither speculative nor hyperbolic. Both the historical record and the U.S. Congressional Record bear out this sinister reality. Regrettably, today’s “low-information voters” as Rush Limbaugh calls them – to include the useful idiots within the GOP’s “moderate” and libertarian wings – are simply too lazy, shortsighted or both to learn the facts.

“Surrender on the ‘social issues’!” demands the GOP’s cultural Marxist-enabling kamikazes.

In 1963, U.S. Rep. A.S. Herlong Jr., D-Fla., read into the Congressional Record a list of “Current Communist Goals” as enumerated by Dr. Cleon Skousen in “The Naked Communist,” penned in 1958. I encourage you to read the whole list, but for now let’s focus on those goals that most closely align with the seditious agenda of America’s “progressive” movement. It’s actually most of them. Though Herlong was a Democrat, the list reads like today’s Democratic Party Platform.

How far has fallen the party of the jackass:

• Develop the illusion that total disarmament [by] the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
• Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist [or, today, Islamic] affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
• Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist [or Islamic] domination.
• Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
• Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces.
• Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
• Do away with all loyalty oaths.
• Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
• Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
• Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
• Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.
• Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
• Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. (An American Communist cell was told to “eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.”)
• Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them “censorship” and a violation of free speech and free press.
• Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
• Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as “normal, natural, healthy.”
• Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with “social” religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a “religious crutch.”
• Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principal of “separation of church and state.”
• Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
• Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the “common man.”
• Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the “big picture.”
• Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture – education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
• Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
• Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
• Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].
• Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
• Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
• Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use [“]united force[“] to solve economic, political or social problems.
• Internationalize the Panama Canal.
• Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction [over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction] over nations and individuals alike.

If achieving these specific communist goals was the final “progressive” step toward the larger goal of securing communist governance in America, then, tragically, “progressives” have realized that larger goal.

Look around. We are no longer the United States of America. We have become The Communist States of America.

Which means, for those who love liberty, revolution is once again at hand.

In the late summer of 1944, the Allied armies liberated Northern France and began to push deeper into Europe. No one was more effective in his advance than General George S. Patton and the Third Army. After serving his “time-out” for slapping a couple of soldiers who were taking it easy in a med tent, Patton hit the ground running in France and seemed ready to cut his way through to Berlin, rusty bayonet clenched in his teeth.  Unfortunately, that never happened. On August 31^st, Patton and the Third Army ran out of fuel near Metz, France. He had burned through his supply, keeping the German forces on their heels, and replenishment was not coming.

There are a number of theories as to why Patton’s army was left high and dry, languishing without the fuel to continue. The official rationale was that Eisenhower wanted to present a unified, measured front and was wary of any units which might overextend themselves and compromise the front line. It is clear he prioritized Montgomery’s Market Garden operation over Patton’s demands. Providentially for Ike, the Zone of Communications happened to pick that time to move their HQ back to Paris, tucked safely behind the Allied lines, and that required a lot of trucks; trucks which could have been refueling the Third Army.

Unofficially, it’s said that Eisenhower wanted to avoid embarrassing our military allies. Patton was making everyone else look like weak sisters and so the most effective weapon in the Allied arsenal (General Patton’s mind) was deliberately shuttered. He was forced to fight in place and suffered heavy casualties in subsequent engagements near Metz. After blitzing through 60 miles of German-occupied France in 2 weeks during the month of August, the Third Army covered only 40 miles total in the months November and December that same year.

It seems nearly inconceivable that Eisenhower would do such a thing, yet the deliberate crippling of a beneficial advantage is precisely what has been done to free-market capitalism in America and in the economies of her Western allies. No one with any intellectual honesty can deny the effectiveness of Patton or of the free market. Patton won battles and earned the respect of his enemies. Capitalism is the much-maligned champion of freedom around the globe and is directly responsible for the prosperity and privilege we enjoy as a part of Western civilization. There has never been a more effective engine of wealth creation and economic mobility than free-market capitalism. Yet, like Patton, the free market economy is forcibly stalled, chained down by those who should be its staunchest guardians.

In America, this is accomplished in a few ways. Legislative support is diverted to efforts on the periphery, which are usually outside the purview of a federal government. For example, Congress passes Obamacare under the guise of offering a “fundamental human right” to all Americans, oblivious to the fact that bureaucratic edicts increase the price of a commodity and will inflict more economic pain on Americans than relief provided. When government agencies command private businesses to provide services, those businesses pass the expense of compliance onto their customers who are likewise commanded to purchase the now-pricier product. If allowed to operate freely, market forces would increase the quality of product while lowering the price. Those forces are seen every day in products like cellular phones, which have increased in quality and decreased in price over the past 30 years, going from $4,000 for the Motorola Dynatac 8000x in 1973 to $0 for the Motorola Droid X in 2014. In economics, a “rising tide lifts all boats” but the pencil-pushers in Washington prefer (or force) winners and losers by diverting support to pet projects and ideological cronies.

Just as Ike prioritized the pride of our allies over the success of our troops, we seek to assuage the feelings of those who have benefitted from the success of our greatest achievers while denigrating said achievers. Instead of worrying about the pride of our British and French allies, both of whom were saved by the intervention of the U.S. Military, Ike should have thrown full support behind Patton who had the German generals soiling their lederhosen. We spend so much time and effort agonizing over the feelings of the misfortunate in this country instead of throwing our full support behind those who are creating wealth, jobs, and prosperity for all Americans; all of which ultimately benefit the misfortunate. A rising tide will never lift all boats if our nanny-state government continues to erect levees to keep the tide out! Prosperity is not a bad word in a truly capitalist economy. When the prosperous become targets and success is deemed worth punishment, your economy has been infected by corporatists and socialists. Redistribution of wealth is sure to follow.

If legislation and shame don’t effectively smother the flames of capitalist achievement in this country, the Executive Branch seems more than happy to step in. The checks and balance built into our tri-partite system by the Founders are broken. The checks have bounced and the balance has drastically shifted to the Executive branch, leaving an emasculated Legislature and a timorous Judiciary. Time and again, the Obama administration has acted unilaterally, outside the bounds of law, to achieve their will via regulation and selective enforcement of law. As egregious as the offenses of this President have been, he is not alone. His predecessors set the table for this environment. Obama simply ate the food, shredded the table cloth, and is in the process of breaking off the table legs for a bonfire.

Progressives in both parties are determined to restrain the successful among us. If shame and ridicule don’t work, they will simply cut off the fuel via government regulation and legislation. As our Founding Fathers knew, it is only by forcibly restraining the power a centralized government can wield that the soil of liberty can remain fertile. 

This article was originally published at the ClashDaily.com blog.

Leave it to the Republican Party to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

While nearly every poll definitively affirms that Democrats are in deep doo-doo come November, and as leftist talking heads like Chris Matthews have already conceded a likelihood that Republicans will take the U.S. Senate in the 2014 mid-term elections, many of the GOP’s highest profile personalities obtusely refuse to take yes for an answer. They’re evidently hell-bent on disenfranchising the party’s pejoratively tagged “social issues” majority.

Stupid, stupid and stupid.

From mealy mouthed moderate establishment-types like Chris Christie, to dovish libertine libertarians like Rand Paul, it seems a majority of the GOP rock stars are scared gutless to set a single yellow-nailed pinky toe on the fevered culture war battlefield. They say it’s time to raise the white flag on traditional values.

Guys, I’m here to tell you, the “social issues” aren’t going away. But keep up this fatalistic nonsense and the GOP’s Christian-conservative base just might. Morality-minded Americans are sick of it, and we will choose fidelity to principle over surrender to ill-perceived “pragmatism” every time.

Take presidential wannabe Rand Paul. This guy, who, by all appearances, was shaping up to be a thoroughbred in the 2016 primary horserace, may have just snapped a leg before the gates have even chimed open.

In a recent interview with the uber-liberal online rag, Vocative.com, Paul could hardly wait to take a matchstick to the official Republican Party “social issues” platform (i.e., the sanctity of marriage, natural human sexuality and morality, ending the abortion holocaust, religious liberty, the Second Amendment and the like.)

