Mountain Views News          Saturday, October 3, 2015

16

OPINION

 Mountain Views News Saturday, October 3, 2015 

GOP CAN'T WIN IN 2016 BY LOSING 
NOW

Some Republicans in Congress will never 
learn.

This time the GOP's hard-right 
conservative minority had dreams of 
shutting Washington down over Planned 
Parenthood's illegal profiteering in fetal 
tissue from its abortion business.

They hoped to defund Planned Parenthood of its half-billion in 
annual federal dollars by attaching a measure that did exactly 
that to a larger spending bill.

They thought their legislative trickery would force President 
Obama into vetoing the spending bill, thereby shutting down the 
government in Washington.

Obama would then get the blame for the shut down and — what? 
— not get reelected in 2016?

Come on. The super-conservatives were never going to get 
enough votes in Congress to catch Obama in their trap.

Luckily, they were saved from seriously hurting themselves, their 
party and the conservative cause on Wednesday, when the Senate 
and the House each voted for a stopgap spending bill that keeps 
D.C. operating until Dec. 11.

But the televised hearing on Tuesday, where Republicans grilled 
Planned Parenthood boss Cecile Richards, was a PR disaster for 
the GOP.

Committee chairman Jason Chaffetz and his allies scored some 
points during their five-hour interrogation.

They got Richards to admit she earned $600,000 a year and 
exposed that Planned Parenthood had transferred millions 
of dollars from its charitable arm to its lobbying and political 
operations.

Planned Parenthood's claim that only 3 percent of its services 
are for abortions was also shown to be a lie. About a tenth of its 
clients get an abortion and abortions account for about a third of 
its annual revenue.

Those Republican highlights were featured later on Fox News 
and talk radio and gave their conservative audiences something 
to gloat about for 24 hours.

But they were not what most of the country saw or heard.

When the mainstream media covered the Planned Parenthood 
hearings, what they focused on was a nice woman being badgered 
and rudely interrupted by a gang of nasty Republicans.

No matter how evasive Richards was, no matter how she tried to 
downplay or spin Planned Parenthood's gruesome and immoral 
abortion business, she was always going to receive nothing but 
sympathy from the mainstream media.

And where do most American voters — and most independents 
-- get their news? From CBS, CNN, the Washington Post and 
dozens of other liberal media outlets.

If any Republican thinks that their side of the Planned Parenthood 
argument will ever get a friendly or even fair presentation on 
those places, they are smoking crack.

 

In the Age of Obama and bigger government, the idea of shutting 
down the D.C. government over a matter of principle is thrilling 
to any true conservative.

But if Republicans want to defund Planned Parenthood right 
now, the best way to do it is through the states.

There are 31 states with Republican governors. Five of them have 
already defunded Planned Parenthood by prohibiting the use of 
Medicaid funds for abortion.

Putting pressure on the states to remove taxpayer support of 
abortion mills can work and it can be done without sabotaging 
the Republicans' presidential chances next year.

Meanwhile, the super-conservatives in Congress need to get 
smart and get real.

If every conservative and every Republican in the country votes 
for the GOP's nominee for president, we still lose.

We need independents and Democrats in 2016. Lots of them.

And for most of those voters, especially the younger ones in their 
30s and 40s, Planned Parenthood is simply not a presidential 
issue.

Jobs and the economy are.

Republicans of all kinds from moderates to super-conservative 
need to keep their eyes on the GOP's most important prize — 
winning the White House.

To do that, we have to broaden our message and our appeal, not 
narrow it.

Otherwise, we lose again.

Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan, a political 
consultant, and the author of "The New Reagan Revolution" (St. 
Martin's Press). 

 Visit his websites at www.reagan.com and www.michaelereagan.
com.


MICHAEL Reagan Making Sense

OUT TO PASTOR 

A Weekly Religion Column by Rev. James Snyder

Mountain 
Views

News

PUBLISHER/ EDITOR

Susan Henderson

CITY EDITOR

Dean Lee 

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CONTRIBUTORS

Chris Leclerc

Bob Eklund

Howard Hays

Paul Carpenter

Kim Clymer-Kelley

Christopher Nyerges

Peter Dills 

Dr. Tina Paul

Rich Johnson

Merri Jill Finstrom

Lori Koop

Rev. James Snyder

Tina Paul

Mary Carney

Katie Hopkins

Deanne Davis

Despina Arouzman

Greg Welborn

Renee Quenell

Ben Show

Sean Kayden

Marc Garlett

Pat Birdsall (retired)


IF ONLY I WOULD’VE THOUGHT OF THAT

Everybody knows certain 
situations calls for some 
serious thinking. My problem and I think I 
share with other people still breathing, I do 
things without thinking it through.

Most people, and I include myself in this group, 
have not had a serious new thought in years.

 I do not include the Gracious Mistress of 
the Parsonage in this group for she is always 
thinking up something new. At least from my 
perspective, it seems to be new. Then, how do 
I know it is really new? I just take her word for 
it, which makes for peace in our home. Most 
homes are full of pieces while our home is full 
of peace. 

 My thinking is simply this; a peaceful home 
is a home I want to live in. That is as far as my 
thinking really gets. Often she will complain to 
me she has a headache. I don’t wonder because 
of all the thinking she does. If I did half the 
thinking she did, my head would be thumping 
for a year.

 My philosophy is, let other people do all the 
hard work of thinking up new things to do.

 I suppose it would be good to think of something 
new and create something everybody wants to 
buy. That is one way to make money.

 I look at some things created in the world that 
have changed the way people live and often I say 
to myself, “If only I would’ve thought of that.” 
Then, thinking takes a lot of energy and who 
has energy to spare these days? 

 When it comes to thinking, I am three winks 
short of a snooze. Why should I think when 
everybody else is thinking for me? I know there 
is the attitude of self-esteem that you should not 
let other people think for you. I come back and 
say, “Why not?”

 What is so bad about other people doing most 
of the thinking?

 In our home, for example, my wife does all 
the thinking. This allows me to indulge in the 
wonderful habit of not thinking. I know I have a 
brain. I know God gave me a brain to use. I also 
know I do not want to over use my brain. I am 
saving some real thinking time for when I am 
too old to do anything else.

 Right now, I can enjoy myself with a variety 
of physical activities. Well, not so much 
physical and when I come down to it, not too 
much activity either. I like to think I am doing 
something along that line.

 There I go thinking again. If only I would just 
leave it alone and simply enjoy life as it comes.

 Perhaps that is what is wrong with people. They 
just think too much. Something happens and it 
gets them to thinking about this, which makes 
them think about that, which then causes them 
to think about something else, which then 
causes them to get lost in their thinking.

What it is, people just think too much. For most 
people, they do not have much of a base for their 
thinking.

 A great philosopher, I can’t think of who, once 
said, “I think and therefore I am.”

 If only I would’ve thought of that. In thinking 
of that, I am a little confused as to what in the 
world that philosopher meant. Does he mean, if 
I don’t think, therefore I am not?

 Me thinketh that he thinketh way too much. 
Now I have a headache!

 I would not mind if people did some thinking 
if their tongue was not attached to that thought. 
Why is it everybody has to tell me what they are 
thinking at the time they are thinking it?

 Invariably somebody will come up and say, 
“I was just thinking…” I know I am in for an 
extreme tongue-wagging session and nothing 
I can do about it. Once somebody gets to 
thinking, it is very hard to turn off that spigot.

 If only I would’ve thought of some way to keep 
people who are thinking from telling other 
people what they are thinking I would become 
a very rich person.

 Then there is that oxymoron when you meet 
somebody and they begin with, “I was just 
thinking about you…” For the next 45 minutes, 
I will have to hear what they had been thinking 
about me.

 If there is any insomnia, this will cure it once 
and for all.

 If only I could think of something to say when 
somebody begins talking to me about what they 
are presently thinking about. My problem is, 
my thinking machine is on vacation most of the 
time.

 Once I was sitting in a cafeteria by myself, 
drinking some coffee and enjoying the quiet 
when somebody approached me and said, “Hey, 
what’re you thinking about?”

 It is very awkward when somebody asks me 
that because I have not been thinking about 
anything. Is it really important to be always 
thinking about something? I once responded 
to someone by saying, “Oh, I’ve been thinking 
about nothing.” They looked at me rather 
strange trying to think of what I have not been 
thinking of at the time.

 The apostle Paul was right when he wrote, “For 
if a man think himself to be something, when 
he is nothing, he deceiveth himself” (Galatians 
6:3).

 If I am going to think, I want my thoughts to 
honor God and not be just about myself.

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HOWARD Hays As I See It


“I speak today with the full 
knowledge that I have not 
personally experienced and 
can never truly understand the 
fear, the oppression, and the 
pain that confronts African-
Americans every day. But 
none of us can ignore what is 
happening in this country. Not 
when our black friends, family, 
neighbors literally fear dying 
in the streets. It comes to us to 
once again affirm that black lives matter, that black 
citizens matter, that black families matter.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) speaking in Boston, 
September 27

I come from the same perspective as Sen. Warren and, 
as a white guy, although knowing how inappropriate it 
would be addressing this issue by referring to a Cary 
Grant comedy – I’ll go ahead and do it, anyway.

