Apologies to those who still don’t accept the inevitability of a Donald Trump candidacy in the Republican Party — I feel your pain, as a famous prevaricator/predator once said — but, disappointing as it may be to Fox and CNN executives, not to mention the millions or hundreds of thousands of voters loyal to Messrs. Cruz and Kasich, it’s all over but the shouting and the backbiting. Cleveland in July may not be Christmas in July, but it’s not going to be the second coming of the 1992 L.A. riots or the 1968 Chicago convention either.
It’s going to be business — relatively — as usual with a Republican nominee comfortably in place before the festivities begin. And we all know who that is, like it or not. The fat lady has sung — with a Queens accent.
I know that many see this as a disaster. The Republican Party will disintegrate. The Congress will turn blue never to return, etc. etc.
I don’t. I’m sure that since I am a Trump supporter — even though an intermittent and ambivalent one — people will disqualify my opinion, and perhaps they should, but I don’t have that worry. I think, as the old saying goes, things happen for a reason. I agree with Tucker Carlson, who said on The Kelly File Monday night that Trump was the only candidate with a chance of defeating Hillary Clinton in the general election. It is only Trump, of all the Republicans, if indeed he is a Republican, who is enough of a wild card to overcome the new American demographics that so favor Democratic candidates in presidential elections. They were bad enough when Obama ran against Romney. They are worse now.
So the fat lady’s been singing for a while. But she started to hit the high notes when, just the other day, Cruz and Kasich got more desperate and decided to team up (sorta) to defeat Trump. They didn’t, however, seem to have their hearts in it and only hours after the announcement Kasich appeared to be backing halfway out, saying he still wanted his supporters to vote for him. He just wasn’t going to campaign in Indiana. Cruz wasn’t acting particularly enthusiastic either. This wasn’t exactly the Bryan Brothers going for that last Wimbledon. No real team play for these guys. Trump called them “colluders,” but I’m not sure they could do a good job of even sharing crayons.
Did they know deep down that Donald already had it? The opposition seems to. Hillary Clinton isn’t obsessing aloud every chance she gets on how she’s going to defeat John Kasich and she doesn’t give Cruz much of a mention either, except as an afterthought, someone to lump in with Trump as an evil conservative. Hillary, at least, doesn’t think Donald’s a liberal, no matter what contributions he may have made to her campaigns or foundation. She’s already making campaign ads attacking him.
And, yes, I’m writing all this before the results of the five state primaries Tuesday or the supposedly crucial one in Indiana in May, not to mention the all-encompassing finale in my home state of California. It’s already over.
As I mentioned, I realize because I have supported Trump, I am the wrong one to say this, but it is time to lay down our internal arms and concentrate on our external enemy. Multiple reasons exist for this, but the most important and obvious is that the larger battle is too crucial. Our country is at a turning point — there’s no time to waste.
Painful as it may be for some, lining up behind Trump now does something else important — it does more to push Donald in the right ideological direction… toward the right. As we are his support group, he will listen to what we say. That’s the way the world works — usually. He will never be perfect. But as somebody smart once said (I think it was Dennis Prager), if you want to find a candidate you always agree with, you are going to have to run yourself.
Still, I know it’s hard not to be angry and harder still to let go of the grudges and enmity that seem to have devoured us. The divisions among friends and family I have seen out there in recent weeks and months are as bad, it seems to me, as the ones that occurred after 9/11 when so many refused to acknowledge who our real enemy was.
But in this case we’re not enemies. We’re on the same side and it’s never too early to start healing. If it’s any help, close you eyes and imagine Hillary making her inaugural speech. It works wonders.
Roger L. Simon is an award-winning novelist, Academy Award-nominated screenwriter and co-founder of PJ Media. His next book – I Know Best: How Moral Narcissism Is Destroying Our Republic, If It Hasn’t Already – will be published by Encounter Books in June 2016.
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