op ed review 11/12
Tuesday was not a good night for Republicans, or
conservatism broadly. Democrats elected governors in Virginia and New Jersey,
but these were states that Trump lost. The more worrying result from Virginia
though had to be what happened in the Virginia House of Delegates, a body that
has been controlled by a substantial Republican majority since 2000. There,
Republicans fell left and right. Trump Republicans, establishment Republicans
and everyone in between. The former bulletproof majority was erased in a single
election, leaving the body deadlocked between 50 members of each party.
Lessons learned from Virginia, New Jersey governor´s races
In
Washington State, Democrats won a key state Senate race that puts them back in
charge of both legislative chambers for the first time in five years. More than
$8.7 million had been spent on the campaigns as of this week, with more than
half coming from third-party groups.
This happened despite Republican Jinyoung Lee Englund winning the
endorsement of the Seattle Times.
Despite the chaos, Trump has managed to push the most
conservative agenda in a generation
Trump to deport 300,000 "temporary" refugees
Reporters are doing their best to ruin a so-far successful
twelve day trip through Asia by President Donald Trump. The media has
repeatedly lied about him and trying to bait him at press conferences.
The Chinese government played the U.S. national anthem while
broadcasting -for the first time ever- to their own country: the welcoming
ceremony of a state visit by a U.S. President and First Lady at the Grand Hall
of the People’s Republic of China. You would think this would be a historic
moment that should garner U.S. media attention. You might think that, but you
would be wrong.
Trump 6 year old granddaughter charms the Chinese by singing
in Mandarin.
82% of Trump voters would vote for him again.
Atheist immigrant sues government for having ´So Help Me
God´ in citizenship oath
Hundreds of illegal immigrants descended upon the Hart
Senate building to protest the Trump administration’s decision to rescind DACA.
???? Bowe Bergdahl pleaded guilty to desertion and
misbehavior before the enemy. On Nov. 3, a military judge ruled Bergdahl would
not serve any jail time but be dishonorably discharged. Now he may be entitled to hundreds of
thousands of dollars in pay that accumulated over five years while he was in Taliban
captivity.
Democratic pollster and former Clinton ally Doug Schoen
believes the scandals surrounding Hillary Clinton warrant a special prosecutor.
Republican Senator Rand Paul assaulted by his socialist
neighbor. Paul’s injuries were initially
described as “minor,” but it turned out to be five broken ribs with lung
contusions and facial injuries as well. The neighbor blind-sided the senator
while he was mowing his lawn. (how many senators mow their own lawn?)
Imagine if lefty Senator Elizabeth Warren had been violently
assaulted by an arch-conservative. Think journalists would mention that point?
Well, they didn’t when the situation was reversed and Rand Paul was attacked
over the weekend by a “liberal” “socialist.”
Favorable views of the Democratic
Party hit the lowest point in 25 years.
Republicans numbers are even lower.
___________________________________________________________________
COLUMN OF THE WEEK
Investor’s Business Daily
11/9
No question about it, the GOP took a real shellacking in
Tuesday's off-year vote, losing key elections in Virginia, New York and New
Jersey. Republicans have been put on notice for 2018: Do your job, or go home.
Democrats ran what was for them a smart but unprincipled,
bare-knuckled campaign. They smeared moderate Republicans as racists and
white-power advocates, while largely avoiding making their campaigns about
issues. It worked: They won 16 seats in the Virginia legislature and the
state's governorship, re-elected a failed socialist mayor in New York, and took
back New Jersey's gubernatorial mansion from departing Republican Chris
Christie.
It was such a victory that even Hillary Clinton (!) claimed partial
credit for it, with her tweeting that her PAC funded many of the winners. Joe
Biden also got in on the action, claiming "nearly every candidate I
endorsed won." So yes, even though it was an off-year election with mostly
state and local control at stake, it was a big day for the Democrats.
Even so, don't think this was so much a Democratic victory
as a Republican defeat. Republicans,
quite frankly, have failed to deliver on signal promises they made in 2016 —
promises that were taken seriously by voters and even many moderate Democrats —
that led to Donald Trump's stunning win over Hillary Clinton and Republicans
maintaining control of both houses of Congress.
To nearly everyone's surprise, they have reprised their act
from 2003 to 2007, the last time they controlled the presidency and both houses
of Congress. They had a chance then to do a lot of good, moving on entitlement
reform, cutting spending, doing free-market reforms for health care, and even
undoing the Clinton-era regulations that led to the housing meltdown and
financial crisis. Apart from passing tax cuts in 2003, they did none of the
other things that voters hoped they would do.
President Obama was personally popular, but after he made
ObamaCare and the Dodd-Frank financial reforms his priorities during his first
two years, Democrats lost big across the country. First they lost the House.
Then they lost election after election in state after state. By one count,
Democrats under Obama lost 1,042 state and federal elected posts, including
congressional and state legislative seats, gubernatorial posts, and even the
presidency.
That was a big wake-up call for the Democrats. Assessing the
Democrats' electoral damage last November, Rep. Tim Ryan, the moderate Ohio
Democrat who failed in his bid to win the House minority leader post, summed it
up pretty well: "We're not even a national party at this point. We have
some support on the coasts, but we've lost the support of middle America, and
we've got to make some changes. So I'm pulling the fire alarm here, because the
house is on fire."
On Tuesday, Democrats squelched the fire, at least a bit.
Republicans would do well not to discount their losses and
to get serious about being a party of power. They made big promises, as we
said, on ObamaCare and taxes. As of yet, they've delivered on neither. A number
of Republicans in recent weeks have announced they will be retiring next year.
Just Wednesday, two more— twelve-term Rep. Frank LoBiondo of New Jersey and
conservative seven-term Rep. Ted Poe of Texas — announced they'll join the
GOP exodus.
