Having read Ezra Klein's "Why We Are Polarized," I'd argue that the national Democratic party is already a big tent party. It has senators and representatives at the national level that could be described as "conservatives," and its voting base includes some people who would describe themselves as conservative. Even when focusing on The Squad, it's worth noting that the leftmost and rightmost House members in the Democratic party represent a wider span than in the Republican party. The Republican party includes no national candidates that could be described as center-left, and there are virtually no left-leaning Republicans among Republican voters.
Quantitatively, the Democratic party gets more votes than the Republican party. The design of our system protects the rights of political minorities, and that protection distorts the voices of the people in some cases. It makes sense, again, to argue that the Democratic party is already a big tent.
The core issue of this piece isn't "The Democrats need to be a big tent party," but "The Democrats need to do more to bring in right-leaning voters and shaky Republicans." Doing big-tent politics might require some shifts from Democrats in some cases (and your piece points out where that happens), and it also requires some right-leaning folks to question some assumptions or positions in order to work with folks. "We want you to get rid of the commies and the hippies to get our votes" isn't going to work because that's trading a reliable progressive vote for an unreliable shaky Republican. There are spaces and ways to build a big tent, but demanding Democrats purge their left-most members or positions is not likely to work until enough right-leaning folks become reliable Democratic voters.
My personal hope for common ground with left-leaning and right-leaning folks in Arizona comes from issues like wages and poverty. There are folks who voted for Trump and Republicans while voting to raise the minimum wage and limitations on medical debt. Democrats aren't doing nearly enough on those issues, but I think those problems are good starting points.
Great points. Thank you for the response. There are definitely trade-offs in courting the center, but I think moderate Dems could have been more vocal in asserting political reality. Biden didn’t have the votes for economic transformation – why did he bungle a political victory with the infrastructure bill in order to indulge a fantasy? The left’s plan was to bully Sinema and Manchin into supporting their ideas. This plan failed, and it might end up costing Dems the Senate in 2024. Biden’s left-most flank might end up abandoning him anyway in 2024 in favor of Cornell West or Jill Stein.
On economic issues that favor the working class, Ruy Teixeira points out that Dems are stuck politically because the brain trusts of the Dem Party are steeped in the esoteric language-and-thought-policing of the elite universities ... but working-class voters don’t care about that stuff.
Related to this topic, here’s a podcast episode & transcript that was published today in a Substack called Persuasion: “Yascha Mounk and Ruy Teixeira discuss what Biden would need to do to rebuild a broad coalition for the 2024 election.” https://www.persuasion.community/p/teixeira
Insightful, clear-headed and concise analysis by Billy Robb. Biden needs more youth voters while maintaining support among middle of the road and fiscally conservative voters. He needs to continue to be the candidate of normalcy, integrity and competence. His campaign must hammer and keep on hammering the twin messages of reproductive freedom for women and protecting democracy. Oh, and isn’t this economy running pretty smoothly these days? Yes, maybe mention that, too. But keep coming back to the horrors of losing reproductive rights and authoritarianism. It’s not an easy task to keep his entire coalition together, or even happy most of the time, but he’s got the experience and ability to do it. Time will tell, of course.
I'm sorry but you drove way off the left side of the road on this one. I get it you don't like Trump. Fine that is your opinion and you're welcome to it though I don't necessarily agree. In this post you ignore the collectivist push by the left and the Democratic Party. The use of law fare and distorting our judicial system against opponents of the current President. How can you ignore the use of the FBI and Justice Department against parents protesting at school board meetings, especially a parent who's daughter was raped by a "transgender" student in the bathroom and protested non action by the school board. Or sending in SWAT teams to arrest a protestor at a Planed Parenthood Clinic. The use of government to censor disenting views on social media especially regarding COVID. You mention Biden's student loan forgiveness that was struck down by the courts yet he just went around the court ruling to forgive more student loans? Talk about authoritarian. Yes the economy is doing better if you look at GDP and unemployment yet you ignore the loss in real wages because of inflation. We don't have deflation but disinflation, increasing inflation just at a slower rate. Unless there are major changes the price of food, energy, and gas aren't going down. Wait until the increase in insurance rates hit the economy because of the inflation we've endured. If forced to make a choice between a populist Trump and a collectivist/totalitarina Democrat though neither is preferred i'll go with the former over the later.
