Friends, there's a group of RINOs trying to make trouble by saying that, if Trump doesn't hit the highway, they'll secede from the GOP and form a third party. Well, we've heard this song and dance before. It's a warmed over version of the Liz Cheney Tale. I, for one, am not impressed. Sure, Trump's continued influence in the party will cost Republicans some votes. That's abundantly clear. What's equally obvious to me is the fact that the party can't do without Trump's energy and that of his supporters. Renominating Trump would be risky. Nominating Liz Cheney or Mitt Romney or Jeff Flake would be akin to resigning ourselves to the fact that the Republican Party will be a permanent loser party, always politely disagreeing with our socialist masters but never raising its voice (or winning an election). Bottom line: we need to stay on Trump's good side, and to maintain the loyalty of Trumpers, or we're sunk. That's the analysis I gave Sputnik News in a recent article:
In other news, congrats to Elise Stefanik, who is the new Republican Conference Chair in the House of Representatives. Elise's main qualification is her determination to unite Republicans, instead of dividing them and chastising those who don't see things her way. That sounds like a brilliant start to me!
In an extremely significant move, Walmart, our biggest brick-and-mortar retailer, has announced that it will no longer require vaccinated shoppers to wear masks. Hooray! I, for one, will be shopping more often at Walmart, as a result. Other chains are implementing similar policies, or considering doing so, while still others are sticking to their guns and saying, "Masks forever!!!" You can just imagine how those woke brains are straining, can't you? "But my mask is my COVID deflector screen, and the surest sign that I'm way better than everyone else. Can I really stop wearing it? Woe is me!" Psh!
https://www.newsmax.com/us/walmart-costco-samsclub-masks/2021/05/14/id/1021465/
Dr. Nick
ReplyDeleteOn getting vaccinated and wearing masks, has Trump come out with a statement on this? I would be interested in his stance on this.
As far as Trump running again, I am sure he and his supporters already know that the Socialists who now run our country at the highest levels will do everything and anything to make sure that we will never have a Constitutional Republic, ever again, if they can help it. They still go by the name of Democrats, but have absolutely nothing to do with traditional Democrats like say JFK or LBJ who for the most part were anti-Socialist. JFK for example is considered to be almost totally conservative by today's ideological standards.
Sorry, but I do not see 2022 or 2024 in a very cheerful way.
Dr. Nick
ReplyDeleteI know you are a dedicated Trumpalista, which is far better than being a Bidenista.
Nevertheless, I still believe there will be multiple candidates running for president on the Republican ticket come 2024, and announcing such intentions as early as 2023. It's all about power and control, and lots of it, as always. Also, I don't think a few will give a damn whether they have a Trump approval or not. This is just my opinion, but still.....
Dr. Nick
ReplyDeleteNo offense, but you can shop at Walmart all you want. In fact, you can get a part time job there if it makes you happy. No offense, okay? But Nick, you know damn well deep down that this pandemic has been used to control and manipulate people under the pretense of protecting them.
The powers that be will no doubt require everyone to get vaccinated, or suffer the consequences, such as fines, travel restrictions, you name it.
Anyway, your comments on all this were meant as sarcasm, right?
Dr. Nick
ReplyDeleteIn addition to "I have been vaccinated" cards, how about National Identity cards, Work permits, Travel permits, Political Party cards? I'm sure these will suffice as starters. Papers please. All those without the proper papers stand over there against the wall. You will do as we direct or you will be shot. Achtung!! Sorry, just being silly. Forgive me?
Nick,
ReplyDeleteI consider this changing of the guard between Cheney and Stefanik with some trepidation. I am not overly fond of either woman, though Stefanik says the right things, which is immediately satisfying, she is fickle and seemingly a touch less conservative than Cheney on policy, even if she is more sensible in terms of party loyalty.
