Townhall Review | Commentaries

Chinese leader Xi Jinping is sending a message to Washington: Regardless of who is in the Oval Office, their authoritarian crackdown on Hong Kong will continue.

Beijing just passed a resolution permitting the expulsion of any Hong Kong legislators who aren’t sufficiently loyal to the Chinese Communist Party. Hong Kong’s chief executive, who is loyal to Beijing herself, immediately kicked out four legislators; prompting another 15 in the 70-seat Hong Kong legislature to resign a few hours later.

Xi and his allies are tightening the noose on Hong Kong, exerting more and more power over it. This latest action comes on the heels of a sweeping national security law passed over the summer, which installed more of China’s security apparatus in Hong Kong and significantly limited freedoms of speech and protest traditionally granted to its residents.

The Chinese Communist Party has made its intentions toward Hong Kong clear. It’s now up to the US, and our allies who believe in freedom and democracy, to stand against Beijing’s bullying.

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Republicans should be on to Georgia.

Bill Belichick—coach of the New England Patriots—had a line from his most famous news conference ever. After a 41-14 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in 2014, he answered question after question with, “We’re on to Cincinnati.”

After Joe Biden’s victory was declared by media organizations on Saturday, the mantra of Republicans for the next two months should be: “We’re on to Georgia”—because on January 5, Georgians will decide two United States Senate seats in runoff elections.

The course of the nation over the next two years is in the balance: If Republican Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler win, Americans will have divided government and compromise. If left-wing, indeed radical Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock win, the nation will see Supreme Court packing, cuts in military spending and socialized medicine.

If Trump wants a comeback in 2024, it starts in the Peach State on January 5.

We’re on to Georgia.

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For more than a quarter-century, Thomas Ricks covered the U.S. military, first for the Wall Street Journal, then for The Washington Post. He’s now directed his talents on to the Framers who shaped the Constitution of this country and what shaped them in turn.

In his book “First Principles,” Ricks provides us the reading list that we’d have to undertake to get close to the Framers’ worldview. He’s not squeamish about their collective blindness to the evils of slavery. He does dive deep into their education.

Ricks reminds us that the original patriots, worked with what they had, compromised when they were obliged to, accepted defeats and moved on. They celebrated victories but with an understanding that they were always transient.

This entire election cycle has certainly reminded us that we are today a divided nation. Yes, we’ve seen violence, but nothing near the levels of 1966-68.

But we are a free people, and we’ll remain that next year, in 10 years and 100 more after that, if we just trust the guide that nature and nature’s God gave us.

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Regardless of what happens in the presidential election, the reality is that one of the lasting achievements of Donald Trump’s administration is going to be three Supreme Court justices. The most important of them is probably the last, now Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

In one of her first cases on the court, she heard oral arguments this past week in Fulton vs. City of Philadelphia, one of the most important cases in which religious liberty is on the line to come before the court in decades.

The city of Philadelphia had targeted a Catholic adoption and foster care agency and had eliminated their contract for ongoing foster and adoption care. Why? Because this Catholic agency turned out to hold to Catholic doctrine.

The stated reason was discrimination against same sex couples. But Justice Samuel Alito identified the real reason when he said, “It's the fact that the city can't stand the message that Catholic Social Services and the Archdiocese are sending by continuing to adhere to the old fashioned view about marriage.” In other words— history Christian teaching.

The Supreme Court of the United States is poised to make history in the preservation of religious liberty, and now Justice Barret is on the court to be one of the nine to make that history—another reminder that elections have consequences.

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We’re in the midst of a hotly contested election with arguments about recounts, the legitimacy of ballots and potential legal challenges somewhat reminiscent of Bush v. Gore.

What should we do about all of this?

First, we should be clear on what not to do.

Don’t give yourself over to anxiety. Worry does not add a single hour to your lifespan or one vote to the tally of your favorite candidate.

Raising your blood pressure ten points doesn’t raise the vote count by even one point.

