20 + 1

By Steve Woodward

Although far too many Americans know nothing about our nation’s history, we would not have one — a nation or a history — were it not for a determined collection of men, who might in another era have been celebrated for their intellect but were, because of the time in which they lived, best known for their courage.

The Founding Fathers. I suppose, today, we might encounter more than a few in academia who dismiss these men as racist white supremacists. They were indeed supreme. They envisioned a nation born of independence from tyranny — an idea that in that day was seen as ludicrous.

Here we are in 2023. History is repeating. Twenty members of the U.S. House of Representatives gathered their ranks, stood in the breech and, in the spirit of our founders, said, HELL NO!

It has been hilarious to watch cable TV morons calling out the “chaos” being imposed on our government because 20 Americans, duly elected, decided to crush the status quo. Who elected them? Why were they elected? To carry out the will of citizens across the land who have no voice.

The 15 rounds of voting that resulted in Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) becoming Speaker of the House were not a side show, were not disruptive, were not scandalous. The Declaration of Independence was not etched with a rubber stamp. It was fought for by wise individuals who knew how to deliberate.

The “20” have restored the fight inside the corridors of power and in doing so honor our Founders. Among them was North Carolina’s Dan Bishop, who represented Moore County during his just concluded term and was elected to represent a different district (NC-08) in November.

During 11 rounds of voting for Speaker, Bishop stood firm against McCarthy. On January 5, Bishop (photo nearby) nominated young up-and-comer Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL). After “the 20” squeezed McCarthy’s camp on concession after concession to empower conservatives on key House committees, Bishop relented on the 12th vote and swung to McCarthy — but not without having the last word.

“Let me help my colleagues in the minority understand, we are doing the peoples’ business,” Bishop said. “We are committed to (bring) change to this institution that has lost its way. It is epitomized in the $1.7 trillion omnibus rammed through this institution just two weeks ago. Ladies and gentlemen, I came to fix this broken system.”

Challenges to McCarthy led by Reps. Lauren Boebert (CO), Matt Gaetz (FL) and Chip Roy (TX), among others, were not personal in nature. They were designed to restore order to the governing process and end the operation of the House as a “fiefdom”, as observed by Real America’s Voice contributor Frank Gaffney.

To prove that he is serious and was not merely caving under the intense scrutiny imposed by Freedom Caucus zealots (which are needed in greater supply), McCarthy now must shepherd through an extensive “rules package” that he agreed to to preserve his ambitions to be Speaker. These are not ground breaking new rules that will remake the House but are, in fact, a return to fundamental tenets of governance. In other words, a complete denunciation of Pelosi-era iron fist rule.

Accepting his ascendency to Speaker in the wee hours of January 7, McCarthy revealed that there was a 21st individual who helped sway the outcome. He also is known as 45. President Donald Trump. McCarthy said Trump influenced a scenario in which five others joined Florida’s Gaetz in voting “present” on the 15th vote for Speaker, which lowered the number of votes McCarthy needed to prevail.

McCarthy praised Trump for being “with me from the beginning.” On that point the Speaker missed the point. It is more plausible to assume that Trump’s artful dealing behind the scenes intended to defang McCarthy and impose rules on House conduct that will contain impulses among uni-party Republicans in Name Only (RINOs) to betray conservatism.

Seems that rumors of MAGA’s death were greatly exaggerated.

Two years later

By Steve Woodward

While generally skeptical about so-called resolutions prompted by one month bleeding into another, I nonetheless resolve to torment hypocrites and Marxists (Democrats) as never before in 2023.

What other choice do we have? Anthony Fauci is retiring but his legacy — gain-of-function, fear, masking, boosters — is not going away. In fact, it is going to places heretofore uncontemplated. Vaccinated sheep (citizens) we are told now are more vulnerable to upcoming “variants” of the Wuhan virus. And pay no attention to vaccinated healthy young adults becoming ill or dying “suddenly”. 

The blank canvas that is 2023 should not be frittered away at the hands of status quo Republicans. The battle in the U.S. House of Representatives to name its speaker reinforces a pressing need to deflect establishment forces. Our Founding Fathers did not create their framework to limit conflict within a party; they envisioned a battlefield upon which bold ideas and deep passion would overwhelm hypocrisy and political fraudsters. 

Were we to summon a fraction of the determination that drove the Founders just think what we might accomplish. Locally, we would create a coalition to insure that a drag show never would darken our community again. We would direct our school board to eradicate gender grooming and race theory from public education. And we would challenge our county commissioners to marginalize the county board of health — over which it presides — so that it never again intrudes on public education by recommending school closures, masking and subjecting children to experimental mRNA injections.

But we also must stand resolute against purveyors of revisionist history as we approach the second anniversary of the unity rally of January 6 in Washington, where your correspondent traveled to chronicle what would unfold. We know many brothers and sisters who came and went without so much as raising their voices an octave, while raising objections that D.C. government chose to limit rest facilities apparently in an effort to disperse the “mobs” of seniors, families and young Republicans. The choice was clear: urination or defend the nation. 

Apart from the planted, scripted disrupters who raged into the Capital two years ago, those who merely showed up are now, two years on, still sobered by what our nation looked like after the crowds went home and the Biden Administration ascended. Where we are in 2023 affirms that our motivation to assemble in Washington on that fateful January day in 2021 was prescient.

