I do believe that our 45th President Donald Trump was on balance a good President. I say on balance because I do take into consideration the few minuses, such as the appointing of Christopher Wray to run the FBI, allowing the influence of Dr. Fauci, the elevation in Federal spending and failure to complete the southern border wall.
In 2020 he was the incumbent, and as such I, the loyal Republican naturally supported his renomination for President. It is a very different calculus today, Trump is not the incumbent, sadly the man that defeated him, Joe Biden is the current occupant of the White House, and the guy we must defeat in 2024 to save the country.
For Trump and his primary backers, the 800-pound gorilla in the room is the devastating fact of his defeat, and let’s face it losing to Joe Biden is devastating. To counter this inconvenient truth they promote the dubious claim that the 2020 election was stolen. The evidence doesn’t back up such a claim. Sure, the Democrats took advantage of the pandemic to push for mail-in voting, and states such as Pennsylvania liberalized the voting rules, without going to the legislature as the constitution requires. In addition, the pandemic made it easier for Joe Biden to hide in the basement. Making it tougher for voters and the media to question him. However, I doubt the mainstream media ever had any desire to ask Biden tough, probing or nuanced questions.
Even adding up all the irregularities, and yes, I believe that some fraud took place, it is impossible to say the election was stolen. As heartbreaking as it is, the American people picked Biden over Trump. They did it then and if forced to make the same choice in 2024 they will probably answer the same way.
Ironically, If Trump had acknowledged that he probably or might have legitimately lost, or at least refrained from the stop-the-steal rhetoric, he’d been in good shape today, I daresay he’d be almost a shoe-in. As it stands, he is neck and neck with Biden in the polls. That is not good considering Biden is senile, in his 80’s, and has a 40 percent approval rating. Trump’s negative rating is higher than Biden’s. That tells me that while most Americans don’t want either Biden or Trump, I think more American voters will hold their noses to vote for Biden. Trump like many Presidents before him got hit with events beyond his control. Hoover got a stock market crash, Buchanan got a country moving into a civil war, and Trump got the virus from Wuhan. Those are the breaks.
But what has changed since 2020? Why is Trump going to be stronger in 2024? What Biden state will he win this time? I can’t see any. Georgia? Well, Georgia elected Trump’s Nemesis Republican Governor Brian Kemp handily, while Trump backed, indeed produced a challenger David Purdue in a primary who lost big. Trump also endorsed Herschel Walker who went on to lose a winnable senate race. Perhaps Pennsylvania? Well, Trump backed Doctor Oz who ended up losing to a guy Jon Fetterman, who makes Biden look compos mentis. Maybe Trump can pick up Arizona? Well, his acolyte Kari Lake lost her race for Governor. Perhaps she was seen as too much like Trump.
Trump ran the table in 2016, he drew a weak opponent, perhaps the most hated woman in American politics, and eked out a win. It’s been downhill ever since. In the midterms in 2018 we Republicans, with Trump as the head of our party lost 40 seats in the House. In 2020 we lost the White House and the Senate. In 2022 Trump endorsed a number of high-profile senate candidates. Needless to say, we didn’t retake the Senate. While it was quite possible and there were a number of scenarios to retake the Senate several Trump backed candidates lost.
It seemed bad enough on January 6th 2021, after that day I thought if Trump ever wanted to be President again or even invited back to the White House as a guest, he would never make it. But it got worse for Trump’s comeback goal. He has now been indicted over the handling of classified documents. And there may be more indictments to come. While I do believe the prosecutorial cases against Trump are for the most part politically motivated, I don’t believe he is completely innocent either. He had to have known that the left was out to get him, and act more carefully. Indeed, every prosecutor in every blue state throughout our beautiful land wants to make a name for themselves by prosecuting him. Some even explicitly run on that promise.
At worst he broke the law regarding classified documents, at best he acted recklessly. Either way, that is not good. Its not good for us Republicans that feel compelled to keep defending him. And he wants to be our nominee for President. His poor behavior puts our quest to retake the White House at risk.
