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ELECTIONS

The Democrats’ Mental Problem: Joan Swirsky

https://canadafreepress.com/article/the-democrats-mental-problem

Leftists rationalize that they care more, have more empathy, sympathy, etc. Don’t be fooled. They suffer from an untreated mental condition that no amount of windmills, high taxes, open borders, third-term abortions, and street anarchy will ever cure

It’s not a recent observation on my part; it goes back decades, so I’ve had a long time to figure out the meaning of this peculiar phenomenon. Specifically, it’s that Conservatives like me seem to enjoy the lion’s share of being in a good mood, feeling optimistic, trusting that the many forms of rugged individualism can solve most problems, smiling easily and often, and generally seeing both the present and future as glasses half full. 

Not one of these things can be said of leftists, and nothing brought that truth more vividly alive than watching the Democrat and Republican conventions in August.

DEMOCRAT DOOM….

On the one hand was the virtual presentation of a pitifully diminished candidate, propped up by a long line of speakers who had only bitter, nasty, negative and of course pessimistic things to say about our country. Did I forget racist? Here, writer Thomas Gallatin discusses Michelle Obama’s unfortunate presentation and the irony of a “party that loves to claim for itself the mantle of ‘diversity’ and ‘anti-racism’ [being] the same party that promotes racist identity politics.”

Not a single smile in four days––only relentless negativity. And not one word––from candidate Biden, VP candidate Kalamity Harris, the speakers, or their leftwing media whores––about the nearly three-month, non-stop rampaging destruction by the communist group Black Lives Matter and the anarchists of Antifa in committing daily and nightly acts of:

Arson, 
Tearing down both black and white businesses, 
Destroying historical statuary
Widespread grand theft, 
Violent assaults, 
Murder.

Silence About the Violence By Victor Davis Hanson

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/09/silence-about-the-violence/

Biden and his enablers can’t decide whether the mayhem helps or hurts his candidacy.

 I t is not just conservatives at the recent Republican National Convention who wonder why the Democratic Party and its media appendages have not without qualification decried the looting, arson, violence, and occasional killing that have swept the nation’s cities.

Recently even left-wing CNN’s incendiary Don Lemon wondered out loud why Joe Biden and the Democratic powers have not at least tried to square the circle of deploring police overreach while at the same time going through the motions of condemning the utter lawlessness that often breaks out at dusk in Chicago, Portland, and Seattle, and now in smaller cities such as Kenosha, Wis. What Lemon praised in June, he now seems terrified about in August. But for that matter, most retired generals and media anchors who assured us in June that there were only a “small” number of violent protesters have long grown silent after the occupation of Seattle and the Alamo siege of the police precinct in Portland.

This fight of voter backlash about crime has infected the entire Democratic elite — glued to volatile internal polls that do not lie — whether it is Nancy Pelosi’s demanding no debates, Michelle Obama’s obsessing with “Vote! Vote! And Vote!” or Hillary Clinton’s urging Biden to never “under any circumstances” concede the election that apparently she now believes he could well lose.

There are lots of answers (and none are mutually exclusive) that explain the silence about the violence.

Vernon Jones accuses ‘liberal media’ of supporting ‘violent mob’ that attacked him and other Trump supporters by Carly Ortiz-Lytle,

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/vernon-jones-accuses-liberal-media-of-supporting-violent-mob-who-attacked-him-and-other-trump-supporters

Georgia state Rep. Vernon Jones accused the “liberal media” of ignoring the attacks on him and other guests while leaving President Trump’s Republican National Convention nomination acceptance speech.

“Where is the liberal media? Why haven’t they reached out to me and the others and allowed us to share our experiences of the threats that we experienced so the American people can see first hand what happened? But they won’t because they support, with the Democrats and Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, destruction of our cities.” Jones said in a video posted to social media.

Sitting in front of a backdrop that read “Democrats Failed Blacks,” Jones said that he was met by a “violent mob” of Democrats, Black Lives Matter and antifa, and supporters of Biden and Harris.

“They want to see it demolished so they can blame it on Donald Trump. If this had been the other way around, and Biden supporters were attacked by Trump supporters, it would have been all over the network.”

Trump’s approval rating with Black voters soars by 60% during RNC: poll HarrisX-Hill survey finds Black support increases from 15% to 24%

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/aug/31/trumps-approval-rating-black-voters-soars-60-durin/

President Trump’s approval rating among Black voters jumped by 60% during the Republican National Committee even as Democrats and progressives sought to brand the Republican president as racist.

