After the unveiling of President Donald Trump’s proposed peace plan in the Middle East, numerous Senate Democrats took time out of their busy schedule to lecture him about Middle East politics. <a href="https://www.vanhollen.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Van%20Hollen%20Letter%20MidEast%20Peace%20Plan.pdf">The letter they wrote</a> is historically ignorant and dangerous, which is compounded by the fact that it was signed by three leading current presidential candidates; Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN).
“Dear President Trump,” the letter begins, “We write to express our profound concern regarding your decision to release a one-sided Israeli-Palestinian plan forged without any Palestinian involvement or support.”
Right off the bat, Senate Democrats ignore the fact that the Palestinians have been invited to the negotiations on numerous occasions. The most prominent one was June 2019, when there was a U.S.-led peace conference in Bahrain that was boycotted by the Palestinians. They thought that a boycott would stop the conference, but Jared Kushner, the point-man for the Trump administration in this process, pushed forward.
Trump&#8217;s peace plan would ultimately give the Palestinians a state, as well as funds to help get that state up and running. The 1947 U.N. partition plan, which the Arab world outright rejected in choosing instead to declare all-out war on the nascent Jewish state, did not include $50 billion. In fact, the world mostly stood by and watched while the Jewish state was attacked from every direction.
Senate Democrats&#8217; letter espouses significant falsehoods, claiming that this plan “paves the way for full or partial Israeli annexation of the West Bank.” But there has never been much support for a call to fully annex Judea and Samaria, as that would include giving citizenship to millions of Palestinian-Arabs — many of whom call for the destruction of the state of Israel.
Senate Democrats also, un-ironically, claim that this plan “undermine[s] existing U.S. policy regarding the unilateral annexation of Crimea, eastern Ukraine.” In case the Democrats forgot, Russia invaded Crimea when the Obama administration withheld crucial military aid to the Ukranians. That was not a defensive war; it was an attack by Russia. Comparing that act with Israel winning territory in the 1967 Six-Day War, which was a defensive war, is patently insane. Additionally, Russia immediately annexed Crimea, whereas Israel limited its annexation to the city of Jerusalem — the eternal capital of the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hill-the-jewish-nation">Jewish nation</a>. Contrast that to 1948, when Jordan took over that same territory, annexed it, and left the Palestinian people in refugee camps to linger and suffer until Israel militarily defeated Jordan in 1967&#8217;s defensive conflict.
Senate Democrats also conveniently ignore the last 73 years of history when they claim that “this proposal violates the Palestinians’ right to self-determination.” The Palestinians could have asserted their right to self-determination any time from 1947 through today. They can declare a state and nobody will mind. In fact, many Israelis would welcome it. In 2000, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered to Yasser Arafat the Gaza Strip, 95% of the West Bank, 5% of Israel, half of Jerusalem (including the Temple Mount), and Israeli citizenship for 50,000 Palestinians. Arafat walked away without a counteroffer and instead <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-vox-lies-about-israel-again">launched the Second Intifada</a>. Democrats ignore that the Palestinians could have exercised their “right to self-determination.” Instead, they are choosing to stay as they are.
The Democrats complain about the proposed borders, referring to it as a “disconnected series of Palestinian islets.&#8221; They claim that this “would betray the vision of a sovereign Palestinian state.” Again, Palestinians could have had a say in this process. They chose not to. Additionally, the only “vision” that the Palestinians have of a Palestinian state is one that encompasses all of Israel and does not include any Jews.
The Democrats then have the audacity to accuse President Trump of interfering in the upcoming Israeli election, claiming that the timing “raises disturbing questions about [Trump&#8217;s] intention to intervene in the Israeli election process.” This accusation is audacious for multiple reasons. First, the Democratic Party at-large is currently in the middle of an impeachment of President Trump that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/democrat-impeachment-manager-admits-that-impeachment-is-about-2020-election">Democrats themselves claim</a> is intended to prevent him from winning re-election. Second, this is the third Israeli election in the last year, so this wouldn’t affect much of anything. Third, Benny Gantz, Netanyahu’s chief political rival, endorsed this plan and <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/gantz-says-hell-bring-trump-peace-plan-before-knesset-for-vote-next-week/">is bringing it up for a parliamentary vote</a>. Finally, it is ironic that Senate Democrats are accusing Trump of interfering with Israeli elections when <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/international/236565-netanyahu-pollster-obama-role-in-election-larger-than-reported">Obama did that</a> in 2015 — and nobody cared.
Democrats continue their letter with their old and tiresome “President Trump isn’t a normal president” routine. “Your administration has already reversed decades of bipartisan U.S. policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” it reads. “Previous presidents of both parties successfully maintained the respect of both Israelis and Palestinians for the United States’ role as a credible player in difficult negotiations.” But policies that haven’t worked for 50 years should be changed. Democrats think that if they try the same thing over and over — that &#8220;thing&#8221; being caving to terrorists — there will be different results. That is the definition of insanity. Trump’s only change from the standard “two-state solution” is that it recognizes the fact that Israel is the only actor that actually wants peace.
The Democrats are making the same mistakes with the Palestinians that they did with the Iranians: The assumption that everyone wants the same thing. They do not. Palestinian leadership wants to destroy Israel. Democrats either don’t know that, or simply don’t care.
 
