Hypocrisy, Lies and Politics

How can you tell if a Politician is lying? If their lips are moving. Sadly this old "joke" has become standard in today's political environment.  Not judging anyone and not excluding anyone but, that is probably true of 98 percent of today's politicians. What is even more sad than that is, over half our voters have come to believe that their side only tells the truth and the other "guys" lie all the time. When did we become so divided and so steadfast in "our side is always right, your side is always wrong"?

 Back in the "good old days" when I was a young pup coming up in the World, Democrats and Republicans had differences but they really tried hard to work together to solve them before they became huge problems.  There was none of the nastiness, backbiting and downright false charges that there are today. A lot of this I blame on the media and our instant access to the Web and Social Media.  Back before every channel had "pundits" that gave only their view of the world and their interpertation of the soundbites, we had something called "Journalism". Sadly that is dead today and everyone is just interested in what gets them to the front of the line. Even if they have to embellish it or, downright LIE about it.  And websites  and Social Media all have their own political agenda and most dismiss you if you have a different viewpoint. Or worse yet, they block or delete you.

 But you know who I really blame? I blame us, the voters and listeners. We have become so use to letting our leaders control us instead of us controling our leaders. When Senators and Representatives are re- elected over and over and over again, it is because we are too lazy, too uninterested or too tied up with the latest "new thing" to bother to vote or to research our votes. Yes friends, YOU and I are to blame for the mess we have gotten ourselves into politically. SHAME ON US!

 So, how do we fix it? Quit looking to blame others and quit looking for the "politically easy" way out. Stand up, do your research and vote not for the "man," not for "your Party" but rather vote for the PERSON who best represents your interests and concerns. Republican, Democrat or Independent, doesn't matter what letter follows their name, what matters is their Integrity, honesty and willingness to work for YOU..NOT the lobbyists and  special interests. Get up off your lazy ass and do something positive to make our country great. Black, whie, yellow, brown, red, pro police, anti police, Republican, Democrat or Independent...I GUARANTEE if you respect the Constitution and put the COUNTRY first, we will be fine. Or, we can continue to act like spoiled horse's asses and let the politicians run our lives. The choice is plain but, CHOOSE WISELY!!! Thank you for reading and lets make us the greatest Country in the History of the Planet....even better than the USA of 20 years ago. Can we do it? YOU BET YOUR ASS WE CAN!!! God Bless the United States of America. (and excuse the language)

 Clay Moorer, Assistant Editor, Treehouse of Liberty.com

The SCOTUS may swing right, but is that right?

The death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg shows us everything that is wrong with the Supreme Court.

Those on the left are wailing and gnashing their teeth. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez suggests leftists, "Let this moment radicalize you." (Is their something more radical than nationwide domestic terrorism?) Elected representatives on the left -- who demanded Merrick Garland receive a hearing in 2016 -- are demanding that no hearings be held for a Trump appointee. Even Ginsberg herself supported a hearing for Garland in 2016, but her last "fervent wish" was that a new president be "installed" before her replacement is named.

Those on the right are not absolved from the political tainting of the branch of government that is intended to be the most apolitical. How many conservative friends do you hear saying, "The balance of the Court just swung back in our favor." I've said it myself. We too view the Court through a political prism that our Founders expected, and tried to prevent.

Ultimately, Supreme Court nominations end up becoming the equivalent of two children fighting over which is going to get their way. The left fights for abortion like it's the most important "right" on earth. The right fights for gun rights which, well, are a right.

Abortion is the cause that democrats use to say dumb things like, "A Roman Catholic should not be a Supreme Court Justice." Or as Sen. Kamala Harris put it during Judge Amy Coney Barrett's hearing for a seat on a federal district bench, "The dogma runs strong within you."

Could you imagine what would have happened if a republican senator would have said, "You're qualified, Judge Ginsberg, but you're too much of a Jew for my taste." And yet, the religious animosity of the left goes virtually unchecked.

It's interesting that democrats so staunchly oppose a Catholic being confirmed as a justice. After all, they are a party that wants to make a Roman Catholic the most powerful person on planet earth. And they are certainly more than content with the person third in line for that seat being a Roman Catholic. Yet they blast a Roman Catholic who may be appointed to the Court. Leftist hypocrisy has become exhausting.

Further, democrat "leadership" is telling us that if a potential justice has any doubts whatsoever about Roe v. Wade, they're not qualified for a spot on the bench. However, no such litmus test is required for a potential justice who opposes D.C. v. Heller.

