2024 election is personality versus issues
The Democrat strategy is to make the 2024 election about personalities and false narratives rather than a discussion over the issues that are most important to the American people.
When voters are asked to list their top five concerns, they are generally – in order of importance – the economy, inflation, immigration, crime and the future of democracy. According to the polls, voters believe Trump was – and will be – better in handling the first four. On the issue of democracy, polling tends to be split even within the margin of error.
In terms of abortion, Democrats maintain a clear lead – but it is further down the priority list. It tends to be a winning issue for Democrats only when it stands alone on the ballot.
Trump’s lead on the top critical issues has been sustained throughout the campaign. That is why President Biden – and now Vice President Harris – ducked, dodged and distracted from the major issues throughout the campaign. Democrats have a one-note strategy. The Trump personality and his personal baggage.
They place all their bets on demonizing the man – and by extension, all Republican officeholders and voters with a shame strategy. That is the negative side of their campaign. On the positive side, they still avoid the key issues. Rather they again talk about personality.
For most of the campaign, the effort was to sell Biden as that good old lunch bucket Joe. They now speak of Harris in glowing personal terms – focusing on her resume over her policies. Virtually all the talk about the newly dubbed vice-presidential pick, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, is personality. According to the political spin, he is a common man … a nice guy … well-liked… who grew up on a farm and coached kids. The Harris /Walz team call themselves “happy warriors.”
What the Harris/Walz team avoid talking about are those issues of importance to voters. And they especially avoid talking about their own record and past policy positions. And if the subject comes up, they flip and flop like a fish on land.
That is because their record and past policy positions run counter to what people see as solutions to the major problems. Harris and Walz have been BIG inflationary spending advocates. They oppose limiting the size and cost of government. They are woke candidates. To find candidates as far left as Harris and Walz, you have to go back to George McGovern in 1972 and Franklin Roosevelt’s socialist Vice President Henry Wallace.
Harris and Walz have been consistent in their support of open borders – passively by doing nothing to control illegal border crossing and actively by establishing sanctuary cities … benefits for illegal aliens … providing drivers licenses … defunding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) … and reducing policing by defunding or redistributing law enforcement funding to worker programs.
In order to avoid inconvenient topics, Democrats have found their strategy in the Covid Pandemic. In the 2020 election, Biden used the pandemic to avoid unscripted public appearances and press conferences. He continued that practice in the years following the pandemic. Biden became the least available to the public and press as any President since the so-called “front porch campaign” of President Warren Harding. So far, Harris has be followed that strategy to the extreme.
Since Biden’s withdrawal, Harris and Walz have operated from a figurative bunker – reading scripted speech from the teleprompter and avoiding any interaction with the news media. Their strategy is to avoid inconvenient questions as they attempt to define – or redefine – themselves to the voting public. At some point – probably after the National Democratic Convention – they will have to occasionally come out of the bunker – initially with safe one-on-one interviews with fawning reporters.
Put simply, Harris and Walz do not want to have to defend their records until after they have done their best to define themselves in a more favorable light – convincing the public that they are not the politicians they were before they took on their new roles.
Until then – and even after – the focus on the Harris/Walz team will be Trump … Trump … Trump. They cannot win on the issues, so they will continue to carry out their hyperbolic scaremonger narrative of a political Armageddon if Trump is elected. It is a political narrative founded on political bullpoop – but it is all they have. And it could work. They just have to fool some of the people all the time … or all the people some of the time.
So, there ‘tis.
The idiot democrats can’t win on the issues. And stupid low information people in their party are falling for it 99% or political discussions on tv are about hate Trump and kiss Kamala’s ass. Having watched the discussion on the news channels including the liberal media there is no journalism especially among the liberal reporters. Why do the media control the elections? We need to put a stop to this shit and insist that they discuss the issues and let us voters decide. I believe Sean Hannity when he says that journalism is dead. And some of the so called conservative journalists are guilty too. We should listen to the issues and not focus on what morning joe and Andrea Mitchell and their ilk add their two cents. If I ran a news network they would be encouraged to report on the issues and leave themselves out of it. It’s using the media for election tampering.
Larry, what a load of horse-patooty! Do you even listen to yourself? Felon Trump has an army of cult followers based on nothing but his personality. Felon Trump knows nothing about issues. He takes credit for anything that gets through Congress that might make the rich richer, or will drive contributions to his PAC and into his pockets. He’s the Republican candidate, hasn’t set up anything resembling a cabinet or transition plan, except relying on Project 2025. You dote on Felon Trump’s every word without even a thought about whether he’s lying or not (hint, if his lips are moving, he’s lying). You defend Felon Trump in almost every column you write.
