https://amgreatness.com/2021/01/29/caugh...ookie-jar/

Good read on the Dem fraud in 2020.

"...And here’s an uglier and more depressing truth we need to embrace: They rigged the election in front of our very eyes because we weren’t smart enough, tough enough, and most importantly, not powerful enough to stop them. That’s something we desperately need to fix before 2024, and election integrity efforts led by Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.)—not coincidentally three of the top targets of the left-wing mob—are a vital part of that effort.

To be clear, there are some important ways in which I differ from Trump and some of his supporters on the nature of the election-rigging that took place. While I have not reviewed every detail of each claim, reports that I have examined of hacked Dominion machines, mass-switched votes, or other overt fraud at the level to have changed the election results ranges from the somewhat unlikely to the outlandish. President Trump did not help his own case by amplifying some of the more implausible of these theories. But direct fraud is mostly for amateurs. The Democrats were pros, stacking the deck so heavily in advance that they could be virtually certain the cards would play out in their favor...."

<I agree with the author on Dominion, but I do think there was a lot of direct fraud with fake absentee ballots and double voting.-I have no doubt DJT won the most legal vote in Georgia.>

No one can convince me 80million+ different individuals checked a box for Joe Biden.

Yep. Republicans lost the election in the courts from May through October. Maybe Republicans would have won some of those court battles if there had been a competent administrator in charge of the party.

There was one official interviewed about a month ago who said his recommendations for more lawyers early on was ignored.

(01-31-2021 03:11 AM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  Yep. Republicans lost the election in the courts from May through October. Maybe Republicans would have won some of those court battles if there had been a competent administrator in charge of the party.

Exactly.

But what I think the republicans need is a paradigm shift. Democrats think about nothing but winning elections, because that is how they get what they want, which is power. Republicans seem to think about everything but winning elections.

The last time republicans really focused on winning elections was 1994, with Newt and the Contract. What happened? They won perhaps their biggest electoral victory ever. Too bad they forgot to keep focusing on winning elections. Bob Dole in 1996 was not an election-winning choice. Dick Cheney for VP in 2000 was not an election-winning choice, so it came down to a cliff-hanger in Florida and a less than overwhelming victory in 2004. Obama was probably unbeatable in 2008, but he was beatable in 2012, and they didn't get it done. And during the Obama years, they made electoral decision after electoral decision that cost them senate seats that would come in handy today. Christine O'Donnell and Sharron Angle in 2010 started a trend of running nutcases in otherwise winnable elections. Although Marjorie Taylor Greene won, she and Kelly Loeffler are hardly attractive candidates. Plus I think Milquetoast Mitch committed electoral treason by mishandling the COVID stimulus so badly just before the Georgia senate runoffs.

Republicans have to figure out what issues are winners for them, and push those issues and nothing else. And they have to make it about issues, not personalities. Donald Trump was probably the last republican who could win a personality contest, and he won first time simply because Hillary was even more unlikeable, but then lost badly to an empty suit second time. In today's political climate, I don't think abortion and gay rights are winners for them. If nothing else, they mean punting two of the four largest states--California and New York--along with pretty much all of New England, and that is too much of the country to give away.

I think there are issues where republicans can win:
- Revise the welfare system to provide a basic universal safety net, not a massive income and wealth redistribution scheme
- Revise the tax structure to include lower, flatter, and broader taxes (including a consumption tax) with the goals of producing sufficient revenues to balance the budget and encouraging investment, economic growth, and jobs, rather than being the other half of a massive income and wealth redistribution scheme
- Sell both of those as capitalism with a safety net, rather than socialism, like "socialist" Europe (that isn't really socialist) instead of like Venezuela or Argentina
- Guarantee the future of social security with modest tax rate increases, elimination of the wage and tax ceiling, and gradual increases in the full benefit age
- Build the strongest military in the world, but never waste it in wars that we don't intend to win
- Take steps to improve gun safety rather than infringing on the right that the 2nd Amendment says "shall not be infringed"
- Recognize that the 1st Amendment version of "separation of church and state" also include a prohibition against prohibiting the free exercise of religion
- Support the 4th Amendment prohibitions against unreasonable search and seizure, meaning no asset forfeiture without a trial and final judgement
- Realize that we are in Cold War II, this time with China, and base our foreign policy around containing China and reducing or eliminating our economic dependence on the Chinese

Do Ross Perot PowerPoints to show how every one of these affects every American. In particular, show how the combination of a subsistence level UBI and Bismarck universal health care, funded by consumption taxes and flatter income taxes, improves the situation for 1) those in poverty seeking to break out but currently stopped by the "welfare trap," 2) those in the middle class who would have more take-home spendable income, and 3) those seeking to break out and move up entrepreneurially, who would have a more tax-efficient route with lowered risk in case of health issues or business failure.

It guys are assuming the Republicans care if they win. Once you see that there is only one party, professional politicians, you see that every thing else is window dressing. We have to have a new party that represents Americans and American interest.

(01-31-2021 02:21 PM)banker Wrote:  It guys are assuming the Republicans care if they win. Once you see that there is only one party, professional politicians, you see that every thing else is window dressing. We have to have a new party that represents Americans and American interest.

Completely agree. I think taking taking back the Republican Party might be a better plan though. Either way we all need to find a way to get involved locally.