Triad Conservative

British Rebellion

GOP Ill-Equipped for Election Stealing by Socialists

North Carolina Wins the Amazon Chase

The news that Amazon chose northern Virginia and Queens, New York for its new headquarters is a huge victory for North Carolina. Having this company in the Triangle or Charlotte would have been a pox upon our house.

Civitas discusses the matter of incentives we will not have to pay. That is certainly a major issue. But the problem with Amazon goes far beyond incentives.

The company's best jobs would go to foreign workers permitted by our federal government to come into our country to work. Most of these workers will typically be from a small part of India, or from communist China. North Carolina citizens would often get left out in the cold with regard to the better jobs offered by Amazon.

In addition, a new headquarters, with its huge number of employees, would cause a palpable political and cultural shift in North Carolina. It would not be bringing conservatism or Christian values to North Carolina. And Jeff Bezos has unfortunately become a malign actor on the political scene. We don't need our politicians to be bowing before him.

The regional liberal elites might salivate at the prospect of having employers such as this. But they tend to overlook the reports that workers at Amazon's distribution centers reportedly have had to urinate into a container at their work stations because they are expected not to use the rest room. The mythology of the kind, humane progressive employer is a sight to behold.

It was never in the cards that North Carolina was going to be seriously considered for the headquarters. Let's be thankful, because we were the real winners. 

Greensboro Police Officer Killed In Line Of Duty: This is Why We Should Not Vilify Police

The news was absolutely tragic. 24 year old Jared Franks of the Greensboro Police Department was killed apparently in a fiery crash in the line of duty. A suspect was apparently being pursued.

That a young officer could lose his life so abruptly is a stark reminder of the enormous risks police officers face during their daily work to protect the public. They assume these risks every time they commence a work shift.

This is, of course, a devastating loss for his family, some of whom have also been engaged in police work. It is very easy to overlook the fact that every police officer has a personal story, with family members who love and care for them. Each officer is a person, with inherent dignity and worth. 

The trend during recent years in some circles has been to dehumanize police, vilify them, make their work life impossible, ruin their careers, and even celebrate violence against them. In media/left circles, every opportunity to take shots at police is seized and celebrated. Certain movements within the democratic socialist coalition openly sought to initiate violence against police, and to shoot them to kill. And leaders within the media/left complex deliberately refrained from denouncing these elements, and putting it all to a halt.

The big message was that police justifiably were targets to be harmed. 

But then, you learn of the selfless, heroic activities of officers like Jared Franks who make the supreme sacrifice. Greater love hath no man...

My deepest condolences to the family of Jared Franks, his friends and co-workers. 

It is my hope that the occasion of his death will lead those who hate the police, and routinely try to harm them in various ways, to reconsider their approach.

Three U.S. Senate Seats Still Undecided: Does it Matter?

Several days after the election, fully three U.S. Senate races are too close to call. There are some very shady circumstances in a couple of these:

1. In Florida, the notorious, progressive/socialist Broward County is up to shenanigans once again. This is a recurring theme. Rick Scott is the establishment Republican who appeared to have won the Senate race on Tuesday night. Ron DeSantis is a conservative who also appeared to have prevailed in the gubernatorial race. Both of these apparent victories might potentially be affected. The socialists in Broward County had apparently not counted all of their votes as of yesterday; and keep on finding more votes. They claimed not even to know how many votes they had in their possession.
2. In Arizona, Martha McSally is trailing the socialist candidate. McSally was the establishment GOP choice to replace Jeff Flake, and had attempted to hitch her wagon to Trump. Similar to Florida, this race has been sullied by late vote counts.
3. In Mississippi, the establishment GOP designee to replace Thad Cochran is a female with a hyphenated surname-- Cindy Hyde-Smith. This lady was a Democrat until 2010 when she changed parties. There will be a run-off in a few weeks; and Chris McDaniel, the conservative in the race, did not make the cut.

The implications are that the Republicans in the Senate could have as many as three fewer seats than it appeared on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. With regard to Florida and Arizona, recall that I had said a couple of days ago that the democratic socialists are generally much better at these situations than the Republicans. They use the legal system artfully; and are absolutely shameless with regard to attempts to steal elections. (The establishment Republicans, of course, tend to do this against conservatives within their own party. Remember Romney vs. Santorum in Iowa, 2012.)

The big question, however, is whether it truly matters if the GOP loses these seats in the Senate.

Let's consider the fact that the Republicans controlled for the last two years both Congress and the presidency-- and yet were utterly unwilling and unable to pass significant legislation aside from the underwhelming tax cut legislation. They refused to enact Trump's agenda; and also refused to pass legislation of interest to limited government/constitutional conservatives and social conservatives.

They did virtually nothing.

They achieved virtually nothing. And now they have lost control of the House.

Additional senate seats for the GOP would help Trump confirm conservative/constitutional judges, to the extent he wants to do so. But our expectations otherwise need to be realistic, because the congressional GOP achieves virtually nothing. They don't even try, in part because the senate caucus is oriented center-left. That is, after all, what the big GOP donors demand and fund.

Look at our own senators from North Carolina to understand the depth of the problem. Burr and Tillis currently enjoy Conservative Review scores of 40 percent and 38 percent, respectively. And this is supposed to be a red state.

