Are Hispanics really a monolithically liberal voting bloc? The left would have you think so, but the reality is more nuanced. A new focus group survey of Hispanic swing voters, shows that while a large majority of Hispanics do lean toward voting liberal, they also share many core conservative beliefs. The lesson for conservatives is that their principles have broad appeal, but they need to a better job explaining how conservative policies positively impact Hispanics. The good news for conservatives is that the Hispanic swing voters share many of the …
President Obama has a new role model for his Buffett Rule tax—Henry Ford. It’s an odd choice considering that Ford advocated free-market capitalism and opposed redistributive policies. Despite the lucrative government contracts, Henry Ford refused to participate in FDR’s 1933 National Recovery Act. (Let’s not forget that Ford Motors was the only “big-three” automaker to decline the recent government bailout.) So why cite Ford as support for a redistributive “fairness tax”—especially one that discourages investment in the sort of successful companies that Ford worked to create? In his stump speech …
Obamacare’s day in court didn’t go so well, and liberals are in a panic. Sensing the demise of Obamacare, they have begun to preemptively accuse the conservative justices of “judicial activism.” But the more they try to explain how striking down Obamacare would be “judicial activism,” the clearer it is that the left thinks “judicial activism” is a failure to advance liberalism. Case in point: On Monday, Obama “warned” the Supreme Court against judicial activism, saying that overturning his health law “would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a …
With state legislatures back in session, legislators are looking for options to reassert their legitimate role in the constitutional structure of federalism. Sadly, a few otherwise well-intentioned legislators are once again turning to the discredited and unconstitutional doctrine of nullification—the claim that an individual state legislature has the authority to veto federal laws. Nullification may appear to offer a tempting “silver bullet” solution to the overexpansion of the federal government, but it is imperative that legislators reject this unconstitutional and unlawful doctrine. Heritage recently released a factsheet distilling the core …
Conservatives are often ridiculed for criticizing activist judges who fail to respect the Constitution. We are told that it is not conservative originalists (labeled ignorant and extremist) but rather enlightened liberal judges—with their nuanced understanding of constitutional penumbras—who truly respect the spirit of the Constitution. Conservatives, however, have good reason to be skeptical of the left’s “respect’’ for the Constitution. Just last week, for example, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told an Egyptian TV station that she would not recommend the U.S. Constitution as model for Egypt’s new government. …
With Congress set to kick off its 2012 session in just a couple of weeks, now is the perfect time to consider what the government’s primary goals should be for the new year. The economy and the election will rightly command the most attention, but we must remember that defending America is always the government’s primary responsibility. To formulate an effective defense strategy for 2012, Congress and the President should not only consider military funding and strategy but, more importantly, how to properly balance national security and liberty. In the …
Americans are blessed to have inherited a constitutional republic. If we are to keep it, we must vigilantly preserve the Constitution upon which it stands. As 2011 draws to a close, we made a list (and checked it twice!) of the year’s most important constitutional trends. Nice: Congress begins to rediscover its (atrophied) constitutional muscles Congress kicked off the year with unprecedented reverence for the Constitution. Congress began the session with a ceremonial reading of the Constitution on the house floor, and then adopted a new rule that requires any proposed …
America’s out-of-control administrative state can best be compared to a runaway stage coach—trampling American workers and careening away with their money. Next week, Congress will have an opportunity to bring much-needed oversight to America’s regulatory process by voting for the aptly named REINS Act (Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny), which would require any new regulations costing more than $100 million to be approved by Congress. If passed, the REINS Act will go a long way toward curbing the excesses of unaccountable bureaucrats and restoring the constitutional principle …
Two years ago, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D–CA) shocked many Americans by dismissing a question about Obamacare’s constitutionality with the flippant retort: “Are you serious? Are you serious?” So much for the oath she swore to “support and defend” the Constitution. By comparison, the current Speaker of House, John Boehner (R–OH) demonstrates that he takes his oath far more seriously. Raising concerns about Obama’s recent decision to bypass Congress and unilaterally change student loan and mortgage policy, Speaker Boehner pledged that the House will keep “a very close eye on …
To the surprise of a San Diego court, five orca whales are suing Sea World for holding them in slavery. No wait, that’s not quite right. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) brought the suit on behalf of the five whales. The folks at PETA allege that Sea World’s treatment of the whales violates the 13th amendment’s prohibition against slavery and involuntary servitude. PETA claims that since the 13th amendment doesn’t forbid human slavery specifically, it could apply to any species: “Slavery is slavery, and it does not …
