The Four Issues for 2024: The Economy, Law and Order, Freedom, and A Vision for Tomorrow: All Issues Republicans Are Failing On

Photo from Public Policy Institute of California.

Happy New Year Blog  Readers. 

It is an even year so that means there will be major national, statewide, and local races across the country. The major headline of course will be the probable 2020 Presidential rematch between Joe 'I Saved the Country' Biden and Donald 'I Killed Roe v Wade' Trump.

In the political mystery of the decade, some polls show the twice impeached, twice popular vote loser, twice David Duke endorsed, found liable for sexual assault, the person responsible for taking away a woman's reproductive freedom, and four-time indicted Liar in Chief and January 6 Domestic Insurrectionist Instigator, competitive and leading in some instances. 

Other polls show the MAGA party is more trusted to handle vital issues like the economy, crime, foreign policy, and the border.

One recent poll shows Mr. Trump leading among Latinos or Young voters.

These polls are living proof of why there should be more history and civic education in K-12 education and college in order to make better-informed citizens. 

It is mystifying that polls (no matter how far away from the election and how unreliable) give the Trumpists, Republicans, and MAGA fanatics such advantages considering their track record including:

• Which party was in power when 9/11 occurred?
• Which party was in power when this nation went into an ill-advised war and occupation in Iraq?
• Which party enacted debt-busting tax cuts for the rich in 2001, 2003, and 2017 that did not pay for themselves?
• Which party aggravated the situation on the Southern Border by not supporting a Comprehensive Immigration Reform Plan that some of their own leaders helped write?
• Which party approved Supreme Court Justices that have taken away a woman's reproductive freedom and health care options?
• Which party was guilty of publicly mishandling the spread of the Coronavirus Pandemic?
• Which party did not support combatting climate change, fighting rising global temperatures, and reducing the costs of prescription drugs?
• Which party is the one who has shown a repeated willingness to shut down the economy with a government shutdown and create chaos and financial friction? Look for a big confrontation in the first weeks of 2024.
• Which party is aiding Vladimir Putin by holding up aid to Ukraine?
• Which party has Presidential Candidates that say they will pardon the currently four-time indicted and found liable for sexual assault of former White House occupant? Remember how well that decision worked for President Gerald Ford in the 1976 elections. So much for being for Law and Order.

With that track record and the poor quality of Republican Presidential candidates, President Biden and Vice President Harris should be leading in the polls in all 50 states. 

This year, the election will be decided over four general issues: The economy, law and order (that includes public safety and border security,) freedom (that includes reproduction, civil rights, and protecting Democracy,) and a vision for tomorrow. 

On the four major issues that should decide this election, there is really no contest.

The Economy

Look at the economic performance of the country in 2023. Job Growth is steady including in the Green Collar sector of clean energy. The unemployment rate is under four percent. Inflation is down. Incomes for all socioeconomic groups are up with the working class getting the highest raise of all. 

https://twitter.com/SteveRattner/status/1742165781243134076

https://twitter.com/SteveRattner/status/1742165343387132322

Bideonomics: The Biden/Harris philosophy of building the economy from the Bottom Up and the Middle Out and the programs it has signed into law like the Infrastructure Law, CHIPS Act, American Rescue Plan, and Inflation Reduction Act seems to be contributing some positive results going into 2024. 

Law and Order?

Let us discuss the border surge in the South? Which party is holding up funding to beef up border security so it could formalize draconian MAGA immigration goals? Also, remember that it was the Republicans who have made this situation worse by not embracing Comprehensive Immigration Reform. 

The crime rate. Despite an unhealthy dose of misinformation, it is actually falling with homicides "plummeting."

Freedom. 

Look at what these Republicans are campaigning for? Limiting access to the ballot box. Taking away reproductive freedom and women's health care options. Restricting what you can read in school. Letting businesses decide whether they can discriminate against LGBTQ individuals and couples. Banning Muslims from entering the country (those people not thrilled with the Biden reaction to the war in Gaza should consider the alternative if they chose to sit out, support a third-party candidate, or actually vote for Trump.)

Not exactly a freedom agenda a major political party should be promoting in the Twenty-First Century. This is more an American Nazi Party Agenda which sadly the former Party of Lincoln, after decades of embracing Dixicrat positions, has become.

A Vision for Tomorrow. 

