Friends, difficult though I find it to root against any political candidate with the last name "Nixon", I think it's safe to say that Cynthia Nixon would have made a dreadful governor, and thus we can be glad that she was defeated by Andrew Cuomo in yesterday's Democratic primary. We shouldn't be surprised, though, because Cuomo had a massive lead throughout the contest, and Nixon's brand of uncompromising kookiness, while it may appeal to the white granola crowd, doesn't cut it with typical Democratic primary voters, who tend to be working class people of color and not rarefied limousine liberals. Nixon, of course, never was running for Governor of New York. She was running for attention, and to annoy Andrew Cuomo. She accomplished both objectives. Well played! The other big news is that the Super Kook, Zephyr Teachout, did not prevail in the Democratic primary for Attorney General. Again I say: thank heavens!
For me, the other big takeaway from the election in NY is this: my instincts told me that Nixon would lose, but that she would outperform many of the polls that had her getting the support of 20-25% of voters. I guessed she would win a third of the vote, and she did just that. My insights are vindicated! That's good news, because my instincts also tell me that the polls that indicate that Democrats are leading by ten points or more in the race for control of Congress are pure drivel. My guess is that that Democrats may narrowly win the national vote for the House of Representatives, but they may still fall short of capturing control, nonetheless. This has happened before, and recently too, in 2012. My instincts also tell me that Republicans can and will hold on to most of their gains in state legislatures and governorships, and, most importantly, the Republican majority in the Senate will actually grow. Mark my words: the "blue wave" will disappoint. You heard it here first!
Dr. Waddy: Did you see that another "Democratic Socialist" ("Vegetarian Wolf" makes as much sense as that cynical misrepresentation)won a primary (this time, in effect, to the NYS Senate)?. And she's a real hard case when it comes to just everyday honesty and lawfulness. The Dems are bringing their considerable amoral faction to the fore, unwisely so.
ReplyDeleteI'm very much encouraged by your well supported prediction on the midterms.
Nixon would certainly have been a far leftist nightmare had she ascended but this probable new AG is going to be very bad news too and Cuomo will continue to be, well, as he always is, should he win. We must hasten to remind the President that very many of us in this state support him but we are outnumbered in this confine. New York may be close to being the most leftist state in the union and there is little prospect of redemption. Looks like Cuomo's crew turned out. With the possible loss of the State Senate we must brace for all out dictatorship mitigated only and after much hurly burly, by a probably observant Supreme Court. For most of us, the only solution is to leave this state for the real America; its onerous, because there are so many real Americans here but our electoral disadvantage and the obvious injustice it does us, is probably irredemable as our state evolves into a totalitarian carbuncle.
Jack, your words are wise, and it's hard to refute your logic, much as I might wish to. Things could well get worse in NYS before they get better. In the good ole days states practiced their own local forms of idiocy, but now they feel entitled to weigh in on national policy as well, and to block any and all Trump administrations moves that displease them. You're right -- the Supreme Court is one of the only checks on that approach.
ReplyDeleteWe probably will lose the State Senate, but "controlling" it has been less empowering than one might think, and I doubt much will change if the Dems capture the chamber. And I suspect you're right that "the Resistance" will operate out of the NY Attorney General's office, whether we like it or not. What am I saying? It already does! The only answer is to discredit the Left and the Resistance by defeating them at the ballot box, and that will be no easy task.
I won't beat a dead horse (much), but I still maintain that the media is at the root of most of our woes. They endow the Left with credibility, which is the one thing it ought never to possess.
Dr. Waddy: I agree in that, in my opinion, the MSM is one of the critical factors in the left's harrowing strength but the leftist crusade itself in all its onerous manifestations, is, I think, the #1 threat to America.
ReplyDeleteMy son expressed an intriguing view today. He says Cuomo wanted there to be a rogue Dem faction in the state Senate for awhile so that he would not have too much far left legislation placed on his desk, establishing for him an extremist image which could have cost him the 2020 nomination. From there I've taken the view that now that he has sought an apparently successful end to the
insolent rebellion, he is showing that his Presidential hopes have at least been tempered by the dawning realization that he has no chance of national anointment. He will settle for making New York into a disdainful fortress of leftist arrogance.
You are right in that (for example) the State Senate didn't save us the "Safe Act" (and an all powerful and resigned Cuomo will no doubt push "Safe Act" squared and challenge the Supreme Court to gainsay him). We are in for it but at least its not nearly as bad as what some true unfortunates in other countries have at the hands of the destructive left. The real America can handle Andrew.
Jack, you're right -- even those of us in blue states don't have it as bad as the unfortunates in, say, Venezuela or North Korea. We can't complain overmuch, and with any luck soon Kavanaugh will be doing his best to shield us even more effectively from leftist semi-tyranny...
ReplyDeleteI find it highly doubtful that Cuomo had any hand in maintaining Republican ascendancy in the State Senate, or that he would be overly concerned with cultivating a moderate image. These days, the way you win the Presidential nomination is by appealing to the base -- a "moderate" doesn't have much of a chance, or if he did he would be wise to downplay his moderation until the final stages of the contest...
