Cry Me a River, Texas Democrats

Cry Me a River, Texas Democrats

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn

July 26, 2021

Choosing to flee their state, their jobs, and their constituents, Texas legislative Democrats, holed up in Washington, DC, are crying poverty and asking constituents, or anyone who gives a damn, to send these aging summer campers care packages.

These insubordinate privileged Texas Democrats, in a Tweet from @DallasDemocrats, wrote “Our Dems in DC said they’d appreciate care packages from home. Before 5 PM Tuesday, we’re collecting Dr. Pepper, salsa, hard candy, hair spray, travel toiletries, hand sanitizers, sewing kits, first aid and/or money to pay shipping. TY.” A mailing address followed, but these people do not need any further encouragement. It was bad enough that the runaway Texans were referred to as “freedom fighters.” What an affront to true freedom fighters like protesters in Cuba and Hong Kong.

Such unmitigated gaul to beg their friends, relatives, and constituents to finance their unapproved road trip to DC. They lacked the basic manners to even spell out “thank you.” They need more than a timeout, but they certainly don’t need other people to shell out their hard earned money to support these peevish, hypocritical malcontents.

Hypocritical because while they ran away (or flew away) from their jobs in Austin, demonstrating a real filibuster, once in Washington, they lobbied for the federal filibuster to be eliminated. They ran away like petulant three year olds in an effort to protest bills that support election integrity laws. And let the record show that 75 percent of voters, Democrat, Republican, and Independent support voter photo identification. US Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) has said that Democrats are not opposed to voter ID, although he and many others in his party have called the requirement racist and disenfranchising. For more on the specifics: https://sanfordspeaksout.blogspot.com/2021/07/tx-dems-need-lesson-in-real-sacrifice.html

After repeated requests, even Joe Biden has not met with these wayward Texas Democrats. And it has ruffled the feathers of one specific State Representative - Richard Pena Raymond, who expressed his aggravation to Texas Congressman Lloyd Doggett via the Austin Statesman. “He won’t meet with us on Zoom like this, and I’m trying to be tactful, but I don’t know how else to say it, man. I’m just pissed off at this point. He doesn’t give us the respect the way you have,” Raymond said to Doggett. Perhaps these Texas Democrats have not earned any respect for their churlish behavior.

Proving the adage attributed to American showman P.T. Barnum, “there’s a sucker born every minute,” Robert Francis “Beto” O’ Rourke has given his fellow Democrats $600,000 and blames Biden for not doing what is “required,” knowing the “threat they are under in Texas.” That, plus the obdurate Democrats are still being remunerated their $221 per diem and $600 monthly salary, so they have nothing about which to complain.

Having lived in Alexandria, VA for a number of years, I can attest that Giant, Safeway, Harris Teeter, WalMart, Target, CVS, Walgreens, and various dollar stores carry all of the above requested items for the defiant Democrats’ care packages. So the Texas Democrats can buy their own crap, cut the crap, get back to Texas and actually do their jobs - jobs they wanted by running for office.

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

TX Dems Need Lesson in Real Sacrifice
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
July 19, 2021

I recently penned a column denouncing the calling of the wayward Texas Democrats “brave, courageous and making sacrifices.” They are and have done none of those things in abandoning their sworn duties as well as the constituents they are duty bound to represent.

These indolent Texas Democrats have made unconscionable claims that the bill to protect the rights of voters is racist, an attack on democracy, and even a return to the days of Jim Crow prior to the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. Those claims, many made  by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris should be viewed as an affront to all those men, women, and children who endured true struggle, made enormous sacrifices, some even the ultimate sacrifice of life and limb. Texas SB-7 pertaining to election integrity and security makes it easier to vote and harder to cheat by streamlining several aspects of the state’s voting laws. 

In order to ensure election integrity, voters are required to provide photo identification, exhibit signature verification, a chain of custody and a paper receipt will be provided to voters, voter rolls will be updated prior to every election, and partisan witnesses from the several parties will observe the vote count. There is nothing racist, discriminatory, or disenfranchising about SB-7. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton made it perfectly clear that any Texas citizen of voting age would be given an ID - gratis - if unable to afford one.

No polling places are permitted in a tent or parking garage; drive-through voting is not curbside voting, which is allowed for those unable to enter their polling station. While curbside voting is limited ostensibly to the disabled, drive-through voting would require many more poll workers and poll watchers.

When requesting a ballot by mail, it must contain the voter’s signature and identification number. If the voter does not have a driver’s licence, the last four digits of the Social Security number will be just as acceptable. Mass mailing of ballots to entire populations is out - voters must request their own ballot. This absolutely will diminish fraudulent votes from being cast. Ballot harvesting is also not permitted and its ban will have similar results as individual ballot requests. It is also a felony to pay for votes.

Voting hours are expanded in the two week lead up to Election Day - mandated for 12 hours per day in counties with populations greater than 30,000 citizens, an improvement from those with more than 100,000 citizens. Polls can be open for any 12 consecutive hour period between 6 AM and 9 PM, and companies are required to allow workers early dismissal on Election Day. (Quite frankly, a uniform 6 AM to 8 PM for all polling locations should be the rule.)

Poll watchers cannot be kicked out of polling stations and poll workers must be able to see the actual vote counting. Cities with populations greater than 100,000 must provide live streaming of the vote counting in polling stations. Additionally, all votes must have a paper trail and an online tracker for mail-in ballots and applications. New machines with this capability will be installed by 2026.

Polling locales are based upon the numbers of registered voters in a given county. The counties set the locations, which are supposed to be convenient for the voters - such as on public transit routes and accessibility for the disabled. The Democrats complained about this particular item because they claim there are fewer polling stations in poor and minority communities. They should work harder to register more voters.

No legal voter is being denied their right to vote. No legal voter is being disenfranchised.

Did any of the runaway Democrats from Texas get their heads bashed in the way the late Georgia Congressman John Lewis was attacked? Or any other of the other hundreds of marchers on that “Bloody Sunday,” March 7, 1965 who were attacked, beaten, and imprisoned? They were marching and fighting for real, genuine voting rights, a bill that would be enacted later that year upon the signature of President Lyndon Johnson.

And how obtuse is Biden, making outlandish claims that voter ID laws in places like Texas and Georgia are “literally like the Civil War.” Really? The bloodiest war ever fought on American soil, seeing the deaths of greater than 600,000 Americans - that is not as bad as asking legally registered voters to show identification proving they are who they say they are? In fact, the most recent claims of voter intimidation were during the 2016 presidential election in Philadelphia when the New Black Panther Party attempted to frighten white voters away from their polling stations.

Andersonville, Antietam, Fort Sumter, Gettysburg, Vicksburg. Were those bloodiest of battles less destructive, less painful in terms of loss, than the content of the voter integrity bill in Texas? How about the sacrifice made by the 54th Massachusetts Infantry - an all Black regiment? Led by white commanders who lost their lives alongside their own troops, the 54th lost 281 of its 600 men in battle at Fort Wagner, SC. This spurred more than 100,000 Black men to volunteer with the Union Army. Was their sacrifice of lesser significance than the voting rights bills in Texas and Georgia? 

