Celebrating MLK Day the Right Way

 Celebrating MLK Day the Right Way

The View from the Middle

 

I rarely agree with anyone on everything, so when a Black Pastor from our sister church in Memphis said he had 14 recommendations for everyone to deliver racial harmony in our country, I was skeptical.  I was certain there would be at least be one or two that I would not agree with.  In this case, however, I couldn’t disagree with any of them.  That’s a double negative which means that I agreed with them all.  

So, on this day to celebrate the good Doctor’s positive impact on our nation, I thought I would share them with all of my readers.  Here is his list of things to do:

 

1.     Love like the Father.  This is a tall order, in fact impossible, but we should always be striving for that agape love.

2.     Live like Jesus.  John14:6 - He is the way and truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through him.

3.     Embrace the long suffering of the Holy Spirit.  It has taken a long time to make the progress we have recognized, and it will take more time to deliver the promise of Dr. King.

4.     Create positive environments. On the airways and the internet we should be the voice of Angles – holy, not of angry.

5.     Listen like Luke.  True listening (from both sides) helps heal.

6.     Never underestimate the spirit of laughter.  Have fun together.  Share life.

7.     Learn from each other.  When you listen and then learn, it shows respect for the other person.

8.     Lead sacrificially as Jesus did.  John 15:13 - “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”

9.     Like me as well as love me.  “Love one another” is a command from God.  Liking someone else is a choice.

10.  Be a warrior with me every day, not just a “feel good ministry” at Thanksgiving or Christmas.

11.  Bring people together to leverage relationships and build bridges to each other.  

12.  Change laws that need to be changed, but obey the laws that are in place.  

13.  Recognize that white people are NOT all of the problem, and white people are NOT all of the solution either.

14.  Leap into action.  Be proactive.  Don’t sit back and wait for opportunities to come to you.

 

God bless you all and may God bless and unite this country.

The State of Our Union

 The State of Our Union

The View from the Middle

 

This Sunday I was blessed to hear a great message created by two local religious leaders that I respect greatly; Jim Hall and Mickey Rapier.  Since Jim delivered the message I asked for his permission to share it with you, my audience, and obviously, he approved.  This captures my feelings, but is expressed so eloquently that it made more sense to forward it on to you rather than trying to rewrite it.  Their and my concern has always been for this country and not for any individual, or party or even an ideology.  Here is their message.

 

On Wednesday, a scene unfolded that I never thought I would see in our nation. Citizens of our country stormed the United States Capitol. Episodes like this, I thought, only happen in books or movies… 

But as I reflect, the last year has been filled with significant, embarrassing, self-inflicted wounds. And they were not visited upon us by one specific political party, social movement, hate-group, or person. The wounds and impending scars are the result of a sin-infested, myopic culture with people determined to have things their own way, regardless of what it may cost others.

As a nation, we find ourselves far, far away from the words of Jesus…“Love one another.” His instruction for us is to love. There are no qualifiers such as, “love…if they agree with you,” or “love, if they look like you.” He even said we are to “love our enemies!”.  With few exceptions, God reserves the notion of hate for Himself alone, knowing that we can’t properly handle such an idea. We are to love one another. It occurs to me that possibly every wound inflicted upon our nation this past year could have been avoided or healed had we embraced love, rather than attempted to manage hate. We have been divided and decimated by our hatred.  I, Jim, would add that we have an enemy that loves the hatred and divisiveness that is running rampant right now in our nation especially on social media.  As Lee (Jim’s fellow pastor) stated earlier this week, this hatred and divisiveness is spiritual warfare.

We are in desperate need of unity and peace, which will only be found in the context of love for one another. We need to pray, both individually and corporately, for our nation. Please don’t get caught up in the negative rhetoric that is dividing us. And I, Jim, would add if you are doing it repent and change your behavior. Maintaining your values and beliefs doesn’t require an equal measure of hate or disgust to what you receive on social media or anywhere else. Rise above the angry noise and hear the voice of God speaking to your soul.

 

Let me pray for us now.

