Who is the angriest?

In the Daily Caller, Victor Davis Hanson writes in part,

...The people’s energy, tranquilized by a two-month national quarantine and terror of the coronavirus, has suddenly exploded in both massive protests and silent seething at the lawlessness.

...The angry and the demonstrating are loud and visible; their opponents are angry and quiet.

The election will reveal not just who is more numerous — but sadly also who is the angriest.

Read more here.

"One side will say, “Just give us more power and we will create heaven on earth.” The other says “Why would anyone wish to take their road to an Orwellian nightmare?” The 2020 election is that simple."

Victor Davis Hanson wrote in part in American Greatness,

...the Democratic Party as we have known it, is extinct for now. It has been replaced since 2016 by a radical progressive revolutionary movement that serves as a touchstone for a variety of auxiliary extremist causes, agendas, and cliques—almost all of them radically leftwing and nihilistic, and largely without majority popular support.

...Like it or not, 2020 is going to be a plebiscite on an American version of Orwell’s Nineteen-Eighty-Four. One side advocates a complete transformation not just of the American present but of the past as well. The Left is quite eager to change our very vocabulary and monitor our private behavior to ensure we are not just guilty of incorrect behavior but thought as well.

The other side believes America is far better than the alternative, that it never had to be perfect to be good, and that, all and all, its flawed past is a story of a moral nation’s constant struggle for moral improvement.

One side will say, “Just give us more power and we will create heaven on earth.” The other says “Why would anyone wish to take their road to an Orwellian nightmare?” The 2020 election is that simple.

Read more here.

Dem prayers

Trump cancels 2020 election. Bernie relieved.

From the Babylon Bee:

WASHINGTON, D.C.—In real news that totally actually happened, President Trump has announced that in the interest of public safety, the 2020 presidential election has been canceled.

“It’s just too risky,” President Trump told the press while standing behind a sneeze guard. “We’ll get all these people gathered together at rallies or lined up to vote, and they’re all going to get sick. And Bernie and Biden -- they’re just so old. Sending them around crowds campaiging is basically trying to murder them. Anyway, it just seems pointless for a bunch of people to die when everyone knows I was going to win anyway.”

Trump has been a divisive figure in the past, but so far everyone has agreed with this move. The New York Times, which usually opposes absolutely everything Trump does, wrote an editorial in support of canceling the election. “It’s a smart, science-driven move,” the editorial said. “As important as democracy is, it’s just not worth dying over.”

Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders also seemed very relieved by the announcement, as they’re both very tired and worried about getting sick. Sanders was especially happy, telling the press, “You know, for a few moments there, it really seemed like I might win, and I didn’t know what was going to happen if people actually expected me to follow through on all that free stuff.” Sanders is now deciding in which of his three houses to self-quarantine.

Media coverage of the spread of the coronavirus, a dispute between Russia and Saudia Arabia on oil prices and production, and world wide financial markets panicking.

Remember 2008 when we had a global financial crisis and Americans decided to vote for Barack Obama? That is what I thought about today when I saw the news about utter chaos on Wall Street and worldwide financial markets. Fears of contracting the coronavirus, which the media is covering nonstop, and a dispute between Russia and Saudia Arabia on what to do about oil production and prices seem to be the driving factors of this new crisis.

This morning President Trump tweeted that Saudia Arabia and Russia are arguing over the price and flow of oil. That and fake news are the reasons for the market drop. He points out in another tweet that last year 37,000 Americans died from the common flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 deaths per year. Nothing is shut down, no panic like there is now. The U.S. currently has 546 cases of the coronavirus and there have been 22 deaths. He pats himself on the back for his administration's early decision to stop travel to and from certain parts of the world.

Fake news? That might not be accurate. It isn't so much that the news is fake; it is that every bit of bad news about the coronavirus from all over the world is being broadcast, giving the impression that there is nothing that can be done to stop its spread.

Please, fellow American voters! Don't make the same mistake you made in 2008! Do you really believe Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders can handle this better than Trump! No way!

Don't get cocky!

In PJ Media, Victor Davis Hanson writes in part,

Donald Trump has at least five strong historical arguments for his re-election.

One, he is an incumbent. Incumbent presidents have won 14 of 19 re-election bids since 1900.

The few who lost did not enjoy positive approval ratings. In a Gallup poll from earlier this month, Trump enjoyed his highest approval rating since his inauguration, squeezing out a 49 percent favorable rating vs. 50 percent unfavorable.

