Democratic Party

The End Of A Half Century Of Statemanship, Leadership, And Contributions!

President Joe Biden is in his last full day of his four years in the Oval Office.

This is a time for celebration and pride in the leadership of the 46th President of the United States.

Joe Biden did not do everything perfectly well, but no President or any other political leader can insure constant success.

But his Presidency, already rated as number 14 in one scholarly poll, will remain in the top third and likely will rise over time, particularly and sadly, after his future demise.

Joe Biden gave the nation a half century of statesmanship, leadership, and contributions, and he showed Americans what a leader is like who has true character, morals, ethics, compassion, decency, and empathy, rare in the Presidency historically.

His years in public office were only surpassed by one President, John Quincy Adams, who spent more than half his time in appointed office, not elective office, as Biden did with 36 years in the US Senate, 8 years in the Vice Presidency, and 4 years in the Oval Office.

This author and blogger “fell in love”, so to speak in the 1970s, after his original “hero”, Senator, Vice President and Presidential nominee Hubert Humphrey passed away, as Biden came across to me as the closest equivalent to the nature of Humphrey.

There is a sense of great pride and satisfaction that after two failed tries for the Oval Office, Biden finally won it, and took us out of the horrendous once in a century Covid 19 Pandemic, and restored faith in the Presidency after the disastrous, crime ridden, abusive four years of Donald Trump.

We now enter a very sad return of Trump, but all decent Americans cannot give up, but must fight in every legal fashion to limit the harm and damage that Trump will certainly wage.

The quest for a return of the Democratic Party and its common decency must be waged without pause.

Meanwhile, God Bless Joe Biden and his lovely wife, First Lady Jill Biden, and wish them the best in future years!

California WildFire Cataclysm A Massive Tragedy For America!

America is in an existential crisis as a result of the California Wildfire cataclysm that has done horrendous damage to our second largest city, Los Angeles!

It is a result of climate change and yet Republicans and Donald Trump choose to play politics, and clearly refuse to accept the reality of climate change.

Trump and the right wing would prefer instead to blame Governor Gavin Newsom and President Joe Biden and their perceptive environmental policies, and talk about DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) as a contributing factor, degrading women, racial minorities, and gay and transgender people as factors in the disaster, a totally preposterous assertion!

California is about ten percent of America, and has Republicans as well as Democrats, and there is an urgent crisis that requires massive intervention and assistance by the federal government to promote rebuilding for the massive destruction that has become the greatest urban and suburban disaster ever seen in American history.

If Trump and the Republicans play hardball and refuse to face reality, the nation will suffer from an economic downturn of major proportions, with massive suffering of untold experience, with the need to rebuild whole neighborhoods and communities, that have no infrastructure, and no schools, churches, businesses and everything else that makes a community prosper!

With everything else that people fear Donald Trump and the Republicans will do once the inauguration has occurred in 11 days, we are now faced with a catastrophe worsened by evil and hatred.

And this will also undermine our national security and foreign policy, if the worst intentions and motivations of Trump and his party are pursued without concern for their impact on all Americans!

Murder Of United Health Care Insurance Executive Screams For Total National Health Care By Government!

The sad, tragic murder of a United Health Care executive by a disgruntled young man is a cry in the night for massive reform of health care insurance.

Unfortunately, the health care industry, being so profit driven, does not do well by millions upon millions of consumers.

The Republican Party and Donald Trump are so oriented toward “unbridled capitalism” that they will not take action.

The Democrats, who were the party that promoted Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, and similar legislation, are instead, constantly attacked, as Republicans and conservatives continue to wish to destroy the great accomplishments of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Barack Obama.

The argument that the United States is “better” than most European countries and Japan on health care is a massive lie, but all that needs to be said is that the nation does not want “socialism”, even though it works, and there is a more humane system in many industrial nations around the world.

The profit motive should not be the dominant factor it is in deciding who gets health care, and how they receive it!

The Gilded Age Returns: Dominance Of Billionaires In Trump Cabinet!

It is quite clear that the “Gilded Age” of the late 19th century is returning under Donald Trump, with more than a dozen billionaires being part of his cabinet and as advisers, including most notably, although unofficially, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.

The agenda is clear, to have massive tax cuts that will mostly benefit the super rich, with small tax savings for the rest of the nation.

And corporations will, sadly, dominate political discourse, and the aim seems to be to weaken or destroy the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Therefore, the well being of every day Americans is coming under attack, with no regard for the damage that will be wrought.

It seems clear that many of the American voters who supported Donald Trump, out of ignorance and stupidity, will soon regret their decision, and realize that life will be more tough for them than they could have imagined.

