Friday November 22, 2019

Latest Poll

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How should we approach this if we are a resilient country? \n According to Dr. Robert Brooks and Dr. Sam Goldstein in “Raising Resilient Children,” the markers of resilience are “optimism, ownership and a sense of control.” This is exactly opposite of what many people feel today about our political environment. We often feel depressed and shut out, as though we are spinning out of control. \n Perhaps it would help to take a step back to get a broader view. The U.S. Constitution laid out the process for impeachment. \n Article 2, Section 4 declares, “The President, Vice President and all Civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” The Constitution offers no clear definition of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” \n We have been through this twice before. Presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton were impeached by the House of Representatives. Both presidents survived the Senate trial and stayed in office. Yes, there was turmoil in the political structure of the country, but we survived. \n In the Clinton impeachment, the House voted in favor of proceeding with the process on Oct. 8, 1998, with a vote of 258 to 176. Those who voted in favor included 31 Democrats and 227 Republicans. \n Last month, on Halloween, the House voted on the procedures to move forward on impeachment against President Donald Trump. The voted ended with 232 approving and 196 against. Unlike the 1998 vote, no member of the minority party voted in favor. It passed with only Democratic votes. All Republicans voted against the passage, with two Democrats joining them. \n This time is much more partisan.\n WHEN THE impeachment process for Clinton was over in the House, the vote held on Dec. 19, 1998, resulted in the passage of two articles of impeachment. The first was regarding perjury, which passed 228 (223 Republicans and 5 Democrats) to 206 (5 Republicans, 200 Democrats and 1 independent). The second article regarding obstruction of justice passed 221 (216 Republicans and 5 Democrats) to 212 (12 Republicans, 199 Democrats and 1 independent). Once the articles of impeachment were passed, they moved to the Senate for trial. \n For Clinton, the Senate trial began Jan. 7 and was completed on Feb. 12 with a vote. The result? All 45 Democratic senators voted against both articles. But the bar to remove a president from power is high: Two-thirds of the Senate must vote in favor of removal. \n For many people, the impeachment proceedings that began this week are the first in their lifetimes. With the addition of constant opinionated news coverage and vitriolic posts on social media, the result can be toxic. \n A characteristic of children who can weather life’s storms, according to Brooks and Goldstein, is the “ability to be resilient and to meet life’s challenges with thoughtfulness, confidence, purpose and empathy.” \n As the impeachment process begins to saturate the nation’s airwaves, let’s remember that we, too, should attempt to approach this national challenge with thoughtfulness, confidence, purpose and empathy. \n We should believe that our country is equipped to handle the process, and we should focus on what we can control in our daily lives. Watch the national drama with an inquisitive mind. Be curious about the news coverage, and then read the transcripts yourself. While we might be embroiled in political theatre, we don’t have to participate in it. \n We have the right to free speech, the right to argue our point and the right to believe as we wish. We live in the greatest nation on earth. We have the right and the responsibility to be active and engaged citizens, but we are not required to be mean and nasty while we engage in this great experiment.\n ENGAGING respectfully and happily might not win anyone over to your side. But it will win the respect and admiration of your opponents — quite an achievement in today’s politically partisan environment.\n', created = 1574424260, expire = 1574510660, headers = '', serialized = 0 WHERE cid = '2:b986f2fdb354f6c96c88965c5b8ca66c' in /home/conserva/public_html/includes/cache.inc on line 112.
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While she may have made the base of the Democratic Party happy, her decision to proceed will not expand that base. \n Many Republicans have concluded that the impeachment inquiry is a sign that Democrats in Congress are losing their minds; they predict that the resulting blowback will hurt the Democrats. \n On Wednesday, the White House released the transcript of Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. While it did involve discussion of an investigation into potential corruption by Hunter Biden, son of Democratic primary presidential candidate Joe Biden, and a Ukrainian company, there was no quid pro quo. \n You might be wondering how we got to this process. It started with the election of Trump. \n Unable to come to grips with the reality that a New York developer, reality TV star and self-promoter had been elected president on Nov. 8, 2016, many Democrats took the next day off to console themselves. \n While many on the right made fun of those who asked for days off, looked for safe spaces or hid in bathroom stalls for a quick cry, Republicans might have been better off if we had simply slowed down, asked them why they were concerned and listened to their responses. \n Maybe we might have understood their fears, concerns or dislikes — even if we did not agree with them. This understanding might have allowed