What I’d Like to Hear at the Presidential Debate – 2024

OPENING I understand that tonight’s event has been billed as a presidential debate, but based on hours of listening to Donald Trump’s past performances I don’t think there’s going to be a debate tonight. A debate is when two people argue policy based on facts and logic. The reality is that Donald Trump has not …

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Fascist

Well, the “F-word” of American politics is finally being brandished by both sides in a classic game of rubber v. glue. But there is danger in simply writing the battle off as a food fight, in objecting “BZL2 !” (as I might) or saying “a pox on both your houses” (as William Shakespeare might). When …

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CONSERVATIVE, adj.: radical, regressive, authoritarian

Whatever you think about Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion in Dobbs v. Mississippi, one thing should be clear – no judge who signed that opinion should be called “conservative.” Radical perhaps. Or regressive. Even authoritarian. But if you want to use words precisely, as Supreme Court Justices should, don’t call them conservative. We know what …

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State of the Union

It begins with a lie. An annual lie, repeated year after year, by President after President, whether Republican or Democrat. The President stands before a joint session of Congress and begins the State of the Union emphatically: “The state of our union is strong!”             We know that the President is lying, but we feel …

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A Primer on Legal Issues in Trump’s Second Impeachment Trial

Before we look at issues peculiar to the impeachment for inciting an insurrection, let’s remember some key ideas from the first impeachment. Impeachment is a political proceeding, not a criminal or civil proceeding. What must be proved is not a crime, as defined by criminal statutes, but a “high crime or misdemeanor” – basically, an …

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Unity

Recently, the word “unity” is being brandished by Republicans in the wake of the January 6th riot in the Capitol to ask the country to look past what happened and why it happened. But real unity requires agreement, agreement on basic principles and agreement on basic facts. Republicans offer neither and, in fact, turn their …

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Back to Normal

Everywhere people express frustration at how long it is taking for us to get back to normal in the face of the COVID pandemic. To which I say – not so fast. Normal is, in many ways, what made us so vulnerable to COVID, more than any other developed nation.  For people in the United …

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Premature Elation

The President clearly has a problem with premature elation, as shown by his inability to control his unwarranted triumphal twittering.   It started on the first day after his inauguration when he tweeted that his crowd size was bigger than Obama’s.  As if. It became more serious when we went overnight from “the slowest economic recovery …

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A Conservative’s Election Scorecard

The abiding touchstone for conservative voters has been to elect the candidate who better embodies conservative beliefs and values.  Because the term “conservative” has varied meanings, it would not be appropriate to call a belief “conservative” because a few self-described conservatives believe it. So, for example, the QAnon conspiracy theory does not represent conservative values …

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Arguing with Family and Friends

There is a pandemic raging in the United States. No, not that one. I’m talking about a pandemic of pointless political argument – argument that does not lead to resolution or action, but only divides people, and thereby makes effective action to deal with problems less likely. When those arguments occur within families or among …

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The Art of Followership

Donald Trump to Teresa May: “I would rather follow than lead” Many business books advocate “leading from behind” or “leading from the sidelines”. But, for those who want credit without accepting any responsibility or blame, nothing beats “following from the front.”             The big advantage to being in front is that you automatically get the …

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Anarchists

Donald Trump claims to be concerned about anarchists; someone needs to warn him that the call is coming from inside the house. Recently we have been hearing a term that has fallen out of favor over the past forty years or so – “anarchists.”  The term has been so loosely applied that is often little …

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Obama’s Is Bigger

With the Republican convention starting this week, we can expect to hear lots about the terrible economy that Donald Trump inherited and the tremendous job he has done creating jobs and growth.    For the most part, the Republican argument will depend on lying about the state of the economy when Trump took office, and on …

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