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The Screaming Moderate

A  long time out while I'm pissed

11/11/2024

6 Comments

 
Over the weekend, I began to write my thoughts/analysis of the election. As sometimes happens, I stopped in the middle. Typically when that happens I'm telling myself something isn't quite feeling right to me.

During my stoppage, I realized what was missing. I was pissed and my writing didn’t reflect my anger. So, I’m putting that post aside for now – I’ll get back to it.

I’m pissed because we elected a convicted felon who ran on a platform of dividing not uniting us. I’m pissed because this is a man who disrespects too many of his fellow Americans. 

Yes, I know a majority of my fellow Americans who voted, voted for Donald J. Trump. And, yes, I accept the election was fair and honest, as I have accepted every other election I’ve witnessed in my 74 years on this earth.

I don’t care that he expanded his support among so many demographics. I understand those folks were voting for a better economy. I get that.

I voted for Kamala Harris not because she was the model of someone I would have built to be the next president. I voted for her because, here I’ll say it, she is not Donald Trump.

I would have voted for a turnip if that was Trump’s opponent.

Personally, the economy, for me, is fine. But I get that I’m not the average American. I’ve been lucky in my life and I don’t need to count my pennies when buying eggs. And I know there are millions of others in this country who need to count those pennies. People, understandably, voted their selfish interests, which is what happens in elections.

I get it.

But the man who they are putting their faith in is a spoiled rich kid who’s never been held accountable for anything.

Nothing.

He was and remains a con man, a charming (to some) charlatan who knows how to sell a product, even a product that's too expensive and you don't need (Trump Steaks, Trump University, Trump watches, Trump bibles, etc. etc.)

He was scared to death to lose because he knew accountability was weeks away for him on many allegations made against him, some of them already proven in court. Some of them he’s already been penalized legally for.

Those weren’t pretend cases. They were real. The allegations were real. The guilty verdicts were  real, not decided in the Oval Office but in courts of law, presided over by fair judges.

This man took choice away from women.  And he did it with intention. It served his selfish political self-interest to take that right away.  His BS about turning the issue back to the states “like EVERYONE wanted” is just that – bullshit.

A handy excuse to, again, try to escape accountability.

People remember what a good economy we had in Trump’s first term. It was good for a while – that was the economy President Obama left behind. Maybe it would have been better for Trump, too, if there had been no pandemic. Another issue he bollixed up because he’s a selfish man who told us it “will just go away.”

It didn’t. What went away were far too many lives of our relatives, friends, neighbors.

I have Trump-voting friends. I spoke with a couple over the weekend. Some said, we agree on more issues than we disagree. That’s true.

But we disagree on the biggest “issue.”

That is that we just elected a selfish convicted felon who is out for himself, not for the people. A man who lies with almost every breath he takes.

He might he be right on some of the issues. Yes, he might be. But he is a bad man. He has demonstrated that to all of us, even those of you who choose not to believe it.

He campaigned on expelling illegal immigrants from our country. OK, I can’t argue with that. But after he was elected he said he wouldn’t put a price tag on that endeavor. Why? Because then maybe it wouldn’t sound like such a great idea. Once again, no accountability. No discussion of how it will be done, who specifically he will toss out. How many tax dollars it will take.

What does he do if he ever succeeds in that endeavor (which, experts say, he doesn't have time to complete in his last term). And who's going to do those jobs those illegal immigrants are doing? How does that affect our economic well being? Is tossing them all out the only answer? It's the simplest, I admit, and the one easiest to sell to an angry voter.
 
Again, though, I digress – talking about issues. That would be a healthy, productive discussion to have. Trump refuses to have it because he knows the answers aren't good.

The issue is this man, Donald John Trump, does not deserve to sit in the Oval Office because he is a bad man. A dishonest man. Not even a smart man, according to those who have worked with him.

Trump supporters, I’m not going to argue about it anymore. He’s a bad man. Personally, and professionally. Bad. And he has been bad his whole life. You can think differently. It’s still America and you have that right. Just as I have the right to feel as I, and millions of others, do.