 

Lord, as you know our nation is in a deep spiritual crisis.  First and foremost, I pray for a great spiritual awakening in America that only your Spirit can usher in.  Our hope is not in a politician or a political party but in You and our eyes are on you.  Lord, no one person can repent for a whole nation, but your Old Testament prophets lamented to you about the sins of their people.   In as much as it means anything, I repent and I am grieved by our great cultural sins of materialism and greed, pride and arrogance, a consuming love of ourselves and the passing pleasures of sin, our sexual immorality, our violence and lawlessness, the racism and hatred, the thousands of abortions, drug and alcohol abuse and our promotion of an undisciplined and futile way of life stemming from a rejection of Your value system.  Have mercy, God, and please don’t deprive our leaders of at least some degree of common civility and good sense in the days ahead.  I pray that the people called by Your name would love you with all our hearts, souls and minds and live in the way You modeled for us and help us to, as You said in as much as it is possible, to live at peace with everyone even those who hate us.  Grant us, your people, the capacity to be joyful in hope, patient in affliction and faithful in prayer. No matter what this year brings.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

The Tyranny of the Majority

 The Tyranny of the Majority

The View from the Middle

 

Given the recent election results and the plans being announced by the Democrat majority party, we should all pause and reflect on the very underpinnings of our Republic.  The fundamental principle that our nation was founded on was “Freedom”.  Our Founders wanted the freedom to strive for “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” without being crushed by an oppressive, overpowering government.  They really wanted to avoid a king, but there were other dangers they feared.  Thomas Jefferson understood that “an elective despotism” can be just as bad or worse than a king, and James Madison feared “an unjust majority” who would impose their will on the rest of the country.

Because of this desire for liberty for “all”, the Constitutional Convention in 1787 was a lesson in compromise.  The concept of a bicameral Congress was a protection for smaller states, which ironically included New York at the time, so that they wouldn’t be dominated by the bigger states who could then force their will upon them.  They created a balance of powers between the legislative, executive and judicial branches of our government to ensure that no single branch could dominate the others thus subjugate “the people”.

But today, almost 250 years after that Convention, we find ourselves in a position where we have to defend ourselves from “elected despotism” or an “unjust majority” that by all evidence wants to impose their will on the entire country even though their majority is razor thin.  

Let’s look at the facts surrounding this majority party.  First, the Democrats will say that Joe Biden received 80 million votes for President (of course some will say he did not), but what they refuse to admit is the Donald Trump received nearly 75 million votes.  Should they tell those 75 million Americans they will not be heard or even considered?  That certainly was not the intent of our Founders.  In the House, Nancy Pelosi and crew lost over a dozen seats to give her one of the smallest majorities in the House since the two-party system emerged back in 1857.  And of course, the 50-50 split in the Senate could not be closer and has only been this close one other time in our country’s history.  Is this a time for the majority party to force its will on the entire country?  Of course not.

If these results are a mandate for anything, they are a mandate for compromise.  Yet what are the things that the Democrat leadership is talking about.  First, they want to pack the Supreme Court by changing the number of Justices from nine to thirteen.  This would allow Joe Biden to pick four Justices of his preference simultaneously thus shifting the ideological balance in the court from conservative to liberal overnight.  This “court packing” was tried by FDR and rejected and denounced by the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  It would also most likely be spurned by all of the current Justices on the Supreme Court.

They also have plans to “pack the Senate”.  How, you ask, can they do that?  First, they plan to make Washington DC a state, thus giving them two new Senators which they believe will be reliably Democrat since DC is 95% Democrat.  They would look for other ways to tip the scales in their favor like making Guam a state or carving California into multiple states so that it also could deliver more reliable Democrat Senators to Congress.  This is gerrymandering on a national scale and is an attempt to turn the Senate into another House of Representatives which violates the very principles on which our country was founded.

And as if these two moves aren’t bad enough, Nancy Pelosi has already suspended the Motion to Recommit from the House rules and Chuck Schumer is talking about eliminating the Filibuster rule in the Senate.  Both of these rules are intended to provide some leverage to the minority party and have been in practice for over 100 years in each case.  These are purely partisan moves being taken at a time when the country and our government are nearly evenly split, 50-50. 

One of Joe Biden’s campaign promises was that he was going to unite our country, which I actually believe is necessary.  However, all of these political moves are as divisive as they could possibly be.  These actions will not only NOT unite America, but it will rip it apart.  

But this last election HAS delivered a mandate to our government leaders.  The representation in the House and the Senate could not be any more evenly divided and 75 million Americans voted for the conservative candidate for President.  This is not a time to turn a blind eye to half of this country and pass extreme policies through a series of 51 to 50 votes.  It is a time for working together.  It is a time for compromise.  It is a time for wisdom.

Remember also that nothing lasts forever.  12 years ago, Barack Obama had a 60-40 advantage in the Senate and a 257-178 advantage in the House (59% to 41%) but he didn’t try to implement any of these radical partisan measures.  Just eight years later, Donald Trump controlled both Houses of Congress and the White House.  I have confidence that the people of The United States will not easily surrender their freedom.  Liberty is in our DNA and “We the People” will forever rise up to claim it.

