Ideas versus Identity

Who are you?  Simple question, but how would you respond?  Today you are expected to adopt a view of yourself based on physical, gender, racial or sexual attribute – not your individual ideas.  The political class and the media drive you to “identity” politics in an effort to control your behavior and confine your vote.  To make you an automaton to an ideology that keeps politicians and the special interests that feed off government in perpetual power.

Two weeks ago we heard from five astute college students from five prominent California universities at the Collegiate Forum at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library.  In this panel discussion this issue of our ideas being relegated to our person was brought to light.

We are now in a state that assumes a way of thinking based on our external identity and demands - or suffer the repercussions - adherence to a political dogma.  There is sort of mob-mentality to govern our thoughts and actions, which essentially replace individuality.  This is dangerous for our country and the antithesis to a democracy.  It is contrary to our founding and can, in time, extinguish the freedom which we now celebrate.

Join the discussion.  Check-out the panelists’ thoughts on identity vs. ideas in the video of the Collegiate Forum below.

There Is Hope

Last week we launched the Collegiate Forum where we brought together five outstanding students from five notable California colleges.  Over 200 hundred people listened intently to the student panelists debate, discuss and reason the resolution: Is political correctness on college campuses an enemy of free speech?  There was no shouting, name calling, or trigger warnings. It was old fashion politeness with thoughtful and fact based debate of ideas.

The calm of the debate at the Nixon Library between students from UC Berkley, Occidental, Pomona, Chapman and Stanford was refreshing.  Without the shrill noise of protest, we could hear another side.  We might not agree at the end, but we had a chance to understand the opposing view and, in that process, become enlightened with better ideas for solutions.

This Collegiate Forum is the first of many that can be brought to Millennials and Baby Boomers.  That evening, we left with hope that the next generation is not lost to mean spirited confrontation but open to challenging ideas that can be a spring-board to responsible citizenship.

Look for the video of the panel discussion on our website www.usvigilance.com or the Nixon Foundation website www.nixonfoundation.org coming soon!

Freedom to Exchange Ideas

Student on-campus protests are nothing new.  What has changed is what is protested.  In the 1960s it was freedom TO speak and today it is freedom FROM speech.

The only free speech is unrestricted speech so that ideas can clash.  Challenging ideas leads to better ideas...silencing opposition leads to stagnation, and uniformity of political ideas is tyranny.

If a speaker is invited to campus to talk about why communism is the way of governments of the future, and economic success, then his presence on campus would be better served engaging in challenging debate with students versus campus protest.

Protest is fine to show numbers, but it is a one-way shouting of slogans and not a two way dialogue of ideas.

Join us this Thursday, April 14th at 7pm PT for the Collegiate Forum at the Nixon Library to discuss “Is political correctness on college campuses an enemy of free speech.”

Click here for more information and to register for this free event.

The Audacity of Arrogance

President Obama can seemingly operate with a complete severance from reality, which some have argued stems from a position of arrogance.  For example, Mr. Obama refuses to recognize the nature of terrorism based in Islamic extremists.

In a recent event, first reported by the Media Research Center (a conservative-leaning watchdog group) the words “Islamist terrorism” were omitted on both audio and written transcript in an official White House video.  These words were spoken by French President Francois Hollande this week at an international summit in Washington on nuclear security that also discussed global terrorism.

The White House blamed this omission (from the full excerpt given below) on a “technical issue”, that is, when the omission was noticed.

“We are also making sure that between Europe and the United States there can be a very high level coordination. But we’re also well aware that the roots of terrorism, Islamist terrorism, [emphasis added] is in Syria and in Iraq. We therefore have to act both in Syria and in Iraq, and this is what we’re doing within the framework of the coalition. …”

Similar to the Ft. Hood shooting, that Obama declared was work-place violence, Islamic terrorism has no place in the president’s reality.  For our president, arrogance is “truth”.  Arrogance trumpets louder than facts.  Arrogance throws an impenetrable veil over the lessons of history.  Arrogance is blind to the outcome of events that contradicts its notion of what reality should be.

Barak Obama is a man who apparently sees himself extraordinarily possessed with superior intelligence and morality, so much so, that he is content to lie to the nation.  Whether it was the Affordable Care Act where you could keep your healthcare plan but could not, Iran nuclear deal that was not to permit Iran to have a nuclear infrastructure but did, Benghazi where it was an Internet video that was the cause of the deaths of four Americans but did not, the success of Yemen that was a failure, the Red Line in Syria that was a bluff, ISIS as jayvee but was not, or where he told us 20 times that he had no constitutional power to change immigration law then did.  You name it, Obama’s view of the American people is that, in the words of Jack Nicholson playing Col. Nathan R. Jessep in the movie A Few Good Men, “You can’t handle the truth”.

