What the Democrats Have Learned: Nothing

There is great news for Republicans!

Yes, Trump won the election, but while that is certainly good news, it is not the BEST news. The best news is that Democrats have learned exactly NOTHING from their humiliating defeat.

Hillary Clinton (The Most Qualified Person Ever to Run for President) has attributed her loss to James Comey. Let her think that. Let ALL Democrats think that. It will prevent them from seeing the real reason. Namely that they are out of touch with America. Well, technically, America outside of Hollywood and Manhattan.  

So because we want nothing more than to see future Democrat defeats, our advice for them includes the following:

-- Continue to seek support from Hollywood Liberals and use them to broadcast your message. There is nothing that middle America likes more than to be lectured by these nitwits.

-- Embrace Black Lives Matter....even more tightly. The average American enjoys watching lawless thugs burning and looting while accusing peace officers of murder.

-- Keep pushing the LGBTQRST agenda. Try to come up with something even more outrageous than allowing guys into the ladies bathroom. Then accuse those who object of bigotry. 

There was a time - and it was not that long ago - that Democrats held positions nearly identical to those held by today's Republicans. Bill Clinton said that marriage was between a man and a woman. Now a Republican who voices that view supports "hate." 

Clinton also said that abortion should be "rare, safe and legal." Undoubtedly, many Republicans who are not interested in refighting the abortion issue would silently acquiesce if this were the case. Instead, we get the current Democrat party position that abortion should be omnipresent and financed by the Catholic Church. 

By the way, here is a sidebar that we have been pondering. Democrats want publicly financed birth control AND publicly financed abortion. Shouldn't a transitional Republican position be something along the following lines? Hey, you can't have it both ways! You can't say: give me free birth control AND free abortions. Choose one.

In closing, we salute Democrats for their stunning inability to learn from their mistakes and urge them on. Elizabeth Warren for President! 

The Clintons Get Away With It

Again.

The Clintons ALWAYS get away with it.

Prepare for eight more years of this.

Common Sense Gun Reform

RedStateVT presents here for the first time a common sense idea for gun control that Liberals should be able to rally around. Here goes....

Conservatives will agree to ban AR-15 rifles if Liberals agree to outlaw abortion.

Brilliant isn't it?

Of course, more lives would be saved by banning abortion, but we are hoping that Liberals will abide.


Who said it?

“I will suspend immigration from areas of the world when there is a proven history of terrorism against the United States, Europe or our allies, until we understand how to end these threats.”

The answer, of course, is Donald Trump. A mere ten years ago, Democrats would have signed on to this statement in a heartbeat. Now, it is considered bigoted. Weep for America.

Liberals and Orlando

Since the Orlando shootings Liberals have scrambled to come up with an explanation that does not involve saying the word "muslim." And so we initially got the blame-the-gun excuse.  MSNBC anchors queried local reporters endlessly about the number of rounds that Omar Mateen's weapon could fire. Liberals have never really grasped the calculus that a determined killer could bring four or five or six guns or four or five or six ammunition clips and kill just as many people as they could with an assault rifle.  Focusing on the gun gives them the moral high ground, so they think, because they naively believe the answer is legislative. Ban that gun and these killings will stop!

Perhaps sensing some leakage in this approach, Liberals turned next to a convenient bogey man: the NRA. And so the New York Daily News outrageously blamed the carnage on a legal organization made up of law-abiding citizens. The NRA can defend itself and did.

Meanwhile President Obama played true to form, scolding Americans who even so much as thought the words "radical Islam." The best take on the matter came from whoever first said: Obama was madder at Trump than he was at the killer. These horrific events have always presented an American president with a brief opportunity to console and calm the country. Not so with Obama. He uses them to criticize Republicans.

Unable to conjure up a coherent narrative, more than a few Liberals latched on to a truly bizarre argument: Fundamentalist Christians are just as bad. We are not making this up!  There is simply no way to respond to that and so we won't.

Along the way Liberals tried out a few more story lines including that Mateen was a self-loathing gay and/or that this was a hate crime against the Bisexual-Lesbian-Transvestite (BLT) community. None of these generated too much traction.

