They Make LBJ Look Like Goldwater

The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it. - P. J. O'Rourke

Let's talk about Democrats for a moment, shall we? Oh, don't worry. I'm following Ken Paxton's jolly jaunt around Scandinavia with a married woman, but let's start with a group known as Democratic Socialists.

Probably the most famous one is Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. And about the most socialist proposal he has made is Medicare for all. Now, Medicare is actually what is known around the world as single payer healthcare. And it works.

The doctors and nurses don't work for the government and it doesn't own the hospitals. It is mainly the insurer. Instead of a doctor having to deal with and hire staff to deal with, multiple insurance companies and their differing requirements, you have only one. And the reimbursement schedules are negotiated once a year, for everyone.

Everyone gets it, and no one is left out. It isn't free and the Medicare tax is applied to every working person. It would be no more than your private health insurance, and you can't be kicked off.

Now, you see how long it took to explain all that. It wouldn't fit in a 30 second TV ad. And all your opponent has to say is, "Socialized Medicine." And all he has to say beyond that is, look at how high taxes are in Sweden.

Now, what he won't say is that Swedes get not just national healthcare, but free college, childcare, parental leave and retirement.

But that's the problem with socialism in any form. We spent an entire Cold War demonizing anything smacking of socialism, or if you are more simple-minded, communism. They aren't the same, and social democracies include most of our international allies and even enemies. But, again, it doesn't matter.

Just look at the difficulty James Talerico created for himself with his divinity school meanderings about the gender of the Almighty. There is an old adage among political consultants.

"If you are explaining, you are losing."

Well now, three Democratic candidates for Congress in New York, and one in Colorado, defeating four mainline incumbents, are Democratic Socialists, like New York City Mayor Zohren Mamdani. But like Bernie, he's a fairly rare bird. A natural politician with a winning smile and disposition, he seems at home with any class of voter. I mean, have you ever seen a photo of him scowling?

And that demeanor is disarming, even winning over the perpetually scowling President of these here United States. These folks, though, are not cut from that cloth. One, Darializa Avila Chevalier, say that 3 times quickly, has an unfortunate history of posting praise online for Marx, and I don't mean Groucho, Lenin, Stalin and even Kim Il Sung of North Korea. Her rhetoric sounds like conversations we had at 19 in the 60's over several cups of coffee at the Student Center.

The key words there being 19, the 60's and Student Center. Not the US Congress.

The latest batch of unearthed tweets comes after previous deleted posts showed Chevalier describing the U.S. flag as a napkin. She also questioned interracial dating and called for abolishing borders and prisons.

If James Carville had any hair left, he would have yanked it out by now. In fact, he pointed out that this kind of nonsense is just what Democrats don't need as the Fall looks so promising. One House Democrat reacted to the sweep by saying, “Holy sh*t!”

It's like beginning the 100 meter hurdles, and adding one extra hurdle in your lane because you are so philosophically pure. This is a failing both parties have, but now it is the Dems turn. There is a feeling among true believers, either side, that all my close friends feel this way, so everyone must, right?

In my small town in East Texas, my wife and I were having breakfast in a local cafe a while back and two guys at different tables were having a loud exchange about liberals, of course assuming everyone in earshot shared their point of view.

Our two national echo chambers allow each side to elect the most thickheaded dolts to office thinking nothing of it. Well, New York is about to do that, because, well, it's New York for one thing. But also because, hey, doesn't everyone feel this way?

And now another Democratic Socialist has been nominated for a seat in Colorado's congressional delegation. I hope the cardiac paddles are handy at the Carville house.

This is how you get characters out of Lil' Abner like Johnboy Mullen and Marjorie Taylor Greene. Well, we have plumbed the depths of Dogpatch in the south, so now it's time to see what's cooking in Gotham City and Rocky Mountain High. Apparently it's these four. The campaign commercials nationwide write themselves, and confirm the Will Rogers' observation about not belonging to an organized political party. "I'm a Democrat."

Which of course brings us to the kind of vacuous, moronic candidate for the US Senate only a gaggle of cultish MAGA devotees could think was a great choice, Ken Paxton. Added to all the scandals and moral failings he has exhibited in public, he took time out from what is a pretty serious campaign, to take his mistress on a vacation to Iceland, during the 4th of July weekend.

Not, not her, the other one...

Yeah, this one. Tracy Duhon, the married so-called "Christian Influencer" with 7 kids. Yeah, her.

Angela Paxton knew about the first, Laura Olson, and somehow managed to buy the standard, "Honey, it'll never happen again." But according to reports, this one was the final straw and the divorce is underway. And, my guess is that Christian Influencer label will now include the word, "Former."

Even with all that, I'd still bet Paxton will win and we'll see a lot more of this woman. And John Cornyn will be treated for shell shock shortly thereafter.

Finishing our Texas roundup, Congressman Troy Nehls of Fort Bend County, northwest of Houston, is so upset with the Supreme Court upholding the 14th Amendment on birthright citizenship, that he has proposed, with a straight face apparently, covering the Statue of Liberty with a tarp or something for several years and admitting no one legally or illegally. Thank the good Lord he is retiring.

See representatives from Dogpatch referenced earlier in this piece. We might also point out for the umpteenth time, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is one of those birthright cases.

And apropos of his disdain for those dad-gummed foreigners, ICE agents were on the prowl in McAllen last weekend, and they caught what the administration keeps referring to as "The worst of the worst." The miscreant was dressed in some sort of strange garb trying to enter a church...

Turns out that Sister Leticia Ugboaja, a member of the Daughters of Mary Mother of Mercy and a registered nurse at South Texas Health System, was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers on June 28 as she headed to Mass at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in McAllen, just miles from the U.S.-Mexico border.

It took politicians of both parties to convince Secretary of Homeland Security Billybob Mullen to let her go.

But as Troy Nehls can tell you, it's a perfect disguise for anyone attempting harm in this country. These days, you can't be too careful.

After communion, she may have headed for DC and the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool.