Stop Whining, France's Election, Fighting Over Flynn

Gary Bauer

by Gary Bauer, Contributing Author: Stop Whining! Hillary Clinton continues to get attention by blaming James Comey and Russia for her loss. But most voters aren't buying her excuses. A recent Rasmussen poll found that only 39% of likely voters blame outside influences for her defeat.

It turns out that even former Clinton aides aren't buying it. Jen Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman under then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, rejected Clinton's suggestion that she would have won if the election had been held on October 27th.

Psaki told CNN yesterday, "We don't really know that. . . I've watched a lot of focus groups and looked at a lot of polling and the perception of her was baked into the cake for about ten years."

From Hillary's loss to Obamacare's unpopularity, progressives just can't seem to come to grips with reality.

Do you recall Dr. Jonathan Gruber? He's often cited as being the "architect of Obamacare." Gruber once said that the "stupidity of the American voter" helped to pass Obamacare.

Well, he must think we're REALLY stupid because Gruber is blaming Donald Trump for Obamacare's failures.

On Fox News Sunday, Dr. Gruber said, "Look, and who's fault is this? Before President Trump was elected there were no counties in America that did not have an insurer." For the record, Obamacare was imploding well before Trump was elected. (Here, here and here.)

About Those Marches. . .  A University of Maryland sociologist has been studying the "resistance" marches in Washington and the people who participate in them. A Washington Post story on the research cheers the initial findings which suggest that "the resistance isn't slowing down."

But here are some interesting results about the "resistance."

• The marches are made up overwhelmingly of left-wing activists. As many as 90% of march participants voted for Hillary Clinton. More than 90% of participants at the Women's March described their political views as "slightly" to "very" left-wing.
• 53% of Women's March participants had graduate or professional degrees. No surprise there. Our educational system has become a massive indoctrination machine. The more time you spend in the indoctrination camp, the more left-wing you become.
• 70% of the participants at the Climate March "were return protestors from the Women's March." In other words, it's the same people showing up for whatever anti-Trump event just happens to be taking place, hardly a growing groundswell of opposition.

France's Anti-Establishment Election - French voters went to the polls yesterday and elected a new president, Emmanuel Macron. While pundits and globalists are celebrating Macron's election, what struck me is that Marine Le Pen's National Front party is now the number two party in France. In fact, both of France's mainstream political parties were defeated in the initial round of voting last month.

It is also striking that France's new president hails from an entirely new party. It will be interesting to see how Macron reacts to the next inevitable terrorist attack.

Meanwhile, many correspondents were surprised when Macron emerged to celebrate his victory at the famous Louvre Museum. He did not walk out to the stirring notes of La Marseillaise, the French national anthem. Instead, he emerged to the anthem of the European Union.

Surely, feminists in America and around the world must be furious by the results in France, just as they were when Hillary Clinton failed to break the glass ceiling here. Clearly, Marine Le Pen lost because of the misogyny of French voters who chose a man who has never run anything over a woman who has been in public life for years.

Of course, I am being sarcastic. Not once did a liberal commentator say that France had a chance to make history by electing its first female president. Not once did any talking head bemoan the possibility that misogyny might cause France to be stuck with another white man as president. The reason you didn't hear that is because the left has limits to its identity politics.

If the left truly cared about the advancement of black Americans, it would have supported Clarence Thomas or Ben Carson. If the left truly cared about the advancement of women in politics, it would have supported Sarah Palin, Carly Fiorina or Marine Le Pen. If the left truly cared about gays and lesbians getting more exposure, it would have championed Milo Yiannopoulos.

My point is that while the left constantly plays identity politics -- dividing Americans by race, sex, class and anything else it can think of -- ultimately it only cares about ideology. Identity politics serves only one purpose -- to help the left gain power by attracting some people who might not otherwise embrace the left's radical agenda.

Trump Order Back In Court - The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Richmond, Virginia, heard arguments this afternoon on President Trump's executive order limiting immigration from a handful of Islamic nations. The left has denounced the order as a "Muslim ban," but those countries were chosen because the Obama Administration labeled them "countries of particular concern" due to the prevalence of radical jihadist groups in each nation.

A new report from NBC News explains why President Trump's order is necessary. Just consider the headline: "ISIS Infiltrates the Rukban Refugee Camp at Jordan-Syria Border."

According to one Jordanian military official, "up to five percent of [the refugee camp's] residents -- about 4,000 people -- may be militants."

Fighting Over Flynn - A Senate Judiciary subcommittee heard testimony this afternoon from former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates regarding her knowledge of Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn's relationship with Russia. Over the weekend, Obama aides were setting the stage for this hearing by selectively leaking information in a way that promoted their "Russian interference" narrative and delegitimized the election of Donald Trump.

For example, not only did Yates previously say that she warned the Trump White House about Flynn, but sources close to Obama said that in a meeting with Trump after the election the former president himself also warned Trump against having Flynn in the administration.

There's only one problem. As you will recall, Gen. Flynn worked for the Obama Administration as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency from 2012 to 2014. It was the Obama Administration that allowed Flynn to fly to Moscow to give a paid speech in December 2015. And it was the Obama Administration that reauthorized his security clearance after the speech.

As for President Trump ignoring Obama's advice, Flynn was a vocal critic of Obama, so the outgoing president certainly had an ax to grind. I think President Trump can be excused for beginning his presidency by not taking Obama's advice. Moreover, Flynn worked for the Trump Administration for all of 24 days until he lost the president's confidence by misleading Vice President Pence.

How is Michael Flynn an indictment of the Trump Administration when the great bulk of his work for the White House occurred under Barack Obama?
-------------------
Gary Bauer is a conservative family values advocate and serves as president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families

---

Tags: Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working Families, Stop Whining, France's Election, Fighting Over Flynn To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!