The main reason he, and the GOP and pretty much anyone challenging the establishment in 2024, was swept into office was because things were falling apart. And those who voted for President Trump want them fixed.
Right now we've seen a hurricane of activity from the White House, and some of it appears to be addressing some of those problems. The chaos along the border, handling international crises, just giving the impression he's doing something as opposed to nothing. In the wake of the Biden White House, just mailing a letter could be seen as a leap forward in personal accomplishment.
But we're going to have to see more. The economy is not improving on any noticeable level for most people I know. I just paid .70 a gallon more for gas than a month ago. Prices aren't lowering, and now I'm sad to say, I'm seeing some go up. I fear part of it is that the press has 'Covided' tariffs. Remember how during the Covid panic and shortages that companies raised their prices, sometimes significantly and overnight? Remember how they blamed Covid and the supply shortages? Notice in most cases, those prices haven't gone down despite the Covid pandemic and shortages being over with?
I fear companies will do it again, this time using tariffs - and all with the media's blessings. If that happens, and if people don't see some radical improvements to the staggering economic problems of the Biden years, it is going to go badly for the GOP. And if it doesn't turn around, Republicans can give up on their dreams of a Vance presidency.
Oh, and for heaven's sake don't make the mistake that the Democrats/Press/Left made going into 2024. Don't deny the obvious. I saw a discussion about this on another site, and there were people saying things are great! Prices are going down, salaries taking off, jobs, jobs everywhere! Well, I'm glad they live somewhere those things are happening. Because they aren't here, and aren't where most people I know are living in different cities and states. And at the end of the day, that is what will matter.
As President Trump shocked his supporters by initially putting the kibosh on the Jeffery Epstein case, there is another thing that is far more important for his and his party's fortunes in future elections. He must improve the economy - for the average American.
I'm not one who says he's been in office six months and hasn't ended sin in the world so I'm out of here. I'm old enough to remember the horrible 1982 Recession, when the press and Democrats jumped all over President Reagan, saying it's because of him that our economy was on the brink of ruin.
Then things cleared, the economy rebounded, and we entered into a stretch of huge growth across the board. Growth that a large swath of America happily enjoyed (including those who criticized the excess of the day). Hence the 1984 landslide happened - and GHW Bush coasted into his first term on Reagan's coattails. Because that Recession blip turned out to be a blip. And we saw overall growth and improvements for the bulk of the population, in addition to a couple other significant accomplishments on the part of the Reagan administration.
Something the Democrats/Press missed in 2016, and again in 2024. At the end of the day, you can have everything in your pocket, but in a democratic society, you have to produce. You have to show results. You can't lie or deny your way out of it. The same here with a president the media doesn't support. Despite the media's hysterics, the economy hasn't collapsed and prices haven't skyrocketed through the ceiling because of President Trump. Which is good.
But things haven't really improved either. And they were bad these last several years. Very, very bad. The post-truth media, having perfected the art of ignoring the screams of a million dying innocents if they can't be exploited, thought it could pour a ton of manure on the economic news hoping that something beautiful would grow. But funny thing about people. They'll believe a lot, but not that things are fine when they're suffering as a result of them not being fine.
Because of the press's antics, however, it's easy to forget just how bad things were these last few years. But now the pilot of the good plane America is President Trump. And while he has only been in office six months, he has been in office six months. Much of what he has done appears to be impacting vast, social, national and international long term issues and, as during the Biden administration, Wall Street as good as always. Fair enough.
But by next year, people like me and tens of millions of others better see things improve. We better see either the results of the staggeringly disastrous inflation under Biden reduced if not eliminated, or see incomes or wages or benefits skyrocket or something. At the end of the day, for every other topic that drove voters into the booth last November, it was - to quote the sage - the economy stupid. And rightly so. Not since the 2008 collapse have I seen it so bad, only this time the press was insisting there was nothing to see and thus being no help.
But things were, and are, very bad for very many millions of Americans. Of course, just like telling people things aren't bad when they are, people will also know they're good no matter how much the bad is focused on. See the 1984 election, when so much media emphasis was on all those failing to benefit from the improvements. People know when things are better. But President Trump has a limit to how long it can go without the average American voter seeing things improve. I'd say by the midterms there better be something to grab onto, don't expect them to go well for President Trump or the GOP.
