It's July 2019 and the American people are being dragged into next year's presidential election whether or not we're ready to go.
It's going to be a long and winding road. By next Fourth of July, we'll know whether Donald Trump actually follows through on his plan to run for a second term and which of the 57 varieties of Democrats will have staying power. OK, maybe it's 24 candidates at the moment, a number certain to shrink between now and Feb. 3's Iowa Caucus.
Arkansas' primary will arrive March 3, the so-called Super Tuesday on which 14 states will select candidates they hope will survive to make it to the November general election. For Republicans, the likelihood is it will be Donald Trump. For Democrats, the process will be much more challenging. Finding someone who can beat Trump sounds easy, far easier than it will turn out to be.
When it finally came time to cast a ballot in 2016, I voted Republican. And yes, to my embarrassment as far as how he has subsequently behaved as our president, that means I voted for Trump.
I wasn't ready to turn the country over to Hillary Clinton, giving the Democrats a 12- to 16-year hold on the White House when the Obama years were factored in. Facing that choice, I spent a lot of time wishing for an option better than Trump but more center/right than Clinton was ever going to be. I didn't have a viable option.
With two-plus years of Trump in the rear-view mirror, there's no question our country can do better than the man who sits in the Oval Office, if we want to. Looking beyond policies, I can think of no president within my lifetime whose attitudes, behaviors and lack of discerned wisdom equal those qualities in President Trump. And he's proud of them.
Would you ever hire a guy like Trump as an employee, putting your company's reputation and success on the line?
My 2016 vote was, to a degree, based a naive notion that (1) the weightiness of presidential responsibility and world leadership would rein in Trump's personal shortcomings and (2) no president operates without wise guidance from smart people who can smooth out the winning candidates' lesser qualities.
I misjudged how strongly Trump embraces his personal shortcomings. I also failed to anticipate how many people would resign or be fired in the futility of trying to get through an impenetrable ego.
Plenty of U.S. voters were ready to overlook a lot to get a president willing to shake things up in Washington and pursue policies that countered the eight years of Barack Obama's leadership. More than a few have a form of buyer's remorse.
But will that be enough to change our nation's leadership?
Hard-core Trumpers will be unmoved. But what about the folks in the middle who do find themselves uncomfortable with his leadership?
Democrats will lose if they assume those voters will, in just four years' time, be willing to make a 180-degree turn toward ultra-liberal policies. The way to beat Trump is not to run to the hard left, but to move to some middle ground with a candidate who is personally likable and capable of leadership in the Washington of the modern era.
There's room for a Trump defeat. He's been loud and brash and he's made appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court. That's enough for some. But legislatively, his record is pretty awful, and like it or not, it takes the president and Congress to advance our country.
Because Republicans won't, Democrats just need to put forward someone who can give people who voted Trump in 2016 a reasonable option, and that's not candidates pushing for free college or reparations for slavery or complete takeover of health care coverage.
Commentary on 07/07/2019