WEST VIRGINIA's PERPETUAL STRUGGLE

West Virginia Convention - Wheeling 1861

CONSTITUTING AMERICA'S SERIES ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT

The origins of West Virginia, its current challenges, and its political dynamics are all embodied in a unique case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1870.

In Virginia v. West Virginia, 78 U.S. 11 Wall. 39 39 (1870) 78 U.S. (11 Wall.) 39 two counties demanded to be reinstated into Virginia.  The Court ultimately prevented Berkeley and Jefferson Counties from returning to Virginia.  In the process, the Civil War and the battlefield origins of West Virginia were reviewed in detail.  Three Justices dissented, asserting that the birth of West Virginia was chaotic and violated the rights of local citizens in the Eastern Panhandle.

The three judge dissent reveals origins of the state’s current political tensions.  Citizens in the Eastern Panhandle continue to agitate against the highly centralized state government.

Virginian political leaders initiated a process to succeed from the Union in January 1861.  As a Commonwealth, Virginia gave deference to county representation.  Initially, the 152 delegates were solidly pro-Union.  However, old regional rivalries surfaced.

Delegates from the western counties of Virginia raised the issue of unequal political power with the eastern sections of the state.  This east-west divide had been simmering since the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829.  That State Constitution required a property qualification for voting. This disenfranchised many yeoman farmers in the more mountainous western counties. It also embraced counting slaves on a three-fifths basis for apportioning representation. Every county beyond the Alleghenies, except one, rejected the 1829 constitution, which still passed with overwhelming eastern support. The issue of regional inequality erupted again during the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1850-1851.  

On the morning of April 12, 1861, Confederate cannons opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. After the Fort’s surrender on April 13, President Lincoln issued a call for 75,000 volunteers to forcibly return the rebellious states to the Union.  This was enough for the succession proponents in the Virginia Convention to prevail on April 17, 1861.

A formal vote, by county, was scheduled for May 23, 1861. 

Successionists took matters into their own hands and attacked the Federal Arsenal in Harpers Ferry on the evening of April 18.

The Eastern Panhandle became the site for over 60 Civil War Battles.  Local communities descended into chaos as Union and Confederate armies competed for control of this critical north-south gateway.  Some towns changed hands dozens of times.   

Pro-Union forces in western Virginia formed a separate state in June 1861.  Former Virginia Governor, and Confederate General, Henry Wise reported that, “The Kanawha Valley is wholly traitorous…You cannot persuade these people that Virginia can or ever will reconquer the northwest.”

Early in the Civil War, Union forces solidified control of northern Virginia (Arlington, Alexandria, and Fairfax). President Lincoln and the U.S. Congress merged this Unionist beachhead with the western counties as the “free” state of Virginia. 

On August 20, 1861, Lincoln empowered this military-backed civilian entity to establishment the separate state of West Virginia from the pro-Union western counties that opted-out of the Succession Convention.

A “free” state convention met in Wheeling, November 26, 1861, and drafted the "Constitution of West Virginia". It designated forty-four counties, "formerly part of the State of Virginia," to be "included in and form part of the State of West Virginia." The Counties of Pendleton, Hardy, Hampshire, Morgan, Frederick, Berkeley, and Jefferson were not named as part of the state.

The new West Virginia constitution left open the possibility of adding additional counties:

“if a majority of the votes cast at the election or elections held as provided in the schedule hereof, in the district composed of the Counties of Pendleton, Hardy, Hampshire, and Morgan, shall be in favor of the adoption of this constitution, the said four counties shall be included in and form part of the State of West Virginia, and if the same shall be so included, and a majority of the votes cast at the said election or elections, in the district composed of Berkeley, Jefferson, and Frederick, shall be in favor of the adoption of this constitution, then the three last-named counties shall also be included in and form part of the State of West Virginia."

Under the terms of this Constitution, an inclusion vote was held on the first Thursday in April,1862, for citizens in the original forty-four counties, and those living in Pendleton, Hardy, Hampshire, and Morgan.

Significantly, no one in the counties of Berkeley, Jefferson, or Frederick voted on the matter, because:

"from the 1st of June, 1861, to the 1st of March, 1862, during which time these proceedings for the formation of a new state were held, those counties were in the possession and under the absolute control of the forces of the Confederate States, and that an attempt to hold meetings in them to promote the formation of the new state would have been followed by immediate arrest and imprisonment."

A series of laws were passed within the “free” state of Virginia authorizing the military-backed State Legislature to certify popular support for counties being added to the new state of “West Virginia”. On January 31, 1863, the “free” state of Virginia gave consent for the counties of Berkeley and Jefferson to be transferred to the State of West Virginia.  Frederick County, still under Confederate control, remained in the old Virginia.

At the national level, an enabling act was approved by President Lincoln on December 31, 1862 for admitting West Virginia, on the condition that a provision for the gradual abolition of slavery be inserted in the state constitution.

The West Virginia state convention reconvened on February 12, 1863, and passed a new constitution including the abolition provision. The revised constitution was adopted on March 26, 1863.  On April 20, 1863, President Lincoln issued a proclamation admitting West Virginia as the 35^th state effective on June 20, 1863.

West Virginians in the eastern panhandle bridled under being forcibly included in a Union state.  Rumors were rampant that the owners of the B&O Railroad engineered their inclusion because they did not want their rail line going through a southern state.  This led to the 1870 Supreme Court decision. As recently as the 1990s, the Mayor of Charles Town, the county seat of Jefferson County, explored reopening the case.

