Townhall Review | Conservative Commentary On Today's News

The United States recently witnessed a tragic example of hypocrisy in high office on the question of the sanctity of human life. Pennsylvania Republican Congressman Tim Murphy has a voting pattern of defending the sanctity of human life and only lately was amongst those who voted to ban abortion after 20 weeks. However, divorce proceedings revealed that when Congressman Murphy discovered that his mistress may be expecting a child, he repeatedly suggested that she abort the unborn baby. The political pressure became increasingly heavy after this revelation. Initially, Representative Murphy announced he would retire at the end of his term. Subsequently, he told Speaker of the House Paul Ryan that he’d resign effective October 21. This kind of hypocrisy at this level on the question of the sanctity of human life is not only immoral, it’s downright deadly. Day by day, vote by vote, headline by headline, America’s soul on the question of the dignity and sanctity of human life is becoming more apparent.

The New York Times recently reported on allegations of shameless sexual harassment by Oscar-winning movie mogul Harvey Weinstein from dozens of young women. In his bizarre response, Weinstein acknowledged that he “caused a lot of pain” and planned to temporarily step back from corporate power in order to concentrate on therapy. He also promised to compensate for his wrong-doing and “channel that anger” by launching a major campaign against the NRA, while pledging “to make a movie about our president” in order to force Trump’s retirement. In other words, the guilt-ridden executive hoped for redemption by bashing political opponents rather than improving himself, implying that however badly he behaved, conservatives are worse. He thereby embraced the classic leftist fantasy: that political correctness matters more than destructive personal behavior, no matter how loathsome. Emphasizing public posturing above private conduct can’t deliver either personal happiness or societal decency.

Republican leaders are now out with their proposal for tax reform. The good news is the plan is pro-growth. It really could get us out of the lurch, giving corporations a mechanism to bring almost 3 trillion dollars home from abroad, and to reinvest that money right here … in America. The bad news—or the concerning news—is we’re running out of time. The plan allows businesses to fully expense many equipment purchases. But until the tax passes, business are going to take a “wait and see” approach: Why buy equipment now if you can wait till tax reform passes?—when you can then buy and deduct the expense right away? If the tax reform takes too long to pass, the economy will slow, and the GOP could enter a mid-term election in the midst of a slow-down or even a recession—and they’ll pay a price. No, this tax plan is not perfect, but it’s a vast improvement over what we have now. Republicans and moderate Democrats ought to move quickly to pass it.

Something is happening to the American family. Claire Cain Miller, writing at the New York Times, reports that—quote: “Marriage, which used to be the default way to form a family in the United States, regardless of income or education, has become yet another part of American life reserved for those who are most privileged.” Back in the 1960s, it was the children of privilege who declared themselves independent of marriage. But as it turned out over time, those who have a greater economic investment tend to be far more conservative in terms of their actual lifestyle choices. So the more education and income one has, the argument goes, the more an individual has to lose by making bad choices. Conversely, someone with very little income and who sees very little opportunity in the future effectively has less to lose by making those same bad choices. In reality—as Brad Wilcox from the University of Virginia argues—there is a well-defined success sequence: finish school, get married, then have kids. Breaking that success sequence is one of the most fundamental problems we now face.

Last week, Republican leaders announced their tax reform plans. The good news is that they’re pro-growth: US corporate tax rates are today the highest in the developed world, and our current system perversely punishes American companies for bringing profits back from their foreign sales. The GOP plan fixes that problem. It also cuts taxes for what has been labeled “flow through” businesses —small and family-owned businesses often use that form. My own family business uses it. The reason it’s important to cut taxes these types of small businesses is because American jobs are almost all created the same way: by small businesses becoming big businesses. It’s been a pretty bad decade for the U.S. economy: a terrible recession followed by barely a whiff of a recovery. That lost decade has cost us standing abroad and frayed the social fabric at home. We can end that by embracing the growth model of JFK, Reagan and Gingrich/Clinton. Americans can’t afford another lost decade.

