Posts Tagged → Obama
Who is MAGA? What is MAGA?
Quite a bit of debate going on about the Make America Great Again movement started by candidate Donald Trump in 2015. Now that the movement to get Donald Trump elected succeeded a third time, and his policy goals are being implemented, the next question becomes “Whither MAGA?”
The question of why any American opposes the mere concept of Make America Great Again is beyond me. Why an entire political party has defined itself as opposing everything that a president does, including pledging to demolish the privately funded ballroom addition he is overseeing on the White House, is a question more for psychiatrists than political scientists. Trump Derangement Syndrome is real, it is measureable, it is quantifiable, and it is probably operationally definable, if some enterprising PhD student wants to contribute something useful to an otherwise useless, politicized, and anti-ideas moribund academia.
Americans suffering from TDS have a real problem, and I hope they get it treated professionally. On the flip side, conservative patriots like moi viscerally despised impostor Barack Hussein Obama, but not to the point of irrationally opposing even the occasional good things he did. You know, throwing out the baby with the bath water. Not that I can recall good things that Obama did, but probably there were some, like adding new acreage to a national park somewhere.
More to the moment are the questions of who is MAGA and who runs MAGA and what will become of this political movement when Preisdent Trump terms out of office. Who in the world of politics will pick up Trump’s mantle, his movement, and reassemble the successful team for future campaigns?
Right now a bunch of professional pundits have claimed the MAGA gatekeeper role for themselves. Steve Bannon, Tucker Carlson, Roger Stone, maybe Alex Jones, and a few other public opinion figures who make their living from speaking into a microphone and to a camera continue to make strident statements about MAGA, as if they own it, define it, speak for it. Other political pundits, like Dinesh D’Souza, Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh, et al, certainly speak to and about MAGA principles, but they make no open claims to actually own or represent MAGA.
I reject all of these people, and anyone, frankly, from claiming this role. Even President Trump no longer really “owns” this movement that he created ten years ago.
This whole question, raging though it may be, reminds me of the whole predecessor Tea Party movement that began in 2008-2009 in Central Pennsylvania. No sooner had someone, and I won’t bother to research who it was who dubbed this grass roots voters backlash against the woeful Republican Party establishment and its hand-holding big brother Democrat Party, but immediately, anyone involved in conservative politics, conservative political activism, issue activism, or donating to conservative or GOP political campaigns, was awash in Tea Party related emails, appeals, mailers, brochures.
Quite a few so-named “Tea Party” 501(c)(4) groups were formed in 2008-2012. Even more related LLCs were formed. All were run by aggressive business people who sensed an opportunity to make money from politics yet again, and who appealed to voters and activists as being leaders who best captured and represented Tea Party ideals and principles. Many of these people claimed to be moral leaders, leaders of morality and ideological purity. Most of these people and their groups and organizations were shams, frauds, fakes, and did not stand the test of time. They are found few and far between today as part of the MAGA movement or cause, having been exposed as simple opportunists.
On the opposite end of this spectrum sits people like yours truly, my past political campaigns, and this blog, who have never made a net gain penny from politics, but who instead continue to hemorrhage personal money in the cause of political dialogue, policy debate, individual freedom, small government, accountable government, constitutional principles, our nation’s founding principles, etc.
I can also think of a few tireless, devoted political advocates here in Pennsylvania, who I will not name in full, who continue to donate their personal time and money to the cause of First Principles, without hope or expectation of remuneration. Dean, Ron, Jim, Jeff and others have all stood the test of time since our collective political arousal in 2008-2009. Yes, others have risen up to contribute their voice to the cause of freedom, and honest elections, but they also seek to make a living doing it. That is a business endeavor, not a selfless devotion.
Despite plenty of political activism in the 1980s, as a conservative Central PA Democrat, my own first personal try at elected office was in 2009-2010, when I ran as a Tea Party conservative Republican candidate for US Congress here in Central PA. I ran for state senate in 2012 and 2015, eventually removing myself from a great race for state senate in late 2015, due to a severely injured knee obtained while bear hunting. Back-to-back surgeries on what had been my “good” knee in January 2016 eliminated my ability to do what I enjoyed and did best, going door to door and meeting voters. It marked the end of my interest in elected office. But not the end of my interest in politics.
