Use This Single Loophole to Pay Zero Taxes . See Video\n“ I agree entirely with Saxby Chambliss , ” King said on NBC ’ s “ Meet the Press. ” “ A pledge you signed 20 years ago , 18 years ago , is for that Congress . … The world has changed , and the economic situation is different . ”\n“ I will violate the pledge , long story short , for the good of the country , only if Democrats will do entitlement reform , ” Graham said on ABC ’ s “ This Week . ”\nMcCain , meanwhile , said he wants to focus on closing so-called tax “ loopholes ” to raise revenue but stressed he wants no increases to the marginal tax rates . Many observers , however , note that closing loopholes will still represent an effective tax increase . `` We can close a lot of loopholes , '' McCain said on “ Fox News Sunday , ” identifying deductions on charitable donations and on mortgage interest .\nUse This Single Loophole to Pay Zero Taxes . See Video\nUse This Single Loophole to Pay Zero Taxes . See Video\nAs Congress prepared to dive back into `` fiscal cliff '' talks on Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday , there were growing signs that the long-standing Republican resistance to raising taxes is beginning to crack.On Sunday , three leading Republicans — Sens . Lindsey Graham and John McCain , and Rep. Peter King — said they no longer viewed the anti-tax pledge designed by activist Grover Norquist to be binding on them . Their statements followed a similar one Thursday by Georgia Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss.The decades-old pledge from the Americans for Tax Reform group has been signed by 238 House members and 41 senators in this Congress and has essentially become inescapable for any Republican seeking statewide or national office over recent election cycles , especially in the Republican-controlled lower chamber.But on Sunday , there were signals of a sudden shift : For his part , Norquist on Friday said that breaking the pledge is breaking a promise to constituents who elected their representatives in part on their commitment against tax increases.In a statement to ███ on Friday responding to Chambliss ’ statements , Norquist said , `` Sen. Chambliss promised the people of Georgia he would go to Washington and reform government rather than raise taxes to pay for bigger government . He made that commitment in writing to the people of Georgia . `` If he plans to vote for higher taxes to pay for Obama-sized government he should address the people of Georgia and let them know that he plans to break his promise to them . `` If no deal is reached before the end of the year , a poison pill law of tax hikes and massive spending cuts , including slashes to the military , comes into effect with potentially catastrophic effects for the fragile US economy.After months of stalemate , congressional leaders met on November 16 with President Barack Obama — who is deemed to have a considerably stronger negotiating hand after handily winning re-election 10 days earlier.Just five weeks now remain in the calendar year to conclude an agreement before the expiration of tax cuts put in place during the presidency of Obama 's predecessor , George W. Bush.Obama has said that any deal he concludes would have to include an increase in taxes on wealthy taxpayers , something congressional Republicans so far have rejected.The plan he proposes — and presented to voters on the campaign trail — would raise the tax rate for top earners , but keep Bush-era tax rates for individuals who make less than $ 200,000 per year and families earning less than $ 250,000.Most Republicans still insist raising taxes on the wealthy would be counter-productive and only serve to slow economic growth and ensure that the country continues to be plagued by economic stagnation.They insist that higher taxes would dampen spending and hiring and investment by business owners.The top income tax rate , which now stands at 35 percent , will automatically revert to 39.6 percent at the beginning of 2013 unless there is a new budget deal.Republicans say they prefer to look at ways to bring in more tax revenue by completely overhauling the old and unwieldy tax code , including closing what they say are `` special interest loopholes '' likely to hit the poor and the middle class as well as the rich.But Graham said it was fair to ask his party to do this and raise taxes for Democratic concessions on reducing government spending on social welfare programs , known here as entitlements . `` When you 're $ 16 trillion in debt , the only pledge we should be making to each other is to avoid becoming Greece , and Republicans -- Republicans should put revenue on the table , '' Graham said . `` I want to buy down debt and cut rates to create jobs , but I will violate the pledge , long story short , for the good of the country , only if Democrats will do entitlement reform , '' Graham added.Graham 's apparent willingness to ignore the no higher taxes pledge came just days after Chambliss , said he would not be not bound by the promise either . `` I care more about my country than I do about a 20-year-old pledge , '' Chambliss said.King would not predict anything about a deal before it has actually been presented to Congress - so that an actual deal can be made between Obama and House Speaker John Boehner for Congress to discuss , rather than have possibilities batted around killing any potential “ grand bargain. ” “ I don ’ t want to prejudge any of this , ” King said . “ [ The ] bottom line is we can not have sequestration . We ca n't go off a fiscal cliff . We have to show the world we ’ re adults ... I think everything should be on the table . I myself am opposed to tax increases . The fact is that speaker and the majority in leader and the president are going to be in a room , trying to find the best package . I ’ m not going to prejudge it . And I ’ m just saying we should not be taking ironclad positions. ” Added King , “ The world has changed and the economic situation is different . Ronald Reagan and Tip O ’ Neill realized that in the 1980s . I think everything should be on the table , ” he said . “ I , myself , am opposed to tax increases . The fact is the speaker and the majority leader and the president are gon na be in a room , trying to find the best package . I ’ m not gon na prejudge it . And I ’ m just saying we should not be taking iron clad positions . I have faith in John Boehner to put together a good package. ” Economists have said that closing loopholes and ending deductions will likely not generate sufficient money to chip away at the national debt , and that a combination of tax increases and spending cuts will be needed.Speaking on the same program as Graham , Democratic Senator Dick Durbin insisted that tax rates for the highest earners do have to up . `` How in the world are you going to reduce deductions and generate enough revenue for meaningful deficit reduction , '' Durbin said.Some experts said that there need not be a `` grand deal '' by the end of the year , because they could give themselves an extension by passing new legislation . `` Anytime Congress puts handcuffs on itself , it still has the key to those handcuffs . It can open the handcuffs anytime they want , or say . 'OK , we 'll change the lock ' , '' said Roberton Williams at the Tax Policy Center , an independent think tank .


Obama can no longer focus on his predecessor 's role in digging the hole . Obama 's debt problem\nPresident Barack Obama won ’ t be able to enjoy much of a victory lap from his win over congressional Republicans on the fiscal cliff fight .\nThe staggering national debt — up about 60 percent from the $ 10 trillion Obama inherited when he took office in January 2009 — is the single biggest blemish on Obama ’ s record , even if the rapid descent into red began under President George W. Bush .\nObama has long emphasized Bush ’ s role in digging the immense hole . But he owns it now , and it ’ s a significant political liability as he girds for a fast-approaching brawl with the GOP over how to deal with converging deadlines of a new debt ceiling fight and the need to come up with $ 1 trillion in deficit reduction mandated by the so-called “ sequester . ”\n“ The numbers — at some point it ’ s got to catch up or else we ’ re all going to die , ” said Chris Chocola , head of the anti-tax Club for Growth , which opposed the cliff deal . “ We have serious problems that are going unaddressed and we ’ re moving in the wrong direction . ”\nObama was able to splinter his deeply divided Republican opponents over the issue of tax cuts for the wealthy . But a similar fate might await the president and his Democratic allies if he brokers a deal with the GOP that requires massive spending and entitlement cuts .\nDuring the cliff talks , Obama was purposely opaque about what cuts he ’ d ultimately accept , saying only that Republican resistance to a one-shot grand bargain meant he needed to make a deal in pieces — taxes first , spending second .\nThat tactic delayed but didn ’ t eliminate a looming day of reckoning on spending and entitlements that will come within 60 days thanks to the convergence of the debt ceiling deadline and the new deadline for keeping automatic cuts from kicking in .\n“ Republicans — and some Democrats — want to curtail Social Security , veterans benefits , Medicare and Medicaid — that ’ s not a secret — and some of us are going to be fighting to say no , ” said Sen. Bernie Sanders ( I-Vt. ) , author of a letter sent by 29 Senate Democrats in September demanding Obama back off chained CPI , which would reduce Social Security increases indexed to inflation .\n“ It is absolutely imperative the president and Democratic leadership stay strong on this issue . If they do , we will win , ” added Sanders , who wants the president to aggressively push for tax hikes and loophole elimination on corporations .\nFormer Clinton administration official Alice Rivlin , a member of Obama ’ s defunct deficit commission , says Obama “ understands the [ deficit-reduction ] issue ” but “ he ’ s got to deal with his own left wing , which is not enthusiastic about doing it . The real problem … is that Social Security has become kind of [ a ] no-no ” to liberals .\nIn a video message to his 2012 campaign supporters released Wednesday , Obama offered few specifics on how he ’ d approach the coming fight . He reiterated his call for a “ balanced ” approach to deficit reduction despite a cliff deal that contains only a few billion in cuts and may add hundreds of billions to the debt in coming decades , according to the Congressional Budget Office .


