Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Diversity in American politics, part 1a


Introduction

I wrote an essay titled Presidential Standards on a different blog in October 2014 about the appropriate standards for an American president.  I said that I disliked extremists.  I still dislike them.  Many people also believe in appropriate standards for each political party, as judged by the members of that party.

It is too easy to say that American politics is a battle between two large political parties.  That view fails to account for the minor political parties that are registered with a U.S. Government agency called the Federal Election Commission.  That view also fails to account for the factions that exist within each registered party.  Those factions are the subject of this series of essays.

The shifting winds of politics in this country have produced many changes in the names and the character of America's political parties.  The names and the character of each faction within a party can be an early sign of changes in the party itself

This page explains some of the factions of the Republican Party.  Part 2 will explain some of the factions of the Democrat Party.  Part 3 will explain factions within some of the minor political parties.


The history of the Republican Party

These are the first three paragraphs of a page of the History Channel website labeled "On this day in history" (March 20th).
In Ripon, Wisconsin, former members of the Whig Party meet to establish a new party to oppose the spread of slavery into the western territories.  The Whig Party, which was formed in 1834 to oppose the “tyranny” of President Andrew Jackson, had shown itself incapable of coping with the national crisis over slavery.

With the successful introduction of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill of 1854, an act that dissolved the terms of the Missouri Compromise and allowed slave or free status to be decided in the territories by popular sovereignty, the Whigs disintegrated.  By February 1854, anti-slavery Whigs had begun meeting in the upper midwestern states to discuss the formation of a new party.  One such meeting, in Wisconsin on March 20, 1854, is generally remembered as the founding meeting of the Republican Party.

The Republicans rapidly gained supporters in the North, and in 1856 their first presidential candidate, John C. Fremont, won 11 of the 16 Northern states.  By 1860, the majority of the Southern slave states were publicly threatening secession if the Republicans won the presidency.  In November 1860, Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected president over a divided Democratic Party, and six weeks later South Carolina formally seceded from the Union.  Within six more weeks, five other Southern states had followed South Carolina’s lead, and in April 1861 the Civil War began when Confederate shore batteries under General P.G.T. Beauregard opened fire on Fort Sumter in South Carolina’s Charleston Bay.
This sentence is in the third paragraph.

"In November 1860, Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected president over a divided Democratic Party, and six weeks later South Carolina formally seceded from the Union."


One united political party was able to send its' nominee to the White House because the other main political party was divided on a major issue.  The election of Abraham Lincoln happened even though the Republican Party had been formed only six years earlier.

The first page in this blog, written January 6, 2015, is a tribute to Abraham Lincoln.  That page includes the quote on the left.  When he spoke these words, he quoted Matthew 12:25 of the Bible, which he read often.  You can find that first blog page and every other published page on this blog in the archives on the right.

In December 2015, I wrote a two-part series of essays on this blog about President Obama's effort, directed through a bureau within his Department of the Interior, to force Hawaii to secede from the union.  That would have created a divided country that would have been significantly weaker because there is a combined Navy base and Air Force base near Honolulu called Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.  If America lost control over it, another country, possibly China, would gain control over it and would then become a real threat to the safety of the west coast of every country in North America.

In January 2017, I wrote an essay on this blog about the effort of some people in California to secede, just as a group of states had done in the 1860s.  That essay predicts that if they succeed, there will be another war between the states that want to secede and the rest of the states.  This war will result in a large number of deaths, just as the U.S. Civil War did.


The Donald Trump faction

In many ways, he and his politically-active family are a large faction within the Republican Party.  The political wishes of him and his family were supported during the 2016 presidential campaign by a large and vocal group of people who were more focused on his brand than on his policies.  They acted like members of a cult.  He was their leader.  In their eyes, it was impossible for him to make mistakes.  They would even forgive him if he shot someone on Fifth Avenue in New York City.
The video on the right shows him admitting this.  This video is also an explicit admission of his leadership of a violent cult.

In contrast, if other Republicans saw him shoot someone, anywhere in America, they would immediately call the police, report the shooting to the police dispatcher, and demand that Donald Trump be arrested for murder.

Republicans who are not members of his cult believe in law and order.  Shooting someone is a crime which must be punished.
Anyone who was not a member of his family or a supporter of his family was an enemy, even other Republicans, especially if they were competing against him for the job of American President.


These are the first five paragraphs of an April 22, 2016 Politico story.
First it was an email warning Steve House, the Colorado GOP chairman, to hide his family members and “pray you make it to Cleveland.” Then there was the angry man who called his cellphone and told him to put a gun down his throat.

“He said, ‘I’ll call back in two minutes, and if you’re still there, I’ll come over and help you,’” House recalled.

Since Donald Trump came up empty in his quest for delegates at the Republican state assembly in Colorado Springs nearly two weeks ago, his angry supporters have responded to Trump’s own claims of a “rigged” nomination process by lashing out at Republican National Committee delegates that they believe won’t support Trump at the party’s convention — including House.

The mild-mannered chairman estimates he’s gotten between 4,000 and 5,000 calls on his cellphone. Many, he says, have ended with productive conversations. He’s referred the more threatening, violent calls to police. His cellphone is still buzzing this week, as he attends the RNC quarterly meetings in Florida, and he’s not the only one.

In hotel hallways and across dinner tables, many party leaders attending this week’s meetings shared similar stories. One party chairman says a Trump supporter recently got in his face and promised “bloodshed” if Trump doesn't win the GOP presidential nomination. An Indiana delegate who criticized Trump received a note warning against “traditional burial” that ended with, “We are watching you.”
The information in this story, told on a website known for its' lack of a political bias, shows Donald's willingness, during the 2016 campaign, to use his ultra-loyal followers to advance his personal political agenda.  Unlike other 2016 Republican candidates, he did not campaign for Republicans who were trying to be elected to the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, or any statewide office.