Which leaves us now with the emerging Liberal explanation (and one that they have tried to downplay in the past in order to keep the focus on the AR-15): mental illness. RedStateVT has written many times of the role that mental illness plays in mass killings and it absolutely deserves to be examined here. 

Also worth examining further, of course, is radical Islamic-inspired terrorism.

Congratulations America! You Are Pre-Qualified for a New President

The Hillary Clinton campaign has settled on its over-arching rationale for why she merits the presidency. She is QUALIFIED. More than that, though, she is the MOST qualified. Arguably the most qualified EVER. Even Obama has now admitted this. And if there is anything that Obama knows about it is the qualifications for the presidency. Having had none of them. 

The sum total of Obama's qualifications were:

He is black.

He was raised by a single mother.

He had an exotic name.

For a political party absolutely obsessed with identity politics, Obama was the dream candidate.

During his time as a junior senator Obama had no legislative accomplishments.  In lieu of taking a position on proposed legislation, he usually voted "present." This was the candidate that Democrats foisted on America in 2008. Now they want to talk about qualifications.

So let's look at Hillary Clinton's qualifications. 

She is a former first lady. So we've got a bit of the Eva Peron thing going. 

She was handed the job of senator from New York having had zero connection to the state during her entire life. In preparation for the job, she went on a "listening tour." Based on her legislative efforts, New Yorkers apparently told her not to do anything. 

Obama then made Clinton his secretary of state. In that role, she helped to bring stability to the Middle East, tamed Vlad Putin's territorial ambitions and negotiated a strict deal with the Iranian mullahs curbing their nuclear program. 

Well, not really. Although she did travel a lot. Over a million miles, they say. 

Donald Trump may or may not be qualified to be president. But the fact of the matter is that Democrats have lost the right to talk about "being qualified" as a requirement for the job.

Hillary Clinton: First Female Woman to Capture Major Party Nomination!

In a groundbreaking and historic event, Hillary Clinton became the first female woman to win a major party nomination for president. While other female women have run as vice presidential candidates (Geraldine Ferraro and Sarah somebody...) Clinton has now broken through a once seemingly impenetrable barrier, no doubt opening the door for other female women to follow.  

And by the way, can we add that in addition to being a female woman, Clinton shattered another barrier?

Clinton is also a female woman grandmother!

History will long remember the moment that a soon-to-be-indicted female woman grandmother did the impossible. For today, let us just savor the moment.

Berning Down The House

Even Bernie Sanders cannot believe his success. Sanders entered the presidential race after Elizabeth (Talking Bull) Warren declined to do so. Likely, the Bernster thought he could push the Democrat party platform a bit into Socialist territory. Little did he guess that he would be nipping at Hillary's heels.

Sanders has effectively tapped into the psyche of America's malcontents and grievance-mongers who believe the country has not given them enough. One of the surprises of this election season is just how large that group has become. Weep for America.

So - given that he will not get the nomination - what does Sanders do now? Well, if you were an aging Socialist with bad teeth, what would you do? We believe that Sanders will go for broke. 

Despite the early niceties, it is our view that Sanders despises the Clintons. Is a man who basically has one issue - Wall Street is evil - going to accept someone who has engorged herself on Wall Street's largess? Of course not. Look for Sanders to take the gloves off and Pillory Hillary!

Despite the inconvenient fact that Sanders is not even a Democrat, he will force a convention floor fight for the soul of the Democrat party, soon to be renamed the Democratic Socialist Party. Bern and his sycophants will take the gloves off.  Socialists have never shied from protest, never mind violence. It should make for quite spectacle.  

Is Your Candidate Qualified? A Simple Test

Is your candidate qualified to be president? Here is a simple test to determine the answer to that very important question. How does your preferred choice for president answer the following questions?

1) You are face-to-face with an Islamic jihadist. Each of you is holding gun pointed at the other. Do you....
   
   a) Engage the jihadist in a discussion of historical grievances

   b) Ask the jihadist if he would like to come to America

   c) Pull the trigger


2) As president would you...

   a) Enforce only the laws that you agree with

   b) Interpret existing laws as you see fit

   c) Enforce all the laws


3) With respect to immigration, America should do which of the following?

   a) Allow anyone from foreign countries to enter the country

   b) Allow those who have broken the law and entered the country illegally to stay and ensure that they receive full government benefits

   c) Enforce immigration laws and protect the borders



Only those candidates who get 100% are qualified to be the next president. 


