Townhall Review | Commentaries

The exit of Stephen K. Bannon completes a restructuring of the West Wing that began almost as soon as the president took office and is now apparently complete. Like the physical renovation of the West Wing, it was noisy, not very attractive … but it was necessary.

What is needed now are successes in cooperation with Congress—beyond confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, the Veterans Affairs reform bill, and the 14 Congressional Review Act laws that were all enormously significant—but those were low-profile victories, and it seemed like Gorsuch was half a year ago.

What is needed above all is either a tax bill or resurrection of the health-care fix. Slashing the corporate tax rate is probably the easiest (and perhaps most economically significant) bit of legislation to accomplish—but so too must arrive the repeal of the Budget Control Act, which has devastated national security via the “sequester” and hamstrung a key Trump promise, that of a 355-ship Navy.

The staffing reset—along with a rhetorical reset from President Trump himself begun last week—can help get things moving.

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All law students taking a First Amendment course, or even a constitutional law survey course, learn the rule of Brandenburg v. Ohio, a case that grew out of a 1964 KKK rally near Cincinnati.

Brandenburg provides “that the constitutional guarantees of free speech and free press do not permit a State to forbid or proscribe advocacy of using force or of law violation except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action.”

I celebrate Brandenburg when I teach it each year. The speech at the core of that case was every bit as odious as that used by the bigots in Charlottesville this weekend. But those bigots in 1964 lacked the present ability to incite violence. Those in Charlottesville had that ability to incite violence, and they used it.

Now three are dead, including two state troopers. Others are severely injured. The investigation should be careful and professional but also resolute. Lots of people should be charged if they contributed to the mayhem that led to these deaths.

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Following the horrible events in Charlottesville, Virginia, the public seems deeply alarmed at the deep and dangerous divisions in the country.

But what are the substantive issues that actually divide the country? When it comes to hate festivals staged by neo-Nazis and the KKK, there is virtually no disagreement: nearly every American, left or right, and certainly including President Trump, strongly condemns the racial extremism of such fringe groups.

But all sides also agree they have a right to rally if they avoid encouraging or practicing violence. Meanwhile, overwhelming majorities of Americans support more economic growth, tax reform that lowers rates, better border security, health care reform that maximizes choice and slows the rise in premiums, a stronger military and a cautious foreign policy.

While the media love to dramatize bitter feuds over the president’s personality, on more substantive questions of policy, Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and leftists, are hardly as polarized are the most hysterical voices on all sides love to suggest.

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On Monday, the president gave a formal response to the alt-right, neo-Nazi violence in Charlottesville in which he denounced the KKK, racism and neo-Nazi groups in no uncertain terms. He ought to be commended for his clear statement on Monday.

But—there’s no doubt about it—he ought to have made that statement on Saturday and he ought not to have given that press conference on Tuesday.

It’s a hard lesson but a lesson that’s worth stating: presidents don’t get mulligans.

When the challenger exploded, President Reagan had Peggy Noonan to help him step up and meet his moment.

But, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, President George W. Bush chose not to go to New Orleans—and missed.

And, of course, President Obama called ISIS the jayvee team.

Unfortunately, as a president you never get back your mistakes. All you can do is make good the best you can.

Ronald Reagan had Peggy Noonan and Peter Robinson to help him—immediately—to rise to the occasion and not miss the moment.

George W. Bush had Michael Gerson and Marc Thiessen.

What President Trump needs is a similar set of talents that help him take the crisis moments and use his place of leadership to draw our fractured nation together.

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A public radio station in Berkeley, California, KPFA, recently disinvited world-renowned scientist Richard Dawkins due to his alleged “abusive speech” about Islam.

Over the years, Richard Dawkins has basically insulted the intelligence of anyone and everyone who believes in God. He has made extremely caustic comments about Christianity and every other theistic worldview, including Islam.

Dawkins says the station’s accusation that he has engaged in abusive speech about Islam is libel. Moreover, he points out, “I am known as a frequent critic of Christianity and have never been de-platformed for that. Why do you give Islam a free pass? Why is it fine to criticize Christianity but not Islam?”

Now that’s a really good question. Why is Richard Dawkins not de-platformed for criticizing Christianity, but rather for Islam? It is because of the very twisted understanding of sensibilities, the redefinition of speech, and the protection of certain groups rather than others.