Taxation Without an Occupation

 Taxation without an Occupation

The View from the Middle

 

When Ronald Reagan was running for President he made it clear that he was not a fan of big government.  In fact, he famously said that the ten scariest words in the English language were, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.”  He obviously understood the flaws inherent in big, cumbersome, corrupt and inept government.  Personally, I don’t think much has changed since the Reagan era, in fact, things might be getting worse.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, America’s virologist, has now admitted that he intentionally lied to the American people to manipulate us.  Early on, he lied about the effectiveness of masks (I think he is lying now) and more recently he admitted that he lied about herd immunity, again to convince more people to take the vaccine.  Good intentions aside, once you admit that you are willing to lie to get your desired effect on the country, you lose all credibility with me. 

It is clear that Dr. Fauci and the elite lame-stream media clearly want to be the puppeteers of the American people, whether they know what they are doing or not.  They have lied about the danger of sending children to school to placate the teacher’s union.  They were actually anti-science in that area.  Science has proven that children are the least likely to contract this disease and also the least likely to transmit it to others.  If they acquire this disease their symptoms are usually mild and many are even asymptomatic.  Since that is not what they want you to believe, Fauci and the elites spread another lie – that asymptomatic people are virus super-spreaders lurking around the country spewing noxious clouds of viral droplets.  The science actually proves just the opposite, and the negative impact of closing schools will take years to identify and more years to repair.

And let’s not forget Dr. Fauci’s first lie that started this whole government overreach.  He tried to scare the country into submission to his whims when he told us that the mortality rate for Covid-19 would be ten times that of the seasonal flu.  Of course, he could have even stated this exaggeration differently and said that 99% of those who are infected will survive.  But that was not even the truth.  Studies now suggest that the survival rate of this virus is closer to 99.8%, and many believe that it will actually end up being the same as the season flu, or 99.9%.  If Dr. Fauci had not lied, or exaggerated or just plain “got it wrong” back in the beginning, might we as a country have made some very different decisions?  If the point of emphasis had been “99.9% of people infected will survive” would we have shut down our schools and our economy?  I doubt it, but this lie or grievous error was necessary to dupe our entire country into giving up our most fundamental rights and liberties.  

These puppeteers have also lied about the effectiveness of the economic shutdowns.  If these shutdowns worked, why are we in wave three of this virus.  We must also apply the laws of common sense as we create restrictions for our country’s businesses.  Why would we allow thousands of people to pack into Walmart stores like sardines, but shutdown small businesses whose normal customer count might be less than ten people?  Sure, Walmart sells food, which is essential, but they also sell apparel, hardware, toys, etc., etc. which their small business competitors now can’t.

And restaurants might be the most abused and villainized right now.  The latest studies (science, right?) have shown that less than 1.5% of infections come from restaurants yet they have been savaged by governors around the country with restrictive occupancy rules and absolute closures.  Let’s not forget that these callous, mindless, out-of-touch governors and still cashing their hefty monthly checks along with everyone else in government.  Why is that?  It’s because while these government bureaucrats are living large, they continue to tax the very people that they have prevented from making a living.  Imagine being a small business owner who has been shut down for months receiving a property tax bill or a government licensing fee that you are expected to pay – or else!!  That is taxation without an occupation.

This is why Business Insider predicted that as many as 85% of independent restaurants in American could close permanently because of the unnecessary restrictions placed on them by state and local governments.  Unless our governors and mayors get their heads out of their arses, I predict a massive revolt by this unjustly persecuted industry.  There will come a time when all of the restaurant owners across the country will just open and dare the state and local governments to arrest them all.  Then, if the government officials are stupid enough to do that, these eatery owners will come together and initiate a class action lawsuit against them.  Given that these closures and restrictions violate the 1st, 4th and 5th amendments of our Bill of Rights, I can’t imagine restaurant owners losing this argument!!

Maybe the bigger lesson here is that “We the People” need to stop being sheep and challenge government when it steps over the line of proper governance.  If we do not, an Orwellian future will be our fate.  Remember, Big Brother is doing more than just listening.  His intent is to subvert your very will and thus strip away all of your freedoms.  

                                                                                                                                     

*If you have not read the book 1984, by George Orwell, now would be a good time.  It is a classic commentary on the insidious nature of an all-powerful government.                             

