Saturday, November 12, 2022

America Still Top Dog? Should be 75%. Trump The Albatross. Republicans Miss A Slam Dunk.


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U.S. To Keep Grip On Old War Order… For Now


(FreedomBeacon.com)- People worldwide have been experiencing an American age for more than a century, characterized by American money, power, institutions, ideals, alliances, and partnerships. But many now think that this protracted era is coming to an end. They maintain that a post-American, post-Western, postliberal order characterized by great-power competition and the ascent of China in both economic and geopolitical spheres is replacing the U.S.-led world.

Some people are happy about this possibility, while others are sad. However, the plot remains the same. The United States is gradually losing ground in the global balance of power. In terms of economic power and geopolitical influence, the East now rivals the West, and nations in the global South are developing swiftly and playing a more significant role in world affairs. The United States no longer shines as brightly as other nations. America is divided and in turmoil, and depressed citizens fear that its greatest days are behind it. Liberal societies around the world are in difficulty. The internationalism that previously supported the United States’ leadership in the world is weakened by nationalism and populism. After sensing blood in the water, China and Russia have jumped in to forcefully attack American hegemony, liberalism, and democracy. In a shot over the bow of a sinking American ship, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a joint statement of principles for a “new era” in which the United States does not rule the globe in February 2022.

In actuality, though, the US is not floundering. The dramatic narrative of decline ignores underlying global historical factors that will keep the United States at the forefront and serve as the main organizer of international politics in the twenty-first century. No one owns or knows the future, to be sure. Political factors that are intricate, fluid, and challenging to understand, as well as decisions made by people everywhere in the world, will influence the future world order. However, the fundamental sources of American strength and influence in the world continue to exist.
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Should be 75%
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Republican Share of the Jewish Vote Rises to 33% in Midterms, Exit Poll Shows
Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) 

Thirty-three percent of American Jews who participated in Tuesday’s midterm elections voted Republican, up from 30% in the 2020 election and 24% in 2016, an exit poll conducted by Fox News found.

Jews comprised 3% of the American electorate, according to Fox News, which included a question about religion in its exit poll—as opposed to CNN, which did not, except for asking voters whether or not they were white evangelicals.

While a different poll conducted by J Street found that Republicans received 25% of the Jewish vote in the 2022 midterms, the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) tweeted that the Fox News poll is the “gold standard” because it is a network exit poll and “more reflective of the national Jewish vote.”

“J Street doesn’t like the [Fox News] poll, so they shopped around and paid for a poll they do like. The trends are absolutely clear: Jewish voters are moving towards the GOP—24 percent in 2016, 30 percent in 2020, 33 percent in 2022—and no J Street paid-for poll will change those facts,” RJC National Political Director Sam Markstein said.
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Trump has become an albatross and he cold cost Republicans the 2024 presidency.  Actually, Republicans do not know how to market and are capable of losing it without Trump's help. Trump has become the radical Democrats best weapon. The tragedy is he cannot believe this. If he could shut his mouth and walk off stage, in time, historians would elevate him to one of the better presidents based on
accomplishments.

It pains me to see Republicans fail to ride a tide with inflation where it is, gas where it is, diesel soon in short supply so inflation is likely to stay high forcing The Fed to raise rates high enough to possibly cause an unnecessary recession or one that is bumpier than need be.  

It is like one of the greatest basketball players missing a lay up slam dunk when no one is around.
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This Week’s Red ‘Waves’
Republicans did well in places where they showed leadership and competence.
By Kimberley A. Strassel 


You might have heard that Tuesday’s election produced only one red “wave”: in Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis and Republicans rocked. There were in fact several red waves in key states, and they combine to hold an age-old lesson for a whupped GOP. Want to win elections? Run competent leaders.

There’s no shading a miserable GOP night. It’s unclear if Republicans will take control of the House, much less the Senate, and its margins in either chamber will be razor thin. The GOP should have swept a country wildly unhappy with inflation, the economy, high crime, education, the border, you name it. It didn’t, and in many of the races the losses came down to two words: candidate quality.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell made that point in August, only to be booed by pundits who disparaged it as another example of “establishment” ignorance of the brilliance of candidates endorsed by Donald Trump. Who’s looking brilliant now?

Pennsylvanians preferred to elect a recent stroke victim rather than take a chance on an untested TV doctor. New Hampshire returned the generally disliked Maggie Hassan to the Senate rather than roll the dice on Don Bolduc, who couldn’t decide two years later if the 2020 election was stolen. Arizonans appear not to have been sold on an unknown venture capitalist named Blake Masters. Georgians have sent scandal-plagued Herschel Walker to a Senate runoff, but he ran behind every other statewide GOP candidate. TV personality Tudor Dixon got crushed in the Michigan governor’s race. Doug Mastriano got routed in Pennsylvania.

Here’s a guy who didn’t get a Trump endorsement this year: Ron DeSantis. The Florida governor stormed to re-election by nearly 20 points, and exit polls show he won practically every demographic: Hispanics, women, white men, older voters, independents, married voters. He won the rural vote (69%), the suburban vote (58%) and the urban vote (55%). His GOP overall had a stunning night. Sen. Marco Rubio won re-election by more than 16 points as his party picked up four U.S. House seats, took supermajorities in the state House and Senate, and locked Democrats out of statewide office.

Here’s another guy: Brian Kemp, who trounced Trump-backed David Perdue in a May primary. The Georgia governor beat Stacey Abrams by nearly 8 points and received 200,000 votes more than the Trump-backed Mr. Walker. Republicans retained sizable majorities in the Georgia Legislature and their hold on all other statewide offices despite well-funded challenges from Democrats with national attention. This is the state that Democrats crowed they had turned blue two years ago.

In Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine won re-election by 25 points and helped pull the Trump-backed Senate nominee J.D. Vance over the finish line. Republicans swept three state supreme court seats, retained all statewide offices, and increased their majorities in both state legislative chambers. In North Carolina, Republican Ted Budd won a Senate seat as the GOP flipped control of the state supreme court and regained a supermajority in the state Senate. In Iowa, Gov. Kim Reynolds won by 19 points; Sen. Chuck Grassley by 12. The Republican Party holds all six of its House and Senate seats, a supermajority in the state Senate, and an expanded state House majority. In Texas—which Democrats insist is bluing—Gov. Greg Abbott crushed Beto O’Rourke by 11 points, while Republicans increased their state legislative majorities. Monica De La Cruz picked up South Texas’ 15th Congressional District, the first time the area will ever be represented by a Republican.

What do these state red waves have in common? Their elected leaders didn’t spend the past two years coddling Mr. Trump’s bruised ego. Nor did they spend it simply whining about Biden Democrats. They did the people’s business. They reopened their states amid Covid, cut taxes, expanded school choice, axed regulations, enacted voting reform, managed border crises, stood up for parental rights, handled hurricanes, tackled crime, and fought against Big Tech censorship. A video that went viral after Hurricane Ian showed an African-American man pointing at an emergency gasoline truck the state had helped get to his town. “I don’t know about the rest of you [expletive], but I’m voting DeSantis. And I’m a Democrat.”

As Republicans face the prospect of a sooner-than-expected presidential campaign, this question of leadership and competence is paramount. Many conservatives love Mr. Trump for his fight. But what Tuesday’s specific Republican victories show is that choosing your fights is as important as fighting. Spend your fight on nasty jabs at the opposition, invective at party rivals, cable-show drama, and personal crusades? Yeah, you’ll fire up some in your base, but at the cost of alienating even more of the population. Spend your fight on policies that make voters’ lives better—give them optimism and back it up with results—and you’ll be rewarded at the polls.
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