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I'm reminded of something a friend of mine said in the lead-up to the 2016 election. He was much further along the curve than me of what the MSM would probably call right-wing extremism, and what I would call anti-wokism. At the time I still clung to notions of "decency" in politics. But I asked him how he could vote for Trump. The man was a blithering idiot. He was crude, and he represented no right-wing values whatsoever. He had no political experience which meant his first term was doomed to failure. He had no ideological positions other than "democrats bad" for reasons which were unclear.
So my friend quoted Lincoln.
It is 2024. Trump is a blithering idiot. He is crude, and represents no right-wing values whatsoever. His lack of political experience meant his first term was doomed to failure from the start, and its failures will haunt his second. He holds no ideological positions other than "democrats bad" for reasons which I still do not understand.
But I cannot spare this man. He fights.
Fights for what? His own ego? I see what appears to me to be a lot of denial from right-wingers. From the evangelical Christians who convince themselves that Trump is sincere talking about how the Bible is his favorite book to the nationalists who think he's actually going to make America great again (remember "We're going to win so much you'll get tired of winning?"), it's all nothing.
The only real reason to vote for Trump seems to be "He makes my enemies really mad." And yes, he does that. I admit it, some of the people I despise having meltdowns over Trump winning is, as I said, not enough reason for me to vote for him but enough reason for me to have a dark place in my heart that chortles a little at the thought.
But to the degree he has any policies that appeal to me, I see no concrete plans or any reason to believe he can actually accomplish those things.
The things he said during the debate with Biden about curing cancer, restarting the space program, making our enemies respect us, and stopping illegal immigration sure sounded nice! Unfortunately, I believe he can do any of those things about as much as I believe that he reads the Bible every night.
It doesn't matter what for. He fights my enemies, and sometimes he beats them. I don't care if he fights for his own glory, his own ego, his name in the history books. I don't care if he fights for chocolate sprinkles on bananas. He fights. And when he fights, he forces others to fight with him. Before Trump the Great Republican Hopes were Romney and McCain. Both of whom died whimpering deaths on the blades of a media that hated them. Because Trump was willing to fight tooth and nail using every dirty trick the mainstream Republicans considered beneath them, he won. He beat the Anointed Champion. Could Cruz have beaten Hillary in 2016? I doubt it. In 2016 Cruz was just as unable to handle a hostile press as every other mainstream Republican. A fact which boggles my mind considering how long the press have been hostile to Republicans.
Who else is left from the 2016 primaries? Trump and Cruz. Nobody else. Nobody else had the staying power and the only reason Cruz stayed is because he started to fight like Trump. In 2024 Cruz is a pitbull. He doesn't give a damn what the papers say, and I've watched him tear apart some of Biden's judicial appointees on live television. Where is Marco Rubio? When was the last time his name came up? He's a Senator for God's sake and he does nothing. His name was halfheartedly floated as a VP pick for Trump but nobody took it seriously. Ben Carson? Founded his own think tank where he sits and does nothing. John Kasich? Endorsed Biden. Jeb? Retreated from public life.
Trump has managed to remind the Republican party they are supposed to fight god damn it. They are more than Progressives in the slow lane. They are the goddamn conservative party and I want some conservatism. Is he the One True Conservative, destined to bring honor and glory back to the halls of the Grand Old Party? Of course not. I'd be shocked to learn that he believes in anything other than the Cult of Trump. He is a Manhattan real estate developer who voted Democrat like every other Manhattan real estate developer until he decided to throw his hat into the ring in 2016. I don't particularly like Trump. I don't like what his presence says about the state of the country I love.
But I see progressivism as the cumulative effect of memetic weapons deployed by the Soviet Union. I am utterly convinced that Gramscian Damage is real and McCarthy was right. And nobody else was willing to get down in the mud and fight it out. So I cannot spare this man. He fights.
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