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Abortion and Gun Control: Democrats Bring a Plastic Spoon to a Gunfight and Wonder Why They Lose

May 27, 2022
by Peter Feinman
How quickly Democrats forget

Democrats bring a plastic spoon to a gunfight and wonder why they lose. About a decade ago, Republicans referred to themselves as the “party of stupid.” Now we see that Democrats are equally stupid. They strongly believe in the old adage about insanity being keep doing what has failed time and time again in the past and hope for better results this time. The Democratic ineptitude has consequences. It does not bode well for the two current culture war issues now raging across the control – guns control and abortion.

PASS THE GOVERNOR GREGG ABBOTT MENTAL HEALTH LAW    

After the latest assault on America’s children at school, Governor Greg Abbott had a ready-made explanation for the carnage:

I asked the sheriff and others an open-ended question and got the same answer from the sheriff as well as from the mayor of Uvalde. The question was, what is the problem here? And they were straightforward and emphatic. They said … ‘we have a problem with mental health illness in this community.’ And then they elaborated on the magnitude of the mental health challenges that they are facing in the community and the need for more mental health support in this region.

For Republicans, this explanation is an excellent way to deflect attention from guns and to place it with the mentally-ill shooter. According to this approach, since the problem is not guns, there is no need for any changes in gun-control regulations. So if Senator Murphy (CT) wants to deliver another impassioned speech on the floor of the Senate, he is free do so. What difference does it make?

Suppose Senator Murphy proposed the Gregg Abbott Mental Health Law instead. Suppose Democrats made a campaign point of using the mental-health excuses made by the Republicans over the years. Instead of proposing a gun control law, propose a mental health law. It might not accomplish everything they want but look at what it could do:

1. implement a nationwide detecting system to identify the people with mental illness as it is a problem identified by Republicans as a cause for mass murders
2. develop nationwide treatment programs so people with mental illness receive the treatment they need and do not become mass murders
3. prevent people identified as mentally ill from having access to weapons of mass destructions so they cannot murder their own family members, children, or anyone else.

The Gregg Abbott Mental Health Law will not solve all the problems, but it would make a difference. Of course, the party of stupid would rather keep banging its head against the wall and hope the wall gives way before their head does.

PASS THE JUDGE SAMUEL ALITO ABORTION PREVENTION LAW

The exact same thinking applies with abortion. Democrats are far more content passing symbolic legislation than stopping being the party of stupid. Their ineptitude prevents them from seeing the opportunity staring them right in the face. Just as Governor Abbott has shown Democrats a way to move forward, so has Judge Alito.

How many people grow up wanting to have an abortion?

How many daughters say, “Mommy, Mommy, I can’t wait until I grow up so I can have an abortion just as you did”?

The odds are that no grows up wanting to have an abortion. Then something happens. Suddenly women decide to do something that they never expressed any desire to do. Why? The purpose of this blog is not to identify the reasons why women who did not grow wanting to have an abortion then decide they do want to. It is to call attention to the fact that there are such reasons. People probably know what they are and can list them.

Once the diagnosis is made, then steps can be taken to minimize the chances that the women will chose to have an abortion. Perhaps she would not become pregnant in the first place? Whatever the reasons, they can be diagnosed. Then remedies can be proposed. The Judge Samuel Alito Abortion Prevention Law will not eliminate all the women who want to have an abortion, but it can significantly reduce the number of women who will even consider it in the first place.

So instead of proposing a federal law that will never be passed, try proposing the Judge Samuel Alito Abortion Prevention Law.

PASS THE JUDGE CLARENCE THOMAS CHILD RELIEF LAW

Here is the third bill the party of stupid should propose. I suspect that everyone would agree that it is better for a child to be in a loving family then one that is not. It is better the child to be with a mother that wants the child than one who does not. It is better for a child to be with a mother who can care for the child then one who cannot. For example, reasons a pregnant woman might consider having an abortion is by anticipating not having the needed child care support, not being able to spend the needed time with child, not having access to health care the child needs. I am sure Judge Clarence Thomas does not want to punish the child for the actions of the mother.

