The Big Problem

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So what’s the big problem with American democracy today?

Is it that decades of miseducation has turned Democrats into a lumpen mass of herd animals to whom “critical thought” may as well be Sanskrit – even, maybe especially, the “Educated” ones?

Well, that’s a little hyperbolic, but that’s a big part of is.

But reading Mark Steyn’s piece…

So now we’re told that we all have to rush to Georgia for two months to focus on the run-off election because those two GOP Senate candidates are the only things that stand in the way of Biden-Harris ramming the Green New Deal down your gullet, and giving statehood to DC and Puerto Rico, thus greatly diminishing Susan Collins’ importance in Senate arithmetic now and forever.

Maybe. But it really would be nice if these guys would make an argument for something once in a while, instead of just saying we’re the fellows to block the other fellows. I mean, we’ve been here before even within the shriveled perspective of political memory: A decade ago we were told we had to back Republicans because they’re opposed to Obamacare. They raised a zillion dollars, saved their seats, won total control in 2016 …and had no plan.

It’s not enough. Last time round, the only guy making real arguments was Trump: Build the wall, renegotiate Nafta, get tough with China… So he won the argument, and then he won the election.

If they succeed in taking him out, we’re left with Republicans who have no argument other than process: Vote for me, so we’ll save the Senate. If we save the Senate, we can block Biden’s judges. So we’ll save the courts, so they can keep ruling that, er, Obamacare’s unconstitutional and that Pennsylvania shouldn’t be monkeying with election rules this close to the big day.

…it occurred to me – our biggest problem today is that so much of our “democracy” has become like the Blue state economy. It’s not about tangible things – in the case of politics, actual arguments and choices and ideas, the political equivalent of hopper cars full of wheat, trains hauling oil, cars rolling off the assembly line.

As Steyn noted, Trump made an argument. So did Reagan. So did Kennedy, and Carter for that matter.

But our elections today aren’t so much about selling the American people on an argument as they are about moving numbers in the right direction – by fair means or (as we see in Blue cities) means most foul.

And that’s a very bad thing.

25 thoughts on “The Big Problem”

  2. “It’s rare to find one person who is so dumb on so many different topics.”

    And yet here you are every GD day showing off your stupidity.

  3. Ha! Says Emery, the true believer that always uses biased left wing propaganda sources for his talking points. Sheesh, dude. Quit while you’re still behind.

  4. The linked article in Emery’s threadjack: “No, Dominion voting machines did not delete Trump votes” spends 10 paragraphs calling people crazy for believing that a voting machine switched Trump votes to Biden votes, then in the 11th paragraph describes how a Dominion voting machine switched Trump votes as Biden votes.

    You see, the votes were *counted* correctly, the machine just *reported* them incorrectly . . .

  5. When I scanned my completed ballot at the precinct, the machine did not display who I voted for. It did not give me a receipt. How do I know which candidate received my vote in the machine tabulation? The company spokesman says the machine works perfectly but what else would he say?

    How can I verify my votes were correctly recorded?

    Seems to me the only solution is a manual recount, eyeballs on paper. Why take the vendor’s word for it? Why not recount? It’s expensive? So what, it’s the presidency we’re talking about (and maybe down ballot races). Do you want an honest election or a cheap one?

  6. Do you know what real lawyers do? They present evidence in court. As part of an existing case.

    Do you know what con artists do? Show random pieces of paper in a cable news segment.

    Unless presented with strong evidence, showing there was deliberate, massive voter fraud, the court won’t issue an order to delay the voter certification in Arizona or any states. Trump has filed these frivolous lawsuits in order to cheat money from his gullible supporters.

  8. It so happens that this morning I saw a painting related to the St. Bartholomew’s Massacre in Paris in 1572. It caused me to refresh my memory of who, what, when. The event came at the height of Catholic-Huguenot (Protestant) tensions in France. Ostensibly to broker peace, the Queen, Catherine de’ Medici, mother of Charles IX, arranged a marriage between her daughter and a leading Huguenot. The royal wedding drew the wealthiest Huguenot leaders to Paris for the event – whereupon they were attacked and butchered by Catholic mobs, decimating the movements leadership. Catherine’s response was – well, whatever the French word for “Oops” is.

    450 years later, of course, we’re too civilized to kill each other over religion – unless Politics is now your religion.

  9. It’s comforting to receive reassurance that I was absolutely right, I was right all along. The E Collective continually provides it.

    Did fraud occur?
    You have no evidence.

    Here’s evidence. Did fraud occur?
    Your evidence isn’t good enough.

