The results of the Presidential election came as a delightful surprise to some and a crushing blow to others. How did we get here? Former Wall Street Journal Publisher Gerard Baker spelled it all out in an October 30 column published on the pages of the Journal. Mr. Baker opined:
There are surely millions of conflicted Americas who are sympathetic to the Democrats’ closing argument that Donald Trump is the risk to our national civic health we are reluctant to take. We hear his demeaning rhetoric about migrants, his menacing language about “the enemy from within,” his weird and unsettling infatuation with some of the worst people on earth. ...
We are conflicted, however, because of this simple, enraging thought about the Democrats themselves: Are we really going to let them get away with exploiting that unease, using our doubts and manipulating our angst to validate retrospectively the damage they have wrought in the past four years and to approve proactively what they might do in the next four?
Their deceitfully vacuous campaign, its invitation to sign up to a blank slate on their plans for another term and a collective amnesia about their work in the current one, their empty pantsuit of a candidate, incessantly blurting inanities into the media void, incapable of articulating a single substantive idea for governing—what they amount to is nothing less than an abuse of the voters’ scruples, an exploitation of the yearning many have for a hint of normalcy. ...
That’s the reason it seems, a week from Election Day, that enough Americans are ready to take their chances on another term for Mr. Trump. They want to tell the Democrats: You don’t get to do that. You don’t get to drive the country ever further into your new progressive dystopia, deepening our divisions and sapping our strength, and then turn around and say to the voters: Sorry, but it’s us or Hitler.
For all the talk of Mr. Trump’s character flaws, this is the unhappy political reality at the end of this long, enervating election—it’s the Democrats who have brought us to this place.
Four years ago, the former president was beaten and, like all defeated presidents in the past 130 years, ripe only for the history books. His disgraceful behavior in his final two months in office was, if not constitutionally disbarring, at least politically disqualifying. When he sulkily left office on Jan. 20, 2021, his approval rating was 34%, according to Gallup, the lowest at the end of a president’s first term since Jimmy Carter.
That should have been the end of him politically, yet his fortunes have revived—not because of some genius work of rehabilitation on his or his supporters’ part, but entirely because of his Democratic opponents’ arrogance, overreach and ineptitude.
They willfully misinterpreted a small majority for Joe Biden, who was presented in his campaign as the personification of dull political normalcy, as a mandate for presidential and legislative activism on an historic scale. ...
Bowing to a fundamentalist lunacy that walls are somehow immoral, that America owes the world a home and a living, they opened the border, unleashing socially and economically destabilizing forces that will take decades to repair.
They propagated anti-scientific nonsense about “gender” and anti-historical nonsense about race that have inflicted new wounds on our social fabric and reopened old scars.
They brought shame on America’s reputation and critically undermined our strength by executing a disastrous surrender to the enemy in Afghanistan and thereby emboldening far larger foes in Europe and the Middle East.
Their zealotry helped turn the president who had left office in a cloud of shame into a figure of some pity with an excessively vengeful campaign of criminal and civil litigation aimed not only at harming his political and business prospects but at sending him to prison for the rest of his life—a campaign that backfired spectacularly and damaged trust in the idea of an independent judiciary.
They deceived the country for 3½ years about the fitness for office of the cognitively failing president. For all their talk about the threat their opponents pose to democracy, we have yet to learn how much the presidency has been run by an unelected cadre of people competing for power around an increasingly catatonic figurehead.
When the truth about Mr. Biden’s health was finally exposed, they thought they could simply swap him out for someone who hadn’t been tested in electoral competition. Anyone questioning her credentials and abilities was denounced as racist or sexist. And now their plan is to have the voters bail them out of all this misgovernance by insisting that the only alternative is totalitarian terror. Will we really make that bargain?
Ouch!
29 comments:
simple. "Merica!
Idiocracy timeline achieved
Every word of Mr. Baker's column is true. Hopefully Trump's second term will show us a changed man, but even if it doesn't, we're better off with him than we would have been with Harris and whatever insider group has actually been running the country for the last 4 years.
I don't understand why we are not hearing gnashing of teeth about all the voter fraud????? I guess it is not an issue when you win.
Nailed it.
It’s amazing to me that post-election the liberal & often corrupt news media are attempting to find the culprit in the loss without looking within to their faults of motivating millions of undecideds to vote against Harris because of the medias shameful deceits.
Why not cite an column from an impartial author rather than a biased right winger? Oh, that's right, because Kingfish is a biased right winger. Anyone that thinks Biden is "cognitively failing" and Trump isn't is delusional.
I am bothered that MISSISSIPPI Democrats agreed to go to OTHER states as "surrogates."
