Maintain Mega MAGA Momentum - Minus Trump

Maintain Mega MAGA Momentum - Minus Trump
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
November 10, 2022

I voted for, and supported Donald Trump for President, twice. I think he did an excellent job and if he is the Republican nominee in 2024 I will do so again. However, I would prefer Donald Trump remain on the sidelines in 2024. Graciously play kingmaker, or stay silent. Abide by Ronald Reagan’s Eleventh Commandment: “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.”

I believe there was chicanery and shenanigans at play in 2020 in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin costing Trump reelection. But, the time has come to put that behind us, work to create a better electoral system and process preventing that from happening again. The United States must come up with a better way to reinvent the wheel, so to speak. If the United States continues electronic balloting, there must be a paper printout receipt of how each citizen cast his or her ballot. Returning to the days of paper ballots is not a bad idea either. In both cases, ramped up security protecting the integrity of all our votes is vital. 

The process should be streamlined. Early voting should be restricted to two weeks prior to Election Day and after the first debate. I wonder how many people in Pennsylvania who voted for John Fetterman for the US Senate before the debate, might not have, following his disastrous debate performance. Only American citizens with appropriate identification should be permitted to vote. Signatures must match and deadlines enforced for absentee ballots to be validated. Ballots must be received no later than Election Day, unless postmarked from an overseas military base. Waiting days or even weeks for election results in the United States is amateurish and smacks of a banana republic.

The American electorate must be able to go to sleep at night with the confidence that their votes will count. With that confidence, hopefully there will be fewer accusations of election tampering, fewer lawsuits, and less election denial.

Look to the future, whoever that may be. Stop harping on a “stolen election” the way Hillary Clinton (D-NY) has continued doing since 2016, and the way Stacey Abrams (D-GA) has done since 2018. Abrams lost by a larger margin, again, to Governor Brian Kemp (R-GA) on Tuesday than in 2018. At least this year Abrams had the decency and common sense to admit defeat and concede appropriately upon seeing the results of November 8. And, yes, as Trump himself has been doing since November 2020.

As good a job as Trump did, he can be unnecessarily petty, salty, and bombastic. There are those who call him narcissistic, but isn’t that true of anyone who thinks they could or should be president of the United States? (I think I would be a good president, but have never woken up on any given day thinking there’s a snowball’s chance in Guam that I should be president.)

Reinstate Trump policies - especially regarding energy independence and the wall on the southwestern border - but under someone’s leadership less toxic, less arrogant, and less dramatic. For all his millions of supporters - still two years after his questionable defeat - Trump can still fill arenas with thousands of cheering throngs. Biden can’t get enough people at his events to fill out a baseball lineup card.

At their relatively similar ages, Trump’s mental acuity at three and a half years younger than Biden, is far superior, and this is painfully obvious. This is not to mock Biden - it’s tragic for him and his family, but more importantly for the nation, and based upon the role the United States plays on the global stage, for the world as well. It’s not necessarily an age issue, but Brit Hume of Fox News is just seven months younger than Biden, yet his reports and analysis are crisp, on point, and he easily reacts and responds to comments and questions from his colleagues adroitly. Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, at 99 years of age, has a new book out (Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy) and his counsel is still sought out in the political world. Kissinger has had recent editorials in The Wall Street Journal that are relevant and sharp.

Forget the so-called mainstream media - they will vilify any and all Republicans - even ones they seem to root for - at first. They did it to the late Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) in 2008 and 2012 respectively. What the United States needs is a free and open press - not calls for censorship from the progressive woke because someone doesn’t like someone else's opinions or stances on various issues. At present I’d be hard pressed to say that we have that. From Thomas Jefferson in 1787 came the following: “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”  It’s perfectly permissible to criticize and complain about the Democrats and their policies - that’s why there is the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. But be prepared to offer solutions.

The GOP has a deep bench heading toward 2024 and there is reason to have positive feelings for the future of the United States. Whether Ron De Santis (R-FL), who after his reelection rout on November 8 to remain Florida governor, or anyone else - look forward. I would like to see a ticket of Nikki Haley (R-SC) and Mike Pompeo (R-KS) take the reins and lead this nation into the next decade. Should De Santis be the GOP standard bearer, I would not hesitate to cast my vote for his ticket.

Other potential GOP hopefuls could include current or former governors Bill Lee (TN), Kristi Noem (SD), Mike Pence (IN), Kim Reynolds (IA), Chris Sununu (NH), and Glenn Youngkin (VA). Senators with potential White House aspirations include Tom Cotton (AR), Ted Cruz (TX), Josh Hawley (MO), Mike Lee (UT), Rand Paul (KY), Marco Rubio (FL), Tim Scott (SC), and Tom Scott (FL). I would include US Rep. Jim Jordan (OH) in the mix. For potential vice presidential candidates, in addition to the above, US Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA) is part of the GOP House leadership, and a longshot darkhorse - former US Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (HI) who not just left the Democrat Party, but took to the campaign trail for several conservative Republican Senate candidates including Blake Masters (AZ) and Don Bolduc (NH).

