2018 Masters Recap

Sunday at the Masters always promises a fireworks show unlike any other in golf. Each year, Augusta National confronts competitors with a perfect blend of risk and reward opportunities, making the course highly conducive to entertaining play. This year’s Masters certainly delivered in that respect, giving fans a show that won’t be forgotten anytime soon.

Entering Sunday’s final round, Patrick Reed held a three-stroke lead over his nearest competitor, Rory McIlroy. The dominant storyline going into the day was the possibility of the top two players on the leaderboard rehashing their Ryder Cup singles battle from 2016 at Hazeltine. However, McIlroy was out of sorts from the very start, as his first tee shot of the day landed right of Ronald Reagan. A disappointing 74 kept him well out of contention.

Somewhat surprisingly, Reed’s biggest challenges came from those originally thought to be effectively out the tournament. Jon Rahm, the 23-year-old Spaniard, began his round six shots behind Reed, but steadily made his way up the leaderboard all afternoon. After birdieing hole 14, he pulled to within two shots the leader. Unfortunately, his second shot into the 15th hole found a watery grave, dooming Rahm’s chances for his inaugural major championship victory.

Sitting eight shots behind Reed to start Sunday was Jordan Spieth. Few expected much out of Spieth, as his odds of winning were reduced to a measly 50/1 chance by Vegas sportsbooks. It’s apparent the young Texan bet on himself though because he nearly pulled off one of the game’s greatest comebacks in history. After Spieth made a ridiculously clutch putt for birdie on 16, he briefly found himself tied atop the leaderboard with Patrick Reed. Sadly, a bad break on 18 led to a bogey that sunk his chances, but Spieth’s final round 64 proved to everyone watching that his closet will likely contain more than a couple green jackets when all is said and done.

The man most expected to win this year’s Masters outside the final pairing was Rickie Fowler. The five shot deficit he faced going into the final round was clearly monumental, but by no means insurmountable. Surprisingly, Fowler got off to a very shaky start, playing his first seven holes +1. But Rickie then proceeded to birdie five of his next eight holes, and then capped off his round in style: two dazzling shots into the 18th hole and a putt rolled right into the heart of the cup for the closing birdie that put intense pressure on the leader.

Despite facing fierce challenges by three of the top players in the world all day, Patrick Reed rarely faltered on Sunday. His play was never particularly exciting or thrilling, but it was strong enough to get the job done. Reed is a player who has long maintained a robust self-confidence, but many golf pundits were curious to see how his brash persona would react to the pressure of attempting to close out a major. It’s now clear that underneath his confident exterior lies a rock-solid nervous system that has the capability to weather the internal storms associated with winning the Masters.

In the week leading up to the Masters every year, I like to always stop and remember that in just seven days time, somebody’s life will change forever. Patrick Reed woke up April 9th a totally different person than he was just 12 hours prior. No longer was he simply a Ryder Cup stalwart with a polarizing personality. Patrick Reed got out of bed that Monday morning a Masters champion.

Thrown Under the Omnibus

So much of the appeal of talking politics lies in its entertainment value. Discussing and debating the latest vagaries of Trump and his staff is fun. However, there are days when these conversations have a “bread and circuses” feel to them. Days like today.

Let’s wind the clocks back. After Donald Trump’s stunning victory in the fall of 2016, the right wing was mostly in a state of euphoria. After weathering an 8-year-long assault on their morality, it’s fair to say we earned it. Was Donald Trump a good candidate? No. Did I vote for him? No. Was basking in the schadenfreude of Hillary Clinton’s career bursting into flames satisfying? Yep.

But not only did the Republicans seize the White House, they also grabbed control of both houses of Congress. Real change seemed imminent. Unfortunately, as we learned with President Trump’s signing of a $1.3 trillion omnibus bill, when it mattered most, the only change Trump gave us was the kind promised by our previous president.

The 2,232 word-bill was released less than 24 hours before the vote took place, and yet somehow its contents were even more disconcerting than the methods used to ram it into law. Again, with a Republican president and a Republican majority in Congress, the bill included:

• No cuts to entitlements, social security, Medicare, or Medicaid
• Full $500 million funding for Planned Parenthood
• A boost in domestic spending in the next two years by $128 billion
• Full funding for sanctuary cities
• No funding for school choice programs

If this bill doesn’t sound like the cornerstone of a new conservative approach to America’s budget, you’re not crazy. If you’re a little surprised, confused, and pissed off, you’re not alone. The GOP not only blew out the budget for spending, but also didn’t address smaller issues they promised to remedy like the funding for Planned Parenthood.

