FROLITICKS

Satirical commentary on Canadian and American current political issues

Mar 31

Trump’s Appeal to American Christians is Hypocritical to Say the Least

by bcurry

Issues over the separation of state and church have never been so evident as today if one is to follow Donald Trump’s most recent campaign scheme.  It is blatantly obvious that Trump is attempting to win the support of American’s estimated 90 million evangelists.  In Christianity, evangelism or witnessing is the act of preaching the gospel with the intention of sharing the message and teachings of Jesus Christ.  Now one has Trump selling “God Bless America Bibles” for $59.99 as he himself faces mounting legal bills.   But what of the other millions of Americans who worship according to the teachings of the Koran or Torah?

Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) reportedly said former President Trump selling the branded Bibles is “risky business” given the sins of his life, adding to criticism against the former president over the deal.  Warnock, a reverend who on Sunday gave an Easter sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Martin Luther King Jr.’s church in Atlanta, said selling the Bibles goes against the tenets of the religion.  He also noted that the Bible sales were ironic given Trump’s history of lying.  Moreover, the sale of the Bibles has been widely criticized on line and mocked since their announcement, including by numerous well known Christian leaders. 

What is of greater concern is the fact that this campaign strategy is increasingly blurring the separation of church and state, a major premise in the governance in most modern democracies.  Unfortunately, there are a number of Christian-based writers who are attacking what they refer to as the impact of so-called “secularization” and “paganization” on American society, especially on family values.  They point to the resulting demise of the traditional family whereby an estimated one-fifth of American households now conform to the “nuclear family” model of mother, father and children.  In 1960, that number was reported as 45 percent, and some 40 percent of all children lack a biological father in the home.  They perceive this as a result of the decline in the number of Christian homes, and in turn Christian-based values.  However, based on recent social science studies, researchers today would definitely argue that this assertion represents an over simplification and generalization.

What is most interesting is that even among the various different Christian churches, there are numerous disparities over how they deal with today’s societal changes.  The more conservative churches have been leading the charge against issues surrounding abortion, same-sex marriage, homosexuality and transgender identity.  However, other churches have been taking a more moderate view of how to approach such issues, given that the majority of their followers accept greater tolerance and understanding in terms of such issues.  As a result, similar to what we see in American political circles, there is just as much division among American clerics.  This phenomenon has also affected rulings within the judicial system, which should fundamentally to be impartial and secular in its deliberations.

One has to question the belief that adherence to any one particular religion would help to resolve the challenges facing today’s issues in modern Western society.  For example, the battle between science and religion is on-going, as evidenced during the pandemic.  In addition, one has to conclude that right-wing organizers will unfortunately continue to incorporate Christian arguments and positions whenever they appear to benefit their causes. 

For the most part, people, including agnostics, are tolerant of religious beliefs, as long as they are not forced upon them.  America is a society that has always promoted and attempted to protect the rights of individuals, including freedom of religion and expression.  What Donald Trump is doing is an affront to those very rights in his hypocritical move to obtain the political support of a fraction of American society.  He is the last person that I would imagine trying to purvey Christian values!

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Mar 25

Electorate in Both U.S. and Canada Appears to be Very Disgruntled. I Wonder Why?

by bcurry

George H. W. Bush Senior, going into his bid for a second term, was frequently told that it’s all about the economy stupid!  The U.S. economy went into a recession in 1990; the unemployment rate rose from 5.9% in 1989 to a high of 7.8% in mid-1991; and the debt percentage of total gross domestic product (GDP) rose from 39.4% in 1989 to almost 46.8% in 1992.  By the presidential election in1992, many conservative Republicans’ support of Bush had waned for a variety of reasons, including raising taxes and cutting defense spending.  Americans were less concerned with his foreign policy successes (e.g. Persian Gulf War victory over Iraq) than with the nation’s deteriorating economic situation.  Thus, despite having once been a relatively popular president, he lost to Bill Clinton.

