Joe Biden commemorated Pride Month by promising to take the fight for equality to the next level. Gay marriage was yesterday’s battle. The issue of the day is making sure that children with gender dysphoria—or “trans youth,” as Biden called them—have uninhibited access to “gender-affirming care.” By this, Biden meant often irreversible medical interventions such as puberty blockers and sexual reassignment surgery.
Read MoreTag: Progressives
Commentary: Yes, They’re Coming for Your Guns
Perhaps, like me, you’ve always had a sneaking suspicion that the un-American Left is ignorant of many things. But then they open their mouths and remove all doubt.
The most recent example comes from the gaping maw of Elie Mystal on MSNBC, where he claimed that, like everything else in this country apparently, the Second Amendment is the creation of long-dead, racist white supremacists who supported it for the sole purpose of putting down slave revolts keeping the enslaved populations in bondage. Of course, there is as much “truth” to that as there is in the 1619 Project. Progressives use such revisionist history to discredit the founders so that they can dismantle the founders’ republic.
Read MoreArizona Democrat Congressman Leads Charge to Halt Immigration Detention Expansion
A progressive member of the U.S. Congress from Arizona is asking President Joe Biden’s administration not to expand U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities, and to end contracts for private detention centers, despite the fact that illegal alien crossings at the U.S. southern border continue to surge.
“Multiple investigations into these private prisons found substandard living conditions for detained people, crowding, under-staffing, and even deaths of people in custody,” a letter signed by Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ-03) said. “And while President Biden issued an Executive Order ending the Department of Justice’s use of for-profit prisons, it does not apply to immigration detention facilities.”
Read MoreCommentary: The New ‘Blue Confederacy’
Why are progressive regions of the country—especially in the old major liberal cities (e.g., Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle)—institutionalizing de facto racial quotas through “proportional representation” based on “disparate impact”? Why are they promoting ethnic and racial chauvinism, such as allowing college students to select the race of their own roommates, calibrating graduation ceremonies by skin color and tribe, segregating campus “safe spaces” by race, and banning literature that does not meet commissariat diktats?
Why are they turning into one-party political fiefdoms separating the rich and poor, increasingly resembling feudal societies as members of the middle class flee or disappear? What does it mean that they are becoming more and more intolerant in their cancel culture, and quasi-religious intolerance of dissent, on issues from climate change and abortion-on-demand to critical race theory and wokeness?
Isn’t it strange that there are entire states and regions wholly reliant on the money and power of “one-crop” Big Tech monopolies? And why, in the 21st century no less, are Democratic-controlled counties, cities, and entire states nullifying federal law?
Read MoreCongressman Mark Green Explains the Progressive Alternative Worldview: The Triangle of Tyranny
Thursday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Congressman Mark Green to the newsmakers line to discuss the progressive alternative world view he coined as the Triangle of Tyranny.
Read MoreWashington Correspondent Neil McCabe and the Flipping of Virginia’s Gubernatorial Race
Wednesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Washington Correspondent for The Star News Network, Neil McCabe to the newsmakers line to weigh in on the Virginia gubernatorial race.
Read MoreChristian Watson National Spokesperson for Color US United
Monday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed the National Spokesperson for Color Us United, Christian Watson to the newsmakers line to discuss his latest piece referencing the absence of Black Republicans from the Black Congressional Caucus.
Read MoreFar-Left Activists Plan to Further Harass Kyrsten Sinema at Boston Marathon
Radical far-left activists publicly announced their plans to continue harassing Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) over her opposition to the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, this time with plans to follow her around at the Boston Marathon, Fox News reports.
The Green New Deal Network, an alliance of 15 far-left groups, issued a press release declaring their intent to follow and harass Sinema at the annual event on Monday, in an act known in politics as “bird-dogging.” The pressure from radical activists stems from Sinema’s refusal to support the “Build Back Better Bill,” an effort to shove through many far-left agenda items through the legislative process known as reconciliation; reconciliation, which is often reserved exclusively for budgetary matters, cannot be filibustered and thus only requires a narrow majority of 51 votes in order to pass.
Sinema, along with Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.V.), has repeatedly refused to support a bill that costs as much as $3.5 trillion, instead advocating for a reduction in the overall cost.
Read MoreProgressive Group Continues to Beat Up Arizona Sen. Sinema, This Time over Infrastructure Bill
Progress Arizona, which played a role in electing Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) to the U.S. Senate, is once again attacking the moderate Democrat, who won’t budget on her party’s proposed $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill.
