Tag: Election Process

Political Monies

A blogging friend Nan of https://sayitnow.wordpress.com/ recently wrote about her thoughts on political contributions….

Political Contributions

I thought I would continue somewhat on her thoughts.

Personally I think that there is too much cash political elections….and apparently I am not alone….

A significant majority of Americans agree that there is too much money in the US political system and that the super rich have more influence over election outcomes than ordinary citizens, a poll published by Politico on Saturday found.

The poll comes after outside spending in the 2024 election broke records, with richest-man-alive Elon Musk pouring over $250 million into President Donald Trump’s campaign.

…

According to the poll, 72% of Americans agree that there is too much money in politics, while only 5% disagree. There is broad partisan consensus on this issue, with 80% of 2024 Kamala Harris voters and 77% of 2024 Trump voters also agreeing.

At the same time, 61% think that billionaires have too much influence on US politics. There was a larger partisan gap on this issue, with 75% of Harris voters and 55% of Trump voters agreeing

A total of 67% of respondents think that there is too much special interest money specifically in elections, and 53% see it as a form of corruption that should be restricted. There is also bipartisan support for the idea that special interest money is corruption, with 61% of Harris voters and 56% of Trump voters backing this position.

There is slightly more concern about money in politics from Democratic voters, with 49% of 2024 Harris voters stating it could outright buy elections compared with 33% of Trump voters.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/too-much-money-in-politics

It has been this way for far too long….it is time to stop bitching about and do something is my advice to the Dems in Congress.

The sad part is that they are just as empowered by all this cash as the Repubs….so there will be very little interest in turning a new leaf….there will always be something more important that they have to deal with on their limited agenda.

I am not saying to do not contribute but the money should go into a fund and be divided evenly among candidates….all candidates….this would help eliminate some of the special interests influence.

This will not solve the problem completely but it could help lessen the effect of all that cash.

Thoughts would be nice.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Takeaways

Votes have been counted and now it is time to take a quick look at what has been taken away from the vote.

Democrats scored sweeping victories across major states in Tuesday’s elections, signaling a sharp backlash to President Trump’s policies and offering their party new momentum ahead of the 2026 midterms. Voters turned out in “extraordinary” numbers for an off-year contest, per the New York Times, delivering wins for Democrats in high-profile races in Virginia, New Jersey, California, and Pennsylvania. The results—widely seen as a referendum on Trump—reinvigorated Democrats after a year largely spent out of power in Washington, with the party now eyeing redistricting fights and next year’s congressional races as opportunities to blunt the Trump agenda. More takeaways from Tuesday night, per the Times, CNN, NPR, and Politico:

  • Governorships: In Virginia, Democrat Abigail Spanberger won the governor’s race by spotlighting Trump-era federal worker cuts, becoming the state’s first woman governor—an honor her rival, Winsome Earle-Sears, also would’ve claimed. Meanwhile, New Jersey’s Mikie Sherrill rode criticism of Trump’s infrastructure policies to victory, beating Jack Ciattarelli, who CNN notes “had a strong statewide performance under his belt after his near-miss in the 2021 governor’s race,” as well as “a ‘Jersey guy’ appeal that he hoped would give him some separation from Trump,” who’d endorsed him.
  • New Big Apple leader: New York City elected Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old progressive and self-described democratic socialist, as mayor. Mamdani’s rapid rise and focus on cost-of-living issues have made him a new face for the left, though his appeal outside the city remains to be seen.
  • California: Golden State Gov. Gavin Newsom bolstered his national profile by championing a successful ballot measure to redraw congressional districts in Democrats’ favor, urging other blue states to follow suit. “Tonight, after poking the bear, this bear roared with an unprecedented turnout in a special election with an extraordinary result,” Newsom said Tuesday night.
  • Pennsylvania: Democratic justices on the state Supreme Court hung on to their majority for new 10-year terms, “in a perennial battleground state where legal challenges over voting rules are all but certain,” per CNN.
  • Economy: In both the two big gubernatorial races, as well as in New York City and in California, exit polls revealed that the economy was the most important issue or close to it, with the Dems claiming the win in most cases, per NPR.
  • Suburban shift: Residents on city outskirts especially came through in Virginia for Spanberger, who “ran up the score” in key suburban areas like Loudon and Prince William counties, where she received 64.3% and 66.7% of the vote, respectively, per Politico.
  • A 180 for people of color: Politico notes that minority groups seem to be shifting support away from MAGA camps, especially in New Jersey, where exit polls “showed Sherrill with large margins among Black, Hispanic, and Asian voters—demographics national Democrats spent millions of dollars to reengage during the campaign.”
  • More GOP vs. Dems: Republicans failed to capitalize on scandals dogging some Democratic candidates, such as Virginia’s Jay Jones, whose victory as his state’s attorney general despite controversy highlighted the depth of anti-GOP sentiment. The elections also reinforced a pattern: Democrats tend to outperform when Trump isn’t on the ballot, as seen in recent nonpresidential contests.

