Democracy 2024: # 5

At least the United States of America can still pop a balloon.

Yesterday, I felt like I might have to write about the embarrassment of a Chinese spy balloon continuing to hover over the American mainland or that it was already out of reach and we had missed our chance to shoot the Commie bastard down.

This afternoon though, on a sunny day off the coast of South Carolina, and with lots of people taking cellphone videos, our military shot down the balloon and suddenly things feel better. The memes are of course plentiful and it is a matter of pride to see us right a wrong committed against us by an often unfriendly foreign foe. This was about the closest thing we might ever experience to a Star Wars "blowing up the Death Star." 

Like many Americans, I was confused on Thursday night and all day Friday what exactly was going on and why our government did not act swiftly to put down this aggressive act by China (nobody believed their lame claims about a weather balloon blown off course.) Did we need to get Ukraine involved to help us do needed to be done to protect American sovereignty?. This seemed like it should have been done while the balloon was first sighted over a sparsely populated part of Montana. I tried to keep an open mind that civilian and military leaders would have all the facts and act in the best interest of the nation, but there was no doubt that nuance is lost on many and this was going to become a tremendous political embarrassment to the Biden Administration. All sorts of politicians, including a good deal of Democrats, expressed frustration with the White House. Could we not at least use the "Jewish Space Lasers" to take the thing down? I joked maybe it could become part of the Super Bowl Halftime Show next Sunday. I can almost picture Rihanna riding it down to midfield while singing "Disturbia."

Today's action will certainly take the heat off of Joe Biden to some extend, and he would be wise to play up this military success during Tuesday's State of the Union Address. While I continue to disagree with much of the Administration's actions and policies, perhaps waiting until the balloon had just gotten over the ocean was the smartest thing to do. I do not have all the facts and I am willing to admit it. Hopefully, we will be able to recover what is left of the balloon and figure out just exactly what China is up to. I sincerely  hope that no stolen classified documents from our government will be found inside the balloon. They seem to have popped up a lot of other places.

There are many questions to be asked. We know China uses spy satellites. What could they have possibly been trying to accomplish by utilizing such a large and visible object? They probably can gather information on Americans more effectively via TikTok. It feels like this may have been a literal "trial balloon" to see how our government and nation would react. For a couple of days, the signs to the average American were troubling, but as I said, all feels somewhat better now regarding the situation. The overall issue of tension that exists between our country and China is real and will be a formidable part of our national strategy for years to come. Certainly, it deserves to be a focus of discussion in the upcoming Presidential election. Those who genuinely want to see Biden reelected should be thankful that the matter got resolved today. If anything might have helped Donald Trump or some other Republican make a whole lot of political hay, it could have been over this balloon.

 

With every passing week, the campaign gets closer. It was just about 3 years ago when Biden's bid was rescued by a Saturday victory in the South Carolina primary. The state is being rewarded, not just by a Saturday shootdown of the Chinese balloon there, but by Democrats upending generations of tradition that Iowa and New Hampshire vote first in the primary season, by making South Carolina their new kickoff state. I actually think that move is less about Democrats being concerned that the heavily Republican state of South Carolina influence whom they nominate as much as the party hoping that South Carolina plays an even bigger role in nominating the Republican candidate. After all, the two most recent winners of South Carolina on that side are Newt Gingrich and Donald Trump. If Democrats want to run against Trump in 2024, and most almost certainly do, it behooves them greatly to make South Carolina the center of the primary political universe.

In speaking about the Palmetto State, we now know that the former Governor Nikki Haley is set to formally kick off her campaign for President on February 15th. She will become the first official Republican opponent to Donald Trump. (This is not counting the odd, quixotic campaigns of former Cranston Rhode Island Mayor Steve Laffey or former Montana Secretary of State Corey Stapleton.) Haley had said at one point that she would never run against Trump, her old boss, but has changed her tune on that matter. Trump of course is pointing out the disloyalty but seems to almost be encouraging her to run. Many political conspiracy lovers think that her candidacy would only help Trump ultimately against a more serious challenger like Ron DeSantis by dividing the anti-Trump vote, and perhaps Haley once again simply has her eyes on a chance to be Trump's Vice Presidential running mate.

 

For his part, Trump seems far more unnerved by the potential of running against DeSantis. There is no doubt at all that Trump is perhaps solely responsible for the now Florida Governor winning his initial primary for that job back in 2018. Now, Trump has turned on him greatly, coining the term "DeSanctimonious" and saying he did a horrible job on Covid. DeSantis has made no real public move towards launching a campaign yet but has Trump this week referring to him as a "RINO Globalist" which is about as bad of an insult as it gets in MAGA-world. DeSantis is saying that the fact that he was able to get overwhelming reelected (as opposed perhaps to someone else) is proof he knew how to get things gone. Those of us who would still hope to remain Republicans can glumfully look ahead to all sorts of battles over who did what over Covid and perhaps who can claim to be more anti-vax.There will be a lot to write about on all those regards in the months ahead. I prefer to avoid it for now.

I must wonder though, if Trump is truly looking to pin DeSantis with a catchy insulting nickname, why did he not try to go with "DeSadness?" If he pivots to that, I am going to want royalties.

Of course, I also want there to be a genuinely anti-Trump pro-common sense Republican candidate. Along those lines, I was disappointed tremendously by something said by now former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan. An explanation though might make things a little less disastorous from the Never Trump perspective, but still this was a pretty bad week for Hogan, insofar as the attention being paid right now by political junkies.

We know that Hogan did not vote for Trump in 2016 or 2020. In early 2021, he supported the second Impeachment of Trump. All things considered, he is a very solid option for those of us in the Never Trump crowd and this week, he reaffirmed he was interested in running. Appearing on a conservative radio show though, he seemed to get so immense in his talking points, that he misunderstood or seemed to ignore the parameters of a very specific question asked of him.

Hogan said that while he did not expect Trump to be the nominee, he would support him in 2024 if he were. Larry.what the hell were you thinking? You are going to join the herd and say you will support Trump in theory NOW, after all he has put everyone through? That was one heck of a dumb thing to say. It is not as if Trump loyalists are going to suddenly warm to him. I thought it had to be some sort of Biden style gaffe on his part.

Indeed, not longer later, Hogan went on Twitter and said nothing had changed. He did not expect Trump to be nominated and would not commit to supporting him, just as Trump will not commit to supporting others who may become the Republican Presidential nominee. I very much wish and believe Hogan would go far further on that in saying that there is no chance that he could ever back Trump but at least it was a walk-back, to some extent. I will be generous and say Hogan just did not hear or understand the question the way he should have, rather than making a quick retreat on a new position after backlash from his supporters and potential donors. Nonetheless, this was a bad beginning to a nascent campaign. I will point out that former Congresswoman Liz Cheney has made it crystal clear that Donald Trump must *never* be President again.

 

And China must never be dumb or brazen enough to try to fly a balloon over our country. There ought to be "helium to pay."