Kamala's Freedom Fallacy

Since Kamala's entrance into the 2024 presidential race, she has frequently referenced the importance of "freedom" in her attempt to elevate herself as the self-proclaimed freedom fighter. From the title, you already know that I profoundly disagree with Kamala's false bravado when it comes to the way she flirts with and flaunts her version of "freedom". Nevertheless, there's no denying that her campaign platform centers around freedom and civil liberties, and she believes that she is the answer to restoring freedom to the masses.

In the release of Kamala's initial campaign ad, Beyonce's Grammy nominated song Freedom was featured and became the official song for her 2024 presidential campaign. The ad itself reads as follows:

"I'm Kamala Harris, and I'm running for President of the United States. In this election, we each face a question: What kind of country do we want to live in? There are some people who think we should be a country of chaos, of fear, of hate. But us, we choose something different. We choose freedom."

Ok, I get it...the song, the campaign theme: the connection is obvious in that two high-profile women are celebrating America's foremost value that has influenced American history from the Revolutionary War, to slavery and the Civil War, to today. Freedom in America has been a battleground for centuries with countless lives lost only to result in the triumphant restoration of human dignity and the fulfillment of our premier guiding documents, the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and the U.S. Constitution. In the immortal words of the late, great Martin Luther King Jr., Let Freedom Ring, and yes indeed, American freedom is truly the prize and envy of the world.

Interestingly, however, when you listen to Freedom by Beyonce, which again is Kamala's official presidential campaign song, the following lyrics are ironic and jaw-dropping, I'MA RIOT, I'MA RIOT, THROUGH YOUR BORDERS. In today's vernacular, we call this Foot in Mouth Disease and rightly so due to our current catastrophic situation at our southern border, especially given Kamala's status as the presiding "Border Czar". That said, do these lyrics serve as code for Kamala by signifying "freedom" for illegal immigrants crossing over to the U.S.? After all, she is on record for being a staunch advocate for the decriminalization of illegal immigration(1). Similarly, do these lyrics become marching orders for illegal border crossers, and if so, is she responsible for any rioting or violence that occurs hereafter along the U.S.-Mexico border? Time will tell as we watch and wait with these lyrics ringing loudly in our ears like a bad case of tinnitus.

In all seriousness, with all the celebratory freedom talk by "team Kamala", I find her approach flippant, misguided, and egregious. The freedom flaws are evident to the naked eye and detrimental to a proper and historically accurate understanding as formulated and treasured by America's founding fathers.

Joseph Loconte's timeless article Faith and Freedom: The Missing Link, written in 2000, exposes Kamala's flawed handling of the essence of America's founding and greatness. In the follow-up to his unpacking of the importance of faith and political liberty to a post-Revolutionary War America, Loconte brilliantly makes the following deduction:

The reason goes back to the Founders' view of democracy. Freedom depends on citizens who can govern themselves, which means freedom requires virtue. But it takes more than laws to sustain morality. It requires religion - not the enfeebled variety of an established church, but the muscular faith of individual believers and congregations exercised in the public square.

John Witherspoon, one of America's most inspiring and influential founding fathers, also a signatory to the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, gives historical context and meaning to Loconte's claim in this pithy but remarkable quote, "God grant in America true religion and civil liberty may be inseparable and the unjust attempts to destroy the one, may in the issue tend to the support and establishment of both." This from a man who carried the tiles of statesman, minister, and president of the College of New Jersey, which later became Princeton University. He was so honored and respected that John Adams once said that John Witherspoon was "as high a son of liberty as any man in America." (2)

Lastly, David J. Gowdy's excellent article reinforces what I have expressed thus far, but he goes one step further. Gowdy provides a historical backdrop that captures the prevailing faith-freedom sentiment of the early colonist.

John Adams stated it this way, “Public virtue cannot exist in a Nation without private Virtue, and public Virtue is the only Foundation of Republics.” In this regard, the revolutionary war was as much a battle against “the corruption of 18th century British high society,” as it was against financial oppression.  While the Founders and American colonists were very concerned with their civil liberty and economic freedom, demanding “no taxation without representation,” they were equally concerned with their religious liberty, particularly in preserving their rights of individual conscience and public morality.  With respect to the vital need for virtue in order to establish and maintain a republic, the Founders were in complete harmony:

George Washington said: “Virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government,” and “Human rights can only be assured among a virtuous people.”

Benjamin Franklin said: “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.” 

James Madison stated: “To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical [imaginary] idea.”

