Trump Just Kept 3 Major Campaign Promises. Here’s What You Need to Know.

/0 Comments/in , , /by

On day one of his first week in office, President Trump kept several campaign promises in a series of executive orders issued Monday.

The first executive order was the fulfillment of a long-standing campaign promise to withdraw the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement.

“Great thing for the American worker, what we just did,” Trump said as he signed the order at the Resolute desk in the Oval Office.

Secondly, President Trump instituted a federal hiring freeze on all federal workers, excluding the military. This policy was the second point in the president’s “Contract with the American Voter.”

Thirdly, the president reinstated the Mexico City abortion rule – a rule that requires foreign non-governmental organizations to not provide or promote abortion services if they receive funds from the U.S. government. The rule was put in place by President Ronald Reagan, and President Obama overturned it in his first week in office in 2009. Now that President Trump has undone what the Obama administration did, hundreds of millions of dollars used for international family planning funds will no longer go to organizations that promote abortions.

Hopefully, President Trump’s actions on federal hiring and on funding for abortion signal that his administration will be serious in his campaign’s commitment to reducing the size of government and to the pro-life cause.

Conservatives should be encouraged by today’s executive actions and look forward to ensuring the president fulfills the rest of his campaign promises. (For more from the author of “Trump Just Kept 3 Major Campaign Promises. Here’s What You Need to Know.” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

I Was Trapped on a Train with Smug ‘Women’s March’ Feminists. This Is What I Overheard.

/0 Comments/in , , /by

After spending a busy inauguration week in D.C., I couldn’t have been more ready to board the train home to New York City. As I waited at Union Station, I felt the adrenaline leaving my system, and began to notice how completely drained I was.

The task that took the greatest toll on me, I realized, was covering the Women’s March on Washington Saturday. Beyond the normal fatigue that comes after writing, tweeting, and Facebook Live-ing for hours on end, the Women’s March left me feeling less satisfied and more desperate … and even angry.

After boarding I observed, to my dismay, that the train from D.C. to Penn Station was packed with Women’s March attendees — a horde of smug feminists, some still carrying signs and sporting their pink “pussy” hats. There was one exception: a college-age girl wearing a “Make America Gay Again” hat.

I tried to continue listening to music and scrolling through the news on my phone, but my attention kept straying to the conversations around me.

One teenage girl was reading an article aloud to her mother, sharing how “cute” and “awesome” it was that former Secretary of State John Kerry spent his “first day off” walking his dog through the Women’s March in D.C.

I overheard a man talking on the phone (rather loudly), giddily discussing all the speakers he saw at the march. He gushed over Gloria Steinem, who co-chaired the event. I tried not to giggle, recalling how the feminist icon bemoaned a male-dominated society in the speech she delivered Saturday:

“God may be in the details, but the goddess is in connections. We are at one with each other, we are looking at each other, not up. No more asking daddy.”

A middle-aged woman sitting across the aisle from me with her tween son sipped red wine while explaining to an older woman nearby how she had a “great time,” but regretted not being able to meet up with her “friends from Planned Parenthood.”

I witnessed others catching up on Instagram and Facebook posts, adding the occasional triumphant remark about “making history,” “speaking out,” “sending a message to Trump,” or “impeachment.”

“Oh my gosh,” I thought to myself. “These people really feel like they’ve turned the country on its head.”

After what felt like the longest three-and-a-half hours of my life, we had arrived. I exited the train and hopped on an elevator with four other women. An older woman, with short, spiked hair, turned around to ask everyone if we were coming from the march.

“YES!” two pink-hatted women responded immediately, beaming with satisfaction. I remained silent, but the woman who inquired gave us all a big thumbs-up.

My ride on the Mutual Affirmation Train was like attending the March on Washington all over again: Crowds of like-minded, mostly white urban women celebrating how “strong,” “educated,” and “virtuous” they all are. I felt like the undercover conservative, harboring secrets I was sure none of these individuals were interested in hearing.

In her speech Saturday, Gloria Steinem cited “violence against females in the world” as to why there are “fewer females than males” alive today. As the crowd roared, I thought to myself, “She had to have meant abortion, right? Does she hear what she’s saying? Do these protesters?” I’m certain that I was alone in my thinking.

I am just as offended by Trump’s derogatory “pussy” comment as anyone else. But an average bystander watching the Women’s March participants — reading their signs and t-shirts, seeing their costumes, and hearing their chants — would reasonably conclude that feminists aren’t offended by the profane; they’re utterly obsessed with it.

This weekend, I stepped into the alternative universe that is the Left’s reality. There, everyone agrees with everyone, and even when they lose, they win. Lack of self-reflection and critical thought is pervasive. It’s how I imagine an insane asylum feels.

