Politics in the United States- the Low that Keeps Getting Lower
Going low is nothing new to politics in the United States. Ever since I can remember- and that goes back to the early 1960’s- there is something about presidential elections that brings out the worst from politicians and political operatives, who might otherwise seem to be decent people, even if their ideas often belong to the denizens of the insane.
When I was a six-year old, I remember well Lyndon Johnson’s television ad depicting a young girl, plucking the petals of a daisy, saying “He loves me, he loves me not…” and then looking up, with the camera micro-focusing on the pupil of her eye, shows the detonation of an atomic bomb. The message was quite clear: vote for Goldwater and this is what will result- pretty low, even by LBJ’s standards.
Then, when I was thirteen, I remember Edmund Muskie (D-ME) crying on national television after the Manchester Union-Leader posted a forged letter from the Senator, referring to Canadians as “canucks,” (as it turned out, the letter was created by Nixon operatives Donald Segretti and Ken Clawson). Then, the next day, that same paper contained accusatory references to Muskie’s wife, Jane, as a drunkard who was also racially intolerant. That was too much for the long-time Senator, destined to become President Carter’s second Secretary of State. When he broke down in front of the TV cameras, his presidential campaign sank, which then led to George McGovern’s (D-SD) nomination. Sure enough, McGovern’s pick for Vice-President, Tom Eagleton (D-MO) was then effectively gas-lighted, when he was forced to admit that he was under psychiatric care for depression in the early 1960s, and had received electro-shock therapy on two occasions.
The nastiness continued well into the next decades, with Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) actually colluding with operatives in the Soviet Union, to thwart Ronald Reagan’s re-election campaign in 1984, with promises to the Soviets he would seek the presidency in 1988, and thereby be more accommodating to the troubled USSR, in the mode of Jimmy Carter. After all, that was no surprise, when the truth came out, as the younger Kennedy brother’s corruption wasn’t limited to Chappaquiddick and the cover-up of Mary Jo Kopechne’s murder.
Then, during George Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign, CBS News long-time commentator Dan Rather ran a bogus story on 60 Minutes, supposedly documenting Vietnam-era deferments that George W. Bush supposedly received, and having had his service record scrubbed while serving in the Texas Air National Guard. It turns out that Rather, and his 60 Minutes producer Mary Mapes, knew before the broadcast that the documents they cited were bogus, but what are bogus documents when the real target was Bush’s re-election?
Such an inventory of dastardly deeds could go on and on, but taken together, along with all of the nastiness, slander and libel, done during the entire history of all this country’s presidential elections- all of it pales in comparison to the 2016 presidential election.
First, there was a baked-in guarantee that Hillary Clinton would receive the Democrat Party’s nomination, thanks to the enormous number of super-delegates, pledged to vote for her, well before the nominating contests began. Yet, that was not enough for Clinton. Then-DNC Chairman Donna Brazile provided her with advanced questioning, prior to her debates with socialist Bernie Sanders, so she was able to come into those debates having been prepared with her answers in advance.
Yet, compared to what President Barack Obama and his administration did to Donald Trump’s campaign, such Democrat designs were only starting. Once Clinton secured her nomination, and once she was effectively cleared from further investigation and indictment by FBI Director James Comey, Democrat dirty-dealing took on an entirely new low- illegal wiretapping, warrants for spying on Trump and his operatives being obtained from the FISA courts (all based on fraudulent documents), and planting “moles” within Trump’s administration, tasked with sabotaging his presidency.
A bogus, three-year investigation, under titular leader Robert Mueller and costing over $40 million, into fabricated charges that Trump had colluded with the Russians to deny Hillary Clinton the presidency, proved to be the concocted fantasies of Clinton and Obama operatives across a myriad of DC departments and their allies across the media. Federal charges may still be in the offing against several perpetrators serving under Obama, with the Durham investigations reportedly being wrapped up as this is written. We’ll see.
After all of that, one is tempted to ask, “How much lower can it get?”
Well, just take a look around:
- A global pandemic was sent here from communist China, which resulted in an entire shutdown of the strongest economy in American history- built and credited to President Donald Trump’s tax and regulatory reforms. The resulting, albeit necessary recommendations of his task force unwittingly provided the means for Democrat governors to deny constitutional guarantees of worship, of expression, of assembly and other draconian measures which continue to keep schools closed and mandate the wearing of masks;
- Then, on the excuse provided by George Floyd’s death at the hands of the Minneapolis police, anarchists and revolutionary socialists, along with garden-variety felons, quickly turned demonstrations into looting, wanton destruction of private property and public monuments, rape and other assaults, along with murder. Happening across the country, all with the aiding and abetting by Democrat governors and mayors who refuse to put an end to the mayhem, this goes hand-in-hand with creating an America where citizens can no longer assume that police and other first responders will be there to protect them from danger.
Add it all up and we see a coordinated effort to deny Trump a second term, by making this country so miserable and so volatile, that even a total dunce like Joe Biden (D-DE) now has a slight chance of defeating Trump… and just to make sure, several Democrat-run states are allowing mail-in ballots, with deadlines as long as three weeks (California) following the November 3rd election, with no verification of citizenship or ballot validity, whatsoever. Then, there are polls indicating that the former Vice-President and longtime Delaware Senator is ahead of Trump (in some cases by double-digits) on all of the meaningful issues, and across all of the several states. Such polls are about as reliable as one-gallon azaleas- bought on clearance.
The treachery doesn’t end with Democrats- no, not by any means.
Several Republicans- some covertly and some overtly- are going out of their way to make sure that former Vice-President Biden, a long-time DC insider with whom they can work to fatten their cash-rich coffers (and who has no intention of draining the fetid swamp than is our nation’s capital), replaces the one man who they cannot control… their fellow Republican and incumbent President Donald Trump. While the President enjoys a record level of Republican voter support, that alone won’t keep Republican politicians of undermining the leader of their party.
After all, how else are such Republican legislators going to ever again, gain the love of their Democrat counterparts and the mainstream media, unless they work to deny Trump a second term? Well, the truth is they won’t ever gain such love, no matter how desperately hard they try, but then again, they will never learn, will they?
Meanwhile, the country and its very future hangs in the balance. While in the national nightmare in which it finds itself, the United States continues to founder on the rocks of those who seek its destruction, and only one man can save this country… a president who wants to make our country strong and prosperous… but will they let him?
Hence, that is the issue of the 2020 Presidential Election Campaign.
-Drew Nickell, 20 July 2020
© 2020 by Drew Nickell, all rights reserved.
author of “Bending Your Ear- a Collection of Essays on the Issues of Our Times”
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