Dear Friends and Patriots,

Before this week, I intended to watch the Democratic Party National Convention and critique some of the more noteworthy speeches made there, but after watching and listening for two nights I realized there was no point in doing so. Instead, I offer the following synopsis of what I heard:

• Orange Man Bad! Trump – not worthy of the office; a disgrace. Trump doesn’t care about the environment, animals, children, poverty, education, old people, and now wants to destroy the U.S. Post Office. Trump – a really bad joke. Trump denied health care to 20M citizens by trying to demolish Obamacare. Trump – a Nazi lover and apologist. Trump – Putin’s puppet. McConnell and Trump – stopped all forward progress in the country while helping the rich get richer. Trump hates immigrants and puts children in cages. The economic decline this year – proof of Trump’s incompetence. Current unemployment – Trump’s incompetence again. Trump – doesn’t care about the plight of the unemployed. The COVID response – Trump blew it because he is out of his depth. Trump – responsible for the division of the country and for all the violence in our streets. Trump – a clear and present danger to democracy in our nation. Trump – an ignoramus on foreign policy who’s going to provoke a major war. Trump – somehow figured out how to steal the 2016 election and he’ll do it again if he can. Trump – insane!

• LBGTQXYZ – ALL GOOD! All who refuse to celebrate and support LBGTQXYZ agenda are grounded in ignorance and bigotry.

• White people – privileged and inherently racist.

• BLM – heroes with a just cause!

• Unrest in the streets – an understandable and merited reaction to the death of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others murdered by cops. Long overdue!

• Cops – bad! Cops – dumb, violent brutes, and racist killers! Police departments – need to be defunded. Public safety – needs to be rethought.

• Institutional racism – it’s everywhere!

• Taxes – too low! Runaway national debt – proof that taxes are too low.

• Abortion – a constitutional right to choose. Anti-abortion people – narrow-minded, Bible-thumping bigots, racists, and terrorists. Right-wing press anti-abortion stories – hate-mongering, racist propaganda!

• Colleges and universities – should be tuition free. Student debt – get rid of it; erase it.

• Black people – all are targets just waiting to be shot down by cops and white haters. OBTW – the Constitution states black people are just 3/5 human. Yes…it does!

• Diversity – that’s where America’s real strength is! We just need MORE!

• Fossil fuels – we’re gonna get rid of them! There’s nothing good about fossil fuels. Renewable energy is where it’s at.

• We are all about jobs – GREEN jobs, that is!

• Health care for all – coming! It’s a right, you know?

• Guaranteed minimum income – that’s coming too. Because…it’s justice, you know?

• Guns – the only hope for peace in our streets is “common sense” gun control. The killings won’t end until the guns are gone.

• Everything in the country would be better if women ran everything.

• Mail-in voting. It’s the future! Only an idiot wouldn’t want it. Trump’s
  objections – just voter suppression and a cover for his intent to steal the election.

• Biden – a tragic figure who has always risen above the tragedies and succeeded. Biden – a wonderful, feeling human being with a great record of accomplishment, great values, and great ethics. Biden – if there’s a problem, he has the answer and is ready to fix it.

• Kamalah Harris – a brilliant choice; the right person – wonderful; accomplished, smart, caring, ethical…READY!

• It’s all about the children!

• It still takes a village!

Most of the videos shown and speeches made were rife with factual errors, slurs, and slanderous accusations; some were gross distortions of truth and others were blatant lies. The danger lies in the number of voters in the country who get their information from the mainstream or social media. The mainstream media has become little else but a very loud, obnoxious, anti-Trump echo-chamber. If all your information comes from there, you’ll almost certainly be biased to have positive thoughts about the convention this week and of the speakers and their words. You’ll be someone who has a mostly or totally negative view of Donald Trump and everything he says and does. You’ll believe everything bad you see in the world is somehow related to Trump’s essential inadequacy and screw-ups as President. If you’re addicted to your social media, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, or one of the “lesser” outlets, you’ve most likely constructed your own echo chamber that reflects your biases. If you like President Trump, your “favorites,” friends, and feeds are biased toward him. If you don’t like him, most of the posts you see and read are negative toward him to one degree or another.

