Rich Strike Wins Kentucky Derby Against Bigger Odds than Democrats Face
For those who don’t
believe the Democrats will ‘win big’ on Nov. 8 and end up with even larger
majorities in the House and in the Senate, and at the same time take control of a
bunch of red State governorships and State legislatures, just look at what 80-1
long shot Rich Strike did in winning the Kentucky Derby on Saturday! Anything is possible.
(Rich Strike didn't come out of nowhere. His inbred ‘bloodlines’ go back to some great horses, particularly the stallion 'Curlin,' who is his grandsire and also his cousin on his dam's side, just as the Democratic Party’s ‘bloodlines’ go back to some great leaders such as Barack Obama, Franklin Roosevelt and by adoption, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, both abandoned by the Republican Party.)
All it takes is very hard work and unwavering faith in what you believe. It is up to you to get more voters registered. It is up to you to support the candidates you believe in. It is up to you to vote for them. It is up to you. It is up to you. It is up to you. Get it?
JL
* * * *
GettIng Out the Vote
It’s easy for the Republicans to get out their vote. All they have to do is appeal to the emotions of voters who openly or tacitly harbor an animosity toward non-whites, who are bothered by same-sex marriages and by people who are not ‘straight,’ who feel that our new tech-oriented economy has taken something away from them and given it to others who haven’t ‘earned’ it, and who feel we have strayed too far from the Bible or mistakenly, from the original intent of the Constitution. They find easy targets to attack in the person of immigrants, minorities, and even teachers. To get their votes, Republicans don’t have to make these points in speeches. Dog-whistles and hints are sufficient. They are good at that.
It’s more difficult for the Democrats to get out the vote. They have to satisfy their voters with rational reasons for supporting them. They have to satisfy academics and voters who don’t understand issues unless they are explained for them in the honest newspapers and magazines. Dog whistles don’t work with them.
Getting tangled up in arguing issues wastes their already scarce resources. It is better to simply state that Republicans never support legislation that is in the interest of women, non-whites, are on the wrong side of all LGBTQ issues and give no respect to non-believers in traditional religions. The don’t want the government to regulate anything, not even food or drugs and of course not the financial marketplace. They lie about continuing Social Security and Medicare, just as they lied about preserving a woman’s right to have an abortion. They want to go back to the final three decades of the 19th century and the third decade of the 20th century when business interests ruled the nation. There is no reason for anyone with half a brain to vote for them. But despite all that they are against, and despite their not being for anything constructive whatsoever, all too many still vote for Republicans. Democrats have a hard row to hoe.
Campaigning ‘positively’ is harder than campaigning
‘negatively,’ as Republicans do. That’s why the best
tactic for Democrats must be to simply ask Americans to vote ‘to save
democracy.’ This blog does that. Without
getting deeply into issues, urging Americans to vote for Democrats is enough. (That’s why the appeal from the prior posting is reproduced somewhere
below.)
JL
* * * *
(Reproduced from the previous blog postings.)
There is only one issue of political concern right now. That is how to defeat Republicans on Nov. 8, about 26 weeks from now. The future of democracy in the United States is at stake. Really.
A tsunami of Democratic votes from persons of color and from women is needed to retain control of both Houses of Congress and to take over as many State Legislatures as possible. Republican actions at National levels and especially at State levels are never in the interest of these voters whose voices and votes are necessary.
The Democratic Party must recognize this and not let intra-party disagreements deter them.
If Paul Revere were
riding tonight, his message would be ‘The fascists are coming! The fascists are
coming! Get out the vote!’
You must do your
part.
JL
* * * *
Voice of the Poet on 'Liberalism'
 |
| Frost |
Robert Frost once wrote that ‘a liberal is a
man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel.’ ‘Liberal’ was once defined as keeping an open
mind, closer to the way ‘libertarian’ is used today in the sense that ‘anything
goes.’ By that definition, liberals
could be on the left or on the right or anywhere, including out in space. But no more.
Today, ‘liberal’ has become synonymous with left-leaning ‘progressives.’
