Clark County, Nevada, 2018 Republican Primary Election Endorsements

When I withdrew from the Republican party earlier this year, I knew I wouldn’t be able to vote in the primary election, and I decided to publish recommendations for as many offices on that ballot as I could, to still do my part in the process. These recommendations are from a very traditionally conservative mindset, fiscally and socially, which means more like Russell Kirk and William F. Buckley than like the current neocons or populists, such as Donald Trump, about whom I’m very skeptical. For each candidate, I tried to find and survey their website, social media, YouTube, and any local media mentioning them, such as the Las Vegas Review-Journal. In some cases, I also consulted people who would know more about these candidates and issues than I do, though all final endorsements here are solely my own. I welcome any constructive discussion in the comments.

 

UNITED STATES SENATE

A lot of conservatives are mad at Dean Heller for not supporting a full repeal of Obamacare–I understand that, but I don’t see him as a Trump lackey or as a rabid anti-Trumper. Heller is his own man, who does what he thinks is best for Nevada. I admire that independence. He’s surely done far more good than harm. We should keep him.

Vote for: Dean Heller

 

REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS, DISTRICT 1

Joyce Bentley is an unqualified amateur, and Fred Horne is just a little better, but it hardly matters. Neither one of them stands a chance against either Democratic nominee. Why would anyone agree to be set up as a token sacrifice by the state party like this? It’s just an embarrassing waste. This would be a good place for my regular rant about the local GOP’s consistent failure to find strong people to run for office…

Vote for: Mickey Mouse

 

REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS, DISTRICT 3

Scott Hammond is solidly experienced and qualified, to a degree far above anyone else in this race. I enthusiastically endorse him!

I’ve mentioned before on this blog how much I like Annette Teijeiro, and I wish she’d run for something more realistic. I know a previous primary win must have emboldened her, but a county commission / city council seat would be a much better fit than these statewide races–please, Ms. Teijeiro, focus and develop your political career on smaller races.

I notice that Danny Tarkanian is running for this office as well, so this would be a good time to remind the world that I wouldn’t vote for him for dog catcher. He’s an obnoxious wanna be, and I hope we can all agree to encourage him to disappear from politics.

Vote for: Scott Hammond

 

REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS, DISTRICT 4

This is another easy one: I’ve always liked Crescent Hardy, and there’s no one else in this race with anywhere near his credentials–certainly, none of his opponents stands a chance of beating either Spearman or Horsford in the general election, so he’s our man.

Vote for: Crescent Hardy

 

GOVERNOR

Self Reflection, Self Analysis, and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies

One of the gravest weaknesses of our society’s discourse (and especially its political discourse, on both sides) is that it is militantly unreflective. The vast majority of what anyone has to say anymore boils down to ridiculing the other side for being dumb and bad. This rests on a fluffy bedrock of assumptions about one’s own righteousness. But nobody anywhere seems to even try to analyze those assumptions, much less justify them. I guess there’s no market for that. So we all march on, convinced that every knee-jerk reaction to the perceived flaws of anyone who’s different is automatic evidence of their subhuman venality, and everyone goes home at night reassured that they’re very very good and the Other is very very bad. Good thing we’re all so grown up.

On this subject, we could all find a valuable parable in this anecdote from Robert Wright’s 2017 book, Why Buddhism Is True. Just swap out the belief in the scar of the subjects in this story for whatever ideology you find axiomatic.

Recent Political Thoughts

I hardly ever write about politics any more, and not just because I’m so disillusioned with it, but because I’ve realized how little it really matters to a full and joyous life. Still, the condition of society is something I think about a lot. Here, for the record, are a few things that have crossed my mind recently that I think are worth sharing.

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In January, I resigned from the Republican party. I was never a “capital R” type, anyway, but I mostly vote Republican, and to participate in primary elections around here, one must be so registered. Now I realize I can have a greater influence on things through recommendations, though.

I withdrew, of course, because of Trump. I don’t want to scribble a screed here, but suffice it to say, I think he’s a bad man, one so thoroughly foul that to be on his side is to be tainted.

