Well, here we are, another day of folks casting their votes for President. Who will it be today? I believe these are four good men who have convictions and above all want to see America restored to what she once was, the greatest country on Earth. Ah, but you see, that’s just it: regardless of the damage done during this administration and the “Apology for America World Tour,” this is still the greatest country in the world. However, in order for us to stay great and regain our strength we must make sure Obama is defeated. All I see is everyone saying I’m not going to vote for that guy or this guy. Okay who are you gonna vote for? There are no perfect candidates. Bottom line is this, we have to unite behind the nominee and make sure that person is the next President.
The primary focus so far this year among the contenders for the GOP nomination has been the dramatic increases in government spending we have seen under the Obama administration. This is probably as it should be, because ever increasing government spending is killing jobs and growth, while the size of government is rapidly reaching epic proportions that would make Thomas Jefferson turn over in his grave. We have completely ignored his thought provoking conclusion that “government big enough to give you everything you want is government big enough to take away everything you have.”
Our ever increasing government presents a second concern, however, that we as conservatives should find equally alarming: President Obama’s assault on the religious freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment.
On January 20th, Obama’s Health and Human Services (HHS) director Kathleen Sebelius, issued a ruling that religious organizations would not be exempt from provisions of Obamacare that require employers to pay for sterilizations, contraception, and even “emergency contraception” in the form of “Plan B” and other abortifacient drugs as “necessary health care.” The President personally called New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, to deliver the news– thus we know that this was not a random decision by the liberal HHS department head, but instead a directive that came straight from the Oval Office.
The Catholic Church, through its hospitals, universities, primary and secondary schools, child welfare agencies, etc., employs tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of people in the United States, and this decision will affect nearly ALL of them.
But why should anyone who isn’t Catholic care about whether the Catholic Church has to pay for contraception, sterilizations, and early abortions??
Sister Jane Marie Klein, who is the chairperson of an alliance of 13 Catholic hospitals said, “This is nothing less than a direct attack on religion and First Amendment rights.” She is completely correct. The issue at hand concerns religious freedom at its most foundational level. If the government can trample on the sincerely held beliefs of Catholics, it can trample the beliefs of ANY religion. The right to act within one’s own conscience was the whole purpose of putting the Free Exercise clause into the First Amendment. As James Madison said, “Conscience is the most sacred of all property.”
The HHS decision has HUGE repercussions for First Amendment freedoms. Obama has spoken for years about the need for a “reasonable” right of conscience. But who is to determine what is “reasonable?” Should government be making that decision, or should it be left to the churches to decide what it is that they believe? If the long held dogma of the Catholic Church isn’t “reasonable” what is? Even in deciding Roe v. Wade and its companion case, Doe v. Bolton, the United States Supreme Court took for granted that the right of conscience would continue to play an important role in American jurisprudence, favorably citing the rights of doctors and a resolution put forth by the American Medical Association House of Delegates that stated, “Neither physician, hospital, nor hospital personnel shall be required to perform any act violative of personally held moral principles.” Ever since Roe, Congress has protected the right of conscience through the Church and Coats-Snow Amendments.
Obama’s decision to force religious groups morally opposed to abortion to provide abortifacient drugs to its employees free of charge completely ignores the law and instead tries to impose an arbitrarily chosen standard of “reasonableness” on a right that should be unencumbered: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
What hasn’t been discussed in the media coverage thus far is that there is no way the Catholic Church will ever comply with the Obamacare mandate. As we have already seen here in Illinois, the Catholic Church will close its operations rather than go against its own teachings. Catholic Charities of Illinois no longer exists because of our state’s mandate that Catholic Charities place children for adoption by same sex couples. Many nay-sayers said it wouldn’t happen, but it did, just like it happened in Massachusetts and Washington, D.C. Now the operation– indeed, the very existence– of every single Catholic hospital, university, and school in our country is at stake.
More than the practical risk to Americans who would lose choices in healthcare and education, not to mention the loss of jobs created by Catholic employers, is the even greater risk to our Constitutional freedom. This is an impingement of mammoth proportions upon the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of conscience, tantamount to tyranny in its most blatant form. If the federal government can do this to Catholics, it can limit the freedoms of every single American who has a set of moral principles to which they adhere.
This is not the first time the Obama Administration has attempted to quash religious freedom. In the recent case of Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, Obama’s EEOC tried to eliminate the “ministerial exception” that has long been recognized by our courts. In its oral arguments before the Supreme Court, the EEOC claimed that the “government’s interest in this case is . . . to tell the school that it may not punish its employees for threatening to report civil wrongs to civil authorities. That is an interest that overrides the burden on the association’s religious message about the virtues of internal dispute as opposed to court resolution.”
That’s a little tricky to follow, so let’s think about it for a minute: a church, which operates a school, ordains a religious education teacher as a minister in that church. One of the church’s sincerely held tenets is that, when someone has a dispute with the leaders of that church, the dispute must be taken up with church leaders FIRST, before turning to civil remedies in the courts. The Obama administration argued, however, that employment regulations set by the EEOC should “override” the church’s religious teachings.
Are you noticing a pattern here?? In Hosanna Tabor, we have a government agency (the EEOC) setting a policy in an attempt to circumvent the First Amendment and dramatically limit the free exercise of religion. In the assault pending against the Catholic Church, yet another government agency (HHS) has set a policy that is a direct assault on the right of conscience protected by the Free Exercise Clause.