You say that Felon Trump is leading in top critical issues. Which ones? Has he even taken a stance on any issues? His record is terrible, and Biden has done much better.
– Immigration: Felon Trump likes to paint Democrats as soft on immigration. THAT is a a false narrative. During Felon Trump’s administration, illegal immigration increased, 15% more than his first year in office. His administration separated families, implemented a Muslim ban, put up barb-wire fences that killed people, built walls that anyone could scale with a home-depot ladder. Felon Trump had Senate Republicans kill the bipartisan border bill. Biden negotiated the bi-partisan bill, and when Felon Trump killed it, he implemented what he could by executive order and reduced immigration by 50%. Harris was part of Biden’s administration, and went to South American countries to try to stop immigration before it starts. A tough job and she had limited success, but Republicans have never tried to actually solve the issue.
– Crime: Again, Felon Trump likes to blame Democrats for a rise in crime – another false narrative. During Felon Trump’s administration, the murder rate rose to the highest level since 1977, and crime was up during his term (not to mention himself and most of his cabinet members getting convicted of crimes, the most of any administration, ever). Crime has since come down is and is the lowest since before the Reagan years.
– Abortion: Felon Trump rolled back 50 years of precedent and took away the rights of millions of women. Harris is committed to restoring rights. Polling shows two-thirds of Americans support abortion rights.
– Economy: Felon Trump inherited a stable economy with falling unemployment. By the end of his term, he had a trillion-dollar deficit, debt went from $14 trillion to almost $22 trillion, unemployment up to almost 10%, The economy lost 2.7M jobs, home prices rose by almost 30%. The trade deficit rose 36% and was the highest since the Bush recession. Felon Trump promised an infrastructure bill “in the next two weeks” for the entire time he was President, and never delivered. Biden passed a major infrstructure bill in the first year, the unemployment rate is currently at 4.3%, inflation has been tamed, there was no recession, 15M+ jobs have been added since Biden was President.
– Environment: Felon Trump wants to bring back coal and oil. He denies global warming and their effects. Biden invested in solar and wind. Harris and Walz are 100% behind clean energy, as is about 75% of the US population. Prices for solar and wind generated power are below prices for coal and oil. Clean, electric cars are coming, and Felon Trump wants to take us back to the 1970’s when we had the first oil-shocks.
– Pandemic: Felon Trump lied to America, totally screwed up the response, and encouraged people to go back to work, not to wear masks , not to get vaccinations. There were empty shelves and panic buying during Felon Trump’s term. Biden actually implemented and rolled out the vaccine program, addressed supply issues, got people back to work safely.
– Health care: During Felon Trump’s administration, 3M people lost insurance coverage. Felon Trump wants to deny coverage to trans people, and Republicans are proposing to require doctors to report pregnancies.Some republicans want to outlaw birth control. Democrats have 100% come out for freedom of people to make their own medical choices.
– Democracy: Felon Trump has created a false narrative of Democrats destroying democracy, only because his own fascist nature has been showing in his statements. Felon Trump has promised he’d be a dictator on Day 1. He will have his Justice Department go after Democrats and FBI and anyone who displeased him. He has aligned himself with the Project 2025 plan which calls for firing all civil servants and replacing them with his own MAGA loyalists. He has literally said he is for terminating the Constitution. He wants to get the US out of NATO. which has kept the Europe and the US safe for 75 years. He cozies up to Putin, Kim, Erdogan, Orban, the Saudis, and other dictators. World leaders laughed at him in public, and he groveled in front of Putin. He and his family have raked in millions in personal wealth from the Saudis during his term in office. He cheated and colluded with Russians on his first election, and tried to blackmail Ukraine, and was impeached twice for those. He is the first President to get indicted, and has been convicted of 34 felonies (so far). He is EVERYTHING that a third-world fascist dictator is, and has been compared to Hitler by his own VP pic. Biden’s record is spotless, and despite the many attempts by Republicans to pin something, anything on him., they’ve never come up with any evidence, only innuendo and accusations. He’s outsmarted Republicans more than a few times, not hard given the stupidity of its leadership and all the MAGA members. He has met with world leaders and brought respect back to the US. Everything he has accomplished has been legal and above board.
