Friends, I naturally have a lot of deep thoughts to share about the outcome of this election. Of course, the counting isn't over yet, and not all the results are known. It now looks like we won't make a clean sweep of the vulnerable Senate seats, but we should scoop up a few, and that's a cheerful thought!
I do have two cogitations to share off the bat, and here's the first: Republicans, conservatives, and Trumpers ought to be circumspect about claiming that Trump's win represents victory in the culture wars or the complete repudiation of wokeism, socialism, identity politics, lawfare, and the like. Yes, the ideological excesses of the Democrats have helped to produce their humiliation, in the short term, but, if we're to be honest, none of this would have happened if inflation hadn't spiked to 9%, the numbers of border crossers hadn't surged, and certain types of violent crime hadn't proliferated. These developments are partly due to Democratic ineptitude, sure, but they're also due to bad fortune. We can't be certain that the economy will be strong under Trump, because no president has total, or even predominant, control over the economy. The reverse side of this realization, however, is that Biden and Harris weren't personally responsible for everything that went wrong in the last four years. They got the blame, though, as one would expect. My point is that practical, pocketbook issues drove most swing voters to support Trump -- not fundamental enthusiasm for DJT or conservatism, per se. The pendulum has swung our way, for now, but it could easily swing back in favor of progressivism. We shouldn't kid ourselves about that. Thus, Trump needs to perform better in office in his second term than he did in his first. He needs to deliver results, and he needs to circumvent the vehement efforts of Democrats and the Deep State to kneecap him before he even takes office. The challenges should not be minimized.
My second brainstorm is this: I've been shocked by how many of my fellow Republicans and conservatives, in the lead-up to this election, expected to lose, because they expected the Democrats and their allies to cheat. Now, as I've discussed on countless occasions, our election system is vulnerable to certain types of fraud. What there has never been any significant evidence of, however, is fraud in the counting of votes by election officials. Donald Trump claimed, at times, that this was the determining factor in the 2020 election. It was convenient for him to make this claim, and it was also convenient for his supporters to believe it at the time (and since). The problem is that it has never been a claim with a strong evidentiary basis. In fact, Trump is still telling us, with a straight face, that he has reams of "papers" that prove massive fraud, and, when we see them, we'll be mightily impressed. Well, I'm not impressed, because, if we haven't seen this evidence by now, it doesn't exist. Sure, there are suspicious things that happen at some boards of elections, and there may even be a certain amount of malfeasance, but as an explanation for Trump's defeat in 2020 it doesn't hold water. It never did. The math doesn't add up. Trump was behind in the polls leading up to the election...and he lost. In fact, he lost more narrowly than expected, but he still lost. Whether every vote cast was actually cast by the relevant voter is a separate issue, but here too we have insufficient evidence to overturn an election, so there's not much point in bellyaching about it.
Fast forward to 2024, and many conservatives, Republicans, and Trumpers were still obsessed with fraud. Many, according to polls, had low confidence in the administration of the upcoming election. A shocking number expected it to be stolen. This wasn't just a counterfactual conceit, however -- it was arguably self-defeating. Why would anyone bother to participate in an election when the outcome is predetermined by cheating? It makes no sense. Luckily, enough of these fraud-fixated Republicans showed up to vote anyway -- apparently, reaching a level of comfort with cognitive dissonance that I've never possessed -- and Trump won regardless. Thank heavens!!! This doesn't change the fact that far too many conservatives, Republicans, and Trumpers fell in the first place for what was essentially a hoax. For shame!
The relevance here is that, for any of you who went into the 2024 election expecting to be cheated out of a rightful victory by treacherous Democrats and their fellow travelers, you were wrong! You were factually incorrect, and you were and are morally culpable for impugning the integrity and the patriotism of election officials of both parties, and sometimes of neither party. You told, in many cases, your friends and family members that these Deep State rogues would surely swindle you, and the country, and they didn't. The vast majority of them never had any such intention, let alone the means to carry it out. So my view is that conservatives, Republicans, and Trumpers should start out the Second Age of Trump right: with humility, honesty, and self-abasement. If you are guilty of any of the sins I've outlined here, admit them to yourself, and apologize for them to anyone whom you may have offended by your intemperate remarks. Signal to your friends, family members, and neighbors on the other side of the aisle that you have a sense of decency, and that you're not going to vilify, libel, and abuse them in the same way that, all too often, they have vilified, libeled, and abused us. Be the better man, in short, and resolve to tell the truth and admit when you're wrong, and when you may have wronged others. It's the Christian thing to do, surely.
Food for thought!
RAY TO DR. WADDY
ReplyDeleteThanks for this article. I appreciate it.
I'm one of those so called Republicans/Conservatives who was convinced that there would be cheating and so on. I realize now, that this really was an honest election. I applaud the integrity of our election officials.
I am realistic enough to know that wokeism and the like is not going to disappear any time soon. The media, higher education are still deeply embedded in our culture.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: I do not doubt for a moment that the Dems cheated in 2020 and in this election. They are far left dominated and as such resolved to take over by any means necessary.
ReplyDeleteIn defeating them, which we must do to conserve and preserve America, we , of necessity I think, must resolve to use whatever lawful measures are called for.
