If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well It were done quickly:
Macbeth Act 1 Scene 7
In 2016 I was a supporter of Ted Cruz for the GOP Nomination and I stuck with Cruz till the moment he pulled out.
I had reservations about Trump at the time but made a point of endorsing him before the convention making the following argument:
But while Trump will occasionally disappoint me (when he does I’ll call him on it) I am convinced he will neither persecute me nor strip me of my rights for holding my Conservative Catholic beliefs and acting on them.
I am very sorry to say I can not make that same statement about Hillary Clinton, and I’m even sorrier to see the day when I would say this about a presidential candidate.
And I was so convinced that voting for Trump was necessary when almost every other blogger/pundit ran for the hills after the Billy Bush tape I actually re-endorsed him
No this is about convincing those who still have to values to allow the election of someone who not only is directly opposed to all you hold dear but will persecute you on every level. This is about tricking you into letting go of your one chance to stop your own destruction. They want you to lose your nerve. Furthermore they want the GOP to lose their nerve and the press will do all they can do enable it.
In other words they are counting on you to be suckers.
I’m still voting Trump and I’m still encouraging you to keep your nerve and do the same.
You all know how that story ended but alas he didn’t take the best advice I ever gave just a few days after the election was won: Get Ready for Fraud in 2020:
Democrat Bosses in Wisconsin Michigan and Minnesota had no inkling that the election was close, that being the case there was no reason why, in an age where proof of a federal offense is a cell phone video away, Dem bosses in Detroit or elsewhere felt the need to take any risk. They figured those states were won (and they were right about Minnesota) and by election night it was too late to change it.
However that won’t be the case in 2020, I’ll wager that in 2020 the bosses in Milwaukee, Detroit, Madison and elsewhere will be ready, we’ll see plenty of mail in ballots and absentee ballots that we didn’t see before in those states and plenty of voters looking to go for the GOP will be in the same spot that Steven Kruiser was on election night.
We have four years to prepare for this so we’d better get ready because as our friends on the left have demonstrated in the past, they play for keeps.
After all you don’t think Soros has been quietly sinking millions into AG races, you know the people who would be protesting election fraud on a local level, just because it’s fun?
And while Trump much to my surprise and delight governed like a conservative until he fell for what Fauci sold him (I suspect this is because he was from a generation that trusted Doctors to worry about life and death vs serving China for fun and profit). he failed to take that good advice and thus “lost” in 2020. Looking at his presidency the day Biden was sworn in I rated him the 4th best president who ever served.
You literally have to go to Lincoln and Washington to find a president who did as much in the face of adversity Lincoln’s adversity being the civil war and the hatred of his own party and Washington having to do it all from scratch with a new country and constitution and nothing to back him up.
Trump in my opinion is below both Washington & Lincoln but right now with passions where they are while I’m not solid where in this group he goes. If you forced me to name a spot my gut says above Cleveland and Polk by a hair and sparing with TR for that 3rd spot as both had a personality that rubbed many the wrong way but I’ll have a better perspective in four year unless he wins in 2024 then I’ll have to completely reevaluate his position based on a 2nd non-consecutive term. A bad enough job in a 2nd terms and he could drop to the 3rd tier easy. A good enough one and he could solidify the bronze but I would doubt he could take the silver or Gold from Lincoln or Washington, but with what is likely coming from the Biden and Harris administration coming (or what is actually Obama’s 3rd term) I suspect Trump’s stock will only rise in comparison.
As time went on two things came out, one for and one against him. The information about the deep state both during Obama’s term and his own trying to sabotage him makes his accomplishments even more impressive, but his failure to fire and or restrain Fauci combined with his embrace of the untested COVID vaccines hurt him. I think they’re a wash and so I leave Trump ranking where it is (pending a 2nd term).
Meanwhile Governor Ron DeSantis impressed me by his actions in Florida and continues to do so. He’s the type of guy who gets things done and deals with reality and most important of all when he had a chance he did the vital thing that Trump did not, election reform. His election reforms destroyed Democrat thievery in the state which contributed to his overwhelming re-election almost as much as his record.