One saving grace about the media coverage of the convention is the very low number of people watching. Reports have been published indicating the viewership is in the 3-5M range, which is about ¼ the usual number who watch Sean Hannity every night. It’s possible half of those watching aren’t even Democrats, but people who are just curious. That could mean the other half who are Democrats aren’t a significant number of voters. Consider the possibility that the convention is not going to have a positive impact on the Democrats’ turnout, regardless of the method chosen by them to vote.

All should take note of the brief appearance by John Kasich. He had nothing much to say, but the fact he said anything at all during the Democrat’s convention tells us what we need to understand about him. He claims to be a Republican, but evidently he’s not one who adheres to many of the ethics that are supposed to make Republicans Republicans. Instead, he seems to be vying to be the leader of the Never Trump movement. Maybe he wants to be their president, since his own run for U.S. President in 2016 went nowhere.

The Never Trumpers have shown their true colors. They’re a group of erstwhile Republican Party members who were always considered stalwarts, but you have to ask, “What kind of stalwart abandons his/her party principles and instead aids and abets a movement intent on destroying the America we all profess to love?” That’s what Democrats mean when they talk of “fundamental change.” The Never Trumpers are at best psychologically damaged sufferers of Trump Derangement Syndrome, and at worst are guilty of pathological selfishness, plus a traitorous level of perfidy. That they would openly support the cause of a political movement intent on pursuing an obviously socialist agenda would have been inconceivable just a few years ago. But,….as we all know – that, too is Trump’s fault. Just ask John Kasich. He said so. I heard him.

Allow me to switch topics for a moment to make a tangentially related observation. Martha MacCallum is the host of “The Story” every week night on Fox News Channel. On Wednesday night, she attempted to interview Hawk Newsome, who is one of the co-founders of the New York City chapter of Black Lives Matter. She asked Newsome about Rudi Giuliani’s remark that the government should declare BLM to be a terrorist organization. Instead of addressing the question, Mr. Newsome went on a rant against Giuliani that went on for quite a bit. MacCallum finally halted him and noted he wasn’t responding to her question. She then played a video of Chicago BLM spokesperson Ariel Atkins, who defended the looting in Chicago’s business district as some kind of reparation and said any criticism of looters was an example of white supremacy. She asked Newsome to respond, asking him if he agreed. He didn’t respond to that question either, but went on another rant about white supremacy and reparations in general. He ended by saying, “You want to talk about reparations? Cut the check. Cut the check and then we can talk.”

As I watched and listened to the exchange between MacCallum and Newsome, I turned to my wife and asked, “Do you understand Hegelian dialectics?” She said she didn’t. “Then pay attention, because that’s what’s going on here. That guy isn’t just aimlessly ranting, he’s using a Hegelian dialectic technique against Martha. If you pay attention, you’ll realize the progressives have been teaching all their front-line spokespeople how to answer questions by engaging in Hegelian dialectics.”

You may ask, “So, what is it about your observation of the conversation between Martha MacCallum and Hawk Newsome that’s tangentially related?” If you paid attention to the way the arguments Democrats offered up during the convention you should know. It’s apparent the majority of those on the side of progressives are becoming proficient in how to employ Hegelian dialectics. That’s important to know, because Marxists have favored that method of arguing for over 100 years. Pay attention! They keep telling everyone who they are. But, they depend on us being too ignorant to understand what they do and say right in front of us. It’s up to us to become educated and know how to recognize them and counter their tactics.

Despite what may seem to be a negative tone to this report, I’m very optimistic about Election Day. I admit the election might be stolen and Trump could be declared the loser, but today I’m hopeful that no attempt to steal the election will succeed. Today I see many signs indicating the Democrats have so overplayed their hand that they’ve become self-destructive. Only fools believe the tripe and tropes they’re trotting out for consumption, and most Americans who pay any attention at all aren’t fools. Watch Trump’s poll numbers. As they go up, keep in mind most of the polls aren’t reflecting the great number of Trump supporters who refuse to respond to polls, nor can they tell you how many Democrats are answering with false or misleading responses. There are countless Democrats who hold conservative values. Those Democrats turned out for Trump in 2016 and are likely to do so again. In truth, Trump was elected by bi-partisan participation last time, and if he wins again, it will be reflective of another bi-partisan turnout. That’s as American as it gets!

MAGA, baby!

In Liberty,

Steve A. Stone