“They are going to convict him. They will absolutely try to put him in jail if they can. So if Trump wins the primary, what’s the plan?”
I wish somebody had said that more than a year ago. Oh, yeah, I did. Over and over again. But we like our lies, don’t we? In fact, the lie is all too often the point of our political reindeer games.
‘Trump is king’ will the get the clicks from our base, but it won’t fill in enough circles on those ballots on Election Day.
For example, a lot of us told ourselves we would never get here because we thought this was a legal process looking for a political outcome when in fact it was a political process looking for a legal outcome all along. The distinction is vital, because when the latter is true, there are a lot more thumbs on the scale on the front end to give the appearance of a legitimate public outcome on the back end. It’s the “mercy” of Thanos, and it was inevitable.
So here we are in June 2024, about five months away from Election Day, and instead of assuring us that he’s about to unveil the greatest “art of the deal” ever, Donald Trump is wasting time and valuable capital going after Bob Good, one of the best congressmen the Republicans have, because of some petty and childish grievance, while most of Trump’s closest supporters have actually endorsed Good in Virginia.
I can’t make that make sense, and I won’t even try. But what I will do is give the Trump campaign a plan that it should follow if it really wants to win. I love my family and its future too much not to try.
Yes, I’m going to vote for Trump. I’m never going to be a fanboy for myriad reasons. But I’ve compared him for several years to a Samson-level character. Samson judged Israel. Samson plunged the temple of Dagon, the fish demon worshiped by the Philistines, into the ground and did away with scores of enemy soldiers. Samson defended innocent life. No, he’s not a guy you want to marry your daughter, but you can also appreciate him for the leader he was for most of his time in office (before he surrendered to the scamdemic).
And oh, by the way, he also isn’t riddled with dementia.
But that’s me. And I fully understand that the way I think about things often isn’t the same as the normie American who is going to decide this contest. So how do we message them going forward? The idea that the people are so on tilt that there will be uprisings in the streets and civil wars if the deep state doesn’t stop horsing around is utter nonsense. Remember COVID-19, lockdowns, masks, and the jabs that gave you that weird flutter in your heart? The comfortably numb normies couldn’t get enough of that. See the problem yet?
We need to stop wandering into Little Big Horn and calling it a good time. The martyrdom of Trump is a message about the past that has already captured every voter it is going to get. Now we need to get the votes from people who are most concerned about the future, which is the same concern that happens to decide every presidential election — whether we like it or not.
So here is my plan for those with ears to hear.
First, don’t hold your breath for a debate on June 27. Because if Joe Biden’s body reached a resistance level to the Adderall and whatever else is in the cocktail from the White House apothecary that he can’t convincingly do the “Weekend at Bernie’s” act any longer, Biden’s handlers will cancel it and say he doesn’t need to debate a convicted felon.
Next, I would anticipate that Trump will be under some form of house arrest at the very least. That means his campaign will soon largely be an air war and he won’t be able to court large crowds in person. In turn, that means keep doing what you’re doing with how you’re messaging your martyrdom to your base, because they’re responding, and you are making money hand over fist as a result.
But you need to turn around, starting right now, and use that money while the ad rates are cheaper to ask the normies if they are better off than they were four years ago. Get to talking about issues. Because when elections are about issues, Republicans tend to win. And when elections are about personalities, Republicans tend to lose.
Can you afford a car? Can you afford a house? How many jobs are you working right now? Are you worried that your son is going to come home any day now and demand that you start calling him Shirley? Trump needs to authentically reset the heart of the MAGA message, because there are more people right now who understand the need to make America great again than there were in 2016.
Give the people the message they’re willing to buy — not only what you want to sell. Those are two totally different messages. I know “Trump is king” will the get the clicks from our base, but it won’t fill in enough circles on those ballots on Election Day. Time to use the all the money coming in from the Trump-as-martyr rallying cry and saturate the airwaves with the message of prosperity and freedom that will.
Finally, I would anticipate that sometime between now and June 30, the Supreme Court will rule on Trump’s immunity concerning his Washington, D.C., case. To play his strongest hand out of that news cycle, I would have Trump ready to announce his choice for vice president immediately.
That person will essentially become the candidate by proxy and, because he or she will be making all the public appearances an incarcerated Trump cannot, will become the face of the GOP’s future. It needs to be someone who could be president from day one. Somebody who makes the normie voters forget about the mean tweets that wouldn’t allow them to hold their nose for Trump in 2020 and will make them happy to turn the page now.
But before this or any plan can be successful, we need to start taking seriously the level of threat here. We need to start believing our own existential talking points.