Moshe Hill is a political analyst and a Chovevei Zion Fellow. His work can be found on <a href="https://www.ahillwithaview.com">aHillwithaView.com</a>, <a href="https://facebook.com/aHillwithaView">facebook.com/aHillwithaView</a>, and on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TheMoHill">@TheMoHill</a>.

President Trump Meets With Israeli PM Netanyahu At The White House

HILL: Senate Democrats’ Response To Trump’s Peace Plan Is Historically Ignorant

Amy Klobuchar

Benjamin Netanyahu

Bernie Sanders

Democratic Party

Donald Trump

Elizabeth Warren

Foreign Policy

Israel

Jared Kushner

Middle East

In the days since the killing of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-the-just-and-proper-strike-of-mastermind-iranian-jihadist-qassem-soleimani">Iranian terrorist-in-chief Qassem Soleimani</a>, the media and Democrats have bent over backwards trying to show that Soleimani was anything other than a piece of human garbage who deserved his fate. While they do this out of a greater hatred for President Trump than hatred for the killer of hundreds of Americans and countless others, they also display yet another instance of low American expectations for the Middle East.
A recent example is the selective use of the term “cultural sites.” In response to the death of Soleimani, the Iranians <a href="https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/142726/iran-raises-red-flag-over-messianic-mosque-declaring-end-of-days-war-for-first-time-ever/">raised a red flag</a> over a significant cultural site, Jamkarān Mosque in Qom, Iran. According to Dr. Mordechai Kedar, a senior lecturer in the Department of Arabic at Bar-Ilan University, “This red flag is a call for the deaths of anyone who opposes Shiite Islam.” When President Trump, deterring the Iranians <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1213593975732527112?s=20">on Twitter</a>, mentioned cultural sites as potential targets in retaliation for terrorist action, he was referring to the cultural sites that the Iranians themselves are desecrating by turning them into military targets. Instead of reporting on how Iran uses and misappropriates cultural sites as threats to the West, outlets like <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/after-killing-iran-s-quassem-soleimani-trump-borrows-isis-illegal-ncna1111531">NBC News</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/01/07/iranians-celebrate-their-favorite-cultural-sites-after-trump-threatened-target-them/">The Washington Post</a> ignore that aspect of the story to attack President Trump.
This shouldn’t be surprising. The very same media that now <a href="https://time.com/5759506/qasem-soleimani-funeral-tehran-crowds-weep/">fawn</a> over the crowd size at Soleimani’s funeral downplayed the large-scale protests against the Iranian regime just a few weeks earlier. They worked hard to ignore the mass slaughter of those very protesters, likely on the order of Soleimani himself. Under normal circumstances, a bevy of op-eds would have been written, but expectations are so low for the behavior of the Iranian government that it was swept under the rug. The 1989 massacre at Tiananmen Square is part of the history books, but the victims of Iran will be forgotten because nobody cared to talk about them.
This trend also isn’t limited to Iran. When President Trump moved the United States embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, media members like Peter Beinart <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/12/trump-announcement-jerusalem-israel-capital-muslim-violence/547652/">referred to the move</a> as a “deadly provocation.” Beinart used a thousand words to describe how it would be Trump’s fault if Palestinians were to commit terrorism in Israel because of the embassy move, and fewer than 50 words to pay lip service to the fact that such action obviously isn’t justified. In a world with reasonable expectations for the actions of a moral people, those numbers would be reversed. There are no expectations for reasonable, civil action from the Palestinian side — only for the Israeli side.
In Syria, where Obama’s “red line” was conveniently ignored when Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons against his people, the media praised Obama’s “restraint.” Was it restraint on Obama’s part that allowed Assad to be let off the hook, or was it the notion that such behavior has a level of acceptability in that part of the world? Nobody will ever expressly say that it is acceptable, but the lack of action spoke louder than any words.
Now that Iran has launched missiles against a U.S. base in Iraq, the media will defend that action, claiming that it was Trump’s killing of Soleimani that instigated this round of escalation. They readily ignore the recent attack on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, the attacks on numerous ships in the Persian Gulf, the shooting down of an American drone back in June, and the arming of terrorist organizations like Hezbollah to the tune of tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of precision-guided missiles. The media have such low expectations of Iran that those actions are completely forgiven and forgotten — brushed aside as just something else that the Iranians have done.
Iran should be held to the same standard of accountability as that of any other nation. They are not, though, because the media do not expect them to act rationally. That is the bigotry that the media hold: The soft bigotry of low expectations.
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Moshe Hill is a political analyst who has written for The Daily Wire, The Queens Jewish Link, The Jewish Link of New Jersey and JNS.org. He is regularly featured on ‘The Josh M Show’ podcast. Subscribe to aHillwithaview.com for more content from Moshe Hill. Like him on Facebook at <a href="https://www.facebook.com/AHillWithAView/">facebook.com/ahillwithaview</a> and follow on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TheMoHill">@TheMoHill</a>.

