Tuesday, November 2, 2021

Seriously, where are the adults in the Democratic Party?

Seriously, where are the adults in the Democratic Party? We're over $30 trillion in debt. Social security and Medicare are running out of money as it is. Economy is slowing. Shortages everywhere. We face real threats from China's advancing militarization. The Fed is printing paper with dollar signs in massive quantities with little real backing. And they want massive expansion of government spending and taxes!

Bernie Sanders supporters can’t be THAT stupid. So why do they back nonsense, ruinous policies?

9 possibilities

Nine Theories of Progressive Power

Leftists want to stay on top, but they also want to profit and seem intelligent.

They must know that massive wealth redistribution and public spending crush the economy if they have ever studied the failures of Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society or Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. Progressives often invoke Europe as an economic model knowing full well that the U.S. outstrips almost all European countries in economic output per capita—15% higher than Germany’s, 43% higher than France’s.

What is the end game? Here are nine answers.

1. to gain and then stay in power—to buy votes.

2. the shakedown theory. The goal of single-payer healthcare recalls the opening scene from “The Godfather” when Don Corleone meets with a favor-currying constituent. Bonasera wants justice for an assault on his daughter. Now imagine he’s asking his senator for permission to have gallbladder surgery.

3. the “noblesse oblige” theory that the privileged should use government to improve the lives of the less privileged. Who better to boss us around than the “expert class”? But markets, with billions of price signals, always know better than 537 elected politicians.

4. the “love mankind, hate people” theory. Those who complain about “deplorables” are as bad as those who complain about “elites.” Bad policy hurts everyone.

5. the population-bomb theory, as epitomized by Bernie Sanders’s and economist Jeffrey Sachs’s desire to limit population growth and thus solve the world’s problems. As progressives wreck the economy, Americans might think twice about having that third child. Of course, most rich countries already have declining birthrates, while some poor countries are having population booms.

6. the brainwash theory. Declaring lockdowns and pushing words like “equity” and “systemic” and “climate crisis” are all about training the minds of voters that we have big problems that can be addressed only by government. We must attack these problems as if we were at war. Remember LBJ’s “war on poverty” or Richard Nixon’s “war on drugs”? We lost both, and they weren’t wars anyway. Once progressives have brainwashed their constituents, they can convince them of anything, including giving up individual freedoms.

7. Add the “Lord of the Rings” theory: Power is addictive. Imagine different congressmen as Gollum. It often fits.

8. The personal-gain theory also plays a role. Mr. Sanders owns three homes, including a Vermont lake house. And that’s nothing. The foundation responsible for the Black Lives Matter movement raised some $90 million in 2020. Self-described Marxist and BLM founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors, 37, bought four homes, including two in Topanga Canyon, Calif., near Malibu.

AOC couldn’t afford rent before congress. Now wears designer clothes.

9. the progressive cause was driven by resentment, especially toward hedge-fund guys or the T-shirt-wearing coder who recently IPOed. Ms. Warren’s plan to resolve this resentment is simple: Confiscate the wealth of the successful and give it to progressives to spend. They know better, after all. “Tax the rich, feed the poor, ’til there are no rich no more,” sang Alvin Lee of the band Ten Years After in 1971. Who cares if the economy tanks as long as the rich are taken out at the knees?

Write to kessler@wsj.com. Nine Theories of Progressive Power - WSJ

Wednesday, September 22, 2021

Democrats undermine Israel again

Seemingly daily, Democrats show their hatred of Israel and most Jews ignore it.

