MD Harris Institute

Afghanistan – 23 Aug 2021

Few of us who lived on 11 September 2001 will never forget that day. We gazed in disbelief at video footage of airliners flying into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Many of my coworkers in Fort Lewis, Washington, could not stop watching the news reports as buildings collapsed and casualties mounted. Within days, intelligence sources confirmed the culpability of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, and President George W. Bush deployed the first US Special Forces teams to avenge our dead on our enemies. Within months, US forces, along with allies from NATO and from the Northern Alliance, toppled the Taliban and began building a new and free Afghanistan.

Or so we believed. Last week, America’s twenty-year, $2 trillion campaign in Afghanistan ended in humiliation. Resurgent Taliban forces overran the county, finally taking the capital city of Kabul before the Americans even left. The nation was devastated and the people were in a panic. Thousands of Afghanis rushed the airport, trying to get on any plane out. People grabbed on to departing aircraft and fell to their deaths. On 30 April 1975, I watched footage of US helicopters lifting off from the roof of our embassy in Saigon, Vietnam, carrying fleeing staffers as the victorious North Vietnamese Army rolled into the fallen capital. I never thought that I would see such a spectacle again, but here it was, on 15 August 2021.

Electing Conservatives

As we approach the primary elections on May 10, many people ask who to vote for. West Virginia, once a deep blue Democratic state, has become a deep red Republican state. As a result, many candidates who were once Democrats have switched parties. They switch for several reasons:

Some have had a change of heart and genuinely believe in conservative values.
Some still maintain their current non-conservative positions but feel that the modern Democratic party has gone too far to the left.
Some have had no change of heart and have no problem with the current Democratic party. They switch simply to get elected.

A Republican in Name Only (RINO) falls into the second and third groups. While no two people agree perfectly on every issue, real Republicans are conservative. Since 1854, the Republican party has been the party of individual rights, individual responsibilities, Rule of Law, strong defense, free markets, respect for America’s institutions, and problem solving at the lowest level. We are the party of traditional social mores, including protection of the unborn, marriage between one biological man and one biological woman, free speech, and gun rights. Specific Republican stances are written in our Platform. Candidates who do not hold conservative values are not conservatives and should not be supported by conservatives.

So how can voters tell which candidates are RINOs?

Protecting Our Republic – 28 Feb 2022

Left wing news has been accusing Republicans of threatening American democracy. By drumming these falsehoods into the heads of the American people, liberals convince themselves, and hope to convince others, that it is true. What must Americans do to protect our republic?

The China Menace – 16 Dec 2021

Zhongguo, the Chinese name for China, means “middle kingdom.” For millennia, China was the largest and most powerful nation in East Asia. Surrounding states would visit the Chinese emperor, the “Son of Heaven,” to pay tribute and beg friendship. The Chinese considered their country, with its large population, advanced science, and Daoist-Confucian-Buddhist culture, to be the leading land and people on earth. European traders and diplomats coming to China in the 16^th, 17^th, and 18^th centuries were considered to be the same as other “barbarians” from the surrounding states. They were treated as suppliants, not as peers.

In the 19^th century, Europe had surpassed the rest of the world in military, informational, economic, and some would say cultural power. The United Kingdom humbled China in the First (1839-1842) and Second (1856-1860) Opium Wars and Japan defeated its larger neighbor in the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895). Other nations from France to Russia embarrassed China during this period. Chinese weakness culminated in the Second World War (1939-1945). Chinese Nationalist and Chinese Communists call this era their “Century of Humiliation.”

Giving Thanks for Religious Freedom – 22 Nov 2021

The Bill of Rights, Article 1

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

When delineating the fundamental rights of citizens of the United States, the Founding Fathers began with the right to freedom of religion. Why? Because religion is so very important. Religion provides a metanarrative, an overarching story, which gives meaning to human existence. A metanarrative answers four fundamental questions:

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