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Cruz Control - Cruz helped to breed his own nemesis. And what does he have to show for it? Is his style of “true” conservatism now the more popular, the more compelling, the better understood? For someone so intelligent and so renowned as a debater, it’s hard to remember any of Cruz’s arguments. Admittedly, he was debating legions of opponents—a case where party leaders really did let the good candidates down, as mentioned above. Partly, however, his fluent arguments lacked a center, a focus. He had two rhetorical modes—the preacher and the debater. One was earnest and revivalist, summoning ultimate...

Kesler is an expert in American political history and in the American Founding. He argues in our discussion that Trump represents a strain of Republicanism (and republicanism) that was mainstream from the time of Lincoln at least until the time of Hoover...

Larry Bailey and others from across the spectrum of US special forces have banded together to form Special Operations Speaks. I'll let them speak for themselves: Honorably discharged veterans of the Special Operations communities of all the Armed Services have organized an effort to elect Mitt Romney President of the United States. This group, “Special Operations Speaks,” or “SOS,” will be structured along quasi-military lines, with an umbrella organization coordinating the efforts of several subordinate Service-unique specialties. The Army will be represented by “Rangers Speak Out” and “Green Berets Speak Out;” the Navy by “SEALs Speak Out;” the Air Force...

IN PRESIDENT Obama, conservatives face the most formidable liberal politician in at least a generation. In 2008, he won the presidency with a majority of the popular vote—something a Democrat had not done since Jimmy Carter's squeaker in 1976—and handily increased the Democrats' control of both houses of Congress. Measured against roughly two centuries worth of presidential victories by Democratic non-incumbents, his win as a percentage of the popular vote comes in third behind FDR's in 1932 and Andrew Jackson's in 1828. More importantly, Obama won election not as a status quo liberal, but as an ambitious reformer. Far from...

An anti-war reporter calls another a "craven wretch" for his anti-Iraq propaganda. "… I saw many of the same things you did. But I've come to very different conclusions. That, I believe, is because you had a pre-existing agenda you were determined to conform evidence to (i.e., war is bad, the U.S. is waging a war, so whatever it's doing in Anbar is bad); and because you're a coward…." Read it all; it gets better and better.

If John Kerry had been elected President of the United States in November 2004, especially with the incoming majority Democrat Congress, it is highly likely that Iraq would be in the midst of a civil war, Iran’s regional influence would have increased, Israel would be in more jeopardy than it is now, two Supreme Court seats would be occupied by clones of John Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg instead of by John Roberts and Samuel Alito, judicial decisions would have given even more “rights” to enemy combatants, domestic entitlements and earmarks would have skyrocketed, the Bush tax cuts would be...

The Los Angeles Times is a leftist rag. It spews such liberal propaganda that it is hard to find actual news in its pages. To say that it is anti-American, anti-war, anti-business, anti-Republican is just scratching the surface of this pathetic excuse for communication. Today they scold Harvard Business School for turning out the embarrassment of all embarrassments, their MBA, George W. Bush. To give some authority to their scolding, they enlist the services of Charles R. Kesler, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College. After a reading of the article I seriously doubt this academe is any more...

Post mortems in the liberal press on the role that Vietnam veterans played in presidential candidate John Kerry's defeat mask the key role of the liberal press, which tried to suppress the vets' story and is distorting it now. I was there at the creation of a veterans group and all along, and know better. The American people deserve to know better too. In 1971 I organized Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace. John O'Neill enlisted to counter the smears of American servicemen in Vietnam. No one else spoke up for us, so we had to. The mainstream press was...

The revolt of the Vietnam veterans By Bruce Kesler December 19, 2004 By Bruce Kesler Post mortems in the liberal press on the role that Vietnam veterans played in presidential candidate John Kerry's defeat mask the key role of the liberal press, which tried to suppress the vets' story and is distorting it now. I was there at the creation of a veterans group and all along, and know better. The American people deserve to know better too. In 1971 I organized Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace. John O'Neill enlisted to counter the smears of American servicemen in Vietnam....

NOTE: Please feel free to publish this or pass on. New York Times’ Public Editor Edits Out The Public By Bruce Kesler The New York Times’ exalted view of itself extends to naming Daniel Okrent its Public Editor. Other newspapers have Ombudsmen (or women) or Readers’ Representatives. There’s real meaning in that different nomenclature. Daniel Okrent does not represent the concerns or corrections of the New York Times’ readers to the Times’ management and reporters, to improve the Times’ reporting. Although Mr. Okrent labels himself the readers’ representative, his record shows, instead, he represents his own views, and in effect...

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John Kerry Does Not Speak For Vietnam Veterans By Bruce N. Kesler Aug 2, 2004 In April 1971, John Kerry and a small group of purported and real Vietnam veterans camped out in Washington to protest the U.S. involvement in Vietnam. They received extensive publicity to their vastly overblown charges of pervasive brutality and war crimes by U.S. forces. The antiwar Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Fulbright, featured Kerry at a televised hearing. This one-sided protest and publicity demoralized many citizens, and lastingly blackened the reputation and sacrifices of other Vietnam vets that made our reentry into peaceful...

Oh No! Vietnam Again? Shame On Us All... ---------- Most Americans wonder why we're wasting time debating John Kerry's military record from 35-years ago. In this dangerous time when the U.S. faces an enormous challenge in responding to a new world, comparable to that we faced post-World War II, we should instead be seriously debating the future and what is best to do now. I am a Marine Vietnam veteran, with a 4-year old son who is my life. I hugged him and cried on 9/11, and worry daily what the world will be that he enters. Who will lead...