Biden On the Beach, Trump in the Dock, Conservatives Out to Lunch

By Cliff Kincaid

August 16, 2023

I just attended a meeting of my local conservative club in Frederick, Maryland, and quickly realized why Joe Biden can be found in a lounge chair on the beach. Conservatives are demoralized and confused. They are out of touch with the concerns of ordinary Americans. They don’t understand the big picture.

My question to the assembled candidates, running for local congressional and Senate seats, concerned why they were not talking about the illegal drugs flooding our communities. (Marijuana is still illegal on the federal level). In Maryland, Governor Wes Moore is presiding over legalization of marijuana, as if the problem in the cities is that we need more and better pot. He made half his fortune as a board member of a marijuana company. But no candidate mentioned him.

In effect, the state government is a drug pusher. Its happening in dozens of states.

So-called “adult” sales of the drug to those 21 years and older were endorsed by the local Chamber of Commerce. Politicians are happy because they are taxing sales of the drug and getting money for their social programs, including for mental health problems caused by the drugs they endorse.

At the end of the forum, a leader of the club grabbed the podium to rant about aid to Ukraine, calling it an anti-Semitic country. He was unaware the president of Ukraine is Jewish. He said China was the bigger threat and that Taiwan was in danger of falling to the communists. He seemed to believe American soldiers ought to fight and die against China. In Ukraine, the people are fighting for themselves. They are asking for weapons to defend themselves.

He was unaware of the geopolitical reality that Ukraine’s resistance to the Russian invasion is one reason why China has had second thoughts about invading Taiwan. Russia was supposed to take the country in a few days.

It is inspiring how free people can resist the communists in places like Ukraine and Taiwan. These are free people who deserve our support. In the same way, we owe our freedom to the American revolutionaries who were assisted by the French.

But “freedom” is a word that few conservatives understand anymore. Some think freedom means smoking and selling dope. They let legalization happen in the “Free State” of Maryland. So crime will get worse. So will homelessness and mental health problems. The schools will suffer as well.

When I asked the local leader of the Conservative Cub of Frederick, Maryland, whether he had heard any criticism of legal dope in Maryland, he answered in the negative. That’s sad, considering the studies linking dope to mental health problems, brain damage, and violence.

Conservatives are on the defensive and distracted by the Trump indictments. If you watch the “conservative” news channels, this is all they can talk about. On Tuesday morning, Newsmax repeatedly aired comments by the Georgia prosecutor babbling about the latest indictment. It’s probably the same on Fox. We hear them talk endlessly about the four indictments. What a waste of air time.

Trump has billions and can take care of himself. There is really nothing ordinary people can do about this lawfare. The only beneficiaries are the lawyers and Trump’s campaign coffers. Web sites such as Gateway Pundit ware also taking advantage of the brouhaha, running ads for a TRUMP 2024 “SAVE AMERICA” automatic knife.

One question put to the local candidates was whether they favor the border wall. The issue is what to do about the illegal aliens flooding the cities. Who has a realistic plan to identify and deport them? None of them offered one.

I admire these candidates for taking a stand and running for office. But we must be realistic about their chances, when their hero, Trump, has emerged as a major target and distraction. The Republicans are divided in Maryland and the conservatives are lost.

Newsmax, the supposed alternative to Fox, is now offering “special coverage” of the latest Trump indictment.

Instead of talking endlessly about Hunter’s Biden’s drug problem and his “laptop from hell,” conservatives should focus on the real-life consequences of drugs in our communities. One person came up to me after the conservative club meeting and told me how drugs had devastated her family.

Yes, some of the problem is the fentanyl coming across the border, courtesy of the Chinese and the Mexican cartels. But many of the drug dealers are in the major cities and much of the dope is being homegrown. Nobody seems concerned about that.

Instead, the local paper, the Frederick News-Post, published a special “Weed Issue” glamorizing the drug and advertising the “best stoner flicks of the past century.” Other stories concerned the “best munchies in Frederick,” when someone gets high, and a “pothead playlist” of songs.

Getting back to Trump, who brought on many of his legal problems himself, consider the prosecutor turned “Special Counsel” David Weiss in the Hunter Biden case. Trump nominated him after he was recommended by Democrats. FBI Director Christopher Wray was also nominated by Trump.

Now Trump says that if he is just given another chance, he will truly “drain the swamp.” Should conservatives believe him this time? Or should conservatives try someone else like Florida Governor DeSantis, with a proven track record of changing government?

Frederick’s local conservative club needs a real debate on these issues. Conservatives on the national stage must get beyond the constant hand-wringing on Trump’s behalf. He is a big boy with big bucks and high-powered lawyers and can take care of himself.

I am more concerned by the United Nations affiliation of the other Special Counsel, Jack Smith, who is prosecuting Trump after serving as an international lawyer at an illegitimate U.N. International Criminal Court (ICC). This so-called tribunal could bring charges against American taxpayers over slavery, demanding trillions of dollars in reparations.

The real “criminal enterprise” in this case is the United Nations, financed by American tax dollars, and the story is how it has targeted a former president and our nation through a global legal process that is eroding our national sovereignty.

Let’s start talking about the obvious solution, which is a Republican House of Representatives that defunds Jack Smith and the United Nations. This is the only power available to Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

My friends, let’s ignore the gibberish and get real about solutions to actual problems.

E-Mail Cliff Kincaid: kincaid@comcast.net