Friends, there's lots of election-related news today! For one thing, the New York Times is clutching its pearls because a number of polls, including its own, are showing that young voters are drifting Trumpward. That's big, big news, because in 2020 and 2022 Republicans lost by wide margins with voters under 30. Does Trump need to win over Gen Z to reassume the presidency? Heck, no! He only needs to narrow his margins of defeat. It looks like that's very achievable. This article speculates that the reason for youngsters' disdain for Joe Biden could be the Israel-Hamas war, and Gen Z's sympathies for the Palestinians. I seriously doubt that, mainly because I don't think Middle Eastern affairs is a top-tier issue in this country (and, if it is now, it won't be if you wait five seconds).
Politico, no friend of Donald Trump, is speculating that, even if DJT is convicted in one or more of his numerous election year trials, it might not significantly change his electoral fortunes. No kidding! Nothing that's happened in the last eight years has significantly changed the American people's views on Trump, if we're to be entirely honest with one another. Either you love him, or you hate him, and "unfolding developments" have little to do with it.
Will private funding of election offices and get-out-the-vote efforts turn the tide in 2024, as they almost certainly did in 2020? That's doubtful, because many states have criminalized what Mark Zuckerberg and his cronies did to help Joe Biden win, i.e. hand out "grants", extremely selectively, to boost turnout in blue areas. This doesn't mean the danger of election outsourcing has entirely been eliminated, however.
https://thespectator.com/topic/zucked-up-private-election-fundings-new-form/
And the Wall Street Journal is asking an obvious question: if many voters don't want Trump or Biden in 2024, then shouldn't this be a banner year for third party candidates...like RFK, Jr.? It could be, but it's still unlikely he can do anything other than play the role of spoiler.
Leaving the 2024 aside, here's a pretty fair analysis of our fiscal predicament that comes from a leftist media platform -- color me shocked! I agree with most of the assumptions here, including the key one: we will hit a fiscal wall someday, but no one really knows when...
https://www.vox.com/money/2023/12/18/24001984/us-budget-deficit-2023-debt-tax-revenue-interest-rates
Finally, here's an article that, while it paints with a broad brush, still makes a very profound point: U.S. power, measured according to objective economic, political, or military factors, has been declining for a long time. Presumably, it will continue to do so. At the same time, our cultural influence is probably at an all-time high. This is especially true if one is considering global popular culture. Do we benefit from the fact that the whole world is watching our shows, and wearing our clothes, and listening to our (i.e. Taylor Swift's) music? You bet we do! There's money to be made from these cultural exports, and we get the enjoyment of watching decadence infect our rivals almost as severely as it infects us... On the other hand, the culture that we're exporting is almost uniformly garbage, and both we and our customers know it. Ergo, this cultural dominance could be short-lived, and there's certainly no guarantee that it will breed respect for America, as a country, and a great danger that it could instill contempt instead.
RAY TO DR. WADDY AND JACK
ReplyDeleteI see where Colorado has removed Trump from their ballot. Now its decision has to go to the U.S. Supreme Court. I understand that taking Trump off the California ballot has also been discussed/proposed in that state. What's your take on this?
Ray andDr.Waddy from Jack: Of course it is utterly political. That portion of the 14th Amendment which disqualifies insurrectionists has been rendered moot by the obvious dearth of Confederate veterans these days. Even the plaintiffs and majority "justices" know this and they know everyone else knows it.They are flinging it to see if anything sticks anywhere . I am confident Scotus will scald them for it.
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy andRay from Jack How very terrified those sniveling brats on the antiamerican left are, of DJT. And they should be; he's a bareknuckle player too; he knows them for what they are and they know he knows. And they have bred in him a deep, deep anger with their vicious, personal, lawless onslaught on him and his family let alone their fanatic determination to make America a "manor" of marxist serfs.
