Tag: democratic-party

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I don’t like Trump — either the man or his chaotic policies — however I have to admit he is the master of confrontational politics. How this dimwitted asshole comes out on top is beyond me. The problem is he does.

Look at what he has mastered in the last few months. He maneuvered the Democrats into defending illegal immigrants, transexuals and criminals. All people worthy of defense but also marginalized people with tricky legal situations. More importantly, very few actual voters among them.

Think about Trump bringing troops into Washington. What the Democrats are saying is that there is no problem in Washington and that the crime rate is actually the lowest it has been in 30 years. True enough but it sounds rather lame in comparison to Trump’s sending in troops so you are safe to walk the streets of Washington. Instead of making a forceful anti-crime statement, the Democrats are saying you think crime is bad now, it was much worse 10 years ago. It reeks of passivity and inaction.

Immigrants are coming into the country illegally. Trump is taking an aggressive stand to prevent their entry and kicking out the ones he sees as criminal. What are the Democrats saying — we need immigrants and we can’t break up immigrant families if the children were born in USA. So the Democrats end up making a big falderal about the deportation of Kilmar Garcia — a legal immigrant whose wife has accused him of abuse. The Democrats reaction to Trump is this is a bureaucratic error, Trump’s response is that Garcia is a wife beating thug. How are the visuals on this?

Garcia deserves due process but the Democrats are missing the point — what are the Democrats going to do about illegal immigration. Yes, we need immigrants and yes we should not separate parents from their children — that isn’t, however, an answer to what are you going to do about illegal immigration. It sounds very much like you intend to do nothing and that becomes the problem. Worse still, it is hardly a rousing call to battle with the Republicans.

Then there are the drag queens. A target so big that it is impossible for the Republicans not to hit. The visuals on this are horrible. What the Democrats want the public to know is they are defending 13 year olds bullied in their schools and who need help with their gender identification. This is a complex problem and the country is beginning to suss it out. Unfortunately Trump has painted a much different picture. Instead of seeing the abused adolescent, they are seeing 6 foot 4 hunk with a blonde bouffant wig, costume jewelry, and an evening gown reading to kindergartners about how to get a sex change operation.

It’s not that I think the Democrats are wrong in any of this, its more that they are being suckered into defending unpopular positions over the bigger concerns of the average Americans. Trump pulls Democrats into debates that are nuanced and difficult to explain. Whenever they do try to explain it sounds like they are pro-criminal or pro-illegal immigration or pro-transexuals in the classroom. It doesn’t matter that this is untrue – perception is reality. At least, it is until someone changes the perception. This isn’t going to be done by Donald Trump. It has to be the Democrats.

Trump uses the media to dance to his tune. Talking only about the issues he wants to talk about while ignoring his weaknesses. Democrats should park themselves outside medical offices and ask people about their health insurance problems. A lot of people have good stories about shabby treatment from insurance companies — get it on the news. Every single day. Or go to grocery stores and ask customers about the higher prices they are paying. Connect to people with issues that everybody has. Widen the net of potential voters.

Or you can continue to talk about unpopular issues that the average voter cares very little about and, when you lose the election, you can stare confusedly into the abyss and wonder why this keeps happening.

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Donald Trump is a mystery to me. I can’t understand why people vote for hm. I disagree with his politics. When he speaks, I immediately think what a pompous ass. I am deeply perplexed on how this vile unpleasant man is succeeding.

And it is breathtaking how successful he has been. The man has reshaped the Republican Party into his image against the wishes of the Republican Establishment. He has humiliated the Democratic Party twice. He wants to take over the Gaza Strip. The fucking Gaza Strip and people are actually considering it. The man has something going for him that I am missing but others find attractive. It is so irritating. Every time you think he has irredeemably screwed up, he comes out of it completely unscathed.

I once worked for an asshole. He was crude, not very bright, arrogant, a narcissist — well very much like Donald Trump. He was universally despised up and down the food chain. So how did he keep his job? I never understood but I got a glimpse when talking with two co-workers about him. They agreed he was an asshole but they also said that they thought he was the right man for the job because he got things done. He bulldozed his way to the finish line on time and on budget. His being liked was immaterial to what needed to be done. They both also, much to my surprise, said they would work for him again.

