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There Are Only Two Things That Can Stop the Re-election of Trump- Victor Davis Hanson

Posted on 2/12/24 at 12:13 pm
Posted by L.A.
The Mojave Desert
Member since Aug 2003
61457 posts
Posted on 2/12/24 at 12:13 pm
quote:

The Biden news cycle is disastrous—and unending: a perfect storm of his failures abroad, disaster at the border, and reasons why sky-high prices nullify the Bidenomics hype.

The bad news is interspersed with fallout from the Special Counsel's damning report. Panicked Democrat grandees worry not over whether, but how, to remove Biden.

Then there are, of course, Biden’s daily flubs, confusions, spaciness, and creepy outbursts that grow at a geometric rate.

So there are only two things that can likely stop the reelection of Donald Trump.

One is the obviously coordinated effort of four prosecutors—Bragg, James, Smith, and Willis to rush to judgement and keep Trump in a courtroom all spring and summer, convict him, and put him in jail before the November election.

But that gambit is starting to unravel.

Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis will be taken off the case, if not disbarred or indicted herself. With her demise, her inflated indictment will likely not be taken up by surrogate partisans.

Jack Smith’s federal suit had been damaged by his obsessions with accelerating the trial for patently political purposes. Now there is a growing asymmetry in the two special counsels’ antithetical applications of the same law.

Joe Biden’s got a pass for taking out classified documents for a longer time, knowingly not reporting it, and putting them in less secure places than Mar-a-Lago, without an option to declassify them, as accorded to a president.

Letitia James’s case has received the most legal rebuke, given no other person has ever been so charged in New York for supposedly overstating real estate assets where there no injured party.

In Trump’s case no bank came forward to complain about the collateral Trump put up to secure loans—given he paid the loans back, in timely fashion and with profitable interests to the banks.

Alvin Bragg dragged up a 2005 tryst and a 2016 nondisclosure agreement to claim a campaign finance violation, in a fashion unimaginable for any candidate other than Trump.

All the prosecutors are either registered Democrats or liberals or both. There are clear ethics violations that range from prosecutors running for office on promises to get Trump, to coordinating their suits with the White House counsel or the January 6th committee.

So Trump may well find a way to be able to beat these patently weaponized indictments.

The other only way Trump might lose is—Trump himself.

He is being handed a rare gift with the Biden mental meltdown that will lead to even more damaging news cycles.

The Democratic donor class and political elite are desperate to find some bizarre way to dump Biden and appoint a replacement either before, during, or after the convention.

So all Trump must do is three simple things:

1) Enjoy the Biden doom loop and do not interrupt it.

2) Do not say something weird or crazy enough to feed the left-wing media machine that is desperately searching for a way to stop the news of the Biden hemorrhaging.

3) Do not appear unpalatable or toxic to independents and moderates whose support could give Trump an extra 3-5 percent margin—and with it some insurance over the inevitable Democratic “edge” in non-Election-Day, and thus less verifiable, voting.

Instead, in a 24-hour cycle Trump violated all three cannons.

One, in lose/lose fashion he asked rhetorically where was Hayley’s husband (an attempt to fuel rumors of adultery surrounding her years in South Carolina governance?)

That only set him up for her answer: patriotically serving his country abroad as a soldier.

Next, he trolled his critics by claiming that he had once told a NATO ally that if any still persisted in refusing to meet its military spending obligations, and still expected the U.S. to defend them, then he would tell the Russians to ‘do whatever the hell they want’ to any financially wayward NATO nation.

Trump likely was trying to boast in art-of-the-deal, hard-ball fashion how he got NATO countries to up their defense spending, or said it in trolling fashion to irk his perennial NATO/Putin critics.

But no matter: the media went crazy and for a day the country forgot Biden’s news noose.

Such trolling disrupted the Biden free fall. It gave the media another shot at their hysterical mongering of “how dare Trump say that”.

Sure, Hayley is accusing Trump of being near senile, crazy, and dangerous, but he has to get even not mad—by ignoring her since she is going nowhere in the primaries.

Trump thinks his prior performance-art, rhetorical threats to NATO forced many of them to act in their self-interest and spend more on defense. And that may be true. But postfacto bragging of the threats he used only fuels the media’s old saw that Trump will destroy NATO and is Putin’s puppet.

