Another spontaneous post on a momentous day

 

I wasn’t planning on writing a post today, but just like after the election, it seemed one was in order.  I don’t normally pay attention to inaugurations.  However, I was actually at Reagan’s inauguration.  I had gone down to DC on winter break to see an exhibit at the Smithsonian and was scheduled to leave the day before the inauguration.  The cousin I visited said, “Umm, why don’t you stay for the inauguration?” I thought about it and it seemed that I should, so I did.  Clearly, though, it was not at all on my mind when I planned my trip.  But I found myself the last few days genuinely looking forward to the inauguration.  In fact, I was giddy at the thought of it.  I had a call scheduled during the swearing-in and was disappointed that I couldn’t watch it live, but I taped it and watched it right afterward.

Why am I so happy? Let me count the ways…

Because I no longer feel like a stranger in a strange land:  This election made sense to me.  The last administration (I love saying that) was a disaster, yet other times over the past 15 years, Americans did not seem to support a course correction.  They just kept voting for more of the same, more afraid of the Republican bogeymen than they were of actual abuses by the Democrats.  This time, the voters voted their own self-interests above some nebulous social goals that the left has so spectacularly failed to achieve.

Because Trump won the popular vote:  This victory was not just a procedural victory but a total one by anyone’s reckoning.  We won’t have to spend 4 years continuing to defend assaults against the Electoral College.  Trump was just as legitimate in 2016 but he wasn’t treated that way.  This time he is.  Mark Thiessen made the point on Fox that this time, Trump will get a honeymoon and his election is more or less being treated as any other election.  That is a relief.  He broke the back of his opposition.  They will reorganize, but they don’t have as much ammunition this time.

Because I don’t have to obsess every day about politics:  The past 15 years, since it became apparent that Obama was determined to undermine this country in every way, I’ve been obsessed with politics and was so glad to find Ricochet as a place where I could discuss and try to work out what on Earth was going on in this country.  How was it that the pet causes of the left—climate change, DEI and open immigration—became a national religion, and wondered what could we do about it?  I will pay attention to politics, of course, but I feel the country is in good hands and I don’t think that the destructive tactics of the Democrats will be used as nakedly this time, at least not while the Republicans have the Senate and House.   I am hoping that the tide of Woke will continue to recede and I can go back to enjoying movies, books, theater, sports, all the things I used to love before wokeness and the pandemic destroyed them.

Because I don’t care what Trump says:  I respect Trump and know his political style well enough that I am finding that I don’t get all tied up in knots when I hear him say things like “We’re going to annex Canada.”  Apparently Saturday Night Live had a skit last Saturday about all MSNBC hosts dropping everything anytime Trump tweeted.  I certainly engaged in that behavior in his first term and during the election (“I wish he hadn’t said that…”).  But because I genuinely respect what he was able to achieve this time, in the face of so many obstacles, I find that I trust his judgment and instincts.  So I’ve been shrugging and saying, “We’ll see.”   Plus, the marvelously articulate JD Vance is at his side to step in when some coherent verbiage is needed.

But I do care what Trump does:  He can be Trump in his tweets, his insults, his rambling speeches and his petulance.  I think he said that success would be his best revenge.  But success would really be his greatest legacy because of his popularity among young voters. If he can show what our country looks like when the lunatic left is not in charge, if he can create a “permission structure” where it is OK again to be optimistic and proud of America and he can back it up with brighter prospects for the youngest voters, then he can un-indoctrinate a generation of young people.  If he does, his election and the events that led up to it truly would be the second shot heard round the world.

Now would be the time in my usual essay to level some disclaimer about Trump and how he could screw it all up.  Not today!  Today I’m looking forward to what he can and will do.  But it will take time and I’m willing to give it to him.  Godspeed, Mr. Trump!

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There are 15 comments.

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  1. Bob Thompson Member
    Bob Thompson
    @BobThompson

    Sounds like where I am as well.

    • #1
  2. Nohaaj Coolidge
    Nohaaj
    @Nohaaj

    “Now would be the time in my usual essay to level some  disclaimer about Trump and how he could screw it all up.  Not today!”

     

    Indeed, thank you.  

    This was one of my biggest peeves about posts from “trump supporters” during the his first.  I always felt like people were adding the disclaimer to protect themselves from attacks by the left.  Afraid to be unabashedly supporting.  

    I personally had no problem disagreeing with Trumps fiscal policy and signing exorbitant Omnibus bills.

    But I was much more in the camp that Zito described:  “The press takes him literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally.”

