Keelan: The convention where negativity and defeatism reigned

By Don Keelan

In the 2016 presidential election, it has been noted that the Trump Presidential Campaign received over $1 billion in free media promotion. CNN, MSNBC, The Washington Post, The New York Times, as well as other media outlets reported on Donald Trump’s antics 24/7, at the exclusion of the other candidates’ positions on the issues.

Ever since the 2016 election, the anti-Trump media has continued their daily barrage. News outlets in Vermont were no different. In the Rutland Herald’s Feb. 23, 2017 editorial pages, no less than seven anti-Trump letters, editorial, columns and cartoons were published debasing the president.

Don Keelan

Even during the run-up to last month’s Democratic convention, the 18 or so Democratic Party primary candidates had their messages either not heard or relegated to the back pages of the newspapers. President Trump’s latest Twitter announcement became the page one news story for the week and dominated social media outlets.

After reading the news coverage of the recent Democratic convention, I would have thought that the party leaders would have insisted on having all speakers focused on the positive and stay completely away from the negative, especially in bashing the president — it was not to be the case.

I came away from the convention with one thought: the Democratic Party’s only goal is to defeat President Trump in November, by what will amount to one of the most negative presidential campaigns in recent memory.

What we will witness is that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will do what all Democratic Party presidential candidates have done every four years — they promise to bring all sorts of help to the voters of the inner-cities. In exchange, just come out and vote for our candidates. At the end of four years, the plight of the inner-city dwellers remains the same.

The above can best be illustrated on how disparate and despairing life is for those living in Baltimore, Chicago, San Francisco, Oakland, Detroit, Cleveland and other cities that have for decades given over their votes to the Democrats, only to be short-changed four years later.

Jason L. Riley, a long respected columnist for the Wall Street Journal, recently noted, “Democrats focus their energies on keeping black people angry and paranoid, not on improving black lives. Democratic politicians typically don’t run on what they have done for blacks. They run on how much worse things will be if their Republican opponent wins.”

The fact that the many inner-cities’ school children cannot have school choice, a critical factor in lifting them out of poverty, is solely due to the Democratic Party’s leadership being chained to the education union, the NEA and the UTA.

Columnist Riley went on to state, “The strategy has been extremely effective for the Democrats over the past half-century, but it has left the black communities they represent with high unemployment, violent crime, homelessness, failing schools and political leaders who are seldom held accountable for any of it.”

Trump’s political advisors are hoping their rivals will continue the negative onslaught directed at Trump. It was exactly what was done in 2016. And while that will be the Democratic Party’s message, the Republicans will focus on dealing with getting a COVID-19 vaccine to all, lessen our dependence of foreign-made goods, deal with the spiraling costs of healthcare and meds,  bringing back the economy to where it had been prior to the pandemic, resolving the immigration issue, address the climate crisis with common sense, and standing firm toward China and Iran’s expansionism.

To deal with the enormous domestic and international problems that exist today, the president must remain positive — he should not allow the Democratic Party’s tidal wave of negativity and defeatism to get in his way. He should also recognize that the BIPOC votes are not necessarily pledged to the Democratic Party.

It is too bad we can’t make Jason Riley’s 2014 book, “Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder For Blacks To Succeed,” mandatory reading for Democratic, Progressive and Socialists candidates. Five years ago, Riley called out their insincerity; it needs to be done again.

Don Keelan writes a bi-weekly column and lives in Arlington, Vermont.

Image courtesy of Public domain

4 thoughts on “Keelan: The convention where negativity and defeatism reigned

  1. Defeatism is right.

    Here are some recent data and Biden’s defeatist, dreamworld “platform” which would grind to a halt the US economy.

    Fancy, computerized “climate models” predict SUBJECTIVE results all over the place.

    THIRTY YEARS of satellite data, OBJECTIVELY showed, the world temps went from 0.34 + 0.43 = 0.77 C, or 0.0256 C/year.
    Temps would likely increase another 0.77 C from 2020 to 2050.

    According to AOC, Markey, Biden, Bernie, McKibben, Hair-do Pelosi, and other such Calizuela-like charlatans, we need “invest” tens of $$TRILLIONS, to turn the US economy upside down, ban fossil fuel by 2035 (according Biden’s “platform”), as otherwise, THEY SAY, WITHOUT EVIDENCE, “WE WILL ALL FRY AND THE WORLD WILL COME TO AN END”

    Biden said he would not ban EXISTING fracking, only NEW fracking.
    That is a grossly, obfuscating, misleading statement.

    That would be a death sentence for ALL fracking, because sites produce for only a few years.
    Then fracking at another site needs to be started to maintain production levels, so called NEW fracking.

    Trump is right again, because it is common sense.

    Biden is against any NEW fracking, which means existing sites would peter out in a few years, and THERE WOULD BE NO GAS, and, eventually, NO COAL AND NO NUCLEAR as well, which is exactly what BIDEN’s advisors, Bernie, AOC, Markey, etc., want.

    That is like paddling, in a canoe, upstream of Niagara Falls.
    No sane person should vote for Calizuela-like folks.

  2. Do you have any feedback on the GOP convention? They have no platform, multiple violations of the Hatch Act by individuals in the administration, and no vision for the party was articulated. I guess clinging to hyper-partisanship is more important than having someone represent the views you claim to have.

  3. At the Dem’s convention, we heard nothing but the rant against President Trump. Was anyone surprised? What they failed to do is level with us about their socialist agenda. While the Republicans talked about the next four years and what they planned to do to keep America great. My guess is that the Denms are afraid to level with the folks as they know they have a phoney message. Just a thought.

  4. Great story Mr. Keelan and so true. Black voters are leaving the Democrat plantation – it’s in fact an exodus. Democrat Party cannot win w/o the black vote.

    Another fact that appears to be missed in the issue of police funding and presence is most requests for police presence in these communities originate from the commumity. In fact *all* communities – regardless of race – overwhelmingly support police presence. And large part of the reason black community is rejecting Deomocrat Party. Only criminals and their supporters reject police presence and funding.
    81% of Black Americans Want To Maintain or Increase Police Presence in Their Neighborhood
    by Hannah Bleau 5 Aug 2020 2,705
    https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/08/05/81-of-black-americans-want-to-maintain-or-increase-police-presence-in-their-neighborhood/
    Gallup study:
    https://news.gallup.com/poll/316571/black-americans-police-retain-local-presence.aspx

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