Endorsement

 

Just in case anyone was wondering, this is whom I endorse, this is whom I have already voted for.

We are choosing the president of our country, not a pal, not a religious leader, not a cheer leader.  Simply look at the qualifications of each candidate for the job. 

Harris is clearly unqualified.  She can’t articulate her policies or plans if indeed she even knows what they are; moreover, she lies about most of what she has done and said in the past.  Her entire campaign seems to come down to fearmongering and trashing Trump.  But, sorting through the clutter one can determine that her intent is to totally transform this country and one primary way she will do this is to greatly diminish if not completely eliminate our cherished First Amendment rights.

Trump, based on his record 2016-2020, was indeed able to make the country better – economy, jobs, international relations, etc.  There were no wars. America felt strong.  His language was (and is) sometimes crass, but his actions were (and are) directed at benefiting America and Americans.  The ugliness of that time period was actually in large part brought on by the opposition and its constant (and often unfounded) attacks on Trump and those who supported his policies (see many of my blogs during that period).

The media, for the most part, does its best to paint a favorable (and often false) picture of Harris while painting a highly unfavorable (and almost always false) picture of Trump.  Hopefully that media is not fooling most of the people who hopefully are thinking for themselves.

Likeability is not a necessary qualification for the office of president of the United States of America.  Nor is being able to claim first woman status in holding that office.  (Women, let’s pick someone who is actually qualified to be that first!; someone we can truly be proud of). Looks, favorable or unfavorable, do not qualify or disqualify.  Nor does one’s personal morality (both of these candidates have some failings in that regard, as do most all politicians and indeed most humans).  We are not electing the winner of some reality show, the best entertainer or rock star.  

This is a serious job and we need someone who is qualified and proven to be able to deliver for the country.  Trump did that during his 4-year presidency.  During her 3 ½ years as VP, “working closely with” and supporting Biden’s policies, Harris has shown us that she will not deliver for the people of America.

Please vote for Donald Trump/J.D. Vance and in so doing, for America.

 

November’s Real Choice

The line is now clearly drawn.  Progressive socialism or Conservative capitalism.  The contrast is stark and those with clear opinions do not understand how anyone could take the other side.  But they do and they will.   This is not an election to sit out; it is not an election to vote for a third party.  This election will indeed determine the future of America.   And, sadly, this election places your choice as one of two extremes.  But you must choose one. 

I, like most Americans, would prefer to have a choice somewhere in the middle.  But we do not.  And the choice that the people of America make this November will truly decide the irreversible direction that this country will take. 

While the most extreme desires and promises of both sides will likely not take effect in the near future, they do give one a sense of what aspects of America each side values.  And there are, indeed, some rational arguments for both sides.  But everyone must stop and think what about America they hold dear and how they envision the America, with whatever natural improvements and evolution, that they would like to perpetuate for future generations of Americans. 

This is not an election about specific candidates and their personalities, though both parties would like to make it so.  Put the individual candidates aside and look at the differences and the goals and ideals of Progressive socialism vs Conservative capitalism.  Look at the realities of each (we have some of both in our current America as well as clear examples elsewhere in the world).  In which sort of country and society do you want to live?  In which will your day-to-day life and that of those you love be most comfortable?  Do you prefer groupthink and conformity or are you more comfortable with individual acknowledgement and responsibilities? Those are the sorts of questions you should be asking yourself.  Not whether the individual personalities of Harris/Walz or Trump/ Vance impress you more. 

Those individual candidates are merely place holders for the choice that we voters are really making this coming November.  We are truly deciding the future of this country, for America is definitely going to change in the coming years.  The real question we are deciding is do we want to keep our core principles (Constitution, form of government, rule of law) and improve upon what we already have, or do we want to give up on those traditional institutions and essentially rewrite America in the socialist mode? 

That question is not something to be answered lightly, without thought, or based on traditional party affinities.  This is the time to stand up as an American, think about what that means, and vote for the country that you love.  And, in order to do that, you must base your decision on the truth, not the political propaganda and the distorted “news” presentations that bombard every one of us 24/7.    

Each and every one of us has a brain, and while it seems we are inclined more often than not to let others think for us, in this election we must use those brains and think for ourselves.  Then, armed with true knowledge and understanding of what we are really voting for along with what we may be giving up and the stark contrast between the two possible choices, we must all show up at the polls and vote.  America needs we the people, and we must show her that we understand and care.

