Beware of RINOs Pushing for Trump-lite

Calling Donald Trump polarizing may be the understatement of all time. Woke despises him on a level that exceeds the hatred they displayed for Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon combined. In fact, if an election was held today, a majority of Democrats would likely vote for China’s strong man dictator Xi Jinping over Trump.

Still, at least Woke doesn’t claim to have anything but malice for the America First movement. Their hatred is transparent, so it isn’t difficult to predict the tactics they’ll use to destroy anyone who is an impediment to their relentless effort to achieve authoritarian rule. We’re not caught off guard by their strategy; it’s a matter of whether we have the will to defeat them.

In reality, the more sinister threat to America First actually comes from inside the Republican party, and disloyal operatives are taking a sneakier and less obvious approach to rid themselves of Trump once and for all. They desperately want to regain power so they can once again sit on the Fox news panels, spewing their donor driven, neocon orthodoxy and advocating policies their constituents despise.

Creating and Capitalizing on Trump Fatigue

There is no denying the former president has made some head-scratching miscalculations lately. His strategy of endorsing MAGA candidates in the midterms only made sense if the outcomes were relatively certain. Support for candidates in states with a history of election irregularities made little sense. For example, Arizona elections are still a mess, and with anti-Trump partisans firmly in charge of the elections in the state’s two largest counties, endorsing Kari Lake for governor and Blake Masters for Senate was too risky. The same holds true for Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and other battleground states where somehow, the candidates leading in the final polls lost their races.

Democrats dominate federal law enforcement agencies and the courts in many jurisdictions, and they’ve made it clear they will use them to silence their enemies. Part of the exhaustion voters feel toward Trump is based on what I call the “Joe Arpaio” effect. Arpaio was the Sheriff in Maricopa County for 24 years, and he was known as America’s toughest sheriff. For more than two decades, Arpaio infuriated Democrats by arresting illegal aliens in large numbers and turning them over to ICE for deportation.

Ultimately, over 2,700 federal, state, county and civil lawsuits were filed against Arpaio, loosely based around civil rights violations, which purportedly cost Maricopa County over $50 million to defend. Ultimately, burdened by the endless barrage of lawsuits, Maricopa County voters grew weary of the expense and controversy surrounding Arpaio, and he was defeated in 2016.

It appears Democrats are using a page out of the Arpaio playbook to discourage the MAGA voter base, and it seems to be working. At the time of this writing, Trump faces over 20 lawsuits related to his businesses or presidency, five of which are criminal complaints. The distraction surrounding these lawsuits, combined with Trump’s daily claims of persecution, are leading to voter fatigue even among his most ardent supporters.

At this place and time, Republican voters seem worn out and tired of the negativity. Trump appears distracted to the point that he no longer touts his vision for America in a second term, instead using his platform to air his grievances and play the martyr. This is exactly the reaction the Democrats hoped for when they cranked up the litigation machine, and RINO Republicans are taking full advantage.

Beware of the Shiney New Toy

Mired in lawsuits and controversies, some of his own making, RINOs, and even well-intentioned conservatives, have begun to call for Trump to step aside. Numerous “respected” publications from the National Review to the Charlotte Observer are calling for the MAGA base to move on from Trump. The argument against a 2024 Trump candidacy seems to center on a single predominant theme: Trump served his purpose; he accomplished some good things, but the distractions are costing us elections. They claim we need Republican candidates who believe in some of Trump’s ideas but don’t carry his baggage.

Okay, but who would those candidates be, exactly?

Ron DeSantis has been successful in Florida, which is a state with a growing demographic of older voters looking to escape the idiotic policies of states like Illinois and New York. DeSantis’ resistance to lockdowns, masks and mandatory vaccines during Covid made him popular with the Republican base. He further strengthened that support by sending illegal aliens to Martha’s Vineyard in a show of defiance over open borders, and then he followed it up by challenging Disney’s woke policies. DeSantis has shown himself to be an adept, agile politician who always seems to say the right thing. The opposite of brash, tactless Trump.

Which is exactly the problem. Never forget that it was Trump’s unwillingness to adhere to conventional political etiquette that served as the launching pad for America First.

DeSantis, like all the other leading 2024 candidates, is a career politician. He never ran a company, never tangled with sovereign competitors like China, never negotiated large-scale business deals and hasn’t demonstrated he understands international politics. Could DeSantis negotiate the USMCA, impose crushing tariffs on China, make America energy independent, turn North Korea from a nuclear enemy to a friend, create historic wealth for minorities and broker deals that brought peace between Israel and its sworn enemies?

Maybe, but is that a chance we want to take?

Mitt Romney played the part of a conservative with conviction during the 2012 election, but does anyone doubt that if he had won, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi would have been clapping Romney on the shoulder as he signed an illegal alien amnesty bill within 90 days of assuming office? If by some chance the Trump-alternative candidate actually overcame voter fraud and won the election, are we really sure he/she wouldn’t be corrupted by media ideologues or the temptation of big money lobbyists?

Ron DeSantis’ current net worth is $318k…

Wait Until the Media Attack Machine Gears Up

Whoever wins the Republican nomination for president, you can rest assured the woke, liberal media attack machine will immediately turn its turrets in the direction of the new candidate. Remember Brett Cavanaugh? What do you think the rabid media will “discover” when they comb through DeSantis’ Iraq service record? When will they parade out the first woman he knew in high school with some horrid tale of “inappropriate” behavior? If you believe the media will ignore personal destruction and focus on the issues, if we just nominate someone other than Trump, I have some swamp land in Arizona…

The value of the known commodity over the unknown cannot be underestimated. President Trump has a proven track record of accomplishment, and perhaps more importantly, he is one of us. A political outsider who built a successful business and has a fierce loyalty to America. Turning our back on the man who jeopardized everything to stand up and defend our rights would be a tragedy.