Tag: Ted Cruz

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Opinion The Last Word

Backpfeifengesicht!

For Lent this year, I’ve given up paying attention to election coverage. Just kidding! Instead of staying engaged, I’m hate-watching “Decision 2016” like it’s the last season of How I Met Your Mother. Hopefully I won’t hate the ending as much.

The story lines haven’t changed much since last summer. Ted Cruz is still the poster child for backpfeifengesicht. Seriously. Google “punchable face.” There is actual science behind this. Donald Trump hasn’t run out offensive things to say, nor has he suffered any consequences for saying them. Hillary Clinton hasn’t worn the same pantsuit twice. Jeb Bush? Pretty sure he’s the inspiration for Arrested Development‘s Buster Bluth. I’m still waiting for Marco Rubio’s alleged charisma to make its debut. Oh, and Ben Carson’s still out there giving hope to aspiring brain surgeons who are, um, not smart.

Somebody call me when someone manages to hold Bernie Sanders down long enough to get a comb through his hair. Or when the primaries are over. Whichever comes first.

Election Day is more than eight months away, and I am already over it. It’s going to be a long year, and not because there is an extra day in February.

I’m over the constant emails with the ambiguous subject lines, always asking me for a dollar, or $27, like the world’s most persistent panhandlers. I have opened exactly one of these messages, from James Carville, titled “whackadoodles.” Spoiler alert, it wasn’t actually from the Ragin’ Cajun. I only opened it because I wanted to reward the copywriter for capturing my attention. Game recognize game, or something.

Then there are the debates. Surely after nine episodes of the GOP Clown Car Hour, the candidates must be weary of trying to think of new and innovative ways to express how much they hate Obama, Muslims, women, minorities, immigrants, taxes, and poor people, and love guns, Jesus, corporations, and Reagan. We get it. Yet there are three more scheduled. Might I suggest a Thunderdome format? Or the Eliminator from American Gladiators? Let’s just get this thing over with already.

Of course the Democratic debates are more substantial in terms of policy discussion — there are only two candidates. They still have to talk it out a dozen times, though, so every network gets a piece. And the debates are no more illuminating or informative unless you consider the number of millennials who probably had to Google “Henry Kissinger” during the last one. Because he’s relevant in 2016. Thanks for reminding us how old you are, Bern and Hillz! Your Snapchats and emoji tweets are bae and so on fleek, it’s easy to mistake you for fellow youths.

Thanks to the internet, social media, and TV news, we have rapid access to just about everything there is to know about every candidate. Why is it that, when technological advancements have streamlined and simplified every other facet of life, national elections take longer and longer? That’s a rhetorical question, of course. It’s money. It’s always money. Ted Cruz was the first to declare his candidacy last March, and it wasn’t to give us extra time to learn to like him. No, he needed to start raising money. Because running for president is really, really expensive. Which contradicts the whole idea of government being “by the people” and “for the people.” Good thing that line is from the Gettysburg Address, not the Constitution, or we’d be in big trouble.

Candidates spent more than $70 million on advertisements in Iowa, a state that is 90 percent white and one that has little impact on the outcome of the general election. It derives its “importance” from the fact that its caucus system is so complex and convoluted it has to go first. Local businesses — restaurants, hotels, coffee shops and the like — reap economic benefits.

All together, the candidates spent $27,000 on pizza. That’s a lot of pepperonis.

Jeb Bush spent $15 million in Iowa and placed sixth. If I were him, I would have bought fewer ads and more pizza. Instead he went and spent more than $30 million in New Hampshire. He placed fourth! These are supposed to be the “fiscal responsibility” guys! Think of all the problems $30 million would solve. The amount losing candidates spent in that tiny state could have bought new pipes for the entire city of Flint, Michigan.

The longer the election takes, the more it costs. That’s why everyone who runs for president is either a millionaire or a corporate puppet, or is constantly in your email begging for money. Or all of the above. It’s the American way, until it’s no longer profitable.

Jen Clarke is an unapologetic Memphian and digital marketing strategist.

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Cover Feature News

Making a President 2016

MUSINGS FROM MANCHESTER AND MEMPHIS — Not to overstate the omens, but the past two weeks have seen some lousy weather, both in New Hampshire, whose presidential primary accomplished some crucial winnowing down of the candidate field, and here in Tennessee, where voters get to make what could be an even more defining choice in less than two weeks.

In the meantime, along with more cold, rainy weather, and maybe even some sleet and snow, we are quite likely to get some close encounters with the candidates — like Donald J. Trump, the reality TV star and Manhattan real estate mogul, who, on the eve of the New Hampshire voting, addressed a rally of his supporters with the following exhortation: “I want to finish up, because you’ve got a bad evening out there. You have to do me a favor. I don’t really care if you get hurt or not, but I want you to last ’til tomorrow. So don’t get hurt!” 

That characteristically cheeky bit of tough love was uttered at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, before an audience of thousands who had crammed into the arena on the night of what Trump, more or less accurately, had called a blizzard, one which, he had proclaimed upon arriving late, had caused at least seven accidents outside.

Hillary Clinton among the crowd at Henniker

Not that Trump’s exhortation had been his most memorable statement of the night. Just minutes earlier, following half an hour or more of heady ego-tripping boasts (all free of any taint of political-platform logic), The Donald lambasted Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican rival Ted Cruz for taking issue with the “tone” of his stump speeches. Whereupon, via a reference to Cruz’s performance at a just-concluded debate event of GOP candidates, Trump upped the verbal ante.

TRUMP: “They asked Ted Cruz a serious question: ‘What do you think about waterboarding?’ and, I said, OK, honestly, I thought he would say, ‘Absolutely.’ And he didn’t. He said, ‘Well …’ You know he was concerned about the answer because some people …” 

Distracted by a woman supporter in one of the front rows, Trump interrupted himself. Pointing to the woman, he said, “She just said a terrible thing. You know what she said? Shout it out, because I don’t want to say …” 

WOMAN: “He’s a pussy!” 

