Be ruthless.
When it comes to politicians, as a citizen, you have got to put aside mistaken notions of loyalty and obligation. You owe no politician anything. They owe you.
Therefore, you must put aside notions of sentimentality and rigorously evaluate each candidate based on his/her (if it’s a “xir,” xe is disqualified at the get-go) potential to defeat the Democrat and for his/her potential to govern like a conservative, as opposed to, say, a Bush. That may mean you have to discard past favorites, including ones you like. But you have to make the analysis and act on your objective findings. If you vote based on feelz, I guarantee you will end up feeling bad.
This VIP column will be a little more personal than usual in substance and subjects, but I think you VIP folks can handle it!
Treat Trump With Respect By Demanding He Earn The Nomination
Trump may run again, and my contention is that he won’t just waltz to the nomination – nor should he. He needs to earn it by proving he’s the best. This proposition has generated significant outrage toward me by some Trump supporters, which is odd, since I am a Trump supporter. It all arises from my recent Townhall.com column titled “Trump Rising” wherein I observed that Donald Trump’s improving poll numbers vis-à-vis that crusty old pervert who “won” the rigged election are making it more likely that he will run again in 2024. And there are people who think that might not be such a great idea. I got some grief for the “some people” construction, so here’s some of the “some people” – 54.3% of 21,370 of my largely hardcore conservative Twitter followers. Moreover, there are others, some of whom you know, who spoke to me on background and not for attribution. You can agree or disagree with their viewpoint, but not that there’s a question. There is, and people are asking it.
Now, these are not anti-Trump people, at least not the people I’ve spoken to. They are all pro-Trump and supported him, but they wonder whether or not he is the best candidate for 2024. All of them will support Trump if he wins the nomination.
It’s clearly not a question of Trump at all, except to the extent that there seems to be some faction that thinks we owe the ex-president for what was manifestly an unfair election process in 2020 (though let’s be clear – as party leader, he is ultimately responsible for the utter failure of the GOP to prepare the legal battlefield for the electoral challenges to the shenanigans the party should have seen coming).
We do not owe him. He’s a politician. He owes us.
There has been criticism of my using the term “politician” in connection with Trump. He is a politician; he does politics. What people mean is he is not a typical politician, and is not one who manifests the greed and chubbiness associated with most politicians. That is a fact, but he is (maybe) running for office, so he’s a politician and our ruthless rules need to apply to him. That means there is only one issue.
Is Trump the most likely to win and will he govern best?
The problem for us is human nature. People tend to not hold those they like to a rigorous standard. Trump needs to be held to one. He did amazing things in the face of incredible, unjust opposition. He was certainly the most effective and important president since Reagan, and history may record a similar impact from his one term (or possibly two). But he also screwed some things up, missed opportunities, trusted establishment hacks, shafted friends, and started unnecessary fights. No one’s perfect; hell, look at the disaster that was Bush 2. But we need to ask if Trump is right for 2024. He needs to make that case. And if he does, he’ll get everyone on our side’s support. After all, there is no meaningful Never Trump contingent left in the GOP, and when the Beltway Cowgirl and her minion Adam Kinzinger get booted from office next time, there will be even fewer. How bummed are the MSNBC bookers going to be, looking for an actual in-office Republican to be the obligatory “conservative” who nods along with the libs on intern-management guru Joe Scarborough’s panel?
But saying this makes some people on our side mad. That’s understandable. Trump voters have been incredibly abused and it’s not unreasonable for them to assume everything is an attack. But a clear-eyed analysis of strengths and weaknesses is not and attack, not on them and not on Trump.
Instead, this is simply a fact – we need the best candidate, whoever that is.
And the right guy may be Trump. I’ll support him wholeheartedly if he’s the nominee. It’s always amusing to be labeled a “Never Trumper” when I point out he must earn his nomination, that he is not entitled to it. Now, I can’t be a Never Trumper, as I’ve been with an adult human woman. Also, leaving aside my Townhall.com columns, I wrote a popular book defending him, and I (for free) lawyered in Las Vegas during the post-election legal challenges. If I’m a “Never Trumper,” then I’m not very good at it.
The bottom line: Demand the best. Trump himself is a big advocate of that, and he’s not afraid to compete. Don, Jr. retweeted my column, showing he doesn’t fear tough questions. That’s refreshing and a good sign.
No sentimentality. If Trump is the best, then cool. And if not, then “Thanks. Next!” It’s not about him. It’s about our country’s future.
One Terrible Week
I want to thank the thousands of people on Twitter who prayed for the recovery of my little dog Barkey. We thought we might well lose him last week. Right now he’s doing better back home after we figured out the issue – autoimmune inflammation of the brain.
What I did not mention on social media was, at the same time, my mom – the former judge – was also in the hospital with an autoimmune inflammation that threatened her eyesight. She’s stable and coming home, and we hope she will continue to improve.
It’s unsettling when you have no real control over things. As a colonel, as a lawyer, even as a pundit, I am used to having some ability to control events. But when someone’s sick, you can’t. You need to work with doctors (which I do as a lawyer too) and you are not the only one they are dealing with. At the animal hospital, during one of our multiple trips, they wheeled in a beautiful German Shephard that looked to have been hit by a car. His anguished family was there. That pup was the priority, and rightly so. But it still sucks to be powerless.
Anyway, the outpouring of support was wonderful. I spend 99% of my time talking about how stupid stupid people are. That’s an important job, and I like doing it. But most Americans are wonderful, more so than elsewhere, and I’ve lived on three continents. I saw up close, overseas and here at home, how our non-woke junior troops, who are the essence of America, went out of their way to help strange foreigners. That’s America. We saw President Trump bring that Marine on stage who hauled the Afghan kid over the fence. That’s America. People praying for a stranger on Twitter’s little dog is America.
Remember that. And thanks.
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