There has been a lot of talk in recent months about unsafe tropes in politics, especially from my fellow conservatives.
And while I empathize with some of their concerns, I must shed featherlight on the most unsafe trope in contemporary political discourse: Trumpism without Trump.
Many seemingly right-wing political commentators If vocally I miss for Trumpism without Trump. They want to keep most of the America First policy proposals he brought to the forefront, along with the momentum and enthusiasm he has gained from his unprecedented rise in the Republican Party, but they want to retire the former president and keep him on the sidelines where his controversial deliberations and magnetic personality will not dominate public discussion.
When Sen. Mitch McConnell et al rejected candidates in battleground states who had seats up for grabs, did so as part of a demoralization tactic designed to stop the rise of America First and strengthen Uniparty. The establishment-backed concept of Trumpism without Trump is a dangerously insidious mistake because the America First movement relies on Trump’s bold and energizing personality; Trump is the only figure who has emerged as our nation’s champion, and his move represents Americans’ last chance to avoid total despair. America First cannot survive without him.
The personal, emotional connection between Trump and his base cannot be underestimated. Without Trump as the candidate in 2024, at least one million of his supporters will stay home and refuse to vote Republican. They hate the system, they know how they are being cheated, and they rightly believe that most politicians from both major parties should be given the boot. They trust only one candidate: Trump. These voters are the forgotten men and women of this country; they put Trump into office in 2016, and losing them will ensure losses in future elections.
If Trumpism disappears, the Republican Party will return to its former Bush-era neoconservatism. This toxic ideology means open borders, appeasing illegal immigrants, and offering a watered-down liberalism to win the votes of a recent demographic as founding Americans are washed away. For Bush-era neoconservatives, social issues are only worth considering if they can be used to keep a majority of Republican voters. For neoconservatives, Christian values are nothing more than a canard used from time to time to deceive voters into supporting a foreign policy of imperial conquest.
Republican voters and ordinary Americans may hate the transactional, power-driven Bush-era Republican Party, but it is loved by corporate interests. This ideology espouses the ideals of compact government while showering billions in benefits to wealthy and privileged donors. It is the ideology of outsourcing jobs to China, disenfranchising the working class, praising such actions as free market successes, and then giving taxpayer-funded subsidies to bankers to reward their hostile and predatory practices.
Before Trump, it was the path of the Republican Party, and there was no backlash beyond gadflies like former Texas congressman Ron Paul and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who gained more than expected supporters because of grassroots disgust for Trump. neoconservative status quo. Paul and Palin’s crusades were valid and commendable, but they lacked the ability to lead a gigantic, nationwide swath of mainstream Americans to oppose the political establishment.
Enter Donald Trump.
Trump answered the prayers of millions of Americans and fulfilled his mandate unlike any president in state-of-the-art history. Anti-American forces want us to stand back and soften in response to the greatest attack on freedom in this nation’s history. The fifth column of enemies of the Republican Party smiles at this thought. Former House Speaker Paul Ryan said Trumpism is over and a more responsible conservatism will replace it. What does this responsible conservatism involve? Accepting the need for carbon taxes to reduce Social Security benefits for seniors.
All potential contenders for Trump’s 2024 presidential nomination enjoy establishment approval, and corporate interests have no doubt that the entire field could be hijacked and used to push Republican politics back to the obscure ages of the bush.
As effective a governor as Ron DeSantis was in Florida, he is woefully ill-prepared to carry the America First banner in Trump’s stead. DeSantis is significantly weaker than Trump on three key issues: trade, foreign policy and the Deep State. Beyond immigration, they are core to Trump’s America First mandate. Here’s why RINO bet is ok With DeSantis the 2024 nomineeeven though his pseudo-Trump style throws them off a bit.
Not to mention other would-be candidates such as former Vice President Mike Pence, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, former National Security Advisor John Bolton, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Senator Tim Scott. They pose no greater threat to a Trump resurgence than the likes of former Ohio Gov. John Kasich and many others whom Trump humiliated in 2016. They will simply sultry up Trump to devastate Democrats in the general election – a featherlight meze before the main course. DeSantis poses the only threat, and because he has shamelessly expropriated Trumpism, the establishment believes he is uniquely suited to undermine the Trump resurgence in Republican and national politics.
The America First movement must remain intact for future generations, and given demographic realities, that future is not certain. There are emerging organizations supporting America First values and spreading the message about the steps we must take to rebuild our nation, such as American virtue, Republicans for National Renewal, District of Strateand Bull moose designbut these groups are in their infancy. Many other organizations are appropriating the America First brand. These are simply front organizations of the same venerable class of scammers who have reinvented themselves to continue to line their pockets with an evolving movement.
Conservative Inc. Heritage Groups they still exist and still wield an uncomfortable amount of influence due to the enormous amount of money behind them. These organizations exist to suppress the activist base, remove populism from GOP politics, and place the Republican Party back in the establishment reservation. They are trying to persuade Republican Party voters to support policies that are contrary to their own interests, and they cannot be ignored. For a recent embarrassing example, look how many conservatives there are they were irritated support another endless war between Russia and Ukraine to protect where Hunter Biden was making money on drugs.
This is an uncertain time for our movement and now more than ever we need our leader to lead us through it. To accept Trumpism without Trump, to succumb to controlled opposition propaganda, and to go quietly into the night with America First is a national suicide pact. There is basically no turning back. The war is already underway. The escalation is too great to ignore. We are in an existential fight for our society, our values, our civilization and our reality. We rise and fall with this man, and we will be rewarded with the honor of our strength and loyalty, no matter how 2024 ends.
