Perhaps I’m naïve, but it seems to me that a legitimate candidate for office should have a platform, a series of goals he hopes to accomplish to benefit the people of the nation. That should be his selling point. I heard that platform in President Biden’s run for office back in 2020 … he wanted to unify the nation, help those in need recover from the financial effects of the pandemic, abolish the death penalty, raise the minimum wage, make college more affordable, reduce carbon emissions, and more. All things that would help people, thereby helping the nation as a whole. He did not run what I call an ‘anti-campaign’, using every opportunity to denigrate and critique his opponent, but rather talked up his own plans and ideologies.
Today, looking around at the entire lot of Republicans either in Congress or hoping to make a run for the Oval Office in 2024, their campaign ‘strategy’ seems to be to drag President Biden and his family through the mud. Telling lies and making up stories about your opponent does NOT constitute a platform! The first thought that comes to mind here is that they obviously have no good ideas for how to heal the ills of the nation, so they must instead go on the defense and try to, as one politician put it, “crush” the adversary.
When did politics in the United States become the territory of the mafioso?
Why would the Republicans in Congress wish to create an even wider chasm in this nation than we already have, and why would they try to bring down the president? Think 20 months ahead to the next presidential election, and you’ll have your answer.
There is an interesting piece in the New York Times, the result of some six hours of various interviews with Representative James Comer, who is currently serving as chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee. It’s a lengthy article, but well worth the read. He is going all out to try to find, or perhaps create dirt against not only President Biden, but his entire family. I was thoroughly disgusted when he said it is a shame that Beau Biden, the president’s son who died in 2015, was ‘never investigated.’ Investigated for what??? To pick on anybody’s dead child is inhumane, but Beau Biden was a veteran and it was his time in service to his country that ultimately led to his death. Every parent who has ever lost a child should be enraged. Comer stepped on some toes here!
If a candidate has a winning message, he/she should spend their time promoting that message, not attempting to smear his/her opponent! Those who spend (waste) their time smearing their opponent with lies, unsupported investigations and the like, obviously have no message of their own. It is telling that the Republican Party refused to put forth a platform in 2020, rather saying that whatever Trump wants is their platform. Policy and principles have vanished into thin air within the GOP, and it has evolved into the party of lies and retaliation. What Trump wants is of paramount importance to the entire GOP, and what he wants is a power grab. He cares not how he gets it or who he steps on, who he ‘crushes’ because he sees this as his last chance at redrawing the framework of this nation, turning it from a democratic republic to a full-blown plutocratic autocracy. Apparently, there are an untold number of people in Congress who are there to help him get what he wants, starting with Gym Jordan and James Comer and a hundred or so others who are willing to sell us all downriver for a spot in the limelight.
One other thing to think about … if you have a winning message, or any message at all, you don’t need to aggressively attempt to keep people away from the polls on election day, or dilute the votes of Black, Asian, and Hispanic people as is done by voter suppression laws and gerrymandering. Think of the schoolyard bully and you will have the definition of the Republican Party today.
Filosofa's Word 
this post is a flat out lie and you very well know it. Look up the commitment to America, it’s the republican platform if you actually care to do a little homework on the matter.
a parents bil of rights, which is one of the planks of the platform was just passed in the house. did you not notice?
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I am fully aware of that “Parent’s Bill of ‘Rights'”, Scott. So, let me ask you this … if you were an open-minded parent who really wanted your children to get a good education in order to become a well-rounded adult, would you like it if a few parents objected to, say, the teaching of Hitler’s atrocities in WWII, saying that he was a good man who only had the best interests of his country at heart? Is that what you’d want your kids to learn, just because a few parents felt that way? I do NOT believe that public schools can possibly, nor should they, pander to parental whims. As for my post being “a flat out lie” … well, sir, you are wrong. Feel free to rebuttal anything I said, but do so in a respectful manner please.
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Pathetic. Everybody knows these guys have NOTHING, except for all the Kool-aid drinkers, so all they can do is try and tear down anyone with an idea
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Well, those of us with functional brains and the ability to use them know it, but I fear that today there is an ever-increasing number who seem to have traded their brains for Kool Aid. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
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Pingback: For Lack Of A Message, Become The Bully — Filosofa’s Word | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News
Pingback: For Lack Of A Message, Become The Bully — Filosofa’s Word | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News
Jill, the last platform the GOP voted on was in 2016, almost seven years ago. I would like to see the party say in writing what they stand for. Spouting inane or denigrating comments does not make a platform.
As for old Hunter, I would like to know who paid off Trump ‘s son-in-law Jared Kushner’s $1.2 billion balloon debt payment and what did we give up in return. Now that is of concern. Keith
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Excellent point! I’m far more concerned by what Kushner did to earn that payment than anything Hunter Biden may or may not have done. Hunter Biden does not have a role in his father’s administration, whereas Kushner and his wife were both advisors to Trump. And remember, too, that Kushner was initially denied security clearance in 2019 after an FBI background check revealed what might lead to undue foreign influence. Trump overruled the WH Security people and demanded Kushner be given top-level security clearance. I understand that McCarthy closed a House investigation into Kusher and the Saudis without resolution. Hmmmmmmmm …
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You raise several excellent points. Jared was active in the administration as an unvetted advisor. And, very little of what McCarthy does is not political. Keith
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“Controllers, abusers, and manipulative people don’t question themselves. They don’t ask themselves if the problem is them. They always say the problems is someone else.” ― Darlene Ouimet
The cartoon with the couple sitting on the ledge discussing a looming problem. So many problems so little time.
It is not hard to stop a bully, you just have to convince then that they are wrong. Things I learned at the Boy’s Club poolroom on the inevitable way to the boxing ring. Turns out you don’t mind so much getting hit as long as you get to hit back. Bullies don’t like to be hit.
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Ms. Ouimet is spot on. “It’s not hard to stop a bully, you just have to convince them that they are wrong” you say. But … how do we do that? Most bullies I know of cannot hear anything that is outside their own thought box, and don’t even try to.
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Unfortunately, some people are so scared of bullies they pretend to like them so as not to get bullied themselves. I saw it everyday on the schoolyard as a kid. They would cheer the bullies on, no matter whwt they did.
In the end, they always got bullied too!
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Yep, we’ve seen the same in Trump’s circle … those who pander to him are only in his good graces until they make a single misstep, then he is calling them names and speaking out against them.
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