Learning Republicanese

Posted on December 12, 2020 by Dave Bradley

Rita Hart

There we are enjoying breakfast as much as anyone can these days listening to NPR’s Morning Edition. The Iowa news segment is on and the story is about the incredibly close election in Iowa’s second district. As the story states:

Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks says she’s gotten every indication she will be sworn in next month to serve as the next representative for Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District. Last month, the bipartisan state Executive Council certified her six vote victory over Democrat Rita Hart, who has since said she’ll appeal to the Democratically-controlled U.S. House to review the results.

The story went on with a quote from Miller-Meeks that hit my ear like a clunker in a well tuned philharmonic orchestra:

“All the indications I have is that I will be sworn in on January 3rd,” Miller-Meeks said. “We think that, you know, all legal votes have been counted. They have been recounted, I’ve now been certified as the winner. So yes, it’s that process of preparing to…to be sworn in on January 3rd, and setting up our district offices, which I think is a very important part.”

As you note I have bolded the part of that quote that hit like a clunker. “All legal votes.” Good Gawd I thought, she’s not even in office and she has already identified herself as yet another toady of Trump’s. The words “legal votes” have been a couple of the words that are featured in Trump’s temper tantrums on what he claims is a stolen election.

By using the language of the radical right and putting herself into the sphere of “alternative reality” Miller-Meeks lets us know right off that she has no intention of representing the people of the second district. She will be an acolyte of whatever the extremist right is. Note that whoever was elected from this district should be expected to take a truly middle course since the district is so incredibly close to being exactly evenly split.

The district is so evenly split that the percentage between the two candidates (6 votes out of nearly 400,000 cast) is .0015%. I have seen that called a vapor difference in other instances. I have no doubt that were the results flipped, Miller-Meeks would be seeking any type of relief she could. Thus Miller-Meeks seeming outrage at Hart’s decision to turn to the US House appears much more theatrics than genuine concern.

Miller-Meeks also spoke of seeking changes in some election processes from the Iowa legislature. No doubt with Republicans heavily in charge of the Iowa legislature election reforms would be high on the legislature’s priorities. Iowa’s famous non-partisan redistricting will probably most likely be a memory when redistricting comes around. Expect Iowa to join every other state in the gerrymandering practices.

I think we can probably expect the legislature to do something about those “legal votes” or better stated those “illegal votes” that seem to bedevil the Republican Party across the country. As if voter role purges and other voter suppression tactics haven’t taken a big chunk out of the Democratic vote across the country. It appears as long as there are voters who vote for Democrats, Republicans will claim “illegal votes.” At least that seems to be the definition of the Trump team.

Thursday we have Governor Reynolds making a statement about counting “legal votes. From the Iowa Capital Dispatch: 

“Echoing President Trump’s assertion that “every legal vote” must be counted in the 2020 election, Gov. Kim Reynolds said Thursday that Iowa didn’t have the opportunity to join a lawsuit that seeks to delay certification of the election results.”

If Miller-Meeks is finally seated in congress, her constituents will need to learn how to speak Republicanese and watch for those words that are trigger words for the right. We will also have to watch the dance Republicans love to do when they refuse to directly answer questions.

It will be quite a change from Dave Loebsack. One thing we got from Dave Loebsack was honesty. Like many, there were times I didn’t like what he said, nut that is just being human. We never really had to ask Loebsack what he meant. He was honest and thorough in his answers.

The other thing we never had to question about Loebsack was whether he was working for the 2nd district. From his work on rural internet to health care to jobs and water Dave put the district, not his party at the forefront of his work. He will be a hard act to follow. Rita Hart would be – and still might be – a very similar type of representative.

A new dictionary may be needed in your future.

Dave Loebsack

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Following Flawed IA-02 Recount Process County Auditors and Lawmakers Call for Reforms

Posted on December 11, 2020 by Trish Nelson

Statement from the Rita Hart campaign
December 10, 2020

After last month’s recount in Iowa’s Second Congressional District left thousands of ballots uncounted, county auditors involved with the process and a local legislator are advocating for reforms to Iowa’s recount law.

