Is There Some Way to Get Rid of Governors like Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott?

 

As if Donald Trump didn't do everything in his power to demolish democracy in the United States, the focus of late has shifted to states like Texas and Florida. The GOP governors from these two states, Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis, respectively, are now hammering away at our freedoms at an alarming rate. As an example, Abbott recently issued an Executive Order prohibiting vaccine mandates by any entity. And DeSantis refuses to address the current surge of the Omicron virus.

This is not contrary to their past deeds, rather, it just compounds what these morons have been doing to destroy their states during the Covid-19 pandemic. As of today, Florida has 4,213,301 coronavirus cases, 62,480 deaths. In comparison, Texas has 4,752,113 cases, 76,353 deaths. Between the two, 138,833 of their citizens have died, many of which were surely caused by the ineptitude of these two idiots who continue to deny the science of the virus.

Here's the overall picture from Greg Sargent, The Washington Post...

"As the political world stumbles into 2022, the GOP’s grip on state governments appears as formidable as ever. Republicans will fully control the governorship and legislature in nearly half of states, while Democrats will have less than one-third. Republicans control either legislatures or governorships in Democratic-leaning swing states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Virginia.

Remember Debbie Wasserman Schultz, when she chaired the Democratic National Committee, falling asleep at the switch while the GOP was doing their state-by-state takeover? This was between 2011 and 2016 and the Democrats have never caught up. Actually, they haven't really put in a lot of effort, concentrating, instead, on the national political scene. Sargent believes a host of factors are "dramatically raising the stakes" in this control including a threat to democracy.

Democratic super PAC Forward Majority warns the dems to do something now aggressively to recapture control among the states. However, a combination of Republican gerrymandering in drawing new political districts and a very worrisome 2022 midterm and 2024 elections are keeping them busy now. The Forward Majority study...

ran dozens of potential scenarios over the next decade, adjusting various factors, such as the national mood and support for Democrats among college-educated and non-college-educated voters. It concludes: “We anticipate a defensive map over the next decade.”

And here's a very productive idea...

"The report recommends a major effort to register millions of voters in states that show such growth opportunities. It also suggests a big push to focus more on the importance of suburban and exurban voters in state legislative contests, among many other things.

“There is so much unregistered opportunity,” from David Cohen, a co-founder of Forward Majority."

No matter what strategy the Democrats decide to use, for governors it must focus on the likes of Ron DeSantis of Florida and Greg Abbott of Texas.

There is much more from Greg Sargent's opinion, which I urge you to read. 

 

 

 

Poltiical Satire: Can the Democrats/Progressives recover? Why not!

The left is in, perhaps, the worst shape it has been in for decades. Not that it has had that much past luck in Congress, the only positive recently being Barack Obama who was stonewalled by the GOP during his entire eight years. But the election of Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton proves the inability of Democrats to nominate an electable candidate to run against a weakened Republican Party. They had one in Bernie Sanders but blew it allowing Debbie Wasserman Schultz to run the show and bar his nomination through unethical tactics, for which she was fired.

There are all kinds of perceptions of whether or not the Bern would have beat Trump, but what is sure is the fact that he would have given him a better run for his money than Hillary Clinton did. Sanders awakened the younger crowd, which could have been his ace in the hole against Donald John. But this is all history and the focus now is how to bring Democrats/Progressives back to the forefront. If my experience with the Demographic grassroots volunteer organization is any indication of the competency of this group, this is where the most work is necessary.

With both Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders I volunteered my services repeatedly; in both cases, with no takers. That's right, my background in database management, including computer modeling , along with research and market predicting was made available several times to apparently deaf ears. Due to my physical condition I couldn't go out and knock on doors, but time and again I offered to make my full office and experience available. Most recently, I contacted Bernie Sanders' campaign right up to the bitter end of his running for the nomination. Both in my state and national. Nothing.

And today Democrats are divided over how to handle Donald Trump, with one group wanting an all-out war, the other wants to try and guide him to the center. It should be obvious by now to anyone, you don't push Donald John in any direction but his own. And then there's the realization that with all the support to oppose Trump, the congressional Democrats just may not have the power to accomplish what they want. Impeachment now would take some strong support from Republicans and that isn't likely to happen. Of course, 2018 could turn the tide.