Townhall Review -– October 7, 2017 In the wake of the Las Vegas Massacre, President Trump issued an address to the nation. Hugh Hewitt invites David Drucker of the Washington Examiner to share on how crises like Vegas give Democrats far and wide opportunity to call for gun control. Dennis Prager shows how the problem isn’t with guns but with the moral unraveling of the country’s Judeo-Christian values. Mike Baker, a former covert operations officer with the CIA joins Kevin McCullough to discuss what measures can be taken to ensure the safety of our citizens from attacks like the one in Las Vegas. Dennis Prager takes a look at the incident involving a now-fired CBS News employee whose words went a step too far. Finally, Michael Medved looks at the faith and unity that continues to be a big part of our great country.

President Trump made a very important point in his response to the recent shooting in Las Vegas when he called it an “act of pure evil.” The judgment of evil here, real evil, should be beyond dispute. Evil is a fact, too. The secular worldview cannot use the word with coherence or sense. The acknowledgement of evil requires the affirmation of a moral judgment and a moral reality above human judgment. If we are just accidental beings in an accidental universe, nothing can really be evil. Evil points to a necessary moral judgment made by a moral authority greater than we are — a transcendent and supernatural moral authority: God. It is both telling and reassuring that secular people, faced with moral horror as we see now in Las Vegas, can still speak of evil as a moral fact—even if they continue to deny moral facts in the classrooms and courtrooms. No one can deny that the horror in Las Vegas came about by an act that was evil, pure evil, and evil as a fact.

While motives behind the Las Vegas massacre remained very much in doubt, liberal pundits still rushed to blame the killer’s fascination with firearms for pushing an ordinary man to mass murder. Actually, Stephen Paddock nursed another obsession far longer, and far more intensively, than he ever indulged an interest in guns—and that dangerous obsession has largely escaped condemnation in discussions of his horrifying crime. For more than a decade, Paddock devoted most of his time and energy to compulsive gambling and—along with six million other American adults and half-million teenagers qualified as an obvious “problem gambler.” More than three quarters of those so afflicted suffer from clinical depression, and the problem impacts low income households far more commonly than it harms rich retirees like the Vegas killer. Rather than encouraging gambling by promoting lotteries and casinos, government should try to limit damage from a devastating addiction that costs Americans $150 billion in annual losses.

If there were to be a single, most powerful symbol of the sexual revolution in the 20th century, that symbol as an individual would’ve been Hugh Hefner—the founder of Playboy magazine who died recently at age 91. The 20th century was the great century of sexual revolution. One of the driving engines of that change was the modern industry of pornography—and you cannot separate that industry from the one man who made it most mainstream and most profitable. The Playboy founder sought to redefine not only femininity in terms of pornography but also masculinity in terms of a kind of sophisticated, urban model that would be very attracted to pornography in terms of a normal pursuit and a normal entertainment. By any analysis, what Hefner left behind as his contribution to our society is not only a breaking down of an old sexual morality, it is the new enslavement of people who declare themselves liberated and “free,” but are absolutely enslaved to pornography. That’s the real legacy of Hugh Hefner.

The news from Las Vegas is heartbreaking. A lone killer staked out a position 32 floors above ground and then aimed powerful weapons at a massive crowd gathered for a music festival and then killed himself as police stormed his hotel room. More than 50 people are dead and hundreds are wounded. Already, this horrific scene is described as the worst mass shooting in American history. Authorities warn that the death toll will rise. President Donald Trump was absolutely right when he called the attack “an act of pure evil,” for evil it was, undiluted and undisguised. Even in an age of moral confusion, Americans can still know evil when they see it, now through a veil of tears. We will know more in days and hours to come. Right now, we know that the right thing is to pray for grieving families and the healing of our land. And the right thing is to call evil what it is, and not hide our faces from the truth.

