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Opinion
Reece Terry, publisher
Mark Boehler, editor
4A • Wednesday, February 17, 2016
Corinth, Miss.
Not the America I knew Envy is defined by Dictionary.com as “a feeling of discontent or covetousness with regard to another’s advantages, success, possessions, etc.” That perfectly characterizes the entire political philosophy of the Democratic progressive left. Listening to presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, I often hear the principles I grew up with and practiced being disregarded, even denounced. In his victory speech following his New Hampshire primary win, Sanders said America was founded on the principle Cal of fairness. No it wasn’t. You don’t find Thomas the word “fairness” in the DecColumnist laration of Independence, or the Constitution. The word you do find is “liberty.” The Founders wanted Americans to be liberated from oppressive, intrusive, dictatorial government and to be free to pursue happiness, according to their definition of the word. Sanders and Clinton aren’t channeling the Founders, they’re channeling Robin Hood. They want to take from people who have sacrificed, invested, risked and worked hard and give the fruits of their labors to others who have not embraced those noble practices. Listening to some of the younger people who are enthralled by Sanders’ philosophy suggests that they have been brainwashed by their public school teachers and college professors. Maybe we should increase the voting age to 30 when they might be expected to have achieved some modicum of success and will resent having their paychecks gutted by dysfunctional government. The late football coach Vince Lombardi once said, “The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.” Do you hear anything like that coming from the mouths of Sanders or Clinton? Today, it is all about envying what others have. In biblical terms it is covetousness, a violation of the Tenth Commandment. Covetousness is destructive, not to the person who is its object, but to the person doing the coveting. Does someone who envies, or covets, improve his station in life? Why won’t Sanders and Clinton speak of the virtues of hard work and making the right decisions so people can fend for themselves and their families? What a CEO or Wall Street banker earns has nothing to do with what I make, or could make, if I choose the right path. The right path means staying in school, getting married before having children and taking reasonable risks to improve one’s life, such as moving from a town where it is difficult to get a job or advance in one, to a place where there are better prospects. Bernie Sanders is now trying to attract African-American voters by promising them more jobs, more government programs, more stuff. He’s also courting civil rights power broker Rev. Al Sharpton in hopes that he can help steer minority voters his way in exchange for access to the White House, but consider this quote from one of the great African-American leaders of the past, Booker T. Washington: “Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.” That such noble sentiments have largely disappeared from our culture and been replaced by envy, greed and entitlement, explains why our national debt soars, why so many find themselves in financial difficulty, or think they do, because that’s what the left has told them. If our forebears could rise from their graves, would they not rebuke us for the mess we have made of the nation they birthed and bequeathed to us? At the founding of America, self-interest was often secondary to the public good. Today, self-interest is supreme and the public good is largely forgotten. No wonder we are in trouble on all levels, as liberal-progressives double down on failure to promote their own political self-interest. (Readers may email Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribpub.com.)
Prayer for today Almighty God, I would learn that while thou art a forgiving Lord, nature has no mercy on them that break her laws. Forgive me for all my neglect, and help me to see the way in which thou hast through mercy led me. Give me the power to endure and the strength to resist temptation. May I seek to understand thy laws, that I may not fail through ignorance. Amen.
A verse to share Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools. — Ecclesiastes 7:9
How republics perish If you believed America’s longest war, in Afghanistan, was coming to an end, be advised: It is not. Departing U.S. commander Gen. John Campbell says there will need to be U.S. boots on the ground “for years to come.” Making good on President Obama’s commitment to remove all U.S. forces by next January, said Campbell, “would put the whole mission at risk.” “Afghanistan has not achieved an enduring level of security and stability that justifies a reduction of our support. ... 2016 could be no better and possibly worse than 2015.” Translation: A U.S. withdrawal would risk a Taliban takeover with Kabul becoming the new Saigon and our Afghan friends massacred. Fifteen years in, and we are stuck. Nor is America about to end the next longest war in its history: Iraq. Defense Secretary Ash Carter plans to send units of the 101st Airborne back to Iraq to join the 4,000 Americans now fighting there, Vladimir Putin’s plunge into the Syrian civil war with air power appears to have turned the tide in favor of Bashar Assad. The “moderate” rebels are
being driven out of Aleppo and tens of thousands of refugees are streaming toward the Pat Turkish borBuchanan der. President Columnist Recep Tayyip Erdogan is said to be enraged with the U.S. for collaborating with Syrian Kurds against ISIS and with Obama’s failure to follow through on his dictate -- “Assad must go!” There is thus no end in sight to the U.S. wars in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq, nor to the U.S.-backed Saudi war in Yemen, where ISIS and al-Qaida have rearisen in the chaos. Indeed, the West is mulling over military intervention in Libya to crush ISIS there and halt the refugee flood into Europe. Yet, despite America’s being tied down in wars from the Maghreb to Afghanistan, not one of these wars were among the three greatest threats identified last summer by Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs. The new forces NATO is moving into the Baltic suggests we are.
