Tomorrow: Will Republicans Choose Democracy Or Tyranny?

One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes.  In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves.  The process never ends until we die.  And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.
—    Eleanor Roosevelt
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
—    Edmund Burke
The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants.  He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the nation as a whole.  Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly as necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right.  Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile.  To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.  Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else.  But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else.
—    Republican President Theodore (“Teddy”) Roosevelt
[Tomorrow, Congress (both House and Senate) will meet in joint session to “officially” count votes from the electoral college and declare the winner of the 2020 Presidential election.  The “winner” of the election was former Vice-President Joe Biden.  The loser of the election was the current President: Donald Trump.  Biden won the election by over 7 million voters nationwide and surpassed the 270 electoral college votes required to become President.  The losing President (Trump) and his political party (the Republicans) are claiming there was voter fraud and election “irregularities” – but, only in the swing states where the President lost the election and only on the votes for the Presidency (not for Republicans who kept their offices while the President did not).  There is NO evidence to support claims of either significant voter fraud or irregularity in ANY state.  The Republicans are lying to the American public and to the voters they represent in the hopes of furthering their own political careers.  The American public has voted.  Trump LOST by a significant margin.  It is well past time to accept reality and turn to solving the outstanding problems facing our country.  Tomorrow we will see which “representatives” (Congressmen and Senators) in our government believe in “democracy” and which are willing to sacrifice our country’s principles for the sake of an incompetent businessman / politician / con-artist.  —  KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2020	On Killing Foreign Generals…
2019	Patient Understanding
2018	I Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Form
2017	Fashionista
2016	A Faulty Model Of God
2015	Non Sequitur
2014	No Flags League
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2013	Spoiling For Fame?
2012	How Many?
2011	Too Tired To Chat Much
2010	I Must Be Crazy!!

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#ContinueToResist

To sin by silence when they should protest, makes cowards of human beings.
—    Abraham Lincoln
[It is vitally important to continue resisting the programs of President Trump and the Republican Senate.  It is equally important to support the Democratic control of the House of Representatives.  Remember, if there is no clear election in the Electoral College in 2020, the decision of who will be the next President will fall to the House of Representatives.  I believe this is what the Republicans were actually hoping for when the “Anyone but Trump” Republican movement went silent.  They didn’t have to get Trump elected President in the popular vote.  The Republicans only had to tie up the Electoral College.  In which case, Paul Ryan most probably would have been “elected” President.  One: he was the Republican VP nominee in the prior election (2012).  Normally, when the ticket fails, the VP choice is the next one in line to be put forward.  And, two: Ryan was the Speaker of the House, which means he was already the “prime” person to be elevated from the House to the Oval Office.  When (in 2016) Florida went to the Republicans and the House was retained by the Republicans, they only needed one of the Rust Belt states and South Carolina to stop Clinton, irrespective of her national popular vote count.  The same conditions will be true in 2020, if the Republicans can somehow flip the House back to their control.
Added to that (final control of the Presidential election), the House also has primary responsibility for seat reapportionment after the 2020 census.  If Republicans flip control back (to themselves) they will use even more gerrymandering to reduce the value of the popular vote.  (Of course, this presumes the Republicans retain control of the majority of the State Houses, too.  Since they control 32 States to the Dems 14, it seems likely they will.)  Don’t misinterpret me.  The Democratic Party will also gerrymander, but they “generally” do so to increase the value of the popular vote.  They (the Democrats) “only” do this because the demographics of the future favor the the Democratic Party.  Basically, older (mostly white male) voters are dying and the younger voters (across all genders, ethnic breakdown, income and education levels) replacing them on the voting roles are trending to the Democratic Party.  And without newer ideas, the Conservative / Republican Party will continue to wither away.  IMHO: It is only “Dark Money” and the Citizens United decision which have propped the Republican Party up this far.
A word to the wise should suffice…   Stay engaged locally.   #Resist   —    KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2018	More Executive Time For #DumbDonald
2017	Watched The Inauguration
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2016	Come Dance And Laugh With Me
2015	Looks Good To Me
2014	Desire For The Sea
2013	The Fierce Urgency Of NOW
	Happy Inauguration Day!
2012	One Path
	Sorrow And Joy
	The Seven Year View
2011	Emergent Practicality

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Blue Wave, But Not Blue Tsunami

So, was there a “BLUE” wave?  You decide…
Elections since 1976 where Democrats have gained seats in the House of Representatives
Of course, the image (above) ONLY shows the years with “net” gains – and this year is the largest numeric increase for the Democrats since 1976.  The chart does not show the years 1980, 1984, 1992, 2002, 2004, 2010, 2014, and 2016 where the Democrats had net losses nor the magnitude of those losses.  (Pretty significant losses in 1994 and 2010.)
Trends for Republicans to worry about…
What should be more troubling to the Republicans is that the second image (just above) shows in Presidential elections, the Democratic candidate received the majority of the “popular” vote in six of the last seven elections.  In 2000, George W. Bush became president (like Trump in 2016) because of the Electoral College, NOT because he received the majority of the individual votes by Americans.  And, in “W’s” case, Republicans won only because the Supreme Court stopped the recount in Florida while “W” had the lead.
It is (IMHO) extremely unlikely there will be any Constitutional change to the Electoral College system and the House (i.e. the States) is sooooo gerrymandered it is unlikely the moneyed party (the Republicans) will lose many of the plains and mid-west States without another major financial / economic collapse (like at the end of Bush’s term: 2008).  The “hope” of a demographics shift is “always” there as a forecast on the horizon, but it never seems to be the super-storm which reaches shore.  Finally, I have read projections of upwards of ten House seats being “flipped” due to the 2020 census.  So having (and holding) governorships and state houses coming out of 2020 will be critical for the next decade’s elections, too.
The work is just beginning folks…  Take a deep breath and then get ready to get back to the grindstone.  Democracy still has some catching up to do in this Republic.
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On This Day In:
2017	The Promise At Risk
2016	Or As Will Come In Time
2015	It Is Another Beautiful Day At The Red Pony Bar And Continual Soiree…
2014	Days And Years
2013	Currency And Transport
2012	Something Which Did Not Exist Before
2011	True Magic

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