Said Paul:

“I think that the Republican Party, in order to get bigger, will have to agree to disagree on social issues. The Republican Party is not going to give up on having quite a few people who do believe in traditional marriage. But the Republican Party also has to find a place for young people and others who don’t want to be festooned by those issues.”

In other words, the Republican Party must become a wussified version of the Democratic Party.

Democrat-lite.

Rand, Rand, Rand. This is the same failed, tired, reach-out-to-the-needy-independents strategy that brought us Presidents Dole, McCain and Romney. What is it about the GOP that has it constantly biting the hand that feeds it, while begging for a little scratch-behind-the-ear action from the fickle fingers of “independent” indifference?

There’s an interesting aside to Paul’s Vocative.com interview. My friend and nationally syndicated talk radio host Steve Deace made an interesting point in a recent email.

Wrote Deace:

By the way, the website that Rand Paul did the interview with when he talked about needing to agree to disagree on social issues has stories titled ‘Shame Free Guide to Hookups’ and ‘Five Questions for the Creator of Direct Your Own Porn.

Can you imagine if Obama, or any national Democrat figure for that matter, gave an interview on public policy to a website that produces such content? Every conservative group in the country would be decrying how this is more evidence of America’s moral decline.

It’s also evidence, frankly, of the GOP’s moral decline and loss of its historical moorings, courage and resolve to stand firm on the transcendent, non-negotiable issues of life, liberty and the natural family, marriage and human sexuality.

If the big ol’ dumb elephant continues on this ill-fated trajectory, I can guarantee that the Christian-conservative base will abandon it, as it has abandoned us. Although we’d rather take the Ronald Reagan approach and reform the party from within, I can promise you that we will, if that becomes a lost cause, form a new, principled, conservative “values voters” third party.

If that happens, Democrats will rule the roost indefinitely.

Now that is scary.

In his email, Deace offered some wise counsel to Rand Paul and others who are squeamish on the “social issues.”

“Here’s what a libertarian like Rand Paul could say,” he advised. “Until somebody can prove their definition of ‘rights’ doesn’t cost somebody they’re already God-ordained rights, the burden of proof remains. And right now we’re seeing these new ‘rights’ costing people their free speech and religious freedom rights that were established at the founding of this republic. And that’s something Americans of all persuasions on the marriage issue should be opposed to.”

As I’ve noted before, Ronald Reagan often spoke of a “three-legged stool” that undergirds what I call “complete conservatism.” The legs symbolize a strong national defense, strong free-market principles and strong traditional social values. For the stool to remain upright, it must be supported by all three legs. If you snap off even one leg, the stool collapses under its own weight.

Why the GOP establishment seems determined to snap off the traditional social values leg, thus collapsing the entire Republican Party stool, defies all explanation.

Back in January I praised Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus for making several public pronouncements in defense of the “social issues”-conservative Republican Party platform in general and the unalienable rights to both life and religious liberty in particular.

Reince, you may want to have a sit-down with your party leadership and tell them to get their head in the game. If they don’t, we, the GOP base, may just decide to take our ball and go home.

Understand this: We “social issues” conservatives (read: complete conservatives) will never stop playing the game. But if the Republican Party doesn’t quit moving the goalposts, we may just have to go stake out a new playing field.

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The question is not, “Is America falling?” but, rather, “Why is America falling?”

I’m currently writing from CPAC 2014, the nation’s largest gathering of conservative political junkies. The event is being held at the beautiful Gaylord National hotel, adjacent to the scenic shoreline of the historic Potomac River. We’re just a few short miles from Washington, D.C., which, at least for now, remains the modern-day equivalent of the Roman Empire.

I say “at least for now” because America finds itself skipping along the primrose path to Rome’s ill-fated finale. I needn’t trouble you with evidence to that effect as this tragic reality is hopelessly inescapable. It’s a self-evident truth. Unless our next generation of leaders – Gen-Y Millennials – can successfully turn things around, we’re up the Potomac without a paddle.

The day’s speeches have ended and conference-going night revelers are about. The indoor balcony to my 12th-floor room faces, as the hotel website accurately boasts, a “spectacular 18-story glass atrium.” My balcony door is open wide, and the bustling din from several parties across the cavernous vestibule soaks the room.

