There’s probably no better time to talk about a possible resurrection than the day after
Easter. Religious connotations aside, there are rumbles within the conservative world that former President Donald Trump is preparing to start holding rallies again. Details notwithstanding, it’s curious how a man who is allegedly retired from politics (granted, through underhanded dealings and no fault of his own) will soon be hitting the road in his private capacity to speak somewhere to thousands of adoring fans about the matters of the day. It’s doubtful Trump will don a mask, and I doubt he’ll require his attendees to do it either. Trump’s optimism shows that all is not necessarily lost. It also reveals Trump is strongly hinting that he’s contemplating another run for the presidency. Further, the current White House occupant, senile Joe Biden, has provided more than his share of material to talk about. Where Trump’s campaign appearances would sometimes go well into the second hour last fall, with guest speakers, shout-outs to notable people in the audience, etc. -- a rally these days could easily reach three hours in length.
To the Democrats’ chagrin, the January 6th “riot” did not result in hundreds of serious felony arrests and the facts certainly point towards a small group of violent agitators and rioters were joined by thousands of innocent supporters there just to express their opinions in accordance with God-given rights in a free society. If the feds can’t come up with something scarier, it reveals how partisan and extreme Democrats were for impeaching Trump (again) to begin with.
Yet there’s still much to do before any announcement is made. Trump might further his own “resurrection” cause by admitting he made a few big mistakes in the final year of his presidency, and I’m not talking about insisting on elections integrity at the state level. Like it or not, the former president didn’t do everything well, and a little contrition now on his part couldn’t hurt.
“The current occupant of [Trump’s] position is, with zero evidentiary justification, demanding more lockdowns and mask mandates as he babbles about patriotism. Some 100 million-plus doses of COVID vaccine have been administered, and rather than attempting to open the country back up Joe Biden is demanding that it remain closed. Our freedoms, under assault on multiple fronts, are being savaged by this current administration with COVID as a prime excuse.
“Trump knew what needed to be done. But he didn’t fight hard enough. He didn’t get rid of the incompetent Fauci and Birx. And the incompetents have won.
“A little ‘My bad’ on this would go a long way. We’d gladly forgive him if he acknowledged the error. And we’d be even more willing to back him up against the propagandists and liars in the media who would attack him even more viciously if he came clean.”
Ah yes, forgiveness. Jesus spoke of it on the cross. The Lord had a lot more to forgive than conservatives would for Trump, so it shouldn’t be a problem to hear a little groveling from the GOP’s most popular politician. If anything, it would make him seem more human, and that he’d learned something from his four years as president.
Hindsight is always 20-20, but McKay makes a bunch of excellent points that could help Trump’s case now. Admitting he screwed up -- on the “I should’ve fired the COVID fright-mongers” angle -- would cost him nothing and potentially open up an avenue to talk about freedoms and liberty versus the Democrats’ notion of all doom and gloom, all the time. The informed portion of the public already recognizes the Mt. Everest-sized snow job that the Democrats, their media enablers and certain elements of the medical community passed over on them.
A year ago, spending Easter at home or in your church parking lot seemed like the right sacrifice to make under the circumstances. Now it looks as though a full orbit ‘round the sun was wasted, adhering to the random rantings of compromised bureaucrats who sought to do the right thing but were galaxies away from getting it right.
McKay suggested that Trump had it correct -- at least partially -- from the beginning, in that he concentrated his anti-COVID measures on treatments and finding a cure (in the form of a vaccine) instead of ridiculous lockdowns unsupported by “science”. Trump believed that after the initial “stop the spread” period, the economy would be safely reopened and the battle against the virus could be waged as close to “normal” as practicable, just as was done in other pandemics like the Hong Kong flu in the nineteen-sixties.
The facts bear him out. We have enough “data” to make conclusions now. The locked down blue states fared no better (and typically much worse) than the mostly open red states. Go and shout it from the tallest rooftop! Freedom still works… not that it ever stopped.
At the same time, if Trump dared to fire the liberals’ favorite media darlings -- Drs. Fauci and Birx -- back then, the storm of negativity would’ve been Category 5 strength. The demagoguery would’ve been historic and unrelenting in intensity. Cries of “Killer! Tyrant! Denier!” would’ve streamed from the lips of the president’s haters and detractors. Oh wait… they already did that anyway!
Would Trump still be in office today if he’d canned Fauci and Birx (and half of the other senior level federal civil servants who didn’t know what they were doing)?
Speculation is fun, but it doesn’t tell us much. Trump didn’t get rid of Fauci and Birx, the media pecked him and his administration to death, his enemies scared Republican legislatures (like in Pennsylvania) into inaction and liberals used COVID-19 and mass Ken/Karen judgmental hysteria to justify a mail-in election with uncalled-for early voting. It was a wall no president could overcome.
It killed Trump’s prospects for reelection. Peter denied Jesus three times before the cock crowed on Good Friday morning. A lot of Trump’s friends similarly abandoned him in his time of need. But this resurrection story could have a happy ending, just like the more meaningful and consequential one all those centuries ago. The question now is how to go about it.
Conducting rallies is a good start. There’s plenty of pent-up energy out there, and no one better than Trump to capitalize on it. The complete disaster at the southern border is a tailor-made issue for the outsider candidate to seize. By now, everyone’s heard about Biden’s bungling and his utter hypocrisy in allowing COVID infected illegal aliens to travel the country.
Senile Joe pleaded with Americans to stick with masks. Good luck, Democrats.
The ongoing struggle over H.R. 1/S.R. 1 also presents an opportunity to champion popular voter integrity issues like Voter I.D. and keeping elections local. The federal government’s overreach on COVID hasn’t left many folks hungering for more intervention. Trump can tap into the frustration.
Joe Biden’s presidency has reached the stretch run for his first hundred days. Thus far, Democrats have relied on a mound of executive orders, a straight party-line vote on the badly misnamed “relief” bill and promises to abolish the filibuster if Republicans won’t give them everything they ask for.
“Resurrecting” a political career ain’t easy. Can Donald Trump pull it off?
2020 election
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COVID lockdowns
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