Speaking of why Democrats never lose.
I've more or less sworn off Twitter, and ignore most Catholic activists who frequent there. Nonetheless, I still belong to groups that do the dirty work, and every now and then something is so funny it's worth repeating. Case in point:
I can now barely fill a shopping cart halfway from where I could a year ago, and that was after almost the first year of the Covid pandemic. Beyond that, an unraveling international scene mixed with empty shelves, lack of crucial goods, and rising prices for living, I don't hear many saying things are hunky-dory. Could it be they know the facts, and it's those known facts that are driving down his poll numbers?
I have always loved how Americans are treated when they don't support Democrats. They're either evil, or they're stupid, or, most charitably, uninformed. It couldn't be because 'Ignore the bad and focus only on the good' doesn't work when most Americans are being impacted by the bad. Heaven forbid it's because most Americans are good folks who are informed and who have assessed the current situation and found liberal Democrats wanting. That doesn't seem to be near the radar, much less on it.
It's been a theory of mine that one reason Donald Trump won in 2016 was that the press circled the wagons around Hillary Clinton by trying to lift up Obama as the savior of mankind. I can still remember Fareed Zakaria giving a monologue in 2016 on how, after 10 billion years, we've finally reached the pinnacle of human history in the universe, all thanks to Obama. Really. He said because of Obama we were now at possibly the best situation that the world has ever seen.
Of course it wasn't like that in the least, and there were problems aplenty. Remember when Islamic terror attacks were now the New Normal? Heck, even Rick Steves joined in that lament. Wages were stagnant. Jobs still wavering. Economic growth anemic. Terror attacks and ISIS and a world increasingly laughing in our face. Yet the press seemed to think if it just said so, said that Utopia was around the corner because of Obama/Clinton, it would be true.
I've often thought that is why many didn't vote. They didn't vote for Trump mind you. But enough didn't vote at all because they were tired of being told their suffering didn't count, because it might make the wrong candidate and party look bad.
So if you hope for Republican victories in the next round of elections, my advice is to lift Mr. Dailey and his posse up on a pedestal. Encourage him and others like him to continue ignoring, downplaying or denying the suffering of those who are being crushed by our current state of affairs - especially the poorest and lowest income Americans. Because in the end, people are never as stupid as they appear to hope.
Speaking of hilarious - and I'm warning you to put down your coffee or you might spill it laughing - we have this from that respectable news organization CNN:
Heh. What can I say. I think the media was harder on Trump than it was Hitler. I can't think of anyone who got reamed by the press more than Trump. They might as well have added to their slogan 'All the news that's fit to defeat Trump.' But like Agent K, I'm beginning to think the tabloids are far more reliable news sources than most traditional news outlets.
One consistent element of conversations with partisan Democrats in our time is that you're left asking if it's ignorance, stupidity, or deceit which accounts for whatever it is they're peddling. If you cut your teeth on Michael Walzer a generation ago, it's dismaying to discover how challenging it is to have a productive conversation. Dailey's activity today is recycling idiot talking points (e.g. the notion that Devin Nunes is 'resigning in disgrace' from Congress). Nunes is notable for having uncovered information deeply embarrassing to the Democratic Party, the FBI, and media outlets. Why a reportedly Catholic writer should be emotionally invested in the reputation of Peter Sztrok is puzzling for a normal person.
ReplyDeleteI find no particular side of any debate can have its problems. But there is something about the Left today where those problems are almost necessary. I think it's because we can see clearly the flaws and failings and hypocrisy that, perhaps a couple decades ago, were not so clear. They either admit they were wrong or they failed, or they hunker down. With a sympathetic press, education system and pop culture, they don't need to worry about being called out.
DeleteI'm puzzled here. The Clinton-era Democratic Party was notable for rejecting the economic policy chum of the 1970s. This administration has brought back all of it. Dailey is old enough to have lived though it the last time. His excuse is just what?
Delete(I'm not sure what he's doubling down on either. As recently as 10 years ago, he was published in Crisis on occasion).
I think much of the doubling down for Dailey, like so many, involves the fact that he now aligns with ideas and policies and agendas he once roundly condemned.
DeleteThat's the puzzle. You don't usually have more than incremental adjustments to your worldview between the ages of 45 and 55. I think Eugene Genovese and his wife had late-life reversions to the Church, but their change in viewpoint was well telegraphed in their professional and general audience writing and had identifiable triggers.
DeleteThe Trump era appears to have provoked multiple exceptions to that rule--or at least unmasked performative conservatives as something else.
DeleteArming myself with the facts from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, I see that the consumer price index in October 2021 recorded an increase of 0.9% over the previous month's rate. That's an annualized rate of 11.3% per year. If memory serves me, the last time we saw an annualized rate that high was around about 1981. Mr. Dailey is evidently of the view that old people tend to vote Republican, so it's condign punishment to ruin the purchasing power of their retirement savings.
ReplyDeleteWe had a rerun of 1918 and 1968 last year and now 1979 and 1980 this year, except that the marielitos are entering in vast numbers all along the southern border. I can't wait til next year.
Well, we had a rerun of 1975 as well, bar that the bug out from Afghanistan made the fall of Saigon look positively dignified.
ReplyDeleteBiden's election slogan should have been: "This time we're doing a 70s speedrun!"
DeleteLove memeology. He's like one of the few honest news sources you can find on YouTube.
ReplyDeleteSo many days I wish I could get access to the Lexis Nexus system because I have several ideas on how I could run queries to look at the media treated subjects. Like I remember the media questioning the mental facilities of Trump several times - frequently bringing up dementia. When have you ever heard that 'd' word brought up around Biden?
Heck, I remember the media spending four years calling the 2016 a fraud, a sham, stolen and corrupt. Then, for reasons I can't grasp, we learned that 2020 was the most perfect election in history, and to even think of questioning it is a threat to democracy. But then I remember the 2000 election being called stolen, and even 2004 had some charges of stolen election. That wasn't the case in 2008 and 20012. There's a trend there I'm sure, but it will take some time to sort it out.
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