Tag: Conservatives

CPAC 2021–Final Day

The big night for CPAC…..the Donald emerges from the fog of the 2020 election…..

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But before they start all must bow to the golden idol…..to the god of the GOP…..

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Waiting for those damn evangelicals to offer up a biblical verse…..(sound of crickets)……

I skipped Day two of the CPAC because it can be summed up as Different Day, Same Sh*t….all kiss the kings ass speech after speech.

The final day (mercifully)….and the speakers are the biggest airbags on the planet….

Former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee

Former National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow

Former US president Trump

Let’s begin with the speech from ex-Pres. Trump…….

Taking the stage for the first time since leaving office, former President Trump on Sunday called for Republican Party unity in a speech at a conservative political conference, even as he exacerbated its divisions and made clear he intended to remain a dominant force in the party. Trump used his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, where he has been hailed as a returning hero, to blast his successor, President Joe Biden, and try to cement his status as the party’s undisputed leader despite his loss in November, the AP reports. “Do you miss me yet?” Trump said after taking the stage, where his old rally soundtrack had been playing. “I stand before you today to declare that the incredible journey we begun together … is far from being over.” Though Trump has flirted with the idea of creating a third party, he pledged to remain part of what he called “our beloved party,” saying, “I’m going to continue to fight right by your side. We’re not starting new parties. We have the Republican Party. It’s going to be strong and united like never before.”

The conference, held this year in Orlando instead of the Washington suburbs because of COVID-19 restrictions, has been a tribute to Trump and Trumpism, complete with a golden statue in his likeness. Speakers, including many potential 2024 hopefuls, have argued the party must embrace the former president and his followers, even after the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol on Jan. 6. And they have repeated his unfounded claims that he lost his bid for reelection only because the election was “rigged.” The conference’s annual unscientific straw poll of just over 1,000 attendees found that 97% approve of the job Trump did as president. But they were much more ambiguous about whether he should run again, with 68% saying he should. Speaking of the current US president, who defeated him in November, Trump said: “Joe Biden has had the most disastrous first month of any president in modern history.”

Nothing new in that speech….the same rhetoric as always…..and the same lame language he has become known for……

Then there was the straw poll….and Trump won 55%…..I would have thought it would be larger with all the Trump sycophants in attendance…..

Who does CPAC want to win the presidential election in 2024? The same person who won it in 2016. Former President Donald Trump on Sunday won the Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll, with 55% of respondents saying that if the election were held today, they’d vote for him. Coming in second, per the Hill, was Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis with 21%, followed by South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem with 4%. Per the New York Times, just 68% of respondents said they wanted Trump to run again, while a whopping 95% said they wanted the GOP to continue to advance his policies and agenda. The poll results were announced just before Trump’s big speech.

The secret ballots were submitted by a group of current and former elected officials, activists, writers, and others—generally representative of the Republican Party’s far-right wing, the Times notes, meaning attendees were likely to be disproportionately Trump fans. Indeed, his approval rating among CPAC attendees was 97%, and a massive 87% of respondents said they strongly approve of him. CPAC straw polls don’t have a great record in terms of actually predicting future nominees; Sen. Rand Paul won three consecutive years before Election 2016, and his presidential campaign that time around only made it through the Iowa caucuses.

Could we be witnessing of the Grand Old Party death throes?

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“lego ergo scribo”

 

CPAC 2021–All Hope Is Gone

And now the humor for this Saturday.

Day One

CPAC?  That use to stand for Conservative Political Action Conference…..and now it basically means the Cruel and Paranoid Americans Coalition.

But first a little history on CPAC…..https://money.yahoo.com/cpac-brief-history-conservative-movement-120815471.html

True conservatives are missing from the line-up.

Ever since Biden was elected president the politicians have been saying that it was time to heal from the deep political divisions during the Trump years.

I have given my thoughts on this call for unity…..https://lobotero.com/2021/01/28/unity/

A truly silly wish.

