Not Good Enough is Not Good Enough - 10/16/2022

Lemme tell you something. A lot of us don't like the candidates who show up on our ballots. I had quite a few friends in both 2016 and 2020 who said they disliked both candidates, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in 2016, and Joe Biden and Donald Trump in 2020. For them, and I think this represents a sizable portion of the U.S. electorate, their votes wound up more against one of them than it was a vote for the candidate they chose. This can have disastrous results.

Joe Biden wasn't elected. Donald Trump was just so hated he was displaced. Every damned day Joe shows us he's not good enough to do the job. Simply put, "Not Trump" is not good enough for our country.

Allegations of cheating and wrongdoing aside, the presidential race in 2020 is instructive in this regard. Democrats and establishment Republicans alike hate Donald Trump for 1,000,000 reasons I feel no need to recount here. Whether you or I agree with them or not is immaterial. Getting President Trump out of the White House was for many voters an imperative. Enter President Joe Biden. Joe was an also-ran and wanna be for decades. He had never made it to the White House, though. Why? Lots of reasons. But in 2020, an election year in which Democrats had a very thin bench, Biden ran as former President Barack Obama's former VP and presumed protege. Nothing, or at least next to nothing about Joe Biden warranted making him President on his own merit. But he had the connection to Obama and he certainly wasn't Donald Trump.

Evicting Trump from the White House and moving Biden in meant overlooking Biden's career of mediocrity, his history of dishonesty and plagiarism, his corruption: "10% for the Big Guy", and his declining mental and physical health. But that's what they did. We are left with an incompetent nincompoop, a guy who needs crib notes to talk, a guide to help him walk off a stage lest he wander into the corner looking lost and perplexed, and a guy who sometimes reaches out with handshakes intended for empty space. He defers to his handlers on policy after policy. He's weak on economy, energy, foreign affairs, immigration, on and on and on. He's terrible. But he's not Donald Trump. Damned shame he ain't, actually. Sure, Trump's a dick, but he had us in better standing every which way than this guy does.

Which brings me to Florida and the 2022 gubernatorial race between former Governor Charlie Crist and incumbent Ron DeSantis. If you ask me, DeSantis has done a great job in Florida. But liberals hate him. He has rejected woke policy after woke policy. The propaganda from the left tries to paint DeSantis as an evil fascist and all that other baseless nonsense that surrogates for substantive policy alternative from the left. Luckily, DeSantis is a bit more in control of his tongue than Trump, and they haven't been able to gather similar fodder to demonize him as they had on Trump. I like DeSantis. I won't be voting against Crist, I'll be voting FOR DeSantis.

Florida gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist ain't Ron DeSantis, either. He'd be another bad mistake. He's not good enough, and that ain't good enough.

Ron DeSantis is going to be re-elected as Florida Governor. I surely believe it and hope so. Electing Charlie instead would be Florida's version of Joe Biden: a has-been with no business trying to do the job. Florida voters in 2022 have more sense than national voters did in 2020. We like prosperity. We love our state. We don't believe woke ideas should become policy.

Joe Biden is a failure. Charlie Crist will fail us, too, if given the chance. Floridians, vote for Ron DeSantis.

DeSantis for Florida Governor in 2022, and for POTUS in 2028.

On Tulsi Gabbard - 10/12/2022

Tulsi Gabbard has left the Democratic Party. #walkaway

Yesterday morning I heard Tulsi Gabbard talk about leaving the Democratic Party, and why she's doing so. Last night discussion of Gabbard by conservatives on social media was instructive in explaining why Republicans and conservatives can't seem to stop tripping over themselves and each other. So let me make a couple of things clear, for those of you in the back row too shy to raise your hand and speak up.

I agreed with just about everything Tulsi said in her statement yesterday. The Democratic Party has gone bonkers under the control of the woke, liberal, progressive wing of the party. I applaud Gabbard for publicly denouncing it.

Agreeing with Tulsi Gabbard on her decision and explanation to leave the Democratic Party is NOT an endorsement of every single Tulsi position on every single issue. And if because you disagree with her on gun rights, abortion, and economic issues, all valid points of disagreement for many conservatives, that you can't applaud this decision and announcement, YOU are part of a bigger problem. You've got conservative myopia. On the 8 x 10 piece of paper that the political landscape in 2022 is charted out, you're focused on a single square inch in the upper right hand corner and refusing to look at, think about, or even be told about anything in the other 79 square inches on which it's described. Agreeing with Tulsi and applauding this decision and announcement is NOT the same thing as endorsing her as the GOP candidate for the House, Senate, Governorship, for VP, or President.

Completely shutting down and or ignoring every person with whom conservatives disagree on any and every issue or issues, keeping a small tent of purity, one of rote agreement on an entire conservative platform, is a recipe for failure. A bigger tent, a bigger coalition, a broader spectrum of citizens is a far better way to win majorities and undermine the woke, progressive, socialist, anti-American, neocons, and globalists who far better than we work the system to their own ends.

I don't know that I'd ever vote for Tulsi Gabbard. But I like her. I didn't say I agree with her on all issues. I said I like her. Believe it of not it's okay to like people with whom you disagree. I did look into her position on abortion and it's not really that far off from mine. See, I'm not an absolutist on that issue. I'm not an absolutist on most issues. I oppose the leftist absolutists' positions on most, though. Tulsi does, too. Not to the extent I do, but we're talking a matter of weeks, not a simple purist's yes or no. I like Tulsi Gabbard. I am happy she did what she did publicly yesterday. She's kinda easy on the eyes, too.

Worst President in My Lifetime - 10/11/2022

He's awful. Really he is. President Joe Biden is the worst President in my lifetime. And that's saying something. Why is the guy so bad at his job? A few thoughts.

He's simply too old.

There's that saying, "It's like riding a bike," that presumes you can still do what you always could always do before. Well, ahem, could Joe do it before? And even if he could, does anyone honestly believe this is the same guy he was in the 1980's, 1990's, or 2000's? You do? No, you really don't. You're not even a good liar. Joe ain't what he used to be, plain and simple, and he never was much of what we needed here in the US in the first place. Seeing him at a loss for words, lost on stage, shaking hands with air, and reading teleprompter stuff not meant to be verbalized does NOT inspire confidence in me or any other honest person. Watching him bungle policy on issue after issue after issue is not so reassuring.

"At least he's not Trump" isn't good enough.

Sometimes the lesser of evils gets you less. In the case of Joe Biden, it gets you a lot less. Less? Yeah. Less than Trump. Less than what we expected. Less than what some expected is more accurate. I didn't vote for him and I had low expectations, which Biden has failed to meet. Less than what we need. Look at the economy. Energy policy. Our immigration disaster. The world on the brink of nuclear war. Mean tweets? Yes, please. Oh, God yes. Please. In a heartbeat.

He's not his own man.

Perhaps Joe's biggest weakness is that he doesn't administer his office from his own political center. Nope. He's too much a political chameleon for that. The woke, leftist, progressive coalition that controls his party controls Joe. I don't care of you're right, left, or center, if you're president, you have to administer things based on your own moral compass and your own sensibilities. Leave the coalitioning and caucusing to Congress. Joe ain't his own man. And it shows. He's a puppet. Who's the puppeteer?

He's corrupted: "10% for the Big Guy."

How much has Hunter Biden selling his father's influence sold us out? How much has it affected Joe Biden policy and diplomacy? How bad is it? I'm guessing it's bad, y'know? Is he corrupt? Compromised? Oblivious? Which of those is a good thing for a President of the United States?

He's a creep.

He's a creepy, nasty man. All the shit they talked about his predecessor, this guy showered with his daughter, sniffs women's hair, married the babysitter... "She was 12. I was 30." He's a fucking creep.

He's the worst President of my lifetime. He's got our country headed in wrong directions, every which way but right. Two more long years of ineptitude. Two more years of watching prices rise, interest rate hikes, savings decline, lost world prestige and influence, and disastrous energy, immigration, and other policies. He's a disaster. Two more years. Holy crap. I hope we can pull out of it, but I fear the wrong people are in charge. We need a change.