Ukraine invasion raises questions about democracy (an editorial worth the read)

The following is an editorial in The Clayton Tribune by a moderate conservative writer named Dick Yarborough. It was forwarded to me by a moderate liberal friend who is from that area and knows the author. I find it to be a very compelling and hope that it will reach many Americans of all political persuasions. Or, at least it should. Its title is noted above as the title of the post. (I apologize for the appearance of the piece as I pasted it in).

“I am going to break two
rules today. First, I am going
to leave the friendly confines
of Georgia and comment
on world events. Second,
I am going to talk about
world events that may have
changed drastically by the
time you read this. That is
because this column runs
around the state in different
places on different days but
I have a finite deadline in
which to get these thoughts
to you. Unfortunately, world
events don’t care about my
deadlines.
That brings me to Russia’s
invasion of Ukraine. As I
write this, Russian President
Vladimir V. Putin has ordered troops into that country in an unprovoked attack
while blithefully ignoring
protestations from most of
the rest of the world.
President Joe Biden and
our European allies have responded with economic sanctions including freezing the
overseas assets of wealthy
Russian families, blocking
international transactions
by some Russian banks,
suspending a gas pipeline
project to Germany and
threatening more sanctions
to come. Somehow, I have a
feeling Putin is not shaking
in his shuba. Undoubtedly,
he presumed this would happen. Reports say he is sitting
on a large amount of cash,
ready to ride out sanctions.
So, why the invasion and
why should we care? The answer is that Putin thinks we
are too weak to do anything
about Ukraine or any other
invasions he may choose to
initiate in the future. Not
militarily weak. We have
plenty of bombs and missiles.
We are perceived as weak
people in a form of government that is waning.
As the New York Times
observed recently, “Putin
and his inner circle believe
that liberal democracies are
in decline, a view that (President of the People’s Republic
of China) Xi Jinping and
other top Chinese officials
share.” That group also
includes Iran, Venezuela and
North Korea.
A study by the Economist
Intelligence Union in Great
Britain, shows that in 2020
only 8.4 percent of the world
population lives in a full
democracy, while 41 percent
live in a flawed democracy,
15 percent live in a hybrid regime and 35.6 percent live in
an authoritarian regime. In
short, democracy is indeed
in decline.
The U.S. is considered a
“flawed democracy.” We enjoy the right to vote and basic civil liberties but, among
other things, we have little
trust in our institutions,
including our government.
There is also a troubling
propensity to try and squelch
freedom of expression,
thanks to anonymous cowards who use social media in
an attempt to intimidate and
threaten those with whom
they disagree.
We are a flawed democracy
because we are a deeply-divided democracy, more concerned with our own self-interest than in the welfare of
each other and with seemingly little interest in coming
together. We are polarized
by race, political philosophy,
political correctness, age,
sex, religion, income, rural
vs. urban. The Economic
Intelligence Union says the
U.S. has “a degree of societal polarization that makes
consensus almost impossible to achieve.” No wonder
Putin, Xi Ping, Ali Khamenei
and other assorted tinhorns
think we are imploding in on
ourselves.
They see a bunch of pubescent millionaires playing
games that add no value to
our society while making a
big show of disrespecting our
nation’s flag and our National Anthem. And they are
treated as heroes by a segment of our population.
They see a group of outof-control zealots storm the
seat of our democracy like in
some Third World country,
vandalizing and looting and
assaulting law enforcement
officers because they didn’t
like the outcome of the presidential election. And they
are treated as heroes by a
segment of our population.
They see a segment of our
population obsessed with
destroying our past like
Taliban terrorists, forgetting
Pres. John F. Kennedy’s admonition, “Let us not seek to
fix the blame for the past. Let
us accept our own responsibility for the future.”
They see hyphenated
Americans, as if where we
came from is more important than where we are.
(When you see me hyphenate
“American,” you will know
an imposter got hold of this
space. I submit we are all
Americans, all the time. No
hyphens. Period.)
Our democratic way of
life is priceless and not to be
taken for granted. An earlier
president, John Adams said,
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes,
exhausts, and murders itself.
There never was a democracy yet that did not commit
suicide.”
Disrespect our flag. Disrespect our Capitol. Disrespect
our country. Disrespect each
other. And watch our democracy commit suicide. The
autocrats are waiting.”

Whether one agrees with every statement made above, I find its theme and purpose something that we each should consider and conduct ourselves accordingly.