Both sides in the federal talks to avert a year-end fiscal crisis signaled late Monday that significant progress had been made , with sources saying President Obama had offered a higher threshold for tax rate increases and with House Speaker Boehner 's office calling it `` a step in the right direction . ''\nThe late-day developments followed a 45-minute meeting between Obama and Boehner at the White House , underscoring the seriousness of the talks as the deadline approaches for a deal to stop massive automatic spending cuts and tax hikes from kicking in at the start of the new year .\nObama 's most recent offer included $ 1.2 trillion in increased revenue over 10 years , with tax rate hikes on individual income above $ 400,000 , a source familiar with the negotiations told Fox News . That would be a sharp departure from the president 's past stance against maintaining the existing low tax rates on any income above $ 200,000 , or $ 250,000 for couples . The latest offer would cut the deficit an estimated $ 2.4 trillion over a decade .\nThe two sides are getting close , but significant issues remain , a Republican source told Fox Business . They are said to have agreed to at least $ 1 trillion in spending cuts and at least $ 1 trillion in new revenue through a mix of tax rate increases on top incomes and tax code reform , though the details have yet to be worked out .\n`` Any movement away from the unrealistic offers the president has made previously is a step in the right direction , '' Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said , though he also criticized the specific mix of spending cuts and tax hikes Obama has proposed , saying it `` can not be considered balanced . ''\nThe speaker last week offered Obama a compromise by proposing a tax rate hike on those making over $ 1 million .\nRaising the debt ceiling also is emerging a sticking point in negotiations , and indeed , a large part of the looming fiscal crisis stems from Congress ' past failure to agree upon an adequate deficit-reduction plan , as mandated by the previous deal to raise the debt ceiling .\nThe speaker 's office insists that Boehner will stand by his condition that the debt ceiling be raised only if Washington cuts spending by an amount greater than the increase .\nBoehner 's office tried to assure conservatives on Sunday that he was not backing off his debt-ceiling demands , following a report in The Washington Post that he offered to push off any battle over the debt ceiling for another year .\nBoehner and other Republicans have so far refused Obama 's demand that he be given the authority to raise the debt ceiling whenever he wants . At issue , though , appears to be whether to include a one-time increase in the debt ceiling as part of this deal . While Boehner may be offering to include an increase that lasts a year , Obama 's latest proposal called for a two-year extension .\nBoehner is asking for $ 1 trillion in spending cuts over the next 10 years from government benefit programs like Medicare , the federal health care program for the elderly . Those cuts would defer most of a painful set of across-the-board spending cuts set to slash many domestic programs and the defense budget by 8-9 percent , starting in January .\nOn the revenue side , Boehner 's offer calls for about $ 450 billion in revenue from increasing the top rate on million-dollar-plus income from 35 percent to the Clinton-era rate of 39.6 percent . The additional revenue required to meet Boehner 's $ 1 trillion target would be collected through a rewrite of the tax code next year and by slowing the inflation adjustments made to tax brackets .\nIf no deal is reached , the Bush-era tax rates will expire , resulting in a significant tax hike on nearly all Americans next year .\nBoth sides are caught between the demands of the other , and their own parties . Many congressional Democrats want to raise taxes on households making more than $ 250,000 . Boehner 's offer marks a much higher threshold than they prefer .\nWhite House Press Secretary Jay Carney reiterated Monday that Obama believes the only plan that achieves the `` balance '' Obama wants is the plan the president has put forward . Still , he said , Obama `` believes that a deal is possible . ''\nObama also faces opposition from many Democrats to any substantive cuts in Medicare .\nFor his part , Boehner faces another problem . Even if he extracts $ 1 trillion in spending cuts from the president , some Republicans are likely to see this as a trade-off for tax increases -- not a trade-off for a debt ceiling increase .


Led by Patty Murray , progressives on Capitol Hill are already drawing their line . Fiscal cliff : Will liberals jump ?\nA growing bloc of emboldened liberals say they ’ re not afraid to watch defense spending get gouged and taxes go up on every American if a budget deal doesn ’ t satisfy their priorities .\nHere ’ s what these progressives fear : an agreement that keeps lower tax rates for the wealthy , hits the social safety net with unpalatable cuts and leaves Pentagon spending unscathed . In other words , they ’ d rather walk the country off the cliff than watch President Barack Obama cave on long-held liberal priorities .\n“ If the Republicans can ’ t see their way to significant additional revenues targeted toward the people who are best off and targeted toward passive income and other things like that , then we ’ re better off going over the cliff and readdressing this with a better Congress in January , ” Rep. Peter DeFazio ( D-Ore. ) said . “ And we would have plenty of time to fix it . ”\nBolstering the Democrats ’ strategy is the belief that the “ fiscal cliff ” is actually shaped more like a “ slope ” where the economic effects will be felt gradually , not immediately . That theory gives Congress some time at the beginning of 2013 to set tax rates and configure budget cuts in a different political environment and with a new class of lawmakers .\nBut underlying the tough talk is also a sense of liberal angst — the left feels like it was burned by the last extension of the Bush tax rates and didn ’ t get much of what it wanted in the 2011 debt-limit deal .\nIf tax rates snap back to the higher levels from the 1990s and painful budget cuts start to hit the Pentagon , these Democrats — led by Washington Sen. Patty Murray — believe they would wield more leverage over the GOP to enact a budget compromise on their terms . And with a January deal , Republicans would technically avoid violating the no-new-taxes pledge that most of them have signed because they would then be voting to cut taxes .\nRepublicans would most likely bear most of the public blame if policymakers deadlock . The Pew Research Center found that 53 percent of Americans would fault GOP lawmakers if Washington fails to avert the fiscal cliff ; only 29 percent would point the finger at Obama .\n“ This is very , very important that we hang in there to essentially get the revenue component , ” said Rep. Peter Welch ( D-Vt. ) . “ I favor an agreement before Jan. 1 , but I ’ m skeptical that our leadership may be able to reach one . If it ’ s necessary to wait to get a good deal , let ’ s do that . ”\nMurray declared in a speech this summer that she would push budget negotiations into 2013 if Republicans don ’ t cave on taxes for the rich . The fourth-ranking Senate Democrat repeated the threat in a Nov. 11 interview on “ This Week . ”


In Fiscal Cliff PR War , Obama Seeks Help From A Public Already Leaning His Way\nIn Washington 's latest game of chicken , President Obama is counting on voters who see things his way to give him the edge in his quest to get congressional Republicans to accept tax increases on the nation 's wealthiest as part of any fiscal cliff deal .\nTo energize those voters , the president is ramping up a series of campaign-style events meant to educate the public about the stakes , as he sees them , of letting the Bush-era tax cuts for middle-class Americans expire if no agreement is reached by year 's end .\nIt 's all about raising the pressure on Republican lawmakers enough , especially those in the House , so that at least some will soften their opposition to tax increases for families earning more than $ 250,000 . Whether the president 's tactic will work remains to be seen .\nOn Wednesday , Obama added a twist to the White House campaign for public support . He urged voters to use social media to express themselves to members of Congress .\nAt a White House event with a group of everyday Americans serving as a backdrop , Obama even supplied supporters with a new Twitter hashtag for their messages : # my2k . The hashtag incorporated the president 's argument that an average middle-class family would have to pay an additional $ 2,200 in federal income taxes if no agreement is reached .\n`` Call your members of Congress , write them an email , post it on their Facebook walls , '' Obama told his audience . `` You can tweet it using the hashtag 'My2K ' `` Not 'Y2K [ laughter ] . ' 'My2K . ' We figured that would make it a little easier to remember . ''\nFor Obama , the hashtag-slinging public relations effort was the 2012 version of a president 's traditional White House bully pulpit to further his agenda . It was also an attempt to tap into the energy of the president 's supporters , who gave him the opportunity of a second term .\nTo a significant extent , Obama would seem to have an easier PR task than congressional Republicans . According to Election Day exit polls , a majority of voters agree with him that taxes should be increased on the wealthiest Americans .\nAs Obama has repeated since his re-election , the issue of higher taxes on the wealthy was exhaustively debated during his campaign against Republican Mitt Romney — and the president 's side won .\nBecause of that , even a political scientist who has become well known in the field for persuasively arguing that the power of the bully pulpit is overrated gives Obama the edge in the message war with Republicans .\n`` The public favors resolving the fiscal cliff problem in general and by raising tax rates on the wealthy in particular , '' George C. Edwards III of Texas A & M University wrote in an email response to a question . `` So the president does not have to persuade the public on these points . He just has to make pre-existing views more salient to members of Congress . This is an example of a president exploiting an opportunity in his environment without having to create one by changing people 's minds . ''\nObama was clearly counting on a repeat of earlier moments of his presidency , when public pressure caused House Republicans to accept an extension of the payroll tax holiday , among other proposals aimed at helping middle-income Americans .\n`` Some of you may remember that a year ago , during our last big fight to protect middle-class families , tens of thousands of working Americans called and tweeted and emailed their representatives , asking them to do the right thing . `` And sure enough , it worked . The same thing happened earlier this year when college students across the country stood up and demanded that Congress keep rates low on their student loans . Congress got the message loud and clear , and they made sure that interest rates on student loans did not go up . ''\nBut as of Wednesday , while some Republicans , like Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma , indicated a willingness to consider Obama 's proposal , most of the GOP was n't talking about raising tax rates for the wealthy . Instead , they placed their emphasis on spending cuts .\nAt his own news conference Wednesday , House Speaker John Boehner , R-Ohio , said :


Today 's 'Plan B ' Vote : Part Of Posturing Or A Push Over The 'Fiscal Cliff ? '\nWith the House set to vote this afternoon on Republicans ' `` Plan B '' for avoiding the so-called fiscal cliff , the questions that have been asked every day for weeks are being asked yet again , with added urgency :\nAre we headed over that `` cliff '' of automatic spending cuts , tax increases and expiring job benefits ? Or are President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner , R-Ohio , closer to a deal than they 're letting on in public ?\nOn Morning Edition , NPR 's Mara Liasson said the answers may be yes , and yes .\n`` Either we 're one step closer to the cliff or this is just part of the 'two steps forward , one step backward ' process that Congress and the White House have to go through , '' she told host David Greene . Both sides , she added , may just need to show they 're `` fighting as hard as they can before they make the ultimate compromise . '' So , Republicans have put forward their Plan B and the White House has threatened to veto it ( though the odds seem low that it would be passed by the Democratic-controlled Senate ) .\nThere 's even talk , Mara said , about going `` over the cliff a little bit '' — for a few days or so after Jan. 1 — before an ultimate compromise .\nAnd what a compromise might look like is taking shape , she pointed out . Boehner has proposed increases in revenues ( a.k.a . taxes ) of about $ 1 trillion by allowing Bush-era tax cuts on income of more than $ 1 million a year to expire . Boehner 's also proposed about $ 1 trillion in spending cuts .\nMeanwhile , Mara noted , Obama has proposed revenue increases of about $ 1.3 trillion — by letting those Bush-era tax cuts expire on income of more than $ 400,000 a year — and spending cuts of about $ 930 billion .\nAs for today 's vote , here are some of the morning 's other stories :\n-- `` A House vote on the plan , scheduled for Thursday , poses a major political test for Boehner 's leadership team , which is pitching it as a vote of confidence and a way for Republicans to extract more concessions from Obama in negotiations over government spending and taxes . '' ( The Washington Post )\n-- Boehner 's brief statement Wednesday about the scheduling of today 's vote , `` suggested confidence that Republican leaders would have the votes to pass his plan . But lawmakers who were counting votes for the leadership said the tally was short , and House leaders were adding provisions to the speaker 's bill to mollify dissidents . '' ( The New York Times )\n-- `` GOP leadership is considering attaching a package of spending cuts to ride alongside Boehner 's tax rate bill . Republican lawmakers are skittish about voting on allowing taxes to snap to near 40 percent for millionaires without paring back federal spending . '' ( Politico )\nUpdate at 12:30 p.m . ET : GOP Plan Is `` Non-starter '' In The Senate , Reid Says :\nAs we said earlier , it 's unlikely Plan B would pass in the Democratic-controlled Senate .\nSen . Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nev. , just called it a `` non-starter . ''\n`` We are going to have the votes '' to pass Plan B in the House , Majority Leader Eric Cantor , R-Va. , just told reporters . He also said the House will not go into recess after today 's vote .