Answer Key: 1) c  2) c 3) c

The Man Who Gave Rise to Trump

Who made it possible for Donald Trump - egotistical billionaire, silly reality TV star, bad hair day-of-the-year candidate - to become the GOP frontrunner? One man and one man only: Barack Obama.  

Think what you will about Trump, but he seized upon the very things that Americans (including a majority of Republicans and perhaps a healthy percentage of Democrats) object to the most about President Obama. These include Obama's worldview that America is NOT necessarily special. That it is just one of the world's nations, not the "last great hope of mankind." With a Kenyan father and an upbringing in Indonesia, Obama has never been fully American. Deep inside, he sympathizes with at least some of the jealousies and bitterness that citizens of failed or dysfunctional countries have toward America's success. Hence, his foreign policy which includes apologies (yes, it's true) and "leading from behind" (whatever that means). Obama fancies himself a student of history. He believes that the details of day-to-day foreign policy are trivial and that in the grand sweep of time evil will be defeated and peace will reign. In and of itself it is an incredibly childish and naive view. Ronald Reagan actually believed the same thing, but he knew that boots on the ground were required to keep the bad actors on the world stage in check. Would Reagan have stood down while Russian aircraft buzz American ships on a daily basis? You know the answer. Obama thinks that Putin is just posturing. But then again, Putin took the Crimea....

Trump has read the mood of America and knows that people are frustrated by seven plus years of namby-pamby dithering. Americans don't want war, but they do want America to project strength. And they are not apologetic about it because they know that America is at its core a great and virtuous nation. Obama, along with his spiritual side-kick Bernie Sanders, believe that America was, like ancient Rome, founded on a crime. 

Likewise, Trump knows that America and American values need to be protected. Hence his signature issue of immigration. Whether or not a wall ever gets built, Trump has read the mood of the country. We are not a third world country. We do not want to become a third world country. We have the right to determine who comes here and who does not. And we have nothing to apologize for. All of which are antithetical to Obama who has embraced and championed open borders and amnesty. Trump supporters believe that immigrants have to assimilate American values. Obama believes that America needs more diversity. At least half of the country disagrees. 

Don't like Trump? Blame Obama.


Tid-Bits
Not a single member of the White House press corps is a registered Republican, according to survey results recently published by Politico. (freebeacon.com, 4/29/2016)

Wow! Did not see this one coming....


Hillary Clinton came to campaign in coal country — and she had her feet held to the fire.

As Mrs. Clinton stepped onto the sidewalk on Monday to tour a health and wellness center here, a crowd of protesters stood in the rain, many of them holding signs supporting the leading Republican candidate, Donald J. Trump, and chanted, “Go home!” (New York Times, 5/3/2016)

Obama and Democrats have waged a war on coal. Now the chickens have come home to roost. 


Detroit public schools were shut for a second straight day Tuesday as teachers stayed away in protest of the possibility that they won’t be paid after June 30. (Wall Street Journal, 5/3/2016)

Why are Detroit teachers striking? Why, it is for the children!

Question That We Wish We Had Asked!

After 87 months of Obama, why are young liberals asking for ‘change’? 
(Headline, Daniel Henninger, Wall Street Journal, April 20, 2016)

From the article:

The 2015 federal budget spent about $3.8 trillion, or 21% of the U.S. economy. Year in and year out, that $3 trillion to $4 trillion underwrites programs.

As listed at federalsafetynet.com, the programs delivering welfare include: the negative income tax, SNAP (supplemental nutrition), housing assistance, SSI, Pell Grants, TANF (temporary assistance for needy families), child nutrition, Head Start, job training programs, WIC (food for women and children), child care and Liheap (energy subsidies).

Entitlement programs include Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment insurance and the Affordable Care Act.

...

Why are 25-year-old liberals crying out for “change,” if you are spending $4 trillion every year on all this stuff? There’s hardly anything significant left to deliver, other than results, so maybe something is wrong with the delivery system.

The Liberal class rails endlessly about "corporate welfare" by which they mean tax breaks to businesses. At least corporations create jobs and produce goods and services that people want. Whether or not their needs are legitimate, the people receiving handouts of your money from the government produce nothing. But dare to raise these issues? You are a hater, a racist, a bigot. You are greedy or materialistic. 

