We did it again

Yesterday, the day after Election Day, I made a bet with myself that all elections not yet decided will go Democrat.  I can revise that modestly.  All the elections needed to retain the House and Senate will go blue.

Now I realized that we have elections that will take weeks to decide, but all elections must be certified by December 14.  So any election that doesn’t look right, there won’t be enough time to verify or contest the results. 

All ballots should be in and counted on Election Day.  Now we have races where we know exactly how many votes are needed to decide a contested race. 

You watch.  There will be a lot of elections that will defy all expectations, but you won’t be able to challenge them. 

Even now, with record high inflation, millions of unvetted people entering our country, fights in schools and education all across the country, the balance of power always, ALWAYS shifts, but now it’s close?  Any bets that the Democrats keep both the House and the Senate?

Electing our Presidents by the Popular Vote

I understand the push to elect Presidents through the popular vote.  I disagree with it, but I understand why they want this.  (Actually small states lose out, October 3)

I find it noteworthy that they are not attempting to reform the system through a Constitutional Amendment.  That would show whether the country as a whole was in favor of the idea. 

There is, however, one fatal flaw in their plan.  Fatal in the sense that they are willing to break the core principles of democracy in order to save it, or, to get what they want.

Under our current electoral system, voters essentially are voting for electors, not the President himself.  These electors have all agreed to vote for a particular candidate if he wins.

Under this new proposal, if the voters of a state chose the candidate with fewer overall votes than the other candidate, the state would then nullify all their votes and accept all the electors of the losing candidate.

I’m sorry, but that is simply wrong.

UNLESS

Every election, on that same ballot, you will need to ask the voters if they will agree to that.  Then you have that right.  But to get so many states to agree to this, and then allow this system to perpetuate forever is absurd and contrary to every principle of democracy they claim to uphold. 

How to fund public education better

Two-thirds of your property taxes in Illinois go for funding public education.  Not surprisingly, poorer areas don’t seem to get enough funding for their schools.  (Illinois criticized over school funding equity, October 3)

If they take money from wealthier areas to give to the poorer ones, then property taxes will go even higher.  You may say that the wealthy can afford it.  But property taxes aren’t based on your income.  Property taxes don’t take into account a person’s ability to pay for them. 

People retire or lose jobs and then live on fixed incomes or their savings, but property taxes just keep going up.  People shouldn’t have to move because of high property taxes.

I have proposed a solution to this for decades.

Let the state determine a per student allocation for public education.  Raise this through the income tax.  This must be kept separate from the general income tax in every way.  Local school districts would be allowed to raise additional taxes however they will.  This plan will reduce overall property taxes and equitably fund all our public schools.

We must also allow parents who send their kids to private schools a deduction on their taxes for their expenses up to the amount they would have paid for public schools.

Jesus and government policies

Years ago, it was commonly asked, What would Jesus do?  There were even bracelets with four little cubes on them with the letters – WWJD.  (what would Jesus do?)

The Church in America is divided over the fact that we have millions of people walking into our country looking for a better life.  Does this mean that our government should just take care of them? 

They are not legal immigrants whom we have vetted, and whom we have some idea how they will assimilate into our country.  Most do not speak our language.

Our government is $31 trillion in debt.  There are millions more refugees around the world, and billions of people less well off than any American. 

If you are a Christian, how much debt are you going into in order to feed, clothe, and care for needy people? 

Jesus did mention a few times about people selling their possessions and giving to the poor.  And the early Church did that for a while.  But the Bible also frowns upon being in debt. 

But actually the bigger problem is that we have no idea who is coming into our country.  We have apprehended known terrorists. 

Did Jesus mean that we should open our country up to anybody in the world who can get here, and we will take care of them? 

The fact is that the border situation is entirely out of control.  People can be bringing in deadly transmittable diseases.  There could be enemy agents seeking to wreak terror and havoc throughout our country. 

With all the government benefits that we are providing for them, any poor person can come here and be better off than they were at home, and they wouldn’t even have to work for it.

The job of our elected leaders is to take care of the American people above those of other countries.  Like your family takes care of your own children before you take care of the other kids on the block.  That doesn’t mean that you hate all the other kids.  You just hope your neighbors are taking care of their own kids. 

