Hi, Joe: I appreciated your political analysis today! Here is some insight for you from Lauren Boebert’s new district in Colorado; my district. I groaned when she fled to our district as I knew how it would roll, given the peculiarities of Colorado primary election rules… She had moved because she had stiff competition, and thought our district was a safe one for her. I am a Republican, but my wife and most of my neighbors are independents, allowed to vote in either primary they choose. My Republican primary ballot had other candidates, and mine was a distant third. On Monday I went for a hike with a Democrat friend, and he gave me his perspective… the Democratic house candidate was essentially unopposed, and some of my friend’s acquaintances had chosen to vote on the Republican side, for Boebert! I do not follow my friend Mike Rosen’s “party before person” philosophy and will vote for the Democrat this year. It may be more interesting than people think! Cheers; keep up the good work!
John, I’m also from CO. I hadn’t considered that Boebert’s lopsided win was partly a direct electoral expression of the Dems selfish, cynical “party before people” strategy of propping up MAGA extremists in the hopes of beating them more easily in the general. Depressing, but motivates me to keep pressing forward with Forward!
As someone who is far from a “Trump cultist” but a conservative who will vote for him as a much greater lesser of evils, I very much liked the list of steps a party needed to moderate.
Not sure what it says about those guardrails but there is little doubt that as a conservative, I am closer to adherence to almost all of them than most of the Democratic Party.
One day Trump will be mercifully gone from the scene but I am not sure that the Democrats will be rid of the radical leftward drift of their party.
They can’t say they are party for women but their judges can’t define a woman nor take away Title 9 nor our spaces like prisons, sororities, sports, lesbian only bars and dating sites, etc.
Just for a bit of balance. One could also say the Republican party had a good night. Almost a handful of Trump endorsed candidates lost, is the party coming to its senses?
The establishment of religion, in the Constitution, pertained to the fact, that each state had an established religion before the Revolution. In Virginia, for example, the Church of England laid a tax on every citizen, in the colony, regardless as to whether they were members or not. That is the sort of establishment of religion that the Constitution made unconstitutional.
Your list of advice or the Democrats is a very, very good one. Now what do you think the odds are of many of them taking it up. It would also go well with the Republicans, it is sane and moderate, is that even legal anymore?
Fair point re Republicans....and I wish we had a true conservative party, but we don't. And I preclude them from the possibility of sanity, for the moment.
As above, I preclude the Republicans so long as they are a Trump cult. I could elaborate on many of the points that would make them difficult for traditional conservatives to swallow. I could add others like: taxing the rich, taxing electricity and energy...but I do think there's a national super-majority for these principles. As for RFK Jr, he's a vaccine nutter and a conspiracy theorist. Disqualified.
I concur that as long as Trump is their chosen Commander in Chief, Republicans are disqualified. Depending on the pollster, between 45% and 60% believe Biden is not qualified for CiC either!
As a Brit, I can testify that the rump of The Conservative Leadership & MPs would all sign up for your guardrails, including financial and energy tax. Indeed, there is really nothing to differentiate between Starmer & Sunak on these guardrails. Ironically Sunak will loose because he is seen as weak on immigration, and that is why Biden will likely loose as well!
As for RFK, if you substitute 'Big Pharma' for 'Vaccines' then he is not so whacky. Then let's not forget that many of us were assaulted as Conspiracy Theorists for believing Covid was a Lab Leak (it might), that Vaccines would stop infection (they don't) and that Government was censoring social media (They were).
If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different outcome, then let's just keep promoting a Donkey and an Elephant ad nauseum.
Voters are no longer binary (deeply ironic that The Dems don't appreciate that!). Isn't time we started to explore other options that see socioeconomics and culture as a three-dimensional matrix and put the political establishment of both sides on notice?
Thanks Joe, I don't always agree with you but you rank up there with Andrew Sullivan on that front, the highest compliment I can think of.....although I'll never forgive him for abandoning England!
