The Fight for New College

BY CHRISTOPHER F. RUFO

CLICK HERE TO VIEW A short documentary on the counterrevolution in higher education. 

The hard Left has dominated the universities for generations. It has captured the academic disciplines, established ideologically driven bureaucracies, and put activism, rather than scholarship, at the center of academic life. The Left has long considered the university campus its own private domain, untouchable by political leaders—until now.

In a new short documentary, I tell the story of a small public college in Florida that’s become the opening move in a conservative counterrevolution. Earlier this year, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis appointed a new board majority, including me, to New College of Florida and tasked us with a simple, but audacious, mission: take over the failing school, bring in new leadership, and transform the institution into a liberal arts college in the classical tradition.

The move caused a firestorm. Conservatives cheered it on as an essential step in recapturing democratic institutions. Progressives denounced it as a violation of some principle or another. But, whatever your opinion, one thing is certain: the takeover of New College has changed the dynamics of America’s culture war and, if successful, will provide a model for conservatives across the nation.

Existential Threat

By Judd Garrett 

I watched the movie, Oppenheimer, the biographical story of Dr. J Robert Oppenheimer and his work on the Manhattan Project which built the atomic bombs that were dropped on Japan at the end World War 2. The director, Christopher Nolan made some interesting choices in the movie, as he spent more time on Oppenheimer’s communist leanings and affiliations, then on his work to create a history altering weapon. The movie presented so much of Oppenheimer’s communist past that at times, I felt like I was re-watching the 1981 Warren Beatty film, Reds.

 As Oppenheimer worked on the project, he wrestled with the moral dilemma of creating a weapon that promised to end World War 2, but was so powerful that it could kill hundreds of thousands of people. He  feared what would happen if the weapon fell into the hands of the wrong people. That’s why the United States military was in such a rush to build the bomb. They were trying to beat the Nazis who were working on one themselves and they knew the existential threat it posed if Hitler got his hands on the bomb first. The horror of his creation became real to Oppenheimer after the United States dropped two on Japan, killing over 100 thousand innocent lives.

Ever since, we have been plagued with the question, should we have dropped the bomb on Japan or not? It is hard to justify the killing of 100,000 civilians, but it was believed at the time, that the only way Japan would have surrendered was if we invaded and took over their country. It was estimated that over 500,000 allied soldiers would have been killed and hundreds of thousands of Japanese citizens would have died in a total land war. So, it can be argued that the weapon which killed over 100,000 Japanese actually saved many more lives.  

Oppenheimer was haunted for the rest of his life with the knowledge that the device he created had killed so many innocent lives. The question I had that the movie never addressed was, did Oppenheimer ever have the same type of reckoning about his communist beliefs as he did with the creation of the atomic bomb? The record of the history of the 20th century is crystal clear, communism was the deadliest force in the world, even deadlier than the atomic bomb. While the A-bomb tragically killed over 100,000 people, communism killed over 100 million people. And people like Oppenheimer who supported communism throughout the 20th century cannot escape responsibility for those atrocities.

Oppenheimer understood and feared the concentration of so much power in one bomb, but failed to recognize how deadly the concentration of political power in one place can also be. Like the atomic bomb, communism in the hands of the wrong people, in the hands of someone evil, someone without regard for life, someone who wants to rule the world, is an existential threat, as we saw with Stalin and Mao and Pol Pot. That is the genius of the United States system of government, the decentralization of power. But sadly, too many of our leaders continue to work against the very principle of government that has brought so much stability, peace and prosperity to America.

And here we are, not too far removed from the atrocities that communism inflicted on the world in the 20th century and many Americans are once again embracing communism. The deadliest political ideology in the history of the world, never gets cancelled and rarely gets exposed for what it really is. Why don’t we ever have an honest conversation about communism? Why are the atrocities of communism rarely addressed? Why is communism never put in the same category as Nazism or fascism? Why are the communist mass murders ignored? Why didn’t Oppenheimer’s communist affiliation stain him like Nazi affiliation would have? The far left in America has taken over all of our major institutions – the public schools, higher education, Hollywood, the music industry, the media. They control the narratives. They control the people. And they are pushing communism, as a way to lead to one world order.

Communism is always brought to America in a Trojan horse, whether it is class warfare, environmentalism,  Critical Race Theory or Radical Gender Ideology – they are all rooted in communism. Communism requires total conformity. There is no true freedom or real autonomy in communism. The state runs everything and tries to indoctrinate everyone.

