center-right

Juicy


POST 1094

This Is Juicy

In a stunning piece in the Washington Post, writer Marc A. Thiessen says, “Walz is Harris’s first unforced error — and an opportunity for Trump.” That’s the headline.

Thiessen writes “.  .  .   most Americans are more comfortable with the MAGA agenda than they are with the democratic socialism of the Harris-Walz ticket.” Hmmm .  .  .

That democratic socialism thing – the vast majority of Americans actually want

access to legal abortions – over 62% –  5 of 8 Americans – that means both men and women

common sense gun safety legislation (to the extent that we have any common sense left) – 77 – 87%, depending on the specific action

some version of Medicare for all – 57% of Americans

affordable healthcare insurance – about 63% of Americans favor the Affordable Care Act. Nevertheless, Republicans have challenged it in courts and held votes to kill it over 2,000 times.

Social Security. Some of us remember that before Social Security it was common for Americans to live their last years in miserable, abject poverty. Memo to revisionist history Republicans: We’re not going back.

overhaul of our immigration system – about 74% of Americans

About that last, Thiessen says Harris wants “open borders,” a common MAGA claim that they use for the the purpose of sliming Democrats, even though no Democrat wants that. It makes for a fine bumper sticker. Doesn’t matter: It’s still a lie.

These are just a handful of issues that the majority of Americans support and want – there are more. Can we please stop saying that this is a center-right country and acknowledge that, labels aside, the majority of us have shifted to a far more progressive position? Can we admit that majorities of We The People want things that only government can provide? Can we agree that the MAGA agenda will get us none of what we want?* (see Project 2025)

Can we put aside fantasies and falsities and instead deal with the reality that democracy means rule by the people? That means that our elected representatives should be working to get us what we want, rather than just covering their asses and sucking up to “the base.” Crazy idea, I know, and it’s hard to keep things sorted out while living in our Through the Looking Glass political world, where the real is fake, bad is good and lies are truth.

But as John Adams said,

“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”

So, nice try, Mr. Thiessen. You are entitled to your opinions, but the facts say you’re wrong.

This Is Juicy, Too – and With Far More Impact

From Prof. Heather Cox Richardson on August 8, the anniversary of the resignation of Richard Nixon from the presidency. The issue here regards the audio tape recordings of his conversations with aides as he schemed to cover up events surrounding the Watergate break-in.

Nixon fought the subpoenas [for audio recordings] on the grounds of executive privilege. On July 24, 1974, in U.S. v. Nixon, the Supreme Court sided unanimously with the prosecutor, saying that executive privilege “must be considered in light of our historic commitment to the rule of law. This is nowhere more profoundly manifest than in our view that ‘the twofold aim (of criminal justice) is that guilt shall not escape or innocence suffer.’… The very integrity of the judicial system and public confidence in the system depend on full disclosure of all the facts….”

That’s a breathtaking unanimous statement from the Supreme Court that clearly supports “our historic commitment to the rule of law.” They were nine justices marching in lock step to protect the rule of law and “The very integrity of the judicial system and public confidence in the system .  .  .” Stunning. And proper.

Compare that to today’s presidential immunity decision. Six Republican appointed justices decided that one man is above the law, that we no longer have a “commitment to the rule of law.” Six justices declared that they care not a whit about “The very integrity of the judicial system.” They did this with no substantiation from the Constitution or settled law. These activist, Republican appointed justices simply made up new law.

Recall that Section 1 of the Constitution instructs that, “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States . . . ” Today’s six justices of the Court usurped that legislative power and ended 248 years of our belief and practice that nobody is above the law.

Recall that President Washington stepped down, in part because he would not be a king, which were anathema to We The People. They still should be. Read his Farewell Address.

Washington said of political parties,

“…they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government…”

Do any names come to mind?

