I knew if it were true it would be something that elicits response but first must have all pertinent facts and thoughts gathered as objective as can be under the circumstances. I heard hubbub a couple days ago and it came into full realization yesterday when Byron York (a commentator I've read since working in Washington 12 years ago and still respect well) issued his memo calling it "Donald Trump's political death wish." Though I am on Truth Social I do not follow Trump, but the post at matter was linked and it said all.
I am still reeling from the shock that comes naturally when someone who so strongly earned my support and loyalty through thick and thin nevertheless found a way to betray it. That shock may be affecting my perspective but at least it can be known my words here are honest. I want to be fair and impartial, thus I think it may be best to start at the beginning.
2016
The Obama years were awful, and because they coincided with the formative years of my adult life I'll never know how much opportunity I missed out on due to unwelcome social change and economic flux. I was among those who thought a Trump presidential ticket was a mildly-sick joke, and while I supported my Texas Senator Ted Cruz in the primary I had already been burned by 2008 and 2012 thus had no true hope on prospects of a 2016 victory. I could see for myself how much things were rigged on both social and traditional media and considered Trump's approach hurt more than it helped.
Then came that Wednesday morning when I heard I'd been proven wrong in the most positive way. And it wasn't just the White House but all of Capitol Hill, the new hope (well-proven in time) of disappointing judicial decisions swinging back towards the wise vision of the Founding Fathers. The legacy of this very pleasant surprise victory continues to make a positive impact on my own life and family.
The Trump Presidency
My initial elation was understandably more relieved about Hillary Clinton being kept out than expecting much from Trump, but even during the campaign I could tell the underhanded media-fueled attacks on him were unfair and likely baseless (still I thought they were more effective than they turned out to be). I was unsurprised when the Russian collusion hoax cropped up and from the start never believed a lick of it. The tight support between Trump and my pastor Robert Jeffress even prompted reservation from my wife, but to this day I still stand by what I stated in response: I don't care if Trump is using Jeffress or vice versa because what I do care about is how God's using both men.
The Trump Tax Cuts, the Abraham Accords, singlehandedly swinging the GOP towards a populism that prompts reception to the concerns of regular everyday people, success making America great again in context of the nation's standing on the world stage: this is not the place to elaborate on what the Trump administration accomplished despite constant opposition from the sociopolitical elites who could never accept that such an outsider made it into the White House, but being too young to remember Reagan I will say I'm among those who presently considers the Trump Presidency the best of my lifetime. I knew his re-election was in the bag when 2020 began...then COVID-19 hit. A disaster of such unprecedented scale would have broken any executive incumbency (including Clinton's had she won in 2016) but as the attacks picked up I knew they were as baseless as the ones before and they made my support for Trump stronger since at heart, having been treated unfairly myself from time to time, I advocate for those I can tell are experiencing the same. This is why I dare to use the word "hero" at the top of this post referring to President Trump: for all the uncalled-for adversity directed at him during his time in office I know that had I been in his place it's unlikely I would've handled it nearly as well as he did, and that inspired me.
2020
I am also among those who believe the 2020 election, particularly in the handful of key swing states, was not on the level...that having been said, at this point we will likely never know the extent of complicity let alone if it can ever be verified whether any of it was enough to affect the outcome. We also lack details on who and what triggered the violence on January 6th; anyone who knows or has followed me ought to understand I take expectation to accept a prevailing narrative as prompting to believe the opposite, and I still stand by what I posted a while back that I do not consider President Trump responsible on grounds that it makes no sense how it could've possibly had a favorable outcome for him (recent testimony from Vice President Pence appears to confirm what I suspected but hadn't elaborated in writing: violence was not what President Trump was expecting that day and when it occurred he was so shaken he didn't know at first how to respond). I concur there is righteous anger to be had if the election was in fact stolen, and while I disagree with the criteria SCOTUS used to dismiss Ken Paxton's multi-state motion to have these electoral improprieties reevaluated I also cannot get past that despite lofty promises to the contrary the best Team Trump and allies (I still respect Mike Lindell, just not for this) could provide was circumstantial evidence.
