In a recent post titled “NO-BRAINER REDUX”, I addressed the anti-Trump comments of a gentleman from another forum, a very high-ranking, highly regarded senior executive, now retired, from a well-known international banking corporation. This gentleman - I call him Burt - has long had a negative assessment of Donald Trump, and in a recent post, without explanation, simply dismissed him as “a loser”. In response, I challenged Burt to explain this negative characterization of Trump. What makes Trump “a loser”? To his credit, Burt did then respond with an explanation, which I reproduce here below, with my responses inserted here and there in bold italics.
From Burt:
I will summarize my big picture position for you again. Trump has won one election and is personally responsible, in my opinion, for losing the last five.
From Torquemada:
Here you turn a blind eye to the screamingly obvious fact that Trump did not lose the 2020 election, but had it stolen from him and his supporters. The evidence proving that theft has been on display since the beginning.
The means whereby this theft was executed were multifaceted, including illegal changes in state election laws, suppression of critical information (Hunter Biden's laptop - which alone likely would have changed the election outcome if it had been broadly known), the deliberate promulgation of lies (Anthony Blinken's orchestration of the letter signed by 51 former intelligence officials claiming the laptop was "Russian disinformation" when they all knew it was not), massive hacking of voting machines nationwide (primarily by China), and good old-fashioned fake ballot printing and ballot box-stuffing (as documented in Denesh Desouza's "2000 Mules" documentary).
The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved [Stole] the 2020 Election | TIME
Computer expert hacks Dominion Voting Machine in front of judge, changes votes with Bic pen – WDBO
Joe Biden and the 51 Spies of 2020 - WSJ
Amazon.com : 2000 mules documentary
Accordingly, in my opinion, with the integrity of US elections clearly up in the air, your blaming Trump for the 2020 and subsequent election losses is dubious at best and almost certainly flat-out wrong. A great illegitimate anti-Trump-anti-America juggernaut was and still is grinding away against him and his supporters - something you completely fail to acknowledge.
This great and disruptive division among the people - something like 50% of the citizenry believe the 2020 election was compromised - is a critical issue that needs to be resolved if national harmony is to be restored. Division and contention regarding such a fundamental mechanism of our Republic - the integrity of our electoral process - is, putting it mildly, not a healthy situation for the country to be in. Every honest, patriotic citizen should be interested in addressing and resolving this critical issue.
"The credibility of WHAT you argue is directly a function of HOW you argue. Find the truth in the methodology of argument. The truth cuts its own way and can be argued for in an honest, open manner that does not insult the intelligence of those it seeks to persuade. Deceit cannot be so argued." - Torquemada
The deadly tell that the RINO/Democrat/globalist cabal have a perfect knowledge of their 2020 election fraud (they ludicrously maintain the 2020 election "was the freest and fairest in our history") is revealed in the methodology of their reaction to those who have raised objections to and cited evidence of 2020 election fraud - "Election deniers! Threats to democracy!"
Clearly, if leftists/Democrats were interested in the truth of what happened in 2020, if they knew they had nothing to fear from a careful investigation of the facts and evidence - and especially in light of the great and fractious division among the people focused on this issue - why would they resist tooth and nail to the last ditch any such investigation? Why would they viciously attack those who seek such an investigation? If they have nothing to hide and have the best interests of the nation at heart, why would they choose further to exacerbate the division among the people rather than heal it? This is a rhetorical question. Any thinking, honest person knows the answer.
This corruption of leftist methodology has been most clearly and outrageously manifest in the deceitful depiction of the January 6th demonstration at the Capitol - a protest springing from the people's perception of 2020 election irregularities - as an "insurrection" fomented and orchestrated by the Donald Trump, when it was clearly no such thing. The subsequent outrageously brutal treatment of the citizens involved there - including the murder of an unarmed woman - is a colossal injustice and an indelible stain on the character of the nation. As we see video images of peaceful people being ushered into the Capitol precincts and walking peacefully through the corridors (admittedly, some few were rowdy), the lying Democrat seditionists, in a colossal insult to intelligence, want us to deny the evidence of our own eyes and label these people as violent "insurrectionists" who intended to overthrow the government and thus deserve to be thrown in jail for many years.
