One hundred days out from the Iowa caucuses, and the polling looks insurmountable for Governor Ron DeSantis against Donald Trump. According to one published result after another from the polling and political firms, the former Presidentcontinues to enjoy double-digit leads since the beginning of the year.
A number of Current Trumpers keep pointing to these resultsand dismiss all other contenders. One Trump supporter from Ohio visiting California said to me: “I am supporting Trump because the voters are.” There’s a problem with that rationale: polls are not votes. If polls accurately reported results, Republicans would have a near 300-seat majority in the House, and they would control the US Senate. And Fake Kari Lake would be governor of Arizona (of course, she still claims that she is, so there’s that). Polling doesn’t matter. Votes do. Hillary Clinton was inevitable in 2008 and 2016, and we know how thatended. Trump didn’t lock her up, but at least he could learn from her example. Inevitability is no guarantee. Nevertheless, the polling excites some current Trumpers.
What else is keeping them from getting on the DeSantis Train?Why are they holding on and holding out for Trump?
Sure, there are the so-called “MAGAdonian” cultists. They don’t care, they are voting for Trump, and they don’t care whether you care or not. They are sticking to their guns because they see the very effort to change their minds as a betrayal. It’s just “wrong” to elect anyone else. Then there are the MAGA merchants, the grifters who cash in on the Trump resurgence and enthusiasm. These two groups do not interest me. I have other friends and political allies who are still sticking with Trump, butthey gave me understandable reasons. I still disagree with them, but I do respect where they are coming from.
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Some of my contacts have been following Trump for decades, and they just like his raw bravado and unbridled personality. I would not call their ongoing attachment to him “cult like,” because they are not afraid to criticize him when he’s wrong. Hey, if that’s what floats their boat, there’s little that I can say to get them to come to shore.
Some of my friends are Angel Parents (families whose loved ones were killed by illegal aliens), and Trump personally connected with them during his first campaign and his four years in office. I cannot argue with someone who has formed a friendship with the former President, and I won’t even try. I respect their decision, but I think they’re making a mistake, all the same.
Others duly recognize that “Trump Won,” and the only restorative response is his re-election. I agree that Trump won.Anti-Trump conservative commentators who want to get DeSantis across the finish line in the primary won’t convince hold-outs with “Trump Lost. Move on.” “The election was stolen in plain sight,” for starters, as now-Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador declared when he was running for office in 2022. Also, you can’t ignore the massive ballot-harvesting and universal balloting which flooded the states and occluded the results, plus the emerging cases confirming stuffed voter rolls with dead people and illegal aliens, plus the fraying chain of custody issues. Besides, ballot discrepancies in Pennsylvaniaand blocked poll watchers in Michigan and concerns about poll workers in Fulton County (despite contrary reports) raiseimportant questions about Election 2020.
Yes, Trump won, even if his inaction to combat fraud allowed them to steal the election. In 2024, we don’t have time for a do-over, and we need someone who is not only committed to fighting voter fraud, but has already crushed it in his home state, and is prepared to out-hustle the Democrats in 2024.
Another conservative commentator shared that he doesn’t think any other candidate can withstand the all-but-certain onslaught of corruption and abuse from the press, the bureaucrats, and the agitators. Trump has demonstrated considerable staying power in the midst of the whole media, legal, and corporate abuses. He is not afraid to fight for his own interests and his family’s good name. But will he turn those energies toward helping his country and his fellow man once re-elected?
Last of all, I spoke with a well-established conservative in Southern California, and he like many views Trump as the ongoing Middle Finger to the political establishment. Because of one legal challenge after another, ongoing politicized criminal indictments and civil suits, Trump is the figurehead for the Persecuted America. Understandably, people recognize this lawfare from a politicized DOJ.
Trump represents something to this group: the Outsider who took on the Establishment, and one cannot really dislodge or dissuade anyone from that mythos. It is true, no matter how one criticizes his rhetoric or his actions (and failures) during his Presidency. Trump makes The Deep State mad, and if he wins the primary and the general election, his triumph carries the symbolic power of “Beating the System.”
Nevertheless, we have seen this saga play out before. He was already a stiff middle finger to Big Media, Big Academia, and Big Government in 2016. Once elected, he didn’t fulfil key promises while in office. We don’t need strong symbols now. We need conscious, convicted, and conscientious commanders who will get the job done on Day One, who will possess the self-discipline, not just the stamina, to see the job through to the end.
The fight for the Presidency should not be reduced to a WWF re-match between Hulk Hogan and the Undertaker. This political fight is real life, and outcomes for this election matter much more than the warm feeling everyone might get seeing Trump beat “The System” a second time. Politics is about more than winning an election and defeating an opponent. It’s about implementing a clear vision which ensures that the dark forces of the regressive Left, the Deep State, and the corrupt Uniparty don’t harm our country again.
After Trump’s four years of failure to keep promises, I remain a hold-out for DeSantis.
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