As Congress debates immediate, substantial cuts in federal tax rates, liberal opponents invoke the discredited concept of a “zero sum game”—the idea that if one citizen gains, then another must lose, because they believe that one individual’s good fortune must always mean someone else’s misfortune. This thinking ignores the way economic growth can benefit everyone; creation of wealth means more opportunities, not fewer, for everyone in the vicinity of the wealth creator. Unfortunately, some conservative nationalists make similar mistakes regarding foreign affairs: believing that one nation’s progress, brings suffering for others. Instead, today’s global economy makes prosperity is contagious. The United States has everything to gain from the economic advancement around the world: that means more markets for our producers, and more products for our consumers. We should favor, not fear, the advancement of our neighbors down the block, as well as prosperity for peaceful nations on the other side of the world.

Townhall Review -- September 30, 2017 Sitting in for Hugh Hewitt, Joe Concha speaks with Jason Whitlock of Fox Sports on the NFL National Anthem controversy. Mike Huckabee shares with Michael Medved details of his show “Huckabee” on TBN. Robert Costa of the Washington Post joins Hugh Hewitt to share the latest on the devastation that took place in Puerto Rico. Larry Elder has Larry Klayman, founder of Judicial Watch and Freedom Watch, on the show to explain the latest evidence of wiretapping during the Obama Administration. Larry Elder also turns to Sally Pipes, President of the Pacific Research Institute, concerning the single-payer healthcare system in Canada. Filling in for Michael Medved, Joe Concha has Heather Nauert from the U.S Department of State to share about new strategies of the State Department concerning Syria and Russia. Mike Gallagher interviews Charles Mully, the “dad” of the world’s largest family.

For the better part of the last century or more there has been something of an unspoken compact between the sphere of politics and the sphere of sports; they have basically stayed out of one another’s way. This compact—already deteriorating—has been shattered as President Donald Trump went head to head with players in the NBA and NFL about questions of patriotism. Regrettably, we should expect this story to expand over time because this does represent, I would argue, a major turning point in the culture. When you have sports and politics now colliding in such an explosive way it’s going to be very difficult to disentangle them. This story provides further evidence of a very lamentable development in American culture, and that is the intrusion of politics into virtually everything, into every arena of life. That’s not healthy, it’s not healthy for any society. It is certainly not healthy for the United States of America in 2017. Wherever we go from here it is previously uncharted territory for the presidency, patriotism, and professional sports.

To understand why right-wing activists make a mistake in pushing deportation of so-called “Dreamers” we should consider the reasons for our consistent victories in defending gun rights. For gun-owners, this is a personal issue—restrictive regulations are an interference, or an annoyance, with real-world impact. For those who choose not to own firearms, gun control is an abstraction—with no effect on the way you live. Similarly, for 800,000 undocumented immigrants brought here as children through no fault of their own, the ability to get a work permit is a big deal, and fear of deportation is a direct concern. Meanwhile, it’s hard to see any personal benefit for anyone else in forcing these people from the country. President Trump is right to ask Congress to protect the Dreamers. Any action threatening negative consequences on a significant group of people, without offering concrete benefits to someone else, amounts to bad policy and terrible politics.

Just a couple weekends ago in Belleville, Illinois, every single player on a football team of youngsters—eight years old and under—took a knee during the national anthem. The coach, Orlando Goodin, said his kids knew all about why people were protesting in the streets of St. Louis over the acquittal of former police officer Jason Stockley. He saw a teaching opportunity—and explained Colin Kaepernick’s decision to kneel during the national anthem. The kids asked if they could do the same. So, sure enough, when the national anthem played, these third graders immediately took a knee, their backs turned away from the flag. There’s a line from the old musical South Pacific that says, “You’ve got to be carefully taught.” You’ve got to be carefully taught to hate. Coach Goodin chose to teach these kids to despise their flag. You’ve also got to be carefully taught to love, taught to be grateful. No: Not a one of us thinks this country is perfect. But there’s a lot to be thankful for. That’s the lesson we all ought to be teaching right now.