26 August 2020 #BetweenTheLinesDotVote Fifteenth Analysis

26 August 2020 #BetweenTheLinesDotVote Analysis Our 5 Questions + Why? Part of 5 How do you identify: D, I, or R? As a right-leaning Independent, I have grown to appreciate our 2-party system of late, greatly. Let me share my reasoning.

2) I believe it was @shestokas who first explained to me that, if you a multiple party system, you end with an essentially parliamentary structure, where coalitions are required to rule. These coalitions are inherently unstable and our founders purposefully avoided them.

3) So formally, we are a bicameral, Democratic Republic. Two Houses in our Congress, run by democratically elected majorities, but under strict republican structures designed to protect the minority from the tyranny of the majority. In some senses our names are unfortunate.

4) That we have Democratic and Republican Parties, when we are a democracy and a republic, is inherently confusing. When writing about these things, you have to ever be on your guard to establish whether you're talking about a party or the structure of our government.

5) How do I identify? I am registered as an Independent, but I struggle with whether that's true or not. I have never liked political parties, themselves, and for all my previous left leaning, I never did register as a Democrat, and never voted, at all.

6) My most natural leaning is just as a radical of one form or another. I never joined the Democratic Party, mostly because it was NOT radical enough for me. Not that I ever studied it properly, but I really was a Socialist, and back then there was no natural fit for me anywhere.

7) It's amazing to contemplate. From 1980 - 1999, as a natural radical, and as a weakly believing socialist, I can assure you, there was no place for me in the Democratic Party. Isn't that something?

8) So let's see, you've got Carter, Mondale, Dukakis, Bill Clinton, and then Al Gore as our top Democratic leaders during that time. Funny, I often forget how Al Gore having invented the Internet soured me not just on him, but on a party that would have him as leader.

9) While each of them, most especially Gore, were influenced by the radical left, none of them were brazen socialists like Bernie, today. Nowhere near it. I think the best term for what America actually needs is a Center-left Party, to oppose a Center-right Party.

10) As I have shared, once I lost my socialism, and had no attraction to Democrats anymore, I very slowly found my way to the radical right. For a time, I was an almost happy Libertarian. I was unhappy because my passion for rights faced constant destruction of rights.

11) During that period, though, I enjoyed the pleasure of knowing where I stood on every topic. It was a universal political philosophy, far outside mainstream America, and that was just fine by me. I hunted for answers to getting rid of taxes. I detest(ed) taxes.

12) My radicalism dies hard. I still hate taxes. But I enforce my newfound memborhood in the Center-Right world to shut myself up on topic. And, if you can give me a LOWER tax as opposed to a HIGHER one, I'm all in, now. My ideals remain Libertarian. My reals lean to the center.

13) It should be easy to see that "identifying" is not a simple thing for me. Watching the RNC this week on TV, I am attacking myself once again for not surrendering to the Republican Party and stop this charade of Independence. I am older now. Perhaps I should surrender.

14) So that's my story. If you were to want to know me, personally, and civically, you'd really want to know what I shared above. We can be allies or enemies and not know much about how we identify, or why. But, we cannot be real friends, bonded for a mission without knowing.

15) When it comes to reaching across the aisle, there is no more important conversation to build. Why are you a Democrat, one asks? Why aren't you a Democrat, one rejoins? Back and forth the lively conversation must roll.

16) If you get your timing right, you can see every once in a while that a perfect stranger is paying attention to something political. You'll be surprised that if you can make eye contact, smile a bit, lean in just a little, you can then ask: How do you identify politically?

17) They might be reading a newspaper, watching a TV somewhere, or just hanging out on their phone or tablet, but there are always openings, moments when a stranger with good timing can enter in and begin to build a friendship. Respect and caring are the keys.

18) You know, friendships don't have to last forever. You can be friends for five minutes one day, and that's it. Micro-friendships can leave lasting impacts, memories that come back disproportionately. When they're both positive and surprising, all the more so.

19) Returning to my radical youth a trigger word was "patriotism." I rejected that word and was happy to tell anyone why. I was doing just that one day in Berkeley at a bookstore with one of my 5-minute friends, when he shocked me. He said I reminded him of Newt Gingrich.

