RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2019/03/progressive-ideology-and-the-ghosts-of-nazism/

It has become commonplace for the critics of President Trump to refer to him as an aspirant Adolf Hitler. Democratic Representative Hank Robertson, in the first session of the 2019-20 Congress, made the following comparison:

Hitler led a political movement of anti-education, anti-science racists, who focused on nationalism with rhetoric about making Germany a strong country, which would result in prosperity for the German people … Sound familiar?

No, not familiar at all, but the accuracy of Robertson’s allusion is mostly beside the point. To understand our times, it is necessary to turn this all on its head. We need to start asking why the likes of Robertson believe their political adversaries are modern-day Nazis and what that means for our future.

Condemning Donald Trump for being a modern-day Führer amounts to an ad hominem attack of the highest order. Should they not be calling for his assassination? There are ethical arguments in favour of tyrannicide. Playing the Hitler card, admittedly, is not exactly new in political discourse. The political philosopher Leo Strauss defined the phenomenon, in 1951, as an association fallacy and coined the expression reductio ad Hitlerum: “A view is not refuted when it happens to have been shared by Hitler.”

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/tulsi-gabbard-if-mueller-found-trump-co

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, said it’s a “good thing” for America that special counsel Robert Mueller did not find President Trump or his campaign colludedwith the Russians to the win the 2016 election because it could have sparked a civil war.“Now that Mueller has reported that his investigation revealed no such collusion, we all need to put aside our partisan interests and recognize that finding that the president of the United States did not conspire with Russia to interfere with our elections is a good thing for our country,” said Gabbard, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate.She continued, “Because if the president had been indicted for conspiring with Russia to interfere with and affect the outcome of our elections, it would have precipitated a terrible crisis that could have led to civil war. So we should all be relieved that President Trump was not found to have colluded with the Russians.”

https://amgreatness.com/2019/03/29/no-time-to-move-on-trumps-michiga

Grand Rapids, Michigan, might be my new favorite city. I hadn’t remembered that it was the president’s last stop on the 2016 campaign trail until he reminded his huge (yuge!) audience there on Thursday night. At 1:00 a.m. on November 8, 2016, he drew some 30,000 cheering people. Some hours before that rally, he recalled, Hillary was waddling (my word, not his) across a stage before 500 or 600 kale-eating advocates for wind power and open borders. I’ll wait while Politifact weighs in with the important correction that Hillary actually drew 687 supporters.

That was no big deal because, you see, she had Michigan sewn up. Trump couldn’t win the nomination, certainly couldn’t win “blue wall” states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Ohio. The well-pressed establishment Geist, incarnated in the Clinton-Obama dynasty, would thrive for at least another generation. The blob was safe. Time for a final Chardonnay and a nap . . .

The rally in Grand Rapids on Thursday night was classic Trump. The braggadocio, the calculated shamelessness—our accomplishments, their stupidity—the off-the-cuff, rhetorically roughhewn delivery, not eloquent, exactly—at least not by traditional rhetorical metrics—but surgically precise in gauging and playing to the emotional temper of the crowd.

https://amgreatness.com/2019/03/20/can-trump-win-again-in-2020/

In 2016, Donald Trump overwhelmed 16 qualified Republican primary rivals and became the first major-party presidential nominee without prior political or military experience. Against even greater odds, Trump defeated in the general election a far better funded and politically connected Hillary Clinton.

What are his chances of repeating that surprising victory in 2020?

In 2016, Trump had no record to run on. That blank slate fueled claims that such a political novice could not possibly succeed. It also added an element of mystery and excitement, with the possibility that an outsider could come into town to clean up the mess.

Trump now has a record, not just promises. Of course, his base supporters and furious opponents have widely different views of the Trump economy and foreign policy.

Yet many independents will see successes since 2017, even if some are turned off by Trump’s tweets. Still, if things at home and abroad stay about the same or improve, without a war or recession, Trump will likely win enough swing states to repeat his 2016 Electoral College victory.

If, however, unemployment spikes, inflation returns or we get into a war, he may not.

At about the same time in their respective presidencies, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama had approval ratings similar to Trump’s. In Clinton’s first midterms, Democrats lost 14 more House seats than Republicans lost last November. Democrats under Obama lost 23 more seats in his first midterms than Republicans lost under Trump. Democrats lost eight Senate seats in 1994 during Clinton’s first term. They lost six Senate seats in 2010 during Obama’s first term. Republicans actually picked up two Senate seats last fall.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/03/electoral-college-states-role-political-diversity/

Senator Elizabeth Warren has joined a growing chorus within the Democratic party in calling for the abolition of the Electoral College. Speaking at a forum in Mississippi on Monday night, Warren said that she hoped to ensure that “every vote matters” and proposed that “the way we can make that happen is that we can have national voting, and that means get rid of the Electoral College.”Warren’s lofty rhetoric notwithstanding, a large portion of the Democratic party’s present animosity toward the Electoral College is rooted in rank partisanship. Since they watched their supposed “blue wall” evaporate in the small hours of the 2016 presidential election, many Democrats have felt sufficient anger with the system to seek to remake it. This habit has by no means been limited to the Electoral College. Indeed, no sooner has the Democratic party lost control of an institution that it had assumed it would retain in perpetuity than that institution has been denounced as retrograde and unfair. In the past year alone, this impulse has led to calls for the abolition or reinvention of the Senate, the Supreme Court, and more.