Some great news for the Dems but will it translate next year when the mid-terms come around?

A lot can happen between this vote and the next but hopefully the country is coming to their senses.

I Read, I Write, You KNow

“lego ergo scribo”

The Creeping Third Party

Since Donny did what he did in the last election there have been a lot of grumbling on both sides of the aisle….now there is a story circulating about some secret meetings to counter the Donny agenda.

That will be news for another day if it is true…..but the loudest chest thumping for a third party comes from Elmo and seems for now many Americans think it is a good idea…..

It comes after the world’s richest man claimed he would launch “the America Party” in response to Donald Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” which he described as “insane.” A disagreement over the bill between the two men led to an explosive online fallout last month.

Lawmakers voted to pass the bill Thursday and it was signed by the president Friday.

“Our country needs an alternative to the Democrat-Republican uniparty so that the people actually have a VOICE,” Musk wrote in a string of X posts Monday. “Great day for some … fireworks,” he wrote on Friday, adding two fire emojis.

Quantus Insights’ poll was conducted between June 30-July 2 among 1,000 registered voters, with a 3 percent margin of error.

The pollster highlighted that, though 40 percent of respondents were in favor of Musk’s hypothetical third party, the result was unsurprising. In 2023, a Gallup poll found that 63 percent of Americans supported an alternative third political party.

The survey also revealed clear divides across party lines and demographics, with male Republicans appearing to be the most interested in a party launched by Musk.

Some 23 percent of Republican men said they are “very likely” and 34 percent say “somewhat likely” to back the America Party, and over half (57 percent) expressed openness to Musk as a political brand.

Nearly half (47 percent) of independent men said they were likely to support the America Party.

(independent.co.uk)

Breaking news–while I was writing this the news broke that thye America Party is a done deal….

Because his people demanded it, Elon Musk posted Saturday on X, “Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.” On Friday, the billionaire had put the question to his followers on X, as he’s done with other issues, Reuters reports. His Saturday post announced the decision was a landslide. “By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it!” Musk wrote. He’d been bringing up the possibility since his bitter split with President Trump, per Politico, most recently early this week as he attacked the tax break and spending cut legislation.

 It was only two months ago that Musk announced he was going to cut his political spending, saying he had “done enough,” Politico points out. Musk provided no details about the launch, and the party does not seem to be registered with the Federal Election Commission, per CNBC.

But he suggested a strategy for it on Friday. “One way to execute on this would be to laser-focus on just 2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House districts,” Musk posted, per Axios. “Given the razor-thin legislative margins, that would be enough to serve as the deciding vote on contentious laws, ensuring that they serve the true will of the people.”

It appears that he has the brain child of trying to control Congress….

It is unclear what his potential new third party would stand for, and the country does notably boast several other third parties on both sides of the aisle.

However, none have been able to cut through the popularity of the two mainstream parties. That said, the success of Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old Democratic socialist born to Muslim-Indian parents in Uganda and raised in Queens who beat longtime establishment politician Andrew Cuomo in last month’s mayoral primary election, has seemingly threatened both parties’ bases.

