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Confederates Seceded, Trumpicans Did Not: America’s Third Civil War

February 8, 2021
by Peter Feinman
News research at Foxhub

During America’s Second Civil War, Confederates seceded from the United States. During the current civil war, Trumpicans remain in the United States and the halls of Congress even as they advocated for the overthrow of the democratic process. Confederates expressed no desire to rule over the North. By contrast, the Trumpicans want to govern the entire country including over people they don’t consider to be Real Americans. The result is a very awkward situation where people who do not recognize the legitimacy of the current President still vote on the legislative proposals submitted by him if only to oppose them. Imagine if this situation had existed during the Second Civil War.

THE 1864 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

According to Abraham Lincoln, the states of the Confederacy never legally left the Union. There was no Constitutional provision for such an action, so officially we always were one country. That argument is a weak one. After all there was no provision to declare independence from the British Empire either. Yet we did it. From the British perspective, we always were the 13 colonies. It was only with the Treaty of Paris that Britain recognized that we were in fact an independent country.

Now suppose, the Confederacy had decided to call Lincoln’s bluff. Suppose during the election of 1864, the Confederates had sent electors to Washington pledged to support Jefferson Davis for president of the United States. In that scenario, would the electors have been accepted for the vote in the Electoral College and certification by the Congress?

The odds are “no.” Still one wonders what hoops the Union would have gone through to deny the legitimacy of the Confederate electors while still proclaiming the existence of Union including those very same Confederate states. In fact, the recently captured-by-the-Union states of Louisiana and Tennessee did hold elections although their electors were not counted. Although the defeated candidate barely won any states, he did win 45% of the vote. If the Confederates had voted the election results would have been quite different. Here is where we could use a novelist/screen writer to tell the story of the alternate universe where the Union accepted the Confederate electors and Lincoln was defeated. After all, although Lincoln is considered our greatest President except in San Francisco and by the Republican Party, there was a lot of opposition to him during the war.

THE 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

If we flash forward to the present, the situation is quite different. Even though the Trumpican Party effort to steal the election was unsuccessful, they have paid no price for the attempt. The traitors who sought to subvert the election are far more welcome in Congress than Robert E. Lee ever was. In fact, for all intents and purposes it is business as usual on legislative matters. Trumpicans will still oppose the legislative agenda of the President. The margins are tight in both the House and especially the Senate as the recent tie-breaking vote by the Vice President demonstrates. There may be times when the Democrats wish the Trumpicans would leave just as their predecessors had in 1861. Unfortunately for the Democrats, the Trumpicans know better. In fact they are chomping at the bit in anticipation of regaining power in both houses of Congress in 2022.

Former Senator Jeff Flake had always suggested that there many closet Republicans within the Trumpican Party. On the outside, they toed the party line, but underneath they were still Republicans. They were well aware of the shortcomings of the immature-child president with no conscience, no ethics, no morals, who was incapable of telling truth and who only cared about himself. Still they feared the proverbial base and behaved as good little Trumpicans even if their heart wasn’t it.

Now thanks to a slew of votes we have a better sense of where the Congressional members of the Republican Party stand. We know who pledge their first loyalty to the loser President and who pledge their first loyalty to the Constitution.

1. The public action in support of the Supreme Court case to overthrow the election.
2. The public vote on certification of the electors.
3. The public vote on the impeachment of instigator of the insurrection to overthrow the government.
4. The secret ballot vote on the fate of the #3 person in House.
5. The public vote to remove a loser loyalist from two committees (not to expel her).

These all provide some insight into the validity of the claims by Flake and Rick Wilson among others. There still are substantial Republican majorities in both houses over the Trumpicans provided the vote is secret. In public votes, there are only a handful willing to cross the line (Note – two who did on Marjorie Taylor Greene had local issues regarding 9/11 and school shootings so their votes should not be construed to suggest their first loyalty is to the Constitution).

MTG VERSUS AOC

For two years now Foxhub has been touting the Squad with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as the real power in the House and the Democratic Party. According to its version AOC is the face of the Democratic Party and Foxhub is sure to display it every opportunity they have.

By contrast in the real world, Nancy Pelosi runs a tight ship. She remains in charge. The insurrectionists unsuccessfully targeted her…and AOC too. Still the claim that the Squad runs the show is pure wishful thinking but apparently just what the Foxhub audience wants to believe.

The situation with Marjorie Taylor Greene differs She very rapidly has made herself the face of the Republican Party. In fact, the Democrats were quick to rebrand the party as QOP, the party of QAnon. One may expect that branding to continue right through the next election. After all, the Democratic Party has held no such vote on the merits of AOC. The QOP meanwhile has fully embraced MTG as its face.

There was a time when I thought QAnon and MTG would be the final straw. I knew the Trumpicans would never publicly disavow the Loser President. January 6 proved that in the House and will prove that in the Senate shortly.

But I thought such obeisance might not carry over to MTG even though she had his support. Nationwide, Trumpicans do not necessarily know her or have the same visceral commitment to her that they have to person who scammed over 2 million people to send him over ¼ billion dollars simply by asking for it, perhaps the largest con by number of people in the history of the United States. I really thought MTG might be the line they wouldn’t cross, the bridge too far, the final straw. Boy, was I wrong.

What does all this mean for the ongoing civil wars between the GOP and QOP? Will it have to become the TOP if MTG starts getting too much publicity for the recluse in-exile?  And then there is the original civil war between the two national parties. Despite all the talk about unity there won’t be any. Instead there will be a lot of resolutions and Vice President voting. Republicans retirements are creating openings in the Senate. Republican state legislators are ramping up their voter suppression even before the new Congressional district lines are drawn.  Electoral College delegates are transferred among the states. The playing field keeps changing. 2022 and the bicentennial of the 1824 presidential elections are shaping up as do-or-die battlefields where no election is accepted as legitimate by the loser.

Will the Constitutional Republic Survive America’s Third Civil War?

January 26, 2021
by Peter Feinman
For want of wearing a mask, the presidency was lost. (https://nailstip.blogspot.com/2019/08/for-want-of-horseshoe-nail.html)

The fate of the constitutional republic of the United States of America remains unknown. Will it survive to celebrate its 250th anniversary? Will it dissolve into its constituent parts? Will it simply muddle along under constant strain because the alternative is too scary?

No one knows the answer to these questions. Before beginning a series of history blogs on the subject, I would like to note how easy it would have been for the constitutional republic already to have ended. A lot of things had to work out for us to get even this far and anyone one of them could have turned out differently.

THERE COULD HAVE BEEN A BIGGER TURNOUT ON 1/6

Approximately 8000 people showed up on January 6, not all of them armed. When I first wrote Seven Days in January: This Time It Is Not a Movie on January 3, I asked what would happen if different combinations of heavily-armed right wing militias had stormed the Capitol. I wondered if there were sufficient ground forces to stop them. Now we know. Even with the lower number of insurrectionists the defensive forces were inadequate to do the job.

1. Why weren’t there adequate forces to defend the Capitol?
2. Why was the turnout for the insurrection so low?
3. Despite the low numbers, what would the response have been if Mike Pence had been hanged and Nancy Pelosi had been killed?