In 2015 I became full-blown MAGA, despite plenty of mockery from establishment Republicans serving on county GOP committees. Their 2016 “Dump Trump” slogan failed, as their shallow RINO candidates failed.
2016 marked the end of the Tea Party, as it morphed from a broad, ground-up, grass-roots-led freedom movement into the MAGA movement led by one Donald Trump. Trump used that movement of First Principle America lovers to get elected to office. Now that he succeeded, I do not think anyone can justifiably claim to lead it, or own it, or speak for it. Not even Trump.
I now look at people like Steve Bannon and Tucker Carlson the same way that I looked (sideways) at the people who came out of the shadows in 2008-2010 to claim un-earned leadership roles and money-making opportunities in the Tea Party. That populist movement may have finally found its footing under a new name, MAGA, and it may have elevated some people who spoke or occasionally speak our language, but it is wholly owned by you and me, citizen voters.
The strength of the Tea Party and its MAGA incarnation is that we Americans spoke to each other in town halls and municipal meeting rooms and at rallies. This was the most authentic voice and debate possible.
Each of us has an equal voice in this. People who make money and a living from this movement are automatically suspect in my eyes. They can’t possibly be in this for the right reason.
And like the big family we American citizens are, you and I can argue and bicker and sometimes disagree with one another about policy and candidates. But not one of us is a gate keeper for our collective movement, and no one we might want as a spokesman, would have the ridiculous arrogance to claim such a role.
Back to basics, America
We have a Republican Party crisis here in Pennsylvania, and in Dauphin County, and this blog will be addressing these problem children soon. However, the real friction happening between lawless, rogue judges and the Trump Administration is the most defining issue of the day.
As most politically interested and involved readers already know, a real contest of wills is developing betwen the Trump Administration on the one hand, and politically radical / rogue/ lawless politically activist judges on the other hand. This contest may seem alarming to some people, but it is a perfectly natural and healthy aspect of how our Constitutional republican form of government is designed to operate.
With three separate but co-equal branches of government forming an equilateral triangle, but made of living, breathing people, and usually the most aggressive, power hungry, conniving people at that, American government is designed to have friction. That friction results in constant contest, and a constant creative renewal, as all three branches naturally seek to exert as much dominance as they can get away with over the other two branches. Or as much outright control of the decision process as the other branches will concede.
So when grotesquely overreaching politically corrupt activist judges, like James Boasberg, “order” the executive branch to turn around planes carrying lawfully deported violent gang members to foreign destinations, and return said violent deportees to American soil for the judge’s evaluation, we can expect some friction to result. The executive branch, and its chief executive/ military commander in chief (the president), is well within its rights and within its sole discretionary function when it engages in illegal alien deportation, as defined by the US Constitution.
The Trump Administration is under no duty or obligation to do whatever some judge tells them to do. Judicial Tyranny might be a goal for some Americans, but it is not something anticipated or accepted by the Founders and writers of the Constitution.
Not every situation or question or policy is justiciable, meaning that not every question can be resolved in a court of law. Some things, like deportations and war and a host of other subjects and government functions, are the sole purview of the executive branch. Neither the legislative branch nor the judicial branch have anything to say about it. It is not their “lane.”
Or, the judicial and legislative branches can try to say something about a given policy, but the best way to force the executive branch to follow is to pass a law requiring it.
In this particular case, President Trump blasted Boasberg’s unconstitutional overreach, and called for his impeachment, which is built right into the Constitution. Then US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts in turn criticized the President for his calls to impeach said America-hating radical, James Boasberg. While Roberts personally dislikes Trump, he is defending his judicial branch more than anything, and trying to take power away from the executive branch.
This is all normal stuff, even if America has not seen this kind of constitutional friction in a long time. To my mind, this activity just shows that the various parts of the government machine are working properly. It took a Donald J. Trump to actually test run the American machinery for the first time in about seventy years. What is scary is how aggressive the judicial branch has been about hogging power over the past fifty years, and how little pushback the executive branch did until now. Presidents and Congress alike keep conceding judicial review as though the judicial branch is some sort of hallowed gathering of super smart and pure minded arbiters of fairness. Ha! Judges are just politicians in black robes, as one of my Penn State professors used to say.
