As we look forward to the Christmas season and to close out this wild and crazy year, here are some final thoughts on the election.
- First, a memo to President Trump: It’s over. Pick up the phone, call Joe Biden, concede, and wish him well. Then deliver a well-crafted concession speech to the country. You have fought the good fight, honored your loyal support base, and you can be gratified that your coattails prevented the radical left from claiming any semblance of a national mandate, but you came up just short of duplicating the miracle of 2016. Keep your legal team on the field where appropriate in the public interest in pursuit of credible evidence of fraud, but recognize that the math and the possible avenues for flipping enough Electoral College votes to win are just not in the cards. It’s time to prioritize what is best for the country and for your legacy and right now what is called for is a sense of magnanimity and the use of your talents between now and January 5 to make sure your party wins two Senate seats in the Georgia runoff in order to preserve your legacy, for no one has a larger stake in keeping the Senate in Republican control than you do.
- I received a lot of responses to my November posting, and one of the best was from my friend Danny Billingsley, which I pass along in full in case you missed it on the blog, as follows. “When you consider the forces aligned against Trump it’s remarkable the election was this close: (1) An obvious attempt by the Democrats, DOJ, FBI, CIA, and other parts of the intelligence apparatus to overthrow an elected president; (2) Years of the phony Mueller investigation; (3) The just as phony impeachment; (4) Years of attack, false reporting, and no reporting by a left-controlled media; (5) A hostile bureaucracy; (6) Intervention by leftist judges to shut down Trump policies; (7) Undermining attempts by the Republican establishment; (8) COVID19 and contracting COVID himself; (9) Facebook, Twitter, Google and other social media platforms combined efforts to suppress conservative speech and promote liberal speech; (10) The rise of BLM and ANTIFA based on a largely false premise; (11) Rioting and looting in Democratic run cities and states; (12) False polls designed to discourage Trump supporters; and (13) Last, but hardly least, Trump’s own lack of discipline and unfiltered thought process. It’s amazing the man accomplished what he did and withstood the enormous pressure.”
- At the end of the long fight we learned that this is still a center-right country. No less an establishment authority than The Houston Chronicle editorial board, not exactly a right wing bastion, acknowledged that fact in a post-election piece in which they note that the four things they learned on November 3 are: 1. polling is broken, 2. Trump’s support is deep and wide, 3. half of us don’t know what the heck the other half is thinking, and 4. Texas is still red. I would say that all four of these are well-taken points that shouldn’t have surprised anyone, particularly in a profession that claims some expertise in analysis of public sentiment. And in another piece, the Chronicle admitted that “…it would be wrong and short-sighted to cast the Trump presidency as only a brief error in judgment. The results of the November 3 election, although a substantial defeat for Trump, confirmed a depth of support for him and what he has come to stand for.” Obvious, but they still don’t get it. Also true, and as Daniel Henninger notes in The Wall Street Journal, the strongest evidence that the GOP won’t be spending a generation in any post-Trumpian wilderness is the National Conference of State Legislatures’ map of partisan legislative control, which now shows a lot of red, and in spite of an intense five-year effort and many millions of dollars, in no instance were the Democrats able to flip partisan legislative control in any state, and I shouldn’t need to remind you that these state legislatures control Congressional redistricting. Trump coattails, indeed.
- So the biggest loser in this election was not Donald Trump, it was radical progressivism and its handmaidens in policy development—identity politics and creeping socialism. Most Americans are sick of it, they expect more from their government, and I believe that across racial, ethnic, and cultural lines they will slowly, but surely, turn on those political leaders who promote these destructive ideas and their fellow travelers in higher education and other cultural institutions. They simply want their country back and in its proper context it is in no sense racist to say so. It will take awhile and more than one or two election cycles, for the progressive left has been on an aggressive march through our institutions for well over half a century. But this is what brought on the Trump movement and why the 74 million voters who supported him are not going away even if he personally moves off the stage. I’ll have more on his legacy later, but this might be the most significant aspect of it.
Have a great Christmas season as we pray for a much better New Year.
