Joe Vigliotti

The filibuster has been vital to the history of our republic, but now, because it again stands in the way of things Democrats want to do, many on the left are ready to send it out into oblivion, itself.

It’s clear that what President Biden is doing isn’t working. He doesn’t merely need to change course, but to find a course – and one which is devoid of the radical left.

If you represent a district which is mostly Democratic, why would you feel a need to listen to a minority of Republicans who feel a different way about something? If you compromise, you’ll be labeled a traitor, a coward, or a sellout for not standing up on principle, and you’ll be replaced by someone more extreme. And contrapositionally, if your voice isn’t being heard in one area, or is declared unwelcome, why would you stick around? Why wouldn’t you move somewhere you felt you mattered?

In speaking of God, some of today’s prominent atheists cast Him as an unforgiving judge set only on condemnation, especially prior to the birth of Jesus. Likewise, the woke founders and practitioners of cancel culture deny, reject, or condemn the Judeo-Christian origins — and nature — of America.

Even in times of pandemic those two hallmark features of life — love and justice — are essential to normalcy. Love and justice are inextricably a part of the American identity, and their daily exercise are legally vested in public servants like Heather DeWees.

This growing trend of censorship threatens not only to reduce the First Amendment, but it also stands to dislodge Americans’ critical reasoning by preemptively shutting down a conversation with a negating but intellectually sophisticated term of force. Who, after all, would willingly defend “disinformation” featured on a suspect network, let alone talk about it or ask “why”?

Commissioner Stephen Wantz says Carroll is ready to respond. “It boggles my mind that just a few short years ago this was one of the most important initiatives put forth by legislators and now, all of a sudden, in a short period of time, it is perceived to be negative. … If this absurd bill is passed, I will do all I can to work with my colleagues and Carroll County Public Schools to maintain this priceless program here in Carroll.”

Biden, himself, has signed no fewer than 19 executive orders as of this writing, many of them rolling back former President Donald Trump’s own executive orders. Executive orders are tenuous at best, existing only at the whim of the executive.

Freedom is, in nature, neither safe nor guaranteed. It is tenuous and conditional at best. The Founding Fathers understood that when they moved to protect natural rights under law in order to guarantee the moral truth that your freedom ends where mine begins. When you violate another’s rights, you will be held to account under the law. Here, we speak of reason and justice, not fury and revenge — and not taking the law into one’s own hands. It is as true of the community street as it is of the Capitol floor.

McConnell’s move with a competing bill provides an alternative to what House Democrats have advanced — but there are other problems which persist. Time is not on the side of American citizens, or the current makeup of both sections of Congress. The longer legislators take to provide relief, the worse off Americans are.

It was from his faith that Coolidge drew courage and confidence to always seek to do the right thing as a leader. That December, Coolidge issued an address to Congress which not only looked at the national situation, but envisioned a better, normalized future, resounding with the best of the American spirit and the influence of faith.

Under the billionaire President Trump, the party became a haven for the American working class, as it was under President Reagan. Forgotten voices were actively sought out and reminded that they mattered. The Republican Party had its best showing among minorities since the 1960s. Trump was able to articulate what had been lost — that conservatives valued the individual, and wanted everyone to succeed. No one could, or should, be held back from reaching out for the American dream.

There’s a reason why there is time between elections, gatherings of the electoral college, and inaugurations — in part, for situations such as we currently find ourselves embroiled in. Our Founders perspicaciously understood that challenges to elections required both time, and a mechanism, to resolve.

Nationally, projections of an overwhelming blue wave were altogether baseless. The double-digit leads that Democrats, including Joe Biden, were supposed to have in some places is now excruciatingly close – within percentages of a single point. As in 2016, most polling was completely wrong.

Our republic is built on deeper, moral truths, which require law and order for the administering of justice wherein the rights of individuals, as well as their safety, are upheld. It is not only freedom which requires eternal vigilance, but justice as well.

Trump halted negotiations with Pelosi on her $2.4-trillion coronavirus stimulus bill. Pelosi’s refusal to compromise, let alone her inclusion of items in the bill which have nothing to do with the economic welfare and physical health of American citizens (such as banning voter ID requirements and cashless bail) means that financial relief and medical help become political leverage. Trump has readily agreed to a clean bill focused only on stimulus checks, but Pelosi has not.

The volunteer companies, along with Wantz, and other commissioners past and present, recognize the serious danger Carroll is facing with the decline of volunteerism. A generational shift in cultural beliefs and community traditions, as well as issues like funding, contribute to that decline. But the Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services offers a viable path forward through its lending of assistance to Carroll’s volunteers, while seeking to ensure they retain independence.

Through his testimony, Chambers exposed a number of communist agents, including Alger Hiss, who worked at the State Department. Chambers further underscored the evils of Communism with his book “Witness,” which helped bring about Ronald Reagan’s conversion to conservatism.

Our nation thus can never be too far from God. A story gained traction earlier this week during the Republican National Convention about a lifelong Ohio Democrat who called into CSPAN programming to explain that, based on the Republican Party’s welcoming of God, he would be voting for President Trump in November. This caller explained he felt like the Democrats were pushing God out.

Carroll County, amid the variating trends of her neighbors, has managed to retain enough of her traditional character and moral nature to have become distinct, an outpost of sorts in this part of Maryland. It isn’t merely political, that distinction, but it is also a matter of the heart and of the mind, of the idea that home means something, and so must matter against the greater arc and current of national events that appear locally.

