Victor Davis Hanson is consistently correct in a number of matters. Especially in contrast to Obama drivel.
The analysis of Victor Davis Hanson of Trump as a Shane type figure is more accurate.
— Bertie Wooster (@rationallyyours) November 18, 2020
As we now enter uncharted territory in a presidential transition, Hanson has some counsel the president would do well to heed.
“Donald Trump is nearing a crossroads. Those who allege that he has endangered the tradition of smooth presidential transitions by not conceding immediately after the media declared him the loser suffer amnesia. When Trump was elected in 2016, the Washington establishment lost its collective mind. The top echelon of the FBI and CIA were still spreading a fraudulent Christopher Steele dossier paid for by the campaign of his opponent, Hillary Clinton, and the Democratic National Committee…” That happened in the past. We should remember it, but not obsess over it in the future.
“The president’s private phone calls to foreign leaders were leaked. Media darlings and anonymous opponents within the government boasted of sabotaging Trump’s initiatives. Washington analysts and retired military officers hyped coup scenarios about how best to use force to remove him from office. So it is a bit rich for the media to now warn of Trump’s dangers to the spirit of smooth presidential transitions. Such protocols were deliberately rendered null and void in 2016…” Media hypocrisy knows no ends. They think they can command national healing. They are incorrect.
“But all that is past. What matters now are the interests of the country first and Trump’s constituents second. So Trump has a number of pathways. But Trump within days will have to prove that any such crimes and lapses warped state counts enough to have wrongly elected Joe Biden president. Trump realistically has perhaps a week or so left to make his case or concede. Currently, Trump-affiliated lawyers claim they can prove their bombshell allegations of historic voting fraud by leftists and foreign interests. They further claim that Trump was robbed not of a close election but of a veritable landslide, constituting the greatest scandal in U.S. history.” Best case scenario? Trump won by 2-4 percent. But at this point that train has left the station.
“But so far none of these advocates have produced the requisite whistleblowers, computer data or forensic evidence to prove their astounding charges. If they do not produce it in a few days, and if Trump pivots to put his fate in their hands, then the pilloried Republicans may well lose the Senate races in Georgia. And with that historic setback he would endanger his legacy, his influence and perhaps a crack at a second presidential term.” It’s put up or shut up time and today, as Arizona certifies and Wisconsin prepares to, the Trump legal team is mostly weird theories and public relations stunts.
“In blunter terms, Trump may be forced to choose within days whether he wishes to emulate Andrew Jackson, the aggrieved victim of the crooked bargain of 1824 that denied him victory in that year’s presidential election. Jackson stormed back in 1828 to an overwhelming populist victory fueled by a righteously aggrieved following. Otherwise (continuing on his current path-Ed), Trump would risk being reduced to the status of sore presidential losers like Al Gore and Hillary Clinton. For all their media accolades, Gore and Clinton never really accepted their losses in 2000 and 2016, respectively. Despite their supposed magnanimity, Gore and Clinton turned ever more bitter, shrill and conspiratorial – and ended up caricatured and largely irrelevant.”
This piece was written by David Kamioner on November 30, 2020. It originally appeared in DrewBerquist.com and is used by permission.
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