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Kamala Harris as VP Shatters the Myth of the ‘Glass Ceiling’

Kamala Harris’s apparent election as vice president is historic. However, it does not represent a shattering of the “glass ceiling,” because the glass ceiling is a political myth pushed by progressives for overtly political ends.

If, as appears likely, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-California) has been elected Vice President of the United States, it is, indeed, historic and should be recognized as such. But can we please dispense of the tired and shopworn notion that her election breaks some “barrier” and “glass ceiling”?

Nothing could be further from the truth. In the United States of America, there is no  real “barrier” stopping women from professional achievement.

The “glass ceiling” is a political myth pushed by “progressive” or left-wing activists whose real aim is to increase the government’s control over our lives—ostensibly to end discrimination and eliminate social and economic disparities between men and women.

Female Representation. But it is 2020, not 1920 or 1820. Today in the United States, women are well represented in all walks of life and even predominant in some fields, such as pharmaceutical science (61 percent), medical and life sciences (71 percent), and public relations (63 percent).

“Women account for roughly 40% of the country’s physicians and surgeons, up from about 26% in the late 1990s,” reports Quartz “A full 57% of college degrees awarded in 2018 were given to women, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.”

Women outnumber men in law school. Three Supreme Court Justices—Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Amy Coney Barrett—are women.

President Trump’s Ambassador to the United Nations (Nikki Haley) was a woman. Presidents Obama and George W. Bush had female Secretaries of State (Susan Rice and Condoleezza Rice, respectively).

There are a record number of women—26 senators and 101 representatives—serving in Congress.

The “glass ceiling,” if it ever existed, was shattered a long time ago. Yet, numerous commentators have been falling over themselves to laud Harris’s election as a “breakthrough” achievement that lays waste to yet  another “barrier.”

Harris herself, moreover, lauded Vice President Biden for having the “audacity to break one of the most substantial barriers that exists in our country: [by] select[ing] a woman as his vice president.”

Admittedly, this is good politics, but it’s also complete nonsense unsupported by any empirical evidence.

Disparities. It is true that women often earn less than men and that disparities still exist. But this is not because of “discrimination” and “sexism.”

Instead, it is because of professional and career choices that women sometimes make, which limit their time in the workforce and constrain their earnings and professional advancement.

For example, according to the U.S. Census Bureau:

Female attorneys work full-time, year-round on average more than the average for all working women (82 percent vs. 63 percent), but less than male attorneys (85 percent).

They also are more likely to work for the government and less likely to be self-employed than their male colleagues.

All this contributes to differences in median earnings between women and men, with a female-to-male earnings ratio for full-time, year-round attorneys of 76 percent, lower than the 80 percent average across all occupations.

As a wiseman once said, “facts are stubborn things.”

“Equal pay for women has been the law of the land for more than a half-century,” with a wide array of legal remedies available to litigants, writes Gerald Skoning in the Wall Street Journal.

Consequently, no one can legitimately claim women earn less than men for the same work.

Pay “disparities” between men and women generally reflect other factors such as interrupting a career to raise children, the types of jobs men and women on average choose, the type of education they have (sociology vs. engineering), etc.

Politics and History. So yes, the election of a female vice president is an historic milestone that should be duly noted. But let’s not pretend that Harris’s election represents some triumph over a genuine barrier—legal, cultural or otherwise—that she had to “break through” and “overcome.”

To the contrary: Harris surely benefited from the fact she is a woman and a woman of color, as they say, from a big and diverse state. Would Biden, after all, have selected her as his VP if she were a male senator representing, say, Montana?

Of course not.

Harris, remember, flopped in a big way during the Democratic primaries, where she failed to garner popular support—even amongst black women, who much preferred Joe Biden.

Antiquated Myth. Let us, then, retire the antiquated notion of a “glass ceiling” or “barrier” that women must “overcome.” This is a progressive political myth designed for overtly left-wing political ends.

Women today are full and equal citizens, with full and equal rights and opportunities; and the glass ceiling was shattered long, long ago. Good riddance.

Feature photo credit: Sen. Kamala Harris (D-California) courtesy of Doug Mills, New York Times, published in the San Antonio Express-News.

Trump’s Ignorance of the Taliban Undermines America’s Negotiating Posture in Afghanistan

As we’ve explained, pursuing a diplomatic solution in Afghanistan after nearly 19 years of fighting makes sense, but only if we are clear-eyed and sober-minded about who the Taliban are and what they are about.

And only if we maintain a firm and steadfast commitment to the legitimately elected government of Afghanistan and are willing to walk away from negotiations if the Taliban renege on their agreements and act in bad faith.

Unfortunately, as we reported Monday, President Trump appears to have little to no understanding of the Taliban, and the only thing he seems firm and steadfast about are bugging out of Afghanistan and withdrawing U.S. troops there.

Weakness. Trump’s palpable and pathetic rhetorical weakness vis-à-vis the Taliban undermines America’s diplomatic leverage and make it immeasurably more difficult to secure an enduring and sustainable agreement which protects U.S. security interests and the Americans homeland.

This is especially true give that the Taliban do not view negotiations in the same way as we do. For the United States and other democracies, negotiations are a means to reconcile differences and arrive at a mutually beneficial accord or modus vivendi. 

Not so for the Taliban. As Gen. Jack Keane (Ret.), told the Heritage Foundation Jan. 28, 2020:

The Taliban leadership position is very clear. Their top priority is to get the United States to sign an agreement to withdraw completely. They are willing to make just about any statement to get that, any promise to get that.