“This is our moment to deliver on all of the promises that we made,” Emily Kirkland, executive director of the nonprofit, reportedly said. “She is just absolutely standing in the way of that, without making clear what she wants.”
Read MoreSCOTUS Abortion Ruling Triggers Fury at Arizona Sen. Sinema
After the Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality of a law passed in Texas banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) once again finds herself on the hot seat, facing criticism from her own party.
“Every Dem who ever gave Kyrsten Sinema a dime should demand a refund,” far-left activist Pam Kieth said on Twitter.
Read MoreCommentary: The Tyranny of Experts
The principles and policies of America’s original progressives have received renewed attention over the last decade, both in academia and in public discourse. Today’s progressive politicians and intellectuals have pointed to their roots in the original progressive movement; moreover, the connections between the original progressive calls for reform and the language and shape of our politics today have become increasingly obvious. In what follows, the relevance of original progressivism to government today will be more fully explored. There is no better place to begin than with our administrative state. This essay deals with the general principles of the administrative state and its roots in the original progressive movement.
The term “administrative state” has come to have a variety of meanings, but at its core it points to the situation in contemporary American government, created largely although not entirely by Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, whereby a large, unelected bureaucracy is empowered with significant governing authority. The fundamental question for many of those making reference to an “administrative state” is how it can be squared with government by consent and with the constitutional separation-of-powers system.
Read MoreModerate Clyburn Takes Shots at Progressive Nina Turner After Ohio Election Loss
The primary election might be finished in Ohio’s 11th District, but Rep. James Clyburn (D-MD-06), the third-highest ranking Democrat in Congress, is still making his presence felt.
“These are creations, and to say all we got out of endorsing Joe Biden was a federal holiday? That’s the kind of BS that sent me to Cleveland, I was going to stay right here in South Carolina minding my business until I got called stupid,” Clyburn told Axios.
Read MoreMinnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar Introduces ‘Guaranteed Income’ Bill
Amid the ongoing feud between progressive Democrats and their more moderate counterparts over a $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill and legislation to abolish the filibuster, one progressive House Democrat is forging ahead.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) Friday introduced a bill that would pilot universal basic income programs in certain geographic areas, before taking the program national within the next seven years.
Read MoreDemocrats Fume over Sinema’s Refusal to End Filibuster
Democrats are reacting to an opinion piece by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), published in The Washington Post, wherein she defended her stance against ending the filibuster.
“Filibuster supporters be like: we should let Republicans destroy democracy now because at some indeterminate time in the future they may try again,” said Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-NY-17), taking a subtle dig at Sinema.
Read MoreOmar, Squad Unload on Manchin over H.R. 1
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) has joined the progressive chorus in calling for the head of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who stated his opposition to H.R. 1 in an opinion piece over the weekend.
“The reason this bill has no Republican support is because it gets in the way of Republican plans to undermine elections. This bill protects our democracy from Republican attempts to dismantle it,” Omar said on Twitter, likening the Democrat to a member of the opposite party.
Read More‘Too Risky’: Progressives Are Upset CDC Lifted Mask Mandate
Progressives voiced their dismay following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated guidance that vaccinated people no longer need to wear masks indoors or outdoors.
Progressives and medical experts immediately criticized the new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) mask guidelines, arguing that the alteration was extreme and would be harmful to certain parts of the population. Others said the new guidance is confusing and disincentivizes people to get vaccinated.
“The CDC has done an about-face that’s shockingly abrupt: it’s confusing & could actually disincentivize vaccines,” Dr. Leana Wen, a George Washington University public health professor, tweeted after the announcement Thursday.
“Yes, vaccinated people are well-protected and not a threat to others,” she said in a later tweet. “But do we trust that the honor system—won’t unvaccinated people pretend to be vaccinated & stop wearing masks?”
Read MoreCalifornia Refugee and Creator of the Blog Misrule of Law Mark Pulliam Warns Conservatives Not to be Complacent
Thursday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed retired attorney and creator of the blog Misrule of Law Mark Pulliam to the newsmakers line to talk about conservative complacency and his latest piece at The Federalist.
Read MoreRep. Tlaib Bashes Dems for Income Threshold on Stimulus Checks
One Michigan Democrat is leading the charge against her own party’s proposal to put income caps on the latest batch of stimulus check.