The Judge Clarence Thomas Child Relief Law would be designed to help ensure that no child brought to term is unwanted, that no child brought to term is dropped off at the nearest fire station, that no child brought to term is prevented from having the opportunity to live the American Dream because it is unwanted. The Judge Clarence Thomas Child Relief Law would commit the country to ensure as best is possible the peace of mind for the mother knowing that the child is going to be cared for, remain in her custody, and have a chance at living a happy life.

Obviously Republicans will not support the

Gregg Abbott Mental Illness Law
Samuel Alito Abortion Prevention Law
Clarence Thomas Child Relief Law.

They will not support it because they do not give a damn about these issues no matter how many children are murdered, abandoned, or have lives of misery. The difference now is that once the laws are proposed they will have to admit it.

Obviously also the Democrats will not propose these laws. I am a nobody. My blogs do not go viral. This blog makes no difference except for the satisfaction I get from writing it. The party of stupid will never think outside the box. It will keep bringing a plastic spoon to a gunfight no matter how many children are massacred, unwanted, or aborted.

Kamala Harris Vows to Do What Mike Pence Didn’t Do

February 28, 2021
by Peter Feinman
Trumpican Justice (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP/Getty Images)

In 2021, Vice President Mike Pence did not have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and the Constitution. The penalty for the failure to rise to the occasion and be a profile in courage to save the country is simple, direct, and brutal: death, death by hanging, death by hanging in public. However despite the efforts of the domestic trumperists, Mike Pence escaped the fate he deserved. No wonder the Loser President was enraged and declined to express any concern about the safety of the Vice President who was not loyal.

Kamala Harris is well aware of the new rules. She does not want to be lynched. Therefore she will do what needs to be done to avoid the lynching Mike Pence managed to escape. To prevent a reoccurrence she is putting the states on notice that their electors will be subject to disqualification. In particular, she will warn the states implementing voter suppression bills. If the votes in those states in 2024 do not support the Democratic candidate, she will prevent the Trumpican effort to steal the election and disqualify those Electors through the powers granted to the Vice President in the Constitution.

ELECTION RULE CHANGES

The election rules have changed. Never again will presidential elections be as simple as they once were. I don’t mean there weren’t contentious elections in the past. I mean that once upon a time, people knew what the rules were. Now they have changed.

Once the actual vote on Election Day mattered. Now it doesn’t.
Once the certification of the vote mattered. Now it doesn’t.
Once the Electoral College vote mattered. Now it doesn’t.
Once evidence mattered. Now it doesn’t.
Once the Congressional ratification was routine. Now it is all that matters.

STOP THE STEAL: 2022 AND 2024

Given the importance of Congress in determining what Electoral College votes to count, control of Congress looms ever more important than it already was. The Trumpicans are fully aware of how critical control of Congress is in the selection of the President. They are moving full bore in an open and brazen manner to rig the vote count and steal the election(s). It is an all-out national assault on a state-by-state basis where they are in control of the legislature. It almost as if there is a special Olympics to see which state can best rig the count in elections and the gerrymandering to ensure that the Trumpicans remain in power at the state level and regain power at the federal level.

What are Democrats going to do about the Trumpican STEAL THE VOTE initiative?

Will the Democrats launch their own STOP THE STEAL counterattack to prevent the Trumpicans from succeeding? Does this effort even have a campaign name that will be used repeatedly?

Will the Democrats pass national legislation FOR THE PEOPLE to curtail such effort? In time to make a difference?

Will the Democrats will prepare a list of dos and don’ts. This list should include specific actions that Trumpicans do to rig the vote through voter suppression. The Democrats should announce that the application of these STEAL THE VOTE actions by states will be grounds for disqualification of Electors. The list also will include specific actions to promote voter turnout which if not done, also will result in disqualification of Electors. Of course, if the efforts to rig the vote fail and the state votes Democratic, then the Electors will be accepted.

Unlike the 2020 election, the scrutiny of the vote will not be limited to the Presidential vote. Senate and House elections will be subject to the same rules as applied to the Presidential election. Efforts to rig the vote for one federal position will be treated as applying to all federal offices. Just as the Presidential Electors will be disqualified in event of the rigging of the vote through voter suppression, so Senators and Representative elected through voter suppression similarly will not be seated.

