Democracy 2024: # 28

Somehow, I manage to force myself to keep doing this week after week.

The temperatures have been hot across America the past week and near where I live, there have also been a series of storms. None of that has really had an effect on me but to abuse some metaphors, our political system seems to be melting down and there are further dark clouds ahead. There has just been so much craziness on Capitol Hill and beyond over the past week that it is just really had to keep up with it all. The Republican base seems to want to push hard on cultural issues which does not speak in a strong way to anyone beyond those who already make up the base. Candidates for President on the Republican side and some in Congress get headlines for criticizing Ukraine and effectively siding with Russia, despite the fact that a bipartisan majority of Americans strongly disagrees.

Then, there is the grandson of infamous Nazi apologist Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., who is the leading challenger for the Democrats' Presidential nomination and is saying things on the level of Trump like craziness. Today, he was in a brouhaha over a comment he made on video in which he said Covid was deliberately engineered and that Jews of European background and Chinese are somehow less susceptible. (Maybe we have just been smart enough to get vaccinated and to socially distance when that was most appropriate.) I have been saying for many years that the Kennedys do not deserve the cult-like devotion that Democrats have given to them for generations. Maybe RFK Jr. will finally "jump the shark" for the entire family,though I am sure most are embarrassed and ashamed by him. That family and its acolytes should have been embarrassed and ashamed by Senator Ted Kennedy driving a woman off a bridge in 1969 and immediately putting his political career first as she drowned to death or by episode years later when he took part in the public sexual assault of a waitress at a Washington D.C. restaurant.

Of course, Bobby Jr. is not going to be nominated, but has many new fans in MAGAland these days. Incumbent President Joe Biden is raking in the campaign cash which will be put to use against the eventual Republican nominee, even as questions about his age and acuity do not go away. Vice President Kamala Harris continues to speak in bizarre and awkward word salads on the rare occasions she is covered by national media. Democrats still have to wonder what plan B or C could have to be if any situation arose. The conventional wisdom these days is that California Governor Gavin Newsom might be ready to go, Other ambitious pols in the party might have their own plans in that case. It is clear though that no Democrat of statue is going to attempt to challenge Joe Biden in the primaries. The nomination is once again his if he wants it, even if were to wander naked onto the Truman Balcony during a Fox News live shoot.

By the way, as predicted, the White House Cocaine Caper is now over. The Secret Service could not figure out who it belonged to so whomever that person was is off scot-free. I have tried very hard to avoid falling into conspiracy theories but something about this whole episode does not add up. I think if somebody really wanted to get to the bottom of this, there is more that could have been done. Also, for all the grief that Hunter Biden has caused his father for years, and for all the 100 percent loyalty that Joe continues to show him to this day, maybe Hunter could have volunteered to take a drug test and have the results released (and then challenge Donald Trump Jr. to do the same thing.). Democrats continue to circle the wagons around Hunter Biden though and Joe Biden by extension, even as the story about how the President deliberately avoids acknowledging the existence of his young out of wedlock granddaughter was a larger part of the discussion early in the week. A President should do better and America should demand it, even when something hits this close to home.

I did run across an old sketch from Saturday Night Live from 1989 in which Dana Carvey spoofed President George H.W. Bush in an example of how reality a generation plus later has imitated fiction. This was aired after President Bush 41 held up a bag of crack during an Oval Office Address about the War on Drugs.

In this SNL sketch, the fake President Bush holds up a bag of "cocaine crack" that he says was bought "three feet from this desk." He also talked about marijuana being grown in the Rose Garden (which these days might be seen as a political plus) and First Dog Millie bringing in a crackpipe found on the South Lawn. Also, an ecstasy factory had to be shut down in the Lincoln Bedroom. Back then, it was all for laughs. I have memories of watching this live as a child.

In regards to the Republican Presidential race, Donald Trump continues to hold a huge lead, even as each passing day seems to bring the possibility of another indictment in another venue. The campaign of Ron DeSantis is floundering and the subject of ridicule. He has laid off staffers already and some of his big donors are said to be looking into alternatives like Tim Scott or Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin still on the sidelines. Speaking of Virginia, I read today something about how E.W. Jackson, a minister controversial Virginia Republican figure and past candidate for state office is now jumping into the Presidential field. I do not think the Democrats can ever claim to have have had four or even three black candidates in the same Presidential cycle.

With roughly a month until the first Republican Presidential debate and six months until the Iowa Caucuses, Republican hopefuls who are not Donald Trump are hoping for a shakeup eventually and by whatever means. Some are running as Ultra-Trump, some as Trump-Lite, and just a few as a non-Trumpaholic variety. One of the Trump-Lites (though perhaps not on social issues) is his former Vice President Mike Pence, who has continued to speak very forcefully in support of U.S.efforts to aid Ukraine (where he recently visited) but who raised a paltry sum of money for his campaign in the last quarter. Another candidate who is running on substantive issues and largely trying to avoid Trump altogether is Doug Burgum, who is rich, but is trying to meet the stupid RNC requirements to make the debate stage. One of those is that a candidate must have a certain number of donors. The Burgum campaign is sending a $20 gift card to anyone who donates at least $1 to the campaign. Somehow that is legal. It certainly is creative. Asa Hutchinson is said to be struggling to have enough donors to make the debate so I felt obligated to donate a few dollars to him. It may indeed be difficult for him to qualify though.

At least Chris Christie is likely to make it though, so I can count on cheering him on in his anti-Trump endeavors which of course is a contrast to the last times he was on a Presidential debate stage, where he simply ran interference for Trump. Times have changed though and Christie will be prepared to through haymakers. Will Trump be there to meet him?