His suck ups in the Congress now are following lockstep with him, afraid, he will turn his supporters against them.

Senators are giving up their rights and caving to his demanding them to allow recess appointments – in other words the right to appoint whoever he wants without any advice and consent from the Senate. Anyone.

Step one on the road to having a monarch who just gives orders and his minions say, "thank you, sir."

We have checks and balances in our system of government for a reason. But Trump is demanding those checks and balances be tossed out so he can do whatever he wants to do.

Presidents don’t get to do that. Monarchs do.

I’m pissed. Gotta tell you, I won’t get over being pissed. To me he has no redeeming value. We have just put into office a man who I cannot tell my children, grandchildren or great-grandchildren to respect or model themselves after. 

That’s a key requirement, in my world, to be the President of the United States. Someone I respect. We can disagree on the issues but I need to respect the President and why he or she believes differently than I do.

So, my Trump supporting friends, comment all you want. I do not plan to respond. This isn’t an argument to me. It’s a core value. I cannot, will not, be convinced otherwise.

You voted for a bad man. A bad man who has demonstrated how bad he is. A bad man who I’m guessing will be even worse now that he’s had one term in office and realizes some of what he needs to do to be the “strong man” leader he admires.

He won a free and fair election – which is what this country is all about.

But he won it with lies and deceit.

That is not what this country is all about.

6 Comments

In the spirit of unity, Trump should admit 2020 wasn't rigged

11/6/2024

0 Comments

 
How about we start off this transition period to another term of Donald Trump as president by all agreeing that the 2020 election was not stolen or rigged by the Democrats?

If the Democrats were capable of rigging an election, one would think this would be that election. The one when they lost the White House, the Senate and, likely, the House of Representatives.

Wouldn’t that be a nice way to start this period which half the country is scared to death about? By finally giving up the lie about the last election being fixed?

I mean, Trump convinced his entire base that it was fixed. He’s said it every day since he lost.

And, in this election, I’ve yet to hear anyone on the Democratic side say it was fixed in spite of being shocked by the results.

In fact, we just elected a man who survived two impeachments, numerous federal and state indictments and a conviction for which he’s slated to be sentenced later this month. His own chief of staff and some senior advisors called him a “fascist.” He endured two assassination attempts, including one in which a bullet grazed his ear.

And we are witnessing a full GOP takeover of the government two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Yet, Vice President Kamala Harris called Trump to formally concede. She didn't run to the cameras yelling "foul!!"

She’ll be giving a speech in a couple of hours to publicly concede and, I expect  that both Harris and President Joe Biden will be on the platform January 20th for the inauguration of a man who has called them every name under the sun and who remain under his threat to prosecute them for whatever he feels like when he is sworn in.

After, of course, he has the pending cases against himself dismissed.

Wouldn’t that be a nice way to start his last term? By being honest at least about that fact that he actually lost the last election and now has staged a comeback even Hollywood would not have made up?

It's a move that would be against character for Trump and one that might make some of us give him a second look.

I don’t expect it, of course, nor do you – even those of you who voted for Trump.

I think I get why he won. As James Carville told us years ago, “it’s the economy, stupid.” It’s ironic, too, that Trump will be inheriting, again, not a bad economy, but a very good one – yet one that has not positively affected all our fellow citizens.

It will, of course, unless Trump gets to put in place his threatened tariffs on other countries first, which will explode prices to Americans and pump up inflation, again.

This isn’t sour grapes. These are my expectations. I didn’t have a good feeling for two minutes watching the results Tuesday night. Even though each of those early states was going the way everyone expected – red states went red and blue states went blue. The battleground remained close. But good vibes were not coming from those early states.

I went to bed nervous because my expectation was Harris would do better than expected. That was not proven out by those early results.

In fact, Trump even won the popular vote. So much for ballot box stuffing! They weren’t stuffed … but millions were invested by taxpayers all over the country to guard against something that needed no guarding against – rigged elections.

