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January 8, 2024

What is painfully obvious but not often said in so many words, is that today’s Democrat party is caught in a trap of its own making. Back when they got clobbered in the midterm election of 2010, Dan Balz of the Washington Post announced on Public TV that the Democrats no longer had a bench — up from which new, aspiring talent could rise. Hillary’s loss to a complete political novice in 2016 was a demonstration of this reality. Although being “elected,” the Biden-Harris administration may well be their final act as a national political force.

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Rather than inspire and attract individuals who possess both ability and motivation, they rely instead on pigmentation, gender, and sexuality… regardless of their tendencies to barf up word salads and adhere to ridiculous dogmas. Competition is a great thing — even though those compelled to compete tend to resent it. The result of competition, nonetheless, is progress… a sharpening of the sword.

Today’s Democrats have eschewed competition in favor of (ahem) “intersectionality” — belonging to multiple victim groups. And, guess what? No progress. Go figure. Gee, do you possibly think that Biden and (ahem) Harris can stop Trump now? And, speaking of dear Kamala, it’s been fairly obvious all along that she was a pathetic dud — even before she became a senator. How can such a mediocrity rise to such an exalted position? Other than being a woman of color, she is propelled by thermonuclear ambition. Others on the Left have the same compelling drive to acquire and cling to power… hence their tendency to do outrageous things towards this purpose, such as trying to keep Trump off the ballot.

Well, there’s always Governor Hair Gel waiting in the wings. However, he just happened to commit political suicide, at least in a national sense, by boasting about the enactment of free health care for illegal immigrants despite a 60+ billion dollar budget deficit. Throw in a serious attack on the Second Amendment and there’s a huge case against his continuing in politics. While it just may still work to some degree in California, America in general is pretty much fed up with this nonsense. But, did he have any idea that this is what he was doing? Or is he just another product of Progressive Democrat corporate culture?

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The lack of serious competition has also contributed to all sorts of dumb utterances coming from high places. Early on in the Biden era, Treasury secretary Janet Yellen announced a push for taxing unrealized capital gains. For a while I was astonished that she wasn’t summarily eliminated from the administration. But then the president himself tried to minimize public concern over continuing price inflation. Instead of reckless government fiscal policy, Biden blamed greedy corporations for charging too much for their products. The media, of course, treated this as a reasonable point of view. Gee, price controls are a good idea. Aren’t they?

Deceptive coverage of inflation by the media has also included the implication that, as the rate of inflation decreases, its effects begin to diminish. Actually, inflation is cumulative — whatever devaluation of government-issued fiat currency that occurs is permanent — even if the process slows down. Also, the good ol’ media can’t help but gush whenever there’s an uptick in retail sales — though once recently a “reporter” let slip that the statistic was largely influenced by higher prices.

This public policy villainy may have begun with the introduction of affirmative action — a pathetic euphemism for race and gender-based hiring preferences — also known as institutionalized racism. It was supposed to be okay since the beneficiaries were members of the proper victim classes. The reality has been that rather than correct for past racial unfairness, racism is to become a political commodity — thus sustaining the primitive “us-them” source of conflict. Nowadays the term “persons of color” has typically replaced the use of more specific ethnic distinctions. It so happens, however, that pink and tan are also colors. A few folks are albinos, but that’s both exceptional and not linked to any particular ethnic identity… or even species.

The lack of talent among the Democrat ranks has, again, been pushed to the surface. Trump’s lead in the polls, despite the flood of indictments and lawsuits, has continued to expand — even among those thought to be secure captives of the Democrats. Reeking of desperation, the Dems have again dragged the Emoluments Clause out of the closet. The incredibly lame accusation is that Pres. Trump, while president, violated the Constitution because he allowed people from China to stay at his various hotels and other facilities. Had he not allowed this to happen, he would have been branded as a racist. Again, this is probably the best they can do.

It used to be that the U.S. military was the epitome of a meritocracy. Makes sense, doesn’t it? But politically motivated tinkering has watered down that reality. There have long been “political” generals, who achieve senior rank not because of their competence, but because of their crony connections. Political involvement has both diminished fighting capability and the quality of recruitment. Fortunately, this is not going unnoticed — at least by some in positions of influence — since success or failure is way more obvious in military activities than in civilian public administration.

Unfortunately, stupid public policy has become seriously commonplace. But alternatives persist, and proponents of such are gaining strength. Calling out dip-wad functionaries for their malfeasances is our mission. And undoing the pervasive aversion to problem-solving has to result in there being fewer problems. Thus, the antithesis of the curse of Confucius (“May you live in interesting times”) would be a quiescent era of pleasantly boring happiness.