Today’s post is at The Stream: Trump, Religious Liberty and the Snippy Elevator Lady.
The monumental importance of the election was made vivid in, of all places, a Manhattan elevator.
There were four or five of us crammed in. As we descended somebody said, “My wife and daughters found out that I was going to vote for Trump and they were not happy.” A second gentleman said only one or two people on his staff knew he was considering Trump, and that he didn’t want others to find out. As we stopped on a lower flow to pick up a sixty-something very New York-looking woman, the fear and experiences they’d had of admitting their preference was echoed and amplified.
And then somebody said, “After all, what’s wrong with saying that you’re considering one of the two Presidential candidates? We shouldn’t be afraid to mention it.” The doors opened, and, as we were gentlemen of the old school, we let the lady exit first. Over her shoulder, she said in a tone at once accusative and sarcastic, “You should be afraid.”
As the lady beetled away, I laughed and said in a loud voice, “And that right there is the problem.”
Hillary was on to something with her “basket of deplorables”. Folks who, she said, are “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic, you name it”. It’s what a lot of people think. The elevator lady thought it. A lot of our own families members think it. Even our government does.
Couple of weeks back, Martin R. Castro, chairman U.S. Civil Rights Commission, issued a report which said, with the full authority of the government, “Religious exemptions to the protections of civil rights based upon classifications such as race, color, national origin, sex, disability status, sexual orientation, and gender identity, when they are permissible, significantly infringe upon these civil rights.”
When pushed on this, Castro said, “The phrases ‘religious liberty’ and ‘religious freedom’ will stand for nothing except hypocrisy so long as they remain code words for discrimination, intolerance, racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, Christian supremacy or any form of intolerance.”
It was Castro’s hatred of Christianity, and the fear—I say the positive guarantee—that his bigoted ignorant foolish illogical preposterous anti-Constitutional stance will be made official policy and become law if Hillary is elected that makes understanding Mr Trump’s views on these matters crucial…
Go there to read the rest about why Trump is a better bet. Unless you’re like that elevator lady and can’t bear that somebody thinks differently than you.
Update Somehow this headline is apropos: “Libertarian VP candidate Bill Weld: No one is more qualified to be president than, um, Hillary Clinton“.
Trump could win this thing easily if he weren’t such a self-absorbed political incompetent. After winning the nomination all he had to do was get all his primary opponents unified with him against a common foe, have a reasonable campaign strategy, and stay on message. Instead he continually perpetuates a stumbling mess, clueless about showing he is capable of being president, and unable to drive the crucial points home to undecided voters. He squanders opportunity after opportunity that drop in his lap.
Have you noticed that the democrats (progressives, leftists?) are obsessed with sex, race and money? Not their own but other people’s. They even have names for this obsession, sexist, raciest and classist. They are always calling other people these names. They just can’t help it, it’s compulsive behavior and it’s really just classical psycological projection.
Trump’s real advantage is that this the time one would expect a ‘change’ election.
Ray,
Indeed. Those with race, etc. uppermost in mind are likely the real racists. Isn’t the idea not to notice these things?
Strangely, according to the Left, it’s sexist to NOT vote for Hillary because she is a woman but voting FOR Hillary because she is a woman is not sexist. Also, notice how fragile Hillary appears to the media. Can’t ask any tough questions because the asking is just plain mean. So much for equality of the sexes.
Trump goes to church regularly and raises his children in grandeur Christian homes. The Bible is his favorite book. A Christian man he is. His temperament is his greatest asset. He has great relationship with blacks. Everyone loves him. He never deletes any emails. He is manly, not politically correct, not inflexible, and will make deals with China and Russia and Iran. He manages to get married three times, and Clinton only once. Based on the number, three is bigger than one, therefore Trump have more experience and can better manage our country.
He is his own man. And he will defend your religious liberty. Oh…maybe, just maybe, Trump will successfully privatize social security.
So many reasons to vote for him. Trump For President!
I’ve decided not to vote for Gary Johnson (apropos the mention of Bill Weld’s comment about HRC), since he has shown himself to be, while not personally objectionable like the main two candidates, not really capable to be President. Maybe I’ll write in Evan McMullin’s name (he isn’t on the ballot in my state). What to do, what to do!
It’s not complicated. The next POTUS will be Hillary or Trump. A vote for anybody but Trump is a vote for Hillary. As we’ve seen many times, one of the left’s tactics is to confuse and dispirit opposition voters. #NeverTrump supports that tactic.
I am not optimistic about a Trump Presidency because he is a NY Values Liberal. However, he’s not Hillary, and I’m voting against Hillary and the certainty of continued Marxist transformation.
