American Politics – Page 31

When all else fails, bluster.

August 18, 2016 by Peter Lowry

It is so hard to stay away from the farcical race for the White House in the United States of America. It is a writer’s dream. You are being fed a delight of one-liners. The candidate reorganized his campaign again yesterday with the claim that “I have to be me.”

This guy is running a campaign that could have been scripted by Mack Sennett. For the kids, we should explain that Mack Sennett was a Canadian who helped create Hollywood in California. He gave Charlie Chaplin his start in silent movies and was best known for slapstick humour in series such as the Keystone Comedies.

But the GOP candidate has people both laughing and crying. And if you want to feel really sad, just think of him as President of the United States. This guy likes to think of Russian President-for-life Putin as his best friend forever. We should warn the Russian though that this guy changes his mind every other day.

The person we feel sorry for is Hillary Clinton. She will never get a chance to defeat her opponent. He is so busy defeating himself, she can never get a zinger in to denounce him. People are starting to think of her as a mouth breather. She just stands there with her mouth open in amazement.

If Americans have ever needed a serious third candidate for the presidency, the time is now. There are a lot of disheartened and disillusioned Republicans across the United States who are just going out to get drunk on November 8.

Could you imagine the Electoral College if there are hanging chads or other screw ups at the polls in November. They would have to withdraw the Second Amendment from Electors to eliminate the possibility of a shooting war between them.

There is an Internet video doing the rounds that is hilarious. It shows a group of GOP presidency supporters who think they are in a research focus group. They believe they are reviewing what are reputed to be possible TV ads for their candidate. They are absolutely outrageous proposals but the supporters stick to their guns and discuss them as though they are serious.

One of the men in the group does admit that some of the proposals are a bit off the wall but he believes this will be solved. He thinks that as President of the United States, his candidate will gather some intelligent people around him to tell him what to do. This supporter should be advised not to try to hold his breath waiting for that to happen.

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The GOP’s ‘Charge of the Light Brigade.’

August 11, 2016 by Peter Lowry

One of our favourite bloggers is a gentleman trained as both journalist and lawyer who writes under the pseudonym ‘The Mound of Sound.’ While claiming to be a disaffected liberal, he writes from a progressive perspective. The only problem with his frequent and voluminous polemics is that they are sometimes heavy wading.

He recently wrote a piece of more than 2000 words on the members of the U.S. Republican Party who have an appetite for authoritarianism. While we would not use a word quite that long to explain things, we have to agree with the idea.

But if we have one small quibble with his thesis, it is that he used far too many political scientists as authorities to support it.

Frankly, we have always found that political scientists can be found to advance any theory you might wish for. Just try to read the doctoral theses of some of these people and you will soon see what we mean.

The experts our compatriot should have used to prove his thesis about GOP authoritarianism are Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Yes, the current political situation in the U.S. is in much greater need for psychotherapists than political scientists.

And we would have equated the current dilemma of the Republicans to a wonderful narrative poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson: The Charge of the Light Brigade. You can so easily imagine the Republican candidate leading that charge. Just think: Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die: Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred.

Now honestly, who do you think could best understand that GOP leader?

A political scientist would question the size of that leader’s support. Freud would get right to the important question: the size of his penis?

You really have to face the facts. The Brit who ordered the charge of the Light Brigade had to be certifiable. Why are people making excuses for the American Republican candidate?

And the people who need this renewed authoritarianism in America are hardly safe from a critical review of their mental health. The candidate’s supporters are largely made up of middle-aged white men who obviously miss the succour of feeding from their mother’s teat. They appear to be afraid of blacks, Mexicans, Muslims and women who are smarter than them.

While we wish our fellow blogger well, he needs to be assured that life is not all that complex. The Republican Party in the United States has landed a Looney Tunes as presidential candidate. The party will eventually recover.

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You are just encouraging ‘What’s his name?’

August 3, 2016 by Peter Lowry

Psychiatrists tell us that one of the motivations for jihadists is the notoriety. They seem to consider the death and destruction as a measure of their success. Maybe that is why the Republican candidate for the American presidency is feasting on his own controversy and building his campaign on outrageous lies.

Every time he is caught in another silly lie, his stock goes up with his biker friends. There is nothing that the brutal and ignorant like more than someone stupider than them who is doing what they want. It makes them feel good about themselves.

But when you think about it, maybe it is part of his strategy. Americans are fed up with the constant controversy in Washington. They have come to hate the stonewalling obfuscation in Congress and the stand-offs with the Administration. It has been blamed on both political parties and many of the hoi polloi just want to get even.