That is why so many young people on college campuses are pro-Palestinian. They don’t care about the Palestinians. They have been taught to hate the state of Israel because Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. And for the Marxist totalitarians to take over the world, they have to destroy all the democracies in the world. They tolerate the Arab nations for now because the Arab nations are all dictatorships, and they will be much easier for communist totalitarians to take over because their people are already subjugated. They simply have to shift the ideology.

That’s why the Marxists are supporting the mass migration of Third World people into Western countries, like Europe and the United States. They don’t care about the illegal immigrants. They are pawns in their greater plan. They are actively trying to destroy Western democracy. They know that when immigrants from the Third World become the majority in these Western countries, their democracies will be destroyed and they will be that much easier to take control over.  And we are witnessing this right in front of our eyes, every day with every illegal immigrant who crosses the border and every pro-Palestinian protest. They are not liberating a people; they are subjugating a world. The greatest existential threat to the world is not nuclear weapons, but a totalitarian one world order that the communists are leading us to, and we are letting it happen.

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Judd Garrett is a graduate from Princeton University, and a former NFL player, coach, and executive. He has been a contributor to the website Real Clear Politics. He has recently published his first novel, No Wind.

A Radical Democrat Proposal: Treat Black Voters Like They Matter

BY STEPHEN GREEN | P J MEDIA

AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis

Here's a radical idea I never thought I'd see one Democrat suggest to another: Why not treat black voters like swing voters who vote you actually have to earn? Surveying the wreckage that decades of Democrat policies have caused, if I were a Democrat running for office, my message to black voters would be, "I am so sorry," but today's warning from Blueprint isn't quite that radical.

"Black and swing voters share similar economic priorities," the Democrat consulting firm concluded, and found that "three of the five policies that are most popular with both Black and swing voters are about reducing costs for everyday people."

Blueprint published its messaging memo to Democrats on Monday, based on the firm's own polling and with this warning for the White House: "The age-old maxim that Democrats must 'mobilize the base' could be resolved simply by acknowledging that our base of Black voters is decidedly moderate on many key issues that appeal to middle-of-the-road swing voters."

Message: the radical stuff isn't resonating with your most dependable voters.

But the real issue is that black voters are drifting to Donald Trump, as the New York Times reported earlier this month after "polling painted a worrisome picture of the president’s standing with a crucial constituency."

Put them both together and you get two things: a red flag for Democrats and a green light for Republicans. The red flag is that Joe "You Ain't Black If You Don't Vote for Me" Biden even has to woo black voters. The green light is for Republicans to start wooing black voters themselves, at long last — and if they dare.

Why is the issue of wooing black voters even an issue, anyway? The old message — Dems good, Republicans will put y'all back in chains — has worked so well for so long. Well, thanks to two men, that message isn't working as well as it once did. 

The first man is Presidentish Joe Biden. His policies both at home and abroad are such trainwrecks that they have Democrats arguing over how best to spin, not how loudest to crow. The other is former president Donald Trump, who in 2016 was the first GOP candidate in ages to actively court black voters — and win them in numbers big enough to frighten the Left.

Before you get too excited about seeming common sense coming from a Democrat-affiliated consulting firm, Blueprint's blueprint for winning black voters is more of the "Bidenomics is working" messaging that voters of all races have already tuned out and that even Democrats say the White House needs to change. 

Claiming, as Blueprint does, that "voters haven’t heard much about [Biden's] accomplishments" is pure nonsense. The Left dominates social media, big business, education, and entertainment. Unless you're a regular reader of alternative sources like PJ Media, the Democrat message is almost all you get. 

Voters — again, of all races — aren't buying the "Bidenomics Is Working" message because we have to buy groceries at inflated prices, take out home loans at unaffordable rates, or have been priced out of buying a new car for the first time.

I should note that Blueprint is funded by angel investor and LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, and The American Prospect calls it a "centrist" organization. But this is TAP we're talking about, so "centrist" could mean anything to the left of Barack Obama and the right of Leon Trotsky. Although now that I've written that sentence, I'm not entirely convinced there's enough room between Obama and Trotsky to let any daylight through — but I digress.

I'll finish by reminding you — and Blueprint and the White House — that sometimes the dogs just don't like the dog food and that no amount of spin or revamped messaging can turn thin rations of kibble into beef stew.