It isn’t about what so many people repeat here that he SHOULD win. I agree. With an opponent like Biden, he should win in a landslide, but he puts his foot in his mouth, time and time again, and loses.
Here again, Burt, you are giving vent to your pet peeves and ignoring what really matters. Though certainly there is a coterie of supercilious prigs who look down their noses at what they deem to be Trump's stylistic shortcomings, a great many of his supporters - I would estimate the overwhelming majority - either dismiss these peccadilloes as irrelevant (that would be me) or actually enjoy them. Together, these Trump supporters, these MAGA people, are those in Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables”, Obama’s “clingers to their guns and Bibles”, and Joe Scarborough’s “"freaks, weirdos, insurrectionists and a death cult".
As far as these common people are concerned, the down-to-earth, imperfect aspect of Trump's persona, which he does not hide, makes it easier for many to relate to and identify with him. These people would disagree with you, Burt, concerning Trump's putting "his foot in his mouth" and losing as a result. It might be argued - indeed, I would argue - that people who take this sort of nit-picking, condescending view of Trump - ignoring the critical, existential issues for America that constitute the elephant in the room, and instead focusing on irrelevant trivialities - are part of the problem, not the solution.
Winning over conservatives in a primary is relatively easy for him, but winning the election requires winning the hearts and minds of moderates and independents - something he has not done in the last 5 elections. Today the polls say he is slightly ahead. Why is he only slightly ahead given his opponent?
First of all, your assertion here that Trump is "only slightly ahead" of Biden in the polls is not correct:
Joe Biden Suffers Polling Disaster Against Donald Trump: '5 Alarm Fire' (newsweek.com)
"A Bloomberg/Morning Consult survey found that Biden is between three and 10 points behind the Republican front-runner in November's race in Arizona (47-43 percent), Georgia (49-41), Michigan (47-42), Nevada (48-40), North Carolina (49-39), Pennsylvania (48-45) and Wisconsin (49-44).'
Three-to-ten-point polling margins in Trump's favor in key swing states constitute not "slight" but massive leads - especially given the critical states involved. In a recent national poll (Harvard) Trump is beating Biden by 6 points - again, a massive lead.
Furthermore, I believe your premise that Trump has no appeal to or is offensive to middle-of-the-road voters doesn't hold water. Clearly, Trump would not be enjoying such massive leads in the polls if he is not to a very significant degree "winning the hearts and minds of moderates and independents" - and it doesn't hurt to acknowledge that the unfolding Biden disaster encourages that trend. Again, it’s a NO-BRAINER.
Regarding your question, "...why is he (Trump) only slightly ahead given his opponent?" - first, having noted that Trump is in fact way ahead not slightly ahead, let me respond with a question. Given the unmitigated disaster he has brought and continues to bring upon the country, why does Joe Biden have ANY SUPPORT AT ALL? Quite apart from anything concerning DJT - and in keeping with the argument in my NO-BRAINER Substack post - if people had any brains at all, would it not be true that Biden would have zero support? Why is that not the case? Notwithstanding what some people consider to be Trump’s irritating peccadilloes - and considering Trump’s impressive track record and Biden’s catastrophe - how could any sentient, rational being with a few firing synapses chose Biden over Trump?
Again, rationally, assuming a modicum of intellectual, moral and spiritual substance in the electorate - an ability to understand their dire circumstances at a basic survival level - the vote should go 100% against Biden no matter who his Republican opponent. The worst of the remotely possible Republican candidates would be immeasurably better than Biden.
But Biden does have support - perhaps 30% of the population. Why? Can you seriously blame Donald Trump for this? Obviously, the irrational, suicidal support for Biden is not Trump's fault but clearly springs from the intellectual, moral and spiritual degradation of a large part of the citizenry - the ignorant, mindless, insensate useful-idiot minions of the left who cannot think for themselves and believe anything they are told by their liberal puppet masters. Can't blame DJT for that, can you, Burt?
