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 …
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”, …
“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 …
“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 …
"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 …
“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, …
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 …
“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 …
“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 …
“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 …
“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. …
"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 …
“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) …
“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, …
“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. …
“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 …
"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 …
"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 …
"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, …
“I’m a proud democrat, but I will govern as an American president". I’ll work as hard for those who didn’t vote for me as those who did. Let this grim era of demonization in America begin to end here and now."
Joe Biden (November 7, 2020)
The political divides and increasing distrust …
"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts."
Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan
There seem to be two groups still living in Trump's fantasyland.
The first includes all but twenty-odd Republican members of Congress who can’t utter the words, “Biden won.” They’ve placed loyalty to a narcissistic demigod above their …
“When people fear their government there is tyranny, when the government fears the people there is liberty”
Thomas Jefferson
With just days before the 2020 election, the U.S. Supreme Court has twice within a week decided not to decide whether the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s ruling to require ballots postmarked on or before …
“We’re signing a health care plan within two weeks, a full and complete health care plan that the Supreme Court decision on DACA gave me the right to do.”
President Trump (July 19, 2020)
Thursday night’s dueling town hall forums provided a stark contrast in tone, content and civility.
Former Vice President Biden’s …
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 …
In James McGinnis’s article, “How Long Will PA Voter Count Take?” he quotes long-time legislator Gene DeGirolamo, “We’ve got to be able to give the people some sense of the results on election night.” and “If we don’t, in my opinion, this could create a constitutional crisis.” The genesis of …
I read with interest Cynthia Fernandez’s front-page piece in today’s Inquirer.
There is one very relevant consideration in this debate which, tragically, receives nary a word. As of June 2020, there were 4,092,963 (47.6%) registered Democrats, 3,290,944 (38.3%) registered Republicans and 1,215,657 (14.1%) registered voters belonging to neither of the …
“Jennifer Griffin should be fired for this kind of reporting. Never even called us for comment. @FoxNews is gone!”
Donald Trump on Fox News reporter who validated the recent Atlantic Monthly article
For a president who says he loves the military more than his predecessors and, without any evidence or military …
Marc Thiessen begins his recent OpEd piece, “Harris casting doubt on a pre-election vaccine is shameful”, claims “Democrats have accused President Donald Trump of endangering the public health …” and that “Trump will deservedly get credit” for such a timely vaccine. If Trump’s recommendations to not wear masks, medicate with …
“Do the unexpected. Take 20 minutes out of your day, do what young people all over the world are dying to do: vote.”
Rick Mercer
John Locke, a 17th century English philosopher attacked the doctrine of the “divine right of kings”, arguing legitimate governments depend on the consent of the governed. A …
“The Grand Old Party has become little more than a Trump Booster Club”
USAToday
What in the past has been a presidential nominating convention for the Republican Party was transformed into an infomercial pageant directed by a media savvy President Trump.
Rather than allowing nominations other than Donald Trump, all voices not …
“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 …
“Respect for the law and protection of the integrity of the democratic process warrant the exclusion of illegal aliens from the apportionment base”
Donald Trump (July 21, 2020)
After being rebuked by the Supreme Court when he tried to have the 2020 census exclude undocumented aliens, President Trump has predictably sought new …
“The Bucks Stops Here!”
President Harry Truman
If any military commander knew, or should have known, about potential threats to the safety of the men and women serving under their chain of command and failed to take actions to protect his forces they would be guilty of dereliction of their duty. If …
Good News” Story
Mrs. Cleo Hinton Reaching 110 Years Young
On Sunday, June 7th, Mrs. Cleo Gore-Hinton, a resident of the Villas of Shady Brook in Langhorne passed an incredible milestone … turning 110 years old.
The event was celebrated by a parade of over 110 vehicles adorned with congratulatory signs and balloons …
“A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.”
Thomas Paine
During recent trips to a Honeywell plant in Arizona and an Owens & Minor warehouse in Pennsylvania both supplying Personal Protective Equipment, President Trump stood out by not using a face mask; showing disrespect …
"I'm going to be working for you. I'm not going to have time to go play golf."
Donald J. Trump, August, 2016
On May 5th, ABC’s David Muir, whom I greatly admire, had a one-on-one interview with President Trump after he’d toured a Honeywell facility in Arizona making Personal Protective Equipment for …
“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 …
"You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today."
Abraham Lincoln
Shortly after President Trump’s televised signing the $2.3 trillion coronavirus economic stimulus bill, and out of the public eye, it was announced than he had issued a contemporaneous signing statement, “I do not understand, and my administration will not …
“It’s going to disappear. One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear.”
