The Next Shoe to Drop

Friends, my latest article isn't about shoes, but it is about the fate of the nation, which is almost as interesting as footwear.  More specifically, I ask the question: if the Dems are stuck with Biden, and Biden looks like a clunker, then how can they possibly turn this race around and avoid losing to THE EVIL ONE?  I argue that there are a variety of extremely crafty, underhanded ruses that they could try, up to and including gifting The Donald an involuntary dirt nap.  See if you think that any of these desperate ploys might be feasible...

The Nuclear Option(s)

After President Joe Biden's abysmal performance in the first debate, Democrats and progressives are sweating bullets. They have been in denial for four years about Biden's...limitations, but now his obsolescence has become impossible to ignore. Some Democrats, sensing the danger that the party is in and the likelihood of a Trump victory, have reached the obvious conclusion: it's time for Sleepy Joe to climb into his '67 Corvette and ride into the sunset (or, better yet, be chauffeured into the sunset – in the interests of public safety).

For a wide variety of reasons, however, Biden is unlikely to bow out, and, even if he did, the complications this would create for the Democratic Party might be fatal to its near-term prospects. Let's assume, therefore, that Joe Biden will remain the Democratic nominee for president and ask the natural followup question: what else can the Dems do to rescue themselves from what they assume would be an extinction level event, i.e. a second term for Donald Trump?

While right now all the focus is on Joe Biden and what will become of him, if he digs in his heels, there is another “Hail Mary” play that the DNC could try: dumping Kamala Harris as V.P. One of the challenges that Dems face is that, in Harris, they have an understudy to Joe Biden who is, if anything, even less popular and viable than Biden himself, which is saying something! Joe Biden, wily old coot that he is, probably picked Kamala Harris as his running mate and Vice-President because of, not despite, her weaknesses. He knew that no one would relish the thought of pushing him aside in favor of Harris. Unfortunately for the Dems, this means that they are stuck with Biden not only now, but, if he wins the election, until Sleepy Joe reaches the ripe old age of 86.

The solution?

Assuming Dem grandees are willing to risk offending some of their base, namely black and feminist voters, they could keep Joe on the ticket, give Kamala her walking papers, and elevate a new running mate who was more likable, articulate, intelligent, and above all presidential. If they did so, they could even assure the American people, openly and directly or more subtly, that Sleepy Joe would only be around a little while longer. Soon – very soon! – he would step aside and allow his second-in-command to take the helm. And this might give enough voters the necessary confidence to pull the lever for the Biden-Dreamboat ticket that old man Biden would be carried over the finish line.

But what if the Dems don't have the guts to cashier Kamala Harris, or what if she refuses to go quietly into the night? Then they have to get considerably more creative.

Since, in Biden-Harris, the Dems are trying to sell the American people a bill of goods that they adamantly refuse to buy, the only sure-fire remedy is, as the Dems have been trying, to make the alternative – Trump – grossly unacceptable. 91 felony charges, and now 34 felony convictions, were supposed to do just that, but there's no evidence that the lawfare gambit has worked. Yes, Judge Juan Merchan could pull the “save democracy” rip cord during sentencing and throw DJT in jail, but there's no guarantee that he would stay there long enough to matter, or that incarcerating him wouldn't improve his poll numbers still further. This would be a risky tactic, indeed. And that, in turn, leaves the Left with a very short list of even more desperate and extreme options.

Assuming leading Dems have watched and paid attention during House of Cards, they will know that the democratic process can be massaged in an infinite number of ways to achieve one's desired result. For instance, false flag or disinformation operations could be conducted to paint Donald Trump as a traitor, a foreign agent, or an insurrectionist. About the only charge that hasn't been flung at Trump at this stage is murder, so why not frame him for that, too? Alternatively, his supporters could be portrayed as insane, bloodthirsty, terroristic, and/or seditious. Since leftists already believe most of these charges against Trump and Trumpers to be true, and journalists are primed to expound on these narratives anyway, “evidence” to support these lines of attack could be incredibly thin, but still widely believed and potentially politically decisive.

We cannot rule out the possibility that political violence or civil unrest will be used, by either side or by both, as a tactic to achieve victory, or as an excuse to take other extreme anti-democratic measures. There is, by some accounts, a growing acceptance of violence by Democrats, Republicans, and independents, and a rising expectation that the democratic process will be fraught with violence. Whether riots or terrorist attacks or acts of intimidation or insurrections would ultimately work to the benefit of one party or the other, however, is harder to predict.

Many conservatives have quietly speculated that, in the last instance, the Dems and their Deep State cronies would have Trump bumped off, and this would, without question, definitively end his White House bid, but the DNC's supply of concrete galoshes and/or sniper rifles may not be as ample as many conspiracy-minded Trumpers suppose, and, like the prison option, top Dems may view assassination not only as impractical and far too risky, but also as morally and legally insupportable. There are, believe it or not, still norms in American democracy, and no one has (yet) been willing to use lethal force against their primary political opponents to win an election, or to avoid losing one – unless, of course, you believe the January 6^th Committee, which half the country does.

