Gifs that Keep on Giving - New English Review

by G. Murphy Donovan (April 2019)

Election Night, John Sloan, 1907

Democracy is when the indigent, and not men of property, are the rulers. —Aristotle

There are no candidates on the far right, one incumbent in the middle of the American middle, and a dozen or more angry Social Democrats on the left. Donald Trump didn’t quite adopt the Republican Party in 2016, but in two years, Republicans have adapted to Trump.

If nothing else, Trump has given Republicans some grit and a better brand.

Trump will run again in 2020 and probably have more establishment support this time around. There will be no far right and probably no “moderate” candidates running in 2020.

It’s Donald Trump against what‘s shaping up to be a pack of angry urban sore losers. A witch hunt has morphed into a coup-crazed lynch mob, led on the left by Kamala Harris, and on the far left by Bernie Sanders. With half the Congress in Democrat hands, subpoenas are likely to fly like poison darts. For a shoot-from-the-lip like Trump, next year’s Democrat scrums inside the Beltway and on the campaign trail are sure to be target rich environments.

Still, the last Democrat poll standing in 2020 might make Ms. Clinton, in retrospect, look like an enlightened choice. The 2016 “witch hunt” is now a rolling coup with less than two years on the clock.

Yes, the American left, and not a few Republican mandarins, are still smarting from the big Clinton fail. Since the last presidential, the “best qualified woman” (sic) has been kicked to the curb by a party now driven by coup fantasies.

Trump might whip a jackass or two, but he can’t fire them all.

Politics is a game of emotional manipulation, not achievement.

Thus far, the Democrat Party of 2020 appears to have learned nothing from 2016. The next election will be very much like the last, only worse. Democracy may not be trending in either the American primaries or the general election to follow.

Democrat memes, however, will be hard left, or should we say father left. In truth, all races, (horse, dog, foot, or political) literally and figuratively run to the left for various reasons none of which, save tradition, are underwritten by necessity. Contemporary electoral contests, especially in urban Democrat ghettoes, circle to the ideological left on axles of taxes and benefits.

Change in America is unlikely until the rent seeker’s Prius turns into a pumpkin.

Still, social entitlements and Marxist rhetoric are electoral magic, especially in urban America. The profligate American left now has the most faithful municipal voters that tax money can buy, a fairly reliable plurality. Colin Powell once said that “that’s (the cities) where the votes are.” He forgot to mention that the liberal metropolis is where public monies go to buy votes—and—die.

The dole is now just another career option for slackers whilst likely Trump voters still pay the bills.

In the real world, no social program is free. Eventually, someone pays.

Déjà vu, unlike lightning, does strike twice. Nevertheless, the donkeys are out of the gate. What follows here are some speculations about poll positions and early handicaps for Democrat candidates.

Ladies First

For the moment, Kamala Harris is leading the pack. She missed the “first black” tailwind, but “first women” is still up for grabs. Ms. Harris is pink pussy hat proud and carries the usual left coast baggage.

Mary Jane and IIhan Omar’s (D-Minn) Islamist headgear is a mix that could only debut in a Democrat Congress. To date, Ms. Harris is loud and proud for weed and mute on anti-Semitism or the congressional sharia caucus. Democrats have made common cause with the American jihad and sharia thanks to Linda Sarsour, not a good omen for democracy, Israel, or America.

Sharia wind beneath Democrat wings

Like Hillary, Kamala has a “Willie” problem too. Ms. Harris used to be Willie Brown’s arm candy when he was kingmaker in California. Willie’s willie, begging your pardon, is sure to be come up more than once in the coming campaign. Of course, this is not to suggest that Ms. Harris, or any other California girl, ever gets to the top on her back.

An affair with a political fixer old enough to be her grandfather may have had little to do with her high-level California appointments, but such “coincidences” are surely to become debate fodder. Willie Brown is already trying to preempt the inevitable.

“We dated, I influenced her career, so what?” says he. Not helpful. For her part, Kamala has referred to her Willie as an “albatross.” Not helpful either. Sugar daddy is what sugar daddy does.

Unlike Trump, Kamala runs with a pronounced sincerity deficit.

Speculation that Trump’s behavior, in contrast, will give Harris some kind of sex burka is delusional. Trump is not a girly man, not a sleazy lawyer, and most certainly, not your average professional political hack. His macho excess and hyperbolic flourishes have already been discounted. Say what you will about Donald Trump’s bimbos, he never put any of them up for California Attorney General.

