On Democrats’ loss of power
[NOTE: This post was prompted by reading Victor Davis Hanson on the Democrats’ loss of power.]
The shock of the reversal the 2016 election represented to Democrats was and still is enormous. But the reversal wasn’t just because Democrats previously thought they were on the pinnacle and poised for near-permanent success, with Obama having permanently changed the direction of the country. The reversal was and still is shocking, truly shocking, because until 2016 the direction of the country had been almost relentlessly in the leftist direction for close to 90 years (since FDR), with only a few brief and incomplete moments of turning in the other direction.
Two of those moments consisted of Reagan and Bush, and only Reagan represented an actual conservative victory. Some of the time, moreover, even Reagan and Bush had to deal with a Democratic Congress. Bush was also preoccupied with the War on Terror, and he was otherwise quite moderate rather than conservative. As for the Gingrich Contract With America (another moment), Congress was Republican but the president was a Democrat, Bill Clinton, and Gingrich and company had to deal with that fact.
To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time since Coolidge that we have a conservative president (which, surprisingly, Trump is turning out to be, at least in the policy sense) and two houses controlled by the GOP. Reagan, a conservative, never had that luxury, because Democrats controlled the House for his entire presidency, and the Senate for a portion of it.
Trump’s Republican-controlled Congress could end in 2018, but for now Trump has both houses, another reason for Democratic angst. Plus, the Democrats really truly thought they’d get Congress back in 2018, perhaps both houses, and now they have some doubts about that (although it still could happen, of course).
When you’re used to a seemingly inexorable movement of politics in your favor, and the setbacks have been mostly small and temporary, it’s frightening to see a setback that could last longer. Or maybe, even, that the pattern has been broken and the movement in your direction may have ended when you least expected it to. And that’s another reason why the looming SCOTUS appointment has caused such hysteria on the part of Democrats—elections come and go, and things can change quickly with any election, but SCOTUS justices tend to last a long long time.
During the 2016 campaign, I noted on several occasions on this blog that I was supporting Trump because, in the words of Lincoln we cannot spare this man; he fights! As his presidential term wears on I am more and more amazed.
I am coming to believe that Trump, unlike the other Republican primary conenders, is precisely the right person in the right place at the right time. Why? Because the Dem onslaught is fueled by the loss of their expected Hillary coronation. Any of the other Republican contenders would have faced that same vicious onslaught, especially any time they tried to steer the ship of state into conservative waters. I simply cannot believe, however, that any of them would have had the essential temerity, resilience, and in-your-face opposition that Trump has displayed.
In the movie Patton, Omar Bradley says to Patton that he (Bradley) does this job because he has to, but Patton does it because he loves it. I think this applies to Trump. He looks forward to scrapping with the opposition because he is driven by the need to win. And he does.
Trump’s resilience and fighting spirit are amazing, but something else contributes to his success. He is absolutely non-ideological man, with what is called horse-sense, and with his ample experience in dealing with all kinds of people immediately sees an opening for attack and subduing an opponent. This is a sport for him, like fishing or hunting, so his motivation for success at every turn is very high.
The arc of history, as often noted by bho, has no master and history has no arc. The left assumes history is in favor of totalitarians of the left. Silly, vapid people. And, I should add dangerous.
“elections come and go, and things can change quickly with any election, but SCOTUS justices tend to last a long long time.” neo
I think perhaps the single greatest factor in the left’s hysteria over Trump is the conscious and subconscious realization that they cannot maintain progress toward their “fundamental transformation” of America without a liberal Supreme Court. The Constitution stands in their way and, they know it.
“Time and time again, we find progressive laws being struck down. And it’s always – always – the ones the Constitution is against. These right-wing judges don’t think for themselves, they just do whatever the Constitution says. And, it’s time for that to end.” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
“We need judges to be advocates of progressive laws, not people who will bow to the whims of the Constitution, pitting its extremist values of freedom of speech and freedom of religion against our agenda.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)
“We’re sick and tired of the Constitution sitting in the National Archives, manipulating everything we do!” Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ)
These are duly elected Senators who have sworn an oath to support the Constitution. Someone explain to me how those sentiments are not a complete and unequivocal betrayal of that oath?