There's a funny saying that if you want to know what God thinks of money, look who He gives it to. I thought of that when I heard the news that Elon Musk is threatening to form a rival political party to combat both parties, including President Trump.
This continues to be a giant fly in the ointment for President Trump. Not in my lifetime have I seen a president inspire so little loyalty among his own allies. I mean, you have your turncoats and the ones who decide they can no longer support a leader. You have those who jump ship and vie for control by usurping the leader in question. It happens.
But wading through the stadium full of people who have turned on Trump and betrayed him and joined his opponents is telling. I said that before, here. I'm sure some of it is as above. It happens. Sometimes you have your Benedict Arnold types. But so many, with it happening so often, as to be almost the rule rather than glaring exception, has to mean something beyond 'it's not Trump but because they're all the nasties.'
Oh, and eventually President Trump must fix the economy. So far his opponents have performed miracles by making the hysteria so bad that our country could plunge into a Depression and it wouldn't live up to the panic. Nonetheless, when the dust settles, and the months have turned to years, we'll need to see the disaster of the last three years fixed. Those prices will have to be cut, or incomes catch up, or something. Otherwise I can't say who will be the next president, but I know who won't be. Just saying.
He is willing to call out the BS and mendacity that has come to define our post-Christian, postmodern era:
That we have taken an entire generation and told them that every word uttered should affirm them as the gods of their realities, or they should unleash endless hatred or commit suicide - either being an understandable reaction - shows just how low we've sunk. The only thing worse is how so many of our institutions that should know better (ahem, hello Christian Church), have pretty much gone along with it. And have done so no matter how disastrous the results.
We'll see how it goes. Vance better be good enough to die for the sins of humanity, because even the slightest discovered transgression will be hyped more than Pearl Harbor was. And more than that, almost everyone left of center, and the bulk of those who have settled into our post-Christian status quo, will jump on him like rabid inquisitors.
Yep. As any RISK player knows, N. America is the easiest continent to hold once you get it (at least that gives you more than two bonus armies a turn). And if you start with America, then you need Canada, Greenland and Central America to make it a full continent and get those five extra armies a turn.
My sons noted that, and joked that Trump must have been playing RISK recently. A much saner appraisal than the bat nuts psycho hysterics around the world and across the media and leftwing punditry we're seeing. Sometimes I think Trump does these things just to watch people make him look calm, reasonable and sane by comparison.
Personally I think it's how he operates. Throw a verbal grenade into the conference, create chaos, and then while your opponents are beating themselves senseless with lunacy and being distracted by their own nuttiness, he goes about getting done what he wants to do.
It reminds me of what one of my sons said back during Trump's first term. The only thing that makes Donald Trump seem grounded and sensible by comparison is his opponents.
And if the Democrats lose to him, it more than serves them right.
UPDATE: On the other hand, the daily award for the most duplicitous headline about this story has to go here:
I didn't get to see all of the morning news outlets cover this, but the ones I did see mentioned only that Trump did this in response to some vague, unnamed statement by Biden. No mention of what exactly Biden said. Unlike the constant repeating of the comedian's statement about Puerto Rico, which was repeated endlessly for days. One local network had on the ticker what Biden said, but the story itself wasn't covered.
One of the great evils of our age is that we can't know what is going on in the world because the agencies with the ability to convey the information have long ago thrown integrity and truth out the window for the sake of their interests, no matter who or what is hurt as a result.
Yep. Mr. Alt, apologist for the Catholic Faith, just put a stamp of approval on all those stupid anti-Christian, atheist, skeptic and other memes that say if you believe anything in the Bible, you have to believe we can kill sinners by stoning them.
I'm sure in most cases, Mr. Alt knows why that is such an asinine argument. If he has the slightest theological education he certainly does. Yet he just endorsed skeptics and opponents of the Gospel making that very point. Though in fairness, most liberal ministers I knew from my Protestant days also invoked this stupidity, as if the Gospel hadn't happened yet.
