Le Pen to Speak at CPAC
The European far-right is coming to CPAC. Just one hour after Mike Pence leaves the stage, Marion Le Pen, the 28 year old photogenic ‘It girl’ from France’s National Front, will address the conference. This encapsulates every reason why we are so frigging screwed. I’ll come back to that.
First, who is Marion Le Pen and the National Front? Marion is considered the “third Le Pen.” Her grandfather, Le Pen number one, founded the party primarily as an anti-communist movement. On the surface that may not sound too bad, but his platform was extreme nationalism, racism, and anti-semitism. If you’re just tuning in, I’m not describing the Nazis - well I guess I am - but this all about Grandpa Le Pen. He recently called Jews dying in Nazi gas chambers as a minor “detail of history,” and that France and Russia need to team up to defend the “white world.”
You can imagine how these views didn’t go over too well with most Frenchmen. Enter… Le Pen number two: Marine. Marine took it upon herself to polish up the party’s image and make them more mainstream. She tuned down the racist rhetoric, kept extreme nationalism, but turned the National Front away from free-market capitalism and towards Socialism. Hmm… extreme nationalism and socialism. National… Socialist? Marine even proposed abortions on tap with full public reimbursement.
If you’re just tuning in, again, I’m not describing the Nazis. This is FRANCE’S NATIONAL FRONT. Their poster girl, Marion (Le Pen number three), will actually be on stage this week speaking to conservatives. And she’s not like her watered down aunt Marine, she’s more akin to the O G… grandpa Le Pen.
I mentioned this before, but this is why we’re screwed. The right currently has three sides to it. Those that are drifting to the left, the conservative minority, and those drifting towards the far or alt-right. Now, look at the serious issues that people have been screaming for their government to address. Immigration? Silence from the left, silence from the mainstream right, silence from many conservatives. What about job loss in middle America? Silence all around.
It is absolutely ridiculous that the only people giving voice to real issues are people on the far left and far right. The deafening silence is driving movements like France’s National Front to become more mainstream. They’re beginning to co-opt into what used to be conservative only groups. Last year it was Milo, this year it’s Marion Le Pen, who’s next? Richard Spencer?
The trajectory we’re on is dangerous and out of control. The far and alt-right is actively trying to weasel its way into mainstream conservative circles. If we don’t put our foot down now, we’re in danger of losing it all.
There's a Reason 16-Year-Olds Can't Vote
Sixteen-year-olds should never be allowed to vote.
Yesterday, several on the Left decided to use the protests by teenagers in Florida and Washington, DC as an opportunity to promote the idea that 16-year-olds should be allowed to vote.
One law professor from the University of Kentucky tried to make a serious case in an article for CNN: “The real adults in the room are the youth from Parkland, Florida, who are speaking out about the need for meaningful gun control laws. They are proving that civic engagement among young people can make a difference. The ironic part? They can’t even vote yet.”
The protests from the devastated high school students of Parkland, Florida are an understandable, visceral reaction to the worst kind of tragedy. They need time and space to vent their grief and anger. The adult role right now should be to comfort and support them as they work through this trauma. Not exploit their tears for political gain.
What we’re seeing this week is a gut-level reaction from traumatized kids, not well-reasoned, “civic engagement.” America has a lot of smart teenagers, but it has even more who don’t know what “civic engagement” means, who their Senator is, or even how to do their own laundry.
Another law professor from Harvard said teens “have far better BS detectors” than adults, so we should give 16-year-olds the right to vote. These professors make it seem almost as if 16-year-old voting rights are being suppressed.
The voting age wasn’t lowered to 18 until the 26th Amendment passed in 1971. The logic then was that if you’re old enough to be drafted, you’re old enough to vote. So, is the criteria now that if you’re old enough to carry a placard you’re old enough to vote? Sorry, but at least in 1971 there was a logical reason for the age change. This one is just knee-jerk reaction.
Why is the Left suddenly so interested in allowing 16-year-olds to vote? Because they’re the perfect untapped voting bloc. Progressives love an emotionally-driven, peer-pressured voter who can be told what to believe rather than thinking through issues for themselves.
Teens and college kids typically lean to the Left until they get out in the real world, start making their own money, see how much of it is drained away in taxes, and finally realize Progressivism is the exact opposite of the freedom it promises.
Concealed Carry on Campus
Patrick was a sophomore at Columbine High School when Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris massacred their classmates.
He was one of the lucky ones. He walked away with his life that day.
He vowed to live a life of service after God granted him that blessing.
Patrick went on to join the Army and served a tour in Iraq. When he came home, he was elected to the Colorado State House of Representatives—where he has served his constituents since 2014.
Every year since he was elected, Patrick has introduced legislation to remove restrictions on concealed carry in schools.
In the wake of the Stoneman Douglas shooting and the renewed call for gun control, Patrick is pushing his legislation just as hard.
Under current Colorado law, anyone who has a concealed carry permit "may bring firearms onto school property, but must keep them locked inside their vehicles."
Patrick doesn’t think that law goes far enough.
His act would allow every law-abiding citizen who holds a concealed carry permit the right to defend themselves and others at all times.
Patrick argues that “Time and time again we point to the one common theme with mass shootings, they occur in gun-free zones. As a former Columbine student who was a sophomore during the shootings on April 20, 1999, I will do everything in my power to prevent Colorado families from enduring the hardships my classmates and I faced that day.”
Now, people will argue that more guns equal more violence, but they forget that the vast majority of guns are in the hands of responsible and good people.
The reality is that we are bringing nothing to a gunfight with evil every day.
Let’s give ourselves, and our children, a chance with an equal contender.
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