Is Our Second Civil War — also a ‘Forever War’?
Posted on 12/24/2020 11:07:28 AM PST by RandFan
Denouncing the $900 billion COVID-19 relief bill as a parsimonious "disgrace" and hinting at an Alamo-style finish on Jan. 6, when Congress votes to declare Joe Biden the next president, Donald Trump is not going to go quietly.
The anti-Trumpers and "Never Trumpers" celebrating at Christmas 2020, in this "dark winter" of Joe Biden's depiction, are assuring each other that Trumpism and Trump are dead and gone for good in four weeks.
The future of the GOP, they suggest, belongs to the Republicans who resisted and renounced Trump through the last five years of his candidacy and presidency.
As for those cowards and collaborators who stood by Trump and refused to repudiate him, they will, in turn, be repudiated by history and the American electorate alike.
The wish, here, is very much the father to the thought.
For if the past is any guide, not only are the reports of the death of Trumpism premature, the probability is that Trumpism has put down roots in our national politics that are not soon, if ever, going to be pulled up.
For those of us of a certain age, a comparable situation arose at Christmas 1964. Barry Goldwater had just been crushed in a 44-state landslide, winning the votes of only 27 million Americans. The senator had carried only five states of the Deep South and his home state of Arizona.
The establishment saw in the crushing of Goldwater the defeat and rout of the "extremist" movement that had produced him. "The Party That Lost Its Head" was the title of a widely hailed post-election book by two Ripon Society Republicans.
The establishment consensus was that Govs. Nelson Rockefeller of New York, William Scranton of Pennsylvania and George Romney of Michigan were the future of the party, if it was to have a future.
What followed?
Richard Nixon, who had stood by Goldwater when the party's liberal elite abandoned him, would lead the GOP to recapture 47 House seats in 1966, take the presidency in 1968, and run up a 49 state landslide in 1972.
Thus began a period of GOP presidential ascendancy, with Nixon, Reagan and Bush I winning five of six elections from 1968 to 1988, until the first baby boomer president, Bill Clinton, arrived on the scene.
And while there are differences between now and then, there are many similarities.
Do the anti-Trumpers or "Never Trumpers" represent the future of the GOP? If so, where is the postwar precedent for this? No Republican who turned his back on Goldwater was ever nominated for president or vice president following Goldwater's defeat.
When President Gerald Ford put Rockefeller on his ticket after taking over from President Nixon, the Kansas City convention of 1976 demanded Rockefeller's removal as the price of party unity.
Rockefeller was sacrificed, as the right had demanded.
Four years after Ford's defeat, Mr. Conservative himself, Ronald Reagan, Goldwater's most effective surrogate in 1964, was nominated and won successive landslides in 1980 and 1984.
Other factors and forces point to the probability that Trumpism has a major role in the party's future.
Where Presidents Truman, Nixon, and George W. Bush left office with approval ratings in the 20s, Trump's approval rating is still in the 40s, where it has been for the duration of his presidency.
Second, the issues that propelled Trump to the nomination and the Oval Office still resonate with the American people.
Among them are mass migration, insecure borders and dependency upon foreign imports for the necessities of our national life.
Moreover, there is shrinking support for a foreign policy that has us tied down militarily in Europe, East Asia and the Middle East, to fight if need be, in the defense of scores of nations, few of which have a direct bearing on the national security of the United States.
Another issue Trump elevated and exploited that is more acute now than in 2016, is a distrust of the media, the "deep state" and the political, cultural and academic establishments that have alienated the 74 million who voted for Trump.
And if the past is prologue, the Republican Party will make a major comeback in 2022.
Consider. Two years after his smashing victory over Goldwater, LBJ and his party lost 47 House seats. Ronald Reagan, after his landslide in 1980, lost 26 House seats in 1982. After routing Bush I in 1992, Bill Clinton lost 54 House seats and the Senate. Two years after winning the presidency, Barack Obama lost both the House and Senate in 2014.
Is it likely Joe Biden will be celebrating his 80th birthday after making history by leading his party to control of Congress in 2022?
For Republicans, the nomination of 2024 is a prize to be sought.
However, if one has spent the last four years trashing Trump, it may be as out of reach as it was for Rocky.
Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of "Nixon's White House Wars: The Battles That Made and Broke a President and Divided America Forever." To find out more about Patrick Buchanan and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators website at www.creators.com.
To write about Trump or this election and not focus on the self-evident election fraud as a major theme is not the work of a patriot.
Focus.
I’m saying Buchanan has turned the narrative against Trump.
‘Never Trumpers’ will be what is left of the dying republican party if our great President Trump does not succeed, nothing more and then they will die off being the scum that they are.
I’m going to switch to Independent right after the new year. I’m done with the R’s who take great delight in stabbing their voters in the back.
Democrats will have control regardless because they will cheat until they win just like they did this time. Nothing will be done. Makes no difference if we have no control of the party if they are all RINOs.
So?
I’m so sick of jackasses listening to their own onanism.
Buchanan’s article explains that Trump and his supporters are likely to control the party and win in the near future.
But you’re crowing about nonsense, I doubt you read the article.
Now people can’t discuss whether Trump will win because that indicates he might lose?
Grow up.
People discuss things and we’ll never win with annoying blowhards like you.
Merry Christmas.
I quoted you, so I understand what you said.
It seems to contradict the name you chose.
You are not wrong, my friend...
From your lips to God’s ears!
Full disclosure: live in a red state and ready to make the move
It doesn’t take a genius to see Buchanan is trying to discourage Trump supporters.
And if you want to be taken seriously you shouldn’t resort to personal attacks. It makes you look defeated.
Buchanan has every right to oppose Trump while pretending to support him. My point is simply that such a tactic is dishonest.
In the quote I posted Buchanan is saying Trump can’t win. He said this just one week after the election, when the fight was just beginning.
Does this mean Pat Buchanan is nothing but a a wet noodle? Or is he taking money from the enemy?
My point is Buchanan is talking out of both sides of his mouth.
Pretending to support Trump while planting poisonous seeds of doubt.
Maybe it was his OPINION.
You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.
What is so damned special about the GOPe
Three presidents worth a shit in 160 years
Wow I’m so awed
Who are your three?
Me:
Reagan
Ike
Harding
“The grandfather of Trumpism opposes Trump?”
You really need to find a new hobby. Something more attuned to whatever your meager intellect is capable of handling.
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