Unlike its origins, West Virginia choose not to be a Commonwealth.  It remains one of the most centralized state governments in America, possibly for maintaining unity among entrenched regional interests.  Only recently did the West Virginia legislature authorize limited home rule for certain municipalities.  The power of counties to control growth and levy impact fees is less than 20 years old.

West Virginia’s turbulent genesis, and its Charleston-centric political power, has led to the state earning a reputation for corruption and incompetence.  “Democrats are controlled by the coal mining unions; Republicans are controlled by the coal mining executives” observed a Republican legislator. 

The state is challenged in finding its economic bearings as coal use declines.  It lacks internet access (West Virginia has the worst connectivity of the fifty states, while neighboring Virginia has the best).  Teacher unions and a bloated state bureaucracy make West Virginia one of the most expensive per-student school systems in the country, while consistently placing 49 or 50 in academic achievement.  The state steadily loses population, except for the eastern panhandle and the state Capitol of Charleston. 

Except for recent Presidential elections, Democrats dominate the state.  In 2016, Republicans won control of both the House of Delegates and the State Senate for the first time in 82 years.  In Jefferson County, formed in 1803, it took until 2004 for the first Republican Clerk to be elected. The first Republican Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney was elected in 2018.

KILLING AMERICA

[Published in Newsmax]

Terrible things are happening to America.

The fundamental underpinnings of what makes America America are being directly assaulted.

President Ronald Reagan warned, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.”

We are in the extinction generation.

Democrats winning the U.S. House of Representatives ignited a firestorm of proposals to remake America into a centralized state.  The Green New Deal is a full-scale assault on America’s economic future and a Washington power grab of epic proportions. The payment of Reparations is a vapid applause line based on pure lunacy.  

Other proposals are from the Democrat playbook for achieving perpetual power – instant voter registration, blurring the lines regarding citizenship, amnesty for illegals, and letting felons vote.

Overreaching on policy is predictable after a major electoral win.  Extremes, from either end of the political spectrum, are destined to disintergrate on the rocks and shoals that our Founders embedded in our foundational documents to perpetually preserve and protect our nation.

More troubling are the proposals gaining traction from the increasingly radical pronouncements of Democrats running for President in 2020.  These proposals seek to eviscerate our foundational documents, eliminating structures that assured our nation’s survival since 1789.

Under the banner of “fairness”, proposals for eliminating the Electoral College, packing the Supreme Court, basing Senate seats on population, and lowering the voter age to 16 , are gaining currency.

Leftists have repeatedly tried to erase America’s foundations.  FDR’s future “Brain Trust” met with Lenin in 1921, and Stalin in 1927, to develop a strategic approach to dismantling the U.S. economy and establish a socialist America.  Rexford Tugwell, one of FDR’s top economists and architect of his agriculture policy, developed a “Constitution for the Newstates of America”.  The Tugwell Constitution, and its elimination of federalism, remained at the periphery of leftist discourse until recently.  Tugwell’s vision of an all-powerful central government mirror the current proposals taking center stage among Democrat candidates.

The latest Pew Research Center survey shows that 55 percent of Americans support eliminating the Electoral College.  A Harris poll shows that nearly half of Millennials and “Generation Z” want to live in a socialist country.

Under the banner of “political correctness”, the defining touch stones of the people, places, and events that shaped America are being erased.  Recently, George Washington University students pushed to eliminate their George Washington “colonial” mascot as being racist.

Statues of non-confederate soldiers, and even monuments to people named “Lee”, who are not related to Robert E. Lee, have been vandalized.

How is this possible?

Ignorance and Indoctrination.

Since the late 1960’s liberals have made controlling educational content a strategic goal.  This movement accelerated in the 1970s and has been on a steady march ever since.  Conservatives have occasionally sounded warning bells, but they have never effectively mounted a sustained counter campaign. 

Losing this asymmetrical struggle fosters growing public support for scrapping the world’s greatest democratic republic. 

This happens when civics is relegated to just one half of a year for the entire Kindergarten through High School curriculum.  The Annenberg Public Policy Center documented that only 26 percent of Americans can name all three branches of government.

History is being shrunk to cover only events that occurred after 1200 AD. Large swarths of historical events and figures have been eliminated.  Last November, the Texas State Board of Education voted to remove 450 historical figures. This includes significant individuals like John Hancock. The National Assessment of Educational Progress reported that only 18 percent of High School graduates are proficient in American history.  

The result is younger Americans having no idea how their government works and why it was established that way.  Not learning about what happened before 1200 removes all the great religions of the world.  Not knowing about Greece and Rome cripple any understanding of the roots of democracy, civic institutions, and public discourse.  Deprived of knowledge and understanding, loyalty to our system of government vanishes. 

Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation found that only 27 percent of Americans under 45 would pass the citizenship exam.  A Scott Rasmussen poll discovered that 50 percent of Americans think our constitutional rights are given by the government and are subject to change.  America is sailing into the danger zone.

In 1837, Horace Mann established the concept that public education was not about learning a trade, but about learning to be a citizen.  We must re-establish that goal or America’s civic culture will cease to exist.

SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME

[ALSO PUBLISHED IN NEWSMAX]

In 1933, science fiction writer H.G. Wells wrote “The Shape of Things to Come”. His startling predictions covered 173 years into the future. Many of his visions were tragically accurate, like the strategic bombing of cities.