Which party is offering an agenda that promotes Democracy, an inclusive society where everyone is equal, social justice policies that protect civil liberties and lift people up, reproductive freedom, common sense law and order initiatives, comprehensive immigration reform, and investments in clean energy and the future industries of tomorrow?

Not the party whose lead Presidential contender says immigrants from the nonwhite parts of the world are poisoning the blood. 

On issue after issue that should decide this 2024 election, Republicans are failing miserably.

Voters need to recognize that and elect the public servants who will work to grow the economy, lift people up, promote la

On January 6 Anniversary, Biden to Deliver Address at Valley Forge on the Dangers Posed by Trump and MAGA Republicans to Democracy and Freedom

Photo from AP. 

With Biden/Harris Campaign Manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez saying that "we are running a campaign like the fate of Democracy depended on it," the leaders of the Biden/Harris Presidential Reelection Campaign held a press call yesterday (January 2, 2024) to outline some of the immediate steps President Joe Biden, Vice President KamalaHarris, and other members of the campaign would participate in over the next message to convey the message of how dangerous Donald 'I Killed Roe v Wade' and the other leading Republican Presidential contenders (Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis) from MAGA World are to American Democracy, Freedom, and the economic foundations the current administration has laid. 

The main headlines coming from the event were that the President and Vice President would make campaign stops across the country over the next week highlighting the threat MAGA Republicans pose to the nation and how the current administration has endeavored to protect freedom and build an economy that expands the middle class and lifts up the poor (Bidenomics.)

President Biden will headline a campaign stop this weekend on January 6 at Valley Forge (the site of the famous Revolutionary War Event that helped turned the tide for George Washington's army and the American colonists,) to lay out the stakes in this election which are:

• Preserving and Protecting Democracy is on the ballot. In discussing this stop, Biden/Harris Deputy Campaign Manager Quentin Fulks said in the press call that "Democracy and freedom remain central to the fight we are in today." Having this event on the anniversary of the Trump enabled Domestic Insurrectionists' attack at the Nation's Capitol three years ago serves as another reminder that, as all members of the Biden/Harris Campaign team said, Trump, if reelected to the Presidency would launch a dictatorial administration focused on "revenge and retribution." Campaign Communications Director Michael Tyler emphasized that "January 6 was an attack on Democracy that should not be forgotten."
• Ensuring freedoms and civil liberties like a woman maintaining her health care options, the right to vote unhindered, the ability to read what you want, going to school safely, and equality for everyone including the newly instituted ones afforded to members of the LGBTQ community is on the ballot. 
• Making sure the economic course plotted by the Biden/Harris Administration (Bideonomics) that focuses on expanding the middle class and lifting the poor is not replaced by the return of the discredited trickle-down supply-side tax cuts for the wealthy programs of the Republicans. 

On Monday, the President will travel to Mother Emanuel AME Church in South Carolina to both honor the nine victims of a White Supremacist mass gun shooting and to note what racially biased-white nationalist nation Mr. Trump and the other leading Causes of the Civil War ignorant Republican Presidential contenders (Haley and DeSantis) would encourage with their statements and policies. 

Vice President Harris will launch a protecting freedom tour in states like South Carolina and Wisconsin with an emphasis on women's reproductive freedom and health care rights. 

When asked if the Biden/Harris Campaign presumes that Trump will be the Republican nominee, Fulks reminded the journalists that the positions of the other leading Republican Presidential contenders (like on reproductive freedom, promoting book banning and historical illiteracy, and an economy geared to making the rich richer) were "just as dangerous and unpopular."

He also said that the Campaign is scaling up operations in all key battleground states and they would work tirelessly to "earn everyone's vote" in every community across the country. 

To watch the entire press call, please click below. 

Editorial Cartoons for the Week

 

Nikki Haley Also Represents All That is Wrong with the Republican Party

 Writing on the necessity for leaders to be well-versed in the study of history, Renaissance Philosopher Nicolo Machiavelli wrote in his work The Discourses that:

"Whoever considers the past and the present will readily observe that all cities and all peoples are and ever have been animated by the same desires and the same passions; so that it is easy, by diligent study of the past, to foresee what is likely to happen in the future in any republic, and to apply those remedies that were used by the ancients, or, not finding any that were employed by them, to devise new ones from the similarity of the events."

Nikki Haley was presented with the opportunity to show how knowledgeable she was in the study of history when asked about the causes of the American Civil War.