Liberals deride the earners and extol the takers. 

Liberals can always find new ways to spend your money. 

In America Today

In America today you can lose your job for suggesting that men should use the men's bathroom and women should use the women's bathroom. Apparently, to use the bathroom of your choice all that is required is that you "identify" as belonging to a particular sex. 

Whatever that means. 

Anatomy no longer matters. 

Likewise, you can "identify" as belonging to another race. 

Skin color no longer matters. 

So today RedStateVT suggests pushing the boundaries even further to make all your dreams come true. Always wanted to be a doctor, but did not want to put in the time? Identify as a doctor! Dream of defending the victims of social injustice in court? Lucky for you, a law degree is no longer required. In America today, all you have to do is to "identify" as that to which you aspire. Nothing can stop you now.  

Why we are even thinking of heading to Washington D.C. We are going to "identify" as a member of Congress, a Supreme Court justice, or maybe even as the President of the United States.  

Watch them try to stop us!

It's Over, (for) America

A federal appeals court in Richmond has ruled that a transgender high school student who was born as a female can sue his school board on discrimination grounds because it banned him from the boys’ bathroom.

In backing high school junior Gavin Grimm, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit deferred to the U.S. Education Department’s position that transgender students should have access to the bathrooms that match their gender identities rather than being forced to use bathrooms that match their biological sex. (Washington Post, 4/19/2016)


Do you want to get ahead in America? Of course you do, but you are going about it the wrong way. Hard work, dedication, perseverance? Sorry, these things don't cut it anymore. If you really truly want to get ahead, the answer is simple: declare yourself a victim. People will rush to defend you. Politicians will extol your struggle. The media will come running. Doors will open. 

Even better, the bar for victimhood is pretty low. Anyone can be a victim. Did a cop ever stop you for forgetting to put on your turn signal? You are a victim! Ever been laughed at by anyone for anything? Victim! Do you have a mental disorder? Are you a member of ANY group that might be classified as a minority? Have you been denied access to the bathrooms of the opposite sex? Victim! Victim! Victim!

This is what America has come to. President Obama goes to the penitentiary and consoles criminals. Black Lives Matters objects to the incarceration of crack dealers that were destroying black communities. Bernie Sanders runs a national campaign based entirely on victimhood. And Donald Trump is called a racist because he believes that illegal aliens are illegal. Sorry Donald, in today's America they are victims. 

Weep for America.

The Failures of Liberalism

Never have the failures of Liberalism been more apparent and never have Liberals been more oblivious. 

Pick an issue, any issue:

Yesterday a Russian war plane threatened a U.S. navy ship. This after Obama and Democrat presidential front runner Hillary Clinton confidently announced a "Russian Reset." Which meant the following: the opposite of whatever George Bush did. Apparently Putin believed the reset meant he could humiliate America at will. Think also: Crimea. It was President Obama who smugly chided Mitt Romney that "the 70s wants its foreign policy back." Maybe someday a journalist will ask Obama if his policy toward Russia was a mistake. But don't count on the question being asked or Obama coughing this one up.  

Obama and his political sycophants passed a sweeping reform of the U.S. health care system promising that 1) you could keep your health care plan and 2) health care premiums for the average family would decrease by $2500. Of course, you could not keep your health care plan and, of course, premiums went up. They continue to go up unchecked. Given that track record alone Obama should now be back in Chicago tending his garden and collecting a high six figure salary serving on the board of a "non-profit." But one of the defining characteristics of Liberalism is that there is never accountability for failure. Never. 

There is no area touched by Liberals that is not made worse. In places where Liberals rule unchecked, the disasters are unmitigated. Speaking of Chicago - Obama's adopted hometown - Liberal policies there have resulted in unrelenting black-on-black violence rivaling ethnic tribal warfare in Africa. The school system run by union toadies is beyond dysfunctional. And public sector pensions have brought the city close to bankruptcy. 

But because Liberalism has co-opted the American media there is no accountability. 