The following vision of December 2020 is one possible reality of the next two years. These predictions could become real if Republicans remain complacent, disorganized, and disloyal. Republicans bungling their historic opportunity over the last two years was terrible. Republicans failing during the next two years will be disastrous. Time to stand for something. Time to fight for something.

It is December 2020. President-elect Michelle Obama is filing her transition team and administration with liberal activists. The media is gushing over her every move.

Obama waged the most effective nomination fight in memory by not waging one. She hinted and teased, but waited until May 2020 to plunge into the fray.

The crowded Democrat field played its part brilliantly. Each of the fifteen candidates exhausted themselves moving ever further left with each debate, caucus, and primary. Conservative pundits and social media were delighted to assail the Democrat field and make fun of their over the top stances. It all paved the way for Obama to enter the race to “save the Democrats from themselves”. Democrat Party leaders breathed a sigh of relief and rallied to Obama’s cause.

Starting with the release of her book, Michelle Obama fostered “Obama Nostalgia”. This movement spread throughout media and academic circles. The movement expertly positioned the Obama years (2009-2016) as a calm, scandal free, period. They claimed that Republican Bush destroyed the economy, Obama rebuilt it, and Trump benefited from it.

“Obama Nostalgia” capitalized on the chaos in Washington.

House Democrats launched investigations into President Trump and his administration on an unprecedented scale. They voted to impeach Justice Kavanaugh in March 2019. His Senate trial failed to convict with only 40 votes. The House voted to impeach Trump in May 2019 on five counts including the emoluments clause, treason, exceeding authority on border security, and obstruction of justice. The Senate trial dominated the summer of 2019. Sixty Senators voted against Trump on the emoluments and obstruction charges, falling short of the 66 votes required to convict. The 13 Republicans voting to convict tore apart the GOP across America.

Democrats shifted to impeaching Trump appointees. Two Cabinet Secretaries resigned during their impeachment processes. The third Cabinet Member fought back and the House impeachment effort failed with only 170 votes. Speaker Pelosi stopped further impeachment actions stating, “it is time to heal”.

The impeachment assault achieved its goal. No further Trump appointees were confirmed by the Senate, including judges. Fewer and fewer people were willing to be named to Administration positions. Except for a steady stream of Executive Orders, Trump’s Executive Branch ground to a halt. The Stock Market sagged and economic indicators reflected increased uncertainty.

Romney, Flake, and Kasich ran against Trump. They benefited from a flood of leaks from the Romney, Bush, and swamp dweller operatives embedded in Trump’s inner circles. The Never-Trump candidates collectively garnered 35 percent of the delegates, but winning only a handful of caucuses and primaries (i.e. Utah). Trump prevailed and continued to speak to huge enthusiastic crowds throughout 2020.

The media positioned 2020 as the choice between continued Trump chaos or a return to Obama calm. Republican hopes for taking down the Clintons as a counter narrative were dashed when members of the Federal Grand Jury nullified federal law by refusing to indict. Several jurors explained that, while the Clintons broke numerous laws, they could not put America through the tragedy of their trial. This was applauded by the media and academia as the right decision to “heal the country”.

Republicans in Congress and their media allies, remained ineffective and panicked throughout 2019 and 2020. They were in disarray about Trump, and how to counter the Democrats. Republicans paid the price by losing the Senate. Voters defeated the most zealous Democrat House Members, who over reached on anti-Trump accusations, shrinking their majority 223 seats.

Time is running out to craft a different future. Our nation is at stake.

REPUBLICAN DEATH WISH - ELECTION 2018

Also published on Newsmax.

Campaign losses are more “suicides” than “homicides”.

The Republicans were poised to beat the odds during the 2018 “Mid-term” election, then everything went wrong. Trump’s last minute targeting of key Senate races recovered some, but not all, of the opportunities for Republican gains. The House was another matter.

History was on the Republicans’ side - Trump’s 2016 victory did not extend to House or Senate races. Democrats gained two Senate seats and six House seats. The absence of “coat tails” meant there was a dearth of “at risk” Congressional Republicans. At the same time, ten Democrat Senate incumbents, who had benefited from Obama’s 2012 trouncing of Romney, were potentially easy targets in states where Trump won handily.

Enter the Lemming Factor. 

It did not take long for media pundits and liberal pollsters to declare that Trump’s behavior and policies would generate a “Blue Wave” overwhelming Republicans in 2018. The prevailing wisdom was that dozens of Republican incumbents in Districts won by Hillary Clinton were going to be decimated. Easily spooked Republicans bought into this analysis. They overlooked the fact that the Republicans who won in 2016 Hillary Districts were the strongest, not the weakest going into 2018. 

Facts did not matter. On November 9, 2017, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, Chair of the House Judiciary Committee and an incumbent who consistently won re-election by over 60%, announced his retirement. Other Republican incumbents soon opted to leave. By early 2018, 26 safe Republicans, who had weathered Hillary’s best effort, had retired, creating potential for Democrat gains. Surprisingly, more than enough for Democrats to retake the House.

Republicans actually began losing the House in February 2017. Speaker Ryan and his leadership team determined their best course of action was to distance themselves from their new Republican President. 