Thanks for the comment, and again, I respect your point of view. If the behavior of the right is causing me to drift to the left side of the road, I am grateful for reader dissents to point it out. Will grant you that I breezed by many examples and specifics, re: collectivism and government overreach. However, I disagree with your assertion that I simply "don't like Trump" - I have explained the reasons why I think he is unfit for public office. If anyone had predicted, before it happened, Trump's multi-faceted attempts to remain in power despite losing the 2020 election, they would have been mocked for having "Trump Derangement Syndrome" ... and yet those things happened. Trump has shown no remorse. Instead of clearly rebuking these disqualifying actions, GOP politicians and right-wing media outlets have rallied around Trump, pretending like his disqualifying actions are a nothingburger, even when there were alternative populist & conservative candidates running for president. Of course, the left is unhinged in its own way, and moderate Dems haven't done enough to push back on the excesses. This is what makes the 2024 election so dispiriting.
First of all thank-you for your response. Having a dialogue is how classic liberalism, not the current definition sorts out ideas. I am not a huge fan of Trump's antics and behaviors but on many of his policies except most notably his ideas on trade I agree with. To pass over the many irregularities that occured in the 2020 election and not understand his behaviors is like someone complaining about the blood on the carpet while ignoring the knife wound in the person's back. Trump feels that the election irregularities were the differences in the election. It wasn't until years after that the Wisconsin Supreme Court said that ballot harvesting, especially in nursing homes, violated the law. Let us not forget the issues in Pennsylvania. He was fighting and went to court but was blocked. He knew, and we can see, what a Biden Presidency would bring to both the economy and border not to mention internationally. People support him because they feel Washington, both R & D, has ignored the common man and is ignoring the principles that our country and Constitution call for. Unfortunately there really isn't another voice out there that the people believe will fight for them. On a side note I was for DeSantis who i felt would of pushed many of the policies that Trump does without the chaos, but Trump sucks all the oxygen out of the room. You would think in a country of over 330 million people we could come up with two better candidates than either Trump or Biden. Both men are deeply flawed. The real question it now seems to be is who's policies will do the least harm to the country. In my opinion populism with Trump and all its faults beats collectivism of Biden and the Democrats. I'll finish with what I said to my friends who were upset with the 2016 election results that we are a great country despite who is President and that we have overcome bad ones in the past and we will again. The question how far out of the ditch do we have to get out of? Thank-you for allowing me to express my views.
Long live classical liberalism. I'm glad to have readers with different viewpoints reading this newsletter. In my view, we don't really have the rule of law in a country where a president can refuse to abide the legal outcome of elections if a president feels there were irregularities. Hopefully we as a country can move beyond this charged era and get back to regular old policy debates.
I don't think we have the rule of law when the law is subjectively applied depending on what political party you belong to (law fare). When you have a President that doesn't follow the laws passed by Congress regarding illegal immigration. When that same President ignores Supreme Court ruling about student loan forgiveness without the appropriation by Congress. Shall I go on? Regarding your hint at Trump if you look he did abide by the legal outcome of the election as he peacefully left office when his term expired. That he fought what he believed to be a corrupt election with all of the irregularities that occured. Regarding policy debates I'd love to have them but they won't happen until those on the left will talk ideas instead of using fear and hate as a substitute.
Will grant you that Biden has been imprudent with his powers. However, a violent mob attacked the Capitol on the day Congress was set to count the electoral college votes. I think Trump deserves responsibility for that violence. In the immediate aftermath of J6, most elected Republicans were willing to say that he deserved responsibility. Lots of what was said about the 2020 election was straight up lies, which is why Fox News paid $800 million to Dominion Voting Systems to settle a defamation lawsuit. If the GOP had been a responsible party and moved on from the chaos, Ron DeSantis - who is an authentic conservative populist - would be the presumptive nominee, and 2024 would be more about policy than it's going to be now.