How much plainer can they be?
At the least, they should be impeached, convicted and expelled from office. Personally, I think they should have their citizenship permanently revoked and deported to their choice of Cuba, Venezuela or N. Korea.
Think of the educational value…
Geoffrey: Very funny! I believe you correctly captured what Schumer, Warren and Booker actually believe. The quotations however are apparently the product of a satirical website that you, and now I, enjoy. See,
https://babylonbee.com/news/senate-democrats-demand-supreme-court-nominee-not-be-unduly-influenced-by-u-s-constitution/
And, according to that website,
Wow Geoffrey! Imagine that. A piece of paper (the Constitution) emanates whims, and then these whims go out and manipulate good hearted people.
“Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Then kill it.
____
The only horrible leftist garbage that Coolidge had to deal with (that I’m aware of) was the new income tax. The congressional Republicans of his day, strategic wizards that they were, thought that letting the income tax amendment go through without any limitations was a sure fire way to kill it. Because then there was no way it could possibly pass the 3/4 of state legislatures. Why make a heavy lift effort, when you can get someone else to do it for you?
Ira:
That is great, Babylon Bee!
Satire and ridicule is what the Dems deserve, because although they may not have said those things they act them out.
Ira,
Thanks for bringing that to my attention. I missed that those ‘quotes’ were satirical, seeing them cut and pasted into a comment on PJ Media. Nothing indicated that they were satirical. The words in quotation marks misled me into thinking they had actually said those things.
I didn’t question the ‘quotes’ veracity, as I have little doubt that to be what they actually believe. But I think the satirist went astray in using quotation marks. I don’t like other people putting words in my mouth and don’t support doing it to others, regardless of how much I despise them.
The internet is a wonderful tool but misused, a dangerous thing. I fell prey to it tonight.
Geoffrey Britain:
But I think the satirist went astray in using quotation marks.
By now the Babylon Bee is well-known as a satirical website. As such, quotes shouldn’t be a problem.
The problem is that some people are not familiar with its satirical reputation.
The expected firestorm over Kennedy’s replacement is really just a precursor to what Democrats viscerally fear:
1. RBG’s mortality.
2. The very high likelihood of an even more GOP Senate in the 116th Congress.
They desperately wanted Kennedy to stay through 2020, because they fear Ginsburg could pass on at any moment. Further, due to the lopsided number of seats they are defending, the likelihood of a Democratic Senate next year is slim.
Two. More. Years….for Ginsburg to hang on.
Maybe she will. But the deepest fear in the heart of every liberal is to wake up one morning to the news of her passing.
I wish no ill will toward anyone. However, assuming the GOP maintains (or increases) its Senate majority this fall, if RBG passes away in 2019 or 2020…the acrimonious histrionics we are hearing from the left now vis-à-vis then…will be Sumter compared to Gettysburg.
Geoffrey & Ira & Gringo:
I was wondering how I had missed such stunning quotes, but didn’t doubt they were real — however, as Geoffrey says, the reason the Bee’s satire rings true is because it, umm, rings true.
For an actual example of Democrat beliefs about the Constitution, Nancy Pelosi’s words are, sadly, not a satire:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08uk99L8oqQ
“When Asked Where the Constitution Authorizes Congress to Order Americans To Buy Health Insurance, Pelosi Says: ‘Are You Serious?'”
https://www.theblaze.com/news/2014/02/05/nancy-pelosis-call-for-changing-the-constitution
“Arguing it would restore democracy, two top House Democrats pushed for sweeping legislation to reverse the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Citizens United speech case, including a constitutional amendment limiting campaign contributions and instituting a taxpayer-financing system.”
