Author: Fritz Pettyjohn

I get the feeling talking to regular people, the kind that don’t read blogs, that most people would take any, normal, half way reasonable person instead of the two we’re choosing between.  But people don’t want to start over.  They want our long national nightmare to be over, now. So I propose taking the names of our 50 Governors, dropping them in a hat, and picking one out to be President.  Yes, I’d take the Moonbeam, Jerry Brown, over these two weirdos.  Did you know that when Brown challenged Carter in the 1980 Democratic primaries he campaigned on using Article V to pass a Balanced Budget Amendment?  It was one of his three principal election themes.  But he got drowned out by Teddy “The Swimmer” Kennedy.   Somebody should ask Jerry how he feels about it today.

Publius Decius Mus is back at it.  Mus and Jonah Goldberg at NRO are in quite a tiff.  Such disparagement!  I’m with Jonah, because I’m an American and I’m not sure Mus is.  Because Mus thinks it’s over, we’ve lost our country.  And that kind of thinking is un-American.

Mus is not only a quitter, he’s not that bright.  He thinks demography and incumbency will beat us in 2020.  I think Mus must be some kind of monk.  He lives in a monastery, and reads books.  Maybe because he’s read all these books he thinks he knows something about politics.  The chapel bells are ringing, Brother Mus, time to return to cloister.

We’re going to kick their ass in 2020.  It’s almost enough to reconcile yourself with four more years of Clinton/Obama.  They’ll screw things up so badly we’ll get 400 electoral votes in 2020.  You heard it here first.

And, yes, we’ll get our Article V Amendment Convention out of the deal.  Bill Fruth will be in Virginia the next few days.  If he’s successful we could get that Convention sooner than you think.  This could be the tipping point.  It’s all on Bill, or “The Closer” as we call him.  This is a very smart man with some great ideas.

I’m re-reading “What it Takes” by Richard ben Cramer.  If you know someone who loves politics, this would be a great gift.  It’s about the 1988 Presidential election, and what it was like from the inside.   He follows Bush, Dole, Biden, Dukakis, Hart and Gephardt.   These guys opened up to him.  He got to know them, and their families, as people.  It’s amazing what people put themselves through in the pursuit of power and glory.  It can break up families, like it did to Hart.  That cost him the Presidency.  He was that good.

But the best part of the book is about Bob Dole.  It’s a mini-biography, and it is beautifully written.  Dole’s now an old fool, but in his prime he was quite a force.  That guy had more will power than any one I know of.  An amazing story.

Bob Dole was no quitter.

Trump has spent the better part of his life, if not all of it, demonstrating that he is the alpha male, the silver back, the top wolf in the pack, the one that gets all the females.  It’s his brand, his identity.  Maintaining his status gives meaning to his life, and makes him a star.

This explains last night, and the whole campaign.  Alpha males don’t do humility.  That’s for the omegas.  When he was describing his Supreme Court picks, he was deferring to them, and to all the conservatives who demanded this loyalty test.  He really doesn’t care about the Constitution, or the intent of the Founding Fathers.  He was just doing what he needed to do, and it may have grated on him.  That’s not how alpha males act.

So when he was asked about accepting defeat, if it came, he couldn’t do the normal, sensible thing, and agree to bow to the will of the people.  He had to be the alpha man, and tell everyone he’d let them know down the road.  A tone of defiance, of refusal to ever give up.

He probably knew it wasn’t smart politics, but he’ll be out of the politics business soon, and back to being a star.  He and Bannon will create a new news network, with Roger Ailes helping out.  Some Fox News talent may sign on, and there are plenty of people who would like to get a piece of the action.  “Saturday Night With Dr. Ben Carson”  may be coming to a TV screen near you.

This network will have Trump as its leading man, and his image, his brand, must be maintained and elevated at all costs.  If it means Clinton wins the Presidency, so what?  The next four years are going to be a mess, no matter who’s President.  His audience is the 35% of the population who believe in him, and hate Clinton, and he’ll use that belief and that hatred to get and keep an audience that will make him a lot richer than he already is.  And all the while, the constant stoking of his ego.

As I believe I’ve pointed out, a complete sociopath.