They’ll do a ceasefire to get that. They’ll promise negotiations with the Afghans to get that. And why do they want that?

In their words, it’s a massive boost to the movement. It amounts to a  U.S. admission of defeat, and it guarantees the legitimacy of their Islamic Emirate, which is what they call Afghanistan.  

They believe the agreement will help tip the military and diplomatic balance in favor of the Taliban, and help them to eventually overthrow the Afghan government. [That is] something they have never, ever given up [on].

The [Taliban] leaders are explicit. The agreement with the United States is a means of taking control of the Afghan government, not reaching a political settlement


They don’t want a political settlement. They don’t want to share power. They don’t want to participate in a democracy.

Why is that? They’re very practical. [Some] 85% of the country reject the Taliban [and have rejected them] for 19 years. This in the most unpopular insurgency in modern times.

“The Taliban,” writes Bloomberg’s Eli Lake, “has always considered itself Afghanistan’s legitimate government in exile. This is why it sends its minions to attack polling places during elections, as it did last year.”

In short, the Taliban are not a legitimate political faction that simply wants a place at the decision-making table. To the contrary: they are hardcore fanatics, who have never wavered in their goal of reconquering all of Afghanistan and establishing a so-called Islamic Emirate there.

Yet, Trump acts like the Taliban are just another negotiating partner; and that negotiating a peace deal with them is no different, really, than negotiating a real estate deal with a mob boss or union official in Atlantic City. You split the differences and everyone walks away happy and content.

Negotiations. But that’s not how the Taliban think. They think that negotiations are a way for them to impose their will on a weak American president who wants out of Afghanistan, and to overthrow what they see as an illegitimate government in Kabul that has no right to rule.

It would help America’s negotiating posture if Trump showed some indication that he understands this. Instead, he repeats discredited Taliban propaganda that they are “tired of fighting.”

No, Mr. President, the Taliban are not tired of fighting. The Taliban fight—and negotiate—to win. And their continued fighting is the real obstacle to peace in Afghanistan.

Feature photo credit: France 24.

How to Prevent a Nuclear War in Ukraine

Deterrence, strength, and resolve are critical now, not weakness and fear.

With the Russian military reeling from massive casualties, defeats, and a surprise Ukrainian counteroffensive, Vladimir Putin has resorted, once again, to nuclear saber-rattling. Putin himself warned today that he is “not bluffing” about his willingness to use nukes. A key Putin ally, meanwhile, threatened London with a nuclear strike.

Of course, such talk is utterly reckless and dangerous and ought to draw worldwide condemnation. But how should the West—and specifically the United States and NATO—respond? Well, we need to remember several key things:

  • First, Russian nuclear saber-rattling is nothing new. It was commonplace in the Cold War and, unfortunately, remains a staple of Russian foreign policy today. Yet, despite decades of this reckless talk, Russia never actually resorted to using nukes; and there is little reason to believe it would resort to using nukes in Ukraine today.
  • Second, during the Cold War, Russian nuclear saber-rattling did not paralyze American presidents, Democrat and Republican, and it should not paralyze President Biden now. Nor did Russian nuclear saber-rattling paralyze NATO during the Cold War, and it should not paralyze NATO now.

The West cannot be intimidated and forced to back down each and every time Russia threatens to use nukes. If the West had respond in this way during the Cold War, the West would have lost the Cold War.

  • Third, Russian nuclear saber rattling is a reflection of Russian weakness, not Russian strength. As Dr. Mike Martin of King’s College in London points out in The Telegraph this morning:

The Ukraine war has already hollowed out much of the Russian armed forces. This includes the sending of its training battalions into combat, and so the trainers of these mobilised reservists are, in many cases, already dead.

As for equipment, very few Russian soldiers even get body armour, and so much equipment has been destroyed by the Ukrainians that they are already having to press Soviet-era equipment into service.

Most of it belongs in a museum not on a modern battlefield.

Putin is sending these people to their deaths. The Ukrainian armed forces have killed tens of thousands of professional Russian soldiers with the best equipment that Russia could supply. What will they do with this mobilised reserve?

…Putin has shown us this morning that he is not strong, but that he is weak.

Exactly. Russia is losing the war and its military faces the very real prospect of collapse. Putin is resorting to nuclear saber-rattling out of desperation.

  • Fourth, if Russia uses tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine, this will not change the course of the war. It will not reverse Russia’s battlefield losses or its inability to conquer Ukraine.

Instead, all it will do is result in a more horrific loss of life and the very real danger of nuclear contamination blowing back on Russian military forces and the Russian populace. Putin surely knows this, or at least his military advisers surely know this.

  • Fifth, Putin alone cannot launch nuclear weapons. He would need the buy-in of an entire military, and possibly civilian, chain of command. And it is by no means obvious that all of these officials would be so stupid and so reckless as do the unthinkable.
  • Sixth, if Russia becomes the first and only country to use nuclear weapons since the Second World War nearly 80 years ago, it will seal its fate as a country thoroughly isolated and shunned for two or three generations at least.

Russia currently enjoys the good offices of China, Turkey, Israel, and India. All of these good offices end the minute Russia crosses the nuclear threshold and does the unthinkable. Putin knows this, and it is a big reason why he is highly unlikely to employ nukes in Ukraine.

