Before war finally broke out among New York's five gangster families in "The Godfather," young Michael Corleone — whose assassination of a dirty cop would soon light the fuse — wondered how bad things would get. Don Vito Corleone's capo, Peter Clemenza, explained that things would get "Pretty go**amn bad."
"Probably all the other Families will line up against us," he told Mike, all matter-of-fact. "That's all right. These things gotta happen every five years or so, ten years. Helps to get rid of the bad blood."
Even organized crime is only so organized. There are rival families, impatient upstarts, old grudges — and no legal means to settle their differences. So every five years or so, ten years, you end up with a mob war to get rid of the bad blood that naturally and inevitably builds up.
Since we just have two major political parties in this country, each is very much a loose coalition of competing interests, probably best defined by being not members of the other party. Fortunately, we do have legal means to settle our differences.
Political primaries provide much the same function as mob wars but without — one hopes! — a literal bloodbath.
Primaries are, and ought to be, hard-fought affairs. Candidates, ideas, policies, priorities all must be tested. The bad blood has to be drained. Then, when the people have spoken and a nominee is named, we have to drop our guns and walk calmly towards the general election as though nothing happened.
That's why it's been such a disappointment to watch Donald Trump continue to campaign against... Ron DeSantis?
"I signed a pledge to support the Republican nominee and I will honor that pledge. He has my endorsement because we can’t go back to the old Republican guard of yesteryear, a repackaged form of warmed-over corporatism that Nikki Haley represents," DeSantis said when he quit the race in January — an endorsement not just of Trump but of Trumpism.
While the bad blood between the two men is real, DeSantis said he wants to help GOP candidates down-ticket, and Trump on the national stage. Florida "is not going to be a state that’s competitive [for Biden] in November, and that's just the reality,” DeSantis said about why he doesn't need to campaign for Trump in his home state. "And then how I can help nationally, I want to be able to do that."
It isn't just Trump, of course, although as the de facto party leader, it sure would be nice if he'd set a better example. Trump's former Vice President, Mike Pence, might be the worst example. "I cannot in good conscience endorse Donald Trump in this campaign," he said last week while refusing to reveal who he would vote for in November.
What Pence — and NeverTrumpers in general — fail to recognize is that there are bigger issues involved, including the Democrats' weaponization of our justice system at all levels against conservatives and Republicans generally, and against Trump in particular. It's got to be stopped before Democrats normalize it, or we'll soonbe a republic in name only.
A political party is its voters. Republican voters have spoken in the 2024 primaries and that's that. Better luck in 2028 when, whether through victory or defeat, Trump will be neither a candidate nor the nominee.
Recommended: Google Invents a New Way to Stick It to Trump