Needless to say, I’m happy the march is over. I’ve never felt so keenly aware of how broken our culture is — with hundreds of thousands of militant women around the world boldly asserting their right to kill unborn children, threatening any man or women who dares to stand in their way. How confidently did they assume that no reasonable person would object to their noble cause. How wrong they were. (For more from the author of “I Was Trapped on a Train with Smug ‘Women’s March’ Feminists. This Is What I Overheard.” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

4 Questions Trump MUST Ask His Potential SCOTUS Nominees

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Since the election, the country has been waiting with bated breath at who President-elect Donald Trump will nominate to fill Justice Antonin Scalia’s vacant Supreme Court seat.

Recent Marist polling found that 80 percent of Americans believe that appointing originalists to the highest bench in the land was either an “immediate” or “important” priority. Now, short lists are circulating and the Trump transition team is reportedly holding meetings with potential nominees.

While during the election it seemed that the only requirements to fill the seat was a two-box checklist (“Pro-life” and politically conservative), when an entire branch of government has gotten so far away from its original purpose, it requires a bit more than that.

Here’s what Trump’s team (and eventually the Senate) ought to be asking candidates:

1. What are rights, and what does the Constitution have to do with them?

One of the most visible consequences of the judicial oligarchy is a never-ending regime of ever-changing rights. Rather than being fundamental, transcendent, and bound up with our human dignity, “rights” are now construed to mean whatever the state wants them to mean.

Of course, one of the most egregious historic examples of this is Justice Anthony Kennedy’s infamous line that everyone has the “right to define the universe” as they see fit in Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 1992. But this sort of thinking has promulgated across the spectrum, from immigration to voting laws.

A solid justice would be quick to respond that rights cannot be created by Congress or willed into existence by an activist judge, but preexist any form of government and are best protected by the federal system envisioned in the Constitution.

2. What does the 14th Amendment really do?

The 14th Amendment was originally written with the intent of undoing the legal atrocities of chattel slavery. Since then, its provisions have been used as a blanket justification to codify a never-ending list of positive rights into the body of constitutional case law. This modern understanding of the amendment has not only been used to create “rights” to abortion and same-sex marriage, but has also been used by leftist judges to arbitrarily manufacture “rights” to early voting, transgender bathrooms, and a host of other issues.

This has, in turn, created a legal regime where the imaginary rights begin to devour the fundamental negative ones that are actually referenced in the Constitution – as has been the case of conscience rights under the Obama administration.

So where does it stop? Does the 14th Amendment give the judiciary license to create a never-ending catalogue of imaginary rights? Or is its scope far more limited?

3. Does the Supreme Court create “settled law”? Is it the final arbiter?

What the founders envisioned as the weakest branch of government has now become a place where political discourse goes to die. Antonin Scalia pointed out as much in the Obergefell decision months before his death. Is Obergefell v. Hodges truly “settled law”?

Is any watershed ruling? Or was the concept of judicial supremacy something contrived in the 20th century and since been used to pull issues out of public debate and put them squarely at the control of the legal profession?

A solid Supreme Court candidate would articulate that the founders never granted the court with anything close to the current power that it enjoys, and never intended for it to have the power to “settle” issues of public debate.

Candidates might also add that the founders explicitly rejected a judiciary council of review to do this. And as Daniel Horowitz has pointed out at CR, even the oft-cited Marbury v. Madison decision never granted the Supreme Court the final say on political questions. The court, along with Congress, the president, and the states each had their own responsibilities of interpretation.

4. What is the Supreme Court’s role?

This is an area ripe for review. If the court isn’t meant to act as a super legislature – as it has been doing for the past few decades – then what is it meant to do? The best answer for this would be to rule on issues of statute – along with its areas of original jurisdiction – while sharing the role of constitutional interpretation along with the other branches and the states.

However, the pithiest answer might be, “Whatever the Constitution and the Congress allow it to rule on, and nothing more.”

As pundits, politicians, and journalists over the next few weeks take to deriding and extolling various portions of judicial records for Trump’s short list, these questions will fall by the wayside in favor of media postmortems on how they’ll affect political questions from the bench.

As we have explained repeatedly here at Conservative Review, the problems facing our court system can’t be fixed by simply putting political conservatives (read: “good” judges) on the bench and hoping the problem rules itself away. Decades of Republican appointees have proven this. The kind of constitutional bona fides necessary to fill Scalia’s seat are going to have to be proven by the answers to the above questions.

These questions don’t nearly encompass the breadth of what should be asked of a worthy potential jurist the American people want to see Justice Scalia succeeded by someone who understands our constituting document as written, they ought to be first on the list. (For more from the author of “4 Questions Trump MUST Ask His Potential SCOTUS Nominees” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Here’s One Thing Conservatives Must Cease and Desist Immediately

/0 Comments/in , , /by

As conservatives we are supposedly attempting to conserve things.

