With regard to the AEI Report "Politics Without Winners" and either party building a "majority coalition", one of the writer's conclusions is "Durable majority parties are not only possible; they are the norm in American Politics". I beg to differ. I am now 81 years old and I have lived under Democrat administrations for 41 years and under Republican administrations for 40 years. For many complex reasons, this country has over these years "wobbled" back and forth left and right around a moderate center in a fairly regular fashion. I think this lack of a 'durable majority party' is in fact one of our strengths and my hope is that the country continues to just that going forward. And, by the way, with the one horrible exception of our Civil War, the country has survived quite well under both administrations and it will do so after this coming election as well.
I am intrigued by the assessment that this is a 50-50 election race. Is it really believed that Harris is as compelling as Obama was, who pulled aprox 65 million votes in 2012, or Hillary, who tallied 62 million in 2016? Meanwhile, Trump seems to have significantly gained in popularity since 2020 so it is highly likely that he will beat his last recorded total of 75 million votes. Could people really be convinced that Harris could pull 80+ million votes...the most in US history??? I await with great anticipation the media spin on exactly who we've been discounting.
You're definitely an optimist if 20% of Republicans actually think Trump shouldn't accede to the results of an American election, assuming that disturbing number is truly representative of real opinion and not the result of people shading the pollsters, and you find that reassuring. That even 10% of Americans of any party would believe such a thing is highly disturbing and, if true, a sign that the Republic is nearing its end.
This is supposed to be news but is really more like a TGIF free press but that is okay as the news is no longer, in my opinion, of much importance in the US at least as the news is purely a social media agenda driven asset whose ownership attempts to get readers and influence elections. And, oh most importantly to brainwashed the neuron less college students to become ideological bots who will serve no real function in the real world except to protest on college campuses so their rich parents can depart with 4-500,000 dollars over four years so the children can have a good time doing nothing and learning less. Maybe the time for the University of Austin or whatever Bari Weiss and her cohorts call it is trying to provide an education to our younger generation.
As noted before it’s pretty clear the 2020 election was stolen. Whether there was any ballot box stuffing I have no idea nor does it matter, the election was stolen by information control and a concerted push by the swamp to tilt the field to good old Zhou Bai-den. We know this, I wish Trump would just say that.
Millions have stated they would have changed their vote or stayed home if they’d known Hunter’s laptop was real, the fbi and others knew it was real in 2019 yet they proceeded to prepare to denounce it when released.
Everyone involved including the “51 former intelligence agents” should be facing prison terms.
Why do you think they are fighting so hard to elect Harris?
As to Cuba, we shouldn’t laugh as we are performing the exact same mindless brain dead experiment on the grid here in North America, a form of communism with all the rent seeking renewables flimflam artists competing for massive subsidies to destroy the grid.
And it’s working based on all the warnings coming from grid regulators.
There is literally NOTHING more important to the day to day function of modern civilization than a stable electrical grid and we are letting morons experiment with it.
A grid collapse in winter could only be topped by a massive meteor strike or a major nuclear weapons exchange (we have the same morons in charge of that one too) for the amount of death and destruction it would cause.
Oliver - did you read the link you attached? It doesn't support your claim. Not voting to make something a "right" is not synonymous with banning it. If you are going to make a claim - prove it. Writing a narrative with no evidence isn't journalism.
Nowhere in Elon Musk's petition does it say to vote for a particular party. We should all be concerned that our government and other people are trying to censor our speech.
What is illegal about a private citizen paying other private citizens to sign a private petition? Leftists are totalitarians at heart and their first response to things like this is that something should be "looked into" by dudes with guns, or someone should be imprisoned.
Meanwhile multiple Secretaries of State have refused to clean up voter roles. Arizona and notably Michigan that has more voters than residents of voting age. She said she would do it after the election. Move along. Trump was winning Michigan until they closed the polls and suddenly many votes showed up, all for Biden. The 2020 election was stolen. Trump has to win by more than Democrats can cheat. That is very difficult.
