Reading Assignment – American Greatness

Gearing Up for Round 3 of the Great Trump War

by Conrad Black

The halftime scorecard in the Great Trump War is much more ambiguous than the premature jubilating of the Trump-hating media would indicate. Let us consider that this war began amid peals of side-splitting laughter as the Trump family came down the escalator of Trump Tower in June 2015 and Donald Trump announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination. The astonishment on Election Night in 2016 quickly gave way to #TheResistance and “scorched earth.”

Dispossessed Clintonites presumptuously took for themselves the names of the heroic Catholic and communist resistors to the Nazi occupation of France and of the gallant defenders of Soviet Russia against Nazi invasion. Thus did the insanely affected morality of those whom Trump legitimately defeated in the 2016 election raise its hoary head.

As we now know, though the unconscionable dilatoriness of special counsel John Durham has prevented its formulation to date in appropriate charges, the intelligence community and the FBI were compromised by being drawn into anti-Trump political skulduggery prompted by the Clinton campaign which continued past the election.

When the Trump-Russia collusion scam was finally exposed as the outrage that it was, the national political media, which has steadily been 95 percent hostile to Trump, uttered not a word of remorse and pivoted to the most asinine impeachment charge in American history, led by the two most mendacious figures in the modern history of the U.S. Congress, Representatives Jerry Nadler (D-N.J.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).

The Badger State’s Ballot ‘Fix’ Was In

by Julie Kelly

Nearly 7 million absentee votes were cast, mostly for Joe Biden, in the three states responsible for his presumptive win; a mere 250,000 votes now separate Biden from Donald Trump in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.

Trump’s victory in that once solid “blue wall” in 2016—Wisconsin last elected a Republican president in 1984—shocked the nation and elevated him to the presidency. The pivotal Rust Belt states have something else in common: according to state election laws, mail-in ballots cannot be processed prior to 7 a.m. on Election Day. (Michigan has a slight caveat for larger cities, which allows ballot inspection to begin the day before.)

As I wrote last week, it’s clear that Pennsylvania election officials violated the law by alerting voters to correct mistakes on or “cure” their mail-in ballots days before Election Day. This means not only were election workers inspecting mail-in envelopes in advance of the legal deadline, the unlawful pre-canvassing occurred without observers present, another obvious violation.

Further, Pennsylvania is one of several states that does not have a ballot “curing” provision on the books. “Ballot curing refers to the process by which voters can correct mistakes—such as a missing or mismatched signature—with an absentee/mail-in ballot so that the ballot can be counted,” according to Ballotpedia, an online repository of election data and information. “Ballot curing provisions lay out this process in state law. States without such provisions do not count absentee/mail-in ballots with errors.” Pennsylvania voters had the option to check a database to see if their ballot had been rejected; if so, the voter needed to request a provisional ballot, not correct the existing one.

Will We Be Citizens or Subjects?

by Stephen Balch

A decisive moment comes and passes, a fleeting chance for action. People rise to the occasion or not, their measure taken and place in history assigned.

We, the citizens of the United States, have reached such a moment. For those who still remember the old republic, the questions it poses are self-evident. Do we make a stand or nervelessly surrender our rights? Do we affirm ourselves citizens—an historically rare and noble title—or do we accept becoming subjects, the fate of most humankind?

We might, of course, hope for a quiet subjecthood, one in which our rulers permit us to go about our lives reasonably undisturbed. But that would no longer be our call, only their clemency.

In the course of this lamentable year, we’ve seen the clemency of our aspiring seigneurs on full display. It clearly doesn’t extend to our laws which they impudently flout. Nor to the truth, which they smoother or twist in caricature. Nor to property, which they seize by decree or have their Blackshirts burn. Nor to the American past, American institutions, and American traditions that they hate and trash. If we choose to submit to their mercies, we shouldn’t imagine they’ll long be tender.

Some have been arguing that we ought just to get on with it, accept the media-hyped election results and prepare for more winnable battles down the road. But as evidence of grotesque irregularities continues to pile up, it becomes ever harder to accept that time-honored bromide with equanimity. We can’t, to be sure, know exactly what this presidential election’s actual outcome was, but we do know how unbelievable the facts are as popularly presented. We also know which side is responsible for the mudslide now covering the electoral landscape. And we can make a good guess as to the truth that’s been buried beneath.

Looking Ahead to Trump’s Second Term

by Nicholas L. Waddy

So many articles are being written these days about the likely shape of a potential Biden Administration that it’s high time we asked the question: what would a second term for Trump look like? More importantly, what should it look like?

Given the growing evidence of a rigged election, and the fact that neither the U.S. Supreme Court, nor the Electoral College, nor Congress have weighed in on who the next president will be, it seems at least plausible that Trump could prevail while Sleepy Joe snatches defeat from the jaws of victory. If so, we can expect much gnashing of teeth among leftists. More than a few neighborhoods will be burned down, more than a few stores will be looted, but, in the end, when the leftists have cried their eyes out, it will be time to get back to the business at hand: making America great again. Here is how it can be done.

First, it would seem that, after a long period of trial and error, Trump has mostly settled on a cabinet that works for him. Bill Barr and Mike Pompeo, for instance, have been rendering good service. Moreover, leftists despise them, which is the highest possible recommendation that either man could receive.

Some changes to the cabinet should be considered, however. Trump should try to lay the groundwork for a further expansion of minority support for Republicans. To that end, there are some excellent Hispanic Republicans who potentially could be added to the cabinet, such as Brian Sandoval in Nevada and Susana Martinez in New Mexico. Both would also help Trump to bolster his support in the Southwest, which is clearly a weak area for the modern GOP.