mikekohr
mikekohr's JournalYounger Voters Are The Key To Democratic Success and Failure at the Polls
There is a lot of soul searching right now about how we fell short on Tuesday. The chart below lays out in clear detail what happened not only this year but in 2010 as well. Progressive ballot initiatives passed everywhere by overwhelming majorities which show, even considering the demographic metrics of this last election day, the American People are with us on individual issues.
Where we fell short is on turnout among our younger voters who are overwhelming more diverse. The Millennial Generation are a historical aberration in that they are breaking in unprecedented numbers away from previous generations in voting patterns and skewing heavily Democratic.
Steve Bennen writes, "The age gap between younger voters and seniors was huge in 2010 and had a lot to do with the Republican wave election. As NBC News’ exit polls found , this was even more pronounced yesterday."
The overall Republican demographic shrinks by approx. 2% every 4 years, but they also have increased their total participation rate in off year elections since 2008 from 29% to 35% while the under 30 generation remains static in such years at 12-13%.
Father Time will eventually erase this trend permanently, but we would be better served to reach out, inspire and engage these voters now. Elections are after all about the future and no voter group has a longer future or more to lose than the Millennial Generation.
see also: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/11/05/msnbc-pundit-sees-doom-victorious-gop-old-white-people-die-some-day-video/ . .
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I Did, -won re-election for the 3rd term on Illinois Bureau County Board-
This seat was held by the Republican Party for 16 years. First time I ran I lost by 3 votes in 2004. In 2008 I won with 64%, in 2012 I won with 71%, this year I was unopposed.
I make no apologies for being a Democrat in this heavily Republican county and defend our record vigorously, enthusiastically, and doggedly.
following is the text of my speech at our local fundraiser, "The John Mitchel Dinner."
My name is Mike Kohr and I’m running for a 3rd term for district 18 of the Bureau County Board. I’m so happy to be here tonight. I am reminded of the words of my Grandmother, Sarah Taggart Kohr, “Don’t be picky with anything in life except the company you keep. And by God isn’t this the best of company here tonight?”
I am tonight both humbled by the legacy of John Mitchel and honored to stand alongside those that would ensure his commitment to working people is never forgotten, and never forsaken. It has been said that greatness skips a generation. I am proud to share the stage tonight with two exceptions to that rule, Representative Frank Mautino and Lieutenant Governor Shelia Simon.
Many of you here tonight know I lost my father on March 3rd of 2013. Dad, a former precinct committeeman, had encouraged me first to run for this seat. He lost his father at age 5 in 1936, during the Republican gifted Great Depression. Once a month, the relief wagon came to Cherry. By the end of the month, the only thing left in the cupboard was a 5 gallon tin of lard and a sack of flour. They ate lard sandwiches the last week of every month, but they were grateful that FDR and the Democrats cared enough to see that they had something, anything to eat at all. His oldest brother John volunteered to serve in the Navy on PT boats off the waters of Guadalcanal and the Philippines during WWII and was awarded the Bronze Star. My father volunteered to serve in the Air Force on a SAC base in Goose Bay, Labrador, during the Korean War. His youngest brother Bill volunteered for service in the Army. Their 3 sisters married, raised families, and one died a millionaire. FDR and the Democratic Party extended a hand when they needed help most, knowing that investing in people is the wisest bet a nation can make and one that pays the biggest dividends.
But what did our Republican friends say about FDR when he was wresting this country from the misery of the Great Depression? They called him a communist! They called him a socialist! They called him a Marxist! They said he was destroying the fabric and institutions of this nation! They said Social Security would bankrupt the nation’s treasury and the moral fiber of the American People! Does that sound familiar?