SUPPOSE THE TRUMPICANS HAD BEEN AS WELL ORGANIZED AS THE WOKE

The Woke were prepared for the post-election attempt by the Trumpicans to steal the election; the Trumpicans were not. The Woke correctly anticipated the Trumpican attempt to steal the election. They had planning sessions as to what to do. More importantly, they had planning sessions on what not to do: No cries to “Defund the Police.” No toppling of statues. No burning of flags. They conducted training sessions. They planned for contingencies. They coordinated. They vowed not to provide Trumpicans with the slogans and photo-ops that would undermine their cause. They were organized, disciplined, ready and successful.

By contrast, the Trumpican side was true to their leader. He bought a lifetime of incompetence and ineptitude to managing his post-election attempt to steal the election. He was not prepared at all. He had no planning sessions. He developed no strategies. He organized nothing. When your legal effort is being led by Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, you know you have a weak case. Everything was ad hoc, impulsive, on the fly. The DOJ wasn’t ready; in the end a nobody from left field attempted to stage a coup within the department that went nowhere. In the end the corporations that were being accused of criminal activity based on wishful thinking decided to strike back through legal action.

The planning for the insurrection itself consisted of a call to show up, attend a rally, and walk to the Capitol – it will be wild. There was no planning about what the people should do once they got inside the Capitol. As Mary Trump said about her uncle, a child in the body of an adult with the emotional maturity of a three-year old, he “enjoyed every second…He is a physical coward but he’s perfectly happy when other people commit violence on his behalf.” Even the rightwing groups mocked the effort for being unorganized and inadequately planned. Once inside, the insurrectionists were busy taking selfies and souvenirs. Skilled revolutionaries they were not.

1. Suppose next time the insurrection leader is an adult?
2. Suppose next time the insurrectionists turn out in force and do have a plan?
3. Suppose next time the Woke aren’t as well organized and prepared to stop the steal?

WHAT IF THE CORONAVIRUS HAD OCCURRED EARLIER IN HIS TERM?  

On numerous occasions during the pandemic, various people in the administration have made fools of themselves for their ineptitude, incompetence, and ignorance. They did not understand the science nor did they want do. One of the questions historians will ask, if they aren’t already, is why did the eventual loser throw away the opportunity to be a winner.

1. Imagine if he had worn a mask.
2. Imagine if had pretended to be sympathetic.
3. Imagine if he had put Mike Pence in charge.

Of course, he couldn’t change who he was even though it cost him the election. He simply was too simple-minded, narcissistic and lacking in mental necessities to transform the virus into a leadership challenge as a wartime president. Instead all he cared about was the Dow Jones and once that crisis was solved he lost interest.

But if the virus had struck earlier and if the vaccine had been ready earlier and if the vaccine had been distributed earlier and America was looking back on the virus on election day the way China is, he would have been re-elected. He will never understand that.

WHAT IF THE DEMOCRATS HAD NOT NOMINATED JOE BIDEN?

While 7 million votes is a lot numerically, in percentage terms, it is not that great. A small shift of votes in Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, and one congressional district and there would have been no need to try to steal the election. All things considered, that is not a lot of votes. It also shows how thin the Democratic bench is and how Democrats may need Biden to run again in 2024 to prevent a Trumpican victory.

Our next presidential election is the bicentennial of the election of 1824. That presidential election was one of the ugliest in American history. There were five candidates. American was transitioning from the First Party system of Federalists and Anti-Federalists/Republicans of Adams and Jefferson to the Second Party system of Whigs and Democrats with Clay/Webster and Jackson. I first wrote about it in September 2016 The Presidential Election of 1824: Lessons for Today and tried to resume the discussion in December 2020 Biden and Cuomo: The End of an Era. In that blog I wrote about the Diversity Party and the Democratic Party as two of the parties. The question was how long the two factions could remain united in one party. The answer is still unknown but I think it is safe to say both groups understand the stakes if they don’t.

In that blog, I deferred writing about the corresponding division of the other party between the Republicans and the Trumpicans. In a little more than a month since then, that division has become obvious to everyone. The actions of the state parties such as in Arizona and really-off-the-rails Oregon, the votes in the House on the electors and the impeachment, the vote in the Senate on constitutionality of the impeachment all show that there is no civil war in the Republican Party. The Trumpicans have won. The Republicans are retiring from the battlefield. The Lincoln Project Republicans aren’t welcome anymore and they know it. There is no place for them.

Mitch McConnell is four years too late to battle to save the Republican Party from the Trumpicans. He got his tax cut to help rich people get richer and he got his judges. If the price is the destruction of the Republican Party for the Trumpican Party, then he will have to decide if it was worth it. The people who need to set up a third party are the Republicans and not the Trumpicans. There is no Republican Party left to take back.

That is why the fate of the constitutional republic remains unknown and precarious. The United States of America now has one national party that is dedicated not to the rule of law under the Constitution but to the wishes of one immature individual with no conscience, no ethics, and no morals. For now at least, he is in complete control of his party. The vaunted Biden working relationships with members across the aisle means nothing. Those are the Republicans on their way out. He has no Senate experience with Trumpicans. He has no House experience with Trumpicans. They do not consider him legitimate.

The Democrats still control the House…by a little and the in-power Party tends to lose seats in the non-Presidential election. The Democrats barely control the Senate but there still are some Republicans left there so some legislation may be possible. The Democrats have no margin for error. The continued existence of the United States of America as a constitutional republic depends on them not making one.

Biden and Cuomo: The End of an Era

December 20, 2020
by Peter Feinman
1824: The Ugly Election That Birthed Modern American Politics (nationalgeographic.com)

Our next presidential election will be the bicentennial of the election of 1824. That year might not ring a bell with people but it marked an important transition in American history. In that election, America transformed from what is called the First Party system to the Second Party system. The First Parties were the Federalists (Hamilton, Adams) and the Anti-Federalists/Republicans (Jefferson). The Second Parties were the Whigs (Clay, Webster) and the Democrats (Jackson). The “Stop the Steal” election of 1824 was the transition point. It occurred two years before the 50th anniversary of the birth of the nation just as 2024 will be two years before the 250th anniversary, a number that would have been outstanding to them.

Today we take for granted not only the two-party system but the existence of the two parties we have at present. The election of 1824 involved 4 major presidential candidates. While 2024 is likely to have fewer, there are four factions which will be competing for the top spot. In this blog, I wish to address two of them: the Democratic Party and the Diversity Party.

THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY VERSUS THE DIVERSITY PARTY

The modern Democratic Party as we know it emerged in the 1930’s under Franklin Roosevelt. Three of its components were the Irish (Joe Biden), the Italian (Andy Cuomo), and the Jewish (Chuck Schumer). It included white Southerners who especially since the 1960s, have migrated to the Republican/Confederate Party. It did not include Negroes who later became African Americans and who migrated from the Republican/Lincoln Party to the Democratic Party.

That era is over. Non-transgendered white male heterosexuals like Biden, Cuomo, and Schumer have no future in the Diversity Party. Candidates and appointees need to be diverse. I am not suggesting that this will be an instantaneous transformation at the federal, state, and local level. It will happen gradually through direct frontal challenges (the AOC election) and through attrition. For example, in my own congressional district a traditional Democrat was replaced by a Diverse person. Now all the Hudson Valley congressional representations are diverse. Cuomo already was challenged by a Diverse candidate. When he finally leaves office, the odds are a Diverse person will replace him. Similarly for Schumer.