Things that are predetermined by nature and nature’s God — so they are, by definition, reality. Things that history has proven are what are best for the human condition this side of eternity. And the things that gave birth to American Exceptionalism.

When your ideology is based on such objectively defined criteria, there really shouldn’t be as much disagreement among us as there is. After all, shouldn’t the Left—with its self-centered emphasis—be the side constantly arguing among itself? Unfortunately, that all too often doesn’t seem to be the case. This column is about one of the main reasons that happens.

Our movement is so driven by what we’re against we have forgotten to conserve what we’re actually for. Even to the point of allowing our opponents to determine for us what/who is shrewd, noble, and virtuous for us to support and pursue. Now, why you’d ever want to trust the words of those who cry “racist” every time you dare to disagree with them is beyond me, but here we are.

I swear, if I hear someone allegedly smart on our side say one more time “since the Left hates it/him/her that must be good,” I’m gonna pull a Waiting for Guffman and go home and bite my pillow in a fit of frustration.

Permit me to share a recent example of this foolishness to drive my point home.

A month ago I conducted an interview here at CR with Andy Schlafly from Eagle Forum, based on his research into the judicial records of several judges known to be on Donald Trump’s short list once he becomes president. While I obviously think enough of Schlafly’s work on such an important subject to highlight it, and think it’s something conservatives should definitely consider, I also think there’s certainly room for conservatives to disagree with his assessment.

I’ve even read some on our side who disagree with Schlafly’s conclusions, and that’s healthy for our movement. Didn’t a best-selling book once say something about there being “wisdom in a multitude of counsel”?

So this week in response to my interview with Schlafly, a conservative activist with more than 10,000 Twitter followers contacted me on social media. He was incredulous that Schlafly would dare to deem some on Trump’s wish-list as not true conservatives in the Antonin Scalia mold. That’s fine, I love a good back-and-forth, but before I could respond to him he had sent me a follow-up tweet. This one included the source of his incredulity. Can you guess what it was?

Was it Ed Whelan at National Review, who is a Schlafly critic? No.

Was it the Federalist Society standing up for its own? No.

Was it anything all that analyzes such matters from a conservative viewpoint? No.

His source was none-other than the paid, leftist trolls at Think Progress. Because, of course, since they think these potential Trump judges are going to create internment camps for trannies they must be just grand.

Before you laugh, please realize this is how much of our movement thinks and/or communicates—including some very big names. Why? Some of it is intellectual laziness, sure, but most of it is the oldest motivation of them all.

It’s heavy lifting advocating for conservatism given the spirit of the age. Especially because just as there are lots of people who have never given their lives to Christ, but think they’re Christians because they went to an Easter service once and know a few of the Ten Commandments. There are also plenty in our movement who, because they hate the nanny state, believe they are conservatives when they don’t even know what we’re trying to conserve.

However, just because you’re against what we’re against doesn’t mean you’re for what we’re for.

Yet in this day and age it’s much easier to click-bait those who still nurse on intellectual milk and aren’t ready for such solid food. Low-hanging fruit such as easily-debunked conspiracy nitwitism and straw men arguments draw an audience and generate traffic. Like when Drudge fired his siren on Tuesday night after noted Trump shill Roger Stone claimed to Alex “what makes the friggin frogs gay” Jones he was poisoned by his political enemies.

Low information, it’s not just for the liberals anymore.

Let’s face it, too many people on our team are really just clock-punchers and check cashers. So when you’re selling something you don’t really believe in, you peddle infantile tripe such as “this makes (fill-in-the-blank liberal) really mad, so it must be good.” And you help train a generation of earnest activists hanging on your every word, like this one who contacted me on Twitter.

For the critical thinker would realize there are people on both sides who are simply compensated to gaslight and demagogue the other. That if Trump gave the Rainbow Jihad everything it wants, and even offered to undergo gender re-assignment surgery himself, the dutiful trolls at Think Progress would still call him a bigot. Because in their eyes Trump’s chief crime isn’t what he stands for, it’s that he’s a Republican.

Which is the same reason race-baiters like Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. (F, 22%) boycott the inaugurations of George W. Bush and Trump, even though each man’s approaches and messaging as it pertains to minorities couldn’t be much different. For Lewis has himself transitioned from civil rights icon to Democrat Party hack, who has attempted to label every GOP standard-bearer in my lifetime a racist.

If Trump tried to appoint Obama’s pick Merrick Garland to replace Scalia, Garland would suddenly become “the most anti-reproductive choice judge ever” according to the likes of the George Soros funded Think Progress. This is the way this gaslighting game of demagoguery is played. I can’t believe I have to spell this out, but apparently I do.