Two, the public perception of the economy usually determines any presidential election -- as incumbents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Herbert Hoover learned the hard way. Currently, the U.S. is enjoying low inflation, low interest rates, positive economic growth, near-record-low unemployment, rising workers' wages, and record gas and oil production.

Three, unpopular optional wars derail incumbent presidencies.

...Four, scandals also can destroy a presidency, as when Watergate forced the resignation of Richard Nixon.

Five, the opponent matters. Barry Goldwater was caricatured as an out-of-touch extremist and made incumbent Lyndon Johnson's election a sure thing in 1964. George McGovern's radicalism ensured that Richard Nixon would be re-elected in 1972. Ronald Reagan was assured of a second term by Walter Mondale's anemic candidacy.

Hanson then goes on to assess Trump against each of those five points and concludes,

Add it all up, and if one looks at 2020 dispassionately and historically, the election appears to be Trump's to lose.

Read more here.

Optimism

Andy Peth writes in part in The Party of Choice,

2018 was exactly what it was predicted to be—a midterm pummeling, made worse by numerous, unresolved concerns surrounding our President.

Those concerns are gone now. Way gone. I can’t even count the disadvantages then which are advantages now, but here are a few:

The Economy - Then: Trump’s economic plan was in its infancy. Now: We’re booming.

Russian Collusion - Then: A major concern. Now: A national joke. Mueller’s meltdown on Capitol Hill was one for the ages.

Impeachment - Then: Gaining steam, with many Americans wondering how Trump could stay in office. Now: Totally derailed, being grossly unfair from the start. Americans greeted it with laughter, yawns, and disgust.

Deep State - Then: Held in high regard, with operatives commanding intel agencies casting deep doubts on Trump. Now: The Durham Report will unveil spying, lying, and subterfuge by those intel “leaders.” It’s our turn, baby.

ISIS - Then: Still a big concern. Now: ISIS is gone, having lost all its territory.

Trade Deals - Then: Deemed the impossible dreams of a rookie President. Now: Massive Pro-USA deals with Mexico, Canada, China, and Japan…are actually happening.

Trump’s Approval - Then: Two years ago, Gallop had Trump’s approval rating about 20% below his disapproval rating. Now: Approval and disapproval are within a few points either way.

Read more here.

Putin prefers Trump? Give me a break!

So, the New York Times has a story that Putin wants to help Trump get elected. Tom Rogan writes in part in the Washington Examiner,

Yes, Trump has made misguided comments with regards to his personal relationship with Putin. But he has also presided over very significant increases in U.S. and NATO defense outlays, the unified alignment of that alliance in resistance to Russian ballistic missile proliferation, more aggressive intelligence operations against Russia, and the deployment of U.S. nuclear strike capabilities specifically designed to challenge Russia's evolved strategic doctrine. The scaled nuclear development and defense spending programs here are collectively opposed by the Democratic presidential field.

On Ukraine, aside from the obvious impeachment issues, Trump has provided Kyiv with lethal weapons and high-value intelligence support. Crucially, he has also provided diplomatic support against significant Franco-German pressure on President Volodymyr Zelesnky to accept a cease-fire on Russian terms.

On the associated issue of energy policy, only Trump stands in favor of that economic weapon Putin most fears: fracking and expanded U.S. energy exports. In contrast, the 2020 Democratic Party is a Putin dream world on this energy issue.

Similarly, Trump's strengthening of the U.S. alliances with Israel and the Sunni Arab monarchies is a major obstacle to Putin's effort to usurp America as the key international power broker in the Middle East. While Trump's abandonment of the Syrian Kurds has undermined U.S. credibility in the Middle East, he has restricted the confidence hemorrhage by retaining some U.S. military forces in Syria. The collective Democratic presidential field disagrees with Trump's approach, at least as applied to the Sunni monarchies.

One final issue here?

Bernie Sanders. Because the idea that Putin would prefer all the above to a president who took his honeymoon in the Soviet Union, likes many of Russia's allies, and wants to gut U.S. defense spending, end or greatly diminish U.S. alliances with the Sunni monarchies, and ban fracking?

Give me a break.

Read more here.

The 2020 election

JJ Sefton offers his analysis in part here regarding the 2020 election.

But as you both break down the results and step back to get a broader perspective, there appears to be nothing but disaster ahead for the Democrats both in terms of this election and its future as a political party going forward. First, Bernie barely squeaked out a win and his numbers were actually worse than in 2016. Then again, there are more contenders this time around and a win is a win no matter how you slice it, so in theory that boosts his chances going forward. In theory. In terms of the nomination, the DNC is doing all it can to openly (and more than likely clandestinely) take Sanders out because despite 50 years of brainwashing in the schools and in the media, most Americans are repulsed by Socialism, Socialists and the rhetoric now proudly proclaimed by its leading proponents within the Democrat Party.

