Tag: Bill Clinton

Alas, Midterm Mania Continues

By Ken Zino

Well, the first talking-head assumption that voter turnout was expected to be high for the midterm elections was right. However, the widespread narrative that the Republicans were going to get a Red Wave was wrong. A sufficient number of the Americans who voted -- not all, but enough -- choose to keep a constitutional democracy in place that eschews violence and insurrection.

Yes, inflation is a concern, but enough Americans realize more tax cuts for the wealthy is not a way to address it. I had once thought that the election was going to be the French Revolution played in reverse with tyrants and despots taking control of ordinary working people. There was no Red Wave, but there was no Blue Wave, either. Franklin Roosevelt in 1934, Bill Clinton in 1998, George W. Bush in 2002 had their parties pickup seats in the midterm elections – a very select group. 

As of Wednesday we have a divided, but not a lop-sided two-party system stumbling forward at local, state, and federal levels. There are still undetermined and far-reaching consequences about our struggling democracy’s future, though it could have been worse. The full picture will take days or weeks or longer to emerge. We are in the midst of economic and ecological crisis that will be difficult to address. There is no clear narrative outlining the complicated days ahead. 

Once again, this election was about Trump. His over-exposure in the media combined with the January 6 panel hearings allowed enough Americans to see him for what he is. Launching a political insurrection to retain power over an election he lost remains a bad idea. Republican election deniers were thumped in the Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin gubernatorial races. The AP called the Pennsylvania race for John Fetterman, the Democrat in a contested Senate race with television personality and snake oil salesman Mehmet Oz, early Wednesday morning. 

In his victory speech, Fetterman referenced the stroke he suffered just four days before his Democratic primary victory last May: “Health care is a fundamental right and it saved my life.” The Republicans tried for years to abolish the Affordable Care Act, but had no plan when voters continually supported it. Sound familiar? 

Facing a recession, international threats to the U.S. from hostile totalitarian states and people and planet destroying global warming, enough Americans realize that what Trumpism really means is the ex-president is only in it for himself. Trump rejects global warming and military alliances in favor of the autocratic Russian and North Korean governments, and this does nothing for solving problems that require thoughtful, progressive and collective action. Biden, with his experience and broader approaches to problems helped the Democrats in the midterms, after all. 

Now we need to tend to our knitting. We need to have an economy that works for all; one with equitable taxation. We need to ensure our planet’s future. We need to set an example of a working democracy for all the world to view. Not all of us, but as of last Tuesday, enough of us, are holding these truths to be self-evident.

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Incumbent Trump is Set to Pull Out a Second Upset

By Bryan Williams

Predictions can be a wily business. Some tout that they have never been wrong since Dewey vs. Truman (and go on to be right), and some make grandiose claims and flame out. Others stick to a version of, “It’s the economy, stupid,” and base their prediction off what Wall Street investors think/say/invest in. Here is my first ever presidential prediction: Donald Trump will eke out a slim win (again) and get four more years. Here’s why:

Since 1952, political “outsiders” or candidates who are younger than their opponent have had advantage in key races. World War II general and war hero Dwight D. Eisenhower had far less political experience than Democrat Adlai Stevenson, yet beat him by a landslide, twice. Reagan had less political experience than Mondale, Clinton had less experience and was younger than Bush 41 while Bush 43 had less experience than either Gore or Kerry, and Obama had way less experience than McCain and is younger than Romney. Trump had no formal political experience and beat Clinton, and often compares his 45 or so months in the Oval Office to Biden’s 47 years Inside the Beltway.

 Advantage, Trump.

Enthusiasm level: Who’s excited about Joe Biden? His supporters’ excitement appears to be, he’s “not Trump.” Will this equate to black and Latino voters turning out in big numbers for Biden? I am dubious. Trump voter’s enthusiasm level is also higher than Biden’s, according to David Sirota in the left-leaning online magazine Jacobin, citing a September Fox News poll that gives the president an 11-point margin in this category. Advantage: Trump.