Instead, work and pray. Work on your daily responsibilities. Build up your family, your house of worship, your business, your friendships. That’s the long game. Then pray for a just outcome and that the law will be followed.

Keep your health, your faith, your relationships—and live to fight another day. The battle for our nation is a long one, and victory belongs to those who persevere and who keep their heads.

Peace be with you.

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We’re still waiting for the dust to settle on this year’s elections, but one thing appears extremely likely: Republicans will retain control of the United States Senate.

Credit should go to Mitch McConnell and the leadership team at the National Republican Senatorial Committee. They were left for dead by many pundits and analysts before the election but managed to pull off an impressive victory—even though they were outspent by tens of millions of dollars in crucial races across the country.

Congratulations should go to incumbent Senators Susan Collins, Thom Tillis, Joni Ernst and Steve Daines, who appear to have won reelection. David Perdue of Georgia is close to victory, and—at least as I speak—challenger John James is running ahead in Michigan. 

It was a good night for the Republican majority in the Senate. That will be hugely important, regardless of who wins the presidency.

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In the film “No Country for Old Men,” a sheriff played by Tommy Lee Jones recounts a dream he had. He saw his father riding a horse, going on ahead “to make a fire somewhere out there in all that dark and all that cold, and I knew that whenever I got there, he’d be there.”

The Coen brothers’ film wasn’t political, but these words resonate today. Hopelessness abounds; lockdowns continue; marriages suffer; children languish and politics divide.

Many years ago, a wise man said to his followers that they should love their neighbor. Christ’s words promise to galvanize us in the wake of a bitter election. We would do well to love our neighbor in these divided days.

We should not fall prey to hate or insufferability. We should go on ahead, and make a fire somewhere in the dark, and work to prepare a better country for our children—and for citizens yet to be born.

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America now goes to the polls, and more than 90 million citizens have already voted. We are participants in and witnesses to one of the greatest political achievements in the history of the world. America’s constitutional order continues—and it continues as the marvel of the world, the longest enduring government under a written constitution.

America’s voters exercise a rare privilege—to participate in choosing our own national leaders, charting our own national future, planting the flag of liberty in the soil of America once again.

So much is at stake, and we know it. Feelings run high because the issues are real. And so we vote, and so we pray.

May God grant his grace on America this Election Day. As Longfellow said, “Sail on, O ship of state. Sail on.” Indeed.

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All sides in the fiercely fought 2020 election know that it’s a consequential battle, but they should also agree on one more crucial aspect of the outcome:

America will benefit if Republicans hold their Senate majority.

If President Trump wins, he’ll face a difficult second term if Chuck Schumer and his Democrats control the Senate. He’ll get no new judges confirmed and will preside over bitter stalemate and endless backbiting.

But Joe Biden would also benefit from a GOP Senate if he wins the White House. He says he plans collaborative, bi-partisan leadership, but that’s impossible if both houses of Congress are controlled by hyper-partisan, increasingly radical, Democrats, who will push him relentlessly to the left.

Americans tell pollsters they prefer divided government: the only way to secure that preference this year is to preserve Republican Senate control to balance Nancy Pelosi’s House. Vote for GOP Senate candidates in all contested races across this country.

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Former Vice President Joe Biden is running on a campaign of returning to the Obama years. But, when it comes to foreign policy, that could end up being a disaster.

Under the Obama-Biden administration, the greater Middle East collapsed into revolution and civil war. Their administration helped overthrow the government of Libya, extending a war that has killed thousands and has drawn in a host of foreign actors. They gave arms to Syrian rebels—arms which later fell into the hands of terrorists. The Syrian Civil War has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands.

Biden’s plan includes a continuation of Obama’s interventionist ideology and a pivot away from the peace initiatives we’ve seen from Trump in the recent Abraham Accords. Biden has made a habit of picking fights and embracing bad actors.

Trump has brought the Middle East closer to peace. A President Biden may pull it back into chaos.

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