Rather than participate in the fourth, and possibly last, GOP presidential debate, former incumbent Donald Trump was out making news of the sort that sends some people into orbit.
I refer, of course, to Trump's statement that he has no desire to be a “dictator.”
“Except for day one.”
To those inside Trump's orbit, this was the Big Guy doing what he does best – either stirring up the usual crowd who get the vapors at the mere mention of his name, as well as jazzing up those who believe he really means this stuff.
Does he? If we take the limits Trump set out for that first and only day of “dictatorship,” it would be to close the nation's border with Mexico, and to “drill, drill, drill.” Presumably, Trump intends to use executive orders to achieve these ends, a tool every other president before him has employed for various ends.
The current incumbent, Joe Biden, issued a flurry of “executive orders, memoranda, directives, and letters” on his first day on the job. And managed to do so without being called a dictator or any other comparable term.
Measured solely by the actions Biden took on day one versus what Trump said he will do, Trump looks positively restrained compared to Biden.
That doesn't mean Trump hasn't said a host of other things that paint his entire reason for running as one long revenge tour.
It's unhealthy – even sinister. But for the time being, vengeance against foes real, imagined, and potential force behind Trump's campaign. And right now, it looks to be winning enough support from the GOP base to make him the nominee.
This brings up a very interesting item in an otherwise predictable piece about the imminent Trump dictatorship from Robert Kagan.
Kagan seeks to offer ways to stop Trump before he's handed the keys to the Oval Office again. Among them is for the current field of Republican presidential contenders to drop out and unite behind former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
That's not a novel strategy. But this analysis of the candidate(s) and their default allegiance to Trump is spot on:
“Every time Haley and other Republicans say they will support Trump if he is the nominee, they are telling Republican voters, including their own supporters, that Trump is acceptable. When New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu says, “I just want Republicans to win; that's all I care about,” he might as well just get it over with — and endorse Trump. To say that Biden is so dangerous to the country that even Trump would be better is to endorse the world as Trump and his MAGA cultists portray it. Not only does this undercut the rationale for Haley's candidacy, but it also makes it extremely difficult to peel away current Trump supporters. If Trump is acceptable, then he is electable. And if he is electable, then why should any current Trump supporter shift to Haley? Haley's posture is not only incoherent; it is fatal to her prospects.”
And that is the coldest, hardest truth of the entire GOP presidential race so far. It's not the dictatorship bogeyman – our quasi-imperial presidencies have long since made mere dictators passe.
It's the months-long mummery of Republicans pretending to be choices when the best they can muster are feeble echoes.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
