If voters are serious
The Friday Letter / No. 541 / May 19, 2023
Bret Favre is right. As he said on Jason Whitlock's Fearless podcast, the country was better off with Donald Trump as president.
We understand that. Except for the hysterical class, everyone does. That isn't the point.
We don't need to rehash the details here. A summary will suffice: secure borders, better behavior from both China and Russia, low inflation, plentiful energy, jobs galore for all who want one, girls able to play on girls-only volleyball teams without having their brains scrambled, appointment of federal judges who understand the rule of law, safe streets except in the Democrat-run jungles, a fearless military able to inflict serious hurt anywhere it's needed.
I will debate anyone who argues that Donald Trump is not America's essential president, the one person needed right now, here today, to lead the country out of its Jimmy Carter-defined malaise.
The problem is, I don't think he can get elected. As things stand now, I'm just a bit nervous – a lot nervous – about throwing the dice and waiting to see what happens.
Last week Trump went on CNN to face a hostile, poorly unformed inquisitor whose name I don't recall or need to. The reaction was predictable. The mostly Republican studio audience went gaga. CNN staffers were shopping Amazon for hari-kari swords.
Trump had the opportunity to reach voters who didn't support him in the past, and to some degree, he may have delivered, depending CNN's TV audience makeup. He reminded them of his first-term accomplishments (see paragraph 3, above), and touched on what he will do if re-elected.
But he spent too much time beating the 2020 dead horse. He seems to be the only person alive who doesn't understand that election is over, done, finished. He has every right to be self-righteously indignant, as facts now prove with the Durham report released this week.
But self-righteous indignation won't earn him a single vote in 2024, and I hate to be the one to tell him, but the 2024 election is bigger than Donald Trump. It is about saving the country, stated here without exaggeration.
As he has done so many times, Trump blew the opportunity to reach skeptical but approachable voters. He chose to carry on a street fight after the guys with the long knives had long since departed.
Democrats aren't recounting the 2020 ballots. They're busy manufacturing new ones for 2024.
Republicans count voters. Democrats count ballots. That makes all the difference.
Democrats have been playing dirty election tricks for more than six decades, at least since they stole Illinois and the presidential election in 1960. To this very day Republicans haven't figured out why they keep losing, or what to do about it.
Republicans think that if they just keep electing people like Mitt Romney and Lisa Murkowski, John Thune, John Cornyn and Mitch McConnell and a long list of others that Democrats will be nicer to them as they continue to flush the country down the toilet.
I know that polls show Trump running away with support for the nomination. I wonder if voters are thinking seriously enough about the prize. The prize is not winning the qualification rounds. The prize is winning the war.
I have spoken with people who say they are finished with Trump and won't vote for him in the primaries. Let's hope they do support him if he becomes the nominee.
Clearly, Trump has some campaign advantages over DeSantis. In different ways, Trump is like Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, able to light up a room just by walking through the door. DeSantis' support is growing in numbers if not in percentages, and for the right reasons: his policy prescriptions and his record in Florida.
But DeSantis isn't good at retail politics. He and his staff, going back to his days as a Congressman running for the U.S. Senate, are unresponsive to most press inquiries. His go-to is Fox News; he dismisses just about everyone else, particularly small but important media.
Congressman Gary Palmer once told me that some Republican candidates think that all they need to do is go on Fox News and the rest will take care of itself. That worked for DeSantis when he was FNC's anointed candidate for governor in 2018.
You remember Fox News, don't you? It's not been that long since its self-immolation.
If he is to overtake Trump, DeSantis needs a ground game, a vast Army of door-knockers who can learn from Democrats how to gather up ballots and steer people to the polls. He doesn't have that now, and friendly interviews on Fox News have become about as effective as ads for buggy whips.
Trump, noticing the Fox News free-fall, does get it and has turned to his own Truth Social as well as One America News and Newsmax. His poll numbers reflect that.
An opposing view
At American Greatness, Dan Gelernter has a different viewpoint on this story. In “Trump-Kennedy, the Only Solution to Voter Fraud,” Gelernter says it's time for voters to ditch both political parties and go with the renegades who will turn things upside down as the only way to save the Republic.
'Protect Illinois Gun-Grabbers Act'
A federal judge temporarily blocked part of New Jersey's conceal carry law that prevents law-abiding citizens from bringing firearms into government buildings, libraries, public transportation, and daycare centers, Just the News reports.
“The Constitution leaves the states some measures to combat handgun violence,” Judge Renee Marie Bumb wrote in her order. “But what the Second Amendment prohibits the States from doing, and what the state of New Jersey has done here is to prevent law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their right to keep and bear arms. That is plainly unconstitutional.”
Appointed to the bench by George W. Bush in 2006, Bumb is now the chief judge of the district of New Jersey.
There you have it: A federal judge states the obvious, that abridgment of a citizen's right to defend himself is plainly unconstitutional.
That memo never reached the Supreme Court, which on Wednesday declined to block Illinois' new law that bans new purchases and sale of semi-automatic weapons, misnamed “assault weapons.” Its reasoning is that a lawsuit against the ban is working its way through the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.
SCOTUS could have temporarily blocked the law, given that it is “plainly unconstitutional.” A reading of the 2d Amendment should leave no doubt about this right to bear arms shall not be infringed.
Courts have issued temporarily blocks in the past when noting that a law is plainly unconstitutional. Disturbing here is that apparently there was no dissent to the SCOTUS order.
The ill-named “Protect Illinois Communities Act” also bans the use of high-capacity magazines.
Short takes on the news
The Blaze
Canceled. Bowing to intense pressure from Sen. Marco Rubio and Catholic groups, the Los Angeles Dodgers canceled a pre-game celebration to honor an anti-Catholic hate group comprised of “radical transvestites who routinely mock Christians and celebrate degeneracy.” The Dodgers will still have their annual Pride Night celebrating homosexuality.
The Daily Signal
A chilling visit from the FBI. Two female FBI agents visited the childhood home of a pro-life activist whose organization otherwise promotes leftist politics and activism. They told Tracy Ketch that they needed to speak with her daughter, Elise Ketch, “about some information that was sent to us.” They wanted Elise's address and phone number and assured Tracy Ketch that her daughter is “not in any trouble.” Wisely, Tracey declined and sent the agents packing.
The Daily Mail
The wokeness of grammar. The Daily Mail posted a story about Sam Briton, the transvestite former Biden administration bureaucrat who has a problem keeping his hands off women's luggage at airports, with this tagline: “They were arrested last night at home in Maryland in front of their husband.” They were? Both of him? This is the “English” your kids are taught in school. Aren't you proud of what government education produces? By the way, Sam. That guy you play house with is not your husband. He's your boyfriend. That’s OK, Sam. To each their own.
Headlines of the week
A 3-way tie at The Babylon Bee, fake news you can trust
“Pete Buttigieg Takes Parental Leave Again After Adopting a Highway”
“CNN Buys Extra-Large Excavator to Help Bury Durham Report”
“Kamala Harris Receives Honorary Degree from Clown College”
To contact Steve: stephencombs@substack.com. The Friday Letter is published in the op-ed section of USSA News. See updates at our website, fridayletter.us.
See my new piece, “A Lesson on Christian Discernment,” published at The Greater Heritage.