Because my dad was a Keynesian economist who graduated from Columbia in the 35, he would have a clear understanding of what Neo meant when she said: “until 2016 the direction of the country had been almost relentlessly in the leftist direction for close to 90 years (since FDR), with only a few brief and incomplete moments of turning in the other direction.” He saw the beginning, I have apparently lived long enough to see the end of it. After 1929 my father felt that the US was in danger of becoming a totalitarian country – fascist or communist. Keynes had been working all through the teens and 20s developing a ‘middle way’ between capitalism and communism. The core idea was that government could intervene and regulate the economy to smooth out the ups and down endemic to laissez faire capitalism. And act an an umpire to curb the worst abuses. A key idea was that the government should overspend in hard times to stimulate the economy and then pay the deficit back in good times. We all know what happened and I just laugh when that self styled Keynesian, Paul Krugman, assures us that there is plenty of money to make everything ticiiti-poo. If you don’t pay it back government spending doesn’t act like a flywheel and regulate the highs and lows of the economy – it enters la la land. And worse the regulators have both been bought by special interests and become a special interest in themselves. Paul Volcker sometime in the 80s or 90s observed that FDR’s regulatory system had worked pretty well up until the 70s. Likewise Walter Russell Meade observed how globalisation was changing everything at about the same time and was at first alarmed, until he decided that the new global economy was all in all a good thing. Last week I saw Eric Weinstein on the Dave Rubin show make the same point about what changed in the 70s. Against that view the work of Milton Friedman and Thomas Sowell really impress me as a valid contrary views. The other part of the mess we have is of course regulatory capture. The Democrats have been the senior partners in government and control the executive branch agencies regardless of the party in power. The Republicans have been the junior partners content with their lesser share of the take. Now we have an outsider who is not a wholly owned subsidiary of the firm – the Uniparty in Congress and the permanent bureaucracy in the executive branch – and is exposing just how corrupt things have gotten. He can only scratch the surface, but I think there is a good chance he can expose enough of the surface and create some deeper fissures such that all the ‘king’s horses and all the king’s men will not be able to put the system back together again.”
I was born months before FDR’s election to his fourth term (horrors-to-Betsy, if viewed in light of the putative Obamazoidal “fundamental transformation”: a phrase that tellingly somehow nearly never appeared in the Soviet Media during his own two terms!). And I’m nowheres near to 90 y/o. Albeit, nearer than I’d like to be.
Excellent comments today.
“The only horrible leftist garbage that Coolidge had to deal with (that I’m aware of) was the new income tax”
Coolidge had a perennial fight over a farm bill, the McNary-Haugen Farm Bill, which was finally made into law in 1932. Farmers had done very well during WWI but, after the Armistice, prices fell back to normal. That had to be “corrected.”
Gringo,
Until reading of it on this thread last night, I had never heard of the Babylon Bee. I’m on the internet a lot and I’m a political ‘junkie’ but still was unaware of that satirical site.
As I said, “I missed that those ‘quotes’ were satirical, seeing them cut and pasted into a comment on PJ Media. Nothing indicated that they were satirical. The words in quotation marks misled me into thinking they had actually said those things.
I didn’t question the ‘quotes’ veracity, as I have little doubt that to be what they actually believe.”
Comparisons have been made to the atmosphere during the Weimar Republic, presaging street brawls before a descent into chaos.
But the similarities are superficial. The government may be somewhat feckless, but the economy is robust. Any panic is being experienced by Democrats alone; it is only their prospects that are dimming.
So I would guess they will simply be ignored as they become progressively (HA!) more unhinged. The rest of us have more important things to do, like holding down a job.
Geoffrey:
In case you missed this one, here is the story that had the progressive sentinels of all things fake in the “news” sounding the alarms about Babylon Bee:
https://babylonbee.com/news/cnn-purchases-industrial-sized-washing-machine-spin-news-publication/
Yes, the minders of the media did not understand the word “satire” boldly displayed in “Your Trusted Source of Christian News Satire.”
