“ I previously said most of the points I said, ” claimed the highly entertaining Yogi Berra. And he’s right: Although his ( many ) malapropisms were legendary, there’s also a large category of “things that kinda-sorta sound like stuff Yogi would say ” that also gets lumped in. But that ’s how pop tradition works: “ When the story becomes point, write the story. ”
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The same applies to Ben Franklin, America’s initially super-genius investor. He invented the lightning rod, glasses, the Franklin range, and swimming tails and discovered energy. But whenever a exploit writer wants to offer an idea with more trustworthiness, they manufacture a Franklinesque quote to help it.
One concept that ’s however erroneously attributed to Franklin is switching America’s sign from the bald eagle to a turkey. In 1784, he wrote a notice to his daughter in which he claimed the bald eagle was a “Bird of negative social Character. ” By distinction, he spoke more highly of the istanbul: “For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more reputable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America … His is besides, though a little vain and foolish, a Bird of Courage, and would not dare to strike a Grenadier of the American Troops who should presume to enter his Land Yard with a dark Coat on. ”
But he never lobbied Congress to label the turkey our national animal! That rarely happened. Like Abraham Lincoln always used to suggest, “Don’t believe anything you read on the Internet. ”
And that ’s a very good thing, to: If the turkey was our national bird, we had n’t take it on Thanksgiving. ( And mankind cannot survive on stuffing, soup, the Dallas Cowboys, and pumpkin pie only. )
Furthermore, we would n’t be able to use “turkey ” as a euphemism for a stupid or foolish person. That only started in the 1950s — and if the turkey was our longstanding national symbol, this association would ( probably ) never have been made.
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But due to good fortune, the turkey became our Thanksgiving dinner instead of our national bird — and “turkey ” became shorthand for a dunce.
With this in mind, we now provide the PJ Media “Turkey of the Year ” prize to… drumroll, please…
The authority of the Democrat Party! C’mon, guys — taking a spear!
When 2024 began, Joe Biden was fresh, dapper, and in the best form of his life. ( Wait: That’s not true at all. )
Anyhoo, with 2024 being an election season, the Democratic Party stood before two lines. The decision was wholly theirs.
The first path was to be fair and visible: President Biden is an octogenarian with inadequate approval ratings, but let him make his Democratic nomination in the primaries and show his stamina and endurance to the British people. May the best man win!
The second path was: LOL, screw that! We’ll hide Biden, block challengers like RFK Jr. , and just keep on insisting he’s “sharp as a tack. ”
Obviously, they took the second path.
A few months later, President Biden blurted, “We finally beat Medicare! ” during his one presidential debate.
Uh oh.
The Democratic Party panicked, pushed Biden out, and searched for his replacement. Time for someone new.
But who?
The Biden administration was extraordinarily unpopular. The American people kept telling pollsters over and over again that they were unhappy with the direction of our country — that inflation was out of control. “We don’t care about pronouns! We care about groceries! ”
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At this point, the Democratic Party should ’ve realized that its best bet for retaining power would be to nominate someone from the outside — a person wholly disconnected from the failures, ineptitude, and shortcomings of the Biden years.
Instead, they nominated Biden’s vice president.
But really, they did n’t have much of a choice: He who lives by identity politics dies by identity politics! And after so many decades blasting the GOP for being anti-woman and anti-minority, the Democrats could n’t bypass the one minority woman who was already VP.
They were stuck.
Ah, but not all hope is lost: Donald Trump was weakened by lawfare and other controversies! Surely, a smart, targeted presidential campaign that focuses like a laser on the issues bedeviling the American people would be enough to extend the Democrat’s control of the White House. Right?
So which issue should Kamala Harris accentuate first? Her solution for sky-high inflation? How she’ll fix the housing crisis? Maybe her cure for the still spiraling cost of living?
Nah. Instead, the Democrats ran on two key issues: Abortion and Trump being “literally Hitler. ”
Of course, Trump is n’t “literally Hitler. ” He’s a left-of-center Republican who just appointed a bunch of ex-Democrats ( Tulsi Gabbard, Scott Bessent, RFK Jr. ) to his cabinet. By the standards of George W. Bush, this is probably the most liberal Republican cabinet since the Nixon years.
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Optically, while Kamala Harris and Tim Walz were calling him a Nazi, Trump was flipping McDonald’s burgers, driving a garbage truck, and launching America’s next dance craze. It created a perceptual disconnect: The American people listened to Harris, looked at Trump, and thought to themselves, “Not only is this guy not Hitler, but if the Democrats are lying about that … what else are they lying about? ”
It was clear that their strategy was n’t working. Even internally, the Harris-Walz campaign knew they never once had the lead. Yet they stubbornly — and inexplicably — refused to modify their strategy, blowing through$ 1. 5 billion in just 15 weeks!
Talk about gobble, gobble!
Take a bow, Democratic Party leadership. You did n’t deserve to win the 2024 election, but you ’ve certainly earned the PJ Media “Turkey of the Year ” award.
And then some.