The granting of immunity to a president is a most perilous step toward our being dominated by a dictator, as Washington warned. Following the dictates of their extremist Republican overlords, the six justices on this Supreme Court have invited into our republic the first fascist dictator who promises to end our republic.

That is driving the “Republicans for Kamala” movement.

That is why people who had never before voted for a Democrat are lining up to do that formerly unthinkable act.

That is why people who had believed that this is a center-right country are attending “restore Roe” demonstrations, declaring they won’t go back and demanding a referendum in their states to make abortions legal.

That is why people are signing petitions for gun safety.

That is why President Biden and Senate Majority Leader Schumer proposed significant changes to the Court.

That is why we will vote to reject overwhelmingly every candidate who stands in opposition to our democracy.

Use the links below to make sure you’re registered to vote. Then do a search for “early voting in [name of your state]” and then vote.

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* From Paul Krugman:

. . .  my hackles rise whenever people call MAGA a populist movement. The people who will almost certainly make policy if Trump wins are as committed as ever to a right-wing economic agenda of cutting taxes on the wealthy while slashing programs that help Americans in need — including programs that help children.

In addition to being cruel, this agenda tends to be unpopular.

Ya think?

Are you registered to vote? Check it out here:
.

https://www.vote.org/am-i-registered-to-vote/

https://www.usa.gov/confirm-voter-registration

https://www.rockthevote.org/how-to-vote/am-i-registered-to-vote/

“Friends do not let friends vote for con artists.”
  • – Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), 2016.


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Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
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Straight Talk For Wednesday Morning


Reading time – 5:10  .  .  .

The win for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris was more than a citizen endorsement of the future promised by Biden; it was a repudiation of Trump’s attempt to make a toxic waste dump of our democracy, as well as a visceral rejection of his cruelty.

For four years Trump was aided and abetted by Republicans in Congress who know right from wrong, yet refused to stand up against Trump’s wrongs. They deserved to be made available for employment elsewhere, which is why a Blue Wave election was expected.

It didn’t happen.

Most of the spineless Republicans were re-elected and the Rs even picked up a bunch of seats in the House. It is left to us is to determine how that happened concurrently with the Biden win. A divided government likely will result in Biden being encumbered by four years of the champion obstructionist, the Great Hypocrite, Mitch McConnell or, at best, a 50-50 Senate split. That split would leave blue dog Democrats always a potential threat to the progress of the Biden agenda.

How did that happen?

The saying in the TV news business has long been, “If it bleeds, it leads.” In other words, whatever is sensational gets the first and the most news coverage. In the political arena, we’ve had gobs of sensationalism for decades. The problem is that when that’s what we’re shown, we tend to imagine that extremism is mainstreamism.

For example, when Newt Gingrich was going googly-eye self-righteous against Bill Clinton in the 90s it was easy to imagine that all of America was Puritanical crazy. Surely, a lot of people figured that most of us were that way, but it was mostly just Newt and his nitwits making a lot of noise through mass media megaphones. Nevertheless, it took years and an ethics investigation to get Newt to shut up. His baseless claim, though, that America is center-right continues to be believed by millions.

The Tea Party Caucus arrived in 2009. These were the right-wing extremists who seemed to magically convince themselves they were somehow akin to the courageous tea protesters in Boston in 1773. And wasn’t it an odd coincidence that these bile spewing Tea Partiers announced themselves just after a Black man became president?

They stimulated self-deluded citizens to wear tricorn hats and carry “Don’t Tread On Me” flags. These are the same people who carried signs saying, “Keep your government out of my Medicare” and “Keep Government out of Medicade.”[sic] Yes, really. Righties aren’t all that way, of course, although you couldn’t divine that from the sensationalist news.

The Tea Party spawn of the devil, the Freedom Caucus, has been and is full of self-righteous accusations, proclamations and demonizations. We hear a lot of their blather, lies and distortions for reasons similar to Gingrich’s: it’s sensational. Remember: if it bleeds, it leads. It would be easy to imagine that all Rs are as extreme as Mark Meadows and as hate-mouthed as Jim Jordan.

