Jacksonian Voters

For John, BLUF:  Yes, it is time for Republicans and other Trump voters to understand what they have in common.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Where'd you go, Ohio? How a swing state went red

From The Washington Examiner, by Reporter Salena Zito, 1 August 2021, 12:00 AM.

Here is the lede plus two:

The old adage in politics used to be, “As Ohio goes, so goes the nation.”  And for the most part, since the start of the 20th century, the Buckeye State had earned that adage, only twice failing to support the national presidential winner — once in 1944 and again in 1960.

That all changed last November when Joe Biden became the first person since 1960 to win the presidency without carrying Ohio.  Many in the Washington, D.C.-based political class decided that the people of Ohio had changed.

Well, they haven’t.  This misapprehension comes from many Washington journalists having more of a cultural connection with the Democratic candidates they cover than with the voters.  The key to understanding Ohio in 2021, and its election in 2022, is to understand how the political parties have changed.

So, we hve a sea change in politics in Ohio.  While it didn't change the outcome of the 2020 Election, it could play a future role.  Thus it is worth paying attention to the change.  That does not mean the Democratic Party can do anything about it, but it would help to understand it.

Further down in the article, Report Zito advances the thesis that Republicans are becoming Jacksonians, while the Democrats are moving away from our 7th President:

More than 20 years ago, Walter Russell Mead identified a certain type of American as “Jacksonian,” after the former Democratic president of the 19th Century, identifying their political attitudes with a region that overlaps with much of Appalachia.  Jacksonianism originated with the Scotch-Irish who had come to the country in its early days and settled there.  Many of the later Irish and Italian immigrants, who came to work in factories around the turn of the last century, were eventually assimilated into this culture and adopted Jacksonian values, including a sense of self-reliance, a distrust of authority, patriotism, loyalty to community, and admiration for the police and military.

“Jacksonians were attracted to law and order Republicans such as Nixon, or the patriotic anti-communist, Ronald Reagan,” [Youngstown State University political science professor Paul] Sracic said.  "But they usually considered themselves Democrats since they tended to be working class and associated the Republican Party with the wealthy.  Trump converted the Republican Party into the Jacksonian Party; this change is likely permanent, and future Republican candidates will adopt this message.”

This brings us to the Pauline Kael quote from back in 1972:

I live in a rather special world.  I only know one person who voted for Nixon.  Where they are I don't know.  They're outside my ken.  But sometimes when I'm in a theater I can feel them.

Yes, there is a cultural circle that does not have empathy for Republicans.  In fact, in that circle many think of Republicans as deplorables.  However, we are a diverse nation and while there are inter-pentatrations, we tend to group in regions.

It might reduce the back and forth rancor a bit if the Main Stream Media were more aware of the "other" America.  It might not change political minds, but it might allow for a better understanding of each other's viewpoints.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

The Great Climate Divide

For John, BLUF:  The Republican Party, heck the Republic, is divided between the well off, with well paying, long term, jobs, and the rest, who are not so well off and have more of a hard scrabble existence.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Charllie Baker Climate Official blasted for comments to 'break your will' over emissions.

Here is the sub-headline:

Baker:  Undersecretary will be talked to over comments

From The Boston Herald, by Reporters Joe Dwinell and Sean Philip Cotter, 5 February 2021.

Here is the lede plus five:

The state’s $ 130,000- ayear undersecretary for climate change is being blasted by a fiscal watchdog for saying the administration needs to “ break” the will of taxpayers when it comes to heating homes and driving cars.

The video shows David Ismay, Gov. Charlie Baker’s under secretary for climate change, telling Vermont climate advocates that it’s time to go after homeowners and motorists to help reduce emissions.

At the end of the clip, he adds:  “ I can’t even say that publicly.”

Ismay did not return a Herald request for comment Friday.  Asked about the video during a press conference, Baker said he and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito had seen the video earlier that morning.  He added Climate Secretary Kathleen Theoharides, Ismay’s boss, is also aware of it.

