Everyone's afraid to say this about Dr. Ford ...

Even though it’s painfully obvious. 

The woman’s got serious mental problems. She’s had them her entire life. Still does. 

Now, something may have happened in her youth to aggravate these.  Or maybe not.  But it’s pretty clear she’s still desperately searching for a reason – something or someone she can blame – for why she’s been an emotional basket case all these years. And still is.   

Before anyone thinks I’m victim shaming, I’m not.  Sexual assault is a serious matter. It takes a lot of courage for a victim of sexual assault to come forward. Some victims believe they are somehow responsible for their assault. I understand why victims are hesitant to go public. 

At the same time it’s unrealistic to believe nobody – nobody – ever lies about being assaulted, or misrepresents an event that may or may not have happened. Sometimes it’s for revenge.  Sometimes – as in the Duke Lacrosse team fiasco – it’s a desire for a payoff.  Sometimes – as in the bogus “rape culture” at UVA reported by Rolling Stone – it’s to push a false narrative. 

Sometimes it’s also just after-the-fact remorse – you realize you made a really bad decision one night to have consensual sex with someone you wish, in hindsight, you hadn’t.   

And, to be perfectly honest, sometimes it’s to create an ever-ready excuse for why you have emotional or relationship problems for years. Whether or not anything ever actually happened, or to what degree, people will almost always take your word and have sympathy.  Sadly, that’s why some have falsely claimed to have been sexually assaulted.       

It’s easy to accuse someone of sexual assault, especially in this day and age. Accusers, male and female, have come out of the woodwork because of the #metoo movement.  In a perverse reversal of traditional standards, the accused are now automatically deemed guilty and have the burden to prove they are innocent. That’s not how justice works or has for centuries here. 

Rape and attempted rape are serious crimes.  They are felonies for good reason. Accusations of rape and attempted rape need to be investigated by law enforcement. Sexual harassment is also covered by law.  Unwanted groping and grinding are more difficult to prove but still against the law.  No one should take lightly allegations of any of these.    

While it's easy to accuse someone of sexual assault, it takes guts and determination to prove it.  It also takes evidence, however. The name and description of the assailant.  The circumstances.  Details about the time and place.  At least some corroboration about when and where it happened.  Who you told afterward, and when. And if possible a police report. 

Admittedly, that’s a lot to ask of someone who has just been sexually assaulted. It’s almost impossible to prove alleged sexual assault 30 or more years later, short of a confession by the accused or a credible eyewitness to the assault. 

Just as it was impossible to prove by Ford. She couldn’t confirm the time, the place, who else was there, or provide corroboration by the people she named as witnesses to her claim.

Did she make it all up? I don’t know.  We’ll never know.  I’m certain she believes it happened.  To her it was all very real and very traumatic.  Although she never told anyone about it for 30 years.  It only came up in a couple’s therapy session in 2012. 

And she was in couple’s therapy, by her own account, because she and her husband were arguing about adding a second front door to their house.

Yes, they were in couple’s therapy over a door.  

She said she wanted the second front door because she was claustrophobic, which is also why she says doesn’t like to fly.  It all stems – she says – from the time she claims she was held down and groped by a drunken Brett Kavanaugh when she was 15.

Something that only came out in couple’s therapy in 2012. 

Now she also blames that same event for why she had difficulty in her first two years at UNC, which would have been three to five years after the alleged sexual assault. Why she’s had trouble with relationships ever since.  And, I suppose, why she needed therapy over the years, culminating with the need for outside counseling to deal with a disagreement over a door. 

Watching her testify the other day saddened me.  I felt sorry for her because she obviously believes the alleged assault by Kavanaugh is the cause for all her mental and emotional problems. She has so much invested in that belief that’s the reason for everything in her troubled life. 

Even when obvious contradictions in her testimony and ever-changing accounts were revealed, she never wavered. That’s how strongly she needs to defend her premise.  It’s everything to her belief system. Her whole world crumbles if she concedes she might be wrong. 