I was just reading an article on the World Net Daily website concerning interviews conducted by the newspaper , The College Fix . It showed a video of students at a supposedly Christian college in Minneapolis , MN , who were answering questions about Thanksgiving .\nI say `` supposedly '' because I could find no reference to the college 's Christian affiliation on its website . These students were asked if it was ok ( or is that kk ? ) to celebrate Thanksgiving . The answers , mostly in the negative , showed just how ignorant these young people are .\nOne kid said : `` I think that Thanksgiving has been misconstrued a lot , especially in textbooks . It 's kind of just based off of the genocide of indigenous people , and I do n't really think that we actually give thanks on Thanksgiving . We just eat a bunch of food , and it 's just a bunch of capitalist bull -- -- . ''\nTo one degree or another , that was how most responded .\nBut aside from an obvious lack of understanding of their own country 's history , what saddened me most about their responses was their lack of awe . Lack of awe that their country , the United States of America , came into existence at all - despite many dangers and unbelievable hardship - with timely `` coincidences '' that allowed the newcomers to survive and live on to lay the groundwork for the freest , most generous , most prosperous nation on earth .\nIndeed , a nation where the oppressed of the world want to come . Yes . It 's the place where the oppressed want to come . It makes me ask : What do these seekers of America know that these young college people do n't ? Something else , for sure , I think , because the kids on this particular campus did n't see anything to celebrate . Instead , they see America as a place only of oppressors and colonizers taking advantage of indigenous peoples .\nThat 's not what Squanto saw when he came out of the woods to greet the Pilgrims in their native tongue . To me , Squanto 's is one of those `` awe-filled '' stories little known in our history , and one these students obviously are missing .\nAs a 12-year-old boy in 1614 , years before the Pilgrims landed , Squanto , a Wampanoag Indian , was kidnapped by an English trader and taken to Spain to be sold into slavery along with about two dozen others of his tribe .\n`` It caused quite a commotion when this guy showed up trying to sell these people , '' historian Charles Mann , the author of `` 1491 : New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus , '' told The Huffington Post . `` A bunch of people in the church said no way . ''\nSquanto , called Tisquantum in his native language , escaped slavery with the help of Christian friars and somehow made his way to England . There he worked for five years as a stable boy with a family named Slaney , waiting for a ship to take him back to the coast of North America , back to his home and family . Finally , his ship really did come in !\nIn an interview that aired on ███ 's The 700 Club , Eric Metaxas , author of `` Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving , '' tells Squanto 's story and how he saved the Pilgrims .\n`` So it 'd be about 1618 , I think . And in that time , of course , he had learned English and he had lived in London . All these years I imagine that he was dreaming and hoping and probably praying that he could come back to his family . And so , miraculously , a ship is provided . He becomes the translator on the ship . They 're going to use him to translate , '' Metaxas recalled .\nBut upon his return , Squanto found his family and most of his tribe dead , killed off , possibly , by hepatitis or smallpox . Alone , with tragedy striking his life once again , he walked out of the woods that day to greet the Pilgrims , as Metaxes recounted , speaking the King 's English .\n`` And it just so happens that he grew up on the very spot where they had settled . This was his home that had been abandoned , and now he was back in his village , and they basically adopted him . He had no place to go . They became his family . And he knew everything there was to know about how you plant corn , '' Metaxes explained .\n`` That 's the famous story about planting corn with the fish as the fertilizer - how to plant the gourd around the corn so it goes up the cornstalk . He knew how to get eels out of the streams , out of the muddy streams . He knew where the lobsters were and where the fish were . He knew everything . And the Lord used him truly miraculously . I mean , if you really think about it , it 's too much for us to understand , '' he continued .\nBut I guess you do n't see the awe unless you see the purpose and the workings of a God who has a plan . I do n't think these kids at a so-called Christian college are getting that . Yes , their country was founded by a flawed , sinful people who made serious mistakes as time went by but by God 's grace , they planted an outpost of freedom and opportunity unlike any seen in world history .\nSquanto was n't the only `` coincidence '' in the founding of this country , an encounter or occurrence that happened just in time . American history is full of those coincidences , too many to recount right now . But they ought to be taught in our classrooms today because ... well because they 're awe-inspiring and make you appreciate that America was and is a good plan . And those Pilgrims at Plymouth with their belief in a God who loved everyone and wanted good for all were key to making it happen .\nThis Thanksgiving , that 's something I 'll be remembering and thanking God for : our friend , Squanto , and the miraculous beginnings of our country .


WASHINGTON – Fourth of July festivities in the nation 's capital were anything but typical this year . It was n't just the military tanks , jet flyovers or the speech by President Donald Trump .\nThe president 's role in what is usually a nonpartisan celebration created what felt like three different events : Protesters who decried his administration and its policies ; a campaign rally where supporters cheered for him to keep the White House for another term ; and those who simply wanted to enjoy hot dogs and fireworks with their families for the annual Independence Day festivities .\nOn a holiday marking America 's birthday , the country 's divisions were on full display .\nThere was a giant blimp depicting the president as an orange infant . There was also a sea of red , `` Make America Great Again '' hats . And there were families spread out along the National Mall with blankets and children anxiously awaiting the fireworks display and not focused on politics .\nWhen the protesters and Trump supporters clashed over a flag burning in front of the White House , there were two arrests , although most confrontations did not go beyond shouting matches .\n'Nothing America can not do ' : Donald Trump touts U.S. military strength in 4th of July speech\nUh-oh : Donald Trump trips up on history in 4th of July speech , mentions airports during Revolutionary War\nTrump 's influence on the annual celebrations were easy to spot .\nSupporters poured into the National Mall throughout the day , many waving `` Trump 2020 '' flags or wearing `` MAGA '' hats . They passed by the heckling of protesters with disgust , some yelling `` SNOWFLAKES ! '' to the crowds gathered in opposition of Trump .\nIn the afternoon at the National Independence Day Parade parade , thousands of people lined the streets of Washington to watch floats , drum lines and military units march by . As the parade marched on , the heat did too . Spectators migrated towards the shade , picking up ice-cold bottles of water from vendors , to watch the parade .\nHundreds of Trump supporters were part of the crowd that lined Constitution Avenue .\nTrump ’ s new campaign slogan , ‘ Keep America Great , ’ also filled the surrounding streets of the parade . Vendor stands at nearly every corner pushed Trump hats and paraphernalia on energetic supporters .\n'This says something ' : Thousands gather in Washington for Donald Trump 's 4th of July celebration\n'Tanks ' a lot : Trump 4th of July celebration is n't first time armored vehicles have rumbled into DC\nJim Sutton usually attends the parade each year with his wife , Gigi . But the couple , who sported head-to-toe Trump gear , said something felt different this year .\n“ It ’ s just fantastic , ” Gigi Sutton said , in her white Trump T-shirt and flag pants . The pair said the criticism of Trump ’ s use of military equipment in the event was unwarranted .\n“ We ’ ve been having all these problems with Iran , North Korea . This says something , ” Gigi Sutton said . Her husband chimed in , “ It let ’ s the world know our nation ’ s defense is well at hand . ”\nAfter watching Trump 's speech and the military aircraft flyovers for each branch of the military , Amiee LeDoux was left in tears .\n`` That was the first time I ever cried during the Fourth of July , '' LeDoux , who traveled with her family from New Hampshire , said as she started to tear up again . `` I just felt like it really embraced who we are and it just felt like God was really honored , and America was honored and the military was honored . ''\nWearing a blue Trump hat , LeDoux said she thought Trump 's speech helped bring the country together .\n`` I think there was a lot of unity and the mentioning of our history and how rich of a history we have , it was just so beautiful , '' she said .\nWhile the event was mostly peaceful , a fight broke out at a flag burning event in front of the White House that led to at least two arrests .\nTrump supporters , some wearing hats emblazoned with Trump 's `` Make America Great Again '' slogan , charged a circle of protesters who were burning a flag , causing the protesters to topple over . The Trump supporters , some of whom were wearing attire identifying themselves as Proud Boys , a far-right organization , attempted to stamp out the fire .\nBut the flag burning was far from the only act of protest happening in the heart of Washington . Many wore shirts about impeaching Trump or supporting Hillary Clinton , Trump 's Democratic rival in the 2016 election . They carried balloons depicting Trump as a small , orange baby — a miniature depiction of a famous blimp that was briefly inflated on the National Mall .\nMore : Flag burning in front of White House leads to scuffle amid 4th of July celebrations\nMore : 'Baby Trump ' blimp appears grounded for July 4 protest during president 's DC celebration\nAlong with the Baby Trump blimp , the liberal activist organization Code Pink also parked a 16-foot-tall `` Dumping Trump '' robot featuring the president sitting on a golden toilet wearing a MAGA-style hat saying `` Make America Great Again : Impeach Me . ''\nThe robot sporadically shouted out some of Trump ’ s most-used lines , including “ no collusion ” and “ witch hunt . ”\nNearby , Noel Eldridge gathered with the nearly 100 protesters , holding a sign plastered with photographs of migrant detention centers . It read `` Are you proud to be American ? Today ? ''\nEldridge said he grew up in the same New York neighborhood as Trump . `` I know the particular kind of bully and racist he is , '' Eldridge said .\nJust yards away , a miniature baby Trump balloon was locked inside of a metal cage . Linda Berns said she has traveled from her home in Bethesda , Md . each year for 40 years to watch the fireworks along the National Mall . This year , she came to protest .\nShe said she joined the protest against Trump ’ s immigration policies because of her family ’ s history . `` This is a country of immigrants , '' Berns said . `` My grandparents were immigrants . ''\nAnne and Emily Balderson , both waving mini-Trump-baby balloons , came to D.C. from Texas to experience the holiday in the capital but said Trump role in the event was unnecessary and causing more division in the country .\n`` I think it ’ s making 4th of July more of a divisive holiday , '' Emily Balderson said . `` He ’ s making it about himself instead of the country and it should just be about how our country was founded . ''\nAt the opposite end of the National Mall , near the U.S. Capitol and Washington Monument , things were different . There were no protests . Scarcely anyone wore Trump attire .\nInstead , families , wearing red , white and blue , sat on blankets , held up small American flags and enjoyed the music from the `` A Capitol Fourth ” concert .\nAfter the last of the military jets flew over the crowd and many left , families were left camped out on picnic blankets , and kids huddled together under umbrellas eager to watch the fireworks display . Some came more prepared than others , with plastic bags to put under their blankets and rain ponchos with hoods .\nDavid Portis was among those camped out . He said there were remarkably fewer people along the Mall than he remembered in past years , which he blamed on the rain and not the additions to the program .\nPortis said he was neutral on Trump ’ s presence during the holiday . `` I even brought my daughter and her friend , '' he said , pointing to an open grassy area near the Washington Monument where a group of children were playing ball barefooted .\nOthers also were n't preoccupied by the politics thrust into the event .\nMitchell Reed , the band director for a group of 99 Florida high school students who attended the concert and played during a parade earlier in the day , said the event took on a different meaning for his group .\n`` It ’ s been crazy , '' he said as he watched the nearby concert . `` But it ’ s a day everyone in our band will never forget . ''


