Americans sent a resounding message to the Democrat Party on Tuesday evening, rejecting the pronoun-declaring, virtue signalers whose radical ideas include normalizing humans identifying as animals and men competing in women’s sports.
For years Democrats and their allies in the mainstream media have lectured the American people about morality, inclusivity and the all-importance of identity politics. We have been told that not embracing a far-left radical agenda makes us bigots, racists and misogynists.
Clearly, the American people have had enough.
President-elect Donald Trump won all seven battleground states, captured the popular vote (the first Republican to do so in decades) expanded the map in blue states like California, New York and Virginia, and flipped traditional Democrat counties such as Miami Dade in Florida and Hispanic-heavy Starr County in Texas.
Trump’s message on the economy and immigration and closing the campaign with messages like, “It doesn’t have to be this way,” and “Trump will fix it,” given that nearly 75% of Americans believed the nation was on the wrong track, resonated with voters across the board.
Trump won married women by a large margin (so much for the gender gap), along with married men (e.g. parents). He also won suburban voters, Catholics, Protestants, those making $50,000 or less, those with no college degrees, Gen X (between the ages of 45-64), and first-time voters.
Trump also improved with non-traditional Republican voters including urban voters, Latinos and black men.
Simply put: Trump won the majority of America. He won suburban parents who want good schools and safe communities for their children. He won the hardworking folks in rural areas with no college degrees. He improved with young people who want to buy their first home but can’t afford to thanks to inflation.
The effects of Trump and the complete repudiation of the Democrat agenda happened down the ballot as well. Republicans now control the Senate with significant victories by Dave McCormick in Pennsylvania, Tim Sheehy in Montana and Bernie Moreno in Ohio.
The House remains in play, and it is possible that the GOP enters Washington next January with the trifecta: White House, Senate and House of Representatives.
Meanwhile, the Democrat Party, once the party of the working class, has now become the party of out-of-touch elitists.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) put it this way: “It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them.”
Vice President Kamala Harris’ success was limited to high income voters (those making $100,000 or more and those making $200,000 or more), those with bachelor’s or advanced degrees, and those who have no religious affiliation.
In other words, Harris’ coalition consisted of a bunch of rich snobs or “smarty pants,” to quote longtime Democrat strategist David Axelrod.
Many Democrat strategists will say the loss was because Harris’ $1 billion war chest was unwisely spent. They will blame bad messaging, and a heavy focus on the abortion issue instead of the economy. They will say they had a bad candidate, or there wasn’t enough time to run a full campaign (which would be ironic, given it was the Democrat machine that installed Harris at the last minute).
But the rot runs much deeper. For the betterment of the nation, Democrats would do well to use this time for introspection and re-evaluating their principles.
Republicans had to undergo a restructuring following former President Barack Obama’s back-to-back victories in 2008 and 2012. Now, it’s the Democrats’ turn to do some self-reflecting. Until they do, Republicans will enjoy majorities in Washington and in state governments, winning races up and down the ballot for years to come.
But we live in a two-party system – for now. If one of our major parties continues to cater to radicals while isolating the majority of Americans, yes, it is a recipe for their side to continue to lose elections, but it is also bad news for the country. America is better off when both Republicans and Democrats operate in common sense and challenge each other on the best economic policy or how to solve the immigration crisis.
Doubling down and ignoring the will of the people will extinguish the Democrat Party for good.
Carly Atchison Bird is a contributor to The Daily Caller News Foundation and the former national spokeswoman for the Ron DeSantis presidential campaign. She is the founder and president of Bird’s Eye Consulting and lives in Virginia Beach.
Governor Katie Hobbs has prioritized the fundraising of millions of dollars to flip the state legislature over to Democrats over the governance of the state.
According to the campaign finance records, Hobbs’ gubernatorial campaign has collected over $2.6 million from 2023 through March: just over $2.1 million in 2023, and nearly $468,000 from January through March of this year.
Campaign totals from April through the present of this year weren’t yet available on the campaign finance reporting website.
Out of the over 27,800 individual contributions Hobbs’ campaign received from last year through this March, around 8,600 were from out of state.
The top donors since Hobbs took office last year include $10,800 contributions from AFSCME People, United Here PAC, UFCW Local 99 PAC, AZ CWA State Council PAC, and USAA Employee PAC.
