Moving On: Republicans Need to Let Go of Donald Trump
Sometimes letting go of a seemingly good thing is hard to do. But we all need to do some moving on here.
I’m sure we all felt the sense of loss over a lover who broke up with us. Many have felt the sense of dread over losing a really good job.
Liberal “snowflakes” can probably recall like it was yesterday, the sense of their world crashing around them when they faced the loss of their beloved Hillary Clinton with tears streaming down their faces.
But everyone has felt something like this – even Donald Trump and those who chose to vote for him in the last two elections.
Jilted
But there’s something different with Trump’s 2020 loss.
While we get over being a jilted lover and find someone new, we get a new job, or the snowflakes turn into little Parsons characters from Orwell’s 1984 with Biden in office, neither Trump nor his most ardent supporters will accept what happened, shut the hell up, and go away.
Now before you sit there in your armchair president pose and say “how dare you, Trump was cheated, the election was a farce, Trump is G-d…” ad nauseum ad infinitum, let’s lay out some detail here.
Details
I’m a Jew and a lifelong conservative, card-carrying member of the Republican party. I will never change that. And I personally voted for Mr Trump in 2016 not because he was the greatest thing since sliced bread, or that he was going to build a wall, or was going to “make America great again”… I voted for him for one reason: he wasn’t Hillary Clinton.
The Mystique
He presented himself as a brash, no-nonsense political outsider. Though he had more money than the average career politician socks away from their marginally-legal activities, he didn’t appear to have the taint of the political elitism that infects so many of our career politicians – both Democrat and Republican – like a terminal cancer. He had a plan, and whether it was going to work or not in the end, it presented himself as a hell of a lot better than anything Clinton could come up with.
The Message
His mantra “Make America Great Again” appeared to easily resonate with a large segment of our society who have traditionally been marginalized: the rural vote. He used various rhetorical tactics to convince these people that America was broken, that we had been top of the game but that globalization and unchecked immigration made us weak. He consistently talked about putting “America first” which was a clear indication that he intended to isolate America from the global economy and society.
The Consequence
This pushed the notion – though not explicitly expressed until after he was elected – that America was weaker because of an influx of non-white people into our “white, Christian” nation. This skimmed the edges of racism and intolerance though the people who later identified as “MAGA Republicans” didn’t appear to notice. This is very likely because the mass of people that he tantalized with this rhetoric, had no concept or capacity to remember the evils of fascism and isolationism that led to the Second World War.
Yellow Journalism
Maybe Trump didn’t deserve all of the bull crap that the Democrats put him through in trying to de-legitimize him in the eyes of the public. We’ve come to expect the typical mudslinging garbage from one political camp or campaign camp against the other, the barbs and jabs of this one’s going to raise taxes or that one’s going to weaken the military or any of number of other typical tired old lines. But the difference came from a problem that had been brewing for years prior to 2016 – the media.
Yellow journalism (journalism focused more on sensationalism and opinion-in-the-guise-of-fact in order to stir up a particular sentiment in consumers of said journalism, or to increase ad revenues) was a problem for decades (starting with a renewed focus in the 1960’s which increased steadily to the present day), but the use of yellow journalists to skew the political campaign from 2015 through 2016 was relentless – and 100% against Trump. It seemed like there wasn’t one word he said, or one action or gesture that he did, that wasn’t just reported, but sometimes persistently mocked.
Fake News On The Rampage
It got so bad, that there was (and remains) concern as to the legitimacy of the modern mass news media, who are supposed to be impartial – at least that’s what they USED to teach in journalism school – but whose impartiality has been abandoned not secretly, but openly. The argument was presented, and may be in some instances a legitimate concern, that major news outlets like CNN, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, and ABC have been “bought and paid for” by believers in liberal elitism who have very deep pockets.
Add to this the massive rise of “fake news” and generated buzz on social media which up to that time wasn’t as strictly regulated for the ability of outside actors to post something that appeared legitimate but was in fact purposely misleading.
Successful Tactics
The tactic appeared to have worked. At least half of the country appeared to be against Donald Trump. While this may have been primarily due to what was being reported about him via a presumed liberal news media, the massive amount of propaganda and “fake news” items that circulated on social media spread, grew, and embellished. Stories appeared to change much like the famous word-in-the-ear chain where the message changes by the time it gets to the last person in the chain.
But let’s be honest. Trump didn’t help matters at all during his administration (and this is where some of you will start thinking I’m a “RINO”).
Narcissism Didn’t Help
As a medical provider, I can accurately diagnose Donald Trump with Narcissistic Personality Disorder. It was the narcissistic traits that caused him to do and say things that the media and many Democrats easily picked on and exploited, to further cement their desired impression of Trump as a sexist, racist, delusional demagogue. His continued attacks on the media gave them an air of “legitimate gripe” to claim that what they were reporting about him was true, because after all (they’d say) why get all bent out of shape if what they’re saying wasn’t true? In other words – Trump got suckered by the media, but he helped them sucker him. What he should have done was just laugh them off and not give them more fuel for their fire.
