Commentary

BIDEN’S REMARK ABOUT JOURNALISTS before boarding Air Force One to return to the U.S. from Geneva almost made my “laugh of the day” spot.  He was telling them that he wasn’t going to negotiate with Putin in the media when he said:

“You’re the brightest people in the country.  You’re the most informed people on detail.  I’m not being solicitous; you are.  It makes no sense for me to negotiate with you.” 

Of course, he was being solicitous. 

That moment on the Swiss tarmac came to mind when I read Tom Knighton’s piece, “Journalists Are Completely Out of Touch with America and Reality,” in Tilting At Windmills.

“It remains the case that people simply do not think in the way the Beltway-media class believes they do.  They are not traumatized by the daily news.  They do not make key life decisions based upon the behavior of their president, nor wait for him to leave office before deciding that they are so disturbed that they no longer wish to work,” wrote Knighton, quoting the National Review’s Charles C.W. Cooke.

Knighton chose that quote to make his point about what people must be thinking when they decide not to go back to work as long as the unemployment check keeps coming in.

They worry about paying bills, but as long as the government is giving them a nice chunk of change extra for staying at home.  “Most people aren’t motivated by their work,” writes Knighton, “they’re motivated by their paycheck.”

Referring to a piece by Axios’ Hope King on those who would prefer to stay at home, Knighton says, “Axios and some many other journalists really do think that the people they know from inside their bubble represent the real America.  They really don’t know any of the people who aren’t looking for work.”

“Journalists, though, don’t talk to these people.  They look down their noses at those people,” wrote Knighton.

“What’s hilarious,” Knighton says is that “these same people don’t understand why people no longer trust the media.

After all, President Biden told them they were the nation’s brightest and think that gives them some lofty position in the world.

MY FAITH IN THE NEXT GENERATION dwindles more each day with stories of socialist teaching going on in our institutions of higher learning. 

“Eighty-one percent of liberals answered “yes” when asked if their perceptions of the U.S. have developed in college,” according to Jackson Walker, a correspondent of Campus Reform, reporting on a nationwide survey of over 400,000 students from more than 1,000 campuses.

North Dakota State University was singled out as having the majority of students identifying as liberal or liberal-leaning.  Fifty-seven percent of liberal students are not proud to be American, compared to the 73 percent of conservatives who responded that they were proud. 

The survey revealed that 61 percent of liberal students disfavor capitalism, with 47 percent having a positive opinion of socialism to fix economic and social problems.  Just nine percent of liberals favored capitalism.  That’s scary.

I WAS REMINDED of a video making the rounds of comedian/commentator Bill Maher in which he notes that young people say we older folks simply don’t get it.

Referring to the 18 to 34 age group demographic as the “most gullible,” Maher noted that a third of millennials think it would be a good idea to try communism. When they were told that the world did try it and it didn’t work, they contend it didn’t happen because they weren’t around then, according to Maher. But many of us were around to see it.

DID YOU HEAR about the presidential straw poll at the Western Conservative Summit, hosted by the Colorado Christian University’s Centennial Institute?

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis edged out former President Trump 74 to 71 percent. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz followed at 43 percent, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at 39 percent, and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott at 36 percent.

AND HOW ABOUT THIS – In a survey of 1,200 likely voters by the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the Republican Governors Association, 56 percent of the respondents blame President Biden for the increase in illegal immigration.  Who else?

VICE PRESIDENT HARRIS was in Pittsburgh to tout the American Rescue Plan’s Child Tax Credit provision she says will be the “key tool in reducing child poverty by nearly half.”  Those families making the “not wealthy” cut will get $2,000 to $3,600 for children 5 and under, and $3,000 for children 6 to 17 years of age.

So, again, we’re throwing money at poverty.  President Johnson would be proud that his party is continuing the war on poverty nearly six decades after he made it  part of his Great Society.

Surely, (with tongue in cheek) the American Rescue Plan will be instrumental in building back better.

Now, more than ever … may God continue to bless the United States of America.