“ First of all, no one who works in our administration should ever say or think anything like that — ever,” the governor said.  “ Secondly, Secretary Theoharides is going to have a conversation with him about that.”

Baker continued, “And the third — and one of the main reasons we didn’t sign the climate bill when it got to our desk was because we were specifically concerned about the impact that it’s going to have on people’s ability to pay for many of the pieces that were in it, which means it also doesn’t represent the administration policy or position.”

First, thanks to Mass Fiscal Alliance for posting the talk by Undersecretary for Climate Change David Ismay.

Second, this is a warning that there are people out there, like those talking about the "Great Reset",♠ who are prepared to demolish our Capitalist economic system in order to prepare for a climate change that may never arrive.  The losers in such an economic realignment are the little people.  People like those who read this blog.

When we reorganize our Economic System in anticipation of catastrophic climate change, we will have the haves and the have nots, and the great American dream of everyone being able to better themselves will be shattered.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  I am reading the book, but it is slow going, because I sense where the author (World Economic Forum CEO Klaus Schwab) is going, and it is a bad place for most of us.  The sorting out will be ugly.

Choosing a Path

For John, BLUF:  What is the way forward in 2021 and beyond?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Joe Biden ran on bringing back normalcy.  With COVID, riots and a looming impeachment trial, that task just got tougher

From USA Today, by Reporter Ledyard King, 18 January 2021.

Here is an excerpt:

Glenn Harlan Reynolds, a University of Tennessee Law School professor who runs the political blog Instapundit, said Biden’s efforts to promote unity won’t be helped if liberals continue to seek retribution after Trump leaves.

“If you want a return to normalcy, act normally,” he said.  “That means ending the talk of making lists and prosecuting Trump supporters, and of prosecuting Trump.  You can’t have a successful democracy if people feel that their lives and careers are in danger when they lose an election.  That’s what destroyed the Roman Republic.”

Professor Reynolds reports himself doubtful.

However, as distasteful as it may be, that is the path to success.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Inaugural Planning

For John, BLUF:  It is wise of the FBI to examine all possible disruption avenues, fron Trump dead enders to ANTIFA.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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NATIONAL CHAOS Trump insurrection – Invoking 25th Amendment ‘could cause huge uprising’ and ‘armed protests before inauguration: FBI’

Here is the sub-headline:

INVOKING the 25th Amendment could "cause a huge uprising" as "armed protests are planned before inauguration," according to information obtained by the FBI.

From The US Sun, by Reporter Mollie Mansfield, 11 January 2021.

Here is the lede plus one:

A bulletin, obtained by ABC, apparently confirming that the law enforcement agency has received reports of an armed group planning to travel to DC on January 16.

The group has reportedly warned that "if Congress attempts to remove Potus via the 25th Amendment, a huge uprising will occur."

The bulletin also details that armed protests are being planned in all 50 state Capitols, with protests at the US Capitol reportedly planned from January 17 through January 20.

I think of this as a memo for the Pearl Harbor File, but it is a legitimate path down which events could tumble.  And, the FBI is wise to warn the Lower House that rash and unnecessary acts can have harsh unintended consequences.  Walmart shopping, Olive Garden Eating Deplorables that they are, they can still take offense at gratuitous acts of disrespect toward their President.

We should all hope and pray that the Inauguration is calm and peaceful.  We owe it to the Founding Fathers to give the Incoming President a shot.

Hat tip to the Drudge Report.

Regards  —  Cliff

The Lost

For John, BLUF:  The arrogance of the Progressives is almost too much to bear.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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I Guess I’m the Intolerant Left But I Don’t Really Care Anymore

Here is the sub-headline:

A letter of resignation to “finding common ground”

From the Medium, by Mr Smm Corey, 3 November 2020.

