My Political Bucket List

National Public Radio recently ran a story about a man who did not get to see his dying wish, perhaps the most recent item added to his bucket list, fulfilled. The man would die without getting to see the Mueller report.  I have a political bucket list of my own and I have included some of the highlights below with a little explanation on the recent progress the nation has made in achieving each goal on my political bucket list.

The Repeal of Roe v. Wade: I know that I share this in common with many other conservatives, who have this at the top of their political bucket lists.  Roe v. Wade has served as a black mark in American history and a symbol of the cultural revolution that began sweeping through the nation in the mid to late 1960s and had fully engulfed the country by the time the Supreme Court made this landmark decision to legalize abortion in 1973. Even Norma McCorvey, the plaintiff in the case, wanted to devote the rest of her life to undoing the law that bears her name. Unfortunately, she did not get to see the top item on her bucket list fulfilled; she died in early 2017, before President Trump even had a chance to replace Antonin Scalia or Anthony Kennedy, for that matter. Subsequent Supreme Court decisions, especially Planned Parenthood v. Casey, essentially upheld Roe but the pro-life movement may soon experience the victory they have anxiously awaited for decades.

In the past couple of years, several states have either looked into passing or actually passed heartbeat bills; which would outlaw abortions as soon as a fetal heartbeat can be detected, usually at around six weeks gestation.  These states include the swing states of Ohio and Florida and ruby red states such as Kentucky and Missouri. Most of the heartbeat bills that have already passed have not surprisingly faced court challenges. The courts, more often than not, have become an indispensable ally of the pro-choice movement and modern liberalism in general.

In many cases, the judicial branch will not even allow states to strip funding from Planned Parenthood. However, that changed earlier this week; when the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Ohio did in fact have the right to strip funding from the nation’s largest abortion provider. The Sixth Circuit has not hesitated to clash with other appellate courts in the past. It became a lone voice in the wilderness in 2014 when it ruled that bans on same-sex marriage did not violate the Constitution, which contradicted the rulings of every other Court of Appeals that had ruled on the issue up to that point. The Sixth Circuit’s decision ultimately led the Supreme Court to rule on the issue of same-sex marriage; it had previously hoped that its laissez-faire approach of letting the individual appellate courts strike down same-sex marriage bans would lead to the legalization of it in all 50 states.

In the past, lower courts have dealt blows to heartbeat bills in Iowa and Arkansas. Both states have one thing in common: they fall under the jurisdiction of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, which struck down a heartbeat bill in North Dakota. Ohio and Tennessee, on the other hand, which look likely to enact heartbeat bills, fall under the jurisdiction of the Sixth Circuit; which has established itself as more friendly to conservatives. Should the Sixth Circuit contradict the Eighth Circuit or any other circuit court, that will set up a Supreme Court battle that may ultimately decide the future of Roe v. Wade and whether or not it will join the “ash heap of history” where it belongs.

Contrary to what liberals try to tell people, the overturning of Roe v. Wade will not automatically mean the grisly procedure will become illegal in all fifty states. It will merely give states the right to ban abortion if they so choose. Many states have already passed trigger laws that will make abortion illegal if the Supreme Court ever decides to overturn Roe.  On the other hand, many liberal states have passed laws making sure that abortion remains legal if the Supreme Court ever decides to revisit the completely false premise declaring abortion a “right.” Only with the next item on my bucket list would abortion become illegal in all 50 states.

The passage of a Human Life Amendment: The Constitution has remained basically the same for the past quarter-century despite liberals’ best attempts to get rid of the Electoral College and the Second Amendment.  Constitutional amendments require the support of two-thirds of both houses of Congress and three-fourths of the states.  Considering the fact that nothing has defined 21^st Century American politics like political polarization, that might explain why no Constitutional Amendments have passed in more than 25 years.  I have shared some ideas on new Constitutional amendments in the past, such as term limits and a balanced budget amendment but nothing would make me happier than a human life amendment.  In all likelihood, this item will probably come last on my bucket lits chronologically; if it happens at all. I feel quite confident that it will not happen in my parents’ lifetime; I just hope that my parents get to experience a post-Roe America.  Pro-lifers got a glimmer of hope this week when the Democratic-controlled New Mexico Senate rejected a House-passed bill that would relax the state’s abortion laws along the lines of the bill championed by Governor Cuomo and the Democrats in New York. Pro-life Democrats, or at least reasonable Democrats, do apparently exist at the state level but have become almost extinct at the national level.  Hopefully, that will change. A Human Life Amendment will probably require support from Congressional Democrats since it seems unlikely that Republicans will control two-thirds of Congress or three-fourths of the state legislatures anytime soon. 