As Derek Hunter of Townhall points out, the system is most certainly rigged.  About 15 years ago Evan Thomas of Newsweek admitted publicly that the media advantage for the Democrats was worth about 15 points.  The only way you overcome a disadvantage that big is with a political landslide, which is what I hope we see in 2020.

Actually, to give the devil his due, the new Trump Network may help.  Pence is my man, why isn’t he theirs?

Off to Bozeman on Saturday, and a Monday meeting with our man in Montana, Rep. Matthew Monforton.  In the spring of 2014 the Reagan Project, with the support of the National Tax Limitation Committee, sent letters to every Republican candidate running in a Montana Legislative primary.  There must have been 150 of them.  We got one reply, from Matthew.  He was the only one of these candidates who understood what the letter was about, which was Article V.

These people need a lot of education.

 

How bad do things have to get before we’ve finally had enough?   In 2012, after four years of Obama, I thought the time had come, but I was wrong.  This year was it, though, for sure, or so I thought.  Then came Trump.  Wrong again.  Now I’m saying it will be 2020, and maybe the third time is the charm.

Romney was the wrong candidate four years ago.  Because of pushing RomneyCare in Massachusetts as its Governor, he was disqualified from attacking Obamacare.  That issue could have won him the election, but he was the one Republican who couldn’t use it.

Because, and only because, of Donald Trump we’re going to lose again.  The next four years were going to be a tough slog no matter what, with a lot of painful choices.  But now those choices won’t be made at all.  We’ll kick the can down the road for four more years.  Entitlements and the national, state, and municipal debt and pension obligations are ticking time bombs.  I don’t know when they go off, but I’d be surprised if it wasn’t in the next four years.  I just have the feeling that things are going to start falling apart.

Clinton and the Democrats will get the blame, and pay the price.  The wave of 2020 has to be so big that even the media can’t stop it.  Babbie has made me promise to stop making predictions, so I’ll leave it there.  But I feel it coming already.

And I keep waiting to have someone show me why our candidate is not Mike Pence.  What’s he done wrong?  Who’s mad at him?  He’s a normal and decent man, and I’m sure was as appalled at Trump’s behavior as I was.  But he had to suck it up, and carry on.  And I really don’t think he did it for himself.  I think there’s some genuine humility in :Pence.  I looked him square in the eye in Carson City, and I saw the true Mike Pence.  He’s the real deal.

I hope he and Kellyanne Conway stay together after the election.  They’ll need to set up a 501(c) (4) to raise funds.  Pence needs some income, and he can earn it through his chairmanship of this group.  He doesn’t need a lot of money.  He’s never had a lot of money, and he doesn’t need much now.  Enough to live on, and help pay off his kids’ college loans.  He ought to get a fat book contract as well.  He’s got a story to tell.  The revenue from the book will be more money than he’s ever seen in his life.

So what’s the purpose of his new group?  What’s he going to be working on?  Well, there’as this little thing called Article V.  Pence is a Hoosier, and for some reason Indiana has been a hotbed of Article V activity.  This is probably due to the work of State Senate President David Long.  For the last four years Long and Pence have worked together in the Indiana Legislature.  They probably trust each other.  After the election maybe David and Mike ought to get together and talk about the national emergency cord known as Article V.

To all of you watching the debate tonight, my hat’s off to you.  You’ve got stronger stomachs than I have.  I taped game five of the Toronto-Cleveland game, and I’ll be rooting for the Indians.

The coming coronation of Hillary Clinton will be hard to take.  It almost makes you physically ill.  But it won’t kill us, so it will make us stronger.

On WADR I happened to catch clips of Senators Rubio, Portman and Toomey from their recent Senate campaign debates.  I like all of these guys, especially Marco the Natural.  What a gift he has.  He’s plenty smart enough, he just needs some seasoning.  But they were all good, and as they distanced themselves from the Sociopath they were sending a subtle message.  If Clinton wins, you’re going to want me in the Senate to hold her to account.  This message works, and I think the R’s can hold the Senate with it.

Watching these three guys was kind of inspirational.  They know the storms ahead, but they’re going to try and help the country through the next difficult four years.  Good on ’em.  This is not the time to shrink from the service of your country.  The Trump people should follow their example.  Your candidate didn’t win, but wasn’t his campaign supposed to be about something bigger than just him?  It was America first, last, and always.  There are other people besides Donald Trump who can sing that song.