Lies and Deceit Are Not a Debate

 Now that the Oct. 15 debate has been cancelled, the Commission on Presidential Debates and we the people have a little more time to think before the next debate format is finalized.

What we should have learned from the first presidential and the only vice-presidential debate begins with wondering why even bother to hold debates when:

•  No one answers questions, in part because
•  Two minutes is not enough time to even begin to answer questions about complex issues;
•  The answers of one side, consistent with their campaign techniques, are based on lies, half-truths, misstatements, and deceit;
•  The objectivity of the moderator is at best questionable.

Let’s unpack some of the above.  First, it is rare to get a clear answer to a question.  Now there are several reasons for this.  One is that the candidates don’t want to turn off any potential voters.  Another is that they don’t want the voters to know the answer (for example, Biden/Harris refusing to answer questions about their intent to pack the Supreme Court). 

But, even if they wanted to give a clear answer, it is hard to do so within the time structures of the debates.  You can’t just answer a complex social or international issue “yes” or “no”.  Such answers require complex explanations underlying the yes or no.  It is impossible to give such explanations in two minutes or less and if one tries to do so it is more than likely that the incomplete explanation will be used against them by the media and/or their opponents.

The limited rebuttal time does not really allow a candidate to challenge his or her opponent when that opponent bases an answer on falsehoods.  If there is a limited (usually 1 minute or less ) time for rebuttal, that is insufficient to explain why the answers of the opponent are deceitful and to cite the necessary facts and authority that prove the deceit. 

It is very frustrating, not to mention unfair, to see an opponent be allowed to base an entire answer on a lie and then see the other participant be left unable to rebut.  This sometimes leads to interruptions (yes, all 4 candidates have interrupted their opponent) as the one faced with the lies tries to set the record straight.

Because of the lack of time to actually address and explain issues, the candidates are left to repeat tired campaign slogans and party lies.  How many times do we have to hear the thoroughly debunked assertion that Trump has not condemned white supremacist groups?  Or the tired out of context and proven lie from Charlottesville asserting that he said the KKK were good people? 

Wouldn’t we all like to hear positions on issues instead?  But the debate format makes that nearly impossible.

And let’s not forget that this is a media event.  The media likes show.  I thought the absolute best comment about the presidential debate came from Sen. Ted Cruz who said that the “raucous debate” reminded him of Detroit Pistons Basketball when the team was known as the “Bad Boys.”  He said, "It kind of reminded me of the Detroit Pistons basketball in the 90s where there were a lot of hard fouls, there were a lot of missed shots. But at the end of the day, I doubt the debate changed the election in any fundamental way."  That’s a pretty good summary of what was a worthless debate, but a pretty good show.

We also must think about the moderator.  It seems that it is the moderator who determines the topics and writes the questions.  These moderators are TV personalities, journalists, etc.  They are people with strong political opinions.  And those opinions, their biases, are clearly apparent in the questions themselves and in the behavior of the moderator. 

The bias seems to have become clearly apparent in the behavior of the moderator who would have hosted the Oct. 15 debate – prior support for Biden and tweets about the upcoming debate with a staunch Trump critic (tweets that he conveniently claims were the result of a hack). 

In the first presidential debate, the moderator effectively became a participant when he took it upon himself to argue with the President.  The moderator’s job is to ask the questions, let the candidates answer, and let the people make their own judgements.

Lack of necessary fairness can be more subtle.  In the VP debate it appeared that Pence ran over his time far more than did Harris.  But, those who actually timed the debate noted that the moderator asserted “time up” to Pence at exactly the 2 min. mark while regularly allow Harris to run over for 15 or more seconds before telling her that her time was up.

So, the committee has more time than it thought until the next debate.  Perhaps they could actually do something to turn the apparently final debate into something meaningful for the voters.  What might they do:

•  Change the structure entirely so that the debate is about issues.  If the debate is 90 minutes, give 30 minutes each to 3 issues.  Treat those three issues like a real debate.  For example, if the issue is going to be healthcare, the opening question might be:  Explain the extent to which you believe the government should be involved in providing health care, why you believe that is the best policy, and how your position/plan would actually affect the citizenry.  Give each candidate an opening of 6 minutes to give a basic answer, then each has a 3 minute rebuttal, then each can ask the other a question for which there are 2 minutes allowed for response, another set of 2 minute questions, and then each gets a 1 minute conclusion.

