How the media would like to portray the election
If the 2020 presidential election were held today, based on current polls, Joe Biden would beat Donald Trump in a landslide. In particular, Biden is ahead of Trump in crucial “battleground” states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Florida, and is even with (and in some polls ahead of) Trump in states like Arizona, Georgia and the big prize, Texas, all of which Trump won in 2016.
But our mainstream media will not let Joe Biden run away with the election if they can help it. The media want a “horse race,” and you can bet that, with barely over 90 days to go until the election, you will soon be hearing about how “the race is tightening.” Here are some ways that can happen:
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Leave a comment! Tags: 2016 election, 2020 Election, bankruptcies, Coronavirus, COVID, COVID-19, Democrats, Donald Trump, Federal Reserve, Hillary Clinton, James Comey, Joe Biden, media, Mitch McConnell, October Surpirse, Presidential debates, Republicans, stock market, U.S. House, U.S. Senate
Former Vice President Joe Biden
Just before Iowa’s first in the nation Democratic presidential caucus next Tuesday, Joe Biden‘s campaign has released its latest Iowa-targeted ad. Entitled “Imagine,” the ad has Biden himself on camera, asking viewers to “imagine all the progress we can make in the next four years,” including affordable healthcare, renewable energy to tackle climate change, and banning assault weapons to reduce gun violence in our schools. At the end of the ad comes the kicker from Biden:
But first, we need to beat Donald Trump. Then there will be no limit to what we can do.
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Leave a comment! Tags: Affordable Care Act, assault weapons, Bernie Sanders, climate change, Democrats, Donald Trump, Elizabeth Warren, guns, healthcare, Iowa, Joe Biden, Medicare for all, Mitch McConnell, renewable energy
Impeachment message in timely Christmas colors
By now, many people realize that the impeachment of Donald Trump involves a public relations war. On one side, we have Trump and the Republicans claiming that the Democrats are “obsessed with impeaching” Trump, to the exclusion of all else. So what have the Democrats done effectively to counter that charge? Quite a bit, as it turns out.
First, House Democrats unveiled their Articles of Impeachment against Trump while simultaneously announcing that they had reached an agreement with Trump on the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) on trade. This is a reminder by Democrats (and they are sure to remind us further) that, not only can they govern and impeach Trump at the same time, they have passed nearly 400 bills, all of which are sitting idly on Mitch McConnell‘s U.S. Senate desk.
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Leave a comment! Tags: 2020 Elections, Canada, Congress, Democrats, Donald Trump, impeachment, Mexico, Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi, Republicans, Russia, trade agreement, U.S. House, U.S. Senate, Ukraine, USMCA
Thanksgiving dinner table, before the political food fight
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has released a humorous, menu-style set of talking points for Democrats to respond to that Republican blowhard who seems to spout off at everyone’s Thanksgiving dinner. The talking points, which can be found in this .pdf, are entitled “Know Your Stuffing.” Each subject has a cute Thanksgiving dinner theme, complete with food graphics, and is designed as a response to a Republican rant, since they always seem to be the ones who bring up these political subjects at the holiday table. For example, there is “Aunt Mary’s ‘There Was No Quid-Pie-Quo,'” described as “a crust so flaky, it falls apart the moment you present it with evidence.” Responses to this talking point are listed under “What to Bring,” and include:
- Multiple members of the Trump administration have testified before Congress there was a quid pro quo agreement with Ukraine.
- Trump himself—in a memo he released—admitted he withheld aid from Ukraine until they dug up dirt on his political opponents.
Both of these responses even include footnotes to reputable sources for this information.
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Mitch McConnell, whose feelings are now hurt
It’s fair to say that Republicans are much better at going on offense against Democrats than vice-versa. Therefore, it’s quite refreshing to see Democrats turning the tables on Republicans for once. This time, it’s Republican U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who has fallen prey to Democratic tarring and feathering efforts. By most accounts, these efforts are working, and McConnell’s feelings are hurt.