Trumpicans have shown Democrats the way to win elections regardless of the vote and lack of evidence. The one and only method of determining the winners is through Congress. Those bodies in themselves may be subject to challenge if supposed House and Senate winners are the result of rig elections. The stop the steal effort will be expanded to all federal positions so by the time Congress meets to certify the Presidential elections, there may be open issues as to who is to be seated.

ELECTION CHALLENGES 2022 AND 2024

Obviously it is still early, but there still are some thoughts to consider. At this point, 2024 is shaping up as a rematch of 2020. It would be the first rematch since Adlai Stevenson and Dwight Eisenhower in 1956.

Spoiler Alert: the rematch didn’t change the results from the 1952 election.

Barring any medical and/or criminal procedures, there is no alternative for Trumpicans from the founder of the Trumpican Party, their Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed be his Name. Indeed, his worshipers rolled out a golden calf before which they could frolic as they sang his praises as if they were reliving a scene from the Bible. As things stand now, he will be the candidate for as long as he wants before turning over the Trumpican Party to a junior version of himself. It is almost funny watching politicians sell their souls to be the chosen one as if the Trumpican party could anoint a non-Trump and that he would ever relinquish power.

The few Republicans left in the Party have four choices in the real world:
1. stay at home and don’t vote
2. swallow their pride and vote Trumpican
3. support the Democratic candidate as long as it is Joe Biden
4. launch an independent candidacy in the tradition of Teddy Roosevelt, George Wallace, Ross Perot, and Ralph Nader and hope they make a difference the right way.

If they choose to nominate a Republican, then time is running out to start the 50-state effort to create a third party especially given that the Trumpicans in power at the state level will obstruct the effort to do so.

The Democrats have no reason to be complacent.

Joe Biden was the only Democrat who could win in 2020. That still may be true in 2024.

Without the coronavirus, Joe Biden might have lost.

Even with the coronavirus, Joe Biden might have lost if the Loser had worn a mask, faked compassion, and put Mike Pence in charge.

In order for Joe Biden to win, a major effort behind the scenes was undertaken to ensure a safe and fair election in 2020 as just detailed in a major article in Time. Whether or not that effort is repeated in 2024 remains to be seen.

The Democrats still have to decide what to do about the loss of House seats and state legislatures in 2020 and the impact of the 2020 Census moving forward.

The Democrats still have to struggle to hold the House in the post-Census districts. There are reasons why Kevin McCarthy is foaming at the mouth anticipation of 2022 when he is not otherwise kissing the Donald’s ring on bended knee.

The Democrats still have deal with the fact that at any given moment the Woke will hand the Trumpicans an issue on a silver platter again and again.

The Democrats still have to deal with the fact they have maxed out the votes they can gain by playing the race card. Many of the voters the Democrats have been taking for granted for years actually identify as Americans, are proud to be Americans, and don’t wallow in 1619. The Trumpican Party made unexpected inroads with the supposed Democratic hyphen-voters in 2020 without even trying. An adult Republican could clean up with those voters unless the Democrats change their ways. Even a Trumpican could make additional inroads if the candidate caught on to this movement. It might not even be necessary for Trumpicans to steal the election in 2024 if the Democrats continue to alienate their hyphens.

The Woke effort to create Trumpican votes will be relentless. Their success in alienating Americans continues unabated. They have been so successful, the ridicule against them as seeped out into the general public and is not just confined to Foxhub. The cancel culture has become a national joke.

To counter the Trumpican STEAL THE ELECTION effort, the Democrats need to launch their STOP THE STEAL counterattack now.

To counter the Woke and the Trumpicans, Joe Biden needs to keep reaching out to all the American people in his speeches, his legislation, and his actions. Good thing for the Democrats the pandemic should be over, the economy will have recovered and that Joe Biden is a nice guy unlike that former guy.

Could Elizabeth Warren Have Won?

November 17, 2020
by Peter Feinman

For Democrats, leaving Donald Trump in office is not only good politics – it is the best chance for fundamental realignment of American politics in more than a generation. Mr. Trump is three years into destroying what we know as the Republican Party. Another two years just might finish it off. Trumpism spells electoral doom for the party.
A Bigger Prize Than Impeachment
Joe Lockhart (NYT 4/23/19)

Could Elizabeth Warren have won? How about Bernie Sanders? We will never know, of course, if these “socialists” would have emerged victorious. Still it is more than an idle question. Although the peaceful transition from THE LOSER to the winner has yet to begin and may never happen even after the Electoral College votes, it’s not too early to think about the next election.