Fortunately, the Supreme Court upheld religious freedom in Hosanna-Tabor, but the Obama administration has now set its sights on Catholics and Evangelicals. Obama’s current assault is merely the next step in this administration’s march toward total annihilation of the First Amendment. Conservatives of ALL religious affiliations must take a stand and vehemently advocate for the protection of our Constitutional freedom because the words of Edmond Burke, the father of modern conservatism, are just as true now as they were when he said them more than 200 years ago:
“All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”
Wednesday, January 18th, 2012
Yesterday, Illinois campaign leaders Dan Rutherford (for Mitt Romney), Bruce Hansen and Nick Provenzano (for Newt Gingrich), Chris Younce (for Ron Paul) and Al Salvi and Jon Zahm (for Rick Santorum) came to an agreement: all challenges to the petitions of other candidates would be withdrawn.
Tuesday, January 17th, 2012
More American’s today refer to themselves as conservatives than any other ideological group. At the same time many out there are trying to come up with the issues that define conservatism today. I would contend that the conservative moniker has been hijacked in effort to fractionalize what I would call the resurgence of Reaganism. We all know the legacy of Ronald Reagan, the turnaround of the American economy, the end of communism as we know it but more importantly pride in being who we are, Americans. His philosophy was not some text book ideology, but rather a common sense appeal to average Americans. He believed in the American people; their ability and drive to do the right thing. He summed up the over reach of government in a quote from 1986 “Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” Even today, opponents try and play down the accomplishments of ‘Reaganomics’ but the plain facts are this, in eight years of his administration, 20 million new jobs were created, inflation dropped from 13.5% in 1980 to 4.1% by 1988, unemployment fell from 7.6% to 5.5%, net worth of families earning between $20,000 and $50,000 annually grew by 27%, real gross national product rose 26%. Half of the jobs created went to women and employment of African-Americans grew by 25%. It was broad spectrum economic growth. He knew growth of government cannot sustain the engine of economic recovery, that was the ‘third leg of the stool’ to again quote Reagan. Reagan reined in government growth from 10% in 1982 to just over 1% in 1987. I had the great privilege to be invited to the White House in 1987, to meet and hear President Reagan. His message was always clear due to his deep conviction and devotion to America and her people. The naysayers, apologists and revisionists try down play the accomplishments of this man, born and raised in Illinois. Contrast the message of Hope, with Reagan’s message of Belief and you see where Belief in the American People can take you.
Tom Clement
IC Blogger
Monday, January 16th, 2012
In 2010 I looked to Adam Kinzinger as the possible future of the Illinois Republican Party and the conservative movement. In my eyes, the future was bright with leaders like Jason Plummer and Adam Kinzinger receiving attention as Tea Party backed candidates. They seemed ready to carry the conservative torch at the state and national level, respectively. Though the Brady/Plummer ticket ultimately lost in November, Kinzinger beat Debbie Halvorson by a very impressive margin in the 11th Congressional District, there was every reason to get excited about what was to come from the freshman congressman.
That was then, this is now. Kinzinger went to Washington and Washington changed him, while Plummer went back to work at his family owned business, creating jobs in Illinois and helping people find opportunity in tough times. It is now 2012, another election cycle, and once again both men are running. Jason Plummer is running in the 12th Congressional District, a seat that will have no incumbent in it. Kinzinger, a victim of redistricting, now has his place of residence located in the 2nd Congressional District instead of the 11th Congressional District, but is running in the 16th Congressional District, currently represented by conservative Republican Don Manzullo.
This certainly raises the question: why is he not running in the 2nd congressional district where he lives? Kinzinger had a chance to run against the winner of the Jessie Jackson Jr versus Debbie Halvorson democratic primary but he passed it up. He would rather go against a fellow Republican then the Chicago Democratic Machine.
Kinzinger went to Washington on the tidelwave Tea Party movement. Yet, he has disappointed the Tea Party and Conservatives. The Heritage Foundation, a leading nationwide conservative organization, has his score at just 60%. You can compare that to centrist Republican Senator Mark Kirk, who sits at 63%. Remember, the Tea Party never embraced Senator Kirk, yet Kirk has stood with the Tea Party more than Kinzinger.
If Kinzinger had the courage to run in the 2nd Congressional District where he lives, he could bring a right of center voice to the Democrat controlled city of Chicago. It may be a moderately conservative voice, but it would still help the conservative cause.
Instead Kinzinger’s decision could possibly push the conservative cause backward. And while Kinzinger’s decision jeopardizes Manzullo and the future of the conservative movement, Jason Plummer, the other young and exciting Tea Party prospect who appeared in 2010, has decided to try and take a democratic district and turn it red this year. Plummer, a true conservative, is fighting the democrats and standing on principle. Kinzinger has directed his fight toward a fellow Republican and has been changed by the culture of Washington D.C.
Illinois was introduced to both of them in 2010, but Kinzinger’s time in Washington combined with his decision to attempt to take out a real conservative this year has us wondering if the Adam Kinzinger of 2012 is still the Adam Kinzinger of 2010.
Sunday, January 15th, 2012
News has just broke about John Huntsman bowing out and endorsing Mitt Romney. I don’t care. His endorsement is not worth the paper that it is written on. I never cared for John Huntsman, the whole China/Obama thing really bothered me, and it may be nit picky but I did not like his attitude of always acting like he was better than everyone else. We already have a president who believes that. So I say farewell John Huntsman. So, now we’re down to five, who will drop out after South Carolina. Stay tuned, It is going to be an interesting year.
Loading ...