As the Quad City Times reported last night, “the lack of an established, standard process in Iowa Code” for reviewing ballots in a recount meant that several counties failed to check thousands of ballots for voter intent and left 35 ballots from military service members and Iowans living overseas uncounted. State Rep. Mary Wolfe told the Times, “we can’t be sure that that happened in this recount, because of a combination of a lot of different issues and thousands of under votes that weren’t examined.” She plans to introduce bipartisan legislation to remedy the issue.

The calls for reform come as Rita Hart is preparing to file a petition with the U.S. House under the Federal Contested Elections Act to ensure that outstanding votes are counted and Iowans can finally find out who won this race. Under current Iowa law that would not be possible.

Quad City Times: County auditors, lawmaker call for changes to Iowa recount law

By Tom Barton

 Iowa needs to change its recount process to provide more time, more assistance and more uniformity following discrepancies and confusion that beset Iowa’s incredibly tight Iowa 2nd Congressional District race, according to county auditors and an eastern Iowa lawmaker.

“A uniform process needs to be addressed,” said Johnson County Auditor Travis Weipert, echoing opinions shared by county auditors in Scott and Clinton counties. “I don’t know what that process should be. We had multiple different recounts used in multiple different ways.”

…Hart’s campaign argues the partial hand recount was rife with errors and left thousands of votes unexamined.

…In Scott County, [auditor Roxanna] Mortiz said 35 ballots from military members and other Iowans living overseas were not counted due to a scanning error when voters submitted their ballots to the auditor’s office that lopped off the 2nd District race.

Hart’s campaign, too, contends many counties did not fully review ballots to identify valid votes that the machines did not recognize, in part because of the time and burden that would have been required for such a thorough count.

…”When you’re recounting in a tight race, it makes sense you do some sort of recount where the recount board can consider the over and under votes … and determine what the voter intent was,” said Clinton County Auditor Eric Van Lancker. “When you’re in a tight race, that’s really what it’s coming down to. … To do that you almost need to do a hand count and its impossible to get that done with a three-member board when you’re counting tens of thousands of ballots.”

…At issue is the lack of an established, standard process clearly spelled out in Iowa Code for reviewing tabulated over, under and write-in voted ballots to check to see if there was a valid vote the machine could not read correctly, but where the voter’s intent was clear, according to county auditors and recount board members.

… [State Rep. Mary] Wolfe said she intends to consult county auditors and state lawmakers from both parties across the district to discuss problems that arose during the recount for the purpose of authoring bipartisan legislation next session to revamp the process.

“It’s clear that consistency throughout all of the counties that are involved in the recount is needed,” Wolfe said. “The issues is what that consistent process looks like … to ensure all valid votes are counted. And we can’t be sure that that happened in this recount, because of a combination of a lot of different issues and thousands of under votes that weren’t examined. Those voters deserve to have their vote counted.”

Read the full story here

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What Is The World’s Worst Humanitarian Disaster?

Posted on December 10, 2020 by Trish Nelson

Ed Flaherty

The letter to the editor below by our friend Ed Flaherty, long-time anti-war activist and member of Veterans for Peace, was published in yesterday’s Iowa City Press-Citizen and Cedar Rapids Gazette. 

The World’s Worst Humanitarian Disaster

by Ed Flaherty

What would you call the poorest country on the Arabian peninsula?

What would you call the country whose schools, bridges, and medical facilities have been decimated by Saudi-coalition bombing for the past five and one-half years?

What would you call the country where 4/5  of its 30 million people are hungry, and where 10 million  are on the brink of starving to death?

What would you call the country where 1/4 of those who contract covid-19 die?

Answer to the above questions is YEMEN.  (Please take a minute and locate it on a map).

What would you call the country whose troops and contractors have provided  intelligence and material support, without any congressional approval, to the Saudi-coalition in its war on Yemen, from day one?

What would you call the country who has helped block shipments of food, fuel and medical aid to most of Yemen?

What would you call the country who has sold and is selling billions of dollars worth of weapons to the Saudi-coalition?

The answer to the second set of questions is, of course, the United States.

Why don’t we stop this man-made disaster now?   I don’t know.