Here is the lede plus two:

here are many legitimate reasons to despise Joe Biden — enabling white supremacy is not among them.  In a nation beset by any number of ongoing, unattended, worsening calamities, many millions of Americans will turn out to vote more or less on “Do you like Trump or hate him?”  Biden is a bumbling, right place at the right time failson who’s about the bare minimum the Democrats could do to be better than a racist game show host.  This is undeniably a garbage choice, but it shouldn’t be a difficult one.  Diving too deep into the incredible clusterfuck that is 21st-century America will make you feel like your sanity is unraveling into a crazed state of constant self-gaslighting,  where you think to yourself, “maybe Chris Martin was the best part of Graduation.”  Blaming the state of this desperate and miserable present on general abstractions like partisanship or divisiveness is a cheap, if not downright evil, way of avoiding pinning the blame for our shitworld squarely where it belongs.  I don’t believe the majority of Trump voters possess some seething, menacing hatred towards marginalized groups, mostly because it is both a gross generalization and an unhelpful interpretation of a multi-faceted phenomenon.  But your average Republican is profoundly ignorant about systemic oppression — or doesn’t meaningfully oppose its existence.

I don’t loathe conservatives, at least on an individual level. Looking at the world through a rigid good/bad person binary is a disposition that is both childish and Puritanical.  Like any other human, they are products of their environment, which, in this case, is a thunderstorm of retrograde boomerisms, a failing education system, right-wing disinformation, and a ruthless political party that is contemptuous of anyone who earns less than a six-figure salary.  Above all else, it is both disappointing and depressing that many Americans, whether out of denial or principled spite, struggle to acknowledge conservatism for what it is, or at least what it has morphed into:  Rationalized ignorance and selfishness.  Of course, among the red state lumpenproles, this cultural malignancy is a jumble of venal gossip, some urgent taking of offense at a faraway abstraction, fife-and-drum patriotism, a dissonant mix of resentment and worship of capital, garbled rehashes of some vague outrage they saw on Fox or scrolled past on Facebook, Blue Lives Matter, and all things Maximum America (white people stuff).

I don’t particularly enjoy being a jaded person with dwindling respect for those with a certain party affiliation.  But when Sarah Palin was graciously plucked from the murky depths of Republican depravity, she became the gateway idiot that led to Donald Trump.  Of course, the Republican Party has always been a clammy culture-war grift in service of their abiding and only area of interest — an insatiable appetite for more of America’s wealth that they feel is rightfully theirs. Rape-happy Mexicans, tyrannical undergrads, Trump’s ongoing siege against deep state pedophile rings — the GOP’s deliriously servile cult faction actually believes this dreck.  Debate club prigs like Ted Cruz and Paul Ryan built successful careers as ostensible conservative thought leaders pretending to care about clownish pseudo-economics while mastering the kind of rhetorical bad-faith and starchy euphemisms it demands.  While capital ultimately pulls the levers on the Republican Deathstar, these supply-side doughnuts are withering in their cultural influence.  They lost to the QAnon cranks and the herrenvolk populists.

First off, it isn't like he doesn't care any more.  He never cared.  The bitter clingers, the deplorables, the chumps, have always been below the salt.  Those are the Trump Voters.

And the nasty attitude toward Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is pitiful.  Ms Palin had a real job in Government and while at it cleaned up the local Alaska Swamp.  Looking down on her is not just ignorant, but an example of the overweening cultural imperialism.

People like Mr Sam Corey just mean I am stuck praying for more people to develop a less harsh spirit.  It is a burden.  But maybe good for my soul.

Regards  —  Cliff

Making Sport of the Press

For John, BLUF:  It doesn't help us pull together when the Press is classifying us in different groups and then dismissing some of those groups.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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From The Blaze, by Reporter Breck Dumas, 9 October 2020.

Here is the key paragraphy:

"So, let us brace ourselves," he continued, saying, "The task is two-fold: the terrorist Trump must be defeated, must be destroyed, must be devoured at the ballot box, and then he, and his enablers, and his supporters, and his collaborators, and the Mike Lees and the William Barrs, and Sean Hannitys, and the Mike Pences, and the Rudy Gullianis and the Kyle Rittenhouses and the Amy Coney Barretts must be prosecuted and convicted and removed from our society while we try to rebuild it and to rebuild the world Trump has destroyed by turning it over to a virus."