Punked! I hate it when that happens (snicker).
____
Great comments by Igude and Mike K.
I do think Keynes was correct that basic laisse-faire free markets are inherently unstable. Though one person’s pain becomes another’s gain. Or as W. Buffett said, “When the tide goes out, you can see who isn’t wearing a bathing suit.” Great depressions are another level of pain though.
The Federal Reserve system came in the same year as the income tax, 1913. According to M. Friedman it worked extremely well as long as the very knowledgeable NY Fed president ran rough-shod over the Fed chairman. FDR wanted command and control over everything and put a boob in as Fed chairman and made sure he called the shots, resulting in a 15+ year depression.
One of the last op-ed pieces Friedman wrote for the WSJ in the late 1990s declared the Fed Res system a huge success and declared the end of serious economic cycles. I would have loved to read him break down the credit bust of 2008.
“Comparisons have been made to the atmosphere during the Weimar Republic . . . . The government may be somewhat feckless, but the economy is robust. Any panic is being experienced by Democrats alone; it is only their prospects that are dimming.”[Matt SE @ 10:04]”
Matt SE,
I think that is a very important distinction which is seldom, if ever, noticed.
” A key idea was that the government should overspend in hard times to stimulate the economy and then pay the deficit back in good times. . . . If you don’t pay it back government spending doesn’t act like a flywheel and regulate the highs and lows of the economy” [Iglude @ 1:47]
And this, a crucial point to understanding Keynesian economics and the hard part of implementing it, is what most people ignore.
According to M. Friedman it worked extremely well as long as the very knowledgeable NY Fed president ran rough-shod over the Fed chairman.
That was Benjamin Strong and there are many who believe that his death from TB in 1928 led to the crash. Coolidge recognized the danger in 1928 but believed the stock market was subject only to the control of the NY governor, a man named Roosevelt.
Coolidge inherited a severe recession, and a strong recovery was sparked during his admin. Conservatives love to point this out, though one needs to know a great deal about the details of this (& I don’t) to know that the Coolidge recovery didn’t also prepare the way for the next counter swing, the great depression.
This McNary-Haugen bill, which I’d never heard of, is interesting in the way it reflects the real-estate debt factor leading up to the depression. It is usually stated that real-estate simply wasn’t a factor, which I’m pretty sure is untrue. These large scale debt issues may take decades to play out.
In 1896, W.J. Bryan gave his famous speech, “you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.” The point was Bryan’s modified silver/gold standard would devalue the high levels of mortgage debt many farmers were carrying at the expense of bankers.
Also, the federal plan to populate the Midwest and West with wheat farmers by giving away free land was wildly successful, hence a glut of wheat and low wheat prices.
So, farm mortgage debt was a bomb waiting to implode banks, which it did along with the stock market in 1929. Hoover’s response was quite bad, and FDR’s cleaning-out of deadwood banks was very positive, but then the mismanagement of the Fed monetary policy was a disaster.
It has always been a mystery why President Trump doesn’t force the DOJ/FBI to release all of the documents they are witholding from Congress, or just declassify all those documents and put them in the public domain, or fire and replace his useless, apparently neutered Attorney General Sessions, or, finally, just fire Sessions, Wray, Rosenstein–the whole rotten crew.
What if Trump really wants to do some or all of these things, but he thinks he will have a better chance of being successful in cleaning out the corruption after the November elections, when there might be a lot more Trump supporting Congressmen and Senators to make sure that Congress will not thwart his actions, or stop him from getting his replacements confirmed.
TRUMP seems to be one of those rare individuals who can plan — and execute on plan — plans made decades before they are executed.
While Trump loves his moves to look like improvisation so to keep suspense and drama for more public attention, he is quite able to make daring plans for decades ahead. I would not be surprised to know that he was musing about “what I would do if I were President” for many years already, given his ambition and desire to be a star actor in any show he directed.