Middle East map

HILL: The Left’s Hilariously Low Expectations For The Islamic World

Leftism

Media Bias

With the news of President Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/menken-secular-jews-claim-they-dont-exist-to-spite-the-president">signing</a> an executive order affirming the fact that Judaism can, in fact, be seen as a nationality (as opposed to a religion), left-wing groups and pundits — both Jewish and non-Jewish — have declared that this action is anti-Semitic. These groups seem to despise the notion of a Jewish nation.
In his 2018 book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Judaism-Zionism-Israel-Yotav-Eliach/dp/091415334X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=yotav+eliach&amp;qid=1576080910&amp;sr=8-1">“Judaism, Zionism, and the Land of Israel”</a>, Rabbi Yotav Eliach begins the history of the Jewish people in Israel with the definition of a nation and how Judaism fits into that definition. That premise is pivotal when discussing the conflicts of the Middle East, as it cuts against the left-wing and Arabist arguments that the Jews are a colonial interloper in Palestinian-Arab land. Zionism is, itself, Jewish nationalism. Those who classify themselves as “anti-Zionist” are anti-Jewish nationalism at their core, so this executive order embodies everything against which they have fought.
Rabbi Eliach writes that “Judaism operates on three levels”: Religious, social, and nationalistic. The religious level includes “lifecycle rituals, prayers, holidays, religious garb, and the Sabbath.” The social level includes personal modesty, behavior, and diet, unrelated to a specific religious ritual. The nationalistic level “is the basis for a constitution for running a Jewish State.” This includes criminal law, property law, liability law, business law, family law, rules regarding social welfare, governance, and military law. Studying the Torah (the Five Books of Moses) alone will show you that Judaism is more than a religion.
So what is the definition of “nation?” Rabbi Eliach quotes Professor Bela Kiraly of Brooklyn College, who taught “the definition of a nation is a group with a common language (preferably distinct); a common culture (preferably distinct), and a common land of origin — a location on Earth where a particular group developed its language and culture, and where this culture and language were dominant.” Judaism easily fits these three qualifications.
The common language of the Jews is Hebrew, which has been used for over 3,000 years. Hebrew letters, the same alphabet that is used today, can be found on the Dead Sea scrolls, which date back 2,100 years. The Jewish people managed to maintain this language after they lost their independence and were spread into the global Diaspora. This is why prayer books throughout history have all been written in the same Hebrew.
The Jewish people also have a common, and unique, culture. As stated, there is a Jewish constitution, which has laws that separated the Jewish people from other cultures at the time of the writing of the Torah. There is also a unique Jewish calendar (still used to this day), specific clothing that Jews — specifically Jewish men — must wear, schools that Jewish children attend, food that Jews are allowed to eat, a different day of rest, and a specific place Jews pray toward: Jerusalem.
Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the Land of Israel, is the direction every observant Jew faces when he prays three times a day. In Europe and America, Jews face east. In Asia, they face west. There are libraries that are filled with the historic connection that Jews have with the Land of Israel. The specific borders are described in the Torah. It was conquered by the prophet Joshua, the successor to Moses. It existed without a centralized monarchy for 300 years until Saul was made King. Saul was succeeded by David, who expanded the territory and shored up the defenses of the land. His son, Solomon, built the First Temple. There was Jewish sovereignty for 687 years until the Babylonians conquered the land. That is almost three times longer than the United States of America has been a nation. And that’s just the beginning.
The Babylonian Empire was conquered by the Persian Empire, who gave the Jewish people autonomy of the land — albeit without their own monarch. The Second Temple was built and the Jews still had their own court system, calendar, and language. The Persians were conquered by the Greeks, who eventually attempted to force the Jewish people to adopt Greek language, religion and culture. The Jews revolted, and won their independence in the year 165 B.C.E. (before the common era).
These events barely scratch the surface of the history of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel, which has maintained a continuous Jewish population through today. “The Jewish relationship with [The Land of Israel] is not theoretical”, writes Rabbi Eliach, “it is a historical relationship that goes back over 3,000 years. That is one of the reasons archaeology is so important in modern Israel. The more one digs, the more one finds a Jewish past.”
So when Slate <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/12/trump-executive-order-judaism-religion-anti-semitism-palestine-bds-boycott-movement.html">headlines</a> “President Donald Trump to Sign Executive Order Redefining Judaism as Ethnicity or Nationality,” The Guardian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/10/trump-executive-order-antisemitism-israel">says</a> “Executive order could redefine Judaism as a race or nationality, which critics argue is itself antisemitic,” or Newsweek <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/antisemitism-trump-jews-nationality-white-house-tropes-1476620">writes</a> “President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order defining Judaism as a nationality rather than just a religion,” they are being historically ignorant. President Trump cannot redefine Judaism as a nation, because Judaism is already, by definition, a nation.
The Jewish nation, despite being the subject of more hardships than any other nation in the history of the world, has managed to survive precisely because it is a nation more so than it is a religion. Only a nation, with a common language, culture and land, could outlast every other nation that has sought to conquer and destroy the Jewish people. President Trump is merely recognizing that fact — and protecting Jews on American campuses while doing so.
 
Moshe Hill is a political analyst, columnist, and student of Rabbi Eliach at Rambam Mesivta. You can like Moshe Hill on Facebook at <a href="https://facebook.com/aHillwithaView">facebook.com/aHillwithaView</a> and follow him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/themohill">@theMoHil</a>.

