Democrats Drift Leftward – Joe Cunningham Show Notes
The Joe Cunningham Show airs 3-4 p.m. every weekday on NewsTalk 96.5 KPEL. The daily show notes offer you a look into the topics of the day and the links to the top stories and Joe's own writings on the state of politics in Louisiana and around the country.
Cassidy Hutchinson's Testimony In Doubt
Since yesterday's bombshell January 6 hearing, many who have been keeping an eye on the issue have pointed out how problematic it is for Donald Trump. And, indeed, if the testimony holds up, it paints a damning picture not of an insurrectionist president but a raving lunatic.
However, since that testimony, the Secret Service has come out and flatly contradicted what Hutchinson claimed. No Secret Service agents were assaulted by then-President Trump, and it was physically impossible for Trump to reach the steering wheel from the backseat of the SUV he was in at the time. Then-White House counsel Tony Ornato has also stated he did not tell Hutchinson what she claimed he did.
Secret Service agents and Ornato are willing to testify under oath.
Democrats Are Their Own Worst Enemy
This is a must-read today.
I was less pleased to see House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Dear Colleague letter from Monday, in which she said the House will vote again on the Women’s Health Protection Act, a bill to codify certain abortion rights that goes somewhat beyond where the Roe and Casey decisions did. The bill hits the notes the abortion rights non-profit groups want hit — which seems to be the only thing that matters for Democrats in Congress these days — but it���s sufficiently extreme that every single Republican in the House and Senate, even the ones with otherwise pro-choice voting records, felt comfortable voting against it.
What is voting on this again supposed to achieve? I guess it’s supposed to send the message that Democrats favor a very expansive vision of abortion rights — more expansive than was required by Casey, more expansive than prevails across Europe, and more expansive than the median voter favors.
I think some liberals are missing the point a little bit about why you would bring up a narrower bill. It’s not to say Democrats favor less expansive abortion rights. A bill that is more limited — for example, a bill establishing a national right to abortion in the first trimester — is a bill to expand federal protection for abortion rights, a protection which no longer exists after Dobbs. It is a bill that sets a floor, not a ceiling. Establishing a federal right to abortion in the first trimester does not prevent a state from going further to expand abortion access, nor does it require any state to prohibit or severely restrict abortion in the second trimester.
Josh Barro, who wrote this piece is not a conservative. But he is pointing out the strategic flaw here. The mentality behind that flaw, though, is explained by the New York Times.
But on social, cultural and religious issues, particularly those related to criminal justice, race, abortion and gender identity, the Democrats have taken up ideological stances that many of the college-educated voters who now make up a sizable portion of the party’s base cheer but the rest of the electorate does not. “The Democratic Party moved left,” says Will Marshall, the president and founder of the Progressive Policy Institute, a moderate Democratic think tank, “but the country as a whole hasn’t.”
(Related: Swing-State Voters Still More Concerned with Inflation Than Abortion Post-Roe, New Poll Finds - National Review)
Gavin Newsom Seems To Be Prepping A Presidential Run
The Governor of California, who earlier this year survived a recall election, is out attacking presumed 2024 frontrunner Ron DeSantis, Governor of Florida. The attacks are going as well as you'd expect for someone attacking the man who took down Disney.
The unemployment rate in Florida is currently just three percent. In California, unemployment comes in at 4.3 percent and above the national average. California also has the highest poverty level in the nation, with 18.2 percent of residents becoming impoverished over the last three decades.
By comparison, Florida sits as an example of individual freedom, low taxes, and population growth while California is losing more people per capita every year than any other state in the union. That alone is enough to show Newsom’s failure. People vote with their feet in a republic, and they are casting their ballot for red states like Florida.
And while high taxes and COVID regulations have been part of that exodus, exploding homelessness and violent crime are factors as well. California resides in a weird limbo where it has good economic growth because major corporations continue to prop up its budget, but its individual residents suffer greatly under the thumb of an overbearing, completely incompetent state government. Eventually, all the subsidies and pretty beaches in the world aren’t enough to get people to stay there.
Headlines Of The Day
- 14,000 Army Guard troops could be axed tomorrow for refusing the COVID vaccine (RedState)
- Announcement Made On Ambassador Caffrey Project (KPEL)
- Elmo advertises COVID-19 vaccination for kids under 5 in new PSA (TheBlaze)
- Alabama cites Roe decision in urging court to let state ban trans health care (Axios)
- Final Supreme Court Opinions Tomorrow, Followed by Justice Breyer's Retirement at Noon (Reason)
Tweet Of The Day