20) @KateScopelliti was there, and chimed in with that flashing smile of hers, "I've said that to myself countless times, but never had the courage to tell him!" It was impossible to take offense, but I can't tell you how truly shocked I was. That was outside my identity.

21) Today, that question is what I consider the ultimate uniter of our political center. I believe there are patriotic Ds, Is, & Rs. I believe that that patriotism is what brings America together as a single people. Like me in the past, many souls reject it. That's okay.

22) Another argument that @shestokas tramped me over was the evil of the 3/5ths Clause in our Constitution, and the clear evil that slavery represented. Dave taught me that the Declaration of Independence won out in the end. It took a great war, but we rid ourselves of slavery.

23) It's that impossible phrase to overcome that he hit me with. We are NOT a perfect union. We seek ever to become MORE perfect than we were or are. It is that story, the trajectory of improving toward that more perfect union, which is how we must all identify.

24) What today's radical left misses is just that. They miss the vast center of America that is proud of the fact that we abolished slavery, gave women the franchise, enacted Civil Liberties Laws, and elected a Black President. That trajectory is our story as a people.

25) An election is not merely about this present moment. It must face the past while fighting for the future. That common sense America is the one to identify with. And in that America anyone can talk about why he stands where he does in the great American story. Go ahead. Ask!

Thread ends at #25. Be sure to head over to our poll and bring as many people there as you can!

25 August 2020 #BetweenTheLinesDotVote Fourteenth Analysis

25 August 2020 #BetweenTheLinesDotVote Analysis Our 5 Questions + Why? Part 4 of 5 Who WILL win? This is, and by far, the single most important question. It embodies what I call the @GenFlynn doctrine: Who the people believe will win, will win.

2) To demonstrate this principle, I turn to Mao Tse Tung and his more than 20 years Civil War in China. Most people have no idea of that war, or what it was about. We're going to cover a sketch of it. It's truly pertinent, I promise. We begin in 1911 with the Chinese Revolution.

3) Our first key figure was Dr. Sun Yat Sen. He came to embody the end of the Imperial Era of over 2,000 years, and was a true believing Communist. His heir to the role of leadership was Chiang Kai Shek. Few people realize this was the first successful communist revolution.

4) For reasons outside our consideration, a splinter group of Communists, eventually led by Mao Tse Tung, rebelled against Chiang Kai Shek's rule. Civil War ensued. Mao took charge over this war in 1927, leading the rebellion until he founded the People's Republic of China, 1949.

5) Those 22 years from 1927 to 1949 were made possible by a single strategic decision Mao made. During those long years, he courted the people. Wherever he could, he was their savior. He asked for their help, never demanding it. Where Chiang was demanding, Mao was persuasive.

6) Over those long 22 years, inclusive of WWII, Mao recruited and won the minds, hearts, souls, and support of the Chinese people. If he didn't ultimately become a Communist Dictator in the end, with millions of deaths on his hands, we'd worship him to this day, here in America.

7) I have a question. Have you actually studied our own Revolutionary War, from 1775 - 1783? I confess that I really haven't. I will correct that failure. But consider, our 8 years at war against Britain, was roughly 1/3 of Mao's Revolution against Communist Chiang. Incredible.

8) There is only one answer to the question of HOW he did it. He won and kept the hearts of the people. He made the people believe he would win in the end. As General Flynn teaches us, who the people believe will win, will win.

9) Fast forward to 2020. Where 2016's Democrat strategy was Fake News, which they doubled down upon in the following years, 2020's strategy I deem to be False Polling. Biden could not be the candidate right now, nor have any chance of victory at all, without False Polling.

10) For Democrats, this is a tragedy. It is one of the great purposes of my new polling outfit to offer Democrats the data they need to PROVE that Biden can win, if such proof is available to be found. Do check out our 100% fair and honest site, here:

11) Looking at Trump over a period of years, there's a single strategic asset he owns, unlike anyone else in history. He draws his negatives first, early, and long. He leads the way to his own weaknesses, knowing his enemies can't resist the temptation.

12) Think Nietzsche and Kanye: that which does not kill us makes us stronger. What the Democrat leadership seems never to realize is just that. Every time they mount up their next grand strategy to defeat Trump, and fail again, they burnish his Teflon Don reputation.