But in a national contest, Trump's performance in New Hampshire as an incumbent handily beats Obama's numbers from 2012, to say nothing of a national approval approaching or more than likely above 50%. At that level, and all things being equal, as of this moment Trump is unbeatable no matter who the Democrats field, and especially a bust-out socialist. Well, the Democrats themselves took out Biden with the Sham-peachment fiasco that exposed him and his crooked son as the generational criminals they are, while Biden's combined hair-sniffing, girl-groping, eye-bleeding and brain-damaged mouth probably was the real culprit in his imminent demise.

I suppose they wanted Biden to be the sacrificial lamb to run against Trump, just like Dukakis in '88 and Mondale in '84, so as to theoretically preserve the electability and record of their rising star(s) for future contests. The problem is the Democrats have no one, at least someone who is a phony "moderate" that can effectively fake being sane and pro-American to a majority of voters. The other problem the Democrats have is that too many in their party, both elected officials and their base, are anything but sane and pro-American. Dem Rep and failed prexy candidate Tim Ryan is echoing James Carville's and now commie-pinko Van Jones' cri-de-coeur about Democrats embracing the Socialist cray-cray which could lead them to in his estimation a 48-state wipeout.

Unfortunately, Ryan, Carville and all the rest will never acknowledge that it's more than just the label of "Socialism" that will wipe them out; it's the actual policies behind that moniker that, thank goodness, more and more Americans are being made aware of. For that, they can thank not only President Trump's words but his deeds that have helped more people in more ways improve their lives and prospects than any big government policy or welfare state could ever come close to doing. That, more than anything will doom Bernie, the Midget or anyone else come November. The only way they even have a shot is if they outright reject Green New Deals, no bail or jail for criminals, a disarmed populace, censorship of wrong-think, open borders, infanticide pre- and post-natal, trannies in girls rooms, legalized heroin, national health and everything else they seek to impose on this nation. That is, of course, a non-starter, because what they really seek is absolute power and control. And that leopard is never going to change its spots.

Go here to see his links to other writers in his Morning Report.

"Prove them wrong in November!"

Will the American people tamper with the next election?

From the Babylon Bee:

WASHINGTON, D.C.—In his opening statement at Trump's impeachment trial, Rep. Adam Schiff reminded the Senate of their solemn duty and the gravity of just what it is they will be discussing at the trial.

Schiff warned that if Trump is not impeached, the American people may have a chance to tamper with the next election.

"If President Trump is not impeached, the American people might get a say in who is president," Schiff said gravely. "We simply can't allow that to happen. We must diligently defend our electoral process against electoral outcomes we do not like. If that means seizing power through a sham impeachment trial, so be it."

"When the Founders wrote that founding document thing, they never imagined there would be electoral outcomes that Democrats did not agree with."

Democrats also said they even have hard evidence that the 2016 election was compromised by Republicans voting for Trump.

"We know this horrible outcome could happen, because it's already happened once before."

Wouldn't you like the presidential debates to be more fun?

From the Babylon Bee:

Every election, The Babylon Bee editorial board sees fit to endorse the very best choice for the nation. In 2016, back before Seth Dillon bought the site and stopped us from doing Christian satire, we endorsed Kirk Cameron. In 2018, we endorsed the cast of The West Wing for Congress. This was ultimately a mistake because it turns out they are actors and not actual politicians. Oura culpa.

This year, we are taking the unprecedented step of endorsing someone who's not even running: that lady who screamed during Trump's inauguration.

We feel that this hopelessly triggered androgynous human yelling at the sky in an act of protest against some perceived persecution is the perfect encapsulation of the modern Democratic Party, and thus, she would be the ideal candidate to take on President Trump in 2020.

While others only have empty policy proposals and expensive healthcare plans, Screaming at Sky Lady has the ideal solution for everything: just screaming at the sky. Other candidates' ideas could harm the country and send us plummeting into a socialist nightmare. Screaming at the sky, by way of contrast, never hurt anyone and is fun to watch.

Or take an issue like the border crisis: President Trump wants to build a hateful wall. Other Democrats want to welcome immigrants with open arms. Screaming at the Sky Lady will just scream at the sky. The end result is the same, of course, but again, at least we'll get to laugh instead of addressing the issue.

Also, just think about how fun the presidential debates would be.