A chorus has begun. What is this? Have party-goers launched an impromptu rendering of “America the Beautiful”?

No, this is a chant, joined by scores – a hundred or more perhaps – of young conservative bacchanalians on multiple suite balconies and from the open air bar below. What is that they’re chanting? Is that, “Amer-i-ca! Amer-i-ca!”?

At first, it’s hard to tell. It’s a booming echo that reverberates throughout the entire hotel.

And then it becomes clear.

Alas, our next generation of conservative leaders are not chanting, “Amer-i-ca! Amer-i-ca!” They are, instead, chanting, “F**k O-bama! F**k O-bama!”

And I hang my head.

So, now, children at the hotel, parents, staff, tourists – both foreign and domestic – and every other conceivable variety of guest who happens to be staying at the Gaylord National hotel during CPAC 2014 has a skewed, and likely irreversible, first impression of America’s conservative movement.

Or is it skewed?

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m certain that the vast majority of CPAC attendees, both young and old, are as appalled and embarrassed by these drunken yuck monkeys as am I.

But I think the very fact that these blazer-clad, Cro-Magnon morons could even imagine, for a moment, that it’s somehow cool to publicly chant “F**k Obama!” – or “F**k” anything for that matter – speaks to a much larger problem, not just within the conservative movement, but, more importantly, within our entire culture.

I’m never going to win a popularity contest. It’s not my goal to be liked. I’ll probably never be a “Fox News contributor” or even broadly recognized as a dutifully compliant cog within the greater, GOP-heavy “conservative” political wheel.

That’s because I say things like this: There is no political fix to America’s death spiral.

We are drowning in a turgid river of postmodern relativism. This is a spiritual problem, not a political problem. This is a worldview matter, not a partisan matter.

Hitherto it has been “progressives” alone dumping buckets of moral relativist poison into the Potomac. But, in the last decade or so, self-styled “conservatives” have likewise begun drinking the subjectivist Kool-Aid.

Libertine libertarianism has infected the conservative movement like a cancer. Situational ethics, driven by emotional, anecdotal sob stories, are used to justify every moral wrong as an absolute right. “Get off the social issues!” they demand. “Gay marriage? No problem.”

These gun-toting, free-market “conservatives” (of which I’m both) grace us with beauties like this: “I’m a ‘pro-choice,’ ‘pro-gay’ conservative,” or, “Yeah, I’m shacking up with my girlfriend, big deal.”

Relativism blurs the fixed lines of demarcation between right and wrong, which leads to the abolition of absolute truth, which leads to pockets of moral anarchy, which leads to Barack Obama and Eric Holder deciding which laws to ignore and which laws to enforce, which leads to lawlessness, which leads to chaos.

Welcome to chaos.

Yes. The “social issues” matter.

The battle is not Republican vs. Democrat. Neither is it conservative vs. liberal. The battle precedes time itself. The battle is right vs. wrong. The battle is moral vs. immoral. The battle is truth vs. the lie.

The battle is between good and evil.

We’ve been playing political Ping-Pong for decades. We’ve been, as they say, rearranging the chairs on the Titanic while Democrats take the helm for a spell, and Republicans take the helm for a spell.

The reality is that both political parties have driven us into the iceberg, and then pranced off together, hand-in-hand, to play best-of-three racquetball at the congressional bathhouse.

While here at CPAC I met an interesting fellow by the name of Frank Mitchell. Frank founded the Memphis-based, classically conservative group: “A Shining City on a Hill.” During our discussion, Frank said this: “There is no liberty without justice. Liberty without justice is only license.”

Libertine libertarianism.

America cannot survive under a worldview that embraces unrestricted moral license. Such license destroys the individual. And such license destroys the nation.

“Liberty without justice is only license.”

There is only one Arbiter of true justice. And justice is defined by Him, not by us. He sets the parameters. As both individuals, and as a nation, we are ill-advised to breach those parameters and well-served to maintain them.

America does not need a political fix. America needs a spiritual fix.

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