“We are facing the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War. That’s not hyperbole,” Biden said during a speech on July 13 at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. Has Biden forgotten about the assassinations of presidents Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, and John Kennedy? How about the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 or the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on September 11, 2001? Does he even know the definition of hyperbole?

How Biden can have the unmitigated audacity to call the newly amended and improved voting laws in Texas and Georgia, “Jim Crow 2.0,” and “Jim Crow on steroids,” is the antithesis of sanity. He also said “The 21st Century Jim Crow assault is real,” at the same July 13 speech. Perhaps Biden, in his advancing senility, forgot what really occurred during the evil era of Jim Crow. Such as no Blacks voting in entire counties of the Deep South, or Blacks being given virtually impossible literacy tests - interpreting parts of a state’s constitution to the satisfaction of the county clerk or other official who denied those citizens their 15th Amendment right to vote on a racist whim; or being given the ridiculous task of counting the bubbles in a bar of soap or leaves on a tree. Not to mention the egregious poll taxes preventing Blacks from voting, which came to an end upon the ratification of the 24th Amendment on January 23, 1964. 

Some who don’t understand the history of the United States consider this country to be evil because change was not revolutionary, but instead evolutionary, and label the United States as perpetually and systemically racist. A systemically racist country does not elect and reelect a Black president, elect a woman of color vice president, have many Black men and women appointed to high governmental positions by white presidents both Democrat and Republican, and have Black athletes and entertainers revered by millions of white fans.

If anyone is attempting to dismantle the voting processes and system it is Biden, Harris, and their ilk in attempting to federalize all elections - a clear violation of the 10th Amendment to the United States Constitution. 

By tightening some of the previously loose policies, less voter fraud should occur, it should be easier to vote, and harder to cheat. The Democrat legislators fleeing Texas and their elected responsibilities are not brave in the least. They are afraid they will lose power with better, more streamlined voting policies. This is not a GOP power grab as they are already in the majority in Texas. The Democrats are hypocrites for wanting to end the filibuster on the federal level, but on the state level they want to avoid their responsibilities while still being remunerated as they hide out in Washington, DC.

According to the Dallas Morning News of July 14, Texas legislators are paid $7,200 per year ($600 per month) as well as a per diem of $221 for each of the 140 days of the legislative session, held every other year, for a total of $38,140. The runaway Democrats should be required to return their salary and per diem for every day they remain absent from the ongoing legislative session. This most assuredly is not sacrifice. Genuine sacrifice was made by Black soldiers fighting one war overseas, then returning to fight another war at home. Real sacrifice was made by Martin Luther King, Jr., John Lewis, Thurgood Marshall, Rosa Parks, Jackie Robinson, and Clarence Thomas. As for the Texas Democrats, theirs is the act of spoiled obsequious weasels, cowards, and malcontents. The voters of Texas best remember this come next Election Day and send those Democrats packing for a permanent vacation away from Austin.

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

Bona Fide Bravery
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
July 15, 2021

While Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and especially Kamala Harris are engaging in a drool-fest over the “bravery” of the Texas Democrats who fled both their state and their responsibilities, devaluing the meaning of that word, real bravery is being exhibited from Havana to Hong Kong and parts in between.

Bravery is thousands upon thousands of Cuban nationals taking to the streets to protest the totalitarian Marxist-Communist government that has been torturing and murdering its own citizens for 62 years. These brave men and women are under threat of arrest, imprisonment, or worse, but their quest for real, genuine freedom, dignity, and human rights heretofore not experienced in more than three generations has superseded the potential punitive actions the Miguel Diaz-Canal regime could mete out against its own people.

While far too many so-called Americans are busy disrespecting,  spitting on, turning their backs on, trampling on, and even burning the American flag, thousands of Cubans can be seen marching with American flags. The same is true in Hong Kong, where their rights and freedoms are being subjugated by the Chinese Communist Party, and thousands of Hong Kongers are also witnessed marching with American flags. Brave men like entrepreneur Jimmy Lai, 72, founder of Apple Daily, a popular newspaper forced into closure by the CCP, have been imprisoned along with members of the paper’s staff simply for attempting to communicate the truth to the people. 

These brave men and women are fighting for the right to communicate freely and openly, being denied in both Hong Kong and Cuba. The governments of both locales dictate the when and how often access to the outside world via the internet is granted while Americans take these inherent freedoms for granted. Havana and Beijing can flip a switch putting their own people in a technological black hole. Worse still, is the growing amount of censorship, at first creeping into our own American society, now blatantly being thrust upon us, being accepted by a press and media who should be fighting for every word to be printed, spoken, or recorded, whether or not they agree with those words.

“I don’t agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” This quote has been incorrectly attributed to Voltaire for more than a century, but actually came from Evelyn Beatrice Hall in her 1906 biography about Voltaire, in her summary of his thoughts on free speech. 

Free speech, sadly, is at a premium in the United States - the last best beacon of hope for freedom on this planet. Between the political correctness, cancel culture, and wokeness denying free speech and calling anyone who dares to speak freely a racist, sexist, bigot, homophobe, xenophobe, anti-Muslim, and anti-Asian, most Americans fear for their basic employment and/or place in American society. People supporting capitalism are also being lambasted for denying equity in today’s America where equality is now ancient history, and skin color is the rule of the day. We are surrendering rights brave men and women outside of these United States are willing to die to acquire. We should be ashamed of ourselves.

Consider Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad. Under a constant threat of death, a recent plot to kidnap her from her Brooklyn home, send her to Venezuela en route to Iran, was thwarted. At-large and wanted by the FBI are Iranians Alireza Shahvaroghi Farahani, Mahmoud Khazein, Omid Noori, and Kiya Sadeghi. Alinejad is an outspoken journalist who wrote The Wind in My Hair: My Fight for Freedom in Modern Iran. This is a tale of a brave woman fighting the antiquated system in her native Iran calling for girls and women to unburden themselves of their veils and hijabs as is the law in the Muslim nation. She is currently leading this online movement in exile, while her own brother is serving eight years in an Iranian prison. Iran denies all of this.

Not far from Iran, there are a large number of Afghani interpreters who bravely risked their lives aiding Americans against the very powerful Taliban. That is the epitome of bravery, which is actually being rewarded by the Biden administration via Operation Allies Refuge. Beginning the end of July, under special immigrant visas, many of these interpreters will be airlifted out of Afghanistan to the United States. Also brave, are the girls and women of Afghanistan who, in the past, and no doubt in the future once American troops are evacuated and the Taliban terrorists retake the country, will be subjected to unspeakable acts against them.

These brave people are fighting for true, bona fide freedom, at the risk of their own lives, while many Americans are taking their own freedom for granted unnecessarily worrying about their ridiculous pronouns.

But, for all the bravery exhibited by these Afghanis, Cubans, Hong Kongers, and a specific lone Irani-American, it is these cowardly Texas Democrat state legislators who are being praised for their so-called bravery. Harris, since the Texas Democrats ran away from Texas, has commended their pusillanimous behavior as “bold, courageous action,” and acts of “bravery and patriotism,” making “great sacrifices” akin to the Civil Rights era. Harris compared the Texas Democrats to those who marched, in great peril for their lives, across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, AL in 1965 in what was known as “Bloody Sunday.” No blood has been shed from a single Texas Democrat legislator.

