The perceived program of the Democratic Party today can be
reduced to two words: DUMP TRUMP! (The exclamation point
is a necessary part of this breathless political rhymed-program.)
It has also been a singular strategy of many Democrats, some
establishment Republicans and most of the traditional media
since their traumatic hours late on election night, 2016 when
they first realized Donald Trump had actually won the
presidential election.
However, a myriad of attempts to prevent, and later “dump,”
Mr. Trump from office have all failed, as would the latest and
most formal, impeachment.
The nature of most of his opponents’ desire to remove the
president from his office is primarily visceral. It is not only his
verbal style, his tweets, his body language and hand gestures,
it is almost everything about him --- his hairdo, his financial
resources, his earlier professions --- or as might be informally
said: his whole package.
This significant assemblage of passionate opponents is matched
by a political base of those who love or admire the very “package”
of attributes which his antagonists despise.
Although the intensity of anti-Trump feeling seems to be
especially strong, student of U.S. history will see equivalences
in public emotions toward earlier presidents, particularly Andrew
Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, Richard Nixon
and Ronald Reagan --- but it is noteworthy that each of them were
re-elected (Roosevelt to four terms). Much of this was attributable
to the loyalty of their party’s voters. (Mr. Nixon resigned after his
landslide re-election only when his base abandoned him.)
We have a two-party electoral system and a presidential election
every four years.
Having failed to “dump” Mr. Trump by so many other means,
and with a new presidential election less than a year away, a more
successful program ahead against the incumbent might just be
“Defeat Trump” (with or without exclamation point).
I believe most of the Democratic presidential candidates, facing
the potentially toxic distraction of the impeachment stand-off,
and a good many other Democrats, certainly no fans of Mr.Trump,
would prefer to get back to the electoral process in which they
might succeed in putting someone else in the White House next
January 20th.
With even Speaker Nancy Pelosi swept up, willingly or not, in the
flood of the “dump” program, and her party heading to a bitter
brokered convention, it would appear, however, that a possibly
successful “defeat” program is now beginning to fade inexorably
from sight.
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Copyright (c) 2020 by Barry Casselman. All rights reserved.
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