Trump 2.2: The Vengeful Left Gets Its Wish

[UPDATE: Ron DeSantis ‘ withdrawal from ther GOP race leaves only Donald Trump and Nikki Haley in the race.]

he best lack all conviction, while the worst/ Are full of passionate intensity.— WB Yeats, 1919

In the weeks after Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2017 we were playing golf with a couple from the D.C. suburban area. Liberal Americans were still shocked by the election of Trump and the stinging rebuke to the Hillary Clinton Democrats.  When we asked the woman’s reaction to the sonic boom going through U.S. politics she became agitated.

“I’ve never been a political person before, never gotten involved” she replied. “But I will do everything in my power to ensure that he is never elected again. I will go door-to-door to see this doesn’t happen again.” Her fire-breathing reply echoed the stunned reaction of the DC establishment— both Democrat and Republican. 

Because it showed there was to be no reflection on the surprise outcome. No soul searching. What could they have done better? No, the American people had let down their betters. The election of the louche real estate developer was an affront to cozy UniParty. Business like VPOTUS shaking down foreign governments for bribes would have to be put aside while revenge was exacted on Trump and anyone who perpetrated this affront.

After all, DEM Senate leader Chuck Schumer had said that the deep state had six ways to Sunday to get back at anyone who challenged them. And, boy, did they. The seven years after that conversation has been an endless show trial for Trump World. From phoney Russian dossiers to the Mueller investigation to drinking bleach… you know the script… the tools of the state were used to upend a legal election the DEMs felt entitled to.

Even when he agreed with them— Covid— he was attacked. Then, in the 2024 presidential election run-up, there was an avalanche of indictments for political crimes launched simultaneously against Trump and his associates, all designed to put POTUS 45 in jail before he can make a salami sandwich out of a senile Joe Biden in the election. Coincidence? Hardly.

So, how did the people who voted for Trump in record numbers in 2016 and 2020 react? They reacted as if a slight on Trump was a slight on them. His defiance was their defiance. Despite a pallid record of working on their issues as president (hello border wall?) and miserable coat tails in the 2018/ 2020/ 2022 elections his burden became their burden. They flocked to him despite— or maybe because— of his targeting. Plus, he holds all the cash.

Trump’s crushing win in the Iowa caucus this week reflected what polls have said since the U.S. Justice Department took to charging Trump with questionable real estate estimates to hiding secret documents to getting the January 6 folks riled up. (In Georgia, the DA Fani Willis followed suit, hiring her lover to prosecute Trump for questioning the integrity of the state’s 2020 elections.)

But there are voters besides Trump loyalists and Racial Maddow mouth breathers. And they will be the kingmakers if the two septuagenarians can stagger to the polls this November. For all the “swing-state” polls showing a decisive Trump win, these people are neither koo-koo for Orange Man Bad nor sold on Joe.  They haven’t made any final decisions (other than disgust at the options).

Veteran GOP pollster Henry Olsen, who’s worked every election since Ronald Reagan in 1980, says that the only election he’s called wrong in his career was the 2022 midterms. As he explained to Ann Coulter, all the polls showed a GOP wave. Then, in the final 48 hours before election day, something happened, says Olsen. 

As voters entered the polling booth— even those who’d told pollsters they’d vote GOP— the spectre of Trump loomed. Suddenly the binary choice between chaos agent Trump and semi-coherent Biden tilted toward Corn Pop Joe. And just like that, Trump choices across America like Kari Lake (AZ), Dr. Oz (PA) and Herschel Walker (GA) went down in flames. Turning the GOP tidal wave into a trickle. 

It was an extension of every election with Trump as incumbent or kingmaker. And, suggests Olsen, it is likely to replicate itself again in November as Trump-as-Hitler and other MSNBC/ CNN narratives give independents pause before they hand over government to the Trump Revenge Tour.  

On that assumption, Democrats seeing disaster are once more blackening his reputation— and thus making Trump World double down on a losing proposition. Yes, Biden’s a liability, but we’ll do some stand ups with Obama and then put Joe in a trunk till mid-November.

To help Trump out with his base here’s MSNBC’s Frau Farbissina, Racial Maddow, announcing with a straight face and a heavy heart that her network will not show Trump speeches because of Disinformation. Comedy gold.

Meagyn Kelly then reminded Racial that she had promised to show the famous Trump Russian pee tapes within 24 hours in 2017. Still waiting. And that he never paid his taxes. Then she announced he’d paid $37 million in one year. Or when she gave full voice to Trump lawyer Michael Cohen. Who was then convicted of perjury. We’ve got plenty more.

Naturally, disaffected Trumpers like Coulter, Bill Barr and Ron DeSantis see the DEMs strategy in making Trump the GOP leader again. Especially after 93 percent of Iowa Republicans did not turn out to vote for Trump in the caucus. Still, party leaders like Ted Cruz are now urging a united front behind Trump. Cruz?

Here he is on Trump in 2016: “This man is a pathological liar. He doesn't know the difference between truth and lies. He lies practically every word that comes out of his mouth…A narcissist at a level I don’t think this country has ever seen...The man is utterly amoral.”

What could possibly go wrong? As Napoleon once said, “Never get in the way of your enemy as he’s making a fatal mistake.”  The Dems should take heed.

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster  A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster, he’s a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his new book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.