RE: Loretta Lynch. Could she get any more slimy? Disqualifies herself and the DOJ from the Hilary Clinton investigation by meeting with Bill Clinton. Tossing it to Comey and the FBI, who created a mess. Now she represents Chinese governmental interests??? I think she’s lost her moral compass if she ever had one.
I'm curious to hear from FP readers about The Big Lie, the stolen election. For a long time I believed the authorities that "this is the most secure election in history", but over the past several years as I've seen every other government institution corrupted/weaponized, the Twitter files, etc, I've started to wonder - why would the voting system be exempt from the same "anything to beat Trump who will end the world" logic where first principles/values are thrown out the window. So, I wonder about the evidence for Trump's claim, or is it just his "I can't lose" narcissism? I could see two forms of evidence. One would be actual widespread voter fraud, which on its face seems like a pretty broad conspiracy that would be terribly difficult to pull off. A subset of that could be that the conspiracy would only need to be undertaken in a handful of swing state counties, as 2020 turned on such a small number of votes. Option 2 would be "evidence" in the form or the Russiagate hoax, suppression of all negative press like the Hunter Biden laptop, etc, so not fraud in the classical sense of the word, but at least in theory more than enough to swing a small number of voters in a tight election, that from Trump's perspective must feel like genuine persecution/rigging, because they really are all out to get him. I looked at Reddit trying to find good information but it was mostly the usual virtriol, but I'm genuinely curious about "the election was stolen" as a legitimately testable hypothesis, and outside of option 2 above, I've never seen any evidence, but then again, the NYT isn't going to report on the Twitter files or much else of consequence, either. Anyway, I've become more curious about Trump's election claim, and want to know if anyone takes it seriously, as I've moved from doubtful to agnostic. I also see more and more people I follow casually saying things like, "Trump will have to win by a big margin so they can't get away with fraud", like Brett Weinstein and others, but they don't produce evidence themselves, either, so I keep wondering..
The thing that makes me more suspicious than anything else is the attempted lockdown on information and discussion about this topic, and the demonization of anybody who even raises a question. Some people see that and say oh good the media and the government are protecting us from disinformation. The rest of us have seen too much to be so naïve. I kind of envy those days actually… life was so sweet and simple when I still had my head in the sand.
I recommend Mollie Hemingway's book _Rigged_, which goes beyond Molly Ball's confession essay published in Time Magazine. Among other things, Hemingway's book includes the campaign to reduce election integrity. Both of those essays were written before the Twitter scandal was exposed in 2022. Molly Ball's confession essay is available free here: https://time.com/5936036/secret-2020-election-campaign/
Richard - it's a totally fair and legitimate question. When admittedly sketchy accusations of "Trump campaign Russian collusion" came out we spent two years and $30mil investigating it to confirm it was a hoax.
But when dozens of Americans involved in elections signed affidavits under penalty of perjury stating election irregularities, we just relied on the people they levied accusations against to basically say "we checked, all good, totally fine." The "but Trump lost court cases" line is used a lot. Few cases actually went to any form of discovery. For example, Texas v Pennsylvania where Texas challenged the PA election results since they unlawfully changed their election procedures (no consent from state legislature). A couple dozen other states joined, including mine (SC). Result in SCOTUS: dismissed, TX lacked standing. I think PA's sketchy election laws inflicting Biden on all of us gave us standing.
Many similar procedural results to such cases. We should have had a "Mueller Part II" to get to the bottom of each one. The Russian Collusion hoax was worth it but election integrity wasn't and still isn't?
Thanks for the reply, that's exactly what I was curious about, information I might be missing. It's interesting how the courts are now almost used to validate or invalidate a narrative, like when Trump gets convicted on dubious grounds he became a "felon running for president", whereas the lack of successful court cases on the election becomes the "no evidence" narrative. Perhaps the courts used to be an approximate proxy for moral outcomes, but that's been long gone at least in this liberal city where I live, and I can only imagine at higher levels run by the same ideologies. I'm not a Trump fanatic, I'm just sitting in my armchair observing behaviors that seem off a gut level. It seems reasonable that in 2024, where I can ask ChatGPT the most complicated questions and get instant answers, that we could manage to successfully count votes, under non-partisan objective conditions, by the time polls close on election night, yet, mysteriously we cannot.