Panic across the aisle has followed his win as centrists fear the rise of a true progressive potentially running the nation’s largest city. The president has even threatened to deport the self-described socialist.

The former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) leader shared his thoughts on how to give his third party, which likely would lean center-right, staying power.

“One way to execute on this would be to laser-focus on just 2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House districts,” the Tesla CEO wrote on X.

https://www.themirror.com/news/us-news/elon-musk-reveals-devious-two-1245519

Will this yet another scam like the old ‘Unity’ deal a few years back?

Most my readers know that I do not care much for either of our two parties so would I support this endeavor?

Probably not….why?

It will most likely be a centrist party I do not think that is what the country needs to move forward.

Centrism is what got us to this point….we need bold new ideas and centrist have nothing but stale antiquated crap….this country needs progress and that will not be from a centrist candidate/party.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

50 Years In The Making

We have completed a process (a plan) that begun about 50 years ago by electing Trump as president for the second time.

???  What on Earth are you going on about Professor?

Simple if you study political history….

To meet the challenge, business leaders would have to first recognize the severity of the crisis, and begin marshalling their resources to influence prominent institutions of public opinion and political power — especially the universities, the media and the courts. The memo emphasized the importance of education, values, and movement-building. Corporations had to reshape the political debate, organize speakers’ bureaus and keep television programs under “constant surveillance.” Most importantly, business needed to recognize that political power must be “assiduously cultivated; and that when necessary, it must be used aggressively and with determination without embarrassment and without the reluctance which has been so characteristic of American business.”

Powell emphasized the importance of strengthening institutions like the U.S. Chamber — which represented the interests of the broader business community, and therefore key to creating a united front. While individual corporations could represent their interests more aggressively, the responsibility of conducting an enduring campaign would necessarily fall upon the Chamber and allied foundations. Since business executives had “little stomach for hard-nosed contest with their critics” and “little skill in effective intellectual and philosophical debate,” it was important to create new think tanks, legal foundations, front groups and other organizations. The ability to align such groups into a united front would only come about through “careful long-range planning and implementation, in consistency of action over an indefinite period of years, in the scale of financing available only through joint effort, and in the political power available only through united action and united organizations.”

The Lewis Powell Memo: Corporate Blueprint to Dominate Democracy

If you read the article…..does any of that sound any where near familiar?

In 1971 there was a plan and it has been pretty much followed to a tee ever since….

We just watched the final fulfillment of a 50 year plan. Louis Powell laid it out in 1971, and every step along the way Republicans have follow it.

It was a plan to turn America over to the richest men and the largest corporations. It was a plan to replace democracy with oligarchy. A large handful of America’s richest people invested billions in this plan, and its tax breaks and fossil fuel subsidies have made them trillions. More will soon come to them.

As any advertising executive can tell you, with enough money and enough advertising — particularly if you are willing to lie — you can sell anybody pretty much anything.

Even a convicted felon, rapist, and friend and agent of America’s enemies.

America was overwhelmed this fall by billions of dollars in often dishonest advertising, made possible by five corrupt Republicans on the Supreme Court, and it worked. Democrats were massively outspent, not to mention the power of the billionaire Murdoch family’s Fox “News” and 1500 hate talk radio stations.

Open the lens a bit larger, and we find that it goes way beyond just this election; virtually every crisis America is facing right now is either caused or exacerbated by the corruption of big money authorized by five corrupt Republicans on our Supreme Court.

They are responsible for our crises of gun violence, the drug epidemic, homelessness, political gridlock, our slow response to the climate emergency, a looming crisis for Social Security and Medicare, the situation on our southern border, even the lack of affordable drugs, insurance, and healthcare.

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/trump-oligarchy-wins

The plan is almost complete just a few more cogs to work out.

After that half century we have Trump and his minions of doom…..