us to change our strategic communications strategy. It might have left those we engaged with feeling heard and respected. \n Instead, many of us made fun of them and cheered the Republicans’ victory. \n Then we had years of the Russia investigation, which turned up nothing. \n My advice is for all of us to slow down, take a breath and watch, learn and listen. We are so sure that we are right that we don’t give any credence to the other side. While we may indeed be right, the other side still needs to be heard and acknowledged. They feel unacknowledged and disrespected, and we feel self-righteous. \n This is not a new phenomenon. One need not look far back in history to find times when the Republicans felt unacknowledged and disrespected, and the Democrats acted in a self-righteous manner. \n So, how is this going to work? The process of impeachment starts in the House. At some point, to move the process forward, the Democratic majority would have to list out the articles of impeachment and have the full House of Representatives vote on the articles. If passed by the House, they would move on to the Senate for the impeachment trial.\n REMOVING THE president from office would require two-thirds of the Senate to vote in favor of his removal. \n There have only been two impeachment proceedings in our nation’s history. The first was in March 1868, after our Civil War, when the House of Representatives passed 11 articles of impeachment against President Andrew Johnson. It moved to the Senate for trial, but was dropped after they could not get the two-thirds majority vote. \n In December 1998, the House passed two articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton. The next month, the Senate initiated hearings but never mustered enough votes to remove him from office. \n My advice for those of us who live outside Washington’s beltline? When people say that Trump should be impeached, ask why. After taking a breath, ask again. When they finally stop ranting, take another breath and ask them for the facts that back up their position. When they finish, take another breath, smile, and explain your stance.\n WE LIVE in the greatest nation on earth. We have the right and the responsibility to be active and engaged citizens, but we are not required to be mean and nasty while we engage in this great experiment. Engaging respectfully and happily might not win anyone over to your side. But it will win the respect and admiration of your opponents — an achievement that may cause them to be more sympathetic to your point of view the next time around.\n', created = 1574424260, expire = 1574510660, headers = '', serialized = 0 WHERE cid = '2:17c3a1a130942d828635e17a5adcaa6f' in /home/conserva/public_html/includes/cache.inc on line 112.
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user warning: Table './conserva_drupal/cache_filter' is marked as crashed and should be repaired query: UPDATE cache_filter SET data = 'PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY: September 19, 2019\nThis week, my new book, “Our Broken America: Why Both Sides Need to Stop Ranting and Start Listening,” is out, and I’ve been spreading the word that simply screaming at people in the other party won’t solve problems. Many are finding my take — that it’s OK to disagree, just do so agreeably — refreshing. Others believe that we must fight back, even harder. My belief is that the cynicism of the latter group has overridden their faith in our country and our system.\n IT’S EASY to look at the current polarized political environment and become cynical. One side yells at the other; the other yells back; no progress appears to be made. It’s easy to believe that our nation is in trouble and we are in a downward spiral due to the divisiveness and rage that both sides show one another. \n A poll released last December by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Research reported that the vast majority of Americans (86%) believe our polarized political environment is a threat to our nation. If the threat were external, we might be able to join together and work to defeat the outside enemy. But internal strife is harder to battle. That’s because, by battling one another, we cause the chasm to grow bigger still. \n Even though our economy is growing rapidly, and unemployment is low, many Americans still feel an underlying unease with where we are as a country. In response, they tend to blame the other political party. Their feelings drive their criticism, and they choose facts to fit their narrative. It’s a blame-the-other-side-first mentality. \n Let’s take the Green New Deal, the genius marketing plan put forth by the far left. While it may sound wonderful (who doesn’t like green, new and deal?), it is just the latest example of a proposal to increase government control by wrapping it in an attractive name. But, the truth is, it’s not a proposal to save our planet. It’s a proposal to change our economy. \n On July 10, David Montgomery wrote an article published in the Washington Times that referred to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and encapsulated what’s going on. \n The story was titled “AOC’s Chief of Change: Saikat Chakrabarti isn’t just running her office. He’s guiding a movement.”