By: Renee Nal
New Zeal
Author and speaker Trevor Loudon spoke at the South Carolina Tea Party Coalition Convention this year along with Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, Ann-Marie Murrell of the Politichicks, KrisAnne Hall and many other conservative icons, and what an amazing speech it was!
Watch (Trevor speaks for the first 29 minutes, followed by Jim Gilmore):
By: LAWRENCE SELLIN, PHD
Family Security Matters
As Winston Churchill noted in his indictment of appeasement of Nazi Germany in the 1930s, “there is a great danger in refusing to believe things you do not like.”
Barack Hussein Obama is succeeding in his fundamental transformation; that is, dismantling the United States as a capitalist republic, based on Judeo-Christian democratic principles.
Obama is dangerous as a President because his ideologies, Marxism and sympathy for Islam, drive him to pursue policies that run counter to the national interest, the well-being of the American people and, quite frankly, the survival of the country. His mendacity is compounded by his arrogance and narcissism that prevent him from accepting responsibility and learning from his mistakes. He is not on our side.
People ask – How can this be happening to our country? What can we do to stop it?
It can happen because the political-media establishment does not consider the United States “our” country. The political-media establishment considers the United States “their” country, in which ordinary Americans are permitted to live as long as we elect those they want elected and continue to pay taxes to support their lavish life styles and to maintain the corrupt status quo. Welcome to feudal America.
It can happen because, like Obama, the Democrat Party, the liberal media and academia are populated with the same Islamo-Marxists, a totalitarian marriage of convenience, distinguished by the traits they share – their hatred of Western civilization and a belief that the United States is the embodiment of evil on earth. While Islamic radicals seek to purge the world of heresies and of the infidels who practice them, leftist radicals seek to purge society of the vices allegedly spawned by capitalism — those being racism, sexism, imperialism, and greed. Through unregulated immigration, Democrats seek to alter the demographics of the United States to create a permanent one-party state to implement their far-left totalitarian agenda. Islamists have something similar in mind, albeit even more brutal and oppressive.
It can happen because America’s domestic enemies promulgate notions that attack the basis of Western Judeo-Christian civilization, which emphasizes the uniqueness and sacredness of the individual. They also promote policies that weaken our ability to transmit to the next generation the values and traditions upon which the United States was built e.g. the Common Core assault on American education. Anti-American, messianic political movements can only succeed when the individual believes that his or her actions are determined, not by personal freedom endowed by the Creator, but by the destiny of the community, endowed by a ruling elite of commissars or mullahs.
In can happen in any otherwise sophisticated society that loses a sense of its own history, succumbs to a present-tense culture and embraces the false promises of a leftist utopia in order to generate the truly blissed-out and vacant servitude required by the Obama strategy. Using media deception and historical revisionism, the low-information voter will slouch towards Obama’s utopia by a combination of governmental coercion as in George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four” and the hedonist nihilism of a painless, amusement-sodden, and stress-free consensus managed by the nanny-state found in Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.
It can happen because the Republican establishment and its propaganda arm, Fox News, choose not to expose and oppose Obama to any extent that it might place in jeopardy their position as junior partners in the corrupt political-media status quo. They are funded by and serve the Chamber of Commerce and a broader class of wealthy global financiers, locusts, who view America as just another landmass and people to exploit. Republicans are not in Congress to represent their constituency or solve the nation’s problems, but to perpetuate themselves in office. As the Republican establishment’s grip on power becomes ever more tenuous, they will more aggressively oppose internal political challenges, whether it is from Donald Trump or the Tea Party and they more eagerly work together with Obama and the Democrats.
Case in point is the cynical piece of legislative window dressing, but appropriately-named SAFE ACT (American Security Against Foreign Enemies), recently passed by a bipartisan “veto-proof” 289-137 majority in the Paul Ryan (R-WI)-led House of Representatives. It is being heralded by the political-media establishment as a bill that would “erect high hurdles for Syrian and Iraqi refugees coming to American shores” and “require new FBI background checks and individual sign-offs from three high-ranking U.S. officials before any refugee could come to the U.S. from Iraq or Syria.” Those descriptions are nonsensical at best, outright lies at worst. FBI Director James Comey already testified before the House Committee on Homeland Security that the federal government does not have the ability to conduct thorough background checks for terrorist ties on all Syrian refugees. The legislation does not cover potential terrorists coming from countries other than Iraq and Syria. Finally, the SAFE ACT gives final approval authority for entry solely to the Obama Administration, which has vowed to flood the country with refugees i.e. to facilitate a Muslim invasion of the U.S. similar to that we are witnessing in Europe, all financed by George Soros. The SAFE ACT does not provide physical safety for the American people, but it does provide political safety for the Republican establishment in the form of disinformation and legislative legerdemain.
