7 observations at this point in the election cycle

There are six months left before the midterm elections. Here are a few observations about the current state of things:

1. Democrat policies produce chaos, and the media don’t call them out on it.

Virtually every major problem our cities are facing is a direct consequence of Democrats in power and the disastrous policies they push through: homelessness, open drug use, filthy, unsafe and failing downtowns, vandalism, shoplifting, violent crime, illegal immigration, fraud. But the legacy media rarely if ever confront Democrats about those consequences or any others. California Gov. Gavin Newsom hasn’t been pressed on the state’s high-speed rail boondoggle. It was supposed to cost $33 billion and be completed by 2020. But $15.7 billion has already been spent, there’s no train, and Californians are now being told that it won’t be done until 2032 and will cost $100 billion. Where is the outrage? The investigation? Crickets.

Billions of dollars were stolen from Minnesota taxpayers in the state’s fraud scandal under Gov. Tim Walz’s watch, but if independent journalist Nick Shirley hadn’t exposed it, Walz would be cruising to reelection instead of having to withdraw from his campaign in disgrace.

Former Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., withdrew from the California governor’s race and resigned his seat in Congress because of sexual scandals that were an “open secret” on Capitol Hill. That means that the D.C. press had wind of them. They did nothing.

The Pacific Palisades burned to the ground last year while Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was on a trip to Ghana. Thousands of homes destroyed, dozens killed. And yet she’s running for reelection.

Speaking of Bass …

2. Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt is a master of political media.

If you haven’t seen any of his ads, look them up online. A former reality TV star, Pratt and his wife, Heidi Montag, lost their home and everything they owned in the Pacific Palisades fires. The horrible political mismanagement that exacerbated the devastation of those fires spurred Pratt to throw his hat into the ring. His clever campaign videos manage to simultaneously skewer the inept and corrupt politicians responsible for the many crises facing Californians and make people laugh at them. This is a brilliant strategy; once your opponents are fodder for mockery, they are vulnerable. Pratt’s opponents – including Bass and L.A. Councilwoman Nithya Raman – are now very vulnerable.

3. Trump doesn’t control MAGA.

Indiana’s statewide primary elections provided fodder for the headlines this week, as several Republican incumbents in the Indiana state Senate were defeated by candidates endorsed by President Donald Trump. The press then dutifully trotted out the trope that Trump “controls” the MAGA voters. The media seem willfully, impenetrably stupid about this. They love the narrative that Trump is some kind of Svengali who has the conservative electorate mesmerized. Sure, there are some people who think every Trump gaffe is an example of Trump’s mastery of mysterious “4D” or even “5D” chess. But most Trump voters support him because no one else has been listening to them. Democrats have made clear that they think law-abiding Americans are knuckle-dragging rubes, deplorables, sexists and white supremacists. And Republicans have pretended to care about their voters only to ignore them once elected. Trump voters back him because his America-first policies are what they’ve been pleading for.

But …

4. Iran may be Trump’s Waterloo.

If the president is playing superchess in the Middle East, “5D” must stand for “5 Dollars,” which is what a gallon of gas now costs here in Indiana. Diesel is more than $6. It’s unclear what the president’s endgame or plan is. Iran’s despotic regime needs to go, but the Iranian people are the ones who need to rise up and take out the trash, and there’s no indication when or if that will happen. A protracted war that keeps gas and grocery prices high will sound the death knell for Republican control of Congress. And that will be very bad news indeed for Trump.

5. Which bring us to the Republican-controlled Senate.

As far as Republican voters are concerned, the current Congress had one job. ONE. That is protecting the integrity of our elections. The House has passed versions of the SAVE Act multiple times, but Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., won’t even bring it to the floor for a vote or require a talking filibuster. And Republican senators who could oust Thune as majority leader can’t muster the will to do that, either. Thune preens for the camera with tired platitudes about what he’s doing to stop those mean ol’ Democrats. But it’s basically nothing. Democrats have announced what they’ll do if they take control of Congress: They’ll nuke the filibuster, impeach Trump, vote to make D.C. and Puerto Rico states, reimpose the economy-destroying “Green New Deal” regulations and cripple energy production, expand the Supreme Court and pack it with “progressive” rubber-stampers like Ketanji Brown Jackson, grant amnesty and citizenship to millions of illegals already in the United States and throw open our borders to let more pour in. Thune is just greasing their wheels. He needs to go.

6. The Democratic Party is anti-work, anti-entrepreneurship and anti-success.

With some notable exceptions like Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., the prevailing philosophy of the Democratic Party is to punish hard work and success, and reward crime, laziness and grift. Last month, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani went after Ken Griffin, the CEO of Citadel, a multibillion-dollar hedge fund. Mamdani mugged for the camera in front of Griffin’s expensive NYC penthouse and gleefully announced a new tax on the super-wealthy. Yeah, Ken, we’re coming for you and everyone like you. The irony, of course, is that Griffin started with nothing, while Mamdani is a nepo baby whose wealthy parents own expensive properties in Uganda, India and the United States.

Seattle’s socialist Mayor Katie Wilson laughed and said, “Bye!” when asked what her response was to successful people who were leaving the city and taking their businesses with them to avoid the nearly 10% income tax.

Maine, Washington, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Vermont and Rhode Island have all either passed or are in the process of passing higher taxes on millionaires (not billionaires – see where this goes?), a move that will harm countless modest-sized businesses.

And then there are the Democrats who are campaigning with spoiled brat social media influencer Hasan Piker, who called for the streets to be soaked in “red capitalists’ blood.”

Leftist politicians treat successful Americans not as worthwhile contributors but as pigs who exist only to be fattened for the slaughter.

7. Nongovernmental organizations are perhaps the biggest perpetrators of fraud in this country.

What used to be means of providing charity have morphed into vehicles for fraud, theft, money-laundering and manipulation of public policy without any accountability. Congress should pass a law forbidding the transfer of any federal monies (via grants or otherwise) to 501c3 organizations. If they are doing good work, individuals can support them with their personal money.