Humpty Dumpty, sitting on his wall
Donald Trump‘s government shutdown and border wall fiasco brings to mind the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme:
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.
Last night, a defeated-looking Trump broke himself on his Wall, giving an Oval Office speech that was flat, uninspired and read off of a script. Trumped also sniffed repeatedly, as he did during his presidential debates against Hillary Clinton in 2016. Trump even reportedly told television anchors before the address that the speech, seeking taxpayer funding for his border wall purportedly because of a U.S./Mexico border “crisis,” was going to be “pointless,” and something his advisors had pushed him to do against his will.
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Leave a comment! Tags: border security, border wall, Chuck Schumer, Democrats, Donald Trump, Humpty Dumpty, immigration, Mexico, Nancy Pelosi, Repubicans, Statue of Liberty
Sign indicating Washington, D.C. national park land and monuments closed due to Trump Shutdown
When you have the facts on your side, and you communicate them in an effective and dynamic way, it’s good policy and good politics. That is the situation the Democrats are in regarding the current U.S. government shutdown. Democrats have correctly labeled it the “Trump Shutdown.”
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Leave a comment! Tags: 2016 election, border wall, Chuck Schumer, Congress, Democrats, Donald Trump, government shutdown, immigration, Mexico, Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi, Republicans, Trump Shutdown
1938 political cartoon attacking Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Ever since NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” went on the air in 1975, it has made fun of the president of the United States. From Gerald Ford‘s absentmindedness to Bill Clinton’s philandering to Barack Obama‘s ultra-calm politeness, presidents have had to contend with their satirical SNL portrayals. Usually, presidents have laughed along with such send-ups, knowing that not only is this the price they pay to lead a free society, but also that, for politicians, a little self-deprecating humor can go a long way.
Now comes Donald Trump, however, who has no self-deprecating humor and, according to many people, no self-awareness. Trump also has the thinnest skin of any president (or just about anyone) in our lifetimes. After last Saturday night’s portrayal of Trump on SNL, instead of laughing along, Trump took to his favorite mode of communication, Twitter, and challenged the legality of SNL:
We can only say, good luck with that.
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Leave a comment! Tags: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Constitution, Donald Trump, First Amendment, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, Gerald Ford, Hustler Magazine, Jerry Falwell, NBC, Saturday Night Live, SNL, Supreme Court, Twitter
Trump/Russia, one area where Republicans are on the defensive
Republicans know the importance of going on offense. For years, we’ve heard Republicans, from Donald Trump to Fox News talking heads to your right wing Uncle Charlie at the dinner table, begin conversations by asking loaded political attack questions against the Democrats. The topics of these questions range from immigration (“what about that caravan that’s coming to invade us?”) to the Obamas (“a terrorist fist jab?”) to the Republicans’ favorite target, Hillary Clinton (“did she use a private email server to cover up Benghazi?”) and more. As the Republicans know, when you hit your opponent with these attack questions, you frame the issue and put them on the defensive to explain why they, their party or their politicians aren’t so bad. At that point, as Willard Mitt Romney and others have stated, “if you’re explaining, you’re losing.”
But now the tables have turned. Trump/Russia and other criminal investigations are closing around Donald Trump and his family, leading to lots of deflection, excuses and explanations by Trump and the Republicans. Donald Trump’s own Twitter feed is an excellent gauge of his worry level, and right now, Trump is doing lots of desperate explaining. This is a great time for Democrats to go on offense, and ask their Republican friends the questions that will put Republicans on defense for a change. Here are some questions that you can use as conversation starters with the Republicans in your life:
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Leave a comment! Tags: caravan, Democrats, Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Fox News, Ivanka Trump, Melania Trump, Nancy Pelosi, NRA, Pizzagate, Republicans, Trump recession, Trump/Russia, Twitter
Former President George H.W. Bush
Former President George H.W. Bush, who died last Friday night at the age of 94, was a Republican through and through. Accordingly, Democrats would rightfully take issue with almost all of Bush’s presidential actions and policies. Yet, virtually all leading Democrats, including Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barack and Michelle Obama, Jimmy Carter, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Adam Schiff and others, have released messages of sincere and glowing praise for Bush. What’s going on?
