RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://spectator.us/amy-klobuchar-drop-out/
Party Insiders Would Rather Go to a Meet-and-Greet in Wuhan than See an Avowed Socialist at the Top of the Ticket

Minnesota Nice Wasn’t Enough. Neither were Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s center-left positions and bland presentations. And so, today, she left the race for president. Why?

The immediate reason is that her chances of winning anything on Super Tuesday were grim. The only exception was her home state, and it was far from certain. Klobuchar’s failures at the ballot box meant she had no plausible path forward. Her donors would stop giving and her backers would begin blaming her (and other also-rans) for blocking Joe Biden, who they now see as the only center-left candidate with a shot at the nomination. Biden’s huge victory in South Carolina and Bloomberg’s disastrous debates cemented that position. 

Party insiders are desperate for an alternative to Bernie Sanders. They would rather go to a meet-and-greet in Wuhan than see an avowed socialist at the top of the ticket. Those pros have solid reasons for their fear. First, they think Sanders would devastate their down-ballot candidates, jeopardizing their chances to keep the House and retake the Senate. They could be wrong, just as Republican insiders were in 2016, but they are convinced Bernie would pose impossible obstacles for centrist Democrats across the country. Second, Bernie would assault the insiders hold on lucrative lobbying contracts and policy influence, just as Trump’s victory smacked down the K Street Republicans, the US Chamber of Commerce, and traditional Republican think tanks.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/03/democrats-progressives-and-socialists-frontpagemagcom/

Starting today we are publishing in serial form an essay by Bruce Hendry on the existential crisis our nation is facing. The crisis has been caused by a dramatic shift to the left by one our two main political parties. Tragically, the leaders of the Democrat Party seem to have learned nothing from the social catastrophes created by socialist illusions in the past century.

By declaring himself a socialist – although “communist” would more accurately reflect his lifelong commitments – presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has done our country an enormous favor. When the Berlin Wall came tumbling down in 1989, it ended a 72-year international civil war that liberated over a billion people from the chains of a totalitarian system. Yet there was a deafening and costly silence on the part of the victors over this historic result.

While millions in the former Soviet bloc gathered to praise President Reagan and America as the heroes of their liberation, western leaders were curiously mute. By the time the Wall fell, Reagan was no longer president. Under his successor, George H. W. Bush, there were no victory laps taken. No major events to celebrate the victory of the Free World or to drive home the lessons learned from this past – the bankrupting of whole continents, the engineering of famines in the Soviet Union, which had previously been the “bread basket of Europe,” the murder of more than 100 million people in peacetime for standing in the way of the socialist planners.

www.swtotd.blogspot.com

The strategic mistake to which I refer was the one made by Michael Bloomberg to enter the Democrat primary for President, rather than to run as an independent. At least, that is my belief. The error was understandable in that no third-party candidate has won the Presidency, since the current two parties began competing in 1860. But, to use those over-worked and dangerous words, this time is different. The incumbent is a man who has never received more than 50% approval, despite the fact that the economy and employment are doing well. At the same time, Democrats have moved decidedly leftward, leaving their center undefended.

In his recently published book, A Time to Build, Yuval Levin wrote, “…[political] parties have been de-professionalized, cannot control their own internal processes, and are increasingly exposed to the power and pressure of political celebrity culture.” What he wrote is visible to anyone with eyes to see. The 2016 presidential election changed the Republican Party. The old way of doing things no longer applied. The 2018 midterm elections, which brought Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) and Ilhan Omar (D-MI) to the House, changed the Democrat Party, swinging it far to the left. Optimism for the future was replaced with hatred of the past. In both cases, the change reflects the fact that elections have become less about policy and enacting bi-partisan legislation, and more about platforms for radical ideas. Traditional party members, on both sides of the aisle, have become as isolated from real concerns of the people, as they are distanced from the victorious radical newbies who joined their party. In part, this has to do with the mathematical fact that our national legislature is less representative of the people than it once was. In 1800, the House of Representatives consisted of 106 members; in 2020, there were 435 House members. So, while the overall population has grown by a factor of 72, the number of Representatives has increased by just over four times. In other words, legislators are less representative – in sheer numbers – than they were two hundred and twenty years ago. But these changes also reflect a cultural shift that demeans family, history and tradition. Both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have taken advantage of the fact that many voters feel that politics as usual no longer applies.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/02/the_democrat_response_to_the_coronavirus_is_scarier_than_the_virus.html

The Democrats claim Trump is mishandling the coronavirus threat and that they’d do better. They’re wrong. Their proposals are redundant, vapid, or dangerous.

During the recent debate, three candidates discussed coronavirus:

Amy Klobuchar urged treatment and quarantine – which is (a) obvious and (b) what Trump is doing. She accused Trump of ignoring the world (he hasn’t) and wants to improve education.

Biden did his inevitable “I already did that response,” referring to Ebola (which, thankfully for America, stayed in Africa).

Bernie Sanders accused Trump of idiocy for predicting the virus would end in April. What Trump said was that influenzas generally go away once winter ends, something that is scientifically correct. Bernie said he would work with WHO (which Trump has done).

In addition to those statements, all three say Trump cannot address coronavirus because he withdrew funds from the CDC and NIH.

On Wednesday, Pelosi issued a formal statement that also says Trump cannot fight the virus because he has shrunk government:

“The American people need a well-coordinated, whole-of-government, fully-funded response to keep them safe from the coronavirus threat.  Unfortunately, the Trump Administration has mounted an opaque and chaotic response to this outbreak. 

“The Trump Administration has left critical positions in charge of managing pandemics at the National Security Council and the Department of Homeland Security vacant.  The Trump Budget called for slashing almost $700 million from the Centers for Disease Control.  And even now, the Administration continues to devalue Americans’ health security by ransacking funding from other vital public health needs.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/bernies-foreign-sympathies-11582763907?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

Bernie Sanders wants Americans to believe he’s a garden variety “democratic socialist,” with the emphasis on democratic. But as media scrutiny of the Democratic presidential front-runner increases, we’re learning more about where his political sympathies lie, and they’re revealing about what a Sanders foreign policy would look like.

The latest example came this week when Mr. Sanders rejected an invitation to speak at the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee summit in Washington next week. The conference is a campaign staple for candidates of both parties, though there is no obligation to attend.

But Mr. Sanders didn’t merely reply with a polite “sorry I’m busy.” The Senator took to Twitter on Sunday to say that “I remain concerned about the platform AIPAC provides for leaders who express bigotry and oppose basic Palestinian rights. For that reason I will not attend their conference.”

Bigotry? America’s pro-Israel lobby that includes more than 100,000 members nurtures racial hatred?

Apparently Mr. Sanders meant what he said because in the Charleston debate Tuesday night he was asked about the tweet and whether he would move the U.S. Embassy back to Tel Aviv from Jerusalem. President Trump moved the Embassy to Jerusalem in 2018 after many years of bipartisan Congressional support for doing so that included Joe Biden.