This is why keeping politics at arms length is the better way to go. If we're not careful, we end up shooting Jesus in the kneecap in our attempt to hit those rascally other party types behind Him. And the only one who wins there is the one who is always happy to see Jesus get shot in the kneecaps.
The same is true of Ms. Bowers, FWIW. I know nothing of her. I found her FB to be fair and see what she was about. Other than a title that suggests Christian, most of the posts were variations of 'hate Trump, hate him now.' So there you go.
So Bernie Moreno, the senate candidate endorsed by former president Donald Trump, won the primary. OK. He's going up against Sherrod Brown. Senator Brown has been serving in elected positions since I got a "Desert Fox" playset for my birthday in fourth grade. Now I'm waiting for my first grandchild, and he's still there.
That's the first thing that could topple him. The fact that Americans are growing a bit impatient with the super lifer pols who never go away.
The second thing that could topple him is being linked to the economy. At least if it shows all the improvement it has shown for the last two years. Across the state, bond issues and tax hikes fell to the ballot, largely because of timing. Who is going to vote 'yes' for more taxes when groceries are barely affordable?
I know. The press has spent the last year pouring a ton of manure on the economic news in the hopes that something beautiful will grow. But people won't believe that things are looking hopeful when for almost two years they can barely afford to live. So all of those municipalities and school districts who thought this was a grand time to raise taxes learned a lesson about reality versus media narratives.
If Sherrod Brown falls, it might be because of the economy and his link as a Democrat. The sad part of him is that he still falls along party lines. And like the Democratic Party, he will not call out anything left of center no matter how bat-crazy radical. He doesn't make a big stink about it. He's not mister fanatic with a bullhorn, cheering the transactivists fanatics or celebrating the eradication of Columbus statues. But he doesn't speak out against them either.
That's why most Republicans, even those who do respect Brown as an old timer politician, aren't going to vote for him. As a politician, he's pretty much traditional 'what Ohioans want'. He keeps his feet close to the ground. He's the guy who goes around and actually talks with people at the local diner. He works to accomplish the best for his charge. He reaches across party lines.
He has worked with Senator JD Vance since Vance came into office. When the train derailed in East Palestine, Brown and Vance acted like they were in a buddy movie. They called out the railroads, the State and the White House for their responses or lack thereof.
Heck, when my oldest was in high school, he sent an email to Senator Brown over some issue of the day. I can't remember the topic in question. But he responded with a hand typed message to my son. A US Senator took time out to answer a teenager directly. It was respectful, it was thoughtful, and it made an impression. That's why he's generally liked in a state that usually isn't too radical and tends to gravitate toward a more moderate tone.
Bernie Moreno, who until recently was pretty liberal about more than one issue, suddenly insists he's seen the light. It's mostly good old conservatism most of the way. But his main campaign slogan was basically 'I'll obey Trump'. Matt Dolan was, as far as I know, the only one of the three GOP candidates to poll ahead of Senator Brown in the polls, showing that Brown is vulnerable.
Why Donald Trump didn't support the one who was able to poll ahead of Brown is pretty easy to figure. Dolan has criticized Trump. And by now we know the routine. Obedience to Trump is a major priority for Trump, and he would rather loose at the ballot box than see someone who might not always agree with him take the seat. If we end up with yet another term for longstanding Sherrod Brown, that will be a big reason.
Among many, but I'll admit this is a less 'objective' reason to withhold my vote. There are many reasons I can imagine for not supporting Trump this time around. But one reason that keeps buzzing about my mind comes to the front when I recall this scene from the movie A Knight's Tale.
As a movie, it's one of those rare cases where I agree with Deacon Greydanus' review. At the end of the day, the two least interesting characters were the leads. Everyone else, villain included, was infinitely more interesting. Sorry Mr. Ledger. Plus the whole theme of 'what is so big about nobility' was lost when the main character ignores every beautiful common maiden in Europe to obsess over a rather cardboard, one dimensional noblewoman.
Nonetheless, the scene above, whenever I think on it, brings me right back to Trump. Did you catch what Edward the Black Prince says? He says 'Your men love you. If I knew nothing else about you, that would be enough.'