\n ACCORDING TO Montgomery’s story, Chakrabarti recognized that the Green New Deal was not about climate change but instead thought of it as “a how-do-you-change-the-entire-economy thing.” \n While it might be nice for those on the far left to dream up large government interventions that can be marketed as solutions to our problems, they won’t work. \n Every time the government tries (and fails) to make massive change, it also moves to take away our freedoms. Government control can happen only when people give up their right of free choice. That’s a trade-off I am not willing to make. \n Do I wish that I could simply sit back, dream up a great name and hand it off to government to implement? Well, that might be nice, but it does not work. Then I remember that the price of my freedom is to shoulder my responsibility. \n While many on the right will call liberal-left plans crazy, they might be smarter to call them naive, sad or ill-informed. That’s because dubbing a plan crazy can easily be perceived by the person who devised the plan as a personal attack rather than an argument about an idea. \n Our country was built on the belief that God gives individual rights and we loan them to the government. The government is created to serve the citizens. It is not the citizens’ duty to serve the government, but it is our responsibility to serve our country. \n Many are eager to cast blame for this polarized environment on others. After all, doesn’t it make us feel better to blame someone else first? The reality is that 64% of Democrats and 55% of Republicans have few or no friends from the opposite party. We no longer just identify with a party; we believe that our party is the same as our identity. \n “Think of it as my party good, your party bad — for both sides,” I wrote in “Our Broken America.” The challenge is that “this conflating of party with social acceptance and value is making politics more divisive and uncivil, not better.”\n THE REALITY is that while ranting may make us feel good, it doesn’t make us better. We each get to determine if we want to feel good or be better. It’s up to us.\n', created = 1574424260, expire = 1574510660, headers = '', serialized = 0 WHERE cid = '2:20e67869d44b49d6bd6809ae8636e3d1' in /home/conserva/public_html/includes/cache.inc on line 112.
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Eventually, I learned that the plane was American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles, a Boeing 767 that had been taken over by five hijackers who deliberately flew the plane into the north tower of the World Trade Center. The south tower was hit 17 minutes later by United Airlines Flight 175. The Pentagon was hit 30 minutes later. The fourth plane, whose passengers stormed the hijackers, crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. \n The perpetrators were 19 al-Qaida operatives led by Osama bin Laden. According to an article written by Scott Stewart for Stratfor Worldwide: “This was a watershed moment for the jihadist movement, as never before had a terrorist group pulled off such a spectacular attack. Al Qaeda quickly became seen as a uniquely powerful force, with its name — and bin Laden’s — instantly becoming known around the world.” \n It is important to understand that, while this was a terrorist attack, terrorism is a tactic used by people and groups to achieve their political, social or religious goals. It is not in itself a belief system. \n The belief system of jihadism that led to the attack is founded in Islamism, as articulated by former diplomat Christian Whiton. In his 2013 book, “Smart Power: Between Diplomacy and War,” he lays out a clear distinction between Islam and Islamism: “The former is a religion of nearly a quarter of the world’s population; the latter is a political ideology whose central tenet is unifying government and Islam and is advocated by a small subset of Muslims.”\n ACCORDING TO Whiton, “Successful political warfare against this ideology could involve three broad steps: First, we should tell the truth about radical Islam and adopt a policy of opposing Islamism globally. ... Being honest about this threat is not anti-Muslim. In fact, political warfare ideally would involve getting Muslims to turn decisively against the Islamists. \n “Second, we need to focus on nonviolently undermining Islamist governments like Iran’s. While ISIS may earn headlines, Iran’s theocracy has tentacles throughout the Middle East and may soon be armed with nuclear weapons. \n “Third, we should work with allies to suppress radical Islam culturally. ...We should support institutions that give power to modern Muslims who believe in separating mosque and state.” \n Unfortunately, we are still working on battling jihadism today. \n While the 9/11 attacks created global awareness, control of the various jihadist groups is primarily local and geographically distributed. Stewart calls this a glocal (global and local) network. \n This glocal structure “has also benefited the Islamic State and al Qaeda by providing a great degree of durability and resilience,” says Stewart. “If jihadism was indeed managed by a single hierarchical institution, then taking out its core leadership could help to destroy it. But this decentralized franchise model instead helps insulate local groups from damage incurred by the upper echelons of the jihadist movement.” \n In the years since the attacks, we have rebuilt buildings and created monuments to those who died, but our most important work is to rebuild our political culture, which must be done on the individual level, not at the national level. \n “Today’s political culture is all about grievance,” I wrote in “Our Broken America: Why Both Sides Need to Stop Ranting and Start Listening.” “If you listen to politicians’ talk, you’ll see that they tend to pit one group against another. This will not, cannot, lead to long-term success. Instead, it leads to internal strife, more ranting and raving.”\n WHILE THE idea of giving up grievances might seem out of reach, I believe we can achieve whatever we decide to achieve. But to do so, I say we must “choose gratitude over grievance, create a positive national narrative and work together to solve real problems.” \n It is up to each of us to work to maintain our freedoms every day. If we don’t, the jihadists will eventually succeed.\n\n  \n', created = 1574424260, expire = 1574510660, headers = '', serialized = 0 WHERE cid = '2:c040ddc194b0f7bc46a75d603315f9e6' in /home/conserva/public_html/includes/cache.inc on line 112.
