Common Decency

A Multitude Of Qualified Democrats For 2028, As Party Assesses The Future!

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A week after the disturbing defeat of Kamala Harris, causing great distress and dismay among Democrats, including this author and blogger, it is important to learn from the disappointment and plan for the future.

The Democratic Party cannot move toward the center Right, if it means ever to offer a reasonable alternative.

However, that does not mean that it should adopt Bernie Sanders Left Wing type progressivism, which, despite what some say, would never be accepted by voters at large as an alternative in the future.

The party needs to continue to promote mainstream progressivism and liberalism, including labor rights, protection of the environment, and enforcement of basic civil rights for the growing Latino minority, African Americans, Asian Americans, gays and lesbians, and women, along with promotion of more voter education as to the details and effects of government policies.

The idea that Latino males, young people, and white women would think of Donald Trump as the better alternative is shocking, so therefore the need for greater voter education is essential.

And as the Democrats ponder their future, it is blessed with a multitude of qualified Presidential contenders!

This includes the following Governors:

Gavin Newsom, California
Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania
Wes Moore, Maryland
Gretchen Whitmer, Michigan
Andy Beshear, Kentucky
J D Pritzker, Illinois
Jared Polis, Colorado
Tim Walz, Minnesota
Josh Stein, North Carolina

Additionally, there are US Senators in the mix, including

Christoper Murphy, Connecticut
Jon Ossoff, Georgia
Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota
Cory Booker, New Jersey

Also, present Transportation Secretary and former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who is rumored to be planning to run for Michigan Governor, to succeed Gretchen Whitmer, who is term limited from running for reelection in 2026.

To assume that Donald Trump and his party will be able to keep public opinion on his side over the next four years is failing to realize that it is certain there will be a major negative reaction to the agenda that is now being imposed on America by aggressive and extreme Right wing forces!

Democrats must be optimistic and willing to work hard for the future of common decency and empathy as part of American principles!

The Republican Party Has Gone Fully Racist, Nativist, Misogynistic, Homophobic, And Willing To Ignore Anti Semitism In Its Midst!

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In the past, we had elements of racism, nativism, misogyny, homophobia, and anti Semitism emerge among some members of both political parties.

But now, as the Republican Party is about to take control of the House of Representatives in January, the party that once was graced by Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, and George H W Bush, has gone fully racist, nativist, misogynistic, homophobic, and ignoring elements of anti Semitism in its midst!

What used to be veiled and secretive is now openly displayed, with no sense of shame or embarrassment!

This shows up every day by the utterances or actions of those who admire Donald Trump, and Republican politicians who overlook his extremist behavior and promotion of hatred and violence and inciting domestic terrorism!

Members of the Republican Party in Congress and in many states accentuate their narrow mindedness and willingness to ignore the Constitution and Bill of Rights!

As things stand, the party is in its death throes long term, as those who are conservatives but have decency in their veins, are abandoning what has become an extremist right wing party!

So we have individuals such as Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Mitt Romney, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Larry Hogan, and a small number of others in the party who still uphold common decency.

But the cancer of Donald Trump and his supporters permeate the party, and the disaster of Kevin McCarthy as the likely Speaker of the House, or being replaced by someone even more horrendous, make clear that the party, as we once knew it, is in its death throes.

It must be replaced by a respectable, dignified Conservative Party, that does not promote as part of its plaform the evils of racism, nativism, misogyny, homophobia, and anti Semitism!

Hurricane Ian Puts Florida Governor Ron DeSantis On The Spot: How Will He Handle The Disaster?

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Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who clearly wants to be President of the United States, faces a major crisis that puts him on the spot!

How is he going to handle Hurricane Ian, with millions of his constituents in crisis?

And will he conduct himself properly in his dealings with Democratic President Joe Biden, who has been to the forefront of this crisis, even as it was developing?

This is a test case for crisis leadership, and arrogant, right wing demagogic Ron DeSantis is likely to cause controversy, and show lack of empathy, sincerity, compassion, and decency, since he has no element of any of these characteristics!

On the other hand, Joe Biden exudes empathy, sincerity, compassion, and decency throughout his nearly half century of political leadership.

This may well be the test of Ron DeSantis’s planned Presidential candidacy, as the likelihood is that he will fail miserably, but will blame others, rather than take responsibility for the reaction to this natural disaster!

Will he even show the kind of leadership that former Governor Jeb Bush demonstrated in numerous hurricane crises in 2004-2005 when he was in charge in the “Sunshine” state?

And short term, how will this horrendous disaster affect the Florida Governorship election, which is less than six weeks from now, and will Democratic opponent Charlie Crist gain an advantage?

Crist was lucky that there were no major hurricanes in the four years he was Florida Governor as a Republican (2007-2011).

This crisis will be a possible forerunner of a DeSantis-Biden confrontation in 2024!

Six Months To Midterm Elections: Time To Emphasize The Danger Of Republican Extremists!

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In six months, the Midterm Congressional and Gubernatorial Elections of 2022 will occur.

