Schlemiel, Schlimazel, Hasenpfeffer Incorporated
****
SUPPORT LIBERTY!!
Please become a voluntary subscriber or contributor to Wide World of News today.
Subscribe here at fixed rates — or become a Founding Member:
To contribute, pick your amount and method:
* Check. Send a simple email to markhalperintalk@gmail.com and ask how you can mail in some money.
• PayPal. markhalperinnyc@gmail.com
• Venmo. Mark-Halperin-4 (telephone number ends in x3226)
• Zelle. markhalperinnyc@gmail.com
* Buy me a cocktail (at Philly prices….), tax and server tip included, by clicking here.
* Buy me a cup of coffee (or a year’s worth) by clicking here.
Thank you for your support.
Mark
****
The incumbent president of the United States is touting his infrastructure law in Gotham City, ending a slew of COVID restrictions, dealing with Putin, reveling in the prospect of avoiding a global recession, and on the precipice of his State of the Union address and a reelection bid.
And yet today I am focused – again – on Donald Trump.
I’m not writing about the only declared major candidate for president in 2024 because he’s suing Bob Woodward, or because a New York grand jury is apparently looking at the Stormy Daniels matter again, or because of some Truth post.
It is now crystal clear to me that I will have to spend much of 2023 playing the role I assumed in 2015 and 2016 – once again putting America on notice that Mr. Trump could end up winning the Republican nomination and the presidency.
Some of you will perhaps recall the various prices I paid for doing that previously.
This is not about predicting (let alone rooting for!) a Trump surge.
Far, far short of such a thing, this is about making the obvious (to me and a few others) point that Trump can win, with implications this time around that are actually potentially far greater for the nation and the world than what happened seven years ago.
And I’m telling you that Trump could be the Republican nominee even if Ron DeSantis chooses to enter the race and runs a decent-to-strong first-time effort for the job.
Let me start by quoting someone from the weekend:
When is the FBI just going to stay out of the election process? Just let we the people to decide. Let the American people decide. In 2016, they spied on Trump's campaign. 2018, it was the Mueller investigation. 2020, they helped suppress the Hunter Biden story. 2022, they raid the home of a former president 91 days before an election.
When you read those words, do you get outraged at the Deep State, at the Fake News, at the unfairness of American elections?
Or do you react with indifference or disdain to what Jim Jordan said on “Meet the Press”?
My point is that, as in 2015/16, the greatest thing Trump has going for him is the incandescent determination of the Establishment, the Dominant Media, 485 member of the Gang of 500, and our liberal bastions to ignore the concerns of the approximately 47% of the country that continues to carry around decades of being pissed off about crime, immigration, cultural changes, their economic anxieties, and a whole lot more of what Trump road to the White House not that long ago.
I can’t ask or expect you to read the entire Columbia Journalism Review special report by former New York Times investigative reporter Jeff Gerth, which at great length chronicles the Dominant Media’s war with Donald Trump over Russia Russia Russia. It’s a very long piece and it actually doesn’t contain too many revelations.
But the article is a good reminder that most of the media still has failed to grapple with why and how Trump won in 2016 – and is failing to grapple today with why he still has such a hold (albeit diminished!) over the Republican Party and why he is capable of winning it all again.
So all you really need to do today is read McKay Coppins’ Atlantic piece about how none of the folks who want to stop Trump actually have a clear (let alone surefire) plan to do that, except for hoping he dies, gets indicted, loses his donors, or something something something.
To repeat myself:
1. Trump can win.
2. Putting all the chips on “DeSantis” to stop Trump might work, but there are at least a dozen reasons why it might not.
3. America will never move on from Trump until those who oppose him better understand the motives and aspirations of those who support him.
4. There are a lot of Republicans (many quoted by the media regularly) who say they are ready to move on from him, who could ultimately vote for him, depending on who else is on the ballot, how the ponies run the race, and the facts on the ground.
I’m not telling you I am a combo of Cassandra, Nostradamus, Alvin Toffler, and Don Fierce.
I’m just saying you and we can’t go forward without understanding the realities and implications of that McKay Coppins’ article.
So read it.
To be continued…
****
ESSENTIAL READING
* The Washington Post’s umpteenth look at the politically wobbly enterprise that is Vice President Kamala Harris lists many reasons for concern among her supporters, but, without any apparent irony or intention, leaves out the top three actual reasons.
* The Associated Press takes stock of the relative lack of 2024 presidential campaign activity in Iowa, but, without any apparent irony or intention, leaves out the top three implications of that reality.
****
****