Transactional Trump Worries He’s Screwed His 2024 Chances

0
1123

“Be careful what you wish for…”

I’m sure all of us learned that saying when we were young.   Very young in fact.   It might be trite, but there’s a lot of truth in it, as many a person (if not most) learn during the course of life.   Trump, the dude who loves making deals made one and in the process created the very petard on which he and his dreams of making a 2024 electoral comeback are about to be hoisted.   He didn’t just make the petard in his deal with conservative religious wingnuts, he sharpened the tip with Kavanaugh and with Barrett he screwed on a big ole “broadhead” (one of those tips with razors that go on the end of a hunting arrow) to the tip.  (I wonder if he’s had nightmares of being one of Vlad the Impaler’s victims)

Trump knows he’s got a problem as noted in an article I read earlier today.  He’s worried about suburban women wrecking his chances in 2024.   Sometimes, his instinct for self-preservation permits some rational thoughts to form amongst the collection of Sharts in his skull, and he knows he’s got a problem.   A big one in fact.   It’s the same one that cost him the House in 2018, and in something that is truly painful for him cost him re-election in 2020.   Those suburban Republican women “came home” to the GOP down ballot (surprising everyone including Republicans) but with Trump literally on the ballot they delivered a stinging rebuke.   He knows it.   Even if  he didn’t want in the past to admit it to anyone else HE knew it.   As Rolling Stone reports:

“Trump’s private admission that abortion politics could now potentially blow up in his face — in the wake of his and the GOP likely getting exactly what they wanted — echoes the hope among various Democratic lawmakers and strategists who believe if Roe falls or is gutted, it could energize critical voting blocs in their favor.”

It must be noted not everyone is sure about this including some Democrats who worry that RWNJ voters will be just as energized as pro-choice voters.   We will have to see.  However Trump is worried about it and I for one grudgingly accept the fact his survival instincts have somehow always served him well and he’s worried about his political (and with it fundraising ability) survival these days.

Let’s step back for a moment to see how we got here.

Is there anyone who doesn’t know damn good and well that Donald Trump has pressured women he’s impregnated to have an abortion and even paid for them?   Or that he wouldn’t do so again in a heartbeat?  (I know.  Take a minute and inject Brain Bleach into your head over him impregnating someone.)   He never gave a crap about abortion unless he wanted/needed to get a woman to have one.   And THEN by golly he was ALL for it!   On demand.

You know it.  I know it.   And frankly, so do all those “Christian” leaders who blessed his candidacy (and supported him as President), who “laid hands” on him, who anointed him as their guy.   He needed them.   He needed to to sell them on his being President so that they’d convince all those “Evangelicals” to vote for him.   Like any slick and successful used car salesman who can get a customer to ignore all manner of flaws in a car, Trump was able to discern the one thing that would overwhelm all logic.  To play up the one thing that mattered above all else to convince leaders in the religious (so they claim) conservative movement – especially those so-called Evangelicals.    Just like the used car salesman with a mid-life crisis guy on the lot lusting over a classic Corvette with dings, faded paint, tape everywhere covering tears in the convertible top and an engine knocking loud enough to wake the dead but who can only picture himself in the driver’s seat cruising a college campus and picking up coeds, Trump knew the ONE thing he could do that would get these RWNJ preachers on his side.

He could say to them he’d appoint the exact kinds of Judges and Justices they wanted.   That he would let them do the picking, working with their pals to vet those judges and create a list of people acceptable to them.

So Transactional Trump did two things.  Since he needed not just an introduction but someone who could convince the preachers to take him seriously he ditched his preferred VP pick and brought Pence aboard.   Then Trump dangled the reversal of Roe v Wade (and other culture war issues) in front of them and promised he’d pick judges and Justices (including the pick McConnell had stolen from Obama) from a list approved by them.   They could work with The Federalist Society and other RWNJ think tanks to develop exactly the kind of judges and Justices they wanted.   People who not only hated the same stuff they hated (abortion being at the top of the list) but had been trained, had been groomed (yes, if you’re wondering I chose that specific word for a reason!) to issue the kinds of decisions they wanted judges and Justices to hand down.

It was strictly transactional for Trump.   Hell, he knew that if he  (or wannabe Princess Ivanka) needed access to any reproductive services including abortion a bit of “medical tourism” didn’t even amount to tip money.   I’m sure the bulk, if not most of those tee vee preachers and their Evangelical flocks knew in their hearts that was the case, as it would be for others of means.   The only rule would be don’t get caught.

However it’s a fact that must be stated that they were transactional too and made their literal deal with the Devil.

