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| President Trump addressing CPAC last week |
I say this with mixed emotions. On the one hand, nothing
would give me greater pleasure than restoring dignity to the Oval Office. The kind that
was quickly abandoned when the President took office.
There is no way that a man that behaves and speaks the way
the President does should be the ‘face’ of the American people. The constant
lies; the immoral behavior - and attempts to cover it up - denying ever doing it,
until proven that he did; broad attacks against the media; the personal attacks against his political opponents and members of the media; the
name calling; the soft bigotry against minorities… and myriad other aspects of
this President’s behavior and lack of character that make America a laughing stock to the rest of the
world instead of being seen as ‘great
again’ - as in the President’s motto: Make America Great Again (MAGA).
On the plus side is the fact that if one is a conservative leaning voter, Trump’s
policies have been very positive. Especially as it pertains to Israel.
One may
question that support by saying Israel is no better off now that it was when
the President took office. But I don’t think there can be any doubt about the
Presdient’s affection for the Jewish people and his commitment to Israel. Moving the US embassy to Jerusalem may have had no real practical significance. But what it does show is a level of commitment to keeping his campaign promises - especially to the Jewish community - that surpasses previous Presidents who made promise during their campaigns and did not keep them once they were elected.
There are more examples of his pro Jewish and pro Israel support:
Like his appointment of Nikky Haley,one of the most pro Israel UN ambassadors in history.
Like his State of the Union address which showed an unusual focus on the Jewish people.
Like the fact that his daughter, son in law and his grandchildren are actually Jewish.
Like the fact that David Friedman and Jason Greenblatt - two of his choices for important positions are Orthodox Jews.
And like the fact that he commuted Rubashkin’s 27 year sentence to 8 years - the time
served. (Regardless about how one feels about Rubahskin, there was near the universal
consensus that the prison sentence he originally got was too harsh). This is something no
other President did. He had nothing to gain politically for doing that that
since very few people cared about - or even heard about Rubashkin other than Orthodox Jews. Who comprise
an insignificant percentage of America voters (i.e. 10% of the under 2% of
Americans that are Jewish.)
All the so-called evidence
brought by Trump’s political enemies that he has some sort of residual antisemitism –
pales in comparison to all of that.
That pretty much explains why I am conflicted. This is
nothing new. I have expressed these feelings before. What is new is that in contradistinction to all of this is the fact that Democratic party has been taken over by socialists.
Now there are some that might scoff at that and say that the
number of socialists in the party are minuscule compared to the vast majority
that are traditionally centrist. But I would argue that traditional centrist Democrats are represented by Nancy Pelosi
who is 78 years old. Most Democratic members of congress are in that age range.
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| Ocasio-Cortez and Omar |
The young guard is represented by freshman congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
(AOC). She is is getting unprecedented media attention. Most of which has been positive. That has catapulted her to near celebrity status. And helped get her a huge number of followers on social media. She proudly identifies as a socialist along the lines
of Bernie Sanders. He was first elected to the Senate as an Independent because
his socialist views were out of touch with the Democratic party. But now his socialist ideals have been embraced by nearly all the announced Democrats running for President.
AOC is therefore not a one-off. This is the direction the party is going. With the exception of Amy Klobuchar all of the other Democratic candidates are
tripping all over themselves to show just how far left they are. And the
media has no problem treating them like they were mainstream.
The Democratic party now seems to tolerate for antisemitism under the guise of free speech. And yet if there is even the slightest bit of bigotry against any
other minority – all hell breaks loose. (As it should).
As if to underscore this new sad fact - Democrats in the House couldn’t even come out with a
clear condemnation of Ilan Omar or her antisemtoc comments. Her repeated antisemitic comments exposes her true feeling that Jewish money controls the government.
All House Democrats could come up in response to Omar was a watered down general statement against all
bigotry. Which Omar voted for! (Who wouldn’t?) Speaker Pelosi has said that Omar is not an antisemite. In my view,
she is either fooling herself or trying to appease AOC and the rest of her
younger guard. AOC defended Omar. It apparently did not occur to AOC that Omar’s repeated use of antisemitic tropes cannot
be attributed to her feigned ignorance anymore. Either that or AOC doesn’t care.
And then here is the Mueller investrigation. There may
have been justification for his committee to thoroughly investigate whether candidate
Trump and/or members of his campaign colluded with the Russians to sway the election. And to investigate whether Trump obstructed justice by firing former FBI
director James Comey.
But the Democrats have shown what their real agenda is now that they have control of the House. They have chosen to investigate every aspect of the
President's life – both past and present. This is obviously not about collusion or obstruction anymore. It's about getting rid of Trump any way they can. Or at least trying to assure his defeat in 2020.
OK. If they consider that fair, I suggest that it would be equally fair to subject themselves to the same kind of thorough investigation into every aspect of their own lives. Both past and present!
The media has its own share of complicity in this. They have done just about everything they can to discredit the President and paint his supporters as racist; or bigots; or country bumpkins with little
to no education. All while pretending to be objective. Here are 2 blatant examples of that:
In one case a group of high school teenagers that came go Washingtion to support pro
choice legislation were seen taunting a Native American Army veteran. The media couldn't help pointing out that they were all wearing MAGA caps. As if to say that the only kind of people that would taunt a Native American veteran are Trump supporters. And the truth is that those students were not taunting that Native American veteran at all! But an all too eager media was quick to portray it that way.
The other event was the media’s all too eager willingness to believe actor Jussie Smollett when he reported being viciously attacked by 2 white supremacists wearing
MAGA caps. That has now proven to be a hoax perpetrated by Smollett himself. He supposedly did it for attention and decided to ‘kill 2 birds with one stone’ (i.e.his desire for media attention and his desire to smear Trump supporters) by describing his assailants as racist Trump supporters
I think Democratic politicians and pundits are fooling themselves if they think
America voters don’t see right through all of this. Most Americans that vote Democratic are centrists. Not socialists. And they are not antisemitic. Currently they see a party that appears to be becoming both.
People tend to vote their pocketbooks first. With the economy
humming along and unemployment at record lows, that will in many cases what they will vote for. While I think most Americans would prefer someone other than Trump,
I don’t believe they will choose a socialist for President. Democrats may not vote at all if their nominee is a socialist.
But even if they do elections are won by swing voters. Assuming that Trump’s
base remains solid (and there is every indication that it will) I tend to
doubt that the swing voters will vote for socialism. Most of them probably will not vote
at all.
And then there is Starbuck’s CEO, billionaire Howard Schultz, who said he will soon announce his candidacy as an Independent. He will surely siphon votes away from the Democratic candidate. (I know he said he won’t run if he sees that as an outcome. We’ll see.)
It may be counter intuitive to see Trump re-elected after the way
he has behaved in office. But It was just as counter intuitive to believe he
would win the Republican nomination for President in 2016, much less the
general election.
So unless things change radically, I believe Trump will see
4 more years in office after his current term.
