Democracy 2024: # 30

 "One could end up going to prison

One just might be President"

"Only In America." While never a country music fan, this Brooks & Dunn song brought me such satisfaction and pride throughout 2004 when it was incorporated the official themes of President George W. Bush's reelection campaign. Since then, it has lost some of its luster to me, because other politicians, including Barack Obama, have used it at their rallies. A few times over the years, I have played it on YouTube and reminisced about the last truly happy outcome of a Presidential election.

Last night, at a big Lincoln Dinner (I thought those were always in February) in Iowa, a dozen plus candidates took the podium in rapid formation to speak for 10 minutes and press their case for being the nominee of the Party of Lincoln. Each walked out to the song "Only In America", which was cued up to various points. When Donald Trump took the stage last, he was standing right there with the music blaring that he could end up going to prison. It immediately struck me as I was watching it live. Trump was said to be very upset about this coincidence. Amazingly enough, he has already been President and in theory could be so again, even as he goes to prison. Personally, I am betting far more on the former than the latter.

While I did not see every second of this Iowa event, I noted how embarrassing it must have been for a former President to take part in a political "cattle call." He only had ten minutes before the microphones were shut off and no teleprompter (I was surprised the Iowa GOP would not have had one available for the whole evening.) So, Trump had to look down and read a speech in a fairly low-energy way without a huge reaction from the crowd. I am certain he had more supporters in the crowd than anybody else, but it was hard for a front-runner to look like a front-runner at an event like this, that included equal time provided for everyone from Perry Johnson to Ryan Binkley. I had never heard any of them speak before. Johnson comes across as scary nuts and Binkley is a very effective speaker in a televangelist sort of of way and looks like someone that might play the role of President on a television show. It seems like he was subtly calling for an end of Trumpism, but that could have been my imagination.

The one candidate who did not take part was Chris Christie, who is focusing on New Hampshire over Iowa. Asa Hutchinson spoke early in the evening and it seems like he had his microphone cut off before 10 minutes was up. The former Arkansas Governor, whom I have donated money to so he can maybe make the debate stage, had his printed piece of paper with his remarks off to the right in plain sight, which looked like pretty bad optics. He said some good things, but avoided any direct reference to Trump, as did virtually everyone else. As much as I respect Asa, he may just be too nice of a guy to champion the Never Trump cause in the Republican Party. It is probably going to take an SOB like Christie.

One exception was Will Hurd, who did what had to be done and I salute him for doing so. He made his case for why we need a new conservative President and then concluded that Donald Trump was a sure loser who was not running again to serve anyone but to try to stay out of jail. There were some cheers in the crowd, but many others booed the former Congressman as he spoke that truth and when he walked off stage. Kudos though to Will Hurd.

This was another crazy week in the news and it is impossible to cover everything that happened. Most had expected an imminent Trump indictment in Washington D.C. over election stealing stuff (which will probably be far more of the focus than January 6 events) but that has not happened yet. Nonetheless, we had some surprise additional charges filed against Trump and an additional new defendant in Florida related to the classified document matters and his apparent attempt to delete surveillance videos. The political situation aside, the legal walls for Trump continue to close in on a weekly basis. All he has is an attempt to convince enough people that he is being treated unfairly by political enemies. I think a lot of Americans believe he is being targeted politically, but do not seem to have much sympathy for him on the matter.

In the meantime, Ron DeSantis keeps trying to "reboot" his campaign and also keeps coming across as politically maladroit in interacting with human beings. Still, he was able to be more effective giving a stump speech without a teleprompter on Friday night than Trump was. The same can be said for just about everyone who spoke that evening though, especially Mike Pence.

Much of the news involving DeSantis though involves new standards set by Florida's Education Department which is claiming that students will be taught that slaves once benefited personally from skills they learned as slaves. Democrats and the media were quick to pounce on this and Vice President Kamala Harris made a trip to Florida seemingly for the sole purpose of attacking DeSantis on this. Technically speaking, the Governor might not have been directly involved in this, but he has certainly been so involved in cultural fights in his state, that he has to own this.

Frankly, I think there is a much bigger discussion to be had here,and the knee-jerk reaction by so many seems to be a bit manufactured. Obviously, slavery was evil and immoral and an unforgivable sin. I really do not think anyone in Florida is trying to claim otherwise. There probably is a point to be made that historically speaking, a number of people who were enslaved, who later on became free of slavery, were able to find some level of success in America. To me, that can be taught as stories of endurance and dignity. Think former slave Frederick Douglass for example.

 

As the saying goes in politics though, "if you are explaining, you are losing" and this has simply been something that has gotten DeSantis attacked by all sides. While Trump himself has remained silent, some of his African-American supporters within the Republican Party, including a couple that serve in the U.S. House,  have spoken out against this  and to various degrees of intensity, have tried to use it against DeSantis. Of course, Senator Tim Scott, the one black Republican Senator, is running for President against DeSantis, and expressed his opinion as well. 

