AOC Is Not the Victim. She’s the Perp.

 

History has a new greatest monster – move over Hitler, meet Marjorie Taylor Greene. I don’t know much about her, nor do I really care to. I haven’t read any stories on her alleged craziness because who cares? She’s a congresswoman in the minority party who doesn’t represent me, that narrows her down to half the House. If she posted something stupid or offensive in the past, who cares? I’m more concerned with the morons holding power who are currently working to undermine the country and individual liberty. All those people have a (D) after their name.

One of the most vocal, if least effective and dumbest, leading that charge is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 

Her latest scam is another twist on her default position: claiming victim status. Any criticism she faces is met with a “You’re only saying that because I’m a woman” or a “You’re attacking me because I’m Hispanic.” When really desperate, she combines the two. 

This week she broke out a new one: she’s a victim of sexual assault. 

I don’t know if she really is or not, it’s irrelevant to the point of how she operates. 

AOC told the “story” of how she survived “the insurrection” on January 6th. In it, she dramatically claimed she feared for her life as idiotic rioters stormed the Capitol. In her dramatic reenactment she made it seem like she barely escaped with her life, as marauding hordes of pitchfork wielding lunatics perused her and her staff.

In reality, she was several football fields away in her office, nowhere near the violence, and was “terrified” most by a police officer advising members of Congress to leave the area as a precaution. She reserved most of her animosity for the officer, who she claimed looked at her with hatred. 

This would be a problem for most people – complaining about someone there to help – but AOC put herself beyond criticism with the sexual assault aside. If she really were a victim in her life, and maybe she was, she should name her attacker. People don’t dabble in certain anti-social behaviors, they’re either pedophiles or they’re not; they’re either abusers or they’re not. You either have that in you or you do not. Her attacker, if real, is free to victimize others, and presumably has been for years. She should name him, if only to set an example and protect others.

Of course, that’s not the biggest problem with her story.

If you were in the Bronx on 9/11 and you’d slept till noon, the 9/11 terrorist attacks happened without your knowledge or participation, but you were technically in New York during it. If you lost no one you knew, but told people of your frantic scramble for information after you’d woken up while omitting that’d you’d lost no one, your location, and when you got out of bed, you wouldn’t technically be lying…but if you regaled your friends with stories of your trauma over being in New York City on 9/11, you would be a liar. 

AOC is lying, either by omission, exaggeration, or both. Her story, in the true context, does not hold up. That hasn’t stopped the usual suspects from rallying to her defense. CNN, Snopes, the New York Times, and the rest of the usual suspects immediately declared her truthful. They must protect their queen. “While Ms. Ocasio-Cortez was not in the main, domed Capitol building when the rioters breached it, she never said she was,” the Times wrote. No, she didn’t, she just implied the hell out of the idea that they were hunting her down in her office building. 

Snopes chimed in with, “AOC was targeted with another round of bad-faith smears after giving an emotional, firsthand account of her experiences during the Capitol riot.”

The poor dear. After years of lying about any Republican who ever dared disagree with her, accusing Ted Cruz of trying to get her killed, singing racism and misogyny all the way, she finds herself on the business end “of bad-faith smears.” Those “smears” involve accurately quoting her and a simple lesson in geography. Those monsters. 

As is often the case, the person screaming the loudest about how they’ve been wronged is the guilty party. AOC isn’t a victim, she’s the perp.

Trump Impeachment Is Unconstitutional and Reeks of Political Revenge

 

It’s no secret that from the day after the 2016 election, Democrats had their sights set on impeaching President Trump, even objecting on January 6, 2017 to the electoral votes starting with the State of Alabama, which President Trump won by 28 points, alleging “Russia Collusion.” When the Russian collusion conspiracy was proven to be make believe, they moved on to impeaching him over allegations made by an “anonymous whistleblower” who we later found out worked with Joe Biden when he was vice president. We may never know all the facts about those allegations because House Democrats denied President Trump his Sixth Amendment right to cross examine the witness against him.

Just like the Russian collusion narrative, it was all political theater, engineered before an election, and designed to railroad President Trump and energize the Democratic Party’s base of support at a time when the economy was thriving and our country was at peace. In the Senate there was little appetite for the show trial and the articles of impeachment were rightly dismissed. Trump Impeachment 2.0 is unconstitutional and should also be dismissed by the U.S. Senate.

Now that President Trump’s term has ended and he is a private citizen, the impeachment articles are irrelevant, and the case is moot. The U.S. Constitution limits impeachment jurisdiction to the current president, vice president and sitting federal civil office holders. Additionally, the Constitution prescribes a punishment that shall not go beyond removal from office with the possibility of being disqualified from holding office in the future. Since President Trump no longer holds office, the penalty if convicted is meaningless. It’s politics at its worst and will only serve to further divide our nation.

