So which is it? Was the obviously politically-oriented, embarrassingly weakly-reasoned formal arrest of former President Donald Trump an intentional strategy on the part of powerful leftists to:
- Cripple Trump in scandal (because they fear him as the Republican Party nominee in 2024)? Or…
- Elevate Trump by creating right-wing sympathy for him (because they think he's the only Republican that Joe Biden could actually defeat in 2024)?
By the way, feel free to substitute any potential progressive nominee into that equation in place of Joe Biden and it won't change the formula. Kamala Harris? The awkward vice president is arguably even less polished, less articulate, and less competent on the main stage than the 80-year-old chief executive with obvious mental decline. Gavin Newsom? Streets of his major cities are flowing with poop and urine, crime has become epidemic, and the state is hemorrhaging people. Over half a million Californians have fled Newsom's rule in the last two years alone.
It doesn't take a political soothsayer to observe that the Democrats are in serious trouble heading into 2024, and that's why they are obviously working overtime to influence the Republican primary.
Right, but the question that conservative voters have to discern properly is how the left is attempting to influence the Republican primary, and in what direction. Are they wanting Trump to be the nominee so they can do to him what they did in 2020? Or are they scared he will be the nominee and do to them what he did in 2016?
On one side, prominent figures like failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and influencers like former MMA fighter Jake Shields:
That's certainly one take. And it's unquestionably the one that the Trump team is pushing. But does it even make sense? If we can assume that the presence of Trump on a general election ballot will inspire both bases – the one that loves him and the one that hates him – to show up in massive numbers, then it's also fair to assume that, like in 2020, the election will come down to moderate Democrats and Republicans huddled loosely around the center. Is it unreasonable to conclude that the left likes their chances to win over those moderates if they're squaring off against a guy with a rap sheet like Shields just listed?
That's how others, like conservative firebrand (and former Trump apologist) Ann Coulter, see it.
Recent polling data would seem to answer her question. Unlike the polls being promoted by the Trump campaign which show his primary election lead growing over the entire Republican field, several other polls paint his national favorability rating as a very different, very dark picture:
Yet while all that makes a strong case the Democrats are using their media lapdogs to launch attacks that will actually help Trump among Republican voters, there's one other consideration that I think has to be made: progressives really aren't that shrewd or skilled.
That's where I am. From my seat, I'd say there's a small contingent of Democrats who are crunching the numbers, looking at their own weak leaders, and working hard to get Trump – the one man they know will motivate their massive-but-melancholy base to come out in droves during the general election to defeat him – the nomination.
But for my part, I guess I'd suggest that we're trying to read far too much into all the Trump drama being initiated by the left right now. I could be wrong, but I don't think this is all some savvy, calculated, 4-dimensional chess being orchestrated by a party of political scientists. No, I think they're doing all this Trump stuff for one, much simpler, straightforward reason: they just hate him.
