The Runback: Whatever You're Latching Onto
How one quote explains the entire je ne sais quoi that makes Trumpism
Welcome to another week of The Runback. Have you been enjoying The Duckpin? Do you have comments or suggestions? Do you want to write for us? Let me know at theduckpin@gmail.com. And please be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Thanks in advance.
News and Politics
Controversial Transgender Teacher On Indefinite Leave: Chesapeake High School teacher Willa Hoard has been at the center of controversy regarding transgenderism and the school's Gay Straight Alliance.
Schifanelli Playing Doctor Again: Lt. Governor nominee is again spreading misinformation from an anti-vaccine group
Cox Campaign Tries to Spin Its Way Out of Deficit: Cox Hangs Hat on data that shows that he's winning on Economic Stability, yet he continues to focus on issues that hurt, not help, his campaign
Pittman Playing Politics With Public Safety: Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman is blaming concealed carry permits for an Arundel Mills incident. Where's his proof?
Ballot Questions
Vote NO on Question 1: Vote Against Renaming Our Courts
Vote NO on Question 4: Vote Against the Legalization of Recreational Marijuana
Sports
The Orioles Are Back! 2022 was a missed opportunity, but good times are back at Camden Yards
Surprise! Orioles Tied for League Lead in Uniform Combinations: Birds mixed and match in unusual ways this season
Let’s Have a Real Playoff, Week 7: Stability at the top means stability in the bracket.
Best Story I Didn’t Write This Week
The Monday Thought
Everything that’s wrong with the modern-day GOP and it being held hostage by Donald Trump’s cult of personality can be summed up in this quote from former Frederick County Commissioner Billy Shreve.
“Everyone likes him for different reasons,” Shreve said. “TV personality, successful business person, his hot wife: whatever you’re latching onto, there’s plenty of reasons to follow him.”
“Whatever you’re latching onto” is doing a lot of work in that sentence. Shreve runs through a multitude of reasons as to why people would follow Trump.
None of the ones that Shreve listed, however, have anything to do with public policy and how to run a government. And that’s the problem.
Everything that Shreve mentioned in his quote were reasons why somebody could become a famous celebrity. They are certainly not reasons why anybody should be entrusted with the Presidency. There were certainly no governing principles associated with Trump’s campaign other than that he was for winning and against somebody else winning. Trump wanted to be President because he could be. And people latched onto that sense of confidence.
Of course, it all came crashing down because Trump didn’t want to be President, he wanted to be a strongman. January 6th was the apotheosis of that, at least during his Presidency. But because Trump latched onto people who were latching onto “whatever”, Trump and Trumpism became overrun with bad actors. They now may call themselves “National Conservatives” but they have morphed Trumpism into a totalitarian ideology that’s run on spite as much as anything else.
That of course is what would fuel a Trump second term. It is already fueling the mental midgets that surround him. Just look at this guy out in Nevada.
Jonah Goldberg published lengthy thoughts about this on Friday that are too good not to share in length:
Most of the accomplishments people attribute to Trump were achieved largely in spite of him. He had people around him—let’s call them grown-ups—who kept things on the rails. I’m not saying they were all heroes, but I’m also not saying they were all sellouts either. They’re a mixed bunch. Just consider William Barr. Many of his detractors insisted he was nothing but a Trump yes-man and enabler, but it turns out things were much more complicated. Like so many in the Trump administration, he believed he could ride the orange tiger for the good of the country and the conservative cause.
When Trump wanted Barr to help him in his scheme to steal the 2020 election, Barr said no. Instantaneously, he went from being a hero of the Trump right to a villain. Before him, Jeff Sessions, John Kelly, James Mattis, John Bolton, and countless others were good guys—in Trump’s eyes—until they refused to be his enabler on one scheme or another.
But here’s the thing: Whatever you think of these people, they would not staff a second Trump administration. He would surround himself with toadies, demagogues, psychos, lickspittles, and pillow salesmen. The only qualification Trump and the Bannonites would care about is personal loyalty to Trump. His judicial picks wouldn’t come off any Federalist Society list, but from the list of hacks and nutters who populate OAN and Newsmax. Remember, he feels betrayed by his Supreme Court picks because they didn’t cooperate with his scheme. If you think the Mar-a-Lago search was banana republic stuff, you haven’t seen anything yet. He’s already said he wants to pardon January 6 rioters and give them a formal apology. Look at what has happened to so many institutions of the right, just since he lost the election. The damage of a second Trump presidency is incalculable to me.
And this goes back to what is so annoying about Shreve’s quote. The entire je ne sais quoi that makes Trumpism is that it is undefinable. It can literally be anything you want it to be. For professional Republicans, it was using Trump to achieve conservative ends. For the rich, it was about tax cuts, for the pro-life movement, it was about ending abortion. And for the hardcore Trumpers, it was about spite.
Why else would Shreve mention “TV personality, successful business person, his hot wife” as reasons to support Trump? Because the hardest of hardcore Trump supporters want that for their life and are spiteful that they don’t have it.
Compare Trump and what he brings to the table with a guy like Ben Sasse. Senator Sasse never supported Trump, never endorsed Trump, actively spoke out against Trumpism, and voted for Trump’s impeachment. Yet, two years into his second term, he looks like he is leaving the Senate to become President of the University of Florida.
Why would a young, fifty-year-old Senator leave when there was so much more he could accomplish?
Well, you see he can’t. As a Republican, Sasse has not bought into Trumpism and currently has little upward mobility. Also, given Sasse’s character, I’m guessing the current Senate Republican makeup isn’t for him.1
Sasse believed in something and left the stage of power. Trump believes in nothing and craves nothing but regaining power for the sake of regaining it. If that doesn’t define the problem with Trumpism, nothing does.
The cynic in me requires me to note that Sasse moving to Florida now allows him street cred to run for President at some point in the future and have a better chance of winning the Florida primary.