For brevity's sake, I only provided three quotes from Gowdy's list, but you can go to the link below to read the full article and see all thirteen names and quotes, which is an impressive and compelling list. His Compilation successfully defends his argument and the crux of my position which is that freedom is not reducible to some flimsy, shallow, political talking point driven by electoral popularity or political posturing. This is the case with the Harris-Walz freedom fallacy and is why Gowdy's argument from history is still applicable and highly relevant to today's body politic. Theirs is a flagrant hijacking and misuse of freedom by liberal ideologues and a shameful ignoring of the historical foundation and all-important intersect between the indispensable ideals of faith and virtue as necessary conditions for the proper use of freedom so that our democratic republic endures "forever". From her official campaign ad to her campaign speeches, Harris fails to capture any of this and thus poses a serious risk to effectively promoting freedom in America in the spirit and intent of the founders. We can only hope that well-informed and well-intended citizens challenge her conceptualization as a corrective to Kamala's Freedom Fallacy for the common good and the preservation of American exceptionalism so as to honor freedom's heritage and Christian foundation without compromise.

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1. https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/88623/what-is-kamala-harris-position-on- decriminalizing-illegal-entry

2. Minister to Freedom, Loconte, J. Ph.D., 2001

Let the Atrocity Olympics Begin: Uyghurs, Black Genocide, On your Marks!

On February 20, 2021, I published a blog titled China 2022 Olympics, Moral Failure, and the Case for Boycotts. Nearly a year later and we are set to begin two weeks of an abominable PR campaign celebrating China's rise to power through the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) while simultaneously ignoring and denying the ignominy of this regime's rapacious appetite for global conquest, human suffering, international hostility, and, in the case of the Uyghurs, ethnic brutality and oppression. Many find this year's event to be an absolute travesty and black eye on the Olympic tradition, and I firmly believe that an international boycott is defensible and appropriate given Uyghur oppression and the CCP's invidious role in the COVID-19 Pandemic.

In my original blog, I take direct aim at China's egregious human rights abuses involving everything from torture and organ harvesting to enslavement and outright genocide of the Uyghurs. Of course my critique of China, the Chinese Communist Party or CCP specifically, would not be complete without raising the ire and outrage of the world over the CCP's mishandling of the pandemic, where two years later the world continues to suffer miserably while the Chinese regime basks not in shame, lament, or forgiveness, but tone-deaf entitlement, arrogance, and gross negligence and narcissism.

There are many different directions I could take because the issues are that deep and the moral failures that profound. As the title indicates, however, the United States has its own reckoning to deal with, and I will treat that for the remainder of this blog. For contemporary considerations, especially when you factor in human loss, impact to future generations, and callous moral indifference, abortion and the African American community is today's frontrunner for America in the "atrocity Olympics" between the U.S. and China.

In the article, Abortion: The overlooked tragedy for black Americans, Arizona State Representative Walt Blackman makes some rather remarkable and compelling statements about abortion and black genocide:

...Yet, 36 percent of all abortions were obtained by black women. At a ratio of 474 abortions per 1,000 live births, black women have the highest ratio of any group in the country.

When you use those percentages, it indicates that of the over 44 million abortions since the 1973 Roe vs Wade Supreme Court ruling, 19 million black babies were aborted. African Americans are just under 13 percent of United States population.

It is undeniably good that we convey the positive stories of our community to our fellow countrymen. It is important that we pass on stories that empower us. However, it is harmful to all black Americans if we continue to let society look the other way when it comes to the devastation that political policies like abortion wreak on the black community.

As staggering as these numbers are, they are conceivably higher when you account for the fact that most, if not all, abortion data is provided to the CDC by Planned Parenthood, the lead organization when it comes to abortion referrals and services in the United States. It is fair to assume that these numbers are likely under-reported to obscure the facts and temper public shock, outrage, and disapproval. Still, the data speaks loud and clear and yet the silence, as State Rep. Blackman accurately points out, is equally deafening from political leaders, community leaders, clergy, corporate investors, and child advocacy groups. This reminds me of Hanna Arendt's banality of evil, where government leaders in China and America are caught in the grips of ghoulish evil, silence, and moral indifference as the world witnesses government sponsored atrocity.