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user warning: Table './conserva_drupal/cache_filter' is marked as crashed and should be repaired query: UPDATE cache_filter SET data = 'CHINA: September 5, 2019\nImagine you’re 20 years old and living in Hong Kong. For your entire life, you have lived in a quasi-democracy. Then, about three months ago, that all changed when a bill was submitted that raised the possibility of extradition to China. Let’s be clear: This would put Hong Kong’s legal and judicial system under the control of the Chinese Communist Party.\n XI JINPING, often referred to as the president of China, is first the general secretary of the Communist Party and the chairman of the Central Military Commission. His allegiance to the Chinese people as a whole is last. It’s important to keep that in mind. \n A little history is needed. In 1997, after 150 years of British rule, Hong Kong was returned to China with an agreement that the two would be one country but have different systems of government. The agreement included a separate legal and judicial system for Hong Kong, as well as the rights to free speech and free assembly. For the past three months, protesters in Hong Kong have put those rights to good use. The protests started after Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, proposed a bill that would allow the transfer of criminal suspects to mainland China. \n This week, Lam finally agreed to pull the bill, which she had temporarily suspended earlier. Pulling the bill might have placated the protesters three months ago, but now it could be too little too late. \n Additionally, this reminds everyone that the agreement was set to run for 50 years after 1997, when Hong Kong was returned to China. Today, 2047 is a lot closer — and must seem very real for those in their 20s. The idea of reverting to mainland China’s control in just 28 years must be overwhelming and terrifying. The protests have been growing, with millions marching in the street. The protesters clashed with police while China stacked its military might just across the border. This week’s protesters included high school and college students who went to protest rather than going to school. \n According to BBC, the protesters now have additional demands, including no longer describing the protests as riots, allowing universal suffrage for the Legislative Council and its CEO and providing amnesty for those protesters who have been arrested.\n MANY OF THE people marching in Hong Kong have been waving the American flag and playing “The Star-Spangled Banner,” but it’s easy for us in the United States to take our rights for granted. We “have the rights to free speech, to own property, to travel freely, to make our own associations, to create our own futures, and to argue over how to create and implement policy that provides opportunity and encouragement for our citizens,” I say in my upcoming book, “Our Broken America: Why Both Sides Need to Stop Ranting and Start Listening.” \n Many in Hong Kong would love to have the same rights we enjoy. Independence leader Andy Chan Ho-tin, who ran for a seat on the Legislative Council in 2016, was disqualified based on his support for independence from China. \n Chan was arrested during the recent protests and was not allowed to attend a meeting of the Conservative Political Action Committee in Japan. Unable to attend, he sent a video message laying out his understanding of where Hong Kong stands today. “It is time for us to end communism,” he said. “It is time for all of us to join the revolution.” \n While President Donald Trump has been working on our trade relationship with China, people in Hong Kong have been risking their lives for freedom. Often, they appear on the street wearing masks against the threat of tear gas and using umbrellas to hide their identity from cameras. \n It might be helpful for those of us who enjoy many freedoms to imagine what our lives would be like if we were stripped of them. What if we could no longer speak our minds, protest or vote? We should take advantage of these freedoms and lean into them.\n WHILE WE might find it inconvenient to run into people with differing opinions, we should remember that the alternative is to live in a country where differing opinions are not allowed. Instead, as I say in “Our Broken America,” we should “discuss our differences and argue about our futures” and “be grateful for those who offer opposing perspectives.” It is our opponent’s “efforts that push us to hone our messages and communicate them more effectively. The better the competition, the better the outcome.” \n We should welcome free and open competition of ideas and be grateful we have the ability to compete.\n  \n', created = 1574424260, expire = 1574510660, headers = '', serialized = 0 WHERE cid = '2:42090f77b54fc4e25a936c58ca8cd02f' in /home/conserva/public_html/includes/cache.inc on line 112.
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Jackie Gingrich Cushman