Trump is sending a life-raft to a drowning Biden, while alienating millions of disenchanted and frightened Biden voters, especially independents, RINOS, and old Blue-Dog Democrats who are all considering a Trump vote. Again, he may need them.

Trump so far is doing his best to counter the lawfare of his enemies.

But only he can stop himself from gifting Biden and hurting himself—as he interrupts his enemies even as they dig their holes ever deeper.

twitter
Posted by GhostofLesticleMiles
High Plains Drifter
Member since Sep 2019
957 posts
Posted on 2/12/24 at 12:16 pm to



Trump and only Trump will be the reason he is not reelected. He is the reason he wasnt reelected last go around.
Posted by Flats
Member since Jul 2019
22115 posts
Posted on 2/12/24 at 12:17 pm to
quote:

Such trolling disrupted the Biden free fall.


And Trump simply cannot grasp this. Yes, trolling will get you donations, it will fill up the stadiums for your rallies, it will cement the votes that are already cemented and have been for 8 years. It doesn't help him in November.
Posted by lake chuck fan
westlake
Member since Aug 2011
9449 posts
Posted on 2/12/24 at 12:19 pm to
Meh..... Trump has been around for a while now. Unless someone has been living in a cave, everyone knows what he's about. You get what you see. I think peoples minds are made up about Trump.
Posted by da prophet
hammond, la
Member since Sep 2013
2374 posts
Posted on 2/12/24 at 12:24 pm to
quote:

3) Do not appear unpalatable or toxic to independents and moderates whose support could give Trump an extra 3-5 percent margin—and with it some insurance over the inevitable Democratic “edge” in non-Election-Day, and thus less verifiable, voting.

These voters may not come to Trump, but will surely go to RFK over Biden.
Posted by TRUERockyTop
Appalachia
Member since Sep 2011
15961 posts
Posted on 2/12/24 at 12:28 pm to
I'm as America first as it gets, but even I told my wife yesterday that Trumps comments on Hayley's husband and NATO were foolish given the circumstances. All you had to do was say nothing while the media was eviscerating Biden. Couldn't keep his mouth shut. It pisses me off. He can't get out of his own way at times.
This post was edited on 2/12/24 at 12:31 pm
Posted by Demonbengal
Ruston
Member since May 2015
1459 posts
Posted on 2/12/24 at 12:32 pm to
I feel like his family(Melanie, DTJ, Eric, Ivanka) need to have an intervention with him. He loves playing to the base with some of this stuff, but it will bite him with the suburban housewife types.
Posted by udtiger
Over your left shoulder
Member since Nov 2006
99722 posts
Posted on 2/12/24 at 12:35 pm to
Listen to this man Donald
Posted by DownSouthJukin
Coaching Changes Board
Member since Jan 2014
27578 posts
Posted on 2/12/24 at 12:43 pm to
quote:

2) Do not say something weird or crazy enough to feed the left-wing media machine that is desperately searching for a way to stop the news of the Biden hemorrhaging.

3) Do not appear unpalatable or toxic to independents and moderates whose support could give Trump an extra 3-5 percent margin—and with it some insurance over the inevitable Democratic “edge” in non-Election-Day, and thus less verifiable, voting.


Unpossible.

I'm all for Trump winning, but these two things are not possible with Trump. And those who crap on VDH for saying these things are just as useless as Trump's handlers who can't or won't tell Trump "no."
This post was edited on 2/12/24 at 12:44 pm
Posted by Godfather1
What WAS St George, Louisiana
Member since Oct 2006
80337 posts
Posted on 2/12/24 at 1:24 pm to
And there’s the rub.

This is 2024, not 2016.

The brash, tell-it-like-it-is, speak truth to power Trump was fresh. Appealing. He was a breath of fresh air going up against an establishment that didn’t care about the American people.

Eight years later, it’s stale. Played. We’ve seen it all before, and it’s tiresome to a lot of people.

If he could just shut up and be relatively quiet for about 3 months, and let the Democrats keep digging a deeper hole…it wouldn’t even be close in November. You’d see as close to Reagan/Mondale as you’ll ever see again.