    Here’s more evidence. Did fraud occur?
    You can’t prove it in court.

    Did fraud occur? I think we know the answer.

  10. @Night Writer: It seems to me, the most important dividing line in the US isn’t political between liberal and conservative. It’s between those who saw the con early and those who still don’t see it.

  11. @JD: “Attorneys for Trump team, RNC and AZ Republican party has filed a motion noting plaintiffs’ request for relief is now moot for most of Arizona’s ballot.”

    In other words: A favorable ruling from the judge would, at most, be relevant in two down-ballot races at this point.

    “Claims that ‘potentially thousands’ of AZ voters were disenfranchised dissolved during a six-hour court hearing on Thursday, as a lawyer representing the president’s reelection team dialed back allegations of ‘systematic, improper’ vote overrides.”

    Trump attorney tells Maricopa County judge that vote challenge is not about fraud or election theft
    https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/11/12/maricopa-county-judge-hear-trump-team-case-maricopa-county-votes/6260414002/

  12. Did you read the part of that article where Democrats don’t want to hand-count votes to verify the machine?

    I wonder why not . . .

  13. Did you read the part of that article where Democrats don’t want to hand-count votes to verify the machine?

    I wonder why not . . .

    Because their hands are already busy stacking bricks and typing up Enemies lists.

  14. Third Circuit REJECTS Republican lawsuit challenging Pennsylvania ballot receipt deadline.

    Per Court “we do so with commitment to a proposition indisputable in our democratic process: that the lawfully cast vote of every citizen must count.”

  17. The lawyers in PA quit after being doxxed by the Lincoln Project. Of course, it took hours for Twitter to pull it. But, I’m sure that it was solely based on the legal status.

    We are at the point where the right to fair representation in court isn’t allowed. Think that over – we ensure that pedophiles, rapists, and murderers are allowed legal representation. But, Trump shouldn’t be allowed. But, it isn’t just Trump – there’s 71+ million that won’t get their representation. That’s not going to lead to any problems at all.

  18. 👆 This is being spun as “the firm did the right thing” or “the firm yielded to pressure” (depending on your bias), but exercise skepticism. As with a marriage, outsider assumptions about what ended the relationship aren’t always right.

    Fact: At a press conference last week, Eric Trump & Rudy Giuliani introduced a “poll watcher” who said he was obstructed in PA, but DIDN’T mention that he was also a lawyer at the firm representing the campaign. That firm, Porter Wright, just resigned.
    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/13/business/porter-wright-trump-pennsylvania.html

  19. The Em Collective views losing in court as the ultimate deplatforming. The issue is decided. There can be no further dispute. And it’s your own fault anyway – if your heart was pure and your cause was just, you would have won in court.

    Dred Scott lost in court. Galileo lost in court. Jesus of Nazareth lost in court.

  20. 👆When you put it that way, it’s really a TREMENDOUS accomplishment, VERY STRONG 😂

    Trump/RNC and allies are currently 1-14 in post-election litigation.

    They won a case in PA that shortened the cure deadline by 3 days for a handful of ballots. But that is it.

  21. Biden has won Georgia and Arizona and has 306 electoral votes. Sound familiar? It’s the same number that Trump won in 2016 when he declared “it was a romp”.

    I bet he wish he never said that on TV.

  22. William Marbury (of Marbury v. Madison) lost in court.

    Ernesto Miranda lost in court.

    Norma McCorvey (the Roe in Roe v. Wade) lost in court.

    Losing at the district court level does not end the battle, says nothing about the lawyer’s ethics, provides no insight into Truth or Justice. Instead:

    ‘This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.’

  23. Cheese whiz troll doesn’t see the forest for the trees. This is exactly and precisely the normal path for cases to wend their way to SCOTUS.

    We always knew this would be the way forward, and so did Trumps lawyers. Hell, almost everyone knew it.

    Only babbling comment thread trolls with room temp IQ’s don’t.

  25. A one term—impeached president who lost the popular vote twice and saw Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona and Nebraska district 2 flip to Biden/Harris.

    Record turnout saw over 5 million more people seek to get him out of office. A massive loser.

    And yet in the style of a demented despot he pretends he won and blames everyone and everything else on his defeat. Nearly 250k Americans and rising have died on his watch from COVID-19 and he denies that reality and shows zero empathy for them and the millions who have lost jobs, businesses, health care and loved ones.

    The longer he denies Biden won and he lost the more insane he, his remaining GOP enablers and his parasitic family look. Who could have thought he and they could look any more ridiculous. But they do.

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