Furthermore, it is disingenuous to tie President Trump’s January 6th remarks with the violence that took place at the U.S. Capitol. President Trump addressed the crowd by the White House grounds about two miles away from the Capitol, exercising his right under the First Amendment, and he asked attendees to protest peacefully. He did not use any language during his address that could be construed as incitement. He also rightly denounced the violence and instructed federal authorities to bring those responsible for breaking the law to justice.

There is good reason to believe that a group of individuals, unaffiliated with the rally, assembled, broke the law, and disobeyed police orders by breeching the doors of the U.S. Capitol even before President Trump made his remarks. We also now know that bombs were placed outside the Republican and Democratic Committee Headquarters in the early morning hours indicating violence was planned possibly weeks in advance.

House Democrats were so eager to get another shot at impeaching President Trump that they bypassed the regular process and denied President Trump, members of Congress and the American people the prerequisite fact-finding through committee hearings and official investigations into the events of January 6th. We still do not have a full accounting of what took place, and what organizations and individuals were involved in the violent acts that day, though I have requested this information from law enforcement authorities. We need a bipartisan commission to investigate those events. 

Truth be told, President Trump’s real offense is that he beat Hillary Clinton four years ago in an upset election that liberal Democrats and the Washington establishment have never gotten over. This impeachment reeks of political revenge and is a waste of valuable time Congress could be dedicating to uniting the country and getting Americans safely back to work. Antics like this are an abuse of power, but sadly are in line with other abuses of power in the opening month of the new Congress: removing a member of Congress for statements made before she became a member of Congress and changing House rules to prohibit Republicans from offering an amendment at the end of House debate on legislation (a right that the minority party has had for more than 100 years).

These highly partisan actions make many Americans cynical about politics and distrustful of Washington and the motives of our leaders. At a time when Congress should be thinking about ways to unify the nation and improve the public’s trust, it has hit rock bottom and started digging deeper.

Democratic Party

 

Mea culpa.  There is structural and systemic racism in the United States.  The inconvenient truth is that it is perpetrated, propagated, and perpetuated by the Left. Birthed in the cesspool of radical Left university departments, demagogic terms like white privilege, whiteness, or white fragility are part of a poisonous and dangerous ideology that is meant to divide rather than unite.  Critical race theory and racial equality can be summed up in a single statement: if you are white, you are racist and if you are a person of color, you are oppressed.

The combination of white guilt plus black victimhood is especially toxic. Our self-anointed “Uniter-in-Chief” Joe Biden has jumped on the race hustler bandwagon under the guise of diversity training with his recent decision to rescind an executive order from former President Trump that would have put restrictions on advancing racial equality by limiting diversity training for federal government employees and its contractors.  In other words, more identity politics.  Unfortunately, this isn’t an anomaly for Democrats.  This isn’t a blip on the Democratic arc of history bending towards justice.  Judging people by the color of their skin rather than the content of their character has a rich history in the Democratic Party.

Democrats have been solely responsible for defending slavery, starting the Civil War, opposing reconstruction, lynching blacks, founding the Ku Klux Klan, Jim Crow laws and segregation, poll taxes and literacy tests.  The Party voted against the 13th amendment (end slavery), 14th amendment (black citizenship), and 15th amendment (black right to vote), filibustered the 1960 Civil Rights Act (elimination of poll taxes), and tried to filibuster the 1964 Civil Rights Act for 60 days, the longest filibuster in Senate history.

The Civil War wasn’t North v. South, as highlighted in the Lincoln-Douglas debates in the northern state of Illinois. It was a Democrat v. Republican battle. The infamous Dred Scott decision (blacks were property) in 1857 was a Supreme Court vote of 7 Democrat justices for, and 2 Republican justices against. By 1900, more than 20 black Republicans had served in Congress. Democrats did not elect a single black congressman until 1935. And every black senator until 1979 was a Republican. When federal troops withdrew from the South after reconstruction ended, Democrats’ white supremacy laws re-emerged with a vengeance enforced by the paramilitary arm of the Democratic Party, the KKK, which was used to suppress blacks from voting Republican.

Democrats are also the party of abortion. Planned Parenthood, founded by eugenics racist Margaret Sanger was created to eliminate the “undesirables” and that continues today where there are more abortions in NYC of black babies than are born.

Democrat Woodrow Wilson re-segregated many federal agencies and screened the racist film Birth of a Nation at the White House. Democrat FDR refused to invite four-time gold medalist Jessie Owen (a staunch Republican) to the White House (only invited white athletes) and interned 120,000 Japanese Americans. Eisenhower re-integrated the military and forced the integration of schools in Little Rock against the wishes of Democrat governor Orval Faubus. The racist Democrat LBJ started the welfare state and said “I’ll have those n#@!rs voting Democrat for the next 200 years,” highlighting the fact that Democrats care about black votes but not blacks. The welfare state has decimated the black family with 77 percent of children growing up fatherless. JFK first mentioned Affirmative Action in 1961 but it was Nixon who passed it in 1971.

