Return To Normal

Last year, school districts all across America received an unbelievable letter from the federal government. The Obama Education Department, citing federal Title IX prohibitions against sex discrimination in public education programs, threatened to withhold funding unless every school changed its policies to allow boys who claim to be girls to use girls' bathrooms and locker rooms.

Needless to say, many parents, students and teachers were stunned by this bizarre demand, and rightly so. Title IX was created to stop discrimination against women and young girls.

It is hard to come up with a more distorted, ideologically-driven scenario than using a law meant to protect little girls to force them to share bathrooms with boys. According to one study, fewer than 1% of school children claim to be transgender. But the radicals in the Obama Administration were forcing their agenda on the other 99% of students.

Regrettably, a number of school districts caved to the pressure. When angry parents showed up to protest, local officials either shrugged, saying they couldn't afford to lose the federal dollars, or they accused concerned mothers and fathers of bigotry. Thankfully, more than a dozen states sued and the radical order was blocked by a federal judge.

Yesterday, the Trump Administration withdrew the Obama bathroom mandate. The Trump Administration simply returned us to normal, telling schools that there is no federal bathroom policy and it is up to local districts to handle the issue as they see fit.

Until six months ago, it was unimaginable that anyone would think that having boys in the girls' room was reasonable or acceptable. The only people who supported Obama were Hollywood elites.

But today, when President Trump says it's up to parents and local schools to decide who uses what bathrooms, liberal politicians, who are all in on this radical agenda, denounce him as an extremist.

The left, which claims to be all about tolerance, needs to find some tolerance for the values of the vast majority of Americans. I won't hold my breath waiting.

Anti-Semitism In America

Last weekend, nearly 200 Jewish graves in the Chesed Shel Emeth Society Cemetery in University Park, Missouri, were desecrated. Sadly, the desecration of Jewish graves has a long and disturbing history. When anti-Semites attack the graves of dead Jews, it's usually not long before anti-Semites start attacking Jews who are alive.

Vice President Mike Pence flew to Missouri yesterday and visited Chesed Shel Emeth Society Cemetery. Along with Governor Eric Greitens, Pence rolled up his sleeves and helped to clean up the cemetery. The vice president told workers:
 

"There is no place in America for hatred or acts of prejudice or violence or anti-Semitism. I must tell you, the people of Missouri are inspiring the nation by your love and care for this place, for the Jewish community in Missouri, and I want to thank you for that inspiration, for showing the world what America's really all about. On behalf of the President of the United States, let me just say thank you to all of you for coming out and showing the heart of this state and the heart of this nation in this place. You just make us all proud. God bless you all."

Steven Goldman of the Anne Frank Center responded to Pence's actions, saying, "Today, Vice President Pence proved to be the ultimate mensch by visiting, and even cleaning, the desecrated Jewish graves in St. Louis."

Goldman, who had been critical of President Trump, added, "This administration finally showed America the kind of response our nation was waiting for all along -- a response filled with proactive heart."

"Divisions On Display"

Just a few months ago, the media couldn't stop talking about how divided the Republican Party was. "Demography was destiny," Democrats said. The "rising electorate" of young liberal Millennials and the "browning of America" meant that they just couldn't lose in 2016.

Hillary Clinton was measuring the drapes in the Oval Office, and the pundits told us over and over that the conservative movement was cracking up. 2017, they said, would be a year of sorrow, introspection and rebuilding for the GOP -- if it survived at all.

When Donald Trump proved the conventional wisdom and talking heads wrong, it was the Democrat Party, not the GOP, that suddenly faced an existential crisis. That crisis took center stage last night as eight Democrats competing for the chairmanship of their party debated on CNN.

But even that network couldn't paper over the left's deep fissures. Consider this headline: "Democratic Divisions On Display At DNC Debate."

A major topic at the debate was impeaching President Donald Trump, who has only been in office for 34 days. Rep. Keith Ellison, the front-runner to become DNC chairman, declared:
 

"I think that Donald Trump has already done a number of things which legitimately raise the question of impeachment. . . It's about the integrity of the presidency. So yeah, I think we need to begin investigations . . . to protect our Constitution and the presidency of the United States."

To be clear, American Values is a non-partisan organization. We do not endorse candidates or political parties. But like much of the country, we are disheartened by the hyper-partisanship that has dominated so much of the debate in Washington and so divided our country.

Yet, there may be hope for more cooperation in the future.

Earlier this week I told you about a poll which found that only 27 percent of voters want Democrats "to resist Trump's every move." Even a majority of self-identified Democrats (52%) said they should work with Trump whenever possible.

A new poll finds that the left's violent protests and over-the-top reactions to everything and anything are backfiring. For example:
 

• 70% of voters disapprove of George Soros funding left-wing protests against President Trump and the violent demonstrations against conservative speakers on college campuses. Even 51% of liberals disapprove.
   
• 62% of voters, including 44% of Democrats and 55% of Hispanics, disapprove of protests "to stop the deportation of illegal aliens who have been convicted of serious crimes."

  Rather than following the radical left off a cliff, moderate Democrats should slam on the brakes and think twice about the course they are on. As two centrist think tank experts noted in a recent Washington Post op-ed, the party has been losing voters for some time:

  "Since the halcyon days of 2009, Democrats have lost one-fifth of their Senate seats, one-quarter of their House seats, nearly half of their governors and more than half of the state legislative bodies they once controlled. The Trump win was the final, not the first, indignity."