Thanks, Jim. This is exactly what I think, and I’m hopeful it’s correct. Merry Christmas and joining you in praying for a better new year.
Jim-
While, as usual, you are spot on, it is hard to stomach watching video evidence of suitcases of (apparent) ballots being tabulated into the next morning with any potential witnesses being asked to leave the area.
Though I am not a conspiracy theorist by any stretch, it is hard to imagine that (if my eyes are not lying) this was one isolated incident, in one county, in one state.
Have a great Christmas and wonderful New Year.
Best always,
Gary
See my response to Steve below. Best wishes to you and yours.
Jim, I agree and hope you’re right. BUT, if we lose the Senate and progressives overwhelm Biden or he becomes incapacitated, Harris, Pelosi, and Schumer will be running the country and I fear the outcome.
See my response to Steve below.
Jim, you are making a mistake so very typical of conservatives and even “moderate” GOPers: Concede gracefully.
That is not what Travis did at the Alamo.
We stand at the threshold of permanent rule by leftist Democrats: Pack SCOTUS, abandon the filibuster, cancel all Trump’s Exec. Orders, join the Paris accord on global warming, become an economic colony of communist China, and “fight” systemic racism.
We are not dealing with just another political party. We are dealing with a take-no-prisoners, lying, cheating organization that is ruining us from within, with permanent occupation of the seats of power as its goal.
And you want Trump to resign peacefully? Out of office, he and his family will be not just be prosecuted by the Democratic DA in NYC, they will be persecuted to the ends of the earth. A pardon of Trump by Pence as temporary POTUS will bar only prosecution for federal crimes, not NYC “crimes”.
You are wrong.
Never give up without a fight to the end. I say this as a cancer doc, for whom a patient’s death without a maximum struggle led by me against the enemy was unacceptable. Death was my enemy.
I put a bird dog down yesterday for heart failure,, but we are talking a country here!
Dr. Tom – See my response below to Steve.
I don’t know you Dr Tom, but I’m with you all the way. Time to stand up and through civil disobedience en masse and effect meaningful change to the system. We must throw off tyranny in order to live in freedom as tyrants don’t surrender. Classic Cloward & Piven, foist them on their own petard, we overwhelm the system by refusing to pay all corporate and personal income taxes, along with ad valorem property taxes. It would require all of the producer tax payers that are the true conservatives to stand fast shoulder to shoulder and we can exact change by starving the beast. And if you don’t think there is a deep state at work in a coordinated fashion across federal, state, county lines then you’re just plain stupid – this election is proof positive.
Brother Jim, as much as I love you and marvel at your thoughtfulness, wisdom, and erudition, I must cast my support for Dr. Tom and his observations. The Dems never gracefully concede! The Repubs, for years, have gracefully conceded. It was time to take a stand many years ago. The stand was not taken. Dr. Tom is right this is our Country’s Alamo. Step across the line or not; those that do, and I am one, are prepared to die for the Country — and I believe that this is the nature of this fight.
Friends: I sympathize with substantially all of your sentiments here and I have studied all of the credible inputs to which I have access since my last post on this on November 12. I would like nothing better than to pursue this fight down to the bitter end, but we are at the point where we must decide if we hold enough cards to take the risk of losing Georgia in the process and therefore the war. And I just don’t see enough evidence beyond widely scattered anecdotal fraud to make this case. If we get to the Electoral College vote on December 14 and are meddling with blocking that vote or other moves, we are on dangerous constitutional territory. This is not 1824 or 1876. Unfortunately, to win this war will require a massive bipartisan effort under democratic rules and a new administration, but hopefully with a Republican Senate and a favorable Supreme Court, thanks to Donald Trump.
Whoa, Jim! “we are at the point where we must decide if we hold enough cards to take the risk of losing Georgia in the process and therefore the war.”
So Trump standing down will improve GOP Senatorial chances in Georgia? That seems far-fetched. There is evidence of serious vote fraud having occurred in Georgia, and two GOPers, the guv and SOS, are doing nothing about it.
The risk of losing both Senate seats in Georgia is grave, to a Beto-equivalent and to a black minister who does not hesitate about showing his obscene social justice immorality, Trump or no Trump.
