Joe Biden (or, rather, the campaign staff running his Twitter account) posted a curious statement.
“I want every single American to know,” he said, “if you’re sick, if you’re struggling, if you’re worried about how you’re going to get through the day — I will not abandon you I will not leave you to face these challenges alone.”
This plays into the larger campaign play the Biden team is making, attacking Trump with a barrage of charges regarding his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a calculated play, as it’s risky to bring Biden out right now. The polling is good for the former Vice President, but when he is out of sight and not making public appearances (and, more importantly, speaking), his poll numbers go up. When he is talking, his numbers go down as people realize that, yes, there is a problem with his faculties.
However, the gist of Biden’s statement itself is concerning, because it plays into a fear that conservatives have long had about progressive control of government - namely, that they would prefer the government do everything for you, rather than you work to achieve independence for yourself.
Or, as a friend put it on Twitter:
It’s one of the reasons that I loved South Carolina Senator Tim Scott’s speech after his police reform bill was blocked in the Senate. Scott was (rightly) furious that it was blocked, but noted that the American people, and the black community in particular, shouldn’t need the federal government to do what his bill was trying to do.
It should be the role of local and even state governments to address these issues. The federal government was granted limited powers in the Constitution so that states could retain control of its own police forces, so it should be up to the states and the municipalities within them to address the issues we’re seeing in law enforcement.
The federal government has no police force. It has a federal bureau of investigation, but they have limited powers and must work through/with local agencies to operate. Likewise, the federal government does not have its own health system. It does not provide health care, and it does not offer health insurance. Instead, through the Affordable Care Act, it partners with private companies to offer policies.
It’s one of the reasons the ACA was such a disjointed mess. It did not offer single-payer care nor did it offer any real reforms to insurance. One of the reasons a system like that is destined to fail in the United States is because the system is established to limit the government’s power, and when the government tries to expand its power so much so quickly, the system can’t handle it.
Joe Biden can no more ensure that you are cared for properly in this pandemic than Donald Trump can. Biden can claim he has the power to do things that Trump won’t - forcing the economy to shut down, forcing people to wear masks, etc. - but he wouldn’t really have any sort of power as President to do that. Again, the federal government was specifically barred in the Constitution from being able to do those things.
Where Are The Problems?
So, who exactly is President Biden going to save? The virus is spiking everywhere, but the states that have been and continue to be hit worst are Democratic-led states.
That’s why it infuriates me that CNN’s Chris Cuomo is able to go on his prime time show each night and praise his brother, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, and rant and rave about Republican governors like Florida’s Ron DeSantis.
On his Monday night program, Cuomo belittled and mocked Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for what Mediaite calls a “premature victory lap.” This is the week after he praised his older brother for showing great leadership in New York, despite the fact that, by every metric, the elder Cuomo has done exponentially worse than DeSantis, whose state has seen a spike, but is nowhere near as devastated as New York.
After playing the clip of DeSantis’ White House tirade, Cuomo mimicked the Florida governor’s gesticulations before calling out the premature victory lap. Cuomo is the younger brother of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who has also sparked outrage and sharply criticized for how he handled the outbreak in that state.
“What now? Not going to hear him here. You won’t see him here. Why? Because he’s got nothing to say,” Cuomo snarked. “When he had a chance to speak, he spoke too soon, he did too little, and now his state is suffering too much. New York’s peak and daily cases was in what, April? The five-day average of daily cases hit almost 10,000. Terrible. Things here still aren’t great. We’re just moving in the right direction. Florida health officials reported nearly 10,000 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, its highest single day since the start of the pandemic.”
Cuomo went on to reference the claims of a former data analyst who lied about the state trying to censor certain data from their own COVID-19 dashboard, hinting that DeSantis wasn’t releasing full numbers in order to keep President Donald Trump happy.
It does not take a data analyst, or even someone skilled at mathematics, to look at the data and see that Florida was and still is better off than the state of New York.
Nearly 400,000 cases and upwards of 30,000 deaths, due in large part to mismanagement from the state’s leadership. Governor Cuomo was responsible for the disastrous policy that forced nursing homes to take in infected patients.
Florida, meanwhile, has seen only 141,000 cases — including this current spike — and only 3,400 deaths. And where Governor Cuomo forced nursing homes to take infected patients, DeSantis sent teams into nursing homes to test and removed/quarantine anyone who was infected, saving an untold number of lives in the process. The lives of our most vulnerable citizens can trust DeSantis and should be terrified of Cuomo.