I know it is utter hypocrisy on part of Democrats, some of whom make a career out of denying elections won by Republicans, trying to make questioning 2020 qualify as at least borderline criminal. I also know the same about their singular focus on January 6th: a riot is a riot, the fair term for a person who fancies indiscriminate violence as political discourse is "terrorist" regardless of target or motive (even when the cause happens to be legitimate), and in my book as an armed citizen that makes any such people fair game for in-kind response like that made by another hero named Kyle Rittenhouse. And because nearly the entire narrative around Trump is now colored by that one event (which I predicted the day after it happened would be turned into a 21st century Reichstag fire, something certainly attempted but has not fully succeeded) I had reached the apex of my mindset to automatically question the motive behind any past or present attack on the man I'll go to my grave believing was robbed of his rightful victory (see the developing reports regarding collusion between federal agents and the highest levels of social media to bury damning information on the Biden family that post-election polling all but confirms would have caused Biden to lose had voters known about it).
Repercussions
And that is why a revelation like that from this weekend is so difficult: because it's the kind that could put everything once again in a different light. What's past is past and I continue to stand by everything I've written before because my reasons were valid then and have not been invalidated since, but that never rules out taking new information into consideration. Perhaps it's best if I transpose the exact words, still posted on Truth Social as of this time of writing and copied directly from there: So, with the revelation of MASSIVE & WIDESPREAD FRAUD & DECEPTION in working closely with Big Tech Companies, the DNC, & the Democrat Party, do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION? A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great “Founders” did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!
I never held it against President Trump for believing the election was fraudulent because my own critical observations couldn't rule out such a possibility and absence of evidence is not necessarily evidence of absence. Elon Musk may be someone with whom we American conservatives share few fundamental values but is emerging, much like Trump himself once did, as an unexpected ally in the cause of what we consider essential safeguards of liberty which is why he is, again like Trump before, catching the full ire of the powermongers who know a threat to their control when they see one. As I write this post Musk is preparing to release further entries of the "Twitter files" which is no less than evidence of complicity of an insidious move to concoct the national narrative into unfairly favoring a particular election outcome, a move that the results show was successful.
And yet I can see now through hindsight that losing in 2020 seems to have broken Donald J. Trump. In fairness I may have done the same in his place, and I feel it as a regular citizen with a family struggling to adapt to the disastrous policies wrought on this country by the Biden administration and their cohorts in Congress. But without firm foundations we have no certain basis; regardless of how much its safeguards have been skirted by those who want to turn this country into something it was never meant to be, a call for termination of the supreme law of the land and documentation of values we all agree to adhere to as citizens of this country is crossing the line.
That Constitution is one generations of my family have sworn to support and defend and a similar if not identical oath when sworn by President Trump when he took office. Being egotist is something I cannot understand because that isn't part of my personality, but as Byron York wrote there was a chance to take the high road by letting the past go and focusing on the future which Trump passed up: a choice which seems to stem from nothing save his persistent personality flaws. While I have questions about if or how much Trump was a factor in the disappointing 2022 elections, I am more sure things are already getting out of hand for 2024 thus I for one will exercise my prerogative to vote for someone else in the primary.
Maybe I'm broken too, this disappointment on top and weighing the excessive rest I've experienced for such a relatively short lifetime? Even though 2022 wasn't a total loss I've returned to the state I was back in 2008: disillusioned with the two-party system and not confident elections remain sufficient recourse to right this country (voting patterns confusing in light of consistent polls showing a supermajority believe America is on the wrong track). Only in 2008 I wasn't living in Texas or any other place where there is prominent push for alternative recourse...in the form of national independence. Perhaps now is the time to take a closer look and see for myself if the advocates for this change have their stuff together like how things turned out with Brexit.
Byron York's article: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/donald-trumps-political-death-wish