- Jun 6, 2007
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About the election two things have struck me as deserving commentary on the first is the take on the election by people like Jenice Armstrong and secondly, in regard to the post-mortem analysis on the election what views are accurate actually the issues are intertwined in any event these are my comments. Jenice Armstrong is an African-American staff journalist for "The Philadelphia Inquirer" and she wrote an article this past thursday titled "Here's the deal: We're not better than this" I think it is worthy to comment on this article because I think a lot of people especially Black Americans think she is spot on about the election and I want to respectfully submit that her take on the election is wrong her conclusions about the American People is wrong. What Jenice's contention is in the article is that you know how Joe Biden repeatedly said during the campaign that "this is not who we are as a people" referring to public acquiescence and not wholesale condemnation of our current President that says and does things beyond the pale things like in regards to a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville VA "there is good people on both sides" or in his public debate against four Democrat Congresswoman "If you don't like what is going on in America go back to the country's where you're from" or during a Presidential debate in speaking about the white supremacist group "The Proud Boys" they should "stand back and stand by" that Mr. Biden's positive view on the character of the American people, that the American people reject this hate, is misplaced because so many people voted for President Trump in the current election and how could so many people vote for a candidate like Mr. Trump with such stand-out alarming character if they did not to a significant degree support such patently offensive behavior.
The accurate take on the election should not be that the record setting number of Republican presidential voters by voting for President Trump indicate that they approve of his terrible behavior or his job performance on the major public policy issues confronting the nation, I think many of these voters were just voting against the potential alternative to a Trump Presidency. This assessment is based on the following reasons. People are rational and people are practical, in how many elections do the analyst conclude that the economic issues played a major role in the outcome so even if you start from the premise that the Trump supporter is okay with Trump's racial and religious bigotry, his misogyny, his narcissism, etc. it doesn't change that voters are going to vote on practical considerations. In Trump's case this means that prior to Donald Trump becoming President his promise was that he was going to bring the Executive acumen of a successful real estate and business mogul to the White House and solve America's problems he was going to reverse the demise and permanently protect American manufacturing, he was going to replace the ACA with a better health care system, he was going to get America out of its endless combat engagements and numerous other promises. Let's see how President Trump did on these issues; on trade the five hundred pound gorilla in the room is China our trade deficit with them is like $300 billion dollars per year needless to say wages enough for a heck of a lot of middle class manufacturing jobs so how's Trump doing it the China trade conflict at best he is in a quagmire the U.S. and China retaliatory tariff's are hurting a lot of U.S. manufacturers he has no strategic vision how to permanently solve this problem for America, how did Trump do on the ACA issue he had no and has no good plan on an ACA replacement not that there even could be, the Republican House and Senate "partial repeal and replace" bill's Trump supported early in his administration would have given the state's the power to gut vital protections of the ACA and Trump's now in the Supreme Court trying to repeal the ACA with no good replacement offered and in regards to the war issue America is still in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria with no end in sight an ending requires diplomatic solutions which requires leading international coalitions and Trump is the worst President in modern times at building and utilizing relationships with foreign countries his capacity to alienate and offend foreign countries is at extreme levels. By any responsible analysis Trump's job performance evaluation by his 2016 voters should be a very bad grade his voters should have stayed home not come out in large numbers common sense indicates that something else is going on with the Trump voters and basic logic is that they are voting against Democrat control in Washington.