President Obama marked Independence Day on Thursday by calling on Americans to follow the example of the patriots who determined the nation ’ s destiny in 1776 .\n“ We , the people , must make their task our own — to live up to the words of that Declaration of Independence , and secure liberty and opportunity for our own children , and for future generations , ” Mr. Obama said in his weekly address .\nThe president , who returned to the U.S. on Tuesday night after a weeklong trip to Africa , said America is a “ global defender of peace and freedom , a beacon of hope to people everywhere who cherish those ideals . ”\nMr. Obama and his family celebrated the holiday by hosting a gathering on the South Lawn of the White House for about 1,200 members of the U.S. military and their families , plus some White House staff and their families .\nThe president and first lady Michelle Obama spoke to the crowd before the evening ’ s fireworks show on the Mall . They shook hands and posed with red , white and blue-clad babies for about 10 minutes . Mr. Obama noted that the day was also his daughter Malia ’ s 15th birthday .\n“ You have fought on our nation ’ s behalf to make the world a better , safer place , ” the president told service members in his earlier address . “ People in scattered corners of the world are living in peace today , free to write their own futures , because of you . ”\nReferring to the Founding Fathers , Mr. Obama said their push for independence 237 years ago “ was a bold and tremendously brave thing to do . ”\n“ They fought a revolution . Few would have bet on our side to win . But for the first of many times to come , America proved the doubters wrong , ” Mr. Obama said .\nIn his own Independence Day message , House Speaker John A. Boehner , Ohio Republican , urged citizens to “ remember above all how fortunate we are to call ourselves Americans . ”\n“ The blessings our founders secured have given the common man and woman a chance to govern themselves and provide for their families , ” Mr. Boehner said , though he added that the pursuit of freedom “ has its challenges . ”\n“ It was Jefferson himself who wrote that ‘ the boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave , ’ ” Mr. Boehner said . “ We will rise above this one , if we embrace the line in Scripture that says ‘ whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant. ’ That is the spirit and the vision of 1776 . ”


“ The 360 ” shows you diverse perspectives on the day ’ s top stories .\nPolitics is one of the most contentious subjects in our society . Political polarization and the intensity of opinions have never been more pronounced . This can create a perfect storm of conflict during the holidays , when people with widely different views are brought together in the same place , and family dynamics can raise the temperature in the room .\nMost Americans dread the thought of political discussions during the holidays . A recent poll found politics to be one of the most likely causes of family fights . Things have only gotten worse in recent years as the country has become more polarized . Things could be particularly intense this year , with the impeachment inquiry into President Trump going on throughout the holiday season .\nThese factors lead many families to avoid political talk over the holidays , either as a formal rule or an unspoken guideline . With there being little chance of anyone ’ s minds changing and a high likelihood of hurt feelings , the belief is that it ’ s better to keep the peace and focus on commonalities rather than divisions . Others say that following political news has become such an all-consuming and exhausting endeavor , it ’ s nice to have a break even if the topic won ’ t lead to a fight .\nOn the other hand , there are some who believe politics ought to be discussed at holiday gatherings . Family members or close friends can help put a human face on opposing views at a time when rival political parties are increasingly treated as radical enemies . The holidays also provide a rare opportunity to interact with people from different racial , social and economic groups . Finally , some experts believe it ’ s important for us to understand things that are important to the key people in our lives . If that means providing room for them to discuss political positions they ’ re passionate about , so be it .\nThis holiday season is coming at a uniquely heated time in American politics , but that doesn ’ t mean there ’ s likely to be any relief next year . The 2020 holiday season will take place in the wake of one of the most pivotal elections in U.S. history . The outcome , Trump being reelected or an incoming Democratic president , might be a tough topic to ignore .\nThis year is a particularly bad time to discuss politics\n“ People feel increasingly uncomfortable around their Fox News-loving grandfather or their New York Times-subscribing granddaughter . And research indicates the solution to this is simply to not engage in political debate . Stick to sports or the weather . But do not mention the White House or its current inhabitant. ” — Yaffa Fredrick , CNN\n“ In 2019 , the most quintessential of American holidays is a time to sheathe the words of rancor . And it is a time to recall why Abraham Lincoln turned what was once a sporadic national occasion into a regular event that draws people together to practice the core meaning of the holiday. ” — Editorial , Christian Science Monitor\nWhoever is hosting is allowed to ban politics talk if they choose\n“ I advise everyone to take a holiday from politics on Thanksgiving . As folks arrive and you take their coats , gently tell them partisan talk won ’ t be on the table with the stuffing. ” — Frank Batavick , Baltimore Sun\n“ The most important thing to keep in mind over the holidays is that you ’ re unlikely to change anyone ’ s mind. ” — Madeline Fry , Washington Examiner\nRelationships with family and friends are more important than politics\n“ A woman recently told me that the reason she and her best friend are still best friends — even though she loves Trump and her friend loathes him — is that they have tacitly agreed not to talk about him . … They also believe their friendship is MUCH more important than Donald Trump , even though Donald Trump himself would undoubtedly disagree. ” — Ann Cannon , Salt Lake Tribune\nWe need to be honest with ourselves about whether our families can handle a political debate\n“ Ideally , we would all be able to gather as families and engage in spirited but respectful conversations regarding the news of the day . I don ’ t know any family that actually manages to do this ( including my own ) . ” — Amy Dickinson , NJ.com


That 's a famous line from the 19th century philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson , but it could also apply to a modern American hero : the Rev . Martin Luther King Jr .\nAs the nation celebrates King 's national holiday Monday , it 's easy to freeze-frame him as the benevolent dreamer carved in stone on the Washington Mall . Yet the platitudes that frame many King holiday events often fail to mention the most radical aspects of his legacy , says Jeanne Theoharis , a political science professor at Brooklyn College and author of several books on the civil rights movement .\n`` We turn him into a Thanksgiving parade float , he 's jolly , larger than life and he makes us feel good , '' Theoharis says . `` We 've turned him into a mascot . ''\nMany people vaguely know that King opposed the Vietnam War and talked more about poverty in his later years . But King also had a lot to say about issues not normally associated with civil rights that still resonate today , historians and activists say .\nIf you 're concerned about inequality , health care , climate change or even the nastiness of our political disagreements , then King has plenty to say to you . To see that version of King , though , we have to dust off the cliches and look at him anew .\nIf you 're more familiar with your smartphone than your history , try this : Think of King not just as a civil rights hero , but also as an app -- his legacy has to be updated to remain relevant .\nHere are three ways we can update our MLK app to see how he spoke not only to his time , but to our time as well :\nWhen former Attorney General Eric Holder spoke at a King commemorative event in 2011 , he described King in an unusual way :\nKing , he said , helped `` plant the seeds for what would become our nation 's now-thriving environmental justice movement . ''\nThere 's a connection between what King was saying in the 1950s and '60s and this explosion of ecological thinking that emerged around 1970 , where everyone was saying it 's all about interconnectedness . Drew Dellinger , author and activist , on King 's environmental legacy\nPeople do n't think of King as an ecological activist . He did n't live long enough to see the environmental movement take off . He died just a few months before the Apollo 8 astronauts took the iconic `` Earthrise '' photo over the moon , which is often credited with sparking widespread environmental awareness ..\nBut he still inspires environmental activists because they say he was so eloquent in articulating a core belief of their movement : the interconnected nature of life .\nOne of the most difficult challenges climate change activists face today is convincing political and business leaders to act on behalf of future generations and people in other parts of the world .\nKing , though , offers a great example of how to address this challenge , some say . He constantly talked about the interconnectedness of life .\nIn his `` A Christmas Sermon on Peace '' just five months before his assassination , King delivered one of his most famous quotes :\n`` All life is interrelated . We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality . Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly . We are made to live together because of the interrelated structure of reality . ''\nActivist and author Drew Dellinger says King 's insight is profound .