The role of our government is, among other things, 1) to form a more perfect Union.  We are more divided than at any time in our history, and the government is responsible for that.  At least they are doing nothing to slow that down.  2)  ensure domestic tranquility.  Our government is fomenting hate and division as it tries to indoctrinate our children to despise our country and by constantly focusing on race and all the bad things in our past so that we lose sight of all that is good in our country.  3) promote the general welfare.  This doesn’t mean giving people money; it means promoting policies that create jobs and help the people prosper, like not spending our public money irresponsibly. 

Our government is putting the needs and wants of the citizens of other countries over that of its own.  Our refugee program has gone far beyond people fleeing mortal danger but extends now to pretty much anybody wanting a better life.  And our government provides any person coming here with much better living conditions than if they had stayed in their own country, so two million people have come this year alone.

In the old days, people came here for the freedom and opportunities.  Now they come because we will take care of them.

The American people are the most generous people in the world.  We just don’t like our government borrowing money it won’t pay back, so we are now paying a trillion dollars a year just in interest.

We don’t like our government not thinking about the safety of our country by just letting the border stand wide open.  Everybody has doors on their houses.  With locks.  Many have fences around their property.  Not only are we letting whoever wants to to come in, but we will put them up in nice hotels at other people’s expense.  The government has no money but what it takes from other people.  That is not compassion.  That is irresponsible, reckless spending.

Compassion is when you give to others out of your own possessions and money.  It is not compassion to take somebody else’s credit cards and just doling it out so lavishly that you are drawing more crowds who want the same things.

 

 

 

Changing the Way We Elect our Presidents

There is a push today to change the way we elect our Presidents.  In the current system, a person can be elected President who does not receive the majority of all the votes of all those who voted. 

Our Founders, profound students of history, rejected both the idea of direct democracy for our country and the popular vote for the President.  We are a republic and not a democracy, and states elect the President and not individuals. 

Since the President is President of all the United STATES, they wanted to be sure that all the states had a voice in the process.  The only way to do that is by the Electoral College. 

In this new plan, states would give all their electoral votes to the Presidential candidate who got the most votes overall.  Meaning, that even if most of the people in your state voted for the other candidate, that is to say, most of the people in your state voted for the electors of the other candidate, they will simply nullify your vote and choose different electors. 

And somehow this is better.

I saw a map recently.  Maps That Put The World In Perspective - Explored Planet  It shows the United States in red and gray.  Probably 95% of the map is gray.  There are more people living in the 5% red areas than the 95% gray area.  In other words, people who live in cities will elect our Presidents, and those in rural areas and smaller towns, not so much if at all.

Our country is currently in the midst of a social and political upheaval.  Beware of any comprehensive, major moves to change big things, particularly through attempts to get around things our country was built on, like the Constitution. 

If this is so popular, pass a Constitutional Amendment.  That is how you’re supposed to change the system.  This plan will override the votes of the majority of the people in a state to get what they want here.  You’re creating a bigger problem than the one you want to fix.

So what do we do with thousands of people a day coming into our country?

Sometimes I see an article in the newspapers that seems so absurd, I feel like I have to say something, but then surely the average reader would have seen the absurdity of it, so there is no need for me to point it out.

But then when both Chicago papers say the same thing and more than once, somebody is failing to see the bigger picture.  (trib (Our immigration mess needs an overhaul, not DeSantis’ stunts, September 18) (Time Texas Gov. Abbott sends asylum seekers here to sow chaos, but Illinois is better than that, September 18)

Over 2 million people have entered our country in the last year outside of our visa program.  They just walked right in.  Millions more if you go back a few decades.  We used to call them illegal immigrants, but they have been taught to claim asylum, so that practically speaking, most of them are going to get to stay here.  Court dates are now years away, and most don’t come back to court anyway. 

Most of these have crossed the border through Texas and Arizona.  The border states have asked for help from the federal government for decades to do something to stem the flood of people coming into their states.  And the federal government has done nothing. 

The rest of the country is essentially oblivious to all of this.  It doesn’t affect them directly, and the news media give it very little attention.  Oh, they may show a few short videos of people crossing the border, but they don’t show the impact on the state in which they are entering.

What do you do with thousands of people a day who are entering your state and expecting people to take care of them?

Some governors of the border states have started shipping some of them to areas that seem the least concerned about this massive influx of human beings. 

And so many people are calling all this a stunt, a cheap political trick close to an election. 

A stunt?  A trick?  Hell, no! 

