WE’RE GETTING PLAYED WHEN IT COMES TO WHO’S THE REAL 2022 WINNER

Following the dismal midterm showing, there’s a lot of blame to go around.

While I can and will sum up the issue, I want to focus more narrowly on the way in which the entire Republican machine is turning from Trump, who is now anathema, to Ron DeSantis, who is the new god.

Considering that we still have a long time before the primaries and then the 2024 election, this kind of decision-making is premature and dangerous—and that’s why we’re being forced into it.

Here’s a short list of leading blame topics:

(1) The GOP was useless;

(2) American voters (especially the young ones), after 60 years of non-stop propaganda in the media, entertainment, and schools, no longer value freedom and the Constitution;

(3) brainwashed women voters believe that fulfillment lies in a career and an appointment with the abortionist; and

(4) Trump anointed weak candidates in pivotal elections.

However…. here’s what I believe is the most significant factor: mail-in ballots.

In states with mail-in ballots, the Secretary of State mails ballots to every person on the registrar’s list. It’s irrelevant that many have moved, are dead, or are manifestly fraudulent (see all of Jay Valentine’s articles on the subject). At apartment buildings, you may see dozens of ballots sitting in piles in the lobby, addressed to people who long since moved away.

The ballots then get mailed back in again. The Secretary of State has no idea who filled out the ballots or popped them in the mailbox. He or she doesn’t care that 1,000 are returned from the same 30-unit apartment building or temporary homeless shelter. The ballots are then taken from their envelopes, effectively removing all identification, and “counted.”

This is a process without any brakes on fraud. And if the current crop of ballots doesn’t provide a victory for the Democrats, it’s perfectly easy to slip in a few more ballots that are untethered to a real person to tip the “correct” candidate into the winning pile.

Shenanigans with computers, ballot harvesting, and traditional voter fraud are also useful for gaming the vote. All in all, our system would have made Boss Tweed proud back in the heyday of Tammany Hall’s corruption in old New York.

But whether the vote fraud that is now woven into our system ever gets straightened out (and if Democrats control both houses, it won’t) is a matter for another post.

What I want to talk about is the sustained attack on Donald Trump, along with Ron DeSantis’s simultaneous elevation to political sainthood.

Both candidates have tremendous strengths and some weaknesses. I would happily vote for either if he were at the top of the ticket. But as far as I’m concerned, that’s a matter to be considered in a few months, when the primaries heat up.

Yes, Trump sent out intemperate tweets, but that’s because he’s under sustained attack and he’s a counterpuncher…and it’s that attack that I want to talk about and warn you against.

I do not believe the attack against Trump is organic. That is, it’s not because the same voters who turned up enthusiastically at his rallies have suddenly decided he’s soiled. Indeed, aside from Oz in Pennsylvania, Trump mostly had an excellent track record.

People still resonate to Trump, and that still helps candidates.

However, the entire GOP has swung against Trump. For example, the editorial board at the New York Post (a paper I consider mostly excellent), announced “Don’t believe Trump — this midterm miss is all because of him.” Wow! That’s harsh, but it’s also consistent with what we’re seeing all over the Republican side of the aisle.

At the same time, we’re told that DeSantis is the new savior. Indeed, that very enthusiasm for DeSantis has die-hard Trump supporters believing that DeSantis is nothing but a Trojan RINO—and that’s even though DeSantis was one of the original freedom caucus members.

Sundance, who is always an interesting read, routinely writes about this concern.

However, it’s just as likely that DeSantis’s support from the GOP crowd has very little to do with him and everything to do with the GOP/NeverTrump determination to destroy the man who threatened to upset the Republican establishment’s cozy relationship with Democrats in D.C.

Mainly: All of the perks and money; none of the responsibility for governing.

If I’m correct, the moment the GOP/NeverTrump team manages to take out Trump, it will turn on DeSantis as well. Given DeSantis’s focus on freedom, he’s just as dangerous to the establishment as Trump was.

If we conservatives aren’t careful, the RINO/NeverTrumps will play us so well that all of the conservatives are knocked out in the primaries, and we end up with Evan McMullin at the top of the 2024 Republican ticket.

Andrea Widburg is deputy editor of American Thinker