Savior or Villain

Sep 27, 20198 min read

Donald Trump: The Symbol of the Debate

November the 5th is only a few weeks away and everyone is busy working hard. With each election, particularly elections held during critical times for the nation as a whole, comes the thought of losing to the opposition, all of the factors that could contribute to a potential loss, and the impact that the opposition will have should they get elected. Donald Trump is the factor everyone is most concerned with at the moment, and no one knows for sure how public opinion will impact the elections. All anyone is thinking about is how many of the voters love or hate Trump and whether it will help or hurt their chances.

It is particularly difficult for those involved with state and local races in years like this, that can be significantly impacted by national issues and factors beyond their control. This year, everyone in both parties is on edge as the nation creeps closer towards the precipice that is November 3, 2020. Every election between now and then is seen as a potential bellwether for the upcoming presidential election and the potential direction of the nation, whether that is true or not.

Politicians running this year will be caught up in the national storm not knowing whether the wind will be at their backs or if they will be blown aside by the oncoming hurricane barreling down on them from DC. It is incredibly frustrating to know that what you do and who you are personally could be completely ignored in your own race, and a vote for or against you could be determined entirely by the actions of others, and a tiny letter next to your name. Everyone is pointing the finger at everyone and everything around them not sure who or what to praise or blame.

“all eyes are on President Trump”

However, one thing is certain, and that is that all eyes are on President Trump who has become the symbol of the national debate and the linchpin that will determine the direction of the United States and the Western World. Although Trump is seen as the most critical factor, and at this point, he may be, he is not the reason that the nation or the parties are in the position that they are in. His presence in politics is the result of the failures and successes of both parties and their elected officials. Interestingly enough, he is representative of the best and worst of both parties, as well as the public itself, and as a result, is rallying support from all corners of the United States from those unwilling to walk, or in this case, sprint over the cliff like lemmings mindlessly hurling themselves to their own destruction.

No One Knows What to Expect

In spite of all of the posturing that we see, no one is sure what will happen this November, and definitely not November 2020. Everything is on the line now and we all know it. We have been teetering on the edge as we consider abandoning the Great American Experiment and the stakes are high. Hardly anyone is even bothering to whisper about or deny the attempts at a socialist takeover or a desire to dismantle the U.S. Constitution one article and amendment at a time. The whole dispute is pretty much out of the closet at this point and the Democratic Party candidates, their policy positions, and the support that they have, has made that abundantly clear.

“The whole dispute is pretty much out of the closet at this point”

President Donald Trump is in the critical and unenviable position of being both the symbolic savior and villain in the drama that is unfolding. He is the man who has stepped forward to try to lead the nation back towards Americanism and away from the specter of Socialism that has destroyed nations and caused the murders of millions of people. Trump is slowly undoing the complex web of policies that have been incrementally transforming the nation over time and at an ever-increasing rate.

Most Republicans have been desperate for someone with the strength, guts, and knowledge to do this, and are ecstatic to finally see someone directly addressing the problems they have been concerned about. They see Trump as the savior of the Republic and are unconcerned by the hypocritical attacks on his character by those seen as even more corrupt, and out to dismantle the nation that they value.

Some Republicans, however, seem blinded by Trump’s imperfections, can barely disguise their disdain for what they see as his coarse and common behavior, and seethe at the idea that an outsider walked in and almost effortlessly did what the insider ivy league gentlemen they had been backing had been unable to do. Their loathing almost equals the loathing of the Democrats who are livid at being beaten and seeing all their hard work being undone as they had gotten so close to their goal that they could taste it.

The Fears of the Democrats

The Democrats are at their wits end over Donald Trump and the loss of the 2016 presidential election. They do not understand why the man they cast as the villain won, why anyone would support him, why their policies were rejected, why their attacks have had little to no impact, and whether there is any way that they can attack him that would result in a loss of support for “Teflon Don,” his removal from office, or his loss in 2020.

One of the biggest mistakes that you can make in politics is to believe your own propaganda and that is precisely what has happened to the Democrats. They never bothered to ask themselves what it was about them and their ideas that made people not want to vote for them. They falsely vilified their opposition as a bunch of bigots and Nazis in order to win the election and they did such a good job promoting it that they began to believe it themselves, and lost all sense of reality and proportion in the process. They slapped a bunch of pictures of famous Republicans up on the walls at the DNC convention, tried to pass off the Republican Party’s history as their own, and then tried to bully and insult their way into the hearts of the voters.

