Month: January 2020

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On the Trump political phenomenon

Ed Rollins:

“…On the surface, it may seem like the walls are closing in on President Trump, who faces enemies from many sides. But that’s not quite the real picture.

Step outside the Beltway or quit listening to the media megaphones on the two coasts, and you’ll find that the anti-Trump #Resistance is no closer to taking him down than in 2016, when Donald Trump won 63 million votes en route to the White House.

I was one of those voters. I saw numerous parallels between President Reagan, whom I served for many years, and Donald Trump. Along with Republican strategist Eric Beach, I and many other concerned citizens started Great America PAC to advance President Trump’s “America First” agenda and defend him from the left’s partisan attacks.

Like “The Great Communicator” before him, President Trump possesses an uncanny ability to message traditionally conservative values directly to voters. His message is to believe in America: our economic might, our individual liberties, and our potential to reach new heights in the future.

President Reagan saw “morning in America.” President Trump similarly sees greatness — an America that, if put first, can indeed be a shining city on the hill.

By and large, Americans believe in their vision too. No impeachment charade can change that. Rick Wilson and the “Lincoln Project” certainly won’t.

Just look at the numbers. President Trump’s approval rating is now the highest it’s been since February 2017. In key battleground states, President Trump is repeatedly shown to defeat every single Democratic candidate.

This past week, 175,000 Americans applied online to get tickets for President Trump’s New Jersey rally. Many lined up in the freezing cold for more than 48 hours to attend the event.

What American voters see — and I’ve spoken to many of them, on behalf of Great America PAC — is a country on the rise. They see a booming economy. In January, consumer confidence reached its highest level since August of last year, with half of Americans claiming jobs are plentiful. Even 62 percent of Democrats believe that economic conditions are “good” right now.

But perhaps President Trump’s greatest advantage is the utter arrogance of establishment elites like Rick Wilson. When “Never Trump” zealots routinely demean millions of Americans as “rubes” (or “deplorables”), Trump voters become incensed and ready for battle. Criticizing the millions of Americans who support the president sends a message to the American heartland: that your views and values don’t matter. Attacking their president comes down to attacking them and their beliefs.

Just like in 2016, President Trump’s supporters see a president who is facing unprecedented attacks from the Washington establishment: Democrats, faux-Republicans, and the liberal media. Those establishment figures can’t help but express their disdain for their fellow countrymen — the “rubes” outside the Beltway. Every time they do, it’s a win for President Trump.

The “rubes” will rise up in 2020…”

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Trump to Iowa crowd

“The good people of Iowa have had a front-row seat to the lunacy and the madness of the totally sick left,” he declared before accusing Democrats of “not caring about farmers. “You should love Trump, with what I’ve done. We’re going to win the great state of Iowa, and it’s going to be a historic landslide.” And if the opposite should happen, Trump predicted that “your farms are going to hell, I can tell you right now.”

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On Trump rallies

Philip Klein:

“…I arrived at Drake University’s Knapp Center hours in advance with the intention of covering President Trump’s Thursday night rally, but, along with dozens of other credentialed media, was denied entry — which the Trump campaign said was an order from the fire marshall, because the venue built to accommodate around 7,200 people was at capacity.

Rather than leave, I decided to venture into the crowd of hundreds of Trump supporters (or perhaps over a thousand) who had gathered outside in the 30 degree weather to watch Trump’s speech on a jumbo television screen.

It is quite common for political campaigns to book venues that are much smaller than they can fill — after all, better to have news reports of standing room only auditoriums and long lines than book a massive arena that can comfortably fit all attendees, but at the risk of images of empty seats.

Nonetheless, the fact that Trump was able to draw such a devoted crowd — with some people even camping overnight to be guaranteed entry, and others willing to stand out in sub-freezing temperatures to watch a speech on a video screen just to get a taste of the experience, does say something. It speaks to a certain intensity level that makes Trump’s reelection more likely than most presidents entering an election year with approval rating hovering around 45 percent.

Many of the characteristics of a Trump rally have remained the same since 2016 — the sea of red MAGA hats, shouting down of protesters with chants of “USA! USA! USA!,” and lots of laughter at Trump’s mockery of his political enemies. The crowd often knows which lines Trump is about to rattle off, but revels in them anyway, almost as if attending a concert and waiting for a musician to play his greatest hits.

But one thing struck me. Whether they backed him in 2016 or were more recent converts, one factor that his supporters kept bringing up was their feeling that he had delivered on his promises in a way other elected officials have not.

“I wasn’t [a Trump supporter] in 2016,” said Adam Hanson, a Des Moines-based attorney who spoke for Rand Paul in the caucuses four years ago. “I was one of those Never Trump Republicans back then…During the caucuses and even into the general election I just, I was not a big fan. I didn’t think he’d deliver. But in the past few years I’ll admit I’ve been pleasantly surprised with Trump.”…”

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Destroying the president is not just the only viable trajectory for the Left, but it is also the only possible narrative given that focus on the current left-wing agenda is slow-motion suicide.

Victor Davis Hanson:

“…The Left has shown that the collusion exoneration last year by the heralded Robert Mueller investigation—all 22-months, the “dream team,” and $34 million of it—meant absolutely nothing.

Nor did it matter that Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz found no justification of “collusion” in the Steele dossier to justify the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants it issued to spy on Carter Page.

Both the Mueller and Horowitz investigations confirmed that even the partisan and warped FBI “Crossfire Hurricane” intrigues could find no Russian-Trump collusion.

And yet the House impeachment managers cannot finish a sentence without exclaiming “Russian collusion,” as if it has now transmogrified into some exotic foundational myth.

Remember, no sooner had Mueller found no collusion between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Kremlin and no actionable obstruction than the progressives narrative was recalibrated into Ukrainian quid pro quo—albeit after brief detours in “Recession!” and “Racism!”

Yet it is now as if neither Mueller nor Horowitz ever existed, as if we have forgotten the thousands of hours of investigation that found no Russian collusion, but indeed discovered the systematic warping of the FISA court by allegations of such falsities. As if to prove that the Mueller investigation was never biased, Andrew Weissmann now appears on MSNBC as a legal analyst to continue what he once did for Mueller, in the manner of the post-Russian “collusion” careers of Andrew McCabe, James Comey, and James Clapper.

In truth, impeachment started the very week Donald Trump was inaugurated by articles of impeachment introduced in the House of Representatives by 58 Democrats. Between 2017 and 2019, one effort to remove Trump or members of his administration before the 2020 election followed rapidly and furiously upon another. Reason, logic, moderation, and common sense vanished, replaced by a shrill directive that Trump was evil and thus his administration had to be aborted by the good people, and by any means possible…”

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Doug Santo