I have to admit that I’m starting to lean this way myself:
Donald Trump is being largely blamed for the midterm red wave that never happened, with Republican strategists pinning the party’s underwhelming performance in the 2022 midterms on his selection of ‘flawed’ candidates.
Trump endorsed some 300 candidates, held 30 rallies and raised millions of dollars for his ‘army’ of candidates. It was supposed to be the amuse-bouche for a Presidential run, intended to set him up for a sweeping 2024 success.
But overnight, many of Trump’s chosen candidates crashed and burned.
It seems to me that Trump is becoming like Her Filthiness Hillary Ciinton, the “broken glass” candidate (in that people would crawl over broken glass to vote against them).
Where there was previously no strong candidate to back in the fight against socialism, Trump was the default because all the Stupid Party could bring to the [ahem] party were candidates of the Romney/Mitch McConnell stripe — establishment GOPe drones.
Thanks to Trump, however, we have more radical leaders like Kristi Noem and of course Ron DeSantis around who, provided we could actually vote them into power, might continue or even improve upon the works of President Trump.
And let’s be honest: another Trump similarity to Hillary is age: in 2024 he will be 78, and if Biden is anything to go by, we do not need another octogenarian in the White House, no matter how energetic he may seem at the moment. (A depressing thing about advanced age — ask me how I know this — is that two, three or four years has a far more radical effect upon one’s physical- and mental capabilities at 65+ years than they had at age 40 or even 50.) Trump would be 79 if he were to win the next election, but 81 by the next mid-term election. Could he still be as effective? Hell, given the obstacles the Swamp would throw at him, could he be effective at all?
I have no problem with Trump continuing to hold rallies all over the place, as long as they support the MAGA philosophy and not his candidacy. But that ain’t gonna happen.
And given that the supposed “red tsunami” turned out to be more of a pinkish trickle (a topic for another time), there’s no guarantee that even a conservative maestro like Ron DeSantis would be successfully elected.
Is it too early for a second gin? I think not.
Only a month ago, Red was trailing in the polls. It’s a comeback.
Don’s presidency was a failure because he failed to lead the Republican party. He ignored advice from Giuliani whose mayorship was a success precisely for his leadership abilities. I can’t imagine why Trump is still in charge. Don’t they have leadership elections occasionally?
Trump (and I voted for him twice) is becoming a problem and that problem will only get worse. We issue-centric voters, those who actually vote principles, cannot imagine voting for a Democrat, but many people do vote candidates-meaning personalities. I’m in PA and Oz and Mastriano were awful candidates. GOPe has to do better.
Trump’s comment on DeSantis’ win was, “I got more votes!” I’m grateful for what he’s done, but he needs to go or be swept out of the way. He’s nothing but a millstone around our necks at this point. Thank you, Donald, very much. Now go to rallies for others and play a lot of golf.
Please.
Was it Trump or was it the long, long Republican history of incompetence and betrayal?
Probably a little of both.
I think the blame-[Trump]-game is the GOPe trying to cover up (like a cat on a tile floor) its incompetence. Yeah, Trump is an asshole some times. But have you ever heard or read about a great leader who wasn’t? Did DJT pick candidates? Groom them from infancy? Fund their campaigns (in whole or in part)? No, that was the party’s doing. And we in the Right have been moaning about the poor quality of the GOP as a political party and that they keep losing their lunch to the Democrats for … how many centuries now?
Vichy Mitch actively sabotaged the close Senate race in AZ.
The political pathologist’s report on Trump will prevaricate on whether the ultimate cause of political death was self inflicted or not.
His story will go down in the annals of political strangeness: aided through primaries by the opposition party seeking a weak candidate, the electorate grabbed at a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to screw both parties. He then spent the next 4 years under relentless attack from the opposition, doing himself no favors in the process. As a loose cannon on deck, he did some good, achieved some but nowhere near enough necessary creative destruction, and galvanized his enemies to tighten their machine so as to prevent any possibility of a recurrence.