I love the United States of America, warts and all, which is why we strive for a “more perfect union.” I want the United States to succeed and thrive all the time, regardless of who is in the White House. (I would prefer a Constitutional Conservative.) It is in all our best interests. When America prospers, so too does the world. A nation whose people believe in the republic, who believe in representative democracy, who support the Constitution, who understand the importance of a free market economy and the evils of socialism and communism also want the United States to succeed and thrive. Free nations create, invent, build, invest, worship, and yes, openly debate, all without fear of retribution. These should have been more emphasized during the midterm campaigns. That the GOP learns from their mistakes and rights the ship of state in the 2024 elections is my hope and prayer.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.

Hysteria Is On the Ballot

Hysteria Is On the Ballot
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
November 6, 2022

Chicken Little need not apply for this brand of hysteria. The current president, a former president, and myriad of minions shilling for the Democrat Party masquerading as members of the Fourth Estate are offering more than enough bellowing across the country that democracy is on the ballot this Tuesday. That should the Republicans win majorities in both houses of Congress, the sky will fall, hordes of locusts will rain down upon the nation, the earth will stop spinning, children will be slaughtered, and democracy will cease to exist.

Well, for starters, the United States of America is a republic. As Benjamin Franklin so adroitly put it when queried exiting the Constitutional Convention in 1787, what kind of government would the United States have, “A republic, if you can keep it.”

The United States of America is also a representative democracy - every two years we the people vote on 435 members of the House of Representatives and either 33 or 34 members of the Senate, who in turn serve six year terms. Should the Republican Party gain these majorities it will, in fact, support, not end, the notion that our democracy will be preserved. Free and open elections are the bellwether of this nation - so long as those participants are legal American citizens with appropriate identification. 

Barack Obama opined in an accusatory manner that not voting for the Democrat’s status quo would cause the downfall of this nation. “When true democracy goes away, people get hurt - it has real consequences. This is not an abstraction. Governments start telling you what books you can read and which ones you can’t. Dissidents start getting locked up. Reporters get locked up because they’re not toeing the party line. Corruption reigns because there’s no accountability. People get hurt. There are consequences,” said Obama while stumping for John Fetterman in Pennsylvania. That theme was the oft repeated mantra in numerous other places by both Obama and Biden during the closing week of the midterm campaign.

Looking at Obama’s words, it is the Democrats and the Biden administration that is already guilty of what he predicts will befall the GOP. It’s the Critical Race Theory crowd attempting to cram deviant subject matter down the throats of students as early as kindergarten. It was Democrat gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe in Virginia who told the citizens of the Commonwealth that parents should have no say in what is taught in their childrens’ schools. That alone cost him a return to the governor’s mansion in 2021 and propelled Glenn Youngkin to Richmond. The Justice Department, under Merrick Garland’s authority, investigated numerous parents simply for attending and speaking out at school board meetings, actually labeling them domestic terrorists. Meanwhile with roughly five million illegals crossing the southern border since Biden took office, real, bona fide terrorists have infiltrated the United States.

“Dissidents start getting locked up.” Start? There are still countless protesters against Biden’s election in jails with no timetable for a hearing, or bail, or visitation from family. Political prisoner Jon Mellis spoke frankly with Dennis Prager on Prager’s podcast about those very conditions and more. In fact, Mellis spoke more about other January 6 political prisoners than he did about himself, some of whom are experiencing health problems that are going untreated.

“Reporters get locked up because they’re not toeing the party line.” While Dasha Burns of NBC News did not get locked up, she did suffer strong rebukes at the hands of her fellow so-called mainstream media colleagues. All Burns did was truthfully report about Fetterman’s stunted and suffering mental acuity during the interview she conducted with him. In other words, she did her job, for which she has been castigated for weeks.

“Corruption reigns because there’s no accountability.” There’s no accountability because there is one party rule covering the entirety of the Legislative and Executive branches of the government. Corruption runs as deep as the Pacific Ocean in both the Biden administration and the Biden family; anyone not familiar with the Biden corruptions has been living on another planet.

But what Obama barely gave any attention to, the people’s ability to pay their bills, or buy groceries, or fill their gas tank, he dismissed as insignificant. Not to be outdone, US Rep. Sean Maloney (D-NY) and chairman of the DCCC, suggested in these difficult economic times, people should simply eat Chef Boyardee, as if that is the solution - a la Marie Antoinette’s “let them eat cake.” Maloney is facing strong opposition in Mike Lawler (R-NY) and should he win, it would mark the first time in 40 years that the chairman of the DCCC is defeated seeking reelection. The tone deafness of the Biden administration is further demonstrated by both Biden himself and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Both men have myopically suggested purchasing electric vehicles to combat the high price of gas. If people can’t afford gas, who the hell can afford a $60,000 electric vehicle. And good luck finding charging stations or having the time to waste charging the thing while on a long trip.

