Here We Go Again

 

                As of this writing, Donald Trump has been indicted by a Manhattan Grand Jury for the crime of not being named Biden or Clinton.  Quite a few people swear this guarantees he’ll be the next president (if we're still around, that is).  We’ll see.

                Anyway, I thought I’d give my thoughts on the once and possibly future leader of the Free World,  partisan witch hunts notwithstanding.

                As I considered how to approach this, I read an essay I wrote only last summer.  Much of what I wrote then still applies.  So, rather than repeating myself, I thought I would just update it.  I don’t think too many people will notice that this is, by and large, a repeat.  It’s not like I have a huge following, you know.

                Even though the primaries are still almost a year away, the heat has been turned up in the quest for the Republican nomination.  Sure, there are others vying for the honor of hearing “Hail To the Chief” whenever  they walk into the room.  However, it’s really only one man who is the 400 pound gorilla on the national stage (even though said gorilla has lost some weight...so maybe 350).  In fact, Trump’s only real competition, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, hasn’t even officially tossed his hat into the ring.

                If you think the whole thing is just a bit surreal, you would be correct.

                That said, I’ve rejoined the civil war sure to come between  Republicans/Conservatives (not always the same thing) who are for The Donald and those, who while not necessarily against him, would rather anyone else run in 2024.

                Like six years ago, I’ll be spatting with those of my friends who see Trump as the savior of the nation.  They’ll think I’m nuts that I would rather the aforementioned governor get the nod.  I fully acknowledge the successful policies of the Trump Presidency and the fact the United States wasn’t a global laughingstock between 2017 and 2020; I just cannot abide Orange Man’s antics.  His narcissism, big mouth,  and demands for absolute loyalty turn me off.  To be sure, he’s better than that demented pine cone presently in the White House, but I wish he would just shut up.

                Worse, he’s running down challengers, most barbs launched at a man who hasn’t declared his candidacy yet.  Punking fellow Republicans is not the way Reagan would have done things.

                Still, if it comes to pass that he runs against Joe Biden, Gavin Newsome, or an eggplant (would you notice a difference?) come November 2024, I will pull the lever for Donald Trump.  I just hope my friends will once more become my friends.

                I’m just afraid that he will have poisoned the well enough so that he is unelectable in the general election.  Independents, and some Republicans (spare me the RINO crap), may not want another four years of drama.  Or, if he somehow doesn’t get the nomination, enough people will refuse to vote for the Republican candidate or may not vote at all.

                Even worse, if Trump, believing his bombast, forms a third party, that will be all she wrote.

                Teddy Roosevelt formed a third party in 1912 and H. Ross Perot in 1992.  The results?  Woodrow Wilson in 1913 and Bill Clinton in 1993.

Bottom line, Trump is a polarizing figure.  More than a few people have challenged my belief by writing that Trump is only polarizing because the media and his enemies have made him so.

True, but it doesn’t matter why.  All that matters is that he is.

It reminds me of a pedestrian who insists that he has the right of way and so is perfectly safe walking in front of traffic.  True, they may have the right of way.  That will be small comfort when they’re dead, though.

And that is why I predict  a return to the infighting which marked the primaries of 2016.  I won’t lie and try to convince you I was for Donald Trump back then.  In fact, he would have been my third or fourth choice to face the Wicked Witch of Chappaqua.

I wanted Ted Cruz to be president.  However, one of the people I worked for when I was an Environmental Services Associate (now I’m just a cranky old retired guy) told me that Cruz was polarizing in a Grampa Munster kind of way.  Yeah, I could see that.  But, to me, Cruz seemed more stable than the mercurial businessman from New York.

Those of us who expressed reluctance about Trump-we even hyperbolically compared him to Mussolini-were savaged by  our friends who considered themselves real conservatives.  It got kind of nasty.  Luckily, we all eventually pulled together.

 When all was said and done, I pulled the lever for Trump.  I would have preferred the Libertarian candidate, but he seemed nuts to me.

NOTE: he was nuts.

As far as Hillary?  Good grief, AYFKM?

Of course, things were quite different in 2020.  Trump had been a president with a record of success and really didn’t have any serious competition.  Many people considered him a lock to return to the White House come January ’21.

Then, the Chinese Flu happened.  Mistakes were made along the way and what seemed like a sure thing wasn’t so much come election night.

Sure, there looked to be more than a few monkeyshines (e.g. mail-in balloting) and I find it hard to believe the incontinent idiot from Delaware got 81 million votes.  But, I personally don’t think the election was stolen.  I just think more than a couple people had grown weary of the Donald Show, me included (Full Disclosure:  I voted for the Libertarian) . 

In my estimation, Trump rested on his laurels, figuring he had it in the bag.

It’s like when Bart Simpson ran against Martin Prince for class president.  Look, I don’t have enough patience to tell you what happened.  Look it up on You Tube.

Since he lost, he has a real problem zipping his lip.  While his base continues to be in his corner, I’ve no doubt that a lot of people are just tired of his egotistical bombast.  Look ahead, you knucklehead, not in the rear-view mirror.  Your 2016 act won’t work in 2024.

While people (sane people) won’t vote for the demented dumpster fire of the Democrats, they may just stay home.  And the GOP can’t afford that.

                So, here we go again.  The run-up to the presidential election of 2024 (which, unlike in the past, will be the most important election in U.S. history, with the exception of 1860) will be nasty.

In the meantime, though, there will be people like me who’ll wish Trump would just “go away.” He won’t, of course.  The man’s ego won’t allow it.  Therefore, infighting will be unrelenting.

To my Liberal (a word I do not think an insult) friends, I’ll say this.  Enjoy the show.  We’ll get to you eventually, tough guy.  Much like I wanted any other NFC team (except Dallas) to go to the Super Bowl, when it came down to it, I pulled for the Eagles.

NOTE:  Yes, I get the irony that Philadelphia lost.  

It is my earnest desire that we get the band back together after the Republican convention in 2024.  The country can’t afford to continue careening off the cliff.

For the time-being, I’m looking at the governor of Florida to lead us out of this mess.  To me, he has Trump’s skills without the sophomoric histrionics.  Maybe someone else will jump into the fray, though (or, like Chris Christie, eat the fray).

In any event, I gotta hope the Republican candidate eviscerates anyone the Democrats throw up (“throw up” being the operative phrase).   Unless far too many people think Socialism, toddler drag shows, open borders, money-laundering, and big government are the ways moving forward.  In that case, check please?  I want to get off the planet.

I guarantee this, though.  People like me will be lambasted if we express even a whiff that we’re not “all in” for Trump.  We’ll be accused of being anti-Americans who refuse to see what he did for our country.  Yes, he did a lot for our country, but I’d like a return to a society which isn’t seething with theatrics and paranoia.

And I can’t possibly be the only one who thinks that.