Worried about too much systemic rigging and fraud for a Republican ever to win office again? Good news! The riggers themselves are quietly starting to worry it may happen.
Politico ran a story on Friday, and I must say, the title quickened my pulse. Tellingly titled, “Hurricane Trump Is Coming — And Washington Hasn’t Bothered to Prepare,” the story ran with the subhead, “After 2020, reformers vowed to erect guardrails against a rogue chief executive. They ran into a wall of complacency, partisanship and distraction.”
As if Leftists would have done a single thing to curtail executive overreach while they held office. Puh-lease.
The article fretted that the complacent deep state has done nothing to rein in a president who is on the wrong team. Pardon the lengthy quote, but here is the gist of the Politico piece:
In many ways, the book [After Trump, a volume of proposals designed to protect the nation from future rogue chief executives] was the culmination of a conversation that preoccupied Washington during the Trump years, briefly turning members of the Beltway’s legal-ethics and good-government commentariat into local celebrities: How to shore up a system that depends on the observation of fast-fraying American political norms? Goldsmith and Bauer, with long tenures in and around government, may have produced the highest-profile laundry list, but they were hardly the only ones planning for a new age of political reform.
In fact, the premise of the book, and the broader conversation, was that it would be acted on in some future America, either 2021 or 2025, that had definitely turned the page from the 45th president — a country in the mood for a 21st-century update of the post-Watergate reforms that had aimed to Nixon-proof the presidency.
That country, though, hasn’t come into being. And now, as polls suggest that “after Trump” may be turning into “between Trump,” almost none of those reform ideas have become reality, either.
Which means that, if Trump does retake the presidency, he’ll be returning to an office that differs “minimally, if at all” from the one he occupied during his chaotic term…
On a recent university tour, I witnessed a horrifying sight. In a vast, soaring hall, dozens of earnest young students — almost exclusively white women — were performing a poster session. There were endless rows and columns of eager social scientists, each presenting their ideas for social policy initiatives that would better mankind through increased government. I shuddered as a dismaying realization descended on me: these bright, well-meaning young people were future Deep-Staters — the unelected bureaucrats who burrow into our ever-metastasizing federal agencies (and corporations) and create rules that are actually laws in everything but name.
Sharing today’s School of Education Community-Engaged Learning & Equity Showcase poster session on community-engaged/justice-oriented work, hosted by Dr. Ara Schmitt & Dra. Liliana Castrellón.
Photos by School of Ed. Social Media Ambassadors: Sophia Williams & Melanie Cole. pic.twitter.com/1SlMNKJtNl
— School of Education (@DUSchoolofEd) April 19, 2023
I also realized the same thing was happening in countless colleges and universities across the nation. It reminded me of that scene in Invasion of the Body Snatchers where the heroes see the full scope of the massive pod-proliferation operation:
It’s daunting, to be sure. But be of good cheer: the Politico piece goes on to detail the rank flop sweat that is starting to form a humid cloud over D.C., and it’s almost as sweet as Leftist tears:
A number of reform advocates told me this week that they’d started getting alarmed phone calls from folks whose interest in the state of guardrails had suddenly rebounded after a Washington Post poll suggested Trump really might win (and a Trump CNN town hall demonstrated that he was just as determined as ever to shred political norms). …
And there’s no reason to doubt Trump will make the most of that lack of limitations. “If he runs and wins after his performance in office in his first term, and after what it clearly appears that he’s running on, which is a platform meant to include pledges to break norms — he can claim that the American people have approved, that his agenda is to rethink the executive branch, the nature of the presidency and the civil service, the deep state,” Goldsmith told me. “And he’ll have a very good argument, frankly.”
Yes, it’s early, and yes, polls are unreliable, but Trump is running ahead of the decrepit shell fronting the Democrats in the RealClearPolitics average and trending in the right direction:
And yes, Big Left will redouble its efforts to prosecute, investigate, raid, persecute, bankrupt, and jail the former president. And with every trumped-up politicized prosecutorial abuse, Americans’ determination to vote for the man increases. But they can’t stop, won’t stop.
Related: What Donald Trump Could Do to Win Even More Support in 2024
If Trump does reclaim the White House in 2024, it will be game over for Deep State trash. When he shocked the establishment toilet people with his surprise win in 2016, everyone was still under the impression that America’s great institutions and guiding principles were intact. Perhaps President Trump’s greatest gift to this country was his exposure of just how thoroughly corrupted and politicized every single one of our institutions really is. We now know how high these people regard themselves so that they consider themselves to be above the rules. We know they will take it upon themselves to “transcend” laws and ancient codes of ethics because they feel anointed to save their leviathan from the great orange beast.
So, yes, it’s all different this time, because if Trump wins again, he — and the American people — will go into it knowing what we’re up against. Fool us once, shame on you; fool us twice? Not gonna happen.
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