Our Blog

September 4

We were asked about the idea of the R-controlled Indiana legislature following the Texas example and creating a new congressional-district map that yields one, perhaps two additional Republican districts. 

Think about this one: The two D seats in Indiana are centered where the Democrats are: Indianapolis and Gary. Look at the map. The only way to make these districts more competitive is to make the surrounding Republican districts less competitive. And how will that work out, considering the GOP's poor performance in competitive elections? What about those Indiana legislators who fancy themselves as Congressmen and will have the power to draw a district for themselves? And do you think the incumbent Republican Congress members will give up their safe seats without a fight?

It will be a mess.

Here's our idea: Get to work.  The Indy seat is a lost cause. Too many Democrats. But the Gary seat (Indiana 1) is an opportunity. Recruit a quality candidate. Then organize and fund a GOP turnout operation in the 300 or so Lake County precincts and the seat turns red. Lots of good people in NW Indiana who want to make it happen. All they need is a push. And a few bucks.

Sept 6, 2024

Today they're mailing out absentee ballots in North Carolina. (In Ohio and presumably elsewhere they've already mailed absentee-ballot applications.) Which means that in Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham, the Democrats are hard at work "banking" their votes.

Oh. Wait a minute. Now we're hearing the mailing has been delayed because of RFK Jr.'s lawsuit to have himself removed from the ballot. Which just underscores the absurdity. And here's another absurdity: this deadline was established by a Republican-dominated legislature.

Which underscores our general gripe: the Republican election system is broken largely because it's dominated by frivolous incumbents in safe districts who haven't a clue of what it's like to campaign in majority-D precincts.

September 3, 2024

Once again the WSJ's Gerard Baker hits it out of the park. Main take-away:

They are the teachers, equipped with the knowledge and authority to direct their hapless charges. We are the students, naive and ill-informed, sometimes attentive but too often insubordinate, with minds that need to be shaped and disciplined.

This self-image of Democrats and their role in government as benevolent, omniscient educators emerges from a mindset that represents a greater challenge to our freedoms than any attempts at interference in the lives of law-abiding Americans the Republicans are accused of planning. The didactic ethic, in which our leaders treat us as people who can’t make good decisions for ourselves, has been vividly on display in the last decade

We aren’t well-informed enough to understand the damage fossil fuel-energy production is doing to the environment. So we need to be told what kind of car we can drive and what kind of stove we can cook on. We can’t be trusted with information from unreliable sources. Like schoolchildren reading naughty books and listening to schoolyard gossip, we must be protected from “misinformation.” We aren’t sufficiently developed to comprehend the dangers of firearms. So our leaders must determine who can have access to them. We didn’t have their deep grasp of the science behind pandemics. So we had to be instructed to stay home, wear masks and submit ourselves to vaccination on pain of losing our livelihoods. Lacking their sophisticated biological knowledge and understanding of geopolitics, we weren’t permitted to speculate about what caused Covid-19 either. We must accept the teacher’s word on the subject.

Not content with ensuring our compliance with their social studies and science curricula, our governor-didacts insist on teaching us ethics. We need to be educated in how sinful we are as white people, as Americans, guilty inheritors of Western civilization. We must learn the new catechism of critical theory and expiate our sin.

August 30, 2024

Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.”

From “Those Who Remain” by G. Michael Hopf

August 28, 2024

from RFK Jr.'s social-media post after endorsing Trump:

"Make America Great Again' recalls a nation brimming with vitality, with a can-do spirit, with hope and a belief in itself. It was an America that was beginning to confront its darker shadows, could acknowledge the injustice in its past and present, yet at the same time could celebrate its successes.
It was a nation of broad prosperity, the world's most vibrant middle class, and an idealistic belief (though not consistently applied) in freedom, justice, and democracy. It was a nation that led the world in innovation, productivity, and technology. And it was the healthiest country in the world. I have talked to many Trump supporters. I have talked with his inner circle. I have talked to the man himself. This is the America they want to restore."

As we repeat elsewwhere on this site, indeed the political sands are shifting.