Posted on February 21, 2024 by
Dick .
"The only thing for evil to triumph in the world is that good men do noting!"
Edmund Burke
Tragically, the Republican Party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and Reagan, to which my parents belonged their entire lives, has for all practical purposes ceased to exist.
Today, the majority of Republicans in both the House …
Posted on January 15, 2024 by
Dick .
"I have a gut, and my gut tells me more sometimes than anybody else's brain can ever tell me."
Donald Trump
On January 20, 2017, Donald Trump spoke the following words, "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will …
Posted on December 5, 2023 by
Dick .
'Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. That's my worldview.'"
Speaker Mike Johnson
Newly-minted Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has made it clear his actions are driven by his faith and looks to the Gospels to form policy positions. Echoing evangelical and Christian Nationalists ideologies, he …
Posted on November 4, 2023 by
Dick .
“There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpation.”
James Madison
Ask any politician, political commentator, or cable talking-head about the greatest threats facing America and you will predictably hear China, Russia, Iran, …
Posted on October 16, 2023 by
Dick .
“Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings,”
Article I – Section 5
United States Constitution
For textualists, the embarrassing and potentially destructive circuses presently on display in the House of Representatives and Senate may be perfectly acceptable as the Constitution permits each chamber to establish its own rules. Its drafters …
Posted on October 4, 2023 by
Dick .
“I love the poorly educated”
Donald Trump (February 23, 2016)
It is not surprising the leading Republican presidential candidate limits his campaign stops to adoring crowds who, without any evidence, believe his lies about a stolen election, Democrats being socialists, the Justice Department has been weaponized, and his victimhood.
Discarding his vengeance-filled litany …
Posted on October 4, 2023 by
Dick .
“Truth and hypocrisy cannot exist in the same room.”
Matthew 23
Think of the irony, one political party claims to champion “parental rights” and a “less intrusive government.” Yet, that party’s most visible politicians have no problem advocating for and enacting laws restricting the rights of individual citizens who may not share …
Posted on August 15, 2023 by
Dick .
“Public confidence in the integrity of the Government is indispensable to faith in democracy; and when we lose faith in the system, we have lost faith in everything we fight and spend for.”
Adlai Stevenson
America’s 244-year experiment in representative democracy and the freedoms it has bestowed on its citizens has endured …
Posted on July 29, 2023 by
Dick .
“I hate prejudice, discrimination, and snobbishness of any kind – it always reflects on the person judging and not the person being judged. Everyone should be treated equally.”
Gordon Brown
For nearly a century, successive Administrations championed the expansion of the rights of disenfranchised Americans, whether based on gender, race, nationality, religion, …
Posted on June 30, 2023 by
Dick .
Muzzling Speech Endangers Democracy
“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country …
Posted on June 6, 2023 by
Dick .
“I am angry that the Democrats don't have the ability to explain to Republicans that we should be able to feed people in this country, and that it is not socialism.”
Lewis Black
Republican presidential wannabees, together with the GOP’s Congressional caucus and conservative media talking-heads, have been extremely successful in labeling …
Posted on May 12, 2023 by
Dick .
“You can compromise without violating your principles, but it is nearly impossible to compromise when you turn principles into ideology.”
Jamie Dimon
Speaker McCarthy and President Biden are embroiled in a risky game of political chicken over increasing nation’s debt ceiling, necessary to cover spending obligations previously-authorized by Congress.
McCarthy is being held …
Posted on April 7, 2023 by
Dick .
“I do not believe in taking away the right of the citizen for sporting, for hunting and so forth for home defense. But I do believe that an AK-47, a machine gun, is not a sporting weapon of needed for defense of a home.”
Ronald Reagan
The Constitution and Bill of Rights …
Posted on April 1, 2023 by
Dick .
“There shall be one rule of Justice for the rich and the poor; for the favorite in Court, and the Countryman at the Plough.”
Samuel Adams
Trump avoided criminal liability during his presidency based on a Constitutionally-questionable 1973 DOJ memorandum which concluded “indictment or criminal prosecution of a sitting President would impermissibly …
Posted on March 28, 2023 by
Dick .
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
Evelyn Beatrice Hall (1903) … although often attributed to Voltaire
“Anti-Woke” rhetoric has become the centerpiece of conservative politics and given license for subtle, and sometimes not-so-subtle, demonization of and discrimination targeting non-straight (LGBTQ) …
Posted on March 27, 2023 by
Dick .
