“This is a God nation, this is a Jesus nation, and you will never take my God and my gun out of this nation…. I have come ready to declare war on Satan and every race-baiting Democrat that tries to destroy our way of life here in the United States of America.”
Mark Burns, Evangelical Pastor.
"This MAGA threat is a threat to the brick and mortar of our democratic institutions… It's also a threat to the character of our nation that gives our Constitution life, that binds us together as Americans, a common cause.”
Joe Biden, speaking in Arizona on September 28th.
"The radical left Democrats, now led by Crooked Joe Biden, are the greatest threat to democracy the United States of America has ever faced."
Spokesman for Trump's campaign, Steven Cheung, in response.
There is no Republican Party anymore; it is MAGA all the way; Donald Trump’s hold on that movement seems immutable. For conservatives seeking a true GOP candidate, the prospects are bleak. Jonathan Swan, writing for the September 28th New York Times, provides this bone-chilling evidence: “A well-funded group of anti-Trump conservatives has sent its donors a remarkably candid memo that reveals how resilient former President Donald J. Trump has been against millions of dollars of negative ads the group deployed against him in two early-voting states.
“The political action committee, called Win It Back, has close ties to the influential fiscally conservative group Club for Growth. It has already spent more than $4 million trying to lower Mr. Trump’s support among Republican voters in Iowa and nearly $2 million more trying to damage him in South Carolina… But in the memo — dated Thursday and obtained by The New York Times — the head of Win It Back PAC, David McIntosh, acknowledges to donors that after extensive testing of more than 40 anti-Trump television ads, ‘all attempts to undermine his conservative credentials on specific issues were ineffective.’”
David French, opining in the October 1st NY Times makes this movement clearer: “We mainly think of Christian nationalism as a theology or at least as a philosophy. In reality, the Christian nationalist movement that actually matters is rooted in emotion and ostensibly divine revelation, and it’s that emotional and spiritual movement that so stubbornly clings to Donald Trump…
“Outsiders see the [MAGA] rage and hatred directed at them and miss that a key part of Trump’s appeal is the joy and fellowship that Trump supporters feel with each other. But there’s one last element that cements that bond with Trump: faith, including a burning sense of certainty that by supporting him, they are instruments of God’s divine plan.” Opposing an entirely faith-based MAGA force with logic and evidence of Joe Biden’s successes is an effort in futility. God, to MAGA faithful, is calling them to change the very nature of America into rightwing theocracy. Trump indictments are mere evidence of the “witch hunt” by the “radical left.” Remembering that the number of MAGA GOP voters is a distinct minority among voters, the 2024 election is now squarely in the hands of Dems, disenchanted “true” Republican voters willing to switch voting preferences and independents. If they vote at all.
So, there is one “reality” factor that will probably be determinative of the 2024 victor: turnout. To the extent that MAGA puppet masters wish to embrace that determinative constituency, they pretend that 2024 is about issues. If they can hook enough of these non-MAGA voters to support Trump on issues like “border security” (despite the fact that the GOP has ensured that no major immigration reform bill could pass since the last such legislation in the 1980s), crime (knowing that red state crime statistics are worse that those in blue states), fiscal responsibility (even before the pandemic, Trump’s spending ways and profligate corporate tax cut, added far more to the federal deficit than any other non-wartime president in history) and killing gun control (despite the recent fact that gun violence is now the leading cause of death among teens and children)… or at least keep them from voting at all, Trump just might win.
Russian and Chinese disinformation campaigns are sensing our weaknesses and hence flooding social media accordingly. Trump’s victory would be a signal that America will not continue to support Ukraine or defend Taiwan from a Chinese invasion. Trump is an isolationist to them.
Americans are not optimistic about our future either. As an October 1st Wall Street piece by Rachel Wolfe points out, Americans are incurring debt for major “once in a lifetime purchases” as if there were no tomorrow: “‘Normally at a time when you have higher inflation, but also higher interest rates, you don’t expect spending to hold up so well,’ says Wilbert van der Klaauw, an economic research adviser on household and public policy at the Fed… Yet household spending, the primary driver of the nation’s economic growth, remains robust. Americans spent 5.8% more in August than a year earlier, well outstripping less than 4% inflation. And the experience economy boomed this summer, with Delta Air Lines reporting record revenue in the second quarter and Ticketmaster selling over 295 million event tickets in the first six months of 2023, up nearly 18% year-over-year… Economists and financial advisers say consumers putting short-term needs and goals above long-term ones is normal. Still, this moment is different, they say.”
The Democrats have a real problem with their seemly inevitable candidate. Despite major economic and political success, Biden’s electability is very much in doubt. Dems are worried. “Publicly, top Democrats say they support President Biden running for re-election and think he can win. Privately, their worries are increasing but they are resigned to the idea that he isn’t going anywhere, and there is no viable Plan B.
“Polls have consistently shown that most voters, including the majority of Democrats, don’t think Biden should run in 2024, and many have deep concerns about the 80-year-old president’s age, fitness for office and leadership. Those fears have intensified as his approval ratings have declined—a recent NBC News poll showed Biden with a job approval of 41%, with 56% disapproving, compared with 46% approval, 50% disapproval in the same poll in January.” Catherine Lucey, for the October 1st WSJ. Biden’s poll numbers are tied or lower than Trump’s.
If Republican strategists can cater to independents with “issue” oriented efforts, even relying on provably false statements, they have an advantage. For younger voters who resent older politicians who do not understand them or Dems who simply do not believe Biden will have the stamina to be president or won’t survive his term (leaving a very unpopular Kamala Harris to take over), their staying away from the polls just might elect Trump… as might a third-party candidate spoiler tanking a Biden margin of victory. A Trump presidency, anchored in “retribution” and taking apart the federal government as a failed “deep state,” is the mortal enemy of American democracy.
I’m Peter Dekom, and if Americans truly care about continuing the American “experiment” in democracy, they must vote… and vote in droves.
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