Assault on America, Day 742: Democrats bicker over difference between mostly dead and all dead

Next week, Americans will rediscover what it’s like to have Democrats in charge of the machinery again

One week from today it’s both over and just getting started at the same time.

Next Wednesday at noon EST Democrat Joe Biden will take the presidential oath of office. I suppose it depends on the weather and various other factors, but there no doubt will be a sizeable crowd watching, again, assuming the powers-that-be will grant permission for spectators in our crazy, mixed-up, upside down world, where going outside and mixing with people is deemed potentially dangerous. Biden himself has talked about limiting the size of his inauguration festivities to be conscious of the ongoing Chinese Communist Party (CCP, or Wuhan, if you prefer) virus and containing the spread. Washington DC’s mayor has issued mask requirements and various other restrictions on movement and gatherings. Freedom? Not in the capital of the so-called Land of the Free.

It’s life during the lockdown. Biden himself can’t protest because he’s largely cowered from public view since last March. If his inauguration day was treated otherwise by his own party, he’d be deemed a hypocrite.

Who knows what the event will look like. It’s entirely unclear whether Trump supporters will even tune-in. I’ve tried to get myself to watch every four years and managed to make it through both of Bill Clinton’s and Barack Obama’s ceremonies. Is this year really any different?

There will be a tangible sense of loss for many people -- and we know who they are. Conservatives will harken back to what’s transpired in the past four years and wonder about what might have been if Donald Trump had won reelection (or at least been declared the winner). My family and I were planning to go see Trump if he were gearing up for a second term. My teenage son didn’t get to go last time around -- we didn’t have enough tickets. So much for plans.

Some people will flash back to all the rancor during Trump’s four years. Others will ponder what will happen now that the world’s most challenging job was entrusted by the voters to Joe Biden, a man who’s swum freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly in the DC swamp his whole adult life. The Constitution sets the minimum age for senators at 30. Joe Biden was elected at age 29 in November, 1972. He turned 30 later that month and was therefore age qualified before taking office. But he never really left Washington either.

Will Grampa Joe be a good president? Conservatives aren’t hopeful. Part of the skepticism is due to the fact Democrats just aren’t very good at governing. Kristin Tate wrote at The Hill, “The state of cities around the country is rapidly declining, leading to the greatest rates of emigration since the days of disorder and distress in the 1970s. Eight cities stand out as the worst run in the country, when ranked with markers like costs of living, education, poverty, and crime. These are New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Washington, Portland, Oakland and Chicago. Despite billions of dollars doled out annually, each of these cities faces severe mismanagement issues...

“As social programs continue to balloon, burdensome taxes on residents and business to fund government initiatives result in exorbitant costs of living. Before the coronavirus, the metro areas of New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, Portland, and Oakland had growing costs of living. Manhattan residents shell out 150 percent more than the national average on food, taxes, housing, and transportation...

“Attention should be paid to the exodus out of these failing cities. Former New York or Los Angeles residents must ask themselves whether or not they will keep voting for the same public policy that caused them to leave. If nothing is learned, the decay will recreate itself in rapidly growing metro areas like Austin, Phoenix, and Nashville. It could be past time to save the worst run cities of 2020 but, with some reflection, former residents can save their new homes from such disastrous results.”

Every conservative who resides in a jurisdiction adjoining large blue states and/or cities worries about ideological creep. I lived in a Washington DC suburb for 25 years and noticed a steady decline in the quality of life as more and more transplants from other places settled in the area. It’s not all that surprising, but many of my neighbors were federal employees. As the federal government grew, so did the workforce. There isn’t a locale in either Virginia or Maryland that isn’t touched by the exodus. It’s more like a stampede.

They brought their liberal voting habits with them. The “blue” voting nature has also expanded outward. What used to be considered safe Republican or, at the very least, competitive districts, are all now solid blue with very little chance of reversal. My state delegate in my former home achieved fame a few years back by being the first transgender “woman” to be elected to such a lofty office. He/she campaigned on a platform of doing something to improve traffic on a notoriously clogged state artery that passes through the territory. The road situation hasn’t changed, according to people who live there (though COVID-19 did stem the deterioration somewhat).

Is it a measure of pride to live in an area that was the first jurisdiction to elect a human being that was born male but now calls himself/herself a female and dresses like one? Does this qualify “her” for women’s rights protection? Gender discrimination suits? A larger lounge in the restroom facilities?

The American west has similarly been transformed by jurisdiction “creep.” Nevada, stationed next to the blue paradise of California, is now a fairly reliable blue state. Arizona (not talking about fraud here) voted Democrat for the first time in… well, a long time. Californians are moving out of the Golden State by the U-Haul load and brining their governmental preferences with them, as though a different physical address will bring any greater success to the policy rot that these folks hoped to leave behind. Hard as it is to believe, Colorado was once a “red” state. Not anymore!

Now, according to some folks who left the Rocky Mountain State, neighboring states are starting to receive Colorado transplants. And it’s happening there, too!

What do these cities and states have in common with Joe Biden’s inauguration? All of the municipalities Tate mentioned in her piece are Democrat run, as are most of the most populated cities in America. The same public employee pension swelling and teacher union coddling orientation that’s present in all of the worst run places in the U.S. is also present in the noggin of Grampa Joe Biden.