But the numbers and the facts don’t matter to Chris Cuomo, whose only job is to be a press flack for his brother. Despite the clear ethical issues with CNN allowing him to interview his brother, a politician at the center of one of the worst outbreaks in the country, he has continued to go on the air and not just defend him but to actually attack anyone who has done better.
It’s The Same For High-Crime Cities
Many of the places that need the most police reform, as Senator Tim Scott pointed out, are Democratic-led big cities.
President Donald Trump and other Republicans (including Senator Tim Scott) have continuously pointed out that the cities in America with the biggest problems are all run by Democrats. Trump himself has called them the “most dangerous cities,” which naturally means he must be fact-checked.
So, Phillip Bump wrote a piece at the Washington Post on the subject titled “Trump keeps claiming that the most dangerous cities in America are all run by Democrats. They aren’t.” At the very top of the online story is this chart. I want you to take a really good look at it, because it is possibly the most pathetic clap back I have ever seen.
That’s right, folks, of all those cities on that chart, four are not run by Democrats. Therefore, Trump is wrong!
It may shock you to know that Phillip Bump isn’t actually trying to make a point to discredit Trump regarding these cities. In fact, he doesn’t even address the ones that aren’t Democratic at all! I did more research on them than he did. Bump’s point is, and I quote, “Trump isn’t really trying to make a point beyond ‘cities and Democrats are scary.’ He’s not going to win cities but he might scare suburban voters — voters he desperately needs in November — by tying Democrats and crime together.”
He completely evades the point his own headline and lede are making (in all fairness, he probably didn’t write his own headline, but if he didn’t write his own lede, then we need to have a different talk). He spends the whole time explaining that “of course big cities are blue.” Honestly, there was probably no expectation that anyone would read past the chart at the top of the page. “Oh look, Trump is wrong,” and no one would really notice the incredibly smarmy tone Bump takes throughout the piece.
But I did, and I found it disturbing that the Washington Post’s writer did not even try to go into detail about the cities that aren’t run by Democrats. It’s a clear case of having a thesis and not even wanting to challenge it. He instead goes off on the fact that, yes, most cities do lean Democrat but that doesn’t mean anything.
So, instead of completely avoiding Bump’s headline and lede, I want to explore it using the parameters he set and the chart his story uses. Let’s look at those cities that aren’t run by Democrats.
All municipal elections in Texas are non-partisan, so of course San Antonio isn’t run by a Democrat. Technically, then, this city is not run by a Democrat. But a simple Google search can tell you the current mayor, Ron Nirenberg, has a progressive (which is not Republican) bent.
In the interest of fairness, though, let us establish now that the conditions that make the most dangerous cities require decades of administrative neglect. One Democratic administration isn’t going to upset the whole law and order cart, after all. So let’s go back a few mayors of San Antonio to see if we can establish a pattern.
Prior to Nirenberg, you had Ivy Taylor, who ran non-partisan, but she is a registered member of the Democratic Party. Before her, Julian Castro, who I seem to recall recently ran as a presidential candidate for Not The Republican Party.
In fact, going back to the 80s, only two San Antonio mayors weren’t Democrats.
Let’s move down the list to Las Vegas. The current mayor, Carolyn Goodman, and the previous mayor, Oscar Goodman, are spouses! Both independents, they have run the city since 1999. So maybe the Washington Post is technically correct here, but again, we’re looking at decades of neglect turning these cities into what they are. Prior to these two, who have been by all accounts out of touch with their communities anyway, every mayor since 1975 has been a Democrat.
Moving on, Jacksonville, Florida, is possibly the Post‘s best case. Of the last five mayors (including the current one), only two were Democrats, and one of those switched parties halfway into a term. However, from the early 1990s to the late 1880s, it’s all Democrats. There might be a case to be made, but Jacksonville is way down the Post’s chart and is routinely outside the usual coverage of violent or dangerous cities.
The last city (meaning there are only four exceptions to Trump’s claim on a list of about 40 cities), and way down on the list of crimes per 1000 people, we have Springfield, Missouri. This one is tough, though. It’s not a “big” city, so the mayors don’t have their own Wikipedia pages or a lot of coverage identifying their affiliations. The position of mayor in Springfield, like San Antonio, is non-partisan. The current mayor, though, was a transition director for a Republican governor. The previous mayor was plagued by accusations of scandal. It’s hard to grasp here where affiliations may lie, as even news stories out of Springfield don’t really indicate much.