“If they succeed (in capping stimulus checks at $50,000 in income), it would leave millions of suffering families out of this relief bill,” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-13).
Read MoreCommentary: Those Who Should Be the Defenders of Civilization Are Determined to End It
The year 2020 witnessed a long series of writs lodged against an America beset with plague, quarantine, recessions, riot and arson, and the most contested election since 1876.
What was strange was not so much the anarchist Left’s efforts in the present to wipe away the past to recalibrate our Animal Farm future. What was odder were both the absurdities of the complaints against American civilization, and the unwillingness or inability of Americans to rebut them and defend their own culture.
Read MoreNewt Gingrich Commentary: Antifa and The Left’s Civil War Against America
The news media wants to ignore the depth of the violence and the forces causing the violence and simply rerun their permanent refrain that this is all about racism (see the Washington Post story that “Racial inequality in Minneapolis is Among the Worst in the Nation” as an example).
The news media will resist deeply the idea that Antifa is a factor and that the violence is designed to hurt America.
Read MoreCommentary: The Unbearable Truths About Our Current Political Moment
Sometimes the truth is like mythical kryptonite. It radiates power and yet promises great destruction. And so reality is to be left alone, encased in lead, and kept at bay.
Take the Chinese genesis of the COVID-19 epidemic. We started in February with the usual Chinese deceptions about their role in the birth, transmission, and worldwide spread of the virus.
Read MoreDeep Divide Between Progressives, Moderates Colors Democratic Race
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Democratic Party finds itself at a crossroads at a critical time in the 2020 election cycle.
Read MoreLeahy and Carmichael Discuss Government Overreach Through American History
Live from Music Row Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – Leahy was joined in studio by all-star panelist, Crom Carmichael.
Read MoreProfessor Tiffany Jones Miller: How the Historical Progressive Education Movement Has Transformed Our Universities
In a special interview Wednesday on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – Leahy welcomed Tiffany Jones Miller, Professor of Political Science at the University of Dallas to the show. Leahy and Miller continued their discussion from last week in which they discussed the historical progressive movement of the 20-30s and it’s effects on current K-12 public education.
Read MoreCommentary: Beto O’Rourke Is a Clockwork Leftist
In an 1819 landmark Supreme Court ruling, McCulloch v. Maryland, Chief Justice John Marshall famously opined: “The power to tax involves the power to destroy.” What the esteemed Chief Justice couldn’t have foreseen was how the regressives would seek to use the power to tax to destroy revealed religions and subordinate them to the Left’s “civil religion.”
Read MoreDemocrats Turn National Defense Authorization Act Into Partisan Issue That Barely Passes House, Rep. DesJarlais Says
Democrat infighting nearly prevented passage of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act in the House of Representatives Friday, U.S. Rep. Dr. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN-04) said in a press release. The annual defense policy bill, which for 58 years has passed with bipartisan support, instead passed in the House on…
Read MoreCommentary: It’s Bernie’s Party Now
by Christopher Roach After watching two nights of Democratic primary debates, I felt like I needed more than my regular shower. The party increasingly is far-left, divided between the identity politics’ wokeness of candidates like former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro and Senator Cory Booker and the…
Read MoreCommentary: Leading Progressives Blame the Wrong Culprit for Rising College Costs
by James D. Agresti Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and certain media outlets are blaming steep rises in college costs on reduced government funding for higher education. The reality is that inflation-adjusted government spending per college student has risen by about three times since the 1960s and is now at…
Read MoreCommentary: Ignore Medicare for All Advocates’ Claims on Life Expectancy in US.
