Louisiana Voice

At the risk of appearing a bit smug or of giving the appearance of gloating, a few observations appear to be in order following the outcome of Tuesday’s presidential election.

Back when I was coaching (and I use that term quite loosely) sandlot baseball, I steadfastly refused to engage in trash-talking with opposing teams. I always felt it wise to let my team’s performance, good or bad, speak for itself. If we won, great. If we lost, hats off to the other team. I simply had no desire to have to eat my own words.

That’s also why I refrained from making brash predictions about the election. Yes, I criticized Donald Trump because I just didn’t like the man. I didn’t like him as a person and I didn’t like him as a leader. I disagreed with his politics of division, hate and ridicule and I would have been bitterly disappointed if Trump had won. But I never once came out and boasted that Biden was going to win because the truth is, I didn’t know.

I would have loved to have seen Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, and especially Louisiana’s own Clay Higgins take a fall. Higgins is easily the biggest embarrassment this state has ever been asked to endure – with John Kennedy a close second. Yet, he breezed to reelection despite being a brain-dead moron. But in the end, he was the choice of the voters in his district and I can only assume they’re happy with the outcome, as happy as they can be with someone who, like Trump, loves to shoot off his mouth while actually accomplishing nothing.

I saw the daily polls that suggested Trump’s approval rating was steady among his base. I also saw the polls that predicted a blue wave that never really materialized.

I also read on a regular basis the comments to this blog which ridiculed Biden and from one reader in particular, who constantly compared the large turnouts at Trump rallies to the much smaller crowds coming out to see and hear Biden. I read that same person’s constant and unquestioned parroting of all the false conspiracy claims being put forth by Trump. Can you say “fake news”?

But in the final analysis, attendance at rallies doesn’t necessarily reflect the reality of voter turnout, does it? To paraphrase the title of an old Nancy Sinatra song, How Does That (4.2 million vote majority in the popular vote) Grab You, Darling? How Does That Mess Your Mind? And to further paraphrase our own James Carville, “It’s the votes, stupid.”

Then there was the reader (on the post above this one) who seems to think that I apparently have no right to criticize Trump because she “likes” him and will never “support” me. Well, I never asked her to support me, but I do defend her right to like Trump and to voice her opinion so long as she doesn’t try to silence my voice. That’s called freedom of speech.

And how does that reader feel who predicted a 48-state landslide by Trump feel today? I haven’t heard from him in a while, so I guess we’ll never know.

Or the one who called me an idiot for no other reason than because I have consistently called for fairness for all, equality in the treatment of citizens under the laws of our nation, compassion for those who are less fortunate and common decency that we deserve from our country’s highest office. Those are not the qualities of idiocy, my friend. I like to think of them as the qualities of being an American.

Those are the kinds of boasts that have a way of coming back to ring pretty hollow after the dust settles – kind of like those cock-sure defense attorneys who invariably and boldly profess their clients’ innocence, only to quietly negotiate plea-bargains down the road.

Likewise, Trump’s bombast about lawsuits, challenges and calls to supporters to “stand back and stand by,” not only render him unfit to hold any elective office, but also serve as a wake-up call to a country that has gone from world leader to international laughingstock.

Bigotry wrapped in a flag is not patriotism. Or as one of my classmates from Ruston High School tags onto each of emails, this quote from Theodore Roosevelt: “Patriotism means to stand with the country. It does not mean to stand with the President.”

Tom Cotton, Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, Devin Nunes, Steve Scalise, Clay Higgins, John Kennedy and a few others should give some serious thought about that Teddy Roosevelt quote.

Until you do, you’re just a pack of political hacks, opportunists with no substance, no moral base, no ethos and worst of all, no soul.

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Having just watched a pathetic Donald Trump bumble, stumble and mumble his way through his incoherent claims of fraud, my feelings ran the gamut of sadness, pity, and anger.

His display of self-pity was so bad that ABC News actually cut away from his speech (if you could go so far as to call it a speech). CNN, on the other hand, stayed ‘til the bitter end and then ripped him a new one with harsh criticism and fact checks – as he deserved.

On the one hand, he wants to continue the vote-counting in Arizona and Nevada where he trails and on the other, he demands that vote-counting be stopped in states where he leads but is seeing that lead slip away with the tabulation of mail-in and absentee votes. That is a classic display of inconsistency.

As always, when things don’t go his way, it’s someone else’s fault. In this case, it’s poll workers who are trying to steal the election from him – even in states headed by Republican governors.

He gave all the appearances of a petulant child who doesn’t get his way and decides to throw a tantrum. It was a pitiful example of a supposed world leader.