Nothing can penetrate Israel's Iron Dome system except Democrat anti-Semites.
The Biden Administration put the squeeze on Israel by holding up $1 Billion funding for Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system.
As Michael Oren said, the small number of radical Democrats are showing their anti-Israel muscle.
Behind the scene in Washington they are saying the money will come through but the total will be reduced.
It needs to be stressed that the Iron Dome is not an offensive system. It protects Israeli citizens from Palestinian, Hezbollah and Iranian rockets.
It also shows that the anti-Semitic, Hate Israel, wing of the Democrat heirarchy will press anti-Israel moves no matter who is leading the Israeli Government, left or right.
This budget issue is not the only anti-Israel move taken by the Biden Administration.
It follows Biden's illegal renewal of payments to the PA despite the Taylor Force Bill that orders no further US taxpayers money until the PA stops giving it to their Palestinian terrorist murderers.
While Biden is pressuring Israel to allow the US to open a consular office in Jerusalem, Israel's capital, to serve the Palestinians, in a recent Palestinian poll 78% of Palestinians demanded the resignation of Mahmoud Abbas, and, in the same survey, 68% said they would vote for Hamas in a Palestinian election and only 34% would vote for Fatah.
The American tide is turning against Israel even as they are unaware ( except for Dems such as Omar, Tlaib, AOC and others) of the radical hatred of Jews by indoctrinated Palestinians.
As I predicted in January, the anti-Semites at the top of the Democrat  Party are now setting policy.
Pelosi holds the key to this by turning a blind eye to the insertion of Jew-haters onto important House Committees and rejecting the warnings.
Now they have left $80B for the Taliban Islamic terrorists but reject helping Israel protect its citizens from Iranian, Hamas and Hezbollah Islamic terrorists!
Barry Shaw, The View from Israel.

Democrats entitlement programs HURT those designed to help

The Democrats’ $3.5 trillion proposal to expand the U.S. safety net is being described as a make-or-break moment for the Biden presidency. Regarding electoral politics in the short term, that may well be true. But some of us are more concerned about what it could mean for the country beyond the next election or two.

OPINION: POTOMAC WATCH

The Spending Bill's Democratic Fissures

Liberals view a larger welfare state as an unalloyed good, but what’s the track record? Entitlement programs were dramatically expanded in the 1960s in the service of a war on poverty, yet poverty fell at a slower rate after the Great Society initiatives were implemented, and overall dependency on the government for food, shelter and other basic necessities increased. According to Howard Husock, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and author of a coming book on housing policy, “The Poor Side of Town: And Why We Need It,” the median time a family spends in New York City public housing today is 19 years. And 10% of public housing residents in the city have been there for more than 40 years. Housing intended to help families through a rough patch has become a multigenerational trap for some.

Democrats are now aiming to create new entitlements and expand the existing ones, not only for the poor but also for the professional class. Workers making $200,000 a year would be eligible for a new national paid family and medical leave program. Earlier this year the American Rescue Plan Act expanded the child tax credit for households earning as much as $150,000. Liberals pitch these social programs in the name of helping underprivileged minority groups and reducing inequality, but the lesson of the 1960s is that government relief can put in place incentives that have the opposite effect.

Between 1940 and 1960 the percentage of black families living in poverty declined by 40 points as blacks increased their years of education and migrated from poorer rural areas to more prosperous urban environs in the South and North. No welfare program has ever come close to replicating that rate of black advancement, which predates affirmative action programs that often receive credit for creating the black middle class. Moreover, what we experienced in the wake of the Great Society interventions was slower progress or outright retrogression. Black labor-force participation rates fell, black unemployment rates rose, and the black nuclear family disintegrated. In 1960 fewer than 25% of black children were being raised by a single mother; within four decades, it was more than half.

Saturday, January 16, 2021

The judges all turned down Trump challenges on fraud.

The judges all turned down Trump challenges on fraud. The mountains of evidence of election fraud were never examined in any court, and then we were told that there was no evidence at all, or if there was any, it had already been dismissed in court challenges. The court cases were all dismissed on technicalities and procedural issues, not because there was no evidence of voter fraud. That evidence has still not been examined. Why? Obviously, The judiciary decided they will not interfere. They never bothered to look at the evidence. The only solution will be to fix it at the legislative level. With Dem's seemingly perfecting the art of stealing elections, the task looks very difficult.