The Illusion of Controlling the Coronavirus

 The Illusion of Controlling the Coronavirus

The View from the Middle

 

Before I even get into the message of this article, which is that this virus will run its course whether we like it or not, let me emphasize that I do believe that this virus is serious and that we should take all reasonable precautions to save lives.  We have known, almost from the beginning, who were the most vulnerable and we should have taken steps to protect those people even though in some cases, like in the state of New York, we didn’t.  I mourn all those who have lost loved ones to this virus, but “not living” is not the answer to this or any problem that we face as humans.  

Life will never be risk free.  People are going to die in car accidents every year.  The answer is not to stop driving or to ban cars.  The answer is to manage that risk.  People are going to die of cancer every year.  That doesn’t mean we should all put ourselves in a cryogenic freeze until there is a cure.  The answer is to manage that risk as we live our lives. The same is true for this virus.  We should not have put our trust in unscrupulous politicians or a paranoid media or even pompous scientists who suggest that THEY can save us if we just give up all of our autonomy and do as they say.  Of course, these hypocrites won’t follow their own rules because they want to maintain the freedoms they are denying everyone else.

While the media and politicians will desperately try to hide the facts, it appears that the real cure for this virus will be herd immunity, an idea that was scoffed at when this plague erupted.  Every virus has its own herd immunity level based on its infectious rate, and scientists have now agreed that the Coronavirus herd immunity will be reached when 70 to 75% of our population has contracted this disease and survived or has received a vaccine.  In either case, those people, of which I am one, will be immune and can’t be infected.  In that case, the virus will have nowhere to go and will die out.

The CDC has already estimated that this virus has infected ten times the number of people than have tested positive in this country because they have experienced mild symptoms or have been asymptomatic and thus have not even been tested.  That would suggest that over 170 million Americans (over 50% of our population) have already contracted this virus and survived.  Remember, the survival rate for this disease is currently being estimated at 99.8%.  Most, if not all of these people are now immune and cannot be infected again.  Over the next few months, given the natural infectious progression of this virus and the vaccine, another 80 million people will become immune which will bring our country’s immunity level to over 75%.  This is why even the politicians, media and scientists have agreed that Covid-19 will be gone or under control by May or June.

This would also say that all of the machinations our politician put our country through will not have prevented one person from contracting this disease.  We needed 250 million Americans to survive this virus to reach herd immunity and that is what is going to happen and that is what will end this scourge.  

But when this virus is dead and gone, there will be people who will try to take credit for its demise.  They will claim that the economic shutdowns worked even though they have absolutely no proof that they did.  They will exaggerate the estimated number of deaths that “could have” occurred and say that if they hadn’t put us through this hell of regulations and destroyed millions of small businesses (especially in the restaurant community) that two million people would have died.  Of course, that is impossible to prove and it is equally impossible to prove that every element of their plan was successful.  Did we really need to shut down our restaurants?  Did we really need to close our schools?  Remember, nothing we did saved even one person from contracting this disease (except the vaccine).  

And these “scientists” have used a most unscientific approach to evaluate the effectiveness of their strategies.  In a real scientific world, they would have isolated their tactics and compared them to a control group that would do nothing.  They would, for example, have one group only wear masks, another group would only wash their hands, another would only shut down businesses, etc.  And then they would compare all of these results to the control group that did nothing.  In this case they threw everything at this virus, including the kitchen sink and are now suggesting that everything they did was effective.  In reality, since they didn’t have a control group they have no idea how effective their total efforts were.  We could compare our results to Sweden’s, the country that came the closest to employing a herd immunity strategy.  If we did, we would find that Sweden’s deaths per 100,000 people is almost 20% lower than ours.

My point is, we are inflicting so much damage on our country in the name of controlling this virus without any proof that these moves are actually working.  We are demanding mask wearing and social distancing when hand washing and staying home when sick may be all we needed.  We know for a fact that we are destroying lives by shutting down businesses (especially restaurants) and setting our students back by closing schools when we have no idea what impact those moves are actually having on this disease.  But we KNOW that these decrees are having a negative effect on our country.

Is the media giving as much attention to suicide rates, increases in domestic violence or drug abuse?  Are they studying depression and the long-term effects of the social separation that Americans are experiencing?