Star of David

HILL: The Jewish Nation

Anti-Semitism

Judaism

Nationalism

Trump Administration

As the year 2019 comes to a close, many will reflect upon their own productivity and accomplishments over the past 12 months. Fortunately for America’s elected representatives in Congress, they don’t need much time.
Congress has done little to nothing in terms of “major legislation” — so much so that any bill that hits the president’s desk makes national news. Since September, one of President Trump’s <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%22do%20nothing%20democrats%22%20(from%3ArealDonaldTrump)&amp;src=typed_query&amp;f=live">favorite phrases on Twitter</a> has been “Do Nothing Democrats,” thereby blaming the House majority for the lack of meaningful legislation in this calendar year. Given Trump’s tendency to exaggerate, a legitimate question to ask is: Which is actually the worst offender, the Democratic-controlled House or the Republican-controlled Senate?
Knowing they were at a partisan impasse on most topics important to the American people, the House seemed to  largely focus on investigating President Trump and the Senate focused on confirming federal judicial nominees. Ironically, both of these courses of action play well for Trump, who began his year speaking directly to the new House majority. “An economic miracle is taking place in the United States,” Trump said during the State of the Union Address this past February, “and the only thing that can stop it are foolish wars, politics, or ridiculous partisan investigations. If there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation. It just doesn&#8217;t work that way!”
The latest debacle in the House over the Ukraine issue, which was preceded by the House investigations over the findings of the Mueller Report, shows that Trump’s words were not heeded. The lack of legislative action has even become <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1143456276044544">a Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) talking point </a>on the Democratic presidential primary campaign trail.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) <a href="https://twitter.com/aoc/status/1198692784930217984?s=11">tweeted at</a> President Trump her list of “accomplishments” after he derided the “Do Nothing Democrats.” “In my first 11 months,” she said, “I’ve cosponsored 339 pieces of legislation, authored 15, took on Big Pharma w/ my colleagues in hearings that brought PreP generic a year early &amp; exposed abuse of power. In 4 years, you’ve jailed kids &amp; made corruption the cause celebré. Try to keep up.” While this may have gotten her Twitter lackeys all fired up, its patently ridiculous. There have been over 8,000 congressional bills introduced this year, so signing your name onto 339 of them is not an accomplishment. Of the “authored 15,” 10 are new bills which have not been brought to the floor to a vote and five were amendments to current bills.
This is par for the course for the House Democratic majority. While the Democrats complain about the lack of a vote in the Senate on such bills as <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/5">H.Res 5</a>, the &#8220;Equality Act,&#8221; or <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/8">H.Res 8</a>, the ironically named &#8220;Bipartisan Background Check Act of 2019,&#8221; both of those bills are largely partisan efforts with little to no compromise attempted. Each bill had a mere eight out of 197 Republicans voting for it.
Legislation introduced in the Senate isn’t going anywhere, either. Unlike the House, though, the major legislative moves that are occurring on the Senate floor do have strong bipartisan support.
Take, for example, <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/1321?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22actionCode%3A%5C%2217000%5C%22+AND+billIsReserved%3A%5C%22N%5C%22%22%5D%7D&amp;r=56&amp;s=7">S.1321</a>, the &#8220;Defending The Integrity of the Voting Systems Act.&#8221;  This was introduced by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) in May, passed the Senate unanimously, and has been sitting in the House since July 19th. Or take <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/395?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22actionCode%3A%5C%2217000%5C%22+AND+billIsReserved%3A%5C%22N%5C%22%22%5D%7D&amp;r=27&amp;s=7">S.395</a>, the &#8220;Providing Accountability Through Transparency Act of 2019.&#8221; This was also passed unanimously, sent to the House in June, and has been sitting there since then. <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/488?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22actionCode%3A%5C%2217000%5C%22+AND+billIsReserved%3A%5C%22N%5C%22%22%5D%7D&amp;r=31&amp;s=7">S.488</a>, the &#8220;Justice for Victims of Lynching Act of 2019,&#8221; was introduced by presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and was passed by a voice vote; it has been sitting in the House since March. Then there’s <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/1?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22actionCode%3A%5C%2217000%5C%22+AND+billIsReserved%3A%5C%22N%5C%22%22%5D%7D&amp;r=1&amp;s=7">S.1</a>, the &#8220;Strengthening America&#8217;s Security in the Middle East Act of 2019,&#8221; which passed 77-23 — including 27 of 49 Democrats voting for it; it has been held in the House since February 6th.
All of these bills are strong, bipartisan issues that should be brought up in the House for a vote. However, any one of these bills, were they to be signed by President Trump, would be seen as a “win” for both the president and Republicans. Much like the never-ending investigations, House Democrats are more interested in victory during the next election cycle than they are in actually accomplishing anything for the American people.
While it may be a fair accusation to blame Congress, as a whole, for doing nothing in 2019, analyzing the partisanship and the willingness to work across the aisle finds that Democrats are guiltier of unwillingness to govern than are Republicans. So when Trump rants on Twitter that they &#8220;do nothing,&#8221; he certainly has a ground to stand on.
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You can follow Moshe Hill on facebook at <a href="https://facebook.com/aHillwithaView">facebook.com/aHillwithaView</a> and Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/themohill">@theMoHil</a>.

