https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/11/my-first-vote-for-trump/ My First Vote for Trump It’s time to take my own side of the argument. By MICHAEL BRENDAN DOUGHERTY November 5, 2024 12:12 PM Eight years ago when he won the office for the first time, I said that the primary danger to look out for in the Trump era was people lowering their professional and ethical standards to try to defeat him, or because they envied his success. I was right. I also mention that only to make it maximally embarrassing to say that I will cast a vote for Donald Trump and J. D. Vance today. That involves changing my standards too. I used to be much more precious about my franchise, and consequently I’ve refused to vote in every election since 2004 because I never felt I was able to send the appropriate or worthwhile message with it. This pose I now deem excessively precious. I was taking myself too seriously — and my vote not seriously enough. My chief objection to voting for Trump in 2016 was his character and what he would do to the country with it. But I was wrong on key aspects, namely that I predicted he would break his promise to appoint sound judges. He kept that promise. I had to reassess. Trump-Vance is the ticket likely to be closest in my lifetime to the broad strokes of my national-conservative politics. That must count for something. I also feel compelled to lend Trump my popular vote from New York State in case there is another split between the Electoral College and the popular vote. The idea being to hedge with whatever I’ve got against a radical, Constitution-resenting tantrum from the other side. If Trump wins the popular vote, it is likelier to bring about salutary reflection on the other side. Being honest with myself, I found that even if my reservations and objections about Trump remain valid, I would still feel relieved if Trump and Vance won, but apprehensive if Harris-Walz triumphed. Millions feel this way. It’s time to take my own side of the argument and support Trump with my vote. I agree with Andy McCarthy that Trump’s stretching of the bounds in office was minimal (a shakedown of the Pentagon budget for border-wall money). It was also contained by the courts. January 6 was far more offensive, but its primary danger wasn’t to our constitutional system, it was to the safety of the people in the Capitol. And I agree with Andy that Democrats since Obama’s “pen and phone” moment have been committed to using raw executive power to change facts on the ground, rather than pursue their aims through legislation. Elected Republicans have shown themselves unable to contain this abuse. The remedy therefore is for Republican voters to block Democrats from the executive. I believe that most cultural politics in the English-speaking world is just an endless reiteration of the English Civil War, with its tripartite division of Establishment Church, Catholic, and Low Church factions dividing and recombining as power shifts or new controversies arise. The Harris-Walz ticket is firmly in The Establishment camp. The Democratic ticket is committed to legislation such as the Equality Act, which is a direct threat to make Catholic and Low Church Protestant convictions legally painful to hold, and to induce us to adopt the doctrinal revisions and moral fads that many Mainline Protestant institutions — and their former seminaries in the Ivy League — have adopted only in recent decades. Progressive cities and states continue to harass Catholic adoption agencies, Catholic health-care institutions, and no doubt soon they’ll soon target the schools and charitable organizations. In all these battles, my great ally is the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment properly understood. The Harris-Walz camp does not recognize the Constitution’s free-exercise clause as a fundamental right. They view it as an unfortunate and revisable exception to their recently adopted understanding of equality: equality as “equity.” The Trump-appointee judiciary is my best defense. I view it as a duty to my children, and the rational conclusion of all my other convictions, that I must eject this Establishment-Progressive worldview out of every office that’s in my power to affect. I didn’t choose these fights, and I preferred a different champion in the primary. But it is my responsibility to recognize the fight I’m in and acknowledge the man taking shots for me. I think it is morally reprehensible to free-ride on the rest of the country’s votes for Trump, and then to preen that I’m too pure to pull a lever for the outcome I prefer. And finally, a vote is about the future. And J. D. Vance is the future of the Republican Party I want to see. I share with him a generational perspective on our movement, on the quality of American institutions, and on the goods that conservatives can achieve for the next generation. He framed his change of mind on Trump as a combination of personal ambition and humiliation. “If I’m going to represent these voters,” he averred, “I’m going to have to suck it up and support Trump.” Me too. MICHAEL BRENDAN DOUGHERTY is a senior writer at National Review Online.@michaelbd
There were several things she did wrong back then many people in the DD called out, such as: Picking Tim Walz Not having press conferences Avoiding long format podcasts Declining to do more debates when Trump initially tried renegotiating when she became the nominee Not posting policies to her campaign website Not doing TV interviews on even friendly stations Then in the last month they try forcing her on all these podcasts (except the most important one) and do scripted TV interviews, and finally post policies the night before the first debate. She ran one of the most inauthentic and manufactured campaigns of all time that the average American saw right through. Seems only the "academics" thought her campaign was flawless.