Another major reason to conclude that the Trump voter was not voting that they like his character atrocious behavior in voting for him rather other reasons were at play is how the Senate races turned out in South Carolina and Maine. In South Carolina the Republican Senate candidate, Lindsey Graham, won by over ten percent of the vote he got 1.368 million votes about sixteen thousand less than Trump got in the 2020 election. Lindsey by the polls was predicted to lose and with good reason he is a political buffoon he is a real embarrassment as a Senator he wasn't always like this when he started his career he was a sensible strong Senator but his time in Washington deteriorated his intellect and character; to list all of Lindsey's mistakes as a Senator would number so high that listing them all would cause one to get sick to their stomach. Two of late that stood out to me was during the confirmation hearings for Justice Amy Barrett Lindsey referenced his belief in "the good olde days of segregation" (what was good about patent racism?) and he also said something like this during these hearings he said it will be good to get Judge Barrett confirmed to the Supreme Court because she will bring some "Republican Goal [I forget the exact reference]" change to U.S. Law what a disgrace to make such a comment you are chairman of the Judiciary Committee you play a vital role in filling this seat on the Supreme Court which is the final arbiter of U.S. law you say things like it will be good to see the Judge confirmed to the Court for she will follow the Constitution or she will not be an activist Judge. Not only was Lindsey a truly terrible candidate for re-election but his Democrat opponent was a really good candidate, Jaime Harrison is astute and very sensible, he would have made a great Senator; clearly clearly clearly South Carolina voters were saying they are terrified that the Democrats will take the reins of power in Washington. In regards to the Maine Senate race where Susan Collins the Republican candidate won by almost nine percent doesn't make any sense Collins was a very weak candidate. Mainers pride themselves for having independent representatives meaning sensible, measured and strong representives Maine's other Senator is Angus King and their prior Senator was Olympia Snowe both of whom embody these virtuous qualities in abundance. Susan Collins is "all show know substance" she will fold like a "cheap umbrella on a real windy day". She epically failed America and Maine in providing a key vote in passing the Trump tax cuts which blew-up the last remaining hope of ever getting America's budget deficit under control the problem is now beyond the reach of a grand bargain and will one day put America in a permanent state of hyper-inflation; she failed America and Maine by providing the vital vote to put Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, Mr. Kavanaugh was a scandalous "reprehensible beyond words" candidate for the Supreme Court although he voted ninety-five percent of the time with the majority as an appellate Judge on key cases where there was a pronounced right wing legal issue it looked like he was using the opinions to apply for a Supreme Court Seat in any event he was not only an activist jurist but a partisan one which would have been evident to any Senator fairly reviewing Judge Kavanaugh's legal opinions. It is clear that Mainers that voted for Susan Collins this election had an alternative motive to stop Democrats from taking power in Washington and ruining America because her record made an extremely compelling case for Susan Collins to be fired as a Senator!
Another reason why I don't think a large portion of the Trump voters was voting for Trump but rather against Democrats gaining power for fear of their abuse of this is "listening carefully" to the American people. During this Pandemic metaphorically Democrats were waving the banner follow the science shut down communities if that is what the science called for. Such talk although responsible was not, not, not prudent it did not give appropriate weight to the hardship people are, did and would be suffering under a shut down. It cannot be underestimated the human suffering caused by these pandemic shutdowns and partial shutdowns. One would often hear business owners proclaim I just cannot make it with the restrictions of the partial shut down. There was a lot of little signs of the problem of partial shut downs I am from Pennsylvania and the state made onerous pandemic restrictions on high school sports activities and one might be inclined to dismiss these concerns as unimportant in the grand scheme of what is occurring throughout the world but to many ordinary people high school sports are important threads in the fabric of their community! Democrats made no error in calling for adherence to a mandate to wear face masks to stop the spread of a fatal virus spread thru respiratory droplets and raising the roof about the insufficiency of testing capacity for Covid 19 throughout America but the Democrats made a glacier size mistake with their rallying cry "we will let the science dictate "shut downs""!
On the post-mortem about these elections the view that Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, especially Senator Schumer, made a humongous epic mistake in not tamping down the far-left or progressive goals of the Democrat Party. In America's elections the public often hears the phrase will there be an "October surprise" that will change the outcome of the election, well in 2020 there was an "October surprise" Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Schumer had the Democrat Party commit political suicide in October over the Barrett Supreme Court confirmation, specifically these leaders threats that everything is on the table; that expanding and stacking the Supreme Court, that doing away with the sixty vote threshold to stop a Senate filibuster for bills moving forward, that making Puerto Rico and the small territory of Washington D.C. each a state, etc.. The truth of the matter is that before these leaders threatened to use Congress as a magic wand and turn America into a liberal and socialist country the Democrat Party was poised to have a blue wave this year and what did Nancy and Chuck do they gave the Republican and unlimited size work crew to build a jetty to mute the effect of the blue wave. It wasn't like you couldn't see the negative fallout of the Democrat threat coming, right wing talk radio and right wing leaders in the media were scaring the beJesus out of people over these threats. They were saying things like when the Democrats get control of Congress and the White House they will stack the Supreme Court and then the Court will take away your second amendment right to own a gun and your right to free speech, they will make Puerto Rica and DC states and the Democrat Senators and House members from those states will permanently cement Democrats hold on Congress, socialism is coming, the end of private health insurance is coming and so on and so forth! Joe Biden could not have put a stop to this threat of a Progressive America he was too high up in the Party his condemnation would have divided the Party and would have suppressed election turn out Schumer and Pelosi could have quietly tabled these progressive wish list ideas pointing out they are not sensible and are too divisive. A good and accurate assessment would be that if these Democrat leaders did not make these threats and thereby give the Republican Party the best turn out the vote effort one could hope for the Democrats would have also won the Senate and that would have given America a vital vital tool to stop the existential threat the country is facing. The gap between the wealthy and non-wealthy in America is huge and is unsustainable and poses an existential threat to America. If the Democrats had won the Senate the only thing that the Democrats would have had to do was through the reconciliation budget process is repeal the Trump Tax cuts on the wealthy and moderately roll back the Trump tax cuts on U.S. Corporations and direct the additional revenue to helping middle America in ways like shoring up the ACA by partially backstopping the insurance industry's huge price tag for covering enrollees with significant pre-existing conditions, and increase the child care tax credit and help kids pay for college, etc. and the Democrats would have had a successful run governing America and they would have pulled America back from this existential threat. I hope you Chuck and Nancy really enjoyed being rock stars in the Democrat Party for the last two months over your threats to the Republicans because it was incredibly costly to America what you did!
The accurate take on the election should not be that the record setting number of Republican presidential voters by voting for President Trump indicate that they approve of his terrible behavior or his job performance on the major public policy issues confronting the nation, I think many of these voters were just voting against the potential alternative to a Trump Presidency. This assessment is based on the following reasons. People are rational and people are practical, in how many elections do the analyst conclude that the economic issues played a major role in the outcome so even if you start from the premise that the Trump supporter is okay with Trump's racial and religious bigotry, his misogyny, his narcissism, etc. it doesn't change that voters are going to vote on practical considerations. In Trump's case this means that prior to Donald Trump becoming President his promise was that he was going to bring the Executive acumen of a successful real estate and business mogul to the White House and solve America's problems he was going to reverse the demise and permanently protect American manufacturing, he was going to replace the ACA with a better health care system, he was going to get America out of its endless combat engagements and numerous other promises. Let's see how President Trump did on these issues; on trade the five hundred pound gorilla in the room is China our trade deficit with them is like $300 billion dollars per year needless to say wages enough for a heck of a lot of middle class manufacturing jobs so how's Trump doing it the China trade conflict at best he is in a quagmire the U.S. and China retaliatory tariff's are hurting a lot of U.S. manufacturers he has no strategic vision how to permanently solve this problem for America, how did Trump do on the ACA issue he had no and has no good plan on an ACA replacement not that there even could be, the Republican House and Senate "partial repeal and replace" bill's Trump supported early in his administration would have given the state's the power to gut vital protections of the ACA and Trump's now in the Supreme Court trying to repeal the ACA with no good replacement offered and in regards to the war issue America is still in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria with no end in sight an ending requires diplomatic solutions which requires leading international coalitions and Trump is the worst President in modern times at building and utilizing relationships with foreign countries his capacity to alienate and offend foreign countries is at extreme levels. By any responsible analysis Trump's job performance evaluation by his 2016 voters should be a very bad grade his voters should have stayed home not come out in large numbers common sense indicates that something else is going on with the Trump voters and basic logic is that they are voting against Democrat control in Washington.
Another major reason to conclude that the Trump voter was not voting that they like his character atrocious behavior in voting for him rather other reasons were at play is how the Senate races turned out in South Carolina and Maine. In South Carolina the Republican Senate candidate, Lindsey Graham, won by over ten percent of the vote he got 1.368 million votes about sixteen thousand less than Trump got in the 2020 election. Lindsey by the polls was predicted to lose and with good reason he is a political buffoon he is a real embarrassment as a Senator he wasn't always like this when he started his career he was a sensible strong Senator but his time in Washington deteriorated his intellect and character; to list all of Lindsey's mistakes as a Senator would number so high that listing them all would cause one to get sick to their stomach. Two of late that stood out to me was during the confirmation hearings for Justice Amy Barrett Lindsey referenced his belief in "the good olde days of segregation" (what was good about patent racism?) and he also said something like this during these hearings he said it will be good to get Judge Barrett confirmed to the Supreme Court because she will bring some "Republican Goal [I forget the exact reference]" change to U.S. Law what a disgrace to make such a comment you are chairman of the Judiciary Committee you play a vital role in filling this seat on the Supreme Court which is the final arbiter of U.S. law you say things like it will be good to see the Judge confirmed to the Court for she will follow the Constitution or she will not be an activist Judge. Not only was Lindsey a truly terrible candidate for re-election but his Democrat opponent was a really good candidate, Jaime Harrison is astute and very sensible, he would have made a great Senator; clearly clearly clearly South Carolina voters were saying they are terrified that the Democrats will take the reins of power in Washington. In regards to the Maine Senate race where Susan Collins the Republican candidate won by almost nine percent doesn't make any sense Collins was a very weak candidate. Mainers pride themselves for having independent representatives meaning sensible, measured and strong representives Maine's other Senator is Angus King and their prior Senator was Olympia Snowe both of whom embody these virtuous qualities in abundance. Susan Collins is "all show know substance" she will fold like a "cheap umbrella on a real windy day". She epically failed America and Maine in providing a key vote in passing the Trump tax cuts which blew-up the last remaining hope of ever getting America's budget deficit under control the problem is now beyond the reach of a grand bargain and will one day put America in a permanent state of hyper-inflation; she failed America and Maine by providing the vital vote to put Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, Mr. Kavanaugh was a scandalous "reprehensible beyond words" candidate for the Supreme Court although he voted ninety-five percent of the time with the majority as an appellate Judge on key cases where there was a pronounced right wing legal issue it looked like he was using the opinions to apply for a Supreme Court Seat in any event he was not only an activist jurist but a partisan one which would have been evident to any Senator fairly reviewing Judge Kavanaugh's legal opinions. It is clear that Mainers that voted for Susan Collins this election had an alternative motive to stop Democrats from taking power in Washington and ruining America because her record made an extremely compelling case for Susan Collins to be fired as a Senator!