For many, Trump rhetoric is refreshing candor—or bragging rights earned by promises kept.

Still, Beltway schemers may believe that Kamala can out-Trump Trump and thus reduce 2020 to a “she” versus “he” pissing contest. If this is the thinking, then team Kamala learned nothing from 2016. Nobody on the face of the earth throws political shade on a sunny day like Donald Trump.

For the moment, the Harris quest for the Democrat nomination is Kamala’s to lose.

Many other feminist candidates suffer from self-inflicted wounds too. Elizabeth Warren, for example, has morphed into a cartoon. In the last go-round, Trump branded her as a race hustler with one word, “Pocahontas,” not a good look for a white girl from Massachusetts. Apparently, Ms. Warren has been playing the Amerind card for years. True Native Americans are not amused.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) recently ran Jeff Bezos out of the Big Apple with an anarchic blitz against Amazon. Boom! Another golden goose bites the dust in the Democrat heartland. With one short crusade, AOC screwed the entire city and state Democrat leadership in New York. Elizabeth Warren now goes AOC one better by claiming that Amazon ought to be broken up under monopoly statutes.

Poor Jeff Bezos, collateral damage, was dumped by wife, party and the Big Apple. Apparently, the “new green deal” really means fewer” Benjamins” for urban Democrat coffers. You can’t make this stuff up!

Demonizing success may be a Democrat Party value, but surely sober Americans still know who pays the bills. With friends like AOC and Lizzie Warren, who needs capitalist enemies? A circular firing squad is trending on the American left.

There are several other distaff opportunists, or also rans, who have thrown their ambiguities into the 2020 ring to date. None are likely to make it past early debates or primaries.

The Men

Let’s talk spoiler alert first. A caffeine mogul, putative Democrat Howard Schultz, threatens to run as an independent or “moderate,” whatever that might mean in the bull rushes of the American left. If more than two social democrats get on the general election ballot, all Democrats are toast.

Joe Biden might run too, but he would be old news, as a boy’s club vet. “Joe six-pack” was the perfect second banana, loyal to a fault to a largely inert, clueless, if not apologetic president. Already, the Obama crew, including Hillary, is remembered as team lame or just another identity footnote in American history.

Moving away from the geriatric end of the boy’s club for a moment, we have Robert Francis O’Rourke of Texas, better known as “Beto,” the Spanish diminutive for Robert. O’Rourke, like Elizabeth Warren, seems to have more than a bit of a cultural appropriation problem. O’Rourke makes you wonder if JFK would have ever styled himself as “Juan.”

For a while, Robert Francis was in denial about White House fever, a straddle he might have kept until 2024. Maybe by then folks would have forgotten that his ancestors are Irish, not Mexican. O’Rourke also benefits from a classic Kennedy overbite, an RFK look-a-like that’s sure to make millennials squeal. Out of the gate, RFO is the odds-on media favorite.

Among the boys on the left, Bernie Sanders was the man, is the man, and will be the man in 2020.

Sanders is the chap who best represents the vector of Democrat politics since FDR. He is an out Socialist. He is an American politician who makes no secret of his admiration of Communism and the old Soviet model. Who, besides John Brennan, would take pride in a USSR honeymoon?

If nothing else, there is little ambiguity in Bernie’s Vermont politics. He really believes that successful men and women should be ruled by their dependent inferiors.

The far left loves Sanders for the same reason that deplorables love Trump. Both candidates wear their ideologies like blue and red badges of courage. Neither does much hedging about anything, although Trump might actually have a sense of humor.

Nevertheless, Bernie Sanders is no longer a dark horse.

First woman may have to yield to first Jew. Imagine, if you can, how the hijab sorority in Congress will gag with Bernie on top.

Unlike Hillary, Sanders could win.

Differences between Sanders and Trump are crystal clear. America might finally have the political cage match that has been pending in urban America since the Russian revolution. Will America move farther to the Marxist left or stay with the Enlightenment values that made America great to begin with?

Trump and Sanders in 2020 might provide the definitive 21st Century political omen. No matter who wins next year, the first “Madam President” is likely to be a real Indian lady from Dixie.

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G. Murphy Donovan writes about the politics of national security.

Follow NER on Twitter @NERIconoclast