Imprudent is an understatement. To quote the late comedian Norm McDonald "its not much of an insurrection when people are walking inside velvet ropes." Was there a riot by some indeed. But there were thousands of people peacefully protesting because they didn't agree with the election results and believed there was something fishy going on with the 2020 election. We do have that first amendment right. There are many questions about J6 that need to be answered such as why Speaker Pelosi refused national guard security when offered by President Trump? How many federal agents were in the crowd and what was their exact purpose? Why with all the video evidence about Ray Epps it took so long for charges and why such a light sentence? Why has the video of J6 been hidden and suppressed for so long? What about all of the pipe bombs and now video evidence regarding such pipe bomb at DNC headquarters? If Trump is responsible for J6 are the Democrats and their leadership responsible for the BLM riots in the summer of 2020 that cost billions of dollars and numerous lives? I agree with you that Ron DeSantis would of been a better candidate and would of led to real policy debates (which I think he would win and the American people would support) but we have elections and the people choose. Trump is not my first choice not because of his policies on the most part but his personality of being a spoiled rich kid who never completely grew up. But as you claim the GOP is not being responsible for allowing Trump to run can you say the same about the Democratic Party that in 2020 ran Biden with his obvious mental decline and then run him again in 2024? His situation and performance has declined making one question who really is running the ship? Especially when 40% of his presidency has been spent on vacation. We need a vibrant two party system so that ideas and concepts are hashed out because each has different perspectives on issues. We can see what happens when only one party is in charge with the decline in our neighbor California. In a country of 330 million people we can do better than what our choices seem to be in the comming election. Will this be the year a third party candidate emerges? The largest group of voters are now independent. Could we see the birth of new party such as the Republicans emerged from remnants of the Whigs in the 1850s? I'm enjoying the dialogue with you.
I’m sorry but as long as government expands it’s reach into the market beyond defining and enforcing property rights, setting and enforcing laws, and providing public goods this is impossible
I’m sorry sir, but after re reading your post I find no proof. All right wing conjecture. Have you ever been to a school board meeting? They can get contentious and violent. School board members are volunteers (who do not investigate allegations of rape (transgender rapes student in bathroom???). Superintendents job. I did serve as a school board member. It can be terrifying. Covid dissenters we’re lying on line and killing people. The only positive Trump policy that comes to mind was his quick response to vaccine creation which he unfortunately blew up. So you’re a voting law expert in Pennsylvania? Good for you. My mother could not physically get out of bed at 97 but was sharp and nurse took her 2020 ballot to the mailbox. Are we now disenfranchising the elderly and disabled because some idiot Republican operative in North Carolina took ballots from the poor and filled them out? Thankfully going to jail. Fighting greedflation, forgiving student debts that have ballooned with junk fees, these are all what Joe Biden is trying to do and at every turn people, even those as well written and seemingly as intelligent as you are not seeing what’s best for the majority of Americans. By the way, Covid come to mind when you rethink any past policys? I’m happy to have this conversation.
To me, Covid was like the Rorschach test of our times. People brought different values to the question, and people read and watched different types of media, causing people to see everything completely differently. I'm grateful to have readers with different viewpoints, who consume different types of media, and who will vote differently for different reasons. We won't agree on every topic, but I am thankful to everyone for sharing their point of view. Cheers.
I agree, but when I was a kid, and the polio vaccine came out, vivid to me because they put it on a sugar cube😂 everyone trusted the science with no second thought. Polio was virtually erraticated. I’m so sad for the stories of people dying because they thought the vaccine would kill them or something. The other reason I think Republicans will lose is they are on the way, way wrong side of womens health care. Pre Roe was frightening (the stories I could tell) and post Roe is becoming deadly. Thanks, love reading. I even read your dad’s. Have for years. Just to get the other side of the coin. He great.
Carolyn the Dobbs decision didn't outlaw abortion. The Supreme Court rightly said the Constitution has nothing to do with this policy and it is up to the states. All the Dobbs decision did was say the state can set a limit on abortions of 15 weeks (which is the time that the overwhelming occur). I'm afraid your views on unlimited abortion as those on the left propose and have enacted in "blue" states is to on the wrong side of life. Abortion in itself is 100% deadly because you are terminating the life of an unborn child.
