Enough already

 

It is interesting to see so many news outlets flirting with the idea of a second Trump administration despite nothing that suggests it will happen.  I suppose the news media likes to cater to the doom and gloom so many people seem to feel in this world, largely the result of hyperbolic news stories and opinions like this one in The Guardian.  I have no idea who Jan-Werner Muller is but I don't find his arguments very compelling.

We have had a number of election cycles since Trump was first elected in 2016, and they have all gone against His Orangeness.  The most devastating was the "Blue Wave" in 2018 when the Democrats swept the House.  It was largely seen as a feminine backlash to Trump.  This killed any more attempts to push pernicious legislation through Congress by the Republicans, namely the repeal of "Obamacare."  Republicans had previously used "continuing resolutions" to bypass filibusters in the Senate by Democrats.

Then came 2020 when Republicans lost the House again and Trump went down in defeat.  There was hope that Republicans would still retain the Senate with runoff elections in Georgia for two seats, but they lost these too largely thanks to Trump's attacks on Georgia officials after losing the state by 11,779 votes.  Disgruntled but not totally defeated, Trump made one last gasp effort to hold onto the White House by trying to block the certification of the Electoral College vote on January 6 only to see it literally blow up in his face.

You would think it would be over at this point but the Artless Dodger managed to keep the Big Lie going despite almost universal social media bans.  His backers created his own social media site, Truth, in which he continued to promulgate these lies while the Democrats led an investigation into the horrible events surrounding January 6.  Trump thought it would work to his advantage in the 2022 midterms, as did most news pundits.  After all, the party in power rarely faired well in the midterms.  Yet, the Democrats not only held onto the Senate but they won numerous state governor and legislature races throughout the country and only lost the House by five seats.  All thanks to the malingering odor of Trump and the conservative Supreme Court he approved that overturned Roe v. Wade that summer.

Since then the House has been virtually ungovernable with a handful of Trumpists blocking any attempts by their party to pass long term budget resolutions.  Matt Gaetz was successfully able to get Kevin McCarthy booted on what amounted to a no confidence vote after Kevin had the audacity to reach out to Democrats to get a last-minute deal to avert a government shutdown.  After four internal votes and three floor votes the Republicans were finally able to install a new Speaker only to see him also work with Democrats to avert another shutdown with a second stop-gap resolution.  All the while, Trump lurked behind the curtain, claiming to be the one orchestrating events.

None of this helped his cause.  The Democrats won again in a handful of key elections in November 2023, in response to draconian anti-abortion resolutions being suggested in swing states like Virginia and Ohio.  Trump's response was that Republicans hadn't found the secret number of weeks to ban abortions and that he had that magic number in his head.

This doesn't even take into account the ongoing court cases in which he faces 91 separate indictments ranging from tax fraud to inciting an insurrection.  While his tax fraud case in New York seems to be drawing to a close he still has ugly trials pending in Florida, Georgia and Washington, DC, where he will face far more serious charges.  Again, he seems to think this will help him as he has enjoyed a bounce in the polls this past month.  However, these polls are chimeric as they create an illusion of electability when there is nothing to suggest that he will be.

At this point, Trump is a serial loser.  Not just him, but his loyalists too.  Kari Lake is still filing challenges to her defeat in Arizona last year when she lost the governor's race.  Republican leadership is flummoxed as to what to do with Trump literally dragging the whole party down with him.  They face the prospect of a massive defeat in 2024 after the chaos witnessed in the House this year, which was primarily the result of his followers.  Still, the GOP can't shake him because at least 40% of their electorate continues to stand behind Trump.  How that translates into winning a general election next November is beyond me?  Yet, many pundits still suggest that it is possible due to Biden's low poll numbers.

However, if we look back to 2012 many thought Obama would be a one-term president, as the country was still experiencing a sluggish economy with 8 percent unemployment.  His approval ratings were in the low 40s throughout 2011 and early 2012 and many thought Romney and the Republicans would win big that election.  Yet, somehow Obama not only won but the Democrats held onto the Senate, leaving the Republicans flabbergasted.  They felt they had lost due to their harsh anti-immigration stance and vowed to be more conciliatory.  Instead, we got Trump in 2016, and Republicans reverted right back to their mendacious ways.

Context is everything.  Biden is getting a lot of flack over his age and the runaway inflation we experienced last year but the economy has since improved and his age and experience have proven to be a major asset, especially when it comes to foreign policy.  You think Israel would have been so accommodating to the Palestinian Authority had not Biden pushed for restraint on their part in an effort to negotiate hostage for prisoner exchanges?  No way.  Biden knows how to work with foreign leaders and has shown his excellent diplomatic skills throughout his administration. 

While the withdrawal from Afghanistan may have looked like a total failure, Biden was able to orchestrate a massive airlift of more than 100,000 persons, most of them Afghans who had worked with foreign governments.  He did so because he had no other option thanks to Trump ceding the country to the Taliban in the waning months of his administration.

It's not like voters will put these events in context but I wish that the news media did, and quit playing around with the perverse notion of Trump's revenge presidency.  All this does is generate fear and loathing among the electorate.  Unfortunately, this is what sells copy and so you see virtually every mainstream news outlet run with these stories.