Frost's words, if you accept that latter definition, synonymous with progressivism, describe how such liberalism got us to where the position of the United States regarding abortion rights has become like those of undemocratic and backward nations, places where you would not want to live. It explains how Democrats, satisfied with knowing that the Courts were on their side, remained almost silent while the right-wing minority screamed about repealing Roe vs. Wade for half a century. Well, screaming loud enough has changed that and the broadmindedness of liberals has allowed that to happen.
It is time to heed the sarcasm in Frost’s words and strongly, if not violently, take the side in which one believes in the great quarrels now going on. This not only applies to abortion rights, but to other rights Americans have enjoyed for years and which are under attack. Doing things politely, quietly, broadmindedly, doesn’t work. Screaming does.
Let’s contradict Frost’s definition that ‘a
liberal is a man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel.’ Get out there and fight for what you believe,
every day!
JL
* * * *
IF YOU LIKE THIS BLOG, PLEASE FORWARD IT TO AT LEAST ONE OR MORE
FRIENDS OR FAMILY MEMBERS WHOM YOU FEEL MIGHT ENJOY READING IT. Suggest that
they pass it on to others.
There’s a little envelope at the bottom
left corner of each posting enabling you to easily do that. It looks like
this: 
. Just click on it and follow the instructions. It will
forward the full text of the blog posting (but not any illustrations or images,
like that little envelope with the arrow) to whomever you want.
JL
* * * *
A Very Busy Printing Operation
Did you know that besides printing the South Florida Sun Sentinel (circulating mostly in Broward and portions of Dade and Palm Beach Counties), that newspaper’s printing plant in Deerfield Beach also prints the Miami Herald, the Palm Beach Post, (and both papers’ ‘en espanol’ versions), the Palm Beach Daily News, the Stuart News, the Port St. Lucie News, the Indian River News, the Fort Myers News-Press, the Naples Daily News, as well as the New York Daily News, the New York Times, the New York Post, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and the weekly Barron’s Financial Review for these publications’ Florida readers?
Imagine what effect a power failure or other disaster would have on news dissemination if that plant were disabled. Keep your TV and radio in working order.
What? You don't read newspapers any longer? That makes you part of the problem and not part of the solution to the problems besetting us! At least read their online versions, or selected items, including their columnists, from them each day for a very modest price, like $4 for a whole month (a few pennies more than the newsstand or delivery price of one issue of most daily papers). Check out the New York Times or the Washington Post for deals like that.
JL
* * * *
Column by E. J. Dionne
E. J. Dionne’s Washington Post column of 5/9/22 dealing with the SCOTUS and Roe vs. Wade is well worth reading. To read it, just CLICK HERE or somehow find your way to:
But If you’re not going to do that though, here are the first and final sentences of Dionne’s column. The ‘meat’ is in the middle, so please try to read the whole thing.
First Sentence: If the Supreme Court adopts the substance of Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.’s draft ruling ending the constitutional right to abortion, the conservative majority’s radicalism will deepen the crisis of American democracy and further divide an already torn country.
Final Sentence: Conservatives (as Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. may be telling his colleagues) should understand that a change as radical as the one Alito contemplates almost always blows up in its authors’ faces.
JL
* *
* *
Florida’s Election Battles
(If you're fortunate enough not to live in the Sunshine State, you can skip this piece. But you still might like to read it because it might happen to you someday. National issues are involved.)
It is important that Democrats turn out to defeat Marco Rubio in November. He is less than worthless. And the Democrat candidate, Val Demings is excellent. With the votes of women and persons of color, she should win.
But that will only
happen if you make certain you are registered to vote and vote for her on
November 8, and that you urge others to do the same. A Rubio victory will be your fault!
More difficult is defeating Florida’s extreme right-wing, if not
dictatorial, governor. Registered
Democrats will choose a candidate to oppose the ‘Florida Fuehrer’ in a primary
election this Summer. Here is a column
from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel concerning one of the three (Crist,
Fried, Taddeo) running in that primary election.
Abortion – Guns - Is
it enough to wake up voters?
May 06, 2022 at 3:17 pm
Abortion and
guns. Guns and abortion.
·
Eliminating the constitutional right to an abortion after
nearly 50 years.
