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Quick Analysis

Ignoring National Security

The leading Democrat candidates currently running for president have failed to expressed any significant level of concern regarding national security issues.

Failing to do so is a denial of reality.  Russia, China, Iran and North Korea as well as terrorist forces present an extraordinary danger to the United States. Even as the Obama Administration cut military spending and failed to confront aggression, those nations moved vigorously ahead in expanding their military prowess. Russia now has the planet’s largest nuclear arsenal, and China has become a true military superpower.

Take both the United States and its allies in the Pacific and NATO out of the picture for a moment.  The outlook of one traditionally nonaligned nation indicates how serious an historically neutral nation takes the growing threat. 

Global Security reports that Sweden will increase its defense budget substantially, and will continue to do so until 2025. “The money will be used to equip the defense, especially when it comes to ground combat forces. The number of defense personnel will increase, from today’s 60,000 people to 90,000 including home defense and civilian employees. Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist said at the press conference that the current upgrading of the defense is the ‘biggest reinforcement in decades’. He said ‘We have a better and stronger defense today than 2014, but much remains to be done.’

Sweden is not alone.  According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute  “Several countries in Central and Eastern Europe made large increases in their military expenditure in 2018. Spending by Poland rose by 8.9 per cent in 2018 to $11.6 billion, while Ukraine’s spending was up by 21 per cent to $4.8 billion. Spending by Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania also grew (ranging from 18 per cent to 24 per cent) in 2018. ‘The increases in Central and Eastern Europe are largely due to growing perceptions of a threat from Russia,’ said Pieter Wezeman, a senior researcher with the SIPRI AMEX programme.”

In addition to its vast nuclear arsenal, portions of which have violated international accords, Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine and Georgia has produced legitimate concern.

Russia’s actions are mirrored by China in the Pacific.

The Brooking Institute’s Erin Baggott Carter notes that “China’s leader-for-life Xi Jinping will … initiate international conflicts in order to build the sort of public nationalism that makes it difficult for elites to challenge him. The result will be a more aggressive, destabilizing, and unpredictable foreign policy. China’s ‘rise’ is among the great challenges of the 21st century, in part because China’s domestic politics compel risky behavior on the international stage.”

Richard Heydarian, writing for the Nikkei Asian Review, reported the latest blatant act of Beijing’s aggression: “Between January and April, close to 300 suspected Chinese militia vessels swarmed and surrounded the parts of the Spratly Islands held by the Philippines. This went hand in hand with the growing harassment of Filipino fishermen in the Scarborough Shoal, which has been under the de facto occupation of Chinese paramilitary forces but is claimed by the Philippines. Things came to head in June when a suspected Chinese militia vessel rammed and sank a Filipino fishing boat in the Reed Bank, an energy-rich area that falls within the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic Zone.”

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“President Xi Jinping Friday ordered the Chinese armed forces to enhance their combat readiness…Regarding combat capability as the only and fundamental criterion, Xi ordered all work, forces and resources to focus on military preparedness and ensure a marked progress in this regard. Xi stressed the armed forces’ ability to respond quickly and effectively to contingencies, asking them to upgrade commanding capability of joint operations, foster new combat forces, and improve military training under combat conditions. Party and government departments and agencies at the central and local levels are required to support the defense and military development…”

When the Chinese Navy infringed upon the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic Zone, Obama did nothing.  The White House didn’t even lodge a diplomatic protest.  Even after the World Tribunal at The Hague ruled in favor of the Philippines, the White House remained on the sidelines. Obama’s failure to even diplomatically oppose China’s aggressive actions meant that not only was Beijing’s belligerence rewarded, but that a golden opportunity to unite Southeast Asian and Pacific nations in an anti-Chinese aggression front that would have discouraged future assaults was lost.

When Russia invaded Ukraine, the only Obama response was a weak set of sanctions.

 It is the mantra of the political left that America is in no military danger from abroad, freedom is not imperiled, and that whatever global challenges Washington must deal with are the products of its own prior actions. That was the guiding principle of the Obama Administration. Whatever inconvenient facts depart from that narrative are wholly disregarded because much of the media shares that viewpoint.

Photo: Russian tank. (Russian Federation Ministry of defense)

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Desperation of the Democrats

Like men overboard clinging to life preservers in rugged seas, Democrats and their media allies continue to desperately grasp at the self-created and totally disproven charges of Russian collusion by the Trump campaign.

Some believe that it would take a battery of psychiatrists to determine why they do so, particularly considering that the falsehoods and misdeeds committed to bring about the allegations in the first place will eventually place them in legal jeopardy.  

The clinical concept of “projection,” in which one paints others with one’s own faults, may well be at play, particularly in light of Hillary’s intimate financial relations with Russia and Bill’s with China during the 1990’s.

It’s not limited to presidential campaigns.

Democrats became galvanized during the campaign to falsely portray then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh as sexist.  They ignored, however, the very real and rather extreme sexism of their own, from their major Hollywood mogul supporters to the creepy antics of Joe Biden. Not to mention, of course, their devotion to the memory of Ted Kennedy, whose offensive relations with females included leaving Mary Jo Kopechne to drown at the bottom of the water off Chappaquiddick Island. Most importantly, it is Democrats that continue to harbor and make excuses for those, like Woman’s March on Washington co-chair Linda Sarsour, who support the horrific anti-female Sharia Law.

