Trump Derangement Syndrome has reached new heights. Trump will be a dictator! Trump will destroy the Constitution! Trump will execute his political opponents! (Yes– loony Joe Scarborough said that.).
And … Trump will destroy democracy, the central theme of Joe Biden’s campaign.
Not since the Grinch stole Christmas has anyone been so hysterically vilified. The establishment media is spewing out Trump alarmism at warp speed. The Atlantic recently published an entire special issue, featuring more than twenty pieces on “how a second term could shatter norms with the courts, education, the military, foreign policy, immigration, abortion rights, science, gender”, according to the magazine.
Why this sudden surge in scaremongering? Three reasons:
- Trump might win.
- Biden has nothing else to run on, and.
- It worked before.
On that last point– remember that in 2016 Hillary Clinton’s team, when they weren’t conjuring up fake news about Trump colluding with Russia, pushed a narrative that had Americans quaking in their Uggs. In his first year in office, they predicted, Trump would plunge the country into recession and cause a stock market crash! He would ignite World War III! He was going to deport 11 million illegal immigrants and terminate equal rights for women! He’d give Europe to Putin and bring back torture!
Of course, Trump did none of those things. Instead, he helped pass a massive tax overhaul, put Neil Gorsuch on the court, began dismantling President Obama’s suffocating regulatory excesses, and drove down illegal immigration. Most consequential, he told China and the rest of the world that the U.S. was not to be trifled with. How? By bombing Syria during a dinner with China’s President Xi at Mar-al-Lago; over what Trump described as a “beautiful piece of chocolate cake,” he stunned the Chinese dictator by announcing the surprise attack. That set the tone.
In 2016, voters tuned out the alarmist talk and elected Trump over Hillary Clinton. That didn’t prevent Biden from resorting to the same line of attack in 2020; this time it worked, which is why they’re going there again.
The second reason for turning up the Trump hysteria is that Biden has nothing else to sell. He has pitched Bidenomics incessantly, only to find his boasts falling flat with the 60% of voters who disapprove of his handling of the economy. Rumor is that the White House is backing off the term, and who can blame them? Personalizing big spending, big government and big inflation seems beyond stupid.
Biden also proudly touts his climate agenda, which is becoming less popular daily. Vice President Kamala Harris was recently at COP28 in Abu Dhabi and bragged that the Biden White House has committed $1 trillion to climate initiatives. For those voters not keeping track, that must have been a head-turner.
Some might wonder, where is that trillion dollars going? Where, indeed? One of the biggest objectives of the laughably titled Inflation Reduction Act was boosting the take-up of electric vehicles by greatly expanding the number of charging outlets. Consulting firm McKinsey & Company predicts that “The United States will need about 28 million ports by 2030 to meet the demand for electricity by zero-emission passenger vehicles,” up from roughly 2.6 million today. It was recently reported that no charging station has been added since that bill was passed sixteen months ago.
John Podesta, who ran Hillary Clinton’s failed 2016 campaign, spearheaded Obama’s climate agenda and founded the left-wing Center for American Progress, was handed $370 billion in climate funds to distribute to various clean-energy groups; tracking which swing states and critical districts get those monies will be informative.
Biden also claims to be building the economy from the middle out. He says he’s bringing manufacturing back to the U.S., but the numbers say otherwise. In December 2019, before COVID blasted the U.S. economy, 12.9 million Americans were working in manufacturing. Last month, that number had inched barely higher, to 13 million.
The reality is, the GOP agenda for 2024 is bursting with opportunity. The border is truly a catastrophe. Millions are pouring into our country illegally and the president is inert. Horrific fentanyl deaths, drug gangs terrorizing border communities, unknown numbers of terrorists sneaking across the border … and Biden is unwilling to change policies even though the calamity is dragging down his approval numbers and angering even die-hard Democrats in blue cities and states. The White House has repeatedly stiffed Eric Adams, New York City mayor, who has appealed for help as our greatest city hovers on fiscal crisis.
To what end? Who is cheering on massive illegal immigration? It’s not Hispanics– polling shows they oppose the influx. It is the progressive wing of the Democratic Party that is pulling the levers, which says a great deal about Joe Biden’s tenuous grasp on the Oval Office.
Which brings us to the last point. Democrats are increasingly terrified that Donald Trump could win in 2024. A new Wall Street Journal poll puts Trump ahead of Biden by 4 points and by an even greater margin if third-party candidates are in the mix.
In 2020, Trump was rarely ahead, but today is very different. Voters now know what a Joe Biden presidency looks like, and they don’t like it. Trump wins on nearly every issue– inflation, crime, securing the border, and the Israel-Hamas war.
In the last race, Biden hid in his basement, under cover of the pandemic; the public consequently did not see how he had aged. The stumbles and mumbles are now daily embarrassments; it won’t get better. In addition, the president has been credibly accused of corruption and has lied endlessly about his involvement with his son’s business activities. Even if the charges never lead to impeachment, the image of Biden as the upright, honest statesman is gone.
Democrats fear a Trump-Biden rematch. Their over-the-top attacks on President Trump show just how scared they are.