Townhall Review | Commentaries

This is Ed Morrissey of HotAir.com for Townhall.

When the Washington Post’s editors call out a Democratic president on constitutional violations, everyone should take notice. Joe Biden and the CDC reinstated a moratorium on evictions despite a Supreme Court order forcing a deadline for Congress to act. That action “was almost certainly illegal,” the Post’s editors declared, and pointed out the obvious—that Democrats would be screaming over such defiance if it came from Donald Trump.

Biden took this step under pressure from fellow Democrats who painted themselves into a corner on the eviction moratorium. Despite a 32-day warning, Congress and the White House never bothered to take up the moratorium after the Supreme Court’s deadline. Biden and Nancy Pelosi ignored it until the last moment, and then tried blaming everyone else but themselves for the debacle. Their neglect puts millions of housing units, their residents, and their owners at risk of financial collapse.

It’s an alarming and disturbing failure of leadership made worse by Biden’s violation of his oath to the Constitution.

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Every year from April to July the publicly traded corporations hold their annual meetings. This year, my team and I made a point to attend as many as we could—challenging the pattern of corporations dabbling in divisive political causes which are well beyond management’s responsibility.

And we learned a lot. 

First—with very few exceptions—only the hard left has been showing up. Conservatives didn’t show up and lose. We simply forfeited. 
                                  
Second, even one or two people can at least change the debate when it comes to gigantic multi-billion-dollar companies. 

And last—many CEOs themselves are fed up with activists pushing them around and are only trying to protect themselves from reputational assaults. 

Conservatives need to get out of gripe mode and into engage mode. Plan to use the authority you have based on what is already in your 401(k) next time around, because woke capitalism isn’t going to fix itself. 

Investors hold the final authority, and it’s time to use it. 

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Thanks to American investment and innovation, we produced at least three COVID-19 vaccines that have a real-world effectiveness of over 99 percent against hospitalization and death. Those vaccines are now readily available everywhere in the country, and half of the nation has become fully immunized.

The CDC now wants these Americans—and all Americans—to mask up all over again. The CDC’s own data on breakthrough cases, even while the Delta variant dominates, shows that vaccinated people have nearly no risk at all from exposure.

By demanding that the vaccinated wear masks, the CDC erodes the incentive among the hesitant to get the vaccine, while setting incentives that practically guarantees perpetual mask mandates—a point that has not gone unnoticed by many on the right.

Rather than coddle the entire nation with universal mask mandates, the proper policy should be to put the burden of choice on the shoulder of each individual and family.

That, after all, is a more American approach.

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California Governor Gavin Newsom has new reason to worry about his future, and California voters have reason for hope about theirs. A new poll from U.C. Berkley shows a jump in support for recalling the governor, with the electorate evenly split on the question. 

Recalls should be reserved for cases of absolute incompetence or corruption. Newsom has offered both in his response to the pandemic.

He locked down the warm-weather state, which forced social interaction indoors where transmission risks are highest, rather than keep outdoor venues open. 

He imposed onerous mask and distancing mandates, while conspicuously violating them himself on multiple occasions.

And Newsom has kept schools shuttered while sending his own children to in-school learning at private schools.

His shameless elitism deserves the strongest possible rebuke from voters. The incompetence with which Newsom has managed this pandemic adds to the urgency of replacing him. California voters have a real opportunity to send a message about accountability to the governing class.

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It appears there’s a basic agreement between congressional Republicans and the Biden administration about a one trillion dollar infrastructure bill. There shouldn’t be. Our baseline of spending is already at historic highs, plus there were several Covid relief bills adding up to several trillion dollars. It’s becoming clear that what financial economist, Rob Arnott said to me on a recent episode of my podcast, Meeting of Minds with Jerry Bowyer is true, neither party is fully committed to small government:

“My core political principles are really simple: It’s personal liberty, economic freedom, respect for the constitution, and limited government. For 2020, I don't know which party showed respect for any of the four.”

It’s a bad sign for the future. The American fiscal freight train has discarded its own brake lever. 

If we are going to avoid the kind of debt and currency crises which have brought other countries to their knees, it’s going to take some willpower.

