The two parties are not mirror images of each other.
The extremes are in control of the GOP.
The extremes are isolated by the majority of Democrats.
The GOP was so good at gerrymandering after the 2012 election that they destroyed their party. Most incumbent GOP Representatives calculate there is minimal threat of losing to the Democrat in a general election. The risk is being "primaried." Trump openly condemns Republicans if they aren't totally on board with him. He calls them RINOs: Republicans in Name Only. GOP Representatives hear the threat and toe the line.
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| Extreme Gerrymander: A Pennsylvania Congressional District |
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who represents a District in Michigan with a high number of Muslim residents, says things which are shocking, extreme, and objectively dishonest. She defended the Hamas attack on October 7, calling it fair payback; she immediately blamed the hospital explosion on Israel; and now that further investigation appears to show conclusively that this was not an Israeli missile but rather a misfire from Hamas, she is sticking with her blame of Israel. It is inaccurate. It is morally wrong. It is dangerous. She is a Democrat.
The difference between Democrats and Republicans in this moment is that Rashida Tlaib is not a candidate for Speaker getting 200 Democratic votes. An overwhelming majority of Democrats condemn and shun her. Republican officeholders and Fox News use Tlaib as the straw man spokesperson for Democrats, but that is dishonest. She is an outlier. So is Bernie Sanders.
Republicans have caved in to their most Trump-ish MAGA militants. Trump insists on it. Democrats instead chose centrist moderation. The parties are not mirror images of one another.
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24 comments:
Hmm, perhaps images of partisan comparison and contrast are seen in funhouse mirrors. A “bipartisan Speaker”….like Nancy Pelosi, who coddled and appeased The Squad, of which the execrable Rep. Tlaib is but one member? Tlaib’s Democrats are many and loud on Israel right now, in Congress, in the street, on college campuses, on social media, and in the mainstream news media. Don’t look for censure nor even chiding of Tlaib, Omar, AOC et al on CNN or MSNBC or the networks. The NYT and WaPo led the supposed hospital strike story as if Hamas stenographers, and have only reluctantly walked that back since, partially, long after the damage worldwide from the Hamas lies was done. It’s old horses like Chuck Schumer in the Democratic minority now on Israel.
Low D. is objectively incorrect, but her assertion is publishable because it is what Trumpish people and leftist critics WANT to believe. In fact Tlaib and is a remote outlier. The Squad people, including AOC, are much more measured, saying that Israels shouldn't kill innocent Palestinians, which is not really all that weird a thing to say, is it? Biden is both supportive and says to be strategic and smart about it, which is what I wrote two weeks ago. It isn't extreme to be be strategic is it? Don't make things worse for yourself is an expression of care and not support for Hamas. And as for Pelosi, yes, the House Democrats worked together and came up with something that Joe Manchin could support. People who want to pretend that that is caving into crazy radical Democrats can assert it, and it finds an audience among people who want to believe that Democrats surely must have caused the GOP to have gone crazy.
But look at Joe Biden. Look at his history, his language, his policies. Look at the Democratic nomination. Biden was there to stop Bernie and AOC. And yes, there is some bending toward green, and Republicans pretended to hate infrastructure spending, but realistically America needed and wanted it. And it passed in a bipartisan manner.
Note that Democratic policy did not do to Manchin with Republican voterd did to Liz Cheney and are doing to Christie, Romney, Jeff Flake, Bill Barr, etc. Call them RINOs. Of course some Democrats dislike Manchin. He pulls them to the center. But notice that they did in fact get pulled to the center. Don't look at the critics who lost and complain. Look at the consensus that included Manchin.
LD knows better, I suppose, but I will indulge her. Sure, pretend that AOC is the typical Democrat. And, by way of acting in kind, I would need to assert that Liz Cheney is the typical Republican. But I know better. Liz is an outlier. So is Tlaib. Jim Jordan got about 198 votes out of 220. That makes him pretty much normative.
Peter Sage
AOC is a typical Democrat in that she represents a substantial portion of today’s Democrats, a plurality even, especially the youthful base, as well as the news media, and the academy. She equates deaths caused by Hamas and Israel, even after—especially after—the heinous October massacre, and she places primary blame for the regional status quo on the Israeli state and supportive American policy. Blame Israel First and Blame America First is not an outlier Democratic position in 2023.
