Election Day in America

5 November 20243 November 2024 The Portly Politico3 Comments

Well, here it is—Election Day. Millions of ballots have already been cast, but yours portly believes in going to the polls on the day itself. God Willing, I’ll be there casting my ballot for Donald J. Trump about thirty minutes after this post is published.

I don’t have much to say, but I am cautiously optimistic. Kamala Harris has all the appeal of a wet blanket that slept its way into power. Donald Trump is like a suave gorilla caring for its young. In other words, if you’re voting for Kamala Harris, you’re either an HR czarina or an aggressively gay man, and the last time I checked (note: I haven’t), even gay men prefer suave gorillas.

Or, at the very least, you’re spiritually on the side of the HR czarinas if you support Harris. I’ve never seen an election so starkly highlight the growing divide between single women and the rest of the country as much as this one. Not even Shrillary in 2016 managed to combine schoolmarmishness with cringe-inducing cackling at this level.

I’m not focusing on the substantive issues at this point because a.) everyone has already made up their minds by this point and b.) Kamala Harris is entirely lacking in substance.

But life was good under President Trump the first time, and I suspect it will be again. His stance on tariffs increasingly makes the free trade consensus of the last hundred years look foolish, the economists be damned. Closing our borders economically is key to restoring American manufacturing; so is closing our border physically and legally. We have got to clamp down on illegal and legal immigration. I don’t care if I have to pay $40 for a shirt; by God, I want it made in America by Americans. It’ll be the best shirt I’ve ever worn and will last a decade.

Regardless, if you’re on the fence or don’t think it matters, stop being a fig leaf and go vote for Trump. Drive up that national vote! Make this bad boy too big to steal.

I’ll be up late (hopefully not too late) watching the returns, and might do some Tweeting/X-ing on X. Consider “tuning” in for my doughy reflections.

God Bless America, and God Bless Donald J. Trump!

—TPP

Lazy Sunday CCLXXII: Harris Stuff

28 July 202425 July 2024 The Portly Politico5 Comments

Well, Kamala Harris is heading up the Democratic ticket, unless something crazy happens before or during the Democratic National Convention. Harris is the ultimate example of failing upwards—after dropping out early in the Democratic primaries in 2020, she found herself as the nominee for the vice presidency.

Now that her boss has ended his Weekend at Bernie’s-esque charade, Harris has fallen up to the de facto nomination for the presidency. The concubine-turned-prosecutor-turned-pandering-politico who checks all the intersectional boxes is now energizing a demoralized—but still quite cringe—Democratic base.

One unremarked upon quality of President Trump is that he manages to appeal to Boomers while also not coming across as unbearably cringe. The unwittingly cringe Boomer is a meme at this point (God Bless them, but I’ve got quite a few who read this website—love y’all, but wise up, fogies), but it’s pretty wild that Trump can capture that demographic and still come across as school. Of course, it’s because he’s authentic: he’s just being himself, warts and all.

Harris, on the other hand, is nobody, because she tries to be everything to all people. She has no identity beyond a lust for power (and Willie Brown’s willy, it seems). She is tokenism made manifest, and we’ll all be enduring her insufferable cackling—and fawning coverage of the same—between now and election day.

As such, I thought I’d feed the fire and look back at some Kamala-related posts:

“The Collapse of the Obama Coalition?” – Thank God for Tulsi Gabbard, who effectively destroyed Harris’s campaign.
“Breaking: Biden Picks Harris as Running Mate” – Harris’s political career was saved by a geriatric zombie.
“Biden Out” – Biden’s out, and we’re looking at an election akin to that of 1828.

May God Have Mercy on us all.

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

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Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

Biden Out

24 July 202422 July 2024 The Portly Politico23 Comments

By the time you’re reading this post, it will be old news, but President Biden announced he would not seek re-election in 2024. At the time of writing, the likely nominee is Vice President Kamala Harris.

While I was hoping for the chaos (and, quite frankly, the sheer political science interest) of a brokered convention, it seems even the Democrats realize that would probably not work well for them.

It’s an interesting situation: Kamala Harris has the opportunity to become President in spite of the fact that she was jaw-droppingly unpopular in the 2020 Democratic primaries. At the same, she’s assuming the mantle barely over 100 days out from the election. She’s going up against a yugely popular Trump campaign, coming on the heels of a triumphant Republican National Convention and President Trump’s survival of an assassination attempt.

That perhaps explains why no other likely Democrat has announced his or her candidacy. While there are notable Democratic figures who have not endorse Harris at the time of writing, there does not appear to be any eagerness to challenge her, either. Doing so would be a Pyrrhic victory: seizing the Democratic nomination from Harris only to go down in flames against Trump. Indeed, it would be seizing a Pyrrhic victory from a Pyrrhic victor, as Harris does not seem likely to win the election.