13) Turning inward, imagine 3 November 2020. You may, or may not, carve out time in your day to go vote. If you think your guy has already lost, why bother? Who the people believe will win, will win. Your vote is worth the hassle, if you believe your guy will win.

14) People naturally want to support a winner. They hate supporting a looser. It matters not one whit if others know or don't know. The furious passion to back a winner is a human need, far larger than has been understood. It is the ultimate question: Who WILL Win?

15) Let's go back to polling. My honest belief is that the Democrats are attempting to trick their way into an unearned victory. The key to their strategy, as I see it, is False Polling. Let's look at that from a big picture perspective.

16) How do you place your thumb on the results of a poll? It truly is easy as can be. First, you select your sampling. That is, who will you call, requesting their answers? Screw that sampling toward your desired answers, and voila, you're already in front of the game.

17) Second, tilt the questions. Here's an example: Do you feel President Trump has managed the Corona Virus as well as he should have? Right there, within the question itself, we can see the pure bias of the pollster. That question yields the answers that pollster seeks.

18) A pollster may use timing as well. Some thing just happened, and the MSM has successfully taken the edge over the day's news cycle. So, as a poll we might ask: How do you feel about White Supremacists, and do you feel Trump has challenged them adequately?

19) Here's another questioning bias example: Do you feel that statues are more important than the health and wellbeing of inner city citizens? When you consider that, how does that make you feel about Trump's blatant support for Confederate monuments?

20) Mind please, these examples are my own creations. I do NOT have real world examples of such blatant questioning bias. I suspect if I went on the prowl, I'd find them. And, as to prowling, every time I turn to the MSM I hear their experts expounding on precisely these topics.

21) As a tool of campaigning, I understand the use of False Polling. One need not be moralistic or condescending, if merely to disagree. I credit the majority, the vast majority of Democrat pollsters, analysts, activists, and partisans with their loyalty to America. I do.

22) What I do judge is hypocrisy, when they know what they're doing is fase, but do it anyway out of self-preservation and personal advantage. I've met these people, and had drinks and meals with them on K Street in DC. They're professionals, in the first degree.

23) For them, morality is in progress of whatever form they're most interested in. They claim moral purpose. They do. But, when push and shove are finished they always return to pragmatics, to the practical field of the possible, over the ideal world of what should be.

24) And I can 100% assure you, the ONLY they care about in elections, is who WILL win. One of the Deep State friends I developed told me he always dreaded when Republicans took the White House. Sooner rather than later, they'd show up and make him delete 20 year-old initiatives.

25) For men like my Deep State friend, nothing in the world matters more than, nothing in the world equals the question: who WILL win? And that's why I am hell bent on discovering the answer to that question, before the election.

26) I claim to be a master of something called Power Analysis. Show me any situation, and I will show you who the power players are. My overarching structure comes from game theory. Who are the players? What are the plays? Who's got the best chance of winning?

27) Much of what we've been discussing with this question - Who will win? - comes down to the player with the most commitment. This is rightly called Fundamental Analysis. The other type - my favorite - is called Technical Analysis. Both forms are needed.

28) If we might only find good data and determine whether Trump is strong or weak right now, Biden is strong or weak right now. I passionately hope to be able to give you solid data. But, even if I can't, I will show up and analyze what data we can find, that I deem worthy.

29) For all that, I am NOT afraid to say I see this election as being 100% Trump's to lose, Biden't to win. I suspect that the uphill slope for Biden is greatly steeper than he realizes. I say, this is Trump's to lose. That is, if he doesn't mess up, he'll win.

30) Never be shy to tell your story. Your vote counts. Your American life matters. Head over to my poll, and fill out the Anonymous Poll, first. Then, don't stop. Head over to the On The Record Polls and fill them out with your answers to the question: Why? Let's get this right!

Thread ends at #30. And if you haven't been there yet, please head over to our poll at BetweenTheLines.Vote.

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24 August 2020 #BetweenTheLinesDotVote Thirteenth Analysis

24 August 2020 #BetweenTheLinesDotVote Analysis Our 5 Questions + Why? Part 3 of 5 Who SHOULD win? When you ask most people who they will vote for, and then ask them who should win, the answer repeats. The interesting thing is that it doesn't always repeat.