It is winning that is important, not who should win. These same polls show that Haley would beat Biden by a much larger margin.
Polls showing Haley faring better against Biden than Trump are utterly meaningless. Why? Simply because Haley will not be the Republican candidate, and everybody knows it - the pollsters know it and those polled know it. I have no doubt that Jesus would poll better against Biden than Trump, but Jesus isn't going to be the candidate - Trump is. Accordingly, the only polls that matter are those pitting Trump against Biden - and in all those polls Trump is kicking butt. In the same way that Haley's continuing her campaign is just blowing smoke, so are these Haley polls just blowing smoke.
Why do all Democrats prefer Trump to be the Republican candidate? The answer is simple because they have beat him 5 times and when the Republicans did win the House it was with a lot smaller margin than anyone expected.
Are you kiddin' me, Burt? All Democrats prefer Trump over any other possible Republican candidate? Are you and I living on the same planet? If indeed "all Democrats" prefer Trump as the GOP candidate, why are they consumed with a frenzied hatred of the man? Why are they desperately, frantically, viciously defaming him, throwing at him one ridiculous civil lawsuit and criminal charge after another, trying to remove him from the ballot, trying to destroy him financially, trying to throw him in jail for the rest of his life, and otherwise doing everything they possibly can to obstruct his path to the election? If he is the one candidate they are sure they can beat, as you suggest, why would they be doing this? Indeed, why, on the contrary, would they not be greasing the skids for him? Encouraging him?
The answer, the truth, is obvious. The RINO/Democrat/globalist cabal see Trump as an existential threat - really the only such threat they face. Thus, their rabid hatred of the man springs from their understanding that he, in his person, unlike any other candidate, poses an absolute challenge to their entrenched power structure and globalist ambitions for the future.
As do his supporters, these traitors and seditionists see what Trump did during his first term - the great good he did for the people and country. However, unlike his grateful supporters - the patriotic citizens of America - these subversives want no more of it. Their globalist goals and godless aspirations to permanent tyrannical power do not correspond with - and indeed are antithetical to - the God-based libertarian foundations and philosophy of America expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and embraced by Trump's MAGA base. These traitors and seditionists have no interest in making America great again…
Accordingly, the assertion that Democrats prefer to run against Donald Trump is obviously pure fiction. They are terrified of him. One need only turn on any MSM news broadcast to see that panic oozing from their every pore. They know they cannot beat him at the ballot box and are flailing about desperately to find some other means to destroy him.
Trump on the ballot + a free and fair election = Trump wins.
I would rather have had any Republican candidate that has a better chance of winning the election. Trump will not win this election, but Biden is so bad that he might lose it!
In the real world, setting aside sundry fantasies, Donald J. Trump has the best chance of winning the 2024 election - if that election is remotely free and fair. The critical, existential, underlying question - the question that will determine the fate of America - is not who will win in 2024 but will the election be free and fair? Will we be a nation of free people choosing our own destiny through free and fair elections or become serfs in a dictatorial kleptocracy where election outcomes are dictated by traitors and thieves?
Those who advocate electoral procedures and mechanisms that render our elections less secure and more likely to be manipulated - illegally changed election laws, easily hacked electronic voting machines, mail-in ballots, rank-choice voting, voting that drags on for weeks - are enemies of the people and our free and democratic Republic. Their intentions are clear - to establish a permanently corrupt electoral system that will always produce the outcomes they desire. They are subversives and traitors.
If the 2024 election is remotely free and fair, Donald J. Trump will win in a landslide.
And I say again, Burt, if you care about your country, you have no choice but to support Donald J. Trump.
Right vs. wrong, truth vs. lies, reality vs. fantasy, law vs. lawlessness, order vs. chaos, liberty vs. tyranny, patriotism vs. treason, dark vs. light, good vs. evil, God vs. the Godless…
You choose… You can’t not choose…
If you can be fooled, you will be…
These are the times that try men’s souls…
Torquemada