Looks like Trump will make a speech and it will be that he is in control…..

Former President Donald Trump is getting ready to make headlines with his first speech since leaving office last month.

Trump is planning to brand himself as the “presumptive 2024 nominee” during his speech at CPAC, Axios reported Monday.

While it is well known that Trump remains a dominant force in the Republican Party, this would be the first public indication from him that he wants to run for a second non-consecutive term.

Report: Trump Will Use CPAC Speech to Begin 2024 Run

But that analysis is for his speech….now to day one of the meeting….

The line-up for Friday was a love fest from Trump toadies….

Florida governor Ron DeSantis

Senator Mike Lee

Former governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker

Senator James Lankford

Former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi

Senator Ted Cruz

Rep. Mo Brooks

Rep. Madison Cawthorn

Senator Tom Cotton

Sen. Marsha Blackburn

Rep. Matt Gaetz

Sen. Rick Scott

Sen. Josh Hawley

Donald Trump Jr.

Here is FOX News take on the speakers.

During the first full day of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), speakers hit cancel culture, China, Big Tech and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

But one thing pervaded it all — fealty to former President Trump.

Here are some of Friday’s biggest moments:

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/five-biggest-moments-cpac-friday

These types of gatherings usually look to the future and plan for it….but this time the conservs will embrace the past and the disastrous policies they held….and a continuation of revisionist bullshit.

I have never seen a bunch of clowns shoveling manure so liberally.

Here is fact check…..https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/26/politics/cpac-first-day-fact-check-2021/index.html

The biggest pile of crap closed up the day of revisionism….

All in all the day was Trump….the days of looking to the future is gone for the GOP….all they have is lies and BS.

On to Day Two…..

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“lego ergo scribo”

 

Who’s Who For SCOTUS

By now the country knows and is in mourning for Judge Ginsberg…..that means that the conservs are rubbing their hands in anticipation of putting another conserv on the highest court in the land.

I have heard two names that gives me shudders….Ted Cruz (who says he does not want it) and Tom Cotton that warmonger from Arkansas…..but believe it or not there are other names in the hunt for the replacement….and these are…..

The full list of Trump’s additional picks is as follows:

Bridget Bade of Arizona, judge on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Daniel Cameron of Kentucky, that state’s attorney general
Paul Clement of Virginia, former U.S. solicitor general
Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas
Stuart Kyle Duncan of Louisiana, judge on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Steven Engel of the District of Columbia, assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice
Noel Francisco, former U.S. solicitor general
Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri
James Ho of Texas, judge on the 5th Circuit
Gregory Katsas of Virginia, judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
Barbara Lagoa, a judge from Florida on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals

Christopher Landau of Maryland, U.S. ambassador to Mexico
Carlos Muñiz of Florida, justice on the Florida Supreme Court
Martha Pacold of Illinois, judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
Peter Phipps of Pennsylvania, judge on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Sarah Pitlyk of Missouri, judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri
Allison Jones Rushing of North Carolina, judge on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Kate Todd of Virginia, deputy assistant to the president and deputy counsel to the president
Lawrence VanDyke of Nevada, judge on the 9th Circuit

An extensive list indeed…..but is there a short list?  (Of course there is for Donald cannot concentrate long enough to read that long list)

The line to succeed the late Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court likely starts with these federal appeals court judges:

Amy Coney Barrett 

Read On……https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/09/18/replacing-ruth-bader-ginsburg-list-starts-amy-coney-barrett/2669382002/

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What Has Happened To The GOP?

I have been debating people about the GOP for decades….there were very few policies and issues of the party that I agreed with….but that was before the election of Trump and the sycophants in the GOP.

I asked the question several times in the past…..

https://lobotero.com/2018/11/06/where-has-the-gop-gone/

https://lobotero.com/2019/12/16/what-is-wrong-with-the-gop/

What happened to fiscal policy?

What happened to family values?

What has happened to the GOP?