In essence, the Republican establishment, in choosing to collaborate with Obama and the Democrats, is choosing national suicide. They prefer that option to representative government.
What can we do to stop it?
More than anything else, the political-media establishment does not want the American people to take back our country. The legislation, executive orders and judicial decisions emanating from Washington D.C. are geared to maintain the status quo or enhance the power of the federal government over the American people.
More than any other time in our history has the separation between the rulers and the ruled been as great and it bears comparison to the events leading up to the American Revolution. Whenever the interests of government officials are in such stark conflict with those of the people, tyranny ensues.
Frederick Douglass wrote: “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will. Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”
I think the American people are running out of words.
Lawrence Sellin, Ph.D. is a retired colonel with 29 years of service in the US Army Reserve and a veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq. Colonel Sellin is the author of “Restoring the Republic: Arguments for a Second American Revolution “. He receives email at [email protected].
By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton
Obama’s speech yesterday was an utter embarrassment to America. I have never seen a more foppish or weak leader on the geopolitical scene. It was hands down the worst moment of his presidency and that’s saying something.
Obama has no strategy in the Middle East unless you count supporting Iran and not attacking ISIS. He’s quite willing to let Russia, France or anyone else go after them as long as it is not us. This is not how you fight a war. Any real military leader will tell you that.
Walid Phares gets it. He is a National Defense University professor and teaches Global Strategies there. Phares is a longtime commentator on Fox News. He is an analyst on issues in the Middle East and no one is better at it. I have long admired him. Jon Scott, the cohost at Fox News said, “Walid, why can’t we take these people out? We know where they are. We’ve got people willing if we would just arm, the Kurds, we’ve got people willing to take them out.” Phares was exceedingly blunt in his answer and right on the money:
Actually we can and actually we should, but the president has a different strategy. He’s getting a lot of pressure by the Iranians. Otherwise he should have long time ago allied himself, partnered with Arab moderate forces such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, UAE, they are fighting terrorism very much and very well in Yemen, in Sinai, in Libya, elsewhere, but the reason that he’s not going to these moderate Arab forces and asking them on the ground to be boots on the ground is because the Iranians are pressuring him because the Syrian Regime is pressuring him. They don’t want those areas, those Sunni areas to be liberated by Sunni moderates because they won’t have access to them. That’s the bottom line of it.
It benefits Iran to keep chaos stirred up indefinitely in Syria and the rest of the Middle East. They want to control the region and I believe Obama has promised them just that. Obama never did answer the questions posed to him on ISIS and terrorism yesterday. He danced around them and deflected at every chance he got. He can’t tell the truth because he knows that Americans would have his head. He doesn’t take ISIS out simply because Iran does not want him to. Neither do the Syrians.
Everything Obama has done with the Iranians has been one deep bow. The Iranian nuclear deal is a farce. It gifts everything to the Iranians they want and we get nothing in return. Nothing at all. How is that a deal?
There are indeed a number of Middle Eastern nations fighting ISIS and al Qaeda for their own reasons. Reasons having to do with different factions of Islam, geographical power and money. But even though we share a common enemy with the Saudis, Jordanians, Egyptians and the UAE, you won’t ever see Obama truly go after ISIS. From the beginning, his bombings have been token ones. He bombs empty, deserted facilities. He bombs at night. Virtually everyone gets away. When we take someone down, it is more because we need a photo-op than due to taking out the bad guys. This is make believe war and is all for show.
In reality, Obama is now answering to Iran. In some ways, he has them running the entire show. He has definitely aligned himself with the Mullahs. Iran and Syria are putting tremendous pressure on Obama to keep out of the fray and not put boots on the ground. Obama chose sides long ago.
Wherever there is sectarian violence involving Islam is exactly where you won’t find Obama. He’s not going to get involved, which should show you exactly where his true loyalties lie. We show up in places that will have little to no effect in stopping ISIS. But Obama can point to the action and say he is leading and fighting for America and the world. It’s all a monstrous lie. I contend that in many ways Obama in fact supports ISIS. He definitely condones the Caliphate.