This situation is playing out in California now. There is one Senate opening due to the incumbent being elected Vice President. Soon there will be a second one. The current Democrat is 87 years old and past her prime. Whether Feinstein steps down or hangs on until the end of her term, the Democrat will be succeeded by a Diverse representative. The different hyphen-groups already are jousting for the Harris seat. Perhaps there will be a compromise where one hyphen group gets the Harris seat and a second one gets the Feinstein seat. Welcome to the world of New York City Council elections.

Biden also faces the obligation to appoint people from the Diverse Party. He seems to be trying to do so with people who have diverse characteristics but Democratic Party values. Since he has many positions to fill, he has a lot of options as he juggles his responsibilities. He still can appoint non-transgendered white male heterosexuals instead of a diverse person as long as he explains why.

The Diverse Party is quite outspoken about its expectations from the new administration. Yes, they want a seat at the table in the room where it happens. They even can designate how many seats they want – more than a token. Similarly, they do not want seats in the back of the room by the kitchen door. They want to be seat upfront in seats of power and prestige.

The Diverse Party like the Tea Party a decade earlier is not likely to become a separate political party. It will continue to operate within the Democratic Party gradually building up its strength especially as the older Democratic officials retire or are retired.

DIVERSE PARTY LINGO

The Diverse Party has its own convoluted lingo where words don’t mean what they seem to mean. Here are two recent examples from consecutive days in The New York Times.

“Asian-Americans Have a Lesson for Democrats” by Viet Thanh Nguyen (12/17/20 print)

Consider his second sentence:

For Democrats, Asian-Americans are suddenly crucial: They are the fastest-growing racial or ethnic group in the U.S. electorate…

What makes this comment so extraordinarily absurd? First, Asia is a continent. The word comes from the Greeks. They were referring to what today is Turkey where “Murder on Orient Express” was headed. Second, Asia is not a racial or ethnic group. Later on in the op-ed, the author acknowledges that “The category ‘Asian-Americans’ is not natural, for people in Asia do not typically imagine themselves as Asians, but rather identify with specific nationalities or ethnicities.”

In his bio, Nguyen is listed as covering South East Asia. That makes sense. He is of Vietnamese descent. The United States fought a long war in what was routinely identified as Southeast Asia. The Vice-President elect is routinely identified as being South Asian. The Boston Marathon bombers are of Central Asian descent. The area the Greeks referred to as Asia is now mainly Southwest Asia in academic studies and the Middle East in political discussions. And let’s not forget where Siberia is located.

“ASIANS” IS NOT A RACIAL TERM.
WHAT WORD DOES IDENTIFY THE RACE OF THE PEOPLE IDENTIFIED AS ASIAN-AMERICANS? CAN YOU THINK OF ONE?

Nguyen goes on to note that Asian-Americans support policies consistent with those supported by people of color. That means Asian-Americans are not people of color. What color are they then? Or are they a people of no color?

President of Queens College

Here we see the nonsense of the politically-corrected terminology that twists people into absurd knots. Now we know that Asian-Americans are a people of no color who do not include all Americans of Asian descent and who have no name for their race. How progressive.

Want more?

“Biden makes History by Picking Native American for the Cabinet” by Coral Davenport (12/18/20 print)

In this example of twisted reporting, Deb Haaland, the article mentions:

native as an adjective once
Native as a noun once
Native America six times
Indigenous three times
Indian twice as part of the name of government entities.

Can you imagine an article on Joe Biden where he is identified as Irish, Celtic, European, and white during the course of the writing?

One might think that government entities responsible for Indians means that the people over whom they are responsible are Indians. That is true but politically incorrect. Instead the reader is treated to a plethora of terms. Indians do know that all people born in the United States are native Americans. Indians should also know that no native Americans should be privileged over any other native American. Indians however have what the Southeast Asians and East Asians do not have: a real name for themselves – INDIAN.

According to this article, Elizabeth Kronk Warner, dean and professor of law at the University of Utah, and a citizen of the Sault Ste. Marie tribe of Chippewa INDIANS [and presumably of Utah, too] said:

It’s momentous to see an INDIAN promoted out of the shadows of American history to a seat at the table in the White House. Tribes and the federal government have a relationship that goes back to the 18th century ⸺ but despite that relationship we have never had an American INDIAN at this level of government.

Apparently the only ones who can use the term “Indian” are Indians themselves. While that is somewhat of an exaggeration, it isn’t by as much as it should be.

As we head towards the 1824 Presidential Election Bicentennial, it is reasonable to anticipate that the Diversity Party will become more and more insistent that politically-corrected vocabulary be used that no matter how convoluted and distorted it is. It is reasonable to anticipate that the Democratic Party will follow the lead of the Diversity Party. It is reasonable to anticipate that more and more white people will object to the microaggressions of having to toe the Diversity Party line or be subject to the Thought Police. What is not known is whether the opposition will stop being the party of stupid cowering weenies in the face of this politically-corrected assault and will realize the opportunity it presents if it was capable of being the party of Lincoln.

More to come on the 1824 Bicentennial.

Battle Report from America’s Third Civil War: Trumpicans versus Democrats Since July 14, 2019

July 23, 2019
by Peter Feinman
007 Teaching the Field of Dreams American the Facts of Life about a Knife at a Gun Fight (https://www.youtube.com)

Note: From Thursday to Sunday, I attended the annual conference of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic (SHEAR) held in Cambridge, MA. One of the most popular sessions at the conference was “Going Public: History and Humanities beyond the Academy.” The subject was how to introduce history into the reporting of the news. The attendees were eager to bring their expertise on the past into the discussions in and about the present.

What has happened since the President of the United States formally launched America’s third civil war on July 14, 2019? Like the first two civil wars, this one was a long time coming. But there is a difference. When the American Revolution began, no one knew Saratoga was to occur. Similarly when the Civil War began, no one knew about Gettysburg. This time around everyone is anticipating the 2020 elections. So let us see what has been going on during the first ten days of official hostilities between the Democrats and the Trumpicans.

TRUMPICANS

For the Trumpicans the actions since the commencement of the engagement have been unified and consistent. What we are observing it is completion of the trumpification of the Republican Party. It is being transformed at the lower levels to be the expression of the 7th grade smart-aleck-dumb-aleck whose behavior dominates the party.

Consider this exchange.

Tom Rooney, former five-time Congressional representative from Florida said:

To devolve into childish name-calling usually doesn’t win the argument. I think we can do better.

When the National Republican Congressional Committee referred to Little Max Rose, the five feet six inches Democratic incumbent from New York, Rooney reacted to this juvenile disparagement of the Purple Heart recipient:

Maybe there’s a better conservative argument to counter his support of this legislation than calling him “little.” At least that would be my advice to my 13 year-old.

Exactly, 13 is the age level at which the Trumpican Party operates because that is the age at which its leader functions (Tom Hanks versus Our Immature Child-President).

Former representative Rooney represents the past, the Republican Party which no longer exists. By contrast, the National Republican Congressional Committee represents the Trumpican Party, what the former Republican Party has become. It has adopted the Trumpican playbook lock, stock, and barrel. It will be non-stop taunts, name-calling, and demeaning words for weeks and months to come. It is juvenile. It is childish. It is immature. It is the party of Donald Trump. The weapon he unleashed on July 14 is in the process of becoming the norm throughout the party at all levels.

