Don's Tuesday Column

              THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson  Red Bluff Daily News   3/20/2018

                   Child “leaders,” PA vote, McCabe

The Daily News report, “A Moment of Silence; Red Bluff High School participates in student walkout,” was rather refreshing, restoring some level of respect for the capacity of students and their adult leaders to thoughtfully respond to the recent mass murders in Parkland, Florida. The assembly seemed neither a mandatory participation event, nor a staged street protest with all of the questionable, even hypocritical and occasionally violent displays found across the nation. Silence for victims and common sense concerns for actual school safety measures prevailed.

That being said, praise is sadly undeserved for many of the events occurring elsewhere. It is reprehensible for taxpayer-supported institutions and personnel to be involved in partisan, political causes, especially when a thinly veiled agenda is pushed onto and through the school kids. Students are, by definition, without the experience or knowledge required to have informed, authoritative opinions on matters of public policy. Minds are developing; emotions are relatively immature, subject to hormones and excessive, inflamed reactions. One can only hope that part of a high school’s mission is to provide mental training and emotional guidance—acquiring knowledge as well as counseling in the unreliability of “feelings.”

The adage about how the older a young person gets, the smarter their parents remarkably become, contains a timeless truth, no? All of us, in our youth, bear the burden of being fawned over and looked to for inspiration and confirmation of older folks’ nostrums. It’s embarrassing to have been part of the “baby boomer” generation and realize how empty-headed and misguided we were. Appeals to our “wisdom” and “leadership” only reinforced the generational narcissism that, apparently, befalls each wave, including our current crop of “millennials.”

Can anyone defend, let alone celebrate, acts of despicable and dark immaturity like those noted in “Parkland Survivors Attack Dana Loesch’s Children”? Ms. Loesch, spokeswoman for the National Rifle Association, rightfully and boldly asserted the truth as perceived by many millions of citizens and responsible gun owners: Guns don’t pick themselves up and kill people; blaming the weapon while dismissing the sick and preventable mental and institutional failings that led to the school massacre is, at the very least, a wrong-headed approach to gun violence.

“Dana Loesch has been targeted by the Parkland survivors for major online bullying and abuse. These are the same students who have sat in school seminars about the dangers of ‘bullying.’ She has been demonized, mocked, ridiculed and threatened with physical violence…” escorted out of a CNN town hall by armed security and forced to move over violent rape threats.

Toni Williams, at Victorygirlsblog.com, wrote “School Walkout—Raising Good Little Fascists” and noted the apparent success of the “National School Walkout: Thousands Protest Against Gun Violence Across The U.S. (New York Times).” Similar adulation from others, i.e. Time and the Wall Street Journal, left no doubt what glory the MSN was attaching to them. Does it elevate the debate over genuine issues of rights and responsibilities to see students, who hold to the nonconforming views of gun rights supporters, ostracized and hated?

“These kids have been sold concepts that the cigarette and liquor companies have been vilified for using. They have been convinced they are smarter for believing this. They have been persuaded that they are cooler for participating. They have been assured that they are righteous in their cause. So, just who are the wizards behind the curtain manipulating the youth of America?” That would be the infamous “Women’s March (now improved with) Youth Empower,” teachers union hack-tivists and others.

Blogger Josh Hugo described it on Facebook: “This ‘school walkout’ thing is giving me serious ‘1984’ vibes. Schools are sanctioning it, so it isn’t actually a walkout. It’s actually students conforming to the government authority by speaking a government-approved opinion in a government-approved venue. And that opinion is that they should have their own (and others’) rights taken away by the government whose opinion they are expressing. You have students marching with the sanction of the state to demand less freedom from the state…and everyone is pretending that their doing so is somehow brave and rebellious.”

Regarding that supposedly ominous (for Pres. Trump and Republicans) election in Pennsylvania: You could adopt a Middle East adage: “the dogs (of media commentary) bark, the caravan (of real electoral trends) moves on.” I see it as a much overblown loss by a marginal, unappealing, non-photogenic old Republican who supports gun rights, energy and the military, opposes abortion and won’t vote for Nancy Pelosi to lead the House—to a youthful, articulate Democrat military vet who holds those exact same positions. That House district had a 70,000 Democrat voter registration edge—conservative Democrats who like and voted for Trump, and who’ll be shocked (!) to find Mr. Lamb voting lockstep with (not for) Pelosi if Democrats win in November.

Unmentioned by literally anyone is the fact that if only half of the 1400 voters that foolishly checked the box for the Libertarian candidate had voted for Republican Saccone, it would have been a win for Trump no matter how close. I saw the media touting polls showing Lamb ahead by over 6 points; a shameless, but successful, ploy to depress Republican votes. There was a selection of conservative Lamb, not a primary with left and left-er Dems vying for the vote. It will not work in the fall because most Democrats won’t tolerate such a centrist; Republicans won’t be fooled into staying home. I still say the House stays in Republican hands.

 The firing of crooked, lying, sneaky FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is just a start. “The Reckoning of the FBI Has Begun,” by Roger L. Simon, is a must-read piece. These FISA/FBI abuses, like the IRS/Tea Party (and Fast and Furious gun running) scandals that don’t get punished—get repeated.