The Stephen Bannon Missed Opportunity
The Left missed a huge opportunity with Steve Bannon. Bannon has the same disrespect of women problem that Trump has. He went through a messy divorce, and there were allegations of violence against his wife. He’s said some not very nice things about feminists. But liberals didn’t go that route.
 
Instead, liberals went the race card route. Not just fringe left liberals, but the entire media establishment had Bannon packaged and labeled before it was even announced what his position would be with the administration. It fit the narrative. Trump is a racist, Bannon is a racist. They are all just a bunch of racists. You are asking for evidence? Wow. Just wow. How ignorant must you be to not already innately know this about them.
 
But the only problem is Bannon is not a racist. After claiming he was, the Anti-Defamation League had to go back and admit that they couldn’t find any racist things he’s ever said. The evidence that Bannon is a racist boiled down to him hiring Milo Yiannopoulus as an editor at Breitbart. And we all know Milo is a bigot and a racist. Yup, Milo. The antisemitic Jew who is also a homophobic homosexual. The leader of the alt-right movement.  And guilt by association is a well established argument to prove that someone is a racist.
 
It seems to me that the Left missed their chance by going off the deep end with the race card. Bannon is not a great guy. He is not pure red white and blue patriotism as Sarah Palin presents him. But it’s too late to change the narrative. Bannon will know be known as one more victim of loony Leftist racism allegations, vindicated by the truth.
 
I guess the Left didn’t want to go the “bad to women” angle considering they just spent the last year trying to put the Clintons back in office.  Despite Bannon’s faults, Bill Clinton makes Stephen Bannon look like a gentleman.

When the Left does it

What do you do when there is a class of Americans who are refused services, discriminated against in public, and made to feel unsafe in what are normally safe spaces?  If you are wearing a safety pin, you rush to their aid.  Right?  What do you do if you are a conservative?

Time for conservatives to put their money where their mouth is. When someone refuses to bake your cake or make your dress, you recognize that person for what they are and take your business elsewhere. We are Americans. We don’t need safe spaces, safety pins, or the government forcing people to serve us. If Sophie Theallet is too bigoted and hateful to take Melania’s money, why would she want to give it to them? There are plenty of dress designers in the world who will be happy to serve the First Lady of the United States.

All that aside, oh the irony. Sophie Theallet writes a letter about how she wants to overcome bigotry and prejudice because she is an immigrant to this country. Her method of overcoming? Being bigoted and prejudiced by refusing to serve an immigrant.

Another incident came last night when Mike Pence took his family to see Hamilton on Broadway.  If there is one thing the Hamilton experience has taught us, it is that we are far more alike than we thought.

The crowd booing Mike Pence demonstrated the sort of hatred that the alt right had of Obama.

Victor Dixon demonstrated the sort of ignorance that many right wing radio and cable commentators had about Obama bringing Sharia law to the US. The fact that he actually felt like he has to lecture Pence on their administration representing all Americans demonstrates the sort of bigotry and bias that Republicans have been accused of for the last 8 years.  

Funny side note, the thing that scares the Left the most about Pence is the Religious Freedom Act.  That could actually be used to protect Sophie Theallet if Melania decided to sue her for refusal of services.

Trump’s call for the theater to be a safe space is a reaction to their hatred and ignorance. But it’s also the same sort of snowflake behavior we have mocked the left for over the last 8 years. Republicans aren’t supposed to call for safe spaces and apologies. We’re supposed to put our big boy pants on and ignore it, stand up to it, or decide we don’t want to spend $1,000 a seat to be discriminated against and move on. Maybe we should give him a pass. He was a Democrat up until recently.

A theater in Broadway is going to be full of liberals. This isn’t a surprise to anyone.

The Hamilton incident was a great role reversal. I could picture the exact same thing happening in an all white church in the south in 2008. Obama and his family come to that church one Sunday morning. The parishioners boo him, they all voted for McCain. Most of them believe Obama is secretly a Muslim. All of them believe he is a racist.

The pastor gets up and admonishes them to stop booing. And then he turns to Obama and says this:

“We, sir, we are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our religious freedoms, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights. We truly hope this sermon has inspired you to uphold our American values and work on behalf of all of us. All of us.”

Obama leaves. The interaction is widely reported in the media. Vice President Joe Biden gets on his twitter account and types:

“Our wonderful President was harassed at an all white church in the South this morning. Church should be a special and safe place. The pastor was very rude to a very good man, Barack Obama. Apologize!”

So view this whole incident through that lens. And then ask yourself if you are one side of the same coin, or something different and better.

Welcome to the Montpelier Journal

Welcome to the Montpelier Journal.  This is the official political blog site of the Montpelier B&B.  The Montpelier B&B is a political page for discussion, commentary, memes, predictions, insight, and debate.  The author leans conservative libertarian.

The Montpelier Journal is an expanded discussion of content posted to the Montpelier B&B Facebook page.  Whereas one provides nuggets of information for reading on the go, the Montpelier Journal provides a more indepth discussion with links to sources.

We hope you enjoy your stay.  We cannot vouch for the other guests, but we do prohibit excessive foul language, ad hominem attacks, NSFW comments, and excessive rudeness.

Internment Camps? Not So Fast.

Perhaps you have seen the memes and posts about how Trump and his team are planning on setting up a Muslim registry based on internment camps.  Maybe you have been chided by your friends to stand up to Trump and not let this happen.  I’m happy to report, the “Muslim Registry” as described by the Left is largely a myth.

While Trump and his team have certainly earned the award for the worst communicators, Carl Higbie is clearly not calling for internment camps for Muslims. He’s not even calling for a ban on Muslims or registry for all Muslims. If you cut though the shock and hype, they are talking about re-activating NSEER (National Security Entry-Exit Registration).

This was a program that started in 2002 and lasted until 2011. It was a program for visitors on visas from specific countries and required fingerprinting, questioning, and in some cases for individuals to keep in touch during their visit. This “registry” was not for citizens. The countries covered by NSEER were mostly Muslim countries, but also included North Korea. Aspects of the registration program were ended in 2003, the rest of the program faced and easily overcame legal challenges.

The program is still law on the books. It was effectively disabled by President Obama in the third year of his Presidency when he removed all of the countries from the watch list. Both Higlie and Kris Kobach (who helped design NSEER in the first place) have proposed to Trump that he reactivate NSEER. That, folks, is your “Muslim registry” based on “internment camps”.

The US is not the only country that has a registration system for certain visitors.

Canada, for example, requires registration including fingerprints and photograph for visa holders from 29 countries. 90% of those countries are Muslim. Canada is not alone. At least 16 countries use a biometric registry for certain visa holders. They include Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Netherlands, Germany and Italy.

Keep this in mind when your friends tell you that a “Muslim registry” is the equivalent of internment camps.