“The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers”
U.S. Constitution – Article 1, Section 2
With only 213 Democrats elected during the mid-term elections it would seem the Party will have no realistic say in the election of the chamber’s next Speaker.
Kevin McCarthy, the current frontrunner, has demonstrated he’ll …
Posted on February 19, 2023 by
Dick .
“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.”
Marcus Aurelius
In 1935, during the depth of the Depression Sinclair Lewis published a novel in which the average American’s political ignorance and complacency resulted in a …
Posted on December 12, 2022 by
Dick .
2022 Civics Scholarship Contest Winners
December 12, 2022 – This morning TheLegacyof1776.Com recognized the winners of its 2022 Scholarship Essay Contest; the first-place winner, Jessie Jin (a Council Rock North High School senior) and runner-up Hailey Morath (a senior attending Conwell-Egan Catholic High School).
This civics contest grew out of a profound …
Posted on December 5, 2022 by
Dick .
"Republicans cannot both be loyal to Donald Trump and loyal to the Constitution,"
Congresswoman Liz Cheney
With the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th 2021 insurrection and assault on the U.S. Capitol about to release its final report and the U.S. Justice Department; District of Columbia; States of Georgia, Florida and …
Posted on October 18, 2022 by
Dick .
“If a public school were to remove every book because it contains one word deemed objectionable to some parent, then there would be no books at all in our public libraries,”
Peter Scheer – Executive Director
California First Amendment Coalition
There is a dangerous movement sweeping across the country. It began with pressures …
Posted on September 14, 2022 by
Dick .
Our nation’s recent and unsettling escalation of partisan tribalism, selective use of “freedom of speech”, “religious liberty” and “gun rights” simply to justify parochial political and social ends, a willingness to accept conspiracy theories while rejecting irrefutable facts, and a growing tolerance for violence as a means to achieve otherwise …
Posted on September 1, 2022 by
Dick .
“I’ve done nothing wrong.”
Donald Trump (time and again)
Had Donald Trump not transferred hundreds of classified (many marked SECRET, TOP SECRET and TOP SECRT//SCI) and other documents which, pursuant to the Presidential Records Act of 1978, are legally the property of the United States to his home at Mar-a-Lago in January …
Posted on September 1, 2022 by
Dick .
Building on the success of our inaugural 2021 Civics Scholarship Essay Contest, thelegacyof1776.com and the Bucks Courier Times and Intelligencer are pleased to announce their 2022 scholarship contest. The contest is open to all seniors attending a high school located in Bucks County. The contest will again be focused on …
Posted on August 17, 2022 by
Dick .
“… for meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States”
Presidential Medal of Freedom Criteria
Yesterday, Americans witnessed the price an individual often pays for exhibiting true Patriotism.
Sadly, the vast majority of Republicans continue to embrace the former president’s “big lie” about a stolen election, ignore his attempted …
Posted on August 7, 2022 by
Dick .
“The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”
Article II, Section 4
During his 2016 presidential campaign, then candidate Trump bragged, “I could stand in the middle of 5th …
Posted on July 27, 2022 by
Dick .
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;”
First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
Certain recent Supreme Court decisions have embraced high-priority political objectives of conservative, primarily Christian Right, activists; justifying their opinions on “originalism” and questionable interpretations of the First Amendment.
These range from …
Posted on July 4, 2022 by
Dick .
"Patriotism consists not in waving the flag, but in striving that our country shall be righteous as well as strong."
James Bryce
It is fitting on the 246th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence to reflect on what it means to be an American patriot.
Survey any random group …
Posted on June 27, 2022 by
Dick .
Be Careful What You Wish For
“Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.”
Margaret J. Wheatley
Last week, to the dismay of Democrats, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending a women constitutional right for an abortion. The Court’s …
Posted on June 19, 2022 by
Dick .
"The greatest danger to American freedom is a government that ignores the Constitution."
Thomas Jefferson
Sadly, Republicans have stonewalled reasonable and meaningful, overwhelmingly popular gun control legislation, complaining about losing Constitutional Second Amendment rights. Yet, they’ve been quick to embrace a dangerous and delusional ex-president who frequently violated his Constitutional oath of …
Posted on May 24, 2022 by
Dick .
“Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited.”
Justice Antonin Scalia – District of Columbia v. Heller (2008)
Only 21 weeks in to the year and the United States has witnessed 213 mass shootings, a staggering average of 10 per week … with 27 having taken place …
Posted on May 11, 2022 by
Dick .
“Liberty is the power to do everything that does not interfere with the rights of others: thus, the exercise of the natural rights of every individual has no limits save those that assure to other members of society the enjoyment of the same rights.”
Thomas Paine
If the recently released draft opinion …
Posted on January 26, 2022 by
Dick .
Kamaljeeth Vijay and Patrick Lichtner, seniors from Holy Ghost Preparatory School in Bensalem and who were joined by their parents, were named winner and runner-up in a countywide civics scholarship essay contest sponsored by theLegacyof1776.com, the Bucks County Courier Times and The Intelligencer.
The contest was open to all Bucks County …
Posted on September 20, 2021 by
Dick .
This morning thelegacyof1776.com and the Bucks Courier Times and Intelligencer announced a scholarship essay contest for Bucks County High School Seniors focused on Civics and creating a greater understanding and appreciation of U.S. History and our Constitution.
BACKGROUND
Today, all too many people liberally toss around such terms as “freedom of speech”, …
Posted on June 7, 2021 by
Dick .
This is the first of what will hopefully be many insightful and reasoned guest commentaries addressing a variety of political, social and other important issues affecting America and Americans
In any competition, there must be a common set of standards used to create a fair and transparent battle. For our representative …
Posted on April 18, 2021 by
Dick .
“If guns don't kill people, why do mass killers arm themselves with guns?”
DaShanne Stokes
When just one of 7.7 million people who had J&J’s Covid vaccinations died and five others experience a blood clots, those vaccinations were halted across the US and Europe, although no direct correlation has as yet been …
Posted on February 13, 2021 by
Dick .
“We were discussing their strategy for tomorrow, and we were sharing our thoughts, in terms of where the argument was and where to go,”
Senator Ted Cruz
At the outset of the Senate Impeachment trial of Donald Trump, each of the body’s 100 members (the trial’s jurors) declared, “I solemnly swear (or affirm) …
Posted on January 19, 2021 by
Dick .
“Prudence means understanding your situation, seeing what good can be accomplished in it, knowing what options are both morally legitimate and likely successful—and then pursuing the wisest goal in the wisest way”
Brian C. Collins
Unquestionably, President Trump’s words and actions were the catalyst for the mob invasion of the nation’s Capital. …
Posted on October 5, 2020 by
Dick .
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ….”
First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
Justices Thomas and Alito recently demonstrated ideology holds sway over their alleged “strict constructionist” view of the U.S. Constitution when they lambasted the religious liberty implications of the Court’s …
Posted on August 3, 2020 by
Dick .
“The problem with US elections isn’t that people are voting more than once, it is too many people are voting less than once!”
The goals of the 2020 election must be two-fold:
To provide the unhindered and easily accessible opportunity for every citizen to vote in the upcoming presidential, Congressional and local …
Posted on April 18, 2020 by
Dick .
“America Doesn’t want a King Trump”
Piers Morgan
In November 2019, U.S. intelligence officials warned a contagion sweeping through China was altering lives and business and posing a mortal threat to its population. By January, senior White officials tried in vain to warn the president about the looming danger to America as …
Posted on July 30, 2019 by
Dick .
“I have an Article II, where I have the right to do whatever I want as president.”
President Donald Trump
Until recently, President Trump has ignored the Constitution, particularly as it establishes three co-equal branches of our government. I assumed this was the result of his never having read or understood it …
Posted on July 17, 2019 by
Dick .
“Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came”
President Trump (July 13, 2019)
For the past 2½ years I have assumed Donald Trump’s rambling Tweets and political agenda were aimed at simply placating and revving up his base.
However, his recent tirades …
Posted on March 4, 2019 by
Dick .
“There are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual consent and silent encroachment of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.”
James Madison
Given Mitch McConnell cannot prevent the Senate from voting on a House passed resolution to overturn President Trump’s declaration of a …
Posted on October 31, 2018 by
Dick .