What they said about FDR then, they are saying about our current President now. Like FDR before him President Obama inherited a colossal economic collapse from his Republican predecessor. Like FDR before him his economic policies stopped the frightening slide into the black hole of recession and depression. Those policies saved the auto industry. They have produced a record 56 straight months of private sector job growth. They have reduced George W. Bush’s yearly deficits, the greatest ever recorded, by an amount greater than every other president combined. All this accomplishment without a shred of co-operation from the 112th and the 113th Congress, that under Speaker Boehner, has been recorded as both the 2nd least, and the least effective House of Representatives, Ever!
The orange man with no plan has tried 53 times to kill the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act but has not passed a single jobs bill. Congress has tied their pay to the cost of living but refuses to do so for minimum wage workers. That action would be the greatest single step in helping reverse the historic disparity in the income gap that exists in this country today.
The day before my father died he told me he was glad he had lived long enough to see President Obama re-elected. He knew the “Bottom Up,” Middle Out,” Democratic economic policies were righting a ship ran hard aground on the rock headed policies of Republican Trickle Down Economics. Dad was confident in this belief, because he had seen it play out before.
I wrote the President a letter expressing to him my father’s thoughts. The President wrote back on September 3rd, 2013.
Dear Mike:
Thank you for the moving letter you sent this spring. I was touched by your words, and saddened to learn of the passing of your father, Patrick.
Stories like your father's remind me why I ran for this office in the first place, and I trust you take great pride in his legacy of service and in the values he passed on to you. Please know your message will remain in my thoughts, and I will not stop fighting to build a brighter future for our nation.
Sincerely,
Barack Obama
The President’s critics have deserted the interests of the Middle Class and chosen to give aid and comfort to the enemies of prosperity, hoping that American failure is their path back to power.
I see their lives as failures, their politics a farce! They play at false outrage, lies and low ideals because they don't get it, and they never will!
Just look at who the Republicans have driving their clown car here in Illinois. Mitt Rauner wants you to trust him with the keys to the Governor’s mansion, but he doesn’t trust you with his tax returns. What’s he hiding? His budget has a 4 billion dollar shortfall in it that he promised to explain 15 months ago. He still has not. If what he is peddling sounds like a con job, it’s because that is exactly what it is!
If you want a preview of what Illinois would face under Rauner just look at what Governor Sam Brownback did to Kansas. Brownback’s Voo-Doo economics has pushed Kansas so far into the red that they are auctioning off a warehouse of sex toys to pay off their debt. What’s wrong with Kansas! I’ll tell you what’s wrong with Kansas! They elected a Republican Governor! And God help us if we elect one here in Illinois!
Misery is easy to create. It is the tool of the malicious and the lazy. And no one is better at creating misery than the Republican Party.
Republicans have been in charge for 9 of the last 10 recessions. Over the last 70 years they have managed to average only 78,000 jobs created per month. Democrats average 174,000, more than double! There is not a single economic metric that Democrats don’t far out-perform their Republican counterparts. Not A Single One!
Happiness on the other hand takes work. Happiness is the reward of a life well lived. Priorities well placed. Democrats are happy warriors. We always have been. We always will be. Whatever winds blow our way it is the power of our faith in people that sustains us. We put people before profit, and principle before privilege. John Mitchel had that faith and shared those priorities.
In closing, Margaret Meade once said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever does.”
You, we, are that small group of thoughtful committed citizens. Let’s go out and change the world.
Thank you and May God bless you! God Bless John Mitchel and may God bless the Democratic Party!
Progressive ballot initiatives passed by huge margins
Yet the ultimate dichotomy in this election is that while ballot initiatives like increasing the minimum wage, passed by overwhelming majorities these same voters gave Republican candidates that adamantly oppose those same policies, their vote as well.
Proudly and Enthusiastically Supporting Gov. Quinn
Governor Quinn has done what voters say they want in a leader. He has made tough , principled, unpopular decisions to fix the cluster f he inherited from that asshat Blagojevich and 24 years of Republican governors before that.
We paid the pension funds the proper amount once in the last 50 years. You don't undo that kind of FUBAR overnight and without pain.
When Governor Quinn took office our back due bills were 18-24 months old. We are now down to a 30-60 day schedule.