Bernie Sanders

But there has always been a leader from the left that stood out when minds were being made up aboutBernie Sanders stood out as the candidate of choice but denied his right. The American public was screaming for change, and the Bern offered that in a way that would most benefit the working class. What they got was Donald Trump, the voice of...Donald Trump.
campaigns and elections to come. Names like F.D.R., John Kennedy, Bill Clinton, unfortunately, Hillary Clinton most recently. There was a clear point at which the obvious was there to see in 2016, and that was when

One Democrat from a left-leaning state, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who is Vice Chairman off the Democratic Governors Assn., spoke of massive support for resistance against Donald John's Executive Order banning refugee admissions and travel from seven majority Muslim countries. Gov. Inslee has backed a lawsuit that challenges Trump's Executive Order and commented that by "...undermining Mr. Trump across the board..." The Dems will eventually hope to split Republicans away from the President. Not sure the likes of Mitch McConnell are bright enough.

The Democratic Party is so weakened that several Congress members from red states are afraid to oppose Trump for fear of losing their seats. But what good are those seats to the left if they have no voice. The answer is none. I am having a problem here wondering why we aren't getting fire and brimstone from a team of Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer. They are, combined, the strength of the Senate and the Democratic Party. The Republicans doesn't hesitate to gang up against the left when the opportunity presents itself.

However, this is what the Dems are up against. A House and Senate controlled by the GOP. A Republican in the White House, although with such a lack of direction in his first month in office, the unknown will be the biggest problem. And if, probably when, Neil Gorsuch is installed in the Supreme Court, it will be five conservatives against four liberals. Insurmountable odds? Maybe not. Leo Jennings, a Democratic consultant from Youngstown, Ohio, days the Party must adopt a more Progressive economic agenda. Progressives must reclaim the Party.

Jennings, a Sanders supporter, said...

"If we don't start talking about the things that we can do to make it better for all working-class voters, we're bankrupt as a party."

Jennings feels you should lump whites and blacks (people of color) together in the Party's approach, but not rule out identity politics altogether. A state Party organizer who is black said, "If the Democratic Party wants to be around in the future, they need to go left." Precisely what Bernie Sanders was doing when his campaign was ruthlessly side-tracked. The public saw Hillary Clinton as too middle of the road and much too connected to the financial community to be on the side of the consumer. Some Sanders' supporters did vote for Hillary butt it was all too late.

I mentioned the potential magic trio earlier of Sanders, Warren and Schumer, the latter also Senate minority leader, thinking how much power is held by three of the most forceful Democrats in the Senate. What if we now add former President Barack Obama to the formula as a civilian, and Bill and Hillary Clinton, if they are of a mind, plus any other Progressives that want to join the new club. Now, looking forward to 2018, and a takeover of the Senate, and the House too, this consortium could be unbeatable. Is there any reason why these people couldn't and shouldn't work together?

There is at least one skeptic, Chinemerem Onyeukwu, 23, the Party organizer from Ohio, who is worried that, "...Democrats are going to keep running what he called '90s-style campaigns despite Clinton's loss." He has reason to believe that when, in light of the changing analytics of the 2016 Primaries, the Dems were still under the spell of the wicked witch from Florida. There is hope with the election of a new Democratic National Committee head yesterday, Tom Perez. It wasn't the pick of Bernie Sanders and the rest of the Party left, so the future remains to be seen.

What if you found out you couldn't vote in the next election?

 

Would you be pissed? Or would you be relieved that you don't have to fulfill your voting responsibility? The latter is what Republicans want you to feel, and they are again working hard on their ideological voter suppression, targeting Democratic strongholds. A good example of this comes from the Atlanta Constitution citing new laws passed in the state House...

"A bill to restrict ballot drop boxes, require more ID for absentee voting and limit weekend early voting days passed the Georgia House on Monday amid protests that the proposals would make it harder for voters to participate in democracy."

