Something About The President              1.15.25

The presidential election is less than 2 weeks out. Their have been no candidate debates to speak of except the 1 ABC standoff between Trump and Kamala. The VPs took the stage against one another for a singular discussion. But their weren’t any other meaningful debates with potential candidates who made any kind of mark earlier in the primaries. Their was no spectacular panel of senators, representatives, secretaries of some govt entity. Their were no long shot candidate types like entrepreneurs, foreign policy wonks or reprisal politicians akin to Bernie Sanders aiming to strike a possible directional change in the county’s executive office.

Truthfully the last real election ordeal that provided Americam voters much of a choice was in 2016 after Barack Obama had served out his second term. Hillary Clinton was showing promise as the successor democrat. The Republicans were aligned with an arsenal of candidates early on including Mike Pence, Ted Cruz amongst others. Then for some reason Donald Trump decided to put his hat in the pile and give it a shot as a late entrant to the preliminary contest. He went outlandish and early-on vulgar in his public tirades. He insulted Muslims, called out the need for a border wall, pushed negative insinuations about Obamacare, NAFTA, and other national initiatives that he disagreed on. A cesspool of election interference and finger pointing captured headlines regarding Russian involvement. An untimely allegation against Hillary Clinton regarding improper cell phone usage for work emails blasted her poll numbers in the final weeks of the campaign. Ultimately for some reason a large force of people supported DT.

My thoughts on it then were that we lived in a period of time, not greatly different than today, where people sought enthusiastic gratification for the cultural spectacle that would result if this household real estate mogul, celebrity figure actually beat out the other nominees for the highest office in the land.

We all watched election Tuesday. The results came trickling into the production rooms as live coverage was underway. The drama soon escalated and those newscasters in front of the cameras who like most of us assumed a Hillary victory was a surety began to question the liklihood of a possible Trump victory.

Sure enough he got the votes. The unlikely occurrence that most practically minded constituents assumed would never happen, did indeed pave a path for the Donald Trump presidency.

Many people leading up to the 2016 election held tight onto the MAGA band wagon. I was not one of them. But the wagon, despite its jostling absurdity during election season did eventually get glistened in a glowing red lacquer.

So what happened next? Well DT went on to serve as presidenct. It was an eventful ride for sure during the first several years. Cabinet appointments, erecting a wall, economic reforms, diplomatic consternation, proAmerican rhetoric, late night comedy show hilarity, Trump Family center-piecing, many and many press conferences, stock market volatility, China Trade Wars. But life went on and many people seemed to be comfortable.

Personally, my roommate and I at the time had insightful, late night discourse on the ongoings of the political spectacle. We’d laugh hard at some of the absurd things that were circulating in the national conversations regarding Trump. But at the end of it, I often found myself sympathizing with a witty presidential figure who was made to withstand personal assaults and circuitous tirades through much of his first few years in office.

Despite not voting for him, I at-least supported his efforts in what was nonetheless an eventful showing of power that maintained our nation’s position as the global-ish leader for several years. Then Covid struck. My initial thought was that it was China’s retaliation against the tariff’s that DT had enacted on their exports. That though was never proven as a plausible explanation.

So our nation dealt with nearly a year of lockdown. We got through it. It was a weird time. Trump did as good as I could imagine anyone might have given the situation.. So those 4 years.. all that I mentioned plus an impeachment fracas that the democrats brought against Trump for which he managed to emerge rather unimpeded by. So again my thoughts resolve back to the perseverance of a man who decided to run for president and then achieved the unexpected.

Enter the 2020 elections. The nation was seemingly exhausted from the onset of Covid, terrible media of death tolls, mask wearing, global friction, catastrophic health concerns, job furlows, stimulus payments, the whole fucking thing of it.. Covid wasn’t Trumps fault. Eventually we got through it. The democrats went in to the 2020 presidential primaries with a huge panel of candidates. Several debates for the party ticket ensued. But like crackling embers in a fire, the would be politicians quickly dropped out of the race and the nominee was soon handed to Joe Biden. He beat Trump in the contentious election.

Well he did ok for a while. But then he seemed to have gone senile. Life went on, meanwhile the Republicans never thought to orchestrate a new candidate for the 2024 election apart from their best fre-enemy.. Presumably they all felt that Trump was the best choice for the job. The whole thing literally has been riddled in drama, much of which I feel is worthy of a hearty chuckle given the circumstances.

Then Trump gets past the rough waters of indictments, court appearances, pecuniary sentencing, acquittals and the early throws of election season. He nearly looses his life at a rally in Butler PA. That’s when I thought the guy whom I had somewhat affectionately yet somewhat dismissively referred to as ‘DT’ struck another consolatory and empathetic tone with me. I mean fucking nearly loosing your life is a big deal. Live.. live.. live you might say! Well hey hats off to that.

A week later Joe Biden drops out. Who do the democrats replace him with? The Vice President who many might argue was simply offered the job because she was a vote hunter for the female and minority base back in the 2020 election. Based upon my instinctive beliefs, I would say that I don’t think Kamala really wanted to president, holding the highest position in the land and such. She doesn’t have the political prowess or apparent determination that her gender peers as Hillary, Elizabeth Warren, Meredith Whitley or even AOC have demonstrated over years of elected public involvement. In my opinion, she is a former government Attorney from California who now because of an usual chain of circumstances over the past 7 years, found herself as the sole presidential opponent to Trump.

The MAGA guy had a lot to loose, a lot to prove and a lot of experience in doing what he does. I’m willing to take my chances on another Trump presidency. To those that got us here in first place and everyone else.. We shall see!