A Sick Society

Signs of a Sickness in Society————————–

                A commentary

                By J. F. Kelly, Jr.

The things that some politicians say and do for political advantage no longer shock me but continue to disgust me. It was entirely predictable that candidates for the Democrat presidential nomination, who have repeatedly branded President Trump a racist, would reflexively blame him for the latest mass shootings, in El Paso and Dayton. And they did, almost before the awful news reached a public that has become almost numbed to these tragedies. Never mind that mass shootings have been going on since long before Donald Trump’s presidency.

The loss of every human life at the hands of a deranged murderer is a tragedy, whether the result of a mass shooting or a gang banger on a typical night in Chicago or Baltimore. But the massacre in El Paso was all the more horrifying because the shooter specifically targeted Hispanics because he felt they were invading Texas. This fit neatly into the Democrat strategy of labelling Trump as a racist despite his repeated denials which, of course, they reject, because they claim he is also a liar.

The candidates were quick to pounce. Front-runner Joe Biden accused him of “giving safe harbor to hate which gives license to extremism.” Sen. Cory Booker was more direct: “He is responsible.” Beto O’Rourk said “He is encouraging this.” Mayor Pete Buttigieg went even further: (H)e’s condoning and encouraging white nationalism.” California’s rookie senator, Kamala Harris, accused him of sowing hate and division.

At a time when the nation should come together in mourning and respect for the victims and their loved ones and condemning all hatred and racism, the candidates just couldn’t resist the chance to exploit a tragedy for political advantage. The San Diego Union-Tribune, which devotes much of its space to condemning Trump’s immigration and border policies, printed a full page editorial headlined “Hate Here? Hell, No.” It then proceeded to pour out thinly-disguised hatred and blame on the president. It ended with the words, “Today, look a San Diego stranger in the eye and say ‘Hate here? Hell no. Let’s number hate’s days. So it won’t keep numbering ours.” Just what does that mean and how might it be interpreted by some angry young man who hates Trump and his supporters?

Pouring gasoline on a fire will not put it out. But that’s what those Democrat candidates and their supporters in the liberal media are doing. It won’t help. Blame for these shootings belongs to the shooters; the racist who drove 600 miles for the purpose of killing Hispanics and to the equal opportunity murderer in Dayton who, incidentally, was an Elizabeth Warren supporter. I haven’t heard anyone blaming her for inspiring that shooter.

As I’ve written before, no one but Mr. Trump knows for sure whether or not he is, in his heart, a racist. People should be judged by their actions, not solely by their words. Trump is clumsy with words and has the language skills of a high school freshman. I warned of this repeatedly in columns and urged the GOP to dump him. Unfortunately, he won the nomination and had the good fortune to run against a deeply-flawed Democrat candidate. He also benefitted from James Comey’s last-minute meddling that probably influenced the election outcome. But this crop of leftist Democrat contenders are, with a few exceptions, just as flawed as he is. They seem full of hatred for this duly-elected president and their socialistic ideas can do severe damage to our robust economy which, like him or not, Mr. Trump gets credit for.

As to whom else to blame for the mass shootings besides the shooters themselves, try blaming our declining culture and our fascination with violence. Blame the angry, alienated young men who blame society for their problems and are eager for revenge and for someone to notice them. Blame their sometimes clueless parents who were too busy to learn parenting skills or notice the warning signs. Blame social media, rap music lyrics and violent video games. Blame disrespect for authority and our laws. Please don’t tell me that research shows little or no correlation between these things and the mass shootings. You can prove or disprove almost anything by slanted research. Those of us who have lived long enough know the signs of a sick society when we see one because we remember when it was, if by no means perfect, certainly healthier, safer, more civil and less hate-filled.

August  29, 2019

Lurching to the Left

Leftward Lurch a Losing Strategy————————

                A commentary

                By J. F. Kelly, Jr.

What the Democrat debaters lack in realism they are making up for in entertainment value. You have to be amused by the cranky, old socialist from Vermont who seems to be perpetually mad at everyone. You just have to feel sympathy for poor old Joe who keeps apologizing for almost everything he’s ever said or done, but still gets scolded by the other candidates, especially by California’s freshman senator, Kamala Harris, who gained national attention by disrupting the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings and scolding him, too.