Polls indicate disillusionment with Joe Biden and the Democratic Party, due to inflation and its effects, and the fact that there is stalemate with the evenly divided Senate and the small Democratic edge in the House of Representatives.

There is concern felt about the danger of Republican extremism in the states and on the Congressional level.

The party has allowed itself to promote policies that victimize women, people of color, immigrants, gays and transgender individuals.

They are promoting censorship and declaring war on public education and libraries in the name of advocacy of Christian values in a nation based on separation of church and state.

There is a strong strain of pro Russian, pro Vladimir Putin, support and a growing isolationist spirit, which endangers the alliances of the United States in international relations, most notably the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

The cancer of Donald Trump still infuses the party rhetoric and obsequious support of a man who still contends that the election was stolen, and attempts are being pursued to insure limitations on voting and on control of election machinery for the upcoming Presidential Election of 2024.

American democracy and basic common decency, humanity, empathy and compassion are under attack, and the Democrats must pursue an aggressive counter reaction to the evils represented by an opposition party which is authoritarian oriented, and Fascist in nature!

The whole future of the American nation is at stake, if the Republican Party, as now constituted, wins control of state and national governments, as likely it will be a point of no return!

So Joe Biden and all Democrats must go on the offensive and make clear the dangers of Republican extremism!

Ron DeSantis More Dangerous Than Was George Wallace In 1960s Or Huey Long In 1930s

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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has become an authoritarian, arrogant, dangerous leader of the third largest state in population in America, and it is clear that he is full steam ahead in his pursuit of the Republican Presidential nomination in 2024, even if Donald Trump ends up announcing for President.

Highly ambitious, and willing to do anything to promote his populist views against the establishment in every respect, DeSantis should be seen as much more dangerous than an earlier popullst, Alabama Governor George Wallace was in the 1960s, including when he ran on a third party American Independent party line in 1968, winning five states, 46 electoral votes, and 13.5 percent of the national popular vote.

Ron DeSantis clearly will stop at nothing in his quest for power, as he has now made victims of women, minority groups, gay and transgender people, children, and promoted banning books and interfering with educational curriculum, and even the right of Floridians to vote in a system based on democracy and representation by promoting extreme gerrymandering.

DeSantis is interfering with his own party in the legislature, reminding us of Huey Long of Louisiana in the 1930s, as dictatorial in approach as Long was, alarming many at the time and now.

DeSantis has adopted Trump tactics, including showing his signature in a “show and tell” after signing legislation or an executive order. But he is also smarter and more than thirty years younger than Trump, and he is hell bent on storming the opposition in his own party, and taking over the federal government with an extremist right wing agenda. He has declared war on common decency, compassion, empathy, and humanity, all represented by President Joe Biden.

DeSantis has no limits to his agenda to promote the return of America to its past, rather than its multi ethnic future, and the goal must be to stop him in his tracks from reaching the White House, as American Fascism would be the result!

Rand Paul And Ted Cruz Are The Most Obnoxious Republicans Of All!

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In 2016, there were 17 Republicans contending for President.

Many would say that Donald Trump was the most scary of the 17, but I would argue, that despite the horrors that Donald Trump has imposed on the American people, at the time, two other contenders seemed even more terrifying.

And these two scary and despicable candidates are still potentially interested in being President, and would be no better, and possibly worse, than Donald Trump, believe it or not!

I am speaking about Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul!

Cruz and Paul both promote division and hate, and can be seen as totally evil characters, who would undermine American democracy, and promote Fascist ideas, as they already have done so in the Senate.

One wonders how the citizens of Texas and Kentucky do not have the common sense to dump these villainous Senators, who have no concern about common decency, empathy, and compassion.

Both have lied, manipulated, deceived, and have no ethics, scruples, or morals!

Rand Paul is up for election this year, and for the benefit of poor Kentuckians of all faces, needs to be retired, as his libertarian craziness is a total disaster.

He has not stopped causing threats on Dr. Anthony Fauci, and the crazies have threatened Fauci, due to the recklessness of Paul, as outlined today in a Senate hearing by Fauci.

And Ted Cruz, who conspired to overthrow the election of Joe Biden, has degraded himself by kowtowing to Donald Trump, and clearly is afraid of Demagogue Tucker Carlson of Fox News Channel, after having a moment of sanity and stating that January 6 was indeed a terrorist attack and insurrection, before backing off to the evil Carlson, who is provoking a potential civil war!

Birthday Of Joe Biden And Robert F. Kennedy November 20, And The Issue Of Age!

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Yesterday, November 20, was the 79th Birthday of President Joe Biden, our oldest President in office.

It was also the birthday of Robert F. Kennedy, who Biden perceives as a hero, with Biden having a bust of RFK always in every photo on his left side when Biden is at his desk in the Oval Office.

Biden is working so hard to accomplish the greatest social change legislation in the past 55 years since Lyndon B. Johnson accomplished the massive reforms of the Great Society in the mid 1960s, something RFK wished to build on if he had lived and become President in the Presidential Election of 1968.