Today, the primary issue among voters continues to be the economy, and especially the high rate of inflation and high interest rates affecting people’s mortgages and the cost of loans in general.  Yes, there is low unemployment and more people are employed today than anytime since the pandemic.  However, unfortunately for Joe Biden, the average American is struggling on a daily basis to make ends meet, especially since average wages have not kept up with increasing inflation over the last few years.  Many people and businesses are still recovering from the pandemic, which has created a real sense of insecurity and a general malaise within the population.

Taking all of this into account, and that people are not happen with another Trump vs. Biden election, there is a general mistrust with governance.  The same can be said for in Canada where you have a Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, and a party that has been in power for over nine years.  The opposition is continuously harpooning about the high cost of inflation and high interest rates that average Canadians are facing.  There is also a good amount of discord over the government’s intention to raise the national carbon tax this coming April, despite it being only one element of several policies aimed at tackling climate change.  However, right now, climate change has taken a back seat to the economy.  A federal election will very likely be called next year in Canada, and all the government can hope for is that the economy will improve and inflation will come down.

Overall, these are tough times for governing parties.  There appear to be no win-win situations.  Government deficits have been climbing steadily, partly in earlier response to the pandemic, with no end in sight.  Wars overseas in the Ukraine and Middle East are not helping.  Funds are being allocated to support the Ukraine against Russia, Israel’s military and the plight of Palestinian refugees in Gaza.  The situation has placed both the U.S. and Canada in a difficult situation given the evolving humanitarian crisis in both conflicts.  In terms of foreign policy, domestically it is a no-win and highly emotive situation for both governments in terms of supporting one side or the other particularly in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In addition, stability in the energy markets is constantly under threat as a result of the sanctions against Russian oil and natural gas exports and the general unstable situation in the Middle East.  As a result, there has been a measurable direct or indirect impact in the form of rising costs for gas and heating fuel in North America.

There is little doubt that we live uncertain times.  There is also little doubt that voters are concerned with the cost of living and continuing hard economic times.  This bleak outlook does not bode well for President Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau.  The question then becomes whether their political opponents can take advantage of the situation?  I guess time will tell.

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Mar 6

The Kingmakers: How Corporate Elites Work to Re-elect President Trump

by bcurry

Now that Donald Trump has garnered the Republican candidacy for the Presidential election next November, you can be sure that a number of the corporate elite will be lining up to support him and help fund his campaign.  After all, Trump believes that he is one of them.  Remember, that both Hitler and Mussolini garnered the support of the corporate elite respectively in Germany and Italy to help overthrow their existing democratic regimes in order to push forward their agenda and solidify their places among the wealthiest in each nation.  Both average Germans and Italians, like many Americans today, were upset with the current economic state.   Once in charge, those same elites worked with each dictator to build up the military-industrial complexes, much like what Putin has been doing and continues to do in Russia today.

Trump’s efforts to garner corporate support is already underway as witnessed by the recent reported meetings whereby he is urgently seeking a cash infusion to aid his presidential campaign.  These took place with the likes of Elon Musk, one of the world’s richest men, and a number of wealthy Republican donors.  Furthermore, now that Nikki Haley has withdrawn from the presidential campaign, it will be interesting to see whether the conservative billionaire Koch brothers will back Trump during his campaign.  The Koch brothers founded and fund the Americans for Prosperity Action (AFP), a libertarian conservative political policy body.  Initially, the AFP, which fuels the most powerful donor network in conservative politics, had declared itself as part of the NeverTrump effort for 2024, aiming to deny former President Donald Trump a third nomination for the White House.  Therefore, it will be interesting to see whether the Koch brothers will continue to take this position.

In addition, Nikki Haley was probably not the corporate elites’ most preferable candidate. Instead, like Musk, they would have preferred Florida Governor Ron Desantis as their candidate given his similar extreme right-wing political positions to those of Trump.  However, Desantis had a weak campaign and did not live up to the expectations of many of the corporate elite and those in the Republican Party.  The tide swung quickly in favour of Nikki Haley as a possible alternative to Trump, although unfortunately somewhat weak at the outset.

