Abraham Lincoln

Republican Party Digging Its Grave, With Only About Ten Percent Acknowledging Joe Biden Victory

The Republican Party is digging its own grave, with their reprehensible behavior, with only ten percent, or approximately 27 out of about 250 members of the party in Congress, acknowledging Joe Biden’s overwhelming victory in the Presidential Election of 2020.

The Republican Party refusal to stand up to Donald Trump and his childish temper tantrum behavior is going to reverberate on them in the future, as droves of voters abandon the party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, as they become a more extremist right wing group of lunatics!

Twelve US Senators and 15 House members have publicly accepted that the election is over, with the Senators being the following:

Lisa Murkowski of Alaska
Susan Collins of Maine
Mitt Romney of Utah
Ben Sasse of Nebraska
Lamar Alexander of Tennessee
Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania
Marco Rubio of Florida
Bill Cassidy of Louisiana
Deb Fischer of Nebraska
Shelley Moore Capito Of West Virginia
Jerry Moran of Kansas
James Risch of Idaho

The two most notable Congressmen are Will Hurd of Texas, who is retiring from Congress, and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who is notable for speaking out against Trump before the election.

Additionally, three Senators have indicated that they will accept Joe Biden as legitimate, when the Electoral College declares him the winner, with those three Senators being Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, and Mike Rounds of South Dakota.

The rest of the Republicans are “Missing in Action”, failing to do their job, and refusing to show proper respect and acceptance of the person elected by a margin of 7 million popular votes, and for that, they will be condemned in history!

Donald Trump Obsesses On An Election He Lost, And Endangers America On COVID 19 And National Security

Donald Trump is wasting his last two plus months in office obsessing on an election he lost, undermining faith in American democracy at a time of America being endangered by the COVID 19 Pandemic, which he refuses to relate to, or care about the massive loss of life, now 250,000 men, women, and children after only 8 months.

Trump is also a danger to national security, with his reckless plan to attack Iran, and withdraw troops precipitously from Iraq and Afghanistan, undermining the fight against terrorism worldwide, and angering even many Republicans.

It has made this transition the most dangerous and tense since 1932-1933 (Franklin D. Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover), and 1860-1861 (Abraham Lincoln and James Buchanan).

Joe Biden faces a series of crises even greater than Barack Obama faced after his election in 2008.

The Second Presidential Debate In Nashville: Joe Biden Has Best Debate And Kristen Welker Triumphs!

Last night’s Nashville Tennessee Presidential debate was far better than the first Presidential debate a few weeks ago simply because Donald Trump finally obeyed the rules, and stopped interrupting Joe Biden and being massively rude.

But the winner of the debate clearly was Joe Biden, who had his best debate of the Presidential campaign season, and proved beyond any doubt that he can perform in such a way as to prove he is nowhere near demented, and is able to make clear his main points and ideas in a cogent manner.

Biden is perfectly capable of being President of the United States, and is much more stable mentally than Donald Trump, who often has come across in the past four years as mentally deranged!

Meanwhile, Donald Trump continued to lie, lie, lie with impunity, and demonstrate that he has no plan on health care or the COVID 19 Pandemic, so while he did not harm himself in this debate, he did not gain any points either.

Trump also claimed, laughingly, that he is the least racist person there is, when he is by far by words and actions over a lifetime the most racist President in American history, and makes George Wallace seem mild by comparison! When he mentioned he has done the most of any President on the issue of race since Abraham Lincoln, he forgets Lyndon B. Johnson completely!

Trump also demonstrated he has no concern about his criminal act of separating children from their parents at the border, and now having so many unable to be reunited with their families.

This action should lead to a criminal trial for the President and his entire Cabinet at the Hague, as it is a violation of human rights and international law to mistreat children in any circumstance!

But the star of the debate above all was moderator Kristen Welker of NBC News, who was masterful in keeping control of the timing of the debate, and did herself proud, and this will advance her stature and her career. So congratulations, Kristen!

Donald Trump (Mussolini) As He Crashes, And Joe Biden (Elements Of Lincoln, FDR, And Obama) For The Future

Donald Trump is acting like Mussolini, with elements of Hitler, as his administration is crashing around him.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden has elements of Abraham Lincoln, as he spoke yesterday at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and the future need for him, with the help of a Democratic Congress, and his Vice President, Kamala Harris, to act like Franklin D. Roosevelt, as Biden will face a series of crises on the level of Lincoln and FDR, and also, that of Barack Obama in 2009.