I expect that if Vice President Joe Biden is elected President and Mr Keith Olbermann is appointed as our local Gauleiter I will be one of those "prosecuted and convicted and removed from our society.

From where do we get such people?  How do we manage to raise them?  And why don't they realize that your typical sentence should not exceed twenty words?

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

A Maddow Miss

For John, BLUF:  There are lots of feel good stories out there, stories of people going above and beyond, but the Media seems to be thinking about what a failure the President is, and also all those Deplorables who are supporting him.  This is about two USNS Hospital Ships.♠  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Madness and Maddow

From The Chicago Boyz, by Sgt. Mom, 31 March 2020.

Here are the first two sentences:

The Navy hospital ships promised by President Trump to deploy to New York and Los Angeles arrived on-station as ordered a few days ago.  MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, presumed for some obscure-to-me reason to be associated with the provision of news to the public, and most recently famed through peddling Russian conspiracy theories regarding Trump’s election for the past three years, had ridiculed the President’s proposed schedule as “nonsense.”

Or, as put at the InstaPundit:

PROFILES OF THE FUTURE:

● Shot:  “In terms of the happy talk we’ve had on this front from the federal government, there is no sign that the Navy hospital ships that the president made such a big deal of, the Comfort and the Mercy, there’s no sign that they`ll be anywhere on-site helping out anywhere in the country for weeks yet.  The president said when he announced that those ships would be put into action against the COVID-19 epidemic.  He said one of those ships would be operational in New York harbor by next week.  That`s nonsense.  It will not be there next week.” — MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, March 20th.

● Chaser:  “The Mercy arrived in L.A. on Friday, March 27, just one week after Maddow said the ship will take weeks to arrive. The USNS Comfort arrived in New York City’s harbor on Monday, March 30.” — “Rachel Maddow Calls The Timely Arrival Of Navy Hospital Ships ‘Nonsense,’” the Federalist today.

As Sgt Mom put it, there was a great story missed, in how the shipyard workers doubled down and got those ships to sea quickly.  Not quite the Battle of Midway, where the shipyard workers from Pearl were still aboard, working, when one of the US Carriers sailed to intercept the Japanese fleet, but still a magnificent effort.  Let's hear it for shipyard workers.♥

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  A USNS, a United States Naval Ship, is a mostly civilian manned ship of the US Navy, as opposed to a "USS", which is a Commissioned US Navy Combatant.
♥  My association is that I was once a busboy in a Cafeteria at the long gone Long Beach Naval Shipyard.

Beto Goes Rogue

For John, BLUF:  Some on the left wish to impose their moral code on the rest of the nation, regardless of First Amendment protections.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Beto Vows to Strip Tax-Exempt Status From Churches That Oppose Gay Marriage

From PJ Media, by Mr Tyler O'Neil, 10 October 2019.

You can read the full article at the link, but the title tells us everything.  There is a branch of the Democratic Party that feels the petty beliefs of people in Flyover Country need to be suppressed, notwithstanding the Bill of Rights.

This is like a gift to the Republicans come 2020.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

The Racists

For John, BLUF:  Democratic Presidential aspirants talk about President Trump, and Republicans in general, as though racism is inherent in their bones.  They are ignorant Know Nothing’s, but that changes nothing.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Elizabeth Warren called Trump a white supremacist.  And she’s not the only one

From The Boston Globe, by Ms Victoria McGrane, 9 August 2019.

Here is the lede plus one:

The 2020 presidential contest barreled into profound and bitter territory this week as several Democratic contenders said they believe President Trump is a white supremacist, and others sharpened their charges that he is stoking racial animus and division.

The tragic murders and the aftermath of mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso seemed poised to crystallize the Democratic challenge to Trump as a moral reckoning for America — and all but ensured race will remain a dominant theme of the campaign.

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren became on Wednesday the third Democratic presidential candidate to unequivocally state she believes Trump is a white supremacist.

I know this is two months old, but I am trying to catch up.  And some of these things are eternal, or so some Democratic Candidate tell us.

The other thing interesting is that there were THREE mass killing that weekend.  There was the murder of four people ain Garden Grove, California.  And, for the record the Dayton killer wasn't a "White Supremiscist."  He was a left Wing environmentalist.