“But what about all the good things he’s done!” say supporters.

1. He really hasn’t achieved as much as you think he has.
2. “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Mark 8:36

That second one, especially, encapsulates why I don’t care as much about the political realm anymore. How in the world do so many “conservatives” not see that winning these transient, pitiful little squabbles now means absolutely nothing in the long run, in a world where the social fabric continues to unravel ever faster? We’re rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. We can’t hold families together, we can’t keep jobs even when they’re available, we can’t even stop record numbers of people from drowning their sorrows so ferociously that they actually die by the thousands each week. But hey, we scored some kind of win on paper in Washington, DC, so hooray for us! What a farce.

“He’s better than Hillary!”

Two Examples of Cultural Whitewashing In Recent Movies

Not long ago, I saw this essay pointing out a huge hole in the otherwise excellent Jackie Robinson biopic 42: the total absence of his faith, which was ubiquitous in his real life.

Such changes to how we tell stories about history say more about our time than they do about times in the past.

Two small examples I noticed in movies I’ve recently seen:

Hidden Figures was a fantastic movie. I loved everything about it. Except one tiny detail kept nagging at me.

Not a single person is ever seen smoking.

Perspective

350 million is more than a third of a billion. There are more than a third of a BILLION people in the United States, representing by far the greatest variety of beliefs, backgrounds, and lifestyles in the history of the world. It’s impossible to fully conceive of what that number represents in the real world.

I point this out because the fear-mongering media outlets we might like–whichever they may be (they’re all basically the same business model)–love to magnify small exceptions so we can all have a loathsome Other to hate. No matter how insignificant, some marginal extremist presence that’s different from the audience any given outlet caters to will magically be made to seem like a looming threat to everything that audience holds dear.

But it’s all just smoke and mirrors. Because this amazing society is far larger than we can even comprehend, much less identify, quantify, and target.

Take that universal enemy, Westboro Baptist Church. Whenever they get up to their shenanigans somewhere, it’s a great opportunity for people of nearly all walks of life to bemoan the oppression this inhuman boogeyman represents, and to score some easy social capital by publicly proclaiming their intent to fight this evil army.

Except the total number of people in this group is only about somewhere between 40 and 70. That’s it.

To put that in perspective, this imminent threat to our sacred way of life consists of less than 0.0000002% of Americans.

The same could be said of any number of gross abominations against whatever flavor of the sociopolitical spectrum you prefer. They’re just tiny blips on the radar, footnotes that history won’t even bother to include at the bottom of any page.

The lesson, as always, is thus:

Some Quotes From Orwell’s 1984

Evergreen insights into the nature of the Left, labelled with current concerns.

 

ON MILLENNIAL SOCIAL JUSTICE WARRIORS:

With those children, he thought, that wretched woman must lead a life of terror. Another year, two years, and they would be watching her night and day for symptoms of unorthodoxy. Nearly all children nowadays were horrible. What was worst of all was that by means of such organizations as the Spies they were systematically turned into ungovernable little savages, and yet this produced in them no tendency whatever to rebel against the discipline of the Party. On the contrary, they adored the Party and everything connected with it. The songs, the processions, the banners, the hiking, the drilling with dummy rifles, the yelling of slogans, the worship of Big Brother — it was all a sort of glorious game to them. All their ferocity was turned outwards, against the enemies of the State, against foreigners, traitors, saboteurs, thought-criminals. It was almost normal for people over thirty to be frightened of their own children.

–Part I, chapter 2

 

ON THE UNCRITICAL WORSHIP OF EDGY INNOVATION

Anything old, and for that matter anything beautiful, was always vaguely suspect.

–Part I, chapter 8

Cultural Relativism Closed the American Mind

A great quote from 1987’s The Closing of the American Mind. Bloom saw the problem growing in our education system 30 years ago…and it’s only gotten much, much worse since then. *sigh*

Donald Trump As a Book of Mormon Villain

Perhaps you’ve noticed that I hardly write much about politics anymore. That’s because I’m so deeply disheartened at where every side is at in our country now, and I’m not sure I even have anything useful worth saying about any of it. But there’s at least this one thing.