Joe, your list of policy positions is the platform a new political party can win with. It’s not the Democrats. While the primary signs this week are somewhat encouraging re extremist losses, as you said the new left is pesky and jihadist in nature. It’s not going away. While Boebert winning will be 2 more years of state embarrassment, here in Colorado we did have 3 significant anti-extremist wins worth mentioning: Both pro-Hamas state Dems looking for re-election, Epps and Hernandez, lost. And Trump toadie and corrupt GOP state chair Dave Williams lost his own congressional primary bid (even after using state GOP funds for his own campaign and having the state party endorse him) to Jeff Crank, who while far from a moderate Republican, appears to be at least a decent human being. (Despite that we look forward to upsetting him in November with our own Forward candidate Christopher Sweat). I’ll present your list of common-sense policy suggestions to our Colorado Forward Party Executive Committee for review, perhaps we’ll adopt it as the Klein Platform :)
Actually, I think the substantial majority of the Democratic Party is on board with what I shall heretofore call the Sanity Clauses - the problem is that the louder -and more online- voices are the ones that broadcast and focused on.
There are at least four of your principles that present real problems politically:
3. The self appointed leaders of minority groups cannot accept opportunity as an end and survive. Obsession with inequitable outcomes is their raison d’etre - and the basis of their ongoing fund raising.
7. Advocates by their nature tend not to be concerned with the efficiency of the programs, legislation and services they plump for. From transit to education , they need to learn that that there are no more windfalls on the way, they must learn to make effective use of what they have been given.
7. The school systems in large cities do an okay job of providing what is being asked of it. The problem is that vanishingly few people are asking it to educate the kids. A whole ‘nother rant on this is coming later this summer.
11. Ah, inventory, the curse of the consultants -and academics across this glorious land. The terms Black, white, Latinx, and others are inaccurate, counterproductive and, at some level, offensive. The good news is that the par exemplar of identity obsession, Jamaal Bowman, is now a lame duck and the American voters have taken another important step toward a great course correction. I remain optimistic, thanks to the people.
Hi, Joe: I appreciated your political analysis today! Here is some insight for you from Lauren Boebert’s new district in Colorado; my district. I groaned when she fled to our district as I knew how it would roll, given the peculiarities of Colorado primary election rules… She had moved because she had stiff competition, and thought our district was a safe one for her. I am a Republican, but my wife and most of my neighbors are independents, allowed to vote in either primary they choose. My Republican primary ballot had other candidates, and mine was a distant third. On Monday I went for a hike with a Democrat friend, and he gave me his perspective… the Democratic house candidate was essentially unopposed, and some of my friend’s acquaintances had chosen to vote on the Republican side, for Boebert! I do not follow my friend Mike Rosen’s “party before person” philosophy and will vote for the Democrat this year. It may be more interesting than people think! Cheers; keep up the good work!
John, I’m also from CO. I hadn’t considered that Boebert’s lopsided win was partly a direct electoral expression of the Dems selfish, cynical “party before people” strategy of propping up MAGA extremists in the hopes of beating them more easily in the general. Depressing, but motivates me to keep pressing forward with Forward!
As someone who is far from a “Trump cultist” but a conservative who will vote for him as a much greater lesser of evils, I very much liked the list of steps a party needed to moderate.
Not sure what it says about those guardrails but there is little doubt that as a conservative, I am closer to adherence to almost all of them than most of the Democratic Party.
One day Trump will be mercifully gone from the scene but I am not sure that the Democrats will be rid of the radical leftward drift of their party.
They can’t say they are party for women but their judges can’t define a woman nor take away Title 9 nor our spaces like prisons, sororities, sports, lesbian only bars and dating sites, etc.
Just for a bit of balance. One could also say the Republican party had a good night. Almost a handful of Trump endorsed candidates lost, is the party coming to its senses?
The establishment of religion, in the Constitution, pertained to the fact, that each state had an established religion before the Revolution. In Virginia, for example, the Church of England laid a tax on every citizen, in the colony, regardless as to whether they were members or not. That is the sort of establishment of religion that the Constitution made unconstitutional.
Your list of advice or the Democrats is a very, very good one. Now what do you think the odds are of many of them taking it up. It would also go well with the Republicans, it is sane and moderate, is that even legal anymore?
Fair point re Republicans....and I wish we had a true conservative party, but we don't. And I preclude them from the possibility of sanity, for the moment.
Fair enough!
Seconded. Questions:
1) Why are your guardrails for the super-highway exclusive to The Democrats?
2) Is there anything profoundly non-Conservative about them?
3) Why couldn’t the Republicans set their GPS by them as well?
4) Isn’t this the map that RFK seems to be following?
As above, I preclude the Republicans so long as they are a Trump cult. I could elaborate on many of the points that would make them difficult for traditional conservatives to swallow. I could add others like: taxing the rich, taxing electricity and energy...but I do think there's a national super-majority for these principles. As for RFK Jr, he's a vaccine nutter and a conspiracy theorist. Disqualified.
I concur that as long as Trump is their chosen Commander in Chief, Republicans are disqualified. Depending on the pollster, between 45% and 60% believe Biden is not qualified for CiC either!
As a Brit, I can testify that the rump of The Conservative Leadership & MPs would all sign up for your guardrails, including financial and energy tax. Indeed, there is really nothing to differentiate between Starmer & Sunak on these guardrails. Ironically Sunak will loose because he is seen as weak on immigration, and that is why Biden will likely loose as well!
As for RFK, if you substitute 'Big Pharma' for 'Vaccines' then he is not so whacky. Then let's not forget that many of us were assaulted as Conspiracy Theorists for believing Covid was a Lab Leak (it might), that Vaccines would stop infection (they don't) and that Government was censoring social media (They were).
If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different outcome, then let's just keep promoting a Donkey and an Elephant ad nauseum.
Voters are no longer binary (deeply ironic that The Dems don't appreciate that!). Isn't time we started to explore other options that see socioeconomics and culture as a three-dimensional matrix and put the political establishment of both sides on notice?
Thanks Joe, I don't always agree with you but you rank up there with Andrew Sullivan on that front, the highest compliment I can think of.....although I'll never forgive him for abandoning England!
Joe, your list of policy positions is the platform a new political party can win with. It’s not the Democrats. While the primary signs this week are somewhat encouraging re extremist losses, as you said the new left is pesky and jihadist in nature. It’s not going away. While Boebert winning will be 2 more years of state embarrassment, here in Colorado we did have 3 significant anti-extremist wins worth mentioning: Both pro-Hamas state Dems looking for re-election, Epps and Hernandez, lost. And Trump toadie and corrupt GOP state chair Dave Williams lost his own congressional primary bid (even after using state GOP funds for his own campaign and having the state party endorse him) to Jeff Crank, who while far from a moderate Republican, appears to be at least a decent human being. (Despite that we look forward to upsetting him in November with our own Forward candidate Christopher Sweat). I’ll present your list of common-sense policy suggestions to our Colorado Forward Party Executive Committee for review, perhaps we’ll adopt it as the Klein Platform :)
Joe: I’m enjoying your daily postings. More please! Fully concur with your prescription for the Democrats. Republicans - lost cause.
Actually, I think the substantial majority of the Democratic Party is on board with what I shall heretofore call the Sanity Clauses - the problem is that the louder -and more online- voices are the ones that broadcast and focused on.
There are at least four of your principles that present real problems politically:
3. The self appointed leaders of minority groups cannot accept opportunity as an end and survive. Obsession with inequitable outcomes is their raison d’etre - and the basis of their ongoing fund raising.
7. Advocates by their nature tend not to be concerned with the efficiency of the programs, legislation and services they plump for. From transit to education , they need to learn that that there are no more windfalls on the way, they must learn to make effective use of what they have been given.
7. The school systems in large cities do an okay job of providing what is being asked of it. The problem is that vanishingly few people are asking it to educate the kids. A whole ‘nother rant on this is coming later this summer.
11. Ah, inventory, the curse of the consultants -and academics across this glorious land. The terms Black, white, Latinx, and others are inaccurate, counterproductive and, at some level, offensive. The good news is that the par exemplar of identity obsession, Jamaal Bowman, is now a lame duck and the American voters have taken another important step toward a great course correction. I remain optimistic, thanks to the people.
On no 11 above, plead read “identity” 😖
Absolutely right, Curtis. I'm coming at you soon on education.
Joe, as usual, complete agreement from me. I love your platform for re-torqued Democratic Party. But it is highly unlikely. Or maybe not.