One of the key aspects of being in politics (as I see it) is the ability to clearly communicate with the voting public. Supporting legislation that fits within your belief system is good and obviously part of the job. But if the public is not aware of it, it makes us wonder if we voted for the right person.
The frustration coming from many Democrats is that while those in power are doing what they were hired to do, their Achilles heel is messaging. Meanwhile, the Republicans are exceptional at sharing their message. However, the implication is that they want to tear down this country and rebuilt it as a religious autocracy in which anyone who is not a caucasian Christian heterosexual male is a second-class citizen.
The purpose of the news is to share the events of the day. It’s not supposed to induce a WTF moment.
On Friday, Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty of all charges. While two men are dead and a third must live with the trauma of being shot, Mr. Rittenhouse will be returning to his family. This is the problem with the justice system in America. Jacob Blake was assumed to be guilty simply because of his skin color and not even given the opportunity of a fair trial.
Last week, Arizona Representative Paul Gosar published what can only be described as a heinous video on his Twitter account of killing AOC and then attempting to do the same to the President. After he was censured by the House, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthydefended Gosar.
If the Representative from Arizona had any other job, not only would he have been fired immeditately, but he might have also been sued. But because he is in Congress and a very right-leaning Republican who still stands with you know who, he gets away with it.
We don’t have to always agree with one another. That is the beauty of the nation and what she stands for. But when we threaten to hurt or kill one another, either on the internet or in person, there MUST be consequences.
That is, unless you align politically in a certain direction, where violence and destruction are the norm when you don’t get your way.
P.S. If the men who are accused of killing Ahmaud Arbery are acquitted, the response may likely be ten times more than the response to George Floyd‘s murder last year.
When it comes down to it, politics is about two things: messages and action. One can say the right things, but without acting on what has been said, nothing gets done.
I am a lifelong Democrat. My first major election was the 2000 Presidential election in which George W. Bush ran against former Vice President Al Gore. For the last twenty-ish years, I have voted mostly along party lines. But that does not mean that I can’t or won’t speak when I feel the need. The problem with today’s Democratic Party is not the message. They just finally passed the Infrastructure Bill, for G-d sake. The problem is how the message is being presented. Instead of hearing that our young children will be educated, our seniors will be provided for, and our roads will be maintained, the only thing we are being told is the cost.
There were three recent elections that exemplified this issue. In my hometown of New York City, former police officer, and current Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams won handily against activist Curtis Sliwa in the Mayoral election. Truth be told, Adam’s win was not a complete given, but generally accepted that it was the obvious outcome. NYC is, for the most part, politically blue. It was not a surprise that Sliwa lost.
Across the river, current New Jersey Governor Phil Murphywon his Gubernatorial election against Jack Ciattarelli, but only by a narrow margin. Down south, the shock that Republican Glenn Youngkin was proclaimed the winner in the VirginiaGubernatorial election rippled across the nation. His opponent, Terry McAuliffe lost because instead of focusing on kitchen table issues, he spent his time on you know who. Youngkin won because he mostly repudiated the former President and spoke to the everyday problems that voters are dealing with.
While this is happening, the Republicans are making mountains of out molehills. With the announcement that children ages 5-11 are now eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine, the powers that be reached out to the people at Sesame Street. Via Twitter, Big Bird is encouraging young children to get the shot.
I got the COVID-19 vaccine today! My wing is feeling a little sore, but it'll give my body an extra protective boost that keeps me and others healthy.
Ms. @EricaRHill even said I’ve been getting vaccines since I was a little bird. I had no idea!
Ted Cruz, in his usual unhelpful way, decided to attack this most beloved of characters. Instead of remembering the 760,000 Americans who have died from the virus, he is opening the door for even more of us to lose our lives. When will he get it through his extra thick skull that the only way to stay alive and return to normal is to be vaccinated?
There is no doubt that the American political scene is nothing short of a shit-show. Until we get our heads out of our asses and do what needs to be done, it will continue to be a shit show.