Rubbish. Yet another incorrect analysis by legacy media. This prominent writer would have people believe that Trump was actually an unpopular and ineffective president who only got elected this time because he was unfairly persecuted by the Democrats. If this was the only reason, why was he still vehemently opposed by prominent former republicans? While this was a factor, it’s certainly not the central reason. Trump won almost every swing state and the popular vote (for the first time by a republican since 2004) and made significant inroads with minority voters that no republican had ever done. He won in a commanding fashion because the majority of Americans agree with his policies and outright reject those of not only Democrats, but the “Never Trump” establishment republicans as well. Just another example of establishment media not understanding their own electorate. Of course they may understand but are trying to change the narrative once again in a feeble attempt to diminish Trump’s momentum and mandate heading into the inauguration.
Gerard Baker spelled it all out. Man did he do a great job at describing the last 4 years. Thanks, KF for posting this.
See, voting early and often does help.
@1:48, look at the popular vote numbers of Harris yesterday vs Biden in 2020. Either 14mil people didn’t vote for her that voted for Biden, or there were shenanigans pulled in 2020. My vote is for the latter. There are plenty of graphs on the internet showing the same. Lots of eyes on this election after 2020.
@2:11: Who would be naïve enough to leave and be a surrogate for her, of all people?
Kamala Harris was a dead fish since she ran for President in the Democrat primaries four years ago. She was roundly rejected. She is a loser. Biden slected her as a token VP thinking she would be a safe do-nothing choice. He was right but he was also too damn old. The Dems allowed him to do it and now they pay the price. They backed a dead fish. Now the result.
Wall Street Journal is a propaganda rag. Beware the watered-down "courage" displayed in such articles by such authors. What I saw, was damage control - a repackaging of the same establishment lies (and omissions) which have been part of the standard approved narrative, for years - repackaged as "courage" and "rebellion".
There are gigantic gaping holes in the Author's description of the past 4 years. There are entire subjects which one is not allowed to mention (subjects which would include millions of dead and maimed Americans - and the responsible criminal cartels), and he did not even allude to those subjects' existence. He is merely assuming a rebellious POSTURE, while predicating his arguments on the lies which have become standard MSM "truths", since 2020.
I’m neither a rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth MAGA rightwinger nor a delusional progressive, so I can see this column for what it is - deadon accurate.
Keep getting all you info from the "internet" smart guy
Trump spent 3 hours with Joe Rogan. Biden can't do 30 minutes.
@3:01 - there’s another possibility you can’t even fathom, that Trump cheated this election to keep his felonies from putting him in prison.
2:15, Several states are still counting votes, so we don't yet know if Trump won the popular vote. I mention that because it seems to form the basis of your opinion that Trump has been anointed King of America.
Based on the content of your comment, and your use of the word "rubbish," I suspect a strong affiliation with the Mississippi Center for Public Policy. In other words, you are hardly the voice of unbiased opinion, and you are certainly in no position to dismiss what you call the "legacy media." This is because you, yourself, are basically a hired shill.
4:03, if he can cheat well enough to win the electoral vote 309-226, any other problem should be easy peasy
November 6, 2024 at 2:00 PM
Clearly you never watched the debate.
November 6, 2024 at 4:03 PM
Winning the electoral AND popular vote puts that particular conspiracy theory to rest.
2008 Obama 69 million votes
2012 Obama 65 million votes
2016 Clinton 65 million votes
2020 Biden 81 million votes
2024 Harris 67 million votes
Anything seem suspicious here to anyone else besides me?
Well at least Chowke got indicted
4:33- this is 2:15 You’re correct, all the votes have not been counted, but you have to admit it’s an impressive total for a candidate as polarizing as Trump. I guess I was a little harsh in my previous comment, but I think everyone on both sides has to appreciate the significance of Trump’s political achievement. Honestly can anyone see Mitt Romney riding in a garbage truck, or Jeb Bush filling orders at McDonald’s? I doubt that even Nikki Haley could sit down in a totally unscripted interview with Joe Rogan for 3 HOURS. My point is this: in the end Trump was able to put together a coalition of his base, Hispanics, blacks, Amish, Jews, and Muslims. I’m certainly not saying this makes him a King. I just think only he could pull this off. When youlook back on everything since his previous defeat to the culmination of last night’s election- I would argue that (despite his many personal failings) Donald Trump may be the best politician we will see in our lifetime.
As a side note- I’m just a guy who has enjoyed following politics for many years. Although it is a little flattering that you think I could get paid to do this!
The vote counting corruption of 2020 will come out one day.
Why aren't any of Jackson's liberals crying about doing away with the filibuster today?
This guy sounds like a democrat. The world was better off when he was president. There was no war in Europe and the economy was good. Now Russia and North Korea have sent troops to Ukraine. Iran and Israel are close too war. China is preparing to invade Taiwan. This is the closest we have been to world war 3 since the Cuban crisis. Biden was a failure and he is the worst president since Carter.
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