It was a noble, temporary attempt. They pitched a return to normalcy. Each side had some wins. A neutered, Diet co*ke version of Trumpism was shaping up in some states. The uniparty got what it wanted. While physically shaky, Biden looked fine in polls. The left just could not help itself, and the leadership nominal centrist wing of the Democrats had no defenses. Couldn’t we just go back to 2012? No, it’s impossible now.
My prior focus on the doomed DeSantis campaign was a symptom of this. Elevating him and then subsequently running him to lose in a general by a whisker seemed a smart move to try to reboot the system. Make him lose by a close margin so the right’s political operatives could do post-mortems explaining just how to get that coveted swing voter in X state. That is a lie, but it is one that would work for a little longer. That’s what the Romney 2012 campaign was. Anyone could look at Obama’s first term and see the Carter rerun, therefore a healthy electorate would reject that poor leadership. That election showed that the old America is gone. We are in different territory.
The system could not wait for a second Biden term to turn on the immigration floodgates. It has happened in the least deniable manner. An open border is one thing. Flying in hundreds of thousands of Latins and Caribbeans is another. Allowing NGOs to place faux refugees is par for the course. Setting them up in New York City hotels and letting them rob, rape and murder with impunity is a different sport. Smearing an opponent a la Romney is to be expected. Potentially jailing the opposition’s presumptive nominee is, in the words of many, third world, banana republic behavior. The system has taken the nudges from the government to discriminate against whites and in the wake of Floyd, turned that up to 11.
Many pundits note that the race is existential for Trump. He wins and survives another day. He loses and likely spends time in jail. Actual jail, probably not. Home imprisonment seems his destiny if he loses. The creeping feeling that is widespread now is that the election is existential for the American people. Demographic statistics are bearing fruit, and the added layer of vacuuming in any human from all over the globe adds a Camp of the Saints feeling to the political environment.
Neither candidate is really discussing policy. With Biden, there is no grand theme like the bridge to the twenty-first century or ownership society type of message. It is about saving democracy combined with continued decay. As the left’s messaging diverges further from reality, it is not persuasion but coercion and suppression. Trump’s own messaging is about saving the republic and the policy is to attack the out of control federal government. In 2016, his rallies focused on how DC and big business did not care about you. Now the vocabulary used is more aggressive and the message is that they must be brought to heel before they destroy your life. If Trump truly talks to Musk, one hopes the conversation is merely about how Musk fired 75% of the Twitter staff and kept the show running.
Part of the problem is Biden’s mental and physical decline. He cannot campaign as an incumbent would with proper interviews and sales pitches for his first term’s successes. While obviously in decline in 2020, Biden was kept in a basem*nt and barely out in public in 2020. You could see his decline from Obama’s second term but it was not like his last year. Biden shambling around stages, losing his place in speeches, speaking gibberish that no speech therapist could fix and vacant looks reveal how much of a joke the presidency is for our system to operate. Another group is running the show and they are just spiking the football in Americans’ faces. With a more competent Biden, they could keep the act up for a real choice with real consequences.
There is no going back because of the change in the parties themselves. While there are public liberal voices proclaiming the woke have gone too far, they have been wildly successful. What is the difference between your average liberal neighbor’s beliefs and 2012 commie Twitter now? How many of the old altright’s lines have found their way into normal conservative influencer and pundit essays? Survey after survey reveals chasms between the two parties’ voters. It is hard to govern and even share a nation with people whose entire worldview is diametrically opposed to yours, but it is impossible when one side is divorced from reality.
No matter the outcome, half the nation will not accept the results. This is the problem the system finds itself in. Richard Baris continuously points to Trump’s superior performance in poll aggregates in 2024 compared to 2016 or 2020. Pollsters point to it being a tight, toss-up, but everyone knows Trump overperforms normal polls. Other pundits know that Biden needs a three to four point national lead due to the electoral college map. They need to keep it really close to allow for their mail-in antics to provide a victory. If only Biden were not a zombie! If only there had been a successor waiting in the wings!
No matter the results, what even lies ahead in 2025? A Trump win in November likely kicks off a nonprofit funded insurrection as the TIME magazine article famously stated was waiting to be activated in 2020. When does that stop if it kicks off? How does it stop? What does America look like after? If Biden wins, how hard and fast do they pull in more immigrants? What do we get for a deindustrialization program to fight climate change? When do they regulate away your guns? Who pays for reparations? What’s the next step for the half of the nation that realizes it is locked out of the political process and is on the short end of every stick? No one knows but everyone holds their breath. There will never be a reboot of 2012. Even that America is gone.
