Wow what an incredible week or so in politics.
An attempted assassination of a former (and likely future) President, followed by the most unifying Republican National Convention of my lifetime, capped off by the long expected but still stunning withdrawal from the 2024 campaign by Joe Biden.
All of these events were remarkable and worthy of discussion, but I want to talk about something more elusive, something that you may or may have not noticed in the past few months.
We have been granted permission to vote for the orange devil.
From the suits in silicon valley, to Hulk Hogan, to Mark Zuckerberg to of course the mighty Elon Musk, it is now no longer anywhere near an anathema to actually say the truth out loud in polite company that not only are you not voting for Joe (er, Kamala or someone) but you actively are voting for the Trump.
Why is this?
What happened to the shaming, the threat of exile, the broad statements of condemnation that would inevitably bubble to the surface if you even hinted at supporting the Donald?
I think it's a culmination of a lot of things - but the biggest factor I see is that Donald Trump is now a known quantity. Not one single thing he says or does is going to be a surprise to us at this point. We've all been shocked and surprised for the past 8 years - there really is nothing left now that should catch us off guard.
This only thing that remains a little bit surprising is the softer and more moderate side of him, which has emerged gradually during this last campaign. No one bats an eye when he talks about the "stolen election" but the other day when he called his own hair "a combover" - now that was surprising. So too were his concessions on abortion, he is for all purposes pro-choice with his statements that it is up to the states and also that if there is a federal restriction it will be more akin to Europe which almost universally restricts abortion after 12-15 weeks. He has no interest in a nationwide ban, so he has diffused that matter - the strongest issue the dems have going for themselves in this cycle.
For the past six months, nothing Trump has said has been beyond the pale of what he has done before, whereas Joe Biden's increasingly erratic and distressingly decrepit words and actions have been jarring to say the least. This whole campaign has not been a referendum on Trump, but rather a referendum on Biden, and his ability to remain upright, let alone lead the country.
And to Trump's credit, he has not gone after Joe at his most vulnerable - other than sticking to the terrible policies (runaway inflation, skyrocketing crime and open borders) that we've endured under democrat rule. By taking a more humane approach to his opponent, and also by moderating his views on the GOP's weakest issue (abortion) Trump has successfully shifted all attention onto Joe. The debate was just a final nail in the coffin, no pun intended or wanted.
And so now we have to endure the insincere lionization of Joe Biden, who no doubt will be hailed a hero for putting the country first - obviously something that Trump would never do (insert eye roll here).
Never mind that Biden is a selfish, bitter, conniving and cruel career politician who is as corrupt as Trump is rude. We must pay homage to the great man he is and all bow to the coronation of Kamala, who the less is said about the better.
But this "new direction" from the democrats, which has been in the works for several months at this point, still doesn't really do much to put Trump in the light that he was in in 2016 and 2020. He is still an entirely known quantity, except for his occasional unexpected softening in temperament.
This election is and will remain a referendum on the democrat candidate and the terrible policies that have seen the great diminishment of our nation.
Donald Trump, after all the strum und drang dredged up by breathless progressives over the past near decade, is actually fairly moderate and even boring by comparison to the increasingly unhinged democrats.
And that's why I have no problem saying publicly at this point - yes, I'm voting for Donald Trump.
No, he's not my favorite guy, but I am old enough to remember the four years we had under him and the nearly four years we had under the guy who replaced him.
Perhaps the biggest aspect that makes Trump a known quantity, is that we had him as president for four years, and most of it was great. The worst thing that happened during his tenure was that we endured a worldwide pandemic that he had little to do with.
Yes, he did botch his handling of it a bit - but I can't imagine how much worse it would've been with a president who bought into 100% of the governmental overreach, especially at the beginning of the pandemic.
Trump did the best he could, and did near the end push back on the restrictions and allowed governors to take the reins.
When he lost to Biden, he kicked and screamed a bit - but he did leave, on time and without any shenanigans beyond a few frantic phone calls and a bit of bad posturing at the behest of some shitty attorneys. Nothing worse than Hilary Clinton, who never has publicly conceded meaningfully or been in any way gracious about it - calling Trump an "illegitimate president" over and over.
And to tell the truth, we've been down this road so many times - it's the one point that Bill Maher (who is otherwise a committed truth teller) just can't seem to get over - it hardly seems worth it and above all, it's a known quantity. We KNOW, Trump refused and refuses to accept the results of the 2020 election. Frankly, this is a known quantity, and Trump still left on the day he was supposed to leave and no one who supports him cares at this point.
It's all in the past, and it's all entirely known. We can argue back and forth til we're blue in the face about Jan 6 and criminal charges against Trump for various things - no one cares. We know Trump, we know what we are going to get, and it ain't the end of democracy (lol) or a tyrant who won't leave, or any one of many lefty fever dreams.
But it's fair to say - from me to you, my deal liberal friends - go ahead and keep hating Trump all you want. It's your God given right and what makes our country great - for you to be free to say what you want.
But I do ask you, while you're hating Trump and all that, if you could please consider not lumping the rest of us, that is roughly half of the country who supports Trump, into your olympic sized swimming pool of bile.
We are supporting Trump because we know what we are getting, and we will take a convicted felon who occasionally tweets mean things WAY over an incompetent geriatric or a cackling dummy any day.
You can say Trump is a piece of shit - that's fine. But you have to concede at this point that the rest of us are allowed to say we're voting for that piece of shit openly and without shame. You cannot continue with your proclamations of us being in a "cult." Besides it not being true, it's also very hostile to the point of damaging our country.
You're never going to convince me that Trump isn't the right choice, and I know I won't convince you that Kamala Harris is deeply unqualified and not very smart. You can call Trump the devil, and I can call Kamala a jackass. But I'm not going to call you a cultist, or stupid, or sheep or any number of things that you've been very comfortable calling the MAGA crowd. First of all because the majority of my family and friends are left of center and I love them, but secondly because I understand that it is futile and will only serve to divide our country even further.
We are not a cult, we are your family and your friends, your co-workers, your service workers and your first responders. We are people you interact with every day with a smile on our faces. Happy, largely working class people who have studied the issues and made up our minds. We are increasingly able to answer the question directly when you ask - who are you voting for? Donald Trump. That's it. That's all.
No amount of nasty name calling about the EXTREME MAGA CROWD can diminish this.
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