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Holiday wishes for politicians, candidates and voters (ten years later)

Happy holidays to all. I wanted to close the year with a few holiday wishes to various constituencies – politicians, candidates and voters – as we move into a full campaign year. Please note this piece was written ten years ago, but still holds true.

For all parties, I strongly encourage you to read “That Used to be Us” by Thomas Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum. The subtitle is ” How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We can Come Back” and I think it should be required reading for all politicians and candidates. The voters would be benefit greatly as well as it will help us keep the first two groups honest and focusing on the right things.

I wish for politicians and candidates to focus on things of import and less on platitudes. The 2012 Republican presidential debates have tended to focus on less important things and we need to ask tough questions about where we are as a country and how do we do what is needed on the major issues of the day. We have tended to dumb down the debates about issues that have been decided (abortion) or that run counter to what is actually happening (global warming). It is hard for me to take someone seriously who wants to do away with the EPA or will choose which judicial rulings he will obey.

I wish for politicians and candidates to think more before they speak. Our problems are complex and deserve well thought out answers. Herman Cain was toast long before his personal crises, as he had not done any homework in preparation for the most important job in the world. I also wish for politicians to tell the truth or use meaningful information to support a cause. Not all data is equal and biased survey data needs to be identified and ferreted out. I have taken a survey gleaned by Newt Gingrich’s team and, frankly, it was biased from the outset and I told them so.*

I wish for politicians and candidates to collaborate with others. They do not have all of the answers and some don’t have a good hand to begin with. So, it is imperative they collaborate with others across all spectrums. This is a major reason I am an independent voter. Collaboration is the key to our success.

I wish for voters to take everything a politician says with a grain of salt. With the infamous words uttered by Senator Kyl earlier this year when he was caught in a lie, “please don’t interpret my comments as being factual,”  he gave us the proper advice. Senator, we will take that advice to the bank. We will not believe anything you say from this point forward. The Democrats should not gloat as they have tended to misrepresent a fact or two, as well.

We voters also need to keep the politicians and candidates between the white lines. We should consider all portrayed facts or survey data in the right context. Who conducted the survey? Where did the facts come from? Does this person have a history, both good or bad, with the subject? Some congressman are supported by lobbying groups and they will vote 100% of the time on issues in favor of the lobbyist’s cause. Their opinions should be discounted as being overly biased.

Our problems need serious people and serious discussions to address them. Going back to the book noted above, we have wavered from our mission, but we can rectify our problems if we think long term and approach our problems together. If we continue our partisan bickering, we will likely fail in these endeavors.

Thanks for reading. I wish for each of you and all of us, a prosperous New Year.

*Note: Herman Cain, the pizza chain tycoon, got early press in his presidential candidacy for his simple 9-9-9 tax plan, as he called it. The problems started appearing when he could not explain what it meant and he started contradicting himself. Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House, started out strong in 2012 in his presidential run, but he fell by the wayside when his over-confident manner rubbed too many the wrong way. People forget his own party removed him as Speaker for similar reasons in the 1990s.

Yet another Republican Senator will not seek reelection

Republican Senator Roy Blunt from Missouri has joined Senator Rob Portman of Ohio in choosing not to run for reelection. Both could be viewed as more “statesmen-like” in a caucus who has misplaced that definition. Blunt’s own words are telling, as gleaned from the article called: “This GOP senator slammed Trumpism on his way out the door,” by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large. Here a few paragraphs:

“Missouri Republican Sen. Roy Blunt said something on Monday — following his surprise retirement announcement — that is worth paying attention to as we continue to monitor the control that former President Donald Trump continues to exert over his party.

‘I think the country in the last decade or so has sort of fallen off the edge, with too many politicians saying, ‘If you vote for me I’ll never compromise on anything,’ and the failure to do that — that’s a philosophy that particularly does not work in a democracy. We’ve seen too much of it in our politics today at all levels, and rather than spending a lot of time saying what I’d never do, I’d spend more time saying what I’d try to do and be willing to move as far in the direction of that goal as you possibly could rather than saying, ‘I’ll never do this.’

Blunt is arguing that the Trump-led push for total purity to principle — or, more accurately, utter fealty to whatever the former President decides he thinks that day — makes for a miserable political existence. (And left unsaid but heavily implied: a very long stay in the minority in Washington.) Who Blunt is talking about in that quote doesn’t require too much reading between the lines to figure out.

There’s no question that the fear of a Trump-backed challenger in his 2022 reelection race played into Blunt’s decision. Ditto Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, who previously shocked the political world with his retirement announcement last month.