I continue to be surprised and scared by Donald Trump’s popularity on the right.

Six months ago, I would have said that if anything good were to come out of this new administration, it might be a real focus on media bias, which is pervasive and truly dangerous (it almost certainly contributed to the shooting of Congressman Steve Scalise, for example), and which Trump has actively highlighted.

But now it’s clear that, if he’s done anything at all, he’s set back the issue at least twenty years. Consider his infamous “covfefe” tweet. Everybody laughed at the weird typo (which he said was caused by typing at night while getting tired), but the real story was ignored: the president of the United States, in bed at night, felt sorry for himself and wanted to garner sympathy by lashing out at domestic critics, but he was so sleepy that he screwed it up.

And he’s in charge of defending the free world.

Response To A Pro-Trump Meme

I fixed a meme I saw online last week by adding a quote from the Book of Mormon. I’m not comparing Trump to Mormon, I’m comparing the American people to the Nephites, perhaps in a similar state of civilizational decline. You’re looking for salvation in the wrong place, and it’s a sign of imminent collapse.

It bothers me how many people are openly praising Trump as a deliverer. That’s too close to idolatry for my taste. Those on the right who do this with Trump are no better off than those on the left who did it with Obama. Looking for a temporal savior never ends well.

The Only Two Things I’ll Say About Trump’s Firing Of Comey

It’s like Michael Jackson having little boys stay at his ranch: it may be completely innocent, but only a fool opens himself to that much liability and credible scrutiny.

Also, the completely predictable dog and pony show on both sides of the aisle this week reminds me of Dave Barry’s summary of Comey’s adventures last year, ending with, “This forces Republicans and Democrats to again swap positions on whether Comey is a courageous patriot or total scum.” Still relevant!

Three Reactions To The LDS Church Dropping Boy Scouts For Older Teens

This is a very good thing. Besides the great insights in today’s Deseret News article, I think the following:

1. Yes, Scouting has been ineffective for older boys. The last time I was a Scout leader, it was with Venturing, and the program could have been better. Boys that age are either Eagles (or close), or have checked out completely. I was taught at multiple trainings that unless a boy was almost done, to stop hounding him on it and move on to whatever their actual needs and interests were–I spent most of my time in that calling focusing on other things, personalized for the boys we had. This advice now seems to be spreading institutionally.

2. I’ve long been concerned that Scouting has become something of a cult in part of the Church–some people are so obsessed with it that the rituals, uniforms, emblems, etc. of Scouting have become a false priesthood. Really. That alienates a lot of boys, and distracts others. A focus on actual saving ordinances, growth, and service is good. The activities of Scouting–camping, fishing, hiking, etc.–are awesome and will stay, but the activity arm of the auxiliary needs to be in better perspective. I once served with a bishop who said that Duty to God was more important than Scouting, and he was widely ignored. He was ahead of his time.

3. Let’s be honest, a lot of this is Robert Conquest’s second law in action–“Any organization not explicitly right-wing, sooner or later becomes left-wing.” Scouting is trying to kill itself and our efforts to intervene have been unsuccessful. Today’s announcement is not the end of this for the Church or for Scouting. They will keep getting worse, and we will have to keep pulling further away.

An Open Letter to the Nevada State Senate About Senate Bill 225

To the Nevada State Senate:

Though Senate Bill 225 may have been introduced with the best of intentions, I must urge the Senate not to pass it, for three significant reasons.

1. It could lead to an unsafe environment where predators may operate.

The mother of a transgender student (and a major proponent of this bill) was recently interviewed by the Las Vegas Sun about the “bullying” her child had been subjected to at school. It boiled down to not being allowed in the opposite gender’s locker room (https://lasvegassun.com/news/2017/mar/22/parents-lawmakers-want-anti-bullying-law-at-privat/). It appears, then, that this is the kind of situation SB 225 is meant to rectify (Section 6.3 of the bill, for example, can be read this way).

