Some Supportive News For The Temporary Relief of Our National Migraine

Charles Barkley reportedly made the following observations about politicians, their motives, and our system: “I think most white people and black people are great, awesome people,” said Barkley. “I really believe that in my heart.  But I think our system is set up for our politicians, whether they are Republicans or Democrats, to make us not like each other, so they can keep their grasp on money and power. Politicians divide and conquer.”  Barkley feels that modern politicians are “sowing the seeds of division among the people.”  Regardless of where you fall along the political spectrum, his thoughts have merit. Too many of our elected leaders seem to have lost touch with the wishes and desire of their electorate, in favor of positions and actions that secure their own power and control; positions that strictly toe the party line, rather than what’s best for their constituents, and, importantly, for our nation.

Continuing with the theme of divisive politics, Bishop Aubrey Shines, pastor of G2G Ministries of Tampa Bay, FL, and founder of Conservative Clergy of Color, responded to the Georgia election laws debate recently via a Sirius XM interview. Commented Bishop Shines: “The biggest conundrum they (leftists) are trying to use is that the voter-ID requirements are racially discriminatory against black or brown people.  Black and brown people, like white people, already have ID’s.  Seventy-two percent of everyone that we polled – black and brown – they actually find it offensive for any white liberal to assume that they don’t have the wherewithal – mentally – to ascertain some form of ID.”  And regarding the factually unsupportable charge that American is “systemically racist,” the Bishop had, in part, the following response: “How is it that America is systemically racist when hundreds of thousands of black men spilled their blood along with white men on the soil to make sure that we lived the creed we were founded upon?”  Our thanks to Bishop Shines for breaking through the gutter clutter and ‘shining’ a trueful light on the reality that has been so effectively stolen from us by those who are attempting to instill serious harm within our society and our nation.

Also defending the Georgia voting reforms, a group of conservative Black leaders, to include Dr. Alveda King, former GA state representative Vernon Jones, and COL (ret) Allen West.  Wrote the group to the Democrat-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee, in part: “Critics of the law have substituted passion for reason, hysteria for judgment.  They have launched a despicable smear campaign against supporters of the law and economic reprisals against the state of Georgia, punishing the very people they claim to champion.  They have tarred with the brush of racism people whose only sin is a desire for confidence in our elections.” What a blessing it is to have clear thinking, forthright, educated voices, conservative or otherwise, supporting the goal of election integrity.

Rounding out the challenges and rebuttals to the Senate Committee that chose to actually hold a hearing on Georgia’s new election law, and by so doing telegraphing their collective objection to it up front, Representative Burgess Owens (R-Utah) spoke eloquently before that committee. His testimony, in part: “As someone who has actually experienced Jim Crow laws, I’d like to set the record straight.  Any comparison between this (GA) law and Jim Crow is absolutely outrageous.  What I find extremely offensive is the narrative from the left that Black people are not smart enough, not educated enough, not desirous enough of education to do what every other culture and race does in this country: Get an ID.”  Owens continued: “True racism is this: this projection of the Democratic Party on my proud race.  It’s called the soft bigotry of low expectations.”  For the record, Representative Owens told the committee that 97% of Georgia voters already haver ID (recalling that acceptable ID’s under the new law come in many readily attainable forms).  Thanks to Burgess Owens for adding his authoritative voice, facts, and logic to this unnecessarily divisive issue.  Made divisive by those apparently not as interested in future voter integrity as the rest of us.

And some unexpected, comforting, positive comments from the left side. Liberal commentator Bill Maher spoke about the insane pace at which the federal government is now spending money, with plans to apparently expend even more. Said he, in part, about the nation’s economy: “The Roaring 20’s became the broke-ass 30’s.  And looking at the economic factors right now, it feels like we’re back in that headspace and that we’ll never run out of cash as long as the fed doesn’t run out of ink. The way we’re handing out money, you’d think it had an expiration date on it.” And on the subject of police defunding, Maher again, perhaps surprisingly, rejected liberal thinking, substituting, instead, a basic conservative principle. Referring to Representative Tlaib’s recent outer-space call for both no police and no prisons (!), Maher responded: “She’s calling for ‘no more policing’ or ‘incarceration,’ (so) the criminals will (then) be on the honor system?  I mean, I thought defund the police was a terrible slogan, but no police?  I mean, I’ve done many editorials on this. The Democrat’s Achilles’ Heel (is) common sense, common sense.  You strike people as not having any common sense when you say things like that.”  As mentioned, very unexpected to hear these thoughts from dedicated liberal Bill Maher, but, oh, so, welcome.  It’s just possible that the ultra-left is now taking too many verbal and action steps off the earth’s surface.  We can hope.  Stepping repeatedly on the sharp end of a rake will always leave a mark.

And to further reinforce, in a First Quarter poll conducted by Civic Science, questioning almost 332,000 Americans, the cumulative results showed that “48% of Americans do not trust any media sources to deliver them unbiased news.” That figure is both staggering, and shameful for media. And that distrust problem continues to grow, as most of the national media continue to stick their, ah, microphones ever deeper into the sand. “Nearly 60% of adults claim to be ‘very concerned’ by misinformation in U.S. news media.” Breaking that down politically, 82% of conservatives are ‘very concerned,” while 49% of liberals feel that same way.  Sadly, and to our disservice, American now seems to have far too many print/electronic/social media “news” outlets that function more as information censors, or information marketers, than what the nation so badly needs: a return to truth-telling traditional journalism.

(Barkley quote via breitbart.com, Dylan Gwinn, 4-3-21; Bishop Shines quotes via breitbart.com, Robert Kraychik, 3-15-21; Conservative Black leaders quote via foxnews.com, Cortney O’Brien, 4-20-21; Owens quotes via foxnews.com, Ronn Blitzer, 4-20-21; Maher spending quote via dailycaller.com, Scott Morefield, 3-27-21; Maher ‘no policing’ quote via breitbart.com, Ian Hanchett, 4-16-21;  Media trust poll stats via dailycaller.com, Michael Ginsberg, 4-8-21).