A HarrisX-Hill poll released Friday showed Mr. Trump’s net approval with Black voters from Aug. 22-25, which included the first two days of the RNC, rose to 24%, up from 15% in the pollster’s Aug. 8-11 survey.

The poll also found his approval rating among Hispanic voters during the same period increased slightly from 30% to 32%, while his support among White voters decreased by the same margin, ticking down from 54% to 52%.

The president’s overall approval rating remained underwater at 44%, but the surge of support from Black voters may reflect Mr. Trump’s outreach to minority communities as well as the convention’s showcasing of conservative Black lawmakers and luminaries.

Sen. Tim Scott, South Carolina Republican, was featured prominently Monday, the first night of the RNC, while Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron gave a speech Tuesday challenging some of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden’s pronouncements on race.

Joe Biden’s Three Risky Choices By Charles Lipson –

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/09/01/joe_bidens_three_risky_choices__144106.html

Joe Biden’s quick trip to Pittsburgh and his speech there Monday condemning urban violence show Democrats now recognize they made a major mistake in ignoring the problem at their convention. They’ve read the polls and finally realize voters care about the arson, shootings, and looting — and their own safety. That’s a problem for the Biden campaign, which had almost nothing to say about the violence all summer. Now, they are doing “cleanup on Aisle 6” and there’s a lot of broken glass around.

“Rioting is not protesting,” the Democrats’ presidential nominee told the Carnegie-Mellon University audience. “Looting is not protesting. Setting fires is not protesting. … It’s lawlessness, plain and simple.” That’s true, but it was no less true two weeks or two months ago. Even now, Biden’s main thrust is less against the violence than against President Trump for “fomenting it” and “sowing chaos.” As Biden put it, “The simple truth is Donald Trump failed to protect America. So now he’s trying to scare America.”

That Biden was willing to leave home on short notice, fly to a swing state, and speak out about the rioting is the clearest indication yet that the election is tightening. Discussing the violence is one of three big, difficult decisions Biden faces as the campaign heats up. Each entails significant risks for a candidate who must hold together a fractious coalition and avoid major gaffes.

Philip Wegmann: It’s Trump vs. Biden in the Age of Mob Politics

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/09/01/its_trump_vs_biden_in_the_age_of_mob_politics__144110.html

They are the constituency no one wants, the crowd of “peaceful protesters” who aren’t all that peaceful. The one that does more to hurt than help even as both major political parties worry incessantly about how they can turn out voters ahead of an election billed, yet again, as “the most important in U.S. history.”

Maybe it is because they have a bad habit of looting liquor stores, torching businesses, and throwing rocks at cops. They are the mob, an amorphous rabble that has destroyed blocks’ worth of buildings from Minneapolis to Portland this summer, rioting and looting and turning November into a referendum on mob politics.

This disturbing factor in an already complex election environment has Joe Biden exasperated. The Democrats’ presidential  nominee has denounced violence in assorted statements and speeches, always defending the right to peacefully protest while also condemning the destruction of property and attacks on the police. His campaign still worried that the message wasn’t sticking, especially as Republicans ratcheted up their criticism, so on Monday the former vice president gave a full-throated rebuttal.

“You know me, you know my heart, you know my story, my family story,” Biden said from the floor of a Pittsburgh steel mill. “Ask yourself, do I look like a radical socialist with a soft spot for rioters? Really?  I want a safe America, safe from COVID, safe from crime and looting, safe from racially motivated violence, safe from bad cops. Let me be crystal clear, safe from four more years of Donald Trump.”

He views the violence as wanton destruction, Biden insisted, and worse — a wasted opportunity for reform. Trump, he argued, looks at the exact same carnage “and he sees a political lifeline.” Four hours later, the president responded.

Rasmussen Reports noticed something very fishy about polling By Andrea Widburg

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/09/rasmussen_reports_noticed_something_very_fishy_about_polling.html

One of the most famous clues in a Sherlock Holmes mystery is what’s commonly referred to as “the dog that didn’t bark” or, as Holmes actually said, “The dog did nothing in the night-time.” Rasmussen Reports, which puts out a Daily Presidential Tracking Poll like clockwork, noticed that its competitors ceased barking (or, if you prefer, polling) after the two parties held their conventions. According to Rasmussen, which would know, this silence was unprecedented.