President Donald Trump (February 26, 2020)
Driven by a primal urge to constantly be the center of attention and bask in the adulation of adoring supporters President Trump sought a substitute for his near non-stop campaigning as …
“Assuming if there's such a thing as reality, if you have a false relationship with it, how can you do anything but fail?”
Jordan Peterson
The Democratic Party, and its “progressives” in particular, are on a course to repeat their 1972 and 1988 presidential debacles!
Sounding like a liberal version of Donald Trump …
“Concentration of executive power, unless it's very temporary and for specific circumstances, let's say fighting World War Two, it's an assault on democracy.”
Norm Chomsky
Perhaps the most disturbing statement to come out of the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump was made by the aging Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz who has …
“The Congress shall have the Power to … provide for the common defence and general Welfare… declare War … and raise and support armies … and make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval forces”
U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8
Predictably, at his latest reelection …
“No man is above the law and no man is below it: nor do we ask any man’s permission when we ask him to obey it”
Theodore Roosevelt
After listening to the highly-respected State Department and other officials who appeared before the House Intelligence Committee it became evident President Trump held-up military …
“Be careful what you wish for, you may receive it.”
W. W. Jacobs
Surprisingly, I find myself in agreement with the Washington Post’s Marc Thiessen whose “Warren’s surge is good news for Republicans” piece appeared in today’s paper. His premise that while Warren is claiming the economy is not working for ”working …
“we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776)
Having revisited Independence Hall and the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, I am reminded despite their sometimes significant regional and partisan differences, 56 men were literally willing to risk their “Lives, Fortunes …
“In my great and unmatched wisdom …”
President Trump (Oct 6, 2019)
Donald Trump continues to live in his own alternative universe in which he continually boasts that he alone knows “more than anyone” about almost everything.
When talking about drones over the border, “No one knows more about this technology than I …
“Elections determine who is in power, but they do not determine how power is used.”
Paul Collier
With the third Democratic debate now history and the first primaries less than six months away, the unmanageable and unrealistically large field of twenty-four announced candidates was narrowed to ten, a number likely increase with …
“I am the Chosen One!”
Donald J. Trump (August 21, 2019)
With each passing day, Donald Trump demonstrates he neither understands nor likes nor America. He openly disparages the work of our nation’s intelligence agencies while giving a pass to Putin, MBS and other despots; hates our system of Constitutional checks-and-balances; shows …
Can the author of these quotes be believed and does he really represent America and our national values?
"I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will have Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words."
“Trade wars are good, and easy to win.”
"I could stand in …
“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 …
“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 …
"Being president doesn't change who you are, it reveals who you are."
Michelle Obama
In the wake of the recent publication of the British Ambassador to the United States, Sir Kim Darroch’s confidential assessment of Donald Trump as “inept,” “insecure,” “diplomatically clumsy”, “mired in social scandal” and “uniquely dysfunctional,” (observations with which …
“I revere the American flag as a symbol of freedom. But behind it is something larger — the Constitution.”
Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell
Pandering to a cornerstone of the far right’s political agenda, as Donald Trump, who loves political theater while continuing to treat the presidency like a reality show and …
“The Constitution requires a process other than the criminal justice system to formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing,”
Robert Mueller (May 2019)
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s final report stated, “The evidence we obtained about the President’s actions and intent presents difficult issues that would need to be resolved if we were …
“I believe 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 usurpations.
James Madison
Attorney General Barr concluded the “Mueller Report” exonerated President Trump, his associates and campaign of collusion with Russia during the …
“The only conduct that merits the drastic remedy of impeachment is that which subverts our system of government or renders the president unfit or unable to govern.”
Charlies Ruff
With the release of the redacted Mueller Report, some Democrats have renewed calls for the House to begin proceedings to impeach President Trump. …
“We should begin orientation by getting to know one another,"
Dean Phillips (Rep. MN)
As public approval of Congress has hovered below 30% over the past 45 years, it is high time Congress take steps to improve the way it operates. Perhaps that is why the House recently appointed a bipartisan Select …
“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 …
“I will be the one to shut it down. I’m not going to blame you for it.”
President Donald J. Trump
One wonders why the president and his Republican Senate cronies have seen fit to shut down so many federal government agencies, putting some eight hundred thousand workers out of work or …
“First of all, nothing at the Trump organization was ever done unless it was run through Mr. Trump.”
Michael Cohen
It began with admissions of criminal conduct by Michael Flynn, Rick Gates and George Papadopoulos and now encompasses a growing number of people who have been members of Donald Trump’s inner circle, …