He was a prime candidate to run in 2024 and Trump realizing this started attacking at once. The Democrats realized this as well and I suspect Trump’s attacks on him were one of the prime reasons why platforms like Facebook suddenly found him acceptable again.
It was a touch call between the pair for me. I’ve compared it to choosing between Williams and Musial in Left, but there was one factor that decided it for me. The fact that there are voters Blue collar conservative voters in swing states who irrationally hate Trump and will vote against him even vs Biden:
Bottom line DeSantis draws votes that Trump can’t and doesn’t lose votes suffering from Trump fatigue and proved this by turning his squeaker election the first time around into a landslide, a landslide that came not despite his strong conservative record but BECAUSE OF IT. No matter how much you might dislike those voters who reject Trump this ability to expand one’s electorate is in fact a feature, not a bug but not as big of a feature as the fact that the left (and the Lincoln Project crowd) are scared to death of him.
We’re conservative we deal with facts. These are the facts, and these facts need to be put before GOP voters NOW before the voting begins and before all the lesser candidates dogpile on DeSantis which for most if them is the only reason they are in the race at all. There is no time to wait on this.
Like Kurt Schlichter I got a lot of pushback over this but someone had to sound the alarm.
Well in the end it didn’t matter. Trump took over 50% in Iowa which is really impressive when you consider his showing from 2016 and while I think it would have been worth staying in for a bit, mostly due to Trump’s age, DeSantis being DeSantis decided to act on the basis of reality rather than wishful thinking:
So what was the reaction of Trump people now that DeSantis is out and endorsing Trump. I expected some ribbing which is the prerogative of the winning side but I didn’t expect stuff like this:
The next few days will be fraught with demands to unite the clans. However, please remember the proven and demonstrably accurate axiom: Never Trust a Never Trumper.
The Ron DeSantis campaign was built upon a foundation of fraud. Long planned as an effort to destroy the threat that MAGA represents to the Republican apparatus, nothing about the DeSantis campaign was grassroots, authentic, natural or real. The Sea Island organized campaign was a specific and detailed approach driven by the professional political class. Ron DeSantis was a vessel, a willing vessel, for the deliberate schemes and Machiavellian intents of the worst elements in USA Republican politics.
WE CANNOT UNITE with that group. Think about it.
Think about this for a second. We are heading into a general election with a candidate who the left has already stolen one election from and is willing to steal another, furthermore we are running a candidate that is irrationally hated by a segment of the population to the point where they are willing to vote against their own welfare and beliefs in order to defeat him.
In such a situation the only prayer we have is to win beyond the margin of fraud.
Maybe it’s just be but I think given that situation telling the 20% of the GOP who voted DeSantis to go to hell just might be a bad idea. I called it idiocy on his site and frankly that’s an understatement.
However in the end that stuff doesn’t matter. Reality matters and the reality is that we need to get the socialists and communists out of office. Schlichter nails it here:
And what you need to do is get on board and fight for the guy who won fair and square. Yeah, fair and square. In primaries, you go out, you make your case, and part of that means cutting down the other guy. If you can’t get your head around that reality, you probably shouldn’t be involved in politics. This is a tough game. It’s not for the faint of heart. Donald Trump doesn’t take it personally. As soon as Chris Christie dropped out to take on his new role as spokesman for Golden Corral, Trump was saying nice things about him. And after Ron DeSantis dropped out and properly endorsed the President in one of the best and most gracious concession speeches I’ve ever seen, Trump said he was “honored” by the endorsement of Ron DeSantis. Why, after so much acrimony? Because it’s not personal, it’s just business.