We will face more influenzas, viruses, etc. in the future.  The 1918 influenza was particularly brutal killing 700,000 people in America (I believe that is a very conservative estimate) and up to 100 million people worldwide.  The Asian Flu in 1957 killed almost 120,000 people in the US and the Hong Kong Flu in 1969 killed over 100,000 people here when our population was less than half of what it is today.  Just two years ago, the seasonal Flu may have killed up to 95,000 people in America and if we had used the same methodology and counting practices that we have used for the Coronavirus, these numbers could easily have matched or even surpassed Covid-19.  We didn’t shutdown our economy for any of these pandemics and we actually fought WWI in the middle of the 1918 Spanish Flu.

We can’t and shouldn’t shutdown our economy and our schools every year or every other year or even every 10 years without doing permanent or at least long-term damage to our country.  Disease is part of life and we all need to figure out how to manage the risks that surround it.  We should use science to develop therapeutics and vaccines that treat these diseases.  BTW – kudos to the doctors and scientists who participated in operation Warp Speed to develop the vaccine that is currently being distributed, and those who developed therapeutics to treat those who contracted this virus.  We can and should protect healthcare workers so that they can care for those who do get sick without shaming the rest of the country who just needs to keep living.

The bottom line is that I don’t believe the draconian steps that our government forced upon us has impacted the total number of people infected in this country.  The numbers actually might even have been lower if we hadn’t applied a perverse monetary incentive to declare everything from gunshot deaths and cancer fatalities as Covid casualties.  

Some will declare victory when this is over, and we should fear them most.  For their own benefit they will try to convince us that this handling of the Coronavirus should become the new normal. They will tell us that we should listen to the politicians and the media, the most untrustworthy people on the planet, and give away our freedom of movement, speech and religion and even our freedom to earn a living, at their whim.  If you are unsure of the potential duplicity of the press and politicians in matters like this, just read The Great Influenza by John Barry about the 1918 Spanish Flu.  It will enlighten you.

If we are to retain any of the freedoms that this country was founded on, we must denounce our city, state and federal government’s attempt to shred our Bill of Rights and control every aspect of our lives.  We must reject people in the media and politicians who will deny millions of people the opportunity to make a living while they themselves continue to cash their bloated checks.  It’s easy to ask someone else to pay the price for their oppressive regulations.  If they try to sell this as the new normal, I plan to reject it.  I will use common sense practices to protect myself and others, but will defy any paranoid, controlling, manipulative regulations no matter the consequences!!

Joe Biden's 100 Day Lie

 Joe Biden’s 100 Day Lie

The View from the Middle

 

Joe Biden just put out a statement that says that after his inauguration he is going to ask the country to wear a mask for 100 days, as if that will finally put an end to this dreaded virus.  This is incredibly misleading in a number of ways.  First, this suggests that no one in the United States is wearing a mask today.  Unfortunately for Joe, there is plenty of evidence to the contrary.  According to a UPI article written October, 23^rd, 93% of Americans already wear masks sometimes, often or always.  The same article revealed that 72% of Americans already “always” wear a mask.  Does Joe Biden actually think that he can drive those numbers up just by asking Americans to wear masks?  Of course not.  This is just his attempt to take credit for something that is going to happen anyway.

If you have been following any of the news shows lately, they have been showing that virtually every virologist and doctor on TV has been predicting that this virus will be under control by May or June in the United States.  This is because of a combination of herd immunity and the new vaccine which will begin to be delivered in the United States by the end of December, thanks to President Trump.

So, what is “herd immunity’ anyway? Herd Immunity is when a large part of a country’s population is infected by a disease, such as a virus, and survives it and thus becomes immune to it.  In effect, herd immunity gives a virus nowhere to go.  Everywhere it looks it finds immunity.

Back in June, the CDC said that the actual infection rate for Covid-19 might be 10 times as high as the published infection number because so many people have had mild symptoms or even have been asymptomatic and thus have not even been tested.  If this is true then today over 150 million Americans have already had this virus and survived, meaning that they have the antibodies and are thus immune to it.  That is almost half of the country’s population.  The CDC also suggested that we would reach herd immunity for covid-19 in the US when 70% of our population has had the virus.  We’re not far off that number right now.  

Now, there are two ways to become immune to this virus.  First, you can get it, as I did, and survive.  At that point you have acquired the antibodies and are thus immune to the disease.  The second way to become immune is to get the vaccine, which, in effect does the same thing.  Now, let’s do a little projecting.  If we have roughly 50% herd immunity now, what if we have 50 million more Americans get infected and survive by May? (remember, the survival rate is roughly 99.8%).  Plus, what if we have 30 to 50 million Americans get the vaccine by May, as projected?   That will get us to that 70% to 75% herd immunity number by May or June.