Well, guess what. Almost none of Trump's men - or women - love him. In fact, one of the fastest growing demographics nowadays is 'former members of Trump's staff willing to shaft Trump.' It isn't hard to see why.
After all, Trump thinks nothing of trashing and hashing anyone who doesn't lick his boots on command. Even a loyal supporter who dares deviate just once can become the target of his verbal assaults. The minute - the second - anyone, including his supporters, deviates from Trumpspeak, he's all over them like a bad suit. It's as if nothing matters but total obedience to The Man.
Hence why finding former aids and staff who are willing to testify to the eternal yuckiness and vile evil of Trump is like finding football fans in Ohio State Stadium. A man who seems to encourage betrayal and turncoats and hatred from his associates rather than anything close to love and loyalty is telling. To quote the Black Prince, if I knew nothing else about Trump, that would be enough.
I received a notice from the local Republican party on Facebook. I responded that before I do or support anything, I'd like to seem them, you know, do something. I reminded them that when the Christopher Columbus statues in Columbus were Talibanned, they boldly declared that they would swoop in, grab them, and set them up around the state. Where are they? Right now the pro-choice machine is pushing Issue 1, which would enshrine abortion as a constitutional right in Ohio. Already I've seen weeks of commercials, flier handouts, promotions and interviews pushing the issue. I have yet to see anything from the opposition - either pro-life organizations or the GOP. Our bishop is the only one I've seen pounding the table on resisting this.
Too often that is how the resistance to what we call 'The Left' tends to be. Always next year, then the resistance. Someday we'll stake a stand. We won't take much more of this. By golly, one more and that will do it. And yet we've gone from 'why can't a man and woman have sex outside of marriage' to 'you're damn right we'll alter the bodies of your adolescents and we'll use the State to prevent you from stopping us.' Yet where is that fabled resistance? What line is it we're waiting for them to cross? Murdering our kid? Gas chambers? Just what are we waiting for?
This came to my mind because that particular GOP message was sent after this weekend. If you're a college football fan, then you've probably heard about the post game interview with OSU coach Ryan Day. Ohio State won a nailbiter of a game on Saturday. Underdog to the Fighting Irish, it looked for most of the game like the predictions were accurate. We would lose. So far this year our team has looked lackluster, and that included the first three quarters of the game Saturday night against Notre Dame. We started the season with dueling quarterbacks, which is never good. And the quarterback we chose has been under-impressive, to be blunt.
Despite Ryan Day being, in terms of percentages, one of the winningest college football coaches of all time, the big games have eluded him. True, the game against Clemson was lost on what I admit is the single worst call in football history. But he's lost other big games as well. And worse for any Buckeye fan, he has now lost two games in a row against Michigan. That makes him the first OSU coach since John Cooper to do so. Therefore, no matter how pretty the stats, there has been a cloud over his tenure. And in Ohio State Buckeye Fan parlance, that is translated as 'fire him, fire him now.'
That wasn't helped going into this week, when most pundits and analysts concluded Ohio State didn't have a chance. None other than legendary Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz said we weren't just going to lose, but we were going to lose because we aren't physical enough. We're soft. Which is why we can't beat the big teams. For OSU's fabled football program, that hurt.
But again, most of the game looked that way. Then, in the fourth quarter, with minutes left, down by four points, and seemingly unable to do anything well, the team hunkered down for some serious bump and grind football that would have made the late Bear Bryant proud. Our new and sheepish quarterback completed one clutch pass after another, completing some in ways that were unbelievable. We pushed our way down, overcoming perhaps the most convoluted Grounding call I've ever seen, and ended up on the one foot line. Three seconds left, and we shoved our way into the end zone for a game winning touchdown.
After the game, the obligatory interview with the winning coach took place. If we weren't ready for the heart-pounding victory that night, we were flabbergasted when coach Ryan Day responded to the reporter's question:
For context, Day has developed the reputation of being a rather 'blah' coach in interviews. It's as if he's so scared he'll say anything, he usually ends up saying nothing. Some reporters have called him the anti-Woody Hayes. I'll admit, though I typically enjoy after game reporting, I've often ignored or just turned off the broadcasts because he hasn't been worth listening to. It's all so - dull.
