On the morning of the Indiana primary, after Trump called his father an accomplice in the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Ted Cruz finally said what I think he should have said months earlier. Once Trump had the nomination, he said, the media would turn on him with a vengeance. They’ve been covering for him, refusing to focus on his sordid business and personal lives, and disinterested in past or current scandals. Cruz predicted, specifically, that Trump’s tax returns, and his secrecy about them, would all of a sudden become a big story.
I’m watching With All Due Respect with Heilemann and Halperin (how do you tell one from the other? I just refer to them as the Germans, like Ehrlichman and Haldeman in the Nixon White House) and they’re talking about Trump’s statement to AP that he may not release his tax returns before November. And I’ll be damned, it’s a big story! One of them was absolutely outraged, saying it’s the job of everyone in the media, himself included, to beat him up every day until he relents. Every day, another story on Trump’s taxes. This guy made a vow not to let this go. Well, Ted, I guess you called that one.
The worse Clinton looks, and she looks pretty bad right now, the more the focus will be on Trump. Except it won’t be $2 billion of free publicity. It’s $2 billion in attack ads, disguised as news stories. All so predictable.
Progress on the Platform. after talking today to Jeff Fields of the Texas Public Policy Foundation (who sounds like a very bright and savvy guy). He said David Barton, of Wall Builders, will almost certainly be the man from Texas on Platform, and he will almost certainly be supportive of inclusion of an Article V provision. Barton carries a lot of weight in conservative circles, especially in the South. With Texas on board, as well as Michigan, Georgia, and Alaska, we’re off to a good start. The Platform Committee convenes two months from today, so there’s lots of time to line up the votes.
The contacts I’m making on Article V in the Platform will be very useful as we build support for a provision on the Transfer of Public Lands, or TPL. That’s the new terminology out of the American Lands Council, which I’m adopting. Getting both of these items in the Platform is very important to me, and I’ve got some time.
The media will cover the meetings of Platform, hoping to sniff out conflict between Trump and the delegates. Trump has opposed Article V in the past, but only to curry favor with Phyllis Schlafly. Now that he doesn’t need her, who knows what he’ll do? Follow his gut, wherever it takes him. The same with TPL. He opposed it on the campaign trail, but that’s over, so he’ll go with his gut on that one too. I don’t think he gives a damn about either one.
There’s one final item I want to see in the Platform — an outright demand for equality before the law for all Americans, and the end of racial discrimination against whites and Asians. The end of affirmative action. The Romney Platform of 2012 was squishy, as Romney would like it. It rejects affirmative action, except when it’s really necessary. Not nearly good enough for me. With me, this one is personal. I was a poor white boy, who’d worked his way through Cal, and I was discriminated against in the law school admission process. The only way I was admitted to UCLA Law was under a small experimental program (discontinued the year after I got there) that gave extra weight to your LSAT score. My grades were mediocre, but the score was high enough to get me in.
I won’t be in Cleveland, but I know a lot of people who will be. People on the Platform Committee. If unqualified equality before the law can’t make it into the Republican Party Platform, I’ve got to find a new home.
I’ve got an article in American Thinker up tomorrow, and I encourage everyone to read it. I get around to equality before the law. Like I said, it’s personal.
reaganproject.com 