When no one gets nominated, everyone gets nominated
It will go without saying that the National Review will drive me batty. Today we get the “if you ask, you have your answer in the premise” equivalence “whataboutism” headline topper of “Are Trump’s or Biden’s lies worse?”. Floating below that is an article thing the imminent nomination of Trump to the past Democratic three time nomination of William Jennings Bryan — not a bad warning heed for the party, but missed the mark with the equivocating setting on Trump against Biden. It strikes me that the Biden bashing can be done in parallel with Trump bashing in separate articles, and not comingle, if the magazine and website wanted to hold steady with detailing the whole array of problems of Trump while retaining an anti-liberal politics.
It is a funny matter. Trump could have proudly sailed into the sunset and justifiably done a victory lap, raspberry in hand, after the 2020 election — his conservative and right-wing party now re-assembling their politics in light of his term in office. But he didn’t. He contested reality, and does not have a big picture take on politics beyond his self-aggrandizement.
George Will chimed in with the prediction that Trump would not be nominated. This is taken as wishful thinking. Today I see a bolder prediction out there — Trump and Biden won’t be nominated. At the last minute and at the convention, Biden — after collecting the delegates — will step aside and let someone else have them — shoved the party has maneuvered them to. I suppose as his political success identity is he defeated Trump this gets special playing if in fact Trump is not nominated — Biden’s political purpose ceases to be. Mitch McConnell just did Biden no favours by sputtering into a public stroke, and Diane Feinstein once again stumbled to a curt “cast your damned vote!”– the dammable reminders that – – our political leaders are damned old. And unfortunately for the Republicans, their chief challenger to their party old senile guy standard-bearer misread the public and its public on just where it stands against “woke” — opposed surely, (for where ever this means) but not where “the cruelty is the point”.