Obviously, Trump isn’t Obama. He’s done some really great things as president, e.g. Gorsuch, the tax plan, cutting regulations. However, when stacked up against the ever-increasing financial burden that will be placed on future generations, these issues are small potatoes. With the left on the ropes politically for the first time in almost a decade, the GOP has made it clear that they have no intention of pressing their advantage.

The U.S. National debt recently hit the $21 trillion mark. Our unfunded liabilities as a country measure over $112 trillion. But instead of holding party leadership’s feet to the fire, the public is discussing the credibility of the porn star who peeled Trump’s banana 12 years ago.

If the government doesn’t start taking the debt seriously, and they won’t, all other political issues, national security and abortion notwithstanding, that are up for discussion are ancillary. They can’t keep turning a blind eye forever, for the longer they leave the problem unaddressed the harder our grandkids are going to have it.

With the midterms rapidly approaching, and Trump’s approval rating hovering around a tenuous 45%, the Republicans are in a very precarious situation. If a blue wave strikes this November, the right is going to have a tough time explaining why they didn’t do anything when the deck was stacked in their favor.

I’m as riveted by season 2 of Trump: the Show as everyone else. The whole spectacle is compelling. It isn’t every year you get a lying, crass, narcissistic, career democrat with a disturbing sexual history in the White House. But enough about Bill Clinton…

I’m not saying you should ignore politics (as a 19-year old college freshman I feel perfectly qualified to make that condescending statement), but just make sure you don’t miss the forest through the trees. The elephant in the room can’t be ignored. America can’t afford it.

St. Olaf Cancels Shapiro Event on Anniversary of Hoax

In the war over political correctness, it isn’t always easy to find a smoking gun. Blatant examples of leftist overreach like the ones at Berkeley, Depaul, and UC-Davis are rare.

Generally, the left employs a “death by a thousand cuts” approach to winning their ideological battles. These tactics are subtle and aren’t always spotted by conservative watchdogs.

Unfortunately, the left was recently able to strike another shadowy victory when St. Olaf’s refused to host Ben Shapiro on campus for his planned April 23rd speaking date. The decision was made due to the speech date landing on the one year anniversary of a race-based hoax that took place on the Northfield campus.

Last spring, a racist note was left on the windshield of a black student at St. Olaf College. This sparked outrage across the campus, leading to canceled classes and protests at the small liberal arts school. However, a couple weeks after the incident took place, a student came forward and confessed to fabricating the note.

Kathryn Hinderaker, the St. Olaf student leading the efforts to bring Shapiro to campus, sent emails to both St. Olaf President David R. Anderson and Vice President Carl Crosby Lehmann protesting their decision to bar the prominent conservative from speaking at the school.

Anderson responded, “I share your interest in ensuring that diverse viewpoints are expressed on our campus, including the perspectives of conservative speakers like Mr. Shapiro.” But he also noted that the scheduled date is, “is at a time that coincides with the anniversary of last year’s protests. This is deeply concerning. Our campus is still healing from that experience.”

Lehmann wrote back that, “… (Shapiro’s) appearance on our campus at that time would have been counterproductive. I don’t think it is debatable that he is a divisive person… having (Shapiro) here during the anniversary of last year’s protests is not appropriate.”

The administrators at St. Olaf perfectly illustrated how the left will undermine the conservative message going forward. If they’re smart, they won’t call people like Ben Shapiro fascists or Nazis. Instead, they will label them divisive or disruptive. Subtly, slowly, conservatism will be sabotaged in increasingly cunning ways.

The 2016 election taught us a lot of things. Chief among them was that blanket moral assaults are fairly ineffective in the political arena. Over the course of his campaign, Donald Trump was repeatedly labeled a racist, sexist, narcissist, Nazi, bigot, homophobe, and a host of other nasty epithets.

Now at times, Trump lent credence to these arguments. He committed a whole host of errors during his run to the presidency and very rarely came off as a man of principle. But because so many of the attacks lacked sufficient evidence and nuance, it was easy for the MAGA crowd to write them off.

However, it appears that some of the more clever agents of the left are learning their lesson, and are adjusting their strategy in ways that will give them the capacity to do immeasurable damage to conservative principles.

The dangers of this gambit by the left is it forces conservatives into a tough spot. If we cry wolf too blindly, they can retreat behind the mild nature of their rhetoric and punch back using their typical identity-politics tactics. If we ignore them, they will continue to inch towards the country towards a postmodern endgame. Neither outcome is acceptable, so our only choice is to arm ourselves to the teeth with intellectual ammo and dissect their arguments with surgical precision.