But my, oh my. Naturally not everyone is happy, including detractors who have responded with the usual 'how dare you talk back to us after we called you losers.' Some Buckeye's aren't either, but then Ohio State fans are a notoriously tough audience to please no matter what you do. But not a few people - Ohio State fans and otherwise - have perked up and said it was nice to see. It was nice to see Day come out of his shell. It was nice to see a coach be honest and passionate. And most Ohio State fans I know are tickled pink. It's been since Woody Hayes that we've seen that much raw energy or intense support for the team.
All of this came to my mind with that GOP post. Whatever you think about Day's coaching interview above, that is exactly what people who see the crumbling of our civilization want from those who are supposed leaders of the resistance. Whether politicians, pundits, activists, religious leaders, or whatever, that's what we're waiting for. Why do we think so many Americans keep clinging to Trump?
What we want is someone with the above passion, without feeling like we are compromising our values. Someone who can clearly, honestly, bluntly and passionately rally the troops to stop what we're seeing. We want leaders who will, like Day, stand up and defend our values, our heritage, our faith, our history, our heroes and ourselves. Give us that, oh local GOP, and we will follow you anywhere. The same goes for our bishops. The same goes for anyone who will stand up to resist the madness and the coming darkness.
For the last couple days, I've seen news stories pondering why, despite such overwhelmingly positive economic news, Americans don't think Biden is doing a good job. Some polls suggest Americans think he is doing a dismal job.
The reason, of course, is that things are pretty miserable and we are a diminishing and crumbling society. Part of that trend is watching a growing number of Americans unable to afford the basics. The news keeps saying spending is strong. Yeah. Because the things people need to survive are off the scale expensive, and people are going into historically unprecedented levels of personal debt to keep up with just surviving. Yesterday we had to buy laundry soap, toilet paper and dryer sheets. We bought the smallest packages and got generic brands. The total was almost $19.00. That is unsustainable.
Funny thing people. You can tell them everything is peachy about vague things, but you can't tell people who can barely afford groceries that everything is awesome. They won't believe you. They may just resent you.
In 2016, after the conventions, I caught Fareed Zakaria on CNN. He gave an editorial that had one clear message: The world was officially better than any time in history, and we owe it all to President Obama and his administration (read: Hillary Clinton). The problem? Things weren't great at all. The post-2008 recovery was anemic at best. ISIS was on the rampage and all we were told was to accept the new normal. The African American community had all but been thrown under the bus. And I could drive for weeks, if not months, without seeing a newly purchased car on the road.
You can talk until you're blue in the face, but you can't tell people they never had it so good when they remember not so long ago when they had it so good, if not better. The press made a huge mistake with that in 2016, believing that no matter what, a few propaganda nudges like Zakaria's screed would seal the deal and convince Americans to vote Hillary. After all, Clinton was running against Trump for crying out loud. Yet we saw how that turned out.
You'd think they wouldn't repeat the same mistake again. Fact is, except for hardcore leftwing thralls, most Americans can see the obvious. As much as the press tries to make it about just hating the right groups of those people over there, most are increasingly bothered that things are getting worse and not better. The press trying every other day to run stories about how great the economy is, how Bidenomics is doing a wonderful job, and how the future looks rosy and cheerful will at best not convince people who can't afford food without going into debt. At worst, it will chase them away from the polls come November, or into the arms of you-know-who.
Have you ever seen a bad movie - I mean really bad - and then you see that an actor or actress you admire is in it? Has that happened, and then you become embarrassed for the individual for being in such a rotten picture? That's the feeling I had for the few minutes of the GOP debate I was able to stomach last night.
Whew. How far we have fallen as a country. If my boys acted like that when they were young I would have punished them. I tried to watch it, but I literally became embarrassed. Embarrassed for them on the stage, for the GOP, for our nation, and sorrowful for our children.
I fear it has been a long time coming. Probably when Richard Nixon appeared on Laugh In, the barrier between the stupid and the serious was forever shattered. If it was already getting there, after that it was a fast dash to Clinton playing his sax and joking about pot smoking on Arsenio. And from there the teenage level snark of Obama or the locker room adolescent behavior of 2016.
