Democrats vison for the future: " "

Democrats have no vision for the future, at least no vision they are willing to publicly share. Breitbart noticed this and pointed it out very effectively

The convention, objectively, was not so great.

...the convention itself failed to explain to the American people what Kamala Harris intended to do as president. There was no vision, no policy.

The constant, spontaneous refrain was: “We’re not going back.” But there was never an explanation of where Democrats are going to, or where Harris wants to take the country.

Until the last evening, when a string of speakers discussed foreign policy — all Ukraine, no Israel — the only policy discussed was abortion.

Harris’s speech was all about biography, and attacking the opposition. (The “special guest,” whom many had hoped would be Beyoncé, may as well have been President Donald Trump, whom Harris mentioned fifteen times in total.)

Trump’s acceptance speech was perhaps too long; Harris’s speech was too short. It showed no sense of leadership and never reached out to independent voters or wavering Republicans. (A cameo by Adam Kinzinger will not do the trick.)

There was little drama at the convention — by design.

Democrats arranged their primary to ensure President Joe Biden would not face a challenge, then allowed party insiders to pick Harris as his replacement. There were no dissenting blocs, save for the pro-Palestinian “Uncommitted” delegates, who were a tiny and sullen minority.

There weren’t even amendments offered when party leaders asked for a vote on a platform that does not have the word “Kamala” in it.

The truth is that Democrats aren’t feeling “joy.” The word “relief” might be more accurate — relief that they no longer have to pretend to support an ailing, and failing, Biden.

There is some genuine happiness at nominating the first black woman, or the first South Asian candidate. But many speeches betrayed a sense of anxiety.

Michelle Obama, of all people, spoke about “deep pit in my stomach, a palpable sense of dread about the future.” They know Trump can win.

The convention was the high point for Democrats, the end of a month in which Kamala could set the agenda and the media could protect her. Now it is up to Trump.

That last sentence is particularly salient. Trump, unlike Harris, has laid out a specific vision as well as policy positions.  The Democrats attacked; not Trump's policy positions but that of an unaffiliated proposal that they deceitfully tried to tag as Trump's. Trump has offered to debate, often.  Trump has faced the media and has taken plenty of questions from both the media and from influencers alike.  He's not afraid.

But there's something he needs to do that the Democrats have unsuccessfully tried to do as a mere soundbite. Trump needs to lay out his positive vision for the country in two distinct ways. 

1. He needs to state his positions and why they will help Americans succeed. His base gets it, he needs to do it in a way that will inspire 'joy' in centrists and even some left of center voters who may not be completely sold on Harris. The Democrats soundbites of joy are merely keywords, there is no underlying reasons for the joy they proclaim, because there are no policies undergirding the emotion.  Unless unfettered abortion is their reason for all this supposed pending joy.  It's like they left the lane open entirely for Trump. He needs to capitalize.
2. He needs to forgo, not completely but in large part, the personal attacks.  He will have opportunities to sprinkle those into debates and Q&A sessions with the media.  But he needs to focus on the positivity of the future, because it's clear, the only positivity Harris and the Democrats are offering is the word 'joy' itself. No plans, no ideas (except abortion and some ideas Harris stole or at least copied from Trump). It's an open buffet for Trump to dine at. Yes, an occasional snipe won't hurt, but leave that mainly to others. 

Democrats have zero vision for the future (or one they are unwilling to share openly) and Trump and Republicans do have a clear vision.  That contrast needs to be made abundantly clear.  If he does that, Trump cannot lose. 

Democrats' economics 2012 vs. 2024 - from bad policy to bad policy

I was digging through my old posts this morning, looking for a specific one (that I have yet to find).  It led me just now to post on a tangential topic.  And now it's led me to an entirely unrelated topic.  This time, it's about a notion that actually relates to my previous post - Democrats keep making the same mistakes.

In that previous post, I noted that the Democrats' mistakes on Israel and Hamas are driven by politics rather than by morality or even national security.  However, their mistakes on the economy and unemployment are driven by political and economic misunderstanding.  Socialist policies lead to bad outcomes. 