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Four Years Of Assaults On Environmental Protections In the United States

Posted on December 9, 2020 by Trish Nelson

by Ralph Scharnau

Polling data show that roughly 70% of respondents report climate change having an impact in the area where they live. They view the problem as serious, and one requiring government action.

The current occupant of the White House, nonetheless, has engaged in a continuing effort to roll back, weaken or destroy measures designed to defend the natural environment. His budgets ignore or cut environmental spending. His animus toward Obama and Democrats who support regulations to protect the environment often comes through executive orders.

Trump has opened federal land to plunder by corporate mining and logging interests. This action despoils the vast Arctic Wildlife Refuge, a pristine home to caribou, waterfowl, polar bears, and other species. Also endangered are centuries-old trees in Alaska. And mining threatens the spectacular Boundary Waters Wilderness on the Canada-United States border.

The Trump administration formally withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement that brought together all nations to fight rising levels of atmospheric pollution. The rollback of U.S. auto emissions standards endangers public health, cuts auto jobs, causes more than 18,000 premature deaths, costs consumers $200 billion in extra gasoline costs and result in billions of tons of additional emissions of the heat trapping gases that cause global warming.

Climate change is causing extreme weather events, destructive wildfires, record hurricanes, deadly heatwaves and droughts, torrential rains and flooding. rising sea levels and melting ice caps and glaciers.

As his days in the White House dwindle, Donald Trump takes a machete to regulations designed to safeguard the environment.

Trump has assaulted our planet. He has promoted the burning of fossil fuels, which contribute to climate change by releasing greenhouse gases into the environment. He has also hacked away at environmental enforcement.

This administration’s disdain for science along with disseminating false information and conspiracy theories resulted in Scientific American, for the first time in its 175-year history, to make a presidential endorsement, Joe Biden. Biden’s plans for environment and climate policy involve reinstating and strengthening regulations that the Trump administration attacked.

Human activity is causing rapid changes in our global climate that are contributing to extreme weather conditions. These include reports of wild fires burning longer and more destructively, more frequent and intense hurricanes, and destructive flooding and droughts.

The nation is at a crucial point. The raging pandemic has shown a staggering economy racked by joblessness, systemic racism and inequality. We need to control the Covid-19 virus, get our staggering economy back on track, and put an end to systemic racial injustice and inequity.

The way forward environmentally means investing in energy efficiency, building first-rate electric vehicles, getting more clean power from the sun and wind and modernizing our electric grid and storage systems.

We need a climate response that’s grounded in sound science, puts people back to work, and expands protections and opportunities for low-income communities and people of color.

The earth is, after all, more than a globe to be surveyed or developed. It is the home of our human family. Trump continues to lead the unprecedented assault on our environment and the health of our communities.

On January 20, 2021, the Biden-Harris team will usher in a new era where environmental assaults will be replaced by the new leadership. They will make empathy, understanding and action the hallmarks of a new and hopeful era.

Ralph Scharnau
December 3, 2020

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Call Chuck And Joni Today

Posted on December 8, 2020 by Trish Nelson

Action alert from Free Press

Urgent: The Senate is rushing through Trump’s completely unqualified FCC nominee to stop the Biden administration from closing the digital divide and restoring Net Neutrality.

The Senate vote on the right-wing Nathan Simington could happen as soon as TODAY: Call 202-751-4622 TODAY and urge your senators NOT to confirm Nathan Simington.

🚨 Call 202-751-4622 NOW and urge the Senate to reject Trump’s nominee for FCC commissioner using the script below.

URGENT: Thanks to Mitch McConnell, Trump’s FCC nominee, Nathan Simington, could be confirmed by the Senate as soon as Tuesday.

Simington has ZERO qualifications for this position. He’s been nominated as a result of strong-arm political tactics to reward his loyalty to Trump. He was hand-picked and forced through the Senate by a now-defeated president, for his apparent willingness to cast a vote on an unlawful and unconstitutional policy that Simington himself helped write.

This is an all-hands-on-deck moment. Call 202-751-4622 TODAY and urge your senators NOT to confirm Nathan Simington.

Here’s what you can say:

I’m calling to urge Senator _____ to vote “no” on Nathan Simington for FCC commissioner.

