An item about Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson’s statement at the National Governors Association Winter Meeting that the GOP “needs to move on from Trump” was posted here at PJ Media over the weekend.
With all due respect, that’s not going to be easy. In fact, it’s probably impossible. There’s a fight for the soul of the country brewing, and there’s no way Republicans in significant numbers are going to walk away from it. To move on from Trump at this juncture would be to walk away from the fight.
President Trump answered the call of too many Republican voters (not to mention independents and Democrats). Assaults inflicted on the man and his supporters started before day one of his term and never let up, and the wounds are way too fresh. There’s a committed sense of the need for retribution in the air; a better word might be the Democrats’ favorite, “justice.” This retributive motivation underlies the more positive America First reasons for why Trump remains the preferred candidate and will remain so through 2024.
Some may wish it all away, hoping for some oddball return to “normalcy” — normalcy defined as an intrinsically American government, which disagrees, often vehemently, but is nonetheless recognizable as the governing body of a constitutional republic. But normalcy is off the table, as the Democrats have shown since achieving power in Washington. And no moderate, squish, across-the-aisle standard-bearer is capable of bringing it back.
Related: Was 2021 Trump’s Best Year Ever?
Moving on from Trump while he remains fit as a fiddle and continues to draw rock-star crowds to his rallies is also off the table, as long as there is a chance he will run.
Too much would be left on the table by the millions who voted for 45 over two elections. Too much good-faith civic engagement, which was rebuked at every turn by the media, the leftist governing class, and even by some turncoat, war-mongering Republicans. Too much anger, that the United States will spend lives and treasure to defend any border but our own. Too much nationalistic pride left behind, like the billions in weaponry and the Bagram Air Force Base, lost in Joe Biden’s ignominious departure from Afghanistan. Too much hope that things might change for the better, and that America would again be first in the hearts and minds of our governing elite.
To walk away from Trump now without a fight would be to acquiesce to an extremely onerous hierarchy of powers. Moving on would signal surrender to a horrible reality, the reality that populism and a demonstrable national mandate don’t matter anymore, and that all meaningful policy and lawmaking decisions will forthwith be made by unelected Deep State globalists who will mercilessly crush opposition.
That may be true, but there’s a Bridge at Remagen coming in 2022, and a Normandy reenactment coming in 2024. Until those electoral battles have been waged and decided, there will be no moving on.
Mr. Hutchinson doesn’t believe the 2020 election was stolen and rhetorically flips the script on the aphorism about how those who forget their history are condemned to repeat it.
Hutchinson seems to be saying about Trump voters that those who do remember the past, and all of the wounds they suffered in that past, when all they wanted was a better country, are doomed to repeat a lost election, because they won’t move on.
True, politics can be a brutal business, and we take our lumps. But things are probably not going to work out as Hutchinson hopes. He and the rest of the Chamber of Commerce right have been relegated to a level that they don’t seem to comprehend. To fall back under the tent of their go-along-to-get-along normalcy is tantamount to a devastating rout, not a prudent retrenchment.
For those who say we want Trump’s policies, just not his polarizing personality, no, that won’t work either. Organic leadership that arises around one individual in the form of an overwhelming grassroots populism cannot be assumed by a man or woman other than the original, unless the original figure steps off the stage and bestows his endorsement. Even then, there’s no guarantee the charisma and connection will carry over.
In conclusion, let’s theoretically agree, just for the sake of discussion, with Hutchinson’s apparent belief that the election was not stolen. Let us assume, notwithstanding the counterintuitive nature of the assumption, that Joe Biden really did win the election.
Would that change things? Would that in any way lessen Trump Nation’s commitment to fighting on under Donald Trump’s leadership?
Zip, zero, nada, no.
Too many hoaxes. Too many impeachments. Too much media hypocrisy. Too much hate for Trump and the citizens in his movement. And now that we’ve seen how godawful the Democrats govern, whether they were legally elected or not, there cannot be any doubt but that the fight must go on. With Donald Trump in the role of General Trump, if he so decides.
In the meantime, as part of the psychological operations in preparation for the conflicts to come, Biden and his subversive administration must get absolutely no credit for anything done during his presidency. Even if it is perceived by some stretch of the imagination to be “good.”
Obviously, that point is moot so far. Nothing they have done has been good.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member