The “basket of deplorables” reminds me so much of the Brexit campaign. The Great & Good, the BBC, mainstream press and all the “correct thinking” classes were telling the plebs that anyone thinking about voting Leave were “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic, you name it” plus “bigots” and “Little Englanders” to boot.
It was only when people, as in your lift (elevator), got to skirting round the subject that they discovered that, actually, quite a lot of us thought the EU to be a “bad thing” (much like your federal gov as currently cast) and also that we were just “normal folks” – and often better informed than the “Remainians”.
A tangential thought: the question is not whether dear Hillary is one of David Ike’s “Reptilians”. Rather, if there were “Reptilians”, would the Hillary be one? I don’t think the Donald would not, but I’m sure that the Hillary would.
oops: delete the Donald’s “not” – he’s definitely a terrestrial mammal 😉
Briggs wrote,
“[Trump] has a track record of withstanding political correctness wind storms. He has shown us what we thought were gales were in reality anemic puffs. He has taught us to take the offensive and to stop ceding ground. Every indication is that he would be his own man.”
That’s the most amazing thing about Trump. He challenged reigning Liberal Gospel on immigration, multiculti, and globalism. No other national political leader had the guts to do that. And he’s been wildly successful. It shows dystopian liberalism’s fragility. The whole rotten edifice — false, unnatural, irrational, bizarre, ridiculous, pompous, perverse, idiotic, decadent, and loathsome — is ripe for a fall.
Criminy! —
Okay, fourth time is the charm…
Briggs wrote,
“[Trump] has a track record of withstanding political correctness wind storms. He has shown us what we thought were gales were in reality anemic puffs. He has taught us to take the offensive and to stop ceding ground. Every indication is that he would be his own man.”
That’s the most amazing thing about Trump. He challenged reigning Liberal Gospel on immigration, multiculti, and globalism. No other national political leader had the guts to do that. And he’s been wildly successful. It shows dystopian liberalism’s fragility. The whole rotten edifice — false, unnatural, irrational, bizarre, ridiculous, pompous, perverse, idiotic, decadent, and loathsome — is ripe for a fall.
So, do you want to repeal the Civil Rights Act, Briggs?
JMJ
Briggs —
Any coincidence to the elevator going down?
“A vote for anybody but Trump is a vote for Hillary.”
Let’s take a closer look at that statement. For didactic purposes, assume there are 100 registered voters in the country, and you are one of them. At first glance, your vote appears to be worth 1% for the candidate that gets your vote.
Ninety-nine people have voted so far, and it’s time for you to cast your vote. Currently there are 45 votes for Hillary, 45 votes for Trump, and 9 votes for other candidates. This puts Hillary and Trump tied at 45.45%.
If you cast your vote for Hillary, then Hillary wins 46% to 44%. Your vote increases Hillary’s percentage by 0.55%, and reduces Trump’s percentage by 1.45%. So instead of being worth 1% as you first thought, your vote is actually worth 2%, twice as much. Your vote swung the election by 2 percentage points!
If you instead vote for a minor party candidate, then Hillary and Trump remain tied, but at a lower percentage, 45%. Your vote sends a message that you didn’t like either of the major party candidates, and is worth 0.9% in total ‘message value’. In other words, you split your dislike message between the major two candidates.
So a vote for a major party candidate is worth twice as much as you might first think.
And, of course, not voting is worth zero in influencing the election, and near-zero in message value.
For a superb take on the vile Castro report from a genuine Libertarian, see:
http://www.hoover.org/research/governments-civil-rights-bullies
So, Rosey, do you propose getting rid of the Civil Rights Act? Anyone man or woman enough around here to admit what they really want?
JMJ
“So, Rosey, do you propose getting rid of the Civil Rights Act? Anyone man or woman enough around here to admit what they really want?”
Yes. The Civil Rights Act has caused immense trouble and done nothing good. This has been the case in all other countries where something similar has been done.
john 16:33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
King James Version (KJV)
Tribulation is what we can expect. but be of good cheer we are on the winning side and anyone can join us , even at the last minute. Even those most vociferous against Christians.
Wow, JMJ. Bet your clear thinking and compelling argument has changed her mind. How about admitting what you yourself want, though? Tolerance? Apparently not. Diversity? Yes, as long as it ,means being just like you.
Islam is really down on the LGBTQ life-style but that doesn’t bother you while someone not making a flower arrangement does? Why? Afraid of being names thrown from Left field?
JMJ:
The parts of CRA 1964 requiring governments to treat all citizens equally, regardless of ancestry etc., are important and worth keeping. Governments have the police power, after all, and all men should be equal before the law.
