A strong president is essential to hold our vast country together, as President Andrew Jackson did amid regional conflict in the 1820s and 1830s. Joe Biden has just kicked off his presidential campaign with two extraordinarily divisive speeches in which he demonized and declared political war on Trump’s supporters, rather than try to persuade them.
Biden delivered these political speeches in Pennsylvania and in South Carolina, the former a must-win state for him in November and the latter a must-win state in his primary. In his remarks Biden demonstrated his discordant campaign strategy of defining MAGA Republicans as enemies of America, when it is Biden who is failing with his weak leadership.
Prominent Democrats are increasingly voicing doubts that Biden can win. Even Congressman Jim Clyburn (D-SC), who is credited with delivering the nomination to Biden in 2020, stated on CNN’s “State of the Union” on January 7 that his “problem is that we have not been able to break through that MAGA wall” of support for Trump.
Trump’s rivals candidly doubt whether an apparent election of the incompetent Biden would even be legitimate at this point. Haley, DeSantis, and Ramaswamy all stated in January that they would not necessarily accept a reported election result declaring Biden to be the winner, to the dismay of the liberal media.
Yet Haley also says that she would wait until all the prosecutions of Trump have completed and all of the appeals are exhausted, which takes many years, before pardoning him if she were president. This ongoing circus of politicized prosecutions continues to divide our country at a time when we are vulnerable to a potential impasse in budget negotiations in Congress.
Most Republicans continue to reject the liberal narrative about the protests at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, which just had its three-year anniversary. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) accurately described those who remain imprisoned as “hostages.” Some 34% of Republican voters feel the disorderly conduct on that day was actually provoked by the FBI.
In the growing disunity under Biden, the mayor of New York City has sued 17 bus companies for merely transporting illegal aliens from Texas to Manhattan. Since all these migrants were released on parole by the Biden administration to go wherever they wish, private buses should not be subject to this unprecedented retaliation for accommodating their travel.
The Biden Administration brought a lawsuit against Texas for erecting a floating barrier down the middle of a stretch of the Rio Grande that separates Texas from Mexico, and also asked the Supreme Court for permission to cut the concertina wire that Texas installed along the border at Eagle Pass. Texas is being forced by the D.C. elite to continue daily to accept many thousands of impoverished, illiterate illegal aliens into that conservative state.
This regional conflict is the worst we’ve seen in our lifetimes. Yet so far the U.S. Supreme Court has been missing in action despite the growing conflicts among the states, and between red states and the federal government.
The effort by blue states to keep Trump off the ballot dramatically ratchets up the dissonance. It is no longer a genuine national election if states can exclude the leading presidential candidate of the rival party from their ballot, as unfolds now.
Perhaps the Supreme Court has finally recognized its job to try to reduce regional conflicts. On January 5, the high court took swift action to intervene by accepting Trump’s request for review of the improper exclusion of him from the ballot by Democrat-controlled Colorado.
Yet the Supreme Court risks doing too little, too late on the many crises pulling our country apart. A biased conviction of Trump in the exceedingly unfair venue of D.C. would not be well-received by Republicans and red states, and the Supreme Court should not allow that divisive political manipulation to occur.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin on March 4 against Trump in the backyard of the Deep State. Violating the Obama-appointed presiding judge’s order placing this caseon a temporary hold, prosecutor Jack Smith piled on with yet another distorted filing against Trump in January, to which Trump’s attorneys properly responded by requesting sanctions against Smith.
On January 9, a Democrat-majority panel of the D.C. Circuit indicated its desire to allow this extremely disruptive criminal trial to proceed against Trump in the stacked D.C. venue. CNN shows Trump ahead nationwide with more than the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency, and a politically motivated criminal trial against Trump in the biased D.C. could trigger a national crisis.
Trump Takes Big Leads in Michigan, Ohio
Trump has taken a commanding lead in Michigan, as reported by Bloomberg and CNN polls showing Trump ahead of Biden by 4 to 10 points there. Even if Biden were to win several other swing states, realistically Biden cannot be reelected without Michigan.
