Our ideas work, theirs don’t. Compare California to Texas. Which one is working, and why? Compare Reagan to any of those who came after him. He put this country back on track, with policies that worked. Bush 1 was Reagan’s third term, but without Reagan. Instead we got a kinder, gentler and pale imitation of the original. Which led immediately to Clinton, the phony conservatism of Bush 2, and Obama.
In politics you’re making a sale, and it matters what you’re selling. The dog food has to taste good, it’s got to do what you say it’s going to do. Clinton is running for Obama’s third term, but in the final days his record of incompetency is catching up with her. Obamacare is such a colossal wreck that it could cost her the election. If she does lose, don’t blame the FBI. These premium increases are coming at exactly the wrong time. They open up old wounds. Why didn’t Obama delay them, on some pretext, for two weeks? It could prove a fatal mistake.
Or not. Babbie and I watched the World Series, and the campaign ads were instructive. These were the best messages the two campaigns have. Clinton hit him as a sexist pig. Trump called her a liar and a thief. Both ads were effective, because they were both true. But there was flaw in Trump’s ad, perhaps caused by his Achilles heel, his vanity. The ad ended with a picture of him, and that was a mistake. The charges in his ad may have been true, but they were being made by a man who is personally loathed. That’s why he’s a two to one underdog today. No one is going to change their mind about how they feel about these two. That’s baked in. We know who they are. But that small businesswoman in Michigan, or Wisconsin, or Pennsylvania has to decide which poison to pick. If she holds Clinton responsible for her Obamacare problems, she may cover her eyes and vote for a man she despises. Or not. On such things this election will turn.
Congress looks to stay pretty much the same. No one even remarks about it anymore, but every two years we get a demonstration of the corruption of Congress. A few uninformed voters approve of Congress. Anyone with a brain knows they’re a collection of political whores who have created an incumbency protection racket. A 98% reelection rate, cycle after cycle. All they care about is their power and perks. Most of us that have been in politics have seen what service in Congress does to people. They start out with the best of intentions, and then they get sucked in to the system, the bubble. Life’s good in the bubble, and they hang on to it for dear life. Only an outside force — the States, using Article V — can burst that bubble.
I was thinking about yesterday’s post, and American blacks. I realized Obama is not one of them. His father was a Kenyan, not an American, and he dreams of his father. Real black Americans have an attachment to this country, even when some of them hate white people. They played an indispensable role in making it. When Washington marched south with the French, heading for Yorktown, and victory in the War of Independence, as many as 20% of the Americans under his command were free blacks. A lot of blacks serve in the military today, and wear their uniform proudly. They’re American patriots. Obama’s not like them at all. Deep in his bones he’s a Kenyan, not an American. Begone with him.
Project 2017, the plan to get 34 States this year, is in the advanced planning stages, and all goes well. The Presidential election has no bearing on our plans, except to the extent that a Democratic Senate would pose a problem. But I think we could even overcome that. Joe Manchin does want to get reelected after all, as do a number of other red State Democrats. To survive the 2018 midterms, the Senate Democrats can’t be too overtly partisan when it comes to aggregating Article V Resolutions.
We’re about to enter the dark season of the year. From now until the winter solstice, right before Christmas, every day will be shorter than the one before. And then the days of light start to come back.
reaganproject.com 