Bunny Trails: Politics

[temporal1]

He may not pick DAs but by his own admission he helps fund their campaigns.

This is why I have supported the election (and more recently the re-election) of prosecutors who support reform.

I have done it transparently, and I have no intention of stopping.

The funds I provide enable sensible reform-minded candidates to receive a hearing from the public. Judging by the results, the public likes what it’s hearing

https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-i-supp ... 1659277441

This is one of the biggest puzzles.
When politicians, lobbyists, etc., describe straight-up what they’re about, what they’re planning, yet so many deny it, minimize it, ignore it, excuse it, etc. Then they vote for it, for policies that lead to it.

Later, they complain about unwanted results, never connecting the dots about their own involvement!
Over and over and over.

“Judging by the results,” on surface, seems a fair+logical conclusion.
Except when considering the well-known fact that MONEY buys results. It’s very well studied, Madison Avenue exists on it.

Billionaires’ meddling artificially changes the course of life. It’s their calculated+focused goal. Not a game of chance.
They are in it to win it. Behind politicians, their front-men.

[Robert]

the craziness that is Republican politics in states like Texas

I live here and see no crazy. What is this in reference of?

Ken and Josh, you are both off topic. Lets get back to investigations. Arguing over which is worse is pointless. Both have good and bad. Each of us just choose to see one of the other in either. Very tribal. We should be able to rise above cultural tribes and shine the Tribe of Jesus.

[Ken]

the craziness that is Republican politics in states like Texas

I live here and see no crazy. What is this in reference of?

Shall we take a look at the Republican Party Platform that was recently passed at the most recent Republican Party Convention? It is actually relevant to the question of election investigations because they are election deniers.

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/06/18 ... on-cornyn/

Meeting at their first in-person convention since 2018, Texas Republicans on Saturday acted on a raft of resolutions and proposed platform changes to move their party even further to the right. They approved measures declaring that President Joe Biden “was not legitimately elected” and rebuking Sen. John Cornyn for taking part in bipartisan gun talks. They also voted on a platform that declares homosexuality “an abnormal lifestyle choice” and calls for Texas schoolchildren “to learn about the humanity of the preborn child.”

The actions capped a convention that highlighted how adamantly opposed the party’s most active and vocal members are to compromising with Democrats or moderating on social positions, even as the state has grown more diverse and Republicans’ margins in statewide elections have shrunk slightly in recent years.

The convention reinforced the extent to which former President Donald J. Trump’s unfounded claims of a stolen election continue to resound among the party faithful — even though his claims have repeatedly been debunked, including by many of his own former aides, and after a week of televised hearings about the Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

* * *
The denunciation of Cornyn represented a remarkable rebuke to a Republican who has served in the Senate since 2002. The hall at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston filled with boos on Friday as he tried to explain the legislation, which would allow juvenile records to be incorporated into background checks for gun buyers younger than 21 and encourage “red flag” laws that would make it easier to remove guns from potentially dangerous people, along with more funding for school safety and mental health.

Meanwhile, the party platform vote on Saturday by roughly 5,100 convention delegates would argue that those under 21 are “most likely to need to defend themselves” and may need to quickly buy guns “in emergencies such as riots.” It also would say that red flag laws violate the due process rights of people who haven’t been convicted of a crime.

* * *

Taken together, the new provisions would represent a shift even further rightward for the Republican Party of Texas, once known as the party of Presidents George Bush and his son George W. Bush. Land Commissioner George P. Bush, a grandson and nephew of the two presidents, was defeated handily in May in his runoff race against Attorney General Ken Paxton, an arch-conservative who sued to challenge the 2020 election outcome and convinced voters that he was the truer Trump loyalist.

You may agree with all of these things. I don't know. But I promise you they aren't majority opinions within Texas.

[Robert]

You may agree with all of these things. I don't know. But I promise you they aren't majority opinions within Texas.

