It is no surprise to me that Trump declared for the Presidency. Trump is tone-deaf. A lot of Trump voters are tone-deaf too.
I think Trump was an extremely valuable President. He was the bull in the china shop that the base of the Republican Party needed to see. He fought, and he fights. He got the other side to unmask themselves. Is there any question that Democrats are in fact Socialists now? If you can’t answer that question in the affirmative, you need to re-examine their goals.
The problem is GOPe. The former Bush/Romney/McCain but now Mitch McConnell wing of the party. Trump can’t win the election without them as distasteful as that is to a lot of Republicans. They are grifters pure and simple.
Contrary to a lot of opinions, I think being a real true conservative is a winning strategy. Look at Ron DeSantis. Look at Glenn Youngkin. Look at a lot of places where real conservatism won on the ballot.
Don’t confuse yourself. Trump is not GOPe but he’s no true Goldwater conservative either. He had much higher spending. He instituted tariffs which are dumb. He was a terrible picker of people which hurt his ability to govern.
It’s hard to say if Trump-endorsed candidates were that bad or not. In Arizona, they were outspent by millions and millions of dollars to go along with the potential fraud that might have happened in vote counting.
If you want to go “down the middle” and avoid being a real conservative, you wind up like Illinois. There is no opposition party to the Socialist Democrats in Illinois. Even the Republicans that are elected are basically patsies at best.
Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney are cases in point. McConnell backed Murkowski. Without all the bullcrap ranked choice voting in Alaska, she loses. It’s so bad in Alaska that they lost their one Republican representative seat. Palin wasn’t a great candidate, but Democrats fielded shitty candidates across the board and they won.
Romney didn’t back his Republican compatriot Mike Lee in Utah. McConnell will still give Romney status. He shouldn’t. In solid red states like Utah, people like Romney shouldn’t have a chance.
In places like Massachusetts, you can elect the Romney types. That is until you educate the population and turn state red.
Conservative policies are extremely popular when you talk to most people about them.
School choice
Lower spending
Lower taxes
Limits on abortion
Not sexualizing our children in school
Strong defense
Privatizing huge swaths of government to let free enterprise solve problems not government programs
Voter ID, clean voter rolls, mail-in ballot policies that stop fraud and ballot harvesting
GOPe isn’t really for those kinds of policies.
But, I see on many sites that unless you vote for Trump, you are not on the team. However, when I look at the record of DeSantis in Florida, it’s pretty hard for me to say he is in GOPe’s pocket.
There are several problems Republicans have. First, is getting the cult of MAGA to support a candidate that beats him in the primary if it happens. The second is getting rid of the new GOPe focus of the party. Just because you lose a few elections doesn’t mean that you have to revert back to the weak-kneed no backbone party of the past.
Look at NY state. Conservatives won there. It’s a red state.
There are several breezes that will blow at the Republican’s back too. Socialism never works. States that embrace it will lose residents and it will suck to live there. Watch Illinois. It will hollow out more. The economy will stay shitty, especially if Biden doubles down on the crappy policy he has put forth already.
The thing is, when you look at the Electoral College, it’s a tough map for a Republican President unless the Republicans actually walk the walk of conservatism. If they don’t and revert, they will lose. If they embrace the cult of Trump and all the positives, along with the negatives that come with him, they will lose.
Firstly, (and I’m sure you wouldn’t necessarily disagree) not all tariffs are “dumb”. Some must be used strategically to protect important domestic industries that have national security implications such as steel production, microchips, and a variety of others. With regards to elections, in the era of mail-in ballots and anonymous uncheckable ballot harvesting, it’s all a moot point unless the Republicans embrace the following tactic: they must spend many millions, perhaps billions, on armies of people with stacks of ballots that go door to door offering to fill out ballots for people and getting their signatures. If they don’t do this, it won’t matter how good the Republican candidate or how compelling the message is. As Democrats have amply demonstrated in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Arizona. Adapt or kiss the country goodbye. And I don’t care what anyone says, Mitch McConnell has got to go. He has worn out his welcome and his actions are deeply damaging to the Republican Party in particular and the nation’s future in general. Any given Republican would have done what he did or better on judges, so I fail to see what benefit he brings to the table anymore, that outweighs the damage he’s done.
I believe that Trump's "sell by date" has arrived. I wrote as much here:
https://themusingsofthebigredcar.com/trump-sell-by-date-arrives/
If he were a smarter chap, he would figure out to be the kingmaker and anoint the next Republican POTUS candidate, but, alas, that is a bridge way, way too far right now.
Trump assembled an excellent Cabinet and forced them to do good work.
He and Wilbur Ross created the best economy since 1776 and ran it steadfastly until the arrival of COVID. Then, he did the impossible - launched a vaccine in less than a year. In my mind, the vaccine is a bit dubious, but the effort was Manhattan Project worthy.
Tariffs are good when used correctly. That is:
1. To protect nascent technology and emerging businesses in the US during their infancy:
2. To protect strategic industries -- this is absolutely critical as evidenced by shortages during the early COVID pandemic;
3. To generate revenue; and,
3. To punish bad actor trade malfeasors -- talking to you, China.
The biggest trade benefit on Mother Earth is access to the US market and Trump understood that very well and acted accordingly. What is interesting is that American tariffs did not trigger a response in most instances -- Canadian softwood timber, as an example.
Nobody gave Donald J Trump a chance when he rode down the escalator in Trump Tower, but he showed them wrong.
Today, nobody seriously gives Donald J Trump a chance, but he will surprise all of us.
In the next two years, I think DJT will soften his rhetoric and talk issues and his track record both of which are favorable.
The Dems will indict Trump. They cannot help themselves. That will either be his winning trigger or they will neutralize him.
The Dems could actually stifle Trump thereby ensuring they face a Pompeo or DeSantis or another on the strong Republican bench. The Dems could turn Trump into the king maker.
Again, I think Trump should pass the baton, but he will be a formidable candidate and will rally a substantial number of Republicans to his cause.
Peace in the world and immigration will be important talking points.
JLM
www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com