Politics : Year-End Awards

Biggest Winner: Boris Johnson - As leader of the Conservatives he saw his party to its largest electoral victory in over three decades, has knocked down the so-called "red wall" of Labour, left the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties in disarray, guaranteed exit from the European Union, sealed Tory dominance for the next half-decade, and may have freed the United Kingdom from the Scottish yoke forever. I will have more to say about him later.

Biggest Loser: Evo Morales - In the October Bolivian elections incumbent president Evo Morales was set to win reelection when opposition parties accused him of fraud and the Organization of American States agreed. The military demanded he step down, forcing him to flee the country and become persona non grata in Bolivia. Subsequent analysis revealed no electoral fraud and that he was taken down by what amounted to a coup d'état, making Evo Morales the biggest loser of 2019.

Best Politician: Bernie Sanders - if former Vice President Joe Biden is the front-runner in the Democratic Presidential Primary then Bernie Sanders is the close second. He has forged a broad and devoted coalition with little help from the Democratic National Committee which seems hostile to the idea of him winning the nomination. He has done this by consistently and passionately delivering a message to an electorate that is overlooked, dismissed, or taken for granted by the two major parties.

Most Defining Political Moment: Robert Mueller's Congressional testimony - after two years of silence while he and his team of Justice Department lawyers interviewed and investigated the president and his allies he finally appeared before Congress and the American public to explain to them what he had uncovered. Besides fully exonerating the president, he was forgetful, stumbling, incoherent, and had to be subdued more than once. What was supposed to be a knockout blow left President Trump looking stronger than ever, bolstering his reputation as the Teflon Don.

Turncoat of the Year: John Bolton - John Bolton tried his best to sabotage President Trump's Ukraine diplomacy leading to his ouster as National Security Advisor. This after attempting to scuttle overtures towards North Korea and misleading the White House about the prospects of a Venezuelan coup and he now dangles a tell-all book over the administration like a sword of Damocles.



Most Boring: Pete Buttigieg - Harvard graduate, Rhodes Scholar, Naval Intelligence veteran who served in Afghanistan, multilingual globetrotter, McKinsey consultant turned small town mayor, homosexual. Despite his impressive background he is a fundamentally boring person and fails to generate enthusiasm in all but older, whiter, wealthier voters. The rest of the electorate yawns at his focus-grouped slogans and campaign pledges.

Most Charismatic: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - she has lit a fire under not only young progressives who are now running for office following her example but conservatives looking to become the reactionary answer to "AOC". Her easy smile and approachability—she regularly engages with the public through Twitter and via streaming media—has made her an icon of American democracy, so much so that the worn shoes that took her from door to door of constituent homes during her congressional campaign have become secular relics, attracting visitors from across the country.

Bummest Rap: Tulsi Gabbard is a Russian stooge - This accusation, proffered without evidence, was leveled by Hillary Clinton against the Congresswoman of color running for the Democratic nomination and was picked up by her acolytes and dead-enders across the internet and media. A Clinton staffer tried to backpedal, hedging that the former first lady had not made that specific claim, but that did not slow down fellow-travelling liberals from repeating that smear even today, putting the lie to his spin. In the minds of Democrats Ms. Gabbard is the Russian candidate and the blackest calumny is fair game to tamp down her popularity. Mrs. Clinton owes Congresswoman Gabbard an apology.

Best Comeback: Boris Johnson - Having resigned his ministerial position last year Boris Johnson was stuck in the backbenches until this spring when sensing the imminent resignation of Prime Ministress Theresa May he announced his candidacy for leadership of the Conservative party. Never a long shot he managed to defeat his opponents and take control of a party reeling from a failure to take the United Kingdom out of the European Union and settle into a Portuguesesque fate of a former world naval power coming to terms with its decline. Despite setbacks—a loss of majority in Parliament and a rebuke by the Supreme Court—Johnson managed to trick the Liberal Democrats into supporting new elections and wrested control of the government, enabling him to finally separate the United Kingdom from the continent and plunge the stake into the heart of perfidious Albion. Comeback of the year.

Most Original Thinker: Andrew Yang - his idea, giving one thousand dollars every month to every citizen to offset the predicted job losses resulting from automation—a Universal Basic Income—could fundamentally alter the welfare state and the economy. While the other candidates argue among themselves how they would best direct the government to spend taxpayer dollars, Yang, in a Copernican Revolution of politics, instead puts forth the idea that it is we the people who should decide how those dollars are spent by placing those dollars back into consumer—and voter—pockets.