Congress and many politicians around the country don’t see any problem with millions of people whom we don’t even know who they are just walking into our country.  They complain about a couple hundred migrants being dropped off at their door.  Like, what are we supposed to do with them?

I am as compassionate as anybody about the plight of poor, disadvantaged people, but if you don’t see a problem or two here, then you shouldn’t be making our laws or writing editorials in newspapers. 

Sometimes I think we should just annex Mexico and half of Central America.  We would need to give them 10-20 years before granting full statehood, but I think it’s something to consider. 

Whatever Congress decides to do, I think shipping migrants to certain key places around the country may be the only way to get Congress to act.

Deciding How to Vote in the Upcoming Election

I don’t like to talk about political parties.  It draws lines in the wrong places. 

I like to talk about ideas and policies.  Ideas and policies should be discussed on their own merits apart from political parties and labels.

In less than two months, we are going to have another election.  If you watch television or read newspapers, you can easily think that this election is and should be decided on the basis of one issue: abortion.

I think we should take a broader look at what this election is all about.

If you think babies are disposable like a litter of puppies or kittens, when unborn children can be killed for any reason up until the time they are born, then, by all means, yes, you need to vote Democratic.  Republicans can’t always get the details right, but they believe abortion cheapens human life, and they think our society has enough of that.

In the last year, we have had 2 million people enter our country illegally.  Yes, many of them claim to be refugees, but then they have been taught to say that, and practically speaking, almost all illegal immigrants are here to stay.  Sure, many of them are nice people.  The problem is that we don’t know who’s coming.  No background checks, no medical exams.

If you have a problem with any of this, you’re going to have to vote Republican.

If you believe that a country has the responsibility to know who is coming into it to live and whether they have any serious diseases or evil intents, you’re going to have to vote Republican.

We are having the highest inflation in 40 years, due to our government spending trillions of dollars it doesn’t have.  We are also spending a trillion dollars a year just to pay interest on our federal debt.  That is like burning a trillion dollars a year.

If you have a problem with that, you’re going to have to vote Republican.

Our federal government is $31 trillion in debt, and that debt is growing rapidly, and the government is not even trying to stop it.

If you have a problem with any of this, you’re going to have to vote Republican.

Violent crime and general lawlessness is out of hand in our country.  Police are demoralized and understaffed all across our country.  Criminals and other violent people are less worried about the repercussions of their crimes.

If you have a problem with that, you’re going to have to vote Republican.

The federal guidelines for sex education in our public schools normalizes all sexual behavior and encourages your young children to question and explore their sexual behavior and gender at the youngest ages.  Schools and politicians want to facilitate any gender transitioning and will do this without the knowledge and consent of the student’s parents if necessary.

If you have a problem with schools sexualizing your children, you’re going to have to vote Republican.

If you like the United States being energy independent, and where we don’t have to buy energy from unfriendly or unreliable sources, and heating, electricity, and gas prices being affordable, you’re going to have to vote Republican.

If you are proud to be an American, if you think the United States is the greatest country in the history of the world, if you believe in the American Dream, you’re going to have to vote Republican.

If you believe that society should be color blind, that people should be judged on the quality of their character and not the color of their skin, then you’re going to have to vote Republican.

If you believe the best qualified people should get the job, you going to have to vote Republican.

If you believe in God, the Ten Commandments as our rule of life, if you believe our rights come from God, then you’re going to have to vote Republican.

If you believe in the freedom of speech, where you are able to express your opinions freely, where we can openly talk about touchy subjects, where we can disagree and not be considered hateful, then you’re going to have to vote Republican.

If you believe in the right to be armed, to protect your life, your property, and your freedom, you’re going to have to vote Republican.  

In Illinois, the state is essentially bankrupt.  It is on a trajectory of exponentially increasing debt due to the pension clause in the State Constitution.  This will force every increasing tax burdens to pay for this. 

If you think this problem should be fixed, you’re going to have to vote Republican.

If you live in Illinois, you will be asked to vote on a Constitutional Amendment to support workers’ rights.  What they’re not telling you is that this Amendment was written primarily for government employees more than private ones. 

In Illinois, if you think politicians are enriching themselves and using government workers to solidify their control by enriching them all at taxpayer expense, then you’re going to have to vote Republican.

Years ago, choosing candidates to vote for was often a difficult task.  Politicians have made voting a lot easier today.