The embarrassing cave-in from the ill-advised government shutdown ploy of the congressional Democrats won't be their biggest problem in November. Rather, it will be their dishonest opposition to the Republican tax reform that will come to haunt them.
Even leaving aside the powerful effect of the long-overdue reduction in corporate taxes, the impact on personal income taxes will resonate in the middle class. Nancy Pelosi might think a hundred dollars a month in saved taxes is "pathetic," but for many people that means a welcome addition to discretionary spending. Besides, for many people, the savings will be much greater.
In the meantime, Trump is going to outmaneuver them on the Dreamer issue. Not all the media bias and invective in the world will keep people from seeing what is going on.
On top of that comes Trump's inspired choice to attend Davos. The Times may trumpet that Trump's "isolationism" (why are they still pushing that tired old chestnut?) will isolate him, but the photos of him dining congenially with top executives from Germany and other countries belies that. Dick Durbin can do his best to poison the domestic well but he is sitting at home while Trump is meeting with the president of Rwanda in Davos.
Friday, January 26, 2018
Sunday, January 21, 2018
Total bankruptcy of the Democratic Party
The only thing more stunning than the hypocrisy and cynicism of the Democratic leadership in Congress in this government shutdown is the cluelessness and stupidity of the lawmakers who follow them. After excoriating the Republicans for tactical moves that shut down the government, Schumer and Pelosi now imitate those tactics in the belief that Republicans will be blamed and it will give them a further edge in November midterms.
So is Hillary Clinton masterminding this stupidity? It is as tone deaf and cynical as anything she attempted. In my humble opinion, Democrats are making a disastrous miscalculation. Just because the mainstream media is playing along with their game doesn't mean that most people won't see through this and it will boomerang against them.
I have never been convinced that Democrats have a lock on midterms just because Trump is so repellent. And this, I think, will seal the deal for the Republicans.
Regarding the mainstream media. I have thought the rampant bias and dishonesty in reporting was due to their being prisoners of a bubble that has skewed their perception of reality. But I'm beginning to think that it is purely cynical dishonesty with an economic motivation.
Nobody wants objectivity. The New York Times and Washington Post have come to realize that they get more subscriptions and readership by pandering to their blue state audiences than by honoring traditional standards of balance and objectivity. The Times bragged that their subscriptions went UP when Trump was elected, acknowledging their new role as a full-fledged left-wing rag. It is an existential question for these legacy media.
Contrary to the conventional wisdom of the pundits and bloviators, people aren't stupid. A reckoning is coming for the media and for the Democratic Party.
So is Hillary Clinton masterminding this stupidity? It is as tone deaf and cynical as anything she attempted. In my humble opinion, Democrats are making a disastrous miscalculation. Just because the mainstream media is playing along with their game doesn't mean that most people won't see through this and it will boomerang against them.
I have never been convinced that Democrats have a lock on midterms just because Trump is so repellent. And this, I think, will seal the deal for the Republicans.
Regarding the mainstream media. I have thought the rampant bias and dishonesty in reporting was due to their being prisoners of a bubble that has skewed their perception of reality. But I'm beginning to think that it is purely cynical dishonesty with an economic motivation.
Nobody wants objectivity. The New York Times and Washington Post have come to realize that they get more subscriptions and readership by pandering to their blue state audiences than by honoring traditional standards of balance and objectivity. The Times bragged that their subscriptions went UP when Trump was elected, acknowledging their new role as a full-fledged left-wing rag. It is an existential question for these legacy media.
Contrary to the conventional wisdom of the pundits and bloviators, people aren't stupid. A reckoning is coming for the media and for the Democratic Party.
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