A headline in liberal Newsweek refers to this big shift in Michigan as a “nightmare” for Biden. The recent auto-workers strike was supposed to help Biden as he joined its picket line, but instead it boosted Trump by establishing him as the true champion of workers for opposing electric vehicles.
General Motors announced more layoffs of 1,300 auto-workers in Michigan, including those assembling its soon-to-be-discontinued Camaro muscle car, because of the push to electric cars. Liberals’ regulatory-driven shift to electric vehicles, which Trump opposes, is predicted to end an estimated 40% of auto-worker jobs.
Michigan’s economy is heavily dependent on auto manufacturing, and Biden’s destruction of it is similar to liberals’ war on coal in West Virginia, which has rendered that state unwinnable by Biden or any Democrat. Its incumbent U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) announced he will not seek reelection because, thanks to Trump, a Democrat can no longer be elected statewide in West Virginia.
Trump is winning over many union and women voters in Michigan, leaping to a 50-point lead there over his Republican primary challengers. The Michigan primary is pivotal because it has moved up to fifth position, after Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada, and is the last to define the race shortly before the mammoth 16-state, Super Tuesday primary in early March.
Michigan has a robust third-party system, which in 2016 drew nearly 6% of the votes as Trump then defeated Hillary Clinton. In 2020, there was a weak field of third-party candidates who garnered only 2% of the vote there.
This time, a strong field of third-party candidates led by the famous Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the progressive activist Cornel West, and the Green Party’s Jill Stein, is expected to surpass the combined third-party vote total in 2016. Many in Michigan are from the Middle East, and have turned against Biden for his mishandling of the Gaza crisis.
The Wall Street Journal reported on polling in December indicating that even a federal conviction of Trump would have only a marginal effect of a few percentage points in voting, not enough for Biden to overcome his immense deficit that he has now in Michigan. Over the last 12 months Biden’s approval rating has steadily declined to where it is less than 40% today, as reported by the FiveThirtyEight website based on an average of such polls.
Democrats lack a replacement for Biden, as DeSantis destroyed Newsom in their debate on Fox which included DeSantis holding up a “poop map” of human waste from the homeless which litters San Francisco under Newsom’s leadership. Michelle Obama lacks the temperament to run for president, and would seem too much like Hillary Clinton’s unsuccessful campaign on her husband’s popularity.
Democrats have controlled Michigan’s government since 2022 and have ramped up cannabis sales with unlimited licensure and low pot taxes such that it has the highest per capita spending on marijuana, more than three times greater than California. Marijuana sales are expected to surpass $3 billion in Michigan this year on a population of only 10 million people, averaging $300 per adult in annual spending on pot.
Residents are moving out in droves, making Michigan so desperate to stem population losses that its Democrat leadership proposes paying people to move there. Nearly 40% of young adults in Michigan plan to move out within the next decade.
In response, a population council was convened under Democrat leadership to try to stem the exodus. Last week its liberal proposals were chock-full of failed Democrat approaches, and the only Republican legislator on the council voted against it.
Another Republican, a legislator from the Upper Peninsula where residents are referred to as “Yoopers,” said that the Democrat population proposals were so misguided that Yoopers might consider “closing the bridge and exploring statehood.” Obama won the Upper Peninsula in 2008 but it voted for Trump in both 2016 and 2020.
“Grocery prices are high; electric bills are high; Democrats are actively fighting to raise income taxes; and now the governor is using these proposals to rationalize tax hikes and force regular people to foot the bill for unnecessary new programs,” said Rep. Gary Prestin (R-Cedar River).
Next-door Ohio, which like Michigan depends on auto industry jobs, has Trump surging to a 12-14% point lead over Biden in an Emerson College poll. A Trump landslide in Ohio could cost Democrats a U.S. Senate and two Ohio Supreme Court seats.
Conservatives of the Year
The best test of an effective conservative is the ability to take incoming fire from the media and survive. With that in mind, let’s take a moment to recognize and thank the most courageous and effective conservatives of 2023.
Standout Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was targeted by the media and Republican power brokers like Karl Rove, yet Paxton survived the ambush sham impeachment by his own Republican Party. Back in office, Paxton has resumed his valiant efforts to secure our southern border despite litigation by the Biden Administration to keep illegals flooding into our country.