Should note too: Has AOC or any left-leaning Democrat politician called out Tlaib’s characterizations? Been asked to comment on them by media types? Mr. Sage is arguably the outlier Democrat in his plain censure of Tlaib. Watch him be chastised here for it.
AOC did not need to be prodded by Fox News, by Republicans, nor by LD. Here is what she said, immediately, on October 9:
"Today is devastating for all those seeking a lasting peace and respect for human rights in Israel and Palestine. I condemn Hamas’ attack in the strongest possible terms. No child and family should ever endure this kind of violence and fear, and this violence will not solve the ongoing oppression and occupation in the region. An immediate ceasefire and de-escalation is urgently needed to save lives.”
I have heard AOC say some things I think are silly and uninformed about the economy She is gifted. She is young. She makes young people's mistakes. But she did not echo Tlaib.
In the 2012 election, President Barack Obama decisively defeated Mitt Romney. Republicans realized they needed to expand their appeal, so they appealed to whackos like those in the birther movement, or BM for short.
They so enjoyed wallowing in BM that most Republicans believed Obama was a Kenyan Muslim and they made the biggest blowhard in the BM their party leader. As a result, the lunatic fringe became their base. Not that they’re racist or anything, they’re just White supremacists, neo-Nazis, “Christian” nationalists, armed militias and the like.
Republicans have made it clear they will stop at nothing to win power. It has become the Whacko Party and the few remaining who believe in the rule of law are Whackos In Name Only, or WINOs.
Again, has AOC rebuked Tlaib, or been asked about her?
For her own part, AOC immediately called for immediate cease-fire, on BOTH sides, after a nonpareil massacre from Hamas targeting civilians, including—especially—women and children. She then spuriously referenced “occupation” (of Gaza?) and “oppression” for context and tacit rationalization. The “oppression” is why e.g. BlackLivesMatter and campus types cheered Hamas. These are Democrats.
L.D. makes my case even as she struggles to say the opposite. Look at what she wrote: "BlackLivesMatter and campus types cheered Hamas. These are Democrats."
Yes. A few did. And a few "campus types" did. Then they got roundly criticized by other supporters of Black Americans and other "campus types." There are a few people on the left who say foolish, morally flawed things. I admit it. But no one would argue that a few 19 year olds at Harvard or Cornell represent the Democratic Party, not when they are contradicted by people who in fact represent it, e.g. the President, the Senate Majority Leader, and the overwhelming majority of elected Democrats.
But GOP congressmen, people elected as Republicans, supported Jim Jordan. That is planting an official flag. Trump is way ahead in polls of Republican voters. That is a pretty good indication of the GOP's center. 198 votes for Jordan isn't fringe. It isn't a "few campus types."
LD is making an error I sometimes make in early drafts of my posts. I try to argue a point because I think it is probably right. Then I run into the problem of citing facts to defend my point. When I have to strain all credulity, and liken a "few campus types" to an overwhelming majority of elected Republicans, I stop. I delete all those wonderful paragraphs when I thought I was eloquent and making a great point. Then I start over saying things that are easy to write because the evidence backs up my assertions.
I am going to let this drop, probably. I will let LD go back and rethink what she asserts. It is time for her to re-write from evidence, not first response in a knee-jerk impulse to be oppositional.
I appreciate LD's instinctive oppositional impulses. Sometimes they lead her astray.
Peter Sage
There is cheering, and there is condonation or rationalization of cheering. The latter is routinely held against Republicans in other connections. “Campus types includes” Harvard prez Claudine Gay. Condonation/rationalization includes AOC and so many others vis a vis Tlaib. The general Democratic response to BlackLivesMatter and fellow travelers has been deafening.
I wish the Supreme Court would revisit the issue of gerrymandering as outlawing that would go a long way toward restoring democracy.
Hamas slaughtered over a thousand Israelis, mainly innocent civilians, in a gruesome terrorist attack. In return, Israel is bombing a crowded city of two and a half million people while depriving them of food and water. So far, the death toll is about 1,400 Israelis and 4,600 Palestinians. If killing innocent civilians is bad, who is worse?
Israel is “killing innocent civilians” because Hamas uses those civilians as human shields and hides behind them. Israel is not killing those civilians on purpose; the intended target is Hamas.
Hamas killed innocent Israeli civilians on purpose. They were the intended target.
There is no moral equivalent in this situation. Israel tries for the minimum possible amount of civilian deaths; Hamas tries for the maximum.
Peter is correct. Trump supporters are something like 1/3 of the Republican base. Antisemitic Hamas supporters are a significantly smaller proportion of the Democratic base.
But woke identity ideology does have a significant level of support in the Democratic base. It’s what leads Biden to do things like declaring upfront that he will make a Supreme Court appointment purely on racial/gender grounds.
This is false. The outlets mentioned were objective, which seems to be something you can't see.
Please be honest.
It won't because it supports the GOPee.
Progressives don't even use the term woke.
Stop the dog whistle.
Peter, given the quantity of BS by LD, and the time you spend correcting it, why bother?
Its presence/posts don't make your blog any better.
You stated a policy about not addressing other's comments, but has that gone by the wayside?
Mc, thanks for addressing MT and his "woke" obsession. Saves me having to mention the boring iver use if it, like having Ron DeSeptic on the Blog site.
As to Dudgeon I've enjoyed watching Peter address his inconsistencies.
"Israel tries for the minimum possible amount of civilian deaths."
Such a statement could only come from someone who hasn't bothered to look at the results of Israel's so-called "targeted" bombing on Gaza, one of the most densely populated places on earth.
Partisans may imagine that killing children is only demonic when done by the other side and that killing them from a distance is somehow less reprehensible, but I doubt if their mothers would agree.
Silence on those Tlaib and her fellow American cheerleaders for Hamas—-such silence is complicity, remember? Well, sometimes.
Sometimes not. Not when politically inconvenient for those conspicuously silent about Tlaib et al, namely a majority of Democrats.
Lots of Democrats criticize Tlaib.
https://theintercept.com/2023/10/11/israel-tlaib-bush-aipac-gottheimer/
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4245770-tlaib-bush-criticized-by-democrats-over-statements-calling-for-end-to-israel-support/
The increasingly right-leaning "The Hill" article begins: "Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.) are facing criticism from fellow Democrats over weekend statements in which they each labeled Israel as an apartheid state and called for the U.S. to end funding to the nation, amid a surprise attack by Hamas that killed hundreds."
MT claims that only about one third of Republicans are Trump supporters, but as of yesterday he still leads in the polls with 57% of the primary vote.
And talk about distortions, LD obsesses over one representative, apparently trying to make the case that Democrats are as crazy as Republicans. In fact, the entire Republican Party has gone berserk, as evidenced by the House of Representatives. Never have we seen anything like this from Democrats, or the GOP for that matter previous to Trump.
Such a statement could only come from someone who hasn't bothered to look at the results of Israel's so-called "targeted" bombing on Gaza, one of the most densely populated places on earth.
Mike is apparently completely ignorant of what Israel does to try to reduce civilian deaths to a minimum.
Here is one example: when it’s practical, Israel will “knock on the door“ before it bombs a building. This consists of dropping a dummy practice non-explosive bomb on the roof of a building half an hour before it drops a real bomb on the building. This makes a very loud noise, but is unlikely to hurt anyone. The point is to give the residents of the building a warning, and half an hour to evacuate.
Given what we saw on October 7, it is clear that if Hamas had the power, they would slaughter every single Israeli. Fortunately, Hamas does not have that power,
Israel, on the other hand, actually has the power to kill every last inhabitant of Gaza. Israel does not do this because it would violate israel’s moral principles.
Mike apparently either cannot or chooses not to notice this enormous difference in the morality of Israel vs Hamas.
A small clarification, as someone around here likes to say:
About a third of the Republican base are solid Trump supporters. The rest of the Republican base is either anti-Trump or convincible. This is what polls consistently show, which is significant to those of us who believe that competently done polls provide useful information.
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