She failed. 

The former South Carolina Governor (whose state was the first to secede from the Union at the beginning of the Civil War) and Trump United Nations Ambassador who is increasingly seen by Anti-Trump Republicans as their rescue from the MAGA abyss, badly stumbled in her response. 

First, she defensively replied to the questioner by saying "Well, don't come with an easy question."

You kidding. 

Then her response did not mention slavery at all as a leading cause of the conflict. Please read it below. 

"I think the cause of the Civil War was basically how government was going to run. The freedoms and what people could and couldn't do. What do you think the cause of the Civil War was? I think it always comes down to the role of government and what the rights of the people are. I will always stand by the fact that I think government was intended to secure rights and freedoms of the people. It was never meant to be all things to all people. Government doesn't need to tell you how to live your life. They don't need to tell you what you can and can't do. They don't need to be a part of your life. They need to make sure that you have freedom. We need to have capitalism. We need to have economic freedom. We need to make sure we do all things that individuals have the liberty so they can have freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to do or be anything they want to be without government getting in the way."

The questioner then pointed out that in that her very wordy answer about the need to preserve individual freedoms did not mention the word "slavery."

To which, Haley's response was: 

"What do you want me to say about slavery?"

Are you kidding again?

When the questioner said "You've answered my question, thank you," Haley, instead of realizing she needed to fill in the historical blanks before the Democrats and their surrogates in reality journalism would have a field day, just went for the next question. 

Of course, the Biden/Harris Campaign, elated with the political softball Nikki Haley gave them, immediately took to social media, with the President posting:

https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1740221284284256645?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1740221284284256645%7Ctwgr%5E289e976817a30a139683b58f789973a806f6520b%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffpost.com%2Fentry%2Fjoe-biden-nikki-haley-civil-war-slavery_n_658d32b4e4b0cd3cf0e494c7

The political journal Politico reported that Haley's response to the question did her no favors with Republican moderates and people of color she would need to win a general election with one Black Republican consultant, Shermichael Singleton calling her campaign after the poor answer "toast"

There are two ways to look at Nikki Haley's response to the question on the causes of the Civil War. 

First, she is totally ignorant of history (very sad in this case since she is the Governor of the state that started the secession crisis that led to the Civil War) which makes her disqualified, per Signore Machiavelli, to serve in high office. 

Or

She was pandering to the increasingly white nationalist Trump-DeSantis Republican base whose support she needs on some level to eclipse Donald 'I Killed Roe v Wade' Trump in the primaries. In that case, she should be disqualified from office because she is catering to the fringe racist views of the minority of the country. 

Also, remember that if Nikki Haley ever found herself in the Oval Office, she would likely embrace her party's position on reproductive freedom, limiting access to the ballot box, and restrictions on LGBTQ Civil Rights. 

So much for government standing out of the way of individual freedoms. 

Like Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, despite her efforts to clean up her historically and politically tone-deaf response to the question (good luck with that: nah) represents all that is wrong with the Republican Party. 

Her answer on the cause of the American Civil War proves that. 

Voters need to remember this in 2024. 

Do you want this person influencing history education guidelines for your children? 

Probably not. 

The Republican Accountability Project has released a blistering ad featuring former Republican public servants who warn against the return of Donald 'I killed Roe V Wade' Trump to the White House and the dire results for the nation that would follow. 

Please watch below. 

While not as entertaining as the recent Larry Bodine article and the very funny Lincoln Project "Limburger" ad (see at the end of this article) calling out Donald Trump's odor, this new presentation, brought to this writer's attention by AZ Blue Meanie, from Republicans who care about our Democracy should be watched over and over. 

The ad, which starts off with the morning alarm going off at 6:00 a.m., features:

Former Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney stated: "A vote for Donald Trump may mean the last election you ever get to vote in."

Former Trump Defense Secretary Mike Esper proclaiming: "He's a threat to Democracy."

The narrator then reminds viewers that it was Donald 'I killed Roe v Wade' Trump who enabled the Domestic Terrorists who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

She also reminds the viewers that Trump, in his campaign appearances and social media posts, is not even hiding his desire to rule as a dictator, "terminate the Constitution," and replace civil servants with sycophantic loyalists, comparing his remarks and hopes to Mussolini, Chavez, Pinochet, and Orbin.