 

Mr. Biden spoke of getting along, even with one-time segregationist senators, in order to get important legislation done and having been critical of forced school busing. She was, she said, deeply hurt by his words. “I was that little girl on the school bus,” she whined. That’s really rich. Her parents were university faculty members with doctoral degrees. She was not just a poor little black girl on a bus. Her parents probably could have afforded to send her to school in a chauffeured limousine.  She is also something of a hypocrite, having served as a rather tenacious prosecutor as the Golden State’s attorney-general.

 

It now seems certain that President Donald Trump will face not just another big-government liberal in 2020, but a far-left liberal, if not a declared socialist. That’s, what has become of the once-proud Democrat Party. The (relatively) moderate liberals among the two dozen or so still competing for the nomination have all lurched to the left or will shortly drop out. They are even criticizing Barack Obama, the most liberal president since Jimmy Carter, for having been too moderate. This is a prescription for losing, which is certainly OK with me. They might even manage to lose the black vote if they keep up the criticism of Obama.

 

Just look at what they are promising to do. The senior socialist, Sen. Bernie Sanders, and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who no longer claims to be a native American, want to convert our highly successful market economy to a socialist economy, inspired, no doubt, by the success of such states as Cuba and Venezuela. Sanders wants Medicare for all and is joined by Sens. Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren. They would ban private healthcare insurance altogether except perhaps for supplemental coverage, so if you like your current health insurance, forget about it, unless it’s government provided, The federal government, which can barely manage the postal service and VA, would now attempt to manage the healthcare industry, a huge part of the economy.

 

The Green New Deal would end the use of fossil fuel in ten years, which, if it were even possible, would incur enormous costs, for example, to retrofit nearly every building in the nation.  If you think power outages are a problem now, just wait. Who’s up for a flight on a wind or solar-powered airplane? I’m sure China and India, the world’s leading polluters, and all the emerging nations will join us in this suicidal plan. This idiocy is supported by Booker, Gillibrand, Harris, Sanders, Warren and Sen. Amy Klobucher. The Russians must be working frantically to find a way to help one of them win the nomination and defeat Trump. Just think; they would have a leftist U.S. president to deal with who could manage to shut down our power grid with no help at all from Russian hackers.

 

Pete Buttigieg, mayor of a small mid-western city known mainly for being home to the campus of the University of Notre Dame, wants to abolish the electoral college and make the District of Columbia a state. I’ve been in traffic jams larger than the District of Columbia and besides, he would first have to get the Constitution changed. Don’t expect any but a few Democrat-controlled states to ever agree to this. That’s not what the states agreed to when they joined the union in the first place. We are a union of states, not people. States elect the president, not just the most populous metropolises. And speaking of Democrat-controlled states, they contain many Democrat-controlled cities, many, like Baltimore, crime and drug infested. But to call attention to this, as Trump recently did, is to be branded a racist. Most of the Democrat candidates have played the race card, not even as a last resort, but as a first line of attack. I believe voters are tired of this.  Criticism of crime, drugs and urban neglect is racist only in the minds of those inept officials in charge of these cities who failed utterly to help those suffering from these conditions and who have no other excuse for their failures. Of all the candidates, Warren probably holds the record for playing the race card, accusing the president of environmental racism, economic racism, criminal justice racism and healthcare racism, all in a single debate.

 

And while on the subject of racism, nine of the candidates support reparations. That would be taking money from people, most of whom had nothing to do with slavery or discrimination and whose ancestors themselves might have been victims of discrimination. Try selling that to voters. In fact, try selling any of this madness to the 63,000 million or so voters who elected Donald Trump because they were tired of ever more intrusive government running their lives and political candidates making promises without a clue regarding how to deliver on them without destroying the greatest economy in the world.

August 15, 2019

Trump’s Tweets

Those Troublesome Trump Tweets——————–

                A commentary

                By J. F. Kelly, Jr.