Ryan missed the opportunity to coordinate with the Republican run Executive Branch to open and re-open investigations against Obama, Clinton, and all their minions. This could have included delivering the Comey Report on Hillary Clinton’s email abuses to a Grand Jury and inevitable indictments. Every witness who refused to testify under Obama could be forced to testify. Every document refused under Obama could be released. 

Aggressively exposing Obama/Clinton misdeeds 24/7 would have build the case for Republican government and crippled Democrat candidate recruitment and fundraising for 2018.

Ryan and his committee Chairs blew it, and paid the price. The Democrats caught their breath and rebounded from 2016. Unfortunately, starting in January 2018, House Democrats will show Republicans how total war is waged - 85 subpoenas are already being prepared. 

Trump also contributed to Congressional losses. He laid the ground work for defeat in March 2016 when his inner circle chose to ignore advice and offers for help from Reagan alumni. Trump and his team embraced Washington functionaries from Bush, Romney, and Never Trumper networks to plan and run his Presidential Transition. 

In 1981, the Reagan Transition and early White House relentlessly tracked down and removed every Carter operative and all Democrats who had careered into the bureaucracy. Every possible threat to Reagan’s revolution was marched out the door, stripped of their security clearances. By March 1981, Reagan had a clear path to greatness.

Thanks for bad, possibly malicious, advice Trump left large swaths of Obama/Clinton operatives in place, along with their security clearances and access. In the name of austerity, Trump’s slow, and in many cases nonexistent, insertion of loyalists into key Executive Branch positions left him open to being blindsided, undermined, and outmaneuvered. Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus, filled White House and Agency slots with “RINOgators” from among his Republican National Committee associates. This meant countless opportunities were lost to make Trump’s revolution a lasting operational reality beyond Executive Orders.

Trump’s final error was not declassifying, unredacting, and releasing all documents relating to the bogus Russian collusion probe. Starting months before the election, Nunes and a small band of Congressional Trump loyalists, along with conservative pundits, pleaded for Trump to release these documents. Exposing “sources and methods” was not an issue. The “Deep State” wanted to avoid embarrassment and convinced Trump to do the wrong thing. 

The documents, as characterized by Nunes and others who had actually read them, would have destroyed the Democrats, the Mueller Probe, and the liberal media. A pre-election release would have eviscerated the opposition and possibly saved the House.

The one hope America has is that House Democrats will excel at “jumping the shark” and overreach well beyond the Senate Democrats’ fraudulent attacks on Justice Kavanaugh.

Democrats’ desire for investigation not legislation will not bring down Trump. Pursuing their revenge fantasies will only prove they are not ready to rationally govern. 

November 3, 2020 will be another day of reckoning.

We Are All Americans … Right?

[Guest Contributor - Donald G. Mutersbaugh Sr.]

I remember growing up in a nation that, regardless of political affiliation, recognized the fact that we all loved our country and we all were Americans. There were basically two major parties, and all political discussion seemed to center around being either a Republican or Democrat in one’s affiliation and beliefs. Fast-forward to now: we are a mess. We have become very uncivilized in our discussions. It seems as if amplitude is the new supplement for beliefs that we hold; the louder we are, the more correct we must be. We have become very intolerant if anyone believes something that we don’t believe: the new negotiator is “It’s my way or the highway.”

This is further compounded by the fact that our country is under attack from within by the social and political mobilization of the younger generations by our schools and other liberal institutions which are generally controlled by leftist thinkers. For some reason everyone feels entitled; suddenly communism and socialism don’t look so bad – everybody should be treated fairly and equally regardless of contribution. Consider the following about “proud Americans”:

“Currently, 32% of Democrats -- down from 43% in 2017 and 56% in 2013 -- are extremely proud. The decline preceded the election of Donald Trump but has accelerated in the past year.

“Less than half of independents, 42%, are also extremely proud. That is down slightly from 48% a year ago, and 50% in 2013.

“As has typically been the case, Republicans are more inclined to say they are extremely proud to be Americans than are Democrats and independents. Seventy-four percent [74%] of Republicans are extremely proud, which is numerically the highest over the last five years.” https://news.gallup.com/poll/236420/record-low-extremely-proud-americans.aspx

We now have become such a fragmented nation with regard to the political process, that it is no longer a question of the left or the right; now it is the far, far left and the far, far right – and a whole lot of other positions in between. While I believe that this intolerance is more prevalent with the Democrats, communication requires both a sender and a receiver – and I really don’t believe that’s happening on either side. One of the biggest problems we have is we don’t have freedom of speech any longer. Why? Examples are political correctness, fear of offending somebody, and the need to interrupt someone else before they complete their thought – I don’t want to hear it!

The latest new weapon used by the liberals is to claim that they are a victim of something. It becomes a fight on the left to prove who has the greatest claim to victimhood. Interestingly enough, this seems to be pushing the left to becoming even further to the left and further away from Main Street thinking. Even worse, is the fact that if you disagree with any of this liberal thinking, you’re guilty of some form of discrimination or as yet to be named phobia.

Let’s sample some “un-American” activity starting with Maxine Waters. “A senior California Democratic lawmaker added some fresh fuel to the raging debate over civility in politics with a call for public confrontations with Trump administration officials.

‘If you think we're rallying now you ain't seen nothing yet,’ Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif, told supporters at a rally in Los Angeles over the weekend. ‘If you see anybody from that (Trump) Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them, and you tell them they're not welcome anymore, anywhere.’ https://www.npr.org/2018/06/25/623206039/congressional-leaders-criticize-maxine-waters-for-urging-confrontation The Democrat’s mantra: Understanding, acceptance and tolerance. How about:

“[Sarah] Sanders was at the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington on Friday when the owner approached and asked Sanders to leave. The owner…told the Washington Post she believes Sanders works for an ‘inhumane and unethical’ administration.

