Which is why Tammy & Co. run to the center at election time!
Blaska promised to smell the roses. That day came this morning when The Lovely Lisa placed in a slender silver vase (“vahz”) a single pink rose right where your irascible bloggeur could not miss it — that being in front of his battered computer keyboard. Beautiful: the rose, the thought, the wife, my life!
Now for today’s angry rant
We’re still (Trigger alert: Woke word) deconstructing Sunday’s New York Times, which celebrates that not even a former President is above the law even if no one really understands the law under which he was convicted. Republicans must not undermine the rule of law — however byzantine, the gray lady scolds. But the Supreme Court should step down en banc when Democrats try to disqualify Trump — except for three of them and you know which three — because of flags.
The imaginary faceless bureaucrats at the Policy Werkes (and Tanning Booth) put under its electron microscope a specimen of post-objective journalism headlined: “Six common campaign themes of Democrats leading polls.” The David Leonhardt piece examines six Democrats, including Wisconsin’s own Tammy Baldwin, desperately seeking re-election and why they’re ahead in the polls. Why (you might ask)? Because they Vote Woke on the floor of the Senate but campaign for re-election on Joe and Dora’s kitchen table. The Times, in essence applauds their cynicism. These jack-be-nimble incumbents are what our comrade John Nichols would call “savvy.”
Never mind The Nation
Tammy, Sherrod Brown, Jon Tester et al know which way the wind blows, as a certain Nobel Prize winning no-show once croaked. All the bumper slogans progressives recite in the faculty lounge are only so much white noise to actual, you know, voters. The NY Timesman dares invoke these hallowed deities deep into his analysis:
Climate change. Student debt. Diversity, equity and inclusion. The war in Gaza. These topics are central to progressive politics today. They are the subject of campus protest and online debates. They are almost completely absent from these six Democratic campaigns. Why? The campaigns avoid issues that are important to highly educated progressives but that matter little to most voters.
Student debt, for instance, ranked “dead last” of 16 issues pollsters asked of — get this — young people aged 18 to 29! Climate change ranked 12th of 16. Top three? Inflation, health care, housing. Joe Manchin leaving the Democrats’ party is a horizontal canary in a West Virginia coal mine.
Never promised a rose garden
Not to belabor the point — ah, hell! Let’s work the point like a rented post hole digger. Judge Merchan refused to allow the former chairman of the Federal Election Commission to fully testify on behalf of the defense — subject being the nuances of that Byzantine maze called campaign finance law — lest the trial become “a battle of the experts.” This is something new under the sun, right?! Isn’t your run-of-the-mill (cliché alert!) medical malpractice case a battle of expert witnesses?
Not to belabor another point but let’s work it like Elaine Benes on the dance floor. Judge Merchan made what the NY Times dismisses as “a small donation to a pro-Biden, anti-Trump political operation.”
Blaska’s Bottom Line: That’s the flag Judge Merchan flies.
One response to “Hey progressives! Nobody cares!”
Great commentary. One of your best.