\n`` That 's the essence of ecology , '' says Dellinger , who wrote an essay for Common Ground magazine entitled , `` Martin Luther King Jr. : Ecological Thinker . ''\n`` The first law of ecology is that everything is connected . ''\nOther environmental activists have noticed King as well . In his essay , Dellinger cites Larry L. Rasmussen , author of `` Earth-honoring Faith '' and a professor emeritus of social ethics at Union Theological Seminary , describing King as `` one of the great ecological thinkers of the 20th century . ''\nKing wrote more about nature and the fragility of life on Earth than people realize , says Dellinger . King once warned that `` cities are gasping in polluted air and enduring contaminated water . ''\nDellinger also cites this quote from King : `` It would be foolhardy for me to work for integrated schools or integrated lunch counters and not be concerned about the survival of the world in which to be integrated . ''\nWhen he was pouring through King 's sermons and books , Dellinger says , he discovered constant references to science and nature . He came across notecards written in King 's hand rhapsodizing about `` all this galaxy of wonder '' and `` stars that guide sailors in storms . ''\nSome activists concerned by melting glaciers caused by climate change have found an unlikely source of inspiration in King 's words .\n`` There 's a connection between what King was saying in the 1950s and '60s and this explosion of ecological thinking that emerged around 1970 , where everyone was saying it 's all about interconnectedness , '' Dellinger says .\nGwendolyn Keyes Fleming , a former EPA regional administrator who wrote about King 's environmental legacy , says King also inspired a generation of activists in the 1970s and '80s who fought to remove landfills that had been placed near communities of color .\n`` If you go back to the beginnings of the environmental justice movement , a lot of those folks were active civil rights advocates at the time , '' says Keys , now a partner in the DC law firm of Van Ness Feldman . `` Even Congressman John Lewis said that environmental justice is one of the modern civil rights issues of our time . ''\nNo . 2 : He was a socialist before it was cool\nThere was a time in American politics when calling someone a socialist was a slur . Not anymore , at least for many younger Americans who are developing a distrust of capitalism .\nOne of the most popular politicians in recent times is Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders , a self-described Democratic Socialist who almost captured the Democratic nomination for president . A 2016 Harvard University poll said 51 % of young Americans -- 18- to-29-year-olds -- oppose capitalism . And a poll conducted the next year by YouGov and the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation found that most American millennials preferred to live in a socialist country than a capitalist one .\nYoung Americans drawn to Sen. Bernie Sanders ' message would find that King shared a similar economic philosophy .\nThe reasons why some millennials prefer socialism have been documented . Lingering scars from the Great Recession ; staggering student debt ; the greatest economic inequality since before the Great Depression -- all have contributed to an unease about capitalism .\nMany historians describe him as a `` democratic socialist , '' someone who , according to the Democratic Socialists of America , believes the economy should be shaped `` to meet public needs '' and `` not to make profits for a few . ''\nKing called for universal health care and education , a guaranteed annual income and the nationalization of some industries .\nHe was a big supporter of unions , and while there was no Fight for 15 campaign to raise the minimum wage during his time , he once said even menial workers should make enough `` so they can live and educate their children and buy a home and have the basic necessities of life . ''\nWhen King was assassinated in 1968 , he was about lead a multiracial army of poor people into Washington to force the nation 's political leaders to address poverty .\n`` He saw that changing the laws was important but that was not in itself sufficient , '' says Jerald Podair , a history professor at Lawrence University in Wisconsin . `` There had to be some sort of redistribution of economic power . ''\nHow radical was King 's vision ? He spelled out it on many occasions :\n`` It did n't cost the nation a penny to open lunch counters . It did n't cost the nation a penny to give us the right to vote . But it will cost the nation billions to feed and house all of its citizens . The country needs a radical redistribution of wealth . ''\n`` There must be a better distribution of wealth , and maybe America must move toward a democratic socialism . ''\nToday capitalism has outlived its usefulness . It has brought about a system that takes necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the classes . The Rev . Martin Luther King Jr .\nIn 1964 , after traveling to Norway to receive the Nobel Peace Prize , King said :\n`` In both Norway and Sweden , whose economies are literally dwarfed by the size of our affluence and the extent of our technology , they have no unemployment and no slums . There , men , women and children have long enjoyed free medical care and quality education . This contrast to the limited , halting steps taken by our rich nation deeply troubled me . ''\nEven one of King ' s most utopian visions -- a guaranteed income -- is getting serious discussion today because of fears that automation will erase many jobs . There 's even a new proposal to give every newborn in the US `` Baby Bonds , '' accounts between $ 500 and $ 50,000 that parents could n't touch until their kids turn 18 , as a way to combat inequality .\nThere are those who say King gravitated toward socialism later in his life . But like many Americans today , he saw its possibilities first as a young man .\nIn a letter to his future wife , Coretta Scott , a 20-something King wrote :\n`` I imagine you already know that I am much more socialistic in my economic theory than capitalistic ... So today capitalism has outlived its usefulness . It has brought about a system that takes necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the classes . ''\nNo . 3 : He never let a political disagreement turn nasty\n`` Reverend Dr . Chickenwing . '' `` A religious Uncle Tom . '' A `` traitor '' and a `` chump . ''\nThat 's how one prominent black leader described King when he was alive .\nThat leader was Malcolm X . While his denunciations of King and other leaders is well known , here 's a remarkable fact : There is virtually no record of King making a personal or petty attack against Malcolm X or any other black leaders who criticized him .\nThis could be an important lesson at a time of bitter political divisions , which are often made worse by social media .\nWe turn him into a Thanksgiving parade float , he 's jolly , larger than life and he makes us feel good . We 've turned him into a mascot . Jeanne Theoharis , author of `` A More Beautiful and Terrible History : The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History ''\nTwo contemporary leaders in the civil rights movement recently got involved in a Twitter feud that turned personal . The clash between Harvard professor Cornel West and award-winning Ta-Nehisi Coates revolved around political philosophy . But it became so heated that Coates ended up deleting his Twitter account .\nKing received a cascade of petty insults from Malcolm X and other black leaders during his time , but King 's faith tempered his response , says Podair , the historian .\n`` He was a Christian minister , and he talked about trying to love segregationists , and if you try to have empathy for your enemies , you can also do that with your rivals in civil rights organizations , '' says Podair , who writes about race in his latest book , `` City of Dreams : Dodger Stadium and the Birth of Modern Los Angeles . ''\nThere was also a pragmatic side to King 's reluctance to get pulled into public feuds . It preserved alliances and kept the door open to new allies -- including Malcolm X .\nAfter Malcolm broke with the Nation of Islam in 1964 , he started reaching out to King and other civil rights leaders . He traveled to Selma , Alabama , in 1965 , where King was leading the march to Montgomery , to offer support . A friend of Malcolm once said the former Nation of Islam leader believed King `` would be the most responsive '' of all civil rights leaders to his efforts to reconcile .\n`` He had come to believe that King believed in what he was doing , '' A. Peter Bailey told CNN in 2010 `` He believed in nonviolence ; it just was n't a show . He developed respect for him . I heard him say you have to give respect to men who put their lives on the line . ''\nWhen King later learned that Malcolm X had come to Selma to support him , he was quoted as saying , `` Hey , that Malcolm is a beautiful brother . ''\n`` He always had a deep affection for Malcolm , '' says Jacob Udo-Udo Jacob , a visiting international scholar in international studies at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania .\n`` Malcolm obviously challenged and did say many unkind words about King 's philosophy of nonviolence , but their disagreements never turned personal or nasty . ''\nThe only time King and Malcolm X came face to face was this impromptu meeting in 1964 .\nKing 's magnanimous nature did n't just help him deal with other black leaders ' insults . It also helped him deal with something people today may find hard to believe : He was persistently unpopular during his lifetime , says Theoharis , the Brooklyn College political science professor and author of `` A More Beautiful and Terrible History : The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History . ''\n`` One of the things that people erase from history is how unpopular and scared of Dr. King most Americans were at the times , '' she says . `` I 'm not just talking about in '67 and '68 , but I 'm talking about in the early '60s . ''\nTheoharis cites King 's most transcendent moment : The 1963 March on Washington and his `` I have a Dream '' speech . Polls showed that most Americans did n't approve of the march , and the following year -- well before the 1965 Voting Rights Act was passed -- a New York Times poll showed that most Americans thought the civil rights movement had gone too far .\nThe US government thought King was so dangerous they treated him like an enemy of the state .\n`` We now see his March on Washington speech as the greatest American speech of the 20th century , '' she says , `` but we 're uncomfortable grappling with the fact that this is the moment that the FBI decided to have wall-to-wall surveillance of Dr . King . ''\nToday we have wall-to-wall celebrations about King . He 's now on par with American titans like Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln . Americans write tributes and sing songs about how much King has changed America .\nBut here 's one more uncomfortable thought that also explains why King remains so relevant :\nThe country is still divided by many of the same issues that consumed him .\nOn the last night of his life , King told a shouting congregation of black churchgoers that `` we as a people '' would get to `` the Promised Land . '' That kind of optimism , though , sounds like it belongs to another era .\nWhat we have now is a leader in the White House who denies widespread reports that he complained about Latino and African immigrants coming to America from `` shithole '' countries ; a white supremacist who murders worshippers in church ; a social media landscape that pulsates with anger and accusations .\nKing 's Promised Land does n't sound boring when compared to today 's headlines . And maybe that 's what 's so sad about reliving his life every January for some people .\nFifty years after he died , King 's vision for America still sounds so far away .\nCorrection : This story has been updated to reflect that Jacob Udo-Udo Jacob is now affiliated with Dickinson College .