I have engaged in mutually courteous dialogue with far leftists. Some Yankees and Rebs got along passably in our first Civil war. Nonetheless,one side subjugated the other and that is how our cultural war will end up. Rapprochement with the hate filled antiamerican left is not possible , I think; they cannot abide it. When they are completely defeated, that will be the time for tentative gestures of accomodation and cooperation.
That said, I agree, there is a long, very hard road ahead but July 4, 1863 may have been reprised by this election and the astonishing durability of DJT.
Thanks, Ray! I agree: the neo-Marxist virus is now deeply rooted in the American body politic, and expelling it won't be easy. If we're honest, it's even swimming around in a lot of Republicans, so that bears watching. I believe the key to wresting back control of the culture lies in separating the lefty ideologues who run the media and Hollywood from their corporate paymasters. Strike at the Left at its soft underbelly: finance!
ReplyDeleteHmm. There's no need for rapprochement with the Left, per se. We want to defeat and, if we're honest, destroy the Left. Leftists are another matter. They're not going anywhere, and most of them are good people. They're deceived. Quite a few are mentally unwell. Almost all of them are redeemable, if only they could be severed from the relentless stream of toxic, Trump-hating "news" to which they're tethered. That's why pressuring corporate America to cut its ties with the worst elements of the MSM has to be job one.
I sincerely appreciate this piece, Dr Waddy! Though I will counter some of the sentiments below, please know that I agree with much of what you wrote.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I agree that "victory" can not be claimed in the culture war. However, might it be fair to say that those repudiating workerism, socialism, identity politics, and lawfare are finding their voice?
The economy was a (maybe "the") driving factor, but cultures can take a generation to change. Multiple segments of our population, including the typically culturally aligned youth vote, moved significantly more red than in 2020.
This next point is nitpicky, but when it comes to crime and illegal immigration, is "ineptitude" or "intent" a better term to use for those Democrats truly in power? It seems farfetched that those folks would be ignorant of using simple algebra: "If I do x... then y".
Many fellow Republicans who did not expect to lose this election have significant concerns about fraud. Should we make cheating an excuse not to participate? Obviously not. Is it reasonable to believe that election fraud is still a concern and should be dealt with? Absolutely. Might it have contributed to the outcome of 2020? Maybe.
In the 2020 election, Covid drove numerous changes that compromised our election process. The pretext of the pandemic brought election law changes that, at best, made it more difficult to prove fraud and, at worst, invited the same. The left's fight against Voter ID further highlights their intentions, making it reasonable to assume there is ill intent involved with election integrity.
Dr. Waddy, I have no sin to repent of based on your post. However, I have sincere concerns about integrity on all fronts, and I also desire to have that reflected in our election process. Count me in to the extent we can stand for that and fight the opposite.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Your assertion that separating the far left from its corporate financiers is the key to defeating them is well taken . It may not serve to fully discredit the culturally and socially nonsensical, reflexively iconoclastic aspects of the radical mind which have had such destructive effect on our civilization but it might help to sequester its devotees in oases of wokeism like San Francisco and NYC which might in time become just quaint curiosities.
ReplyDeleteI do think we should welcome refugees from the far left disgraced dem party.Labor may well be a major source of disaffected former dems. This election may have been a sign of such a movement. Believe me, having grown up in the '50s in a union family in which the labor movement's firm alliance to the Dem party was nothing less than organic , I have some understanding of how painful it has been for labor to finally realize that the dems spurn them and pretend common cause with them only at election time. If we accept the view that the dem party consists mainly of well meaning people who have allowed their party machine to be cuckooed by America hating Marxists, then it would unwise and unjust to subject them to the excoriation we rightfully direct at that hard core antiamerican left which cynically and disdainfully uses them.
DJT's apparent expansive and conciliatory tone in victory and the example of people like Tulsi Gabbard, RFK Jr, Joe Manchin and Elon Musk can perhaps encourage dems finally chastened unto renunciation to come in from the cold. After all, Marxists in power have never been the friend of the productive. They have been resolved to take from the productive and give to the willfully unproductive who they hold to be solely deserving of prosperity. That intent has of course resulted only in universal material want and tyranny in the countries cursed by that pernicious and now historically condemned doctrine. It is a hard, hard thing for good people to realize that a party they revered has been subjugated by it.
Jewish people are, for reasons starkly obvious in the last year, a source of many who now , in sad astonishment , realize that the Dem party actually countenances in its organization monsters who wish their very extermination. Marxism has never welcomed Jews, save perhaps to some extent in Israel's formative years.
Dem women (no, not "dem wimin") who do not demean all men and who have perceived that the two women who have been Dem Presidential nominees tolerate only apologetic, submissive geldings may also have found a home in the GOP's expanding base.
DJT and smart young leaders like JD , Vivek, DeSantis, Elon Musk , Tulsi Gabbard and perhaps Nikki Haley can aid in a process of welcome and redemption for people who now realize that they no longer share common cause with the dem party. As for the fanatic antiamerican left (for which AOC will now bid for Dear Leadership) or for hopefully prospective emigres like Rob Reiner, let them stew in their own juices!