What about the far left?

So far I’ve picked on far right extremists, but it works the same way for extremists on the far left, and this is where this stuff intersects our recent election.

AOC and some of her pals did an excellent job of creating an extremist agenda and making a lot of noise about it. They self-promoted like champions, drafting the Green New Deal (download a copy here), a litany of extreme left ideas that they promoted with the fervor of the Spanish Inquisition: convert or die.

And that led to week after week of Democratic presidential candidates brainlessly swearing during the primaries that there should be an end to private insurance, we should have open borders and provide healthcare to all undocumented people. Taxing the rich will pay for everything and butterflies will flit among ever-blooming flowers. Okay, forget the butterflies and flowers bit. The extremist lefty stuff has garnered enormous attention from our news and opinion outlets because it’s sensational. Also, counter-productive.

Do you doubt that? Here’s highly respected opinion writer Peggy Noonan in a Wall Street Journal piece explaining why voters chose divided government:

Lots of things, but one was a year of Democratic presidential debates, in which week after week the party painted itself as deeply progressive. The candidates were down with identity politics, would ban private health insurance, were for essentially open borders. I wrote wonderingly after the first debate that the entire party seemed to have picked itself up and placed itself down outside the mainstream and apart from the center.

Clearly, Noonan is a genius because she agrees with me. So does Ira Leavitt – have a look.

I watched all the debates and cringed visibly and painfully every time the candidates swore obeisance to the far left, knowing they were alienating middle America.

This story got worse.

Following the murder of George Floyd people were and still are in the streets demanding that we “Defund the Police!” Cooler heads are doing the, “What they really mean is . . . ” dance, but however justifiably impassioned people are, the words are clear. And idiotic. And off-putting to voters in the middle.

All of that has provided the manure-fertilized feed stock needed by the radical right. For example, they said that if Biden were to win, the extremist elites will force socialism on your country, your taxes will soar, criminals will pour across our borders to harm you, bloated central government socialism will dictate your children’s future, you’ll dial 9-1-1 and nobody will answer and did I mention socialism? Wait, you’re doubting that claims like these – scare tactics – were made over and over and that they terrified moderates and convinced even some informed people to vote against the Democrats? Look it up and horrify yourself.

That stuff scared the hell out of the 6 – 18% of moderate voters who decide our elections. They are – did I mention? – moderate. They don’t like extremism or extremist ideas. If you want to drive them away, tell them you’re going to turn their world upside down. They will immediately turn to whatever or whoever is familiar, however spineless they know him/her to be, because it feels stable and safe.

Adios Blue Wave.*

Democrats almost never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

Biden won, but absent the abhorrent Trump, he would have lost in a landslide. Now he’ll have to figure out how to govern with one or two hands tied behind his back, thanks to the far left noisy stupiditude that kept the Senate from being blue.

If you’d prefer not to have four more years of Mitch McConnell’s obstructionism and hypocrisy in your news feed, make a contribution to the Democrats in the Georgia Senate run-off elections to be held on January 5. Here’s a link.

That Blue Wave had the potential to sweep over the shore and reshape the land. Then the Ds killed it with their extremism and it turned into just a little swell lapping at the shore. It didn’t have to be that way. So, Democrats, next time try not scaring the hell out of the people in the middle who will decide the election.

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*Read this to understand our national polarization.

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Ed. note: We need to spread the word so that we make a critical difference, so,

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The Fine Print:

  1. Writings quoted or linked from my posts reflect a point I want to make, at least in part. That does not mean that I endorse or agree with everything in such writings, so don’t bug me about it.
  2. Sometimes I change my opinions because I’ve learned more about an issue. So, educate me. That’s what the Comments section is for.
  3. Errors in fact, grammar, spelling and punctuation are all embarrassingly mine. Glad to have your corrections.
  4. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine.

JA


Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.

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