 This is a link to an essay I wrote in a publication called American Thinker that was published in late May 2016.
My essay said why I could not and would not vote for either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump.  It said that I voted for Senator Ted Cruz in my state primary election in March 2016 and that if the Senator was not chosen as the party nominee during the convention in July 2016, I would exercise my legal right to write his name onto my ballot in November 2016.

That is exactly what I did, less than six months after my essay was published..


These are the first five paragraphs of an October 11, 2016 CNBC story.  All of the links in these paragraphs were in their story.
Donald Trump unleashed a Twitter barrage Tuesday at House Speaker Paul Ryan and other Republicans who he claimed had been "disloyal."

The tweets came after several big-name Republicans announced they could no longer support their presidential nominee in the wake of the publication of a 2005 video showing Trump bragging about groping women.  Trump apologized for what he called "locker room talk."

On Monday, Ryan said he would no longer defend Trump through the last month of the general election — but he stopped short of rescinding his endorsement of the New York businessman.

In the morning messages, Trump said "the shackles" had been removed and "disloyal" members of his own party are more of an impediment than Hillary Clinton.  And in an afternoon tweet, the GOP nominee attacked Sen. John McCain of Arizona — who said Saturday that he would not vote for Trump.

Pundits have warned for some time that the Republican Party could be on the verge of a civil war.

Links to other similar stories, all dated October 11, 2016.
Politico The N.Y. Times ABC News Globe and Mail
Fox News People Magazine Boston Globe USA Today
Reuters Jamaica Observer Vanguard News Straits Times

These international journals published a similar story the next day, October 12, 2016.
U.K. Guardian Deutsche Welle Rappler (Philippines) India Times
France 24 News 18 (India) Mihaaru (Maldives) U.K. Mirror

This is the last paragraph of the previous CNBC story.

"Pundits have warned for some time that the Republican Party could be on the verge of a civil war."

This war would not have happened if presidential candidate Donald Trump had not fought against the other presidential candidates.  There is a long tradition in my party, the Republican Party, of Republican candidates treating other Republican candidates as friendly competitors.

I wrote about this in an October 2013 essay that showed that friendly competition in presidential candidates is similar to the sportsmanship that is taught in many elementary schools in America.

When Donald Trump was a boy, he forgot the valuable skill of showing respect to his competitors and being friends with other people on the same team. These are the first five paragraphs of a July 22, 2016 story in The Hill.  The links in the paragraphs were in their story.
Donald Trump is reportedly planning on bankrolling super-PACs that would oppose Gov. John Kasich (R-Ohio) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), two of his former primary opponents who snubbed him during the party’s convention this week.

Bloomberg, citing one unidentified source, reported the Republican candidate’s plans to target Cruz's and Kasich's future campaigns on Friday.The source said that Trump would be willing to invest $20 million or more into the project, which could involve one or two super-PACs.

Trump signaled such a plan in a speech on Friday morning, the day after the close of the convention, while blasting Cruz for refusing to endorse him in remarks before the convention Wednesday night.
Senator Cruz does have a handful of kamikaze candidates against him in his 2018 reelection battle.  Link to the Wikipedia page for the U.S. Senate seats representing Texas.  As of this publication date, the Senator's only opponent who has a U.S. Government job is a first-term U.S. Representative.  The Senator has packed a lot of experience and goodwill into his own first term, yet, like a Southern gentleman, and unlike New York businessman Donald Trump, Senator Cruz knows how to show respect .to his competitors, which is excellent news for the future of the Republican Party.


Another wealthy family

This section was added August 2, 2018.

An overview

These are the first five paragraphs of an August 2, 2016 CNN story that was published on the MSN website.
President Donald Trump on Thursday continued his attacks on billionaire Charles Koch, his latest broadside against the conservative donor who is vital to Republican candidates.

"Charles Koch of Koch Brothers, who claims to be giving away millions of dollars to politicians even though I know very few who have seen this (?), now makes the ridiculous statement that what President Trump is doing is unfair to 'foreign workers.' He is correct, AMERICA FIRST!" Trump tweeted.

Trump's public attacks against Koch and his brother David, who recently retired, highlight a growing divide between the populist base of the Republican Party represented by the President and the business-minded wing that for years has relied heavily on the Koch brothers' financial support and influence.
This is the last paragraph.  I emphasized a few words with italics.

"Trump's public attacks against Koch and his brother David, who recently retired, highlight a growing divide between the populist base of the Republican Party represented by the President and the business-minded wing that for years has relied heavily on the Koch brothers' financial support and influence.

"a growing divide" means that there is another faction being formed in the Republican Party.  One large faction, as mentioned earlier on this page, is the family of Donald Trump and the supporters of this family.  Another large faction is the Koch family and their supporters.


Details about this family

The Koch family sponsors several lobbying groups.  One of them is called Americans for Prosperity.  In August 2017, I attended a one-day event in Virginia that was sponsored by this group. The following people were guest speakers at this event.
The website about this annual event has some videos of the speakers.


Link to a July 31, 2018 C.N.N. story titled Charles Koch Takes On Trump.  Trump Takes On Charles Koch.

Link to a July 31, 2018 Los Angeles Times story titled Trump lashes out at Koch brothers after their political network slams White House

Link to an August 2, 2018 New York Times story titled Trump's war with Koch Brothers is latest battle of the billionaires.

Link to an August 2, 2018 Fortune article titled Donald Trump Escalates Attacks on Mega Donor Charles Koch.

Link to an August 3, 2018 Washington Post story titled President Trump’s feud with Charles Koch shows the conservative coalition is cracking up.