Harris continued praising these Texas Democrats comparing their quest with that of the women suffragettes who marched down Pennsylvania Avenue in 1913 in Washington, DC fighting for voting rights for women. Harris should be ashamed of herself for tarnishing those most significant historic events while politically posturing over a voting rights bill that is not the least bit racist or controversial.
Texas SB-7 pertaining to election integrity and security makes it easier to vote and harder to cheat in streamlining several aspects of the state’s voting laws. 

No polling places are permitted in a tent or parking garage. When requesting a ballot by mail, it must contain the voter’s signature and identification number. If the voter does not have a driver’s licence, the last four digits of the Social Security number will be just as acceptable. Mass mailing of ballots to entire populations is out - voters must request their own ballot. 

Voting hours are expanded in the two week lead up to Election Day. Poll watchers cannot be kicked out of polling stations and poll workers must be able to see the actual vote counting. All votes must have a paper trail and an online tracker for mail in ballots and applications. New machines with this capability will be installed by 2026. Polling locales are based upon the numbers of registered voters in a given county. 

No legal voter is denied their right to vote. No legal voter is disenfranchised. By tightening some of the previously loose policies, less voter fraud should occur, it should be easier to vote, and harder to cheat. The Democrat legislators fleeing Texas and their elected responsibilities are not brave in the least. The Democrats are hypocrites for wanting to end the filibuster on the federal level, but on the state level they want to avoid their responsibilities while still being remunerated as they hide out in Washington, DC.

This is not bravery; this is the act of spoiled obsequious weasels and the voters of Texas best remember this come next Election Day. Bravery, unfortunately, is being defined in the current climate as those Americans willing to speak out against the Marxist BLM and racist Critical Race Theory. Unfortunate, because to speak ill of those entities finds one on the short end of American society, when to be critical of BLM and CRT makes the most logical sense as any American or any clear thinking, freedom loving individual. True bravery is defined by the bona fide champions of freedom described above. May their examples teach us all the serious lessons we must learn before the grand American Experiment in plunged into perpetual darkness.

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

DC Statehood - Simply Unconstitutional

DC Statehood - Simply Unconstitutional

Commentary  by Sanford D. Horn

April 29, 2021 

The relevant portion of Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution states the “Congress shall have Power to exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dockYards, and other needful Buildings;” [sic]

It is there where the Founding Fathers of these United States of America designated, with neutrality, and no power over nor beneath, the District that would serve as the seat of the Federal government of this nation. As a separate and independent district, it would not be a state, it would not be part of a state, and it would not participate in the affairs of the nation as a state.

This decision, made by the Founding Fathers, was neither based upon political gains for one party or another nor any racial advantage or animus at the time of the adoption of the Constitution in 1787. For the United States Congress, regardless of the party in the majority, to vote granting statehood status upon the District of Columbia is illegal and unconstitutional. 

The District was built on a swamp, ostensibly, and upon arrival in the new capitol city late November 1800, First Lady Abigail Adams’ assessment reflected such. “I arrived… at this place… a new country with Houses scattered over a space of ten miles, and trees & stumps in plenty.” (1) Too few of the houses had been completed to provide for the increasing numbers of administration officials arriving for the waning months of John Adams’ single term in office. Most people resided in the longer established Alexandria, VA and Georgetown.

There is no mention of voting rights for the residents of the District in Article I, Section 8 because the District was not designed to be a permanent residential District. First of all, the Founding Fathers did not envision politicians and government workers becoming career fixtures in Washington. The Founding Fathers expected people to serve their country as representatives of the people for a term or two and then return to their farms, businesses, law practices, medical practices, or other vocations. Likewise with their staffs as well as the staffs of the presidents’ administrations. And as such, in maintaining their heretofore permanent residences in their home states, would vote via absentee ballot there, as opposed to in Washington, which as of yet, had no government of its own - as was the design of the Founding Fathers. It was their desire that the Congress would oversee the Federal Capitol District.

As for the state of the White House, then simply called the President’s House, arriving in its incomplete state, Abigail Adams described it as “a castle of a House,” overlooking the Potomac and a view of Alexandria, which was preferable to Adams, considering the alternative of Georgetown was not to her liking. Georgetown was “the very dirtyest Hole I ever saw for a place of any trade… it is only one mile from me but a quagmire after every rain,” in her assessment. (2)

President John Adams called the condition of the President’s House “habitable.” So drafty, “Abigail had to keep thirteen fires going all day to make it livable…. Someday it would be finished, properly furnished, and adequately staffed. At the moment the Adamses could not afford to hire enough servants to run such a house, and the enormous public rooms had no plaster, paint, or furniture. Abigail used the great east room to hang her laundry. In its present condition it was good for little else.” (3) 

Now, in 2021, in a Washington, DC the Founding Fathers would hardly recognize, the government is an unwieldy behemoth with two million employees spread around Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and of course DC itself. But those who live willingly in DC, knew what they were getting into, insofar as choosing to reside in the District and not a state. No one was forced to live in the District. As the Federal Capitol District, Washington is governed by a mayor and a city council. Although it has a population larger than that of Vermont and Wyoming, it is just smaller than 1/18 the size of Rhode Island, the current smallest state in the Union.

The current push for DC statehood is an overt power grab by the Democrats. Since being granted the right to vote for president in 1961 via the 23rd Amendment, there have been 15 presidential elections between 1964 and 2020, with the Democrat candidate winning DC in all 15 by overwhelming margins.

Washington, DC is a city that voted 92 percent for Joe Biden and 5.4 percent for Donald Trump in 2020; a city that last voted for a Republican candidate with more than 10 percent of the vote in 1988 when George Herbert Walker Bush earned 14.3 percent of the vote; a city that gave its highest percentage of the vote to a Republican in 1972 for Richard M. Nixon with 21.56 percent. As of March 31, 2021 the DC Board of Elections statistics indicate only 5.66 percent of the voters are registered Republican. 

Admitting DC to the Union as the 51st state is a guaranteed two additional Democrat senators and one additional Democrat representative in perpetuity. With a 52-50 Democrat advantage in the Senate they could ram through the entirety of the most progressive, most expensive, most anti-American, most anti-Capitalist, most damaging, most debt increasing agenda in the history of the United States, driving the nation into socialism, and on the verge of bankruptcy. 

In the current climate of severe political correctness, the era of so-called cancel culture there’s an overwhelming hysteria to define everything as racist or racially motivated. This is particularly of concern regarding DC statehood which, at 47.75 percent, has the largest percentage of Black residents in the nation. According to US Rep. Ayana Pressley (D-MA), not supporting DC “statehood is racist and racism kills.”