It was on WADR a couple months ago that I first heard Donny Deutsch say that what Trump was doing was setting himself up to start a new television network.  I laughed it off.   That’s crazy.  Well, maybe not.  It does explain his recent behavior.  And then I ran across this piece by a blogger named Ann Barnhardt.  She argues, very persuasively, that this entire campaign has been about building the Trump brand.  It has the ring of truth about it.  Well, he’s pulling it off, and as far as Clinton in the White House goes, what does he care?  She’ll help him build his network, as he stokes the fires against her.

It’s hard not to get pissed off at this election, but the people of this country are going to get what they voted for, good and hard.  Maybe the next time they’ll pay more attention.

I’ll be in Montana next week, and I’ll have a chance to take a look at the Governor’s race.  It’s close, with Bullock over Gianforte by two, according to one poll.  This will be two weeks before the election, so it should be interesting.  Maybe I can figure out a way to help.  We want to make another run at Montana, and having the Governor in our corner will be an asset.

In 1973 Mark Felt was the number two man at the FBI, and, using the name “Deep Throat”, he leaked the dirt on Watergate to the WaPo.  Nixon had used the FBI to subvert justice, and Felt wasn’t going to let him get away with it.  If he has a political descendant, the administration of Hillary Clinton could be a short one.  She’s dirty, the FBI knows it, covered it up, and I’d wager a lot of agents are angry about it.  Julian Assange is waiting.  We will see.

I occasionally have the stomach to read a Krugman article in the NYT, and a few days ago he outlined the Clinton Agenda.  It’s pretty exciting, and bound to succeed.  He thinks she should spend more on social programs and infrastructure.  That’s it.  That’s the plan.  Why didn’t I think of that?  It’s brilliant.  Clinton has no agenda and no plan.  She’s Obama’s third term, and he’s as clueless as she is.  No legislation of any significance will be passed.  She’ll use the veto and executive orders, and issue a lot of regulations, but she won’t really accomplish anything.  She’s drunk the climate change moonshine, and will do far more harm to the economy than good.  Off the top of my head I can’t think of one thing she would do that would help economic growth.

The economy suffers from a lack of animal spirits.  More small businesses are closing than opening.  The market is stalled, and will probably nose dive if the Fed hikes rates, as it almost surely will.  When the 2018 midterms roll around, the economy won’t help the party in power, the Democrats.

Race relations in this country are bad, and seem to be getting worse.  The police are afraid to do their job, and crime is on the rise.  It would be surprising if we don’t see more inner city riots.  All it takes is one questionable police shooting.  There seems to be an increase in random violence by blacks against whites.  It’s a dangerous situation.  It’s been, what, a month since a terror attack in this country?   They were coming once a week there for a while.  Maybe these jihadis aren’t so stupid.  They were helping elect Trump, and they’re taking a time out.  After the election they’ll be back at it.  Not good for the administration in power.

I suppose the MSM doesn’t cover it much, but there is madness loose on college campuses.  Lunacy.  It just gets worse.  Normal people, conservative or liberal, look at all this stuff and shake their head.  But Clinton could never criticize them.  They’re her crowd, and she’s complicit in all their antics.  Ditto for the LGBT gang.  The whole thing is crazy, but Clinton has to cheer it on.

Illegal immigration will be encouraged by Clinton, but there may not be a wave of it.  The economy is, and will remain, too weak.  But her refusal to enforce the law will catch up to her.  And the refugees that she wants to bring to this country will have jihadists among them, and if that were exposed, and she’d be toast.

Lord knows what she’ll do overseas, but if past is prologue she’ll screw it up.  I could go on, and on, but I hope you get my drift.   All this crap is just about to hit the fan, and she’ll be standing in front of it when it hits.  As the Democratic President, she, and her party, will  bear the political responsibility.  And you’re telling me that demographics are going to get her reelected?

What a waste this year has been.  All the political events of the past two years have led up to this, the climax.  But there is none, just a balloon deflating.

But the BBA Task Force steamed all the way up to 28 States, so it wasn’t completely wasted.  And the terrain ahead looks clear.  Article V is the way to go.