The 2nd Congressional District of Nebraska is one of those few Electoral College votes that is up for grabs, rather than being determined on a statewide basis.  It has been regarded nationally as one of the battleground districts.  I am a resident of the 2nd Congressional District of Nebraska. 

In 2008, our Electoral College vote was won by Barack Obama.  In 2012, it was won by Mitt Romney.  In 2014, our eight-term Republican congressman lost to his Democratic challenger.  In 2016, the vote in the Electoral College was won by Donald Trump.  The congressional seat was regained by the Republicans. We now have a hotly contested race for mayor. 

A brief overview of Omaha mayoral politics.  The previous mayor, Democrat Jim Suttle, was elected in 2009 in the runoff election after having lost in the primary to his Republican opponent, former Mayor Hal Daub.  The office is officially nonpartisan, but no one seems to care.  Suttle defeated a recall effort 38,841 to 37,198 in 2010.  Suttle was defeated by the current Republican mayor, Jean Stothert, in 2013. 

Our Republican mayor, Jean Stothert, was quoted in the November 15^th Omaha World Herald as having unapologetically written in John McCain for President in the general election.  I have as much loyalty to the Republican mayoral nominee as she had for the Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump.  In the general election, I’m staying home.   

I have absolutely no fears whatsoever of a resurgence of the Democratic Party.  The Democrats have shown no ability to learn from their mistakes.  The only thing keeping the Democratic Party alive today is the gross ineptitude of the Republican Party. 

The Democrats have been experiencing an electoral purge since the 2010 midterms.  Rather than adjust their policy positions, the Democrats have doubled down.  The American people were not happy about the Affordable Care Act, and said so at the ballot box.  Obamacare was a disaster from the start, with the implosion of the website, exploding premiums and deductibles, and the collapse of the exchanges.  The Democrats still stonewall all attempts at reform. 

The Democrats’ other policy positions have been intensified rather than moderated.  Islam as a religion of peace is manifested by activist judges preventing President Trump from acting in the interest of the safety of the American people by banning immigration from terror-stricken countries.  Sanctuary cities for illegal aliens march on.  The border wall is not being built.  In 2008 Barack Obama was in favor of traditional marriage and even California passed a ballot initiative in favor of the same.  Now they have blown through homosexual marriage and we have transgender rights. 

Beyond policy, the tactics of the left have only intensified.  Starting with Ronald Reagan, the left has consistently used bullying as a campaign strategy.  Accusations of stupidity have been standard operating procedure ever since.  As time progressed accusations have grown to include racism, misogyny, bigotry, Uncle Tomism, homophobia, Islamophobia, animal cruelty, and sexual assault.  As the verbal assaults have lost effectiveness, the bullying has moved onto the physical. 

Starting with the Scott Walker recall campaign, the thugs have been moving in.  Protestors moved into the Wisconsin capital building and trashed the place.  Oddly enough, between Walker’s election, the recall, and his reelection, the people of Wisconsin rewarded the thugs by giving Walker his largest vote total and margin of victory ever in the recall election.  Since then we have had Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, illegal immigrants, and Antifa leaving behind varying degrees of property damage and physical injury. During the campaign, Trump supporters were confronted, and some went home bloody.  It did not work.  People continued to rally around Trump and he won the election.    

Since the Presidential election, I have attended town hall meetings for Senator Ben Sasse and Congressman Don Bacon.  I have also attended two Make America Great Again events.   Since their devastating and unexpected loss in the election, the Democrats tactics remain the same.  At the MAGA march in Omaha on March 25^th eight Antifa protestors were arrested. 

The first town hall for Sen. Sasse was overflowing with SEIU and NEA people.  I have to admit that I admired Sen. Sasse for his handling of the situation.  There was all kinds of yelling and histrionics.  My personal favorite was the woman who broke down in tears over funding for Planned Parenthood because, “Planned Parenthood is pro-life.” Senator Sasse was polite, but at one point did mention that he did not believe the views being expressed were representative of the majority of his constituents. I cheered when they booed and booed when they cheered, and had a marvelous time.  Satan hates to be laughed at.  

The second town hall was for freshman Republican Congressman Don Bacon.  The number of progressive protestors was markedly decreased, and the audience was much more evenly split.  There was one woman that was quite vocal and occasionally made hysterical assertions of intelligence.  I did turn and say, “Thug,” which got a few laughs from the room and caused her to quiver with rage.  Sometimes our rebuttals should be brief and to the point.  The congressman did pull my question out of the stack.  It concerned a government shutdown, the repeal of Obamacare, and the border wall.  I declined the offer to follow up in spite of shouts from the crowd to answer the question.  His answer was a classic establishment dodge, which satisfied me as his answer.  I did not go to town hall meetings to make a pest of myself, but I did not mind being a pest to the people that did. 

The Bernie Sanders phenomenon was the anti-establishment rebellion of the left.  Donald Trump was the anti-establishment rebellion of the right.  The Bernie voters are looking for free college, free healthcare, free cell phones, and free condoms.  All the free stuff from the government that is supposed to make them happy.  After eight years of Barack Obama, the Democratic Party failed to deliver.  The snowflakes are still looking for the free stuff, failing to realize that the Democrats were simply preying on the ignorance of the American people.  The Democrats were lying. 

The Republican establishment appears to view the Trump phenomenon as an inconvenient incident.  Like Ronald Reagan’s presidency, they will just ride it out until it is over and then go back to business as usual.  Unfortunately for the Republican Party, it isn’t 1988.  The people have seen the man behind the curtain.  The Tea Party movement was rejected.  Traditional marriage was rejected.  Every conservative candidate, even when winning the party nomination, was rejected.  Donald Trump is not a personality cult.  He is simply the best anti-establishment candidate available. 

Heath Mello, the Democratic nominee in the Omaha mayoral race, sent shivers of panic through the Democratic Party based simply on the suggestion that he might be a pro-life Democrat.  Democratic demands of ideological purity are more brittle than ever.  The Democratic Party is starting to look more and more like the homeless person under the bridge complaining that everyone else is stupid.  In the meantime, if the Democrats win this race, I am not concerned.  Like the congressional seat they won here in 2014, they will not be able to hold the office. 

The media continually report the impending collapse of the Trump presidency.  These reports are just as exaggerated as the reports of his impending withdrawal from the election.  People who are interested in government according to the Constitution with respect for rule of law understand that we do not elect Kings.  We are not defeated.  We just have not won yet.  We may have to go through a few more one term mayors, one-term congressmen, and one-term senators until we get the people we need.  

Contact the writer at tmkelly063@gmail.com