The Tea Party

This section also includes a similar conservative group in the U.S. House of Representatives.

On October 12th and 13th, 2010, the U.K. newspaper The Telegraph published a two-part series of articles that listed the 20 most influential members of this conservative faction of the Republican Party.

Link to the first list of 10 people, which included
  1. David Koch, industrial magnate
  2. U.S. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky
  3. U.S. Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina

Link to the second list of 10 people. The descriptions of these people were copied verbatim from the article.
  1. Amy Kremer, chairman of the Tea Party Express
  2. Sarah Palin, former governor of Alaska
  3. Rick Santelli, presenter CNBC
  4. Jenny Beth Martin, activist
  5. Dick Armey, chairman of FreedomWorks
  6. Thomas Rhodes, chairman of Club for Growth
  7. Michele Bachmann, founder of the Congressional Tea Party caucus
  8. Glenn Beck, Fox News host
  9. Sharron Angle, Republican candidate for Senate in Nevada
  10. Christine O’Donnell, Republican candidate for Senate in Delaware

The 2009 video of Rick Santelli discussing conservative principles on CNBC.
The 2010 video of Michele Bachmann discussing conservative principles in Washington, D.C.
The Rick Santelli video has been watched more than one and a half million times as of the date that this page was published.

I wrote an endorsement of Michele Bachmann during her last campaign for reelection in 2012 as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.  She won that race but did not run for reelection in 2014.  The video about her, recorded in 2010, is on that page also.


The House Freedom Caucus

There is a conservative group inside the U.S. House of Representatives called the House Freedom Caucus.
Link to an October 20, 2015 article about them on the website of the Pew Research Center.


These are the first four paragraphs of a March 23, 2017 story in The Hill.  The link in the third paragraph (embedded into the word "said") was in their story.
President Trump will meet Thursday with conservative House Freedom Caucus members ahead of a planned floor vote on the GOP healthcare bill.

Vice President Pence will also attend the meeting, which is scheduled for 11:30 a.m.

On Wednesday night, Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) said he and Trump have come to an "agreement in principle" on a plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare.

“The president and I came to an agreement in principle,” Meadows said during an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity, adding that he was still ironing out a few final details with the White House.

These are the first two paragraphs of a March 24, 2015 article in The Huffington Post.  Both of these links were in their article.
WASHINGTON ― The House Freedom Caucus proved Friday that they cannot be run over by Donald Trump.  Once Trump has finished sifting through the wreckage of his presidency, he may come to realize that he has two options left to rebuild it:  Either run through the Freedom Caucus or run around it.

Because, so long as Trump decides he wants to work squarely within a Republican framework, the Freedom Caucus, a bloc of 37 House conservatives who band together on major votes, has the power to stop legislation.  And this week it showed that gumming up the works remains its objective, even with a Republican in the White House.  Each concession Trump made to the recalcitrant caucus brought him no new support but further alienated the moderate Republicans he needs for a majority.
"Each concession Trump made to the recalcitrant caucus brought him no new support but further alienated the moderate Republicans he needs for a majority."

President Obama made concessions to various hard-line Democrat groups and got legislation passed, but he also had 20 unanimous Supreme Court decisions go against him.

Link to a July 6, 2016 article on the website of the Cato Institute.

Link to a July 7, 2016 article on the website of Red State.

In contrast, the economic effects of Republican tax law changes, including the creation of individual retirement accounts that can replace company pensions, approved by President Nixon in 1974, and the 1986 changes in the tax laws, have lasted for a long time because many of those changes have not been reversed.

This is the first paragraph of a July 12, 2017 Reuters story.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The conservative House Freedom Caucus threatened on Wednesday to block a fiscal 2018 budget resolution vital to tax reform, unless Republican leaders release a plan that slashes U.S. corporate taxes and doubles the standard deduction for individuals.

Republicans who have been in Congress for a long time

This group is sometimes called "The Republican Establishment" by younger candidates with less experience, including first-term U.S. Senator Ted Cruz.  They are not a true faction, except by default.

These two videos were added August 2, 2018.

This 20-minute video was uploaded to YouTube by C-Span on July 24, 2015.

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz offers some sharp criticism of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, but he is careful not to violate the Rules of the Senate.
This one-minute video was uploaded to YouTube by C.N.N. on October 11, 2016.

The C.N.N. reporter shows a tweet made by Donald Trump which says "It is so nice that the shackles have been taken off me and I can now fight for America the way that I want to."

Presidential candidate Donald Trump also called the Speaker of the House Paul Ryan "a weak and ineffective leader".


The following articles, arranged in chronological order, oldest first, are about the disagreements between this group of Republicans, sometimes called "the Republican establishment", and people who were candidates for public office, who sometimes campaign against them in order to get votes.

March 2016

These are the first four paragraphs of a March 16, 2016 Politico story.  This story was written four months before the July 2016 Republican Convention.
The Republican establishment is just about out of candidates — and if the delegate math is tough for Donald Trump, it’s far worse for everyone else.

The donors who pumped millions into an anti-Trump campaign are now assessing whether to continue the fight. And while some mainstream Republicans are girding for a likely floor fight at the July convention, others are losing their resolve.

“Only in the minds of the delusional DC establishment is there a brokered convention at this point,” said Tony Fabrizio, a longtime GOP pollster who advised Rand Paul’s campaign. “And if the elites try and steal the nomination from Trump, the riots at the ’68 Democratic Convention will look like a garden party.”

By taking Florida, along with Illinois, North Carolina and the North Marianas Islands (Missouri was still too close to call), Trump racked up more than 200 additional delegates, increasing his lead and further dimming the hopes of those desperate to stop him.
"... and further dimming the hopes of those desperate to stop him.

