Craig Dunn - Howey Politics

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Thursday, September 23, 2021

"The coup has started."

Wednesday, November 27, 2019 11:39 AM

“The coup has started.” I put these words in quotations because they were actually tweeted out by someone in the know. No, this wasn’t one of President Trump’s ubiquitous tweets. This tweet belongs to Mark Zaid. Who is Mark Zaid you ask? He is none other than the Trump whistleblower’s attorney. Most importantly, this tweet was launched in January 2017. Zaid even followed up that tweet with, “Impeachment will follow immediately.”

Craig Dunn: The ironies of our chip shortage

KOKOMO – Every day for the past two weeks I have had to stare two ironies in the face every day. As I drive to work in the morning, I pass the local Chevrolet dealership in Kokomo and marvel at how few new cars are available for sale on the lot. In fact, most days there are five or fewer cars for sale and no pickup trucks. In the evening my route home takes me 400 yards south of the Chevrolet dealership. There, on the very corner where inventor Elwood Haynes drove the first American-made internal combustion engine automobile on Pumpkinvine Pike, I see over 1,000 brand spanking new pickup trucks fenced in on the former Delphi Automotive plant parking lot. One might expect the local Chevy dealer to sneak down the road in the middle of the night, cut a hole in the fence and acquire some inventory, but alas, that strategy is foiled by the fact that the vehicles don’t work. They lack critical microprocessors that make up one or more of the 1,000 microchips used in a modern vehicle to control brakes, fuel injection, air conditioning, warning lights and, well, you name it.
Craig Dunn: Biden's big Afghan mess

CARMEL – Fill in the blank: According to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, President Joe Biden is a _____ (fool, idiot, cretin, moron, dolt, halfwit, dunce, dullard or imbecile). Score yourself 100 points if you said imbecile and 95 points if you chose one of the other synonyms for imbecile. Blair made this amazingly undiplomatic and rude summation of Biden after the president’s disastrous handling of the United States exit from Afghanistan and his completely tone deaf and clueless response to the international uproar caused by the unprecedented self-inflicted crisis. Now I don’t normally agree with and quote someone who liked to fly on Jeffrey Epstein’s Lolita Express, ala Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew, but Blair’s bluntness speaks volumes about just how big a mess that the United States finds itself in. Another British statesman summed up our current mess in Afghanistan quite well when talking about Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s disgraceful appeasement of Adolf Hitler after the 1938 Munich Agreement. Winston Churchill summed up his disgust with Chamberlain by famously saying, “You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor, and you will have war.” This is the same situation that the United States faces today.
Craig Dunn: U.S. needs a pandemic commission

CARMEL – The United States got lucky this time! Everyone, and I do mean everyone, dropped the ball and was totally unprepared for the Covid-19 pandemic. We were very fortunate that the Covid-19 virus was a big sissy as far as pandemic viruses go and that we didn’t witness the extinction of mankind due to our lack of preparation, slowness of response, scientific confusion, political ineptitude and the rampant ignorance and pig-headedness of our population. It may seem ridiculous to refer to a virus that has led to the deaths of over 600,000 Americans as a big sissy, but in the pantheon of viruses, it could have been terrifyingly worse. It could have been worse not because our response could have been worse, but because the virulence of the virus could have been worse. Covid-19 largely bypassed our younger population, unlike the 1918 influenza pandemic, and tended to target those who were elderly or who had other health issues. That is just plain dumb luck and not good public policy. It should not be our government’s public policy to play Russian roulette with our nation’s health.
Craig Dunn: Trump's GOP death grip

CARMEL – It is always a perilous thing to predict the demise of a politician or a political party. History is chock full of examples where a premature death notice has been embarrassingly retracted. With this historical fact in mind, I gingerly look to the future and speculate on the systemic risk to the Republican Party of an out-of-control former president Donald Trump and his rising legion of legislative and state-wide candidates who appear to have no allegiance to their party, but only to the messianic message of The Donald. I’m not too old to remember when the Republican Party had a cogent, cohesive message about where we stood as a political party. We were a pro-growth, pro-equal opportunity party that championed fiscal discipline, low taxes, a strong national defense, law and order and personal freedom. I believe that the vast majority of Republicans still believe in these things. However, it appears to me that the Republican Party has been hijacked, manipulated and twisted to advocate for the personal and political interests of Donald Trump, his family and many self-serving candidates willing to ride to their own victories by pretending to ride the Trump train. I know many office holders and party leaders who are personally disgusted by the continued intrusion of Donald Trump in the machinations of the Republican Party. That being said, they are terrified to speak their minds publicly on the subject for fear of Trump retaliation and retribution.
Craig Dunn: Remembering Hoosier hero Brig. Gen. Henry Lawton