The narrator concludes by warning:

"Donald Trump's chances of winning are very real. The alarm is going off. Everyone needs to wake up. We have a choice between protecting our Democracy or letting Trump destroy it. It's time to get off the sidelines. We can't let Donald Trump get close to the Oval Office again."

Wiser words were never said.

 

Vote for Biden/Harris in 2024

Over the last year or so, I and the other writers on the Blog have written numerous pieces on how successful the Biden/Harris Administration has been for the American People. 

Especially compared to the tragic embarrassment and threat to Democracy and freedom that came before them in the form of the Trump/Pence Administration and their band of mostly incompetent white nationalist-fascist imitating lackeys. 

Since taking office in 2021, The President and Vice President have provided, most of the time, steady and competent leadership. 

This is exemplified by a stunning record of achievement that includes:

• Ably guiding the nation to the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Securing legislation like the Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act (which included a Prescription Drug Benefit) that will move the country forward, help combat climate change, transform sustainability, and lift people up.
• Steering the economy to a soft landing from rising inflation caused by a combination of high consumer demand and corporate greed.
• Appointing judges to the courts that will protect basic freedoms and Democracy. Voters should remember that the last guy appointed justices to the Supreme Court who overturned Roe v Wade and made it possible for local officials and courts like the State Supreme Court in Texas to tell women they are not at risk enough to terminate an unviable pregnancy. They also want to restrict access to the morning-after pill. 
• Fighting reactionaries that want to take away reproductive freedom, limit what children can read, and put obstacles in the way of exerting our right to vote.

As Blue Meanine pointed out in a recent correspondence, the Misery Index, the measure of the unemployment rate plus the inflation rate, is lower (7.8 % in May 2023) than the months Ronald Reagan (11.4 %,) Bill Clinton (8.7 %), George W. Bush (9.0 %,) and Barack Obama (9.5 %) all won reelection. Consumer Confidence was at its highest in December than in early 2021. 

Commenting on the reduction in the Inflation Rate, Biden/Harris Campaign Spokesperson Kevin Munoz posted:

“When President Biden took office, he inherited an economy from Donald Trump that was rigged for the ultra-rich and left in shambles. But thanks to President Biden’s leadership, the U.S. economy has consistently defied expectations, with millions of jobs created, inflation at its lowest level in more than two years, and costs coming down for the American people. The work is far from over, and the President and Vice President are committed to doing more to bring down costs, fight special interests, and create economic opportunity for Americans. If MAGA Republicans have their way next November, the American people can expect a devastating return to the same failed trickle-down policies that would raise costs, offshore American jobs, and provide tax giveaways for corporations and the ultra-rich. Leadership matters, and Americans will choose the leader who has had the back of the middle class time and time again.”

The Biden/Harris have also fully restored, after four years of record-pacing lying, flawed leadership in the COVID crisis, an attempt, through enabling the January 6, 2021 Domestic Terrorist attack at the Nation's Capital, to tear down the Constitution and the transition to power, and two impeachments, the honor of the Presidency. 

To those Biden naysayers across the country who think another candidate (including, inexplicably, the one who killed Roe v Wade and who threw the country into an economic and health crisis while he was trying to destroy the pillars of the Republic) could do better: WHAT THE HELL ELSE DO YOU WANT?

Has the Biden/Harris Administration been perfect?

No

But for God's sake, consider the overwhelmingly positive record of the current Administration compared to the last one. It is not even a close call. Voters, even those who feel prices may have risen too much last year, should not welcome a return of the chaos and threats to the American Ideal the previous Administration posed. 

Consider the fascist-Hitler laced-white nationalist-themed rhetoric still coming from Trump and even the other Republican Presidential candidates. Not exactly the 'Morning in America' and we love freedom and immigrants stuff you used to hear from the Reagan team.

This holiday season I am thankful Joe Biden and his 50 years of public service is President and Kamala Harris is Vice President. 

They deserve to be reelected in 2024.

An Alt-Right outcome next November would be truly mind-boggling, suicidal for the country, and the height of collective stupidity.

Do not repeat the mistakes of 1968, 2000, and 2016. Do not register unnecessary protest votes with third-party (one of whom may be Putin-backed) candidates. Do not stay home. 

Turn out in 2024 and vote for the team that has delivered for the American People. 

Vote Biden/Harris in 2024. 

Editorial Cartoons for the Week