11/18/2019 - 12:31am

IMPEACHMENT: November 14, 2019 With the public phase of the House of Representatives’ impeachment hearings beginning this week, the national drama meter is going to accelerate exponentially. UNFORTUNATELY, the current news structure (more opinion than news), combined with social media and the fact that few people have friends on the other side of the aisle, will lead to a rapid escalation...

America works best when Americans are working

By: Jackie Gingrich Cushman 10/07/2019 - 5:19pm

LABOR: October 3, 2019 With the unemployment rate holding at 3.7% and a 63% labor participation rate, more Americans are working, and that’s good. But it’s not just the numbers of current workers that matter. It’s also future workers. When it comes down to the fundamentals, a country’s value is determined by the number and...

Take a breath, and get ready for trial and tribulations

By: Jackie Gingrich Cushman 10/01/2019 - 2:38pm

IMPEACHMENT: September 26, 2019 If you are among the 86% of Americans who believe that our polarizing political environment represents a threat to our country, get ready; it’s about to get worse. The announcement this Tuesday by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that “the House of Representatives is moving forward with an official impeachment...

Let’s be better, not feel better

By: Jackie Gingrich Cushman 09/23/2019 - 2:28pm

PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY: September 19, 2019 This week, my new book, “Our Broken America: Why Both Sides Need to Stop Ranting and Start Listening,” is out, and I’ve been spreading the word that simply screaming at people in the other party won’t solve problems. Many are finding my take — that it’s OK to disagree...

Constant work: The price of freedom

By: Jackie Gingrich Cushman 09/15/2019 - 11:54pm

9/11: September 12, 2019 We were attacked 18 years ago by Islamic terrorists. They attacked us — our country — because they hate our way of life and our freedoms. Imagine what our lives would be like if we were stripped of our freedoms. What if we could no longer speak our minds, protest or vote? We should take advantage of these...

Grateful for freedom

By: Jackie Gingrich Cushman 09/06/2019 - 6:22pm

CHINA: September 5, 2019 Imagine you’re 20 years old and living in Hong Kong. For your entire life, you have lived in a quasi-democracy. Then, about three months ago, that all changed when a bill was submitted that raised the possibility of extradition to China. Let’s be clear: This would put Hong Kong’s legal and judicial system...

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