In the end as this all goes south and Iran grabs more and more power, Obama will blame it all on George W. Bush. He’s already starting to, saying that ISIS is a result of Bush moving into Iraq. That’s another lie. ISIS is a direct result of us pulling troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan. They are also a result of the Libyan mess that Obama and Clinton created intentionally. They gave rise to ISIS, not Bush.
Obama looked incompetent yesterday at the G-20 Summit. But that wasn’t incompetence. That was him covering his ass and not wanting to tell the truth. He knows how all this will end. It is by design. But he doesn’t want to be blamed and have his legacy destroyed for all time, so he has to have a scapegoat. That’s all Bush has ever been for this Marxist. We won in Iraq under Bush. Our forces had it fairly safe and secure. Life was returning to as normal as it could be and elections were returning. Then Obama came in and removed our troops, knowing full well that radical Islam would sweep in and fill the void. Obama is the worst leader our nation has ever known and the ‘change’ he has brought has been nothing but destructive.
Obama hates America. He thinks we’re not worthy of being a world power. He believes our character is defective and we have not earned any of the accolades that America has been given over time. He sees us as international bullies who have inserted themselves across the globe, instead of peace keepers and saviors of those that are victims to Jihadists, dictators and communists. Obama feels we never had the right to intercede on any other country’s behalf, or hell, even our own. He firmly believes that Islam has a right and an obligation to insert itself across the globe and control people for their own good. Allah is his way and his light and the violence that ensues along with death and destruction is simply what must be done.
We have become the French. That is depressing. Not by choice, but by design on the part of Obama and his minions. I never thought I would see the day that the French would look and act stronger than America. But in the wake of the bloody Paris terrorist attacks where at least 132 were slaughtered and over 350 were wounded, Hollande is at least acting sort of like a leader. Now given, he only dropped 20 bombs – he took out one control center, one munitions dump and one training camp in Raqqah. That is not what I would label an intense response. He did it with Intel we supplied him by the way and he used our smart bombs. So, if we have the Intel, then why don’t we do it? Simple. Because Obama is not going to tick off the Iranians. He’s in their pocket all the way.
Shi’a Iran wants the Sunni regions of the Middle East destabilized and they want ISIS to continue to operate and clear the area. As ISIS destabilizes, the Iranians will move in. That will ultimately help Iran take over the entire region in the future. They have $150 billion to play with thanks to Obama. They get to build nukes to their evil heart’s desire per the Iran deal. So, they are going to be THE regional power first. And that is everything in this global game of RISK. Obama has chosen Iran to be the dominant force in the Middle East and they are working hand and glove with the Russians, the Chinese and the North Koreans.
It’s obvious that this is occurring. It explains everything and it is what I have predicted and have been saying for years. The sanctions are gone and can’t be put back the way they were. Iran has been unleashed thanks to Obama. By the time we get a conservative leader in office, the world will be engulfed in a blue apocalyptic fire flamed by Iran.
In the meantime, many, many people will die around the world including in America. Christians will be hunted down and slaughtered. The beheadings, crucifixions, hangings, stonings, etc. will continue and increase while Obama does nothing. He claims that ISIS is contained. Anyone with any sense at all can see that is a lie. Even if you contained them in Syria, which they won’t, they are across the planet now. It’s like containing cockroaches – it’s not going to happen unless you exterminate them with a vengeance.
Obama rejected the idea that a large-scale deployment of American troops in Syria is the answer after the Paris terror attacks. At one point, the president called Friday’s attacks a “setback” but touted the current strategy that is in place to combat ISIS in Syria. “There will be an intensification of the strategy that we put forward. But the strategy that we put forward is the strategy that is going to work. It’s going to take time,” he said. I agree with Bill Hemmer of Fox News who stated that those who were hoping for an “it’s them or us” type of speech, did not hear it. You never will from Barack Hussein Obama.
Over at Rasmussen, the pollsters have discovered that — for the first time in history — self-identifiedmembers of the Democrat Party now view socialism favorably.
The man currently running a distant second for the Democratic presidential nomination, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, is a self-declared socialist, and most of his party’s voters now have a positive view of socialism. They are almost evenly divided as to whether they like capitalism or socialism more.
Socialism, Communism, Maoism, and National Socialism (e.g., the Nazi Party) are all offshoots of Marxism. They are all branches of the same defective tree.
