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 September 4, 2023 by
Dick .
“Truth and hypocrisy cannot exist in the same room.”
Matthew 23
After castigating President Biden for not traveling to Maui until nine days after the wildfire that destroyed the island’s historical capital of Lāhainā had been extinguished, Governor Ron DeSantis refused to meet with the President who visited Florida’s Gulf Coast, where …
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 18, 2023 by
Dick .
“It’s a very detailed indictment and it’s very damning. But I do think if even half of it is true, then he’s toast”
Former Attorney General Bill Barr
In the wake of his 37-count indictment, Donald Trump launched a predictable tirade, again baselessly claiming the 2020 election was stolen and portraying himself …
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 March 25, 2023 by
Dick .
“The tyranny of the minority is infinitely more odious and intolerable and more to be feared than that of the majority.”
President William McKinley
Florida Governor and presidential wannabee Ron DeSantis’ anti “Woke” campaign is a series of undemocratic solutions in search of problems and “red meat” for GOP and MAGA conservatives. …
Posted on March 8, 2023 by
Dick .
“Sadly, too many politicians in Washington lack the courage to do something to fix our problems. They are worried about the political implications of making the hard choices we so desperately need …”
Matt Salmon
On January 19th, the Federal Government reached its authorized borrowing limit, a staggering $31.381 trillion. Technically, …
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 January 22, 2023 by
Dick .
“The debt is being cynically exploited by the far right, with collusion of the Democrat establishment, to undermine what remains of social programs, public education, unions, and, in general, remaining barriers to corporate tyranny.”
Noam Chomsky
The new Republican House majority has staked out a number of goals, a few admirable and …
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 24, 2022 by
Dick .
"The fabric of democracy is always fragile everywhere because it depends on the will of citizens to protect it, and when they become scared, when it becomes dangerous for them to defend it, it can go very quickly.".
Margaret Atwood
June 24, 2022
Dear President Biden:
Since January 2017, our fragile democracy has been, …
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 April 19, 2022 by
Dick .
Last fall, Holy Ghost Preparatory High School senior Patrick Lichtner was awarded the runner-up scholarship in the Civics Contest sponsored by thelegacyof1776.com and the Bucks County Courier Times and Intelligencer.
This morning we received the following hand-written "Thank You" note fromPatrick.
It speaks volumes about Patrick not only for his sucesses at …
Posted on April 4, 2022 by
Dick .
“What I said on the phone call with the Ukrainian President is ‘perfectly’ stated,”
President Trump (2019)
Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen’s recent OpEd, “Russia Can’t Win. But Biden has no Strategy for Victory”, lambasted President Biden for alleged shortcomings in responding to Russia’s unprovoked invasion of the Ukraine and genocide of …
Posted on March 5, 2022 by
Dick .
“Now is our moment to meet and overcome the challenges of our time.”
President Joe Biden – State of the Union Address
March 1, 2022
Since the 2020 election, the Republicans Party has attempted to rewrite history, whether echoing Trump’s baseless claims about a stolen election or redefining the deadly January 6th assault …
Posted on February 27, 2022 by
Dick .
“To promote the general Welfare”
Preamble to the U.S. Constitution
In the wake of the recent Canadian trucker’s demonstrations in Ottawa, the conservative-leaning Great American Patriot Project has urged and recruited American truckers to participate in a “Freedom Convoy”, a copycat cross-county caravan to protest “the unscientific, unconstitutional government overreach in regards …
Posted on February 19, 2022 by
Dick .
“Censorship reflects society’s lack of confidence in itself. It is the hallmark of an authoritarian regime.”
Potter Stewart Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme Court
Under the guise of encouraging parental involvement in the education of their children, state legislators, school board members, teachers and school administrators are being pressured, and sometimes …
Posted on January 31, 2022 by
Dick .
“they are being treated so unfairly."
Donald Trump (January 29, 2022)
As the 2022 mid-term elections approach, Donald Trump continues to focus on his big lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him!
Perpetuating allegations of election fraud, Trump has taken a page from “Mein Kampf’s” rulebook: never allow the public to …
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 23, 2021 by
Dick .
