I’m going to vote for Joe Biden in the Wisconsin presidential primary next week.
The first question that will jump to readers’ minds will be: who cares?
That’s a tough one to answer. Biden has already secured the nomination. My vote doesn’t matter much. Nonetheless, given that a few days ago I was not planning to vote for him, let me soldier on and give you my reasoning.
Up until the other day I had intended to vote for Dean Phillips. Now, right here another question will pop into readers’ heads: who is Dean Phillips? He’s the moderate Minnesota Congressman who challenged Biden in the early primaries, praising Biden’s record but making the case that he’s too old and might not be able to beat Trump. I agreed with that message, but nobody else did. Phillips got no votes and dropped out, but remains on the Wisconsin ballot. So, I intended to vote for him anyway as a way of saying what I believe, which is that it’s more risky to nominate Biden than somebody else and, even if Biden does win, he’s too old for the rigors of the job.
But then last week I got a mailing. The mailing came from some group calling itself “Listen to Us PAC,” that wants me to vote “uninstructed.” That uninstructed vote is intended to send a message to Biden that I disapprove of his policies in support of Israel in its war against Hamas. But I don’t disagree with Biden on that, at least not entirely. I think it’s a lot more complicated than what the kneejerk anti-Israel, hard-left wants us to believe. In fact, David Brooks wrote an excellent, nuanced and very long analysis of Israel’s options last weekend in the New York Times. That’s what I agree with and a 4,000 word essay can’t be boiled down to a simple vote for “uninstructed.”
I certainly agree that what’s going on in Gaza is a humanitarian nightmare, but it’s a nightmare that is about 90% Hamas’ fault. After all, it was Hamas who started this whole mess with its October 7th attack, it’s Hamas that hides its fighters underneath hospitals and it’s Hamas who could accomplish a ceasefire by releasing its hostages.
So, my concern is that if I vote for Phillips it will be lumped in with uninstructed and just be counted as a protest vote against Biden’s Middle East policy. Nobody these days is interpreting any votes for Phillips (not that he gets any) the way I would intend it. And faced with a simple choice between supporting Biden on Israel or opposing him on that, I’ll go with the former.
I’d say Democrats divide very roughly into three camps these days. About 20% of us are enthusiastic about Biden, about 20% won’t be happy unless the ticket is Rep. Ilhan Omar and an AI hologram version of Malcolm X and 60% of us are like me — resigned to Biden and willing to make the best of it.
If the choice comes down to Biden or the hard-left, I’m with him.
And on a related matter… If I lived in northeast Dane County’s 20th District I’d vote for Jeff Weigand for County Board. Why are we bothering to recommend one county supervisor candidate out of the thousands of county supervisors in the state? Because this guy is the only remaining conservative on the Dane County Board. The only one… out of 37 supervisors. And the Democratic Party, with nothing better to do, is targeting him for defeat. We don’t agree with everything Weigand says and if there were a lot more conservatives on the board we wouldn’t bother to mention him. But it’s a healthy thing to have a dissenting voice — at least one — on a board that is otherwise entirely liberal. We hope voters in the 30th District will return Weigand so that he can keep fighting his lonely battles.
Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos 
Well… “This whole mess” didn’t start on Oct. 7, 2023. As long as the Palestinians remain a stateless and/or occupied people, there will always be a “mess.”
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So are you saying that the Hamas attack on October 7 was justified then?
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Justified? As you note Dave, the situation is far more complex.
A very strong argument can be made that we, the US, are complicit in war crimes that are being committed by the Israelis. If you would like on-the-scene evidence that war crimes are being committed, let me know and I will post links. A significant part of the Israeli population is not attempting to hide what they are doing – starving the Palestine population, preparing to move in and rebuild Gaza for Israelis and killing Palestinians with impunity. This is an abomination and would be enough to stop me from voting for Biden, so people voting ‘Uninstructed’ sounds very reasonable.
The faded hologram that is Biden doesn’t belong anywhere but in a courtroom to answer for decades of gorging himself and family at the trough of bought influence. Add in attacks on 1st, 4th, and 8th amendments and his pugnacious mendacity recently evidenced in his SOTU address, I can also understand why Democrats would vote Uninstructed.
Voting Uninstructed or Dean Philips might be a far more meaningful message than just going with the flow.
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Seriously? Of course not. But for what it’s worth, you can’t blame Hamas without blaming Netanyahu; he made a conscious decision (which he has articulated in public) to prop up Hamas in Gaza as a way of weakening moderate Palestinian alternatives that could lead to the creation of a Palestinian state.
Israel has been operating an illegal occupation in Gaza and the West Bank for decades. Until that ends, the “mess” will continue.
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Dave: All very well, except for the Weigand stuff. That guy is dangerous. You want gun carry in public buildings, including city hall? You want to charge naked bike riders with felony chid abuse? I could go on. I encourage conservative views, and I don’t like the Prog Dane dumping, either, but this guy is Not Good For Society. G
>
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As I said I don’t support everything he says, but he’s the only conservative on offer. He’s plenty flawed, but I think it’s important to have at least one voice on the board that will raise an objection to the prevailing view. I wish there were more choices.
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A very humorous and on-point critique of the current state of the Democratic Party by Bill Maher:
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Bill-Mayer-Democrats-1.mp4?_=1
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Watched it. You’re right, it’s great. Thanks for suggesting.
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You’re welcome, I’m glad you enjoyed it.
I don’t know if you’ve read it yet, but here is another huge reason why supporting Biden is extremely problematic for the health of our country. In response to the House’s formal letter asking for responses to specific questions relating to their impeachment inquiry, the White House spokesperson responded:
“LOL. Comer knows 20+ witnesses have testified that POTUS did nothing wrong. He knows that the hundreds of thousands of pages of records he’s received have refuted his false allegations. This is a sad stunt at the end of a dead impeachment. Call it a day, pal.”
Calling this response disrespectful would only be the start.
If you’re interested, more coverage here:
https://jonathanturley.org/2024/03/29/say-it-aint-so-joe-the-house-formally-invites-president-biden-to-testify-in-impeachment-inquiry/#more-217330
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The plight of the Palestinians is largely of their own making. 75 years of war and terrorism has brought them to this point. Until they accept they lost this war in 1973 they will continue to suffer. Bibi is a religious fanatic but ultimately he is enabled by Hamas and an atran leadership who do not care about Palestinians.
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