As readers might have noticed, I have been posting on how divided we in America are. I have done so because our divisions are not improving, but seemingly getting worse, much worse. And we don’t have to be so divided.
I have no desire to see the country slide once again into a civil war and pray we never get to that point.
To that end, I was honored to be included in a project led by the Wall Street Journal as they crisscrossed the country speaking with citizens from across the political spectrum on the division and how each of us are dealing with it.
Tyrant, a word that has been thrown around quite a bit over the years with too few understanding the exact meaning of it. Yes, all understand the dictionary meaning to be a cruel and oppressive ruler, but too often it is attached solely on the basis of disagreeing values and views.
Contrary to the claims of some, neither President Trump nor former President Obama were “tyrants,” in spite of far different views and governance style.
Understand too, we are embroiled in the midst of a somewhat cold civil war. Not shooting and imprisoning each other just yet, but an escalating war of ideals led by factions of fringe far left and far right, both of whom desire one party rule under their personal views.
Since she first announced vying for Southwest Washington’s 3rd Congressional District seat occupied currently by Herrera Beutler, the Lazy C and even the local Democrat party largely ignored other Democrats running, Democrats that actually have deep, established roots in Southwest Washington in favor of Long, who somehow seems to have had a swift and sudden revelation that she should abandon her husband and daughter to quickly move from Salem, Oregon to Clark County Washington just in the nick of time to qualify for residency status to run.
Just what this swift and sudden revelation was is never really said, other than Trump won in 2016. The only connection we are told she has to Southwest Washington is 22 years employment teaching at the Clark County campus of WSU, but until July 2017 scurrying back home every evening and weekend to Salem, Oregon.
It seems everywhere we look today we see signs of the deep division we have allowed to foster in our country. It’s near inescapable as time and again we see counter protesters step in to prevent rallies by people with views different than theirs.
They claim to be “anti-Fascists” but rely on the tenets of fascism to break up rallies supporting free speech.
Although in Canada, recently a woman suffered a roundhouse kick on a public street simply for not agreeing with a person’s point of view.
For the past few weeks we have witnessed what can only be described as a circus over the nomination of D.C. Court of Appeals Judge Brett Kavanaugh to fill the seat on the U.S. Supreme Court being vacated by retiring Justice Kennedy, several Kavanaugh protesters being arrested for their egregious activities aimed at elected officials offices as Georgia Senator David Perdue urges Republicans to “fight back against paid protesters.”
Elections officials and political party leaders have long been concerned over what at times is an abysmal turnout of voters on our elections, especially in midterm or off-year elections. By all appearances it seems that unless a president is being elected, the majority of registered voters can’t be bothered to cast their vote.
In my opinion that is a deadly position to take as it is during those non-presidential elections when most local officials are elected, mayors, city council, county council or commissioners, each with more direct effect on citizens than any president.
An experiment was tried this year in Clark County of sending out postage pre-paid envelopes to entice voters to send in their ballots, since we are all mail-in voting. Did it improve anything?
Readers have no doubt seen or heard of the #WalkAway campaign where citizens lay claim to having been a Democrat for some time and for various reasons grew tired of the party and “walked away” from it to join the Republican Party.
As with many things where politics are concerned, we also see claims that the campaign is fake or not representative of how people actually feel. There is even been effort to sully the campaign by the use of stock photos of models, denied by the originator of course.
Regardless of whether or not the campaign used the stock photos or has given honest accounts of people fed up and walking away from the party, I can verify that people are in fact walking away. But is it all that unusual for people to be disillusioned and switch parties?
It’s time once again to reflect back on another year in my life and quite frankly, it has been a real eye opener for me well beyond much I already was aware of.
I am largely speechless that both the Democrat and Republican Parties gave us the two worst candidates in history for president, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
As we now know, Trump won by the electoral college vote with Hillary winning the popular vote that has once again set off cries of the electoral college being outmoded and worthless by Democrats and early riots and unrest by some fringe Liberals over the outcome as efforts were also made to encourage electors to “vote their conscience” and elect anybody else besides Trump.
It seems a small but vocal fringe element we have seen highjacking conservatism and the Republican Party are very upset. My guess is seeing Councilor David Madore kicked to the curb in the latest election is difficult for them to accept since he holds some mysterious messiah like position with them.
As with all miscreants, someone besides themselves must be to blame when things don’t go as they envision they should and they begin lashing out at whoever they feel is an easy target.
Ever since this blog exposed their efforts at PCO stacking two years ago, it has been one of the favored targets, they actually setting up what they think is an anonymous “Watch” blog site to critique and counter the efforts here.
With the announcement of Tom Mielke not running for another term as Clark County Councilor for District 4, three citizens have stepped up to vie for that seat and represent citizens of Clark County as we still work out the bugs on the recently adopted Home rule Charter.
Although I have strived to remain out of campaigns the last couple elections, several people have requested I reengage in assessing candidates running for office and given the egregious behavior of District 3 incumbent Councilor Madore, both on the Council and towards me personally, I feel compelled to add my two cents in this year’s election.
I previously endorsed John Blom for District 3, having seen that the incumbent David Madore has not acted in the best interest of the County and has only sought deeper divisions as well as attempting to bully the majority of the Council from his minority status. His behavior must not be rewarded.
Given that; I will give my personal assessment of each and endorsement below.
It is often said, “politics makes strange bedfellows,” coined by American journalist Charles Dudley Warner in 1829.
