POLITICAL CORRECTNESS HITS A NEW HIGH

Debbie Wasserman Schultz is a congressman from Florida and, for the time  being, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee.*  She has been under fire for a long time by Bernie Sanders for being pro-Hillary when she is supposed to be impartial.  Well, I guess Debbie really wants to see a woman president so I suspect Bernie is correct.  The result is Debbie is going to resign from the Democratic National Committee after the convention.  The well known TV commentator Morning Joe wants her to resign NOW and not speak at the convention that she put together.  As they say in Washington, D.C., "If you want a friend, get a dog."

Weirdly, the big turning point is some thousands of e-mails  (every thing today is in the thousands whether it is e-mail on closing of a bridge or a party chair ) have been made public by WikiLeaks, one of which reads as follows:

It might may no difference, but for KY and WVA can we get someone to ask his belief. Does he believe in a God. He had skated on saying he has a Jewish heritage. I think I read he is an atheist. This could make several points difference with my peeps. My Southern Baptist peeps would draw a big difference between a Jew and an atheist.**

This is being broadly interpreted as an anti-Jewish e-mail that to be an atheist would be better than being a Jew, but, I read it the other way around, in that to be Jewish would be better than an atheist.  We are talking Southern Baptists here. Do they really interpret having no belief in God is better than being a Jew with a belief in God?***  The person who wrote this might have just Googoled Bernie Sanders to find the result.

And then, no one seems to note that Debbie Wasserman-Schultz is Jewish.*  At least "they" are not clannish if she is anti-Jewish.  No, she is pro-woman.  At any rate she knows she can retire from her position with a woman running for president on a major party.

I really wonder what to think of Bernie Sanders.  First off he wasn't a member of the Democratic Party.  Some like me think it was very nice of the party to let him come in and run for the presidential nomination of their party.  Then he spends the whole time bitching.  Lost in all this was Obama winning the nomination against the same Hillary Clinton that Bernie lost to using the same rules.

Hillary got more of the popular vote, won more states, and got the most super-delegates.  Remember that Obama faced the same obstacles as Bernie, yet Obama won against the same opponent.!  Sorry Bernie, but you lost the nomination.   You really did.  Bernie did win on some things like a plan for free college tuition  and some others on the platform so he did get something.  Fortunately, Bernie has an even lower opinion of Donald Trump so he keeps saying that Trump must lose.  I hope he sticks to it.

Now some of Bernie's "people" want to trash the vice-presidential pick  for the Democratic nomination.  What's happened to the Republican party  Well as Will Rogers said a long time ago, "I'm not a member of an organized party. I'm a Democrat."  Nothing has changed.

Bernie doesn't like the idea of super-delegates, but I don't like the idea of caucuses where only a small fraction of the potential voters actually vote.  And if it wasn't for the caucuses, Bernie would not have been anywhere.  Caucuses can turn the tide in favor of one candidate while the voters want a different one as shown by Washington State that had both.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debbie_Wasserman_Schultz
** https://theintercept.com/2016/07/22/new-leak-top-dnc-official-wanted-to-use-bernie-sanderss-religious-beliefs-against-him
*** Though raised Jewish, Sanders says that he is "not particularly religious," nor is he a member of any congregation or synagogue. "I am not actively involved in organized religion,"......"It's a guiding principle in my life, absolutely," said the Vermont senator and Democratic presidential candidate.

"You know, everyone practices religion in a different way. To me, I would not be here tonight, I would not be running for president of the United States if I did not have very strong religious and spiritual feelings."(http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/14/politics/bernie-sanders-religion/)

REPUBLICAN PARTY HAS A PROBLEM

So the Republican Party has a problem.  For a couple of decades, the party has enjoyed the support of the white working class without giving them anything except to say in election years that they are "The Real Americans."  As the working class wages have stagnated and losing purchasing power through inflation, the aristocracy of the Republican Party has really felt the working class is overpaid.   Even Donald Trump has said this on at least two occasions (He later said that he was talking about the minimum wage, but a depreciating minimum wage keeps all wages down.).*  But now they are hopping mad and see a chance to take over the Republican Party through Donald Trump who talks like they do.