Marxism has failed in literally every venue it has been tried, despite progressives’ laughable efforts to claim certain countries have implemented it successfully.
No country has and no country ever will, because — as Margaret Thatcher sagely observed — “[the] problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money“.
And those who point to the “success” of European countries that still maintain the semblance of civil societies have yet to see the Marxist endgame play out:
• All of these states have rung up immense and unsustainable levels of debt thanks to the socialists’ endless wealth redistribution schemes. Only a series of elaborate can-kicking exercises have kept the European Union from economic collapse.
• Thanks to open borders policies, courtesy of Left-leaning do-gooders, Europe faces demographic upheaval, seen most recently in countries accepting swarms of Islamic immigrants.
Where “Marxism Light” — socialism — gave way to its more extreme flavors (e.g., Communism, Nazism, Maoism) the inevitable result was mass murder by government.
According to a study conducted by academics at the University of Hawaii, Communism in the 20th century alone led tothe murders of 110 million men, women and children.
Isn’t it ironic? When it comes to their own ideologies like climate change, progressives like to shut off debate by claiming that “The science is settled.”
In this case, the record of history is settled. Marxism and it descendents have failed in every situation and in very region across the world.
That the majority of Democrats could embrace such a twisted political philosophy is an indictment of not only our media, but also our failed, union-controlled educational system.
They can’t or won’t appreciate the intricate system of government created by our Framers that inarguably built the most magnificent economic miracle in human history. They live in the lap of luxury, unappreciative and stupefied, unable to explain how even the lowly pencil is made in our society.
Hat tip: BadBlue News.
By: Cliff Kincaid
America’s Survival
The author of the Snapping of the American Mind explains the dark forces in American culture that are driving people crazy: drugs, abortion, cultural Marxism, and Obama. David Kupelian discusses the presidential campaign on the Democratic side, the communist maniac versus the shapeshifter, and on the Republican side. David discusses the political implications of this struggle and how candidates like Ben Carson and Donald Trump are tapping into the politically incorrect way of thinking and talking, in part by going after liberal media bias. Kupelian also recommends ways out of the mess we find ourselves in. “We need to embrace our faith, our common sense. We have been so beaten down…(But) half of us are still sane.”
New Zealand author Trevor Loudon will speak to a Libertarian-leaning group in Windsor Heights (near Des Moines), Sunday, November 1st @ Windsor Heights Community Center 6900 School St., 3 to 6 PM.
Please come along – all welcome.
By: Renee Nal
New Zeal
Are you listening, Paul Ryan?
On the latest episode of #LoudonClear on the TK Radio Network, Trevor explains what amnesty is really about. Allowing this influx of illegal immigrants to remain unchecked, coupled with potentially dangerous “refugees” from war-torn countries in the middle east will have the same impact on America that it has had in California:
The creation of a one-party state.
Listen here:
Don’t take Trevor’s word for it, listen to the words of Eliseo Medina, President Obama’s “go-to” man on issues of “comprehensive immigration reform”! Here Medina neglects to mention the plight of illegal immigrants. Rather, he discusses the creation of “a governing coalition for the long term:”
Far from how Medina is portrayed as an “immigration activist,” former SEIU executive Vice President is a hard-core Marxist who served on Obama’s Latino Advisory Council in 2008 and was described by the Los Angeles Times as “one of the most successful labor organizers in the country.”
Here President Barack Obama listens to former SEIU executive Vice President Eliseo Medina:
President Barack Obama listens to former SEIU executive Vice President Eliseo Medina via CNN
Watch Obama brag to SEIU about how he “consults” with Medina on immigration:
While history shows that illegal immigration is detrimental for social stability; the REAL motivation behind the relentless push for amnesty has nothing to do with “compassion” but to create a one-party state.
Trevor Loudon to speak to the Redding Tea Party in Redding, Northern California on Monday, October 19th.
Time: 6 pm
Place: 2570 South Bonnyview Road.
See you there!
By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton
Recently, I received a copy of Christopher J. Green’s Death Of The Family. I personally love the book. It goes into Marxism and the influence of Antonio Gramsci. Gramsci is a man everyone should study. His evil influence has been widespread and toxic. Marxism has been an exceedingly destructive force in our society and it has been a big factor in destroying the family unit, all by design.
The book is fair-sized, with easy to read print. I found that a big plus. It is a breeze to read and grasp. The book was obviously well researched and professionally written.