P.S. How is Paul Gosar still in Congress when he posted a video in which AOC is killed and the President is attacked? He doesn’t have to agree with her, but he crossed the line with the suggestion of violence.
When it comes to American politics and antisemitism, the impression used to be that only thing with a right wing ideology believed the lies. Those who defined their political views as left wing knew better and stood up against those would spew such disgusting ideas. But the truth is that it exists on both sides of the aisle.
Earlier this week, the budget was held hostage by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a handful of other Congresswomen. They demanded that unless the $1 billion dollars promised to Israel to keep funding the Iron Dome was removed as a line item, they would vote against the bill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was forced take it out of the final bill to keep the government funded after October 1st. Her compromise was to propose a standalone bill. It’s close, but no cigar.
What AOC and company either fail to realize or don’t even consider is that the Iron Dome does not differentiate between a rocket heading toward a Jewish home or an Arab home. It’s purpose is to save lives and prevent property destruction, regardless of whose name is on the deed and what religion they practice. But as usual, they are unwilling to even consider that maybe Israel is not all bad. I am going to end this post with a couple of tweets from Daniella Greenbaum Davis and Eve Barlow because unlike other people, they are not afraid to speak the truth.
The idea that iron dome – a DEFENSIVE weapon, is “controversial” is all the proof you need that for a lot of people, the only good jews are dead Jews.
The game of politics has always been a sticky one. The question I have to ask, is when push comes to shove, do those in the halls of power serve themselves or the voters who hired them?
The big political news of the week is that Ted Cruz decided that it was a good time to take a vacation in Mexico while his fellow Texans are trying their best to survive a snow storm that has knocked out power, heat, and water.
On top of what can only be described as a foolish decision, Governor Greg Abbott went on Fox News and blamed New York Congressperson Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Green New Deal for the outages.
The cherry on top is the following statement by the state’s former Governor, Rick Perry
. “Texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their business,”
What is the purpose of the federal government, if not to step in when a storm of this magnitude creates such destruction in its wake? People are burning their furniture and bundling up in as many clothes or blankets as humanly possible to stay warm.
I don’t know who these men are trying to impress. It’s as if they care more about themselves or their careers than their constituents. But considering the party’s track record over the last few years, I expect nothing less.
P.S. While the Texas GOP does nothing, both AOC and Beto O’Rourke have stepped up to help. It doesn’t take a genius to see who is putting their money where their mouth is and who isn’t.
There are two ways to apologize. There is the sincere apology in which one truly feels contrite for what their actions or their words. Then there is the forced apology in which the words are said, but the speaker feels none of the emotion.
Earlier this week, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), had an apparent run in with Representative Ted Yoho (R-FL). According to news reports, he called her a b*tch, among other things. When he was publicly called out by her on the House floor, his apology included the following statement:
“Having been married for 45 years with two daughters, I’m very cognizant of my language”.
His “apology” if you want to call it that, was bullshit.
Aside from the bullying and sexist aspect of his chosen phrasing, I would like to call out two important aspects of his “apology”.
That word is a female slur, equivalent to other racial, religious, and sexual orientation slurs that I will not repeat. I would love to see the Representative’s reaction if his wife or one of his daughters was called that name. I doubt he would be so callous in his response.
If AOC was Caucasian, older and agreed with the Representative’s political views, I doubt he would have chosen that particular phrasing.
The fact is that over the millennia, men have become too comfortable in the power that has been theirs from birth. Now that women are speaking up, stepping up and taking that power, some men can’t handle it.
Women are not going to scurry quietly back to the neat little boxes that we have been forced into for far too long. We are going to take what is rightfully ours. It’s about dam time that we did.
Anyone who knows me (or has read this blog) knows that as politics go, I am fairly liberal. But that does not mean that I agree 100% of the time with liberal politicians.
Earlier this week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) was a guest on the Ebro in the Morning radio talk show. When the topic of Israel came up, she said somethings that I completely disagree with.
Before I go further, I need to make one thing clear. There is a stark difference between criticizing a government/country because of the governmental policies and criticizing the government/country because of the religious or cultural identity of said government/country.
I agree with AOC on many things, but not about Israel. Instead of being the intelligent woman that I know she is and replying thoughtfully, she just repeated the same lies that have unfortunately become part of our political rhetoric.
Israel is one of America’s greatest ally, especially in the Middle East. We should not be cutting of our nose to spite our face because of lies and half truths.
We have, as we all know, a Presidential election coming up next fall. Israel will be one of the many topics that will come up during the election season. The Democrats, as a political party, will need everything in their arsenal to oust you know who from office. In speaking as she did, AOC has given the Republicans an edge, especially with Jewish voters. If she is as committed to the Democratic party as she says she is, I would suggest that next time, she does her homework before publicly speaking about Israel as she did.
There are some people in this country who still believe that the United States is a white, Christian nation. According to these people, anyone who does not fit into both of those categories is either ineligible to be an American or is only fit to be labeled as a second class citizen.
Among these people is the President of the United States.
Over the weekend, he tweeted the following statement about four Democratic Congresswomen: go back to where you came from. The targets of this tweet were Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.). All four of them are freshman members of Congress and women of color. The incorrect irony of his tweet is that three of the four targeted Congresswomen are natural born American citizens. Ilhan Omar is the only one who was actually born in another country and immigrated as a child. She has been a citizen for nearly twenty years.
The truth of America’s history is that we have always been a multi-cultural nation. Unfortunately, that truth has been hidden to ensure that only a small minority have access to the American dream. Due to decades of hard work and soul searching, we have finally started to open the door to those who have been systematically disenfranchised and make amends for our collective sins.
The question now is, where do we, as a nation go from here? Do we let this racist used car salesman drag us back into the past? Or do we continue to walk the high road and work toward the ideal society that our founding fathers created when they broke from the British over 200 years ago?
The Holocaust is one of the seminal events of recent human history. The persecution, starvation, torture, forced slaved labor and murder of six million European Jews is the hallmark of the inhumanity we often force on our fellow human beings.
Recently, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) made some comments in which she compared immigrants held by border control to the victims of the Nazi concentration camp. The response to her comparison has come fast and furious.
As a Jew and an a descendant of Holocaust victims, I think that her comments are on target. While the immigrants in these facilities are not being tortured, starved, forced into slavery or systematically murdered, they are being treated as less than human.
In the eyes of the current administration, they are the other. They are bad, they are evil and they are the cause of our problems. They do not deserve the opportunity to become Americans and add to the wonderful interwoven fabric of our country.
This is what she is saying and unfortunately, many who are responding are not listening.
When dynamics shift in government and a new party or leader takes control, the party or leader that was previously in control has to get used to change, whether they like it or not.
Earlier this week, the new members of Congress were sworn in and already, there is controversy.
Members of the GOP are in uproar because a video new Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) dancing was released to social media. One commentator on Twitter labelled it as a high school-ish behavior. The irony of their social media pearls clutching moment is that the video was made when she was in high school.
The night after Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan) was sworn in, made the following comment to her supporters, expletive included:
“And I said, ‘Baby, they don’t,’ because we’re gonna go in there and we’re gonna impeach the motherf—–.”
While I would love to see you know who gone from office, I think that the Democratic leadership should not solely be focusing on impeachment, especially with the 2020 election not too far off. If they are to win the election next fall, they have to win the hearts and minds of the voters, especially those who still believe in you know who. By solely focusing on impeachment, this continues to prove that theory that they are out to take him down and therefore drive voters to support/vote for him.
The thing that I realize about this topic is that these women make the GOP nervous. They are minority women of color who are representing their communities for the first time and the GOP who are traditionally Caucasian, male, Christian and straight cannot get their heads around that fact.
America is changing. Those who have traditionally held power are no longer solely in charge and they have no way of handling except for shaming and ridicule.
Writergurlny 
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