Here’s what Portman said about that decision:

“I don’t think any Senate office has been more successful in getting things done, but honestly, it has gotten harder and harder to break through the partisan gridlock and make progress on substantive policy, and that has contributed to my decision.”

Sadly, to this independent voter, seeing the Trump party, which has replaced the Republican Party, embrace conspiracy-minded parroting along with outright lying is disturbing. But, don’t take my word for it. Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Nicholas Kristof wrote a piece about Portman’s retirement saying the GOP is losing a statesman and replacing him with a kook, referencing one of the more notorious new GOP Representatives. Blunt would be on the statesman side.

This GOP senator slammed Trumpism on his way out the door (msn.com)

One more court win than a dead man has

The outgoing US president continues to claim wide-scale voter fraud without proof and does so in a smug, of-course-everyone-knows, fashion. Apparently everyone does not know this, in particular, many Republican election officials, Secretaries of State, a Homeland Security election cybersecurity official and judges (even Trump appointed judges) who disagree.

Yet, what the outgoing president fails to broadcast to his followers, is out of about three dozen court cases claiming voter fraud, he has won the grand total of one small case, that threw out a few hundred votes. If you are counting, that is one more court win than a dead man has.

From an article called “In Harsh Rebuke, Appeals Court Rejects Trump’s Election Challenge in Pennsylvania” by Alan Feuer of The New York Times, the following paragraphs sum up what the vast other court cases are telling the outgoing president.

“In a blistering decision, a Philadelphia appeals court ruled on Friday that the Trump campaign could not stop — or attempt to reverse — the certification of the voting results in Pennsylvania, reprimanding the president’s team by noting that ‘calling an election unfair does not make it so.‘

The 21-page ruling by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals was a complete repudiation of Mr. Trump’s legal effort to halt Pennsylvania’s certification process and was written by a judge that he himself appointed to the bench. ‘Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy,’ Judge Stephanos Bibas wrote on behalf of the appeals court in a unanimous decision. ‘Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here.’

‘Voters, not lawyers, choose the president,” the court declared at one point. “Ballots, not briefs, decide elections.’The court accused the Trump campaign of engaging in “repetitive litigation” and pointed out that the public interest strongly favored ‘counting every lawful voter’s vote, and not disenfranchising millions of Pennsylvania voters who voted by mail.’”

I am truly sorry to have to continue to write these posts on the petulant, dishonest and dishonorable acts of someone in a leadership position. The fact this person is saying these things is disappointing, but not surprising, since, that is his nature and he has planned to do this for six months, if he lost.

What is most disappointing is only a small few Republican so-called leaders have called out the outgoing president’s fraud. What is also disappointing, because of the staging over the last six months and predicted posturing on election night, for which announcers criticized him, his followers believe these fraudulent statements by this petulant person.

So, please forgive my posts sharing these court cases and ongoing concerns about this person. I will not be content until the president-elect is sworn in. Unfortunately, the person has forever tainted far too many voters who actually believe what this most corrupt and deceitful president in my lifetime says and tweets.

Current Arizona Republican Attorney General denounces unsupported fraud claims

In an article in The Washington Post entitled “Arizona’s GOP attorney general rejects Trump’s unfounded voter fraud claims: ‘There is no evidence’” by Jaclyn Peiser, the current Arizona Attorney General adds his Republican voice to that of his predecessor, Grant Wood (also Republican) regarding the election in Arizona.

The article can be linked to below, but here are the first four paragraphs which give you the gist of his comments. Note I wrote a few days ago about Wood’s comment in a Fox News editorial.

“President Trump’s campaign plows on with lawsuits featuring unfounded claims of voter fraud in lost battleground states, Arizona’s Republican attorney general on Wednesday rejected the president’s conspiracy claims and said he’s unlikely to overtake President-elect Joe Biden in the state.

‘It does appear that Joe Biden will win Arizona,’ state Attorney General Mark Brnovich said in a Wednesday interview with Fox Business host Neil Cavuto. “There is no evidence, there are no facts that would lead anyone to believe that the election results will change.”

Brnovich, the first high-ranking Republican in Arizona to reject Trump’s fraud claims in the state, added that Trump would have to win 65 percent of the less than 50,000 remaining votes to edge out a victory, a dubious outcome based on expert analysis and historical trends. It would be ‘very, highly unlikely to happen,’ Brnovich said.

