There's a general wackiness in the air that is a bit disconcerting. While the off-year elections in the United States were quite promising with Democrats winning in Virginia and Kentucky and thereby turning back anti-abortion efforts in these two states, Argentina fell for "El Loco" and Geert Wilders is once again in the news as his "Party of Freedom" took the most seats in the Dutch parliamentary elections.
El Loco is a bit of an enigma as he seems to have sided himself with the Western world by promising to pull Argentina out of BRICS so as not to deal with "communist countries" like China and Brazil. He has also vowed to privatize everything with the zeal of an Ayn Rand Libertarian, and peg the Argentine peso to the US dollar. I imagine Putin and Xi are not happy with this turn of events. For a social welfare state like Argentina it is interesting to see how people are going to react when the cost of their their basic services soar through the roof, assuming he is able to pull this coup off.
In the Netherlands it is the same old story. Geert Wilders pops his head up like a groundhog from time to time to gauge the mood of the country and see if it is ready for his brand of hard-right politics. His party managed to win 37 seats, which surprised everyone, but he is still well short of a majority so it remains to be seen if he can gain control of the parliament. He will be given the chance first to form a coalition but most likely he will not have the numbers to rule the country and the center left and liberal parties will regain control of the country.
Still, conservatives in America are heralding these pyrrhic victories as a bellwether for the 2024 elections much like they did Brexit in 2016. They think the whole world is turning in their favor despite the drubbing Republicans took at the polls earlier this month. It was a total debacle. Not only did they lose the entire legislature in Virginia but failed to unseat Democratic Gov. Beshear in ruby red Kentucky. Adding salt to the wound, Ohio residents voted to make freedom of choice in regard to abortion a state constitutional amendment. These were all states the Republicans thought they had in the bag heading into 2024. Making matters worse, the so-called Moms for Liberty failed miserably in school board elections nationwide. Conservative pundits had been bemoaning these losses but took great solace in this totally unrelated election in Argentina with Trump personally congratulating El Loco with a special video. I'm not sure if the video was AI generated or if Trump has a new orange crop.
Not surprisingly, the media runs with these stories as it better suits the narrative they are trying to create for 2024. It doesn't matter that Democrats are winning elections right and left across the country. The media wants us to think Americans are tired of the status quo and are ready to give Republicans another chance. Granted the Senate races have 8 of 10 "Senate seats most likely to flip" favoring Republicans but the House is very much up for grabs with the woeful mismanagement we have seen from Republicans the past year. However, as long as Republicans keep running on their tough abortion stance and radical attempts to restructure school curricula, they are setting themselves up for another massive rout. Americans want choice not the parochial views that Republicans are pitching nationwide.
Of course, His Orangeness is telling Republicans that they are pitching abortion all wrong, saying it comes down to the "right number of weeks." Republicans thought they had found the magic number at 15 but Virginians said no. A fetus is not even viable as a premature birth until 20 weeks, and then only in the most extreme cases. Doctors typically don't want to deliver a premature baby until 25 weeks. Yet, none of this seems to enter into conservative math, which now regards a "fetal heartbeat" at 7 weeks as the earliest form of viability.
People are actually sick of hearing about abortion. It is all Republicans talk about these days, offering all kinds of looney takes like Tommy Tuberville's view that women in the military are having abortions after birth. For this reason, he has blocked military promotions until the armed forces make women soldiers subject to state and not federal abortion laws. Not only does TeleTubey not understand what an abortion is, but is seemingly unaware that the military is a federal not state agency. This is what happens when you elect fringe figures to high office.
Meanwhile, you have Democrats doing their best to undermine their own cause by going after Biden on multiple fronts. You even have this idiot trying to mount a challenge to Biden in the primaries after RFK Jr. dropped out. All because he thinks Democrats need a younger voice in the White House. Dean Phillips is a youthful 54.
It doesn't matter that Biden is literally surrounded by younger voices. He is the elder front man for an administration that includes figures like Pete Buttigieg (41), Michael Regan (47), Miguel Cardona (48), Karine Jean-Pierre (49) and Avril Haines (54). It is also one of the most diverse administrations we have ever seen, including the first ever Native-American Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland and transgender Assistant Secretary of Health Rachel Levine. It's time to quit whining about Biden's age and recognize what he has done to make his administration truly reflective of the cultural diversity of this country.
Yet, we see growing discord among the Hispanic community that they aren't properly represented in Biden's administration and so Miami-based Univision decides to pitch Trump. This has led to blowback in the Hispanic community, many of whom found Univision's decision to air Trump and cancel Biden political ads during that hour deeply offensive.
Republicans have long seen Hispanics as an ethnic group they can divide and conquer, largely because of shared religious conservative views. However, the Hispanic community is very diverse and is far better represented in the Democratic Party than in the Republican Party, but have fallen short of being represented on a presidential ticket. Unfortunately, there is only room for two persons on such a ticket and Biden chose to go with Kamala Harris, whom he felt gave him a deeper reach.
But, there seems to be a lot of worry over Kamala, not just among Republicans who deeply fear her being a "heartbeat away from the presidency," but among Democrats who don't feel she is progressive enough. It is true that Kamala is center-left but she has shown her steadfast support of progressive issues and shouldn't be any cause for concern among the Democratic electorate.
Anyway, we are still too far out of the 2024 general election for any of this to mean anything. The only disconcerting part is how easily people fall for charlatans like El Loco and Geert Wilders. Nothing good has come out of electing these autocrats to high office. All Argentina had to do was look at what Brazil suffered through under Bolsonaro. It certainly isn't reflective of American politics, where Democrats have been notching victories throughout the country but for some odd reason Trump still leads Biden in national polls.
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