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When we talk about political campaigns, we often resort to military terminology. In the United States, the campaign wars seem never ending. The chief problem with campaigns is that they are distortion mechanisms constructed to capture votes, which is why German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck said, “People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election.” The quotable Bismarck could be disarmingly honest, as in, “Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied.”
For truth in politics, we look to disarmed retired
politicians rather than active vote-hungry politicians.
In war, capturing the flag is an indication of a battle won,
and so too in political campaigns. We think of accurate accusations of
genocide, for instance, as a battle for the moral soul of a constituency. For
this reason, it seems to Jews in the United States a false flag to accuse the
state of Israel of genocide. The children of Buchenwald and Auschwitz, some of
whom walk among us still, know better. A list of 23 main Nazi concentration
camps may be found here: List of Nazi concentration camps.
The genocidal intent and purpose of the camps have been well documented. The
curious historical investigator may find references to Nazi genocide even on WalkMeLearning Arc, one among many AI
tech teachers preferred by the young and uninstructed among us.
The left, if we are to believe them, has now captured the
“genocide” flag by labeling as genocidal the historical victims of genocide.
Here is Vermont socialist U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders boasting joyously as
he captures the “disarm Israel” flag: “When Bernie Sanders moved last April to
block a U.S. arms sale to Israel, only 14 Democratic senators joined the
Vermont independent. What a difference a year makes: When Sanders objected to
another Israeli arms sale this month, 39 other members of the Senate Democratic
Caucus joined him — a sea change that has raised eyebrows from Washington to
Jerusalem. In a recent interview, Sanders reflected on the sudden and massive
shift, one that has some observers saying he — not Senate Minority Leader Chuck
Schumer, who has voted to support the arms sales — is leading Senate Democrats
on Israel policy. ‘That’s true,’ Sanders said of the claim. ‘I mean we got 40
votes, and Schumer got seven. We have more support for our position than Chuck
has for his.’”
Who is “we?”
Sanders’ “we,” Politico tells us, does not include “One
Democrat who continues to support the sales. Sen. Richard Blumenthal of
Connecticut, said the Netanyahu government should be reined in but said Sanders
was pursuing ‘the wrong vehicle to try to achieve those changes.’” In future
comments when referring to the false prophets in his own party, Blumenthal
might try to become less mystical. However, Politico notes, “… most of those
who recently came to oppose the arms sales cited the Iran War and the risk of
further escalation in the region — not Sanders.” During his entire political
life, Sanders has been the political victim of his initial choices. His beef
with millionaires ended when he himself became a millionaire. He has now moved
on to castigating billionaires.
If you throw enough dirt, Cardinal John Henry Newman once
said, “some will stick – stick but not stain.” Once you have accepted the view,
historically a campaign “lie” in Bismarck’s sense, that the nation of Israel is
inherently genocidal, you are on your way to swallowing a host of historical
toads. And the same is true of the
continuing socialist denigration of capitalism and religion. Karl Marx, a
theology student once told me, was the best God-hater of his generation. He
wanted to eliminate the competition. Joseph Stalin, an expelled seminarian
student and the best Marxist of his generation, expanded the Czarist Gulag to
accommodate clergy, capitalist and the Old Bolshevik followers of Lenin.
Here in Connecticut, the Democrat Party has for three
decades and more captured and held hostage the state’s operative political and cultural
flag. This capture is most obvious once the thinking mind turns to taxing,
budgets and spending, as in It’s the Spending Stupid, a decades old piece in Connecticut
Commentary.
Some tax relief in Connecticut would be welcomed – and would
instantly attack the state’s “affordability” crisis by leaving tax receipts in
the pockets and bank accounts of taxpayers -- if the Democrat political
hegemony in the state were serious about mounting taxation and spending.
Income-tax relief would be welcomed in Connecticut’s
tax-and-spend Democrat dominated General Assembly, Meagan Portfolio tells us in
her latest piece published in the truth addicted Connecticut Centinal -- Connecticut Taxpayers Deserve More Than
‘Hope Not’.
But there is no relief for weary Connecticut taxpayers: “Connecticut
still collected nearly $13 billion in personal income taxes before refunds in
fiscal 2025. Employers withheld $9.15 billion from workers’ paychecks and sent
it to the state. Another $3.81 billion came from estimated payments—generally made
during the year on income without sufficient withholding—and final payments of
tax still owed when people filed their returns. Getting to work alone gives the
state several chances to collect. Connecticut took in $362.9 million in
gasoline taxes, $47.8 million in driver’s license fees and $18.6 million in
vehicle title fees in FY25. Before drivers earn a dollar at work, they have
already encountered several ways to pay Hartford. Businesses get their own
bills. Connecticut collected $1.4 billion through its corporation tax, which
generally taxes corporate profits. Another $2.37 billion came from estimated
and final payments of the pass-through entity tax. That tax applies to income
earned by businesses such as partnerships and S corporations, whose profits
generally pass through to their owners for income-tax purposes. Those three
entries alone brought in nearly $3.8 billion… Transferring wealth gives
Hartford another opportunity to collect. Gift and estate taxes brought in
$146.1 million in fiscal 2025. The estate tax applies to wealth transferred at
death, while the gift tax covers certain transfers during a person’s lifetime.
Connecticut is the only state with a stand-alone gift tax.”
It’s the spending – STUPID – that drives tax increases,
spending and what Bismarck might call inflationary lying during hunts,
political wars and political campaigns. What to do about all this? Hint: In
Connecticut’s Democrat political hegemonic General Assembly, committed to ever
increasing taxes and lavish spending, there never will be political salvation
outside the state’s opposing Republican Party.
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