by Robert M. Traxler
Will the midterms be a “blood bath” for the Democrats?
Many in the conservative media are predicting it. I hope so, but the media has not geared up its propaganda machine yet. Most Americans are not paying attention to the midterms and will not until the first part of September, about the same time most media will start a full court press to support the socialist party that describes itself as Democrats.
The nation is in economic and social trouble, but who cares? Things are fine, and if they are not the blame rests on former President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, the oil and gas companies, Covid-19, MAGA, the shipping lines, baby formula companies, the supply chain, and Santa Claus, but not the socialist practices of the current government.
The media will tell us that the evil energy companies have more than 1,000 leases to drill that they are not using, thus the restrictions on drilling on public land has nothing to do with the shortage of oil. “Come on, man.” In the three-foot stack of presidential orders signed in the first few weeks of President Joe Biden’s term were very strict regulations on drilling and the permitting process; interesting that the media fails to explain that to us.
In our President’s marathon signing spree, he stopped the Keystone pipeline completion; by now it would be providing an excess of 800,000 barrels of oil per day. Google “keystone pipeline “and the first few articles tell us Keystone will (wait for it) destroy the planet. So, shipping oil by fossil fuel burning tankers from Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, even the Russian Federation, is fine and safe, but a sealed pipeline using electric pumps from Canada will destroy the planet; go figure.
Saudi Arabia, after President Biden called for them to be regarded as a pariah state, shunned by the world government, is now apparently a great place, and our President will visit to beg on his knees for them to sell us oil at an inflated price; folks, you truly can not make this stuff up.
My entire life the mantra was to be oil independent. We had the OPEC oil embargo in 1973 and our economy was held hostage, the 1979 “oil crises” came out of the Iranian Revolution. We were dependent on foreign oil for our everyday needs. After trillions in investments and nearly 50 years in alternative energy we are now back to the bad old days of dependency on foreign oil.
Please remember that under President Trump we were oil independent, a goal that we have been striving for, for five decades. Americans’ memories are indeed short. Always remember American/Canadian oil pollutes, but Saudi, Venezuelan, Russian, or any imported oil shipped by a super tanker halfway around the planet burning fossil fuel, not so much. Saudi oil good, Canadian oil bad, got it. Common sense is not so common for the socialists/leftists/liberals.
The media will gear up for a full court press to support the Democrats in two or three months, but even the propaganda machine of the left will have a hard time convincing us the economy going down the proverbial tubes is a good thing, and even if not, it’s the fault of any person place or thing other than the socialists in Congress and in the White House. Eight to ten weeks of a mass media campaign just may save the day for the socialist movement, gains for the Republicans will be made, but with the media’s help, it will not be a “blood bath” or a tsunami for the Republicans.
The left has made the same mistake both parties make after a political victory — they overreach, as President Bill Clinton did in his first two years. He lost the house in the midterms after a 40-year Democrat majority, and then went right of center, declaring “The era of big government is over.” If the Republicans obtain a solid majority in the House and Senate they should not duplicate the mistakes of the past and overreach.
Both parties have suffered from victory disease in the past, being overly optimistic, something the Command and General Staff College teaches us to avoid in planning military operations. Never forget that much of the nation is in the center; center right yes, but centrists, not radical left or right. My opinion.