U.S. Capitol

HILL: Who’s To Blame For The ‘Do-Nothing Congress?’

Congress

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) (AOC) has hit the 2020 campaign trail with Bernie Sanders. The freshman congresswoman from New York has frequently been seen with the octogenarian from Vermont since she endorsed him a few weeks ago. Comments on their myriad of social media posts are replete with calls from the Right for her to be voted out, and that people can’t wait for AOC to no longer be a part of public life. Everyone should buckle their seatbelts, though, because AOC will be with us for the rest of her life.
AOC represents a D+29 district located in the Bronx and Queens; the district has been a Democrat stronghold for nearly a century. AOC was the first truly successful story of the Justice Democrats&#8217; plan to shift the Democrats leftward: Primary an entrenched, moderate Democrat in a deep blue district and bank on low turnout. This worked once in her favor, but it&#8217;s highly doubtful that the same trick can be used against her.
Currently, AOC has two challengers in her congressional district&#8217;s Democratic Party primary in June, both on her political right. Considering that the latest Democratic primary election in the area, the Queens district attorney race, almost yielded a 27-year-old socialist with no prosecutorial experience (losing by only a few dozen votes), AOC&#8217;s district is not very interested in moving back towards the Democratic center. At least not without significant contributions of both time and money from the New York political machine.
That political machine, though, is fully invested in AOC, as they know she is the future of the Democratic Party (as stated by none other than Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez himself). She has already raised $3.3 million for her re-election campaign. To steal the seat from Democratic veteran Joe Crowley, she only needed $2 million. If internal polling shows that she has any trouble from the Democrats, she is poised with enough cash to handily win that primary.
As of the general election, historically that district has zero interest in voting Republican. <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pelosi-a-glass-of-water-with-d-next-to-it-would-win-ocasio-cortezs-district">Nancy Pelosi herself said</a> that a “glass of water would win with a ‘D’ next to its name” in that district. At the same time, Republicans are definitely more interested now than they were before.
In 2018, AOC’s Republican challenger raised a little over $8,000, which yielded him 13.6% of the vote. This time around, there is a much more contentious primary, with five confirmed candidates already from very diverse backgrounds. Compared to 2018, those candidates have raised some impressive numbers so far, around $950,000 collectively. But raising a third of what AOC has raised and overcoming such a huge point gap may be one miracle too many.
There’s no shot that AOC decides to resign at some point to pursue another career. Historically, Democrats leave office when they retire or are kicked out. Of the longest-serving members of Congress of all-time, the top 10 are all Democrats. For all the talk of the new freshman Democrats, if you break down the House of Representatives by longevity, the average Democrat has been in office at least one term longer than has the average Republican. If you remove those sworn in in 2019, Democrats have been around two terms longer, by average. Of the 28 members of the House who announced they are not seeking re-election, 20 are Republicans and only eight are Democrats.
AOC clearly looks at Bernie Sanders as a role model for her own political aspirations. From her perspective, why shouldn’t she? He has made a very successful living being the village kook, and is now a front-runner for the Democratic nomination for president. The path to getting rich and popular while accomplishing nothing is easier in politics than in any other profession. He’s been living on the public dime for 38 years, and only won his first election when he was 40. AOC has an 11-year head start on her mentor, so she can easily be in office for five or six decades, possibly with a future in the Senate or in a Cabinet position.
There are two avenues that the Right can take with a character like AOC. The first, and probably the easiest, is to accept the fact that AOC will be in politics. This route means that the Right will have a foil to argue against — someone so radical and so powerful that her mere presence in the opposition will drive voters to the polls, just to vote against her. The second, more difficult path, is probably the one that Republicans need to take to ensure political future throughout the country. That is to appeal to the innate conservatism of those who reside in urban areas.
Demographically, AOC’s district is 49.80% Hispanic, 18.41% white, 16.24% Asian, and 11.39% black. This is a prime testing ground for spreading conservative messaging throughout urban areas across the country. Family, law and order, education, religion, and prosperity are strong messages. This route will take a generation, at least, to take hold, but this is where Republicans can take a page out of the Justice Democrats&#8217; playbook. There are almost 350,000 registered voters in that district. Roughly a third actually come out to vote. Chipping away at socialist support and driving out the vote are the way forward for this, and many more, urban areas. While this may not drive her out of office, it will send a strong message in the surrounding areas and throughout the country that there are no districts that Republicans are conceding.
There is a lot of noise coming from the 2020 Republican primary candidates in AOC&#8217;s district. While this will be a tough road for the eventual nominee, the fight is worth having. Most likely, however, AOC will be in the public sphere for a long time to come. The only difference will be that, in the future, she may be the “moderate” of the Democratic Party.
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Like Moshe Hill on Facebook at <a href="https://facebook.com/ahillwithaview">facebook.com/ahillwithaview</a> and follow on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/themohill">@TheMoHill</a>.

