Jeb! . . . Hang it up.

Yesterday, I demonstrated that the GOP establishment has angered the Republican base to their own political hurt, heck, near destruction.  Now some more numbers on how Jeb Bush is politically dead in the water.

On a CNN Poll of registered voters (Yes, it’s CNN.  But it is of registered voters, not just adults.  And the poll actually has Bush doing better than some other polls.), Jeb Bush’s favorables are as follows:

Favorable Opinion    35%

Unfavorable Opinion 57%

And it is worse among independents:

Favorable Opinion     30%

Unfavorable Opinion  62%

Yes, it is not 2016 yet.  But is opinion really going to change that much on a long term politician named Bush?  He is too much a known quality – an establishment Republican . . . named Bush.

The irony of this is that for decades the Establishment Republicans have told the base that the only way to win is to nominate one of them.  But it is hard to escape that nominating yet another Establishment Republican would be the surest way to another defeat in 2016.  The Republican base, including me, is that fed up.

I am doubling down on the prediction I made late last year.  If the GOP Establishment manages to get Jeb! nominated and Hillary! is the Democrat nominee, the two hated candidates would create a political vacuum that begs for a strong Third Party run.  Put an “!” on that.

But I don’t think Jeb! gets nominated.  Money can’t buy everything.  And he is that weak.

Do You Hear Us Now, GOP Establishment? UPDATED

There should not be any doubt about the Republican base’s frustration with and now rejection of the Republican Establishment and of their enabling of Obama and of illegal immigration.  But in case there is, the latest Fox Poll on the Republican race for POTUS should dispel it:

Trump         25%

Carson         12%

Cruz             10%

Bush               9%

I need not rehash all of Trump’s enormities and reasons not to support him.  (And I am not supporting him.)  But his numbers continue to be a big hairy finger raised at the GOP Establishment, particularly on immigration.  Really, GOP failure to do what the base elected Republicans to do – twice, in 2010 and 2014 – namely S.T.O.P. OBAMA, is the chief reason for Trump’s success so far.  But moving along . . .

In second is another non-politician, Ben Carson (who I think would make an excellent Veep candidate, by the way).  In third is the Republican senator who has most vociferously opposed the Republican leadership, even saying on the Senate floor that Majority Leader McConnell lied, Ted Cruz.  Anti-establishment heartthrobs all.

And in fourth with less than 10%?  The establishment fave, Jeb Bush . . . with less than 10%.

Do you hear us now, establishment RINOs?

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MORE: Maybe still the “GOP Establishment just doesn’t get it.”  But Elizabeth Price Foley does get it.  Like me, she is not a Trump supporter, but she understands well what is going on behind his support:

Oh, how the establishment loves to talk tough on immigration when it suits its purposes of ginning up conservatives on election day. But when a candidate comes along who actually wants to do something about the issue–and isn’t afraid to defy political correctness to do so–the GOP establishment suddenly cries foul, and brands him a fool, dictator, or police state zealot. The necessary implication is that the GOP establishment is all hat, no cattle on immigration.

No wonder increasing numbers of those who self-identify as Republican now openly abhor the party, and it totters on the brink of implosion.  But hey, I’m sure that’s all Donald Trump’s fault, right? Time for some GOP introspection.

The Pro-Abortion Crowd’s Dirty Secret

Decades ago, when I was even more of a political nerd than I am now, I perused the report of the 1981 Human Life Bill hearings.  And in the appendix, I found something shocking.  (And my apologies for not having details. My copy of the report is long lost.  But you may find it and numerous other statements to the subcommittee here.) The leader of a pro-abortion organization wrote opposing the bill, of course.  That is not shocking.  What did appall was her stating that the question of when human life began was “irrelevant.” 

I had already suspected, less than ten years after Roe v Wade, that the pro-abortion crowd did not care whether abortion killed human lives or not.  But I was surprised to see one of their leaders virtually admit it to Congress.

Since then, advances in medical science have made clear that abortion does kill human life, often profoundly developed human life.  Of course, the pro-abortionists do not want attention brought to that.  Just as the Nazis and Soviets labeled their victims as non-persons, lesser life, or less than human, the Feminazis distract from and downplay the lives of unborn children.

Yet, on occasion, the Feminazis’ dirty secret slips out – they know abortion kills . . . but they want to kill anyway:

Here’s the complicated reality in which we live: All life is not equal. That’s a difficult thing for liberals like me to talk about, lest we wind up looking like death-panel-loving, kill-your-grandma-and-your-precious-baby storm troopers. Yet a fetus can be a human life without having the same rights as the woman in whose body it resides. She’s the boss. Her life and what is right for her circumstances and her health should automatically trump the rights of the non-autonomous entity inside of her. Always.

“Our lives are more important than theirs.  Always.”  I will let the reader explore the implications of such logic.  He may find it leads to the death camps and the gulag.  But even if he does not, isn’t the revelations of the Planned Parenthood videos moral horror enough?

MORE: Anne Kennedy puts Mary Elizabeth in her place.

