I was not an early Trump fan. In fact, when he won the nomination, I as so bummed, I talked about not voting at all until Russ pointed out that to do that would have helped Clinton. So, I voted for Trump and prayed. Hard. And despite his often ill-advised remarks and tweets, he turned out to be one of the most pro-America presidents we have ever had!
He was misquoted, lied about, maligned constantly, and his choice of cabinet members and advisors hurt rather than helped him more often than not. But he gave us a thriving economy, booming stock market, more minorities in the workforce than ever before in history, and made us energy independent and feared and respected world-wide. We were content and safe.
And, after these Biden years, we still need a leader who is unafraid to take on the Left and the establishment on the Right, the so-called “Never Trumpers” who hated President Trump because he would not “go along to get along” as they had for decades to the detriment of the American people. But should that leader still be Trump? I no longer believe so.
Ann Coulter sums up the argument against him very powerfully in this single paragraph from an article on Townhall.com. She writes:
“The former president is now responsible for losing three successive Senate seats in the state of Georgia. That’s in addition to losing 40 House seats in the 2018 midterms, losing the presidential election in 2020, and losing seat after seat in this year’s midterms — a year that should have been a Republican sweep. Instead of crime, the border and inflation, Trump demanded that GOP candidates fixate on his ‘stolen’ election.” (“That Old Trump Magic!”)
Was the 2020 election stolen? Most probably. Democrats illegally changed voting procedures in several states making the verification of votes more difficult, votes mysteriously appeared overnight after the counting had been “stopped” for the night, something I NEVER remember happening in my 50+ adult voting years, Republican poll watchers in one precinct were sent out for lunch and then locked out of the polling place as Democrats papered over the window so they couldn’t see what was being done inside, the Hunter Biden laptop story was deliberately kept quiet in the media and on Twitter and Facebook in collusion with the DNC— yes, there was plenty of fiddling with the election—well enough to call it “stolen.”
But that is two years in the past. No court would touch it at the time and no court will touch it now. Whether history books will accurately portray what took place, of course, depends upon who writes the history books. But in the meantime, if this country is to survive, Republicans must win the 2024 election, just as we needed a red wave in November, and just as we needed to take the Senate. But as Coulter pointed out, we did none of those things. Oh, money was not spent as it should have been. The candidates leaned on national advertising and not on local advertising and often did not get out and shake hands as much as they needed to. But at the bottom of the problem is the fact that the candidates who lost, like Hershel Walker in Georgia, were hand-picked by Trump, though not given much financial support by him. And he picked them, because he knew them, not because they had experience or were good speakers or in any way good candidates at all. Walker was a domestic abuser. So was Warnock, his opponent, but if you don’t at least have the moral high ground against an incumbent, you will end up as Walker did: losing.
Trump asked us once if we were tired of winning yet. Then, we were winning, as Republicans, as Americans of all persuasions and parties. But now, Americans are losing. And I, for one, am tired of losing!
I don’t think Trump can win in 2024. He has too much baggage. He has already unnecessarily offended several important Republicans whose support and good will he would need. He will continue to do so. He is firing within the camp, rather than firing at the enemy. That only spells doom. Independents did not vote for Republican candidates whom they saw as being too close to Trump. They will not vote for him in a presidential election. If we are to win, we need every vote we can get, every single vote, because, we must remember: Democrats cheat. And they are good at it. They have been cheating at elections since Joe Kennedy bought the White House for JFK by buying votes in Chicago among other places, and since Lyndon Johnson got the nickname “Lucky Lindy” when he was running for Congress and boxes of votes mysteriously turned up to put him over the top when he was losing.
Should Trump have won in 2020? Yes, absolutely! In fact, he probably did. He got more votes than any president running for a second term has ever gotten, and to believe that Biden, who rarely ever left his basement and then only to speak to crowds of 50 or less (counting the media) compared to Trump’s 40,000, actually had 81 million Americans vote for him is beyond believable. But we can’t afford to nominate Trump because he “deserves it.” We must nominate a man (or woman) who can win!
In my opinion, that individual is Ron DeSantis. He did a far better job of piloting Florida through the pandemic than Trump did during the time he was in charge of the country. He did not force the closing of schools or shut down his economy. He did not force the masking of students in schools. He protected his seniors rather than putting COVID-19 infected seniors into nursing homes as New York Governor Cuomo and Michigan Governor Whitmer did, causing the unnecessary deaths of thousands of nursing home patients in their states. Though he was criticized at the time, studies have since shown little difference in the number of cases between those in Florida which did not shut down and states like California which shut down everything and masked everyone up. In addition, while students across the nation who had been out of school for months or a year suffered depression, loss of social skills, an entire year of learning, and committed suicide at an increased rate, students in Florida suffered none of those difficulties. Numerous medical professionals and even some from the FDA and CDC have finally admitted that cloth masks and even surgical masks offer basically zero protection from COVID and even N95 masks are nearly useless. Meanwhile, governors such as Pritzker in our own Illinois restricted travel, but took that opportunity to send his own family on vacation — to Florida!
DeSantis has also shown he is not afraid to stand up to corporations as huge as Disney (and as important to the economy of his state!) when they are doing something harmful, and he does not give in to the Left when they castigate him for his actions. That his citizenry appreciate and approve of him was apparent in his easy glide to a second term as governor. He won in heavily Democrat areas as well as Republican areas. He appeals to those of common sense across the political spectrum. He has dealt with two devastating hurricanes in exemplary fashion, demonstrating his ability to function under pressure and in emergencies. He is smart and politically savvy. And he doesn’t have to respond to name calling. When President Trump, for no reason at all, called him Governor DeSanctimonious when Trump should have been supporting him for re-election, DeSantis simply ignored the slur and said nothing. He is all that was good about President Trump without all the things that were bad.
If you are a MAGA Republican, as I consider myself, DeSantis is your man. Trump started the movement, but now he should pass the torch. Despite everything, President Trump is only a few years younger than Biden. It is time for a younger generation to take the reins!
DeSantis 2024!