Townhall Review | Commentaries

Massachusetts Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has now lost whatever slim chance she had of becoming President. In the first debate between Democratic Party presidential candidates, Warren endorsed the idea of taking away private health insurance from every American who has it, and replacing it with a socialist-style, one-size-fits-all government-run health plan.

Warren will sell her plan for a government takeover of the U.S. health care system as giving more Americans “free health care,” but we all know there’s no such thing. Her ideas would not only be incredibly disruptive to hundreds of millions of Americans, but it could also limit access to doctors and care, slow medical innovation and raise taxes significantly for many across the country.

We shouldn’t be surprised that Elizabeth Warren is embracing socialist-style policies. It’s all part of the leftward lurch of Democrats seeking the presidency. The only question is who will choose to join her next.

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The stakes in the 2020 election may be higher than many Americans recognize:

A detailed look by Townhall Finance into the causes of national financial collapse—measuring hundreds of factors against scores of nations—reveals that the most reliable path to a financial collapse occurs when a nation’s leadership class turns sharply against wealth creation.

When there’s an erosion of business freedom and property rights and when government corruption, taxes and debt increase, the probability of a financial collapse goes up 3 to 5-fold.

Why should we care about how other nations have collapsed? Because large sections of today’s Democratic party are openly embracing exactly those kinds of policies.

The 2020 election is not just about the difference between a 2 percent growth rate and 4 percent growth rate.

It might be about continued growth vs. something which would make the great recession pale in comparison.

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We’ve just past the 50th anniversary of the appointment by Richard Nixon of Warren Burger as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court—June 23, 2019. Among the reflections and assessments was a comprehensive look by Professor Jeffrey Morris—available at NixonFoundation.org.

Chief Justice Burger did not turn out to be a predictable friend or foe of the man who put him on the bench. He’s actually remembered most fondly by Court historians not for any particular opinion, but for his Herculean efforts to modernize a creaky administrative structure of the federal courts and to repair relations between state and federal judiciaries.

Burger did not achieve the fame of Earl Warren, or the centrality to the Court’s decision making of the current Chief Justice John Roberts.

More vacancies could arrive soon on the Supreme Court. Each matters as much as the rest, for while a Chief Justice usually names an era, he (or in the future, she) does not define it.

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The Supreme Court has decided that a cross memorializing the fallen of WWI can remain.

As important as the ruling is, the count might be even more so. The court voting 7-2—with Sotomayor and the aging Ruth Bader Ginsburg voting against allowing the stone monument in Maryland to remain.

Let’s be clear: Writing for the majority, Justice Alito argued that tearing down this cross would not be an act of religious neutrality, it would be an act of anti-religious destruction.

No sensible person thinks for a moment that allowing that cross to stand is an endorsement of Christianity. It was a beautiful tribute honoring the service and sacrifice of the fallen.

Justice Ginsburg has become a left-wing folk hero of sorts. She wanted to tear down a cross which the mothers of the fallen erected a century ago.

Thank goodness her voice was in the minority opinion.

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Perhaps you are familiar with the magazine Teen Vogue—the edition of the fashion magazine targeting 12 and 13-year-old girls.

Now, this doesn't sound possible, but it is: Teen Vogue has published an article advocating prostitution—advocating “sex work”—to young teen girls.

The title of the piece speaks for itself: “Why Sex Work is Real Work.” The author argues such work can be, “affirming for many people who need human connection, friendship, and emotional support.”

This is unimaginable: When you consider the fact that these young girls are among the key targets of sex traffickers—and the numbers of sex trafficking crimes are skyrocketing—we’re watching more than a moral revolution.

This is an explosion. This is a moral bomb going off.

Sometimes today, parents don’t know something because they don’t want to know.

That’s not an option; not for parents who care about their children

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Well, we just found out that student debt is at an all-time high. It’s just a whisker below 1.6 trillion dollars. Yes, trillion, with a “t.”

But it’s all worth it, right? Our young people need education. Not. So. Fast.

A new study shows the average freshly-minted college grad makes almost $11,000 less annually than he or she expected—and it’s true over a wide range of majors.

What gave these young people such unrealistic expectations? One factor is easy to recognize: Our serial exaggeration of the benefits expected from a degree.

Making it worse: Tuition has soared—faster than almost any other expense category in our economy. Recruiters and marketers have in turn hyped the value of their institutions and their degrees.

It’s time to scrap the myth that all young people should go to college, and that every school and every major is worth the price.

The debt load is simply crippling.

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The collapse of the family stands at the heart of America’s most pressing, painful problems—addiction and suicide, economic inequality, educational under-performance, and even homelessness.

Recent statistics show that majorities of millennials who produce children, do so outside of marriage. A University of Michigan study indicates that an amazing 20% of young adults report no contact—none!—with their birth fathers.

In response to the crisis, the left emphasizes redistribution of wealth or more generous welfare programs.

On the right, we stress the need for religious revival to strengthen family life, despite the prevalence of divorce and out-of-wedlock birth even among the fervently faithful. We need fresh efforts to change values and culture from leaders in government, media, business, religion and education, mobilized under a two-word slogan: “Family First!”

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I’m sure I’m not alone in knowing several families that are prosperous, hard-working and deeply religious and yet lose children to the world of drugs, out-of-wedlock birth, welfare dependence and hopelessness.

It’s also increasingly common to see solidly middle-class couples who, after 20 or 30 years of seemingly successful marriage, suddenly break up, causing pain to themselves, their children and even their grandchildren. In spite of a booming economy and increased opportunity, so-called “deaths of despair”—through suicide, alcoholism or drug overdoses—have reached unprecedented levels.

This explains the seeming disconnect between our prevailing prosperity and the big majorities who believe America’s on the wrong track for our future.

The essential problem involves the collapse of family life, and with neither liberals nor conservatives addressing the issue in meaningful ways, our politics seems to offer only a sideshow rather than a solution.

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The free world recently mourned the 30th anniversary of China’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protestors in Tiananmen Square.

Although the dreams of a freer, more open China were crushed in June 1989, today in Hong Kong the voices of freedom are again speaking out against tyranny.

Hong Kong’s civil liberties and autonomy are at risk.

Youth protestors originally took to the streets to oppose legislation that would allow for extradition of criminal suspects to mainland China. Although the proposed law has been shelved, the protestors--numbering about two million at one point--continue to speak out against the government in Beijing and in favor of democracy and the preservation of liberty in Hong Kong.

There’s a temptation to ignore the cries for freedom, half a world away. But we should always stand with those who seek liberty and democracy, wherever that might be.

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With over 20 Democrats announcing 2020 presidential bids, the campaign reflects the chaos of a NASCAR race.

But already there is one defining separation in the pack: Will Democrats steer hard left with Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren or Kamala Harris, or center-left with Joe Biden?

The dangerous myth Democrats believe is that anyone can beat Donald Trump, but the polls show only Biden with a significant lead. For many Democrats, however, including young voters, Biden is old school and too moderate. They want their vote to count on some big progressive, even socialist, ideas.

So here’s the Democrats’ dilemma: The principle or the politics. Do they want to win the presidency, where Biden is their best bet, or seek to change the country but lose? We have a year to learn their answer.

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