Felon Trump was known for not paying attention during briefings, and never had a command of issues. His only superpower was lying convincingly to his cult followers. Biden has always shown a command of the issues, and Harris participated in those decisions and got the Administration’s message out to people. She gave speeches all around the country to explain Biden’s policies and knows them intimately.
Felon Trump was President for one term, got thrown out on his ass, and has the worst record of any President in history. Good luck defending that! And as far as candidates hiding – Felon Trump has been to one rally (in deep-red Montana) since Harris became the nominee, while Harris and Walz have been to rallies in every toss-up state in the country. Harris and Walz have their own records to defend – she as a prosecutor, senator and vice president, and he as a member of the military, as a member of congress, as a teach and coach. And both of them can defend Biden’s excellent record and their continuation of his policies.
Since Harris became the Democratic nominee, the polls have swung big her way. She currently has at least a 4-point advantage over Felon Trump. And he still has his sentencing coming up in September, and if he doesn’t back out, she will wipe the floor with him at the debates and he’ll slink out with his tail between his legs. Right now, Felon Trump is in hiding, calling Harris a “bitch” in private (say that to her face, I dare ya!), and he’s getting more erratic in his public statements and actions. Sofa-humping Vance is a major drag on the ticket. I predict that it will be an overwhelming blowout for Harris/Walz. I also predict that Trump will contest this election too – from his prison cell.
Hey Joseph. I believe in everything that felon Trump talks about. I’m voting for him even if he ass raped your mother. I’m damned proud to be a part of his cult if you want to call us that
You need to also predict most of us are prepared to not be governed by the bitch. We mean it.
Great! You can join the Jan 6th rioters in jail. We won’t miss you here…
JSB: makes you wonder why the Wampler didn’t join up on 1.6.2021 and what he’s been doing the past four years to prove he’s not being governed by Joe Biden? Pay his taxes? Follow the law? How does one actually do what Wampler says he does to love here but not be governed here?
The Wamp is a boob. He is too stupid to be a 1/6 insurrectionist.
Tom, Wampler still does not deserve you lowering yourself with the name calling.
I have stopped with Horist at least, perhaps more, just can’t stop totally with Dempsey…..my failure I guess.
But you can do better. Trust me, watching Horist kvetch over my change is well worth the price of admission. Should have never fallen off the wagon to begin with. With the way you find the facts, spin the story, and tell a truth, you really don’t need this crutch. Not at all.
Mr. Bruder has fully imbibed on the KoolAid. Just saying.
Kamala Harris has been in the race for about two weeks.
Last week it was about the Honeymoon about to be over.
This week it’s about personality over issues. Trump, issues, that’s funny and brought to mind……
“For the last couple of months, Senator Rumson has suggested that being President of this country was, to a certain extent, about character. And although I’ve not been willing to engage in his attacks on me, I have been here three years and three days, and I can tell you without hesitation: Being President of this country is entirely about character.
For the record, yes, I am a card-carrying member of the ACLU, but the more important question is “Why aren’t you, Bob?” Now this is an organization whose sole purpose is to defend the Bill of Rights, so it naturally begs the question, why would a senator, his party’s most powerful spokesman and a candidate for President, choose to reject upholding the constitution? Now if you can answer that question, folks, then you’re smarter than I am, because I didn’t understand it until a few hours ago.
America isn’t easy. America is advanced citizenship. You’ve gotta want it bad, ’cause it’s gonna put up a fight. It’s gonna say, “You want free speech? Let’s see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who’s standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.” You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms.
Then you can stand up and sing about the land of the free.
I’ve known Bob Rumson for years. And I’ve been operating under the assumption that the reason Bob devotes so much time and energy to shouting at the rain was that he simply didn’t get it. Well, I was wrong. Bob’s problem isn’t that he doesn’t get it. Bob’s problem is that he can’t sell it!”
Horist wants to talk issues. Trump wants to talk crowd size, what race is Kamala, and is her real name actually Kamabla? Last night he pondered about the great issues with John Tester from Montana saying, on the issues: “he’s got the biggest stomach I have ever seen.” Yeah, Trump talking about weight……..
Well, I am here to tell you Horist, we can talk issues. Anytime you want. And Kamala will too. September 10th at the latest. And you are correct: there is no Harris platform to date. It is a work in progress. You see some evidence in her speeches, you see her changing on a number of issues from her more progressive stance, and we will see it all next week at the convention. But to say she’s short on explanation of her stance on the issues without condemning Trump for eight years of the same is pretty funny.