The Democrat Party is Now Governed by Black Lives Matter

Alternate Title: The Pain of Bill Clinton

“You are defending the people who kill the lives you say matter. Tell the truth.” (former President William Jefferson Clinton shouting down Black Lives Matter protesters)


It is hard to feel sorry for Bill Clinton. But just for a moment, feel sorry for him. The Democrat Party is no longer his party. His signature achievements, NAFTA, welfare reform, anti-crime legislation, have all been repudiated by his successors. Heck, they have even been repudiated by his very own wife! No, it is not his party. Instead it is the party of Barack Obama, of Elizabeth Warren, of Bernie Sanders. But even more, it is the party of Al Sharpton and Black Lives Matter. 

The media has been obsessed with the story of the supposed disintegration of the Republican Party because of Donald Trump. But Trump is a faux Republican who could just as easily run as a Democrat. If Trump is not elected he will fade from politics and never ever have anything to do with either Republicans or politics again other than to make political contributions to whichever legislators hold sway over his real estate dealings. The Republican Party will mend, albeit with a stronger conservative bent. 

The Democrat Party has a bigger problem which is currently being ignored. The Sanders/Warren/Black Lives Matter wing of the Democrat Party represents an enormous existential threat. It is giving the Clintons, Bill and Hillary, heartache in a process that was supposed to be a spring training tune-up for a run against the Republican challenger. Somewhere along the way, however, things went awry. Fueled, no doubt, by Obama's tepid support for Hillary and his visceral hatred of Bill, an opening appeared. Obama probably never envisioned Bernie Sanders being the one to fill it. His choice was probably more along the lines of Joe Biden. Instead he got Sanders. Notwithstanding, the new Democrat axis has its own issues. Sanders is an aging socialist who favors massive new entitlement programs, the funding of which will hit the balance sheet of every American above the poverty line. Warren's demagoguery on Wall Street is undercut by her fabricated personal history and her Harvard Law elitism. And Black Lives Matter? Sorry, but there is simply too much video of BLM protesters shouting for dead cops. Yet this is who Democrats are aligning with. 

Yes Hillary will likely still get the nomination and has a good chance of being president. But she will not be taking her orders from Bill Clinton. Instead, she will be getting her marching orders from Black Lives Matter. 

The Most Dangerous Man in America

A dark cloud is gathering over America. Fueled by the rhetoric of one man, a dangerous horde has awakened. The malcontents, the lazy, the grievance-mongers and conspiracy theorists have emerged to express their collective discontent with their station in life and with a country they believe has not done enough FOR them. The man responsible is Bernie Sanders. The Sanders worldview is now infecting the American social discourse like a penicillin-resistant STD. 

Among the tenets of Sandersism are the following:

• Capital is static. If someone has a dollar, it is a dollar that you don't have. That is unfair.

• The Protocols of the Elders of Capitalism rule. They keep the average man from success.

• Despite having spent hundreds of billions of dollars on social welfare programs, America is a cruel country that has not done enough to help people.

• It is all a giant conspiracy being led by the oil companies, the insurance companies, the banks, and the pharmaceutical companies.

• Also part of the conspiracy: a group known as the billionaires. (With apparent exceptions for billionaires who give to Liberal causes.)

What Bernie Sanders has done is to empower people. But not to work harder. He empowers them to complain. He empowers them to envy others. He empowers them to blame everyone but themselves. Unfortunately, it is not just aging hippies from the 60s and other assorted bitter-clingers that Sanders speaks to. In addition, there is a new generation of clueless college students currently undergoing indoctrination by their professors who think Sanders has it right. And so this new generation will turn John F. Kennedy's words upside down and demand to know: What can America do for them.

For this, Sanders is to blame.

Let's Talk Trump

First a disclaimer: RedStateVT has - to date - not endorsed any Republican candidate for president. Our preferred candidate, former Vice President Dick Cheney, decided against running, no doubt due to health problems. So now let's take a look at the current front-runner, Donald Trump.

Here are a few things that give people - Republicans and Democrats alike - pause about Trump.

• First, he may not even be a real Republican. He used to be a Democrat, has given money to Democrats and has held policy positions that Democrats hold.
• Second, Trump says some seemingly outrageous things. Witness the uproar over his comments about immigration and abortion.
• Third, Trump has never held political office before.