Richie from Jack: I would strongly suggest, in answer to your question, that firm, conscious intent has propelled the dem party leadership's enabling of unfettered invasion of our southern border and of tolerance, excuse and even encouragement of crime.
ReplyDeleteBIden's border policy has not been a failure; it has been a spectacular success and has accomplished what it was meant for.
The far left has always embraced as an article of firm faith that crime is the result of social injustice. That crime rates result from willful decision to commit crime which often victimizes innocents as unfortunate as the perpetrators is heresy to the far left. In my corrections career I met people, some in state capitol positions, who believe that criminals are victims only and that law abiding society is their victimizer. Criminals of course cynically thrive on such ill considered succor, especially when it guides policies like cashless bail, freedom for vicious lifers in prison and decriminalization of serious theft, the only fully determined purpose of which is to benefit criminals .
For the hard core marxists who pollute our government, especially in the bureaucratic swamp, social disorder fostered by these factors also serves their intent of destroying American civilization to make way for totalitarianism.
Jack of Injustice:
DeleteIt is the height of irony that there are many leftist who somehow find virtue in inadvertently promoting criminality.
However, those in power know better. Their intent is exactly what you summarize above.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: DJT's victory has been rightfully evaluated as the belated victory of common sense. To overtly argue against that virtue would be political suicide. But disdain for common sense has guided the antiamerican hate filled left since the '60s. We should harp on that with unrelenting purpose until it becomes a maxim unavoidably fixed on the radicals.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: My, my: it is the always frantically emotional Dems who are doing some "soul searching" (or what passes for it in the party of Slick Willyesque preemption and disingenuity - more about that presently). They may even be serious about having a reckoning coming between Dems of good intent and their hate filled antiamerican left junta. America may well have caught on to the latter ( but lets see how "the People's House" fares ).
ReplyDeleteAfter unapologetic murderer loving Dukakis was shown the back door in '88, the Dems successfully turned to the ostensibly "moderate" ("if ya vote fer me ya got her too") Clintons. They may well turn to him now for sage guidance in recasting the now very revealing perception of the Dems as elite dreamers who sneer at America into one of yet counterintuitive and dishonest "regret" at having abjured common sense and a firm resolve to reinstate it in their party. I do not suggest that this would manifest yet another reprise of the curse of Hillary. In their present hurly burly I would predict that the Dems will look to Josh Shapiro (if the well intended Dems prevail) or to a House Speaker Jeffries or to AOC (the latter if they decide to go kamikaze) for prospective standard bearers .
Dr. Waddy from Jack: On rereading it I can see that my remark that Marxists have always striven to take from the productive and give to the willfully unproductive was unwarranted. Surely in the 20th century they did aim, in their tragically now discredited manner, to benefit the
ReplyDeletemultitudinous truly wretched.
But Marxism has been presumptuously used also to attempt to capture first world countries like France, Great Britain and now the US.In the US it was necessary to convince a powerful faction (in our case, the prolific boomer generation) that "no, your life could be so much better; that it is good is simply a cruel illusion; it is based in injustice and would, in reform, be so very much more just, redeeming and truly prosperous" . That's a new take on Marxism and "neomarxism" is an appropriate term for it. American Marxism surely DOES see in taking from the productive and giving to the willfully unproductive an objective as worthy as lifting the hard living masses of Russian and Chinese was ,in theory only as it turned out, to the 20th century's murderous leftist totalitarians.
Thanks, Richie! I certainly agree that something big happened in '24, politically and culturally. The Dems lost ground on both fronts, and we can see that as much in the sudden openness and tolerance on social media, compared to where we were a few years ago, as in the election returns. DJT's win both reinforces and reflects some of these cultural changes. The shift of black, Hispanic, and Asian voters to the right is historic, especially as it comes DESPITE the Left's oft-repeated claim that Trump is racist and their frantic attempts to prove it. I would argue that the Left can (and will) merely repackage and rename its awful ideas, so we're not out of the woods yet, not by a long shot, but we have taken a lot of the sting out of their slurs, and that's a start.
ReplyDeleteJack, you make an excellent point that this moment calls for outreach as much as it calls for retribution. There's low hanging fruit over there on the Left that's waiting to be plucked, i.e. moderate Dems who might be persuaded to leave their party and possibly even join ours. Political realignments often produce defections, and we've already seem some remarkable instances of that, but I'd like to think there's much more to come. You're right that the unions could be critical. Could some unions be convinced to leave the Dem fold and become, well, unions instead of progressive fundraising machines? That would be nice!
I agree that the border surge was largely the object of Biden Administration policy, not an accident. Granted, the Dems may have underestimated its severity and its consequences -- and how little enthusiasm Hispanics have for an open border -- but most progressives believe on principle that all "newcomers" are good, and anyone who doesn't feel that way is racist scum, ipso facto.
I have no earthly idea who the Dems will elevate as their standard-bearer in '28, but for now Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer are what they're stuck with in D.C. Possibly the center of mass in the "other party" will shift towards the states, and the most recalcitrant of governors, like Newsom, will loom large? I'm sure he sees it that way.