Don's Tuesday Column

          THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson   Red Bluff Daily News   10/09/2018

Audrey Denney: a big, fat liar?

Well, I guess “fat” would apply to me, not Ms. Denney, who appears to be athletically fit. “Big” would not apply to her either, but would obviously describe Congressman Doug LaMalfa, to no disrespect of his apparent genetically-favored stature.

However, calling Audrey Denney a liar may come a little closer to the mark, considering the ads that I’ve viewed. Let’s review: She states that LaMalfa “voted against the North State by voting to cut Medicare.” That’s blatantly false; she cannot cite a single bill wherein Doug LaMalfa “voted to cut Medicare.” If she knows that to be false, she is a liar; if she believes it to be true based on liberal Democrat spin and propaganda, she is incompetent to discern truth from falsehood and doesn’t, therefore, deserve your vote. Medicare runs an unsustainable deficit versus the payroll taxes collected because it was designed by Democrats to deceptively sell “free” health care to seniors with funding that has fallen far short as soon as 10 years after its passage.

Shortfalls have thus required regular tax hikes to paper over said deficits. Ms. Denney foolishly, perhaps deceptively (if she has even a rudimentary awareness of the $30+ trillion, 10-year cost of “Medicare for all”) promotes “guaranteed universal, high-quality healthcare through Single-Payer/Medicare for All.” There is no such successful program in the entire world of advanced economies. Every single country that has some form of national, single-payer health care sustains its commitments by relying on private sector health plans and services: the British NHS, the Scandinavian countries’ systems, and even the Canadian system that (wink and nod) allows their citizens to cross the border to pay cash for American care.

Perhaps Ms. Denney admires the socialist, single-payer health care of Cuba, which is great for the tiny sliver of well-off, party-connected Cubans but less-than-inadequate for average Cubans who rely on relatives for clean sheets—clean sheets, for crying out loud. Perhaps she thinks Venezuela’s socialist (would she even admit that it’s a socialist system?) nightmarish health care delivers anything other than barbarism.

She is likewise peddling falsehoods about LaMalfa voting to “increase prescription cost,” and “endanger rural hospitals.” Doug LaMalfa states flat-out: “I’ve protected and expanded rural healthcare!” Unless Denney can produce something other than leftist, Democrat propaganda, LaMalfa wins that claim.

Nearly 2/3s of our voters supported Donald J. Trump. Why would the people of Tehama County vote to send yet another robotic Nancy Pelosi soldier for Democrats’ crusade to undo the 2016 election by impeaching President Trump, reversing tax cuts and shutting down the government to get their way? Well, have any of them ever renounced that tactic to force higher spending and taxes? No.

My editorial support will hardly ensure that Doug wins his race, but I will proudly check the box by his name and urge you, dear readers, to look at what Democrats—any Democrat, anywhere—stand for after turning their party over to the hysterical, howling-at-the-moon fanatical leftist loons that were on display in the contentious confirmation process for Brett Kavanaugh. Lies and made-up stories of sexual assaults, peddled by our own (shameful) Sen. Feinstein and all the other bitter clowns on the Judiciary committee, failed to move any Republicans but Alaska’s Murkowski. Senator Palin, anyone?

I’ll wait on the rest of the ballot until the form arrives. You can safely and proudly vote the straight Republican ticket; Steve Poizner has “no party preference” but still deserves your vote for Insurance Commissioner. Marshall Tuck is far more qualified to reform education and push back on teachers’ unions;  their vast funds are devoted to defeating candidates that don’t support endless money for their unions.

It is disconcerting and disappointing to see that many, including on this page, seemingly dismiss—through ignorance, partisanship or malice—the most vicious, malevolent, diabolical character assassination to ever sully the nomination of a Supreme Court Justice, speaking of Brett Kavanaugh. How can anyone set aside the most basic of legal principles, dating back to the Roman Empire and up through British and American jurisprudence: the presumption of innocence and a burden of proof of charges.

In decrying Kavanaugh’s fiery, emotional response to the false, vicious accusations leveled at him, his critics apparently feel that, for a certain category of crimes, sexual in nature, evidence is irrelevant and a forceful reply suggests an imbalanced nature. I’ll posit a political contest wherein a former educator and administrator is running against a former restaurant manager, both of whom would have supervised and interacted with hundreds or even thousands of people, many of whom were female students or workers.

Let’s assume that political operatives found some among those women that were willing to level charges similar to those against Kavanaugh, with similarly uncorroborated sexual assaults. We’ll accept that neither the teacher nor food service manager ever so much as touched any of those women over decades. What would their responses say about the charges: 1) Passively refusing to dignify them, even ignoring them so as not to appear defensive; 2) Taking the approach that actor Matt Damon stated: “I’ll spend a million dollars and fight the charges for 10 years if necessary”;

3) Or appear before the public, as Kavanaugh did, forcefully refute the charges and attack the partisan purveyors of slime. One might, however, use the detached, intellectual response of then-candidate Michael Dukakis when asked what he would think of the murderer of his wife. That approach didn’t resonate very well with the voters, who saw a cold fish of a husband and candidate. Take this for the speculation it is.

Meanwhile, the Democrats have now 1) Validated violence for political ends with their failure to denounce the mobs; 2) Brought about the discrediting of the liberal media by working together in a malignant campaign; 3) Heightened the chasm between our institutions and our people; and 4) Shown Trump to be man of the hour. Keep America great—vote Republican.