I don’t generally discuss American politics here because, frankly, I’m not much of an expert. I do watch developments with a mixture of bemusement and horror, though.
Although there is a risk of being accused of being a tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy theorist, I have seen enough evidence to place the 2020 election results in some doubt. The vigour put into shutting down any complaints tended to raise rather than lower suspicion. Did any election interference make any difference to the result? I have no idea. I do, however, harbour underlying doubts about the veracity of the results. To put it another way, it didn’t smell right.
Now, it seems the Donald is planning to run again in what is perhaps the biggest open secret of the last two years.
Donald Trump‘s announcement he is running again for the White House has sparked fury among senior Republicans who say the decision could cost them in 2024.
The former president officially got his reelection campaign up and running yesterday from his Mar-a-Lago home, in a speech attacking President Biden, the ‘radical left’ Democrats and their record on the economy in the two years since he left office.
He vowed to ‘make America great and glorious again’ but right-wing politicians, aides and donors fear he won’t, saying it is ‘time for a change’ from his ‘crazy’ agenda, and there are ‘better choices’ for the party such as the highly rated Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Evem Fox News, a bastion of fawning Trump coverage during his presidency, cut away during his speech in a sign of his waning power, with Rupert Murdoch reportedly telling his staff not to back the ex-president in the wake of the embarrassing midterm results for the GOP.
I have mixed feelings about this one. In part, I share the late Mrs L’s view that he is an anthill kicker, so sit back and watch the fun as he bowls through the establishment breaking all their established rules. He isn’t a professional politician and it shows. Just to be clear here, this is a good thing.
On the other hand, the GOP may be right. He is a divisive character with a firm base of support – and given that he did precisely what he said he would do during his campaigning, I can understand that loyalty. Also, his response to the situation in Ukraine may have been enough to discourage the outbreak of war. Remember, this is a man that brought North Korea to the negotiating table. Ultimately it failed, but it demonstrated to anyone prepared to take note that he is a negotiator and I suspect that his strong man stance would have paid off. Okay, I’m speculating, but it would likely have been better than what we see now.
But should he run in 2024? Or should he sponsor someone like DeSantis who has proved both effective and popular in Florida – and his response to covid gets a thumbs up from me. A man that could, possibly appeal more to the swing voters. Also, I don’t think anyone should underestimate the Trump derangement syndrome even among people who should really be supporting him.
I’m not an American, so my thoughts don’t really count. But for what it’s worth, I feel that Orange man bad should put his weight behind a strong, new, younger candidate. If Donald Trump was twenty years younger, I might be taking a different stance, but as it is, he’ll be pushing eighty in 2024. Although unlike the octogenarian who is currently dribbling incoherently in the White House, he does still have his marbles.
I dunno. As I stated at the start, I have mixed feelings and a Trumpian win in 2024 would make all the right heads explode and there really isn’t enough popcorn…
As for the midterms and the suspected red wave, I’m not entirely surprised that it became a red trickle. The pudding was massively over-egged. I watch Steve Turley’s YouTube channel and he was bigging it up just as he did in 2020 – even after the November results he was predicting that the outcome would be overturned. He is rapidly becoming the USA’s very own comical Ali, given his record on predictions. An interesting watch, but don’t take him too seriously.
In my opinion the USA is suffering from ‘machine politics’. From Wikipedia:
“In the politics of representative democracies, a political machine is a party organization that recruits its members by the use of tangible incentives—money, political jobs—and that is characterized by a high degree of leadership control over member activity. The machine’s power is based on the ability of the boss or group to get out the vote for their candidates on election day.”
Both the Democrats and the Republicans seem to operate on the basis of favours owed. Trump broke this pattern a little and was roundly criticised for it. Biden doesn’t appear to have his hands on the levers, but the machine still runs.
I would like the USA to be more responsive to matters that affect ordinary people rather than matters that earn and repay political favours. I expect Trump will not be allowed to stand as the Republican Nominee for the next Presidential election – the machine will not loosen its grip again. How well this will go down with the ordinary people remains to be seen – although they have allowed the machine to churn freely before.