Insofar as there does exist a serious argument against the Electoral College, it is increasingly indistinguishable from the broader argument against the role that the states play within the American constitutional order, and thus from the argument against federalism itself. President Reagan liked to remind Americans that, far from serving as regional administrative areas of the nation-state, the states are the essential building blocks of America’s political, legal, and civic life.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/targeting-the-electoral-college-11553036512

Like the Supreme Court, the Electoral College sometimes frustrates the will of political majorities. That makes it an easy target in this populist age. But while “majority rules” has always been an appealing slogan, it’s an insufficient principle for structuring an electoral system in the U.S.

Presidential elections often do not produce popular majorities. In 2016 neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump won 50%. “Plurality rules” doesn’t have the same ring to it. In the absence of the Electoral College, the winner’s vote share would likely be significantly smaller than is common today. Third-party candidates who can’t realistically win a majority in any state would have a greater incentive to enter the race.

Like the Supreme Court, the Electoral College sometimes frustrates the will of political majorities. That makes it an easy target in this populist age. But while “majority rules” has always been an appealing slogan, it’s an insufficient principle for structuring an electoral system in the U.S.

Presidential elections often do not produce popular majorities. In 2016 neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump won 50%. “Plurality rules” doesn’t have the same ring to it. In the absence of the Electoral College, the winner’s vote share would likely be significantly smaller than is common today. Third-party candidates who can’t realistically win a majority in any state would have a greater incentive to enter the race.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/betos-apology-tour-11552951261
Beto O’Rourke’s presidential campaign is off to a gangbusters financial start, raising $6 million in just 24 hours, more than even Bernie Sanders. As for Mr. O’Rourke’s reputation as a strong leader—on that presidential characteristic he needs work.

The former Texas Congressman’s first few days as a candidate have been one long apology tour. At several stops he used a stock campaign line that his wife, Amy, raised their three children, “sometimes with my help.” He meant it to be a self-deprecating joke and a note of gratitude to his wife, but in today’s identity-politics hothouse he was quickly denounced for his male privilege.

“Not only will I not say that again,” Mr. O’Rourke soon responded in Iowa, “but I’ll be more thoughtful going forward in the way that I talk about our marriage.”

Then there was his record as a teenage hacker when he stole long-distance phone service and downloaded “cracked” or pirated software—this according to a lengthy Reuters report published on Friday. Evidently the former Congressman has known the report was coming for months (he spoke on the record to the reporter). That he still chose to run for President suggests he’s confident the story won’t kill his chances.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/manchin-opposes-dem-bill-prohibiting-transgender-discrimination/

I don’t really get the hoopla about genderalization, but I do admire Joe Manchin who broke with the herd to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh which ensured his nomination….rsk

Senator Joe Manchin (D., W.V.) announced Monday that he will not support the recently introduced Equality Act as it is currently written, breaking from the rest of his caucus in arguing that the legislation, which would prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation, will be too difficult to implement.

Senate Democrats on Wednesday re-introduced the bill, which was first introduced in 1974 and would prohibit employers, landlords, school administrators, and others from discriminating against transgender and homosexual Americans. In a statement, Manchin said that he would be open to supporting the bill with some unspecified changes, but could not support it as it stands now.

“I strongly support equality for all people and do not tolerate discrimination of any kind,” the statement read. “No one should be afraid of losing their job or losing their housing because of their sexual orientation. After speaking with local education officials in West Virginia, I am not convinced that the Equality Act as written provides sufficient guidance to the local officials who will be responsible for implementing it, particularly with respect to students transitioning between genders in public schools. I will continue working with the sponsors of the bill to build broad bipartisan support and find a viable path forward for these critical protections so that I can vote in support of this bill.”

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/beto-orourke-raises-staggering-6-1-million-after-announcing-2020-run/

Beto O’Rourke, the latest Democrat to jump into the packed 2020 presidential primary field, has raised a staggering $6.1 million in the first 24 hours of his presidential campaign, joining a list of fellow record fundraisers. The O’Rourke campaign said that the candidate received online contributions from “every state and territory in the nation.”

“In just 24 hours, Americans across this country came together to prove that it is possible to run a true grassroots campaign for president — a campaign by all of us for all of us that answers not to the PACs, corporations and special interests but to the people,” said O’Rourke in a statement on Monday.

The fundraising milestone comes after O’Rourke formally kicked off his campaign on Thursday with an online video, telling supporters that he plans to travel the country and “listen to those who I seek to serve, to understand from your perspective how we can best meet these challenges.”

“At this moment of maximum peril and maximum potential let’s show ourselves and those who will succeed us in this great country just who we are and what we can do.”

Americans Have Spoken: Ocasio-Cortez Loses It After Unfavorability Rating Buries Her
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xoz39GXp6_o

Ex-AOC Aide Comes Forward & Confirms Terrifying Plan for America
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n_kH8X1wA8

Ilhan Omar Just Got Massive Bad News from Back Home
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syLQFYMDqak

Did Rep. Ilhan Omar Commit Immigration Fraud?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7zw1gx9Uc4

Jewish Rabbi: Nancy Pelosi ‘Failed Us’ in Condemning Antisemitism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkTDPgMa1AI

The Ilhan Omar controversy: what do young American Jews think?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2QjSGHrw4k