While I am not a Republican, I do agree with a lot of this. I also think most Texans think this way also. Not sure where you are getting the idea that most Texans do not. We have Trump flags everywhere I go. Again, I am not a Trump supporter, but I do see the an increased support for President Trump and I see NO Biden flags, shirts, or caps.

I hope we see balanced investigations in January, but I fear they will be political hit jobs just as we have seen for the past 6 years.

[Ken]

You may agree with all of these things. I don't know. But I promise you they aren't majority opinions within Texas.

While I am not a Republican, I do agree with a lot of this. I also think most Texans think this way also. Not sure where you are getting the idea that most Texans do not. We have Trump flags everywhere I go. Again, I am not a Trump supporter, but I do see the an increased support for President Trump and I see NO Biden flags, shirts, or caps.

I hope we see balanced investigations in January, but I fear they will be political hit jobs just as we have seen for the past 6 years.

Take the example of gun laws. Large majorities of Texans support red flag laws and restricting or more closely regulating the sale of weapons to people under the age of 21. Yet the Texas GOP is pushing in the opposite direction. And even after Uvalde wants to make it easier for under 21-year-olds to obtain weapons.

The reason you don't see Biden flags everywhere is because Democrats don't do the same "cult of personality" as Republicans. They tend to be more interested in policies rather than personalities.

Would it surprise you to learn that current polling for sample 2024 matchups Biden v. Trump, Harris v. Trump, Biden v. DeSantis, and Harris v. DeSantis all show Biden and Harris to be more popular than Trump or DeSantis?

[Robert]

Large majorities of Texans support red flag laws and restricting or more closely regulating the sale of weapons to people under the age of 21.

I do not think this is factual, but opinion.

[Robert]

The reason you don't see Biden flags everywhere is because Democrats don't do the same "cult of personality" as Republicans.

Many did with Obama.

[Ken]

The reason you don't see Biden flags everywhere is because Democrats don't do the same "cult of personality" as Republicans.

Many did with Obama.

There was a lot of Obama signs and stuff during the elections like with every candidate. But I don't remember much of it between elections. Maybe that is just my selective memory. They were pretty quick to wind down the campaign mode once the elections were over. A lot of Democrats were actually harshly critical of Obama and the Obama administration for a wide variety of policies from failure to prosecute the financial and banking fraud that led to the "Great Recession" to his decision to pointlessly surge rather than unwind the war in Afghanistan. And a dozen other policies from immigration to criminal justice. That doesn't mean they wanted Republicans though.

Obama was a more masterful and charismatic politician than Biden though. No question about that.

The last time there was true cult of personality around a Democratic president was probably JFK.

[RZehr]

The reason you don't see Biden flags everywhere is because Democrats don't do the same "cult of personality" as Republicans.

Many did with Obama.

There was a lot of Obama signs and stuff during the elections like with every candidate. But I don't remember much of it between elections. Maybe that is just my selective memory. They were pretty quick to wind down the campaign mode once the elections were over. A lot of Democrats were actually harshly critical of Obama and the Obama administration for a wide variety of policies from failure to prosecute the financial and banking fraud that led to the "Great Recession" to his decision to pointlessly surge rather than unwind the war in Afghanistan. And a dozen other policies from immigration to criminal justice. That doesn't mean they wanted Republicans though.

Obama was a more masterful and charismatic politician than Biden though. No question about that.

The last time there was true cult of personality around a Democratic president was probably JFK.

I don’t know if it was a “cult of personality”, per se. I don’t know who defines exactly what that is.
But Obama was immensely popular, and it certainly was not due to his policies. It was due to the affinity that people had for him.
So in my opinion it would be pretty fair to say that there was a big time “cult of personality” that he enjoyed. The press and elites absolutely loved him, and fawned all over him. Didn’t matter what policies he proposed. Just hand him the Nobel, he is an awesome guy!

[Valerie]

The reason you don't see Biden flags everywhere is because Democrats don't do the same "cult of personality" as Republicans.

Many did with Obama.

Absolutely true! How is it Ken missed this????