     

    • #2
  3. Gossamer Cat Coolidge
    Gossamer Cat
    @GossamerCat

    Nohaaj (View Comment):

    This was one of my biggest peeves about posts from “trump supporters” during the his first.  I always felt like people were adding the disclaimer to protect themselves from attacks by the left.  Afraid to be unabashedly supporting.  

     

    Guilty as charged.  I was not at all sure of him the first time, or after the events of 2020,  and I was afraid to be unabashedly supporting.  This time, he’s 100% the guy.  Open to criticism, of course, but also deserving of respect.

    • #3
  4. Bob Thompson Member
    Bob Thompson
    @BobThompson

    I never was active in politics until 2010, following the passage of Obamacare, I did some work in support of Mike Lee after moving to Utah. From that point I realized that we had fostered a significant division in our voting population, that we actually had large numbers of young people who did not really understand what it meant to be American.

    I supported Cruz through the primaries in 2016  and moved to Trump that summer. Been supporting Trump since then without wavering at all.

    • #4
  5. Gossamer Cat Coolidge
    Gossamer Cat
    @GossamerCat

    Bob Thompson (View Comment):

    I never was active in politics until 2010, following the passage of Obamacare, I did some work in support of Mike Lee after moving to Utah. From that point I realized that we had fostered a significant division in our voting population, that we actually had large numbers of young people who did not really understand what it meant to be American.

    I supported Cruz through the primaries in 2016 and moved to Trump that summer. Been supporting Trump since then without wavering at all.

    Yes, I think passage of Obamacare without even an attempt to bring the Republicans along was a watershed moment, along with Obama’s reaction  to the shellacking that Obama in the 2010 mid-terms.  He didn’t care.  He didn’t do what Clinton did and listen to the people, even if purely for political reasons.   

    • #5
  6. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    • #6
  7. Randy Weivoda Moderator
    Randy Weivoda
    @RandyWeivoda

    Nohaaj (View Comment):
    But I was much more in the camp that Zito described:  “The press takes him literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally.”

    I know people love that phrase, but how are you supposed to take someone seriously when you have to constantly guess if he is telling you the truth, a gross exaggeration, or a supposedly tactical lie intended to manipulate his enemies?

    • #7
  8. Bob Thompson Member
    Bob Thompson
    @BobThompson

    Randy Weivoda (View Comment):

    Nohaaj (View Comment):
    But I was much more in the camp that Zito described: “The press takes him literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally.”

    I know people love that phrase, but how are you supposed to take someone seriously when you have to constantly guess if he is telling you the truth, a gross exaggeration, or a supposedly tactical lie intended to manipulate his enemies?

    I don’t tune into Trump’s rallies so I haven’t heard a lot of what he has promised lately. I don’t remember the first time I heard the expression but it was early in his first campaign or term. I don’t even listen to most of what he says he wants to do. Trump sounded like a Jacksonian populist and that appealed to me so I stuck with him. Nobody will succeed at all they try to do but I have liked Trump’s  effort and the results so far. I’ve said before his very presence has caused the evil opposition to reveal themselves as such.

    • #8
  9. Henry Racette Member
    Henry Racette
    @HenryRacette

    Amen.

    • #9
  10. Front Seat Cat Member
    Front Seat Cat
    @FrontSeatCat

    I agree with most of what you said. Looking back, I think both Trump and the country had to go through what we did to get here.  He is a different person than 4 years ago. The country needed to see woke policies and Obama 2.0 in action, and why we are such a mess today.  The Democratic/Progressive Party imploded themselves.  They cannot blame Trump.  Their policies did not work for so many reasons. 

    While you think we can relax and not worry now, I think that may be true for a short time, but I think those that created and pushed those wretched agendas will be hard at work to continue, and they are not all in this country.  I hope many will pause and see how things go before trashing all these difficult but needed changes.

    I am also very leery about the tech titans and their prominence in this administration, especially Musk. 

    • #10
  11. Gossamer Cat Coolidge
    Gossamer Cat
    @GossamerCat

    Front Seat Cat (View Comment):
    While you think we can relax and not worry now, I think that may be true for a short time, but I think those that created and pushed those wretched agendas will be hard at work to continue, and they are not all in this country.  I hope many will pause and see how things go before trashing all these difficult but needed changes.

    Of course you are correct, but that is why Trump’s broad coalition and popular vote win are so important.  I think people will give him time as they voted for him and want their lives to be better.  But they won’t have infinite patience.  

    • #11
  12. Bob Thompson Member
    Bob Thompson
    @BobThompson

    I remember Michael Anton’s article characterizing the 2016 election as an event comparable to the infamous Flight 93.