Back in January 2016 , the New Yorker published a cover showing America ’ s most famous presidents recoiling in horror at the image of Donald Trump on the TV screen :\nThe cover was widely mocked by liberal commentators — not because of its attack on Trump but for suggesting that the depicted presidents represented a moral standard worthy of our praise and respect .\n`` What is distasteful about Trump is not that he offends old-fashioned American values , '' wrote Mother Jones ’ s Tim Murphy in one typical reaction . `` Trump is distasteful because he taps into certain old-fashioned American values — nativism , brash tough talk , slow-burning authoritarianism ; family dynasties — that have played a not-inconsequential role throughout our history . ''\nThe criticisms extended to several eras of American presidents . But it was also symbolic of the modern left ’ s drift from the legacy of the Revolution in particular , and toward its fundamental break with the traditional heroes of our national pantheon .\nOver the last generation , liberals have become increasingly emboldened in their denunciations of America 's founders , says Yale historian Steven Pincus . The American left stands poised to throw the Revolution overboard , to dismiss the spirit and legacy of 1776 as merely the cause of a racist , sexist , hypocritical aristocracy we should firmly reject .\nThey ’ d be wrong to do so . The modern left may have fallen out of step with our revolutionary heritage . But it should reclaim it : For all its warts , the Revolution really did unleash an egalitarian vision of America that frontally assaulted economic and social inequality . It ’ s a tradition liberals should celebrate and cherish , while expanding and enlarging its scope and ambitions .\nThe American Revolution ushered in a movement that tore down systems of privilege in favor of more egalitarian ways of organizing society .\nThe Revolution ended structures of primogeniture and challenged the idea of a landed gentry . It made popular sovereignty an inviolable promise of American government , at least in principle . It helped ignite popular movements not just in America but across the globe .\nThe definitive version of this interpretation comes from The Radicalism of the American Revolution , a 1991 book by Brown historian Gordon Wood . The Revolution , Wood writes , `` was as radical and as revolutionary as any in history , '' destroying beliefs about the superiority of the wealthy that had stood for centuries :\n[ The Revolution ] brought respectability and even dominance to ordinary people long held in contempt and gave dignity to their menial labor in a manner unprecedented in history and to a degree not equaled elsewhere in the world . The Revolution did not just eliminate monarchy and create republics ; it actually reconstituted what Americans meant by public or state power and brought about an entirely new kind of popular politics . The Revolution did not merely create a political and legal environment conducive to economic expansion ; it also released powerful and popular entrepreneurial and commercial energies that transformed the economic landscape of the country . In short , the Revolution was the most radical and most far-reaching event in American history .\nWood ’ s book produces an exhaustive chronicle of just how massive the Revolution ’ s social and economic changes were — the explosion of popular religion ; the wrenching of a culture from a monarchy to a republic ; the sudden growth of public education for boys and girls .\nThe most prominent figures in the revolutionary story — the politicians we remember — were indeed wealthier and more vested in protecting their economic self-interest than the modern left would like .\nBut the Founding Fathers are just one small part of the Revolution ’ s story . This is what the American left has forgotten most fundamentally about the American Revolution : that its foot soldiers were anything but aristocrats .\n`` I was part of the civil rights movement , and when I look at the early days of the Revolution I see the same thing : a sweeping , widespread , town-by-town popular uprising , '' says Ray Raphael , author of The Spirit of '74 : How the American Revolution Began , about the Massachusetts farmers who began the movement . `` When people say the Revolution is a pile of shit because it was all elites , they ’ re missing this was really a bottom-up revolt . ''\nMore than 90 percent of people in Massachusetts were behind the Revolution , and Raphael notes that the exception was largely gentry tied through patronage or business to the crown . The leaders at the convention were slow converts to the revolutionary cause , spurred on by overwhelming populist sentiment .\n`` It was the most ground-up expression of democracy you could imagine . That ’ s part of the Revolution , '' Raphael says . `` You do n't want to turn your head on that . ''\nWhy the left has rejected this version of the Revolution\nI should acknowledge the strength behind the most basic objection to celebrating the Revolution : Many of the founders were racist , sexist colonizers determined to wipe American Indians from the continent .\nThose charges are true . No one should ever forget that while opposed to slavery as a matter of principle , many of the founders created commercial fortunes by owning other human beings .\nThat part of the founders ’ story has been erased far too frequently throughout our history . And that ’ s why it ’ s understandable that many on the left have overcorrected by saying July 4 , 1776 , must be understood primarily as an affirmation of that part of their world :\n`` Our Founding Fathers fetish is strangling America : The disastrous consequences of our childish hero-worship , '' writes Elias Isquith in Salon .\n`` Forget the Founding Fathers , '' says Barry Gewen in the New York Times Book Review , in a summary of the major academic research . `` The God-given or nature-given rights they claimed for themselves included the right to hold Africans in bondage. ``\n`` The American Revolution was a mistake , '' added ███ ’ s Dylan Matthews in a piece echoing similar themes .\n`` The typical strategy of those on the left now is either to ignore the Founders — on the grounds that they do n't do elite history — or to point out their hypocrisy — Jefferson , Madison and Washington owned slaves , '' writes Pincus , the Yale professor .\nIt ’ s important to denounce the founders for their racism and acquiescence to slavery . That ’ s obviously correct and necessary .\nThe problem is that by applying 21st-century views on race and gender to an 18th-century context , we risk missing the real legacy of the Revolution . The founders were indeed racists by any modern standard . But even within its own time , the Revolution was a force for both racial and economic equality — and can remain the blueprint for those goals more than 240 years later .\nThe spirit of '76 was the greatest force for emancipation until Lincoln\nWhen the Revolution began in 1776 , slavery was legal in every colony . Only Pennsylvania even had an abolition society . Slavery had existed on American soil for two centuries without being substantially challenged by whites .\nThe American Revolution changed that . Pennsylvania ’ s emancipation act of 1780 , the first of its kind , was written by revolutionary leaders and explicitly cited the fight against British rule as its inspiration . Similar Northern emancipation acts followed : in Massachusetts and New Hampshire in 1783 , and then in Connecticut and Rhode Island the next year .\n`` Politicians , preachers , and propagandists unfurled the rhetoric of natural rights , '' Paul J. Polgar , a historian at the College of William & Mary , wrote in a 2011 essay for the Journal of the Early Republic , `` and the immediate post-Revolutionary period witnessed the emergence of abolition societies as far south as Virginia . ''\n`` Slavery was legal in every colony , and the Revolution led directly to the abolition of slavery in the northern United States , '' says Mary Beth Norton , a professor in Cornell ’ s history department , in an email .\nEven the elites in Philadelphia got swept up by this sentiment . The Declaration of Independence , which has so completely conquered the American imagination that it appears bloodless in a modern context , reflected just how powerful those ideas proved .\n`` The philosophy of the Declaration of Rights not only preached revolution , it preached the universal revolution , '' writes Carl Becker in his 1922 book , The Declaration of Independence . `` Declaring that the inalienable rights were the same for all men and the only sure foundation of political institutions , it implied that the institutions proper to one people were so to all people . ''\nDespite the revisionist attempts of Confederate reactionaries , Becker writes , the declaration 's sweeping odes to equality were meant to apply to both white and black Americans .\n`` It taught that beneath all local and temporary diversity , beneath the superficial traits and talents that distinguish men and nations , all men are equal in the possession of a common humanity , '' Becker says .\nEvery major movement for American progress has cloaked itself in the founders ’ rhetoric\nAbraham Lincoln once remarked , `` I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence . ''\nHe ’ s hardly alone . Indeed , nearly every major movement for social , economic , or racial equality in America has cloaked itself in the rhetoric initially established during the revolutionary era . The modern American left that wants to distance itself from the Declaration of Independence is also thus breaking with :\nFrederick Douglass and the early abolitionists , who spoke about their mission as fulfilling the Revolution ’ s promise of racial emancipation . ( `` In justification of their revolt against the established regime , the abolitionists naturally turned to the Declaration of Independence , '' Becker writes . )\n) The Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 — the launch pad of the women ’ s rights movement in America — where Elizabeth Cady Stanton authored the `` Declaration of Sentiments . '' A huge chunk of it is directly lifted from the Declaration of Independence , and the Seneca Falls delegates explicitly talked about their mission as an extension of the Continental Congress .\nEugene V. Debs , the most successful socialist presidential candidate not from Vermont , who also worked within the framework established by the revolutionaries . `` I like the Fourth of July . It breathes the spirit of revolution , '' Debs said .\nMartin Luther King Jr. , whose lavish praise of the American Revolution is even more over the top than mine .\nRevolutionary , egalitarian movements in the 18th , 19th , and 20th centuries in France , Latin America , Haiti , communist Vietnam ( ! ) , and Hungary that have explicitly cited the American Revolution ’ s egalitarian aims as inspiration .\nI could go on , but the pattern here is clear : The path to progress has come not from rejecting the declaration and Revolution — but by broadening its scope to those the founders wrongfully neglected .


