For far too long politicians have been afraid of their constituencies. And you can't win a battle on fear. Rather than doing what is right, they've focused on doing nothing, to the point where people dismiss D.C. as a gridlocked backwater. And then a President comes along and leads and everybody is shocked, positively shocked I tell you!
The truth is gerrymandering has helped the Republicans win elections, but it has also made them beholden to the extreme right in their own party, to the point where the party majordomos have lost control. It used to be simple, talk low taxes, government waste and trickle down economics, sprinkle in some religious and culture issues and voila, you've got a victory! But then the disenfranchised blue collar Democrats became Republicans and it was no longer about big business, but personal interests, and those in charge of the party have been flummoxed ever since. What do you do when the majority of your voters prefer national health care but you've got a vocal minority against it? You placate the minority, because otherwise you'll be primaried. Like Abbott in Texas. He reluctantly instituted a mask mandate in 2020 and now he's being run against by those further right, and we've seen time and again those further right tend to win, because they don't cotton to sausage making, they don't believe in compromise, they're all about digging in their heels and refusing to budge. And therefore we've got one party in Congress whose entire agenda is just making sure the other party passes no legislation, makes no progress, and you end up with the majority frustrated, since Republicans are a distinct minority who as a result of the aforesaid gerrymandering and the Electoral College have punched way above their weight in representation for years. You can win yet lose, just ask Hillary Clinton.
But Biden won by a significant majority of the popular vote. Which was focused foremost on getting rid of Trump.
Trump... He ruled with an iron fist, willy-nilly, and despite protesting, the Democrats ultimately acquiesced and ate it. The Democrats fight twenty first century wars with twentieth century strategies. October 2nd there will be rallies in support of women's reproductive rights. What will be the result? NOTHING! Come on, all that protesting during Trump's tenure, did he listen to it, did any of the Republican elected officials listen to it and change their behavior? ABSOLUTELY NOT! Isn't that the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result?
And one thing is for sure, Trump bungled the Coronavirus. Reacting late if at all and proffering bogus medical solutions all the while. It's one of the reasons he lost his job. And it was not only the failure to address Covid-19, but the concomitant crash of the economy.
Which worries Biden too.
I think Joe is most concerned with the citizenry, but not far behind is the economy. The more people go unvaxxed, the more the Delta variant rages, the more the economy sinks. Did you see the airlines are going back into the hole? Think about that, you bitched about all the money the government gave them and then the country opened up and they were flying profitably and now, because of people's "freedom" and the resulting fear of those who are vaxxed to go anywhere, the airlines are tanking once again. But it's not only the airlines, across the board business are faltering. But if the economy were up and running...
And the truth is despite states like Florida and Texas being open for business, they're not bastions of 100% Republicans, they have sizable Democratic populations who refuse to leave their houses, who are scared of dying. Meanwhile, the unvaxxed aren't afraid at all, despite having an eleven times more chance of passing from Covid-19 than those who've gotten the jab. Then again, fact are fungible, just ask Kellyanne Conway. If you close your eyes and pray you can make anything go away. And it doesn't really hurt until it affects you personally.
So one thing the right has done is stack the courts. All the way from the bottom to the top. So, governors and other elected officials know that if you go to the Supreme Court, you've got a good chance of winning. Look, the Court punted on the Texas abortion law, allowing it go into effect.
But that's not what Biden is banking on. It's OSHA.
The Republican governors, never mind their constituencies, have no grounding in the law, they think everything can be brought to court and everything can be appealed when this is patently untrue. Not only does Biden have the right under OSHA, you can't appeal every decision, you must have standing and a basis for that appeal. Just losing is not enough. There must have been an error in the trial court. Not that Americans know this, having watched too much prime time television, which the last time I checked was FICTION!
So Biden leads. I'd say he threw the long ball, but in truth he didn't throw that far at all, he just decided to act.
Democrats aren't supposed to do this, they're supposed to be AFRAID! Of not only the Republicans but other Democrats. Commit a sexual faux pas as a Democrat and your party executes you. Do the same as a Republican and you're still a member of the party, you still hold your office, almost no one even talks about Matt Gaetz anymore, he's still in Congress. As for Al Franken, a Harvard educated comedian? He makes jokes and is sidelined, even though we need his intelligence and voice of reason in the Senate now more than ever.
So Biden wins the nomination. Seemingly everybody was surprised. It looked like he was down and out. And then he won the election, anybody but Trump, just ask all the Republicans who defected. And the right wing canard is he's a senile old man beholden to the progressives and ultimately ineffective. But you can label someone all day long, but it comes down to what he DOES!
Biden got us out of Afghanistan. Something the majority of Americans wanted. The exit is akin to the Affordable Care Act. Fought over when it happens, embraced after it's over. As for the execution of the exit, the more that comes out the better it looks. NATO just said the U.S. did tell its partners it was leaving Afghanistan, in April, it's not like they were really surprised. But when the exit looked like a mess they wanted to disconnect from the U.S., to look good. We kept on hearing that the U.S. has lost its stature, its power, but you know the next time any of these allies are in trouble the first call is going to be to the American government. The U.S., Bush and Cheney, made a bad call. Subsequent presidents were afraid to make a bad call, so they just stayed there. And now Biden does the right thing. As for Trump...he said he was gonna do the right thing, but now that Biden executed the plan he flip-flopped, because that's the rule of Republicans, whatever a Democrats says or does, just take the opposite side.
Like with vaccines. Trump supports them, delivers them, but then Administrations flip and vaccines are anathema.