It should lead to a reaction with the hope that Democrats will have the opportunity to regain control of the House of Representatives and the US Senate in 2026.

But a lot of the damage that will have been done will likely be very hard, if at all impossible, to reverse, particularly with an extremist right wing Supreme Court.

Musk, Ramaswamy Want To Destroy Federal Programs, Must Be Prevented

The unofficial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), formed by Donald Trump, and headed by billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy has no government authority, but is insanely proposing cutting the federal budget by up to $2 trillion, or one third of the total government spending, purely insane in nature!

Rather than raise taxes on billionaires and millionaires, including Musk and Ramaswamy, as well as other less wealthy, but prosperous Americans, so that they pay their “fair share”, Donald Trump wants another massive trillions of dollars tax cut for the elite wealthy, similar to his massive tax cuts in 2017, and earlier ones under George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan.

About one fourth of all of the national debt of America occurred under Donald Trump in his first term, and he is ready to add trillions to the national debt while cutting important programs.

Among those being targeted are:

Veterans Health Care
Drug Development and Opioid Addiction Treatment
State Department Funding
Housing Assistance
Justice Department Funding
Education Spending
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Health Care (Affordable Care Act, also known as Obama Care)
Federal Student Loan Program
International Security Programs
Head Start Program

Additionally, the goal is to cut the federal work force, get rid of talented and competent and experienced public servants, and hire lackeys who would do Donald Trump’s bidding, and in the process, promoting total chaos and anarchy in the federal government.

Also, some Republican members of Congress would love to get rid of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, programs adopted under Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson, and constantly the subject of attacks by right wing forces!

Democrats, while not the majority, must do whatever they can to prevent such outrageous actions, finding those Republicans in both houses who have principles and ethics, too few, but they are there!

This is a true existential crisis of massive proportions, and every effort imaginable must be waged to prevent such a disastrous set of circumstances that would destroy the federal government!

Our government cannot go back to “states rights”, which supposedly was resolved by the Civil War!

The Gilded Age was the late 19th century, and we cannot go back 150 years under any circumstances!

Guarantee Of Chaotic 119th Congress!

The 119th Congress (2025-2027) is guaranteed to be chaotic, and might be worse in performance than the 118th Congress (2023-2025).

With the final count having finally been settled in the House of Representatives, there will be a total of 220 Republicans and 215 Democrats, but since Matt Gaetz resigned, and Michael Waltz of Florida will be National Security Adviser, and Elise Stefanik of New York will be United Nations Ambassador, the actual balance for the first few months of the new year will be 217-215, until special elections fill those three seats.

This means any one Republican abandonment, or members absent for votes, and chaos will reign, and Democrats may gain the majority on some issues, and even, if there is opposition to the Speaker by a few Republicans, could lead to new elections for the House leadership.

Also, while the Senate now has 53 Republicans, there is a high likelihood that at least four or more Republican Senators will reject a number of Donald Trump’s Cabinet appointments.

The 118th Congress was reckless and chaotic enough, but now there will be fewer Republicans than in the last Congress in the lower chamber, and some Senators will be unwilling to bow to Donald Trump on some of his outrageous nominees for the Cabinet, and other actions by the 47th President when he takes the oath of office!

Kash Patel’s “Deep State” List For Prosecution: Dire Threat To American Democracy!

Donald Trump’s nominee for FBI head, Kash Patel, is a danger to American democracy, and would revive the bad, abusive record of J. Edgar Hoover from 1924-1972.

The FBI was reformed after Hoover’s passing, and the ten year term of service was designed to take the organization out of politics, but now Trump wants this evil man, who talks about the “deep state”, to begin prosecution of a long list of political, government, and media leaders.

This is outrageous, and endangers the nation dramatically if this unqualified and dangerous man is given power to do what he wants.

Among those he wishes to prosecute (of a longer list) are the following 25 individuals:

Joe Biden
Kamala Harris
Hillary Clinton
James Comey
John Brennan
John Bolton
Bill Barr
Lloyd Austin
Mark Esper
Merrick Garland
Gina Haspel
Eric Holder
Cassidy Hutchinson
Andrew McCabe
General Mark Milley
Lisa Monaco
Robert Mueller
John Podesta
Samantha Power
Rod Rosenstein
Jake Sullivan
Miles Taylor
Alexander Vindman
Christopher Wray
Sally Yates

These are Democrats, Republicans, intelligence officials, Justice Department officials, people who exposed the corruption of Donald Trump, and others who were concerned about abuses of power under Trump.