Fox News, the Associated Press and Decision Desk HQ have all declared Biden the winner of Arizona. As of Thursday morning, The Washington Post has yet to call the race. With 99 percent of the ballots counted as of Thursday morning, Biden leads by more than 11,600, according to The Post.“

The president keeps saying that Democrats are trying to steal the election, but these two men are Republicans. The Secretary of State in Georgia is also a Republican. Other state officials are also pushing back on the president’s fraud claims. Others are taking notice, especially with the president not offering tangible, significant evidence.

I saw a Reuters poll that noted 79% of Americans and 1/2 of Republicans believe the president elect is Joe Biden. What the president is doing was predicted by more than a few months ago. Hobbling the post office, defaming the mail-in process and hiring 1,000 attorneys around the country over the summer show a staging of this moment.

In fact, google Bernie Sanders on Jimmy Kimmel’s talk show back in October regarding Trump’s expected election actions. Sanders lays out precisely what the president is now doing – claiming victory on election night, suing to stop the election counts and claiming fraud by those trying to steal the election.

From where I sit, the only fraud going on has the fingerprints of Donald Trump on it.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/arizona-s-gop-attorney-general-rejects-trump-s-unfounded-voter-fraud-claims-there-is-no-evidence/ar-BB1aWp4T?ocid=msedgdhp

If you don’t add value…

Just because someone is in a leadership position does not make them a leader, in and of itself. We are witnessing in real-time what leadership looks like and does not look like.

On the former, the president-elect has been inclusive, hopeful and unifying in his speeches. He said the major issue of the moment is the pandemic noting we cannot recover our economy without addressing the increasing cases and deaths. He has already announced a team to address these issues and given Americans straightforward advice about masks, social distancing and doing what is needed in advance of the vaccine.

On the latter, we have an incumbent president who I have never concluded was a leader, given his self-serving, untruthful, demeaning and bullying actions. After saying we should give him a chance after the 2016 election (as we should do with any president), it took less than a week for him to start burning that misplaced trust. A democratically elected leader does not act that way – an autocratic one does. Long ago I wrote that if the president cannot add value when he talks or tweets, he needs to stop talking or tweeting.

When a person in a leadership position does not add value or is untruthful, they start getting ignored. When you say inane or untruthful things, the speaker turns people off. Since the 2020 election, the incumbent is doing what many (including me) expected him to do – claim victory early on, claim fraud when the votes come in, and contest the election. He has been setting the stage for these actions for many months.

It should be noted that major news networks have cut away twice, once from the president and once from his PR person, when they started saying unsupported claims of wide-scale fraud. Think about what that says. Cutting away may be one of the biggest insults a president could get. In essence, the networks are saying if this is what you are going to talk about, then we have better things to do. It is like the crazy uncle at the Thanksgiving table – you just stop listening to him.

On the night of the election when the president claimed victory, he was vilified by more than several news people saying he cannot make that claim and is inflaming the situation. Chris Wallace of Fox News was one of those people. Even Republican leaders called the president “reckless and irresponsible.” Yet, he still has his sycophants who support this incredibly untruthful narcissist.

Now, I read that foreign leaders are giving the president the cold shoulder. That speaks volumes as well. The difference between these two candidates is staggering. One is being a leader, while the other is being, well whatever he wants. The story on the latter has gotten real tiresome. And, people are voting with their feet.

Even Senior Republicans speak out against Trump’s election claims

Courtesy of the US News article link below as well as other sources like Business Insider, The Guardian and The Hill, here are a few quotes from several senior Republican leaders regarding the election claims of the president.

Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania –  “I saw the president’s speech last night and it was very hard to watch. The president’s allegations of large-scale fraud and theft of the election are just not substantiated. I’m not aware of any significant wrongdoing here,” Toomey said on “TODAY.”

Senator Mitt Romney of Utah – Per The Hill, Romney, in a statement posted to Twitter, said the president was “right” to “exhaust legal remedies,” including asking for recounts and that alleged voting irregularities be investigated, but “wrong to say that the election was rigged, corrupt and stolen. Doing so damages the cause of freedom here and around the world, weakens the institutions that lie at the foundation of the Republic and recklessly inflames destructive and dangerous passions,” Romney added.

Senator Marco Rubio of Florida – Per US News, Rubio, who ran against Trump in the 2016 presidential primaries and campaigned for for the president in recent weeks, tweeted ‘The result of the presidential race will be known after every legally cast vote has been counted. Taking days to count legally cast votes is NOT fraud,” he wrote. “And court challenges to votes cast after the legal voting deadline is NOT suppression.”