Most other developed nations have Election Day, where their citizens vote in person. But the USA...we cannot. And we know why, and it's Democrats who want things to be sloppy as it benefits them.
my Italian friends are absolutely stunned at how voting goes on in the United States. I showed one of them my ballot on a zoom call and they thought I had stolen it or something, they couldn’t believe that they would send a ballot in the mail.
Keep wondering. Russia, Russia, Russia is really China, China, China. Why did a Chinese-American broadcaster in Phoenix disappear lately?
When I look at the Japanese in Tokyo today, I see an Asian people dedicated to the well being of the group. China is more punishing to its outliers, but we have no cohesiveness — dedicated to the individual highest bidders — liberal billionaires. Thanks for reminding us that the normal group is the most important, as I admire a commuter car of dedicated Japanese in black suits and school uniforms sitting quietly and refraining from snacking on their way — all for the greater good.
When Jan 6 happened, I was certain those people were wrong and misguided. But since that time I've learned to distrust many official sources, even once-reputable ones like the CDC and NIH. The DOJ and others have revealed their partisanship and willingness to go to the ends of the earth to pursue their political agenda. And of course the mainstream media has shown itself to be simply a mouthpiece of the liberals. Voting is a complex process that surely is rife with opportunities for interference. Some of these battleground areas are won or lost by a few thousand votes. How hard is it to fudge a few thousand votes? It's frightening to not trust your government. I agree that it would be best if it's not a close outcome, whoever wins.
In short, rather than trying to build broad coalitions, “they have focused on fan service.”
Does building a coalition include having a Kennedy and former democrat candidate for president (Gabard)now in the tent count? Same goes for having a former warmonger (Cheney et all) on your side?
With regard to the AEI Report "Politics Without Winners" and either party building a "majority coalition", one of the writer's conclusions is "Durable majority parties are not only possible; they are the norm in American Politics". I beg to differ. I am now 81 years old and I have lived under Democrat administrations for 41 years and under Republican administrations for 40 years. For many complex reasons, this country has over these years "wobbled" back and forth left and right around a moderate center in a fairly regular fashion. I think this lack of a 'durable majority party' is in fact one of our strengths and my hope is that the country continues to just that going forward. And, by the way, with the one horrible exception of our Civil War, the country has survived quite well under both administrations and it will do so after this coming election as well.
I am intrigued by the assessment that this is a 50-50 election race. Is it really believed that Harris is as compelling as Obama was, who pulled aprox 65 million votes in 2012, or Hillary, who tallied 62 million in 2016? Meanwhile, Trump seems to have significantly gained in popularity since 2020 so it is highly likely that he will beat his last recorded total of 75 million votes. Could people really be convinced that Harris could pull 80+ million votes...the most in US history??? I await with great anticipation the media spin on exactly who we've been discounting.
You're definitely an optimist if 20% of Republicans actually think Trump shouldn't accede to the results of an American election, assuming that disturbing number is truly representative of real opinion and not the result of people shading the pollsters, and you find that reassuring. That even 10% of Americans of any party would believe such a thing is highly disturbing and, if true, a sign that the Republic is nearing its end.
This is supposed to be news but is really more like a TGIF free press but that is okay as the news is no longer, in my opinion, of much importance in the US at least as the news is purely a social media agenda driven asset whose ownership attempts to get readers and influence elections. And, oh most importantly to brainwashed the neuron less college students to become ideological bots who will serve no real function in the real world except to protest on college campuses so their rich parents can depart with 4-500,000 dollars over four years so the children can have a good time doing nothing and learning less. Maybe the time for the University of Austin or whatever Bari Weiss and her cohorts call it is trying to provide an education to our younger generation.
I kind of like the format. I wish all of the Free Press was TGIF always and everywhere with everything written by Nellie.
As noted before it’s pretty clear the 2020 election was stolen. Whether there was any ballot box stuffing I have no idea nor does it matter, the election was stolen by information control and a concerted push by the swamp to tilt the field to good old Zhou Bai-den. We know this, I wish Trump would just say that.