Now consider the historians of the future. They will be studying the language of the Republican Party. They will as they have been doing for decades examine the language of the first Republican president. They will note that although Abraham Lincoln did not receive much formal schooling, he mastered the language of the Bible and Shakespeare. He incorporated those rhythms and vocabulary into his own speeches. He produced masterpieces which have been carved in stone and have been memorized and recited until this very day.

Then there is the language of last Republican president before he created the Trumpican Party. It is simpleminded, coarse, and crude. It does not soar, it demeans. It does not uplift, it degrades. It does not inspire, it hates. It is the language of the playground bully. It is the language of war unleashed on July 14 and now spreading throughout the party to all levels.

DEMOCRATS

The Democrats offer a much different approach. They employ a different strategy. On one level is legalistic. It is the language of subpoenas and lawsuits. All every dignified and refined exciting no one. Perhaps the language of the slow and plodding turtle will end up being the winning strategy but it is hard to imagine it. Instead it just drags on and on while people have moved on. Still hope springs eternal and maybe the performance of the extraordinarily dry and somber Mueller will provide the spark the Democrats so desperately want and need. In the meantime, since July 14, while the Trumpicans have been energized, vocal, and invigorated in their racism, the Democrats barely register on the Richter scale. They may be woke but will they ever wake up?

They are also inept. Consider the census question. Obviously the Trumpican ploy was to diminish the Democratic vote. Trumpicans have no expectations of ever winning the national popular vote but that does not mean they cannot win the presidency anyway. In response, Democrats took the high road befitting their moral superiority. And, yes, it worked in the Supreme Court. But they lost as well. They gave the Trumpicans an issue they can and will use right to Election Day. The Trumpican leader was quick to pounce.

Are you a citizen of the United States of America? “Oh, gee. I’m sorry. I just can’t answer that question.”

There used to be a time when you could proudly declare: “I am a citizen of the United States.” Now, they’re trying to erase the very existence of a very important word and a very important thing, citizenship.

I’m proud to be a citizen. You’re proud to be a citizen. The only people who are not proud to be citizens are the ones who are fighting us all the way about the word citizen.

Did the Democrats really win this battle? Given all the publicity, how many people are now scared to be counted in the Census anyway? How easy will it be for Trumpicans to ridicule the Democrats for their position on the citizenship question?

Suppose instead of taking the moral high road and being legalistic, the Democrats had taken the low road and fought politically. Suppose the Democrats had gone to the world’s greatest dealmaker and said, “We have a deal for you. We will support the citizenship question in the Census if in return:

1. You eliminate gerrymandering in the following states (and name them)
2. You have sufficient voting locations in the following districts (and name them)
3. You have sufficient voting machines in the following voting locations (and name them).

Let’s make a deal.”

But that’s not the Democratic style. They are too busy morally superior. They are tactically inept.

Not convinced? Now consider the split-screen images of the Liar in-chief explaining how he responded to the chant of “Send her back.” On one side of the screen, one hears him defend himself with trump after trump and not a word of truth; on the other side, the clock ticks off 13 seconds and every trump he told is exposed. One can see this vivid portrayal of his dishonesty on the Fake News networks but what about on Fox? Remember, Trumpicans like the Chinese get their news only from the government approved propaganda network. Here Democrats had an easy way to expose the dishonesty and stupidity of the Very Stable Genius. So where was the Democratic commercial on Fox showing the falsity of his words with the tagline: “Donald Trump. He never tells the truth except by accident? How come you don’t care?”

There is a saying about not bringing a knife to a gun fight, but in the Democrats case, they are not even showing up. If Nancy Pelosi thinks

This coming election, it is really an election that the fate of this country is riding on. This presidency is an existential threat to our democracy and our country as we know it.

Then fight like it. Democrats used to. Consider this exchange.

“If we want to talk about inciting violence, where is the interview when [Democratic presidential front-runner] Hillary Clinton and [President] Barack Obama when they’re talking about ‘bringing a gun to a knife fight?’” Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson asked host Jake Tapper on CNN’s “The Lead.”

“Obama invoked the phrase ‘bringing a knife to a gun fight’ during his 2008 presidential campaign against Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), that year’s Republican nominee.

“If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun,” he said of countering GOP attacks against him during a fundraiser in Philadelphia in June 2008.  “Because from what I understand, folks in Philly like a good brawl.  I’ve seen Eagles fans.”

It’s not only the Republican Party which has changed; so has the Democratic Party.

Now it is Mueller time and the next round of Democratic presidential debates. Let’s see if the Democrats can do any better or if Trumpicans continue to wipe the floor with them.

Will the Democrats Learn from the British Ambassador and Duped-by-Russia Hannity? Probably Not

July 14, 2019
by Peter Feinman

How do you handle an immature child? For a parent coping with an immature and biological child, the task is a daunting one. One must be on constant alert. It is a time-consuming task. One never knows when the immature child will erupt. One never knows when the immature child will cross a line that is not supposed to be crossed. One never knows when the immature child will wreak havoc.

The challenge is even greater when that immature child is in the body of an adult. Think of a high school or college reunion. Somewhere in the crowd there will be that one person who never outgrew college, who never out grew high school, who never outgrew junior high school. He (or sometimes, she) will still act as the 7th grade smart-aleck-dumb-aleck he was back when he was 13. He may have an adult job, be a spouse and a parent, and normally behave like an adult, but there are those moments, especially when the group dynamic kicks in, when he will be the same immature child he was back when he was 13….and now there is no one to send him to the principal’s office…until he actually breaks the law.

Fred Trump knew he had a problem with Little Donnee Wanee. When the immature child was 13, the father placed him a military school in the vain hope that he would grow up. It did not work. Then he spent good money after bad in the vain attempt that the immature child would succeed as an adult businessperson. That was the equivalent of $413 million down the drain. Instead Little Donnee Wanee became the biggest financial loser in American history.

Still, give credit where credit is due. He was always able to con someone into thinking he was really an adult. He created the character of The Donald to act in political professional wrestling arenas and in phony-baloney reality shows and he convinced many people that The Donald was a real person and not just a disguise.

However, there came a time when he had to function in the real world, in the world of adults, in the world that does not watch Fox. And there he had a problem. Pretty much every with whom he had to work on an adult level quickly realized that Little Donnee Wanee was not an adult, he was an immature child.

In this regard, he was no Tom Hanks (Tom Hanks versus Our Immature Child-President). When 13-year old Tom Hanks became big, he was a level-headed kid. He could read a book. He could explain algebra to an even younger child. He could converse with adults on some topics without coming across as a simple-minded child repeating the few words he knew in an almost airhead manner.

But what was the job Tom Hanks had when he was big? His job was to play like a child which he still was and then to report his insights to adults. He was not put in charge of anything. He did not have an administrative job. He did not have an executive job. If he had been placed in such a position, the scam of adulthood would have been exposed. He would have been revealed as a child posing as an adult.