INDIANAPOLIS – Someone taking in a fine spring day at Indianapolis’ Garfield Park might stumble upon a strange statue dedicated to a Hoosier hero who has faded from memory over the last century. Attired in khaki field dress, topped with a tropical pith helmet, the impressive statue implies to the observer that its subject was once a giant among men. The name “Lawton” adorns the statue, but no clue is given to the amazing life of the man. As a young man, Henry W. Lawton aspired to become a humble Methodist Episcopalian minister. Yet, before his amazing life ended, this man of modest origins and Hoosier upbringing would obtain a Harvard law degree and serve his country for nearly 40 years, rising to the highest levels of responsibility in the United States Army. Lawton was born near Akron, Ohio, in 1843, and moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, later that same year when his father found work in a mill. His mother died when he was 11 and he bounced around northeastern Indiana and northwestern Ohio following his father’s ever-changing employment.
Craig Dunn: Storm clouds loom for INGOP

CARMEL – There’s a storm cloud rising in Indiana Republican politics and we may get an ugly glimpse of it in the coming year leading up to the 2022 and 2024 elections. Perhaps it is because of an embarrassment of wealth and the inevitable expansion of the Republican base, but overwhelming success many times breeds discontent when the party’s leadership does not move party and public policy at the same speed and direction demanded by its new activists. In my mind there are four types of Republicans: Fully committed Republicans who do the hard work of the party and who support our candidates whether we agree with them 100% or not; casual Republicans who lean in the direction of the party but need to be courted and cajoled into contributing time, money or even turning out to vote; opportunistic Republicans, who for personal benefit seek office or party leadership because it’s just darn difficult to be a Democrat in Indiana; finally, those true believers who have a political philosophy that they attempt to use the Republican Party for purposes of spreading it to the masses. On Election Day or during the election marathon that politics has now become, each of these groups adds votes to the bottom line, so all are critical to the Republican political dominance in Indiana.
Craig Dunn: The American dream ... and the American nightmare

KOKOMO – Like most Hoosiers, I was shocked and saddened by the senseless murder of eight Indianapolis FedEx employees last week. As a feeling human being it is natural to want something to be done so that an event like this won’t happen again. After all, how can anyone look at the photos of the innocent victims and not hope that their deaths were not in vain. “Please, dear God, do whatever you must do to bring an end to this senseless violence,” we plead. Into this sea of despair enter those who never wish to see a tragedy go unexploited, the liberal gun control lobby. One of the few certainties of life is that when any event such as the FedEx mass shooting occurs, the parade of politicians, pundits and activists roll out their incessant refrain that only outlawing what they term assault rifles will stop the violence. They are quick to exploit any gun-related headline event to strike a blow against one of your rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights. It sometimes seems like these people are happy another shooting occurred. There is no denying that the American people love their guns. In fact, the best estimate is that there are at least 120 guns for every 100 Americans. That is a lot of guns. It dwarfs the second closest nation, Yemen, by almost a two-to-one margin. The United States is a nation of guns and that is not by accident. It is only due to the fact that American colonists possessed large amounts of rifles for both hunting and maintaining effective militias against possible Indian intrusions that they were able to band together and throw off the repressive yoke of King George III.
Craig Dunn: Gov. Holcomb does a great job with pandemic

KOKOMO – I’ve never had a job where my decision has meant the difference between life and death. Shucks, during my 38-year career as a financial consultant, the two biggest challenges that I’ve had are recommending an investment before some world event made the markets drop, or not recommending the next greatest technological thingamabob before it became larger than the GDP of France. I admire those who have those necessary jobs that require them to make life and death decisions on a daily basis. Our service men and women, law enforcement officers, first responders and medical personnel all deserve our gratitude. Most of us understand and accept the pressure-packed nature of these jobs and know that these folks are doing their best to serve the American people. We generally laud these vital workers and honor the work that they do. However, there are a few jobs where no matter what decision you make, someone is going to criticize, vilify and condemn your efforts and decisions. Governor of Indiana happens to be just one of those jobs.
Craig Dunn: Biden's $1.9 trillion boondoggle