The people they were vilifying knew that it was not true, and the Democrats lost support because of it. It is incredibly hard to win an election when you do not understand the voters. It is also rather difficult to convince people to vote for you when you insult and falsely accuse them of immorality that they themselves would consider deplorable were they true. All these issues played a significant role in their loss in 2016 and will likely play a role in 2019 but to a lesser degree.

“They have been trying to remove President Trump from office since before he was even sworn in”

Their subsequent behavior has only made it worse. Their desperation to remove President Trump from office began before he was even sworn in as they tried everything from insulting his supporters, to protests, to endless investigations, to even trying to have him declared insane and removing him from office using the 25th Amendment.

When asked about the elections in November hardly any of them are even thinking about the 2019 races. They are almost entirely focused on Donald Trump and 2020. That is of course not true of those working on the 2019 races, but even they are focused on 2020 and how it could impact 2019.

Now they have a lineup of candidates for President, each one more extreme than the next, and are terrified that they might have made a mistake as they are blindly betting it all on the hope that the public is ready to embrace Socialism, by name, at last, knowing that it could cost them everything. They might make it through 2019 but their strategy does not bode well for 2020 as the rising concern among business leaders and the voters, in general, is becoming apparent.

In addition, they are looking slightly deranged having gone off the deep end over the now debunked Russia collusion investigation and their other mad schemes to remove the President of the United States from office. With each attempt to destroy Trump over increasingly fantastic accusations unendingly dragging out in the media resulting in dismal failures only diminishing the potency of their maniacal and incessant bleats to stop the wolf that never seems to materialize.

Fortunately for them, they have a pretty substantial election machine that kicks in every year and have clearly been importing money to target Republicans in state and local elections after Republicans quietly took over a significant number of state legislatures all around the United States. If they are able to win enough state and local elections in 2019, they hope the momentum will be enough to carry them through in 2020, but I do not think it will.

The Fears of the Republicans

The Democrats are not the only ones panicking. The Republican Party is still torn over support for Donald Trump and struggling with the long-standing issues that have been at the heart of Republican failures since Ronald Reagan left office. They are deeply concerned that public opinion of Trump will hurt them in the 2019 elections. They are not sure whether being associated with him, because they have an “R” next to their names, will help or hurt them. They are not sure whether they should be seen as supporters or adversaries of Trump and the truth is that both positions will help and hurt them.

Democrats are not likely to vote for Republicans as a rule and while they may have crossed over to vote for Trump in 2016, and might again in 2020, that does not mean that they will cross over for other Republicans in 2019. Running for election in 2019 is a bit riskier than usual. The same can be said of Democrats, now that we have seen the lineup of potential nominees for 2020. However, everyone already knows that Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee so there is no wiggle room on the GOP side in terms of knowing what to expect. On the other hand, the Democrats do still have the flexibility to switch gears and pick a more mainstream candidate.

Sadly, if all Republicans had jumped on board with Donald Trump in the beginning, shored up each other’s failings with strengths, and gotten more done, it is likely that the benefits of being associated with Trump and the Republican Party would be less risky this year. Fortunately for the Republicans, they have gotten a lot done and what they did not get done together, due to one roadblock or another, Trump has been busy trying to create workarounds for.

The “Never Trumpers” are still creating obstacles for Trump and his supporters to overcome but the sky did not fall, the economy is booming, unemployment numbers are at record lows, and no nuclear buttons have been pushed, so they should be able to safely turn out in 2019 and maybe even 2020.

It does not hurt that the Democrats have taken such a dramatic leap to the left, so far in fact that the old left looks like the right in comparison, striking fear in the hearts of rational adults. That just might be enough to offset the anti-Trump sentiment by some Independents and Republicans who do not like Trump and whose votes could be influenced just enough by the behavior of the national Democrats to carry the day this November. It is hard to say though as people are hunkering down and keeping their real opinions to themselves just as they did in 2016.

Unfortunately, the GOP is still struggling with many of the same old PR and branding problems that they have been for decades. Thanks to Trump, Limbaugh, D’Souza, the Daily Wire, PragerU, Tucker Carlson, and a handful of former and current legislators the tide is turning, and the party finally has some ammunition.