“We’ve got serious problems, and we need serious people. And if you want to talk about character, Bob, you’d better come at me with more than a burning flag and a membership card. If you want to talk about character and American values, fine. Just tell me where and when, and I’ll show up. This a time for serious people, Bob, and your fifteen minutes are up.” Quotes from The American President.
See you to talk the issues on September 10th.
Joseph S. Bruder apparently sits on his feeble brain. What Donald Trump did during his time as president was more for the American people than the previous three democrat so-called presidents!!
Robert: show us the numbers, show us the stats. You got nothing because Trump was a loser who borrowed his way into your heart by selling the country down the drain. Biden’s numbers, except the border, are better, and even on the border, Trump policies sucked, statistically until his abject failure at defending the nation against the covid death toll that Trump is a global record holder in DEATH for, until covid saved his ass at the border. Maybe that’s WHY he let it murder us by a million and more.
Robert, I am an Independent. You give talk talk talk blatherskite! All vanity. Show me the meat baby!!! Where are your facts???
What JSB says is very true. At least JSB uses his brain and adds to the discussion. All you do is “sit on your feeble brain” and use the old GOP playbook. Again, show me the facts!!!
Y’All are getting duped. It is NOT Democrat v. Republican, NOR is it Left v. Right, NOT even Conservative v. Progressive. Nor is really personality OR issues.
It is the Bureaucracy v. the People. It is BIG v. small government. It is Centralize v. Decentralized Power and decision-making.
I do not need to relate any story of any bureaucracy to anyone who has encountered one.
“One-size-fits-all” decisions made at the top level will always be worse than decision made by the individual. The latter are always situational dependent and self-correcting (make a bad decision for yourself and you’ll never make that mistake again, Right?) The former are made for the best fit and that usually means for the sake of bureaucratic efficiency.
The “Deep State” is the bureaucracies and they are terrified of losing their jobs.
It’s “The Swamp” and Biden has been and Harris will be yet another Swamp Monster. I mean WAKE UP. $85B for more IRS audits? What about the EO Biden signed that protects bureaucrats?
Remember Sen Ben Sasse lamenting how Congress had abdicated its authority by writing laws with phrases like “The Secretary XYZ will develop, implement and enforce rules necessary to enact this law….?” This is what the Chevron Decision was all about.
All those folks who went ad hominem i.e. “Felon Trump” – he’s not a felon until all his appeals are heard – in this thread should go study Critical Thinking techniques.
Other than that, I think Larry got this one close. My only comment would be to exchange “Emotions” for “Personality” and “Reason” for “issues.” One side presents reasoned positions on issues. The other uses feelings. If it makes you feel good then it is good, if it makes you feel bad then it is bad.
Two last points:
1) What is the definition of “Demagogue?”
and
2) Get a helmet, Life is tough.
It is NOT Bureaucracy v. the People! Bureaucracies are a normal and essential part of government, and that’s why the Constitution created the executive branch. Want to get a driver’s license renewed? Keep track of births, deaths, keep 1st cousins from marrying each other (at least not accidentally). Administer government programs – Social Security has kept 80% of seniors from living in poverty after they retire. Want to travel abroad? You need a passport, travel advice and warnings. Who runs police stations, watches over how government money is spent, supports farmers, plans roads and bridges? Bureaucracy is not a bad thing. Republicans rail against it because they want businesses to be able to do anything they want, not matter how much it pollutes the local waterways, poisons the air, or cheats citizens.
The real fight is between the ultra-rich and responsible government. It’s the rich that want to “drill-baby-drill”, which pollutes the earth and air, endangers our future, and truthfully is more expensive that renewable power. But it makes the rich richer. The billionaires are behind the Supreme Court decisions to let them give as much unregulated and unseen money to politicians. The Uber-rich want to be able to do anything they want with their businesses – pollute, limit choices, create monopolies, cheat customers. And yes, the Chevron decision is part of this – Wealthy businesses can now go to SCOTUS to overturn any regulation they don’t like. And we’ve already seen that Roberts, Alito and especially Thomas have been taking bribes from billionaires for years, and both Kavanaugh and Coney-Barrett lied about respecting established law.