The truth is a weight that only Obama can bear as he incessantly lectures us.  For Obama knows that everything he has done will be right – given unlimited time and money.

The Collegiate Forum at the Nixon Library – Is political correctness on college campuses an enemy of free speech?

US Vigilance in conjunction with the Nixon Foundation is looking to rekindle political debate; to have a forum where we can once again embrace disagreement.

Political discourse was what founded the nation and created the Constitution.  That which was so pertinent to the birth and early years of our nation has ceased to exist today – at least in the same capacity.  The American public has become so divided by political parties and the media that dialogue has been stifled and is in danger of being completely silenced.

On the Right, the dialogue is brought to a halt before it has even begun because of the assumed disagreement.  The Left is no different other than in the means in which they defeat debate; they label you as a sexist, bigot, racist, etc. – you must conform or be silenced.

Let’s not allow honest debate to die with us.  The first Collegiate Forum, held on April 14th at 7pm PT at the Nixon Library is a step in encouraging open debate.  The Forum brings together five outstanding college students from five top colleges across California to discuss political correctness on college campuses and how this affects free speech.

The event is moderated by Elisha Krauss, co-host with Ben Shapiro, on the nationally syndicated radio show “The Morning Answer”.  Come join us and the students from Stanford, Chapman University, Pomona College, Occidental College, and UC Berkley.  Just click the link below to learn more and register for this free event.

Collegiate Forum: Is politicalcorrectness an enemy of free speech?

The Revolution Has Begun – Viva La Revolution

Voters are far more than angry . . . they are oppressed!  They are in revolt!  And the manifestation is Mr. Trump.  The oppression is the iron boot of political correctness that is on their throats, and the revolt is against the “Compassionate Slavery” of the welfare state that confiscates too much of the tax payers’ earnings.

Too many don’t want Obamacare.  Too many don’t believe in the politics of global warming.  Too many see government as a punisher, not a protector.  Too many have witnessed failed policies with no repercussion to those that have failed us.  Too many don’t trust the government.  And too many see the media as biased brokers of the politicians they serve.

Unfortunately, in this election cycle, more so than any other in modern time, too many people are disgusted with the choices of either party – with liars, loons and loud mouths.  I asked a man who he would vote for if he had to choose between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump.  He lamented that it was a choice between a liar and a bigot, but he would vote for the liar because he said he could not bring himself to vote for a bigot.

As we write in Vigilance The Price of Liberty, “Government has become too large to sustain, and too opaque to be accountable, which diminishes its ability to do the public good.” This is the state we find ourselves in, and the only way to make government responsive and well managed is for us to get involved and demand better.

Recipe for Prosperity

Free men, free markets, with a dash of government produces prosperity.  This recipe has been proven throughout history.  We have written about this very subject in our book, Vigilance The Price of Liberty, by analyzing the presidencies of Reagan, Clinton, Bush and Obama to compare the state of the union, their policies and the economic outcome of each.  When government has a light hand then free people can and will do amazing things to advance our nation and the world.

In light of Mrs. Reagan’s passing this past week, it seems fitting to remind ourselves of the words of her husband delivered at his first Inaugural Address, Jan. 20, 1981:

We are a nation that has a government—not the other way around. And this makes us special among the nations of the Earth. Our government has no power except that granted it by the people. It is time to check and reverse the growth of government, which shows signs of having grown beyond the consent of the governed. 

It is my intention to curb the size and influence of the Federal establishment and to demand recognition of the distinction between the powers granted to the Federal Government and those reserved to the States or to the people. All of us need to be reminded that the Federal Government did not create the States; the States created the Federal Government. 

Now, so there will be no misunderstanding, it’s not my intention to do away with government. It is rather to make it work—work with us, not over us; to stand by our side, not ride on our back. Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it; foster productivity, not stifle it. 

If we look to the answer as to why for so many years we achieved so much, prospered as no other people on Earth, it was because here in this land we unleashed the energy and individual genius of man to a greater extent than has ever been done before. Freedom and the dignity of the individual have been more available and assured here than in any other place on Earth. The price for this freedom at times has been high, but we have never been unwilling to pay that price. 

It is no coincidence that our present troubles parallel and are proportionate to the intervention and intrusion in our lives that result from unnecessary and excessive growth of government [emphasis added]. It is time for us to realize that we’re too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams. We’re not, as some would have us believe, doomed to an inevitable decline. I do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing. So, with all the creative energy at our command, let us begin an era of national renewal. Let us renew our determination, our courage, and our strength. And let us renew our faith and our hope.