“Democracy is on the ballot,” shrieked fearfully as many people in the so-called mainstream media, apparently all getting their marching orders out of the Democrat’s playbook.

Ron Klain, White House Chief of Staff, looked and spoke sternly, like a parent admonishing a recalcitrant child, literally warning the American people of the adverse effects a GOP majority would create.

While the Democrats accuse the Republicans of using scare tactics without offering solutions, the Democrats themselves are using scare tactics on steroids as they have nothing on which to run this midterm election cycle.

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC) went so far as to invoke Hitler while suggesting the GOP would turn the United States into Germany in the 1930s. Clyburn also called Germany the greatest democracy in the world at that time.

Tearing a page out of the Hillary Clinton “deplorables” playbook, Sunny Hostin, a co-host of The View, said that white suburban women voting Republican is akin to roaches voting for Raid. That insect reference is reminiscent of Louis Farrakhan calling the Jewish people “termites” in 2018.

But the coup de grace has to be the statement made by Michael Beschloss, a well known historian and author. Last Wednesday, as a guest on the MSNBC program “All In,” Beschloss said, what is at stake is “whether we will be a democracy in the future. Whether our children will be arrested and conceivably killed. We’re on the edge of a brutal authoritarian system - and it could be a week away.” No, Mr. Beschloss, you’re on the edge of hysteria. 

By voting in free and open elections we the people are preserving our republic; our representative democracy. Opposition does not equate to disinformation or misinformation; it is simply another viewpoint, which is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. That there are people opposed to free speech in the United States - that’s what’s truly frightening.

The Democrats are attempting to pull off a classic magician’s ruse of sleight of hand. Accuse the GOP on one hand of using scare tactics, inventing problems the Democrats claim don’t exist, while on the other hand, panic Americans with this false claim of democracy being on the ballot, and campaigning on abortion and January 6 because they don’t have a positive record on which to stand.

Republicans nationwide have been campaigning on myriad issues - issues important to every man, woman, and child regardless of race, gender, or any other box Democrats are so fond of sequestering people. For starters, maintaining free speech, keeping schools open - sans indoctrination, keeping houses of worship open, keeping restaurants and other businesses open. Republicans will not revert back to mask and vaccine mandates that, thanks to the Democrats, destroyed more businesses and livelihoods than can be counted.

The Republicans can end the border crisis by building the wall they began during the Trump administration. Then there is the issue of the roughly five million illegals that swarmed across the southern border during the first 21 months of the Biden administration. They simply must not be rewarded for their illegal behavior with any allowances to remain in the United States. For the future, illegal immigration must be disincentivized by giving illegals nothing when they sneak into the country. They have broken the law of the land and do not deserve any reward for doing so. Amend the 14th Amendment of the Constitution to end the anchor baby crisis.

Solving the border crisis and building the wall will put more Americans back to work, thus improving the economy. The economy can also improve by the government stopping out of control deficit spending. No sane economist will ever suggest increased spending will lower inflation or be the cause of lower interest rates. As the interest rates continue soaring under Biden, mortgage rates are also on the rise, diminishing the need for more houses to be built, thus hurting the construction industry. The inflation has also caused Americans’ paychecks to purchase less as pay raises are not keeping up with inflation, so even with a raise, Americans are losing money.

The Republicans will solve the energy crisis by returning to the days of energy independence as was enjoyed during the Trump administration. On day one of the Biden administration, he ceased the Keystone Pipeline as well as curtailing the work in ANWR and had as his goal, announced during his campaign, to end fossil fuels in the United States. Not only has Biden doubled down on that promise, he just promised this past week to shut down coal mines and plants. The cost to fill gas tanks and heat homes has risen so exponentially, people are weighing whether to eat or heat, whether to purchase a gallon of gas or a gallon of milk. The GOP will reopen the closed pipelines, reenergize drilling, and return to energy independence, ending the days of an American president going to OPEC nations on bended knee, hat in hand putting money in the pockets of countries not terribly friendly toward the United States.

If the United States becomes an energy exporter, and gets European countries on board, they could put pressure on Russia to end the war they started against Ukraine.

While resolving the crime overseas, the Republicans can solve the crime problem at home by ending cashless bail; by not allowing bail for repeat miscreant offenders, and by firing, recalling, or impeaching the various “George Soros district attorneys” who are as much to blame for the crimewave as the criminals themselves. Perception is reality; the fear is genuine and stark.

There’s no doubt the Republicans will have rather tall in-boxes with which to contend come January when their majorities get sworn in. The voters will have the GOP on a short leash and can pull the plug on them just as easily as they will have done to the Democrats. We send them to Washington, we can boot them out of Washington. We the people will keep our republic just as soon as those we send to Washington remember they work for us and not the other way around. May G-d continue to bless the United States of America.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.