Chaput Puts Cupich in his Place

With LifeSite News, I do not know if Archbishop Charles Chaput’s statement, well titled "There is No Equivalence", on the Planned Parenthood videos was an intentional response to Archbishop Blase Cupich’s intentionally distracting response.  But it put Cupich’s slimy statement in its place nonetheless. 

I will post only the first paragraph because . . . well, because it is amazing, a wonderfully succinct demolition of Cupich’s sophistry.

Here's a simple exercise in basic reasoning. On a spectrum of bad things to do, theft is bad, assault is worse and murder is worst. There's a similar texture of ill will connecting all three crimes, but only a very confused conscience would equate thieving and homicide. Both are serious matters. But there is no equivalence. The deliberate killing of innocent life is a uniquely wicked act. No amount of contextualizing or deflecting our attention to other issues can obscure that.

And, as I pointed out yesterday, “deflecting our attention to other issues” is exactly what Cupich attempted to do.  Thanks be to God for Chaput’s continued clarity and courage in cutting through such libchurchly bull manure.

Pope Francis’ Archbishop of Chicago Runs Interference for Planned Parenthood

Remember Joseph Cardinal Bernardin of Chicago and his “Seamless Garment” argument?  By in effect trivializing abortion by saying real protection of life includes any number of pet liberal causes, he did more than any Mainline Libchurcher to undercut Christian opposition to abortion.  He distracted from the presenting issue of abortion and gave excuses to pro-abortion Roman Catholic politicians by allowing them to say they are pro-life in any number of areas – they really are - while being “personally opposed” to but reluctantly “pro-choice” on abortion (Wink, wink).

I do not presume to say that was Bernardin’s intent, although I have my suspicions, but it sure was the effect of his sophistry.

Well, the latest Archbishop of Chicago, Blasé Cupich is following a similar path:

While commerce in the remains of defenseless children is particularly repulsive, we should be no less appalled by the indifference toward the thousands of people who die daily for lack of decent medical care; who are denied rights by a broken immigration system and by racism; who suffer in hunger, joblessness and want; who pay the price of violence in gun-saturated neighborhoods; or who are executed by the state in the name of justice.

Instead of bringing focus on the evil of Planned Parenthood, he distracts with phony lefty outrages.  Who today is really “denied rights by a broken immigration system and by racism”? Very few, and even fewer (i. e. close to zero) are dismembered and sold off for parts by such.  Is hunger really comparable to being torn apart?  Is executing the worst of criminals really comparable to murdering the innocent then making merchandise with their bodies?

With his lefty parade of faux victims, Archbishop Blasé is willfully downplaying and distracting from the murderous outrages of Planned Parenthood.

And Pope Francis shares the blame for this shameful charade. 

For he appointed Cupich as Archbishop of Chicago in 2014.  And that even after Cupich did this as Bishop of Spokane in 2011:

Cupich discouraged priests and seminarians in his diocese from participating in demonstrations in front of Planned Parenthood clinics or supporting 40 Days for Life, a pro-life movement that conducts vigils at abortion clinics.

Cupich already had a record of being soft, Blasé, if you will, on baby killing and on the foremost practitioners of baby butchering, Planned Parenthood.  He already had a record of running interference for Planned Parenthood.

But Pope Francis appointed him anyway.

Obama and Allies Blame Foreigners and, of course, the JOOOOS!

Something modern totalitarians have in common is any opposition to their designs is an unprincipled attack on the Volk and on the Fatherland!  And any such opposition is inspired by foreigners and, of course, The JOOOOOS!

And thus is it with opposition to Obama enabling deal with genocidal Iran.  Why would anyone oppose that? . . . unless they were in league with foreigners and JOOOOOOS!

Cue Barack Obama’s fanboys at the Daily Kos.

Daily Kos is calling Chuck Schumer an Israeli Jew Traitor for opposing Iran deal. Seriously: http://t.co/JWxHdXgZeY pic.twitter.com/kf02VlM2Ny

— Jeff B@AoSHQDD (@EsotericCD) August 9, 2015

Yes, I am siding with Senator Schumer here.  Sit down and take some smelling salts if you need to.

Cue Obama in saying Republicans and hardline Iranians are in league.

"In fact, it's those hard-liners who are most comfortable with the status quo," Obama said Wednesday afternoon. "It's those hard-liners chanting "death to America" who have been most opposed to the deal."

"They're making common cause with the Republican caucus," Obama said to laughter and wild applause.

Yes, wild applause.   Praise the Dear Leader for exposing the connections of Running Dog Republican Traitors with nefarious foreigners!

Cue any number of thinly veiled accusations of duel loyalty and JOOOO money from the Obama regime’s various fronts.  Check out this from Honest Reporting (scroll to item 2) for a taste of that.

