Doubling down on stupid! ------- By Ed Mattson

!Doubling down on stupid
By Ed Mattson
The political system in America is fractured . . . and that is stated here in the kindest terms possible. We no longer find the basic two-party system, which has served our democratic representative republic for more 240 + years, adequately representing the views of the citizens regardless of which party they chose.
Since the Founders devised our unique system of governance, we have managed to endure our war for independence from the British Crown; a Civil War that tore at the seams of the country over the issue of slavery; and two catastrophic world wars where America played out its role as leader of the free world. We have defeated tyranny at every turn and fed the world’s population at the end of World War II because farm lands of nearly every other country were littered with unexploded munitions. Today we are the beacon of freedom and liberty where people risk their lives to get here so they too, can live the American Dream.
Because of world events, we have faced down countries that have threatened global stability; confronted atrocities that defy the human imagination; governments who sought dominance over far weaker countries; dictators who have tried to imprison whole populations under the guise of socialism, Marxism, communism, and variations of totalitarianism systems which require complete subservience to the state with no individual rights or freedom. America has stood between tyranny and freedom at the cost of nearly one million (not counting the 600,000 who died in the Civil War) military personnel, and has become the “policeman of the world”, maintaining law and order because no other country is willing to do so.
The presidential election of 2016, was hopefully the turning point in the doom and gloom professed by the Democrats – the party of leftist progressivism – and their apologists in the mainstream media which declared America’s best days were behind us, or as in the words of the Washington Post:
“The grim news is not that the economy continues to resist returning to normal. Rather, it is that this “current equilibrium” (Bullard’s phrase) is the new normal. If 2 percent growth is, as he says, “the most likely scenario” for the foreseeable future, the nation faces a second consecutive lost decade — one without a year of 3 percent growth.”
The Washington Post was not alone in the pessimism that permeated the country during the Obama years. The usually more conservative Wall Street Journal, in an article by Damien Paletta, stated . . .
President Barack Obama warned in an interview on CBS’s 60 Minutes about the danger of a “new normal” taking hold of the economy – an environment in which businesses become accustomed to fewer employees and the U.S. job market never regains its footing.
The country has gone through a period of time (the last 50 years) where our children have not been adequately educated in math, science, and reading, nor the proud traditions and the greatness of America. To go from one of the best educational systems in the world that was once at the top of the “leader board”, to a mediocre, second-class system which today is rated at number 14, and looks to be on the verge of dropping even lower, needs to be laid at the door step of the Democrat Party.
It all began when Jimmy Carter decided the federal government needed to take over the educational system so that our children could be indoctrinated into a revisionist view of governance that downplayed the Marxist and socialist failures throughout history. Dumbing-down the population is one of the first steps in controlling the governed according to the Communist Manifesto which stated . . .
“Free education for all children in government schools”.
The Communists did not invent the “intervention of society” in education; they sought to alter the character of that intervention, and to rescue education from the influence of the traditional ruling class, which through tradition taught our children to study hard and learn everything possible as a foundation for life, and then participate in a workforce where you would be rewarded for your achievement in our capitalistic economic system.
The goal of all good liberal progressives, socialists, and Marxists however, has been to place themselves as the ruling class so they can continue dictating the educational curriculum, keeping our children in the dark about the virtues of the free enterprise economic system. Once in control, they could fulfill their dream putting the country on a pathway to the utopian society they have never been able to achieve in all of history.
To show the success of the leftist scheme to torpedo our educational system all we have to do is
look to the rise in popularity of renown Marxist and former presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, and the recent Democrat congressional candidate, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Both are so far left of the mainstream it would take binoculars to see any validity in the Communist inspired programs they represent. Take Ocasio-Cortez’s recent interview rhetoric which shows just how ignorant these people are to the realities of life and how quickly they forget the lessons of history, if in fact they were even aware of those events that marked the failure of the policies they espouse.
Ocasio-Cortez, who has become the darling of the Left, told  Vogue magazine that socialism, to her, means “democratic participation in our economic dignity, and our economic, social and racial dignity.” That definition of socialism could only hold such a meaning by someone who has no idea that communism is just around the corner, and not a clue as to the historic failures which has proven to be the demise of communism each time it is tried. She obviously never heard of Vladimir Lenin, been to the old Soviet Union, talked to citizens of the oppressed countries inside the former Eastern Bloc, or never realized people every day  risk their lives in an effort to escape from the prison-state of communism.
“The goal of socialism is communism”. Vladimir Lenin
Further in her interview Ocasio-Cortez went on to say . . .
“To me, what socialism means is to guarantee a basic level of dignity. It’s asserting the value of saying that the America we want and the America we are proud of is one in which all children can access a dignified education. It’s one in which no person is too poor to have the medicines they need to live. It’s to say that no individual’s civil rights are to be violated. And it’s to say that we need to really examine the historical inequities that have created much of the inequalities – both in terms of economics and social and racial justice – because they are intertwined.”
These are the words of an uneducated fool with a single digit IQ. The highest level of achievement in any socialism society is mediocrity. Now, to add insult to the ignorance she displays, she and her followers on the Left are advocating for ‘Medicare for all’; a federal jobs guarantee; abolishing ICE; insisting on much more severe policing of luxury real estate development (without which I guess people are suppose to sleep under a bridge); pushing for economic justice, and the age-old hyperbole that “we must soak the rich by making them pay their fair share”. Such ridiculous and stupid utterances. Hell’s fire . . . Medicare for all would cost over $32.6 trillion dollars, and we are already in the hole to the tune of $21 trillion!

