The Democrats’ January 6 dog-and-pony show is over and all of America is breathing a collective sigh of relief. One could have forecast the left would overplay its hand – which is precisely what happened when the vice president lumped events at the U.S. Capitol together with Pearl Harbor and 9/11. Everyone pretty much knows where the Democrats stand regarding former President Donald J. Trump, but that doesn’t really matter. What counts is where the big guy stands with Republicans.
Pick A Poll
The polls are very telling and will prove helpful as the Trump machine begins gathering steam in 2022. Pick a poll, any poll, and the signs are all there for a Trump 2024 campaign. A survey by NPR/Ipsos shows that less than half of Republicans accept the result of the last election. A USA TODAY/Suffolk University survey found similar results. A Morning Consult poll revealed only 16% of Republicans believe Jan. 6, 2021, is an ongoing concern and two-thirds of those who belong to the GOP say enough already with last year’s melee at the Capitol building.
If you believe Trump is going quietly into the night, you must not be on his mailing list. Pitches for money and prizes for donors to “Save America from Joe Biden” are flooding millions of inboxes daily in Noahic proportions. And to start off 2022 with a bang, a big, beautiful rally is being planned for – you guessed it – Arizona.
In a lengthy lamentation, Politico recounted all the Republicans who ran from Orange Man Bad last year and concluded, “It was a notable moment of public dissent after four years marked mostly by fidelity. But its impact has proved minimal.” They fondly recalled the moment Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said, “Count me out. Enough is enough,” but seem perplexed that the senator from South Carolina can now be found at Mar-a-Lago, ready to hit the links. Funny that they can’t seem to put two and two together – it’s just politics.
Still Trump's GOP
Yes, Trump took a licking last January, but he kept on ticking and remains wildly popular with his base. These are the people – die-hard Republicans – that choose the party nominee. Florida’s most famous resident has managed to dust off the dirt from election 2020 and is polishing up the old political machine to a new luster.
While Politico may mourn the former president’s standing among the GOP, they did note that in the last year, “Trump’s grip on the party hasn’t diminished. Instead, in critical ways, it remains firm.” They got that right. What stokes the fire of these conservatives is a steady diet of the feckless, often-confused president and his almost universally reviled sidekick, Kamala Harris. Every day that passes reminds these people of the Trump platform to drain the Swamp, rein in corruption in the Deep State, build a wall, and call for law and order.
Donald Trump (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Joe Biden is the best campaign advertisement ever for Donald J. Trump: Afghanistan, inflation, high crime, border hell, and then there’s the biggy, COVID – which Biden was going to fix. It’s all coming together so poorly for the current administration; the list of woes is endless.
Meanwhile, the former president’s mean tweets have faded with time. Suburban moms who pulled the lever for Biden because they thought Mr. Trump was lewd and crude now have bigger fish to fry, like being investigated as terrorists because they got angry at a school board meeting. Indeed, the memory of Trump’s irksome tweets has diminished because they don’t compare to the things that matter most.
Does all this mean 45 will become number 47? History is not on his side, but who really knows? For now, perhaps it is enough to watch Mr. Trump mount that big gray elephant once again and do his best to ride it to victory. At the very least it will be entertaining to watch the Democrats break into a cold sweat at just the thought of running against their despised nemesis one last time. After all, they are the ones who thought they cornered the market on the Comeback Kid.
~ Read more from Leesa K. Donner.