“Sanders isn't the only Trump aide or ally to face critics in recent days. Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi was heckled at a movie theater in Tampa on Friday. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen had to leave a Mexican restaurant in Washington, D.C., last week as hecklers protested the administration's immigration policy. Critics also rallied outside her Virginia home.” https://www.cbsnews.com/news/red-hen-restaurant-kicks-out-sarah-sanders-sparking-debate-about-confronting-trump-allies/

One other Democrat being touted by some as the future face of the Democratic Party, recently elected Ocasio-Cortez, is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. Many members of the Democratic Party are being pulled further to the left towards socialism; what the Democrats haven’t figured out yet is that a substantial part of their voter base came from countries where this form of government failed – and they don’t want to go back to it. Check out her beliefs at https://www.dsausa.org/about_dsa .

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y says, “America is a place where we all come together. It is a place of consensus.” It would be nice if it were true. “Substantively Democrats are much closer to where the American people are than Republicans are.” https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/chuck_schumer Don’t think so. Consider:

“Most recently, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) said that the ‘first thing’ Democrats should do if they take control back of the House and Senate is abolishing all immigration enforcement through disbanding ICE.” However, “Nobody wants ICE going away. That’s ridiculous,’ [Sarah] Chamberlain said. ‘That is our first line of security. So for the Democrats to be saying that … it’s not resonating back in our GOP districts.” https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/07/24/exclusive-pollster-democrats-abolish-ice-campaign-not-resonating-in-swing-districts/

Why are we so uncivil? One reason is that the Democratic Party is spiraling out of control because of the Iron Law of Institutions: “The Iron Law of Institutions is: the people who control institutions care first and foremost about their power within the institution rather than the power of the institution itself. Thus, they would rather the institution "fail" while they remain in power within the institution than for the institution to "succeed" if that requires them to lose power within the institution.” http://www.tinyrevolution.com/mt/archives/001705.html

Closely related to this is “The ongoing contest between the Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders wings of the Democratic Party continues to divide Democrats. It’s urgent Democrats stop squabbling and recognize seven basic truths ….”https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/01/reich-7-hard-truths-democrats-future-bleak-without-radical-reforms.html Check the site out.

Trump won – get over it! Support the President who was duly and legally elected by the people of the United States of America. By continually trying to sabotage his agenda – and him personally – you are not doing a very good job of representing the people who elected him. MAGA! Be an American first and a Democrat second!

Donald G. Mutersbaugh, Sr. earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Maryland and his Master of Business Administration degree from Mary Washington College. He is the former Associate Administrator of Information Resources for the U.S House of Representatives under Speaker Newt Gingrich.

OUR DERELICT CONGRESS

Published in Newsmax
#DEEPSWAMP #RINOgator



Republicans on Capitol Hill are doing everything possible to lose their majorities in 2018.  They always seemed uneasy in the Majority.  They may get their wish and have the voters return them to a permanent Minority.

Senate Republican Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, recently railed against President Trump about “excessive expectations” and not knowing the “reality of lawmaking”.

Is it “excessive” to think the Senate and House should pass a Budget Resolution?  Every previous Congress passed one by April.  The Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 mandates Congress pass an overall Budget Resolution to guide Appropriations.  This year’s budget resolution was introduced on July 21, with no action scheduled. Republicans have majorities in both Chambers, what is the hold up?

Is it “excessive” to think the Senate and House should pass eleven Appropriation Bills to fund the government?  Up through 2014, the House passed all eleven bills by July.  Since the Republicans took the Senate in 2015, only a few Appropriation bills even passed the House.  Not one has passed the House in 2017.   Hearings haven’t even been scheduled.

Is it “excessive” to think the Congress should spend time actually working?  The House met for only eight days in April, twelve days in May, and will not meet in August. Worse, in 2017, House votes are scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, and none are scheduled on Fridays.  This means most House Members only work two and a half days a week.  They can fly in Tuesday afternoon and leave Thursday night without being recorded as absent on the other days.  So in July there were only nine days of actual voting.  The same nine days of voting are scheduled for September, even though there is a firm end of month deadline for funding the government past September 30, 2017. 

Is it “excessive” to expect Members of Congress to work for citizens and not for themselves?  When Members are “in session”, they spend up to four hours every day making political fundraising calls out of the Republican and Democrat national headquarters near the Capitol.  Instead of participating in debate, attending hearings, and listening to constituents, Members are sitting in cubicles, wearing headsets, and making calls to shake down donors for campaign money.

Does the “reality of lawmaking” include casting fake votes for use in direct mail fundraising?  That is what happened in 2015 when Senators Alexander, Capito, Heller, McCain, Murkowski, and Portman voted for a straight repeal of Obamacare.  They knew President Obama would veto the legislation, their votes were used in campaign ads and fundraising.  These six Senators voted against a straight repeal of Obamacare in July 2017, because they knew President Trump would sign the bill.  When do votes reflect real policy instead of fake propaganda acts?

