With the New Year comes new thorny political problems. Back in 2016, I did not begin the year as a Trump supporter. As a loud-mouthed NYC real estate tycoon, he was never my preferred presidential personality. Nor was my view particularly rare.
Nonetheless, I pulled the lever for him in the general, enjoyed the schadenfreude of Leftist meltdown, and thought his election was one of the greatest Hail Mary passes in the history of politics. Trump has failed in many of his campaign policy goals. For example, the wall is not big, beautiful, and paid for by Mexico - though some work has been done on it. Ann Coulter has certainly complained about this. Trump's record on guns appears wishy-washy. On the other hand, his judicial appointments have been good.
However, he has nonetheless done us one great service: he has exposed the hatred the political Left has for the Right. The Leftist meltdown, the Derangement Syndrome, has reached heights never seen in my lifetime. Lefty friends have abandoned me and called me a Nazi because of my tepid - and very conditional - support for Trump. Media Orange Man Bad segments run 24/7. People screamed when he was inaugurated. Protests filled with rage and hate were common. A friend of mine was assaulted by three SJWs (and fought them off) while on vacation in DC.
And it never really toned down. Nor is it likely to in the near future.
2020 is going to be a very important year. If Trump wins, the meltdown is likely to go into high gear. If he's successfully convicted in the Senate (unlikely), Trump supporters are likely to view it as a coup, with all the possible (and bad) alternatives that implies. A Trump defeat in 2020 will almost certainly result in a massive Leftist backlash that would make the Obama years look like the Reagan years.
There is no viable alternative I can see that results in a toning down of the rhetoric, in a healing of the divide. There are many in which in gets much worse. The noise in Virginia over 2nd Amendment rights may be the canary in the coal mine. It's hard to tell.
And so while I continue to hope for a peaceful and reasonable solution to the current madness in American politics, I don't really expect one, and I expect things will continue to get worse. Social Justice madness has now convicted J.K. Rowling of wrongthink - and until quite recently, Harry Potter was the favored metaphor for American politics. Trump, of course, was Voldemort.
Does that mean they will read another series of books, perhaps?
Social Justice never sleeps, and is aggressive in its pursuit of feeling offended by something. Does anybody believe 2020 will be the year it dies a most timely and justified death?
No. Me neither.
Keep your ammo dry, my friends. It's going to be an interesting run this year, whatever else might happen.
If Trump wins in 2020, there are a cr*pton of people on the Left who - flat out - will not accept his re-election, no matter by how wide a margin, as legitimate. 2016-2020 will be a pale echo of what they'll do.
ReplyDeleteIf Trump loses in 2020, there are a cr*pton of people on the Right - including myself - who will not believe his defeat was legitimate.
If Trump is removed from office, there are people (I don't know how many) who have openly said TIME TO GO BOOGALOO.
Multiple military-friend people have said there is no way things don't go "spicy" or "crunchy" or whatever term you want to use. IMHO, it's simply WHEN does it start, HOW LONG does it last, and HOW BAD does it get?
How bad? Bad enough for this to be the good old days. Think of it like spicy food. Some is alright, some is mean and ugly, and some is weapons grade pain...
ReplyDeleteThat's a rather confusing spin on who hates who (forgive me for refusing to use the word "whom").
ReplyDeleteI sometimes wonder if Trump were to travel the country tossing hand grenades into maternity wards, would his supporters find comfort in the "meltdown of the left"?
Dear Mr. Ward:
ReplyDelete1. "Whom" is the objective form of "who," and is therefore the proper form to use as the object of a predicate or a preposition. Refusing to use it when it's proper is perverse.
2. The Left would not "melt down" were anyone to go about "tossing hand grenades into maternity wards." Indeed, they would probably celebrate it as an ingenious innovation in the practice of their sacrament of abortion, or perhaps a new and welcome blow against "the patriarchy."
3. The Left has corrupted America's national discourse and social relations with floods of openly expressed hatred, founded solely upon political differences. We in the Right will not abide by any rule that forbids us to respond to Leftists' tactics by turning them around on their originators. These are the times we endure. The only way to alter them back toward genuine tolerance for differences of opinion is to punish those who sought to punish us for daring to differ with them. They have sown the wind and shall reap the whirlwind...and they should have expected nothing else.
Happy New Year.