How will Trump’s gracious stand-down improve the GOP chances in Georgia?
The only way to hold decent cards is for successful lawsuits to establish the gross vote fraud evident to all rational observers. Otherwise you are holding the deuce of clubs, believing you may have a winning card!
I’m all for keeping a legal team on the field pursuing successful legal challenges, but I’m also saying that success in Georgia will to a large extent depend on how Trump plays his cards between now and Jan. 5, and having a civil war among Georgia Republicans provoked by his attorneys there is destructive. Some of what I hear you guys saying will not lead to 1824 or 1876, but to 1860!
Kemp and Raffensperger are RINOs for heaven’s sake! There is no GOP war in Georgia, only two corrupt, morally or otherwise, nominal Republicans in power
Ans, yes, the Tree of Liberty must be watered with the blood of traitors and patriots. Would you go gracefully, peacefully into that good night of socialist oppression, Jim?
It is a lot closer to 1860 than you may wish to concede.
I stand with Steve on this.
GO, Dr. Tom! Remember the Alamo. According to Brent Bozell of Media Research, the Deep State worked through the media even more than through voter fraud. In Media Research surveys after the election Biden supporters said they were never informed of Hunter Biden’s illegalities, Pres. Trump’s nominations for the Noble Peace Prize, & other newsworthy items. They admitted they would have voted for Pres. Trump had they been informed.
As some consolation as we refuse to quit fighting for our grandchildren, we know God has a plan for the Georgia Senatorial runoff. In the Community Bible Study commentary on the gospel of John, the author points out the people wanted to make Jesus king (1) to protect them from their enemies, (2) to provide food, & (3) to insure their standards of morality. God had an even better plan for their well-being.
Amen, Ann, Amen. And thanks.
Congratulations Jim on your conclusion that Trump should concede and show some class. More important it is great that you had the courage to state it. I think 79% of Rs still believe there is fraud even without evidence. I expect Trump looked for a good election lawyer and none would take his cases. Bad lawyers file baseless cases. I am no cancer doctor and am just a simple lawyer who is a Democrat which I guess makes me a traitor and many other nasty names that are being stated. The age of presidents calling people childish names is over. We will now have an adult in the white house.
David – As I have indicated in my responses here, my only reason to suggest that Trump should concede now is because of possible damage to the campaigns in Georgia. Also, I am not a conspiracy theorist, but there are certainly numerous pieces of anecdotal evidence of fraud scattered around the country in highly suspicious places, and I think the most credible ones should be litigated simply as a public service to the rule of law even if there is no chance for change in the outcome. And you’re right–we’re certainly getting an adult, one whose creeping senility is obvious for all to see, friends and enemies alike, foreign and domestic. We’ll see how well his media support base handles that issue.
Jim–You may have lost your courage. You wanted Trump to concede and wish Biden well with a well crafted concession speech. You did not say give up to help the Georgia races. The odds of Trump giving a nice concession speech are highly remote. Trump and Paxton etc has no change of success in court. You mention “anecdotal evidence of fraud scattered around the country”. I have been going to court for 55 years and judges would laugh at this type of presentation and that is what the judges are doing in these cases. I won about ten bets on the election from R friends. This idea that Biden is senile seems to be popular on Fox and with Rs. I have four bets with friends that he will not last four years. If you want to join in with a bet let me know. I will go up to $100. This means I have to live four more years to collect.
David – Look at the response thread going back to the November issue of the Pilgrim. I have been consistent on this since then–he should personally move on to a focus on Georgia while keeping the legal team on the field in pursuit of credible grounds for challenge, until the Electoral College vote is certified.
Jim
The electoral college has voted but Trump still is jousting at windmills to the determent of the country. He is now pardoning everyone including the Blackwater guys who killed innocent people and children. I am going to predict that someday you will admit to yourself that it is fortunate that Biden won and that we will not have an incompetent narcissist running the country. 2020 was a bad year except for getting rid of Trump.
Stay tuned. The jury is still out, but despite his many flaws he is arguably the most successful and consequential one-term President in U. S. history.