Perspective on Elections

Interpreting Election Day

A flurry of federal, state and local results slowly streamed in last night and then into today. Some races are still very close, undetermined, subject to recount or even runoff. Several observations:

1. The best news of the night in our region was Ted Budd holding on to his seat. Congratulations, Congressman Budd, and please do not move further left as you stay longer in Washington! We did not, by any means, need his crony socialist opponent. This was a resounding, decisive victory margin for Budd.
2. A classic example of political malpractice afflicted the statewide judicial races. The Republicans whiffed with the State Supreme Court race and the Court of Appeals races. Their legislation allowing two Republicans to run in one race was an error of epic proportions. They compounded the error by failing to support the candidates, and dramatize the individual races. The GOP needed to use its immense resources to make the judicial races a prominent statewide concern. But now, any legislation passed by the GOP General Assembly can get reversed by the 2-5 democratic socialist North Carolina Supreme Court which will include the radical leftist, Soros-financed Anita Earls from the Southern Coalition for Social Justice. I wonder if the State Supreme Court will invalidate the constitutional amendments passed by the voters, including voter ID. They don't need any justification within the state or federal constitution; or within state law. Democratic socialist judges, after all, feel emboldened to simply fabricate their justifications based on a whimsy to enact their policy preferences.
3. One Republican state legislator recently referred to GOP leaders and other GOP legislators as "risk averse". That is, they are unwilling to put themselves on the line to enact and stand by bold conservative measures. I suspect that explains part of what happened last night. Some got their just desserts.
4. The Guilford County Board of Education added one more democratic socialist member. There is little prospect for improvement within that particular domain. The Guilford Board of County Commissioners retains its GOP majority, but Justin Conrad's victory margin is small. He had a tough district during a tough year. Don't expect many strong conservative measures from the GOP-majority board.
5. Mark Harris in the Charlotte area aligned himself with Trump's populist agenda; and thankfully prevailed. He will be a strong social/cultural conservative. And I hope he will also be a strong limited government/constitutional conservative, but I am not sure about that.
6. The North Carolina House and Senate, based on internet reports, will retain their GOP majorities, but no longer have veto-proof majorities. This, together with the 5-2 State Supreme Court, utterly neuters them. The GOP state legislators deserved much worse, however. During the last four years, they have delivered very little of value. They have propped up the welfare state; eschewed limited government; adopted crony socialism; and of course, abandoned HB 2 and the state's Christian conservatives.
7. Similary, the GOP lost control of the U.S. House. Paul Ryan was an atrocious leader who got literally nothing of substance done to facilitate President Trump's agenda. In fact, he resisted Trump's agenda on immigration and the wall. His Obamacare "repeal" bill was a fraud. The deficits have skyrocketed due to his out-of-control spending. It must be understood that the GOP embraces the welfare state and incremental socialism in Washington. They have done nothing to restrain the judiciary, protect religious liberty or oppose the LGBT agenda. Ironically, during election season, they are slammed by the socialists for threatening to reduce the welfare state even in spite of the fact that the GOP characteristically had refused to act. They get all the election year criticism even though they don't deliver! Even the tax cut they passed was a redistributionist, Marxist dream-come-true because the tax rates remained progressive, partially at Trump's insistence.
8. There is much talk about GOP pick-ups in the U.S. Senate. But one auspicious sign is that there were three conservative pick-ups-- Marsha Blackburn, Mike Braun and Josh Hawley. This will make the Senate GOP caucus a smidgen less center-left. Remain mindful that the election day map from the outset favored the premise that the GOP would pick up seats. In any event, having a few more GOP Senators should help Trump confirm more conservative judges. Would it be inappropriate for us to pray for the retirement of Ginsburg or Breyer?
9. What happened yesterday? There is a tendency to blame Trump. There unquestionably was a robust increase in democratic socialist turnout relative to GOP complacency; and that likely explains some of the GOP failures. The socialists were also aided by tens, if not hundreds, of millions or dollars in contributions from their billionaire leftist donors. Trump should continue to use his executive powers to enact conservative policy whenever he can under the law. That has been the main source of his success so far.
10. Remain mindful that, for all the close races that are yet to be decided, the Democrats have a definitive advantage. They are much better than the Republicans at working the legal system to steal elections. Bush v. Gore was an anomaly.

Constitution Party Candidate Wins Elective Office in Greene County, NC

Jerry Jones was elected yesterday to be a county commissioner in Greene County. He was the candidate of the Constitution Party of North Carolina.

This is the first candidate the Constitution Party has elected in the state since gaining ballot access earlier this year. The party previously had at least two other elected officials serving in elective office prior to the party gaining ballot access.

Congratulations to Mr. Jones!

IRS Complaint Filed Regarding Non-Profit Sending Mailings for Kathy Manning

A week ago, we had reported here about a tax-exempt non-profit, the Center for Voter Information, that sent a mail piece to some voters in the 13th Congressional District clearly intended to help Kathy Manning and to hurt Ted Budd.

Another mailing was sent within the last couple of days. This one focused on health insurance coverage for pre-existing conditions; easier firearm access for high risk individuals; and pledges not to accept PAC money. (This is ironic, because the Center for Voter Information is itself registered with the Federal Election Commission as a PAC; and is essentially providing in-kind assistance to Manning, while apparently enjoying many of the financial benefits to which tax-exempt organizations are entitled. We are essentially providing the Center for Voter Information with a tax break so that it can campaign on behalf of Kathy Manning. But it tries to make an issue of Budd accepting PAC money).

In any event, a complaint was filed this evening with the IRS regarding this organization. We shall see how the IRS handles it.

Replacements Ltd. PAC Supports Republicans B.J. Barnes, Jon Kreider

I was a bit surprised to learn that establishment Republican GOP county sheriff B.J. Barnes and Judge Jon Kreider have both been endorsed by the Replacements Ltd. PAC.

This suggests support for or acquiescence with the LBGT agenda on the part of both Barnes and Kreider. We had previously recommended Kreider, for which I now apologize. That recommendation is belatedly withdrawn.