DACA & The Left, Blue-Slip Battle, Left-wing Extremism

by Gary Bauer, Contributing Author:  DACA & The Left -  Yesterday, as you know, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Trump Administration was restoring the rule of law and winding down Barack Obama's unconstitutional DACA amnesty for illegal immigrants who were brought into the country by their parents. Predictably, the left howled with outrage. I want to take a moment to revisit some facts and point out the rhetorical manipulation of the left and its media allies.

Let's be absolutely clear: This is not Donald Trump's fault. A Democrat Congress failed to pass the so-called "Dream Act" in 2010. President Obama then responded with executive orders that the courts struck down as illegal abuses of his authority. Even many liberals have acknowledged this.

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) admitted that DACA was on "shaky" legal ground. Left-wing law professor Jonathan Turley said Obama abused his authority to circumvent Congress. And Sen. Lindsey Graham, who generally supports amnesty, said, Trump "was right to terminate DACA."

Are you hearing any of that on the evening news?

Here's another fact: These 800,000 "children" are often young adults. DACA applied to people between the ages of 15 and 31. Among other things, DACA provided multi-year work permits. In other words, it allowed illegal immigrants to get jobs American citizens might otherwise have.

But because of cleverly named legislation in Congress, they are all "Dreamers." Well, all kids have dreams, including children who don't get much attention -- those born here to U.S. citizens. Their dreams are often squashed because their overworked parents find that their taxes keep them from getting ahead.

Of course, many "Dreamers" are noble individuals. Some are not. More than 2,000 lost their DACA status due to criminal activity.

But all of the left's rhetoric is intended to create emotionalism in order to trump the rule of law.

Another argument the left raises appeals to our sense of fairness. "These kids didn't break the law, their parents did. We don't hold children responsible for their parents," progressives say. Oh, but they do.

They are holding an entire generation responsible for the sins of their grandparents and great grandparents, especially if they happened to live in a Southern state. Those kids are routinely told that they are benefitting from white privilege, and they must make amends for that "original sin."

Speaking of which, Cristina Jimenez of United We Dream demanded Congress immediately grant amnesty to the dreamers and "without any racist gimmicks" like a border wall or restrictions on sanctuary cities. So commonsense measures to promote border security are now gimmicks and examples of "white supremacism."

One last observation: Don't forget that the left told us last year that Trump supporters were "irredeemable and deplorable." So illegal immigrants who were brought into the country are "Dreamers," but American citizens who are conservatives are "deplorable."

It's good to know where you stand with the left.

Blue-Slip Battle -  Restoring balance to the judiciary is a critically important issue to men and women of faith. In fact, one of the main reasons why millions of values voters supported Donald Trump last year was because they did not want Hillary Clinton replacing Justice Antonin Scalia, thereby tipping the balance on the Supreme Court and cementing the left's stranglehold over our federal courts. The courts are the primary battlefield of today's culture war.

Thanks to former Senate Democrat Leader Harry Reid, the filibuster is no longer a mortal threat to judicial nominations. However, the left isn't giving up without a fight.

Senator Al Franken (D-MN) announced yesterday that he was blocking President Trump's nomination of Minnesota Supreme Court Justice David Stras to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals. While Franken can't filibuster, he is refusing to return his "blue-slip."

The "blue-slip" is not a formal rule of the Senate. It is merely one of the Senate's traditions that allows senators some influence on judges nominated from their states. Refusing to return the "blue-slip" is like an informal filibuster that has been used in the past to defeat judicial nominations.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his Republican colleagues are going to have to decide what they care about more: Senate traditions or restoring balance to our courts. Ultimately, these blue-slip battles may decide who prevails in America's culture war, whether religious liberty and our Second Amendment rights are preserved or lost. That is not a close call.

Left-wing Extremism -  The world reacted in horror over the weekend as the Stalinist regime in North Korea announced that it had tested a hydrogen bomb. But two radical groups connected to Antifa are expressing their solidarity with North Korea and its brutal dictator.

The Marxist Workers World Party published a column entitled "Korea Won't Be Intimidated" -- as if we are the ones bullying Kim Jong-un. Resist Fascism issued a statement in July condemning America's "playbook of demonization" and urging its followers to "Stop thinking like an American."

"Demonization" is what the left does best! And I suspect that most "Resist Fascism" supporters stopped thinking like Americans a long time ago!

Here's another example of the left's extremism. Sometime this past weekend, a banner was put up on an overpass in Albany, New York. It read, "More Dead Cops" and included a large "A" inside a circle -- the symbol of the radical left-wing group Antifa.

Members of the community were outraged. "It's an absolute horror," Jonathan Falk told local media. "We're talking about people who put their lives on the line every day for strangers for not a lot of money, and they're getting so disrespected. It's terrible."

Terrible and disgusting, but not surprising. "Cops and the Klan go hand in hand" has been a popular chant at previous Antifa demonstrations.

Meanwhile in the Bronx, dozens of New York City police officers showed up at the Tuozzolo home yesterday morning. They were there to honor Sgt. Paul Tuozzolo, who was killed last year in the line of duty, by walking his son Austin to his first day of school.

The Trump Administration or Stalinist North Korea. The thugs of Antifa or the men and women of the Thin Blue Line. This is a time of choosing, America. The progressive left and its political enablers are increasingly delusional and anti-American.
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Gary Bauer is a conservative family values advocate and serves as president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families

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