If those who protested coronavirus restrictions had resorted to looting, rioting, attacking federal installations, and violence, the left would be calling for the same kind of response. The difference is political, and that the president is a Republican, and that the president is Trump.

Recently, in the news a young 6-year-old boy stepped up and risked his life to save his 4-year-old sister from a dog attack. Bridger Walker chose to step between her and a charging German Shepard mix and saved her life. After the encounter he remarked, “If someone had to die, I thought it should be me,” according to his aunt, Nikki Walker.

There are still many steps before the United States realizes the promise of our Founding Fathers.

Democratic bodies often descend into mobs. Mobs destroy, assault, and will kill on a whim. Individual rights and laws do not matter except as far as the mob decides. Consider the 40,000 put to death by the French revolutionaries, or even the indiscriminate violence, looting, and rioting Americans witnessed in June as police were held back or undermined as legitimate protests spiraled.

The police are not pawns to be used for political convenience or to score cheap points. They are human beings. They are career professionals who genuinely believe in the people and communities they protect, and in the very kind of work they do.

It is a troubling time in the United States. I know that right now, you are feeling angry. Sad. Heartbroken. Tense. Sick, even. Or perhaps you might even feel like giving up. These are all valid thoughts and feelings that all of us have had at some point in the past two weeks.

Despite what some on the Left claim, the problem is not the institutions. The problem rests in those who are charged with temporary custody of them.

Even when the first rounds of mandated shutdown occurred, most Americans were willing to listen because they wanted to flatten the curve of infections, and because there were set periods of time for those shutdowns. They knew things would be tough, but were willing to take on their role. But two weeks of quarantine became three or four; and then suddenly the winter became the spring, and the amount of virus information — sometimes seemingly contradictory — surged.

We need to produce what we need, with a goal of net exports in all areas (such as we now do with oil and natural gas). We cannot be dependent on governments like China, which threatened production of medicine, to survive.

Conservatives see the federal coronavirus relief package as a tailored and temporary approach to a crisis that will end. Some liberals see the relief package as a chance to permanently implement ideological ideas and policy goals.

There is a stark difference between the bellicose language of Trump and Biden. Trump’s ire is directed at the Left in defense of the average American. Biden’s is directed from the Left at the average American, as demonstrated by his recent confrontation over gun rights with a factory worker in Detroit.

Most Americans really don’t care about how much money President Trumpe has — but they do care about their families, their lives, and their country. They want a genuine president who recognizes and hears their voices.

Oftentimes, elected officials lean one way, but ultimately decide on another course. This can come about because of additional consideration, research, and importantly, speaking with constituents.

It is clear that House has not made the case for removal, as they argue that more evidence and more witnesses are needed to prove their case. But this was the House’s responsibility to begin with.

We should be proud of successes made and endeavors sought by Carroll’s elected officials — and we must also be prepared for challenges of the future. The idyll of success does not find its roots in idleness, but in the American ethic of vigilance.

The terrible cost of World War I, coupled with horrific Progressive ideas and domestic policies, left Americans seeking moral stability in 1920, just as the Great Recession of 2008 and eight years of harmful liberal policies left us seeking renewed stability in 2016.

As we stood there against the sun-warmed russet-colored brick with the cold winter wind swift down from the mountains amid a quilt of cerulean-blue sky and bright, rushing clouds, fellow Americans of every kind came along, asking the officers only a few simple questions: “How can I help? What do you need?”We never know whose lives we may touch or change by even the simplest things we do. We never know how many people we may help through kindness.

Professor Jonathan Turley was absolutely deafening when he explained that if the Judiciary ignored process and separation of powers, that they would be doing the very thing they were accusing the president of doing — abusing power.

Unlike Teapot Dome, witnesses called this week over the assumed Trump-Ukraine deal expressed opinions based on feelings and impressions while freely admitting they do not have any actual evidence of wrongdoing. Some even contradicted the others.

Here, in Carroll, local offices matter — and the county’s citizens and elected leaders know this. Sen. Justin Ready’s recent fundraiser featured Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford, while Congressman Andy Harris held a town hall in Gamber — emblematic of how important Carroll is in the grand scheme of state elections.

“Resistance” is not only rhetoric, but a new reality as everything from trade agreements to judicial nominees are not only excoriated, but held up as the aftereffect of Russian collusion that ensured Trump’s victory in 2016.

No one would build anything if they did not seek to make a difference — whether it is raising a family or raising a barn roof or raising up ideas. We want things that are good to last.

The extreme Left has been calling for impeachment under any condition for any reason, and now Pelosi has, in effect, formalized that rallying cry. Already, a number of Democrats are saying the call is proof enough to proceed.

Bolton’s departure probably will not have profound implications for America’s foreign policy or its defense policy, notably because Secretary of State Mike Pompeo maintains an understanding of international relations similar to Bolton.

Critics and opponents of the war against drugs contend that anti-drug efforts have done little to nothing to reverse production, selling or addiction. They have argued that this means the effort has failed and that it is therefore one not worth fighting. But we know that giving up is not an option.

Extremists often achieve success because they are utterly undeterred from the perceived rightness of their mission and their course. The ends justify the means, even where it means excising their own.

But when one speaks of Americans, one doesn’t only think of a place – one also thinks about ideals.

Writing off 20,000 Americans who attend a Trump rally is not only self-defeating, but speaks to the scorn some on the Left hold for their fellow Americans.

The Left re-inaugurated a clash of laws between states, beginning around New York’s horrific abortion-until-birth laws.

Socialism is appealing because it is an idea counter to reality. It can be altered, morphed, and redecorated at will. It is as disembodied as smoke.