AOC in Iowa

HILL: The Only Way To Keep AOC Off The Public Dole Forever

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Progressivism

As we celebrate the independence for our great nation, founded in the everlasting principles of freedom, unity and trust in G-d, the Democratic National Committee put out a statement that spells only doom and gloom for the country. The statement was crafted by DNC Chair Tom Perez. Perez&#8217;s statements are in bold:
Nearly two and a half centuries ago, a band of patriots gathered in Philadelphia to declare that &#8220;all men are created equal.&#8221;
Perez&#8217;s first obfuscation comes in his first sentence. The Founding Fathers didn&#8217;t only declare that &#8220;all men are created equal.&#8221; They said, &#8220;We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.&#8221; The omission of the fact that these truths are self-evident reveals the ideology that the Democrats have, which is that your rights and your freedoms were given to you by government. This directly contradicts Founding principles. Rights and Freedoms are given by G-d, and the only thing government can do is take them away. This explains why the Democrats are embracing socialist ideology, which thinks that free college, free health care, free housing are all rights. They think that since government gave free speech, free religion, ability to defend yourself, etc. . . . , government can give anything. This is simply not true.
Our nation has changed dramatically since those words were first written on parchment. Generations of brave Americans &#8212; from servicemembers to civil rights activists &#8212; have fought to expand the promise of equality for more Americans and move our country forward in its march toward a more perfect union.
The word &#8220;expand&#8221; implies that the Founding Fathers had no intention of providing freedom and equality for all, rather they were only referring to a certain group. You must be a historical ignoramus to believe this. While the issue of slavery was still prevalent at the time of the signing, and women were denied voting rights (both showing that government can only remove rights, not give them), these were hard-fought issues in the 18th century that an intellectually honest person can only look at through their lens. There were many Founders who knew that the creed of the country was not fully realized at the time of the founding of the country, and foresaw a time where these ideals would be realized. The implementation of that ideology has not always been perfect, but the promise of equality has been there since the beginning.
The phrase &#8220;march toward a more perfect union&#8221; is also incredibly disingenuous. In the preamble to the Constitution, it says &#8220;We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union &#8230;&#8221; The more perfect Union was formed in 1789, when the Constitution was ratified. The Democrats are marching toward a different Union, one that does not adhere to the founding principles that we celebrate.
As we celebrate our nation&#8217;s independence, we recognize that America&#8217;s founding promise remains out of reach for too many families.
Here comes the doom and gloom. America&#8217;s founding promise was, according to this article, the one that &#8220;all men are created equal.&#8221; While over the centuries we have pushed to realize this truth, we have not always been perfect. That&#8217;s why we&#8217;ve had the 13th, 14th, 15th and 19th amendments. As you will see, Perez will do nothing to elaborate actual ways that government is denying equal rights to citizens.
Too many members of our society are still struggling to find a good-paying job or get the health care they need.
The DNC isn&#8217;t stupid enough to complain about jobs and insurance, with the Trump economy doing so well and Obamacare going down in flames, so they moved the goal posts. Now it&#8217;s a &#8220;good-paying job.&#8221; They need to divide the country. They need to make people angry. &#8220;Sure, under the Obama administration you didn&#8217;t have a job, but now you should be getting paid MORE! Forget about the fact that their policy prescription of raising the minimum wage is causing unemployment around the country. Forget about the fact that there are more available jobs in the country than people available to fill them. Forget about the lowest unemployment for Black Americans ever recorded. You are still struggling, vote for us.&#8221; That is their pitch.