And by the way, you are absolutely wrong, Felon Trump IS a convicted felon. He was found guilty by a jury of his peers in a court of law. He hasn’t been sentenced yet, but it has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that he broke the law. He may or may not win an appeal (and I don’t think he’s even filed for an appeal yet, thinking that the election might somehow bail him out), but when it comes time to sentence, he could be sitting in prison for the last 2 months of his campaign.
Demagogue – “a political leader who seeks support by appealing to the desires and prejudices of ordinary people rather than by using rational argument”. Felon Trump lies about immigration, accuses immigrants of being crazy and murderous (apparently confusing asylum-seeking with an insane-asylum), demonizing Muslims and LGBTs, and using dog-whistles to tell you that blacks are trying to displace whites. He lies about crime statistics to play on your fears. He lies about his economic record, he makes you think the country will go broke because we’re “not producing enough energy”, he even says Biden (and now Harris and even Walz) are dangers to democracy for no other reason than it’s been said about him. Nothing that Felon Trump says is rational, and he’s getting more and more unhinged by the minute as he sees Harris beating him in the polls, even claiming that the crowds at her rallies were AI generated (while multiple news crews filmed it and thousands of people witnessed the crowds personally). His debate performance against Biden, and his subsequent news conference have been him spouting one lie after another, unchallenged by any moderator.
Larry is 100% wrong – Trump is getting by purely on personality (or emotion if you prefer). Democrats are running on issues. Democracy, environment, abortion, the economy, crime, immigration – all those issues are dominating the Democratic platform, and Trump has nothing but a really bad record on each of them.
Joseph S Bruder … Your simplistic, naive and Pollyanna view of the bureaucracy is the problem. It is what makes you a gullible left-winger.
You’re confusing bureaucracy with regulation. “Bureaucracy” is just a code word that Republicans use when their corporate masters want less regulation. Congress approves the laws that regulate business, and the bureaucrats just implement it. When the corporate overlords find that they are making less money because they can’t dump their pollution in the public space and expect the federal government to clean it up, then they go back to Congress or SCOTUS and try to get it changed.
You’re a stooge of the billionaire class. Your hatred of the Democratic Party has made you blind to the sleaze of the uber-wealthy. Felon Trump included, although he’s really the white-trash of the wealthy class.
Joseph S Bruder …. But you seem to forget … or choose to ignore — that with the top three ISSUES as expressed by voters, they like Trump more — past and future. So, what is your point?
Felon Trump has spent the last 3 years spouting unchallenged lies about his economic record, crime, democracy, and the environment, while Biden was busy running the country. Now that there’s an election coming up, he’s getting called out on his lies, and he’s losing ground. Democrats will run on those 4 issues plus abortion, spreading the truth about Felon Trump’s lies. Even the press is starting to fact check him – just google “trump lies”, and you see articles from Washington Post, New York Times, CNN, NPR, The Atlantic, Politifact, AP, Rolling Stone… just about every major news outlet except Fox and Newsmax. Eventually, even they will get on board, because they can’t be the sole outliers and keep any sort of credibility.
This election is going to be another blowout, just like the last election. Felon Trump hasn’t gained any popularity since the 2020 election, in fact he’s lost a lot. He’s clearly showing signs of dementia (way worse than Biden slowing down), he picked a nutcase anti-social fake hillbilly for his running mate, he’s getting desperate because Harris/Walz is eating his lunch, and Republicans are starting to come out against him too. Felon Trump is already starting to complain how unfairly the Dems are treating him (nepo baby is losing!), and I’m sure he will try to claim that Dems cheated to win the election after he loses, but he will also be in prison – just a tree falling in the forest that nobody hears.
1) Trump is a convicted felon. He was convicted of 34 counts of fraud in Manhattan, NY. His sentencing is on Sept 18. Did you not know this?
2) Bureaucracies are a necessary part of government. Did you not take civics class?
3) Dems (Harris/Walz) are forming their policy platform and will reveal it at the convention.
4) The Chevron decision was about policy being formed by those that know the issue and sciences. Its not perfect but it was and still is a good attempt at coupling the issues and the people in the know so that good policy can be developed. The SCOTUS just abdicated the Chevron Decision and put power in their hands!!! What does a SCOTUS judge know about environmental impacts? What is a judge’s scientific background?
5) Trump did NOT clear out the swamp!! What he did was replace the swamp with those that later were convicted of crimes! Where were you?
6) Trump and Project 2025 want to get rid of many laws and organizations that benefit the people. Example: Disparate Impact Laws that prevent massive discrimination by companies and institutions.
