Newspaper Page Text
The ADVANCE, March 17, 2021/Page 6A
(She Ahumtce
A free press is not a privilege but
organic necessity in a great society.
—Walter Lippmann
COMMENTARY
out of
CONTEXT
A compilation of quotations on a variety of
issues by national, state and regional writers,
well-known personalities, just plain everyday
people and from various publications
collected by the editors of THE ADVANCE.
Quotes for our Times:
Steve McCann, journalist for American
Thinker: The 21st century Ugly Americans.
In exchange for their support, the radical
left's policy demands, such as open borders,
abrogation of the First and Second Amend
ments, defunding the police and citizenship
for illegal aliens had to be implicitly validat
ed by the same ruling elites that for years
had opposed these measures. Additionally,
faux issues such as "systemic racism," "white
supremacy," "critical race theory," and
"non-binary gender identities" were tacitly
endorsed and dominated the national dis
cussion. This gave birth to a new Inquisition
-- cancel culture -- which was unleashed
across the United States and which is now
invading Europe.
Guy Benson, Townhall.com's Political Edi
tor: Psaki: Let's avoid 'labels' about this bor
der non-crisis — and talk to DHS because it's
not 'our program'.
Not only do we have a border crisis un
derway, we have a border crisis in the midst
of a global pandemic. And the federal gov
ernment is releasing COVID-positive illegal
immigrants into the United States, and the
local authorities who perform the positive
tests have no authority to stop this from hap
pening. I'd suggest asking President Biden
about this, but we're approaching 50 days
with no formal press conference, easily the
longest such stretch for any president in 100
years. As a back-up, I'd recommend asking
the White House Press Secretary, but she'd
probably just punt it over to DHS or HHS or
some other agency. "Not our program."
Brad Slager covers politics and the busi
ness side of the Hollywood industry: Journal
ism is using Qanon as a crutch.
The very nature of Qanon makes this
so easy for the press, and it allows them to
attribute anything they choose to the con
spiracy. The fact that Qanon has no discern
ible leadership nor a clearinghouse loca
tion for its intel allows for the press to accuse
anything of its choosing to the movement.
Once the unproven attachment is made
the target of their scorn is dutifully smeared
and discredited. There is no proof needed
because of the hidden nature of the group,
so anything can become a valid claim.
Leah Barkoukis is the online features edi
tor at Townhall.com: 'Written in hell by the
devil himself': The bill Mike Lee warns will ce
ment democratic rule for decades.
The For the People Act centralizes pow
er, he said, allowing the federal government
to make decisions it "really has no business
making."
Though elections have always been car
ried out at the local and state level, Lee said
the reason Democrats want to concentrate
power in Washington, D.C. is "in an effort to
ensure an institutional revolutionary Demo
cratic Party of sorts, one that can remain in
power for many decades to come."
He also called the bill "wildly unconsti
tutional" and said "bad things are going to
happen" if power is taken away from states
and centralized in D.C.
Write Us A
Letter
Have you a gripe? How about a compliment
for someone for a job well done? Let us
know about it with a letter to the editor. We
urge anyone to write us about any subject of
general public interest. Please limit all letters to
250 words double spaced.
All letters must by signed, but we may withhold
the writer's name upon request.
Please write to us at The Advance, P.O. Box 669,
Vidalia, GA 30475 or email: theadvancenews@
gmail.com (Subject Line: Letter to the Editor).
HR1 Voting Proposal Is
a Partisan Disgrace
„ THE
RICH
LOWRY
COLUMN
It’d be fitting if Democrats
undertook a radical procedural
step to pass a radical piece of
legislation.
That’s what the left is
pressuring Senate Democrats
to do by eliminating, or
significantly curtailing, the
filibuster to pass HR1, the
sweeping voting proposal that
is one of the most execrable
bills to pass the House in a very
long time.
HR1 would federalize the
conduct of elections and codify
what were supposed to be
emergency voting procedures
during the pandemic, in frankly
partisan legislation sheathed in
the rhetoric of “voting rights.”
According to advocates of
the bill, anything to tighten up
or maintain good practices
regarding ballot security is
“voter suppression” worthy of
the old Jim Crow South.
By this way of thinking,
Republican efforts at the state
level to, say, reduce the days
available for early voting —
Iowa is reducing its early-voting
period from 29 days to 20 days
— will disenfranchise millions,
never mind that deep blue New
York State allows only about a
week of early voting.
Voter identification laws, a
bogeyman of supporters of
HR1, were recommended by a
2005 bipartisan commission
jointly led by Jimmy Carter and
James Baker, neither of whom
will ever be mistaken for Bull
Connor. Not too long ago, it
was a feature of big bipartisan
voting bills to require states to
periodically clean up their voter
rolls, another commonsense
measure that is now considered
tantamount to wielding bully
clubs and police dogs.
There may be many
problems besetting American
democracy, but people turning
out to vote isn’t one of them.