The new Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) earns our praise for shutting off the funding of foreign wars for the remainder of 2023, despite intense pressure from the Senate uniparty led by Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY). Speaker Johnson set up a January showdown over continued funding of the federal government, while his leverage improves as Biden’s declines.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is the courageous congressman who made the election of Speaker Johnson possible. By moving to “vacate the chair” occupied by Kevin McCarthy, who has since quit Congress, Gaetz overcame naysayers to enable the election of the most conservative Speaker ever.
Marine veteran Harrison Floyd has accomplished the most among the 19 unfairly indicted by the politically motivated Fulton County prosecutor in Atlanta, Georgia. Floyd overcame his wrongful imprisonment as the only black defendant, and has vigorously contested the charges by subpoenaing Fulton County’s mail-in ballots, with their envelopes, and information about its electronic voting tabulation concerning the 2020 election.
Floyd looked dapper when he appeared in court as the unhinged prosecutor Fani Willis, seething with resentment against the black Trump supporter, improperly attempted to revoke his bail merely because Floyd spoke out on social media against the injustice. While the deck remains stacked against him and all 19 defendants there, Floyd has flummoxed Willis such that she has not made any progress against Trump as liberals hoped.
House Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), who is not even a member of the Judiciary Committee, outshone the Republicans on that committee by calling out the tyrannical D.C. federal judges. She filed a stinging ethics complaint against district court Judge Beryl Howell for the judge’s appallingly biased statements against Trump and his supporters while their cases are pending.
Elon Musk earns a shout-out for his outspokenness against censorship and his restoration of banned users from X, formerly known as Twitter. Musk also criticized globalists, and his ambitious plan to establish a new, non-Woke college in liberal Austin, Texas, surpasses all the liberal philanthropy combined.
In Hollywood, Kelsey Grammer overcame opposition to achieve smashing success for the Jesus Revolution film, grossing nearly four times its production cost. Grammer merits further applause for reaffirming his support of Trump in an interview with the anti-Trump BBC earlier this month.
Two musicians scored conservative triumphs this year, to the consternation of the Left in the music industry. Jason Aldean recorded the #1 hit song “Try That in a Small Town,” which extols conservative small-town values and achieved the most weekly sales for any country tune in a decade.
Oliver Anthony would win the conservative Grammy of the year, if such an award were given, for his hilarious, self-released song the “Rich Men North of Richmond.” His lyrics include “I wish politicians would look out for miners / And not just minors on an island somewhere,” referring to the liberal-controlled Jeffrey Epstein cover-up.
Not to leave out the foreign conservative stars of 2023, Javier Milei stormed to a landslide win as the new president of Argentina. He is a pro-life economist who recognizes global warming as a “lie of socialism,” while he praises Trump.
Many additional Trump-like foreign conservatives prevailed in 2023. Kyriakos Mitsotakis won as prime minister in Greece, Geert Wilders won in the Netherlands, Christopher Luxon won in New Zealand, and Robert Fico prevailed in Slovakia, all making their countries great again while rejecting globalist immigration.
Let’s not overlook courageous conservatism in sports in 2023. Twelve-time NCAA All-American swimmer Riley Gaines gave up a dental career to defend women and girls against the invasion of transgender, biological males into their sports.
“Where are the feminists?” Riley Gaines pointed out as she fights to preserve the integrity of college sports for women. “We felt violated. We felt humiliated. We felt betrayed. We felt belittled,” she said about liberal colleges allowing biological males to ruin women’s sports.
Finally, our list would be incomplete without praising the hundreds of political prisoners being unfairly punished by the tyrannical elite in D.C., for the “crime” of humiliating the Deep State on January 6. The show trials and biased D.C. judges, whose own statements reveal their partisan anti-Trump agenda, have created American heroes in those who peacefully continue to oppose this abuse of power.
Overriding the Trans Travesty in Ohio
Ohio is solidly Republican, thanks to Donald Trump’s success in winning over manufacturing workers and rural Americans, and it has a Republican governor with veto-proof majorities in its House and Senate. Yet on December 29 Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed a bill that would have protected girls’ sports from invasion by biological males, and protected children from mutilation by transgender operations and treatments.
