John Davis Consulting

New Year Begins with GOP Good Fortune While Mental Fitness Issue Weakens Potential for Democrats

January 10, 2018        Vol. XI, No. 1        2:13 pm

Lucky Draw Saves Virginia GOP House of Delegates

If the first 11 days of 2018 is any indication of the good fortune Republicans can expect during President Trump’s first midterm elections, the GOP will surely maintain the majority in both the US Senate and House, and in the North Carolina Senate and House.

Case in point: In the first week of January, a tied state house race in Virginia was decided by the luck of the draw at the Virginia Board of Elections, making the Virginia House of Delegates a 51-49 Republican majority. That means the next speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates and all committee chairs are likely Republicans, rather than a Democrats. The Virginia Senate is 21-19 Republican.

Nationally, the luck of the draw in Virginia means that Republicans keep their 67-32 advantage over Democrats in the legislative chambers. There are 32 states, including North Carolina, where Republicans control both legislative chambers. Democrats have 14 such states.

Alabama Mall Cops Save US Senate Republicans

Of course, the biggest lucky break for Republicans last week was the swearing in of Democrat Doug Jones from Alabama to the US Senate, rather than Roy Moore, the Republican. Moore lost the race after it was revealed that he had been banned from the Gadsden, Alabama mall in his early 30s for “inappropriate behavior of soliciting sex from young girls.”

Gallup’s State of the States nation study ranks Alabama #2 most “Conservative” state in the US, and #2 most “Very Religious” state. That’s why a Republican can still win a US Senate race in Alabama if they, like Moore, get thrown off the state Supreme Court twice for refusing to uphold the US Constitution over Ten Commandments monuments and same sex marriage. But, even in Alabama, a Republican cannot win a US Senate race if they get thrown out of the mall for hitting on teenage girls!

Thanks to mall cops, US Senate Republicans avoided the year-long humiliation and exasperating distraction of outcries for Moore’s ouster. Now, they can focus on holding the majority.

A Constitutional Right to Make Political Fools of Ourselves

As Americans, we have a First Amendment right to make political fools of ourselves. And, thanks to President Trump, more Americans than ever before are taking full advantage of that right. Especially liberal Democrats, who are making strategic campaign decisions for 2018 races driven by their bitter vindictiveness over Hillary Clinton’s loss to Donald Trump.

Case in point: allegations that President Trump is mentally unfit to serve as President. The mental fitness issue is hurting the Democrats’ political potential in 2018 state and federal elections.

Unfortunately for Democrats, the mental fitness issue received a big boost this week with the release of Fire and Fury, a political tell-all book claiming that “100% of the people” in the Trump White House are thinking about invoking the 25th Amendment, whereby the president can be removed from office if deemed mentally unfit.

The problem with the book is that it’s too easy to discredit. The author, Michael Wolff, told Savannah Guthrie on NBC’s “Today” show that “100% of the people around the President question his fitness for office.” Then, on Tuesday, January 9, 2018, Wolff told Norah O’Donnell on CBS This Morning, that he did not interview any member of the President’s Cabinet, nor the Vice President.

Pulitzer Prize-winning POLITIFACT wrote, “Fire and Fury [is] a stew of mysteriously sourced dramatic scenes.” Not quite the-shot-heard-around-the-world “Resistance” Democrats were counting on to win a revolutionary overthrow of President Trump and the GOP-led Congress in 2018.

Equally problematic for Democrats is the 25th Amendment itself. It requires the Vice President (a Republican loyal to the President), and a majority of the 24-member Cabinet (Republicans loyal to the President), to vote to remove the President if he is deemed mentally unfit. Not going to happen.

And, the 25th Amendment requires a two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress to uphold the decision of the vice president and cabinet. Both have Republican majorities. Not going to happen.

The “mental fitness Democrats” remind me of the “birther Republicans.” Those who questioned President Obama’s natural citizenship. Eventually, most birthers, like Donald Trump, looked so foolish in the absence of credible evidence to back their claim that they discretely dropped the matter.

Perhaps it’s time for the “mental fitness” Democratic crowd to do the same.

Crazy Like a Fox

The biggest mistake President Trump’s detractors are making is judging him by conventional presidential standards. There never has been nor will there ever be anything conventional about Donald Trump.

Trump defeated the Republican and Democratic political dynasties in 2016 because he was unconventional. Because three solid decades of outrageous, politically incorrect behavior virtually guaranteed that he would continue to be that way when he got to the Oval Office. Especially when dealing with privileged and powerful Washington insiders. Like the news media.

So outrageous and politically incorrect that establishment observers think he’s crazy.

He’s crazy all right. Crazy like a fox.

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