TRUMP (chuckling): “OK. You’re not allowed to say … and I never expect to hear that from you again. She said … (mock scolding tone) … I never expect to hear that from you again…” (crowd now chuckling along with him) … She said, ‘He’s a pussy!'” 

What ensued from the crowd, not all of whom had heard the interloper distinctly but all of whom now heard Trump loud and clear, was first shock, then awe, then delight, then pandemonium and chants of “TRUMP! TRUMP! TRUMP!” It was Donald Trump’s latest Gettysburg moment in his campaign to Make America Great Again. 

It would surely be a waste if the surprise front-runner in Republican ranks should — in the interval between now and Tuesday, March 1st, when Tennessee and almost a dozen other states hold primary or caucus events — choose to bypass Memphis, known to music-lovers and NBA fans alike as a citadel of Grit ‘n’ Grind, wide open to down-homey talk and artists of the vernacular.
Caucuses in Nevada and primaries in South Carolina will have intervened between now and March 1st, and each of those states will have had an effect on candidate fortunes, but nothing comparable to the scale of what will happen on “Super Tuesday,” as the date is called on the 2016 political calendar.

By the close of voting on March 1st, we should know if Trump has maintained his edge over Texas Senator Cruz, a chilly avatar of the hard right almost as unpopular with the GOP establishment as Trump himself, the grand interloper, and we should know also which one of the three establishment-friendly candidates — former Florida governor Jeb Bush, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, and Ohio governor John Kasich — has been able to survive for an expected three-way battle that could last all the way ’til July, when the Republican National Convention convenes in Cleveland.

There’s an ongoing battle between Democratic contenders, too — former First Lady, Senator, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and septuagenarian Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a self-professed “democratic socialist” whose advent as a serious competitor in 2016 has been as breathtakingly unexpected as was Trump’s, but whose proposed reform policies are as rigorously defined as Trump’s are amorphous.

Both Trump and Sanders are considered outliers, both have developed bona fide followings, and both have been identified by political pundits, somewhat lazily, as exponents of an undefined “anger” in the body politic. The term may fairly characterize Trump’s generalized complaint that “we [Americans] don’t win at anything any more,” and Hillary Clinton has attached it to Sanders in a widely publicized sound bite suggesting that anger is all well and good, but “Where’s the plan?”

Arguably, Sanders’ plan is fairly specific. Among other things, his version of a “political revolution” would provide for free education at public colleges, universal health care (under the rubric “Medicare for All”), a return to strict controls over both political spending and banking practices, and a crash program to renew the nation’s infrastructure. All this to be paid for in large part by “a tax on Wall Street speculation.”

It may be pie in the sky, as Clinton and her supporters imply, since it is hard to see how any program so thorough-going could make its way past Republican road blocks in Congress. But it is real pie, all the same. Or, to amend the metaphor, food-wise, it is whole-loaf reform, reasonably close to everything the term “socialism” implies.

It is no accident that Bill Clinton, spouse of candidate Clinton and a former president who still commands wide popularity, both within Democratic ranks and without, played off on that metaphor last week during a hastily called rally for his wife in Memphis, citing a saying of another former Democratic president, Lyndon Johnson, that anyone who would spurn half a loaf “has never been hungry.”

It is no accident, either, that former president Clinton chose to come to Memphis in the run-up to Super Tuesday. Hillary Clinton’s game plan is to prevail here and in other so-called “SEC’ [for Southeastern Conference] states on March 1st, thereby putting a comfortable distance between herself and Sanders (who tied her in the Iowa caucuses and beat her soundly in New Hampshire), and to do so largely on the basis of massive support from black voters, whose loyalty to the Clintons has been assumed for the last generation and a half.

Bernie Sanders lays out his plan for a revolution

Whereas Sanders is correctly considered a socialist (though hardly in the now-obsolete Marxist-Leninist sense of the term), Clinton is with equal appropriateness best considered a liberal. Her politics are avowedly those of compromise, and in several different senses of that word. As her husband pointed out in last week’s Memphis rally (held at Whitehaven High School), she is one who can work across the aisle (or, as the former president put it, can “stand her ground” while seeking “common ground”). President Clinton cited as an example her cosponsorship, with arch-conservative GOP House majority leader Tom DeLay, of legislation to facilitate post-infancy adoptions.

And Secretary Clinton is, for better or for worse, willing to render unto Caesar —accepting the insurance-company proprietorship and not quite universal health-care coverage of the Affordable Care Act as the continuing basis of health-care reform, and advocating the means-testing of college tuition aid rather than blanket guarantees of free education, while endorsing both choices as limited but feasible in their application. She is consistently faulted by Sanders for her acceptance of both large speaking fees from organizations like the Goldman Sachs financial house and campaign assistance from a “Super-PAC.”

For all that, there is significant policy overlap between the two Democrats, both of whom seek significant criminal justice reform, a raise in the minimum wage, and workplace equality for women, while approving same-sex marriage.

Jeb Bush putters along at Salem

There is a sameness of outlook among the Republicans, too, along with some distinguishing gradations. All by himself, Trump largely scuttled the GOP’s expressed resolve, after the party’s debacle in the 2012 presidential race, to court the nation’s growing Latino vote. When on June 16th, at his own Trump Tower in New York, he rode down on an escalator for a ceremonial announcement of candidacy, Trump also descended into a round of vigorous bashing of Mexicans as rapists and boundary breakers.

When his invective not only did not damn his candidacy but instead resulted in good poll numbers, the other Republican candidates basically followed suit, and stiff-necked resistance to any form of immigration reform is now a given among them, including the two sons of Cuban emigres, Cruz and Rubio, the latter of whom had once sponsored, but has since renounced, a path to legalization for selected illegal immigrants.