Trump best POTUS Friend of Israel and Jews ever

1. Recognized Jerusalem as capitol after 50 years of POtus promises, moved Embassy there

2. Recognized Golan as part of Israel

3. Had State dept stop calling West Bank “occupied”

4. Nixed catastrophic Obama-Biden Iran deal

5. Facilitated peace treaties with Israel and UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, Morocco

6. Stopped funding corrupt, anti Israel UNHRC and Unesco

7. Stood up for Israel in UN vs Obama most anti Semitic act in world 2016 with first ever UN abstention on anti-Israel resolution in Security Council

8. Defunded Palestinian Authority and closed mission in DC

9. Signed order outlawing anti-Semitism on college campuses

10. With only 5 days left in office, changed US Command structure in Middle East to include Israel and Arab nations in joint command to fight iran

11. Only president with Orthodox Jewish child and grandchildren

How they cheat in elections

conservative voters have endured not just the last four years of insults, berating, and unreasonable and childlike behavior out of the Democrat-led House and the Democrat senators as well as many Republicans that failed to support and often worked against President Trump.

They suffered eight years of flagrant trampling of the Constitution, irresponsible and reckless leftist policies and regulations, scandals and abuse, insults and divisiveness from the Obama administration and liberals in the legacy media and social media.

The 2016 election, while a victory for conservatives, was an expression of our frustration and anger at Democrats and liberals, many of whom labeled us as racists, bigots, xenophobes, and greedy capitalist pigs rather than debate policies with us in a civilized manner.

The Democrats committed numerous actions during their campaign that led even the most skeptical voter to conclude that Democrats had engaged in less than ethical behavior to win an election, from the meeting on the tarmac to the Democratic National Committee supplying the debate questions to Hillary, the abundance of undocumented aliens suspected of voting to the polling numbers being pushed by the media that were grossly incorrect. All these contributed to a base level of distrust from conservatives.

Laws have been changed to allow widespread unchecked voting requiring little or no signature verification. Language has been changed in regulations, sometimes a word or two at a time. Voter registration rolls have never been purged, allowing untold numbers of ballots to be sent out. Year after year, progressive Democrat activists have brought suit after suit to the courts presided over by partisan activist judges that allowed a swarm of election policies to be implemented. These actions created and fostered a modern version of ballot-box stuffing on an industrial scale.

Biden's 8 years as VP were worst in American history

Let’s see how Biden did 8 years as VP

Worst recovery ever from recession https://www.forbes.com/sites/louiswoodhill/2012/08/01/obama-wins-the-gold-for-worst-economic-recovery-ever/?sh=242e6ddb3ca2
Worst economic growth ever over 8 years https://nypost.com/2017/04/01/obama-was-terrible-for-economic-growth/
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-tale-of-two-economies-11562199595
Record poverty https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jan/7/obamas-rhetoric-on-fighting-poverty-doesnt-match-h/
IRS used to harass and abuse pro-Israel groups and conservatives https://www.npr.org/2017/10/27/560308997/irs-apologizes-for-aggressive-scrutiny-of-conservative-groups
Top FBI exposed as corrupt, conspiring to bring down trump
https://www.voanews.com/usa/former-fbi-lawyer-involved-russia-investigation-pleads-guilty
Isis left unscathed https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2016-09-09/obama-hasnt-done-enough-to-combat-isis-terrorism
Military gutted https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/feb/24/us-military-decimated-under-obama-only-marginally-/
Attacked Trump stopping infected Chinese from traveling here with covid https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/yes-biden-called-trumps-travel-restrictions-xenophobic/
Terrorist state Iran embraced https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/01/obama-should-never-have-appeased-iran/604744/
New wars https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-na-pol-obama-at-war/
Russia, China, N Korea left to work their evil
Massive record new business-killing regs https://www.forbes.com/sites/waynecrews/2016/12/30/obamas-legacy-2016-ends-with-a-record-shattering-regulatory-rulebook/?sh=47fce29f1398
Tax hikes to stymie the economy https://www.atr.org/full-list-ACA-tax-hikes-a6996
No border enforcement https://ballotpedia.org/2014_illegal_immigration_surge
Cages built to house children coming across the border https://www.prismreports.org/article/2020/10/23/who-built-the-cages
Mishandled their pandemic https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/04/joe-biden-contain-h1n1-virus-232992
Massive money to support  Palestinian terror https://www.businessinsider.com/obama-queitly-sends-221-million-to-palestine-2017-1
Deterioration of race relations https://www.cnn.com/2016/10/05/politics/obama-race-relations-poll/index.html
Most anti-Semitic acts in the world as leaving office, with UN abstention. According to main Nazi-hunting organization. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/dec/27/obama-refusal-israel-vote-most-anti-semitic-2016/
BEGGING Obama NOT to go after Bin Laden. And then bragged about killing him. 
Constantly appearing to grope young girls and women in public
Wrong on every foreign policy issue for 40 years according to Obama's defense secr Robert Gates
Obama-Biden worst foreign policy ever Obama worst foreign policy ever https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/01/18/barack-obama-was-a-foreign-policy-failure/