And so here we are. Each side expects that justices not interpret the Constitution (as is their ONLY mandate) but rather take their side of important political issues. The politicization of the SCOTUS, and the resulting damage to our Founding documents and our society is a tremendous scourge on a country that already has more than its fair share of scourges these days.

The passing of Justice Ginsberg does nothing but highlight the problems with the SCOTUS. She asked with her dying breath that a new justice not be appointed until a new president is "installed." Make no mistake. Supreme Court justices spend their lives choosing their words extremely carefully. For Ginsberg to have used the word "installed," is borderline horrifying. We don't "install" presidents. We elect them. They take office rightfully after the American people have spoken at the ballot box. (Or mailbox as the case may be.) Kings and dictators are "installed." Presidents of the United States are not.

Further, why does she want the process to wait until after the election and a new president taking office? Simple. President Trump does not hold the same political ideology as Justice Ginsberg did. She wanted a democrat president to appoint another leftist justice, in an effort to swing the Court toward her own ideology.

It's sad that a Supreme Court justice who is lying in State and being revered as a national matriarch was -- I'm going to say it -- a political hack. If her last words are true (and dying declarations are admissible in court) she demonstrated that she never belonged on the Court in the first place.

Our Founders believed that justices receiving lifetime appointments would prevent the Court from becoming politicized. They were right about their fear. They were wrong about the solution. Of course, any time an appointment is made by a political partisan, one can only expect that they would choose a political partisan. Such has been the case for most of the life of the Supreme Court to this point.

Except not really. Republican appointee, Chief Justice John Roberts, is very much a swing vote. He voted in favor of the fine Obamacare levied for not purchasing health insurance -- accepting the idea that it was a tax and not a fine. Justice Clarence Thomas, also a republican appointee, has proven to be the strictest "originalist" on the Court. His only clear devotion is to the document he swore to protect and defend.

Many republicans -- including myself -- don't like the Chief Justice. Decisions like the one I cited are the reason why. Chief Justice Roberts doesn't take our political side; nor do we view him as making strictly Constitutional decisions. I am still at a loss as to how he can properly defend his ACA vote constitutionally.

However, for me to criticize the Chief Justice for not deciding cases the way I would as a conservative makes me part of the problem. In all honesty, it makes me no better than Justice Ginsberg. The only difference being that my opinion does not change the face of the entire country.

It's unlikely that I'll drift far from my constitutional conservative approach to politics. It's unlikely that the hardcore leftists and extreme right wingers will vary from theirs. And so it's unlikely that the criteria for choosing justices will change. Their Roe decision will be protected. And God willing, my Heller will too.

As for justice Ginsberg, I wish her a blissful eternal rest. I pray for her family and all who love her. But I hope her view of the high court will encourage us all to do better.

-- Jason Fornwalt, ToL Times editor/staff writer

An Open Letter to Black America

 An open letter to my brother and sister Americans who happen to be black:

First of all, I'm sorry. I've said a lot of things in the last few months that aren't exactly indicative of my desire to find common ground between us. But I want to make something abundantly clear. I don't hate YOU. I hate terrorists. I don't care what shade they are. I hate the people who are murdering black kids in our big cities every weekend. And yes, I hate the people who make judgments about me based on nothing but my skin color. I believe you deserve not to be judged that way. So do I. I can understand race issues, even though I'm white. Empathy is a human quality. It's not unique to any race. I was not born privileged. Less than three years ago -- at 43 years old -- I found myself living at my local rescue mission. After my divorce, I lived in my car for 6 weeks. I don't want anyone to boohoo for me. I picked my ass up and I fixed it. I just want to be clear that NO part of my life has been easy. I respect the fact that that's true of yours as well.

Ordinarily, this would be the part where I start listing Trump's accomplishments that have improved the lives of black Americans -- and there are quite a few. But I'm not going to disrespect you and spout them off. I will make the assumption that you're more than capable of being informed politically, and I will assume that you are AT LEAST my intellectual equal.

Look, I don't expect to make a difference in our national narrative or current situation. But I do want to tell you what conservatives have to offer you, and why you can rest assured that when we call you "brother and sister Americans," we mean it.

First, conservatives believe that everyone is capable of reaching their fullest potential, unhindered by any race or class system that would prevent it. We believe that your life matters. We believe our lives matter. And we believe that if my life matters to you, and your life matters to me, then only peace and progress can result.

