In the annals of America’s political history, the 2022 mid-terms will be acknowledged as the national elections that revealed that Democrats and Republicans suffer the same type of insanity, just at opposite ends of the spectrum.
In January 2016 at a presidential campaign rally in Iowa then-candidate, Donald Trump boldly declared “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters”. Considering the fact that by November of 2016, even after candidate Trump was caught on tape admitting to sexually assaulting women, he was elected President Trump proving his bold declaration to be more fact than ego trip fiction. The past few weeks have shown that this type of Republican voter allegiance is not limited to Donald Trump.
In Georgia the Republican nominee challenging the current pastor of my church and the Democrat incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock, Herschel Walker, has been caught lying about graduating from college, lying about having worked as an agent of the FBI, lying about serving in the U.S. military, and lying both about having any child out of wedlock and then lying about how many children he has fathered out of wedlock. None of these revealed lies have affected Walker’s support among Republicans.
The Teflon Don who attracts Republican votes under any circumstance, Donald Trump, explained a year ago in an interview with the New York Times Maggie Haberman why Walker’s many instances of domestic violence abuse would not affect his electability. In acknowledging Walker’s violent history Trump said “He does but, you know, it’s a personal history that, ten years ago, maybe it would’ve been a problem. Twenty years ago it would’ve been a bigger problem. I don’t think it’s a problem today”. When Trump was asked why not he replied “because the world is changing”.
This week after a bombshell report, accusing the no-abortion under any circumstances Walker of allegedly paying for a woman’s abortion years earlier, Trump, the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, a PAC closely tied to Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and multiple anti-abortion groups all released statements strongly supporting Walker despite his apparent abortion faux pas.
With full knowledge of the embarrassing facts both Florida Sen. Rick Scott, the chair of the Republican Party’s Senate election campaign apparatus, and Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton traveled to Georgia to campaign for Walker!!! It’s a Republican allegiance to Walker not based on his character or his competence, but solely on Walker’s ability to impact which political party will control the U.S. Senate.
Meantime in blue America Democrats are living with their own voter allegiance problems. Back in March of 2020 when over 100,000 virus-infected Americans were dying every day due to the lack of ventilators in America, then President Donald Trump and a Republican-controlled Senate told America’s governors “Respirators, ventilators, all of the equipment try getting it yourselves, we will be backing you, but try getting it yourselves. Point of sales, much better, much more direct if you can get it yourself”. This type of Republican leadership led the medical supply industry into chaos at the worst possible time, pitting states against each other and driving up prices in the “get it yourself” state competition for masks, gowns, and ventilators.
Former Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo spoke for all of America’s governors at the time when he said “I can’t find any more equipment. It’s not a question of money, we need the federal help and we need the federal help now.” The help that Cuomo and America’s governors were asking for was the same help the American Medical Association was asking Trump for, the same help that the then Republican-controlled Senate was silent about and put no pressure on Trump to do, which was to invoke the Defense Production Act (DPA).
Within 2 weeks of Joe Biden being sworn in as President and Democrats taking full control of both the House and Senate, President Biden invoked the DPA to ease the medical supply crunch and speed the production of virus vaccines to meet his goal of 100 million vaccine shots in 100 days. Invoking the DPA worked so well that Biden was able to deliver the 100 million vaccine shots to a dying America ahead of schedule in 58 days, saving thousands of American lives.
When Republicans were in full control of the House, Senate, and White House in 2018 and 2019 their only accomplishments were tax cuts for the rich, right-wing rule of ideology judges for conservatives, and attempting to replace healthcare for all with Republican nothing healthcare. In Joe Biden’s first year as President, he accomplished more in 1 year than Donald Trump did in 4 years. Among Biden’s accomplishments are:
$1.9 Trillion COVID Relief Deal- provided direct payments of up to $1,400 to many struggling U.S. citizens, temporarily extended unemployment support by $300 per week, channeled approximately $20 billion into the COVID vaccination program, as well as providing $350 billion into state, tribal and local governments to replace lost tax revenue due to economic shutdowns caused by the COVID virus.
$1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Package- drastically increases investment in the national network of bridges and roads, airports, public transport, national broadband internet, as well as waterways and energy systems.
Reinstated Commitment to Combating Climate Change- President Biden re-joined the international Paris Climate Accord, which Trump had parted ways with, allowing the U.S. to continue to work with global players in the worldwide drive to deter the climate’s deterioration.
Support for Transgender Service Members- within his first week at the White House, Biden issued an executive order to overturn former President Trump’s ban on openly transgender members of the U.S. military.
Historic Job Growth And Unemployment- 6.6 million jobs were created during Joe Biden’s first 12 months in office, it’s the best first-year record of any president going back to former President Harry Truman in the 1940s. When Biden took office in January 2021 the unemployment rate stood at 6.3 percent by December 2021 Biden’s economic policies had reduced unemployment to 3.9 percent. The lowest level of unemployment since 1969 and an unemployment level the Congressional Budget Office forecasted would not be reached until 2026.
After Democrats have lived thru 4 years of Trump’s do-nothing harmful policies and Joe Biden’s 2 years of successfully managing everything from the Covid-19 virus, the economy, rising gas prices, and the Ukrainian War, Democrats say they would prefer to vote for a new Democratic leader in 2024. American Black Democrats, along with progressive Democrats, were lackluster about returning to vote for Democrats in the 2022 mid-terms because 2 Democrat Senators, Joe Manchin, and Kyrsten Sinema, blocked the other 224 Democrats in the House and 48 Democrats in the Senate from following through on campaign pledges to pass new voting rights and police reform legislation.
It wasn’t until after the U.S. rule of ideology Supreme Court took away a 50-year right to abortion on June 24, 2022, that Democrats equaled Republicans in enthusiasm when it came to voting for one of their own. A September Morning Consult-Politico survey found that slightly over half of those surveyed in both parties reported feeling extremely or very enthusiastic about voting in November’s midterms: 56 percent of Democrats and 57 percent of Republicans. 2 months before the right to an abortion was taken away, a mid-April poll found Republicans were far more enthusiastic about voting for one of their own than their Democratic counterparts by a whopping 13 points.
Both Republicans and Democrats suffer the same insanity, allegiance insanity. Republicans require too little from their politicians, character-wise or political principle-wise, in order to maintain allegiance. The only requirement for Republicans is the person’s ability to win. This is why Republican voters always learn the hard way that when Republicans campaign on the pledge to reduce the size, power, and amount of taxpayer money spent by the government, what they truly mean is they would reduce government regulation for things they support e.g. the right to purchase guns and increase regulation for things they oppose e.g. abortion, they will spend unlimited amounts of taxpayer money for things they support e.g. the military and withhold taxpayer money for the things they don’t e.g. social services.
Democrats require too much from their politicians, demanding a politician deliver 100% of all campaign pledges made in order to maintain allegiance, regardless of any legitimate mitigating circumstances that would prevent them from doing so. A politician who doesn’t deliver 100% of campaign pledges won’t due and justifies the Democrat’s illogical reasoning of not showing up to support the politician in the next election, even though not showing up to vote could mean certain defeat for a Democrat who only delivered 50% of the campaign pledges made, and certain victory for a Republican who doesn’t think that any of the Democratic Party campaign pledges should have ever be made in the first place, much less fulfilled.
Since there are a growing number of American citizens who have long progressed beyond simply losing faith in the Democrat and Republican American political parties, to now losing faith in the American political system of democracy!!! Both Democrats and Republicans must soul-search, self-evaluate, and reengineer what they require of and from the stewards of their respective parties before American democracy becomes American autocracy.
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