23. No peace treaties between Israel and Arab nations vs Trump multiple peace treaties In Mid East and Kosovo, (Bahrain, Sudan, UAE, Morocco)  primarily by REVERSING Obama-Biden tilt towards Iran. rebuilt our strategic alliance with Israel after Obama-Biden denigrated it.

24. After Obama-Biden policies contributed to our DEPENDENCE on Arab oil. Trump made s energy EXPORTER.


During Trump years
1. Attacked Trump stopping infected Chinese from traveling here with covid
2. Supported and encouraged massive riots, burning, looting
3. Helped perfect election fraud https://hereistheevidence.com/
4. Said nothing as big tech fascistically purged all opposition voices
5. Claiming he was a professor when he left the White House when he wasn't
6. Enriching his 5 family members through corruption with Ukraine China etc
7. His racist comments about Indian to work and 711 or his racist comments about saying poor kids and white kids?
8. Never condemned and contributed to this violent rhetoric
Madonna (Democrat): "Let's blow up the white house!"
Peter Fonda (Democrat): "Lock 10 year old Barren Trump in a cage with child molesters."
Johnny Depp (Democrat): "We need another John Wilks Booth!"
Tom Arnold (Democrat): "I fantasize about standing over Donald Trump Jr.'s dead body!"
Kathy Griffith (Democrat): *Holds up a bloody, decapitated head of Donald Trump*
Snoop Dog: (Democrat): *Shoots a likeness of Trump in a music video, has Donald Trump in a body bag on his album cover*
Joe Biden (Democratic presidential hopeful): "I'd like to take Trump behind a barn to beat him."
Corey Booker (Democratic presidential hopeful): "I dream of punching Trump in the face."
Maxine Waters (Sitting Democratic congresswoman) "Harass Trump's staff and supporters in public and refuse to serve them."
But according to the left wing media/DNC talking points, it's Trump with the hateful rhetoric... all in the name of TOLERANCE...

Trump did not incite.

Another PHONY, TRUMPED up lie to undermine trump, following PHONY Russian collusion, Phony Ukraine Phone call impeachment, Phony Mueller investigation, stealing an election ad now blaming him for false flag Antifa operation+ some rogue rally attendees.

The president didn’t commit incitement or any other crime. ..SCOTUS case: Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969), in which the Supreme Court set the standard for speech that could be prosecuted without violating the First Amendment. The justices held that a Ku Klux Klan leader’s calls for violence against blacks and Jews were protected speech. The court found that Clarence Brandenburg’s comments were “mere advocacy” of violence, not “directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action . . . likely to incite or produce such action. The president didn’t mention violence on Wednesday, much less provoke or incite it. He said, “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard… The president’s critics want him charged for inflaming the emotions of angry Americans. That alone does not satisfy the elements of any criminal offense, and therefore his speech is protected by the Constitution that members of Congress are sworn to support and defend.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/no-trump-isnt-guilty-of-incitement-11610303966

President Trump addressed the protesters and called on the assembled to march “over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”At the moment the President was uttering the words “peacefully,” though, a different more sinister group had already gathered at the Capitol, a full 45 minute walk away. Whatever happened there is not yet fully understood. Given the proclivity of federal law enforcement to act politically against Trump, it, unfortunately, may never be.

Some things, though, are certain. We know, for instance, that many of the troublemakers were not Trump supporters. We know, too, that Capitol Police waved at least some Trump supporters into the building. We know that a Trump supporter was shot in the Capitol.