Other aspects of the GOP candidates’ litany include a resolve to terminate “Obamacare,” their preferred name for the Affordable Care Act; a pro-life stance on abortion; continued tax cuts for the corporate sector; opposition to same-sex marriage; holding the line on the minimum wage; and condemnation of the deal reached with Iran, forestalling that country’s pursuit of nuclear weapons while phasing out economic sanctions against it.

Of the Republicans still running, only Kasich, who finished a respectable second to Trump in New Hampshire, attempts to take moderate versions of these positions or to suggest that bipartisan solutions are still possible, and he tends to avoid the ritual Hillary and Obama-bashing of the others, which is virulent and nonstop. That fact, plus his relatively cash-poor status, probably doom him to lose the battle with Bush and Rubio for the establishment-backed position in a final three-way for the nomination with Trump and Cruz.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio is a Republican Ichabod Crane

Rubio, who had been considered a rising star after his strong third-place finish in Iowa, sagged in the polls after being all but eviscerated in the last New Hampshire debate by the now-absent New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who played Brom Bones bully-boy to Rubio’s Ichabod Crane, not only exposing Rubio’s tendency to repeat his own talking points, parrot-like, but actually unnerving the Floridian into doing so. It remains to be seen whether Rubio, who made a strong comeback in last weekend’s South Carolina debate, can regain his former status.

The real unknown quantity is Jeb Bush, yet another scion of a dynastic GOP clan, who hasn’t won, placed, or showed yet in any poll or vote for the record but putters along in striking range on the strength of his blue-ribbon connections, the family name, and enough of a campaign bankroll to hang in, right up to what could turn out to be an old-fashioned brokered convention.

If Trump and Sanders had not existed, they might have had to be invented. The mere presence of these two outliers in the 2016 presidential race, not to mention their wholly unanticipated viability, has utterly confounded the expectations of party regulars and the pundit class.

Sanders’ vision of a revolution directed at what he sees as control of the social and political process by an oligarchy has not only generated the beginning of a movement among Democrats and independents, it has had unexpected resonance in Republican ranks as well — and where you would least expect to find it.

The first week of February, which was also the last week of the New Hampshire primary, was an especially brutal one, weather-wise. Temperatures flirted with single digits all week (they would eventually get there), snow fell in four- or five-foot heaps almost everywhere, visibility largely vanished along with the day’s light, and ice coated the state’s highways and walkways in thick and perilous veneers.

One reason for the New Hampshire primary’s historical relevance has been the state’s relatively small size, with most of the major towns and cities located in its southern rim, a circumstance that makes candidates and their campaign events unusually accessible to anyone who cares to seek them out.

What is remarkable is that, even when the weather was at its most treacherous, people still turned out in droves, not only New Hampshire natives, but imports from neighboring and even distant states, all anxious to catch the final act of this quadrennial New England drama.

I found this out on Friday, February 5th, when I decided to brave the elements and check out a Ted Cruz town hall in a school gymnasium some six miles from my Red Roof Inn in Salem, New Hampshire, hard by the border with Massachusetts. Creeping along on the moonless night with a death grip on the steering wheel of my rental car, I finally got to the site after a half hour’s driving along roadways that the town’s fleet of snowplows were even then trying to work in shape.

I was astonished to find that, even on this night and even for Cruz, who was not considered a real contender in the primary despite his victory in the previous week’s Iowa caucuses and so heavily influenced by religious fundamentalists, there was a turnaway crowd, with no parking available except on especially slippery side streets, blocks away.

Once inside, I found a place in an overflow room and heard Cruz go through his usual hard-nosed litany of conservative positions on social, fiscal, international, and philosophical issues. But Cruz — yes, Cruz — has a populist side as well. He spoke to his crowd of wanting to rebuild “the old Reagan coalition,” one composed of “conservatives, evangelicals, libertarians, Reagan Democrats, and young people.” Because, as he said, “you’ve got to build a broad and diverse coalition to win.”

Ted Cruz with supporters at Salem

All of that was standard boilerplate, but then came a statement from Cruz that was downright shocking — and a key to his wiliness as well as a partial explanation for his better-than-expected electoral success so far. He mentioned Bernie Sanders, he of the youthful following and the resounding call with which Sanders begins each speech: “I think you want a political revolution.”

Said Cruz to his true believers: “I agree with a lot of what Bernie says about the problem, that Washington is fundamentally corrupt, that politicians are on the take, that the system is rigged for the giant corporations and Wall Street. I agree with all of that. Where I disagree with Bernie is in the solution. If government is corrupt, the answer isn’t a heck of a lot more government.”

OK, so those last two sentences amount to a rhetorical bait and switch — a take-out, away from the idea of radical public action toward old-fashioned notions of laissez-faire. The point is that Cruz, too, can sense the revolution in the air. It means something that even this dark knight of the right can recognize it.

It means something, too, that Trump, the same Trump who in last Saturday’s GOP debate unloosed the kind of intense attack on the G.W. Bush administration’s “lies” about WMDs in Iraq that most partisan Democrats have shied away from (think John Kerry … or Hillary) … that that Donald Trump begins and ends his speeches to the opening guitar strains of the Beatles’ “Revolution.”

Who knows? Maybe, lousy weather or no in this often toxic political season, some version of that hopey-changey stuff so decried by Sarah Palin might just win out after all.

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

New Hampshire: Some Impressions

CREDIT: JB

SALEM, N.H. —

JB

A New Hampshire snowplow tries to make the world safe for democracy.

The Republicans

Yes, before it’s all over on Tuesday night, Donald J. Trump will no doubt play a significant character role in my soon-to-be-published chronicle of the New Hampshire primary (scheduled for the Flyer issue of February 18), just as he has in so much national media coverage of the presidential-election season to date.

I plan to check out his last major rally in Manchester on Monday night, primary eve, and that should allow me to hazard some sort of serious eyewitness take on The Donald.
JB

New Jersy Governor Christie (aka Brom Bones) loomed menadingly over media onlookers (and Marco Rubio) at Saturday’s debate.

But for all the polls that still have Trump way ahead of his GOP rivals — by something like 20 points, at last reckoning — I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up suffering another major embarrassment like that which befell him in his second-place finish to Ted Cruz in Iowa last week.

So far I’ve only seen him in action in Saturday night’s debate of the remaining Republican contenders in Bedford, and, in all honesty, it was difficult to see Trump as a major figure in that event, or , for that matter, retrospectively over the course of the debates and cattle-call forums to date. More about that in the aforesaid February 18 issue.

Front-runner Trump may still be (at least in New Hampshire and possibly, tenuously elsewhere), but, up until Saturday night’s debate, I thought there was a fair chance of his being overtaken in New Hampshire by Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who entered this last week of the primary on a roll, after finishing third in the Iowa caucuses and coming close there to catching Trump for the silver.
JB

Jeb Bush (like all the governors) is trying to make a point of his administrative know-how while he still can.

But that was before Rubio and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie did their impromptu version, at the weekend debate, of a well-known Washington Irving short story, the one in which schoolmaster Ichabod Crane has been dazzling everybody as a fine young dandy until village bully Brom Bones, played in this case by Chris Christie, runs him right off the reservation.

Maybe that’s overstated as a comparison to the verbal pummeling Christie, obviously desperate to keep his own diminishing hopes as a suitor alive, gave to Rubio on the score of the latter’s talking points, rote-sounding to the point of self-parody, but it was pretty brutal. A thought: anybody who went to high school in New Jersey with Christie and fancied the same girl that he did was ipso facto risking a serious ass-kicking.

But there was a serious point to the mayhem, which Christie duly made. And that was that the GOP field’s three governors — Christie, John Kasich of Ohio, and Jeb Bush of Florida — were all seasoned in actual administration rather than in the kind of parliamentary fencing that both Rubio and Cruz were skillful at.
JB

Marco Rubio threw a Super Bowl Party for his voters.

It remains to be seen, in fact, whether New Hampshire becomes a turning point in how actual voters see the matter. Up to now the gubernatorial types have been puffing hard trying to stay within hailing distance, not only of the two 
clever young Senators, but also of such untutored originals as Trump and Dr.Ben Carson.

Kasich inevitably talks a good civics-class game in public, and, after attending a Bush town hall on Sunday morning, I found myself more impressed with his comprehensiveness than I had expected to be (hey, he even acknowledged the reality of man-made climate change, albeit somewhat left-handedly in response to an attendee’s question).

The guvs are running out of time, however, and should probably all step it up, a la Christie. It should be said that Bush’s SuperPac, Right to Rise, has been running expensive and vigorous ad campaigns against Rubio and anyone else perceived as standing between Bush and the voters he wants —but who so far haven’t wanted him.

The Democrats

Now, this one’s a real doozy — a bona fide one-on-one contest between a crafty and experienced pragmatist, Hillary Clinton, and an inspiring ideologue…nay, a revolutionary, Bernie Sanders. There is little  JB

In give-and-take sessions, Hillary Clinton can be persuasive, even charming.

doubt that New Hampshire is Bernie’s, but real (if somewhat diminishing) doubt that the energies he has tapped are enough to be a concern to Hillary elsewhere as the primary season wears on.

The Democrats should really take heart that they have two candidates with significant followings, and that Thursday night’s debate between the two of them, beginning with such blazing dissonance, should have ended on a note of genuine mutual respect.

When I saw Bernie at a rally at Great Bay Community College at Portsmouth on Sunday, it was precisely what I expected — an overflow crowd not only composed of today’s youth (lots of them) but one significantly leavened by graying ex-hippies from another time.

Pundits keep comparing Vermont Senator Sanders to the charismatic Obama of 2008 or even, in his populist appeal, to Trump. But he is neither an inspiring New Thing like the former nor an exciting celebrity scofflaw like the latter. He is a bona fide revolutionary with 
JB

Bernie and friends at Portsmouth: This about says it.

a program that is authentically Socialist — free college, state-supported medical care for everybody, guaranteed living wage for all workers, sticking it to the too-big-to-fail corporations.

A program of reform that attacks economic inequality directly and isn’t, like so much liberalism of the present, siphoned off into purely social issues, a la what Marcuse called repressive desublimation. (Although Bernie endorses the social issues, too.)

Still, Hillary’s IOUs and a skill-set that shines through in extended give-and-take sessions like one I witnessed at New England College in Henniker are built for the long haul. We’ll see.

The Weather Factor

JB

Ted Cruz drew big in a blizzard. Here he’s either being stroked or being hectored. (Both things happen to him.)

Like Iowans, the residents of New Hampshire understand their importance in the quadrennial screening process for would-be American presidents — a task which culminates in mid-winter — and they are downright intrepid in dealing with the elements.

Take the massive turn-out for right-wing poster boy Cruz in Salem on Friday night — a moonless sub-freezing night with iced-over streets and several feet of freshly fallen snow for the town’s fleet of snowplows to contend against. Parking at this and all other events was hard to come by.

Monday is everybody’s last shot at making good here, and some of the Republicans may not go any further. More about that later. And, btw, this visit to the New Hampshire primary is my seventh rodeo (1992 was my first.) It never gets old.

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Elephants, Newhart, and Powder Cake!

“Nobody remembers who won second place.” — Walter Hagen

That tweet came from Donald Trump a few weeks back. It returned to haunt him Monday night, when The Donald came in second to Ted Cruz in the Iowa caucuses. And once again, America was left asking the question: Why do we start this whole process in Iowa? A white, rural, fundamentalist state that was won by Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum in the previous two election cycles? It makes no sense.

