Commentary

“It didn’t have to be this way.  The president had every right – even an obligation, given the ad hoc changes to voting rules, to challenge state election results in court.  But when those challenges failed (which every one did, completely), he had the opportunity to embrace his legacy, cement his accomplishments, and continue to play a powerful role in GOP politics.” – Kimberly A. Strassel, Wall Street Journal

THAT QUOTE, from one of the most respected columnists on Friday, should sound familiar to you. It echoes my January 7, 2021 blog, in which I wrote that the president “went too far,” adding that I was afraid his “legacy was doomed.”

I took a bit of flak over it.  However, my faithful readers know that I have been a staunch supporter of Donald Trump since he announced his candidacy. Just as we don’t want our president surrounded by “yes” men and women, I felt the need to be honest.

My blog archives are filled with my recognition of his campaign promises-kept and long lists of his accomplishments.  You’ll also find critical pieces of Democrats and the bias media, who conducted a four-year effort to undermine his presidency.

While the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal was calling for the president to resign, in a letter to the editor, Irving Cohen of San Antonio, Texas wrote: “I am one of the 74 million Trump voters who didn’t storm the Capitol and who is weary of having my humanity attacked by the likes of Sen. Chuck Schumer and media talking heads as if I had been there or even condoned the attack.  President Trump will be gone soon.  But the issues he embraced, as well as we 74 million, will still be here.  We will be heard.”

THE GOP ESTABLISHMENT better recognize there is no way forward without Trump supporters.  We will not be dismissed as were Tea Party members.  Sen. Mitch McConnell and Rep. Kevin McCarthy better understand that America First and the MAGA ideology have become the Republican brand.

Republicans need to decide where they will plant their flag and prepare for the 2022 midterms.  There are too many of them who are “cowards,” as I recently quoted Patricia McCarthy of American Thinker.  They are willing to throw President Trump under the bus and join the “get along” caucus, and be members in good standing of the Swamp.  Have you noticed how they are bad-mouthing Senators Cruz and Hawley?

Several defectors have already been identified.  Senators Ben Sasse, Pat Toomey Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney come to mind.  Speaking of the Capitol protest, Romney said, “What happened here, was an insurrection, incited by the president of the United States.”  Trump supporters will not forget their betrayal.

AND WE WON’T FORGET those on the left who, after four years of orchestrating the president’s demise, believe that there’s smooth sailing ahead.  We won’t forget Rep. Maxine Waters and Sen. Cory Booker’s rhetoric designed to get in the face of people in restaurants, department stores and at gasoline stations. And Rep. Ayanna Pressley’s cry for “unrest in the streets.”

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who is now calling for the president to resign or face another impeachment, you will recall, couldn’t care less when several American cities were being torched and looted.  And when those statues of historical figures were being defaced and torn down, she said, “I don’t care much about statues.”

THE MEDIA’S COMPLICITY will not be forgotten either.  They ignored the mob rule in Portland, Seattle and Kenosha, referring to the riots there as mostly peaceful protests.

While the cities burned, fireworks and Molotov cocktails were thrown, and people were injured, CNN’s Chris Cuomo said, “Please, show me where it says protesters are supposed to be polite and peaceful.”

Fox’s anti-Trump contributor, Juan Williams, refused to recognize what was happening in those American cities as terrorism, but was among the first to call the Trump supporters who marched to the Capitol, “domestic terrorists.”

PEGGY NOONAN, the elite East Coast Trump hater declares, “It is not too late. Removal of the president would be the prudent move, not the wild one.  Get rid of him. Now.”

With less than two weeks from the inauguration, that makes about as much sense as those cabinet members abandoning ship now, when they can do their routine resignation on January 20, 2021.

I am not a lawyer, but as I understand the law, incitement to riot does not include “advocacy of ideas” or “expression of belief” – both of which the president covered extensively in his one-hour “Save America” speech in the Mall – unless violence is endorsed.  It wasn’t.  In fact, he encouraged the audience to march “peacefully and patriotically to make your votes heard.”

YOU MUST UNDERTAND that the left is out to keep you silent.  Consider the Tweet (now deleted) of Rick Klein, the political director at ABC News, who mused that getting rid of Trump is “the easy part,” and the more difficult task will be “cleansing the movement he commands.”

“Millions of Americans, who for years were willing to tolerate, often even celebrate, Mr. Trump’s brash behavior in pursuit of reform or good policy,” Strassell believes, “are less amused by the wreckage he has visited on party and policy.  And they’re unwilling to go there again in 2024.” 

I’m not so sure.  I continue to believe he accomplished more for America than any president in my lifetime, and I’m not alone in my admiration of him.

Donald Trump said he wanted to make America great again and in four years showed us what a dedicated outsider, one with business acumen, could do as president.  I think of tax relief, reduced regulation, energy independence, peace through strength, improved trade deals, a pre-pandemic booming economy with record low unemployment, and more.  The media wants you to believe all that will soon be forgotten.

What seems to be lost is the spotlight the president put on the nation’s disastrous election system.  Some say that the president’s frequent voicing that the election would be rigged, and the wide-spread introduction of mail-in ballots and their mishandling, may have cost him the election.

Unfortunately, with Democrats now in control of the House, Senate and the White House, any move to a sensible nation-wide voter ID system isn’t going to happen, and mail-in ballots will be the voting process du jour here on in.

So, What’s Ahead?

INTERESTINGLY, Rasmussen Reports, one of the most accurate polls, found that President Trump’s job performance approval was at 48 percent after Wednesday’s protest and soared to 51 percent on Thursday night.  His approval ranking on January 20, 2021 could be a precursor of his future in politics.

Stay tuned.

May God continue to bless the United States of America.