Your Editor has had his first experience with Democratic rage about politics in America.
This is a disease now spreading from the fringes in our politics to normal people who engage in shout downs and seek "safe" zones on college campuses where respectful debate is nowhere to be found and now to normally sensible adults who go into a rage about conservatives and Trump, et al.
My experience was stunning to me as to the pervasiveness of this sickness. Your Editor was approached at a social gathering by a long-time acquaintance. We were discussing the Senate race in Texas, when I suggested that O'Rourke, despite record amounts of money, is still going to lose and that the Democrats made a mistake in dumping so much money into an out-of-the-mainstream candidate. This person went into a rage and moved in on me while saying, "You and your people are enablers for all the bad things going on in America, and need to be stopped." I reacted by saying, "You now have caught the Democrat rage disease," and walked away. A few minutes later, he returned to continue his assault on rational discussion. I told him, "I won't talk about politics with you, but we can talk about sports," and he stalked off. The next day, to his credit, he apologized.
With this experience, I now know how others felt when confronted, attacked, and shouted down. As a reminder, here are some of the out of control things happening to Republicans.
- Senator Ted Cruz and his wife and Press Secretary Sarah Sanders were driven out of restaurants;
- Several Republican senators were recently "doxed" or had their personal information leaked to social media sites;
- Prominent celebrities have talked about blowing up the White House and were pictured holding the severed head of the President;
- "Progressives" are fantasizing about killing Justice Kavanaugh;
- Antifa is routinely harassing and even attacking conservatives;
- A GOP congressman was run off the road by a crazed liberal;
- A Republican senator was viciously beaten; and
- A Republican House leader was shot and nearly killed by a radical socialist.
To put it in a few words, this Democratic (party) rage is destroying our country. Its leaders and allies in the "mainstream" media are not speaking out against it, but encouraging it. Most recently - former Attorney General Eric Holder and Hillary Clinton who said, "You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for... (Democrats) win back the House and/or the Senate. That's when civility can start again," or the New York Times fanning the flames of rage with the Left with such columns entitled "Fury is a Political Weapon and Women Need to Wield It," or "Get Angry and Be Involved."
As Daniel Greenfield described in a recent column what the Left and the Democratic party are doing with eyes open, results in the following: "It deprives people of their rights and it responds to their anger with more anger. In its rage, it wipes out every political and social norm it can manage until opponents are being hounded out of restaurants, fired from their jobs, assaulted on the street, shot at charity baseball games, smeared as rapists, doxed by reporters and staffers, censored on the internet and eavesdropped on by corrupt federal agencies."
For us at TCR, we are in fear for the future of our democracy, one where issues can't be debated in a calm and rational way without personal attacks on the opposition.
This is why it is so important that you and your like-minded friends return to vote this November and reject 100% of these loony left-wing Democratic party candidates. They are either responsible for this significant threat to our democracy or, they are staying silent while these Leftist fascists threaten America and her future.
This is truly the most important election in our lifetime.
City of Houston Propositions A & B
There are two propositions on the ballot this year for the City of Houston, Proposition A Rebuild Houston Revote and Proposition B the Firefighter Pay Parity Initiative.
Proposition A is easy, vote AGAINST. As previously discussed in TCR in Volume XVII Number 23, simply said, this was supposed to improve our infrastructure and drainage and it hasn't. Money has been diverted to non-related items. The lock box is a joke.
Proposition B is more difficult. Yes, the firemen have not been treated right on their pensions and pay and deserve a raise. It seems the City of Houston and Mayor Turner have not bargained in good faith. In addition, the Mayor conditioned a police raise with the HPOU opposing the firefighters pay raise, which is quite sad to see. They are both priorities for the City as our front line on public safety and they need to work together.
Further, Proposition B points out other problems the City has failed to address - understaffing on patrol in the police department, archaic work rules in both places that lead to abuses in the system like having firemen on the payroll who get paid, get benefits, accumulate for retirement while never showing up, paying someone to do their shift, and chronic understaffing on the graveyard shift of the police department. It's clear we need state of the art police and fire departments to be the most efficient and effective in making public safety number one.
As for the vote, TCR recommends voting FOR Proposition B, so the firemen can be treated appropriately by the city.
When Did They Become So Angry? By Bruce Bialosky, Contributing Editor
It was not always this way. In the 60's, they were so high that they seemed so pleasant. They used to go to Peter, Paul and Mary concerts and sing with joy of what our country was to be and what it had become. Where did those people go?
Currently, it seems like they are constantly marching and screaming. If you saw a picture of the women stomping around the halls of the Senate office building during the Kavanaugh hearings, you would think their children had just been stolen from them. What vitriol. What happened to "you can catch more flies with honey than you do vinegar"?
