After all of the build-up, Day One was well, anti-climactic. In fact, the thing that's being discussed the most, ironically, is whether or not Melania Trump somehow plagiarized Michelle Obama from 2008 and the Bronzed Ego's entrance.
As is usual, I have some thoughts:
- First, Melania Trump didn't plagiarize anyone. The speechwriters for the Bronzed Ego's campaign might have (and probably did) but to think that Ms. Trump wrote that speech is silliness at the highest level. Like ALL politicians and political people, she read from the TelePrompTer and said what she was instructed to say, reading from a speech written by a twenty-something writer who couldn't get a gig in Hollywood.
- The MSM freaking out over this is rich. There is probably no bigger repository of plagiarized work than in the media. And they ONLY punish reporters and columnists for it when they get caught. Spare me your crocodile tears and do something besides report 'hot tips' from your ruling class sources. There's a thought.
- #NeverTrump never had a chance. Reince Preibus, a man who seems to have received the RNC chairmanship as a prize at the bottom of the box of his weekly allocation of Cracker Jacks, was never going to allow that to happen. When things got thick, they just vacated the Stage. In short, they ran away. All that's left now from the #NeverTrump group is noise and grousing on social media. You now have a choice: either give up on it and leave the GOP or continue to try and change it from within. Obviously, I'm in the leave camp as I've never really been all that enamored with them in the first place. Compared to the bat-shittiness of the Democrats they're OK, but as a stand-alone conservative option? Nah.
- People don't like it, but fear sells. To a point. It's clear that the GOP (Bronzed Ego version) is going to try and run as the party of fear. From those evil immigrants (and, unspoken, people with brown (not Bronzed) skin, and the Jews) to scary trade, to a declining moral code the image of America under siege is going to be hammered into viewers over and over again.
- In THEORY, the fear angle is not a bad one. Instead of asking "are you better off after 8 years of Obama" the "are you even safe after 8 years of Obama" is a fair question to ask. Police being shot, Black Lives Matters protesters blocking highways and openly calling for the murder of, and forced takings from, "white people" the case that a "3rd Obama term" as Hillary is making, could be disastrous could have legs, if the Republicans had a competent option at the top of the ticket making it. Instead they have a man who seems, in comparison, to be an even riskier option to all but his alt-right and party over principle followers.
- YES, the voice vote was a sham. As it was always intended to be. Reince and Co. have made a deal with the Devil. And they understand that breaking that deal has consequences. What they are not understanding is that the problem became intractable when they made the deal in the first place. Because deals with Beelzebub only work out well for the Devil himself. Trump is getting free publicity and will be elevated to cult status with a large enough swath of people that he can profit from it for the rest of his life. The GOP is getting an eviction notice from the adult political table.
- Going back to the strategy. Benghazi and the e-mail kerfuffle don't matter. Because, again, this election is less about policy and more about safety. And while they are horrific instances of the Anointed One proving herself to be incompetent, addled, or worse intentionally incompetent the rank-and-file American looks at those issues and says "so what?" They don't feel that an Embassy attack in Libya, no matter how botched, effects them much at home and they honestly don't have the best grasp on the latest encryption standards for e-mail communication or why it matters much. Hell, THEY don't understand e-mail so why should it worry them if the next President doesn't?
- People WANT a bigger government because it hasn't started taking away things they like. Yet. Until it does the Democrat Party can continue to run on a platform of largesse with no consequence, and promising all and sundry special interest groups that they will supply them with hand outs. The Democrats understand what the Republicans do not: Americans, on the average, are a greedy, stupid lot who, most often, don't understand who it is they are pulling the lever for in the ballot booth. (This is also why, recently admittedly I've decided to stop voting at all. Voting is nothing more than a show, especially when you live in a gerrymandered strong "R" district as do I.)
- I still think there's a case to be made to people regarding rule of law, restoration of freedoms and fiscal sanity. But it can't be approached by putting on Reagan's underwear and wrapping one's self in the flag. It's also not going to be accomplished by the Bronzed Ego waxing poetic about deporting 'illegals' and building a wall that the Messicans are going to pay for. In short, we're going to have to live through 4 years of a Clinton Banana Republic before people start to get the idea.
- That said, I think it might be a while before these ideas become politically tenable. I think that America is about to go through a Texas or California experience with single party rule, single party corruption and single-party inspired legislation. The last time we had this the ACA was the primary result, and look what a fetid-pile of pig-shit that's turned out to be.
- Finally, the media coverage of this event is too "gotcha", too "fact-check" driven to really be of any use. What you are seeing now is less about covering the news, and more of a classic case of over-correction from their fawning Trump coverage in the primaries. Then again, when you consider that the courtesans in the media have been paying fealty to the Anointed One for decades now, that really shouldn't come as much of a surprise.