Having said all that, with respect to a potential assassination of Donald Trump, there is, as almost anyone with friends on both sides of the aisle can tell you, no shortage of rack-and-file Democrats who openly desire the death of Donald Trump, and it would be surprising if some elite Democrats did not share their sentiments. Transforming idle talk into murderous action, however, is another matter. Of course, even if 99.999% of Democrats disavow all talk of assassination, it would only take one, with the means and opportunity, to pull it off.

Assuming the worst happens, from a Dem perspective, and Trump looks certain to win it all, the election could conceivably be canceled, based on concocted “national security” concerns, or it could go forward up to election day itself, when, for some specious reason, the ability of voters in certain areas to head to polling places could be curtailed. Republicans, more than Democrats, rely on traditional voters voting on election day, and any diminution of those vote totals, which did not affect the counting of mail-in and early votes, would almost certainly lead to massive victories for Joe Biden and all swing state and swing district Democrats. Pursuing such electoral chicanery might, however, require Biden and the Democrats to override the legitimate objections of the courts, including the Supreme Court, which is a path that no Democrat would go down lightly. Of course, leftist propaganda has been cultivating contempt for the high court for years now, so this stratagem cannot be ruled out.

Similarly, the Dems could contest the results of an election they lost – and count on either the courts or the Commander-in-Chief and his woke military allies to back them up. Rank hypocrisy would dent the credibility of such a move, true, but, if there's one thing that Democrats have shown repeatedly, it is that they believe that legal technicalities and moral scruples should never be an obstacle to the pursuit of the liberal Prime Directive: “get Trump”.

Lastly, what if Trump did win the election, but the Dems, believing their own overheated rhetoric about him, decided that any action, no matter how undemocratic, would be justified to “save democracy”? They might, in this instance, consider not only action against Trump personally, but against his electors, whose affirmative votes would be needed to make him president. Could those electors be detained, or in some other way coerced or persuaded to withhold their votes from Trump? We saw skullduggery along these lines already in 2016, albeit at a very amateurish level. Who can say that Democrats won't up their game in 2024? Stranger things have happened in the history of democracy – or sham democracy, to be more exact.

These are just a few outside the box ideas that Democrats and progressives may be tossing around to “save America”, and themselves, from the cataclysm of another Trump presidency. Maybe, just maybe, their incendiary rhetoric about Trumpian dictatorship, tyranny, and fascism is just that – hot air. In that case, they may, at the end of the day, take a deep breath and accept Trump's victory in November, secure in the knowledge that they tied him up in political knots for four years before, and they can probably do it again.

The alternative is that the Dems and leading leftists believe what they say about Trump, in which case every desperate measure chronicled here, and quite a few that we have yet to think of, will be on the table between now and January 20^th, 2025. After all, if Trump=Hitler, then what expedients would not be justifiable to avoid Hitler 2.0?

There are, in short, two parallel dramas unfolding in this country: a high-stakes election campaign, sure, but also a complex psychodrama roiling inside the heads of elite Democrats, progressives, and Washington insiders. The outcome of this election, and even the outcome of the American story writ large, may hinge on how these heads of the liberal establishment perceive Trump, and the degree of danger that he poses to them and to this country. If at any point they decide that “losing is not an option”, then, as the saying goes, all bets are off.

Dr. Nicholas L. Waddy is an Associate Professor of History at SUNY Alfred and blogs at: www.waddyisright.com. He appears on the Newsmaker Show on WLEA 1480/106.9.

 

And here it is at World Net Daily:  https://www.wnd.com/2024/07/nuclear-options/

 

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In other news, the most recent polls paint a very bleak picture for Biden and the Dems, with even the mostly blue state of New Hampshire starting to lean red.  I suspect DJT will emerge from this debate flap with roughly the same national lead he had before, and roughly the same advantage in the swing states, but that's hardly good news for the guy who was and remains behind, i.e. Sleepy Joe.  Understandably, the Dems are beginning to worry that Biden might not simply lose the presidential election, but he might also drag down his fellow Democrats in a number of Senate and House races.  It's a legitimate concern!!!  Expect more and more wealthy donors and corporate leaders to back Trump in the weeks ahead, because what they care about, above all, is who is likely to win, and increasingly that man is Trump.

 

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/07/01/trump-takes-two-point-lead-over-biden-new-hampshire-poll/ 

https://harvardharrispoll.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/HHP_June2024_KeyResults.pdf

 

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/07/01/report-democrats-wonder-bidens-dazed-debate-performance-will-cost-them-senate-house/ 

Lastly, there's a lot of lefty outrage over today's presidential immunity decision by the Supreme Court, but I view it as an equivocal, ambiguous ruling.  The line between official and unofficial acts is by no means clear and sharp.  The bottom line is that the Dems' lawfare strategy is alive and well.  Whether it's working is another matter!

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/07/01/democrats-warn-trump-immunity-decision-will-let-him-go-after-political-opponents/