Of course, on the opposite end of that is politics destroying friendships as well as being the cause of bitter arguments as was seen with the duel between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton in 1804 that lead to Hamilton’s death.
In our modern era, though, we do not engage in dueling, but with the onset of politics of personal destruction, opponents seek to destroy each other’s character while trying to hide their own flaws.
In the meantime, lines are drawn between supporters where we all too often witness bitter arguments, denigration of each other, verbal attacks with condescending denigrating attitudes.
It is no secret the country is bitterly divided now that Donald Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee and likely will face Hillary Clinton in the November general election.
To say neither is qualified to occupy the Oval Office is a gross understatement, regardless of what either of their starry eyed devotees my claim.
Both are well known New York Liberals that care only about themselves and both would devastate our country if not plunge us into a bloody war.
In spite of often made claims such as “my good friend,” it is obvious that Lazy C editor, ol Lefty Lou Brancaccio is a hateful man when it comes to political adversaries such as his coined “M&M Boys” and even more so when it comes to State Senator Don Benton (R 17th).
As I have stated before, since the 2012 election where those “M&M Boys” were elected to the County Commission and Benton won a very narrow reelection over Democrat challenger Tim Probst, Lefty has penned 188 Press Talk editorials, 95 of which were negative in scope towards either the “M&M Boys” or Benton.
That does not include the multitude of articles and posts on the Lazy C’s own blog sites negative in nature against them.
It’s no secret that County Councilor David Madore is heavily despised by the left, evidenced by smears from the facebook group “Clark County Citizens for Good Governance” as well as the local newspaper of record and daily mouthpiece for the Democrat Party, the Columbian, better known here as the “Lazy C.”
And face it, some of that disdain is brought on by Madore’s own conduct, but even this bull in a china shop manner does not merit anywhere near the vitriol and abject hatred seen from both.
I always felt it strange that they labeled themselves with “Good Governance” as the one-sided view promoted there does not approach good governance, but more one-party rule.
Although results will not be certified for several days, our local Democrat Party mouthpiece, the Lazy C (the Columbian) is elated to see their quest and hate of County Councilor, as well as tons of ink used since November 2012 bashing the duly elected County Commissioners they dislike has worked.
By all accord, controversial County Councilor David Madore was defeated as the Write-in Liz Pike campaign came in last in a three way race.
I did not support that campaign, not because of any problems I have with Madore or Liz Pike, I actually like and respect Liz, but because the campaign itself appeared more of like Sour Grapes since Madore failed in securing a spot in the primary to run for Council Chair.
As expected, ol Lefty Lou Brancaccio is beside himself in glee and gayety due to the outcome of the primary election this week, evidenced in his latest screed, “Power of the press vs. Madore.”
While I stopped supporting Madore some time ago, I stopped relying on the Lazy C for accurate or truthful information long before that, seeing that under the tutelage of ol Lefty it amounted to little more than a daily mouthpiece for the Democrat Party, unworthy to even wrap rotting fish in.
But, Lefty is beside himself, boasting and basking in his successful hate filled smears.
Even Liberals have complained about his weekly obsessive hate filled rants and face it, Madore never shrunk back from giving ol Lefty all of the material he wanted to use.
It is said that ignorance is bliss. And if there is any truth to be found in that line from Thomas Gray’s poem, nowhere could it be found better than right here in good old Clark County Washington.
As we know, ignorance is essentially a lack of knowledge on any given matter. It’s pretty much what would be found where objectivity is nonexistent and the pabulum of bias prevails as people become too lazy to seek accurate knowledge and place unwarranted trust in those they believe are the best to lead them for any variety of reasons.
Such thought was summed up by the father of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Lenin when he claimed, “The press should be not only a collective propagandist and a collective agitator, but also a collective organizer of the masses.”
Baltimore, Maryland Mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has come under fire following the mayhem and rioting seen in recent days in that city for words she spoke on giving space to destroy. She now claims she never said what has been clearly recorded coming from her own mouth.
Now, I could believe she did not mean what she said or her words came out wrong from what she actually meant to say, but to outright deny saying what has been clearly recorded?
And consider those youths and agitators in Baltimore hearing those same words?
The Mayor should admit what she said and clarify along with condemning the violence (which she has), but playing victim over what she clearly stated does nothing to help calm things down.
Then General of the Army (Five Star) Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe, expressed some lofty goals immediately after the Allied Victory in World War II that served us quite well, for a time.
Below are his opening remarks to an October 1945 film, The True Glory commissioned by the US Office of War Information and the British Ministry of Information, “documenting the victory on the Western Front, from Normandy to the collapse of the Third Reich.”
Another year is coming to a close and in spite of efforts by operatives from the Clark County R3publicans, the little blog performed well again, exceeding 100,000 views in the year. A summary provided by WordPress can be viewed at Annual Review.
2014 was a year of revelations to me, many I wish I hadn’t seen that have left me very distrustful of some elected officials I previously supported. One of the bigger disappointments was hearing very early in the year of a new media source forming that would fill the void left by the Lazy C and not seeing it materialize, but amount to little more than a facebook page.
Be that as it may, 2015 is before us with many unknowns that only time will reveal.
Happy New Year to one and all. I sincerely hope you all have a great 2015 where you prosper and thrive.
As readers might have noticed, I have been posting on how divided we in America are. I have done so because our divisions are not improving, but seemingly getting worse, much worse. And we don’t have to be so divided.