Something similar happened with the world’s worst manager. The same person who bankrupted an airline, who bankrupted a casino, who bankrupted a hotel, now became the person in the office where the buck stops. His management skills have been on display after a hurricane in Puerto Rico (is that in America?) and on the border. He is just as incapable as President as he was in business. However, in business he realized that he could make money branding himself while outsourcing all the building to others. That option does not exist for the President.  As we now commemorate the 50th anniversary of the landing on the moon, we should realize that if Little Donnee Wanee had been president then we never would have gotten there.

Sometimes the adults in the room tried to contain him as president. They would ignore his directives, remove documents from his desk, and pray that no one took him seriously. Sometimes because he is an immature child with limited attention span those efforts succeeded. Sometimes they did not.

From time to time, various reports would emerge that documented his immaturity, his ignorance, his ineptness. Books would be written about him. Anonymous articles would be published. Baby Donnee Wanee blimps would be flown.

Most recently British Ambassador Kim Darroch was exposed as having told the truth about our immature child president. He wrote the ineptitude and incompetence of the chaotic administration. The administration of Little Donnee Wanee would always be dysfunctional, unpredictable, faction-ridden, clumsy and inept.

The temper tantrums would never cease. There would always be another hissy-fit tweet. Perhaps if Britain had deployed its air forces more effectively George Washington would have been defeated and there never would have been a United States. If we had remained a British colony just a little longer until granted independence, there would have been no need for Canada to burn the White House.

The immature child responded to this exposure exactly as one would expect him to: by proving it true.  The same may be said for his reaction to the pre-publication excerpts from Paul Ryan’s new book. The same may be anticipated for every book to be written about him save for those from one of the Flying Monkeys sworn to take a bullet on behalf of the Wicked Witch of the White House.

In so doing, Little Donnee Wanee also has made it clear what ticks him off the most. When he is exposed as being an immature child trying to pass for an adult he goes ballistic. He erupts. Every time. He fixates on the charges. It consumes him. No matter where in the world he is or what he is doing, if someone challenges him on being the 5 “I” president (an inept, incompetent, immature, illegitimate, idiot), he will drop everything to unleash a hissy-fit tweet.

HELLO Democrats! Are you listening? Are you paying attention? He has broadcast what unnerves him the most. He has shown what gets under his skin. He has shown what rattles him. He hates it when people disparage and make fun of him for being an immature child trying to pass for an adult. It is his Achilles’ heel.

Meanwhile, here we are four years after he descended on the staircase and Democrats still do not have a nickname for him. How is it possible that after years of Little Donnee Wanee assigning insulting nicknames to people, the Democrats do not have a standard slew of names for Bonepsur Boy, for Swamp Builder, for the World’s Worst Manager, for America’s Biggest Financial Loser Ever, for Longtime Democrat and Clinton Supporter, for Our Immature Child President?

The Democrats need to go to the Duped-by-Russian Hannity School of Professional Political Wrestling. Put aside for the moment the individual policies he supports or actions he recommends. Focus instead on the techniques he uses to communicate those policies and actions. Recognize his skill in delivering his message. Observe his methods. Note his success. Remember, Duped-by-Russia Hannity convinced his viewers on the basis on absolutely no evidence whatsoever that Seth Rich was the murdered leaker of DNC emails in 2016. It was “the single biggest fraud, lies, perpetrated on the American people by the media and the Democrats in our history” until, of course, the Deep State conspiracy which is about to be exposed and the real colluders and obstructionists are about to reap their just punishment.

WAKE UP AND LEARN FROM THE MASTER!

Duped-by-Russia Hannity
(NICHOLAS KAMM)

Duped-by-Russia Hannity employs several tried and true techniques in the delivery of his message. He is relentlessly on message. He is persistent. He is rigorously repetitive. Sometimes it is hard to tell what day, week, month, or year it is from his monologue since he persistently uses the same words and phrases. If you had a dollar for every time he referred to the “angry Democrats” on Mueller’s team you could retire. Democratic paid for Steele dossier. Unverified Steel dossier. FISA abuses. CORRUPT. CORRUPT. CORRUPT. The biggest corruption scandal in American history. And the guilty ones are panicking now because it is all about to be exposed. Wait till the Flying Monkeys in Congress get through with life-long Republican and decorated-Marine Mueller. It is the Deep State that really is on trial now.

Need-less-to-say, the Democrats have nobody comparable to Duped-by-Russia Hannity. There is no cable host who even comes close to matching him. Lawrence O’Donnell tries but he is no Duped-by-Russia Hannity. And by the time Rachel Maddow has finished one of her essays, Duped-by-Russia Hannity has unleashed a string of assaults that if you missed them then you can tune in tomorrow because he will repeat them. And why Chris Cuomo thinks he is obligated to provide equal time to people who already have a propaganda network is a mystery.

The British Ambassador has exposed the Achilles’ heel of Little Donnee Wanee.

Duped-by-Russia Hannity has developed the weapon to be deployed in such a situation.

The Democrats have been shown what the vulnerability is. The Democrats have been shown how to wield the weapon for the kill. The only question is will the Democrats ever seize the moment. I say, “no.” It will remain a party of no imagination, no metaphors, no story to tell, and no message to thrust again and again into the weak spot of its immature narcissistic foe.

Deplorables Cheer Submissiveness of Putin’s Pence: Can Democrats Take Advantage of It?

June 30, 2019
by Peter Feinman
"Square Go" - a 13-year old boy turns to a professional wrestling fantasy to compensate (Photo: Mihaela Budlovic)

Who is your hero? Recently the New York Times surveyed 21 Democratic presidential candidates about their hero. The winner was Republican and Mount Rushmore President Abraham Lincoln with 5 votes. Tied for second with two votes each with Democrats John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Martin Luther King was another Republican and Mount Rushmore President, Teddy Roosevelt. Combined the Republican presidents garnered 7 of 21 votes or one-third of the Democratic total.

No survey was taken of the Republican Party since it no longer exists at the national level. In the Trumpican Party which replaced it, neither Lincoln nor Roosevelt are admired.  In the Trumpican Party the founder rules. Since the present Trumpican president has had the greatest two and one-half years of any American president ever and should be president for 16 years as one other president was, the choice was obvious.

Trumpicans bring a different set of values to their attitudes towards and expectations of the President. Trumpicans do not care that their lord and savior is submissive to Putin. They do not care that he cannot tell the truth.  They do not care that he squandered a $413 million inheritance. They do not care that he is the biggest financial loser in American history. They do not care that he was a failure as a manager of an airline, a casino, and a hotel. They do not care about his tax returns. They do not care about Mueller’s testimony. They do not care that he is an adulterer and perhaps a rapist. They do not care that he is a stupid ignorant moron. They do not care that he is devoid of sympathy and empathy. They do not care that he is a narcissist. They do not care that he is dedicated to helping to the rich get richer. Therefore any attempt to connect with or sway Trumpicans based on any of these considerations is a waste of time. What then do they care about?

Consider what Individual #1 said during the big Republican Presidential debate on August 6, 2015 (at 9:18 ET in case you are curious):

I think the big problem this country has is being politically correct. I’ve been challenged by so many people and I don’t, frankly, have time for total political correctness. And to be honest with you, this country doesn’t have time, either.

The following month he repeated the call to arms against the politically correct this time in South Carolina:

I’m so tired of this politically correct crap.