  • Seventh, the West does not have to respond in kind, with a retaliatory nuclear strike, if Russia employs nuclear weapons in Ukraine. In fact, the West should not do so and almost certainly will not do so.

Why? Because that is completely unnecessary from a military standpoint. NATO has more than sufficient conventional military means to destroy the Russian military in Ukraine and should do so if Putin launches a nuclear weapon there.

Moreover, by responding in kind, NATO and the United States cede the moral and diplomatic high ground in Ukraine. Why do so when that is completely unnecessary?

Ceding the moral and diplomatic high ground risks driving away China, Turkey, Israel, and India, all of whom can then say, in effect, “A pox on both your houses.”

  • Eighth, the only time the West should launch a nuclear strike on Russia is if Putin launches a nuclear strike on a NATO country.

In other words, if Russia nukes Warsaw or London, then the West responds in kind with a retaliatory nuclear strike on Moscow. But if Russia nukes Ukraine, then NATO enters the war, destroys the Russian military there, and quickly ends the war with conventional weapons.

That at least is what should happen. Let us hope and pray that that is what President Biden, Prime Minister Truss, and other NATO leaders are communicating privately to Russian government officials.

  • Ninth, the way to prevent nuclear war is through the time-tested method of deterrence, which served us well during the Cold War. Weakness and fear are provocative and could well result in a miscalculation by Putin.

The Russians should be under no illusions. If they use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, NATO will enter the war, quickly decimate and destroy the Russian military there, and end the war. And if Russia ever dared to launch a nuclear strike on a NATO country, it would result in the utter destruction of Moscow.

That is how we can and will prevent the unthinkable from ever happening. Pray for peace, but prepare for war.

Feature photo credit: YouTube screenshot of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, courtesy of CNN.

Biden’s Meek Response Jeopardizes the Safety of Supreme Court Justices

To prevent a violent calamity, the President needs to demand that thuggish left-wing protesters stand down or be prosecuted.

If one or more of our Supreme Court Justices is attacked, injured, or God-forbid, assassinated, it will be because President Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Congressional Democrats failed to forthrightly condemn, while sometimes implicitly encouraging, the thuggish behavior of “progressive” agitators, who have targeted the Court’s conservative justices for harassment and intimidation.

That may sound harsh and hyperbolic, but unfortunately—and alarmingly—it is true.

As we noted yesterday, far-left radicals have published the home addresses of six “extremist justices” whom they have placed in their political crosshairs. And Biden, Pelosi, and Schumer have raised nary a peep of concern, let alone outrage and condemnation.

Meek Words. Oh, to be sure, after being criticized for not condemning the thuggish protesters, Biden finally and belatedly sent out his press secretary, Jen Paski, to issue a meek, pro forma call  for “peaceful protests.”

But as The Dispatch’s Stephens Hayes points out, this was a box-checking exercise— “putting out a statement to put out a statement.” Notably absent was a clear, full-throated denunciation of the agitators’ intimations of threats and violence.

And make no mistake: that’s what we’re dealing with. As National Review’s Rich Lowry observes:

These weren’t run-of-the-mill protests. No one doubts that demonstrations have an important role in showing popular support for, or passion around, a given cause. No, these protests were—and were meant to be—threatening.

There’s no reason to go to the homes of the justices unless it is to send the message that people outraged by their prospective decision know where they and their families live. In other words, to the justice who dares say that Roe and Casey have no constitutional basis: Beware.

“We hate to say this,” warns the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board, “but some abortion fanatic could decide to commit an act of violence to stop a 5-4 ruling. It’s an awful thought, but we live in fanatical times.”

Political Violence. Indeed, and that’s what makes these threats so ominous and real: that, in recent years, we have seen venomous leftists violently assault Constitutional officeholders.

Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), for instance, was badly beaten up outside of his home in a wholly unprovoked, violent assault by an angry left-wing partisan. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana) suffered life-threatening injuries during a Congressional baseball game after a man with a pathological hatred of Republicans opened fire on him and other GOP lawmakers.

The Senate, consequently, has approved a measure that provides security for the families of all nine justices. “The risk is real,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told CBS News.

Yet instead of recognizing this risk and confronting this threat, Speaker Pelosi has championed the thuggish protesters for “channel[ing] their righteous anger into meaningful action: [by] planning to march and mobilize and make their voices heard.

This is the same Nancy Pelosi who has hyperventilated incessantly about the “threat to our democracy” from the “January 6 insurrection.”

The January 6 riot was bad and President Trump should ave been been impeached and convicted because of it, but it was no insurrection, and our democracy was never in jeopardy.

The legitimacy of the Supreme Court, by contrast, is being viciously attacked and, as a result, the lives of several Supreme Court justices are now in jeopardy.

President Biden needs to step up and speak out before it’s too late—before some left-wing goon decides to take it upon himself to “save democracy” from five or six “extremist justices.”

Speaking out against these fascist agitators is the right thing to do—especially for a president who promised, in his Inaugural Address, to bring us together to “fight the common foes we face: anger, resentment, hatred, extremism, lawlessness, violence…

“I ask every American to join me in this cause,” Mr. Biden declared, because “we have learned again that democracy is precious. Democracy is fragile.”

Yes, it is. Which is why, at this particular moment in our nation’s history, we need presidential leadership: to help avert a violent calamity that would destroy the people’s faith in our institutions and rub raw the wounds of division.