McConnell wants to push Trump’s nominee through now for one reason only: to obstruct the incoming Biden administration and its appointees. McConnell’s tactics and games are always destructive. But stopping the Biden FCC from taking desperately needed actions to get and keep people connected during the COVID-19 crisis is just plain cruel. Millions of people are unable to access basic necessities like telehealth care and remote learning, and this digital divide disproportionately impacts Black, Indigenous and other people of color.

Free Press Action and our allies have been working overtime on Capitol Hill to try to stop Simington’s nomination. But we urgently need your help now to stop this train wreck. Call 202-751-4622 right now and tell Sens. Grassley and Ernst to vote “no” on Simington.

P.S. Nathan Simington is unqualified and could hamstring the FCC for years to come. That means delays in a long laundry list of things we care about, including ensuring people can afford broadband, restoring Title II Net Neutrality, stopping mergers and boosting ownership of our media among people of color and women. Pick up the phone NOW and urge your senators to vote “no” on Simington using the script above.

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Still The Most Important Thing You Can Do Right Now

Posted on December 7, 2020 by Trish Nelson

Monday phone banking action alert from Indivisible and Color of Change. 

So many of you have reached out and asked how you can support the Georgia runoffs happening in 32 days, and now we’ve got a great opportunity for you to jump in and get Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff across the finish line. We’ve partnered with Color of Change for an All Eyes on Georgia phonebank on Monday, December 7, from 6 – 8:30 pm EST. By making calls into Georgia, you’ll be working to take back the Senate, move progressive priorities to the fore like protecting Black lives, strengthen our democracy, and ensure we pass real COVID-19 relief.

Sign up to make calls into GA

Over the course of this fall’s elections, Indivisibles made nearly 7 million calls and sent 27.7 million text messages to voters across the country. Your hard work resulted in HUGE voter turnout and a Biden-Harris win! Now we need to focus our energy and time on winning in Georgia by making calls and talking directly to voters. The stakes couldn’t be higher: these two Senate races will determine which party controls the Senate, and who will have the power to define our national trajectory for the next decade! 

We’ve already witnessed the two incumbents — David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler — put Trump, the Republican party, and their own bank accounts ahead of the people of Georgia. And yet, despite Trump’s cronies enacting barriers to voting in Georgia, Black and Brown communities turned out to flip the state blue. Now with these potential Senate wins, we have the chance to push for real, progressive change that centers communities who’ve been historically disenfranchised and ignored. We’ve got a long way to go, from reining in the pandemic to creating meaningful legislation that protects, supports, and uplifts Black lives — and it all comes down to Georgia.

Indivisibles’ 7 million calls to voters throughout the election season had a major impact on voter turnout, clinched the White House win, and maintained our control in the House. Grassroots organizing works, and we want to bring our expertise to Georgia. Click here to help us take back the Senate by joining our December 7 phonebank with Color of Change.

With a win in Georgia, we’ll secure a majority in the Senate and ensure that the Biden-Harris administration lives up to our shared values. That means prioritizing communities who’ve been most impacted by Trump and the GOP and passing progressive legislation to make real, tangible improvements in the lives of Americans across this country. All this starts with making calls into Georgia to get out the vote. Join us!

In solidarity,
Indivisible Team

P.S. This is one piece of our massive Georgia program, including a direct voter contact program, outreach in rural and Latinx communities, and digital, print, and radio ads. If you can’t make calls on Monday, please: donate to support our plans in Georgia and all our work.

 

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Farce

Posted on December 6, 2020 by Dave Bradley

You may have heard of or seen this video online Thursday or Friday.  Melissa Carone, a contract worker for Dominion Voting Systems claimed to witness extraordinary goings on during the voting in Michigan. As this clip shows Carone’s statements are so wild as to be totally laughable. Her demeanor suggests she had ingested some substances before testifying.

Given the farcical nature of her testimony, ingesting substances would be a testimony strategy.

This is but one of many videos of people making wild, non-factual statements in support of Trump’s wild claims of election tampering. Like so many things Republicans claim, just saying something is so doesn’t make it so. Evidence is needed, not just wild claims.

The farcical nature of her testimony pretty much sums up just what the Trump team has for their claims. Nothing but laughable people and laughable claims. The Trump presidency has been little but a string of crazy claims with no evidence. Unfortunately for America major decisions were made on such crap and Americans have paid dearly with their lives and treasure.