The American people want Donald Trump. And now they will get him. He will bring with him a horde of cranks, frauds, religious zealots, gutter racists, and vindictive thugs unprecedented in modern American history. The Nixon White House will look like a zen temple compared to what is coming. Trump’s second term will be a wave of pure malevolence. There will be revenge against his enemies, and there will be assaults on innocent and vulnerable Americans of the sort that our government usually reserves only for people overseas. Fringe lunatics will dictate health policy; Crypto grifters will dictate economic policy; Christian evangelicals will dictate Middle East policy; Flinty corporate lawyers will dictate labor policy; and the mighty American federal government will be run with all the propriety of a late night infomercial selling miracle cures to insomniacs. The cure will be branded ​“TRUMP,” in large golden letters. It won’t work. There will be no refunds.

(Hamilton Nolan)

You see the GOP has been planning this very thing for 50 years and anyone who voted for the GOP in those 50 years has contributed to the situation that many bitch about today.

But let us take a closer look at what that memo brought forth…..Project 2025….

But just how influential are their recommendations? According to The Heritage Foundation, during the first year of Trump’s first term, he “embraced” nearly two-thirds of their policy mandates. The website states that “64 percent of the policy prescriptions were included in Trump’s budget, implemented through regulatory guidance, or under consideration for action.” These included leaving the Paris Climate Accords, increasing off-shore drilling and military spending, and repealing net neutrality.

It remains to be seen just how much of Project 2025 will be enacted once Trump takes office, but there’s no doubt that everything from LGBTQ+ and abortion rights to immigration and climate justice are at risk. Below, what Project 2025 lays out for several top issues.

Read On….

https://www.marieclaire.com/politics/project-2025/

Now you have a small idea of what you will get by putting your vote into ignorance.

If you did vote GOP at any point you can bitch but you see you helped make Trump’s assault on democracy possible by buying into this plan.

I hope you are happy…..and have a merry christmas.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Biden Needs A New Plan

The 2024 election looms large on the horizon and unfortunately Biden is basically playing second fiddle to Donald the Orange…..his rhetoric is just not motivating the masses to his visions.

Maybe he should think outside the box (I do not believe that he is capable of this simple task) to win this election.

I recently read an article about another contentious election from our history and it is thinking outside that proverbial box…..

According to some polls, Joe Biden and the Democrats may be heading towards a grim outcome in November. Not only does the Senate map favor Republicans, the President’s approval ratings are dismal. There’s some indication the Biden team knows it, too. In an effort to change course, they’ve coined and sold “Bidenonomics” with little success, hit reset on the Biden campaign, and are reportedly in the process of unleashing “Darth Brandon” by letting the President go on the attack. The hope is that a more aggressive Biden like the one Americans saw during the State of the Union address may counteract concerns about his age.

Given the stakes of the election, recent polling, and the apparent desperation of the Biden camp, here’s a novel idea: How about resetting their coalition by appealing to disaffected Republicans in the name of national unity? As a token of their seriousness, they should even think about changing their name.

As out-of-left-field as it sounds, it wouldn’t be the first time a major party changed its name in advance of a make-or-break election. Indeed, it was this move that just might have saved President Abraham Lincoln’s re-election and the nation from collapse.

In the election of 1864, with the Civil War still far from over, Lincoln’s re-election was in doubt. As that long year began, he wasn’t sure he would win his party’s nomination, much less the Presidency.

In the spring of 1864, several more radical Republicans moved to replace him with Secretary of the Treasury Salmon Chase. The argument was that Lincoln had moved too slowly on emancipation and had been too conciliatory toward the South when it came to using the full breadth of federal power. Chase, the leader of the radicals, had also been angling for the Presidency from the very start of the war.

https://time.com/6960904/biden-campaign-civil-war-strategy/

I say what has Biden got to lose by changing strategy?

I know this will not happen for the money few will not want to change anything within the Biden camp for they have too much influence and the people are just irritants to be tolerated.

If Biden does not change his idiotic ways he will lose this election and give us 4 more years of utter stupidity.

Just a thought.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Every Vote Counts

It’s that magical time again!

Time is closing in for the citizens of America to go to the polls and vote for their choice for president.

And now the opinion pieces will begin for those people that vote outside the two party system.