Some people look back on the Obama years with nostalgia, but it's undeserved:

The U6 president, unlike his Nobel Peace Prize, now has an accomplishment he has truly earned. He has presided over the longest stretch of unemployment above 8% in the history of unemployment in the United States (reported by HuffPo - emphasis added);

Stronger job creation could help President Barack Obama's re-election hopes. Still, the unemployment rate has been above 8 percent since his first month in office – the longest stretch on record. No president since World War II has faced re-election with unemployment over 8 percent.

This will be hard for the presidential apologists to spin.

Of course back then, spin mattered. Now it doesn't - few believe this "president" is doing a good, and few believe that spin matters more than who votes and which votes actually get counted. Sad but true.

None of this matters to Democrats, it's about accumulation and retention of power. That and their socialist agenda which they either believe completely or just use to help centralize their power. Nothing more. Hurt Israel, hell hurt Americans.  As long as it serves their purpose it doesn't matter to them. That's evil.  

As I've said many times over the years - they are either too stupid or too evil (or maybe both) to be allowed to lead the country.

Donald vs. Brandon China policies

Robert Lighthizer explains president Trump's policy success on China. It remains a stark contrast with Let's Go Brandon's slapdash, haphazard policies on everything.

It's deliberate and you know it!

The Trump era policy of undocumented migrants remaining in Mexico was working, and Mexico was working with the United States on it. The logical thing to do is to keep it in place.  That's not happening.  The policy was reversed.  The only reason it would be reversed is if you wanted it to stop working. The policy change was deliberate. The results were easily predictable by anyone with half a brain. Apparently the does not include Democrats.

And it's not only bad, it's horrific:

YouTube advertising, like creator policy, has gone haywire

The pathetic state of YouTube advertising is as bad as censorship and de-platforming at everything else at YouTube:

YouTube, like the rest of Google, needs a wake up call.

Progressive states continue resisting accountability

Two examples of how leftists continue to attempt to thwart accountability at every turn, follow below.  

President Trump's Tax Cuts  and Jobs Act is a shrewd political move on a level that has not been talked about much. Yes, it likely influences people to be happy about Trump's agenda.  But the real big thing is that it is a direct assault on blue states that for years have had their liberal policies subsidized by more fiscally conservative states.  Longer term these states will be forced to be more fiscally responsible than they currently are.  That means less liberal policies.  It means less time and treasure free to attack the right and the policies of the right.

California is a prime example of this.  Via Hot Air:

When the Democrats were railing against the tax cut package which was passed before Christmas, one of their major rallying cries was to say that Trump and the Republicans were “punishing blue states” by capping SALT deductions (the amount of state and local taxes you pay which may then be deducted from your federal taxes) at $10K per year. Hardest “hit” were New York and California, with their respective governors vowing to #RESIST Trump and find a way to spare their people. While this would obviously be a silly idea in progressive circles, one response might have been to ask why they don’t stop taxing their residents at such insanely high levels. Perish the thought.

It doesn't end with that. President Trump has given up on the voter fraud commission he had set up, at least for the time being, as a result of blue states' non-interest in being transparent (uncooperative is too nice a term to put the real picture in place):

The White House blamed the decision to end the panel on more than a dozen states that have refused to comply with the commission’s demand for reams of personal voter data, including names, partial Social Security numbers, voting histories and party affiliations.

Trump said in tweets early Thursday that the states, mostly Democratic leaning, “fought hard that the Commission not see their records or methods because they know that many people are voting illegally,” he tweeted.

“As Americans, you need identification, sometimes in a very strong and accurate form, for almost everything you do.....except when it comes to the most important thing, VOTING for the people that run your country.”

Clearly the swamp is much more vast than originally thought, and going to take much longer to drain. The solution - more president Trump, more shrewd policies and an unrelenting assault on the crooked pillars of the left. The resistance to accountability and transparency will not halt without a fight, and the crooked left does not fight fair.

Dictator Watch - Iran, All is not quiet on New Year's Day

It's a rather slow start to the new year, so it's tempting to just say I've got nothing.  But there are reports of Iran cracking down on protesters to the point of killing them.  President Trump tweeted out a missive on the people of Iran wanting, and deserving freedom.  The left in a fit of Chamberlain-ism, felt the tweet itself deserved condemnation for inflaming the situation. Not Iran - the president's tweet is the problem. Okey-dokey.

This in stark contrast to then president Obama in 2009 who ignored videotaped killings in the streets of Iran and his dismissive quiet helped ensure the ultimate failure of the Iranian Green Revolution, and the served as the seeds of the failure of his own foreign policy on Iran.

President Trump is, as in most things, attempting a new approach. Blanket, predetermined condemnation seems to be a short-sighted approach to solving the problem, but what do I, or president Trump know about foreign policy that the establishment liberalism hasn't already solved?

Maybe president Trump should build the wall around California

California is looking at becoming a sanctuary state apparently;

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CN) – Over objections from sheriffs’ unions and the California Police Chiefs Association, the California Assembly Judiciary Committee took a step forward in making the Golden State a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants.

State Senate President Pro Tem Kevin De Leon, D-Los Angeles, said his measure, Senate Bill 54 or the “California Values Act,” is intended to prevent state and local law enforcement from cooperating with what he calls the “Trump Deportation Machine.”

Opponents call it a “sanctuary state measure” that goes against federal immigration law and obstructs the ability of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to do their job.

How far this gets isn't clear, but if California policy becomes a threat to national security perhaps a border wall around the state becomes necessary.  A fence is only as good as it's weakest link and clearly California is trying to render the border wall pointless by subsuming federal immigration policy to California's state preferences. While a legal challenge might derail California's policy that could take years. Without an enforceable national policy, illegal immigrants to California could easily travel, restriction free to any other state.

GOP ground zero is a good thing

Democrats on the far left love to demonize big business. They in fact legislatively undercut all businesses, and more acutely smaller businesses, with onerous requirements that have caused a lot of investment potential a lot of innovation opportunity to sit idle on the sidelines that could have had a positive impact on the country's economy. As Democrats have sewn this antagonistic view, so now have they reaped much of the consequence politically. The country however continues to feel the impacts of everything from Dodd Frank, to Obamacare, to loose monetary policy. It's crippling America at a faster rate than every before.

Meanwhile the Democrats claim to champion the underprivileged and laughably, the middle class. Minimum wage laws designed to keep people out of the lowest of the income brackets have been proven to drive unemployment. But beyond that, the psychological harm to business of these pro-people, anti-business measures are quite significant.

The message could not be clearer - the legislation Democrats have enacted has helped the poorest, marginally at best, and the wealthiest significantly. They are insulated from new competition by the sheer enormity of the administrative and taxation burden placed on smaller companies. Those companies cannot grow to competitive levels and right now they aren't even inclined to try. Therefore they are not adding more jobs, and importantly, they are not adding more middle class jobs.

The Democrats have been running a Zero-trickle-down legislative agenda, intentionally or not.

This is where the opportunity exists for the GOP from a messaging perspective. A positive message should show people that prosperity is not a zero-sum game. When the economy does well, everyone benefits. But a little more nuance than tha tis required. The message should say be something along the lines of "our policies are not designed to codify people, and make them think of the world as us and them, but rather to enable everyone the same opportunity to start their own journey to success."

Equality of opportunity extends from education right through to starting and growing your own business. A truly level playing field requires it. Republican policy should deliver it. It's not about creating jobs - it's about creating opportunities (of which jobs is a mere subset).

Every policy and piece of legislation should start from that basis. And every policy and piece of legislation must have crystal clarity on how it enables equality of opportunity at every stage of life. That is done not by layering more complexity upon existing complexity. Rather it is done by simplifying the rules. It is done by ensuring that rules do not discriminate against anyone or any business entity.

People can be made to see those truths if the messaging is clear. Investors certainly can be made to see them. That alone would spark a fire in the economy. Then ensuring that everyone has a shot at taking advantage of the prosperity to better their own lives becomes the main raison d'etre for government.