One more month until Decision Day, and as of this writing the 2016 presidential election is still a toss-up.
Speaking of tossing-up, I once heard a perfect description of a hard choice: It’s being up to your neck in crap and having a bucket of puke thrown at your face. (sorry)
There’s Hillary, the queen of arrogance, who lies in the face of a dead soldier’s mother without blinking, trades back-door deals with dictators and bankers for mountains of cash, and shamelessly turns everything she touches into molten corruption.
And there’s Donald, the narcissistic and boorish bull-in-the-china-shop who not only speaks with the vocabulary of a junior high kid, he acts like one whenever somebody pushes his buttons.
At an informal town hall meeting this week, Congressman Mick Mulvaney made a surprising prediction.
“Trump will win,” Mulvaney pronounced. “And he will struggle for six months, unable to put any of his policies in place, mostly because of the 60-vote rule in the Senate.” Then, according to Mulvaney, Trump will try the Obama “pen and phone” approach, taking matters into his own hands. “And we [Mulvaney and other conservative legislators] will be on the House floor stopping him. I’ll tell him, ‘I like what you are trying to do, but you can’t do it on your own’.”
Mulvaney says their principled stand will teach Trump to work with Congress, heal the Republican party, and restore the voters’ respect for government.
If the decision hinges on which candidate is less distasteful, it’s going to be a tough choice. But there is a much more compelling factor in this election that can’t be dismissed. Our next president will establish the makeup and tenor of the supreme court and lower courts for decades to come.
If judges and justices were all honorable and operated within the constraints of the Constitution, this would not matter. They aren’t, so it does.
The separation of powers built into our Constitution should prevent one branch from dominating the others, but despite a Republican majority in both houses our legislative branch has become impotent. President Obama’s administrative branch has steam-rolled Congress, as executive orders go unchecked, and agencies execute the President’s playbook with support from activist Democrat circuit and appellate judges. 70% of the appellate courts are now home to Democrat appointees, thanks to what Ken Cuccinelli, president of the Senate Conservatives Fund calls a “knee-jerk surrender” on nominees by Senate leader Mitch McConnell.
The next president will nominate several Supreme Court justices and countless other circuit and appellate judges. Donald Trump promises to select constitutionalists for judicial openings, and already has a list of prospects for the Supreme Court. Hillary Clinton will install radical liberals if she is elected, which, combined with the fecklessness of Congress, will alter the balance of power, perhaps permanently.
When a liberal administration and courts have unfettered rule over the nation, our basic freedoms are at risk. Religious freedom, property rights, protections from overreaching regulation, and free speech are under assault even now.
If you vote for Hillary, stand back. Cause here come da judge(s).
Tom Balek, Rockin’ On the Right Side
I’d rather be lost
In the jungle of Brazil
Than to face the judge this morning
The way he feels
Here come da judge!
Here Come Da Judge – Shorty Long
There were a bunch of “Here Comes the Judge” songs. Here’s my favorite, from 1968.
Loretta’s jet pulled off the runway and onto the tarmac at the executive end of Sky Harbor Airport. Glancing out the window she spotted a familiar sight.
The US Constitution lists many of the rights we citizens enjoy: the right to assemble, to speak freely, to bear arms. The most important right of all is overlooked by most Americans. You never see it mentioned on a protest sign, or by a political candidate. It doesn’t have its own enumerated amendment in the Bill of Rights. It is the right of individuals to own property and use it for their benefit.
Our country was built on business. Free market, survival-of-the-fittest, improve-or-die business. The United States of America has always been the land of opportunity – a place where success is not only possible, but fully expected by those who follow the timeless and dependable business formula: work hard, be fair and honest, embrace change, meet the customer’s needs, strive for continual improvement. Roll up your sleeves, git ‘er done. Take care of business.
I voted for Ted Cruz in the South Carolina primary. Last night, after getting Trump-thumped (again) in Indiana, Cruz pulled out of the presidential race.
I have often pointed to Argentina as an example of what could happen to the United States. The two countries have similar early histories, emerging from colonial status to independence and becoming the economic engines of the western hemisphere.