Look, I will not start sugarcoating it for you now. I still believe Donald Trump has an uphill fight to win in November. He’s got a chance to win, probably a little higher than he did a year ago, but the advantage still lies with that desiccated zombie pervert because of the irrational hatred of Donald Trump of so many people. Republicans shouldn’t add to that challenge because they are ticked off. Maybe you don’t like Donald Trump‘s tweets. Maybe you don’t like his behavior. Maybe you have some rational critiques of his policies. Whatever. Get over it.
For me it comes back to what I said the very first time I endorsed him. Yes he had a good record, yes he has a list of accomplishments worth singing about, yes if he is re-elected we will likely see the end of the war in Ukraine and possibly the final destruction of Hamas. All that is great but the bottom line is still this:
Donald Trump will neither persecute me nor strip me of my rights for holding my Conservative Catholic beliefs and acting on them.
That is the reason why I now again endorse Donald Trump for President and urge you vote for him. You may not like Trump, nor might you like the Laura Loomers of the world, but in the end your rights as an American depend on electing a president that will respect those rights.
And for all the shouting from the surrogates of the Biden administration about dictatorship in the end we’ve seen the current administration use Government as a tool to suppress the rights of political foes. Donald Trump has demonstrated he will do this, even when greatly provided he didn’t do this when he had that chance.
If you fail to do this then you will get the pleasure of Obama’s 4th term with a government that knows the voters will not punish them for abusing their rights. You will get the government you deserve, good and hard.
You have been warned.
I’ll close with the same words I ended my endorsement of DeSantis with:
Closing thought: I’m convinced that if we nominate Donald Trump we will lose but if my advice is ignored and he wins the votes to be the nominee I will support him in the general election and make the best possible arguments for Trump (there is no lack of good arguments for his re-election) to convince those Blue collar folks to abandon their irrational hatred and vote for him, even though I think said effort is doomed to failure. After all with God all things are possible.
Short of my sons each finding a nice Catholic wife there is nothing that is likely to make me happier then to be proven wrong in my assessment of our chances come November 2024.
Cue the Donald Trump song:
♫ Oh Trump he's a bastard,
he offends us every night,
He's tweets out very nasty things
and there's no end in sight,
and we're embarrassed in return
while he triggers up such fuss,
what has the Donald ever done for us? ♫
♫ What has the Donald,
what has the Donald,
what has the Donald ever done for us? ♫
The tax cut?
What?
...he, he gave us the Tax cut...
♫ Yes, he did give us that, that's true
And Isis is crushed and now they're through
The tax cut I'll grant is one
thing that Donald Trump he may have done
And the regulations he's cut right back too
And the embassy move ♫
♫ Well, apart from ending ISIS and regulation,
And the Jerusalem relocation
And safety from terrorists for all the nation
Apart from those, which are a plus,
what has the Donald ever done for us ?♫
♫ What has the Donald,
what has the Donald
what has the Donald ever done for us? ♫
The Wall?
What?
...He's built hundreds of miles of real wall...
♫ Oh, yes, he did... ♫
♫ The southern border now is more tight,
and the New Space force will be ready to fight.
Vets now have choice instead of grief
The China travel ban and COVID relief
Killed the deal funding the Iran terror hoards
and new stock market records ♫
♫ Well apart from China and the VA choice,
Space force, Iran, relief and 401k rejoice,
And the wall stopping the immigration fuss
what has the Donald ever done for us? ♫
♫ What has the Donald,
what has the Donald,
what has the Donald ever done for us? ♫
Justice Reform?
What?
...Criminal Justice Reform...
♫ Oh, yes, yes... ♫
♫ Criminal Justice reform made a wrong a right,
and new trade deals mean a fair trade fight.
Abundant Energy for our needs,,
Right to try and NATO deals
the great new judges for all our nation
and funding black education ♫
♫ Well apart from, Health, Judges, trade and NATO deals,
Independence from Arab oil fields,
And black colleges funded instead of handcuffs,
what has the Donald ever done for us? ♫
♫ What has the Donald,
what has the Donald,
what has the Donald ever done for us? ♫
Brought peace.
Peace, Oh, shut up!