If we nominate Trump the election in 2024 will become more about him and his alleged scandals and less about Biden’s poor record. We need the election to be a referendum on Biden not about Trump.
We Republicans have every reason to be very optimistic about 2024. So much so that already measuring the drapes and curtains in the White House would be intellectually defensible. And the Senate map favors us, heck basically guarantees we take over that chamber. Imagine President Ron DeSantis with the House and 55 Senate seats.
We have a number of good candidates who are more conservative than Trump, more electable than Trump and no doubt have the potential to be more effective in the white house than Trump.
If we get off the Trump train, nominate anyone of our great candidates and we win in 2024. It’s that simple.
Let’s not give Biden and the media Trump to kick around anymore.
David Shephard is the author of “Elections Have Consequences; A Cautionary Tale“.
19 comments
” Imagine President Ron DeSantis with the House and 55 Senate seats.”. Thanks, I am going to have nightmares now
Forget about this silly stuff. All you “true patriot” Republicans better saddle up because it looks like your buddy Putin could use some help.
We “true patriot” Republicans are ready to help or buddy Putin. We’re just waitning for him to drop some 6 figure speaking fees to Bubba and “donations” to the Clinton Foundation in exchange for the uranium he’ll need to fight this was
Your communist buddy is helping so nothing is needed to help Putin. In the meantime, you LGBTQ buddies just proclaimed their intent to groom children. See NYC Pride parade.
Well, well — isn’t this special:
A high-ranking Loudoun County schools official was acquitted Thursday of lying to a special grand jury empaneled to investigate how the school system handled a pair of 2021 sexual assaults that caused a political firestorm after it became enmeshed in the debate over transgender student rights.
A jury in Loudoun County Circuit Court found longtime district spokesman Wayde Byard not guilty of felony perjury, rejecting prosecutors’ assertions that he misled the special grand jury to deflect blame from himself and Loudoun schools for mishandling the incidents. The verdict was returned in less than two hours.
Yep, Miyares and Youngkin are assholes.
It’s good to knwo that Loudon County is commited to creating safe spacesa for girls’ bathroom rapists
You may be right that the cause is lost. I hope not. But I have no answers.
It’s not that simple. Who is tough enough to push back The Great Reset, aka Technocracy, that changes our economic system. The poster child of Technocracy is China.
For a detailed explanation, read economist Patrick M. Wood’s book, “Technocracy Rising – The Trojan Horse of Global Transformation.” More of our law is written not by our elected Congress, a Constitutional mandate, but by bureaucrats, stakeholders, etc. Dr. Wood calls such regulations reflexive law. Technocracy does not need the Constitution (or politicians)–if fact, it stands in the way of the elitists who want total control. Dr. Wood has been studying the subject for decades. He names names, both democrat and republican. You will be shocked.
All of you make excellent cases on why I quit your Stupid Party over two years ago!
only Trump has a chance of beating the Swamp of both parties plus Big Everything else! Big Finance, Tech, Pharma, Hospital, Education, Labor, UN, and most of all Big Idiot!
One party is very clever and willing to take risks [Democrats], and the other major party is standing on principle and has many independent operators with respect to not wanting to compromise – in order to get the job done [Republicans].
Why is it so difficult for us to be easily swayed into only working hard with concepts vs. the practicality of getting together to support a candidate? We can have it both, conservatism and a better than average candidate IF we work together.
IF my quarterback has some pimples on the face or tattoos, I don’t like, so what? THAT is still the leader I support to win the game.
And what you don’t realize is there is only one party! And it is dedicated to bankrupting the US while lining their pockets in the process.
No we won’t win in ’24, or ever again. The democrat fraudulent vote production machinery was cemented in place when SCOTUS refused to hear GA and WI. The election of ’22 which saw us regaining the House was a huge mistake on the part of the dems. They got complacent and thought that their candidates would walk right in. They won’t make that same mistake again. Count on this, save this post, they will regain a large majority int the House and increase their majority in the Senate. Biden, if he’s alive will be re-elected in a “landslide”. The Republic is lost.
