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President Trump and Rep. Elijah Cummings have been engaged in a silly Twitter feud. This has focused attention on the many serious problems Baltimore faces. It certainly isn’t alone. We see many of the same problems in these cities. They include:
The real problem is politicians that put getting elected (and maybe making some money on the side) above the needs of their constituents.
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Many Democrats seem to live in an imaginary world in which they think they can overturn the results of the 2016 election. They tried recounting the votes and convincing members of the Electoral College to vote for Hillary Clinton. Those efforts failed miserably so their only alternative was impeachment. They pinned their hopes on collusion with Russia. When the Mueller investigation said it didn’t happen, they moved to obstruction of justice. Mueller’s often confused testimony certainly didn’t help their cause.
Many are still sticking to obstruction. Some have such a ridiculous definition that almost anybody could be accused of it. One Democrat claimed that that calling the investigation a witch-hunt was obstruction. Even those who are more reasonable have a tough case to prove. First of all, there was no crime. The investigation was allowed to run its course, nearly two years. President Trump waived executive privilege. Even if they convince a majority of the House to impeach, there is no way 2/3 of the Senate will convict. Some are looking for other ways to impeach him. One man thinks his tweets somehow constitute high crimes and misdemeanors. Others are launching a fishing expedition regarding his business affairs. It’s time for them to quit trying to overturn 2016 and focus on winning in 2020. We obviously need a minimum wage to prevent exploitation. It will take someone smarter than me to decide what it should be. I do have a real concern about setting it at $15 an hour.
We need to start with basic economics. Every buying decision we make depends on whether the product or service has a value to us equal to or greater than the purchase price. Business works exactly the same way. They won’t hire anyone if their economic value is less than their salary. This applies to everyone. It doesn’t matter if they flip hamburger, drive trucks, perform surgery or hit a baseball. If an employer is forced to pay above economic value, they will do what they can to cut hours or eliminate the job entirely. Bernie Sanders just provided a perfect example (along with a healthy dose of hypocrisy). His campaign employees complained that were earning less than $15 an hour. They got their raise. Now the campaign is cutting their hours. Those low wage jobs are meant to be starter jobs. As people gain job skills, they move up the ladder. That’s how it has always worked. A dramatic raise in minimum wage means that millions won’t have that first rung on the economic ladder. In recent days four extreme left freshmen congresswomen have become known as The Squad. They are Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley.
They are Democrat Socialists. Normally we would hear little or nothing from a few new members of Congress, no matter how extreme their views. They have become the darlings of social media. Even traditional media can’t seem to get enough of them. Nothing is too outrageous for them and those close to them. Moderates are compared to segregationists and child molesters. Federal detention camps are concentration camps, President Trump is a Fascist and Israel is comparable to Nazi Germany. They have a bad case of Potomac Fever. The “disease” is common among. Symptoms include an inflated ego and an exaggerated sense of one’s importance. Not all that long ago, Ocasio-Cortez worked in a bar. Now she thinks she is the most important Democrat in the country. They come from districts in which all you need to be elected is be a registered Democrat and have a pulse. This means they have little to fear from party leaders. They may continue to generate headlines but will find themselves more and more isolated. Bernie Sanders took Ocasio-Cortez’s side in her dustup with Nancy Pelosi. He said she is the future of the party. That would please Republicans immensely. One of the reasons Donald Trump won the election was a deep division within the Democratic party. Next year he will have the advantages of incumbency and a united party. If his opponent has to contend with party disunity, he or she will be at a tremendous disadvantage. If Democrats are fighting, he should let them tear each other apart.
Recently Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accused Nancy Pelosi of racism and compared moderates to southern segregationists of the past. Things were getting pretty heated. Then President Trump attacked the “four freshmen”. He said that if they hated America, they should go back to where they came from. I don’t think he meant it in a racist way but his choice of words was poor. Now Democrats are uniting against him and calling him a racist. The person he should fear the most is not Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren or the rest of the thundering herd. He is his own worst enemy. It remains to be seen how much he will hurt his own cause. The fundamentals of a good democracy are majority rule with minority rights. We seem to have more situations in everyday life where it’s minority rule and no majority rights.