Does the “reality of lawmaking” include crippling President Trump’s ability to have his team running the Executive Branch?  Since Trump was sworn-in, Republicans and the conservative media blamed Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats for holding up Presidential appointments.  However, on the last day before the Senate left for their August Recess, Republicans unanimously invoked a procedure that prevented Trump from naming Recess Appointments.  This has never before been used against a Party’s own President.  Why didn’t Senate Republicans negotiate with Trump allowing him to Recess Appoint key nominees stalled in the confirmation process?  This act of treachery shows Senate Republicans truly want Trump to fail.

If they were in the military, Capitol Hill Republicans would have been Court Martialed for dereliction of duty.  Their actions, and inactions, are the very definition of dereliction: 

United States Code Title 10, Section 892, Article 92 - Member who is derelict has willfully refused to perform his duties or has incapacitated himself in such a way that he cannot perform his duties…Article 92 also applies to members whose acts or omissions rise to the level of criminally negligent behavior. 

Why are Congressional Republicans so determined to obliterate themselves and their Party?  

Americans deserve better.

RINOgator UNBOUND

#TRUMPING  #RINOgator #DEEPSWAMP

Congressional Republicans are compiling an historic record of failure. Even though they control the Legislative Branch, they have not passed anything meaningful, cannot confirm Trump’s appointments, and refuse to reopen investigations into the last eight years of Democrat corruption and collusion with America’s enemies.  They remain stupefied and inert while Democrats and their media allies create fake scandals designed to disembowel Trump and his inner circle.

A growing number of Americans are asking, “Do these Republicans want Trump to fail?” Congressional Republicans do not comprehend the danger facing them.  If things continue as they are, Americans in 2018 will toss out Congressional Republicans for gross incompetence. 

If they lose power, Republicans will have difficulty convincing the voters that they ever deserve a return to power.

It is time to reacquaint ourselves with the denizens of the Deep Swamp who are undermining President Trump and America from both ends of Pennsylvanian Avenue…

A very dangerous species is loose in Washington, DC.  If it’s not eradicated it will bring ruin to Trump’s Administration and the nation.

RINOgator is a subspecies of fake Republicans (as in Republican In Name Only) that lives in the Swamp of our nation’s Capital.   The Swamp is its natural habitat, filled with conflicts of interest, incestuous relationships, avoidance of accountability, hiding documents and information from the public; waste, fraud, and abuse. 

RINOgators’ role in life is to expand the Swamp and to destroy anyone who tries to drain it. Any reduction in the Swamp reduces their numbers and threatens the species.

RINOgators eat tax dollars and absorb energy from reform minded humans. They have insatiable appetites and are never full.  There is always one more meal to eat.

RINOgators are highly territorial.  They relentlessly defend their turf among Congressional Committees and special interests. It is far more important to maintain their turf than for anything to be accomplished.

RINOgators live in close-knit family units.  One generation promotes the next through education, internships, sinecures, and contracts.  There is constant intermingling and intermarriage with other RINOgator family units. 

RINOgators can also be highly incestuous. They will give awards, place media stories, hire, and promote family members at every opportunity.  Multi-generational RINOgator family units hold more territory and become impervious to elections.

RINOgators may migrate to corporate, academic, and media positions, to promote the Swamp, but will always return to their native Swamp.

RINOgators are pernicious.  They use their knowledge of the Swamp to convince their prey that they are necessary.  Their prey willingly appoints them to office, listens to their advice, and invites them into their inner circles. Like cowbirds, RINOgators lay their eggs in the nests of reformers, setting the stage for their young to devour the souls of competing species.

RINOgators have a distinct call, which is heard on cable news, in policy forums, and reported in the mainstream media.  Its call is for maintaining the status quo, no matter what.  Lesser calls are for “further study”, new programs, new legislation, and more funding.  Squawks of alarm are heard whenever reformers call for accountability, transparency, “running government like a business”, “doing more with less”, privatization, and cutbacks.  Squawks are usually accompanied by assertions of “we are unique”, “it cannot be done”, and various lies about how THE PROCESS “actually” works.

RINOgators have an array of formidable defenses.  Their most effective is delay. Their other defense mechanisms include the ability to erase memory, dismiss facts, and divert attention so reformers pursue only irrelevant or tactical issues.

RINOgators are chameleons.  They adopt the rhetoric of their enemies to better blend in until the right moment to strike. 

The Trump era has become a major threat to the RINOgators and their Swamp.  The RINOgators did not see Trump as a threat until he had entered their territory. 

That is why the RINOgators have forged elaborate family groupings, nesting on Capitol Hill, to thwart Trump initiatives.  RINOgators chose not to attack the past foibles of Obama and Hillary.  They think it is better having Democrats on the offense against Trump instead of on the defense.

RINOgators have the innate ability to rebound after being stunned.  That is why, after being surprised by Trump winning the nomination, they insinuated themselves into Trump’s transition planning, transition team, and Administration.  Legions of RINOgators wrote Trump Transition briefing books and developed personnel “vetting” processes that slowed the staffing of Trump’s Administration to a crawl. They adjusted selection criteria to favor Swamp preservationists and surrounded incoming Trump Executives with them, instead of Swamp drainers.

RINOgator eradication efforts have been sporadic and only partially successful.  The main barrier to eradication is convincing people RINOgators exist. Their chameleon defenses allow them to avoid detection.  RINOgators and their allies have the unique talent of reflecting problems and disappointments back onto Trump.  This reflective surface is a key part of the RINOgator’s outer armor.

