Donald Trump is returning to the White House
Congratulations to Donald Trump for his recent electoral victory. Whether you think that’s a good thing or a bad thing, it’s a done deal, and come 20 January 2025, he gets to be President of the United States again. Only he and Grover Cleveland have been re-elected President after being voted out of office.
But how did he accomplish it?
The main reason is that Trump is a master persuader — someone who knew how to convince people to vote for him rather than his opponent, Kamala Harris. (This is more of a skill in running for office rather than doing that office.)
Another big thing I noticed is that Trump’s campaigning was targeted to the voters’ emotions, while Harris’ pitch was targeted to peoples’ reason. Appealing to emotions first is a reliable tactic, as about 80% of your listeners respond to it — and for those who don’t, then you try reason.
The big issues
The decisive issue in this election was abortion. Nobody wants to be labelled as wanting to “murder innocent babies”, but the issue is not so simple.
Harris pledged to defend abortion rights at the Federal level, but what was she thinking? The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has already ruled that the Federal government does not have that power; and there is no possible appeal from SCOTUS. I’m sure her promise turned some voters off. Much better would have been a gradual approach, like an assurance that those pregnant women whose lives were in danger, and who lived in an abortion-prohibited state, would be guaranteed the right to travel to where abortions were available. This may have required the Federales to provide an armed escort like at the stand in the schoolhouse door in 1963).
Most attempts to outlaw abortion throughout history have had exceptions in case of rape or incest or to save the life of the mother, but the trend in the States today is to skip those protections. (When I simply say States I mean the various State governments, rather than the Federal government.)
The other big issue was transgender rights. Many people are furious at the gains the transgender movement has accomplished, and are ready to push back. (The word transgender includes various categories, including drag queens, transvestites, genderqueer, and so on. But here we’re mainly talking about transsexuals, those who want medical interventions to alter their gender on a physical level, and thereafter have a complete a life as possible as a member of that gender. So I’ll use the word transsexual from this point on.)
There are 3 fuels for the transsexual-pushback movement:
(a) Which public bathroom in school does a transpupil (is that even a word?) get to use? Detractors cry about “boys in the girls’ room!” as if that were the end of the world. But if a young pre-op male-to-female (MTF) transsexual “acts like a lady” enough not to cause any disruptions, I don’t see any major difficulties. (Usually, it’s the parents, teachers, and other grown-ups who get all upset about this, while the kids themselves don’t have a problem.)
(b) Ever since Renée Richards exploded onto the scene in 1975, the question has been, does a post-op MTF belong in the women’s league, or does that confer an unfair advantage? (I’ll get in trouble no matter which way I attempt to answer that, so I’ll just say nothing at all.) It’s not so much an issue with physical attributes at birth, but what happens at puberty, when secondary sex characteristics such as strength and height begin to assert themselves.
(c) The first medical intervention for trans youth are puberty blockers, which keep the young patient from “going through the wrong puberty” until a proper transition can be arranged (if s/he decides to go ahead). But I’ve noticed that those who are most vocal about the sports issue are also opposing puberty blockers, even though they would eliminate any “unfair advantage” in sports. That’s trying to solve a problem by working against its solution.
Trump has promised to engage all of these issues.
I have a lot more to say on this subject, but I’ll save that for a future article.
The next four years
What will another four years of President Trump look like? I’d like to make some prognostications:
He will leave it up to other nations to fight global warming while he keeps American business interests isolated from all that nonsense.
Stagflation will make an unwelcome return. It will be a strong stagflation.
Possible wage and price controls (as usual, businesses will find a way to circumvent them — controls are for the little people).
Trump will deflect criticism by continuing his war against transsexuals in a way not seen since the 1970’s, because they are “other” and tend not to fight back. Only the “gender at birth” will be recognized, — spanning a wide spectrum of transpeople from those who have recently undergone a social transition; to those who have had surgery decades ago, and have successfully integrated into their communities as a new man/woman with no one the wiser. (Concentration camps for transsexuals are not an option, although there are plenty of mental health facilities available. Yuk!)
After transsexuals, he will add other groups of “lowlifes” to be targeted. They won’t be added all at once of course, just one or a few groups at a time. People such as gays, lesbians, bisexuals, nonbinaries, pacifists, the disabled, members of small religious movements, ethnic minorities, selected intellectuals, selected journalists, and others. Atrocities will happen but they will become normalized.
He will get his “big, beautiful wall” project restarted.
He will ask Congress to grant him special, emergency powers; increasing the power of the executive branch; under his personal control, of course.
He will seek constitutional amendments cancelling the two-term limit for the Presidency, and to reaffirm his power to pardon himself.
So what can Americans do about it?
1/3 of all Americans have expressed an interest in leaving the country, permanently. LGBT’s such as actress Laverne Cox will lead the parade. (What I can’t figure out is why so many pobrecitos are fighting to enter the U.S. while so many who are already here are wanting to get out.)
Those who get out quickly will get out, while those who tarry will find it’s too late, either because of emigration restrictions, or because the other countries simply don’t want any more. (If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that I got out 17 years ago.)
Trump has said he will not be a dictator — “except on the first day” back in office, 20 Jan 2025. What does that mean exactly? He has hinted at all sorts of things. Which of those will actually happen? Again, we’ll just have to wait and see.