But this is the age we live in now. These are the leaders, who only look good when juxtaposed to the experts who will deride them. I hate it for our kids. As my son quipped after the disastrous police response to the Uvalde school shooting: Great nations produce great men. End statement.
But I've noticed his name pop up in interesting ways recently. I don't know much about Vivek Ramaswamy, and the media is as useless here as you can imagine. Right now the media is already running with the "Trump v. Biden 2024" narrative that it so desperately craves.
Despite the catastrophic failure of 2016, when Trump was supposed to destroy the GOP once and for all, the press wants to do it again. Destroy Trump with a never ending barrage of accusations, litigations, felony charges, whatever, and then make darn sure he gets the nomination. Similar to 2016, but with more baggage. Or so the media assumes.
I personally believe if they could find anyone beyond Biden they would take it. Everyone knows Biden is in about as much control as the Sultan was in Disney's Aladdin. But who do they have? Vice President Harris? That's rich. At this point the press simply ignores anything negative to do with the White House. Therefore the degree to which it ignores Harris shows how negative the press believes she must be.
So they appear stuck with Biden, and therefore their only hope is Trump. To that end the press will do what it did in 2016 and shut out anyone else. At least give nobody else the same level of coverage. I remember in 2016. I first heard Rick Santorum was in the race when the press reported that he was dropping out of the race. Even as a Buckeye, we had a hard time finding info about John Kasich, and he had been our governor and hometown boy. The press wanted Trump in 2016, as it does today and that is its focus.
Therefore, learning about anyone like Ramaswamy is going to be like finding Big Foot. From what I have seen, he seems prepared to say unpopular things in ways typically not acceptable to the modern Left establishment. Like this. To actually come out and call out the LGTBQ narratives and point out some obvious truths about the whole farse. Takes guts. More to the point, he did it in a way that was respectful and courtly, if I may use that term. It seems to have disarmed a 'pansexual' activist, and that's no easy accomplishment.
We'll see. Again, I found some basic bio info, but that doesn't help much. I'll keep an eye on him. Everyone here knows I'm not fan of Trump. Never have been. As I've pissed off more than one leftist by pointing out, I didn't like Trump back when liberal Democrats and Hollywood celebrities loved the guy. I was ahead of the curve you might say. Still, you never know. As they say, anything can happen in Texas.
UPDATE: To add interest, he has released a 'Ten Commandments' for his 2024 campaign. If nothing else, he's making himself clear about these issues. All too often politicians, especially Republicans, tend to him-haw and dance around hot button issues and liberal sacred cows. Apparently he isn't. Still learning about him and this is not an endorsement. It is interesting how a politician speaking openly and honestly in a civil manner is newsworthy.
Whew. I have never seen our polling location this busy. Not even in the most voted on election in human history in 2020. And issue in question has been in Brit papers, Euro news and of course the US national press. It's about - Issue 1. The only issue on a midterm August special election ballot. And it was a madhouse. In our little corner of voting world, it's the first time we have ever had to wait in line.
What's the issue? Let me 'splain. A couple years ago, coming out of the lockdowns when the School Board Battles were taking off, a bunch of transgender activists went to our statehouse and tried to play the 'save our trans kids from parents' card. The local press jumped on the story and ran with it in the same way: if we let parents interfere, then what choice will our children have but to kill themselves? And we can't have that!
Fortunately, a GOP dominated state government didn't let it see the light of day. And in the midterms, when the GOP underperformed in several states, Ohio gushed red over almost the entire state in a conservative tsunami. Same as with Florida, where the issue of sexing up our kids, surgically altering them, and keeping parents in the street seem to be winning issues for Republicans.
Well, after that the SCOTUS dropped the Roe bomb and ushered in the new Terror - at least to hear the Left. Sadly, the Pro-Life movement seemed content with resting on its laurels for a while as the pro-abortion rights movement prepared to storm the beaches. The first big warning shot came in Kansas when Kansas voters struck down a much underreported attempt to enshrine pro-life policies in the Kansas constitution.