True, he was the not the first to raise the flag against the threat of the Politically Correct. President George H.W. Bush lambasted the politically correct culture in a commencement speech at the University of Michigan in 1991:

The notion of political correctness has ignited controversy across the land. And although the movement arises from the laudable desire to sweep away the debris of racism and sexism and hatred, it replaces old prejudice with new ones. It declares certain topics off limits, certain expression off limits, even certain gestures off limits. What began as a crusade for civility has soured into a cause of conflict and even censorship … Throughout history, attempts to micromanage casual conversation have only incited distrust. They have invited people to look for an insult in every word, gesture, action. And in their own Orwellian way, crusades that demand correct behavior crush diversity in the name of diversity.

Flash forwarded 25 years and that “laudable” desire has become an assault on America by university-based elitist zealots ready, willing, eager, and able to dispatch the Thought Police on anyone who does not speak the correct terms, think the correct ideas, and act the correct way. Trumpicans care when condescending arrogant self-righteous elitists tell them how to speak, how to think, and how to act. Trumpicans want a leader who will fight for them against the Politically Correct. That desire trumps all other considerations.

As an example of how far removed from reality the analysis of the impact of the politically correct in American politics is consider this obviously incorrect article from August 11, 2016 on the presidential election by Peter Weber, senior editor The Week. Its title is

Donald Trump is losing his war on political correctness

The details of the article are irrelevant given the election results, the situation today, and that he did not lose the war. If anything the battle lines now are even more sharply drawn. We are back to the trench warfare of the War to End all Wars. Far from losing the battle against the politically correct as the article suggests, he can claim total victory within the former Republican Party. It has been transformed into the Trumpican Party where heroes and Mount Rushmore Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt have no home. The party of “malice towards none” is dead. The party of “the last best hope of earth” is dead. The party of “speak softly and carry a big stick” is dead. Republicans don’t battle for the Lord, Trumpicans battle for THE DONALD.

Consider this current battlefront in Minnesota. The headline in the New York Times was “Resettled Refugees Unsettle a Mostly White City: Anti-Muslim Backlash Against Influx of Somalis” (printed June 21, 2019). As one participant in the battle said:

If we start changing our way of life to accommodate where they came from, guess what happens to our country? If our country becomes like Somalia, there is nowhere for us to go.

Now imagine the impact if the Trumpican Party starts playing Black Hawk Down on the Fox channels there as a campaign tactic.

The New York Times reporter interviewed people on the ground there and summarized the results as follows:

[M]any repeatedly outlined more fundamental fears, including the belief that an influx of people who were nonwhite and non-Christian posed a cultural threat.

            Several of the group’s members and their allies said their stand against immigration was a small part of a broader national conflict, in which the rising tide of a multicultural, multiracial Democratic Party must be opposed.

See how successful the Politically Correct have been in delivering the message that the multicultural multiracial people are not real Americans, they are hyphens. Native-born white Americans understand that the message of the Politically Correct is an attack on them. These people “’see themselves in a fight for survival’” where the problem is discrimination against white Americans. After all isn’t that what elitists and colleges teach: from Columbus to the present, all problems today are due to the heterosexual white man.

Now suppose you are a Democrat and have had it with these deplorables. You are not going to back down before these bigoted racist troglodytes. Instead you counterattack with “WHITE PRIVILEGE, “REPARATIONS,” and DOWN WITH COLUMBUS DAY, UP WITH INDIGENOUS PEOPLE’S DAY. And even when you do not say that, Fox will every day all day claim that you did. Not just in Minnesota but throughout the nation. Plus if you have a private health insurer you are going to lose it and we are going to end up like Venezuela. How is that for a winning political strategy!

Let us put aside for the moment the issue of whether school busing helped desegregate or segregate schools. Let us ignore how elitist white people countered by sending their children to private schools or by living in wealthy white communities. Let us ignore how elitist white people exploited vulnerable children by removing them from their own neighborhoods to bus them into communities that did not want them. Instead, keep in mind that while the Democratic presidential debate continues, the nation’s #1 7th grade smart-aleck-dumb-aleck is watching and waiting to unleash his brutally cruel vicious junior high school tantrums to save his deplorables from the Politically Correct.

So who is your hero today? For Trumpicans the answer is easy: their lord and savior, the very stable genius, the smartest person in the room at the morgue or in a nursery school class with no teacher. For Democrats the answer is all over the place and may remain so for a while. The loser is We the People. The losers are the American people who love their country, who are proud to be American, and who believe in America’s role in human history. We have no candidate and neither party cares about us. As we approach the celebration of the birth of our country, we should think about what it means that none of the Mount Rushmore Presidents could even be nominated today yet alone elected.

John McCain and The Donald: The Warrior and the Swamp Builder

May 17, 2018
by Peter Feinman
“He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured.” Donald Trump “John McCain is a hero, a man of grit and guts and character personified. He served and bled and endured unspeakable acts of torture. His captors broke his bones, but they couldn’t break his spirit, which is why he refused early release when he had the chance. That’s heroism, pure and simple, and it is unimpeachable.” John Kerry (www.washingtonpost.com)

John McCain is an American hero. To call him a hero is not to necessarily agree with all that he said and did. Even he has regrets about things he has done. What it does mean is that when the batting average of his life is calculated it will be sufficient to warrant inclusion in the American Hall of Fame.

McCain’s significance extends beyond who he is as an individual. His importance extends to the country he loves and the party which nominated him for the office of President. All things considered, when one looks at the Republican Party today, it is hard to imagine how it could have nominated any of the candidates it nominated in the 21st century prior to 2016 given where we are today. As a result, part of McCain’s story is not only who he is a person, but what he represents. The decade from his nomination in 2008 to the present is one that will be studied by historians seeking to determine what happened to America.

Let’s start by comparing and contrasting the 2008 candidate who lost and the current president.

John McCain dedicated his life to the service of his country.
Little Donny Waany is a narcissist who always puts his own interests first.

John McCain put his life on the line for the country he loves.
Little Donny Waany fights in scripted professional wrestling arena performances and would never put his life on the line for anyone.

John McCain reads books.
Little Donny Waany can’t.

John McCain has favorite authors.
Little Donny Waany has favorite cable TV announcers.

John McCain’s closest Republican friend is Lindsay Graham.
Little Donny Waany closest Republican acolytes are Nunes the Clown and former Christian Mike Pence. Nunes couldn’t detect the Russian violation of America in the 2016 election to help Trump and hurt Clinton even though Senate Republicans and the intelligence community could. He couldn’t detect a Russian operative if she was staring him in the face. Pence is chomping at the bit to replace his chaotic adulterer-with-a-Playmate-and-porn-performer boss.

John McCain has friends who aren’t Republican and whom he invited to speak at his funeral.
Little Donny Waany once donated to the Clintons when he thought it would help him and now demonizes them when he realized it wouldn’t.

John McCain can give a speech.
Little Donny Waany is functionally incoherent even within the limitations of a tweet.

John McCain is an outcast in the Republican Party and can be ridiculed with impunity by the White House without the Republican Party standing up to defend him.
Little Donny Waany sees no reason to apologize for his staff ridiculing John McCain. After all, he did it first.

John McCain is a person of honor.
Little Donny Waany thrives on demeaning and insulting people.

John McCain tells the truth.
Little Donny Waany can’t.