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Benjamin Franklin
Echoing Donald Trump’s knee-jerk reaction to news of the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue, the Philadelphia Inquirer's Mr. Bykofsky argues that “good guys with guns”, now becoming commonplace in schools, …
Posted on May 27, 2018 by
Dick .
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
H. L. Mencken
Dear President Trump:
Immediately after your election, your defenders and detractors alike opined perhaps you were new …
Posted on October 2, 2017 by
Dick .
The NFL players taking a knee are “very disrespectful to our country.”
President Donald Trump (September 30, 2017)
The furor over athletes taking a knee, raising a fist or sitting during the national anthem or people burning the Flag continues unabated, with President Trump fanning the flames those believe that such actions …
Posted on September 28, 2017 by
Dick .
“Get that son of a bitch off the field”
Donald Trump (09/22/2017)
Referring to NFL players who have followed Colin Kaepernick’s lead and taken a knee during the national anthem, President Trump’s recent rants demonstrate he has clearly forgotten his oath of office to, “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the …
Posted on July 24, 2017 by
Dick .
“It’s very sad that Republicans, even some that were carried over the line on my back, do very little to protect their President,”
Donald J. Trump
President Trump’s recent tweets provide unmistakable evidence he has forgotten, does not understand or chooses to disregard the oath that he and all other federal officials …
Posted on January 13, 2016 by
Dick .
“Agency shop” laws, which require public employees to pay union dues as a condition of employment, violate well-settled principles of freedom of speech and association.”
Plaintiffs in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association
It is clear that the Supreme Court is likely to overturn its 1977 ruling in Abood v. Detroit Board of …
Posted on September 13, 2013 by
Dick .
Christine Brennan’s September 12th USAT0day OpEd plea for the Washington Redskins to change their name as, “if only some Native Americans think it’s racist … It’s racist”, is yet another sad example of selective political correctness and displays her lack of appreciation for the very rights which make her profession …
Posted on June 29, 2006 by
Dick .
“If the flag needs protection at all, it needs protection from members of Congress
who value the symbol more than the freedom the flag represents.”
Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-New York)
It is clear that Mike Fitzpatrick and Jonathan Last simply do not get it!
In recent OpEds Congressman Fitzpatrick defended his recent vote …
Posted on January 2, 2006 by
Dick .
“I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
Presidential Oath – Article II, Section 1, U.S. Constitution
President Bush, like many of his predecessors … …
Posted on July 4, 2002 by
Dick .
“The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.”
Justice Louis Brandeis (1928)
The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be …
Posted on April 16, 2001 by
Dick .
“Every man has by nature the right to possess property as his own.”
Pope Leo XIII
So fundamental are property rights to our heritage that during the American Revolution liberty and property were thought to be indivisible. The concept that citizens were protected in their property rights was deemed so important that …
Posted on November 20, 2000 by
Dick .
“There are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual consent and silent encroachment of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.”
James Madison
In the wake of the recent election night flip-flopping by the television networks over who won the Florida presidential election, there …
Posted on October 20, 1997 by
Dick .
“Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.”
Thomas Paine
In the ongoing debate over whether to reign in the powers of the Internal Revenue Service and, if so, by what magnitude, the battle lines have being drawn. At stake is whether …
Posted on July 31, 1995 by
Dick .
“Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions.”
Justice William O. Douglas
The hallowed chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives, where those men and women elected to serve the people once debated ways to enhance the rights of man, recently became a cheap forum for …
Posted on November 1, 1994 by
Dick .
“If the American Constitution shall fail there will be anarchy throughout the world.”
Daniel Webster
The framers of our constitution, a diverse lot representing thirteen varied constituencies, were unified in their goals to establish a national government with limited powers and which had to operate within the law. The document which emerged …
Posted on September 20, 1994 by
Dick .
“Belly Dancing is like Jello on a plate with a vibrator under the plate”
J. Donald Silva (UNH)
There is no greater danger to individual rights than committed zealots, operating under the color of real or usurped police authority, as they attempt to reorder public policy. Their actions become all the more …
Posted on August 30, 1994 by
Dick .
“Live free or die.”
John Stark
Once again powerful forces across the Granite State are embroiled in an emotional debate testing the mettle of New Hampshire’s movers and shakers. For more than half a century this highly charged polemic has ebbed and flowed from the Connecticut River to the Isle of Shoals …