June 30, 2021
PTSD, ANGER,URGENCY SURGE AS 2022 ELECTIONS APPROACH
Good judgment is a commodity. It is accumulated over time and predicated on experience - which is itself predicated on years and years of bad judgment and stupid mistakes.
Good judgment (GJ) is not to be confused with good feelings (GF), which are based on immediate need. No experience is necessary for that. That's called narcissism. I want what I want and I want it right now. It's also the current political norm, and the Democratic Left's urgent priority.
The Left's operative paradigm is that if good judgment causes bad feelings and bad judgment causes good feelings, then go with the Bad Judgment/Good Feelings, since it keeps their base intact and keeps them in power. In short, BJ/GF is Good Judgment politically as it engenders Good Feelings. Are you still with me? Good.
ANGER MANAGEMENT: It's called PTSD, an acronym for a raging political mental affliction known as Post-Trump Stress Disorder. Trump is gone, but those on both the Left and Right are still stressed. He was useful in a strategic sense.
I recently talked to an attendee of a meeting of public officials to discuss residual state COVID-19 issues and he remarked that one participant, U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-9), was "very angry." He didn't understand why.
Why indeed? Schakowsky is from the political Left and she is a longtime ally of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D). Biden-Harris have been victorious. The Democrats have microscopic margins in the U.S. Senate and House. The Democrats are in control. So why all the rage and distress? The reason is simple: The clock is ticking.
I do watch FOX News, but I sucked-it-up and tuned into CNN and MSNBC, and virtually every commentator is ANGRY and not celebratory. They manifest rampant incomprehension and intolerance: We are right and righteous, they think. We know what's best. Just do and think as we say. If you do not subscribe to what they are selling then you are obviously stupid, deplorable and racist and a white supremacist.
America has been a neurotic nation since Trump and also post-Trump. The political dialogue no longer focuses on what is true or false, right or wrong - only on what is good or bad for me. That's the definition of a sociopath, which is somebody who constantly lies for their own benefit and doesn't even know it. Yes, kind of like Trump, but also like most politicians.
Anger is a great motivational tool, but it cuts both ways. The ROOT CAUSE of the current angry environment dates back to Trump-Clinton in 2016. Hillary was supposed to be the first woman president, and she got beat by an old white guy with a television show. Anger surged on the Left, between both progressive Democrats and in the media.
Whatever Trump wanted, they opposed and disparaged. Whatever Trump said, they mocked and disbelieved. Whatever Trump accomplished, they dismissed and ridiculed. Neurotic lying, by both anti- and pro-Trumpsters, became the norm. And that toxicity crept into society: Blame somebody else (usually Trump) for every personal or societal problem. The mantra was just don't offend me.
Tearing down (or building up) Trump became a moral imperative. You were on one side or the other, and considered your choice a virtue signal. It was Black Lives Matter or Make America Great Again. Objectivity evaporated. Discourse ceased. Compromise was weakness. And a culture of intolerance, blame and victim hood was built. We arrived at the point where "Goof Feelings" have become paramount, and "Bad Feelings" give license to demonstrations, rioting, looting and/or insurrection.
That's also the fundamental premise of the WOKE culture. If something causes BF or is "hurtful," then just cancel it, tear it down, or self-righteously disobey it.
PLANTING THE SEED: The Chinese have a 100-year plan for world domination. Marxism is patient, relying on capitalism to self-destruct. In fact, Marxism is all about everybody is equally poor, equally subservient and equally hopeless, devoid of ambition. That also characterizes the Democratic/ Leftist long-term permanent takeover game plan, which is open immigration. The goal is to flood America with non-white immigrants who will vote Democratic.
The DEMS are planting the seed and expect to reap the reward of IDENTITY POLITICS: Give non-white voters "Good Feelings" and they will be DEMS for life.
