Image by Wynn Pointaux from Pixabay
Sept. 17, 2024 –
Happy Constitution Day!
Constitution Day honors the adoption of the U.S. Constitution. It’s observed because on Sept. 17 the Constitution was signed by delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787.
An importand date in American history. To see the list of our Founding Fathers and other key details, see www.constitutionday.com.
Unfortunately, it is the Democrats who have been waging war on the Constitution.
For years, they have been marginalizing opponents who reject their radical ideas. Democrats have been demanding the abolition of the Electoral College and have declared their desire to pack the U.S. Supreme Court with liberal justices. They have been claiming former President Donald Trump is an authoritarian, and that he threatens the U.S.
Thank goodness for the wisdom of voters and especially the nation’s founding fathers in establishing the Electoral College.
Democrats, Hollywood and the mainstream media have not been secretive about their raw fear and hatred of former President Donald Trump since he was elected in 2016.
Democrats frantically tried to impeach President Trump.
First, they tried to create an issue with Russiagate to impeach him despite the lack of evidence and phony dossier in the multi-million dollar Mueller investigation. Concurrently, they’ve disingenuously tried to double the number of Supreme Court justices and trying to let 16-year-old kids vote.
Democrats howled after Attorney General Bill Barr investigated the origin of the Mueller investigation over concerns it was tainted by political bias within the FBI.
“People have to find out what the government was doing during that period. If we’re worried about foreign influence, for the very same reason we should be worried about whether government officials abuse their power and put their thumb on the scale,” Mr. Barr said in an interview with Fox News. He cautioned that “I’m not saying that happened” but argued “it’s something we have to look at.”
Another failing gambit
After the Mueller Report ended in flames, Democrats in the House of Representatives launched another scheme trying to undue the 2016 election with bogus and secretive impeachment inquiry hearings over a President’s phone call to Ukraine based on an alleged whistleblower’s claim.
Former Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) accurately called the inquiry “Russian hoax 2.0.”
Obviously, the bottom-line: Democrats panicked that President Trump had wrapped himself in the Flag and has been successfully saving America’s culture.
In a very short period of time, President Trump has had a multitude of accomplishments:
Hedf changed the tax code and implemented tax cuts, deregulated unnecessary rules, introduced better options to ObamaCare, increased energy production that’s kept gas prices low despite turmoil with Iran, doubled the nation’s gross domestic product, sent the stock market soaring, increased worker wages 3.2 percent, forced Mexico to do something to halt the tide of illegal immigration, challenged China on unethical trade practices, and dramatically lowered the unemployment rate to an historically low level that dates back to the Nixon Administration in 1969.
Constitutional crisis
But a question remains over whether America’s election of Mr. Trump (R) as president over Hillary Clinton (D) avoided a Constitutional crisis, Not if sore losers ever get their way. Fortunately, their movement is a long shot.
You might recall some of former Secretary of State Clinton’s supporters and Green Party candidate Jill Stein demanded a recount following the 2016 election. Dr. Stein raised $5.2 million in an effort to force a recount in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. The state of Wisconsin agreed to a recount.
Worse, many of the Clinton and Stein supporters, film stars and the media vowed to eliminate the Electoral College altogether. Democrats have introduced bills in Congress that would kill the Electoral College.
Mrs. Clinton led the popular vote by 2 million votes. But those votes essentially came from the blue state of California where her margin over President-Elect Trump was 3.5 million votes.
She had 64,223,958 votes, compared to President-Elect Donald Trump’s 62,206,395. So she was rewarded with California’s 55 Electoral College votes.
The problem for her, of course, is that Mr. Trump won the majority of Electoral College votes — 306 to 232.
The Electoral College was established to make certain a populous state like California doesn’t unfairly determine a nationwide election – that voters in each state are represented and given a voice.
Mr. Trump overwhelmed Mrs. Clinton’s so-called “firewall” of blue states. He captured states that went for President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 – Iowa, Florida, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
In addition, Democrats have lost heavily in other elections, which indicates the Trump victory was not a fluke.
Nationwide, Republicans captured 939 state legislative seats and ultimately held 27 governor seats.
Crossroads
So, America is again at crossroads during this year’s Presidential Campaign. A liberal, Kamala Harris, who has flip-flopped on her socialist ideas is running for president. Little wonder: Her father is Marxist professor Donald J. Harris.
Mrs. Clinton continues to attack Mr. Trump with venom.
Her condemnations still coincide with an unlikely but possible Constitutional crisis over the Democrats’ calls to eliminate the Electoral College, and the nearly forgotten Mrs. Clinton’s email and Clinton Foundation scandals.
Nearly a decade she still claims there were no scandals but many Americans disagreed and cast their judgment against her at the ballot box.