Wow! With baggage like that one would think that Trump would have long ago (think Rick Perry) have fallen by the wayside and now be planning his next reality TV show. But - somehow - Trump has convinced MILLIONS of people to vote for him. We will opine in a minute on how that is likely to have happened, but first let's examine the items enumerated above: the reasons why Trump should NOT be where he is today.

Yes, it's true that Trump does not have that Republican feel about him. Neither the Republican-lite of a John McCain nor the Republican- noir of a Ted Cruz. Why it sort of reminds us of another candidate garnering millions of votes who - for his entire decades-long career - has eschewed the label of the party for which he is now running. Who could this be? If you said Comrade Bernie Sanders you would be correct! Sanders has labeled himself an Independent for as long as one can remember. Now he is running as a Democrat. The state-controlled media never questions him about this anomaly. So Trump's party affiliation apparently should not bother us any more than that of Sanders.

The Donald certainly gets a lot of attention whenever he speaks. His most outrageous comments were - apparently - on the subject of immigration. Trump dared to say - in the aftermath of a mass murder attack by Muslims - that maybe the country should reconsider its policy on Muslim immigration. For this apostasy, he was labeled a bigot and a hater. Apparently, suggesting that a country that had allowed the entry of 1.5 million Muslims since 9/11 and had seen an influx of tens of millions of Mexicans hit the pause button offended the Liberal elites. Of course, the record shows that Hillary Clinton once had a more aggressive position on immigration. Sorry, but rational minds (e.g. not Liberals) could hardly call Trump's comments controversial.

Finally, there is the question of Trump's experience. The only thing that Trump has been able to accomplish in his adult life is to grow his family fortune to north of a billion dollars. How did that happen? Meanwhile, Barack Obama rode to the presidency on a resume that includes the following: his brown skin, his experience as a community organizer and his abbreviated political career in which - when face with difficult decisions - he voted "present." No, previous political experience no longer matters. 

Trump's success is based on reading the political mood of the country. Namely, mass immigration, coupled with foreign policy appeasement is destroying America. Bill Clinton's advisers sold a deeply flawed candidate to the country with the tag line: It's the economy, stupid. Trump's tag line is: Make America Great Again. After almost eight years of Barack Obama, that sounds about right. 

March 25, 2016 -- RedStateVT Headline of the Day

Carpet Bombing: Perhaps a Good Idea After All

March 23, 2016 -- RedStateVT Headlines of the Day

Religion of Peace Claims New Victims


Obama Parties in Argentina, World Burns

March 21, 2016 -- RedStateVT Headline of the Day

Obama Visits Cuba, Castro Wins

It's Illegal Immigration, Stupid!

Convicted
Her conviction would be critical in persuading Mr. Obama to join allies in bombing Colonel Qaddafi’s forces. In fact, Mr. Obama’s defense secretary, Robert M. Gates, would later say that in a “51-49” decision, it was Mrs. Clinton’s support that put the ambivalent president over the line.

The consequences would be more far-reaching than anyone imagined, leaving Libya a failed state and a terrorist haven, a place where the direst answers to Mrs. Clinton’s questions have come to pass. (New York Times, 2/28/2016)

So even the New York Times believes that Hillary Clinton made a massive strategic mistake with respect to Libya. Wait a minute! Didn't they endorse her for president?

You can bet your last nickel that when she goes up against Republican nominee Donald Trump the Times will talk about her foreign policy expertise and his lack thereof. 

When Liberals Fight

In an unusually public flare-up, one of MSNBC’s television personalities clashed with the network on Friday in a dispute about airtime and editorial freedom and said she was refusing to host the show that bears her name this weekend.

The host, Melissa Harris-Perry, wrote in an email to co-workers this week that her show had effectively been taken away from her and that she felt “worthless” in the eyes of NBC News executives, who are restructuring MSNBC. (New York Times, 2/27/2016)

No doubt the four people who watched Harris-Perry's show will be devastated.

First MSNBC ditches Sergeant Ed Schultz, then the Right Rev. Al Sharpton and now "Professor" Harris-Perry. The network grapples with an existential problem: what to do when no one watches. 

Pander Game

The Democratic candidates don’t want to be seen as “pandering” in South Carolina. (New York Times, 2/27/2016)

Well, Dems may not want to be "seen" as pandering to blacks, but that is exactly what they do.