We must cease and desist allowing phony outrage from the perpetually grieved fake victims on the Left determine who or what is conservatism. But that will be hard, because although reactionaryism isn’t conservatism, it sure pays well. (For more from the author of “Here’s One Thing Conservatives Must Cease and Desist Immediately” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Living under a President You Didn’t Want: Four Words of Encouragement for Liberals

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Liberal Americans, may I speak to you for a moment? I have some words of encouragement for you.

I know that today, Inauguration Day, is a rough day for you. Very rough. Actually from my perspective as a conservative it looks like you’re in a panic.

As I write this, you’re planning protests all around the country — “massive” ones, according to some reports. The ACLU is printing 10,000 leaflets on protestors’ rights, for use in Washington alone. At least one other legal group has laid plans to be ready to help you if you get arrested.

It’s going to be a long day for you. I’m sure you see it as the start of a long four years.

There are conservatives, too — #NeverTrumpers — who would prefer it if we were swearing in someone else as president today. But I haven’t seen any sign that they’re joining in with your protests. I’m sure that’s partly because they, like all conservatives, have practice in this already.

You see, we, too, know what it’s like to have a president we didn’t want.

When Barack Obama was inaugurated we expected things would be rough — just as you are expecting as Trump is inaugurated today. Undoubtedly you see his administration in a much better light than we do, but for us, this past eight years has been disastrous in matters including health care, energy policy, marriage, right to life, and a host of foreign policy matters.

But we made it through not just one but two inaugurations, plus eight years of Obama in charge, without the kind of panic many of you are displaying.

I know it’s risky to offer unsolicited advice, but I think our experience may be instructive to you. So let me offer you four words of encouragement if I may: four things you can do to make it through the Trump administration with patience, with grace, and especially without splitting apart the country more than it already has been.

Don’t Forget It’s a Democracy

President Obama reminded us eight years ago that “elections have consequences.” Conservatives would have to live with his leadership and his agenda, he said, because the country elected him president: “At the end of the day, I won.”

He won twice. Now someone else has won. Donald Trump will be our president, because elections have consequences.

Some of you love to proclaim, “Not my president!” Please understand how anti-democratic this appears from our point of view. Barack Obama was president for both liberals and conservatives. If we had denied that, we would have denied American democracy itself; for America’s historically revolutionary democratic processes are defined by our free elections and the country’s acceptance of their results.

So we accepted Barack Obama as our president.

Of course we knew we would get our chance again in four years, and again in another four. You, too, will get your chance in 2020.

In the meantime you should feel welcome to use every legitimate democratic means at your disposal to stand for your view of America. You can protest; that’s American democracy in action. It does no good, though, if it turns disruptive or violent, so please be on guard for that. In your panic you appear not more than frightened: you look angry and sometimes hateful, which in large crowds often turns dangerous. I know you don’t want that to happen, but you’re running quite a risk of it.

I think you might want to re-consider your use of protests anyway. You’ll get further in the long run by working with the rest of us than by shouting at us.

Take the Long View

We are swearing in our 45th president today. There will be a 46th, and it won’t be Donald Trump. Nothing lasts forever. Conservatives have kept that in mind over the last eight years. Our patience has yielded this day for us, the end of extreme progressive national leadership — for now. There will be a 46th president for us, too, and who knows who that will be?

Social movements take time, too. The Civil Rights movement began with the abolitionists before the Civil War. It’s advanced since then through a series of huge ups and downs. If this is a “down” moment — as I’m sure you think it is — it’s still part of the long advance.

That might be little comfort if you want change right now! But change can’t be hurried. Eight years under Obama didn’t bring you the change you wanted. It isn’t because he wasn’t on your side. It’s because no matter how fast you might want change to happen, some things can’t be rushed.

While you’re taking that longer view, I suggest you also take a broader one. You don’t know conservative America. Of course we don’t agree with all your policies and politics, but we aren’t as hateful as you think we are. You might want to get to know us as we are, rather than the way your fellow liberals and progressives describe us. To judge us simply by the label “conservative” without knowing us is to stereotype us, and I’m sure you don’t believe in stereotyping.

Trust God

onald Trump may be president, but he’s not the one who’s ultimately in charge. God is. And God is good. The Bible assures us that God takes a longer view and for higher purposes than we could even begin to comprehend.

Not every conservative lives by that belief, but it’s fair to say there are enough of us to influence the overall mood on our side of the American public. Sure, we’ve cringed over many of Obama’s decisions, yet we’ve been able to stand firm with the confidence that God is in control.

And I think that confidence explains our relative calm. It’s the reason we haven’t resorted to panic measures like your protests. There’s something to be said for bearing under bad news with equanimity. It would be healthier for you, as it was healthier for us while Obama served as president.