by Robert Moffit Ponder this: If self-styled “progressives” in Congress impose total government control over health care, will ordinary Americans enjoy a longer life span? Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., chief sponsor of the Senate “Medicare for All” bill (S. 1804), often reminds us that the United States spends roughly…
Read MoreCommentary: The Phrase that Launched a Thousand Grievous, Leftist Failures
by Jeffery Tucker In 1969, the salad days of New Left activism, a writer named Carol Hanisch penned an essay that the editor called “The Personal Is Political.” She was seeking to explain the ethos of the women’s therapy sessions she was running. The point was not to improve psychological…
Read MoreCommentary: The Left Is Doubling Down on Schemes to Pack the Supreme Court
by Jarret Stepman Anything the left can’t control, it aims to destroy. From campaigns to abolish the Senate to the growing movement to upend the Electoral College after Hillary Clinton’s defeat in the 2016 presidential election, progressives have few qualms about getting rid of long-standing constitutional institutions. Now they’re…
Read MoreCommentary: The Progressive Ideas That Fueled America’s Eugenics Movement
by Bradley Thomas Progressive ideology focuses on the “common good” while devaluing individual rights. This mindset, however, has disturbing consequences: when you elevate the “common good” over the rights of individuals, individuals become expendable. Such a mindset can lead to some disturbing practices. Eugenics and the Progressive Era Indeed,…
Read MoreCommentary: Progressive Leftists vs. Common Sense
by Robert Curry Have you heard this one? A federal judge has ruled that the all-male military draft is unconstitutional. How did you feel about this bit of news when you first learned of it? Did you think the ruling was ridiculous? An outrage? Did you feel hopeless about…
Read MoreDr. Carol M. Swain Commentary: Progressives’ Duplicitous Use of Abortion Activism to ‘Cull’ the Black Population
by Dr. Carol M. Swain Do black lives matter to progressives? The most obvious answer is “No.” The lives of marginalized populations have never mattered to progressives. A hint about how progressive elites think and operate is found in Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s 2009 interview with The New York…
Read MoreCommentary: It’s Time to Get Real About Our Enemies
by Karin McQuillan Out here in Realville, to borrow from Rush Limbaugh, Donald Trump’s supporters could be very happy. For ordinary Americans – from the top to the bottom of the economic spectrum, black, white and brown – President Trump has brought good times. Except for the screeching drama queens…
Read MoreWestern NC Progressive Activist Turned State Senator To Run For Lt. Governor Spot In 2020
A progressive activist from Buncombe County, North Carolina will be running for Lt. Governor in 2020. Senator Terry Van Duyn announced last December that she will seek the number two spot in the Tarheel state. I want you to be the first to know I'm running to be your next…
Read MoreCommentary: Pulling Young Americans Back From the Brink
by Daniel Davis During the 2016 campaign, Hillary Clinton often delivered the line: “America is great, because she is good.” It was a feel-good line, deployed then as code for “America is too good to elect Donald Trump.” Notwithstanding the thick irony of Clinton claiming to be the virtuous…
Read MoreCommentary: Progressive Politics Are Not Really Progressive
by Victor Davis Hanson Some progressives lamented the apparent defeat of radical progressive African-American candidates such as gubernatorial nominees Stacey Abrams of Georgia and Florida’s Andrew Gillum by blaming allegedly treasonous white women. Apparently white women did not vote sufficiently en bloc in accordance with approved notions of identity…
Read MoreCommentary: The Democratic Party’s Reckless Disregard for the Nation’s Institutions
by Jarrett Stepman Sometimes progressives do a great job of becoming caricatures of themselves. The progressive worldview is marked by a tendency to embrace utopian dreams, and a general disregard for tried and true traditions and institutions. Ted Kennedy captured this instinct in 1968 when he said, quoting George…
Read MoreNashville’s ‘La Raza Renata’ Endorses Phil Bredesen, Tweets in Spanish ‘Blackburn Me Da Heartburn’
Renata Soto, the immediate past chairman of the George Soros-supported national group formerly known as La Raza and founder of Nashville’s Conexion Americas, has endorsed Democrat Phil Bredesen for Senate, claiming in a Spanish language tweet that Republican nominee U.S. Representative Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07) gives her heartburn. La Blackburn me…
Read MoreCommentary: How Unchecked Progressives Turned California Dreamin’ into a Liberal American Nightmare
by Jeffery Rendall Our plane’s tires screeched noticeably when we touched down in California last week, the conclusion of a journey that took us across the length of the country in a little more than five hours. Along the way I gazed out the window and tried to guess…
Read MoreDNC Chair Tom Perez Dragged Through Mud By His Own Party After Supporting Cuomo
by Henry Rogers Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Tom Perez has faced constant backlash from his own party after endorsing New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the primary Thursday — breaking with his own beliefs that the DNC should not get involved in primary elections. Perez’s decision was a…
Read MoreDemocratic Party Could Be ‘Too Liberal’ For Voters, Poll Finds
It’s just one poll, but it illustrates a dynamic which will become more intense as election day approaches, and Democratic strategists seek an effective public message. An Economist/YouGov poll finds that almost half of registered U.S. voters – 48 percent – say the party is “too liberal.” Even 13 percent…
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