Assholes apparently have their place in the scheme of things. I don’t like it and it isn’t the way I would do things but millions of people voted for the man. Just look at his actions since becoming president. He has taken the initiative so aggressively that the Democrats can’t keep up with him. He has thrown so many ideas against the wall that some of them are bound to stick. He doesn’t want to just roll back DEI (diversity, equality, inclusion), he wants to destroy it so he has asked his Attorney General to pursue criminal charges against companies who continue to use it. The whole concept of DEI is in a defensive crouch.

Vast swaths of the American public are in trouble. Much of the public believe that government isn’t much help in dealing with these troubles. Education, which used to be a linchpin for future success, looks like nothing more than a meaningless money suck. I believe these ideas are wrong but this is irrelevant to the problem the Democrats have here. As long as people believe that government is more concerned in DEI than the ABC’s, the Democrats have a big problem because Trump has made the Democratic Party and Liberals the face of this failure.

I wish I had the answer to Trump’s frenetic attacks against government. They are damaging because they undermine the best ways in which regular people can better themselves. That doesn’t change one important fact — he is successful and part of his success is he has shown himself willing to shake things up in what people have come to believe are moribund and corrupt government institutions. Until this changes, the Democrats are on the defensive and Trump is in the driver’s seat.

Is there a liberal asshole out there up to the job of challenging Trump? So far I don’t see it.

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Lucian Truscott IV proposes the most bizarre reason yet for the Democrats loss in last year’s election. His idea is that too many of the potential Democratic voters were high on legal marijuana. Yes. You heard it right. As a legal marijuana smoker, I can only reply one way. For Christ’s fucking sake, man, you are scraping the bottom of the barrel for that one.

His opinion, which he himself concedes is based in speculation and no data whatsoever, sees millions of potential voters emotionally deadened to the prospect of an authoritarian takeover of their government just failed to vote. They just weren’t scared enough to vote because they were floating on feel good marijuana.

This isn’t even worth consideration — not even worth a maybe and lets look into this further. This is bullshit with a capital B. It is just a way to avoid looking at the bigger problem that large swaths of the Democratic Party establishment are out of touch with regular voters. Hell, they are out of touch with their own voters.

I hang with a primarily liberal Democratic group and I don’t know anyone who cares about proper pronoun use or support sex change operations for children. Republicans managed to attach these really suspect ideas onto the Democratic brand. The Democratic Establishment did relatively little to change this perception. Instead of Hell no this isn’t what we are about, they downplayed the importance of the issues saying that the vast majority of voters don’t care about these issues as they only affect a small number of Americans. Not talking about an issue that is unpopular to the general population is a terrible response to the question. It is as good as admitting that these issues were indeed important to the Democratic Party but are too toxic to talk about.

If people in my liberal circles aren’t particularly worried about proper pronouns and child sex change operations, then I am pretty certain that people who have less liberal inclinations are baffled. This awkward non-response left a lot of people asking why are we talking about transexuals in the schools in the first place. Parents would much prefer children learning what a pronoun is before learning which is their child’s preferred pronoun. These aren’t issues that will capture the imaginations of mainstream voters.

Say like the homeless overrunning the streets of our cities. I happen to agree that this is a bigger problem and isn’t easily solved. It also sounds like an excuse to do absolutely nothing. Well, then, if you can’t do anything to resolve the problem, then why wouldn’t people opt for someone, no matter how awful he is, who seems willing to take on the problem. Liberal government has to perform with the resources it has and perform well. Right now the perception is that government is failing to deal with the homeless problem and, I am afraid, this perception is right.

A lot of this caution is due to concern about the rights of homeless people. Middle class people vote, the homeless do not. Political parties have to deal with reality in order to get elected. This means addressing the concerns of this larger electorate is an important step in winning elections. When people have homeless people camping out on their streets and government says we are unable to help you because the homeless have rights, well what the hell can you do then? Shrugging your shoulders in despair is hardly a motivating call to action.