A similar phenomenon exists with their rather astounding casting of Republicans as anti-Semitic. Democrats have embraced Islamic extremist congressional representatives who can barely conceal their hatred for Jews. The Obama Administration did everything it possibly could to alienate Israel from Washington, while simultaneously strengthening Iran. Democratic supporters on college campuses continue to vigorously attack Israel through the “BDS” movement.

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And, of course, there is the continual bid to portray the GOP as being authoritarian. It is Democrats, not Republicans, who threaten violence and actually riot in the streets when they lose elections. It is Democrats, not Republicans, who seek to censor free speech.  It is Democrats, not Republicans, who seek to warp the Supreme Court and the U.S. electoral system to insure partisan victory.  It is Democrats, not Republicans, who used the IRS and the Department of Justice to harass their political opponents.

The actual answer, however, is not psychiatric but political. The reality is that the Democrats do not have the upper hand on any key issues.  Consciously or not, they have substituted baseless personal attacks on their opponents and unseemly appeals to identity politics for honest policy debate.  

Outright falsehoods have also been employed, on occasion to an almost farcical extent. 100,000 illegals crossing the border monthly, bringing significant expense to U.S. taxpayers, as well as extensive gang violence? Not a crisis!  Russian invasion of Ukraine, Chinese expansionism throughout Asia, and massive arms buildups by both, no excuse to provide adequate funds for the U.S. military! The lowest unemployment rate in history for blacks, thanks to the GOP? Ignore that, Republicans are racist. Hillary Clinton taking millions from the Russians through her foundation in return for allowing the sale of the basic ingredient of nuclear weapons to Moscow? Move along, nothing to see here.

Because of the political partisanship of both the media and the entertainment industry, the obvious criticism the Democrats so richly deserve remains unaddressed. If Donald Trump is the symbol of the GOP, then Jessie Smollett is the living, breathing symbol of the Democrat Party of the 21st Century, complete with outright falsehoods, fake charges, and a politically biased and obviously corrupt justice system that insures there no repercussions.

Illustration: Pixabay

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Substance Replaced by Evasion

Recently, Democrat presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg talked a bit about his campaign. As reported by WSBT, the South Bend, Indiana mayor said that even though he would eventually run a “substantive” ideas campaign,  “We’re … not going to inundate people with minutia of policy before they understand exactly what the big ideas are, the values that motivate our policies and the impacts they are going to have on the ground.”

Buttigieg’ comments may well be the anthem of the Democrats in the 2020 campaign, for good reason.  Another early Democrat “star” in the election cycle is “Beto” O’Rourke.  Luke Savage, writing in Jacobin reports: “ Despite taking the odd progressive position here and there, O’Rourke is assiduously vague and slippery on policy specifics. As the Washington Post’s Jenna Johnson observed a few months ago: “When it comes to many of the biggest policy issues facing the country today, O’Rourke’s default stance is to call for a debate” — even when it comes to areas he himself is fond of emphasizing, such as border policy and immigration.”

Specifics will not work for the Party that has moved far to the left of the American mainstream, and touts policies that have already failed. The shining dream of an election cycle that would be dominated by Russian collusion has turned into a nightmare, following the Mueller Report. Indeed, it now appears that the only high-level indictments that may arise will be those against key Democrat leaders and allies who conspired to defraud the FISA Court and the American public in a failed attempt to rig the 2016 general election for Hillary Clinton, just as they rigged the primary campaign to insure Bernie Sanders’ defeat.

The collection of 2020 Democrat contenders have largely relied on irrational, disproven, and unaffordable policies combined with identity politics and baseless attacks on their opponents. They are heavily dependent on the steadfast support and biased reporting of the mainstream media, cleverly censored social web sites and late night television comedians.

Consider the unpopular concepts they support.

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Astoundingly, some of the 2020 candidates and Democrat party leaders refer to the current White House as “fascist.” Yet it is they who seek to warp American government to gain unfair advantage and silence opposition.  Ideas include limiting free speech, as Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) did in his bid to weaken the First Amendment. They have refused to condemn attacks on moderate and conservative students, professors and guest speakers on college campuses.  Some have proposed “stacking” the U.S. Supreme Court with additional left-wing justices to insure court victories.  They oppose sensible voter ID laws to allow illegal aliens to vote to overcome the preferences of the citizenry. And more recently, they have engaged in moves to allow convicted felons still in jail to cast votes. Upon losing elections, it is Democrat supporters who riot in the streets, and assault individuals for merely wearing hats supporting Trump.

The success of the game plan to warp the truth for partisan advantage, by party leaders, candidates and the left-wing is clearly seen in the extraordinary dishonesty about the effect of tax cuts. Despite clear evidence to the contrary, reports CNBC, “just 17% believe their own taxes will go down, the NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll found. By contrast, 28% believe they’ll pay more, 27% expect to pay about the same and 28% don’t know enough to say… In reality, 8 in 10 Americans stood to receive tax cuts in 2018 under the law, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.”

The nation needs a substantive, in-depth, vigorous and open debate on the issues.  Instead, many Democrat candidates have provided only evasion, meaningless platitudes, and personal attacks.

Photo: Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg addresses crowd. (Campaign website)