I apologize
for this political post, and I hate to have to post it, but I believe the dire
situation requires it. Doing this is depressing as well, but I
believe it should be done.
I admit I
cringe when hear that Donald Trump is leading in polls, any polls. This man has
thoroughly proven his incompetence, his corruption, and his authoritarianism.
The once honorable Republican party has become a subset of Trump and Trumpism.
This man’s propensity to treat immoral adversaries with respect and honorable
political rivals with complete derision is not merely shocking, but
dishonorable. He has no intentions of playing by the rules, any rules, except
his own. He still claims he won an election that dozens of election commissions
and courts in dozens of states confirmed that he lost. The people he hired to
show that he won the election confirmed that he lost it. Yet, the “Big Lie”
persists. Polls in 2021 and 2022 show that between 50% and 70% of Republicans
actually believe Trump won. That is quite obviously absurd. The number may be
lower now, but I could not find any recent polling. In any case, well over half
to 70% or more of Republicans obviously favor him to be the nominee for
president in the 2024 election.
It is no
secret that most leaders around the world, most especially the vast majority of
American allies, do not view Trump favorably. Do we really want a leader that our
friends don’t like? He had his chance, and he blew it, over and over again. At
the beginning of his term many people, including me, were willing to give him a
chance to see what he would do. It did not take long for him to disappoint us. The
number of people who worked in his administration who now say he is unfit for
office is both shocking and unprecedented. Nothing like that has ever occurred
in American politics. In addition to this, a large number of prominent
politicians in his own Republican party have rejected him on the same grounds.
This too is unprecedented.
Of course, the
rural/urban divide in American politics is real. I live in a rural setting in a
mostly rural county in Ohio. My county voted 78% for Trump in 2020. I drive
past Trump signs and flags and confederate flags every day, though why someone
would be displaying a Confederate flag in Ohio is beyond me. Of course, Trump
lost the popular vote in 2016 and in 2020 so his popularity is not a real
majority. The U.S. is one of the only countries that still has an electoral
college and perhaps we should change that. Rural states with low populations
are given two senators as are urban states with very high populations. This has
given the rural states (Republican strongholds) an outsized number of senators,
a big advantage in recent years.
My own
perspective is perhaps interesting. I was never political before Donald Trump.
Although I have preferred Democrats by a small margin, I consider myself
moderate. I considered myself socially liberal and fiscally more moderate. Who
was president did not matter that much to me. I was OK with Bush, Clinton,
Bush, and Obama. I’m OK with Biden. I’m not OK with Trump. Not in the least. I
am dumbfounded at the spell he holds on American voters. I am no fan of
Progressives and often speak out against their ideas. I think Biden should pull
away from that contingent. Unfortunately, he may need them to win so he is
bound to them in some sense. It’s fairly clear that Biden would not have even
run in 2020 but knew that he was the best candidate that could beat Trump. I
think it is unfortunate that a man of his age must run to prevent Trump. Age is
a factor but Trump is only 3 years younger so it should be a factor for him as
well. In fact, I think both the far left and the far right are dangerous. However,
I think the MAGA extremists, as Biden calls them, are the most dangerous. I am
also appalled by the Heartland Institute’s, other MAGA groups, and Trump
loyalists’ Project 2025 plan to stack the government with political appointee
loyalists to replace what they see as a “deep state.” There is apparently, a
concerted effort to make the U.S. like Orban’s Hungary where media freedom is
limited and executive power is consolidated. Pro-Putin Orban is a thorn in the
EU’s side, currently, despite his popularity with American conservatives. While
there may be some long-term government employees that favor certain positions,
perhaps more to the left, I think the whole deep state matter is basically
bullshit amplified by Trump. He didn’t drain the swamp. He is the swamp. His
idea of government is to be anti-government. It is an abuse of the idea of
smaller government championed by Ronald Reagan and a lot of conservatives and libertarians.
Now he wants “revenge and retribution.” Basically, he wants to be king. One of
his MOs is to be frank and honest about his intentions. There is no reason to
believe that if elected he won’t focus on this revenge and retribution as he
says he will.
One of my
close neighbors put a picture of Trump on a utility pole and the curve of the
pole made it look like he had a Hitler mustache. Down the road a bit, another
neighbor mowed a very large FJB into his grass which they have kept up for a
few years now. It was heartening to see the neighbor across the road from them
to put up Biden-Harris signs before the election. Before the last presidential
election, some neighbors put up Trump signs a week or so before the election and then took them down afterward – a more reasonable approach.