According to the nonprofit Tax Foundation, the nation’s leading independent tax policy study group, the top 5% of wage earners pay 59.97% of the federal personal income taxes, while 43.5% the population pays no income tax.
While pretending to be a commoner among the poor and overburdened working class (she claimed to be a”Bronx Girl”), she is in fact from a wealthy family that has already drawn attention to the phony background and upbringing she claims. Her family moved to Yorktown, north of the Bronx, in a $355,500 home. Yet like most liberals, when caught in the act of their deception, they are quickly forgiven by the media because they have such noble intentions, and what the hell, their blind followers just follow along like sheep, being the useful idiots that they are.
There are those who will read this article who will not agree that the Democrats have purposely invaded our educational system in an effort to dumb-down our children so they can be easily manipulated into keeping them in office with government handouts, and many who probably believe our schools do a credible job in educating our kids. If schools were doing a good job in their endeavor, and if the kids were getting a quality education, then please tell me why we have school drop-out rates in many school districts that top 25%, and that more than 50% of high school students don’t know the difference between socialism and social media?
Yes, we have the Democrats, the so called “Party of the People” on one side of the aisle which has become a party of rich elitists, who must first create the conditions for a permanent underclass, and then giveaway the hard-earned dollars of the working class in an effort to purchase the votes to keep themselves in power.
On the other side of the aisle we have the Republicans who for the most part have been so content with never being in a leadership role in Washington, they don’t have a clue about how to get things done the voters sent them to do. They are content to just collect their pay checks, take their vacations, and retire with pensions and benefits that would make a prostitute blush.

We the people have just one hope, and that was the election of Donald Trump, who has shaken things up inside the Beltway and around the world.
Our economy is on fire with gains being made in all areas, including an economic resurgence that even the press can’t diminish though they will continue trying.

Trump has taken the leadership role in renegotiating America’s international trade policies which
have put us at a disadvantage with other countries; vacated many of the economic constraints of the previous administrations; forged the most effective tax reform bill in history; created policies that have employment of Black and Hispanic Americans at record levels; and restored hope, pride and spirit in conservative America.
The Democrats on the other hand have decided to double down on stupid by having us go back to the their failed old policies that were proven so ineffective under Obama and previous limp-wristed Republican presidents:
• Taxing us to death – wanting to negate the tax reform bill that has proven so effective.
• Eliminate ICE and open the borders for unlimited entry of uneducated and unvetted foreign workers regardless of their health condition, trade skills, educational background, criminal record, or whether they can contribute to America’s prosperity.
• Reinstitute international policies that put America’s security at risk.
• Involve America in all kinds of wacky agreements regarding “global warming” that will destroy American sovereignty, and substantially increase our “cost of doing business”.
• Once again go soft on countries not willing to pay their fair share for America’s protection in global security matters.
• Expand America’s financial giveaway programs under USAID with a continued lack of accountability, where third world governments get enriched at taxpayer expense.
I find it interesting that the Democrat Party every four years has a convention to come up with a program for the up-coming elections that they think they can sell to the voters of the country. They interestingly call this a compilation of the party’s principles and proposals. I don’t believe they have any principles or proposals that would work . . . just ask those people imprisoned inside the inner cities of America by Democrat policies. They should just be honest with America’s voters and call their platform:

The Democrat “How can we fool them this time around” Platform. At least they would be able to claim honesty and truthfulness for the first time in their history!