And nothing would better help them get even than to put an impulsive, know-nothing braggart in the White House. They do not care about his lack of knowledge of foreign affairs. They share his lack of knowledge and feelings on the subject. You cannot tell them they will also suffer from the consequences. With their limited language skills, a pyrrhic victory is still a victory.

But you should not assume that all who want to vote for this billionaire blowhard are mentally incapacitated. Getting even can cut across a lot of demographics. The Americans have swarms of born-again crazies who want to bring the wrath of Jehovah down on those they consider liberal pederasts inside the Washington Beltway. They are not the same Christians who will offer you the other cheek.

Americans have to realize that they are in serious trouble. The possibilities of this coming election are ricocheting around the world and bringing all relationships with America into question. Mr. Putin of Russia might be puzzled but he is probably having a damn good laugh over some aspects. If NATO is destroyed, Russia will have a free hand in re-establishing the old Soviet Union to its previous positions of power.

And Canada particularly has to be concerned. As much as Canada would like to renegotiate some aspects of the North American Free Trade Agreement, our interests are not what the Republican candidate has in mind. We need to have a survival plan in place for at least the next four years.

But so should the Americans. If they keep building up the bastard with free publicity in the news and social media, they will also need a survival plan.

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Gratuitous advice on snapshots in time.

August 2, 2016 by Peter Lowry

You know that you get what you pay for but this advice is free anyway. You should try not to get your knickers in a knot every time a poll is announced that says the Republican candidate might win the presidency in the U.S. As horrifying as the thought might be Canadians are resilient and we can handle it.

And remember that polls are just another opinion. They are based on limited information, suppositions about voting intentions and some braggadocio. The only poll that will count is the one taking place on election day. Even if things go south then, you can always take solace on election night in the belief that the voters usually get what they deserve. Not that we should be over confident. Canada would not come off unscathed by a Republican win either.

But we can always come back to the morning line. While Babel-on-the-Bay has redefined its morning line on the Republican candidate to a 4 to 1 bet, we are holding firm on Hillary Clinton at 2 to 1. Despite the ups and downs of the pollsters, the two candidates can change positions every few days without upsetting the end result.

The immutable facts of the election are that some Republican voters will refuse to vote for their party’s candidate. Some will stay home. Some will not vote for the Electoral College that chooses the President.

And the sad news for the Republicans is that many of those angry, ignorant, irrational white men who say they are going vote for the Republican candidate are going to forget to go to the polls on election day. Going to vote is just not one of the important things on their agenda. And the Republican Party has better things to do than help turn out the vote for a candidate who might only embarrass them.

Conversely, many Democratic voters will declare a holiday on November 8, 2016 and will vote as early and as often as they can. There will be a preponderance of women voters. They will not all be fond of Mrs. Clinton but they sure as hell do not want the alternative. They will be joined by many Latino voters. They have a special incentive to vote. They know that walls do not make a friendly border. And every Muslim who has a vote will want to exercise it as a protest against bigotry. Other people who have known or witnessed bigotry and racial strife in the United States of America might want to join them.

But it is always that element of the unknown that makes for a horse race. We are always best to prepare for the worst and to hope for the best. God help us.

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The Road to November.

July 29, 2016 by Peter Lowry

Last year Canadians were appalled at the beginning of August when they realized they were faced with a two and a half-month federal election campaign. Americans are faced with more than three months. They know they have a great deal to achieve in that limited time.

The biggest challenge for the major candidates is pacing. It is like two heavy weight boxers going into a 15-round bout. They have to be on their feet for the 15^th round. Hillary Clinton has been there. She knows the rhythm that is needed. The Republican candidate does not.

Candidates want their policies to build and come together for the voters over the course of the campaign. The Republican candidate has never talked about his positive policies. Does he have any policies?

The one thing that is clear is that nobody can benefit from a campaign of slandering their opponent. It is like a joke. It can only be funny the first time.

And when the Republican candidate called for the Russian President to interfere in an American election the other day, he waved a flag of ignorance for all to see.

It can certainly not be the role of the Democratic nominee to spend the campaign correcting the errors and excesses of her opponent. She can leave that mainly to others. She is also fully qualified and able to defend herself and to attack the inadequacies of her opponent for the job he seeks.

But it was obvious to all in the convention hall Thursday evening that Hillary Clinton has good speech writers and she knows her stuff. The speech was almost a cacophony of good lines strung together. It was too long of course but there was a huge and friendly audience to cheer her on. It was the ideal time to reach many millions watching at home. It was a tribute to her stamina, her public speaking ability and her many years of preparation for this one event.

