The midterms come down to this

Who gets the last-week microphone? Right or wrong, that’s what matters.

If Dems can keep the spotlight on abortion, they win (as a large majority favors Dems on this issue).

If the Repubs can keep the spotlight on crime, they win (a majority favors Repubs here).

Secondary issues:

If the Dems can focus on how undercutting election integrity is now part of the Repubs’ fixed platform, this helps them.

If the Repubs focus on inflation, this helps them (absurdly, since inflation is worldwide and the US numbers are better than the global average).

In the fight for the mic, it seems Repubs are winning in the home stretch. As for me, I’d like to see the biggest spotlight on abortion, due to the enormity of what’s at stake for average families. Just imagine your daughters (and sons) going to college where they make one dumb mistake and abortion is a criminal offence, where your daughter doesn’t want her doctor to have information that might be used to track her periods, or where every text message about her period could be tracked and seized as criminal evidence.

Choose your meme and get it out there. Keep the focus where it should be this week. Don’t wait for the media to do it.

 

   

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The Republican Commitment to America, 2022

Larry Kudlow of Fox News recently noted that Liz Truss’s economic plan for Britain “looks a lot like the basic thrust of [Republican] Kevin McCarthy’s Commitment to America plan.” (9/23/22)

If you haven’t been listening, Liz Truss was the UK prime minister from Sept. 8 to Oct. 20 (the shortest-lived prime minister in UK history). “In her 45 days in office, her central economic plan was ditched, she lost two senior ministers, her poll ratings nosedived, her authority was destroyed, her parliamentary party rose in mutiny, and the UK’s international reputation was left in shreds.” (Euronews, 10/21/22)

Not to mention, in those brief weeks, the British pound plunged to a record low, yields tumbled, and “fears of a housing market crash mounted as UK banks pulled mortgage deals and lending rates skyrocketed … The Bank of England stepped in on Sept. 28 to stabilize markets.” (CNBC, 10/21/22)

When even your Fox News allies say your 2022 plan for America is like Liz Truss’s plan, that should be a chilling message for voters.

(And that’s not even counting the Republicans’ eagerness to dismantle women’s abortion rights.)

I’m not saying I like the Democrats much either, but it seems we need to do anything right now to keep the Republicans at bay.

(For the inspiration to ply this blog back into the perilous waters of politics, I thank Makita Yuki, friend and resident dignitary of Tokyo. May God and the rest of you forgive me.)

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