As defined by the reporter of this story, the Republican establishment is the group called "those desperate to stop" (Donald Trump from winning the nomination and becoming President).  These people are not Democrats or members of any small party unless they make an alliance of some kind with Republican Delegates who have the power to vote on a Republican nomination at the July 2016 Republican Convention.


These are the first paragraphs of a story, published the same day in the Japan Times, was apparently co-written by the Associated Press and Reuters.  It uses the phrases "Republican leaders" and "the political establishment" instead of "the Republican establishment" in the second paragraph.
TAMPA, FLORIDA/WASHINGTON – Donald Trump looked to lock his grip on the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday in high-stakes primary contests that could force two rivals out of the race and give the billionaire developer an insurmountable lead in the all-important delegate count.  Hillary Clinton sought to pad her lead in the Democratic race, but continued to face a tough challenge from Bernie Sanders.

Tuesday’s votes in Ohio, Florida and three other states could be the last, best chance for Republican leaders to stop Trump.  The brash, controversial reality TV star and real estate mogul has upended the political establishment by winning most of the state-by-state competitions for delegates who will choose the Republican nominee.  He has seized on Americans’ anger with Washington politicians,winning over voters with his simply worded promise to make America great again.
This story uses language to make a sharp contrast between one colorful candidate, described as "the brash, controversial reality TV star and real estate mogul" and two generic descriptions for another group of Republicans.  This is a description by default.  The establishment Republicans are not brash, they are not controversial, and they are not known for their ownership of real estate.

October 2016

These are the first four paragraphs of a March 16, 2016 Politico story which included the boldfaced first paragraph and the two tweets.
THE BIG IDEA: Now that it has become crystal clear Donald Trump will not quit — that he has “unshackled” himself and plans to “limp” across the finish line — some Republicans who called on him to drop out over the weekend are reversing themselves.

The senior senator from Nebraska tweeted this on Saturday:
But yesterday during a radio interview, she announced that she will vote for Trump after all. "He decided he would not step aside. I respect his decision," Deb Fischer told the Lincoln radio affiliate KLIN. "I support the Republican ticket, and it's a Trump-Pence ticket.... To me, it’s not a tough choice.”

Darryl Glenn, the Republican nominee against Sen. Michael Bennet in Colorado, said Saturday that Trump must step aside. “America cannot have a man who speaks this way about women be the face of our country to the Free World,” he said in a statement.

But facing backlash from Trump supporters, Glenn — who already has no realistic path to victory — backtracked. He says watching the debate Sunday night changed his mind. “Donald Trump did what he absolutely had to do,” Glenn said on Fox News. “I think he reset this campaign.”
The first paragraph of this story defines the Republican establishment even more specifically as "some Republicans who called on him to drop out over the weekend". The story names two of them, U.S. Senator Deb Fischer of Nebraska and Darryl Glenn, the Republican candidate to replace Democrat U.S. Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado.


August 2018

An Op-Ed, written by Patti Davis, was published in the Washington Post on August 15, 2018. The following sentence, including the link, was added by the Editors.

Patti Davis is the author, most recently, of the novel “The Earth Breaks in Colors” and the daughter of Ronald and Nancy Reagan.

In the first two paragraphs of her Op-Ed, she says that her father wanted privacy when he took a vacation.  Her third paragraph states that for him, his large Texas ranch was a place where he expected some privacy, but it was invaded by photojournalists who used long lenses to watch what he was doing when they stood on a tall hill located outside of the property.  It was so far away, she couldn't see them, but he knew that they were there.

The fourth paragraph of her Op-Ed shows that her father (AKA President Reagan), who was once a Hollywood actor, put on a show on the ranch to teach the press a lesson about privacy while she and her mother watched.
A compromise was reached.  News organizations would be given opportunities to take photos, but long lenses intruding on his and my mother’s personal space were no longer used.  The media may have realized that reaching an agreement was a good idea after my father took matters into his own hands.  He walked outside the small ranch house, swayed as if something was terribly wrong with him, then stumbled forward, clutched his chest and fell to the ground as if he were having a heart attack.  He stayed down for a few seconds, then got to his feet, faced the hillside and waved at the unseen journalists with a big smile on his face.  Obviously, his Secret Service agents had been let in on the prank; otherwise, he would probably have given them heart attacks.

These are the fifth through the eighth paragraphs of the same Op-Ed.
The verbal sparring between my father and Sam Donaldson of ABC, or Helen Thomas of UPI, is well documented.  But there was never vitriol, there was never name-calling, and if anyone had attacked a journalist, my father would have been the first to stand in the way.

I’ve tried to imagine what my father would have done if people attending a political speech of his had turned to the press and raised their middle fingers, hurled obscenities or physically menaced the reporters who were there doing their jobs.  I found it difficult to conjure the image, and then I realized why.  It simply wouldn’t have happened.  The person on the podium, the person everyone has gathered to see, sets the tone.

President Trump has quite successfully set today’s tone. He expertly stirred up the anger that was already simmering in the people who support him, and then he lit a match to it. He gave them an enemy — always a useful tactic. And naming the press as the enemy has precedents: Many tyrants have employed it to their advantage. Trump may not read much, but I’ll bet he knows that.

Those of us who are horrified by the vilification of the news media, those of us who cringe at the sight of angry mobs jeering at the cordoned-off journalists at Trump rallies, far outnumber those who are swept up by this ugly passion. We are still in the majority. But if we are silent, if we don’t speak up, if we don’t raise our voices and say, “This is not America,” it won’t matter that we are in the majority. Silence didn’t create this country; brazen, unwavering commitment did. And one of those commitments was to a free press — one not controlled or hampered by a demagogue who has a good day only when he’s being flattered.