TBT: Modern Art and Influence

14 July 20228 July 2022 The Portly Politico3 Comments

It’s that dead time of the year, news-wise, when nothing much exciting is happening—unless, of course, rising food, gas, and home prices are your idea of excitement. Everyone’s in a summertime mood, and no one wants to worry about the troubles and strife in the world when we can be out swimming and eating ice cream.

Of course, as we’re out there on the beaches, we’re going to see a lot of people, beautiful or otherwise. We’re all beautifully and wonderfully made in God’s Image, and He Cares about each of us. There is Beauty and dignity to be found in every human life.

Naturally, some humans are blessed with more Beauty than others. Nevertheless, I’d like to think that, as a species made in God’s Image, we all instinctively appreciate True Beauty when we see it. That our ruling class actively supports “art” that is anti-Beauty is another sign that they are illegitimate and, quite frankly, Satanic.

Most modern “art” is not worthy of the moniker. We all understand that a great deal of its support comes from wealthy doofuses who want to look cool. Unfortunately, these hipster doofuses—whether intentionally or not—are destroying culture in the process of celebrating “art.” The destruction of Beauty is a crime against God and civilization; the celebration of ugliness is a sure sign of moral and artistic decay.

Fortunately, there’s still a great deal of Beauty in the world. We just have to seek it out—prayerfully and intentionally.

With that, here is 28 July 2021’s “Modern Art and Influence“:

TBT: The Morning After

4 November 20214 November 2021 The Portly Politico9 Comments

It was one year ago today that The Z Man wrote that “America died” on 3 November 2020. I don’t think he meant it melodramatically, and it certainly encapsulated what a lot of us were feeling as we watched the fraudulent votes magically appear in the middle of the night.

The 2020 election woke a lot of people up, but even blatant fraud across multiple States has, sadly, gone largely ignored. The silver lining is that folks seem to have abandoned national politics and are focusing on what’s happening at the local and State levels. Indeed, there seems to be a general disengagement from politics, something that in the past I would have decried, but that now I think might actually be healthy—provided people are willing to make tough decisions for themselves.

Regardless, it’s hard to think about the 2020 election. Since then, we’ve been stuck with a old man who is essentially a corpse dangling from the strings of invisible hands. I thought a year ago that The Usurper Biden would be tossed from office at the first opportunity, but it’s occurred to me that he is too perfect a patsy for the radical elitists performing the marionette. For one, Kamala Harris somehow manages to be less likeable and more phony than Hillary Clinton, and progressives don’t like her. For another, it’s better to have a hollow man like Biden than a strident floozy like Harris, who might occasionally make a decision on her own.

Well, this topic is depressing. You can see why I’ve switched over to writing about music and the weather.

With that, here is 4 November 2020’s “The Morning After“:

Modern Art and Influence

28 July 202126 July 2021 The Portly Politico4 Comments

Most readers of this blog will likely agree with the following sentiment: “modern art is terrible.” In my more intellectually generous moments, I’d add “most” as a qualifier to start that phrase, but with age comes orneriness, and orneriness does not lend itself to intellectual generosity.

Perhaps the best treatment of this sentiment in a scholarly—dare I say “intellectually generous”—way is Roger Kimball‘s The Rape of the Masters: How Political Correctness Sabotages Art. The book is a quick read, but even in 200 pages, it’s depressing seeing the increasingly bizarre, flat-out wrong interpretations politically-motivated Leftists bring to classic works of art. The unfortunate trend of comparing everything that ever happened to Harry Potter is no-doubt the watered-down, pop cultural version of this academic shoehorning of the ideology du jour into artistic interpretation.

Of course, there is a corollary to the maxim that “modern art is terrible.” It’s that “modern art is only successful because wealthy dupes want to look cool.” That’s a bit of a mouthful, we all know it’s true.

So it is that two close relatives to the current Pretender’s regime—scandal-ridden, sister-in-law-loving drug addict Hunter Biden, and not-pretty-enough-to-be-a-model model Ella Emhoff (Vice President Kamala Harris‘s stepdaughter) have made good money peddling “art.”

Inauguration Day 2021

20 January 202119 January 2021 The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

The day has arrived—the briefly delayed third term of Obama’s presidency. In the years since Obama left office, the progressive Left has become even more insane. After a four-year reprieve under Trump, the radical progressives aren’t going to let another opportunity pass to transform the country completely.

Things are going to get worse before they get better, which is why I’m encouraging my fellow conservatives, Christians, and traditionalists to think and act locally in the years to come (H/T to historian Brion McClanahan for that pithy phrase). Now is the time to attend town/city and county council meetings, to run for local and State offices, and to build up communities. While we can do some of that online, we’ve got to get out and meet people—join Bible studies, form local clubs, revive forgotten civic organizations, etc. Heck, even play at an open mic!