In March 2017, Kristen Quintrall, who describes herself as “pretty progressive and tolerant,” was at Disneyland with her young son and reported seeing an aggressive man in the women’s restroom, ogling them. This was not a transgender person—it was a man taking advantage of the current policies there about transgender people to create a hostile and dangerous situation for women. (http://www.thegetrealmom.com/blog/womensrestroom)

There have been many recent incidents of women being assaulted in public restrooms, particularly at Target, which has promoted itself as a bastion of “non-discrimination” regarding gender and its bathrooms (http://downloads.frc.org/EF/EF16F27.pdf).

Surely, Nevada does not want to create unsafe spaces for women and girls, much less open itself to the legal liability which will ensue from policies that set up the circumstances under which such tragedies could occur in the first place.

Please note that this objection has nothing to do with transgender people themselves. In the interest of serving their wants, we would also be creating a serious problem for many others. If this bill passes and leads to universally open locker rooms and bathrooms, heterosexual predators will abuse this policy and innocent women will suffer. We cannot stick our heads in the sand and ignore that.

2. It could restrict freedoms of speech and conscience.

This must be that famous liberal tolerance I’ve heard so much about!

A month ago, I posted this simple announcement to a public Facebook group for teachers in my county: “There is a new private Facebook group for CCSD teachers on the right of the political spectrum. Message me if you’re interested.”

Among the comments I got were these:

• “I’m just curious…what do teachers on the right of the political spectrum support? Unequal access to quality education? Removing free breakfast and lunch from schools, so that students can worry about being hungry instead of learning?”
• “Maybe a different profession????”
• “Is this where you guys rally to vote yourselves out of a job or figure out ways to turn in your students or their parents?”
• “The request…is a slap in the face.”
• “There are teachers there? Really?”
• “You guys need your own page!!! I agree!”

In addition, one woman tracked down my salary information as listed elsewhere online, screenshot it, and posted it, with a threat that I was being watched.

I never replied to any of those comments, but I wonder if any of these people realize how ironic their complaints are–their hostility illustrates exactly why I wanted to make a place where conservative teachers could talk without being insulted.

Or maybe I should have just said, “Do you want more Trump? Because this is how you get more Trump.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So You Think 1984 Is For Liberals? Let’s Ask Instapundit.

In January, the New York Times gleefully reported, “George Orwell’s ‘1984’ Is Suddenly a Best-Seller.” Their angle was clear: the URL for the story includes “george-orwell-donald-trump.”

Don’t get me wrong: I’m always happy when liberals start reading classics. But as usual, the “progressive” interpretation of things is completely devoid of historical context.

I’m not just talking about the anti-communist criticism underlying the book’s commentary. Of course we can’t expect American SJWs to catch on to that.

I simply mean their tacit assumption that this text is uniquely tailored to their snowflake-friendly conception of the world, tunnel-visioned as it is.

Just ain’t so, I tells ya.

For every clever parallel some 2017 progressive draws between Orwell’s masterpiece and their jaundiced vision of the contemporary political landscape, conservatives have drawn dozens of far more meaningful comparisons over the years.

Consider this: the excellent, conservative news aggregator Instapundit got tons of mileage out of 1984 references all throughout the previous administration. Searching for 13 salient terms there produces these results:

“memory hole” : Number of uses during Obama administration–84

“always been at war” : Number of uses during Obama administration–13

“doublethink” : Number of uses during Obama administration–12

“thought police” : Number of uses during Obama administration–25

“Newspeak” : Number of uses during Obama administration–51

“Anti-sex League” : Number of uses during Obama administration–10

“thought crime” : Number of uses during Obama administration–13

“doubleplusungood” : Number of uses during Obama administration–9

“Ministry of Truth” : Number of uses during Obama administration–24

“Two Minutes Hate” : Number of uses during Obama administration–4

“war is peace” : Number of uses during Obama administration–13

“prole” : Number of uses during Obama administration–39

“Big Brother” : Number of uses during Obama administration–90

Can liberal news commenters equal this litany of allusions during the Trump years?

 

 

The Past Is a Foreign Country

This sign used to be at the state border in Nevada.