A
brief note on Trump’s 2020 campaign kickoff in Orlando… I did not watch the event live. I have a limited tolerance for TrumpBluster
and the length of his speech far exceeded that limit. I have read several assessments of the event
and watched numerous clips. This morning
(the morning after), I was struck by the reactions of the talking heads from all of the recognized
media sites…Fox, CNN, MSNBC, NYT, WP, WE, WSJ, etc. Now I don’t know who is going to win the 2020
Presidential Election; I’m not even certain who will be opposing Trump. But the difference between me and these
talking heads is that I know I don’t know. These people are so wrapped up in their egos
and certitude that they have failed to learn anything whatsoever from the last Presidential Election. You know the one…the one where everyone (EVERYONE!) predicted a Hillary Clinton
landslide victory…even well into election night for some.
There
are two themes that stand out to me that best illustrate the arrogant cluelessness
of the media in this instance. First is
their dogged allegiance to polls. Burn
me once, shame on you. Burn me twice, shame
on me. ‘Nuff said. Secondly, I have repeatedly heard words out
of commentators’ mouths about how Trump must grow his base; how he must expand
his electorate to win re-election.
Excuse me, but didn’t Trump win
the last time around? I could be wrong
here, but I will venture to say that in order to defeat him this time around,
it is the Democrats who must expand
their vote totals. Like I said earlier,
I do not know who will be our President after the 2020 Election; but I am
certain of one thing: These political fools on television and in the media don’t know either.
Now
let us shift from Florida to California.
Out of all the news items that have been written over the last few years
about California, I have recently read two articles that really frame my
thinking on the situation in LaLaLand.
The first is a speech from California Governor Gavin Newsom. Here is an article about that speech https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/17/gavin-newsom-california-governor-republicans-1365909. Now here is an article that depicts the actual situation in California these
days https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/06/california-third-world-state-corruption-crime-infrastructure/. I don’t know how thick the tint is on Mr.
Newsom’s glasses, but it is likely sufficient to insulate a big house in a cold
climate.
For
my entire life of sixty-six years, I have heard that all the new trends begin in California and work
their way east. Based on most of my life
observations, there has always been a lot of truth in that philosophy. But that little nugget of wisdom lost some of
its sparkle when California decided to allow itself to be ruled by a single
political party. The total progressive Democratic
domination of state politics has changed the nature of California and placed
its trend-setting prominence in jeopardy.
The trends it has been setting lately are not likely to be looked upon
with envy.
As
Victor Davis Hanson chronicles in his article, California has set itself upon a
path that squanders away all of its natural endowments and lays to waste the
promise of all things being possible. In
today’s California, those with realistic expectations of an earned future with
accomplishment and accountability are leaving the state for new homes
elsewhere. Just as single party rule has
corrupted the civic leadership of California and turned its promise of tomorrow into a curse of the present, so would single
party rule in WDC wreak havoc on our nation’s future. Left to their own devices and a free hand to
do as they will, radical Conservatives or
radical Liberals alike will silence their critics, turn a deaf ear to those
with differing opinions, and sink into the ignorant realm of certitude.
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@centerlineright.
Perhaps
California is sending a signal once again to the east; but this time, it is not
a preview of what is come. It is not a
new trend in beachwear, a new wave of popular music, or the newest marvel of
modern technology. This time it is a warning of what can develop when
government becomes politically monolithic.
A much larger concern than the stark indictment of socialist policies
gone wild is the environment that led to that west coast malignancy. The fact is that when one party can rule a
state without serious challenge to its ideals and policies, it will become enthralled
with the sound of its own voice. It will
take its political agenda to extremes that defy logic and reason. It will lose sight of its own infallibility and limited
vision. It will serve only those who
blindly adhere to its dogmatic directives and push others towards irrelevance
and obsolescence.
The
decay of the Golden State is a harbinger that goes far beyond an indictment of
overly-zealous liberal politicians. If
our government in WDC cannot find its way out of the political gridlock and death-match
mindset that has seized it, is it so far-fetched to conceive of a future where
the only national government that can function in our culture is one that
literally dominates its opponents into oblivion? With discussions of packing the SCOTUS and
loading up the federal judiciary with ideologues, is it really so hard to
imagine a society whose leaders see that the end will always justify the means? To
what extent were federal agencies
weaponized under the Obama Administration?
Will our government continue to expand private sector operations under
FISA? Will Congress continue to cede its
legislative power and responsibilities to the Executive Branch? If we continue to diminish the rights of the
minority Party in our political system and fail to return to some reasonable
level of civility in our legislative discourse, are we not headed headlong into
the coronation of an American King, rather than the inauguration of an American
President? There desperately needs to be
a restoration of bipartisanship in our government; one that preserves the
necessary and principled convictions of each Party while willingly bending to
the critical need for compromise and statesmanship.
California
took many years to get to where it is today.
And as it appears to be approaching its Zero Hour; the speed and
consequence of its political misadventures seem to be increasing in speed and
chaotic effect. The law of unintended
consequences has unleashed forces and trends in California that none of its
vain-glorious leaders of recent years anticipated. And now that these issues are churning and
boiling in a volcanic upheaval of culture, those same leaders are either in
denial about what is happening or ignorantly clueless about the impacts of their
disastrous decisions. When a situation
turns suddenly south to this degree, it is difficult
to find solutions. It is literally impossible to find the perpetrators of
these idiotic policies.
Politicians
can effectively disclaim responsibility when terrible consequences arise in a spontaneous
fashion. They naively condemn the calamities
they created and scurry about with idealistic solutions to cure the very ills
they created. The fact is that
politicians control the environment that organically creates these issues and that is what must be laid at their feet. A perfect example of this is the border
issues arising from the detainment of illegal aliens crossing our southern
border. The real issue is border
security; not the detainment specifics and the humanitarian crisis that arises from
it. Our government, just as we have seen in California, has developed a habit of
obsessively debating the symptoms of
a problem and completely ignoring the cause
of the problem. They set the building on
fire and then run around shouting about how to put the fire out. California (the state) can look to its mother country for support and
direction. WDC (the nation) will be there to pick it up if and when it falls. The larger question is this: If this same scenario plays out in WDC, who will be there to pick up America?
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