What an absolute cop out. This stupid rhetoric, for one. Maybe also the fact she proves she's an absolute moron every time she opens her mouth? That would be a big one I imagine.
It’s amazing they didn’t see this coming The economy, the border , wars, forcing kids to accept or convert to transgender , defund the police etc It’s like they were shocked Diddy had drugs and hookers at his parties and beat his girlfriend we know We all knew
I think not doing enough outreach to Hispanic communities and listening to what they needed. Also not having enough time. Had she had the full year, maybe it would have changed. Her campaign was run pretty well.
What went wrong with her is she simply being herself. The Dems installed this unlikable DEI puppet after they kicked Old Yeller to the curbs thinking the voters will be fooled? The moment voters heard her speak and got to know her, they said a big HELL NO to her. The Dems really screwed themselves. If they were going through the right process and nominated a much more qualified candidate, they would have been more competitive. The Dems will not learn from this lesson. They are who they are and really bad for America. The good news is that they will implode and render irrelevant in many elections to come. Vance will get this after Trump is done with his term. America will be great again.
I highly doubt she lost because of any of that. Picking Walz over Shapiro is about the only plausible argument I can come up with, but it's too early to say it yet.
Tusli, Elon , Rogan They were all democrats Until the democrats embraced woke ideology and weaponizing the media and courts What the woke people here don’t get is that we’re not California or North Korea We have a democracy we can choose whomever we want based on our decision this is the same with entertainment, nobody watched those woke movies with the DEI but everybody of all races and ages saw Deadpool and Wolverine @Salvy @ROXRAN
If no one knows you because you dropped out of the race early when you ran for President, and later as VP you were hardly ever "out there", then perhaps doing interviews and press conferences where you can explain your positions, what you'll do, and also tell a little about yourself/show your personality could have gone a long way. Instead she had manufactured canned responses for everything so she came off super fake. Accepting more debates earlier on would have locked Trump in and allowed her to do whatever her campaign was feeling needed to be done, because remember they were begging for additional debates after the first one (she didn't do as well as they wanted her to clearly).
One thing is for sure: establishment Dems, who forced Kamala on everyone and refused to allow anything remotely resembling a primary and democratic process, will blame the people for this loss rather than themselves. The people won't vote for a black woman! The people were lied to and weren't smart enough to know! Etc etc. I expect zero amount of self-awareness from those in power for the Democrats (of course, I would love to be wrong about this and hope I am).
My guess is that you probably didn't spend much time looking to learn about Kamala. Am I wrong about that? I felt sufficiently satisfied with her public exposure given the abbreviated time window. I've always advocated that Democrats stop playing things close to the vest, but I don't think it was necessarily what tipped any votes. I think the data will show that Biden's baggage and the splashback from Trump's legal problems were the decider. You're not really being honest here. Agreeing to debates on unfair terms would be stupid. Also, there is absolutely zero reason to think Trump would ever honor any agreement.
What went wrong for Kamala is she was running for president in the united fcked up states of America. We are a country that continually feels the need to harm ourselves. The issues voters will bring up from an outsiders perspective will certainly seem misguided. We have the best economy in the world. Very few people ever run across an illegal immigrant who isn’t at that moment actually helping them with a need they have to improve their life. Was Kamala the perfect candidate otherwise? No of course not. Did she have a perfect campaign… no of course not. However she performed nearly perfect. When the only major gaff wasn’t even by her but by a mumbling Biden, I think you’ll take that performance. Yes you can Monday morning quarterback strategy all you want but it’ll be looking for changes that wouldn’t change the fundamental elements of this campaign which is: -Trump voters are very basic. -They thought to themselves, I remember my life being better in 2017 -So let’s go back to that guy back then and maybe magically things will go back to how life was pre-pandemic. There is no critically thinking. There is no real argument on policy. It was the environment generally coming out of Covid and just a society where most people aren’t happy, and are misinformed as to why, and how to actually be happier. That’s it.. that’s the ballgame. Kamala or any Democrat never stood a chance with the electorate in 2024. Sure maybe with an earlier primary a better candidate could have done better on the margins but the fundamentals would largely be the same. Americans are misinformed and misguided, and our self indulgent decisions as a society will cost us.
Salient post. I’ve thought for a while now that a blue-dog democrat with balls is what the Dems have needed and this election shows it’s true. Simple bro talk dominated and won.