Particularly over the last 7 yrs, Republicans have stirred up a hate pot with the majority leader of the Senate saying first that his aim was to prevent Obama getting a second term and, when Obama did, instituted a "scorched Earth policy" of refusing to pass bills that even the Republicans want.  The latest is that he will not take up a nomination to the supreme court, supposedly because it is the final year of the Obama administration.  It should be left to the next president which means that the supreme court will have to get along with eight members, probably at least for two years if Hillary is elected President. The House has been even worse.  Both have egged on this hatred, and now they are feeling the "Revolt Of The Great Republican Unwashed" along with a wealthier Republican contingent that likes to say things like "Sit Down And Shut Up" (the Chris Christy wing).**  Donald Trump has come along who speaks their language and now the Republican Party is having to "stew in their own juices" that they fomented.

Chris Christy has now even endorsed Donald Trump.  One wonders what he wants to get out of his endorsement.  Secretary of Defense is not a good fit and Secretary of State is out for someone who "tells it like it is."  I've got it, Secretary of Transportation where he has lots of experience.  OK, joking aside, how about Chief of Staff?

* http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-wages-are-too-high-2015-11
** http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2016/01/revolt-of-republican-great-unwashed.html

KEEPING INDUSTRY COMPETING

A popular claim by the business wing of the Republican Party is that free enterprise has lifted more people out of poverty than any other system.  This is only partially true because free enterprise does not have the goal of lifting people out of poverty but of making money.  It is only through government regulation on top of free enterprise that lifts people out of poverty.  Regulation is needed also to keep companies competing with each other and not conspiring together to control an industry to increase profits on less than favorable terms for the public.  Keeping companies competing is a major problem in free enterprise.*  In U.S. history there was an age of "all the traffic can bear" on railroad pricing.  And Teddy Roosevelt became famous for breaking up the monopolies.

I guess you can say that in some limited way, free enterprise without government regulation does lift people marginally better.  How else to explain the migration of minorities from the South to the sweat shops of the North?  Or groups in countries like Bangladesh to work in the hazardous garment  buildings and those in  SE Asia who migrate to the sweat shops of the sport-shoe industry? But this just seems to lift people from being very, very poor to very poor.

But to get rid of things like child labor, the 60 hour or longer work week, and increase workplace safety takes government regulation for a major increase in the well being of the public.  Even today, issues like forced overtime, often without pay, much less time and a half, is an issue as companies jockey to resist increasing their labor force.

And this is not to say that labor demands can be unreasonable.  The best known cases of unreasonable labor demands are perhaps Roosevelt and the Coal Miners Strike of 1943** Truman and the Railroad Strike*** plus Reagan and the Traffic Controllers Strike.****  The Air Traffic Controllers action by Reagan was probably his most important action (or at least one of his most important) as it seems to me this hastened the decline of unions and the wages of workers.

* Today investors look for companies "with a mote"  and "barriers to entry" to give the companies :pricing power."  These are just more pleasant words to say companies that have limited competition
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L._Lewis
*** http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5137/
****  (ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_Air_Traffic_Controllers_Organization_(1968)

IT ALL DEPENDS ON WHOSE OX IS GETTING GORED

Republican candidates are objecting to Donald Trump criticizing them.  Marco Rubio says Trump has no class.  Fair enough, but then he goes on to say our current president has no class.  I guess being rude only applies when you are criticizing someone in your own party.  Those in the other party are fair game.

"We already have president now who has no class," Rubio said, citing Obama doing selfie-stick videos and inviting YouTube stars to the White House and going on "comedy shows" to talk about serious issues such as Iran.

"It is important for us to have a presidency that restores dignity and class to the White House," Rubio said.*

A problem for Republicans is that everything Trump has to say are feelings held by a lot of Republicans.  There are those who DO feel that Mexicans are sub-human.  There ARE those who feel that you shouldn't be captured, but go down fighting or commit suicide if fighting is impossible.  Some say that Trump has peaked.  Well I don't know about that, but I do hope those who favor what he says are only 25% of the Republican Party.

* http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/marco-rubio-says-obama-like-trump-has-no-class/2238257

REPUBLICANS RESIGNED TO BEING MINORITY PARTY?

The core of the Republican Party are the wealthy and business people.  These people are not numerous enough to win elections so the core undertook a Southern Strategy to incorporate a large conservative group that had been the Solid South of the Democratic Party.  This move changed both the Republican and Democratic Parties in many ways, but the Democratic Party became more socially liberal and the Republican Party became more socially conservative.  For example, it was Republicans that put the Civil Rights Act of 1964 over the top (Republicans voted 27 for and 6 against in the Senate; 136 to 35 for the House).*  Even in the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Republicans voted overwhelmingly for the bill (30 to 1 in the Senate and 111 to 20 in the House for the conference Report).**  This change also brought the religious right or so-called Evangelicals into the Republican Party, a group that had a lot of religious fervor.  The Republican Party also attracted many white working class people who viewed initiatives for Blacks, women, and other minorities as being unfair.  This coalition is big but seemingly not large enough to win national elections.

Perhaps the last straw was President Obama not only winning the electoral vote for his second term but the numerical vote as well.  Republicans were primed to fight the election because they were sure that Mitt Romney would win the numerical vote which would seem to be a move to the popular vote rather than electoral votes.  Thus the Republican Party seems to be resigned to being the minority party  and have abandoned a move to the popular vote endeavor.  So what can they do to win major elections?  They already had mastered the art of Gerrymandering congressional (redrawing congressional districts to favor one party) districts to win a sizable majority in the national House of Representatives even though the Democrats received more popular votes.  The Gerrymandering story with the state Senate and Houses have had even more success, if anything.  There was an original move to Gerrymander presidential electoral votes by district rather than state-wide voting, but this attempt has so far been abandoned, for now, by all except Pennsylvania (as of the date of this writing).

Perhaps Republicans can take some solace in that even though there are more Blue States than Red States (20 to 12 in 2012),*** there are 30 Republican governors and only 22 Democratic governors.

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1964 (The vote among the South Representatives was 7 for and 97 against in the original House version.  The South here is the 11 states in the Confederate States of America during the Civil War.)
** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_Rights_Act
888 http://www.gallup.com/poll/160175/blue-states-outnumber-red-states.aspx

WORST AMERICAN POLITICS EVER?

Over the last 20 years we have seen the evolution of the worst American politcs ever which is not to say that there have been previous intervals of bad politics. Consider: President Clinton was impeached in December of 1998 for trivial, if disgusting, sexual indiscretions in the Oval Office. The only other president to be impeached was Andrew Johnson in 1868, but at least he was impeached for violating the Tenure of Office Act, passed over Johnson's veto the previous year, that said certain office holders could not be removed by the president without approval by the Senate. The group involved were called the Radical Republicans: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_Republican.

I find it interesting that the group to impeach President Clinton was a group of radical Republicans led by Rep Gingrich some 130 years later. In a loose way the Radical Republicans of the 1860s were the equivalent of the "tea party" now. Both were groups within the Republican Party that controlled the Republican Party.

Nearly 14 years later with Republicans controlling the House of Representatives, we have for the first time ever the Attorney General of the United States has been held in contempt of Congress, allegedly for failure to turn over certain documents regarding an operation called Fast and Furious (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATF_gunwalking_scandal), a program started in late 2006 under the George W. Bush administration and discontinued in 2011 under the Obama. This program is difficult summarize, and you should read the articles cited. Apparently ATF officials monitored the sale of guns by middle men who transported or passed them on to others on their way to Mexican cartels and other outlaws. The AFT officials were told not to interdict this passage of firearms because of second amendment issues and difficulties in prosecution. About 7,000 documents were turned over to the oversight committee, but another 1,600 were requested that were refused because of "Executive Privilege," the first such claim by the Obama administration.

So the two presidential impeachments and a congressional contempt of Congress for an Attorney General have all been conducted by the Republican Party, two of these in the last 20 years. If the Republican Party cannot impeach a president, then they go after one of his appointees. I believe we are living in a sad era of politics in the United States in which the Republican Party does everything in its power to destroy a Democratic Presidency, should they be elected. The efforts are not restricted to impeachments and contempts of Congress. See Clinton in: http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2012/05/land-mines-in-way-of-becoming-great.html. Mitch McConnell even has said in 2010, "The most import thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president." Please note that he didn't say to reduce unemployment, or reduce taxes on business, or increase manufacturing in the U.S., etc., but that he wants to defeat the president (http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2010/10/25/126242/mcconnell-obama-one-term/?mobile=nc). He has also said that to provide health care for 30 million Americans that don't have it is not the issue (http://www.politicususa.com/mitch-mcconnell-tells-millions-americans-healthcare-you-arent-issue.html).