I will admit that there have been what I call “liberal Republicans” that I could agree with on principle but maybe not on substance…..but then 2010 arrived and those member of the GOP have been driven out by the movements like the Tea Party.

Even the uber conserv Joe Scarborough asks the same question as I…..

“Perhaps Lindsey O. Graham was right when he predicted that Trump would destroy the Republican Party,” Scarborough wrote. “The question that remains is why the South Carolina senator and so many of his peers stay silent while the honor of our military leaders is under attack by America’s president. One wonders what the hard-hat rioters would have thought about that.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/09/trump-is-undermining-the-gops-claim-to-patriotism-and-republicans-dont-seem-to-care-joe-scarborough/

And then the election of Trump and all true conservs have found out that they are not the GOP but rather a tolerated group to gain power and influence.

The Mouth or Donald the Orange…seems to be losing his grip….his pressers are weirder and weirder……so what is wrong with Trump?

His transmission seems to be slipping, at least one of his cylinders is misfiring, the brakes are not grabbing and the stability of the “very stable genius” appears to be wobbling. Why? Did he really have “mini-strokes” in November?

Or are the reasons for his fantasies simply that he’s behind in the polls against Joe Biden and that neither his overdone baloney convention nor his desperation law-and-order campaign are getting much traction? Or all of the above?

What raises concerns about Trump’s state of mind two months before the election are his recent embrace of some wild conspiracy theories, his talk of “dark shadows” controlling Biden, his saying people were out to get him in a “coup,” his charging that “thugs” in “dark uniforms” were aboard a plane departing Washington, and his telling people to vote twice as a check on whether mail-in voting works.

What’s the Matter with Trump?

I judge a party by its platform, a statement of principles, and in 2020 the GOP has NO platform…..like the GOP platform of 1956…….

1956 REPUBLICAN PLATFORM 1 Provide Federal Assistance to Low-Income Communities 2 Protect Social Security 3 Provide Asylum for Refugees 4 Extend Minimum Wage 5 Improve Unemployment Benefit System So It Covers More

So I ask again….what has happened to the GOP?

“The Republican National Committee (RNC) enthusiastically supports President Trump and continues to reject the policy positions of the Obama-Biden Administration, as well as those espoused by the Democratic National Committee today … [and that] the Republican Party has and will continue to enthusiastically support the President’s America-first agenda.”

A Party platform defines what a party stands for so, with no new party platform in 2020 the Republicans are admitting they have no new ideas or plans. With a worldwide pandemic in progress one would think they might have some official policy objectives, other than yielding to whatever their sitting president may feel are appropriate actions, like suggesting internal use of disinfectants, slowing down the rates of COVID testing, or assuming it will just “go away”.

The president has a long history of racist and religious bigotry that is now part of his America First Agenda. Since, as they have stated, the RNC enthusiastically supports him, they are willing to capitulate to his whims, his need for attention, adoration and his demand for total loyalty both from the party and his administration.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/09/08/party-formerly-known-republican

I ask again….what happened to the GOP?

I feel it all began to deteriorate with Reagan and culminated with the election of Trump…..and the destruction of the GOP is near complete.

The real question should be….can the GOP be saved from itself?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Those “Never Trumpers”

Conservs that are working as hard as the Dems to get Trump out of office this November….but to what end?

Remember the old saying….”Beware of Greeks Bearing gifts”……

I wrote a warning to the Dems about embracing the “Never Trumpers”…….Please read my thoughts first…….https://lobotero.com/2020/08/05/the-lincoln-project-after-the-fall/

Now the American Conservative (who would have thought that I of all people would be using a conservative site as a tool?)

TAC is warning that the Neocons that are part of the “Never Trump” movement should not be trusted…..

Never-Trumper Republicans have been worming their way into the Biden campaign, offering to flesh out his “coalition” ahead of the election and pushing their way into the foreign policy discussions, particularly on China. Given their shared  history with the liberal interventionists already in the campaign, don’t for a second think that there aren’t hungry neoconservatives among them trying to get a seat at the table.