It's about damn time we Democrats quit dumping on our office holders that are making the tough decisions we all say we want them to.
Just look at who the Republicans have driving their clown car here in Illinois. Mitt Rauner wants you to trust him with the keys to the Governor’s mansion, but he doesn’t trust you with his tax returns. What’s he hiding? His budget has a 4 billion dollar shortfall in it that he promised to explain 15 months ago. He still has not. If what he is peddling sounds like a con job, it’s because that is exactly what it is!
If you want a preview of what Illinois would face under Rauner just look at what Governor Sam Brownback did to Kansas. Brownback’s Voo-Doo economics has pushed Kansas so far into the red that they are auctioning off a warehouse of sex toys to pay off their debt. What’s wrong with Kansas! I’ll tell you what’s wrong with Kansas! They elected a Republican Governor! And God help us if we elect one here in Illinois!
I am. Proudly and enthusiastically.
Governor Quinn has done what voters say they want in a leader. He has made tough , principled, unpopular decisions to fix the cluster f he inherited from that clown Blagojevich and 24 years of Republican governors before that
We paid the pension funds the proper amount once in the last 50 years. You don't undo that kind of FUBAR overnight and without pain.
When Governor Quinn took office our back due bills were 18-24 months old. We are now down to a 30-60 day schedule.
It's about damn time we Democrats quit dumping on our office holders that are making the tough decisions we all say we want them to.
Mitt Romney Needs To Apologize To Every American
Reagan may have set the stage, but greedy, vulture capitalists like Mitt Romney swung the clubs that beat the heads of Middle Class Americans bloody. Below is a snip from my 2012 John Mitchel Bureau County Illinois Democratic Dinner speech:
-snip- Jim Sinegal, co-founder of Costco says, “… we need companies that plant and grow, not executives that reap and run.” While men like John Mitchel and my grandfather’s built this nation one shovel full at a time, Romney has made his millions tearing companies apart and outsourcing our jobs to China.
Romney loves America. He does! He loves America, the way a tick loves a dog! Middle Class America can’t stand any more love’n like that!
Mitt Romney, the son of power and privilege, was born on third base, thinking he hit a home run. His vision of America is a sugar coated, Ayn Rand, survival of the fittest philosophy of “I got mine, the hell with you 47% ‘ers.”
Romney is fond of singing and reciting verses of the 1893 poem “Pikes Peak,” written by Kathy Lee Bates, that is today known as “America the Beautiful.” There are two lines from that poem however that he never recites, he never sings.
Till selfish gains no longer stain,
The banner of the free!
I can’t help but believe that Mrs. Bates took inspiration for those lines from the example of Jesus throwing the money changers out of the Temple. Romney avoids those two lines because they are a damning indictment of his life and his vision of America. Mitt Romney is a modern day money changer looting the temple of Democracy.
-end of snip-
Romney is not the answer. He and blood suckers like Bruce Rauner, and the Koch bros. are the problem.
The Obama Clown Posse
I feel sorry for the insane clown posse, running around with their hair on fire, besmirching and vilifying President Obama. To a point of course.
They debase and demonize a good, competent, accomplished, man who has served this nation in a manner and scope they can never hope to match. Blinded by hyper-partisanship, entitlement, hatred, and a perverted sense of persecution they will never see the good he has done. They have deserted the American People and America's best interests to give aid and comfort to the enemies of prosperity and all that is good and decent.
They self-segregate in the deafening echo chamber of Fox News that resonates and echoes with scurrilous lies, and half-truths. They will never hear of the hope President Obama has given to the uninsured, to the uninsurable with a pre-existing condition, to the working poor, to women striving to be paid as much as a man that performs the same job, to the family broken by a disfunctional immigration policy.