The key words here are "make it harder for voters to participate in democracy," words you should not expect from a free country with a mentally stable voting population. But we haven't had either since Donald Trump walked into the White House just over four years ago. Although Joe Biden's administration is trying to rectify what Trump put into motion, we still have an anarchy working in this country and a gang of double-digits who still worship their emperor. Read more...

But you remember Georgia, the state where Donald Trump made his last stand

screaming voter fraud in the 2020 election. Also the state that lost 2 Senators to the Democrats, giving them a bare majority. If you don't keep your eyes on every move Republicans make, you can bet your life the left will lose something. They skirted a nation of state legislators right under our nose and during the DNC tenure of Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Now Moscow Mitch is after judgeships.  

However the biggie is the 253 bills in 43 states on the heels of a "rash of baseless and racist allegations of voter fraud and election irregularities," according to AlterNet. Here's why Republicans are doing this according to "Marc Elias, a prominent Democratic attorney and founder of the voting rights advocacy group Democracy Docket...

"Republicans are doing this because they think they can gain an electoral advantage from making it harder for Black, brown and young voters to participate in the process. This is the reaction of a party that knows it can't compete for a majority of the votes."

Eventually you have to take off the gloves and give back to the right the same thing they are spewing at the left. 

 

 

Republicans continue to dissect the democratic process

 

Richard L. Hasen, is a professor at the University of California, Irvine, School of Law, and an expert in election law, according to the New York Times, and he is concerned that the GOP is quietly but effectively undermining the democratic voting process. You might recall a few years ago when the radical right, again, quietly and effectively, completely flummoxed DNC head, Debbie Wasserman Schultz in taking over Governors' offices and state legislatures, leading to won elections.

Hansen reminds us of the recent Jan. 6, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, basically for the purpose of denying the validity of the 2020 election, which 

The Donald Trump sneer

Donald Trump has continued in a number of ways by energizing his group of double-digit supporters. This, alone, carried into the 2024 election, would be enough to disrupt the democratic process. But, Hansen says the next coup attempt will be executed by “lawyers in fine suits.”

Here are the facts...

"Between January and June, Republican-controlled legislatures passed 24 laws across 14 states to increase their control over how elections are run, stripping secretaries of state of their power and making it easier to overturn results."

And there is, of course, the ever-present Moscow Mitch McConnell, known as the "Grim Reaper," since President Barack Obama he has decreed to block anything "Democrat." His most recent drive against our country is to block 
"Democrats’ effort to act responsibly and step up to the thankless task of raising the debt limit." Here's the Daily Beast's take...

There are lots of things you can say about Cocaine Mitch, but you can’t say he broke his vow to make stopping Biden “100 percent of his focus.” His willingness to imperil the full faith and credit of the United States to do so is more proof than the country can stand.

Here's a typical Republican quote for you by Sam Brodey: "Republicans Don't Want a Debt Default—Just Democratic Chaos."

But what we must never lose sight of is the fact that Trump supporters are just as

mentally unbalanced as the simpleton they follow. Here's a headline from Salon: "White terror: Millions of Americans say they'd support violence to restore Trump to power." That should scare the hell out of anyone who is in full command of his or her mental faculties. There has even been talk of another civil war like we experienced in 1861, with the Jan. 6, insurrection a preview.

A couple weeks ago the Trump goons held a "Justice for J6" rally, which pretty much fizzled with a very low turnout. Salon's reaction was...

Trump's Republican-fascists and their propagandists have elevated these hooligans, vandals and (in many cases) terrorists to the status of martyrs and patriots as a way of legitimizing their anti-democratic movement, creating sympathy among Trump's faithful that can be exploited for fundraising and, of course, recruiting and encouraging more extremists to the cause.

To underwrite this bizarre Trump movement, AlterNet reports there is a group, The Claremont Institute that will tell you...

that Republicans and Democrats aren't just members of competing political parties, but are, in effect, living in two separate countries. Describing Claremont as the "intellectual home of America's Trumpist right," Green notes that Claremont President Ryan Williams and his colleagues "believe that America has" become "two fundamentally different countries, not least because of the rise of secularism."