·
Allowing legal gun owners to openly display firearms
without a permit, in Florida of all places — the scene of two of the worst mass
shootings ever at Pulse nightclub and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Abortion and
guns.
If there’s
another political issue that can more effectively motivate Democrats and
independents and get them to go to the polls — especially women, who already
vote more reliably than men — I can’t think of one.
We know a few
things about midterm or non-presidential statewide elections in Florida.
Republicans have massively more money than Democrats, a lot more Republicans
bother to vote than do Democrats, and Republicans win — though often by very
small margins.
We also know
too many Democrats in Florida blissfully ignore political campaigns until a few
weeks before Election Day.
If that ever
were to change, you’d think it would be this election, with the anticipated
repeal of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court and Gov. Ron DeSantis giddily
pledging to sign an open-carry gun law before leaving office. There’s a reason
why even this pro-gun Legislature has not sent that to him: It’s highly
controversial and opposed by much of the voting public and in the past by Florida sheriffs.
History shows
us Democrats and independents need an overwhelming reason to vote in a midterm,
and at the moment they have at least three: abortion, guns and DeSantis, whose
intensely polarizing presence and increasingly extremist agenda is a campaign
issue all by itself. He’s a serious contender for president in 2024 — if he’s
not stopped in 2022.
Can anybody
stop him? There appears to be only one person: Charlie Crist. At first glance,
that appears highly unlikely, if not impossible, in part because this looks
like a rough mid-term cycle for Democrats because of inflation and other
factors.
Besides,
DeSantis has $100 million in the bank and all the trappings of incumbency, and
the Republicans have passed Democrats in registered voters in Florida.
But on
abortion and guns, he’s on the wrong side of public opinion, on top of his
bullying tactics toward Blacks, LGBTQ Floridians, protesters, private
businesses, kids wearing masks, voters, school boards, Disney — the list goes
on.
So cocky and
certain of his re-election prospects, DeSantis is clearly playing to a
political audience far beyond Florida, and he has likened the Democratic Party
to a “dumpster fire.”
As for Crist,
he lost his last two statewide elections before winning a seat in Congress in
St. Petersburg. His story is familiar as a Republican-turned-Democrat and a
perpetual candidate who in the past tried too hard to be all things to all
people.
Crist will
face Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried and Sen. Annette Taddeo of Miami in
the August Democratic primary.
It’s time for
voters to take a fresh look at Crist and for Crist to forcefully explain, news
cycle after news cycle, why the stakes are so high, and to remind voters that
we live in a treacherous moment that is unparalleled in Florida history.
Crist took a
step in that direction this week with a forceful speech that made the case
against DeSantis.
Marking one
year since he entered the race, from the lobby of a law office in Tampa’s Ybor
City and speaking with a TelePrompTer, Crist looked past his primary rivals. He
called DeSantis a bully, compared him to the world’s worst dictators, like
Putin and Maduro, and said what can’t be easily distilled into a snappy sound
bite: Our political institutions, starting with the Legislature, are breaking
down before our very eyes.
“In normal
times, Floridians could count on the checks and balances woven into the fabric
of our state to limit an authoritarian-minded, power-hungry governor. Not
anymore,” Crist said. “We have a moral responsibility to stop him.”
The speech is
on Crist’s Facebook page. As is so often the case, the news media paid only
perfunctory attention and the public ignored it completely.
Does a
majority of Floridians really want to keep living like this? That’s hard to
fathom.
Slowly but surely,
Democrats are coalescing around Crist.
“I think he
has the best chance to win against DeSantis. I think we need to consolidate
around one candidate,” said Sen. Tina Polsky, D-Boca Raton, who said she’s
hearing from more voters who are scared about a future with more DeSantis. “I
can’t tell you how much angst there is out there.”
Abortion and
guns. Abortion, guns and DeSantis. Isn’t that enough?
Steve Bousquet
is Opinion Editor of the South Florida Sun Sentinel and a columnist in
Tallahassee. Contact him at sbousquet@sunsentinel.com, call
850-567-2240 and follow him on Twitter @stevebousquet.
JL
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