A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: Election Denying Former Congressman Leads Family Research Council's "Election Integrity" Effort

 Election Denier in Charge of Christian Organization's "Election Integrity" Effort

You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.  Exodus 20:7

Election deniers are liars.  It's as simple as that.  

In all of the wailing, hollering, gnashing of teeth and whining about the outcome of the 2020 Presidential election, the one thing that was missing from all of the claims of "massive election fraud", ballot tampering, and improperly programmed counting machines was credible evidence.  Multiple audits, including "forensic audits," investigations, even a laughable episode with a group known as the "Cyber Ninjas," who wasted about $6 million, including a significant amount of taxpayer dollars, found nothing irregular or out of place, to indicate that the few minor errors here and there, which are part of every election, were part of some nationwide conspiracy to cause Trump to lose. 

Lies told by one well known national network wound up costing them hundreds of millions of dollars in a legal settlement they lost when their false accusations against the company that manufactures the ballot counting machines turned out to be lies.  And make no mistake about it, every word about a fraudulent election in 2020 is a lie, and needs to be called that.  

What Would You Do If You Caught Your Pastor in a Lie? 

I learned, the hard way, what trusting someone just because they are the pastor of a conservative church that brands itself as "Bible-believing" can cost.  I grew up in a Southern Baptist church, and I know that in a culture where one's true self cannot be revealed out of fear of persecution or rejection, or loss of reputation, lying is commonplace.  I also know that it is possible that the man who preaches from the pulpit every Sunday, imparting what he claims to be the "inerrant, infallible, written word of God," can be prone to telling lies, either because of ego, or for self-preservation, or to use the power of the pulpit to rally support for a cause that otherwise goes unheeded.  

The kind of support that a pathological liar, like Trump, gets from conservative Christians tells us all we need to know about the value that some churches, and their pastors, place on integrity and honesty, and it's not much.  They will make all kinds of excuses, trying to sound Biblical, to try and justify lying by claiming that the results of electing a pathological liar as President of the United States was somehow a good thing, in spite of his many very bad character flaws.  

So, while some people might find it surprising that the Family Research Council has chosen an insurrectionist, election-denying former Georgia congressman as the leader of their "election integrity" effort, I'm not surprised.  It's this kind of phony posturing that is characteristic of Republican, and Christian hypocrisy when it comes to far right wing politics.  

Jody Hice is a former Georgia Congressman, a former pastor of Southern Baptist churches, one of the members of congress bent on overturning the will of the people by voting against accepting the results of the 2020 election, and objecting to accepting Georgia's 2020 electoral votes.  He nullified any claims he has to being a man of integrity when he accepted Trump's endorsement in his 2022 failed effort to "primary" Georgia Secretary of State against Brad Raffensperger.  Apparently, Georgia voters recognized this, because Hice lost by double digit margins to Raffensperger.  

Even if it is secular politics, for an ordained minister of the Christian gospel to accept the endorsement of a man who openly denies his own acceptance of, and need for that same gospel, is a denial in and of itself of the spiritual power and the truthfulness of that gospel.  To put this same man in charge of "election integrity" for a far right wing political lobby is like putting a wolf in charge of the sheep, or a fox in charge of the henhouse.  

"These are grumblers and malcontents," says the Apostle Jude, in his short, but powerful epistle. "They indulge their lusts, their mouths utter bombastic nonsense, flattering people to their own advantage."  

And in reality, the book of Jude does provide some insights, from its first century prospective, into exactly what a Christian church looks like when it has been infiltrated by the ungodly, who "pervert the grace of God into debauchery and deny our only Lord and Master Jesus Christ."  

How Can an Election Denier be In Charge of "Election Integrity"? 

There's no denying that there was an attempt to subvert the results of the 2020 election, but it was not done by miscounting votes or stealing ballots.  It was done by people like Hice, who used their elected position as an attempted wedge against the will of the people, believed and acted on "the big lie" claimed by Trump, of "massive voter fraud" that he was unable to prove without a stitch of evidence.  So it is laughable that this former Republican Congressman and former Southern Baptist pastor is the Family Resource Council's choice to head up its effort on election integrity.  

That's a job where being a liar would be an asset.

Advice From a Former Reagan-Bush Assistant Policy Writer: "There's "One Problem" Which is Why Democrats Must Replace Biden at the Convention"

Douglas MacKinnon in the Hill: "This One Problem is Why Democrats Must Replace Biden at the Convention" 

First of all, let me point out that the opinion writer of this piece, Douglas MacKinnon, was a writer in the White House for Presidents Reagan and H. W. Bush, and a former special policy and communications assistant at the Pentagon during the last three years of the Bush administration.  So that puts a clear context on how he's reading the "signs" that are telling him Democrats have a problem that will require replacing Biden on the ticket in order to win the election in 2024.  

This is more of the same theme of "younger, more progressive voters are abandoning Biden," and "his age is a problem," and "RFK Jr.'s challenge is a big problem," and "even though he won by 7 million votes in 2020, it was actually less than 50,000 when you count what he won in the swing states," and "the uncommitted vote is a sign of a bigger problem," that we've seen from Republican commentators for a while now.  I've included it here because it can give us a look at what the other side is thinking, in terms of how they see the election shaping up, or because putting out this kind of deliberately misleading information that runs along some of the theme lines that we've seen in the media up to this point might affect some election campaign strategy.  

My guess is that The Hill included this for a few laughs, or for a few talking points, given the rest of the content that appears there daily.  I think it's just worth looking at how MacKinnon labels "one problem" by breaking it down into three problems, and tackles each one with misinformation and incorrect assumptions. 