Wall St. Journal says a FEW DOZEN of the tens of thousands breached the capital. Police LET THEM IN. How many of the breachers causing trouble were Antifa, planted by dems to create this mayhem? We'll never know, because the left is using Google, Twitter, Facebook etc to block truth-seeking.. But we do know dems generally are ok with violent protests. S

Leftist arrested in DC’

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/01/rush_to_judgment_on_trump_multiple_leftists_arrested_for_capitol_riot.html

FYI says no antifa involved in DC. Sorry corrupt FBI. We saw it without own eyes. January 9, 2021

The Capitol: So Much Suspicious Evidence

By William L. Gensert

they infiltrated a peaceful demonstration with Antifa and carried out a successful false flag operation.

They Tell Us

This was all Trump's fault.

Funny Thing

Having watched some part of almost all the Trump rallies and having never seen anyone wearing helmets, backpacks, headscarves, or any degree of blackout with a tool dangling from their belts, it was surprising to see so many of the so-called rioters so clad at this "rebellion."

In the now-famous picture of seven guys scaling the wall to the Capitol Building, one can see people already at the precipice. Those are the ones who walked up the stairs (just outside the frame) when the entirely inadequate security melted away.

One can be forgiven for thinking security was purposely left deficient and unarmed to provoke what might happen should a sampling of Antifa intermixed within the mostly peaceful crowd be successful at impelling the desired .

This Is What They Wanted

The left should think about what it has done and what is coming.

These people have stolen an election without caring who knows it. They have rioted, assaulted innocents, and burned down our cities for most of a year. They have defunded police, resulting in a nationwide increase in murders — forget about the increase in other crimes. And they told us we were wrong to mention how all their predations make us suffer.

Whether the left successfully prosecuted a false flag operation or this was an organic conservative rebellion, the result is the same. The left thinks it can push Americans around forever. Leftists think they can tell us what to do and we will obey. They have another think coming.

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

Obama-Biden worst, Trump best

Obama-Biden, worst administration in history

1. Democrats caused the 2008 recession https://www.investors.com/.../sorry-hillary-you-and-bill.../

2. Trump economy helped workers much better than Obama https://www.wsj.com/.../a-tale-of-two-economies-11562199595

3. Under trump pre virus record low unemployment for blacks, Hispanics, Asians

4. Trickle down works to help the poor and middle-class https://www.forbes.com/.../sorry-envious-left-trickle.../...

5. Record poverty under Obama https://www.washingtontimes.com/.../obamas-rhetoric-on.../

6. Record worst recovery from recession under Obama https://www.forbes.com/.../obama-wins-the-gold-for.../...

7. Worst economic growth over 8 years ever https://nypost.com/.../obama-was-terrible-for-economic.../

8. Obama worst foreign policy ever https://foreignpolicy.com/.../barack-obama-was-a-foreign.../

9. Obama most anti-Semitic act in world committed just before they left office 2016 https://www.washingtontimes.com/.../obama-refusal-israel.../

10. Obama gutted the military https://www.washingtontimes.com/.../us-military.../

VS Trump BEST Presidency, perhaps ever

Despite nonstop resistance and coup efforts at the highest levels of the Democratic party, Trump STILL gave us an amazing presidency:

1. Best economy in many decades, pre virus, after the worst economy under Obama, by REVERSING Obama-Biden disastrous policies.

2. Rebuilt military, after Obama-Biden gutted it

3. Multiple peace treaties In Mid East and Kosovo, primarily by REVERSING Obama-Biden tilt towards Iran. rebuilt our strategic alliance with Israel after Obama-Biden denigrated it.

4. Reversed Obama-Biden racist policies which hurt so many Blacks, through enterprise zones, criminal justice reform, tax cuts, lowest unemployment rates ever

5. Operation warp speed gave us the fastest vaccine ever, after Obama-Biden disastrous failure with their pandemic.

6. After Obama-Biden policies contributed to our DEPENDENCE on Arab oil. Trump made s energy EXPORTER.

Apparently now he will be succeeded (after corrupting our election through fraud) by a corrupt, demented, dumb, perverted, always wrong, Biden.

Thank you Mr. President, for all the great you did for America.