Your trust in God could include prayer:

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectful in every way. This is good. (1 Tim. 2:1-3a)

Calm Down

Finally, take a deep breath. If you can remember this is still a democracy, if you can take the long view, and especially if you can trust God, you might be able to calm your panic.

It will do you a lot of good. It will do us all good. (For more from the author of “Living under a President You Didn’t Want: Four Words of Encouragement for Liberals” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

7 Obama Executive Orders That Are Ripe for Annihilation

/0 Comments/in , , /by

As Donald Trump prepares to take office Friday, thoughts of President Obama’s legacy looms. Simply put, many of the president’s signature achievements are built on a foundation of unconstitutional executive overreach. Barack Obama’s mark on U.S. history is that of an imperial president. His legacy is one of governance by fiat.

Article I of the U.S Constitution endows the Congress with the legislative power of government – the power to make laws. The presidency, as part of the executive branch, is given the Article II, Section 3 requirement of faithfully executing the laws passed by Congress.

After the Democrats lost control of the Senate in 2014, Obama declared at his first Cabinet meeting: “We’re not just going to be waiting for legislation … I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone. And I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions and administrative actions that move the ball forward.”

He assumed for himself Congress’ lawmaking power. Ignoring the people’s representatives in Congress, the president repeatedly and unconstitutionally sought to implement his far-left agenda through executive action.

His efforts bore fruit in the passage of several liberal policies. But now, with November’s election shakeup, whatever Obama accomplished through executive action can be undone by executive action.

Repealing Obama’s unconstitutional executive orders is exactly what President-elect Trump has pledged to do. Here is where he should start …

1. DACA and DAPA amnesty

The president unilaterally superseded the nation’s immigration laws by illegally granting amnesty to thousands of illegal immigrants through his Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA) executive orders.

This, of course, came after the president said at least 22 times that he does not have the power to make such sweeping, unilateral moves such as granting temporary legal status to illegal immigrants via executive order. The amnesty-granting move was so outrageous even the Washington Post editorial board characterized the move as “unprecedented” and wrote “Republicans’ failure to address immigration also does not justify Mr. Obama’s massive unilateral act.”

2. Obama’s Clean Power Plan executive actions

After the Obama administration failed to see cap-and-trade legislation become law in 2009, the president decided to take action himself. Through the EPA, the president instituted a series of rules that effectively instituted cap-and-trade (essentially a tax on carbon emissions). The plan is a job-killer (especially for the already-struggling coal industry) and raises costs for all U.S. households. It also illegitimately reinterprets the Clean Air Act to achieve its policy and is facing several court challenges from the states. President-elect Trump can put an end to the onerous climate regulations by instructing the EPA formally revoke the plan.

3. Forcing federal contractors to violate their religious beliefs

Executive Order 13672 required all federal contractors and subcontractors to affirmatively state that they make employment decisions without regard to sexual orientation or gender identity. There was no exemption for religious liberty, and those that refused to comply with the order were declared ineligible to contract with the federal government. What this policy did, in effect, was restrict the First Amendment liberties of federal contractors, such as military chaplains, by forcing them to use vendors who disregard the religious teachings on marriage and gender identity respective to their denominations.

In the particular case of a military chaplains, they are required to have the backing of an endorsing body. If that endorsing body – say the Catholic Church – has a doctrine that disagrees with the progressive view on sexual liberty, that body will not be permitted to contract with the government and the chaplain will lose his sponsor, rendering him unable to serve. To preserve the First Amendment freedoms of federal contractors, this executive order must be revoked.

4. The transgender bathroom order

Obama issued guidelines to public school districts in the U.S. admonishing them to let transgender students use the bathroom of their self-proclaimed identity. Though the letter does not have the force of law, Obama’s Department of Education went ahead and threatened to revoke federal funding to schools that do not permit confused boys and girls into the bathrooms and locker rooms of the opposite sex.

The most troubling aspect of Obama’s actions is, as CR’s Nate Madden wrote, “the administration has declared itself a scientific arbiter of what constitutes the very nature on man and woman.” The government should not have such power, and President-elect Trump should instruct his nominee for secretary of education, Betsy Devos, to roll back the Department of Education’s funding threats.

5. Appeasing the world’s leading terrorism sponsor: Iran

President Obama upturned a two-decade standing policy of the United States when he revoked economic sanctions against the terrorist-sponsoring Iranian regime in early 2016. The move freed up as much as $150 billion of frozen Iranian assets under the assumption that Iran would comply with the nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration.

A year later, we know that Obama secretly gave Iran exemptions on certain provisions in the deal, and even with these exemptions Iran is violating the terms of the agreement. President-elect Trump should reimpose sanctions on Day 1.