More precisely, the Democrats have decisions to make about how to govern during the Biden administration. Perhaps even more importantly, the Democrats have decisions to make about how they wish to portray themselves and be portrayed to the general public.

By now it is no secret that the elections did not work out how the Democrats had hoped. Battleground states in the presidential election turned out to be no contest such as in Florida and Ohio. States where Biden was thought to have had a huge lead became if not nail-biters then much closer than expected. True, as the votes continue to be counted, Biden did better than any presidential challenger candidate since the Depression vote in 1932, but more was hoped for.

The Senate votes were also a surprise. The expected pickups didn’t happen and the close races were even close yet alone won by the Democrats.

The less said about the results in the House for Democrats the better. They are just holding on to the House as the Republicans seem to doing in the Senate. That is not what was expected to happen either.

Democrats lost another governorship and didn’t pick up any state houses either. So much for Lockhart’s wishful thinking.

I have been saving the cutout of the Lockhart op-ed piece from April 2019, waiting for the right time to use. I think now is the time. He went on to write:

Republicans today are the party of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson – a coalition that, in the face of every demographic trend in America, will mean the long-term realignment of the federal government behind the Democrats.

I don’t know if anyone has asked Lockhart about that op-ed piece including about these two quotations. It would be interesting to know what he thinks given the recent elections.

On a descriptive level, Lockhart is exactly right. The Republican Party as a party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and Reagan no longer exists. Even as a party of Nixon it no longer exists. To understand the Nixon presidency one must differentiate his criminality from his policies such as on China or the environment. And despite the current infatuation with some other minor news networks, the Trumpican Party has been the party of Fox and its friends and allies. In this regard, Lockhart’s assessment was and has remained accurate.

While Lockhart thought the unfit President should be impeached on merit, he took the daring view that there were political advantages to keeping him in power. He even called keeping him in power a “dream scenario.” To have the impeached President complete his term meant the Republicans would be stuck with him. Putting aside the unforseen 250,000 reasons to have him removed, Lockhart optimistically concluded:

“Allowing Mr. Trump to lead the Republican Party, filled with sycophants and weak-willed leaders, into the next election is a greater prize (than impeachment and removal from office). Democrats have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to realign American politics along progressive lines… “

It turns out Lockhart was better at describing the Trumpican Party then in understanding the American electorate. Perhaps if this Joe had listened to another Democratic Joe he would not have been surprised that his electoral prophecy went unfilled. Let’s step back in time. In his column in Time on January 6, 2016, Joe Klein noted after listening to the Democrats, “ …I heard Democrats proposing policies that appealed to many of these groups (meaning “tribes”), but few that appealed to Americans as a whole.” He elaborated on that point in his column on July 25, 2016:

“If nothing else, the progress in Dallas implies that the Democrats’ divisive identity politics – the sorting of constituencies according to ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation – is beginning to seem dated too.”

Then why is it still the Democratic policy four years and another presidential election later?

By contrast Democratic advisor David Axelrod recently wrote “People are hungry for a sense of community” (9/29/20 NYT), consistent with what Klein advocated and far different from the world of Lockhart.

Tim Shriver, head of the Special Olymipics, had said something similar to Tom Friedman as reported in an op-ed piece on March 4, 2020:

“I interact with enough Republicans and Democrats through the Special Olympics to know how starved they both are for the country to be pulled back together, so we can do big stuff together again.”

Shriver bemoaned how the disunity is making people sick and depressed. He regretted that so many Americans can’t even talk to members of their family, colleagues at work, and friends because of politics. We don’t need the coronavirus to keep us apart on Thanksgiving. Shriver declared:

“A lot of Americans are starving to be part of something lager than ourselves, something that loves us and needs us like building America together again, solving big problems together again, dreaming big dreams together again.” Already last April, Friedman stated Biden needs to appoint a national unity cabinet which is not the same as a check-the-boxes hyphen cabinet.”