We also realize that, just like us, the overwhelming majority of you are God fearing, peace loving, police supporting good citizens. Just like us. We understand that the ideals in the Declaration of Independence -- life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness -- are the desire of every man, woman, and child walking this planet. We believe you deserve those good things and many others.

It's been a very long, very hard, very embarrassing, very challenging road to get to the point where life, liberty, and the pursuit are available to all. The terrible scourge of slavery during the founding of this nation is disgraceful, hideous, and shameful. I have no use for anyone that believes otherwise. But that wasn't all. Once slavery was over, people that look like me practiced segregation. People that look like you were forced to eat in separate places, use separate bathrooms and water fountains, sit in the seats you were assigned on public transportation, and worse.

I will not try to minimize your pain, especially if you're old enough to have experienced segregation. I always try to listen carefully when an older black American talks about race issues. Segregation was real and was discrimination of the worst kind. They speak from a different place (not more or less respectable) than younger black Americans.

Let me ask you this. Have you ever done something when you were younger that as you grew up you realized wasn't right or didn't serve you? Did you use drugs? Were you an alcoholic? Were you a bad employee? Were you an angry and intolerable spouse? Whatever the issue, we all had problems because we did things that were stupid when we were younger. I certainly did. There are still things I want to improve about myself. The good news is that I have made a great deal of progress, and I'm happy with where I am headed.

I have no illusions of self-grandeur, but my story is like the story of this country. So is yours. The United States was an embarrassing little child in many ways when it was founded. I do believe that our Founders were great men with an immense vision, that for over 240 years has worked pretty well. (And by pretty well, I mean better than any experiment in democracy in the history of the planet.)

As our country moved into its teen years, when it was really beginning to understand who it was, we sent 363,000 Union troops to lay down their lives. Why? Because those young men believed that the freedom of the black man was more important than their own lives. I happen to agree them. It's discouraging to me that their memory is all but forgotten in today's discussions of our history.

As we moved into our young adulthood, we looked for a mentor. Just as we as individuals seek out wise people to motivate and guide us, and chastise us when we're wrong, the United States found its racial conscience in Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. King and his black contemporaries lived through TRUE racial discrimination and entirely misplaced hate. There were dogs, fire hoses, and a nightstick that literally cracked the skull of John Lewis. (Who would rise in a more mature America to become a U.S. Congressman.) In the face of violence, Dr. King said no every time his people asked him to meet violence with violence. He preached peace, unity, and of a day when his little kids could play with little kids that look like mine.

I'm glad I wasn't alive when Dr. King was shot. I don't think I could have handled it. I would give anything in this day and age to see a peaceful black leader rise from the ashes of our charred cities and guide us forward. Dr. King is the man we need now. Instead we get more violence than Malcolm X ever imagined.

Now the United States stands on the precipice of a mid-life crisis. There is hate everywhere. There is violence in our streets. There are the most evil things imaginable being said and done every day. The questions now are, "Will we rise to meet the challenge as those soldiers did? Will we honor Dr. King's memory by not only realizing but demonstrating that violence isn't the answer?"

I don't know. I know that this is by far the most divided I have seen this country in my lifetime. The battle lines are drawn, between parties, between races, between factions on the street, between family members.

But I personally want to invite you to come give conservatism a chance. Remember what president Trump said to black voters in 2016? "What have you got to lose?" It turns out nothing was the correct answer. And the true gains, lowest unemployment ever, highest rank on the prosperity index ever, largest and longest commitment to HBCU's ever, opportunity zones, police and sentencing reform. (Woops, there's that list I said I wouldn't post.) My brother and sister Americans, this president has been very good for you. And I'm glad. You deserve to benefit equally as our nation continues to mature.

Conservatives are here for you. You are our equal. You are important. We believe that when it's presented, you will turn opportunity into achievement. Don't listen to the lies. You don't need bigger liberal government to carry you. You are already out there working hard to carry yourself and your family. And that's another one of the many things we share. You know how to take better care of your family than anyone else.

I'm not optimistic, but I'm hoping November will bring about a renewed vigor to continue this great American experiment's maturing. Rosa Parks was a "regular" woman who changed the world and moved us miles forward by simply refusing to move to a different bus seat. Regular Americans like us can do the same.

I hope I have the honor of shaking the hand of that black man or black woman who sees not despair but hope in us. Dr. King said, "We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope." May his words resonate with all of us in these dark days, and ring fully true for this land we love.

Respectfully,

Jason Fornwalt

-- ToL Times editor

Constitution Party of the USA-Who are we?

