America Somewhere

[setsuled]

Well, I was happy to wear my grandfather's Liberty Bell lapel pin yesterday--the Liberty Bell being located in Pennsylvania, the state that delivered Biden the presidency. If our luck holds. I suppose Trump will try legal challenges and his side does have a few valid points--Arizona in particular was called much too early. But the idea that Trump could win if Biden has Pennsylvania is pretty remote.

I still don't feel quite as celebratory as some of my friends. All in all, Biden's win seems likely to be Pyrrhic. With Congress and the Supreme Court controlled by the Republicans, it doesn't seem like he'll be able to get anything done while at the same time he'll be blamed for everything that goes wrong. Despite having been voted in by historic numbers, we must take this alongside the fact that it was a terribly close election, which means Trump got historic numbers, too. More than he got in 2016. I would say the likelihood of the next president being a more traditional Republican is pretty high.

I wonder if Trump really will try to barricade himself in the Oval Office. In spite of everything, it does feel like the big, dark circus joke is over. In my mind, he has shrunk back down to irrelevant reality TV star again.

For years, people speculated what would happen if a massively popular celebrity was voted into the White House. Books and movies were written with the premise. Many people assumed, if it were to happen, it would be Howard Stern. Stern, it is said, would've won his joke gubernatorial bid for New York if he hadn't withdrawn in 1994. But Stern, like most comedians of his popular cache, was smart enough to know he wasn't really qualified. Trump's showmanship was coupled with a lack of any true respect for the country or the office. Otherwise he would've stepped aside long ago for someone with the education and experience requisite for the role.

Meanwhile, things have been deteriorating in the U.S. in various ways. How much of it is Trump's fault isn't clear. Does Trump really deserve his Nobel Peace Prize nominations? He did manage to avoid creating new wars. But his policies regarding immigration to the U.S. seemed barbaric, if any of the media reportage can be believed.

It can't honestly be denied that the Left has gotten very ugly in the U.S. in recent years. Trump's protesters are notably more peaceful than the rioters of the Left. Can the Left back down now? Many were already calling Biden the lesser of two evils. Without Trump, many may see him as the only evil. The more I think about it, the more this seems like a best case scenario for the Republicans.

Comments

Knock, knock - I saw this on Latest Things

[nodrog]

Many were already calling
Biden the lesser of two evils.
Without Trump, many may see
him as the only evil. The more
I think about it, the more
this seems like a best case
scenario for the Republicans.

National Review sees the same:

If he wins, he faces the prospect of gridlock — and howls from the socialists over any attempt at bipartisan negotiations.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/11/this-is-bidens-worst-case-scenario-for-a-presidency/

They figure he's going to be essentially a Democratic Dan Quayle - ineffectual at best, unable and really unwilling to enact the personal-freedom-destroying, economic-disaster measures his handlers envision bringing about.

That's fine by me - Aesop's frogs wanted King Log who did nothing, over King Stork who was eating them!

Re: Knock, knock - I saw this on Latest Things

[setsuled]

True, it could certainly be worse.

Re: King Stork

[nodrog]

Indeed it could:  Imagine if, instead of rigging the primary to ensure her nomination regardless (“Fool me twice, shame on me”), Comrade-Queen Hillary had smiled a plastic smile in 2016 and “accepted” the position of running mate to 75-year old Bernie Sanders.  What do you think would happen next - and how soon? 

(Texan Lyndon Johnson, whose political career was over - Kennedy was not going to keep him as veep in his second term and he knew it - “just happened” to have his family Bible aboard Air Force Two, conveniently ready to hand upon which to take the oath of office when Kennedy went to Dallas.  How ’bout that.)

Fantasy?  The pleasant, inoffensive “Trojan Joe” Biden may have already served his purpose, by putting a black female “Federal Socialism for thee but not for me” Senator just one old white man’s heartbeat away from the Big Power Seat, where she could never have got on her own, but would have incited civil war had she tried.  The clock is ticking:  CNN already figures she’ll be the 2024 candidate, that Biden won’t run for a second term.  I wouldn’t bet lunch money on the fumbling 78-year-old President-elect lasting even that long.  Why wait?  For what?  History is ready and waiting to be made!

<===//===//===>
[“I’ve known Joe Biden for a long time and he’s a nice man but he’s not a strong man.”

- Deputy national security adviser K.T. McFarland]

Re: “Fool me twice”

[nodrog]

That bold statement does call for some evidence:

https://nodrog.dreamwidth.org/2017/11/03/

N B:
https://nodrog.dreamwidth.org/2465439.html