Taking a step back, this is a fascinating development for the GOP in that for the first time it has publicly excommunicated a member for the sake of oppositional political pragmatism. That is to say, Cheney was kicked for failing to meet the criteria of opposition to the Left, rather than failing to fall within the Overton Window, as for example former Congressman Steve King. With this act the GOP has just committed to imposing the sort of discipline around Trumpism that the Democrats currently impose around their Woke Progressivism.
While I find that methodologically sound, the imposition of discipline, I'm not sure Trumpism is the totem we should be gathered around, as it is itself, largely methodological and without an intellectual or spiritual center. But I could be wrong.
-Lee
Lee
DeleteI'm sure you are well aware that there has never been a real "spiritual center" in American politics, as such. The Constitution is a strictly secular document permitting freedom of religion, to include whatever someone decides is a religion. For a while, people like Billy Graham attempted to create the illusion that the U.S. was some sort of "Christian nation" by hobnobbing with one president after another. Clearly that was gone long before Graham was gone.
As for Cheney and Stefanik, who gives a damn? Less than one year from now, most Americans will not remember what either one of them did, much less how to spell their names.
As I said in previous comments, come 2024 there will be all sorts of Republicans lined up running for president, including Trump. Lots of people are not going to step aside because Trump decides to run or not run, or to endorse them if he decides not to run. The opportunity for power control are simply too great to pass by. I suspect that deep down, all American politicians would simply love to have the power that the current President of the PRC has.
Sorry to be cynical, but I don't really have much faith in U.S. politics any more, no pun intended. I am glad to see individual states and governors giving the federals the finger. Texas might just build a border wall no matter what the dingbats in DC say or don't say. I think that is great, and that sort of thing cheers me up, at least to some extent.
Ray, Trump's position on vaccination is on one level unambiguous: he takes credit for the vaccines, encourages people to get vaccinated, and has been vaccinated himself:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/16/trump-americans-covid-vaccine-476479
On the other hand, as the article points out, Trump consistently downplayed the pandemic, and when he got vaccinated himself he chose to keep it a secret.
Most Republican politicians seem to support the vaccination campaign but also to respect those who refuse the vaccines. In that sense, Trump is typical of Republicans and conservatives in general.
Ray, I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that I am now, or will be in 2024, a Trumper. I think he's got a stanglehold on the average Republican voter, and thus he would be very hard to beat in the presidential primaries, BUT he's also a toxic figure that would struggle to win a national election. I'd vote for Trump...but I'd rather we found a stronger, less obnoxious, and less error-prone candidate.
Ray, no -- I wasn't being sarcastic about Walmart. I find their repeal of their mask mandate refreshing. Sure, I realize that the pandemic has been used to curtail our liberties. That's why allowiong people to shop without masks is a step in the right direction: it restores our ability to CHOOSE whether to mask up or stay unmasked. A choice is better than no choice, right?
"Papers, please" is pretty close to being a reality already. A vaccination card is just one more way to keep tabs on us and force us into compliance. Having said that, many businesses -- the vast majority, in fact -- won't be requiring "proof" of vaccination. They appear to trust their customers' judgement...which is of course another way of saying that they don't want to be responsible for "carding" everyone who comes through the door.
ReplyDeleteLee, I hear you on the "totem" of Trumpism. He has his moments, but he's no golden calf. The way I see it, Liz Cheney was ousted not for doubting Trump or Trumpism, but for failing to adhere in any way, shape, or form to the messaging that the party wants to use leading up to the 2022 elections. Cheney wants desperately to EXCLUDE Trump from the party. She wants the party to rebuke and disavow Trump. That ain't happening. The party, in fact, is more of a mind to rebuke and disavow those who supported the illegitimate, hasty, and vengeful second impeachment of President Trump. Cheney is living in a fantasy world, in short, and she's entitled to her delusions, but she isn't entitled to broadcast them with the authority of the Conference Chair. As for Stefanik and her moderate ilk, sure they'll disappoint us when and if they retake the House majority. Nevertheless, clawing back Republican control of one or more Houses of Congress will put us in an infinitely better position to block the neo-Marxist agenda of the Democrats (ar at least slow it down). For the moment, therefore, tactical manuevering trumps ideological purity. It really isn't about Trump -- it's about putting our disagreements aside long enough to win.