But, the big issue is the not so subtle implication that everyone who voted for, or is thinking of voting for, the Saul Alinsky like Donald Trump is a racist or white supremacist.  There has been a certain amount of scoffing at recent "Civil War" comments, but when almost half the voters are characterized as not just deplorable and irredeemable, but white supremacists, we are digging a big trench between the two engaged groups in our citizenry.  A deep trench, which many can’t easily cross, either direction.

I assume Senator Warren is hoping to generate new voters since she appears to not be reaching across the aisle to pull in Republican voting citizens.

Regards  —  Cliff

Equal Justice For All?

For John, BLUF:  Are we creating an "under class" who are treated by a different set of rules, maybe Deplorables who are unredeemable?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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McCabe and Papadopoulos:  Two-Tiered Justice

Here is the sub-headline:

“Equal justice under the law” is not supposed to be an aspiration or a quaint slogan. It is supposed to be a guarantee.

From National Review, by Author Andrew C McCarthy, 24 August 2019.

Here is the lede plus one:

The date of a meeting, that’s all the lie was about. George Papadopoulos claimed that a meeting he’d had with the mysterious Maltese professor, Josef Mifsud, happened slightly before the green-as-grass 28-year-old was recruited into the Trump campaign.  In reality, it was slightly after.

It wasn’t a very important lie.  It was of no consequence to the FBI or the special counsel’s investigation. Papadopoulos was such an afterthought that the Bureau did not bother to interview him until late January 2017 — about 10 months after he met Mifsud.  By the time Papadopoulos was charged, the Trump–Russia investigation had been ongoing for well over a year — it was already clear that there was no conspiracy.

Here is how the article ends:

For about ten days, I’ve had a new book out on Russiagate, called Ball of Collusion.  I’ve gotten to do lots of speeches and interviews.  Most interesting are the ones when members of the audience ask questions.  Without fail, they home in on the thing I least like to talk about:  What is going to happen to government officials who are suspected of abusing their powers and misleading such bodies as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court?  A name that reliably comes up is Andy McCabe.  People who have followed the story know the IG referred him to the Justice Department for a possible false-statements prosecution.  They know other aspects of McCabe’s conduct are still under investigation.

I hate this topic because I am not one to cheerlead for comeuppance against law-enforcement people.  I know how hard their jobs are, how readily errors can be made because one often has to act on imperfect information; because there is a natural zeal to catch bad guys that can easily become overzealousness.  I have no problem analyzing their judgment calls — mine got analyzed plenty, and we all make our share of mistakes.  But I am hard-wired not to presume bad motive.

So I tell people what they don’t want to hear:  We don’t know all the salient facts; we should wait for the imminent reports of investigations being conducted by Horowitz and John Durham (the Connecticut U.S. attorney tasked by AG Bill Barr to probe Russiagate); and we should disabuse ourselves of the notion that errors in judgment and abuses of discretion, even egregious ones, necessarily entail criminal-law violations.  It is much more important to have a factual accounting of what happened, and to take whatever curative measures are apt to prevent bad things from happening again.

Suffice it to say, this does not get a warm reception.

There is a great deal of anger out there.  People see the kid-gloves approach to the Clinton-emails investigation, and they can’t square it with the aggression of the Trump–Russia probe.  They see the laws contorted to let Mrs. Clinton slide, while the screws get put to Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort over the Logan Act and the Foreign Agent Registration Act – statutes the Justice Department almost never invokes.

They see the false-statements investigations of Andy McCabe and George Papadopoulos and think, “Hey, wait a second . . .”

“Equal justice under the law” is not supposed to be an aspiration or a quaint slogan. It is supposed to be a guarantee.

If I don't have equal rights, equal access to justice, am I really part of the social compact, really an equal citizen?

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

White Supremacy Attracts Immigrants?

For John, BLUF:  Bad as the US may be, where immigrants are from must be far worse.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Strange Case of ‘White Supremacy’

From American Greatness, by Professor Victor Davis Hanson, 11 August 2019.