Don’t worry, America has been down this path before in recent times. The Obama Administration, especially, engaged in a ton of simply ignoring judicial holdings and decisions and demands and orders; Obama DOJ lawyers were repeatedly held in contempt by a number of judges over the tenure of that administration. Not one judge got up out of his or her chamber to go enforce their order in person…nor could they.
And that’s the rub here: Crazy judges and even crazier Justices who allow some members of the judiciary to run wild, without restraint, can expect constraint by the branches they impact. Especially the executive branch.
Judicial review is not sacrosanct, it is not wide-open, nor can judges simply demand obedience to whatever or wherever their egos or political interests take them (or in the case of corrupt Judge James Boasberg, where his family’s wallet takes him on policy questions). Judges’ credibility depends upon the dignity and caution with which they discharge their duties.
When judges like Boasberg run bloody roughshod over America’s Constitutional geometry, and when justices like John Roberts do nothing to rein Boasberg in, but rather defend the indefensible, then they pretty much deserve what they have coming: Impeachment by the US House of Representatives, and being simply ignored by the Chief Executive and Commander in Chief as he does what his job requires him to do.
As one US president said in a similar moment of great friction, “Let the judge come and enforce his order himself.”
And no, that judge did not attempt to personally force the executive branch machinery to bend to his will. He astutely stood down and granted to the Chief Executive that which was his, and which still remains his. If Justice John Roberts wants Americans to respect his office and his decisions, then he must act similarly. We have to get back to the basics of running American government.
Trump Harrisburg Town Hall was fabulous
Yesterday afternoon I participated in the President Donald Trump town hall with Sean Hannity here in Harrisburg, at the Farm Show building, and it was a fabulous experience. I am glad I went, and two young-er family members went with me.
Some takeaways:
- Plenty of former Democrats and current Independents were in the crowd. I spoke with quite a few of the people around me, and learned that there are still registered Democrats who are nonetheless supportive of Trump. I think the open border is scaring them. Plenty of Independents, too.
- Trump is a smart and straight-talking person, not just unafraid to be challenged and questioned but welcoming the give-and-take. He is a gregarious person with confidence, and enjoys explaining his policy positions.
- His supporters are normal every-day people. I met a computer programmer, two teachers, a retired police officer. The people in the audience dressed and acted like normal people, friendly to one another, gracious. I saw no bad or crude behavior.
- Not all of Trump’s supporters are hyper-excited fangirls, although we certainly saw and heard them roaring and cheering last night (the young man who accompanied me screamed himself hoarse). But boy, does he have supporters who are SCARED of what has happened to America in the past few years. These are people who were a-political or non-political until recently. They are not regulars at protests or political rallies, they may not have voted until the past few years, but they showed up last night because they see their entire nation slipping away under their feet and through their fingers, and they wanted to show their support for the person they believe can stop the destruction. Quite a few of these people did not even cheer or yell, they hardly clapped, but they were in the audience with great intention. You could see it clearly in their faces.
- Sean Hannity surprised us all. He has a reputation for talking over his guests, which he did not do to Trump. Funny enough, the hopped up crowd did that for Hannity, often loudly chanting or enthusiastically yelling out as Trump was going to say something.
- The Mainstream Media really is the enemy of The People, because the lies and nonsense they put out starting with late last night and spilling into today are just incredible. I am disgusted by the sheer number of blatant lies told by the press about the town hall. The press is supposed to hold the government accountable, but now in America, the press are 100% partisan political activists for the government, for censorship, and against the constitutional rights that We The People hold so dear.
- Discussing the event with an older Democrat friend, I was caught off guard by his sudden vehemence and the strange things he said about Trump. A disconnect between what I had just witnessed from start to finish, and what I guess is the mainstream media’s spoon-feeding of garbage to whoever is in their audience, like my friend. When I challenged him to provide me with evidence for his claims, he assured me he would. So far that has not materialized, and I don’t think it will. The facts do not support Trump being “demented” (Biden clearly is demented while Trump clearly is clear headed and sane), or a “Lying, cheating con man…a grifter.”