I have
mentioned before that I think the Republican approach to energy is more
realistic than the Democrat approach. However, I think that both sides need to
be more pragmatic. I worked for about 32 years in the oil & gas industry,
which has remained decidedly conservative. I did not state any political
beliefs or opinions at work, which I considered to be inappropriate in general and
still do for the most part. However, that is not true of others. In one office
in which I worked in the late 90s the radio often blared Rush Limbaugh. Once
when I walked into a work trailer one morning at a well site in Northeastern
Pennsylvania the day after Obama got re-elected in 2012, I was met immediately with
a loud question from a born-again co-worker from Louisiana, “Did you vote for
that ni%&er?” He did spend much of the rest of the day explaining
unconvincingly that he wasn’t really a racist. I always managed to stay quiet
about things like politics and religion. The same is not true for a small
subset of acquaintances on social media platforms like LinkedIn where they
regularly post religion, political extremism, and absurd conspiracy theories. When
co-workers, past and present, start talking about FEMA camps and COVID
conspiracies I find a way to politely excuse myself, often after telling them I
think they are full of shit. Such people are not worth the time to take
seriously or to attempt to convince of rationality. They are caught up in
cult-like behavior. The most cultish Trumpism got was the Stop-the-Steal
movement, which culminated in the January 6 tragedy. Unfortunately, that cult
has yet to dissipate.
The sheer
level of corruption this man attempted in the final days of his term is
disturbing. He fired many people and hired loyalists to replace them just so
he could perpetrate his schemes to change the results of the election. He
harassed multiple state election commissions and attempted to coerce them into
doing his bidding. Some nearly complied. His vice president did not, although
he was perfectly willing in the early days of Stop-the-Steal. He ultimately
made the right choice, but he is certainly no hero. He also ran against him in
the primary, which is also unprecedented. I am glad, however, when I hear him speak
out against Trump. It’s kind of unimaginable that a vice-president once perceived
to be very loyal to his boss, is speaking out against him. Trump’s expressed
opinions about wounded veterans as “disgusting” and preferring them to be not
worthy of being seen, let alone honored, as Generally Kelly noted he did on several
occasions, is deeply concerning.
Chris Christie
says it’s fear and ambition that keep other politicians loyal to Trump. He says
fear of losing their titles keeps politicians loyal to Trump at risk of him
endorsing a rival Republican to primary them. Ambition to be vice president, he
says, is what keeps Nikki Haley loyal to Trump. Others face death threats.
Indeed, we still have people in the former Trump administration speaking out
against him anonymously, due to fear of retribution. Even deep far-right
conservatives like Texas rep Chip Roy and Kentucky rep Thomas Massie, who both
have endorsed DeSantis, say that it is fear of their own voters that leads to
them endorsing Trump. This fear of being primaried by Trump-picked loyalist
candidates tends to keep them in line, they say.
While Mitt
Romney says that Biden’s “threat to democracy” argument against Trump is old
news and he should take a different approach, I disagree. There is real
potential that if Trump is elected and is able to go through with his purge of government, that some of those J6 people will be hired as part of a new Trump administration.
After all, they aptly demonstrated their loyalty to him by storming the capital,
causing death, injury, property damage, and desecration of U.S. symbols.
New polling
indicates that fewer people (53%) now believe Trump was responsible for January
6 than in 2021 (60%). It is also disturbing that more Republicans and
Independents now believe Biden was unfairly elected than in late 2021. While I
think some of the J6 people were sentenced too harshly, the idea that they are
patriots or without guilt is disturbing. I think we were much closer to a real bloodbath
than many people realize. I also believe the Republican party in general is an
accessory to his crime in a sense by not voting to impeach him. Now Trump and
some prominent Republican congresspeople are calling the J6 prisoners hostages.
Is it getting worse?
“Since December 2021, there has been an eight percent
drop in Republicans who believe Biden was elected fairly.”
“There was even a three percent and six percent drop
in independents and Democrats respectively who thought Biden was fairly elected.”
It is quite disheartening to me that more Americans than
before believe in Donald Trump more than they believe in America. Should we
just go ahead and change the name of our nation to Trumpica and accept it? Obviously,
the answer is no.
No matter what
one thinks of Biden and his policies, his recent speech at Valley Forge was right
on. I don’t agree with all of Biden’s policies, and I don’t disagree with all
of the policies of the past Trump administration. I do believe that Trump’s
policies are now irrelevant as his failure as a leader presents an imminent
danger to our country. I disagree with Trump’s protectionist trade policies
which caused some benefit but net economic harm, even if China rigs the system
with currency manipulation and excessive subsidization of some industries. That
particular position is more concordant with political leftists, who tend to
favor protectionism. Protectionism most often is a loss for both parties. I just
mention it as an unusual example of policy. Nikki Haley often talks about liking
Trump’s policies, while also noting his propensity for unnecessary drama and
chaos.
On the one
hand, we have a large number of notable Republicans and conservatives speaking
out about the dangers of Trump, with some calling him “Dictator Donald.” On the
other hand, we have Republican senators considered to be more mainstream saying
it is time to get behind him as the likely Republican nominee. It is such a dissonant
condition for a political party, and of course, unprecedented. We also know
that he will only hire loyalists to work for him since so many mainstream
conservatives have turned against him.