At this point who wouldn’t just love to sweep the whole Trump experiment and family into the dustbin of history? But we can’t. It is simply too important that the whole Trump administration be investigated and analyzed to see what decisions were made for what should have been illegal reasons, such as getting dirt on an opponent to making huge money for the president or his family to destroying evidence or any of a long list of other potential criminal activities.

This simply must be done so our country, our democracy does not let such criminal activities happen again. The check and balance system must be strengthened with some real laws with real punishments for the perpetrators. Among the first things to change is to make all elections take place with traceable paper ballots, and with enough polling places so no one has to wait more than a few minutes to vote.

There are many who are reluctant for an administration of one party to investigate the administration. There is a fear tat this will begin a round of administrations doing little but investigating each other. That is a concern, but a greater concern is to have laws and norms violated with no consequences. That will lead to the end of our democracy in a short time.

The government in a democracy is supposed to reflect the will of the people. The will of the people in a democracy should always be to keep those with power in check so they ( those in power) do not aggregate their power and move to autocracy and ending democracy.

Therefore one administration should not be investigating another. Such investigation should fall on some sort of special committee invested with the power to bring charges. They must also have subpoena power with the power to jilting those who fail to cooperate. It would make sense if such a committee were set up under the House of Representatives as a check on the presidency.

To let the executive branch get away with such lawlessness with impunity is to give up on the very concept of our democracy. The separation of powers and the check and balance system demands the Trump administration be investigated. Ideally party should not make a difference in such an investigation. However given that the whole Republican Party acted as accomplices to the administration in its commission of crimes that may have o be looked at.

If nothing is done we can pretty much be assured that we will be looking at more of the same when the next Republican administration checks in.

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Sunday Funday: Republican Voter Fraud Edition

Posted on December 6, 2020 by Dave Bradley

from democraticunderground.com

About all we have heard on the cable newsers since the election has been the claims of election fraud from the right. The claims are increasingly strange and detached from reality. What is seldom brought up is that the Republican Party as a whole has been engaged in a decade plus of legalized voter suppression. 

Throughout the country Republican legislators and governors have passed various laws that are specifically aimed at voters most likely to vote for Democrats. From laws that suppress the votes of students living on campus to making it difficult for elderly to vote to laws that make very unprofessional signature matching a basis for rejecting votes, Republicans have dug deep into every aspect of voting habits to try to cull Democrats votes. 

You may even recall that one of the rationalizations for Dear Leader to do nothing about the pandemic back in March was the assessment by Glorious Son-In-Law Jared Kushner that the corona virus was hitting Democrats much harder than Republicans. Therefore the pandemic could be a plus for that president if enough Democrats died. 

Show of hands out there  – who will be sorry to see that group long gone? No one? I thought so.

  1. Iowa’s 2nd congressional district has produced the closest race for the House in decades. The current outcome has been appealed to the US House by which of the contestants?
  1. What is the basis of this appeal?
  1. In an almost comical juxtaposition, Governor Ducey of Arizona was certifying election results while refusing to answer a call from what politician?
  1. Great Britain will be among the first western countries to begin corona virus inoculations. When will they begin?
  1. In a startling development, what deep insider cabinet member delivered a message to Dear leader last week that there was no evidence of election fraud in a long meeting?
  1. Former DHS Cybersecurity chief Chris Krebs suggested he will pursue legal retribution after presidential lawyer Joseph diGenova said Krebs should be what?
  1. Just hours after Great Britain announced their plan to begin corona vaccinations, what dictator announced that his country would begin vaccinations before Britain, thus being the first country to offer vaccinations?
  1. Can you name four governors who currently have recall petitions being circulated against them? 
  1. Hey! Today is major holiday in the month of holidays that is December. What holiday is celebrated on December 6th that is a major holiday in many countries?
  1. One of the rumors coming out of the White House these days has Dear Leader issuing a pre-emptive pardon for what group of people?
  1. What White House corona virus adviser who believed in ‘herd immunity’ quit suddenly Tuesday?
  1. What famous and iconic space telescope collapsed last week and will no longer be useable?
  1. A shopping mall in what Iowa city was temporarily shut down last Sunday after groups of people exchanged gunfire?
  1. December 6th, 1492 – What explorer landed on Hispaniola?
  1. Former president Barack Obama said he screwed up by not giving what country music star a Medal of Freedom?
  1. An innovative method of replanting forests ravaged by fires in the US west involves using what type of machine to plant seed and distribute fertilizer?
  1. A standoff in Sioux City Tuesday morning had a man barricaded in his house holding off police with what weapon?
  1. The CDC has changed its recommended quarantine length after exposure to the corona virus for 14 days to what, if a person does not develop symptoms?
  1. A UN report called humanity “suicidal” for not addressing what world wide ongoing calamity?
  1. Qanon (quit laughing) claims that the boot on President Biden’s foot is actually there to hide what?