Well, the GOP in this blue state clearly does not want to become the majority party at all. They keep putting up repeats for the governor races that continually lose. For four elections in a row they went to outside businessmen with no political experience at all. They haven’t even served on a town committee. They ran each one twice and each time they lose. They do not campaign in the cities where the population density is highest in the state. I think Nationally, the GOP might feel the same way.
Trump did some great things while in office but the first thing he should have done is had a come to Jesus meeting with the GOP once he was elected and hashed out policies to push. Trump certainly wouldn’t do that with his ego unfortunately. And the GOP leadership in the Senate and House certainly weren’t going to placate this upstart.
Only one president lost re-election and came back to win during the next campaign. I doubt the Donald will be able to do that.
Kim, you make very good points on age. I’m sure that the presidency is a very difficult, time consuming and tiring job. The Donald is absolutely not a fitness nut at all. Poor cardiovascular health, less than ideal diet, packing significant extra weight around for years does take a toll on one’s body. That in turn can negatively impact a person’s ability to do the job of president.
The best thing that could happen would be for Trump to step aside as a candidate and maybe act as a prince maker by holding candidates accountable to appoint proper judges and bureaucrats and pursue policies that promote American strength, security and prosperity.
JQ
Couldn’t agree more. And I’m 99 percent sure we live in the same state.
the nutmeg state that is more full of nuts than megs?
I take a back seat to no one when it comes to my loathing of Donnie Douchebag, despite voting for him in 2020. I’ll hold my nose & do it again if the Stupid Party runs him 2 years hence. I’m just so over narcissistic/whiny bitch routine, hopefully increasing numbers of repubs are too.
“Trump threatens to reveal things ‘that won’t be very flattering’ about Ron DeSantis if he challenges him for the GOP nomination in 2024: ‘I know more about him than anybody other than perhaps his wife”
https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-unflattering-information-florida-ron-desantis-2024-2022-11
Go fuck yourself, DD. With a chainsaw.
I do wonder what’s going through his head. I don’t know what to believe as nothing the media says about the man can be trusted, and the general public seems to either worship him or hate him.
At this point I don’t think he’ll be allowed to win even if he’s the candidate in ’24. The RINOs, the DemonRats, and the media will all gang up to scupper his chances. Even if he were to win, he’d be facing even more opposition than he did last time. Short of declaring martial law (and would the military even obey, given how the armed services have been sabotaged?), he’d be a lame duck with zero support from the moment of inauguration onward.
Maybe the Russians will do us a favor and nuke DC and NYC and we can then focus on picking up the pieces.
I think it was simply a matter of over hype producing reduced results. Republicans heard that it was going to be an easy win, so they didn’t go out of their way to vote.
Trump needs to fuck off, or run for a lesser office. That petulant manchild had his chance and blew it.
If I had a gun to my head and was forced to predict the future, he runs in 24, gets demolished in the primary, and decides to go independent and burn it all down because his ego demands it. Fuck that clown.
The moderate base voted against Trump, and those he endorsed.
It’s really that simple.
Biden didn’t actively enforce anyone afaik (not that he actively does much of anything) so the Dem candidates weren’t as tainted.
It’s the same as 2020, Biden wasn’t Trump so people voted for him (or voted blank or independent, with the same effect).
In 2016 it was Trump or Hillary, so they voted Trump because Hillary was an even worse choice.
Chat from a friend of mine …
The Mrs. and I were just talking about Trump’s tantrum towards DeSantis. His ego has totally taken over and he can’t control himself. He’s screwing himself bigly, and DeSantis is playing it perfectly. If your opponent is destroying himself, you don’t need to do anything. Just stay out of the way and let him do it. Needless to say, I’m now solidly in the DeSantis camp, even though he’s getting endorsements from establishment RINOs like Paul Ryan. I have the feeling that DeSantis is brilliantly playing those idiots as well.