Yet the President is missing in action. If Mr. Biden meant what he said in his Inaugural Address, then he will speak out now—clearly, forcefully, and with conviction—and insist that the thuggish left-wing agitators stand down or be prosecuted.

History is calling and the fate of our democracy is at stake.

Feature photo credit: Screenshot of radical agitators protesting outside the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, courtesy of a tweet from Douglas K. Blair.

Trump’s Affinity for China’s Dictator, Xi Jinping, Made Him Blind to the Coronavirus

Much has been made of Trump’s affinity for foreign dictators and strong men—how Trump seems to like them personally and to view them as friends and kindred spirits with whom he has “a great relationship.”

We’ll leave it to the shrinks and psychiatrists to figure that one out. But whatever the motivation, Trump’s affinity for foreign dictators and strong men is a real problem: It perverts the policy-making process and makes him blind to real and pressing problems and gathering threats.

Unfortunately, the coronavirus is a case in point. The Washington Post reports that, in early January, U.S. intelligence agencies began warning Trump of the danger poised by the outbreak of the coronavirus in Wuhan, China.

Trump, though, didn’t want to hear it and dismissed the threat as exaggerated and misplaced.

The reason: his “friend,” Chinese dictator Xi Jinping, was telling him not to worry. And Trump seems to have placed greater stock in what Xi was telling him than in what he was hearing from U.S. intelligence agencies.

The Post’s Shane Harris, Greg Miller, Josh Dawsey, and Ellen Nakashima report:

[In early February], Robert Kadlec, the assistant secretary for preparedness and response—who was joined by intelligence officials, including from the CIA—told [Senate Intelligence] committee members that the virus posed a “serious” threat, one of those officials said.

Kadlec didn’t provide specific recommendations, but he said that to get ahead of the virus and blunt its effects, Americans would need to take actions that could disrupt their daily lives, the official said. “It was very alarming.”

Trump’s insistence on the contrary seemed to rest in his relationship with China’s President Xi Jinping, whom Trump believed was providing him with reliable information about how the virus was spreading in China—despite reports from intelligence agencies that Chinese officials were not being candid about the true scale of the crisis.

Some of Trump’s advisers told him that Beijing was not providing accurate numbers of people who were infected or who had died, according to administration officials. Rather than press China to be more forthcoming, Trump publicly praised its response.

“China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus,” Trump tweeted Jan. 24. “The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!”

Unfortunately, this was not the only instance of Trump broadcasting his cluelessness and gullibility for all the world to see. Here are some other gems:

Half Measures. Trump and his apologists make much of the fact that, on Jan. 31, he banned most foreigners who had recently visited China from entering the United States.

But in truth, this was a modest, half measure that did little to arrest the virus’ spread because of the lack of rapid and comprehensive testing to identify, isolate and contain the virus in the United States.

Why didn’t Trump push for rapid and comprehensive testing? The public record and reputable newspaper reporting all point to one reason: because Trump believed his “friend,” Xi: that it will all work out well.

And besides: Trump worried that focusing too much on the coronavirus would spook traders and cause a downturn in the stock market.

Yet, as recently as yesterday, during a press conference, Trump professed ignorance about what was happening inside of China— even though his own intelligence advisers had been telling him for weeks what was happening there.

Trump, moreover, was still sucking up to his “friend,” Xi:

I have great respect for China. I like China. I think the people of China are incredible. I have a tremendous relationship with Xi. I wish they could have told us earlier about what was happening inside. We didn’t know about it until it started coming out publicly.

Balderdash! Trump obviously knew about the coronavirus and its rapid spread in Wuhan, China . And if he didn’t know, it was only because he chose to ignore his own intelligence advisers and to remain willfully ignorant.

Either way, Trump has been derelict in his duty and is unfit to lead. If he were a better man, he long ago would have resigned in disgrace. The problem is that Trump knows no embarrassment and no shame.

Feature photo credit: Thomas Peter/Getty Images in Politico.

Why Are Some Conservatives Lukewarm about Juneteenth?

Juneteenth properly understood is a worthy American holiday. However, it also reflects the Left’s attempt to make victimhood central to our nation’s historical narrative so as to effect a radical political transformation. 

America’s newest holiday, Juneteenth, commemorates the end of slavery and the emancipation of African Americans. That is, obviously, a good thing and worthy of national commemoration. Yet, for reasons that are typically not well articulated, the holiday doesn’t sit well with many Americans, especially some political conservatives. Why?

Not, obviously, because these Americans are racists who support slavery or lament its demise. (Please. Let’s be serious.) Instead, the reason is inherent in the rationale put forth by many left-wing advocates for Juneteenth.

Racist Nation. To the Left, Juneteenth is another way to remind America of its sins and to heap opprobrium on the American founding. America, they insist, was founded upon slavery and genocide, and Juneteenth is another way to remind America of its allegedly racist founding and irredeemably racist past.

This, sadly, has become the dominant historical narrative in America today. It is what is taught in the schools, but it is far from universally accepted—and many of us on the Right beg to differ.

There’s also the fact that the Juneteenth is two weeks before July 4, Independence Day, and is officially called “Juneteenth National Independence Day.” For this reason, Charlie Kirk calls Juneteenth “a CRT-inspired federal holiday that competes with July 4th.”

CRT, of course, is Critical Race Theory, which is now being foisted upon young schoolchildren and it is pernicious.