Democrat race hustlers Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton foment black victimhood. The party promotes racial identity politics because of the abject failure of its policies which continues to hurt black people and shows its continued contempt for blacks. Opposition to school choice keeps blacks in failing schools. Politically correct policing has left blacks as victims to violent crimes. In 2019, 9 unarmed blacks (the number is 19 for white people) were killed by police while more than 2,000 blacks were murdered by other blacks in 2018 and Democrats have had monopoly control of ALL the cities we hear and see about black plight: Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit…

If Democrats really wanted to help blacks, they would treat abortion as a tragedy, support school choice, work to end the failed welfare state, drop the idea of defunding police, promote advancement based on merit and character not the amount of melanin in your skin, end open borders which flood the market with cheap labor and steal jobs from black Americans, end their support of minimum wage laws which lead to higher black unemployment, and end their social justice mantra which is equality by group not the individual, anathema to America’s founding principles.  I know, wishful thinking.  So, whenever you hear Democrats calling Republicans racists, just know there is a simple psychological term for this:  projection.

It’s Time to Take Down the Capitol Fence

 

Ever since the horrific events of January 6th, the U.S. Capitol complex has been surrounded by barbed wire fencing and cement barricades. Entering the complex feels more like accessing a military installation or a U.S. Embassy overseas.

Now there is talk of making the fencing and fortress-like security indefinite. On January 28th, the Acting Chief of U.S. Capitol Police announced that the fencing that currently surrounds the entire U.S. Capitol complex should be made permanent, “in light of recent events.” This is not only wrong from a security perspective, but it also undermines the symbol of our country’s representative government.

The truth is the “recent events” that led to the increased security are over. The inauguration of President Biden is now behind us without incident and the business of our country is moving forward. We should not allow the tragic events of a single day to permanently alter the people’s access to the seat of our representative government.

I am starting my fifth year as a U.S. congressman. In that time, I have witnessed citizens from around the country meeting with their representatives in the halls of Congress. I have seen school children taking photos on the Capitol steps with the statute of Freedom in the background. I have watched veterans who risked their lives for this country proudly stand at attention in sight of the flag flying over the Capitol. Make no mistake, the Capitol is hallowed ground. We need to keep it that way.

Beyond the intrusion into the lives of visitors to Washington, permanent military-style fencing is a tremendous symbolic stain on our country. The U.S. Capitol is a symbol of freedom both at home and abroad. At the top of the building stands the Statue of Freedom. Much like the Statue of Liberty in New York City, it symbolizes why so many people from around the world come to America. They come to start anew, unshackled by tyranny and oppression, to be free from political and religious persecution, and to live in freedom and peace. The current state of the Capitol Complex fundamentally undermines that message. It is appalling that Communist China allows their citizens more freedom to visit historical sites like Tiananmen Square in their capitol than currently exists for Americans who want to visit our Capitol in Washington, D.C.

I, along with dozens of my colleagues and outside organizations, will be sending a letter to Speaker Pelosi demanding that she put a stop to any plans for keeping the militarized barriers. My House colleagues and I are willing to have an honest debate about providing the Capitol Hill Police with the resources they need to be better prepared without turning the Capitol into a permanent fortress.The opposition to permanent fencing is bipartisan. Washington, D.C.’s Mayor Muriel Bowser tweeted that, “we will not accept extra troops or permanent fencing as a long-term fixture in DC.” The District’s Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton said, “permanent fencing would send the wrong message to the nation and the world.” Virginia Democratic Rep. Jennifer Wexton tweeted, “I believe we can keep Members, press, staff, my constituents, and all those who work here safe without walling off the symbol of our democracy.”

It’s time for our nation’s representatives to stop hiding and start healing so we all can move forward. It’s time to remove the barbed wire fencing surrounding the Capitol and send the National Guard troops home to their families, instead of disrespectfully relegating them to parking garages.

Americans face challenges head-on and overcome them. We don’t cower in fear. Our leaders need to lead. It’s the patriotic thing to do.

Honoring the Unsung Black Religious Leaders who Shaped Christian America

 

While we all recognize the names of Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King, Jr., from our studies of Black History Month, there are many other African American heroes who were important in the struggle for freedom and equality but whose names aren’t as widely known. These men and women are a vital part of our nation’s religious heritage, as well, and without their contributions, we might not even have had a Martin Luther King, Jr. So, I would like to highlight a few of those here today.