Being Buckeyes, we realized the same can't happen here. First, as soon as the abortion rights movement began pushing an amendment for abortion, conservatives effectively tied it to the same push we saw with the transgender activists only months earlier. Which isn't altogether unfair if you think on it. Second, the GOP moved to change our constitution to make it harder to amend the constitution in the first place. Finally we made darn sure to get the word out, even if Issue 1 itself was a little late in the promoting.
What is Issue 1? Right now, Ohio is one of the few states where the state constitution can be amended with a vote of 50% plus 1 on citizen and legislature-initiated referendums. Plus, currently to get an amendment push going, you need only obtain signatures from half of Ohio's counties. This issue, Issue 1, would require a 60% vote to amend the constitution, and would require signatures from all 88 counties in order to get the proposal to move forward.
Naturally, its' really about abortion, transgender activism, parent's rights, and basically the growing rift between the Left's vision for America and those who don't accept that vision. The pro-abortion movement already has an amendment enshrining abortion rights on the November ballot. What will be required to get the constitution amended will therefore depend on what happens today.
For me it's very simple. Do we want pagan America, where life is precious or dirt cheap when certain people at certain times decide so? Or is life precious and we work in our state's priorities accordingly? Obviously, no matter how people articulate it, they get this is important. That's why for the first time since we've been voting in our cavernous poling place we had to wait in line in the middle of the day. We'll see.
That Donald Trump is a liberal mole. I know, I know. I'm half joking. But there are times when he does things that seem 100% to do no good for conservatives, to play into leftwing stereotypes and hysterics about conservatives, and goes a long way toward undercutting conservative concerns about the emergent Left.
So news headlines exploded that Trump came out and said the election was so corrupt and illegal, it's time to ditch the Constitution. Now there have been radicals wanting to abolish the Constitution since I was in school. In recent years, the 'Constitution as racist slave doc' has picked up steam thanks to BLM and similar activism. On Memorial Day in 2021, ABC News reported on a survey that found over 40% of Americans believe it's time to burn the old thing and start anew. And this doesn't count those calling for parts of it, particularly certain Amendments to the Constitution or the Bill of Rights, to be rewritten, reimagined, or done away with.
Conservatives are rightly incensed by this development. Not because they think the Constitution is holy Scripture, or God, or Gospel - a charge often leveled at them by those on the Left. But because, just like those who say this non-heavenly planet is important in terms of climate change, how we order society is also important, even if society isn't Heaven. And in the history of the human race, our Constitution is about as good as you get. So the strong case for preserving it can be made.
Then lo, along comes Donald J. Trump and, according to media reports, says 'burn it, burn it now.' Well conservatives just received another stone in their shoe when it comes to stopping this. Oh, they can condemn Trump's statements, but it just gave those who want the Constitution burned an extra name to drop, and it gives the Left in general the chance to rise up and be bold defenders of our founding documents!
As a bonus, Trump did this just as the first Twitter dump occurred. The dump suggested strongly that not only was Twitter purposefully targeting conservative accounts, but Democrats may have been party to the tactics. This was a first in Elon Musk's grand restructuring and revealing of Twitter and its policies. It should have been headline news. But thanks be to Trump, most MSM outlets played an easy misdirection by plastering across the headlines that Trump was calling for an end to the Constitution. The Musk and Twitter story being relegated to page fourteen behind the grocery ads.
I get that Trump did some good things. The Supreme Court likely being the best. But there are times when he seems to go out of his way to harm the conservative brand as much as possible, to affirm leftwing stereotypes about conservatives, and undercut whatever opponents of the Left are trying to accomplish. So while I wouldn't say I'm really 14% convinced he's a leftwing mole, I would put it around 4%.
Woohoo. I'm not one who cares much for the GOP. I figure most Republicans wish they could go back to the good old days of a strong military to help our financial fortunes, with everything else 'who cares?'. Not that all Republicans are like that. But the 'GOP' as a whole seems interested in being just enough 'not Democrat' to curry favor with voters every couple years, but not enough 'Republican' to do much else.