Those requiring businesses not discriminate were swiftly turned upside down. Those provisions of the Act were passed with the promise that an employer could continue to fire any of his employees “for any reason, or no reason at all, as long as it isn’t race.”
Well, gee. How does one prove in court that any reason, and especially that no reason at all, is not in fact race /sex /sexual orientation /whatever other protected status? How to prove a negative?
My wife and I have both lately had very long job searches. And this particular liability, added by CRA 1964, that an employer must be able to prove that employment decisions are made for some reason, any reason at all, and not based on race or whatever other protected class (now THERE is a phrase that just resonates with “all men are created equal,” dontcha think?), means it’s just a whole lot easier to not give people a chance if you can at all help it.
It also fails the trendline test. The rate of growth for blacks in professional jobs of all types (except government clerk) *slowed* after passage of CRA 1964.
As for Jim Crow, that was an unfunded mandate imposed upon businesses by various state and local governments with the force of law. Get rid of laws requiring people of whatever class to be treated differently, and the justification for keeping two lunch counters, two sets of bathrooms, two sets of drinking fountains, etc., crumbles in the face of competition for profits (presuming the local government doesn’t use laws to prevent said competition. Even government-run transit services will find that it’s painful to antagonize their largest customer demographic.
In truth, I think that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was a better and stronger law than Title I of CRA 1964, though I would keep Title I anyway. I’d also keep Title III, and maybe Title VI. Title VII should be repealed ASAP, along with local governments’ authority to limit competion in public access/service businesses. Title VIII is no longer enforced. Title IX has served its purpose, but can reasonably be left on the books. So too can Title X and XI.
Off Topic, you should like it:
Student officially changes his personal pronoun to ‘His Majesty’ on campus roster – http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/29230/
Jersey,
Have you not realize that the alt-right as this site is part of want to repeal the constitution.
How many time Briggs wrote about the supposed fact that all democracies are doomed. That too many people get to vote (but it would be a crime if he couldn’t). That health care is not a right ( as long as he as access to it).
The good thing is that there is no more enough white uneducated idiot to elect Trump. The bad thing is that a bunch of these idiots will commit the terrorist act in the US, putting 9/11 as a footnote of history. Tim McVeigh their new prophet., will become a martyr to the oppressed Christian white. The constitution is so important to them that they will rip it like if it was toilet paper. They will blow up such landmarks as Abraham Lincoln statue, the greatest sign of the white oppression who couldn’t own slave anymore.
Conservatives in the US are so ugly nimwits that Saoudi Arabia will seem a haven of liberty compared to those Nazi.
Bob Kurland:
In the real world this is a binary decision yet again. The only practical way to express one’s political existence is to cast a vote between viable and thus real choices: either this or that. All others lead to non-existence whether one likes or not.
As a clever chap (Karl Kraus) said “In case of doubt one decides for the right”. Such as choosing the lesser bad. An almost trivial issue when casting politicians.
Casting a void ballot or refraining from voting leads to the very same fallacy (see e.g. WMB’s newest book Ch.6 and like. If you like I can provide you with fallacies in NMR/MS spectroscopy as well 🙂 ).
“The good thing is that there is no more enough white uneducated idiot to elect Trump. The bad thing is that a bunch of these idiots will commit the terrorist act in the US, putting 9/11 as a footnote of history. Tim McVeigh their new prophet., will become a martyr to the oppressed Christian white. The constitution is so important to them that they will rip it like if it was toilet paper. They will blow up such landmarks as Abraham Lincoln statue, the greatest sign of the white oppression who couldn’t own slave anymore.
Conservatives in the US are so ugly nimwits that Saoudi Arabia will seem a haven of liberty compared to those Nazi.”
So refreshing to read the inflammatory, bigoted, hate-filled, deranged rhetoric of “progressives”.
Go take a xanax and get some sleep; that too will surely pass as well.
Always funny to see that those who like to dishes hate and intolerance don’t like to be on the receiving hand of it.
@Sylvain:
“Always funny to see that those who like to dishes hate and intolerance don’t like to be on the receiving hand of it.”
Since the only one who pointed out the demonstrable fact that your words are those of a hate-filled, bigoted, delusional kook, was me, then the quoted sentence logically requires that I have dished out “hate and intolerance”. Since there are no such comments from me in this thread (or anywhere else for that matter), neither am I a US citizen or a member of the alt-right (whatever that is) or even a member of any of the caricature groups you name, your tu quoque is empty rhetorical bluster and relies on what objectively is a falsehood, and since it was uttered intentionally, a lie.
