By Selwyn Duke
There are endless “anecdotes” from the last election “that
prove nothing about vote fraud,” as the critics put it. And one that would be
comical, were this not a tragic topic, involves reports of dozens of black
voters showing up to cast ballots in small Maine towns. The Portland Press Herald writes:
By Selwyn Duke
When I was a younger and more naïve man, I sometimes thought
to myself, “Boy, if I could just get a forum in which to express my ideas, I
could really change people’s minds.” This was before I realized that, more
often than not, it wasn’t a matter of changing minds. It was a matter of
changing hearts.
This is why I shake my head when hearing talk of how
conservatives can possibly “win over” women or Hispanics or blacks or whatever
the latest pander-worthy group may be, of how they need to “reach out” or
“reframe their message,” as if everyone is a logic-worshipping Mr. Spock. After
all, even if the media would disseminate the conservative argument without
twisting it into a soggy, unpalatable pretzel — which they won’t — did it ever
occur to these tacticians that the problem isn’t mainly a matter of intellect,
but emotion?
By Selwyn Duke
Hundreds of years ago, satirist Jonathan Swift described lawyers as
“a society of men … bred up from their youth in the art of proving, by
words multiplied for the purpose, that white is black, and black is
white….” And evidencing that some things never change is the 6th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals.
In an 8-to-7 decision, the court just declared Michigan’s
constitutional amendment banning affirmative action (AA)
unconstitutional, with multiplied words that molest reasonable minds.
Fox10Tv.com writes:
The court said the 2006 amendment to the
Michigan Constitution is illegal because it presents an extraordinary
burden to opponents who would have to mount their own long, expensive
campaign through the ballot box to protect affirmative action.
That burden "undermines the Equal
Protection Clause's guarantee that all citizens ought to have equal
access to the tools of political change," said Judge R. Guy Cole Jr.,
writing for the majority….
However bad AA may be, the “reasoning” of these judges is more
troubling still. For their argument could be used to strike down any
law. ObamaCare? Overturn it “because it presents an extraordinary burden
to opponents who would have to mount their own long, expensive campaign
through the ballot box to protect” healthcare choice.
Read the rest here.
By Selwyn Duke
Among the responses to my recent article on Democrat
vote fraud were those of liberals who were happy to hear no evil, see no
evil — and be the evil. Their rationalization-aided attitudes ranged from
accusing traditionalists of being sore winners to equating 2012 with Bush-Gore
in 2000 to simply denying hard evidence. Does it matter at all to you,
liberals, that Democrats were actually caught on video facilitating and
promising to engage in vote fraud? Rhetorical question, I know. And the denial
much reminds of what ex-KGB Soviet defector Yuri Bezmenov said about people born
of the process of “demoralization”: even if you took them to the USSR so they
could see the gulags with their own eyes, they would not believe it.
By Selwyn Duke
In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, there has been much talk
about price gouging. New Jersey is prosecuting some who engaged in it, and
pundit Bill O’Reilly has threatened to put offending gas stations in his fearsome
Factor pillory. But is this prudent?
To be clear, I personally wouldn’t want to raise prices amidst
a disaster were I a provider of products or services. And I’m not alone: After
devastating floods struck the Margaretville, NY, area last year and destroyed
the local supermarket and drug store, the only remaining mass supplier of food,
Dollar General, refused to increase its prices (its nobility earns it a plug).
Yet is it beneficial to use government to compel all businesses in
disaster-stricken areas to follow suit?
Obviously, there is no action without motivation. If someone
provides products or services, he does it for some reason, such as profit, a
feeling of gratification, the idea that it’s God’s will, or out of some
conception of what’s right. And that there are so many more businesses than
charities in the world indicates that profit is a far more common motivator
than all the other reasons combined. This is why business owners who would,
left to their own devices, hold the line on prices during disasters are
probably in the minority.
Read the rest here.
By Selwyn Duke
As the 2012 election approached, conservative enthusiasm
grew. Mitt Romney was drawing huge crowds while Barack Obama spoke in
half-filled stadiums. All the passion lay on the right while the left was
discouraged with a promised messiah who proved merely a politician. And the
prediction was that, in contrast to 2008, Republican turnout would dwarf the
tuned-out and carry the day. Hence the shock November 6 eve. How could Romney
lose, especially by such a wide electoral margin?
Maybe he didn’t
At least not legitimately.
By Selwyn Duke
With the loss of the 2012 election, there is much talk of
how the Republican Party must do some soul searching. How will the GOP wage
successful campaigns when demographic and cultural changes favor the
opposition? Increasingly, the answer is that the party’s party is over, that it
must move into the future or be relegated to the past. “Dispense with the
social issues!” we’re counseled. “Don’t trouble over abortion or faux marriage
and instead just focus on fiscal matters.”
By Selwyn Duke
Liberalism, thy name is woman.
During the latter part of the 2012 campaign, we heard a lot
of talk about how Mitt Romney was closing the sex gap and capturing women’s
support. “Mitt is on the move — a poll shows he’s pulled even with women!” My
attitude about this was that if Barack Obama didn’t carry the female vote, I’d accept
a demotion to PVT in political prognostication and change my name to Dick
Morris. And, man, do I ever get tired of being right.
Perhaps we’ve discovered the real cherished “99 percent.”
Writing that “[s]ome Philadelphia neighborhoods outdid themselves in Tuesday’s presidential
election,” Philly.com reports
that 13 of the city’s wards recorded a victory margin for Barack Obama of 99
percent or more. In other words, in some precincts, Mitt Romney was perhaps
worth only three fifths of a percent.
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