The inconsistencies in what she and her attorneys have said are not minor. They are glaring holes that call into question just about everything else.   

For someone supposedly terrified to fly, and why she needed much more time to drive cross-country to a hearing, she admitted she flies a lot to domestic and overseas destinations, including at least twice in the days leading up to her appearance. When she was reminded that Grassley had offered to fly the committee and staffers out to her to accommodate her alleged fear of flying – an offer widely reported by every news outlet and certainly communicated to her attorneys – she insisted she never heard of the offer.  When her best friend from high school flatly refuted Ford’s assertion that she was at the same party that night, or even that she and Ford had ever been at a party with Kavanaugh, Ford dismissed that as understandable because her friend was dealing with health issues. 

The longer this stays open, the more she “remembers” about the event. She now “remembers” the layout of the house, but not roughly where it is, how as a 15-year-old she got there or how she got home, or even which and how many boys and girls were there. 

She now “remembers” she saw Mark Judge – someone she claims participated in the assault, and who has repeatedly said he has no memory of the party, much less the assault – at his job about five to six weeks later and he was visibly shaken to see her.  She wants his employment records so she can narrow down when the alleged assault happened; in effect she wants to use where he worked and when to try to get an approximate date for the alleged assault, since she’s not even sure what year it was, or the time of year, either.         

Sorry, but no.  This has gone on long enough.  Every “new” revelation by Ford seems manufactured. Some directly contradict what she said earlier. In short, it appears she’s now evolving and embellishing memories on the fly.

Nobody wants to say this, but I will: none of this makes any sense at all except to her and her supporters.  I don’t find her allegations about Kavanaugh credible at all.  I don’t doubt for a minute she believes what she’s saying, however.  But belief and proof are different. 

It’s not just a case of “he-said, she-said.” It’s more a case of absolutely no evidence except a “recovered” memory 30-some years later, versus sworn testimony from everyone the alleged victim claims could corroborate her story, including her best friend at the time, that they don’t remember anything about it, or even being at some party like this with her.

I have real sympathy for victims of sexual assault.  Honestly I do.  But sympathy alone doesn’t cut it, especially given the gravity of the claims she’s made against Kavanaugh.

Unless she or the FBI can present some incontrovertible proof – besides her memory, which has shown to be spotty at best – I’m more inclined to believe Kavanaugh.  

Timid little mice ...

It’s no wonder Democrats always get their way.

Republicans are afraid of them. 

All it takes is for Democrats to say Republicans are racist, sexist, hate gays, hate immigrants or whatever and Republicans fold.  Doesn’t make any difference what the issue is, Republicans will always cave. Democrats can count on that.  

Republicans are so, so afraid people won’t like them. They’re afraid they won’t be able to get Democrats to help them pass a budget or anything else, even when Republicans have the majority.  Most of all they’re afraid women, Hispanics and blacks won’t vote for them.

Honestly, it’s pathetic.

If Trump’s election proved anything, there’s no reason to be afraid. More women, Hispanics, and blacks voted for him than anyone expected, despite the nonstop drumbeat from Democrats and the media that he was prejudiced against all those groups.  Even now, after more than two years of unrelenting attacks on Trump, his approval ratings have increased.  Do people like Trump?  Not really, but do they like what he’s accomplished?  Yes.

In short, being liked is highly overrated; doing your job is more important. 

The latest cave is over Dr. Ford’s unsubstantiated accusations that Brett Kavanaugh groped her at a party some 36 years ago. Ford can’t remember where it was, when it was, how she got there, or how she got home.  She only remembers how traumatic it was.  But she didn’t tell anybody at the time, even her closest friends, nor anyone else over all the intervening years, and only “remembered” it in couples’ therapy in 2012. And of course six years later when Kavanaugh was about to be confirmed for a seat on the Supreme Court, and after extensive questioning by Democrats who knew about the accusation but said nothing, asked nothing of Kavanaugh about it, until the hearing officially ended. 