The second-highest level of contributions were around 180 individual contributions of $5,400 donations, and about 30 individual contributions of $5,000.
Several organizations and entities also donated sums of $5,400: Moms Fed Up, Smart TD PAC, JP Morgan Chase & Co Arizona PAC, the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, Gila River Indian Community, Tohono O’Odham Nation, Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community, DRIVE Committee (the Political Action Committee of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters), Pattern Energy Group PAC, Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters Issues Committee, Molina Healthcare PAC, Salt River Project, Realtors of Arizona PAC, Arizona Dispensaries Association PAC, Boilermakers-Blacksmiths Leap, Amalgamated Transit Union – Cope.
Other high-level donations included the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association PAC, $5,000; Republic Services, $4,400; American Airlines PAC, $3,000; and UNS Energy Corporation PAC , $2,500; Wells Fargo; Arizona Employee PAC, $2,500; and American Property Casualty Insurance, $2,400.
Hobbs told Capitol Media Services that her position of authority created “the perfect storm” to secure the state legislature for her party.
“This is the first time we’ve been this close and had a Democratic governor,” said Hobbs. “And this is what I’m focused on this election is governing majorities who will work with me.”
Fundraising emails from the Hobbs campaign focused on securing greater legalization of abortion in the state.
Hobbs has vetoed around 200 Republican-led bills since taking office last year.
Democrats haven’t held a trifecta in nearly 60 years. The Republicans hold a slim majority in both the House and Senate: 31 out of 60 seats in the former, 16 out of 30 seats in the latter.
Hobbs’ campaign manager, Nicole DeMont, bragged that Hobbs had collected millions in her first year as governor while her predecessor, Doug Ducey, collected only about $160,000.
The millions excludes the excess in donations (estimated over $1.5 million) to Hobbs’ much-scrutinized inauguration fund, which DeMont established as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit.
The Arizona Secretary of State has a complete list of all candidates eligible to appear on the ballot.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
Everyone knows that political pundits, social media influencers, and the corporate media love a good narrative. And one of their favorites for years has been the claim that Arizona is trending blue—that a demographic shift toward Democrats is inevitable.
This ‘conventional wisdom’ is repeated so often that much of the Republican political class in the state has accepted it as fact. Some are even advising candidates that the only path forward for Republicans is to abandon their conservative principles, embrace center-left policy solutions, and settle for a future of divided government.
But a funny thing about narratives and conventional wisdom: numbers don’t lie, especially those showing party preference when people are registering to vote.
Last month, the Secretary of State updated the statewide voter registration data prior to the Presidential Preference Election. The latest figures show that Republicans are once again the largest voting bloc in Arizona, surpassing Independents by nearly 40,000. This is certainly an important development—especially given all the attention it received on social media when Independent registrations surpassed Republicans last year.
But that’s not the most significant voter registration trend…
Americans are feeling growing unease about the accumulating dysfunctions afflicting us which seem to elude governmental solutions. The combination of weak leadership and irresolute voters has led to diminished standing internationally, inflation, rising crime rates, energy shortages, the hollowing out of once-great cities, and persistent racial disparities.
Yet the greatest threats of all to our future are the national debt and illegal immigration, both of which are wildly out of control. These two dangers, if not soon contained, threaten to consign our beloved nation to second-tier status.
Yes, it could happen. Americans tend to believe that everything will be OK, because this is America where everything naturally gets better.
But there’s nothing inevitable about our good fortune. Yes, we have a fortuitous history, but the music could stop at any time if we habitually neglect the discipline necessary for successful self-government.
There’s even an ominous question of whether the debt and illegal immigration are even solvable at this point. Yes, we’ve carried high debt loads before, notably after World War II. Strong economic growth rescued us then. Innovation and improved productivity are again our only realistic hope of avoiding sharp economic decline.
But we’ve worked ourselves into a dangerous situation, where our annual debt service has reached $1 trillion. We are forced to borrow to make interest payments while our debt continues to grow – a death spiral normally leading to bankruptcy. Creditors will soon demand higher interest payments, and many may refuse to buy our debt altogether.
The effects of the massive migration of the last few years will also be difficult to reverse. Even if we ended illegal immigration today, the 20 million new residents among us aren’t going home, and deportation of this scope may be impossible.
At least two million are “gotaways” who intentionally avoided border check points, for reasons we can easily guess. This means not only will our lives become more dangerous, but social, educational, and criminal justice systems will all be undergoing stress tests just at a time when we are running out of money (see above).