Youre NOt crazy to question the election results

5 Reasons Why You're Not Crazy to Question the Election Results

BY VICTORIA TAFT DEC 31, 2020 7:50 PM ET

You’ve gotten the memo from the leftist chin-strokers on social media. It’s simple. You’re insane for questioning the 2020 presidential election result. Joe Biden is the president-elect, so you just run along and ignore the copious news stories about election fraud and get over it. Man up!

Political titans on Capitol Hill look visibly concerned when asked by MSM reporters about the president and his millions of voters who aren’t convinced that this election wasn’t filled with fraud.

The party of Governor Stacey Abrams, President Hillary Clinton, and “Joe Biden should not concede under any circumstances” dares to point the magenta cat-toy-feather-wand of shame at Republicans who can’t believe that the candidate with the most momentum and the power of the incumbency didn’t win.

You’re not wrong. And you’re not crazy.

Here are just five reasons why people are not crazy to question the results of the 2020 election.

1. Enthusiasm

While Joe Biden was stumbling through basement Zoom calls to the fortunate few who were selected to ask him pre-arranged questions to which he fumbled his scripted answers, Donald Trump went before enthusiastic and huge crowds, giving speeches where he’d wander off the teleprompter to offer off-the-cuff jokes, barbs, and snappy patter for more than at hour, multiple times per day, for days.

Trump’s famous rallies were all done pre-and-post COVID shutdown to the giddy delight of those who waited in line for hours for the privilege of not being able to go to the bathroom and getting felt up by Secret Service agents.

By contrast, Joe Biden’s events, to the extent he had any, were sparsely attended. His “rallies” took on the look of the ribbon-cutting for a puppy mill, there were so few people. Later, he asked the big guns to help him out, such as Lady Gaga, which probably left Gaga wondering, “What the hell am I doing here?’

Joe’s car rallies looked a little more alive, owing to the lights and horns of the few who showed up.

Wait, the thinking goes, voters didn’t bother to come out and see Joe when he and Punxsutawney Jill – excuse me, Doctor Punxsutawney Jill – came out of the basement of their Big-Guy-paid-for manse but did show up to vote for him?

The enthusiasm deficit for Joe Biden is a huge reason why people are leery of the reported election results.

VIP: Is It Misinformation to Claim ‘Widespread Fraud or Errors’ Changed the Election Outcome?

2. Riots and Law and Order

President Trump made the antifa and Black Lives Matter riots, looting, arsons, and violence a campaign issue.

He owns the riots #BidenRiots pic.twitter.com/18FmjCQiSK
— 🇺🇸Bea Taylor #militarywidow Text TRUMP to 88022 (@dragonian3333) August 31, 2020

He attempted to stop the nightly attacks at the Portland, Oregon, federal courthouse, eventually acceding to the demands of the governor and mayor, who promised they’d deploy state police to stop the assaults, which they did for two seconds.

While Trump made unrest from antifa and BLM a campaign issue and demanded Democrats denounce them, Biden’s “denunciations,” such as they were, were often muddled, and siding with antifa outcomes. In a statement in May, when Portland, Kenosha and other cities were on fire from anti-cop riots, Biden weighed into the fray saying that “protesting police brutality is ‘right and necessary’ and the ‘American response.’ But burning down communities and needless destruction is not.”

For observers of the antifa and BLM riots of the spring, summer, and fall, riots and protests were of a piece. You didn’t have one without the other.

By putting himself on the side of the politically-motivated rioters being cheered on by his party’s Left, Biden seemed to embrace the Democrats’ defund-the-police and anti-police messages even as rioters set fires, destroyed other peoples’ property, threatened others’ lives, and acted like terrorists.

Trump knew this. There was no question of where he stood. The president expanded the First Step Act and gave clemency to people who had been arguably wronged by the judicial process. He supported law and order but most of all he demanded justice and was ready to make it right where he saw a wrong.

The idea that millions more people favored the guy who was ambivalent about the literal terrorism on the streets of America was unthinkable to Trump supporters. Who would vote for a guy who would give the old ¡Olé! to people looting, burning, and threatening people? Surely, fewer than those who voted for Trump…

Trump: ‘Joe Biden Has Given Moral Aid and Comfort’ to Rioters by Calling Riots ‘Peaceful Protests’

3. COVID Response

Early in the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, and after he stopped travelers from China, President Trump took a federalist approach to much of the response. He held daily news conferences along with Vice President Pence and he led the federal government in ticking off a daily checklist of things that needed to be done to confront the new virus.