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Democrats have doubled down on radical indoctrination in schools with their embrace of Critical Race Theory. School boards and teachers unions have rushed to implement CRT into their curricula, in some cases while avoiding parental notification. Even as these education leaders refuse to reopen schools to children, they now plan to use their near-monopoly on education to push this highly controversial ideology.

It’s already begun to backfire. Parents have begun demanding answers from school boards and campaigned to unseat their members. Politico reports that even Democratic voters are repelled by these plans and that the radical efforts have fired up independent and conservative voters.

The combination of closures and radical agendas have handed Republicans their best opening in decades. With parents under attack by the education establishment, now is the time to demand comprehensive school choice. The choice between liberty and bureaucratic domination over children is now crystal clear in all demographics and areas.

The GOP needs to wake up to this golden opportunity.

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South Africa has been plunged into a heartbreaking, violent mess, triggered by supporters of now-imprisoned former president Jacob Zuma. It looks like an attempted coup.

It’s also a warning for Americans. Starting in 1999, the African National Congress party in South Africa pursued the kind of policies the racial “equity” proponents are pushing here today. Businesses had to meet racial quotas. Government contracts were awarded based only on race.

The consequences have been disastrous. While a small black elite has grown rich, 63 percent of young black South Africans are now jobless and desperately poverty-stricken. No wonder they’ve taken to the streets.

A 2021 survey by the Institute of Race Relations shows how badly the race-centered approach to South African public policy failed. Only 3 percent of black South Africans say racism is a serious problem. But 83 percent fully or partly agree that “Politicians are talking about racism to excuse their own failures.” 

Of course. That’s what they do here, too. 

We shouldn’t let them get away with it.

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In his majority opinion in the 1943 case of West Virginia v. Barnette, Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson wrote, “…compulsory unification of opinion achieves only the unanimity of the graveyard.”

It stands as one of the great holdings in First Amendment jurisprudence. 

The Biden administration has essentially taken the opposite view: that only through the elimination of dissent can we truly be free. Thus, the rollout of Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy’s Truth Ministry.

The same social media platforms that banned a certain former President of the United States aren’t doing enough to quash cognitive dissonance on COVID, says Minister Murthy.

“Misinformation” must be banned to “save lives,” they say. 

What constitutes misinformation? Who decides?

Any statement that doesn’t come from a “credible source,” they say.

Which are the credible sources? Who decides?

We get no answers to questions that would define the parameters of legitimate discussion because the Surgeon General isn’t interested in winning an argument or even making one, but rather only in enforcing an opinion.

And to the graveyard goes a free society.

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Over the past weeks, Americans have seen the Cuban people fighting for liberation from a communist regime that’s oppressed them for more than half a century—despite the media’s shameful reluctance to cover these events.
Our country has long considered itself a friend to oppressed people everywhere—especially those living under the boot of Communism. That’s why it was disgraceful to hear President Biden’s Secretary of Homeland Security—himself Cuban-born—sternly warn the Cubans they weren’t welcome here in the United States.

What makes this behavior doubly shameful is that the Biden administration has essentially lifted all restrictions at America’s southern border, where migrants under no immediate threat are streaming in.

It’s enough to make a cynic think the Biden administration only welcomes migrants it believes it can convert into Democratic voters. And surely Cubans, fresh from a Communist hellhole, will have no patience with the creeping socialism espoused by too many Democrats these days.

Whatever the reason, desperate Cubans deserve better from their American neighbors.

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There’s a reason freedom of speech is part of the First Amendment to our Constitution. The right to speak freely, without being silenced by the government, is a distinguishing feature of liberty. Without it, criticism of crooked government and bad policy can be silenced. Corruption flourishes in the darkness of silence.

These principles have been a foundational part of American political life since our country’s founding. That’s why it was so shocking to hear President Biden’s spokeswoman admit that The White House was flagging posts for Facebook to censor. Even worse, the next day she doubled down, insisting that those banned from one site should be banned from all others.

Since when did government work with companies to suppress the speech of American citizens? The answer to incorrect speech (or misguided opinions) is more speech, not government-enforced silencing. There must be loud, sustained pushback on this pernicious slide into soft authoritarianism.

Sometimes, countries don’t lose their freedom with a bang, but with a whimper.

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