Millions have stated they would have changed their vote or stayed home if they’d known Hunter’s laptop was real, the fbi and others knew it was real in 2019 yet they proceeded to prepare to denounce it when released.
Everyone involved including the “51 former intelligence agents” should be facing prison terms.
Why do you think they are fighting so hard to elect Harris?
As to Cuba, we shouldn’t laugh as we are performing the exact same mindless brain dead experiment on the grid here in North America, a form of communism with all the rent seeking renewables flimflam artists competing for massive subsidies to destroy the grid.
And it’s working based on all the warnings coming from grid regulators.
There is literally NOTHING more important to the day to day function of modern civilization than a stable electrical grid and we are letting morons experiment with it.
A grid collapse in winter could only be topped by a massive meteor strike or a major nuclear weapons exchange (we have the same morons in charge of that one too) for the amount of death and destruction it would cause.
"Republicans banning IVF? Just be normal!"
Oliver - did you read the link you attached? It doesn't support your claim. Not voting to make something a "right" is not synonymous with banning it. If you are going to make a claim - prove it. Writing a narrative with no evidence isn't journalism.
Nowhere in Elon Musk's petition does it say to vote for a particular party. We should all be concerned that our government and other people are trying to censor our speech.
What is illegal about a private citizen paying other private citizens to sign a private petition? Leftists are totalitarians at heart and their first response to things like this is that something should be "looked into" by dudes with guns, or someone should be imprisoned.
Meanwhile multiple Secretaries of State have refused to clean up voter roles. Arizona and notably Michigan that has more voters than residents of voting age. She said she would do it after the election. Move along. Trump was winning Michigan until they closed the polls and suddenly many votes showed up, all for Biden. The 2020 election was stolen. Trump has to win by more than Democrats can cheat. That is very difficult.
And those that do try to clean up the voter rolls get immediately sued by Biden‘s DOJ.
Any fair minded person would admit the last election was rigged in Biden's favor. Zuck bucks and all the rule changes sealed the deal.
(waving) See you in hell Loretta Lynch!
RE: Loretta Lynch. Could she get any more slimy? Disqualifies herself and the DOJ from the Hilary Clinton investigation by meeting with Bill Clinton. Tossing it to Comey and the FBI, who created a mess. Now she represents Chinese governmental interests??? I think she’s lost her moral compass if she ever had one.
Let CBS know your thoughts here:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-statement/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Doing a good job on the CBS 60 minutes issue…keep on!!!
I'm curious to hear from FP readers about The Big Lie, the stolen election. For a long time I believed the authorities that "this is the most secure election in history", but over the past several years as I've seen every other government institution corrupted/weaponized, the Twitter files, etc, I've started to wonder - why would the voting system be exempt from the same "anything to beat Trump who will end the world" logic where first principles/values are thrown out the window. So, I wonder about the evidence for Trump's claim, or is it just his "I can't lose" narcissism? I could see two forms of evidence. One would be actual widespread voter fraud, which on its face seems like a pretty broad conspiracy that would be terribly difficult to pull off. A subset of that could be that the conspiracy would only need to be undertaken in a handful of swing state counties, as 2020 turned on such a small number of votes. Option 2 would be "evidence" in the form or the Russiagate hoax, suppression of all negative press like the Hunter Biden laptop, etc, so not fraud in the classical sense of the word, but at least in theory more than enough to swing a small number of voters in a tight election, that from Trump's perspective must feel like genuine persecution/rigging, because they really are all out to get him. I looked at Reddit trying to find good information but it was mostly the usual virtriol, but I'm genuinely curious about "the election was stolen" as a legitimately testable hypothesis, and outside of option 2 above, I've never seen any evidence, but then again, the NYT isn't going to report on the Twitter files or much else of consequence, either. Anyway, I've become more curious about Trump's election claim, and want to know if anyone takes it seriously, as I've moved from doubtful to agnostic. I also see more and more people I follow casually saying things like, "Trump will have to win by a big margin so they can't get away with fraud", like Brett Weinstein and others, but they don't produce evidence themselves, either, so I keep wondering..