Marx in the 1880s prophesized that the proletariat - the workers of the world - would eventually revolt against their capitalist masters. That didn't happen. The system worked for them. The USSR experiment lasted 75 years and failed. So will the Open Borders experiment. Projections this year are for two million legal and illegal immigrants. At the southern border ICE has intercepted and released 150,000 minors into America through the end of May.
DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS: The state has a population of 29.2 million, up 16 percent from 2010. The 2020 census puts the White population at 41.2 percent, Hispanics at 39.7, Blacks at 11.9 and Asians at 3.8. Mexican-Americans are 31 percent of the total population. The state has 1.7 million undocumented immigrants floating around.
The non-White population is 58.8 percent. Shouldn't they all be voting Democratic?
Yet Texas remains solidly conservative and Republican. Trump won Texas by 787,379 in 2016 and by 637,869 in 2020, getting about 35 percent of the South Texas Mexican-American vote. Governor Greg Abbott won by 1,009,581 in 2018. Senator Ted Cruz by 214,923 in 2018 and Senator John Cornyn by1,074.229 in 2020. The Republicans' rising star is George P. Bush, whose dad is Jeb and uncle is George. He also speaks fluent Spanish and is running for attorney general.
For working-class Mexican-Americans in Texas (as well as everywhere), economic success is more important than skin color.
The South Tex-Mex don't want a flood of immigrants jeopardizing their jobs, especially since they're from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. Mexican immigration is way down since the Mexican economy is thriving.
Watch south Texas congressman Henry Cuellar (D-28). His district is in the Rio Grande Valley, including Laredo and Rio Grande City. It is the epicenter of border crossings. Cuellar asked Kamala Harris to come there, but she went to El Paso. His district stretches up to San Antonio, which has a lot of liberals; he won his 2020 primary against a progressive San Antonio Hispanic woman by less than 2,000 votes. If Abbott and the Republican legislature craft him a new district just along the border, minus San Antonio, he would surely switch parties, precipitating a major realignment in South Texas - thereby keeping TX blue for a long while.
CRIME: Mayor Lori Lightfoot has said that the cause of gun violence - like 74 shootings and 6 killings during the June 26-27 weekend - is a public health crisis that is rooted in racism and poverty.
It's really rooted in gangs that deal drugs and use guns to protect their turf and "eliminate" their competition.
And the source of their drugs is the Central and South American cartels that ship their product in through a porous southern border. Why can't anybody say that? And why are these gang-related murders now called "mass shootings?" when event the cops say the are "gang-related." Remember when "mass shootings" used to be applied to deranged white guys "going postal" with their AK-47.
The Left's and Biden's solution to the crime "challenge" is to ban "assault weapons" and have more "background checks." And sue the manufacturers and prosecute gun dealers who sell weapons used to commit crimes. I doubt gangbangers buy their guns from a store. There are 340 million guns in America, which has a population of 340 million. That's one gun per person, so that's a lot of guns.
I remember watching a TV episode of "All In The Family" in the 1970s in which Archie Bunker articulated his solution to airplane hijackings: "Give every passenger a gun," he said. That would definitely be a deterrent. As crime surges more guns will be bought. Mental illness is a factor in crime, but the root cause of street crime is drugs and profits. American capitalism at its finest. It's always about the money, stupid. Always.
THE BIDEN-HARRIS COVID/ ECONOMIC RECOVERY: If something is amiss, blame it on Trump; if something is alright, take credit for it. That's politics as usual. BUILD BACK BETTER is the premise, which is a tacit acknowledgement that the pre-COVID Trump economy was built well.
Inflation is caused when demand exceeds supply. The COVID shutdown flattened supply but prompted accumulated consumer cash and, hence, pent-up demand. Now consumers want to spend, buy and have fun. But the supply is not there. Gas and food prices are inflating, and interest rates are creeping up. This is a major political threat to Democrats in 2022.
It is a near certainty that Republicans will flip the 222-213 House, gaining 10-20 seats, but the 50-50 Senate could add more Democrats. Gridlock beckons. That's why angry Democrats need to do their agenda right now. They know time is ticking. They know it's all theirs to screw up.