The DeSantis campaign, which seems to lean into their slogan of  "never back down" in regards to any attempt possible to "own the libs" has doubled down on this even as DeSantis himself has tried to distance himself personally from the decision to include the language. His campaign staffers and allies though have joined in attacking anyone, including the black Republicans, who have spoken up, linking them all to Kamala Harris. It also cannot go unnoticed that DeSantis is repeatedly referring to the Vice President publicly by her first name only and mispronouncing it to sound like the late professional wrestler "Kamala the Ugandan Giant" (whom ironically was an American with the last name of Harris.) At this point of time, everyone should know how the Vice President pronounces her first name, so this seems very intentional. I will also note that Trump has taken to referring to his predecessor in the Oval Office as "Barack Hussein Obama" once again at every turn now.

 

Then, there was an interview this week,where DeSantis suggested he might appoint or as he put it "sic" Democrat candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist, who recently made remarks considered highly anti-Semitic, as head of the Food and Drug Administration or Centers For Disease Control. Even people sympathetic to wanting to see DeSantis do well were said to be pretty shocked by this. I think this proves that DeSantis has no real principles, beyond what is in his own political interest. Someone like him should never be President either. Who else we got, Republicans?

This was also an eventful week for the incumbent President and his family. For one thing, he finally acknowledged having a seventh grandchild. It is about time. Hopefully, he and the First Lady will find a way to be involved in her life. The ex-husband of Jill Biden, who seems to be a total creep, is once again making noise about the "Biden Crime Family" and how they once threatened him and how much Trump must be protected from them, because he loves Trump.

A development that very much surprised me is that Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips, a relative moderate in his party on Capitol Hill, but also a very wealthy businessman, is now saying he is giving thought to challenging Joe Biden in the primaries. It remains to be seen how serious Phillips might be, but a sitting Member of Congress running against a President of their own party has not happened in a long time. Not since RFK Jr's uncle ran against the grandfather of a current contestant on ABC's "Claim To Fame", back in 1980. Before that, back in 1972, Richard Nixon faced two sitting GOP House Members who felt respectively that he was too liberal or too conservative. There were definitely some things in the news captured on video this past week that contribute to concerns about aging political leaders. Thankfully, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell seems to have quickly recovered from whatever happened to him during a press conference, but McConnell does seem to have some increasing health problems. If Joe Biden were to have an instance of "freezing" in front of cameras, it would be a major story and a huge problem for Democrats. All political and personal disagreements aside, I hope that never happens. (I do not ever wish for anything bad to happen to Trump health-wise either, but you know...., he's Trump.)

A lot of right-wingers online are absolutely convinced that Joe Biden will not make it to the November ballot but that Democrats will find a way to replace him with someone stronger politically like California Governor Gavin Newsom. At the same time, some Democrats are writing that while they still support Biden, he is too old to be running again and they wish he would step aside in favor of someone like California Governor Gavin Newsom. It is pretty remarkable that none of these Democrats seem open to the possibility of the sitting Vice President replacing Biden at the top of the ticket in these hypothetical situations. The conspiracy theorists on the right also seem to believe Harris would be even weaker than Biden. I still think they should try to recruit Oprah.

Finally, this was the week that Hunter Biden was supposed to walk into a Delaware courtroom, plead guilty to some relatively minor charges, and go on with his life as a perfect, upstanding citizen. Instead, there was a media firestorm when the plea deal fell apart. This seems to be a very complicated legal situation and it seems to me like Biden's attorneys were under the impression they had gotten a much better deal than the government actually gave them. So for now, Hunter Biden has plead not-guilty and has no deal. It remains to be seen what will happen moving forward. An actual trial would be about the last thing Hunter's father and the White House would want. Those on the right who have claimed that Hunter was given a "sweetheart deal" and that Justice was willing to completely look the other way on him should perhaps now re-examine that mindset. It looks like Hunter Biden is still facing some more additional and more serious legal problems. It is also legitimate to ask why in the world it is taking years and years. Chris Christie,whom Democrats love when he attacks Trump, probably did not endear himself to many when he called for a Special Prosecutor to look into this entire Hunter Biden situation. I think I said something similar a few weeks back.

I will just say once again that yes, it is true, that political opponents of Joe Biden, are trying to contort themselves into impossible positions in attempt to link the current President to what very much looks like many years of illegal activities by Hunter Biden, as he traded on his father's name and position. Nonetheless, there is at least not yet any evidence to suggest that Joe was actively in business with Hunter to those ends. Still, I believe the father had a pretty good idea of what the son was doing and was not exactly objecting to it.

That may not be technically illegal, but it sure is unethical and such a person should not be President of the United States. However,  Republicans lose any possible moral high-ground on this matter when they defend and seem on the path to once again nominate known sociopath Donald J. Trump.

All I can do, and I believe many Americans join me in this, is to dream of the possibility that we may be spared Trump vs. Biden next year and have better choices.

It may seem like a pipe-dream, but as Brooks & Dunn sang, "only in America,were we dream in Red, White, and Blue..."