    Then we went through the four years of both political party leaderships and the federal bureaucracy opposing President Trump followed by four years of Biden and judicial weaponization against Trump. During this period those of us pushing for the restoration of the real America said many times,  in this very forum,  that we would only get this one shot at that objective. And here we are.

    From another member post by @randallg:

    “I used to think this was impossible – that Woke would lose the culture war.
    But Woke has just lost a major battle.
    They went too far too fast and there were too many normies who noticed the insanity.
    The Woke are not stupid. It comes from academia after all.
    They will learn from their mistakes, regroup and re-strategize.
    They’ve been doing this since Marx.
    Workers of the world unite! Didn’t work.
    Have a revolution and create the socialist utopia! Didn’t work.
    Climate change we’re going to freeze! Didn’t work.
    Climate change we’re going to boil! Didn’t work.
    Trans the kids! We may have reached peak trans.
    Now I think it is only unlikely they will lose in the medium term.
    In the long term though, given birth rates in the civilized world, the only people left on Earth will be Muslims.
    They have a different utopia in mind, and it will kill Woke dead forever.

    * I don’t like to get political on the Internet (except maybe here), but I do comment on culture. For those who, shall we delicately say, don’t like Trump, this post is NOT about Trump. 
    It is about a cultural change that has been happening in the last couple of years.
    Trump is an effect, not a cause.”

    I don’t accept that specific outcome as inevitable but I do agree that the effort to undermine the American Ideal started in the mid-1800s and has never stopped.

    This could be our last chance to subdue this “domestic enemy” that our elected leaders always take an oath to defend against.

     

    • #12
  13. Al Sparks Coolidge
    Al Sparks
    @AlSparks

    I was relieved when Trump won the election.  Not joyous, just relieved.

    And that it included the popular vote.  Because a president doesn’t really have a mandate without it.  I believe that we should have the electoral college, but it’s a mistake for a presidential candidate to tailor his campaign for electoral votes alone.

    We conservatives wouldn’t talk about it much and just double down defending the electoral college.  But the reason the electoral college survived this long is because the popular vote and the electoral vote roughly aligned when it came to deciding who won.

    I think that one reason Trump’s popular vote went up was the trial in New York City he was forced to attend.  So a lot of his campaigning was in New York and the surrounding area.  And his inroads into the black vote probably had something to do with his going to Harlem and asking them for it.

    Otherwise he would have concentrated on the battleground states, and lost the popular vote again.

    Oh I realize he also made inroads into California as well, but I truly think actually going into the opponents territory and asking for their vote made a difference.

    • #13
  14. Gossamer Cat Coolidge
    Gossamer Cat
    @GossamerCat

    Al Sparks (View Comment):

    I was relieved when Trump won the election. Not joyous, just relieved.

    And that it included the popular vote. Because a president doesn’t really have a mandate without it. I believe that we should have the electoral college, but it’s a mistake for a presidential candidate to tailor his campaign for electoral votes alone.

    We conservatives wouldn’t talk about it much and just double down defending the electoral college. But the reason the electoral college survived this long is because the popular vote and the electoral vote roughly aligned when it came to deciding who won.

    I think that one reason Trump’s popular vote went up was the trial in New York City he was forced to attend. So a lot of his campaigning was in New York and the surrounding area. And his inroads into the black vote probably had something to do with his going to Harlem and asking them for it.

    Otherwise he would have concentrated on the battleground states, and lost the popular vote again.

    Oh I realize he also made inroads into California as well, but I truly think actually going into the opponents territory and asking for their vote made a difference.

    Very much agree.  

    • #14
  15. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Gossamer Cat (View Comment):

    Al Sparks (View Comment):

    I was relieved when Trump won the election. Not joyous, just relieved.

    And that it included the popular vote. Because a president doesn’t really have a mandate without it. I believe that we should have the electoral college, but it’s a mistake for a presidential candidate to tailor his campaign for electoral votes alone.

    We conservatives wouldn’t talk about it much and just double down defending the electoral college. But the reason the electoral college survived this long is because the popular vote and the electoral vote roughly aligned when it came to deciding who won.

    I think that one reason Trump’s popular vote went up was the trial in New York City he was forced to attend. So a lot of his campaigning was in New York and the surrounding area. And his inroads into the black vote probably had something to do with his going to Harlem and asking them for it.

    Otherwise he would have concentrated on the battleground states, and lost the popular vote again.

    Oh I realize he also made inroads into California as well, but I truly think actually going into the opponents territory and asking for their vote made a difference.

    Very much agree.

    People also remembered how much more prosperous they were during Trump’s first term.  But asking still helps.

    • #15
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