  The Constitution Party of the United States is an independent Party with no affliation to the Democratic Party or the Republican Party.  The Christian Bible and the U.S. Constitution are the guides and written material in which we dedicate our beliefs. We are proud of our personal beliefs and convictions, most that are found in the Bible. However, when it comes to the rule of law in the land, the U.S. Constituion is our political bible and document we cherish. For example, As a member of the party I am personally against abortion and I believe it is wrong and a sin against God and humanity. But, Roe vs. Wade is the law of the land so I also follow the Constituion and harbor no ill will or anger at those that choose this option. That is a decision between you and God and as long as you are willing to accept whatever the consequences may be, then you are free to do as you wish. This is just one example of our beliefs and convictions.

 Our full platform can be found at our website,  wwwconstitutionparty.com. I am going to summerize several of the more popular and hot button topics and what our stand is on these issues. Keep in mind that even though we are independent of the two major parties, our beliefs fall heavily on Conservative ideas and values.  Capitalism over Facism, local and state strength over Federal Govt. strength and the right to bear arms and have PEACEFUL, I repeat..P-E-A-C-E-F-U-L Assembly and protest.

OUR LEGAL DOCUMENTS- According to the original intent of the Founding Fathers. These founding documents are the foundation of our Liberty and the Supreme Law of the Land. The sole purpose of government, as stated in the Declaration of Independence, is to secure our unalienable rights given us by our Creator. When Government grows beyond this scope, it is usurpation, and liberty is compromised. We believe the major issues we face today are best solved by a renewed allegiance to the original intent of these founding documents. In other words, the Constitution is to be interperted today SAME as it was when first written.

SANCTITY OF LIFE- "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness". We affirm the God-given legal personhood of all human beings from fertilization to natural death, WITHOUT EXCEPTION. 

DEFENSE AND FOREIGN AID-It is a primary obligation of the federal government to provide for the common defense, and to be vigilant regarding potential threats, prospective capabilities, and perceived intentions of potential enemies. We oppose unilateral disarmament and dismemberment of America's defense infrastructure. That which is hastily torn down will not be easily rebuilt.  The Constitution Party favors non intervention in foreign affairs although we do believe in supporting our ALLIES up to a certain point. We believe we should withdraw from the United Nations and NATO, since these organizations do no real favors for us but tend to take advantage of our military strength and money.

ELECTORIAL COLLEGE- We support the Electorial College and under no circumstance should it be abandoned for ANY popular vote election result. 

ENVIRONMENT-In keeping with this requirement, we wholeheartedly support realistic efforts to preserve the environment and reduce pollution - air, water, and land. We reject, however, the argument of the perceived threat of man-made global warming which has been refuted by a large number of scientists. The globalists are using the global warming threat to gain more control via worldwide sustainable development. Green New Deals are unrealistic and just will not work in our World.

IMMIGRATION- We support people from other Countries longing to come to ours to find their success and dreams. However, all we ask is they do so legally and by way of the direction of our U.S. Constituion. Illegal entry and laziness to convert to our way of life, rules and regulations are NOT acceptable. Sanctuary cities and their continued habit of breaking Federal Laws are not acceptable in the USA.  To put this in terms everyone can understand, it is not fair or right for those entering a movie theatre through the back door for free, while solid immigrants choose to stand in line and pay through the front door. DO IT THE CORRECT WAY!!!

AMENDMENTS- We believe all amendments should be taken at face value and as written.  Amendments such as the Frst and Second should be interperted today same as they were when first written. The right to bear arms is inherent in the right of self defense, defense of the family and defense against tyranny, conferred on the individual and the community by our Creator to safeguard life, liberty, and property, as well as to help preserve the independence of the nation. Just as religion should not be mixed with politics, NEITHER should politics dictate religion. All people should be free to worship PEACEFULLY based on their values and beliefs. Government has no right to dictate or control Religion.

TERM LIMITS-We beleieve that term limits for all Senate and House members should be adopted. When people are in power too long, they tend to begin to do what is best for them and their bank account. ALL Parties are guilty of having representatives that have this mindset and misconduct. We also believe in reform and limiting the amount of money and benefits that Congress enjoys. Their happiness and success should NEVER be put above the happiness and success of the people they were elected to represent.

I know this is a long post and I could make it longer. But I will stop for now and if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to let me know. As I said earlier, refer to www.constituionparty.com or use Constitution Party USA under Wikipedia search if you wish to know about our Party. Thank you for reading, and may God Bless you as well as the United States of America.

Clay Moorer, Associate Editor, Treehouse of Liberty Media