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Townhall Review Commentary brings together political commentary and analysis from Salem Media's leading conservative talk-radio hosts.
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Ed Morrissey: Finish What We Started in Iran
Jun 1200:01:00Tap to summarizeThe Iranian regime has waged war against the United States for nearly 47 years. The president clearly thought that we had sufficiently weakened the regime—and he’d be able to strike a deal. Indeed, he spent 60 days trying. But the shootdown of our Apache helicopter may have changed things. The Iranian regime has given Trump plenty of reasons to walk away from the negotiating table, starting from the very first hours of the so-called ceasefire in the Persian Gulf. Vahidi violated the agreement from the very start, imposing an extortionate "fee" system for sailing through the international waters of the Strait of Hormuz and firing on commercial vessels that refused to comply. Trump has invested a lot of his credibility and trust in the IRGC's negotiations. Now, however, Trump sounds as though he suddenly woke up to the Sunk Cost Fallacy, saying they’ve taken too long and “now they will have to pay the price!!!” I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: This war has to be fought to the finish.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Hugh Hewitt: The Declaration: A Gift That Needs to Be Defended
Jun 1100:01:00Tap to summarizeThe 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence is approaching quickly. The document—as I often point out to my listeners—is, to quote Abraham Lincoln, an “apple of gold” protected by the “frame of silver” that is the Constitution he borrowed from Psalms there. All Americans—indeed all the free world—have a lot to celebrate in this our 250th year of independence. The Declaration asserted the existence of "rights" of individuals that exist before any government — no matter the form of that government— comes into being: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The great day of the fourth is, from beginning to end, about love of our country because our country defends our individual rights, rights derived—back to the Declaration— from “the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God.” It is quite a gift that we have been given—a gift that needs to be defended.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Seth Leibsohn: California Fueling Distrust
Jun 1000:01:00Tap to summarizeRonald Reagan used to ask: “if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else?” But to have self-government, we must depend on many things, foremost among them: Trust. Over the past decade, credibility in major institutions has plummeted. Given the delays and changing results in the recent California elections, we have another exhibit of the growing distrust in our elections. Alleging fraud in seeing Spencer Pratt sink to third place after the now-second place finisher had previously conceded her loss is said to be paranoid. But here comes the New York Times, with a headline: there is “a lack of evidence of any widespread fraud.” The word “widespread” carries a lot of water in suggesting at least some fraud, no? Voting day needs to be voting day, not month. ID must be required; ballot harvesting, stopped; mailed ballots, postmarked. Nothing could undermine our experiment in self-government more than distrust in the legitimacy of our elections.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Ed Morrissey: Misfiring on Ceasefires
Jun 900:01:00Tap to summarizeOver the past couple of weeks, President Trump has shifted pressure for ending the war from Iran to Israel. He pressed for a ceasefire in Lebanon to incentivize the IRGC to make a deal. Hezbollah refused to comply, continuing to launch missile attacks on Northern Israel. That escalated over the weekend, with Iran launching missiles at Israel and the IDF responding. Trump insists the attacks are distracting from a deal that—for two months—he’s promised is close to completion. Thus far, though, the IRGC refuses to comply with the terms of the current ceasefire. Israel has waited for 20 years for Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah and for the terrorist proxy to comply with the ceasefire brokered last year. Trump’s current pressure strategy is misplaced. Israel is not an obstacle to peace in the region. Trump needs to apply pressure to the regime in Iran, and to Hezbollah and Hamas as well to comply with the agreements they have already made. Until they do, what value is there in negotiation?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Hugh Hewitt: Democrats Go All-In on Platner
Jun 800:01:00Tap to summarizeThe Maine primary is this Tuesday. Why is it that Democrats are sticking with their deeply flawed, Nazi-tattoo-wearing Graham Platner? Drip, drip, drip come the revelations, but Democrats are standing proudly behind the deeply troubled candidate. On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was pressed by reporters about his backing of Platner after the latest batch of awful headlines about Platner’s increasingly chaotic campaign. “I met with Graham Platner today. We will beat Susan Collins and take back the Senate.” Shumer went on to repeat that refrain four more times before ending the interview. “Sunk costs” have crippled many a business and life decision, and they plague politics too. Sunk costs are expenses or investments that have already been incurred and cannot be recovered. Rational decisions focus on future costs and benefits, not past expenditures. Sunk costs can lead to emotional decisions in business and personal finances. And politics. Both politically—and morally: Democrats are sinking in Maine.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Hugh Hewitt: Three Monumental Anniversaries for Our Nation