6. Gun control

In early 2016, President Obama announced sweeping executive actions on gun control that instructed the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to redefine who is “engaged in the business” of selling firearms. By broadening that term, the administration could classify anyone who sells a firearm as a “firearms dealer,” potentially subjecting private sellers to a slew of onerous regulations meant to apply to retail firearms dealers.

Redefining a law to apply to individuals Congress did not intend the law to apply to is an unconstitutional overreach by the executive branch. Further, placing an undue burden on gun owners potentially infringes on the Second Amendment rights of U.S. citizens. As a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, President-elect Trump ought to put these regulations on the chopping block.

7. Gutting work requirements for welfare

In the mid 1990s, a Republican-controlled Congress led by Newt Gingrich successfully compromised with President Bill Clinton to enact welfare reform that placed a work requirement on the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. These work requirements were made mandatory and nonwaivable, and the subsequent success of the welfare reform led to a drop in welfare recipients and a decrease in child poverty.

President Obama illegally claimed the authority to waive the TANF work requirements. As a result, more individuals are back on on the government dole. If President-elect Trump wishes to pursue a pro-growth policy and get people working again, he should reinstate welfare reform requirements.

These are just a few of the many executive orders issued by President Obama that are under review by the incoming Trump administration. Obama staked his legacy on the election of a Democrat to succeed him and uphold his policies.

It is now in President-elect Trump’s power to ensure the Obama legacy is enshrined in our memories, and not in our laws. (For more from the author of “7 Obama Executive Orders That Are Ripe for Annihilation on Trump’s First Day” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

5 Remarkable Quotes from President Trump’s Inaugural Address

/0 Comments/in , , /by

It is official. Donald John Trump has taken the oath of office and is now the 45th President of the United States of America.

In his Inaugural address, President Trump talked about the people who put him into office, the “forgotten” men and women of America who have been left behind by the liberal, Big-Government policies of the previous administration.

His speech was not a conservative speech. He did not talk about limited government. Rather, President Trump pledged that the powers of government will now turn and be subservient to the American people.

“At the center of this movement is a crucial conviction that a nation exists to serve its citizens,” Trump said. “Americans want great schools for their children, safe neighborhoods for their families, and good jobs for themselves. These are just and reasonable demands of righteous people and a righteous public.”

President Trump’s government will put “America first,” he promised. It will put the American people, all American people first, he said.

Here are some of the highlights from his speech:

1. America first:

“We assembled here today are issuing a new decree to be heard in every city, in every foreign capital, and in every hall of power. From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land. From this day forward, it’s going to be only America first, America first.”

2. On domestic policy:

“We will build new roads and highways and bridges and airports and tunnels and railways all across our wonderful nation. We will get our people off of welfare and back to work, rebuilding our country with American hands and American labor.”

3. On foreign policy:

“We will seek friendship and goodwill with the nations of the world, but we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all nations to put their own interests first. We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example. We will shine for everyone to follow.”

4. On unity:

“The bible tells us how good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity. We must speak our minds openly, debate our disagreements honestly, but always pursue solidarity. When America is united, America is totally unstoppable.”

5. On the common brotherhood of all Americans:

“It’s time to remember that old wisdom our soldiers will never forget, that whether we are black or brown or white, we all bleed the same red blood of patriots.”

It is well and good that President Trump believes in a government for, and by, the people of the United States of America. But to make America truly great again, the new president must heed the wisdom of America’s founding fathers. His government must respect the constitutional limits imposed upon it by our founding documents. His administration must pursue an agenda that does not ask what government can do for the people, but rather what individuals, with the inestimable blessings of liberty, can do for themselves and their neighbors.

If President Trump’s administration adheres to the United States Constitution, if it secures the natural rights of the people and protects American liberties, he will be great. (For more from the author of “5 Remarkable Quotes from President Trump’s Inaugural Address” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Inauguration Insanity: BLM Sets up Human Chain near Bikers for Trump to Block Police

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Disruptive Black Lives Matter protesters formed a human chain to prevent Bikers for Trump from getting to their rally in front of John Marshall Park. Conservative Review’s Maria Jeffrey was at the scene documenting the protest events.

At one point, the BLM human chain also blocked police officers from entering their area.

Those police officers are there to ensure the safety of everyone attending the Inauguration, protesters and Trump supporters alike.

What if they needed to get into the area in case of an emergency? What if someone needed medical attention and Black Lives Matter agitators prevented them from getting the emergency care they needed? What if violence breaks out and they prevent the police from stopping it?

