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| Obama, Biden and Hunter -- Vanity Fair |
As studious observers of Democrat Party politics should know by now, President Joe Biden’s hold on his party has become somewhat iffy, largely for the following reasons: 1) Biden for two full years, perhaps longer, has been stricken with some unnamed malady that leaves him confused and unable to focus mentally on important political issues. One neurologist has said the president may be suffering from vascular dementia related in some fashion to Biden’s brain aneurisms; 2) the wooden stake that was supposed to have dispatched former Republican President Donald Trump, a series of constitutionally dubious charges filed in numerous state courts, has failed, according to most polls, to slay the vampire; 3) given its past close scrutiny of Trump, what has been called the mainstream media has now more or less been forced to focus on Biden’s fragilities; and 4) the Biden administration, leaning far to the left, has failed on both domestic and foreign policy issues, according to many polls.
The center of the Democrat Party, having steered a course
resolutely to the left, has left in the dust those it has in the past held
firmly in its iron grip. These include mothers, especially Black moms, worried
that their children are not receiving a proper education, unaffiliated voters,
Black men, Hispanics, and even poorly educated and historically blind young
college students.
A recent sign-of-the-times dispiriting story in Illinois
Policy noted, “Chicago
Teachers Union Fails To Turn $68k Per Student Into Even 1 Academic Win.
It would be only a slight exaggeration to say along with W.
B. Yeats in The Second Coming, likely no longer
taught in high schools:
Things fall apart; the
centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed
upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide
is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of
innocence is drowned;
The best lack all
conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate
intensity.
At the center of the fallen center here in Connecticut are
the members of the state’s U. S. Congressional Delegation, all Democrats full
of a barely suppressed passionate intensity.
Alone among his fellow Democrats, U.S Congressional 4th
District Representative Jim Himes let the shoe drop.
According to Himes, CTMirror tells us, “The 2024
election will define the future of American democracy, and we must put forth
the strongest candidate possible to confront the threat posed by Trump’s
promised MAGA authoritarianism. I no longer believe that is Joe Biden, and I
hope that, as he has throughout this lifetime of public service, he will
continue to put our nation first and, as he promised, make way for a new
generation of leaders.”
Himes here makes reference to an old “promise” unfurled by
Biden many years ago when, in order to cage votes, then candidate for president
Biden had promised his would be a “one-term presidency.”
Bob MacGuffie, currently seeking the
Republican congressional nomination to oppose Jim Himes in the 2024 election,
has said that Himes’ declaration is self-serving: "As always with Mr.
Himes, it is all about politics and the political ramifications. Mr. Himes
calls on President Biden to remove himself from the race because he knows Biden
is destined to lose, and Himes is afraid he will be defeated as well. For the
past couple years Himes has stood by Biden, assuring us Biden was fit, when
every politico in DC and the rest of us in the 4th District knew Biden was
mentally impaired. Throughout this period, Himes was content to have an impaired
Biden in the presidency as long as his constituents didn’t catch on. Mr. Himes
has written the book on Gaslighting his congressional constituents.”
U.S. Senator Dick Blumenthal’s answer to the question –
should Biden give up his bid for reelection? – is comfortably swathed in padded
ambiguity.
CTMirror reported, “On Wednesday [July 10], U.S. Sen.
Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said he had ‘deep concerns’ about Biden’s ability
to win but said he would support him as the nominee… Blumenthal told reporters
that he still needs to see more data to be assured of the president’s path to
victory over Trump. ‘some of my concerns are allayed, some others have been
deepened. I need more of the kind of analytics that show the path to success.’”
Former U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi charted a
similar course.
After a certain point of no return, everyone knows, the
data, however compelling, will be useless, because the remedial road Himes points
to will be permanently closed for repairs.
“So far,” CTMirror notes, “the rest of Connecticut’s
delegation has not called on Biden to withdraw from the race, but many of them
have said the president needs to do more to assuage voter and party concerns
about his ability to win reelection.”
A defensive crouch, Governor Ned Lamont points out, cannot
lead to success. “‘We can’t play defense for the next four months,’ Lamont said
in an interview [with CTMirror] earlier this week. ‘We’ve been playing defense
for 10 days waiting for the dust to settle. The dust is settling, and we’re
still playing defense. And that does not win elections.’”
In national elections, the messenger is the message. Himes got
that right. All the other Democrat members of Connecticut’s U.S. Delegation are
beginning to sound like Hamlet, torn between irresolution and fickle fate.
There does come a point in politics, too late in the game, where fate itself
decides the issue. And fate, like God, is no respecter of political parties.
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