“Some hawkish Democrats may see the neocons as convenient allies in preserving an outdated interventionist mindset,” offers Matt Duss, who is Sen. Bernie Sanders’ longtime foreign policy advisor and maintains close ties with the Democratic campaign to replace President Trump. “And of course neocons are desperate for any opportunity to salvage their own relevance.”

To those who oppose Trump and support his Democratic opponent, The Lincoln Project’s frontal assault on the president, along with the mainstream headline-grabbing Republican Voters Against Trump PAC, are manna from heaven. But to those of us who were called “unpatriotic conservatives” for failing to goose step with the neoconservatives dominating Washington before the Iraq War—many of whom are soaring around this never-never land right now—this may be a warning from below.

Duss was responding to a Daily Beast report last week which quoted unnamed “individuals who work for conservative think tanks in Washington” who have acknowledged “informally speaking with members of the Biden team in recent weeks.” The focus appears to be on the failing China trade deal and Trump’s supposed weak posture. Reportedly, they are “so frustrated with the U.S-China trade deal and the administration’s efforts to hold Beijing accountable that they are willing to offer counsel to the Democratic nominee.”

Neoconservative Wolves Dressed in Never-Trumper Clothing

Dems have been warned….but are they listening….or is their haste to replace Trump making them more stupid than normal?

My thought it is the later.

This movement, in my opinion, is true conservs that do not see a future in the GOP….they need to work to rid themselves of all those that enabled Trump or their work will be for naught.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Lincoln Project After The Fall

Closing Thought–05Aug20

Many of us have been exposed the the ads of the Lincoln Project. It is true Repubs and conservs that are not down with the silliness of the RNC and its defense of the toad Trump.

Their anti-Trump ads have become the stuff of legends.

The Lincoln Project?

President Abraham Lincoln led the United States through its bloodiest, most divisive and most decisive period of our history. He fought not because he wanted to, but because he knew the dual goals of preserving the Union and the end of slavery would be achieved only through armed conflict. Lincoln always kept the enormous human cost of the struggle in the front of his mind. At Gettysburg, he implored us not to forget those that had given “their last full measure of devotion” to preserving the American experiment. As it became clear that the Union would be victorious, Lincoln’s thoughts turned to how the nation would “bind up its wounds” and move forward together.

Today, we find ourselves divided again – sectionalism in the country and factionalism in government has led to ever uglier examples of how our political system is failing. President Donald Trump and those who sign onto Trumpism are a clear and present danger to the Constitution and our Republic. Only defeating so polarizing a character as Trump will allow the country to heal its political and psychological wounds and allow for a new, better path forward for all Americans.

https://lincolnproject.us/

A couple of the political ads from the Lincoln Project…..

These are excellent ads with a strong message.

Everyone is talking about the effect that the Lincoln Project is having on the GOP.

They may well be the best thing to happen to Joe Biden and they could be the very thing he needs to get himself elected in 2020.

Amid all the noise of an election involving Donald Trump – all the inflammatory tweets and shadowy Facebook posts – one set of ads has somehow managed to break through.

There’s the one of the US president shuffling down a ramp that declares that the president “is not well”. There’s the whispering one about Trump’s “loyalty problem” inside his White House, campaign and family.

There’s the epic Mourning in America that remakes Reagan’s election-defining 1984 ad, turning the sun-bathed suburbs into a dark national portrait of pandemic and recession. On Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, those three ads alone have racked up more than 35m views.

The Lincoln Project, run by a group of renegade Republican political consultants, has crystallized one of the core narratives of the 2020 campaign in ways that few other political commercials have in past cycles.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/01/lincoln-project-donald-trump-republicans-campaign-ads

We can enjoy the fact that Trump may well be gone from the White House in January 2021…..and the Lincoln Project will be the real cause that Trump was defeated.

And the peasants danced!

Please do not rejoice to soon.

WHY?

After Trump loses these people will revert back to the GOP and the Dems will be their targets….the very effective ad process will have a new foe and that foe is the Democrats.