Some may choose not to vote….and there will be those that will ostracize those people that by not voting they are helping elect this slug over this……and if there is no choice that represents their principles then I say do not vote just because some lay-about wants to chide you into doing something you do not want to do.business as usual no matter the party.

Then there are those voters like myself that could possibly vote for a third party we will not vote for one of the two parties that will do nothing for the country….I do not buy into the popular BS that by voting for a third party you will elect this candidate over that.

Either one of those unpopular options is a personal choice and as such everyone needs to just STFU.

You see my vote is just that…MINE and no one has the right to question what I do with it.

For one reason that I vote other than the two majors…..I feel they have f*cked up our democracy…..

The most compelling theory based on historical patterns of democratic decline is that hyper-polarization cracked the foundations of American democracy, creating the conditions under which a party could break democratic norms with impunity, because winning in the short term became more important than maintaining democracy for the long term.

In order for democracy to work, competing parties must accept that they can lose elections, and that it’s okay. But when partisans see their political opposition not just as the opposition, but as a genuine threat to the well-being of the nation, support for democratic norms fades because “winning” becomes everything. Politics, in turn, collapses into an all-out war of “us against them,” a kind of “pernicious polarization” that appears over and over again in democratic collapses, and bears a striking similarity to what’s currently happening in the U.S. 

Why The Two-Party System Is Effing Up U.S. Democracy

It is an older story but it still rings true today.

The theory today is that if there is not a good choice in the two parties then the voter should just hold their noses and vote for the least offensive.

Sorry I do not subscribe to this lunacy.

If one has principles then one should vote for the person that best represents those principles….no matter the party.

To recap…..your vote is your vote please do not piss it away on the ‘hold your nose’ vote.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

How About A New Lottery?

Lotteries of all sorts are very popular….many buy their chances at a big payday….and lotteries have been used for many things in the past….they were even used for the draft before it was eliminated.

Since they are so damn popular and since damn near half of American citizens do not vote at anytime….how about a election lottery?

America’s presidential election is just next year, but the competitive ugliness on display on social media leading up to it is already making any sane person want to dip their head into boiling acid.

Fortunately, according to a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, there could be a better way: eliminate elections altogether and pick our leaders by lottery. Say what?!

“In the United States, we already use a version of a lottery to select jurors,” Adam Grant wrote in The New York Times. “What if we did the same with mayors, governors, legislators, justices and even presidents?”

Grant makes a persuasive case for picking our leaders randomly from a pool of candidates by pointing to research by Alexander Haslam, another psychologist, who’s run experiments that show that better decisions are made when the group leader is chosen by lottery essentially versus if the group leader is chosen for their leadership skills or if elected by their peers

“‘Systematically selected leaders can undermine group goals,’ Dr. Haslam and his colleagues suggest, because they have a tendency to ‘assert their personal superiority.’ When you’re anointed by the group, it can quickly go to your head: I’m the chosen one,” writes Grant.

Electing leaders by lottery, he points out, does have some historical precedent.

“The ancient Greeks invented democracy, and in Athens many government officials were selected through sortition — a random lottery from a pool of candidates,” says Grant, who says he’s been suggesting the idea to US Congress members.

https://futurism.com/the-byte/professor-suggests-replacing-elections-lottery-system

I would have to do more research but on the surface this seems like a logical way to do the picking.

I know that someone on here has got to have an opinion on this….would this be using technology for our benefit?

Any amazing thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A Rigged Election?

It is Sunday and the news is just about as boring as we can get….so why not us this time to learn something about our election process….and yes it is one of my infamous history lessons.

We all remember the drama around the 2020 election….and the spill over continues 2 years later.

But then there are still those that bring up the 2000 election when Gore lost out to GW Bush in a split decision….all that history, right?

Well believe it or not those were not the only two elections with accusations and problems…..

In the 2016 presidential election, one candidate is warning about voter fraud, while another proclaims Russians are interfering. It’s not the first time contenders have alleged some form of a “rigged” election.