Senator Tom Carper (D-DE), introduced S. 51, “A bill to provide for the admission of the State of  Washington, DC into the Union,” along with 38 co-sponsors on January 26. Through April 13, six additional senators have joined as co-sponsors, bringing the total to 45 senators - all Democrats, named below, endorsing DC statehood. This bill is the companion to HR 51 Washington, DC Admission Act, introduced by DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC-D) on January 4, already passed in the House, 216-208, on April 22, in a straight party line vote. Norton called the imperative of DC statehood a “moral obligation.” 

Tammy Baldwin (WI)         Michael Bennet (CO) Richard Blumenthal (CT)

Cory Booker (NJ)         Sherrod Brown (OH) Maria Cantwell (WA)

Ben Cardin (MD)         Bob Casey (PA) Chris Coons (DE)

Catherine Cortez-Masto (NV) Tammy Duckworth (IL) Dick Durbin (IL)

Dianne Feinstein (CA)         Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) Margaret Hassan (NH)

Martin Heinrich (NM)         John Hickenlooper (CO) Mazie Hirono (HI) 

Tim Kaine (VA)         Amy Klobuchar (MN) Patrick Leahy (VT)

Ben Ray Lujan (NM)         Edward Markey (MA) Bob Menendez (NJ)

Jeff Merkley (OR)         Chris Murphy (CT)         Patty Murray (WA)

Jon Ossoff (GA)         Alex Padilla (CA) Gary Peters (MI)

Jack Reed (RI)         Jacky Rosen (NV) Bernie Sanders (VT)

Brian Schatz (HI)         Chuck Schumer (NY) Tina Smith (MN)

Debbie Stabenow (MI)         Jon Tester (MT) Mark Warner (VA)

Raphael Warnock (GA)         Elizabeth Warren (MA) Sheldon Whitehouse (RI)

Ron Wyden (OR)         Chris Van Hollen (MD)

Since the major point of consternation is eradicating the long running “taxation without representation,” as is advertised on DC licence plates, a solution that should, but won’t, satisfy people on both sides of the issue, is to retrocede the residential land back to the State of Maryland. This would not be the first time for such an occurrence. The western half of the District was returned to the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1847. According to The Wall Street Journal, “local leaders have opposed such a move.” (04/23/21)

Of course local leaders have rejected this very valid solution, because, while it enfranchises the voting citizens of the District - which supposedly was the goal of the statehood movement, the real motive is the addition, in perpetuity, of two Democrat senators and one Democrat representative. Because this exceptional solution fails to expand the power of the Democrat Party, it is rejected out of hand. This is the same brand of power grab by the Democrats that is pushing a court packing scheme, not to equalize the power structure on the Supreme Court, but to reverse it with a four justice demand that would give the liberals a supposed seven to six majority over the conservatives. (Supposedly, because Chief Justice John Roberts does not act like a true conservative.) This same power grab backfired royally when attempted by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1937.

Voters of all stripes must fight back against this blatant power grab which ultimately leads to one party rule in the United States for an unlimited amount of time. Reasonable people, if there still are any on the far left, must understand that the DC claim of “taxation without representation” is both valid and solvable without disrupting the current structure of the body politic. Retrocede the residential and other non-Federal government buildings land back to Maryland as Douglass County. (The proposed name for the 51st state is the State of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth.) In adding the new Douglass County to Maryland, the Free State would be granted an additional Congressional representative (probably Norton), to be taken from New York, due to lose at least one seat after the 2020 Census reapportionment.

I defy anyone to name a single Democrat in either house of Congress that would fight this hard, in violation of the Constitution, for DC statehood were the aforementioned numbers reversed to the GOP advantage. Hearing crickets, we move on.

In Federalist 43, written by James Madison under the pseudonym Publius, as part of the Federalist Papers, Madison outlines in Section Two how maintaining the independence or neutrality of the Federal District would prevent jealousies amongst the several states. 

This is necessary to prevent “a dependence of the members of the general government on the State comprehending the seat of the government, for protection in the exercise of their duty, might bring on the national councils an imputation of awe or influence, equally dishonorable to the government and dissatisfactory to the other members of the Confederacy. This consideration has the more weight, as the gradual accumulation of public improvements at the stationary residence of the government would be both too great a public pledge to be left in the hands of a single State, and would create so many obstacles to a removal of the government, as still further to abridge its necessary independence.” So wrote Madison in the document published January 23, 1788. 

For the entirety of Federalist 43: https://www.teaparty911.com/federalist-papers/federalist-43/ 

In order to repeal the 23rd Amendment, three-quarters of the 50 state legislatures would have to vote to repeal - a virtual impossibility. Additionally, 22 Republican state Attorneys General sent a letter to Joe Biden opposing DC statehood as unconstitutional. Those AGs represent the states of Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.

The Founding Fathers knew what they were doing when they composed the Constitution. There is a necessity in keeping the Federal Capitol District neutral and separate from the 50 states. There is a greater imperative to maintaining the separation of powers between the three branches of the government. Give the full time DC residents their right of taxation with representation and retrocede that land back to Maryland. Retain the Federal Capitol District that would continue to include the Capitol Building, White House, Supreme Court, National Mall, cabinet department buildings, and the other Federal buildings.

To grant Washington, DC statehood (and unbalance the American flag with a 51st star) is an unconstitutional power grab designed to ultimately turn this country from a republic into a socialist tyrannical nation. This would not be a single term that could be undone with the election of the next Republican president. The damage that would be inflicted upon the American people would be in perpetuity, where this generation would be required to teach future generations what a free nation was like. Fighting DC statehood is right, moral, and constitutional. The silent majority must remain silent no longer.

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

Notes

(1) Withey, Lynne Dearest Friend A Life of Abigail Adams, Simon & Schuster 1981, P. 274

(2) Ibid., P. 275

(3) Ibid.

Passover Teaches About American Freedoms

Passover Teaches About American Freedoms

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn

March 26, 2021

Jewish communities the world over commence the eight night, eight day celebration and observance of Pesach (Passover) this weekend. While rich with symbolism, this is more than an exercise in symbolism, but a lesson in history, freedom, and perseverance.

The Israelites, having been slaves in Egypt for greater than 400 years, after wandering the wilderness for an elongated period of time, took their freedom for granted and wanted to turn back to the land they knew and the provisions they were guaranteed. But thanks to the guidance and leadership gifted to Moshe (Moses) by G-d, the Israelites persevered, reaching the Promised Land after a 40 year sojourn in that wilderness.

In spite of attempted mutiny, in spite of the Golden Calf, in spite of Moshe losing his temper and smashing the tablets of the Ten Commandments upon seeing that idol, the Israelites persevered.

Always the underdog, almost always outgunned, the Jewish people persevered. David slew Goliath with but a slingshot; the Maccabees, a group of between 800 and 1,000, defeated the Assyrians, 40,000 strong, in 174 BCE (3586).

In 1938, the National Socialists of Germany - the Nazis, enacted the “Weapons Law” imposing gun restrictions against the Jews and other “non-citizens.” Note the use of the word “other,” as naturalized German-Jews were stripped of their citizenship in July 1933, and in September 1935, the remainder of the German Jewish community was denied its last vestiges of its citizenship. In November 1941, the last few rights of those remaining Jews in Germany were stripped from them, as well as declaring all German Jews living abroad no longer citizens of the Reich. 