CRT, as Andrew Sullivan observes, is designed

to cement the notion at the most formative age that America is at its core an oppressive racist system uniquely designed to exploit, harm, abuse, and even kill the non-white.

This can be conveyed in easy terms, by training kids to see themselves first and foremost as racial avatars, and by inculcating in them a sense of their destiny as members of the oppressed or oppressor classes in the zero-sum struggle for power that is American society in 2021.

“If Juneteenth is really about emancipation,” asks Kirk,

why not… September 22, 1862, when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation? Or January 1, 1863, when the Proclamation took effect? Or December 18, 1865, with ratification of the 13th Amendment?

Because it’s not about emancipation, which is one of America’s great moral achievements. It’s about creating a summertime, race-based competitor two weeks before July 4th, which should be the most unifying civic holiday on the calendar.

Independence Days or Daze. National Review’s in-house historian, Dan McLaughin, says Juneteenth is a worthy American holiday. However, he acknowledges that the Left is trying to use the commemoration for illicit and nefarious purposes.

For this reason, he urges Congress to “change back the name of the holiday to take out the ‘National Independence Day’ part, which is agitprop.”

We already have an Independence Day, which was celebrated throughout the United States long before 1865. It is also not what the people who actually created the Juneteenth holiday and celebrated it for over a century called it. It is Juneteenth, and Juneteenth is all the name it needs.

That certainly would help, but the larger-scale problem will remain. To wit: the Left is intent on exploiting the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, and racism writ large to condemn America as an illegitimate nation that must be “fundamentally transformed” and “reinvented” along Marxian and socialist lines.

Victimhood. That’s why victimhood is central to the Left’s narrative of American history. That’s why ethnic and racial history of official victim groups—blacks, women, Hispanics, Asian Americans, et al.—is the only real history that we publicly celebrate now.

Black History Month, for instance, is widely touted by federal agencies, corporations, and the media, but not Italian-American Heritage and Culture Month. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday is a widely celebrated holiday, but not Columbus Day. Why?

Because blacks are considered victims; Italian Americans are not. King is seen as an avatar against injustice; Columbus is seen as a perpetrator of injustice.

Group Hierarchy. Since the Left’s intent is to highlight America’s sins, real and imagined, blacks and other victims get pride of place in the American story; everyone else has to sit in the back of the bus—assuming, that is, they are lucky enough even to get a seat on the bus.

Juneteenth should be commemorated as an American triumph made possible by our nation’s founding principles and by the Judeo-Christian faith and goodness of the American people. But given that that is not how many Juneteenth advocates see it—to them, the holiday underscores our nation’s irredeemably racist nature—Americans can be forgiven for being lukewarm about the holiday.

Feature photo credit: Penn Today.

The Russia Nuclear Weapons Excuse for American Appeasement 

It’s gained currency, especially on the Trumpian Right, as a result of the Wagner Group insurrection, but it remains a dangerous and specious idea.

The Wagner Group’s armed rebellion against the Russian military has inspired hope that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin might soon be ousted from power and, with that, Russian forces withdrawn from all of Ukraine.

Yet, this good news has been met with skepticism by some, especially right-wing apologists for Donald Trump, who warn that Russia has thousands of nuclear weapons; and that political instability in Russia might result in “loose nukes,” which could threaten the world with nuclear armageddon.

The Trumpians. For this reason, say the Trumpians, the United States should be wary of “regime change” in Russia. The implication is that we are better off with the devil we know (Putin) than the devils we don’t know (Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin and perhaps other warlords who might rule over different parts of a fractured and divided Russia).

As Rebekah Koffler, a former U.S. defense intelligence officer, told Fox News this morning:

There’s a real threat of an armed insurrection in Russia, which possesses six thousand nuclear weapons. A lot of them are pointing at the U.S. homeland. And any kind of instability [in Russia] is not good for anyone.

The Chimera of ‘Stability’. But should American foreign policy really be wedded to Russian status quo “stability” because of a fear that Russian nukes might end up lost, unaccounted for, and in the hands of a deranged warlord?

Of course, it goes without saying that the United States has a vital national interest in ensuring that Russian nuclear weapons are retained and controlled by a legitimate, responsible, and competent state actor. But there is real reason to doubt that the Putin government is any of those things.

The Russian dictator has regularly brandished his country’s arsenal of nuclear weapons, while intimating that he is prepared to use nukes  in Ukraine. That is hardly responsible behavior.

As for competence, does the Russian invasion of Ukraine strike anyone as a case study in military competence? And Putin’s legitimacy rests on a mountain of fear, graft, and oppression that has few rivals in the 21st Century.

Appeasing Putin. In short, there is no reason for the United States to embrace or prop up Putin. He does not warrant American support or appeasement. An alternative Russian ruler or rulers could be worse; but if so, it would be a mater of degree not kind.

Moreover, a new, successor regime (or regimes) might be much better for the Russian people and the West.

At the very least, Putin’s ouster from power would weaken Russia and provide the impetus for a possible Russian withdrawal from all of Ukraine. The 1917 Russian Revolution, remember, precipitated the Russian withdrawal from World War I.

A stubborn and ill-advised commitment to status quo “stability,” however, precludes any possibility of positive change within Russia.

Farfetched Scenarios. Finally, suppose the farfetched scenario came true. A dangerous warlord took over part of Russia and assumed control of a “lost” nuke or nukes. Does this mean he can, willy-nilly, detonate his nukes and ignite “World War III”?