"The narcissism of small differences"

In American Greatness, Roger Kimball writes about CNN's support of Elizabeth Warren against Bernie Sanders and Kimball's expectation that Trump will win reelection. Read it here.

The get-even election

Victor Davis Hanson writes in part in Spectator,

...It is easy to say that 2020 seems to be replaying 2016, complete with the identical insularity of progressives, as if what should never have happened then certainly cannot now. But this time around there is an even greater sense of anger and need for retribution especially among the most unlikely Trump supporters. It reflects a fed-up payback for three years of nonstop efforts to overthrow an elected president, anger at anti-Trump hysteria and weariness at being lectured. A year is a proverbial long time. The economy could tank. The president might find himself trading missiles with Iran. At 73, a sleep-deprived, hamburger-munching Trump might discover his legendary stamina finally giving out. Still, there is a growing wrath in the country, either ignored, suppressed or undetected by the partisan media. It is a desire for a reckoning with ‘them’. For lots of quiet, ordinary people, 2020 is shaping up as the get-even election — in ways that transcend even Trump himself.

Read more here.

Can anyone be more wrong than Juan Williams?

Long term, Trump wins!

In American Greatness, Victor Davis Hanson writes,

Why is it that the House is controlled by Democrats, yet its leadership is not pushing through any of the policy proposals voiced so openly on the Democratic primary stage?

Why aren’t progressive representatives introducing bills to pay reparations to African Americans, to legalize infanticide in some cases of late-term abortion, to offer free medical care to illegal aliens, to confiscate AR-15s, to extend Medicare for all, to impose a wealth tax and raise top rates to between 70 and 90 percent, to abolish student debt and ensure free college for all, or to grant blanket amnesty to those currently living in the country illegally?

Simple answer: none of those issues poll anywhere near 50 percent approval. And no Democratic candidate would expect to beat Trump as the emissary of such an agenda.

If the economy was in a recession, if we were embroiled in another Iraq-like or Vietnam-sort of war, and if Trump’s polls were below 40 percent, then the Democrats would just wait 13 months and defeat him at the polls.

But without a viable agenda and because they doubt they can stop Trump’s reelection bid, they feel they have no recourse but to impeach. If Trump were to be reelected, not a shred of Barack Obama’s “fundamental transformation” would be left, and the strict constructionist Supreme Court would haunt progressives for a quarter-century.

...Impeachment, remember, will make the Kavanaugh hearings look like a seminar on etiquette, and so everything and anything can happen once dozens of unhinged leftists are unbound.

...We are starting to see the outlines of a progressive fantasy on the horizon: Biden will be sacrificed. The party will unite around Warren. The left-wing media narrative will be, “We took out one of our own, now it is your turn to depose Trump.” Chaos overload for two or three weeks might keep Trump’s polling low.

Short-term, Trump may lose traction due to the media frenzy. He lost some of his ongoing momentum that had recently seen his polls steadily creeping up. He gave a fine speech at the United Nations and sounded presidential in his talks with foreign leaders—all overshadowed or now forgotten due to the impeachment psychodrama.

Trump’s critics have become emboldened, Left and Right. The Drudge Report has flip-flopped and is as anti-Trump as Vox or Slate. Many at National Review call for or anticipate impeachment without much regret. Likewise, some at Fox News—Shepard Smith, Andrew Napolitano, and Chris Wallace—are nonstop critics of Trump and hardly disguise their contempt.

Long-term, however, Trump wins.

We still have a number of government audits coming from Michael Horowitz, John Durham, and John Huber—and the targets are not Trump. The Senate will not convict the president under any foreseeable circumstances. The full story of the whistleblower has not been told, but there are a lot of narratives to come about the sudden rules allowing hearsay, DNC involvement, and who knew far in advance about the complainant’s writ. Once the Democratic debates continue, the candidates’ screaming and hysterics return, and the impeachment hearings descend into a Kavanaugh-esque farce, the public will begin to get scared again by the Left’s shrieking Jacobins. Schiff’s “parody” is a small foretaste of what’s to come. Voters soon will surmise that the only thing between their 401k plans and socialism is Donald J. Trump.

...Warren or her possible facsimile is a weaker candidate than even the enfeebled Biden. Her lack of viability will be of enormous advantage in NeverHillary-fashion to Trump. His fundraising, already ascendant, will hit the stratosphere. The idea that the new and old NeverTrumpers will be on the side of socialism will finally discredit them. Wall Street and Silicon Valley will keep trashing Trump, but privately write checks to stop Warren’s wealth tax that would be only the beginning of her Venezuelization of America.