All those creative juices that help defeat Trump will now be there to help Repubs regain their former glory.

Be warned and start NOW looking for a counter to the Project’s effectiveness.

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I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Time To Redefine!

As we get closer to the election in 2020 the MSM will continue to define the candidates as Left or Right and in some cases Centrists…l.all this defining is just a ploy to drive the conversation and to define the country politically as they see fit.

I am what use to be called a “Hard Leftist” and some people call Trump a Rightist and people like Biden as a “Centrist”…..all this needs a redefining program….none of the old definitions are accurate in these troubling times.

One of the most persistent—and destructive—myths in politics is that America is a center right country politically.  It is reinforced by both parties, the press, and pundits and it has become generally accepted by much of the public.  This myth explains why folks warn against going too far to the left; about the dangers of embracing—gasp—”socialism,” and why most attempts to divine the “electability” of the multitude of candidates in the Democratic race are misguided at best.

For example, from the center right, New York Times columnist and NPR commentator David Brooks said:

According to a recent Gallup poll, 35 percent of Americans call themselves conservative, 35 percent call themselves moderate and 26 percent call themselves liberal. The candidates at the debates this week fall mostly within the 26 percent. The party seems to think it can win without any of the 35 percent of us in the moderate camp, the ones who actually delivered the 2018 midterm win.

First of all, any objective analysis of the 2018 midterms shows it was progressive candidates and voters who delivered the win.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/07/03/its-time-redefine-left-right-and-especially-center-us-politics

I agree this redefining is needed….I hate that moderates are calling themselves progressive these days and fascists are calling themselves conservative.

As a lifelong “Leftist” I despise the comparisons the media and ill-informed bloggers makes these days……they are defining who YOU are and you are allowing them to do so.

NOT ME!

Time to stand up for who you are!

“lego ergo scribo”

Covid-19 And The Cult Of Death

This is a subject that I have been saying for many many years…..I have analyzed the issues of this group over those years and see that they would prefer death of some to promote a healthier (meaning more profits) health care sector.

The group I am talking about is the GOP.

For decades the GOP has labelled itself the “party for life”….and promoted a “culture of life” for the nation……usually only because of its opposition to abortion….but how accurate is that title?

To be honest I think that the whole “life” thing is just plain noise and bluster.

Why?

A decade ago, in my first public writing since leaving Capitol Hill, I warned that the Republican Party, in its evolution towards an extremist conservative movement allied with extremist Christian fundamentalism, was becoming like “one of the intensely ideological authoritarian parties of 20th century Europe.” After Donald Trump’s enthronement as the decider of our fate, I analyzed the GOP’s descent into a nihilism that belied every one of its supposed “values.” They value only absolute power or ruin.

It is now long past time to cast off highfalutin’ Latinisms and simply call the Republicans and their religious and secular conservative allies what they are, and in unadorned English: a death cult. As the country reels from the coronavirus pandemic, our national government might just as well be run by the infamous People’s Temple of Jonestown.

By now we are benumbed by the all-pervasive arguments over relaxing workplace shutdowns and stay-at-home orders due to coronavirus. In any sane society, the issue would be how to institute the most efficient measures to defeat the pandemic in the shortest time and with the lowest loss of life. Instead, Trump and his merry band of lunatics have hijacked the national debate into a faux-serious discussion of when, oh, please, how soon, can we “reopen the economy?” Naturally, the media gamely continue to play along with this calculated bit of dezinformatsiya.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/04/17/gop-has-become-death-cult

The GOP says they are “pro-life”…..and yet nothing about their issues confirm that in analysis……basically all I can tell is that they are “anti-abortion”….or better yet “anti-choice”

This pandemic is showing just how much of a “cult of death” the GOP really has become.

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“lego ergo scribo”

Are You “Never Trump”?

This is another of those slogans and insults that I find offensive and totally pathetic.  It is nothing more than mental midgets insulting because they are not sharp enough to argue the point.