No, not at all. Nuclear weapons, after all, are not like a handgun or a rifle. One person cannot simply pick them up, lock-and-load, and fire away. That’s not at all how they work.

An entire series of military and technical experts within the chain of command would have to assent to their use and set in motion the process for their employment and detonation. That’s much easier said than done.

That is why, throughout the Cold War, nuclear weapons never paralyzed American presidents, Republicans and Democrats, into inaction and appeasement vis-Ă -vis Russia.

American policymakers understood that although nuclear weapons were a quite serious matter, they cannot and do not give our enemies a trump card or veto power over the United States.

Nuclear Weapons. Yet, this doesn’t stop Trump and his acolytes from acting as if nuclear weapons were just discovered yesterday and must, therefore, necessarily upend international relations as they have been been practiced since at least the mid 20th Century.

“First come the tanks and then come the nukes,” Trump declared five months ago. “I think we’re at the most dangerous time maybe in, in many, many years—maybe ever—because of the power of nuclear,” he added.

Never mind the fact that nuclear weapons have been around for some 75 years and yet somehow, we’ve managed to avoid a nuclear war while still winning the Cold War and liberating Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

And never mind the fact that modern-day missile defense technologies render the use of nuclear weapons more suspect and problematic than ever before. As Trump sees it, “the power of nuclear” renders all previous history irrelevant to modern-day challenges.

Trump, of course, is not serious. He is simply fear-mongering in a transparent attempt to win votes and political praise.

The truth is: nuclear weapons do not give U.S. policymakers any reason to appease Putin. And Russia would be better off, and the American national interest would be served, were the Russian dictator to be ousted from power.

True, Putin’s successor might be worse, but Russia would be weakened and its ability to control Crimea and parts of eastern and southern Ukraine likely would be dealt a deathblow.

The bottom line: the United States cannot control who rules Russia. However, by aiding Ukraine, we can help to ensure that whoever rules Russia has limited room for destructive maneuver. American action, not American appeasement, is what history demands.

Feature photo credit: Donald Trump, courtesy of Evan Vucci/AP in The New Yorker.

Justices Sotomayor and Jackson are Clueless about America

The Supreme Court’s left-wing minority, not its conservative majority, ignores the racial and ethnic reality of modern-day America.

In the Supreme Court’s landmark Harvard, UNC affirmative action case, left-wing Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson argue that because the Court’s conservative majority insists on a colorblind or race neutral legal standard, it is out of touch with modern-day America.

In truth, Sotomayor and Jackson have it exactly backwards. They are the ones who are out of touch with an America that is increasingly multi-racial and multi-ethnic. And they fail to appreciate that it is precisely because of this fact that our law and jurisprudence must, of necessity, be colorblind or race neutral.

Race Matters. First, let’s give the devil her due. Sotomayor and Jackson ague that race matters in America because America has always been stained and marred by racism. Therefore, the law, too, must be cognizant of the importance of race and take race into account.

American society “is not, and has never been, colorblind,” declares Sotomayor.

[Today’s] Court cements a superficial rule of colorblindness as a Constitutional principle in an endemically segregated society where race has always mattered and continues to matter.

“Deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life,” adds Jackson.

And having so detached itself from this country’s actual past and present experiences, the Court has now been lured into interfering with the crucial work that UNC and other institutions of higher learning are doing to solve America’s real-world problems.

Sotomayor and Jackson seriously distort and exaggerate the prevalence and significance of racism past and present. Isolated and suspect incidents of alleged racism, for instance, are taken to be emblematic of a “deep-seated legacy of racial subjugation [that] continues to manifest itself in student life” today.

Multi-Racial and Multi-Ethnic America. But the bigger problem is that their understanding of America too simplistic and dated. It is based on a 19th Century vision of a country that no longer exists, and which hasn’t existed for many decades. Their America is, both literally and figuratively, black and white, and not much else.

Sotomayor and Jackson ignore the fact that an increasing number of Americans are neither black nor white. Asian Americans, in fact, are the nation’s fastest-growing demographic group and, not coincidentally, the biggest victims of affirmative action in college admissions.

Not surprisingly, then, the lawsuit against Harvard was spearheaded by Asian Americans, who allege that this august Ivy League institution systematically discriminated against them. Sotomayor and Jackson try to deny this reality and pretend that it doesn’t exist, but the conservative majority found conclusive evidence to the contrary.

The “First Circuit Court,” writes Chief Justice John Roberts in his majority opinion, “found that Harvard’s consideration of race has led to an 11.1% decrease in the number of Asian Americans admitted to Harvard…

“Black applicants in the top four academic deciles,” he notes, “are between four and ten times more likely to be admitted to Harvard than Asian applicants in those deciles.”

Rigged Admissions. Sadly, this is no accident. The Supreme Court found that Harvard, UNC (and, surely, other elite colleges and universities) are deliberately rigging their admissions processes to discriminate against Asian Americans and to establish quotas for the number of Asian American students.

Yet in their dissenting opinions, Sotomayor and Jackson pretend that Asian Americans are not a significant demographic group and have no real cause for complaint. Jackson mentions Asian Americans a mere three times, once in a footnote, while never pausing to consider or grapple with their victimization through affirmative action.

Sotomayor, meanwhile, says that Asian Americans benefit from affirmative action because although they represent only about 6% of the U.S. population, they now make up more than 20% of Harvard’s admitted class.