Democrats just aren’t very good at governing.

I can’t predict what Biden will say in his inaugural address but here’s betting it will have a lot to do with ending the “dark period” that the nation supposedly just lived through. He’ll almost certainly lay out the parameters of his agenda that promises to fix every problem known to mankind as well as those yet to be invented by the ambitious liberal brains of university faculty. He’ll gloss over the stain of racism and issue backhanded punishments for the culture and society that permitted Africans to be enslaved and Native Americans to be forced off their lands hundreds of years ago.

The moral of the story? Biden won’t give any credence to Donald Trump’s single-minded quest to put America -- and Americans -- First. Trump was controversial from the get-go, but he never wavered from his determination to take a realistic, non-DC insider’s view of how government works. Trump was from the “real” world. Biden is from the swamp. Taken together with Joe’s grandiose promises and lack of real achievements, Americans should probably expect all of the country to someday appear like the cities Tate described in her opinion piece.

Democrats talk a good game but they just aren’t very good at delivering good government.

GOP congressional leaders rediscover a backbone when they’re in the minority

After all that’s happened recently -- particularly the events of the past two months -- it’s a little hard to recall what Donald Trump confronted on day one of his presidency. I remember feeling ecstatic that Trump beat the awful Hillary Clinton, but was equally excited that the party had managed to preserve majorities in both the House and Senate. By all appearances, there was a solid chance real progress would be made on repealing all or most of Obamacare, cutting taxes and regulations, keeping the U.S. out of costly overseas entanglements and finally getting immigration under control.

Understandably, one of Trump’s initial actions was to appoint Neil Gorsuch to succeed the dearly departed Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court. Gorsuch’s superior qualifications and perfunctory demeanor made his confirmation a political no-brainer. Instead of passing him along and hoping to perhaps live to fight on another, more winnable day, Democrats chose to stonewall Gorsuch. It forced Mitch McConnell to push the “nuclear option” and the filibuster was eliminated for Supreme Court picks as well as lower court appointments (done years earlier thanks to Harry Reid). Heck, even John McCain voted to ditch the filibuster.

Then Trump chose to focus on healthcare. The back-and-forth debate over whether to trash the entirety of the Obamacare law or just part of it divided the Republican caucus in both the House and Senate. Wishy-washy Speaker Paul Ryan didn’t have the wherewithal or power to strongarm his caucus to keep the promises they’d made for years to fully extinguish Obama’s only major legislative win. The matter hung in the air. The senate also failed to agree on a “skinny” repeal or offer a fix. Trump couldn’t push it through -- though through executive orders and the tax reform bill, the most damaging provisions were removed.

In other words, Republicans didn’t know quite what to do with their majorities. Always an ends-oriented man, Trump would’ve signed anything Congress sent to his desk. Instead, GOP congressional leaders killed their own prospects of a big victory, for perceived political reasons alone. The public then put Democrats in power in the House in 2018.

Now that Republicans are in the minority in Congress -- and with Grampa Joe tripping the light fantastic on top of the Resolute desk in the Oval Office -- it’ll be much easier to put up a formidable opposition. Democrats always go to extremes in their quest to make America look like Moscow, circa 1968, so Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell shouldn’t have much problem getting his people to agree this time. Even if the filibuster (for legislation) is done away with, it’ll still be challenging for Democrats to pass most of their disastrous agenda.

Something is bound to get through, though. As responsible citizens, we rue the day it happens. But Democrat “unity” won’t last long, especially in the House. De facto Democrat Speaker Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and her “Squad” aren’t about to accept watered-down socialism. They demand the real thing.

Need proof that Democrats can’t govern? One word: impeachment

You don’t even need to look back to history to discover that Democrats can’t govern. All the proof you need is in today’s likely action to vote to impeach Donald Trump -- again -- after he leaves office. You can’t make this stuff up.

Jordain Carney reported at The Hill, “The potential for another Trump impeachment trial is threatening to upend quick action in the Senate on President-elect Joe Biden's Cabinet picks and legislative agenda.

“House Democrats appear poised to impeach President Trump for a second time on Wednesday, setting the stage for a Senate trial that’s unlikely to start before Biden is sworn in on Jan. 20.

“The effort is throwing a curveball into Biden’s plan to ‘hit the ground running’ — with the party poised to control the White House and Congress for the first time since 2010 — and forcing Democrats to scramble to find ways to keep the administration’s first 100 days on track.”

If Joe Biden hit the ground running he might damage himself. Just saying.

This is serious stuff, but you almost have to laugh at how ridiculous another impeachment round would be -- days, weeks or months after Trump has left Washington. All the while touting “unity” and asking Republicans to support Biden’s Democrat agenda during his first 100 days.

I guess all that pandemic crapola can wait while Democrats pursue more vitriol over Donald Trump. His political career might be on its death watch, but Democrats want it really dead. Doesn’t it bring up visions of “The Princess Bride” when Miracle Max the Wizard said, “There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead”?

Democrats want Trump all dead. Are they willing to sacrifice Grampa Joe Biden’s ability to govern to achieve it? Time will tell, but we’re already fully aware that Democrats aren’t very good at governing. Everything they do amounts to shooting themselves in the foot. Bring it on.

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