2) Why might that be? Our process of selection, the two major parties we have, their primaries, etc., it's all a very long way from ideal. I can easily imagine a very different system. Let me show you. For example, let's still keep our two major parties, yes?

3) But, imagine that the process takes a year or more, and begins with an unlimited ballot. You can write in any name you want, and no names are on specific offer. This would give rise to leaders recognized as such. Picture we do this by state until just 1 leader has a majority.

4) Picture as well, just 4 rounds maximum in each state. Assuming no majority, we take the top 3 names for round 2, top 2 for round 3 and top 2 for round 4. Fun, no? What's the result? We then have 50 prospective candidates, 1 from each state, and now the real campaign begins.

5) I'm not actually proposing that system, much as I'd enjoy it. I am saying it would emphasize this question: Who SHOULD win? Constrained as we are by our party's candidate, will vote for and should win are simply not the same.

6) Let's go another direction. If I were in charge of the selection process, I'd build a testing system over our Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and history. I'd allow each candidate to sell his vision forward to the people. I'd test his knowledge of our past.

7) That would by my own ultimate measure of "should". My test would NOT only include knowledge, like a quiz. It would demand that the spirit of our nation rise up. No, not as I see it. Rather, as both the most knowledgeable AND the most spiritually American of candidates.

8) One of my questions would be this: when were you the least loyal to the American dream, and what does that tell us about you? I'd allow no politically correct speaking in answer. I'd demand a real confession, and offer the opportunity to express a profound lesson learned.

9) I'd also demand answers about American corruption, the Swamp. Does it exist? If so, where and how? And how will you reduce its power during your term, should you win it? Sadly, so sadly, I have come to believe that the American system is rigged. I'd demand answers on that.

10) Next, I'd turn to questions surrounding separation of powers and Constitutional checks and balances. I'd demand answers on how and when the candidate would use his power to correct Congress and the Judiciary.

11) While I am not, personally, a fiscally conservative budget hawk, I'd still want to know about balancing the budget, reining in the deficit. When will America pay down its debt, I'd want to know, and how will we do it? The budget was balanced under Newt and Bill. Now, not so.

12) My SHOULD win would be driven most of all by the Bill of Rights. I'd grill my candidates over each of the first 10 Amendments. I'd demand case history knowledge, as if he was a Constitutional lawyer. I'd allow preparation, of course. It would be an open book test.

13) What I wouldn't care about, not a fig's worth, would be party affiliation or loyalty. I believe in parties, in the plural, so as to NOT have ONLY 1 party. I do not believe in parties as if they stood for something. Party loyalty would NEVER make it into my questioning.

14) Coming back to our real world, we are stuck with 2 major parties, and we're not able to question our candidates as I did in my fantasy world above. We only have the public record of each from each party system. Still, as citizens, we have each our own criteria.

15) The question, who WILL you vote for needs to be separated from the question who SHOULD win? This question is beyond practical. It accepts that WILL VOTE FOR really is different from the question SHOULD WIN. It accepts that parties matter, as do their candidates.

16) For instance, a loyal Republican only has the option to vote for Trump. Many #NeverTrumpers will end up in that category in November. Not able to vote for Biden, they'll end up voting for Trump, if they vote at all. But in honesty, SHOULD WIN won't be on their minds.

17) At our site, we have two forms of polls. One is Anonymous, and that's the most important for our data. The second is On The Record, and that's the most important in answering the question Why? My question to Democrats is, Should Biden Win? And if so, why?

18) You can believe me when I tell you, that is NOT an attacking question. I ask the same of Republicans over Trump. Sadly, I simply have a great deal more Republicans answering than I do Democrats, so far. Why should Biden win? I need more of you on the record.

19) Last, I want you to feel our logic. * Will you vote? * Who for? * Who should win? Our first 3 questions have a logical flow. Can you feel it? The logic requires you to separate will vote for from should win. You're allowed for those two to be different.

20) Please head over to our site and answer these questions in our Anonymous poll, first. Then, go On The Record if you're okay with that. Your reasons matter. We care and will log them faithfully.

Thread ends at #20.