John Mc Cain believes in America’s role in human history.
Little Donny Waany doesn’t even understand the concept.

John McCain is an adult.
Little Donny Waany is an immature child.

It’s hard to believe the two people are members of the same party yet alone could be nominated to the same position a scarce eight years apart.

Already in 2008, change was in the air. McCain now regrets his decision to pick Sarah Palin as his running mate. In hindsight we can see she was the wave of the future for the Republican Party. All things considered, Palin rates more normal than previously given credit for. Better a candidate who can see Russia from her backyard than Putin’s poodle whose top
priority is to end the sanctions against Russia. If elected do you really think Palin would have refrained from condemning Putin by name for his attempted assassination of Russian dissidents in England and then congratulated the dictator on his election victory? Just as Little Donny Waany has helped boost the memory of the presidency of George Bush in hindsight, so too he will boost the memory of Republican vice-presidential candidate in 2008. She may have been many things but a swamp-building-bigoted-liar wasn’t one of them.

What frequently is overlooked in the decade of degradation of the Republican Party since 2008, is the role of the Democratic Party in causing and supporting it. It is easier for Democrats to claim the high road than to look in the mirror. It is easier for condescending arrogant self-righteous elitists to blame Putin for the electoral loss just as Donny Waany blames the 5 million illegal voters for the popular vote lost then for them to face the shortcomings of their message. It is easier for condescending arrogant self-righteous elitists to look down on the deplorables then to recognize them as worthy of respect who should be treated as human beings. It is easier for condescending arrogant self-righteous elitists to salivate over the coming demographic deluge then it is to face the truth of the Party’s own contribution in expanding the voter pool who would find the immature child acceptable as a leader. There was a time when Democrats took pride in feeling your pain, now they relish in causing it and exult in the demographic tidal wave that will wash these people from power forever.

Donny Wanny didn’t create that voter pool, he exploited it for his own purposes. Who would have predicted that there would come a day when evangelicals would embrace a dishonest adulterer with no core values save his own gain? Something had to happen for evangelicals to willingly stoop so low and abandon their values. So far there is nothing to indicate that Democrats even realize their role in causing this to happen, that they care, or that they are going to do anything about it.

Perhaps the non-Peolosi supporting Congressional candidates with military backgrounds demonstrate that the real world is sinking in with Democrats. The cessation of declaring war on people who think of themselves as Americans and not hyphens shows that at least some Democrats have woke and smelled the coffee. Democrats would be better advised to reach out to Republicans who admire John McCain than to condemn all Republicans as Trumpies. Once there were Scoop Jackson Democrats whom the Democrats abandoned and then welcomed their leaving the party and voting Republican. Now there are John McCain Republicans who have been abandoned by the Republican Party, are disgusted with what it has become, and are looking for something better. There is nothing to be gained by insulting them and everything to gain by reaching out to them. The true tragedy would be if there is no place in either party for Americans who admire John McCain, American hero.

Can Mueller Redeem the Republican Party?

November 15, 2017
by Peter Feinman
Image from mapledanish.com

Can Robert Mueller redeem the former party of Lincoln? That’s a tall order for any individual especially when it is not even part of your job description. Nonetheless, he may end up being the one who restores the Republican Party.  It is a party in flux struggling to define itself with an uncertain outcome.

RINO Steve Bannon has declared war on the Republican Party. He is focused like a laser on the evisceration of the former party of Lincoln. He is doing so in the name of his patron leader who last year used the Republican Party as his vehicle to become President by exploiting the fears and insecurities of the people politicians ignore.

Thanks in part to these efforts, for Republicans, the Commonwealth of Virginia has become the New Lost Cause. Which state will be next?

Despite the setbacks, the RINOs are proceeding full speed ahead regardless of the consequences. Who cares if Arizona votes Democratic as long as Flake is out? Who cares if Nevada votes Democratic as long as Heller is out? That will show those weak Republicans who is boss. So what if the Senate is Democratic?

Now we may observe a cause of the problem. We need to stop here and examine how the brain operates. If we want to understand the decision-making process that at first glance seems self-destructive, we need to study how the mind works. For example, why do young people pay higher automobile insurance rates? Why are young people in more accidents?  When something goes wrong why do young people so often respond, “I didn’t think of that”?

The answer quite simply is this is what immaturity is all about – the inability to consider consequences or even to be aware that there will be any for actions taken for the moment. The brain hasn’t developed to the point where it is capable of recognizing what adults naturally do (most of the time). To do so is part of the growing experience.  The immature mind simply isn’t capable of making adult decisions.

As it turns out, Time Magazine addressed that exact issue in the national political arena without intending to. In article in the November 6 issue “We Need to Talk about Kids and Smartphones,” the magazine honed in the problems adolescents face because of their use of smartphones. “(W)e understand enough about young people’s emotional and developmental vulnerabilities to recommend restricting kids’ escalating phone habits.”

The specific area of concern relates to the adolescent brain still in a stage of development and not yet fully-formed.  The lower gray-matter volume in the brain’s anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) involving emotion processing and decision-making is critical according to the researchers. “We know for a fact that teens have very underdeveloped impulse control and empathy and judgment compared with adults.” The prefrontal cortex is another area of concern. That area of the brain is essential for focus and interpreting human emotion. Teenagers don’t have a fully-developed prefrontal cortex and hence have problems with self-control and judgment. So if you yank a 13 year-old smart-aleck/dumb-aleck from school and dump him in a military school your hopes that the changed environment will lead to maturity may be for naught. It is possible that the adolescent brain in question will remain locked into its present state without ever developing a fully-developed anterior cingulate cortex or prefrontal cortex. As a result person never develops into adult maturity capable of empathy or impulse control as a brain scan would reveal. Such an individual would always focus on the immediate, on the moment, without being aware of consequences. For example, “I have a great memory” becomes “I forgot” when faced with the consequences.

The Russians used this knowledge of how the brain works when it interfered in our presidential election. As reported in an article “The Drama of Reality TV, Brought to You by Russia (NYT 11/9/17), the Russians drew on the lessons of reality TV shows that are geared to our adolescent mind. A reality show producer observed that the key to manipulating contestants into acting a certain way was to “tap into their fears, passions and ego.” In this regard, Facebook was a godsend since people had revealed exactly those conditions. For the reality show producer, Facebook was like an instruction manual for the exploitation of people. The Russians realized this and used that knowledge in their campaigns to manipulate the fears of Americans based on race, religion, and politics. The article asks if these Russian trolls caused these insecurities or simply provided an easily-accessible vehicle for people to openly express them and act out.

In other words, a person doesn’t need to believe that Barack Obama is a foreign-born Moslem to manipulate people through that phrase and become the center of attention. Like a reality show producer or a Russian troll, a person only needs to know that the targeted audience will respond to a product that channels those insecurities and fears to his own benefit. Like a reality show producer or a Russian troll, a skilled 7th-grade smart-aleck/dumb-aleck can hone in on the emotional state of his marks and produce amazing results.