To the extent that a few hundred people swelled into the Capitol we now see how that modest demonstration pales in comparison to the trampling and burning down of societal norms in the aftermath. We might ask, where was the outrage on that January afternoon amid news that the lone fatality was an unarmed military veteran (Ashli Babbitt) who was gunned down in cold blood by a Capitol police officer? Why does January 6 merit a “commission”? Where are the commissions denouncing violence on America’s streets that, by comparison, make that citizens’ rally look like a county fair? Innocents who participated that day still rot in D.C. jail cells charged with taking selfies. But who was doing the plundering of our democracy in reality? Facebook and Twitter, of course. When will those digital accomplices be shackled and sent away?

Two years on, the Left is waging its own insurrection. Look no further than an essay I endured in a recent, Dec. 31-Jan. 1 weekend edition of The Wall Street Journal. It is worth noting that, in order to fill up the sections in weekend Journals, editors give voice to authors who would prefer to be published in The New York Times. The Journal helps them audition. 

Zachary Karabell, who is the founder of the ominously named Progress Network, wrote to praise 2022 as as year in which “far more went right … than most of us recognize”. One can only imagine from which penthouse or city brownstone the author was perched as he typed fervently to remind us that 2022 was the year “climate technology was supercharged” by $400 billion allocated through Biden’s absurd Inflation Reduction Act. (In China, the equivalent would be the Oppression Reduction Edict). 

Mr. Karabell is positively giddy in reminding readers that voter suppression laws failed (but misses the point that no such laws existed). Without a hint of irony, he claims “voters surged to the polls in (2022) despite fears (expressed only by left wing media) that laws passed in states such as Georgia and Texas would lead to voter suppression.” 

The illogical Mr. Karabell goes on in his rambling essay to praise wage gains for citizens he disparages as “workers” — up by 6% in 2022 — “that did not (emphasis added) for most of the year keep pace with inflation.” Not to worry, he writes, “inflation moderates”. Just as urban crime waves sweeping our nation moderate. Some nights are less deadly than others. 

2022 was a train wreck but, apparently, Mr. Karabell blissfully travelled on a parallel track.

The reliably moderate Gerard Baker, in his weekly Journal column, tried to ease into a new year by calling for an ideological truce. “Can we start to work to eradicate the binary mind-set that has seized our thinking about the kind of society and world we think we should live in?” Baker asks.

He answers his own question near the end of the column — as if the more he kept typing the more he was talking himself out of the premise. (As editor emeritus, Baker should impulsively have send the column back for a re-write). 

Baker continues: herein is “the great conundrum for the more skeptical among us: Advances in the lot of humanity have rarely come from calls for moderation and humility, but from true believers — zealots who convinced enough people that the choice they faced really was a binary one between good and evil.”

Citizens who endure wages ravaged by bad economic policy, and law and order dysfunction driven by the “woke”, deserve our fierce defense of their liberties, no matter the cost.

If parents with children in government run indoctrination centers (schools) must become zealots to reform the system, let them do so boldly. If mechanical ballot tabulation presents a binary choice between integrity and fraud, we must go full binary to expose the Left. If U.S. border security is de-emphasized even as Ukrainian border security is funded by an American Congress to the tune of $100 billion; if medical tyranny advanced by thinly veiled lies threatens livelihoods, mental health and the well being of healthy young adults; if we observe the normalization of transgenderism and the rejection of Judeo-Christian values in our communities; if the very foundation of American exceptionalism is crumbling under the iron boot of the Left’s Great Reset in pursuit of a one-world order; well, then what?

With grudging apologies to Mr. Baker, the task is not to eradicate a mind-set. The task is to eradicate enemies within. 

Matt Hintz

By Steve Woodward

Matthew Hintz appeared within the ranks of the Moore County Republican Party almost out of thin air, and during the past roughly two years he inspired many of us through his passion and deeply rooted convictions. Often, his passion was mistaken for rage but his friends knew better. Many most likely found their passions wanting by contrast. 

Matt rejoiced in his children and his marriage. When he came to realize that local public education was fraught with peril for young minds, he and Melissa chose to home-school their two boys of school age. He was deeply engaged in their homeschooling activities before earlier this year sending them off to a Christian school.

We worked together on a team that organized the Moore County School Choice Expo last May. By all accounts it was a resounding success, attracting both private and charter schooling advocates, and a steady stream of visitors from the community.

I will certainly miss Matt’s warmth and thoughtfulness. He was indeed a kind soul with a sharp wit and an unassuming presence though his intellect was substantial. In the face of hypocrisy and deceit, Matt was the first to stand up and speak up.

When Matt recognized that thousands of retired military veterans in our midst are unregistered voters, he wrote a powerful radio ad calling on them to fulfill a solemn duty and honor their oaths by voting.

Matt entered God’s eternal kingdom on November 23. We no longer can hear his voice, but let us vow to be his voice.

This broken world too often turns its back on the very individuals best equipped to heal it. Thus, how can we mourn too long when they leave us in search of peace? I pray that Matt is now immersed in peace.