If you could go back to the day before Election Day (November 3rd) last year, knowing what you know now, what would you say to your #NeverTrump friends and family members?
My answer: nothing.
This may sound contradictory, because there are volumes and volumes worth of examples to demonstrate that Joe Biden the president is every bit as awful as the millions of enthusiastic Trump supporters, myself included, predicted. This is definitely the case, though I don’t feel a need to speak to the naysayers now because everything I said back then turned out to be true. It doesn’t brand me a genius, but it does make me a student of history and observer of human nature and fairly adept at forecasting political disaster before it came to pass.
All the #NeverTrumpers I know (in reality, only a few) advanced similar arguments about the choice: Trump was divisive, he could never unite the country, he tweeted too much, he didn’t listen to the “science” experts, he was selfish, he only made policy that would benefit himself personally, he demanded and rewarded loyalty over experience and “bipartisan” good governance. Then there were those who swore Trump didn’t release his tax returns because there was something damaging in them that, once booted from office, would lead to prosecutions, convictions and a frog march to the penitentiary for the orange man surrounded by vengeful Bush-ies who would take delight in lashing the former president with a wet noodle.
Okay, maybe not the last part. But there was little doubt among the Trump haters that the magic legal gun was loaded and primed for the right opportunity to bring Trump to justice. It wasn’t just Donald, either -- the entire Trump family (or at least his children) would join their father in hot water, and the Trump brand would henceforth sink like a stone into a bottomless pond, permanently disgraced because of the multitude lies the president told at the podium.
They were a smug group, those self-righteous virtue-signaling know-it-alls. Empowered and urged on by the non-stop drumbeat of hate proffered by CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post and every other establishment liberal media outlet, they countered each token of common sense with a tidbit of hysteria over personality, the way the world viewed Donald Trump, race worries and combined it with an overly contrived prediction of doom for America’s future if the man won reelection.
I distinctly recall one conversation I had with a Trump basher regarding the difference between voting for a candidate and voting against one. Paraphrasing, it went like this: “I admit that Trump has done some good things but I could never vote for a man like him. He’s all in it for himself and doesn’t love America. I believe Joe Biden loves America and will do his best to govern for everyone, even if I don’t agree with his platform.”
The same nameless person also claimed that Barack Obama loved America, too. Do these people pay attention to the news?
At any rate, the #NeverTrumpers deserve plenty of blame for what’s happened under Joe Biden’s sleep-shut eyes. Reformed feminist and former president of the National Organization for Women’s Los Angeles Chapter, Tammy Bruce, wrote last week at The Washington Times:
“Everyone who has been distracted by their personal agenda regarding Mr. Trump should be ashamed of themselves and consider that perhaps the presidency isn’t the toy of the establishment, but a position determining the safety and future for hundreds of millions of Americans and is the only beacon of light and freedom for people the world over.
“From the basement start, looking away from the disaster that is Mr. Biden has already caused extraordinary harm to the nation, which will likely take generations to repair. Those responsible because they were controlled by hatred, jealousy and revenge should admit their responsibility and apologize. In the face of this disaster, the Democrats and their GOP and media enablers should immediately stop their idiotic scorched earth rhetoric and policies they thought would only nail Mr. Trump and his supporters.”
Well said, Ms. Bruce. Although it’s richly deserved, I believe we’ll receive that apology about the same time a snowball appears in h--l and explodes in the devil’s face. Liberals and squishy Republicans have a number of things in common, the first and most obvious being they never say the “s” (sorry) word, because they think they’re not capable of ever being wrong. Based on recent events, it would take a few backflips of logic to maintain that they were right about Biden and Trump, yet to save their own skins they’ll deflect and obfuscate about circumstances, the supposed horrid condition of our country when Trump left, the heinous “insurrectionists” on January 6, blah, blah, blah.
Thinking about it, there is one occasion where this group is grateful for the chance to apologize -- and that’s for Trump himself. Assuming they still identify as Republicans, they’ll express remorse that the decent people of the GOP didn’t band together quicker to anoint Jeb Bush or John Kasich to represent “mainstream” Republican-ism, but by the time they consolidated behind Marco Rubio in 2016, it was too late to stop Trump from taking over.
One wonders why we haven’t heard more about Afghanistan from the neoconservative initiator of the noxious nation-building mission himself, George W. Bush. John McCain, if he actually went to heaven, is certainly looking down and dying to say something beyond the grave, but he’d never chastise his ol’ buddy Joe Biden. Didn’t Cindy McCain, speaking at last year’s Democrat “virtual” convention -- where she endorsed ol’ handsy senile Joe -- indicate that Joe n’ John were the best of chums? Count Cindy as one of the #NeverTrumpers Tammy Bruce was talking about.
There’s more. Bruce concluded her piece, “This madness, brought to us by malignantly narcissistic politicians and an establishment drowning in Groupthink, must stop right now. It has led us to an inconceivable American tragedy and monumental human catastrophe. Trump haters may not be able to stop themselves. Still, now at the very least, the American people must choose to make them irrelevant in the face of the horrific consequences of business as usual.”
Once again, Bruce is prescient. One could say that what’s done is done and there’s no going back to the day (or month?) before the 2020 election when it wasn’t already too late to stop the country from putting a man in power who was visibly slipping and didn’t deserve the praise (as a “moderate”) that was being heaped upon him by the RINO Republicans, Democrats and the fake news media.
It all boils down to ensuring that there’s a place in American politics for liberty-loving conservatives who can assess situations and tell it like it is without bowing to political correctness or false notions of “wokeness” being advertised as truth by the other side. Joe Biden was not a “healer” of tensions between a divided nation. The Delaware pol made a career out of hiding behind reputations and someone else’s words (plagiarism) to get as far as he did.
The Biden-boosting Trump haters should’ve remembered that Biden had run for president twice before, not even getting as far as the New Hampshire primary both times. Joe withdrew in late September of 1987 due to a plagiarism scandal revealed through a video leak from Michael Dukakis’s campaign. Then, in 2008, he flamed out in the Iowa caucuses, finishing fifth behind the “Big O”, John Edwards, Hillary Clinton and… Bill Richardson. Biden couldn’t beat Bill Richardson?
But the 2020 Democrat primary electorate loved him because they knew he would be Barry Obama part three and the news media wouldn’t vet the man who’d dutifully walked a step behind “The One” for eight years, no matter what he did or didn’t do. There was too much personal tragedy in Biden’s life to delve deeply into what he truly believed. Pedigree trumped issue stances and appearances superseded know-how.
The #NeverTrumpers bought it and now they own it. And there’s accountability to pay. Conservatives must listen closely, not only to Donald Trump’s statements on current events but also to the candidates vying for Congress next year. Primary elections are always important, but if America is ever to recover from the disaster that is Joe Biden, the people we place in charge must be principled and willing to fight.
Tammy Bruce is right; the political establishment is one-hundred percent responsible for Joe Biden and conservatives must be ready to part with stodgy old Republicans (in the primaries) who refused to back Trump with enthusiasm and energy when it mattered most. We may not be able to correct the immediate past but there’s still a chance to change course. Let’s make them pay what they owe.
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