Unarmed and unable to fight back made the Jewish population easy prey for the Nazis to, at first, destroy property, businesses, homes, and synagogues; arrest Jewish citizens for any or no reason; beat them in the streets; and ultimately deport them by tens and hundreds of thousands forcing them to abandon virtually all their possessions, not to mention the already absconded with dignity that placed them in such precarious circumstances in the first place.

The vast majority of German Jews were secular, blending into German society. The approximate Jewish population in Germany in the 1930s ranged between 505,000 and 850,000 out of an overall German population of between 62 and 67 million - hardly recognizable - 0.013 percent of the population at most. Yet, the continued scapegoats throughout history, the Jews not just of Germany, but the world, were the bane of the existence of Hitler.

With regard to the “Weapons Law,” Hitler wrote, “The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by doing so.”

When we think about Pesach and freedom it is vital to recall the Warsaw Ghetto uprising that occurred from April 19 to May 16, 1943. April 19, 1943 was the eve of Pesach. This was the Nazi’s final efforts to liquidate the Warsaw Ghetto, that heretofore saw more than a quarter million Jews of that ghetto transported to Treblinka and their ultimate slaughter. The ragtag band of several hundred resistance fighters, armed with a pittance of weapons garnered from a precious few anti-Nazi Poles, held off the SS forces fortified with tanks and artillary for nearly a month. More than 50,000 Jews were captured during this uprising and either murdered on the spot or sent to Treblinka to be gassed upon arrival.

Today the State of Israel, founded in 1948, is a reminder of both the failures and the successes of the Jewish people throughout history. How it learned not to live in victimhood, but, as former President Ronald Reagan said, with “Peace through strength.”

Ah, the lessons of history. Fast forward to 2021 and the United States. The leftist progressives are attempting the same coup - disarming the American people in an effort to rule with an iron fist in an authoritarian manner as the so-called cancel culture continues running roughshod over the Constitutional rights of the American people.

How did a couple hundred Jewish freedom fighters keep Hitler’s tanks, artillery, and well trained soldiers at bay for nearly a month? Perseverance, a healthy dose of prayer, and of course, weapons. This is a major reason the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution exists - to protect the citizenry from an overzealous, authoritarian government. The Bill of Rights tells the government what it can’t do, not what the people can do.

Jewish Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter reminded this to the American people, as he wrote in 1946, “We are in danger of forgetting that the Bill of Rights reflects experience with police excesses. It is not only under Nazi rule that police excesses are inimical to freedom. ...History bears testimony that by such disregard are the rights of liberty extinguished, heedlessly at first, then stealthily, and brazenly in the end.”

Consider the brazenness of the current administration in their frightening zealousness to deny the American people the right by which to protect ourselves, thus ultimately turning us into subjects, and no longer a free people. We the people must no longer be complacent toward, and complicit with, a government big enough to give us everything we want, and also powerful enough to deprive us of everything we have - including, but not limited to the First and Second amendments.

We must furtively protect ourselves from this administration and its so-called woke supporters who favor the coming ghettoization of this country on two fronts. On the US-Mexico border where thousands upon thousands of illegal aliens continue invading this country, including thousands of unaccompanied minors putting themselves at risk of rape, slavery, trafficking, and even murder.

On the domestic front, places such as Columbia University are intentionally ghettoizing themselves with at least six segregated graduation ceremonies. By their own choosing, they are reinstituting the same “separate, but equal” that was legalized in the 1896 Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson, then overturned in 1954 by Topeka v. Board of Education. Setting themselves back 125 years, Columbia will have graduation ceremonies labeled Native American, Lavender (LGBTQIA+), African-American, Latinx, Asian, and Lower Income. It is this brand of self-imposed Balkinization that will continue to weaken and destroy the fabric of America.

On this, and every Pesach, as we read in the Haggadah, “All who are hungry, let them come and eat; all who are needy, let them come and celebrate Passover.” As we unite to celebrate Pesach, even if, sadly, via Zoom, we celebrate the spring, a renewal, a rebirth, a renaissance, and even the coming Opening Day of baseball season, in the hopes of maintaining our precious freedoms.

As Ronald Reagan so aptly stated, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.”

Wishing one and all a happy, healthy, and meaningful Pesach.

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

More Memorials than Inductees at Hall in 2021

More Memorials than Inductees at Hall in 2021
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
January 19, 2021

The 2020 Major League Baseball season, we hardly knew ye. Thanks to the evil Covid, the home plate umpires were not the only ones who donned masks. The 60 game season came and went in an instant, with the Los Angeles Dodgers winning their first World Series since 1988. With the 2020 season in the books, let’s hope 2021 will be a complete 162 game season, attended by at least some fans, and with a return to the traditional rules of the game.

Gone should be seven inning doubleheaders, extra innings beginning with a runner on second base, relief pitchers required to pitch to either three batters or end the inning, circumstances where the home team bats in the tops of innings and a visiting team has the opportunity for the very unusual walk-off. Also, the designated hitter should be dropped from the National League, and quite frankly the American League as well, but that seems like a pipedream. 

Now with the rather active Hot Stove season underway, with no umpires or players on the fields, many of which are blanketed under a bed of smooth, white, crusted snow - silent, slightly more silent than they were during the regular season. Yet while the ballparks enjoy their winter slumber, there is business of the utmost importance emerging from Cooperstown on Tuesday, January 26.

The Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) is finalizing their votes to determine who will fill the Hall of Fame Class of 2021. Is this the year for Curt Schilling? How about the likes or Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens - tainted by substance allegations? The only way steroid/HGH-addled balloteers should be admitted to the Hall of Fame is with a paid ticket for admission to the museum.

“We hope the day never comes when known steroid users are voted into the Hall of Fame. They cheated. Steroid users don’t belong here,” wrote late Hall of Famer Joe Morgan in a November 2017 letter to the BBWAA, hoping to influence their Hall votes in 2018. Hopefully Morgan’s letter continues to resonate in 2021 as cheaters such as Bonds and Clemens inch closer to the magic number of 75 percent - enough to grant one admission to the Hall.

The cloud of controversy has been dark and heavy, while initially eliminating some from Hall of Fame contention. Yet in the cases of Bonds and Clemens, the BBWAA voters’ support of Bonds rose from 59.1 percent in 2019 to 60.7 percent in 2020, and Clemens’ totals jumped from 59.5 percent in 2019 to 61 percent in 2020. Fortunately, remaining in low numbers are Sammy Sosa and Manny Ramirez. Sosa’s support moved from 8.5 percent in 2019 to 13.9 percent in 2020, while voting for Ramirez moved from 22.8 percent in 2019 to 28.2 percent in 2020, his fourth year on the ballot. Bonds, Clemens, and Sosa are on the ballot for their penultimate ninth year, and hopefully they will not reach the vaunted 75 percent by 2022.