Rasmussen published a series of tweets on Monday openly snarking at its competitors for their silence. Moreover, whoever is writing Rasmussen’s tweets was not shy about identifying a reason for the other polling outfits’ unusual reticence: The narrative up until the conventions was that Biden was unstoppable; it’s now quite possible that he’s been stopped.

Joe Biden’s Craven Exercise In Blame Shifting

https://issuesinsights.com/2020/09/01/joe-bidens-craven-exercise-in-blame-shifting/

After a thug shot and killed a Trump supporter Saturday night in Portland, Democratic nominee Joe Biden suddenly got religion when it comes to leftist riots in our nation’s streets. The former vice president “challenged” President Donald Trump to “condemn violence,” then blamed Trump for “encouraging” it. Say what?

It goes beyond hypocrisy when Biden for months sat in his basement in near-total silence as his far-left supporters rioted, looted and burned U.S. cities, and his own party egged them on.

This same man chose as his vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris, who warned us all with a smile on her face during a television appearance that the protesting and rioting is “not gonna stop,” not even after the election.

Funny what a bit of bad polling will do.

For months, the 77-year-old Biden said and did nothing as Democrat-supported Antifa and Black Lives Matter followers violently protested across the country.

Said nothing, that is, until polls showed him losing major ground among voters after the hugely successful Republican National Convention, which focused on patriotic themes and roundly condemned the national violence.

Biden Awakens to the Threat of Urban Riots With polls tightening, he and his media allies give up on denial and look for a way to blame Trump. By Gerard Baker

https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-awakens-to-the-threat-of-urban-riots-11598894969?mod=opinion_lead_pos8

In a moment surely worthy of inclusion in some future edition of “Profiles in Courage,” Democrats seem to have decided it’s time to take a stand against the violence in American cities.

It has been a while coming. It’s true that Joe Biden has issued the occasional gentle bromide about the importance of nonviolent expression, but the louder message from him and Democratic leaders throughout the summer has been vocal support for the protests, even as they rained mayhem on America’s cities.

Following the latest escalations in Kenosha, Wis., and Portland, Ore., in the past week, Mr. Biden has called on all sides to desist—though it’s notable that he has decided that blame lies with President Trump and not the Democratic officials who have connived at the lawlessness in their cities.

The reason for this sudden assertion of the moral law seems not to be the casualty count or the misery into which so many lives have been plunged, but the verdict from opinion polls and focus groups. The lives of police officers and the hopes and dreams of small-business proprietors are a small matter to the ambitious pol, but nothing pierces his conscience more sharply than an unsettling conversation with a pollster.

After Trump, the reckoning The election of Biden and Harris will not solve any of the problems that led to Trump’s election in the first place Daniel McCarthy

https://spectator.us/after-trump-reckoning/

As voters prepare to pass judgment on Donald Trump’s presidency in November, they might want to entertain a few counterfactuals. Imagine that Russia had annexed Crimea during the Trump years rather than while Obama was president. MSNBC and other left-wing media would have hawked claims that Trump actively conspired with Putin to let the Russian president dismember Ukraine. More sober outlets, some of them ‘conservative’, would have chalked up the loss of Crimea to President Trump’s basic incompetence and reckless defiance of the foreign-policy establishment.

Much the same narrative web would have been spun if, say, Otto Warmbier had been imprisoned by Kim Jong-un’s regime this year rather than in the last year of the Obama administration. The story would have been all about Trump and his characteristic faults, though we know from the way that history really did happen that these things were the fault of Obama and the foreign-policy establishment — the very entities the media holds up as paragons of excellence in contrast to Trump.

Now try an opposite counterfactual: suppose the coronavirus had arrived in 2012 as Obama was up for reelection. The media would have given his handling of the crisis every benefit of the doubt, even with death tolls in the hundreds of thousands. The virus and the measures taken to arrest it would nonetheless have put Obama’s reelection in greater jeopardy. Democrats and NeverTrump Republicans might deny this and insist that Obama’s response to the coronavirus could have made him more popular, by showcasing his ability to handle an emergency. With COVID-12 (as it would have been), it’s more likely the coronavirus would have dented Obama’s popularity and narrowed his margin of victory over Mitt Romney, even possibly tipped the 2012 election completely.