What should we expect, from an old fashioned, outdated Republican commentator from five Presidential administrations back?  And if the sign of an uncommitted vote in Democratic primaries is a problem that should require Biden to step down, then shouldn't the sign of a much larger percentage of Republican primary votes going to candidates besides Trump require him to step down? 

A "New, Improved, Highly Focused Trump Campaign" 

Yes, the author seriously used these words to describe the current state of the Trump campaign, which is obviously in disarray (yes, I did use that media term on purpose!), suffering financial deprivation and which bears no resemblance in any wa to any of the terms used to describe it, except, perhaps, highly focused.  Trump's theme is not new, nor is it improved.  He harps, for hours on end, about the big lie, the proven falsehood that the election of 2020 was "stolen from him."  That's where most of his rally speeches go, in their rambling, infused with moments of confusion and dementia, such as confusing Nikki Haley for Nancy Pelosi, sounding like he is running against Obama instead of Biden, and a new one that I noticed in the media a couple of weeks ago, seemingly forgetting his geographic location when he makes his rally speech.  

This week, more confusion on an issue that is predictably going to cost the GOP seats in the House and Senate, and very likely all of the electoral votes of the battleground states they need to win, along with those of several other red states.  We got a rambling, incoherent version of his perspective on abortion, that contradicts the position the GOP has taken since Roe v. Wade was issued by the Supreme Court.  If that's "highly focused," then the GOP is in an incredible amount of trouble on this issue.  

And in fact, they are.  

I hope a lot of Republicans who are involved in their party's campaign strategy are satisfied that what they are seeing from Trump is "new, improved, and highly focused."  I strongly encourage them to keep this up, and continue to run their campaigns this way, especially the Trump presidential campaign.  Don't change a thing, please continue this strategy right up until the convention, and then really come out with more improvements and high focus along these exact same lines.  

"The Populist, Independent Campaign of Robert F. Kennedy Jr."  

So far, aside from an initial sort of "flash in the pan," RFK Jr., and I'm going to call him that, hasn't picked up much in the way of traction.  In fact, his campaign is having difficulty meeting the minimum requirements to get on state ballots, having landed on seven, at this point, well behind their goal of being on all 50 by now.  This has been a gaffe-fest from the very beginning, and it doesn't appear that will get under control any time soon.  Apparently, he does not have anyone helping him avoid putting his foot in his mouth.  

Openly stating that the purpose of his campaign is to try and stop Biden from getting re-elected, which is admitting he's not in it to win it, is not exactly the way to excite potential voters and move them to the polls in November.  And indeed, voter enthusiasm is not one of the higher numbers some of our more illustrious and confused pollsters are finding in data that is all over the place when it comes to RFK Jr.  What they have found is that he's not really taking very many voters, if any, away from Biden, but looking at both primary election turnout, and vote totals on the GOP side, he does seem to be cutting into Trump's support.  

Let's use Wisconsin as an example.  As MacKinnon points out, Wisconsin is a very important swing state, and one which Biden only narrowly won by just over 20,000 votes in 2020.  So, of course, if RFK Jr. can cut into that margin, it potentially could swing the state to Trump.  But, let's look at the numbers and see what they tell us.  

Biden got 87% of the Democratic vote, with 8% going to "uninstructed" and just 3% going to Dean Phillips from next door, the other "officially announced" Democratic candidate.  MacKinnon says that the 12%, which adds up to about 60,000 Democratic votes, could be fatal to Biden's hopes of getting the state's electoral votes if he loses those voters in November.  

But keep looking.  Biden got 511,845 votes, quite a turnout from a party in which there was no contested race.  Trump, in the Wisconsin primary, got 476,355 votes, from Republican voters, about 35,000 fewer than Biden got, an improvement, if you want to make a rought comparison, of 15,000 votes over the 2020 general election.  A full 21% of Republican voters in Wisconsin cast a ballot for someone other than Trump.  Clearly, Democrats in Wisconsin are more enthusiastic about supporting Biden than Republicans in Wisconsin are about supporting Trump, and there's a much larger pool of potential Republican voters for RFK Jr. to draw from than Democrats. 

But RFK Jr. has one big problem MacKinnon doesn't mention here, and that is in order to continue his campaign, he must actually open his mouth, do interviews with reporters and make speeches and campaign appearances.  And that, for him, appears to be a huge problem, since his support has done nothing but dwindle since reaching it's high point right after he announced he was running.  By the time the nominating conventions roll around, at the rate he's been losing support, it will be zero percent.  

"Biden is Seen as Yesterday's News to Far Left and Liberal Young Voters"

It is clear that the Biden campaign has expressed some concern about its progressive, liberal, young voter constituency.  This is not a group that has ever turned out in high numbers for elections, especially mid-terms, though they sure did break their records during the 2022 mid-terms, on behalf of Democratic candidates.  And there is some work to do to convince a larger number of these voters to turn out, get used to the political reality that candidates, even of the same party, don't always line right up with every single issue, and understand the danger that a second Trump presidency would pose to the United States, as well as to every single political position they value and consider essential.  

There is no evidence provided anywhere by MacKinnon to support his claim that 10% of young, liberal, progressive voters have "turned their backs on Biden."  And if that's the case, then I can conclude, and suppport with evidence, that far more conservatives, at least 25% if the exit polling is credible, have indeed turned their backs on Trump and will not vote for him in November, according to what they say.  There is nothing anywhere close to that number among the young, liberal progressive constituency of the Democratic party.  What these voters are doing, by casting an "uncommitted" or "uninstructed" ballot is giving the Biden campaign the issues it needs to adjust in order to win their vote.  