How could she possibly have governed as president? Mr. Trump was not interested in prosecuting her but members of Congress plan investigations.
The last Constitutional crisis severely hurt the nation.
Think back to the presidential campaign of 1972. President Richard Nixon (R) was running for re-election against anti-war candidate, South Dakota Sen. George McGovern (D).
It was a brutal campaign during the Vietnam War that would continue for another three years.
Mr. Nixon touted an improving economy, a winding down of the Vietnam War and establishing relations with China.
His running mate for vice president was again former Maryland Gov. Spiro Agnew.
Sen. McGovern was widely viewed as a leftwing extremist. He became the Democrats’ frontrunner after the campaign collapse of Maine Sen. Edmund Muskie.
It was widely believed Sen. Muskie would have defeated Mr. Nixon, but a series of events and dirty tricks by the Nixon campaign led to his downfall. Mo. Senator Thomas Eagleton became Sen. McGovern’s vice-presidential running mate.
Watergate break-in
On June 17, five men were arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, DC.
An investigation by the FBI revealed a link – between the cash found on the burglars and a slush fund established by CRP, the Committee for the Re-Election of the President.
It was a slowly developing story. Only two reporters at The Washington Post, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, spotted the significance of the break in. Then, Walter Cronkite and CBS News casually followed suit.
As a young broadcaster, I remember being puzzled – why weren’t the news media and American people paying attention to the developing scandal? But journalists and the masses seemed oblivious.
Meantime, Democrats were hurt further when Sen. Eagleton was forced to resign from the ticket on Aug. 1 after it was revealed he had been hospitalized multiple times for severe depression. He was replaced by Sergent Shriver, a politician and brother-in-law of the late President John F. Kennedy.
Premature landslide
President Richard Nixon had rolled to victory with about 60 percent of the popular vote in the 1972 election. He won by a landslide with 520 Electoral College votes to 17 for Sen. McGovern.
The Democrat Party was on the ropes. That eventually led to the 1976 implementation of the public funding of elections by the Federal Election Commission.
Unfortunately for the American people in July 1973, seven months after they elected Mr. Nixon, more stomach-churning details emerged.
Crucial evidence had mounted against several Nixon Administration staff members. Forty-eight were found guilty of being involved in either the slush fund used for dirty tricks, the break-in or the cover-up.
This coincided with an investigation of Vice President Agnew on bribery, conspiracy, extortion and tax fraud charges. The charges stemmed from his accepting bribes or more than $100,000 when he was the Baltimore County Executive, Governor of Maryland and even as vice president.
With the proviso that he resign as vice president, he was allowed to plead no contest to the charges. Then, Mr. Nixon appointed House Minority Leader Gerald Ford to replace Mr. Agnew.
Then, the bombshell disclosure – it was revealed that President Nixon had a secret tape-recording system in the White House, and that he had recorded countless conversations.
This prompted a daily drama in court. Federal District Judge John Sirica ruled that Mr. Nixon had to release the audio recordings.
Incriminating tape evidence
The tapes showed the president was involved in the Watergate cover-up and that he ordered federal officials to delay or halt the investigation.
As the investigation proceeded, in a highly controversial event – dubbed the Saturday Night Massacre – Mr. Nixon fired special prosecutor Archibald Cox.
The firing of Mr. Cox prompted the resignations of Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus on Oct. 20, 1973. (Three years later, I interviewed Mr. Richardson.)
Mr. Ford, of course, assumed the presidency when President Nixon – facing impeachment by the House of Representatives – resigned in disgrace on Aug. 9, 1974.
And Mr. Ford took a lot of heat for pardoning Mr. Nixon. That was a salient reason why Mr. Ford was defeated in his 1976 bid for the Presidency by Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter.
(Note: Admittedly, I was one of Mr. Ford’s critics. But I changed my mind after meeting Mr. Ford – after learning of his personal philosophy to save the nation from further polarization and desire to focus on America’s economic woes by his pardon of Mr. Nixon, I was proud to get a scoop as the first journalist to report his retirement plans.)
Hillary Clinton’s emailgate
Ironically, amid all her email scandals, it’s worth remembering Hillary Clinton helped investigate Watergate. Indeed, more details are available in a thoughtful article, How Richard Nixon Created Hillary Clinton – Bloomberg Politics.
However, like Richard Nixon’s run for his re-election, the stars appeared to line up perfectly for Mrs. Clinton second bid for the White House.
She survived countless controversies – here’s a concise sample:
- She dodged a series of laws and regulations after denying her misuse of critical federal records and classified secrets with her personal email server.
- She outlasted a 74-year-old challenger in socialist Vt. Sen. Bernie Sanders after biased treatment thanks in part to now disgraced DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
- Mrs. Clinton later deleted more than 30,000 emails.
- A scathing report by the Office of the Inspector General.