Ian Bremmer of
the Eurasia Group in his top geopolitical risks for 2024 has the number 1 risk
as America vs. Itself. This means that he thinks political division in the U.S.
is the biggest geopolitical risk for the entire world through 2024. Ian says: “The United States is already the world’s most divided and dysfunctional
advanced industrial democracy. The 2024 election will exacerbate this problem
no matter who wins.” That is a sad state of affairs. Once again, the man responsible
for this more than any other is Trump.
Although some
political division has long been prevalent in American politics, it became
amplified when Obama first got elected. John Avlon’s very informative 2010 book,
Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America, shows how new
groups arose to oppose Obama, including a man, Donald Trump, who perpetuated
the false rumor that Obama was not an American citizen. Oddly, the rumor began
among followers of Hillary Clinton when Obama beat her in the primary, but got
amplified when Fox News picked it up and ran with it. Avlon, an Independent, was once a speechwriter and campaigner for Rudy Guiliani. During Obama’s terms, the Tea Party rose and groups
like the Oath Keepers, ironically formed to prevent a dictatorship. Identity
politics and terms like RINO and DINO came to the fore. In any case, the book
gives great context for what happened in American politics to lead to the sad
state we are in today.
Frankly, I
find it absurd that this man even has a chance, considering all he has done. If
he does win, it signifies the decline of America in terms of losing both common
sense and basic dignity. If our constituents believe such a person is the worthiest
to be a leader, it shows that they are easily deluded and that means we will be
in trouble as a country. If our constituents cannot choose a worthy leader, we
will decline as a country. There is so much more that I can say in terms of
details and examples, but the bottom line is this should be more than enough. I
don’t know what else to say. If this guy really cared about America, he would
not be running for president. He amplified our political divisiveness to
extreme levels. He is always divisive and rarely if ever cooperative or unifying.
Please don’t vote for this jerk!
I do believe
we can overcome Trump, Trumpism, and the cult of MAGA-ism. I sure hope more people
of importance and regular people like me will speak out against the dangers.
More importantly, I hope more and more people will be swayed by these arguments
and vote either for Biden or for someone else.
Trump the Divider, Trump the Oppressed, Manchin the
Equalizer, Cheney the Foreseer, and the Chorus of Ass-Kissers
It was reported
that Trump was advising Maga-Mike Johnson to avoid a bipartisan immigration deal
with the Dems. Johnson made the strange statement that now was not the time for
a comprehensive immigration deal. What? I thought that was the point of all the
recent negotiations – to fix immigration. However, if a deal is reached what
then would Trump have to complain about and campaign to fix himself? No, bipartisan
success is not in his interest, especially from now until November.
Cooperation is
also not in his interest as in his court case for harassment of a plaintiff
after he was judged liable for sexual assault in a civil trial for pushing a
woman into a dressing room and grabbing her by the body part he was recorded on
tape of bragging about doing to women. Here he felt it necessary to harass the
judge as well, after his victory in Iowa, by taunting him to kick him out of
the court room. He knows that would increase his claims of political
persecution, which always seem to get him more sympathy. He claims witch hunt
but perhaps it’s a bitch hunt since he ‘moves on them women} like a bitch,’ except
for the plaintiff since she’s not his type.
Joe Manchin made
some important statements this mid-January. The first one that was he loved
America too much to vote for Donald Trump. The second was that Biden has moved
too far to the left and urged him to move toward the center. Thirdly, he noted
after being harassed by the radical group Climate Defiance, he simply suggested
that they were deluded but not particularly dangerous.
While Trump hogs
the headlines with his domination of the Republican Party and while he competes
with Jesus himself among evangelicals, many who see him as a savior in his own
right, others are considering life after MAGA. Chief among those
considering the future of conservatives post-Trumpism is Liz Cheney, who bears
the scars of Trumps wrath. She has refrained from endorsing any of his
Republican challengers so as not to doom them, even though we all know they
have little chance. She will likely be among a fairly large group of principled
conservatives and past Trump staffers who will endorse Biden, citing as Cheney has
that having bad policy is better than losing the Constitution. Kinzinger and
Scaramucci will likely endorse Biden. Others will likely continue to speak out
against Trump and/or vote for someone else. These include Pence, Barr, Mattis,
McMaster, Bolton, Romney, Grisham, Esper, and others. Others yet, are likely on
the fence like McConnell, Chao, and probably many others.
Early Trump
endorsers are seemingly vying for higher ass-kisser status, a special
designation conferred by a man who demands fealty and loyalty, or else. Trump
has been extraordinarily successful at leveraging fealty. His method of using
threat to get his way has long worked for him. Some, like Rubio claim it’s
policy that influenced him. Others, like Cruz, Emmer, Stephanik, Burgum,
Husted, and Ramaswamy and many others – 169 GOP reps and 19 GOP senators
(compared to 23 in both Houses combined for Haley and DeSantis), are likely looking
for accolades like administration positions and favored statuses. Those few who
have endorsed DeSantis or Haley are now vulnerable to Trump’s wrathful
punishments for disloyalty. Oddly, several of those that endorsed DeSantis, are
Freedom Caucusers and others of the far-right that may favor MAGA policy but do
not favor the MAGA king.
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