Carolyn i'm sorry but you are dead wrong on so many points. To answer your first question that after teaching in public schools I can assure you i've been to more school board meetings than I care to count and probably more than you. Next, school board members are the ones who hire the superintendent and are responsible for his or her actions or lack of. Ignorance is no excuse. If the the superintendent doesn't share accurate information to the board they need to be dismissed immediately. Regarding Covid you're trying to lead into a rabbit hole I refuse to follow. Just note that those who fought the lockdowns and school closures were proven right. Those who promoted masking and lockdowns were going against over 100 years of scientific knowledge since the Spanish Flu of 1918. Look at the results of Sweden regarding this. As far as Pennsylvania the State Supreme Court changed the state's Constitution regarding the legislature setting voting rules and absentee voting. Congratulations to your mother for living to the ripe old age of 97 but that is immaterial to the discussion. Greedflation? Really? What brought about the highest inflation since Jimmy Carter? If it was a just a supply shock prices would of gone back down to the pre Covid level. Inflation occurs as Milton Friedmand said "too much money chasing too few goods." That the out of control spending by Biden and the Democrats of adding an additional 5-6 trillion dollars does the trick. That is why our national debt is now $34 trillion. Forgiving student debts? Biden doesn't have the power as the Supreme Court ruled. If you think people can just walk away from the loans that they take out because they don't like the burdens that they place on their lifestyle can all the homeowners and those that took out car loans do the same? How is it just for people who took out loans and paid them off or for those who never took out student loans in the first place pay higher taxes to pay off the debts for people who will earn higher incomes because they attended college (providing that they got a real degree rather than something like women's studies). The only thing Joe Biden is doing is enriching his family and doing whatever his handlers want him to do to make our society less free and more under the control of the federal government. Look at all of the regulations that were added to the national register this past year. You know what is best for the majority of Americans is freedom allowing them to do what they feel best to improve the lives of themselves and families as long as those actions don't harm others, NOT following the edicts from those who think they know what is best for everyone else. Electric car mandates are an example.
Having read Ezra Klein's "Why We Are Polarized," I'd argue that the national Democratic party is already a big tent party. It has senators and representatives at the national level that could be described as "conservatives," and its voting base includes some people who would describe themselves as conservative. Even when focusing on The Squad, it's worth noting that the leftmost and rightmost House members in the Democratic party represent a wider span than in the Republican party. The Republican party includes no national candidates that could be described as center-left, and there are virtually no left-leaning Republicans among Republican voters.
Quantitatively, the Democratic party gets more votes than the Republican party. The design of our system protects the rights of political minorities, and that protection distorts the voices of the people in some cases. It makes sense, again, to argue that the Democratic party is already a big tent.
The core issue of this piece isn't "The Democrats need to be a big tent party," but "The Democrats need to do more to bring in right-leaning voters and shaky Republicans." Doing big-tent politics might require some shifts from Democrats in some cases (and your piece points out where that happens), and it also requires some right-leaning folks to question some assumptions or positions in order to work with folks. "We want you to get rid of the commies and the hippies to get our votes" isn't going to work because that's trading a reliable progressive vote for an unreliable shaky Republican. There are spaces and ways to build a big tent, but demanding Democrats purge their left-most members or positions is not likely to work until enough right-leaning folks become reliable Democratic voters.
My personal hope for common ground with left-leaning and right-leaning folks in Arizona comes from issues like wages and poverty. There are folks who voted for Trump and Republicans while voting to raise the minimum wage and limitations on medical debt. Democrats aren't doing nearly enough on those issues, but I think those problems are good starting points.
Great points. Thank you for the response. There are definitely trade-offs in courting the center, but I think moderate Dems could have been more vocal in asserting political reality. Biden didn’t have the votes for economic transformation – why did he bungle a political victory with the infrastructure bill in order to indulge a fantasy? The left’s plan was to bully Sinema and Manchin into supporting their ideas. This plan failed, and it might end up costing Dems the Senate in 2024. Biden’s left-most flank might end up abandoning him anyway in 2024 in favor of Cornell West or Jill Stein.