So if Trump’s health holds out, if we don’t have a recession, if there is not an optional war, and Trump endures the next few weeks of 360-degree, 24/7 targeting, 2020 will be far more favorable than ever imaginable for him.

Read more https://www.amgreatness.com/2019/09/29/impeachment-coup-analytics/

Will Trump win re-election?

In my move to Santa Fe last week, I missed this August 22 PJ Media piece by my favorite historian, Victor Davis Hanson. In it Dr. Hanson lists the ways people lose elections and concludes, "Add up all these factors, and a currently unpopular Trump will still likely be harder to beat than his confident media detractors and enraged progressive critics can imagine."
Read more here.

The Choice is Ours

Guest post by Suzann Darnall

Two phrases keep coming into my mind as I think about people voting in the election of 2020. The first comes from the movie, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The Grail Knight tells them, “You must choose. But choose wisely, for while the true Grail will bring you life, the false Grail will take it from you.” I feel it is like a true American leader will bring us freedom, but a false American leader will take it from us. We must be careful to choose wisely. To not be led astray by the shiny promises and hold fast to the unvarnished truths.

The second phrase comes from a hymn frequently sung by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. “Choose the Right” has become a popular motto taught to children and used by members as a reminder to make choices that will help an individual to live righteously. Again, a prompt to essentially “choose wisely”. I hope all will consider carefully and choose the Right. Right as in red. Right as in Republican. Right as in correct.

Some people look at this upcoming election as Trump versus the Democrat nominee. But, it is so much more than that. It truly is a choice, in my opinion, between good and evil. Moral and immoral. Ethics and corruption. It goes so far beyond Republican versus Democrat or Conservative versus Liberal, yet I am not certain many Americans, even Conservatives, are aware of how deep the battle goes. People sometimes choose to not vote ‘cause they say it is just choosing between the lesser of two evils. But, hey, at least it is less evil. That is a first step in the right direction!

It is truly a life or death situation. The wrong choices can spell the death of liberty. IN many ways the death of a nation. Our nation. America as we know if could disappear if all of us to not choose wisely. If we do not choose the side that wants what is best for America. What is best for Americans. And, the side which rejects the ideals of a one world government, where the individual and individual rights are unimportant. Liberty cannot exist where the individual is of no consequence.

We are not merely choosing Donald J. Trump, we are choosing freedom. Everything being promised by the various Democrat wannabes is about oppression. Mostly the Left’s platform is about loss of rights and more taxation, with the ever present abortion at the forefront. So, we can choose freedom or oppression. I personally vote for freedom and will therefore vote for Trump.

I look at this choice as not just Right or Left, but right or wrong. While the Right is not perfect, there is just so much wrong with the Left. When one of their never-ending campaign issues is the free and unlimited killing of unborn children, how can they ever lay claim to some nonexistent higher moral ground??? Then, there is their unquenchable thirst for ever more taxation when the tax levels already amount to theft. Not to mention the fact that in many Democrat strongholds across America is it becoming more and more evident that outright theft has been taking place with the missing funds sent here and there to assist communities.

In short, this 2020 election may well be choosing between Donald Trump and Socialism. Socialism takes away freedoms, private property, and implements restrictive government . . . everything for which the Democrats, in one form or another, are advocating. So, we are preparing to choose the American Dream or a Socialist Nightmare. Since I much prefer American apple pie to Venezuelan starvation, I am voting for everyone with an R after their name on the ballot. It might not be perfect, but it sure as heck beats the alternative! Better a flawed good choice than a bad choice that leads eventually to no choice. If you doubt this, ask the Venezuelans and Cubans what choice they have???

McConnell is out of touch

In PJ Media, Rick Moran asks,

Why Is Mitch McConnell Telling 2020 GOP Candidates to Run 'Independent of Trump'?

I believe that if the election were held today, Trump would win in a landslide. Read more here.

"...the only thing standing between voters and socialism"

Can Trump win again in 2020? In PJ Media, Victor Davis Hanson answers,

if things at home and abroad stay about the same or improve, without a war or recession, Trump will likely win enough swing states to repeat his 2016 Electoral College victory.

If, however, unemployment spikes, inflation returns or we get into a war, he may not.

...It's also worth remembering that Trump does not exist in a vacuum. In 2016, many voters preferred Trump because he was not the unpopular Hillary Clinton.

In 2020, there will be an even starker choice. Trump, now an incumbent, will likely run on the premise that he is the only thing standing between voters and socialism.

Read more analysis here.