I have been told that I am a “Never Trump” person and to that I just tell them to visit IST and see what I have written about the president.

For those lazy people and you know who you are I will summarize for your merger mind…..I have been criticizing the president on many issues…immigration, environment, governing style, taxes but I have also come down on his side on several other issues like ending our endless wars…..Trump has made an effort but he needs to go much further but for the most part his foreign policy needs some work and some people that will care for the country and not worry about massaging the genitals of the man.

So to call me a “Never Trump” person is just flat out wrong……I prefer to label myself as “America First” person….everything a president does should be to move this country forward not to the lap of luxury…..

I am not alone there are many GOPers that have left the GOP behind because of the twisting of the conservative faith into a pretzel that benefits NO one but the man at the top (The Man In The High Castle)…..

The phrase “Never Trump” doesn’t do justice to Republicans, or former Republicans, or any non-Democrat who speaks out against the lies, immorality, and nefarious activities of Trump’s Republican Party. It’s an intellectually lazy label born of the clickbait media culture. I guess that’s the reason why the Trump cult loves it, and maybe partially why journalists use it.

But you ask, why is it intellectually lazy?

Because every time Trump, or his sycophants use the term Never Trump, they imply that those Republicans who oppose Trump are corrupt and those who are apolitical are part of some sort of conspiracy. And the truth is, there’s nothing of the sort. David Frum and George Will and Rick Wilson all come to their antipathy toward Trump for different reasons, none of which was for self-gain. The unifying thread is that these people and others, believe that Trump represents such a danger to the Republic that it is important to sublimate their careers, their policy preferences, their tribal identities, in an effort to oppose him.

It’s Not “Never Trump.” It’s “Country First.”

I would never vote for Trump I have better things in mind for my country than what Trump offers.

Plus his reaction and response to the Covid-19 pandemic is just another reason I could not vote for Trump….even though he is trying to buy votes with the peon stim plan…..

WAIT!  I guess I am a “Never Trumper”……who knew?

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

You Cannot Embarrass Apathy

I have been telling anyone that would listen that the GOP as well as the Dems care little about anything but their small path to re-election.

I will give Morning Joe a “gold star” for his effort to call out the GOP for their enabling policies…..

Joe Scarborough lit into conservative media Friday morning for what he sees as behavior for which history will forever see as humiliating for columnists, writers and cable news figures who have shown sycophancy for the Trump administration, in particular, Attorney General William Barr.

The Morning Joe co-host went off on his erstwhile ideologues during a segment pegged to the recent admission made by Rudy Giuliani to the NY Times about “meddling” into an investigation into Joe Biden’s son’s dealings with Ukraine. Scarborough said “Donald Trump has always had no respect for constitutional norms,” to which co-host Mika Brzezinski responded, “He plays very dirty.”

Scarborough then pivoted to the conservative media saying “all of these conservative writers that wanted to maintain their dignity thought they could do that by being ‘anti-anti Trump’ are now all going in on William Barr,” adding, “for instance, the Attorney General commits perjury nobody Trump world lifts an eyebrow, no Republicans care.”

He finished with “You’re defending the most corrupt Attorney General, I mean, since John Mitchell. Like it’s bad. The article is going to look extraordinarily stupid and you’re going to look like — well, the sycophant. It’s really embarrassing. I hope you’ll protect yourself from that because you’ve really humiliated yourself over the past couple of weeks.”

Scarborough is a former Republican House Representative from Florida, and still claims conservative bona fides, however, he has formally announced his leaving of the Republican party, as he has said, “the Republican party left” him.

Nice try but there is NO way to make these sycophants embarrassed over their apathy……these care little for what the voter wants for they feel they know better and will not bend in their thinking.

This is not a new trend….it has been around as long as I have been voting but yet the American people care not….they will vote for someone that hits all the check points of their supporters and then do what they wanted all along…..and the voter will vote for them yet again to do NOTHING they want them to do…..and the cycle never ends.