In my book, “Tainted by Suspicion: The Secret Deals and Electoral Chaos of Disputed Presidential Elections,” I write about some of the most controversial presidential elections that left large segments of the population believing their president was selected instead of elected. In two elections, the aftermath nearly led to mass violence.

Tuesday in the Rose Garden, President Barack Obama dismissed concerns of fraud this year.

“I have never seen in my lifetime, or in modern political history, any presidential candidate trying to discredit the elections process before votes have even taken place. It’s unprecedented,” Obama said.

“There is no serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even rig America’s elections, in part because they are so decentralized and the number of votes that are cast,” the president added. “There is no evidence that has happened in the past, or instances that will happen this year.”

While such complaints have been rare before votes were cast, they were very prominent in certain post-presidential elections, as was evidence that votes weren’t always counted properly.

Here are excerpts from the book.

Rigged Election? Past Presidential Contests Sowed Doubt and Nearly Led to Violence

In a closing note….the GOP has leveled many accusations of vote tampering….but so far most of those arrested for voter fraud have been Republicans…..here is the latest….

The wife of an Iowa Republican who ran for Congress in 2020 was arrested Thursday and accused of casting 23 fraudulent votes for her husband.

In an 11-page indictment, prosecutors say Kim Phuong Taylor “visited numerous households within the Vietnamese community in Woodbury County” where she collected absentee ballots for people who were not present at the time. Taylor, who was born in Vietnam, then filled out and cast those ballots herself, the indictment alleges, “causing the casting of votes in the names of residents who had no knowledge of and had not consented to the casting of their ballots.”

Taylor is also accused of signing voter-registration forms on behalf of residents who were not present. In all, prosecutors charged her with 26 counts of providing false information in registering and voting, three counts of fraudulent registration, and 23 counts of fraudulent voting. Each charge carries a maximum five-year prison sentence.

The goal, prosecutors allege, was to get her husband, the Republican politician Jeremy Taylor, elected to public office.

https://www.businessinsider.com/wife-of-iowa-republican-accused-of-casting-23-fraudulent-votes-2023-1

Ber Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Why Do Dems Suck At Politics?

AS this country prepares for our next election which is looming large on the horizon there is a burning question at begs an answer…..why do Dems keep losing elections?

As I have always said….”Dems have great ideas that just suck at politics”……

Proof….The Democrats are using a playbook from the late 1980s. It didn’t work very well then and it’s pretty much worthless now, but apparently it still seems like the latest thing to the octogenarians running the party.

Every Congress the Dems offer up some dynamite ideas and they always seem to go down in flames each and every time.

Why is this?

Virginia’s new governor, Glenn Youngkin, kicked off his term with a political magic trick. In the first of nine executive orders issued on Jan. 15, the day he took office,1 he banned the teaching of “inherently divisive concepts, including critical race theory” in K-12 public schools. It was a smart way to show his base he’s already jumping on issues they care about. Education policy, particularly the alleged role critical race theory plays in public school curricula, was a centerpiece of Youngkin’s campaign. But the impact of this executive order is less straightforward than it seems, because critical race theory isn’t actually taught in Virginia public schools.

This kind of tactic is increasingly familiar in politics today. Republican politicians, in particular, build entire campaigns around false or misleading information, then implement policies that respond to those falsehoods, cementing them further in our political landscape. 

The debate over critical race theory — a complex academic framework for understanding racism that would never actually be taught to second-graders but that at least nine state legislatures have tried to ban anyway — is just one such example. There’s an entire gamut of culture wars where this dynamic has taken hold. Abortion, one of the most powerful and long-lasting social issues in modern politics, is another example where arguments are increasingly framed in ways that tend to benefit Republicans. And because of that, Democrats frequently appear to be ceding ground, even though voters typically trust them more than Republicans on these issues and public opinion is often on the Democrats’ side.