But it was a weird week for everybody: An internet argument raged for days between Atlanta rapper B.o.B. and scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson over whether the earth is flat. Seriously. Apparently, the flat-earth movement is not dead, and B.o.B. isn’t buying this “the earth is round” nonsense. Actually, I suspect that if the GOP presidential candidates learned that a significant number of potential voters were flat-earthers, they’d whip out their “I’m not a scientist” line when confronted with the question.

Speaking of questionable science … Trump did the near-impossible and turned Fox News’ Megyn Kelly into a paragon of tough-minded journalism by skipping the most recent GOP debate, in which we learned that no matter the question, the answer is always: Get rid of Obamacare, kill ISIS, stop immigration, and Hillary Clinton will be a horrible president.

For example, when asked a question about Kim Davis, Chris Christie went full-9/11 and then promised he would destroy ISIS. To prevent gay marriage, I suppose? I don’t know.

We learned that soon-to-be-former-candidate Ben Carson can memorize the opening lines of the Constitution and that he stacks words like Jenga sticks. My favorite quote: “Putin is a one-horse country.”

Ted Cruz tried to make a joke about Trump, but it fell flat, and Bette Midler tweeted that he couldn’t improvise a fart at a baked bean dinner. Which was much funnier than Ted’s line. Also, Ted likes mandates. A lot.

John Kasich tried hard to bring some sense to the occasion, but he will likely soon return to his role as the other brother Daryll on Newhart.

Oh yeah, Facebook deaths this week included Joe Cocker (again), Pete Seeger (again), and Yanni, who is still alive, to the disappointment of many.

In local news, it was the week that the Grizzlies found themselves and the Tigers stayed lost. Overton Park advocates and the Memphis Zoo remained entangled in a battle over the Greensward parking issue, with the zoo showing all the grace of a tranquilized elephant running the high hurdles. Or Jeb Bush in a debate. Your call.

And Flyer reporter Toby Sells broke the story that District Attorney Amy Weirich and her assistant Stephen Jones were being hit with a censure by the Tennessee Supreme Court’s Board of Professional Responsibility for their actions in the trial of Noura Jackson. This led to an epic comment battle on the Flyer website, with one fellow suggesting that the DA’s office was a “powder cake” ready to implode.

Which reminds me of the time a Flyer intern once wrote, “It’s a doggy dog world out there.”

And indeed it is.

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Two Parties in Tennessee?

There is a general recognition that the transition of Tennessee from a state whose politics were long balanced between Democrats and Republicans into yet another Southern Republican monolith dates from 2008. That was the year when a once obscure state senator from Illinois named Barack Obama completed a zenith-like rise to power, which took him through a brief U.S. Senate career into the presidency in the space of a very few years.

That was the year, too, when the state’s established network of Democratic activists and officials had largely coalesced around the rival presidential candidacy of former First Lady and then-Senator Hillary Clinton. Though she came out ahead in Tennessee on the “Super Tuesday” primary of 2008, her loss to Obama in the final analysis may have led directly to the unraveling of the Tennessee Democratic Party, which proceeded with geometric speed, beginning with Obama’s disinclination to campaign seriously in Tennessee and continuing with the rapid attrition of Democratic officials in every subsequent statewide election.

It remains to be seen whether any help for Democrats is to be had from this year’s version of “Super Tuesday,” coming in March, and featuring in the Democratic primary both Hillary Clinton and what could well be a viable effort from the latest upstart from the grass roots, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. We welcome their effort, in any case, and hope whichever of them becomes their party’s nominee will not forsake Tennessee in the 2016 general election.

Meanwhile, the Republican primary will be attracting its share of statewide attention with several GOP candidates likely to put in appearances in our neck of the woods between now and March. All in all, the idea of a two-party system, dormant in these parts for some time, will be at least temporarily alive and well in Tennessee, and we welcome that, too — even if it just turns out to be an interlude.

Frances Hooks 

We are long past the time when the wives of prominent men were identified by the public (and even by themselves) via the prefix “Mrs.” followed by the husband’s name. That tradition, once commonplace, disappeared decades ago with the acceptance (still ongoing) of gender equality and with recognition of the obvious —and increasing — reality that women have distinguished lives and careers of their own.

Frances Hooks, who passed away last week, was a perfect bridge between the former and current ways of perceiving spousal identities. There was never any doubt that she was a continuing and invaluable pillar of support for her late husband, Dr. Benjamin Hooks, during his own meritorious lifetime as minister, lawyer, judge, federal commissioner, and NAACP national director. But she was, both during and after her husband’s lifetime, prominent in her own right as an educator, guidance counselor, church and civil rights leader, and original member of the Women’s Foundation for a Greater Memphis. 

Beyond all that, Frances Hooks was a paragon of graciousness and a source of constant joy, encouragement, and a relief from the daily rough-and-tumble of life to all who knew her. May she rest in peace.

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Where Nobody Knows Your Name

The hacktivist group Anonymous announced last week that they would be outing hundreds of Americans who were involved with the Ku Klux Klan. The group claimed that they’d hacked KKK servers and obtained emails and documents that would reveal that many prominent American politicians were associated with the white supremacist group.

Then, on Monday, three days earlier than the group had announced it would release the names, someone claiming to represent Anonymous tweeted dozens of names of people they claimed were KKK sympathizers. Those who were outed included several Southern politicians.

Within minutes, the information was retweeted by hundreds of people. Several online articles were quickly written, then reposted on hundreds of Facebook pages. Oh, the outrage! Look at these racist Southerners!

Then the story began to crumble. Listed among those with KKK connections were Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero, a Hispanic who’s been active in minority issues for decades and whose family is multiracial. Also “outed” was Lexington, Kentucky, Mayor Jim Gray, who is openly gay and decidedly progressive in outlook. Both vehemently and credibly denied any association with the KKK.