The issue of age constantly is brought up as Joe Biden will be 82 years old weeks after the Presidential Election of 2024.

Biden certainly has aged since he was Vice President under Barack Obama, but he is still capable and alert, although his annual physical shows his gait has slowed a bit.

But when one compares Biden to Donald Trump or Ronald Reagan at the end of their terms, and even Trump now a year later, Biden is far more mentally capable than either of them.

And the idea that Donald Trump at age 78 and a half at the time of inauguration three years hence would magically be much more mentally and physically capable than Joe Biden, when already it is clear that Trump is a danger with his reckless rhetoric, and promotion of hate, sedition and treason, makes one have to wonder about the mental stability of Donald Trump followers, who see him as a God like figure!

Joe Biden might decide one term is enough, considering his age, and that would be perfectly understandable, as only one third of our Presidents have served two terms.

Joe Biden is a transformative figure in the Presidency, who is having an historical impact, and this is just his first year in office!

A new generation can follow him and continue the good works, and common decency, that would make Robert F. Kennedy proud, if he was alive, on his 96th birthday!

Twenty Years Since September 11, And The Terrorists Won! We Have A Divided America Worse Than The 1960s!

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It has now been a full generation since September 11, 2001!

Sadly, the terrorists won!

We have a more divided America now than we had in the 1960s!

There is no sense of unity, and one of the two political parties, the Republican Party, is a shell of itself, totally contradicting the heritage of the party, and now a full blown Fascist Party, which has no concern about public health, public safety, or common decency!

It is nearly impossible to accomplish any great goals, as occurred with the “Great Society” in the 1960s, as the Republicans are nihilists, libertarians, who do not care at all about anyone other than themselves. Their wealthy benefactors only care about keeping taxes low, not dealing with the many social and economic problems of a society which is becoming more inequitable every year.

The Supreme Court is the most extreme it has been since the 1920s, and is losing public respect, and there is no sense of humanity, empathy, compassion in the public sphere by close to half of the Congress, only out to promote cruelty and suffering of the masses of Americans.

So the terrorists won. and only the corporations and wealthy have benefited, and this portends future conflict that could escalate the terrible divisions now so evident in America!

Mike Pence A Sycophant With No Presidential Future

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Former Vice President Mike Pence is a sycophant, unwilling to challenge Donald Trump in his four years in the Oval Office, and unwilling to condemn Donald Trump for failure to protect him at the time of the Capitol Insurrection on January 6, 2021.

Trump did not give a damn about Pence, who could have been killed by the Insurrectionists that stormed the US Capitol, and did not contact him for five days after the horrid events of January 6.

Trump has continued to criticize Pence for refusal to stop the Electoral College vote that showed Joe Biden having won the Presidential Election of 2020.

Pence was doing his constitutional duty, and for that, he should be commended, but beyond that, there is no way that Mike Pence has a Presidential future.

Knowing that his wife was disgusted by the behavior of Trump during the Presidential Election campaign of 2016, and was unhappy that her husband was going to be his Vice President, one wonders how Pence has not openly criticized and condemned the treason and sedition encouraged by Trump.

The man has no ethics, morals, scruples, or common decency, not only regarding the situation that he faced working under Trump, but also willing to sell his soul to try to become President in 2024.

But with his hypocritical views regarding his “good Christian” image, where he promotes hate and division, Pence has zero chance of becoming the Republican Presidential nominee in 2024 and beyond.

Pence will go down as one of the worst Vice Presidents in modern history, with narrow minded and bigoted views on so many issues, and could never unite the nation.

So Mike Pence will not stand out in American history as other recent Vice Presidents have, and will be a footnote in American history!

Florida An Outlier, Likely To Continue To Defy Common Decency By Government Leaders

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This author and blogger lives in the “Sunshine” State, Florida, and has lived in South Florida since the summer of 1989.

Sadly, Florida has some of the most horrendous political leaders imaginable, with the state legislature heavily Republican, and promoting right wing extremism in every way they can.

The Governor, Ron DeSantis, has no concern about public health in the midst of the COVID 19 Pandemic.

The former Governor, now a US Senator, Rick Scott, has a record of Medicare fraud, but was allowed to run for public office after paying a fine, rather than serve time in prison, and he has a steel heart.

The other Senator, Marco Rubio, is a mediocre Senator and not very bright, although less harmful than DeSantis and Scott.

Only in South Florida do Democrats have much impact, other than in selected Congressional districts in the central part of the state.

And Florida is the home of the disgraced former President, Donald Trump, who continues to divide the nation, and perpetrate a big lie that he won the Presidential Election Of 2020, and he has blood on his hands by having incited the US Capitol Insurrection on January 6, 2021.

Florida desperately needs a renaissance in state government and in national representation, as it is an outlier defying common decency, and is likely to see all three statewide officials competing for President in 2024, unless Trump is somehow able to poison the nation again.

In any case, right now, all three Florida leaders are competing with many others for Trump’s endorsement and support, so common decency is not present in Florida Government in 2021.