Senators Mike Lee of Utah, Rob Portman of Ohio and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska –  The Senators echoed the sentiment in the same US News article below, saying the votes should be counted. Lee asked people to “allow the vote counters to do their job.”  We should respect that process and ensure that all ballots cast in accordance with state laws are counted. It’s that simple,’ Portman said, while Murkowski urged “everyone to be patient.’

“Congressman Adam Kinzinger of Illinois – Per US News, “We want every vote counted, yes every legal vote (of course). But, if you have legit concerns about fraud present EVIDENCE and take it to court. STOP Spreading debunked misinformation,” tweeted Congressman Adam Kinzinger of Illinois.

Congressman Will Hurd of Texas (and former CIA officer) – Per US News, Hurd of Texas, who is retiring, went further. He accused the president of undermining the foundations of the country. “A sitting president undermining our political process & questioning the legality of the voices of countless Americans without evidence is not only dangerous & wrong, it undermines the very foundation this nation was built upon. Every American should have his or her vote counted,” Hurd tweeted.

German foreign minister Heiko Maas – Per The Guardian: The German foreign minister, Heiko Maas, said: “America is more than a one-man show. Anyone who continues to pour oil on the fire in a situation like this is acting irresponsibly. Now is the time to keep a cool head until an independently determined result is available.”

‘”In order for the result – which has not yet been determined – to be accepted, everyone must first show restraint. Decent losers are more important for the functioning of a democracy than radiant winners.”

These voices are not alone. They speak for many. We need to be patience and trust the people, who appear to take their job with seriousness of purpose and try to get it right, to finish counting the votes. Recounts can occur if warranted per each state law. And, a candidate can bring lawsuit if he or she thinks there was a problem. Yet, disparaging a process before and while it is going on is beyond poor form. The word used a few times above is “irresponsible.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/senior-republicans-speak-out-against-donald-trump-s-election-claims/ar-BB1aLkPT?ocid=msedgdhp

When a known untruthful person endorses a message, what does that mean?

Sometimes the TV campaign commercials slip through the mute button. Usually it occurs when my wife or I leave the den and the remote is on the other end table. So, we get to hear the spiel from various Trump commercials, whether we want to or not.

Yet, when I hear him say at the end “I am Donald Trump and I endorse this message,” what does that mean? Trump is well-documented to be the most deceitful president in my lifetime. Plus, he laps the field of other politicians on lying, as his nature is to embellish every favorable truth and lie about the many unfavorable truths.

So, if Trump supports or endorses a commercial, that does not enhance its veracity. To me, it means it is likely very untrue or largely so. Just to state a few obvious points.

1.We have not turned the corner on COVID-19, it is getting worse. The president has not made it better; any achievements have largely been in spite of his mishandling.

2. Trump did not create the economy before the pandemic pushed us into a recession; he inherited the third longest growth economy in our country’s history.

3. Our economy before the recession was not the best ever, it is not even close. It was the longest growth period in US history, but 91 months of the growth occurred under Obama, with only 36 under Trump. But, the rate of growth was just pretty good.

4. He is not tough on China, he just appears to be such. I would argue with the ill-fated tariffs, pulling out of the TPP and the Iran nuclear deal, and picking on our EU allies, he has made China’s ascendency to the number one economy easier, not harder.

5. Biden’s healthcare plan will not close hospitals. He is talking about adding a public option to the ACA; that is not national health coverage; it is like Medicare. Hospitals will like getting paid. By the way, it is a fact the GOP led states that did not expand Medicaid under the ACA saw some rural hospitals close.

6. Biden is not a socialist, nor is Harris. They are both moderates and have the endorsement of several Republican groups. Biden will have a diverse cabinet, that will include all types of people – he even said he would include a few Republicans.

A final point that needs to be said. It is highly offensive and bothersome that the president of the United States is sowing seeds of racial unrest, division, conspiracies and doubt on the election process. Call me crazy, but the president is supposed to make things better, not worse. Donald Trump is making things worse with his rhetoric.

Four little windows

There is ad nauseum evidence of the corrupt, bullying, unempathetic and deceitful words and actions of the president. Yet, sometimes little windows offer clear insight into the nature of the president.

On the day interim FBI Andrew McCabe was packing up his office to retire, he was fired by the president to deny McCabe his pension. This may be  worse than firing people without telling them, which he has done several times. Who does that?