• With the above structure, the moderator’s primary function would be to keep time and keep it fairly.  Aside from stating the opening question, the moderator should not be asking questions or arguing with the candidates.

• The debate Commission should be the one to come up with the topics and the opening question and it should be objective and even handed so as not to give either candidate an advantage or disadvantage.  I would suggest that the questions should be drafted and/or reviewed by individuals with leanings to both the Left and the Right.

• This should be a stand-up debate.  The candidates should be told in advance the general nature of the topics.

A debate following the above structure might be less exciting than a debate with a lot of fireworks, less exciting than a Pistons game in the 90s, but it would be far more informative for the voters who are electing a President and not a point guard.

Just a thought.

 

The Democrat Ticket – Some Initial Thoughts

 We now know that the Democrat Ticket will be Biden-Harris.  The question we all should be asking is “Ticket to where?”  I think we all know the answer to that – it will take us to a much more Socialist country than what America was ever designed to be.  That is the destination that some seek.  For others it is not.  But many seem to not really care or understand where their ticket will take them – they are just along for the ride.  I hope that before they cast their votes they will at least look at the travel brochures to get a sense of where they are going.

If all goes according to the Democrat plan, Biden will be elected, then step aside due to his now obvious dementia, and Harris will become president.  She would be the first president to be selected based on external identity factors rather than on qualifications.  The percentage of Black women in America is 11.4.  In his promise to choose a Black woman as his running mate, Biden excluded almost 90% of the population from consideration.  That exclusion was based solely on identity politics – he promised us a Black woman running mate. 

What I find a bit insulting and a bit of a weaseling on that promise is that he did not even pick someone who is fully a part of that Black identity group.  Instead he picked someone who has previously identified herself as Indian-American because her mother who raised her is that.  Her father identifies as Jamaican and has written that there are slave-holders in his past.   

According to Snopes Fact-Checking, in 2018, in a article for Jamaica Global, Prof. Harris (Kamala’s father) wrote, ““My roots go back, within my lifetime, to my paternal grandmother Miss Chrishy (née Christiana Brown, descendant of Hamilton Brown who is on record as plantation and slave owner and founder of Brown’s Town) and to my maternal grandmother Miss Iris (née Iris Finegan, farmer and educator, from Aenon Town and Inverness, ancestry unknown to me). The Harris name comes from my paternal grandfather Joseph Alexander Harris, land-owner and agricultural ‘produce’ exporter (mostly pimento or all-spice), who died in 1939 one year after I was born and is buried in the church yard of the magnificent Anglican Church which Hamilton Brown built in Brown’s Town (and where, as a child, I learned the catechism, was baptized and confirmed, and served as an acolyte).”  

One would think that this ancestry does not make Ms. Harris the best representative of African-American Blacks and descendants of slaves in this country.  Oh well.  It’s all show, smoke and mirrors anyway.  Biden hides in his basement unable to converse coherently without notes while the Democrats assert he is qualified for the job of President of the United States of America.  

We know that Ms. Harris at least to some extent visually fits the proper identity qualifications, and we know that she is one of the most Leftist members of the Senate.  But her actual qualifications for the job of Vice President/President have never been vetted.  She looked enough the part of the promised Black VP and so the smoke and mirrors now tell us she is qualified.

The Democrats have clearly signaled their intent for America.   Beyond their divisive and dehumanizing identity politics they would turn us into a shallow superficial place where the governing style is based on Socialist Dictatorships – places where the elite in power control everything.  They may create ceremonial titles such as President or Vice President, let the people think that they have some role in electing or otherwise choosing them, and then simply pull the strings and do whatever they please.

I have no intention of voting for such an America.  I truly believe that anyone who examines the ticket that the Democrats have presented to us will also choose not to vote for it.  What frightens me is that there are many who will just get on the train – Ridin’ with Hidin’ Biden – not realizing where they are going or what they are doing.  What they may not realize is that there is no return ticket from where we and America will end up.