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: Its hard to speculate that because of Oct 7 and Israel's insistence on defending itself, so many among the young have made the long and counterintuitive leap from dem loyalty to support for DJT. More likely, I think is a general disgust with Biden's overall fecklessness together with a desire to abandon a foundering ship.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: I would suggest that the ever developing story of the legal onslaught on DJT and his unendurable candidacy may be gaining him politically significant sympathy from people previously disinclined to support him. The reprehensible "decision" in Colorado is making alot of news, not that I would expect any Trump haters to consequently relent. Coincidentally, at a time when the Ivy League's reputation has been as much sullied as to have perhaps gained the attention of some who have heretofore cared nothing for it, it turns out that at least three of the majority judges are Ivy League schooled and the minority justices not so. So DJT's campaign would do well to build on the perception of the dems as dominated by an elite which disdains everyday common sense America. The chances are good that Scotus will discredit this decision for its cynical and contemptuous misuse of Constitutional law along with finding it legally insupportable.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy fromJack: I lived four months in Singapore, albeit 50 years ago. They simply said NO! to American cultural disgraces like coddling of criminals and toleration of drug soaked lifestyles and that entertainment which celebrates that degradation. I don't think they 've gotten woke since then.Coincidentally, I'm sure, their city manifested safety and orderliness seemingly counterintuitive in American cities Just sayin' . . . .
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Recently we discussed at this site pros and cons of the GOP and the Maga which dominates it "playing dirty" in response to the antiamerican left's characteristic, reflexive use of questionable tactics.Today I read about the House initiating an investigation into surely scholarly Harvard President Gay's increasingly apparent unscholarly conduct. Why is this the business of Congress? But, de nada!Its just what the antiamerican left would do with reflexive abandon were the roles reversed. So have at it I say, even though it is unprincipled; give 'em a taste of their own presumptuousness!
ReplyDeleteHi Ray. I imagine my separate post on the Colorado decision probably answered your question. I think it's complete hogwash -- and hopefully will be quickly quashed by SCOTUS and may even put wind in Trump's sails. The question is, and always has been, how far are the lefties prepared to go to stop DJT, Part Deux?
ReplyDeleteYes, Jack, I would tend to regard the migration of the young from the Biden camp to the Trump imperium as a sign of their disgust with the status quo and "old man Biden". Fundamentally, their views are not aligned with Trump's, and I hope therefore that many of them drift into the RFK, Jr., Stein, and West camps, which would suit our purposes just fine.
Jack, certainly the Dems are (constantly) undercutting their own claims to be the defenders of "democracy". The last thing they appear to want is for the American people to have genuine input into how they are governed. RATIFY THE EXPERTS, YOU SNIVELING PEASANTS! That's the message they're getting.
Jack, I'm sure you're right about Singapore...but then again I bet American cultural "degeneracy" is everywhere there. Our "progressive" cultural attitudes may even have found some purchase there.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/30/singapore-lifts-gay-sex-ban-but-blocks-path-toward-marriage-equality
Taking down Harvard's president would be a wonderful victory over wokeism, yes, but I'm not sure a Congressional inquisition against plagiarism will go very far. Harvard has many, many other chinks in its armor, mind you.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Singapore attracts alot of tourists from western cultures such as that of Australia. So they probably grudgingly tolerate some of what they see as vices. But they remember what a degenerate hellhole the laissez faire Brits allowed there and probably patronized too. Anyone manifesting any traits they held to be even suggestive of drug use was ostracized. The customs officer at the airport "suggested" that I get a haircut. Drug users were subjected to truly draconian incarceration; drug dealers were sometimes hanged.I think American pop entertainment is enjoyed but much as we used to sneak into those disreputable tents at sweltering county fairs . I sympathise with those cultures which fear the corrosive influence of our often overwrought and debauched performers.
ReplyDeleteJack, I was intrigued to read of Singapore's still draconian laws on drug trafficking.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misuse_of_Drugs_Act_(Singapore)
Let me be the first to recommend that you get hair extensions. I doubt it would make you look better, but it would certainly be good for a laugh!
Dr. Waddy from Jack: I do not intend to return there, mainly because of its cloyingly sultry climate.But they are a good people; they have decided not to countenance social dysfunction over which we but wring our hands. And they have much of value to show for it.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: I determined to grow my hair and beard after leaving the austere Navy. But I was able only to generate a noisome bramble patch. Perhaps that customsofficer was only expressing aesthetic concern.
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