After the election Friedman quoted Harvard professor Michael Sandel:

“…the Democratic Party continues to be more identified with professional elites and college-educated voters than with the blue-collar who once constituted their base. Even so epochal an event as a pandemic, bungled by Trump, did not change this.”

He might have added that just as the Republican Party is no longer the party of Lincoln, the Democrats are no longer the part of FDR. They are woke now and are too busy attacking America to have time for the racist flyover people who accept THE LOSER as their Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed Be his Name. Lockhart’s prophesy proved wrong because he misunderstood the American people. Sometimes the people he mistakenly limits to their hyphen identity end up thinking of themselves as Americans instead.

What does this mean moving forward? The Democrats are likely to become more woke and not less despite the results of the 2020 elections. Woke Democrats are likely to commit even more microaggressions against the American people than they have so far. Woke Democrats are likely to be even less tolerant than they have been so far. Woke Democrats are likely to be even more judgmental than they have been so far. They are likely to make Fox’s job easy. Fortunately for the Democrats the likelihood also is that the Republicans will not regain control of their party from the Trumpicans and the 2024 nominee will be Trump or Trump-tainted….and they still may be disappointed with the election results.

Demographic Deluge or Democratic Disaster? The 2016 Elections

February 4, 2017
by Peter Feinman

Clinton-Trump Probably Won’t Be The Next ‘Dewey Defeats Truman’

by Harry Enten, October 16, 2016 (Getty Images)

When the 2016 election year began, the Democrats were singing “Happy days are here again.” The old FDR song seemed very appropriate for the coming year. The Democrats expected to win the presidential election. The Democrats expected a “third term” for both the incumbent and the previous Democratic president. The Democrats expected to win back the Senate. The Democrats expected to make significant gains in the House. As we all know, those dreams were not fulfilled and the vision of a robust return to power were dashed by the great disrupter. Actually there is more to the story than one individual, something the Democrats need to keep in mind if they are serious about reversing the results the next time around.

Starting at the top, the Democrats didn’t do as well as they had in the 2012 presidential elections. Last time, the Democratic candidate won just over 51% of the popular vote. This time around the result was just over 48%, a drop of approximately 3%. That decrease is a significant number, roughly triple the 1% drop in the Republican percentage from just over 47% to just over 46%. In part both declines may be attributed to the disgust by voters over the two main choices. Still the large decline in the Democratic vote should give pause to those who focus on the plurality vote total and ignore the percentage trend.

One obvious area of concern is the women’s vote. As we enter the period of suffrage centennials, the white women vote did not go as hoped for by the Democrats. Despite all the egregious comments and actions by the Republican candidate who loves women only when he grabs them and they meet his age, race, and physical standards, white women voted 53% for him. That was not the expected result in the presidential election with the first female candidate of a major party.

In this regard, it is time for the Democrats to put Madeline Albright out to pasture. Her admonition about there being a special place in hell for women who don’t help women is part of what was fundamentally wrong with the Democratic candidate.  It is a racist comment that discounts black women who supported Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic primary; her implication is that “women” means “white women” the way “actor” means “white person.” It is a sexist comment that denies women the right to choose be it a Mitt Romney, Bernie Sanders, or Donald Trump without being a traitor to their gender. That attitude of moral superiority and zealousness for the cause did not go over well with white women in the Day 1 march who did not share agreement on every item on the approved list of “women’s issues.” At some point, the Democrats might want to consider why they are alienating white women even with a world class pig in White House.

Besides touting the popular vote win, Democrats also like to point out the narrowness of the electoral win. While it certainly is true that the winner did not win in a landslide except in Trumpietown, his narrow victory still raises warning signs for the Democrats. Consider state of Wisconsin. Trump’s margin of victory was under 1% numbering in the thousands of votes, a seemingly small amount. By contrast, Obama won the state by close to 7% and over 200,000 votes. Those numbers are too big a shift to attribute to Russian intervention or the FBI. Wake up and smell the coffee.