Dr. Waddy: Well, now Judge Kavanaugh's ascension may be in danger. Schumer did say "we will do whatever is necessary to stop him" and he meant it. One unexamined person's accusation vs volumes of documented testimony as to Judge Kavanaugh's integrity is enough for him; she is politically correct because she is a woman and Charles' reflexes are irresistably triggered. Why, what can that mean? As he is the spokesman for the Dems, we must consider his actions today as representative of their fond desires and guaranteed actions, especially should they prevail.
ReplyDeleteYou may well be right about Cuomo. How dyspeptic it would be for him to be perceived as to any degree cooperative with the despised real America.
At this point I see Biden getting the nomination in 2020. He would skillfully juke and dodge, ala supremely canny "Rope a Dope" Ali against so many opponents. First: "none of these new fangled socialists can win (c'mon, 'Spartacus', California Kamala and 'This land is your land' decrepit '60's veteran Bernie?). But I'll have perky Kirsten as my running mate and she grew up in the 'country' and that will fool the rubes but you know she's ok. I'll have to appear 'moderate' during the general election but the day after, I'll open the floodgates. You have to know I would; I was Barack Obama's toady after all".
Hi Jack. I just commented on your own post, so now you already know my views on the Kavanaugh confirmation process. I still give him an excellent chance of making it on the court.
ReplyDeleteAs for Biden, hmmmm. My instincts tell me that it is not going to be a promising year for an old white guy and a rather conventional politician to win the Democratic nomination, but it isn't inconceivable that Biden could be the last man standing after all the "democratic socialists" take each other out. Nothing would surprise me. Would Biden be a strong candidate? Maybe. Much of the country might mistake him for a seasoned moderate.
Dr. Waddy: My view may be unrealistically colored by having lived through '68. All of that fevered idealism as the boomers first flexed their dashedly naive political muscle. But what did they end up with? Good old Hubert. Unexpected circumstances may have determined that but if you had told all the bright young "Clean for Gene" types in March (they had no inkling of how revealing and ironic that self assumed monicker made them look), that Nixon would be the President-Elect come winter, they would have shriveled. But I hope Spartacus makes it to that post battle hill. How I loved that movie back then. I had no understanding that its script writer Dalton Trumbo, was a thoroughgoing Stalinist and that Kirk Douglas naively championed him.
ReplyDeleteDevelopments and commentary today make me optimistic too, that this good man, Kavanaugh's elevation will be approved.
You're right, Jack -- politics takes some strange detours at times. Hillary Clinton was in many ways a very counter-intuitive and tin-eared choice for the Dems to make in 2016. Maybe they'll prove equally inept in 2020. We can hope! I truly believe it will be hard for them to settle on a candidate who doesn't alienate large parts of the Democratic Party itself, let alone the country. Of course, they're lucky in their opponent, only insofar as they can count on the media focusing relentlessly on Trump's alleged faults, and whoever the Democratic candidate is will get a pass.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to see "Spartacus". I bet it's a sweeping epic!
Dr. Waddy: Being a Kubrick movie, Spartacus does have its strengths (Olivier - superb as Crassus; Douglas, one of the best of the overall silly '50's actor's cadre, Laughton and Ustinov, unfailingly competent as always and Jean Simmons, making the best of an absurd part - there is some credible drama in the film despite its many 1950's moments). But Trumbo richly deserved his blacklisting and Douglas, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, should have known better. I think some History PhD candidate could do well to investigate that movie's influence on the boomers. It might have been considerable and onerous.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy: I appreciate your comment to the effect that one or the other of the Dem factions will be disaffected by their 2020 choice. That also reminds me of '68. That so many of these "Democratic" Socialists are young is a hopeful sign. Let them collide on rocks of a reality they have only begun to comprehend and let them stew in their youthful and naive juices until long after I am gone.
ReplyDeleteYou make me want to see Spartacus even more, Jack!
ReplyDeleteYes, many of the activists on the Left are young, and you're right that that gives them plenty of time to have buyer's remorse... It depresses me, though, how successful leftist propaganda in the schools, universities, mass media, and social media has been. Too many conservatives have effectively turned their children over to liberal overseers, with baleful results.
Dr. Waddy: Its hard, I know from experience, to combat the leftist infection when you see it in your community, especially here in God's country. It can be a lonely fight. Its hard to realize that they are right at your threshold ( not for them, they've had at least four years in the American academy). But wait until your kids come home unwittingly parroting the Iraq War equivalent of Neal Young's spit on Vietnam war veterans anthem "Ohio" because a beloved teacher with an axe to grind introduced them to it. That'll get you going. And if it doesn't well. . . !
ReplyDeleteJack, that would get my goat, for sure! Sadly, I fear the majority of parents these days are not keeping their eyes on the ball -- and if they do complain about their kids' teachers, it's more apt to be an expression of entitled outrage when their precious little ones are punished for breaking the rules than it is to be a principled rejection of leftist indoctrination. Oh, today's parents are sensitive, all right, just not to anything that you or I would find important!
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy: That makes alot of sense. So many people I know here are oblivious (and I cannot blame them one bit for not paying attention to statewide or national matters)to political developments which may well bite them soon (eg. Prince Cuomo's imminent renewed assault on the 2nd Amendment). It remains then, for those of us who see the threat, to sound the tocsin and perhaps in our God's country here, the "hue and cry".
ReplyDeleteQuite right, Jack -- if not us, then who?
ReplyDelete