Last week, I advised the supporters of former President Donald Trump to avoid overconfidence. Granted, this caution was composed and issued prior to the Democrat Party once again disproving their professed commitment to actual democracy by jettisoning the winner of their 2024 primary, namely incumbent President Joe Biden, and installing Vice President Kamala Harris in his stead.
Unsurprisingly, some progressives have no qualms about their primary vote being rendered meaningless by their party’s antidemocratic powerbrokers and are eager to follow their “marching orders” to fall in line behind and support the vice president. Yet, given the past lack of support from her own party during her 2020 presidential campaign, many Democrat voters remain wary that she can attract enough traditional Democrat, Independent, and disaffected Republican voters to support her yet-to-be-finalized ticket.
Naturally, on their part, many GOP and/or MAGA voters consider the outcome of the left’s palace coup—Vice President Harris’ presumed presidential nomination—to be cause for, if not celebration, certainly one more compelling reason Mr. Trump will win a second presidential term come November (or however long it takes to decide a winner). This is not an unreasonable proposition; however, there are some GOP and/or MAGA voters who are now worried that Mr. Biden’s bowing out will diminish, to a greater or lesser extent, Mr. Trump’s prospects. This is also not an unreasonable view. But, much as with overconfidence, this trepidatious view must also be tempered by the reality that not everything will go against the Democrats in this election. If such concerns are not tempered by this recognition, anxiety and defeatism may result.
Believing politics is life, the left lives for politics. Consequently, it is Pollyannaish to believe—hope, really—that the left will politically self-destruct and hand the 2024 election to the Republicans. During this contest, for Republicans and MAGA voters, it is best to anticipate that the other side will adroitly execute a host of political maneuvers to win. Bluntly, for Democrats, it is what they do and who they are. For Mr. Trump and his supporters, expecting their opponent’s best will prevent overconfidence and elevate their own political game.
For example, nominee Harris will likely choose a vice presidential running mate from a swing state, be it Sen. Mark Kelly from Arizona, Governor Josh Shapiro from Pennsylvania, etc. So, too, an absence of a floor fight for the presidential nomination would turn the Chicago Democratic Convention into a coronation. Further, prospective left-wing demonstrations could be in fewer numbers than expected and those who may pop up may be muted in their misbehavior. Indeed, the Democrats are already doing everything in their power to drive their duplicitous narrative of “party unity in the defense of our democracy.” [Author’s note: “our democracy” translates as “their party.”]
Why? Because the left has a pathological fear and consuming hatred of Donald Trump and his supporters. The left has and will continue to manifest their obsession with Mr. Trump, his party, and his movement through misinformation and/or disinformation. It will be measured in the billions of dollars the Democrats’ well-heeled donors spend to propagate misinformation and/or disinformation in political attack ads, as well as mockingbird media smears, legal persecutions worthy of a Stalinist show trial, and other disinformation manufactured and propagated by the administrative state.
Yet, in the upside down, perverse world of politics, the left’s paranoiac compulsion to destroy Mr. Trump and his supporters is the best evidence he will win. Already, the Democrats have proven they will shred any semblance of a “democratic” primary process because they fear Mr. Biden could not beat Mr. Trump. Moreover, their angst has led to the Democratic establishment’s handpicking a suboptimal nominee, Vice President Harris, who is undoubtedly the next best person to run against other than Mr. Biden. The reason is elementary and cuts to the core of why the left hates and fears Mr. Trump and his supporters: Republican populism’s policies are not only popular; they work to improve Americans daily lives and advance their dreams for their children and themselves.
So long as Mr. Trump, his party, and his supporters continue to stress this election is about policies and not personalities or politics, they will prevail over a Democrat Party whose policies have abjectly and palpably failed the American people and whose politesse cannot conceal from the American people who are suffering from them every waking minute.
This is not a case of overconfidence. It is a case of having confidence in the wisdom of the American people.
Recently, I attended a weekend art fair in an increasingly blue area of Michigan. Not only were local Republican volunteers staffing a booth for the first time in memory, I spied out of the corner of my eye a young, Gen Z fellow strolling between the booths with his head held high above his “I’m Voting for the Convicted Felon—Trump 2024” tee-shirt.
While I continue to warn against being overconfident, I guess a wee bit of swagger on the campaign trail is appropriate.
An American Greatness contributor, the Hon. Thaddeus G. McCotter (M.C., Ret.) served Michigan’s 11th Congressional district from 2003-2012, and served as Chair of the Republican House Policy Committee. Not a lobbyist, he is a frequent public speaker and moderator for public policy seminars; and a Monday co-host of the “John Batchelor Radio Show,” among sundry media appearances.