Learning From Today’s History

In the past 24 hours I have witnessed two important events in the history of our country.

First, enjoying the power of their one-party rule over this country and the lives of its people, the Democrat House members passed their $1,700,000,000,000 social justice bill that the CBO has told us will cost us far more than that.  Most estimates are in the area of at least $5,000,000,000,000.  It will likely add $750,000,000,000 to the deficit over five years. 

Contrary to the promises of the Democrats, the bill is not fully paid for, it will increase our national debt significantly, a debt that will fall on the heads of our children and their children’s children for generations to come.  It will increase taxes and its provisions will have the most detrimental effects on the middle class.  Its provisions are contrary to many of the core values and principles of America. 

Prior to the partisan vote on the bill, House minority leader Kevin McCarthy gave a nearly 9 hour speech, much of which I listened to, which struck me as a sort of eulogy for the greatness that has been America. He was not wrong in that view of the effects of this bill.

Second, the Kyle Rittenhouse jury came in after 3 days of deliberations and found Mr. Rittenhouse not guilty on all counts.  This they did despite overwhelming pressure to render the harshest guilty verdicts possible.  Despite the fact that the Leftist propaganda machine went into overdrive as it rushed to judgment to convict Mr. Rittenhouse, these jurors were able to keep open minds, listen, and objectively evaluate the actual facts and evidence presented in light of the actual law.

What do we learn about our country and its people from the above two events?

I think that one thing we learn is that there are politicians in Washington (and probably in state leadership roles as well) who have forgotten who and what they and their role are.  They no longer listen to and then represent the will and best interests of their constituents, the people to whom the government and future of our country actually belong.  Instead, they have decided that they know what is best for all of us, they will make us into who and what they desire, all while furthering and expanding their own power.

While these politicians will pretend that what they do is for this country and its people, they must know that what they are doing is destroying America and with it the rich diversity of individuals within.  They would have us all walk in lockstep with their plans while our individual beliefs, dreams, goals, lives as well as our children, grandchildren, and generations beyond be damned, as long as the Left gets its way.

Interestingly, the Democrats chose to ignore the CBO evaluation of their bill, stating they liked the White House’s figures better.  No matter to them that those figures are, if not wrong, clearly in question, clearly a threat to the American people.  But we should know by now that facts and reality do not matter to the Left; rather it is all about the narrative –  a narrative structured on lies and omissions if necessary to support their thirst for power and control.

Which brings me to the Rittenhouse verdict and most importantly the jurors.  These are the true people of America.  These are the people who still believe in the rule of law, in facts and evidence rather than opinion and ideology. 

From the Rittenhouse jury we learn about the heroism of everyday Americans.

This jury is heroic in my view.   Not because of the specific verdict (though my understanding of the evidence and the law leads me to believe that no other verdict was possible), but because they sat in the courtroom with open minds and listened to the actual evidence. They listened to the law upon which they were instructed and applied that law to the actual facts.  And then they reached their verdict.   They did this despite ugly, loud, and sometimes violent protests demanding guilty verdicts that could be heard inside the courtroom and the jury deliberation room.  They then put forth the verdict that their deliberations determined to be just.  

This is not what the Left, the media, the President, the mob would have had them do.

The Rittenhouse jurors deliberated according to the law. They did this despite the fact that before the trial had even begun the media had already convicted Mr. Rittenhouse, plastering the airwaves with sometimes false and usually misleading information about the events of his arrest.  Even when exculpatory evidence, some even put forth by the prosecution, was presented, the media doubled down on its condemnation of Mr. Rittenhouse.  Even under instructions not to read or watch the news about this trial, in a 24/7 media madhouse, it must have been hard to avoid it entirely when going home each day from the courthouse.

The media was caught following the jurors home and perhaps taking their pictures.  Various Leftist groups threatened violence if the jurors did not render a guilty verdict.  Despite such attempts at intimidation, the jurors did their job. 

Despite the questionable ethics of the prosecution in relationship to the question of withholding key evidence and of actually investigating the facts and reading the relevant law before charging a defendant, the jury did its job. 

The jurors deliberated according to the law and the facts despite President Biden and his administration rushing to judgment and almost immediately proclaiming Mr. Rittenhouse to be a White Supremacist and racist. Biden and his administration maintained this view through the trial, notwithstanding that there was and remains absolutely no evidence of that. 

These jurors are heroes who taught us how the American legal system works including its fairness and its refusal to prejudge or be swayed by the mob. 

The jurors took their job seriously.  They kept their minds open in this complicated and politically charged case.  They listened to the judge’s instructions on the law.  They applied that law to the actual facts and spent 3 days doing all this in detail in the jury deliberation room. 

Having reached their verdict, the jury then had the courage to bring forth their verdict knowing that the haters and the ideologues would condemn them, the verdict, the defendant, and possibly destroy their city. 

This jury is a profile in courage.   And it is these jurors that represent the people of this country and who and what we are.   America is not the politicians who do as they please without regard to reality and the actual people who live within it.  America is the people who understand and defend the ideas of fairness and justice, of innocence until proof of guilt, and the rule of law. 

As long as we have citizens with the strength and honesty of this Rittenhouse jury, we will have hope for America.  We Americans must, however, demand that our politicians not forget who we are.  We must demand that they hold first and foremost in their policies and actions the sort of strength and honesty exhibited by the Rittenhouse American jury, rather than their own lust for power and authority.  Our nation and the good of its people demand nothing less.