KOKOMO – In this month’s issue of “Whistling Past the Graveyard” we will take our annual look at the looming disaster of our national debt and the complete ambivalence of the American public and our government officials at this very real existential threat to most things that we hold dear. Every year that I have been writing for Howey Politics, I have devoted at least one column to the ever-mounting Red Menace of the national debt. I’ve written and obsessed about this subject during both Democrat and Republican administrations because irresponsible governmental spending knows no political party. Both Republicans and Democrats are recklessly irresponsible when it comes to the long-term threat of deficit spending. No one gets a pass. The latest trigger to my annual rant is the latest $1.9 trillion boondoggle of President Biden’s pandemic response or the Democrat Party’s “never let a crisis go to waste” cash grab. I won’t rehash the argument that only a very small piece of this “relief” bill is actually pandemic related. Most of us know by now that the spending bill was packed to the gills with mostly pork for the insatiable appetites of voracious Congressional Democrats. Instead, let’s take a look at the relief aspects of the bill.
Craig Dunn: Sen. Young a leader of quiet dignity

KOKOMO – One of my lifelong obsessions is to study history from a human perspective. I’m not really interested in dates and places or how many Mongols killed how many Visigoths. I am interested in why humans react the way they do when placed under stressful situations. What makes a common farm boy from Elkhart climb over a trench and charge across a field at Antietam, Belleau Wood or Peleliu into the face of flying lead and shrapnel? Of particular interest to me is how do leaders, from squad level to army command, motivate their ordinary soldiers to do the extraordinary, and what traits make for a good leader? The more I study the issue of leadership I find that I have great difficulty in telling you exactly what it is, but I’ve learned to recognize it when I see it. Most of the characteristics of an effective military leader are usually found in our proficient governmental leaders. No, I’m not talking about the fuss and feathers elected officials who prance around the halls of Fox News waiting to spout their opinions on just about any topic that will net them some air time. I’m talking about the workhorse leadership who work diligently without much fanfare and yet are right on the firing line when the bullets start to fly. These are the men and women whom I admire. The Hoosier State is very fortunate to have a U.S. senator who has proven to be a leader of quiet dignity and humility, who has helped lead the United States Senate through some of its biggest recent battles. Sen. Todd Young has been the Hoosier senator who has found himself sought out to provide counsel and leadership on a variety of issues.
Craig Dunn: Pence, Young shine despite Trump's swamp

KOKOMO – And now we know the truth. It was never about draining the swamp. It was never about building a wall. It was never about restoring power to the governed. It was, is and forever will be about doing what most benefitted Donald J. Trump. First, let me start by acknowledging that there were some very good things that happened over the years prior to the pandemic. Our economy skyrocketed. Bureaucratic red tape was cut and enabled all Americans to prosper. Unemployment rates dropped to historical lows in every measurable subgroup. The judiciary was nudged to a less activist and more conservative status by a wealth of newly appointed judges at all levels, including three outstanding appointments to the United States Supreme Court. Peace broke out in the Middle East when several nations struck long-awaited treaties with Israel. Our military was beefed up to deal with threats from current adversaries and potential adversaries in the future. China’s threat to world peace and our economy was recognized and the process of reining in its abuses was well underway. All in all, the achievements of President Trump’s term in office were pretty impressive. But, then there were the other things that hallmarked the Trump Administration. The vainglorious, megalomaniacal rantings via Twitter, the revolving door staff changes that discarded a host of talented public servants like empty beer cans, the associations maintained with questionable friends, the vilification of anyone, friend or foe, who dared to disagree with The Donald. Worst of all, the incessant and unabated failure to tell the truth in the smallest to the most important matters. In certain ways, he conducted himself as a blended incarnation of Benito Mussolini and Joseph Goebbels. I don’t want to dance around this one. Donald Trump was a big fat liar!
Craig Dunn: President Trump became the disruptor

KOKOMO – The late founder of Walmart was a disruptor of major proportions. His company launched a retail revolution from the sleepy backwaters of Arkansas and totally transformed Main Street USA by creating a dynamic big box retail entity that effectively replaced your local hardware, sporting goods, clothing, fabric, appliance, stationery, toy, dry goods, pet and you name it stores. His work was revolutionary, highly profitable and controversial. Worshipped by some and cussed by many, Sam Walton became the be all and end all to the world of retail. He created a concept that would last forever, or did he? Just when it appeared that Walmart would become the most dominant and powerful business in the world, along came a diminutive young man named Jeff Bezos and a quaint online bookseller named Amazon. While Walmart brought gale force winds to the retail world, Amazon brought five hurricanes tied together with a trio of tornados. Just as Sam Walton before him, Bezos and Amazon found themselves worshipped and reviled by nearly equal numbers. Such is the life of a disruptor. I believe that President Trump will be viewed by history as a disruptor and not just because he is scorned by such a large percent of the American people and much of the world. He will be viewed as the proverbial bull in the china shop that got things done at the same time that he crashed the aisles. With President Trump’s time in office quickly coming to a close, it’s time to take a balanced look at the legacy of his time at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It’s a mixed bag and deserves more than just knee jerk adulation or vile contempt.
Craig Dunn: Trump troubles this loyal Republican