I have very simple interpretation. The left thought it could treat the right as a bunch of rubes and that they had total victory over. They were certain that there was nothing that could be done by the bumpkins. The right was broken and cowed.
Now they are finding that the people who they held in complete contempt have had enough, and are more than just a little aware of how badly the left has behaved. The machinery they used to pull the wool over people’s eyes is broken and in disarray, with very little possibility of rehabilitation.
So , they are having a “wait till your father gets home” moment.
“It has always been a mystery…”
Perhaps he doesn’t wish to cause a(nother) major distraction? A(nother) major disruption?
That is, perhaps he wants the focus to remain on the “hounds”?
https://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/the-fight-moves-up-a-notch/
That is, perhaps he wants to give them (Mueller, Comey, Obama, Lynch, Clinton, the NYT, the WAPO, et al.) enough rope to eventually hang themselves?
Lee Smith, digging ever deeper, probing ever wider, peels back the latest chapter of this sordid, political Dorian Gray:
https://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/257335/robert-muellers-beltway-cover-up
You can tell they’ve lost, or believe they are losing, when they advocate for changing the rules. The next SCOTUS nominee is replacing the Kennedy “swing” vote on the court and so must be similar or the same as he.
My schadenfreude level is approaching 11. And just for good measure, Hillary refuses to ride off into the sunset.
The latest news, if true, shows just how low down and corrupt the DOJ/Mueller investigation is.
According to a news story out today, Manafort’s lawyers are arguing that some of the indictments against their client are illegal, because the warrant that the DOJ obtained to search Manafort’s storage facility was illegally obtained.
I.E.–They charge that DOJ lawyers cracked the code to Manafort’s storage facility, then had a meeting with AP reporters, at which they passed along the code.
AP Reporters then used the code to break into the facility, apparently rifled through it, and reported on what they found.
Then, the DOJ turned around and took the AP reporting, and used it as the basis to obtain a warrant.
July 8th, 2018 at 12:52 pm The Weimar Republic economic issue
I doubt the DS or any other powers that be in charge will engineer such an economic collapse until they first disarm the US population. It would be rather stupid and dangerous of even the dumb elites in DC, to call in a collapse when they have millions and millions of people armed. The US military, by comparison, had “trouble” with the quagmire of Iraq and Vietnam, and that wasn’t even 1 million people armed…
“Time and time again, we find progressive laws being struck down. And it’s always – always – the ones the Constitution is against. These right-wing judges don’t think for themselves, they just do whatever the Constitution says. And, it’s time for that to end.” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
These people don’t really care about the Constitution enough to complain about it. THey only talk about it to make it seem like they are supporting it. They wouldn’t have the guts to come out against it, especially since Schumer knows what’ll happen to him if he pisses off the CIA and other black intel networks.
Time for that to end: too decisive for a guy in DC that has a blackmail list a mile long concerning sex traffickers and human trafficking. He might be the one that ends up being “ended” at that point.
“We need judges to be advocates of progressive laws, not people who will bow to the whims of the Constitution, pitting its extremist values of freedom of speech and freedom of religion against our agenda.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)
This just sounds too smart for our Red Indian Elizabeth girl Warren tribalist. The vocabulary needs to be closer to “grok, food, power, money, me” style.
“We’re sick and tired of the Constitution sitting in the National Archives, manipulating everything we do!” Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ)
This doesn’t quite sound like the accent of a NJ boy, but again he could be an Arkansas girl for all we know.
They aren’t quite honest enough to say it, even if they believe it… you will actually find out what is in the Bill after we pass the bill.
The internet is a wonderful tool but misused, a dangerous thing.
I don’t believe anything that people say, humans being humans. I don’t even necessarily believe what the gods say either.
It’s kind of easy to see through deception that way.
I laugh at the Trump fans who say “he fights” but who themselves cannot be roused from their couches and out from behind their keyboards and game consoles. ‘Trumpotatoes’, I call ’em.
I remind these Trumpotatoes that if they refuse to show public support for Trump then he won’t be able to support them in public either.