Except, maybe, far-right pundit and immensely frustrated guy Erick Erickson, who expresses a bit of it:
Meanwhile, boys are taking over girls’ sports; our national credit rating is down; our cost of living is soaring; China is emboldened; the Iranians are belligerent; the economy sucks; and the envirowackos are coming for our stoves, water heaters, and cars. But sure, let’s all get aboard the U.S.S. Trump for another ride. That’s the ticket. There are so many movies where, as tragedy arrives, only then does the soon-to-be dead person realize they made a tragic mistake that has just gotten them killed. At this point, I think that will be the GOP with Trump as nominee. “But Erickson,” you yell. “You got 2016 wrong.” And I’ve gotten every one of them right since. Trump, twice, lost the popular vote. Who on earth will come to him now not already there?
He’s already frustrated with the MAGA-heads continued loyalty to the President, and has delivered a probably-accurate diagnosis that
“They’d do this to anyone else” is the unfalsifiable inner monologue you tell yourself when you know you’re wrong but want to console and justify your poor choice.
But getting pathologies correct for his own side doesn’t justify the first statement, now does it? At least, not the apocalypsism he so frantically employs. Let’s take a look at them:
- … boys are taking over girls’ sports: I think this, too, shall pass, as the pushback from the girls, girls’ parents, and the thinkers who’ve not swallowed the transgender propaganda concerning the foundations of humanity make themselves heard. It’s a question of the stubbornness of the transgender activists vs the persuasiveness of opposing forces. By opposing forces, I’m not speaking of liberals who scream transgenderism is evil, of which there might be five total in the United States. Rather, as I’ve discussed before, the management of the transgenderism issue has been entirely botched by the Democrats. I fear they haven’t the time to remedy this error, and, being human, they’ll try to ignore it or even cover it up. But that’s another discussion, of which most is here, with an addition discussing some Democratic progress here.
- … national credit rating is down: Yes, it is. Don’t blame that on the Democrats, who have a long history of responsible spending behind them. My reader will permit me to address Erickson: A tax-and-spend liberal is better understood as a spend-and-tax liberal, because it clarifies an important point: liberals will tax in order to cover the cost of their programs, while Republicans have, in recent history, cut taxes and not spending. See Kansas and Governor Brownback’s (R-KA) program, which blew up so badly in Brownback’s face that the moderates were able to take over from the far-right believers in the Laffer Curve. And then there’s the chaos of the current House GOP, which is simply the result of populating Republican seats with fourth-raters. With a slim majority, do they work diligently on crafting reasonable budget and defense packages? No. They chase absurd fantasies concerning abortion, taking the Trump impeachments out of the Congressional Record, the Biden crime syndicate, and Rep Greene’s (R-GA) Jewish Space Lasers, which are a real favorite of mine. While liberals are outraged at the Fitch Agency’s rating downgrade, I see it as simply an acknowledgment that Republican financial acumen is currently a joke. In my opinion, the joke extends back to the Reagan days, but that’s a matter for historians to discuss. The Republicans are responsible, and don’t know how to take their responsibilities seriously.
- … our cost of living is soaring … the economy sucks: Not any longer. Inflation has dropped to roughly 3%. Unemployment is absurdly low. The predicted recession never happened. We’re humming right along.
- … China is emboldened: No doubt, but China is driven primarily by internal forces. Trump abandoned Pacific Rim treaties and embraced North Korea and Russia, while alienating our allies in the region. China is a long term project, truth be told, that is best managed by our best, not by our worst – and the latter adjective best describes most or all active Republican candidates. Maybe Sununu and Hogan are not in that category, but both have declined to enter the race for the Republican nomination, haven’t they?
- … the Iranians are belligerent: And since when have the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran not been belligerent? Again, a country driven by internal forces, requiring careful management.
- … envirowackos are coming for our stoves, water heaters, and cars: Possibly the saddest part of this statement, I’ve noticed Erickson frantically denying that our disastrous weather pattern could possibly ever repeat itself of late – Erickson is a lawyer, not a climate scientist. Calling folks who earnestly believe they’ve recognized an existential problem and are trying to save us do not merit denigrative epithets, of course, especially when they’re working from objective evidence; the spiritual saving advocated by the religious do not meet the same standard. In any case, old equipment, rightly or wrongly, is grandfathered.
Looking at the above, I have to say that Erickson has forgotten a key fact: Americans are problem solvers, not the sort to sit around and wail helplessly. Trump, and, more importantly, his ilk, such as Greene, Boebert, Gaetz, etc etc, are really just a pack of poseurs. All they know how to do is chant the magic spells – abortion is bad, taxes are bad, guns are good, astute readers will know the drill – and sit back and hope their chant is better than everyone else’s.
Their accomplishments, beyond winning elections, prove my point. Reducing taxes on the wealthy while not reducing spending; a crap medical assistance bill that ended up not replacing the ACA; and that’s about it. Mexican salls? Infrastructure? Oh, they, from Trump on down, may lie about how much they accomplished, but oh they did not, and Erickson knows it.
But Americans solve problems. For Erickson, Trump being nominated is a catastrophe because Americans might then go with the Democrats, who’ve restored the economy. We still have problems, true, but sticking with problem solvers, and kicking out those who run around and lie a lot, on both sides of the spectrum, is itself a problem solving strategy.
And that’s what we need right now. Not Trump, DeSantis, Greene, etc. There’s too much smoke on the horizon, no matter how much Erickson sits around denying it.
He’s just a wailer.