Their leading voices are smug charlatans like Ted Cruz and Bill Kristol, chest thumping chicken-hawks like Bill O’Reilly, and Rush Limbaugh, and the queen of snark, Sarah Palin, the ½ term Chillbilly, the mean girl of Republican partisanship. Individually and collectively a foul pestilence, and personification of a party that is pinched on both ends. They are unaccomplished, woefully misinformed, shamelessly dishonest, arrogant, angry, and entitled. They are the face of a party that shrinks 2% every 4 years and yet can’t find a kind thought in their collective soul to reach out to others who do not share their dyspeptic world view, even for the most selfish of reasons, self preservation.
I see their lives as failures, their politics a farce. They are forced to play at false outrage, lies and low ideals because the truth burns. They don't get it. They never will.
Bitterness plays poorly in history, and wise men don't debase themselves by partaking of it. But like hogs drawn to slop, they sup that bitter cup of foolishness, a vessel filled with the dregs of humanity and overflowing with bile and malice.
UPS Uses An Off Shore Tax Dodge in Bermuda to Escape Millions in Taxes
UPS, which is dependant on US infrastructure to operate, shelters millions of dollars per year in an off shore tax dodge named Over Seas Partners.
Based in Bermuda, Overseas Partners Limited, (OPL) sole design is avoidance of United States income taxes. The IRS won the largest back taxes judgment in history against them in the late 1990's. The Bush administration dropped the case during the appeals process.
UPS pretends to be good corporate citizens. They are not good guys. I was in management there for 12 years. They are no fan of Democrats either. I was repeatedly informed by upper management that Democrats were a pale shade of the Communist Party.
Their lobbying organization, UPSPAC, one of K Street's biggest, gives overwhelmingly to Republicans. UPS was a corporate sponser of Newt Gingrich's "Contract on America.'When I left UPS in 1992 I turned in testimony and documents that detailed their tactics of forcing supervisors and management into donating to UPSPAC. The Federal Elections Commission filed a charge against UPS, in which, after a four year legal battle UPS agreed to pay a $4,000.00 fine and to never engage in this behavior again (never get caught again).
I turned over to the EEOC internal company documents that resulted in a sealed judgment against UPS for age discrimination.
I turned over to attorney David Mark of Seattle, Washington, documents that proved UPS was aware of tactics that resulted in employees being forced to work through their unpaid lunch hour. The documents proved that UPS was aware of these facts and were actually tracking the number of affected employees on a national level, in spite of years of legal testimony to the contrary. The case resulted in a multi million dollar judgment aginst the corporate entity.
UPS, may be an authoritarian dinosaur in the business world, but they are extremely astute in avoiding bad press. Press clipping are gathered at a national and world wide level and studied with an intent to how best to influence positive press coverage. Example: one of the biggest contributors to National Public Radio is the Annie E. Casey Fund, This fund is named after the daughter of UPS's founder Jim Casey.
mike kohr
Great Post Samplegirl.
I do not support President Obama because he is African-American or because he is Irish. I support him because he is a good man. He is competent, accomplished and pragmatic. He is a dedicated family man, and an inspirational leader.
His realistic supporters understand there was a tremendous amount of projection onto this president, irrational hatred from the far right and unrealistic expectations from the far left and some in between.
I worked to give President Obama the votes he needed in Congress. Not enough of us did. He was elected President, not crowned King.
He inherited the 2nd greatest economic free fall in US history. His policies, entirely without support and with unprecedented obstructionism from the radical right in Congress, produced the quickest return to positive job growth in 25 years. His policies saved the auto industry. He has oversaw the greatest turn-a-round in job creation in US history. President Obama has oversaw the greatest turn-a-round in the DOW in US history. He has reduced the yearly deficit more than every other president combined. He has presided over the most scandal free administration in US history. By next year he will have ended both of the wars he inherited. President Obama passed the first step to universal health care, a goal talked about for 100 years.
He is not short of accomplishment, but many of his critics are short of perspective and balance.
I believe Reverend King is smiling down upon President Obama today just as I believe history will smile upon him tomorrow.
"O'Bama Boy" sung to Danny Boy
(Apologies to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton)
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