Artists going back and forth with their own faith—between the temptations of worldly fame and the shelter , and strictures , of the church—is a persistent motif in American popular music and in black American music above all . In declaring himself born again and renouncing secular music , as he ’ s done in the lead-up to his new album Jesus Is King , Kanye West is reenacting the story of Little Richard , for example , who channeled the sacred ecstasies of the black pulpit into the salacious come-ons of early rock ’ n ’ roll , then enrolled in theological college in the later 1950s , backslid into the wop-bop-a-loo-bop in the 1960s , then became an evangelical minister . And West is also playing out a conflict central to the soul music that he sampled and manipulated to forge the beloved style ( “ the old Kanye ” ) of his first several albums .\nFoundational soul stars such as Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin made their names first in great gospel groups and choirs , then had to deal with a backlash from faith communities ( and often their families ) when they switched from extolling divine love to exercising earthier passions in much the same vocal styles . Al Green , for one , eventually repented his choice , after an angry lover scalded him with hot grits , and skedaddled his heavenly pipes more or less permanently back to the altar . Others managed to keep a foot in both camps , with Franklin in 1972 recording the bestselling gospel album of all time , Amazing Grace , without resigning her pop career .\nObservers who mostly know West for his ( as Barack Obama once put it ) “ jackass ” public antics and a few of his hits might be more suspicious of his come-to-Jesus moment—which first started to surface with the weekly “ Sunday Service ” gospel-music events he and his spouse , Kim Kardashian West , have been hosting since January , building to more public versions at the Coachella festival and at churches around the country , and finally Jesus Is King , both the album and an Imax short film release under the same name . He ’ s also promised ( or threatened , depending on your point of view ) a sequel record , Jesus Is Born , to come out on Christmas Day . Plenty of wary church traditionalists and cultural secularists alike have called West out for “ fake Christianity , ” a celebrity self-servingly exploiting the black church ’ s forgiving embrace , sans the substance of the faith ’ s community mission . ( Christians , West raps on the album , “ will be the first ones to judge me/ Make it seem like nobody love me. ” ) Now , it ’ s not like gospel hasn ’ t had its own share of big charismatic egos in the past—consider for instance the superstardom of James Cleveland , whose 1979 song “ God Is ” gets sampled on the Jesus Is King track of the same name , and who was Franklin ’ s musical director on Amazing Grace . Not to mention the womanizing reputation of Franklin ’ s own preacher dad . But perhaps it ’ s true West is just trying to get “ uncanceled ” after all his controversial stances on politics and race the past couple of years , which I won ’ t rehash here .\nJesus Is King makes me wonder both what West has to offer praise music and what it has to offer him .\nAnybody who ’ s followed West ’ s twists and torques closely is unlikely to believe it ’ s that simple . For one thing , West ’ s never been prone to cagey dissemblance—massively unfiltered self-expression accounts for at least five out of seven of his deadliest sins . For another , religion has always been a subtheme in his music , from his name-making 2004 hit “ Jesus Walks ” —which was groundbreaking at the time for rendering it not so uncool to mention God in a rap song—through the visions of supernatural grandeur ( “ I Am a God ” ) he exhibited amid the arresting sonics of Yeezus , to the gospel sounds and references on 2016 ’ s The Life of Pablo . There , West welcomed worship-music star Kirk Franklin and the avidly churchgoing Chance the Rapper as guests and , in essence , chanted along with St. Augustine , “ God make me good—just not yet. ” With Jesus Is King , it seems that “ yet ” has come . A year ago , West was putting out one of the crassest sex raps of his career in “ I Love It ” with Lil Pump . Now he ’ s admonishing his studio collaborators not to curse or have “ premarital sex. ” That story stirs memories of another perverse-turned-pious music legend , Prince , who later in life made musicians and friends pay fines to his “ swear jar ” for the same language that once made his own songs the object of scandalized congressional hearings .\nStill , it ’ s the speed and starkness of West ’ s turnabout that ’ s somewhat concerning . Interrogating his sincerity at this stage seems like a cul-de-sac , but Jesus Is King does make me wonder both what West has to offer praise music and what it has to offer him . Given the revelations last year about his hospitalization and diagnosis with bipolar disorder and his resistance to following medical prescriptions , as well as all the allusions to self-harm on last year ’ s half-finished-feeling album , Ye , not to mention the continuing erraticness of his public statements and inability to get his albums out on time if he gets them out at all , it ’ s difficult not to feel like West finding God at this juncture represents someone being corkscrewed around in an internal hurricane desperately lashing himself to the nearest rock .\nGet ███ Culture in Your Inbox The best of movies , TV , books , music , and more , delivered three times a week . We encountered an issue signing you up . Please try again . Please enable javascript to use form . Email address : Send me updates about ███ special offers . By signing up , you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms Sign Up Thanks for signing up ! You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time .\nThe musical productions are often enticing and enveloping in the manner ( if not always to the standard ) of West ’ s best .\nBut isn ’ t that exactly one of the services religion proposes to offer ? When I told an evangelical Christian acquaintance this weekend that I worried whether West was , so to speak , fit to consent to his own conversion , my friend gently replied that the faithful don ’ t believe it works that way—it ’ s God who bestows the revelation , not the convert who rationally selects it . Paul didn ’ t fill out any paperwork to request that intervention en route to Damascus . My friend went on to say that in his circles , lots of people are quite hyped about the hip-hop star joining the righteous path . Which makes sense if you are convinced that everybody needs to be saved—perhaps above all , as West says on the album ’ s second track , quoting from the most famous of gospel hymns , a “ wretch ” like him .\nOn the other hand , personally I don ’ t believe any of that , and it doesn ’ t entirely reassure me about whether musically immersing in and culturally debating West ’ s conversion aren ’ t deriving entertainment from somebody ’ s ongoing public breakdown . But I also don ’ t believe that people with mental health issues—which to varying degrees describes a high percentage of the populace , myself not excluded—aren ’ t entitled to both self-expression and agency over their own life choices . So is it right even to raise such hesitations ? I ’ m not at all sure . But it ’ s hard to avoid while listening to Jesus Is King , where the musical productions are often enticing and enveloping in the manner ( if not always to the standard ) of West ’ s best , while the lyrics—when not directly drawn from Scripture , which supplies some reliable biblical-language zing—seem more leaden and witless than ever before .\nThe line that got the most traction on Twitter and other platforms over the weekend was “ Closed on Sunday/ You my Chick-fil-A , ” which uses the chicken sandwich chain ’ s policy of keeping the Sabbath holy to advocate for the same in family life . ( The “ you ” here seems to be Kardashian West , who hasn ’ t always seemed to be in lockstep with every tenet of West ’ s new lifestyle . ) One snag here is that the song blithely bypasses Chick-fil-A ’ s long-standing association with anti-gay groups ; another is that it ’ s awfully thin stock for fans to be making such gravy of . But the way the half-sung words are overlaid on an exquisite Spanish guitar and cooed vocal sample from vintage Buenos Aires artist Chango Farias Gómez and the Grupo Vocal Argentino makes it more palatable than any track on which a man excoriates “ jezebels ” really has any right to be .\nThe album begins with a track on which West doesn ’ t appear at all vocally , “ Every Hour , ” which on first impression is a straight praise hymn being sung by the Sunday Service choir , directed by Los Angeles gospel and music business stalwart Jason White . White ’ s ensemble is also known as the Samples , which is particularly apt here , because the choir ’ s singing is manipulated in the production , sped up and sometimes seemingly phased out of synch with the accompaniment , to slightly dizzy and frantic effect . That prelude gives way to “ Selah , ” which opens with somber organ chords while West raps in his most breathlessly urgent mode about the general misbehavior ( “ keep perfect composure/ while I scream at the chauffeur ” ) and , to him , maltreatment that led to his spiritual crisis : He tells the “ woke ” that they should “ wake up ” and “ kiss and make up ” with him as a perceived “ Judas. ” As if they wouldn ’ t have already been awakened by the accumulation of floor-shaking drum blasts and the choir ’ s crescendoing hallelujahs .\nThat ’ s followed by one of my two or three favorite tracks , “ Follow God , ” which uses a 1970s gospel sample ( referencing the same “ father stretch my hands ” Scripture that structured two tracks on Life of Pablo ) as the backdrop to a rapid-fire account of a fight West had with his often-absent father over whether he was really being “ Christ-like ” in how he ’ s living out his new faith , climaxing comically , “ He starts spazzin ’ on me/ I start spazzin ’ back/ He said , ‘ That ain ’ t Christ-like , ’ / I said , Ayaaaa ! ” The song has more typical Kanye-level energy than much of the album , but it also feels more true-to-life and less defensive than most of the album ’ s lyrics , just reporting about how starting out on a new path can be tense and tentative . It serves better than most of the lyrics to account for the verbal simplicity of much of Jesus Is King , in that as a newborn in the faith , it ’ s not as though West has much well-considered theological wisdom to dispense , unlike a lot of gospel music written or guided by experienced preachers . The narrative gets somewhat more sophisticated on “ Use This Gospel , ” another highlight ( and one of the remakes of tracks from last year ’ s scrapped-but-leaked Yandhi album ) , via the much-heralded reunion of the brothers of Clipse—West ’ s frequent collaborator Pusha T and his long-absent partner No Malice , who was called just Malice until he underwent his own conversion around the turn of the decade . No Malice , with a couple of Christian rap albums already under his belt , begins his verse , “ A lot of damaged souls , I done damaged those , ” taking a kind of personal ownership of the scales of sin and redemption that West never quite achieves . I am less enamored with the Kenny G sax solo that caps the track ( as Richard Thompson once sang , “ I agree with Pat Metheny/ Kenny ’ s talents are too teeny ” ) , but I appreciate the cosmic absurdity of its existence .\nFor his part , though , West has only the wide-eyed , unsteady-on-his-feet drive of the fresh would-be zealot . If he falls back on old habits , such as narcissistic self-aggrandizement or being a millionaire whining about having to pay taxes ( see “ On God ” ) , that ’ s only human . But he can aspire to better . And he can evoke that aspiration via the illuminated-crystal sonic effects that he consistently pursues here , whether through the arpeggiated synths of “ On God , ” or the horns of the compact closing title track ( partly drawn from 1970s Quebecois prog rocker Claude Léveillée ) , or most of all the spine-tingling layered voices , variously from Ty Dolla Sign ( “ Everything We Need ” ) , Ant Clemons ( “ Water ” and elsewhere ) , gospel star Fred Hammond ( “ Hands On , ” which drags ) , the James Cleveland choir sample ( “ God Is ” ) , and the Sunday Service voices .\nHis main error , I think , is in not relying even more extensively on the choir and developing Jesus Is King into more of a complete gospel album , at the expense of being quite as much of a true Kanye record . Only a few tracks here even break the three-minute mark , and even then West often seems to be scraping the barrel for lyric ideas ( viz . the “ Eve made apple juice ” bit on “ Everything We Need ” ) . Perhaps it was the urge to get in and out fast , leaning on the element of surprise , but West ’ s best work is almost always more extended , trafficking in themes and variations , in diptychs and triptychs . Ultimately , I feel as though I took more gospel feeling away from Life of Pablo , despite its many profane passages . While what ’ s left out of Jesus Is King , in terms of vice and self-indulgence , arguably counts as much as what is there , it suffers by using the Sunday Service choir mostly like a special effect rather than highlighting the individual voices within it across tracks , to lend it the texture and dynamics one hears in a really great gospel ensemble—for an example , you need stray no further than comparing “ Every Hour ” to what you hear from Cleveland ’ s people on “ God Is. ” What ’ s more , putting a spotlight on the choir ensemble would have been more a proof of humility from West than anything he can proclaim verbally .\nThe film is almost comically modest for an artist who ’ s worked in the medium of his own ego as much as he has in music and fashion .\nIntriguingly , that is exactly what happens in Jesus Is King the movie . It takes nearly half its half-hour run before viewers ever see West ’ s face . For the first long while , there ’ s mostly the choir with White within the pastel-lit , keyhole-shaped caverns of artist James Turrell ’ s Roden Crater installation in the Arizona desert . Finally , after about 15 minutes , West joins the singers in rearview and silhouette , bobbing his head to the rhythm . Many minutes later , the choir completes a vigorous round of “ Selah ” hallelujahs , trades embraces , and disperses . Then we find West sweeping the space up with a broom—genuinely putting himself in service—warbling “ Street Lights ” to himself ( from 2008 ’ s 808s & Heartbreak ) . That clip transitions to West singing in a trio with a piano and organ player . Then again to him crooning to his infant son , Psalm , cradled to his naked chest . Cut to credits .\nThe film is almost comically modest for an artist who ’ s worked in the medium of his own ego as much as he has in music and fashion . It ’ s almost a manifesto of anti-narcissism . It ’ s also totally lush and gorgeous . There ’ s an especially striking extended sequence in which the fish-eye lens is staring up at White from below as he conducts the choir , which is off-camera but richly heard . In the next number , the camera zeroes in on one singer ’ s expressive features , not as she sings a solo but as she simply proceeds on through her harmony part . Between the two clips , there ’ s so much conveyed about both the individualism and the collectivity of the tradition , of gospel almost as a verb . The film isn ’ t as complex a text as the album ( in fact , it barely includes any of those songs ) , yet within the throughline of West ’ s creative career , it feels somehow more complete and satisfying . It ’ s a lesson to remember if his identity as a Christian artist is going to be one he sustains . On the other hand , the smart money might remember the many life cycles of Little Richard , and refrain for now from taking that bet .


“ Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules . ”\nOn Tuesday , it seemed like the whole country was up in arms over a publicity photograph featuring comedienne ( using that term quite loosely ) Kathy Griffin holding a facsimile of the bloody , severed head of President Donald Trump . It was an image loaded with lots of symbolism , but the most obvious , and perhaps the most actionable , message was the primal , irrational , bloodthirsty hatred of Trump and the America he represents on the part of the Hollywood and East Coast elite Griffin has made a career of trying to suck up to .\nThe reaction to the photo on the Right was precisely as one might expect it to be — sheer outrage and righteous indignation . That people far less famous than Griffin had used social media to display the same type of low-rent blood-porn images featuring Trump ’ s predecessor Barack Obama on behalf of the Right didn ’ t register with a lot of the currently aggrieved ; for others among the conservative side the previous transgressors are less a concern than those subjected to campaigns of hate among the Left for offenses much less obviously based in bad will .\nMozilla founder Brendan Eich , for example , who was ousted from his job atop the company he started because he gave a check to the National Organization for Marriage . Or Aaron and Melissa Klein , the Christian bakers who had their lives and business destroyed by a mob of leftists for the sin of expressing religious objections over catering to a gay wedding . Or the owners of Chick-fil-A and Hobby Lobby , whose businesses were put under attack for openly running their privately held companies according to their Christian faith . Or , for that matter , Sean Hannity , who has been subjected to a Media Matters-led bullying campaign aimed at driving his advertisers away because he pursued a questionable-but-not-entirely-disproven theory surrounding the suspicious death of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich last year .\nThose examples are but a drop in the ocean of ordinary , and sometimes prominent , Americans who over the past several years have found themselves targeted by an army of leftist trolls , often online but sometimes in person , seeking to destroy their professional and personal lives over ideological disagreements . On college campuses it ’ s now fashionable for the trolls to “ de-platform ” conservative speakers — yes , Ann Coulter and Milo Yiannopoulos often engage in some of the same attention-grabbing rudeness as Griffin has made a career of , but if the argument is that it ’ s their provocative speech which justifies violent mobs in Berkeley aimed at shutting them down , then what ’ s the excuse for rioting at Middlebury when social scientist Charles Murray is scheduled to speak ? And no one in a position of responsibility on the Left has said a word .\nThings are so bad that the utterly corrupt , thoroughly gormless , and laughably inarticulate congresswoman from the Los Angeles slums Maxine Waters is now being feted as the voice of The Resistance in many of the Left ’ s fever swamps . While this might indicate a definitive need for a Human Resources Department within that movement , it ’ s also evidence that while the Left has taken much joy in the application of Alinsky ’ s Rule # 4 quoted above it has abandoned any pretense of maintaining its own standards .\nWho ’ s the next political superstar for The Resistance ? Is it Hank Johnson , who worries that a few thousand Marines stationed on Guam might tip the island over ?\nIt isn ’ t like there is a responsible party to pull that side out of its current collective psychosis . Hillary Clinton , whose re-emergence on the political scene has been a spectacle reminiscent of Humphrey Bogart ’ s Captain Queeg muttering about strawberries and disloyal crewmen in front of a naval tribunal in The Caine Mutiny , is a poor candidate for the role . So is the obnoxious fraud Elizabeth Warren , whose rude demagoguery and flouting of Senate rules was rightly dealt with by the adults in the room only to confer upon her some sort of cult status among the perpetually aggrieved . Ditto Rachel Maddow , the wannabe-transgendered purveyor of rumors and hoaxes who has spent the better part of this year spinning cockamamie theories of Trump/Russia conspiracies with none of the backlash the Media Matters astroturfers brought to Hannity ’ s door for a far less debunked theory about Rich ’ s death and purported relationship with WikiLeaks .\nWe won ’ t mention any men among the potential candidates for responsibility on the Left — it seems the Left ran out of men when Fidel Castro finally dropped dead .\nThe Right sees these things , and notes that Rule # 4 is a one-way street . Time was that having standards one may not always live up to was a far more rewarding and virtuous way of life than the alternative , but after decades of ever-coarsening civic society and a culture increasingly driven by the Kathy Griffins of the world , where ESPN becomes less known for college football on Saturday nights than transvestites catching awards for “ courage ” and gay sexual relationships are commonplace plot devices in animated movies for children , many are rethinking those assumptions .\nWhy pursue virtue in a world where virtue is ridiculed and persecuted ? Why not , rather than be victimized by Alinsky ’ s Rule # 4 , flip the table and live the inverse ? Why not live down to the enemy ’ s standards ?\nFor some on the Right , there is double pleasure in this — because after being insulted , calumnied and dropped in a Basket of Deplorables by the Left despite attempting to be one of the Good Guys , there is an element of getting one ’ s money ’ s worth . Kurt Schlichter put this very well earlier in the week…\nWe don ’ t like the new rules — I ’ d sure prefer a society where no one was getting attacked , having walked through the ruins of a country that took that path — but we normals didn ’ t choose the new rules . The left did . It gave us Ferguson , Middlebury College , Berkeley , and “ Punch a Nazi ” — which , conveniently for the left , translates as “ punch normals. ” And many of us have had personal experiences with this New Hate — jobs lost , hassles , and worse . Some scumbags at an anti-Trump rally attacked my friend and horribly injured his dog . His freaking dog .\nSo when Montana Republican congressional candidate Greg Gianforte , who by most accounts to date looks like someone we on the Right ought to be embarrassed by , responded to a little bit of aggressive questioning by an obnoxious UK Guardian reporter by throttling him , the reaction was little more than a yawn — and a congratulatory note on his victory by a comfortable margin a couple of days later . Gianforte might be a sonofabitch , but he ’ s our sonofabitch . And right now , that is enough .\nThere is a palpable sense on the Right , particularly after Trump ’ s election and his survival amid an onslaught of rumors , leaks , hyperbolic idiocies about impeachment , made-up scandals involving scoops of ice cream and “ shovings ” of minor European potentates and other dirty tricks , that playing nice with Democrats and other leftists is a fruitless endeavor . That the other side has asked for it , during the eight years of Obama and particularly since last November , and they ’ re going to get it — good and hard . As Schlichter notes , this is not a good development . It ’ s a sign of cultural and political decline . But while the Right might be responsible for what happens in the future , it ’ s the Left who ’ s responsible for the present .\nIt ’ s far too much to ask that anyone on the Left recognize the Pandora ’ s box which is opening thanks to the constant name-calling , intimidation , and violence they ’ ve indulged in . But it was somewhat encouraging that after Griffin ’ s outrage Chelsea Clinton , whose pronouncements on society have to date been entirely without merit , blasted her on Twitter . That came just before Griffin appeared in a tearful video apologizing for having “ gone too far ” ( which convinced practically no one ) . CNN then gave her the heave-ho after having employed her for its New Year ’ s Eve broadcast . It seems that perhaps she might be made a sacrifice of . That would hardly be enough , but it ’ s a start .\nMaybe Griffin is to be commended to a small extent in that her idiotic performance art was enough to unite the Right and a sizable chunk of the Left in disgust . But with that commendation ought to come a command — namely , that if she ’ s serious about that apology of hers she ought to just retire from show business .\nIt ’ s not like anybody will miss her talents . Whatever those might be .