No prosecutor would ever bring something like this to court, given how vague the accuser is on the details.  Ford and her growing army of Democrat strategists advising her know this. That’s not to say she doesn’t believe something happened to her 36 or so years ago – she’s not sure about what year or time of year either – but there’s absolutely nothing to substantiate her claims.

Everybody she claimed was there or participated in the event has denied being there, or even that there was such a party.  They’ve done that under oath, something Ford hasn’t done.

Scared as ever, Republicans have tried to make a deal to have Ford testify. Her side has bargained from a position of strength, which baffles me since she doesn’t have a case.  Ford’s side has blown off every attempt at getting this done quickly and impartially. Ford’s side is controlling everything – the date she’ll maybe testify, and that’s a weak maybe – and have demanded a host of ridiculous conditions for the privilege of giving her a platform to trot out her alleged assault. Which, BTW, has gone from being portrayed initially as attempted rape to now simply groping, in her side’s own words.

The gutlessness of the Republicans has allowed this to happen.  So afraid. So worried about how they’ll be perceived. So unwilling to do their job. If they had closed the hearings as scheduled and had the vote, despite the last-minute parlor trick of the Democrats, we might have been spared all this insanity. Instead, they quaked in fear at being seen as insensitive to women who’ve been sexually assaulted. 

They should have, for once, called the Democrats’ bluff. They would have won. At worst they would have forced the Democrats to put up or shut up immediately. But they didn’t.     

Whether Ford testifies or not – and I honestly believe she’ll play Lucy to Charlie Brown at the last minute and not show up – the damage has been done. Just as Democrats wanted and the media wanted all along.  They knew Republicans wouldn’t have the guts to stand up to them. 

Worst of all, Democrats have been saying all along that if by some miracle Kavanaugh gets confirmed, they plan to impeach him if they take the House. So if he doesn’t get confirmed, Democrats win.  And if he does get confirmed, Democrats win.

Nice work Republicans. You spineless weasels

Re-elect no Republicans. Let the Democrats take the House in 2018. Hell, let them take the Senate, too.  Let them start the impeachment proceedings against Trump, and if he’s lucky, Kavanaugh.  Democrats will never get enough votes in the Senate – it takes 67 out of 100 – to make impeachment stick, so those are bullshit threats and should be dealt with as such.   

Then when all those lost Republican House and Senate seats come up again, elect people with the fortitude to withstand the Democrats’ bullying tactics. 

Sooner or later, you have to stand up to a bully, or it never ends.

Tough love for Puerto Rico ...

A majority of Puerto Ricans have voted for statehood. 

I say NFW.  Instead, I think it’s time to give Puerto Rico its independence. 

There.  Goodbye. Good luck.  Don’t let the door hit you on the butt. 

We don’t need Puerto Rico. 

It has no strategic value to us. It consumes far more of our resources than it ever gives back.

It’s not even that nice of a place to visit. Wasn’t even before the hurricanes. We vacationed near San Juan for a week some years ago. The resort was beautiful but the staff warned us not to rent a car and go off exploring on our own – it was too dangerous.

That was good advice.  The crime rate there is routinely about 50% higher than in the U.S. as a whole.  I’m not making that up; that’s according to FBI stats.    

It has a high poverty rate – upwards of 46% of its people lived below the poverty line in 2015; that’s long before the latest hurricanes. It’s shown zero fiscal responsibility; it piled on debt to where it needs a $70 billion bailout.  It allowed its infrastructure to collapse well before the hurricanes by continuously shifting dollars away to fund more government benefits. 

Puerto Ricans right now are American citizens. They can vote in Federal elections, but they don’t have any elected U.S. Representatives or Senators in Congress like our states.

That leads Puerto Rico to constantly bitch that it suffers under taxation without representation.  As American citizens they do pay the same Federal taxes we do, right?  Sort of.  They don’t pay any Federal income tax on income derived inside Puerto Rico, unlike every state in the U.S.  But they do pay into Social Security and Medicare; that is if they have taxable income, which a large percentage don't because they are unemployed or have been deemed disabled. 