Another reason why I don't think a large portion of the Trump voters was voting for Trump but rather against Democrats gaining power for fear of their abuse of this is "listening carefully" to the American people. During this Pandemic metaphorically Democrats were waving the banner follow the science shut down communities if that is what the science called for. Such talk although responsible was not, not, not prudent it did not give appropriate weight to the hardship people are, did and would be suffering under a shut down. It cannot be underestimated the human suffering caused by these pandemic shutdowns and partial shutdowns. One would often hear business owners proclaim I just cannot make it with the restrictions of the partial shut down. There was a lot of little signs of the problem of partial shut downs I am from Pennsylvania and the state made onerous pandemic restrictions on high school sports activities and one might be inclined to dismiss these concerns as unimportant in the grand scheme of what is occurring throughout the world but to many ordinary people high school sports are important threads in the fabric of their community! Democrats made no error in calling for adherence to a mandate to wear face masks to stop the spread of a fatal virus spread thru respiratory droplets and raising the roof about the insufficiency of testing capacity for Covid 19 throughout America but the Democrats made a glacier size mistake with their rallying cry "we will let the science dictate "shut downs""!
On the post-mortem about these elections the view that Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, especially Senator Schumer, made a humongous epic mistake in not tamping down the far-left or progressive goals of the Democrat Party. In America's elections the public often hears the phrase will there be an "October surprise" that will change the outcome of the election, well in 2020 there was an "October surprise" Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Schumer had the Democrat Party commit political suicide in October over the Barrett Supreme Court confirmation, specifically these leaders threats that everything is on the table; that expanding and stacking the Supreme Court, that doing away with the sixty vote threshold to stop a Senate filibuster for bills moving forward, that making Puerto Rico and the small territory of Washington D.C. each a state, etc.. The truth of the matter is that before these leaders threatened to use Congress as a magic wand and turn America into a liberal and socialist country the Democrat Party was poised to have a blue wave this year and what did Nancy and Chuck do they gave the Republican and unlimited size work crew to build a jetty to mute the effect of the blue wave. It wasn't like you couldn't see the negative fallout of the Democrat threat coming, right wing talk radio and right wing leaders in the media were scaring the beJesus out of people over these threats. They were saying things like when the Democrats get control of Congress and the White House they will stack the Supreme Court and then the Court will take away your second amendment right to own a gun and your right to free speech, they will make Puerto Rica and DC states and the Democrat Senators and House members from those states will permanently cement Democrats hold on Congress, socialism is coming, the end of private health insurance is coming and so on and so forth! Joe Biden could not have put a stop to this threat of a Progressive America he was too high up in the Party his condemnation would have divided the Party and would have suppressed election turn out Schumer and Pelosi could have quietly tabled these progressive wish list ideas pointing out they are not sensible and are too divisive. A good and accurate assessment would be that if these Democrat leaders did not make these threats and thereby give the Republican Party the best turn out the vote effort one could hope for the Democrats would have also won the Senate and that would have given America a vital vital tool to stop the existential threat the country is facing. The gap between the wealthy and non-wealthy in America is huge and is unsustainable and poses an existential threat to America. If the Democrats had won the Senate the only thing that the Democrats would have had to do was through the reconciliation budget process is repeal the Trump Tax cuts on the wealthy and moderately roll back the Trump tax cuts on U.S. Corporations and direct the additional revenue to helping middle America in ways like shoring up the ACA by partially backstopping the insurance industry's huge price tag for covering enrollees with significant pre-existing conditions, and increase the child care tax credit and help kids pay for college, etc. and the Democrats would have had a successful run governing America and they would have pulled America back from this existential threat. I hope you Chuck and Nancy really enjoyed being rock stars in the Democrat Party for the last two months over your threats to the Republicans because it was incredibly costly to America what you did!
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