Unfortunately, disgruntled Republican voters may be taking
the wrong lessons from their drubbing. A poll by Rasmussen taken on Tuesday
found "Republicans (43%) are more likely than Democrats (36%) and voters
not affiliated with either major political party (31%) to regard today's
elections as a referendum on Trump."
We see it the other way. Unlike Congress, Trump has
delivered as much as possible on his biggest promises. He put a solid
conservative on the Supreme Court, performed a record regulatory rollback at
the federal level, pulled the U.S. out of the costly Paris Climate Agreement,
pushed Congress to reform our absurd tax code, and used his executive power to
curb some of ObamaCare's worst excesses.
Oh, yes, and after eight years of excuses by the previous
White House tenant, Trump has ISIS on the ropes, nearly completely defeated and
no longer holding significant amounts of territory. He's also facing down the
North Korean and Iranian nuclear threats, two big cans that both Republican and
Democratic presidents have kicked down the road for decades. And Trump has done
this all in a year.
Meanwhile, congressional Republicans have been a
disappointment. They've promised to get rid of ObamaCare and to reform taxes.
While those should be slam dunks, they've so far failed to do either, although tax
reform of some sort now seems highly likely.
The implied argument of the Republicans has been, "Wait
until the 2018 election is over; then we'll really be freed up to do great
things." Well, guess what. If Tuesday's any guide, 2018 might not keep
Republicans in power. The Democrats look like they're getting their electoral
mojo back. For Republicans, it's time to be bold or go home.
https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/gops-loss-was-a-real-wake-up-call-will-they-answer-it/
____________________________________________________________________
OTHER COLUMNS
“The Virginia electorate has been changing year after year,
and moving further to the left. Approximately 40% of Northern Virginia
residents are foreign-born. The current governor and the governor-elect
restored voting rights to convicted felons. That added at least 156,000
potential new voters to the rolls who overwhelmingly vote Democrat.”
-Gary Bauer
“The Democrats paid a law firm (Perkins Coie), which paid a
private investigations firm (Fusion GPS), which in turn paid a spy (Christopher
Steele), and Steele paid Russian government officials for dirt on Trump. … The
attorney-client privilege is intended to ensure that people are completely
truthful with their attorneys. It is not supposed to be a shelter for any sordid,
and possibly illegal, behavior by liberals.”
-Ann Coulter
___________________________________________________________________
LEFTIST WATCH
Leftist groups set November 4th as the date of a national
uprising to overthrow the Trump administration and liberate the entire country
from capitalist-patriarchal-white supremacist domination. It was supposed to develop into
open civil war between the progressive forces and the forces of reaction, with
the outcome undoubtedly that guaranteed by Marx, Engels, Lenin, Castro, and
company…And then the 4th
rolled around and… nothing. Three hundred marchers in Times Square. A few dozen in the
Bay Area. A scattering of others here and there… But apart from that… bupkus…..the
People’s Revolution was a complete washout. A bust.
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/11/the_revolution_has_been_postponed.html#ixzz4xlgTMZ3W
Venezuela is getting ridiculous. How much lower can
socialism drag that once-prosperous place? Venezuelans have eaten their pets
and raided zoos for dinner; now, Telemundo reports (via Breitbart) that
thousands of Venezuelan girls are turning to prostitution out of desperation:
Confederate statues are being removed, but Washington DC
Council takes step towards placing a statue of disgraced mayor Marion Barry,
who was caught in a crack bust in 1990.
The California chapter of the NAACP calls for getting rid of
the national anthem because it’s “racist.”
How Leftism Makes Us Stupid
Marxism: One hundred years is a long time, certainly long
enough to know whether something works. In the case of communism, now passing
its 100th year as a political system, it´s safe to say it has had its chance
and now ranks as one of the greatest disasters of all humankind.
_______________________________________________________________
GLOBALONEY
If truth-in-advertising laws were properly enforced, any
company that labeled a battery-powered car as "zero emissions" would
be guilty of breaking the law.
___________________________________________________________________
ARTICLES
It’s no surprise that Ralph Northam defeated Ed Gillespie. I
was surprised, though, that the race wasn’t close, and I think most analysts
were surprised that Northam won so comfortably (by at least 8 points, it looks
like). With hindsight we can say that this was a race between two uninspiring
candidates who needed, somehow, to inspire support. Northam inspired support
because of raw hatred for President Trump. Gillespie tried to inspire it by
taking a hard line on immigration (sanctuary cities) and crime. Apparently, to
no avail.
The Church of Trump Derangement Syndrome. It took Christianity
centuries to take over the Roman Empire. In a mere 365 days, the Church of TDS
has become the official state religion for half the country — the media,
academia, the Deep State and the Democrat party, but I repeat myself.
“It's hard to exaggerate the media praise heaped on Air
Force Lt. Gen. Jay Silveria after his impassioned speech against racism went
viral at the end of September. Silveria, superintendent of the Air Force
Academy, spoke after five black cadet candidates at the academy's prep school
found racial slurs written on message boards outside their rooms. It was also a media opportunity to denounce
Trump. Whoops! The cadet candidate who
reported the racial slurs has admitted that he was behind the whole thing. It
was all a hoax. The young man, who is black, has left the academy. Crickets
from the media.
Must read. “Thoughts and Prayers for Anti-Gun Freaks Grieving
Over Death of The Narrative”
Donna Brazile pulls the pin on the Seth Rich grenade.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/11/donna_brazile_pulls_the_pin_on_the_seth_rich_grenade.html#ixzz4xliHKTtt
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
WISE
WORDS
“To model our political system upon speculations of lasting
tranquility, is to calculate on the weaker springs of the human character.”
-Alexander
Hamilton
posted by gary at
8:08 AM
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