Democracy 2024: # 39

What do I talk about this week?

I could get into this week's Republican Presidential debate. However, I only saw portions of that via cringe-watching as I was also cringe-watching the Chicago Cubs frittering away their season. It is pretty sad if I have to use politics to distract me from the absolute horror show that September has been for Chicago sports fans. A week ago Friday, I did get to go to Wrigley Field, for the first time since 2019 and saw the Cubs win 6-0. They won the next day too over a lousy team, (right before the Bears got demolished in front of Taylor Swift) but it has been a nightmare since then and the merciful end may be hours away. I just keep reminding myself that they won the World Series in 2016 and all sorts of fans of all sorts of teams have been frustrated for a much longer time. Wait til next year!

Next year will probably be pretty bad for the Republican Party though. What I saw of the debate and heard afterward pretty much confirmed it. It probably was a pretty scary week for Democrats as well. Sunday morning brought devastating poll numbers for Joe Biden. Clearly, he can no longer be considered a solid favorite against Donald Trump (not even to mention other Republicans who run stronger than Trump in a general election.) The ABC poll even showed Trump up by nine points, but many were quick to dismiss that. Conspiracy theories are everywhere in politics today. One might even think the "mainstream media" are trying to shore up the perception that many Republicans have that Trump is some sort of good candidate and that he will beat Biden. Others though believe the media is trying to show how weak Biden is in order to force him out of the race so that another Democrat can beat Trump.

As I have been saying for several weeks now, the "age problem" related to Biden is real and is not going away. In fact, there is a risk that the narrative could explode in unknown dimensions down the road. Biden should not be running for another term, but he is,and everyone will have to cringe watch this campaign the next year plus. There is news since yesterday that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is preparing to end his primary challenge to Biden and instead run as an Independent in the fall. I think there maybe some logistical hurdles to that, but clearly, Kennedy is not going to be supporting Biden in the general election no matter what. Some feel his presence on the ballot could actually take votes away from Trump instead of the actual Democrat. I would still say that the name "Kennedy" is going to take votes from some Democrats because some people are just that dumb. What I can say for certain is that if Cornel West is the Green Party nominee, that could be very bad news for Democrats. None of this has anything to do with any centrist "No Labels" effort, since people like me who are hoping for such an option would want no part of Kennedy and West (Cornel or Kanye) along with not wanting anything to do with Trump and being pretty opposed on principle to Biden.

Heaven knows I have never been a fan of Democrats but I think their party would be in a vastly more comfortable position without the baggage of Biden and Harris. I would think a ticket of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer running with Colorado Congressman Joe Neguse would probably be pretty formidable.

So what really happened at this last Republican debate? Not really much I guess absent some screaming, yelling, and interrupting. Our entire method of political discourse is now completely Trumpicized and he probably benefited by not being there. Asa Hutchinson, whom I feel the closest to on issues of all the candidates did not make the debate stage this time. He said he will probably drop out if he is not polling at 4 percent at Thanksgiving. Standards have definitely lowered. The entire event was an insult to the memories of Ronald and Nancy Reagan. I do not know how the Reagan Library wanted to even be part of this.

Doug Burgum was there at the Simi Valley event underneath the giant replica of Air Force One and spoke of substantive issues but pretty much was relegated to complaining about not having enough time to speak. Mike Pence was not as much of a presence either besides his admission that he has long been "sleeping with a teacher", i.e. Mrs. Pence.

 

That awkward moment was a response to something said earlier in the debate by Chris Christie, who I should probably consider myself disappointed with for this debate. Yes, he managed to say some necessary things about Donald Trump even if the "Donald Duck" joke was a bit lame. Christie seems to think though that conservative Trump fans are ever going to be open to him. They simply are not. He should not be under the impression that he may actually be President or the Republican nominee. Still, he has a lot of value in the race. So, while there is much to criticize about Biden, saying that Biden is "sleeping with a teacher" and thus beholden to the teachers' unions is a wasted line. Christie also said Biden is "hiding in the basement" as part of a set-up to say that Trump is hiding from the debate stage. The "basement" jokes are over three years past expiration and never were really that good to begin with. Chris Christie would be doing better if he were trying to appeal to moderate Republicans or even crossover Democrats instead of trying to show Fox News viewers that he is still one of them.