On economic issues that favor the working class, Ruy Teixeira points out that Dems are stuck politically because the brain trusts of the Dem Party are steeped in the esoteric language-and-thought-policing of the elite universities ... but working-class voters don’t care about that stuff.
Related to this topic, here’s a podcast episode & transcript that was published today in a Substack called Persuasion: “Yascha Mounk and Ruy Teixeira discuss what Biden would need to do to rebuild a broad coalition for the 2024 election.” https://www.persuasion.community/p/teixeira
Very thoughtful, thought provoking piece. I do not social media so the points he makes here are news to me. Thank you.
Thanks for reading!
Insightful, clear-headed and concise analysis by Billy Robb. Biden needs more youth voters while maintaining support among middle of the road and fiscally conservative voters. He needs to continue to be the candidate of normalcy, integrity and competence. His campaign must hammer and keep on hammering the twin messages of reproductive freedom for women and protecting democracy. Oh, and isn’t this economy running pretty smoothly these days? Yes, maybe mention that, too. But keep coming back to the horrors of losing reproductive rights and authoritarianism. It’s not an easy task to keep his entire coalition together, or even happy most of the time, but he’s got the experience and ability to do it. Time will tell, of course.
Thanks for reading!
I'm sorry but you drove way off the left side of the road on this one. I get it you don't like Trump. Fine that is your opinion and you're welcome to it though I don't necessarily agree. In this post you ignore the collectivist push by the left and the Democratic Party. The use of law fare and distorting our judicial system against opponents of the current President. How can you ignore the use of the FBI and Justice Department against parents protesting at school board meetings, especially a parent who's daughter was raped by a "transgender" student in the bathroom and protested non action by the school board. Or sending in SWAT teams to arrest a protestor at a Planed Parenthood Clinic. The use of government to censor disenting views on social media especially regarding COVID. You mention Biden's student loan forgiveness that was struck down by the courts yet he just went around the court ruling to forgive more student loans? Talk about authoritarian. Yes the economy is doing better if you look at GDP and unemployment yet you ignore the loss in real wages because of inflation. We don't have deflation but disinflation, increasing inflation just at a slower rate. Unless there are major changes the price of food, energy, and gas aren't going down. Wait until the increase in insurance rates hit the economy because of the inflation we've endured. If forced to make a choice between a populist Trump and a collectivist/totalitarina Democrat though neither is preferred i'll go with the former over the later.
Thanks for the comment, and again, I respect your point of view. If the behavior of the right is causing me to drift to the left side of the road, I am grateful for reader dissents to point it out. Will grant you that I breezed by many examples and specifics, re: collectivism and government overreach. However, I disagree with your assertion that I simply "don't like Trump" - I have explained the reasons why I think he is unfit for public office. If anyone had predicted, before it happened, Trump's multi-faceted attempts to remain in power despite losing the 2020 election, they would have been mocked for having "Trump Derangement Syndrome" ... and yet those things happened. Trump has shown no remorse. Instead of clearly rebuking these disqualifying actions, GOP politicians and right-wing media outlets have rallied around Trump, pretending like his disqualifying actions are a nothingburger, even when there were alternative populist & conservative candidates running for president. Of course, the left is unhinged in its own way, and moderate Dems haven't done enough to push back on the excesses. This is what makes the 2024 election so dispiriting.
First of all thank-you for your response. Having a dialogue is how classic liberalism, not the current definition sorts out ideas. I am not a huge fan of Trump's antics and behaviors but on many of his policies except most notably his ideas on trade I agree with. To pass over the many irregularities that occured in the 2020 election and not understand his behaviors is like someone complaining about the blood on the carpet while ignoring the knife wound in the person's back. Trump feels that the election irregularities were the differences in the election. It wasn't until years after that the Wisconsin Supreme Court said that ballot harvesting, especially in nursing homes, violated the law. Let us not forget the issues in Pennsylvania. He was fighting and went to court but was blocked. He knew, and we can see, what a Biden Presidency would bring to both the economy and border not to mention internationally. People support him because they feel Washington, both R & D, has ignored the common man and is ignoring the principles that our country and Constitution call for. Unfortunately there really isn't another voice out there that the people believe will fight for them. On a side note I was for DeSantis who i felt would of pushed many of the policies that Trump does without the chaos, but Trump sucks all the oxygen out of the room. You would think in a country of over 330 million people we could come up with two better candidates than either Trump or Biden. Both men are deeply flawed. The real question it now seems to be is who's policies will do the least harm to the country. In my opinion populism with Trump and all its faults beats collectivism of Biden and the Democrats. I'll finish with what I said to my friends who were upset with the 2016 election results that we are a great country despite who is President and that we have overcome bad ones in the past and we will again. The question how far out of the ditch do we have to get out of? Thank-you for allowing me to express my views.
