{"id":87191,"date":"2024-03-19T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-19T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=87191"},"modified":"2024-03-20T10:44:50","modified_gmt":"2024-03-20T15:44:50","slug":"politicians-field-guide-the-moderate-in-the-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=87191","title":{"rendered":"Politicians Field Guide: The Moderate In The Race"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Elon Musk illustrated the truth for many in America’s political “middle”:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I’m not in “the middle”, by any means. I used to call myself “center right”, but these days I am proud to call myself a Paleocon, from the “let’s get back to the Sharon Statement<\/a>” school of paleoconning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump from 2016 to 2020 governed largely, but far from consitently, as a conservative; he secured the border, exerted productive pressure to support US interests overseas, and cut a crap-load of regulations. He also blew up the deficit – just as Dubya and Lightworker before him, and not nearly as badly as Joe “Obama 2.0” Biden have. Never mind his Democrat origin story – I have one too – but he’s a populist standup comic, not an activist. He can, and is, publicly on any side of any issue that suits him. No different than his opposition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But as the Biden campaign settles in to try to battle back from polls that, at the moment, seem a little encouraging to Trump<\/a>, it’s worth asking – what is “the center” in America today? Or, more accurately, where are the American people as a mean, and who is closer to it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Issue<\/strong><\/td><\/td>Polling<\/strong><\/td><\/td>Biden<\/strong><\/td>Trump<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
The Border<\/td><\/td>Trump +21<\/td><\/td>Mayorkas: “The Administration bears no responsibility for the problems”. <\/td>Illegal immigration is destroying the country. Build the wall. <\/td><\/tr>
Abortion<\/td><\/td>Trump +5. 16 week ban has 48% approval. <\/td><\/td>Biden supports taxpayer-funded abortion until and after birth and repealing the Hyde Amendment. <\/td>Trump opposed a federal ban and the six-week ban, and is casually pushing the 16 week ban. <\/td><\/tr>
National Security<\/td><\/td>Trump +6<\/td><\/td>Do we even need to go into it? <\/td>“Make America strong <\/em>again”. “Today, [the world] laughs at America”<\/td><\/tr>
Crime<\/td><\/td>Trump +13<\/td><\/td>Crime is a result of “systemic racism”. <\/td>“We should execute…” fentanyl smugglers. <\/td><\/tr>
Inflation<\/td><\/td>Trump +18<\/td><\/td>“Inflation is transitory, so let’s spend our way out of it” <\/td>Time to reel in the spending – but don’t touch <\/td><\/tr>
Jobs and the economy<\/td><\/td>Trump +5. Also – in 10\/14, interventionism was nine points behind “government does too much”<\/td><\/td>Tripling down on “Bidenomics” – spending our way to <\/td>Pointing out, correctly, that Bidenomics is strangling the American dream. <\/td><\/tr>
Climate <\/td><\/td>Pew, 10\/23: 30+ support phasing out fossil fuels <\/td><\/td>Administration is committed to “net zero by 2050”<\/td>“Drill, baby, drill!”<\/td><\/tr>
Israel vs. Hamas<\/td><\/td>82% of Americans support Israel. 62% say any ceasefire must be contingent on release of the hostages. <\/td><\/td>February 2024: “The hostages should be released, but<\/em>…” Administration is actively undercutting the Israeli war cabinet supported by 80% of Israelis. <\/td>Trump advocates revoking student visas for antsemitic students. <\/td><\/tr>
Ukraine<\/td><\/td>54% of Americans support maintaining \/ increasing aid to Ukraine<\/td><\/td>Biden has no clear realistic <\/em>end goal in sight. July 2023: “We’ll stay as long as it takes”, whatever that means. <\/td>Trump supports increasing aid with the goal of bringing Putin to an “off ramp”, a negotiated settlement. February 2024: “Trump is the only president who hasn’t given Putin what he wants”. <\/td><\/tr>
NATO<\/td><\/td>53% of Americans support NATO<\/td><\/td>BIden has pushed NATO in no direction in particular. <\/td>Trump pushes for NATO members to pay fair share, thus strengthening the alliance. <\/td><\/tr>
Education<\/td><\/td>Biden +2 (43-41) – hardly a mandate.<\/td><\/td>Biden backs CRT, racial division. <\/td>Promises cutting federal funding to school systems teaching CRT. <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Say what you will about the value of moderation; I’m here to pull the conversation to the right however I can. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if the center decides the election, then Trump might just have a shot. <\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elon Musk illustrated the truth for many in America’s political “middle”: I’m not in “the middle”, by any means. I used to call myself “center right”, but these days I am proud to call myself a Paleocon, from the “let’s get back to the Sharon Statement” school of paleoconning. Trump from 2016 to 2020 governed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[425,449,13,367],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campaign-24","category-lets-go-brandon","category-republicans","category-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=87191"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87196,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87191\/revisions\/87196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=87191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=87191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=87191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}