And of course since the claim has the logical structure of a tu quoque, you implicitly admit that your rhetoric is indeed “inflammatory, bigoted, hate-filled, deranged” as I said. You simply have no moral qualms about it because somehow in your deranged imagination the “conservatives” are asking for it; presumably, because a subset of them will in the future “commit the terrorist act in the US, putting 9/11 as a footnote of history” and “blow up such landmarks as Abraham Lincoln statue”…
G.Rodriguez,
I’ve been participating on this blog for years now and I have had more than my share of bigoted comment from a bunch of the commentators on this site. Not the least the owner of this blog.
The world tolerated Hitler in the 1930s, Churchill even admired him. Russia foretold the incoming doom in the early 1930s and plead that France, the UK and the USA take Hitler seriously, after all his entire plan was available to read in ”Mein Kampf”. Of course, Hitler’s first speech were much more nuance, only with the growing support of the German population did his tone grew angrier dishing intolerance on Jews, handicap/ deformed people, gays, Slavs.
The final solution was not his first solution. The first solution was to send the Jewish people in other countries. The USA, UK, Canada all turned the boat away back to Germany.
This blog is inspired by the same intolerance than Hitler was showing in his first speech. Its level of violence and intolerance is growing ever deeper. It applauds the killing of doctors who dare not share there beliefs.
Briggs is an alt-right conservatives. What he want to conserve is the power for the white, bring back segregation or even slavery. Force women to stay home to rise children. Make sure that the weak have no access to health care so they die faster.
This is the purpose of this blog and it cannot be tolerated. It has to be fought and denounced. This is exactly the basket of deplorable describe by Clinton. They are proud of being deplorable. 70% of Trump supporters (about 30% of all voters) already claim they won’t accept the result if Trump loses. So If Trump loses the alt-right are already prepared to go on the offensive. Isis will look like a puppy compare to these maniac.
@Sylvain:
“I’ve been participating on this blog for years now and I have had more than my share of bigoted comment from a bunch of the commentators on this site. Not the least the owner of this blog.”
I do not give a rat’s ass about what your participation, what you have been subjected to, the demonstrable fact that you cannot argue your way out of a paper bag or even the mind-boggling fact that you cannot even spell my name correctly — I mean, how hard is that?
I pointed out an obvious truth, demonstrable by your own words: you are a hate-filled, bigoted, delusional kook. Yes you are a delusional kook. This:
“Briggs is an alt-right conservatives. What he want to conserve is the power for the white, bring back segregation or even slavery. Force women to stay home to rise children. Make sure that the weak have no access to health care so they die faster.”
is delusional kookiness. And I am being polite, because it is also shameless lying, speaking volumes about your moral character. Period, end of story. You can spin it anyway you want it — which boils down to thinking that you are justified because you judge yourself to be on the high moral ground of the political spectrum. Straight out from the Leninist handbook.
“I pointed out an obvious truth, demonstrable by your own words: you are a hate-filled, bigoted,”
Yes, I’m proud to be an hate filled bigoted person toward people that are being hateful and bigoted toward anyone who does not think like them. But unlike them I do not wish to put them in jail (like the alt-right agenda in Russia and Africa who passed laws written by people like Briggs).
I don’t care if you are being polite or not. People should know who theses people are and the risk of putting them in power..
At the University I predicted a second civil war in the USA within this century. The effect of Trump is to bring that war closer to reality. By the way these people, some call themselves sovereign citizen are responsible for the majority of cop killing and are recognized by the FBI has the most imminent and dangerous threat.
@Sylvain:
“Yes, I’m proud to be an hate filled bigoted person toward people that are being hateful and bigoted toward anyone who does not think like them.”
I do not know why you keep responding since you agree with my characterization of you. You are laboring under a delusion if you think I have any interest in discussing your political rants. And since you agree that you are being “hateful and bigoted”, and you are further committed to the proposition that one is morally justified in being hateful and bigoted in response to hatred and bigotry, it follows logically that anyone towards which you direct your slanderous, vicious lies is morally justified in knocking the teeth you presently conserve in that foul mouth of yours — like say, Mr. Briggs, which you slandered and lied about in the most shameless manner. Mr. Briggs which I remind you, is the gracious host of this blog that allows you to spew this much inane drivel without banning. Saudi Arabia my ass. It used to be that the guests owed some measure of respect to the owner of the house; but you are so unhinged and deranged that even the most basic civil manners are lost on you.
Now get lost and bother me no more.
“Now get lost and bother me no more.”
1) who made you the king
2) I’m free to bother you as much as I want
3) your are just as a bigoted and an idiot than the people on this blog.
Just go get fooked by Briigs
@Sylvain:
“Just go get fooked by Briigs”
No thank you, I object to that on moral grounds. On the other hand, you are so butthurt that I understand why you would recommend it to others.