The story also sadly tells us how a radio station that’s supposed to serve the public in encouraging and allowing conversation, instead can and will simply shut it down.

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Recently an Iranian drone came within 100 yards of an American F-18 in the Persian Gulf. After a U.S. Navy ship fired warning shot, an Iran Navy patrol boat charged our ship before veering away.

Recently I asked National Security Advisor General H. R. McMaster if the rules of engagement for U.S. forces operating in close proximity to the increasingly reckless Iranian forces were clear. General McMaster gave an emphatic “yes”—and also noted that President Trump would stand behind any American commander taking steps to protect his soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines.

This was a great message to hear from National Security Advisor McMaster—especially given the many dangers our forces are facing down around the planet.

He made it clear that he is—and the President is—backing up American troops in harm’s way. It’s been too many years since such a policy was explicitly stated and backed by the Commander in Chief.

Good for McMaster.

Good for President Trump.

And good for our military.

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On the campaign trail last year, Donald Trump vowed repeatedly to cut and limit federal regulations that threaten to kill jobs and restrict economic growth.

So far, he’s made good on that promise.

A study just out from the American Action Network found that in their first six months, the Trump administration has proposed regulations at a far slower rate than during a similar period of time during the Obama administration.

And for every new regulation the Trump administration has proposed, they have cut sixteen existing ones.

The impact of these changes is both dramatic and impressive. The report concludes that President Trump has imposed 1/20th of the lifetime costs, 1/11th of the annual costs, and 1/8th of the paperwork burden that President Obama did during his first 100 days in office.

Regulatory reform doesn’t grab headlines, and the mainstream media doesn’t often talk about its impact. But make no mistake. President Trump’s policy in this area will pay big dividends for America’s workers, its companies, and our nation’s economy.

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President Trump’s “fire and fury” comments about North Korea set off the predictable hyperbole among his blindly furious foes on the cable shows, few of whom seem to grasp that the North Korea crisis has been growing since almost the Armistice was signed and accelerating since Bill Clinton’s much-celebrated then and understood as disastrous today deal of 1994.

Neither George W. Bush’s nor Barack Obama’s various diplomatic overtures yielded much besides more tests, more time, and now more nukes and missiles. Blunt—indeed provocative—talk may or may not work but it can’t be said that Trump was upsetting a successful strategy put in motion by his predecessors.

The villain on the Korean peninsula is Kim Jung Un. American media in love with hating Donald Trump can continue in their patterns, but suggesting Trump is somehow the source of the problem in Pyongyang is a poker tell of incredible ignorance about the region, and perhaps a fundamental inability to report the news.

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Oregon legislators earlier in the summer adopted legislation that will now make Oregon not only the state with the most liberal abortion laws in the nation, but also the only state that will now compel all of its citizens to pay for abortion.

As the editors of the National Review commented, “Once upon a time, Democrats wanted abortion to be ‘safe, legal, and rare.’ Today, that mantra is ‘unregulated, on demand, and’—in the state of Oregon—‘free.’”

ABC News indicated just how radical this law is saying, “The Oregon bill is unique . . . in that patients would have access to the procedure for virtually any reason, at any time, including sex-selective and late-term abortions.”

Now, that’s not a conservative website or a conservative politician or theological figure making this remark. It’s ABC News noting that the radical nature of this law comes down to the fact that taxpayers in Oregon are now going to be by this legislative decree not only complicit in abortion, but complicit in abortion for any reason.

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There are still very important lessons to learn from the life and death of little
Little Charlie Gard.

Over the course of the last several weeks, no story has been as important as the tragedy of this little baby in the United Kingdom with a rare mitochondrial disease.

His story first came to world attention when his parents made a public appeal to the people of Britain and all around the world of the fact that they were no longer able to make decisions on behalf of their infant son and his health treatments.

They knew that there were experimental treatments. They raised money on their own to try to make those treatments available for their infant son.

There’s a good reason why Charlie Gard became such a focus of conversation and concern. Columnist Charles Krauthammer put his finger exactly on the issue, when he wrote: “There is only one real question. What’s best for Charlie? But because he can’t speak for himself, we resort to a second question: Who is to speak for him?”

Yes, that is exactly the question, and it has answered with parents, not with the medical establishment, nor with the government. That’s what’s at stake with this tragedy, and we dare not forget it.

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