Here is the meat of the argument:

Most estimates suggest new American immigrants range from 80 percent to 90 percent nonwhite, the vast majority from Mexico and Latin America, and Asia, and in particular Mexico, Central America, India, Southeast Asia, and China.  Given the dominance of the American media worldwide, the influence of American movies and television, and the ubiquity of American pop culture, most immigrants have a fairly good idea of what life inside America is like.

Why, then, if we as a people are plagued from the outset by an incurable “white supremacy” and “white privilege,” would hundreds of thousands of nonwhite immigrants each year wish to enter such a dreadful place?

The answer to why America appears attractive to newcomers is obvious: what global elites say and what non-elites do are two quite different things.

Certainly, one can damn in the abstract (whether for careerist purposes or from psychological angst) what one desires in the concrete.  For all her expressed disappointment in America, U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) may well have violated U.S. tax and perhaps immigration law in an allegedly felonious effort to facilitate her brother’s entry into America—a fact that resonates far more than her often tired whines about her dissatisfaction with her adopted country.

In sum, millions over the last few decades would have avoided or been barred from entering the United States, as they have avoided immigrating into an exclusionary but prosperous China or Japan—had they believed America was a racist country dominated by overweening white privilege.  Throughout history white supremacist societies—or any other supposedly racially defined nation—have not adopted de facto or de jure immigration policies that welcome immigrants who are 80-90 percent of a different race or ethnic background.

Why are Democrats not urging immigrants to the US to stay home?

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Look More Broadly

For John, BLUF:  Bad analysis usually doesn't solve hard problems.  Blaming guns and "White Privilege" for all mass killings is an example.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Racially-Motivated Attack The National Mainstream Media Is Ignoring

From Bearing Arms, by Mr Tom Knighton, 6 August 2019.

Without getting into details, the point of Mr Knighton is that racially-motivated attacks, gun and other, is not just a one way transaction.  We need a broader view of the social and cultural tensions.  Put another way, it isn't just about Deplorables and irredeemables.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Who Are The Protesters

For John, BLUF:  This is about the protests over the last four weeks in Paris, France, but it is also about other voters.  Those other voters would include Les Deplorables And the Brexiters. Nothing to see here; just move along.

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From Twitter:

Glenn Greenwald    @ggreenwald

The inability of rich neoliberal centrist elites in western capitals to understand - or even hide their scorn for - the anger & grievances of rural and working-class people over their economic suffering is one of the 2 or 3 most important causes of contemporary political changes:
Quote Tweet

Neera Tanden    @neeratanden

I don’t understand why any progressive is cheering French protesters who are amassing against a carbon tax.

7:54 AM · Dec 9, 2018 · Twitter Web Client

The climate change folks seem to not understand there are other equities out there.

Hat tip to InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

What Is Going On In Paris?

For John, BLUF:  It is more than Paris, and it is more fundamental that just Donald J Trump.  I think Columnist Fareed Zakaria best captures what is going on.  The elites need to be paying attention or they will be replaced.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The new dividing line in Western politics

From The Wash Post, by Columnist Fareed Zakaria, 13 December 2018.

Here is the lede plus three:

For Stephen K. Bannon, the way to create an enduring populist majority is to combine forces on the left and right.  That’s why he was in Italy this year, where parties representing those two sides joined together in a governing alliance.  That’s why Bannon hopes to lure some of Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) supporters away from the Democratic Party.  But the next place we might be watching the rise of a new left-right populism is France.

Thus far, the “yellow vest” protests in France have lacked a party, structure and leadership.  But lists of demands have been circulating.  At their heart is an unworkable fantasy, such as a constitutional cap on taxes at 25 percent, coupled with a massive increase in social spending.  What is striking about these manifestos is that they combine traditional wish lists from the left and right.  No wonder, then, that nearly 90 percent of people who back the major far-left and far-right parties view the movement favorably, compared with only 23 percent of people in President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party.