Meanwhile, inflation there is in the double digits.

Puerto Ricans are subject to a national sales tax on 11%, yet its government still can’t afford to keep the lights on. My bet is nobody there, except for tourists, is likely paying that tax.  Even the big corporations there – like big pharma, mostly lured by generous tax treatment from the U.S. to help its economy – don’t contribute much. Despite all the special breaks and incentives given to Puerto Rico by Congress over the decades, it’s still a basket case.    

It’s our own little banana republic.  Fraud and corruption are rampant.

About a third of the population is on food stamps, with few if any restrictions on who qualifies. Not all that long ago the Feds uncovered a $30 million racket there where people were trading their stamps for cash.  Other vendors have been found to be falsifying receipts and sales records to cover for allowing recipients to use food stamps to buy things like liquor and cigarettes.   

Before the hurricanes nine of the top 10 zip codes receiving Social Security Disability Income (SSDI) were in Puerto Rico.  Initial SSDI claims there were approved 63% of the time, compared to about 30% here in the states.  Is that because so many more Puerto Ricans were truly disabled?  Come on. 

Given numbers like that, is it any wonder why Trump and others distrust the casualty counts from Puerto Rico?  Think about it: how do deaths from the hurricanes on the island rise from 64 to almost 3,000 after a few months? Do we trust ordinary Puerto Ricans not to overstate what happened? Do we think they wouldn’t cook the books on this as well to get more? 

This is the same place where the mayor of San Juan went on TV and chastised Trump and FEMA for not sending any supplies in the hurricanes’ aftermath.  Puerto Ricans were starving, without power, and without clean water.  And FEMA and Trump were doing nothing to help. 

She did this in a brightly lit warehouse standing in front of row after row of pallets of bottled water and other supplies sent by – guess who – Trump and FEMA.  Huh?     

We should blame our own politicians for some of the institutional problems in Puerto Rico. Democrats in particular have routinely fought against demanding more fiscal responsibility by the people running Puerto Rico. They see nothing wrong there.  

As a result, we’ve allowed Puerto Rico to devolve into a virtual socialist state largely dependent on government largesse – from us – to support an entrenched bureaucracy of political cronies.     

But Puerto Rico takes it to a new level that would make even Rahm Emanuel blush.    

About 7% of adult Americans work for Federal, state or local governments.  In Puerto Rico it’s 21%. Some years back, Puerto Rico’s government changed pension rules for its employees to give them 75% of their three highest salaries when they retired; not surprisingly, government workers near retirement got rapid promotions with wage increases. That cost billions, to the point that its public pension fund is so underfunded that U.S. taxpayers will probably have to fork over a billion dollars a year for decades just to meet its current pension commitments.

How did it get in such a mess? A big reason was buying votes with perks and weird benefits, like mandatory Christmas bonuses and free electricity to all 78 of its municipalities, and the pension giveaways. It had to float bonds it could never pay back to finance all that. 

Puerto Rico being part of the U.S. has always been far more beneficial for its citizens than it could ever be for us – they can come here and live as U.S. citizens, they get benefits we pay for, we bail them out of every catastrophe and self-inflicted wound. 

What do we get in return? Nothing but bitching and moaning. And demands for more. 

A perfect case is its reaction to the recent hurricanes. Certainly, the island was devastated.  But a major reason was because it was a crap hole before the hurricanes hit. When you live in a shack it’s going to get blown away in a hurricane. When you let corrupt building inspectors nod and wink at substandard construction, those buildings are going to get wiped out, too.

Now it wants us to rebuild the island. No, actually it wants us to spend billions on restoring a Puerto Rico that didn’t exist before the hurricanes. It wants us to fix things it never did.  It wants us to provide new things it couldn’t be bothered with for decades.  Its demands for more money are not entirely because of the hurricanes, but largely because it was already broke from prior corruption and gross mismanagement not related to any storm.    