The voting results are due to be released on Tuesday, January 26. What is not released are the ballots of the voting members of the BBWAA. Those votes should be disclosed to the public. Let the BBWAA voters defend their votes as I defend mine, even if not as a member of the BBWAA.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame has a so-called character clause. “Voting shall be based upon the player’s record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character and contribution to the team(s) on which the player played.” So-called because it has existed since 1945 and more than a fair share of miscreants have found their way to Cooperstown. (https://baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/bbwaa-rules-for-election)

With voting in mind, were I a privileged member of the BBWAA charged with the task of electing the Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2021, only three former major leaguers would earn my votes - all three, holdovers. Of those three, maybe one will be enshrined on July 25. Candidates must receive at least five percent of the vote in order to remain on the ballot should they not attain 75 percent the previous year.

Curt Schilling could finally reach 75 percent in this, his ninth year on the ballot. Schilling’s stock rose more than nine points from 60.9 percent in 2020, up to 70 percent in 2020. Schilling, bloody sock and all, is a six-time All Star who pitched 20 seasons in the big leagues – three with the Orioles, one with the Astros, eight-plus with the Phillies, three-plus with the Arizona Diamondbacks, then calling it a career with the Boston Red Sox. Schilling tossed 83 complete games, appeared in three World Series, and had three 20-plus win seasons within a four year span at ages 36, 38, and 39. Schilling should have his ticket stamped this summer – was my mistaken prediction the last eight years, and while I believe some members of the BBWAA are holding his politics against him, Schilling still belongs among those earning a plaque in Cooperstown.

Omar Vizquel, was the quintessential shortstop of a generation, having won 11 Gold Glove awards during his 24 year career, second most at that position all time. Vizquel was also the oldest shortstop to win a Gold Glove, having done so at age 39 in 2006. After five years with the Seattle Mariners, Vizquel took his talents to Cleveland continuing to be the defensive gem that will vault him into Cooperstown.

Vizquel was three times an All Star, overshadowed by Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees, who was elected to Cooperstown in a near-unanimous vote in 2020. On the field, Vizquel led the league in Fielding Percentage six times as a shortstop and is the all time leader in Fielding Percentage at .985. Vizquel shares the season record with Cal Ripken, Jr. for committing the fewest errors by a shortstop playing in at least 150 games with a paltry three. Additionally, Vizquel is first all time in double plays turned by a shortstop, third all time in assists at shortstop, and 11th all time in putouts made by a shortstop.

At bat, Vizquel compares rather favorably to Hall of Fame shortstops Ozzie Smith, Luis Aparicio, and Luke Appling. Vizquel hit more home runs than Smith and Appling, trailing Aparicio by only three. Vizquel drove in more runs than Smith and Aparicio, stole more bases than Appling, hit for a higher batting average than Smith and Aparicio, while collecting more hits than all three. This is the fourth year on the ballot for Vizquel, having earned 52.6 percent of the vote in 2020.

In his third year on the ballot, Todd Helton has earned my support. The 17-year MLB veteran played his entire career with the Colorado Rockies (1997-2013) batting .316 in 2,247 games with 2,519 hits, 369 home runs, scoring 1,401 runs, and driving in 1,406 runs. The Knoxville native finished second in the 1998 Rookie of the Year balloting, earning five All Star game selections in consecutive years, from 2000 through 2004. Appearing on MVP ballots in six years, Helton’s breakout season was in 2000, leading the National League in hits with 216 and all of MLB with 59 doubles, 147 RBI and a .372 batting average, yet could only manage a fifth place finish in the MVP race that season. Earning 29.2 percent of the votes in 2020, Helton will more than likely not earn induction this summer.

While it is important to not sully the Baseball Hall of Fame with the likes of Bonds, Clemens, Ramirez, and Sosa, the focus must be on the greats who will be enshrined this July and how they will continue to be the true ambassadors to the community as so many before them have been. Sadly, this is an ever shrinking community. The Class of 2020, Derek Jeter, Marvin Miller, Ted Simmons, and Larry Walker, to be enshrined this July, as Covid “rained out” last summer’s ceremony, raised the total membership to 333, of which, as of March 20, 2020, 82 were living. Sadly, as of January 20, 2021, that number has dwindled to 73. A daunting record seven Hall of Famers passed away in 2020, five within a 42 day period.

Al Kaline, “Mr. Tiger,” who never played a game in the minor leagues, and spent the entirety of his MLB career with Detroit, lived December 19, 1934 to April 6, 2020. Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1980, Kaline accumulated 3,007 hits, 399 home runs, 1,582 RBI, and scored 1,622 runs during a career that ran from 1953 through 1974. The right fielder earned 10 Gold Glove Awards, was voted into 18 All Star games, and garnered MVP votes in 14 seasons. In 1955, Kaline led the American League with 200 hits and a .340 batting average. Kaline was  particularly effective in the postseason, batting .379 in the 1968 World Series win over the St. Louis Cardinals. In seven games Kaline had 11 hits, cracked two home runs, and drove in eight runs. 

“Tom Terrific, The Franchise,” Tom Seaver, who put the then hapless New York Mets on the map lived November 17, 1944 to August 31, 2020. Seaver pitched 12 of his 20 year career, from 1967 through 1986, with the Mets achieving fame as the ace of the staff recording 311 wins and 205 loses, with a 2.86 ERA and 3,640 strikeouts. Seaver, a US Marine, earned election into the Hall of Fame in 1992, with the then highest percentage of the vote at 98.8 percent. Along the way, Seaver won Rookie of the Year honors in 1967, three Cy Young Awards, selected to 12 All Star games, earned MVP votes in 10 years, and was the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year in 1969. Although he pitched many gems while with the Mets, it was not until Seaver became a member of the Cincinnati Reds that he finally tossed his lone no-hitter, on June 16, 1978 in a 4-0 win against the St. Louis Cardinals, at Riverfront Stadium. Seaver won 20 or more games in five seasons while leading the National League in wins three times and in strikeouts five times.

Lou Brock, the “Rocket,” who retired leading all Major League Baseball with 938 stolen bases, and still ranks number two, lived June 18, 1939 to September 6, 2020. The speedy left fielder played from 1961 through 1979, was selected to six All Star games and entered the Hall of Fame in 1985. In a record 12 consecutive years Brock stole 50 or more bases and stroked 200 or more hits four times, amassing 3,023 hits for his career, batting .293. In 1968 Brock led the National League with 46 doubles, 14 triples, and 62 stolen bases. Brock put up prolific numbers in three World Series, batting .391 in 21 games with 34 hits seven doubles, two triples, four homeruns, 13 RBI, while scoring 16 runs and stealing 14 bases.

Bob “Gibby” Gibson, who pitched with such ferocity he would have thrown at his own mother, or so the myth went. The career St. Louis Cardinal, who played from 1959 through 1975, lived November 9, 1935 to October 2, 2020. Elected to the Hall of Fame in 1981, the right-hander won 251 games and lost 174 with an ERA of 2.91, while striking out 3,117 batters. Gibson won an MVP Award, two Cy Youngs, an impressive nine Gold Gloves, while also being named to nine All Star teams. So dominant was Gibson in 1968 with a miniscule 1.12 ERA, that Major League Baseball lowered the pitcher’s mound from 15 inches to 10 inches after his brilliant season. During the 1968 campaign, Gibson won 22 games while losing an astounding nine - talk about a lack of run support. Gibson led the National League with 13 shutouts and 268 strikeouts, along with the almost invisible ERA, en route to capturing the Gold Glove, Cy Young, and MVP awards that year. Gibson also put up solid postseason numbers, pitching in three World Series, winning seven games, losing but two, with a 1.89 ERA. He started nine games, completed eight, striking out 92 batters in just 81 innings.