Thankfully, RINOgators have weaknesses.  They are susceptible to sunshine when light is shown on their true selves.  They are too smug, leading them to make wrong assumptions about the American people.

The RINOgator eradication program must begin with Americans unmasking the species and ripping away its reflective surfaces.  RINOgators are especially vulnerable during primaries. 

Trump and the nation must track down and wipe-out the RINOgator, before it is too late. 

This is critical to draining the Swamp.

[Scot Faulkner helps global corporations flatten their organizations; achieving dramatic and sustainable cost reductions while improving operational and service excellence. He served as the Chief Administrative Officer of the U.S. House of Representatives.  During the Reagan Administration he served on the White House Staff, and in Executive Appointments.]

UNCIVIL WAR

Published in NEWSMAX.  #TRUMPING   #RINOgator

Republicans are now in charge of everything, but control nothing.

The June 14 shooting of Republicans at their softball practice is a harbinger of worse things to come.  The “kill Trump”, “hunt Republicans” drumbeats emanating from the media and Hollywood created a hateful environment that triggered one warped mind to take violent action. Liberals, who were so quick to blame conservative rhetoric after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the 2011 shooting of Representative Gabby Giffords, just as quickly dismiss their role in the current poisoning of civil discourse.

America is more divided now than at any time since the Vietnam War.  Back in the 1960s, the radical anti-American elements were considered fringe.  The war being waged against Trump, the Republican Party, and America has expanded into the mainstream.  On a daily basis, Americans experience fake news reports, witness obstruction to the point of sedition, and view mounting evidence of radical liberals waging an unrestricted war on our civic culture and institutions.

It is tragic that public discourse and the functions of government are sinking into uncivil war.  More tragically, Republicans, especially the “RINOgators” who defend Washington’s swamp, refuse to fight back.

Republicans prevail when they do fight, but this is only being done in isolated and fragmented ways.  Most remain clueless to the unrelenting foe, while others clearly want the other side to prevail.

Trump’s win shocked the Democrats, but they immediately recovered.  Democrats relentlessly assailed the credibility of the election, mounted concern over Russia (after spending the Cold War dismissing Russian threats), and obstructed everything from Trump’s appointments to even nonpartisan public forums.

Trump’s win also shocked most Republicans.  They have not recovered.  Republicans, especially in Congress, have been negligent in taking advantage of their November 2016 victory.  Instead of launching 24-7 investigations of the last eight years under Obama, Republicans immediately broke ranks on healthcare, taxes, immigration, and the budget.  They remain mostly silent about the border wall and needed infrastructure.

Congressional Republicans only met for eight days in April, twelve in May, and will vanish for five weeks of vacation at the end of July.  Major legislation continues to be pushed off deeper into the year.  Worse, Republican lethargy allowed the Democrats to regroup and control the news during most of 2017. 

Prior to the 2016 election, pro-Hillary forces ignored laws to dismiss charges.  Since the 2016 elections, anti-Trump forces have made-up laws to create charges.  Trump, and his team, are playing defense when they should be playing offense.

Republicans are only now looking into potential obstruction of justice by Loretta Lynch, Obama’s Attorney General.  They have remained inert on revisiting scandals at the FEC, IRS, EPA’s over reach, Fast & Furious, the Clinton Foundation, and countless other Democrat shenanigans. 

Congressional Republicans had seven years to prepare for repealing and replacing Obamacare. They did nothing and it shows.  Republicans rail against big government in fundraising letters, but are balking at Trump’s cuts, and are woefully behind on passing any spending bills.  Inevitably, a Continuing Resolution will be needed to fund the government after September, unleashing all sorts of mischief and brinksmanship.

Republicans’ main argument since 2009 is that if Americans gave them the House, then the Senate, and then the White House, everything would change.  It hasn’t.

President Trump has been ill-served at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. 

Congressional Republicans defer to Senator Schumer like he is in control.  Until they fight, he is.  Trump’s own inner circle allowed a ridiculously slow transition, opening the door for Obama holdovers, Obama career loyalists, and the “deep state” resistors to rule the Executive Branch.  Leaks have diverted Trump’s attention.  Lack of appointees has crippled Trump’s ability to implement substantive change.  

Trump’s White House and Agency teams are only now sporadically clearing out the entrenched Obama networks.  Such house cleaning usually takes place within weeks of the Inaugural, not five months later.  Trump’s political takeover of the Executive Branch remains minimal as 70 percent of his policy positions remain unfilled.  Obama loyalists serve in acting capacities.  Even the White House Correspondence Office, a key interface with Americans, remains staffed by Obama holdovers and Democrat volunteers.

The slowest transition in modern times has created a “Trump-centric” Presidency.  Executive Orders are issued, speeches are given, briefings are held, but these are all from the White House.  When Trump appointees go on the road, Obama careerists still mind the store.  Trump has no “band width” to move forward when he is diverted by fake news or fratricidal Republicans.

Republican mistakes have caused substantive damage to their cause.  They need a real awakening to the threat, a real resolve to counter it, and a real strategy to defeat it.

Americans voted for a real revolution.  Their patience is wearing thin.

[Scot Faulkner helps private corporations and governments save billions of dollars by flattening organizations; achieving dramatic and sustainable cost reductions while improving operational and service excellence. He served as the Chief Administrative Officer of the U.S. House of Representatives.  He also served on the White House Staff, and in Executive Appointments, during the Reagan Administration.]