This is the last sentence in the sixth paragraph.

"The person on the podium, the person everyone has gathered to see, sets the tone."

She's referring to the fact that every public speaker, including the United States President, can use whatever oratorical skills he has to influence public policy towards or against an issue of his choosing.

This phenomenon is sometimes called having a bully pulpit.  That phrase refers to the place where Catholic Priests and Protestant Ministers traditionally stand when they give a sermon.

One example of a profound speech was given by President Lincoln during the dedication ceremony for a cemetery.  His words have been carved into the memorial in Washington, D.C. that honors him.

The plaque above is located at the Gettysburg Museum in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

On the right is the New York Times story about the President's speech, given at the cemetery dedication on November 19, 1863.






The Mormon Church

This section was added on August 14, 2018.

These are the first four paragraphs of an August 14, 2018 McClatchy story that was published on the website of the Los Angeles Times.
WASHINGTON In 2016, some of the Republican Party's most reliable voters Mormons rebuked candidate Donald Trump at the ballot box.  Two years later, many are so uneasy with President Trump that they could sit out the midterms, jeopardizing GOP candidates in several races critical to Republican control of Washington.

Indeed, with just 13 weeks before the November congressional elections, Mormon activists and operatives are warning that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints might stay home, denying Republican candidates not just their votes but their typically robust financial and volunteer support.

"Mormons were more of a reliable voting bloc before the Trump era. And now things are more up in the air," said Steven Conger, a Nevada Republican political strategist who is Mormon.  "You see that with both voters and donors."

Mormons are a small but significant portion of the GOP base.  Although less than 2 percent of the U.S. adult population is Mormon, they typically vote overwhelmingly for the GOP.  According to a 2014 Pew Research Center study, 70 percent of Mormons identified as Republicans, more than any other religious group in the country.

Part of their distaste for Donald Trump was caused by his well-publicized comments about 2012 Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney, who is a Mormon.


Business Insider published an article on February 20, 2018, on the day when Donald endorsed Mitt as a candidate for the U.S. Senate. This is the headline of the story.
Trump has endorsed Mitt Romney — the man he once called the 'dumbest and worst candidate in history'


This is the third paragraph of a February 16, 2018 U.S.A. Today story also mentions the complicated relationship between the two men.
“Those who don’t like Trump and expect Romney to be the anti-Trump will be sadly disappointed, and those who are going to want President Trump to annihilate Mitt Romney will also be disappointed," said Boyd Matheson, who was chief of staff to Utah Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and is now an opinion editor at the Deseret News.


These are the first three paragraphs of a June 10, 2018 Associated Press story, whose headline explicitly says that the relationship between these two men is complicated.
PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — On the edge of a mountaintop in Utah, it’s getting complicated for Mitt Romney.

With the sun setting over his shoulder, the former Republican presidential nominee and would-be senator tells his audience, gathered on the patio of a resort, that President Donald Trump will win a second term.  Romney also says that annual $1 trillion deficits under Trump are “highly stimulative.”  And ignoring Trump’s new trade tariffs, Romney says there’s nothing already on the horizon that will push the U.S. into a recession.

Once the face of the “Never Trump” movement, Romney appears to be embracing Trump’s presidency as he re-enters national politics, this time as a 71-year-old candidate for the Senate from Utah.

Mitt Romney isn't a spiritual leader of the Mormon Church, but he is a member in good standing and a recent Presidential candidate, so many members of that church pay attention to the relationship between him and Donald Trump.  This June 13, 2012 B.B.C. story has more information about the early history of Mitt's family.



Civil rights Republicans

 This is the biography of Booker T. Washington, 1856-1915, in the Encyclopedia Britannica and on The Biography Channel.

He fokunded the school that eventually became Tuskegee University.  This is his page on their website.
This video shows the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., appearing in 1965 on the NBC television show "Meet The Press".

He was asked about a march in Montgomery, Alabama, which he led in apparent violation of an injunction issued by a Federal court.

He answer begins at 1 minute, 18 seconds.

This is his biography in the Encyclopedia Britannica.  The History Channel has a separate page for the day that he was born and a separate page for his life and his death.  The Library of Congress also has a page for the day he was born.  This page of the Biography Channel has links to 10 videos about his life, including one about his ministry in a Baptist church and many other articles about his life and death.  This is his Wikipedia page.


This Republican is threatening to leave the party

His name is John Kasich, and he's the Governor of Ohio.

His personal website, sometimes used for campaigning for reelection.

His biography on the Biography Channel and

The National Governor's Association.


Different ideas about poverty in 2015

These are the first two paragraphs of a March 27, 2015 article in The New Republic.  All of these links were in their article.
Ohio’s governor John Kasich certainly won't be president, nor even receive the Republican party’s nomination in 2016.  But if Kasich does throw his hat into the increasingly packed Republican primary ring (as some sources suggest he intends to do), the long-term outcome for American politics could be even better than a hypothetical win.  This is because, unlike his Republican competitors, Kasich takes Christian politics very seriously.

Within the lore of conservative Christian politics, there is a line of questionable thinking regarding state-funded welfare that is far more recent than its proliferators make it seem.  The story goes like this.  While Jesus Christ undoubtedly promoted (if not commanded) charity and generosity toward the less-fortunate, He never said that the state should be the vehicle of these virtues.  Further, the tale continues, because taxes are involuntary and welfare is funded with tax revenue, welfare doesn’t count as morally meaningful charity, which is what Jesus intended to inspire with His preaching on the poor.  Thus, we are led to conclude, support for poor and vulnerable people should be transmitted voluntarily through the community, thanks to the good graces of generous individuals.  Echoes of this reasoning resound in the anti-welfare rhetoric of Republican frontrunners from Rand Paul to Rick Perry.