This statistic, of course, sidesteps the issue of discrimination and ignores the fact that Asian American applicants to Harvard may be more numerous and better prepared, academically, than members of other demographic groups. So the 20% figure stripped of this necessary context is not very telling or revealing.

‘Diversity‘. Nor is the moniker “diversity,” which has become the justification or rationale used for racial preferences in college admissions.

Justice Neil Gorsuch observes that Harvard, UNC, and other elite colleges and universities exhibit little interest in non-racial markers of diversity. And they employ racial and ethnic classifications that “rest on incoherent stereotypes.”

The racial categories the universities employ in the name of diversity do not begin to reflect the differences that exist within each group.

Instead, they lump together white and Asian students from privileged backgrounds with “Jewish, Irish, Polish, or other ‘white’ ethnic groups whose ancestors faced discrimination” and “descendants of those Japanese-American citizens interned during World War II.”

Reality. Again, Sotomayor and Jackson ignore this demographic reality because, like Harvard, UNC, and other elite colleges and universities, they see an America that is only black and white. They don’t see the America that really exists in the 21st Century: multi-ethnic and multi-racial.

These two far-left justices also ignore the discrimination in college admissions that results from treating Asian Americans, and members of other racial and ethnic groups, as expendable.

“Plainly,” writes Gorsuch, “Harvard and UNC choose to treat some students worse than others in part because of race. To suggest otherwise—or to cling to the fact that the schools do not always say the quiet part aloud—is to deny reality.”

Equal Rights. Justice Clarence Thomas, meanwhile, does not deny the reality of racism in American life:

I, of course, agree that our society is not, and has never been, colorblind. People discriminate against one another for a whole host of reasons. But, under the Fourteenth Amendment, the law must disregard all racial distinctions…

Thomas expounds upon this point:

I am painfully aware of the social and economic ravages which have befallen my race and all who suffer discrimination… [However], two discriminatory wrongs cannot make a right…

This vision of meeting social racism with government-imposed racism is thus self-defeating, resulting in a never-ending cycle of victimization…

We must adhere to the promise of equality under the law declared by the Declaration of Independence and codified by the Fourteenth Amendment.

Racial Spoils. Given that America has moved far beyond black and white to include a multitude of races and ethnicities, it is hard to argue with this point. The alternative is a racial spoils system that awards rights, benefits, and privileges based on race and ethnicity, not merit and achievement.

Of course, affirmative action as it is described by Sotomayor and Jackson is benign. It aims not to hurt anyone, but to help African Americans who have been burdened by the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.

The problem with their approach is that it ignores the zero-sum nature of college admissions and the existence of other disadvantaged groups, principally but not exclusively Asian Americans, who are denied benefits and opportunity from this reverse discrimination.

Modern-Day Realities. In other words, what might have been feasible (albeit still Constitutionally suspect) in 19th Century America is no longer feasible in the 21st Century, when a myriad of races and ethnicities dot the nation’s demographic landscape.

For this reason, the jurisprudence of Sotomayor and Jackson is woefully out of date and disconnected from modern-day demographic realities. A colorblind or race neutral legal standard is the only kind of legal standard that can work and secure popular legitimacy in our multi-ethnic and multi-racial country.

Feature photo credit: Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor (L) and Ketanji Brown Jackson (R), AP/Getty images, courtesy of NBC News.

Who Among the Dems Will Win the Black Vote? Who Can Win the Black Vote?

African Americans still support Biden; but in lieu of his losses in Iowa and New Hampshire, they’re reconsidering their options.

The American political universe is focused on black voters and whether they will rally to Biden, Sanders, Buttigieg, Bloomberg, or Klobuchar in the Democratic Party’s presidential contest.

Black voters are key because, historically, they have voted overwhelmingly Democratic and will represent an increasing share of the party’s primary electorate in the weeks and months to come.

But there is real doubt and uncertainty about how they will vote and what might sway them. Very few African Americans, after all, have thus far voted, since Iowa and New Hampshire are overwhelmingly caucasian.

So it’s not as if we have real-world results by which to gauge or measure whom black voters will support.

Still, no one doubts that black voters will determine the party’s nominee. For numerical reasons alone if nothing else, they are too important a Democratic Party constituency.

Indeed, as Joe Biden put it on the night he badly lost the New Hampshire primary: 

The fight to end Donald Trump’s presidency is just beginning
 because, up til now, we haven’t heard from the most committed constituency of the Democratic Party: the African-American community


I want you all to think of a number: 99.9 percent—that’s the percentage of African American voters who have not yet had a chance to vote in America


You can’t be the Democratic nominee, and you can’t win a general election as a Democrat, unless you have overwhelming support from black and brown voters
 It’s just really simple
 It’s a natural fact. It’s true. It’s absolutely true


All those Democrats who won against incumbents, from Jimmy Carter to a guy named Clinton to a guy named Obama, my good friend—guess what? They all had overwhelming African American support. Without it, nobody [in the Democratic Party has] ever won [the presidency]
 

In short, to understand what has happened politically since New Hampshire, and what is to come, you have to understand the challenges and opportunities that exist for each of the candidates re: the black vote. Herewith a status update in a race that is still fluid and uncertain.

In this post, we’ll address Biden’s prospects with African American voters; and, in subsequent posts, we’ll do the same for each of the other Democratic presidential candidates.

Biden. As his aforementioned remarks indicate, and as we’ve explained here at ResCon1, Biden needs to win in South Carolina or his campaign is finished.

