Election Day 2021 has come and gone; with the exception of a few tight races and some recounts. It is dangerous business to extrapolate future political outcomes from current day elections, especially when our political world is experiencing such upheaval and the 2022 mid-terms are a year away. All that being said, there might be a message or two lying within yesterday’s results. I would like to take a stab at discussing a message I get from this past Election Day. What I am seeing and hearing from America’s voters…my neighbors and friends and family…is a yearning for moderation and civility. I have often referenced the old saying “you can compromise on practice, but never on principle”; I will do so once again.
Donald Trump did not represent to me as a radical or extreme conservative. While I did find his policy positions and actions refreshingly conservative, the fact is that Donald Trump was recently a Democrat and had lived a public life that spoke as much to liberal thinking as it did to conservative thought. But when you combine his radical or extreme status as a political outsider in the presidential arena with his overtly conservative performance as Chief Executive, it is fair to say that he represented an agenda that would sit comfortably on the outer-half of the right side of the liberal/conservative spectrum. He effectively took the Republican Party there with him.
Contrary to how he campaigned for the presidency, there can be little doubt that Joe Biden and the Democratic Party he leads is today the most liberal in thought and deed that I have seen in my lifetime. Regardless of how far they get with their Green New Deal, one has to believe that Bernie Sanders rejoices in the directions taken by the Biden Administration and their policy agenda. I must believe that few people thought by this point in his first term, the policy initiatives of the Biden Administration would be as radically-left as they have become. Many thought that Obama was liberal to the max; but Biden has taken the Democrats to places that Obama only dreamed of.
If we can accept the premise of the preceding two paragraphs as anywhere near accurate, then within the last five years we have seen the real impact of a very conservative government compared to the impact of a very liberal government. If nothing else, it has presented the American voter with a clear contrast in style and philosophy. Whether it was the Man or the Message, the Republicans and Trump were rejected in November of 2020. The same can be said for the significant political defeat experienced by the Democrats and their liberal agenda in yesterday’s elections. Voters are looking for reason, moderation, and common sense. When one Party or the other swings too far to the extreme positions of their radical elements; the public will react and swing them back. The back and forth motion of the political pendulum is undeniable.
This is the message that I get from yesterday’s election results. Just as Donald Trump went over the top in his self-admiration and boasting, the Democratic Party has over-reached in their quest to transform our nation into a liberal nirvana. What has preserved the two-party system in our political universe for so long is the fact that there are elements in either Party that a majority of Americans find appealing. Those elements certainly get muddled and distorted by the messengers and messaging that surrounds them, but the citizenry will at some point cut through the noise and realize what is going on.
I believe I see this same phenomenon playing out in the nexus between the subject of abortion and the recently enacted Texas abortion law. I firmly believe that a large majority of Americans believe that abortion is the taking of an innocent life and should be restricted in practice. I just as strongly believe that short of mid-to-late term abortions, a large majority of Americans believe that the personal choices associated with early-to-mid term abortions are very private in nature and fall into the category of individual liberty and accountability. Just as the Democrats came into office in January of 2020 and went over the top in their quest of a liberal agenda, the conservatives in Texas government were overly zealous in crafting their anti-abortion legislation. In the views of many reasonable and well-meaning people, six weeks is simply insufficient time to grapple with the emotional question of an abortion and a more generous time-frame should be permitted.
The Supreme Court of the United States will soon speak to the broader issue of abortion; but not before they speak to the more narrow issue of the Texas abortion law. The American voter will later pass judgment on the liberal adventures of the Democratic Party in the upcoming mid-term elections. How that judgment plays out has a lot to do with the alternative that the Republican Party presents to them. Will the Republicans swing too far back to the right and present a Trump-led revolt that careens blindly towards extreme conservatism or will they find a more moderate approach that strikes a reason and balance yearned for by the national conscience?
The message that I got from yesterday’s voting was that soon-to-be Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin found that moderate balance and the people of Virginia, both Democrats and Republicans, embraced it. Both national parties would be well-advised to find future leaders that will follow his example.
Pass
the Word!! …. Just Google centerlineright
Now let us turn to a short discussion of what is happening in our nation………….
Good voting laws should not be that difficult. Reasonable opportunity and access to vote, one vote per person, voter ID to ensure voter integrity, transparency to insure system integrity…these are the principles that should be highlighted in any State’s voting laws. We are not there yet, but I have to believe we are moving in that direction. One thing is for certain…we have to find out what is wrong with our voting laws before we can make them right.
Revisiting a prior remark in this piece and past posts regarding Obama’s influence on our current Administration, there certainly appears to be a good argument that if his disciples are not literally running the presidential show…Obama’s philosophy is certainly predominant in the White House these days: https://amgreatness.com/2021/10/28/this-is-obamas-third-term/
Here are some examples of what that philosophy is and how it manifests itself in our everyday lives:
And where is that philosophy leading us? https://amgreatness.com/2021/10/26/america-gone-mad/
The dynamic between the Biden Administration’s economic agenda and the function of our nation’s supply chain is being vividly illustrated to the American people in a very impactful fashion. “Clueless” is a wholly inadequate description of the current Administration’s approach to this situation. Good luck with the Christmas shopping…..
But have no fear… “Circle Back” Psaki is on the job and has it all figured out (satire alert!): https://babylonbee.com/news/psaki-points-out-that-inflation-doesnt-matter-since-there-are-no-goods-to-purchase-anyway
As if to emphasize the absolute strangeness of the year 2021, I picked nearly 2/3 bushel of lima beans out of my garden this afternoon. Now that is a garden in middle of Kentucky on November 2...strange days indeed.
Let’s close out this round with some good music. How about the Floyd boys in Knebworth, England: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yTXifXaimk
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