Now we all know (whether or not we want to admit it) that Trump did some good things for this country, though that list isn’t actually as large as the lists being plastered by MAGA adherents all over the Internet in blogs, reports, and memes. Perhaps the one thing that I appreciated personally, is that he legitimized the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s rightful capital city.
The Wrong Man
But for all his accomplishments, Mr Trump has a problem. He’s too polarizing right now. Partially that’s his fault for being an incredible narcissist, but the news and social media are also to blame. Not a day goes by in this country, where somewhere on social media or the news, Trump’s actions and comments are still being plastered everywhere. Some of them are clear embellishments of what he actually said, but way too many of them are accurate assessments of his problematic actions, positions, and statements.
As a medical provider, something that irks me about Trump’s comments and behavior during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, is the assertion I read somewhere (it’s probably been deleted on Twitter by now) that Trump “caused” the pandemic; other variations say that Trump directly “killed” the hundreds of thousands of people who died from the disease. Neither are actually accurate of course, but his inaction and reliance on others to make decisions for him actually did cause a worsening of the pandemic in the US.
Myopic
Despite this, the problem for the Republican party right now is that Mr Trump still has too many people swayed. These people still believe that Trump needs to re-energize the party and run again in 2024. This is myopic at best, and destructive at worst.
It may be a touchy thing to say to some, but the Republican Party needs to move past Mr Trump.
While I may respect some of what he did for and to this country during his administration, we Republicans cannot afford to hold on to him as the sole bastion of conservative values moving forward. His actions, statements, and personality traits have divided the country, and that will only strangle the party. While no one is perfect, the fact remains that there is simply too much polarization when it comes to Trump and he is too much of a detrimental factor to seriously consider again.
MAGA Bullsh*t
To those claiming that our party can’t possibly find someone other than Trump who could do the same things he DID for the country, I’d like to say this: BULLSH*T.
What it takes for our party leaders to find someone else, is simply the will to do it.
We ought to seriously be looking at common people, not uber-rich long-established (read: entrenched) Republican elites or nonpolitical celebrities who have dubious morals long before seeking political office, but someone among the people.
The Right Stuff
We need to look for a “regular guy/gal” with a respectable career, a truly religious person with impressive conservative values, and with no “past” for liberals to exploit. He/she needs to be a staunch conservative with strong Judeo-Christian morals, someone who has the capability to see the big picture, a good public speaker who can think well on his feet and can understand complex issues, yet who knows his/her limitations enough to be able to ask for help and guidance when needed; someone who doesn’t think he’s “all that” and can “do it all” independent of other people (and I still say my friend and colleague Vince is exactly like this kind of person we need to find!).
This is the type of person we should be looking for.
The Wrong Stuff
Now, we can’t ignore a huge problem. Trump actually did play a huge role in the January 6 insurgency and attack on the US Capitol with the clear treasonous intent of subverting the Senate’s duty of certifying the Electoral College vote results. All of Trump’s statements from around that time and since, clearly and without any room for doubt, point to the fact that his actions actually constitutes treason. And as we know, someone convicted of treason is barred from holding any public office.
Even if an investigation is carried out (as it appears it will) into the circumstances of the January 6 insurrection, and even if Trump is somehow able to skate on treason charges, one question needs put to a serious consideration by the RNC: why would we want that type of baggage hanging around our 2024 presidential candidate?
A Conspiracy Theory Missed
Beyond this, there’s a conspiracy theory that I haven’t seen anyone in the MAGA camp even consider.
Let’s say we were to believe Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud at the hands of Democrats despite the fact that neither he nor his supporters have provided a single shred of evidence to support such claims. If his election was “stolen”, why can’t the Democrats do the same thing in 2024? Couldn’t they simply use their power in office to change rules, re-write laws and do anything to prevent Trump from winning if he actually ran in the 2024 general election? Why can’t they simply keep playing an “election shell game” and cheat with impunity?
What honestly makes these MAGA followers believe that the Democrats wouldn’t be able to “perfect their process” and won’t even attempt to conceal “the steal” the next time?
Fortunately, this concept is simply not borne out by the facts. Without any evidence to support a claim of widespread Democrat-led voter fraud, Trump will become even more of an albatross around the neck of the Republican party than he has been up to now.
Moving On
Put simply: if we decide to allow Trump to stand in any capacity in 2024, we Republicans won’t stand a snowball’s chance in Hell of winning anything.
By bending over and worshiping Donald Trump as some type of “American messiah” and “savior” of the Republican party, we will have committed a grave mistake and will have wasted an opportunity to choose a “regular” man or woman who can more easily appeal to more voters, regardless of party affiliation, and be able to demonstrate that we Republicans are ready to throw off the extremism that has so marked the Trump administration.
Someone needs to tell Ronna McDaniel and the RNC leadership that we need to say “thank you Mr Trump for your service”, but that we are dumping him from any consideration in the future, and moving on without him.