Many black preachers alive today are renowned for their impressive sermon oratory, but this is nothing new in African-American history. One of the earliest American black preachers to be appreciated and respected for his sermon delivery was Rev. Harry Hosier, who was the first to preach to white audiences during the post-Revolutionary War era. He was born a slave in North Carolina and freed in Maryland toward the end of the war, but remained illiterate despite traveling with the famed leader of American Methodism Francis Asbury. This is what made his sermon delivery all the more impressive. One of his most famous sermons, “The Barren Fig Tree,” based on Luke 13:6-9, goes down in history as the first formal sermon delivered by an African American. Always humble, Rev. Hosier credited his faith in God for everything he accomplished.

Two other black pastors were instrumental in the beginning of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) denomination: Absalom Jones and Richard Allen. Rev. Jones was the first African American priest in the Episcopal Church, and Rev. Allen, his lifelong friend, started the first AME church in Philadelphia in 1794, the Mother Bethel AME Church. As of 2020, the denomination now boasts 7,000 congregations and 2.5 million members. Together, they also established the Free African Society, serving black widows and orphans in need, including personally nursing many who were struck by the 1793 outbreak of Yellow Fever. They worked alongside Dr. Benjamin Rush, a fellow Christian who was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and friend of both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Rev. Jones twice petitioned Congress and the president in the 1790s opposing slavery, and is still honored every year with a feast day on the official Episcopal Church calendar.

Many recognize the name Sojourner Truth from their history lessons as the author of The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave, published in 1850 and influential in the fight against slavery. But she was also an itinerant Methodist preacher who at six feet tall was always a commanding presence and often the only black woman in the room. After she won her freedom from slavery, she had her name officially changed from Isabella Baumfree to Sojourner Truth as a testimony of God’s call on her life to journey about the countryside sharing the truth about God to all who would listen. Known for her big, booming voice, she could capture the attention of a large, noisy room when she began to sing one of the hymns she wrote, such as this one for which she is known: “It was early in the morning–it was early in the morning, Just at the break of day– When he rose–when he rose–when he rose, And went to heaven on a cloud.”

Another powerful black preacher was Alexander Crummel, a scholar and Episcopal priest, whose education at Cambridge University was funded by abolitionists. After serving as a missionary in Liberia for 20 years, he returned to the U.S. and started the first independent black Episcopal church in Washington, D.C., in 1875. One of his most famous sermons, “Building Men,” based on I Corinthians 3:10, was prophetic in its attack against the spiritual apathy so rampant today: “There are people who would fain convince themselves that it is possible to stand in a place of utter indifference in spiritual matters; devoid of all moral responsibility. Never was there a more deceptive error framed by Satan for human ruin.”

John Jasper’s sermon “De Sun Do Move” is one of many that nets this black Baptist preacher a place in the annals of influential pastors for his command of oratory as well as his scriptural depth. He served the Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia, during the latter half of the 19^th century and is remembered for sermons pointing to the awesomeness of God’s perfect plan: “Fellow-sinners in ranks! Turn your back on Hell, and look toward Heaven! King Jesus cometh! — Fall in ranks! When all his elect shall mount in chariots drawn by winged horses, and be seen going up in the clouds to that blessed abode where all the houses is made of gold and the streets is paved with pearls. Amen.”

Today’s Protestant Pentecostals now number in the hundreds of millions, but had their humble beginnings as a street revival in 1906 Los Angeles, led by an African American preacher named William Seymour. Originally from Louisiana and baptized as a Catholic, he grew up attending a Baptist church before receiving additional education in the Holiness movement. When the established church leaders in Los Angeles discounted his emphasis on the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues, he launched an independent Bible study that grew into the Azusa Street Revival. This movement of God lasted several years, featuring dramatic miracles and Spirit-filled interracial worship, sparking the spread of Pentecostalism in the 20^th century.

Finally, where would Black preaching be without black Gospel music? We have Thomas Dorsey to thank for his influence in this important musical genre. His father was a Baptist minister and his mother an organist, so he was exposed to both faith and song early in life. He moved from Georgia to Chicago at age 17 in pursuit of a burgeoning musical career, which led to his chance to attend the Chicago College of Composition and Arranging. After graduation, he began leading secular jazz bands before choosing to follow God’s plan for his life, using music to share the Gospel. Known as the “Father of Gospel Music,” he started the first independent publishing house for black Gospel music and founded the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses. One of his most well-known compositions, “Precious Lord,” was inspired by the grief of losing his first wife and son in childbirth in 1932, and it was later said to be Martin Luther King Jr.’s favorite song.

These are just a handful of the important black religious figures who have played major roles in shaping our unique Judeo-Christian heritage here in the United States, and to whom we owe a debt of gratitude for their faithfulness and commitment. We know they faced hardships we can’t even imagine, yet they followed God’s leadership no matter the cost. It is because of their sacrifice that we have such a vibrant and diverse church life in our minority communities today. Let us not forget to honor these unsung heroes as we celebrate Black History Month this February.