Two recent stories highlight this trend. Nike only considered one voice in its decision to drop the shoes with the Betsy Ross flag. The thousands of people that might want a pair weren’t heard from. One person’s dislike of police overrode their right to be in a Starbucks. We have seen one or two atheists get their way despite the objection of thousands. If high school girls don’t want to shower with a biological boy, their feelings are ignored. I believe there are two reasons for this trend. As a nation, we have become hypersensitive about offending anyone. Several terrorist attacks might have been prevented if people had reported suspicious activity. They were afraid they would be considered anti-Muslim. We seem to have developed a hierarchy of rights. A person gets “rights points” if they are not white, male, straight, Christian or conservative. Our goal as a society should be that everyone is treated fairly regardless of what demographic group they belong to. I’m pretty far down the totem pole in rights points. Being over sixty-five or handicapped doesn’t count for much. I do have an ace in the hole. Elizabeth Warren and I are roughly the same percentage Native American. The term institutional racism has been around since the 1960s. We now have a presidential candidate in favor of it. The institution that she wants to be racist; the federal government.
Kamala Harris has announced a plan to spend $100 billion to help people buy homes. Every penny will be spent based on skin color. Only blacks can apply. We have made great strides but obviously we have not wiped out discrimination. Any financial institution that uses ethnicity, gender, etc. as criteria should be held to account. It’s against the law. The idea that the federal government would engage in this practice is reprehensible. I have no problem helping people get ahead. However, it should be base on need. The idea that the Obama daughters should be given preferential treatment over a homeless white person is ludicrous. Hillary Clinton started demonizing voters. It sounds like Harris’s strategy is to demonize all whites that don’t think like her. With ideas like this, the basket of deplorables is going to get a whole lot bigger. Hopefully there will be some time between the picnic and fireworks to give some thought on how this country got started. It is easy to look back on history and assume that things worked out as they were supposed to. Nothing could be farther that the truth. The idea of independence rested on three miracles.
They were going to try to create a democracy in a world ruled by kings and despots. There were few examples for them to go on. Even if they got a democracy, it would be hard to keep it going. Look at what happened to France. The idea that a ragtag army of farmers, clerks and laborers could beat the most powerful military in the world seemed impossible. The central government that would prosecute the war consisted of the Continental Congress and a few clerks. They didn’t even have the power to tax. At times they had unbelievable luck. After a disastrous battle in New York, a north wind kept the English navy from finishing off our army and fog let them escape. It also seems incredible that our army along with the French army and navy could converge on a peninsula where Cornwallis foolishly stationed his troops. At the beginning of 1776, relatively few were in favor of independence. Thomas Payne wrote a pamphlet called Common Sense. It argued for forming a new country. It took the nation by storm. Then John Adams took charge. The vote had to be unanimous. One by one he convinced each colony to go along. A resolution was introduced. Congress went into recess while a committee was formed to write a declaration. Adams was the natural choice but he assigned it to Thomas Jefferson. His reasons were his unpopularity, the need for a Virginian to do it and Jefferson was ten times the writer. The resolution passed on July 2, 1776. Jefferson’s masterpiece was approved two days later. Quite a story isn’t it? Many were upset when former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the Star-spangled Banner. They were further angered when Nike continued to work with him. The greatness of our country is the freedoms we are given. That still applies even if we are highly offended.
Nike had planned to issue some shoes that had the original Betsy Ross thirteen-star flag. They withdrew them after Kaepernick complained the flag was a racist symbol. Apparently, they believe that our flag and our country and what they stand for is evil. I presume that the Fourth of July is a day to mourn, not celebrate. Perhaps this newfound belief could be turned into an advertising campaign. They could have Kaepernick burning a flag or Iranians shouting “Death to America”. Former Obama pastor Jeremiah Wright could condemn the country. Perhaps Kim Jung-um would be available. I am in my late sixties and handicapped so my athletic shoe budget is pretty small. While I can’t hurt them economically, I will never view them the same way again. |
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