On March 27, 2015, when the previous article was written, Rand Paul and Rick Perry may have seemed like front-runners, but Donald Trump, billionaire businessman, was the winner of the election that was held a year and a half later.  I say this very reluctantly because I voted twice for Senator Ted Cruz.  This is another link to the essay I wrote in late May 2016 that was published in American Thinker.


Different ideas about presidential politics in 2016

These are the first three paragraphs of a March 21, 2016 New York Times story.  Both of these links were in their article.
Improbable as it seemed just two months ago, the one remaining “establishment” Republican presidential candidate in the race is John Kasich, whose last name many voters still can’t pronounce. (Try remembering it this way: “Kasich” rhymes with “basic.”)  After winning Ohio last Tuesday, Kasich has potentially denied Donald Trump the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the nomination outright.  And he goes into tomorrow’s primaries (in Arizona and Utah) as an antagonist to Ted Cruz, whose quest to close the gap between him and Trump is complicated by Kasich’s continued presence.

But the Ohio governor has amassed only 143 delegates — which means that even if Kasich somehow managed to win every single one of the remaining 1,049 delegates, he would still fall shy of the nomination threshold.  Then again, neither Trump nor Cruz is likely to clear the bar, either.  Should that prove to be the case, then at the G.O.P. convention in Cleveland this July, all delegates will be free to vote for whomever they wish after the first ballot.  And although a convention rule precludes consideration of a candidate who, like Kasich, has failed to win eight states, this provision can possibly be changed.

Why would they do so on behalf of a candidate who has finished well behind his two opponents?  The case goes like this: Unlike Trump and Cruz, Kasich has more temperate stances on immigration and social issues, which are less likely to turn off moderates, independents, minorities and young voters.  National polls currently show him beating Hillary Clinton in November.  He is the governor of a crucial swing state.  And the upbeat, inclusive manner Kasich has exhibited on the campaign trail may be the only balm for a bitterly divided Republican electorate.
This is the last sentence in the third paragraph.

"And the upbeat, inclusive manner Kasich has exhibited on the campaign trail may be the only balm for a bitterly divided Republican electorate."

That "upbeat, inclusive manner" helped a Republican Governor get reelected in a state that has a lot of registered Democrats, but party politics required him to vocalize Republican principles enthusiastically.  One of these Republican principles is a strong national defense, something that few Governors can't do anything about because they don't have daily security updates from the Pentagon.  In addition, they don't need to worry about travelers from other states because the vast majority of them are welcomed as either business travelers or as tourists.


Different ideas about health care in 2017

These are the first two paragraphs of an August 25, 2017 Axios story.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) and Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) — "the Johns," as insiders are calling them — have been making a flurry of joint appearances to talk about state-driven improvements to health care.

But Axios has learned that their duet is part of an alliance that's gaining momentum toward a possible joint independent bid for president in 2020, likely with Kasich at the top of the ticket:
This August 25, 2017 Axios story was linked in this article in The Independent Political Report, dated the same day.

This is the first sentence of the previous story in Axios.

"Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) and Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) ... have been making a flurry of joint appearances to talk about state-driven improvements to health care."
John Kasich, the Governor of Ohio, wrote an Op-Ed on July 18, 2017 in the New York Times titled The Way Forward on Health Care.

That editorial included the photo on the right of the two governors.
The photo had this caption:
Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, right, with Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado during a news conference about the Republican health care legislation last month. Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press


These are the first five paragraphs of an October 1, 2017 CNN story.
Washington (CNN) Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich said on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday that a time could come when he no longer supports the Republican Party.

"If the party can't be fixed, Jake, then I'm not going to be able to support the party. Period.  That's the end of it." Kasich said in an interview with anchor Jake Tapper.

Asked what that meant for his future in the GOP, Kasich said he was committed to the party and intended to win it over from the surging nationalist wing.

"I want this party to be straightened out," Kasich said.

Kasich repeatedly pointed to public dissatisfaction with the Republican and Democratic parties, and referenced the strength of independent political identities. He said both parties needed to grapple with ideological currents pulling them away from the center, adding that he had "no idea what the Democrats are for."

"What I'm trying to do is struggle for the soul of the Republican Party the way that I see it," Kasich said. "And I have a right to define it, but I'm not going to support people who are dividers."
This is the third paragraph.

"Asked what that meant for his future in the GOP, Kasich said he was committed to the party and intended to win it over from the surging nationalist wing."

"... the surging nationalist wing." is a reference to a faction within the Republican Party that deserves criticism, in the opinion of Governor Kasich.


Links to similar articles

October 1, 2017 Dayton Daily News.  Note: John Kasich is the Governor of Ohio, which includes the city of Dayton.

CBS News, October 2, 2017

Ohio is often considered a "swing state", which sometimes votes for a Republican Governor and sometimes for a Democrat Governor, but John is now in his second four-year term as the Governor of this state.  Link to his page on the Biography Channel website.


One well-known Republican did leave the party

These are the first five paragraphs of a June 25, 2016 P.J. Media story.  The link in the paragraph was in their story.
WASHINGTON – Conservative columnist George Will told PJM he has officially left the Republican Party and urged conservatives not to support presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump even if it leads to a Democratic victory in the 2016 presidential election.

Will, who writes for the Washington Post, acknowledged it is a “little too late” for the Republican Party to find a replacement for Trump but had a message for Republican voters.

“Make sure he loses. Grit their teeth for four years and win the White House,” Will said during an interview after his speech at a Federalist Society luncheon.

Will said he changed his voter registration this month from Republican to “unaffiliated” in the state of Maryland.