Did foreign players distribute misinformation? Yes, they did. Did Trump and his people spread lies and disinformation? Yes, they did. It’s what they do. And, my guess is that will not stop despite his not being able to run for reelection (term limits) and therefore him being beholden only to the Constitution, which we’ve seen him ignore in the past.

So, he won. I’m not claiming foul play. I’m not alleging cheating. It’s not what we do in America when you lose an election.

That doesn’t mean I have to celebrate.

First, I’m going to be afraid that he actually will do the things he’s promised – prosecute his enemies, even if it takes the military; deport millions of people that could take years and result in refugee camps; put Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in charge of health policy and Elon Musk in charge of the budget; and so many other outrageous things he promised.

Friends on social media who are Trump supporters are posting today, in effect, that we need to unite now. The election has been decided. Many of those same “friends” who published the most disgusting memes about Vice President Harris.  Many of those same friends who told me 2020 was rigged, Democrats cheated.

That will take a bit of time, I’m afraid. This isn’t like a “normal election” other than it was decided by the voters and we respect the voters' decision.

But a nice touch would be for Trump to begin his final four years of public service by admitting he lied about the last election.

As was proven by this one.


0 Comments

...And the winner is ...

11/1/2024

1 Comment

 
There still could be a November Shock I guess but I’m going in early to call this election for Vice President Kamala Harris.

I know everyone says this is the closest election of the century, and maybe in history. I think it’s definitely the closest polling we’ve ever seen from the national polls to the swing state polls.

I think the Vice President will win bigger than the polls show though, and win in a way that it shouldn’t be contested.

But, as we all know, ex-President Donald Trump could lose in a popular vote and electoral vote landslide and still claim victory. He’s already telling us he expects Pennsylvania to be his battleground for the post-election war he will declare.

Why do I think this will be a bigger win than the polls show?

Because, well, women. Women are for Harris big time. Yes, men are for Trump bigly too, but there are more women. There are definitely more motivated women after Trump removed their right to choose by appointing the Supreme Court judges who ended Roe v. Wade. Not to mention the last couple days when he promised to “protect the women…whether they want me to or not.”

I think women have had it with Trump.

Let’s just call bullshit on the old “now the states can decide on abortion” argument. This is an issue that needs to be – and was – decided nationally and is being so again as states vote. Just far more slowly.

Women, and men, can have their religious view on abortion and run their lives that way. It’s a free country. And so can men and women have the opposite view because, well, the Constitution gives us freedom of religion.

Plus, no matter that some in the Christian right think this needs to be a Christian nation -- the Constitution says otherwise. Be a Christian. Let me be Jewish, Muslim, or agnostic or another religion. That's why we live in America. We are free to be what we choose.

There are other reasons I think this will be a bigger win for Harris than anticipated.

While much is made by the media about her losing ground among Black Americans, I think Black Americans will come back to her more. Plus, few mention those men without college degrees. Trump has lost significant ground in his lead among them. And, remember, there are lots of men in that category, which means bigger numbers.

If that trend holds, Trump will lose ground especially in those Democratic Blue Wall states.

Another reason I think Harris will win bigger than anticipated: Donald J. Trump.

His act is over. Yes, there is still almost half the country who supports him. That’s largely because, in my view anyway, he is still that middle finger that half of the country understandably gives to the establishment. He doesn’t care what he says or who he angers by saying it. I get that many like that about him. He says things they can’t, or won’t.

They feel they have been forgotten, lost in the shuffle of government priorities, and political priorities.

Many of them have been forgotten, and they won’t be again after this election. In that sense, they win by Harris winning. She and the government must pay attention to that segment of America not just because they want to win back their votes – but because they deserve to have the establishment’s attention, and action.

Another reason I think she’ll win is because Puerto Rican voters will break for Harris after last weekend’s tribute by the Trump campaign to the Nazi approach. There, I said it.

Do I think Trump is a Nazi? No, but I think he sure likes the rhetoric used by fascist regimes. Do I think Trump wants to kill Jews and illegal immigrants? No, I don’t.

