Eleven youngsters and a police officer died in the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks. Aren't our children as important as movie stars and politicians?
Eleven youngsters and a police officer died in the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks. Aren’t our children as important as movie stars and politicians?

American politics and tragedy

By Michael Reagan

So what’s the final score? Who won the midterm elections on Tuesday night? The D team or the R team?

Let’s see.

The Democrats and the progressive left have got Nancy Pelosi back as Speaker of the House for two years. Maxine Waters is ready to rumble too.

Whoopee.

I’m sure Nancy, Maxine, and their aged claque of Trump haters and progressives will quickly show America their nasty partisan nature.

They’ve already signaled that they are more interested in trying to impeach Donald Trump than reaching bipartisan consensus on important issues like immigration or funding our infrastructure needs.

Meanwhile, since the Republicans kept the Senate, for the next two years they get to confirm any new Supreme Court justices and dozens more federal judges.

The way I score it, the midterms add up to a monumental win for President Trump, the Republican Party, and the rest of the country.

It was president’s tireless campaigning and fighting spirit that made the difference — and made it a historic night.

It’s normal for the House of Representatives to switch parties in a president’s first midterm election.

Ask George W. Bush. Ask Barack Obama.

What’s really historically abnormal in the midterms is for the president’s party to gain U.S. Senate seats, as the Republicans did.

In the aftermath of Tuesday’s results, it’s interesting to note how differently the Republicans and Democrats have reacted to their losses.

President Trump and Mitch McConnell took it like adults.

They didn’t go on Fox News blaming the government of Saudi Arabia or some other country for messing with our election process to cause Republicans to lose the House to the Democrats.

Republicans know that you win some elections and you lose some. They know it’s how party politics in America works and has since about 1800.

But on the left, the Democrats and their hitmen in the deranged liberal media can never believe it when they lose an election.

This time, they’re trying to figure out how the Republicans robbed them of the Senate. Was it the Russians? The Chinese? Iranian hackers?

One of their deepest political thinkers, Joy Behar of “The View,” blamed it on gerrymandering — until she was told by someone on the show that senators are elected statewide.

For the next two years, it will be very interesting to see what “bipartisan” legislation the Democrats propose and what actually ends up on the president’s desk.

I’d like to talk some more about the midterms, but in Southern California, 11 young people and a brave police officer were gunned down at a college country music night in the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks.

To say this latest mass shooting, which reportedly was done by an ex-Marine who had mental problems, hit close to home to my family is no exaggeration.

In the early 2000s, while my daughter Ashley was in college in the Thousand Oaks area, she was a waitress at the Borderline.

She worked many Wednesday college country nights like the one that has shocked the country less than two weeks after a gunman slaughtered 11 Jews in a synagogue in Pittsburgh.

You ask, when do these horrible killings stop? How do we stop future mass murderers from hurting more innocent people?

Dan Bongino, the former Secret Service man, gave the answer on Fox the other night. He said it only stops “When a good guy with a gun takes out a bad guy with a gun.”

He’s right. We need to start protecting ourselves from bad or crazy people with guns with good people with guns.

The president has people with guns protecting him. So do actors, rock stars, CEOs, and billionaires.

Congress has lots of people with guns protecting them, even while some of them call for tougher gun control laws that would prevent the rest of us law-abiding citizens from defending ourselves.

Good people with guns should be protecting our children in schools, churches, synagogues, bars — wherever they hang.

Or aren’t our children as important as movie stars and politicians?

The viewpoints expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Independent.

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Michael Reagan
Michael is the son of former President Ronald Reagan and Academy Award-Winning actress, Jane Wyman. He authored many successful books, including his best-selling autobiography, “On the Outside Looking In,” and “The Common Sense of An Uncommon Man: The Wit, Wisdom and Eternal Optimism of Ronald Reagan.” His book “Twice Adopted” is based on his personal story while his latest book “The New Reagan Revolution” reveals new insights into the life, thoughts, and actions of the man who changed the world during the 1980s. Throughout his career, Michael has taken time to support numerous charitable organizations. In addition to his role as president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation, he serves on the board of The John Douglas French Alzheimer's Foundation and is a board member and the national spokesperson for My Stuff Bags Foundation, a unique program that addresses some of the immediate physical and emotional needs of children rescued from abuse and neglect. In 2005, he established the Michael Reagan Center for Advocacy and Research in partnership with Arrow Child and Family Ministries. The center operates from a Christian worldview and conducts research in order to effectively advocate for public policies that benefit the safety, stability, and well-being of children and families, particularly those served by public and private child welfare systems. Michael has raised millions of dollars for many other notable charities including the United States Olympic Team, Cystic Fibrosis, Juvenile Diabetes Foundations, the Statue of Liberty Restoration Fund, the Santa Barbara and San Diego Navy Leagues, and the San Diego Armed Services YMCA. Michael has been married for 35 years to Colleen and they have two children – daughter Ashley, a third-grade teacher, and son Cameron, who is a travel agent.

1 COMMENT

  1. Dear Mr. Reagan. I would like to share some comments on your opinion piece: American politics and tragedy

    “I’m sure Nancy, Maxine, and their aged claque of Trump haters and progressives will quickly show America their nasty partisan nature.”

    Have you forgotten the vicious comments from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell about doing everything he could to make Barack Obama a one term president and refusing to even consider Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland? That does sound a bit partisan, don’t you think?

    Oh, and congratulations for your clever use of the derogatory phrase” claque” (1. A group of persons hired to applaud at a performance. 2. A group of fawning admirers). Great way to begin discourse and compromise Mr. Reagan.

    Also, if you are talking about a group of fawning admirers who are applauding performances, let us not forget the dedicated believers of President Trump performances for the past two years.

    Furthermore, since Republicans for the past two years have had a majority in both houses of Congress, a Republican President, and a conservative Supreme Court, why have they not been able to pass legislation on immigration reform, infrastructure needs, revised health insurance program, and even the “wall”?

    Considering the election results, perhaps you have missed the somewhat delayed whining and complaining of President Trump, and his comments about rigged elections. Sort of strange when you are saying the Democrats didn’t take their winning very well.

    Here is your quote: “But on the left, the Democrats and their hitmen in the deranged liberal media can never believe it when they lose an election.” It looks like you should have waited a bit longer to write your opinion, as all we hear on the “unbiased” Fox channel is whining and complaining from our President and various Republican candidates who have lost elections at the state and federal levels.

    Also, since you spend time on almost every opinion you write complaining about the lack of civility in general and in politics specifically, I would think using the terms “hitmen” and “deranged liberal media” would indicate a significant lack of civility on your part. Perhaps, you are simply looking for “social media clicks”?

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