These malcontent creeps are putting people in danger! (For more from the author of “Inauguration Insanity: BLM Sets up Human Chain near Bikers for Trump to Block Police” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Obama’s Legacy: 5 Failures the Media Won’t Tell You About

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Even though Obama’s presidency comes to an end Friday, The Great Revision has long been underway. Obama and the mainstream media have been spreading falsehoods and fantasies about his record. Last year, I co-wrote and published a comprehensive takedown of Obama’s presidency so that America wouldn’t be so easily fooled. Here are five failures that stand in stark contrast to the fictions Obama has been spreading about his legacy:

1. Job growth was actually bad

Obama fancies himself a great president for the economy, citing “record job growth” and a low unemployment rate as proof. What he won’t tell you is that while roughly 15 million jobs were created since 2010, the working-age population grew by nearly 18 million. In fact, the jobs gap got wider during the “recovery”, and most of those jobs were actually part-time. Not only has job growth not kept up with population growth, and the labor force participation rate is at a 38-year low, but wage growth has also been stagnant. Hardly a record to be proud of.

2. Obamacare didn’t cover 20 million people

Obamacare certainly didn’t provide coverage “for all Americans” and I suppose Obama deserves a tiny bit of credit for not claiming that it did. But he is claiming that 20 million gained coverage because of Obamacare — which is pure hogwash. About 14 million people actually gained coverage, with 11.8 million of them actually getting coverage through Medicaid. And more than two-thirds of those people were eligible for Medicaid before Obamacare even existed. And then there’s the skyrocketing premiums — the same premiums Obama promised to lower by $2,500 per family — and higher deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums. Despite Obamacare, the number of Americans delaying seeking health care over costs has not gone down since Obamacare was implemented. And, by the way, last year saw healthcare costs increase by the largest rate in over thirty-two years. Bravo, Obama! Bravo!

3. Obama crippled the Democratic Party

There is perhaps no better indictment of Obama’s presidency than how it crippled the Democratic Party nationwide over the course of his two terms. Between state legislatures, governorships, and the U.S. Congress, Democrats lost over 1,000 seats. Twenty-five states now have a total Republican-controlled government, compared to just five with total Democrat-controlled government. Thanks to the outgoing president, the Republican Party is the strongest it has been since the 1920s. But that’s a colossal failure I can live with. Thanks, Obama!

4. Race relations are worse … much worse

While Obama credits himself for improved race relations in the United States, recent polling says that a majority of Americans disagree. He had the chance to be a force for good in the struggle to heal the wounds of racial division, but he chose, among other things, to embrace Black Lives Matter. Thanks to bitter rhetoric and acts of violence within the BLM movement, there was a sharp increase in shooting deaths of police officers last year and a staggering 93% of police officers have become more concerned for their safety as a result. This was a huge failure of the first black president in history.

5. The most scandalous modern presidency

And then there are the oft-repeated claims by Obama (and his allies) of having a scandal-free administration. In a recent interview with 60 Minutes, Obama declared he was proud his administration was the first “in modern history that hasn’t had a major scandal in the White House.” Sure, except for Solyndra, Fast and Furious, the Benghazi attack and cover-up, the IRS scandal, the AP phone records scandal, the Sestak Job offer scandal, the GSA scandal, the NSA scandal, the Iran nuclear deal and ransom, the VA scandal, the Pigford scandal, the Bergdahl swap, various EPA scandals … just to name a few. But, who’s counting, right? Of course, the media scoffs at these scandals, giving Obama pass after pass, when any one of them would have likely sunk anyone else’s presidency. The truth, however, is that the Obama and his administration were so tainted by controversy and scandal that Richard Nixon looks like George Washington by comparison.

From every conceivable angle, from failed policies to absent leadership to outright corruption, Obama’s presidency has set a new low bar. The media, however, seems to be working overtime to ensure that the truth of Obama’s legacy is covered up, so that history will judge him a successful president. The only way to prevent this from happening is to know all the facts. That is why I wrote The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama. We can do a lot better than settling for failure and calling it success. (For more from the author of “Obama’s Legacy: 5 Failures the Media Won’t Tell You About” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

The Triumph of Obama: What Conservatives Can Learn from the Liberal Warrior

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Good bye and good riddance to the most radical and destructive president of all time.

With that said, before we let the first post-American president fade from our memory altogether, let’s reflect upon his commitment, passion, and tenacity in pursuit of his anti-American ideas and try to harness that same zeal and commitment for our ideas.

It’s undeniable that Obama has accomplished for the Left more than any other president has accomplished for his respective party’s ideology. The $9.3 trillion in debt he has accrued to bankrupt this country, destroy free markets and capitalism, create crushing dependency, and permanently grow government will live on long past his tenure. The numbers are staggering:

At least 65 percent of all children now live in a home that receives some sort of assistance from the federal government.

Over 82 million Americans live in a home where there is at least one Medicaid recipient.