But I think he will use the hell out of the issue if that’s what returns him to power.

If it didn’t suit that purpose, he would not be so all over it. All he cares about is winning – for himself.

For example, his trip yesterday to campaign in New Mexico, a state he won’t win. Why was he there? To try to secure Latino votes. What did he say there? “New Mexico, look, don’t make me waste a whole damn half a day here,” he said. Yes, New Mexico voters, it’s about him, not you.

Then there are his creepy loyalists. Like Stephen Miller, and Steve Bannon, and Rudy Giuliani and Tucker Carlson. These are dangerous men. I won’t go into all the reasons here. Not enough space.

While Tim Walz got on the Harris ticket partly because he called the Trump team “weird” he could have gone a few steps further – those four and others are creepy and mean and crude men.

It’s the type of “loyal” staff that Trump attracts. And likes.

The rhetoric Trump uses is fascist rhetoric. It is aimed at getting his party united behind him (mission accomplished), loyal staffers around him (mission accomplished) and many of his followers willing to take him at his word (mission pretty much accomplished).

Look at fascist societies in the world and study a bit how a charismatic leader jumped ahead of the parade to lead them. And get the people to believe him, and only him.

Some may have been short-lived reigns and they clearly were among the worst governments in human history. Good for the "leaders." Bad for the people.

Then, there is the other side. Harris gave a great speech the other day on the Ellipse. It was written well, structured well, and covered not only who she is but what she believes in. Did she define Trump as she wants to define him? Yes, as she needed to do too.

Harris has been a candidate for President for about 100 days.

She squashed a lot into those days: secured the nomination, named a staff, vetted and named a vice presidential candidate, created a platform, did the vice-presidential dance of being loyal to the man who nominated her as Vice President, raised a billion dollars, and more. 

That’s a pretty good 100 days, not to mention making this the “closest race” in history instead of a Trump walk.

She also did the same balancing act other vice presidents have done – from both parties – throughout our history: Being loyal to the person who nominated her and still trying to forge her own way.

Ironically, President Biden handed her the way to do that when he stuttered (no pun intended) in his take on that comic at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally who insulted Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans. That gave her the opportunity to delineate a difference without tossing her boss under the bus. And she took advantage of it.

That whole “she was last person on the room thus she is guilty of all the Biden Administration mistakes or policies that didn’t work?” Bull. You may get in the last word, but you may not carry the day. Being the last person in the room with your parents didn’t give you veto power over their decision, did it? She was listened to. That was Biden’s promise. That was Reagan's promise to Bush too. He didn’t always agree – he is the President, not Harris.

Did she agree publicly after she left that room? Yes, as is her job.

So high numbers of women are highly motivated to vote this year. That oversimplifies it. There are also hundreds of thousands of Puerto Rican voters in those key states, and they were listening to that rally the other night, or heard about it – quickly. Oh, and those Haitians accused of “eating the dogs…eating the pets” … motivated.

Not to mention, but I will:


  • Trump’s candidate for vice president, JD Vance, said the other day: Well-off kids may be identifying as trans to get into elite colleges. Oh, and he and Trump could win the “normal gay guy vote.”
  • And, was Trump referring to a firing squad or the enemy when he said of Liz Cheney last night: “She’s a radical war hawk – let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her. OK? And let’s see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face."
So, just thinking that with a younger generation of candidate being put forward, with specific plans for what she’ll do – plans that won’t destroy our economy like putting taxes on every imported good we buy and cutting taxes for the wealthy – this may not be the closest race we’ve ever seen.

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    B. Jay Cooper

    B. Jay is a former deputy White House press secretary to Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He also headed the communications offices at the Republican National Committee, U.S. Department of Commerce, and Yale University. He is a former reporter and is the retired deputy managing director of APCO Worldwide's Washington, D.C., office.
    He is the father of three daughters and grandfather of five boys and one girl. He lives in Marion, Mass.

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