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Douglas M. Parker

Blog No 94. Kasich: Horatius at the Bridge?

John Kasich’s defeat of Donald Trump in the Ohio primary was a necessary—but very far from sufficient — condition for his winning the Republican nomination. Even with the addition of Ohio’s 66 delegates, and the exit of Marco Rubio, Kasich remains a rather distant last in what is now a three-man race. He has no chance of winning a majority of delegates before the convention in July, and his hopes rest on a contested, or “brokered” (though there are no real brokers) convention.  An optimistic view was expressed in a Kasich campaign memo Tuesday night: “With the electoral map shifting significantly in our favor, Governor Kasich is positioned to accumulate a large share of the almost 1,000 remaining delegates and enter Cleveland in strong position to become the nominee.”Read More »Blog No 94. Kasich: Horatius at the Bridge?

Special Bulletin. A Respite From the GOP’s Continuing Trainwreck?

The Thursday night Republican debate came as a distinct relief. In terms of substance, there were claims and assertions with which one could agree or disagree, but we will reserve comment on those for a later blog. At least, however, the debate presented four serious adults avoiding personal insults and discussing serious issues. One can only wish that the earlier debates had been conducted similarly.Read More »Special Bulletin. A Respite From the GOP’s Continuing Trainwreck?

Special Bulletin. Stupor Tuesday.

The results of the Super Tuesday balloting may not have been all that surprising, but on the Republican side they were grimly depressing. The nightmare of Donald Trump continues to unfold as a major portion of the Republican base remains in a Trump-induced stupor, unreachable by fact or logic. The New York Times is no friend of the Republican Party, but in its Wednesday editorial we think they had it about right: “The Republicans seem to be reeling, unable or unwilling to comprehend that a shady, bombastic liar is hardening the image of their party as a symbol of intolerance and division.”

If Trump emerges as the Republican nominee, as now seems likely, the consequences are hard to imagine, but among them may well be the end of the Republican Party. When we founded RINOcracy.com three years ago, our motto was “RINOs, let us unite and put our hides on the line to save our party from itself!” At the time, we looked at saving the Republican Party as a daunting task to which we could make only a minor contribution at best. But it is now questionable whether saving the party remains a rational objective or whether it now belongs in a form of political hospice.Read More »Special Bulletin. Stupor Tuesday.

Blog No. 93 Catching Up: The Primaries, Justice Scalia and Apple

Since our last blog, there have been several notable events worthy of comment: the primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina and the  caucuses in Nevada, the death of Justice Scalia, and the dispute between the FBI and Apple. By way of getting caught up, we will offer brief comments on each and may return with more extended analysis in a later blog.Read More »Blog No. 93 Catching Up: The Primaries, Justice Scalia and Apple

Special Bulletin: Finding Common Political Ground on Poverty – The New York Times

We were not planning to post anything until our return toward the end of the month. But this morning I ran across a very interesting article in The New York Times that I wanted to share with readers of RINOcracy.com who might not have seen it.
The article describes a report by the American Enterprise Institute and the Brookings Institute that combines liberal and conservative thinking to arrive at specific proposals to reduce poverty and inequality. (A link to the full report is included in the article.) Apart from the merits of specific proposals, the report appears to reflect the kind of creative thinking and willingness to compromise that we so badly need.
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Finding Common Political Ground on Poverty

Supporters of a $15 minimum wage at a gathering in November in Manhattan. A group of liberal and conservative economists produced a plan on alleviating poverty. Credit Sam Hodgson for The New York Times

Supporters of a $15 minimum wage at a gathering in November in Manhattan. A group of liberal and conservative economists produced a plan on alleviating poverty. Credit Sam Hodgson for The New York Times

If you have been paying any attention to America’s paralyzed politics, you are not going to believe this.

Read More »Special Bulletin: Finding Common Political Ground on Poverty – The New York Times

Special Bulletin. The New York Times Endorsements and the Iowa Caucuses

On January 31, The New York Times published endorsements of Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for president and John Kasich for the Republican nomination.  The Clinton endorsement was ringing and enthusiastic while that of Kasich was a bit grudging and in the “best of a bad lot” genre. Predictably, neither endorsement had any perceptible effect in Iowa, although Clinton’s “victory” over Bernie Sanders was so tiny that one cannot exclude the possibility that the endorsement could have tipped the balance. On the Republican side, Kasich finished well toward the bottom and, to the extent that Republican voters noticed the Times editorial at all, any endorsement from that source might well have counted more as a negative than a positive. (The last Republican endorsed by The New York Times in a general election was Dwight Eisenhower in 1956.)Read More »Special Bulletin. The New York Times Endorsements and the Iowa Caucuses

Blog No. 92. The Bloomberg Toe and the Clinton and Sanders Pas De Deux

Blog 92 Bloomberg toeMichael Bloomberg recently put a toe in the political waters by letting it be known that he was considering a race for president in 2016 as an Independent. According to a story in The New York Times, Bloomberg is unhappy with a possible choice of candidates between Donald Trump or Ted Cruz as the Republican nominee, and Bernie Sanders the Democratic opponent.Read More »Blog No. 92. The Bloomberg Toe and the Clinton and Sanders Pas De Deux

Blog No. 91. Donald, Sarah and the Weimar Republic

PIC Trump and Palin 2 cards v3The news of Sarah Palin’s endorsement of Donald Trump seemed quite unsurprising, almost inevitable.  It immediately brought to mind an expression I heard long ago from a fellow soldier at Fort Benning. From time to time, Tom would remark with mild derision, “What a pair to draw to.” I have no recollection of the particular persons or things that inspired the comment, but a quick look on Google renewed my understanding of what he meant. As one writer put it:

One memory I have of my father is a saying he would use whenever we would encounter two people–usually two men, but sometimes a couple–who looked as if they were up to no good. My father, an inveterate poker player, would indicate with a nod and say, “There’s a pair to draw to.”

In the metaphor of poker, of course, the pair to which he was referring would have to be seen as a low pair, deuces or treys. Fours, fives. So in fact they were not a pair to draw to at all. It would be best just to fold before the draw and sit this hand out. But also there was the implication that trouble was just around the corner and was being drawn to the energy of the pair even at the moment, and if we wanted to wait around we probably could see it arrive.

Read More »Blog No. 91. Donald, Sarah and the Weimar Republic

Blog No. 90. Obama’s SOTU and the Sixth Republican Debate

Coming on Tuesday and Thursday nights of last week, President Obama’s State of the Union message and the sixth Republican debate combined to make a depressing package of television viewing. For those of us in the Pacific time zone, the best that might have been said was that we did not have to stay up late to watch and that neither event interfered with regular prime time programming.  Given the extensive coverage of them, we will limit our comments to a few observations.Read More »Blog No. 90. Obama’s SOTU and the Sixth Republican Debate