Sometimes I think that neither President Donald Trump nor the Democrats can stand prosperity. The economy is robust, unemployment at a record low including among minorities, incomes are rising and yes, a rising tide does lift all boats, even if liberals do refer to it as a trickle down economy benefitting too few. Even Mr. Trump’s approval rating is inching up. In spite of an administration described as chaotic, with more personnel turnover than at a fast-food restaurant, things are going quite well for him and that just infuriates his liberal critics.

 

With the exception of immigration and asylum reform, he’s followed through on most of his campaign promises, something almost unique in politics. All he really has to do for the last fifteen months of his first term is, well, almost nothing except to try to act presidential and above the political fray while the Democrats annihilate each other in the circular firing squad that their campaign for the presidential nomination has become.

 

And speaking of squads, the four young liberal loonies known collectively as “the squad”, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, alias AOC, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley, who constantly brand Mr. trump as a racist and call for his impeachment, managed to get under his skin, which really doesn’t take all that much effort. Rep. Tlaib put it in vulgar terms when she told her young son on camera that “we’re going to impeach the m…..f……” Nice talk from a member of Congress, referring to the president of our country. The people of her Michigan district must be so proud of the person that represents them in Congress. Both she and Ms. Omar from neighboring Minnesota have frequently uttered anti-Semitic tropes. AOC (which does not stand for also occasionally crazy) apparently believes she is the new voice of the Democrat party, while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tries without much success to exert control. For Pelosi’s efforts, AOC condemns her for daring to criticize women of color. Where is it written that women of color-any color-cannot be criticized? However, it is written that members of Congress cannot insult the president of the United States on the floor of the House which Mrs. Pelosi recently did.

 

Instead of expressing detached amusement at this political comedy and enjoying the self-destruction of the Democrats’ 2020 campaign hopes, Mr. Trump again demonstrated his impulsiveness, quick temper, limited vocabulary and high-school communications skills by tweeting that they, all citizens of the U.S., should go back to where they came from if they don’t like it here. These are the very words that many of our ancestors heard when they first arrived here, legally. Of all the unfortunate choices of words, Mr. Trump probably picked the worst. Instead of being the adult in charge, he descended to the squad’s juvenile level of communications. This is unsatisfactory for a president who must also be a leader. A leader’s most important competencies are judgment and communications skills. Mr. Trump is deficient in both.

 

His lack of self- control is why I couldn’t vote for him in 2016 and what could easily doom his chances for re-election in spite of his successes. People don’t want a person with so little self- control, short a temper and poor communications skills as their commander-in-chief with his finger on the nuclear trigger, however masterful he may be at making trade deals. He doesn’t seem to have a built-in filter that causes him to hesitate and reflect when he’s angry before he presses “send”. Someone needs to provide it for him, someone who will say, “Sir, let me take a crack at re-phrasing that for you before you make a final decision.”

 

Lest you think I’m suggesting that the president should apologize to the squad, I’m not. It wouldn’t do any good because they would reject it as insincere. Besides, they have little standing to complain, having accused nearly anyone who disagrees with them as racist. Omar, for example, responded to the tweet by calling  the president a fascist, adding to her previous charges that he is a racist, this from one who remains unapologetic for her blatantly anti-Semitic remarks. Here’s advice for young Ms. Omar: Judge people by their actions not by words that can be taken out of context. Accusing people you don’t like or who don’t agree with you of bigotry is the ultimate tool of a demagogue. No one besides Mr. Trump and perhaps his most intimate associates know what is truly in his heart and your calling him a racist doesn’t make it so. The race card has been played over and over by affluent liberal politicians who have no claim to victimhood and it trivializes the valid claims of those who do. I believe that Americans are tired of this demagoguery. I know I am.

 

The president’s base will defend his stupid tweet as just another case of Trump being Trump and say that this is just the way he communicates. That’s just not good enough because his impulsiveness and clumsy communications constitute a threat to our security in a dangerous world. I don’t think that a majority of voters are anxious to trust this economy and the security of the nation to any of the liberal lightweights vying for the Democrat presidential nomination but neither will they be anxious to trust our security to a man who can’t seem to grow up and act like a president.

August 13, 2019