The Democratic efforts to frame McConnell as unpatriotic, and even a tool of a foreign power, stem from McConnell’s refusal to act on bills introduced in the Senate to protect the U.S. election system from further Russian interference. Recall that Russia’s interference in the 2016 elections is undisputed by the U.S. intelligence community, as well as by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle with access to the relevant information. Just a few days ago, Special Counsel Robert Mueller, specifically tasked with investigating such Russian wrongdoing, confirmed again that Russia interfered in our 2016 elections and “they’re doing it as we sit here.” As a result, lawmakers have introduced bills to protect our elections and voting system against the type of cyber warfare and hacking that Russia committed against America. But McConnell keeps blocking the bills.
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Leave a comment! Tags: 2016 Elections, Amy McGrath, Chuck Schumer, Congress, Dana Milbank, Democrats, Joe Scarborough, Mitch McConnell, MSNBC, Republicans, Russia, Senate, Twitter, Washington Post
Everyone is in a tizzy this week because Donald Trump wrote racist tweets. The story is all over every type of media, from TV news to Twitter to Facebook to news media websites, and more. However, this has to be one of the biggest non-news events of the year. Trump already has a well-known history of public racism dating back at least to the 1970s with housing discrimination, continuing through the 1980s and beyond with the Central Park Five case, and which was on full display in Trump’s 2015 presidential campaign announcement speech, where he came out of the gate attacking immigrants from Mexico and Central America.
If you’re still wondering why Trump deliberately creates distractions with shiny objects regarding immigration and race, here are a few things that Trump has been distracting us from while the whole country obsesses over his racist tweets:
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Leave a comment! Tags: abortion, ACLU, Alex Acosta, asylum, Central Park Five, culture war, Democrats, Donald Trump, Facebook, immigration, Jeffrey Epstein, Mexico, Mitch McConnell, news, Planned Parenthood, racism, Republicans, Statue of Liberty, Twitter
Protest against Trump administration family separation policy
Sometimes, the difference between Democrats and Republicans can be distilled to one word. Right now, that word in “inclusivity.” Donald Trump set the tone for this war over inclusivity when he announced his candidacy for president four years ago. In that hate-filled announcement speech, Trump attacked immigrants who come to the U.S. across the Mexican border, saying, “They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.” Since then, Trump instituted an anti-Muslim ban on foreign nationals entering the United States; instituted the inhumane family separation policy; hyped up false fears about a migrant “caravan” before the 2018 midterm elections; and even continues to try to build a Medieval-style wall on our southern border. This past Monday, Trump threatened to deport “millions” of undocumented immigrants beginning as soon as next week.
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Leave a comment! Tags: 2016 Elections, 2020 Democratic primaries, 2020 Elections, border, border wall, Demmocratic Party Platform, Democrats, Donald Trump, House of Representatives, immigration, Julián Castro, LBGTQ, Mexico, Mike Pence, Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi, Pete Buttigieg, Republicans, War On Women
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Much hay was made this week from Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s answer to a Washington Post interviewer’s question about impeaching Donald Trump. Here’s the question and Pelosi’s response:
There have been increasing calls, including from some of your members, for impeachment of the president.
I’m not for impeachment. This is news. I’m going to give you some news right now because I haven’t said this to any press person before. But since you asked, and I’ve been thinking about this: Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path, because it divides the country. And he’s just not worth it.
Many Democrats took to blogs and social media to express their disappointment with Speaker Pelosi’s answer. For example, here’s author and MSNBC contributor Malcolm Nance:
However, what this episode really shows is that the Democratic Party’s base (including a few House members) and its leadership have different considerations that allow them differing degrees of freedom in what they can say publicly at this time.
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Leave a comment! Tags: Bill Clinton, Congress, Democrats, Donald Trump, impeachment, Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi, Richard Nixon, Robert Mueller, Russia, Starr Report, U.S. House, U.S. Senate
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
National Park closures during 2013 government shutdown
Today, Senate Democrats and Republicans agreed to end the federal government shutdown (known as the “Trump Shutdown”) and keep government running until February 8, by which time Congress hopes to vote on a new long-term spending bill. In return for their agreement, Democrats got a six-year extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) that Congressional Republicans had let expire last September. Furthermore, the agreement includes a promise by Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to hold a vote on codifying the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, which Donald Trump ended last September. The agreement can be seen as a net win for Democrats, and they should portray it as such.
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