I saw DeSantis speach and he seems a pleasant younger family man. He could be a contender. I don’t know much about US politics so don’t know who decides who stands as president. What I thought was bad was that Trump, on hearing the result warned DeSantis from contending the right to stand as president. Trump claimed he had stuff against him and would use it so no one votes for him. That struck me as dirty tricks but to be open about it seems maybe its a bluff. It certainly didn’t make Trump look good.
There will be primaries whereby Republicans will vote for their preferred candidate. There’s no guarantee that Trump will win these. Ordinarily, as the incumbents, the Dems wouldn’t normally have primaries this time around. However, given age and infirmity, I wouldn’t be surprised if Biden doesn’t stand in 2024. In which case, they will. Their best possible candidate would have been Tulsi Gabbard, but she has left the Dems as she couldn’t abide their antics anymore. She would probably have made a half decent president, which is why the Dems don’t like her. Not woke enough.
I follow American politics closely and have often wondered if Trump would have been different if he hadn’t been hounded and lied about, the Clinton paid for ‘dossier’ for one. I don’t particularly like him as a person but he was never given a chance from the day he declared. In spite of al that he had a fairly successful Presidency, keeping his promises. I am not sure about him running again though. I like DeSantis but have no idea how his appeal would translate nationally once the Dem smear machine swung into action. I have no idea who runs America now but doubt it is Biden who has any more skeletons in his cupboard than Trump. I too have grave suspicions about the last election.
Hi Carol, I follow a bit of US politics, and your thoughts are very similar to mine. The main attribute of Trump, despite his Marmite personality, is that I believe he genuinely tried to reverse the designated course of US policy, and that scared the establishment so much that years of diversionary shenanigans followed. Endless negative press, collusion. A total character assassination. Donald Trump, unfortunately, has a character that is easy to attack, which is a shame, as I think he tried to good.
Given the scale of ballot harvesting (which isn’t actually fraud in a lot of the Swing states) then I’m not sure at this point it matters who runs in 2024. As for the results, the number of Red Flags in 2020 and in these midterms is off the scale. I think the sheer scale of the vote harvesting operation is genuinely impressive, whether it’s accomplished in collusion with Mexican drug cartels or not but I’d say the Republicans stand no chance in 2024. Trump or no Trump.
I have some friends in America and the impression I get is that although Trump rattled all the right cages, he didn’t get much swamp draining done and many of his staunch supporters were a little disappointed towards the end. They would probably be more likely to back DeSantis now than go back to Trump again
Also, I’m told there was no more electoral fraud in that election than there normally is, it was just hyped up to the nth degree
Which is a bit like saying there’s no more crime in Chicago than there normally is. It’s actually Sarah Hoyt’s line over at Instapundit, and she’s one of the loudest complainers. All through the 2020 campaign, she was writing about shenanigans in her state of Colorado, which isn’t one that’s been especially hyped, and pointing out that it’s been that way for years.
I think that’s how they get away with it. People will get used to anything, if it becomes “normal”. Looking in from the outside, the electoral process in some US states is obviously wide open to corruption. (And this is politics; if corruption is possible, it’s going to happen.) But if that’s just the way elections are run and you’ve never known anything different, who’s going to complain?
True. My point was just that they don’t think the fraud had been ramped up to get rid of Trump. Just talked about more. Maybe because the result was quite close or becuase this time it affected ‘our guy’. I dunno
It’s true that fraud always happens, what’s different is how blatant it’s becoming, and lack of response to out and out fraud. It was apparent back in 2016. I grew up in Michigan, in Wayne county which includes Detroit. A recount was ordered in 2016 in the county; number of ballots in each bag did not match the tags sealing it, and poll books, which would have verified the number of voters to ballots disappeared. Nothing was done. Philadelphia, I think it was, had more “votes” than number of registered voters in the city. Nothing happened. It’s not that people are used to it, when it obviously happens out in the open now–nothing is being done and those who complain are labeled “election deniers”. When the laws aren’t being enforced by those who have the responsivity it’s not clear what can be done by ordinary citizens. Hence the screaming.
Similar thing in Britain with postal votes on demand. We know that this is a potential point of corruption, manipulation, coerced votes (from women in patriarchal communities) and fraud but nothing is done about it. Nothing is done even though the obvious action to take is to revert to the system where only those who have a genuine medical or scheduling reason can get a postal vote.