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Don’t Walk Into the Trap!

Carpe Diem, whoever he is, has provided an excellent list of what the Republicans should do “if they win back the White House.” They should treat the Democrats not as a patriotic opposition but as the architects of a criminal regime bent on destroying its constitutional opposition.

High Democratic officeholders like Kamala Harris have incited and helped finance riots; the Department of Justice has turned a blind eye to Democratic money laundering and bribery, most conspicuously from the Biden family; and Democratic district attorneys and prosecutors have indicted Donald Trump for exercising his First Amendment right to protest the outcome of an election. In this last case the Democrats are going after a hated former president for actions and speech that Democratic officeholders have engaged in with absolute impunity, and indeed with the slobbering support of the mass media.

The Democratic administration also has encouraged violent acts, FBI surveillance, and/or IRS harassment of those whose moral or constitutional views clash with those of the Deep State’s leftist constituents. And to make sure it can create a permanent electoral majority, our Democratic president has thrown open our Southern border to illegals (read future voters), including drug cartels. Carpe Diem is right that we are dealing with an evil, aberrant regime that seems hellbent on taking absolute power.

Unfortunately, this regime can count on the backing of 40 to 50% of America’s voting population and the reality-manipulation of its media handmaidens. I would note that the Nazis before they seized power gained only slightly more than one third of the German electorate. No Communist presidential candidate in American history ever won more than 80,169 votes; and that number was reached at the height of the Great Depression in 1936. The woke Left has a much larger base of support, thanks to the Left’s control of the media, our straying educational system, and America’s intrusive administrative state.

In this situation the most irresponsible act that the beleaguered opposition could commit is renominating Donald Trump. Doing that would lead us into a trap set by the Left. Trump can count on the votes of no more than 36% of the electorate. Most respondents in recent national polls won’t even consider supporting him, and even the decrepit, corrupt Joe Biden causes less indigestion among voters than his likely Republican opponent. The multiple indictments to which Trump has been subject may have won sympathy from his base but has done nothing to make him more electable. Only a slim majority (53%), according to The Hill, would favor pardoning Trump even for the dubious crime of holding classified documents in his residence. This is not a politician with broad majority support.

Although what Trump properly describes as the “fake media” may exaggerate his wrongdoings, while shielding the much worse outrages committed by Democrats, our former president has behaved recklessly enough to bring some of his problems on himself. Josh Hammer is correct about why it would be perilous to hand Trump the Republican nomination:

Trump’s supporters are wrong about the very nature of these four indictments, each one of which necessarily involves a different judge and a different juror pool, and all of which present differing likelihoods of guilt, acquittal or some sort of ultimate plea deal. In the interim, furthermore, Trump will be strapped for time as he is forced to physically jet off to courtrooms in four jurisdictions, and his campaign and supporting super PAC will continue to have their coffers bled dry with ever-mounting legal bills.

Do the Republicans really want to be bothered with this legal Albatross as they work to win back the presidency and gain congressional seats? Do they really want a national campaign that remains mired in the lost presidency of 2020 and in Trump’s actions on January 6, 2021? It would make more sense to nominate someone else who will address present concerns while promising to clean house at the Department of Justice, FBI, IRS, and other government agencies that have been blatantly politicized. That person is not Trump but could conceivably be Ron DeSantis or Vivek Ramaswamy.

Such a candidate won’t be facing multiple trials for what happened or didn’t happen after the last presidential election. That person will have the opportunity to go after a shameful presidency for all the reasons that it should be replaced and then legally investigated. A presidential campaign without Trump can focus on the evil deeds of the other side, which is exactly what Biden’s handlers are trying to avoid by making the next presidential campaign about Trump. Their diversionary strategy could unfortunately work. Please recall how the Democrats won the last senatorial race in Pennsylvania with a brain impaired, far leftist candidate. They achieved their goal, by making the campaign about Republicans wanting to force women to exercise their “reproductive rights” in back alleys. Don’t give the scoundrels another chance to divert attention from Biden’s disgraceful, criminal record! Let’s make this election about the Democrats!

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About Paul Gottfried

Paul Edward Gottfried is the editor of Chronicles. An American paleoconservative philosopher, historian, and columnist, Gottfried is a former Horace Raffensperger Professor of Humanities at Elizabethtown College in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, as well as a Guggenheim recipient.

Photo: WASHINGTON DC, UNITED STATES - AUGUST 16: U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during the anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) event at the White House in Washington D.C., United States on August 16, 2023. (Photo by Celal GüneÅ/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Notable Replies

  1. Avatar for Travis Travis says:

    But, but, but…this is a trap we want to…no must walk into! Donald Trump has been treated so unfairly that the electorate is going to support him this time. He’s the “president in waiting” and all. Right?

  2. It would seem that Mr. Gottfried is perfectly fine with the policies of GWB, Jeb! and the RINO Senate because nominating anyone other than Trump (Vivek Ramaswamy is not going to be elected) is precisely what we will get–more of the same economic globalism, more judges like John Roberts and few if any like Clarence Thomas, and barely a pausing (but most certainly not a reversal) of the insane policies of the left.

    Ron DeSantis is not running for president, he’s just running to prevent Trump from winning. But should he somehow miraculously win, it would matter little.

    None of this matters as we now live in a banana republic and voting now is mere kabuki; voting is a chimera that provides the sheeple with the illusion that we have some control or input in our government. We don’t.

  3. Avatar for Travis Travis says:

    Never mind that his track record in Florida is completely opposite that of the Bushes. He most certainly is running for President…and he has an actual plan for winning and governing…and he’s the only ticket to keeping PDJT (I’m using your name for him out of respect and a desire for unity) out of prison. (unfairly, of course)

    Love that fatalism. If nothing matters anymore, why not vote for the guy who could possibly win?

  4. I get it, it’s for the good of the country that we should nominate DeSantis not Trump. Because DeSantis is resonating with so many people, especially at the Iowa State Fair.

    Sorry but been there, done that. Bob Dole, John McCain, Mitt Romney - all were forced upon the electorate. We were told they were “the ones”. These guys operated with manners and dignity. They told us John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy were our leaders, and yet nothing changes.

    The American people are done with an RNC that does not serve the country but instead a few donors. The RNC has abandoned the American people, as much as the Democrats have.

    I will take Donald Trump, the fighter, any day over a milquetoast DeeeSantis.

  5. Avatar for Travis Travis says:

    He’s not a fighter…he’s a tweeter. Disruptive at a rally or on a debate stage…when not losing to a dementia patient…but downright compliant in the oval office. He nominates swamp creatures. He fires whomever the swamp tells him to. Outspends the swamp. Uses the power of the presidency to do the swamps bidding, hands them the money and the apparatus to steal the election, and then abandons his most loyal supporters after he walks them right into an FBI false flag operation. Some fighter.

    Calling DeSantis a product of the RNC is so disingenuous…who by the way is headed by Trumps hand picked Ronna (Romney) McDaniel, who is worthless…but was willing to pay his legal bills. And Kevin McCarthy is Trump’s to own. He picked him and cut his opposition off at the knees.

    By the way, wouldn’t a fighter demand that his hand picked Speaker call congress back into session from their vacation and defund the DOJ?! The House still controls the purse strings, right? Why has occurred to neither Trump nor his boy McCarthy?

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