Now it&#8217;s &#8220;get[ting] the health care they need.&#8221; It&#8217;s not coverage anymore. During the Obama administration, it was all about coverage. As long as your name has a check mark next to it on a big list that says &#8220;Insured,&#8221; mission was accomplished. Except the jury came back, and the coverage is terrible. Premiums are skyrocketing and you can&#8217;t keep your doctor. So the DNC is moving the goal posts so the American people forget the mess they made.
Too many women, LGBTQ Americans, people of color, and people with disabilities still face inequality and injustice across our society. 
You can practically hear Oprah calling out to each identity group that Perez mentions. &#8220;You&#8217;re a victim, and you&#8217;re a victim. Everyone is a victim!&#8221; Democrats can&#8217;t win on policy, they can&#8217;t win on ideology. So they divide Americans by identity and call them victims. Please, Tom, elaborate on the empirical evidence that this is true. Anecdotal cases don&#8217;t work on people who think long enough to know you&#8217;re lying to them.
Everywhere we look, our most fundamental values are under attack.
&#8220;We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America&#8221; &#8212; Barack Obama, 2008.
That was an attack on our values. What Perez doesn&#8217;t like is basic Republican governance.
Thousands of children have been separated from their parents at our southern border.
Really? What happened? Did they violate federal law by entering the country illegally and had to go to a detention center? Did the 9th Circuit Court Of Appeals rule in 2016 that children couldn&#8217;t stay in a detention center because it was too inhumane? Did the Republican Congress try to sit down with the Democrats to fix it? Did the Democrat Minority Leader Chuck Schumer refuse to deal with Republicans, telling President Trump that he can just fix it with a pen? Did he do this before or after he accused Trump of being too authoritarian? Perez isn&#8217;t crying for the separated children, he is campaigning for open borders.
At our highest court, workers&#8217; rights are being taken away &#8230;
Lie. Supreme Court ruled that NON-MEMBERS of a union were not forced to pay dues. Seems like a pretty basic freedom.
&#8230; voting rights are under assault &#8230;
Lie. Allowing states to purge their rolls and have people register to vote is not an &#8220;assault.&#8221; It&#8217;s a basic right for states to handle their own records in a responsible manner. Or maybe people got sick of their dead grandparents voting for Democrats.
&#8230; Muslim Americans are being discriminated against for their faith &#8230;
Lie. The travel ban is based on country, not faith, as over 90% of the world&#8217;s Muslim population is not affected by the ban. Also, the State Department said that it does not affect American citizens.
&#8230; and women&#8217;s right to choose is under threat like never before.
Lie. Even if Roe is overturned, which is a leftist scare tactic, the issue would be kicked down to the states. Additionally, it is always amusing to see that the Democrats think that the only thing women care to choose is the ability to kill their unborn child. How about the right to choose which school their kids go to, or how they want to defend themselves, or any number of the dozens of choices that women need to make every day that are not defined by their uterus? Women care about more than abortion, and it&#8217;s time for the Democrats to learn that.
The Democratic Party believes that all people are created equal &#8212; no matter who they are, where they come from, who they love, or how they pray.
How about how they vote? Maxine Waters wants to harass any member of the Trump administration for having the temerity of going shopping or getting gas. We all remember Hillary&#8217;s &#8220;deplorable&#8221; line. Under normal circumstances, this may have been a unifying sentence, except it came after dividing up the country by race, sex, and sexual orientation first.
As we celebrate our nation&#8217;s independence, Democrats reaffirm our commitment to fighting for the values of inclusion and opportunity for everyone.
Perez started this by misquoting the Declaration of Independence, so I guess it&#8217;s fitting that he ends it by ignoring the values that the Declaration talks about. You can&#8217;t be &#8220;inclusive&#8221; without excluding those who disagree with your methods. You can&#8217;t provide &#8220;opportunity for everyone&#8221; without taking something from someone. What you can do is get out of the way, and allow the immortal words of the Declaration of Independence to light the path:
&#8220;We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.&#8221;
Moshe Hill is on Twitter at @TheMoHill

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Democratic National Committee