Hans von Spakovsky’s OpEd opinion, “Gerrymandering” in inevitable in a democracy” is regrettably true; unless fundamental democratic principles prevail.
Gerrymandering results from a Faustian pact between Republican and Democratic legislators intent on retaining their monopolistic stranglehold on the political process. In Pennsylvania, with its closed primary system and challenging ballot access …
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 July 20, 2021 by
Dick .
“Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks. Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grandchildren are once more slaves.”
D. H. Lawrence
An imperative to the health and survivability of a democracy are both open, free and fair elections and public faith …
Posted on July 20, 2021 by
Dick .
“Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority.”
Ayn Rand
While there is no explicit language in the Constitution guarantying “right to vote”, President Lyndon Johnson recognized it as one of our nation’s most cherished liberties, “This …
Posted on July 16, 2021 by
Dick .
"In the first 50 years of the filibuster, it was used only 35 times. But the last Congress alone had 112 cloture motions filed plus threats of more. This is tyranny of the minority."
Peter Fenn
The Senate’s inflexible partisanship has paralyzed Congress’ ability to reach reasonable compromises on legislation to improve …
Posted on July 8, 2021 by
Dick .
“When in the course of human events …”
Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776)
It was 245 years ago today, July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence, proclaiming the American colonies' separation from Great Britain and setting an unchartered course in which, for the first time, …
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 May 24, 2021 by
Dick .
“Those who supported us are being left to die”
Ryan Crocker, former US Ambassador to Afghanistan
Foreign affairs columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer Trudy Rubin’s recent OpEd, “Afghans who aided U.S. need our help, and fast”, is a resounding call for the Biden Administration to pull out all the stops to provide …
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 March 31, 2021 by
Dick .
“The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA… the Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”
President Donald Trump (February 24, 2020)
When the 2020 election results became evident, Donald Trump orchestrated the “big lie” he actually won reelection and Joe Biden’s victory was stolen, the result of …
Posted on March 26, 2021 by
Dick .
“Compromise is not about losing. It is about deciding that the other person has just as much right to be happy with the end result as you do.”
Donna Martini
The flames of partisan tribalism have infected politics since the 1800 election between Federalist John Adams and his Democrat-Republican rival Thomas Jefferson. …
Posted on March 10, 2021 by
Dick .
"He's all about himself. He's not about building or supporting the party."
Paul S. Ryan
Donald Trump’s latest assault on Republican fundraising efforts should be a wake-up call and remove all doubts as to where his loyalties lie!
He delayed the first COVID stimulus checks until his name could be printed on …
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 29, 2021 by
Dick .
“The intentional effort to influence the outcome of a juror’s opinion, vote or decision by unlawfully communicating with the juror in either a direct or indirect manner, outside the scope of legally permitted courtroom procedure.”
Definition of Jury Tampering
Once the results of the 2020 election became clear, Donald Trump became consumed, …
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 January 7, 2021 by
Dick .
“We will never give up; we will never concede”
Donald Trump (January 6, 2021)
In the wake of Wednesday’s violent demonstration and lawless assault on the Capitol building questions must be asked … and answered.
Concerns Trump can still wreak havoc on our democracy and imperil our national security has initiated calls for …
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Posted on January 3, 2021 by
Dick .
"So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state."
Donald Trump (January 3, 2021)
Despite White House claims President Trump is “doing the work of the American people”, he has spent the past …
Posted on December 16, 2020 by
Dick .
"Our Anerican republic will endure only as long as the ideas of th emen who founded it continue dominant"
James Russell Lowell
Republican politicians must stop pandering to the president and his delusional belief he won the 2020 election and begin a process of helping to heal a dangerously divided nation.
As the …
Posted on December 6, 2020 by
Dick .
"Don't talk to me that way."
Donald Trump (November 26, 2020)
While answering reporter’s questions for the first-time since the election, President Trump went on an angry tirade about massive voter fraud, horrible Republican governors and state election officials who certified accurate vote totals showing Joe Biden won and then falsely claimed, …