When a power grid hasn’t been updated since the 1950s and is run by political hacks enriching themselves rather than making necessary improvements, the result is predictable. Even before the latest hurricanes power on the island was spotty at best with frequent outages and brownouts; but a big storm comes along and suddenly it’s time for the U.S. to finance construction of a brand-new power grid.   

Honestly, when power was restored to 90% of the island, that was probably more than existed before the hurricanes.  Geraldo Rivera – always proud of his Puerto Rican heritage – recently said that in years past (well before the latest hurricanes) when he would visit his relatives there, it wasn’t unusual for 70% of the island to be without power.      

Now some will think I’m kicking Puerto Rico while it’s down. I feel sorry for its people. But only to a point.  They are the same people, like big-city and deep-blue-state Democrats here, who kept electing politicians who bought their votes with promises they could never keep and giveaways they couldn’t pay for. 

They voted to get stuff they wanted now, damn the future consequences. 

Guess what. It didn’t work out. It almost never does. Just as it doesn't here.    

I’m not saying we should abandon Puerto Rico immediately.  Its people – not its government – need our assistance.  We should help the people with humanitarian aid.  But once we have it somewhat stabilized, we should cut our losses and get out.  And somewhat stabilized doesn’t mean perfect, or making Puerto Rico much better than it was before.   

In its present state, it’s a bottomless money pit, much like Afghanistan and Iraq. Like those, any billions given to its government by us to “rebuild” Puerto Rico will only line the pockets of local politicians and their pals. If they get their hands on our money, it will disappear as fast as those 3,000 people who supposedly died in the hurricanes.  We should skip its government altogether.

Then, if Puerto Ricans already living stateside and in our military want to stay U.S. citizens, they can.  But give the island full independence to succeed or fail on its own. Maybe then the people of Puerto Rico will finally step up to take full responsibility for their own futures. 

Finally, by all means, never allow Puerto Rico to become a state. 

Never.  Despite pleas from Democrats.  Or Puerto Ricans.  

Democrats only want statehood for the island because it typically votes for Democrats. Democrats want it to get Senators and U.S. Representatives in Congress who will also reliably toe the Democrat line, and more Democrat electors in the Electoral College. 

Puerto Ricans want statehood to get more from us, plain and simple.

Enough is enough. 

Trump's worst week ...

I’ve lost count of how many there have been.   

It seems every other week is Trump’s worst week.  At least according to CNN and MSNBC. Calling this every other week seems a bit much, to me.  You’d think that since worst is an absolute – worst implies “ever” – every “worst week” would have to be even worse than before. 

He’s been in office about 20 months. Let’s say he’s had four weeks than weren’t the worst ever.  That still leaves 38 weeks of ever-escalating bad things.  Each one would have to be worse for him than the week before. Is that even possible? 

If you start small, maybe him getting caught falsely claiming his inauguration crowds were bigger than Obama’s, that would still be 37 more increments of worst weeks. Each one worse for him than the previous one. That’s a tough mountain to climb if it keeps getting steeper. 

Not to say the media haven’t tried valiantly to keep that pace.

The Steele dossier.  The demands for his tax returns.  Payoffs to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal. Avenetti’s lawsuit against Trump.  The lawsuits over Trump University. Denying McCain was a hero.  Firing James Comey.  His revolving door of officials.  Bad blood between Trump and establishment Republicans.  Charlottesville.  The Mueller probe. Paul Manafort’s indictment and convictions. Omarosa and her tapes. Michael Cohen’s indictment and convictions, plus rumored tapes. Fights with Jeff Sessions.  All the books from Comey and others.  Cozying up to Putin. The op-ed by some anonymous administration official.  And, of course, the constant drumbeat for impeachment. 

At different times these were the basis for Trump’s worst week. 

But Trump is still here. For a guy with ever-increasingly worst weeks, that’s amazing. 