Sure, Democrats have enthusiastically led the open borders craze. They ludicrously claim there is nothing they can do unless Republicans will legislate more, spend more, and agree to comprehensive immigration reform, a.k.a. universal amnesty.
But Republicans had their chance to close the border and didn’t. Instead of cutting back immigration, the Trump administration could have used executive authority to close the border entirely to unauthorized entry, as the law requires.
Americans’ traditional respect for the Rule of Law is a linchpin of our national success. We ignore it to our detriment. We now will pay an awful price for keeping the door cracked a little open when the law is clear.
Democrats have also led the charge for irresponsible spending for false reasons (COVID) or for pure political gain (student loan forgiveness). But Republicans have failed to be the adults in the room, quailing at the threatened “government shutdowns” during spending debates, sneakily supporting spending abuses like earmarks, and generally refusing to expend political capital on spending reductions.
When you’re in a hole, stop digging, right? The first orders of business are to close the border and balance the budget. Both require prodigious amounts of political will, and these are just the first steps.
There is some hope in the sudden transformation of the formerly sanctimonious sanctuary city jurisdictions. When faced with the realities of millions of unvetted, unskilled dependents demanding…well, everything, they are swiftly losing their enthusiasm.
For now, the self-described humanitarians are demanding more help in processing and caring for illegal immigrants, but it’s likely they will become more realistic before long. We’ll see. Voters clearly respond more constructively to crises which affect them personally, which our unmanageable debt will also soon begin to do.
Many historians believe we are seeing the inevitable decline of a still great civilization, a highly successful republic that by choice never became an empire yet achieved dominance and wealth. Like many before us, prosperity produced softness and self-indulgence in the citizenry and so we too may sink into the dustbin of history.
Somehow, we must not – we cannot – let that happen.
Dr. Thomas Patterson, former Chairman of the Goldwater Institute, is a retired emergency physician. He served as an Arizona State senator for 10 years in the 1990s, and as Majority Leader from 93-96. He is the author of Arizona’s original charter schools bill.
A famous burger restaurant chain is closing operations in one California city.
Last week, In-N-Out Burger announced it would soon be closing its Oakland location. In a statement released by Denny Warnick, the company’s Chief Operating Officer, the decision was made “due to ongoing issues with crime.” Warnick explained that “despite taking repeated steps to create safer conditions, our Customers and Associates are regularly victimized by car break-ins, property damage, theft, and armed robberies.”
#Confirmed: In-N-Out Burger is closing its Oakland location “due to ongoing issues with crime…our customers and associates are regularly victimized.”
According to Warnick’s statement, the In-N-Out’s Oakland location was “busy and profitable,” but the company highlighted its “top priority” of ensuring the safety and well-being of our Customers and Associates,” adding that “we cannot ask them to visit or work in an unsafe environment.”
When asked by AZ Free News about the development out of Oakland, Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen replied, “Arizona Republicans believe in the rule of law, and as a result, the policies we’ve implemented over the past decade have kept our state safe. Democrats have a track record of being soft on crime, and if they gain control of Arizona, it’s likely we will endure the same sad fate as Oakland, where criminals and lawlessness reign over our communities.”
The National Fraternal Order of Police addressed the Oakland news in a post on its “X” account, writing, “The closure of In-N-Out’s Oakland restaurant not only emphasizes the impact of persistent crime on our communities but also brings sadness for the employees losing their jobs. As we reflect on this, questions arise about leadership and community safety. Shouldn’t leaders actively combat lawlessness to protect businesses, jobs, and the well-being of individuals?”
🍔 Addressing Safety Concerns and Employee Loss 🍔
The closure of In-N-Out's Oakland restaurant not only emphasizes the impact of persistent crime on our communities but also brings sadness for the employees losing their jobs. As we reflect on this, questions arise about… pic.twitter.com/7UvKwtbK2Y
— National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) (@GLFOP) January 22, 2024
As of January 24, there are 401 In-N-Out locations across 287 cities in the United States, according to the data company ScrapeHero. Out of those total locations, 275 are in California. Arizona has 34 restaurants – the third-most of the 8 states and territories that currently host the In-N-Out chain.
The Oakland In-N-Out location will continue operations until Sunday, March 24, 2024.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
