When I was a kid, the week after Labor Day was the World Series and the week after that, every other year was when the political season began. That was then, this is now. And now the digital political season never stops and never begins. It goes on all the time.
Of course, we didn’t have the internet in the 1950’s, we also didn’t have 24-hour TV news. And we didn’t get anything even remotely resembling social media until the end of the 1990’s, with Facebook first appearing in 2005 and Twitter first being used in 2008.
The first 2024 primary contest will be held in Iowa on January 15, but you would think that the GOP primary campaign has been running for most of this past year. That’s because we have an incumbent President seeking a second term, so nobody’s really paying attention to the Democrat(ic) side. And for all the talk about Joe being senile, or not ready to run again, I’ll take the short odds on a Franklin against anyone who thinks he won’t be heading up the blue ticket on Tuesday, November 5, 2024.
Meanwhile, the Fake News continues to wax eloquent over the strength of Trump’s so-called base, not only referring to his ‘huge’ lead in the polls, but finding that the belief of a rigged election is still strong, particularly among GOP primary voters in the more conservative states.
To their credit, the editors of The Failing New Yok Times have finally figure out what some of us have known all along, namely, if I voted for Trump and then some pollster calls me up and asks if I thought the 2020 election was a fraud, of course I would say the election was rigged.
What else should I say? That Joe’s a good guy and deserves to be in the Oval Office instead of my man?
But of course, The Failing New York Times having to keep its readership worried about the possibility of another coup, can’t just print an op-ed on how and pollsters often don’t catch partisanship as opposed to honest responses, which may skew the results. They have to dig up a couple of political science types to warn us about how Americans are increasingly fed up with democracy and are willing to support another January 6th ‘revolt.’
Have any of my dear, liberal friends who are all so concerned about whether or not they will wind up living in the 21st-Century version of the Third Reich, ever stopped and thought about the fact that more than a thousand dumb asses have been charged for showing themselves to be complete and total idiots on January 6th? Have they noticed that several of the commanders of that elite, well-trained and fully armed revolutionary brigade are now going to spend more than ten years in jail?
And oh yes, have they noticed that 16 putzes in Michigan and 19 what Grandpa would call ‘putzyorim’ (read: real putzes) in Georgia, including the former Presidential putz, are now facing felony charges with maybe another bunch of indictments coming down in Arizona one of these days?
But, my liberal friends will say, what about all those states which are passing restrictive voting laws? What about all those GOP meanies who want to limit or throw out mail-in ballots and other ways that make it easier for people to people to avoid those ling lines at the polls?
After all, my liberal friends will continue to say, as of June, 2021, 17 states enacted 28 new laws which were all aimed at suppressing votes, a finding from the Brennan Center for Justice, and which right-minded (or left-minded) person is going to argue with them?
I’ll argue with the Brennan Center, and I’ll tell you why.
Because notwithstanding all the moaning and groaning about how those Fascist bastards in those Fascist states are trying to disenfranchise anyone and everyone who might not want to vote for the GOP, the total votes cast in the 2022 election – 46.6% - of all eligible voters, was the second-highest percentage of any of the last six off-year elections since 2002.
The highest off-year percentage was 2018 – 50% - and this total was driven by voters who didn‘t like Trump. In fact, the best thing the big, blue machine has going for it in 2024 and beyond is how Trump, the so-called ‘enemy’ of democracy, happens to be the reason why the democratic process known as voting is doing so well.
On the other hand (here’s the old Eisenhower press conference again) if the GOP is really serious about taking control of the Oval Office next year, they might stop screwing around with Hunter Biden and get to work nominating someone who won’t pull out voters on the other side.
Know how many total votes the GOP ticket has received in all the Presidential elections since 1988? Try 497,769,971. Know what the total is for the blue team for the same nine dates? Try 526,686,353.
So, the Democrat(ic) Party has rolled up almost 30 million more votes in those nine national contests but meanwhile the GOP candidate made it into the White House four times.
Which is why I hope that Fascist Trump heads the GOP ticket again in 2024.
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