Or maybe not. 

I think the media haven’t been successful because they consistently overplay their hand. Sure, the hardcore Trump haters, and never-Trumpers among Republicans, loved these stories. However, hardcore Trump supporters and populist Republicans don’t care much about any of this – like Trump’s fiercest opponents, they’ve made up their minds about him already. 

There’s also the inherent problem of constantly claiming this is his worst week. You can only take that so far before it loses impact.  Especially when all the dire predictions of his downfall fall short.  All the media’s smoking guns have essentially shot blanks.  All the “this is it” moments haven’t materialized.   All the “writing’s on the wall” assertions have looked foolish in hindsight. 

Trump’s been his own worst enemy.  He’s been a jerk.  He’s been arrogant and rude.  He’s said dumb things.  All that’s true.  If any other President acted the same, he or she’d be gone. 

But he’s not any other President, although the media and the Trump haters insist on comparing him to them.  Because he’s not like any other President is part of his appeal; it’s probably the biggest reason he was elected – it was a middle finger to the media and political establishment.

This is even more apparent now that Obama is back on the campaign trail for Democrats. 

Obama feigns moral outrage at how Trump has treated our allies, minorities, immigrants, the poor, the LGBT community, and the environment. How Trump enacted tax cuts that only helped the wealthy and corporations.  How Trump has harmed our democracy. And how Trump has caused us to lose respect in the world community.  

Obama also claims he's the one really responsible for the booming economy under Trump. 

This from the same guy who doubled our national debt – seriously, doubled – in only eight years. Put millions more people on food stamps. Increased the poverty rate. Accomplished absolutely nothing to reduce joblessness among blacks and Hispanics.  Stood by as middle class jobs disappeared. Said most of our lost manufacturing jobs would never come back. Fought against developing more domestic fossil fuels. Squandered billions on “shovel-ready jobs” that never materialized.  Wasted billions more on boondoggles like Solyndra. Allowed Libya to collapse into chaos by “leading from behind.” Blamed an obscure Internet video for the deaths of Americans in Libya. Failed to follow through on his “red line” in Syria, to the astonishment of our strategic partners. Did nothing when Russia annexed Crimea.

Oh, and also used the IRS to go after his opponents, and tapped the phones of AP reporters.  

These are just a few stark reasons why Trump was elected after Obama.

I fully expect in the weeks to come to see more claims Trump is once again experiencing his “worst week” based on some leaked memo, some lawsuit, the Mueller probe, or whatever.

Of course it won’t be. 

What I don’t expect to see from the media is the weird phenomena Obama will cause. Having Obama out there again, making the same claims, touting the same policies, is a gift to Trump.  It reminds everyone why they wanted Trump instead of more of the same. 

Every week Obama’s out there makes that week Trump’s best week.

Trump should thank him.  It’s a nice change.   

The paternalism of the left ...

Here’s something the left always tries to hide: they don’t think we’re all that bright.

Seriously, they don’t. Never have, never will.

They think the public simply isn’t smart enough to do the right thing.  They know better than you, in other words, so they’ll decide what’s best for you.

It’s like they see us as all as five-year-olds.  We can’t be trusted to own guns. We can’t be trusted to make our own decisions about healthcare.  We can’t be trusted to use our own money wisely. We can’t be trusted not to eat the wrong things.  We can’t be trusted not to hurt ourselves. 

They know best.  They are our perpetual parents.

Worse, they want to keep us that way. Forever.  That’s why they fight tooth and nail against anything that might make us think we can live without them. 

Why, we just might shoot our eye out. 

They need to protect us from ourselves. They also need to protect us from the evil of our world – including bad things we didn’t even know were out there. They are happy to teach us about dangers we never knew about, bad things that could happen if we don’t do what they say, and bad things that have already happened because we didn’t listen.

That’s their job. It’s all for the best.