One wonders why the state never appeared on the Democratic radar. One wonders why the Democratic candidate never appeared in a state that shifted over 7% in the vote in one election cycle. I recall reading just before the election a smug condescending out-of-touch-with-the-real-world blogger who confidently predicted a Democratic victory in 2016 comparable to the one in 2012 (332 votes). Maybe it would be even better with over 350 electoral college votes if some of the Republican states flipped Democratic.  I suspect this attitude may have been too prevalent among the Democratic elitists for them to see what was happening in the real world.

Wisconsin should not have been that big a surprise. The state has a Republican governor, Scott Walker. After he was first elected he won a hard-fought recall election. In 2014, Walker won for a third time with a  6.7% margin. There are Republican majorities in both chambers of the state legislature. Ron Johnson, the Republican incumbent candidate for Senate in 2016 won by about 3% and 100,000 votes. His seat was one the Democrats were counting on to win. The losing Democratic presidential and senate candidates won approximately the same number of votes. The Republican victory margin differs from 3% to under 1% in the two races because a third party candidate in the presidential race siphoned off votes that went for the Republican senate candidate.

These numbers mean that if the Republicans had nominated an adult for president instead of the loser of the Wisconsin Republican presidential primary, the margin of victory would have been closer to the 3% margin of victory in the Senate race. In other words, while the Democrats salivated over the prospect of Arizona flipping as New Mexico, Colorado, and Virginia have, they lost track of what was happening in the blue wall, their “own backyard.”

In approximately 80% of the states, Democrats did worse in 2016 than in 2012. This reduction occurred even when they won a state both times. This is Huge! Ohio was not even a battleground. The state the Democrats won by 2% in 2012, they lost by over 8.5% this time around. That’s no due to the Russians either. The Ohio senate race which was supposed to be hard-fought with a big-name Democratic candidate turned into a 21% drubbing. Hundreds of counties nationwide which had voted Democratic in 2012 voted Republican in 2016. Maps showing the trends from the last election to this one show Republican gains almost everywhere.

What is the explanation for these results? One answer by the losing Democratic candidate was that the voters for her opponent were deplorables. Well, maybe not all of them, just 47%. No data to support that conclusion were provided. As it turns out, the deplorables were just as capable of adopting the slur from the enemy as nasty women have been on the reverse side. As with Albright’s admonition and the smug take-it-for granted attitude of elitist bloggers, deplorables is a concept best relegated to dustbin if Democrats are serious about reversing the trends which have occurred following the 2008 elections.

Then, of course, there is the demographic wave of the future. Even if the Democrats do nothing, in time the demographic changes sweeping the country guarantee Democratic victories despite the temporary setbacks. For years now the Democrats have been waiting for Godot, for the magic moment when the new America of immigrants of color would sweep the country and turn the electoral map Democrat.

This demographic deluge has produced results in California and perhaps Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico. So far the eagerly anticipated browning of America has not occurred. The vote totals in the last election by Latin American immigrants and their offspring were comparable to those in 2008 and 2012, in the 27-28% range. George Bush’s 40% vote represents a high point for Republicans but one that would do damaging results to Democratic aspirations if repeated.

What have the Democrats accomplished with their over-the-top rhetoric incessantly repeated that a demographic deluge is coming, that the old America is dying and that a new progressive one is being born? A great politician once said for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.  So far the biggest impact of the rhetoric by the self-righteous zealots prophesizing the end is near has been to scare white people that the fate of their country is at risk due to alien invaders. How has that worked out for the Democrats?

It gets worse for the Democrats. What happens to the Democratic vision of identity politics if immigrants from Latin America (and Asia) intermarry with immigrants from Europe? What happens to the Democratic vision of identity politics if the Republicans catch on that Latin Americans Pope Francis, Fidel Castro, Marco Rubio, and Giselle Bündchen are not people of color? What happens to the Democratic vision of identity politics if Republicans catch on that immigrants from Latin America like immigrants from Europe know not only their continent of origin but their country, village, town, city, and ethnicity too? What happens to the Democratic vision of identity politics if Republicans catch on that immigrants from Latin American like immigrants from Europe want to live the American Dream? What happens to the Democratic vision of identity politics if Republicans catch on that immigrants from Latin America like immigrants from Europe are proud to be Americans and to be part of We the People?  Contrary to the Democratic wishes, Latin American immigrants are not middle-passage blacks where Democratic unanimity can be taken for granted. Should the Democrats take for granted that the party of malice will remain stupid forever? Alternative facts aren’t limited to just one party.