Best Photo Op: Kim Jong-Un and Donald Trump meeting at the DMZ - Every president reaching back to Ronald Reagan has made the trip to the South Korean side of the DMZ and peered north through binoculars but it took President Trump to ignore his overly cautious advisors and invite himself with a tweet and walk across the DMZ into North Korea to shake hands with Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un, a first in history. The photos showed everything that was possible in such a radical president, bold action that throws away dead and useless ideas. A Nixonian moment.



Enough Already: Hillary Clinton - Three years after the 2016 election Hillary Clinton continues to appear in the media making excuses for why she lost to Donald Trump. Her self serving justifications run the gamut from Russian malfeasance, FBI malfeasance, a biased media, sexism, deficiencies in the United States constitution with the institution of the electoral college. She never accepts blame for how she chose to run her campaign in an election where the American people wanted to hear more than it was her turn. Enough already!

Worst Lie: Barack Obama telling Americans they could keep their healthcare plan if they like it - To sell Americans on his complete overhaul of the healthcare system they had come to know and love Barack Obama had to reassure them that nothing would change unless they wanted it. If they were satisfied with their healthcare plan then they could keep it. It was a lie. The administration knew this but decided to press forward anyway, ripping millions of Americans from their trusted doctors and throwing them into the hands of uncaring strangers. A decade after the telling this lie continues to reverberate.

Capitalist of the Year: Jeff Bezos - Jeff Bezos' Amazon.com has changed the way America and the world shops. His website, once specializing in books, has grown to sell nearly every category of product. In order to deliver to the customer ever faster Amazon has moved into distribution—taking on delivery giants UPS and FedEx and beating them at their own game. With Blue Origin he has set his sights on space flight and the sky is no longer the limit. This year Bezos earned the title richest man on Earth, well deserved for the Capitalist of the Year.

Honorable Mention: Rick Perry - It was little remarked when he left his post on the first of December but amid the scandal and turmoil of the Trump administration Secretary Perry's steady hand at the Energy Department has guided the country through multiple crises that could have otherwise wreaked economic havoc, including attacks on oil tankers in the Persian Gulf and a major Saudi oil processing facility along with sabre-rattling against Iran and Venezuela and chaos in Iraq. It is ironic that the deft ability he has shown at Energy is what has prevented the American public from appreciating his hard work.



Person of the Year: Xi Jinping - In one year President Xi has weathered and won a trade war with the United States, an insurrection of rioters and anarchists in Hong Kong, the battle against relentless Uyghur terrorism, the continued sedition of democracy activists aided and abetted by Western media and governments, and the attendant economic turmoil. Any other leader would have had his hands full with only one of these problems but Xi was able to calmly and competently attend to every one. His example and his Xi Jinping Thought will prosperously guide the People's Republic of China for many years and see it become the superpower of the future.

Why the pic of John McLaughlin? He's dead. I'd be curious who wrote those, since it can't be McLaughlin.

I also don't know why he's fawning over China's Xi Jinping. Hong Kong isn't over. And he's putting Uighurs in concentration camps.

Seriously, who's the author?

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Administrator
"filmboards is a bold experiment in free speech and anarchy"
I GameBoy

John McLaughlin used to do these at the end of every year on his show. This is a parody. A joke. That much was obvious when unex praised Twitter activism in the paragraph on AOC.

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😺 Schrodinger's Cat walks into a bar, and doesn't. 🤨 President Trump is a HERO, and will win in a landslide in November!

I doubt unex wrote that. If he did, he knows politics much better than I thought. I just would like to know who wrote it.

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Administrator
"filmboards is a bold experiment in free speech and anarchy"
I GameBoy

He knows politics? It looked like a bunch of hogwash and claptrap to me. The ramblings of a madman. This is clearly a troll thread.

Moron of the Year
Unex

Cheap shot. Be nice to your brother, nimda. If it wasn't for him you'd have nothing to do with your days and nights.

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Bring. More. Sheep.

I didn't say I agree with him. But the author has a coherent view of politics and current events. That's something I wouldn't expect from PE. Besides, it covers a lot of ground for debate. That's a good thing.

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Administrator
"filmboards is a bold experiment in free speech and anarchy"
I GameBoy

"the Scottish yoke"??

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😺 Schrodinger's Cat walks into a bar, and doesn't. 🤨 President Trump is a HERO, and will win in a landslide in November!

I know, right? Since when does Scotland control London? There are plenty of Scots who want out from under England's yoke. Or did he mean yolk?

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Administrator
"filmboards is a bold experiment in free speech and anarchy"
I GameBoy

Apparently, that's satire. And if I were a Scot, I would want out also!

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😺 Schrodinger's Cat walks into a bar, and doesn't. 🤨 President Trump is a HERO, and will win in a landslide in November!