Because they are looking out for us, they can do whatever they want to protect us. If that means lying to us, so be it.  If that means making stuff up to scare us, that’s okay. In return, they will always be there to comfort us, kiss away the boo-boos, and make sure we understand who is in charge, and from whom all the good stuff flows.  Just like the good parents they are. 

All we have to do is let them make every decision for us.    

For their paternalism to keep working, they need a never-ending supply of monsters and bad things to protect us from.  Otherwise, we might start thinking we don’t need them so much. So they must keep inventing new threats to ensure we don’t decide we could handle life on our own. 

The left is really good at that. 

Because we are just simple people after all, they’ve kept things simple enough for us to understand.  Whatever they say is right; whoever disagrees with them is not only wrong, but evil. If you even doubt them, you’re stupid and evil.  There’s only one right side to a story.  Their side. 

They realize they don’t always tell the whole truth, but it’s always for a good reason.  It’s like telling kids Santa exists, and if they aren’t good he won’t bring them presents. Or that the Elf on the Shelf is real and tattles on you to Santa. Or that eating paste will make your insides stick together.  It’s all harmless to lie to get the behavior you want.  No biggie.  

One of their best lies revolves around the threat that something will be taken away by someone evil.  Even if they know that’s not true; it doesn’t matter. The threat alone is enough to cow their flock into obedience, and often outrage.

Think a woman’s right to an abortion.  Think civil rights.  Think the right to vote.  Think Social Security.  Think Medicare.  The left knows none of these is ever likely to be taken away under any circumstances, no matter who is in the White House or who sits on the Supreme Court.  

They are also good at using peer pressure keep their flock from straying. They constantly warn about falling in with the wrong crowd. 

The wrong crowd includes those who try to convince us to think for ourselves. To protect us from that they make sure that the wrong crowd is presented consistently as everything decent people would hate – racist, homophobic, misogynist, white supremacists, neo-Nazis, gun nuts, and narrow-minded religious bigots. 

Especially conservatives and Republicans. Good people don’t associate with them. 

It’s better not to even listen to those in the wrong crowd. Keep them from spouting their heresy.  Prevent them from airing their views.  They are simply trying to lead us all astray.  We’re not smart enough to resist what they might say.  It’s all blasphemy.  And evil.    

The truth is, the left cannot exist anymore without monsters and evil to fight. But the constant hype about the risks we face without their protection is wearing thin. We’re not little kids afraid of the dark. Many of us starting to see the left’s paternalism for what it really is: a way to scare us into letting them control our beliefs, our thoughts, and our lives. 

The problem they face is that eventually most kids are going to look under their bed and discover there’s no monster there, just dust bunnies. 

The left knows this is happening now. Almost all of their dire warnings are being proven false. There’s little substance to the monsters they’ve relied on so long.  We’re starting to wonder why we’ve been fed so many myths and outright lies over the years to keep us frightened.  

More and more of us are discovering there’s no monster under our bed, just dust bunnies. And that the wrong crowd they warned us about isn’t as they described; in fact, it’s a lot more tolerant and compassionate – and certainly less violent – than the crowd on the left. 

That scares the left.  Instead of conceding they’ve been caught in lies, they’ve doubled down. They’ve abandoned reason altogether and now resort to threats and intimidation to get their way.  They yell, they holler, and use physical violence against anyone who disagrees with them.

That’s exposed them as selfish, abusive, and manipulative, willing to use the fear of what might happen – but probably won’t – as a tool to maintain their power over us. But as more of their monsters prove to be mere shadows without substance, more of us now realize everything is not nearly as bad, or fraught with imminent peril, as they’ve wanted us to believe.

For many Americans, the left has lost our trust entirely. They’ve also lost any respect we may have had for them.   We now understand they’re not smarter than us, they’re not the ultimate arbiter of how we should live our lives, they’re not even a good example to follow. 

And we don’t really need their protection against the monsters they’ve invented because those monsters don’t really exist. They never did.   

We’ll be okay without their heavy hand.