I will also point out that neither Trump nor RFK Jr. have anything at all to attract these young, liberal progressive voters to their campaign.  And in order to win, that's what they'd have to do.  The two biggest issues for young, liberal progressives are reproductive rights and freedom for women, and a cease-fire and resolution of the Israel-Gaza war that involves freedom and self-determination for the Palestinians.  They're not saying, "I disagree with Biden on these issues so I'm not voting for him," they're saying "Listen to us!"  For a young liberal voter who believes reproductive freedom is a right, or who supports a peaceful, just, two-state solution for Palestinians and a cease-fire and end to the Gaza War, Trump offers absolutely nothing to earn their vote.  Biden is able to offer everything.

Irrelevant Political Rhetoric From a Different Time and Place

Viewing the current political situation from the perspective of Republican politics of the Reagan-Bush era provides some amusing nostalgia, but it's not realistic, and it ignores the real issues of the politics of this time.  If there's a candidate who should step down for the sake of his party's ability to get back in the White House in November, it's the one who is facing over 80 criminal indictments, most of them felonies, most of them identifying him as anti-democratic, anti-constitution and outright anti-American.  

And if the leadership of the Republican party was genuinely interested in preserving American idealism, democracy and freedom, and conscientious when it comes to our reputation as the world's leading superpower, they would take the necessary steps to make sure that Donald J. Trump was removed from campaigning for election to the highest office in the land.  If they cared about the future and prosperity of this country, and about average Americans who get up, and go to work each day to make sure that the freedom we have is preserved and kept for eternity, they would find another candidate, and prevent a single state from entering Trump's name on the ballot.  They would become vocal in their apology to the American people for this criminal mistake they have perpetrated on all of us.  

And because they are not doing this, we, the American people, will take this matter into our own hands.  We will make sure Donald J. Trump never becomes President of the United States, or holds any elected office, ever again.  

A Colossal Waste of Time and Money

When indictments were handed down against Trump, in the documents case and as a result of the insurrection on January 6, 2021, I had a change of heart about the prospects of actually seeing justice be served with regard to the most corrupt, most criminal Presidency in the history of this country.  We failed, because of a politically motivated pardon by Gerald Ford, to prosecute and bring to justice the first criminal President in American history.  But, in spite of the failure of the two impeachments of Trump to gain convictions, both of which failed because of political manipulation and the abandonment of American patriotic values by most Republican members of the US Congress, when these indicments were handed down, I started to believe that maybe justice would actually prevail.  

Unfortunately, we do not have a justice system that can function in a world of big money, spent on armies of lawyers for the sole purpose of piling on delays in order to clog the court calendar, shut down the system and, in the case of a former President and presidential candidate, gain just enough time for him to take a shot on winning the election and then, using the power of office and his choice for attorney general, and judges on the federal bench, to shut it all down and avoid being tried altogether.  Those in this country who cannot afford grossly overpriced attorneys to buy time must face the consequences of their actions.  Those who have money can buy lawyers to set justice aside, and if that doesn't work, to influence judges to make it work.  

Our nation and its government is failing a basic test proving we are a nation of laws, and that we are all equal under the impartial rule of law.  It is becoming apparent that we are not a nation of equal justice under the law, and for some people, with enough money and influence, there is no law at all.  

The Media is Overly Excited About the Upcoming Hush Money Trial 

Trump is going to face a trial over the illegal hush money he paid to Stormy Daniels to cover up the fact that he committed adultery with her just two months after his youngest son was born.  The cover-up was to keep this fact from coming out before the 2016 election, and costing him votes.  This, frankly, is a nothingburger.  The judge has been either unwilling, or afraid, to hold him accountable for threats and defamatory statements made against just about everyone involved in the prosecution.  

The media is giving a lot of coverage to this and is trying to drum up excitement as a means of distracting from the fact that the really important trials, the ones involving attempted overturning of a legitimate election and the compromise of our national security, aren't going anywhere anytime soon.  

If that were me, and I had allowed my mouth to run off like that, I would be waiting for trial in an orange jump suit among the general population of the local jail.  That's where Trump should be now.  The fact that he isn't doesn't leave me with much hope that any form of justice will be the result of this trial.  Frankly, whether or not he bribed a porn star with hush money is far less important, as far as I am concerned, than compromising national security by stealing and deliberately hiding classified documents from the FBI, or organizing an insurrection to try and overturn the Constitution's provision of the peaceful transfer of power and overturn the results of a legitimate election.  But apparently, our justice system doesn't think those things are that important.  If they did, we'd see evidence of it, and dates being set for trial long before the upcoming election.  

Don't count on that happening.  

A Staggering Investment of Time and Money is Being Wasted

I've run out of patience for the sighs, the shrugs, the resigned acceptance of delays, obfuscation and endless legal maneuvering of the federal courts where the documents trial and the insurrection trial are to be held, which can only happen when a client has massive amounts of cash to spend to buy that influence, of those involved, claiming "there's nothing we can really do about it."  What that tells me is that there's not much belief in the cause they are involved in carrying out, or we'd see a lot more pushing, shoving, and fighting to stop delaying and get on with it.  

And yes, I'm aware that there's a wait for the Supreme Court to eventually come up with a ruling on Presidential immunity, something that one of their appeals courts took on like it was a first year law school assignment, and thorougly and completely covered the case so well that if the Supreme Court rules differently, they might as well confess to gross incompetence.  The one hope for justice that I hold, if the Supreme Court makes a horrifically ill-advised ruling against what the appeals court already ruled, is that it will guarantee President Biden's re-election in a landslide, and a Democratic majority Congress that will quickly pack the court and neutralize the incompetent justices.    