The corporate elite know that despite all the current indictments against Trump and his continuing denial of the results of the last presidential election, his hard-core MAGA base will continue to support him regardless.  Noteworthy, “The Daily Show” correspondent Jordan Klepper couldn’t recently hide his frustration with Nikki Haley supporters who fiercely condemned Trump but then, in the same interview, admitted they’ll still probably vote for the former president when he takes on President Joe Biden in November.

There appears to be too much at stake for corporate America not to support Trump.  After all he supports the fossil fuels sector, denying the impact of climate change; he believes in an “American First” policy at the expense of international trade agreements; he wants to build up America’s nuclear arsenal and speed up the military-based space race; he would never introduce new tax measures aimed at high-income earners or any new capital gains taxation; once again reduce the abilities of federal regulatory agencies such as the EPA and IRA; and he would increase further access to federal lands and waters for mineral exploration.

It was just a matter of time before we witnessed the “kingmakers” coming out of the woods, SuperPacs and all.  While a few corporate elites may support Biden, the majority like Elon Musk will most likely support and fund Trump.  It’s quite simple, the so-called “haves” want to keep what they have without paying their fair share.  After all, they are the kingmakers, and neither you nor anyone else can change that.  Just ask the German and Italian descendents of earlier insidious times!

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Jan 4

Strange Situation In Republican Primaries For Their Presidential Nominee

by bcurry

As a Canadian political observer, there is little doubt that the current situation south of the border involving the Republican Party (GOP) and their selection of a presidential candidate to run in the election later this year is all very strange.  You have former President Donald Trump who is currently under indictment in four different civil and criminal cases.  Despite this, the majority of GOP supporters continue to back Trump, with the polls showing that he is still leading the other GOP candidates by a substantial margin.  Trump’s primaries’ platform to date has reflected his desire for “personal retribution” against those who opposed him following his failure to get re-elected in 2020, and to implement an “autocratic” regime.

In addition, one of the indictments pertains to the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by a violent mob and Trump’s alleged role in the conspiracy to keep himself in power by overturning the election results.  Recently, both Maine and Colorado had decisions to throw Trump off the ballot over 14th Amendment’s ban on “insurrectionists”.  Given this unprecedented situation, Trump is expected to appeal and both cases are likely to end up at the U.S. Supreme Court.  On top of which, Trump’s main GOP primary rivals, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, have declined to attack Trump with regards to any of the indictments for fear of upsetting Trump’s GOP base and thereby loosing their potential support.

Given his apparent continuing political support among the MAGA Republicans, Trump has declined to even participate in the recent candidate debates, something unheard of in Canadian politics.  When leadership conventions are held in Canada, current party leaders or aspiring party members to lead the party are required to present their platforms in front of party members as part of the voting at the party convention.  As well, open candidate debates are held prior to the leadership convention.  In the case of Trump, the other candidates are at a disadvantage since they cannot debate him in an open forum, subsequently being left to mainly attack each other in his absence.  Trump, on the other hand, has simply continued to carry out his usual style of campaigning in public and through media coverage, openly attacking his GOP rivals in his traditional style of vicious name calling and spiteful insinuations about their character.

What is even crazier, a new poll recently taken by the Washington Post with the University of Maryland indicated that MAGA has not only stuck with Trump on the questions of January 6th, but a few who even believed that he might have done something wrong at the time have now come back to his side.  Still, they apparently aren’t many.  However, Republicans loved Trump then and they appear to continue to love him now.  Nevertheless, there is little doubt that should Trump be convicted of a criminal indictment, the majority of American voters nationally, especially independents, would choose President Biden over Trump in the next presidential election.  On the other hand, polls indicate that Republicans don’t seem to care.  They’re even starting to warm to the idea of Trump serving from a jail cell, which legal experts believe is constitutionally possible.  This result would really be bewildering to say the least!

For this reason, NBC News reported in December 2023 that Trump’s campaign believes the January 6th trial was specifically timed to take him off the campaign trail at a crucial stage. They further believe that they can outsmart the prosecutors by wrapping up the primaries early.  At this time, much is up in the air when it comes to trial dates surrounding the indictments.  Observers also correctly believe that Trump doesn’t want the particular January 6th trial to happen anytime soon.  It’s pretty much self-evident that he really doesn’t want to be convicted, despite his lawyers’ assurances about an appeal.  Obviously, they further believe that should he win the election, Trump would simply pardon himself and be done with it.