Edward Charles “Whitey” Ford a.k.a. The “Chairman of the Board,” lived October 21, 1928 to October 8, 2020. He played the entirety of his career, 1950 through 1967, with the  New York Yankees, earning induction into the Hall of Fame in 1974. Ford won 236 games and lost 106, with an ERA of 2.75. Throughout his career, the southpaw Ford averaged 230 innings pitched per season and was selected to 10 All Star games. He led the American League in wins three times and in ERA twice. Ford posted career highs in 1961 with 25 wins, 283 innings pitched, and 209 strike outs, on his way to winning the Cy Young Award. He followed up his regular season by winning the World Series MVP winning two games, losing none, with a spotless ERA of 0.00. In total Ford won 10 and lost eight in 11 World Series with a 2.71 ERA.

Joe Morgan, “Little Joe,” the “Little General,” lived September 19, 1943 to October 11, 2020. He played the bulk of his 22 year career with the Houston Astros and Cincinnati Reds, which ran from 1963 through 1984. At the time of his death, Morgan had been serving as Vice Chairman of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum Board of Directors. An integral part of the Big Red Machine and a slick fielding second baseman, Morgan won five consecutive Gold Gloves, one each in 1975 and 1976 while winning the National League MVP both years. In those two years Morgan batted .327 and .320, stole 67 and 60 bases, drove in 94 and 111 runs - all career highs. His defensive career at second base continues to hold up, even 34 years after his retirement. Morgan ranks second in games played at the keystone sack, third in assists, fourth in putouts, and sixth in double plays turned. Morgan also successfully worked in the ESPN booth with Jon Miller calling Sunday Night Baseball for a number of years.

Phil “Knucksie” Niekro, who pitched until he was 48, looked every bit the part while still just in his 30s. Niekro lived April 1, 1939 to December 26, 2020. Niekro spent 21 of his 24 years in the majors with the Braves - the first two while the team still played in Milwaukee. The righthander pitched from 1964 through 1987, and was enshrined in the Hall of Fame in 1997. Niekro won 318 games and lost 274, pitching 245 complete games with 3,342 strikeouts in 5,404 innings - fourth all time. The knuckleball will take a pitcher a long way for a long time. He earned five Gold Gloves, votes for the Cy Young five times, and selected to five All Star games. Niekro worked like a veritable horse from 1977 through 1979, during his ages 38-40. In those three seasons, he pitched an average of 335 innings totaling 1,006, 18.6 percent of his career total, with 65 complete games. Niekro won 20 or more games three times, while losing 20 or more twice, including 1979 when he led the National League in both wins and loses, going 21-20, the last pitcher to win and lose 20-plus in the same season.

May their memories be for a Blessing, and may 2021 be a better year for one and all.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN. He has been a Patron-level member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame since 2007.

Silencing Trump, Silences Millions

Silencing Trump, Silences Millions

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn

January 13, 2021

“A government big enough to give you everything you want, is a government big enough to take away everything you have,” is erroneously oft-attributed to Founding Father, Thomas Jefferson.*

Now, substitute government with big tech, and one can understand the current quagmire the United States has entered. More than understand, the American people should be downright frightened. The far left socialist progressives are using George Orwell’s 1984 as a template and taking it to places Orwell could never have fathomed. 

The far left, which encompasses the so-called mainstream media, the behemoth tech companies, and the incoming Biden administration which includes the already sworn in 117th Congress are marching in lockstep - goose-stepping - past political oppression, past speech suppression, straight to totalitarianism. They are playing a dangerous game and they are playing for keeps, starting with amending all gender specific language to gender neutral language in Congress.

Here’s an example of the insanity before Biden is even sworn in. “(3) In clause 8(c)(3) of rule XXIII, strike ‘father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, first cousin, nephew, niece, husband, wife, father-in-law, mother-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, stepfather, stepmother, stepson, stepdaughter, stepbrother, stepsister, half brother, half sister, grandson, or grand daughter’ and insert ‘parent, child, sibling, parent’s sibling, first cousin, sibling’s child, spouse, parent-in-law, child-in-law, sibling-in-law, stepparent, step child, stepsibling, half-sibling, or grandchild.’” (Wall Street Journal, January 5, 2021) This will only heighten confusion, not decrease it, and is merely the beginning of the insanity. 

President Donald Trump has been unceremoniously stricken from Facebook, Google, Instagram, PayPal, Pintrist, Reddit, Shopify, Snapchat, Spotify, Tik Tok, Twitch, Twitter, and You Tube. What is to prevent any of these companies from cancelling anyone they choose for any reason or no reason? The age in which we live could turn into one reminiscent of Nazi Germany where children were told to spy on their parents and report seditious speech against Hitler to their teachers. Americans could turn their neighbors in to tech companies for spying a Trump bumper sticker on their neighbor’s car, or a Trump sign on their lawn. Those tech companies could just as easily banish any one of us from any of the above or other sites.

And for good measure, Michelle Obama supports the ousting of Trump from his multiple social media accounts and stifling his free speech. “Now is the time for Silicon Valley companies to stop enabling this monstrous behavior - and go even further then they have already by permanently banning this man from their platforms,” Obama said on January 7.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel opposes Trump’s banishment from Twitter, saying, “the right of freedom of opinion is of the utmost importance; it’s not big tech’s job to decide what speech should be blocked.” So, the German Chancellor understands the concept of free speech in the United States better than an American First Lady.

These Silicon Valley oligarchs have foisted draconian measures on the president in a way so frightening as if to tell him, “we dictate to you, and you are nobody.” Silicon Valley next set its sights on Parler, a conservative social media site, and in an act of collusion Amazon, Apple, and Google shut Parler down in a matter of hours.

While Parler has been banished from the internet on baseless accusations of being the site used by people planning the invasion at the Capitol on January 6, in reality, Facebook, Twitter, and You Tube were the hosts of the overwhelming majority of pre-invasion chatter and planning, but they keep chugging merrily along. Parler’s exile, because it caters to a more conservative clientele, is just one of a number of slights to the right. So much for the open forums these behemoth tech companies brag about, and an example of antitrust abuse. Demonstrative of how wrong the ouster of Parler was, US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) supported its removal, but not that of Facebook, Twitter, or You Tube.

“It’s not about holding everyone to account equally… it’s about giving preferential treatment to certain people and taking it out on others. Amazon, Apple, Google, they don’t care. They are using this to squash the first real competitor in this space in so many years. If there’s a cast for antitrust I think this is an example,” said John Matze, Parler CEO on January 11. Parler is subsequently suing Amazon for violating antitrust laws.

“Silencing people, not to mention the President of the United States, is what happens in China, not our country,” said Nikki Haley (R-SC) former governor and United States Ambassador to the United Nations.

