There are times when I really hate government. It’s not that I’m an anarchist or I believe there should be no laws or rules, but in recent years it seems as if government is the root cause for many of our problems. This is why it perplexes me so that people willingly ask the government to intervene in their affairs. For leftists, this is understandable as they are entitled to have the government solve all of their problems. But when I hear conservatives ask for government intervention on particular issues, I cringe.

Perhaps conservative commentator Mark Levin said it best to describe how I and many other conservatives feel. Those of us who appreciate the need for government to handle many issues such as national defense and infrastructure but who despise it when government gets involved in so many issues where it simply doesn’t belong can break our feelings down with this one line from Levin:

“The Conservative does not despise government. He despises tyranny. This is precisely why the Conservative reveres the Constitution and insists on adherence to it.”

The Constitution is not a document that grants us rights, despite what many claim. It’s a document that prevents government from trying to take away our rights bestowed on us by our Creator and affirmed by our free will.

Will you help revive the American Conservative Movement?

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article about how faux conservative Trumpists were a direct result of the faux conservative media.

Choosing the wide gate of compromise over the narrow gate of conviction, clickservatives in the faux conservative media have succeeded in spreading the lie that Trumpservatism equals conservatism while using conservative values as a commodity to be bartered for a seat at Trump’s table.

In the piece I mentioned above, I showed how the formerly conservative voices of Mark Levin and Glenn Beck were using their new BlazeTV partnership as a pro-Trump echo chamber and how they were using this fact as a marketing tool to find new subscribers.

Proof of the depths BlazeTV is apparently willing to go with its sycophancy was evident in a recent episode of the Glenn Beck Show when he participated in a discussion with Pat and Stu on the decline of manhood and declared that Donald Trump is the last male role model left in America.

While many so-called conservatives dismissed Beck’s statement as an isolated incident and called me out for “taking him out of context,” a recent interview with Trump’s defacto press secretary, Sean Hannity, showed Beck’s heart in the matter.

“If the Republicans don’t win this next election, I think we are officially at the end of the country as we know it. We may not survive even if we win, but we definitely don’t if the Republicans lose with Donald Trump.”

Fun fact: Beck once criticized Hannity for supporting “unprincipled” Trump.

While #notDemocrat fearmongering is nothing new for the GOP establishment — they play that card every two years — Beck’s fearmongering was solely for the purpose of supporting Trump and the GOP. Using Beck’s rationale, America might cease to exist under Trump, but it definitely ceases to exist under a Democrat — as if there’s a difference between the two.

It looks like Levin’s and Beck’s Trumpism is official company policy at BlazeTV, at least that’s the impression I came away with after yesterday’s episode of the Steve Deace Show.

In the opening portion of his show, Deace and his crew (Aaron and Todd) were making the case that Democrats were the party of abortion and used their position to endorse Trump’s and the GOP’s use of the late-term abortion issue in the upcoming election. But they went further.

They argued that Trump is a “long-term advocate” of ending late-term abortion — Deace gave his personal guarantee that this is true — and said pro-life conservatives should support Trump because #notDemocrat despite his doublemindedness on abortion and his continued funding of Planned Parenthood. And they stated that anyone who refused to “cheer” Trump’s use of the abortion issue in the upcoming election as they were going to do were most likely members of a “Never Trump cult” and/or a hypocrite.

I shared this on my Facebook account:

If BlazeTV chooses to sell its soul to Trump for a seat at his table, that’s up to them. But I’m saying “adios” to their faux conservatism.

Originally posted on StridentConservative.com.

David Leach is the owner of The Strident Conservative. His daily radio commentary is distributed by the Salem Radio Network and is heard on stations across America.

Follow the Strident Conservative on Twitter and Facebook.

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Will you help revive the American Conservative Movement?

Using the high cost of a college education as cover, Donald Trump and senior advisor/daughter Ivanka released the Proposals to Reform the Higher Education Act. As is always the case whenever Washington uses the word “reform,” the result will be bigger government, more spending, and less liberty.

“We need to modernize our higher education system to make it affordable, flexible, and more outcome oriented so that all Americans, young and old, can learn the skills they need to secure and retain good-paying jobs,” Ivanka stated in a call with reporters.

Sounds noble, doesn’t it? Did you notice the absence of words like “personal accountability” and “free markets” and the use the pronoun “we” to describe the federal government? Nancy Pelosi would be so proud.

In reality, Daddy’s little girl is promoting the equivalent of Common Core for colleges where government money will only be doled out to those who “make the grade” — pardon the pun — as established by the government.

It makes sense when you think about it. Common Core fails to prepare students for college, and college fails to prepare students for the real world. Merging the two was inevitable.

In his overview of the proposal, Trump bragged about how he has “reversed regulatory initiatives that increased the cost of college, fueled skyrocketing student debt levels, and hampered innovation.” Ironic because he concluded by renewing his commitment to reform higher education “through legislation and regulatory reform.”

While including a mixed bag of good/bad principles, every “problem” came with a several big-government solutions.

“Congress should expand… Congress should reform… Congress should require…”

A few of the most troubling suggestions are: focusing on “student outcomes,” increasing “institutional accountability,” supporting “returning citizens,” and simplifying “student aid.”

While harmless-sounding on the surface, “student outcomes” and “institutional accountability” are buzzwords right out of the Common Core playbook.

Supporting “returning citizens,” aka criminals released from prison, sounds great. How else will the drug traffickers and gun felons released early from prison, thanks to Ivanka’s and Van Jones’ prisoner reform legislation, go to college?

Simplifying “student aid” sounds like a good idea until you get to the part where Trump proposes the expansion of student loan forgiveness. I guess borrowing money you never have repay is pretty simple. And as a man with numerous bankruptcies to his credit, it’s no surprise that he supports defacto bankruptcy on school loans.

Never having to repay taxpayer-funded student loans has always been a key part of Ivanka’s agenda. In Sept. 2018, she supported a bill proposed by Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL) that would allow companies to cover student-loan payments as a tax-free benefit, the same way they are allowed to pay for college tuition reimbursement or for health insurance.

You may be thinking, “Doesn’t that mean the loan gets paid?” Yes and no. The loan is repaid, but as a tax-free benefit the employee pays no taxes on the money and the employer is able to reduce compensation costs. In the end, the cost of the student loan is shifted to the taxpayer.

Neal McCluskey, director of the CATO Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom blames the high cost of college on government handouts and tax breaks. And he believes that creating more giveaway programs will only make the situation worse.

In response to Davis’ bill, McCluskey stated that the government should get out of the education-financing business. “The root problem in American higher education is government subsidies, especially to students in the forms of federal grants, loans, and tax credits,” McCluskey said. “They enable colleges to raise their prices, often at rates well in excess of inflation, and students to demand lots of things that have little, if anything, to do with learning.”

McCluskey is right, but I have a feeling that Ivanka is about to chalk up another victory for her socialist feminist agenda by working “across the aisle” to make Common Core for college a reality … with Daddy’s blessing.

Free college at government taxpayer expense is in Bernie Sanders’ platform, but it looks like Trump will beat him to it.

Originally posted on StridentConservative.com.

David Leach is the owner of The Strident Conservative. His daily radio commentary is distributed by the Salem Radio Network and is heard on stations across America.

Follow the Strident Conservative on Twitter and Facebook.

Subscribe to receive podcasts of radio commentaries: iTunes | Stitcher | Tune In | RSS

Will you help revive the American Conservative Movement?