Inevitably Trump and the Fallacy of Electability
Since the first time we voted as an eighteen-year-old in 1976- just three days after our qualifying birthday- a host of Republican presidential hopefuls who have gained their party’s nomination based upon their supposed electability, have gone on to join the pantheon of Election Day losers.
In that bicentennial year of 1976, it was President Gerald Ford who staved off a close challenge from California Governor Ronald Reagan, based largely on his incumbency, but also on the assumption of party insiders that Reagan was just too conservative to beat out an up and coming Governor from Georgia named Jimmy Carter. The moderate and supposedly more electable Gerald Ford then went down to defeat to a governor no one had heard of, prior to that year. We recall that voting in our first election caused us to be a few minutes late to our first period government class, taught by a grouchy old spinster who was vehemently opposed to the 26th Amendment, ratified six summers before. Upon finding out just why we were late to class, she rewarded our civic duty with two weeks detention…but enough of this trek down memory lane.
In the presidential elections which followed- aside from 1980 when the “unelectable” Reagan trounced Jimmy Carter’s bid for reelection, and aside from the 2000 election when Texas Governor George W. Bush edged out Vice President Al Gore- every supposedly electable Republican presidential nominee lost soundly to their Democrat opponent. Incumbent President George H.W. Bush in 1992, Kansas Senator Bob Dole in 1996, Arizona Senator John McCain in 2008, Massachusetts Governor and future Utah Senator Mitt Romney in 2012- all of these “highly electable” Republican nominees rendered us the presidencies of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
Then, as we all know, the most unelectable Republican, out of seventeen vying for their party’s nomination, handily defeated the heavily favored Democrat, Hillary Clinton in 2016. So incensed was the mild-mannered, moderate milquetoast Mitt Romney at his own loss, he went on a televised diatribe against Donald Trump accusing the future President of being a charlatan, a counterfeit, a con-artist, and worse. Romney, who couldn’t even stand his ground when Barack Obama and debate moderator Candy Crowley teamed up against him, on his assertion that the Obama administration lied about the causes of the infamous Benghazi raid, went “nasty” on the future nominee of his own party- the only time Romney ever showed some “courage” in his entire career. That is if one were to believe the mainstream media who rejoiced at his supposed takedown of then-candidate Trump. The same mainstream media trotted out the “courage” canard about Romney, yet again this week, when the backstabbing, two-faced, attention-seeking Romney broke with his party to vote for Trump’s conviction on one of the two counts of impeachment against the President.
So, it could be argued that so-called electable Republicans tend to lose elections, which is just fine with Democrats and their echo chamber that is the mainstream media. When a Republican presidential hopeful is labeled “electable,” or is tagged with the title of “most electable,” you can bet your infernal regions that such a candidate is:
- the least likely to advance bold solutions to address the issues at hand;
- the least likely to fight back against fallacious and libelous assertions by their opponents and so-called journalists;
and therefore…
- …the most likely to go on to be defeated by the Democrat nominee.
Having endured then, the insufferable presidencies of Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama for twenty of the preceding forty years, not to mention a dozen more years of unfulfilled promises of conservative governance from both Presidents Bush, father and son, is it any wonder how half of the American electorate chose a brash and bold and feisty non-politician to finally pick up where his last four predecessors ultimately fell down on the job?
Donald Trump’s presidency was not only the inevitable result of eight years of Barack Obama, but the inevitable result of four decades of frustration, disappointment and failure to rein in the terrible beast that is the deep-stated, internationalist/globalist government of Washington, D.C.
Not even Ronald Reagan, perhaps the best-loved Republican to hold the office, could make a dent in doing so, primarily because “the Gipper” could not bring himself to effectively fight back against the mainstream media and D.C. insiders who despised him for his conservative credentials and midwestern ideals.
The undeniable truth is that we have known Donald Trump since the 1970s, when the brash and bold and flashy frequenter of the New York nightclub scene- always present with a beautiful lady on his arm- graced the pages of tabloids and newspapers aplenty, with every major talk show clamoring to interview the real estate tycoon. He never failed to serve up precisely what they were all looking for- the exciting and noteworthy headlines guaranteed to sell print and airtime, alike.
As the 1970s turned into the 1980s, and beyond, it was Trump’s name and image that broadened its scope from real estate and casinos to apparel and golf courses, all the while serving up “sizzle,” concerning failed marriages and speculation about who would become the next “Mrs. Trump.” Never one to turn down a request for an interview, Donald Trump only exceeded his fortune and fame with accessibility and moxie, always promoting himself and his enterprises with reckless abandon and undeniable charm.
When the century turned, the casinos that failed didn’t deter “the Donald,” and he launched yet another career hosting beauty pageants, boxing and wrestling events, football teams and, most successfully, a new “reality” show called The Apprentice, making the phrase “You’re fired” into a national sensation. Hence, the penultimate ability of Donald Trump to take the very simple and understandable and transform it into the latest hot fad for mass consumption. It wasn’t until he launched his campaign for the presidency when all of the “pressies” and politicians seeking his money, suddenly turned on him and recast his image as a horrible and intolerant man seeking to create something short of a return to Jim Crow. In particular, this was and is a detestable lie about a man who was just previously lauded by the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton for advancing the cause of civil rights and black ascendency.
Trump wasn’t the first Republican nominee tagged as a racist. Each and every Republican nominee, going back to Barry Goldwater in 1964, has had that treacherous tag foisted on them by the media and their Democrat allies because that is how Democrats have secured the support of African-Americans. Never mind that it was the party of Lincoln who emancipated the slaves, who secured voting suffrage for black men fifty-five years before white women, and who opposed the periodic ebb and flow of the Ku Klux Klan, which was originally the creation of disaffected and disenfranchised white southern Democrats who resisted Reconstruction after the American Civil War. The media decided that it was the Republicans who were the racists, not the Democrats.
The nasty but undeniable truth about Donald Trump is that he would just as likely have been elected as a Democrat, as he was elected as a Republican, because the American people have grown weary of lofty promises and stirring oratory that ultimately ended in disappointment and failure. Trump wisely chose to run as a Republican, because he saw an opportunity to seize the mantle of a party that had grown too blue-nosed, too deferential, too inside-the-beltway, and too unable to fight back against the “big lie” perpetrated by the mass media and their Democrat cronies.
While Democrats today still fail to recognize this, and while all of the mainstream media also fail to either acknowledge or recognize the sheer inevitability of one Donald Trump, the President has shown an uncanny ability to “keep calm and carry on,” (as the British say), the trappings and the trials and the tribulations of his office. Through phony, very costly and time-consuming investigations of his alleged Russian collusion, repeated (and, yes, ongoing) attempts to impeach and bring down his presidency by Democrats in Congress, President Trump shoulders these burdens with much aplomb, and “soldiers on” in his quest to save the country he loves…
…and that is what infuriates his enemies most of all, each and every day that he remains President of the United States. By the way, that is also why his re-election is now as certain as it is inevitable.
-Drew Nickell, 7 February 2020
© 2020 by Drew Nickell, all rights reserved.
author of “Bending Your Ear- a Collection of Essays on the Issues of Our Times”
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