What the heck was going on? The website TechCrunch.com got an email interview with the person claiming responsibility for the Anonymous leaks, someone posting under the nom de web of “Amped Attacks.”

“I worked for nine days to gather and verify all the information that was gathered before its release,” Amped Attacks told TechCrunch. “I got the information from several KKK websites when I [hacked] them and was able to dump their database. I went through many emails that was [sic] signed up with these sites and a few of the emails that sparked my interest was [sic] the ones of the politicians in question there would be no reason for them to be signed up on any KKK website unless they supported it or was involved in it.”

Right. Using this logic, I could be “outed” as a supporter of Ted Cruz and Marsha Blackburn, both of whom email me daily with details of their glorious actions in service to the American Way. Somewhere in their servers, no doubt, I’m on a media list.

The official Anonymous Twitter account quickly distanced itself from the fake Anonymous Twitter account, claiming that their own outing of KKK members hadn’t happened yet and would be much more reliable.

So, let’s recap, shall we? The group Anonymous announced it was going reveal the names of members of another anonymous group but was trumped by the actions of yet another anonymous person pretending to be the official Anonymous.

If there’s a more perfect example of how far we’ve fallen down the rabbit hole of instant “news” and instant reaction, I’ve not seen it. How many times a day do you see someone reposting some Internet meme on social media that reinforces their political view but has no grounding in fact? How many times does that lie get reposted to politically sympathetic friends, and reposted again, until it becomes “fact”?

We live in a world where everyone controls their own media sources, and the great majority of us gravitate toward sources that reinforce our own values and beliefs. Then we’re astounded at how “misinformed” those are who disagree with us. It’s because we’re too often taking in points of view about the news, rather than the news itself.

Halloween is over. We need to remember that people wearing masks have at least one thing in common with people wearing hoods: You don’t know who they are.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

Debate Rap

CREDIT: Richard Koele | Dreamstime.com

By the time this clairvoyant column hits the streets, the first Fox News/Facebook debate between the 87 declared GOP candidates will have already taken place. But just like Nostradamus, I already know what’s going to happen.

The Fox clan will determine the top 10 contenders by their popularity ranking in the latest national polls, which coincidentally is the same way they do it on American Idol.

Fox News boss Roger Ailes has chosen crack journalists Bret Baier, Megyn Kelly, and Chris Wallace to be the ringmasters of this circus, and since the bottom three contestants are statistically even, Ailes will probably pick who he thinks will give the best television. This debate is definitive proof that the de-facto leader of the Republican Party is Fox News. My crystal ball has told me what the Top 10 will say, starting with …

Donald Trump: The darling of the Tea Party and low-knowledge voter will make an attempt at dignity, until someone points out what an asshole he is, then Trump will go off and call everyone a loser and a horrible person and make damaging remarks about some opponent’s personal life. He’ll insist that he’s a nice person and that people like him, sort of like Al Franken minus the humor. Then he’ll rail about “illegals” and try to justify his comments about rapists by citing the abhorrent singular murder in San Francisco. He’ll build an impregnable fence, but it will be the classiest fence ever built. It’s time to put a winner in the White House. The four personal bankruptcies and three wives were just a speed bump. 

Scott Walker: The wildly unpopular governor of Wisconsin will mention that he’s already won two elections, although one was a recall prompted by the signatures of thousands of angry citizens who mobbed the Capitol Building in Madison. The recall was narrowly defeated thanks to a fortune in Koch brothers money. He will say his comparison of protesters with ISIS was poorly worded, but if elected president, the college dropout will immediately target this country’s greatest threat — the teachers’ union.

Richard Koele | Dreamstime.com

Jeb Bush

Jeb Bush: “The other white meat” will insist that he’s his own man and will profess his love for his father and his brother without mentioning either of them by name. He’ll deflect accusations of being “soft” on immigration and say that Trump’s comments about Mexicans were hurtful and vulgar — only he’ll say it in the nicest possible way. Bush will mention his Mexican wife and love of the Hispanic people, appealing to them by hablando un poco español. He will say that his remarks about his endorsement of the Iraq war and his comments about “phasing out” Medicare were taken out of context.

Dr. Ben Carson: The brilliant neurosurgeon will tell his truly remarkable story and mention his recognized excellence in his field. Then he’ll compare Obamacare to slavery and the Democrats to the Nazis. He’ll discuss his opposition to gay marriage and attempt to explain away the fact that he has never run for or been elected to anything. He has said, “We live in a Gestapo age, [but] people don’t realize it.” With his fondness for Nazi references, you might let him work on your brain but not on your country.

Marco Rubio: He will pander to the Latino vote, even though Hispanics probably know the difference between a Mexican, a Puerto Rican, and a Cuban from Miami. He’ll condemn the new Cuba agreement, saying Obama made a deal with a communist dictator. He will mention his parents’ ordeal, and when asked if he, as a freshman senator, is prepared to be president, he will compare himself to John F. Kennedy. When asked about climate change, he will say he’s not a scientist and then plead for a glass of water.

Mike Huckabee: The Huck will double down on his remarks comparing the recent Iran accords to “marching the Israelis to the oven door.” He will say that the president is feckless and naive and then repeat his quote, “It doesn’t embarrass me one bit to let you know that I believe Adam and Eve were real people.” Wait until someone tells him they were black.

Rand Paul: The Ayn Rand acolyte will first have to explain why he tried to pass a law allowing him to run for president and senator at the same time. He will discuss his opposition to Medicare and Social Security and parts of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. He’ll say he wants to fix Social Security but wants you to forget about his statement that “reform is going to happen, and I hope it’s privatization,” or “The fundamental reason why Medicare is failing is why the Soviet Union failed.”