- Even before the FBI completed its first email-scandal investigation, President Barack Obama prematurely endorsed her presidential bid, which is a conflict of interest justice-wise.
- Mrs. Clinton’s IT specialist ignored a subpoena for a House hearing; her other aides pleaded the Fifth Amendment for fear of self-incrimination so they refused to answer questions.
- The FBI’s James Comey indicated Mrs. Clinton behaved badly but announced the case against her would not proceed.
- A steady drip by WikiLeaks of 35,000 emails many of which have been incriminating or at least embarrassing. Her campaign has claimed that Donald Trump’s “Russian friends” are behind the leaks.
- There are increasing indications of a massive charity corruption and a quid pro quo between foreign and domestic donors to the Clinton Foundation. For instance, Laureate International Universities gave as much as $5 million to the foundation which led to an invitation to a State Department dinner and later paid Bill Clinton $17.6 million.
- Less than two weeks before the election, Mr. Comey disclosed to Congress that agents began reviewing a large batch of government emails from a computer of top aide Huma Abedin. She shared the computer with her spouse, former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner, who was disgraced over sex charges.
- On Election Day, polls showed 70 percent of Americans believe she is not trustworthy.
A polarized nation — again
Mrs. Clinton had become so tainted and toxic, even the Chicago Tribune wrote on Oct. 28 that Democrats should ask Hillary Clinton to step aside for the good of the U.S.
While she tried to tie her opponent Donald Trump to Vladimir Putin over the WikiLeaks disclosures, the Russian leader knows that she would have been a weak leader stemming from her untrustworthy image, not Mr. Trump.
So the obvious question remains: Had Mrs. Clinton been elected, how could she ever govern effectively? She couldn’t. She would have assured the U.S. of another Watergate-like Constitutional crisis.
Perhaps for self-serving reasons, even Mr. Nixon finally did the right thing. So did Mrs. Clinton by conceding the election.
But the sore-losing opponents of President Trump don’t get it.
Fortunately, there are safeguards. The Electoral College can’t be eliminated on a whim by sore-losing Democrats.
Article V of the Constitution:
The Constitution provides that an amendment may be proposed either by the Congress with a two-thirds majority vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate or by a constitutional convention called for by two-thirds of the State legislatures.
–https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/constitution
Thank goodness for the wisdom of voters and especially the nation’s founding fathers. The 939 state legislative seats and Republican governorships won’t be needed to save the Electoral College.
And let’s hope Democrats aren’s successful with their demonic anti-Constitution ideas.
From the Coach’s Corner, editor’s picks:
5 Attributes of Leadership Are Needed Now — With all the dysfunction in the economy and the debate over healthcare, Seattle consultant Terry Corbell calls for leadership. He says the late President Ford, whom he covered as a journalist, leaves a remarkable legacy of leadership with healthy attributes for businesspeople and public officials to emulate.
Remembering Nancy Reagan: Lesson in Fear, Negotiations and Perseverance — With the passing of former First Lady Nancy Reagan, thanks to her I have fond memories about a lesson in fear, negotiations and perseverance.
Myths and Truths about Dealing with China and the Tariffs – Five decades ago, the U.S. and China did not have diplomatic relations. But in 1972 it was universally felt that diplomatic relations with China was a worthwhile optimistic goal. Now as it turns out, China’s behavior has become an economic and political powder keg. Here is the solution.
USMCA Will Stop that ‘Giant Sucking Sound’ – You might recall what many politicians considered a ridiculous idea during a debate in the 1992 presidential campaign. Two years before it was implemented in 1994, Ross Perot argued NAFTA would not be a two-way street. Though sounding facetious, he accurately predicted NAFTA would create a giant sucking sound.
1.36 Million Jobs Would be Created by Tariffs on China – Study – A 25 percent tariff on all imports from China would create 1.36 million jobs in five years, according to an economic study.
On Sept. 11, America Still Needs Economic Patriotism — Unless politicians in Congress grow up and face economic realities, future Americans will be saddled with unfair, massive debt. That would be a sad legacy. So the only answer to economic preparedness is economic patriotism.
Both Democrats and Republicans Endanger U.S. Economy – Have we not learned any lessons from the horrors of the Great Recession from a decade ago? Apparently not.
Q&A with Dr. Ben Carson – The Full Meal Deal with Solutions — Sept. 13, 2013 – Naturally, Dr. Ben Carson is known as a uniquely soft-spoken retired neurosurgeon. His voluminous accomplishments include his pioneering in the separation of conjoined twins at the head. But, of course, there’s more. A lot more. With his gentle, low-key demeanor, he’s also known for his powerful insights on the issues facing the U.S. and the world.
“It is a terrible thing to look over your shoulder when you are trying to lead — and find no one there.”
-Franklin Roosevelt
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