Trump poll lead grows with Biden losing black, Hispanic backing

By Steven Nelson | New York Post

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump’s polling lead over President Biden is growing — with a new survey finding the Republican on top by 4% nationally, boosted by a dramatic one-year swing in black and Hispanic support.

The latest poll by Emerson College, released Wednesday, finds Trump leading 47% to 43% — with Biden’s edge among historically Democrat-supporting minority groups dropping significantly in just one year.

The 81-year-old incumbent’s lead among Hispanic voters narrowed to 3%, down from 14% in an Emerson poll last November — an 11 percentage-point shift.

Biden’s lead among African Americans was a still-substantial 47%, but down 15 percentage points from this time last year.

Other recent national polls have found Biden slipping badly among minority groups — including a New York Times poll of six swing states earlier this month that found the 77-year-old ex-president leading in five of them, propelled by Biden’s support among nonwhites falling 33% from exit polls in 2020.

Trump’s support among black voters, meanwhile, had grown 22% since 2020, the Times poll found.

It’s unclear what’s behind the dramatic swing in support among minorities, though polls have consistently shown that economic concerns — including inflation and high interest rates — are the leading issue for voters.

In 2020, Biden defeated Trump by 4.5% in the popular vote, though he won by much narrower margins in the swing states that secured him victory in the Electoral College.

Trump earned 8% support from blacks and 38% from Hispanics in 2020, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of exit polls.

Trump’s black support remained relatively stable over the past two elections, but his Hispanic support grew about 12 points from 2016 to 2020.

In his first run for office, one of Trump’s top issues was building a US-Mexico border wall. In his re-election bid, his boost in Hispanic support was attributed in part to his tough approach to left-wing governments in Latin America.

The Emerson College poll is one of a series that show Trump with a lead over Biden despite facing four criminal trials beginning next year related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat, conceal 2016 hush-money payments and his alleged mishandling of classified national security documents.

Trump leads Biden in 11 of 13 recent polls aggregated by RealClearPolitics, which has Trump in front of the president by an average spread of 47.2% to 44.9%.

The former president has sought to turn his criminal indictments to his political benefit by arguing that he’s being persecuted by partisan prosecutors. Black supporters have protested outside his court appearances and told reporters that they too are familiar with a biased legal system.

Trump also has campaigned on mass-deporting illegal immigrants, cracking down on violent crime and pivoting on foreign policy to take a tougher approach toward China and negotiate an end to the Russia-Ukraine war.

In the Emerson poll, Trump also narrowed Biden’s lead among women to 1 percentage point — down from seven last year — and among four-year college graduates. Biden holds a 2% edge among that demographic, down from 18% last November..

At the same point four years ago, Biden had a 9.6% edge over Trump, while Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton led Trump by 4.4% in the RealClearPolitics average eight years ago.

The Origin of Thanksgiving Day as A National Holiday

COMPLIED BY THE OKGOP

Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday that is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November. Giving thanks has long been a tradition of our Judeo-Christian heritage. “Unto Thee, O God, do we give thanks”, the Psalmist sang, praising God not only for the “wonderous works” of His creation, but for loving guidance and deliverance from dangers.

In accordance with this tradition of thanks, a group of settlers arrived in Maine in 1607 and held a service of thanks for their safe journey, and twelve years later set aside a day of Thanksgiving for their survival. The most well-known Thanksgiving occurred just a couple of years later in Plymouth Colony in 1621.

In September 1620, a ship named Mayflower left from Plymouth, England carrying over one-hundred passengers. These brave and resilient individuals were risking their lives in pursuit of religious freedom and prosperity in the New World. The trip was long and treacherous, it took over two months before they made landfall near the tip of Cape Cod. Despite the challenging journey, these settlers pushed onward and eventually crossed the Massachusetts Bay and began working to establish what is now recognized as Plymouth Colony.

Shortly after this arrival, the settlers (now commonly referred to as pilgrims) were forced to endure a brutal winter. This weather came with such haste that most of the settlers had to live on their boat where they suffered from exposure, scurvy, and disease. This devastating winter killed nearly half of their population. 

When the snow started to melt in late March of 1621, the settlers moved back to the land where they were greeted by a member of the Abenaki tribe who spoke to them in English. A few days later, the Native man returned with another man named Squanto. Squanto showed the pilgrims how to cultivate crops (mainly corn), fish the rivers, extract maple sap from trees, and avoid poisonous plants.

In November of 1621, the first corn harvest proved bountiful, and Governor William Bradford organized a celebratory feast for the pilgrims and invited a group of their Native American allies. This feast is known as the “First Thanksgiving”.

