By Dave Graham
Our nation has become polarized by Democratic leadership in the U.S. Congress, which appears bent on resisting, at all costs, our duly elected president, Donald J Trump.
Thinking of the Kavanaugh confirmation and Trump impeachment hearings, our savvier Delaware voters would be justified in holding up a mirror to the Democrats in Washington and characterizing their conduct as an abuse of power, skewed distortions and diabolical lies.
Or perhaps the Democratic grass-roots voters in Delaware agree with the conduct of the Democratic leadership in our national capitol, who are wholly supported by our two U.S. senators and one U.S. congresswoman — all three of them Democrats.
Disappointingly, our Democratic politicians, occupying each and every one of the 11 statewide elected political offices in Delaware. continue to support what appears to be a tax-and-spend socialist agenda supported by political contributions from out-of-state donors, supplemented by maximum allowable contributions from Delaware Democratic lawyers, used to fuel Delaware Democratic election campaigns.
“Small Wonder” the recently reported Delaware GDP growth was zero!
Ever since the decline and fall of the fabled DuPont company in the early 1990s, Delaware’s two major political parties appear to have been manipulated by politically active members of the Delaware State Bar. Those lawyers may want to curry favor by the election of specific governors who in turn have the power to nominate many of these them for judicial vacancies.
In support of this premise, the two previous chief justices of the Delaware Supreme Court were political operatives.
First, recent Chief Justice Leo Strine was elevated in 1999 from political adviser to Chancery Court by Democratic Gov. Tom Carper. In 2013. Strine was further elevated to chief justice by Democratic Gov. Jack Markell. Chief Justice Strine resigned after only five years into his 12-year appointment.
Second, Chief Justice Myron Steele served as Kent County Democratic chairman until the mid 1980s when he was sequentially elevated to Superior, Chancery, and Supreme Court Judge. Justice Steele was elevated in 2004 to Supreme Court Chief Justice by Democratic Gov. Ruth Ann Minner. Dover lawyer Steele had groomed Minner to be elected governor since she worked as a secretary for Democratic Gov. Sherman Tribbett back in the early 1970s. Chief Justice Steele resigned in 2013 after nine years into his 12-year appointment.
Other Democratic-dominated states – Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, and New York – have a history of electing Republican governors. Delaware has not elected a Republican governor since 1988.
The state of Delaware, with a population approaching 1 million residents – is for all intents and purposes a geographically large city with about 11 or 12 neighborhoods, where retail politics succeed.
Unsurprisingly – like most cities governed by career Democrats who are blindly re-elected by uninformed voters – Delaware reportedly ranks among the most corrupt states.
And so we come to these burning questions … Will the GOP nominate and financially support qualified candidates for governor and lieutenant governor on the 2020 ballot that grass-roots Democrats would be willing to vote into office? On Election Day 2020 will the grass-roots Democrats revolt and elect Republicans for a refreshing and much-needed change?
There has been paradigm shift in the country and 2020 could be a R.E.D. (Remove Every Democrat) year on Election Day here in Delaware.
In a year when the Delaware Republican Party could make a comeback, the powers that be will, in all likelihood, once again run a “throw-away” candidate for governor.
And again in 2020 the stodgy, old, failed GOP leadership will “snatch defeat from the jaws of victory” with an outdated and doomed 20th century political strategy that four years from now, in 2024, a Republican state senator and a Republican state representative can team up and be elected governor and lieutenant governor.
On Friday, the traditional Kent County Republican Lincoln Day Diner will be held in Dover. Watch for who is put forward as the Republican candidate for governor by the secretive, closed-door Delaware Republican State Executive Committee.
With an unelectable Republican candidate for governor on the ballot, the GOP will flail through the 2020 election cycle and then once again, as in 2016 and 2018, flop on Election Night.
Dave Graham is resident of Smyrna.