A few random observations, charts and factoids to provide some context on what is going on in the world.
Political Propaganda
It is easier to understand why the polls have tightened in the Presidential race when you consider media coverage since Kamala Harris replaced Joe Biden on the Democrat ticket.
The major networks are not so much providing political coverage of the race but are engaged in a propaganda onslaught for Harris.
Consider a recent study by the Media Research Center on the coverage that the major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) have given to Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
84% of the coverage of Kamala Harris has been positive. 89% of Trump's coverage has been negative.
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| Source: https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/rich-noyes/2024/08/19/study-networks-deliver-massive-media-honeymoon-kamala-harris |
Moreover, Harris has received 66% more airtime than Trump over the last four weeks.
Media coverage of the VP candidates of the Big Three networks is similar.
62% of the airtime of Walz has been positive. 92% of the Vance coverage has been negative.
Of course, we have seen this before.
In the 2020 campaign, Biden's coverage was 66% positive compared to Trump's being 92% negative.
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| Source: https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/rich-noyes/2020/10/27/never-more-biased-tv-blasts-trump-92-negative-coverage-66-positive |
For the entirety of Trump's four years in office, the Media Research Center found that 90.5% of the coverage of Trump by the three major networks was negative.
Considering all of this it is a wonder that Trump is still standing.
Are we getting political coverage from ABS, CBS and NBC or political propaganda?
Roe vs. Wade
The Democrats have spent a lot of time over the last few years demonizing the U.S. Supreme Court due to its decision in overturning the Roe v. Wade decision on abortion.
The Democrats like to portray the decision as if abortion has been banned in the United States.
The Supreme Court decision two years ago merely determined that the Roe v. Wade decision was flawed in holding that there was a constitutional right to abortion.
The Supreme Court ruled that to conclude that there is such a right at the federal level would either require the passage of legislation or a constitutional amendment detailing that right.
It should be noted that in the nearly 50 years since Roe v. Wade was decided all attempts to codify the decision or pass a constitutional amendment failed in Congress.
Simply stated, why should it be possible to enshrine anything so consequential (balancing the right of a woman to an unborn child) by 9 justices in a nation of 340 million people?
As a result of Roe v. Wade being overturned, the determination of any rights to abortion is to be determined by the people of each state through legislation or constitutional process.
Over the last two years this democratic process has been taking place in various states. Some states have placed stricter limits on abortion than in Roe v.Wade. Others have expanded access to abortion and placed almost no limits up to the time of birth. In no states has abortion been totally banned as was generally the case before the Roe decision.
Once again, we see the effects of propaganda on public opinion in the aftermath of Roe v.Wade.
Last year a survey found that half of Americans thought overturning Roe v. Wade banned abortion nationally.
That view was held by 63% of Democrats. I wonder where they got that idea?
All the decision did was leave the question of abortion, and the limits that might be placed on it, to the people in each state to decide.
Some would call this the essence of democracy.
Will Religion Win or Lose in 2024?
In many respects religion is on the ballot in 2024.
Will it win or lose?
Note the huge difference in this Emerson College poll in Pennsylvania on support for Trump and Harris between those who are believers in Jesus Christ and those who are atheists or agnostics.
Trump's lead overall in this poll is 49%-48%.
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| Credit: https://x.com/Mark_R_Mitchell/status/1825866699096068399 |
Although a small sample size, Harris is also leading with Jewish voters 71%-29%,
Eerily Similar
A little over a month ago Joe Biden was pushed aside by a handful of Democrat party leaders including Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama who demanded that he step aside as the Democrat party candidate.
This was despite the fact that Biden had overwhelmingly received the votes of millions of Democrat voters in the primary elections this year.
Many are calling it as a coup as those same party leaders immediately anointed VP Kamala Harris to replace Biden on the Democrat ballot.
Harris had not received one vote by Democrat voters to be the party's nominee in either 2020 or 2024.
A BeeLine reader (thanks K.K) sent me this clipping from his paper that carries a feature each day called "This Day in History".
This is the history related to August 18, 1991.
Interestingly, that coup was put down after three days because Boris Yeltsin who was President of Russia (the largest of the republics in the Soviet Union at that time) spoke out and called on the Russian people to strike and protest the coup.
When soldiers tried to arrest Yeltsin, they found the way to the parliamentary building blocked by armed and unarmed civilians. Yeltsin himself climbed aboard a tank and spoke through a megaphone, urging the troops not to turn against the people and condemning the coup as a “new reign of terror.” The soldiers backed off, some of them choosing to join the resistance. After thousands took the streets to demonstrate, the coup collapsed after only three days.Gorbachev was released and flown to Moscow, but his regime had been dealt a deadly blow. Over the next few months, he dissolved the Communist Party, granted independence to the Baltic states, and proposed a looser, more economics-based federation among the remaining republics. In December 1991, Gorbachev resigned. Yeltsin capitalized on his defeat of the coup, emerging from the rubble of the former Soviet Union as the most powerful figure in Moscow and the leader of the newly formed Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
History may not be repeat but it surely rhymes.
Who would have thought that in the United States of America we would see such striking parallels with the prior politics of the Soviet Union?
Isn't it also interesting that not one Democrat had the courage to stand up and defend Joe Biden? It would not have even required them to face arrest or death in doing so as was the case with Boris Yeltsin when he climbed aboard that tank and spoke through that megaphone.
Democrats like to say they are defending democracy but their actions do not seem to match their rhetoric.
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