That’s the 64 million dollar question, innit?
Perhaps I shouldn’t comment, because I was dead wrong about 2016. But now we’ve seen 2020, and what we learned is that a plurality of Americans don’t want Donald Trump to be president. And I think that would happen again. The danger for Republicans is that he’s free to run and the party has no mechanism to stop his ascendance. If he runs, there’s no doubt that he gets the nom-but I don’t think he can drag his Big Mac-gobbling ass over the finish line.
So now what we are seeing is efforts to put some distance between Trump and the GOP proper. Trump’s not acting like a statesman in waiting-hell, he never acted like a statesman in the first place, but the point is that he’s still out there daily whining about his loss. Me, me, me. And it’s a tiresome spectacle- I can’t imagine who would be hanging on these infantile “statements” he makes in lieu of tweets. Maybe now people are starting to see that the emperor never had any clothes. Nah, scads of people will still vote for him, who am I kidding.
It was startling when Murdoch, addressing his company at the annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday, said that the United States faces a number of major political decisions that conservatives will fail to shape unless Trump moves on. “The current American political debate is profound,” he said, citing education, welfare and economic opportunity. “It is crucial that conservatives play an active, forceful role in that debate,” he added, “but that will not happen if President Trump stays focused on the past.”
Consider the title of Christie’s book — which effectively labels Trump a threat to the GOP: “Republican Rescue: Saving the Party from Truth Deniers, Conspiracy Theorists, and the Dangerous Policies of Joe Biden.” Notice that Trump fits two of the three reasons the party needs saving (by Christie, presumably).
Republicans have a lot to be nervous about in 2024-they have to figure out how to win with and without Trump. If they have to go with Trump, they’re probably going to lose-and if they go without, there’s really no bench that the GOP can draw from. No one gives a fat shit about Mike Pence or Ron DeSantis or even Chris Christie. It remains to been seen what kinds of games they can play with the public to make it seem like Joe Biden is burning the country to the ground that would tip a close election to the Republicans, but incumbency has its benefits.
There’s still a lot of time until the next election. Maybe it’s way too early to be asking questions as to whether or not Trump can win or whether he’ll run in the first place. He may not want to risk another ego-destroying drubbing.