It starts off with a Hungarian communist by the name of Georg Lukacs. This guy was a piece of work. His communist plan aimed to do away with both the Christian faith and the family unit. He planned to do this through sex education in the public school system. This also accomplished the goal of doing away with morality and ethics. If you look at our schools and society today, you will see that under Barack Obama, these goals have pretty much been accomplished. The very fabric of our society, the family unit, has been corrupted thoroughly under Progressive leadership. Children are taught to do whatever they feel… that they should follow any desire they have. That morality is passe and their parents know nothing. This is classic Marxism and it is poison.
Religion has been successfully removed from our schools, institutions and daily life. Christians are now actively persecuted. They are harassed, hunted, prosecuted, degraded, imprisoned and murdered. All according to plan. Once you remove religion, ethics and morals from the equation, a populace can be thoroughly manipulated and controlled. The Frankfurt School of Marxist theory continued Lukacs theories and designs… they expanded on the original concepts and produced whole battle plans for subverting American society. It was and still is a brilliant maneuver.
Enter the envisioned destruction of Capitalism. Social diktats such as feminism have worked quite well to undermine male dominance on the economic battlefield. Women were convinced it set them free, when in fact, it enslaved them and emasculated men. It took mothers out of the home, destroying the family unit and leaving the young to the not-so-tender mercies of their Marxist instructors. Radicals stepped in and promoted thug life and criminal behavior. Children are taught that the strongest survive and mercy is for the weak.
Next on the hit parade is sexual confusion, where men and boys no longer have a stable role in society. They are encouraged to act like children and get gratification however they can. Men are women… women are men… and then there are the transgenders. Everyone is confused and nothing is sacred anymore. Once again, all by design. Americans are being reduced to slaves and told to follow whatever their selfish desires are at the moment. That it is natural to do so and there is not the black and white of good and evil. Only shades of gray.
As the butchery of abortion is promoted and protected by both sides of the political aisle and by faux Christians, a death cult rises within our society. It is a modern-day sacrificial barbarity that defies morality and logic, but nevertheless is safeguarded. Divorce has been normalized. The one-parent family is beyond common. In fact, we now have families with multiple dads and moms and very confused children. Hooking up is expected and the norm. Homosexual militants have taken over complete sections of society and government and are forcing perversion on the public at large, backed by the Supreme Court.
Those who still believe in doing the right thing are called racist, intolerant, hate mongers. The majority of America is strong and good, but the weave of our culture is being unraveled and frayed quickly. This is how empires fall and the communists know it. It is a coup from within and most don’t even realize we are being destroyed, so we can be reformed by global tyrants.
All Americans should read this book and take it to heart. Time is short and if we do not wish to fall as Rome did and see the finalization of a New World Order, we must act fast to cleanse our government, institutions, schools and daily life of these corrosive Marxists and their agendas. I recommend this book wholeheartedly and it has a cherished spot in my collection.
What You’ll Discover In Death of the Family…
About the Author:
Christopher J. Green is an author and investigative journalist who has never been afraid to tell the story as it is. In his latest book: Death of the Family, he exposes how Americans were tricked by charlatans who claimed they were building a more enlightened, progressive society but whose concealed aim was to breakdown America from within.
After three years of research, he uncovers a series of appalling deceptions conducted by people whose duty was to serve and protect. People who ruthlessly undermined the trust of American citizens and stabbed them in the back.
He brings a fresh insight into post-war history in a step-by-step, compelling analysis revealing why America is drifting further away from the principles laid down by the founding fathers.
A story of deception. A story of betrayal. A story of treachery on a scale unprecedented in history. If you believe something is wrong with America and you’re looking for answers then you need to read this extraordinary book.
By: Cliff Kincaid
Accuracy in Media
You may have noticed the news that trust in the media remains at an all-time low. As if to drive that figure even lower, CNN was busy much of Tuesday afternoon trying to spare a killer from the death penalty on the false grounds that Catholicism forbids capital punishment.
No wonder our media are held in such disregard.
CNN’s Vatican senior correspondent John Allen said, “You know, the Catholic Church has a long history of opposing the death penalty.”
False. Section 2267 of the Catholic Catechism says, “The traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude, presupposing full ascertainment of the identity and responsibility of the offender, recourse to the death penalty, when this is the only practicable way to defend the lives of human beings effectively against the aggressor.”