Ted Cruz: The loathsome reincarnation of Joseph McCarthy will repeat his statements that “Obama is the world’s largest financier of Islamic terrorism,” and “This is an administration that seems bound and determined to violate every single one of our Bill of Rights,” thus disqualifying him from further serious consideration for high office.

The other debators will be like a game of musical chairs between Chris “Bridgegate” Christie, Rick “Oops” Perry, and John Kasich, who stands a real chance of being shunned in the state of which he is governor. A Kasich staffer summed it up when he compared preparing for these debates to getting ready for a NASCAR race when one of the drivers is drunk. After all, who would you rather watch? Donald Trump or Carly Fiorina? My prediction is that the ratings for the debate will be “yoooge” and Fox will sign all the candidates to a glorified version of Hollywood Squares. There will definitely be a sequel, and it will be bigger, classier, and more spectacular than Sharknado 3.

Did I mention Benghazi?

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

Ask Not

After much prayer and reflection, and with the counsel of my friends, family, and rabbi, I hereby announce my candidacy for the Republican nomination for president of the United States.

And why not? Everybody else and George Bush’s brother is running, so I figure I have at least as good a chance as half the field of already declared candidates — and I’m not under federal indictment. You can’t say as much for Governors Chris Christie, Rick Perry, and Scott Walker. Federal and state prosecutors continue to investigate Christie for his role in the “Bridgegate” scandal, as rumors of an email trail that implicate the governor have surfaced.

Patrimonio Designs Limited | Dreamstime.com

Perry is potentially facing 109 years for two counts of felony abuse of power after attempting to coerce a district attorney to resign. So far, Perry’s efforts to have the charges dismissed have been denied twice by Republican judges.

Wisconsin prosecutors accuse Governor Walker of being part of a “wide-ranging scheme” of illegal fund-raising.

The same accusations have recently arisen over Governor Jeb Bush’s coy “I’m not yet a candidate” scam. After Bush declares, he can no longer personally ask for money, yet he’s acting like a candidate who’s using the asinine Citizens United decision to try and purchase the presidency. There’s an obvious joke about the White House vs. the Big House in here somewhere.

I’ve avoided politics ever since high school student government associations, but last night, I had a dream in which the Archangel Gabriel whispered in my ear that it was my destiny to be president. Of course, Ted Cruz’s traveling preacher dad said that God told him the same thing about his boy, so someone is confused here.

In fact, several people are confused about the Almighty’s participation in American politics. Cruz said, “God isn’t done with America yet. That is why … I am running for president.” But Perry said, “I truly believe with all my heart that God has put me in this place at this time to do his will.” Actually, Perry said that in 2012, so you’d think he’d get the hint. Dr. Ben Carson said, “I feel [the] fingers” of God, which he interpreted as the Almighty prodding his candidacy. Walker said, “We [I] want to make sure that, not only are we [I] hearing from the people, but we [I] want to discern that this is God’s calling.” Marco Rubio attends a fundamentalist mega-church that demands employees sign a declaration stating that they’ve never been in a gay relationship, and he goes to Catholic mass on Sundays, covering all his bases. And this is to say nothing of religious zealots Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee.

Either all these people are lying or insane, or God is goofing on the Republican candidates. Say what you will about Hillary, at least she never declared the Deity’s blessing was upon her. I, however, have been blessed by the order of Christian Brothers, Reverend Tom Patton, Rabbi James Wax, a Hindu “saint” in India, and a Muslim cleric in Israel. Now, who’s best qualified?

Since a handful of billionaires now own American politics, all you need to stay in the race is to find one to back you. Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson is leaning toward Rubio. Santorum is backed, for the second time, by mutual-fund zillionaire Foster Friess. The Koch oil barons tipped their greasy hands to Walker long ago. And Bush is backed by Woody Johnson, heir to the Johnson & Johnson company.

This is more exciting than the Belmont Stakes. They often call politics a “horse race,” but in this case, each candidate has his own jockey. Mere millionaires are whining for access, while former Philadelphia Eagles owner Norman Braman is planning to spend between 10 and 25 million “Washingtons” on Rubio alone. I’m certain that Hillary’s war chest will overflow as well, but who have the Democrats got? Communists like George Soros or hedge-fund magnate Tom Steyer, whose tree-hugging causes fund radical-leftist politicians. If I can just convince one patriotic billionaire that I hate Obamacare but love Israel, I could take this all the way to the GOP convention.

I could also raise a lot of untraceable money along the way, which begs the question (or maybe answers it): Why are so many guaranteed losers running for president? Why are George Pataki, Carly Fiorina, Lindsey Graham, John Kasich, and Donald Trump even running?

Trump is obviously a vanity candidate who does it for his ego and to promote The Apprentice, the most wonderful show that’s ever been on television. A few claim that they are in the race to promote certain views, like Santorum’s theory that America is under attack by Satan. The rest are auditioning for lucrative commentator chairs on Fox News or perhaps their own radio show or book deal. Some are jockeying for a future cabinet position in a fantasy Republican administration.

But mostly, it’s this endless funnel of dark money that bankrolls ideological figureheads for more sinister concerns. Since no one is accountable, who’s counting? Now that the mob has been chased out of Las Vegas, politics is the new skim. If a dollar is missing here or there, who’s to know?

Which is why I am unveiling my own Ultra-Conservative, Pro-Gun, God-Fearing Super-PAC: the UCPGGF. And I am asking you for pledges of just a few dollars a day to support my campaign to stop immigration, restore God to the classroom, end taxes, and return this great nation to its rightful owners, the Inuit.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

The Rant (May 7, 2015) …

The GOP could open a haberdashery with all the hats that have been thrown into the ring for the 2016 presidential nomination. It looks pretty much the same as the last go-round, minus Mitt Romney and Ron Paul, but plus Rand Paul and Jeb Bush. The list is still in flux, but these are the folks who are most likely to entertain us all summer with their traveling vaudeville debate theater. The reviews for the last troupe were boffo. They brought down the house in every city. So what if that house was in foreclosure? Since there are so many candidates with such wonderful things to say, I thought a guide to the Republican presidential candidates might be useful.