In “Monkey Business” (1952), a guy tries ingratiating 
himself with an old girlfriend by showing how well he 
gets along with children. He joins a game of cowboys 
and Indians and, as the lone “cowboy”, plays along 
with the little “Indians” as they “capture” him, stand 
him against a tree and start wrapping the rope around, 
but becomes increasingly anxious as the knots are 
tightened. He’s then truly alarmed as one of the kids 
brings a can of gasoline and another a box of matches, 
loudly protesting the “game” has gone far enough – to 
which one of the kids responds, “What’s the matter – 
don’t you like children?”

The scene came to mind reading a story in the 
Times last week about a “Blue Lives Matter” rally in 
Hollywood, sponsored by the Los Angeles Police 
Protective League. As communities across the nation 
become truly alarmed by shootings of unarmed blacks 
by cops, protests are attributed to the fact some people 
simply don’t like the police.

But, we’re told, it goes further than that. A demonstrator 
is quoted in the story, “There’s something weird 
and scary going on right now – police are being 
assassinated.” An LAPD officer explains, “Police 
are being marginalized and demonized by a small 
segment of society”. The lead paragraph of the article 
itself asserts, “killings of police officers . . . have left 
authorities across the nation feeling under siege.”

And, as Bill O’Reilly will tell you, blame for this “war 
on cops” falls on Black Lives Matter. A few weeks ago, 
he had on his Fox News show Peter Moskos, professor 
of Criminal Justice at John Jay College, to bolster his 
case – but didn’t get what he wanted. The professor 
noted that shootings of cops were in fact down 17% 
from the year before and asked, “Are you willing to 
give Black Lives Matter credit for that?” (Prof. Moskos 
himself is a former cop.)

While still running in the GOP derby, Gov. Scott 
Walker (WI) blamed President Obama’s “anti-police” 
rhetoric and “divisive” attitude for the “disturbing 
trend of police officers being murdered on the job.” 
Candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (TX) complains, “Cops 
across the country” are “feeling the assault from the 
president.”

According to figures from the National Law 
Enforcement Memorial Fund, the number of police 
killings under President Obama is lower than under 
any other two-term president in our lifetime – 46% 
lower than under Ronald Reagan at this point in his 
presidency. Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports 
the number of people killed by police is higher than it’s 
been in forty years.

Changing the narrative to one of police victimization 
is meant to more easily allow us to “ignore what is 
happening in this country”, as Sen. Warren put it. The 
killing of Michael Brown a year ago wasn’t ignored, 
and two weeks ago the Ferguson Commission, created 
under Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, took bold, decisive 
action: it issued a report. Two-hundred pages and 
nine months in the making, the governor hopes it will 
“spark . . . in-depth conversations”.

Last March, the U.S. Justice Department issued its 
own report – citing years of racist e-mails between 
Ferguson officials and how police regard black 
residents “less as constituents to be protected than 
as potential offenders and sources of revenue.” Since 
then, steps have been taken to limit the courts being 
used to extract money from the poorest to fund city 
services – but that’s about it.

A lawsuit was filed last week by Christopher Owens, a 
black resident of Providence, R.I. over a beating that 
took place four years ago. He was in his yard with his 
son when he saw a driver fleeing the scene of a hit-
and-run. Owens tackled and held the suspect when 
six police officers arrived. They beat and handcuffed 
Owens, then sat him in the patrol car where he watched 
them attack and beat his son.

Owens says he repeatedly told them he himself was 
a Providence police officer (had been for ten years, 
while his son did undercover work for the force), 
but was ignored. The officers claim he didn’t, while 
some denied having been there at all. According to 
the suit, “One officer remarked that all he saw was 
a big black guy.” A state police superintendent says 
“It’s unfortunate he was injured . . . but he has some 
responsibility for what happened in that backyard.” 
(Owens has since been disabled.)

The beatings didn’t happen because of any dislike for 
kids or cops.

While Republicans remained flabbergasted over 
doctored videos purporting to show what goes on in 
women’s health clinics, Warren spoke of “sickening 
videos of unarmed, black Americans cut down by 
bullets, choked to death while gasping for air — their 
lives ended by those who are sworn to protect them.”

I didn’t like seeing the Black Lives Matter folks 
interrupt Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in Seattle, and 
there’s understandable defensiveness when it comes 
to our police. But, as Elizabeth Warren reminded 
in concluding her speech at Boston, “it comes to us 
to continue the fight, to make, as John Lewis said, 
the ‘necessary trouble’ until we can truly say that 
in America, every citizen enjoys the conditions of 
freedom.”


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