Anyone, including myself, watching this “circus” from afar is left scratching their heads.  Democracy had taken a serious beating in light of Donald Trump’s ridiculous accusations that the 2020 presidential election was stolen by Joe Biden.  His continuing attacks on the judicial and democratic processes in public forum, culminating in the terrible attack on the Capitol, have resulted in major blows to the state of American democracy.  His disposition for autocratic leanings is of great concern to other democracies, including that in Canada.  In the coming months, Canadians need to more closely watch the strange situation flowing from the GOP primaries.  One way or another, the results will affect us all!

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Sep 7

What’s Going On With All These Pollsters?

by bcurry

Pick up any newspaper today or read news articles online, and you can’t avoid seeing the most recent polls concerning the U.S. presidential primaries or the standings of federal political parties and their leaders in Canada.  The most interesting polls of course have to do with the potential impact of the recent indictments against former President Donald Trump.

However, support for Trump, may obscure a still varied Republican electorate. To better understand the party today, one pollster split Republican and Republican-leaning voters into groups, based on the results of its Times/Siena poll. The groups were defined by how Republican-leaning voters felt on the issues — not how they felt about Mr. Trump.  The results depict a Republican coalition that consists of different six groups.  Their support for Trump varies accordingly.

According to a poll commissioned by POLITICO Magazine and conducted by Ipsos in June, roughly half of the country believes that Trump committed the crimes alleged against him.  What should happen to Trump if he gets convicted?  The poll’s results show that forty-three percent said he should go to prison, but most were willing to spare him jail time.  Nearly a quarter of respondents said that Trump should incur no punishment at all (22 percent), while 18 percent said he should receive probation and another 17 percent said he should face only a financial penalty.  Interestingly, roughly one-third of respondents said that they are not particularly familiar with the allegations in the indictment cases.

Nationally, recent polls indicate that support for President Biden and Trump is about evenly split.  However, analysts note that should Trump win the Republican primaries, he would most likely loose to Biden. This despite voter concerns over Biden’s age and his low approval ratings.

In Canada, the political drama is far less evident than in the U.S.  Recent polls show that the current leader of the federal Conservative Party, Pierre Poilievre, has pulled ahead of Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau.  Moreover, an Ipsos poll in December 2022 indicated that nearly half of Canadians want there to be a federal election in 2023, although the official deadline for the next federal election is 2025.  In addition, the poll indicated that, after over eight years in office, a slim majority of those polled are hoping one politician won’t be running in the next election: Prime Minister Trudeau.  Fifty-four percent of those polled said Trudeau should step down as the leader of the Liberal Party in 2023, although just 27 percent said they actually believe he’ll do so.  The Prime Minister’s approval rating has been coming down when compared to Poilievre’s.  However, with an election still potentially two years away, anything can happen as indicated by recent polls, and much will depend on the regional distribution of votes.

Polls are powerful – they can influence emotions and shape political fortunes. They can be used to drum up support for campaigns and reveal how closely aligned (or far apart) the general public is on consequential presidential or prime ministerial policies.  Recent national elections have reminded us how problematic it is when we think of polls as forecasts of the future rather than a glimpse at where people stand at a given moment in time.  Also, not all polls include a margin of error, including non-probability polls such as those you can opt into online.  According to Pew Research Center, participants for these polls self-select, or opt in, and there is a risk that “these samples will not resemble the larger population”.

Polling is a huge industry.  All political parties and many third-parties, including media sources, use polls to get an idea where the voters stand on certain issues and how much support is out there for parties’ platforms.  Past history has shown that the closer one gets to an election date, the more accurate certain polling can begun.  Unfortunately, polls released just prior to that date can potentially influence the way in which certain voters, especially the undecideds, may consider voting.  After all, everyone prefers to support a potential winner, notably if they are voting as independents.  Prior to the next American and Canadian elections, I’d be closely watching the potential impact of polling and whether the results reflect the final outcome of the election.

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