49.2 percent of all Americans are receiving at least one government program.

Most of all, Obama’s signature legislation—the crown jewel of socialism—has destroyed health care and health insurance in a way that no middle-income family can control their own destiny without unsustainable government subsidies. And unless things change, the core of his plan will not be repealed.

The way Obama has violated our sovereignty and encouraged so many illegal aliens to remain in the country will create a permanent grievance for amnesty. His realignment of allies to enemies and enemies to allies has remade the world.

Yet, nowhere was his transformation more evident than as it relates to the founding values of this country. Obama was right to declare yesterday at a press conference that he “could not be prouder of the transformation that’s taken place in our society just in the last decade.” The sexual identity alphabet soup has become a national religion, marriage has been redefined, sexuality has been redefined, our founding religious values have essentially been criminalized, and he has completely crushed any semblance of organized opposition to even its most radical agenda items. Republicans are now further to the left on basic family values and civilization issues than Democrats were prior to Obama.

The biggest lesson of Obama is that he was comfortable in his own skin. He wasn’t just an “anti-Republican,” although he continued to use “blame Bush” as a tactic to promote that agenda. He had his own affirmative agenda for which he was willing to spend all his political capital enacting and marshal every resource in every agency of the executive branch to promote the cross-section of fiscal, social, and foreign policy liberal ideas. He didn’t make excuses. The few places where he failed to enact a liberal agenda item wasn’t because he didn’t try. It was because the electorate categorically rejected it and took away the House from him for six of his eight years in office.

Obama never appointed a single person to any position in any agency of any department that was not a full-throttled three-legged stool progressive. His administration spoke with one voice towards one mission as it relates to the critical policy battles of our time. They never deviated from their message on a single issue.

Some might suggest that Obama was punished for his overreach and is indeed a failure because Democrats have lost an unprecedented amount of power under his stewardship, especially on a state level. In the short term, this is definitely true. Voters have emphatically rejected his radical progressive brand. However, in the long run, he has completely neutered any legitimate opposition to most of his ideas and has thus shifted the entire universe of the political landscape inexorably to the Left.

Just watch any of the confirmation hearings and you will see the nominees and the GOP senators accept every radical premise of the Obama era. They have accepted the fundamental philosophy behind Obamacare and have agreed to keep the Iran deal. They refuse to oppose one morsel of the transgender agenda, and will not lift a finger to tamp down the absurd gender-bending and social engineering in the military. None of them appear comfortable espousing conservatism openly the way Democrats loudly and proudly champion their agenda, even after losing an election. Indeed, Obama has successfully shifted the entire universe of the political landscape so far to the left that even when Republicans create the minimal 2-3 deviations of space between the parties they are still well to the left of where Democrats were in the ‘90s on critical issues.

However, all is not lost. Republicans can still render Obama’s tenure a failure (even politically) if they countermand his agenda the same way Democrats reversed the progress of the Reagan Revolution. If they would trade in their diffidence for an Obama-sized confidence and passion on the beliefs espoused in the GOP platform, they have an unprecedented opportunity to roll back previous Democrat handiwork for the first time in modern history. The two-party system doesn’t have to operate like a ratchet effect, a metaphor Margaret Thatcher often used to explain the one directional progress of liberalism when the Left is in power and the inability to reverse one iota of that momentum when so-called conservatives are in power.

But that will take a commitment to pack the executive agencies only with people who share every view of the GOP platform the same way Obama appointed only those who shared his values. It will take a catharsis for elected Republicans to finally end their identity crisis and move beyond simply being “better than Obama” or “the lesser of two evils.” It will take an affirmative agenda—a positive, consistent, intellectually honest, and forward looking agenda on sovereignty, security, free markets, liberty, property rights, and a strong civil society. An agenda that can stand on its own veracity, not just as an opposing view to whatever the media or the Left is promulgating.

And finally, it means no more excuses. Republicans control all the levers of federal and most state powers and can easily roll back the critical items of the Obama years and forge a completely new path on so many domestic and foreign policy issues that have been locked in the failed intellectual ghetto of elitist political thought. Stop talking about Obama, Hillary, the media, or blaming failure to repeal Obamacare on something as absurd as a parliamentarian. Who are we and what do we stand for affirmatively? The only context in which we should continue to mention Obama is to remind ourselves of his determination and zeal to see his agenda actualized through thick and thin.

The success or failure of Republicans in the next four years will boil down to this simple question: if liberals are willing to sacrifice it all in order to implement their agenda unconstitutionally, how much more so should we harness every constitutional means of advancing the ideas this party supposedly adopted in the much-vaunted platform of 2016? (For more from the author of “The Triumph of Obama: What Conservatives Can Learn from the Liberal Warrior” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.