And those Republicans saying we left too many people behind in Afghanistan, not only do they not want the refugees in the U.S., after all they're immigrants, the scourge of our nation, it was just found out there's been an outbreak of measles, and the Afghanis are being quarantined, unable to land in the States. Think about that, if they only got vaccinated there would be no issue. But don't think too hard, because the logic employed by the right doesn't make sense. And it is the right. No false equivalencies.
So kids must go to school, but they must not wear masks and vaccinations must not be required. What's the end result? INFECTION! And kids are dying, teachers are infecting students. But in the name of freedom, the status quo must be maintained. Colleges in the north require vaccination, those in the south don't, end result? INFECTION! For people who keep telling us they want to protect the children they seem to be doing a lousy job of it.
And it's not like the elected officials testifying aren't vaccinated, it's not like Tucker Carlson and the rest of the bloviators are not vaccinated, as Biden stated on Thursday, a claim that has gone unchallenged, but they're afraid of those beholden to rumors and false facts and on Fox they're fanning these flames, because it's the opposite opinion of the Democrats and they're afraid of losing ground to outlets even further right, like Newsmax and OAN. To the point where Trump finally says to get the vaccine and he gets BOOED!
Yes, there were all these lines in the sand. That were going to make the reluctant get vaccinated. Frank Luntz said if Trump testified people would get the shot. Hmm...no. The media told us if the vaccine was approved by the FDA people's fears would be alleviated and they'd get the jab. Hmm...no. They're like the Democrats who believe protest can sway Abbott...NO WAY!
So what do you do when nothing soft works, you take action, you mandate. Which Biden has done.
And almost everyone is on his side. Not only the vaccinated, but the corporations, they were looking for leadership. It's just the vocal minority and those beholden to them who are complaining. And didn't we decide it was about elections, the majority as opposed to the one with the loudest voice? The Democrats have cowered previously but now Biden takes action and the right is shocked, positively shocked I tell you.
And why not get the jab?
Let's be clear, the truth is almost everybody is afraid of needles. It's just that simple. As for deleterious effects of vaccines, the intelligentsia, everybody the unvaxxed rely on, have gotten the shot. So if it's really bad, if it kills you, the unvaxxed are going to have no one to rely on, no doctors, no techies, it'll be like a "Twilight Zone" episode. God, why is everybody so afraid in America? I thought we were a can-do nation. We went to the moon, we invented the internet, never mind the smartphone, but when they tell us vaccines will save our lives, NO WAY! And it's not like most people haven't gotten a slew of vaccines already. It's just that this one has become politicized.
This is what we wanted, leadership. This is what we voted for. We didn't only want Trump gone, we wanted to be led out of the wilderness, we wanted order. And now we've got someone who's giving it to us. HALLELUJAH!
As for Biden himself... I winced when I saw him reading from the teleprompter. Then again, at least he can read, unlike Trump. And why do we hold our elected officials to such high standards, when most people at home can't read from the teleprompter. They're just people. And the goal is to gather information, via committee, we don't want isolated dictators, and make educated decisions. Biden does this but he's laughable? Isn't this what we want?
As for the attacks on Kamala Harris... Tell me again what a vice president should do? What did Pence do, other than bungle the handling of the coronavirus problem. VPs hang in the background and wait for the president to die. It's just that simple. But since Harris is a DEMOCRAT, furthermore black and a woman, she deserves attack. Credit Harris, she's seen and heard it before, she's not bothering to respond, you never take the bait.
Then again, Biden is biting back. Not only is he calling out Republican officials, he's standing his ground, like Republican John Wayne in a western. HAVE AT IT! He's calling the right wing out. He's not getting under the table and saying nothing. How come the right can call people out, taunt the left, but Democrats can't do this? Huh punk!
And the truth is you're on one side or the other. Nothing I write is going to change your mind and that's not why I'm writing this. I'm writing this to set the scene, to tell you what is going on. It's no different from the government tolerating protestors and then moving to evacuate them. Remember Occupy Wall Street? And after the protestors were gone, life went on. Which is what is going to happen here. People will get vaccinated and be happy about it. They will live, and ultimately that's what it's all about, no one wants to die for the cause, no one, especially when they don't have to.
So the tide has turned. And you don't want to go against it. Did you see that woman yelling at people wearing masks in the supermarket? The video went viral and SAP, her employer, fired her. Do you want to take that risk? And government subsidies are in most cases gone, so you don't want to lose your job, no way. You might grumble, but you'll get the shot.
And those reluctant to do so will become a member of an ever-shrinking group, they'll be pariahs. Akin to soldiers left behind in Japan who were still fighting the war years on. It's over, get in line, there's no profit in staying behind, and the truth is your brethren will sell you out in an instant, they'll tell you to go unvaxxed after they've gotten the shot, claiming their employer made them do it, or their spouse is immunocompromised. You do it, not me!
So Trump issues an edict and it stands, despite the blowback. But Biden isn't entitled to do this? Furthermore, Biden is trying to save lives!
You might think the unvaxxed are a huge force, but the truth is their governors are puppets and they live in an echo chamber akin to a cult, where they never hear contrary information and if you go against the leader you're excoriated.
America is about truth. And almost all of the information from the unvaxxed is not.
America is about justice. Majority rules. The safety of Americans is paramount.
And the American Way. Ever since World War II America has been the undisputed leader of the world. Not only in science, but the arts. America is the bleeding edge, which lifted up our entire populace. But now we're so busy squabbling China is making headway. And Britain is even worse. The yahoos voted for Brexit and now not only is it almost impossible for musicians to tour the Continent, the shelves are bare because there aren't enough truck drivers. Even worse, taxes had to be raised to fund the NHS, which was supposed to burgeon after Brexit. But too many uneducated people in the hinterlands voted on emotions, voted on FREEDOM, hating immigrants, ultimately to their detriment. Are we going to let this happen in America? HELL NO!
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