“This is not my party,” Will said during his speech at the event.

Links to similar stories
the Washington Post, June 25, 2016 Politico, June 25, 2016
the Washington Times, June 25, 2016 CNN, June 26, 2016
George believes that the character of the Republican Party changed since he joined it.  Another way of saying this is that one faction within the party took control from another faction.

Because his recommended action on June 25, 2016 was to encourage other Republicans to "make sure he loses" (a reference to Donald Trump), George must have been saying that the Donald Trump faction is now in control of the party, not just in the lead in the presidential election.


His analysis of the party's leadership is supported by the first three paragraphs of this December 13, 2016 Chicago Tribune story.  The links in the first paragraph were in their story.
President-elect Donald Trump wants Michigan Republican Party Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel to be national party chairwoman, in part as a reward for the party carrying Michigan for the first time in 28 years.

The choice of McDaniel to serve as Republican National Committee chairwoman was confirmed Tuesday night by a person familiar with Trump's decision. The person asked for anonymity because the announcement has not yet been made.

The niece of 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney also earned credit with Trump by faithfully supporting him after he won the party's 2016 nod, despite sharp criticism from her famous uncle.
Ronna McDaniel is now the Chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, and I do not have much confidence that her words and actions will help Republican candidates for election and reelection.  Her close relationship to a man who thinks like a dictator reduces the chances of the victory of those Republican candidates.  Ronna must be more focused on Republican principles than on Trump family principles.  A house divided against itself cannot stand.  This advice is in the Bible, published 2,000 years ago.  This advice was successfully used to elect a presidential candidate named Abraham Lincoln, who used it to reunite a bitterly divided nation even after he died.


A wealthy Republican has also left the party

This section was added September 17, 2018.

These are the first five paragraphs of a September 14, 2018 story in The Hill.
The wealthiest supporter of the GOP in Ohio said Thursday that he is no longer a member of the Republican Party.

“I just decided I’m no longer a Republican,” L Brands CEO Leslie Wexner said during a panel discussion at a leadership summit, according to The Columbus Dispatch.

Wexner, who said he’s been a Republican since college, added that he is now an independent, before saying that he “won’t support this nonsense in the Republican Party” anymore.

“I haven’t run an ad in the newspaper that said, ‘I quit,’ ” he said.

The Columbus Dispatch noted that Wexner said he’s instead been writing notes to friends who are lawmakers and telling them that he’s no longer a member of the GOP.
This story in The Hill was reported by the Columbus Dispatch on September 15, 2018.  Most of the readers of this newspaper live in Columbus, Ohio.

Note that the September 14th Hill story links to the Columbus Dispatch story that was published the next day.


Corruption within the Republican Party

Reince Priebus, the previous Chairman of the Republican Party had already become an official member of Donald Trump's Transition Team, which means that he ignored the death threats that Donald's supporters made to uncommitted RNC Delegates, as shown by the April 22, 2016 Politico story that I quoted and linked at the beginning of the section titled, "The Donald Trump Faction".

As the Chairman of the Republican Party during the 2016 Presidential campaign, he had a duty to ensure the safety of all of the delegates that came to the convention and the cleanliness of the process for choosing a nomineé.  His failure to fulfill either of these important tasks meant that he was corrupted by the potential political power of candidate Donald Trump.

Fortunately, Reince has now left his employment in the White House. These are the first two paragraphs of a July 28, 2017 New York Times story.
WASHINGTON — Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff who failed to impose order on a chaos-racked West Wing, was pushed out on Friday after a stormy six-month tenure, and President Trump replaced him with John F. Kelly, the secretary of homeland security and retired four-star Marine general.

Mr. Trump announced the change via Twitter while sitting aboard Air Force One on a tarmac outside Washington minutes after returning from Long Island. Mr. Priebus, who had joined the president on the trip and never let on to other passengers what was about to occur, stepped off the plane into a drenching rain, ducked into a car and was driven away without comment.
"Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff who failed to impose order on a chaos-racked West Wing, was pushed out on Friday after a stormy six-month tenure ...."
  1. Reince should never have any part in the leadership of the Republican Party ever again.  He has been permanently corrupted.

  2. Donald Trump is not easy to get along with.  As I recently told a friend on Twitter, there are more than a dozen Republican presidential candidates who can and will testify to that fact in any courtroom.  Reince Priebus will also be there to testify.

Unfortunately, Reince is now tainted and corrupted.  These are the first three paragraphs of a November 10, 2016 Politico story.  The link in the third paragraph and this photograph were both in their story.

The cast of characters behind Donald Trump changed repeatedly during the course of his improbable presidential campaign as the rookie candidate struggled to strike the balance between Republican politician and anti-establishment crusader, but one person remained constant: Reince Priebus.

And now, the Republican National Committee chairman, whose efforts to rein in Trump at times made him the butt of jokes, is getting a lot of the credit for helping the president-elect pull off the most shocking upset in modern political history.

On Wednesday, Priebus was being widely discussed by Trump insiders as a likely candidate for White House chief of staff, though RNC insiders said he would be a shoo-in for an unprecedented fourth consecutive two-year term at the party’s helm, if he wanted it.  One cracked that Trump might reward Priebus by nominating him to be ambassador to Greece.

My personal view of my party

Reince Priebus has been permanently corrupted.  If he has any leadership role in the future, he will hurt the party, not help it.

My personal preference is for Senator Ted Cruz of Texas to challenge Donald Trump for the 2020 Republican nomination after he is reelected in 2018.  I stated in this May 2016 essay I wrote in American Thinker that I voted for him in my state primary election in March 2016 and that I intended to write his name onto my November ballot if he was not chosen as the party's nomineé.

He was not chosen as the nomineé, so I wrote his name onto my ballot.

