A Frustrating Few Weeks

If you’re like me and you follow politics and you think a second Joe Biden term would be disastrous for the country, the past few weeks have been frustrating.

Among my problems with the Democrats, two of the big ones were that 1) the Democrats have consistently refused to strongly call out anti-Semitism in their own ranks and 2) the Democrats have no problem shredding the Constitution to get what they want.

So, of course, Donald Trump goes off and has dinner with two of America’s best-known anti-Semites (yes, Milo was there as well but I’m not sure anyone who isn’t very online has the slightest idea who Milo is) and then he demands that the Constitution be shredded so that he can be president again.  Thanks, Don!

(For whatever it’s worth, I don’t think Trump is himself an anti-Semite.  I just think he’s a man in his mid-70s who isn’t really in touch with modern pop culture and who can’t let go of a grudge and who will have dinner with anyone who sucks up to him.)

Myself, I’ll be voting for DeSantis.  Or Kemp.  Or Youngkin.  Or even Larry Hogan!  (I like Larry Hogan more than most Republicans and I think he was effective as any Republican governor could be in a state as blue as Maryland.  But I know there’s no way a Hogan presidential campaign would get beyond New Hampshire.)  In 2024, vote for a governor.

The Freak Out

Let’s just admit it.

Sending people who have illegally crossed the border to “Sanctuary Cities” is a brilliant political move on the parts of Governors Abbott and DeSantis.  The majority of Sanctuary Cities sit far far from the Southern border and they are run by people who, by declaring themselves to be Sanctuary Cities and declaring that they would never cooperate with ICE or enforce immigration law, were commenting on a situation that they felt they would never have to deal with.

The leaders of New York City, Chicago, Washington D.C., and Martha’s Vineyard have, for the most part, played right into the hands of the governors.  They’ve reacted with outrage.  They’ve declared a humanitarian crisis.  They’ve demanded that the DOJ step in and stop what is a totally legal action.  (Once an asylum seeker has been processed, they are free to go anywhere they want while they await their hearing.)  One fact that’s been lost in all of this is that no one has been forced to take a bus to New York or a plane to Massachusetts.  They’ve all volunteered to do so and who can blame them?  Would you rather remain in South Texas (where it’s a hundred degrees on a good day) or would you prefer to go to an island paradise?  When Martha’s Vineyard declares the unscheduled arrival of 50 asylum seekers to be a humanitarian  crisis, it is justifiable to ask why it isn’t a crisis when several thousand a day show up in small towns like Eagle Pass and McAllen.  If the Obama and Biden administrations can drop off asylum seekers in Indiana, why can’t Abbott and DeSantis send them to Martha’s Vineyard?  How is it somehow more humane to force immigrants to live under a highway overpass in South Texas than it is to send them to cities that have announced that they are welcoming sanctuaries?

Its been reported that the president of the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber of Commerce has contacted ICE to see what can be done about the island’s new arrivals.  I guess the island isn’t a sanctuary anymore.

Are Abbott and DeSantis trolling the Democrats?  Of course they are.  But they’re also revealing the hypocrisy of upper class Democrats who push policies without ever having to deal with the consequences.  For too long, the message to the border states was “Shut up and deal with it.”  Now, someone else gets to deal with it.

 

Looking Ahead

I’ve been thinking about the possibility of Glenn Youngkin as a presidential candidate. When the 2024 election rolls around, he will only have been governor for a year and a half but, since Virginia only allows its governors to serve one term and neither Senators Kaine nor Warner seem vulnerable right now, 2024 might be Youngkin’s best and possibly only chance to either win the Republican nomination or at least set himself up as an early front runner for 2028.

If you need proof of just how worried Democrats are about Youngkin launching a national campaign, just witness how overboard their attacks on him have been, despite the fact that he’s only been governor for a few days.

Myself, I think a DeSantis/Youngkin ticket sounds good.

Who Trusts The Media?

This is is from FiveThirtyEight and it reveals what everyone already knew. Republicans don’t trust the media at all. Democrats do trust the media, though I think that number will go down as the Biden administration continues to stumble forward. The truly interesting number is that only 36% of independents have a “great deal” or “fair amount of trust” in the media.

The media, of course, has no one to blame for this but themselves. Even as I sit here writing this, 60 Minutes is getting called out for deceptively editing a story about the vaccine rollout in Florida. At a press conference, the reporter from 60 Minutes more or less accused DeSantis of giving Publix preferential treatment because Publix donated to his campaign. (Publix is one of the biggest stores in Florida and, like most corporations, it donated to both Republicans and Democrats in 2018.)

Below is transcript of the conversation. Everything in bold was edited out when the story aired on 60 Minutes last night:

It’s hard not to get the feeling that DeSantis is being targeted because he’s currently the prohibitive favorite to receive the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 and also because much of the media seems to be determined to prove that red states like Florida and Texas have screwed up their handling of the pandemic just as much as Andrew Cuomo did in New York. That’s not the type of behavior that’s going to restore trust in the media.

The truth is that we need to be able to have faith in our media. One reason why this pandemic has been so much harder on people than many of the other crises this country has been through is because no one knows who to trust. Both the media and the government have proven themselves far too quick to lie to promote a narrative and protect their own power. As a result, the people have no one to whom they can look without skepticism. The people feel like no one is on their side and that leaves them open to being manipulated by every demagogue with a national platform.

America has been on a dangerous path for a while. I’m not sure how much longer we can continue to walk down it.