As for the inhumanities against the Uyghurs and America's virtual silence and unwillingness to be a beacon of hope that inspires protest for all the right reasons, perhaps the American "dilemma" our nation's leaders face can be found in the 19 million aborted black babies that continue to devastate black America. This ongoing body count is exactly why many are calling abortion in the black community black genocide in America. Thus, is this the reason why we are witnessing moral cowardice from the Biden-Harris Administration over the Uyghurs because of the obvious indifference and noxious disregard they have over black genocide? They'll never say and we'll never know, but I find it highly disturbing and ironic that between the Uyghur atrocities and black genocide, endless inhumanities and ethnic injustices are being tolerated and ignored both by the Biden-Harris Administration and the International Olympic Committee (IOC). In fact, all you have to do is read the position statements by both groups to see hypocrisy in action amidst human atrocity respectively.

Below is a snapshot of President Biden's October 14, 2021 statement on the "United States Election to the Human Rights Council."

The United States stands ready to work with partners and allies to help lead the world toward a more peaceful, prosperous future, grounded in respect for human dignity. Together, we will stand up for the rights of all, including women and girls, members of LGBTQI+ communities, members of ethnic and religious minorities, those living with disabilities, and members of other marginalized groups. We will promote accountability for governments that abuse human rights. And we will stand in solidarity with, and continue to work tirelessly in support of, the activists, human rights defenders, and peaceful protestors on the front lines of the struggle between freedom and tyranny.

Similarly, here's a statement from the IOC on human rights that comes from its Recommendations for an IOC Human Rights Strategy that's dated March 2020:

The IOC Code of Ethics is also an important reference point for the organization. Fundamental Principle 1 in the Olympic Charter states that “Olympism seeks to build a way of life based on … respect for universal fundamental ethical principles”. The Code of Ethics seeks to define this broad term in Article 1 to include a number of issues, one of which is “[r]espect for international conventions on protecting human rights insofar as they apply to the Olympic Games’ activities and which ensure in particular: - respect for human dignity; - rejection of discrimination of any kind on whatever grounds …; -

Given the Uyghur realities that are widely known to the world along with the 19 million aborted black babies, better known as black genocide, both official statements reflect the heights of hypocrisy, shallowness, and tone-deaf leadership. Both pathetically demonstrate profound moral incoherence, though America strives to remain rooted and grounded in integrity, freedom, and justice as exemplified by the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. In the case of the Biden-Harris Administration, however, what's extremely disturbing is that we are only one week into Black History Month and yet no recognition of or attempts to course-correct the abortion trajectory in black America as we accelerate toward 20 million black aborted babies! Clearly, the Biden Harris Administration, Xi Jinping and the CCP regime, and the IOC are deeply invested in perpetuating and ignoring human atrocity and genocide, and the world community ought to be outraged at this level of moral incompetence.

For the next two weeks, America's credibility suffers each day it refuses to speak up for and speak out against the Chinese Communist Party's inhumane treatment of the Uyghurs. Likewise, silence and neglect over black genocide and the 19 million aborted black babies in America is an ongoing painful reality that inflicts incalculable damage to black America, economically, politically, spiritually, emotionally, generationally, and most noticeably...numerically.

We hear a lot about systemic racism today, and If systemic racism is the cause celebre globally due to the Black Lives Matter movement, between the Uyghur atrocities and black genocidal abortion (systemic racism on steroids), Xi Jinping and his Chinese Communist Party along with the Biden-Harris Administration are knee deep in systemic racism and losers in the worst "atrocity Olympics" since the Berlin Games of1936, and we know what happened after that spectacle and how the dark clouds of Hitler and his Nazi regime changed the world forever. Starting with the IOC and the Olympic tradition, when will we learn from history? Obviously we didn't learn from 1936 as Hitler marched through Europe to persecute the world with antisemitism, global inhumanity, and warring of the nations, but here we go again with another round of the "atrocity Olympics" and the denial of life, liberty, and human dignity.

Democrats and Immigration: Racism, Rhetoric, Recklessness, & Responsibility

According to the National Institutes of Mental Health, psychosis is defined as:

The word psychosis is used to describe conditions that affect the mind, where there has been some loss of contact with reality. When someone becomes ill in this way it is called a psychotic episode. During a period of psychosis, a person’s thoughts and perceptions are disturbed and the individual may have difficulty understanding what is real and what is not.

Having worked in the mental health field for a number of years before re-careering to politics (and If you want to classify politics as mental illness I'd be fine with that just the same), I am very familiar with those who experience impaired and distorted thinking as evidenced by an inability to relate to and understand what's true and real for the norm versus the incoherent and otherworldly reality they experience firsthand. Simply put, theirs is a world of profound confusion, conflict, inner-turmoil and inexplicable terror that is hard to share and make understandable to others.