Long live classical liberalism. I'm glad to have readers with different viewpoints reading this newsletter. In my view, we don't really have the rule of law in a country where a president can refuse to abide the legal outcome of elections if a president feels there were irregularities. Hopefully we as a country can move beyond this charged era and get back to regular old policy debates.
I don't think we have the rule of law when the law is subjectively applied depending on what political party you belong to (law fare). When you have a President that doesn't follow the laws passed by Congress regarding illegal immigration. When that same President ignores Supreme Court ruling about student loan forgiveness without the appropriation by Congress. Shall I go on? Regarding your hint at Trump if you look he did abide by the legal outcome of the election as he peacefully left office when his term expired. That he fought what he believed to be a corrupt election with all of the irregularities that occured. Regarding policy debates I'd love to have them but they won't happen until those on the left will talk ideas instead of using fear and hate as a substitute.
Will grant you that Biden has been imprudent with his powers. However, a violent mob attacked the Capitol on the day Congress was set to count the electoral college votes. I think Trump deserves responsibility for that violence. In the immediate aftermath of J6, most elected Republicans were willing to say that he deserved responsibility. Lots of what was said about the 2020 election was straight up lies, which is why Fox News paid $800 million to Dominion Voting Systems to settle a defamation lawsuit. If the GOP had been a responsible party and moved on from the chaos, Ron DeSantis - who is an authentic conservative populist - would be the presumptive nominee, and 2024 would be more about policy than it's going to be now.
Imprudent is an understatement. To quote the late comedian Norm McDonald "its not much of an insurrection when people are walking inside velvet ropes." Was there a riot by some indeed. But there were thousands of people peacefully protesting because they didn't agree with the election results and believed there was something fishy going on with the 2020 election. We do have that first amendment right. There are many questions about J6 that need to be answered such as why Speaker Pelosi refused national guard security when offered by President Trump? How many federal agents were in the crowd and what was their exact purpose? Why with all the video evidence about Ray Epps it took so long for charges and why such a light sentence? Why has the video of J6 been hidden and suppressed for so long? What about all of the pipe bombs and now video evidence regarding such pipe bomb at DNC headquarters? If Trump is responsible for J6 are the Democrats and their leadership responsible for the BLM riots in the summer of 2020 that cost billions of dollars and numerous lives? I agree with you that Ron DeSantis would of been a better candidate and would of led to real policy debates (which I think he would win and the American people would support) but we have elections and the people choose. Trump is not my first choice not because of his policies on the most part but his personality of being a spoiled rich kid who never completely grew up. But as you claim the GOP is not being responsible for allowing Trump to run can you say the same about the Democratic Party that in 2020 ran Biden with his obvious mental decline and then run him again in 2024? His situation and performance has declined making one question who really is running the ship? Especially when 40% of his presidency has been spent on vacation. We need a vibrant two party system so that ideas and concepts are hashed out because each has different perspectives on issues. We can see what happens when only one party is in charge with the decline in our neighbor California. In a country of 330 million people we can do better than what our choices seem to be in the comming election. Will this be the year a third party candidate emerges? The largest group of voters are now independent. Could we see the birth of new party such as the Republicans emerged from remnants of the Whigs in the 1850s? I'm enjoying the dialogue with you.
At some point you need to separate government from the free market.