The good news for Biden, reports FiveThirtyEight’s Nathaniel Rakich, is that his “firewall in Southern states appears weakened but still standing.” A Feb. 13 East Carolina University poll, for instance, shows him with 28 percent of the vote in South Carolina versus 20 parent for Sanders.

Biden, moreover, “still has a strong lead (16 points over Sanders) among [the state’s] African American voters, a crucial voting bloc that has sided with the eventual nominee in every Democratic primary since 1992,” Rakich notes.

In fact, black voters account for roughly 60 percent of the Democratic Party primary electorate in South Carolina.

The bad news for Biden: he is losing ground in the Palmetto State and his rivals are gaining at his expense. “It wouldn’t take much more of a drop to put Sanders in the lead in our polling average ,” Rakich writes. “There are still two weeks until South Carolina votes, remember.”

“Interviews with two dozen South Carolina lawmakers, consultants and voters here suggests there are deep cracks in Joe Biden’s firewall state,” writes Maya King in Politico.

A February 10 Quinnipiac University national poll  she notes, “shows Biden’s support among African-Americans at 27 percent—a 22-point slip from before the Iowa caucus.”

With bad back-to-back losses in Iowa and New Hampshire, Biden has lost the air of inevitability that one surrounded his campaign; and black voters, consequently, seem to be reconsidering their support and looking at other candidates.

The bottom line: Biden is still afloat politically, but he’s taking on water at an alarming rate, and his ship may yet capsize. All hands are on deck in South Carolina, which is do-or-die politically for him. He needs a very strong showing of support from black voters.

Right now, Biden has sufficient support from African Americans to prevail in South Carolina Feb. 29; but Sanders remains a formidable political foe, and billionaire Tom Steyer is “doing an incredible job” attracting the interest of Palmetto State black voters, says the dean of the state’s Congressional delegation and House Majority Whip, Rep. Jim Clyburn.

Next up, we’ll consider the prospects of former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Feature photo credit: Demetrius Freeman/New York Times via Redux and published by ABC News.

Should American Christians Pray for Putin or Ukraine?

Prominent Christian calls to “pray for Putin” are wrongheaded and discordant with the American political tradition and American religious history.

Remember reading about the American prayer vigils for Soviet dictators Joseph Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev during the Cold War? What about all the times Americans were beseeched to pray for Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini during World War II?

You don’t remember that? Neither do I, because it never happened.

You see, back in the day, Americans prayed not for despots and dictators, but for the people enslaved by these despots and dictators—and for our soldiers and diplomats who were working to stop these despots and dictators and free the enslaved.

“Pray for the peoples of the ‘Captive Nations‘ behind the Iron Curtain,” was, in fact, a common American religious refrain in the 20th Century.

It is, after all, more than a little twisted and perverse, not to mention heretical, to pray for objectively bad men as they perpetrate genocide and mass murder while enslaving innocent peoples worldwide.

The New Orthodoxy. But according to some Christian conservatives, that is so passĂ©. Their new orthodoxy requires that we shower prayer and affection on despots and dictators, not their victims. Thus the prominent Christian evangelist and missionary Franklin Graham tweeted:Rod Dreher, a prominent Christian author and journalist, replied:Now, of course, praying for God to work a miracle in Putin’s heart is all well and good; but not, I’m afraid, “so that war can be avoided at all cost [emphasis added].”

If the price of peace is the Russian annexation of Ukraine and the Russian enslavement of the people of Ukraine, then no thanks. That cost is too high and too exorbitant—and too detrimental to American national security interests.

Christianity, after all, has never demanded that the faithful be pacifists. In fact, quite the opposite: As Catholic author and journalist Austen Ivereigh has observed, under certain conditions “to refuse to go to war may in fact be a great evil.”

Ivereigh quotes the great Christian apologist C.S. Lewis: “If war is ever moral, then sometimes peace can be sinful.”

Christians who urge that we pray for Putin insist that they are praying not for his success, but “for his conversion to peace with his neighbors“—or, as David French puts it: “I’m praying that God turns Vladimir Putin’s heart from war.”

But of course, that’s not what Graham said. Graham said he was praying for Putin “so that war could be avoided at all cost [emphasis added].” And Rod Dreher agreed, saying “I have been praying for exactly this.”

Damnable Prayers. French’s clarification about what he is praying for is helpful; however, it does not exonerate Graham and Dreher for their damnable prayer requests.

Nor does it negate the fact that urging the faithful to pray for despots and dictators is discordant with the American political tradition and American religious history.

Because in truth, as a practical matter, people pray for those whom they are rooting for and wish to help, aid and assist.

The fine distinction that French makes—that he is praying not or Putin, but for Putin’s Christian conversion—is lost on most people and lost in most prayer requests. It certainly appears to be lost on Graham and Dreher as evidenced by their damnable tweets.

For this reason, contra Graham and Dreher, let us pray not for Putin, but for the people of Ukraine. And let us pray that American and NATO leaders have the wisdom and resolve to stop Putin and save Ukraine.

Anything less than that would be, dare I say it, unAmerican and unchristian.

Feature photo credit: Christian evangelist and missionary Franklin Graham (L) and Christian author and journalist Rod Dreher (R). Graham’s pic is courtesy of BillyGraham.org. Dreher’s pic is a screen shot from a YouTube video posted by The American Conservative.