Ray, I wouldn't put much stock in anything that Texas does to control migration. Walls have always been a sideshow. If the federal government says that everyone who steps over the border with a toddler tucked under his arm gets to stay, or everyone who claims they were afraid of gangs back home gets refugee status, then the border is TOAST. Even if Texas could force the border-hoppers to reroute themselves to New Mexico, they'd end up in the good ole USA all the same.
I agree: there will be many candidates in 2024, BUT if Trump runs, and if he starts running relatively soon, a lot of big names will stay on the sidelines. Trump really does scare a lot of establishment Republicans into line. He's a one-man juggernaut. My concern is, as I said, that he may be incapable of winning a national election. We CANNOT have two terms of a Democratic president. The courts are bad enough already -- with a preponderance of liberal, activist judges on them, our constitional goose really would be cooked!
Dr.Waddy et al from Jack:Ido not doubt for a moment that if the American left has its way, citizenship itself will require confirmation of political correctness: naturalization for all if you will, with differing standards for proscribed groups and the elect. Failure to qualify will impose comprehensive political disabilities.14th Amendment? Well now, this isn't1868. Why the Constitution lives and like all that lives, it CAN die!
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy et al from Jack: President Trump: So very many millions of us voted for him less than one year ago. Already our misgivings about his opponent are fulfilled, as Biden throws wide the portals to the vindictive leftist horde. Unless President Trump makes very definite his complete support for another, we MUST, in gratitude for his proven support for us and belief that he still has it in him to work another redemption of the real America, stay with him. Sure, he's crude at times but the disingenuous Dems (just imagine the debauched content of their semiprivate discourse), who supported the criminal and obscene Slick Willy have no moral authority to chide! Those within the nominal ranks of the GOP who find him,well, icky, need to wake up! Those who would blithely destroy all our liberties have thus proven themselves respondent ONLY to RESOLUTE opposition, not to spineless and "sensitive" reproof.
ReplyDeleteJack, I don't necessarily prefer Trump, but I wholeheartedly agree that, if he's the alternative to "four more years" in 2024, and that seems likely, anyone who doesn't vote for him is effectively voting for Marxism. No thanks!
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy et al from Jack: Your comment onthe GOP taking a favorable step toward the kind of party discipline long and productively practiced by the Dems, was very perceptive. Thanks, it was encouraging. I'd suggest that Trumpism does have a spiritual and concisely intellectual core inthis: it demonstrates fealty to and congruence with the defining principle of what I term the real America: all Americans who believe that America does not need "fundamental transformation" and that to attempt it is certain to be catastrophic. President Trump has personified this princip!e and the real America knows it . A national columnist said today of Trump "His voters still think he's the only one who truly gets the threatfrom the left and the only one willing to fight with requisite ferocity". You betcha.
ReplyDeleteLee from Jack: Sorry , I meant to say " Lee, your comment etc".
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy, Lee, et al fromJack: We do have some coming up who have demonstrated or at least expressed, President Trump's clear headed recognition of the very present existential threat to all we hold dear in our public and, increasingly , even in our private lives, from the now unapologetically tyrannical American left and who manifest the willingness to fight it NOW. DeSantis, perhaps Stefanik, the State of Texas, those in the real America who can spare time from the productive lives they need. Remember the 30s. AOC approaches the age of Presidential eligibility.
ReplyDeleteJack, no one can fault Trump for moxie!
ReplyDeleteI would LOVE to see AOC run for president. Talk about a monkeywrench! Few leftists have a more time-tested ability to embarass themselves and their movement. But why wait 'til 2024 to deploy her? Why not run her against Schumer in 2022? By then, the Schumer-led Senate will have accumulated a broad-based record of failure. I think she'd have a chance!