Like George Will, I believe that this is not my party any more.

Unlike George Will, however, I am still a registered Republican with hope for my party, so I have written nine pages of endorsements of the 2018 reelection of U.S. Senator Ted Cruz.

Link to the first page, which includes links to the other eight pages.  I also wrote two pages that show how he used his Twitter account to prepare the people of his state for Hurricane Harvey in the fall of 2017.

The first page mentions his law school career and the respect for his studies that were given by Professor Alan Dershowitz, a lifelong Democrat.  The page also mentions his early career clerking for a Supreme Court justice, the excellence he showed in an early job in a U.S. Government agency, and his personal religious faith, which guided him to protect the religious liberty of every American while he has represented them.as a Senator.

This is a summary of the other eight pages in the "Reelect Ted Cruz" series.  I provided a link to every page.
  1. his service to the State of Texas as it's Solicitor General. This page also mentions his New York Times bestseller "A Time for Truth" and other written works that he wrote or co-wrote in journals like National Review, Politico, U.S.A. Today, The Washington Post, and the New York Times.
  2. While other Republican presidential candidates were attending fundraisers, he was working in the U.S. Senate to have Purple Hearts awarded to a group of soldiers at Fort Hood who were shot by a Muslim who worked there as a psychiatrist.  This page also shows some of his visits to military bases in Texas and to U.S. Navy ships.
  3. his principles, including the Rule of Law, Due Process, respect for the Constitution as the ultimate U.S. Law, and respect for traditional marriage
  4. a comparison between the disaster relief package for Superstorm Sandy in 2012 with his request for disaster relief after flooding in Texas in 2015.  The 2012 legislation had a lot of unrelated financial benefits, sometimes called "pork".
  5. I pasted many of the tweets that he posted in 2017 on a wide variety of subjects, including
  6. This page has "thank you, Ted" tweets from a wide variety of people, including
    • the Governor of Texas,
    • Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush,
    • the Missouri Republican Party (he campaigned for some Republican candidates there) on November 2, 2016),
    • Jenny Beth Martin (the Co-Founder of the Tea Party Patriots),
    • Speaker of the House Paul Ryan,
    • the National Border Patrol Council,
    • Vice-President Mike Pence,
    • the Chairman of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee,
    • Nationally-syndicated radio host Joe "Page" Paglirulo,
    • a member of the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce,
    • the House Freedom Caucus,
    • a coalition of three major airlines and seven airline-related unions,
    • the Farm Credit Bank in Texas, and
    • the Vice-Chair of the Texas State Senate.
  7. This page is about an amendment that the Senator offered to the legislation that would have reformed Obamacare early in 2017.
  8. This page has the Senator's strong stand for the religious liberty of every American.  His views on three issues are examined.
    • The Hobby Lobby legal case, decided in 2015 by the U.S. Supreme Court
    • An anti-religious-freedom action that was taken by the City Council for the District of Columbia
    • The Senator spoke about religious liberty during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Link to the first page in my two-page set of essays about the tweets that Senator Cruz posted in August 2017 in order to prepare the people of his state for Hurricane Harvey.

Link to the second page in the set.

The graphic on the right, dated August 24, 2017, shows the rainfall that was expected by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, a U.S. Government agency that is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce.   The blue and white N.O.A.A. logo is visible in the lower right-hand corner of the graphic.


Ted Cruz should be reelected to the Senate in 2018, and if he chooses to begin a campaign for the White House in 2020, I will support him.

In 2020, Senator Cruz will be 49 with the peak of his career in front of him.  In contrast, Donald Trump will be 74 in 2020, with the peak of his career and his health many years behind him.  He may even have visible signs of old age, possibly including signs of Alzheimer's Disease.  I will be watching for them.

A different faction will then be in control, and because they have a different character than the Donald Trump faction, with the valuable qualities of respect for the Rule of Law, respect for the Constitution, including religious freedom for all, respect for our military, due process, and basic sportsmanship  this new faction will improve the party even more than the overdue exit of Barak Obama.

Link to Part 2a, about patriotic Democrats.

Link to Part 2b, about the rivalry between the Clintons and the Obamas, dclassic liberals, and a law, signed by Obama, which some Democrats in Congress are trying to modify or repeal.

Link to Part 2c, about a group of 'Democrats who are moderates on economic issues.  This group is sometimes called Blue Dog Democrats.  This page also
mentions three specific Democrats who had public disagreements with the rest of the party.
  1. Zell Miller, former Governor and Senator
  2. Roseanne Barr
  3. Bill Clinton, who as President, signed some welfare reform legislation
Link to Part 2d, about Democrats who don't like Capitalism.  They prefer Socialism.

Link to Part 2e, about Democrats who don't like democracy.  They prefer street demonstrations that are led by people who aren't elected.  This is a contradiction of the meaning of the word "democracy", which is defined on the page.

Link to Part 2f, about organizations that don't like democracy.  These include the city council in a city in California,a college in Vermont,the organization whose logo is on the left,Antifa, and others.  The page also mentions the group of activist teens who survived the murders at their high school in Florida in February 2018.

Part 2g says that the popularity of moderate Democrats is increasing, due to some mistaken endorsements made by radicals like Bernie Sanders.  Alexandria Orcasio-Cortez, a Socialist who won a primary race for the House of Representatives, has made her own mistakes, some of which are also mentioned on the page.  Jonathan van Ness, a Democrat who made an appeal for party unity, is also mentioned on the page, along with Rodney King, who made an appeal for racial unity shortly before he died in a swimming pool.  Jonathan is also one of the stars of the television show "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy".

Future link to Part 3, about factions within the Socialist Party, the Green Party, and the American Communist Party.
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