By coincidence, the same day as the article on reality TV, the NYT also published an article on “Are Mass Murderers Insane? Usually Not, Researchers Say.” Instead, one should focus on anger of the disgruntled and the aggrieved that eventually is unleashed in violence in response to some perceived humiliation. Using a database based on four killings as the minimum number for a mass murder, the researchers determined that the majority of the killers were disgruntled workers or jilted lovers acting on a deep sense of injustice. A contributing factor is long-term stress such as from failure in school, to keep a job, or from a disabling injury. Sooner or later something may trigger that rage to become violent. Certainly a skilled politician in a professional wrestling arena knows how to push that person’s buttons to produce the desired result.

In light of the above, it is important to recognize the role of the condescending arrogant self-righteous elitists in fostering deep-rooted fears and insecurities which could be exploited by the opposition. Indeed, these people helped create the very vote that boomeranged on them. Consider two of the most common expressions of fear and insecurity by people the coastal elites look down on as inferior subhumans:

Barack Obama is a foreign-born Moslem.

We’re talking back our country.

When Jesse Jackson ran for president was he accused on being a foreign-born Moslem? Is there anything in those words that identifies a person as black? If people had wanted to make racist comments against Obama couldn’t they have done it without resorting to the fantasy that he is a foreign-born Moslem? So why use this term which technically isn’t even an insult but a simple description? Is “foreign-born Christian” an insult? Why did this phrase resonate?

The second phrase clarifies the concern. People are scared. People are scared for themselves. People are scared for their families. People are scared for their community. People are scared for their country. And instead of addressing those fears and insecurities politicians either ignore them (the Republicans) or stoke the flames (the Democrats).  The condescending arrogant self-righteous elitists responded to these two expressions by saying “Yes, you subhuman degenerate 47%-ers, you should be afraid, you should be very afraid. The demographic deluge is coming. The demographic deluge is coming for you. The demographic deluge is the dawning of the Age of the Hyphens and you are the losers in the new world order. And then the Democrats wonder why these scared people voted for an immature child who played on precisely those fears. For highly educated people, either the condescending arrogant self-righteous elitist are still stupid even one year after the election or they have complete confidence in the demographic deluge.

The counter to the false claims about the demographic deluge remains Lincoln just as it was in the mid-19th century. It is easy for Republicans to refute the threat if only Republicans realized that they have nothing to fear but fear itself. With RINO Bannon and his minions stoking the fears it may be easier for Republicans to succumb than to overcome. It is easier to terrorize than to inspire.  Unless, of course, Mueller can provide Republicans with the opportunity they need to take back the party of Lincoln by cutting off its current head. Sometimes Moore is too much.

R.I.P. Party of Lincoln (1856-2016)

March 12, 2016
by Peter Feinman

Lincoln Memorial

In the past few days, some Republicans have mentioned the name no Republican presidential candidate dares mention: Abraham Lincoln. No self-respecting candidate seeking to survive the primary gauntlet would be so foolish as to utter the name of America’s greatest president. There simply is no place in the Party of Malice for Lincoln.

Democrats deserve no kudos either. They opposed Lincoln when he was alive and with their relentless pursuit of victimhood and identity politics, there is no place for him there either today.

We face the prospect of a presidential election when the candidates of the two national parties are under indictment and instead of hope, hate will be watchword.

Despite the abandonment of Lincoln from national discourse, it is still worth considering what he had to say both for what he achieved then and what he could achieve today if only there was a place for him in national politics. In a debate with Stephen Douglas on July 10, 1858, in Chicago, the future President redefined how one was to define an American in a way those today who despise him have not yet learned.

“We are now a mighty nation…We run our memory back over the pages of history for about eighty-two years [to 1776] and we discover that we were then a very small people in point of numbers, vastly inferior to what we are now, with a vastly less extent of country,-with vastly less of everything we deem desirable among men….We find a race of men living in that day whom we claim as our fathers and grandfathers; …they fought for the principle that they were contending for; and we understood that by what they then did it has followed that the degree of prosperity that we now enjoy has come to us. We hold this annual celebration [on July 4] to remind ourselves of all the good done in this process of time of how it was done and who did it, and how we are historically connected with it; and we go from these meetings in better humor with ourselves-we feel more attached the one to the other and more firmly bound to the country we inhabit.”

Notice what Abraham Lincoln was doing here. He reminded Americans that it is the annual celebration of July 4 that links the people of the present to the heroic forefathers who had created and built this prosperous country four-score and two years ago. This connection he referred to seems biological in nature. But suppose one wasn’t a Son or a Daughter of the American Revolution? Could one still fully celebrate July 4? Now listen to Lincoln’s answer:

“We have besides these men-descended by blood from our ancestors-among us perhaps half our people who are not descendants at all of these men, they are men who have come from Europe-German, Irish, French and Scandinavian-men that have come from Europe themselves, or whose ancestors have come hither and settled here, finding themselves our equals in all things. If they look back through this history to trace their connection with those days by blood, they find they have none, they cannot carry themselves back into that glorious epoch and make themselves feel that they are part of us,”

How is it possible for immigrants to this country to celebrate a holiday to which they have no biological connection?

“but when they look through that old Declaration of Independence they find that those old men say that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,” and then they feel that moral sentiment taught in that day evidences their relation to those men, that it is the father of all moral principle in them, and that they have a right to claim it as though they were blood of the blood, and flesh of the flesh of the men who wrote that Declaration, (loud and long continued applause) and so they are. That is the electric cord in that Declaration that links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together, that will link those patriotic hearts as long as the love of freedom exists in the minds of men throughout the world.”

For Lincoln, one did not need to be a blood-descendant of the American Revolution to be one with the spirit of the event. Immigrants were entitled to have their shot at living the American Dream. Through adherence to the principles of the Declaration of Independence every American stood as one with those who had fought and died for America’s birth. The new Republican Party that Lincoln had joined was the immigrant party (except maybe not so clearly the party of the Irish) and later the Black Party, the party whose political interests were served by reaching out newly arrived and newly enfranchised. By disavowing immigrant restrictions it succeeded in holding on to a fair share of the foreign-born vote, especially among younger Protestant voters. These immigrants from Scandinavia, France and Cornwall, among other places, supported Lincoln, Union and America.

So now think again about these familiar words from the Gettysburg Address: “Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” When Lincoln said “our fathers” he knew that many people in the audience were not descendants of those who had founded the country. But Lincoln was not excluding them by this word choice, for by examining his words from five years earlier we see that he knew how much of America and the support of the Union depended on the immigrants to this country. In 1858 he had merely referred to the “moral sentiments” that connected the immigrants to the Founding Fathers; now, in the midst of the Civil War, he asserted they had been baptized by blood into the American covenant community. Those who fought to preserve the Union stood as one with those who had fought in the war to create the Union. They sang The Battle Hymn of the Republic with the same gusto that Americans once had sung Yankee Doodle Dandy. They were Americans by Choice.

As we just celebrated the Sesquicentennial of the Homestead Act, the Morrill-Land-Grant Colleges Act, and the Pacific Railway Act launching the Transcontinental Railroad, I am reminded that even without the Civil War Abraham Lincoln was a great President who understood America as a great work always in progress, that he acted to ensure people would have a home to call their own, the education to be able to live the American Dream, and the infrastructure to connect the country. To fulfill the American Dream in the 21st century, our immigrant country needs to be inspired not just by Lincoln’s monument and legacy, but by people who reach for his vision, his eloquence, and his leadership. Who will tell his story? Lincoln may belong to the ages, but does he still belong to the Republican Party?

“I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”