After reading my column about Tuesday’s blue earthquake, some of you posted comments about what I wrote. You think I missed a few crucial points. Fair enough.
Today I want to weigh in on what some of you had to say.
There were comments about how we’re now stuck, for at least two years, with socialists and communist. One of you wrote, “Not just Commies, but people who outright hate the country. Chevalier, who was elected in NY last night, wrote on X ‘I forgot to get napkins so I just wiped my hand on the American flag behind me.’ This should never have happened. That’s not Trump’s fault. That’s the fault of voters. Many more just like her.”
But why would voters do something so harmful to their own best interests?
Maybe it was the fact that Donald Trump himself was not on the ballot. But maybe it was because Donald Trump told voters to pretend that he actually was on the ballot, that Republicans got hammered.
They voted, one of you said, for “what’s best for foreign nationals, not legal citizens; what’s best for criminals, not victims; best for welfare recipients, not the taxpayers…Their vision of America is that we’re evil and must be punished.”
More: “They DON’T want to do what’s best for the country. Like it or not, last night’s vote was effectively an embrace of the worst America has to offer: Socialist, Communists, America haters, criminals, fraudsters (MN fraudsters are thrilled), supporters of illegals, and violent anarchists. The country is in big trouble. Blue voters too.”
From another Trump supporter: “The biggest problem I see is that Dems won the local elections too. That will destroy communities, raise taxes, and so on. Girls’ sports will definitely suffer, illegals will proliferate, crime will go unpunished.”
We can chalk it all up to how dense or naive the voters were, but it leaves out an important element, which I’ll get to right after I relay a few choice words about yours truly.
“So, already this morning, the incoming House Democrat has threatened Trump supporters and it was reported that an old leftist slapped a young Turning Point USA poll worker in the face and told him, ‘To get the F*ck away from me.’ So i guess this will be the ongoing trade off, huh, Bernie?”
The implication is that I’m somehow willing to accept the “trade off.” I’m not. I’m no fan of Democrats in general and the progressive, socialist, and in some cases communists on the left, in particular.
But I’m not the bad guy here. Donald Trump is. He said he’d bring down prices, and didn’t. He said he wouldn’t get us into wars, and did. He said affordability was a “hoax.” Imagine how that went over with blue collar voters who work hard and still are struggling to pay for food, gasoline, and maybe even rent or the mortgage.
And here’s something we should take very seriously because it explains a lot. Donald Trump never said he understood their pain. He couldn’t. He was unable to show empathy — because he has no empathy. It’s not in his DNA.
MAGA and other Trump supporters got everything they hate because prominent Republicans are cowards. They were too afraid to tell the president he was hurting the party — not to mention the country. When he dropped F-bombs on live national TV they said nothing. When he said he would shove the election up Democrat’s ass, they were silent. When he said Rob Reiner was stabbed to death because he had Trump Derangement Syndrome, they hid under their desks. When he said “Norway sucks” because they wouldn’t give him the Nobel Peace Prize, they looked the other way.
This week they paid a price for their cowardice.
As for the president’s fans in the media: They didn’t help Mr. Trump or Republicans, either. Donald Trump cares about what people say about him. Instead of kissing up to him, they should have held him accountable for his policy failures, for his narcissism, for his vulgarity, and for his unhealthy need for vengeanance. It might have made a difference.
And finally, I received this: “For someone who proudly announced that, ‘I am not voting’ your opinion is meaningless. You are an ignorant traitor to the process.”
Maybe, but I don’t see it that way. I didn’t vote for president — three times — because I found Hillary, Joe and Kamala unacceptable. Besides, the last Democrat I voted for was Jimmy Carter — and only the first time he ran.
I didn’t vote for Mr. Trump, either, despite the fact that I believe he deserves credit for shutting down the border, for lowering (or at least not raising) taxes and for trying to hold Iran, a terrorist state, accountable for its actions.
That was a lot, but not enough. The problem, for me and many others, is that Donald Trump is not the kind of man we want to be president — because he sounds like a street thug from New York. He’s not fit for the office. He cheapens it.
And I didn’t vote in this last midterm election because, as I say, I don’t vote for Democrats anymore, and I chose not to vote for Republicans who would be the proverbial rubber stamp for the president.
If Joe Biden did and said the things Donald Trump did and said, you wouldn’t stop hammering him. Neither would Republicans across the country. Neither would the the Trump contingent in the media.
I wouldn’t accept it from President Trump, either.
He brought the blue earthquake on himself. And if what we get in the next two years is bad left wing policy, Democrats will pay a price in two years.
In the meantime, ask why would voters be so reckless and vote in the socialists and communists many of you think will call the shots for the next two years, and maybe beyond.
Could it be that they figured that Donald Trump is in way over his head. That he didn’t keep his promises on grocery prices or on engaging in foreign wars. That they want less narcissism from their president, less vulgarity, and less vengeance.
Could it be that they figured even bad left wing policy was better than bad presidential character?
I agree pretty close to 100% with what you say here. Frankly, it was not Trump's agenda or policy positions that lost the midterms - by that I mean his agenda on energy, reshoring manufacturing, mining, and other industries, making the US less dependent on foreign adversaries for critical supply chain materials, foreign policy re: Abraham Accords, getting NATO allies to live up to their commitments, regulatory reform, DOGE, etc. - it was his ego, narcissism, vanity, sophomoric insults (one among many others you left out was his insult to Italy's Prime Minister), gas lighting on the Iran war, the chaotic way he imposed tariffs, his alienating allies (his position re: spending on defense was correct, but he could have gotten the message across without insulting and alienating our allies), etc. He had a real opportunity to get the country pointed in the right direction, but he frankly blew it as Gerald Baker correctly pointed out in this WSJ article from September. https://www.wsj.com/opinion/helpi-feel-a-bad-case-of-tds-coming-on-0d2515aa?st=1swsBt&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Well said, Bernie. Sadly, I fear many of the commenters you've quoted here will not change their minds. They more likely than not get their news from right wing news sources exclusively, and are used to hearing how awesome Donald Trump is, and how evil the Democrats are, day after day. To be fair, there are others who have used the "lesser of two evils" argument - "Trump may be bad, but the Democrats would be far worse".
I've come to the conclusion that our best option (or our least bad option) is gridlock and divided government. We've seen with Obama and Biden, as well as with Trump, that if one party controls both the White House and both chambers of Congress, the Congress no longer sees itself as a co-equal branch of government, who has an important role of oversight and a "check" on Executive power. They see themselves as an extension of the administration, whose job is to further the President's agenda. Any dissension is considered disloyalty.
Until one or both parties let the adults have the car keys again (I'm not holding my breath), our best option is for the opposition party to control at least one chamber of Congress to block the most extreme elements of the party-in-power's agenda.