After informing two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Bob Woodard in early February he was aware of the coronavirus risk and how it could be transmitted, the president chose not to inform Americans and had several rallies later in the month. He did not tell his ardent base they were being exposed and further downplayed the virus as a hoax. Who does that?

On a day which will be remembered as “sh**hole country” day, the president agreed to a deal in the morning with Senators Dick Durbin and Lindsey Graham for money for the infamous border wall (his main campaign theme) in trade for making DACA into law to help about 800,000 children born in America to illegal immigrants. By the time Durbin and Graham got there, the president had been talked out of the deal by hard line Senator Tom Cotton among others. The two Senators were none to happy with the president for reneging on the agreed upon deal. To top it off, Trump offended several countries by referring to immigrants therefrom as coming from “sh**hole countries.”

Finally, with his current pep rallies, setting aside the COVID-19 exposure, he insulted his base in Pennsylvania and Iowa regarding not wanting to come there, telling Iowans he hoped he would never be back. But, he saved his worst for Nebraskans who he made wait in the cold weather and trudge back to their cars afterwards. Again, these are his most ardent fans. Yet, we should not be surprised, as radio host Howard Stern noted after fifteen hours of interviews with Trump over the years, Trump does not give a hoot about those folks.

There are many other examples to draw from – the poorly planned travel ban which was so botched it was pulled after two days, the vindictive firings or transfers of Inspectors General and public servants who testified under oath, or the horrible separation of children from asylum seekers et al. This is the person who represents the United States.

After the failed travel ban, conservative David Brooks said the Trump White House is “equal parts chaos and incompetence.” About a year or so later, Brooks noted “Trump does not have empathy or sense of decency.” Agreed on all counts.

Conservative pundit David Brooks – How Democrats Won the War of Ideas

As an independent and former Republican (and Democrat), David Brooks is one of my favorite conservative pundits and authors. He is a regular participant on PBS Newhour’s Friday recap show with the more liberal Mark Shields. Like other key conservative pundits, MIchael Gerson, George Will, Ross Douthat, Eric Erickson and Max Boot, he is hoping that America votes out the incumbent president.

In his usual articulate and even-handed fashion, Brooks penned the following editorial last week called “How Democrats Won the War of Ideas.” The link is below, but I will highlight a few paragraphs for your review and comment.

“Over the last 100 years, Americans have engaged in a long debate about the role of markets and the welfare state. Republicans favored a limited government, fearing that a large nanny state would sap American dynamism and erode personal freedom. Democrats favored a larger state, arguing that giving people a basic economic security would enable them to take more risks and lead dignified lives.

That debate ebbed and flowed over the years, but 2020 has turned out to be a pivotal year in the struggle, and it looks now as if we can declare a winner. The Democrats won the big argument of the 20th century. It’s not that everybody has become a Democrat, but even Republicans are now embracing basic Democratic assumptions. Americans across the board fear economic and physical insecurity more than an overweening state. The era of big government is here.”

Brooks cites a few survey facts from last week’s New York Times/ Siena poll.

2/3 of Americans support allowing people to buy health insurance through the federal government

2/3 support Joe Biden’s $2 trillion plan to increase renewable energy and build efficient infrastructure

72% of likely voters and 56% of Republican voters favor another COVID-19 relief package

59% of Americans think government should do more to solve problems

2/3 think government should do more to fight climate change

60% support increasing the minimum wage and providing tax credits to low income workers

82% of voters and 70% of Republicans would like to expand requirements for paid family medical leave

Brooks also cites a study by the Mercatus Center which notes that Republicans are also moving left, just not at the pace of Democrats. This is contrary to what is believed by the media.

I have long said that more than 1/2 of the Republican voters are voting against their economic interests and do not know it. This survey indicates many do favor policies that would help them, but are sold a bill of goods packaged to woo their votes, but mask the purposeful deterioration of rights and opportunities.

A great example is the Affordable Care Act. When people are surveyed about the features of the act, the features receive high marks from all, including Republicans. The only feature that did not was eliminated – the mandate to buy coverage. Ironically, this elimination is the basis for 25 Republican Attorney Generals who have case to declare the ACA unconstitutional in front of the Supreme Court after the election, which should not occur as the case is not solid, but one never knows with these things. Sadly, the White House chose not to defend the law, which affects expanded Medicaid, exchange and employer-provided benefits.

Please read Brooks article below. It is very well done, as per usual.