Are Democrats "Snatching Defeat From the Jaws of Victory"?

There's not any way to make the post-debate panic in the Democratic party look like anything but a party in disarray.  Former Illinois Representative Adam Kinzinger, a Republican who served on the January 6th committee in the House and who has endorsed President Biden's re-election campaign has tried to put a positive spin on the confusion and chaos by saying that all of the discussion about Biden getting out of the race is a sign that Democrats appreciate the opinions of party constituents, while with Republicans, they kick the dissenters out of the tribe.  And he should know.  

But President Biden's debate performance, two weeks ago today, had absolutely no effect on his polling numbers.  In fact, depending on which set of polls a media source selectively decides to cite, he either gained ground and is leading in most of the battleground states, or he didn't appear to move the needle much.  It seems that nothing much is moving the poll number needle, which indicates to me some shenanigans going on behind the scenes with pollsters, paid by corporate interests, trying to make it look like President Biden is headed for defeat, in order to give Trump as much momentum as possible.  

Up to this point, no Democrat who carries any consequential weight of reputation in the party has pushed for the President to stop his campaign and let someone else run.  A scattered few members of Congress, unrecognizeable by reputation, are insisting that he step down.  The only Senator who got close, Mark Warner, of Virginia, backed away from the edge.  Even Joe Manchin has come out and said that re-electing President Biden is the best thing for the country. 

It's the media that keeps pushing this, mostly because they like the ratings they get when there's sensational news to report.  So they keep pushing this story to the top of the pile, beating a dead horse, because no matter how shrill they get or whiny they become, President Biden has been elected as the party's nominee by the over 14 million people who voted for him in the primaries.  It is his decision alone.  Those Democrats who have been hunted down to make comments are publicity seekers, and their continued presence in the media, which helps keep this chaos going, betrays their priorities.  It's their own power they're protecting, they don't care about the threat that Trump poses to American Constitutional Democracy.  If they'd say "NO!" to the interviews, this would dry up fast. 

And while the idea of allowing all of the factions to have their say is very much a Democratic party value, the value of this conversation has run its course.  Take a hint from the people, who have poured millions of dollars into his campaign post-debate, setting records in terms of both cash received and number of donors providing it.  There's a message in that, coming from the people who support this President the most.  

Stop it!  

Reality Check:  This is What the President is Running Against 

It's craziness like this that gives Trump enough support, and alters the course of the election, making his candidacy viable.  There's a serious political dysfunction going on in this country that has brought us to the point where a corrupt, now convicted felon, former failed President who tried to subvert the Constitution and steal an election he lost by inciting a mob to attack the Capitol while Congress was in session, has the kind of apparent political support that he does, with the backing of the Republican party.  Put this same set of circumstances into the mix in any other election in this country's recent history, and it would be seen as a coming landslide for the Democrats across the board, from the White House through Congress to the state houses.  It should be that now. 

So someone please explain to me why it isn't?  

Much of it is that the media no longer operates like a free press, but has divided into camps with special interests.  It's made up of outlets like Fox News and Newsmax, that are propaganda mouthpieces for the conservative extremists, or the major networks, including CNN, that survive as corporate interests, with those owners more interested in the bottom profit line than in reporting the truth.  That leaves the independent media, a small group without the resources to reach large audiences.  That's part of the problem.  

But the other part of it is that Democrats are having their traditional difficulty with their ability to grasp, control, and publicize the narrative, and with their traditional habit of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.  We, as a party, tend to make mistakes at the most inopportune moments, squander advantages like all of the political negatives Trump keeps on giving us, the latest being his 34 felony convictions, his own miserable debate performance full of lies, his gift of three of the six most corrupt, biased, partisan Supreme Court justices in history, his core Evangelical constituency's producing of a platform they call Project 2025, a draconian set of promises that will prove incredibly unpopular, and his name appearing on the Jeffrey Epstein contact list multiple times.  

Over the top of all of that, some Democrats are working hard to direct the attention of voters away from all of those negatives, and focus it on a ridiculous and unnecessary crisis of their own making, in their own party.  

We've already muffed messaging promoting the Biden Presidency as one of the most successful of the current century, and since the Second World War.  There are so many positives that have just been completely missed, that would be making a real difference in people's perception of this President's job performance.  The same old problem, not being able to control the narrative, has reared its ugly head.  

Now, the attention that we are getting is covering up Trump's massive trail of corruption, and focusing on what appears to be a party in disarray, fretting, fussing and fighting because, as one media source put it, "they know Biden is losing this election."  I know no such thing, but it sure doesn't look like anything else.  Once again, we've lost control of the narrative.  

Here's some evidence of what we are missing.  The 2024 Presidential Greatness Project, Made up of Presidential Historians, Ranked Trump as the "Worst President in American History."  They ranked Biden 14th.  

So someone, with a reasonable measure of common sense, who is educated, articulate, and politically experienced and savvy, please explain why this race is, at best, a dead heat, and if the polls are anywhere near accurate, why Biden is trailing?  

I'm giving sacrificially, out of social security benefits, every month, and giving up a weekend to drive to a battleground state to help register Democratic voters, and making phone calls and spending hours a week writing and promoting this blog.  

Please, can someone in the Democratic party who knows and has confidence, assure me that I am not wasting my time?

Blame and Panic Won't Win This Election; But Common Sense and Unity of Purpose Will

Democrats were hoping for a debate performance from Joe Biden last week that would be similar to the ones he delivered in the 2020 campaign.  When that didn't materialize, the panic set in.  Among Democrats, I don't think the impression was so much about whether Biden could win the election as it was the impression that speculation over his mental stability, which has been hanging around from the very first moment he decided to run, would cut into his support that doesn't seem to be quite what it was in 2020, when he defeated Trump and picked up over 80 million votes.  

What transpired is the result of a combination of things.  

One, a sensationalist, less mature, less experienced, news media with sharp political divisions, that operates on money tied to ratings and owned mostly by corporate interests, has latched on to the idea that President Biden is too old to serve in office for another term and they insist on promoting their conclusion, evidence or not.  But they have ignored Trump's advanced age, evidence of dementia, his criminal conviction, indictments, threats, lies, and draconian political platform that includes a federal ban on women's right to choose and the Project 2025 plan which, in spite of his denials, the Heritage Foundation developed based on his support.  The news media essentially set up the circumstances which prompted the panic over Biden's debate performance.  

Two, fear has been generated among Democrats by polling data from a myriad of polling sources, most of them lacking credibility, some of them over-adjusting for mistakes they made in 2020 and in 2016, many of them owned by the same Republican corporate interests as the media sourced which cite them as evidence that this is a "dead heat."  How reliable are they?  Considering what they are being used to do, and who cites them as evidence to support a very biased perspective, and any objective poll that leans in Biden's direction is ignored, I'd say they are telling us nothing of substance.  At this point in the campaign, I think the polling data is not in the same ball park with an accurate prediction of the election outcome.  

Three, after already enduring a four year Trump Presidency, and seeing the very predictable resistance he put up to cooperating with the peaceful transfer of power at the end, basically ignoring the Constitution and attempting to steal an election he lost,  there is genuine, plausible and very realistic fear among everyone other than his own MAGA base, that if he gets the power of the Presidency again, he will kill American constitutional democracy and set up an oligarchy of the wealthy, with himself as dictator.  He's said as much.  He's figured out every loophole to keep going.  He's certainly communicated his intentions clearly enough that the Heritage Foundation, which is an apostate, Christian nationalist cult, helped draw up his 2024 party platform in the form of their Project 2025 plan. 

Four, the Supreme Court has added to the heightened level of anxiety and fear by opening the door to a trashing of the Constitution unseen in American history.   Six justices, including three he appointed, are helping in his attempts to thwart justice for crimes he committed in office which has contributed to the fear of what's coming if he does get re-elected.  They are the first court in history to declare that it is OK for the President of the United States to commit crimes if those crimes are necessary to the conduct of his official duties.  The justices who signed on to that have said, loud and clear, to the American people, that they are not qualified, are immoral and constitute the most corrupt judiciary group in American history.  Their ruling, coming when it did, just added to the mix of attacks on American Democracy.  

So the reaction to the debate performance of President Biden, upon which so many Democrats had pinned high hopes for a momentum boost, triggered a panic, because of what is at stake.  Under normal circumstances, a week after it was over, no one would be talking about it and few would have remembered any of its content without having to watch reruns of it.  It wasn't a great debate performance, but it certainly wasn't the worst ever.  And in an honest evaluation of it, while Trump rarely answered a question directly, and in almost every case, lied about everything he did answer, Biden gave an accurate presentation and was factual in his presentation.  

An accurate assessment and reporting of the debate should have generated a headline stating that Trump lied his way through, and failed to directly answer a question.  But that's not anywhere close to the kind of political theme that gets ratings, so it's not what the media wants to report.  

A Silver Lining in Every Dark Cloud

The panic, which is understandable given the seriousness of the circumstances, has been a disappointing development, since I expected a higher level of self-discipline and unity among the leaders of the Democratic party.  Self-preservation is playing a role in the scattered call from members of Congress saying that President Biden should bow out, and let someone else take his place.  Those who have a genuine and comprehensive understanding of what is at stake in this election should have taken care to exercise a much greater amount of discretion, instead of revealing the level of their own self-interest and seeking out those in the media willing to put them on camera and get their take on what the President should do, revealing that their own self-interest is greater than their fear of a second Trump Presidency, or Democratic party priorities.  

One of the silver linings coming out of the dark cloud is that we now know where to find the weak links in Democratic party strength.  

But the other silver lining is that this panicked reaction produced a groundswell of support for the President's re-election campaign that has translated into weekly and monthly all-time record campaign contributions as the President's supporters stepped up and demonstrated their complete confidence in his ability to win the election.  It also doesn't appear that the voters were as panicked as Democratic party leaders were.  

In fact, it's been more than a week since the debate, and the President's poll numbers are not dropping.  Aside from the New York Times/Siena poll, which is, in my opinion, biased,  his poll numbers have improved across the board.  I have no confidence at all in the poll numbers regarding the Presidential election, especially not the Times, but it appears that the President's debate performance did not stir up the same panic among voters that it did among party leadership, at least, not the kind of panic that the leadership has exhibited.  

But there is a measure of panic out there among the voters, and it appears to be resulting from the continued push of the GOP to keep Trump on the ballot in spite of felony convictions, a hidden agenda that includes completely shutting down a woman's right to choose, and the draconian proposals of the extremist far right agenda's Project 2025.  Getting the President to step aside and let someone else be nominated does not seem to be what the people want, especially not the people in his own party.  And this is what the party's leadership needs to be hearing.  

It's Not Feasible to Change Nominees at This Point

It's not possible for another candidate to put together a campaign team, get an organization into place and raise several hundred million dollars in four months.  That's not happening.  And while it is possible for Vice President Harris to continue using campaign funds donated to the Biden campaign, no one else can touch that money.  And in an election year when Republicans, at every level, are trying to undermine and subvert the ability of people to vote, how does a new Democratic nominee get their name on the ballot in every state without being nominated by the convention?  

Replacing Joe Biden on the ballot at this point is unrealistic.  It is also a highly likely path to handing the election to Trump and control of Congress to the Republicans.  And that's game over for American Democracy.  Why Democratic party leadership is still even muttering about the possibility of replacing Joe Biden as a candidate, in the teeth of popular support for him, is difficult to understand.  The debate was not a good moment for Biden, but it also was clearly not a good moment for Trump.  He made himself clear, and did not win any new support as a result of it.  

Take a hint from what Biden's grassroots supporters are doing.  This has generated momentum, picked up the pace and there is a lot of popular support for the President.  If party leadership can gather some common sense, take a look at what's happening, instead of trying to push their own agenda and narrative into the picture, step away from the personal power trip and help the party gain control of the House, keep the Senate and hold on to the White House.  

And since when does a candidate's debate performance carry the kind of weight necessary to disqualify his candidacy?  

We Have Issues With Traction

Democrats must learn how to get hold of the narrative.  Look what we have!  We have the opposition bent on running a convicted felon as their nominee.  Odds are, unless the Supreme Court steps in and rescues him, which, based on their ruling, doesn't seem likely, he will be in prison come election time.  And I'm basing that statement on what some of the legal experts MSNBC has called in to calm down some fears.  The Heritage Foundation has put together Project 2025, with the idea in mind that Trump would be President and he'd be the guy to implement it.  He says no, but I think Democrats can tie that directly to him.  That's who he hangs out with.  They came up with that platform because they are depending on Trump to help them implement it.  And if that's not the way it is, and it hasn't been discussed, and Trump really does think it is as bad as he says, then that's a sign of some real discord among the MAGA faction of the GOP that should be easy to exploit.  

There are so many positive things this President has achieved, re-election should be a matter of course.  I personally think it will be.  I know everyone has an opinion of what will work best, which direction to go and the media won't let us forget that they are still pushing the "Biden is too old" theme they've had out there since he first announced he was running.  We need something that is proven to be successful.  

So take this as a rallying point, a turning point, and use the support and motivation that has been expressed since the debate in a more positive direction.  Let the President determine his own fate, and the rest of us, those of us who have seen what this man has done and can do, need to act with common sense and understand the unity of our purpose is making sure Trump doesn't get back in the White House.  We need to be spending our resources, precious time, and energy on getting the President re-elected and keeping the party unified, not on squabbling over something that isn't going to happen.  We also have a very intelligent, vibrant, politically savvy Vice President who can step right in at any point during the next four years, if it becomes necessary, and do the job.  

We are Democrats.  The ballot box, which has nominated Joe Biden for President on our behalf, has spoken.  Be smart.  Understand that Trump is the real enemy, and venting feelings because of not getting one's way only contributes support to Trump.  We are certainly more mature than that. 

If One Bad Debate Performance Gets Media Calls for Biden to Step Down...

The bandwagon that started up at the media's prompting, and which got as far as naming potential replacements for the President had its wheels come off sometime in the middle of last week.  No Democrats of significance or importance have jumped on, calling for Biden to step down.  And while I must acknowledge that the Democratic party has shown its ability to carry out discussion without a lot of political fallout, and no one is switching sides to get even, I've been disappointed in the direction that some commentators have taken, and at the effort to find people who can keep this going after it has fallen down on the track and is dying.  

The Democratic nominee and current President had a not-so-great debate performance, generating panic and calls, mostly from the media, and from small-fry Democratic party wannabes, for him to step down.  

The Republican nominee has been convicted of rape, of business fraud on 34 felony accounts and is about to be sentenced, hopefully to prison, is indicted on multiple counts of election interference and of the theft of classified documents, lied through the debate, is hiding his party's progress in developing what is an extremely unpopular platform, and the media, along with members of his party, are silent.  

So, it looks like sensible Democrats are taking this into their own hands, correcting the media through social media platforms, and here and there on MSNBC or in major daily newspapers, and calling for common sense and unity of purpose.  And that appears to be working.  Campaign funds are pouring in, grassroots support is rallying and the core constituencies of the Democratic party, including Blacks and Latinos, are solidifying their support behind him.  That's the kind of common sense and unity of purpose that wins elections.  

This is an election we must win, at all levels.  

 

One Evangelical's Reasons For Not Supporting Trump

Baptist Press: Does Character Count? Adrian Rogers, 1998

Opening Quote:  "Vice is a monster of such awful men, that to be haved needs but to be seen, but seen too oft, familiar with her face, we first endure, then pity, then embrace."  

In November of 1998, while Republicans in Congress were marching toward impeachment of President Clinton, based on claims of deception surrounding his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, Dr. Adrian Rogers, a highly influential, well-known pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee, one of the largest churches in the Southern Baptist Convention, preached a sermon aimed at a larger Evangelical audience, for the purpose of justifying their expectations that a higher level of personal character and morality was indeed a requirement and a qualification for holding public office in a democracy.  Rogers told the congregation that Christians should look beyond acceptable moral character, and in casting their ballot, consider those candidates whose morals were supported by their own spiritual experience with God, and their "biblical worldview" because those were the only values that were truly trustworthy.  

Obviously, the sermon was intended to justify support for the impeachment of  President Clinton.  It was also to discourage any doubters among the flock that Democrats could not achieve the expected level of morality and character necessary to get Christian votes, and to pull Evangelicals more closely into the Republican political fold. 

The big problem Republicans and Evangelicals now have with Dr Rogers' sermon is that he preached it in 1998, it is on the record, and this is now 2024, and the Republicans have buried themselves underneath a cataract of bad character from one of their former Presidents and current nominee that includes compulsive, pathological lying, all kinds of fraud, more adultery that the combined total of ten years of daytime soap operas, incitement of an insurrection and attacks on law enforcement, 34 felony convictions surrounding an affair with a porn star and a coverup that makes the Lewinsky incident look like a Sunday School picnic.  Dr. Rogers established a standard by which Christians should apply to qualify candidates before they give them their support and their vote, and Trump's immorality and worldliness problem is far greater than Clinton's was, if a heirarchy of immorality can be established.  

I believe Baptist Press still has an online transcript of Dr. Rogers' sermon, if anyone wants to read the whole thing.  It was widely distributed for the purpose of applying it to President Clinton, but Evangelicals are loathe now to trot it out, because Trump's immorality is far worse than anything Clinton did, and it is just as applicable as it was when he first preached it in 1998.  Dr. Rogers passed away in 2005, so this can't be walked back, changed, mis-interpreted or mis-applied.  But even if he were still alive, it would be impossible to retain the slightest shred of credibility if he had come out as a Trump supporter, after preaching this very pointed and direct sermon.    

So it is that, according to Dr. Adrian Rogers, a conservative pastor who served two terms as President of the nation's largest Evangelical denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, those Evangelical Christians who have rushed to embrace Trump, who have allowed themselves to be associated with everything he stands for, which is the epitome of a worldliness diametrically opposite the Christian gospel, are being disobedient to the Christian gospel, and are valuing politics and political rhetoric over the kind of character the Christian gospel says is necessary for leadership.  Evangelical supporters of Trump have completely set aside the counsel and the words of Dr. Rogers, which he claims are based on an inerrant, infallible Bible, and they are abandoning every principle he preached in that sermon.  

Dr. Rogers elevates character to the top position as a means for Christians to evaluate and qualify leaders for whom they will cast a ballot.  His conclusion is that if the character isn't there, then Christian support should also not be there.  And while he did not specifically or directly address President Clinton, there were many Evangelical leaders who used this sermon as a basis for their public condemnation of President Clinton's qualification to be President.  And much of that rhetoric and attitude spilled over and had an effect on Christian support for Vice President Al Gore,when he decided to run for President.  

An Evangelical Theological Case Against Supporting Trump 

I am not, by any means, naive enough to think that this example of Evangelical hypocrisy, one of many, but a notable and significant example, since it shows the duplicity and dishonesty which are characteristics of most of Evangelical Christianity, will change very many minds among Evangelicals that have been completely radicalized and committed to Trump.  The kind of hypocrisy and duplicity that is seen in the difference between the way Evangelicals condemned and vilified President Clinton, because of an alleged affair, and used that to condemn his character, but embrace Trump, whose character issues are far more numerous and worse, is evidence that they cannot be trusted to set the qualifications for any American political leader and letting anyone they support close to positions of leadership is asking for more of the kind of confusion and chaos promoted by the likes of Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Green, Paul Gosar, Andy Biggs and Matt Gaetz, and the spineless conciliation of Kevin McCarthy and Mike Johnson.  

I'm noting that it is one of their own who is calling Trump supporters disobedient to their own faith by supporting him.    

Here's the main point of what Dr. Rogers had to say about the connection between character and leadership in a political candidate.    

"Then there is a third response to serious  moral and ethical charges against a person in high office.  This is the group I want to talk about, because it is here that America's shocking, degrading moral crisis rears its ugly head.  

This third group of people are those who, instead of saying the accused is guilty or innocent, say "SO WHAT?"  Who carea?  Guilty, innocent--what difference does it make so long as he is doing a good job?"  

"These people argue that there is no connection between a man's personal life and his political abilities.  And according to all indications, this response to scandal and serious charges is the most common response among Americans."  

Here's where Dr. Rogers makes his conclusion.  

"But make no mistake.  It makes every difference what a person in leadership believes and does in his personal life.  Character counts with God and it must count with us if we want to stay the judgement of God on this grear nation."

So I believe we can all conclude, that the late Dr. Adrian Rogers, pastor of Memphis's Bellevue Baptist Church, former two-term President of the Southern Baptist Convention, is saying that the support being given by Christians to Donald Trump is endangering this nation and will bring about God's judgement upon it.  

Reality Check: Supreme Court Decisions Signal the End of Free and Fair Elections

Let's not kid ourselves.  What we're seeing in the court system, infected with MAGA appointees from Trump's term in office and the misplaced loyalty of many, if not most, of the pre-Trump Republicans who would rather win than play fair, is just a prelude to what is going to happen during the 2024 election, and afterward, especially if the ballot counts favor Biden, or whoever the Democrats wind up nominating in less than a month, instead of Trump.  And this author thinks that the unpopularity of, and fear of what Trump will do in a second term is the single issue in this election that will lead to his defeat.  

Trump and his MAGA menagerie have been planning on exactly how they are going to steal this election and get back in power since he boarded the plane and left Washington on January 20, 2021.  I'm not speculating or guessing, either, because they have said as much in almost those exact terms.  They have systematically put their plan in place, lined up the co-conspirators, including the federal court justices Trump appointed under the condition that they do favors for him when asked.  

Claiming Electoral Votes Before Congressional Certification

The plan that they implemented, to place fake electors in place of those who were actually elected by the voters failed, largely because the Republican Vice-President at the time, Mike Pence, actually did understand his constitutional role, and fortunately, though he was willing to allow his reputation to be permanently tarnished, and his political career come to an end for putting himself on such a corrupt, self-serving Presidential ticket, he did the right thing and Congress certified the vote in the teeth of a treasonous insurrection led by Trump.  

But it is highly likely that a good percentage of the electoral votes will not get certified at the state level this time around, and that the process will get held up until Constitutional deadlines pass, which will force the election into a Congress where each state gets one vote.  So unless Democrats can recover congressional majorities in several purple states that are intensely gerrymandered on purpose, this presents a major problem.  

This plan is no secret.  It's out in the open.  There are a lot of MAGA members of the House and Senate who are already prepared for this happening.  There have been multiple news programs, podcasts, interviews, at which this possibility has been discussed and explanations given as to exactly how it would work.  And there are poll workers and election officials in virtually every red state who are standing ready for orders from their orange headed buffoon to stop the process in the event that the votes don't go Trump's way.  

That includes county supervisors and local election officials, some of who are facing felony indictments and trials over their deliberate violations of state law in order to prevent votes from being certified.  Two supervisors in Cochise County, Arizona, Tom Crosby and Peggy Judd, both extremist conspiracy theorists, are facing prison time for their failure to certify vote totals they didn't like, claiming the machine counts, which had been audited four times, were wrong, and demanding a hand count of 55,000 ballots.  They just lost their appeal, and will go to trial in August.  

The Court System is No Longer Capable of Stopping This Injustice

The Supreme Court has already helped Republicans steal one election from Al Gore, by ruling that the state of Florida could certify its vote count before all ballots were received and counted.  The gist of that fiasco wasn't the tiny margin of votes separating Al Gore from George W. Bush that were counted and recounted, it was over 90,000 ballots, some provisional, some absentee, that were left out of the count completely.  Because once they came to an election day count that had Bush with about a 150 vote lead, after a recount, the Secretary of State, who was also Bush's Florida campaign manager, certified the vote, disenfranchising those who had cast their ballots within the provisions of the law, and changing what would have been the eventual outcome of the state's electoral votes, and the Presidency.  

The manner in which this court has ruled on just about everything it had on the table during the past session indicates that it is willing to support Trump regardless of the lack of constitutional support or precedent, and they don't care how many laws he breaks, as long as they are part of his "official duties," a nebulous term which they can rule means whatever they want it to mean to fit whatever situation they need it to fit in order to protect him from the consequences of breaking the law.  

There is no longer any trust that the other side, if the voters make a clear choice, will do the right thing and honor that choice.  

A Dangerous Path for Democratic Party Electors

There have been public statements made from within the swamp of MAGA extremists, that Democrats chosen as electors may have a hard time travelling to the location where electoral votes are cast.  It would not surprise me, in the least, to hear that armed insurgents were actively preventing legitimately chosen electors from casting their votes.  Even in 2020, there were threats, mobs, armed traitors showing up at state capitol facilities to act intimidating, and in some places, attempts by people who were not chosen as electors to pass themselves off as such, or to attempt to interfere.  

How much worse is that going to be this time around?  

Suppose that President Biden wins the state of Georgia by 50,000 votes this time around.  That's not improbable, given that he won it by about 11,000 votes in 2020, that the two Democratic Senators won their run-off elections by about 40,000, and that Senator Rafael Warnock won re-election by a little larger margin than that in the 2022 mid-term.  Georgia still has a Republican dominated state legislature, a Republican governor and a Republican secretary of state.  The current secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, angered Republicans for refusing to be corrupt enough to overturn the free and fair election last time around, and Biden got Georgia's electoral votes.  

But suppose the same scenario occurs in a red state with a MAGA secretary of state who simply refuses to allow the state's votes to be certified, or attempts to disqualify enough Democratic votes to throw the election the other way?  Who will stop that?  Is it possible?  

It is not only possible, it is part of the planning.  The fact that they are beyond just considering it, but are ready to implement it can be known because they are telling us this is the case. 

 

Violent Intervention is a Right Wing Plan to Stop an Election

I really hate to be a pessimist, but I believe the incidents of violence on election day, and at places where ballots are counted afterward, will be numerous, tragic and will result in fatalities, especially among the law enforcement personnel who will have to respond to this nonsense.  The open threats of violence are no secret.  The Evangelical groups are justifying their plans by claiming it to be a righteous cause and claiming that God is holding their coat-tails and cheering them on.  A pastor, claiming that he will stand in the doorway of his church, which is a polling place, and physically prevent Democrats from entering the building is no joke.  That's already been attempted, by the way, without consequences to the perpetrator.   

The Heritage Foundation, which is perhaps the most subversive extremist group in the country, has already gone public with its "New American Revolution" rhetoric, and advocates the use of violence in the event that they can't win the election.  As far as they are concerned, the election itself is inconsequential.  They have their agenda and they will move forward regardless, if not peaceably through the ballot box, then violently, in a manner which completely unmasks their Christian veneer. And they're not the only ones.  

I Hope That Preparations Are Being Made for the Worst Case Scenario

No doubt, with every idea that gets floated and every threat that gets made there must be some discernment on the part of those whose responsibility it is to prevent this from happening as to what is a genuine threat, and what is not.  The track record of those making these threats is real enough.  There are multiple cases already, all over the country, of right wingers who are willing to break the law if necessary to get their way.  And it what may very likely be another very close election, there are those who see the opportunity to do just enough damage to steal it for their own cause, because their party nominee, Trump, not only encourages them to do so, but considers it a test of their loyalty. 

In the fight to preserve and protect the integrity of this election, we have no allies in the governors and legislatures of red states, who will be working to undermine democracy and steal the election for their own side, and we have no allies in the Supreme Court, which has become the corrupt institution that the founding fathers feared that it could become if given the opportunity.  It's been poisoned by partisan politics, and its worthless now as a means of enforcing the law.   

And the possibility exists that the corruption of the courts, and the actions of the mob, may be more than can be overcome this time around.  Are there still enough eyes and ears, and enough patriotic Americans, to ensure the integrity of a national election, and then make sure that the will of the people is carried out, and the traitors suffer the consequences of their lawlessness?   

I hope so.  

 

 

A Right Wing Dictatorship is Exactly the Agenda of the Far Right, and Evangelical Supporters of Trump

Six of the current members of the Supreme Court were appointed by Presidents who listened carefully to the extremist Evangelical right [I refuse to call them Christian, since they have revealed to us that they aren't in any way, Christian] and took their names directly off of their approved list.  Five of those six are Catholic, and the sixth, Neil Gorsuch, was a former Catholic who now attends an Episcopalian church.  And while the primary qualification for all six was that they were favorable to overturning Roe v. Wade, something all six lied about when testifying before Congress during their hearings, the underlying agenda is their willingness to support Christian nationalism.  

Many Catholics have a strong interest in Christian nationalism, and in establishing church authority as the primary influence over the civil government because of their long, long, long history of being the state church in most of Europe.  The Protestant Reformation was, in part, a rebellion against the absolute authority that the Pope wielded over monarchies, and against the horrific cruelty with which the church dealt with those who refused to bow the knee.  The Reformation still didn't bring about the separation of church and state, or religious liberty.  In fact, it only made the wars between countries longer and bloodier.  

And that is the legacy of Christian attempts to create a theocracy, resting the principles of the Christian gospel on the political power of the state, and enforcing, by that same power, ideals, principles, doctrine and theology that Jesus himself never intended to be "enforced" at all.  His gospel was a message of redemption, the ideals, principles, doctrine, theology and practice coming out of spiritual conviction and renewal, not because it is ordered by law  

We Are on the Road to the Goals of Project 2025

I'm just a Democrat, a blogger on social media.  I'm no prophet.  But I can see where things are heading.  And if you want to see where they are going, and exactly how your civil liberties are about to be taken away from you, you need to google "Project 2025" and read what you find there.  This is a Christian nationalist agenda and I am quite surprised that, while it has been out there for some time, there are few warnings out there about this.  And yet, this is the agenda that the Trump campaign and the extremist Evangelical right have formed and plan to start implementing if, in fact, Trump winds up winning the election.  

You can thank the Supreme Court for this intrusion into your freedom of conscience and religion. 

I would advise Democrats to use every means possible to educate as many voters as possible about this plan.  These people know what they are doing.  And they've been planning this for a while. 

Evangelical Churches and Denominations are not Democratic, They Are Autocratic 

Most of the Evangelical leaders who are up front and public in their support for Trump are megachurch pastors or they are executives in large ministry organizations that collect millions of dollars, out of which they take a more than fair share.  There is little accountability.  In the bigger churches, the congregation is set up as an oligarchy, called "Elder rule," which is basically the pastor setting himself up with a few of his more enthusiastic supporters as Elders, in order to get what he wants in the way of conducting church business.  Sometimes there is an annual meeting, at which members can theoretically ask questions and provide input, but generally, these pastors face little accountability.  

The salaries are exhorbitant, making these leaders rich beyond the dreams of most of their members.  It comes out of the collection plate.  Aside from building church buildings that are monuments to themselves, the biggest expense is not the missionary activity and ministry which they preach is the most important work of the church, and that betrays the lack of sincerity in their preaching.  

Long ago, I lost any confidence in anything any of these "leaders" had to say.  Their hypocrisy is self evident.  They undermine the credibility of all Christians with their self-centered interpretations of the Bible, manipulating the text to support what they want to support and justify whatever sin they want to justify.  Their support for Trump, who has gone so far as to openly deny the very path to conversion and redemption that they claim to preach, is a sickening display of their contempt for God and for the sincerity of those in their own congregations. 

They claim to believe that the Bible, the sixty-six books accepted by most Protestants, is "inerrant," or without human error in its original writing, and infallible in its content, authoritative in all matters of Christian faith and practice.  But when preaching from the Bible, most of these preachers consider their words as "spiritually inspired," and intentionally leave their congregations with the impression that their interpretation of scripture is the correct one, and all others are wrong.  That's how they justify their absolute power.  So questioning the pastor is equated with questioning God.  

This is how they rule over their congregations.  Fortunately, burning at the stake, which was the typical means used by the Christian church during most of its history as a state church, is against the law, for now.  Now they have to deal with people who just walk away from their authority and leave the church.  A lot of people do that, in fact, Evangelical Christianity has lost a significant number of members over the past couple of decades.  But most people are too mezmerized by the preaching, and convinced that the preacher holds the keys to heaven for them that they are fearful of telling the truth.  

That explains why they are attracted to Trump.  He represents the path to power, money and influence and he has promised to get some of the same for them.  In turn, they've replaced preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ with sermons full of political rhetoric and justification of the anti-Christian, worldly lifestyle he has chosen not only to live, but to brag about and celebrate.  He has succeeded in replacing Jesus as the savior of many people.  

The Will of the People:  Are We Going to Protect Ourselves From the Dangers Trump Poses? 

Right at the very time that Democrats need to be united, on point, and gathering resources to give them the ability to beat Trump into the ground, we are dealing with disarray within our own party.  I sure hope that the events of this past week, specifically, today's Supreme Court decision, serve as a wake up call and Democrats can throw off this funk and unite to defeat the worst enemy our country has faced since Hitler.  

The fact that there are as many Americans as there are who don't see problems with Trump's plans for a second term and Project 2025 is appalling in and of itself and is an indictment of our public education system's ability to teach critical thinking skills and how to develop common sense.  But there are enough Americans who are appalled by this, and who see what is happening, to stop it.  So Democrats have the job of convincing them to vote straight ticket and give us a Congress that will put a stop to this nonsense.  

So my question stands for you to answer.  Are we going to protect ourselves from the dangers Trump poses?

I Don't Want My Country to Lose its Constitutional Democracy

The plan to overturn the 2020 election by inserting the votes of fake electors and then, by a mob intent on making sure Congress didn't count the electoral votes that were legitimately supported by the majority of voters in each state, failed.  At least, it failed on January 6, 2020, to achieve the result of overturning the election by insurrection.  

It appears to have gathered momentum, however, and it has allies in high places, including the United States Supreme Court, the media, the federal judiciary, some state legislatures and courts, and it has what appear to be a significant number of followers and advocates in the electorate at large.  The fight for American Democracy isn't over yet, in fact, it has just started.  

With recent Supreme Court rulings, coming from the most partisan court in American history, one that has most of our founding fathers turning over in their graves, the odds of keeping the Constitution in tact and democracy in place are getting slimmer.  We are at a point where something must be done to curb the power of six judges who were the top recommentations of the most conservative elements of the Republican party, or we are going to lose everything.  

It's not like we didn't see this coming.  Rush Limbaugh, the Heritage Foundation, a whole collection of extremist right wingers figured out how to control the courts.  Right wing activists like Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and others set up the colleges and universities to train lawyers for the purpose of getting them into lifetime appointments on the federal bench.  Conservatives pushed for the election of politicians who were willing to abandon working on both sides of the aisle to get things done in exchange for a "winner take all" attitude.  The problem with that has been that while the Republicans take it all and burn down the house after them, Democrats still play the game of negotiation and compromise.  And so we lost the court that matters most.  

How to Save Our Democracy Now

If we do not win this election, that's the end.  And at the present time, with all of the difficulties that present themselves over getting anything done in Congress, including any possible pressure they could put on the court, this is the only option we have.  

The focus of the Democratic party right now, however, is not on preserving and protecting the democracy, or winning the election.  We're focused on yet another distraction, the same kind of thing that has cost us elections and distracted us, and put is in the position where we are right now.  I don't know what it will take to slap us in the face, collectively, and get the focus back on winning this election, but whatever it will take, that must be done.  

Every American who does not want to see this constitutional democracy dissolved right before our eyes must decide they are going to make sure they cast a ballot which will prevent Donald Trump from being elected.  This Supreme Court has called us to action.  Democratic party members must reach out and make sure independent voters, Green Party voters, moderate Republican voters and every single Democrat registered to vote.  Joe Biden must be relected President.  

Are you with me?  

No President is President Alone

Joe Biden is 81 years old, and he just had a sub-par debate performance.  Well, be honest.  Trump lying through his teeth during the whole debate didn't help him out with any of the voting constituencies he needs to win either.  It was one debate performance.  If that's going to cause the kind of panic and reactionary caterwauling like it appears to have done, like an almost scripted gift to the Trump campaign, then we probably need to just concede now, give it up and get ready for the bloodbath and civil war that's coming.  

But no President serves alone, or at least, no real President does.  Trump tried it, and he failed.  Biden has some of the Democratic party's best people around him.  The cabinet is solid, we have some of the sharpest and most estute governors in the country, and his surrogates among the members of the House and Senate are the best politicians in the nation, head and shoulders in experience, wisdom and knowledge of government over their Republican counterparts.  

I don't have any doubt that Joe Biden is up to the job for four more years, and I am supporting his re-election campaign 100%.  I'd vote for anyone running on the Democratic ticket regardless, because I would also be voting to keep Trump from getting back in the Presidency.  I want to make sure our country remains democratic and committed to the rule of law and to its Constitution.  If his age should somehow become a factor, after he's been elected President, there are capable people behind him who could continue seamlessly to push forward.  

I hope those who have been muttering, complaining, threatening not to show up, or to support the other side over their very specific cause see just how dangerous to themselves and to their cause it would be to make the mistake of feeding their own frustration rather than helping elect the guy who is going to be their best advocate.  We have a great party and our strength is in our diversity, as long as we don't let the diversity become selfish ambition that pulls us apart.  So Gaza supporters, Latino voters, Black voters, Asian voters, women, young voters, Jewish voters, working class voters, Green Party voters, independent voters, moderate Republican voters, voters who disapprove of the SupremeCcourt, voters who are in favor of women making their own health care choices,  and everyone else who stands to lose everything if Trump is re-elected, it is time to unify the party and put up a solid front.  

Joe Biden is the Democratic party nominee, and he's the guy who can beat Trump.  We need to re-elect him and give him a Congress who will start the process of getting the power back in the hands of the people and out of the judicial branch and Supreme Court.  He has the experience and knowledge to fix the damage Trump did during his term, including the balance of the court.  

Are you with me? 

A Sickening Slide into Apostasy, Evil Takes Over American Evangelicalism

 Baptist News Global: Evangelical Emergency Prayer Call Before Debate

A group of Evangelical pastors and self-proclaimed leaders indicted themselves in abandoning the Christian faith last Thursday in their "emergency prayer meeting" on Trump's behalf before the debate.  

As a Christian, I am absolutely sickened by this group's continuous slide into apostasy, because they choose to support a man whose lifestyle and whose very words are an open denial of the Christian gospel, and of Jesus Christ himself.  They've allowed an antichrist to intrude into their churches, an evil personage who has set himself up to receive loyalty that Christians once gave to Jesus, because, as the scripture says, "And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light." [2 Corinthians 11:14]

"For false messiahs and false prophets will appear, and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect."  [Matthew 24:24 NIV]

They have chosen to endorse a secular political candidate, and that endorsement means they are also picking up and carrying along the baggage that goes with it.  These evangelical leaders are supporting a man who has just been convicted on 34 felony counts of dishonesty and fraud in business, related to attempts to cover up the fact that he was sleeping with a porn star while his pregnant wife was preparing to give birth to their son.  

They gathered for an "emergency prayer meeting for Trump," who proceeded to debate with some of the biggest whopping lies he repeats all the time, bearing false witness against his neighbor, if I may use that phrase from the Ten Commandments to make the point. They must, in their attempts to justify supporting him, also own the fact that he has repeatedly denied his own need for repentance and forgiveness, which the apostle John defines as "antichrist," and which the Bible that these men claim is inerrant and infallible says constitutes blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.  

This is the man whose side they've taken in a political race, which, if they were genuine in their Christian faith, they'd stay away from public endorsements.  That tells me all I need to know about anyone who was participating in that prayer meeting.  They are phonies and frauds themselves, just like their political inamorata.  

But...How Can These Self-Appointed Christian Leaders Miss the Point of Their Own Faith? 

They share so much in common with Trump that it's not surprising at all.  They are lovers of money, lovers of power and lovers of themselves.  Did you catch, in the debate, what determines any decision Trump makes is on how much he can personally profit from it.  We can't support Ukraine because of the cost.  If NATO allies don't pay their bill, then let Putin invade and we do nothing.  It's all about money.  

"For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.  [I Timothy 6:10, NIV]

Evangelicals claim that the Bible is without error, and is infallible in its content.  That's an interesting theological perspective which is not actually supported anywhere in the Bible itself, which is supposed to be the "sole authority" for doctrine in the Christian church.  How that gets translated, from the pulpit to the congregation, is that these pastors convince their congregants that if the Bible is without error and infallible, and they are, of course, "preaching the Bible," then whatever they say and however they interpret the Bible is also infallible and without error.  Any member of a church who challenges some pretense of the pastor is therefore accused of challenging the inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible.  

Each of these leaders claims to have been "called" by God to serve in their church, and "illumined" in their preaching by the Holy Spirit.  So they claim they are speaking on God's behalf, even when they step away from the Bible and start commenting on everything else in society, including government.  They have absolute authority within their own congregations, their interpretation of the Bible is the only acceptable one and they demand the loyalty of their congregants.  They have made themselves wealthy off the offerings of their congregants, and they can get most of their church members to do whatever they want them to do, whether its help in lucrative business deals, or help to put down disgruntled, vocal opposition in the church.  

Immorality, and a lifestyle based on the Christian gospel's beatitudes, and fruit of the spirit, is secondary to their acquisition of power.  What power, as an evangelical leader means, is that immorality can be indulged in, and then hidden, as so many of them have done.  That's why Trump appeals to them, and that's why they follow him.  They will become a ruling oligarchy if he wins, the Christian nationalist dictatorship they have always wanted, sans any of the values of Jesus, because they want revenge on all of those who have rejected their message.  Just like he does.  

Like Trump, there are not any of these Evangelical leaders, especially those who have accumulated their wealth by selling the faith, who give a damn about the values of the Christian Gospel.  That is simply the means by which to dupe enough people into them getting into political power to get what they want. They are, as the Apostle Jude describes, 

"Blemishes at your love-feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm-- shepherds who feed only themselves--, they are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees without fruit and uprooted--twice dead.  They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars for whom the blackest darkness has been reserved forever."  [Jude 12,13, NIV]

A vote for Trump will empower these egomaniacs and false prophets, placing them in control of your life.  Think about that before you cast your ballot.