Then again, it’s not a “big” city where you see the types of problems Trump was addressing. It’s on the list for statistical reasons, though, so we have to address it.
Going back to the point Bump makes in the body of his article (not the point he makes in his lede or headline), ultimately it’s not the fact that cities are largely filled with Democratic voters. It’s not that big cities lean Democratic. It’s the fact that Democratic administrations have for decades been lax on important issues that keep their cities safe.
It isn’t a coincidence that cities run by Democrats are the most dangerous cities in America. There are real reforms that could and should be addressed in those cities. As Senator Tim Scott pointed out, you don’t need Congress to do it. But these city administrations won’t do it. Going along with the mob to continue making worse decisions won’t help.
And, I realize I’m spending a whole lot of time discussing a story that won’t affect much, but it’s another example of misleading journalism that isn’t affecting change. You may not think affecting change is journalism’s job, but journalists think it is, yet when it comes to actual issues like these, they won’t touch it. They won’t note that there is a correlation between the crime rate of a city and who is running that city. They would much rather ignore that and focus on a disease outbreak in a Republican state despite the fact that people in those states are STILL better off than the people in Democratic ones.
Yes, there is a relationship between the coverage of crimes in Democratic cities and the coverage of COVID-19 in Republican states. It’s all about the agenda.
Bump’s story is just a pathetic attempt to fact check Trump without really fact-checking him at all. It is Resistance Porn without the actual porn. It’s just lazy journalism.
Homestyle: Going On Vacation
On this week’s episode of Homestyle, my co-host Leigh Guidry and I are fresh off vacation, and we talk about the importance of just getting away.
Her’s was the full family on a road trip to Colorado. Mine was my wife andI going to Florida with my parents and siblings - adults only with my kids staying with my in-laws. Both types of vacation are great for the body and mind, and we discuss why as well as planning for these types of trips.
If you want to hear more, you can always go back and listen to previous episodes, and we’d love to hear your feedback. Subscribe, rate, and review the podcast here, and if you have cooking, crafting, or family activity ideas, you can find us on Facebook and on Instagram (@Homestylepod).
——————————————-
The Homestyle Podcast is a joint venture between myself and one of my best friends, education reporter Leigh Guidry. Throughout each episode, we discuss cooking, crafting, and other hobbies as well as how we make sure to spend time with our families despite how insanely busy life can be. The goal of the podcast has always been to take a moment to focus on what’s really important because, at the end of the day, family and life is more important than whatever distractions are going on in the world around us.
Recipe Of The Week: Pound Cake
I am going against my better judgment here and granting you a superpower. No person should have the ability to create something like this, but I am here to make you all better people by giving you this recipe. You can freeze this cake to save it for later, and it’s also an amazing (though not entirely healthy) breakfast if you slice it, butter the slice, and toast it in the oven for a minute or two.
A note before I continue: I am giving you the original as it appeared in a cookbook from my home town. However, I modified it by not using all-purpose flour. Instead, I used cake flour, which makes for a lighter, fluffier cake. Pound cake is usually dense, but I lightened it just a little bit this way. To convert:
Use 1 cup cake flour plus two tablespoons for every cup of all-purpose required in the recipe.
In recipes that call for cake flour you don’t have, use one cup all-purpose, take out two tablespoons of it and replace it with two tablespoons of corn starch and sift together.
Here is the recipe for the pound cake:
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
3 cups sugar
5 eggs
3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup milk
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
1/3 cup vegetable oil
Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees.
Cream butter, shortening, and sugar together in your mixer until smooth.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together.
Alternatively add dry ingredients and milk to creamed mixture, then stir in vanilla and oil.
Pour batter into 10-inch tube pan and bake for 90 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Final Thoughts…
I’ve had a lot of friends sharing some statements/sentiments that I addressed, knowing full well I’ll probably upset some of them. I want to address it here.
There is a difference between the phrase “black lives matter” (which is a good thing for us to say and feel and we should continue to fight for that belief to become reality) and the organization called Black Lives Matter. When you see someone talking about Black Lives Matter being “leftist” or “socialist,” they are referring to that organization which does espouse cultural and economic revolutionary views that go way beyond the equal (or, rather, unequal) treatment of the different races and sexual orientations.
You can support the statement and the organization, but it is possible for someone to support the former and not the latter without that making them a horrible person.
Most importantly, though, we have to have dialogue, rather than shouting others down. It’s the only way we push ahead and create real, positive change.