Witnessing a secure border: This should probably go at the top of my political bucket list since without a secure border and a stop to the nonstop immigration from south of the border, none of the other items on my bucket list will become a reality since Democrats will have an unbeatable, permanent stranglehold on American politics. Politicians have promised but failed to secure the border for decades; at best, only making incremental progress.  Where fencing or a wall has gone up, illegal immigration has gone down.  Just look at Yuma and San Diego. It looks like the Courts will become the biggest obstacle to building the wall; they have certainly not helped at all when it comes to the asylum laws.  Congress and the Courts have effectively created an asylum system that increasingly mirrors social work; providing incentives for family units and unaccompanied minors to turn themselves into Border Patrol.  As soon as they set foot in the country, “asylum seekers” who pass the credible fear test, as they almost all do, have the right to “due process” as well as taxpayer-funded shelter for a very short period of time.  Eventually, the Flores court decision requires the release of minor asylum seekers with nothing more than a promisory note that they will show up in front of a judge for an asylum hearing; which takes place an average of 1,000 days later.  Even though immigration judges end up denying 61.8 percent of asylum requests, about 40,000 continue to live in the country indefinitely after withdrawing their asylum requests as a result of seeing the writing on the wall.  In order for a secure border and a sovereign nation to become a reality, this has to stop.  As the late Charles Krauthammer once said, “foreign policy is not social work.” The same should apply to immigration policy.

Witnessing a balanced budget: President Trump just released his budget proposal, which would balance the budget within 15 years. Assuming that I do not perish from cancer or any other tragedy that results in my untimely death, that will make me well into my 30s by the time Congress finally balances the budget. Knowing Congress, especially with Democrats in charge, they will likely reject President Trump’s budget proposal. The balanced budget ties in with the other items mentioned on my bucket list so far. Funding Planned Parenthood and funding beds, detention centers, and social services for illegal immigrants and “asylum seekers” as opposed to stopping them from entering the country in the first place, in addition to funding the border security of other countries and several useless government projects, stand in the way of a balanced budget. A balanced budget amendment to the Constitution may help give Congress the motivation to balance the budget but as I mentioned earlier, the fact that Congress has not passed a Constitutional amendment in more than 25 years does not provide much hope that America’s elected representatives have the will power to take a hard vote.  Unlike the other items on my political bucket list, Congress has managed to balance the budget in my lifetime; during the tenure of Democratic President Bill Clinton. President Clinton only deserves part of the credit for the balanced budget; after all, the Republican Congress had the power of the purse. Nancy Pelosi has reminded us of this approximately 50,000 times following President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency. The era of balanced budgets quickly came to an end when the United States pursued a variety of adventures in the Middle East while massively expanding the welfare state at home.  President Trump’s first budget proposal called for balancing the budget within ten years but Congress’s decision to ignore it has made that task more difficult.  Should Congress continue to disregard the President’s budget proposals, it may end up taking decades for me to check this item off my political bucket list.

In order for most of the items on my political bucket list, the Republican Party will have to become a lot stronger and leave the fear of sticking to its convictions behind.  All the way back in 2014, Sean Hannity declared “I think the Democratic Party is a socialist party.  I think the Republican Party is a timid party.”  The first part of that statement applies more than ever in the age of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez while the second part of that statement also remains true, even in the age of President Trump.  On only one issue have Republicans completely abandoned their timidity: judges. Republicans need to approach every other issue, including repealing and replacing Obamacare, securing the border, and balancing the budget; with the same kind of passion that they showed with the Kavanaugh and Gorsuch nominations.  Until that happens, I will not have the opportunity to check the aforementioned items off my political bucket list.

In addition to all of the items on my political bucket list, I have an actual bucket list that probably looks a lot like the bucket lists of Americans on all sides of the aisle. This bucket list includes getting married, buying a house, and visiting all 50 states.  I still have to work on a “restaurant bucket list” of all the restaurants, both local and chain, that I want to eat at. I feel quite confident that the items on my political bucket list will have a positive impact on American society; much more so than the release of the Mueller report.  Rest assured, I will work around the clock to fulfill all of the items on all of my bucket lists.