I know people love the man, but I don’t care. I’d happily vote for him for president for a third time if he wins the nomination, but what I won’t do is obey the army of goons and parasites who try to enforce absolute fealty to any politician ever.
I don’t owe Donald Trump a damn thing. He’s a politician, I’m a voter. He, and all politicians, owe me; owe us.
That’s unpopular to say nowadays, unless it’s about Democrats. But too many Republicans have developed blind loyalty to someone they’ve maybe only ever met at a grip and grin photo-op.
It’s not just Trump, it’s all of them. Every. Single. One. Of. Them.
You owe them nothing, they owe you. Once you lose sight of that it’s over.
So. When I see people declaring it’s their candidate or they won’t vote, I know I’m dealing with a moron. I don’t care who the candidate is – I’ve seen it for quite a few of them, just one a hell of a lot more than the others – it’s an incredibly stupid concept.
The presidency, even the nomination of a party, is not a reward for past deeds; it’s the investment of hope in future ones. That’s why so many people who seek high office lie – they swear they’ll do things in the hope they can check a couple of those boxes, but really just want the power and prestige.
Somebody is going to get it, why not the person you agree with the most?
That bit goes for the general election and the primary – why not the person you agree with the most?
To know who that is, you have to hear them all out, at least some, and you need to hear them discuss it all with each other. The idea that a candidate would run from debates is something Democrats do, not Republicans.
That’s why it’s so annoying that Donald Trump might not show up to at least the first few primary debates.
Sure, there are weasels and sycophants in the media who will justify anything their candidate does, but watching weak, shameless “conservatives” spin this dodge as a good idea “because he’s so far ahead in the polls” is dumb, even for them.
Donald Trump may well win the nomination. And if he does, I’ll happily vote for him for a third time. But no one just gets my vote because they or the people who’ve monetized their proximity to that candidate insist I owe it to them. They owe their audience integrity, but that horse left the barn long ago. They could at least have a little dignity, couldn’t they?
Nah, not enough money in it.
Donald Trump needs to put on his big boy pants and show up to the debates. He owes voters that much. He needs to tell voters why he should be president again, and that he got screwed over last time isn’t an argument in his favor. It’s actually the opposite.
Being someone who stepped on every landmine in front of him is not a strong argument. Demonstrate a command of the issues only someone who’s held the job can demonstrate. Being a jackass and a Don Rickles rip-off was funny in 2016, but it’s old now. Chris Christie is fat – we have eyes, we get it. What are you going to do about inflation? What are you going to do about Ukraine? And making a couple of phone calls to tell people to stop isn’t going to cut it. Promising to end birthright citizenship is great, but I want to know why you promised it before and did exactly zero to make it happen? What will be different this time?
I want to know – need to know – why you ceded so much power in your last year to Dr. Fauci? I get you were scared at the start of COVID, everyone was at least apprehensive. But you say you started to see through it early, yet did nothing to snap the country out of the haze. You didn’t fire Fauci, but you didn’t even put him in his place. You put him in your place. Why?
You still claim credit for the vaccines – and I’ll say I loved Operation Warp Speed for cutting through red tape, if only to demonstrate that it could be done – but the vaccines were ultimately a bust. There’s no shame in admitting you were acting on the best info available at the time and that information has changed since, but that’s not what you do. You claim to have saved millions of lives while wiping your fingerprints off any responsibility for possible bad things that came along with it.
I don’t know the answer to these questions, but I’m not running for anything. You are. And you owe it to voters, even those who’ve already tattooed your name on their bodies, to answer them and more. And the platform in which to do that is not a bogus town hall where no one will push back against anything you say or won’t care if you ramble on for five minutes about unrelated things and never actually answer the question, it’s a debate. If you’re afraid to go on stage with a bunch of people who mostly agree with you just because you’ve insulted them while whining about being a victim when they return the favor, what do you think you’re going to do against the entirety of the Democratic Party establishment?
They thought you were a joke in 2016, which is why you were able to win the Electoral College. They didn’t underestimate you in 2020, and we all know how that worked out (at least all your advisors do when they’re under oath, if not on TV). No matter how senile Joe Biden is next year, it’s not going to be any easier than 2020. Demonstrate you’re up to the task, and ballsy enough to take the heat by showing up where most of the candidates will be pulling some of their punches, because I can promise you that not a single Democrat will. Man-up and debate. Rather than telling everyone how great you are, show us.
Derek Hunter is the host of a free daily podcast (subscribe!) and author of the book, Outrage, INC., which exposes how liberals use fear and hatred to manipulate the masses, and host of the weekly “Week in F*cking Review” podcast where the news is spoken about the way it deserves to be. Follow him on Twitter at @DerekAHunter.