- Trump is the complete opposite of a grifter, because he did not take a presidential salary and did not make money during or after being president, but rather lost a lot of money. Contrast that with the Bidens, Obamas, and Clintons, all of whom entered public service poor and exited extremely wealthy. Biden is clearly a criminal recipient of illegal bribes from China, both directly and through his son Hunter.
- As for the lying and cheating part, I have not yet seen it with Trump, though both are epidemic among regular politicians, and I wonder if my Democrat friend applies the same standard to his favorite candidates as he applies to Trump….
- There is huge positive energy around President Trump, and we need to keep that going. The Democrat Party is doing everything possible to allow illegal aliens to vote (which is patently illegal) in this upcoming election, and we need to have such a massive turnout for Trump that the election is too big to rig. (Personal note: I sat directly in line with the cameras focused on Trump, and whenever he was speaking I was visible precisely to the right of his right cheek. Wearing a light blue shirt and a red hat, I was also blurry…so close to finally being on TV, and yet not really being on TV)
CNN debate shows world Biden is a mindless puppet
Interesting how for the past four years leftists, the mainstream media, some establishment Republicans, and partisan Democrats have strenuously defended Joe Biden’s mental incompetence, his well documented influence peddling/ bribery/ selling out of America with China and Ukraine, the stolen 2020 election that put this mindless puppet in power. And last night, the entire world got to see up close that Joe Biden is indeed a dementia-ridden mindless puppet. The man is not in control of his own mind or his own decisions, and has not been for years.
“I don’t understand what he just said, and he doesn’t know what he just said,” President Donald Trump said to the cameras last night in response to one of Joe Bidens’ humiliating mindless mouthful of marbles gobbledygook.
President Trump easily dominated the debate. So easily, that a lot of people are now wondering if it wasn’t an inside set-up to put Joe Biden in the most public spotlight, so that even the most super partisan silo-dwelling rah-rah Democrats would have to finally be confronted with the uncomfortable truth that their man is a mindless puppet. Once they accept that Biden is a mindless robot, they will more willingly try to find someone else to replace him, is apparently the thinking.
After the CNN/Democrat Party-run “debate” ended last night, “moderated” by two partisan political activists who have spent years badmouthing and lying about President Trump, President Trump confidently strode off stage right, and Jill Biden ran out onto the stage to grab doddering ol’ Joe Biden, who was frozen in place, vacantly staring out into the empty studio (remember CNN’s debate rules that were designed to protect Joe Biden and to undermine President Trump – no props, no pieces of paper, no studio audience, microphones turned off…there was no one for Biden to look at, just darkness).
It is clear to everyone who watched last night that Joe Biden is not his own man. He is doing the bidding of others, because he has not his own thoughts in his head. It is sad, and infuriating, because he was illegally installed in 2020, not elected, going from hiding in his basement to the White House without earning it. Someone else, probably America-hating Barack Hussein Obama, has been actually running the American presidency from behind a curtain.
If the true goal was to out Biden as an incompetent, it worked. Because today the wide open public debate among mainstream media Democrats and the official Democrat Party apparatchiks is who will replace puppet Joe Biden for the 2024 election. He clearly cannot continue on as candidate for president; not if the Democrat Party wants to retain a shred of hope of winning the 2024 election.
Everyone sees that Biden is well beyond an Article 25 removal case. Even worse than a constitutional problem, Biden is the very image of final death for the pro-slavery Democrat Party, that should have died out by shame alone in 1865 after plunging America into the first civil war, and losing.
Biden is now suddenly such a huge liability that he ironically threatens to bring down the whole political party that once fraudulently placed him in power. This stuff is drama of a Biblical scale.
How sweet our freedom will taste in November, after the evildoers are ruined, and by their own hand no less.















































































































































































