7) Roe V. Wade was a decision that qualifies as your “one size fits all”; yet now that it is up to the states, there is more chaos, confusion and near death experiences of women than ever before!!
I could go on but you get the point. As an Independent, I will admit, for a “covert MAGA” you are at least intelligent, even if you are misguided.
BobM..You are on the mark. In fact, I am just working on a commentary on that very subject. probably posted in a few days. The greatest danger to the Republic and personal freedom is an elitist powerful central government that rules over the people. That is authoritarianism — and what the Founders feared most. That is why they limited the powers of the federal government. Unfortunately, the constitutional limits have been kicked to the side of the road. You can know that by simply reading the Tenth Amendment.
OK Larry, if what you report in this piece is how you see things and you speak for the conservative right. I hope you like rating crow. Apparently you live in an extreme case of Sesame Street Opposite Day that just won’t end.
Say what you want of my viability as a thinking human being being aware , informed, and objective.
You have your mind set ever since Nixon’s great presidency. Compared to Trump he was a sweet heart deal for your career advancement.
Look how that turned out.
“The greatest danger to the Republic and personal freedom is an elitist powerful central government that rules over the people. That is authoritarianism”.
Project 2025 is all about coalescing power in the hands of the Executive, and is being financed by (elitist) billionaires. You apparently can see the danger of having someone like Trump in office, but seem don’t recognize that he is advocating for exactly what you fear.
BobM: nicely well thought-out piece, but not my cup of tea. Everyone searches for simple solutions like: small government good, big government bad — simple. Centralized bad, Decentralized or Distributed good. Simple. Life is not simple, life is complex. Unfortunately, to get to this point, you have surrendered your own logic and opinion to support the guy who believes ONLY HE can be your SAVIOR and that all soutions come from his mind, his decisions, what’s good for him. That’s TRUMP.
I have found the answer to every question ever asked and that is: IT DEPENDS. Because life is complex and no simple slogan will ever fit all situations. Sure, we have all encountered bureaucracy but I portend there are many situations where it provides exemplary results. How about that vaccine development —– wow, big government at it’s best. US Highway system. Getting to the moon. Hoover Dam. NATO. Or Obama’s energy stimulus —- fucking program kickstarted solar AND made a profit. That’s right, big government boosted solar development and made a buck on the side —- go figure.
You say: ““One-size-fits-all” decisions made at the top level will always be worse than decisions made by the individual” where you have to know that’s not 100% true all the time as noted above. Crooks did not make a good individual decision and the self-correction was personally very bad and extremely permanent. That’s a recent example from millions of really bad decisions that had permanent bad results.
Spock concluded: “Logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” Kirk answers, “Or the one.” Yes, you are correct that group decisions favor the majority, not the individual and therein lies the “it depends” rub. Group decisions often have winners and losers. But that works both ways. Individual gun control decisions result in zero controls on guns. Do whatever you want here will not end well. Making them local results in having to read the “deadline” rules before entering each town and total lawlessness of individual gun control decisions between town. Call it the old West, Dodge City and Tombstone. Did not end well either. Making them at the state level means each state is it’s own island of gun law with gun running arbitrage between loose and tight control States —- our current situation which works better than Dodge City, but not much. That’s why the Chicago “island” of gun control fails so much. Those damn open boarders….. So, like it or not, the only standard, universal, workable decision is national. Like every other developed nation.
Interesting factoid: across the globe, you can statistically link the move to progressive politics with population density. As in, as communities grow, the individual is subsumed politically by the group as individual outcomes take a back seat to community awareness. Perhaps the very nature of democratic evolution. Hey, may not be why it happens, but statistics tell you that it does happen.
My point is not that that’s the right answer, but that the best answer to the question is: it depends
“The “Deep State” is the bureaucracies and they are terrified of losing their jobs.” No fucking shit, Sherlock. Wouldn’t you? The only thing they did wrong was be a Democrat. They may not have done one blessed thing to harm you or even make you feel bad. Yet, Trump paints a target on their back. And, according to our Constitution and laws, the President does not have the power to put his serfs into the burauacy in place of the ones already there. HE wants to make it HIS law to be able to fire anyone, anytime, for anything, including just being a Democrat. You claim the “DEEP STATE,” the state of bureaucratic swamp but —- a YUGE proportion is REPUBLICAN, conservative, bureaucrats. They not only will not be touched, but the fired Democrat jobs don’t go away. They are just replaced by inexperienced brown shirts who will claim loyalty to TRUMP ahead of the Constitution. That ain’t better, it’s worse to have zero political party diversity in our government. The “swamp” will still exist under Trump, he did nothing to change that in his first four years, only an idiot will think that changes IF he gets another bite at the apple.