This brings me to President Joe Biden and the Democrats, who seemingly are caught between two polarizing Americas: one is the racist America they remind us about all too often with claims that racists are lurking around every corner and behind every policy that's authored by anyone White, conservative, and Republican. The other "reality" liberals and Democrats promote is an America steeped in egalitarianism, utopian ideals, openness, acceptance, and government largess. When it comes to the latter, they frequently reference the words enshrined at the Statue of Liberty, which read as follows:

"...A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

The poem is by Emma Lazarus, and it was written before the Statue of Liberty was built. It was eventually inscribed at the base in 1903, seventeen after its completion and opening in1886. And while it continues to be used to assert a false immigration narrative that's not supported by the poem's meaning or intent, it echoes the "immigration dream" espoused by the majority of Democrats(1). Thus, we have two competing Americas promoted by one party, the Democrats, who together with their newly elected President seek to expand immigration like never before; Reuters News states that Biden's goal calls for125,000 new refugee admissions who will call America home starting October 1 of this year(2). This push drastically conflicts with "America the land of the racist" imagery promoted by Democrats through-and-through. Such was the case in February 2020 at the Democratic Primary debate, where Democratic dogma was on full display for all to see. One after the other, Democratic candidates perpetuated American racial antipathy without hesitation or qualification. Here's a snapshot from a New York Post post-debate article:

About an hour into the debate, they found their message: America, Bernie Sanders said, is “a racist society from top to bottom.”

One by one, the candidates echoed the message that “systemic racism” characterizes America.

“We can’t legislate away racism,” said Andrew Yang, because racism runs so deep in the American soul.

Joe Biden, verbatim (poor Joe): “The fact is that we in fact there is systemic racism.”

Elizabeth Warren even declared that “we need race-conscious laws in education, in employment, in entrepreneurship to make this country a country for everyone.”(3)

Again, the above is just a sample of a chorus of "racist America" rants that dominated the scene that night. But here's the rub: Democrats can't have it both ways. If America is so racist, then why is the Biden Administration set to flood America with 120,000 immigrant refugees starting October 1, 2021, the very country Biden and the Democrats scorned and professed to be systemically racist? Not only is this contradiction, it is political psychosis. To speak contradiction out of both sides of your mouth destroys credibility and defies common sense politically. To speak with a distorted sense of reality is not only negligent, it is morally reckless if what you believe about America is true and will jeopardize the safety of thousands of new arrivals. On the other hand, if you also speak of the utopian America, then your "racist America" rhetoric will have recklessly and irresponsibly tainted your new arrivals' views of America over which you obviously are conflicted. This also conflicts with the immigrants understanding of America because all they've heard and believe is America, the land of opportunity, which is why they migrated over many miles and at great risk to their lives in the first place.

Rhetoric or reality, Democrats should be held accountable for their double-talk and the confusion and harm they do to America's reputation and the psyche of newly arriving immigrants, who we all want to see flourish and embrace America for all its greatness, past, present, and future. Democrats would be well served to read one of Frederick Douglass's most famous speeches for a proper perspective on America, this from a man who truly saw and experienced unfathomable horrors for an entire race of people under the systemic brutalities of chattel slavery. HIs speech, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?, is truly remarkable and a testament to his convictions about America, her ideals, flaws, and the essence of freedom. After a scathing rebuke of American slavery, Douglass concludes the following, a conclusion truly lacking from Democrats today given the rhetoric and political psychosis recklessly repeated ad nauseum from the mouths of their so-called leaders:

Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. “The arm of the Lord is not shortened,” and the doom of slavery is certain. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from the Declaration of Independence, the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age.

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1. For an excellent and concise treatment of this poem, See Stephen Miller is right: Lazarus’ immigration poem is not US Law at https://www.aei.org/articles/stephen-miller-is-right-lazarus-immigration-poem-is-not-us-law/

2. Biden set to accept more refugees after years of Trump Restrictions, Reuters, Ted Hesson and Steve Holland, February 4, 2021, https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-biden-refugees-order/biden-set-to-accept-more-refugees-after-years-of-trump-restrictions-idUSKBN2A50C6.

3. Trashing America as racist won't help Democrats beat Trump, NY Post, John Podhoretz, February 7, 2020, https://nypost.com/2020/02/07/trashing-america-as-racist-wont-help-democrats-beat-trump/