The thing that makes me more suspicious than anything else is the attempted lockdown on information and discussion about this topic, and the demonization of anybody who even raises a question. Some people see that and say oh good the media and the government are protecting us from disinformation. The rest of us have seen too much to be so naïve. I kind of envy those days actually… life was so sweet and simple when I still had my head in the sand.
I recommend Mollie Hemingway's book _Rigged_, which goes beyond Molly Ball's confession essay published in Time Magazine. Among other things, Hemingway's book includes the campaign to reduce election integrity. Both of those essays were written before the Twitter scandal was exposed in 2022. Molly Ball's confession essay is available free here: https://time.com/5936036/secret-2020-election-campaign/
Thank you!
Richard - it's a totally fair and legitimate question. When admittedly sketchy accusations of "Trump campaign Russian collusion" came out we spent two years and $30mil investigating it to confirm it was a hoax.
But when dozens of Americans involved in elections signed affidavits under penalty of perjury stating election irregularities, we just relied on the people they levied accusations against to basically say "we checked, all good, totally fine." The "but Trump lost court cases" line is used a lot. Few cases actually went to any form of discovery. For example, Texas v Pennsylvania where Texas challenged the PA election results since they unlawfully changed their election procedures (no consent from state legislature). A couple dozen other states joined, including mine (SC). Result in SCOTUS: dismissed, TX lacked standing. I think PA's sketchy election laws inflicting Biden on all of us gave us standing.
Many similar procedural results to such cases. We should have had a "Mueller Part II" to get to the bottom of each one. The Russian Collusion hoax was worth it but election integrity wasn't and still isn't?
Thanks for the reply, that's exactly what I was curious about, information I might be missing. It's interesting how the courts are now almost used to validate or invalidate a narrative, like when Trump gets convicted on dubious grounds he became a "felon running for president", whereas the lack of successful court cases on the election becomes the "no evidence" narrative. Perhaps the courts used to be an approximate proxy for moral outcomes, but that's been long gone at least in this liberal city where I live, and I can only imagine at higher levels run by the same ideologies. I'm not a Trump fanatic, I'm just sitting in my armchair observing behaviors that seem off a gut level. It seems reasonable that in 2024, where I can ask ChatGPT the most complicated questions and get instant answers, that we could manage to successfully count votes, under non-partisan objective conditions, by the time polls close on election night, yet, mysteriously we cannot.
Most other developed nations have Election Day, where their citizens vote in person. But the USA...we cannot. And we know why, and it's Democrats who want things to be sloppy as it benefits them.
my Italian friends are absolutely stunned at how voting goes on in the United States. I showed one of them my ballot on a zoom call and they thought I had stolen it or something, they couldn’t believe that they would send a ballot in the mail.
Some of my total left wing Euro friends were shocked at our sloppy system. They can only vote with national ID's that prove citizenship and identity.
Keep wondering. Russia, Russia, Russia is really China, China, China. Why did a Chinese-American broadcaster in Phoenix disappear lately?
When I look at the Japanese in Tokyo today, I see an Asian people dedicated to the well being of the group. China is more punishing to its outliers, but we have no cohesiveness — dedicated to the individual highest bidders — liberal billionaires. Thanks for reminding us that the normal group is the most important, as I admire a commuter car of dedicated Japanese in black suits and school uniforms sitting quietly and refraining from snacking on their way — all for the greater good.
When Jan 6 happened, I was certain those people were wrong and misguided. But since that time I've learned to distrust many official sources, even once-reputable ones like the CDC and NIH. The DOJ and others have revealed their partisanship and willingness to go to the ends of the earth to pursue their political agenda. And of course the mainstream media has shown itself to be simply a mouthpiece of the liberals. Voting is a complex process that surely is rife with opportunities for interference. Some of these battleground areas are won or lost by a few thousand votes. How hard is it to fudge a few thousand votes? It's frightening to not trust your government. I agree that it would be best if it's not a close outcome, whoever wins.
In short, rather than trying to build broad coalitions, “they have focused on fan service.”
Does building a coalition include having a Kennedy and former democrat candidate for president (Gabard)now in the tent count? Same goes for having a former warmonger (Cheney et all) on your side?
I