I want to quote a sizeable passage from Bruce Abramson’s post at RealClearPolitics:
Who wins in Trump vs. Biden 2024? Not which candidate wins; two years and a vast array of variables render all such predictions purely speculative. No, the real question is whose interests would such a choice serve? The interests of the American people? The American establishment? The American future?
I propose that the answer is an emphatic “none of the above.â€
In 2016, Trump provided the country with a wake-up call. Sanders might have done the same. These candidates generated passion because they were very different from the bland, corrupt, elitists that voters had been taught to swallow. Using the power of their distinctive personalities and the divergence of their ideological orientations, they provided starkly similar warnings: “America! Look at what’s been done to you! If you want to preserve the future you’ve come to expect, it’s almost too late to act!†In a phrase now popular in certain quarters, they implored Americans to see what time it is.
I believed – and still believe – that we needed to hear that message in 2016. At the time, I thought we’d suffered through 16 years of abysmal leadership. Yet until Trump and Sanders shattered the rules, relatively few Americans seemed comfortable opining that George W. Bush and Barack Obama had both failed as presidents in many ways.
The needs of 2024 will not be those of 2016. With America’s needs having changed, so too will the candidates capable of meeting those needs.
America today is embroiled in a cold civil war – frequently miscast as a war over culture, but more correctly understood as a struggle over values. We disagree about the meaning of critical words, beginning with the all-important concepts of “good†and “evil.â€
Sizable swathes of the electorate have moved beyond thinking that the party they oppose has bad ideas that will make us unsafe and poorer. The fear today is that the opposition party seeks to turn America into a country in which we would not want to live.
That’s pretty much the way I see what has been happening. I like my neighbors. I like my fellow Chicagoans somewhat less. I like Illinoisans even less. And I don’t like what the United States has developed into at all. I’m old. I can afford to keep my head down and tolerate the awfulness for the few years I have left. My nieces and nephews aren’t that lucky. And I weep for their children.
Update
Apparently, I’m not alone.
The fundamental disagreement I have with the piece is the framing of the Presidential race while ignoring Congress and the Senate. We are not electing a King, and “Presidential leadership” means very little given the limitations of the office.
The answer to corrupt elites was to elect Trump? Look at his history. What corruption did he eliminate?
As to the rest it is overblown. The world wont end with either of those two being elected. Day to day life will change little. The media will still exaggerate everything.
Steve
I think Trump’s problem with connected Washington elites is that he’s not one of them.
They were his foil, which does not mean corruption isn’t a real problem, only that it can’t be taken on by an outsider President.
I agree, eliminate the CIA. And the FBI. They are incorrigible.
Congress needs to grow a pair and make anti- corruption legislation a priority.
I think Trump’s problem with connected Washington elites is that he’s not one of them.
Gray, being an “outsider,†not so reliant on big donor’s wishes, makes Trump unique, with an independent strength and appeal to a populous constituency. Even Trump’s political foes, who are able to judge his presidency with an objective eye, have admitted he was especially capable carving out workable foreign policies. Those, however, who have partnered with the notion Trump is unworthy, hence can do no good, just loop the unflattering myths created about him over and over again.
I think the midterms, as disappointing as they were, have thrown a stronger light on what has become a UniParty corruption. Elite politicians, on both sides of the aisle, who comfortably have settled into their partisan seats, recoil when someone shakes their chair, reprimanding them for working more on behalf of themselves rather than the people. Trump has done that constantly with his domestic as well as foreign partners. Hence, the last 6+ years have been devoted to continuous harassment of never-ending investigations and criminal innuendo, impacting his initial presidential agenda, and now his run for POTUS in 2024, like the current Mar A Largo hustle.
When you take a look at Gallup’s Satisfaction with Personal Life Survey 85% are satisfied this year compared to 77% (with higher and lower numbers along the way) when they began the survey in 1980. So, its doubtful that dissatisfaction with the US (however defined) will result in pressure to do something about it. Comfortable people don’t build barricades.
Hence the title of this post.