By CHRISTOPHER MANION
After Karen Handel’s victory in Georgia’s Sixth Congressional District, the Republican majority in Congress has the wind at its back. Republican Ralph Norman’s victory in South Carolina the same day makes it four out of four victories for the GOP in special elections this year to fill seats vacated by representatives appointed to senior jobs in the Trump administration.
But the Republicans also face a strong headwind — the spreading violence of the radical left, energized by months of goading and abetting from major Democrats and resulting in violence from Washington to Chicago to Berkeley, culminating in the attempted “baseball massacre” of pro-life Republicans by an ardent socialist and Bernie Sanders volunteer.
In congressional district offices across the country, leftist activists have harassed staffers, created havoc, and otherwise offered their fans in the media the opportunity to report on the “strong anti-Trump sentiment”; and now the radicals are being coordinated nationally.
Veteran newsman Paul Bedard reports that a leftist group called “Indivisible” is planning “a summer of heated protests . . . against Republican House and Senate members, with organizers already forecasting clashes with police and staffers.”
The radicals’ emphasis on “staffers” is especially pernicious, because the thousands of Senate and House staffers do not enjoy any protection by security details, either in Washington or in their home states and districts.
Of course, the left will quickly attempt to disown violent Democrats who attack Republicans — they’ll even blame such attacks on the victims themselves, as happened when radical Democrat James Hodgkinson set out to shoot as many pro-life Republicans as possible.
No staffer can be sure that the screaming, spitting, and shoving “Indivisibles” will not assault them the way Hodgkinson did. In fact, the group’s leaders are training its rabble-rousers and rioters to be as confrontational as possible, in order to garner attention from friendly journalists who are desperate to report “fake news.”
In order to dominate more than one news cycle, “Indivisible” is planning long sit-ins in Congressional and Senate offices throughout the country, taking advantage of the August doldrums when Congress is out of session.
Republican staffers, however, have indicated that the leadership might apply some tactical jiu-jitsu of its own, and turn these radical threats of borderline violence on their head.
Sensing growing national support, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell might consider canceling the traditional August recess and keep Congress working in Washington to pass two of the key bills spearheading the presidential campaign — tax reform and the repeal of Obamacare.
Not only would these efforts keep Republican momentum going, it would also demonstrate that it isn’t “business as usual” in Washington any more.
One additional benefit can’t be ignored: In Washington, Senate and House offices enjoy several layers of world-class security. Local law enforcement in home districts are not equipped to deal with riots and assaults — witness how police in Berkeley, Calif., stood by and “observed” while masked protesters wearing helmets and bullet-proof vests assaulted College Republicans waiting to hear a libertarian speaker.
Not so on Capitol Hill. There, waves of specially trained police, FBI, and Federal Marshals are prepared to deal with such situations in seconds. There, members and staff would be assured that they could go about the people’s business without being subjected to harassment and intimidation by trained thugs.
How hot will the summer be? How long? Stay tuned.
Francis Cardinals
Support Amnesty Over
Religious Freedom
Fireworks erupted at the June meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in a debate over funding priorities, as reported in last week’s Wanderer by Claire Chretien of LifeSiteNews (p. 3B).
Cardinals Blase Cupich of Chicago and Joseph Tobin of Newark opposed efforts to make permanent the committee to protect religious liberty, advocating instead the continued funding of a special committee that advocates amnesty for illegal aliens and other Obama initiatives (the “ad hoc” committee was formed last fall, shortly after Donald Trump won the presidential election).
Cardinals Donald Wuerl of Washington and Timothy Dolan of New York came to the defense of the religious freedom committee, and Conference President Cardinal DiNardo of Houston finally agreed to support funding both committees.
As Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore observed, the USCCB already has a permanent Office of Refugees and Migration Services, which receives hundreds of millions of federal taxpayer dollars (the USCCB did not respond to a request for comment). The new “ad hoc” committee’s leadership comprises six major committee chairmen, and its additional activities are described on the conference’s website:
“Activities . . . of the working group included statements responding to executive orders on interior enforcement, sanctuary cities, and refugee resettlement; and on legislation including [Obama’s] BRIDGE Act, which would provide temporary relief from deportation to youth previously protected through [Obama’s] Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
“The group also facilitates diocesan resources such as policy reports, prayers, educational materials, action alerts, and pastoral accompaniment, and has held frequent communications among the members to discuss concerns and priorities. They also share episcopal guidance with outside partners such as Catholic Relief Services; Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc.; Center for Migration Studies; and Catholic Charities USA.”
All of these efforts by our bishops support Obama’s policies and oppose President Trump’s; and no mention is made of the hundreds of millions of dollars a year in federal funding the bishops might lose, should Trump’s policies and budget priorities be enacted in law.
Curiously, the bishops did not address the approaching 49th anniversary of Blessed Paul VI’s promulgation of the encyclical Humanae Vitae.
Perhaps the fact that they receive no federal funding for teaching and defending that doctrine explains why no efforts were announced to “facilitate the teaching” of that magisterial doctrine with “diocesan resources such as policy reports, prayers, educational materials, action alerts and pastoral accompaniment…[or] frequent communications among the members to discuss concerns and priorities.”
Hispanic Criminal Gangs
Proliferated Under Obama
For many years our bishops have advocated amnesty and opposed efforts like those of President Trump to protect Americans from criminal illegal aliens. So it is no surprise that an FBI agent recently informed Washington, D.C., news radio WTOP that, “We have seen a resurgence of MS-13 in the past four or five years.” A Fairfax County gang task force leader who has tracked MS-13 for more than 15 years says the gang, one of the most lethal in all the Americas, is “much more violent” than ever.
Hispanic youth are easy pickings for gang recruiters. Seventy-eight percent of public-school students in Fairfax County, Va., a populous suburb of Washington, come from immigrant households. One local sheriff reports that schools have children from over 60 countries speaking over 35 languages — “and every language has at least one street gang.”
Because the bishops have endorsed amnesty and illegal immigration for years, they find it hard to encourage immigrants to follow the law, even the Ten Commandments, with the same vigor. Moreover, it is the rare bishop (Jaime Soto of Sacramento is an example) that will address the disastrous family situations caused by the bishops’ support of burgeoning illegal immigration.
Most illegals cross the border alone, each having paid criminal “Coyotes” from the drug cartels thousands of dollars to get here. That’s their first contact with American gangs. They know they’re lethal. So do Hispanic children, who are bullied, threatened, and recruited on the most dangerous place they go each day — the yellow school bus, ruled by gangs.
Instead of ministering with the Ten Commandments — “Thou Shalt Not Steal” (Social Security Numbers) or “Bear False Witness” (lie on welfare applications) — dioceses throughout the country offer illegals access to free advice on how to dodge immigration officers. When it comes to their marital status and their legal status, the Church is “nonjudgmental” — even as bishops routinely lambaste U.S. citizens who oppose amnesty as bigots, Nativists, racists, and xenophobes.
Meanwhile, there is no indication from the USCCB that our bishops will begin to cooperate with immigration officials to protect Americans, prosecute criminals, and preserve the rule of law.
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