In the meantime, by all means, go after the non-voting marijuana smokers if you must. But, I think a better use of our resources would be to learn how to deliver better government services to the people who vote. All I know is that after reading all Truscott’s bullshit, I need to smoke me a joint.

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The thing that frightens me most since Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance is the number of Democrats who think Joe Biden is the only Democrat who can beat Donald Trump.

I like Joe Biden, I do. But he isn’t a particularly strong candidate. He has ran for President numerous times and never got past the early primaries. Barrack Obama rescued him from obscurity when he made Biden his Vice-Presidential candidate which left him the highest ranking Democrat eligible for the presidency after Hillary Clinton, another sure thing, by the way, lost. He is old and a visibly frailer man than he was in 2020 which shouldn’t be a particularly surprising circumstance for 81 year old man.

So Biden, this not particularly strong candidate, is the best that the Democrats got to run against the demented Donald Trump. Trump who has serious problems putting together a coherent sentence, who has no real agenda other than his own personal grievances and lining his pocket, who has a history of questionable business practices, a man who can say something one moment and deny that he ever said in the next breath, a man who is publicly on the grift to oil company executives, a man who has little grasp on the complex problems facing this country, a man that many members of his own party can’t bring themselves to vote for, this is the man so powerful that only Joe Biden can beat?

If Joe Biden is the only solution to the Donald Trump problem then the Democrats have a much bigger problem than a fragile Joe Biden. They had four years to line up suitable opponents for Trump and yet they decided to prop up an old man and hope for the best. This reveals a party with a lack of confidence in itself and unprepared for the future. Seriously, if the Democrats can’t beat an idiot like Donald Trump with any number of alternate candidates than politics might not be the best profession for them to be in.

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The only question I care about right now is can Joe Biden beat Donald Trump. If he can, I don’t care what physical and mental shape Joe Biden is in. You can also see the problem with this position. If Joe Biden is unable to put all his energies into campaigning for the presidency, how is he going to beat Donald Trump?

A candidate for office is required to give speeches, debate, travel the country, shake hands and kiss babies. This involves a lot of mental and physical energy. Can Biden muster the energy for the long days on the campaign trail necessary to win what will be a close race for the presidency? If he can’t, he must go.

People argue that his debate performance was just one bad night. It isn’t fair to dump a man based on one night. I am afraid it is. A candidate can have a mediocre night and carry on but a terrible night is unforgivable. This is what distinguishes a championship performance from just regular guy performance. A champion will have an off night and still fight through it to look OK and maybe even win the night. Biden had a terrible night.

What about all the lies Trump told. His performance wasn’t much better than Biden’s So what? It isn’t the first time Trump lied and it won’t be the last. Biden should have vigorously attacked those lies. Blaming the moderators for not fact checking Trump is a little lame when Biden, who is actually running for office and has a chance to challenge the lies, fails to do so. Indeed, that is the whole reason Biden was on the stage — to challenge Trump. Why didn’t he?

Then, there are those who say Biden is the only one who can beat Trump. Huh? Are people looking at the same poll numbers I am looking at. And look, if Biden were ahead in the polls, and was going to win reelection, I would vote for Biden if he was in a coma. But that isn’t the case. He is in a close election and, right now he is running behind. The fact is he is getting further behind with each passing day. How exactly is Biden going to change that dynamic?

There needs to be a reality check here on the President. He has served well and I like the man. But he is going into a job interview and he needs to show his best self on a fairly regular basis. A mediocre day can be forgiven, a bad day can not.

Unfortunately for Biden, staying in the race is only going to make his situation worse. The Republicans and the Media will scrutinize his every word, his every stumble, and will keep asking can Biden run the country. His every performance will be studied for gaffs and his message, and more importantly the Democratic Party’s message, will be lost.

If this is truly an important election then the Democrats need to step up and show they are interested in winning. Sticking with a man who is behind in the polls, performing terribly on the stump and has to be in bed by 8PM does not bode well for beating Trump. Then, what choice do the Democrats have than to dump Joe Biden?