Answers:

  1. Democrat Rita Hart
  1. That there are more ballots that haven’t been counted especially from military overseas that could easily erase the 6 vote difference. An appeal in Iowa would not allow time for these ballots to be counted.
  1. Dear Leader. Ducey has a specific ring tone for Dear leader. It went off just as Ducey was signing the certifications.
  1. Early next week
  1. AG William Barr. From accounts the news was not well taken by Dear Leader.
  1. Executed.
  1. Putin said Russia will begin quickly, probably before Great Britain.
  1. DeWine, Ohio; Whitmer, Michigan; Ducey, Arizona; Newsome, California.
  1. Saint Nicholas Day. Nicholas is the prototype for our Santa Claus. St. Nicholas day is a day when children in many countries in Europe receive gifts.
  1. His children. Funny, Obama never issued a pardon for Sasha and Malia.
  1. Scott Atlas
  1. The telescope on Puerto Rico at Arecibo.
  1. North Park Mall in Davenport.
  1. Columbus
  1. Dolly Parton
  1. Drones.
  1. A bow and arrows
  1. 10 days.
  1. Climate change. The UN noted the last decade has been the hottest on record (note Australia is experiencing a super hot spring)
  1. Not broken bones, but an ankle monitor because he was secretly arrested. Arrested for what? Being a Democrat probably

from democraticunderground.com

Posted in #trumpresistance, Covid-19, Humor | Comments Off on Sunday Funday: Republican Voter Fraud Edition

Hope

Posted on December 5, 2020 by Dave Bradley

Perhaps one of the most lasting icons of the 2008 presidential election was the poster down by Shepard Fairey of Barack Obama looking out with the word “HOPE” at the bottom of the poster. Everyone in the US and possibly the world saw that poster. At the time when the world was on the very edge of a world wide economic collapse, the hope of the whole world was put on to this young man.

Obama came through. Twelve years later and one Republican term in the presidency and once again Americans and many in the world are once again are looking to a Democrat to work some miracle and once more pull the world back from the precipice. This time we look to a much older man. However, what these two have in common is that both are Democrats. One was even the vice-president in the other’s presidency.

So once again the Republicans have left an economy in tatters, a world on the edge and a nation turns its eyes to the Democrats to put the country and the world back together. FDR had to do it after Hoover. Obama had to do it after Bush II. Now our hope rests on Joe Biden. In slightly less precarious times, Carter inherited a shaky and battered nation from Nixon/Ford and in 1992 Bill Clinton revived and economy run down by Reagan/Bush I.

Biden also inherits a country driven to large social divides by an administration that used division as a tactical policy. Healing such a divide will be hard. At the same time Biden will be making a real effort at giving traditional minorities a real voice in joining in running what is their country also.

Never have we seen the number of minorities and women being nominated to the cabinet and other major administrative posts. These are not just folks being named to fill some quota. These are quality people. Considering the people they are following into these offices they will have their hands full. We can expect a top-notch job from all.

Thus while we look to Joe Biden with hope to save our futures, women and minorities can look to the new administration with the hope that they will be given an honest chance to show what they can do. They in turn will be the beacons that will give hope to the younger generations of women and minorities in the future.

Don’t you feel like we are slowly crawling out from the dark and into the light? Don’t get ahead of the vaccine. The pandemic must be taken care of first. Then we can act on our hope.

