Issues dominating the Kennedy vs. Nixon debates leading up to the 1960 presidential election were farm surpluses, welfare programs, teachers’ salaries, medical care, federal debt reduction and national security. President Eisenhower, whom they were competing to replace, last offered a federal budget of $79 billion.
Sixty years later, there is only one dominant issue: power. How do I get it, how do I keep it and how do I get more of it? Of course, world problems still abound but they are pushed aside as we decide who runs the show. Media focus is on immigration, the wall, sanctuary, and Trump, Trump, Trump. Most important is the wall, which Democrat candidates fear would keep their Mexican constituents from getting to the polls.
How Time Flies When You’re Having Fun
The current federal budget is $4.4 trillion. Adjusted for inflation, it has expanded six and a half times in 60 years and the per capita cost has tripled. The main currency is influence—who you know and how many you control. The tax Zamboni sucks up all the tax money from coast to coast and dumps it off in Washington D.C., the place with the highest per capita net worth of any metropolitan area in the U.S. They vote ninety percent Democrat, so if you just love it, your 2020 vote is already decided for you.
Choosing which exciting candidate will receive your Democrat presidential primary vote could be difficult. Are you going to go with someone who adopted AOC’s carbon-free energy choice before twelve years? To think that you might have a windmill in your own back yard is exciting. Or perhaps you are contemplating what vegan Cory Booker would do when he resumes Michelle Obama’s school lunch program.
Then there is Kamala Harris who will replace all medical insurance companies (and their employees) with Medicare for all. There’s more, much more, so maybe the eventual primary winner and Democrat candidate for president will just wrap them up in a package and offer them all. Isn’t socialism sexy?
The Donald
There is one small catch; his name is Donald Trump who, it is anticipated, will have his name on the ballot. His political debut in 2016 played havoc with some best-laid plans and now the media has their full-court press on to diminish any favorable view some mid-country deplorables might have of him.
Magapill.com lists his accomplishments as U.S. president, 328 of them headed by:
- More Americans working now than ever before in our history
- 250,000 jobs added in October
- Manufacturing confidence at an all-time high
- Construction jobs up more than 300,000 compared to last year
- Food stamp usage declines for eight straight months
- Middle class income rises to highest on record
- Consumer confidence at an 18-year high
- Black and Hispanic unemployment rates hit record low in April
- Business investments up 39 percent due to tax cuts
That’s a small sampling to give you an idea of potential voter influence if the social media moguls don’t dump that web site soon. It is so rare for a political candidate to run on his/her accomplishments because they usually don’t have any and, instead, are blaming others for their own incompetence. It may be necessary to come up with something other than racist, racist, racist to anything he does.
How deplorable are you? I just bought my MAGA hat.