The “yellow vest” uprising has also spread to Belgium, where the fragile governing coalition has collapsed, largely over the issue of immigration.  But there again, the protests have the feel of generalized discontent coming from left and right.  Just as in France, the United States and Britain, the movement appears to be a rural backlash against urban elites.

The fissure between relatively better-educated urbanites and less-educated rural populations appears to have become the new dividing line in Western politics.  “Outsiders” feel ignored or looked down upon and feel deep resentment toward metropolitan elites.  It’s part class, part culture, but there is a large element of economics to it as well.

Yes, this is about ten days old, but this best captures, in my mind, what is going on.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Them vs Us

For John, BLUF:  From one perspective there does seem to be a split between the urban elites and the more rural folk, not just in the US, but in European nations as well (and maybe in China).  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Globalist Mindset:  They Hate You

From American Greatness, by Professor Victor Davis Hanson, 16 December 2018.

Globalist as in intellectuals, the intelligentsia, our betters, those who live on the coasts, in large cities.

This is about the issues that stir the rest of us.

A good rundown.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Mia Farrow Speaks Up

For John, BLUF:  Hollywood and DC seem more alike in the area of sexual harassment and abuse.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Mia Farrow Calls for Clarence Thomas to Resign

From Breitbart! by Reporter Jerome Hudson, 24 September 2018.

Here is the lede plus one:

Actress Mia Farrow took to Twitter on Sunday and called on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to “resign” his position on the country’s highest court.

“And another thing is painfully clear all over again Clarence Thomas has no business on the Supreme Court.  He should resign,” Mia Farrow wrote.

Her son is Reporter Ronan Farrow, who has had two two recent articles on "sex scandals" published in the New Yorker.

What provoked this outbreak?  The Democrats feel pretty confident they can control the narrative, with the help of the Media, but until they have a "Chinese like" control of the Internet they shouldn't be too cocky.

While former Veep Joe Biden thinsks the Republicans are the "dregs of society" he needs to keep in mind that they have their own paths of communication.

Hat tip to the Breitbart.

Regards  —  Cliff

You Miscreants, Shut Up

For John, BLUF:  I am disappointed in current Democratic Party performance, or the performance of some members thereof.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Legal Advisor for Kavanaugh’s Accuser Is a Big Time Democratic Donor, Thinks People Who Work for Trump Are 'Miscreants'

From Town Hall, by Reporter Timothy Meads 16 September 2018.

Here is the lede:

The Washington Post reported this afternoon that Stanford professor Christine Blasey Ford is the woman behind the confidential letter given to Sen. Dianne Feinstein accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault as a teenager.  According to the Post, Ford initially refrained from revealing the alleged information of a horrendous sexual assault due to privacy concerns for herself and her family.  But she thought it was her duty to come forward on the record after the advice of Washington lawyer Debra Katz.  Katz, however, has a long history of dismissing sexual assault allegations against liberal politicians, donating to left-wing causes, and even publicly demonizing all Trump advisors as "miscreants" who are worse than deplorables.

So, I am assuming that miscreant is worse than deplorable.

But, where does that term sit vis-a-via former Vice President Joe Biden's "Dregs of society" phrase from last weekend?

Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden assailed President Trump’s supporters during a speech Saturday at the annual Human Rights Campaign dinner in Washington, lamenting that “virulent people” and the “dregs of society” still had a friend in the White House.

The Democrats are becoming more and more erudite and colorful as the November election nears.

But, they (the Democrats) still favor political advantage over fairness and justice.

Hat tip to the Drudge Report.

Regards  —  Cliff

Building Trump's Base

For John, BLUF:  Sometimes you are known by the enemies you make.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Elites’ War on the Deplorables

From American Greatness, by Professor Victor Davis Hanson, 5 August 2018.

Here is the lede plus five:

ecently, Politico reporter Marc Caputo was angered at rude hecklers at a Trump rally who booed beleaguered CNN correspondent Jim Acosta.

So Caputo tweeted of them, “If you put everyone’s mouths together in this video, you’d get a full set of teeth.”

