Townhall Review | Commentaries

"Courage,” C.S. Lewis wrote, “is the form of every virtue at the testing point.” We rarely see real world demonstrations of this truth, but the emergence of Volodymyr Zelensky as an inspirational wartime leader reminds us of ancient truths about the value of courage. It also reminds us how far we go astray from cardinal virtues when we live in soft times.

In the absence of crisis, Lewis also noted, we lose sight of the value of truth and virtue. New York Times columnist Bret Stephens contrasted Zelensky’s heroism with the unserious nature of Western leadership, especially in the US. The point’s well taken. In the absence of existential crisis, we’ve lost our way—manufacturing crises in attempts to redefine truth, virtue and value. 

If we want to ensure that we produce leaders with the courage and virtue of Zelensky, we need to reorient ourselves to the cardinal virtues and the promotion of truth. We need to return to those classical values before we too face an existential crisis. 

 

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Inflation is bad enough on its own, but some forms of inflation are more frightening and more destabilizing than others. 

Near the top of the list is food inflation. Sadly, when the Fed grades itself it tends to focus on something called “core inflation,” which leaves out food and energy. But instead of downplaying food and energy inflation our monetary masters should give more focus to them. 

They have a huge impact on our lives. High energy prices destabilize the world, as we see in the Russia/Ukraine war. And high food inflation tears the social fabric. When food prices rise, poor and even middle-class people start missing meals. 

Often government scapegoats “greedy” businesses and imposes price controls, which leads to shortages.

That way lies madness. 

One thing and only one thing has ever worked to whip inflation, and that is sound money. But the longer we wait, the harder it will be to wean ourselves off our addiction to easy money. 

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For the last six years, those on the left have insisted there’s no greater imperative than “protecting our democracy.” If they really believe that, they’ve got a strange way of showing it.

Take the Biden White House’s response to two new Alabama laws. One requires boys and girls to use bathrooms appropriate for their biological sex. The other prohibits doctors from performing sex-reassignment surgery on minors. The bills passed the state legislature with 4 to 1 support in the state Senate, and 2 to 1 support in the House.

Democracy—the people speaking through their lawmakers—doesn’t resonate more clearly than that. But the Biden White House didn’t applaud the operation of “our democracy;” it threatened litigation. It may try to overturn the laws in the courts.

That’s not democracy. And it makes you wonder.  When the left talks about “protecting democracy,” are they actually just insisting that they always have the right to get their way?

 

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The issue of parental rights over education in public schools might seem like something new, but we’re actually looking at a very long argument and a very long struggle. 

Jill Lepore of Harvard University has written an interesting piece for The New Yorker. She notes a parallel between the current struggle for parental rights over critical theory and gender theory, with the issue of evolution in the school system from the early 20th century.

During that struggle, just go back to a year like 1909, the progressive educator Ellwood Cubberley said, “Each year, the child is coming to belong more and more to the state and less and less to the parent.”

Those honest words were spoken over a century ago. 

Simply put: The way cultural elites gain control of children is through the public schools.

As we look to these current issues, we need to recognize that the cultural elites are at it again. They’re always at it.

Parents must wake up and act or they will find their children lost to the state, once again.

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There’s nothing worse than gangster government – politicians weaponize their office to attack an opponent. The Biden administration already did it when the Justice Department threatened to sic the FBI on parents protesting school policies on covid and CRT.

Now they’re at it again. Elon Musk has threatened the elite’s stranglehold on Twitter by trying to buy the publicly-held company and restore free speech to it. Fox Business reports the Biden DOJ and SEC have launched a joint investigation into regulatory issues involving—not Twitter—but Tesla.

Just the process of defending against government actions is punishment in itself—and no one knows that better than government lawyers. Sometimes gangster government isn’t just about retribution against a billionaire—it’s to deter anyone else from following in his footsteps.

If Musk engaged in real wrongdoing, of course he must be held accountable. But without convincing proof, the Biden administration looks all-too-willing to abuse the system just to punish a political opponent.