 

Vivek Ramaswamy came into the debate trying to demonstrate he is not as much of a jerk as he came across in the first showcase. He took pains to stress how much he agreed with the other candidates at various points, but clearly, he is still unlikable. 

 
Tim Scott definitely tried to be a lot more forceful than his very low-key first debate performance. Thus, he picked fights with Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley, who had no choice but to return fire at the man she once named to the U.S. Senate. The exchanges between Haley and Scott, two individuals who had been considered among the biggest rising stars of the party (and probably the two people on stage that Biden would least want to run against) was especially unfortunate. Both seemed to be scraping the bottom of the barrel to attack one another. They got loud and impossible to understand at times as they yelled at each other. Haley had to defend herself of course, but like all female candidates, it is a tougher task to raise one's voice in such a moment and she came across as shrill in tone. It was pretty ridiculous though for Scott to go after her on curtains at the UN Ambassador's apartment or whatever it was he was trying to say. I was almost waiting for Haley to fire back at Scott over his invisible girlfriend.

So, among all the people on the stage, Ron DeSantis might have had the best night, but does that really say much? He certainly did not do anything to look head and shoulders above the crowd. His position on Ukraine (shared only by Ramaswamy and Trump in the field) continues to be a disqualifier for people like me and his attempt to defend the "slavery" standards in Florida education is a lost cause. Again, I missed much of this event because I was distracted by sports. At least some of the candidates, including DeSantis did call out Trump for skipping out. He held an event at Michigan as the debate was getting underway, but apparently it was not a highly rated event and might have included paid actors posing as union members. Yesterday, from what I have heard and read, Trump gave another bizarre and profane speech (complete with m-f'er references) at the California Republican Convention,

Let me take just a moment to say that I disapprove of Joe Biden becoming the first sitting President ever to appear at a picket line, as he did at Michigan this week alongside striking UAW workers who are insisting on a 40 percent raise and a four day work week. Trump is also pretty much on their side as well, although the UAW leader wants nothing to do with Trump.

I do not know what sort of legitimate beef the autoworkers have but what they are asking for sounds absolutely ridiculous on the surface. Putting all that aside, no President should ever "take sides"in such a public manner as Biden did this week. There is a reason no President has ever done such a thing before. In theory, the President of the United States needs to be available to help bring the sides together. It is all about politics though for "Union Joe" and clearly there are large fears of blue-collar workers voting Republican, as they have been trending.

The main news of the weekend, ahead of what will be a sad MLB post-season for me, is all the "inside baseball" on Capitol Hill surrounding tonight's deadline to avert a government shuttdown. It is way too complex to get into it all here, but it looked nearly certain we were headed for a shutdown. Now, it looks like there may be a 45 day reprieve. Speaker Kevin McCarthy after having been shut down by the hardliners in his caucus led by Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz relied on Democrats to pass a Continuing Resolution this afternoon. This came as a surprise to many. A shutdown is probably not going to happen tonight, but this fight will be revisited quite soon as the can gets kicked down the road.

Amid all this tumult today, New York Democrat Jamaal Bowman pulled a fire alarm in a House building, which many believe was an attempt to stop the deal from being made or from this vote passing. He claims it was somehow an "accident" but he is on video pulling the alarm so I do not know exactly what he means.  There will be further developments over what exactly happened and why but based on the information we have, this stunt by Bowman, a combative left-winger, is nothing short of despicable. He ought to join Senator Bob Menendez in resigning from Congress if he did what it sure looks like he did. Frankly, he ought to be arrested and charged. A whole bunch of MAGA acolytes have been rightfully indicted for trying to disrupt official proceedings of Congress back on January 6, 2021. How is what Bowman did any different different? Democrats cannot have double standards here.

The bill that passed today, designed as a temporary measure, does not include any money for Ukraine funding, which is something a vocal minority of Republican House Members support. So, there are going to need to be some quick measures taken by McCarthy to bring up a separate bill to aid Ukraine pretty soon or this will all be a huge mess.

That matter though along with the fact that McCarthy had no choice but to rely on Democrats puts his Speakership at risk, which is something that has been hanging over his head from Day 1. McCarthy is said to be so frustrated with Gaetz and others that he was willing to call their bluff.

What will happen next? Gaetz could make a motion next week to "vacate the Chair"and then McCarthy will need Democrats to vote to save his job. Even if he survives that, McCarthy's tenure as Speaker is now permanently changed.