Friends, a day after the 2023 elections in places like Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio, Democrats are extremely chuffed -- and highly anxious. They're confident, but also cowed. What gives? Simply put, they regard the outcomes yesterday as signifying a "blowout" for Team Blue. That's largely true, in the sense that Republicans set themselves some ambitious goals, assuming the weakness of a Democratic Party hobbled by Bidenism, and failed to achieve most of them. The dastardly Dems kept control of the Governor's mansion in Kentucky, they won state constitutional protection for "abortion rights" in Ohio, and they captured control of Virginia's House of Delegates. The Dems outspent us almost everywhere that counted, they out-organized us, and they proved once again that their voters are more motivated and consistent, which certainly has not always been the case. BUT...it's not all good news for those godless pinkos. Consider the recent CNN poll below, which, in a four-way race, has Biden losing to Trump by six points!!! A loss of that magnitude in the national popular vote would be devastating in the electoral college and, in any case, it would put Trump back in the White House, and it doesn't get any more devastating than that, if you're a "progressive". As the Dionne column observes, the Dems' wins yesterday mean that the whole Democratic Party, including Biden, can temporarily breathe a sigh of relief and they can convince themselves that no major adjustments in strategy are needed. In other words, perversely, the Dems' good night in 2023 may have been the best thing that could have happened to the GOP, because it reinforces Democratic complacency and entrenches Sleepy Joe himself in his determination to see the 2024 campaign out and go mano-a-mano with Trump. So, as for me, I lament the fact we lost some winnable races, but our chances of winning the race that matters, in 2024, look better and better -- assuming we can convince conservatives to get off their duffs, that is.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/11/08/republicans-lost-election-women-00126181
https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/07/politics/cnn-poll-trump-biden-matchup/index.html
In other news, the House has censured Rep. Rashida Tlaib for comments that have been interpreted as anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic. Personally, I can see why some are upset, but, where ambiguity exists in the meaning of political rhetoric, I would say the better course of action is to let the fur fly and ask the voters to sort it out later. Censure is a reasonably meaningless penalty anyway, especially in this day and age, when everyone feels aggrieved and no one ever acknowledges fault, but in addition we have a tendency to read extreme prejudice and/or calls for "violence" into the most innocuous, or at least ambiguous, speech. If Rep. Tlaib directly calls for violence against civilians, or genocide, then have at her, but as long as her remarks are open to interpretation, then I say move on and fight her offensive words with constructive arguments about why she's wrong. If we're not careful, we'll be considering censure motions all the time, since we do so love to be censorious, but what would be the point?
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rashida-tlaib-censure-vote-rich-mccormick-marjorie-taylor-greene/
Dr. Waddy from Jack: I think I read that DJT bested Biden by 25 pts in Kentucky in 2020. So perhaps Kentucky's counterintuitive reelection of a dem gov. may not bode ill for 2024; its unlikely that Kentuckians' Presidential vote would change that much (?). Well , the demise of Roe vWade freed those states in which abortion is anathema from the detestable burden that case put upon them: it also endorsed what happened in Ohio. God help the unborn. Virginia: I expect the customary impeachment proceedings for insolent dissent , against Gov. Youngkin, will commence with dispatch when this legislature sits. Its a sorry thing to watch the possible "fundamental transformation" of a still red state to blue by "progressive" interlopers. I'll bet W. Virginians are glad they clove to the Union back then.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack:: Your argument against the censuring of Tlaib changed my mind. I suppose that since it was formally proposed I would have voted for it so as to avoid any perception of support for her. But perhaps best it should not have been pursued; better to confront her screed with overwhelming creditable criticism and her with informal scorn.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: I mean no knock on Marjorie Taylor Greene, whose censure motion on Tlaib was voted down. I like her; she's the kind of hombre we need to get right in the snooty dem face.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: You've made me feel alot better about the election results. I heard some interesting commentary on the radio to the effect that Biden would step down just before the convention and the nomination would be summarily handed to Mrs. Obama.This would be planned well beforehand.The assumption would be that Mrs. Obama would surely beat Trump. Apparently Newsom may be increasingly viewed as too far left and far too enthusiastic about welcoming illegals.Hillary could be a wild card, I'd still venture to say.In the same commentary it was asserted that RFK Jr. has surprising appeal to those on the right. That would suggest him as a liability for Trump. The solution proposed:Trump/RFK Jr! Odd's fish!Also discussed was a report that Joe Manchin will not run again and that he would probably be replaced by a GOP Senator.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: In the Politico article, a Sarah Longwell calls DJT and Maga "authoritarian". She says a coalition of moderate "democrat"CANDIDATES and republicans who cannot abide DJT must save us. Well there's a pusillanimous rino manifesto for you. DJT has shown America that it need not settle for those timid things and their shameful compromise with incipient totalitarians.My neighbor's ringing endorsement of DJT says how: "he says what I want to say!" The cat is out of the bag; more and more Americans are coming to the appalling realization of just what the far left captured dems intend for our country. The Sarah Longwells, Mitt Romneys and Paul Ryan s bid us be " reasonable". You cannot reason with a very powerful faction which is unrelentingly determined to destroy our civilization and take from you all you cherish. They must confronted in all settings and defeated, immoderately! Even if DJT and Maga were authoritarian (which they are not) far better that than the far left totalitarianism which presents a credible, possible, appalling threat of capturing our America itself.