Then President George Washington penned these words to issue a proclamation on October 3, 1789, designating Thursday, November 26 as a national day of thanks:

WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me “to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally, to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine.

G. Washington

Since that first feast in November of 1621, Thanksgiving has been an American tradition that continues its influence into our modern era. Every year, on the fourth Thursday in November, we take time to slow down and express gratitude for all that we have been bestowed. We bow our heads and thank God for our many blessings, friends, and families. We give thanks to our brave veterans that keep us safe, we give thanks to our fellow citizens of Oklahoma for helping make our communities strong, and we express our gratitude because we have the privilege of living in the greatest Nation in the history of mankind.

God Bless you all, and God Bless America.

For the People,

Nathan Dahm
OKGOP Chairman

In the words of President Abraham Lincoln - Thanksgiving Proclamation 1863

 

“I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.

And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.”

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A THANKSGIVING MESSAGE 

FROM THE AMERICA FIRST POLICY INSITUTE

America was conceived in liberty. Remember that. 

Remember it because we hear the opposite these days — from our institutions, from our elites, from those entrusted with the stewardship of the nation. They say America was conceived in something else: in iniquity, in trespass, in a civic version of original sin. The invocation of the last is deliberate. After all, original sin corrupted Creation, and therefore American original sin corrupted our republic. 

 It is not so.

 We are a republic born in liberty, peopled at the first by men and women who brought with them across the seas the most fundamental and virtuous aspirations of mankind: to live rightly, to worship rightly, and if God granted it to them, to prosper. The Thanksgiving we celebrate today commemorates one group of them — a foundational group — in the Englishmen who landed at Plymouth, survived a killing winter, and laid a cornerstone of our republic on a cold and distant shore. They were not the only pioneers to forge a nation in the wilderness on American shores, nor even the first. But they were, in their martyrdom and redemption in turn, perhaps the most instructive. They earned their memory. 

 We remember them for two reasons. One reason is historical. America is blessed with many folkways and many peoples, but there is something singular about New England, the foundry of our republican ideals and the birthplace of our revolution. The countrymen who founded New England, the forefathers of the forefathers, deserve our remembrance. 

The other reason is their example, which we follow today. When Englishman and Wampanoag celebrated in brotherhood after the scouring passage of the first winter ashore, they gave thanks to the Author of their arrival and survival: not themselves, nor even one another, but to God. Every American Thanksgiving since, from that proclaimed by George Washington to that invoked by Abraham Lincoln to that of the present holiday, turns toward that same source of goodness and mercy. We are a blessed nation, and we always have been, in every time and season — whether we celebrate in a lonely settlement in a New World in 1621, or in our warm homes in 2023. 

We stay blessed so long as we remember, worship, and thank the Giver of the blessing. 

America was conceived in liberty. It was so conceived because — as the first Americans understood very well — it was ordained of Providence. God creates no thing that is not good: and no rhetoric of original sin or iniquity can change or obscure that enduring truth. This Thanksgiving, we remember in gratitude— and we give thanks. 

It is proper. And it is American.

REPORT: Car That Exploded at US/Canada Border Being Investigated by FBI as Terrorism

 By Nick Arama | RedState.com

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol

There are now reports that the vehicle that blew up at an inspection station at the Rainbow Bridge, border crossing between the U.S. and Canada was packed with "a lot of explosives," according to Fox's Alexis McAdams.

BREAKING: High level local police sources tell colleague @AlexisMcAdamsTV that the vehicle explosion at the Rainbow Bridge border crossing in NY was an attempted terror attack w/ a vehicle full of explosives. Two men in car dead. I’m awaiting a response from CBP re: any injuries…

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) November 22, 2023

McAdams also reports that the vehicle traveled toward the Customs and Border Patrol building near the toll kiosks then exploded, and that the FBI is now the lead agency on the ground. Sources have told McAdams that the event is being investigated as an attempted terror attack.

Photos show what looks like the twisted wreckage at the inspection station at the bridge.

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Post on X (formerly known as Twitter) @TheInsiderPaper

BREAKING: Photo after reports of incident involving vehicle coming into the US on the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls, NY Gov. Hochul says being briefed on incident. All 4 international border crossings between the US-Canada in Western New York closed https://cutt.ly/3wIi6yHa/

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All government buildings in the areas have been evacuated. The two in the car are dead, and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol has confirmed that one of their officers was injured.