But it’s a deal that got done.  The leaders of the “Christian” Crazies, the Zygote Zealots would get their judges and Justices and they would “forgive” all manner of antics from Trump knowing how many judgeships Trump could fill, the SCOTUS seat held open by McConnell waiting to be filled, and that chances were good Trump would get to fill at least one more.   Better still for them the judges and Justices Trump would give them would as I said deliver on rolling back more more that abortion rights.   They aren’t hiding their desire to next roll back other reproductive rights like birth control.   Other things too.  Rights for LBGTQ people.   Religious rights for anyone not Christian, or more specifically their (perverted and nothing like Jesus taught) version of Christianity and even enshrining Christianity (again – their version) as the law of the land.   A whole boatload of stuff that would give them wet-dreams for the rest of their miserable lives.

My point is that it was transactional for both Trump and conservative “Christians.”   Trump cut his deal with people he held in utter contempt.   Most, if not all those influential people Pence hooked him up with surely felt the same way about him.    At the time Trump really didn’t believe he’d beat Clinton but he had plan for being a major force that could raise (and keep for himself) a LOT of money.   By all accounts he was surprised on election night.   What surprises me to this day is that unlike Republicans going back to Reagan who preceded him he made good on his promises.   He picked his judges and Justices from their lists.

Tragically, he didn’t get just one pick for SCOTUS (that held the status quo) but a second.   Kennedy’s “retirement” was a surprise and that’s another subject but getting to fill that seat with a hard core RWNJ prick.  Kavanaugh.   Worse still, the thing conservatives literally prayed for (and to any who deny it you are a goddamned liar!) Ruth Bader Ginsburg died.   (Seriously – how many of those who attended the super-spreader event for Barrett at the WH went over to Arlington National Cemetery either before or after and laughed as they danced on her burial spot?  Or have done so since?  (To any conservative that might read this and say I’m being hyperbolic, awful, making stuff up and that no conservative would even think of doing such a thing much less actually do I say you are a liar.  A goddamned liar!) Tragically for our country Trump got three SCOTUS picks in a single term, a truly rare and equally tragic turn of events.   It will take every amount of discipline the Corps poured into me not to smash my fist into the face of ANY conservative who whines about (liberal of course) “Activist” judges!    You a-holes invested countless millions over four decades to pack the courts including SCOTUS with activists who create the “legalese” version of contortions and outright untruths that would put a Cirque du Soleil performer to shame!

I simply feel compelled to point out that Trump, his evil spawn or his enablers will suffer any of the consequences of the damage that will be done to our country by the Supreme Court he has installed.   Money and power comes with privileges, and lack of morals and shame will not only allow these people to practice all manner of hypocrisy, Trump and many of them will revel in it!

I know many of us like to make fun of Trump’s intellect.  Or more accurately lack thereof.  However a person doesn’t have to be smart to have savvy.   Trump had, and still has that particular quality, the ability to assess a situation and lock in on what might serve his immediate needs.   Big picture/long term has always taken a back seat to the here and now for him which is why he was such a failure with so many of his business ventures.

Still, sometimes even for Trump a bill comes due as evidenced by all those bankruptcies and business failures.   He’s running scared now because he believes (and I believe correctly in this case) the bill will come due for his deal he made with the “Christian Crazies.”   The midterms will show us one way or the other.   If the GOP fails to retake the House, even if they get the Senate (and that’s no longer the fairly safe bet it was as McConnell is visibly scared himself!) it will be bad for Trump and his chances in 2024.   And he knows it.   If Democrats don’t just hold on but make gains, and especially if they do so at the state level then it’s game over for Trump.

I can only imagine the fury we works himself in to, thinking how keeping his promise to pick the judges and Justices “those whack jobs” (and don’t kid yourself – as I said that’s exactly how Trump thinks of them and always has) told him to pick has twice bitten a chunk out of his butt.   And that it might wind up with his whole fat ass chewed off!  After all, a Roberts court without Barrett would only have a 5-4 margin with Roberts (probably) joining our people in upholding Roe BUT continuing to whittle it down but conservatives would still have the issue to raise money on and motivate a crucial block of their voters with.   In that scenario Trump might, just might retain enough clout to bludgeon the GOP into giving him another crack at the Presidency.

I noted not everyone is sure the overturning of Roe will be Trump’s and the GOP’s Waterloo come November but for now the point is that Trump believes it.   As word of this spreads, that Trump is feeling the heat and believes he should have reneged on his promise to the Zygote Zealots I think it will be interesting to see what it does for his support among such people.

In the meantime I’ll enjoy myself with thoughts of Trump feeling scared, even tormented.

The best part is his misogynistic ass has to deal with the quite real prospect of a repeat of 2018 and 2020 – suburban (even Republican) women, WOMEN crushing his electoral/political hopes.   Satan (if he exists) probably feels like The Onion right now – wondering how the hell to compete with actual reality!

 

Help keep the site running, consider supporting.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

The maximum upload file size: 128 MB. You can upload: image, audio, video, document, spreadsheet, interactive, text, archive, code, other. Links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other services inserted in the comment text will be automatically embedded. Drop files here