Turnout exploded in the 2018
midterms prior to the pandemic
and turnout exploded in 2020
during the pandemic, with both
Democrats who availed
themselves of early voting and
Republicans who voted same
day showing up in historic
numbers.
In response largely to a
non-problem, Democrats want
to trample on the prerogatives
of states to conduct elections,
mandating their electoral
priorities throughout the land.
States would have no
choice but to accept same-day
registrations. People applying
for various government
programs or for college would
be registered automatically.
States couldn’t turn away the
registrations of 16-year-olds,
even though they can’t legally
vote.
States couldn’t require
voter ID. They couldn’t remove
inactive voters from the rolls.
They couldn’t work with other
states to try to find duplicate
registrations six months prior
to an election.
It would be pandemic-era
mail-in voting forevermore,
with no ID orwitness signatures
required and ballot-harvesting
and drop boxes mandatory
everywhere.
Felons could no longer be
barred from voting. The federal
government would pay to train
high-school students how to
register people to vote and fund
“campus voter coordinators,” as
well as giving colleges grants to
register students.
To truly bring home that
the states are being divested of
powers that go back to the
founding of the republic, state
legislatures would no longer
draw congressional districts;
instead the task would be taken
up by purportedly independent
commissions. The FEC would
no longer be bipartisan, and
sundry provisions would
prohibit or chill unwelcome
political activity.
That many Democrats say
that the filibuster should fall for
Please see Lowry page 8A
GRITTY
What’s Causing
America’s
Baby Bust?
When the
COVID-19
pandemic started
and lockdowns
became part of our
daily lives, some
romantic souls were
predicting that this
would produce a
baby boom.
Now, as the data
shows up, we see exactly the opposite.
CBS obtained data from health
departments in over two dozen states that
shows “a 7% drop in births in December
— nine months after the first lockdowns
began.”
Research from the Brookings
Institution in Washington, D.C., predicts
that births may well be down 300,000 to
500,000 in 2021.
The prediction is based on a negative
correlation between birth rates and the
unemployment rate. Higher unemployment
means fewer babies.
Brookings also notes, contrary to what
the romantics thought would happen, that
surveys of couples, particularly those with
young children at home, report declines in
sexual activity.
But these COVID-related hits to birth
rates really attach to a trend of declining
fertility rates in the U.S. that has been going
on for years.
In 2020, the U.S. fertility rate stood at
1.78. The fertility rate is the average
number of children women have during
their reproductive years. A fertility rate of
2.1 is needed to maintain stasis — to have
sufficient births to offset deaths so the total
population size remains consistent and
doesn’t shrink.
It’s evident that the U.S. is way below
this and the rate keeps dropping. Just a
decade ago, in 2010, the fertility rate stood
at 2.06.
Please see Nitty page 7A
COMMENTARY
House Democrats
Attack States' Rights
By Rick Allen,
Member of U.S. Congress
I’ve witnessed my Democrat col
leagues attempt a lot of power grabs
since being in the Majority, but H.R.
1 - the" For the Politicians Act" - is
by far the most extreme. This bill will
federalize elections, despite the Con
stitution explicitly granting states the
authority to establish election law
and administer elections.
Not only does the bill include
troubling provisions like legalizing
ballot harvesting, permanently ex
panding mail-in voting with no safe
guards and allowing convicted felons
to vote, it also forces taxpayers to
subsidize political campaigns - even
if they do not support a certain can
didate. This bill isn’t going to help the
American People, it’ll only benefit
politicians in Washington.
I offered an amendment to H.R.
1 that would strengthen voter identi
fication laws, requiring that a State-
issued driver’s license number, state
identification number or copy of pho
to identification be submitted when
requesting an absentee ballot for fed
eral elections. Democrats would not
even allow the amendment to be de
bated on the House floor.
While I believe changes are
needed to restore election integrity,
H.R. 1 is not the answer and will only
exacerbate some of the recent issues
experienced in the 2020 election.
Just as the Georgia State House took
steps to address election reform this
week, H.R. 1 would supersede state
laws like Georgia’s. We don’t want
Georgia’s elections to look like Cali
fornia’s!
Opposing Efforts to
Defund the Police
This week House Democrats
once again ditched regular order and
brought a partisan messaging bill to
the House floor to defund the police
without a single committee hearing
or opportunity to amend the legisla
tion. The bill would impose millions
of dollars of new costs on police de
partments, essentially forcing many
to shut their doors and would ulti
mately jeopardize your safety. Now
more than ever we must support our
brave men and women who protect
us daily, not dismantle their depart
ments!
That is why I am proud to co
sponsor the JUSTICE Act, a Repub
lican proposal that will bring targeted
reforms to police departments to in
crease transparency and accountabil
ity, while also ensuring they have the
necessary resources to protect our
communities.
I urge my Democratic colleagues
to work together on this issue instead
of once again continuing down the
path of only favoring socialist and ex
treme policies.
Please see Allen page 8A