According to Twitter’s so-called Civic Integrity Policy, “we want to make it clear today that the accounts of world leaders are not above our policies entirely… We will err on the side of leaving the content up if there is a clear public interest in doing so.”

Such total… hypocrisy. World leaders? Iran’s Ayatollah is still on Twitter. He’s less of a threat to public safety than President Trump? If Amazon, Apple, and Google have the power, and quite frankly the temerity, to take Parler offline, why is the Ayatollah still posting? Or Antifa? And for that matter, why haven’t these three so-called arbiters of internet decency shut down every single site trafficking in child pornography? Seems knocking those filthy animals out would take priority, but no, it’s about sacking millions of conservatives.

Err on the side of leaving content up if there is a clear public interest in doing so? More than 74 million Trump voters and countless other Americans simply supporting free speech is certainly a clear public interest. Clearly a double standard on the part of tyrannical tech.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey still grants Holocaust deniers a platform, yet Trump supporters pose a greater threat to American civilization? While Parler was forcibly going dark, “Hang Mike Pence” was horrifyingly trending on Twitter. In reality, big tech, the media, as well as the liberal left socialist progressives actually believe the conservative movement poses a serious threat to their desires to turn the United States into a socialist country, enjoined with its evil trappings such as  the Green New Deal, Medicare for all, a minimum guaranteed monthly income, raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, a return to mandatory Obamacare membership, abortion on demand - full term, citizenship for illegals, continued support of sanctuary cities, a return to the Paris Climate Accords, and a reinstatement of the pathetic Iran deal.

Additionally, Twitter is busy lecturing foreign countries, specifically Uganda, having banned social media on the eve of its elections for president and parliament, scheduled for Thursday, January 14 on the importance of free speech, the importance of access to information, and to deny those, violates basic human rights, and that censoring people’s internet access is immoral. Such utter hypocrisy coming from the same company that has done just that to millions and millions of Americans. 

And as noted above it’s not just behemoth tech working to silence millions of conservatives. Forbes magazine announced it will not hire anyone affiliated or associated with the Trump administration, and it will doggedly pursue and attempt to ruin, financially, any business or company that does hire those linked to the Trump administration. “Forbes magazine’s chief content officer, Randall Lane, warned companies that may consider hiring Kayleigh McEnany, Kellyanne Conway, Sarah Huckabee Sanders and others who worked for the Trump administration. ‘Let it be known to the business world: Hire any of Trump’s fellow fabulists above, and Forbes will assume that everything your company or firm talks about is a lie.’”

“Cancelling anyone associated with President Trump, is not going to unite the country,” said Kelsey Bolar, an analyst with Independence Woman’s Forum. “This is just the latest example of cancel culture and the great purge that we’re seeing come from the left and never-Trump Republicans. This dangerous cancel culture, which wants to ban any American who had the audacity to support President Trump or work in his administration from being able to do something as basic as have a new job,” continued Bolar.

But back up on Capitol Hill, members are seeking to do more than just cancel some of their colleagues from across the aisle. US Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), and Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security called both Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) “domestic terrorists” who should be placed on the No-Fly list for the unimpeachable act of supporting the 10 day emergency audit of the votes in several states during the certification process of the Electoral College. 

Cruz and Hawley have been called insurrectionists, when nothing they did were the acts of insurrectionists. They were simply following their Constitutionally outlined duties and rights as senators. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) called for the pair to resign immediately. Even Joe Biden had the unmitigated audacity to compare Cruz and Hawley to infamous Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. Is this Biden’s brand of unity? Will the more than 74 million Trump supporters also be labeled insurrectionists, domestic terrorists, or Nazis and also be denied air travel, or credit cards, or bank accounts on the way to becoming unpersons?

Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), a member of the Senate Ethics Committee, sought censure or expulsion of Cruz and Hawley. And digging even lower, US Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) compared Trump to Osama bin Laden - this coming from a member of the House Intelligence Committee, literally in bed with a Chinese spy.

None of this consternation and angst were directed at the Democrats who challenged the results of the presidential elections and thus the certification processes of the Electoral College votes in 1969, 2001, 2005, and most recently in 2017. No one called for anyone’s censuring, expulsion, or resignation, meaning, none of the Republicans balked at the free speech and Constitutional rights of the Democrats in the Senate. Even after Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) Tweeted that the 2016 presidential election was “hijacked,” there were no repercussions.

Additionally, while also not suffering any punishment, Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) encouraged the illegal actions in Minneapolis to continue following the burning down of the Third Precinct police station. “Everyone beware, they’re not going to stop, and they shouldn’t stop,” said Harris, who is slated to be inaugurated Vice President on January 20.

Then there’s the incendiary statement made by Biden, and applauded, not condemned, but applauded by many in the media. When asked if he would like to debate Trump, Biden said he wanted to “take Trump out behind the gym and beat the hell out of him.” When did this become acceptable, to threaten the president of the United States without retribution?

Ridding the internet of those evil, pesky conservatives allows the liberal left, socialists, and progressives to enjoy life in their echo chamber… chamber… chamber. But beware liberals, socialists, and progressives, once the conservatives are gone, they will come for you next once the infighting begins, and inevitably it will. “The cancel culture will come for us all,” said US Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH). This only exacerbates the problem of how free our free speech is, actually.

The diminishing of free speech in the United States is never more glaring than by the chilling words offered by Eugene Robinson, an associate editor with The Washington Post. Robinson actually called for the “reprogramming of Trump supporters,” and that “they are in a cult.”

CNN, in a most dastardly statement, having called for censorship, is working to have FNC removed from the airwaves, in an effort to eliminate its competition as it heads down a path toward totalitarianism. 

And only because it is relevant regarding the ever shrinking freedom of speech, a sham of an impeachment “hearing” was conducted on January 13 - one week prior to the end of Trump’s term. This was the Democrats response to the Capitol invasion of January 6. It really can’t be called a hearing as there was  no actual hearing, no witnesses, a complete lack of due process, no involvement by the Judiciary Committee - a total abuse of power. No matter, as the Democrats achieved their goal, casting enough votes to have President Trump the first president to be impeached twice. There were 232 yea votes, of which 10 came from Republicans, 197 nay votes - all Republicans, and four members not voting. No official word yet, as to a Senate trial.

Clearly there is an erosion of civil liberties in the United States commencing with a shrinking of free speech. Stand up for free speech before it no longer is free or even permitted. Once free speech is curtailed, what will they take next - our right to worship openly? Certainly the pandemic already set that in motion. And that would just be dangerous, toxic, and absolutely unAmerican. 

While the following refers to the deaths of multitudes during the Holocaust, it can also speak of the silenced. This passage is prominently featured in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, of which I am a proud charter member.

“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak for me.” 

--Pastor Martin Niemoller (1892-1984) a German pastor outspoken against the Nazi regime. His Continental manual typewriter, on which this brave pastor typed his sermons, is on display at the museum.

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

*US Senator Barry Goldwater used the phrase during his 1964 run for President; and President Gerald Ford uttered it while addressing a joint session of Congress on August 12, 1974.