And IF he fires all Democrats in government, how long do you think it will take until he figures out how to fire all Democrats outside of government. And that’s one way our democracy ends. And he has more ideas too.
I understand your issue with laws being written by Congress and regulations being written by regulators. The founders wanted the making of law to be fucking hard. And it is. Really hard. This Chevron decision just ups that ante making billions for lawyers as almost every regulation can now be challenged. And as long as there are lawyers needing to make money, they will be. If you look at this decision and the immunity decision, it’s not as if the SCOTUS is attempting to pass decisions off to individuals or make things simpler —– they are making things more complex, harder, and stupider to accomplish anything. Confusion is their mantra.
And, actually, Trump is a felon rapist. He has been adjudicated and will stand guilty until he successfully appeals. His current status is: 100% Felon and 100% liable for sexual assault of the digital rape variety.
I agree, life is tough. And add: life is complex. You won’t get your answers from a banner, a saying, a slogan, or anything simple. Trump has the mantra of less regulations that he operationalized. Except he never reduced any at any significant level. He just makes the slogan, and then lies about the results.
This is a place for individual, local, state, and national decisions with the weighting going to the individual, wherever possible. Same way with the Federal Government — the vision is as small as possible, whenever possible. But there are times when the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one, and then —— let’s all do it together as One Nation, under God, with Peace and Liberty for all.
Myself: sure, I want to make my own decisions and say don’t tread on me, stay outta my shit. I live mostly off the grid and have many defenses for either electronic or physical contact. I skip most permits since no one can see. Then again, I have no issue with contributing and working with community. I am a citizen after all. I may out-red-tape the bureaucracy when it comes to property taxes and such, but I don’t mind paying. And I come from life in the Fortune 100 —- dealing with and in large diverse groups may represent a change for this small-town, rural, democratic, gun toting, redneck, that will never call a girl anything but SHE, but that’s just fucking life in today’s America. We have a lot of people, it’s a huge community, like you said: “Get a helmet, Life is tough.” Right back at you. Strap on your big boy pants and learn to deal in and with bureaucrats and red tape. Trump ain’t never gonna end that —- it’s a matter of scale and we be just too big to go back to the pioneer days. Better you learn how to deal with it than push back against it. Because the individual will continue to contribute more and more to community as we humans evolve on this mudball. Space may be your savior, but not in your lifetime.
I think every time Kamala & Biden are referred to, the comments should be
to RAPING AND MURDERING Biden and Harris.
As they are the God Parents of those illegal individuals doing the Crimes!
If it was not for Biden and Harris ignoring the Constitution, the crimes would not have been committed.
Any person backing the actions of those two should be in the same category.
I would be a J6th protester any day than align myself with the crimes this administration has committed!
Frank, Joseph & Tom, I just want to thank you all for helping align the Trump party.
The insanity you spew helps congregate the Republicans.
I have my doubt at times that you can actually mean the Crap you type.
But I thank you anyway!
Harris and Biden guilty of murder for being responsible for all the actions of all illegals. Right back at you for all the actions of all Republicans starting with Crook, the 1.6 criminals, and Trump himself. You can even say there were not more heinous crimes perpetrated by illegals during the time of Trump. In 2019 he let more illegals in that any other time since 2008, over a decade before his 2019 complete failure to protect the border. Or all the covid deaths caused by the inaction of Donald J. Trump in order to stop illegals from wanting to enter the country. Illegal crossings stopped in 2020 as Trump engineered over 1.1 million Americans murdered by Trump’s inability to protect our borders once again, this time from a disease engineered by his administration and China. After the vaccines, the ratio of dead Republicans to Democrats, due to Trump, went waaaaay up due to Trump not telling his own party to get the fucking shot.
*https://www.npr.org/2023/07/25/1189939229/covid-deaths-democrats-republicans-gap-study*
I’ll let you research the US response results list but most experts say WE SUCK at our covid response as initially developed by Donald J. Trump as he murdered more Americans, statistically skewed to Republicans, in the US that crested under Biden until Joe’s response tamped it down. Bottom line: we suck and it was on Don’s watch that the sucking sound commenced. If Trump had protected us, we would have lost only a fraction of that ——— as almost every other developed nation in the world has PROVEN.