Politico had not employed such a crass journalist since before it fired Julia Ioffe for tweeting, “Either Trump is f—ing his daughter or he’s shirking nepotism laws.  Which is worse?”  (Ioffe was then snatched up by the Atlantic, which has an unpredictable policy either of excusing or not excusing the controversial expressions of its newly hired journalists.)

I suppose Caputo meant that Trump voters intrinsically lacked either the money to fix their teeth or the knowledge of the hygiene required to take care of them or the aesthetic sensitivity of how awful their mouths looked.  Or Caputo was simply rehashing the stereotypes that he had seen on reality TV shows like “Duck Dynasty” and “The Deadliest Catch.”

Or none of the above:  the journalist grandee was just stupid.

That last alternative seems most likely since Caputo then escalated and called them collectively “garbage people.”  Or rather, in the manner of a cowardly age of social media, he tweeted that slur when safely at a distance.

Frankly, I am honored the elites think I am one of Les Deplorables.

Remember the line, "If you want more Trump, this is how you get more Trump."

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Can We Ever Pull Together Again?

For John, BLUF:  So, if it is a "Blue Wave", what do we do with the 63 million Trump voters from 2016?.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Media don't want to understand Trump voters, all 63 million of them

From The Chicago Tribune, by Reporter John Kass, 1 August 2018.

Here is the lede plus five:

As the tax evasion trial of former presidential campaign manager Paul Manafort began, the Trump-hating Democratic Media Complex renewed its howls, hoping Manafort flips and gives up Trump’s head.

Then the author turns to a tweet by Ms Mollie Hemingway, who asked why reporters are getting paid to report on a President they don't understand in any way.  Mr Kass, not a vote for Mr Trump in November 2016, answers Ms Hemingway but then goes on to deplore the press for not understanding President Trump's voters.

Here is how it ends:

Think back on the ridicule that Hillary Clinton, the establishment Democrat of 2016, heaped on Trump voters when she called them “deplorables.”

It wasn’t what Clinton said, alone, that bothered those 63 million voters.  Many were shocked by Trump’s manner, by his bragging, his rude behavior, reference to his hand size, his boorishness, the way he treated women.

And still they voted for him.  Why?  Because they loathed the other side more.  They loathed the establishment.  They loathed the media.  And their reservations about Trump were washed away by the laughter following Clinton’s “deplorables” line.

Think back on that laughter, on that giggling when she talked of “deplorables.”  What followed were the snickers of the clique who get the joke at the expense of those who don’t.

That laughter stuck.  And Trump voters took the memory of it to the polls on Election Day.  Clinton won the popular vote, but Trump voters overwhelmingly gave him the Electoral College victory.

Now, Democrats are lathered up with the trial of this B-movie villain, this Manafort, whose alleged crimes took place long before he worked a few months for Trump.

Let’s say their Manafort fantasies come true, and he cuts a deal, and he serves Trump to special prosecutor Robert Mueller and the orange presidential head is placed upon a platter.

Then what?

What do you do with the millions who voted for Trump?  Mock them into submission?  Have them grovel and beg forgiveness before they’re re-educated?

You don’t have to understand Trump.  But it’s dangerous not to understand the 63 million who voted for him.  They’re not going into exile.  They’re here.

There is the example of the Vendée.  After the Battle of Savenay, in December 1793, General Francois Joseph Westermann reported to Paris:

The Vendée is no more ... According to your orders, I have trampled their children beneath our horses' feet; I have massacred their women, so they will no longer give birth to brigands.  I do not have a single prisoner to reproach me.  I have exterminated them all.

But, speaking of General Westermann, remember the Frank Sinatra lyrics:

You're riding high in April
Shot down in May

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

They Just Don't Understand

For John, BLUF:  The Democrats, that is, who just don't understand.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Five Things the Left Doesn’t Get About Trump’s ‘Deplorables’

Here is the sub-headline:

Just about everything Democrats think they know about the president's supporters is wrong

From Lifezette, by former Maryland Governor (and four time Congressman) Robert Ehrlich, 13 July 2018.

As Law Prof Glenn Reynolds likes to remind Republicans, "Don't get cocky."

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff