Democratic Party

Can Senator Tim Scott Become The Republican Presidential Nominee In 2024?

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The only black Republican Senator, Tim Scott of South Carolina, has just entered the race for the Presidency.

With only five black Republican House members and Scott the only black Republican Senator, the Republican Party does not have the image of caring about African Americans.

So the question arises whether Scott has any possility of becoming the Republican nominee for the White House.

With South Carolina being a crucial state in the battle for the nomination of both parties, he might have an avenue to advance, but also has to deal with the woman who chose him originally to fill an open Senate seat a decade ago, then Governor and later United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, who has already announced her own Presidential candidacy,

And Donald Trump has the backing of the South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster and Senator Lindsey Graham, so these complexities make one wonder if Scott has any chance to move forward.

Scott comes across as likeable to his own Republican Senate colleagues, with South Dakota Senator John Thune, the Minority Whip, endorsing him, and even New Jersey Democratic Senator Cory Booker praising him as a colleague across the aisle.

His announcement was inspiring to those who think conservative government is the best, and have no issue with his promotion of Christianity in government.

But such viewpoints are not inspirational to anyone, such as this author and blogger, who believes in progressive and liberal values.

Scott will make the race more interesting for sure, but one has to wonder how Donald Trump will treat him in language and behavior, as the former President’s racism may, once again, show up in his rhetoric.

Tricia Cotham, A Turncoat Against Women’s Abortion Rights In North Carolina!

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As the struggle to insure a woman’s right to control her own body and abortion rights continues, sadly, we have seen a turncoat against women’s abortion rights in North Carolina.

Tricia Cotham, a newly elected Democratic state legislator supportive of abortion rights, who had formerly served in that body years earlier,completely abandoned what she was elected on as her platform.

Tricia Cotham herself had an abortion in 2015 and defended that action when she was running for the legislative seat in 2022.

She has shown to have no principle, and shocked women’s groups as clearly, she lied, and changed her view, and one has to wonder if she was offered some kind of motivation to change her mind, in a way that harms all women in North Carolina.

The governor, Roy Cooper, vetoed an abortion bill limiting women to 12 weeks instead of 20, but the supermajority Republican legislature, now insured of the ability to override the veto, is almost certain to impose the new restriction, unless one Republican switches his or her view at the last minute.

Tricia Cotham will not go down in history as a principled person, but rather as a person who makes ordinary citizens be very cynical that one cannot trust politicians, and how they can be manipulated so readily!

She also has come across as an extreme gun enthusiast, and promoted Christianity in an extreme manner recently, making one wonder about her mental stability, and certainly, about her level of honesty when she was elected just months ago as the Democratic nominee for her legislative seat, after being in the same legislative body in earlier years, but leaving in 2016.

Tricia Cotham should not have run again now, as she lied to her voters, clear and simple!

In June And September, We Are About To Have 90 Year Old Senators For Only 5th And 6th Time In American History!

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In the next four months, we are about to have 90 year old Senators in office for only the 5th and 6th time in American history!

Attention is being brought to this reality because California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, who will be 90 on June 22, has returned to Washington DC after three months away, recuperating from Shingles. But even before this recent bout with illness, it was clear to many observers that Feinstein was in mental decline since 2019, a year after she ran for another six year term at age 85.

Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, who will be 90 on September 17, just was elected to another six year term in 2022 at the age of 89. It must be said that Grassley seems in fine physical and mental shape despite his age, but the concept that if he finishes the term in early January 2029 that he will be past 95 years of age, is mind boggling! If he finishes his term, he will be the second oldest Senator in American History!

Only four US Senators have been in office in their 90s, including

Republican Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina who reached 100 years of age in office, retired, and died a half year later.

Democratic Senator Theodore F. Green of Rhode Island reached 93 years of age in office, retired, and lived to age 98.

Democratic Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia reached 92 and a half years of age, dying in office.

Democratic Senator Carl Hayden of Arizona left office past the age of 91 and died three years later at age 94.

Desperate Need For Immigration Reform For Past Generation

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In 1986, Republican President Ronald Reagan signed an immigration reform plan into law, legitimizing millions of migrants who might have come in without the normal channels.

Reagan understood that the lifeblood of the nation is immigration, as America has always been a land welcoming people from other lands who have suffered from violence, poverty, discrimination, and simple desire for a better life.

Everyone of us in America is here because earlier generations of immigrants took the arduous and often dangerous trip from foreign lands.

And yet, now, and for the entire 21st century, the Republican Party, with some exceptions, have blocked immigration reform under Republican President George W. Bush, and Democratic Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Many forget, conveniently, that Republican Presidentic candidate Senator John McCain of Arizona promoted such reform in his 2008 Presidential campaign, and before and after that time frame until his passing in 2018.

But now, the ugly nativism of most Republicans is distressing, and failing to realize that promoting more immigration is a long range strategy to deal with the aging of the American population, and the dire need for more young people to promote economic growth into the future.

George Santos, An Embarrassment And Burden To Republican Party

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First term Congressman George Santos (R-New York) is just the latest example of the disaster that is the Republican Party of 2023!

Santos has copied Donald Trump in stating that the 13 charges brought against him this week by the federal government are a “witch hunt”!

He has lied about everything imaginable, and he should resign from office, but Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy desperately needs every vote on every bill, since he has only a four seat majority in the House of Representatives.

Santos is an embarrassment and burden to the Republican Party, and it is likely that his Congressional seat in Northern Queens County and North Shore of Nassau County, the area where this blogger and author lived in the first half of his life, will turn back to Democratic if there is a special election during the term, or else in the regular election cycle in 2024!

Generation Z (1996-2012) Turning “Blue” On Abortion, Guns, Voting Rights!

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Generation Z (1996-2012) is rapidly turning “Blue” on the major controversies that divide America’s political parties.

This is heartening news for the Democratic Party, as young people in large percentages support abortion rights, whether they are women and girls or their male supporters. This is the generation most impacted by courts and politicians attempting to control their reproductive rights!

Also, young people recognize that the gun culture in America worships the crazy need to allow semi automatic firearms to go unregulated while thousands upon thousands of young people become cannon fodder in a nation that believes every fetus must be born, but then you are on your own!

Also, young people are being prevented from voting when they go away to colleges and universities in many “Red” states, because it is realized that they tend to be more “liberal” by being exposed to varying ideas outside of their family’s views, if they come from a household with little education beyond high school.

The more educated one is, the more likely they will tend to be Democrats, because they realize that life is more than just making money, but also to have compassion, empathy, decency, dignity, and care about human rights for more than just themselves!

So in the midst of difficult, stressful times, the future seems bright for Democrats and for “liberal” and “progressive” values, as the Republicans are alienating millions upon millions nationally who value women’s rights, gun protections, and voting rights!

Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s Tenure In Danger!

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Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy is in great danger of losing his Speakership, and so far, the 118th Congress, with a small Republican edge in the House of Representatives, and a 51-49 Democratic Senate control, has accomplished almost nothing!

If McCarthy angers just one member of his caucus, a vote could come up to remove him from the Speakership, and if just five members of his caucus joined with the Democrats, he will be gone as the leader of his party!

The upcoming debt ceiling impasse will be a major test of whether McCarthy can survive the two year term of the 118th Congress!

The lunatic “Freedom Caucus”, with at least 46 sitting members, sadly, is controlling much of the Republican agenda in the House of Representatives!

This includes Matt Gaetz of Florida, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, and Lauren Boebert of Colorado, as the most controversial of a group in which all the members are extremists!

Abe Fortas Resigned In 1969 From Supreme Court, And Clarence Thomas Needs To Do Same In 2023!

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In 1969, Associate Justice Abe Fortas, appointed to the Supreme Court in 1965 by his “good friend”, President Lyndon B. Johnson, resigned, due to an ethics scandal, and accusations that he was too partisan and close to his long time friend.

Fortas had been nominated to replace Chief Justice Earl Warren, but members of his own Democratic Party, as well as opposition Republicans, negated that, and under fire, Fortas retired from the Court after less than four years of service.

Now, 54 years later, we have Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, appointed by President George H. W. Bush in 1991 to replace retiring Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall, under fire for much greater ethics violations, with calls for his resignation or impeachment after 32 years on the Supreme Court.

Thomas’s wife, Ginni Thomas, was involved in the promotion of opposition to the counting of the Electoral College votes in the Presidential Election of 2020, and Thomas himself was willing to work to prevent the confirmation of Joe Biden as the winner of the Presidency.

Additionally, Thomas has not reported income and real estate dealings with powerful and wealthy right wing promoters, including Harlan Crow, and clearly, Thomas is the most right wing extremist member of the Court, more so in many respects than former Associate Justice Antonin Scalia.

Thomas has a “chip on his shoulder”, since the investigation of sexual harrassment against Anita Hill complicated his nomination to the Court in 1991, with the vote for his confirmation being the closest in the 20th century by the US Senate.

He made the statement that he would stay on the Court to double his age at the time, 43, to “confound the damn liberals”, so he was already in 1991 ill qualified to sit on the Court with such a biased view of his role!

It is time after nearly 32 years, and 12th longest service on the Court, for Thomas to leave the Court, which he has stained with his corruption from his nomination until today’s controversies!

Crazy, Tumultuous America 158 Years After The End Of The Civil War!

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Today, April 9, marks the end of the American Civil War in 1865, 158 years ago!

Today, more than a century and a half since then, America is, arguably, more divided than it has ever been, including the tumultuous 1960s!

Now, the South, once Democratic and hardline on the issue of racial discrimination, is Republican and hardline on the issue of racial discrimination!

Now, the nation that would not give women the right to vote or basic legal rights in the 19th century, is in the process of stripping away a woman’s right to control her own body, and decide whether she wishes to have children every time she engages in sexual intercourse, by choice or by force!

Now, we have a former President, Donald Trump, who has abused power massively, much more than even Richard Nixon a half century ago, and the party of Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower bows to him in a cult like fashion, ready to put him back to power and destroy all of the progress of American democracy in the past century or more!

America is on the cusp of the possible destruction of the Constitution and the rule of law, and is on a tear to provoke violence and bloodshed in the determination that the Second Amendment, which has been horribly distorted, shall rule supreme, and that anyone, no matter how mentally disturbed he or she is, is entitled to weapons of war to use on American streets!

America, a nation built on the contributions of immigrants, is once again promoting nativism against people of different colors, languages, customs, and religions, with no sense of the dignity of all human beings!

America, a nation built on freedom of religion, and separation of church and state, is now seeing religious extremists attempting to promote a national theology of white supremacy Christianity, leading to antisemitism, anti Muslim, anti Hindu, and all other religious beliefs in the name of a supposed absolute deity!

America, a nation built on three equal and balanced government branches, is now witnessing the judicial branch gone amuck, in its determination to promote an absolute, narrow minded version of the Constitution–Originalism–which refers on the nation as it was in 1787 at the time of the Constitutional Convention, as if the 236 years since then are an aberration of the original principles of the Founding Fathers!

A nation which does not grow and change is a nation in decline, and in a world where there are massive threats that create danger, that can only undermine the nation which has been a model for the world of the possibilities of expansion of basic human rights!

This is a time for reflection, and for determination NOT to allow the evil forces which surround us to achieve their wicked goals!

Robert F. Kennedy’s Namesake Son A Disgrace To The Family Name!

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President Joe Biden is a great admirer of former Senator, Attorney General, and 1968 Democratic Presidential contender Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated on June 5, 1968.

So much an admirer that Biden has a bust of RFK on his Oval Office Desk, often shown in photos when Biden is sitting at the desk.

And the two men share a common birthday, November 20, for Kennedy in 1925, for Biden in 1942.

Sadly, in the present, RFK’s namesake, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has been disgracing the family name and reputation as an anti vaccine conspiracy theorist, and collaborating with right wing extremists, while making a lot of money promoting attacks on the good name of Dr. Anthony Fauci. The former Chief Medical Adviser to President Biden, consultant to every President from Ronald Reagan to Joe Biden, and former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for four decades, has been pilloried without just cause!

Now, RFK Jr has announced his candidacy for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 2024, challenging Biden!

This is laughable, as RFK Jr will receive only the support of anti science, anti medicine lunatics, who had no concern about the mass loss of life from COVID 19, which they contributed to by their reckless, ignorant repudiation of vaccines and masks in the most deadly epidemic in a century!

Biden should not agree to debate RFK, Jr, just ignore him, as RFK Jr makes a fool of himself, and embarrasses his mother, Ethel, who has lived 55 years since the tragic death of her husband, and will reach the age of 95 four days from now, mortified by her son, who seriously needs mental health treatment!