Donald Trump disrupted that of course. Not that he's my cup of tea either. As I've said before, I was so ahead of the curve that I didn't like Trump when liberal Democrats and Hollywood superstars loved the guy. Before he committed the unforgivable sin of putting an 'R' in front of his name. I still don't care for him. Though he did a service by drawing out the professional class of 'not conservatives unless the cameras are rolling' pundits who made the GOP everything worthless (I'm looking at you Bill Kristol).
The Democrats' problem is that they put their eggs in the secular progressive basket. The "Left', we'll call it, is a movement that smells strongly of Bolshevism, and increasingly makes its goals clear: the utter destruction of the Christian Western tradition. Almost every day the Left finds some virtue, truth or principle to destroy, the suffering and misery that subsequently arises being small beans.
That the Left enjoys an alliance with the Western institutions of power not seen since WWII makes it tough to resist. It's a testimony to the awfulness of the Left's platform that with such an overwhelming monopoly of social messaging, there are still so many who question its dogmas. Yet every day it makes strides.
Because of that, I find myself thinking that no matter what, I don't dare take a chance on giving the Left any more power than it has. Since the Democrats, on the whole, appear fully invested in following the Left blindly wherever it goes, that means giving Democrats more power and influence is akin taking the flag out and burning it along with my children's freedoms.
Exactly what will happen today, I don't know. I'm sure there will be some runoffs. History favors the party not in the White House during midterm elections. And that's if things are chugging along. We are living in a dumpster fire as a civilization right now, and the one hanging his hat in the Oval Office will typically get the blame.
My guess is that polling favors the Republicans. That's because I've seen about a week or so of news stories warning poll workers of violence and worrying that the election could be compromised by election deniers and voter oppression. If the Democrats were ahead, I bet the stories would strike a different tone.
I'm sure if the GOP wins anything beyond the House (which most have conceded for some time), we'll hear endless news stories of angry white men, sexists, voter oppression and voting rights violations galore. It won't be like 2020, when the USA popped off an election that was almost too perfect for heaven. It will be more like 2016, or 2000, or even 2004. You know, when elections were corrupt, stolen, compromised or illegal. You know, when Republicans won.
Beyond the assurance of Mike DeWine getting a second term, however, I have no clue about outcomes. After all, the last time I made a prediction was before the 2016 election, when I conceded the inevitable victory of Hillary Clinton. So obviously my ability to predict elections isn't worth much. Therefore, I'll leave history to do what it does, and find out the results tomorrow, or the next day, or whenever we finally know.
Apparently Nancy Pelosi's house was broken into and her husband assaulted. We don't know the motives, though the attacker has been arrested. Perhaps it was politically motivated. It certainly wouldn't be the first in recent years. Politicians being confronted, mobbed and even attacked has become more common over the last few years. Meanwhile protests and violent threats against the SCOTUS since the Roe decision leak have also become a common story.
This all speaks to an unraveling society. It's wrong, of course. Whether R or D, or SCOTUS or POTUS, there is no reason for violence, threat or intimidation at this stage. That's why it should always be condemned, not just when it impacts our own party. Do it only when it's against your own side, and you might as well join the next mob and hie to the attack.
Hopefully her husband is OK and not injured too badly. As long as we are consistent in our ethic, that is all we should concern ourselves with.
Ohio senate candidate J.D. Vance is alive! Rumors were beginning to swirl here in the Buckeye State. Since he won the primary election, we've seen neither hide nor hair of the man. No commercials. No ads. No Super PACS. Nothing. I've not seen local GOP threads mentioning him. There has been no news from local Republicans of any appearances or talks or get-togethers. Nothing. If it wasn't for his opponent Tim Ryan, you'd never hear Vance mentioned.
So at least he's alive. He talked to FOX - a national news outlet - so barring conspiracy theories, he's up and moving. Why he's decided to follow the Biden principle of staying underground and pretending like he doesn't exist, I don't know. It worked for Biden because he had the DNC, the MSM and most major institutions in our country on his side. Vance does not have that benefit.
That's why I can't figure it out. Why ignoring Ohio, Ohio voters and keeping away from us and not promoting his campaign appears to be his strategy. You can bet the results won't be to your favor when the only one talking about you is the one who wants to defeat you.