This is not the total story, just Australia’s view —- but look it up, all the stats by all the researchers point in the same direction: *https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/analysis-ranks-the-countries-that-handled-covid-19-best-20210127-p56x3g.html*
Yeah, our covid response sucked, on Trump’s watch, and he kill over a million of us, probably a quarter of a million more than it had to be.
I’m too smart to tie in with proud boys. But I am proud of them. We have more plans. And it doesn’t involve shooting or any violence. At least if we can help it. I could have told them idiots that entering the capitol was a dumb idea.
“We have more plans,” and we won’t be violent unless we can’t help it and entering the capitol was dumb. Who we? Which who? Suddenly, he’s a we and we are all planned up together.
Phew, and I thought it was sounding crazy……. but as long as he’s too smart to be a proud boy —— course that leave’s a lot of ground to be covered before you move into the land of the normal mind.
Smile. Timothy Leery came to U of M in 1976, shortly after his release by Jerry Brown, to speak about many things. One was his new idea: “He invented the acronym “SMI²LE” as a succinct summary of his pre-transhumanist agenda: SM (Space Migration) + I² (intelligence increase) + LE (Life extension). Formed after the early 70’s release of Blows Against the Empire by Paul Kanter, Starship, and a mega team of rock stars, Leery noted that it’s pretty hard to be against a smile. I was struck by his seeming wisdom combined with his youthful innocence. Later that night, he and his three lady friends, sat behind me for a viewing of Yellow Submarine and even though I know he had seen it many times, he laughed all the way through. By the end of the evening, we talked, we laughed, we cried, and it became a part of us. He explained: “if you meet someone and just say: “I think we need to explore space,” and then smile, it may happen sooner than you think.
It didn’t but I found the concept possible. I have believed in the smile ever since. Horist is on to something, I believe.
At AT&T I was stymied for promotion. I was not part of the NE snob class or ivy elite college experience, the boy’s club so to speak. My education was still progressing, no masters yet. I was just a walking dictionary of small business telephones, frankly, the best in the world having consulted with every major player out there. They all called me. Which is why AT&T called me to work. Once there for a couple years, I had just been beaten out by affirmative action candidate for a bump that I was clearly more experienced and smarter about. I could a gone bitter on the person, the process or both, but I went with the smile. Every superior I met anywhere, even in passing in the hall got a “how ya doin, or hello, or whatever, followed by a huge smile after I lost that bump. I got my bump in six months, a better bump, the bump I always had dreamed of. Product Manager. I will always swear that when my name came up in the management session to choose promotions, these folks said: “oh yeah, I know that guy, good guy…..,” The smile did it, I think.
I believe in the dark, short-lived power of the glower, and that the power of the smile goes the extra mile.
Horist has his smile. My personal way to pick the President is to pick the party in favor. NO, not political party, but who’s house would be you rather be at the party. Clearly, Bill Clinton wins all for all time, but Bush Jr. not a bad second — BBQ never gets old and the man liked his drugs. Not to mention being lectured to at a Gore shindig. Hilary vs. Trump — yeah, still works, sad to say, but a Hillary party —- probably lights out at 11pm after talking issues. But Trump vs. Harris — yup, we know how that ends up — Harris all the way, because Trump parties, like Trump, are all about Trump, and that gets old pretty fast. And who knows, maybe Harris will cackle and then the party will really take off…. But today’s Trump party in a word: weird says it all.
Speaking of which —– notice the cackle is gone? That’s gotta be really hard to do. To stifle an involuntary, nervous laugh. Yeah, she’s committed to win. Let the party carry on.
Horist has his smile, I have the party, next subject: As a man, do you pull down the boxers/briefs or reach inside the vent to pee? There’s a question for the ages and I already know the answer after years of survey responses (not actual observations, that’s a Wampler thing to do, not me). What say you boys —- do you pull down or reach in? Now that’s a survey :>)
I use a magnifier glass and tweezers. Doesn’t your daughter help you? But us sovereign citizens are different. Just hide and watch
Archie; Nice of you to add the color and sorry for your below=-average physical appearance.
Yet the question was put down or reach in.
And, as you know, I have no daughter. Perhaps that’s your wife you are thinking of. Or your mother. But alas, God gave me no daughters. And, so far, no help in peeing either by tools, like you, or other people.
ooooops, sorry, Horist — should have been under smiles…..story. my bad