Townhall Review | Conservative Commentary On Today's News

Larry Elder and John Lott, the president of the Crime Prevention Center, dig into the data concerning the true record of illegal immigrants in his state, Arizona.

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Townhall Review -- January 20, 2018

Hugh Hewitt invites Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte to explain the contentious issues on the DACA impasse in Washington, DC. Larry Elder and John Lott, the president of the Crime Prevention Center, dig into the data concerning the true record of illegal immigrants in his state, Arizona. Hugh Hewitt allows two journalists to give their opposite prognostications of Republican performance in the upcoming  midterm elections. Mike Allen tells Hewitt why a Democratic takeover the house “now looks likely.” Robert Costa contends that the Republicans still have an upper hand due to a promising economy. Prager follows with the latest news on his battle with Google and their unfair practices against PragerU and other conservative publishers on YouTube. Michael Medved honors the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by correcting the liberal media’s rewriting of King’s ideological history. Finally, Medved inserts himself into the controversy of Trump’s recently reported statements against Haiti, by rejecting the media’s extreme reaction while advising the administration to avoid language that contradicts their own merit-based immigration proposal.

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The unbounded enthusiasm for Oprah Winfrey’s prospective presidential run illustrates the Democrats’ tendency to prioritize personality above policy. Nobody knows where Oprah stands on issues of the day, or what style of governance she’d favor, but Democrats know she is a popular personality and that’s enough for them. Barack Obama enjoyed similar popularity among Democrats: his brief pre-White House career displayed few practical achievements or even a coherent philosophy, but inspiring speeches about hope and change gave him an almost magical appeal.

In approaching President Trump, of course, Democrats also prefer to ignore substance and to concentrate on style: they emphasize the president’s volatile personality and dismiss his undeniable record of first year accomplishment. Liberals would rather scold the latest presidential tweet than consider the booming economy or the lowest black unemployment rate ever measured. The GOP shouldn’t help them in this effort, but must focus relentlessly on the nation’s pressing issues rather than the president’s personality.

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Tax reform legislation signed into law by President Trump in December, which will lower taxes for most Americans this year, unfortunately did nothing to stop billions of dollars in new taxes under Obamacare from hitting millions of Americans in the wallet.

One example is the Obamacare health insurance tax, which is being paid for directly by consumers, in the form of higher premiums. So millions of us will take a direct hit, even though most people who will be paying for the tax increase don’t even realize it.

Over the next 10 years, individual market beneficiaries will pay over $2,000 more in premiums; families getting their coverage through small employers will pay over $6,000 more; and Medicare Advantage members will pay over $3,000 more.

Although Republicans did not create ObamaCare, they are in a golden position to end this tax and help bring down premiums. A failure to do so may hurt congressional Republicans when they come before the voters in this November’s midterm elections.

And that’s a risk they shouldn’t take.

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Just under 800,000 people received permits to stay and work under the DACA program. President Trump has announced the program's end. It now falls to Congress to decide the fate of the "dreamers."

A legislative deal between these competing interests is obvious: regularization of the 700,000 who can show they have not been involved in violence or criminal enterprise; a significant investment in border security, including the 700-plus miles of wall; an explicit rejection of "chain migration" entitlement or preference for the dreamers; and an end to the absurd "diversity visa lottery."

This compromise is not amnesty. A long, strong fence and additional security measures aren't the Berlin Wall, nor are their proponents totalitarians. After all the posturing and the rhetoric is done and said, my take is that a large majority of Americans can agree on this plan. Can Congress get its act together and, in a bipartisan fashion do an obviously good thing? Just do it, and then move on.

What a concept.

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The moral confusion of our culture was appallingly illustrated in a recent article in the New York Times: “Is your child lying to you? That’s good.”

The author, Alex Stone, refers to research suggesting that the children who learn how to lie the earliest are the children who turn out to be smarter. It takes a certain amount of intelligence, after all, to learn how to lie.

Your child isn’t lying? Well, don’t worry. The article supplies exercises you can do with your child to speed up the process of learning how to lie.

Stone goes on to suggest that one of the worst things parents can do is to punish a lie. Instead, he encourages parents to pay children to tell the truth.

We really are living in a world turned upside down when parents in a major American newspaper are told to celebrate when their toddlers lie and are offered tactical advice about how to teach them to lie.

It’s a catastrophe. It’s a moral world turned upside down. And that’s no lie.

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The 75th Annual Golden Globes recently awarded the prize for best drama to “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

The show is based on the dystopian novel of the same title, written by Margaret Atwood.

Hollywood would have us believe that Margaret Atwood pointed to what we’re facing now in America with the #MeToo movement. In reality, the novel was first published in 1985.

Back in 1985, Atwood was warning of about the impulse to theocracy in the Reagan administration.

Atwood basically renewed her charges of theocracy every time a Republican was elected as president.

But intellectual honesty compels us to recognize that when Margaret Atwood is talking about theocracy in her vision of dystopia, she's actually talking about any legal mechanism to regulate marriage or sexuality in a way that doesn't meet her feminist expectations.

So throw questions such as assisted reproduction and abortion and others into the mix and you pretty much have the picture of what it takes for Margaret Atwood to declare a theocracy.

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Townhall Review -- January 13, 2018

Hugh Hewitt invites Michael Oren to analyze the recent uprising in Iran in the wider context of US foreign policy to Iran. Host Mike Gallagher and Congressman Mike Gallagher delve into the subject of present US military preparedness. Mike Gallagher then asks Rona McDaniel a variety of questions on the current hot issues in Washington, DC. Hugh Hewitt brings James Hohman from the Washington Post to dissect the merits of Michael Wolff’s controversial new book on President Trump. Michael Medved looks at the White House DACA meeting between Republicans and Democrats, chaired by President Trump. Dennis Prager poses insightful historical questions to Victor Sebestyen, author of a new book on Lenin. Finally, Dennis Prager analyzes the potentially explosive tension between California and the rest of America, as the Golden State pursues extremely liberal policies that indirectly punish other states.

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Two Republican legislators in South Carolina proposed a new monument on the state Capitol grounds to honor Confederate soldiers—this time commemorating black fighting men who went to battle for the South.

This idea is both ill-considered and offensive. First, the estimated 6,000 African-Americans who did fight for the Confederacy were mostly slaves, and forced to do so—many deserted when the Confiscation Acts and Emancipation Proclamation offered freedom to those who crossed Union lines. Second, black soldiers represented less than 1 percent of the 750,000 white Confederates—and a tiny fraction of the 200,000 blacks who served the Union military.

Finally, it makes no sense to construct new memorials to those who fought against the United States in an effort to destroy our country. Yes, there may be romance and sentiment associated with the South’s “Lost Cause” but conservatives who want support from people of color must unequivocally acknowledge that this Lost Cause deserved to lose.

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Addiction was the story of 2017.

No: Not addiction to opioids, though of course tens of thousands of families are still mourning the death of a loved one to the scourge coursing through the United States.

No: Not addiction to the toxic combination of power and lust fueling the sexual misconduct scandals that burst onto the public stage in the name Harvey Weinstein.

And no, not an addiction to President Trump, either on the part of his adoring legions or his “worst enemies.”

No, the centerpiece addiction of the past year—which is widespread and still growing—is to outrage itself, to the state of being perpetually offended, to the need not only to be angry at someone or something, but also to always and everywhere be, well, hating.

We are all trapped in this ongoing carnival of venom, a national gathering of unpleasant souls.

This year, let’s throw the trend into reverse. The best way to start is a long look in the mirror.

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