Jun 500:01:00Tap to summarizeThe next few months are anniversary-heavy for our nation. Before the fireworks of the 250th Fourth of July begin, try with family and friends to agree on what we are celebrating. Try as well to articulate how we defend what our country has long been committed to. We’re also only three months away from the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks by Al Qaeda. The great and the awful anniversaries are connected by that which the first proclaimed and which the second attempted to end: freedom. We ought also to spend part of this celebration in reflecting on admiration for the courage of not just those who voted “yes” on the Declaration, but also to who had the courage to actually sign their names to it on August 2, 1776. This brace of anniversaries should remind every American that ours is a unique and enduring commitment to human liberty. May we all renew our commitment to the country’s first principles.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Seth Leibsohn: Cause for Concern as We Approach Our 250th
Jun 400:01:00Tap to summarizeAs we close in on our nation’s birthday, more and more data give us cause for great concern. As Abraham Lincoln put it in his time, so too is it true today: “At what point is the approach of danger [to us] to be expected? [I]f it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.” Look around at our civic health just now. Article IV of our Constitution guarantees us a republican form of government—but, in our major states and cities, we now see elected leaders and political candidates from one of our two major parties that embrace both national and democratic socialism, fascism and communism—we see a party fully embracing hatred of free enterprise as much as constitutionalism and Americanism. And: It all comes with a large dose of antisemitism. This must be pointed out—and reversed.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Carol Platt Liebau: America’s 250th: Hard to Get the Party Started
Jun 300:01:00Tap to summarize.America is celebrating its 250th birthday, but it's been hard to get the party started. Many Americans remember our bicentennial in 1976. It wasn't long after Watergate and the Vietnam War. It was even a presidential election year, but we put all of that on hold to celebrate our great nation. How long ago that seems. This year, the administration launched a nonpartisan freedom 250 initiative to give America a spectacular birthday party. But left-wing activist targeted artists scheduled to perform at the national concert, leading some to withdraw and turning what should have been a patriotic event into a political fight. Instead of bringing Americans together, the celebration has become another arena for political conflict. That's unfortunate and revealing. It shows how much work remains to restore unity in our country, pride in our history and confidence in our future.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Carol Platt Liebau: California’s Progressives Eyeing Other People’s Mon
Jun 200:01:00Tap to summarizeCalifornia’s progressives are eyeing other people’s money. Again. The proposed “Billionaire Tax Act” would amend the state constitution to impose a one-time five percent tax on residents with a net worth above a billion dollars. Supporters say it’s just a one-time levy for worthy causes. But experience says “one time” rarely means one time, and the unintended consequences are real. The measure has yet to go before voters, but the threat alone has already pushed almost forty percent of California’s billionaire wealth out of the state. Gone. Along with it: income taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, and the charitable giving those individuals once supported. Wealth is mobile. It goes where it’s treated well. And it’s not hard to see why. California should remember that before it drives even more of its tax base away.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Ed Morrissey: Drive Thru Assisted Suicide in Canada
Jun 100:01:00Tap to summarizeWe warned repeatedly when Canada began to adopt assisted suicide as part of its government-run health care. Socialized medicine combined with assisted suicide sets up foreseeable economic incentives that reward disposal of patients rather than chronic care. But even we couldn’t have dreamed that Canada would grow so desperate to reduce costs that they would condone assisted suicide assessments in fast-food parking lots. Yet that’s exactly what happened in Ontario, where a doctor diagnosed a chronic bowel problem and emotional issues outside a Tim Horton’s coffee shop—and took the ‘patient’ to be euthanized. Why? The doctor provides their system what it needs: fewer patients. That’s the real standard of care when single-payer systems face the choice of chronic care or pushing patients to end their lives. This is what they call humane treatment in Canada. If progressives have their way here, the US will be next. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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