Editor's Note: This piece was co-authored by Jim McCoy.
The Puppet
Charlie McCarthy was the famed dummy partner of ventriloquist Edgar Bergen who became wildly popular in the 1930's, and well into the 1970's. Charlie took on a personality that to viewers was so lifelike that he commanded a world-wide audience and huge media market share during this time period. Charlie, the dummy doll, became so well-known that his popularity actually exceeded that of his real-life partner, Edgar Bergen. Charlie became the marque title name of the Charlie McCarthy Show and, as his fame might warrant, the Charlie McCarthy Doll now has a special place in the Smithsonian Institute.
Charlie McCarthy is a tribute to how the public can become mesmerized with a dummy who, through the skilled efforts of a handler and adoring media can become a living persona in the minds of Americans. In 2020, we have a modern-day version of Charlie McCarthy in Joe Biden. Candidate Joe Biden was created by the MSM and democrat political handlers. Throughout the Campaign and even now, Joe Biden has sought safety in his basement; he continues reading with stilted expression and confusion, from teleprompters with carefully scripted and controlled live news conferences.
It was plainly evident that Joe’s public persona had more in common with Charlie than with President Trump or Biden’s animated running mate, Kamala Harris. Unlike Bergen who gave Charlie a voice and life to lift the spirit of Americans, Joe is controlled by leftist democrat puppeteers with a sinister purpose. He became the political marionette of the Marxist-leaning democrat party and the fawning media. At least Charlie always behaved as Edgar Bergen intended. Thus far, Biden has proven he is a loose cannon capable of blowing up anything and everything the democrat party has worked for. For example, Biden said recently, “We have put together the most inclusive and extensive voter fraud organization in the history of American politics.” His ventriloquists were passing out because of the unintended truth in his statement while the MSM ignored it. In another campaign stop he addled, “I want to make it clear, I’m not going nuts.” Later he later contradicted that by saying, “We choose truth over facts.” Most recently in Biden’s alleged role at President-elect, he announced his pick for HHS Secretary, Xavier Becerra, and both mispronounced his name got his title wrong. Democrats only wish he was as articulate as his doppelganger, Charlie McCarthy.
The Party
Many in our wonderful nation are dumbfounded by how so many stupid and corrupt people are engendering so much devastation in our cities and states. For example, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan just approved a budget containing an 18 percent slash in police funding after pushing a 50% funding cut in the summer. Many Seattle residents didn’t think her support of Seattle’s Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) was a prima facie case for immediate dismissal. Ms. Durkan acts rashly because she is a democrat politician and that’s what they do. A favorite motto of the democrat party is, "never let a good crisis go to waste." Unfortunately, their response usually adds chaos and more pain to the crisis.
Ballotpedia presents data for the 100 largest cities in America showing that approximately two-thirds of them are run by democrats. Dems also currently run the looniest cities, like New York’s Bill de Blasio, Los Angeles’s Eric Garcetti, Chicago’s Lori Lightfoot, Houston’s Sylvester Turner, Philadelphia’s James Kenney, Phoenix’s Kate Gallego, Detroit’s Mike Duggan, San Francisco’s London Breed, Boston’s Martin Walsh, Milwaukee’s Tom Barrett and Portland’s Ted Wheeler. Need we say more? In America’s ten largest cities, there is only one Republican mayor, Kevin Faulconer of San Diego.
A similar pattern exists for governors of the states containing these corrupt and dysfunctional cities. Gavin Newsom runs California…into the ground, J. B. Pritzker has overseen Illinois’ ongoing bankruptcy and habitual teacher strikes. Gretchen Whitmer locked down Michigan tighter than any American city and allowed small business to perish, Andrew Cuomo sent Covid patients into New York nursing homes and continues the state’s lockdown, Kate Brown, of Oregon has been Queen Antifa, Tom Wolf—Pennsylvania, Jay Inslee—Washington, Tony Evers—Wisconsin, and Doug Ducey in Arizona.
The Problem
Noted philosopher, Scotch drinker and “Blue Collar” comedian Ron White maintains, “You just can’t fix stupid.” Democrats take note! An even better question is how American states and cities got so stupid.
Most of the bankrupt and morally corrupt states don’t advance right to work policies and are under the dominant influence of multiple labor unions. As Robbie Soave concluded in Reason Magazine, “Republican gubernatorial victories were a massive validation of the effort to combat bankruptcy-inducing government employment levels and curb the runaway power of unions.” Obviously, there weren’t enough of them. Among the most egregious unions with command and control over democrats in supporting puppet Biden, stupid governors and mayors, are the Service Employees International Union (public sector), National Education Association (teachers) and the AFL-CIO (Teamsters). The AFL-CIO endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden in May, calling him a "lifelong supporter of [unionized] workers." Marxist philosophy has been closely aligned with labor unions from its inception. Unions have traditionally enabled members to produce goods and services of lesser quality for more pay; that’s why Japanese and Korean car companies have been eating our lunch for decades. Unions squelch free speech, align with political leftists, intimidate non-members and erode professional standards and conduct. For evidence of such union actions, one need look no further than the NEA's 2019 National Convention where attending members voted against increased student learning in favor of white fragility training and endorsed abortion. That has students’ best interests at heart! Right!
The vacuous party of organized labor lauds tacitly civil unrest and supports Antifa, BLM (read their original statement of beliefs), higher taxes, government overreach, open borders, woke corporations and socialized medicine. Its leaders and membership also suffer from an absence of cognitive dissonance when analyzing how the United States is fundamentally different than the small, socialist European nations and their failed economies they want us to emulate. Just as frightening, however, is the democrat Presidential puppet who will sit ensconced, smiling in the Oval Office until his handlers bring him out to read ineptly to the American people and the world from a teleprompter.
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