Author: Joseph Sparks

Democrats Must Focus on Messaging

There is a passionate debate as to whether Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz should be replaced. This debate focuses on three main points: did Wasserman Schultz show favoritism towards Secretary Clinton, has she been biased against Senator Sanders, and can Wasserman Schultz unify the party? However, neither of the preceding points are the most important criteria for evaluating the Chairwoman’s performance as head of the DNC.

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Deadly Discrimination

Discrimination denies freedom. Early Sunday morning Omar Mateen killed 49 people at popular gay bar in Orlando. At least one official called it a “domestic terror incident.” It is a hate crime.

The killer’s father, Mir Seddique, said his son got “very angry” when he saw two men kissing. “This had nothing to do with religion,” according to the father. The father is wrong. This has plenty to do with religion and politics, especially when prominent religious leaders and politicians condemn homosexuality and say it is acceptable to discriminate against gays. In less extreme cases we get bakers refusing to wedding cakes for gay couples. In the most extreme cases, we get beatings and death.

Maybe disgruntled bakers would never kill anyone, but where would such people choose to stop? Would gay sex become illegal? Would courses in morality be required? Would beatings be allowed?

Regardless of how the intolerance manifests itself, it all grows from the same seed. Early Sunday morning we saw a tragic illustration why discrimination must cease and freedom must be protected!

 

Does the Majority Think?

And as people focus more closely on this race, they will surely come to recognize that Trump is not a generic Republican candidate but rather an unscrupulous and vulgar narcissist, a pathological liar, a bigot and a xenophobe. That will overwhelm what any model would predict. Because, in the end, we do think.

During Adlai Stevenson’s 1956 presidential campaign, a woman called out to him, “Governor Stevenson, all thinking people are for you!” And he answered, “That’s not enough. I need a majority.”

We can only hope that Fareed Zakaria is right and Adlai Stevenson is wrong.

Rotten Republicans

The leaders of Republican Party are rotten. There is just no other way to describe an organization that sends out fraudulent fundraising letters designed to look like overdue bills. The Republican National Committee sent out these fundraising letters to at least five states, meaning these fraudulent and unethical actions were purposely planned and executed by the RNC. In addition, letters went to elderly people who are especially vulnerable to such deceptions.

The envelopes had “NOTICE OF DELINQUENCY” on them in big red letters.

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