I know that many of you out there have served the Nation with honor and distinction. So, on this 11th Day of the 11th Month – on the day the guns fell silent on the western front … I would like to take the opportunity to thank you for stepping up to serve this Nation, which we all love.
One of the things we learned in our service to the Nation was that, after we concluded a major operation, we needed to take a step back and review, from start to finish, how the operation ran … its successes and its failures … in order to do better the next time. There is always room to improve and there seemed always to be a “next time.”
So, let’s step back from the almost concluded Election of ’22 … the one we were told was the most important election of our lifetime … you know, the one that was going to be the “Red Wave” that covered the Nation … YES, that one!
The Red Wave now seems to be a Red Trickle at best with a number of nail biter races left to call. Although it seems that the House of Representatives will become Republican led … as of this writing, the Senate is lost to the Republicans. In fact, it appears that there is no road to “final victory” for control of the Senate, and the runoff between Warnock and Walker is no longer the main event, just the final event. So, this is when we start doing our lessons learned analysis to see just how we got here and what we, as a party, need to do to make a better outcome “next time.”
It appears to the casual observer that many of the races that were likely Republican wins just a few short weeks ago fell to weak Democrats --- in an environment and at a time when just the opposite should have occurred. So, what went wrong? What was the spoiler that had people like those in Pennsylvania clearly voting against their own best interests? What can get people so riled up that they would vote to send a functional idiot like John Fetterman to the United States Senate?
There is only one clear and unequivocal answer to the question --- Donald J. Trump.
Now let’s be clear – I am no political expert, but I know what I see and I know what I hear – and what I am seeing and hearing is that it is time for President Trump to stand down, reconsider running for the Presidency in 2024 and make way for a younger more acceptable candidate to fill that role. This I say as a person who cast their vote twice for the 45th President of the United States. By inserting himself into the final 10 days of the ’22 election, Trump gave the Dems the ammunition they needed to invoke images of obnoxious name slinging and an unrepentant election denier who, if allowed to regain the White House, would end democracy in America forever - their words, not mine. And those images of Trump on a road to the White House started with the election of those candidates that most closely embraced Donald Trump.
I know all about the wins for those he endorsed and I am truly glad for them. It’s the losses that we should all be concerned about. The elections that should have been a slam dunk, but weren’t. Like it or not, Donald Trump put himself on the ballot and he did not do well.
The debate will rage on for months or even years because what should have been a “shellacking” for the Dems almost turned into one for the Republicans. Now fast forward in your mind to November of 2024 and a scene in which, after a bruising primary season of name calling, finger pointing, claims and counter-claims, and the expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars to get a Republican nominee, that nominee emerges as Trump. You have got to know that this is exactly what the Democrats want --- not because the Democrat base will turn out in mass …but because about half the Republican Party will join them, the Democrats. And when that happens, the Dems won’t need to cheat. It will be a blood bath of epic proportions --- yes, epic proportions. And the Republican Party will cease to be a functioning political entity ever again.
I do not offer the following lightly nor without a lot of introspective thought --- President Trump needs to step aside NOW. His last official act should be to ask Ron DeSantis, Mike Pompeo and Mike Pence to join him on stage, in a rally on the eve of the Senatorial run-off in Georgia, to help Herschel Walker over the finish line. It would be the single most unifying thing he could do in the name of democracy and Making America Great Again … and when it’s over, he should hand over the reins of leadership to DeSantis or Pompeo or whoever the Party decides is the best choice for the American Agenda going forward.
The future of the Party, I am sad to say, is not Donald Trump. I know this will not be popular with many, but you can see with your own eyes and hear with your own ears what just happened to us. I have often maintained that Republicans have a unique way of “Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory” --- running Donald Trump for the Presidency in 2024 will result in an epic defeat --- one that can certainly be avoided.
I suspect that Mr. Trump, i.e., President Trump, will never read this --- but if he did, I would tell him straight up, “I’m all in for America and the policies that you instituted after 2016 --- but the playing field has changed once again, and while your policies are still needed, they need to be delivered by a different messenger. America needs you to go quietly and with dignity --- be the force behind the scenes, the King Maker, the Shogun … but you can no longer pursue the Presidency. For the good of the Party.”