The way I see this, those who are the prosecution against Trump are representing me, and the rest of us as "we the people of the United States vs Donald J. Trump, the insurrectionist anti-patriot."  And I'm just not satisfied that they are representing us in the manner in which we want to be represented.  They are spending massive fortunes of our tax dollars on what appears to be heading to a place where justice will never see the light of day.  I do not see any fight at all, what I see is shrugs of shoulders and acceptance of the fact that delays can be purchased with enough money to get enough lawyers to work the system and slow everything down.  

And on top of that, throw in a couple of judges who are not impartial, but who are moving heaven and earth, in their lifetime-appointed career where incompetence cannot get them fired, to tilt the balance toward the criminal defendant.  No one who is getting paid massive amounts of our tax dollars, either for ridiculous salaries for lifetime-appointed jobs, or for representing the criminal defendant or prosecuting on behalf of the people, will have their career evaluated on their job performance, like the rest of us do.  

The Point of No Return

We appear to have reached several of these points as a result of long delays in taking action against the crimes that have been committed against the United States.  After a Congressional committee laid out a massive mountain of evidence, nothing happened.  Months went by, as the justice department went about the appearance of doing something, while it was actually conducting business as usual, and wasn't doing much of anything.  Public pressure finally reached a point to force appointment of a special prosecutor, another delayed action since the one who was appointed wasn't immediately available.  

Crime would be rampant everywhere if it took more than three years to start building a case against a criminal who had committed over 90 serious felonies and if that criminal could buy time to avoid a trial for years after the crimes had been committeed.  Once the court proceedings have been delayed beyond a certain point, prosecution becomes more difficult.  In this case, there's an expiration date on the effective ability to prosecute these charges, and that's January 20, 2025.  After that, if the criminal is successfully elected to the Presidency, the prisons will open their gates, and the crime of insurrection against the United States will become null and void.  

And if Trump is not tried, and convicted, before the upcoming election, then that is a point of no return.  We will have reached that point, theoretical up until now, where the effectiveness of the American Constitution and equal justice under law, will have ended.  Chaos will ensue.  And we will only have ourselves to blame, for sitting idly by, putting up with the obfuscations, delays and the corruption of our justice system while everyone involved got their money and all they cared about.

Younger Voters Don't Seem to be Getting It and Here's Why

USA Today's Young Voters Aren't Warming up to Biden, They Know it Means Trump Could Win Again 

My first problem with this piece is that it comes from USA Today, which is not really a high quality piece of journalistic achievement.  Like much of the rest of the mainstream media these days, it doesn't have some of the characteristics good newspaper journalism once had.  Like most other sources of news that have become electronic, it's bland, frequently inaccurate and the articles and research appear to be done by students who got through college with a journalism major or minor and a C+ GPA.  Nor is USA Today as unbiased and neutral when it comes to politics as they should be as a national news source.  

But after reading this, I am genuinely troubled by the content.  It almost seems to me that the subjects of the article are not real people, they are made up media images who seem to be incredibly uninformed, for the typical political category they self-describe, and for what has appeared to be typical for their age and educational level.  My first question goes to the issue of believability.  Are these people really representative of their whole demographic, or are they just a few exceptions the reporter found to fit his narrative?  

Where They're Getting The News

I can't believe that anyone who has observed American politics since 2016, and particularly over the course of the last year, does not know the danger Trump poses to American democracy.  And yet the members of the younger generation who are the subject of this particular piece do not have a realistic, factual picture of all of the politics involved and are not getting reliable, credible news from accurate sources.  And that's one of the reasons they have come up with some of the perceptions they have, and why their answers to questions seem to be so uninformed.  What information they have is not from a source following journalistic standards and including all the information, it's short sound bytes from video clips made by people who have become content creators in order to make money.  Misinformation by these sources is rampant, because there is literally no one checking the facts, and they are more concerned with the presentation and the number of hits it will get than they are with any actual interest in the subject matter. 

This should tell Democrats who are in charge of the 2024 campaigns not only where they should be targeting their narrative, but how they should be doing it.  We have a "younger" audience who has reacted strongly to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, who is highly sympathetic to the Palestinians and Gaza and has no idea about the history of that conflict, but knows little about the Ukrainians and their struggle to save their democracy, who realizes they are spending more at the gas pump and grocery store but have no idea why, but think the President somehow has complete control over that.  

This younger generation doesn't do a lot of reading.  Most of the information they receive comes to them in 60 to 90 second segments via video.  They do not have a lot of the background information they need to process an event and determine what it means and how it affects them.  And, though I hate to say this, as an educator it is something I have observed over the 35 years of my career, our schools no longer teach critical thinking skills, and our focus on technical skills in mathematics and science has gutted social studies instruction, to the point where students cannot explain the difference between democracy and autocracy, or between a constitutional democracy and a fascist dictatorship.  

And there are few sources of information from which they get their information that abide by any kind of journalistic standards.  The qualifications for the presenters are that they are good looking, photogenic, entertaining and flashy dressers, not that they value accuracy, integrity or avoiding bias. And whatever they have to say needs to be done in 90 seconds or less, or they lose the attention of the audience.   

Tic Toc and Instagram are not the Washington Post, The New York Times, The Atlantic, or the NBC Evening News.  And they're not even close to being MSNBC.  But they're the sources of information for a lot of Americans under 35 who always have their phone out looking at the screen.  Use them!  

Communicating the Important Issues and the Significance of Participating in an Election

The most important issue in this coming election is the preservation of American Constitutional Democracy.  President Biden has a long, long list of outstanding achievements and accomplishments during his first term in office, impressive by any political standard, and particularly impressive in the politically polarized atmosphere that now exists.  

Rush Limbaugh is dead, but he left a lasting mark on American politics by his insistence that the conservative right should always demand its way and make it impossible for liberals to get anything by simply refusing to negotiate and make deals.  It means they must deprive themselves of achieving some of their own agenda, but those things are no longer as important to them as preventing liberals from having freedom.  The only way that conservatives can achieve their goal is if moderate to liberal voters decide to stay home on election day.  

I agree with those political strategists who are advising the Biden campaign to hit hard on what will happen if Trump is elected.  Keep the big issues, the ones that are helping Democrats win elections at all levels, right up there at the top, and let voters, especially younger voters know, that if Trump wins, they lose big on the one or two things on which they have focused their interest.  It's not the time to provide a civics lesson to try and help people catch up to what they missed about government and the constitution in school.  It is time to point out the disaster they would be facing, when it comes to things that are important to them, if Trump wins.  

Everything that black voters have fought for since the civil rights movement began goes away if Trump wins.  There is no reason for any Black voter to stay home and not vote, to vote third party, or expecially to vote for Trump.  For Trump and his MAGA base, there is no room for Latinos in their vision of America's future.  They believe all Latinos, even those who were born and raised in this country, are part of their ridiculous "replacement theory".  A Latino voter who votes for Trump, or for a third party candidate, is voting against their own interest and their own freedom.  The same goes for Asian voters, as well as any other racial or ethnic minority in America.  Voting for Trump is voting against your own freedom.  

That also applies to younger voters.  Voting third party is voting for Trump and voting for Trump is voting against all of those interests that they put at the top of their list, particularly the anti-war, anti-violence stand that most of them take.  It is voting against a woman's right to control her own health care and her own body.  It is voting against every known higher educational opportunity and career advancement ladder available.  It is voting against protecting free and fair elections.  

If conservatives want to play on the field with a "winner take all" attitude, then Democrats have to be the winners, and we have to be committed to take it all when we win.  This election has to send a clear message, which means that Biden needs a second term and the Democrats need a big enough majority in Congress to put things in place that eliminate the possibility of our rights being taken away by a right wing, conservative, Christian nationalist dictatorship.  And if that's not what the younger voters in this country want, then they need to be told, in no uncertain terms, that's what they're going to get if they don't show up in November, and support President Biden.  

Failing to vote, voting third party, or voting for Trump is voting against America and the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution.  

A Great Talk Show for Your Morning Commute: Chew's Views on Chicago's WCPT 820

WCPT AM 820 Link to Listen Live

My commute to and from work is about 30 minutes, on the surface streets of Chicago.  Unless there's construction, or something unusual going on, it's a commute by which you can set your clock.  We're fortunate here to have a talk radio station that isn't afraid to tell the truth.  WCPT is well known among Chicago and Northeastern Illinois Democrats, as well as in Minneapolis, where some of its programs are also heard.  

Santita Jackson, daughter of civil rights leader the Reverend Jesse Jackson, had a call-in talk show that I caught on the morning commute.  Her time slot, from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. was part of her daily podcast, and, as might be expected, was a niche program emphasizing the Rainbow Push Coalition, and featured issues and discussion centered on that slice of progressive interest related mainly to racial justice.  It was her callers, many of them regular, and their willingness to share their personal experiences, that attracted me to the show.  The politics, well, it was mostly focused on local elections and local politicians.  

Presidential Politics Are a Different World 

As the Presidential election drew closer, Jackson's comments demonstrated a lack of understanding of the issues at stake.  I get the unique "niche" she is trying to build, and getting attention for issues she and the community she represents feel are often ignored, downplayed or unjustly dismissed.  But her Presidential politics weren't realistic.  Her anti-Biden bias was pretty clear, though it went unexplained, and she didn't seem to get the very obvious reality that third party candidates, while they might pick up and articulate some measure of understanding for the problems she sees as pertinent issues, are powerless to do anything about them, because they will never get elected to office.  

What ended my interest was that I called in one morning, and surprisingly got on the air almost right away.  Santita does not understand that the quirky, undemocratic way we have of electing a President means that third party candidates, who may share similar political perspectives, but who have no chance of winning the election and putting their agenda into play, simply take votes away from the candidate who is closest to their own ideology.  That opens the door for a candidate who is totally opposed to those interests and totally against that perspective, to win electoral votes they otherwise wouldn't get.  Trump won in 2016, and Bush won in 2020 because third partiers on the far left fringe of the Democratic Party, Jill Stein and Ralph Nader, took enough Democratic votes in enough states to allow Republican candidates, Trump in Stein's case and Bush in Nader's, to make sure that their own agenda and issues never saw the light of day.  

When I tried to explain that taking Democratic votes away from Biden and giving them to Cornell West was one of the best paths to being elected that Trump has, I got cut off.  No discussion, not even a courtesy disagreement.  Her comments simply downplayed what I was able to get out in the few seconds that I had before she hung up and she acted like I was still on the phone when she made her last comments.  Apparently, screening out callers who share the same perspective I do is a common practice.  I haven't listened to her show since then.  

Chew's Views, a Delightful, and Sensible Replacement

My morning commute became a matter of getting out the phone to listen to Democracy Now!  Until, one morning, after listening to WCPT the night before, I discovered Chew's Views with Richard Chew.  Apparently, WCPT listeners weren't happy with Santita Jackson, or her third party promotion, and they cancelled her show and replaced it.  

There's no question that Chew's view is that Biden, as the Democratic nominee, is the only hope for American democracy.  He has repeatedly pointed out that black voters, Latino voters, Asian voters, LGBTQ voters, younger voters, working class voters and several other constituencies have absolutely no business casting a ballot for either a third party candidate, or for Trump, and he emphasizes how ridiculous, and self-defeating it is for those constituencies who are thinking Biden is too old, or that they haven't seen the economic benefit they think they should have, and are planning to either protest the Democratic party's nominee by voting third party, or, maybe, they'll vote for Trump.  

He makes no bones about exactly how ridiculous and stupid that is.  

Trump has made it very clear that his America is a rich, and white America.  He's sided completely, and openly, with both white supremacists and Christian nationalists.  There's no place in his America for Latinos, or Blacks, or Asians, or anyone he considers to be an immigrant "poisoning the blood" of the country.  Chew, who is black, clearly points out that no matter the politics, it is self-defeating for any person of color, or any LGBTQ person, to vote either third party or Trump.  I appreciate his being direct and to the point when pointing out the obvious.  

There is One Clear Path To Saving Our Democracy:  Re-Electing Biden and Electing a Democratic Congressional Majority

I encourage everyone reading this to click the link between 6:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. CDT, and listen to Chew's Views.  This is the message which must be made clear.  There is no future in a Trump Presidency for Democracy, for American Patriotism, for sincere and true Christianity, and for any person who is of a different ethnicity or race than Caucasian of European origin.  He's openly said so.  Latinos, particularly those coming as refugees from places like Venezuela and Central America, Asians, and Arabic Muslims are "poisoning the blood of our country."  Those are his words.  How can anyone who is Latino, Asian, Black or Muslim hear that and possibly cast a ballot to make him President?  

The same goes for persons of LGBTQ orientation.  There's no place for them and they will have no rights in a Trump Presidency.  It's likely they will be persecuted, labelled as criminals and imprisoned, if the Christian nationalists get their way.  What you'll hear on Chew's Views is that it is ridiculously native or purposefully stupid for those who Trump has declared unAmerican to vote for him, or a third party candidate who will take votes away from Biden.  

Enjoy the program.  

It's January 20, 2025, President Biden Has Just Been Inaugurated to His Second Term, So Where Does the Agenda Go From Here?

I have a few suggestions for President Biden's second term.  

At the moment, I am hoping that public pressure lights a fire under the justice department, and they use whatever power and political capital they might have to make sure the trials involving Trump's indictments happen well in advance of the election.  This is America, and I know that, in spite of the glacial pace at which our court system works, there is political power available to push things along and make sure they happen in a very timely manner.  I hear speculation and comment going both directions, that it's not possible, and the delays will succeed in keeping Trump out of court and of prison, and that it is possible for the justice department to flag some of these cases with a "presidential" label in order to make sure they are expedited and that the orange menace spends election night in prison.  

I'm in favor of whatever it takes to get that done.  

I'm Not Picky About the First 100 Days...

I have no doubts that this current President, who has a remarkable string of achievements in his first term, will also be successful in his second.  That depends, of course, on us giving him a Democratic majority in both houses, something that is entirely doable and looks promising.  But there are a couple of things I would like to see happen in those early days of the second Biden term as President.  

Eliminate the Filibuster

The senate filibuster has outlived its usefulness.  During the time when compromise and reaching out across the aisle for the benefit of the American people was the thing Congress did when it conducted its business, the filibuster may have served a useful purpose.   Now, in this "winner take all, leave behind no prisoners" age of government, thanks to the idiocy of Rush Limbaugh, it has outlived its usefulness.  

So the first item of business for the new Senate will be to break the filibuster.  Gridlock will cease when the filibuster is gone.  Republicans no longer are interested in a government that works on compromise.  They are, in fact, not really interested in a working government at all.  Breaking the filibuster is a way to make government work again, and since they aren't interested in bi-partisan cooperation, why should we care?  

Pack the Supreme Court

No more waiting around for a justice to kick the bucket or retire to create suspense to fill the seat.  Find the most liberal judges in the federal system in the United States and get them nominated to the Supreme Court.  We need at least four, why not five?  

And with the new court, headed in a new direction, go back and undo everything the Roberts court has done since it became majortity conservative.  Everything. 

Amend the Constitution to Abolish the Electoral College

It would take more than a simple majority to abolish the electoral college, but here's to getting the procedure starting in the hopes that circumstances will move it along and it will gather the support it needs to pass.  This would make a statement, if nothing else.  It is time for this antiquated, outdated, undemocratic and ceremonial relic to be abolished, and for the President to be elected by the popular vote.  

There's a lot of legislation that also needs to be passed to protect future elections.  With Democrats in control of both houses, that can be made to stick  With another Presidential transition coming in 2028, it would be a good time for Democrats to make sure there are no future shenanigans and that there are enforceable laws in place to handle situations that come up, like protecting the capitol from unpatriotic insurrectionists. 

Get Joe Biden Re-Elected

This is all speculation, of course, and maybe a hint at what others are thinking.  But getting Biden back in the White House, with a Democratic Congress, requires getting up, out and into the voting booth.  No excuses.  Plan on it.

Why I Am Not Voting for Trump

From the time Donald Trump first started putting feelers out and thinking about running for President, I thought it was just a big joke.  His campaigns, his single term in the White House, that ending, and subsequent events have proven, in my mind, beyond any shadow of doubt, that he is a big joke, and he is the least qualified candidate who ever ran for the Presidency in my lifetime.  And among the jokes and con artists and nut jobs who have made runs for the White House since I remember following politics, that's saying something.  RFK Jr. may take that title from Trump in my personal space, we'll see, but right now, Trump has the privilege of being the single most unqualified candidate for President in American history. 

I'm going to link this to a social media post in the hopes of clearing out some of the right wing clutter that pops up there every now and then.  So I'll divide my reasons up into different categories, just to make sure there's no mistaking where I'm coming from, or why.  

I have, in the past, identified as an Evangelical Christian.  Raised Southern Baptist, those are all terms that once had a much different meaning than they do now.  I am Christian, not just in a cultural sense of the term, but by conviction and conversion.  I no longer use the "Evangelical" label because the definition of that is now more political than religious.  From a theological and doctrinal point, I still belong to an independent, non-denominational church and believe the core values of the Christian gospel, as established by Jesus and recorded by the authors of the New Testament, without a personal, denominational label or otherwise excluding myself from mainstream Christian practice.  Those with whom I discuss my theology, beliefs, practices and values tell me I sound like a Quaker.

That's for those who are connected to me on social media, so they will understand who I am and why I feel the way I do. 

My Reasons For Not Supporting or Voting For Trump From a Christian Perspective

Evangelicals coming into secular politics during the last years of the 20th century came down hard on former President Clinton, insisting that his personal character and morality was the primary reason for their pronouncements that he was disqualified to be President of the United States.  Specifically, they dug up information about his alleged romantic trysts and affairs, attacked his character, and as a result, they clearly established high moral character, based on their standards, as a primary qualification for being President.  The issues of education, economy and foreign relations were secondary to the moral character requirement, as far as political Evangelicals were concerned.

Many of those same Evangelical leaders are still around today.  So what's happened?  Gone are their ironclad, infallible, unbending moral qualifications for the presidency, replaced by a small handful of social, culture war issues most Americans don't even have on their political radar screen.  They lied, and they are hypocrites.  It wasn't about the morality or the character at all, it was about the fact that President Clinton, who was an active member of a Southern Baptist church, but who was a very fallible human being (aren't we all?  The Apostle Paul says, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.") was also a Democrat.  And that not only undermines their politics, it seriously undermines their credibility and calls into question the sincerity of their faith.  

From my perspective as a Christian, which does have some influence over my vote, Trump loses my support on his total lack of trustworthiness.  My Dad taught me to have respect for the women I dated and for the one I would eventually marry.  He said that a man who would lie to, and cheat on his wife will lie to everyone else and is a deceitful, dishonest fraud.  

Trump has cheated on all three wives, making him, by biblical definition, an adulterer, a cheat, a liar and a fraud.  While each of his subsequent wives were "the other woman" to his previous wife, he also gleefully and proudly confessed to "hundreds" of affairs.  We know of several high profile affairs, including Stormy Daniels, whom he paid off to keep silcnce in order to protect his political career.  He has never apologized, shown repentance or remorse, or otherwise acknowledged his poor treatment of the women whom he married.  

That kind of dishonesty and evil behavior is a disqualifier, as far as I am concerned, for a man who is seeking the highest political office in the land.  

And my Dad was right about the dishonesty, cheating, lying and fraud.  Trump has also disqualified himself from office because he is a pathological liar.  That's a moral character flaw that Christians once condemned in politicians, Clinton, for example, but now seem to either gloss over and allow a pass, or they've changed their perspective, and erased the ninth commandment, along with the sixth, from the biblical text.  I cannot respect, or listen, to self-proclaimed Christian leaders who downplay the lies, or who ignore them, or try to justify them, or explain them away.  That includes chief apologists Franklin Graham, of Samaritan's Purse, and Robert Jeffress, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas, along with Trump's self-proclaimed "prophetess" spiritual advisor, prosperity gospel fraud Paula White.

Trump lied all during his 2016 campaign for the presidency, all through his term in office, in many cases putting the country in danger, and subjecting it to the mistrust of its allies, and proved himself to be a fraud and a phony.  His claim that the 2020 election was "stolen," totally and completely proven to be "the big lie" that it was labelled, and all of the fraudulent activity that accomplished his attempt to overturn the Constitution's provision of the peaceful transfer of power, including the incitement of an insurrection against the people and government of the United States is not only disqualifying as far as holding office is concerned, but is justifiably being prosecuted as the lawbreaking criminal activity that it is.  Justice can't move fast enough to put this lying, fraudulent criminal in prison where he belongs.  

And for those Christians who want so desperately to believe he's one of them, and he's just being persecuted because of that, it's time to go find yourself in the fantasy world in which you've been lost for seven, going on eight years now.  Trump has evaded, and resisted every opportunity to declare a Christian conversion experience.  He says he reads the Bible and he does, on rare occasions, attend church services, as long as they make a fuss over him.  

But the very core principle of a "conversion" experience, according to Evangelical tradition, that makes one a Christian, is the acknowledgement that one is a sinner who has experienced the full conviction of the Holy Spirit for their sin, admitted to their guilt and sinful condition, has repented, and asked forgiveness through Christ's sacrifice on the cross as the atonement for their sin.  In spite of some of the best efforts of people like Franklin Graham and Robert Jeffress to get Trump to articulate this experience so they can validate his "salvation," he resists their efforts, resorts to his own language, declares his belief in God "in my own way," and states that he has not done anything for which he needs to ask God's forgiveness.  