When Is a Narrow Victory a Victory?

[Guest Contributor - Donald G. Mutersbaugh Sr.]

I want to open this article by saying I’m very proud to be an American! I am not so comfortable with many of my fellow Americans who just don’t get it: there is one nation (under God); one flag; one national anthem; and one President. News flash: Trump won; Hillary lost; get over it.

I have to say that this post electoral period has been the most politically venomous time in my life that I have had the misfortune to experience. It has been hateful and destructive to the nation. I cannot believe the “seemingly” large number of people who would rather destroy our country than accept the results of the election. President Trump, his family, his supporters – basically anybody who is not a liberal – have been and continue to be treated terribly by the media. To the MSM there just doesn’t seem to be anything about this administration to report in a positive fashion – it’s as if they can do no good even though Mr. Trump has many, positive post inaugural accomplishments.

I get why the Democrats are in this crowd. I get why the main street media is in this crowd. But it is like they are living in a little bubble world of their own, oblivious to what’s going on outside. The media is becoming irrelevant; in fact, I believe that there is no media anymore. Fake news is everywhere, but it is being presented as news. The MSM are using gaslighting (“…a form of manipulation that seeks to sow seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or members of a group, hoping to make targets [i.e., the electorate] question their own memory, perception, and sanity. 

Using persistent denial, misdirection, contradiction, and lying, it attempts to destabilize the target and delegitimize the target's belief”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslighting). They use muckraking to try to influence public opinion. Let me expand a little bit on this term: “In British English the term muckraker is more likely to mean a journalist (often on a tabloid newspaper) who specialises [sic] in scandal and malicious gossip about celebrities or well-known personalities and is generally used in a derogatory sense. The term is a reference to a character in John Bunyan's classic Pilgrim's Progress, ‘the Man with the Muck-rake’, who rejected salvation to focus on filth. It became popular after President Theodore Roosevelt referred to the character in a 1906 speech; Roosevelt acknowledged that ‘the men with the muck rakes are often indispensable to the well being of society; but only if they know when to stop raking the muck...’" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muckraker The last sentence (my italics) of this quote pretty much says it all!

I believe several things are true about the American people. For one thing they are tired of this hysterical, biased reporting. I believe that most people still watch and listen to the news, but they tune out or change the channel when political news, campaign ads, etc. come on because voters do not trust nor like the media. It is because we realize that these people are not journalists; they are not news people: they are opinion writers and entertainers who are competing for ratings, not accuracy and journalistic integrity. When all of their articles say: "If…"; “According to unnamed sources …”; “Supposedly...”; “Allegedly…"; “Insiders tell us…”; “Our understanding...”: how are you to believe anything is true?  Overall, there is this fact: “Americans' confidence in the media has slowly eroded from a high of 55% in 1998 and 1999 [to 40% in 2015]. Since 2007, the majority of Americans have had little or no trust in the mass media. http://www.gallup.com/poll/185927/americans-trust-media-remains-historical-low.aspx

I want to close with a couple of examples of biased reporting. Does anybody remember Montana’s special election – before the election and how important it was to the Democrats? Funny,  after the election, this is what they had to say: “Republican Greg Gianforte claimed a narrow victory [he won by roughly 7 points] in Montana’s closely watched special election for the state’s at-large congressional seat, defeating Democrat Rob Quist in a race that is likely to be mined for clues about how the voting electorate feels about the political turbulence of Donald Trump’s young presidency heading into next year’s midterm elections…. Though their candidate lost, Democrats still tried to claim a moral victory in the race… [even though there was a misdemeanor assault charge pending against Gianforte!]” https://www.yahoo.com/news/gianforte-wins-montana-special-house-election-despite-charged-assault-044756860.html 

“Republican Ron Estes defeated his Democratic rival in a high-profile special congressional election in Kansas Tuesday that had been seen as a referendum on President Donald Trump. But the narrower-than-expected outcome [Democrat James Thompson finished behind Estes by 7 points]  may worry Republicans across the country as they try to decipher how much Trump's low approval ratings might hurt his party's candidates.” http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/democrats-vs-trump/republican-wins-kansas-election-seen-trump-test-n745396

How about the upcoming special election in GA? “Ossoff [the Democratic House candidate] “…focused his campaign on a promise to ‘Make Trump Furious.’” How is that for a politician who is going to represent you? Trump’s tweet: “With eleven Republican candidates running in Georgia (on Tuesday) for Congress, a runoff will be a win [the result was a runoff]. Vote ‘R’ for lower taxes & safety!”  “http://www.euronews.com/2017/04/19/georgia-democrat-puts-donald-trump-s-popularity-to-the-test-in-congress-vote

Bottom line: I hope the MSM and Democrats continue this strategy! They continue to poke the bear (i.e., the American people) to challenge our intellect: they think we are unable to understand the media bias and misdirection – and that makes us angry! They will continue to lose national elections because of this; in fact they have only won a handful of state and local elections since the inauguration. However, they have lost two congressional elections and they are about to lose a couple more (GA and SC). I hope that all Americans continue to realize how dishonest the media is being in trying to unduly and inappropriately influence our elections instead of providing information to help us select the best candidate to represent us.

Donald G. Mutersbaugh, Sr. earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Maryland and his Master of Business Administration degree from Mary Washington College. He is the former Associate Administrator of Information Resources for the U.S House of Representatives under Speaker Newt Gingrich.