However, 2021 now looks as if it will be a combination of 1861, 1933, and 2009, and we are going to need wisdom, conviction, and strength as the new President will need to promote a New Deal and Great Society combination domestically, and need to have the guts and courage of Harry Truman in foreign policy, to restore our alliances and protect our national security.

Happy 96th Birthday, President Jimmy Carter! You Will Rise In Historical Reputation In The Future!

Today is the 96th Birthday of former President Jimmy Carter, the longest lived American President, who surpassed Herbert Hoover in retirement years in 2012.

He and his wife and Vice President Walter Mondale will, God Willing, celebrate 40 years in retirement on January 20, 2021, when we will see the likely inauguration of a man just as decent and humane as Jimmy Carter, Joe Biden!

Carter has been much attacked unjustly, and not appreciated for his amazing environmentalism; the creation of three Cabinet agencies (Education, Health and Human Services, Energy); the Egyptian Israeli Peace Treaty at Camp David, which has held for more than 40 years; the Panama Canal Treaty; and his amazing Post Presidential career of good deeds, including the building of housing for Habitat for Humanity, but also his Carter Center fighting against disease, insuring fair elections in other nations, and promoting peace and democracy around the world.

Carter will rise in ratings of scholars once he passes from the scene, just as Harry Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower did in the years after their deaths, as often, Presidents are not appreciated in their lifetimes, with the best example being Abraham Lincoln!

Let us hope that Carter reaches the age of 100 four years from now with his bride Rosalynn by his side, and Walter Mondale too!

It Is Official: The Republican Party Has Become A Cult Around A Strong Arm Authoritarian Out To Destroy American Democracy!

The Republican National Convention began today during the daytime hours, and Donald Trump and Mike Pence were renominated for President and Vice President of the United States.

Donald Trump avoided tradition and spoke for an hour, ranting and raving against his “enemies”, reminding those who know history of Adolf Hitler at his Nuremberg rallies.

We are witnessing the Republican Party officeholders swearing their loyalty to a man who has lied 20,000 times in office; has promoted racism, nativism, misogyny, white supremacy; has become a friend of authoritarians and alienated democratic nations; has undermined the judiciary, intelligence agencies, the foreign policy apparatus, and attacked the news media as “the enemy of the people”; has bullied and attacked all of his critics incessantly; has undermined our environment and civil liberties; has refused to take strong action against the CoronaVirus Pandemic; has shown no sense of compassion, empathy, decency or dignity in any form; and a legion of others sins and shortcomings that has never been matched by any previous President in more than two centuries of American history!

The party of such Presidential luminaries as Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush has been shamed by Donald Trump!

The party of such Congressional luminaries as Charles Sumner, Robert LaFollette, Sr., George Norris, Arthur Vandenberg, and Everett Dirksen has been embarrassed by the weak kneed refusal of today’s Republican members of Congress to show some backbone to Donald Trump!

Face the facts: the Republican Party has become a cult, and is unlikely to come back into respectability, even after Donald Trump leaves the scene, as he has done so much damage and harm, that the Republican Party name may very well go into oblivion!

Presidential Debates Are Worthless, Unless Donald Trump Agrees To Two Conditions: Taxes Revealed, And Fact Checker For Trump Lies!

There is no point to Joe Biden agreeing to debate with Donald Trump, unless Trump agrees to reveal his tax records, as Joe Biden has done, AND it is also agreed that there will be a fact checking team approved by both candidates to be hired by the non partisan Commission on Presidential Debates.

That team would report with ten minutes left in the debate any misleading statements, phony numbers, or outright lies uttered by either candidate.

Trump lies as he breathes, as Thomas Friedman of the New York Times said last month, and Biden should not allow that to go unanswered by a fact checking team at the debate.

Since Biden is comfortably ahead in all polls, he gains nothing by debates, and by refusing to debate, will infuriate Trump, who will go even more looney.

Trump knows he is losing, and Joe Biden should just continue to make public statements before small audiences with proper distancing. Biden is being helped by various Republican groups who are dedicated to Trump’s defeat as the only way to revive the party of Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Joe Biden has been right since January on the CoronaVirus Pandemic, and should make the effort to win as many states as possible, but the debates make no sense at this point, unless Trump agrees to the two conditions mentioned above, which will not occur!

Joe Biden Makes Himself Available Regularly On The Internet: New Method Of Campaigning For President

The Presidential campaign of 2020 for Joe Biden has begun in a distinguished manner. There were people wondering where he was, but he has answered by presenting his ideas and concerns on a daily basis now that we are just about five months to Election Day!

Joe Biden is on the internet just about every day with a video or interview, as campaigning person to person is not possible with the COVID-19 Pandemic raging across the globe, and just today, the horrid figure of 100,000 deaths in three months, an average of 900 a day, stares at us.

At the rate that this pandemic is expanding, and with the expectation that there will be a second wave, based on history and science, we can expect, sadly, that there will be 200,000 dead by the end of August, and 300,000 by Thanksgiving!

So Joe Biden must campaign in a new way, and he manages to express thoughts of concern, empathy, compassion, decency, and humanity, but that is nothing new for Joe Biden, as that is who he is!

Meanwhile, Donald Trump expresses none of the above traits, and disgusts more Americans every day, who rightfully blame him for the inadequate response to the pandemic. There is the belief at least one third to maybe one half of the deaths could have been averted if actions had been taken in January and February and early March, rather than waiting to mid to late March, when the virus was spreading widely!

Joe Biden gives us hope and a Presidential presence, even though he is not President, reminding us of Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Barack Obama in his ability to deal with a crisis, although not of his making.

From Election To Inauguration: Four Worrisome Times, And Now Again In 2020

In American history, we have witnessed four times when the period from the election to the inauguration has been a worrisome time.

The first time was 1860-1861, when Abraham Lincoln was facing the secession of the South, and likely civil war, and even the danger of assassination threats before he took office.

The second time was 1876-1877, when the popular vote went to Samuel J. Tilden, but the electoral vote went to Rutherford B. Hayes, decided by a special Electoral Commission, which resulted in the closest electoral vote imaginable, a one vote margin of electors.

The third time was 1932-1933, when Franklin D. Roosevelt faced a recalcitrant Herbert Hoover, who refused to cooperate with the President-Elect as the Great Depression worsened.

The fourth time was 2000-2001, when the electoral vote was decided by the Supreme Court, awarding Florida to George W. Bush over Al Gore, by the second closest electoral vote, only five electoral vote margin.

And now, in 2020, we have to fear that Donald Trump will refuse to concede the election, and will fight it in every possible way, if the electoral vote is contested. And even if it is an easy victory for Joe Biden, Trump might create a constitutional crisis, and attempt to declare martial law and suspend the Constitution. He also might attempt to start a war with China or Iran, in the midst of the CoronaVirus Pandemic.

So we have a lot to worry about as we move toward the Presidential Election of 2020!

The Empathy Of Clinton, George W. Bush, Obama, And Also Lincoln, TR, LBJ, And Carter, As Compared To Trump

One of the most important traits that any President should have, but not all do, is to have empathy, an understanding of the struggles and difficulties of people’s lives, and the ability to relate to the tragedies of others.

Donald Trump has not an ounce of empathy for anyone, as he is a total narcissist, and clearly does not care about others, only his own advancement financially, and to control others to his own benefit.

Trump does not lose sleep over the devastation wrought by the CoronaVirus Pandemic that could have been dealt with two months earlier, and made the tragedy far less deadly.

The three Presidents before him had empathy as, for example:

Bill Clinton at the time of the Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995.

George W. Bush after the attack on New York City on September 11, 2001.

Barack Obama and the Sandy Hook Elementary School Massacre in 2012 in Newtown, Connecticut.

Many other earlier Presidents also displayed empathy, with a few examples being

Abraham Lincoln mourning the loss of life at the time of the Battle of Gettysburg and the later Gettysburg Address in 1863.

Theodore Roosevelt demanding action on protection for workers and consumers with the protection of the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906, after Publication of Upton Sinclair’s realistic novel, “The Jungle”, that same year.

Lyndon B. Johnson making a commitment to civil rights legislation and the War On Poverty despite his Southern heritage.

Jimmy Carter’s entire life of empathy, including his post Presidential activities even now at age 95.