No one is irreplaceable, which is good because Donald Trump is going away. Oh, I don’t think they’ll succeed in impeaching him, and I think he’s got a better than even (though not much) chance of winning in 2020 as it stands right now, but let’s face it: The Bad Orange Man who saved us from the civil unrest that that vindictive harpy Felonia Milhouse von Pantsuit would have provoked will someday be gone. Election loss, term limit, lightning strike…someday he’s going away. So after Trump departs the arena, who will champion the militant, outside-the-Beltway normals who shrugged and muttered “Ahoy” when The Weekly Standard sank?
Our problem is that we don’t have an answer, not yet anyway.
Trump is a hard act to follow. He has a number of unique features that make him who he is – even his flaws can be endearing, and more importantly, effective. But the good news is that this movement was never about one guy. When libs and their Fredocon pets start babbling about a “personality cult,” let them run their dumbness-holes. Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. Our delight at the effectiveness of Donald Trump at battling our useless ruling class is not about the “Trump” part; it’s about the “effectiveness” part.
Trump is the avatar of our collected resentments, complaints and fury over our betrayal by an elite that was supposed to be running our institutions on our behalf and that is instead running them for its own sordid benefit. Trump was woke to the elite grift of the last few decades because he knew the ruling class from interacting with its members, and he calls those jerks out. We love that. But when he’s gone, we’ll still be here and we’ll still be ticked off. Who will we send out to fight for us?
In other words, who could be Trump II?
Well, first get the idea out of your head that there will ever be another politician exactly like Donald Trump. He’s got a unique set of qualities which his defeated enemies can’t bring themselves to credit him for (he’s smart, a fine communicator, and in touch with his base), plus he has other attributes (money, shamelessness, vicious competitiveness) that make him formidable. He has faults too; you can go watch MSNBCNN for a 24/7, exaggerated recitation of them. No one else will ever have exactly his skill set, or his flaws, but we do have some potential batters on deck…
Nikki Haley: A former governor and United Nations ambassador, Nikki has the resume. She can put a sentence together. That she identifies as female will not be a help or a hinderance because cons don’t care about her gender and liberals are liars when they claim to support women – it’s less about “uterus” than “you agree with us.”
The establishment would dig her, but the problem is that she would dig the establishment right back. Would she fight the Swamp, or try to “work together for bipartisan reform,” which is goo goo loser-speak for letting progs roll you? We need a disruptor, not just another DC-ruptor. If she comes at the libs with the same focused aggressiveness as she came after scummy Third World potentates, she could be great. If she listens to the same bunch of soft boys whose track record of failure led to Trump, she’ll blow it. I want to see how woke she is; Woke Nikki could be awesome.
Tom Cotton: He’s young, though not Beto-sexy. He was in the Army, which was good, and he went to Harvard, which is bad. He’s carved out a space in Trumpland, and he has a solid conservative grounding. His opposition to the idea that the GOP should focus on freeing criminals instead of building a wall shows he gets the base’s vibe. He’s plenty woke. But he’s got no charisma and he’s a terrible speaker – I’ve seen him several times and he does not yet know how to connect.
Hey Cotton, you were infantry, so consider this an NTC-esque AAR. I saw you at a gathering of intellectual conservatives and you proceeded to talk, adequately but in clichés, about the Constitution. We were familiar with that particular document, thanks; we wanted to hear the inside dope on the fight in Washington. Learn to read the room and connect with your audience. You come off like the Harvard Law guys who flounder in court because they don’t know how to talk to normal people. Fix that – you have time – and you are a top contender. Don’t fix it, and you’re a footnote.
Ted Cruz: Conservatives love Ted and write him checks. I love Ted and wrote him checks. Everyone else hates Ted and writes mean things about him on Twitter. He’s brilliant, solidly conservative, conserva-woke as the day is long, but he’s made enemies in and out of his party. Also, his Trump fight hurt him with the base – maybe unjustly, but it did. I have my doubts he would be the successor, but I won’t write him off. I think he needs to focus, for now, on being the very best Texas senator he can be.
Dan Crenshaw: He’s a dark horse – or dark seahorse, because he was a SEAL and that’s cool. He’s got charisma, and his interaction with that guy on SNL shows he gets pop culture. Plus he has an eye patch, which my wife thinks is hot. That’s all good. But, while his battlefield killer instinct is undeniable, we need to see if that ruthlessness translates to politics. He spends a lot of time trying to be reasonable. There’s a time for being reasonable. It’s after we have crushed our liberal opponents. We need to see a firm commitment to conservatism and a firm understanding that the Democrats aren’t friends who merely disagree but committed leftists who want to take our freedom, sovereignty, guns, and money and leave us pathetic, helpless serfs in our own country. If he gets woke, Crenshaw could be the guy.
Donald Trump, Jr.: He’s got the name and the cash. He has no government experience, which is simultaneously a problem and a qualification. Of course, he also has a target on his back from the Democrat activists within the Mueller Syndicate. And he’ll have the entire Conservative, Inc., clique against him too since he owes them nothing, which makes them hate him. He can talk, and his girlfriend is hot, but we’ve also grown weary of dynasties. Conservative Wokeness Score? 100 out of 100. Don’t count him out.
Ric Grenell: He’s our ambassador to Germany and has annoyed the Eurocrats (Yah!) plus forced them to comply our the Iran sanctions. Full Disclosure: He’s a friend too (he lives in the LA South Bay and we used to run into him and Matt at the movies – good movies, about Churchill and killing jihadists, not lame flicks about feelings). He’s a cancer victor, and he’s also gay, which may freak out some squares and really infuriates the libs. He is smart and can talk to normal people. His support for the military has earned him a rabid battalion of grizzled NCO and officer supporters on Twitter. This is a guy who can cross the artificial lines that divide us and build a new coalition for freedom.
Crucially, Ric knows what time it is Trump-wise – he’s a conservative Christian who is on-board with the fight – and he’ll tackle libs without alienating the wimpier cons who love that he worked in the Bush administration. Personally, I want him to run for the Senate in California first, but Ric could be a contender to go all the way.
Trump is not forever, and we need to be preparing for the day when another warrior will be our champion. So do the people who aspire to replace him. They need to understand that now is the time to hone their technical skills (speaking, glad-handing) while networking with the base. And they need to understand why we chose Trump. Be loyal to the base. Don’t give a damn what people who hate you say. Be unwilling to lose. Get those three things down, and that’s a strong foundation for victory.
My third novel about America after it splits apart due to malignant leftist foolishness has been unleashed in time for Christmas. Ho ho ho…now he’s got a machine gun! Oh, and a bunch of mockery of liberals…check out Wildfire!