Democrat Perspective: Shape Our Children

During her speech at the Democratic National Convention, Michelle Obama declared: 

This election ... is about who will have the power to shape our children for the next four or eight years of their lives.

Of course she says that as if the obvious response would be, "Oh, you're right. We must vote for Hillary!" And from the faithful delegates of the DNC - who not incidentally  booed loudly during the invocation opening the convention - no doubt Michelle evoked that response.  

But reading her statement (of course I did not listen to any of the convention!) inspired a couple of thoughts in me as well.

1. Who has the power to shape our children? In the mind of leftists, the government. Not parents. Not pastors. Not aunts, uncles and grandparents. No, the federal government "shapes our children." This is the fulfillment of the vision of Marx, John Dewey, and other proponents of centralized control. Was any Democrat delegate in that convention hall the least bit disturbed by this concept? Apparently not. The fact that half of our nation embraces this concept is alarming.

2. On another hand, she is right. The President does have an ability to influence the lives of our children. For example, the President can direct his Department of Justice to threaten all public schools in the nation with legal action if they keep boys out of the girl's locker rooms and restrooms. The President can choose not to enforce immigration laws, and thus allow (a) illegal aliens to roam our country robbing and killing innocent people, and (b) non-tax-paying aliens to flood the public school system and rob it of the resources available to law abiding citizens. The President can veto good laws, and arm-twist legislators into passing bad ones, which deprive you of freedom to choose your doctor, which wreak economic devastation on the country, which reward non-workers and punish workers, and which shift the burden of today's vote-buying expenditures onto the backs of our children as the next generation of workers. We could go on, of course. So yes, perhaps Michelle was right. The President does have an ability to shape our children's lives.

3. Finally, perhaps she understated the case. Not just for four or eight years, but the next President will appoint federal judges who will support the constitution, preserve the liberties expressly stated in the Bill of Rights, and enforce the laws enacted by our representatives (such as Thomas, Alito and the late Scalia) or re-write laws against the will of the democratically elected representatives (think of more justices like Ginsburg, Kagan, Sotomayor, Kennedy and Breyer). That means the President gets to shape the world in which our children will live for at least 25 - 30 years.

The stakes in the election could not be higher. Trump was not my choice. I would have preferred any of at least a dozen of the original Republican candidates. But I am voting #NeverHillary in this election. And anything other than a vote for Trump would be a vote for Hillary.

Breeding crises to cure

We are manufacturing problems for ourselves. Then politicians are careful not to "waste a good crisis."

We pretend that humans are immune from powerful sexual desires. Worse than merely sticking our heads in the sand, we actively fan the flames of such desires with all sorts of images, music, movies and even public policy pronouncements. While fanning such flames on one hand, we simultaneously ridicule timeless principles of sexual restraint and the beauty of committed monogamy.

Those who claim to have won the culture war are doing everything they can to encourage unrestrained sexual activity. In most areas of the law, solicitation to commit a crime is itself a crime. So how can tempting people to behave as animals with regard to sexuality be considered good public policy?

Why is this on my mind? Senator Kirk brought it up. He wrote the following:

Dear Mr. Ferguson,

Studies show the prevalence of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among sexual assault survivors in the military is higher than that for those who saw combat. Thousands of servicemen and women have been unfairly discharged from the military based on questionable mental health conditions or minor misconduct related to the assault.   

In this year’s annual defense authorization bill, which passed the Senate earlier this month, I cosponsored an amendment with Senator Gillibrand (D-NY) that would expand protections against wrongful discharges for those with PTSD. This includes service men and women who were sexually assaulted as well as those who saw combat. The provision ensures that if a medical professional diagnoses PTSD based on combat service or sexual assault, that the military member cannot be discharged for non-disability mental health conditions.     

The Department of Defense (DOD) estimates there are over 20,000 sexual assaults annually and nearly 8 out of 10 of those attacked do not report the incident. Despite recent Congressional reforms, more should be done to take care of servicemen and women who have been assaulted and to ensure the Department is doing everything to prosecute their offenders. 

Sincerely,
Senator Mark Kirk

Is it just possible that the centuries-old wisdom of not mixing men and women in far away places under strenuous conditions was and is still good policy? Likewise, to exclude from such circumstances people who assert they are sexually drawn to those of the same sex?

Senator Kirk and the rest of the liberals who are using our military for social experimentation should step back and consider: when on a wrong road, you don't get to a good place by increasing speed or determination. The wise person (as C.S. Lewis said, the most "progressive" person) turns back toward the right route.

Sadly, these politicians aren't on a road they even consider wrong, because their agenda isn't to get to a good place. It is to make a majority of voters animal-like, to justify controlling us all by force.