His character, and his ego, will apparently not allow him to admit to any mistakes.  And so, while he loves the votes he gets from Evangelicals, and accepts some of their politics, he rejects their faith and its core values.  He's a deceitful, lying, antichrist, by the definition that the Apostle John wrote in his first epistle, chapter 4.  

A Book Would Be Required to List All of the Political Reasons I'm Not Supporting Trump 

I'd have to say that the insurrection he led, and his anti-patriotic attempt to overthrow the Constitution and the government, is at the top of my list of political reasons I'm not supporting Trump.  He doesn't know the Constitution, to him and his agenda, it's a bothersome restriction on the kind of power he wants to have and attempted to wield.  And if the wheels of justice won't move fast enough to enforce the rule of law, convict him and send him to prison for all of the illegal acts he committed as President, then the people will have to do the job.  

And I believe we will.  

The very idea that a political outsider is what the country needs to resolve its issues and protect its citizens is, frankly, for lack of a better descriptive term, stupid.  No patient facing surgery for a brain tumor would ask for a surgeon whose sum total of surgical experience was tonsilectemies and apendectemies.  It was pretty clear that the crises being faced by the United States were not going to get resolved by Trump, the political outsider, who demonstrated his incompetence from day one, and then finished off his term in office with the most incompetent bungling of a real pandemic we could possibly imagine in the age of advanced medical science.  

Even his Supreme Court appointments, and their overturning of the Roe decision, which most Evangelicals claim as his signature political accomplishment has been cluttered with all kinds of implications and issues which they didn't consider, and frankly, about which they showed little concern when Roe was the law of the land.  The fact that abortion gets used as a method of birth control is as much the fault of Evangelical Christianity in America failing to achieve its own mission and purpose as it is of the fact that the law allowed it.  

Women are not equals in Evangelical culture.  So the consequences sof a political decision which denies them a reproductive choice based solely on a religious principle, and the manner in which all of this has played out is having dire political consequences for Republicans, and serious medical consequences for many women whose lives are in danger because doctors won't perform certain life-saving procedures for fear of prosecution.  

Overturning Roe was a poor political decision because it allows states to overlook serious consequences and complications of legislating medical decisions that should only be made by the patient after consulting the advice of their doctor.  But, of course, in Evangelical thinking and culture, women do not have the standing to make those kinds of decisions. That is up to the husband, and one of the consequences of not having a husband is that the state must then make that choice for them.  I'm not exaggerating here.  That's exactly the line of reasoning that's being used.  For women who are considering abortion because they have been left pregnant, and alone, and without support, in Evangelical thinking, the responsibility falls completely on them, even though, biologically, there had to be a man involved somewhere.

Nor will very many of them have enough sympathy or compassion to help, even though they have the means and the resources.  They've been fighting Roe for its entire history, and they've had a wide open opportunity to provide ministry to help bring down the abortion numbers for a long time, but they'd rather put their resources into politics, fighting against Roe, because, of course, getting pregnant is all the woman's fault.  They're going to lose big on this single issue.  

It's Simple For Me:  President Biden is Just a Far Better Choice

I call it as I see it.  Joe Biden has the public servant's heart, and the political experience to be President of the United States, a fact that is made obvious by the success of his first term in office.  There's no argument against that.  

I said earlier that I do have moral and character standards when it comes to choosing candidates for public office.  I see nothing in Joe Biden that disqualifies him.  I'm sure he's not perfect either, that's not the expectation.  He's Catholic, and while he doesn't wear that on his sleeve, or jam it down our throat, it's pretty clear he lives his life by those beliefs and convictions.  I don't really believe that the President of the United States has to be a Christian, and there are some that have been by tradition, but certainly not by practice.  But if they are, then not being hypocritical about it is a demonstration of the kind of integrity and honesty necessary to meet the qualification of trustworthiness.  And Joe Biden does.  

The President has adapted well to the winner-take-all, no-compromise, our way or the highway attitude that now controls the Republican party.  The Congress in which he started serving depended on bi-partisan cooperation, compromise, making deals, and getting things done for the good of the American people.  Republicans are now focused on using the government's power to protect the turf of their special interests.  It takes a skilled, experienced politician who is willing to make some personal and political sacrifices to get things done in that kind of contentious atmosphere.  There aren't very many individuals around who are capable, or willing, to do that.  Joe Biden is the man for the hour.  

The world is becoming a more dangerous place, more than it has since the end of the Second World War.  And the burden for protecting the peace and maintaining stability falls on the United States, because we have made ourselves into a superpower.  Trump wants to trash the alliance that protects the stability and side with the dictators of chaos, confusion and war, because he thinks it will add to his wallet.  He's a believer in American oligarchy, in the exact same way that Russia is now an oligarchy.  And no matter what comes out of his mouth, it is clear he has nothing but contempt for anyone who is not wealthy.  He has nothing but contempt for his own followers.  

President Biden revived the NATO alliance and re-established America's leadership and credibility.  They depend on us, and we need them.  We share the same value of democracy and freedom.  That's who we are, and most of them share those values because, over the past 70 years, they have picked them up from us and adopted them.  In places like Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Czechia, Slovakia, Poland, and eastern Germany, the appreciation for democracy and freedom is a passionate overflowing of gratitude.  And Joe Biden was the American politician who brought that back to NATO after four years of neglect.  Hopefully, it was just in time to save Ukraine.  

So, facing what we are now facing in the world, Joe Biden is the man we need in the White House to protect the security and peace of the world.  

It's time for Americans to be committed to their future, and committed to re-elect Joe Biden as President of the United States, giving him a Democratic majority in both houses in order to achieve the goals of a democratic America.