If the Democrats don’t like the election results they have no one to blame but themselves. Joe Biden for President and Elizabeth Warren for Vice President and none of this would be happening.

2020 Presidential Election: The Battle Is Engaged

January 27, 2017
by Peter Feinman
Electoral Map from 270towin.com

The 2016 presidential election was distinctively different from all previous ones. It continues to reverberate throughout the land. It was the subject of two posts here. First on the historical role of New York State governors in presidential elections from Martin Van Buren who became president to the Cuomos who have not so far. The previous New Yorker presidential election in 1944 featured two people, Roosevelt and Dewey, with state governor backgrounds. The most recent election offered two people with no political executive experience. The second post focused on the 22nd amendment. Without it the husband incumbent would have kept running for additional terms beyond the two-term limit and the wife never would have been considered as a candidate…except in the way dictators for life might seek to circumvent the rules by relinquishing their position in favor of their wife.

Since the election, the new and unique haven’t ceased. This transition period is the first time when a president-elect began conducting himself as if he already was the president. While he had no legal power, the electoral-college winner acted as if he was the president. His tweets and pronouncements may have been devoid of statutory power at the time, but they previewed what was going to happen once he took the oath of office. It was as if we had two presidents simultaneously, not a president and a co-president of vote for one you get two, but more like Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis having overlapping jurisdictions.

A second change during the transition period was the identification of an opposition candidate for the next election in 2020. Andy Cuomo, the New York State Governor, has all but officially announced his intention to run in 2020 even before his own re-re-election campaign for 2018. He will not be a Hamlet-of-the-Hudson” as his father was: “To be a candidate or not to be a candidate that is question.” There is no doubt in his mind. He is positioning himself upfront as the leader around whom Democrats should rally. As a governor he has ability to actually do things that talk-talk Senators can only talk about. On the other hand, Senators more easily have a national platform than governors…but not necessarily as much as media celebrities! Will George Clooney run in real life as he did in reel life? In any event, the race has started. The battle is engaged.

A third change manifested itself the day after the inauguration. It was the day when the Nasty Women said they were as mad as hell and were not going to take it anymore. The Nasty Women with their pussy hats sought to negate the insult of Donald Trump by embracing it as their own label. This action reminds me of when a group of Protestants in England back in the 1720s developed a new way of worship and reading the Bible. They were mocked by fellow classmates at Oxford for their unusual “methods.” The targets of this derogatory slur then adopted the term for their own name and became Methodists. The Nasty Woman may join the Tea Party as new names in the political arena that render the staid party names obsolete or less meaningful. The battle is engaged.

A fourth development may be a repeat of something we have not experienced since 1956. That presidential election was a replay of the 1952 election with the same Republican and Democratic candidates. In both instances, Dwight D. Eisenhower handily defeated Adlai E. Stevenson in both the popular vote and the Electoral College. While it seems likely the Republican candidate will run again in 2020, will the Democratic candidate run again again? The answer is conditional. It depends on whether or not she is alive. It’s not rocket science. As to what she will do in the interim, that is another question. Will the Democratic Party hand her the nomination as it worked to do this time? Probably not. Since she is not a fighter except to claim that to which she is entitled, how will she handle her first political contest when she is not the heir apparent and/or presumptive favorite? Is she still entitled? Is it still her turn? This battle is not yet engaged while she remains on hiatus.

The election itself produced a number of surprising results with implications for 2020. According to our new president, Mitt Romney ran the worst presidential campaign ever. As a longtime student of American history who is well-versed in the previous elections, our new president is the most qualified person in the country to render such a judgement. After all Romney only received 47.2% of the popular vote while Donald Trump received 46.1%. Clearly 47.2% is worse in alternative math and a horrendous total befitting a loser which our current president is not.

But elections are not won based on the popular vote but through the Electoral College. Here our new president with 306 votes minus 2 electors who declined to vote for him claims a landslide even with 46.1% of the popular vote. So let’s look at the presidential elections of the last century without compensating for Hawaii and Alaska becoming states.

