Top 10 Lowlights of 2017

As 2017 comes to a close, now seems like a good time to acknowledge the lowlights that this year could have done without. 

 

Dianne Feinstein’s Religious Bigotry: While questioning Amy Barrett, President Trump’s nominee to serve on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, Senator Dianne Feinstein seemed to suggest that her Catholic faith disqualified her from serving on the bench.  Feinstein complained that “When we read your speeches, the conclusion one draws is that the dogma lives loudly within you.  And that’s of concern when you come to big issues that large numbers of people have fought for – for years in this country.”  I find Feinstein’s behavior quite strange considering the fact that the Democrats always whine about “religious tests” when it comes to our immigration policy.   They don’t seem to mind “religious tests” when it comes to judges.  The United States Senate confirmed Barrett 55-43 at the end of October.  Not surprisingly, Feinstein voted against her.  Ironically enough, some California Democrats want to replace Feinstein, as they see her as too much of a centrist.     

Steve Scalise Shooting: No matter how much you may disagree with someone on the other end of the political aisle, we should all condemn violence against someone of a different political persuasion.   Tragedy struck inside the beltway when a left wing extremist opened fire as Republican members of Congress practiced for the upcoming Congressional Baseball game, injuring House Majority Whip Steve Scalise. The shooter asked for the party identification of the members practicing at the Alexandria ballfield before opening fire.  If not for the presence of Scalise, the bloodshed would have been even worse.  As Majority Whip, Scalise has a police detail that accompanies him wherever he goes.  His heroic police detail sprung into action to prevent the gunman from causing further injury and/or loss of life.         

The NFL Protests: At a rally in Alabama, President Trump expressed his disapproval of players kneeling during the National Anthem by saying “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say ‘Get that son of a b***h off the field right now?”  The left reacted to his comment by calling President Trump a racist (surprise, surprise) while several football players kneeled during the National Anthem on the Sunday following the President’s remarks.  In my opinion, the worst offenders were the teams who played on foreign soil and decided to stand for their host country’s national anthem while kneeling for the Star Spangled Banner.  While subsequent Sundays did not see as many players choosing to kneel, a select few continued to.  The NFL definitely took a hit, as evidenced by the #BoycottNFL movement.     

Natural (and manmade) disasters: 2017 featured three major hurricanes, two of which made landfall in two of the nation’s most populous states.  Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria caused more than $200 billion in damage.  In addition, wildfires continue to destroy thousands of acres of land in the most populous State in the Union. In 2017, many people lost everything they had at the hands of Mother Nature’s wrath.  In addition to natural disasters, many people lost their lives at the hands of manmade tragedies such as the mass shootings in Las Vegas and Sutherland Springs, Texas as well as the radical Islamic terrorist truck attack in New York City.           

Russia investigation: The idea of Russian interference in our election via collusion with members of the Trump campaign has provided a convenient excuse for the American left as they look for a reason for their loss in the 2016 Presidential Election.   The wide-reaching Russia probe, which began in May, has cost the American taxpayers millions of dollars.  In the latter part of 2017, the American people became aware of some troubling information about the personnel involved in the investigation.  The fact that nine of the sixteen lawyers working on the investigation have donated to Hillary and the Democrats should have raised some red flags but the news that Special Counsel Robert Mueller had to remove FBI Agent Peter Stzrok from the case because of a series of Anti-Trump text messages he sent his mistress, one of which seemed to suggest orchestrating a coup should Trump win the election, caused many more Americans to doubt the legitimacy of the Russia investigation.   

Failure to repeal & replace Obamacare: After seven years of promising to repeal and replace the healthcare law, Republicans failed to deliver.  They could not even agree to support a “skinny repeal” that left most of Obamacare’s provisions in place or the Graham-Cassidy bill that would have block granted money to the states.  The Republicans may have slightly redeemed themselves with the tax reform bill that repeals the individual mandate, the most unpopular provision of the healthcare law, but they still have a long way to go before they can say that they delivered on their promise to repeal and replace Obamacare.     

Sex abuse scandals and the resulting hysteria: The sexual assault allegations that have plagued Hollywood and Capitol Hill over the past three months reflect very poorly on the character of our nation.  While actual sexual abusers deserve prosecution to the fullest extent of the law, the #MeToo movement has definitely opened the door to false accusations.  Yet feminists seem all too content in punishing innocent men for crimes they did not commit; as the purging of men from the workplace advances their goal of patriarchy smashing.  Feminists fail to realize that the #MeToo movement may unfortunately end with the purging of women from the workplace; for men do not want to take the risk of having to face sexual assault allegations.  For all the talk of robots replacing humans in the workplace, the remaining humans may have to start behaving like robots if they want to retire with their reputations intact.  As PBS host Tavis Smiley, who faces vague sexual misconduct charges from anonymous accusers, pointed out, “Clearly there are millions of Americans who met their spouse at work.  The problem is we’re starting to criminalize legitimate relationships between consenting adults.”  In the new tense work environment that will likely result from the sexual harassment hysteria, many men will no longer decide to ask out their female colleagues.    

Racial demagoguery ad in VA Gov. race: This ad by the Latino Victory Fund depicts a man driving a pickup truck with a bumper sticker indicating his support for Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie as well as a “Don’t Tread on Me” sticker on his license plate attempting to run over minority children. This ad highlights everything that ought to make the average American disgusted with politics.  Considering Democrat Ralph Northam’s victory in the election, the Democrats will probably keep playing the race card to win elections for the foreseeable future. 

Kate Steinle’s killer found not guilty: The verdict in the Kate Steinle case disappointed many Americans living outside of the liberal enclaves although it should not have come as a surprise considering San Francisco’s long history of outrageous verdicts.  32-year-old Kate Steinle lost her life after Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, an illegal immigrant who had been deported multiple times, shot her to death on Pier 15 in the sanctuary city of San Francisco.  Even if the jury believed that Kate Steinle’s death was an unfortunate accident, they still should have convicted Zarate of involuntary manslaughter at the very least.  Fortunately, it looks like the Department of Justice plans to bring charges against Zarate; hoping to deliver justice to Kate Steinle.   

Alabama Senate race: Republicans had enjoyed electoral success throughout the first half of 2017, holding their own in all five special Congressional elections to fill the vacancies caused by resigning Republicans despite the Democrats’ massive financial investments in those races.  Democrats’ only electoral successes came almost exclusively in states (and districts) that supported Hillary Clinton for President in 2016.  That all changed in Alabama’s Special Senate Election, where decades-old sexual misconduct allegations engulfed the Republican candidate Roy Moore; thus allowing Democrat Doug Jones to capture a plurality of the vote.  Had the race focused solely on the issues, Moore probably would have won; as President Trump remains very popular in Alabama.  Instead, Moore spent the rest of the race either defending himself against the allegations or hibernating.  The Alabama Senate race proved beyond a reasonable doubt that when the candidates neglect to discuss the issues that affect the lives of everyday Americans, the American people always lose.

 

Hopefully the lowlights of 2017 will at the very least serve as important lessons for the Trump Administration, Congressional Republicans and the American people as a whole.