On a website called Crux, which covers “all things Catholic” and for which Allen serves as associate editor, we find an article noting, “The Church doesn’t teach that the death penalty is immoral, but says it should only be used in rare circumstances when the state has no other way to protect society from violent offenders.”
So why did Allen mislead his CNN audience?
Speaking to anchor Brooke Baldwin, CNN’s Allen went on, “It was as far back as 1969 that Pope Paul VI urged the abolition of the death penalty and every pope since has upheld the same tradition. I think the interesting thing, as you say, is that Pope Francis was just in the United States, got a rousing ovation from Congress, was widely hailed by political authorities up and down the country. This is sort of the first test, Brooke, as to whether those people who were cheering the pope’s presence are also going to be willing to act on his concrete agenda.”
The popes or the bishops and cardinals can have their own personal opinions, but the fact is that the teaching of the church does NOT forbid capital punishment. He knows this.
The Catholic Answers website notes that both the Old Testament (Genesis 9:6) and the New Testament (Romans 13:4) seemingly endorse the death penalty.
The Ellicott’s Bible commentary notes that the phrase “To bear the sword” from Romans seems to be a recognized Greek phrase to express the power of the magistrates. “It is clear from this passage that capital punishment is sanctioned by Scripture,” the commentary says.
So Allen had the facts wrong and wanted “those people who were cheering the pope’s presence” in the U.S. to accept his personal plea but disregard church teaching. This distortion is one reason why people don’t trust the media.
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia notes that support for the death penalty has been part of Christian and Catholic tradition in the Old and New Testaments. What’s more, it was morally accepted when the U.S. Constitution was adopted. Scalia recently told a group of students, “If the death penalty did not violate the Eighth Amendment when the Eighth Amendment was adopted, it doesn’t violate it today.”
The Supreme Court has formally ruled that the death penalty is not a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. What’s more, in June, the Court in a 5-4 ruling upheld the use of a particular drug for lethal injection in executions.
In the case at issue on CNN and other media on Tuesday, a woman named Kelly Gissendaner was given the death penalty by lethal injection because she ordered the murder of her husband, Douglas Gissendaner, in 1997. Her lover, Gregory Bruce Owen, stabbed her husband to death.
The family of Douglas Gissendaner issued a statement, noting, “Kelly planned and executed Doug’s murder. She targeted him and his death was intentional. Kelly chose to have her day in court and after hearing the facts of this case, a jury of her peers sentenced her to death… As the murderer, she’s been given more rights and opportunity over the last 18 years than she ever afforded to Doug who, again, is the victim here. She had no mercy, gave him no rights, no choices, nor the opportunity to live his life. His life was not hers to take.”
Despite media opposition to the death penalty, the majority of Americans still support it. Pew found that 56% favor the death penalty for people convicted of murder, while 38% are opposed.
Pew did find declining support for the death penalty among Democrats, helping to explain why the Democrats masquerading as journalists in the media oppose it. Pew explained, “Much of the decline in support over the past two decades has come among Democrats. Currently, just 40% of Democrats favor the death penalty, while 56% are opposed. In 1996, Democrats favored capital punishment by a wide margin (71% to 25%).”
Among Republicans it found that 77% favor the death penalty. Among independents the figure was 57% supporting capital punishment.
In addition to their liberal opposition to the death penalty, the media perceived a sexist angle in this case, since Gissendaner “became Georgia’s first female prisoner to be executed in 70 years,” as CNN put it, or “the only woman on Georgia’s death row,” as noted by The Washington Post.
Prior to the pope’s U.S. visit, CNN’s John Allen had written that “Francis knows that the death penalty is controversial in the United States, and that a strong camp in the American Catholic Church passionately defends it. Looking ahead to his trip here in September, this could be one of those moments in which discretion seems the better part of valor. On the other hand, it’s also a chance for Francis to show that he’s serious about the death penalty by saying something he knows full well many Americans, including some members of his own flock, don’t want to hear.”
As noted, Francis did condemn the death penalty before Congress. However, as a result of Georgia carrying out the ultimate punishment in the Kelly Gissendaner case, it appears that the pope’s influence in this area has been shown to be non-existent. He had actually pleaded for Georgia authorities to spare her life in a last-minute letter.
The credibility of the pope is a problem, since his personal views are contrary to church teaching and Georgia authorities ignored him anyway. But John Allen’s misrepresentation of the facts hurt his own credibility and that of the media, whose trustworthiness can only continue to decline.
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