Vote shaming: This is the common occurrence of people feeling their support of a candidate is shamed by popular opinion, as fueled by news and social media platforms. It’s safe to say that there are a lot of people afraid to admit they plan to vote for Trump. Many of those who like Trump will let their voices be heard at the ballot box. These are the voters Richard Nixon called “the silent majority.” Advantage: Trump.

While Trump had an obvious and clear electoral college victory by midnight Eastern time – 9 p.m. my time four years ago – pundits this year are predicting there will be no clear winner before Nov. 4, and perhaps not until much later. This is where the “Two Vs,” Valencia County, New Mexico, and Vigo County, Indiana, will come in handy. As small-population rural counties, their numbers should be counted not long after the polls close on Nov. 3. Vigo County has chosen the president all but twice since 1888, and Valencia County has been perfect since 1952. Keep your eye on Valencia and Vigo. I predict they will lead the nation to four more years for Trump.

But it’s gonna be close, folks.

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Coastal Elitist Harris Brings Democratic Party’s Radical Shift to the Veep Debate

By Henry Payne

In these strange times, the 2020 Vice Presidential Debate was fittingly strange theater.

There were ridiculous, plexiglass stage props. No questions from the moderator about riots that have toppled statues of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. There was a fly. 

But study the script of Sen. Kamala Harris, and history will record a Democratic ticket representing the most radical Party shift in 50 years. Life-long government apparatchiks, Biden/Harris represent the Elite vs. Main Street divide at the heart of today’s politics.

Harris checks the demographic boxes for the Democratic coalition but, most importantly, she hails from California. The Democratic Party’s biggest electoral treasure, California is the epicenter of Democratic ideology and Hollywood fundraising. It betrays – with Biden’s Northeastern roots – a coastal Party with a continent of red states in between.

It was not always so. At the end of the 20th century, Democratic leadership was geographically diverse – Gephardt of Missouri, Michigan’s Dingell, Clinton from Arkansas, Bradley of New Jersey, Nebraska’s Bob Kerrey – and rooted in the working class. 

The coastal Party of Sanders-Pelosi-Schumer-Harris-Biden is very different. It takes its policy prescriptions from Democratic-Socialist Europe – Paris Climate Accords, Medicare for All, Green New Deal.

Trump/Pence was a direct reaction to this elitist takeover. 

For all of carnival barker Trump’s lack of decorum, he is a businessman who fundamentally gets Main Street – thus his populist base in working-class neighborhoods of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin. He chose Pence, a heartland governor, as his running mate. 

Harris’ (which GovTrack.us rates “the most liberal member of the Senate”) debate talking points, by contrast, put her a long drive from Main Street.

She echoed Black Lives Matter, a radical group that wants societal change as unpopular as the forced busing policies that tore America apart 50 years ago – policies Harris still cheers.

I covered the Black Lives Matter riots in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014, which did enormous harm to black lives. Protestors burned businesses and jobs to the ground. Six years later, Ferguson still hasn’t recovered. 

Now Chicago, New York, Kenosha, Wisconsin and other cities have seen crime and violence skyrocket. Victims of homicide in Chicago, for example – mostly Black – are up 50 percent due to diminished policing and COVID shutdowns that Biden/Harris threaten to reinstate.

Solutions for vulnerable communities (including in my Detroit backyard) – charter schools, police protection – are under assault by Harris’s Party.

As are manufacturing jobs. Harris claimed global warming an “existential threat” despite all evidence to the contrary – most obviously healthy Great Lakes levels that Democrats just a decade ago were scared would dry up due to melting snow pack. 

Shouldn’t she have been preparing for the existential threat of global viruses?

Harris supports a California-inspired national mandate forcing U.S. automakers to make only climate-fighting electric cars. Similar European mandates pushed Volkswagen to cut 7,000 jobs last year as it faced high EV costs.

That is tragic theater.

Henry Payne is The Detroit News auto columnist, radio host, nationally syndicated editorial cartoonist with Andrews McMeel, and National Review contributor. He was inside The Beltway for 13 years before escaping to Motown.

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