Can you imagine what Abraham Lincoln would have thought had he been confronted by a bunch of lunatics like this? Racists aren't the most mentally stable individuals, but at least the cause was simpler. The South favored slavery; the North did not. It is no longer simple, but still very similar to 1861, two very different groups that are determined to, each, have its way. Only one side can win, and it is that which will determine the future of democracy.

The Clinton-era expert speaks out

Sporting a new bow tie but brandishing the same political philosophy as earlier, this liberal icon of American political commentary is fired up and telling the Democrat Party off. “We’re losing our damn minds,” he exclaims, with the urgency of someone about to be pushed over the edge. Carville is the epitome of strategists, making Republicans look like crooks in a mediocre way by keeping his tactics, and those around him, principled and honorable.

He says the Dems must be "Majoritarian," a word I have missed, if a part of the current liberal jargon. Here's the definition...

"From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Majoritarian democracy, as opposed to constitutional democracy, refers to democracy based upon majority rule of a society's citizens. Majoritarian democracy is the conventional form of democracy used as a political system in many countries."

What worries me most is his opinion of the current tribe of 2020 Democratic candidates; he's not impressed with any of them, including Bernie Sanders and Mike Bloomberg. All this amid a chaotic Iowa Caucus that it isn't clear is settled yet. In the middle of this article, there is another piece, "Bernie Sanders leads Donald Trump in polls, even when you remind people he’s a socialist," and Carville has this comment...

"But back to Sanders — what I’m saying is the Democratic Party isn’t Bernie Sanders, whatever you think about Sanders."

And he's right, Bernie Sanders is where the liberals, call them Progressives or Democrats, are going for the future. Hillary Clinton screwed up 2016, ably assisted by the conniving of then DNC head, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, leading to an Electoral loss but a huge margin in the popular vote winning by over 3-million. Carville thinks Bernie could win the electoral--and I believe the popular vote in larger numbers than Clinton--but we won't regain the Senate.

And, of course, there is no way a Democrat/Progressive would get anything done in the White House with Moscow Mitch McConnell heading up the Senate, even though the Bern would probably hold on to the House. David Faris outlines his plan to fix all this in his book, "It's Time to Fight Dirty." This is how James Carville would fix it...

"The Democratic Party is the party of African Americans. It’s becoming a party of educated suburbanites, particularly women. It’s the party of Latinos. We’re a party of immigrants. Most of the people aren’t into all this distracting shit about open borders and letting prisoners vote. They don’t care. They have lives to lead. They have kids. They have parents that are sick. That’s what we have to talk about. That’s all we should talk about."

But when you look at the other Democratic candidates, it is clear that their focus is on those people above with programs like Sanders' fight against inequality, Bloomberg's gun control, Biden's appeal to the blacks, to name a few. James is right on racism; the only one in the campaign who really emphasized this issue was Corey Booker, and he is no longer running. And surprisingly, the ragin Cajun doesn't support free education for fear of pisssing off those who had to work their way through school.

Another thing I don't understand is his inability to grasp the fact that liberals are, in fact, slowly moving farther to the left and there is a quiet revolution of those of us who are fed up with the overall inequities between the elite wealthy and us normal folks. James Carville is looking for a "winning message," as he describes it, and I am not sure his reasoning here when Bernie Sanders has a hold on millennials numbering 71 million; that's a hell of a base to start with.

Carville closes with...

"I think the other side wants us to think there are no swing voters, that we’re doomed and it doesn’t even matter if you have a message because you can’t reach anyone. I think that’s bullshit. I think that’s a wholly incorrect view of American politics. But look, if no one’s persuadable, then let’s just have the revolution.

"Falling into despair won’t help anyone, though. I mean, you can curse the darkness or you can light a candle. I’m getting a fucking welding torch. Okay?"

You have to give the ragin Cajun his due, successfully steering Bill Clinton to wins in two presidential campaigns. I think the point here is to temper what he has said with the solid push to the left, which long time Democrats can't seem to get their minds around and come up with the winning combination. Not only to just win big in 2020, but to carry the left ahead in the future with solid issues there affect not only the left, but the right as well.   A MUST READ HERE!