KOKOMO – I am a partisan Republican. I voted for President Donald Trump. I wanted him to defeat Biden and arrest any further slide of our country into the grip of socialism. I desperately wanted to jam a Trump victory into the faces of CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, NBC, The New York Times, the Washington Post, Facebook, Twitter, Nancy, Chuck and all the rest of the usual suspects. At this point it looks like a Trump victory will not happen. The electoral deck is stacked against him and the massive mail-in voting and overwhelmed vote-counting operations in historically ethics-challenged Democrat-machine-run urban centers appears to present a series of hurdles that cannot be overcome. While I would never suggest to President Trump that he just throw in the towel without fully exploring the depths of potential Democrat chicanery, I would suggest that he consider the impact of his every action on our nation and on our reputation throughout the world. While I am a loyal Republican, I am first and foremost a proud American. As an American, I do not want to see our judicial system decide elections.
Craig Dunn: Tagged with Trump loss, Pence faces an arduous future

KOKOMO – The 28th vice president of the United States, Hoosier Thomas Marshall, once quipped, “Indiana is called the mother of vice presidents because it is home to more second-class men than any other state.” While time, absentee ballots and attorneys will decide whether Vice President Mike Pence gets to continue to live in One Naval Observatory Circle for four more years, the thought must have crossed Pence’s mind sometime in the wee small hours of the morning after Election Day, “Where do I go from here?” President Trump's loss on Saturday makes it likely Mike Pence eventually falls short of grasping the brass ring. While the path to the presidency for Pence would have faced difficult hurdles if Trump had won, the road to presidential glory becomes immeasurably more challenging now that the former Indiana governor finds himself looking for Two Men and a Truck in January. For a relatively quiet man, Mike Pence has shown that he possesses the grit of a riverboat gambler when it comes to his political career. Safely ensconced in a congressional seat, a member of the leadership team in the House of Representatives, with the speaker’s job a reasonable career goal, Pence chucked it all to make a run for Indiana governor in 2012.
Craig Dunn: Voting for Trump over that 'socialist' Biden

KOKOMO – As I write this, we are 17 days from, arguably, the most important election in my lifetime. In my opinion, we have never seen an election with such well-defined lines between economic philosophies as this one. On the basis of economic philosophy, how to vote should be a relatively easy decision. On the surface, the decision appears to boil down to whether you trust and support a capitalistic economic system which rewards effort, education, skills, hard work, ingenuity and risk or whether you support a philosophy of government managed economics, income redistribution and government created do overs for actors with bad behaviors. As a life-long Republican, I believe that our philosophy has always been that we are for equal opportunity for all, not equal outcomes. Right or wrong, I stand by that belief. Although the decision of who to vote for should be an easy one, it has been made much more difficult because of President Donald J. Trump. He is not a conventional president nor candidate, so he does not lend himself to a traditionally economics-based decision. The fact is that many traditionally economics-based voters will not vote their core beliefs because of their abject hate of the Orange Man. Their attitude is, “Orange Man bad, don’t confuse me with facts.”
Craig Dunn: Indiana's political 'Fredo'

KOKOMO – One of the characteristics I admire most in a human being is loyalty. There is a comfort when entering a barroom brawl, either literally or figuratively, that no matter what, someone has your back. To me, this is true whether it is in personal, business or political relationships. The way I judge a man is to determine whether I’d want him next to me in a foxhole. Unfortunately, the world of politics is filled with the insincere, the selfish, the ungrateful and the disloyal. When the sun is shining the disloyal person will hide in the shadows and protect their secret failing. When times are tough and the call of unity in manning the walls is made, the disloyal will come slithering out of the woodwork. I’ve got some experience in living and dealing with the politically disloyal. For nearly 12 years I served as a Republican county chairman. For those of you who don’t know the job of the county chairman, it is to serve as the fire hydrant at the Dalmatian convention. You are expected to devote countless hours to the job, raising money for candidates, organizing mail and door-to-door campaigns, recruiting talent and developing strategy. When you are needed, you are the most revered person in the world, but after the votes are counted, you are relegated to the corner of a cold and lonely office until the next election rolls around.
Craig Dunn: The God of Politics and Speaker Huston

