I am happy that my blog attracts people from Left to Right.
The vast majority of my subscribers read and enjoy (or not), but do not comment.
The majority of people who do comment are male, which I kind of understand, and older, which I also understand, and lean Right, which I understand less.
Not why they lean Right, I understand that. What I don’t understand is why the Left is so quiet. I am happy for the ones who speak up, stand and fight for their beliefs.
I don’t do analytics on this, but I know from being unfriended on Facebook that Lefties are more likely to cancel you than Righties, who will argue until the cows come home.
I am not the only one to notice this. Traditional liberal Buzz Bissinger, a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter-turned-talk show host, reported that after he endorsed Mitt Romney — hardly a radical — for president in 2012 on his WPHT/1210AM radio show, many of his liberal friends ended their friendship with him. They turned their backs and walked away. Cancelled him.
One illustration of this effect is a survey done by left-leaning Axios showing that young Democrats are far less tolerant of people with opposing views than are Republicans.
You probably know from general reading that a conservative is far more likely to be disinvited to a college campus or protested by Leftists, than the other way around.
A campus speaker data base maintained by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression shows that until 20 years ago protests came from Left and Right, with slightly more from the Right. As we entered the 21st Century, that changed, dramatically. Leftists now lodge the vast majority of protests, which includes shouting down people they don’t like. That is antithetical to democracy.
On the other hand, conservatives seem to be more active in pressuring school boards to ban books with certain topics — usually gender and race — from libraries.
Generally speaking, all this seems to be an aversion to hearing things that disagree with our preconceived notions. Too many of us are in silos, and that is bad for democracy.
A current glaring example of rejecting anything they don’t like are the to-the-death supporters of former President Donald J. Trump. The dead-enders.
From what I see, most of my Trumpster friends on this blog accept the results of the 2020 election. He lost. They know it and accept it.
But for those who don’t, and in the wider world of Facebook, where this will be posted, I ask: How can you not believe he lost?
I have heard the craziest damn crap you can imagine from Trump dead-enders.
One said the total vote count represented more than the total of registered voters. Completely untrue. 240 million were eligible to vote, 159 million did. The 66.2% turnout was very high. Joe Biden got 81 million, Trump got 74 million.
Another said she couldn’t believe Biden got more votes than Obama. He did. So did Trump in 2020. These are facts, simple to verify.
Another said he could not believe Biden could beat Trump, his bones told him so.
Think of how Al Gore’s bones felt when he lost to George W. Bush in 2000.
Feelings are fine in romance, but not in statistics.
The claim of election fraud has been rejected by Trump’s Republican inner circle — except for Rudy Giuliani, whose claims crossed so far from advocacy to lunacy that he lost his license to practice law in New York.
He has gone from America’s Mayor to America’s Laughingstock.
This graphic pretty much explodes Trump’s claims of election fraud. There is nothing there. His claims are blather, or, in the words of former Republican Attorney General Bill Barr, “bullshit.”
“He didn’t get his day in court,” I hear some of you say. To get a day in court you must approach the court with evidence of wrongdoing — not just suspicion, rumor, conspiracy. Trump had zilch.
If you take a look at Georgia, the secretary of state is a Republican, and the state did recounts, with always the same result: Trump lost.
Among the five dozen judges that refused to hear Trump’s case were Republican judges, and judges Trump named to the bench. They were not suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome. They were suffering from a lack of evidence and a believable narrative.
Think back to the 2016 campaign. Trump stated over and over it was “fixed” by Hillary Clinton. He stopped that fallacious nonsense only after he was declared the winner — by the same process he tried to get Mike Pence to subvert.
Speaking of that, do you want to hear about a “rigged” election? What you might call a fraud?
In 2016, Clinton won 65.8 million votes, while Trump won 62.9 million. Yet Trump, 3 million votes short, was declared president.
If that outcome was OK with you, then you sure can’t complain about 2020, when he lost by 7 million.
Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”
The facts are clear: Trump lost.
Abraham Lincoln said, “You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”
Trump tried, and some of you remain fooled.
If you enjoy being fooled, if you choose bullshit over facts, you are as dumb as a box of rocks.
HAPPY SATURDAY !!!
pallie,
If you keep printing articles like this, your Christmas card list is going to get very short. ( you’ll always get mine )
You are on a roll today. Is that smile from ear to ear or does it go completely around and around ?
Obviously, or it should be, that I’m not as thin skinned as many of the loyal Trump supporters. Like him or not – and you don’t – Trump did some good things in his short visit to the capital. And you have recognized these facts. Trump would have done much more except for the SWAMP, which he constantly mentioned. Had I been an advisor ( HA ! ) to Trump, I would have told him that he was only going to be a one term President, unless he could ‘drain the swamp’. That would mean naming names . The first two years of his term, he had a Speaker of the House that actually hated him – and said so. Nothing went through the House that would help our country, which would also show the world that Trump knew what he was talking about . Paul Ryan served his last term with a vengeance.
Then you mention the Far Right . The always Trumpsters. Aren’t they just as extreme as the Far Left ? Neither group wants to accept the facts. Neither group will win, but they will cause a lot of hate and discontent.
Finally, Voter Suppression, Voter Fraud, Vote Count. As is often said, ‘c’mon man’ ! Nothing new here ! Truth be told, every election has had and will have dead people voting. Judicial Watch, our private watch dog, has consistently found faulty voter records. They sued the Commonwealth to obtain voter records and actually did find a large inconsistency. No surprise there or anywhere else. It costs tax money to hire qualified people to do the job that they are entrusted with. As we all know, ‘who we got is what we got ‘! People tend to move, die or just not vote. Some of those problems would be corrected with VOTER I.D.. It costs money to clean up the voter register and there’s not enough people to care about the (used to be ) quiet distraction.
Sadly, I think that if Trump tuned it down about the election, he would have a shot at the White House again. With Trump helping the dimocrats to unseat him or jail him, the door is opening up for De Santis. I do hope that we don’t have another ugly primary race. I never could understand how one could expect a party united when the candidates just got done stabbing each other in the back !
Tony
Trump did have some accomplishments, and Nancy, and others, hated him. He brought it on himself.
I think you know that there are always irregularities in voting, but as Barr pointed out, none were big enough to make a difference.
Trump’s idea of America is 180 degrees opposite the dims and the SWAMP. He looked at the country as a business. One that should proper and have the profits flow proportionately to all. That is certainly not on the agenda in D.C..
As for the ‘irregularities’. The Judicial Watch has uncovered faulty records in every state. All toll, the number is in the HUNDRED THOUSANDS. That is a small percentage when you look at the total number of registered voters. I think that I read =/- 250 mill for the country. =/- 9 mill for PA. That is why the books are as they are. Congress has tried several times to clean up the voting process. The republicans had a bill that would have done that, but it couldn’t garner the votes. The dimocrats followed with their version in this congress, but the reps won’t let it happen. Each bill would have allocated monies to clean up the books. Each bill would have decided on ONE manufacturer of voting machines, and a lot more. Unfortunately, politics got in the way.
Tony
Agree, 100%. As I’ve said, “Get over it!” I voted for The Donald, but that was then, and this is now.
Addressing the issue of intolerance, the guys I play poker with every week — six Jewish guys (one a Rightie
and the other five Lefties) and me, the token (Rightie) goy, we argue politics but remain friends. No one is cast into
the darkness (where there is weeping and the gnashing of teeth) over his views. That, my friend, is
how I define a friend. On the other hand, my old Air Force gang have drifted hard Left and tossed me to the wolves.
The 60-plus years we have known each other seems meaningless to them. That, is how I define sadness.
👍
I guess I wonder how anyone could like or accept a person as obviously hate-filled, self-centered, spoiled, narcissistic and childish as Donald Trump, much less expect him to act in the interests of anyone but himself. He has spent his entire life doing just that, and continues to do it even today, at the risk of our Democratic system of government. The idea that he tried “clear the swamp” in Washington is laughable. He built his OWN swamp there, filling our government with sycophants and unqualified buffoons rather than dedicated, knowledgeable public servants. But hey, believe what you want to believe. Don’t let the facts get in the way of your narrative.
Freeze,
You DON’T KNOW Donald Trump, civilian nor politician. You only know what you choose to read. Time will tell just what the effects of ‘the donald’ will be on America, as a business man and/ or statesman.
Buffoons. You should know one of those business tycoons………………. or even one of the family.
Tony
First of all, you have NO CLUE what I “choose to read” or not read, sir, nor what I know about your hero from people who actually do know him. So please save your ill-advised judgments for someone YOU actually know. I’ve heard Ttump’s OWN WORDS coming out of his own mouth. And that was plenty. Trump’s record as a (poor) businessman and (horrible) “statesman” speak for themselves, and his blatant attempts to glean money from his misinformed minions under false pretenses is disgraceful. I wonder what news sources YOU are listening to?
freeze,
I would like to sit down with some day and compare apples to apples. True. I haven’t been with Donald Trump since the ’80s. I don’t think that he has changed as much as everyone else has changed to come up to his standards. Poor business man. Guess you weren’t around to get some of that stock in the casinos or his many other ventures.
I call President Trump a statesman because he comes from the old school, where you try to help everyone. Today’s politicians don’t know the meaning of the word, statesman. There too busy sucking up the money from every conceivable angle that is known to the swamp. Sad that a lowlly politician can go to the swamp and come out as a millionaire. Keep an eye on the FAB 4, or what ever AOC and her girlfriends are called. She was deep in debt until she went to D.C. Her pal in the far north was spreading money around ( to family and friends ) like she was a millionaire. Not bad for a rescued immigrant from Somalia.
Where do you get your ( giggle ) facts from ? CNN ?
Tony
No, I never, ever watch TV news. But let me ask you an honest and legitimate question: how many politicians have you actually met and spoken with at length? You seem very quick to throw them all under the bus (except, of course, your orange god). One would think it unwise to condemn an entire group of people without actually knowing what is in their hearts. If it was an ethnic group you were condemning in such a fashion, I guess that would make you a racist. What does hating ALL politicians make you? Perhaps simply umisinformed? There are good people in all walks of life. I have no doubt there are many in Washington, DC. Along with a fair measure of jagoffs, to be sure.
HAPPY SUNDAY !!!
Freeze,
There is no ’reply’ beneath your name, so I am above your reply.
No T.V.. You get your misinformation some place. Go to a library. They have a dozen newspapers.
Suffice it to say, I have been associated with quite a few statesmen and politicians. There are a few women on that list as well.
As I have said several times here with Stu and elsewhere. It’s a lot easier to say DRAIN THE SWAMP ! and VOTE THEM ALL OUT ! If you read OUR Constitution, you will see that the best you can hope for is a third of congress at every election. Sure, there are a few good ones, BUT, if I say let’s keep Toomey because…, then you say let’s keep Cheney because….
If in fact, there are elected officials that really do care, then they can try to come back after their term expires.
I will disregard most of your remaining words. I am not racist and I do NOT hate politicians. I simply prefer that they work for us, rather how it is in these times.
I would suggest that you read up on our history, going back to the 1950s after Eisenhower. Include the Constitution with the associated books that translate ‘ole English’ and summarizations of the written work.
Tony
Freeze, great retort. 👍 👍 👍
If I read your comment correctly, it translates to “Soros for president!” or at least “Bloomberg for President!” (since he was born in the US). Both are richer than Trump, which makes them that much smarter, more competent and more qualified to run the country by your standards. (Also, they did it without inheriting millions to start with.) As for history, it will not treat him kindly.
Have you read Ann Coulter recently? Check out, for example, https://anncoulter.substack.com/p/dineshs-stupid-movie?s=r
Disclosure: I have a book of hers, inscribed to me personally. Further disclosure, I disagreed with just about every opinion in it, but I did not disagree with the facts. (Hence her inscription to me: “All hail Marx (Groucho)”–something we agree on). When you’ve lost even Coulter, not to mention Bill Barr, Chris Christie, Brian Kemp, Liz (and Dick) Cheney, Mitt Romney (and before that John McCain), Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy (in private), Ben Sasse, George WIll, David Frum, Matt Lewis and a host of other conservative heavyweights, and are left with the likes of Giuliani, Peter Navarro, Hershel Walker, MTG and the Kraken crew of lawyers, the overwhelming circumstantial evidence says no, history will not treat Trump kindly.
As for choosing what to read, I have always made a conscious effort to read opinions on both sides of an issue, and sought out reliable news sources from both sides of the divide. That is why one of Stu’s readers kindly recommended this site to me. My friend and I have been cordially arguing politics for 30 years. Heck, once he changed my mind on an issue–don’t know if I ever had that effect on him. On the other hand, we agree on a lot, that is, the facts.
Tom : Your comment hits it exactly…any conservatives that know Trump understand what he is and he’s left with wacko’s. It’s almost comical how they are labeled “ swamp” after they come out against him. At some point you have to loop at the reality and stop finding excuses for the man he actually is.
I completely agree with Freeze and I do know DT. I’ve been following him for a long time. DT, the narcissist and sociopath, was a disaster and his accomplishments happened in spite of himself and were not the product of his workday (which consisted of 5-6 hours of watching TV). Many were in the works long before he took office and the tax cut did not work out to be the transformative act that Minuchin said it would be. He made the U.S. a pariah on the international stage and totally bungled the COVID pandemic response. And there is ample evidence that he was told repeatedly that he lost the election and that Pence could not act to overturn it. As a businessman, he was a failure in many ventures and a grifter at best. Why anyone would vote for this despicable person or support him is a mystery to me. (Read Peggy Noonan’s column in today’s WSJ)
But to your point, Stu, the woke progressives and the die-hard MAGAs are equally intolerant. The difference being that the woke do not tolerate ANY deviation from their “truth” and are obnoxiously self-righteous. Whereas the MAGAs are less self-righteous and more blind to facts. Both argue using the same old tired cognitive distortions. I just refuse to engage with both most of the time.
It turns out Trump Derangement Symptom applies to BOTH the haters and the blind supporters.
I consider it my actual duty to be intolerant of hatred and lying. However, to your point, when you lose the ability to agree on actual facts, there is absolutely no point in arguing. All is lost.
Exactly! That is why I joked about it below. This is what THEY want. Discord. And THEY are the elites who want power over us. In the end we the people will have gained nothing.
👌
You started it, Stu, it’s out of control. I figure it’s about a 3 alarmer. I haven’t felt adrenaline like this since the 80’s. Now how will you put it out? At my age too much adrenaline isn’t good🤣