Forget the flatness of her daughter’s introduction. Hillary embraced the direction set by Bernie Sanders. She built the speech on the clear understanding that she can get things done. She offered a better future and Americans will be wise to choose it in November.

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The Morning Line is Hillary by 2 -1.

July 27, 2016 by Peter Lowry

It was during the Clinton White House years that many of us realized that the brains in the Clinton family are on the distaff side. And nothing pisses off ignorant men more than a smart woman. Which might help to explain why Hillary Clinton is the most despised Democratic candidate ever.

But she is not dishonest. She has never done anything for which she might have been indicted. She was an outstanding Secretary of State and performed honourably for America. She was a hard-working and effective Senator for the State of New York. She is highly qualified to be President of the United States of America.

And we will have Bill Clinton as First Gentleman for comic relief.

The only things Hillary has ever done that have led to criticism is to stand by her man, to stand by her country and to stand by the President.

Many people who criticize her in her role as Secretary of State do not seem to understand the role. The Secretary of State does not decide everything in foreign affairs. The secretary advises the Cabinet and the President and then implements the decisions. It is the Administration that takes responsibility.

If this writer has any axe to grind with Hillary Clinton as a prospective President, it is that she is too right of centre politically. We were hoping that more of Bernie Sanders would rub off on her during the primaries. America is not quite ready for a Bernie Sanders as President but the Medicare that Hillary Clinton fought for when her husband was President and Barack Obama got passed, was only one small step toward a kinder America.

But you have to like the agreement on the Democratic platform worked out with Clinton and Sanders input. What Americans heard from Bernie Sanders in his speech to the convention Monday night could go a long way toward a better America.

The Philadelphia convention will launch the positive campaign for the Democratic ticket in November. To implement the Democratic platform will take the combined efforts of a Democratic President, a Democratic Senate and a Democratic House of Representatives. That size of a win will take months of hard and relentless work.

Hillary Clinton will be a new kind of President for America. Her administration will set the groundwork for a better America.

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The political zoo keeper’s dilemma.

July 26, 2016 by Peter Lowry

One of the difficult dilemmas facing you when organizing a major political convention, is keeping the news media in their cages, fed, watered and occupied. As mother used to tell us, the devil finds work for idle hands.

The media gather like vultures for the event. And the greater the challenge the party faces, the harsher are their observations. The organizers live by the adage that whatever goes wrong is supposed to. The party apparatchiks, who really make things happen, check everything constantly.

But the party prima donnas, chosen for their political potential, will try to force late and unnecessary changes. You are in constant conflict with people who have no interest in understanding the logistics. You are responsible for the news media and what they say. ‘Just get us good coverage.’

My goodness, why do you think the e-mails leak happened when it did? Timed for that hiatus between the conventions, the news media needed anything. They called for the chair of the Democratic National Convention to resign. Why? Did she leak the e-mails? She might have done an absolutely fabulous job of chairing the convention organization and the news media could care less. They pilloried her.

A national convention in the United States is an expenditure of many millions. It is four days of glitz, glamour, gluttony and guts. The arena is ringed with media boxes to provide them with the best view of the death throws of the political gladiators.

A good rule for the spin doctors of the party is to always have something for the news media to chew on. If there is no positive story available at 8 am, you had better create one.

As the party primaries in America have taken over the task of choosing the candidate for the party, the party conventions have become more and more a showcase for the candidate. The convention committee has had to stand down while the candidate’s team takes over. This can cause some acrimony and sometimes when something goes wrong, you wonder about its spontaneity.

But some things never change. These conventions develop a life of their own and delegates compare notes on them over the years. While the traditional news media might be giving way to social media, the spin doctors of the party just end up with a bigger zoo to look after.

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In the City of Brotherly Love.

July 25, 2016 by Peter Lowry

Philadelphia lends a panache to the Democratic National Convention this year that hard-scrabble Cleveland did not provide for the Republicans. The Republicans were hectored and urged to anger at their Trump Fest. Whereas Philadelphia can make history—as it once created a country—it can bring about a new reconciliation.

And that is what America needs. It was 84 years ago that Franklin Roosevelt launched a New Deal for America. Hillary Clinton now has an opportunity to launch a New America.

It will need a brave attempt to set aside the excesses of the past week and the strains of the past year. Hillary Clinton has to address the future. Americans have had enough of the past.

Americans want an end to bigotry. They want their country to be color neutral. They want peace with their neighbours. They know that friends are more fun.

And they know that Americans prefer to have their country’s neighbours as friends. They want trust, not walls. They want respect, not suspicion.

Americans need to have police that they can respect. They want police that use weapons as a last resort, not the first.

And they certainly do not want to see assault weapons in the hands of 14-year old gangbangers. Guns do not belong on peaceful streets. A gun might be a right in the country but it is also a responsibility. People need to prove they can handle that responsibility.

Trading deals with other countries have become a major step forward over the years. They make more sense than wars. Trade deals take time to discuss and to plan. They need to be fair to all concerned. With friends such as Canadians, it only took about 100 years to come to the first deal and both countries are still working out the kinks.

Hillary Clinton is not only breaking through the glass ceiling to become the first woman President of the United States of America. She bears more than the banner for her party as she bears the banner for all women. She will make them proud.

There will be many other speakers at the Democratic convention and there will probably be some rancour over the Republican event. No real democrat would be positive about the Republican nominee. And since everybody knows that, there is little need to mention his name. Why give him the publicity?

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What has Trump left to say?

July 22, 2016 by Peter Lowry

The party is over in Cleveland. The Republican Party is no longer the Grand Old Party. It is the party of Donald Trump. We endured his over-long rant on Thursday night and knew less when he was finished than was known when his daughter introduced her dear daddy. It was an hour and a quarter of stomach churning, silliness, sophistry, strutting and self-satisfied smirking.

And it was bad speech. Trump used Hillary Clinton’s name so often, you started to expect her to be in the wings, waiting for him to finish her introduction.

The speech even came as a surprise to many of the Republicans in the arena. They were not aware that they were promising day care along with promises to defeat the barbarians. They would cheer when he promised tax cuts but where much quieter when he got to promises that would obviously cost Americans a lot of money.

The speech had no basic theme. Trump used so many possible slogans that you were hard pressed to figure out which he preferred. The best was when he pointed out that he had bilked the system so often that he alone knew how to fix it. He really smirked at that one.

But speaking of a smirking Donald, did you follow when he was pandering to the religious and evangelical Republicans. There was no prejudice he was not willing to use. He reiterated his well-know bigotry against immigrants, Mexicans and Muslims. Mind you, his daughter tried desperately to show her daddy as a paragon of supporting women’s rights. It makes you wonder how low the polls might be for him with women voters.

Leaving no rock unturned, Trump assured his audience that he will make sure the Supreme Court has judges that share their biases. And he got the most cheers in the night when he told of his love-in with the National Rifle Association and his commitment to Second Amendment—right to bear arms.

It was very hard to tell what he was going to use a renewed and rebuilt American army to do. It is either to lead the next Children’s Crusade into the Middle East or to solve the problems of America’s inner cities or to keep Canadians and Mexicans at bay when he ‘walks away from the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

What he proved conclusively in Cleveland was that he should not be running conventions and he definitely should not be considered as a possible President of the United States of America.

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There’s no business like no business.

July 21, 2016 by Peter Lowry

Watching the events in Cleveland this week at the Republican National Convention you realize there are two stories unfolding. The first is in the convention hall itself where the strangest and most frightening political event of all is unravelling. While outside the convention, three trigger-happy armies parade and there is a danger of collision.

But for those who love politics, the scene inside the convention centre is more frightening. We expect at any time for the ghost of the late Ethel Merman to come to the podium and belt out her classic There’s No Business Like Show Business. It should be obvious to all that this is not your usual political convention. Only the pathetic balloons in the rafters of the hall carry any political history.

But why is Trump trying so hard to be something he is not? At this point he is proving that he is no impresario. His production is dragging. He has no stars. The audience is only responding to Trump—and not all in a positive way. He cannot even get actor-director Clint Eastwood to come back to talk to an empty chair as he did in the last gathering of the Grand Old Party. And Trump’s wife cannot even read a plagiarized speech.

The convention is designed to confirm and launch the party’s candidate into the race for the presidency. It is supposed to include party business, the basics of the party’s campaign platform, the socializing of delegates from all the states and territories. The convention is supposed to be vibrant, entertaining, well planned and smooth running.

And what is happening is enough to make you wonder how the hell this party ever produced any presidents?

Political events such as this convention are best built around a theme, an idea that you want every delegate to take back home to their state and build into a strong campaign for every level of the party.

The convention is supposed to be unifying. Instead we are getting a paranoid Trump against the whole damn world. There is a visceral hatred being promoted for Trump’s Democratic opponent. There could be more than 50 million television viewers watching Trump speak on Thursday night. Not all of those people will be cheering.

In our book My American Mother, there is a scene set at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1932 that explains how FDR’s acceptance speech was used to announce the New Deal and how that speech was likely to have been crafted by Roosevelt’s team.

Mr. Trump has no such team and no idea of what he needs to say.

It will be interesting.

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