By Steve Haner
On or before March 5, I will cast a vote for former Governor and Ambassador Nikki Haley for the GOP nomination for president. She edges out Governor and former Congressman Ron DeSantis with me mainly on questions of temperament and foreign policy. I am not an isolationist.
There are six names on that Virginia ballot for the Republicans, and three for the Democrats. There is no reason at this point to believe, or even hope, that the outcome will be something other than victories here for Donald Trump and Joe Biden. If that is the matchup in November, the betting at this point would have to be Virginia’s electoral votes go blue again.
The only person who can stop Trump from winning this nomination (and he has an excellent chance of winning in November now) is Trump himself. It is safe to now conclude that nothing he says or does disqualifies him with enough of his fans. The latest proof comes from a video, apparently made by somebody who literally sees Trump as enjoying the Divine Right of Kings, “God Made Trump.”
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/111703421569603715
Trump didn’t make it, but he proudly shared it on his social media outlet.
Blasphemy? Or just arrogance? The idea that God predestined Trump’s presidency at Trump’s birth in 1946 has theological underpinnings, for those who see His hand in all things. But you’d think believing Christians would be repelled by the parallels claimed with the Messiah, the prophets and the anointed kings of Israel. The video sent me looking for a bucket to puke into.
And then a friend I shared it with who has an excellent memory pointed me to an older Paul Harvey production, and it was clear the producer of “God Made Trump” was borrowing (plagiarizing) line by line and image by image from “God Made a Farmer.” There is no credit given to Harvey that I could find for his beautiful message.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UBj4Rbq3ZI
Hilary Clinton won Virginia by more than 200,000 votes and President Joe Biden by more than 400,000, at 54% a near landslide.
In 2020, Trump was the incumbent with a solid record of keeping or at least addressing many of his 2016 campaign promises, yet his personal behavior and nasty mouth had turned off more Virginians. Our state elections during his term (2017, 2019) were Democrat bonanzas. He then botched the Covid response. But the worst damage he did to the Republican Party brand, and indeed to the republic itself followed that election. January 6, 2021, was the most disastrous self-inflicted wound in American history since South Carolina troops bombarded Fort Sumter in 1861 (the correct answer to the question, what caused the Civil War?)
That Capitol invasion he cheered on should have been fatal. But since then, Democrats knowingly and intentionally have rehabilitated Trump’s political fortunes by abusing the justice system in an attempt to keep him off the ballot. Now they are behaving like frightened tin-pot dictators by trying to totally block his name from ballots, when he has never been convicted of insurrection and indeed no federal court has determined January 6 was an insurrection. (Won’t it be ironic if the U.S. Supreme Court now does so?)
Yes, a second Biden term is terrifying. Voting against him in 2024 will be automatic for me. But a vote for Trump is out of the question, and not really a pressing issue since Virginia’s November outcome is not likely to be even close. For those other states, America needs a choice other than Trump, someone who will avoid the damage he will do to so many other Republicans down-ballot. Polling now is next to meaningless, but at this point Haley is showing signs she can beat Biden. She deserves the chance to try. God made her, too.