Ohio’s HB 68 is similar to what has already passed in about two dozen other states, including its neighbors of Indiana and Kentucky, each of which overrode its governor’s veto to enact a similar bill. Kentucky’s law has already been upheld by the federal Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals which sits in Cincinnati and presides over Ohio, too.
The Ohio bill passed with more than the 60% threshold required to override a veto. While all those legislators should have immediately criticized DeWine’s veto, the strongest rebuke of DeWine came from Trump himself.
“DeWine has fallen to the Radical Left,” Trump observed on his platform Truth Social. “No wonder he gets loudly booed in Ohio every time I introduce him at Rallies, but I won’t be introducing him any more. I’m finished with this ‘stiff,’” Trump added.
“What was he thinking,” Trump continued in reference to DeWine and his veto. “The bill would have stopped child mutilation, and prevented men from playing in women’s sports. Legislature will hopefully overturn. Do it FAST!!!”
Yet DeWine added insult to injury by adopting the style of flawed reasoning by the Left in order to justify his veto, as he caved into those who profit from these lucrative decisions. DeWine said he was deferring to the decision-making by a child’s medical team.
Life-changing operations on minors are not properly authorized by those who profit from performing them. As explained by Dr. Ben Carson, the former director of pediatric neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, “There’s a reason why they’re called minors. They don’t really know a lot of things, and they learn over the course of time as they become mature.”
“I would absolutely, adamantly refuse, in all circumstances,” Carson said about performing transgender procedures on minors. Carson added that “I suspect that in the future we will look back on this period of transgenderism and say, ‘How could those people be so foolish?’”
Gov. DeWine cited none of the eminent authorities who favor protecting minors against life-ruining treatment. Instead, he said that “parents have looked me in the eye and have told me that, but for this treatment, their child would be dead.”
No child has ever died for lack of a sex change, while on the other side of the ledger is the immense harm that Gov. DeWine ignored. Minors subjected to transgender procedures and treatments are deprived of ever having natural families of their own, and some who regretted their treatments have sued those who performed them.
“Ultimately I think this is about protecting human life,” DeWine declared with a straight face as he opened the floodgates to a billion-dollar industry to exploit mutilation of children. He then promised to issue new regulations, but they would not protect children in any meaningful way.
As to the sports issue, Gov. DeWine provided no justification for opening girls’ locker rooms and athletic competitions to boys. DeWine previously declared that decisions about sports should be left up to leagues like the NCAA, which profits from allowing transgenders to compete while pandering to the liberal media that controls its lucrative television contracts.
Three petitions for cert are pending before the U.S. Supreme Court on similar bills enacted in Tennessee and Kentucky, which have until early February to respond. The petition against the good Tennessee law states, “The Sixth Circuit’s decision deepens an existing split with the Eighth Circuit” over a similar law in Arkansas.
But the Eighth Circuit, which sits primarily in St. Louis while presiding over seven Midwestern states, subsequently agreed to a rare initial en banc hearing of the Arkansas law banning transgender operations. That suggests the Republican majority on the Eighth Circuit will agree with the Sixth Circuit and uphold this type of law.
The U.S. Supreme Court has dodged this issue when brought to it by the conservative side, and the Left may feel emboldened that it can win at the High Court. Amid so much judicial chaos over Trump-related issues, the annual end-of-year report by Chief Justice John Roberts was devoted to silly speculation about the future of artificial intelligence (AI).
Fortunately, several U.S. Courts of Appeals throughout the middle and southern regions of our country are upholding laws against transgender procedures and boys competing in girls sports. In addition to the Sixth and Eighth Circuits, the Eleventh Circuit ruled in favor of Alabama’s law protecting children from the trans industry.
On January 10, the Ohio House successfully voted to override Gov. DeWine’s unjustified veto of the good transgender bill, by a vote of 65-28 (only 59 votes were needed), and the overwhelmingly Republican Ohio Senate is expected to complete this override on January 24.