But with all the emotions of outrage, frustration and embarrassment I experienced while watching his performance, it was nothing compared to what we should feel at our own congressional delegation.

Where are Sens. Bill Cassidy and John (Mouth of the South) Kennedy? Kennedy, in particular, so loves a TV camera that it’s a real mystery why he is suddenly MIA.

And what about Reps. Steve Scalise? Lame Duck Abraham? Mike Johnson? Garret Graves? Why don’t they grow spines and come forward and tell Trump to shut up and, for the good of the country, accept the inevitable? (If you think I overlooked Clay Higgins, I didn’t; it’s just that I never expected someone as brain-dead as Trump to be a voice of reason.)

The silence of Louisiana’s congressional delegation is a disgrace. When they should be stepping forward and displaying some semblance of leadership, they are characteristically invertebrate.

For a study in contrast, let’s go to the 2019 Louisiana gubernatorial election. Incumbent John Bel Edwards trailed Eddie Rispone most of the night. Then, when the New Orleans returns started coming in, the trend was reversed and, in the end, Edwards pulled away from Rispone.

Rispone’s reaction to seeing his lead slip away?

Class.

Trump had visited Louisiana on Rispone’s behalf but the stain didn’t rub off on the Republican standard-bearer. When the dust had settled, Rispone offered congratulations to Edwards and gave a gracious concession speech. Game over, no hard feelings.

Trump is incapable of that and because he enjoys a much higher profile, his whining attracts international attention from adversaries and allies alike.

But from this standpoint, Trump’s very public wailing takes a back seat to the shameful silence of Cassidy, Kennedy, Johnson, Scalise, Graves and Abraham.

It’s time for these so-called leaders to grow some cojones and step up to the plate so this country can move on from this wretched chapter in our history. Anything less is simply unacceptable.

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Notice what those cities have in common: They’re all Democrat cities. What are they saying with this boarding up and the civil unrest they’re expecting? They’re saying if you don’t choose the left’s chosen candidate, we will send the left out to attack you. That’s as close to extortion as you can get and Joe Biden has the power to say ‘Stand down’ to the mob but will he do it? This is all the proof you need that the left should not be given federal power. We deserve the great American tradition of democracy, of peaceful elections, of accepting the vote of the American people, but the boarded-up windows, the closed down stores, tell you all you need to know about the modern American left. The violence is unacceptable and they are not deserving of federal power.”

—White House Precious Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, in her successful attempt to make David Duke sound like the voice of reason and restraint. [Wasn’t it Trump himself who told the Proud Boys to :

Stand back and stand by.” [Your response Kayleigh? Kayleigh? Precious?]

I don’t think it’s fair that we have to wait for a long period of time after the election. As soon as the election is over – we’re going in with our lawyers.”

—Donald Trump, confirming that he plans to declare victory early and then prepare his legal fight. [Kayleigh? Kayleigh?

“In my opinion, these patriots did nothing wrong. Instead, the FBI & Justice should be investigating the terrorists, anarchists, and agitators of ANTIFA, who run around burning down our Democrat run cities and hurting our people!”

—Donald Trump tweet in response to incident where his supporters ran a Biden campaign buss off the road in Texas. [And therein lies the problem, folks: Trump sees everything through a lens that deflects fault from himself and onto everyone else.]

They were protecting their bus yesterday because they’re ‘nice.’”

—Trump, joking about Biden’s bus being forced off the road in Texas on Saturday. [Kayleigh, I can’t hear you.]

These Trump ‘caravans’ disrupting traffic and putting motorists at risk are pathetic, juvenile, and dangerous. This thuggish behavior is not the American way. Everybody needs to say that. I’m happy I just did.”

—Dan Rather.

The minimum number was 100,000 lives, and I think we’ll be substantially under that number.”

—Donald Trump on April 10, predicting fewer than 100,000 Americans would die of the coronavirus. [As of today, that number is more than 231,000 U.S. deaths from the virus.]

Don Jr. dismisses coronavirus deaths: ‘The number is almost nothing’ My childhood friend died from Covid so now his two teenage sons have no father but to Don Jr that’s ‘nothing.’ This is a vile family!!”

—Tweet by Dean Obeidallah in response to Junior’s minimizing 1,047 Covid deaths the previous day. [Proof once again that the nut doesn’t fall far from the tree.]

“As I look across America today, I’m concerned. The country is in a dangerous place. Our trust in each other is ebbing. Hope seems elusive. [The country] has too bright a future to leave it shipwrecked on the shoals of anger and hate and division.”