The Left used to have happy warriors. People like Hubert H. Humphrey who, though he lost the presidency, maintained respect amongst all Americans with a cordial attitude toward his political opponents.
Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) seems to be the model for most asking questions with a nasty attitude and contemptuous glare. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) appears to be an exception to the crowd. Like Humphrey she comes off as “Minnesota nice.” Maybe she could spread it around.
Might it be that they are taught this in their advanced education studies? So many study courses where their professors are angry with America. It makes one think of the song from South Pacific: You've Got to Be Taught How to Hate.
Maybe it started when Nixon addressed the Silent Majority. The average American who wanted to do what Americans have wanted for a long time: raise their kids, feed their families and respect their country.
Maybe it was after two generations when Republicans finally won the House of Representatives thus initiating a change in the country. Was this so much an acceptance of Republican values or a rejection of Democrats lurching too far to the Left? A loss of focus on what Americans want – small, but effective government.
Maybe it was that Republicans started to voice their own opinions. Voices like William F. Buckley came along and said it was polite to be a Conservative.
Sure, there were inequities; there always will be. America is the only place where every-day poor folk can still rise to the highest office in the land. Truman, Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, Obama.
How do you criticize a country where a higher percentage of legal immigrants own their own homes than native born Americans? That includes, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians; and, yes, Whites.
Then along came Talk Radio and Fox News and it drove them nuts. Some angry heads on the Right. Your anger grew; why did they have their own news sources and thought leaders? You became angry that you did not have 100% of the news media; 95% was not good enough -- including government-supported sources (PBS and NPR).
We all receive the emails. They are out at another march or another sit-in or a vigil. Where do they find the time? We are too busy working or raising our children and grandchildren.
The rest of the country is so happy. More Americans are employed than ever before. Seniors can get jobs they were closed out of for a long time. Blacks, Hispanics and women have the lowest unemployment rates in history. Consumer confidence is at record levels. Manufacturer confidence is at record levels. Business confidence is at record levels. People are happy because they are earning more and their wages are going up for the first time in a long time. Who needs a minimum wage when companies are raising their wages just to attract workers?
If they are all so happy, why aren't you?
We don't want you so angry; we want you happy. We want you experiencing the joy of being an American.
Go to a concert -- be it The Killers, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Toby Keith or Bruno Mars. Or go see The Boss. For four hours have the joy of unadulterated Rock 'n' Roll which will save your soul. Better yet, go see Earth, Wind and Fire. It is chemically impossible to leave an EWF concert without a smile on your face. Smoke a doobie. It is mostly legal now. Loosen up. We will be fine. This is the greatest country this planet has ever known. More people have achieved more economic security than anywhere in the world.
That is why people are climbing over each other to live here. They are not in Japan or China or France or Russia or most anywhere. They want to come to America from every corner of the globe to live like we live.
We will be better tomorrow. Please lose the anger and come back to us. We need you back. We want you back. You are our brothers and sisters. Let's talk.
Bruce Bialosky is the founder of the Republican Jewish Coalition of California and a former Presidential appointee. You can follow Bruce on Twitter @brucebialosky.
TCR on the Air
Red, White & Blue featuring TCR Editor Gary Polland on Fridays at 7:30 pm on PBS Houston Channel 8, replaying Saturday at 6:30 p.m. on Channel 8, Monday at 11:30 pm on Channel 8.2 and on the web at www.houstonpublicmedia.org.
Upcoming shows:
10-19-18 - Houston's Financial Outlook Pension Reform Update and the November Ballot (Firefighter Pay Parity Ballot Initiative, Rebuild Houston Initiative, the street and drainage program) with guests Chris B. Brown, City of Houston Controller and Dave Martin, City of Houston Councilman District E and Chairman of the Budget & Fiscal Affairs Committee.
10-26-18 - Cybersecurity with guest: Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security Michael McCaul (U.S. House of Representatives, 10th District).
About Your Editor
Gary Polland is a long-time conservative and Republican spokesman, fund-raiser, and leader who completed three terms as the Harris County Republican Chairman. During his three terms, Gary was described as the most successful county Chairman in America by Human Events - The National Conservative Weekly. He is in his twenty-first year of editing a newsletter dealing with key conservative and Republican issues. The last seventeen years he has edited Texas Conservative Review. As a public service for the last 15 years, Gary has published election guides for the GOP primary, general elections and city elections, all with the purpose of assisting conservative candidates. Gary is also in his 17th year of co-hosting Red, White and Blue on Houston Public Media TV 8 PBS Houston, longest running political talk show in Texas history. Gary serves on the Board of Directors of American Values, a national pro-family, pro-faith, conservative organization supporting the unity of the American people around the vision of our founding fathers and dedicated to reminding the public of the conservative principles fundamental to the survival of our nation. Gary is a practicing attorney and strategic consultant. He can be reached at (713) 621-6335.
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