Yeah… the GOP stupid party thinks that they are going to beat machine politics in PA, GA, AZ WI, MI ETC ETC… soon enough the stupid party won’t win TX either. As you say the Dems only lose when they are stupid or complacent or both… you could see that in action with Terry McClinton Rat. But the Presidential election won’t be taken lightly…they managed to elect a total RETARD in PA to the Senate and they can get their total corrupt Retard back in the WH for four more years.
I couldn’t agree more. Our great exercise in democracy is over. This is one of those times when I’m glad I don’t have grandchildren because I’d be so worried about the country we are leaving to them. The US had a great run, but it’s over.
Welcome to the black pilled world Ms Jeanine. It is obvious that the US is so corrupt, incompetent and vile that it is dying.
RIP USA…
calm down
Jenene, There was a time when free and honest elections did not exist in America … when a king claimed Americans as his subjects. Then 57 men signed their death warrant and that started a process that resulted in a system of government that you are in essence claiming is all over, never to be seen again. This feeling of despair is connected to trying to fix things with the wrong institution. The issue is the culture, not the politics. The entity to shape culture is the church, not the government. Yes, we must be engaged in government and the messy political arena, but that is to put some fingers in the dike to hold it as best we can from collapsing. Meanwhile, those who embrace the call of the church to be salt and light, to disciple nations need to get their houses of worship in order and on the task Jesus created them to do. It really is not a hard battle to win. We have a culture of death vs. a culture of life. If only the culture of life, those who claim that Jesus is life, would follow the Bible they claim to believe and be fruitful (yes, bring those grandbabies into this world) and then train the children in the ways of God, the culture of life wins easily in a generation. The problem is we have babies and then give them to the culture of death to shape their minds. Being fruitful is not simply having babies, it is just as much training them in Godly ways. You cannot do that and send children to have their heads filled with lies. Our mindset is not simply to keep them from harm, but much more so to point them toward good. Not simply to not put them where they are taught race and gender confusion, but put them where they learn they were created in the image of God and for a purpose and that they need to learn to self-govern, rather than embrace an entitlement mentality. We live in a very exciting time. Evil has shown its head and does day after day. We are being forced to face the fruits of following lies. That is how correction comes to a population that refuses to learn from history. So don’t be discouraged that times are challenging. Be thankful that God loves us, that is His Church, enough to disciple it. If you want times to get better, then do all you can to get your church back on the mission of discipling, which is far different that getting people to “say a prayer” so they go to heaven. The great commission is about teaching all of God’s ways and those ways touch every sector and every person. Nothing is outside of God’s ways. Nothing. Arm up with the truth and take that everywhere you go. Our nation is not a lost cause. Not even close. It will likely can harder, because so many in the churches believe the powers of the world are stronger than the God they claim to worship. Many believe the world has to get bad and so they sit and watch. Bad theology begets bad results.
One thing you are not correct about is the Wall. Understand this. You could build a ninety foot wall with an electric fence in front of it and as long as you do not reform asylum, it won’t matter. That is how people come to border patrol stations.. claim they are afraid to go back and get into the US to disappear. Also the legal standards matters. The Liberals and Rinos set the standard for asylum wherein you could be afraid of crime.
Trump’s DOJ did two thing that mattered more than the stupid wall.. They crafted the Remain in Mexico policy. That is based upon a duly ratified agreement wherein an asylee must seek asylum in the first safe third country they land. That is they cannot travel through Mexico. the conduit for illegal immigration via drug cartels. The second was that Barr ended the legal standard of crime based asylum. Crime is not one of the enumerated reasons for asylum… race religion etc. As Senator Cotton pointed out the murder rate in many big US Democrat run cities is higher than El Salvador.
Tump was the only one to ever care to stop illegal immigration. The Bushes Ryans McConnells etc get plenty of corporate money to keep the border open. It took guts to do that.
The power brokers, that is the peop’le who bring you your government, are 100% behind an open border. To stop them is damn near impo[ssible… but Trump managed to do that…. You will not that on his first day Bribem, that scroungy POS grifter with his shell corporations funnelling money to him and his family ended ALL of Trumps immigration policies.
Trump isn’t coming back… so whatever to the rest of your argument…