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Leave a comment! Tags: Americans with Disabilities Act, Caspar Weinberger, climate change, Democrats, Donald Trump, Fox News, George H.W. Bush, Iran Contra, National Rifle Association, NRA, racism, Repubicans, Russia, Supreme Court, Willie Horton
Peaceful looking Thanksgiving dinner
Each Thanksgiving, we see tips for Democrats on how to react to conservative Uncle Charlie when he starts raising his Republican Fox News talking points at the holiday meal. However, most such tips are reactive, and assume that our conservative relatives get to set the table first by initiating the conversation based on their talking points. We know that it’s tougher to prevail in political discussions that are framed by your opponent. Instead, how about going on offense and bringing up your points first, thereby tilting the field of debate in your favor? Here are some possible points to bring up at the Thanksgiving dinner table tomorrow:
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Leave a comment! Tags: Barack Obama, Blue Wave, Democrats, Donald Trump, Fox News, House of Representatives, Jamal Khashoggi, Republicans, Robert Mueller, Russia, Saudi Arabia, stock market, Thanksgiving, Vladimir Putin, Yemen
Google page telling people to “Go Vote” on Election Day
If the Devil had shown up Tuesday morning and had said to Democrats, “I’ll give you control of the House of Representatives, but my price is the loss of a few more seats in the Senate where you’re already in the minority,” that would have been a good deal all day long. That result is just what happened in the 2018 midterm elections. While all the votes have not yet been processed, we know that Democrats have taken control of the House of Representatives, and that Republicans have kept their slender majority in the Senate, possibly improving on it by several seats. The flipping of the House to the Democrats, however, represents tremendous change, while Republicans keeping their Senate majority, even possibly winning a few more seats, does not. Moreover, at the state level, the Democrats won numerous victories which could change the political landscape further. Additionally, many of the victors this year were women and people of color (often both), the vast majority of them Democrats. Finally, younger voters came out in much bigger numbers this year.
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Leave a comment! Tags: 2018 midterm elections, Colorado, Congress, Dana Rohrabacher, Democrats, Donald Trump, Florida, Foxconn, Georgia, Kris Kobach, Republicans, Scott Walker, Watergate
Election Day is this Tuesday, November 6
In this year’s midterm elections, there is a life-and-death issue on the ballot. No, it’s not the “caravan,” despite what Republicans and some in the media might have you believe. The life-and-death issue that we’re voting on this Tuesday (or before, if you have early voting) is healthcare.
In particular, the Affordable Care Act and its preexisting conditions coverage is on the line. There’s a lot of confusion about the ACA and preexisting conditions, but the reality is pretty simple: the 2010 ACA, based on the conservative Heritage Foundation plan and implemented first by Republican Governor Willard Mitt Romney in Massachusetts, is essentially a grand trade-off: Americans got a number of healthcare protections, including coverage of preexisting conditions at non-discriminatory prices, coverage of a comprehensive list of “essential health benefits” (meaning no more junk plans that were cheap but didn’t cover anything), removal of lifetime coverage caps, free annual preventive exams and the ability of young people to remain on their parents’ plans until age 26. In return, since all these protections cost the insurance companies a lot more, the companies got a guarantee of millions more customers, many of them younger people with few or no healthcare claims, via mandatory enrollment. It’s a delicate balance, and those protections can’t be provided under the current system without those extra paying customers.
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“Stand on Every Corner” protest, St. Paul, MN
This year, several prominent Republicans have either left the Republican Party altogether, or at least have called for fellow Republicans to vote for Democratic candidates in this year’s midterm elections. In June, conservative columnist George Will called for Republicans to vote Democratic this November, primarily to punish Congressional Republicans for not exercising their constitutional powers to stand up to Donald Trump. At about the same time, longtime Republican strategist Steve Schmidt announced that he was leaving the GOP, citing the Trump administration’s cruel family separation policy. Schmidt was followed earlier this month by former U.S. Congressman David Jolly of Florida, who announced that he and his wife have left the GOP. And Republican pundit William Kristol heavily criticizes Donald Trump and seems to be implicitly cheerleading the Democrats in the upcoming elections, with tweets such as:
There are more examples of Republican defections to varying degrees. So the question is, can and should Democrats realistically call upon Republicans to vote for Democratic candidates, at least for their U.S. House Representative, in the midterm elections?
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Leave a comment! Tags: 2018 Elections, 2018 midterm elections, Congress, Constitution, David Jolly, Donald Trump, First Amendment, George Will, GOP, government, protest, Republican Party, Republicans, Steve Schmidt, William Kristol
President Harry Truman at NAS Key West, FL, 1950
Right now, folks inside the White House are high-fiving each other, cracking open beers to celebrate Donald Trump‘s “win” in confirming Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. However, there’s probably at least one staffer running around, warning that the Kavanaugh confirmation process has galvanized Democratic voters for the upcoming midterm elections which are less than 30 days away. This comes on top of voter enthusiasm levels that already favor Democrats this year. In particular, Democrats have a very good chance of winning back majority control in the U.S. House of Representatives. (The Democrats’ Senate forecast is not as good, largely because this year, many more Democratic than Republican Senate incumbents are up for re-election.)
Thus, some White House advisors likely are telling Trump that, to prepare for a possible Democratic House beginning in January, Trump will have to act like Harry Truman. You may recall that Democratic President Harry S. Truman won re-election in 1948 largely by running against the Republican majority “Do-Nothing Congress.” In Trump’s case, that’s likely to be one-half of a Congress. Therefore, we can call the likely Trump strategy “Half a Harry.” Here’s why that strategy probably won’t work for Donald Trump:
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Leave a comment! Tags: 2018 midterm elections, Brett Kavanaugh, Congress, Democrats, Donald Trump, Franklin Roosevelt, Great Depression, Harry Truman, House of Representatives, Republicans, Senate, U.S. Supreme Court, White House, World War II