Lazy Sunday XC: Questions, Part IV

6 December 20209 January 2021 The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

After last week’s celebration of 100 weeks of posts, I’m continuing my review of posts that pose questions in their titles. Also, today’s post marks the 800th post on the blog, which is pretty nifty. Regardless, I’ll likely depart from these posts to do some Christmas Lazy Sundays as the holiday approaches, but for now, let’s dive back into some questions:

“The Collapse of the Obama Coalition?” – This post considered the future of the so-called “Obama Coalition,” a coalition of various fringe identity groups to deliver electoral victory to the Democrats. The occasion for the piece was Kamala Harris dropping out of the Democratic primaries. Turns out I wasn’t as wrong about her future success as I thought at the time—she’s very likely going to become president thanks to Biden’s advanced age and blatant election fraud. But it’s still an open question whether or not identity politics will succeed long-term.
“SubscribeStar Saturday: What is Political Moderation?” – In this essay, I explore the question “what exactly is political moderation” and a sub-question: does political moderation truly exist? My basic argument is that when we call for “political moderation,” we’re really just surrendering slowly to the side that wants more via compromise—in this case, Republicans compromising with Democrats until progressivism reigns supreme.
“The Revival of Traditionalism?” – This post looked at the possible impact of The Age of The Virus on a revival of more traditional modes of living. Perhaps my assessment of that impact was overly optimistic, as it seems The Virus has merely encouraged us to depend even more on mind-numbing entertainment and social isolation. But it was nice to see feminists complaining about having to spend more time with their kids.

That’s it for this week. Here’s hoping you found some answers.

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

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One Final Appeal

2 November 20202 November 2020 The Portly Politico11 Comments

The 2020 election is tomorrow, and the fate of the country hangs in the balance. Yes, such melodramatic rhetoric crops up in every election, but it’s very real this time around.

By this point, many Americans have made their choices, but I implore undecided conservatives and centrists to cast their votes for President Trump—and for Republicans at every level. Sure, there are still some RINOs in our midsts, but a semi-reliable RINO is better by far than a reliably destructive progressive.

Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell might not always vote the way we would like them to, but there’s no denying they’ve been effective at supporting President Trump’s agenda in deed, if not always in words. But actions speak louder than words; I can put up with a token denouncement from McConnell if he keeps packing the courts with conservative constitutionalists and playing procedural hardball with the Democrats.

Of course, the main attraction is Trump himself. If he were any other person in American history, we’d be lauding him as the greatest president of a generation. But because his style is combative and pugilistic, conservatives are all too eager to denounce him as “reckless.” The irony is that Trump would have been unable to accomplish everything he has in his first term if he didn’t possess that scrappy sensibility.

I had a conversation last week with a conservative friend who agonizingly arrived at the point where even though he dislikes Trump’s style, he realizes the Democrats have nothing to offer but death and destruction. Voting for the Democrats was never on the table for him, but he felt he could not morally support the President—until he thoughtfully considered the president’s record. As he put it, “‘Peace in the Middle East’ used to be a joke. Then Trump actually did it.”

Trump is the obvious choice for peace, prosperity, and national renewal. Joe Biden is a puppet of the progressive Left, which will shunt him out of office in favor of Kamala Harris—a calculating, cruel, corrupt politician lacking any scruples whatsoever—at the first opportunity.

Don’t let that happen. Vote for Trump, vote Republican, and vote to Keep America Great!

MAGA!

Donald-Trump-Official-White-House-Photograph

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Trump’s Pages of Accomplishments

14 August 202013 August 2020 The Portly Politico2 Comments

Looking at national polls and predictions, it’s easy to get discouraged about President Trump’s reelection prospects. Even with Joe Biden losing his mind, and the pick of a radical, authoritarian Kamala Harris as his running mate, “Sleepy Joe” is managing to stay up by hunkering down.

On our side there’s grumbling that Trump hasn’t done enough—on immigration, on law and order—and those aren’t entirely warrantless grumbles. Republicans squandered—perhaps intentionally—an opportunity to fund the construction of the border wall while they controlled both chambers of Congress. John McCain pompously and vindictively voted to keep the odious Affordable Care Act in place, a clear parting shot at Trump. Trump did not seem to offer a robust response to the CHAZ/CHOP fiasco, but is now belatedly defending federal property in Portland, Oregon.

Those critiques aside, it’s worth remembering what Trump has accomplished—and he wants you to be reminded. That’s why he gave Breitbart a six-page document of his achievements. They are substantial—and make him one of the greatest presidents of the last fifty years.

The Portly Politico

One Southerner's unique, erudite, conservative perspective in a hectic world

Tag: Kamala Harris

Election Day in America

Lazy Sunday CCLXXII: Harris Stuff

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Biden Out

TBT: Modern Art and Influence

TBT: The Morning After

Modern Art and Influence

Inauguration Day 2021

One Final Appeal

Trump’s Pages of Accomplishments