(07-22-2022 04:31 AM)ericsrevenge76 Wrote: It really is amazing, here we are funding both sides and crushing our economy and middle class all at the same time.
And we have an opposition party that cannot find it in their being to enunciate precisely that.
I think republicans have a tremendous opportunity to become the party of common sense in the George Friedman struggle between elite experts and common sense. They have the opportunity to become the party of small business and the working middle class against the party of the elite experts and the non-working welfare class--the middle versus the two extremes.
But they have consistently refused to take it since Jack Kemp was pushing that message 30 years ago. I thought one of the saddest things for republicans was that GHWB and Kemp could not get along, and in fact disliked each other intensely. Kemp would have been a far better running mate for GHWB than the much-maligned Dan Quayle, and a team where GHWB took care of foreign policy and Kemp handled domestic policy would have been a pretty formidable combination.
As someone who liked both men, it bothered me that Bush and Kemp simply could not get along, and I've thought long and hard about it over the years. But now it makes sense. Establishment silk-stocking republicans hate ordinary people. They just do. They are extremely uncomfortable with populists like Donald Trump, for example. They would rather see Joe Biden as president than Donald Trump as head of the republican party.
I think the republicans are going to do worse in November than the crushing landslide that many expect--and that, frankly, should happen based on the incompetence of Biden and his administration. Maybe that will wake them up. They should take the house, but the senate is going to be horse of a different color. With 20 republican seats up, versus 14 democrats, the odds make it hard for them not to lose a seat or two, net. And that means two years of extreme leftist socialist/communist judges and federal administrators. If the republican majority in the house materializes, and if they act like an opposition and resist instead of turning into Milquetoast Mitch and John Boehner, we can survive, badly but survive. I have pretty much zero confidence in Kevin McCarthy's ability to lead a resistance, but maybe he will grow into it. I despise Pelosi and Schumer, but I am way past ready to see republican leaders with their cojones and chutzpah.
The scenario of what to do about Biden is interesting. Unless he actually croaks, the democrats probably will not replace him before the election, as that would be an admission of defeat on the order of George McGovern's replacing Thomas Eagleton. If the election is a crushing republican landslide, there may be considerable movement to eject him under the 25th Amendment before the end of the year, in the hope of getting a VP replacement confirmed before republicans take over congress. If republicans are smart, they would vote against such a move in that time frame, and hope to get a few democrats to defect and join them. The VP replacement would require a majority approval in both houses, which gets more difficult after the first of the year assuming republicans take at least one house. There was speculation at one time that democrats would wait until after January 20, so that Harris could stand for re-election in 2024 and 2028, but at this point I think she is so obviously a horrible candidate that those thoughts are long gone. Whoever she selects as her VP is probably the heir apparent. Therefore I think it is extremely important for republicans to oppose whoever Harris nominates. Or perhaps better, put together a list of whom they might support (Manchin perhaps, but Sinema is a bit too goofy to include in my estimation, and maybe a few republicans) and give it to Harris with the statement that anybody else is a no go. If she goes through two years with no VP, then in case anything happens to her it would revert to the speaker of the house, presumably McCarthy, but if there is anyone that I think is not up to it, he would be the one.
That's the way I see it. It's not an optimistic outlook, but we as a nation may have survived worse.