I’m sorry but as long as government expands it’s reach into the market beyond defining and enforcing property rights, setting and enforcing laws, and providing public goods this is impossible
I’m sorry sir, but after re reading your post I find no proof. All right wing conjecture. Have you ever been to a school board meeting? They can get contentious and violent. School board members are volunteers (who do not investigate allegations of rape (transgender rapes student in bathroom???). Superintendents job. I did serve as a school board member. It can be terrifying. Covid dissenters we’re lying on line and killing people. The only positive Trump policy that comes to mind was his quick response to vaccine creation which he unfortunately blew up. So you’re a voting law expert in Pennsylvania? Good for you. My mother could not physically get out of bed at 97 but was sharp and nurse took her 2020 ballot to the mailbox. Are we now disenfranchising the elderly and disabled because some idiot Republican operative in North Carolina took ballots from the poor and filled them out? Thankfully going to jail. Fighting greedflation, forgiving student debts that have ballooned with junk fees, these are all what Joe Biden is trying to do and at every turn people, even those as well written and seemingly as intelligent as you are not seeing what’s best for the majority of Americans. By the way, Covid come to mind when you rethink any past policys? I’m happy to have this conversation.
To me, Covid was like the Rorschach test of our times. People brought different values to the question, and people read and watched different types of media, causing people to see everything completely differently. I'm grateful to have readers with different viewpoints, who consume different types of media, and who will vote differently for different reasons. We won't agree on every topic, but I am thankful to everyone for sharing their point of view. Cheers.
I agree, but when I was a kid, and the polio vaccine came out, vivid to me because they put it on a sugar cube😂 everyone trusted the science with no second thought. Polio was virtually erraticated. I’m so sad for the stories of people dying because they thought the vaccine would kill them or something. The other reason I think Republicans will lose is they are on the way, way wrong side of womens health care. Pre Roe was frightening (the stories I could tell) and post Roe is becoming deadly. Thanks, love reading. I even read your dad’s. Have for years. Just to get the other side of the coin. He great.
Carolyn the Dobbs decision didn't outlaw abortion. The Supreme Court rightly said the Constitution has nothing to do with this policy and it is up to the states. All the Dobbs decision did was say the state can set a limit on abortions of 15 weeks (which is the time that the overwhelming occur). I'm afraid your views on unlimited abortion as those on the left propose and have enacted in "blue" states is to on the wrong side of life. Abortion in itself is 100% deadly because you are terminating the life of an unborn child.
Carolyn i'm sorry but you are dead wrong on so many points. To answer your first question that after teaching in public schools I can assure you i've been to more school board meetings than I care to count and probably more than you. Next, school board members are the ones who hire the superintendent and are responsible for his or her actions or lack of. Ignorance is no excuse. If the the superintendent doesn't share accurate information to the board they need to be dismissed immediately. Regarding Covid you're trying to lead into a rabbit hole I refuse to follow. Just note that those who fought the lockdowns and school closures were proven right. Those who promoted masking and lockdowns were going against over 100 years of scientific knowledge since the Spanish Flu of 1918. Look at the results of Sweden regarding this. As far as Pennsylvania the State Supreme Court changed the state's Constitution regarding the legislature setting voting rules and absentee voting. Congratulations to your mother for living to the ripe old age of 97 but that is immaterial to the discussion. Greedflation? Really? What brought about the highest inflation since Jimmy Carter? If it was a just a supply shock prices would of gone back down to the pre Covid level. Inflation occurs as Milton Friedmand said "too much money chasing too few goods." That the out of control spending by Biden and the Democrats of adding an additional 5-6 trillion dollars does the trick. That is why our national debt is now $34 trillion. Forgiving student debts? Biden doesn't have the power as the Supreme Court ruled. If you think people can just walk away from the loans that they take out because they don't like the burdens that they place on their lifestyle can all the homeowners and those that took out car loans do the same? How is it just for people who took out loans and paid them off or for those who never took out student loans in the first place pay higher taxes to pay off the debts for people who will earn higher incomes because they attended college (providing that they got a real degree rather than something like women's studies). The only thing Joe Biden is doing is enriching his family and doing whatever his handlers want him to do to make our society less free and more under the control of the federal government. Look at all of the regulations that were added to the national register this past year. You know what is best for the majority of Americans is freedom allowing them to do what they feel best to improve the lives of themselves and families as long as those actions don't harm others, NOT following the edicts from those who think they know what is best for everyone else. Electric car mandates are an example.