Republicans with over 400 Electoral Votes

1984 Ronald Reagan 525
1972 Richard Nixon 520
1980 Ronald Reagan 489
1956 Dwight Eisenhower 457
1928 Herbert Hoover 444
1952 Dwight Eisenhower 432
1988 George Bush 426
1920 Warren Harding 404

Democrats with over 400 Electoral Votes

1936 Franklin Roosevelt 523
1964 Lyndon Johnson 486
1932 Franklin Roosevelt 472
1940 Franklin Roosevelt 449
1944 Franklin Roosevelt 432

Under the old math, the above elections were landslide; thanks to alternative math, 304 = 404. Pity the teachers who have students who embrace alternative math. Pity the people who buy products designed by people who embrace alternative math. Pity the passengers on a plane where the pilots embrace alternative math.

But there are other presidents who also won in landslides based on the Trump landslide.

1996 William Clinton 379
1992 William Clinton 370
2008 Barack Obama 365
2012 Barack Obama 332

Who knew that Donald Trump considered these Democrats to be landslide winners as well, even bigger winners than he was?

There are some results more comparable to the Electoral Votes totals for 2016.

1948 Harry Truman 303
1960 John Kennedy 303
1968 Richard Nixon 301
1976 Jimmy Carter 297
2004 George Bush 286
2000 George Bush 271

Perhaps when our new president referred to his election as a landslide he was only referring to these other winners who all were losers compared to his 304 votes. We will never know because he will never explain what he meant. Pity the English teachers who have students who embrace alternative vocabulary. On the other hand, George Orwell’s 1984 now will make perfect sense:

War is Peace.
Freedom is Slavery.
Ignorance is Strength.
304 is 404.

Finally there is the issue of the 3-5 million illegal voters. The number goes far beyond the graveyard votes in Chicago or the walking-around-money to generate votes in Philadelphia. Does he mean that roughly half the adults here illegally who tend to operate under the radar all were instructed to venture forth into the public into government facilities to pose as American citizens who could vote? Were they all in California which has about 13.7 million voters meaning 1 in 4 was illegal? Perhaps he is not aware that zombies are permitted to vote in California where voting rights have been extended to the living dead since they are human beings. Vampires can vote there too. Have you seen some of the actors in Hollywood? Don’t they look like death warmed over? Vulcans and Klingons, however, are not human and do not qualify. And since California routinely votes Democratic anyway, why perpetrate a massive fraud where none is necessary to claim the electoral votes in the first place?

A fraud of this magnitude dwarfs by fivefold the effort to launch the D=Day invasion. That effort took at least a year of planning and was commanded by someone who later became president in two landslide elections. Clearly the mastermind of this electoral fraud deserves accolades for the scope of the achievement. Just think of the number of election precincts involved. And these people didn’t just vote for the president at the top of the ticket. What about all the Congressional and state contests effected? When all is said and done, the conspiracy to deny Donald Trump his rightful popular election vote will go down as the single greatest fraud in the history of humanity save for the faked lunar landings. All Americans owe Donald Trump a debt of thanks for exposing the millions of aliens who are hidden in Area 51 who only come out on Election Day.

Undoubtedly we will learn more about the fraudulent votes when the federal investigation is completed. My understanding is the White House plans to hire the same detectives OJ used to track down the real killer and that Trump himself used to uncover the truth in Hawaii about Obama’s birth. According to our president the results of that investigation were so startlingly, you “can not believe what they are finding.” So far he has not released the findings of those detectives pending the completion of the audit on his taxes but perhaps he can be encouraged to do so.

In the meantime, let the tweet go forward to friend and foe alike. If you were registered in two states, we will hunt you down. We fill find you wherever you hide. You will be caught. You will be waterboarded. You will tell the truth about the conspiracy no matter how high it reaches. You will be hanged. You will be drawn and quartered. You will be boiled in oil. Sad.

Does his existence in Trumpietown, his counterpart to Hillaryland, mean that Democrats should be complacent about regaining the White House in 2020? Should the Democrats exult because the foe in 2020 is an immature child? No way, no how. But explaining the Democratic tunnel-vision silliness requires another post. None-the-less, the battle is engaged.