The fact that the FBI appointment is a ten year term, not just while a President is in office, makes this nomination the most dangerous of all of Trump’s appointments, and must be fought bitterly to prevent Patel from accomplishing his evil intentions!

Republican Presidents And Corrupt Administrations

It is a well known fact that it is Republican Presidents who stand out as having the most corrupt administrations in American history.

That is not saying that Democratic Presidents have perfect records without scandal, but in comparison, the examples of corruption are quite minor.

Also, not all Republican Presidents have presided over massive scandal.

But those Presidents who have had massive scandals include the following in chronological order:

Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877)
Warren G. Harding (1921-1923)
Richard Nixon (1969-1974)
Ronald Reagan (1981-1989)
George W. Bush (2001-2009)
Donald Trump (2017-2021) and the future admninistration (2025-2029)

Some might say it is presumptuous to predict the future, but with the well documented propensity of Trump in his first term, and the characters he is gathering around him for his second term, one can be assured it will reach new levels of corruption of all kinds over the next four years.

As far as ranking of corruption, it can safely be said that Trump already would rank number one on the list, followed by Nixon, Reagan, the second Bush, Grant and Harding.

The “saving grace” for Harding is that his term was less than three years, and he was not aware of what was going on around him.

And the same can be said about Grant in his two terms, but cannot be said about the modern Republican Presidents.

One would think that voters would have a clue and reject such leadership, but their ignorance of history and lack of concern about decency in government is mind boggling.

So expect massive corruption, and unlikely, with a right wing Supreme Court and federal judiciary, and a Congress too willing to bend its will to Donald Trump, it will be left up to the media to expose the evils, for the record of history.

But it will not stop the horrors awaiting us, sadly!

High Tariffs On Major Trading Partners Will Devastate The American Economy!

If Donald Trump follows through on his threats to add a 25 percent tariff on all imports from Canada and Mexico, and 10 percent on Chinese imports, it will devastate the American economy in short order.

Besides worsening relations with our three major trading partners, it will cause massive rises in prices on all kinds of goods, such as:

Clothing
Furniture
Household Appliances
Toys
Food
Automobiles
Travel Goods
Smart Phones

It will worse our relations with our neighbors, and destroy the USMCA trade agreements, promoting distrust with both Canada and Mexico, who share thousands of miles of boundaries, and undermine our relationship with China, our leading rival in world affairs.

It will be destructive of international relations, and of American economic progress, which had advanced under Joe Biden, despite the inflation problem.

If Americans voted against the Democrats on the inflation issue, they will get a rude awakening under Donald Trump, as we will have similar situation as we had in the Great Depression due to Herbert Hoover and the Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1930, and the Panic of 1893 due to Benjamin Harrison and the McKinley Tariff of 1890.

Democratic Party Positives In 2024 Elections

The Presidential and Congressional Elections of 2024 produced some significant positives for the Democratic Party, despite Donald Trump’s close victory for the Presidency, and gaining of 53 seats in the US Senate and about the same tiny margin in the US House of Representatives that the Republicans already had.

Trump’s margin of victory was smaller than that of Joe Biden or Barack Obama, and Trump’s victory was less impressive than any election since the late 19th century Gilded Age. He was NOT anywhere near the landslides of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936, Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, Richard Nixon in 1972 or Ronald Reagan in 1984, but Trump is trying to claim otherwise.

Also, each of these landslide victories led to a loss of seats in the following midterm elections for the President’s party, so there is hope for the future of the Democratic Party in 2026 and 2028.

Also, Democrats were able to retain control of Senate seats in four “swing” states that Trump won–Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, and Wisconsin, while losing the Senate seat in Pennsylvania.

North Carolina, despite going to Trump, elected an entire Democratic state government team, including Josh Stein, who is Jewish, as Governor.

Also, Matt Meyer, who is Jewish, was elected Governor of Delaware.

And despite attacks by Republicans on “diversity”, the Democrats were able to win or hold Senate seats with other than white straight Christians, as witness the following:

Arizona–Ruben Gallego–Hispanic male–elected to open Senate seat

Nevada–Jacky Rosen, Jewish female, reelected

Michigan–Elissa Slotkin, Jewish female, elected to open Senate seat

California–Adam Schiff, Jewish male, elected to open Senate seat

Wisconsin–Tammy Baldwin, Lesbian, reelected

New Jersey–Andy Kim–Korean American male–elected to open Senate seat

Delaware–Lisa Blunt Rochester–African American female–elected to open Senate seat

Maryland–Angela Alsobrooks–African American female–elected to open Senate seat