Communications Office Of Sen. Douglas Butcher

[Butcher]

COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE OF SEN. DOUGLAS BUTCHER (R-TX)

PRESS RELEASES - PUBLIC APPEARANCES - PUBLISHED MEDIA

 

PRESS RELEASES

★ CLEAR Act: Senator Butcher Introduces Policing, Community Development Bill

PUBLIC APPEARANCES

★ Speech In Fort Worth: Statement On The Israel-Hamas War

PUBLISHED MEDIA

Edited 3 hours ago by Butcher

[Butcher]

PRESS OFFICE OF SENATOR DOUGLAS BUTCHER (R-TX)

CLEAR Act: Senator Butcher Introduces Policing, Community Development Bill

Washington - Sen. Douglas Butcher introduced the Community Law Enforcement And Redevelopment Act to the United States Senate. The CLEAR Act  would provide funding for law enforcement, increasing efforts to combat crime and supporting efforts like Weed And Seed. The bill would also invest in local businesses through the Community Development Financial Investments Fund and New Market Tax Credits. Senator Butcher spoke on the legislation:

“This legislation will invest in law enforcement and improve the efforts on community policing which are vital to addressing the rampant increase in crime which we have seen in recent years. As so many of our communities find crime on the rise, we need to support our law enforcement community in their efforts to turn back the tide of crime. For nearly 20 years, I was proud to wear a badge and stand a post in the efforts to create safer communities.

However, we also know that the elements of crime that affect our communities are often a reflection of economic situations where opportunity is in short supply. That is why this legislation will invest in programs like CDFI and New Market Tax Credits which can get small businesses up and running and serve those communities, creating jobs and stronger communities in the process.

In the past few years, we’ve seen this country go through changes. In a response to the tragedy of George Floyd, communities began a move to defund police departments. Liberal prosecutors began to let crime go unchecked, particularly in response to theft. The aftermath of failing to prosecute has left businesses taking measures we would never have thought we would see. Products are now locked up on shelves because they can’t trust that they will be secure. We’ve seen flash mobs of targeted theft. It is my hope that this legislation can send a clear message that we support law enforcement as well as the communities they serve.

We know that insane ideas have come to pass as supposed common sense in progressive circles. We’ve seen high-profile Democrats like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez advance ideas like prison abolition, releasing studies from a communist like Angela Davis as the blueprint for our future. To the prison abolition movement, the idea of prisons is rooted in slavery and what academics like Dorothy Roberts call ‘racial capitalism.’

While it is easy to spout off that spectacular level of bullshit to the bowels of academia or to the dilettantes in Che t-shirts, the idea of shutting down our prisons is an insult to every mugging victim, every rape victim, and every mother and father who had to bury their murdered child. There is a reason we support law enforcement and must continue to do so.

It is my belief that this bill will work to support those in local law enforcement who are on the front lines and working for those safer communities. Together, this Congress can pass this legislation send that message that we still value law and order in America.”

 

[Butcher]

PRESS OFFICE OF SENATOR DOUGLAS BUTCHER (R-TX)

Speech In Fort Worth: Statement On The Israel-Hamas War

Text of speech by Senator Douglas Butcher to the Eggs & Issues forum at Texas Christian University

Good morning. It’s an honor to be here today. I’d like to start by thanking the local chapter of Pi Sigma Alpha here at TCU. As the national honor society of political science, they have always taken a  role in bringing speakers to this campus to address the issues of the day. I was honored to accept their invitation. So thank you them and the political science department for this event.

As we know, there is a major conflict between Israel and Hamas. It has captured the attention of the world and brought out intense passions on both sides. But, even as we see protests on college campuses across this nation, some of which have exposed rabid cauldrons of boiling anti-Semitism, we will be told that the issues ahead of us are complex. Indeed, we will be told that.

Yet, the reason we hear that message of complexity is because the issues are actually quite simple. Can a nation which sees innocent people slain on a peaceful day respond to those forces of terrorism with force? That’s it.

When we view the history of that region, it is one in which Israel experiences an attack and responds. The Yom Kippur War. A surprise attack on the holiest day of Judaism. The Six Day War. Military incursions by Egypt in shutting down the Straits Of Tiran. Even in 1948, when the nations of the Arab world tried to deny the existence of Israel and attempted its destruction, we have seen this cycle. Every instance has been an attack on Israel met with retaliation. And in each of those moments, when Israel has stood against those raging foes, it is demonized for that self-defense.

As college campuses in this nation are filled with protests chanting “from the river to the sea” it is the same thing again. It is a cycle straight from Ecclesiastes. What has been done will be done again. There is nothing new under the sun. And as there is nothing new under the sun, it is vital that our nation cannot shrink into the shadows and abandon our allies simply because some believe that the most regressive hatreds are progressive virtues.

Antisemitism has always been a fuel for the worst of our humanity. I go back to the early 20^th century. Henry Ford, a virulent Jew-hater, was poisoning the world with the Dearborn Independent, espousing the kind of vile garbage that today would probably convince the most stupid and gullible among us that wildfires are started by Jewish space lasers.

But that had an impact. There’s a reason Dearborn is the home of the second-oldest American mosque, built in 1937, as Lebanese Muslims brought those hatreds to Dearborn. That gutter legacy lives on in that city as visible members of the left, sitting members of Congress, mainline hatred. And we must be wary of that on our side of the aisle too as we have learned from Candice Owens and some of the stuff I’ve heard from Tucker Carlson lately.

That’s critical to remember. The loudness of voices is not the same as moral right. Last December, we saw protests at the Brite Divinity School here at TCU turn violent. We’ve seen the polls that show how Jewish students are feeling increasingly unsafe to public identify as Jews. Remember, while the First Amendment gives those anti-Semitic voices a right to speak, it does not give them the right to be heard. Through the distorted lens of moral relativism, we are on verge of losing sight of our humanity.

In that light, our nation must make it clear where we stand. We stand with Israel. We stand with civilization. We stand with humanity. And we stand against terrorism and hatred. That is not complexity, but the most fundamental, self-evident, and simplest of truths. Thank you and God bless.