And there's a good chance they no longer have to. The most alarming thing about the Trump Era may be that it's ending.
If DJT wins the general election he's limited to one more term. That's hard constitutional fact, and not something you can bluster past. If he loses, he may feel the need to plead out to one of the many politicized charges against him in return for no prison time but a promise not to run again. Either way the clock is counting down.
So what comes next? It may be that both major parties will be firmly back in the hands of their most venal and authoritarian members. Or maybe something else.
One thing I do know is the way the primaries currently run is a recipe for disaster. What we have is a system where 20+ people announce that they're running two years ahead of time, and most of them drop out for lack of money and hope way before any actual voting takes place. This places too much power in the hands of big donors, and it needs to change. Which doesn't mean it actually will.
2 comments:
How about: "Many are called, but few are chosen.”
DeSantis was great during the period of covid hysteria when he encouraged a lot of people to disregard the absurd rules that were fabricated by health officials who will never be so widely believed again. He actually inspired a number of other governors to defy federal policies like orders to close schools and businesses. Of course, we were all delighted when he went up against the Disney Corp. arrogant woke policies.
Once he declared himself a candidate for the Republcan presidential nomination all that fell apart when we learned he wasn't going to be a radical on the national stage. So long as he gets rid of his advisors maybe he'll try again in some future contest. It was not his time and he should have known it.
The fact is, or at least I believe it so, is that the last election was won by Trump and was stolen by various nefarious processes in a few states. He ought to have been getting ready to retire gracefully by now. Instead, I think the insanity of the Left has lit a fire under the electorate (many of whom now identify as Independents) who will demand a more populist representation. This is something we've been seeing in the larger world that people in general are opposed to the plans being made for them by the super rich.
One interesting development was seeing that both Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan Chase and Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of Blackstone have both concluded that a second Trump term might be a good thing, never mind inevitable.
Perhaps this might (might) be change we'd all like to see.. or at least the first signs. The system as it is happens to be as bad as you say so we can't begin to expect much.
Good point. Many hear the call initially, at least. At some point it seems to grow fainter, no matter how loud and clear you want to hear it.
What DeSantis did as Governor marked him as being on the right side of a host of issues: COVID, Disney, parents' right as concerns the education of their children. Obviously he was willing to get into a fight, but he seemed to be striking out in new directions as well, rather than just follow the established conservative script.
That did seem to fall apart when he got into the presidential race. I agree that his advisors likely had a lot to do with it. He seems to have recovered a few steps since he dropped out of the race. It would be interesting to see what he would be like as a candidate with less machinery around him.
The last few years have made it clear what happens when you go out of your way to do the exact opposite of what a populist would do. As I'm sure I don't have to tell you, the results aren't good. I'm an agnostic on whether Trump actually won last time, but I don't blame his followers for believing he did. If nothing else he was up against the kind of people who can attach the word "democracy" to any crooked thing they want to do.
The question is what it is that's making Dimon and Schwartzman talk like that. It could just be that they see the handwriting on the wall and are making self-interested overtures to Trump. Regardless of motive it must be said that they're saying things to an audience who haven't shown muc interest in hearing them.
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