That is, if Obama doesn’t rip up the Constitution, declare martial law, and run for a third term.

So without further delay, the prospective contenders for the office of president are:

Ted Cruz: Texas Senator and morality crusader Philosophy: Whatever Joe McCarthy said. Famous Quote: “I intend to speak in support of defunding Obamacare until I am no longer able to stand.” Spoken prior to an empty Senate chamber recitation of Green Eggs and Ham.

Rand Paul: Senator from Kentucky Philosophy: Neo-Libertarian. “I read all of Ayn Rand’s novels when I was 17.” Famous Quote: “A free society will abide unofficial, private discrimination even when that means allowing hate-filled groups to exclude people based on the color of their skin.”

Ben Carson: Neurosurgeon and narcissist Philosophy: I’m the Bizarro Obama. Famous Quote: “Obamacare is the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery.”

Jeb Bush: Former Florida Governor Philosophy: Please don’t blame me for my idiot brother torching the globe. Famous Quote: “Immigrants are more fertile, and they love families.”

Rick Perry: Texas Governor Philosophy: I got glasses this time to make me look smarter. Famous Quote: “Oops.”

Chris Christie: New Jersey Governor and bridge builder Philosophy: Sit down and shut up. Famous Quote: “Sit down and shut up.”

Scott Walker: Wisconsin Governor and union buster Philosophy: Whatever the Koch brothers tell me. Famous Quote: “Let ’em protest all they want. Sooner or later the media stops finding it interesting.”

Marco Rubio: Florida Senator and pitchman for Aquafina Philosophy: I’m really running for vice president. Famous Quote: “I do not believe that human activity is causing these dramatic changes to our climate the way these scientists are portraying it.”

Carly Fiorina: Former CEO of Hewlett-Packard Philosophy: Just because I drove HP into the ground doesn’t mean I can’t be president. Famous Quote: “If Hillary had to face me on the debate stage, at the very least she would have a hitch in her swing.” (I don’t know what it means either.)

Mike Huckabee: Former Arkansas Governor and future pitchman for reverse-loan mortgages Philosophy: Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior? Famous Quote: “Democrats want to insult the women of America by making them believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing for them a prescription.”

I suppose you could call the rest fringe candidates, since their views are so radical. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said that the GOP “must stop being the stupid party.” Anti-sex advocate Rick Santorum said, “Contraception is not okay. It’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.”

These are all worthy topics for future hilarious debates, but for the most eloquent statement of qualifications, you have to give it up to grifter and perennial candidate Donald Trump, who said, “The only difference between me and the other candidates is that I’m more honest and my women are more beautiful.” In this tabloid culture, what more could you want in a president?

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said (April 9, 2015) …

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

About the Flyer‘s cover story, “Godless in Memphis” …

I’m severely disappointed that the super cool Memphis Atheists knitting circle didn’t get mentioned! You’ll talk about the Dungeons & Dragons group but not the knitting circle? Misogyny!

Whitney Wood

There are a bunch of us out here that are humanist and do not have an external deity. I am getting bolder and bolder in telling people I am a humanist. It starts more positive conversations than describing myself as an atheist.

Carolyn Clemens

I totally agree with the Peabody. As long as they spend money in the city it is great to have them. Why even suggest that Memphis discriminate against them?

Shep Fargotstein

About Bryce W. Ashby and Michael J. LaRosa’s Viewpoint, “You Lose, Cruz” …

Ted Cruz was born in Canada. Thus, he can’t run for president in the USA.

Behrooz Sadeghi Naeini

If Ted Cruz was born in Canada, what difference does it make? The present occupant of the White House was born in Kenya! I’ll still vote for Cruz if he is the nominee.

Paul Gulley

Paul, I’m glad to see someone else making this point. As Senator Cruz correctly pointed out when this issue was brought up, as long as the mom is a citizen, her child is a citizen, no matter where the child was born.

Of course, Senator Cruz was talking about himself and his own mother. He (and many of his followers) once had and still have a very different opinion about the current president’s citizenship qualifications. But I’m glad to see that at least a few of the senator’s devotees have changed their minds and can finally let the old Birth Certificate issue drop.

It is illuminating, though, isn’t it? How many years have they pursued this non-issue? And how many millions of dollars have they generated by fund-raising on the question of the president’s birthplace? Enough, perhaps, to fund the presidential campaign of a man born in Canada?

Jeff

The hypocrisy that is Ted Cruz and the Republican Party. Senator Cruz kicked off his campaign to become the GOP presidential candidate in the 2016 election at a religious university. Talking about God and faith and, in the next breath, he tells the audience he will repeal the Affordable Care Act as president, leaving 16 million Americans without health-care coverage. Other Cruz pronouncements: Global warming is a conspiracy; he would abolish the IRS (what does the business community think about this?), and no more abortion rights for women.

Would a President Cruz represent you in any way, shape, or form?

Ron Lowe

About Chris Davis’ post, “Will the Tennessee Legislature Make it Illegal to Perform ‘Hamlet’ in Schools?” …

The only way to stop a bad person with a hoax device is a good person with a hoax device.

Oddly, the “Gun Free School Zones” act only covers people without a permit carrying guns to schools. If you’ve got a permit, you can carry the gun anywhere you damn well please.

Fancycwabs

I can take a gun to Marquette Park but can’t carry it on the sidewalk in front of Holy Rosary school on my way to the park?

Diversandsundry

Shouldn’t Dave Clancy have already said something about having seen Hoax Device open for Iron Butterfly back in the day?

Chris Davis

I saw the Imitation Firearm open for Guns N’ Parks at the Empty Chamber in Norman, 1989.

Dave Clancy