KOKOMO – If there was a just God of Politics, all that newly elected speaker of the Indiana House of Representatives, Todd Huston, would have to worry about at this time would be how he and his leadership team will craft a budget for the state after a year of upheaval due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But the God of Politics is a fickle feller and Speaker Huston has been thrown into the fire on his first time at bat. Mixed metaphors aside, Huston will not only be forced to match income and expenses for a biennial budget in a time where incomes are uncertain and expenses are in unchartered waters, but he will also have to deal with the incredibly sticky wicket of reapportionment, the drawing of legislative districts. Making Huston’s job a potentially more difficult one is the current uncertain state of affairs on the election front. Currently, Indiana Republicans control 67 of the 100 seats in the Indiana House. The number of Republicans is critical in order to head off some of the potential legislative games that historically came to be the hallmark of Indiana Democrats under Pat Bauer during the bad old days. It seems like just a quaint memory now, but close your eyes and you can remember February, 2011, when Democrat Minority Leader Bauer led his wayward band of merry men and women out of the friendly confines of Indiana into their luxury escape at the Comfort Suites Hotel of Urbana, Illinois.
Craig Dunn: 'Stinky DePew' surveys Democratic governance

KOKOMO – Last week I bumped into one of my Ball State University classmates, Charles L. DePew, while I was having a Mt. Olympus, ultra-liberal, hops-infused IPA down at the local Brew and Books on Main Street. Charles, who we all called “Stinky” in the frat house, was quick to expound on why he can’t wait for Thanksgiving this year because he has a long list of people and organizations to thank for President Trump’s reelection. When I questioned Stinky if he was referring to people like Sen. Lyndsey Graham and the NRA, he replied that those people were helpful but the gift of reelection was given by a group of people who you never would have expected, out-of-control Democrats and their sympathizers from coast to coast. I tend to live in a world of common sense and reason so I was taken aback by Stinky’s assertion that the Democrats would contribute the most to undoing of Joe Biden’s slipshod, cobbled-together lovefest campaign in a basement. I asked Stinky to expand on his theory. Mr. DePew said he was simply giving credit where credit is due. “What better way is there to scare the bejeebers out of the average American voter than to give the Democrats a fair audition. We have and what a whopper of a failure. Let’s start west and work our way east.” “In California, you have a completely Democrat state bankrupted by a flood of illegal immigration and a laundry list of government-supplied freebies given to the non-productive class."
Craig Dunn: The new costs for attending college

KOKOMO – There might not be more than three people in 10,000 who would proudly tell you that statistics was one of the three things they most enjoyed about college. I’m sure that parties, spring breaks, home football weekends, fraternities, sororities, dating, drinking, no in loco parentis and cruising through life for four to six years would probably consistently outrank statistics class in their “these were a few of my favorite things” song salute to higher education. What made a traditionally difficult and boring class move to the top of my personal list of things that I most enjoyed about college? For me, the answer was simple, Dr. Lou Mattola, who made statistics come alive and rendered order out of the chaos of randomly arranged numbers and mathematical equations. In short, he put the story in story problems. His secret was to reduce a seemingly complex subject like statistics into real life scenarios such as casino betting odds, coin toss probabilities, batting averages and the likelihood of outcomes. Just think of him as the kind of guy who could explain the movie “Moneyball” to you over a beer and you’d sit listening to him all night. As someone who struggled with trigonometry and calculus, I appreciated Dr. Mottola’s ability as a professor. I wish I had told him at the time what I thought of his teaching.
Craig Dunn: What happens to GOP after November?

KOKOMO – At this point in the 2020 United States presidential election, it is beginning to look like the mountains of abuse heaped on President Trump by the national media, the leftist social media, every anarchist group known to mankind and even a few Republicans just might be successful in defeating him and sending a third-rate Democrat to the White House. If I were the type of person to sit around wearing a tinfoil hat and seeing multiple gunmen on the grassy knoll, I might just be a little cynical about the timing of a pandemic hitting when the United States’ economy was the best that it had been in history, with record low unemployment across all demographics, increasing personal incomes and unheard of stock market valuations. Further, the attention paid to the coronavirus seemed to grow as the Democrat trumped-up impeachment fell apart in a dismal partisan failure. No, I’m not going to be one of those people who see conspiracies wherever you turn. I merely want to ask the question, win or lose in November, where does the Republican Party go from here? Should Donald Trump defy the current odds and big poll deficits and win a second term, what would the future hold for the Republican Party?

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Sen. Young won't vote to raise debt limit

“Defaulting on our debts will start a spiral of economic turmoil. If Democrats had treated Republicans as a governing partner I might feel differently. Instead, they’ve treated us as an obstacle." - U.S. Sen. Todd Young, announcing Wednesday he will vote against raising the limit.

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