The White House amassed information and began the effort to get a vaccine on track using the CDC, FDA, NIH, and the military. President Trump sent military medical ships to California and New York to help with any emergency room overflows, which thankfully never occurred.

Trump pressed into service U.S. manufacturers, sometimes using the Defense Production Act, to get companies to build ventilators and even hand sanitizer, which was in short supply.

In so doing, Trump resupplied spent emergency stores never replenished by the Obama administration after the much smaller H1N1 pandemic.

President Trump got the ball rolling on the big-picture items needed for a country to respond to a pandemic.

As he did this he devolved hands-on responses to local governments, in the federalist approach, where he believed it belonged and where it would be more efficient.

Many big, top-down government fans didn’t like it and often blamed the president for not commanding shutdowns and arrogating more power to himself to oversee response at the granular level. If he had any notion of doing such a thing, Trump didn’t give into it.

While Trump took hits for leadership lapses in the COVID response, complaints were usually uttered by leftists who wished he’d done more to lock down, force vaccinations, and take a greater hand in shutting down the economy.

Trump’s approach and his sideline Twitter sniping let people know he didn’t want a wholesale shutdown. He’d hoped to reopen the economy “by Easter” and tried to cajole Democrat governors into lifting the reigns on the people and the shutdown of the economy. Democrats like Governors Jay Inslee, Kate Brown, Gavin Newsom, and Gretchen Whitmer did the exact opposite. Citizens organized recall efforts to respond to the governors’ autocratic response.

Trump deemed the federal government’s response as “the greatest mobilization since World War II.” And he’ll never get the credit for getting a country on war-footing to fight a pandemic from the ground up.

4. Coattails …?

Stories about President Trump’s weak coattails were legion before the election. His likability was questioned and still is, but, what ho! Look what actually happened.

After the usual midterm 2018 thrashing for the president in power (George W. Bush and FDR are the only presidents who added seats during the midterms), Republicans made up some of those losses in congressional races and statehouses across the country in 2020.

Ballotpedia reports that while Democrats won 222 seats to Republicans’ 212, the GOP unexpectedly flipped 14 seats from D to R compared to three seats for the D’s.

Among the claw-backs were four California seats lost in the 2018 election to the new “ballot harvesting” measures Democrats put into effect. Trump didn’t come to California to hold rallies but did he did come to fundraise.

The candidates won on the backs of law and order (sound familiar?) and opening up the economy. They were Trump messages without the man. And Republican Michelle Steel is already working on getting Governor Gavin Newsom to change his disastrous tax and law and order policies that have made California so unpopular that people are fleeing in droves and the state could lose a congressional seat.

Republicans expanded their “trifecta” of governor’s mansions and state houses by two and possibly three, according to Ballotpedia. Alaska is still tallying the votes, believe it or not.

The media are loathe to give Trump any credit, but Trump received ten million more votes than he did in 2016 – the most of any Republican president ever. He energized the voter base and flipped back a bunch of seats in both state houses and Congress.

What’s the definition of coattails again?

5. Another ‘Election’

If President Trump is so divisive and unlikable and truly the worst, most contemptible person in the world, then why did he win the Gallup Poll’s “most admired” person, outstripping the Obamas and Joe?

Who are these people? Rubes? Or could it be that the oldest public polling firm in America captured the lightening in the bottle that shows what has really happened in the body politic?

Trump – 18%
Obama – 15%
Joe Biden- 6%
Dr. Fauci – 3%

The Dalai Lama came in at a — womp, womp — 1%.

We all know about public opinion polls. Joe was supposed to win by 10 or more points in 2020 and Hillary was going to easily get into office in a landslide. But Trump trebling the declared president-elect in a public opinion poll done in December? You can’t blame that on a sympathy vote. Nobody feels sorry for Donald Trump. They just love – or hate – him.

So you can be forgiven for your skepticism about the presidential results.

And you’re not crazy.