This is becoming too much for even the Left-of-Center Tablet whose editors have sounded the alarm and with passion:

What we increasingly can’t stomach—and feel obliged to speak out about right now—is the use of Jew-baiting and other blatant and retrograde forms of racial and ethnic prejudice as tools to sell a political deal, or to smear those who oppose it. Accusing Senator Schumer of loyalty to a foreign government is bigotry, pure and simple. Accusing Senators and Congressmen whose misgivings about the Iran deal are shared by a majority of the U.S. electorate of being agents of a foreign power, or of selling their votes to shadowy lobbyists, or of acting contrary to the best interests of the United States, is the kind of naked appeal to bigotry and prejudice that would be familiar in the politics of the pre-Civil Rights Era South.

This use of anti-Jewish incitement as a political tool is a sickening new development in American political discourse, and we have heard too much of it lately—some coming, ominously, from our own White House and its representatives. Let’s not mince words: Murmuring about “money” and “lobbying” and “foreign interests” who seek to drag America into war is a direct attempt to play the dual-loyalty card. It’s the kind of dark, nasty stuff we might expect to hear at a white power rally, not from the President of the United States—and it’s gotten so blatant that even many of us who are generally sympathetic to the administration, and even this deal, have been shaken by it.

We do not accept the idea that Senator Schumer or anyone else is a fair target for racist incitement, anymore than we accept the idea that the basic norms of political discourse in this country do not apply to Jews. Whatever one feels about the merits of the Iran deal, sales techniques that call into question the patriotism of American Jews are examples of bigotry—no matter who does it. On this question, we should all stand in defense of Senator Schumer.

But then the Tablet is published by JOOOOOOS!

In all seriousness, the editors of the Tablet are right.  I think it important to add and emphasize that this is how totalitarians act, from the dictators of Venezuela and Cuba who blame their failures on the Yanqui and yes, the Jews, too, to the 20^th Century Nazi and Communist regimes that plagued Europe.  Any failure of and any opposition to the regime is never the fault of the Glorious Leaders but of foreigners and Jews and of traitors in league with them.

It is beyond sad that here in the United States we now have a regime that so conducts itself.

“Thank God for the Atom Bomb”

This is a bit off-topic even for me.  But I have come across an excellent compilation of refutations of those who say dropping The Bomb on Japan was wrong.

I welcome the explanations of anyone who thinks a ground invasion of Japan would have been better.  Go ahead, have at it in the comments.  But it would not have been better.  It would have been worse, much worse, for both sides with perhaps a million Americans dead and God knows how many Japanese.  And those who would have done the invading were far, far more aware of that than scholars since pontificating from academia.

And as for the puerile thinking that Japan was the victim here, how can one dare say that in light of widespread and systematic Japanese war crimes?  Some Japanese politicians like to sweep those under the rug.  We should not help them do so with vomitous moral equivalence idiocy.

In any case, before I get a really good rant going, go read for yourself.  I will be charitable and just say if you think dropping The Bomb was wrong, then you are wrong. 

Can One Still Be a Christian and a Democrat?

With such a provocative title to this post, perhaps I should pour a little water on any incandescent anger, and say I do not presume to have a definitive answer to that question.

Not unlike orthodox Christians who remain in The Episcopal Church, there are committed orthodox Christians who remain in the Democrat Party out of loyalty, out of understandable dislike for the Republican Party, out of a desire to be salt and light where one is planted, because of family associations of long-standing, etc.  I am friends with one or two if you can imagine that.

However, after yesterday’s vote on Planned Parenthood, such Christians would do well to consider whether remaining in the Democrat Party is viable for faithful Christians.  For Senate Democrats, with two commendable exceptions, crossed yet another line of import yesterday.

It is one thing to support or at least tolerate the legalization of abortion for reasons of freedom (although given the literal life and death stakes, that is a very questionable position for any Christian).  One can even make a case that, once legal, abortion should be made available to the poor through federal funding (although it would be a weak case given that such federal funding forces taxpayers to participate in killing the unborn).

But yesterday’s vote by Senate Democrats to block efforts to defund Planned Parenthood goes beyond that into new and even more morally indefensible territory.  Democrats in effect voted that taxpayers will fund a group that butchers unborn children and sells off the parts as a growing number of undercover videos has exposed.

And yes, Hillary, too, firmly supports federal funding of Planned Parenthood.

We are getting into Nazi-like territory here.  And there were Christians, largely in name only, but also surely sincere Christians in Germany who meant well, who supported the Nazis for any number of reasons – the apparent recovery from the Weimar years, patriotism, anti-Communism, a more orderly society, the Volkswagen, support of governing authorities, etc.  But history rightly condemns any such support, and any such support was a betrayal of Christian principles and witness because of the evil into which the Nazis willfully descended.

And “We didn’t know” has been exposed as a flimsy defense.  And “We didn’t know” today is already exposed as a flimsy defense in light of the Planned Parenthood videos.  Those* who supposedly do not know now are just being willfully ignorant to excuse their own culpability.

Christians who are also Democrats need to stop pretending they are not associated with profound evil; they are.  And they should at the very least revaluate that association.

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So there is no misunderstanding, I am not advocating joining the Republican Party.  As I have already and repeatedly stated, I have serious issues with the GOP also.

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*With exceptions, of course, such as severe illness or lack of internet access.