U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, still recovering from a broken leg, shows three U.S. Senators – Jeff Flake of Arizona, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, and Patrick Leahy of Vermont – a cane once used by the late U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy before the group departed from Andrews Air Force Base in Camp Springs, Maryland, on August 14, 2015, for Havana, Cuba, to preside over a flag-raising ceremony at the U.S. Embassy, commemorate its re-opening, engage in a series of diplomatic meetings, and visit some cultural sites. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]
Flake’s “please all-sides” attempt doesn’t cut it. It’s time to put away the kid gloves. The Democrats, like Sheldon Whitehouse, have. Whitehouse’s disgusting interrogation of Brett Kavanaugh during last week’s hearing should have been met with a forceful counterattack. Instead, Flake led the Republicans into conceding to a redundant FBI investigation that will achieve Democrats’ goal of pushing the Kavanaugh debate further into election season. Delay, delay, delay.
Rhode Islanders should be embarrassed by Whitehouse’s tactics. They should replace him with Bob Flanders in November (see below).
PJB writes in his piece, “Republicans are Born Wimps:”
But while the Democratic left, understanding the stakes, is fighting bare-fisted, Republicans are sparring with 14-ounce gloves and seeking to observe Marquess of Queensberry Rules.
In other ways as well America has been remade.
Not only has Christianity, and all its symbols and expressions of faith and belief, been removed, but also a purge is underway of monuments and statues of the explorers, colonists and statesmen who, believing in the superiority of their religion, culture and civilization, set out to create the county we inherited.
And William Frey, resident demographer at the Brookings Institution, writes about how America is being changed — without the consent of the people.
“Since 2000, the white population under the age of 18 has shrunk by seven million, and declines are projected among white 20-somethings and 30-somethings over the next two decades and beyond. This is … a trend that is not likely to change despite Mr. Trump’s wish for more immigrants from Norway.
“The likely source of future gains among the nation’s population of children, teenagers and young working adults is minorities — Hispanics, Asians, blacks and others.”
When we are all minorities, and all behave as minorities, making our separate demands upon the country, what then holds America together?
In Federalist 2, John Jay famously wrote:
“Providence has been pleased to give this one connected country to one united people — a people descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same language, professing the same religion … very similar in their manners and customs…
“This country and this people seem to have been made for each other, and it appears as if it was the design of Providence, that an inheritance so proper and convenient for a band of brethren, united to each other by the strongest ties, should never be split into a number of unsocial, jealous, and alien sovereignties.”
Yet, each decade, less and less are we descended from the same ancestors. Less and less do we speak the same language, profess the same religion, share the same manners, customs, traditions, history, heroes and holidays.
Does America look today like the “band of brethren united to each other” of which Jay wrote, and we seemed to be as late as 1960?
Or does not the acrimony attendant to the nomination of Judge Kavanaugh suggest that we have already become a land “split into a number of unsocial, jealous and alien sovereignties.”
Rhode Islanders have an opportunity to rid themselves of Sheldon Whitehouse, by electing former Rhode Island Supreme Court Justice Bob Flanders. Here’s how Bob tells his story on his campaign website:
You may know me as a former R.I. Supreme Court Justice, state-appointed Central Falls Receiver, Board of Regents chair, high-stakes business litigator, former professional ball player for the Detroit Tigers organization, graduate of Brown University and Harvard Law…
But before all of that I worked as a garbage man. And during my college and law school years, to fulfill my financial aid scholarship, I worked as a dishwasher, a bagger in a mattress factory, a truck driver, a delivery boy, and a grass cutter, among other jobs to make ends meet.
I grew up in humble beginnings in a working class family. I lived in a small cape home with seven brothers and sisters and one bathroom. My Dad worked in a plant that assembled planes and as a salesman for food distributors. I worked my way through school. I was the first in my family to graduate from college. I married my college sweetheart, and then had to spend our honeymoon money on car repairs. It was never easy. But we persevered. And through hard work, grit, and determination I was able to achieve the American Dream: founding my own small business law firm, raising my family here in Rhode Island, and serving my community as an elected town councilman, as a lawyer, and as a judge on our highest court.
I want to bring that same commitment and sense of making a positive difference to serving as your United States Senator for Rhode Island.
I have lived the American Dream and I want Rhode Island to experience that same success and prosperity. I know what it’s like to live paycheck to paycheck. I know the value of hard work. I know many working R.I. families, small businesses, teachers, veterans, and every day people struggle to get by, never mind achieve the American Dream here in Rhode Island. We can do better. We must do better!
Thinking back to my first job riding on the back of a garbage truck on a hot summer day, it wasn’t always clear what the future had in store.
But I was determined to get the job done then, and I still am. Together, we can do it. We will prevail. We must prevail!
Thank you for joining me on my mission.
Read more about Bob and his vision for Rhode Island here.