—Joe Biden, speaking (appropriately) in Gettysburg last week.

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On election night, there’s a real possibility that the data will show Republicans leading early, before all the votes are counted. Then they can pretend something sinister is going on when the counts change in Democrats’ favor.”

—Former housing secretary Julian Castro, warning of the possibility that Trump may declare victory before all the votes are counted.

It wasn’t long ago that people were beaten and even killed to obtain the sacred power each of you have today, the power to vote. And right now, your vote is more critical than ever.”

—Actor Morgan Freeman.

Many courts are chipping away at votes that ought to be counted. It is a disgrace to the federal courts’ foundational role in ensuring democracy’s function, and a betrayal to the persons that wish to participate in it fully.”

—Federal Judge Karen Nelson Moore, in her dissent to a court ruling to uphold signature-match rules for mail ballots in Tennessee.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany erroneously claimed in September that then-Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford, when she had actually attended Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn.

—Salon.com, in a story revealing that U.S. Sen. John Cornyn did not graduate from Oxford University in England as claimed. [Maybe each of them will hit the road after Tuesday.]

And now Trump is making his final campaign swing through the ‘battleground states,’ feeding the insatiable need of his base for more of himself. ‘Four more years’ has become ‘12 more years.’ Somehow Trump is owed more years of the presidency because ‘they’ took two or three years away from him during the Russia investigation, because ‘they’ spied on his 2016 campaign, because ‘they’ don’t deserve to win. The red-hat-wearing mobs of un-masked fans at his rallies want more of the America they think Trump is bringing back to them. It’s an America that is more white, has more guns, has more churches, more of ‘us,’ less of ‘them.’”

—Salon.com.

The suggestion that doctors—in the midst of a public health crisis—are overcounting COVID-19 patients or lying to line their pockets is a malicious, outrageous, and completely misguided charge.”

—AMA President Susan Bailey.

NOT A TRUMP QUOTE, but it should be (with apologies to Cavin & Hobbes):

“Why don’t I have a bunch of friends with nothing better to do but drop by and tell me how great I am? Why aren’t my conversations peppered with spontaneous witticisms? Why don’t my friends demonstrate heartfelt concern for my well-being when I have problems?”

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How do you explain an incumbent candidate’s flooding someone’s email inbox with 23 messages in a single 24-hour period? Especially when that someone isn’t a supporter and is a member of the opposing political party?

It can be a measure of how poorly the campaign vets its mailing list, how disorganized the entire organization is. And that could reflect on how disorganized the incumbent’s administration really is.

It also could be a measure of just how desperate the candidate is that he would blanket a recipient with messages not only from him, but ostensibly family members and political allies.

That’s what Donald Trump has done with me over the weeks and months of this seemingly interminable campaign.

Some of the messages are downright funny, others actually pathetic.

Here’s one I received at 6:16 p.m. on Saturday:

“Tom:

“I emailed you.

“The Vice President emailed you.

“My sons, Don and Eric, both emailed you.

“Lara emailed you.

“Newt Gingrich emailed you.

“Ted Cruz emailed you.

“Sarah Huckabee Sanders emailed you.

“The Trump Finance Team emailed you.

“And now I’m emailing you. Again.”

(I’d already received 14 separate emails from all of the aforementioned by the time that one popped up in my inbox. Oh, and Lara, in case you didn’t know, is Eric’s wife.)

Trump continued in that email:

“Each day, my team has given me a list of Patriots who stepped up to help us reach our Final End-of-Month Goal, and each day I’ve noticed YOUR NAME is STILL MISSING.”

Well, yeah….

Another email features a roster that appears to scroll down a lengthy list of donors from various states, along with the amounts contributed. If you just glance at the moving scroll, it looks quite impressive.

But on closer inspection, you can see that the same names appear over and over and that there are actually only about a dozen names at best on the list. But it looks impressive.

What’s really amusing about the whole sad effort is that each email starts out with the personal salutation (in my case, “Tom”) before moving on to a pitch for money from the self-proclaimed billionaire who boasted in 2016 that he didn’t need campaign contributions, that he was going to finance his own campaign.

And now we learn that Trump has coyly constructed his campaign pledges so that donors unknowingly may be consenting to automatic bank withdrawals to the Trump campaign all the way through December to help him in his anticipated legal battle over the election outcome.

At one time, I deleted Trump’s emails as fast as I received them. But as they began increasing in frequency in the closing days of the campaign, I’ve started saving them.

In hopes I won’t get sued for copyright infringement, my inbox is now

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