Joe Biden knows that most experts are already projecting a dramatic decrease if not a complete demise of this disease by May or June, which is exactly 100 days after Joe Biden’s inauguration.  His proclamation / recommendation to wear masks will have nothing to do with it.  He might as well ask us to wave dead chickens over our heads for 100 days.  The results are coming (nothing last forever) no matter what Joe says or does, but he will try his very best to take credit for the results.  This is the action of a typical, deceitful politician.  Way to go, Joe.  You’re already showing your true colors.

Hey Joe, why don’t you promise that green leaves will start growing on our trees 100 days after your inauguration if we all wear our masks.  That could (will) happen too!!

Post-Election - Where are We? Really!

 Post-Election – Where Are We?  Really!

The View from the Middle

 

No sooner than the lame-stream media began calling Joe Biden the “President Elect”, the spin (or let’s just call it “lying”) began.  Joe Biden proclaimed that he and Kamala had won a “clear and convincing” victory, but in really that is far from the truth.  For example, Joe told us all that he had set a record for votes captured by any Presidential candidate in history with his 79 million votes.  Good for him, and that was a true statement.  What he left out, however, was that Trump also broke that same record with his 74 million votes.  The reality is, a heck of a lot of Americans voted against Joe Biden.

This man who repeatedly claimed that he would “unite” the country was trying to claim that he had earned some sort of massive mandate for his platform.  If Joe is ever officially dubbed the President of The United States he may trot out the tired old claim that, “elections have consequences”.  This would be an absolute disgrace for a man who dares to talk about unity.  It would be telling 74 million people, who are still American citizens, to drop dead.  

The reality is that without California, the nation’s popular vote is a virtual dead heat, and without California and New York, Trump actually won the popular vote in the remaining 48 states.  There is a clear message here, and that message is that this nation is equally divided and compromise is what is needed to bring us together.  Let’s see if we hear that message from either candidate once the election becomes official.

The absolute dead heat in the swing states is just one more indication of the lack of a clear mandate in this country today.  Before the election there were nine states that were designated as “battle ground” states; North Carolina, Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia.  In those states, there were 47 million votes cast for Trump and Biden.  Trump captured 23.4 million of those votes or 49.9%, and Biden secured 23.5 million votes or 50.1%.  This can NOT be described as an overwhelming mandate.  It is, in fact, yet another signal for a need for real negotiations in our government.

The Democrats should also be concerned about their performance in the minority communities.  Despite a full court press by the lame-stream media to label Trump as a racist for the last four years, Both Zogby and EMI polls are suggesting that Trump captured 14% of the Black vote vs just 8% four years ago.  That’s almost doubling his share of that group.  Clearly, this constituency was attracted by Trump’s policies like the First Step Act, Opportunity Zones and advancing funds for Historically Black Colleges.  Trump also made advances in the Hispanic community capturing 32% of that vote vs just 28% four years ago.  This SHOULD suggest to Joe and the Democrats that there are some conservative policies that these two groups embrace and so should they!

Finally, the “blue wave” did not occur.  In fact, in the House, with seats won and seats where they are winning, Republicans could pick up as many as 11 seats, dramatically reducing the Democrat advantage there to just nine votes.  Considering the current discord within the Democrat caucus, this could / should lead to some real compromise legislation in the House.

In the Senate, the current count is 50 seats secured by Republicans and 46 seats capture by Democrats with two Independent seats who caucus with the Dems, and there are two seats up for runoff elections in January in Georgia.  The whole country should be hoping that Republicans win at least one or both of those seats so that a radical leftist agenda couldn’t possibly be rammed down virtually half of the country’s throats if the Democrats take control there.  But, even if Democrats would somehow take both of those Senate seats (which I think is unlikely) there is still hope for compromise in the Senate, because of a Senator named Joe Manchin (D-WV).

Joe Manchin is a conservative Democrat in a state that voted almost 70% for Trump in this latest election.  Mr. Manchin has already come out in favor of fracking.  He is a free market capitalist, pro-gun and pro-police, anti-green new deal, low corporate tax guy who is also in favor of the tariffs on China.  When you look at his record and position statements, he might even be a candidate to switch parties and become a Republican.  So, even if the Democrats take both Senate seats in Georgia, the most powerful person in the Senate will not be Chuck Schumer, the potential majority leader. It will be Joe Manchin.

The bottom line is that our government is set up for compromise, unless the new President, whoever that might be, tries to advance a radical agenda in either direction.  But even if a radical agenda is pursued by either side, I see it going down in flames, and that’s good for “We the People”.