The rebuttal to these issues seems like it should be simple. Why not just tell voters that critical race theory isn’t being taught and move on? Or say that abortions are safe and increasingly rare but will always be necessary for some women? But so far, Democrats haven’t really figured out a way to convince voters that some GOP messages aren’t based in reality. Experts told us that’s because Republicans’ often misleading framing is effective not because Americans believe it wholeheartedly or because they know all that much about the issue. Rather, the reason why abortion rights and critical race theory sticks in people’s minds is that these issues touch on broader anxieties.

Why Democrats Keep Losing Culture Wars

The Dems take their great ideas and pack them into several bills….and as could be predicted these bills are picked apart and in the end nothing of those great ideas makes it beyond the first draft of a bill.

The Democrats are using a playbook from the late 1980s. It didn’t work very well then and it’s pretty much worthless now, but apparently it still seems like the latest thing to the octogenarians running the party.

They pretend that they are all in for the working class and once in DC they forget those very same people…..the working class has been lied to for too long and those Dem games will not play well this time around.

For Democrats, meanwhile, memos on how to hold on to or win back the working class are perennial favorites from pollsters and strategists. This has been especially true during the midterm cycle as Democrats sound the alarm that their party is out of touch with their constituents. “The starting point for the strategy is seeing that both our base and our target persuasion audiences are working-class and struggling, and we see them and wear their shoes,” the longtime pollster Stanley Greenberg wrote in a polling memo in November. What’s left unsaid but is heavily implied in these appeals, though, is that Democrats are primarily concerned with losing the white working class.

Why Democratic Appeals To The ‘Working Class’ Are Unlikely to Work

Instead they should take those great ideas and make a separate bill for each one then when they go down in flames they have the GOP on record as opposing these ideas.

Something they can run on in the future….instead the Dems just keep trying the same worn out tactic they gets them nothing in return.

If they want to win then the Dems need a new strategy…..something they are unwilling to formulate (follow the money)…..instead….They–the Democratic elites, I mean–fall for this kind of wishful thinking every time. Why? Because they’re much more comfortable with neocon Republicans than they are the base of their own party, whose aspirations & pleas they usually spend 3 out of every 4 four years suppressing.

Until they find some guts and some brains they will continue to lose the game of politics….the same losers they have been since the 1980s.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

“Defund The Police”

Oh boy the GOP has a new slogan for the next election cycle….a slogan but NO policy to address the term…..or the problem (which is typical these days….lots of slogans and NO policies)

This is nothing new….as a matter of fact I have addressed the idea on several occasions……

https://lobotero.com/2020/07/21/is-it-police-reform-or-defund-or-abolition/
 
 
 
(Why I bother to offer background info is beyond me)
 
The basic fact is that police reform is a moot point…..the police cannot be reformed….
Why would I make such a statement?

The American police have more funding than any military besides our own or China’s. This certainly makes any sort of revolution, no matter the strength of organizing, extremely difficult. Despite this mismatch, we see a weak spot: the police themselves.

It they can’t even handle criticism, they likely will continue to roll over when class contradictions heighten. The American Right, while horrifying in their institutional power, extremism, militancy and stupidity, are above all a small and cowardly lot. They are overrepresented in the courts, the cops and in political office.

But without a whole lot of dark money and big guns behind them, they fold, and fold quickly. In some ways it may be surprising that the largest chunk of police abolition has been by the police being so snowflake they can’t hang with massive peaceful protests. Yet this is a sign that this approach is working. Noam Chomsky has recalled the unprecedented nature of the global protests following George Floyd. These protests worked to defund the police, even when politicians predictably opted mostly for symbolism.

The Police Can’t Be Reformed

I offered up possible ways to reform the police….sadly none will ever happen…..I mean look at Biden…..https://lobotero.com/2021/04/14/biden-and-police-reform/

A good start….but where will it go in this spineless Congress?

I am sorry but I do not see any thing actually changing in the policing of our streets in my lifetime…..of course that is not that long because I am an old fart.

I wish someone somehow could formulate a plan that would put more equity on our streets….but sadly all this is just a fart in a hurricane….all this rhetoric signifies nothing.
 
Turn The Page!
 
I Read, I Write, You Know
 
“lego ergo scribo”