A week, as British Prime Minister Harold Wilson once observed, is a long time in politics.
That’s time enough, as T.S. Eliot said in another context, “for a hundred indecisions, And for a hundred visions and revisions, Before the taking of a toast and tea.”
Until the night of March 5, I suspected that “The Donald Trump Show,” which has been such blockbuster entertainment, might have entered its final season.
That’s still possible, of course. The people clamoring for its cancellation are many and vociferous.
Moreover, they have another concession with which they propose to entertain us: “The Ron DeSantis Deliverance.”
Someday, I’d like to see that show myself.
I wonder, though, about the most profitable time to air it.
2024? Perhaps.
But I think the jury is still out on that.
Why?
There are many reasons.
One vivid reason was vouchsafed this weekend during the final hours of the 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) program in National Harbor, Maryland.
CSPAN described the speech as “remarks.”
To me, the word “remarks” suggests something brief and casual.
Trump’s performance was long and, for Trump, well-prepared.
As usual with Trump, the talk was peppered with digressions and offhand remarks.
But Trump was clearly following a script.
Opinions about that vary.
I thought the talk bristled with rhetorical electricity.
And in terms of substance, it was one of the most forthright and powerful political speeches I’ve heard.
DeSantis was the runner-up with 20 percent.
Was that significant?
I don’t know. It’s early days yet.
A week is a long time in, etc., etc.
But right now I would say this about the 2024 race on the Republican side.
There are two plausible candidates. Trump and DeSantis.
DeSantis has the blessing of the donor class and Conservative, Inc.
He’s a great governor and would probably make an effective president.
Trump has the unwavering support of the MAGA millions and most allotropes of the dissident right.
There’s plenty of exasperation about Trump, not least among those who worked with him in his first term. He’s a difficult, demanding, and mercurial person.
But his speech demonstrated why he’s beloved by his supporters and feared and hated by his opponents.
Trump said many bold and controversial things in the course of his speech.
I’ll concentrate on two themes.
The first—it was the thing that really set heads spinning—revolved around the word “retribution.”
“In 2016,” he said, “I declared, I am your voice. Today, I add, I am your warrior, I am your justice, and for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.”
And just in case you missed that last bit, he repeated it. “I am your retribution.”
The pundits love-hated that, just as they were appalled by this promise: “I will totally obliterate the deep state.”
I think he meant it, too.
“I will fire the unelected bureaucrats and shadow forces who have weaponized our justice system. ... I will put the people back in charge of this country again.”
’Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.
Could he actually do it?
That’s a very good question.
His track record during his first term was impressive but not dispositive, partly because he was surrounded by The Swamp and its denizens.
Really, he didn’t know any better.
He came to office as an outsider, a naïf.
He actually thought that Jim Mattis and Rex Tillerson were on his side. Imagine that.
He has been disabused of those sentiments, though who exactly he can rely on as allies remains an open question.
Personnel will once again be a critical problem for Trump were he to reoccupy 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Here’s a bit of unsolicited advice that I have for the former president should he be elected again: Stay out of Washington as much as you can.
Have your mail forwarded.
Washington really is a Swamp and it will consume you.
Govern from Florida.
Have the inauguration in Mar-a-Lago.
Deliver the State of the Union Address from Iowa.
Disband the FBI, yes, but move the bits of the government you can’t actually destroy to other parts of the country.
Do it instantly, the day you take office.
The Deep State will howl.
The bureaucrats will oppose you.
The lawyers will sue you.
Do it anyway.
Act first, deal with the consequences later.
Conduct metaphorical dawn-raids on their people and institutions just as they weaponized the DOJ against you and your supporters.
That would not only be retribution, it would also be reciprocity.
Speed and thoroughness will be of the essence.
If you hesitate, if you are half-hearted, you will be lost.
The more I think about our situation, the more I believe the only hope for the republic is to downgrade the place of Washington in our public life.
Trump is one of the few people with the temerity to attempt such a thing.
Perhaps he can appease some of his critics by proposing we rename Washington to George Floyd City. I would be OK with that.
In any event, the actual government of the country should be moved to some neutral ground, out of the overwhelmingly corrupt cesspool that is Washington.
The other bit of Trump’s speech that I want to mention concerns NATO.
Trump didn’t, as some commenters asserted, “muse about Russia blowing up the NATO headquarters.”
He did talk about the folly of NATO spending billions to construct a huge headquarters for itself.
Would they not have been better advised to construct a hardened bunker?
After all, Trump pointed out, Russia could destroy the shiny new headquarters with a single missile.
Kristol was also aghast at Trump’s call for an “all-European NATO, with the United States as an ally but not a member.”
“One of the problems with the involvement of the United States in NATO,” he said, “is that it dilutes the nationalist impulse.”
Can you believe that? He actually praised “the nationalist impulse.” How Hitlerian can you get?
If that seems surprising, it’s only because you have failed to appreciate just how long a week in politics can be.
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