But that won’t happen. It’s not in his nature. And 2020 did something to him.
This post was edited on 2/12/24 at 1:26 pm
Posted by OysterPoBoy
City of St. George
Member since Jul 2013
35715 posts
Posted on 2/12/24 at 1:26 pm to
quote:

One is the obviously coordinated effort of four prosecutors—Bragg, James, Smith, and Willis to rush to judgement and keep Trump in a courtroom all spring and summer, convict him, and put him in jail before the November election.


That would make him king.
Posted by Hooligan's Ghost
Member since Jul 2013
5210 posts
Posted on 2/12/24 at 1:44 pm to
not only did he send a life raft to Biden, but also to Nikki who just lost in the Nevada primary to "none of these candidates." she was just about to completely disappear from sight and miraculously he resuscitates her
Posted by Vandergriff
Member since Nov 2020
1109 posts
Posted on 2/12/24 at 1:47 pm to
Narcissistic egomaniac simply have no filter, and everyone around them kisses the ring or they are gone.

Trump is smart, witty, and sharp as a tack at times.

But wisdom he lacks...in spades.

The alternative is worse, and he will get my vote for a third time.

But myself, and those like me, aren't the problem.

He must pick up majorities of independents, the no labels crowd, disenchanted dem moderates.

But his petulance, his immaturity, his bullying, his self-absorbtion, will hit harder than any policy nuances or governance strategies that he offers.

Why is he going to lose? Because in an eminently winnable race, he wont convince enough people to "like" him.

It is a very learnable lesson and yes even correctable problem.

But Trump is bereft of wisdom. And his handlers, most of whom know better, are too afraid to tell him.
Posted by kingbob
Sorrento, LA
Member since Nov 2010
67274 posts
Posted on 2/12/24 at 1:52 pm to
Trump is right on Nato and it’s entirely consistent with what he did as president. One of the reasons Europe was as ready as they were to respond to the invasion of Ukraine was because Trump had used this strategy to convince multiple European nations to contribute more towards their own defense.
Posted by coachcrisp
pensacola, fl
Member since Jun 2012
30609 posts
Posted on 2/12/24 at 1:56 pm to
It's been obvious from the onset of this election that Trump was his own worst enemy. I voted for him in the last general election, and I'll do it again because he'll be the only person on the ballot that can beat the dims/Biden.
It is infuriating, and frustrating to watch the guy run his mouth in such a way as to repulse so many people, so unnecessarily!
I find myself wondering (often out loud!) if he's trying to piss people (voters) off!
Posted by newmexicotiger
Member since Sep 2017
2409 posts
Posted on 2/12/24 at 2:11 pm to
One step forward and two steps back. He was winning over undecided voters with his "No revenge" rhetoric but then attacked Birdbrains family with the "where's her husband" comment. I'm voting for him for a third time but that was cringe.
Posted by Great Plains Drifter
Member since Jul 2019
4704 posts
Posted on 2/12/24 at 2:17 pm to
VDH is not wrong. Trump doesn’t have to worry about the core base regardless but for the undecided types who still could “potentially vote Trump” there’s absolutely no reason to get in the way of the Biden/Dem meltdown.

Just shut your mouth about certain things and let the spotlight fully shine where it belongs. MSM is always going to be aiming at Trump so no need to hand em the bullets.

Sometimes less is indeed more.



Posted by TigerAxeOK
Where I lay my head is home.
Member since Dec 2016
25230 posts
Posted on 2/12/24 at 2:31 pm to
Hansen is accurate as usual.

However, there's a third scenario that could prevent him from taking office again. I don't blame him for not saying it because it's unspeakable, but our government is not afraid to activate the see eye A assets in certain situations, as they've proven many times including that one time in 1963.

I think if that happened again, the subsequent civil unrest would completely destroy this nation and be cataclysmic. We don't need that, but it's not at all beyond a possibility.
Posted by 19
Flux Capacitor, Fluxing
Member since Nov 2007
33284 posts
Posted on 2/12/24 at 2:56 pm to
quote:

Do not say something weird or crazy enough to feed the left-wing media machine that is desperately searching for a way to stop the news of the Biden hemorrhaging.


That's like asking him to stop being orange.
Posted by Indefatigable
Member since Jan 2019
27232 posts
Posted on 2/12/24 at 3:08 pm to
That’s a ton of words to state what everyone with common sense has known since 2017. If Trump can exercise even the smallest amount of self-discipline, he can win. If he doesn’t, he’ll struggle.
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