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Forget the red wave in the midterms. If two new polls are correct, Democrats had better prepare for an electoral tsunami the likes of which have not been seen in at least a dozen years. 

Joe Biden’s collapse over the last several months—coupled with record numbers on inflation—have done significant damage to his own standing. His job approval ratings now hover around 40 percent, but Biden does worse when voters rate his performance on the issues. A CBS poll finds that sixty percent or more disapprove of Biden’s performance on four of five issues that matter most to midterm voters: the overall economy, inflation, crime, and immigration. 

That has consequences beyond policy. A new ABC poll shows that 55 percent of GOP voters describe themselves as “very enthusiastic” about voting in the midterms. Only 35 percent of Democrats express that high level of enthusiasm, a 20-point gap that signals a despondent Biden base and a massive turnout advantage for Republicans.

Yes: The polls are effectively a tsunami warning.

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Whoa, new inflation numbers just came out and over the past year prices have gone up a whopping 8.5 percent. That’s the biggest spike since 1981. Yes: The worst inflation in 40 years.

Of course, the Biden administration and the press—but I guess I’m kind of repeating myself—are taking the same line:  It’s about the Russia/Ukraine War spiking food and energy prices, they say. 

Okay, then just for the sake of argument, let’s take food and energy out of the number. The resulting inflation is still off the charts, the highest in forty years. Although, the inflation was already setting records before the war. Our own leaders are doing this to us and blaming Putin. Harry Truman said of the presidency, “The buck stops here.”

Mr. Biden, paraphrasing Truman, ought to say, “The debasing of the buck stops here!”

Embrace growth policy. Stop scapegoating "corporate greed."

Publicly endorse sound money.

It worked for Reagan 40 years ago.

It will work now.

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This Sunday is Easter, a great celebration day for Christians.

The Church bears a mandate to proclaim the truth that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. The resurrected Lord gave the Church a sacred commission to take the gospel—the message of Christ’s victory over sin and death—throughout the world.

So, as the Church gathers to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Christians look back in thankfulness to that empty tomb and forward to the fulfillment of Christ’s purposes in us.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the promise of our resurrection from the dead, and of Christ’s total victory over sin and death.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is at the very center of the Christian gospel. The empty tomb is full of power. 

Happy Easter to all. May the joy of the resurrection be yours.

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Democrats and Republicans do not agree on much these days, but we recently got a window into what unanimous moral outrage looks like.

I'm talking about two votes of unanimous consent from the U.S. Senate condemning Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked war on Ukraine. Yes, a hundred and nothing.

Ukraine is an issue where everyone in the Senate can stand back to back, toe to toe, from Vermont's socialist Bernie Sanders to Kentucky's libertarian Rand Paul and everyone in between.

The first measure revoked Russia's most favored nation trade status. The second authorized the Pentagon to streamline arms transfers to Ukraine.

The senators, all of them, exercise collected moral judgment—and from that unanimity, perhaps we can take a step further consider the imprisoned Uyghurs, the Ayatollah’s torture chambers in Iran, the Chinese communist party's aspirations for Taiwan—and I could go on and on.

From this rare place of unanimous agreement in the Senate, we should encourage the senators to look up and out and act accordingly. Pray they do stick together and tackle what must be done and that they do so quickly.

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White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has admitted the Department of Homeland Security is planning to give illegal immigrants free iPhones.

Yes. According to Psaki, federal authorities can make use of the voice or facial recognition through the phones, along with GPS tracking, to identify someone’s location. Note that legal immigrants, however desperate their circumstances, aren’t eligible for the free phones.

The scheme’s logic—or lack of it—boggles the mind. Those who are intent on not being found will simply throw the phones away, or trade them with other illegal immigrants, thwarting the administration’s stated purpose.

But here’s the larger point: everything the Biden administration does suggests it wants to reward illegal immigration, not track those who break laws to come here. Adding a free iPhone is just the latest bit of evidence.

Good people across the world are waiting to come to our nation in accordance with our immigration laws. With this profligate program, the Biden administration is spitting in their faces.

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