ReplyDeleteYes, losing Kentucky in 2023 (only at the gubernatorial level, mind you) doesn't mean losing it ever again, and certainly not in 2024. What we did learn in the recent elections, however, is that Dem enthusiasm remains high, and this is disappointing.
ReplyDeleteBoy, I changed your mind? I'm honored...and humbled. Anyway, here's another reason not to censure anyone: as Adam Schiff may soon prove, it's more of a resume-builder than a reproach.
Jack, a backroom deal to ease Biden out and someone else in cannot be ruled out. The Dems would want all their ducks in a row. They would love to have Michelle, if she will have them, but there's little sign that she will, and besides it would be a risk to nominate someone who's never campaigned for anything before. The problem with a deal like the one you're suggesting is that it assumes that the deal-making can all be kept secret until the last moment, which I sincerely doubt.
Jack, there's nothing I would like more than to believe that "more and more Americans are coming to the appalling realization of just what the far left captured dems intend for our country". And yet I don't. Why would you say that? What signs of epiphany do you detect? The Dems' Cheshire Cat-like grin in the wake of the 2023 elections doesn't suggest that they perceive any diminution in their appeal. I think there is plenty of evidence that Biden may be unviable, but the Dems? They seem to be doing just fine.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: I wouldn't call it an epiphany because its been agonizingly gradual. But here are reasons for saying what I did: the rise to dominance among those of traditional American values of Maga and the near complete discreditation of of rinoism. In 2012 we saw the nomination of the definitive rino, apologetic Mitt. He wouldn't have a chance now since DJT proved that we need not accomodate -out of well intended but futile and utterly unrequited expectation of good will from the disdainful, deadly seriantiamerican left - those who bear our America only withering contempt. DJT has been our man ever since and its a monumental change.Not only has it redeemed many who despaired of any determined opposition to the incipient totalitarians but it has introduced many more to the reality we actually face a true and present threat to all we value. Together they form a solid core of support for DJT , made even more determined by outrage at the execrable injustices being done him ( and by extension America) around which a winning margin can be built if. . .
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: . . . if we realize that for ALL of us, whose lives would be irredemably changed for the worst, that NOW, not later, is the time for resolution, at least to vote, for the luvva. Their recent relative successes have, as always, made the antiamerican left dominaGreeted dems think they are on the cusp of final triumph. They tolerate the intolerable by openly accrediting people like the squad, Van Jones and Al Sharpton. Their rhetoric is ever more openly and and casually reflective of their totalitarian goals ( eg. their relentless calls for submission to extreme radical AOC's frantic,unsupported, wrongheaded "Green New Deal". Within the last month
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: . . . unmistakeable evidence of their countenance and even agreement with the vicious antisemites who have long been in their midst,has risen in force and its costing them much support among those who heretofore may have thought them at least a better choice. Americans who are understandably busy leading positive and constructive lives must reconcile to the onerous fact that a very powerful, potentially dominant faction determined to make of us their subjects bustles in our very country!The overconfident dems are apparently unafraid to have us know this
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: . . . so confident are they in their irrefutable prescience, justice and inevitability.
ReplyDeleteSorry, this thing keeps prematurely publishing my comments,as if it has a mind of its own(?)
ReplyDeleteNo worries, Jack. I got the gist! I think I see your point: in recent years we've gone from maybe 20% of the nation realizing the peril we're in to perhaps 35% being in the know. The explosive growth of "ultra-MAGA extremism" is a testament to the transformation you cite. And that IS progress, of a sort. What it hasn't done, so far, is pierce the ability of the Dems to attract slender but still triumphant majority coalitions of voters in a great many elections that counted, and still count, in determining the future of the country. Plus, the argument you cite for the gradual enlightenment of America could be cited, in equal measure (but with reverse polarity) on the Left: a higher percentage of left-leaning America has also been, uhh, alerted to the existential danger that we right-wing crazies pose. Is this "progress"? It hardly seems it. We ARE more polarized than ever, arguably, but I see no evidence that, collectively, we're any wiser.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Bruce Catton, in his history of the late 1850s and early '60s , The Coming Fury, describes how attempts at conciliation gave way to all encompassing emotion on both sides. The antiamerican left has long been suffused with it. Any effort to reason with it is futile; it must be politically overpowered !
ReplyDeleteThat would be swell, but can it be done? Winning one election in a row has eluded us. How could we win two, or three, or four, which is surely what it would take.
ReplyDelete