Undeniably, disputes have arisen between Russia, and Ukraine and Georgia which seceded in 1991, over territory. But, also undeniably, many Russians in the 14 nations that seceded, including the Baltic states, never wanted to leave and wish to rejoin Mother Russia. How do these tribal and territorial conflicts in the far east of Europe so threaten us that U.S. generals are declaring that “Russia presents the greatest threat to our national security”? Asked to name other threats to the United States, Gen. Dunford listed them in this order: China, North Korea, ISIS. But while Beijing is involved in disputes with Hanoi over the Paracels, with the Philippines over the Spratlys, with Japan over the Senkakus – almost all of these being uninhabited rocks and reefs – how does China threaten the United States? America is creeping ever closer to war with the other two great nuclear powers because we have made their quarrels our quarrels, though at issue are tracts and bits of land of no vital interest to us. North Korea, which just tested another atomic de-
vice and long-range missile, is indeed a threat to us. But why are U.S. forces still up the DMZ, 62 years after the Korean War? Is South Korea, with an economy 40 times that of the North and twice the population, incapable of defending itself? Apparently slipping in the rankings as a threat to the United States is that runaway favorite of recent years, Iran. Last fall, though, Sen. Ted Cruz reassured us that “the single biggest national security threat facing America right now is the threat of a nuclear Iran.” “Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded,” wrote James Madison, “No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.” Perhaps Madison was wrong. Otherwise, with no end to war on America’s horizon, the prospect of this free republic enduring is, well, doubtful. (Daily Corinthian columnist Pat Buchanan is an American conservative political commentator, author, syndicated columnist, politician and broadcaster.)
Republicans launch sharp attacks in debate The CBS presidential debate in Greenville, South Carolina, started off with a moment of silence in memory of Justice Antonin Scalia, whose death was announced earlier in the day. And the debate that followed was a sort of tribute to the late jurist. Not that Scalia was much talked about. Every candidate agreed that the Senate should not confirm an Obama nominee, and all but John Kasich promised to appoint a conservative originalist. But the backand-forth had a certain resemblance to Supreme Court arguments in which Scalia typically peppered lawyers with sharp questions from the get-go. The fireworks started on foreign policy, when Jeb Bush attacked Donald Trump for accommodating Russia in Syria and Trump argued we couldn’t fight two wars at the same time: a substantive dispute over a current difficult problem. Then Trump called the Iraq War a big mistake and went on to say George W. Bush lied and said there were weapons of mass destruction when he knew there were none. This was a Democratic meme and without merit: Every intelligence agency and Saddam Hussein’s own generals believed he had WMDs. But instead of pointing that out, Bush said his father
Reece Terry
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was a great man and his brother kept America safe. To which Trump said, “The World Michael Trade Center Barone came down during your Columnist brother’s reign. Remember that.” Trump’s attacks may have antagonized some Republican voters, and on a Sunday show he withdrew his charge that George W. Bush lied. Trump later called Bush laughable and the weakest candidate. Bush said Trump disparaged women and John McCain, a parry that hasn’t worked yet, and Trump seized on Bush’s comment that if he mooned no one would notice. But Trump’s biggest target was Ted Cruz. “You probably are worse than Jeb Bush,” Trump said. “You are the single biggest liar.” Trump cited Cruz campaign emails and robocalls and called Cruz a “nasty guy,” adding that it’s no wonder Cruz doesn’t have the support of a single Senate colleague. “I am a conservative. Now, I also feel I’m a common sense conservative. Because some of the views I don’t agree with,” Trump himself said, defending his use of eminent domain; he also praised Planned Parenthood for good work
on women’s health. As FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver noted, these are not stands that are popular with Republicans. In earlier debates in New Hampshire and Iowa, Marco Rubio was the main target; less so in South Carolina. But when asked to define “amnesty,” he launched into an attack on Ted Cruz. “We’re going to have to do this again.” A Cruz amendment included legalization of illegals and more guest workers, he said, and repeated his own pledge of no legalization or citizenship until a border wall, E-verify for job applicants and effective entrance-and-exit visa tracking were effective. Less than 20 percent of Iowa and New Hampshire voters told exit polls that immigration was their top issue, but Rubio clearly realizes his lead role in the Gang of Eight bill in 2013 is a liability. His argument in effect is that Cruz is just as bad and that Cruz’s assertion that he is rock solid against legalization is another lie. Jeb Bush and John Kasich also chimed in on immigration, Kasich promising to pass a bill with a path to citizenship and Bush saying most illegals came because they “have no other choice” and should be given “a little more respect for the fact that they’re struggling.” Neither stand seems likely
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to appeal to many South Carolina Republican voters. Going negative in a multicandidate race is risky, because attacks can hurt the attacker. Trump took this risk, especially on attacking George W. Bush, and so did Jeb Bush, who hit the frontrunner most often. Cruz, more a target than an attacker here, may have been hurt as well. Rubio, less under attack, gave detailed responses on foreign policy, on defending his child tax credit, on turning welfare over to the states. He claimed to be the strongest general election candidate and was the only candidate to evoke Ronald Reagan. He also deftly laced his comments with remarks designed to appeal to religious conservatives, citing Justice Scalia’s same-sex marriage dissent, proclaiming that life begins at conception and that rights come from the Creator. What’s the result of all this back-and-forth? We’ll know next Saturday night, when the South Carolina results come in. (Daily Corinthian columnist Michael Barone is senior political analyst for The Washington Examiner, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a Fox News Channel contributor and a coauthor of The Almanac of American Politics.)
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