Hope for the end of the pandemic.

Hope for our kids as schools are truly reopened and we no longer have Betsy DeVos ruining schools.

Hope for more stability in the world, especially with our traditional allies and with an Iranian nuclear deal back in place.

Hope for the environment and healing the damage we have done.

Hope for minorities and women to take their deserved places in running the place.

Hope for the re-establishment of our democracy.

Hope for re-establishing the rule of law in the US where NO ONE is above the law!

Hope that America will once more be the beacon of the world.

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Fear

Posted on December 5, 2020 by Dave Bradley

The past couple of weeks I have written some criticism of the Democratic Party suggesting some things I see as reasons why we go beat up pretty badly in lower ballot races not only in Iowa, but across the country.

In the first I noted that Democrats get active for elections while Republicans are essentially campaigning 24X7X365 using the large swaths of various media they control. Via local radio, local TV and local newspapers Republicans are pumping their propaganda and setting America’s agenda daily in all corners of the country especially the forgotten small towns and rural areas.

In the second I went deeper into the Republican owned media doing the job of deciding what issues would be discussed and how those issues would be framed. Thus even on the few liberal outlets and NPR the discussion flows from how an issue has been discussed in social media or how it has been presented in other media – controlled by Republicans.

I see both of these as weaknesses of the Democratic Party since Democrats do not have the money or people for a full time effort like the Republicans have. Republicans also depend on a lot of help from aligned groups and corporations for their set up. Once again, this is something Democrats do not have.

One other point here is that the Republican Party and its aligned groups and corporations literally take direction on what their objectives and daily talking points are. Thus whether you pick up a newspaper, sign in to social media or turn on your local radio station you will probably run into today’s talking points with the same solutions. In short they act like a disciplined army with one objective. Plus they all use the same crowd tested language to get the response they desire.

Every Democrat knows that even if we had media and allies, the likelihood of all Democrats steering the same path for very long is unlikely. We think and thinking leads us into different ideas. That is a good thing but not the best for disseminating propaganda.

When we talk about Republicans all using the same talking points, one of the things they are the very best at is creating fear and making people fearful of things that they may never deal with or that in many cases doesn’t even exist. They create stuff to fear and also create the images that go with the object or people to fear.

Remember the Red Scare of the 1950s led by Republican Joseph McCarthy with the aid of folks like Senator Richard Nixon? McCarthy created imagery of the horrors of Communism and then proceeded to tie the Democratic Party to communism through language manipulation and outright accusation. Despite being somewhat crude in his methods that association between Democrats and communism still exists in Republican minds.

How about immigrants? Non-white immigrants have always been disparaged. Those brought here from Africa as slaves have ben the object of hate and fear from day one. This is a way of dehumanizing people to justify slavery or facing such people into lower stations in life. It was used against Native Americans from our early invasions.

Turning  people into objects of fear has been one of the right’s favorite tools as immigration from countries to our south has increased. There is almost a standard profile for those people we must fear – just the nationality needs to be filled in. They are dirty, they are drunks, they use drugs, they have sex all day and have lots of illegitimate kids that they don’t pay for, we do through welfare. They are lazy, they are dumb. I do not wish to go on.

We have all heard these characterizations since we were kids. As I said they are the same characterizations no matter what the ethnicity. We all know they are bullshit. But these characterizations have worked forever to instill a fear of “others” by the right. They keep using such crap because it obviously works. With the coming of Trump we saw an almost resurrection of these characterizations – because it works.

Lastly there is the tying of Democrats or the left to => socialism which can be rolled in with => communism. It has been fashionable to fear communism since the Bolshevik revolution.

It is a sad commentary on America that using such fear tactics works in America in the 21st century. Wish I had a good counter to fear tactics. The old response is that education is the best antidote. That doesn’t seem to work, especially when trying to counter the incessant RW media.

With that I will end my short post-mortem on the last election except to say that perhaps the greatest thing in our favor is this. Democrats are the party of hope. That is one thing Republicans can’t say. Republicans are the party of autocracy with a few at the top and the rest following orders. You see even senators following order from the current autocrat.

Posted in #trumpresistance, Republican mythology, Republican Policy | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments